Heavy Music Magazine Issue #15

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thy art is murder PARKWAY DRIVE The Sound Of Violence LAMB OF GOD /// BEHEMOTH NORTHLANE /// HIGH TENSION D E F L E P PA R D / / / H I G H O N F I R E C R A D L E O F F I LT H /// G H O S T W I T C H G R I N D E R

oz underground

dimebag we pay tribute

DAEMON PYRE ♦ BROOZER DEADSPACE ♦ BRIARCLIFF

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contentsissue15

14 THY ART IS MURDER

24 DEF LEPPARD

18 TREMONTI

53 HEAVY CINEMA

20 PARKWAY DRIVE

52 INDUSTRY INSIGHT

The band, the controversy and their new album.

We chat to Mark Tremonti about their new album Cauterize.

Their first album in three years, the band have released Ire ahead of a massive tour in October.

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We chat to Phil Collen ahead of their Australian tour.

Monsters, The Human Centipede III and more.

Brian Cachia - The musical mind behind Infini and many more film scores.

Photo: Courtesy of Soundworks Touring

6 Shrapnel 10 Hi-Rotation 19 Stray From The Path c u l p r i t s 22 Being As An Ocean Executive editor 26 High Tension & publisher Robyn Morrison 29 High On Fire ASSISTANT editor 30 Lamb Of God Shane Morrison 32 Heavy Legends: Dimebag Art Director 34 Witchgrinder Peter Falkous 35 Hellyeah Publishing Consultant Effie Dimitropoulos 36 Armored Saint 186Red Pty Ltd 37 Behemoth COVER PHOTO 39 Breaking Orbit Thomas Savage 40 Watain Printing Blue Star Group 41 Northlane (Printed in Australia) 42 Cradle of Filth Contributors 44 Ghost Alex Sievers 46 Heavy Photos Anthony Moore Callum Doig 48 Heavy Photos: Cameron Cooper Damo Musclecar Greenfield Festival David Griffiths 50 Buried In Verona Emmy Mack Angeles 51 Heavy Surveillance: Part 1 Jana Jason Fuller Jeremy Vane-Tempest 52 Orpheus Omega Joel Anderson 58 Heavy Surveillance: Part 2 Joshua Bulleid Concepcion 59 Past Blasters: Cirith Ungol Joshua Justin Tawil Matt Doria 61 Heavy Hitters: Matt Bolton Alice in Chains Matthew Clewley Nathan Eden 63 Oz Underground Paul McBride 68 MYOFB! Peter Coates Rod Whitfield 69 Now Hear This Rodney Holder

Got a smartphone? By that I mean an iPhone or an Android? If so, this magazine you’re holding is about to come alive with HEAVY music!

But first you’ll need a QR code reader, and we recommend you download the FREE Digimarc Discover app from iTunes, or wherever else you can get your hands on it.

By simply holding your smartphone about 6-10cm above a QR code (ie. that Lego nightmare looking thing above) you can instantly access songs (and/or videos) on that same band you’ve just been reading about.

Pretty cool, eh!? It’s a whole new magazine reading experience.

Enjoy!

Roger Brooks Salla Harjula Sam Sweeney Shaun Watson Sofie Marsden Steven Jenkins Will Oakeshott

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welcome Changes to HEAVY Music Magazine

hree issues ago I took over the ownership of HEAVY Music Magazine. During this time we took a long hard look at what was working and what was superfluous, but always keeping in mind the best way to deliver a quality magazine to our readers.

The first change you might notice in this issue is a change to the editorial team. We’ve decided to bring the editorial duties in-house so that we can offer our writers and photographers financial compensation for their work. For without them, the magazine wouldn’t contain the quality content you’re used to reading.

This restructure means that Nick Lord and Amanda Mason are no longer part of the editorial team, however, you may see them writing pieces in future issues. I’d like to acknowledge the work of Nick and Amanda up to Issue 14 and thank them for their contributions.

I’d also like to acknowledge Liv Reppas, the original brains trust behind the magazine. Her last issue was Issue 11 and she was the person instrumental in getting HEAVY Music Magazine off the ground. She’s still involved in this year’s Brewtality Festival, which happens in Melbourne and HEAVY Music Magazine is a proud media partner.

Two other changes you’ll notice in this issue are the introduction of HEAVY Places and Gig Photo Highlights. Firstly, HEAVY Places will feature venues, stores, cafes, restaurants, bars or anything else that fits in with the heavy music culture. This issue we visit the iconic Utopia Records in Sydney and the memorable Frankie’s Pizza By The Slice, also in Sydney. This regular feature will showcase the places and what they’re best known for.

We’ve also decided to bring the best gig photo highlights over the past few months in our live photo section. This issue we kick off with local and international shows in Australia as well as a selection of photos from Greenfield Festival in Switzerland.

I hope you enjoy this issue. It’s jam-packed with interesting stories, informative album reviews and lots of great photos. And of course our cover stars, Thy Art Is Murder are heading out on tour, also presented

by HEAVY Music Magazine. So make sure you check out the cover story and tour dates and hope to see you at one of the shows.

Robyn Morrison Executive Editor

Advertising Enquiries sales@heavymag.com.au +61 (0)402 400 779

HEAVY Music Magazine is published by SF Media Pty. Ltd. ACN 603511502 PO Box 2206 Fitzroy, VIC 3065 The opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of publisher SF Media or Editor. All statements made, although based on information believed to be reliable and accurate, cannot be guaranteed and no fault or liability can be accepted for any error or omission. All material published in this magazine are subject to copyright provisions and cannot be reproduced, in part or whole, without the written permission of the publisher. All rights reserved.

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Email: subscribe@heavymag.com.au Photo: Nellitoday.

Scarlet 5

Photo: Bryan Fisher

Utopia Records Utopia Records has been one of Australia’s most iconic heavy music stores since 1978. That’s even before Iron Maiden or The Dead Kennedy’s released their debut albums or long before some of you were even born!

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Being best known as the Home Of Heavy Metal, Utopia Records has always been much more than that. They stock classic rock, hard rock, punk, industrial, and pretty much anything you can think of.

Cathedral, Blind Guardian, Danzig, W.A.S.P. and hundreds more come and hang out at their work?” (Not many, that’s for sure – Ed.) They also sell CDs of local and interstate.

So why do customers keep going back to Utopia Records, when it would be just as easy to purchase the latest release online? Manager, Paul Murphy explains. “To quote The Castle, ‘it’s the vibe’. Utopia changed ownership around six years ago and since then the staff have definitely had more input into making the store exactly what we always wanted it to be as we were all customers ourselves when we were kids. We go out of our way to make every single person feel as welcome as if they had just walked into their own house. I’m only happy if people walk out the door going, ‘That was the best shop I have ever been to.’”

How does Utopia Records fit into the heavy music scene? “We fit in in many ways,” says Paul. “So many Australian musicians have shopped with us over the years including many people you would have no idea are into heavy music. We do our best to promote local shows as much as the internationals with in store displays and social media posts.

We have also become a destination store for people around the world that are into all forms of metal, punk and classic rock. People come in from Brazil and Nepal with tears in their eyes. Quite often we will be in the middle of a signing and one of the members of some huge band will say to one of us, ‘I’ve always wanted to come here’.”

Utopia Records have always been known for their great range of music. “Vinyl customers come in droves from around the country just to see what we might have on the walls. Our many and varied in store appearances are legendary. Who else can say they have had Slayer, Carlos Santana, The Amity Affliction, Sabbaton, Behemoth, Ghost, Fear Factory, Heaven, Status Quo, Descendents, Of Mice & Men, Bob Daisley, Exodus, Fall Out Boy, Yngwie Malmsteen, Suicidal Tendencies, Suicide Silence, Alice In Chains, Paradise Lost, Napalm Death,

Where? Lower Ground Floor, 511 Kent Street Sydney NSW Australia Why? Diverse range of heavy music in all sorts of formats and bloody awesome in-stores.

Web: www.utopia.com.au Facebook: www.facebook.com/UtopiaRecordsOfficial Instagram: https://instagram.com/utopiarecords/

Frankie’s Pizza By The Slice

Frankie’s Pizza By The Slice has quickly turned into one of the must go to places in Sydney either for a gig or after a gig. The venue opened on 8 December 2012 and they’re currently planning their third birthday bash.

Upon walking into Frankie’s Pizza By The Slice, you’re greeted by a bar and a pizza oven that works harder than Dave Grohl vying for the nicest guy in rock award. Towards the back of the front bar is a series of booths and tables, which has that distinct Italian feel. But what about the pizza? It’s pretty damn good. We highly recommend the Margarita. You can grab a pizza by the slice (as the name infers) or if you’re extra hungry or have some hungry mates, you can order a whole pizza.

rare spirits, including our own beers masterminded collaboratively with the countries most exciting craft breweries. There’s the authentic Italian style pizza, by the slice until 3am, 7 days a week. There are new and classic pinball machines. Plus, our bathroom poets are the f*cking best. There’s Grade A banter on the walls of every cubicle, as well as some neat little shelves to powder your nose off.”

So what is Frankie’s best known for? Venue booker, Jordan McDonald says the sense that anything can happen on the night. “You could find Slipknot unmasked for pizza on a Monday or Cheap Trick joining in for Karaoke on a Tuesday. No matter what the rest of the world is doing, you know there will always be a party at Frankie’s.”

How does Frankie’s fit into the heavy music scene? Jordan says it’s doesn’t fit into the existing metal scene. “We’ve forced it upon the unsuspecting public. The heavy crowd is just a fraction of our patronage. The joint is jammed with every demographic from suits to strippers. We play hard rock and heavy metal 110% of the time and all these mother*ckers keep coming to the party. Everyone’s a metalhead, whether they know it or not.”

Apart from the many types of beverages, the good pizza and the array of pinball machines, McDonald explains that you’ll be greeted by friendly service. “[Frankie’s] is always free, no matter who’s playing or what’s going on. It has Australia’s most extensive list of beers and

Where? 50 Hunter Street, Sydney NSW Australia Why? Beverages, pizza, bands and bathroom poetry Web? https://www.facebook.com/stcfrankiespizza http://frankiespizzabytheslice.com/

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intothevoid

Stoner/fuzz news with Anthony Moore

One of the most exciting bands to literally blow speakers is new Melbourne band YLVA. Made up of members of Black Level Embassy, Agonhymn, Horsell Common and Coerce, to name a few. I’ve been lucky enough to hear them rehearse before they’d played any gigs and loud is an understatement.

Their sound is a blend of earth shattering doom (you know the proper stuff that hurts), discord and bloodied eardrums. Beyond awesome.

Portland, USA band Sons Of Huns released a new album, While Sleeping Stay Awake, July 21 through Riding Easy Records. It’s another ‘70s influenced riff and fuzz heavy release that’s the perfect follow up to 2013’s Banishment Ritual, which received some massive praise the world over.

Also out now on Riding Easy Records is Swedish band Old Man’s Will with their new 7” troubled man. Featuring one track and an outtake from their upcoming album Hard Times, to be released August 4th. Old Man’s Will have a smooth and cruisy flow to their sound.

Another new Melbourne band is doom / stoner / metallers Field, who haven’t even played a gig yet but already have punters talking. Featuring ex-members from bands Sexy/Heavy, Cave Of Swallows, and also Dazook, ethereal and the much-respected podcaster Handofdoom Radio. Their sound is down tuned, slow riffing and has soaring vocals. They’re recording an EP late July / early August and are looking to release it immediately digitally and follow it up on vinyl later in the year.

Recommended: Brisbane’s Budd are releasing their 1993 classic CD Yakfat on vinyl for the first time through the Tym Records. An astonishingly fat and heavy EP that has always deserved to be on a turntable and now we have the chance to own it on glorious orange vinyl! To be released August 29 with the original band who recorded the EP playing together for the first time since the mid ‘90s at a free all ages gig instore at Tym’s in Brisbane.

This is easily one of the greatest releases in the history of chunky guitar sounds. Get in your car and leave for Brisbane now!

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Words: Damo Musclecar Photo: Amanda Mason

Unveiling the Wicked

GIRL

Wasted Youth (Jet Records, 1981) Get Wasted

‘Wasted Youth’ @YouTube

Before he was shirtless and ripped, tearing up stages across the globe with arena rockers, Def Leppard, guitar virtuoso Phil Collen teamed up with a pre-LA Guns Phil Lewis and was making noise with hard rockers, Girl.

Wasted Youth is the band’s second album and though their career was short lived, they still managed to deliver some killer tunes as is heard on this awesome slab of wax. I found this record in a $1 bin in the USA and seriously, it’s worth every cent. Hell, I’d go out on a limb and say that if it was $3 I still would have thrown down my hard earned cash. This album may not have dated as well as the likes of Led Zeppelin IV but it’s still got some tracks that pack quite a punch.

We start Side A with Thru The Twilite and apart from the bad spelling, this is quite a good opener. Beginning with Collen’s trademark melodic riffs that are so prominent in Def Leppard’s music, there’s a thumping bass line, a sing along anthemic chorus and a fist pumpin’ backbeat. It’s a good steady rocker that keeps it simple while Old Dogs mellows out and takes it down a notch. It’s not quite ballad territory but it’s definitely one of the album’s quieter moments and while it’s not one of the album’s best moments, there is cowbell.

Ice In The Blood is a groovy riff filled ride through funky town reminiscent of bands like Electric Boys or something Poison would have done when going through their Native Tongue phase. The title track is a real ode to NWOBHM with its heavier riffs a la early Judas Priest or Accept.

There’s some slick guitar work but overall this song’s slow pace is quite boring and does nothing to elevate it to the likes of what Collen would deliver around five years later with his better known troupe. The side finishes with Standard Romance which has a bitchin’ guitar solo and hints at the sound that would become LA Guns.

Side B kicks off with a bit of rock n blues titled Nice ‘N’ Nasty, which has me wondering if this was an influence on the likes of The Dogs D’Amour or Cinderella’s Heartbreak Station. It’s kind of a mix of ‘50s rock ‘n’ roll with Elton John’s Saturday Night’s (Alright For Fighting) but played by dudes with big hair. McKitty’s Back rolls on next and sounds as though the producer

was out for the day because the mess of riffs just don’t blend together as well as the rest of the album does. It’s as though they had forgotten what it was they wanted to do with this song so to save any ounce of credibility it could have, they included one fiddly diddly shredding guitar solo which while great couldn’t save this track from being the mess that it is. The song 19 has some wild Zeppelin-esque guitar riffs and isn’t bad at all and was one of the stronger tracks on the record and wound up on a few mixtapes made for friends whether they wanted it or not. Also, the solo is as you would expect: bitchin’! Overnight Angels follows and just like every song on this record, the guitar work is incredible and the solo once again slays.

Not a bad track and another good foot tappin’ rock n roller and the line, “We are a rock ‘n’ roll band” is chanted to remind you that Girl are not to be confused with likes of other pesky genres. The album’s closer, Sweet Kids, is a ball tearin’ rocker until it gets to the chorus, which I found kills the pace of the song. Thankfully it’s saved by, you guessed it, killer guitar solos. It’s short and sweet but that chorus just annoys the shit out of me. Win some, lose some, I guess.

Girl released their third album, Killing Time, 16 years later and no one cared. The year was 1997 and punk and tracksuit metal like Korn and Limp Bizkit were the big thing. It may also have been because Killing Time was basically a bunch of left over tracks from this album and their debut Sheer Greed and in the mid-90s this sound didn’t hold up too well with their target crowd who had moved on to heavier and more outrageous music. It didn’t work for Poison so it sure as hell wasn’t going to work for Girl. Thankfully, both Lewis and Collen went on to be a part of rock history though with their bands LA Guns and the legendary Def Leppard respectively. The latter being the bigger of the two, obviously. While Girl was a stepping stone to what was to come with their careers, there’s no denying that the foundations of those albums we know and love by their latter day bands were formed within the confines of this little-known group from England. While Wasted Youth is one for the historians, fans of LA Guns and Def Leppard will definitely find some gems within.

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Take It Like A Man

Genexus

Bully

Century Media

Nuclear Blast

Cooking Vinyl Australia

by

Butcher Babies

Metal Los Angeles, U.S. butcherbabiesofficial.com

IRE by

Parkway Drive

Resist Records/Cooking Vinyl

Hardcore Byron Bay, Australia parkwaydriverock.com Review: Alexander Sievers

It’s been a while between records for Byron Bay’s boys.

With Ire, Parkway Drive’s fifth full-length record, the band could very well divide their fan base irreparably for years to come.

However, that wouldn’t be such a terrible thing, as this is one of their strongest records to date. One third is akin to lead single Vice Grip; melodic, chorus-driven anthems.

Another third is the bands usual side and one that most fans will love – the aggressive and insanely heavy songs that are designed to create huge mosh-pits and make audiences lose their minds.

The final third is reminiscent of its predecessor, Atlas, and its ambition to include additional instrumentation (strings, piano, spoken word etc.). The result of these three integral pieces creates a very bold, powerful, and ultimately solid record.

This is a record that isn’t really trying to push the band into a bigger market; they are already one of the biggest heavy bands on the planet. No, this record is trying to push the boundaries of what kind

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of sound can encompass the house-hold name of Parkway Drive. To all of the fans out there that worry the band has lost their edge; just wait for the crushing pit-call and breakdown in Dedicated, the superb chorus in The Sound Of Violence, and the sheer brilliance of Dying To Believe.

Parkway Drive are still immensely heavy, if not more so than ever before. Thus, Ire combines the aggression and heaviness of Horizons with the Atlas-era experimentation, but it goes further than its predecessors, and with songs like Writings On The Wall, it displays a sense of boldness that many would have never thought possible from one of Australia’s best.

Get A Grip

‘Vice Grip’ @YouTube

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Fear Factory Metal/Industrial Los Angeles, U.S. fearfactory.com

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High Tension Hardcore Punk Melbourne, Australia hightension.com.au

Review: Nick French

Review: Salla Harjula

Review: Matt Doria

Anyone familiar with Butcher Babies should know what to expect with their second album, Take It Like A Man. They haven’t strayed far from their sound on their debut Goliath, opting for evolution over revolution.

The album kicks into top gear from the beginning with Shepherd, the master of ceremonies, on the subtleas-a-sledgehammer opener Monsters Ball. As predicted by the chorus, you won’t be able to stop moving during this, the catchiest tune on the album.

The Butcher takes the album into heavier territory with its use of down tuning and brutally honest and straight-to-thepoint lyrics make it an album highpoint.

Gravemaker continues the no-holds-barred assault, before the next track Thrown Away halts the pace seemingly out of nowhere. Trading anger for melancholy, it’s well-written and a chance to catch a breath, proving Shepherd and Harvey aren’t merely angry at the world, but that they are also scarred and unafraid to show their sensitivities. The album saves plenty of ferocity for closer Blonde Girls All Look The Same, with haters not just in their crosshairs, but firing every round left.

Take It Like A Man won’t be to everyone’s tastes, but those who give the whole album a chance should find something to enjoy. It’s not a classic, but should ensure that the band’s career continues for quite some time to come.

It’s their ninth studio album.

Is there any chance the middleaged fathers of industrial metal can bring anything compelling to the table?

Impressively, yeah.

Opening track Autonomous Combat System hits you over the head with violence.

And your senses get a good sustained mugging throughout, with another highlight being the fierce Dielectric and only just a wee bit of relenting towards the end.

Genexus is by no means a departure from what you’d expect. It’s all syncopated aggro riffs with icy cold drum and bass work, with Burton on top weaving technological poetry about the imminent Singularity event. Puritan fans will be glad to know the drums are of human origin again, by touring member Mike Heller.

It’s just that it works. It’s in your face, brutal, crisp, and elegant in just the right amounts. On the twentieth anniversary of Demanufacture, this one really doesn’t lose to its legendary big brother much at all.

Oh, the calamity! The followup to High Tension’s universally acclaimed debut LP Death Beat is a convulsive continuation of the psychotic punk prodigy we fell head over heels for back in ’13, but it’s also a lot more.

Taking everything we loved from that record and mercilessly throwing it well into overdrive, Bully is a mesmerising and coruscating blizzard of crunchy drums, vicious riffs, and vocals so intense they could entice the Queen to start a wall of death. Unlike the depressing majority of modern hardcore records, Bully does away with the cliché bombardment of anti-government vomit and pro-violence dribble - across your thirty-five minute odyssey with Bully, you’ll come across a song about sports, an homage to the Lavender Panthers, and a downright brutal interpretation of metal-wrung trap music, for example.

Just to slather an extra coat of icing on this already sugar-bombed mudcake, you’ll also witness a mind-blowing drop-in from King Parrot’s guttural god Matt Young, and a hypnotising guest solo from grunge heroine Adalita. Even at its lowest points, Bully is gristly and growly and bursting at the seams with bloody vehemence, a crushing nod at what hardcore punk is supposed to sound like.

Go Dancing

No Fear

Play Ball

‘Monsters Ball’ @YouTube

‘Soul Hacker’ @YouTube

‘Sports’ @YouTube

We Came As Romans

BIOMASS by

Batpiss

by

Poison City Records

Punk/Sludge Melbourne, Australia facebook.com/pages/ BATPISS/255752641144074 Review: Cameron Cooper

With Australia’s rich history of garage rock bands, it was only a matter of time before some mates got together and threw the brooding aesthetics of You Am I together with the type of noisy, feedbackdrenched sludge that is currently making the rounds.

The band kick off the album by slurring their way through a few dirging, mid-tempo punk rockers, but begin to lurch further down the doom metal path towards the end, glass-gargling vocals and guitars giving way to a punchy, distorted bass.

The Collingwood power-trio recorded the album across five days, which is probably also about how many chords appear across it. Biomass is less raw than the band’s debut, having struck gold between methodical sonic exploration and the intensity of a quick recording process. The album sounds like a zombie’s hangover – perfect for getting into the groove on a Friday, or trying to rise on Sunday.

On The Piss

‘The Store’ @YouTube

We Came As Romans

Spinefarm Records/ Caroline Australia

Melodic Metalcore Detroit, U.S.A. wecameasromans.com

Venom by

Bullet For My Valentine

Sony Music Australia

Metal Bridgend, Wales

bulletformyvalentine.com

Review: Sam Sweeney

Review: Jana Angeles

Amongst the plethora of modern melodic metalcore bands, We Came As Romans are a band that, with only four studio albums, have undeniably succeeded in making a name for themselves.

Opening track Regenerate, is punchy, driven by aggression and heavy. Fourth track, Memories, is a distinctively sentimental homage to invaluable recollections of experiences. It’s uplifting and enlivening at the very least.

Admittedly, I missed Tear It Down, entirely on my first listen but on the second round discovered my favourite track on the album.

The album’s sixth track Blur, contains some superb melodic sections – perhaps the best on the album. The beginning of the song introduces this, before the idea is reiterated and executed commendably towards the end of the song. Savior of the Week, and Flatline, seem almost out of place amongst the other tracks on the album. The first of the two is unnecessarily overcomplicated while the latter, though an improvement seems just as overcomplicated by the three-minute mark of the song.

To my delight the album recovers itself, with the final two tracks reflecting the earlier sound of the album. This one is arguably for the old fans, yet still offers a remarkable appeal to newer listeners alike, and I don’t doubt that the reception of this self titled record will be generally complimentary and celebratory.

Roaringly fierce with electrifying goodies, Bullet For My Valentine deliver an ultra sound in Venom creating an atmosphere of bitterness, anger and aggressive guitar progression that packs a punch. Broken has a mindblowing guitar solo and the lyrical content resonating a sense of misery in No Way Out amplifies the record in its entirety: a masterpiece fit for the metal lover.

The epic bass line in Venom keeps a mysterious aura despite its slow-paced progression but balances the aggression of the record through its emotive tone.

The full-length has decent exposure to the talent the Welsh quartet have with a huge improvement from their last release, Temper Temper. They have brought a record that has completely devoured their sensational, rough sound that old and new listeners will love.

Venom is heavy, addictive and exhilarating. It’s the kind of poison you’ll like.

Come Again

Here’s A War

‘Regenerate’ @YouTube

‘You Want A Battle? ’ @YouTube

MELIORA by

Ghost

Spinefarm Records / Loma Vista Recordings / Caroline Australia

Pop Hymns Linköping, Sweden ghost-official.com Review: Cameron Cooper

Ghost were a key component in kicking off the occult rock revival that has been sweeping the metal world for a few years now, but have managed to remain an entirely different beast: while most doomsters are bearded folks playing pubs, Ghost – complete with their “new” Papa III – are keeping an air of mystic about themselves.

Costumes and cloaks don’t make a band, and it is unlikely Ghost will ever find themselves the darlings of metal bloggers again – gimmicks are only good for one or two runs.

Luckily, the band hasn’t run out of good songs yet, and Meliora is a breathtaking, ponderous journey across Lucifer’s astral plane.

While this is unmistakeably a Ghost album, from the haunting vocals to subdued riffs, the band toy with a more modern sound on From The Pinnacle To The Pit, a tune that wouldn’t be out of place on a Down record. The band don’t seem too comfortable stopping here though, and soon sludgy bass lines give way to ‘60s pop that has more

in common with Cat Stevens than it does Mercyful Fate.

Coming in at a little over forty minutes, the album doesn’t have too many low points, although begins to run out of steam near the end, with closer Deus in Absentia plodding along and out staying its welcome. It’s a small bone to pick at, but feels all the more out-of-place considering the album’s otherwise high quality of song writing.

Despite all the different flavours sampled throughout, Ghost do manage a degree of consistency, anchoring the record in the trinity of bass, vocals and keyboard flourishes. Detractors may argue Ghost are losing their relevancy, but if Meliora is anything to go by, the band are getting stronger, tighter and a lot better at writing memorable tunes.

Devil’s Church

‘Cirice’ @YouTube

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HAUNTED

Hammer of the Witches Aesthesis

Firestarter Distribution

Nuclear Blast Entertainment

by

Witchgrinder

Industrial/Thrash Melbourne, Australia. witchgrinder.com

Node by

Northlane

UNFD

Metalcore Sydney, Australia northlanemerch.com Review: Rod Whitfield

The Aussie scene is chockfull of melodic metalcore/post hardcore acts, almost to the point of overflowing. Many of them are very good, excellent even, but many sound kinda samey. What this scene needs is a band that injects just a touch of progressiveness into their sound. Enter Northlane.

The band’s last album, Singularity, truly established this five piece as a band that stood out from the seething, heaving pack in this manner, and Node lifts the bar again.

Their songwriting is very clever, in that it provides a big enough twist in the formula to set them apart, but not enough to make them too obscure and proggy to the everyday metalcore loving crowd.

Most of the tracks on Node provide a little more in the way of atmospherics, dynamics and slightly twisted rhythmic devices, injected into the sound amongst the riffage and double-kicking fury, than your stock standard metalcore outfit, and it’s a joy to behold.

Especially during the very interesting mid-album stretch of Nameless, Rot and Leech.

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At the same time, there’s still more than enough of the aforementioned metalcore thunder to keep the post-hardcore kids more than happy, and the dirty/ clean vocal trade-off ensures throat ripping vocal brutality and soaring melody in equal measures.

The production is a picture of crystal clear power, and the band’s subtle progressive edge ensures that the musicianship is just a touch above the rest.

by

Cradle Of Filth

Metal Suffolk, United Kingdom cradleoffilth.com

by

Dead Letter Circus

UNFD

Progressive rock Brisbane, Australia deadlettercircus.com

Review: Sofie Marsden

Review: Callum Doig

Review: Paul McBride

Witchgrinder have had a busy twelve months. Between embarking on their first overseas tour, and local shows supporting Ace Frehley, they’ve finished up their second album, Haunted, which was released at the end of July.

The Melbourne four-piece are known for their energetic, pyrotechnic-fuelled shows, dark, menacing video clips, and gruesome lyrics backed by heavy riffs with an industrial twist. They’ve continued on the same path with their latest album Haunted, but turned it up a notch to produce a well polished, heavy-hitting album that’ll leave you wanting more and more.

Long-time fans and newcomers alike will find plenty to sink their teeth into on this album. Highlights such as Our Nightmare and When Devils Speak are perfect examples of the band’s evolution and growth over the years. With plenty of throwbacks to the band’s early days, Haunted is truly the next step for Witchgrinder as they push more musical boundaries than ever before.

England’s malicious entities Cradle Of Filth have returned to spread a whole new plague of vile extremity with their eleventh record on the way titled Hammer Of The Witches. While remaining in the extreme manner they’ve been in since the beginning, Cradle have become a little more melodic and symphonic and not completely overbearing this time. Tracks such as Yours Immortally, Blackest Magick In Practice and Onward Christian Soldiers have their own unique display of blackened, heavy approaches with the band’s speed keeping them in a progressive pace. The guitars are not as overly dubbed along with the drums, while the bass isn’t as completely distant within the production.

This record has shown some improvement that Cradle Of Filth have brought onto this malevolent spawn as opposed to every other album they’ve previously done after Nymphetamine, so it’s safe to say that Cradle Of Filth have managed to redeem themselves.

It’s been somewhat of a long and mysterious wait, but Dead Letter Circus’s third album has arrived, and the good news is it doesn’t disappoint.

The Brisbane quintet have been squirreling away since announcing this release in February, and the result is a typically epic album of heavy rock with some new twists.

Many tracks feature a softer and less cluttered approach than before, but the trademark heavy riffs and colossal choruses are still present in abundance, with vocalist Kim Benzie in fine form and newbie guitarists Clint Vincent and Luke Palmer fitting in seamlessly. Reinvention is welcome, but Dead Letter Circus are smart enough to evolve while staying true to their roots. Whether quiet or loud, these songs showcase a band who have the knack of making everything sound as big as everything else; which makes for an album that will not only make your eardrums bleed, but do it over repeated listens.

Connection

Out For Blood

Filthy

In Town

‘Obelisk’ @YouTube

‘Bloodlust’ @YouTube

‘Deflowering The Maidenhead…’ @YouTube

‘While You Wait’ @YouTube

Vultures Above, Lions Below by

Buried in Verona

UNFD

Metalcore Sydney, Australia

buriedinverona.com Review: Paul McBride

It’s been just over a year since the release of their fourth album, but Sydney metalcore mainstays Buried In Verona aren’t wasting time with a follow-up. With a new guitarist, drummer and bassist on board, a settling-in period could be expected, but reinvigorated singer and founding member Brett Anderson is keen to grab the bull by the horns, with largely positive results.

Much is softer than what has gone before, including unmistakeable pop-rock elements in Hurricane, but the harder tracks are still there in Pathways, Dig Me Out and the brutal pairing of Vultures Above and Lions Below.

Elsewhere, soaring single Can’t Be Unsaid is a highlight, as Anderson works through his demons and displays an increasingly impressive range.

A band that stays still is a band that gets left behind, but, with Vultures Above, Lions Below, Buried in Verona are making sure that doesn’t happen to them.

Say It

‘Can’t Be Unsaid’ @YouTube

Sobo (EP) by

Double Chamber

Bad Magic by

Motörhead

ADA/Warner Music Australia

Independent

Metalcore Sydney, Australia doublechamber.bandcamp.com

Rock ‘n’ Roll California, U.S.

imotorhead.com

Review: Matt Bolton

Review: Matthew Clewley

Some of the best upcoming bands can be found in your own back yard. Hailing from Western Sydney are four piece heavy hitters Double Chamber, creating some groove heavy metalcore in the vein of Poison the Well and Parkway Drive.

Packing a wallop from the get-go with opening track Bert Bellend, Adam Lozusic proves he is a beast behind the kit.

It doesn’t take long for Mark Dadic to provide us with some stomping riffs, with many more to come.

Personal favourite for me is second track Cocaine Toddler Milk Drank with Dylan Cartwright standing out on bass, leading up for some head banging a plenty. Brandon ‘BJ’ Johnsons’ vocal delivery is top-notch.

Motörhead return two years after the excellent Aftershock for their twenty second studio album Bad Magic. Their gutcrunching rock ‘n’ roll is as alluring as it’s always been and shows no sign of stopping.

Bad Magic kicks in with Victory Or Die, with the fastpaced Thunder & Lightning storming in straight after. The mixes of the songs range from different tempos that are placed comfortably one after the other, with the trashy Teach Them How To Bleed that soon dies down with the surprisingly chilled “ballad” Till The End. The album has an interesting finale to it as Motörhead cover Sympathy For The Devil, but they do a fantastic job in sticking to their own as well The Rolling Stones’ roots.

The production is fantastic on Bad Magic, and instrumentally Motörhead are typically at their best as Lemmy still proves that he can perform vocally as he approaches his 70s.

The lads leave behind some groove driven metal sounds that will leave a good impression on just what this great nation has to offer.

Take A Hit

Crash

‘Trent’s Triten’ @YouTube

‘Thunder & Lightning’ @YouTube

Repentless by

Slayer

Nuclear Blast

Thrash LA, USA slayer.net Review: Nathan Eden

Slayer is a bit like vinyl; the industry has changed immeasurably around it and yet it remains bearer of that true sound. Consider that this is a band who reached a much-lauded, genre-defining creative peak thirty years ago, and we could forgive them for losing it like some of their former peers. Mercifully, for the sake of all things metal, this is not the case. Slayer’s eleventh studio album, Repentless, is as crushing and nasty as we might have hoped.

Repentless sees Paul Bostaph behind the kit for the first time since 2001’s God Hates Us All whilst Gary Holt fills the void left by Jeff Hanneman’s passing. Holt’s involvement appears to have created a renewed energy for the band, if only for the fact Kerry King refuses to be upstaged by the new guy. Even Tom Araya’s vocals get an injection of menace, filled with as much piercing intimidation as they ever were.

Following the album’s brooding intro, Delusions of Saviour, it’s only a fraction of a second before we’re assured

this is a Slayer record. King offers up an opening riff that excites as it comforts.

Admittedly, that might sound like a strange combination however, the whole album is an exercise in showing us how it’s done. The title track offers nothing ground-breaking but trust me, you won’t care.

Further on, Slayer retain trademark venom without letting Repentless sink in to predictability. It’s no easy feat and perhaps best exemplified on tracks such as Take Control, You Against You and the delicious riff sandwich of Chasing Death. The band’s deceased co-founder also manages to retain a legacy with the Hanneman-penned Piano Wire.

Lyrically, the songs remain as antagonistic as ever, without ever hinting at becoming ridiculous for the sake of it. Repentless sees a reinvigorated Slayer doing what they do best despite the setbacks and tragedies of recent years. Doesn’t that make you feel all warm in the tummy?

Executioner

‘Repentless’ @YouTube

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cover story

Words: Nathan Eden Photo: Thomas Savage

It’s not every day a band brings out an album with subject matter and cover art to match the extremity of their sound. Vocalist CJ McMahon tells Nathan Eden all about a banned album cover, consulting religious lawyers, and what it’s like to be in Thy Art Is Murder as they release the controversial Holy War.

T

hy Art Is Murder don’t appear to be the type of band content with merely being just one of the metalcore crowd. Their extreme sound might give a stronger nod in the Behemoth direction than many contemporaries, but perhaps it is their attitude to their art which truly seeks to stand out. Amidst a touring schedule that can’t help but speak volumes about the Aussie band’s work ethic, they have also managed to give birth to one of the most uncompromising releases of the year. Holy War is anything but a subtle collection. It’s a scathing, ugly and brutal attack on an apathetic zeitgeist, as much as it is a threat to your ear drums.

Vocalist CJ Mahon knows the score. The album is bursting with potential controversy. Tackling issues that most would consider off-limits, Thy Art Is Murder have constructed an album aimed as an aggressive strike in opposition to the planet’s ills. With the

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collective fist raised towards extremist terrorism, religion, and even child abuse, McMahon sees a world that hasn’t responded well to a peace-and-love approach - and he’s well-aware that Holy War has the potential to stir up some serious excrement.

“The world is f*cked,” the vocalist begins. “I’m so sick of hearing people say how the world is a beautiful place and that we can fix problems with peace and love, etc. It’s just not something that’s going to happen.

“We take a more direct approach than that,” he continues.

“There are other bands like us out there that are tiptoeing around and using metaphors and all that shit. Now we’re going straight for the jugular.

“In saying that, I get how the controversy has come about, but if you actually listen to the album; there’s ten tracks on it, eleven with the bonus track included. Only one of those songs is actually

cover story

“We’ve had a religious lawyer take a look at the lyrics,” CJ explains.

“He was totally cool with it. But we wanted him to come in and have look because you can’t be too careful”. the extremist minority, CJ intelligently points out that history tells us someone will always take things in the most negative light. “I feel that it may insult a small part of the population but it is obviously not intended that way. I don’t think we’re doing anything extraordinary. It’s in the news,” he says.

It ’ s Wa r

‘Holy War’ @YouTube

relevant to this controversy”.

In an act which may be interpreted by some as making a small compromise, the controversy of which McMahon speaks has seen the band engage the services of a professional to go over the lyrics from the album’s self-titled track “We’ve had a religious lawyer take a look at the lyrics,” CJ explains. “He was totally cool with it. But we wanted him to come in and have look because you can’t be too careful”.

The band reckon that in the modern social climate, technology and an ever-increasing politicalcorrectness, has resulted in a world where freedom of speech doesn’t necessarily afford you the right to be safe.

“Just look at that shit that happened in Paris a few months ago,” McMahon says in reference to the 7th of January slaughtering of twelve people in the offices of satirical newspaper, Charlie Hedbo, by two men identifying themselves as belonging to a Yemeni branch of Islamic extremist group, Al-Qaeda.

Whilst insisting that the lyrics are aimed at the absurdity of

It’s the artwork itself that might be a little harder for the band to explain away to those who refuse to read between the proverbial lines. The original album cover was infamously banned and confined to the inside of packaging. In April, it was revealed that the cover depicting a child suicide bomber covered in bombs and blood, had been rejected after being presented to distributors.

Surely this only serves to illustrate McMahon’s point with regards to that small section of the population not prepared to take a piece of art for anything other than a personal attack capable of inciting passionate violence. It is perhaps somewhat ironic that the piece of art in question, which in essence attempts to illustrate the absurdity of such violence, should itself be seen as a potential magnet for extremist behaviour.

With all things considered, is the band disappointed that the original cover art was not seen fit for use? Did the rejection serve to soften the “straight to the jugular” approach? The answer is a little from column A, and a little from column B, admits the vocalist. He also suggests that safety may have also been a contributing factor.

“Yes and no,” says McMahon. “It does suck that we can’t use the cover we wanted”. He then concedes that the altered, and lessconfronting artwork may work in the band’s favour health-wise.

“If it’s not going to get us killed,” he says in acceptance of the forced change. “To be honest, we were a little worried about certain types of people and how they might take it. You know, with the way the world is at the moment, and people getting the wrong idea. So yeah, we were a little bit scared about releasing it.

It’s scary but also exciting”.

The band is not shy of hitting the road in the Australian tradition of good old-fashioned hard toil. McMahon says that whilst they are out there making their dreams come to them, it has its downside too; one that many committed musicians will know well.

“We love touring,” he enthusiastically pronounces. “We’ve played about two hundred and fifty shows a year over the past three or four years. We do miss our families and partners.

We get a bit homesick. But it helps us get bigger and better at what we do so we won’t be dialling back the touring any time soon”.

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cover story

Thy Art Is Murder have just finished dates with a Slayer-led line-up in venues all across North America, ahead of taking off for another trip around Europe over the coming weeks. Other bands that joined our boys and Slayer include the talents of King Diamond, Hellyeah, The Devil Wears Prada, and Whitechapel.

“This is the biggest tour we’ve done outside of festivals,” he said. “Apart from Slayer, I haven’t really heard too much of the rest of the bands. I think the only band we really like would be Whitechapel”.

In terms of the music itself that listeners may experience either live or on the Will Putney-produced Holy War, tracks from the new album have a depth that was only partially present on the release’s predecessor, 2012’s ARIA-charting breakthrough, Hate.

Whilst you might not find an instantly accessible death anthem in the vein of Reign of Darkness or The Purest Strain of Hate on Holy War, you will find a level of intricacy that satisfies further with subsequent listens.

McMahon is emphatic in agreement at the suggestion that a track, which best exemplifies this maturation, is the aural beast that is Fur and Claw.

“I love that track,” he begins. “Myself and Marshy (guitarist Andy Marsh) co-wrote that song.

I see it as a relevant issue; man killing animals”.

CJ explained how the song professes his opposition to people’s greed in harvesting the planet without sustainability in mind.

He listed most ingredients of a Big Mac along the way to suggesting that consumerist behaviour has a negative impact in many ways. “There are heaps of farms devoted to supplying McDonalds,” he said. “Beef, tomatoes, pickles, onions. It isn’t sustainable.

“I have fished my whole life; since I could walk. But if we keep going as we have been, there may be no such thing as seafood in the future. I might not be able to teach my kids to fish,” warns McMahon.

It’s certainly a noble point he makes and it exemplifies themes throughout the album which concern themselves with making the world a better place, only preferring to shake the shit out of people rather than tread the soft path. Considering these concerns, it might be disappointing that the band seems to attract negative attention at times, earning a public profile for the wrong reasons.

After the infamous Soundwave appearance in 2014, the band reposted to their Facebook page, Channel 9’s coverage of the incident in which they supposedly incited crowd violence, with the caption, “Ukrainian and Venezuelan rioting, the asylum seeker issue and Tony Abbott’s government could all be occupying column inches but they report this? See you in the pit Karl Stefanovic”.

Following the incident, Soundwave founder AJ Maddah, was quoted as saying he hoped that Thy Art Is Murder would emerge from the incident a “more considerate band”. McMahon says whilst he is disappointed that his band attracted negative criticism at the expense of the issues his lyrical output concerns itself with, the whole thing was an overreaction.

“I don’t give a shit,” he said defiantly. “I told the crowd that there was enough of them to go over the barrier if they wanted to.

Then some other dickhead with a walkie talkie told AJ I said to kill the security guard. It escalated when someone I didn’t know tried to grab me as I left the stage and I told him to f*ck off.

“I’m cool with AJ. It wasn’t his fault. It just sucked that I had calls from my family asking if I was okay. My grandmother thought I was going to jail”.

McMahon reckons he is yet to see Karl Stefanovic in the pit.

Holy War is out now via UNFD. H

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Photo: Christian McGuinness

cover story

Thy Art Is Murder tour dates with Aversions Crown, Feed Her To The Sharks and Colossvs Presented by Heavy Magazine, UNFD and New World Artists 14 October – Amplifier, Perth (18+) * 15 October – Fowlers Live, Adelaide (Lic/AA) 16 October – Corner Hotel, Melbourne (18+) 17 October – The Factory, Sydney (Lic/AA) 18 October – Woolly Mammoth, Brisbane (18+) *Feed Her To The Sharks not appearing in Perth

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Fee l T h e B e at

‘Another Heart’ @YouTube

Words: Robyn Morrison Photo: Carlos Amoedo

Tremonti recently released their second studio album, Cauterize, and proved that not every band should fear the second album curse. This album has catapulted the band into the ears of listeners who might not have picked up the band’s first album. In the middle of touring, Mark Tremonti has literally stepped off stage to chat about how the music is being received this time around.

A

ccording to Tremonti, he’s an artist who’s always writing, so when it came to putting Cauterize together, he collated all of his ideas. “I put together as many [ideas] as possible before hitting the studio.

We spent about forty days of organising ideas and then we spent almost two months tracking. We took the twenty songs and split them in two for a part one and a part two for the albums, but they’re not being released at the same time.”

Mark goes on to explain that each song is an idea on its own and some of the tracks were several years old. “Other ideas were brand new.

It was all over the place,” he explains.

Before the album was released, Tremonti gathered up some fans for a listening party. “We played them all twenty of the songs and told them we were looking to choose the first single. Another Heart, Flying Monkeys and Radical Change were the three songs that came up in first place. Then we met with our radio staff and thought Another Heart was the strongest song.”

Flying Monkeys was the second track to be released from that album a few months later. If you’ve only heard these two tracks, then you may be surprised at the musical diversity littered throughout the album. “The album goes in both directions,” Mark explains. “It’s much heavier and there’s much more atmosphere.”

HEAVY Mag writer, Paul Southwell, verified Mark’s comments in a recent review on heavymag.com.au where he concludes, “This album is a highly recommended piece of work that should please anyone into hard

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rock, metal, fast guitar playing and even commercial material that has a substantially metallic edge to it.”

Mark has even been quoted as stating this is the band’s best work to date. “It’s an improvement on the first album,” he explains. “We spent a lot more time on this album than we did on the first album [All I Was].

We had a much bigger budget. We recorded using a Neve console, so the sound was really big. This time around, we were a seasoned band that’s toured together. The first time we recorded, we were just three guys without a bass player.”

Touring is the focus for most bands once a record is released and it’s certainly on Mark’s radar. “We really want to get back to Australia anyway we can. Other than Europe, America and South America, Australia is the only other market that we’re really trying to push to get to. There are a few scenarios that might get us there so we’re going to try to hunt them down.”

Finally, speaking about Mark’s previous bands and breaking out on his own, he says he was faced with huge challenges. “I’ve been doing this for twenty years and it’s about as hard as it’s ever been to have success.

The way things have happened with the Internet, it’s really tough for bands to financially stay afloat, so we have to think of other ways to make things work. Starting over is always hard, but that’s part of the challenge and the excitement.”

Cauterize is out now through Fret 12/MGM. H

E p idem i c

‘Outbreak’ @YouTube Words: Will Oakeshott Photo: Courtesy of UNFD

Ronald Reagan, the fortieth President of the United States of America once said: “If we love our country, we should also love our country men”.

T

his is a beautiful sentiment that, if embraced, had the potential to solve issues that have plagued not only the USA, but also the world.

However, actions speak louder than words and as guitarist and sole original member of New York’s Stray From The Path Tom Williams enlightens me, even in his former hometown the dullness and lack of opportunity has resulted in devastating results.

“A friend of mine pointed out to me the other day; it actually made a lot of sense when I really analysed it. Where I am from, which is Long Island, New York, it’s only nice outside maybe three months of the year, it’s very grey, cold, rainy and snowy. There isn’t a lot to do, so people get bored and ultimately lose motivation. They end up needing to feel something different so they end up doing drugs. Once someone starts down that path it is a very slippery slope, it is so easy to become addicted to these substances and there ends up being unnecessary deaths and poverty.”

A resolve for such a devastating life cycle will not come overnight, but could be achieved to a degree through many different avenues. If the higher powers were to address these issues in a timely proactive manner, the future could be looking brighter for these suffering citizens. But, as Tom digresses, an opportunity that is presented here does spike the interest of an evil corporation that in turn deceives and swindle these vulnerable people to disastrous results.

“What scares me the most is that these people who are ruining their lives with drugs, are doing it because they are not truly happy. That’s why they abuse drugs. There is something wrong and simply add boredom to that, it is a recipe for disaster. Pharmaceutical companies see this as an opportunity, which is just frightening. We should try to help these people through their issues, not make them spend money they most likely don’t have.”

Tom continues. “ A quote that I always like to acknowledge when I talk about our song Outbreak is: ‘Pharmaceutical companies don’t have patients, they have customers’. What they force down susceptible consumers throats forces them to return to the idea of their medication instead of looking at a natural remedy or a change of diet like cutting out sugar, or meat or alcohol or whatever. They just have another form of medication so people become repeat customers, because they don’t make money from someone curing themselves of whatever ailment by eating organically for example.”

The song, which Mr. Williams speaks of, is the lead single off Stray From The Path’s eighth studio album Subliminal Criminals. The included film clip with this song is shot with an early ‘90s feel, a throwback of sorts to the times of VHS. What the story entails, a graphic film of people

in the “pill” culture, swallowing whatever the television tells them to believing it will cure their illness. The irony is, this medication does the opposite.

“We definitely wanted to base it on that ‘90s era of music. What I had in my head for the film clip was like Today by The Smashing Pumpkins, which is very bright and quite grainy. So that was the direction we wanted and it suited the song so well because it has that Beastie Boys and Rage Against The Machine vibe.”

But what message are you trying to portray with the clip?

“To a degree, pharmaceutical companies utilise scare tactics for the really vulnerable people. They might use a health scare, a sickness like Ebola or flu shots, to get people to spend more money on drugs, which they would probably be just fine without. Healthcare in the USA is not free like in other countries throughout the world; it’s an industry worth an infinite amount of wealth that is nearly impossible to fathom. What we tried to achieve with the video is that the reliance on the medication that you see forced down the family’s throats is in a way making them addicted and ultimately unwell.”

To Stray From The Path’s absolute credit, this social awareness is actually the main inspiration for the newest full-length. What is even more remarkable is the extraordinary fusion of hardcore meeting rapmetal à la Rage Against The Machine, which the quartet have created to genius stature. Joining the ranks of other politically aware heavy outfits that are also enjoying a global ascension after years of endless touring and releasing incredible music, the UK’s Enter Shikari and Architects.

Exceptionally, both Architects’ vocalist Sam Carter and Shikari’s Rou Reynolds lend their unmistakable voices to selected tracks on the new Stray From The Path album. The real intrigue though comes from Rou’s addition to the song Eavesdropper.

“The collaboration with Rou Reynolds, that was something we had talked about even prior to when we hit the studio to record Subliminal Criminals. We toured with Enter Shikari and really got to know them well, then we did Warped Tour with them and we brought up the song and what it was about and he was 100% into it. Then we actually recorded it altogether with producer Will Putney and Rou had written his incredible part that you hear on the album. The most amazing thing about that was when Rou agreed to work with us, the other guys in his band were really amazed and told us: ‘Rou never does guest vocals on any songs ever’. So it was really an honour.”

Stray From The Path’s Subliminal Criminals is released on 14 August through UNFD. H

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Words: Alexander Sievers Photo: Courtesy of Resist Records

With a new album on the horizon and with the band tearing up the European festival circuit, Alexander Sievers spoke with Parkway Drive’s Winston McCall about their new album Ire, and on changing up the band’s done-to-death formula.

M

oments before the credits roll on Parkway Drive’s first DVD, Winston McCall states that predicting what the band will do next is ‘like rolling dice’. Never before in the band’s career has the die been cast so prominently than with their upcoming fifth record, Ire, and McCall is of the same thinking.

“This record was the one where we thought we had done all we could with the metalcore formula we had, which was literally fast parts, breakdowns and blast beats. So this time round we used any idea we had and turned it into a Parkway Drive song. That’s how we see the future of the band, taking any sound or concept and turning it into a Parkway song in a different capacity.”

With songs like Writings On The Wall, Vice Grip, A Deathless Song and The Sound Of Violence, fans and critics alike will see that Parkway Drive have encapsulated not only what made the band great to begin with, but what they can do with their sound, and where they can really push the envelope to where no fan would have ever expected. Because

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if the lead single, Vice Grip was a shock, then Writings On The Wall is going to give people a heart-attack. McCall not only laughs at this sentiment but he is very fond of the track.

“I’m really proud of it. It’s definitely one of my prouder moments.”

He continues, “That song literally started with me doing a hum and these stomps and claps around my house, and when I brought it to the guys they said ‘What the f *ck is this?’ I really love it, and I’m sure there’s plenty who will connect with it and plenty who won’t. But I’d rather have divisive tracks that have a wider scope of sound.”

As the name suggests, Ire is an album filled with anger, and unlike Atlas, McCall says that this did not fully stem from touring more of the world, but rather just understanding and knowing the issues that are facing us all.

“If anyone out there bothered to look at what’s going on, it’s really hard to not feel anything past disappointment. It’s disappointing to know that humanity as a whole is capable of a hell of a lot more, and yet

PARKWAY DRIVE TOUR DATES WITH THY ART IS MURDER, MEMPHIS MAY FIRE AND THE WORD ALIVE 23 September Red Hill Auditorium, Perth 25 September Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide 26 September Festival Hall, Melbourne 27 September Odean Theatre, Hobart 2 October Riverstage, Brisbane 3 October High School, Byron Bay 9 October Hordern Pavilion, Sydney 10 October Uc Refectory, Canberra 11 October Panthers, Newcastle – 18+

G e t A G rip

‘Vice Grip’ @YouTube

you’re just hammered with more and more bad news. I’m sure the masses on this planet want to do something more than this, but there’s a select few who are f*cking it up for the rest of us, and in such horrible ways, too.

Now, aggression isn’t something that’s foreign to Parkway Drive, especially in their lyrics, and when asked if he finds it easier to write aggressively McCall admits that writing negative-based lyrics has actually been the easiest for him.

To be honest, yeah, it is. This band has been a negative mouthpiece for me. It’s what I use to make the negativity into something positive.

I find it a lot harder to write positive lyrics than I do with writing simply irate ones. It’s because I’m lucky enough to stand on these stages and it’s hard not to feel stoked when playing these shows at the same time.”

The front man continues with a quick summarisation of what the album is really about, “I think what people need to hear is that everything isn’t okay, which was the whole idea for the album; being angry isn’t something we should shy away from. People need to be pissed.”

With the omnipresent nature of the Internet, sites like SumOfUs. org and Change.org can really help influence real change, and can have a real impact. The singer strongly supports these endeavors, but he hopes that it can go even further.

“I think that any kind of activist movement is fantastic. I think Change.org is great, as it can stem from anyone.” He pauses briefly, and

then continues, “I think it’s the first step. We’ve got to the point where these petitions go online, and ten’s or hundred’s of thousands of people will rally for these causes, and then you’ll see their government ignore it completely. That’s when you realise something has to change, and that the “system” has become f*cked. When we really start to analyse how we live as a society, compromise our perceived safety and comfort, that’s when we’ll become part of a far bigger movement.”

One song in particular that speaks of the corrupt “system” is Vice Grip, which has been quite, for lack of a better term, controversial among the fans. However, the band were not oblivious to the divide this song would cause, in fact, they expected and welcomed the backlash.

“We wrote that song a long time ago, and we always knew that it’d be the single and we knew that that would be the response. It was a very calculated response simply because every time we would release something in the past it had to be similar to the previous stuff, just so people would go, ‘That’s the Parkway I know’. This time, we didn’t want people to know what they were going to get from the record, as there are some things that people are not going to expect, because if you keep giving people the exact same thing, they might stop after the first listen.

I’d rather people say, ‘I hate this, I want to hear the rest of it’, than just ‘I know what’s coming so I won’t bother.’”

Again, as the Internet is the forefront for anybody with a phone or computer, ‘every man and his dog’, as McCall puts it, can share their opinion about anything, and yet he reveals that Vice Grip could be the next fan favourite.

“The online reaction was split, and we completely expected that, but that song live is the biggest song in our set. Every man and his dog has the be-all and end-all opinion and that your band is dead…then you go on stage and play to 30,000 people. That’s when you realise that none of that doesn’t account for much,” laughs the singer.

With four critical and commercially successful albums, two goldcertified DVD’s, countless sold out tours around the world, Parkway Drive don’t really need all that extra exposure from a bigger market.

Yet, a lot of the reactions to Vice Grip were implying simply that. Yet, as stated, the band are already so well known, so respected and still have such pull in the scene that this seems more like the group aiming to focus more on the melodies of the songs than anything, and McCall agrees fully.

“It’s more the fact of us focusing on our melodic aspect - the guitar.

It carries the melody and the rhythm more than the vocals do, as they carry the emotion and the impact. The writing for the whole record was making sure that when the melody was there, we focused on the melodic part of the guitar lines, and not just slamming it with insane vocals and insane drum beats.”

That focus on improving their songs and musicianship, and on switching up the formula was as McCall puts it, the band really kicking their egos into gear.

“We came to this album and we found that it didn’t entertain us anymore, writing fifty more breakdowns that sound very similar, that is. We literally went back to the drawing board to learn new skills, like I did a year of vocal training, learning what my voice could do. We had to learn to play less, than to play more, and doing all of that after ten years was a big step. We’re five albums in, so let’s roll the dice, let’s try something where we are not comfortable, where our egos are on the line; it was like starting a whole new band honestly. We wanted that feeling where we were really far out of our comfort zone, and that made it fun and exciting. You can never write a record to please people, only one that you want to hear, so we went with that formula and made it harder for ourselves”, McCall states confidently.

Ire will hit physical and digital shelves in September, which is just over ten years since the release of their debut, Killing With A Smile.

Just like the final line of their DVD, it’s anybody’s guess what’s next, but Parkway Drive are writing their own script as they go. With a huge headline tour lined up for this September, this is a band this is not only still on top of the ladder, they’re still leading the whole goddamned pack.

Ire is out on 25 September 2015 through Resist Records/Cooking Vinyl Australia. . H

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M a k in g Wav e s

‘Ain’t Nobody Perfect’ @YouTube

Words: Alexander Sievers Photo: Courtesy of Double Cross

Being As An Ocean have been one of the fastest rising bands within the melodic hardcore scene over the past couple years. Alexander Sievers spoke with front man Joel Quartuccio about their new self-titled album.

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eing As An Ocean have spread a faith-based message since their equally melodic and heavy debut, Dear G-d. It was then with 2014’s sophomore effort, How We Both Wondrously Perish the group’s success skyrocketed. It would be easy to prophesize that the Californian quintet will grow even bigger once their new album hits shelves.

After hearing this eponymous effort, it’s clear as to see that this is by far the darkest and heaviest material the band have written thus far into their five year career. Speaking with HEAVY from his own home over the phone, Quartuccio states that these heavier sonic tendencies are backed up with very powerful content, and confirms that it does revolve around the always-horrible issue of abuse, in all it’s forms.

“The album is pretty heavy in content when it comes to abuse. Both of the stories told deal with abuse and they are actually real stories; things that I’ve been told first hand by the people who witnessed them first hand,” says Quartuccio.

These themes are prevalent throughout the record’s forty-minute run-time, which was produced and recorded with returning producer, Matt McClellan. Fans were first shown a hint of this narrative with the album’s first single, Little Richie, which was written about Quartuccio‘s mentor/pastor, Rich McCullen, and the abusive childhood that he experienced at the hand of his father.

This kind of story telling isn’t new to alternative/heavy styles of music for sure, but Being As An Ocean are a band that do it better than most others. The singer eloquently and happily elaborated for us the three main stories that influenced his writing on this record.

“There are three songs or so that aren’t part of the greater story, but the stories that I do tell, one being Little Richie, is about one of my mentors. It’s his experience growing up in a household with an abusive father, and then there eventual reconciliation a year before he passed away.”

“A second one being a fictional imagining of my own look into Judas [from the Testament], as in what he could have been, and what he was thinking and feeling in while interacting with Christ. Trying to imagine human things that a person, like himself, who Biblically was an extremist in the Jewish community, would’ve experienced with Christ.”

Song narratives centering on faith and personal hardships have been the band’s lyrical bread and butter for a while now. Songs on the new album, such as The Zealot’s Blindfold and Sleeping Sicarii encompass the faith element to the band’s music, yet it’s never executed

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in a peachy manner, which typically puts listeners off religious-themed heavy music.

However, it’s only when the front man reveals the meaning behind the brutal Sins Of The Father does one realise how far the band have run with some of this content.

“The third being an account from a friend of mine who did a ride-along with a police officer, and encountering one of the most gruesome things he could have ever seen; the murder of a small child.

Then witnessing the aftermath of that event, which is stemming from domestic violence.” He then concludes, “All really very heavy themes, yes, but we don’t try to shy away from the real stuff.” One listen through the record will only assert this honesty and focus even more.

As for self-titling the record, Quartuccio states that the idea came from a chance encounter in Germany. “We were riffling through the lyrics once it was all done, try and pull out something that encapsulated the album and we really liked St. Peter. It’s about a man in Germany who we met, who upon hearing our [band] name knew exactly where it was from. That had never happened before, not once our entire career, let alone a stranger who was well into his sixties.”

For those unaware, the band’s moniker is derived from a quote by Mahatma Gandhi, regarding human nature – “You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is like an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty”. The lyrics of St. Peter all centre on this man and the bands glowing opinion of him, whom showed them nothing but wisdom and kindness. This encounter brought the band back to how much their name represents and means to them, hence the eponymous titling.

Being As An Ocean journey out to us each year since their first 2013 headline tour. So with a new album, thus the prospect of another tour (following their tour with Architects in April) must be in the works, right? While the singer states that they will most likely return next year, he goes on to conclude the interview with a resounding and determined statement about the group’s work ethic.

“You know, we’ve been through a lot in this past year of touring, whether it be weather, things breaking down, theft; just being run through the gauntlet. I am one hundred percent confident in saying that we can handle whatever is thrown at us. As long as we can make the show, it’ll be with a smile on our face.”

Being As An Ocean’s Self-Titled album is out now via Double Cross Australia. H

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Words: Rodney Holder Photo: Courtesy of Leanne Menard PR

Def Leppard are a bona fide music industry phenomenon! They’ve reportedly sold close to one hundred million records worldwide.

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hey’re also one of the few artists who’ve been awarded the Record Industry Association of America’s exclusive “Diamond Record Sales Certification”; an honour reserved for individual albums selling over ten million units. And Def Leppard have received that achievement twice! Rodney Holder caught up with Phil Collen ahead of their Australian tour.

With a new album in tow and their plane tickets booked for an upcoming Aussie tour in November, I was fortunate enough to speak with guitarist and founding band member Phil Collen. I began by asking him after such a successful music career, what is it that motivates Def Leppard today?

“I think we still have a lot to prove,” says Collen. “There’s a reason why you get in a band in the first place. The reason that I picked up a guitar was because I wanted to express something. I wanted to get something out. That turned into music, writing songs and producing.

You see so many bands that can’t be bothered. They can’t really sing, they don’t put the effort in. I think all the stuff that we’re experiencing now is a reward for putting all that effort in.

“We worked really hard on our records and live shows,” he continues.

“I can remember when we were doing stuff with (producer) Mutt Lange, he’d say, ‘Guys, you can be a good band or an okay band. If you want to be a great band, you’ve got to work a bit harder’. When you think you’ve got a great chorus that’s not great, that’s okay, you’ve gotta get better than

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that. That’s our motivation really. I love the fact that my playing gets better every year and I can sing better. Joe’s singing is the best I’ve ever heard him sing. With most artists, they stop doing that. They don’t put the effort in. I think that if you keep trying to get better, keep trying to improve, like I said, you’re rewarded. And then the audience sees it as well, especially in a live show.”

It’s so great to see the band are still inspired after all these years.

With so many achievements to their name, one wonders if they still feel any pressure to write commercially successful music, or can they now afford to just write the music that pleases themselves? “A bit of both actually. We’ve got a new album coming out in October and it’s called Def Leppard. We went in (to the studio) to write one song or do a kind of EP or something and we wrote twelve songs, which was unbelievable.

We were shocked. But we didn’t have any pressure. We didn’t have any record company or an executive saying, ‘guys, you’ve gotta do all this or we need some filler songs and all this stuff’. We wrote the songs and it wasn’t for the fans, it was for us. That was so fun and you’ll hear it on the album when it comes out. It would be a real drag to be restricted.

And we have had that before in Def Leppard. When you get a successful album and you can kind of be painted into a corner because you have to appease a certain amount of people. Now we just do whatever we want and it’s great. You dream of having that kind of a situation as an artist where you can actually write whatever you want and it’s okay. But we

Def Leppard tour dates 17 November Qantas Credit Union Arena, Sydney with LIVE and Baby Animals

M ass Hysteria

‘Hysteria’ @YouTube

18 November Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne with LIVE and Electric Mary 21 November Red Hill Amphitheatre, Perth with LIVE and Baby Animals

always try to make the music better and that’s a Def Leppard thing.”

It’s interesting to hear that the new Def Leppard album is going to be self-titled. There have been rumours that it sounds like “classic Def Leppard” but with a more organic vibe to it. There have also been rumours that it pays tribute to some of the band’s biggest influences, in Led Zeppelin and Queen. Collen responds. “I think our blueprint has always been a cross between AC/DC and Queen. That’s really what we tried to set out to do initially. I think with this one, it’s even a bit more open. There’s this stuff on there that’s like the hardest rocking guitar stuff we’ve ever done on a record and at the same time, there’s a couple of tracks that sound totally at home on a Top 40 station. I think the great thing is, like I said, not to restrict ourselves. Not to put any kind of boundaries on that. A lot of the time artists have to do that because there’s a label and they have to respect the audience. With this one, we actually just started respecting ourselves and it just felt really good.

Watching the Def Leppard episode on the Classic Albums Series The Making of Hysteria, it appears that during the song writing process the band are absolute perfectionists. “I think just getting it right, that’s the thing. Again that’s something we learned from (Producer) Mutt Lange,” explains Collen. “I think there’s a big difference between being sterile and perfectionist and actually getting it right. Not putting it out until it actually sounds like it’s grooving. There is a big difference there.

I’ve (even) left mistakes in just going back to the Hysteria album. Or on the Photograph solo from the Pyromania record. I wanted to go in and go, ‘Oh that note’s a bit out’ and Mutt Lange, he’s like, ‘Oh no, it’s cool, that note’s fine. Don’t even worry about it’. And then again, I wanted to do that again so bad because I wasn’t happy with it. And he said, ‘you know what? It doesn’t matter, it sounds great. It’s the right vibe’. And he was absolutely right. I think it’s not perfectionist so much, it’s just as long as it feels right and it sits right with the rest of the band. It’s not like it has to be perfect. It’s not like music by numbers. It just has to have the

right feeling, the right spirit, at the right point in that song. So I think probably perfectionist isn’t the right word, but we do like getting it right.

In a hypothetical world, what would you do Phil if you had to start all over again in today’s harsh music industry climate? “I’d be a kind of a busker,” he says. “I’d start it like that. I’d literally be writing songs the way I do now and I would literally play on a street, subways, get it worked up that way. Sell CDs, and hopefully, if people liked it, talent usually gets some attention and rises to the top. You would hope it would still do that in one form or another. I’d do the Ed Sheeran thing, where you’re sitting there with an acoustic guitar and a loop pedal and I’d kind of work at it that way. Just work really hard and before you know it, you’ll hopefully be rewarded. And I’d just keep doing it. Just play everywhere. It’s really hard work and you have to be humble. The minute you start getting an ego, you’re done. I think be humble and work hard.”

Australian fans are obviously excited to hear that Def Leppard are finally coming back to our shores this November.

“We’ve just kicked off a European tour. We’re in Prague at the moment, which is like one of those gorgeous cities in the world. It’s just killer. We’ve just done Lithuania, Ostrava, which is in Czech Republic, and Warsaw in Poland. They’ve been amazing, actually a better reception than I can remember in Europe. So whatever’s happening…I don’t know if we’ve got a lot better or something or what, but the reaction has been crazy.”

On this upcoming Aussie tour, Def Leppard will be supported by the rock band LIVE. Does the band actually have any say in what bands support you when you go on tour?” Yeah, if we want,” says Collen. “A lot of the time, it’s a very short list. It’s usually about three bands that you can ever choose from. So if you’re ever a huge a fan of someone, then we’ll jump on it. Or if we aren’t a fan, then we probably wouldn’t. For the most part, it’s someone else selecting for us. Like I said, it’s a very short, short list.” H

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Words: Matt Doria Photo: Courtesy of Cooking Vinyl Australia

The past few years have been pretty intense for High Tension, and they definitely aren’t planning to slow things down any time soon! Matt Doria chats with frontwoman Karina Utomo about how she reinvented her vocals for the band’s explosive sophomore album Bully, what it was like working with a new producer, and whether or not she sees another ARIA nomination on the cards.

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ince kicking off in 2012, Melbourne punks High Tension have been rapidly climbing their way to the top of the food chain. Their debut album Death Beat launched in 2013 to unanimous acclaim and some well-deserved awards recognition - including a nomination for the Best Hard Rock / Heavy Metal award at last year’s ARIAs and last month alone they wrapped up a shockingly awesome headline run across the East Coast, straight off the back of an enormous slate with good mates King Parrot. Oh yeah, and there’s that little matter of the MASSIVE sophomore LP they put out in July as well. That record - the magnificently menacing, beautifully brutal Bully - has been on shelves for just over a month now, and critics have been going absolutely mental over it… Us included, of course. What makes Bully so special is its enchanting balance between meticulous metal mayhem and pellucid punk purity, doused all over with some of the fiercest vocals under the sun courtesy of the peculiarly peppy Karina Utomo.

“I think he really nailed it in bringing out what High Tension is supposed to sound like on this album,” says a confident Utomo, sniping only at Balderston’s adamancy for perfecting the drum sound. “He spent f*cking DAYS on the drums!,” she laughs. “At one point, I was just like ‘when are we going to start recording the album? You guys have been testing that snare for, like, four hours!’” But it’s all in jest, of course, as Utomo explains how James’ input towards Bully resulted in a better, more solid album. “He’s a very, very talented engineer; he knows what’s

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up,” she declares. “He’s recorded some really f*king good bands, and he’s a fan of all of the music that we reference as a band, so he knew what we wanted to achieve. He’s also very pedantic when it comes to tones all of that nerdy sound engineer shit, so that was a big nerd-out for everyone.”

When it came time to bring Bully to life, Utomo found that she wanted to push her vocals further in order to bring out her brutal side.

“I’ve been working really hard on my low registered death growls. I had my heart set on that last year,” she says, explaining that vocals were recorded in layers this time around in order to harmonise with the lower and higher lines on top of each other. “In terms of recording vocals, it was done the same way [as it was for Death Beat]… Smash three tinnys and do everything on a handheld,” she laughs.

Bully wasn’t just a new beast for High Tension to tackle with Karina’s vocals grabbing a 1-Up. Although the group has always stuck with Shihad drummer Tom Larkin as their go-to producer in the past, the new record saw James Balderston - drummer for The Grenadiers and chief engineer at Adelaide’s Capitalsound Studios - take the reigns. “This was the first time that we didn’t work with Tom, who I’ve worked with for years in my old band (Young & Restless) and the two previous releases for High Tension, so we were already outside of our comfort zone there,” Utomo states. But while working with James was an initially scary concept, the four-piece hardcore unit warmed up to the bloke well as they discovered there was a mutual philosophy between them all on which direction

Get Physical

‘Bully’ @YouTube

they wanted to take the album in.

“I think he really nailed it in bringing out what High Tension is supposed to sound like on this album,” says a confident Utomo, sniping only at Balderston’s adamancy for perfecting the drum sound. “He spent f*cking DAYS on the drums!,” she laughs. “At one point, I was just like ‘when are we going to start recording the album? You guys have been testing that snare for, like, four hours!’” But it’s all in jest, of course, as Utomo explains how James’ input towards Bully resulted in a better, more solid album. “He’s a very, very talented engineer; he knows what’s up,” she declares. “He’s recorded some really fucking good bands, and he’s a fan of all of the music that we reference as a band, so he knew what we wanted to achieve. He’s also very pedantic when it comes to tones all of that nerdy sound engineer shit, so that was a big nerd-out for everyone.”

At the end of the day, Bully came out a massive win for High Tension.

The record has a doubtlessly strong life ahead of itself, but when asked if she sees another ARIA or AIR award nomination on the cards, Utomo confides that there really isn’t a way for her to tell. “I’m not sure, to be honest. You can’t overthink about what the response is going to be like,” she says. “We’ve set our intentions for the album and we’re happy with the results, and that in itself is the most important part. Everything that happens once the album is released is a bonus, and if people aren’t into it, then… F*ck it. I’m still gonna sleep at night.” We won’t find out for a couple of months if the record has a chance of taking home any trophies, but for now, the band are staying optimistic. “One of my biggest supporters and biggest critics is my best friend, and he was like ‘I reckon this is better than Death Beat,’ so even hearing something like

that is like… Ah, what a fucking relief!,” Utomo laughs.

Looking back on last year’s near-win with Death Beat, she admits that there was a hint of doubt in her mind that the band was even supposed to be nominated in the first place. “I thought it was possibly a mistake that we got nominated for an ARIA award,” she confesses. Though they didn’t end up winning the title, Utomo says that the nomination was an affirmative experience. Pointing to her freedom behind the scenes with Death Beat, she explains; “It was an incredible feeling to be able to do something with no compromise (every decision that we make as a band is considered, and we stand by those decisions) and then to have those nominations for the ARIA and the AIR award - to be acknowledged in that way - it felt really positive.”

Looking to what else the future holds for High Tension, Utomo announces that she has no immediate vision, but is excited at the prospects of being able to achieve new things. “For me, one of the most important and rewarding aspects [of being a musician] is being able to engage with different people and get an insight into their lives,” she opens. “You can get so much of a sense of what’s happening when you visit a different city and you can engage with people on such a deep level when you’re playing shows, with no need for any words or preaching. That engagement and that opportunity to tell a story is why High Tension is important for me - that’s all I’m thinking about at the moment. If there’s an opportunity to do that in different places or for bigger audiences then we’re totally down for that, but we’re sticking to our intentions of playing with bands we like, and doing all the things we want to do.”

Bully is out now through Cooking Vinyl Australia. H

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Smokin’

‘Luminiferous’ @YouTube Words: Callum Doig Photo: Courtesy of Shock Records

High On Fire is more than just a force to be reckoned with. It’s a band that has pushed the heaviest boundaries with a furious amount of potency that no one would ever think metal could birth. With the release of their eighth studio album Luminiferous, Callum Doig chatted to the band’s mad architectural riff lord Matt Pike.

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asically, we practiced recording all the riffs and songs over and over again, until we went in with Kurt Ballou. We already knew what we were doing, so we didn’t have to worry. It was enlightening because in every band practice we got together, we used to do it in Oakland, but now we recorded in Massachusetts. We had to get shit down and put shit together. We made probably about twenty demo takes, just recording the songs over and over again, until we had exactly what we wanted. And then Kurt added a little on top of that,” says Pike.

With High On Fire being a conceptual band, basing their topics around religious stories, Pike states that Luminiferous is more than just a story – it’s a statement from the band about what’s going on in this corrupt world that some people have blindly seen, and how your fears can come true if you don’t do anything about it.

“Well, the negativity is turning into positivity. There’s a lot going on in our world and a lot to think about. I hope someone can listen to our music and actually get a grasp on something to research. Because, the things I talk about in the songs, are a desire to research on one’s opinion. You gotta believe what I say, but you also should believe what’s going on in the world. We talk about it with mythology, demons, the supernatural and sci-fi and all that shit, which is really good. It’s becoming fundamentally weird that the demons take over with some sort of dark force. There’s gonna come a time where something bad is coming soon. The people that don’t listen are the people who have absolutely no clue, and you’re gonna get all scientific on them. Though, the problem with science is that it doesn’t think out on what they can prove. So, there’s a lot of shit they’re trying to prove, but you can’t control the weather or push molecules at the speed of light and blow up together to form some kind of portal. And meanwhile, all your fears are coming true, and you should realise that everyone has a personal one. And if you don’t do something about it, you’re f*cked.”

As High On Fire have continued to progress in the manner of stoner metal, Pike feels that the band has evolved in a handful of ways ever since their first album The Art of Self Defense. But, how exactly has High On Fire evolved since its formation?

“I think the writing style has changed. We put some energy into the way it’s dealt, and everyone gets to contribute like my bass player and my drummer. We all fit it together. It matters to me on how we put it together. If it’s not right, then we’re pulling ourselves again. I feel as though we have changed particularly in our musicianship, really.”

As High On Fire have progressed with Matt Pike’s battle for sobriety, the man has managed to shove the addictions up themselves as he continues to bring more chaos towards the sound that is High On Fire.

Though Pike has managed to put out a record with the band whilst sober, he still finds it hard, but as long as he has a clear mindset, he can go through with it.

“It was REALLY hard to even put words on paper, it’s really hard to play guitar and not be anxious. It’s hard to explain unless you’ve been there. I’m sure Slash from Guns N’ Roses has been through similar shit, but, there’s a lot of us in the club who don’t drink and don’t do drugs.

You gotta get used to it, but when you’re used to it, you get better. There’s an honest version of me that looks cool, but I’m not trying to be cool.

I just wanna be honest. Anyone can say anything about me, but I’m just a human being. When you put it out there that you are sober and you’ve read all this stuff, you don’t really know how to deal with it. My friends tell me ‘you can do it. You’re one in the public, now”. I might not make a lot of sense in this world, but the more sober I get, the better I get, you know?”

High On Fire’s newest release Luminiferous is out now through eOne Music and Shock Records in AUS/NZ. H

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Eight

‘512’ @YouTube Words: Jeremy Vane-Tempest Photo: Courtesy of Nuclear Blast

Lamb of God have released their seventh record, VII: Sturm und Drang. Literally translating as Seven: Storm and Stress, it’s a title that pretty well nails the last three years of their tenure. Frontman, caffeine addict and all-around legend Randy Blythe found time to have a chat with Jeremy Vane-Tempest between festival dates, cups of coffee and composing literary masterpieces.

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andy’s just spent nine hours on a bus travelling through Germany to the next date on the European festival circuit. He’s exhausted. He answers the phone in his hotel room and asks me to give him two seconds – “I’ve just gotta grab some coffee.” When he returns, we dive straight into the interview. If you’re unaware - and statistically, that means you’ve been living in a Bhutanese monastery - Randy Blythe spent a good chunk of 2013 locked up in a Czech prison, defending himself against an allegation of manslaughter. I assumed, like many, that Lamb of God’s new banger, VII: Strum und Drang, would be highly reflective of the events of last three years. Randy, however, vehemently disagrees.

“It hasn’t. Not at all,” insists Randy, his distinctive West Virginian accent drawling through the phone line between sips of coffee. “I wrote two songs, Still Echoes and 512, while I was locked up, but those lyrics are three years old. I only used them because I just happened to still have them. We didn’t write a prison record or any of that bullshit. We’re not a f*cking gangster rap band.”

Desperately fighting off mental images of Randy wearing gang colours, we move on. There’s a massive difference between an album and twelve singles. Resolution leant uncomfortably towards the latter, while VII is a far more fluid beast. Noticeably more reined in than Resolution, it has much more in common with As The Palaces Burn. When I put this to Randy, he completely agrees, before proceeding to explain exactly why VII holds a stronger kinship to the bands’ older material than their recent output.

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“We’d reached a point where Mark (Morton, lead guitar) and Willie (Adler, rhythm guitar) were pretty much running the show,” he explains.

“You can plug in your guitar and write a whole album in your house.

You can program drums, bass and guitar and lay down vocals all on your little MacBook. It’s an invaluable tool for cataloguing song ideas. Back in the day, though, if we wanted to document our ideas, it happened in the practice space. Everybody would get together and someone would start playing a riff, you’d all work on it and then press record on a shitty tape. Mark and Willie now both have home studio setups and for the last couple of records, they were writing entire songs and bringing them in as a completed demo. They’d just walk in and go, ‘hey guys, here’s a new song!’”

He takes a sip from his coffee, sighing in ecstasy. “I think this record is a much stronger record, and importantly, much more of a Lamb of God record,” he continues. “It reflects who we are as a band much better than the last few records have. That’s because our producer, Josh Wilbur, told Mark and Willie, ‘ok, what you two guys have is great, but let’s write some songs as a group’. It’s been far more collaborative than it has been in years. They all sat in the practice space and just jammed.

When I listen to Resolution, or even Wrath, I can tell who wrote which song because I’m so familiar with their styles. Like, ‘that’s a Mark song, that’s a Willie song’. When I listen to this new record, I go ‘that’s a Lamb of God song’, like when we started back in the mid-90s. So, it’s not so much a new approach so much as it is a return to an old approach, and I think it really worked.”

Randy takes another sip of his coffee. I point out that he doesn’t strike me as the pre-production type. He sniggers in agreement.

“They used to want me in the practice room during pre-production,” he begins, half laughing. “They’d say ‘you need to come along and help us write the new record’. What the f*ck for? They’re gonna play the same riff over and over for half an hour and I won’t even know what they’ve played by the end of it because it’s one sixteenth note off. I swear to God, I’ve seen those two go ‘do you like it in this tempo or this tempo’ for hours”, Randy exclaims while miming guitar notes. “We’re talking deep music nerd stuff, here, and I’m not that kind of guy. My contribution to the music is just ‘I really like this part. Can you make it longer?’ I don’t give them much musical input at all. My job is to find a place for the vocals to go.”

“I hear things completely differently to them,” he continues. “They’ll think a certain riff is the bridge, whereas I’ll hear a chorus. When you’re writing music and you’re used to hearing things a certain way, it gets set in your mind. You need someone to come in and say ‘I think the bridge is stronger than the chorus, you might wanna flip them around.’ I’ll normally just sit with the producer and try to rein them in a bit, because sometimes they’ll do things that don’t make a lot of sense. They’ll write a verse four bars long followed by a verse that’s six and a half and the producer and me are like ‘ok, we gotta straighten this out.’ That issue has become markedly less common over the years, though. They used to not really write with vocals in mind, but over the last couple of records they’ve kinda gone ‘oh, hey, Randy actually is our singer’,” he laughs.

All great albums have a standout track, and VII’s highlight is Embers. Starting out as a fairly typical Lamb of God song, it gives way to a spacious ether, punctuated by the soaring vocals of Chino Moreno of Deftones, intertwined seamlessly with Randy’s guttural bellow. When I mention Embers, Randy is immediately enthused.

There are two different endings to that song,” he reveals. “There’s another ending that was supposed to be this epic metal beat down.

They demoed both versions, but I said they should do the more spacious one, because there’s a lot of metal on VII. I was on my way to the surfing spot and I was listening to it and I just thought that Chino’s vocals would really fit this part. I get to preproduction and Mark and Josh are sitting there and they go ‘hey man, what do you think about Chino doing something on Embers?’ and I’m like ‘dude, I had the exact same idea!’ We were recording in LA and he was in town working on the new Deftones album, so he just popped by and knocked it out in a couple of takes.”

VII finds Lamb of God exploring new territory regarding their vocals.

The biggest left hook of the record is found on Overlord. A six-minute epic, it’s the most distinctive song in Lamb of God’s entire discography for one key reason: Randy stops screaming and starts singing. I ask how the hell that even happened.

“Before we ever went into pre-production, I was driving my truck to the surfing spot. It’s where all my great ideas happen”, he laughs. “Willie had sent me a couple of the riffs that became Overlord. I’m listening to it and I just start humming and singing along to it and suddenly I realised that, holy f*ck, I could sing to this song! I got Mark to write the lyrics for the chorus because he’s good at hooks, but it just sort of happened. Willie was just messing around with some blues stuff. We’re from the south, so we dig that stuff. It was actually a nice break from the screaming. It’s a lot easier on your body to sing than to scream for eight hours. There’s no autotune, either. I was very firm with the producer about that. It’s my voice.”

Eventually, we find ourselves back where we began: that Czech prison cell. I didn’t ask any questions about what happened in there, because Randy has answered every question I could ask in his memoir, Dark Days. I enquire about what I assume was a brutal, yet cathartic experience.

“It was...interesting,” he admits cryptically. “I wrote the book to make a larger point about personal accountability, which I feel is lacking in society. After I was acquitted, our booking agent said ‘our literary agent wants to talk to you’. I just didn’t wanna go through it so soon after it happened. I got called in literally four weeks after I was acquitted. I just said ‘I think this story has value and could really help someone, but I’m just not ready. I have a journal I kept and I can remember it all like it was yesterday’. He just said ‘but the memories are gonna fade’ and

I went ‘damn it’. I’m glad I wrote it, now.

Even going through my journal, I had to stop and go ‘wait, what’s this bit about?

What am I saying here?’ I decided then and there that I had to get it down. I’m Words: Jeremy Vane-Tempest not getting any younger. It’s actually Greg Puciato of The Dillinger Escape great, because if anyone asks me about Plan leant his vocal credentials to prison, I’ll just point out that I wrote a the song Torches, with typically five hundred page book about it, and all phenomenal results. “Greg’s a good bro, and an even better man”, Randy the answers are in there.” gushed. “We’ve been playing shows In closing, I ask Randy one final with Dillinger since we were Burn the question: what does writing mean to Priest, the mid to late ‘90s. I’m you? He pauses, carefully considering talking about before Greg was even in Dillinger. I’ve known Ben Weinman his response. for years, because Dillinger and Burn “Writing is hugely important in my the Priest would play in people’s life”, he begins, a passionate, emotional basements together. Josh produced tremor entering his voice. “It’s a few the Killer Be Killed record, and he getting Greg to do a layer different things to me, and that’s suggested on Torches. He came in and did it in because I write a bunch of different about two takes. He’s got an incredible things. My lyrics, for instance, are pure voice. He’s got a solo project coming emotional expression. I write with my out soon, too. It’s called The Black It’s incredible. It’s electronic photographs, too. I have to examine my Queen. music, and it rules.” photographs so I can write a little piece to go with them. That piece explains why I was attracted to the scene aesthetically. It explains why I was compelled to immortalise it. It’s kind of like I’m figuring myself out.

Writing a book was huge, though. I’ve been a voracious reader since I was a child. I’ve always wanted to write a book, but it was a huge exercise in self-discipline; forcing myself to sit and write every day, especially about such an unpleasant topic. It wasn’t exactly fun, but I learned a lot.

I’m hoping to turn my pen toward fiction next and have some fun with it this time. I actually wrote a rough draft of a novel a while ago, and it’s absolutely atrocious, but it was fun. I’m hoping to take the discipline I learned from writing my memoir and have some “disciplined fun”’, he laughs, before becoming deadly serious. “It doesn’t sound like much fun, but for me? It’s everything.” H

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3131

Words: Emmy Mack Photo: Rod Hunt

Dimebag Darrell Abbott was one of the most loved and respected dudes ever to strap on a guitar. Had his life not been viciously cut short eleven years ago, the Pantera legend would have been celebrating his 49th birthday this month.

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is death shocked the metal community like nothing before or since, so much so that Dime has often been referred to as the John Lennon of heavy metal.

In fact, Lennon and Dimebag’s deaths have an eerie amount of similarities: both men were guitarists who changed the face of music forever, only to have their lives taken away by deranged shotgun-wielding fans. And just like all Beatlemaniacs can remember where they were when they first heard the news of Lennon’s death, all Pantera fans (at least, of a certain age) can remember where they were when they heard about Dime’s. But the eeriest thing of all?

Both men were killed on the exact same day, December 8th, twenty-four years apart.

To most Dimebag Darrell fans, the axeman’s lightningbolt Dean ML, iconic groove-metal riffs, complex solos and signature squeals are canon, but not everyone knows that guitar wasn’t actually Dime’s first love.

Before he was a Cowboy From Hell, Dimebag was hell on wheels. The would-be metal icon actually started out as an avid BMX biker, and passed up the chance to own his first ever guitar (even though Papa Abbott kindly offered) by asking for a bike for his birthday instead. But later, after hearing Black Sabbath for the first time, pre-teen Dime realised the error of his ways, and tried to get the two-wheeler switched for a six-string (who said you had to learn to rock before you could roll?)

The first riff he ever jammed on with his brother, wouldbe Pantera and Damageplan drummer Vinnie Paul, was Smoke On The Water by Deep Purple (as Vinnie tells it, for about seven hours straight) and after that, he got very good, very quickly.

So good, in fact, that he was banned from playing local

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guitar competitions before he was old enough to vote. By the time he turned 18, Dime had cleaned up in so many shredding comps around his hometown that he was officially banned from competing (he was asked to return as a judge though).

As Dime grew up and went on to conquer the world with Pantera, he always wore his influences close to his chest.

Literally, that’s where he had a tattoo of Ace Frehley’s face, signed by the Spaceman himself. Dime was a member of the KISS army til the day he died. The first live show he ever went to was a KISS concert, and he was buried in a KISS casket, as per his request.

But while the Painted Ones were a huge influence on Dime, it was nothing compared to Dime’s influence on the rest of the heavy music world.

Thrash legends Anthrax loved his guitar playing so much, they got him to play on four of their songs. Bassist Frank Bello famously referred to Dime as the band’s “sixth member”, while guitarist Scott Ian has recounted plenty of classic moments that he shared with his “brother” Dime over the years.

One such moment involved Dimebag calling Ian in a state of distress, reporting that one of their mutual friends was on a cocaine bender, chasing his pet goat around the swimming pool. Ian also explained that the animal had a goatee, which was dyed pink to match Dimebag’s. Metal.

To boot, Dave Grohl also credits Dime with inspiring him to become the so-called ‘nicest guy in rock’. The Foo Fighters frontman claims he was blown away by the hospitality that Pantera showed his band when they were first starting out.

“Dimebag Darrell was the nicest f*cking guy in the world,” he said in a recent interview. “He could walk in and do a shot

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Out For Blood

‘Bloodlust’ @YouTube

Witchgrinder tour dates 13 August Crowbar, Brisbane 15 August Currumbin Tavern, Gold Coast

Words: Cameron Cooper Photo: Peter Coulsen

21 August The Basement, Canberra 22 August Venom Nightclub, Sydney 28 August Crown & Anchor, Adelaide

With big plans on the horizon, Witchgrinder’s Travis Everett caught up with Cameron Cooper to discuss their new album, Haunted, touring and playing outside the band’s comfort zone.

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ith an August-September tour approaching and their second full-length in the bag, Melbourne’s dark metal quartet Witchgrinder, are looking to expand their reach. For frontman Travis Everett, it is all a matter of playing outside the band’s comfort zone.

“I guess it is a bit of a different way to look at things,” Everett explains. “If we aren’t going to get flamed off, we really enjoy playing on bills where we maybe don’t fit, because it’s exposing us to a completely different crowd that normally wouldn’t touch us.”

This rings true for the band’s performances as of late. This year, Witchgrinder have really only appeared live a handful of times, most notably in support of Ace Frehley and Bam Margera’s F*ckface Unstoppable, both shows being different in tone to the industrialthrash that Everett and the boys cook up.

The mixed-bill approach is a two way street, with Witchgrinder’s upcoming tour seeing the band play with a range of acts across the metal spectrum, from thrashers Malakyte in Brisbane, to groove metallers Tensions Arise in Sydney.

“We decided to go with heavier bands. We wanted to keep them local, but we also wanted to play with bands that we’ve known about for a long time, but haven’t necessarily had the chance to play with before.”

Although a mix sonically, Everett doesn’t find much changes from state-to-state when it comes to live music.

“When you are playing with local bands you notice it is pretty much the same everywhere. Bands are out there to help each other – everyone is trying to have a good night so I don’t find the vibe too different wherever we go. The only difference is the numbers, but our band has never really worried about that. We’ll play one night to a full house then the next to only half, but we are going to play the same at both shows, it won’t change anything or how we feel.”

Witchgrinder’s main aim as a live band is to entertain and shock, which manifests not only in the band’s more spontaneous on stage antics, but also in a well-orchestrated production, ranging from props and lights to pyrotechnics.

“We feel anyone can go home and listen to our album, so when you come to see us live we want you to be entertained,” Everett says. “If I look

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4 September Ding Dong Lounge, Melbourne 5 September The Loft, Warnambool

at someone and they are playing on their phone or something, I won’t point them out or yell at them, but I definitely do start staring until they feel uncomfortable, then they start dancing and I start smiling with them. I like to interact and so do the other members.”

Taking a more methodical approach to their live chaos is also reflected in the coherency of the band’s upcoming tour, as opposed to the more spur-of-the-moment approach to interstate shows the band once had.

“We’re a bit more structured now. Back [a few years ago] we were still trying to get our name out. We didn’t necessarily want to book tours and then have to turn down another gig. We’d just sit around playing in Melbourne, save money and do shows as they were offered. Now that we’re up to our second album, we’ve toured the country a number of times and with this tour we made it all flow evenly up the east coast.

We’re going to Adelaide too, and there might be some extra dates added.”

Their new touring schedule might be fairly conventional, but their recording method certainly isn’t. Witchgrinder’s second album, which Everett describes as having a bigger thrash influence than 2013’s The Demon Calling, saw each member record their parts in separate spaces.

After sending ideas back and forth and writing a rough album together, the band delved into pre-production to get all their tones down. With everyone knowing their parts and what needed to be done, they had the freedom to pick individually where they wanted to lay down the final tracks.

“I recorded with Dana from Sydonia. I went to him because he spends a lot of time recording his vocals. Pottsy and Walker went around to their friends to do all their guitars and bass, and Shane went off and did his drums.”

“People have probably done it before, but we just thought to ourselves ‘it seems to work, so why not give it a go?’ The final product speaks for itself, it sounds great for something done like that – you wouldn’t notice the difference between going into a big studio. Well not much anyway, and we do still like the rawness that we could capture by doing it ourselves. It isn’t overproduced where it sounds fake.”

Haunted is out now via Firestarter Distribution. H

Words: Matt Doria Photo: Courtesy of Hellyeah Turn It Up

‘Hush’ @YouTube

Three years since they set the stage on fire at Soundwave ‘12, Hellyeah are bringing their insuppressible live show back down under for the ‘Blood For Blood’ tour later this month. Matt Doria sits with mastermind Chad Gray to dive into Hellyeah’s philosophies on touring, recording, and what to expect from their fifth outing!

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amed after the immediate response one has when they first listen to their music, Hellyeah are the undeniable champions of the supergroup scene. Mudvayne frontman Chad Gray steers the project, and after speaking to the expletive-happy vocalist about their return to our shores later this month, it’s clear there’s nobody else better suited for the job. “I don’t believe in ‘fans,’” he states bluntly.

“I call them my friends and family around the world.” Gray doesn’t see his fanbase as some sort of elitist club. There are no rules, and definitely no restrictions. He expounds that there’s no discrimination in his music, and the gates are open for anybody to take a peek. “We’re sharing a really powerful moment, and everyone’s invited,” he says. “There’s a comradery and a brotherhood, a family element and a friendship level, and you’re welcome to come in and check it out.”

The last time Australian fans were invited to suss out Hellyeah’s circus of insanity was at Soundwave 2012. Since then, the heavy metal quintet have had a major overhaul - Greg Tribbett and Bob Zilla have been swapped out for Christian Brady and Kyle Sanders on guitars and bass, respectively - and they’ve released what Gray describes as their defining record, Blood For Blood. “It sucks that it’s taken us this long, but we’re really excited to get back down there,” Gray says enthusiastically of the band’s much-anticipated return down under.

As he pours a nice big glass of hype for us, Gray says that the concert experience is more than just an event - it’s a life-changing bond between the band and who subject themselves to their chaos. “Metal is real, and metal is therapeutic, and metal is cathartic, and... It’s f *cking heavy metal! It’s psycho-cognitive therapy that we’re playing up there,” he says, a burning passion in his voice taking over. “You can see that everybody in the crowd is losing themselves over what we’re doing, and that fuels us even more,” he continues. “There very few are moments in your life where you can go as nuts as you want and nobody gives a f *ck. Check your problems at the door, come in, and let go. It’s a high energy show and it’s a lot of fun.”

Promoting the album of the same name, the ‘Blood For Blood’ tour will carry a setlist dominated by cuts from the band’s 2014-released fourth LP. Considering the album to be one of significance, Gray sees ‘Blood For Blood’ as a milestone in Hellyeah’s history. “I feel like this is

kind of our defining record, really,” he admits. “We started off with the first record as an experiment, then the second record was trying to keep Hellyeah and Mudvayne separate, and then the third record was ‘I’m in a band with one of my favourite metal drummers so let’s write something f*ckin’ heavy’, and so this record is really kind of our defining sound. I think that for the first time in the history of Hellyeah, we have a very clear understanding of what we are. It’s just like humanity, it’s just like living - you don’t just f*cking pop out of the womb and start running.

There’s growing pains; you fall down, you learn. We had already done that in our other bands, so we had to figure out how our chemistry worked and what makes things right.”

A definitive moment, which led to Blood For Blood being written was Gray’s realisation that he was uninterested in bouncing between Hellyeah and Mudvayne, and an epiphany, which followed. “I kind of had this moment where I was like ‘I’m f*cking Chad Gray! I’m sick of wearing a Hellyeah hat, I’m sick of wearing a Mudvayne hat… I just want to be me,’” he says. “I didn’t want to have to make any excuses for anything and I was tired of hiding behind anything. I want to write the way I want to write because it’s therapeutic and cathartic for me - it means a lot to my puny equilibrium to be able to write music.”

As for Hellyeah’s next LP, Gray is optimistic that the wait won’t be too long. “After we get done with you guys, we’re gonna come back and start fiddling with it; I think that our best work is still to come,” he teases.

With Blood For Blood being Hellyeah’s “defining sound,” fans shouldn’t be quick to expect a massive departure from their established style on the next record. “I think we’re right where we want to be,” Gray says with confidence. “Obviously we don’t want to do the same thing, but I think there’s just a natural progression to life. The music that we create is an extension to the life that we live, so I think that if we go into the studio eighteen months, two years, whatever, after we wrote Blood For Blood, we’re going to be two more years grown up and grown into our lives, and that’s all relative.” To close, Gray says that whatever happens next, we can be sure it’ll be something he’s passionate about. “I know one goddamn thing: I’m never going to walk away from anything without doing my best. I would never put out a record that I didn’t f*cking believe in!” H

Hellyeah tour dates 20 August The Studio, Auckland NZ 21 August Bar Bodega, Wellington NZ 22 August - Bedford, Christchurch NZ 25 August The Gov, Adelaide SA 27 August The Metro, Sydney NSW 28 August Eatons Hill, Brisbane QLD 29 August Corner Hotel, Melbourne VIC 31 August Capitol, Perth WA

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Full House

‘Win Hands Down’ @YouTube Words: Rod Whitfield Photo: Stephanie Cabral

This classic Los Angeles based heavy metal band are somewhat of a strange beast in heavy music circles.

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hey came together way back in 1982, and have released nine fulllength albums, although across their decades long story they’ve had not one, but two lengthy hiatuses. Their lead vocalist was also the frontman for a truly legendary thrash metal band for over a decade.

And as far as their sound is concerned, they have never truly fitted in to any specific scene or sub-genre of heavy music.

Speaking from his home in LA, bassist and founding member Joey Vera, agrees that this is indeed the case, and while that may have been an issue back in the day, today he feels it’s actually a strength of theirs.

“I’ve often wondered who we are,” he admits, “for me, I’m always so close to it, the only reason I would say one of our records sound Armored Saint is that if I hear John Bush singing. In fact, I might accidentally hear an Anthrax song, and I’ll say ‘is that Armored Saint? Oh no, that’s Anthrax!’

“But musically, and as a band, we had a little bit of an identity crisis,” he concedes again, “and I think it lasted all the way until, to me it was lasting all the way up until (2010’s) La Raza came out. And finally, when we made that record, for the first time I felt really free, like we could just do anything we wanted. At that point I sort of thought ‘you know what?

We don’t have a sound, but the fact that we don’t have a sound, is our sound!”

Their new album Win Hands Down, their first since the aforementioned La Raza record, is a case in point. It has kind of a classic hard rock to heavy metal sound, and yet it doesn’t really sound like other classic metal albums. It has a timeless vibe to it, in that it doesn’t sound really modern, and it doesn’t sound at all dated either. It may sound obvious, but it really does simply sound like Armored Saint, and a modest Vera begrudgingly agrees with its ‘timeless’ description.

“I don’t know, I’m so close to it,” he states, “I suppose it does. I get so close to it, and I’m human, and it’s a personal expression here. Part of me, believe it or not, still second-guesses things. It’s not for me to say, really, that it sounds timeless or it sounds this way or that way. I guess the only proof will be in time! If we look back, ten years from now, how will it stand up? That will be the true test.”

He may not have the sense of perspective to be the one to truly say what it is, but he sure knows what it isn’t. “It’s definitely not trying to be something that it isn’t,” he says somewhat cryptically, “There’s certain

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elements that I like about modern music and there’s certain elements that I like about music that was from the 80s and the 90s too. Maybe we were able to put a bit of everything into this one pot?” He phrases as a question.

“I can’t tell you how we did it, but if we did it, then great!”

The band have definitely not been regular visitors to our shores over their stop-start 30 plus year career, and he is hopeful rather than completely confident that they will make it back Down Under for the tour in support of Win Hands Down.

“Well, I sure hope so,” he says, “we have only ever played there once, we went down there with Death Angel, that was great. Maybe we can do that again with them, that’d be a lot of fun. We’d love to go back there, and also get to New Zealand, we’ve never been there. We had great shows there last time, so we’d love to go back.”

The approach of the members of Armored Saint these days is to very much take things pretty easily, rather than to get caught in the relentless grind of the album-tour-album-tour cycle that many other bands pursue. Most of the band members are in their 50s now, and they all have families and other jobs. Vera feels that it is this easier going attitude that has kept the band going for so long, and what should assist their enthusiasm for continuing into the future.

“Most bands get into the cycle where they put out records every two to three years, and they just tour relentlessly in between,” he states, “they’re constantly working and they’re constantly in the cycle. I think the fact that we haven’t done that has kept our sanity intact, and our sense of humour intact.

“I’m afraid that if we went back into that sort of a cycle, it would make it difficult for us, and it would take a lot of the fun out of it, and make it full like much more of a job. And I think it would take away some of the organicness that we have by not doing that.

“I think we will continue to keep it on that level as much as we can.

I’m just hoping that it keeps being fun, and that we can keep it on the low pressure, the low stress and the low expectations, and if we can do that, we will continue making music in a timely manner, I promise!” He concludes with a smile and a wink.

Win Hands Down is out now through Metal Blade Records. H

Massive

‘Messe Noire’ @YouTube

Behemoth tour dates with Watain and Bölzer

Words: Steve Jenkins Photo: Courtesy of Soundworks Touring

29 September Capitol, Perth 18+ 1 October Max Watts, Brisbane 18+ 2 October Fowler’s Live, Adelaide ALL AGES

Behemoth are heading to Australia this October to unleash The Satanist on Australian audiences. Nergal chats to us about his music, his various business ventures and his autobiography.

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dam “Nergal” Darski is definitely a modern day extreme metal cult figure, but also a fully-fledged entrepreneur with his fingers in numerous and various business ventures. Outside of Behemoth, he also owns a bar/night club and two barber shops, plus overseeing licensing ventures with beer brewers and a whole lot more. Nergal also released an autobiography earlier this year titled Confessions Of A Heretic, which is now available in English. A must read for any fan.

So despite being one of the busiest men in metal, Nergal took some time to talk to us about their upcoming tour of Australia with Watain (Sweden) and Bolzer (Switzerland) among other things. “I always have to be doing something, I like to challenge myself and keep busy. Music comes first and it always will but sometimes I just need another project to do so that I can give my brain a workout. Then when it gets too much and I feel that I deserve a break I disappear for a few days and don’t tell anyone where I go. It’s nice to get away and just see a different place without any hassle.”

If you’re a fan of metal and you haven’t heard of Behemoth then you’ve probably been living under a rock for the past decade. Extreme is the first word that comes to mind when describing this Polish blackened death metal band. With a very strong and evil visual presentation and image, which has garnered them controversy and a lot of attention from religious groups worldwide. Their music, videos, artwork and live performances are all very nihilistic with horrific visuals that would leave your Grandma running to the nearest church for repentance. “I can honestly say that this record is just the perfect album to tour with. It’s a well-oiled machine and I’ve never enjoyed playing anything as much as I have with The Satanist. It’s made for live performances. We’re just so ready for this tour in Australia and you’re going to see us at our very best, I can guarantee you that.”

2014 saw the release of their tenth studio album The Satanist, with many fans and critics claiming it as their best work ever. “We’ve received the best credit for The Satanist more than any other album, and surprisingly it was from both the media and our fans. It’s so strange

3 October The Metro Theatre, Sydney 18+ 4 October 170 Russell, Melbourne 18+

being told by people that it’s such a good album even when I know it is, but I always find it hard to respond to such kind and positive feedback because we’re just doing what we do and if people like it then that’s great.

There are so many amazing albums around and so many wonderful bands right now, and I’m very happy for Behemoth to be considered those things. I don’t even know if or when there will be another album, but there’s definitely no slowing down for the band that’s for sure.”

When asked about returning to Australia, Nergal seemed more than happy to be returning and his voice changed to excitement all of the sudden. “Australia seems to be a very relaxed kind of country, you guys don’t really seem to give a f*ck about religion, which is cool. I love my own country Poland, don’t get me wrong, but there’s a vibe in Australia that I get every time I’m there which is very laid back. I’ve never had any problems there and I’m extremely excited to visit again.”

Many fans consider Nergal to be a hero or music idol that they can look up to. Having been diagnosed with leukaemia in 2010 it’s safe to say that Nergal has faced and overcome many demons in his life. “I’m just being myself, I get referred to as an anti-hero or an anti-archetype but I was born to be a rebel and I’m happy with who I am now. I’ve never tried to be a hero or role model but if people can relate to our music and experience something that makes them appreciate what we do then that’s great. At the end of they day myself or Behemoth wouldn’t be where we are now without each of you and that’s always something I think about.”

Nergal finally had this to say for those who want to attend the live shows in early October. “Every time we come back to Australia, it’s kind of like coming back home basically. We feel very comfortable there and everyone always welcomes us. There’s always been a solid and dedicated following for Behemoth in Australia and for that I’m very grateful. You’re going to experience Behemoth in our best shape we’ve ever been in and I would love to see everyone come down to the shows and celebrate with us.” H

3737

Out: 07.08.15

Produced by Erik Rutan (HATE ETERNAL) at the Mana Recording Studios in Florida.

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WWW.INSIDEOUTMUSIC.COM

www.CENTURYMEDIA.com

Words: Rod Whitfield Photo: Josh Groom/Cameron Gray

Anyone in the Australian music industry knows exactly how tough it is to get a band up and out there across the nation, and the world, from any home base in our ridiculously isolated and spread out country. Rod Whitfield chats to Breaking Orbit about their new album.

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e are the sixth largest nation on the planet, but with one of the lowest levels of population density. We are also thousands of kilometres from the other major centres of popular culture across the globe. Breaking an Aussie band in this country and internationally can seem like pushing a ten tonne weight up Mt Everest.

And that’s doubly so for bands whose sound is a distance from the mainstream.

Sydney four piece Breaking Orbit are one such band. Their powerful, forward thinking prog rock sound is as good as anything coming out of the rest of the world right now, and their magnificent, recently released sophomore album Transcension proves that once again. However, when planning their tour to support the album, frontman and rhythm guitarist Matthew Quayle is unsure as to whether they’ll even get to Perth, let alone the rest of the world, with time and money constraints being the major obstacle to their expansion.

“At the moment we’ve got a few people that worked on the album that need some money from us!” He laughs, “so we’re not in a position to fly to WA at the moment. Taking the whole band to WA, it’s good fun, but your really need to get a bit of legwork to get four shows lined up in row over there, and to try to make your airfare and everything back.”

And an international jaunt off the back of the new album will depend upon how well the record is received in overseas markets and what offers come in from international bookers, promoters or bands.

“In terms of overseas, it’s something that we’re all pretty keen to do,” he continues. “If we got the right offer we’d be there just like that! Even with the last album, even without pushing ourselves to the European market, we did get quite a bit of interest over there, from webzines and stuff. And some people even did contact us with some offers, but it just wasn’t financially viable at that stage. And different commitments among ourselves and that kind of thing.

“There was originally hope of heading over at some stage this year, but unless someone comes along and offers us all expenses paid, plus some, I can fairly confidently say it’s not happening this year! But hopefully this album will open up a few avenues over there, so we’ll see how we go.”

The Transcension album has been quite a long time coming. It has been a good three years since the release of their incredible debut The Time Traveller, and the band were keen to take a step up, even from that great work. A couple of listens to the new record should confirm that that has been achieved, in droves. Such ambition and a work of such

broad scope cannot be produced overnight, and Quayle was happy to tell us a little about the album’s journey, evolution and the history of the epic, three-part title track.

“Two years is probably what it took, from the start of the writing process to the last take, I suppose,” he reveals.

“One of the songs, Transcension Part 3, the music had been written, and it was always going to be on The Time Traveller. Transcension Part 1, which was on The Time Traveller, was just an acoustic piece that I’d written and then brought to the band, and we wrote a piece that became Transcension Part 3, based around that piece of music. It ended up being on The Time Traveller, so the idea was to continue the concept with this album, and then have the bookends of the new album as parts two and three.

“So part two was completely new, and part three was written second!” He concludes with a laugh.

In fact, there is all manner of weird, wild and wonderful concepts and ideas flowing their music, lyrics and imagery. Quayle seems happy and proud that his band’s music features such left of centre and ‘out there’ themes, although it can be a little difficult explaining them to the average Joe. He explains that they draw more influence from otherworldly and historical sources than from mundane, everyday topics.

“It’s a bit far out there,” he admits, “we probably can’t go into very much detail about that stuff to people before they go (in highly incredulous tones) ‘…right’. But it’s fiction.

“I like reading fiction,” he goes on, “and a lot of stuff about ancient Egypt and the ancient Americas, like the Celestine Prophecy, and people like Graham Hancock and a few other authors that I could read pretty much anything they write. And symbology and stuff about ancient knowledge, things that have been lost through time, lost in translation and that kind of thing.

“And also a fair bit of sci-fi, I get into quite a bit of that sort of stuff, the Dune books, the Matrix movies, Star Wars obviously, massive fans of all that type of stuff.”

Given the strength of their new album Transcension and the band’s powerhouse live show, Breaking Orbit should be among the next in that very select bunch of bands that actually make some headway on the international stage. They certainly deserve it, fingers crossed they can make it happen.

Transcension is out now via Nucleus Music. H

Gravitate

‘Become The Light’ @YouTube

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John Watain!

‘Outlaw’ @YouTube

Words: Matt Doria Photo: Courtesy of Soundworks Touring

Watain tour dates with Behemoth and Bölzer 29 September Capitol, Perth 18+ 1 October Max Watts, Brisbane 18+ 2 October Fowler’s Live, Adelaide ALL AGES 3 October The Metro Theatre, Sydney 18+ 4 October 170 Russell, Melbourne 18+

Black masses unite, for the Australian Satanist tour is near. Before unleashing their diabolical fury on our ardent souls, Watain frontman Erik Danielsson waxes poignant to Matt Doria the ebullient commotion that is Watain in concert.

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remember the first time I witnessed the diabolical anarchy of Watain in concert. It was at Soundwave 2012, and my friends had dragged me by the shoulders over to their stage. I wasn’t that much “into” metal at the time, but as Watain walked out onto a stage adorned with flaming effigies, and the pungent smell of blood surrounded me, I felt alive. It was a wake-up call. A violent and crass, brutally energetic wake up call that I haven’t since hung up on.

“I have always imagined a Watain concert to feel like something of a mix between a solemn, empowering diabolical ceremony and a completely insane 1980s Venom show,” says frontman Erik Danielsson, spot on in his description. Bringing alongside them black metal mainstays Behemoth and Bölzer, the Australian Satanist tour kicks off in just under two months, and Watain want to make it clear that we’re in for some serious carnage. “We try to bring as much force and fanaticism into the concerts as possible, with any means we can lay our hands on,” says Danielsson. “Usually we get help from our most die-hard fans, and the supporters who often supply us with some of the more complicated ingredients of the show.”

I think it goes without saying that Australia has one of the more dedicated metal communities. We take pride in our ruthlessness, and we aren’t afraid to set some shit on fire. In fact, it’s because of our dedication to annihilation that Watain are so keen to come back. “I’ve always had the feeling that Australia is a place where headbangers are still a proud and ferocious tribe, kind of untouched by that hideous modern take on metal,” says Danielsson. “There’s always been something savage at work, and when you perform a show down there, you can get a sense of why it’s like that. Australian metalheads take their shit seriously, and to people like us, that means a lot.”

In the seventeen years since Watain first hit the road, Danielsson has played his fair share of insane gigs, and par for the course, he’s seen his fair share of insane shit happen at those gigs.

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“I’ve seen venues on fire, people on fire, bars on fire, tour buses on fire, people wading through blood-filled rooms, entire crowds vomiting simultaneously and ambulances come and go for a variety of equally barbaric reasons,” he illustrates, highlighting the trio’s first show in Salt Lake City as one of their most profound, the entire venue breaking out into one gigantic fight - band members included - halfway through the show. “The work we do with Watain is built upon energy that shines in a warlike radiance, bordering to madness and lunacy. Such hungry energy will eventually come to materialise in one way or another,” he warns.

The stories about the kind of maniacal shit that goes down at Watain gigs are legendary indeed, but one thing that remains shrouded in secrecy is what happens before a Watain gig. “We consider the pre-show activities as personal. They are not something we talk about in public,” Danielsson says of the group’s ritualistic warm-ups. Satanism has been an integral part of the band since its inception, and as the three have always forenamed, their presentation is not one of artistic fabrication, but rather a reflection of themselves. “In Watain, the artistic presentation [of Satanism] is a result of the powers that reside within the band,” says Danielsson.

“Just like the mushroom cloud, for example, is the direct result of an exploding A-bomb. It just happens to look quite awe-inspiring.”

On the other side of the stage, Danielsson confesses that he’s generally unimpressed by the crowds he usually comes across, pointing out that the most frenzied audiences are those that have had to pine. “In general, the best crowds are the ones who are a bit starved of good shows, in remote places where tours don’t come through every day,” he says. “Australia is definitely on the list of places where crowds are usually a bit more keen and willing to participate in some bloody mayhem.”

In the wake of mayhem ahead, the band leave us with a special message: “Greetings to all you Heavy readers, Satanists, outlaws, scumf*cks, vixens and rivetheads who’ll be at the shows. Satanic Metal Chaos awaits!” H

Suckers

‘Leech’ @YouTube Words: Jana Angeles Photo: Courtesy of UNFD

For Marcus Bridge, everything that has happened in the last year has been such a whirlwind for him.

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fter fronting Sydney-based alternative rock band, Sound of Seasons, kicking off his career as the new appointed vocalist for metalcore outfit Northlane has had him travel different countries, giving him a cultural perspective on the world beyond Australia. As a musician and individual, showcasing his live form to an international audience was something he found fascinating, “My performance style is a bit more aggressive compared to what I was doing before,” Bridge explains. “In respects to touring, I’ve seen a lot of the world and a lot of different cultures and it’s really cool to see how much music connects people.”

After Adrian Fitipaldes’ departure from the band, Bridge, like all other two thousand applicants auditioned for the frontman role.

Undertaking anything new isn’t easy, even for someone like him who had already gotten experience in the music industry. From here, the frontman took the time to adjust and adapt, revealing how much of a patient person he was in the process, “I was still finding my feet with everything,” admits Bridge. “It wasn’t so much on what would people think of me. Now that I’ve done some more tours, I’m feeling so much more comfortable.”

When it comes to a line-up change in a band, fans get affected by it the most. With Fitipaldes’ empowering screams in past records, Bridge was faced with the challenge of fans to listen to his own take of the Northlane material. He didn’t seem to mind what went on because when people made the effort to see him live, they were rewarded immensely. “People would come up to me after we’ve played a show and they mention how sceptical they were of me,” he says. “Obviously, there’s always gonna be people that will never give me a chance. I think all the feedback I’ve been receiving from a lot of the shows has been really good.”

With heavy material reflecting on both Discoveries and Singularity, Northlane’s reputation was built on its heavy-infused

elements that produced quality songs of the metalcore genre and this has essentially shaped the band’s career. Prior to joining the band, Bridge mentioned that he considered Northlane as one of his favourite bands. His take to Dream Awake in his audition video evoked an emotive presence in his vocal style. For his ability to be able to balance clean and unclean vocals showed skill and mastery. The frontman was happy that he had brought a unique sound dynamic to the band, “I’m able to put my emotions to the music in my own way so I think people are really getting that and understanding that I’m doing it with passion,” he says.

Working on their third studio album, Node, Bridge reflects on his progression as a musician, recognising the vocal improvement and the transformation in sound the record took. “I can noticeably hear the big change in my screaming and just the endurance of it,” he states. “I’m still learning a lot as we go on but all the touring that we’ve been doing has really set me up to do the record and I feel like I’ve gotten a lot better.”

Since Sound of Seasons’ disbandment, the opportunity to become frontman of Northlane was something that felt unreal for Bridge. Unreal to the point where everything felt like a dream. His passion for music was always there to begin with and all he needed was a little encouragement and support; the timing couldn’t have been better for him, “With my old band disbanding, I wasn’t really sure what I was gonna do next. I was thinking, ‘Oh I better start up a new band,’ “ explains Bridge. “It’s so mental that just under twelve months ago I was sitting in my room doing nothing, had my grandparents on my back asking, ‘What are you going to do with your life?’ It’s great that I can show them I’m making a living by playing music and they’re actually really happy with it. They understand that it’s a big opportunity.”

Node is out now via UNFD. H

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Rock The Cradle

Words: Rod Whitfield Photo: Courtesy of Nuclear Blast

‘Enshrined in Crematoria’ @YouTube

Undoubtedly one of the most influential and important English heavy metal bands of all time, Cradle of Filth have been creating brutal but classy extreme metal and touring the planet for virtually a quarter of a century now. Rod Whitfield speaks with Dani Filth about their latest album, Hammer of the Witches.

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he band’s frontman and main driving force, the very irreverent Dani Filth, is justifiably proud of what he and his band have achieved since their formation in 1991. He believes the fact that he has never really grown up, despite being over 40 now, is one of the major reasons that he has been able to keep going so long, and keep pushing Cradle’s illustrious career forward.

Sometimes when I look back at our career, I think ‘f*cking hell, we’ve done so much, I can’t believe it’,” he reminisces, “but other times it just seems like it’s passed really quickly, it’s really strange. We’ve done so much as a band, but there’s so much left to do. Because the passion hasn’t gone away, things come and go, change, you grow old, you get a mortgage, a couple of cars all that sort of thing.

“It’s the same for everybody, but fortunately I’m a bit of a Peter Pan character. I still collect toys, and I think I’m 18! It’s a cruel gift!” He laughs, “fortunately I’ve got pubic hair in my 18 world.”

All that said, Filth states that he doesn’t actually spend a great deal of his time reflecting on past glories, preferring to push ever onwards.

“It’s always about moving on,” he says, “when people ask me what’s your favourite album, I always say ‘it’s the one I’ve just finished’.”

And speaking of the one he’s just made, a brand new Cradle of Filth album is complete and now out there in the world. Entitled Hammer of the Witches, it’s the band’s eleventh full-length release and another epic slab of symphonic extreme metal insanity, full of typically dark and macabre concepts and stories. Known for creating full-blown concept pieces, the band have taken a somewhat different approach to the album’s lyrical and conceptual content.

“No, no, it’s not, no (a full concept piece this time),” he states definitively. “It’s a collection of stories. It’s very hinged in the medieval, witchcraft and demonology. The album title is based on the Malleus Maleficarum, which by definition was called The Hammer of the Witches. This is our interpretation. The hammer is the hammer in the judge’s hand, because you’ve got to remember that this was medieval European times, and it was literally a treatise for the rooting out, persecution and prosecution of witch cults, which were believed to be rife across Europe at that time, and being blamed for literally everything really.

“My interpretation of that is that the hammer is in the witches hands,” he continues the explanation of the album’s concepts, “Because we always favour the underdog. So the album has themes of retribution, revenge, revolution etc. It’s in favour of the witches. I suppose it’s about the ideology of wretched old crones, really!”

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Whilst the album is steeped in medieval legend and lore, certain tracks on the album find similarities with modern day society and religion as well. “There’s a track on the album called Onward Christian Soldiers,” he relates, “which concerns itself with the Crusades. It draws parallels with the religious turmoil which is still going on in the world, despite the fact that we’ve advanced technologically, we’ve put a man on the moon etc., but we’re still drowning in the same cesspool when it comes to spirituality it seems.

“One might be forgiven for thinking that it’s a concept record, and by other means, maybe it is, because there’s a grand, overarching theme.

And the artwork by Arthur Berzinsh, who’s quite a famous Latvian artist, who’s done such a wonderful job on it, one might be forgiven for thinking that.”

The band were last here a little over two years ago, when they were promoting their 2012 album The Manticore and Other Horrors. In great news for Aussie Cradle fans and extreme metal aficionados in general, Dani is absolutely confident that our country will be included in the touring cycle for Hammer of the Witches. However, it may not be for a little while, as the band have a heap of other dates to fulfil, as well as some lost ground to catch up on after the much publicised, and very frustrating Visa issues that they experienced around that time.

“Yes, we will definitely be seeing our way to Australia,” he states without hesitation, “we’re just hammering down a big European excursion for autumn, and a South American one. Then we go to the States, because we’ve got a bit of catching up to do there, because we had some problems with Visas there. Nothing major, just the f*cking idiots decided to start a new kind of mandate of how to get into the States, and didn’t tell any of us until it was too late.

“We normally just rock in about two weeks before the tour,” he goes on, “but then they changed everything, which meant that a couple of people had to go for medicals, but then they can’t give us the visas back for up to four months. It wasn’t just us. Other bands suffered a similar fate. It really screwed things up. But anyway, we’re looking at a massive tour of the States to make up for lost time. That’ll begin in January 2016, and then after that it’ll be Australasia, Asia etc. We’re having lengthy chats with our booking agent at the moment about all that sort of thing.”

Hammer of the Witches is out now via Nuclear Blast Entertainment. H

Pre-order from www.getmusic.com.au and received a free Nuclear Blast Compilation CD ONLINE SHOP, BAND INFOS AND MORE:

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Words: Callum Doig Photo: Courtesy of Spinefarm Records

Since the birth of the malevolent sextet, Ghost have gone on to be one of the most successful acts of the decade. With two full length albums, an EP and countless shows performed worldwide, the band are preparing to release their third album, Meliora.

“R

ight now, we are very excited, obviously, because the response on the first single has been overwhelming,” says one of the Nameless Ghouls. “You’re never too sure when you’re picking a song to sort of represent the album. We went through a bit of an indecisive period where we were very uncertain as to which is a great song to present the album. It was quite a long and intense production period where we spent five months in the same room together doing this album. So, the process was very limited to quite a small amount of people listening to all the material constantly.”

Ghost began work on Meliora in 2014, whenever they had a chance to record away from the tours. With the recording process going on since 2014, the band had their moments

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with the work on the album, but they all seemed really pleased with the final results after all the blood, sweat and tears put into Meliora.

“The production basically started with three months of pre-production, which was technically studio time, but we were in a less expensive studio, basically. Because, we felt that we really wanted to work through the material and we really wanted to come prepared when we entered a real studio with technicians and cables. That’s when you are still making aesthetic choices and you’re still writing and being a little bit more creative. Whereas when the actual recording started, it wasn’t all that smooth. By the time we started, there was the pressure of basically nailing everything. So, when recording all the guitars, bass and drums, we’re very

Devil’s Church

‘Cirice’ @YouTube

picky, and we dub everything many, many times. We remixed the album, so it was a time consuming processes that we had to go through but now that we’re done, it feels amazing. I’m really proud of the record we’ve done.”

As Ghost have moved on from Opus Eponymous and Infestissumam, the Ghoul believes that the concept revolving around Meliora and the band itself has gone into a much different phase compared to the more ‘gothic themes’ they’ve done in the past. “We’ve definitely opened a door that is futuristic and sort of urban, pre-apocalyptic themed as opposed to the more conventional doomy, medieval, gothic themes that we’ve done in the past. So, we really wanted this album to really have a different taste, even though it’s conceptually, very much like a church-like organisation that’s sort of conducting a mass in a different format.”

On the 6th of June the people of Linköping, the humble home of Ghost, saw the band’s new frontman Papa Emeritus III, who is reportedly Papa II’s younger brother by three months. Since then, Papa III has gone to amaze fans alongside the rest of the Nameless Ghouls. But, what exactly makes the new Papa stand out differently to Papa I and II? “He’s a different face and he has hair,” he laughs.

“He’s a definitely different character even though he’s closely related to Papa II. He’s likely more of a member than the other two and he sings a little better, I think. He has some really mastered vocals I know that Papa II and I never had. It’ll be even more apparent when we start doing our headlining tours, when a lot of the theatrics come into place where there’ll be more of a costume change in the show that will be a bit more apparent about it being a different Papa compared to I and II.” When Ghost performed their first show with Papa Emeritus III in early June, the band later announced a handful of shows around Europe. So far, out of all the shows they’ve done, there’s one particular show that they’ve done that they’ve enjoyed the most.

“I’d probably say that the latest show we did, where we headlined a festival in Denmark called Copenhell. That was

probably the best one so far. We had a great live point of view after a half year of hiatus, which makes it a little bit rocky, especially with a new member in the band, and it makes it rocky in the beginning. We’re the sort of band that really loves touring. We love to do the same sets, the exact same thing more or less, every night. So, gigging during occasional shows is not ideal. It takes as much time to prepare for thirty stadium shows as opposed to one club show. And if you’re doing a tour, you always have a second chance to perfect what you guys did the day before. It gets a little too tense, so I think, the sixth show that we did; Copenhell, I think we’re slowly getting to the place where we’re comfortable to play these new songs. We’re playing four new songs out which people haven’t heard yet and that is weird. We’re used to playing material in front people that know all of our songs.

So it’s great stuff to balance when you’re promoting music that people haven’t heard yet, cos you’re playing in front of a crowd that doesn’t really follow. And playing live, it’s very much a co-effort. You give energy, and you’re getting energy back. So, we’re looking forward to the headline tours.”

A new album perpetually means a tour, as everyone expects. Australia last saw Ghost as one of many artists on the last Big Day Out festival that took place in 2014, where they performed on the same stage as acts such as Deftones, Vista Chino, Northlane, Mudhoney and a number of others, as well as two sideshows in Melbourne and Sydney. So, does this mean Australia could be seeing Ghost in the near future for a headline or festival run? “I’m assuming everybody else nowadays, when you’re in a band, you would expect to visit in the early months of the year. We’re hoping that it’s not at the point early in the year, but at some other point, where we come back and do a proper headlining tour. We’ve always wanted to do a headline tour in Australia, just because of the festivals. But we’ll see. We’re not confirmed as of yet, but we’re definitely working on getting to Australia as soon as possible.”

Meliora will be released through Spinefarm Records/ Loma Vista Recordings/Caroline Australia on 21 August 2015. H

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Drown The Thoughts

‘Can’t Be Unsaid’ @YouTube Words: Rod Whitfield Photo: Elder

Sometimes, when a band releases a new album, it makes you take stock of that band and look back at their career, and sometimes it can surprise you.

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ydney based metalcore act Buried in Verona have released new record Vultures Above, Lions Below, and it may be a surprise to some that this is no less than their fifth full length album release, since their formation back in 2007. Even frontman Brett Anderson is having a little difficulty in getting his head around that fact.

“It’s come around quick!” He admits. “I was talking to someone the other day, and they said ‘how many albums have you done?’, it was just someone who was just a mate, not that into the scene or whatever, and I thought about it, and it was like ‘wow, this is our fifth!’ It feels like I should be about forty or something when I say ‘my fifth record.’” He laughs.

“I guess the days of a record lasting five or six years are gone these days.”

Anderson feels that it bespeaks of people’s approach to buying and enjoying music in the modern age. “I think people’s attention spans are just getting shorter and shorter and they need new material. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, because it makes bands always re-think what they’re doing and try to come up with new and exciting stuff a lot more regularly than they used to.

“When I was listening to my favourite bands, I was dying for a new record after two years, and I wouldn’t get it for five.”

It may be a cliché, but he feels that this is far and away their finest recorded moment, and just a few listens to Vultures Above, Lions Below will confirm that, in this album’s case, it may be a cliché but it’s very true. It is a titanic slab of worldclass melodic metalcore, and will please the band’s myriad of fans no end while pulling in a few new ones as well.

“We’ve been to Sweden to record, and we’ve been to Detroit to record, we’ve done the overseas thing for three albums, and we’ve always come back not completely happy,” he concedes. “So we kinda just decided to take the reins ourselves for this record, and self produce it. Obviously we did all the writing, we did all the pre-pro, tracked the whole album, post-production, and then got our friends from Sweden Fredrik (Nordström) and Henrik (Udd) to mix the record, they always do an amazing job.

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It was one of those situations where great creativity sprang from adversity. “We had gone through quite a turbulent time over the last couple of years,” he reveals, “a lot of things behind the scenes weren’t so good for Buried in Verona, and we slowly but surely cancelled all those things out, and we came together in a positive way at the right time.

And it produced something that we’re all just super amazed and proud with.”

It may also have something to do with the fact that the band made the decision early on to keep the entire process of writing and recording the album in house and almost completely DIY. “We’ve been to Sweden to record, and we’ve been to Detroit to record, we’ve done the overseas thing for three albums, and we’ve always come back not completely happy,” he concedes. “So we kinda just decided to take the reins ourselves for this record, and self produce it. Obviously we did all the writing, we did all the pre-pro, tracked the whole album, post-production, and then got our friends from Sweden Fredrik (Nordström) and Henrik (Udd) to mix the record, they always do an amazing job.

“This whole record from start to finish is purely us, and maybe that’s part of the reason that we’re so proud of it.”

The record’s release will signal a massive bout of touring for the band, both here and abroad. And in great news for local fans, Anderson foresees that the band may focus a little more strongly on pleasing their Aussie fans a little more from now on.

We’re locking in an Australian tour for soon after,” he states, “so we’ll play right round the country again, and then we’ll be looking to head off overseas again late this year and early next year, and then come back and start playing Australia more. I think we’ve lacked doing bigger tours in Australia, we’ve concentrated on overseas for so long, but I think our minds have changed now, we really need to look after the people who supported us first before we go over there again.”

Vultures Above, Lions Below is out through UNFD on 7 August 2015. H

Photo: Mel Meek

Hostile Objects 1. Where is your band from?

We formed in Sydney in August 2012 and we’re still based there.

2. Where did your band name come from?

Our bass player, Luke came up with it. He got the idea after reading something about cases involving people who are mentally ill and believe that inanimate objects like appliances are going to attack them.

3. What genre of music do you consider yourself?

Hardcore punk.

4. Tell us about your band.

Our guitarist Jimmy Fatal and drummer Grant Rizzo have played in bands together before and decided to start a new band in a hardcore punk vein. They met Luke Death, who at that time had only recently moved to Sydney and started jamming with him on bass. Jimmy and Grant have both known me for years - bands I’d been in have played with their bands and we’d often see each other at shows, etc. They asked me (Rod) to come down and try out on vocals and lucky for me they liked what I did!

In our relatively short time together we’ve played plenty of shows along Australia’s east coast and have had the chance to support some legendary overseas bands including Poison Idea, The Bronx, Slapshot, M.D.C., D.O.A., Burning Love and Iron Reagan, along with some of Australia’s finest, such as the Hard-Ons, Mindsnare, Toe To Toe, The Meanies, Extortion, I Exist, Frenzal Rhomb, Clowns, High Tension, Batpiss, Shackles and more.

5. How many releases have you put out?

We’ve put out four releases to date. Our self-titled four-song

demo tape/download was recorded by us and D.G. Chambers at our drummer’s house and mixed by D.G. Chambers.

Our five song Young God 7” EP/download (Inner City Uprising Records) was recorded in a rehearsal studio using a portable set up. Mo Mayhem from Hell City Glamours, Mucho Sonar and One Take Earthquake engineered it. We then recorded the guitars and vocals in his home studio and he mixed it there as well. It was mastered at West West Side Music in New York by Alan Douches.

Early this year we put out a digital only release – Live at The Annandale Hotel, Sydney, Australia, 27/07/13 – that was recorded, mixed and mastered by our drummer, Grant Rizzo.

Our latest release, a three song 7” EP/download titled Cave In (Burnum Records) was recorded at Music Feeds studio in St Peters, Sydney, with engineering wizard JonBoyRock (Hard-Ons, Front End Loader, Nunchukka Superfly, Grand Fatal, Bruce, Blacklevel Embassy). It was mastered by Carl Saff at Carl Saff Mastering in Chicago.

2. Where did your band name come from?

We knew that we were going to reload as a new entity and thus had a mass brainstorming session spanning months and months over the course of 2011. We had a shared spreadsheet that we all updated any moment we had an idea for a name.

There were probably over 100 names in the document with about ten legitimate candidates. Our drummer Ben had the idea for Earthside. To us the name Earthside had the right versatility for our music to define what the name signified rather than the name pigeonholing our sound.

3. What genre of music do you consider yourself?

The dreaded genre question. We certainly don’t want to deter listeners, our fans, and music journalists alike from coining whatever genre they feel most aptly describes Earthside’s music. We refer to our sound as ‘Cinematic Rock’. Ultimately, we view Earthside as a vehicle to make any style of music we feel inspired to compose and perform together.

It’s worth noting that Earthside is technically an instrumental band as we have no vocalist, but half the songs on our upcoming album will feature various guest vocalists with the vocal parts composed by Earthside.

4. Tell us a bit about your band.

Frank and I have been best friends since we were about 6 or 7 years old. Soon after that we started jamming and writing songs together in elementary school. We played in bands together

8. Is there anything else that you think we should know about you?

We recently contributed a song (Damaged II) to an album featuring Australian bands covering the entire first Black Flag album, Damaged. Fifteen bands covered fifteen songs in one day; we each had thirty minutes to record our track, at Goatsound Studios in Melbourne. It was hectic, but fun. You can download it from Goatsound’s Bandcamp page. If you choose to pay for it, all of the money goes to Sea Shepherd Australia.

6. What do you want listeners to take away from your music?

That we’re passionate about what we do – hopefully that comes across live and on our recordings. We simply want to write songs that we like playing; we don’t care about whatever the latest trend is.

7. What’s on the horizon for your band?

We’ve recorded thirteen songs with JonBoyRock for our debut album. Some of the songs we’ve already been playing live, others haven’t been played live yet. Once we’ve finished the vocals and it’s mixed we’re going to try and get it released as soon as possible. We’re excited about people hearing it, we think they’re our best and most varied collection of songs to date. That said we’re keen to keep on moving and start work on writing some new songs. Later this year we’ll be playing a run

Y ou n g Gods

‘Hostile Objects’ @Bandcamp

Photo: Ian Christmann – Catalyst Photography

Earthside 1. Where is your band from?

Three out of four of us formed the previous iteration of our band under a different name when we were in high school back in 2004 in New Haven, CT (USA). The four of us have been writing/recording/performing as Earthside since the beginning of 2012.

of shows with an American punk band that we’re fans of; it’s something we’re really looking forward to.

starting in middle school. In high school Frank met Ben, and ever since then we had our core of the band. Ryan has been a very worthy addition and is continually becoming more and more integrated into everything we’re doing.

In Earthside, the collaborations on the album and living in Stockholm while recording have been the most interesting parts of the last few years. Working with the Moscow Studio Symphony Orchestra and Lajon Witherspoon from Sevendust were both personal dreams come true for me.

7. What’s on the horizon for your band?

We have just released our second single Mob Mentality and first to include collaborators. Beyond that, near future plans include an official music video release for this second single, an album release date announcement, extensive touring, and a band relocation from Connecticut to a more vibrant artistic city in the U.S. or perhaps even a move to our “second home” in Stockholm!

5. How many releases have you put out?

Earthside’s upcoming album A Dream In Static will be our debut effort. We spent eight months in Stockholm, Sweden recording the album with producer David Castillo (Opeth/ Katatonia/Soilwork/Bloodbath). It was a tremendous experience for us, both living in Sweden and working with David. He had the patience and the adaptability that few producers would have to work on a project as large in scope as ours with a group of guys who are as anal about our music as we are. The album was then mixed by David and Jens Bogren and soon after mastered by Jens at Fascination Street Studios in Örebro, Sweden.

6. What do you want listeners to take away from your music?

We want you as a listener to engage our music and to give yourself the chance to be moved by it in some way that’s personal to you. There’s nothing specific that we want you to think or feel. Our music aims to be emotionally confrontational so if we made you feel something strongly, then we’ve achieved our goal. Other than that, we want listeners to know that our music is earnest and heartfelt. This is our way of baring our souls and our hope to leave something behind that makes a meaningful impact on people now and endures long after we die.

J oin T h e M ob

‘Mob Mentality’ @YouTube

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Fate

‘Karma Favours The Weak ’ @YouTube Words: Steven Jenkins Photo: Joel Adams

Melbourne’s Orpheus Omega are without a doubt one of the most beloved bands with their unique style of melodic death metal.

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ow they have their third studio album Partum Vita Mortem that is a true sign of accomplishment and a perfect example of hard work paying off. Vocalist and guitarist Chris Themelco spoke to us about how proud they are of the new album and the excitement of their upcoming Australian tour.

“We started writing the new album properly when we got back from our Asian tour last year, we had all the ideas down pat and then basically the second we got back we headed into the studio. That tour gave us a lot of motivation to write. We recorded it all ourselves. I run a small studio in Melbourne so that gave us more control and freedom to create what we wanted. It was a pretty smooth process really.”

Orpheus Omega just announced a massive run of shows across Australia spanning over three months with dates pretty much everywhere in the country. Chris explains why they decided to spread out the dates rather than do one string of shows over a couple of weeks like most bands.

“Basically we wanted to go everywhere this time, and doing it over a few weeks we probably wouldn’t get the most potential that we want from each show. Now we’ve got enough time between each show to promote them properly and more attention on each show. We’ll be visiting places that we haven’t been that often, places like Tassie, regional towns across the country and over in Western Australia.

We’d like to think that by the time the album is out it will give people a chance to hear it and process it to which people might spread the word about our live show and other people will hear about it. Plus there’s so many tours being announced lately which is great, but we kind of wanted to make sure we didn’t clash with anything which can be hard.”

It can be quite difficult to be successful when it comes to playing heavy music in Australia, but right now Chris seems to think that the young talent and heavy music being made is some of the strongest out there at the moment. “I think it’s the best it’s been for a while now to be honest. Along with being in a band and working with other bands and going to gigs it’s obvious how much potential there is for Australian metal at the moment, it’s ridiculous. Obviously you’ve got your bands like King Parrot, Ne Obliviscaris, Psycroptic and Be’lakor who are doing really well at this point. But in the

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next five years there are just so many bands waiting to break through who are just below that level, it’s going to add to the face of Australian metal.”

Many metal bands across Australia are starting to take off and head overseas to Europe and America for tours and festivals; I asked Chris if that’s something the band hope to do very soon. “I think part of the reason we signed with Kolony Records was to help open up the doors to go overseas.

It’s been something we’ve wanted to do for a while now and I think it’s the end goal for every band and to be able to go back and get more support and make some noise. For us it’s definitely high up on the priority list and hopefully it comes to fruition next year.”

It’s not rare for a band member to manage his or her own band in this day and age; in fact Chris does exactly that. For a metal band in Australia you don’t always get handed everything on a silver platter, it takes time and hard work, which he goes on to explain further. “It’s not the ‘80s or ‘90s anymore where you get signed to a label and then get appointed a manager who does everything for you.

Sometimes I put in twenty to twenty-five hours a week of just band admin on top of my job and other things, so it’s definitely not easy but it’s something I enjoy. I think you have to be putting in as much effort into your writing and music as you are to running the band, because we’re all very DIY people and we want to be in control when it comes to running the band. That’s the vibe I’ve been getting from a lot of other Aussie acts as well, especially for the metal scene.”

As a final message Chris had these kind words to say to the readers and fans of the mighty Orpheus Omega. “Thank you for all the support so far because realistically without people like Heavy Mag and the readers listening to us and our fans none of this would be possible. We’d all just be sitting in a garage writing music for ourselves, so thank you for following us for all this time and we’re all looking forward to what people will think of this album. This is well and truly everything that we could possibly put into something and we couldn’t be prouder of it.”

Partum Vita Mortem is out now via Kolony Records and Rocket/Nerve Gas in Australia. H

Words: David Griffiths Photos: Courtesy of Madman Films

In 2010 a movie hit the big screen that completely stunned all genre film lovers, especially those who loved a good monster film.

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ee, normally a monster film takes years to make, $100s millions of dollars to make and has an established director such as James Cameron or Steven Spielberg attached. But then suddenly along came Monsters, a monster film shot on a measly $500,000 budget and directed by a relative unknown in the directing world, Gareth Edwards.

Monsters went on to be described by many film critics as ‘one of the finest monster films ever made’ and is a film still talked about at every pop culture festival you attend even today. Not surprisingly over the past four years fans have been begging for a sequel to be made, but it has looked more and more unlikely as Monsters star Scoot McNairy has become hot Hollywood property appearing in Oscar winning films like 12 Years A Slave and Argo, while director Gareth Edwards moved onto making blockbusters like Godzilla and is currently filming Star Wars: Rogue One. Well, fans of Monsters can finally start celebrating because Monsters: Dark Continent has now arrived. The film is set ten years after the original Monsters and now sees the ‘Infected Zones’ spread right across the world. The film this time features an all new cast including Joe Dempsie (Games Of Thrones) and Johnny Harris (Snow White & The Huntsmen) and sees McNairy return in the form of an executive producer.

Seeing Gareth Edwards was also tied up with his production schedule on Godzilla he also takes on an executive producer role and has appointed first time feature director Tom Green, mostly known for directing cult television show Misfits, to the role of director.

Realising he had big shoes to fill, Green says he set about keeping Monsters: Dark Continent similar to the original film but also putting in his own stamp on the film. “The ideology is that it is a sequence in terms of ethos,” says Green. “I think after viewing the first film what blew me away was how inventive it was and how ambitious it was and how much scale you can put into your film if you just think creatively and limitlessly. So I wanted to keep that ethos but also to create a completely different film entirely.

“I think something that was really important was that it had a stronger backbone of genre through it and the obvious jumping off point for me was war films, so that was very much where I made my film go so I was suppose it was different in that it had a stronger driving genre through it. So I think what was different about the first one is that it doesn’t have a classical narrative structure – a conventional threeact structure I think it is a very different piece and it meanders its way through. Well, not meanders but finds its path and journey through the

character journeys rather than a very structured narrative. I guess that is a bit of a similarity, so what is different again is that the monster is up front and centre, but equally there is a cross over with the first one in that it is driven by a human story.”

Of course if you sit down and talk to any fan of monster films they will tell you there is something just as important as good acting, brilliant directing and a suspenseful story when it comes to the genre – and that is how do the monsters look. So how much work did Green and his team put into the creatures in Monsters: Dark Continent? “Well I wanted to create my own world of creatures and I wanted there to be different species of them, and if not different species then different varieties of the same specie, and that they may have adapted virally,” explain Green.

“And there’s the idea that their evolutionary process took years rather than millions of years so they had formed hard shells very quickly because they had found themselves in a different environment. These originally squid like creatures suddenly found themselves in the Middle East, the harsher environment and in harsher and sandier conditions so their evolutionary process had built them hard shells, armour around them and they also adapted to their environment in other ways as well so that was the jumping off point. I also wanted them to have grown in size and be bigger and for them to move in herds. I liked the idea of mirroring the natural world with the creatures and I wanted them to be really organic so it felt like that they belonged in their environment.”

“So myself and Chris Bull, the creature designer sat down with that, and with Seb’s input as well, and we started designing and what was wonderful about working with Christian was the way he sculpts you know with digital clay. I’ve done sculpture myself so I love watching him do it, but I am strictly an amateur and he is this masterful sculptor and in physical clay as well as digital clay. And he would pull and find these shapes and do all these sketches and we would kind of just keep working off and from those shapes and I wanted them to have some kind of organic, some kind of tree root-like system. So he would keep working on these designs and I would sit with him and then leave him and then he would show me new designs and I would give him input on those designs. But then Seb and myself in the Middle East were inspired by the rock faces, the deserts there and the textures of the rock and the environment there and we took hundreds and thousands of photographs, so the textures there became part of the texture maps of the creatures that you see in the film.” H Monsters: Dark Continent is out now through Madman Films and has been reviewed on www.heavymag.com.au.

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GOODBYE WORLD

MARSHLAND

Director: Denis Hennelly

Director: Alberto Rodriguez

Stars: Ben McKenzie, Adrian Grenier, Kerry Bishe, Caroline Dehavernas

Stars: Javier Gutierrez, Raul Arevalo

Summary: Nick and Becky think they are heading for a quiet (if not slightly personally uncomfortable) weekend away at their friend’s, James and Lily, home well and truly off the grid. While their biggest fear is that tension will be at a high seeing Nick feels like James duded him out of a business deal and because he used to be engaged Lily, worse follows when millions of people around the world receive a text message that reads ‘Goodbye World’ and anarchy breaks out.

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here is a misconception amongst most directors that a film about the end of the world needs to have a heap of burning buildings, CGI tsunamis and a muscle bound hero trying to save everybody in sight (I’m looking at you San Andreas) but here with Goodbye World we are quickly shown that an end of the world film can actually be better serviced if it just concentrates on the human’s themselves and their emotions as they face what could be their doom.

Director Denis Hennelly really seems to like punishing his characters. As if relationship tension between two couples isn’t enough he then introduces a washed up, depressed former activist who deals with his pain by sleeping with much younger girls, a computer hacker who wants to kill himself and a young political worker whose life and career has been ruined by a sex tape. Oh and then there is the end of the world thing happening in the background around them as well.

While Hennelly doesn’t take this film as deep as Lars von Trier did with Melancholia the film does have its share of emotions as the group (like the world around them) implodes and they turn on each other. Fans of the television show Jericho will love the fact that this soon becomes an emotional drama where you soon realise that nobody is safe even though they are a long away way from the violence of the capital cities.

Of course, the important thing with a film with a script so powerful is that the cast can pull it off and thankfully here they do. While questions may be cast over whether TV actors like Adrian Grenier (Entourage) and Ben McKenzie (The OC, Gotham) could pull off a film like this, they actually do it pretty well and are well supported by those around them. Grenier actually shows he is ready for the next step-up and could become a leading man outside the franchise that made him famous.

Goodbye World is the kind of film that makes you take stock of your own life and is well worth a look if you like thoughtprovoking films with a bit of edge.

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Summary: Set in the marshlands of Spain during the industrial upheaval of 1980 Marshland sees two Detectives, Juan and Pedro, sent to investigate the brutal murder of two local teenage girls.

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o often you hear people say they will avoid a film because it is in a foreign language and has subtitles. What those people don’t realise is they are often missing out on some of the best films to be released each year because let’s be honest France, Israel and Germany’s films are so much better than Hollywood’s at the moment that it isn’t funny. Now Spain throws its name onto that list with the release of Marshland (released as La Isla Minima in Spain), a stunning movie that is going to be loved by anybody that likes a good crime thriller.

From the opening frames of Marshland you just know that this film is going to be very special. Director Alberto Rodriguez (a man making a name for himself for gripping films) opens the film with some stunning aerial photography that lulls his audience into thinking that this is a ‘beautiful’ area, then he hits you with one hardened murder mystery that finds itself well and truly in the realm of films like 8MM and The Killer Inside Me. Marshland’s screenplay takes you deep into a story of corruption, sexual abuse and borderline snuff as Juan and Pedro find themselves as outsiders in a town where pretty much anybody could be a suspect in these horrific murders. The film uses the surrounding marshlands to great effect and sometimes even borders on seeming more like a western than your run-ofthe-mill crime thriller. More importantly though this isn’t one of those murder mystery films where you can pick the killer a mile away, it’s sign posted to a certain extent, but still leaves you wondering and asking questions as it continues on.

This is very much an ‘unclean’ film. Yes, it makes you want to feel like you need to take a shower after watching it and it may not explore some subjects that not everybody is entirely okay with but it is a powerful film that deserves to be listed as one of the best crime thrillers of 2015. Fuelled by a great screenplay and two award winning performances by its leading men Marshland is the kind of murder mystery that Alfred Hitchcock would have been proud of. Foreign cinema at its best.

THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE III (FINAL SEQUENCE)

ZERO MOTIVATION Director: Tayla Lavie

Director: Tom Six

Stars: Dana Ivgy, Nelly Tagar, Shani Klein.

Stars: Dieter Laser, Laurence R. Harvey, Clayton Rohner, Bree Olson, Eric Roberts.

Summary: Zohar, Daffi and Rama are all women who have answered the call to join the Israeli Army. But life in the military hasn’t exactly turned out how they dreamed it would be. The women find themselves posted at a remote desert base where the women certainly aren’t treated as equals. Being used pretty much as ‘office girls’ Zohar is so bored she spends most days playing video games, Rama wants a promotion but is left looking after five girls who have no respect for her while Daffi manages to upset everybody by trying to get transferred to Tel Aviv.

Summary: Bill Boss and Dwight Butler have a problem. Their prison is overcrowded and costing the State too much money. While Boss likes to deal out his own form of brutal punishment when prisoners step out of line that doesn’t help the fact that the Governor has told them to cut costs. Then Dwight steps in with his idea… time for a human centipede.

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ore horror fans rejoice the third film in The Human Centipede trilogy is here! Now despite loving my horror I’ll be the first to admit that very often the third film in a horror series can be scraping the barrel but luckily for fans of this franchise director Tom Six is talented (or should that be sick enough?) to keep coming up with ways to reinvent the concept with each new film.

Now if you have been one of the people that were lucky enough to witness the first two Human Centipede films you’ll know what to expect this time around. Six and his merry filmmaking crew like to make the kind of gross out horror that got the first filmed banned in Australia (before it was edited) and even makes the likes of The Soska Sisters and Jessica Cameron blush. And yes before you sit down to watch The Human Centipede III be warned that this isn’t going to be the kind of film that you will stomach if you don’t mind some graphic genital mutilation, stuff going into mouths that really should not be going in mouths and some other gut-turning moments.

The other thing to remember about this film is that it isn’t high art, the performances of Dieter Laser, Laurence R. Harvey and Bree Olson are completely over-acted but in the way that will you laugh not cringe. In fact at the end of the day Dieter Laser’s Bill Boss could actually go down in film legend as one of the most psychotic bad guys to ever grace the screen and he seems to love playing the role.

While the idea of a horror set in a prison in redneck America does need a little selling Tom Six will once again have his fans raving with The Human Centipede III (Final Sequence). The film mixes gross out horror, a strong political message about human rights vs. money and introduces the Laurel & Hardy of horror in Boss and Butler.

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ew films come to Australia this year with as much promise as Zero Motivation. Israeli cinema is on a high at the moment releasing some genuinely edgy films that deserve wider appreciation, then added to that fact that Zero Motivation scooped all the major awards at the Israeli version of the Oscars, has a great link to Sundance and has picked up awards at Film Festivals right around the world. It is easy to see why this is a film that needs to be on your must watch list for this year.

On the surface Zero Motivation is a dark war comedy… something in the vein of M*A*S*H* if you really want to pigeon hole the film. But this is also a film that goes a lot deeper than that. Director/screenwriter Talya Lavie does a brilliant job mixing drama and laughs together while also exploring deep issues including soldiers getting ‘cabin fever’ at remote outposts, the treatment of women in the Israeli Armed forces and the pressure that young girls feel around their sexuality and the need to be having sex in modern culture.

Lavie doesn’t hold back on any front and gets her points across with dramatic and tense scenes that involve a suicide, a sexual assault on a female soldier and even two soldiers beating each other with office furniture. What makes Zero Motivation so strong though is Lavie’s screenplay, which will have you laughing at one moment and then in shock the next. Sometimes she’ll take you through all your emotions in just one scene.

One of the surprise hits of 2015 Zero Motivation is a must see for anyone that likes edgy cinema with a little bit of a difference.

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Words: Robyn Morrison Photo: Sean O’Reilly

Brian Cachia is a composer, a musician and an all round nice guy. You’ve probably heard of the films he’s worked on and wondered just what’s behind a mind that can pen a film score. Robyn Morrison unravels part of the mind that recently produced the Infini soundtrack.

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B

rian’s biography reads impressive.

He’s scored short films and worked as part of the Hollywood film composer team of Tyler Bates on films such as Halloween2, Suckerpunch, Super, Conan the Barbarian, The Darkest Hour and Billy Friedkin’s Killer Joe. In 2015 he’s paired up with filmmaker Shane Abbess, to work on the release of Infini – a film tracking the rescue of Whit Carmichael, the lone survivor of a biological breakout. The film is quite simply intense. It’s the type of film that has you gripped in your seat, shoving popcorn in your mouth until you’re at the end of the super-duper sized bucket and leaves you exhausted at the end. The film score complements that. The pair is already working towards their next film whilst in the midst of the success of their current feature. “As soon as Infini came out, I couldn’t wait to push it out there. It’s like we’ve given birth to this ugly dog, now kick it out the door and let it limp off down the street. I’m done with it,” he says. “But you can’t. You really need to follow it up. I’m still getting high on it but I’m still being dragged down by the comedown of the last one. It’s tricky but it’s a massive juggling act,” he says of being in between both films.

Turning the focus to the soundtrack, Cachia explains how he approached both the main soundtrack Infini and Infini: The Darker Side. “The distributor that took me on wanted to have a ‘best of’ album, which was tricky to do, but there is a defining line between the two sounds in Infini. You have pre-infection, where the music is drama based. I state the themes early on in Infini in the first disaster theme, but for the most part I stick to the mission statement. When infection kicks in, a lot of undertones and harmony takes a shift to really give it that uncomfortable feeling, and the insecurity is in the music.

The main release definitely highlights the emotion.

Cachia goes onto explain when he was cleaning up the tracks, he discovered some darker sounds. “All the cues were taken from a deranged place. It made sense to release another one and put it out there for the hardcore fans. It’s also for people who like to write to music that’s unedited and unadultered.”

You often hear songwriters claiming that they become one with the music, they become involved in it and lose themselves. Brian explains it was no different with the Infini soundtrack. “From the writing process to the actual shooting process, you’re optimistic about setting out what you’re out to do. A Shane Abbess film goes down this immersive methodical environment, where all actors on set are referred to by their characters names. No one breaks character. They are that person for the duration of the shoot. It was an amazing combination of people who resonated that trip. It was so brutal. There were fights, people screaming at each other, there were profound moments of realisation in their character arcs. Going home [after being on the set] felt weird. It felt weirder than being on set because you were acclimatised to this hocked up environment. When I went home to my three year old boy and wife, I was looking at them with my pupils dilated.”

In hindsight, Brian says he foolishly took his preconceptions into his writing process. “Even when I speak to the film’s editor [Adrian Rostirolla] or [co-writer] Shane Abbess, they couldn’t put a temporary soundtrack down to show people what it sounded like because nothing

sat to the picture. So to go into the scoring process with a pre-conceived idea of what it should be was an absolute fail.

I had no choice but to take the immersive and methodical approach to writing the soundtrack.”

Brian spent considerable time in the U.S., some of which was spent with the aforementioned Tyler Bates. He explains what he brought back with him from that experience. “I learnt resilience,” he says, without hesitation. “There’s such a pressure for composers to sound like what the producers have set out on the timeline. Composers are often painted into a corner of what the film needs to sound like. What I learnt to take back here is to be original as possible, to strive for something artistic and be proud of it.”

Despite some of the pressures put on the Australian film industry, Brian believes we’re in a good place. “There are a lot of great films being made down here. There feels like resurgence in the next wave of film making, with all the films being released. There’s a potential for us to have a wave of new talent. How we compare to the rest of the world, I think we always have our own voices down here but we are kind of forced to be inviting on a world market scale. If we’re not, we have to pay a distribution to do these films. We have a great potential but we are determined by the world market.”

What also makes it difficult for a filmmaker or a film composer, is a hot topic in the music industry as well; piracy. So how does this effect Brian and others who work on movies like Infini? “When Infini came out, everyone was working on an investment type scenario. They’ve worked for a portion of their fee upfront and when the money comes in from the return, they all recoup a little bit. When Infini came out we were doing high fives, watching iTunes as it sat at #2. There were ten to fifteen thousand downloads in the first few days. Then, it was brought to our attention that over that exact same period, over one hundred and eighty thousand illegal downloads had happened at the same time. We became the number two most downloaded scifi film in the world in a period of four days, which meant if you had that one hundred and eighty thousand people download it legally, everyone would have been paid by now.

“What that does, rippling down the line, when you try to make a cool film for the kids to enjoy at home and you try and hire a lighting truck or a grip team or a costume designer or a makeup artist of a reputable status they’re going to ask how much did we return back to the workers for Infini and the answer is going to be thirty five percent.

They can’t work for thirty five percent of their wage and suddenly, a production company can’t get off the ground because of the piracy.

“By being the best pirates in the world [Australia], that is exactly what’s killing the industry. The fact that’s happened to Infini has killed any chance of Infini part two.

That’s been cancelled out by piracy. It’s quite interesting to see these people support the film but they won’t buy it. This is why you have films signing direct to Netflix right now.”

And if none of this has deterred you and you still feel as though you want to dive head first into film composing, Brian has these words to offer. “I think if you’re an artist, the most potent advice I can give is to know your voice.” H Brian Cachia’s work can be found at briancachiamusic. com

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Photo: Courtesy of We May Fall

We May Fall 1. Where is your band from?

We formed in 2014 in Sydney. We were all playing in a different band together previous to becoming We May fall. We love this city but can’t wait to get out of here.

2. Where did your band name come from?

The name really came from our collective experience playing music for years. If we do fall, we do it together, and the only way we get back up is because of each other.

3. What genre of music do you consider yourself?

Post-hardcore. But we’re open to suggestions. We’re not bigots.

4. Tell us a bit about your band.

We all came together over time really. The universe just conspiring to bring us together at the right time. Rudy, Stu, Deez

and I had been playing together for a few years before T-bones came along but we had known him for ages before that. He had produced and engineered some of our older bands stuff.

5. How many releases have you put out?

We have released one album You Wear Those Scars Well. We are planning a single release soon, which we can’t wait for, but at this stage just the one record. We recorded it at various studios all over Sydney, due to availability and also quality.

6. What do you want listeners to take away from your music?

That although things aren’t right with the world, not as a whole, but the individual’s world, they can be. They will be. I try to be as honest as possible in what I write lyrically about myself and what I have encountered on this journey. What I want most of all is for those that listen to us, follow us and see us, is for them to come on that journey as well. There is so much more to

2. Where did your band name come from?

We spent a quite a long time trying to come up with a name we felt comfortable with. At the time Ravi was playing Fall Out 3 and we got the name from a place in that.

3. What genre of music do you consider yourself?

Somewhere around the metal-core to death-core sub-genres of heavy metal.

4. Tell us a bit about your band.

As Paradise Falls formed in 2010 releasing a 3 track Demo and then recorded and released our first EP, Seasides & Suicides in 2011. In 2012 we released a standalone single Rehab Is For Quitters and then at the end of 2013, we recorded our latest release, Save Yourself at Electric Sun Studios Western Sydney, which was released in October 2014.

The band had a break between 2012-mid/late 2014 before we started playing shows again due to line-up changes so in that time we gathered a new line-up playing a couple of shows, which were big shows with Thy Art Is Murder and Attila as well as writing our EP and recording it.

5. How many releases have you put out?

A total of three, including one demo EP, a standalone single and two other EPs. Our latest release Save Yourself was recorded with Shane Edwards from Electric Sun (now working at Karma Studios in Thailand).

6. What do you want listeners to take away from your music?

Our lyrical content is heavily based on mental health issues and suicide awareness as that’s something we all feel strongly about as a group. Any inspiration taken away from our music or

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7. What’s on the horizon for your band?

We have a lot of really exciting things in the works at the moment and can’t wait to get moving on them. We are currently working on a number of things that we can’t wait to share with everyone. Sometimes patience can be a blessing and a curse.

8. Is there anything else that you think we should know about you?

Pandas. Just Pandas.

Rise a n d Fa l l

‘Victims’ @YouTube

Photo: Courtesy of As Paradise Falls

As Paradise Falls 1. Where is your band from?

Formed in Brisbane, QLD, Australia.

learn and discover. To see behind the veil.

lyrics to help better the individual is our main goal.

7. What’s on the horizon for your band?

We are currently mid way through writing our first album, as well as this we’re in the midst of booking a couple of our first international tours as well as settling dates for our studio time next year. Pretty full on but that’s how we like it!

always striving to evolve and experiment. Whether it be with our music or our live performance or how we function behind the scenes or anything really. We believe this creates the best opportunities for us and allows us to excel to the next level. It’s something a lot of bands seem to be afraid to do, so I think this is a good thing to know about us.

D em on s

8. Is there anything else that you think we should know about you?

A good thing to know about As Paradise Falls is that we’re

‘Save Yourself’ @Bandcamp

Words: Cameron Cooper Photo: Greg Hazard

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n 1982, then-fledgling label Metal Blade released the first hallowed Metal Massacre compilation, generating early buzz around two titanic bands: Metallica and Ratt. Of course, they weren’t the only groups featured. Trawl through the documented histories of Metallica and the memoirs of Ratt’s Stephen Pearcy and you’ll find scattered references to the compilation’s other acts, including a group called Cirith Ungol.

If the band’s Tolkien-inspired name wasn’t enough to make them stand-out to the average listener, then the band’s contributed tune, Death of The Sun, certainly was. The track’s opening gong, mind-expanding bass and howling vocals made the song an abrasive introduction to a band from an alternate universe. Cirth Ungol sounded like Iggy Pop had taken up

Plenty of musicians have their dreams shattered. For many, it is a quick death early on. But one band kept ploughing ahead, despite the rejection. Cirith Ungol are heavy metal’s Kings of The Dead. swordplay and necromancy, disregarding any of the bluesgrass, jazz or pub rock that bands of the time were informed by.

Ungol’s inclusion on the compilation was perhaps the closest the group ever came to mainstream recognition, but was really just a blip on an already long career. It all started in 1972, when drummer Robert Garven, guitarist Jerry Fogle and guitarist/ bassist Greg Lindstrom decided their current band, Titanic, was too soft and jumped ship.

After kicking around some Thin Lizzy and Mountain covers and performing violently-vulgar originals such as Tight Teen for a few years, the band found themselves staring down the ‘80s with no record label, no industry support, and a sound far too insane for the incoming era of New Wave and power ballads.

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Burn

‘Frost and Fire’ @YouTube

With a newly invigorated line-up courtesy of roadie-comesinger Tim Barker and his lava-laced vocals, the band decided to pour their money into self-producing a collection of their most “commercial” songs, resulting in the Frost and Fire album.

To set the scene, Venom’s Welcome To Hell wouldn’t kickstart extreme metal for a few more months, and the heaviest record around was probably Maiden’s Killers. Metal was yet to make its big comeback, and here was a bunch of screeching headbangers singing about sword-and-sorcery with fuzzed-out guitar licks and bass slaps. Naturally, radio stations didn’t see eye-to-eye with the Californians on what was “accessible” and the album was dropped from the airwaves.

While Frost and Fire did manage to spawn a small following for the band and would lead to the band’s record deal with Enigma/Restless Records, the lack of success meant something had to give: for Lindstrom, rehearsing five nights a week and self-financing an album wasn’t worth it if the only kickback was underground notoriety. With the press calling Frost and Fire the “worst heavy metal album ever recorded”, the writing was on the wall.

“I felt I had reached a turning point in my life after graduating college, getting a ‘real’ job in aerospace engineering, and spending 11 years in the band,” Lindstrom told Ballbuster Music. “We were still playing mostly clubs, and our career wasn’t advancing as quickly as I had hoped.”

Lindstrom’s time in the band would continue to resonate into 1984, when the band – now with bassist Michael Flint – weighed up the success of their attempt at commercial metal, shrugged their leather-clad shoulders and dropped King of The Dead, considered by many to be the perfect Ungol album.

Devil-drenched bass, haunting lyrics and knuckle-dragging riffs set the album apart from the band’s previous work, with Lindstrom’s more ponderous and thoughtful contributions still present, most notably on the epic and enchanting Finger of Scorn.

Trusting their intuition and putting out an album on their terms worked to their advantage and, with a leg up from Metal Blade Records, the band released One Foot In Hell in 1986.

The album dropped much of the progginess and subtleties of King of The Dead, but what it did feature was a cleaner, crisper production. While the songs might not have been quite on the same level as previous releases, they were certainly a lot more consistent.

The band had found their direction, landed a better record deal and were actually beginning to get positive reviews. A few generations of metalheads had come and gone between the release of Frost and Fire and One Foot in Hell, but it was finally time for Ungol to take their crowns as the kings of real heavy metal. The band hit the press with announcements of a new studio album plus a live double-album before the end of ‘87.

And that was when it all went wrong.

For reasons that remain foggy in the Ungol annuals, both Flint and Fogle jumped ship during the between-album struggles that had become the norm for a band constantly being played by, it seems, a very twisted hand of fate. While the replacement members – Vernon Green on bass and Jim Barraza on guitar – were both competent musicians, they simply lacked the weirdness that the band was finally starting to hone and make headway with. Swampy, alien bass was replaced by simpler root-note chugging. Violently insane, gnarly guitar twists and turns supplemented by ‘80s metal palm-mutes and pinch harmonics. Perhaps the Ungol camp could have survived the loss of one of these elements, but half the band’s sound?

Forget about it.

The ‘90s rolled around and the band hadn’t managed to make good on their big promises for ‘87, with the victories of the last two albums a distant memory. As the dominating force of alternative rock sat on the horizon, even some of the heaviest hitters in metal were being shown the door by record labels,

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“I felt I had reached a turning point in my life after graduating college, getting a ‘real’ job in aerospace engineering, and spending 11 years in the band.” radio stations and, most importantly, fans. On their last legs, the new Ungol released Paradise Lost in 1991. The band’s death rattle was a mixed bag of heavy, scornful tunes like Join The Legion and bizarrely poppy moments such as the White Lionesque Go It Alone. The band’s final album was the only one instep with the ‘80s – pity it came out a few years too late.

Garven has voiced his distaste for Paradise Lost over the years, claiming that the album was dogged by a shoddy recording process, zero promotion from the label and a bunk contract (which has stopped the album from enjoying the same reissuing through Metal Blade as the first three). While perhaps the band’s weakest release and hardest to find, it shows Ungol at their most digestible, and may be the best starting point for headbangers wanting to get into the band, but not ready for the weirdness of the early material.

The band were broke, in a terrible relationship with their record label and had managed to alienate their underground fans without even making a dent in the mainstream. Paradise Lost was the final nail in the coffin and after twenty-two years of full-time work it was time to put Ungol to rest. The band hung up their hats in 1992. For Garven, this would also mark the end of his career as a drummer.

Calls from loyal fans for a reunion have been met with a cold shoulder by Garven, the possibility extinguished with the tragic death of Fogle in 1998. Barker also shows zero interest in getting the band back together, but Lindstrom has kept the flame alive as a member of power-trio Falcon, whose output includes a few reworked Cirith Ungol tunes, including the previously unrecorded Shelob’s Lair. The surviving members also put together the compilation album Servants of Chaos in 2001, made up of live cuts and demos from throughout the history of a band whose dreams of success were always just out of reach.

It’s doubtful that Cirith Ungol will ever see their legacy launched into the mainstream metal consciousness, or that Frost and Fire and King of The Dead will find their deserved place in the metal canon. There will never be an Anvil-esque documentary on their struggle, and there sure as hell won’t be a reunion. They will remain, like many bands out-of-step with their time, forever in the foggy abyss of heavy metal oddities.

But every now and then, another young metalhead will hear the band’s tunes for the first time and be blown away, or you’ll spot a Cirith Ungol back-patch in the crowd at a festival. They certainly haven’t gone by unnoticed completely, with bands such as Crystal Viper dropping a cover here and there. Cirith Ungol don’t mean everything to the world of heavy metal, but they do mean something, and maybe – for a band of unashamed outcasts-among-outcasts who held true to their ideals where many others would have faltered – that’s enough. H

Words: Nathan Eden Photo: Courtesy of Sony Music Australia

In 1992, Alice In Chains delivered their defining full-length; a sick, contagious monster called Dirt, infecting countless bands in its wake.

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t’s a little difficult to define Dirt in terms of what category you might throw it in to. Alice In Chains were often tagged grunge (whatever that meant) but didn’t fit in so snuggly with Nirvana et al. They were from Seattle and certainly sang songs of self-loathing, but also had an undeniable metallic edge, which managed to bridge some sort of undefined gap. Along the way, they inspired many to come. All alone in his white boy pain, Layne Staley’s self-hatred preceded that of bands who came to be labelled nu-metal, but they also had a profound effect on a wide cross-section of the heavy music world. Metallica were amongst many who penned songs in tribute to Layne Staley upon his death.

It was a death, which seems inevitable in hindsight. Whilst on the band’s debut, Facelift, Staley appeared to lament being the Man In The Box, by the band’s second effort, Dirt, the vocalist had seemingly resigned to accepting his place at the very bottom of that box.

If Alice In Chains perfected a game-changer, then Dirt was the one.

It was released in 1992 at a time when Nirvana’s Nevermind had begun

stifling Guns N’ Roses’ choke hold on commercial hard rock excess, and Metallica had jumped the shark a year beforehand with a dozen stadium-fillers collectively known as the Black album.

It might appear a total concept album concerning heroin addiction if it weren’t for Rooster, which Jerry Cantrell penned in ode to his Vietnam vet father. That’s right, the most uplifting song on this whole album is about war. Cantrell’s other lyrical contributions speak of the sadness of a doomed relationship, a mate who did of heroin troubles, and the all ‘round crappy world he lives in.

For the most part, Staley’s lyrics are confessional in the way that someone might offer their mistakes in hindsight, resigned to the fact that any opportunity to address them has passed. This darkness is punctuated intermittently by the morbid comfort of insanity. It’s all pretty heavy stuff which might kill the worth of a listen if it wasn’t so damn good.

Musically, each band member contributes equally which makes

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Pay Dirt

‘Would?’ @YouTube

Corey Taylor has, at least once, been quoted as suggesting Would? could be the greatest song ever written. It’s a catchy hard-rock song worthy of a sing-a-long; it’s just that it feels like you’re singing about yourself as though you were a ghost at your own funeral. for a cohesive masterpiece. Jerry Cantrell keeps it interesting by way of textured guitar work which manages to keep the listener equal parts intrigued and off balance, in addition to acting as the perfect vocal foil to the self-aware but hopeless junkie painting his bleak picture over the top.

The trick that Alice pulled off on Dirt, more so than on any previous or subsequent release, is the ability to create a progressive fusion of doom and melody that is at once depressing, beautiful and undeniably heavy. It owes as much of its power to the unlikely vocal harmonies of Staley and Cantrell as it does to the latter’s straight up metal riffing.

This album’s influence on modern metal icons is often understated.

Let’s start at the end of the album. Corey Taylor has, at least once, been quoted as suggesting Would? could be the greatest song ever written.

It’s a catchy hard-rock song worthy of a sing-a-long; it’s just that it feels like you’re singing about yourself as though you were a ghost at your own funeral.

It was that, which can be found on the soundtrack to the movie Singles, which also included Pearl Jam and Soundgarden. Would? certainly aided in building anticipation of Dirt’s release and when it did drop, much of the attention surrounding the band centred on rumours of Staley’s heroin addiction.

I wonder where they could have got that idea from. Could it have been the depressing lyrics and tortured delivery of singles such as Angry Chair and Down In A Hole, or perhaps the not-so-subtle God Smack or Junkhead? The latter of those actually includes the lyrics, “What’s my drug of choice? Well, what have you got?” It’s strange to think that, as a kid, I interpreted these words as somehow tongue-in-cheek, like I had to read between the lines for an understated moral.

As opposed to the drug references, it was the real sense of honest gloom the delivery found that attracted a swarm of followers. The legacy can be heard elsewhere as other bands chased that sound in the album’s wake. The sounds of bands such as Godsmack (yes, named after the song we just mentioned) and Staind are certainly unapologetic in their love and influence.

Further out, and perhaps a little less obvious, some of the bands which have been heavily influenced by Alice and Dirt, aren’t always the most popular amongst heavy music fans and critics. It’s almost hard to type the words “Nickelback” and “Creed”, but these are two bands in which you can audibly recognise the most commercially satisfying elements of this classic album. The unfortunate thing here is, these bands took Staley’s voice and made it numb. But his own most definitely

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was not.

The Seattle scene produced a quartet of distinctive vocalists, with each having a power of their own. Kurt Cobain could somehow scream a melody, Eddie Vedder had his own take on Jim Morrison, and Chris Cornell had his Robert Plant impression. But it was Staley who managed to spew vulnerability and power in the same breath, on his own or in twisted harmony with Cantrell. This is what those imposters lack.

Thankfully though, we have far better examples of the album’s influence. It is true that bands such as Stone Sour, Avenged Sevenfold, and even Queens of the Stone Age, simply wouldn’t be what they are today if their ears had never been exposed to Dirt.

A critical and commercial success, Dirt has sold millions around the globe and influenced a generation. In its current incarnation, Alice In Chains includes William DuVall as vocalist, whilst bassist Mike Inez replaced Mike Starr (who died in 2011 as a result of a supposed drugoverdose) soon after the release of Dirt, along with founding members Cantrell and drummer Sean Kinney.

Dirt was followed up by a hugely successful, albeit mellow-sounding EP, Jar Of Flies in 1994, and Alice In Chains in 1995. The self-titled would be Staley’s last and marked the beginning of a huge hiatus until Cantrell and co. reimagined themselves in 2009 with Black Gives Way To Blue, and more recently, The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here in 2013. As good as all subsequent releases have been, matching Dirt would be akin to expecting Metallica to rediscover the urgency of their eighties output.

This album is always a pleasure to revisit and almost as satisfying as it was to experience the first time. It was the album that was both loud enough to piss off your parents and weird enough to make them question your sanity. Even the most radio-ready of the tracks, opener Them Bones was bound to give mum and dad their first hint that they may need to stage an intervention at some point in the near future. “I feel so alone, gunna end up a big old pile of them bones” was enough to concern both parents, and the English teacher for poor grammar.

Dam That River rocks along at a similar pace before things start to get a bit strange and progressive as the album continues. But despite the layered vocals and textured, atonal guitars, Dirt still delivers a bunch of songs that hold equal impact alone or as part of an albumlong journey. So many bands have tried similar since, using elements borrowed to some degree from this fifty-eight minute collection of songs. Unfortunately for them, Dirt is a bit like the Colonel’s finest; nobody has quite been able to figure out the correct mix of herbs and spices. H

Deadspace

H a n g in’ Aro u n d

‘I’ll Buy The Rope’ @YouTube

Words: Cameron Cooper Photo: Courtesy of Deadspace

While Perth’s Deadspace might sound like the world falling apart, according to singer Chris Gebauer, it is about something a lot more triumphant.

With the claustrophobic yet uplifting opus The Promise of Oblivion, Perth’s Deadspace have materialised – seemingly – out of nowhere. But what seems like a calculated move into the world of depressive black metal was actually just the result of front-man Chris Gebauer getting some things off his chest. “I was getting to the point where I wanted to do something new,” the twenty-twoyear-old explains, his voice crackling with equal measures of youth and gravitas.

The former Earth Rot drummer found himself on tour with Sweden’s Shining, where he encountered the depressive black genre for the first time. “I was watching Shining every night and thought ‘This is what I want to do,’” he adds. “I wanted to do something expressive and not ridiculously fast and complex all the time.”

Returning from the Japanese tour, Gebauer kicked off Deadspace with his girlfriend at the time. The relationship began to collapse and he found himself drawn more and more into needing an outlet for his emotions. “I had a massive mental breakdown and just started recording and when the album was done, so was the relationship.”

Gebauer worked through this rocky time with guitar in hand, laying down riff after riff at home. “I was borrowing a guitar off a friend and just started tracking riffs for the hell of it. It turned into fourteen and sixteen hour recording sessions; the riffs went down as the ideas came into my head and I didn’t think twice about them.”

This gruellingly long process would carry over into the rest of the album, with the enlistment of Drew Griffiths on bass, mixing and mastering for what was, in every sense of the word, a DIY release, recorded entirely in four days.

“The drums were all programmed at first then Drew came in and put down all the bass guitar, and mixed and mastered everything.

Long hours, but we got it all done,” Gebauer says. “We recorded live drums over the top to replace the programmed drums which Drew engineered. It’s all DIY.” Aside from the pair, the only other contribution to the music on The Promise of Oblivion comes in the form of Nish Raghavan’s triumphant hard rock guitar solos.

“He’d never heard Shining or anything like that. I Just gave him a whole bunch of stuff and said ‘Hey dude, do you want to play on this? I was thinking really rocky sort of solos, something a little

filthy and uplifting,’ and he just sat down and worked out solos and sent them back without having any idea what he was contributing to.”

The eclecticism of the album – with influences stretching out as far as Goth rockers Sisters of Mercy – was intentional from the start.

“We kind of put everything aside when we were writing this.

I didn’t want to write a record that sounded just like Shining.

When we started to write it was cool to programme rock beats and stomping kick parts, it became an anchor point for a song. I wanted to write stuff that is dirty and makes people feel overwhelmingly crushed but I also wanted my Dad to be able to pick up this record.”

Gebauer was on tour with Earth Rot when buzz for the album started to flow in, and realised they’d stumbled onto something good. “All these reviews started coming in and I was reading them while I was in Europe and thinking ‘What the hell am I doing here? I should be at home writing another record!’ I didn’t think people would connect to it the way they have so I thought, ‘Well, we can sit on it and just pump out albums or we can actually be a band.’”

Gebauer went about filling out the Deadspace line-up, consisting of names from across Perth’s metal scene. They played their first show in May, and although some members are busy with other projects, the Deadspace ball is well and truly rolling.

“We’ve just started to book out our touring roster – we’re looking over East quite a bit, Sydney and Melbourne, stuff like that. As far as recording goes, we are about to start on something but we’re not sure what it’ll eventuate as,” Grebauer says. “If it was up to me we’d just get a van and tour up and down the coast and then go to Japan, but it’s not up to me!”

With a full line-up of Perth’s best, gigs and new music on the way, Gebauer and the Deadspace crew have plenty to be excited about.

An optimistic look ahead isn’t what you expect from bands hooked into depression, but according to Gebauer, getting hung up on your negative feelings isn’t what Deadspace is all about.

“It really celebrates [depression] in a way. That’s the idea behind it. People are made to feel bad by a lot of things, and they think that being depressed is a problem. Depression is a really heavy thing, but basically the record is meant to celebrate the fact that you can feel like that. My opinion has always been it’s the whole point of being human. If you look at the album there are different moods throughout the record. As easy as it is to lump it into the category of being about depression, it is really just about being human.” H

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Daemon Pyre

Look Sharp

‘Beyond The Razor Wire’ @YouTube

Words: Rod Whitfield Photo: Daniel Farr

A major change of sound, personnel and image for a band can often mean virtually starting again, with a whole new name and approach. Such is the case for this Sydney based five piece metal act. Beginning life as the more metalcore tinged As Silence Breaks, the band evolved and morphed their sound to such an extent that the members decided that a clean start, including a new moniker, was required.

It was a gutsy move, since As Silence Breaks had built up a very respectable following and profile over the course of their eight or so years of existence. But according to frontman Sam Rilatt, speaking from his home in Sydney, the band were definitely up for the challenge, and they have only grown and prospered.

“I was in a band with a couple of the guys, called As Silence Breaks,” he relates the band’s history. “We were sort of the last remaining line-up of the band. We decided in May of last year, having recorded a new album that we sort of wanted to start afresh.

“The sound was completely different to what we had begun as.

With all the new members coming on board, and the direction being well rooted in death metal and melodic death metal, we sat down as a team with our publicist, and we decided that the best thing for us to do was to present something new that was more in line with the tone of this album that we’d written. We played our last show with Blooduster in May of last year here in Sydney, and then basically said ‘we’re done’, and about a month later we re-launched as Daemon Pyre as a whole brand new thing.”

At that point, the band absolutely hit the ground running, releasing their debut, self titled album to rave critical and fan response and touring the nation. Then, in June, the band headed off abroad for their very first tour of south-east Asia, specifically Indonesia. Rilatt tells us that Asia was an obvious choice for the band to kick off their international touring career.

“We did a tour of south-east Asia, as a headliner,” he recalls.

“It was an interesting experience. A couple of us guys had done Japan before, and we really found that Asia was one of those really emerging markets in terms of their appreciation for heavy music.

And being that they are our closest neighbours, we thought ‘why the f*ck not?’” He laughs.

“It’s all about understanding basic marketing, economics and economies of scale. They have 245 million people, which is

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literally ten times the size of our country.”

The tour turned out to be a highly successful and enjoyable one for the band, in terms of their overall comfort levels, the crowds they played to and the appreciation and reactions they received from those crowds.

“It was cool to be the headliner,” he admits. “We had a tour manager, and we were pretty well looked after, we had our own van and we had hotels and stuff like that. It was still a bit rough at times, because we were in a country that had different standards to other places, but the audiences were great.

“I think the smallest we played to was two hundred people, and the largest one was in a city called Bekasi, which is about an hour outside of Jakarta, where we played to twelve hundred people, and it was chaos. Multiple circle pits, and kids on the stage, just crazy!”

The band very much intend to get back to south-east Asia within the next twelve months, and are pushing to be included on the next line-up of the Hammersonic Festival in Jakarta, a festival which draws such names as Lamb of God, Cradle of Filth, Cannibal Corpse, Bullet for My Valentine and many more, and then get to Europe and the States. Rilatt has some very interesting words of advice for young bands that are looking to break out of the ultimately small and restricting Australian market.

“It’s an interesting question,” he states. “There’s all sorts of opinions and perspectives on what’s the right path to take, and what are the right opportunities to say yes to or no to. The one thing I’ve learned about the entertainment industry is that there’s many different ways to go about things.

“The simple philosophy that I’ve always had is to never put all my eggs in one basket,” he advises. “A lot of bands put all of their focus onto just releasing via a digital medium, or just releasing via vinyl, or just going to one place in the world, or just working with one person. I’ve never believed in just trying things one way and that’s the only way to success, because it simply isn’t.

“So I would say to bands that, if you get an opportunity to go and tour another country, just look at the set of circumstances in front of you, and believe in your product. And be realistic about your product.”

Daemon Pyre’s Self-Titled album is out now through New Justice Records. H

Briarcliff

Scoundrels

‘Rogue’ @Bandcamp

Words: Jeremy Vane-Tempest Photo: Eddy Hamra

Hailing from Adelaide, the City of Churches (although I feel that Rome might have something to say about that), deathcore upstarts Briarcliff are not your typical deathcore band. While most of the identikit groups that have pretty much ruined the genre are more than happy to churn out twelve indistinguishable tracks and call it an album, Briarcliff aren’t satisfied with simply following the herd.

Frontman Jake DiStefano is a refreshingly well-spoken man whose vocal preferences thankfully haven’t ruined his ability to communicate yet, and he was more than happy to provide HEAVY with Briarcliff’s past, present and future.

“Every city has quite an insular music community, and Adelaide is no exception. We were all kind of connected before we even knew each other,” Jake explained when asked of Briarcliff’s origins. “It was just a matter of finding dedicated people, and then all catching up and jamming to see how we gelled. We all have our own personal interests, but heavy music is what brought us together. Personally, I’m influenced

by Thy Art Is Murder and Fit For An Autopsy, but I also heavily influenced by rap, too. I just love that rawness that it has, as well as the vocal delivery. Quality rap vocalists are incredible, and that rapid fire staccato delivery is something that really inspires me as a vocalist.”

“We also got our name from American Horror Story”, Jake continued. “Briarcliff is the name of the asylum in the second season. We wanted a name that, first of all, wasn’t already taken, but also one where we could utilise the imagery of the name. We also wanted a name that appropriately reflected our band, and insanity is a large part of our lyrics, and of heavy music lyrics in general.

Every band goes through lineup changes, and Briarcliff is no exception. “We’ve been through a couple of lineup changes,” Jake confirmed. “We replaced our first drummer because he wasn’t up to standard. Every band, in every genre, but especially in heavy music, needs their rhythm section to be on point, so we had to make the tough decision. It turned out to be a good decision, though, because our current drummer Kiri is awesome. He pretty much has no hands or feet but he’s ridiculously talented (authors note: no, seriously. Check his photos on their Facebook page. He freaking SHREDS and he doesn’t even have any f*cking fingers). He’s one of the best

heavy drummers I’ve ever seen.”

Having released only one single, albeit one of the heaviest singles ever written, in the form of Rogue, Briarcliff are hard at work writing and recording their debut EP. “We’re aiming for October, but obviously, we aren’t going to release anything until we’re completely happy with it,” Jake explained. “We’ve spent a bit more time on it than we normally would have, but that’s all part of it. It’ll definitely be out this year, but October’s the best-case scenario. There’s a title, but we’re keeping it under wraps. We’ve only really released one single, Rogue, so we’re trying to make this special. There’ll be six tracks, and we’re trying to expand on what we’ve done before, musically. We’re experimenting with different dynamics and instruments, and we really want to make this EP an experience. That’s another reason why it’s taking so long; we’re not just laying down audio and going ‘yep, that’s done’. We’re really trying to enhance every facet of the tracks without over saturating it. It’s a delicate balancing act. We’ve played some shows through New Zealand, NSW and Victoria, but we’re basically biding our time until our EP comes out. After that, we’re gonna be touring all over the place.”

Yep, you read that right: Briarcliff haven’t even got an EP and they’ve already done some international touring. It’s a tour Jake remembers very fondly.

“We played a show in Dunedin and it was absolutely incredible. All our expectations were blown away. Hardly anyone had heard of us before, but the response throughout that tour and at that show in particular, was complete pandemonium. It wasn’t the kind of turn out we get at Adelaide shows because New Zealand isn’t as big as Australia, but the mosh pit was insane. The crowds go nuts over there.

We’re definitely going back to New Zealand soon because they all want us back! We keep getting Facebook messages asking us to come back, and we’re more than happy to acquiesce.”

Ultimately, Briarcliff are pure musicians. Music is what they do, for work and leisure. “Music is our downtime”, Jake explained. “When we aren’t working, we’re working on our music. We’re musicians. This is what we’re meant to do. We’re giving this 110%. We’ve all staked our livelihoods on Briarcliff.

This is our main priority.” H

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Broozer

Fury

‘Broozer’ @Bandcamp

Words: Justin Tawil Photo: Serenity Furjan

Broozer are a band that defy all standard metal conventions to supply an injection of pure fury into the ears of anyone who bears witness to their crushing sound. Their brazen riffs are born of pure hatred for all sissydom and with chaotically monolithic drum beats and shattering bass growls to back it up, they create an unmistakably tough sound that is so rare, yet so incredibly infectious. Broozer sound like King Kong bashing his fists against the Empire State Building to the beat of a Meshuggah song, a mix of heavy pounding grooves and complex rhythms that, if you can figure out the time signature, will have you raging along to their maniacal genius.

They have a back catalogue of two albums, one released in 2013 titled 12.04.12 and the very recently released II. 12.04.12 was certainly more sludge and groove based, with that prog feel running throughout it. The new record, however, shows a natural progression into the more technical side of things as the band grows and evolves with the bassist and singer Retch Bile’s taste for the obscure. Taking one look at the track listing for II, your eyes would naturally gravitate to titles such as All She Wanted Was Some Dick, Dawn and a Gram of Cocaine, and Sour All The Same At Least I Can Taste Where I Have Been. These titles, and subsequently, the lyrics, are all a product of guitarist Bruce Ibbotson’s poetic endeavours, with a twist of Bile’s influence thrown into the mix. All She Wanted... being a particularly interesting one, a song detailing the adventures of a woman fixated on partying ‘til the break of dawn, only to be picked up by vampires and held up in a warehouse. Just another layer to the divergent style that Broozer has crafted over their five years of playing together.

As a live act, not only do the three-piece throw down an

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atomically huge sound, but also their tightness is something to be revered. They’re all impressive in their own way, however it’s hard to ignore the savage slaying Dario gives the drum kit, unleashing the beast within as demonstrated by the un-mic’d yells coming from behind the kit that are clearly audible over the rest of the band. Broozer rock a uniform of dark blue/black wifebeaters, an outfit that coupled with Dario’s vicious facial expressions further maintains a tough look that accompanies the tough sound the band is so renowned for.

Broozer have both very similar and vastly different tastes in music between members. With a guitarist who’s into Frank Zappa, a bassist with a love for experimental noise-jazz, and a drummer who somehow fits into all of that with a stoner rock streak flowing through his veins, you’d wonder how they meld so well together. Of course, they do all share the obvious influences of bands such as Mastodon and Meshuggah, but it is a testament to the fact that diversity in musical taste breeds creativity.

In short, Broozer are chaotic and complex in such a way that will open your eyes to a whole new side of heavy music.

They have a signature sound and a noticeable evolution in style; a sign that they have a consistent drive to explore and improve on their already impressive releases. Ambition and passion as opposed to being overly concerned with “making it,” something that a lot of newer bands tend to be sidetracked with.

Broozer are playing Brewtality Festival on the 8th of August and are sure to set off a flame under the arses of anyone unfamiliar with their magnificently turbulent riffery. H

Words: Steven Jenkins Photo: Courtesy of Century Media

Fright

‘Bad Signs’ @YouTube

L.A.’s finest hardcore outfit, Terror, are set to release what will be their sixth studio album this August, and they’ll be going back to basics with The 25th Hour.

F

or almost fifteen years now, Terror, have given new life to the hardcore side of heavy music with their in your face approach, positive lyrics and incredibly energetic live shows. But with their latest album, vocalist Scott Vogel tells how they went into the studio with a different approach.

“Our last two records we had Chad from New Found Glory produce both of those. Just before we started recording we went into a practice space and we ironed out all the song structures and he gave us his thoughts and gave us advice. He did an amazing job. But when it came to this album we decided as a band that we don’t want a producer on this record, we don’t need anyone’s advice. We just wanted to make a stripped down record that sounded more raw, dirty, fast and not as polished as previous albums. It was more of a DIY approach for us. The songs are short, no bullshit and hard hitting. It was the easiest and stress free thing we’ve ever recorded.”

Scott let us in on what the meaning was behind the title of their new album.

“Well, there’s a movie called The 25th Hour by Spike Lee. Edward Norton gets convicted of a drug crime and he goes to jail. It’s basically about what he’s doing in his final 24 hours before he turns himself in where he remembers what he did to get himself to this point. I think humanity is really burning the candle at both ends and it’s going to come to that 25th hour where we look at each other and say what the fuck have we done to the world. We’ve got nobody to blame but ourselves.”

It takes drive and motivation to be in a band full time, and Terror have remained strong and determined whilst others have not. But there must be more that’s keeping Scott and the rest of the band continuing on this path.

“To be honest sometimes Terror can be very frustrating because we tour so much and I just want to be home and it’s a lot of work to be in a full time band. But at the same time we’re not the biggest band in the world but this is how we make a living. So we have to scrape and fight to stay afloat. The main motivation for me is that I still really love the band and the people in it. I love going different places and meeting people and I feel we’re still making some of our best music, which you’ll hear soon with the new album. Until that slows down then we’re going to keep on going strong.”

The ‘hardcore’ label gets thrown around a lot these days, but Scott Vogel is a true advocate of the genre and believes that there is more to it than what some other bands might believe in. Terror keep true to hardcore and that’s how they’ve remained so popular in the underground whilst still booking festivals and touring consistently all across the planet.

“I spent a lot of time judging bands and being negative towards other bands, but I want to leave that in the past. To me, hardcore has a history and it means something and it’s a community, a lifestyle and a way of living. But along the way things just changed, things kind of just dropped off. But I don’t want to be bitter and angry about it because that’s not a good way to live. So I’m just going to concentrate on my own world and realise that there are still awesome hardcore bands out there and concentrate on the rather than the pretenders. Listen to whomever you want, as long as you have fun that’s all that really matters.”

Terror came to the attention of a lot of people during the same time Hatebreed were doing amazing things for the hardcore scene. Seeing these two bands garner mainstream success and lead the way for the genre was something that happened quite quickly according to Vogel.

“Things just kind of took off fast for us. We weren’t one of those hardcore elitist types that refuse to play with other bands from different genres; we pretty much took whatever gig was thrown at us. Playing to the same two hundred people over and over won’t get you very far, especially now with how the scene is. You’ve got to spread your appeal to others and gain new listeners, which will lead to a wider audience. We had that ‘tell us when to play and we’ll play’ approach and I see bands that get to caught up in their own genre rather than getting in front of a new audience.”

Scott had this final message for the readers. “It might sound cliché but I am truly amped on our new record. I just want to encourage everyone to check it out and look at the layout and read the lyrics you might find a band that you really like.”

Will we see Terror tear our stages apart in Australia soon? “Not until 2016. But we will be back when the right time comes up.”

The 25th Hour is out through Century Media in Australia on 7 August 2015. H

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What modern day bands can learn from KISS older words: Rodney H It is often said that to become successful you should do what successful people do. I think that any young artist who is starting out could learn a myriad of awesome music business and marketing skills by studying the self-proclaimed “hottest band in the world”.

Apart from having a slew of quality and varied merchandise that compelled their audience to reach deep into their wallets, KISS did a number of other things that I believe are still incredibly relevant in today’s modern music business.

Whether you’re a musician with history or you’re just starting out, here are some examples to consider.

1. Develop your image There is so much music out there today. Any hick with a computer can now be a “songwriter”.

You have to capture people’s attention to be noticed so that others can then “discover” the true merits of your music.

Right from the onset of the band’s career, KISS knew the importance of “standing out” from the crowd. The value of being different from the thousands of other “wanna be hopefuls” that were also trying to make it in such a competitive industry. This “image imperative” mindset is just as important for artists today.

Regardless of your act’s genre, your image is more important than it has ever been, particularly for new acts trying to establish themselves. Technology and the Internet have now enabled more artists than any other time in history become creators. Literally anyone can now be a musician and create music. I’m not saying that that you need to be able to breath fire on stage and shoot explosions from your guitars, but you must consider doing something to capture people’s attention. The reality is that today, as in KISS’ early days, an act must first gain attention in order to become noticed and then subsequently heard.

You need to draw attention to yourself.

There is no use in having a killer track if nobody ever gets to hear it because your music is lost amongst the thousands of other bands trying to achieve exactly what you are.

Contemplate ways to stand out from the crowd. Obviously don’t do anything that will compromise your integrity but consciously

It’s no secret that Gene Simmons is a capitalist.

And a very good one at that. With well over one hundred million album sales worldwide Gene and his band truly are one of the greatest (or most popular) rock bands in history.

think about your image and develop it so that people will be drawn to you. Once you grab people’s attention they can then hopefully discover the merits of your music.

This is exactly what KISS did early in their career. They certainly weren’t the best band around at the time, but they certainly became one of the most successful.

2. Don’t be afraid to experiment and learn from your mistakes Although KISS’ image and stage show are now legendary it wasn’t always that way. Yes, the band knew that they wanted to achieve something impressive visually, but like all artists they were making it up as they went along because they weren’t exactly sure what they were looking for. And like numerous young artists this included making a few mistakes along the way.

Regardless, they continued to evolve and develop “their look” as they progressed. This took time, experimentation and a degree of risk.

So for the new artist, don’t expect to necessarily come up with something mind blowing overnight.

Be prepared to refine what you are looking for whilst you are working on your image. If you do get it wrong be prepared to move along quickly and evolve as you go. You’ll know when you’re getting it right or wrong. Your audience and critics will let you know.

3. Be conscious of the current music landscape and your musical direction If you’re playing music as a hobby or just to have fun then this is not important. But if you actually want to play music for a career then listen up. Two very important components of becoming a successful artist (meaning commercially viable) are luck and timing.

Many young acts I know simply plod along writing riffs and creating songs without any real thought about where they actually want to go with their careers. Having a creative brief about what type of sound you’re looking for will give you direction.

So for a new act, what have you got to lose?

Follow KISS’ lead and be aware of the musical environment and write a creative brief for

where your band is headed musically.

4. Work hard on your live show Today, people are simply so spoilt with choice for entertainment.

There are just so many things people can do with their spare time.

Literally thousands of ways to be entertained.

Bands really need to stop whining about nobody coming out to see them and start to work on producing a brilliant live show. Be conscious that today, more than ever you need to be more than just good musicians. You need to be entertainers. Make your live shows special.

And before I hear you say, “We can’t do that. We don’t have any money to produce a big event”, there are numerous ideas that you can implement to make your gigs super cool events.

Look at KISS. They started out with very humble beginnings before they became “the spectacle” that they are today. They were just like any other young band who nobody gave a f*ck about and they worked their butts off and made things happen! If you look at any of the early live shots of KISS around 1973 era, there was nothing too special about them. Yet. Obviously, not everyone can become a hugely successful artist but I reckon you work harder than all the other bands, back yourself, use your creativity and essentially make yourself seem cooler than you probably really are, you might just make some waves.

And on the point of work ethic, I personally believe that the majority of musicians don’t work hard enough. You’ve got to work your arses off across all aspects of your career in order to have any serious chance of cracking the big time. Just like KISS did.

You are creative people, so be creative. With your team, try and come up with something special. It doesn’t even need to be original. I mean look at Slipknot. Where do you think they got a lot of their image and live show ideas?

Alice Cooper once famously said of Marilyn Manson, “A guy with a girl’s name and make-up and does theatrics. I wonder where I’ve seen that before?”

Rodney Holder has been a drummer, writer, promoter and manager in music for over 20 years so when he talks, you listen. He's best known as that guy from Alchemist, that guy from Metal For the Brain and that guy who runs musicbusinessfacts.com.

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Now Hear This Rants from the desk of Jason PC Words: Jason Fuller Photo: Jason Fuller

Goatsound’s Black Flag Damaged Album Reinterpretation

On the 16th of May my recording and rehearsal studio Goatsound ran an event that we are hoping will become a yearly thing, or at the very least something that happens somewhat regularly. “Album re-interpretation day” is what I have taken to calling it.

I

’m a little opposed to the title of “tribute album” as lots of people make tribute albums but this one is a little different as some of the bands didn’t even know Black Flag’s music so calling it a tribute to them is a little deceiving.

Anyway, on that Saturday we gathered 15 bands of varying styles and in a single day re-created the entire Black Flag album Damaged. That means we had fifteen separate bands/ artists go in to the studio where they quickly bashed out their version of a track from the album. One band after another until the entire album had been “re-interpreted”.

I’m not sure if it has been attempted before and I’m kinda hoping we are the first to do something like this.

The set up Each band only had thirty minutes to get their version down, with only a ten-minute changeover between each band. That means bands had to be ready to go and would only get a few shots at getting their take as perfect as they would like.

If the band only had one guitarist they could use any time they had in their half hour to do an overdub of a second guitar (a very common studio practice) or they could go back and re-do vocals, do some backing vocals or even record a guitar solo if that what they needed, or whatever they liked, but they only had thirty minutes, no matter what that was it. Thirty minutes.

To make sure this ran on time and was actually possible we had all bands using a studio provided drum kit and the esteemed John Watson acting as band wrangler and clock police.

The drum kit was set up and tuned early in the day, cymbals were provided courtesy of local legend Paul from Abrasion (a band have been around for ever and done almost nothing in that time) although bands were also given the option of using their own cymbals and snare drums.

The guitar gear was a very similar situation. We had a Marshall and an Orange cab set up with Marshall 2550 (jubilee series) heads but bands could choose to use their own amplifier heads if they wanted.

The bass guitar was captured using a DI (I use a Radial J-48) with bands given the option to re-amp (Radial X-amp) this at mix stage.

Note: re-amping is the practice of sending a pre-recorded signal (in this case the bass signal) back into an amplifier that can then be mic’ed up and recorded in a traditional manner.

This is done to avoid bass amp spill while recording.

The general idea behind doing the recording session The initial idea behind this mammoth recording session was to highlight the new Goatsound studio and the all of the awesome bands involved. The criteria for choosing the bands was pretty simple. They were all bands that have either recorded or rehearsed at Goatsound OR they were simply bands that I liked or felt would be great to do a Black Flag track.

Donating People kept saying that I should charge for the download, but that felt icky taking money when I was already receiving the

promotion this concept afforded me so it was decided that the album would be a free download with the option of donating money when downloading and any profits that came our way would go directly to support Sea Shepherd Australia.

The educational side benefits of the recording An unexpected side benefit of this was that I now have a really great example of how bands playing essentially the same gear can all sound quite different.

Back in the first column I wrote for Heavy Magazine, I stated that the reason why your band will never be as good as Black Sabbath on their the first album.

The article basically stated that spending more rehearsal and playing time to truly have your shit down will make the biggest difference when you get into the studio, more than any mic technique or fancy piece of gear can make. I hope this Black Flag reinterpretation album furthers that point with some solid examples of how this works.

It’s not that any of the bands on the compilation sound bad, or were unrehearsed as such but some stand out as sounding a lot “more produced” than others.

Essentially this is a “live in the studio” recording and it was decided that it should sound like it is somewhat live, but without any effort on my part some of the bands sound like I have “polished” them more than others.

For example it was decided that no artificial reverbs were going to be used, as I wanted it to sound like they were actually in the Goatsound recording space. (Reverb

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Now Hear This Rants from the desk of Jason PC is generally used to make a recording sound like it was recorded in another space).

So the differences heard in the bands on this recording had almost nothing to do with mixing, as each band was given equal mixing time of maybe a hour of mixing time, the differences in each band really came down to the style these bands put forward more than anything I could bring to the table within their 30 minutes of recording time “production”.

Examples For example Broozer are known to be super tight and rehearse the f*ck out of everything they do. They are pretty much a metal band and that is exactly what good metal bands should do- be very precise with tight metal sounds.

Other bands on the record are way more punk rock. They play loose and chaotic and that is an essential part of their sound. That is exactly the way good punk rock song should be delivered. A couple of the best examples of the chaotic punkier sounds on the record is Melbourne’s Flour or Sydney’s Hostile Objects.

These bands are all equally great at what they do but the metal bands tend to sound like a polished metal band should and Flour sound like a rough and angry punk band should. The only real difference being in how and what they play.

As mentioned, all the bands have essentially the same set up. While some different amplifiers were used, all have drummers that hit hard, guitarists that play hard, the mics on the amps are the same, the kit is mic’ed the same but the bands sound like they were recorded by completely different people and if they were presented on separate albums, you almost wouldn’t think they were so closely recorded.

Blunt Shovel and the Surefire Midnights are another couple local bands that you guys should definitely check out and another interesting comparison between these two is the drum sound.

They’re between someone like all girl band Surefire Midnights who are more garage rock and roll than metal (sure the guitarist Todd is a dude, but I’m pretty sure he still buys his skinny jeans in the lady section).

The Surefire Midnights drummer Lara is about 4 foot and tiny, compare her to Blunt Shovel drummer Dave who is a bigger and much hairier dude and you have a good comparison of differing playing styles and

the effect that has in a studio situation, Dave hits really hard, so when you turn up his snare mic you are really only turning up only the sound that mic intends to capture, in comparison when you turn up the mic on Lara’s snare you are turning up elements around that mic as well as the snare as she simply hits the snare softer.

That’s not a bad thing; it’s just an easy comparison of the differences in playing style.

This could be controlled or changed to an certain extent if that was required to by using gates etc., by closer or different mic placement or even by bringing this fact to her attention and getting her to change her style of playing. If it was decided that was warranted, but with limited time and as we were simply capturing a performance as it happened on that day it stands as a good example of how playing affects recording perceptions.

When bands book the studio they often ask if I can get sounds as good as “another bands album”. The thing bands really need to understand is that engineers/ producers will do their best to achieve the desired results, but ultimately we should be aiming to make the best representation of the band that YOU are.

It is simply the band themselves who have the biggest impact on a recording.

Especially with less money and therefore less studio time being spent on a recording.

Yes, the engineer and studio needs to be good, mic technique needs to be good and the ability to run a session well is also needed, but the single most important thing for a band to get a desired result is that they need to be able actually pull it off in a rehearsal and live situation of how they want it to sound.

Ultimately in the studio you will sound like you. If you don’t like the way “you” sound then you need to make a better version of you. Don’t leave it up to the studio to magically make you something you are not. (Unless you have access to an unlimited budget and time.)

All the bands on this record are well aware of their styles of playing and while some may not be your thing, they still serve as good examples of how differing playing styles can affect a recording with the band itself being the biggest and most important singular difference to the way sound is captured.

I think all the bands on this recording are f*cking great, but hey, I chose them so I would.

Final words about the day The record we did is a free download, that’s right FREE! Although I urge you to get in touch with the bands on the compilation and support them by buying some merch or something if you do hear something you like or go to a show. There is not much better in entertainment value than going to a local show.

The entire alternative music scene works by giving back and supporting the stuff you like.

When you download you will be given the opportunity to donate to Sea Shepherd Australia.

These guys do great work and all profit raised from download donations will go directly to them.

Mastering of the album was taken care of by Paul Fox of Indiemasters. Don’t discount mastering as an afterthought in the recording process. I think his input really helped glue the final product together. He graciously donated his time to this project as well.

If you need mastering he is your guy: www.indiemasters.com You can download the record here: www.goatsound.com and while visiting the site check out the studio and if you need somewhere to rehearse or record please get in touch.

There is also a promo/doco video to download with interviews and footage of the bands tracking. Some of it is rather funny and some is plain stupid, mildly entertaining at the very least video time was kindly donated by Adam Russ from Right Eye Media.

Bands on the album are The Kill, Jamie Hay with Liam White, Surefire Midnights, Broozer, Party Vibes, Hotel Wrecking City Traders, The Ruiner, Acid Vain, Flour, Watchtower, Devil Monkey, Hostile Objects, Vicious Circle, Blunt Shovel and one of Heavy magazines greatest writers Daniel Tucceri.

A good mix of punk and metal with lots of sub genres being represented as well as a couple oddities to keep things interesting.

Hopefully you guys like not only as an album that bears repeated listening’s, but as an example of different bands in a similar studio setting and gives you guys/ girls that are in younger bands more of an insight into helping make your band the best version of itself it can be. H

Jason Fuller has been drafted to talk about audio stuff because he runs a recording and rehearsal studio that has churned out some really good shit. He also played in Blood Duster. Check out goatsound.com for more info on his studio work.

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