GOTH METAL PUNK ART FASHION NOISE
ISSUE
44 £4.00
REBECCA CROW One of the alt world’s leading ladies talks about model safety and the risks being taken regularly to undergo assignments. In this issue Rebecca shares her own modelling experiences as well as providing top tips on how to stay safe.
UK EXCLUSIVE – PITCHSHIFTER, SKINDRED, THE BOULET BROTHERS, MR STRANGE, BUTCHER BABIES, LLOYD KAUFMAN, EILEEN DALY, GUINEVERE TURNER, THE MEN THAT WILL NOT BE BLAMED FOR NOTHING, THE CRIMSON GHOSTS, DOWNLOAD, AMPLIFIED, SOS FESTIVAL, PHAZE CLOTHING, KILLSTAR & MUCH MORE!
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SKINDRED – BENJI WEBBE
We talk to Benji with regards to ‘Big Tings’ the bands current album, how being British has rubbed off on the band’s sound and direction and how the world just needs a good ‘cwtch’.
DEVO CREW NICKIE HOBBS EDITOR GARY TRUEMAN MARK BESTFORD LUCAS CHAPEL JO BLACKENED HUNTER RAVNIKA JO WRIGHT ALICE BIZARRE LILY RANDALL LADY AMARANTH SCOTT CHALMERS ASHLINN NASH RHYS HEAL GRAHAM HILLING
MY HOMETOWN – MR STRANGE
This issue we ventured to the Isle Of Wight the residence of the enigmatic Mr Strange who talked us through this little piece of English paradise.
PITCHSHIFTER
Known as one of the founding fathers of industrial metal Pitchshifter were a band way ahead of their time. We talked to JS Clayden about the forthcoming UK anniversary tour.
BUTCHER BABIES
The band have come a long way in the last eight years. We sat down with Heidi Shepherd and Carla Harvey. Up for discussion was the latest record, reaching a wider audience and being best friends in a band together.
LLOYD KAUFMAN
A true legend of the cinema subculture, Lloyd talks to us about the Tromaville superstars, Shakespeare, “fascist” film festivals and his love-hate relationship with the film industry.
THE BOULET BROTHERS
With Season 3 of Dragula on the way, The Boulet Brothers talk to us about how it all began, extreme elimination challenges and what gender and drag means to them.
WARD XVI - DAVID STOTT
We caught up with David at Breaking Bands to discuss how his health made him change how he looked at life and how it enabled him to make the decision to join Ward XVI.
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SPECIAL THANKS LEE WEBB, NEIL GANESHA, GARY PATERSON, WILL TUDOR, JACKIE REYNOLDS , VAL ROSE, JENNIE MANION KATE FISHER & KILLSTAR
CONTACT US EMAIL info@devolutionmagazine.co.uk WEB devolutionmagazine.co.uk SOCIAL facebook.com/DevolutionMag facebook.com/groups/DevoMag facebook.com/theealtcollective Instagram.com/devolutionmagazine twitter.com/DevolutionMag ADDRESS Devolution Magazine, 15 Cottongrass Road Didcot, Harwell, Oxon, OX11 6GF
We caught up with band to discuss their 13 date tour on the last night and latest album, ‘Double Negative’. It’s basically all about death, Death, Death. Oh, and death, to Tories.
Rebecca is one of the best known alternative models in the UK. She chatted to Devolution photographer Gary Trueman about modelling basics, ground rules and how to stay as safe as possible on a shoot.
ISSUE 44 AUTUMN 2018 Cover Image: Rebecca Crow Photo By: Gary Trueman
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Hello and Hellcome To Issue 44! UK Stockists Get Ur Ink On Tattoo Unit 2, Savile Way, Grove, OX12 0PT www.lilhellers.co.uk Deviant Angel Emporium 1 Hurts Yard, Nottingham, NG1 6FB www.deviantangelemporium.com Whitby Goth Weekend We trade with ur own stall in The Leisure Centre Foyer (Usually In April) www.whitbygothweekend.co.uk Metaledz 21 Worle Court, weston Super Mare, North Somerset, BS22 6UD www.metaledz.net
I don’t know about you guys but this summer has been one of the absolute best! The calibre of events and festivals that we attended across the UK and Europe and the new found love and passion for so many bands we were able to discover and rekindle with was just phenomenal. This summer was also the hottest and at several points I genuinely thought that our crew at ‘Amplifried’ Festival weren’t going to make it home! We have some very exciting news and at the time of typing this details are being finalised; but from this autumn you will be able to purchase Devolution in selected independent physical shops that we will of course shout about as soon as we can. This is thrilling for us and for you as I know many have wanted to be able to waiver those postage costs, so for a good few of you this should be able to happen now! Inside this issue you will also find an 8 page spread of yours truly. For the first time in fifteen years I have featured myself in print as an advocate for the Killstar plus size range and teamed up with some rather amazing people to create the feature. I hope you like it but rest assured I’m not looking at taking up modelling as a profession anytime soon ha-ha. In this edition you will find an exclusive interview with JS Clayden from the mighty Pitchshifter who will be returning this November for a reunion UK tour to commemorate twenty years of www.pitchshifter.com I am personally so ridiculously hyped and will be attending the Nottingham show. Elsewhere in this issue there are an abundance of interviews with Skindred, Butcher Babies, David Stott from Ward XVI, Mr Strange, The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing, The Crimson Ghosts, The Boulet Brothers and our beautiful cover girl Rebecca Crow. For the first time we have also introduced dedicated film and producer interviews into the mix with Eileen Daly, the legendary Lloyd Kaufman (The Toxic Avenger) and screenwriter Guinevere Turner (American Psycho) which will be a regular section added to the title courtesy of our very own Alice Bizarre. With so much to get stuck into don’t let me hold you up any longer! See you again before the end of the year!
Revolution | Absolution | Devolution Yours Faithfully - Nickie
Apocalypticus: Road to Ruin Devo-ted Readers
Apocalypticus has grown from a seed of an idea… A road run was originally planned to include rat bikes, rat-rods, survival bikes, radically militarised cars and vans – in fact anything that would not look out of place in a Mad Max movie. It quickly became apparent that the weight of interest in a Post-Apocalyptic themed ride-out was going to need a significant arena for the start point. It was then that we decided to invade a disused airfield in the North Buckinghamshire countryside that proved ideal for such a gathering. Interest has been shown from all over the UK and even from Europe, so we decided to extend the run to a full-on Armageddon weekender. This resulted on a full-on festival with over 400 attendees dressed in their post-apocalyptic finest, bands, fire performers, food stalls, themed traders, bars and mad motorised vehicles, driven by Warboys and TankGirls.
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Alice Biz
Tatiana Shmail yuk - Jinjer
This year’s event will be bigger, better, badder and badass! Set on a deserted WW2 airbase, there will be more bands, fire/walk around/stilt performers, circus performances, aerial performers, beer, themed food stalls, themed traders, dancers, DJs, noise, fuel, fire, a dance area and a Road Run - The Road to Ruin. The whole event will be set inside a compound of trade stalls, a specialitybuilt stage, distressing-stations, and workshops...for all of your post-apocalyptic needs! In addition to this we will have the following: The Battle Arena - Fully marshalled games arena featuring a full-combat Thunderdome hand-to-hand fight with foam/LARP/ replica weaponry. There will also be a Jugger League (from the post-apocalyptic film Blood of Heroes with Rutger Hauer), themed airsoft and axe-throwing. Desolation Alley Vehicle Show - Check out the Rat Rods, Survival Bikes, RatBikes and Tanks on display. Event Dress Code: Post-Apocalyptic/Mad Max style Armageddonist Ravager Gear and Accessories are a Must! Pillories, Stocks and/or incarceration for non-compliance! Don’t miss it! Friday 21st September Rebel Station / Nightjar / Callow Saints / Chris Liberator - DJ set Saturday 22nd September Captain Kuppa T and the Zeppelin Crew / The Hostiles / Dogmattics / Alternative Carpark / Pierrot the Acid Clown / Pretty Addicted / UK:ID apocalypticus.com | facebook.com/roadtoruin2017/ 6
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-Lloyd Kiely n al a g Lee Festiv ellion b e R @
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playing a set that includes all 9 tracks off their new album it’s a set that manages to incorporate the best of their back catalogue with plenty to sing along to with ‘Charlie’, ‘This House Is Not Haunted’, ‘Margate Fhtagn’, ‘Doing It For The Whigs’, and ‘Miner’ generating the expected raucous chorus of approval. Andy’s saw comes out for the more sedately paced ‘Moon’. ‘Margate Fhtagn’ sees the regular call for three types of dancing during the song and it’s not long before we’ve seen a Cocknet knees up, some thrash head banging, and punk pogoing, with the two wheelchair bound members of the audience getting special mention from Andrew O’Neill for out moshing the rest of the audience in style. The encore consists of the last song to be played off the new album, ‘Obscene Fucking Machine,’ as well as the classic (I’m In Love With) Marie Lloyd and a mashup of ‘Etiquette’ and ‘The Who’. But it wouldn’t feel right to not include what is now their signature tune and they finish in superb style with ‘Brunel’, which sees iDestroy take to the stage to help play the last song on the last night of their tour, a swap of clothes between Andrew O’Neill and Becky Baldwin, and a stage diving Andrew O’Neill who to the credit of the crowd remains airborne for the duration of his flight over the crowd until being deposited back on the stage. All in all it’s been a bloody good night.
Photo By : Mark Bestford
London. The city that has something for everyone, every single night of the week. A mix of cultures, a vast wide range of musical tastes and some of the best venues in all of the UK. Tonight is a night metal fans have been talking about for months; it’s the final night of the Doyle UK tour. Main support for the tour was by The Dead XIII and I knew the crowd were in for one hell of an experience! Circle pits opened; moshing began! The Dead XIII bring such a unique sound and stage presence, their set just flowed. We were treated to songs from ‘Catacombs’ and latest album ‘Dark Days’. I blew my voice screaming along to the fan favourite track ‘Frost Bite’. The lights dimmed; smoke filled the stage; the ground began to thud as the Frankenstein’s monsters of the music world took to the stage. They wasted absolutely no time and immediately hit the crowd hard and fast, with their raw untamed power. Vocalist Alex Story well and truly pumped up the crowd, while Doyle hammered his custom guitar all the way to hell. Until you actually see Doyle in person you cannot truly appreciate how huge the vegan monster is! This time round the set was exclusively all original material from both solo releases, no misfits covers; the crowd did not mind that at all. Playing exclusively solo era material well and truly showed the crowd that the band had evolved, broken new boundaries and had ultimately established itself as a fantastic metal band! Throughout the show vocalist Alex teased the crowd that the next song was a love song, that you could dance too if you wanted too, the reactions were priceless ha-ha! One of the highlights of the night for me was when the band blasted out the fan favourite ‘Valley of Shadows’, every single fan sang in unison, to the point I could barely hear Alex anymore. Every song poured straight after the next, this was a set list that was perfectly chosen. The band left the stage with the crowd chanting and showing their appreciation to what was one hell of an experience. The UK tour officially ended tonight, we have been dominated and abominated! The Doyle band have once again raised the bar; destroyed any critics and cemented their legacy into the minds of their fanbase.
BREAKING BANDS FESTIVAL 2018 STOKE PRIOR SPORTS & COUNTRY CLUB
Mark Bestford
In its fourth year Breaking Bands Festival continues to do just as it names suggests, it brings the best breaking bands to a sleepy village near Bromsgrove to rock out at the Stoke Prior Sports & Country Club over the bank holiday weekend. Again, as in previous years, the bands are all brilliant and this family friendly event just keeps getting better! Traditionally the Bank Holiday at the end of May is associated with good weather. Not so this weekend in Worcestershire as Breaking Bands Festival manages to dodge the worst of the summer storms. Thankfully the indoor stage and outside acoustic tent survive even the overnight thunderstorms and the weather holds up in the mornings enabling everyone to remain relatively dry. Rocking up on the Thursday night and there are a handful of acoustic performances getting people in the mood for the weekend and it’s then that the festival starts in earnest on the Friday evening. It’s an understandably quiet first night as campers start arriving after work, but the organisers haven’t skimped on the entertainment with five thoroughly entertaining bands for the opening evening. In total over the weekend there are thirty-five acts playing across the two stages, with Witch Tripper, The Royal Blasphemy and Last Great Dreamers pulling a double shift on both stages. All three headliners are entertaining, with Red Rum and New Generation Superstars narrowly losing out to the underdogs for a slot in the top 5. Photo By : Mark Bestford
It’s the last night of a 13 date tour that fittingly closes in the city made famous by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Bristol. Supporting for the whole of the tour is local band iDestroy and opening for the last night they have another local band, Martyrials. who do their best to defy description, sounding like the bastard chimaera of Noel Fielding, the Buzzcocks and a 1980’s Nintendo game (think early 80’s punk with 8-Bit synthesisers). But there’s an infectious energy to this trio as the lead singer snarls his way through an over the top performance that gets the small crowd cheering along. I say small crowd, but that’s only because the venue holds around 200 comfortably and for most of the evening it’s standing room only. Next up and iDestroy put on a show that proves why they’ve been the main support for the whole tour. The girls put on a high kicking, back arching, cymbal crashing performance and even get a few songs into the set from new EP ‘Pure Joy of Life’. Last up and it’s The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing. It’s a strange mix of people in the crowd, showing how eclectic their fanbase is, from the steampunk dressed in their finest Victorian dress to the old school punks with leather jackets, button badges, and foot high dyed mohicans. Considering they’re
Mark Bestford
Lee Webb
Photo By : Mark Bestford
The Exchange, Bristol
THE UNDERWORLD, CAMDEN
Photo By : Neil Ganesha
Photo By : Mark Bestford
THE MEN THAT WILL NOT BE BLAMED FOR NOTHING
DOYLE & THE DEAD XIII
The Best Of The Weekend: With so many great bands playing it’s a difficult choice to pick just five of the best, but there are definite stand-out moments! Ward XVI may be onstage on the quieter Friday night, but they bring the insane asylum with them. Chainsaws at the ready as Psychoberrie takes the crowd on a wild ride into the psyche of her murderous alter ego. It’s blood and theatre, of the operating kind, that isn’t confined just to the stage. Bad Pollyanna show why they are still one of the most underrated bands on the gothic rock scene. Olivia’s vocal performance is as flawless as always and it’s a shame when they have to finally finish their set. How this band isn’t headlining festivals is beyond comprehension ticking every box available to be superstars. Pulverise are so hot on stage that they set off the fire alarm. After a short interval, where the offending smoke machine is turned off, they’re back on and somehow manage to ramp up the energy even more. With their insightful reggae styled lyrics this band can lay claim to being Yorkshire’s answer to Skindred and Jojo certainly gets the party started on the Sunday afternoon. Gin Annie take the award for the most energetic band of the weekend, which is no mean feat given Pulverise’s start to the day. These hard rockers know how to put on a show and seem to spend more time in the air than on their feet. It’s a great set of rock and roll to keep the crowd moving. Chris Slade’s Timeline is just that, as AC/DC’s drummer takes the crowd through a magical mystery tour of the Welsh drummer’s back catalogue. It’s an insane journey covering five decades of rock played at the very highest levels, from the early days of Tom Jones, through Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, Asia, The Firm, Dave Gilmour, as well as AC/DC just to name a few! There are few musicians with a pedigree this rich, so it’s really no surprise to bear witness to a string of some of the greatest rock hits in history.
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EVANESCENCE
JIZZY PEARL, DEADMAN’S WHISKEY, BLACK BULLETS & DOOMSDAY OUTLAW
It’s quite a surprise to find Ferocious Dog and Hands Off Gretel playing in a town best known as the location for long running sit com Last of The Summer Wine. The Picturedrome venue has that laid back easy going feel about it that the TV programme was noted for. It’s a place full of surprises too though, a great sound system being one of them. Hands Off Gretel have taken quite a bit of time off to record their second album so it was always going to be interesting to see if they could maintain the intensity they had created in 2017. They were also sporting a new bass player in the shape of Becky Baldwin, known for her work with IDestroy, Dorja and a host of other bands. It’s soon pretty clear that all the momentum HOG had developed hasn’t been lost in the studio. In fact the band have never sounded better. While Lauren Tate commanded the stage imperiously it was Baldwin who drove things with her sublime playing. Female backing vocals suit the songs too. We get a couple of new songs which stand up well sat alongside favourites such as Be Mine, Little Man and My Size. You often wonder how things will work out when an act has been away for 10 DEVOLUTION MAGAZINE
Gary Trueman
a while. With Hands Off Gretel it’s a case of batteries recharged and let’s take this thing to a whole new level. There’s an ease about which Ferocious Dog go about their business tonight. The venue is packed, but more importantly it’s packed with people who fit the band and surroundings perfectly. This isn’t just another gig, it feels more like you’ve been invited to a family event. There are all ages present, from kids in mini DMs to grannies seated on the balcony. The music, a familiar crusty folk punk is delivered with unbridled enthusiasm and no small amount of skill. It’s one of those gigs where even the mosh pit is ever so polite. While it’s obvious the band are heavily influenced by the Levellers and to a lesser degree New Model Army they have forged their own path with some neat exchanges and benefit from multi-instrumentalist John Leonard. His abilities enable the sound of the group to change mid set without any loss of cohesion. Dan Booth provides a second focal point to lead man Ken Bonsall courtesy of his adept fiddle playing. This is a night for dancing and Ferocious Dog make it a night to remember for all the right reasons.
GRAVE LINES DRORE & TORPOR CORSICA STUDIOS, LONDON
Ashlinn Nash
A fairly new venue to the metal crowd, Corsica Studios in Elephant and Castle, London is a hidden gem and here tonight’s headliner, Grave Lines, are set to launch their second album offering ‘Fed Into the Nihilist Engine’. Drore, featuring the remnants of Undersmile, work through their prolific set. With smooth grooves, high speed crunchy riffs all topped with a brutal assault of vocals, they are a distinct addition to this evening. With a variety of eclectic songs titles such as “old egg” and “happy accident’ you can tell the band are all about enjoying themselves while managing to carve out their own niche. This is Torpor’s last gig before heading back to the studio to record their second album. This deadly trio bring with them a fine welcome plethora of soundscapes. Packed with lush tones and beautiful layering they span multiple genres, all before crushing the crowd to the point of near oblivion. Then Grave Lines start up the nihilist engine. From first impressions it’s a record filled with a corrosive vibe. Complete with light and bleak moments that reach beyond depths the band have only touched upon before, highlights of the one hour and ten minutes set included the beautiful duets between the multi-talented drummer Julia and Jake whose diverse vocal styles clash between clean and broken anger and are truly incredible and contrasting on this record. Overall the evening was visceral, incredibly cathartic and a darn well needed energy pounding.
Gary Trueman
Photos: Gary Trueman Photography
Holmfirth Picturedrome
For a hump day Wednesday there’s a pretty decent sized crowd packing out the back room of the Facebar in central Reading. Rockers Deadman’s Whiskey get the mid-week show started and put on a lively performance as punters arrive. Technical issues delay the Black Bullets, but just as it looks like Alice may have to borrow a bass from one of the other bands with some skilled open-bass surgery her bass guitar roars back to life and it’s on with the show. The set is only shortened by a couple of tracks and Billy and Alice are soon performing right in the middle of the crowd. Before Jizzy Pearl comes on there’s one last band and Doomsday Outlaw bring their individual take on southern rock to bear. For fans of Love/Hate there’s no beating Jizzy’s swagger as he monopolizes the small stage area and belts out all the classics in quick succession, ‘Yucca Man’, ‘Blackout’, to name a few. There’s a few new tracks that get an airing from his new album which also go down very well with eager punters here, but it’s ‘Why Do You Think They Call It Dope’ that really gets the crowd going, including a couple of impromptu stage dancers. Voices are hoarse from singing along but no one cares as everyone is having a great time. By the end of the night the sweat is pouring off everyone and it’s as hot and sticky as it can get. It’s been a great night of energetic entertainment and every band on the bill has certainly delivered, but tonight it’s clearly Jizzy’s night.
Photos: Gary Trueman Photography
FEROCIOUS DOG & HANDS OFF GRETEL
Mark Bestford
Photo By : Mark Bestford Olivier “Pixm@niacPix” Guilbert
Photos: Gary Trueman Photography
THE FACEBAR, READING
NOTTINGHAM ARENA
Mixing rock music with classical isn’t a new idea by any means and usually the results are confined to cleverly packaged recordings and maybe, just maybe, a single well-choreographed show. It’s a set piece move that has so many potential pitfalls as to make thoughts of touring such a show heart stopping for promoters. And then we have Amy Lee and Evanescence, the rock music glove for the orchestral hand, and a world tour using locally sourced musicians. For the UK leg of the Evanescence road show there is no support act to speak of. What you get is half an hour or so of the backing band, the orchestra, the string section, the brass, and a rather splendid harp along with percussion and of course a piano. Nottingham Arena is already half full and still filling when the support starts. It’s a credit to those present that they’ve taken their seats and rather a shame many are still milling about. The music, a mix of classic classical and nods towards the theme of the night (Sally’s Song is a particularly good fit) is quite superbly played. It’s a spirited taste of what is to follow. There’s real emotion in Amy Lee’s voice tonight, it’s not the kind that overwhelms a performance but it is there. With the recent loss of her brother compounded by obvious thoughts towards her late sister it’s hard to imagine the turmoil that must have preceded this tour. This is a night when you sense the singer centre stage is digging deep, and it makes the performance quite breath taking. The choice of songs just add to what is a beautifully arranged and staggeringly well performed set. Early on Lacrymosa makes sure everyone is paying attention with its engaging tones. We get a full blooded version of ‘Bring Me To Life’ along with the tear inducing perfection of ‘My Immortal’ from the ever youthful ‘Fallen’ album. Throughout the set Lee’s ability to command the Arena with apparent ease is astonishing. Her friendly manner, the little quips between songs mean so much but don’t stall the momentum of the show. There are no awkward gaps or pauses with the orchestra also playing their part in keeping things flowing nicely. The encore is maybe a touch down tempo with ‘Good Enough’ and ‘Swimming Home’ rounding things off but the presentation is as always, mint. While there’s no doubt many will debate the merits of an orchestral tour you can’t deny that Evanescence have pulled off something a bit special. They’ve taken the classical and rock connection and made it work on a global scale in a live environment. The full band played tonight alongside an orchestra and in a way that drew an audience that ranged from elderly couples to young Goth rockers. Evanescence have to be credited for putting on a show that is so unifying. The final words though must be directed towards Amy Lee. Her voice is nothing short of remarkable. To be able to sing in a way that transfers raw emotion to thousands of people is a rare gift. Lee produced the goods tonight, and then some. This was an “I was there!” show in a tour that could make an even bigger star of Amy Lee than she already is.
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Photo By : Mark Bestford
CHURCH OF THE COSMIC SKULL REBELLION MANCHESTER
Lucas Chapel
Church Of The Cosmic Skull’s performance at Rebellion Manchester is easily the best show I’ve gone to this year and the most fun I’ve had in an extremely long time. With their addictive psychedelic blend of Occult Rock, I’ve nicknamed them Fleetwood Macabre. Contrary to my belief before the show, as brilliant as he is Brother Bill is not necessarily the star of the band; nor is he the frontman, with Sister Joanne taking a lot more of the limelight than expected with her mesmerising 70’s dancing. The whole band had a brilliant synchronisation amongst the members, there was one particular comical yet enchanting moment where the entire band froze, petrified like stone statues whilst a blistering drum solo took place in the background. Something that stuck in my mind for days was the electric cello player’s dead pan face throughout the show, complete with all the smoke around him from the adjacent machine. The bombastic dancing of the whacky organ player was a hilarious highlight too. The band worked around technical issues professionally and gracefully; crazy keyboards and catchy tune after catchy tune left me craving more. ‘Evil In Your Eye’ was song of the night for me, where everyone in the entire building seemed momentarily in harmony with each other in true cult-like creepiness.
Oxford O2 Academy It’s a difficult choice to make when there are so many good concerts happening on the same night in our local city but the decision to catch Desert Storm’s launch party leaves absolutely no regrets. As usual for a night out in Oxford there are plenty of support bands and despite the variety of musical styles they do not disappoint. Crimson Tusk start the ball rolling and we walk into the venue as their barrage of stoner doom pounds us straight in the face leaving a lasting impression before the youthful Never Found enthusiastically take to the stage for a frenzy fest as the guys bounce around as if they themselves were endorsed by Red Bull. The guys are hardworking and tour relentlessly so it’s good to see them getting recognition like they did tonight. So early in the night it’s good to see a fair-sized crowd up against the barriers. Next up it’s the recently renamed The Horologist who bring their hardcore infused metal to the smaller of the two O2 Academy rooms and it’s clear they’ve earned themselves a 12 DEVOLUTION DEVOLUTIONMAGAZINE MAGAZINE 28
Nickie Hobbs & Mark Bestford
modest army of new fans tonight. Someone’s forgotten to tell Cole Bryant that they’re the support act as Hell’s Gazelles let rip on the crowd, with not even the main bar safe from Cole’s antics. But as good as the local lads are it’s still clear that it’s Desert Storm that everyone is here to see. Worthy of an album launch party they tear through a set promoting ’Sentinels’ (out on APF Records) and while the mosh pit may be a bit slower to open up than expected, open up it certainly does. Judging from the reception they’re getting the new material is going down a storm with frontman Matt Ryan seemingly thoroughly possessed yet being able to switch it up vocally between bluesy, ballsy and bellowing growls. The ground shakes from the vibration of the drums the guitars are hospitably loud and the bass is thunderstorm air pressure heavy – this sublime sludge concoction is a sound the boys have seemingly perfected since their inception and this album is going to open more than a few doors for the lads who deserve everything. Cracking evening!
LOOKING FOR EXTRA LIVE REVIEWS? AS WELL AS PRINT A SELECTION OF LIVE & FESTIVAL REVIEWS EACH ISSUE - WE ALSO UPLOAD THEM TO THE WEBSITE OVER AT DEVOLUTIONMAGAZINE.CO.UK
Photo By : Mark Bestford
DESERT STORM & SUPPORTS
SKINDRED Music is full of characters, the people who are instantly recognisable, the idols. Benji Webbe is one of those people who with his band Skindred has changed the face of rock, and done so with a huge smile on his face and a party attitude. Gary Trueman chatted with Benji about latest album offering ‘Big Tings’, music collaborations and erm… cwtching Big Tings is an interesting name for the album. Is it a statement of what to watch out for in the future? “You know what yeah. It’s like an optimistic view of Skindred. At the end of the day if we didn’t think we could headline Download then what’s the point in doing this thing? That’s the way we view it. We’ve got a few unbelievers out there but Jesus had them so why can’t we. We’ve been doing this long enough and we’re strong enough to say we’ve got big tings coming for us. It’s definitely an optimistic view of life.” The new single is a real anthem. It has loads of melody and you can imagine it going down a storm live. Is that how the rest of the album will pan out too? “On the other albums I’ve been the dominant factor on the song writing. What I found on this record is that Mikey and Dan came to the room with melodies and they came to the room with more stuff than they’ve ever brought before. You can hear that these guys have been sat in the wings for a long time. We’ve finished the songs together but they brought a lot of the stuff you hear on Big Tings and on Machine. I mean what’s the point of making the same album over and over again? I think if I was to have done all the writing it would have been dominant dog again. It was nice to sit back because the others aren’t children any more. I’m the old man but they’re not the kids anymore.” It allows Skindred to develop their sound a lot more. “Exactly. I mean everybody has something to say about the record. But if people don’t dig what we do then just go back, we’ve got six more albums they can listen to. Make yourself a playlist of songs you like. People forget that although they might like Skindred it’s our band and we can take that direction wherever we want to. Time is something everybody needs to develop, it’s about getting that evolution going on in the music.” So with Big Tings was it interesting to see what the other band members 14 DEVOLUTION MAGAZINE
brought to the table and where they got their ideas from? “Oh yeah! The subjects are different from what I would write about. I met these guys when they were 19 years of age, and 21, now they’re in their mid30s. So they’ve had a lot of experiences that I can draw on. The best thing about it was sitting back and watching, and getting excited about their melodies. They’d play the song and I’d have a go at it and that’s when the song would come alive. Freddie (Mercury) and Brian (May) did that a lot too. Brian would write and then when Freddie did his thing that’s when the magic happened.” With Skindred you have all these different flavours if you like in your music which makes you unique. Sometimes when a band becomes successful they get imitators but no one has really imitated Skindred. Why do you think that is? “I don’t think it has anything to do with the music, it’s to do with the attitude and where I’m from. I’m from an area which is so diverse culturally so I think that has a lot to do with the music. Growing up around Irish people and Italian people and Somali people, all that stuff is in me. I think with Skindred and especially what I bring to the table, there’s a lot of life experience that goes in to it.”
from a lot of those southern Baptist preachers, I watch a lot of that and it’s not about the Jesus thing it’s about the unity ion the room. What I love to do is stand on the stage and see a room full of people who don’t know each other and within four songs you’ve got that church spirit. Everybody wants to be part of something and my job as a front man is to engage the crowd and make them feel like they’re at ease. It’s definitely that preacher kind of thing but I’m not preaching at the people. Part of what we do is bring people together and we do that all over the world.” In a way religions are originally a uniting force so music, and rock stars are the religions and deities of the 21st century. “Exactly. Once there was gospel and once there was blues and they had a baby and called it rock ‘n’ roll. That was the beginning of it all. That’s where it all began, with those amalgamations of sound. The church sound and the slave blues sound and that’s when rock ‘n’ roll came out. Everything that’s been done from Led Zeppelin to the Sex Pistols to Royal Blood I guess. “
It’s funny that the UK seems to produce highly original music. Let’s take Skindred for instance, there’s nowhere else on the planet that Skindred would have happened You bring a huge amount of energy surely? and passion to live shows which rubs “I believe in my heart of hearts is that off on the fans. Skindred gigs are because we’re British, it’s because of like a big party. Do you think that the melting pot of the UK. I don’t think atmosphere then carries you back if we were from Los Angeles we would into your writing and how you work sound like this. It’s where we’re from and off stage? the environment we grew up in. Even “I’d say that when we write songs we though I grew up in South Wales in the do ask how the crowd would engage 70s I know London was feeling the same to this song and how will we engage kind of energy. I’m just a product of my the crowd. When we’re working on a environment both lyrically and mentally. track we definitely do keep the crowd I fly the British flag not because of the in mind. Even though I can make the Britishness but because of the music. I crowd bounce to Mozart, you know see the flag and think of the Sex Pistols what I mean. When I’m on stage I draw and The Clash.”
“ I DON’T THINK IF WE WERE FROM LOS ANGELES WE WOULD SOUND LIKE THIS. IT’S WHERE WE’RE FROM AND THE ENVIRONMENT WE GREW UP IN. ”
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Let’s talk a little bit about collaborations. Devolution had a chat recently with Skye Sweetnam of Sumo Cyco and your name came up. So how did you end up on their new album? “She contacted me on the internet saying I’m a big fan of your band. I get that every week so I don’t really listen to every one of them. So I was polite and said OK. The next thing I know the guy that produces our albums called and said I’ve got this band I’m producing from Canada and they want to work with you. It was strange that she didn’t just say she wanted to do it she actually did it. They sent me the track and I recorded it and they loved it. When they toured in the UK we did a video together and we just became friends from that. It just goes to show if you have perseverance. I get a lot of tracks that people send me but I only want to sing on the ones that are good enough and Sumo Cyco are definitely good enough. The way they are doing it too, they keep coming over here sleeping on people’s floors. They’re doing it rock ’n’ roll style and that’s awesome. A lot of these bands cry for the cover of Kerrang and that’s all they do and one album later they’ve disbanded. The way Sumo Cyco are doing it, that’s the way to build a strong foundation with British fans.” Skye gave up a pop career. “She said when she saw Skindred she wanted to be in a band like Skindred. She didn’t want to do that Madonna kinda Britney thing which is amazing. She’s brilliant. I think she could be the next Gwen Stefani.” You also worked with Gary Stringer from Reef. “We were recording a song and originally it was going to be me and Mikey singing it but our manager is friends with Gary’s manager and we asked him. We ended up going in to a studio in London and he turned up like a homeless tramp and delivered the goods amazingly. When I think of Gary I think of TFI Friday looking smooth in his tartan shirt and he turned up at the studio looking like a homeless guy. But when he got behind the mic it was just wow, he brought the track to life. I’m trying to show off because I know Gary can sing and he knows I can sing so we ended up giving it the best Mick Jagger we’ve got.” We’ve spoken about Sumo Cyco and there are other bands such as Vukovi and Brutai that don’t follow traditional lines, and there are many others.
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Do you think that music is melding together and that the old lines where genres start and finish are blurring more and more? “With the genres thing, now you can go on to Spotify and get an album and pick all your best tracks. You can make a playlist of punk rock, dubstep and that’s what you’re digging. People’s minds are more open. Music is becoming as one. It’s not as elitist as it used to be.” And years ago before Skindred you were doing it with Dubwar “Exactly, we’re the bastard sons of The Police and the bastard sons of The Specials. We always wanted to be a band that took genres and made them like that. With Dubwar we’ve been in the studio a couple of times in recent years and recorded some stuff and when the time is right we’ll let that out. That’s what I do, I think if I wasn’t in Skindred and something new came along and you heard it you’d know it was me straight away. All I ever wanted to do is be in a band that took different genres and made them sound as one.” Music is changing at a huge pace and so is the media that goes with it. We’ve seen NME fall recently. Do you think print as a medium has a future? “If you write good things people will buy it. When you write the same old trollop, like when I read a review that could have been written 20 years ago, it’s up to the journalists. If they write stuff that is interesting people will buy it. But online is where 95% of people are reading stuff now. I think it doesn’t matter who you are, if you’re writing well people will come to you. It’s like I get asked “how do you get a record deal?” and I say first of all you’ve got to be good. Some bands want to get on YouTube before they’ve even got a song together. Just like if you were a bricklayer, you’ve got to sculpture you’re art. As a writer you’ve got to sculpture what you do. The NME was great to Dubwar in the early days and I feel sorry for them but if you’re not writing then people aren’t reading.”
said to me if I had a place in LA I’d be a millionaire because of the song writing but the money isn’t everything, missing your family and missing your, what are you doing there? I just think you should be where you want to be and I love Wales. I consider myself to be Afro Caribbean Cymri, that’s the title I give myself when I sign papers and they ask for my nationality. I feel that, and when I did live in Florida with all the sunshine, no disrespect but there’s no sense of community. I live in a community where I can go five generations and know the people and that’s something you don’t want to let go of. My father hung around with the guy next door’s father and they got drunk and fucked chicks together when they were young and I love that. Community spirit is built on roots. I lived in Florida and it was beautiful and I had Disney tickets every day but I still didn’t stay.” There’s only so many times you can meet Mickey Mouse though isn’t there? “Exactly. I know my local pub is shit but even Mickey’s house gets boring.”
You live in Wales with your girlfriend. How does that work with the band and touring? Do you think you need to be a special kind of person to date a musician? “Definitely. You need someone who is understanding. When you haven’t got that it’s a nightmare. When you’re talking to fans and the person you are with is getting upset about it because you’re not spending enough time with them. At the end of the gay these people have bought tickets to see you so I basically put the fans above any friends hanging around. If you really want to see me then come to my house. You’ve chosen to come on the road with me and when I’m on the road I’m working. I’m very fortunate because my girlfriend is very understanding and when I’m on the phone and she’s in the car waiting she isn’t going to give me shit. This is my art form and this is what I do. Obviously when you’re in a Let’s talk a bit about Wales. restaurant and there’s four kids stood “Beautiful Wales. Cymru. I love Wales. by you when you’re trying to eat your I lived in Florida for five years and still fish and chips it’s a bit weird. There’s a came back to Wales.” time for everything and when I step on That’s something that you don’t hear that bus, that’s rock n roll time. When I’m in Asda that’s Benji time with his about often it seems to be all these bands you hear about that head off to girlfriend. As much as I want her to be LA or London or Florida. What brought happy when she does come out on tour, the priority for me on the road is who you back? has bought the tickets.” “Well when we were touring the states a lot I ended up going over there and You do get fans who get too staying there. But when we stopped invasive though. touring it seemed pointless me being “Of course you do but you know how there so that’s when I came back and bought a house in the UK. Robert Trujillo to deal with them but sometimes you
upset them and they go online and talk shit about you. If you meet me and I’m an arsehole once fair enough. You meet me twice and I’m an arsehole then I am an arsehole. You can meet people in media or whatever and they might be standoffish but it might be a bad day for them, everybody has them. I met Johnny Rotten the first time and asked for a picture and he said no and walked straight past me. Then I met him again and he called me over and said to come and have a chat. And he’s one of my idols. And at the end of the day him saying no to me is more of a story than saying yes. I dined out on that story a couple of nights. There’s a way to approach people though, coming up to me and rubbing my head like I’m a new pet is
not the way to do it. You get people on social media saying I’ve just seen Benji in a hotel lobby and I’m a big fan, that’s the way to do it. Rubbing my head is not the way to get my attention or get me to spend time talking to you. Like I said if I’m eating dinner and there’s kids stood asking for an autograph it’s like when I’m leaving maybe but not in the middle of fucking dinner. I think as a fan it’s a conduct you learn, as you get older you learn how to approach somebody.” Back to Wales. What is the one thing Wales has that the rest of the world hasn’t got but needs? “Cwtching”
Wait...What? “Wales has got cwtching. A cwtch is when you meet your mates and you hug. We call it cwtching and it’s the only place in the world that has it, and we do a lot of cwtching. In other words we embrace our friends and give them a hug and that’s something the world needs to do more often. A handshake is very clinical and clean but a cwtch is something that is heart-warming and it’s only given in Wales.”
skindred.net facebook.com/skindredofficial
DEVOLUTION MAGAZINE 17
DOWNLOAD Festival Much has been made of Download Festival’s unerring ability to attract rain clouds that this year will go down as one of the driest in recent times. The festival has worked very hard on not only how it deals with passing monsoons but also how it interacts with the public and the environment. So the first thing you notice when you arrive are the little things that matter, better loos, more bins and surface improvements. Later on it’s heartening to see how much is being laid on for disabled rock fans and just how effective the move to going green is with cup recycling and the involvement of Greenpeace leading the way.
Wednesday The entertainment is bolstered by a stage set up in the RIP camp site which means that some early birds get to see bands play on the Wednesday evening. Effectively opening the festival this year are London three piece The Kut who rip it up so well they end up with a stage invasion. Don’t rule them out of an arena appearance next year. Later on over at The Doghouse we’re treated to the Circus of Horrors and Dis-Grace with Suicide Girls who both put on eye popping shows.
Cellar Darling kick the day off in fine form sporty delicious vocals and an electric Hurdy Gurdy. The rock meets folk and classical vibe are a perfect intro to open up the festival proper. Marmozets are on a roll at the moment and their set has the crowd going wild. Now they’ve calmed down a bit Becca MacIntyre and the guys are starting to look like they could go all the way to the top. Jonathan Davis puts in a typically solid shift using no gimmicks just that unique voice and a fine set of songs. It’s when you see such an understated show you realise what a musical gem this guy really is.
Weather Report: Warn and sultry.
Weather Report: Pass the sunblock, factor 25.
Thursday
Saturday The Best of the Rest
It’s a case of the calm before the storm with anticipation rife on the campsites. There’s much talk of how Axl and Ozzy will perform, real excitement for Avenged Sevenfold and the booze and party atmosphere runs well into the night. The Boardie Takeover sees some great band performances in the Doghouse while the side splitter comedy tent is full of fun as always. Into the early hours and rain starts to fall but it’s the only time over the weekend it does. Weather Report: Hotting up with umbrellas need to return from the bar.
Avenged Sevenfold
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Friday The Best of the Rest
Death Blooms go straight for the jugular with their sharp, modern and distinctly angry set. Where there is a chilled out vibe generally this year, acts like this give fans an outlet to go crazy, and crazy is what they go. When you talk about acts that are timeless you have to include L7 on the list. Decades after they became a thing of wonder to many the veteran grungesters are still producing musical magic everywhere they go. Parkway Drive rule the roost headlining the Zippo Encore stage. They put on a show full of passion and fire. It’s a statuesque performance that many will see as a dress rehearsal for a shot at closing the main stage one day soon.
Sunday The Best of the Rest With the wind whipping her hair around Maria Brink looks even more bizarre than normal. Her voice is on point though and In This Moment are a highlight of what turns out to be an extraordinary day. Bonkers but also loveable Brink and co. don’t just play a show, they do the whole damn circus. Shinedown step onto the main stage armed with just their instruments and music in what proves to be a triumph of style and song writing. Once again we may be witnessing the emergence of a band who could one day top the bill at Donington Park. Onwards and upwards is the order of play for melodic hard core outfit Rise Against. They’re the perfect act to close the Zippo Encore stage for the weekend and put on a suitable energetic show. Weather Report: Too hot to handle, forget the sunblock and find some shade.
downloadfestival.co.uk 14th - 16th June 2019 Reviews By Gary Trueman & Mark Bestford Images By Gary Trueman facebook.com/gtruemanBYHO
For Full Download Coverage Unedited Download Tape Interviews & Extra Reviews head to the website: devolutionmagazine.co.uk
Weather Report: Scorchio, sunblock factor 50.
DEVOLUTION MAGAZINE 19
5 of the best
Powerflo Cradle Of Filth
Marilyn Manson
By Gary Trueman
Dragonforce
Jonathan Davis
Marilyn Manson The Unstoppable God of Fuck
themselves the Powerflo guys lap up every moment. A swift return to Donington Park must surely be on the cards.
Often frustrating, always controversial and never boring Marilyn Manson is in the full glare of the crowd and sun today thanks to a breeze whipping away his smoke screen. While watching a Goth melt might appeal to a few Manson simply delves into his box of self-confidence and pulls out a magnificent show. Assured, angry and robustly defying his critics he struts and screams his way through a greatest hits collection perfect for the occasion. The god of fuck is back to his best.
Dragonforce The Smoothest Band at the Festival
The Hyena Kill The Northern Noisy Upstarts
In This Moment
Playing as a two piece but sounding like there’s a couple of extra band members hidden somewhere are Manchester’s The Hyena Kill. They play metalcore with O levels, a natural and fresh extension of a well-trodden path. While all eyes are mostly on drummer Lorna Blundell and her quite astounding ability to sound like she has a bass guitar hidden on her you have to doff your hat to Steven Dobbs too for his sterling work on guitar and huge stage presence. Metal now has its own Royal Blood.
Powerflo The Supergroup with Extra Super
Powerflo 20 DEVOLUTION MAGAZINE
It’s astonishing that Powerflo are opening things up on the Saturday at 11am given their line-up includes Sendog (CypressHill), Billy Graziadei (Biohazard), Christian Olde Wolbers (ex-Fear Factory) and Roy Lozano (Downset). Naturally they have a good crowd and those there are treated to a blinding set of original music that takes your breath away. Clearly enjoying
You have to tip your hat to Dragonforce for simply being such a well-oiled machine. They’re one of those bands that just ooze class in every department. Their set this year is one that shows just why metal works so well out in the fresh air. With the sun high in the sky and Herman Lee juggling his guitar it’s moments like this that make lifelong memories. Dragonforce have always been a big stage band, today they take it too a whole new level.
Cradle Of Filth The Filth And The Ecstasy Someone had a bit of a laugh putting on the lovers of all things dark at midday. You suspect they wanted to watch Dani and co combust, which in a way they do, just musically. This is a set full of all the things that make Cradle Of Filth such a great band, just with added sunshine and a festival party atmosphere. The vocals are spot on, both Dani’s lead and Lindsay’s backing, the music is tight and the set itself works like a dream. Cradle didn’t just play, they put on a show, and a fantastic one at that.
In This Moment
The Kut
downloadfestival.co.uk 14th - 16th June 2019 Reviews By Gary Trueman Images By Gary Trueman facebook.com/gtruemanBYHO
DEVOLUTION MAGAZINE 21
5 of the best By Mark Bestford InVisions The Underdogs It may by a tad controversial as they played on the Thursday but InVisions earn an honorary spot by being stunningly brilliant. The Boardie Takeover headliners had everything going for them, with a dedicated fan base in the tent chanting “Yorkshire! Yorkshire!” right up to an amazing show of energy both on and off stage. They manage to turn the centre of the Doghouse tent into a swirling vortex, creating one of the largest circle pits witnessed this year. Without doubt this is a band that will be back and when they do return there will be chaos and destruction not seen since Municipal Waste.
Massive Wagons The New Wave Of Rock For so early in the day Massive Wagons manage to pull in a phenomenal crowd, with people having to stand eight deep outside the tent to watch them. They’re just one of several bands showing that traditional rock music is not just surviving, but thriving. There’s a great vibe in the tent as they plough through a radio friendly playlist of songs that have the crowd singing along. Who knows who is louder at this point, the crowd, or the band, but it’s certainly maximum attack from both.
Igorrr Or How To Make Someone’s Jaw Drop From the opening notes the crowd is rooted to the floor, pure soprano vocals stand out cutting into the air. At the other side of the stage there’s a more traditional black metal growl and scream, and then the music switches again. From black metal, grinding guitars, to a techno
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beat, all with this ethereal soprano counterpointed with a primal growling. It’s classical, operatic, post-apocalyptic, all thrown into one gigantic melting pot. It’s like a mad French scientist with no knowledge of music took everything that had ever been created, from medieval folk to Cannibal Corpse and created what he believed to be the essence, the soul of all music combined.
Babymetal The One That We Both Agree On… By Gary & Mark Just a few short years ago this would be seen as unthinkable, Babymetal being the best show of the festival. But this isn’t about what people think of the band, it’s about what the band are like on the day, and on Saturday Babymetal simply blow everyone away. No other band had the style, the sound, the control, all in one package. Everything comes together in one perfectly choreographed set, every note sung, every note played was spot on. And the crowd was played like a conductor plays an orchestra. There are plenty of bands calling for circle pits and not getting them, Babymetal got multiple ones. And when demanding them to be bigger they simply merged into one gigantic pit. This was an audience from front to back at the band’s beck and call and loving every second of it.
Avatar Welcome To The Circus Avatar have come a long way since they last played at Download. The circus inspired makeup and costumes are still there, as is Johannes’ manic personality, but there’s something else thrown into the mix. There comes a point in a band’s lifetime that they have to up their game. With the release of their latest album Avatar have done just that, adding a level of pomp and ceremony to their stage show that takes them above the general crowd. This Swedish metal band are no longer the joker on stage, now they are the full freakshow.
Wayward Sons The Return Of A Legend The songs may be different but for a short while old men turn nineteen again and the tent becomes the student union in Sheffield. Toby Jepson has not lost any of the energy and stagecraft that made Little Angels one of the biggest bands at the end of the 80s. With no rain to drive people into the tent this year it’s still standing room only and the crowd turns the set into a sing-along for the whole thirty minutes. With such a short time available there’s no room to play anything from past times this is strictly a Wayward Sons set list, but it doesn’t matter, Toby is back and he’s still on form.
How do you go from being a novelty act and also sadly perv candy in many people’s eyes to something much more substantial? In the case of Babymetal you don some suitable armour and rock the living daylights out of the Download crowd. The music is right up there and the vocals are pitch perfect, but the thing that really hits home is the choreography of the show and the maturity of what the group have put together. Babymetal have managed to keep the cute but now they have a swagger about them, and they look like girls empowered. The entire set is a masterpiece of music and theatre, the rhetoric is that Babymetal are going to be around for a long time and they’re not going to take prisoners.
downloadfestival.co.uk 14th - 16th June 2019
DEVOLUTION MAGAZINE 23
The Download Tapes The Download Tapes We all know about supergroups and how they often leave you thinking maybe they just shouldn’t have. Well one band are kicking that notion into touch. Powerflo are Sendog (Cypress Hill), Billy Graziadei (Biohazard) Christian Olde Wolbers (Ex-Fear Factory) and Roy Lozano (Downset), and they are taking the music world by storm right now. Gary Trueman had a chat with the band after a seriously impressive set in front of thousands of fans.
Just finishing up a massive tour with Cradle Of Filth Lindsay Schoolcraft has become a rock for the band on keyboard and backing vocals. She’s no one trick pony though and is soon to have a new solo album out along with also working on another project called Antiqva. Gary Trueman chatted to Lindsay about her relationship with Dani Filth, her music, and her love for her harp.
Powerflo
Lindsay Schoolcraft
When you’re young and you’re in a band it’s new and exciting, then you progress and do well and mature. Is being in Powerflo where you’re all friends a bit like bringing that new excitement back? Billy: “It’s like having an awesome wife that lets you have a chick on the side. And she’s hotter than your wife but your wife still keeps it nice at home. So you get the best of both worlds. Powerflo is like the new girlfriend. It’s like you can eat pizza at the same fucking pizza joint every day but when you go to the one round the block it tastes different. Powerflo tastes different, and it tastes good.”
You’ve just finished a long world tour with Cradle Of Filth which has seen the band visit almost every corner of the globe. That must have been exhausting. “Yeah, it was a four month tour and it was just nonstop. I think it’s one of the longest tours we’ve done. By the end it was weird going back home, I thought we were going to be on tour forever. Like I can go home now what’s this?”
There’s a lot a labels for different types of bands these days. This is metal, this is hip hop and this is whatever. You guys obviously mix things up and cross over a hell of a lot. Do you think music is starting to lose the ability to be identified just by genre and is now more of a spectrum? Sendog: “That’s how I look at music. I look at metal as all metal, I don’t categorise it. When we’re talking about music we’re talking about music. We’re not talking about how I grew up or how he grew up or this and that it’s what we do together that counts. I like the fact that this band here has no boundaries. We have that ability to get other audiences involved with us and I think that’s a testament to how good we are at what we do, because as long as we’ve been musicians we’ve been in many situations and we know how to adapt. That’s what we do on this album with Powerflo. We’re not trying to sound like anyone and although everyone here is personality heavy we’re just being ourselves. We’re just making new material and getting people into it. That’s the whole challenge is getting people into it. We don’t rely on what we did in the past. You don’t hear any covers on our album.” Billy: “We all came from bands who broke moulds and created styles, created names and brands that were unique. Cypress Hill, Downset, Fear Factory and Biohazard, and in an era that was very regimented. 24 DEVOLUTION MAGAZINE
Things change over the years and we’ve watched it, the young kids these days will have in their playlists Slayer and Bob Marley. They like all this shit and there’s no boundaries anymore and that’s fucking awesome. Everything has changed and now everything is accepted.” Music has gone from vinyl to cd to digital, so it’s easier for fans to listen to more. So music now is fan driven and not label driven. Sendog: “Fan driven, yeah partially. Fans, with the way they buy music now, they have it way easier finding it. It makes it easier to check out music you wouldn’t normally. It’s also internet driven at the same time. It’s just a different way of doing this is all. Before there was vinyl and cassettes and then cds, but this is where we are now and how people enjoy music now.” Billy: “Remember the tape trading thing, well now it’s an email to check out this new band. And there’s a link to your site or video. It’s quicker. Instead of having to wait to get a mix tape of all your favourite bands, now it’s instant. So things happen quicker. Also fans these days are not so easily dictated to by the media. They make up their own mind and
they don’t give a fuck what is on the cover of a magazine. Back in the old days when there wasn’t the internet if someone was on the cover you wanted to know who it was. People make up their own mind now and it separates the real from the fake.” You mentioned covers and although the album is all originals you covered Get Up, Stand Up for the EP. That’s an interesting choice and you really put your own stamp on it but still did it in a sympathetic way. Was that something you were quite conscious of? Sendog: “The thing about Bob Marley is we all love him, he’s a phenomenal lyricist, a poet and a prophet. In the metal world as much as we’re a part of it sometimes there are boundaries where people don’t want to listen to anything else. I grew up like that. That song, a great song with great lyrics but having a metal edge while keeping the lyrics true brings a message to a new genre.” Christian: “Even though Bob Marley played reggae it’s really punk rock. The message and the vibe. We kept the song dirty but didn’t harsh it up too much. “
You seem to have developed quite a special bond with Dani? “It’s a good bond, we’ve become really good friends but I don’t like his dad jokes. I’ve just spent four months with him and I’m kinda fed up, ha-ha. But I still love him to bits. Five and a half years is a long time to dedicate to touring with someone. It’s like a second family. I feel really lucky because of being all the way from Canada in a UK band. It’s expensive to travel, and he’s willing to invest in me. He’s the reason I’ve been able to make it out of my home town. He’s done a lot of great things for me and I’m very grateful.” Moving on to your solo music, you’re nearing completion of a new album? “Yeah, it’s done and is being mastered. It’s taken such a long time but with things that matter, they need all the time and love that they deserve. I’m really excited about it, I still haven’t revealed to the world who I wrote it with and I think people are going to lose their minds. He’s been amazing to work with and I can’t wait for everyone to find out. It’s been a magical experience and the things that’s funny is being at Download watching all the bands I’ve been getting inspired by some heavier acts. I feel like my album is too soft but the second album is going to be really heavy. I want to go heavier.” Presumably we’re going to hear keyboard and harp and if so which one of the two do you prefer? “Yes. I love my harp, I love it so much. I did perform piano, there was some stuff that I needed to re-perform on the piano,
it’s been an instrument I’ve focussed on for many years now but the harp is my baby. I have my folk harp and also my electric, and it’s cool to hear a harp distorted playing along with guitars. I’m so excited for people to hear that.” When can we expect the release? “I’m just finalising some of the boring stuff, I want it to be out some time later this year but it will be out within the next 12 months. If I can’t get it out in the next year you all can just stop watching what I’m doing because it’s ridiculous.” You have another project you’re involved with too called Antigva? “I had a few strange little compositions and tried to pitch them to Cradle Of Filth but that’s its own thing and you have to keep true to that sound and I understand that. So a lot of stuff got rejected and that’s OK it happens in every album writing process and I was holding on to all these little pieces. I went on tour with Ne Obliviscaris and became the best of friends with the lead singer, he’s my twin, my taller twin. We hung out experiencing Europe together for the first time. We talked and realised we want the same thing musically so made a project. I found the first demos I sent him the other day and they’re horrible, but now they’re transforming into something brilliant. It’s something we want to do for the love of music.”
Black metal, white witch, do you think heavier music is starting to transfer into the mainstream more? “It’s becoming really trendy this past while. Especially the alternative look. Kanye West likes our band, The Kardashians like our band. There’s such a crossover of music and genres right now. I’m excited to see what happens when two genres come together to make a new genre.” You’ve been at Download walking around all weekend and watching other bands as a fan. What has that been like? “We were spectating for two days and it was nice. I just hid under my cloak, which is about the most Goth thing you can say. I got recognised when I put my hair down, there’s something about hair. I was just so inspired and comfortable and safe. I love that about metal festivals. The highlight for me was Jonathan Davis’ set. He played Forsaken from the Queen Of The Damned sound track. I wasn’t expecting it and I just burst into tears because I love it. I loved Avatar too. My significant other really loves clowns. I’m like as a clown theme do I take this seriously? and they blew me away.”
How do you find the time to split yourself between Cradle and your solo stuff and Antiqva? “It’s a balancing act. I was talking to a friend of mine Annina the other day and she said it was admirable how busy you are all the time. I think it’s just because I’m a crazy person but yeah you have to make lists and schedule your time accordingly. I do that and then at the end of the day I maybe might have 20 minutes to myself. But hey who wants to clean their bathroom? My place is a shambles but my art is fantastic.”
DEVOLUTION MAGAZINE 25
The Download Tapes The Download Tapes The Swedish death metallers, Avatar, are back with their latest album, ‘Avatar Country’. Devolution scribe Mark Bestford caught up with Johannes at Download Festival to talk about the album, stage theatrics and their importance, concept albums and about the influences that have shaped their music to date. years and years before he joined the band. He was in the circle of friends anyway so the way we are, function, communicate, how we write and perform, it’s a terrifying thought if we were to change the line-up now.”
Johannes – Avatar The new album has been out now for six months, what’s the response been like? “Great, is the short answer to that. But it’s been really good, I’m very pleased with it, it’s a kind of offbeat thing to do I guess, that we went so much more positive sounding, it’s a brighter sounding album. For good reason, as we decided to tell the truth about our King, open up the borders of our country and people embraced the idea of us doing this immediately and we’ve been riding on that wave since we released the first single, in October or something, People seem really into it and I’m proud that we once again did something very different, it’s always the ambition to change things up every time and not be stuck in a certain formula.” You’ve kept your line-up steady since 2012, how important has that been to the band’s growth? “It’s a necessity to us, it’s like we are feeding very much off each other, Since 2012, which is when Tim joined, before that, the rest of us, and the guy who with us before, Simon, we basically essentially learnt how to play and write together, like this was most of ours first proper write your own material kind of band, so we really started out together and we knew Tim for 26 DEVOLUTION MAGAZINE
The stage show is very theatrical now, what influences have you brought to that stage show? “What influences? *It’s from all over the place. Once we grew into understanding that theatrics is very important to us and to visualise the music then it’s just our imaginations that put a border around where we can go with this. Because it’s all about, like our music is influenced from so many different things, so of course it’s a foundation there and we end up talking, I end up thinking a lot about Black Sabbath and The Beatles when we were writing, but then of course we’re influenced by a ton of stuff, and since the music is like that then the theatrics are all about visualising the music. So of course, as it’s influenced by the music it has a million influences as well, if you understand what I mean.” Your current album is a concept album, can you describe it to us in your own words? “Well what happened was that we found and realised that the time was right in order to tell people the truth about our King and open up the borders to Avatar Country and this is our tribute album to the King from the heartland of Avatar Country.” In the modern on-demand music scene, is the concept album dead or do you feel there’s still room for them? “It’s still alive and well, obviously. We’ve never been as successful as we are right here and now so it’s been working well for us, and the beauty of it is that in metal music more than any other genre in my opinion and experience the relation between artist performer and audience is fully based on honesty so it’s encouraged not to second guess what is the current trend, what are the demographics and bullshit like that. What
you do as a metal artist is you write and perform from the heart and that reaches the heart of the people in the crowd and since it’s like that the concept album, in our case, is what the muse, the sirens told us to write basically and therefore it was the most honest thing that we could do and that shines through.” If you could have any one item, no questions asked, on the band rider what would it be? “We’re kind of boring like that, we’re very simple people when it comes to what we want. I don’t know, I don’t have a really fun answer for you for that one. Just a runner to take us places because sometimes we feel trapped by your own design, trapped at the venue. So a map of the city and info on where everything is, sometimes we put that in there at some towns and I always appreciate that.” Who would you say you sound most like if anyone? “I really don’t know, like the thing is, when we learned to play we put so much of our influences early on, let’s cover these songs basically, was from melodic death metal and more extreme death metal. So we covered Slayer and Cryptopsy and then In Flames, Helloween, okay that’s something else entirely, but those were the choice of covers in the beginning and that kind of, because those were the kind of riffs we learned to play that also became kind of the riffs we were writing early on. The Haunted was a huge influence like that but then the years are going and we really put an effort into making, first and foremost great metal, but then also try to write songs we haven’t heard yet. I feel if I was to pick a biggest influence and name them it’s just a tiny part of a big puzzle. I don’t think we sound like Rammstein, but they had a huge influence on us. I don’t think we sound like Black Sabbath but again that is to me as a song writer the most important band to reflect on when doing metal. Or Judas Priest, like the old stuff. I don’t know, that is a question for the listener rather than the writer I think.”
The very talented Herman Li from DragonForce caught up with Devolution scribe Mark Bestford at Donington Park during Download Festival to talk about how not to stage dive in Canada, what it is like playing live with Babymetal and his new love of performance cars and mechanics.
Herman Li - DragonForce You had a great crowd for the set, what was it like to have that many people watching you? “It’s great to be back on the main stage at Download, this is our fourth time at Download main stage and it’s cool. From the first time seeing it to now it’s always great, you don’t get bored of it.” You had some technical issues near the end, do you have any worst moments on stage that you can tell us about? “I don’t know, I mean worst? I stage dived once and I fell straight into the ground, and then people were standing on my hand trying to drag me up from the floor that was pretty brutal. That’s one I remember, that was pretty painful.” How long ago was that? “That was probably about 8 years ago, it was in Canada I believe, but today, today was great there was a few wireless issues, especially running around on stage like crazy, we don’t care if there’s issues, we’ve still got to do our show. We can’t let the wireless cut-off the song and stop us.” You’ve just remastered ‘The Power Within’, what prompted the revisit? “We thought we could make it sound better with new modern production there is now. Production has moved quite a lot now and the last 2 albums, people really like the sound of the last 2 albums, so we tried to make The Power Within, remixed remastered similar to Maximum Overload and Reaching Into Infinity.” The last studio album ‘Reaching Into Infinity was released just over a year ago, have you been pleased with the reception it’s had? “Yes, Reaching Into Infinity was a great tour, the reception, everything was great. It’s been really, I haven’t heard of any negative response on that album. Which is kind of strange, I don’t know if it’s a good thing or not, I kind of like the negative stuff to be honest. It’s makes us alive and…”
The idea that you can kick it and make it better? “Yeah, you can always get it better, there’s always room to improve and I’ve no doubt I’m a much better musician, guitar player than 10 years ago, at least twice as good.” Are you still touring the album? “Well this is kind of the tour for Reaching Into Infinity ending at the festival before we go back into the studio to make another album.” You’ve worked with Babymetal in the past as well, have you got anymore collaborations planned for the future? “Nothing planned so far but I see they’ve got their thing going, they’ve got a lot of touring going. Hopefully we’ll get to play again on stage, it was fun last time. Last time we did it was kind of like, did it at Download and then we did it at Golden Gods afterwards.” If you could pick your dream band line-up to see on stage who would you pick? “Dream line-up? To be honest what would be funny would be to pick a bunch who hate each other, and see like a fight or something, wouldn’t that be hilarious?”
In your home town what’s the local scene like? “When we started the band DragonForce in London, so everyone thought we were horrible, they hated the music, they thought playing guitar solos was boring and out of date. But who cares what people think right? The scene is what it is, there’s always negativity in any kind of scene but you’ve got to do your own thing. But however now I think people are more tolerant of different kinds of metal music than they used to be at that time. The internet has kind of opened up.” So how would you usually relax on the tour bus between shows? “I’ve got into car mechanics and stuff, so I’m reading a lot about cars and how to fix certain suspensions and stuff like that. So I’ve got into understanding car performance so I’m reading about it.” Is that more the modification side or just the repair side? “Kind of a bit of both, I’ve really gotten into Porches so I’m learning a lot of stuff about them, how to make it faster, how to make it better, how to make a car handle better, just kind of a nerdy thing to do.”
You could watch Van Halen... “Okay, well there are so many great musicians I can’t really think of that, what there is at the moment. And I think dream line-up doesn’t come across as what we expect it to be. A lot of times you have these great musicians who get together, the chemistry is not always there, not all greatest players together don’t always make the sum of the same. So I’ve got no requests on that.” For anyone who don’t know who DragonForce are, how would you introduce the band to them? “We play metal that you can sing in the shower with very epic and memorable, catchy choruses and adding along crazy guitars.”
DEVOLUTION MAGAZINE 27
iews cd rev MANES
SLOW MOTION DEATH SEQUENCE (DEBEMUR MORTI PRODUCTIONS)
There are very few bands who have the ability to ensnare a listener from just a few single notes and the first sentence of a song sung, but experimental Norwegian Manes not only have that ability with this anticipated new release but manage to keep the listeners hostage for an entire forty five minutes. ‘Slow Motion Death Sequence’ is a powerful nine track masterpiece with Asgeir Hatlen at the atmospheric vocal helm steering this dynamic ship through melancholy saturated dark waters beautifully. ‘Endetidstegn’ is the opener which translated means ‘a sign or signs of the end times’ and sets the tone with its avante garde feel. Musically Manes (Tor-Helge Skei, Eivind Fjøseide, Torstein Parelius and Rune Hoemsnes) have opened their minds to create the perfect concoction of synth, soundscapes, distortion, doom and metal meant to be devoured as a single shot. Guest vocals on the album come from the very talented Anna Murphy (ex-Eluveitie) and Ana Carolina Ojeda (Mourning Sun) whose voices add that extra special ingredient. It’s inspiring to hear a band who have been around for so long allow their senses to go and throw inhibition out of the window. There is no formula, no step by step structure or any musical rules that have been adhered to. Its flawless, it’s disgustingly grandiose, it’s stimulating. Its art. (Nickie Hobbs)
L.A. COBRA SHOTGUN SLINGER
(653973 RECORDS DK)
L.A. Cobra had been quiet for a few years before ‘Shotgun Slinger’, but oh boy they’re far from quiet now! They’ve stayed true to their Street style Glam Metal, but now they’re even more akin to CrashDiet and Sweet Creature with the favourable similarities being notable; this is potentially down to Martin Sweet producing the album. Lead singer Don Cobra is the perfect fit for this easy listening fun album. This time round they’re all about melodies over the flashy riffs which they’re known for, which at times have been accused of sounding out of place, whereas here everything seems to come together and fit nicely. ‘Midnight’ stands out as a good choice for a single since it’s catchy as hell! Great to see the South African rockers still flying the flag of Sleaze Metal with their gang vocals and exciting, roaming guitar licks that make this album a must for all you Glam rockers out there! (Lucas Chapel) 28 DEVOLUTION MAGAZINE
THE CRIMSON GHOSTS YET NOT HUMAN
(RING OF FIRE RECORDS)
We’ve waited 8 long years for The Crimson Ghosts to follow up their 2010 masterpiece ‘Generation Gore’, an album that was heralded by many as the greatest Horror Punk album of all time. ‘Yet Not Human’ is the fifth studio album from TCG, it’s packed full of creepy Metal tunes such as ‘Don’t Follow’, which is living breathing proof that they haven’t skipped a beat. The album is a highlight reel of Vlad’s unmistakable haunting vocals, which sound even better than ever; accompanied by excellent guitar melodies throughout. TCG have gradually transitioned from being a very heavy Horror Punk band into somewhat of a Horror Metal act, the new heavier direction really works for them on this outing. ‘A Mother’s Heart’ is like super heavy Psychobilly, which stands out from yet compliments the rest of the album perfectly. ‘Ego Sum Qui Intus Habitat’ also stands out for being much slower with a looming, creepy tempo that’s reminiscent of ‘Serenity’ by Godsmack. Massive welcome back to The Crimson Ghosts! They’ve really hit all the nails into the coffin with this much awaited evocative and heavy new album. (Lucas Chapel)
CHASING DRAGONS
FACTION (SELF-RELEASED)
Fans of Chasing Dragons will recognise a couple of tracks on this offering, their first full length album, as they featured on their Faction: Prologue EP back in 2016. For those who may be unfamiliar with the band what you have is twelve tracks of technical metal coupled with singer Laurie Carnan’s distinct vocals. It’s at times breathtakingly beautiful, as in ‘This Time Is Ours’, and crushingly heavy, as on ‘How The World Went Black’, with Laurie showing all the power in her voice that makes her such a strong performer live. For a debut album it certainly has all the technical prowess and diversity of arena fillers, and it won’t be long before they start to fill the bigger venues. If you can’t wait till the release check out the video for ‘Like Gravity’, out now on YouTube. (Mark Bestford)
SIMON HINKLER MOVING ON
(CORRECTITUDE RECORDS)
Better known as the guitarist in The Mission this isn’t Simon’s first venture into solo music. What we have with Moving On though is a truly introspective piece with
songs written over the many years that he’s worked as a musician and showing the many varied influences that have formed this rock stalwart. It Isn’t You opens the EP with an unmistakable sound that he’s become known for with The Mission. Virginia belies a darker, more gothic influence. Friends is a piano driven feel good moment, with brass counterpoints. It’s very much sounding like early E.L.O. or the more psychedelic era Beatles. ‘What More Do We Know’ pays homage to the 1980’s and David Bowie, with a slow drum and guitar akin to ‘Absolute Beginners’. The last track on the EP, ‘Moving On’, is the slowest, and shortest, track. It’s an eerie piano piece, with a haunting melody. (Mark Bestford)
SHVPES
GREATER THAN (SPINEFARM)
When you hear the tired old cry that there are no new bands coming through of any merit then you just know the person behind them is either stuck in 1980 or they’re deaf. Proof of their misconceptions lie all around and a prime example are Shvpes. Yes they have Griffin Dickinson son of Sir Bruce (maybe one day) on board, but more importantly they also represent not only the now but the future too. Here is a band whose music is as fresh as a cold pint on a scorching hot day. They do fall ever so slightly into the realm of acts such as Bring Me The Horizon, but how is that a bad thing given how well that band are progressing? While venerable old groups continue to be idolised by the masses it’s the new breed such as Shvpes who break new ground. So, the title of their recent and splendid work is ‘Greater Than’, but greater than what? Dare we whisper that in some ways it might be greater than the last record put out by the singer’s father?... (Gary Trueman)
STONE BROKEN AIN’T ALWAYS EASY (SPINEFARM)
It’s been dubbed a New Wave Of Classic Rock by some and having grown up with the likes of Thunder and Little Angels it’s easy to see why. Stone Broken are just one of numerous bands hitting the music scene with an old school radio friendly hard rock. And they have something else in common, they do it bloody well. Rich Moss belies his age, with a remarkably mature sounding voice. The album already has two songs on constant radio rotation, with ‘Worth Fighting For’ and ‘Heartbeat Away’, but it won’t be long before the softer ballads ‘Anyone’ and ‘Home’ make it to the airwaves. It’s a great second album full of huge tracks and if you liked their debut you’ll love this as it perfectly complements as a follow up. (Mark Bestford)
NEW RELEASES WE ARE EXCITED FOR: SOULFLY – RITUAL BEHEMOTH – I LOVED YOU AT YOUR DARKEST SULPHER – NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW SUICIDAL TENDENCIES – STILL CYCO PUNK AFTER ALL THESE YEARS
HELL’S GAZELLES TAKE YOUR MEDICINE
(SELF-RELEASED)
There are few enough bands that you can hear and immediately say “I know this band!” Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Ozzy Osbourne. Hell’s Gazelles? Big riffs, big drums and even bigger vocals. No, not Ozzy, Rob, or Bruce, but Cole Bryant of the Oxfordshire powerhouse, Hell’s Gazelles. With music looking back now at the NWOBHM era this is the perfect time for Hell’s Gazelles to be releasing a new EP. If you ever wanted to know what it would be like to see your favourite metal gods before they became the monstrous behemoths of Download and Bloodstock then look no further. With many of the biggest bands now bowing out their crowns are there for the taking, and Hell’s Gazelles aren’t waiting around to be offered. Cole’s coming for the title of the loudest scream in metal, and nothing is going to get in his way. (Mark Bestford)
CHURCH OF THE COSMIC SKULL SCIENCE FICTION
(BILOCATION / KOZMIK ARTIFACTZ)
Church Of The Cosmic Skull certainly had gargantuan shoes to fill following on from 2016’s ‘Is Satan Real?’ Which I personally and confidentially cited as “the future of British Rock ‘n’ Roll”. Science Fiction continues in the same vain as the previous outing, continuing the story of The Church and their 1970’s style Satanic cult who recognise the hallucinatory nature of reality and investigate all aspects of the reality-hallucinatio. This album has less Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin undertones than previous their album, which at times made you feel like you were teleporting with the devil himself. Sublime usage of gang vocals and melting harmonies really give you a sense of community on this album; at points you feel like you’re there with The Church, time travelling through outer-space. The title track ‘Science Fiction’ is a warm and progressive opening, which is a wonderful amalgamation of intense and soothing all at the same time. ‘Go By The River’ reminds me of The Doors with a bounding 70’s feel to it; it’s definitely going to be a success if they release it as a single. ‘Revolution’ is extremely catchy and
has shades of early Rainbow; whilst ‘Paper Aeroplane & Silver Moon’ is a menacing bliss with John Lord style keyboards, akin to a live Deep Purple number. ‘Cold Sweat’ is my favourite song with an exciting Thin Lizzy and Meatloaf-esque vibe to it, this is one you’ll be humming and singing under your breath for hours! ‘The Cards That You’re Playing’ continues with the trippy journey that this riff heavy album takes you on. Science Fiction is an oddly fantastic blend of hippy and the occult, leading me to nickname this band Fleetwood Macabre for obvious reasons! Church Of The Cosmic Skull are everything that I enjoy about Psychedelic Metal. They’ve really proven their worth with this ideal summer chill out album here; I seriously get the impression that musical tabs weren’t the only ones being passed around when this was being written! (Lucas Chapel)
SHADOW WINDHAWK & THE MORTICIANS FUNERAL CORTEGE
(BLACK FLAME)
The 3rd studio album lands somewhere between Doom Punk and Death Rock, with a tantalising assortment of slow, creepy tracks with Gothic undertones. The album features a touching tribute to the late, great George Romero with ‘Fourteen Mile Tombstone’ and also sheds light on the romantic side to Dracula, referencing the location of Castle Dracula in ‘Borgo Pass’ and also the 1979 Frank Langella masterpiece on ‘Cortege’. The album is somewhat self-indulgent, but that’s a good thing as Windhawk has so much to offer the Horror music scene as he continues to push boundaries in amalgamating the Punk and Gothic sides of his previous two outings; if you enjoyed those you’ll absolutely love this emotive and poignant album. We’ve previously said that Shadow Windhawk has some of the most distinctive vocals in Horror Punk and this is backed up here on ‘Funeral Cortege’, as his looming baritone voice excellently compliments the heavy Death Punk guitars and drums. (Lucas Chapel)
JONATHAN DAVIS
BLACK LABYRINTH (SUMERIAN RECORDS)
We already know through his work with Korn that Jonathan Davis likes to experiment. A founder of the NuMetal movement Davis has teased us in the past, most notably when Skrillex was brought in to add a new dimension to ‘The Path Of Totality’. ‘Black Labyrinth’, although a solo album with clear individual traits is something that will appeal to Korn fans rather than repel them, because that experimentation has the foundations of knowing what works in the band. There are some
givens such as the vocals which are exactly as you would expect. Davis has such a unique singing style that makes it hard for admirers to not like anything he appears on. Here though he uses his skills to great effect, particularly in quieter passages. The difference on this solo record is that the vocals seem to be driven by a range of emotions we don’t often see elsewhere. There’s less angst and more calm. It’s not so much a massive change as a shift in balance, and it works wonderfully well. Musically ‘Black Labyrinth’ is just the right side of adventurous. There’s more than enough to show this is Davis’ brainchild rather than just a Korn offshoot. It’s still part of the same family though so it’ll have a readymade outlet happy to lap up each and every track. The pitfalls are few and far between and when it rocks this album is immense. ‘What It Is’ in particular is a shoe in crowd pleaser. Solo releases from well-known band members often fall flat. This one does the opposite and bodes well for the future for Jonathan Davis. Importantly he is putting this out while remaining with Korn. A smart move from a much respected artist. Almost proving you can have your cake and eat it Black Labyrinth bucks many trends as an outstanding release that fits comfortably within a larger dynamic. Can we have more please? (Gary Trueman)
CHTHONIC
BATTLEFIELDS OF ASURA (SPINEFARM)
With Taiwanese mythos and folk still very much at the heart of their music Chthonic have once again delivered a record that is utterly unlike anything else out there. ‘Battlefields Of Asura’ may well follow a tried and tested formula but it also sees the band push forward in terms of songwriting and arrangement. The use of traditional instruments isn’t just an add on, they never really have been. They’re carefully included with pride, and bring this album to life. Freddie Lim once again manages to be ever so slightly unhinged while at the same time seemingly in control, well almost. When you’re on your ninth studio album it’s expected you’ll deliver something that is mature and well produced and ‘Battlefields Of Asura’ is definitely that. What Chthonic have done is craft something that goes above and beyond expectations though, they’ve produced a work of art. (Gary Trueman)
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DEVOLUTION MAGAZINE 29
HT SPOTLIG
My Home Town MR STRANGE
This issue we’ve decided to go not for just a town but an entire island, the Isle Of Wight to be precise. And we can’t think of anyone better than Devolution favourite Mr Strange to give us the lowdown on what’s hot and what’s not. You might think the quiet island life and an alternative musical artist might clash but it seems not. Gary Trueman spoke to Mr Strange about living on this little piece of English paradise. We know people can get blasé about where they live but is there anywhere on the Isle Of Wight that you think locals are genuinely proud of? “Not a specific place, but I’d have to say it’d probably be the coastline. It’s incredibly scenic, and where the Island is so small everyone has access to it, it makes summers here very pleasant.” Do you have a favourite place to hang out with friends? “You’re asking the wrong person there, I’m incredibly introverted so don’t socialise much! The only time I hang out with friends is at a show or having a few beers at one of our houses.” What about food? Are there any places you love to eat at? What is their speciality? “One of the few thing the Isle of Wight has a lot of, aside from retirement homes, are pubs and restaurants with great food. There’s so many it’s honestly hard to pick just one. The White Mouse, Blacksmith Arms and Red Lion all do excellent food, but you could just pick any one eatery at random and probably have a great meal.”
By Gary Trueman
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Do you have a venue you love to go to, or to play at? Are there any venues a bit off the beaten track, tucked away, that put great music on? “Strings in Newport has hands down the best sound system on the Isle of Wight. Coburgs and The King Lud in Ryde are both quite lively venues. The music scene, along with the number of venues, is quite small, so you’ll see the same bands play at the same venues, there isn’t really a hidden venue as the scene isn’t big enough to support many of them. There’s a venue in
Newport called 1st Floor that has a nice vibe, they have an N64 gaming corner which I think is awesome!” What’s the thing you love most about the Isle Of Wight? “For a person who likes to keep to themselves, it’s easily the peace and quiet. You’ll either love it or it’ll drive you mad, different strokes for different folks!” And the thing that you dislike the most about the Island? “The lack of a bridge to the mainland! God damn, it’s not easy being in a band and living on the Isle of Wight, I tell thee! The ferry costs are extortionate and you have no choice but to pay up. That means you either get into debt by playing mainland shows or ask for more money to cover expenses, which doesn’t always go over well with venues and promoters! We make it work though, somehow.” Do you have a special place you like to go to? Maybe somewhere not well known but special to you? “I live on the edge of a cliff so am very lucky to have a beach at the bottom of my garden. I spend quite a bit of time there in the summer months. Unfortunately a large chunk of my garden fell in to the sea a few months ago so it’s a bit of a mess down there at the moment, but it’s slowly washing out to sea so is becoming usable again. I also used to really like going to the ruins of Atherfield Camp Site. We shot a few music videos there but they’ve flattened it now, probably to build some more retirement homes! There’s
also the area around St. Catherine’s Lighthouse, a beautiful place that only locals seem to know about, there’s a tiny little village down there that’s been abandoned for years due to landslips.” Do you have a special memory of the Isle Of Wight you’d like to share with us? “I’ve lived here all my life so nearly every memory I have is somehow linked to the Isle of Wight, I really can’t think of anything that anyone would be interested in hearing though. Going for scenic walks as a kid, they’re pretty good memories, but not very exciting to read about!” Sell the Isle Of Wight to Devolution readers, why should they visit if they get a chance? “It’s a beautiful part of Great Britain, so if you enjoy nature and rambling (walking, not talking nonsense incessantly) it’s one of the best places to visit. The coastline is incredible and it has some lovely bays and beaches. It’s excellent for eating out, there’s so many places to go, I’ve lived here all my life and have only been to about a quarter of them. There’s a few family oriented attractions here, but it’s easily more suited to adults, especially if you’re looking for some peace and quiet away from the big smoke.” mrstrangemedia.com facebook.com/Official.Mr.Strange By Gary Trueman facebook.com/gtruemanBYHO
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pitchshifter ~ Exclusive Interview ~
Known as one of the founding fathers of industrial metal Pitchshifter must be regarded as a band way ahead of their time. Their use of drum machines and fusion of electronica and metal paved the way for many of today’s acts. With dark social commentary a strong part of the band lyrics their timing for a series of reunion shows in the UK could not be better. Devolution had an exclusive chat to singer and band founder JS Clayden. Up for discussion was the forthcoming anniversary tour, what they’ve been up to the past decade whilst hibernating and who would play who in a film.
Nickie Hobbs & Gary Trueman
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(yet totally understandably), he can’t help our motley crew of survivors patch up the Millennium Falcon for one last trip around the void. And so, the line-up will be as follows • JS Clayden: Vocals • MD Clayden: Bass Guitar • Dan Rayner: Lead Guitar • Tim Rayner: Rhythm Guitar • Si Hutchby: Drums • Hal 9000: Samples In terms of a reintroduction: we’ve been around for more years than we’d care to (or most likely actually can) remember. We’re a UK band that made 10 or so albums, toured in 25+ countries, we were in 2000AD once, on some magazine covers, in crop circles, had stage invasions, got banned a few times, much loved by some, much hated by others—still have most of our own teeth.” So you have decided to get the band back together for a select string of dates in November this year to commemorate twenty years of the www.pitchshifter.com album – was this always on the cards? Had it been planned a while ago then set in stone? It’s also 25 years since Desensitized came out. Was this also in your minds? “With band members living in different cities on two continents, as well as the fact that we’re (allegedly) grown-ups now with children of our own (may The Universe help them), although we’d spoken of playing some shows together over the last decade, it was by no means set in stone. However, now that I’ve finally catalogued all of those species of rare butterflies I captured in the Congo in the west wing of my library, there’s time to kick it live. I can’t even read your comment about Desensitized being 25 years ago—that’s just insane.” You guys have always had a dark dry sense of humour and releasing the news of the tour via social media on April 01st – April fool’s Day of this year just seemed so apt for Pitchshifter – was this also intentional? “I cannot believe that forthright and beloved pillars of the community such as we would ever be spuriously accused of anything so unashamedly mischievous.” Who will be playing live for this tour? And for any readers that need reminding or for those that may not know who you are – give us a brief reintroduction to yourselves. “The band’s core line up is still Claydens and Rayners (shirts vs. skins). Unfortunately, Jason Bowld couldn’t join us. We love Jason, but he got a real job with a big band during our hiatus. And so, sadly 34 DEVOLUTION MAGAZINE
Back in the day you were added to festivals and bills with major acts that were storming the Metal and Industrial scene, but you always held your own and gained a respect and a dedicated following because you did things your way and practiced what you preached – how do you think you guys would fair in the current scene? “We decided not to write any pukemaking ballads for the cash. The band was more of an art/politico collection of like-minded individuals, and, although money is fabulous (and I condone its squandering wholeheartedly), it wasn’t really Pitchshifter’s core focus. Regarding the current scene, I have no idea how we’d fare. Let me pop my heart pills, put out my pipe and stick my reading glasses on to do some research on WTF Gen Z likes.” What exactly have you guys been up to for the last decade? I recently read that you stated you had been ‘up to no good’ – can you elaborate on this? Ha-ha “I read somewhere that we were developing a plan to upend the MilitaryIndustry Complex by reducing the world’s population to a manageable 500 million and redistributing wealth and power to the great plebeian horde of unwashed hoi polloi via political back channelling, skulduggery, simony, usury, sedition, partisan miscreantism, and collective double-agent ne’er-do-welling of an inexorable yet stunningly cunning nature. However, I am unable to confirm these reports at this juncture.” I (Nickie) remember how brutal the mosh pits would get - at festivals – at support gigs and the ones at your own headlining shows were just so
fierce and so full of passion. I have seen people break bones and noses at them and yet somehow they always seemed so cathartic. How in shape are you guys for this tour? People are going to want to feel this free and wild again when listening to those songs – are you guys ready? “We are 100% in shape to play from the safety of the stage and watch in awe as people our age attempt to massacre each other in the pit as if we were all still 25. To accomplish this, we’ve undertaken a strict and exacting regime of repetitive eye exercises that should see us through the tour.” You have stated in a Q & A posted online recently that you won’t be releasing any new material in the future—why? “We’re just not in the place to work on new material. The focus of this tour is to connect with those that have an affinity for the music and beliefs that held the band and fans together. Sadly, many of our number have gone. Our old sound man and agent unfortunately both lost cancer battles, and our merch guy was tragically killed. However, many of us are still here (despite battles of our own). We’re just coming together as we felt the time was right for us. The haters can hate; but the appreciators know what’s what—and we’ll have a great time sharing our connection with the faithful. The core focus is to connect, respect, and enjoy. Stay home if that’s not right for you.” You guys have chosen Earthtone9 and The Blueprint to support you on specific nights of the five date tour – why these guys and what can the crowd look forward to? “Why would we not choose Earthtone9 and The Blueprint!? Two awesome Nottingham bands to rock it with us and bring this damn thing home! (Didn’t someone even name a festival after Earthtone9’s Arc-Tan-Gent album? http://www.arctangent.co.uk/) I think that the closer at Nottingham Rock City will be madness. It will be the last night of the last time that I envision these three Nottingham bands will be playing their home town together (I assume some of us may have croaked another decade hence). Although, of course, Pitchshifter respects and appreciates its fans in every location (our socials show fans travelling from Europe and the USA for this tour—which is amazing, much respect), there’s something special about playing again after a decade with three bands from your home town, and closing that tour in your home town. I don’t want to give the game away, but
“ Now that I’ve finally catalogued all of those species of rare butterflies I captured in the Congo in the west wing of my library, there’s time to kick it live. I can’t even read your comment about ‘Desensitized’being 25 years ago — that’s just insane.”~ JS Clayden were currently scheming on a few things to merch man, Darryl, when we took an extended break. Which, caused him make the Nottingham gig special.” to take a job on the road with another outfit, which led to his murder. JS Clayden – although you emigrated • Signing to Earache to Los Angeles a few years back you • Fighting with my brother after a always had an open issue and were particularly terrible show in Ireland” very desensitised with the political system and the way that the country Twenty years later and that record was run – as many of us do of course still sounds so timeless, unique and which inspired some damn fine tracks relevant with those heavy guitars, from the EP including the anthem ‘Unbreakbeats and dirty bass beats. United Kingdom’ which went down an What was and is it about www. absolute storm at Metallica’s Big Day pitchshifter.com that as a record has Out on the Kerrang! Stage at Milton stood the test of time and remains Keynes Bowl in 1999. In 2018 how do a firm favourite in a lot of people’s you feel about the system now? Are collections? you still politically charged? “Well, as a wholly subjective art form, “I think that our elected officials are doing it’s challenging for me to tell you why a wonderful job and that the entire planet that record resonates with others; is just peachy. What could go wrong?” however, from my personal perspective, I just think that it was so different to What do you miss the most and the what was around at the time that it least about living in the UK? And what’s the best and worst the USA has struck a chord. That record was a lot of fun to make, and I still can’t believe that to offer? we did it on an Atari 520ST with a few “Regarding the UK: I miss the history, Akai S1000 samplers.” architecture, humour, friends, and the ability for the common man to come Which of the songs from the “.com” together to help those in need. I do not album are you really looking forward miss the weather or food. Regarding the to bringing to life again on the tour USA: I like the food, weather, the inherent in November? currency of my accent, and the ability to create and present yourself as you wish to “As a waxed-moustached, polymath, renaissance man, I like the classics: be seen. I dislike Trump, the Republican ‘Microwaved’, ‘Please Sir’ and ‘Genius’.” Party in general, guns, the healthcare system, evangelical Christianity, and the If you could play God for a day – who inability to put the emPHAsis on the right would you make an Angel and who sylLAble.” would you send to Hell? And why? When you think of your career and look “Man created heaven because he was afraid to die. The ongoing idiocy of back, what three things do you fondly those centuries-old fair-tale creation remember and which three things do myths (and accompanying bigotry, you look back at with gritted teeth? ignorance, delusion and hatred) has “Fondness: that’s a tough question, as limped on to the present day. And so, we did tons of amazing things over the not to be Debbie downer, but I’ll skip years, but to criminally boil it down to me this question on principal. Humans don’t personally: need gods.” • Our first van tour of Europe • Being shot at by Judge Dread in a copy of Pitchshifter are back live on stage 2000AD again later this year. But if someone • Headlining two nights at the Astoria wanted to make a film of the band who would be the best actors to play Gritted teeth-ness: I, personally, made each band member and why? innumerable mistakes in my youthful “Some of these are characters not exuberance to find my place in the world and so this list would need to be as long as actors, and I can’t give the reasons as to why I chose them (on the advice your arm, but, in the précis: of my legal team), but here are my • Not having enough work to give to our
suggestions: • JS: Brad Pitt • Mark: Derek Smalls • Dan: Goro • Tim: Ryan Gosling • Jason: Animal (from Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem)* * This also applies to Si (or any rock drummer, really)” Would you like to take this opportunity to say something to the fans coming to see you this year? “Firstly, if you’re in a band and want a chance to open for us, we’ve partnered with Waterbear Music College UK (www. waterbear.io) to give away all of the first-on slots for all of the tour dates. We see this as our chance to support up-and-coming local talent. And so, for a chance to open at one of the Pitchshifter 2018 tour shows, up-andcoming local bands should send a track, video link, and short bio to: mycareer@ wbear.io before September 30th, 2018. Good luck to you all and we look forward to sharing a stage with the winners. Lastly, on behalf of the band, families, and crew, I would like to state to all fans that we greatly appreciate your ongoing support, encouragement, and partnership in this crazy thing called Pitchshifter. We never thought that we’d be playing music this long (or even be alive, in some cases), but we couldn’t have done it without all of you nut-jobs egging us on. We’re looking forward to sharing some great shows with you on the November tour, and I encourage everyone to bring positive vibes, a love of music, and compassion for their fellow revellers. See you down the front.” TOUR DATES 2018 Mon 19 Nov The Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth Tue 20 Nov Academy, Manchester Wed 21 Nov SWX Bristol, Bristol Thu 22 & Fri 23 Nov The Garage, London Sat 24 Nov Rock City, Nottingham
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BUTCHER BABIES With latest album ‘Lilith’ wowing fans and critics alike the Butcher Babies are on a roll right now. Their live shows gaining them a reputation as one of the hottest acts around with circle pit mayhem and fun the order of the day. The band have come a long way and overcome many obstacles in the eight years they’ve been together. Gary Trueman sat down for a chat with Heidi Shepherd and Carla Harvey. Up for discussion was the latest record, reaching a wider audience and being best friends in a band together. You’ve described ‘Lilith’ as a kind of rebirth moment for the band. Do you feel the momentum created in eight years of what you’ve been doing is now beginning to pay off? Heidi: “Definitely. I think that one thing that Lilith has shown is that we have eight years of growth and we’re growing into our own skin as a band. We’re more mature and it’s a rebirth too because we had our first member change too right before this album (Chase Brickenden replacing Chris Warner on drums) and things became a little bit different. Any time you add a new element to any sort of band things change. It’s was actually really refreshing and really positive. Chase adds a lot to our band as you can hear on the album and at live shows. The past eight years are paying off but there’s still eight more years after this. But by then we’ll be full blown adults, ha-ha.
Gary Trueman
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‘Lilith’ has your trademark intensity but it’s a lot more diverse. You said you have a new band member which has made things different. Is it a case too that you are looking to explore a bit too? Carla: “I think it’s just a case of us wanting to explore the things that we grew up on and the things that we’re all interested in. People say it’s a much more diverse album. I think it’s better than anything else we’ve done but we’ve always had different types of songs on each album. We’ve always had singing and screaming. I think the diversity has always been there but I think now the songs are better so people notice it even more. It was really fun for Heidi and I to harmonise more than ever on this album as well.” H: “From the beginning of our career we’ve always been like we’re metal chicks and we’re gonna scream and as time has gone on we have a lot to sing about too. I think that having to prove yourselves as metal
chicks is the dumbest thing ever. We can sing and we can scream and one or the other doesn’t make you metal or not. On this album we opened up our minds to vocal harmonies and writing about subjects we hadn’t written about before and opening ourselves up to different writing techniques and it’s really paid off.” It probably means you’re opening yourselves up to new topics too. Obviously you write from personal experiences. So you can do dark stuff and are we going to see lighter subjects too? C: “I think we have seen lighter. I mean the song Pomona is not necessarily a light subject but it is lighter. It’s about emotional turmoil, going out and getting drunk with your friends and the light hearted fun and turmoil that ensues. The car broke down and we can’t get home blah blah blah, so it’s fun stuff. Butcher Babies is light hearted and we’re funny people.” H: “For us we also like to story tell which you can hear a lot on all of our albums. From ‘Goliath’ where we had ‘Grim Sleeper’ about a serial killer and we had ‘I Smell a Massacre’ which was about an infamous school shooting. Then on the last album ‘Take It like a Man’, ‘The Butcher’ was a spinoff of this story of a kid who was obsessed with the TV show Dexter. He ended up chopping up his girlfriend in the same way Dexter did. We like to story tell and research different stories. Like the song ‘Lilith’, it’s the classic tale of Lady Bathory, a mix of her and the Queen of Hearts. It’s cool for us to be able to do that and really dive in. It’s like a school. We love learning.” So you’re almost performing a live history lesson?
H: “Oh my, I’ve never even thought about that. Hey if you want your kids home schooled we’re available.” The first single and video from ‘Lilith’, ‘Headspin’, and a lot of people commented that it was a brave move putting that out. You actually felt confident to broach the sex subject. Was that good to get that out? C: “I think it’s good to be at a point in your career when you feel confident that you can do whatever you want to do and say whatever you want to say and we’re so lucky that we have a fan base that allows us to be who we are.” H: “Any time you hold yourself back from talking about or expressing natural human instincts then it can take away from you as an artist. For us it opened up the door to so many other things, not just the subject but also the popness of that chorus. It’s just pop and we grew up loving metal. We’re both metal heads but we don’t discriminate in our music. I love me a good pop song sometimes. So it was fun for us to write something in that vein as well.” You’ve toured ‘’ extensively in the US but we’re speaking just before the first UK date. So how has it gone stateside? C: “Our last run in the States supporting ‘Lilith’ was awesome. We were on tour with Hollywood Undead for two and a half months so it was a long one. It’s hard for bands to go out for that long and you’re missing everyone at home. Things can fall to pieces with a tour that long but we all hold each other in the highest regard and we’re all friends, we keep our bonds strong. It was especially fun because we went out with a band that is not like us at all.”
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We usually play to metal fans which is awesome but at the same time we want to branch out and get new fans and we totally did that with Hollywood Undead.” H: “It’s good to see if you can appeal to other audiences and it was really fun. Our fans showed up in full force. It was so cool because before the album came out they were singing along to ‘Pomona’ and someone told us they had seen it on YouTube. So our fan base had gone on to YouTube and listened to the new song and then they would come along to a show and sing along. It was mind blowing for us. It was so cool. It’s hard though going out every night and having to win over a whole bunch of people. It’s a terrifying thing because there are people who are going to be like ‘what is this? I didn’t come here to hear girls screaming at me’. Then there are others in the crowd that are like ‘I didn’t know I liked metal’. It was a mix of emotions every night.” That was a long tour so presumably you had to look after your voices? C: “We always do. At least when you’re supporting another band it’s not a full hour and a half. We were doing about 45 minutes a night, which is still challenging, but not as hard as headlining every single night. This run will be more challenging because we’re playing six nights in a row for pretty much the whole run and the acoustic sets, and we’re playing a full 38 DEVOLUTION MAGAZINE
throttle show every night. You’ve got to drink water, you’ve got to get some sleep, and you’ve got to drink tea.” H: “We’ve been touring for six years now. Your voice is like a muscle. The more you work it the easier it is to jump right in and for it to perform well.” You’re like sisters on the road. You’re very tight together. So what are each other’s best traits? C: “Heidi’s best trait is loyalty but she has so many. We’ve been friends for so long. I respect her as an artist, I respect her as an athlete. She’s a loyal friend. I respect her opinion. She’s pretty much the first person, like the other day I had an incident and Heidi was an hour from where I was. I called her and said I need you to come and get me right now and she came to get me no questions asked, and she had a hangover. I don’t think to call someone else when I need something desperately.” H: “It’s the same thing for me. I’ve never had a friend that has allowed me to really be myself in all aspects like Carla does. Even my bad vices she’ll help me work through. She’s been able to talk me through things that no one else has been able to. I have two sisters and three brothers and we’re closer than I am with any of my siblings. Also Carla works hard. When we started this we were very green and there’s a lot of hard
work and growth that has to happen. It wouldn’t have been the same with anybody else. She inspires me to work hard through her art. It’s nice to be in a band with my best friend.” If you could travel back in time what would you say to a 16 year old each other? C: “I think that I would just tell her to ignore all the bullshit in her life. Keep writing, keep singing, and keep doing what you love because one day you’re going to find your purpose.” H: “I think it’s hard not to say the same thing but I know that for her she was getting, as a bi-racial female in Detroit, and saying you’re a heavy metal fan, it’s a difficult thing. The African American girls want you to like their music and be with them and then the white kids too. It’s very racially divided there. I would just tell her like she said, ignore the bullshit. Love what you live and don’t be afraid to be who you are. Shine like a bright star because someday all that bullshit will fade.” butcherbabiesofficial.com facebook.com/butcherbabies Interview & Photos By: Gary Trueman facebook.com/gtruemanBYHO
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HT SPOTLIG
PHAZE CLOTHING This summer we were completely inspired by the unique, distinctive and classic infused styles of punk designs which are available from veteran alt fashion label Phaze Clothing. The Phaze alternative Punk collection incorporates new futuristic cyber designs in unique glossy vinyl PVC designs. You can choose Phaze retro styled Punk clothing featuring metallic detailing including zippers, D rings and spiked studs. They also stock plaid and tartan dresses, bondage trousers and tops, alongside their extensive vinyl PVC gloss clothing range.
Wearing Phaze threads gives you an alternative edge! Based in the North of England Jackie and her team are proudly celebrating 25 years of designing, retailing and wholesaling all aspects of alternative clothing and accessories this year and if you head to the website and check out the plethora of items and ranges on offer you will see for yourself why they continue to be innovative alt fashion leaders.
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PHOTOSHOOT CREDITS: Gary Trueman Photography facebook.com/gtruemanBYHO Natalie Thornton – Headstone Horrors facebook.com/HeadstoneHorrors Fenrah Elizabeth Real facebook.com/Fenrah.Alesari Ruby Alexia - Fleisch facebook.com/Fleischband
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Lloyd Kaufman
What is the story behind your penname Samuel Weil? “It was my grandfather’s name. I was in the Directors Union which is a place where it’s all white men, prodigies, their sons etc. It’s a closed shop. I worked on movies like Saturday Night fever and Rocky which was sort of my film school so I needed my union status. Taking jobs on union movies helped pay the rent, I couldn’t use my real name for Troma so I would direct films like “Squeeze Play” as Samuel Weil. Film was supposed to be an art form and this is how I could do that. At a point the Directors Guild of America had too many expensive directors on their books and they created this a fear of communism because if you could smear someone and say they were a communist, you could kick them out and ruin their lives. The DGoA and the people who ran it were very instrumental in this way. Eventually the unions came after me, accusing me of the crime of being an artist so I just quit and used my own name.” Did you feel leaving had a negative or positive effect on you? “I graduated Yale and come from a bourgeois background so the union killed any chance I had of becoming a mainstream director. It pretty much fucked my career, I hate the union but I’m not upset because I create my art. In fact, my wife was New York State Film Commissioner for approx. 20 years (she was appointed by both Democrat and Republican governors). She says the modern-day Directors Guild is very ashamed that they don’t have me among the ranks, I’m probably the most influential director who is not! Maybe they made a mistake? They think they did. They’ve changed the rules a bit now, it’s no longer a crime to direct a non ‘directors’ movie. There’s still only 2 women out of all the men but its progress.”
In 1984 The Toxic Avenger, a not so conventional superhero, was born and is now a cult favourite of the modern-day film buff. “Toxie” became an icon in the B Horror Movie world and behind the radioactive waste and gore is the educated, artistic and brilliantly unique mind of Lloyd Kaufman. For nearly five decades Kaufman has brought the grotesque, colourful and political onto our screens with an abundance of films and a multitude of talents. Cofounding Troma Entertainment with producer Michael Herz, Troma has now gained title of longest running independent film company of all time. A true legend of the cinema subculture, Lloyd Kaufman talks to us about the Tromaville superstars, Shakespeare, “fascist” film festivals and his love-hate relationship with the film industry. 44 DEVOLUTION MAGAZINE
With your background at Yale, majoring in Chinese studies, how on earth did you end up directing? “In freshman year, they put me in a bedroom with a guy who was a movie fanatic and ran Yale’s Film Society. Out of curiosity I would drift in and watch movies several times a week. At that time, I didn’t know what a film director was, I’d never thought about it! I started to get very excited about film in the same way as a child I was excited by Broadway musicals, Victor Van Gogh, Picasso, Benny Goodman and so on. I didn’t know this art form. I was really going to be a teacher or a social worker. Maybe teach bums how to paint happy faces on beads. You know… it was the 1960s; peace, love and hippies. Our beds were head to toe and at night I’d inhale his “Jean Luc Godard” stinking feet and the aroma to Troma. I
also speak fluent French and would read Notebooks of Cinema (La Revue) which was the magazine of La Cinémathèque française. Reading through those, I realised the writers were transitioning from journalists to film makers. They say a movie should be a product of the soul brain and heart and I bought into that. I read that the director should be the author of the movie, and I brainwashed myself with the Auteur Theory so when I finished college had two opportunities for work, to go to California working on Owl and The Pussy Cat or to New York working for Cannon. I took acid/LSD and on that trip, I worked for the shitty little company in New York because I thought it would help me stop conforming and buying into the Hollywood system. What I didn’t quite figure out was that I might have to live in refrigerator carton and eat dog food but what you going to do? I’ve been lucky and managed to make a name for myself.” Did your Chinese studies influence your film making at all? “Actually, the one regret I have was never making a movie in China. When I got out of college I dreamed of making a movie in china, it was my ambition. I’ve been there about 10 times, I’ve even had retrospectives there. They were going to give their people and artist’s freedom to express but they’ve gone the way of genocidal dictatorship and we’re fucked now. I’m never going to go there again.” You have been a big influence on a number of major players/directors in the film industry. Who would you say has made an impact/inspired you in your work? “Yes, but I got obsessed with movies in the 1960’s so these were film makers of the earlier periods; Rossellini from Italy, Mizoguchi from japan, John Ford, Howard Hawks and Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, Stan Brakhage’s experimental movies, all those guys! These film makers I practice my career on, even though the movies I make have nothing to do with them. You can see plenty of Chaplin and Buster for sure in my work, not to mention The Three Stooges, WB cartoons etc. There’s a big range of people who all very much inspired me. I bought into the Auteur Theory of film making and that pretty much doomed my career (laughs). I had no interest in making movies like Infinity War etc. As good as it may be, it’s not in my wheel house, I prefer much more personal film making.” Most will know you from Class of Nuke ‘Em High, Tromeo and Juliet and the iconic Toxic Avenger. Did
you ever think “Toxie” would have the cult following he does today? “You see, every movie I make I believe in. I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t believe in them. I spent 7 years on Return to Nuke ‘em High and Return to Return to Nuke ‘Em High A.K.A Volume 2. I take them seriously and I know these movies are important, unfortunately nobody else knows it! If one person knows it, that’s good enough for me. Actually, after many years the museum of modern art premiered Nuke ‘Em High Volume 1. They’ve had a bill of Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Sofia Coppola, the Coen Brothers and Lloyd Kaufman so that was a big deal for us. After all these years, Troma was recognised as a serious film company, the art world had come around. We still don’t make any money but we are finally getting some recognition. Its Troma’s 44th year, we are the longest running independent movie company in history. The industry is a cartel and monopoly so most don’t last longer than a couple of years. The industry is a cartel and monopoly so most don’t last longer than a couple of years but I know in the fullness of time people are going to love us, we just haven’t had much mainstream appreciation or revenue.” Your films have many creative and colourful characters unforgettable, what inspired the Tromaville world? “When I was in Yale I hung out a bit at the Andy Warhol Factory, I was a big fan of his and of breaking the 4th wall (like Bertolt Brecht). His factory and his community lead to Tromaville. We have a little building in New York and are more underground and cult than Warhol but I think we are an inherited of his special community. Like Andy Warhol we had interesting personalities who we put in our movies, not necessarily professional actors. We don’t use stars, we create them. There are many unusually colourful people in our movies, for example the late Joe Fleishaker was our 500-pound action hero, or Lemmy from Motorhead was in our movies even if he’s not the best actor he has got that magical energy, same with Stan Lee who is also in a lot of our movies. In the same way the Warhol “superstars” had a personal charisma rather than an acting charisma. In a large part, Tromaville is descendant from Warhol but not nearly as successful. We are also descendant from Roger Corman, who I admire greatly as a director, he is one of the alltime great American film makers.” You have had cameos in a lot of films, including your own am I right?
DEVOLUTION MAGAZINE 45
HT SPOTLIG What is the story behind your pen-name Samuel Weil? “It was my grandfather’s name. I was in the Directors Union which is a place where it’s all white men, prodigies, their sons etc. It’s a closed shop. I worked on movies like Saturday Night fever and Rocky which was sort of my film school so I needed my union status. Taking jobs on union movies helped pay the rent, I couldn’t use my real name for Troma so I would direct films like “Squeeze Play” as Samuel Weil. Film was supposed to be an art form and this is how I could do that. At a point the Directors Guild of America had too many expensive directors on their books and they created this a fear of communism because if you could smear someone and say they were a communist, you could kick them out and ruin their lives. The DGoA and the people who ran it were very instrumental in this way. Eventually the unions came after me, accusing me of the crime of being an artist so I just quit and used my own name.” Did you feel leaving had a negative or positive effect on you? “I graduated Yale and come from a bourgeois background so the union killed any chance I had of becoming a mainstream director. It pretty much fucked my career, I hate the union but I’m not upset because I create my art. In fact, my wife was New York State Film Commissioner for approx. 20 years (she was appointed by both Democrat and Republican governors). She says the modern-day Directors Guild is very ashamed that they don’t have me among the ranks, I’m probably the most influential director who is not! Maybe they made a mistake? They think they did. They’ve changed the rules a bit now, it’s no longer a crime to direct a non ‘directors’ movie. There’s still only 2 women out of all the men but its progress.” With your background at Yale, majoring in Chinese studies, how on earth did you end up directing? “In freshman year, they put me in a bedroom with a guy who was a movie fanatic and ran Yale’s Film Society. Out of curiosity I would drift in and watch movies several times a week. At that time, I didn’t know what a film director was, I’d never thought about it! I started to get very excited about film in the same way as a child I was excited by Broadway musicals, Victor Van Gogh, Picasso, Benny Goodman and so on. I didn’t know this art form. I was really going to be a teacher or a social worker. Maybe teach bums how to paint happy faces on beads. You know… it was the 1960s; peace, love and hippies. Our beds were head to toe and at night I’d 46 DEVOLUTION MAGAZINE
inhale his “Jean Luc Godard” stinking feet and the aroma to Troma. I also speak fluent French and would read Notebooks of Cinema (La Revue) which was the magazine of La Cinémathèque française. Reading through those, I realised the writers were transitioning from journalists to film makers. They say a movie should be a product of the soul brain and heart and I bought into that. I read that the director should be the author of the movie, and I brainwashed myself with the Auteur Theory so when I finished college had two opportunities for work, to go to California working on Owl and The Pussy Cat or to New York working for Cannon. I took acid/LSD and on that trip, I worked for the shitty little company in New York because I thought it would help me stop conforming and buying into the Hollywood system. What I didn’t quite figure out was that I might have to live in refrigerator carton and eat dog food but what you going to do? I’ve been lucky and managed to make a name for myself.” Did your Chinese studies influence your film making at all? “Actually, the one regret I have was never making a movie in China. When I got out of college I dreamed of making a movie in china, it was my ambition. I’ve been there about 10 times, I’ve even had retrospectives there. They were going to give their people and artist’s freedom to express but they’ve gone the way of genocidal dictatorship and we’re fucked now. I’m never going to go there again.” You have been a big influence on a number of major players/directors in the film industry. Who would you say has made an impact/inspired you in your work? “Yes, but I got obsessed with movies in the 1960’s so these were film makers of the earlier periods; Rossellini from Italy, Mizoguchi from japan, John Ford, Howard Hawks and Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, Stan Brakhage’s experimental movies, all those guys! These film makers I practice my career on, even though the movies I make have nothing to do with them. You can see plenty of Chaplin and Buster for sure in my work, not to mention The Three Stooges, WB cartoons etc. There’s a big range of people who all very much inspired me. I bought into the Auteur Theory of film making and that pretty much doomed my career (laughs). I had no interest in making movies like Infinity War etc. As good as it may be, it’s not in my wheel house, I prefer much more personal film making.”
Most will know you from Class of Nuke ‘Em High, Tromeo and Juliet and the iconic Toxic Avenger. Did you ever think “Toxie” would have the cult following he does today? “You see, every movie I make I believe in. I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t believe in them. I spent 7 years on Return to Nuke ‘em High and Return to Return to Nuke ‘Em High A.K.A Volume 2. I take them seriously and I know these movies are important, unfortunately nobody else knows it! If one person knows it, that’s good enough for me. Actually, after many years the museum of modern art premiered Nuke ‘Em High Volume 1. They’ve had a bill of Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Sofia Coppola, the Coen Brothers and Lloyd Kaufman so that was a big deal for us. After all these years, Troma was recognised as a serious film company, the art world had come around. We still don’t make any money but we are finally getting some recognition. Its Troma’s 44th year, we are the longest running independent movie company in history. The industry is a cartel and monopoly so most don’t last longer than a couple of years. The industry is a cartel and monopoly so most don’t last longer than a couple of years but I know in the fullness of time people are going to love us, we just haven’t had much mainstream appreciation or revenue.” Your films have many creative and colourful characters unforgettable, what inspired the Tromaville world? “When I was in Yale I hung out a bit at the Andy Warhol Factory, I was a big fan of his and of breaking the 4th wall (like Bertolt Brecht). His factory and his community lead to Tromaville. We have a little building in New York and are more underground and cult than Warhol but I think we are an inherited of his special community. Like Andy Warhol we had interesting personalities who we put in our movies, not necessarily professional actors. We don’t use stars, we create them. There are many unusually colourful people in our movies, for example the late Joe Fleishaker was our 500-pound action hero, or Lemmy from Motorhead was in our movies even if he’s not the best actor he has got that magical energy, same with Stan Lee who is also in a lot of our movies. In the same way the Warhol “superstars” had a personal charisma rather than an acting charisma. In a large part, Tromaville is descendant from Warhol but not nearly as successful. We are also descendant from Roger Corman, who I admire greatly as a director, he is one of the alltime great American film makers.” You have had cameos in a lot of
By Alice Bizarre
mammothfest gallery
The Boulet Brothers 48 DEVOLUTION MAGAZINE
‘Dragula’ is the horror themed sensation that has ripped apart mainstream friendly drag. The show focuses on the darker dimensions to drag exploring filth, horror, punk and the political whilst maintaining glamour and showmanship. Born out of underground shows, Dragula keeps its nightlife essence giving viewers access to the shocking and unashamedly honest world behind the drag performance. Created and hosted by The Boulet Brothers (individually called Dracmorda & Swanthula), these two are a visual and creative treat known for their nightlife productions, homages to the cult horror scene and parallel looks. With Season 3 of Dragula on the way, The Boulet Brothers talk to us about how it all began, extreme elimination challenges and what gender and drag means to them.
DEVOLUTION MAGAZINE 49
The second season of “Boulet Brothers Dragula” has now finished and casting is open for your third season, how do you feel you’ve progressed as a show? SWAN: “The show is just getting bigger and bigger – it’s really the same show, concept and basic idea but the budget, cast, sets, challenges, guests and décor are growing exponentially.” What do you look for in your Queens, and what do you avoid? S: “We look for talent, toughness, drive and star quality. We believe that you have to have a thick skin, inner strength and knowledge to stand out and make a difference in the world today, so those are the qualities we try to pull out and develop in our contestants.” DRAC: “As far as what we avoid we frown on whiners, and people who think change in the world comes from simply complaining on the internet. Ultimately, we would like our stars to be able to go out into the world and inspire others. We want them to be able to go out and have difficult conversations with people that may not agree with them and hopefully inspire change in people.“ One thing that’s really stood out in the first season was how much it had a backstage nightclub feel. Was this an intentional progression from your live show? S: “Yes, the show is based off of a club event and live pageant that many of the girls in the first season had competed in (and won). We as the Boulet Brothers are nightlife producers, so the whole premise of the show is that we are looking to train and crown a queen who can thrive in a nightclub environment. That being said, using the club as a set only seemed fitting.” D: “It was absolutely not because we did not have a budget for the first season and had no choice but to shoot it in a club. That is also why the sound was bad. We wanted you to feel like you were in a club where you can barely hear anyone.” Which one of you came up with the idea of making the show into a programme? D: “It was mutual (cough Dracmorda)..” The second season includes lots more cinematic scenes, with lots of references to horror and cult classic films. How do you decide on the themes of the challenges? S: “We just run with what inspires us!” If budget was no question, is there a specific film or theme you would love to create? D: “It would be great to take the queens to 50 DEVOLUTION MAGAZINE
a snowed in, arctic hotel for a season like in The Shining and see who survived in spring when the snow thawed.”
have queer punk energy, but it’s more queercore, hairy young guys making out kind of drunk, wild vibe.”
Some of the extermination challenges are not for the faint heart, especially episode one in season 2! Do you ever worry about the contestants refusing or even there being legal issues? D: “No because if they refused to participate they would be exterminated on the spot. The producers go over it all so thoroughly time and time again before we shoot – the contestants know exactly what they are signing up for and ultimately, we aren’t making them do anything. You also have to understand that we and the show come from an underground nightlife world where piercings, tattoos or shooting each other with paintballs isn’t a big deal.”
You both wear some fantastic outfits, what is your favourite look or piece you have each worn? S: “We both agree that the outfits we wore on the season one finale are our favourites – the black gowns that were inspired by the movie Legend.”
Mainstream drag feels so clean, missing the John Waters style filth many of us grew up with. What is the filthiest performance you have each done? S: “Yeah it does, and it’s for reasons like that we started Dragula in the first place. The drag we grew up around was filthy, political, punk, smart, disturbing and artistic and we refuse to let that style of drag be forgotten. As far as the filthiest performances we’ve done as the Boulet Brothers it depends on what your version of filth is. We’ve done religious themed shows that would make Melissa Befierce’s final runway on S1 seem PG13. We’ve wrestled in blood, guts and mud, and put on extreme fetish performances for years – it really just depends on what you define as filth, but I would say we have probably equally offended everyone on some level.” Do you think the extreme horror factors of your show keep it from going fully into the mainstream? Do you worry about Dragula losing its essence at all? S: “Not at all. We wouldn’t take it to a platform that would hold it back as it would go against the whole premise of the show. That being said you can get away with a lot on Netflix and HBO these days. It’s a different world, and there are tons of quality platforms to choose from.” What was the first horror film you ever saw? D: “Halloween.” You also have a popular night time show, Queen Kong. In what way is this different to Dragula? D: “Queen Kong is a huge weekly queer party, it’s not dark at all. It does
You have travelled all over with the show, how does London/UK audiences compare to ones back in LA? S: “The London / UK audiences have been incredible – they are polite, thoughtful and bring us gifts so really, I guess they are our favourites!” There is currently a bit of controversy about gender and drag in the media. What does drag mean to you? D: “Our feeling is that anyone can be a drag artist regardless of their gender, and we’ve maintained that since the first Dragula club pageant back in the day. Drag kings, Trans people and afab queens have all competed alongside traditional drag queens on stage at our events (and have won). We are just as open when it comes to contestants on the tv show. There are actually drag kings and Trans people who we wanted on the show since season one but who couldn’t commit to it at the time for whatever reason so it’s not for lack of trying on our end. It will happen when the time is right.” And finally, you represent the underground, unusual and unapologetic side to drag. Where do you see the show going in the future? D: “It’s the evolution of queer TV. It’s rock and roll, its rebellion, its queer angst and that appeals to many people. If you’re queer then you already don’t fit in, and more and more queer people are realizing that they identify more closely with our monster family of misfits than the polished, white washed versions of themselves that they are seeing on tv today. I think they see a raw, defiant, proud group of creative people who aren’t afraid to change the status quo and they want to be a part of it. The plague is spreading darling, and you can’t escape it – you better get into it.” bouletbrothersdragula.com facebook.com/bouletbrothersevents Image Left: By Nathan Noyes Interview By Alice Bizarre
DEVOLUTION MAGAZINE 51
SOS Festival 2018 SOS Festival’s 11th year was absolute clinic of British Heavy Metal in 2018, with a belter of a line up. I can’t recommend this festival enough, whether you’re a family of Metal heads or thinking of solely attending. The +12 hour days flew by in a heartbeat and that’s testament to how thoroughly enjoyable and exciting all of the bands were. The one thing that stood out beyond anything else for me was the incredibly friendly atmosphere, with everyone being approachable and sociable; it was great to see that this crowd haven’t lost the art of conversation unlike other festivals that can be guilty of housing a “too school for school” ethos. Discovering new bands that I’d not had a chance to hear before was the name of the game for me this weekend, one gem that shone in particular was Midnight Prophecy, who played what can only be described as the best Iron Maiden concert in 20 years. With evident 80’s Metal influences, these Liverpudlians totally won me over their bounding guitars and powerful vocals; exactly what the doctor ordered. I watched KIDS (stylised in the icon KISS font) perhaps out of politeness, assuming that they’d be somewhat of a novelty act to pass the time, but by end of the first song I was headbanging my brains out and jumping around like a lunatic to their excellent covers of all the Metal classics we know and love. Oh yeah and I did I forget to mention that they’re a trio of 10 year old girls?! It’s really heartwarming to see the next generation of Heavy Metal being encouraged and
Voodoo Blood
nurtured like this! King Witch ticked all the boxes with their faultless 70’s Metal style, but with hints of Candlemass throughout. Their set really stood out for me if not just because of Laura Donnelly’s out-of-this world vocal range! Falling Red delivered a healthy dose of Sleazy Rock ‘n’ Roll, but these guys are so much more than a modern day Glam band, they play gritty Rock ‘n’ Roll with style!
Top Five Bands: Voodoo Blood – Previously described as being “blues on steroids”, Voodoo Blood command an impeccable 70’s blues sounding guitar style, whilst vocalist Kim has one of the most invoking and captivating stage presences I’ve seen in a very long time. Kim’s impressive broad spectrum of vocals, coupled with her roaming around the venue during songs made this set something totally unforgettable. One second she was climbing on tables, the next she was in the audience or on top of the sound desk! Voodoo Blood were so intense, they literally “rocked the shit out of me” (people who were there will know what I mean!) This band clearly have a lot of influences but they sound like nothing else I’ve ever
Massive Wagons
heard, for that they were my number one band of the weekend! Absolva – This four-piece from Manchester are disgracefully talented and oozed professionalism throughout their set. There’s an extremely bright future ahead of this band and I’m genuinely excited at the prospect of catching them live again next. Made up of former members of Blaze Bailey’s backing band and Iced Earth, this band is the epitome of what old school Metal and Classic Rock should sound like in the 21st Century. The Appleton brothers are definitely ones to be watching on the UK Metal scene; the entire band as unit are the total package, with uber catchy choruses; face melting guitar solos and Chris Appleton being everything you could want in a Metal frontman. Dendera – This was an enjoyable set of addictive melodies accompanied with epic riffs. Dendera are Classic Metal but with an in-your-face heavy kick to the bollocks! Their heavy set flew by; I definitely recommend checking these guys out! Red Spektor – Plenty of Black Sabbath undertones throughout, with Psychedelic Stoner Metal and Grass influences. Red Spektor are not a throw-back or novelty act, these are deadly serious with their brand of Classic Metal. I went to see them under a recommendation and what fantastic advice it was! Massive Wagons – A roller coaster of high octane, old school 70’s Rock! This extremely fun band is one that never disappoints with frontman Baz being a buzzing ball of energy akin to the likes of Airbourne! These guys were the best band to end a superb weekend.
www.sosfestival.net Review By Lucas Chapel Images C/O Mark Bestford Alienation Photography facebook.com/Alien8n 52 DEVOLUTION MAGAZINE
1. Dishonour the Crown
2. Falling Red
BITTER TASTE
ENEMIES
3. Lock Horns LOW
4. Ward XVI CRY OF THE SIREN
Issue 44 Cd Devolution has been running now for 15 years and one of the very first things we set out to achieve was to be an unbiased and open platform for unsigned bands and artists to promote their work through.
dishonourthecrown@live.co.uk facebook.com/dishonourthecrown
5. I Was Born Twice WOLFPACK
fallingred@live.co.uk falling-red.com
rachaelh@ensomgmt.com facebook.com/LockHornsOfficial
6. I Am Pariah
7. Livia
HEAVY IN JAPAN
REBECCA
wardxvi@gmail.com www.wardxvi.com
8. THE CRIMSON GHOSTS NEARLY FREE
Each issue we endeavour to bring you a cd compilation of the unsigned bands and artists from all the genres…punk, rock, metal, thrash, industrial, EBM, Gothic etc…and we are always looking for new bands to check out so if you are looking at reaching a dedicated alternative audience that are open minded then Devolution readers and the industry folk that we work with are the listeners you want! For a chance to appear on the CD* please post us: • Your most recent Album, EP or Demo • A brief biography • All website links and contact details • The album artwork as a jpeg file
iwbtwice@gmail.com facebook.com/iwasborntwice
iampariahband@gmail.com facebook.com/iampariahband
liviagigs@gmail.com liviamusic.com
info@crimson-ghosts.de crimson-ghosts.de
9. The Sixpounder
10. Isolation Angels
11. A / M
12. Aeryie
thesixpounder.management@gmail.com facebook.com/TheSixpounder
IsolationAngels@gmx.es isolation-angels.com
thebandam@hotmail.com thebandam.com
aeryie.music@gmail.com aeryie.bandcamp.com
13. The Crimson Brigade
14. Spreading The Disease
15. Tor Marrock
16. Cauda Pavonis
THE PAST
BATTLE OF BRAVELLIR
BLOCK THE LIGHT
LAST GOODBYE
PROM PERSON
SULTRESS
MONUMENTS
HIDDEN
• And any bribes..... (We are partial to Gin & fine cheeses!) * There is a small one off fee to secure your spot of just £50
PROUDLY SUPPORTING INDEPENDENT BANDS AND ARTISTS FOR 15 years If you would like us to consider your track for inclusion on one of the cd covermounts please send us all of the above to the following new address:
Devolution Magazine C/O Nickie Hobbs 15 Cottongrass Road, Didcot, Harwell Oxon, OX11 6GF, United Kingdom BloodBattalionHQ@aol.com facebook.com/TheCrimsonBrigade 54 DEVOLUTION MAGAZINE
motivatedmusicmgnt@gmail.com stdband.com
tormarrock@yahoo.co.uk facebook.com/tormarrock
band@caudapavonis.com caudapavonis.com
For more info on submissions please contact us at: info@devolutionmagazine.co.uk
DEVOLUTION MAGAZINE 55
Eileen Daly Starting her career as a model, Eileen Daly has gone on to explore acting, music, presenting and all the film crew roles you can imagine. She is best known as the face of Redemption, her sensual vampire role in Razor Blade Smile and her unapologetic approach to female sexuality and expression. Glamourous, bohemian with a screen presence rivalling the likes of Ingrid Pitt, Eileen Daly bares her fangs and reveals a little about her life as a 1990’s Scream Queen. You seem to be a Jack-of-all-trades professionally, being a producer, writer, director, actress, and musician and so on. How did being a model develop into these roles? “From being a model launching Agent Provocateur come “that girl in 80’s pop videos”, I wanted more! To tell you the truth, with the acting I did what I could for free as modelling was making more money for me. Later, I and Nigel Wingrove started a company called Redemption Films. We went into horror distribution in the 90’s and by that time I was an established horror actress in trashy movies. During this I wrote an album for my band Jezebel called Forbidden Fruit. It was then I started to really get into films seriously, I would never turn a film down. I was the girl who never said no. I knew then I wanted to do more behind the scenes stuff and started more ventures like new bands and my own films. It was a wild time! Everything was a combination of meeting different people and developing my skills in different ways. But you can’t tell your life story in a one minute!” You are considered a modern-day Scream Queen. What was it that tipped you into horror films? “I’ve been classically trained by Fenella Fielding (Carry on Screaming) but it was very difficult to get into mainstream and what I was trained to do, it was much easier to get into horror. I had a certain look; I had very long dark hair, I was quite gaunt looking and very pale. I had a look that mainstream wouldn’t touch, one might say it wasn’t marketable. Horror just fell into my lap really. Doors were opening that side but not on the other side. I didn’t mind as long as I was working. But oh god I’ve always loved horror and Sci-Fi! The imagery, the sort of spiritualism with it, ghosts and mediums etc. I’m drawn to that side of life so it wasn’t a choice I needed to make, I simply drifted in there.” 56 DEVOLUTION MAGAZINE
Not including your mentor, which actors do you admire? “Personally, I like Nicole Kidman and Michelle Pfeiffer. They’ve worked their butts off to get where they are and they’ve always kept their own counsel. I find them both very attractive, I love Pfeiffer as Cat Woman, and Kidman has done some wonderful ghost films. I love watching them on the screen and that is the key thing, you have to be watchable. I find Eddie Redmayne watchable too. You can’t buy this and you can’t be taught it, it’s an essence these actors have. Having said that... at the moment I’m drooling over the Rock (Dwayne Johnson). What a goodlooking boy that guy is, I mean wow!” What is not watchable for you? “I’m so fed up with the same looking people in Horror. American girls, gym boys, with lots of screaming. I just have to switch it off! It’s not that it’s bad acting, I just wouldn’t know the names of any of them you know? They are just like any other GI-Joe actors; same kids, same scripts! And because it’s a safe formula, these are the people getting the big budgets!” Redemption was pretty much a middle finger to censorship, especially compared to other distribution companies. How do you feel about all the gore in film these days? “I’m not a fan of torture movies, I don’t particularly like them. I think if you chuck in too much gore, you haven’t got a plot (laughs). You’re not doing any Miss Marple’s! More gore for less brain function... I hope that’s not rude to say! It’s so sick, not the type of horror I want to watch. But I’m a professional so if we got offered something like Hostel at Redemption, we’d take it on.” From your presence on screen to the more explicit scenes, there is a
ton of sexuality in your work. Is this something that comes naturally to you or looking back do you think you would’ve done things differently? “I find sexuality quite easy, it doesn’t faze me and I have no inhibitions really. I want experience so I would go ‘Fuck it, why not? I’ve never done this before’. That was my whole attitude to a lot of things! I was happy going naked. If you got it flaunt it and if you don’t, well hard luck I was getting paid for it (laughs)! I had done a lot of videos for Cradle of Filth in rubber and fetish gear but at the age of 40 I did a feature film called All About Anna. I had a casting sent by my acting agent in the Dorchester in London, which is when I was asked to do a sex scene. So, I went out, talked it over with Nigel and said I’d do it! It’s a shame it was a terrible film! Such a hash job! I don’t mind, its’ just everyone thought it would be something else, and it really was something else... (Sigh) It was meant to empower women (laughs)! It was co-produced by Lars von Trier’s Zentropa Productions so we all had high hopes for it, but the director walked out, it had no ending and it was just so boring. I would never take that back because I wanted the experience. I wanted people to say “Jesus she’s got a pair of balls that one”! Goth, sex, rubber, pop, it’s a collective journey... just not everyone’s’ cup of tea.” Most of our readers will know you from Razor Blade Smile, Pervirella and Cradle of Fear. Do you think 90’s B horror films have gotten the standard cult following yet? I think it’s been and gone. There are a lot more cult films coming out now because a lot more people are able to make movies. With my own films, I’ve only watched Razor Blade Smile once. I turned up at the premiere of Cradle of Fear but I didn’t go in, I couldn’t watch it. I’ve even done a few films that haven’t come out!
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One vampire film in Finland that ran out of money, Braincell that was groovy but didn’t come out. I don’t know why, nice people, nice actors, it was such a shame!” Having played so many vampire roles, how do you feel about current popular vampire culture now such as films like Twilight? “ I’ve actually just finished my own vampire film ‘First Bite’. I think these days vampire films have become like cartoons, not dark or Gothic. I knew about vampires by reading the books. Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake is one of my favorite books but then the BBC go and do it! It’s all gone very commercial, nothing is sacred but we goths couldn’t keep it for long! Everything’s got a label, a ticket or a price tag. If people can make money out of it they will. Everything has a commercial use these days and it ruins it. But that’s life, you can’t keep the films and books to yourself!” You presented Redemption TV as a unique occult dark Goddess type character, quite different to Elvira and Vampira. Was she your creation? “One would put the wings on and contact lenses in and go into character. The Redemption Gothic queen was my creation, with help from the stylist for girls on the alter etc. They (Vampira/ Elvira) are very pretty girls and that comes out in their performance. She’s a character that is truly dark, she’s not playing on pretty and cute, she’s more dark and creepy.” Do you prefer acting in darker roles or as more over the top character? “I love comedy, but I do prefer the darker roles. Campy I can do, it rolls off my tongue but it’s been done a thousand times. If you want camp you may as well watch Drag Race! I think one would go dark, nasty, vicious and chuck in a bit of camp and add salt’n’pepper of madness for depth. Dark characters are layered and bitter, like cyanide washed down with gin. To just play camp is boring.” You appear dark but your sense of humour comes across as camp and undoubtedly British in interviews too! “With interviews I’m actually quite shy and hyper so this comes out, making things a bit bonkers! When I’m working, I’m dead serious. In interviews you’re selling, there is an element to be a people pleaser so you’re not getting the persons true character, you’re getting
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a persona. It’s interesting but sad to say that it’s like going on a job interview to the world. Self-awareness usually comes with money. On Big Brother I got criticised when being interviewed by Emma Willis because I was chatting to the audience too. People said I was taking over the situation, but one has a natural ability to do that when you or I relax.”
By Alice Bizarre
The last couple of years you’ve entered mainstream more on reality TV such as X factor, Big Brother and Tattoo Fixers. Is there any particular reason why? “No, not at all! We got emails asking if we would be on various shows. One of my girlfriends sent a video to Big Brother and they asked me to come in. So, it wasn’t an active role on my part to do any of these but I still said “Fuck it, I’ll do it!” I had never done reality television and to be honest, it was a horrible experience! I cruised Big Brother a little bit, with X-Factor they already know who is going to win BUT I wanted and felt like I needed to experience it. There’s no reality to it at all. I had never seen Big Brother and never watched a show until I walked on that cat walk. I never told them that (laughs), I went in, I came out and never watched it since! I do think reality shows are becoming tedious and not watchable anymore. I don’t mind Hoarders and IceCold Killers but I find reality TV boring.” Having done so much, do you see your career going in a specific direction (music, acting etc.) or are you keeping your fingers in lots of pies? “Being a Gemini, I can’t keep still! I love singing and writing for my band, The Chelsea Vampires. I also like making movies, I’ve made 4 and my next is a werewolf movie called She’s a Bitch. I then want to do a Voodoo doll film with 2 gorgeous women I met on The X Factor. This is part of my mockumentary style feature films based around a ghost hunting team which we also score with the Chelsea Vampire music. I’ve also just joined a new modelling agency, I love it all really! In 10 years or when I felt I have done everything, I’ll probably write a book, an autobiography. Honestly, I don’t know if I’m good at what I’m doing. I get booked and it works, sticking at one thing doesn’t float my boat. I just can’t keep still, I think it’s a disease (laughs)! As long as I’ve got my health and my wonderful partner Ben, I’ll keep doing what I’m doing. I’ll keep plugging away until I’m 6 feet under and even then, I’ll be haunting everyone! “ eileendaly.net eileendalyproduction.com facebook.com/eileendalyproductions
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TENTATION / IRON SLAUGHT
EUROPEAN LEGIONS Hello folks, Captain Hunter speaking! It has been a while since our last musical adventure but here we are again! I hope that you have discovered new bands since the last issue and that this summer you have head banged with vigour to hundreds of artists in sweaty gigs all across Europe. For the old grumpy music fans like me who are set in their ways, I hope you have enjoyed your 541st playing of your old favourite record whilst grumbling that there are no new interesting bands (of course said with a ‘disgastan’ satisfied grin whilst cherishing the latest Judas Priest record like an 80’s late heavy metal present!) Well, I’ve been a good boy and have kept digging into the European scene to find you the most promising bands. From hellish to black to heavy to death metal here is my selection of European bands crushing it right now. Hope you’ll like them folks! Keep on rocking and most importantly, keep it true!
NECROPHOBIC
LATEST RELEASES
To be honest, it has been a long while since I liked a Black/ Death metal album this much!.This new record is pure fucking madness. Every piece is a statement from the Swedish army of Necrophobic to firmly claim that they are back for good with this offering. From the bad ass cover to the real wall of sound which literally sweats from every song, this album is easily on top for extreme release of 2018. After a lot of different line-up changes and them being plagued by tabloid garbage, Necrophobic find some stability and rise against. The production is sharp as fuck, not too modern and not too much of a raw old school vibe either. I especially recommend listening to it on public transport, it will help you to calmly unleash your inner turmoil quietly without ever actually harming the weird smelly dude who’s definitely sat too close to you. My favourite songs are ‘Crown of Horns’ and ‘Requiem for a Dying Sun’ which succeed to truly define the dark substance of the band. Well my friends, if you enjoy bands like At the Gates or the melodic death metal sounds of Hypocrisy then this little fucker is definitely for you.
- NECROPHOBIC - Mark of the Necrogram - FIRTAN - Okeanos - TENTATION / IRON SLAUGHT - Les Hordes Metalliques
Well, as you maybe already know, your dedicated twisted grumpy captain is a huge fan of French 80’s Heavy Metal, and trust me on this one, this little gem immediately finds a place of honour in my musical library. This record is an association between two of the finest heavy metal bands from the southwest of France: Tentation and Iron Slaught. Tentation start this musical hell ride with five epic songs, From the galloping riffs of ‘illusions’ to the melodic vibes of ‘Souviens toi’ it’s a perfect old school run which will remind you of the finest hours from bands like ‘Sortilège’ or ‘Grim Reaper’. The whole thing sounds like a real blast from the past from the high pitch lyrics to the hot guitar solos, the band give us a solid performance far removed from a simple revival. Tentation continue the fight with an awesome cover of the Band ‘Ponce Pilate’ with a kinky ‘Les Anges de Balthazar’ which add some lustful vibes to the record. They end their section with the single ‘Shaman’ which is a classic heavy metal song. Iron Slaught show us a different side of their metal history and add some epic and fantasy tinged vibes for our greatest pleasure. From a Maidenesque hit such as ‘Code of Steel’ to their instrumental track ‘Bigorra’ which clocks in at over six minutes. The band show throughout a pure demonstration of strength and virtuosity which will give you thrills. This split is a real tribute to the old vibes and we can feel the real passion and guts behind every part of the record. The artwork will probably remind you of some friendly epic adventure you and your friend had one time when the only important thing was +to keep the booze flooding and the metal rising!
facebook.com/tentationfrance facebook.com/Iron-Slaught-912718628815334
facebook.com/necrophobic.official
FIRTAN Firtan are one of Germanys uprising ‘Extreme Metal’ acts, delivering their very own concoction and style to fans all over Europe since 2010. They make innovative and atmospheric black metal mixing progressive elements alongside intense vocals which truly resonate when performed live. ‘Okeanos’ is an immediately captivating experience, expanding the listener’s consciousness to worlds yet unexplored. I completely fell for their epic black metal grandeur and their captivating compositions. The duality between their poetical approach and the violent undertones of their songs just completely conquered me. They reach a whole new league with this new album, the artwork is amazing, it was created by Denis Forkas who has already worked with headliners like Behemoth. All of the lyrics completely match with the complexity of the band and they are all well and truly inspired by avant-garde intellectuals like Nietzsche and Lovecraft. Trust me my dear fellows, you will see that time flies after these 40 breath-taking minutes of atmospheric black metal from these maestros.
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All Photos By Mark Bestford Alienation Photography www.facebook.com/Alien8n
Amplified Festival Yet again this years Amplified Festival is one of extreme weather. While 2017 will be remembered for the torrential rain and biblical downpour that almost halted the event this year it was the extreme heat that took its toll on the festival goers, with the hottest July weekend on record aptly renaming the fest as ‘Amplifried’. Despite the searing heat however the mood amongst those attending can at best be described as exuberant, with every night finishing with a glorious party atmosphere that has now come to typify Amplified’s loyal fan base. They say if you can’t say anything nice then don’t say anything at all, and there’s plenty of people with nice things to say this year that’s for sure! If you like your metal festivals professional and accessible but to also seem like you are having a weekend sleepover or giant metal garden party with a bunch of your best friends even if you hadn’t even met them yet; within beautiful scenery where even the toilets are still so clean on day three pf the event – then Amplified is for you! With a crazy after show party each night that had people merrily dancing on the bars whilst they kept the Jägermeister and Motörhead beer flowing, to the delicious and varied food stands around the arena serving a vast menu each day. To the awesome crew at the popular Motley Brew tent who, in their tenth year of trading, were busy all weekend rehydrating the tea and coffee worshippers who were all enjoying their beverage in actual ceramic mugs, not plastic ones, adding that feeling of a home away from home. This review really wouldn’t be complete without
giving a shout out and our sincerest thank you to the ace guys over at the Cloven Hoof tent who kept us and the majority of Amplified attendees in copious amounts of glorious rum and rum related cocktails all weekend, it truly is a delicious beverage that you need to taste! So onto the bands…..
The Best Of The Festival With a festival of this quality the hardest part is to pick ‘favourites’. Every band was as equally enthusiastic, entertaining and each putting on a great unique show. But even given the overall quality of the line-up there were still some stand out moments.
They’re All Talking About Torqued
When you get a text message asking “who’s playing? They sound amazing!” from the Editor who is back at the campsite setting up for an interview then you have to take notice. The band was Torqued, who were the second band to play on the main stage on the Friday. And yes, they were amazing. Heavy brutal riffs were just what were needed early in the day and they set the monstrous tone for the rest of the weekend. Not even the noon sun could stop this juggernaut of a band from playing their hearts out. Check out their new EP, Resurgence, when you get a chance, well worth a listen!
G’s Bar’s Tent Shockers Saturday night’s G’s Bar headliner was an absolute no brainer to include here for a top 5 spot. The Japanese punk
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The Soap Girls
Sulpher
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The Soap Girls
If you like your metal festivals professional and accessible but to also seem like you are having a weekend sleepover or giant metal garden party with a bunch of your best friends even if you hadn’t even met them yet; within beautiful scenery where even the toilets are still so clean on day three pf the event – then Amplified is for you! With a crazy after show party each night that had people merrily dancing on the bars whilst they kept the Jägermeister and Motörhead beer flowing, to the delicious and varied food stands around the arena serving a vast menu each day. To the awesome crew at the popular Motley Brew tent who, in their tenth year of trading, were busy all weekend rehydrating the tea and coffee worshippers who were all enjoying their beverage in actual ceramic mugs, not plastic ones, adding that feeling of a home away from home. This review really wouldn’t be complete without giving a shout out and our sincerest thank you to the ace guys over at the Cloven Hoof tent who kept us and the majority of Amplified attendees in copious amounts of glorious rum and rum related cocktails all weekend, it truly is a delicious beverage that you need to taste! So onto the bands…..
The Best Of The Festival
Therapy?
With a festival of this quality the hardest part is to pick ‘favourites’. Every band was as equally enthusiastic, entertaining and each putting on a great unique show. But even given the overall quality of the line-up there were still some stand out moments.
They’re All Talking About Torqued
When you get a text message asking “who’s playing? They sound amazing!” from the Editor who is back at the campsite setting up for an interview then you have to take notice. The band was Torqued, who were the second band to play on the main stage on the Friday. And yes, they were amazing. Heavy brutal riffs were just what were needed early in the day and they set the monstrous tone for the rest of the weekend. Not even the noon sun could stop this juggernaut of a band from playing their hearts out. Check out their new EP, Resurgence, when you get a chance, well worth a listen!
piece line-up, with a classic punk sound, that gets the bar dancing away until midnight. Thankfully the tent has cooled down from the muggy heat of the afternoon, but it’s clearly still too hot for the drummer as he gets to work in his birthday suit. No one cares if half the songs are in Japanese or in English as they’re too busy having the time of their lives, just like the band were.
Evil Scarecrow
Smoking In The Boys’ Room It’s clearly too early in the day to get the best visually from Sulpher’s stage show, as they seem to use up the festival’s entire supply of fake smoke during their set. With a pedigree that covers Gary Numan to the Cocteau Twins the joint experience of Rob Holliday and Monti shows as they play through a dark, raw and deliciously moody set. It may have been over a decade since Sulpher last played together as a band properly but the hiatus hasn’t dented the relationship between the duo or the musical ability and it certainly shows on stage as everything looks and sounds so tight. Rob commands the crowd effortlessly and the band confidently work their way through a mix of old favourites and current unreleased material aired here at Amplified which will be released at the end of August in the form of the highly anticipated ‘No One Will Ever Know’ while Andy and Davey frantically spiral around their instruments. A saying springs to mind during the set ‘It’s not the size of the crowd, it’s the heart of the crowd’ and that’s here in abundance. It has absolutely been well worth the wait and the new record is a beast
Heck
G’s Bar’s Tent Shockers Saturday night’s G’s Bar headliner was an absolute no brainer to include here for a top 5 spot. The Japanese punk band Electric Eel Shock certainly put a spark into the proceedings with their high energy performance. It’s a classic 3 64 DEVOLUTION MAGAZINE
Electric Eel Shock
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By Mark Bestford
You’ve been in the band Ward XVI? “Three years exactly today.” And you were diagnosed with PAH (Pulmonary Hypertension) how long ago? “Five years, 2013.” Was it a difficult decision joining a band knowing you had that? “To be honest, no. It felt quite natural because I’d been playing guitar for about thirty years and I’d never really been in an originals band before. I’d played guitar in my bedroom and played in a couple of covers bands and it got to that point where if I was to die, because I was told at that point I was going to be dead within a year, two years or whatever, so I thought if I was going to die what have my kids got to know, what’s left behind for them, of evidence that I’ve played music or something like that. So it was quite a natural thing really. I had to actually go and find a band and had to start writing stuff because I think it was the only way I could cope and express myself. And one of my heroes is a fella called Jason Becker, he was going to be one of the best guitarists in the world and then he was diagnosed with ALS and he continued to write and perform music even though he couldn’t move from his eyes below. And I just use that as a kind of influence to have something out there.”
David Stott from Ward XVI Mark Bestford caught up with guitarist David Stott from Ward XVI at Breaking Bands Festival to discuss how his health made him change how he looked at life and how it enabled him to make the decision to join Ward XVI.
For those that don’t know what PAH is, give them a brief description of what it is you actually have. “It’s a very, very, very, rare disease that affects the lungs predominantly. It’s one in two million people will have it and I’ve got the rarest form of it because you can’t explain what the cause is. What it does is it’s a progressive narrowing of the arteries in my lungs so it’s not like a normal hypertension like if you’ve got a bad diet or whatever and you get a build-up of cholesterol and your arteries get thin, this is like a thinning of the arteries in your lungs and it narrows to a point that your heart keeps trying to pump blood through your lungs and it has to put more pressure through it. And by doing it it’s like if you imagine having two balloons connected to a hosepipe and you put your foot on the hosepipe and the balloon will expand, and that’s what’s happened to my heart so because all the arteries in my lungs narrowed so much my heart expanded quite a lot and it’s only because I was quite fit beforehand that I didn’t die because of the high pressures then. But I’ve got better, you know I’ve still got it, and I’ll never not have it but I’m doing pretty well.” You are almost unique in the fact that you are still here.
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“Yeah, all my consultants are quite surprised considering how ill I was when I first got it, but how fit I am, my pressures are decreasing all the time and I’ve a really good high exercise tolerance and things like that so they’ve called me unique and miracle and all that kind of stuff and what I’ve tried to do, because there’s so little information about PAH, I only had Google when I first found out and the information on that is horrendous, and I know there’s more and more people getting diagnosed with it and so what I’m trying to do is to at least show that as much as there’s horror stories about people that get it that don’t live very long because of the nature of what they’ve got there are people like me as well that hopefully it’s not all doom and gloom. For me, from my perspective, it’s a strange one because if I hadn’t have got this disease and hadn’t been told I was dying and all that I wouldn’t have joined the band, which I’m fulfilling every single kind of dream I’ve ever had. I’ve played in big festivals, I’ve written my own music, I’ve got a guitar endorsement, I’ve got Zombie Dust pickup endorsements, amplifier endorsements with Blackstar, and with Boult Guitars, and Intune GP plectrums. When I thought, two weeks before I was diagnosed I was just a manager of a hospital, just going to work, coming back, going to work, coming back and now I’m fulfilling everything so it’s almost like one of those… and I’ve met my best friend and the love of my life and stuff like that so in a way I feel I couldn’t remove it now, I think it’s opened the doors to everything I’ve wanted to be and if I was to die tomorrow, which sounds quite morbid, if I had died before I got it I would have died unfulfilled and now if I died tomorrow I actually die with leaving something that I feel quite fulfilled about which not many people get I think.” Alongside all that do you do much campaigning? “I’ve done a couple of charity runs for it. We did an event in Burnley last year to raise money and awareness for it which the likes of The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing and Footprints In The Custard and Skeletal Damage and ourselves played, like a mini festival to raise awareness for it. I’ve also done quite a few… I’ve been down to London and done a couple of patient forums and things like that. I’ve participated in trials and there’s loads of online pages and things like that that I’ve tried to raise awareness and tried to bring a little bit of positivity alongside it as well. I’m always getting texts and emails off people as well that have just got asking
how they cope and what they need and what information they should have and stuff like that so I’m always there trying to do it.” Putting in the good fight so to speak “Trying to it’s hard at times because beforehand when I first got diagnosed I kind of tried to put it in the back of my head and just carry on with it and then I started campaigning and started to do a bit of charity work and I couldn’t deny it anymore. I had to almost accept that I’ve got it and that got pretty difficult. I had quite a bit of depression and things because I had to actually go I’m ill whereas I couldn’t stick it in the back of my mind anymore. But yeah, all you can do is try and be positive and try to show, not just people with PAH, but with anyone that gets knocked by something that trying to find a way to use it to your advantage.” From not looking like you had a future, do you think you have that future now? “I live day to day a lot more than what I did do. I don’t take a lot for granted anymore. It’s still sometimes difficult to look a year ahead, not because I know I won’t be here, I know I’ll be here. I think the way the disease progresses and how fit I am I know it’s not going to just happen like that, but I’ve got a different outset to how I look at life. But as fit as I am there’s still some, I can’t get insured, the disease won’t allow me to get life insurance or mortgage insurance and stuff like that. But yeah, I’m going to be here for a bit, a couple more albums anyway.” It’s a good job you became ill in the UK and not elsewhere “Absolutely, my ex-wife is Australian and before I was diagnosed we were planning to go there and live there. And then I got diagnosed and we looked at insurance and how much it would cost, I’m okay at the moment so it wouldn’t be too bad but if it got worse and worse it would have been an absolute nightmare, cost hundreds of thousands of pounds. I work for the NHS myself so I see that side of the business side of it but from a patient side of it the NHS is a wonderful institution that supports so many people for absolutely nothing. It’s hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of treatment I get per year for nothing. I get the best care and it’s amazing.” wardxvi.com facebook.com/WardXVI Image By: Watchmaker Studios facebook.com/watchmakerstudios
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killstar
By Nickie Hobbs
curve coven
It’s not about the size you wear, It’s about how you wear your size! In April 2017 there I was trawling through the Killstar website ogling over the dark and dreamy garments as I had done countless times since I had discovered the brand in 2011. When all of a sudden I screamed with sheer excitement asking myself…could it be? Had the luxury occult label actually gone and expanded its sizes? After this long was the label finally allowing the fuller figured majority of us a chance to get in on the opportunity to rock the looks and styles that I personally had been so desperately trying to fulfil with high street separates and expensive custom made options? Yes they had! However…why had I only ‘discovered’ this revelation for myself and not been alerted via Killstar directly through their regular social media channels when a new range was released? For Killstar this was a good tactical move and in one massive stride they had become absolutely accessible. This was literally the most exciting news that I know many of us were delighted to finally hear and so upon discovering the moderate range I managed to buy up one of each item, and immediately packed those garments to be worn at Whitby Goth Weekend which went down an absolute
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storm. Like a women possessed I have made the last two years of my life my mission to alert as many curvaceous vixens worldwide about the expanded ranges which now accommodate up to a generous 3X/4X size. Since then the label have regularly released a range of gothic, occult, witchy inspired, corporate, and spooky doll wear that I must say has been very true to size, with many items remaining a staple choice in my everyday wear for both work and for play. Now… I am no model, nor do I aspire to be, but I wanted to show some of these items off and demonstrate how a plus sized garment really looks on a regular plus sized girl. As an advocate for this brand, the designs, and the whole concept, I teamed up with a superb and enthusiastic squad to do just this. Calling the project ’Curve Coven’ they helped me create the set of images that you will see over the next few pages and I hope they inspire you enough to shoot over to the Killstar website and take advantage of their options for the next season!
killstar.com facebook.com/killstar
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NICKIE WEARS: Mystic Mesh Maxi Dress Hemlock Hooded Maxi Dress Belt From Asos Horn Headwear From Faerie Tale Gothic
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NICKIE WEARS: Casket Cutie Web Dress Victoria Nightlife Handbag Spirit Board Necklace Eternal Eclipse Fedora Hat 72 DEVOLUTION MAGAZINE
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Shoot Credits Photographer: Feather Photography By Val Rose featherphotography.co.uk | facebook.com/featherpic Make-Up - Katie Weatherley AKA Katie Eve MUA facebook.com/katieevemua | instagram.com/katieeve_promua Clothing, Hat & Neclaces: Killstar killstar.com | facebook.com/killstar Candle: First Edition Candle Company firsteditioncandleco.com | facebook.com/Firsteditioncandleco Contact Lenses: Phazeclothing.com phazeclothing.com | facebook.com/phazeclothing1 Photoshoot Assistant & Horn Headress: Lily Usher of Faerie Tale Gothic facebook.com/FaerieTaleGothic Wardrobe & Photoshoot Assistant: Jennie Manion
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By Mark Bestford
The Men That Will Not
Be Blamed
On the last night of a thirteen date tour Mark Bestford caught up with The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing to discuss the tour and their latest album, Double Negative. It’s basically all about death, Death, Death. Oh, and death, to Tories.
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iew interv The album’s much heavier on the whole than previous outings, was that a deliberate decision? Andrew O’Neill: “Yes, yes, yep, yeah. We’re fucked off and we wanted to make a fast tight heavy thrash album basically, hardcore” Andy Heintz: “Brutal album” AON: “Going from punk influence into genuinely heavy, the sort of thing, personally, the sort of thing I would listen to more than the other albums.” AH: “It’s not just one side of heavy music though is it? There’s a broad range in there. I was quite surprised that even though it’s our heaviest album it’s also the most accessible. It’s kept the dark, dark humour and the catchiness. There’s a load of earworms in there.” AON: “There’s loads of gang choruses which I think adds to that immediate thing. And then there’s a load of New Wave Of British Heavy Metal riffs which...” AH: “Which I knew nothing about.” AON: “Which I put in by stealth. And that sort of like, it’s the heaviness but it’s a different flavour of heaviness to what we’ve used before and it’s reaching out a little bit further into our various influences.” There’s always a wealth of history with all the songs, the new album is no different. Can you tell us how each of the songs was inspired? We’ll start off with Supply And Demand. Mark Burrows: “If we’re looking at this thematically it’s all him (points at Andy Heintz)” AH: “Oh, don’t pick on me.” MB: “Musically we can all answer, but thematically these are Andy’s babies.” AH: “All these songs have been written over the last few years. Supply And Demand I had written something about Burke and Hare, basically it was like a capitalist song again, slagging off capitalism. People in desperate situations doing desperate things, but I also found it desperately amusing. And I’d written it ages ago and then Simon Pegg released a bloody film about Burke and Hare and we decided to shelve it because it just felt like that had been done by someone. But now we’ve actually got the chance to use it again.” AON: “It’s like that song about space wizards you wrote just before Star Wars came out.” AH: “That one as I said has been knocking around for ages but everything else is quite recent.” Baby Farmer is a very dark one, looking at Amelia Dyer AH: “And yet quite amusing” 78 DEVOLUTION MAGAZINE
AON: “A hundred dead babies washed out to sea, gulls grow fat in the estuary is Andy’s sense of humour” I see a theme going on here... AH: “There’s a lot of death in it as you said.” AON: “We’ve written more songs about death than the band Death, Chuck Schuldiner’s Death” MB: “And the other band Death, both bands Death” Jez Miller: “Who are dead” AON: “Are they dead? When did they die?” JM: “I think one of them’s dead.” AON: “Chuck Schuldiner’s dead, Chuck Schuldiner from the death metal band Death.” AH: “That’s commitment isn’t it” AON: “That’s commitment to the cause” JM: “I think one of Death died when they got back together” AON: “Yeah, he had a brain tumour. They’ve got a song called Pull The Plug” MB: “Have any of them gone deaf?” AH: “Baby Farmer, it’s another one about capitalism as well isn’t it. It’s a business plan.” From there you went into ‘Hidden’ the third song on the album AH: “It’s just the way the set list goes that Hidden’s the second track” MB: “Hidden’s thematically a departure from the rest of the songs that we’ve done” AH: “I think it’s the most adult song we’ve done really, musically. It’s got a lot of...” AON: “Sepultura” AH: “A lot of droning E chords? I’m hearing Jane’s Addiction, you’re hearing Smashing Pumpkins” AH: “And I’m hearing Hammer House of Horror” MB: “Basically means the three of us are stuck in the early 90s whereas Andy’s still back in the late 70s. Lyrically it’s a strange one as well” AH: “Lyrically it’s basically the Hellfire Club or Crowley’s lot, what are they called?” AON: “The Golden Dawn” We go on to more death with ‘Disease Control’ AH: “Yes, a fascinating story” MB: “This is my favourite lyric that Andy’s ever written” AH: “It’s a true story about John Snow and mainly it was triggered by my finding the line John Snow knows what’s going on as being quite amusing, because I’m a geek. But it’s just the story of how they discovered cholera was waterborne rather than the general opinion that it was carried in the air in the miasma” MB: “That song does things very
differently lyrically to how we’ve done things before in that it’s got two sets of lyrics running at exactly the same time and you can always choose to tune in to listen to either Andy’s lyric or Andrew’s lyric. How did you put those lyrics together?” AON: “Well the riff reminded me of Refuse and I wanted to do a vocal, the original plan was for me to do the main vocal and for Andy to do the backup stuff. I had it in my head it sounded like Refused and I had the kind of pattern of it but not the lyric. And then...” AH: “Really weird because I had it in my head it sounded like the Cure.” AON: “My vocals?” AH: “No, the riff.” AON: “Oh yeah, and we wrote that riff in Washington DC, so it was in my phone for ages as DC Riff, and there’s several different jams that sound completely different to what we ended up with. It had a really long gestation and a slightly difficult birth. I couldn’t get the lyrics out how I wanted and then we just had a day in my bedroom playing through my little practise amp and tightened the whole song up and then it suddenly came. What I usually do when I try to write my lyrics is to write them much more abstract, like in Third Class Coffin, and now as we reach the end we find we don’t have so far to fall. We’ve led our lives so close to the ground the dirt opens up and brings us home is a much more blended version.” AH: “Mine is, I’ve stripped them back to the simplest language I can use.” AON: “Yeah, but on this one I’ve pushed it more towards science and the technical notion of it the 3D model of a 2D plan rises up on his plane and then my vocals ended up sounding like Lou Koller of Sick Of It All, which is something I wrote screaming my throat out in Jez’s house and I actually didn’t have a complete set of lyrics so I had to put things on different bits of paper so I was grabbing stuff and then I had to transcribe it.” AH: “Did you do it in one take?” AON: “I did one pass in one take and then I think we did a little pick up” JM: “I think it was mostly one take, I’m not even sure if we did any patching on it.” AON: “Here you go, fucking one take wonder” MB: “If you get the vinyl version of the record that has the lyrics in the gatefold you get both sets of lyrics side by side so you can see, whereas the DC version, just for space reasons, they follow each other. But I quite like it that they read like two songs next to each other.” AON: “What was that song you played…”
mammothfest gallery
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AH: “I played him Love Like Anthrax by Gang Of Four and if you listen to the lyrics on that they have two completely different vocal lines that occasionally come together. One’s sort of spoken and the other’s singing the melody and they just intertwine and I said let’s try this approach on it. And when you come back in the choruses it really bolsters up the bit I’m doing and it flies off.” AON: “And I rewrote one line to make it dovetail with just the word survive, so on the second verse we both end on the word survive, so it kind of dovetails and then it joins in and goes into the… It’s a fun, knackering song to play live.” AH: “I also don’t think there’s any other song written about cholera from the point of view of the microbes.” AON: “I’m not sure there are any other songs written about cholera at all. It’s like Slayer writing a song about concentration camps. Slayer wrote that song Jihad which was from the point of view of terrorists” MB “And Andy writes a song about viruses from the point of view of the virus.” From there we go into what seems to be the light entertainment of the album, Obscene Fucking Machine MB: “You say that but it’s a pretty hard song.” AH: “I don’t see any lightness in that at all.” AON: “I think you’re missing some irony there.” AH: “He’s just a fascinating character, when you think that the times everyone was supposed to be so prim and proper there’s this absolute monster of a bloke.” AON: “He had a chair made so he could fuck two women at once.” AH: “Yeah, in a Paris brothel. He had his own chair, in a Paris brothel so he could fuck two women at once. Because he was so fat he had to hold his weight up. And people accepted his behaviour because they wanted to keep the status quo.” AON: “We’ve got those chairs now on the merch stand.” MB: “Musically that was a riff that Andrew brought in. Wasn’t it just called Bauhaus riff?” AON: “Yeah.” MB: “Which is interesting because the song doesn’t sound anything like Bauhaus.” AON: “It’s more Joy Division isn’t it? I was listening to a lot of that new age goth stuff.” MB: “Fun to play because I get to play a big monster bass riff with my fuzz pedal. And shout Big Fat Fucking Machine which is a joy” AH: “The audience have really picked up on that one, it’s become a real sing along. And it throws them because the second verse has got a chorus…” AON: “It’s an interesting thing, we’re playing nine new songs on this tour. It’s interesting that crowds are into it but there
a bit more, with the new stuff, because they haven’t lived with the record yet, it hasn’t intertwined and become the soundtrack to their lives. And I reckon when we do the next tour, when they’ve listened to it again and again, those choruses are just going to really jump out because they are gang choruses on the record.” AH: “It’s already happening. On this tour there are people who have come to several of the gigs on the tour and they’re mouthing back words that I haven’t even fucking remembered.” AON: “Absolutely. Same with Disease Control, I’ve seen people mouthing my words and I’ve thought fuck I’d better get these right, because people will know.” Next we get onto probably your bestknown subject, Occam’s Razor MB: “I thought you were going to say Slayer” AON: “Yeah, this happened because Andy read his first book on Jack the Ripper and what always happens when you read your first book on Jack the Ripper you go oh, I’ve got the skinny on this now, this is a really good book. And then I sent him the debunkings.” AH: “Actually no.” AON: “Didn’t that happen?” AH: “I said I was about to read it and I said is this any good and then everybody else jumped in including you, well read it, and then read all this which says virtually the opposite and then make your own mind up. And it just seemed like there’s so much fucking misinformation out there and no one knows what happened.” AON: “Well it’s like the Dance of the GullCatchers, the appendix, not the appendix but the kind of coda to From Hell by Alan Moore, basically says there’s no, what’s the word I’m after…” AH: “Clues?” AON: “Yeah, but a particular type of evidence. Forensics, there’s no forensics, and every year I get a load of emails and messages going oh they’ve wrote a book, they’ve found out who Jack the Ripper is, and I go I bet they haven’t. And then you find out it’s about a guy who bought a scarf at an auction, and he’s claiming it was Catherine Eddowes scarf, and there’s some DNA on that, and that’s linked to someone else, but it’s mitochondrial DNA which only means it’s one in thirty as opposed to one in a million, oh as per usual it’s bullshit. And Andy, in a very short space of time, Andy basically become a Ripperologist. You know you’re a Ripperologist when you get fucked off at anyone claiming to know the truth.” AH: “Yeah, and I’d only got about three chapters in. They used the word probably so manty times it really really annoyed me.” AON: “There’s so much fudging. Basically,
any book that makes a bold claim for who it is, there’s so much fudging. But the kind of circumstantial evidence you go ah, this seems legit, this seems reasonable, because people are good at building narratives out of…” JM: “Given that this probably happened then we can extrapolate. But we don’t know though do we.” AH: “It’s also pretty bad taste to write about that.” AON: “Bad taste? Says a man who wrote a song called There She Glows about Marie Curie?” AH: “Basically it’s an entire industry based around the brutal murders of five women, isn’t it.” AON: “And vulnerable women.” AH: “And unashamed, they’re going to write some bollocks.” AON: “And the thing about calling them whores or prostitutes when that was like their job. They were desperately poor women, all of them alcoholic, desperately trying to find a few pence either for a room for the night or a gin and what they would usually do is they would get price a fuck at the price of a gin as opposed to the price of a room, so they’d then drink gin and then have to go find someone else in order to actually get the room for a night. And they were women and they had lives and they had families and they had backgrounds, you know. And the industry around it is we might get you. Fucking unlikely mate, it was 150 years ago, it was over a hundred years ago.” AH: “It was, totally.” There’s quite a bit of capitalism in this album AH: “Anti-capitalism” God Is In The Bottom Line AH: “Yeah, it’s a sister song to Miner really. And A Clean Sweep.” MB: “Another in a series of exploited people.” AON: “Musically I wanted to write a song that sounded like it would fit on Raining Blood and I went into the studio and played them Necrophobic and wrote the song in about as long as the song takes.” AH: “And I had the lyrics already to go.” AON: “This is what Andy does, I’ll come up with a riff and then he goes oh I’ve got a thing, there’s this.” AH: “As soon as I read out the first line Pity the fingerless children, yep that’s in.” AON: “Notably Jez wrote Occam’s Razor.” MB: “Yeah, credit where it’s due Jez wrote most of Occam’s Razor.” JM: “Not the words obviously” AON: “Yeah, Jez isn’t very good with words, he’s from the Midlands.” AH: “Yeah, he can’t spell Occam”
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iew interv t-shirts to go with as well” MB: “And we made glow in the dark MB: “He tried to spell Occam but it came t-shirts, yeah.” out as Dudley.” JM: “Dudley’s Razor.” The last track on the album is very MB: “Oscar’s Razor.” much more classic The Men I reckon, There’s Going To Be A Revolution Ironically after all of that we come to MB: “That’s interesting because musically what is probably the most bad taste I’d say it’s the most different thing we’ve song on the album, There She Glows done.” AH: “Which was originally called What’s AON: “Yeah, drum machine” The Story, Madame Curie.” MB: “One riff a lot of discord. A postMB: “One thing I like about how the industrial kind of feel. I guess thematically record is sequenced is it starts off as it’s in fairly comfortable territory for our a straightforward punk record, Supply angrier songs” and Demand is probably the most AH: “It’s kind of dark and brutal, it sort of straightforward punk song we’ve ever batters you. And it’s also very very sad.” written, and if you come off the last AON: “It’s desperation, real desperation. record liking Clean Sweep and Miner and And it’s situation pushing someone into stuff like that Supply and Demand is a political radicalisation essentially. And nice way into this from there. But then it’s interesting because now we have the the record gradually gets weirder and fairly tightly managed bread and circuses weirder and weirder as it goes along approach to pushing down dissent, and and There She Glows is a fucking weird the people in charge give people not even song.” what they need, but what they want to a AH: “It’s like about three songs all cut degree just to shut them up.” up and put together isn’t it.” MB: “It makes it interesting, we play AON: “That took a while didn’t it, it back to back in the set with Doing It getting that right, there’s quite a lot of For The Whigs and it makes quite an shuffling around. Because that opening interesting companion piece because riff is really nasty and quite annoyingly Doing It For The Whigs is about a hard to play, and then…” government giving back to the people just AH: “But you said you liked to write to enough to prevent them from rising up. the edge of what you can do.” It’s about the government going well the AON: “Yeah. When I wrote the riff for Tories are awful but we’ve got a slightly This House Is Not Haunted I couldn’t better way of doing it and just giving play it and it’s an incredibly awkward back just enough because the shadow of riff to play, but that thing that pushes revolution was hanging over the UK for us, like the drumming on God Is In The most of the nineteenth century and there Bottom Line, when we wrote it is out were loads of steps throughout where the of Jez’s comfort zone because he’s a government and the monarchy just gave rock and roll drummer and I was trying back a tiny bit and that’s what Doing It to get him to write a thrash beat, so For The Whigs is about. And then There’s we compromised one punk beat like Going To Be A Revolution is kind of the he normally does then it’s essentially flip side to that, about how that would a blast in between. That combination be perceived by the everyman and what sounds really cool, and that combination would have happened if they hadn’t given sounds much more like us as a band back enough.” than anything either of us would do on AH: “They did for a lot of people but they our own.” didn’t do enough for the people right at MB: “And There She Glows has got the bottom.” loads of bits like that. Andrew sent me JM: “I think it was Michael Heseltine who a Garage Band demo with just a riff said the reason why we’re so successful is and a drum machine, and it was a much we work out…” heavier song. More straightforward AON: “As in the Tories?” metal.” JM: “Yeah, that basically the idea is that JM: “It started to get a bit Birthday Party you give just enough to just enough really. I think when you started putting people. You’ve got to find out what that the bass on...” tipping point is, so you’ve given away MB: “There’s that space where a lot as little as you can get away with doing of people would have stopped playing to stop being murdered in your beds at where the bass does that roll on part, night.” but that part unfolded in my head AH: “I think it applies as much to now as straight away and I wanted to fill it it did back then. Because there’s always in and that kind of drove the lurching people on the bottom rung of the ladder character of it a little bit.” who are absolutely desperate.” AH: “And we made glow in the dark AON: “All drink and chicken dippers” 82 DEVOLUTION MAGAZINE
AH: “You see people sleeping under the bridges now, you didn’t see that what, five or ten years ago?” AON: “Yeah, it’s gone back to the early nineties, it’s fucking unbelievable. And yet the press has managed to align a lot of working class people’s sensibility with that of the ruling class, so they’re just not working hard enough you know. Most people who are homeless are mentally ill, that’s why they’re homeless. They don’t have the wherewithal to use the system that’s in place, that’s why they’re homeless, anyone who has worked with the homeless will tell you. It’s a frustrating experience, you don’t just go well here’s a job, here’s a house, because that’s literally why they’re there.” JM: “When we loaded into Exeter there’d been a tent on that thing overnight, someone sleeping there. There was a lot of homeless people begging in Exeter. Pretty grim.” AON: “And on that bombshell …” AH: “If you carry on listening to the CD, after that track, just turn the lights down, light a couple of candles and keep it going…” AON: “Just the CD version, because we start something in Hidden, something that needed to be finished, and it was. I’m actually going to learn that and do it in that bit because I think at the moment that bit there’s a slight hole in it. It’s the Bornless Rite which is a hugely powerful ritual” MB: “And at this point in the track listing as well I like the idea that where Supply and Demand brings you in from Not Your Typical Victorians then There’s Going To Be A Revolution will push you towards our next record which will be a much weirder sounding much more expansive “ AH: “We just wrote a bit of it on stage just now.” AON: “We literally just wrote a song, so yeah.” MB: “That what I like, the record just gets odder because it’s going to push towards what we do next.” AON: “That means we’re going to have to write a song that’s the initials of Bristol”
blamedfornothing.com facebook.com/blamedfornothing blamedfornothing.bandcamp.com Interview By Mark Bestford facebook.com/Alien8n Photos By Kim Burrows Photography kimburrowsphotography.com
Misfits covers” in 2001 we had a first line-up together pretty quick (with me on drums btw!). After a few months of practicing I switched over to guitars and The Rev became our drummer. We played our first show on Halloween 2002 and well…let´s say things developed pretty quickly from there on.”
The Crimson Ghosts The Crimson Ghosts have always been prominent figures in the world of Horror music, blending heavy Punk with creepy, terrifying lyrics and lashing of Metal influences throughout their albums. Once at the absolute pinnacle of the scene, TCG were widely considered the go-to band by Horror music fans alike, setting a president with 2010’s Generation Gore which arguably hasn’t been rivalled since. Devolution Magazine’s Lucas got a chance to catch up with guitarist Jackyl to see what’s been happening with the Ghosts over the past 8 years and where they’re planning on going moving forward….. So, what’s new in the world of The Crimson Ghosts? “Oh man, there is a lot… After such a long waiting time we finally released our 5th studio album which is entitled ‘Yet Not Human’. It came out on our new home Ring Of Fire Records in May on DVD sized digipack CD, coloured gatefold LP and even on a limited number of cassettes. With that album we also present our new line-up with Old Nick being our newest family member.” ‘Yet Not Human’ is absolutely monstrous! It sticks to that winning Crimson Ghosts formula, yet is heavy enough to hold its place right amongst the latest Heavy Metal releases. It could well be the most anticipated Horror Punk album of all time, with 8 long years going by since the critically acclaimed Generation Gore. What
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happened with you guys over the past 8 years from Generation Gore up to today? It seems like we’ve waited forever for this record! “Thanks a lot! I can tell you the writing process was a special one and we went through a lot of dark valleys during that. I guess that’s the reason why it might not be the most positive sounding album from us! Ha-ha. After Generation Gore it was really hard for me to write new songs since the quality on said album was just so high that I never was satisfied with anything I came up with after. Then, as the new songs came together The Rev started having problems with his wrist which forced us to have a lot of longer breaks not being able to work on new material or play live. I guess it must have looked like we already disbanded although we were active through the whole time. In the end things became worse and worse and so the Rev had
to quit because he couldn’t play anymore without having terrible pain. It was a shock when he told us and to be honest that was the time when we really had to think about if we wanna continue at all. You know, we existed in the same line-up for 15 years and you cannot simply go on when a family member gets lost. The Rev told us to not stop because of that and eventually we decided to not let this monster that we created die, and start the search for a new drummer which took us two years! Finally in December 2017 we became a full band again when Old Nick joined us and here we are!” What’s the back story behind the band? When and how did you ghouls all come together and form? “We knew each other for many years before we started and we even played in different bands and constellations. So when Monstro and me had the idea of creating a “one time fun project with
The Crimson Ghosts have been notorious for having an extremely striking image, with lashings of face paint, prosthetics, blood and gore! Recently however you seem to have pulled your imagine back to basics, cutting the hair short and looking more…well….human! What’s the reasoning behind the radical change in image? I can only imagine performing in those costumes must have been boiling hot! “The decision to not use the known outfits anymore came when Monstro told us in 2012 he can´t have fun on stage when he barely sees something through his mask and he wouldn’t wear anything like that anymore; so we better look for another bass player since it would look weird when 3 of us looked as we did back then and one guy looked completely normal. That was the point when we decided to not give a fuck about image and outfits if that means we as a unit could stay together. So if somebody doesn’t like our band anymore because of the lack of an outfit – Piss Off! You never cared about the music obviously and the boyband scene might be more fitting for you!” It’s no secret that you’ve had lineup issues in relation to a drummer recently, what exactly transpired? It seemed like a highly stressful time for you guys! “This nightmare took us 2 years since we couldn’t find anybody! Either the skills of the people who contacted us weren´t high enough or they had the skills but not the time to be in the band as full time members. And there were A LOT of big mouths bragging about their skills not being able to play a single song of us without gasping for air…I learned a lot about the egos of “musicians” during that time!” You’ve played the Hell Nights festival in Germany multiple times before, and are due to perform there again this Halloween! How does it feel to be back on the Hell Nights bill? “Well I´d say there is nothing wrong with playing at one of the biggest Horror Punk parties a band can ask for! Plus it will be kind of a family meeting since we know each other for such a long time now! I mean we played with BZFOS and THE OTHER in 2005, the first time and played together over the years again and again.”
It’s been 5 years since you last performed in the UK, at The Doghouse in Rottingham with Army Of Walking Corpses. We always hear rumours through the grape vine that you’re going to come back, but then it turns out that the event isn’t going ahead. You’ve certainly been very much missed! When do you plan on returning to our shores? “Well it´s not a secret we want to come back, but unfortunately it simply didn’t work out so far. We really hope it will come true with our new album now!” It’s also no secret that Germany has a thriving Horror Punk scene; it’s one that I love to submerse myself in as much as possible. For those readers that might be unfamiliar with the German side to Horror Punk, what bands do you recommend they check out? “Well of course you got all the names from the very beginning that are still around such as Bzfos, The Other and The Fright, but there are some pretty cool other bands that came a little later like Jamey Rottencorpse, Mutant Reavers and Dead United. You definitely should keep an eye on the scene!” In what ways do you think that the Horror Punk scene has developed and changed over past 10 years, in both positive and negative ways? Where do you see the scene going? “Well I´d say the scene experienced a renewal since about 80% of the people from the early years aren’t around anymore. But a lot of new people discovered this special little movement and it’s great to see how good they organise things, like traveling to concerts together etc.…I think if this unity continues there is a lot of potential to have it grow a lot!” So, what do you monsters do when you’re not performing or writing music? What are your hobbies and interests outside of the band? “Well the biggest part of my life indeed is music or multimedia related. So when I got some free time you will probably find me creating music or record music of other bands in my Casket Garden studio. My new interest is video editing, which I think works pretty well for me since I did my first big edit for our new video Don´t Follow.” Speaking of which, the new video for Don’t Follow is really cool, what’s the story behind that one? At the time of writing, that’s the only video you’ve brought out from Yet Not Human, do you have any more videos in the pipeline?
“Thanks a lot! The video pretty much translates the lyrics into images, which means we have a guy who runs away from his girl at night since he knows he turns into a monster, but doesn’t want to hurt her. Filming that one was pretty tough for us since the band scenes were shot in the middle of a night in February in a raw building without windows; filming for hours at 0 C° with no warm clothes on is an experience, I can tell you that ha-ha! Our next video (for the song Nearly Free) is already in its final stage of planning and we start filming in a couple of weeks.” If you could have any famous musician perform in The Crimson Ghosts, who would you choose and why? “Hmmmm, I think I would like to work with a lot of different musicians but not for TCG, but maybe other projects since I’ve got everything with my band members that I can ask for. But it’s always fun and a great result when I work together with Argyle Goolsby or Nim Vind who both did vocals for some songs on ‘Yet Not Human’.” What are biggest challenges you’ve faced as a band, and how have you overcome them? “The years between our EP Bloodgods and Yet Not Human were the most difficult ones as you can imagine. In the end you have to believe in what you do and put all positive energy into it, or things will just fall apart. But I must admit it made us as a band stronger than we were before!” What’s next on the agenda for The Crimson Ghosts? “First of all we will try and play as many shows as we can to promote Yet Not Human and become the killers on stage that we were before The Rev had to leave. Secondly we will write new material of course because we don´t want another 8 years passing by before our next album!” Any last words for our Devolution Magazine readers? “We hopefully will get the chance to play in the UK again one day! Promoters get in contact! Thank you Lucas & Devo for the interview stay undead!” www.crimson-ghosts.de facebook.com/thecrimsonghosts
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By Alice Bizarre
Guinevere Turner Fear, Feminism & Film
Guinevere Turner stole the hearts of millions of horror fans with her screenplay of ‘American Psycho’ and work within the LGBT community on and off screen. From her humble beginnings writing/ staring in indie classic ‘Go Fish’ to playing the beautiful dominatrix Tanya Cheex in ‘Preaching to the Perverted’, Turner is intelligent, witty and wonderfully outspoken. Reuniting with director Mary Harron for Manson movie ‘Charlie Says’, Guinevere Turner talks to us about her life as a Screenwriter, Serial killer nerd and lesbian literary icon; this is one woman you need to know about. You are most well known as an actress and screen writer, what made you venture into such competitive industry? Not realising how competitive they were? (Laughs) I didn’t study film or screen writing or acting ironically, especially as I now teach screen writing. My first film Go Fish in 1994 was made out of a lack of representation of lesbians in movies (as I knew them) and wanting to make a movie about that. My girlfriend at the time was a film maker and I thought I could write a screenplay, how hard can it be? (Laughs) It’s hard! Once I did that experience, the thrill of it and to know I was good at it… it all fell downhill from there. I always thought I was going to be a novelist and I had no way of knowing back in the early 90s that being a novelist would become someone who presses records. By which I mean people read exponentially less now than before I’m happy that I chose a visual medium. It’s just a fact more people see movies than read books so if you have something to say (especially something that matters to you on a political or ‘change the world’ kind of way) you will just reach more people if you make movies, television and other sorts of visual media. Even though it’s competitive and exhausting at this point it’s all I know how to do. As a popular lesbian writer, do you find you get pigeon holed? I did initially because my first film Go Fish was super lesbian. I and the director were bummed out because 86 DEVOLUTION MAGAZINE
people viewed us as that was our only trick and we weren’t story tellers so much as more documentarians etc. I got lucky enough that 5 years after I got involved with writing American Psycho and that put me on the map, showing I could tell different kinds of stories and being able to sell stories that weren’t necessarily lesbian or even overtly about woman, although I think American psycho is. What’s fun about my life is that I have passionate fans. It’s like two different kinds of people, fans about Go Fish who don’t know about American Psycho and fans of American Psycho who don’t know Go Fish. They are completely different audiences and that’s awesome for me because I’m a Gemini. Could you tell us more about what attracted you to write for this film? That’s a funny story because the director Mary Harron (also the director for Charlie Says) knows I don’t like scary movies or scary things. We were working together on the Bettie Page movie at the time and somebody asked her to adapt and direct an adaptation of the novel so she said to me “I know how much you hate scary stuff but please read this, I feel like there’s a really smart movie in here”. The book is really gruesome, its shit I’ll never be able to forget and it’s been more than 20 years! That’s how I got sucked into that and its funny because now I’m know for it as in if you want a woman to write something dark I’m your go to gal (laughs). Everything that comes to me is just really dark and its fine! Obviously, I know maybe I’m good at
it because it scares me. I think I need to crank out a romantic comedy sometime soon! The structure of the book reads like a diary, how did you find adapting that to a screenplay? Extremely challenging especially because all of it is in the first person and a lot of it is in his head in terms of what he’s thinking about and what is happening, who knows what’s really happening! We fought against using voice over and finally resigned ourselves over to it but some of the great things in the movie are the voice overs! The biggest hurdle was that we absolutely loved the chapters about music that are just like music reviews but they don’t have any story to them. The language of them was so hilarious and so great that it took us a long time to figure out how to incorporate them in so we figured that every time he starts doing that [talking about music], he’s going to kill someone so he does those rants towards his next victim. It was really challenging, we worked on it for a long time, and we had a lot of notes that came to us that said the main character wasn’t sympathetic (laughs). He’s a serial killer so?! I mean, this is before Dexter and all these sympathetic criminals. Yeah, one paragraph he’s skull fucking the head of a girl who was skinned alive and the next he’s eating cereal down the street or something! The book is so graphic! How do you decide what violence to cut out?
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“ Yeah, the great thing about Charlie Says is that it’s the perfect match for someone who did a biopic (like The Notorious Bettie Page) but who also did a movie about men and violence towards women (American Psycho). I get to incorporate both of those skills plus my own upbringing which was incredibly non traditional. ” We just really talked about what we loved about the book which was all of the hilarious satire and send up of men. We had to have some violence obviously but we strategically wanted some of it to be implied and off screen and then a violent scene. It’s a stylistic choice not a “we are girls and cannot handle it” situation. We didn’t want to look like we were shying away from it. We decided to have one scene where he chases her with a chainsaw so we were going to go straight up classic horror movie trope but other than that we were going to keep it off screen. That’s said, I was at a screening of it a couple of years ago with a woman and beforehand she said “I don’t see movies like that” and I was like “It’s not that scary, it’s more of a satire” and then I realised as I was sitting next to her in the theatre that I may have lost perspective on how scary it was! I’m a little desensitised to it despite there not being a lot of onscreen violence, it is really fucking creepy and disturbing. You know it’s actually in the comedy section of Netflix! Is it? It’s more of a satire really, but I guess they don’t have a satire section. It’s not a comedy or horror or thriller… To me in a way it’s a satire of a horror movie but it’s also funny! Maybe they should have a category that says “defies genre” You were working on the Notorious Bettie Page when you started this, but wasn’t that also when Preaching to the Perverted started casting? Did the research into the BDSM scene on Bettie influence your choice to be in the film? Yes, I think the reason that the director of Preaching to the Perverted cast me was because at the time I was supposed to play Bettie page and so I had studied all of her bondage stuff, spanking, posing and fetish. I made a video for Stuart Urban (Director) that said I was well versed in all this but from other aspects of my life. I think I deliberately said it cheekily to make it seem like that maybe I was in the BDSM scene which I wasn’t. I was basically saying I wasn’t afraid of this material and these worlds. Bettie actually helped me get that part, even though I didn’t get to play her because it took us 9 years to make the movie! 88 DEVOLUTION MAGAZINE
As an influence, it wasn’t so much the Bettie film as my friends. I had 3 friends in 90s New York who were working Dommes. I had access in a way I wouldn’t have otherwise to their stories so it wasn’t exotic or foreign to me. It was periphery a part of my life so I would say because of that if they can do it, I can do it. Especially as two of them were dominatrix for work professionally and not personally. They inhabit that for work and that’s what actors do, you become a character. For a film about fetish and domination, it is also very sweet. How did you find playing a dominatrix who is both powerful and gentle? I loved it. I loved playing that character and I really got on with my co-star Julie Graham, who plays my no.1 slave. I inhabited the dominatrix aspects of it quite easily I must say! It also happens a lot when you play a role that people on the set treat you as if you are that person, so having people treat me like I’m actually a dominatrix was great, I loved it! Preaching has become a cult favourite amongst the fetish scene especially here in London, was this a surprise or did you have any expectation’s like this whilst working on set? I was aware that there was not a lot of films that represented the world. I could tell that when I was working on it how excited all these people were who were from the fetish world, there was an energy and excitement of it all. I was also really young so I didn’t think it terms of things being ‘cult classics’. I didn’t have the expansive perspective I have now, I was more like “I can’t believe I’m showing my tits in a movie!” (Laughs) and stressed out about it. It was by far the most challenging role I had played at that time, it was very intense in terms of what I was actually wearing, hair and makeup etc. I was so challenged in a way I had never been as an actor so I was really focused on if I was doing an okay job? Am I ruining the movie? You seem to be involved in a few ‘cult’ films, do you think you’ll get this again with Charlie Says?
Yeah, the great thing about Charlie Says is that it’s the perfect match for someone who did a biopic (like The Notorious Bettie page) but who also did a movie about men and violence towards women (American Psycho). I get to incorporate both of those skills plus my own upbringing which was incredibly non traditional [G.T grew up in a commune] so it’s the perfect storm of things I know how to do and know about. I’ve read way too much about cults and serial killers, like WAY too much. I feel like I’m an expert in something really weird that scares me. When we started emailing you had just began filming. How long has production been going now? Well we are done filming! I started writing it in February 2014, we finished shooting it April this year and it’s in post-production now with the plan to be done in September. We shot it for probably 21 days which was brutal. It was really intense, not only is it a short amount of time to shoot a feature film but there were violent scenes, murder scenes, orgy scenes, drug trip scenes, prison scenes, child murder scenes so not your run of the mill people sitting around chatting! Every day was some new, intense, fucked up thing. How did you decide to tell this particular story? The producers of the movie came to me wanting a movie about ‘’The Manson Girls’’ and immediately I was like “ew”, you know what I mean? The fact that they were ever called that has always bothered me. They’re not his and at this time they are in their 60’s and have been in prison for most of their lives. At first, I didn’t want to get into this because I didn’t feel I had anything new to say. It’s this sensational tale that people just won’t let go and I realised there was something to that; why won’t people let it go? Why are they still obsessed? It is because these young pretty middle class white girls did this and it tapped into a moment in American society where there was a fear of what was going to become of all these wild hippy youths. This was brought to a higher awareness in this ByatLucas country (or least Chapel in western culture) that this is the end game for hippy culture.
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You’re [Charles Manson] going to take our most precious commodity and I use that word with a capital C, our young women, they are ours and you’re going to turn them into murderers? God, what’s going to happen to all of us? [In regards to women] It sort of tapped into the psyche of one man winning over other men, cultural anxiety and there is just so much to talk about. Is there an aim of what you want to convey to the audience or is it simply, telling their story? I want to convey or at least present a more complex picture of what it meant to be 19/20/21 in the last 60s, to be someone who wanted to be counter culture and to show how vulnerable young women were because feminism hadn’t really been born yet as such. Gloria Steinem hadn’t really started talking at that point so many women were out there in the world thinking “Yay what next? Give me drugs. I’ll get in your van”. They didn’t have any agency and they were still looking for men to tell them what to do and so they were extremely vulnerable as I like to call it “The Counter Cultural Institutional Date Rape” that was being a young woman in 1968. No one really talks about the fact that their parents should have been worried about them and when you talk to women from that era about what it was really like, it was a fucking mind field of like… if you didn’t have sex with every guy you wanted to then you 90 DEVOLUTION MAGAZINE
were part of the problem, that to me is so interesting. I’m also excited about what’s happening in the world right now in terms of understanding women and systemic oppression because it means that people are open to saying let’s go back and look at some of these stories we’ve taken at face value and reimagine them and think about who told this story and let’s tell it again from as much as we can glean from the women’s perspective in the story. I can do that endlessly with shit that happened in the 70s and I intend to.
in the world Charlie Manson, but how the fuck he got these women, after only knowing them for a year, to kill strangers in cold blood for a so called “cause”. Not only that but how did he get them for years after to still be moony-eyed, to have vacant smiles and start every sentence with “Charlie Says”, my movie is about a woman who is trying to UN-brainwash them. So that is interesting to me in particular because it’s a well tread tale of the Manson murders story but no one ever talks about the women except in terms of interchangeable crazy people.
Have you found it challenging to bring a fresh take to such a prolific murder case? I did until I found a book that not many people had read that was written by the woman who was cast to try and un-brainwash them. [The Long Prison Journey of Leslie Van Houten: Life Beyond the Cult by Karlene Faith] and she was a woman who was a grad student, an activist, feminist, on her way to becoming a lesbian (see we found the lesbian in the story). Before I found that book, I was sort of demoralised because I didn’t have anything new to say so when I found it was fantastic. It has so much insight into how the girls got to where they were, what it was like for them to each slowly realise what they had done, how they each dealt with it and that’s really the heart of my movie. It’s THAT process; the selfawareness, the taking responsibility and the heart break of realising that there’s no Charlie anymore, that you’re just stuck here [jail] for the rest of your lives and dealing with it and really thinking about how ‘I killed those people, I didn’t know those people, they are dead, their families are going to suffer forever’ and to show they are still there living with it. Everyone is so interested in orgies, drugs, murders, trial and then everyone just sort of washed their hands of the story thinking it’s over but those people are still alive and still on a crazy ass journey so that was all really interesting to me, those parts of the story where the media loses interest.
A lot of people were surprised at the casting choice of Matt Smith as Charles Manson, mainly due to his association with Doctor Who! How has he been to work with? He’s pretty flawless actually, pre-tt-y flawless! Matt has a kind of intensity in his eyes that you can even see in his rendition of Prince Phillip in The Crown, where we have a charming person that has an underlining rage. And danger. I loved him, the only I said to Mary the director was that he is just so tall but he is just a really good actor. I think people are going to be stunned by his performance!
Is there something about subcultures and less mainstream lifestyles that you enjoy writing about? No, I think it just has more to do with women, with complex feminist and female perspectives where ever I find them and you can find them in the most unlikely places. To me the most interesting thing about Charlie Says, the story I wanted to tell, was that it’s told from the perspective of the women once they are in prison. It’s not so much about the magic, mystic, most evil man
How does it feel having it all come together after years of work? It just feels like…fucking finally!!! (Laughs) I’m really happy that I got to do it with Mary (Harron) and after writing and re writing and thinking and having to trim things for budget reasons etc. The closer you get to it, the more peoples notes you have from the director, from actors etc. It’s all very exciting and nerve wracking but it’s what we live for, it’s getting made that puts me in the 1% of everyone in Los Angeles who has written a screen play. The goal is September is for it’s released but these things happen how they happen so we shall see. We are already deep into the editing process so I feel confident that it will start to have a life in festivals around then. If you ask Mary she’ll be like “I don’t know, I just can’t answer that question right now.” She is very ‘one thing at a time’. It was very intense for her and a lot of hard work. You know the usual pouring rain as you shoot outside, different people melting down, places being too cold and then being too hot. Just drama-drama everywhere we looked and in the middle of every day I would go “hey Mary, it’s the best day ever!” (Laughs) I would have to remind myself that this was actually fun and we had been working towards this, even though it’s hard. guinturner.com instagram.com/guinevereturner By Alice Bizarre
Rebecca Crow By Gary Trueman
Model safety is fast becoming a serious issue with regular cases of photographer malpractice being reported not to mention the obvious risks involved in travelling alone to and from assignments. This is an issue almost exclusively particular to young female models although we would of course recognise that some of the safety measures discussed would apply to any gender. While the vast majority of photographers are decent and respectable the profession does have a few who tarnish the image of many. Rebecca Crow is one of the best known alternative models in the UK. She chatted to Devolution photographer Gary Trueman about modelling basics, ground rules and how to stay as safe as possible.
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So let’s talk about the basics first of all and modelling and levels, what they are and what they mean. “Well everyone is different and everyone is comfortable with different things. So the levels are clothed (typically fashion) and then you go for the lingerie which is just lingerie. Then you have implied topless which is topless no nipples. It’s a kind of a burlesque level. Then you can go for topless which is more glamour photography and stuff like that. Then you have implied nude which is sometimes bum shots or side on nude. Then you get fully nude. And then you get open leg. It’s totally up to the model what they are comfortable with. Some models will work to different levels with different people. It’s important to stress you don’t have to be a certain type of model. If you go for one level at one point you can chop and change at any time you want.” So it’s perfectly acceptable for the model to choose which photographers she works to which levels with? “Absolutely. It comes down to a very basic thing which is consent. You can withdraw your consent at any time as well if you’re at a photo shoot and you feel uncomfortable and you want to change your level all you have to do is say that and the photographer has to respect that. It’s your body, it’s your choice.” One of the most common things you hear are about photographers who will get a model in and try to push levels. How is the best way to deal with that? “This is something I hear so often and it makes me so sad. A lot of young girls want to make the best of a situation and a lot of the time photographers will frame what they are saying in a way that isn’t pushy. They say they think this or that will look great or I did this with this person so would you be happy doing it and frankly it’s always a difficult situation to be in because you don’t want to compromise how good the shoot is. But also you don’t want to compromise your safety or how comfortable you are. You just need to say I’m not comfortable with that and if they continue to push it then you need to put your foot down and say I’m not happy to continue to shoot if you’re not happy to respect my levels. It’s a two way street.” A first shoot, one of the things that should be asked surely is can I bring a chaperone along? Now that doesn’t mean a model has to bring along a chaperone but asking that question when discussing a shoot with a new photographer must give off alarm bells if they say no? “I think realistically there is no situation where you couldn’t allow for a chaperone. If someone straight up declines a chaperone and sometimes they do it in an aggressive
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way as well or a belittling way I think that’s a real red flag. If someone isn’t even open to a conversation about it then that’s a big red flag. You don’t necessarily need one if you know the photographer but it’s good to bring one. It’s good to have someone else’s input. Sometimes I can think that photographers might think boyfriends might intervene but realistically if that boyfriend is supporting his partner then it shouldn’t be a problem at all. I always ask about chaperones and stuff like snacks and transport just to see how willing the photographer is to make my life comfortable. Discussing the shoot beforehand too so you’re not going into it blind.” Say a model has had a bad experience with a photographer and they’ve pushed levels or they’ve got abusive or possibly worse which does happen but thankfully is very rare. What do you think is the appropriate action to take? Surely they’ve got be outed? “I think that if somebody has done something that is against the law then they not only need to be outed but the model needs to go to the police because it’s only going to happen again. These people can’t be allowed to get away with this. It’s not acceptable, it’s 2018 for goodness sake. If you’ve been compromised in a way that maybe isn’t illegal but is morally objectionable I think it is really important to warn other people but it’s important in the way you do this. Sometimes blasting people on social media isn’t the best way but there are a lot of model groups for example, online, on Facebook, private groups you can go to that you can speak to and get their opinion and of necessary warn other girls.” It’s important to recognise it’s not only older men that can push things or be pervs either. “Absolutely, it can be anyone. Unfortunately there is a stereotype as there is a stereotype with any kind of industry. Be careful and don’t assume because it’s your mates mate who’s just come out of college that something won’t happen. Be safe, always use your discretion and agree stuff beforehand.” You need to think about being safe outside of the shoot too. Travel safety and making sure if you’re not traveling with a chaperone that people know where you are and when you’re expected. “Always take care especially if you’re going alone and it’s not a place you’re familiar with. Always make sure somebody knows the route you’re taking and make sure you’re contactable
at all times and your phone is charged. If you can take a power pack with you and check in periodically at agreed times. If somebody has an objection to you pausing a shoot for a moment so you can check in then again that’s a big red flag. If you’re in an Uber you can share your eta with somebody, I always do that. Unfortunately in the times we’re in try avoid travelling alone at night.” We’ve mentioned modelling groups already. Are they something you would recommend actively seeking out? “It’s a close knit industry. Most of the girls I know all know each other so it’s a great network. It’s probably the first and best way to find out if a photographer is dodgy to work with. If you’re uncomfortable with anything then it’s a great way to get advice and also a great way to share your work and support other girls.”
In summary these are the main do’s and don’ts 1. Do always tell somebody where you are going. Tell them your plan and the address of the pace you are going to along with you contact details. 2. Do check photographers out and get references from other models or from modelling groups. 3. Agree the level you are going to shoot to beforehand. It’s the right of the model to change the level not the photographer. 4. If any photographer objects to a chaperone or any of your questions or objects to you checking in with someone then that’s a big red flag. Any opposition to these from a photographer is a big sign that there’s a problem. 5. You’re working as a team but the model is the boss. When models are putting themselves in a vulnerable position then they need to feel in control and they need to be in control. If you feel at any point that you’ve lost that control then you have every right to stop the shoot. 6. Try to avoid travelling alone at night but if you have to make sure you are able to contact someone and that someone will know you are overdue if you fail to make it to your destination. rebeccacrowstore.bigcartel.com facebook.com/RebeccaCrowModel Interview & Photos: Gary Trueman facebook.com/gtruemanBYHO
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S 15 YEAR
15 YEARS OF DEVOLUTION Here is the third creation from our ‘art series that has been produced by the very talented Marcus Jones (Screaming Demons) commemorating 15 years of Devolution Magazine. Marcus is a lowbrow graphic artist and illustrator and is based in the UK. 98  DEVOLUTION MAGAZINE
screamingdemons.co.uk instagram.com/marcusjonesart instagram.com/screamingdemonsart etsy.com/uk/shop/MarcusJonesArt