HEAVY Magazine - Issue #82 - June 2019 by HEAVY Music Magazine

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Contents June, 2019

heavymag

heavy_mag Heavy Magazine Heavy Magazine

WE FIGHT WITH: 20

THY ART IS MURDER

KILLSWITCH ENGAGE

NOrthlane

The Amity affliction

EDITORIAL TEAM: EDITOR & ART DIRECTOR Carl Neumann

SUB-EDITORS

Dark funeral

Matt Innes

Disentomb

WORDSMITHS David Griffiths Kris Peters Neil Vance

PRINTING & DISTRIBUTION Eyeball Media Enterprises Howard Duggan

Halestorm

awaken I am

PHOTO CREDIT

Cover: Jake Owens

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sales@heavymag.com.au

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caligulaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s horse

VOYAGER

teramaze

FROM THE EDITOR:

It’s great to know there’s so much happening around the world with heavy music. The quality of the soundscapes, the complexities and technicalities, the journeys, the bliss; no matter born of what country, there’s a fantastic metal band originating from every corner of Earth. The team and I recently paid homage to “The Ladies of Rock” in our digi-magazine. During the making of that came a real appreciation of what we have as a genre of music. While Pop music continues to dominate the charts, heavy music is stronger than ever, all the while, more talented women pick up instruments and microphones to entertain us. It was a male-dominated genre, but it doesn’t have to be; it shouldn’t be. It mustn’t be. The next issue of HEAVY Magazine will be out in early October, and it’s going to be a HUGE Mother of a Beast. We have bands, managers, touring agents and PRs all lining up for a piece of it already. As I close this issue off and prep it for the printer and distributor, I’m at peace knowing there’s plenty more metal to come. In the meantime, make sure you have subscribed to the weekly HEAVY Digi-Magazine. Check out who’s coming to town in our online gig guide (powered by the legends at Utopia Records). Show your friends this magazine. Buy something from the HEAVY Store (more products comings soon). Go out and BUY ALBUMS and GET TICKETS to live shows! \m/ Stay HEAVY, Carl Neumann

ATLVS

PROJECT 34

THE EIGHTH STUDIO ALBUM Fox Ache

Red sea

PREORDER NOW OUT AUGUST 16 I built the sky

AS I Destruct

NORTHLANE: DARK ALIENS ustralian metalcore outfit Northlane are about to set the bar even higher for their competition. You could be excused for thinking that Northlane could afford to sit back and rest on their laurels for awhile; their past three albums - Singularity, Node and Mesmer – have hit the charts here in Australia, seeing the band become award-winners all while becoming a force to be reckoned with on the international stage. Now comes their fifth studio album Alien, an album that is going to stun heavy music fans with its sheer brilliance and the deep and dark topics that it touches on. Alien isn’t just an album that touches briefly on matters of the heart - this is an album where the lyrics read like lead singer Marcus Bridges’ personal diary, exploring the dark corners of his violent upbringing. “Early on during the process we decided that we wanted to self produce the record,” Marcus says as we begin our deep conversation into all the ins and outs of Alien. “I think we wanted to take that pressure off that we have had with writing in the past, being rushed or whatever it might be. Because of that we were able to concentrate on what we wanted to talk about and what we really wanted to write about. We used all

that extra time to really hone in on what we wanted to say.” What Bridges wanted to say was stories from his past, stories that involved gunmen bursting into rooms where he and his parents were staying. “For me it was something that I had always wanted to talk about; it might be dark but it is very important to me,” he explains. “I wanted to get them out so then hopefully they could all be behind me. I think it is very important to get these darker stories out and to do something a little bit different to what was expected. “It was a very difficult process,” says Bridges when asked what the process was like for him to sit down and write these personal and very painful memories down on Marcus Bridges paper. “When we were writing these lyrics it would be me and Josh (Northlane rhythm guitarist) in a room and we would try to talk out an idea for a song or try to figure out what the lyrics might be about,” he explains. “Then we would spend days working on a song, working on the lyrics or talking about a story and

It was something that I had always wanted to talk about; it might be dark but it is very important to me.

we wouldn’t record anything for two or three days. Talking about all the stories sometimes left us really numb before we could write anything.” The discussion turns to the sound of this album and how seems to have many twists and turns through various metal genres, from ethereal tracks like “Rift” through to sheer brutality. “We spent about a year and a half working on the album and with every song we went through a time where we were like what will work with this song,” Bridges explains. “Every song did come from a place where we were trying to match the tone of the song. For a track like “Rift” or a track like “Sleepless”, they were a bit softer but they are still talking about dark or sadder topics. “There are a lot of different ways to portray emotion – there can be sadness and there can be anger,” he continues. “I think that even though this album is a little darker there are a lot of light and shades through sadness and anger. Really there was a lot of trial and error. We would try a whole bunch of different things and just see how we go. “Normally a song will just start with Jon (Northlane lead guitarist) and how he wants a song to sound, and I think this time he put more focus on the electronic side of it and I think that really influenced the music. I think it is interesting that Jon has done something we have never really done that before and I think that is really refreshing.” Alien is out 2 August and Northlane are touring Australia in November and December.

KILLSWITCH ENGAGE ATONE THEIR SINS Words by Dave Griffiths

Over the years we have become accustomed to Killswitch Engage delivering some stellar albums. The End Of Heartache will forever be listed as one of heavy music’s classic albums, while 2016’s Incarnate announced to the whole world that Jesse Leach had returned to frontman duties and was back in full flight. Now, 2019 sees the release of Atonement, an album so strong that any of the tracks could be a single and an album that is guaranteed to make more than a few journalists’ ‘best of’ lists for this year. This is also an album with which Jesse himself is incredibly impressed. “There are some very heavy topics being touched upon with this record,” Jesse says in regards to the equally heavy title of the album. “Between politics, spirituality and mental health, and just the general air of frustration and that general desire to find hope in this pretty fucked-up world. So I think Atonement for me just came out of causing someone to pay for their transgressions, so it kind of has a double meaning.” “Then there is the other side of it,” he says going on with his thoughts. “You’ve got what is coming to you in a good way, so to me it is kind of a double meaning. There

is revenge and causing people to face down their problems and their issues. For me it is also ambiguous enough that it isn’t a concept that encapsulates the entire record. And it also kinda sounds a little bad-ass.” That leads to talking about some of the deeper lyrics on the album - ‘I am broken too’ and ‘when fear and panic takes hold, you must take control’ and how difficult it was for Leach to sit down and put the words into songs. “It was definitely heavy and difficult,” he explains as he reflects on the lyrics of the songs in question. “The great thing about those two songs though is that I am talking to an outside person it is not just me, it includes the listener and with “I Am Broken Too”, it includes the person I am singing it for. It is about more than just me it is about bringing people together and helping them see that they are not alone in the struggle for mental health. “You know there are things like suicidal awareness that are really near and dear to my heart so this was a great opportunity to have a narrative and to create, if I can be so bold to say, these anthems for mental health and let these people know they are not alone... that is super-important. “It is certainly cathartic,” Jesse says when asked how writing such personal lyrics makes him feel.

There are some very heavy topics being touched upon with this record... politics, spirituality and mental health...

“I also just think it is how I am built, I am just a really emotional person... it is just how I am programmed. I think if I wrote any other way I would be being dishonest. You know I try to include other people into my writing so there can be another perspective but what I am good at, and what I know fairly well, is writing from the heart... writing from the soul. That kind of writing serves me well because I do suffer from mental illness and I do have my own issues, and that is a big part of who I am and something that I advocate for.” As we close the interview I ask Leach if there is anything he would like to say to his fans before they go out and buy a copy of Atonement and he says. “First and foremost I have to show gratitude for all the support that the fans have shown us. Number two, just listen to the record start to finish if you have the time. The messages are all there and if nothing else I hope people can find a ray of hope at the end of this record. As fucked up and shit as things are right now in this world there is always hope, there is a chance for change and there is a chance for you to grab life by the fucking balls, man.” Atonement arrives in all the udual places on August the 19th, 2019

12.07.2019

THE DECAYING LIGHT

TOURING AUSTRALIA & NZ 12 JUL - 14 AUG

THE AMITY AFFLICTION: RAIS

t is time to batten down the hatches Australia because this upcoming tour for The Amity Affliction is just getting bigger and bigger. Earlier this year the band left everybody in awe with a killer set during the massive Download Festival, and now they’re reloading and heading back home for a tour that can safely be described as ginormous. As if a tour that already sees the chart-toppers touring alongside the likes of Underoath, Pagan and Crossfaith wasn’t already big enough, The Amity Affliction are also stopping by Brisbane for the Heaven And Hell line-up as part of the Brisbane Festival 30th anniversary of Riverstage celebration. That line-up also features Make Them Suffer, Trophy Eyes, Thornhill, Void Of Vision, Endless Heights and Southeast Desert Metal. “Crossfaith we are good friends with, we met them on Warped Tour 2015, and they’re legends,” Amity vocalist Joel Birch says when HEAVY Mag manages to hunt them down during the band’s European tour. “Underoath have been a mainstay and heavy influence on me since the band began, and it’s really pretty surreal for me personally having them on this tour. As for Pagan, how can you ignore them? I don’t know them at all, but I like them, and if you don’t admire Nikki [Brumen, vocalist] for absolutely destroying every preconceived notion of what a female singer can and can’t do then fuck you. “I back them. I love what they’re doing and they’re working super hard around the world right now. We did the exact same thing nearly ten years ago after we

had some success at home, and so watching them start to do that and pave their way forward is awesome.” As the discussion goes on, Joel reveals that this epic Heaven And Hell show in Brisbane is something that Amity have been planning for a long time. “Well, we’ve been trying to start a festival in Brisbane since Soundwave,” he laughs, “but that shit is not easy,” Birch explains.

“We’ve been trying to start a festival in Brisbane since Soundwave. But that shit is not easy.” “We’re also trying to make sure we are all-inclusive moving forward, with some obvious goals in sight that I won’t share here. It’s been a long time in the making, there’s not really too much I can say about it other than thank you to everyone involved, thank you to the bands who signed on, and thank you to all the people who plan on coming.” You could be forgiven for thinking that with The Amity Affliction’s overseas success that they would want to concentrate on doing more European and US shows, but there is a strong feeling that is certain-

SING HELL ly not the case. In fact, the band love being able to come back to Australia and play in front of a home crowd. “It’s the best place on earth to me,” Joel says of his home and native land. “I’ve seen a lot of places, and I still love it there the most, by far. The people who have made our band what it is are from Australia. The cities where we grew up as a band - and as people - are in Australia. “The real heart of Amity is all of the people in Australia who have made this life possible for us, and so it’s always going to be the place I look forward to playing the most. I’m super excited about this tour, but there’s no surprise in that really!” It is also very obvious that the band are forever grateful to their Australian fans and once again they are looking forward to being able to put together some killer sets for their homegrown fans. “I don’t have much to do with our set list, but we try to make everyone happy,” he says, laughing. “I can tell you that if we had our way the set would go back about 12 months. It won’t though, we will make sure it’s got a bit of everything. Thank you for the ride so far, and thank you for supporting us. All the cliches are true, we really do love you and appreciate you for giving us this opportunity.” And of course we wouldn’t be HEAVY if we didn’t try to find out some kind of scoop for all the Amity Affliction fans out there, but Joel was well and truly on to us. “Secret squirrel,” he says when we ask when we can expect some new tracks from the band. Written by Dave Griffiths

he word ‘legend’ gets bandied around a lot these days, but there can be no doubt Dark Funeral are well and truly legends of the black metal scene. Founded in Sweden way back in 1993, the band spent the following decades conquering the world and leaving thrilled audiences in their wake. Now, Dark Funeral return to Australian shores for Direct Underground Fest 2019, which will see them take to the stage with the likes of Immolation, Abramelin, Christ Dismembered and Reaper. HEAVY Mag recently caught up with Dark Funeral guitarist Lord Ahriman aka Mikael Svanberg for a chat. “We are really excited to be able to come back to Australia, it has been a couple of years for us,” Mikael says about the fact that this will be the band’s first visit to Australia in some time. “We’ve been talking about coming to Australia since our last record, Where Shadows Forever Reign and to be honest I’m not sure why it has taken this long because we have been ready to come over but sometimes things take time. “Now, finally, we have been able to secure a deal and make it happen. The coolest thing about being able to play at a festival is that you get to meet a new crowd and most likely you play for new people... that is always cool. It’s great to play for your diehard fans but it is great to meet new people also.” Our talk turns to the difficulty of putting together a set list for a band that has now been around for so many years.

“It is tricky,” he says, laughing. “But we always like to try and put in songs for each record. That way the older fans get their songs and also there is something there for the younger fans. It is tricky and it all depends on how long we get with stage time, but we do always try to put together a decent mix and give the old school fans and the younger fans what they want.” It’s mentioned to Lord Ahriman that it seems so many people are excited that they will get to see Dark Funeral on the same stage as Immolation and he admits that he is excited as well. “I think it is great, we haven’t seen those guys in ages,” he says. “It might have been in New York and we hung out a bit, but I think it is great because it is always great to be able to share the stage with other great bands. It is good to have two strong bands together, and also not to have two bands that play the same style of music because it gives the crowd a more interest-

“We’ve been talking about coming to Australia since our last record, Where Shadows Forever Reign.”

Dark Funeral

Words by Dave Griffiths

ing time also. They get the experience of us and a different experience as well.” The one thing that you can take from talking to Lord Ahriman is that it certainly won’t be as long before they hit our shores again. Catch Dark Funeral in September.

ith the imminent release of Disentomb’s third album, The Decaying Light, and their upcoming national and international tours, guitarist Jake sat down with HEAVY to discuss their new album, the bands influences and staying true to their death metal roots. “When we were writing this one we were lucky to have a clear direction of what we wanted to do. The first album, we’d already done that style, second album, did that. So it was just a natural progression onto this one,” Jake says. “We didn’t want to write a carbon copy of Misery [2014], we wanted to progress by putting more things into the songwriting rather than straight out brutality.” Delving further into the songwriting behind The Decaying Light, Jake elaborates on their intention and approach. “To keep people’s interest there’s more in the songwriting and composition and trying to get feeling into the

OUT NOW

ALLTHISFILTH.COM

Disentomb Neil “V” Vance Words by

songs as well, which I feel is something that doesn’t happen in a lot of death metal.” Disentomb are dedicated solely to bringing traditional “old school” death metal into the new world. They are pushing back against all manner of new bands insistent on using the djent route to try and capture attention. Instead, they’ve held fast to the ways of old and formulating new ideas and innovations to death metal, which have made them recognised and admired internationally. Jake agrees: “We have always had an idea of what we wanted to write”, he says. “We never consciously tried to write something different to other bands, we just wrote the music that we wanted to write. We weren’t into djent when it got huge, we were into Disgorge, Brodequin and Deeds of Flesh; [we’re] influenced from a product of our environment.” In a world full of thousands upon thousands of metal bands trying to get noticed, standing out and being recognised is no easy task. After a decade of existence, Disentomb are definitely doing something right. With numerous international headlining tours and festival appearances, not to mention supporting some of the greatest death metal bands in the world here in Australia, Jake ponders and reflects on what raises Disentomb above other bands. “What it comes down to is the mix of us as people. We all have exactly the same direction... we know exactly what we want to do and that’s how we’ve always kept it.” Continuing, Jake elaborates on the development of their sound and how specifically his eclectic musical tastes formulate some of Disentomb’s sonic identity. “We are all influenced by what we’re influenced by and want to put that into songs that we write. I’m into all types of music: techno, tons of rap - mainly compositional things. “I analyse a lot of music I listen to, like a lot of musicians do...I pick up on some of the strange things that they do in composition like rap and the way they set out verses, then take that and apply it to a riff and make something different to anything people have heard, drawing influence from a totally weird and different place.” The Decaying Light is out 12 July and Disentomb are playing around Australia from 12th - 23rd July.

“It’s kind of like one of those things where you buy someone a present and you’ve gotta wait to give it to them.” - Andy Marsh

Words by Kirs Peters

“It’s faster than we thought it would be, it’s more technically challenging than we set out to make it as well, but somehow it’s still full of ambience and mood.” - CJ McMahon

Few Australian metal bands can lay claim to having truly made a successful assault on the international music scene. While many have tried to varying degrees of notoriety, Thy Art Is Murder, on the eve of the release of their fifth album Human Target, have broken that once-sacred market and ushered in a new musical generation where being a band from Australia is quickly becoming more of an advantage than a hindrance. “It’s been very difficult,” guitarist Andy Marsh nods in regards to breaking into the established overseas market. “I think this is probably our eighth year of touring internationally and you have to eat a lot of hard losses for a long time - big financial losses. We don’t tour as hard as we used to; we only work about 90 days a year now touring, which is pretty nice I guess,” he laughs. “Every year for the past couple of years has been the best for Thy Art Is Murder and it seems like it’s gonna keep doing that.” “It has been super tough and took a really long time,” vocalist Chris ‘CJ’ McMahon adds, “but now it’s starting to happen for us everywhere it has made all the hard work worth it. “The hardest thing for an Australian band is that every time you want to tour you have to fly overseas, and trying to get ahead of those financial burdens took a good couple of years.” With Human Target completed earlier this year and still a month from being released to the judgement of fans and critics alike, Marsh admits the tension in the TAIM camp is palpable. “It’s kind of like one of those things where you buy someone a present and you’ve gotta wait to give it to them,” he laughs “and you kind of wanna ruin the surprise for yourself and for them... I’ve been sitting on it now in it’s finished state for four months and it’s already starting to eat away at me.” Rather than use the time to reflect on what could have been done differently, Marsh argues that once an album has been completed ready for release you are best to move on mentally or risk potentially

undoing all of the good work gone before. “You can’t second guess things,” he stresses. “You can’t let that happen to yourself. It’s ruined a lot of bands that I’ve seen recording where they literally ruined their own album because they kept putting it off and putting it off. We make our albums fairly quickly and I think that helps us in the process. We write the whole album and record it all at once so we don’t sit at home agonising for months and months. “We go in with a few riffs and we write the album in about four weeks and record it, and that’s it. That pressure forces you to make choices and I think making choices is important. Sometimes people are more inclined to delay making the hard choices but we’re doing everything so fast that it forces us to make the decisions.” CJ adds: “Decisions have to be made and I think it’s better to be decisive than to sit around deliberating for too long. It’s just another layer of intensity to the records; whether that comes through or not to the listener I don’t know, but it certainly does for us.” While not breaking the established mould of previous releases, Marsh says Human Target is perhaps the closest to musical perfection Thy Art Is Murder have ever come. “We don’t really try to change with every album or reinvent the wheel,” he shrugs. “We just take what we do and try to perfect it and give it that extra ten per cent. We take what we have learned works well live and translate it to the album. Probably the least exciting thing to say is it’s a little bit more of the same done a little bit better. I think it’s more groovy, it’s more composed. It’s certainly a more mature record, as every band says with every record because they are older,” he laughs. “As one of the songwriters for the band I would say this is the closest I’ve gotten to writing the songs that I wanted the songs to be. I know that probably doesn’t make sense to a lot of people but you hear the music and the songs in one particular way and you might not necessarily have the skills

“You can’t second guess things... You can’t let that happen to yourself.“

to create them in that way.” CJ continues: “Obviously, I’m going to say it’s our best record and most people say that about their newest work,” he admits. “What I would like to say is that it’s the closest we have come to making the record the way we imagined it. It’s faster than we thought it would be, it’s more technically challenging than we set out to make it as well but somehow it’s still full of ambience and mood, and that’s what I think is most important.” One aspect of Human Target that does stray from conventional Thy Art Is Murder releases is the lack of religious undertones in the lyrics and complete neglect of the concept of God and organised religion. Rather than thinking it was time to let up on such matters, Marsh says it was more timing and current issues that dictated lyrical content, and not a softening of the band’s approach. “When you do things quickly as we do, an album is more like a timestamp on your life and often you don’t really get a chance to analyse the collection of work until after the fact,” he explains. “I mean, when I write a song and finish it then I have to write another song straight away and it wasn’t until one or two months after finishing the recording that I realised there were no songs about religion at all,” he laughs. “It certainly wasn’t a conscious thing.” To which CJ interjects: “We spoke a little about topics and moods for the record and didn’t really set out to write about one thing in particular. Yet somehow all the songs sing out about various oppressive forces in the world and not one song touched on a religious institution, which is a first for us. Maybe we didn’t feel as inspired about those topics; maybe subconsciously it was just time for a break, but nothing was on purpose.” Thy Art Is Murder have prided themselves on thought-provoking and honest lyrics throughout their career, with Marsh stressing the importance of having a good structure and platform from

which to write. “It’s not as tricky as it used to be,” he concedes. “We’re a lot better at articulating our musical ideas and I think I’m a lot better at articulating concepts into lyrics that work in the context of death metal, as opposed to just saying ‘this sucks’ and ‘this is how it is’. “That is compounded by the difficulty of trying to turn some of those words into hooks, which I think is something that we really try to use to separate ourselves from our peers in our specific sub-genre. The music is generally quite catchy and a lot of the lines are... you only need to hear them once or twice and it sticks in your head.” CJ concurs. “It’s tricky but that’s songwriting,” he says. “Marshy writes the lyrics but I love to think with him on topics and moods for songs and ideas that I would like represented. Then he puts those ideas into words and hooks, and works with Will [Putney, producer] on the arrangements. We really take a lot of time coming up with basic ideas and messages that we would like to communicate, that’s the hardest part.” After taking time off recently to focus on his family and newborn son, CJ is quick to assure fans that he will be back on deck in time for a run of shows in support of Human Target. “No rest for the wicked,” he laughs. “I’ll be back in time for our upcoming Australian shows and a short tour of Europe. We are lucky we dictate our own schedule for the most part so it was important to me to make the second half of 2019 pretty light so I can enjoy the early stages at home. See you on the road!”

“When you do things quickly as we do, an album is more like a timestamp on your life...“

Thy Art Is Murder’s Human Target will be released on July 26th.

Halestorm

Words by Dave Griffiths

he mighty Halestorm return to Australia in late 2019 alongside their good friends Black Stone Cherry. There is little doubt that Halestorm will be finely tuned by the time they get here given that this year has been a year of heavy touring for the Pennsylvanian outfit; they have already hit Australia for Download and are now doing the European festival circuit while playing their own headline shows as well. In fact, when HEAVY Mag catches up with the legendary Lizzy Hale she is in Luxembourg preparing for their headline show that night. “There is already a line outside,” says Hale checking the queue for their show as she speaks. “We are in the middle of touring but it is this weird mixture of our headlining shows while we are on the European festival circuit. So we are doing these huge festivals, we’ve

just done Download and now we are heading to Grasspop, but it has been fun to do both – you go from these huge festivals then to your headlining shows. It has been awesome that I have been ticking some stuff off the bucket list.” “It is absolutely maddening in the best way,” she says when asked what it is like to walk out onto those festival stages with so many people there to see Halestorm. “You literally lose your mind a little bit. Just a few minutes before you called we heard from the promoter of the Download Festival and apparently in the history of Download we had the biggest attendance for our second stage headlining site, and I was also the first girl to headline that stage so I thought that was awesome.” That leads into talking about Australia and how excited Hale is about returning to our fair shores. “I love Australia,” she says, laughing. “I want to come to Australia every opportunity that I get and every chance that I get, and I might do this again

seeing I will be there at the end of the year, but every chance for some time off that I get after Australia I end up staying for like a week or two. “I just take some time for myself and every time I am there I am like ‘man, I could live here.’ So it has pretty much become my fantasy vacation place and I am always like ‘man, if I could get a place here I probably would’.” Continuing, she says: “Not only is that exciting because I love Australia and love the people and I love the rock and roll attitude that is still very much alive in Australia, but we get to do it with Black Stone Cherry and they are our brothers, man. “We have known them for fifteen years or something like that; we have been gigging together so to come back with those guys and do this thing is going to be like a big family reunion. We haven’t seen each other for a few months, oh it might even be a year - we never get to see our friends because our friends are always touring. “We actually have to tour together to be able to see each other. This will be an absolute blast and I will tell you what: if you have never caught John Fred Young and Arejay Hale in a room together look out because it is like when a tornado meets a hurricane. They are like us... our heart and soul is live music.”

“If you have never caught John FredYoung & Arejay Hale in a room together look out because it is like when a tornado meets a hurricane.”

Caligula’s Horse

ast year’s success of the Love Conquers All tour saw Brisbane’s prog heroes Caligula’s Horse perform their 2017 album In Contact in its entirety over three evenings, and from that a catalyst emerged. The band has decided to once again capture another milestone and celebrate the anniversary of albums The Tide, The Thief & River’s End and Bloom by performing them both in their entirety on an East Coast tour titled Let It Grow on the same nights this August. Guitarist Sam Vallen gave HEAVY Magazine his thoughts, interpretations and explanations on writing their three seminal albums plus insights into what Caligula’s Horse fans can expect when attending the masterclass featuring both him and fellow CH guitarist Adrian. “We have this very particular outlook on what we do when writing an album,” Sam says. “It’s based around the idea that whatever we do immediately for the next material relative to material we did in the past, has to be a movement away from that. For every album we sat down and asked, ‘what did it achieve, what did we do that we’re proud of? What worked? What do we think didn’t work?’ “Then we look at how we can move in a direction which reiterates very little of what worked, instead focussing on things that weren’t quite teased out, things that were different or perhaps sparked our interest somewhere else that perhaps didn’t get their due.” Giving us insight into how Caligula’s Horse aimed to achieve the outcome of songwriting perfection for their second album and those after it Sam elaborates, “River’s End has a storyline that’s intentionally quite vague and requires interpretation on the listeners behalf. When we finished that album and were looking at what to do next, the first decision was that Bloom was not going to be a concept album. What ended up becoming Bloom was something that we had decided from that very early point was a string of songs which are thematically disconnected, intentionally contrasting them against what had come before. Any true progressive music songwriter and listener is always looking for an experience and a dichotomy and also something different to what they were confronted with before. Acknowledging this aspect

Words by Neil Vance

within the Caligula’s Horse realm, Vallen expands further upon the bands consummate need to grow and find that rare gift that sets them apart from every other band. “River’s End is a concept album about the cold, and crossing this vast expanse and seeing people die over the course of generations really dark, heavy topics, so Bloom needed to be a celebration of life. It was really fulfilling to create something that was positive and life-affirming as its goal. “So, we said the thing that needs to happen [on In Contact] is that any of the emotional impetus of that album is that we reiterate it, be it happiness or sadness or whatever, it needs to have a much higher peak and much lower low. If it’s going to be heavy, it’s going to be heavier; if it’s going to be dynamic then it needs to be more dynamic. Those extremes need to be more pronounced.” As well as performing both The Tide, The Thief & The River’s End and Bloom in full, Sam and bandmate Adrian will be conducting a musicians masterclass, giving their fans insight into the inner workings of their collaborative minds. Sam discusses how the two guitarists will deliver such an experience: “Adrian and I have ideas about specific things we want to cover and think are especially interesting to fans. We’ll be focussing on technical and compositional things in the Caligula’s Horse back catalogue,” he says. “If anyone comes along and there is anything specifically they want to look at, that avenue will be open, which I think is appreciated. If I go and bug my favourite guitarists, I don’t want to hear the same thing I’ve heard a couple of times, I want to hit them with that pressing question that might keep them on their toes a little bit.” See Caligula’s Horse whiole touring in August.

Voyager

Words by Dave Griffiths

he past couple of years have seen some massive changes for Perth band Voyager. The release of their album Ghost Mile in 2017 saw them win over a legion of new fans and they also found themselves signed to independent label Season Of Mist. Now, hot on the heels of the release of their new single “Brightstar”, the band are about to hit the road with their good friends Chaos Divine for an Australian tour. “For us it is a big thing because we have literally been busy bees working on this new album,” Voyager guitarist Simone Dow says, taking a break from rehearsal. “It has literally been all work and no play so we are absolutely champing at the bit to get out on the road and play some music again, and some new music as well for our fans. Not to mention that it is going to be sick getting to go with our mates from Chaos Divine.” “They are good mates of ours and are from Perth as well,” Simone explains about the

bond of friendship between Voyager and Chaos Divine. “They have been mates for years and we have done a lot of local shows together but we have never travelled across Australia together so that will be heaps of fun as well.” The discussion goes from the tour to the new music that fans are eagerly awaiting from Voyager. “It makes a lot of sense after Ghost Mile; it’s not like we have gone reggae or anything,” she laughs. “I have been describing it to people as both our heaviest and our poppiest album as well. I mean, “Brightstar” is probably one of the more poppy tracks on the album; it very much as that ‘80s synth-pop vibe, which has become a little bit synonymous with us. “That is certainly all the way through it. It is a weird one but I love it, and people who have been working on it with us have been saying that it is the best work that we have done; that is always very relieving to hear.”

...it is going to be sick getting to go with our mates from Chaos Divine.”

See Voyager & Chaos Divine during July!

or the main man behind prog metal band Teramaze, every inch of the band’s brand new album Are We Soldiers is a painstaking, personal effort. Dean Wells not only does the guitar playing and some of the vocals, but also puts together everything in this home studio. It is a labour of love, there is no doubt about that, but as the band’s fans are about to find out when the album is released, it is also well worth all the hard work. “It was a bit of a strange time for the band,” Dean explains about the process of putting together Are We Soldiers. “It always seems that when we are putting together an album there is some kind of member change or label change. With the songwriting, this album was pretty much written straight after [2015 album] Her Halo and I wanted to do something a little more energetic and to go back to the metal side of the band. But then we changed singers and went back to our original singer Brett [Rerekura] and I got really sick.”

TERAMAZE Words by David Griffiths That illness saw Wells laid up and unable to work on the album for a long period of time. “For me personally it was a bit of a mountain for me to get better health-wise to be able to do this at this level because I had never been this sick before in my life,” he explains. “It was a bit of a strange thing for me but by the end of it I felt like I had accomplished more than just a recording. It felt like I had accomplished a much better headspace and much better health and I was able to change things about my life because I get stuck in my own head; I sit in the studio and write all the time, and that wore me down... I just didn’t realise.” “So yeah, it was a bit of a mountain,” he says. “But there is such good music coming out of the band now – there is such a great vibe. There is a really good vibe in the band and that is really nice... I’m enjoying it.” Are We Soldiers is out 21 June through Mascot Records.

FAR CANAL STREAMING EVERYWHERE FOXACHE.BANDCAMP.COM

RED SEA

Words by Kris Peters

“I

t’s pretty groovy actually,” vocalist for Sydney prog metal band Red Sea Erica Bowron laughs as she talks about their latest single “The One” from the self-titled EP, which is Red Sea’s forth instalment. “It’s got a groovier beat than normal and starts with a chunky bass riff that sets the tone for the whole song. It starts pretty heavy but it’s a dead set love song,” she laughs. “I know that probably sounds really daggy but it’s an out-and-out love song. It’s still definitely got the heavy hallmark to it but the verses are pretty sultry and then it comes in with our trademark massive ending where the bass drops in again and explodes out the back.” With a game plan based around the current consumerdriven industry, Bowron reveals the band has recorded five new songs in total but won’t be releasing them as a complete unit until a later date. “We will eventually put it together as an EP,” she says. “We started with “The One” as first cab off the rank because we thought it was so infectious and I think it’s beautiful as well but that’s maybe the content of the lyrics. But the next one is a full-tilt, heavy, heavy, slam-itto-the-wall kind of song. “We will probably do three or four singles in total given that Spotify and things aren’t really geared towards albums. We had this debate about do we even bother packaging it together as an EP or not; is there a relevance, because people just listen to the songs they like rather than the whole EP?” While last year’s single “The Art Of Transcending” had more of a progressing, creeping sound to it, ‘The One’ moves outside of conventional prog parameters, adding a more metal and melodic tone to proceedings. “It’s highly important to have that diversity with each release,” Bowron stresses. “There’s always that balance though isn’t there? You still want to sound like the same band and you want your fans to know that’s your sound, and I think inherently that you can’t help but sound like you in a lot of ways. Most bands want to have that familiar sound but we definitely try and be conscious to not make every song a cookie cutter of the last one.”

he journey for I Built The Sky has been nothing short of phenomenal, from being a bedroom project for Rohan Stevenson through to opening for the likes of Haken and touring internationally with Caligula’s Horse and Circles. But Stevenson promises that the best is yet to come with a brand new album dropping later this year and a tour to follow. “I’m really surprised myself,” Stevenson says with a laugh about the speedy progress of I Built The Sky. “It all started with me cracking the shits a bit over where I was at with music and with not much happening. It felt like the creative side of things was being pushed to the wayside in order to favour the business side of things, so I just craved getting back to a creative mindset. I left a few projects that I was involved with in order to focus on writing music and improving my skills as a writer and in production, and then it just built and built.” The discussion then turns to the new music that he has been working on and Stevenson says he believes this is some of the best music he has ever created. “I think there are more dynamics in the songs,” he explains. “There is more light and shade. The heavy bits are heavy and the soft bits are nice. There are a lot more dynamics in the production and in the song-writing for sure.” “It is all from within,” he says, discussing where the inspiration comes from for his music. “It is about following your ear, following your sound and to be able to provoke emotion out of music, so when I write I definitely want an emotional connection in the way that it comes across but I am not watching the news and trying to draw from that.” Aussie fans can expect to see I Built The Sky live again as well. “We want to tour after the album comes out,” says Stevenson excitedly. “At the moment we just have an East Coast run planned which will be in early November and we’ll try to make that a special event.”

I BUILT THE SKY

Words by Dave Grifiths

FOX ACHE

Words by Dave Griffiths

isten up Aussie music fans because something brand new, fresh and sensational is about to land. Brisbane prog rock band Fox Ache has just released their debut album Far Canal, and it is an absolute ripper. “We all went to school together,” Fox Ache guitarist Toby Smythe says. “Myself, the bassist [Cody] and the drummer [Liam] had been friends for a long time and we had played together in bands on and off in high school but we had always been missing a very important ingredient – a decent singer. “[Vocalist] Christian lived with Cody and myself and he was just like a video-game playing hermit and he was just like ‘I’ll sing for you’ and we were like ‘hell yeah.’ He plays flute, which gives us a bit of extra awesomeness as well.” That leads drummer Liam expanding on how the band’s unique sound has developed over the years. “We’ve all got such different musical tastes,” he says. “Back in Year 10 some of us were really into Tool and then our bassist Cody showed us Opeth so then we all got into Opeth. Then I started to get into some Australian progressive music like Karnivool and Cog and Dead Letter Circus, and then we all kind of just started to go down this weird progressive rock train and now here we are.” “We’ve waited such a long time for this,” Liam says when talk turns to whether they are nervous or excited about Far Canal finally being released. “We are just so excited about being able to get our music out there and to places where we have never physically played. I have no idea what the response is going to be like because we have been sitting on these songs and writing these songs for so long that we are genuinely at a point where we really don’t know how people are going to react to it. We don’t really know whether people are going to love it or whether they will just be like ‘meh’... but we are really keen to get it out.”

ATLVS

Words by Kris Peters

ith the recent release of debut EP Memoir, young Gippsland metalcore band ATLVS have taken the most significant step on their musical journey with a collection of songs that not only aim to cleanse personal demons, but also provide comfort and hope for their growing legion of fans. “Every song on the EP is very personal and in-depth, hence why we called it Memoir,” drummer Nick Clavarino reveals. “Everything that we do falls under the umbrella of metalcore, but as you listen to the EP from start to finish it’s sort of going on a bit of a story and your ups and downs of what’s going on in your personal life. You’re going from the anger to the hurt inside to then more anger and you lead towards the end which is more like acceptance which leaves things open for what is to come”. Although four of the six songs - “Epiphany”, “Insinuate”, “Love” and “Sick” were released as singles, Clavarino stresses that while the EP will have a familiar feel, the subject matter and delivery of the songs as a complete package will give a clearer picture of what ATLVS was aiming to achieve. “All of the released songs have been remixed and remastered so you will get a better overall sound of what we’re going for,” he says. The speed of which things have come together for the band may have taken even the members themselves by surprise, with Clavarino admitting their goals and expectations for the EP have changed from single to single. “What we’ve achieved in the last 18 months has completely blown our expectations already,” he confesses. “From the get-go we never expected the feedback, the opportunities - everyone has given us these amazing opportunities and amazing feedback. When we played our first show we didn’t believe we’d sell it out and play to over 120 people, so at this point when it comes to expectations I would be over the moon if just a few people enjoy the EP, understand ATLVS as a band and can take something away from it. Even though the songs are all quite personal to us we’d like to hear what people take away from the EP and if it helps them with things like that”.

9 HEAVY Magazine / www.heavymag.com.au

fter slugging it out on the local metal scene for almost a decade, Adelaide [Austrlaia] metal band Quaero Verum found themselves at the crossroads of their career. Things had stagnated to the point of self-destruction and hard decisions needed to be made; guitarist Matthew Marotti says the decision was easy. “Our singer left and we had to find a replacement”, Matthew recalls. “We were looking for a power metal/screaming vocalist but then we ran into Luke [Dietrich] who couldn’t do any singing but his growl was exceptional,” he laughs, “and we wanted to keep it so we thought ‘let’s get rid of all ties to our previous band’. We thought ‘new band, new singer - let’s take it from there’, and so As I Destruct was born.” Leaving behind an established band name was of little consequence, with Marotti arguing the change was something that was needed. “We thought honestly it would work far quicker for us if we changed it because it would give us a chance to reestablish ourselves,” he says. “With Quaero Verum we found it such a grind. We thought let’s be super cool and have an arty name and it would be amazing but it didn’t really work like that”. With the name change taken care of, there still remained the fact that something wasn’t working musically. Rather than merely rehash previous work, Marotti and the remainder of As I Destruct instead immersed themselves into a new record and subsequent fresh musical direction. “Our music now is angrier,” he surmises. “There’s a certain amount of angst and aggression to it that was never in the previous sound. The hooks are a bit catchier, the writings a little more technical and the drumming especially has far more depth and character.” The resulting album is From Fear To Oblivion, a collection of songs that are as much about testing the waters as it is a rebirth of the band. “We wanted to see where our style of metal sat,” Marotti concedes. “We didn’t even know what genre it was but people started labelling it ‘Melodic death metal’. It was important for us to establish where we sat in the industry and to see if people took to our style of music and writing and find out if there’s a market and demand for us”.

AS I DESTRUCT

Words by Kris Peters

PROJECT 34

Words by Kris Peters

NEW ALBUM - SEPT ‘19

roject 34 is a musical phenomenon shrouded in mystique. Rather than go all out to promote their music, Project 34 prefer to remain in the shadows, instead allowing the quality of their work to dictate proceedings. Their music is more than an extension of their personalities, it is an outlet for change, hope, and artistic reflection that sweeps the listener up and into a world rarely seen through the eyes of the very creators themselves. Put simply, Project 34 is more than a sonic experience, it is a musical enigma that immerses you in their world, sonically transferring you to another realm entirely and almost daring you to wade through the myriad of atmospherics and come through unscathed. With their second offering, the aptly titled Volume 2 due on 1 July, Project 34 mastermind Christopher Lahoud reflects on the production in typically ambiguous fashion, revealing little but the necessary details. “The album is quite musically diverse, with many of the personnel having a variety of artistic influences,” Christopher muses. “It is therefore experimental in nature. In particular, the fusion of genres and subgenres form what we hope is an overall unique sound. The thematic approach for Volume 2 is a journey from conception to decay.” After last year’s successful and groundbreaking Volume 1, Lahoud explains that while being the logical continuation in the musical evolution, Volume 2 is, in essence, it’s own stand-alone reflection. “The two albums are individual entities,” he affirms. “However, they stem from the same foundation and philosophy while differing in aesthetics. “Volume 1 is a diverse introduction of elements that set the trajectory for Project 34. It features a number of short tracks which simply showcase the variety of the Project, and introduce you to the overall experimental direction. “Ichorous”, the single from the record, epitomises what Volume 1 has to offer and establishes the foundation for Volume 2.” Rather than follow conventional writing procedures, Project 34 immersed themselves spiritually and metaphorically into their work, utilising different parts of their musical psyche to full effect. “Atmosphere and mood play a significant role to the approach,” Lahoud says. “For each track, an emotion was captured via meditation and represented through imagination. The result is an attempt to create an auditory metaphor of time and space. The emotive nature of the project is expressed visually to summon a timeless scape - blurring the lines between our world and the next.” Volume 2 is out 1 July.

“STEVE VAI LEVELS OF GUITAR TRICKERY” - OVERDRIVE (AUS) “ONE OF THE FRONTRUNNERS OF AUSTRALIAN INSTRUMENTAL GUITAR-BASED SHRED ROCK” - GEAR GODS (USA)

“SOME OF THE BEST GUITAR WORK I’VE EVER SEEN” - BELWOOD MUSIC (UK)

"EVERYTHING YOU NEED IN AN INSTRUMENTAL SONG - SLIPPERY RIFFS AND BIG FEELS!" - PLINI

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