Unrestrained Magazine #39

DarkThrone ! Horna Hammers of Misfortune ! Enslaved

re ator K Let chao s reign

Issue 39 $4.99

Printed in Canada

ISSN 1715-2453 UNRESTRAINED!

! ! ! !

Cynic ! Amon Amarth ! Gojira ! Kampfar ! Burst Svart Loghin ! Marillion ! Grayceon ! Iced Earth Book of Black Earth ! Ofermod ! Psycroptic Cripple Bastards ! & more…

Yo u r a u t h o r i t y o n t h e m e t a l u n d e r g r o u n d ! • w w w. U N R E S T R A I N E D M A G . c o m

2

e was a one-of-a-kind. His personality spilled over everything that he did…and he did a tremendous amount! His nickname, “The Energizer,” taken from the Energizer Bunny, was accurate. He never stopped. Until, on December 7, 2008, for the first time…he did.

Adrian was the sort of guy who could carry on three conversations simultaneously. And type an email. And be on instant messenger talking to who knows how many other people. And teasingly scold his beloved cat, Yosemite Sam. And listen to a CD by an obscure band and write a review on it.

All at the same time. What would cause complete sensory overload for most was mild multitasking for Adrian.

It was Adrian’s ability to thrive in the centre of a veritable maelstrom of press releases, concerts, interviews, reviews, and publicity agents that enabled Unrestrained! to become all that it is. As Unrestrained! evolved from a photocopied fanzine to a full-blown magazine with worldwide distribution, Adrian’s vision and energy were both the engine and the rudder of the magazine. He powered it. He steered it. He put himself on the line for the magazine with a frequency and depth that would send lawyers and financial planners running in the opposite direction for fear that he would attempt to retain their services. He did this without a second thought. He always put the magazine ahead of such niceties.

I was honoured when he asked me to join him as editor of the magazine a few issues ago. We were very different people—complete opposites, actually—but we were able to complement each other in terms of demeanor, perspectives, and skills. Adrian kindly extended to me the opportunity to share in the privilege of writing the editorial for each issue. Adrian, as publisher and senior editor, obviously could have decided to reserve this column entirely for himself. I would not have questioned him had he made that decision, as it was a prerogative that he more than earned. But that was never Adrian’s way. For Adrian, sharing with friends was always at the heart of his decisionmaking process. I never would have anticipated that, with my second run at the editorial column, I would have the difficult task of writing a eulogy for both Adrian and the magazine.

The past year was a tough one for Adrian, but he did what he always did. He focused on the positive.

He identified his goal and he found a solution that was uniquely his. For him, any setback was an opportunity to try something new: a magazine, a publicity company, a record label. Now, one of these projects is too much for your typical human being. But Adrian, dynamo that he was, opted for all of the above. He succeeded spectacularly, always with his sense of humour and his endless consideration for others firmly intact. As always, he managed to turn his passion into a lifestyle. At the time of his passing, he was extremely close to meeting his next goal, which was to return to New York and marry his great flame, Renee. Everything that he took on over the last several months was done with that goal in mind.

As I mentioned above, this will be the last issue of Unrestrained! This issue was mere days from being completed when Adrian died. With the exception of this editorial, it has been left as Adrian last saw it, outside of a few layout tweaks and typographical corrections. Adrian was the heart and soul of the magazine and, with his passing, so passes the magazine. It was a great run. While the issue that you now hold in your hands was certainly not intended as a finale, I am pleased that we will be able to release it in honour of Adrian’s memory.

The things that we learned from Adrian are many, but here is what I learned: If you live life according to your passions, it will be infinitely rewarding. This was very true for Adrian. That attitude brought him his every achievement. His approach inspired others, too. I do not think that it would be possible to count the number of people who decided to make their dream a reality after watching Adrian do exactly that, time and again. Adrian was much too modest to even consider that notion, but I do think that, amidst the fond memories, the humorous anecdotes, and the genuine affection, it was his ability to inspire others to do what they dream that will be his ongoing legacy.

Adrian, may you rest in peace…with the music blaring.

Tate Bengtson

Adrian Bromley Nov. 30 1971 – Dec. 7, 2008

Editor: Tate Bengtson • tateb@uniserve.com Editor/Coordinator: Adrian ‘The Energizer’ Bromley • vinylpillager@gmail.com Staff Writers: • Chris Bruni [cvbruni@rogers.com] • Kevi Metal [doomhauled@hotmail.com] • Laura Wiebe Taylor [killeatexploittheweak@yahoo.ca] • Brian J. Wright [tyrannorabbit@hotmail.com] • Sean Palmerston [sean@frightenstein.com] • Kim Kelly [kim.marie.kelly@gmail.com] • José Carlos Santos [razorbladesmile@mail.telepac.pt] • RealDeadOne [realdeadone@hotmail.com] • Scott Alisoglu [Salisoglu@cox.net] • Terry ‘Metal Demon’ Demeter [Metal.Demon@sasktel.net] • Ray Van Horn [crtiger@comcast.net] • Dave Sanders [deadmoonrising@gmail.com] • Sarah Kitteringham [sarah_kitteringham@hotmail.com] • Rajah Marcelo [shadyrajah@hotmail.com] • Alex Ristic [alexsristic@yahoo.ca] • Jay Gorania [gorania13@yahoo.com] Layout/Design: Rex Zachary • url: www.rexorcist.com and Unrestrained! staff Advertising: Adrian ‘The Energizer’ Bromley Copy Editor: Rob Hughes • trhughes@telus.net FINANCES: Yosemite Sam • ieatvinylforbreakfast@yahoo.com WebMaster: Winston Bromley • url: www.unrestrainedmag.com Copyright 2008 IXMATI MEDIA All Rights Reserved on entire contents; nothing may be reproduced in whole or in part without permission from the publisher.

ISSN 1715-2453 UNRESTRAINED! E-mail: info@unrestrainedmag.com UNRESTRAINED! is presently distributed by: Kable, Disticor, Century Media, Relapse, Hastings, Civilian Death Network, Ubiquity Distributors and sold in Chapters, Indigo Books, Barnes & Noble, Newbury Comics, Metal Haven and other national retailers.

This is the final issue of Unrestrained! magazine. It is being released by Adrian’s friends and family as a tribute to him. While shocked and saddened by Adrian’s passing, we take solace in the fact that we have the opportunity to share this issue with our readers. We know that it is what Adrian would have wanted.

We would like to extend our thanks to fans of the magazine for their support over the years. Our deepest sympathies go out to all those who loved Adrian.

Adrian, this one’s for you!

- The U! Staff

Schaffer’s Judgment Day

4

Iced Earth

Ray Van Horn, Jr.

J

on Schaffer holds many things sacred. First and foremost is his style of traditional power metal birthed from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal fused with his western revivalist’s blood. Schaffer’s six strings are characterized in conjunction with iron-lunged vocals, which have been administered by an array of characters, perhaps the most beloved being Matt Barlow.

Iced Earth fans were divided when Barlow exchanged his microphone and metalhead street duds for police issue. In response, Jon Schaffer brought former Judas Priest crooner Tim “Ripper” Owens into the camp. His debut effort on The Glorious Burden made headlines, particularly during the aftermath of a post-9/11 America that took solace in Iced Earth’s weighty ballad “When the Eagle Cries.” Receiving numerous video spins on MTV and Fuse, the “Ripper” era of Iced Earth held promise as Tim Owens won further favour for his gallant performance on Schaffer’s nearly 20-minute metal masterwork “Gettysburg.”

One would have assumed all was well in Iced Earth between Owens and Schaffer, particularly once Schaffer began his long-conceived multi-album saga, Something Wicked. Owens was entrusted to re-record the “Something Wicked” triptych overture from Iced Earth’s fan-favourite album Something Wicked This Way Comes as prelude to Schaffer’s eventual Something Wicked double record odyssey. Consequently, the “Ripper” bellowed his guts out all over the first installment of the couplet, Framing Armageddon: Something Wicked Part 1.

With barely any rest following a brief supporting tour of Framing Armageddon, Schaffer was back in the studio putting the wraps to his parable of mankind’s fallacies brutally exposed by the band’s omnipresent mythical mascot Set Abominae (a recurring album cover personality akin to Iron Eddie), The Crucible of Man: Something Wicked Part 2.

Along the way, however, the news broke out that Tim Owens was no longer a part of Iced Earth and that Barlow was back to complete Something Wicked.

“It wasn’t working, man,” Schaffer declares of Owens. “The reality is it worked in the studio.

I love all the recordings Tim and I did together, but here’s what you’ve got to realize: The Glorious Burden tour was the only other shows we’d done besides the Framing Armageddon tour in Europe, and it really wasn’t that much touring. The back half of The Glorious Burden tour, I was pretty much in agony. I had some serious back trouble going on, so I wasn’t as tuned into what was happening on stage. Something did feel off, but on the Framing tour, it really felt off. It was the first time in the history of Iced Earth that I felt like I didn’t have true believers on stage. The feeling was just weird; it was like guys showing up for work, but not really involved.”

Schaffer relays a feeling of ostracizing between himself and Owens, further prompting his decision for a lineup adjustment.

“When I look back upon it, I think Tim was more concerned with doing his solo thing than really being in Iced Earth. Iced Earth was a steady paycheque for him to build that up. He just wasn’t committed to it; he didn’t get involved, he didn’t call when the writing was going on. He didn’t ask any questions what the story was about. He’d have to hear me do a bunch of interviews in order to be able to know what the story was, and that’s not what happens with people who are really involved with something. I spoke with Tim a few times on the European tour and said ‘Dude, what’s up, man? I’d really like this to work out, but things really aren’t feeling right.’ The reality is, whether Matt was coming back or not, there was going to be a change. It was just going to be after The Crucible of Man, but Tim and I would’ve been parting ways no matter what because it wasn’t working on stage. It worked in the studio; I loved Tim’s voice, but there’s a lot more to this than that. I do care about Tim and I wish him the best, really, but it just wasn’t happening.”

Though the original split between Schaffer and Matt Barlow as the former pursued a career in law enforcement took its professional toll on the brothers-in-law, the timing seemed far from fluky when Schaffer discovered Barlow had recently been fronting the DanishAmerican power metal conglomerate Pyramaze.

“I’d heard about Matt doing the Pyramaze thing when I was in Europe. We’d seen each other a few times through the years, but we did not talk about music those times. He’s my brother-in-law, and actually the times that we saw each other, we’d had two deaths in the family in the course of about a year, so we saw each other at funerals! This obviously wasn’t the place to talk about music and stuff. When I’d heard about Pyramaze, I was thinking ‘Well, Matt’s obviously missing it. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be doing this.’ When I got home from the European tour, I called Matt and said ‘Hey, dude, what’s going on? I’ve heard about this Pyramaze thing. So, are you missing it?’ He said, ‘Yeah, man,’ and I was like ‘Well, you know, maybe we should do something.’ The first thing we talked about was starting another project and doing something on our own. I figured at first there was no way he’d be interested in doing anything with Iced Earth. He’s got a career, he’s a cop; I mean, how’s that going to work out? But the more we talked, the more it became clear he really was into doing this and so within 48 hours the decision was made. There wasn’t a long courting process or anything like that. It was boom boom; it was fate, you know?”

If Iced Earth’s steadfast articulation on their more recent albums is a sign of Jon Schaffer growing up from the angry street kid who started Purgatory and ultimately his calling-card ensemble, the proof is revealed by the years. Suffice it to say, the songwriting on Framing Armageddon and The Crucible of Man is almost bipolar compared to Iced Earth’s self-titled and Night of the Stormrider albums. Perhaps less angry and more eloquent, Jon Schaffer’s Something Wicked chronicle is everything he’d sought as a drifting teenager and now achieved as one of heavy metal’s most-respected artists.

“That old anger contributes to all of it,” Schaffer admits. “It’s a huge part of what drives Iced Earth, without a doubt. On the first album, what I think a lot of people don’t realize is when that album came out in 1990, those songs had already been played for several years. Also, most of the Stormrider album was already written when the first album came out, and as I was developing as a songwriter, even though I had written songs I thought were far better than what was on the first album, I knew I wanted it to be a document of the growth of me as an artist. I wrote ‘Colors’ when I was 16 years old. There are songs that were four, five years old when they came out, so if you want to talk about what that angst of a 16-year-old is, it’s because that’s when that shit was written.”

The Dark Saga and 2001’s Horror Show gave Jon Schaffer the encouraging ingredients to fashion his extensive Something Wicked undertaking, beginning with 1998’s Something Wicked This Way Comes. Featuring sci-fi and horror elements, Schaffer’s Something Wicked series (which is prompting a related graphic novel penned by Schaffer himself) is largely a morality play in which Schaffer warns through his storytelling that the historically dissolute behaviour of mankind will ultimately return its own demise.

“Crucible opens with Set’s birth and closes with the song ‘Come What May,’ which brings us to modern day, and the story doesn’t end in these Iced Earth records. It just brings us up to a point where it says, okay, this is the situation: unless humanity truly begins to evolve— and not from a technological standpoint, but from the nature of mankind—unless that happens, we are fucked. How do we do that? You’ve got a path to choose, so which one are you going to choose? Are we going to stay dishonest, afraid, and petty, which are big human traits? Are we going to man up and be responsible for our actions and really pursue honesty and truth? If we do that, salvation lies in truth.

“My view of it is that God is truth. Here’s the thing; under the sun we have not changed at all, so in the Something Wicked universe, the nature of mankind has stalled. It’s exactly what it was from the time they invaded. We are what we are. In order for man to survive and to be able to rise to the sublime level of what it is to be a Setian being, we’d have to start to evolve on a level that goes deep into the nature of what a human being is. That’s the thing I think is very difficult and it’s unlikely ever going to happen in our lifetime, but it certainly makes for cool storytelling. It’s the way to manipulate people through fear and through creating the Setians, all the world’s religions that help keep mankind divided because anything different from us, we’re afraid of it.”

Schaffer elaborates the evolution of his album cover talisman Set and hints that the continuing appearance of the warrior-clad entity has been leading straight to this event.

“Set was the reason the whole Something Wicked Story came to fruition, and I don’t even know where it came from. It hit me and it hit hard and fast, but it was the idea of this character Set Abominae and what he looked like. At first it started with Al Simmons [Spawn], but I had the idea of this Egyptian god of war Set, he’s mummified, he’s got this crown, I had this whole vision of what he’d look like. Then the story started to hit me like a ton of bricks.

It wasn’t necessarily Set that was so inspiring, but the entire Something Wicked story, the thing about mankind actually being aliens to the planet Earth and this ancient Earth culture that was nearly wiped out, and Set’s the saviour of that race… The whole thing just started to unravel and it came hard and fast.”

As might be expected with a project on this grand scale, Jon Schaffer lived the music and writing of the Something Wicked albums with unrelenting tenacity.

“I started these two albums in February of 2006, which is when I set up the Pro Tools rig, but the summer before that I bought some property out in the country and there are two log cabins. I live in one, the other is the studio and the one that the studio is in, I put the Pro Tools rig in there in February and started writing right then. That was really the beginning of the whole thing, and I was here 16 hours a day. I would always go home in the evening and spend dinnertime with my wife and my daughter and stay for a couple hours, then I was right back at it. It was a year from the time I started writing and cutting drum tracks, and in that timeframe, I took four days off! I literally worked from the time my eyes would open until I dropped every night.”

Whatever plane Schaffer and Iced Earth whisks their listeners off to next—be it on the bullet-torn wings of a man-made Albatross or in the murk of Dracula’s crypt, or at the feet of an alien judge and executioner—will be anyone’s guess. Assuming Matt Barlow is still commandeering the ride, Iced Earth fans will at least have that much to rely upon. The rest is left to the cognitive playground of Jon Schaffer.

Iced earth

5

6

Thrashin’in the U.K.

By Dave Sanders With the thrash revival in full effect, old bands are getting another shot, and for younger bands like Mass Extinction, the time is ripe to make their mark on the metal community. However, unlike most bands, there’s much more than just thrash to Mass Extinction. UNRESTRAINED! got the word straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak, from lead singer Tom Cunningham.

It’s easy to simply call Mass Extinction a thrash band, but if you look closer, you’ll see that there’s more than meets the ear. When asked how ME fits in to the scene, Cunningham responds, “That’s an interesting question, actually. We usually (and understandably) get heaped in with the old-school thrash band style, which is very much a part of our sound to date. For metal fans who have yet to hear us, we play fast, intense thrash with a sound in the vein of bands like Vio-lence, Exodus and Dark Angel.”

Any good musician will tell you that you have to evolve, or you simply won’t succeed. ME are no exception, having continually polished themselves and their music over their five years.

Cunningham muses, “I think we are finding a more refined sound as the band progresses. We’ve always made sure each member has input and puts their mark on every song. One of the main changes the band has undergone was the replacement of our original drummer Jim. He was with the band for three years and played a big part in helping the band develop a sound. When Sam took over we wanted him to be as comfortable as possible with the existing songs and put his own mark on them. His background in drumming is based mainly on the death metal style of bands like Nile, Angelcorpse and Morbid Angel, so our speedy style was not a problem. Although his input has made its mark on the band, he has a good sense of feeling and has added a new dimension without an abrupt jump.”

With thrash becoming as popular and commercially viable as it was in the ‘80s, naturally there will be a flood of new bands.

So what makes Mass Extinction different? “In the grand scheme of metal music I don’t think we are doing anything particularly revolutionary,” says Cunningham. “Although for many, thrash has had its day, we feel our music is fresh or has conviction at the very least. It’s easy to lash songs together with fast, aggressive vocals over them, but if there is no sense of purpose, the music will be hollow. I think many of the other thrash bands that have emerged over the past couple of years are lacking that certain element in their lyrics and themes. While the music holds its own, the vocals, or at least their delivery and subject matter, can be quite transparent and let down the band as a whole.

We try to create songs that have a certain element of longevity to them, not just mindless songs about ‘listening to thrash’ or ‘being thrash.’ The subject matter should hold its own and add an extra dimension to the music. That is something we strive to achieve with Mass Extinction. We’re in this to craft soulful, aggressive music that will hopefully last, not just a flash in the proverbial pan.”

Having been a part of the thrash revival, Cunningham is in a unique position to speculate on its rather quick rise to prominence. “I think thrash is quite an accessible style of metal.

Compared to most death and black metal, it seems to attract fans at an earlier age with its more exuberant style. For many, thrash has never gone away. I know a lot of fans that have always kept their ears to the ground and even more so underground. The advent of MySpace has made the networking of music fans a thousand times more convenient than it ever was. All of a sudden metal heads could set up fan pages and ‘street teams’ with the greatest of ease. The very nature of networking sites like this means there is a certain amount of uniformity with each web

page and they all look the same. Bands that have been together for two weeks can have a page that looks on par with the big names. In short, I think it’s the fact that people have such a powerful platform to work with that has really changed the face of the music world. All genres of metal have had millions of new fans, but thrash is standing out, as it hasn’t been at the fore like death and black metal for quite some time,” says Cunningham.

When asked about the rapidly growing U.K. scene, Cunningham has a lot to say. “The U.K. really does seem to have sprouted a pretty nice scene over the last couple of years. I remember five years ago when we started networking with other bands and there were very few promising emergent thrash bands from the U.K. It was only over the last two or three years that bands like these started popping up. When the likes of Evile and Headless Cross (now defunct) came onto the scene and really pushed the thrash thing through MySpace, then all these other fledgling bands popped up all over the place. Of course there were bands playing thrash before these came along, but the overall quality wasn’t as high. These days there seem to be an endless amount of U.K. bands flying the thrash flag.”

When it comes to the writing for their new EP, Creation’s Undoing, Mass Extinction looked to move their listeners, and then get their heads banging. “When we write, it’s all about feeling and fluidity. The most exhilarating part of the writing process is those moments when the whole band clicks at a particular section of jamming. There are certain times while writing a song when everyone just locks together and everyone just smiles and nods at each other. It might not sound as ‘hard-core’ as one might imagine, but moments like that really make songs for us. If we can achieve at least one of those moments per song, then we know we are creating something good,” says Cunningham.

Mass Extinction aren’t your typical thrash band, and it’s their lyrics that help set them apart. Cunningham reflects, “When it comes to lyrics or themes we try not to limit ourselves to the usual genre clichés. Although we have touched on the usual areas like war, we try to stay on the side of human emotion and reaction to catastrophic situations as opposed to gratuitous violence.

In fact, nearly all our lyrics come back to the human factor. There is always that element of hubris and fragility in Man that keeps lyric writing in extreme music that bit more interesting.”

Mass Extinction

7

A

chance stage dive brought together a pair of musical innovators who have continuously challenged the foundations of metal and purposefully swerved away from classification. Though it took a starter band, Phobia, and then some fine tuning and instant associations with the black metal leagues as of Enslaved’s debut album Vikingligr Veldi, the Norwegian progressive metallers set a course of destiny in 1997 with their widely respected Eld album. Said providence was fulfilled with 2005’s opulent Isa, and now that Enslaved are recognized as icons for their intense and lavish sound (second only perhaps to Opeth), they stake another claim for enormity with their current album Vertebrae.

“The first time I met Ivar [Bjornson, guitarist] was at a concert with a band called Witchhammer in ’89,” Enslaved bassist and vocalist Grutle Kjellson waxes with a chuckle. “I remember I was stage diving and I fell on top of a guy, which was Ivar! So the first time I met him was when I landed on top of him. We started to play together for about a year before we started Phobia. We were both targeting for and were inspired by death metal. I don’t think we’d had the band for less than a year before we got tired of that style, though. We wanted to create something interesting for ourselves. We’re always trying to make our favourite music instead of just being them, plus we really didn’t want to play with those guys in the band anymore since that wasn’t the material we wanted to do, so to speak. So we decided to split Phobia and start something new. We got hold of a drummer, Trym Torson,

8

Enslaved

and I think the first rehearsal was the end of May or beginning of June in 1991.”

One of the reasons Enslaved has attained the widespread respect of the metal community is their refusal to pigeonhole themselves into one style. In the past, journalists and fans have sought to describe Enslaved as death metal, black metal, and “Viking metal.” Certainly Enslaved bears shades of each, particularly in the way Grutle Kjellson blends his bestial growls amidst his lofty cleans, similar to the way Opeth’s Mikael Akerfeldt tailors his vocal patterns. Over the course of their 17-year career, Enslaved have dwelled in darkness as they’ve waded in lush pastures, building both to stratospheric proportions on their previous three albums, Between the Lights, Isa, and Ruun. On Vertebrae, the band maximizes each to the extent that the album is subliminally savage beneath the soaring effervescence on songs such as “Clouds,” “Reflections” and “Ground.” In other words, Enslaved makes their own rules: listeners beware or get on board.

“That’s what we’ve always done,” Kjellson firmly states about his band’s repudiation of typecasting. “We don’t label our music. It gets called what it gets called, but these names and labels just bore me, to be quite honest. When I listen to a record, I don’t care what the fucking music is called, as long as it’s good! It’s just as simple as that.”

If anything, Enslaved’s objective per Kjellson is to “never look back on what we’ve done before when we start working on a

new album. We really enjoy the ethic to challenge yourself, to push the limits, and to make the best music possible, which is where we are standing right now. We just like to be constantly in movement both in music writing and lyric writing, but also in the arrangements. I think we have succeeded in these. I feel we’ve taken a huge step on the last two albums on the arrangement side and the producing side. I’m really satisfied with Vertebrae.”

Some might be surprised by the overall praise and acceptance of Enslaved’s Isa, given the frequently bombastic and sinister tone of the album. However, other bands operating in the same capacity (namely the merging of tenebrous extremity with grandiose melody) have begun to break through nearly to the point where brutal bands such as Dimmu Borgir, Behemoth, Nile, and Cradle of Filth have become unexpected poster children. Not that Enslaved are a flavour-of-the-day metal band, but the reverence they garnered from Isa nevertheless has Kjellson smiling.

“It wasn’t very surprising. We’d signed a new contract, going from Osmose Productions to Candlelight Records, and they were really enthusiastic and really clever in promoting us. We had a really strong concept of Isa’s songs, and we actually think that’s the best album we’ve ever made! We felt it was pretty natural to have a little breakthrough or at least a milestone in our career.”

All the work that went into Isa was nearly doubled for Vertebrae.

Kjellson describes Enslaved’s writing process as extensive, a protracted timeframe of creation that might test the patience of

some bands. Never mind the amount of takes per song; just getting a streamlined composition is half the battle in Enslaved.

“It’s quite a long process for us to write an album. It usually starts with Ivar and Arve (Isdal) mixing the riffs and recording them, then Ivar hands the CDs over to me and we will start working out the arrangements. From here we decide which vocals work best with each riff and we’ll decide which spots to add some guitar solos, Mellotron, organs, whatever. When we first hear the song, we often don’t catch the potential right away; we have to work a lot with it and try out thousands of different ideas to find the ultimate arrangement. It usually takes about half a year before the arrangements are ready. We live with those songs for quite a long time before we release them.”

The most prominent attribute of Vertebrae is the offsetting choices of Kjellson’s vocals to the musical mood of each song. When Enslaved paints a bright and cheery melody line, Kjellson largely rages overtop, undermining the subliminal beauty of the composition. In the case of the fast-paced “New Dawn,” Vertebrae’s closest resemblance to black metal, Kjellson shifts gears by grumbling through the song’s pounding verses then elevating his octaves to tranquil cleans on the brisk choruses.

“Balance is very important. Balance is the key word, actually. We’ve always been very fond of the combination of the vocals. We’ve actually been starting to use the growls as a choir on top of the clean vocals; I’ve never heard that in bands before us! We think it’s really interesting; we really enjoy the caustic sound versus the beauty, combining brutal parts with more mellow and groovy dynamic stuff. It’s kind of a reflection of our wide musical tastes, and of course we think it colours our music a lot.”

Despite the Pink Floyd-esque minutiae scattered throughout “Center” and “Ground,” Kjellson notes that “Clouds” gave his band the most challenge on Vertebrae, from both a compositional standpoint as well as logistical placement as the opening track on the album. Opening with an earthy and prolonged “om” sequence, “Clouds” then turns progressive and steady, setting the tone of Vertebrae’s intricate concentration. “‘Clouds’ is probably the most technical song we’ve ever made,” Kjellson opines. “The middle part is very technical. ‘Clouds’ is a very natural opening track and it contains a very natural intro in the song. I felt that had to be the first song, although some of the guys didn’t necessarily agree. Still, we decided to make it the opening song because it’s very natural.”

Aside from his trademark vocal switches, Kjellson’s bass unravels deep richness and personality on Vertebrae, something he is quite proud of, considering the fact a lot of metal bands relegate the bass position to low-end filler.

almost on the edge of extinction from overfishing and commercial fishing, and a lot of these species have been saved because of the sport fishing organizations and because sport fishing has grown really big. That is a really positive side of things since the sport fishermen are really concerned about it; they really want to have their hobby, you know?”

Enslaved will be hitting 45 stops in 51 days on their current European tour following the launch of Vertebrae. As their popularity increases, the issue of unauthorized downloading becomes rapidly more important to Kjellson. In response to the Norwegian Venstre party leader Lars Sponheim’s suggestion that all music downloads should be legalized and made public domain, Kjellson and Bjornson jokingly kidnapped one of Sponheim’s sheep by way of protest.

“For us it was never about pointing the finger of morality at people,” Kjellson says. “That was never the intention. It was more to tell people in a humorous way—which seems to be the only way to reach people—that we just want to explain what would happen if people take away your money. If people don’t buy our music, we won’t be able to survive. We don’t have the possibility like Radiohead to record an album for $500,000 (and then give it away for free on the Internet). We don’t have that kind of money. We actually need the money from the sales just to be able to record a new album and to be able to go on. It was just a little explanation of how things actually are.

The argument for downloading once you reach a higher level of people says that you can earn the money back by playing live, but that’s not realistic to think you can earn all of that money. We feel today it’s about 50 per cent of what would we used to make, and we’re getting bigger and bigger.

People should stop and think a little.”

As each year turns out new bands, new ideas, new precepts and new ways to advance heavy metal, one has to wonder where the boundary line exists before people can say they’ve heard it all. A band like Enslaved that constantly tests themselves and metal’s limits doubtless has a lot to live up each time they set foot in a studio. However, Grutle Kjellson sees no final threshold in metal’s possibilities.

“If you look at metal history, you’ll see it’s been evolving all the time. What were the first metal bands? Probably Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep, and Deep Purple. There’s a pretty huge gap between [Uriah Heep’s] Very ‘Eavy…Very ‘Umble and [Bathory’s] Under the Sign of the Black Mark. I think there are still lots of things you can do with metal. Imagine, for example, a fusion between metal and jazz. There’s loads of things you can drag into the metal concept.”

Said proposal is what you might consider the empowerment and fortification of the scene’s collective vertebrae…

“I think the bass player position is underrated mainly because a lot of bassists play together with the guitars. If you do that all the time, it’s kind of missing the point. Over the years we’ve tried to use the bass as a dynamic tool in the more classical way where it plays together with the drums, like it was in the old rock bands, the bass and drums making up the rhythm sections instead of just having the bass guitar just because it’s supposed to be there.”

The inspiration behind Vertebrae partially originated via an article in Guitarist magazine Ivar Bjornson was reading in which celebrities were asked the rudimentary question “What are you thinking this very minute?” Musician and actor Tom Waits relayed the correlation between mice and giraffes having the same vertebrae, thus essentially making them the same species. Kjellson explains further: “Ivar told me about that particular article and I enjoyed the idea of recording Vertebrae because I think it’s a very strong, universal word. It really fits the lyrical concepts on the album too, because the vertebrae is a very important part of a spine, and the spine has always been referred to when you’re talking about a person’s mental health. In the older times, you would use the phrase ‘Look at that spineless goon’ or something like that. It didn’t always refer to physics; it’s a metaphor for a strong-willed individual. As long as the individual has a strong spine, both biologically and psychologically, those things are closely typed together. The concept of Vertebrae deals with both human failure and at the same time, a huge human potential. It doesn’t have to be that fucked-up as it is today, you know? I think people will have to stop and try to think about their actions on all levels.”

In his downtime, Grutle Kjellson is an avid fisherman. Departing from his metal element and submitting himself to a more primordial milieu is one of Kjellson’s biggest stimulants for his professional life.

“For me, fishing is very important. I have to have something to get my mind off everything else.

It’s kind of an escape from everything. When I do fishing, I’m 100 per cent focused on that; I’m not thinking about Enslaved or my family or anything. I’m focused on the actual fishing, both the preparation and when you are there out in the wild. It’s really good for my mental health. I’m really dependent upon it! At the time being, there’s no time for fishing at all. The last time I went on a fishing trip was two months ago and then I turned my canoe over and lost the fish and thousands of Krone (Norwegian currency) in equipment! It was really cold, too!”

Despite the fact North America has commercialized sport fishing to the point that average Joes have corporate sponsorship and thus morphed into proverbial rock stars, Kjellson approves of it all from a pragmatic perspective.

“There’s actually one really great thing about that, especially in the States. Lots of species were hail of bullets

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Hexen

All Shall Perish Putting the Core in Deathcore

By Dave Sanders

Mixing beloved but sometimes tired subgenres can be a risky business in the metal scene, but Oakland, California’s All Shall Perish seem to have the recipe down, throwing a little more into their sound than your standard “core” band. UNRESTRAINED! picked rhythm guitarist Ben Orum’s brain to get the facts about ASP and deathcore.

Genre has been a point of contention among most bands in an era where so many are diversifying their sound to the nth degree. ASP are no different, Orum says.

Back in the Day California’s HeXeN can’t help but be a throwback to the glory days of thrash. As a prime contender in the state’s burgeoning thrash market, the group has melded meaty riffing, throaty vocals, galloping drums and weighty bass into their first full-length, the 13-track State of Insurgency.

Featuring ten older songs from the band’s fouryear tenure, along with three new tracks, the disc oozes that classic sound so many metalheads long for, even if the band itself has plans to explore other musical territory on their next release.

“All these reviews I hear about these thrash bands and everybody is saying, ‘Wow, this album is awesome, it sounds like it came out of 1986.’

That’s not a compliment to us!” says vocalist and bassist Andre Hartoonian. “That’s just saying we’re mimicking what’s already been done; we’re not doing anything new. You need to break through that, to do something new and special and at that same time be quality music, be quality metal!”

“Quality metal” oozes from the album, which was released worldwide in August. Although many tracks are rerecorded from past sessions, the group wanted an opportunity to expose them to residents outside of their home state and to showcase their instrumental chops.

“Musically it’s a display of all our talents,” explains Hartoonian, who admits that thrash is the common ground for the quartet, which is rounded out by guitarists Ronny Dorian and James Lopez, along with drummer Carlos Cruz. “It has a lot of thrash metal in there, there are a lot of acoustic tracks because when we write a bunch of thrash songs we like to sometimes get creative with the acoustics, get instrumental stuff on there. And lyrically, it’s pretty political, it’s really socially conscious, sometimes it’s social commentary, sometimes it’s about personal struggles and personal problems and stuff like that.

“Obviously there is a lot going on, mostly overseas in Iraq, so there are a lot of lyrics depicting that stuff. It really has a different take on what’s going on with the war in Iraq. It’s taking the other side’s perspective of the people who actually live in the Middle East into consideration as well.”

This much is decipherable from a glimpse at the album cover, which was designed by the infamous Ed Repka, responsible for Megadeth’s Vic Rattlehead, along with covers for Death, Municipal Waste, Toxic Holocaust and 3 Inches of Blood. It depicts a man with a bomb strapped to his chest, pressing the trigger. Behind him, a bus

By Sarah Kitteringham is engulfed in flames, while citizens run wildly to the offender.

“There is that kind of stuff, politically when I talk about domestic issues I really do emphasize stuff that has been debated a lot recently,” he continues. “Stuff that concerns privacy, freedom of speech, what freedoms we really have and what freedoms Bush and his administration have ultimately taken away from us. Big brother, listening in on conversations and online and basically a lot of the standards and rules that this country had set up for itself to really set it apart to the monarchy that it escaped from, it really has gone back on its word. I can almost picture the constitution on fire from the effect Bush and his administration has had on this country in a post 9/11 world.”

“All Shall Perish have been coined ‘deathcore,’ but I feel we are so much more than that. While it’s true, ASP does have a lot of death metal and hardcore influences (mainly from the ’80s and ’90s), we also have a side of us that isn’t afraid to write epic melodies or turn off our amps and go completely acoustic. At this stage in our career, we are playing music that WE love to play. We don’t play to please anyone else but ourselves.”

His answer raises the question, is it tough to stay fresh and current with your sound when so many other bands are playing similar styles? Orum responds, “Not at all. What is so great about ASP is that we have decided its okay to break outside of the box. So many bands feel like they have to write or be a certain way to fit in. This isn’t the case! If you write music from the heart that moves you, people will see that, and respect it.”

Musically speaking, ASP definitely put a great emphasis on their musicianship to help them break away from other bands. “Metal needs to be played tight! It needs to sound like a well-oiled machine, or else it sounds muddy and sloppy. It takes A LOT of practice to get a technical metal band tight, and you can definitely see which bands take the time to practise when you’re out on the road,” says Orum.

On top of their genre bending, the band also interacts with their fans differently than most. On their MySpace, fans will find a phone number that they can call and leave a message for the band.

“It’s an easy way for fans to get in touch with us!” says Orum. “We listen to the messages from the fans every day, even when we are out on the road. We even respond to the good ones! Give us a ring: 925-478-4916.”

Although lyrically the album concerns itself with negativity, the instrumentals offer some respite from the heavy subject matter. The guitars shred so fluidly it’s easy to imagine a circle pit of thrashers skanking and pumping their fists, while the members of HeXeN yearn to join them.

With the new album, Awaken the Dreamers (Nuclear Blast), ASP took a conceptual approach to their third album. Orum explains, “The concept behind Awaken the Dreamers is about realizing as a listener that your voice can make a huge difference in this crazy world. Everyone out there has a dream of how things should be, how the world should be. We are sending a message to everyone out there that it’s time to wake up and let your voice and ideas be heard, and that you can make change happen by doing so.”

“For the most part, thrash seems to be the most attractive for all kinds of metal fans, especially when you’re a kid approaching it because you’re an angst-ridden teenager, you have aggression and you have rage,” admits Hartoonian. “Thrash is almost the blunt way of expressing it, and punk is the same way. I never really got into punk much like a lot of old thrashers who were punks before they were metalheads, but thrash metal is the basic formula; everything builds of off that almost.”

To add to the concept, the band took a strong visual approach. “The artwork portrays the idea that Liberty is at the price of a bullet, especially overseas. We use force to solve issues, sometimes with no resolve in sight,” Orum says.

It was what originally enticed the members to the genre.

“Thrash has this really basic quality to it. It has everything you need,” he said. “And when people think of metal most of the time they think of thrash. They think of Metallica, they think of leather jacks and chains and ripped jeans and being really aggressive. Thrash was our first for everyone around here. Whoever’s progressed and done other things since that can always go back to thrash and have a soft spot for thrash.”

He explains how ASP’s songs are all written starting with one basic element: “Everything spawns from a single riff. The riff could be an opener or a closer or even a transition. Eventually the riff grows into a section, which everyone has to like, or we go back to the drawing board. That section is then given a home somewhere in a song (after many different variations and experimentations).

What’s funny is I have maybe three whole songs I wrote that you will never see on an All Shall Perish CD, and probably 100 riffs that haven’t found a home yet, and might never, who knows?”

What is striking about Awaken the Dreamers is the decidedly evocative instrumental tracks. “Chris really wanted to do a track that showcased what he has learned on guitar these past few years.

Chris with his mentor Rusty Cooley laid down the track ‘From So Far Away’ together, and I think it came out incredible. Vocals would have ruined it. ‘For Those We Left Behind’ was a piece that I wrote that really captured how I feel being away from my family on the road sometimes. It’s a piece that I really wanted to share with the world,” says Orum.

The writing, technical precision, and the indifference to genre “rules” leads to one of the most diverse sounding deathcore records of the year. When asked where the diversity comes from, Orum says, “I think it comes from us not really being solely into metal music! I listen to a lot of world music, as well as a lot of acid rock from the ’60s and ’70s, and that greatly influences my playing.

You should hear my iPod; it will go from Harry Belafonte to Mortician like it’s no big deal!”

However, the oversaturation of the thrash market in California has been problematic for a group that bases itself around the genre.

“The band itself is going to progress to other areas and still going to keep the root and still be true to thrash,” concludes Hartoonian. “We will try new things because there is only so much you can do with thrash if you’re going to limit yourself to it like so many bands do.”

Hexen / All Shall Perish

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AFTERT H E BURIAL How Low Can You Go?

By Kevin Stewart-Panko

It’s a fact: you can’t stroll more than 15 feet along extreme music’s boardwalk these days without tripping over a band attempting to ape the technically watertight, rhythmically complex—we were going to say “polyrhythmic,” but everyone says that—cyber-kinetic burl of Sweden’s Meshuggah. As with anything, some do it great, some ain’t half bad, most suck at it and more than a few fall into the “epic fail” category. Once in a while, when you have horseshoes hanging out of your butt the night the stars are aligned, you stumble across a band very obviously influenced by another band but take active and salient steps to put their own spin on their inspirations and musical starting points. Sure, there are more-thanoccasional rhythmic comparisons in them thar Meshuggah-like grooves throughout After the Burial’s latest and second album, Rareform (Sumerian Records), but a finely-tuned aural canal should be able to hear the Shrapnel Records, guitar shred (guitarist Trent Hafdahl is wearing a Jason Becker t-shirt in the band’s promo pictures, fer chrissakes), the hard rock feel in the leads and choruses, not to mention the furious melodic death metal harmonies and complex breakdowns.

“The fact people are even mentioning us in the same sentence as Meshuggah is completely flattering,” gushes guitarist Justin Lowe.

“We’re completely stoked on that. In my mind, they’re one of the most talented metal bands of our time and the fact that we’ve even been mentioned along with them is awesome and we’re super-flattered; they’re in a league of their own. But the influences in this band are so far across the spectrum that it’s hard to really nail down how everything comes together. Trent loves Jason Becker and

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master

Pantera. He has a huge Pantera tattoo across his stomach—he’s obsessed! [Bassist] Lee [Foral] and I are big electronic, trance and drum-and-bass fans. Considering what we play, that doesn’t make a lot of sense, but it kind of frees the mind from what’s going on with a lot of metal bands and when it comes to writing, you can derive influences from genres outside of metal. Then again, our drummer [Dan Carle] just listens to death and black metal all day long and that’s all he listens to. Sometimes it’s hard when we want to get into a slow part and all he wants to do is play 240 beats-perminute the whole time. It’s like, ‘Take it easy, man.’”

new tuning, new members, a new vocalist, plus we had demos floating around of stuff we had written even before the first album; all these elements and ideas just came together at one time.

And while on the surface, employing eight-string guitars might not seem like the brightest way to go about avoiding any future Meshuggah comparisons, this Minneapolis quintet are mindful of where they come from and have consciously discussed using the tools available to them, along with their own odd-ball ideas (including tackling the unfamiliar-to-most-metalheads lyrical topics like astrophysics and “Pi: The Mercury God of Infinity,” an instrumental from first album Foraging a Future Self, whose rhythmic pattern is based on the infinite mathematical constant), so as to help them carve out their own niche.

Fess up: when you guys first started using them, every song you wrote made exploitative use of the two extra low strings and for a month, every riff you wrote was a proverbial gut-rumbler. We’re not being judgmental or anything, because it’s probably the same thing every one of us would have found ourselves doing, but you’re among friends; you can admit it.

“There was a little different feel going into this record because we switched from seven to eight-string guitars about a year ago.

So, the songwriting approach was slightly different than the first album because we were slightly more comfortable with the sevenstring guitars because we’d been playing them for a longer period of time. This album was more of a newer experience: new guitars,

“The tuning we use,”Lowe continues, describing another of After the Burial’s elements of distinction, “is a bit different than Meshuggah’s or any of the other bands that use eight-string guitars. We tune the bass a full octave lower than the guitar’s low F-string. It’s extremely low, but for us as songwriters, it opens up a lot of dynamic range.

We’re trying not to rely on those two extra strings and utilize the entire guitar.”

“It was hard not to,” Lowe laughs, “but at the same time, we talked about it before we got the guitars because we didn’t want to take that approach. We felt like these extended-range instruments could be used for more than just maintaining absolute heaviness in the lowest tuning ever. It’s hard not to just want to jam it out like that, but we’re still learning how to use these instruments because they’re extremely difficult to play. The neck is significantly wider and I personally had to change my technique a little bit because you just can’t play it like you play a six or seven-string guitar and I don’t want to get carpal tunnel or something.”

Tasmanian Devils

T

Psycroptic

By Dave Sanders

asmania doesn’t jump out as a metal hotbed, but native sons Psycroptic are about to change all that. Slowly but surely, they first conquered the South Pacific stage, then they moved on to Europe. They now have North America firmly set in their sights, and with the help of their newest album, Ob(servant), their first on Nuclear Blast, it’ll only be a matter of time before they’re wreaking havoc here as well. UNRESTRAINED! got the battle plan from drummer Dave Haley.

Does coming from Tasmania help or hinder the band in any way?

A bit of both really. Coming from Tasmania gives us this point of difference from a lot of other bands.

Who the fuck has heard of a Tasmanian band before? Shit, a lot of people don’t even know the place exists or where it actually is! So it can spark a lot of interest that way. But it definitely hinders us in terms of location. It’s so isolated from pretty much everywhere in the world. Before we play a show anywhere we have to catch a plane to the location, as Tasmania is an island, which really puts a strain on things financially. But it’s a great place to come from; if you ever visit Australia, make sure you take the trip down to Tasmania.

How would you characterize Psycroptic’s sound? Are there specific elements of certain genres that you use for your music?

That’s always the difficult question we get asked...and I usually take the easy way out—it’s really up to the listener to define what style or genre we fit into...but I really think that’s the only honest answer. We take elements from every style to make up our sound, so its not just one style. I would say it’s just “extreme” or “intense” metal. A lot of people put us in the death metal category, but I think this is kind of limiting… I’ve heard people call us everything from blackened death metal right through to metalcore. So, we’re just a metal band to make it easy. Our theory is if it’s a good riff we’ll use it. People who haven’t heard us should just check us out and let us know what style they think we play! We’re open to what you think we are.

Did the addition of Jason Peppiatt (vocals) change the band?

Yes, getting Jason in the band really brought some new life into the band—it re-lit the fire within the band. Our previous vocalist, by the end of his time in the band really brought the band to a low point, and members were ready to quit due to his shitty rock star attitude towards things. Not wanting to tour if the conditions weren’t perfect for him, treating us like his “backing band,” and generally sulking if things didn’t go the way he wanted. He couldn’t actually do his vocals live that he did in the studio. We almost split up due to his actions and attitude. Once we removed him, it was like a breath of fresh air and we were excited again. Jason has a very positive attitude and is very excited to be playing music. He did get a lot of flak from people, as his style is more aggressive, but he does what he does and really pushed us. Jason is a far superior performer and vocalist.

Has the band’s sound changed or evolved over the years?

Yeah, definitely. It’s always a progression between each album, and even each song. We try to just explore different elements in our sound, and try to refine how we do things. I think we have gotten to a point now where when someone hears us, they know it’s us. On the new album, Ob(servant), we changed things up a bit and streamlined things, so to speak…cutting away the fat. Anything that absolutely didn’t need be there was removed and we were left with 100 per cent killer riffs. We wrote the album in a new manner as well. Joe our guitarist wrote pretty much the whole thing, giv-

ing us the finished songs that we learned, then got together and re-arranged anything that had to be changed. This way was a very fresh way for us to work, as we had never done it before.

What is the band’s writing process like?

It differs from song to song, but this album was written a lot differently than previous albums as I said. In the past the writing had been based around just jamming out in the practice space and hammering the songs out. [This time around] Joe wrote complete songs and gave them to us; we learned them and made any changes when we practised them together. The result was a much more “produced” sound to the songs, as they were more to the point. It was great to write this way as it gave the album a totally fresh sound. We don’t like to repeat things we have done in the past. Who knows how writing will take place in the future? Nothing is out of the question really.

Was there any concept or guiding principle that you based Ob(servant) around?

Aside from streamlining the music, lyrically the album deals with a lot of dark subject matter: the continuing evolution/devolution of humanity, as well as looking at a few different esoteric themes.

Just subjects that I am interested in exploring and writing about. The other guys in the band like the lyrical style I have, so it looks like I’ll be taking care of them for a while. A lot of people asked whether it is a concept album, and I have been saying “No, it isn’t,” but I sat down and read the lyrics to see what people were on about, and even though I wrote them, I didn’t realize that they all can fit together to form a “concept”-type album if people want to see it that way. They are all stand-alone stories, but if you put them together, they can also make up a twisted story. I try to write them in such a way that they are very much open to interpretation to the individual reader.

The band has toured Australia and Europe rather extensively, and just recently toured the U.S. Is there anywhere you haven’t played but would like to and why?

We were so close to Canada last time we were in the U.S. and didn’t get there, which was disappointing, as we would love to go there. Other than that, we like to explore new and different countries, so any new countries would be great to go to—so long as it is safe to do so. It would be cool to visit a lot of the Asian countries near us. Asia is a lot closer to us than Europe or North America is, so it makes sense for us to try to get there. I have been to Japan, and would love to actually play there; the place is fucking crazy. It’s like a cartoon on fast-forward! It’s just go, go, go! It would also be cool to play somewhere like Russia. We just like the adventure of going to new places.

If you encountered someone who had never heard Psycroptic before, what three songs from the band’s discography would you play for them and why?

I would probably play them three tracks off Ob(servant). I think this really would show them what we are about. I know we’re in the process of promoting the new album and it’s the typical thing for bands to say “this is our greatest work!” and all that shit, but for me personally, it without a doubt is. The songwriting, production, packaging, everything surrounding the album is really a step up for us. I prefer playing these songs, and listening to them so yeah, it’s an easy choice to say songs off this album. But picking three individual songs? Shit, that’s hard…

As he trailed off, Haley suggested that the whole album sums up what Psycroptic’s sound is really like. Ob(servant) is available through Nuclear Blast now.

Psycroptic / After the Burial

13

By Paths to

Chaos

By Laura Wiebe Taylor

C

old Northern Vengeance —that’s an evocative phrase, clearly suggestive of black metal, although the band’s music doesn’t sound as nihilistic as the name implies. In one sense, new album Domination and Servitude is primeval black metal, but there’s a lot more going on than that label would suggest: experimentation, a compelling interweaving of guitar and synths, piano-dominant pieces, evil ’80s metal, pagan nuances, sinister atmospherics... The “cold north” here isn’t Scandinavia but New Hampshire, the “vengeance” a musical and ideological force.

New Hampshire is a surprisingly desolate and grim state in some parts, especially in harsh weather, and it’s these elements that seem to feed into Cold Northern Vengeance’s ideas and sound.

Corresponding with Heathen—one half of the band’s creative partnership—I began by asking him to explain the significance of such physical surroundings to his musical work.

The harsh, desolating, frigid, vengeful cold is intertwined within the psyche of our art. The winter forces people into introspection. Forced us into our subconscious. Forced us into our awakening to the left hand path. This musick is the ultimate reflection of that... The exploration of a world few people delve into because they are too caught up in fitting in with whatever the puppeteers want them to fit in with. This is the awakening and a direct result of our environment in New Hampshire.

We formed in a blizzard far removed from herds of worthless people and worthless scenes to avenge something that has been subverted, hidden, buried, and lost. Through the power of creation comes destruction, and I want to destroy this fucking world... The Zarathustra character facing the abyss in the Nietszche story. This is something we relate to... This is something we want to manifest over the mediocre mass. This Ubermensch concept...completely at odds with the Zeitgeist. Pretty fucking pathetic when you go from Led Zeppelin to Nickelback. This is the sad state of affairs that we are in total defiance of...

How did Cold Northern Vengeance come into being six years ago? What brought you— Heathen and Gemini—together as musicians?

CNV came together through our mutual friend Chris from Martyrvore. We would all hang out, drink, listen to music, and discuss occult-orientated stuff. So our backroads dungeon cult was formed out of that. Similar interests and a passion for the “dark side” is what brought us together. The rest is history!

You clearly have some Scandinavian influences. Who are some of your favourites? How do they affect your songwriting now compared to earlier in the band’s life?

It is pretty evident on our earlier material that we were heavily influenced by stuff like Burzum,

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Cold Northern Vengeance

old Immortal, Bathory, Ulver, and so on… The influence is still there, but we have found our own style more than ever before. We are not a straight-up black metal band. We do whatever we feel like doing musically. You might hear outlaw country on our next album depending on how much whiskey I drink.

You seem less than impressed with some of the directions U.S. black metal has taken.

What are some of the specific things you don’t like to hear, and why?

There are some USBM bands that I dig but I feel a lot of ’em jus’ clone shit. I mean, some of these “worship” bands are pretty good at what they do, but let’s be honest; I don’t need your clone demo to tell me Darkthrone is still better. I don’t give a shit about the U.S. scene. Fuck scenes and black metal socialites. I could care less... Black metal scenesters are like Paris Hilton with a bullet belt.

How did you move from demos to your current material? How has your music evolved?

The ideas have definitely evolved. It is just the natural progression of making an effort to become better. We will never stagnate. The foundation and our philosophy leave no room for this.

Domination and Servitude is our strongest material to date.

How did the album take shape?

Well, it took some time for sure. We recorded the album with our own equipment. It was a lot of trial and error. The essence of the album is isolated. It was conceived in solitude. I locked myself into myself and stared into the abyss and my subconscious and dragged it into this sonic form. This is the way of old art, not consumer pseudo art. It is occultism and chaos magick in theory and practice and it will tear a fucking hole in the fabric of time. It is a communion and religious experience that can’t be pigeonholed or locked down. This is a shamanic exploration and experiment. The “by paths to chaos” as Nietszche would describe it.

You give credit to Nietzsche and Aleister Crowley (among others) for parts of your lyrics.

How have you adapted their ideas?

I like to take a quote that inspires me and say to myself, “What would that sound like?” What would Zarathustra in the woods contemplating the world sound like? What would the outcast British heretic Aleister Crowley sound like flipping off the world? I think stuff like Blood Axis and NON employ these same methods for their songs and I absolutely adore this sort of thing. There is so much stuff you can do with it. It is the ultimate ritualization for me. Like I said before, this is occultism in theory and practice.

belphegor

15

ARKONA From Pagan Tongues to the Ears of Gods

By Kim Kelly

When I first saw a press release announcing the signing of a band called Arkona to Napalm Records’ venerable roster, my first reaction was puzzlement. The Arkona I was most familiar with seemed as if they’d be violently at odds with Napalm’s predominantly folky, melodically-based aesthetic. I had a vague recollection of hearing about another Arkona, but couldn’t quite put my finger on what they were all about, and thusly assumed that the label simply hadn’t known what they were getting into in signing this bunch. The thought of such raging, intolerant, hatefueled black metal from Poland sharing space with bands like Midnattsol and Tyr definitely threw me for a loop. Upon further investigation, though, I realized that the band in question was indeed the “other” Arkona—an entirely separate, Russian entity.

Instead of spewing forth vitriolic Polish NSBM, Napalm’s Arkona focus on perfecting their well-crafted blend of traditional Eastern European folk, blistering black metal, and that indomitable Russian spirit for which their motherland is known. Frontwoman (and sole songwriter) Masha “Scream” Ahripova was gracious enough to address my confusion, and share some of the details about Arkona’s masterful Napalm debut, Ot Serdtsa K Nbu. “Actually, I can’t remember that many occasions when someone has confused us with the Polish Arkona. Usually everyone knows both bands and that they play in different styles. However, we’re often met with negative Internet messages about us written by the other Arkona’s fans. They think we used their brand to gain popularity. All this is a lie—when I called my band this name I did not know about another Arkona’s existence.

“As to why I chose this name for the band, Arkona is a city and the spiritual centre of Baltic Slavonic tribes. It was situated on the island Rujan (now called Ruegen) and is a part of Germany. There was a famous ancient sacred temple of a major Slavic god—RodSvyatovit—and temples of other gods. In 1168 the Danish king Valdemar conquered this land with the help of his vassals and destroyed the city of Arkona, which was the last pagan fortress of the Slavs. All of the temples and sacred places were brought down. Now, the Slavic chronology is counted from the year of Arkona’s fall. In regards to the origin of the word ‘Arkona,’ it comes from ‘Yariy Kon’—‘White Steed.’ This was the name of an ancient war ritual—the white steed walked through a row of spears stuck into ground. If he did not knock down any, then the coming battle (or outcome of war) would be triumphant. If he knocked down any spears, then a defeat would come. I called my band this name to praise this sacred land and to revive the memories of what was destroyed many years ago.”

In addition to their homeland’s rich, colorful history, Arkona’s songstress cites creativity itself as an inspiration. “I love pagan folk black metal and attempt to learn about new things that appear. I used to listen to different music quite a lot, and always gained something from it. I have neither ideals nor idols. I compose music based on my world perception and feelings. It happened that I dedicated my life to my own creativity.” Her lyrics touch upon tried-and-true staples of the pagan metal world— paeans to a native land, the resurrection of pagan beliefs—but stray from that path in her explorations of life, love, and the cruelty of reality itself.

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Arkona

“I can say that our lyrics’ themes vary a lot. Besides my main concept, they are also connected with the revival of my native faith and culture. I believe that it will happen someday, so what I do is my contribution to this important process.”

Ok Serdtsa K Nebu (Russian for “From the Heart to the Skies”) is a varied album that ranges from the bouncy, light-hearted fun of “Goj, Kupala!” to the darker, heavier pagan blackness of the title track and the triumphant “Sva,” interspersed with a dizzying array of ethnic instrumentation and Masha’s powerful voice. Her vocals veer between a menacing black metal snarl to pure clean vocals within the space of a song, and her prowess is especially apparent on traditional Russian numbers like “Gutsulka” and “Kupala I Kostroma.”

“We spent a lot of time and power to record this album, and had to work hard to get the desired result. Alexandra Grakhovskaya and Maria Sazonova, girls from the Belorussian folk chorus ‘Gostyitsa,’ helped to record the female choral parts. We first met these girls at a show of the band Znich in one of the Moscow clubs. We were charmed by their vocals and invited them to take part in our record. We had to travel to Belorussia to record their voices, and it was worth it. These guest vocalists sang their part perfectly; we are completely satisfied with their work. The quality of sound is fully the work of our guitarist—Sergey Lazar.

He is a pro sound engineer; he knows his job and he made this album sound like this!

“On our last two albums we’ve recorded live folk instruments, and I would like to introduce the man who plays them. His name is Vladimir Cherepovsky. He dedicated his life to studying and playing ancient folk instruments, and it is only with his help that we could bring such a rich colour into our music. We use a variety of instruments. Not all of them actually can be heard in Slavonic ethnic music, because most of authentic ancient instruments are non-tonal, so it’s almost impossible to combine them with modern tone raw. We use a hurdy-gurdy lyre, Gaita Gallega bagpipe, Small Pipe of Scotland, tin whistle, low tin whistle, sopilka, drymba, prosvirelka, okarina, dvodentsivka, djolomia, zhaleyka, block flute, and zaphun. We try to involve Vladimir in our live shows, but he sadly has no time to participate. We hope he will finally agree in future!

“This year we had the luck to perform at a big German fest, Ragnarok 5, where we played for more than 5000 listeners. After the show there was a long signing session—for two hours we were signing for a huge number of people. After our performance Nadir (of Napalm Records) came up to us and offered cooperation. I can say that this concert was a turning point for our band.

It ended with signing a contract with Napalm.”

Though the release of Ok Serdtsa K Nebu marks the first time many of us in North America have been exposed to Arkona’s music, it’s actually the band’s fourth release. Vic Records in Russia rereleased Arkona’s entire back catalog several years ago, so it’s high time for you to go out and do some research before delving into their latest effort. Ok Serdtsa K Nebu marks the newest chapter in the history of a band with their eyes to the past that, fittingly enough, came into being at the beginning of new century.

“Arkona was started in 2002 when I with my friends from my community of Vyatichi decided to gather a band, the style of which would represent our world view and way of life. The initial team existed for a short time, and the only record of it left is the demo Rus, which was recorded in the end of 2002. Then our ways led us apart, so I continued my creative work alone. I recorded my first and second albums with participation from musicians from the band Rossomahaar, who later got involved in Arkona and eventually became a part of it. From the beginning of 2005, we have been performing live, so this we may consider to be the moment when the final crew formed and the band came fully alive.”

Ok Serdtsa K Nebu definitely marks a turning point in the band’s career; the maturity and cohesion of the songs themselves, coupled with the helping hand that Napalm will undoubtedly provide, make it seem highly likely that this will be Arkona’s breakout release. Masha weighs in: “I am always evolving in my creativity. People who have been acquainted with it should be able to see the progress themselves, but then again, people see it in their own ways. Some say that Arkona got heavier, others see progress in the way of recording and sound. The fans of our earlier works say that our music is degrading. Personally I see the progress of our work in every aspect. Now it seems to me that our early works are overdone, and that now the music of Arkona is a mature product of our creativity. It satisfies me completely, starting with song structure/ concept and up to the final sounding.

“Surely the new album is very important for us and it makes us happy because it’s hard for a Russian band to gain any popularity abroad due to some problems we could avoid. We believe that Gods helped us to forward our music to worldwide listeners.

It’s hard for me to compare our albums—every of them stands for a certain period of our band’s life. Every album has its own atmosphere, which must be forwarded in its own sound as it is.

Things that remain the same are the manner of the musicians playing, the chaotic instrumental order and individual style of vocalists singing. I say that it changes every time and, as far as I see, to the better, so we leave to judge our albums to fans and critics. We will be pleased with any response. Recently our fourth album has been released and currently we are recording our fifth.

The drums and bass tracks are already done. I think we will finish it by coming winter 2009. It is our main goal for now.”

It’s unlikely that we’ll see Arkona on our side of the pond any time soon, but they do have a short list of one-off shows listed on their MySpace page, including a return to the mighty stages of Ragnarok come this spring. Until then, we poor bastards will have to content ourselves with a stellar new album and these heartfelt parting words from Masha: “Dear friends! Never forget your origin and forsake your roots.

Find your own way; only when you find yourself will you gain the true happiness of life. Slava!”

Copremesis F

Here Comes Sickness

irst off, and this is important to note: if you have a weak stomach, don’t open up the CD sleeve for the debut album Muay Thai Ladyboys from New York’s Copremesis, out now on Paragon Records.

Now that we’ve got that taken care of, let’s talk about the violently abusive, non-stop, all guns blazin’ deathgrind, jokes-aplenty machine that is Copremesis. Talk about an amalgamation of humor, sadistic violence, and ultra-guttural vocals hacked up to pieces by sinister riffs and a rhythm section flailing limbs side to side. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but well worth investigating in the pages of UNRESTRAINED! UNRESTRAINED! tracks down guitarist/vocals Paulo to uncover the secret to the twisted, deathgrind madness.

I’m sure you get a lot of feedback from the art. What kind of stuff have you heard or read regarding the album and inner layout artwork?

We’re definitely getting the feedback that we wanted and were expecting. In the age of the Internet and being into the death metal/gore-grind, the audience for this subgenre is callous to all the abundant overflowing gore and misogyny. In the meantime, there’s more than meets the eye to all of this; I won’t explain everything because it’s for the person who has the ability to find out for themselves, but there’s a reason why the layout is done a certain way and the way the songs are arranged. We just read this one ironic review that we got lumped together with Anal Cunt, Anal Blast, and Meat Shits, which is totally AWESOME because we LOVE those bands, yet at the same time all those bands listed are homophobic. We are in NO way a political band.

We love how the artwork came out; the artist Scott Porterfield totally aced this and exceeded our expectations. We just wanted something hilarious and different that would stand out from the usual theme of this sub-genre. We’ve heard that a lot of people are offended. We’re very happy that people are offended; it takes a lot to shock people who frequent this subgenre these days. It’s a death/grind/whatever album, it’s supposed to appall people. If you’re trying to and not getting any reaction, you need to turn down the suck. We’re not trying to offend people, we just find the subject matter to be immensely entertaining. And it’s partly based on truth. At one point, Nong Toom, a homosexual [who was on her way to becoming a woman] was the #1 Thai Kickboxer of Thailand. To us we partially feel we have something in common with Nong Toom simply because Copremesis is constantly set aside as joke by many people. In the end, we just want to elbow the shit out them and knee their ribs to flaccidity then give ’em a kiss. We’ve made it to be a contrast for our artwork is very colorful and simply put “gay” while our music is meant to be pummeling and relentless. We are the underdogs and we will always keep on fighting.

There has been a varied assortment of bands to come out of New York over the years—death, grind, hardcore and more. What do you think of the scene nowadays and where do you fit in?

There seems to be a resurgence of interest for death metal and grind. More kids are now finding out about the inaccessible bands. Problem is that lots of New York City shows are 21-plus.

Back when we were 14 or 15 years old, we would get into 18-plus shows because we know someone and we promised that person we wouldn’t drink or do anything stupid to ruin the fun for everyone else. That was great exposure for us, especially

By Adrian ‘The Energizer’ Bromley

during the Castle Heights days, skimming through the distros of Roger/Will of Mortician or Mike from Brodequin because they always had the best sickest shit and would be always excited to tell us how each CD sounded like. These days, Summer Slaughter and those BB King’s shows are mainly all-ages and they don’t have same exposure like Castle Heights shows did. Its damn near impossible setting up an all-ages show here in NYC, especially for a metal show. Growing up, Castle Heights to us was our second home, that WAS the scene. Malignancy, Mortal Decay, Disgorge, Severe Torture, Cephalic Carnage, Disavowed, Vomit Remnants, Neuraxis, Dark Supremacy, Cursed Earth, Cerebral Hemorrhage, Broken Hope, Morgue, Lividity, Regurgitation, Enrapture, The Forgotten, Prophecy, 4:20, Immolation, Cryptopsy, Divine Rapture, Unhallowed, Skinless, Internal Bleeding, Internal Suffering, and Brodequin all played there. Now, we’re out of touch with the current scene. There’s a group of folks we’re cool with: Defeatist, Asra, Leader, The Communion, Dimentianon, and of course Malignancy and Buckshot Facelift. Honestly, we don’t know what scene Copremesis fits in, nor do we care. We’re too stupid/goofy for cliques, we’re too death metal for some, we’re too grindy for others, we don’t know where we belong but as long as we have our friends to play with, we’re good.

So you finally got the new album out to the masses. How do you think it turned out?

It came out better than we expected. Of course there’s the usual regrets about wanting to redo, remix, et cetera. I wish we could afford those neon ’80s throwback high-top sneakers cuz those could give us the opportunity to run 88 miles an hour and travel through time then fix the shit that we were supposed to do. But what is done is done. We left two songs out, one was because the drums were more sloppier than the usual sloppy joes, the other we completely forgot to finish. This is by far our best-produced release, which is quite laughable compared to 99 per cent of bands out there. Although to me it’s almost like a statement of what modern death metal has forgotten: the ugliness, the brutality, the crude sloppiness. I personally love 80 per cent of the Unique Leader / Neurotic Pro Tools-type bands, BUT they are not the ones to hold the torch of death metal. Sterility, crisp/ cold and synthetic lifeless production loses that organic brutality and that threatening feeling of soiling yourself. Plus, our sludgy production hides our shitty and sloppy playing. It’s mostly my fault though; Alex and Daniel can handle their shit better than I. Our label Paragon Records did an amazing job with the final product. Lots of stress and drama came into play. Without the artwork, the album wouldn’t have been out in time for the tour or Maryland Death Fest 2008. A representative of DGR (printer) said that they had to do it at night so their bosses wouldn’t see what they were printing. Because of this, our two-week-late album became the main priority of the company. We don’t care if it’s positive, as long as there’s a strong reaction. The material in this album isn’t anything new, revolutionary or mind blowing; our goal for this album was just to release something as brutal as Brodequin’s Festivals of Death, Last Days of Humanity’s Progress in Putrefaction, Malignancy’s Frailty of the Human Condition, or Disgorge’s Forensick. That’s what we’re aiming for; the same intensity of those bands and to be a solid death/grind album.

Most of the reactions are geared towards the layout and artwork.

People are offended. GOOD. I can only imagine the chaos that you guys bring to the live show. Having missed you at Maryland Deathfest this year, what can you tell me about one of your shows?

A huge fucking mess! The first time a very close friend of the band saw us live, all he could say is that we sounded like an explosion.

I’d like to say that we’re “intense” live or at least “entertaining.” I love being interactive with the audience. People who have seen us perform usually say we have that “Skinless syndrome”; we suck in the recording but rule live. In the end it’s what the audience thinks. I’m pretty sure a lot of them hate us for being irritating or sloppy. The thing is, I don’t really give a fuck. When we perform, that’s when I get to vent and that for a slight moment of time we have people’s attention and they have no choice but to wait there and watch us fiddle with our nuts. We’re usually an opening band and it sounds stupid, but I personally take pride at that. Because we are the underdogs and we have to work harder for people to recognize and remember us.

What are you exciting plans for the rest of 2008?

We’re planning to record material for two splits hopefully this late fall. One a 7-inch split with Buckshot Facelift, the other a three-way split with Gorged Afterbirth and Cesspool. Two new songs for the 7-inch, one new, one oldie, and one a cover for the ménage à trois. We have some secrets up our sleeves. With our current album cover, we’ve established that we’re already lame-ass gay nig-nogs; there’s no way anyone can say in the future that Copremesis turned gay because we’ve already done that with our most brutal album. We won’t try to do a Muay Thai Ladyboys part two. Those songs were written back when we were in high school. The new material will definitely piss a lot of people off, especially our boy Blue from Guttural Secrete.

But we’ve never done music for other people. We’re selfish. We’re doing this for ourselves and not trying to impress anyone. Well, maybe Malignancy. It only gets gayer from here on.

Coprem esis

17

18

brave

RAMMING SPEED Bursting With Energy

By Adrian ‘The Energizer’ Bromley

Boston’s Ramming Speed have just issued their maniacal, thrash ’n’ fun disc Brainwreck on Teenage Bloodbath Disco Records and have just finished touring the United States. They need to get back on the road soon or they’re going to explode. Don’t worry—they’re looking into it.

And even while Ramming Speed’s album has that fun, “thrash till you can thrash no more” vibe, they seem to know what they are doing. This is no schlocky band holding instruments and putting it up on MySpace.

“Since returning from tour, mostly everyone in the band is homeless and jobless. I already live in our practice space so I’m all set, but the plan is to book enough back-to-back tours that we can all hang out here in between and write more.

We’re planning on doing the U.S. a few times this year, hitting Europe next summer and hopefully South America at some point in there,” says drummer Jonah with excitement. “Other than touring, I think we’re all just trying to stay out of jail and remain at the top of the dude chain.”

So, they’re troublemakers on the road. Who would have guessed?

“Generally on the road we try and find places safe from the paparazzi where we can jump off the van into pools or lakes. When that fails, just eating pizza, hanging with the locals, and shooting fireworks. Ricky is a bowling champ, but rarely are his skills flaunted on the road.”

He continues, “Honestly, the only times I can think of fights happening and/or almost happening at our shows, it had nothing to do with us. We were supposed to play a Hells Angels party in Oakland before riot cops showed up and we almost got pounded. But again, I don’t think we really had anything to do with that,”he laughs. “When the crowd really picks up what we’re puttin’ down, there’ll be beers getting bonged, cakes being thrown, blood spilling and all that sweet shit, but mostly in the name of good fun.”

The title Brainwreck is a perfect name for the album! Which genius chose that?

“Brainwreck was something I stumbled upon while dicking around on the Internet one night. I was

Pig DestrOyer

Fast and Manic, Slow and Crushing

By Sarah Kitteringham

Virginia’s Pig Destroyer is renowned for their brilliantly inventive brand of grindcore, which is both sadistic and beautiful. Their celebrated discography, which includes the revered Prowler in the Yard, 38 Counts of Battery, Terrifyer, and 2007’s hailed Phantom Limb, will now be joined by the Natasha EP, a 35-minute doom recreation of Terrifyer’s bonus audio DVD. The previously punishing shriek of Pig Destroyer is transformed into a monolithic supernatural tale of the doomed 17-year-old girl who defeats the man who murdered her. With a musical backdrop provided by guitarist Scott Hull and drummer Brian Harvey, vocalist J.R. Hayes retells the story of “a girl, seventeen at the time… (who) smiles sublime with flaming locks of red in autumn and burning locks of orange in the summertime.”

“I am always weird about putting out stuff we’ve already put out before,” explains Hayes, who initially had reservations about rereleasing the DVD on a proper album. “It’s weird for the fans because everyone’s confused and wondering if we have a new album.

“Scott felt really passionately about the song when we were doing it and because we were all under a tighter deadline than we wanted to be he didn’t feel like he got it to the point he was satisfied with it,” he continues. “He’s a perfectionist and he has been talking about it for awhile and making it the way it was supposed to be with a proper stereo mix.”

The song was therefore rerecorded and was released through Relapse on November 11, via a “pretty sparse” EP and LP edition. Featuring the original lyrics and extra “atmospheric stuff,” the music is in stark contrast to anything the band has released

going through a period in my life where everything was falling to shit and that phrase just stuck. I got dumped by a girlfriend of six years and just flipped out. I left the country for a while and when I got back I was kicked out of my place. It was just a lot to deal with at once and for a while it was definitely like my brain was falling apart. The music we’d written was way more intense than the stuff before it, so the idea of someone’s world crashing down seemed to fit. The cover art (done by Richmond’s Inkwolf) came out awesome in conveying what we had in mind. It’s a dude just crumbling mentally and he’s surrounded by these fucked-up hallucinations. His problems are manifesting themselves as snakes and monsters and all this crazy shit. It rules.”

“Both our guitar players recently graduated from the Berklee School of Music as ‘Professional Music’ majors.

I honestly have no idea what that really means, but I guess they know what they’re doing. Our guitarists Kallen and Ricky write most of our music, though our singer Pete writes an anthem here and there.

Generally with Kallen he’ll bring us a mostly completed song and we’ll finish it as a band. Ricky works best coming up with a riff and we’ll jam on it for a while until things flesh themselves out naturally. I’m pretty sure Pete hangs out in a goblin cave rolling dice, drinking out of a goblet, and shredding on his pointy ESP until magic happens. I’ve never seen it, but that’s what I’ve heard.

“Something I love about playing in this band is that while we all listen to similar music, everyone is into slightly different subgenres,” points out the singer. “Kallen is super into D-Beat and crusty hardcore, Ricky is the old-school thrash and grind guy, Pete generally gives a death metally take on things, and Derek listens to a lot of Kelly Clarkson and Hillary Duff and shit. I’m into more straight-up hardcore than anyone else in the band, but when we all jam together on a good day, a sick mix of thrashy crusty grindy metal comes spewing out. Unfortunately most of Derek’s major influences are left by the wayside, but he’s only the bass player so it’s not a big deal.”

After a few more rounds of gabbing about metal and making albums, the question arises about a song on the new album that truly captures the essence of what the band is about musically. But asking a member of this band their favourite track on the album is probably like asking them which beer they prefer to drink during a typical party session, but here goes…

“I can’t pick one. That’s a tough task. As a whole I think we’re all psyched on the album’s diversity within the subgenres of metal. Like I’ve said many times before, we’re a thrash band at heart, but if you pay attention there are plenty of nods to grindy shit like Napalm Death and crusty Tragedy riffage.

“I think the opening three tracks—‘Speed Trials,’ ‘The Threat…,’ and ‘Laser Assault’—really tie together what we’re going for,” he closes out. “They’re packed with shredding and intensity. Oh yeah! Crank it!”

before, both in creation and execution.

“It’s just one of those things,” says Hayes. “I was caught up in writing 70 things for the album [Terrifyer] at the same time and I just kept coming up with new ideas, and we were about halfway done and Scott had the idea that he wanted to do a longer, kind of drawnout song that was more about feedback and trying to slowly establish an atmosphere.”

The idea appealed to Hayes.

“I’ve always liked music in its extremes. If I am going to listen to pop music then it’s like really poppy and if I listen to something that’s ambient it’s really mellow,” he says. “When it comes to listening to heavy music I like something that’s either really fast and manic or really slow and crushing. I can’t get into stuff that falls between those things, you know?”

Strangely for the vocalist, who admits that “for every two lines I write that I like I probably write 40 that I don’t,” the lyrics for Natasha simply poured out.

“I think it was just the moment,” he said. “I have really fond memories of writing that because I didn’t agonize. It just happened.

One second it wasn’t there and the next second it was there.”

Aided by whiskey, “Natasha was just one of those situations where my hand was having problems keeping up with my head.

I was coming up with the ideas faster than I could write them.”

The process of recording wasn’t as easy, but certainly a learning process.

“Playing in a really slow pace is sometimes a lot harder than with the fast,” he explains. “You really got to pick and shoot your spots where you’re going to drop in—every drum hit is crucial and every chord kinda has a little more… I don’t want to say it has more meaning to it, but everything is more noticeable because

it’s all spaced out.”

Hayes found that lyrically it was a challenge as well.

“When we do the grindcore-type songs I’ve usually got too much lyrics and the problem is trying to fit them all in,” he says. “Then when you do a longer piece of music it’s trying to come up with enough lyrics and trying not to overdo it with the vocals because you have so much more space to play with. It’s all about when you sing the timing of it and just trying not to take away from the tone of the music.”

Despite it being a challenge, the group has already recorded other songs that, like Natasha, are “broken up into the ambient noise passages and the musical passages.”

“We’ve actually recorded several songs that are in a similar vein,” he asserts. “After we recorded the last album, Phantom Limb, where we actually went into a ‘real studio’ because we wanted to get a good drum sound because we always have problems with recording the drum sounds because mostly we record our own stuff. But we had five days in the studio and we recorded the whole album in the first three days. We had whole days that were already paid for, we had a couple reels of tape, so we just wrote two new songs and they haven’t been mixed yet and we haven’t decided what we’re going to put them out on yet,” he finishes.

“Our plans keep changing.”

Ramming Speed / Pig Destroyer

19

God Bless the Children of the Beast

By Adrian ‘The Energizer’ Bromley “We always make sure there is a good hook and chorus; that foundation is most important. After that you can start to build up riffs around it,” starts drummer David from explosive Swedish Mötley Crüe-worship rock ’n’ roll machine Sister Sin about the secret to writing catchy songs. “We apply the lyrics last, when instrumentals are all done. A cool title to the song is just as important too I believe. Last thing we do is to check so there is a redline somewhere with the other tracks, especially if it’s going down on an album.”

started out playing music years later we had moved on to punk, black metal, and hardcore, but somehow we found our way back to the roots. No one else was playing old-school metal at the time and it’s always good to start out against the grain it seems.”

No doubt the band’s debut album Switchblade Serenades (Victory) is chock full of them. Everywhere you go there are catchy choruses, killer riffs, and anthemic vocal passages. It’s got the hooks that kill, man!

The topic turns to the band making the challenge that most European bands face with each new release: breaking into the U.S. market. “We had a deal in Europe for the album, but not in North America. So I did some research and sent out a mail to Victory among others. They liked our stuff and a couple of weeks later we signed with them. Victory has been great, beyond expectations.

They’ve done tons of promo and press for this tour and album and are very supportive and excited about our music. I can’t imagine a better home for Sister Sin. We’re going to tour, tour, and tour some more this year and into 2009. We are gonna start working with The Agency Group [large booking agent] in the States so hopefully they’ll keep us busy on the road in U.S. for whole of 2009.”

As mentioned above, the Swedes are no doubt big fans of the Crue.

Their debut reeks of the band’s 1981 debut Too Fast for Love, as well as a good assortment of the fine metal acts that have defined and/ or made an impression on the scene in the last few decades.

“No doubt one of our influences is Mötley Crüe. Like, duh! But we’re also very influenced by Motörhead, WASP, Accept, and Judas Priest. You get the idea… All these bands were actually really big in Sweden when we grew up and we were all into that. When we

20

hollenthon

I have to ask, and it could be a tough question as you are massive fans, but what’s your favourite Mötley Crüe album?

“Not tough at all, actually: Shout At The Devil!”

I’ve not seen the band live yet, but what’s a Sister Sin show like?

“It’s energetic, lots of movement. We give 100 per cent every night even if there’s only 15 people there—like there was on this tour in Hartford, Connecticut—and hope they got into it as much as we did.

“We definitely prefer to play live; I mean, that is why we play music.

The studio can be fun too, but it’s a lot of frustration, anger and emotions that makes it kind of a painful experience in the end,” he laughs. “And it never turns out the way you wanted it to sound, whether it’s good or bad.”

So, David, what kind of stuff do you like to do when not rocking out on stage?

“I have two dogs—English Staffordshire Bull Terriers—and I love to hang out with them together with my beautiful girlfriend. I think I speak for everyone in the band when I say that we love to drink beers ’n’ talk shit. We are from Sweden of course so there is always a lot of alcohol around.”

Oh, party! \m/

W

hen Candiria’s John LaMacchia started recording experimental ambient music as a way of learning the equipment and the process of music recording, he had no plans to evolve those artistic ideas into a fully realized collaborative project. But after a couple of years of translating inspiration to tape, he discovered this was a more serious endeavour than he’d anticipated. Instead of a learning tool, LaMacchia now had an official release, “Collective Unconscious,” on the bonus disc of Candiria’s C.O.M.A. Imprint (2002). He had Spylacopa.

Three years later, after LaMacchia had stepped away from Candiria and was in the process of releasing a second solo composition, Spylacopa became a band. “About a year or so after I left Candiria, I’d recorded a huge amount of music,” LaMacchia explains. “I wanted to form my own label, put music out on my own, and I wanted to continue making records. Then when I went to a Dillinger Escape Plan show, I talked to Greg [Puciato, DEP vocalist] about Spylacopa. He asked me what I wanted to do with it and asked to contribute.”

Jeff Caxide (Isis bassist) joined the fold around the same time: “Jeff was moving to New York. We became friends over the years, touring with Candiria and Isis, and we knew we shared interests in music other than metal and aggressive stuff. We had talked about working together and we were excited to be in the same city. After I talked to him about Spylacopa he expressed interest as well.”

Made Out of Babies’ Julie Christmas (also Battle of Mice) is the latest addition to the band: “Late 2006 or early 2007, around the new year, I met Julie at a Tool/Isis show. I had only heard of Made Out of Babies and I had no idea how talented she was. She’s from Brooklyn, born and raised, and I was surprised I hadn’t met her before. After talking she gave me her contact info, and after listening to Made Out of Babies and Battle of Mice I knew I wanted to work with her.”

Art and artists were now in place, and as LaMacchia found, the new creative combination made for a slightly different sound than what he’d envisioned on his own. He can even identify a specific moment for the shift—when Puciato sent him the demo to “Bloodletting.” “I knew this was a new direction for the band, more aggressive, rock based. The earlier ambient music, it was too loosely knitted—we were not focusing enough to make a record. With ‘Bloodletting’ we started writing more in a rock, post-hardcore, art rock style.”

LaMacchia admits that the rock and aggression help “make the project more cohesive,” weaving together the members’ diverse interests and abilities, but the rock framework doesn’t define Spylacopa. “I want to stress that there is no specific direction from here on out. Some are more rock-based songs, some are more ambient and experimental. This is a studio project. It’s about being creative and putting out music that we’re all happy with.”

The inclusion of “Together We Become Forever” on Spylacopa’s new self-titled EP serves as a reminder of the band’s creative origins. One of Puciato’s contributions, mixed by LaMacchia, the song is a post-apocalyptic soundscape of piano and ambient noise. “He didn’t think it should be on the EP,” says LaMacchia, “but I thought it was important to put something on there that keeps us based in the original Spylacopa sound.”

The studio environment for Spylacopa is a laid-back, open-minded space for sharing ideas—and LaMacchia’s role is always an involved one, from making suggestions to producing to writing, but also as founder, funder, and label owner. “It’s my baby,” he muses.

Rising Pulse, the label home of Spylacopa, is also LaMacchia’s pet project, inspired by an undelivered promise of backing from a larger label, and then pursued when he found himself seduced by the lure of full creative control. “I was excited about it,” he says. “It’s my passion, my label, and no one is going to work on it as hard as me.” For now, it’s just for material LaMacchia has worked on, but he plans to seek out other talent as well. “Books, records, lucrative products—creative things. I want to be creative, put out DVDs, movies, anything I feel I can be involved with and support.”

Creativity, for LaMacchia, is clearly not confined to the musical realm. He himself is a visual artist as well as a musician—a graphic designer and photographer who has been drawing his whole life. Music and visual images, he explains, are often intertwined, and it’s the mental concept that pushes him to create. “I get an idea in my head and it drives me. I work obsessively until I have that product in hand. I can’t ever accomplish that visual—it’s not physically possible—but I wind up with something close. My ambitions are greater than my ability to create.”

in reverse) contrasted by creative excitement. “It’s the possibility of creating something new from something destructive,” says LaMacchia. “Spylacopa is a New York-based project. This is the environment in which we’re creating. It has so much influence. You are what your surroundings make you, and art and music is a reflection of your surroundings, of you, your self-expression. It’s all intertwined.”

Art, Artist, Environment

By Laura Wiebe Taylor

The visual image most explicitly linked with Spylacopa is not an illustration of the music but a rendering of the environment in which that music is created. The EP cover displays a view of the New York skyline on the evening of 9/11 with splashes of colour descending from the top corner of the image—the city in ruins that will never be the same (Spylacopa is, after all, “apocalypse” Sister Sin / Spylacopa

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Grayceon

I

n a way, as much as I and most of the rest of the world is happy that Barack Obama is about to become the next president of the United States, I can’t help but selfishly think about the one and only upside that would have resulted from a victorious McCain/Palin/wingnut ticket. This concerns the number of idle threats many American friends and colleagues had made about moving to Canada had McCain, his wacky elbows, and incomprehensible running mate come out on top.

Being that so many of those friends and colleagues are in killer bands… Dudes, just think of the sweet-ass fucking music scene that would have exponentially grown and blossomed north of the border! Not to mention the number of bands’ refusing to return to their home nation based on principle or immigration fine print; their touring schedules would have become limited to our fair provinces and territories, when they weren’t making hasty bee-lines towards Europe, of course.

There would have been shows out the wazoo. Awesome!

While we’re not really convinced cellist/vocalist Jackie PerezGratz, drummer Zack Farwell, and guitarist/vocalist Max Doyle would have made the move north because 1) the logistic nightmare involved in uprooting lives, and 2) they call the liberal safe haven of San Francisco home, it would have been nice to claim one of extreme music’s most original outfits as honorary Canucks and watch them struggle with the minutiae of Canadian history on the citizenship exam.

“Our city is like a little bubble,” says Perez-Gratz, “it’s very, very liberal and as soon as you step out of it, you realize, ‘Oh, this is what the rest of the country is like?’ Even in California, when you leave San Francisco you realize how conservative the rest of the state is.”

Maybe it’s the liberalism in the air, but upon forming three years ago, Grayceon never gave a second thought to creating heavy music with their seemingly oddball instrumentation.

Perez-Gratz plays an electric cello that’s tuned non-traditionally to more easily match up with the riffs that Doyle, who finger-picks and plays de-tuned E and A strings, creates. The most outlandish thing about Farwell was that he once played

in San Fran noise/metal/spazz core outfit, Walken, a band your fearless author’s last band opened for at a show held in a vegetarian dessert café in Sacramento seven years ago (although both Zack and Max were still a month or so from joining Walken at the time). To Grayceon, it was more a matter of friends coming together to see what might happen.

“Yeah, we just wanted to play together as people,” explains Jackie, “and those are the instruments we play. So I guess you could say it was by design as much as it was just what happened. Grayceon is just a place we can play and bring anything to the table and know it’s not going to be shot down, as long as it’s fun for everyone to play.”

“We didn’t have an idea at all,” laughs Zack about the band’s lack of original intent. “It was just us getting together and that was kind of the rule, that there shouldn’t be rules. It was whatever the three of us made and liked, that would be our sound. It started loosely as a side project,” he notes, “but now it’s a full-time endeavour.”

While all the members work at least one full-time job in order to keep afloat in one of the most expensive cities in North America, Perez-Gratz juggles even more with her being a member of the re-tooled Giant Squid and her continued associations with Asunder, Amber Asylum and now, Cattle Decapitation. She has cut back in recent years, though, from the days when she was also rosining up her bow for guest spots with Neurosis, Ludicra, Matmos and The Fucking Champs. Let’s not even get started on her training for, and participation in, this past summer’s Alcatraz Open Water Swim in the San Francisco Bay. As crammed as Jackie’s day-planner is, Zack’s not going down without a fight.

“It’s not easy. I have two jobs and this was my week last week: Monday was work-practice, Tuesday was work-work, Wednesday was work-practice-work, Thursday was workwork-practice and then I took Friday off.”

It’s a small wonder that the trio was able to pull off the cohesive sounds and intricate details of their latest and second

album, This Grand Show. The album is at once grittier and more aggressive as well as more refined and intricate than their self-titled debut. Imagine a mixture of Metallica’s classic instrumentals, the progressive wanderings of King Crimson and Opeth, the orchestrated bombast of Neurosis, instrumental post-rock and a little measure of quirky indie-rock thrown in for good measure. How they pulled it off logistically is their own secret, but there were definite issues the band wanted to tackle going into album number two.

“We heard from a lot of people and read in some reviews that there was a difference between us on record and our live set,” says Zack. “There was a huge disparity between seeing Grayceon and hearing Grayceon on record, and I think this record sounds closer to what we sound like live.”

“Yeah, our live sound is much more dirty and heavier,” picks up Jackie. “When we toured we heard from people that we sounded much more ‘metal’ live and that’s why we recorded our new album live, mostly, with all of us in the same room.”

The shadowy criticism that the band took to heart to great affect on the new album brings us to an interesting point. That being that thus far, Grayceon has been geared and marketed towards a metal audience, even though their music is widesweeping enough that the band could ostensibly appeal to anyone with open ears and an open mind. How have fans and critics based in other genres reacted to the band thus far, and has the band agreed with the comparisons they’ve received?

“I know we’ve been pushed mostly to the metal scene,” says Jackie, “but we’ve also been pushed to the indie scene, but some of the indie press hasn’t really responded to us that well or they haven’t wanted to review us because we’re too metal.

But in the metal scene, we’re…”

“Metal-lite,” interjects Zack. “But I’d say eight out of the ten bands we always get compared to I’ve never heard of, but the ones I have heard of had been rad.”

By Kevin Stewart-Panko

Grayceon

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Uncha nging

asserts. Yet it’s Ulver and Drudkh that he particularly identifies with, as well as Primordial, old Hades, and old Satyricon, among others. “I think some of the influences can be heard quite clearly, but I have no need to hide or deny the huge inspiration and the influence these bands have brought to me. I still try to have my own sound and not just copy others, and I think I somewhat succeeded in doing that on The Womb…”

Funda menta ls

a nd Shifting

October Falls came about for that very reason—Lehto was motivated to not simply listen to the music he admired, but produce something like it himself. “I guess originally it was just the urge to write and record something of my own. Although I was a very different man when the band was formed than I am now, the main motivation behind the band was and will always be the desire to compose and perform music I can stand behind 100 per cent.” October Falls isn’t exclusively Lehto’s own work, although he’s not necessarily what you would call “open” to the contributions of others. “V. Metsola has been involved in some way since the beginning, but he’s still not an official member and most likely will never be,” Lehto explains. “I’m very bad at making any compromise, so I feel it’s better to keep all the strings in my own hands, instead of an entire lineup.

The Womb… had more ideas from others than ever before, but I still make all the final decisions, because I need to be able to control everything October Falls releases and stands for, both musically and ideologically.”

For ms

A

wash with dark emotion and atmosphere, the latest album

by October Falls swells and subsides—sometimes in gentle acoustic waves, more often in a deluge of sombre intensity. The Womb of Primordial Nature wanders introspectively through doomy black metal and blackened doom, medieval minstrelsy and murky forest folk. The musical contrasts become even more extreme if you compare this record to the rest of the October Falls discography, which encompasses the fully acoustic as well as the harsh and aggressive. For Mikko Lehto, the creative force behind October Falls, there’s no internal contradiction to this range of expression. It’s all music he means, unchanging fundamentals shaped in shifting forms.

The history of October Falls might be read as a subtle contest of musical oppositions eventually leading to a delicate balance.

The project “was formed in 2001 as a non-acoustic group,” Lehto explains, “but after only a while the acoustic expression took over, and the harsher expression slowly faded away. During this transformation October Falls was basically nonexistent, but after searching through some of the older tapes, I decided to re-arrange the old acoustic material and release it with a few new acoustic songs. The result of that decision was the Kaste demo, which was later re-recorded with additional material and officially released as Tuoni. Soon after that the full-length debut of all-acoustic material, Marras, was also recorded and released.

At some point I became interested in recording and releasing harsher material in addition to the acoustic releases, and that lead to the recording of The Streams of the End. After that, there has been one all-acoustic mini-release, Sarastus, one split 7-inch and most recently the first harsher full-length, The Womb of Primordial Nature.”

From the outside, this back and forth motion might have seemed like transformations, but from Lehto’s perspective there has been more continuity than change. “I think that although the musical direction has changed a bit through the years, it has still kept the same atmosphere. If you take the harsher albums and remove the distorted wall of sound, it’s still basically the same kind of music as on all the acoustic OF releases. And conversely, you could take the acoustic albums and take a harsher and distorted approach, and the result would be something very close to the sound of The Streams… and The Womb… I think the fundamentals of the music are unchanged; it’s only the type of expression that has been changing through the years. I think it’s all about how you interpret the change in the sound. Most of the themes and ideals are still the same as in the beginning. Sometimes the same ideas work better with an all-acoustic approach, and sometimes they need the wall of distortion behind them to reach full potency.”

Exploring the full range of expression through October Falls, Lehto avoids the confusion of multiple bands and side-projects, uniting his stylistic variations under one banner. “I didn’t want to limit the band’s expression to either all-acoustic or all-metal.

I wanted to record the material in a form that I think worked best. In some cases I’ve even recorded and released the same songs with both acoustic and harsher approaches, but usually I try to avoid recycling.” What Lehto describes as “the acoustic expression” retains “a strong role in October Falls’s music,” despite the aggression of his latest recording. Sarastus, for example, though all-acoustic, was written and recorded after the heavier The Streams of the End and has similar themes to the “harsher releases, only with a different approach,” explains Lehto. “That

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October Falls

difference, I feel, gives a perfect example of the sound of October Falls. It might sound a lot different than the harsher albums to a casual listener, but the musical backbone is the same, simply performed differently and with a different atmosphere.”

On The Womb of Primordial Nature, the themes Lehto refers to take conceptual shape in the motif of the “beast within,” structured musically in a near-continuous four-part composition.

Lehto elaborates: “The whole concept is dealing about the wolf, mainly as a metaphor of the beast within men. It’s a burden or a blessing that everyone carries within. It’s something that is unleashed when the conditions are right or wrong enough—it all depends how that beast is seen overall. All songs are linked with the same theme; there are no choruses, no repeating lines except for the title, and the whole concept carries throughout the album. I see The Womb of Primordial Nature more as a one solid piece than four different tracks, although it was decided to split into four pieces. It will also be released on vinyl, which due to length restrictions makes it impossible to release it in one piece anyway.”

Although the dominant mood on October Falls’ latest release is sombre, it never seems resigned. Lehto recognizes his music’s emotional qualities, but he doesn’t consider October Falls to be an emotionally driven band. “I think the music is quite emotional and melancholic, so the overall feeling is indeed quite sombre.

I don’t personally care for the cheerful beer-drinking songs the ‘folk-metal’ bands of today mostly perform. I try to capture more serious and mature tones. When writing new material it’s not so much about the emotional space I am in, but more of the inspiration that just comes, sometimes in the middle of night, sometimes when walking outside.”

Some of this inspiration clearly derives from non-musical influences, both cultural and natural. “The history of our nation and my heritage has been a huge influence on my music,” says Lehto.

“Also the surrounding nature inspires me greatly. These things are something I try to capture in the music.” He’s also perfectly willing to cite his musical influences, those that helped him find his own musical voice in the beginning and those that developed along the way. “October Falls was formed in 2001 and was originally heavily influenced by older Katatonia and Opeth, but slowly bands like Ulver, Tenhi, Empyrium and Drudkh became way more influential to the band’s sound.” The powerful influence of older Katatonia and Opeth “will always be there in some form,” Lehto

Lehto’s musical background is rather informal, answering his need for an outlet of expression rather than serving as an end in itself. He no longer practises regularly or “just for the sake of playing”—now he plays only to compose or record. It’s the same passion for music, he says, “but in different form.” Nevertheless, Lehto sees a kind of musical evolution in his own work, defining the relationship between recordings beyond a shared thematic foundation. “All the releases have been carved from the same tree, so they’re basically all equally important to me. I think it’s fair to say that each release has been musically superior to the one preceding it. However, I realize it’s not as simple as that, because it’s not all about the musical or artistic values, but also about the unique atmosphere on each release.”

The earlier October Falls releases slipped by most North American ears, but The Womb of Primordial Nature is finally bringing the Finnish band much-deserved attention on this side of the Atlantic. Lehto is pleased. “Tuoni and Marras were also released in the U.S. by Dark Horizon, but they never got the same kind of promotion as TWoPN has been getting, so basically this is a new situation for October Falls. The older albums have been a bit difficult to get in U.S., so I’m quite pleased that Moribund released this record in the U.S. area.” The Finnish context is significantly different—inevitably, because of the vast disparity in market and population size. “Finland is a small country, and that makes it nearly impossible not to know someone from this so-called ‘Finnish scene’ if you play in a band or are otherwise in touch with this type of music. The situation might seem a bit strange or different to a foreigner, but if you walk to a local bar on Friday, it’s more than likely that you meet some well-known musicians there.”

What you are less likely to see is October Falls performing live— that experience falls rather low on Lehto’s list of goals for the band. “I’ve thought about it every now and then through the years, but so far nothing has been planned. The fact is that I have no real interest in performing live, so it’s very unlikely that October Falls will ever perform live. However, it’s not something I’ve completely excluded. Maybe when the right time and place meet, it may happen after all.” Lehto’s plans for October Falls emphasize the studio rather than the stage, including the “writing and recording the second harsher full-length album”— probably the next October Falls release—as well as some all-acoustic material to be recorded some time next year. As for more personal plans, Lehto has two clear goals in mind: “As an individual, I try to spend more time with the nature and stand strong behind the ideals I carry.”

By Laura Wiebe Taylor

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“It’s hard to headbang in 9/8”

By Sarah Kitteringham

S

“I am not a super shredder—same with Dave,” he continues.

“It’s more about playing parts that are complimentary to the whole song, definitely not having any spotlight.” It’s an idea that extends to other elements of Intronaut.

acha Dunable of fusion masters Intronaut sounds tired. It’s 7 PM in his hometown of Los Angeles and our 30-minute conversation is marked by jumbled thoughts and sighs.

Life is busy for the guitarist and vocalist, whose band has just released their first full length Prehistoricisms for their new label Century Media. The eight-track disc continues in the same vein as their revered Challenger EP, characterized by roaring vocals, progressive/jazz instrumentals and a level of musicianship akin to the bands which they’ve been frequently compared to: Botch, Mastodon, and Neurosis.

It’s not to imply they lack originality—far from it. After one listen to Prehistoricisms, it’s clear the group is doing just fine after the loss of founding guitarist Leon Del Muerte. In his stead, they’ve added unique elements such as tabla (provided by newest member Dave Timnick) and creating songs that are definably theirs.

Focusing on a strong instrumental approach that defines the postcore genre they helped popularize, Intronaut’s Prehistoricisms is sure to end up on countless “Best of 2008” lists.

“It’s all related to the general characteristics of humans that have been in place since the beginning,” explains Dunable when asked about the disc. “It’s about our most primal instincts and tendencies that we always fall back on, like the need to consume and to procreate.”

Such lyrical content generally calls to mind the view that humans have progressed little since evolving from apes, and the group’s interpretation is not far off.

“It’s all pretty…,” he hesitates. “I don’t want to say positive. But it’s not as serious as some sort of apocalyptic whatever. One song is honestly about how I am in L.A. and there is a lot of traffic and it was written while sitting in traffic and looking at people sitting in their cars getting frustrated. It’s all like that—I am sure that 2000 years ago people were doing the same thing in some kind of setting that was a result of the times. Getting frustrated over nothing.”

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Intronaut

The band seemingly tapped into that frustration only lyrically for the recording process. With the addition of Timnick, Dunable feels the process is much smoother.

“Before it was like four people who kind of came together and everybody had an idea of what the band is and what it sounds like,” he explains. “When someone new comes into that they know what the band sounds like and they know what everybody is going for. I guess we kind of in a way molded Dave and he was open to doing what we told him to do.” He laughs. “This sounds fucked up, but as a guitar player we were able to dictate his role and he was fine with that. So it’s a little bit easier, a bit more streamlined and it’s on the same page as far as what the sound is and what the vision is for what were trying to do for each song.

Not to say that anything Leon brought to the table wasn’t cool, but I feel like there is more of a singular vision now.”

It is hard for Dunable to dictate that vision, and he outlines why.

“I don’t want to say exactly what is in our heads and what the criteria is for a riff or a part that you bring to the table,” he says.

“Definitely just forward thinking and constantly exploring and inventing new rhythmic and melodic ideas.”

This goal of producing rhythm and melody is seemingly incongruent with the group’s music, whose jarring time signatures and massive percussion call to mind extreme control rather than joyous wank.

“I am all for super-tight grooves and wobbling and unconventional time signatures,” says Dunable. “As long as not everybody is overplaying then I think the result is what you’re saying: more controlled... In my head, it’s the opposite, more of a rhythmic shredding than a guitar shredding.

“The vocals are really only in there when they need to be,” says Dunable. “We’re not a vocal band; the vocals are only there as another instrument.”

Indeed, they’re sparsely utilized on the album, whose highlight may very well be the closing track “Reptilian Brain,” a 16-plusminute instrumental epic that follows the human condition through five universal characteristics: sleeping, eating, shitting, fighting, and fucking. Intentionally, the song was written “according to its respective name,” peaking and dipping accordingly.

Dunable personally sees “Little Black Cloud,” “Prehistoricisms,” and “Sundial” as the disc’s highlights.

“I think those are the three that kind of have everything of us in there and they are all pretty definitive,” he asserts. “They all have got my favourite elements of us: heavy, off-time-but-groovy riffs and the kind of more fusion-sounding stuff… I think those songs are the most unique on the record.”

In particular, he is proud of “Sun Dial,” which features Steeve Hurdle of Gorguts fame. Hurdle was chosen for the duty because “he was the one we all really wanted and he was totally down.

And Gorguts’ Obscura is just the most extreme record ever recorded.

“His solo is like…Steeve Hurdle,” emphasizes Dunable. “It’s whale sounds and shit. It’s tapping on the guitar. It’s awesome.

It’s more an extra layer of noise and sound. It’s exactly what we wanted.”

Overall, Dunable is happy with the entirety of the album and expresses contempt at the thought of changing anything.

“I think were happy with it. I am,” he says. “There are no parts I cringe while listening to them, so that’s good enough for me.”

at the soundawn

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The best artwork is borne of adversity. The struggle, the passion, and the eventual triumph of creation is what keeps artists moving forward through any number of trials by fire or galling storms. However, not all situations are so extreme. Sometimes all it takes is a single phone call to nudge things off course, and result in a completely unexpected outcome. Cryptic enough for you? Welcome to a year in the life of Asmegin, a self-described “metal band that adds Norwegian folk tunes.” Old-time fans, I know you’ve missed them. It’s been a long five years, but this steadfast troupe of Slavonic troubadours have returned with a brand-new album, one that addresses both the band’s Norse heritage and their appreciation for…dandelions (seriously!). We managed to track down founding member Marius Olaussen via email, and did our best to find out the true meaning of Arv. “It’s been five years since Hin Vordende Sod & Sø. We’ve been working on a double album with the working title Tusind tabte Siæles Kakofoni (Cacophony of a Thousand Lost Souls). What happened was, Napalm phoned us in May this year and told us that they wanted to release TTSK in 2008. Since we had no chance of getting this material finished this year, we decided to do an album like Arv. Tommy [Brandt] left the band some years ago, so Erik [Rasmussen, vocals] had to do the drums on Arv. I think he does a hell of a good job, concerning the fact that he’s not a drummer at all. He had a couple of weeks or something to prepare for the studio recording. The funny thing is that Erik will probably end up doing the drums on TTSK as well. There are some insane death metal arrangements on these two albums (TTSK part I and II), so I’m curious about how this will go, but he has some months to practise now and recently he informed me that he can do 200 bpm. It’s still some bpm to go, but I believe he can do it. It is of course better to have him doing the drums and staying with the band as a part of the creative process, rather than using a session musician that just does what we tell him to do.”

As for the recording process behind Arv… “To be honest? It was complete hell. A race against time. We almost had to drop the fiddle and female vocals, but luckily we found three or four hours to add some fiddle lines. The recording of the female vocals were pretty much alike, for example, singing the last verse on Prunkende, stolt i Jokumsol on the way out of the studio just in time to reach the scheduled airplane. We had one night to do the mix and I found out that I had 18 hours of sleep the last week of the process!”

Olaussen minces no words when questioned about his feelings on Arv as a whole. “To be 100 per cent honest, after sending it to the mastering studio, I probably hated the entire album and was so upset about not having the opportunity to have everything finished. I had so much more planned with this album, but we’re all proud of what we could manage in so little time. It’s this stressful situation that made Arv into what it is today. If we had better time in the studio, maybe it wouldn’t have sounded this

right, if you understand? As far as production goes, this is our musical heritage. We could also ended up using more ‘professional’ artwork instead of plain, clean and true photos, but this time the album art came from a photographer, Anders Næsset, who is an old friend of mine. We wanted something clean and simple for this album, something that reflected the music, and ended up using only photos from a place that means a lot to us (One little anecdote on the side: most of the guitars on TTSK are recorded in the woods you see in the artwork of Arv). All in all I think this is an important release to put in our catalog.”

As for the album itself? Upon a first listen, one is struck by the now-familiar blend of Nordic folk and blackened melodies, propelled forward by pure metal aggression. Fiddles, female vocals, and the odd prog-rock interlude add flavour, and gruff male death vocals lend it some bite. While cleaner and lighter sounding than like-minded souls Moonsorrow and Storm, Asmegin steer clear of hummpa territory and leave the jigging and ale mugs to the trolls.

“The metal part varies from death to black to doom mostly, though we also like to add other styles into our music, like jazz. We play the music we like ourselves and since we’re a bunch of fellows with different musical tastes, the final result is naturally hued by this.

Musically, we’ve changed, but I believe that’s a natural thing for musicians. It was not a change for the sake of changing or doing what’s right according to what everyone thinks is right. TTSK will be something completely else and that doesn’t mean that we’ll stick with this or that ‘change.’ We’re doing what is right for us at the moment and most important of all, what is right for a certain story. Take TTSK for instance; these two albums will be something completely different from both HVSOS and Arv. It’s perhaps not the best way to get fans and keep them, haha. For us, we’ve done the Hin vordende Sod & Sø-sound and weren’t interested in doing that over and over again. On Arv we decided to try to go back to how things started. Quite a bunch of the tracks are actually pretty old material, actually pre-HVSOS. When I look back at it now, some tracks on Arv could easily have been recorded for HVSOS. “When composing, arranging and playing, we tend to try out different things (perhaps this is why we need to use more time in the studio). Not all drums sound alike, and neither do the guitars, vocals, add-on instruments, and so on, but when it comes to vocals, this is perhaps the most unique instrument of all. HVSOS was, in many ways, a much more vigorous, lighter and allover up-tempo album, than Arv. Arv wouldn’t fit the same kind of black metal vocals like HVSOS used, so we ended up doing more death vocals. As on HVSOS we also decided to use Anne Marie Hveding on Arv. She has a beautiful ethereal voice that fits perfectly into the ‘roaming the East-Norwegian woods’ feeling we were going for. In addition to Anne Marie, we are also very happy that Gunhild Hovden Kvangarsnes had to time to join on this record. The voices of these two girls hue the Arv-soundscape just right.”

Asmegin 28

Asm egin

If the band seems a bit defensive about the “new direction” on Arv (which honestly, if you’ve had any prior exposure to Asmegin, won’t strike you as much of a departure at all from their previous efforts), it’s for good reason. After all, how many times have we seen a beloved band disappear from the public eye, only to reemerge a half dozen years later armed with lame new hairstyles and a poorly written new record, both of which are promptly torn apart by the old-school fans? It’s an unfortunately common occurrence these days, but luckily, Asmegin show no such signs of slowing down or selling out. The new album is as well crafted and relentless as albums past, and explores a wide range of lyrical themes, the scope of which might surprise you.

“The first song, ‘Fandens Mælkebøtte’ (The Devil’s Milk Pail), is an ode to dandelions. ‘Heartburning’ is written by Raymond, so I can’t say that much about it. It’s like a modern version on the old Nordic Medieval ballad “Two Sisters.” ‘Generalen og Troldharen’ (The General and the Trollhare) is a semi-historical happening that took place late in the 19th century. A general from Christiania (the Capitol of Norway during 1877–1925) goes to Hadeland (actually he goes to Ringerike, but I decided to place the story in my own home) hunting a troll hare. ‘Arv’ (Heritage) deals with questions about family values, usage and that sort of things. ‘Yndifall’ (Bereavement) is a fictive story from the Norse era dealing with questions like revenge and loyalty. ‘Gengangeren’ (The Apparition) is a story about the emptiness feeling in death. ‘Prunkende, stolt i Jokumsol’ (Pompously, Proudly in the Sun of Jokum) is a song about suicide and leaving heavy burdens behind. ‘En Myrmylne’ (A Boggy Mylne) is a story about a guy who goes to the woods picking cloudberries, but ending up in a boggy death. Our lyrics touch upon everything from humorous storytelling to profound grief and darkness. The song that stands out the most would probably be ‘Fandens Mælkebøtte,’ which is a quite obscure and vague ode to something so strange as dandelions.

If you’re interested, though, there is a lot of symbolism to pick up on. As a Wergeland-fan, I like my lyrics obscure, leaving a lot of effort in understanding them to the listener or reader.”

Arv’s North American release is slated for the beginning of January, smack dab in the middle of a cluster of wintertime holidays. One wonders—what do the pagan souls of Asmegin plan to do at Yuletide?

“None of the members of the band are religious persons, but nevertheless, as fellow Norwegians, we celebrate the spirit of a pagan júl, getting together with our families and practising everything that’s still a pagan part of this holiday, which the Christians have taken from us.

“Thanks for your interest. I’d like to use this space to recommend a very cool album: Monument by Cor Scorpii. If you like Windir and sognametall, prepare for the new kings of the Western Mountains!”

With the Power of the Gods

By Kim Kelly

ORDER OF ENNEAD Gathering of the Mystics

That attitude is apparent on the group’s self-titled debut. Steve explains the title (or lack thereof) by saying, “I think it’s appropriate for a debut to be self-titled, plus it leaves room for the concept of the band name itself to sink in without a separate title getting in the way. The band name is title enough.”

Building upon an existing legacy of brutality, the shadows behind blackened death metal marauders Order of Ennead are poised to strike fast, hard, and deadly at a stagnating scene. Borne from the ashes of progressive death metallers Council of the Fallen and the restlessness of creative minds, the band quickly came together and recorded a bloodthirsty debut album (soon to be released by extreme music mainstays Earache Records). Sticksman Steve Asheim (of Deicide infamy) took time out of his hectic schedule to explain the origins of the band, their debut record, and the universe itself.

Speaking of the band’s name, one must ask: Just who were the Ennead, anyway?

By Kim Kelly

“Scott [Patrick, bass] was working with Kevin in Council of the Fallen, and when I finished tracking Till Death Do Us Part with Deicide last fall and had nothing planned for the next year, I wanted to keep busy with something. Scotty mentioned CotF, gave me some demos, and I decided to jam with him. We started writing the first song at that first practice and put a song together every practice until we had an album’s worth. I think everyone already being well-versed in the workings of a band—you know, how to write, record, tour, et cetera—and being quite proficient musicians and eager as hell to work made this band come together very quickly and work at constant progression.

It’s definitely not just a project—too much work went into it.

Kevin might say that it’s a continuation of CotF for him since he wrote for both, but for me at least it’s a new thing, a new vibe, and a new direction. Definitely a new sound and style compared to CotF. The thought of being labeled as a ‘members of’ band never occurred to me—I just see it as a bunch of dudes making an album.”

Like most of the bands that fall under the umbrella of “black/ death” these days, Order of Ennead is definitely a brutal, unrelenting force. Unlike many of their peers, however, they take a rather cerebral approach to the style, displaying both an acute sense of melody and a strong grasp on the importance of writing an actual song, as opposed to a series of parts.

“It starts with quality musical ideas,” says Asheim. “Those can be molded and structured into anything at will. That’s how I see it, anyway. Like clay—you make of it what you see; it doesn’t make itself. The same with music, except it’s what you hear. Don’t just look at your fingers; listen, and ask yourself what it needs and where it can go. That’s what I do, anyway.”

“The band’s name stems from a creation myth. The Ennead were the nine givers of life and culture to the universe—the original being and the eight offspring. It’s as if they were nine, but one.

They are attributed with giving all spheres of culture and knowledge to man, bringing them out of the Stone Age, so to speak.

The ‘Order’ of Ennead is a concept we created to acknowledge the existence and importance of the proliferation of all knowledge itself. Sounds a little grandiose, I know, but you asked!”

As is fitting for such a cosmically minded group of individuals, Order of Ennead’s lyrics tend to steer clear of genre clichés. Instead of screaming bloody gore, they turn their voices upward…and inward.

“Kevin writes the lyrics, and generally does steer clear of the shocking style of lyric writing,” says Asheim. “He tends to deal with what he’s seen and learned about himself and others on a grand scale and on a very personal scale as well. Some of his lyrics are quite positive in nature, as a matter of fact—they deal with vision and empowerment. For Kevin to write gory, evil, or otherwise explicit lyrics just wouldn’t be his style. He’s being honest with himself in a very clear and concise way, writing lyrics that only a focused and clear-minded person could write. I think that says a lot about him.

than anything we could touch or see plainly. To illustrate that, the image of that which we all rely on yet have little knowledge of and absolutely no control over, the sun, represents the one original. Around it are eight planets, of course all reliant on the sun, spawned from it as we all are. All of them together represent the nine of the Ennead on a large scale, which in turn represents the vastness of the still-untapped knowledge which is right in front of us all, waiting to be discovered. Again, grandiose, but you asked!”

The band’s fresh take on a flagging genre, coupled with the preexisting relationship they had with Steve’s other band, caught Earache’s attention and led to an easy partnership between the band and label. Given their past dealing with Deicide and legendary back catalog of death metal classics, it just “makes sense,” as Steve says. As a death metal lifer, he has seen the rise, fall, and resurgence of the American death metal scene, and while he has already done more than his fair share to keep it going strong, is still hell-bent on making more progress.

“Honestly, I think the scene and the attitudes have changed very little. It’s been the same since I’ve been involved and was probably the same long before I showed up! I think now what’s different is that most genres have been invented and defined and there’s no new ground to cover. The good thing is that all the different styles of metal are still viable. By that I mean that everybody is touring somewhere, both the old bands and the new bands of all styles. It’s a fuckin’ free for all!

“Kevin writes all the riffs, too. He comes up with the parts, gets a nice basic arrangement going, and if there are any issues, I’ll help him out with arranging/structure. Between the two of us, we pretty much get it done!”

“Personally, I’ve been on a quest for self-improvement as far as my drumming goes, so I’ve been pushing myself in that regard for years now. I’ve also been pushing myself to stay busier in general with Deicide, Order of Ennead, and whatever else comes up. I guess I’m inspired by creativity itself, and a lot of different types of music that you might not think I’d be into, but the common thread, no matter what style or age, is that it’s all very well crafted musically and structurally.”

The album’s celestially themed artwork only serves to solidify Order of Ennead’s position as something “different.” Instead of decapitated heads or inverted virgins, the cover of Order of Ennead is simple: a singular star engulfed in flames and flanked by eight smaller planets (meant to represent the other eight members of the Ennead), framed by imposing columns straight from an ancient temple.

While guitarist Jon finishes up his degree at NYU, Steve and, as of recently, Kevin busy themselves pulling double-duty in Deicide and the Order, which Steve hints may possibly yield more Deicide/Order of Ennead dates in the near future. While they stay occupied with touring, promoting, and eventually working on their next record, those of the Ennead will keep a very simple goal in mind.

“I came up with the concept, and an artist named Summer Lacy did the artwork itself. I thought that the idea of the Ennead and all that it represented to me was bigger and more vast in scope

“To produce quality work on tape and live, and to actually work as much as possible, grow the band, and see what happens. Why not, you know?”

Order of Ennead

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30

Spearhead Uncovering the Ancient Truth!

Formed in 2004 by vocalist and bassist Barghest, the UK’s mostpromising underground death metal juggernaut Spearhead are relatively unknown on these shores, but with the release of their second album Decrowning the Irenarch (reviewed in U! issue #37) that is soon about to change. Citing influences ranging from old Morbid Angel and Carcass through Absu and Angelcorpse, this fire team has enough power in their musical arsenal to challenge even the most seasoned death metal veterans.

Alongside frontman Barghest are Nephilim (lead guitar), Invictus (rhythm guitar), and Vortigern (drums). Hailing from all corners of England, the band currently calls Bournemouth home and recently returned from a month-long European tour with Impiety. Their plans for 2009? Conquer the world of death metal.

U! wanted to take closer look at this surprising young band, and founder Barghest took time out from writing new material to allow us a quick, and informative glimpse into Spearhead’s innerworkings.

“I have to admit to not being too fond of a lot of modern death metal,” says Barghest. “There are certainly a number of current bands I admire though, but the modern mainstream death metal scene is pretty formulaic and stagnant. Spearhead is still perhaps a relatively new band in relation to some of our elder and more renowned compeers. We are more than comfortable with being an underground entity at present, although that doesn’t mean I do not want the band to progress and to reach a larger audience. Though that growth will come through time.”

And the past few years have indeed seen a great deal of growth…

“Since our first album, Deathless Steel Command, Spearhead has quite clearly musically and ideologically matured. We see this as a natural progression as Decrowning the Irenarch is markedly different as it shows considerable development both lyrically and musically, though some obvious stylistic similarities remain.

“The title of the album, Decrowning the Irenarch, refers to the removal from power of the type of rule or governance centred around inter-societal peace-keeping; an ‘irenarch’ literally meaning ‘a ruler of or by peace.’ This type of unstratified rule is completely alien to the type of rule and stratification known to the ancient and medieval world, where the warrior class played an absolutely crucial part in maintaining the health of the respective civilization,

and concomitantly keeping the other tiers of society stable. If one is removed, all crumbles. Today, what stratification we have is wealthbased, plutocratic, which in my view is abhorrent.”

Opting to record with Wojciech Wieslawski (Vader, Decapitated, Hate, Azarath) at Poland’s Hertz recording studio, Barghest explains that the band found a situation that was both economically viable and more than capable of producing the sound they sought.

“The recording process was very different with Decrowning…

Precision was key. With the debut album, substantial parts of the debut album (the drums for one) were deliberately recorded in one take, as were large parts of the guitar work. But I think this is what lends Deathless Steel Command its raw edge when compared to the carefully defined structure of the new album. A lot more time and consideration went into perfecting the recording this time round.”

Remarkably, it only took two weeks to record, and when the listener takes that into account, the result is even more stunning.

“We were pretty well-rehearsed before we entered the studio.

We knew exactly how everything should be in advance, from the instrumentation to the vocals, et cetera. The hours in the studio were quite long, and the process was pretty arduous at times, but all great art is born of suffering, so to speak.”

The new album touches on a number of fascinating militaristic/ historical subjects, some of which may serve to educate even the most well-read metal fans.

“Some focus on historical periods, like ‘Road to Austerlitz’ which is about the famous Napoleonic battle there, or ‘In the Face of the Absolute’ which covers the sinking of The Bismarck; whilst other lyrical topics concern the more metaphysical (dare I say ‘spiritual’) aspects of war and warfare, such as ‘Mors Triumphalis’ which go into detail about how and why the path of war was, and perhaps still is to those capable enough, a route to spiritual self-mastery. And the title track ‘Decrowning the Irenarch.’ Although even the tracks that cover historical periods, events, and persons refer in some part to the metaphysical aspects of war, or in the case of ‘Iulianus Augustus Apostata’ the metaphysical aspects of rulership.”

Invictus Recordings (which signed the band in 2005) declares that the new album “stands as a testament to the universal warrior philosophy of ancient Eurasia, which states that war is the only path to spiritual and societal mastery.”

“War and the warrior class in the ancient civilizations of Europe and Northern-India were integral aspects to the functioning of society,” says Barghest. “‘Mors Triumphalis’ explains this warrior philosophy and the path of war in greater detail.

“It is difficult to say how one exactly comes to an ideology such as this. Certain truths are perhaps closed to most people, especially in this age, and so one has to go out of one’s way to uncover those

truths known by civilizations past, which are in effect not bound by time or space, visible as they are everywhere and anywhere.

Most people live and act synchronically, that is, according to the standards and conventions of the point of time they are in; and furthermore think this way also. They assume that the beliefs and doctrines of their own time are ‘right’ because that is all they know.

Diachronic investigation into past civilisations, their mythoi, their philosophies and their functionalism gives a much less synchronically biased view of truth and thus the truth of knowledge. Modern arrogance, be it in the form of ethnocentrism or ‘synchronocentrism’ is an obstacle to truth.

“These beliefs are primarily important to me personally. It makes no difference whether other people chose to believe in them or not, as I have no wish to change people’s opinions, and I have no wish to ‘save people’ from themselves either. If the odd person, unfamiliar with the philosophies of Traditionalism or Perennialism, can pick up on some of the ideas discussed in the lyrics, recognize their validity and go further than what is in effect mere music, then I will be glad to have opened up a door to someone who genuinely wishes to broaden their horizons. But at the end of the day we are a metal band, not some bastion of intellectualism or philosophy, hence why the ideology behind the lyrics are primarily personal to me, affect me and influence my view of the world. I have no wish to change people…merely to introduce some forgotten ideas and truths, some ancient wisdom, to those few individuals capable of understanding and willing to be receptive.”

Given his views on ancient war and its role, Barghest’s thoughts on the current state of the world’s politics with regards to the numerous conflicts that are going on are rather blunt.

“Modern politics and the functionalism of modern war are matters of supreme indifference to me, to which I pay little attention, and to which I can give no informed answer on. Today we are very far removed from any righteous or noble modes of governance and warfare.”

Choosing not to be affiliated in any way with any political group or movement, Spearhead’s frontman has a militant viewpoint that one cannot help but speculate as one being linked to a political agenda in some respect.

“I think it should be clear now where my interests and affiliations (if I indeed have any affiliations) lie. They certainly do not lie in this century, nor the last, nor even the dozen or so centuries prior. You say that I have a militant view. You are correct. But how this necessarily means I have to be linked with any political movement or party, past or present, who may be vaguely referred to as ‘militant,’ is logically incomprehensible to me. Such lines of thinking are all too reactionary, and my response to that is ‘Sic Semper Tyrannis’!”

By Terry “Metal-Demon” Demeter

Spearhead

31

Winterfylleth Voices of Blood

By Kim Kelly

A

cold wind is blowing. The days are getting shorter, shadows are getting longer, and the skies are beginning to wash themselves grey. Another autumn lays itself to rest as winter draws near, ushered in by the dazzling glare of the full moon. It’s the perfect time of year to curl up with a mug of hot chocolate and a black metal record, and Winterfylleth’s icy blend of grimmest blackness and ancient folk is the ideal soundtrack to a dark, silent night. The spectres of a proud and bloody past make their voices heard on The Ghost of Heritage, a blackened paean to the band members’ collective ancestry. Wreathed in atmosphere and richened by primordial chants, the album somberly forges ahead at a glacial pace, then suddenly, without warning, plunges headfirst into a raging storm of pagan fury as bloodthirsty as the warriors whose virtues it extols. Hail Heritage.

Hail Winterfylleth.

As is fitting for a band whose members’ hearts dwell in the past, the roots of Winterfylleth run deep. Once fate (and email correspondence) led them to discover a mutual appreciation for European black metal and cultural heritage preservation within one another, Chris and Simon began writing what would become the first Winterfylleth demo, Rising of the Winter Full Moon. After recruiting Richard as a second guitarist/vocalist and also inviting him into Atavist (with whom Winterfylleth shares members), the circle was complete. The band recorded The Ghost of Heritage, their debut full-length for Profound Lore, which was released on October 14th, the date of the actual Winterfylleth, the ancient heathen festival to welcome the first full moon of winter. Based upon a desire to “create music that we would consider to be a representation of the spirit of our ancient lands, incorporating the aggression and passion perhaps associated with ‘Black Metal’ but with also a melodic slant that derives from the folk song and

32

Winterfylleth

choral singing of our predecessors. Winterfylleth is also geared around raising the profile and awareness of our nations’ history in a country where we seem to be losing our national identity, and whose general populace is confused about their ancestry because of over political correctness and cultural pandering on the part of our government. While we don’t feel we can directly influence political change or lobby against this level of political ridiculousness at a musical level, we can try to make people aware of what being ‘English’ has historically meant, and reinforce a sense of identity among a culturally confused populace,” explains Chris.

area of ours (and one that you can find us exploring most weekends!), the epic and beautiful Lake District, the West Pennine Moors, vast and bleak Yorkshire Dales, and also the Snowdonia Mountain Range, to name a mere handful. Most of these sites inspire our music in some way. Musically and lyrically they are all based on an interesting story and how it relates to the 21st century whether it is historically or ‘spiritually.’ It is this affinity for the land/culture and a willingness to share it with people who are unaware of it which drives our lust for learning and teaching about our heritage and land.”

Winterfylleth brand themselves as “English Heritage Black Metal,” and channel their immeasurable love for their homeland and its history through an unholy combination of menacing black metal and pure-hearted English folk. Comparisons to countrymen Forefather and like-minded Irishmen Primordial are inevitable, but the pure scope of imagination and depth of understanding these young men have of Britannia serves to set them apart.

Such devotion to one’s homeland is surely a rare and inspiring thing to see, but, as always, the continent’s bloodstained past may shadow the perceptions some of us have about a band that takes such visible pride in where they come from. Sometimes, the lines between what can be called National Socialism and what can be called national pride are blurred, and innocent bands suffer the consequences due others who uphold far more unsavory beliefs.

“We are obviously heavily influenced by the legends and folklore of our land, which not only convey a spirit that is very close to our hearts, but in the same way represent the spirit of our native people, and therefore that also of our land, in the same way folk music does. Folk music is after all, the music of ‘the folk.’ The people’s music! The area that we come from is geographically ideal for wandering our beloved land. On our doorstep we have the awesome and mysterious Pennine ‘Peak District,’ a favourite

“Our viewpoint is very staunchly patriotic and proud, but is also geared around raising the profile and awareness of our history. In Winterfylleth we don’t ever worry about how we are perceived. If a magazine or an individual wants to compare us to Graveland or whoever then that is their prerogative and we can’t do anything about that. The media would much rather draw attention to a band’s nationalistic viewpoint as Nazi, or racist quickly, before

they can be branded as supporting it and potentially losing sales or reputation because of their affiliation. With that in mind it is interesting to look at the dictionary definition of the term ‘nationalism’: devotion to the interests or culture of one’s nation. Funny, isn’t it—it’s not ‘raving Nazi’ like the media would have you believe. In Britain, it has gotten so bad that it almost feels like the national flag is being associated with racism and that to wear it, display it or associate with it is somehow victimising the cultural minorities that live in England, which is total oversensitivity and propaganda in action. If, in whatever we do, we are saying/doing something outrageous or inaccurate then we would welcome people/media/naysayers to debate with us or question us—as we are open and honest people—but if people independently decide to portray us in a bad light without speaking to us, then I’m afraid their ignorance is their own problem and only furthers to advocate the futility of their existence. It is a journalist’s prerogative to report on facts, not on rumours, and therein lays the problem of ‘the media’ as a whole: it is far too ideologically motivated.”

As articulate and well informed as its members may be when it comes to matters of culture and politics, Winterfylleth’s main focus is, of course, the music.

“The black metal element of our music has definitely been influenced by bands and musical projects such as Hate Forest, Walknut, Drudkh, Skyforger, Sunwheel and related projects, Enslaved, Wolves in the Throne Room, Primordial, Negura Bunget and most definitely Ulver. Bands that, for us at least, have an understanding of cultural affinity and a mix of melody/musical diversity within the ‘black metal’ format, by pushing the boundaries of what can be a sometimes limiting genre.

The melodic/folk slant to our style derives from the folk song and choral singing of our ancestors.

We are trying to deliver these songs in a way that incorporates our modern influences but is also true, in some way, to the history of our past-cultures’ music and practices. Also, the folk spirit that resides within the band runs quite deep. Take for example Simon (who grew up around folk music); his parents and siblings are heavily involved in the traditional and modern folk scenes and play in numerous different folk bands. There is a certain ‘spirit’ to folk music that draws us to it and in part it is this ‘spirit’ that we would hope to rouse in people listening to our music. We definitely feel that both folk music and certain types of black metal can manifest fantastic audio representations of the spirit of a group of people from whichever part of the world they come from. In that way they are fantastic forms of music that complement each other perfectly, but with Winterfylleth we go one step further, incorporating elements of Gregorian Monk Chant as well as some of the heavier atmosphere of doom metal in songs like ‘Forging the Iron of England’ from our debut album.

“Most of the debut was written by me and Simon coming up with ideas at home, bringing them to rehearsals and expanding upon them until we were happy with what we had created. Myself and

Simon both independently wrote sets of lyrics based around stories we were interested in or a place that we had visited, that we felt conveyed the message of the band in a way that links the struggles of our ancestors with the struggles of modern civilisation and informs listeners about what being English has historically meant. For example, ‘An Englishman’s Verse’ deals with uniting the various groups of Northern Europeans that made up our isles saying ‘Norman, Saxon, Gael, Celt / Into This Fine Mixed Mass Ye Melt.’ The point of this being to raise awareness of our proud lineage, and also to remind all that before there was the plight of man-made social controls—such as monotheistic religion, political correctness and cultural homogenization—that people knew who they were and cared about their own history, rather than being landed in a era without a cultural identity.

“Richard came along (before we had ever recorded anything) with a fresh wealth of talent that helped to craft a lot of the existing lyrics into vocal patterns. As a competent guitar player he also added guitar harmonies and lead parts to the existing tracks and, as you would expect, has contributed ideas to some other, newer, non-album tracks we recorded for a forthcoming split. We then recorded as much as we could live in the studio and overdubbed what we couldn’t to create the fierce sounding EHBM barrage, evident of the Ghost of Heritage.

“The album is out now on Profound Lore Records and will hopefully be followed up in early 2009 by a split with Richard’s other band—and fellow brothers in arms—Wodensthrone (who are also due to release their debut album Loss on Bindrune Records in late 2008/early 2009). This release will also be on PFL and will feature unreleased tracks by both bands. We are also hoping to play a few shows throughout the year to support the record and spread the message. In addition to that our other band, Atavist, has just released its fourth album (a second collaboration with Canada’s finest, Nadja) and we are also working on a fifth one and besides that…who knows? Keep your ear to the floor.”

When asked for a last word on advice, Chris had this to say: “Always strive to be informed about issues affecting your country or your culture and make sure that if you don’t like something that is happening that you do something about it, like lobby, campaign or write an album. Don’t fear the ignorance of the media if they call you a racist or try to sully your name, be true to what you believe and be intelligent with your truth. People will only ‘know’ if they are informed, and it is up to individuals like us to bypass the apathy of our ‘TV generation’ and get people back in touch with who and what they are. A country without a culture or an identity is like an accident waiting to happen. Bottom line, people need to feel needed and if their culture or family, because of a cultural confusion, cannot provide them with a sense of ‘self’ or ‘community’ then this is where problems will, and do, start to arise. Don’t dwell in apathy… Hail Heritage!”

33

Visual Aggression

By Adrian ‘The Energizer’ Bromley

How hard was it to choose a piece of art to go on this album artwork?

This was a very natural process for me as my artwork and the music of Fetid Zombie go hand-in-hand. All of the illustrations I’ve completed for Fetid Zombie are related to the lyrical content of the songs; the album covers reflect that. I’ve posted all of the Fetid Zombie-related illustrations in the gallery section of the Fetid Zombie MySpace site for those who might be curious.

I love “Toilet Water Baptism”; what inspired that song?

Classy song title for sure.

Most of my lyrical content is directed toward Christianity as it bears the brunt of my dissatisfaction with organized faiths and religious extremism. “Toilet Water Baptism” acts as a metaphor for the way religious automatons anoint themselves with all of the hypocrisy and contradictions that are attached to Christianity.

Here is an excerpt from the lyrics that reinforces my point: “Font of sewage, bathing your existence, there is no purity, for a poisoned mind.”

Mark Riddick is a talented guy. There’s no denying that. Not only is he one of the metal scene’s most renowned artists (check out the links provided below for past and future art), but he has also been able to bring his love for zombies to life with the goretastic, bloodsoaked corpse-filled mayhem of Fetid Zombie’s album Pleasures of the Scalpel (MetalHit.com). Dastardly fun it is!

UNRESTRAINED! contacted Riddick to find out what inspires his art, his music and how rad having a twin is. (I’ve got one myself.)

Through the horror-filled trails we go…

What do you think of the Internet and how it helps bands (and of course yourself too) get noticed?

Catchy name; where did it come from?

Fetid Zombie is a solo music effort based around the themes and subject matters of my artwork. Since zombies are central characters in my illustrations I felt that the title “Fetid Zombie” seemed to be the most appropriate for the project.

Which do you prefer more: musician or artist? Are they the same or is there a difference?

I prefer being an artist more than a musician because this is where I’ve found greater success. I’ve had a sincere interest in art since early childhood and have made a career both professionally and on the side from this endeavor. Some of your readers may or may not be familiar with my work but I’ve been illustrating for the underground metal scene for almost 20 years. My art has been published by hundreds of death and black metal bands including Arsis, The Black Dahlia Murder, Varathron, Kataklysm, Enthroned, Internal Bleeding, Hirax, Psycroptic, Beneath the Massacre, Hideous Deformity, and many others. Although I do enjoy illustrating very much, writing and recording music is another creative outlet for me. While art and music share the common goal of selfexpression, the tools and time required to achieve the outcome are very different. Whatever the case, the end product is gratifying whether it’s visual or auditory, but I can certainly say there is much more demand for my art than for my music.

Why tackle Fetid Zombie as a solo project and not team up with your brother again (or others)?

My twin brother, Mike, and I used to play in a death metal project called Excrescent in the early ’90s. We published two demo tapes and then pursued other projects in other genres together.

We published several successful albums with our neo-medieval project, The Soil Bleeds Black, wherein I performed a variety of acoustic instruments, and recorded songs together for other collaborative projects like Hexentanz, Moonroot, and Equimanthorn.

I initiated Fetid Zombie in 2007 because I wanted to get back in touch with my metal roots. Although I wrote and recorded a lot of non-metal albums in the past decade, I’ve always been a diehard metal fan at heart. Fetid Zombie was a breath of fresh air for me, and because my brother and I have our own priorities now, it was more convenient for me to pursue the project on my own.

34

Fetid Zom bie / Maleficio

The extent of my brother’s involvement in Fetid Zombie is that he acts as my publisher through his record label www.metalhit.com.

While Fetid Zombie may act as a solo effort, I have invited a few other musicians to make guest appearances on my recordings. I’ve already worked with members from my other death metal band, Unburied, Jim Malone of Arsis, and Steve Miller of Loculus on my first full-length, Pleasures of the Scalpel. I have already arranged plans to work with Brian Forman of Unburied, who will record drums and produce my next full-length album, Vomiting in the Baptismal Pool, and will work with Loculus again, as well as Mike Majewsi of Devourment, and Kam Lee of Massacre/Death/Bone Gnawer/Denial Fiend.

Who are the influences for the band’s sound and style?

Fetid Zombie draws influence from across genres but its backbone is early ’90s death metal. I still love the sound from the old demo tapes that I collected in the early ’90s along with some of the masters like Pestilence, Gorguts, Impetigo, General Surgery, Suffocation, Carcass, Internal Bleeding, and others. The early ’90s aside, I’m also heavily influenced by black/thrashers like Bestial Mockery, Absu, Impiety, Setherial, Anal Vomit, Necromessiah, Nunslaughter and technical grinders such as Decrepit Birth, Arsis, Inveracity, Disavowed, Necrophagist, et cetera.

Do you ever play out live? Have you ever done so? I assume it would be rather hard unless you had a huge screen and behind it a drum machine and keyboards with guitar parts and then you're looking like Doc from Back to the Future with all these instrumental shenanigans.

I’ve never performed live with Fetid Zombie as it’s a solo effort and I intend to pursue it as a studio project only.

The Internet is an amazing tool for bands, artists, and record labels to take advantage of. While I still miss the old underground way of networking, via postal mail in the early ’90s, the Internet is a very convenient way to share information and music with friends and fans. The dissemination of information and music is much faster as well. If it was 1992 I probably would’ve produced a Fetid Zombie demo tape that would reach 300 to 500 interested parties; with MySpace for example, I’m able to publish three or four songs and it can reach thousands of individuals. The opportunity for exposure is out there if a band takes the time to network with people in the scene. The Internet has been very effective in supporting my freelance illustration career. I used to find work by staying in touch with bands via postal mail, but having an official Web site and a MySpace site has significantly increased my visibility. I receive about 90 percent of my work through MySpace alone and I get requests almost daily now; I can’t believe how much the Internet has done for me.

I’m going to assume music and/or art is a full-time job for you, but are there any hobbies you do outside of all this stuff?

I earn my living as a full-time graphic designer and I do freelance illustration for the metal scene outside of my day job. Music on top of that is something I make time for when the opportunity arises. My first passion is my family as my wife and my son come before anything else. I can’t really say that I have any hobbies; only passions.

I’m a twin too—tell me what you think makes being a twin special.

Being a twin, as I’m sure you can relate, is a very unique experience. It’s been wonderful having a built-in support system while growing up, someone who you can share ideas, goals, and passions with. My brother and I are obviously adults now and have our own families to attend to, but we still make an effort to collaborate on creative endeavors whenever possible.

For Mark’s art and music, visit: www.riddickart.com / www.myspace.com/riddickart / www.myspace.com/fetidzombie / www.riddickbros.com

Maleficio Greatness From The Underground <typing: www.google.com> <search: “Kickass, straight-up death metal band from Sweden”> <result: MALEFICIO> Okay that may not be the way I stumbled upon Maleficio or their fuckin’ jaw-dropping, in-your-face death metal attack Under the Black Veil (Hateworks), but if any band was part of that search engine’s keyword search, no doubt this band would be one of the top results.

“PTR came up with the name Maleficio. The band name is Portuguese and it’s from a movie with Jack Nicholson, but I can’t remember the name of the movie. You have to watch all his movies to find out [it’s from 1987’s The Witches of Eastwick—AB],” says bassist GoatLord. “We wanted a cool evil name and we just thought that Maleficio sounded pretty cool. I think that the name comes from the word ‘Malèfico’ and it means something like ‘diabolic’ and ‘satanic.’ But it also had to do with black magic. The album also has the same title as one of our old demos from 1998 that also is called Under the Black Veil [the band have put out 18 demos since 1991—AB]. That song is about the return of the third anti-Christ or whatever you want to call it. I call it evil. The title means that what you see might not be what it is. Even the most evil person in history had a comic mustache. But our lyrics are about everything that fucks this world up, like religious wars, for example. Religion is a big pain in the ass for the whole world, so we like to write about what we think of Jesus, his mother and the biggest dictator of them all: God. Fuck that! Be your own dictator! Don’t kneel before a loser in a book!”

For a band that is relatively unknown, the impact that this debut album could have is great. It’s pure, unfiltered brutality. Death metal with might and a violent delivery, Under The Black Veil is an awesome album that needs to be heard. Vocalist Dan Soxx agrees.

“When I listen to the album today, I think it sounds great and I love these songs. There are some songs that were written more than 10 years ago, but we wanted them on our debut ’cause we’re always playing them in our live shows. But of course, there are some things that could be better. One thing is that we only got one week in the studio, so there was no time to go deep into the recording. I think with more time, the album could have been more majestic and even more aggressive.”

Adds guitarist Mike, Almightymike: “Due to the small recording budget we had we could only afford seven days in the studio, so it was really intense. We had to work all day and night to get it done in time, and that screws with your head after a while.

Unfortunately we couldn’t be around for the mixing so there were a few things that got messed up. My solos were mixed all wrong with the second pitch higher than the first. So they sound a bit strange. Besides that, we all think the record sounds good and we are really pleased that it’s finally out.”

You’ve recorded so many demos. Most bands would have given up…

“We do this ’cause this is fun! As long as we can write good music and do live shows, the band will go on. We have done about 18 to 20 demo tapes, and yes, that is a lot, but we have done them

mostly for ourselves,” Soxx responds. “We sent a few demos to some record companies, just to see if they were going to show any kind of interest, but we only got the standard answers back.

We gave some of our demos to people in the scene, and some magazines. We have always gotten good reviews in magazines, so I don’t know why we never worked harder to get a record deal before. I think that we are a little bit lazy,” he laughs. “I hope we can have the opportunity to record some more albums. We have a lot of great songs that we just have to get out there!”

“You can listen to a lot of old demo recordings on our MySpace (www.myspace.com/maleficiotheone),” points out drummer PTR. “You can also watch a song from our latest live gig and order the album. We also have a homepage that’s under construction at the time but will be up and running soon. Right now our MySpace page is used to gain more fans and announce events such as gigs and other news. And of course we use it to find new places to terrorize with our live shows.”

In closing I ask the rabid metalheads about their plans for 2009.

Any touring in the works? “We want to play live a lot, everywhere!” says the singer. “Festivals or just some shitty place for 20 drunken people—I don’t care! And we’ll still make new music for ourselves, for you, and all metal fans in the world! We can only hope that there are labels and magazines that understand our greatness! It is hard to be a rock star when nobody knows that you are!”

By Adrian ‘The Energizer’ Bromley

35

“Now we’re in the butter!”

by Brian J. Wright “Uh...” says a slightly embarrassed-looking Amon Amarth drummer Fredrik Andersson, “I don’t know if that’s an expression in English.”

This would not be the only time in this interview that Andersson would struggle to find the right metaphor, but damn if it wasn’t the most title-worthy. He’s referring to 2003, when his band was blessed with a slot on the Metal Gods tour with Rob Halford, Immortal, Testament, and others. It looked like the opportunity of a lifetime. It wasn’t.

“We played five shows. There was two shows we weren’t on that Behemoth played instead of us, but that tour with that big production going into venues that we play on our own now, it didn’t work out. Which is a shame. The tour was planned to sell out each venue, and it didn’t, and the budget didn’t work out.

To me it’s totally weird that people wouldn’t show up. Maybe it was too diverse, because most of the fans that came were there for Halford, and they showed up at the very end, so a couple of the shows we played to not even half-full venues. That’s probably the reason it didn’t work out. It would probably work better in Europe; that would’ve been a great success.”

That would’ve been around the time when the band came up with the concept for the cover of the new album, Twilight of the Thunder God. That cover is pure Viking metal badassery on a four-by-four square. You probably remember exactly where you were when you first saw that cover, burned into your mind forevermore, that’s how much it rules. “It’s the title’s story, it’s the main event where Thor fights the World Snake. [See, told you it was awesome—BJW.] What is going on on the album cover is illustrated on thousand-year-old drawings, and there’s even a statue in Stockholm that has the same idea. It’s a story that’s been told many times over the years. We had the idea of doing this cover for many years but I guess the song didn’t come up until now, and then when we had the song, we wanted to do the album cover.”

Good buzz (and damn, that cover couldn’t hurt) and a relentless approach to touring North America seems to have paid off.

36

Amon Amarth

Twilight debuted in the top 50 on the American Billboard chart; top 40 in Canada. “We did three U.S. tours on the last album, so that probably had something to do with it. Of course it’s a huge thing to be on the Billboard, but we were actually disappointed we didn’t with the last album. We thought we’d get at least into the top 200, but didn’t. It’s been going so slowly, step by step that I can’t really think of one thing that made us reach a higher level.”

One such bit of endless touring was the first tour that successfully brought them to my neck of the woods on the Canadian prairies, after a 2001 tour was scrapped in the wake of 9/11. Six years on, Amon Amarth must’ve seemed like the odd men out on Sounds of the Underground. “We had a good time. I think by the time we got on, the kids were a little bit tired of some of the other bands; we had always a great response. I don’t know if it did that much for us, but the main thing for us was the first time coming here and to Edmonton, where we had some of our best shows. But I don’t think it was that weird really; when we signed on we had no idea what other bands would be. We just looked at previous years, and all the bands that we knew had been on there, In Flames and everything, so we were like sure, we’ll do it.

And [though] the package turned out to be a bit more into the hardcore or metalcore scenes, it worked out well for us.”

Amon Amarth is not a band known for big surprises, but Twilight offers a few. “We think we changed quite a bit. Actually a lot of our old-school fans notice it more than maybe the fans who picked up the last record or the last few records. There’s a lot of changes in the music, writing and everything.” Most obviously, Finnish cellists Apocalyptica guest on “Live for the Kill.” “Actually it’s always been in the back of our head to do a collaboration with Apocalyptica. This idea came up like five years ago. It seemed too strange, too...not us. But when we recorded the song in the studio and the producer said, ‘I want a break here and bring in some violins and cellos and stuff,’ and we were like, okay, we can try it and see how it turns out, and if it’s cool we keep it; if not, we keep the original version. He wanted to hire some local cellists in the area, but we were like, why don’t we call Apocalyptica? If

they’re up to it it’d be cool, and luckily they were. It was his idea, but we brought on our original idea and combined the two. I think it was cooler that way also, because they added their touch to it, than if we had just some hired players to play what we told them to play.

“I think there’s a Scandinavian understanding. I think in general Swedes are a little bit more careful and don’t...uh...” He beats his chest. Like King Kong, man. Remember that thing with the metaphors. “If you look at Norwegian and Finnish bands, they have a lot more of the...they’re very showy. I was thinking about it the other day when I was watching Ensiferum’s set. They’re all playing in Finnish colours, the singer has like a Finnish flag as his outfit, and if we would do that in Sweden, have a Swedish coloured outfit, we would be totally bashed, we would be banned from any magazine in Sweden and hardly allowed to sell our CDs. But in Norway and Finland that’s okay, and they like it, they think it’s a good thing.”

The U.S./Canadian tour took them through both countries at a time of national election frenzy, but even for such a much-hyped event, Andersson does not notice much of a political charge in the air. “Of course Swedish media covers the American election; it’s the event of the century,” he laughs, “but I wouldn’t know about the Canadian election if it wasn’t for my girlfriend. My girlfriend is Canadian and she voted already, sent it by letter. I haven’t actually noticed anything here in North America—that’s surprising.”

Of course, neither Harper nor Obama can compete with the awesomeness of thunder-god Thor, whose man-on-the-street popularity (how many other Norse gods can your little sister name?) sets him apart from the pantheon, Andersson suspects, “I guess because he represents strength. He’s basically the coolest of all the gods in Northern mythology. You can buy books where they put in all the gods in Northern mythology and of course you can’t keep track of all of them so there’s the one that got more publicity. Even in the Viking age, Thor was one of the more popular ones; he was feared even as he was very popular.”

Perhaps not surprisingly, he’s not as enthusiastic about the Marvel

Comics interpretation. “Yeah, actually I don’t think that comic picked up very well in Sweden.

I myself am not a big comic person, so I might have missed it. I’m fairly sure that it wasn’t one of the big ones; we had uh... You know, the one they made a film of, he lives in a cave with a skull ring, purple suit...The Phantom! [Me, thinking to myself...The Phantom? Really?—BJW] And Superman and the Hulk, but we didn’t really have Thor so much. We have our own comics about the Viking age and stuff like that, so to get an American version...” He laughs.

The title track’s Viking-steeped video was a reportedly difficult shoot, but not so much for the band themselves. “Obviously the ideal would be to have Thor fighting the World Serpent, but we don’t have a million-dollar budget. Had to think of something else. We had a Viking village where they have this convention every year in Poland, so all the Vikings were there, we had time off so everything just clicked together. It was easy; usually we play the song over and over again for the whole day, but this song, our part we recorded in three or four hours. The hard time was that the whole day from six in the morning till we were done in the evening it was constantly storm, wind, sand in your eyes, all the time. People were walking around with glasses on to keep sand out of their eyes. There’s no escaping from wind, there’s nowhere you can go, it’s just in your face all the time. It was really tiring. It was actually more work for the Vikings.”

The most bizarre bit of Twilight’s assault on our shores has to be the limited edition that comes with bobblehead versions of each band member. Andersson makes no excuses. “Well, as bad as it might sound, you kind of have to have something special for the fans to buy CDs nowadays, which is why all the bands release digipaks and give away DVDs and everything like that, but it was our record label that suggested the bobbleheads, and we just thought it would be a fun idea. We all grew up in the ’80s with KISS stuff to collect, and me personally I just thought a bobblehead of myself…of course I want that. Who wouldn’t want that?” he laughs. “So it was just kind of obvious. And I think it kind of pissed some of the fans off.

“We got some reaction from the forums and MySpace. Fans were really pissed off because they take this Viking thing very seriously, they’re paganist, Odinist, very true and everything, and I guess it’s our way to say we don’t really take it that seriously. We just write about Vikings to have a theme to write about that we think fits with our songs and it’s an interesting theme, but it’s not like we dress up in bearskins and walk around with an axe and jump on the horse…”

Might it have been ever worse if they’d come out with a Thor bobblehead and a World Serpent bobblehead?

“Um, no, I think some actually suggested they would’ve preferred that.” He chuckles ruefully.

“You can’t satisfy everyone.”

37

Guide to a Greener Metal World

H

istorically speaking, heavy metal bands—particularly death metal acts—have served as watchdogs over conventional society, whether you’re talking about Nuclear Assault’s Game Over and Handle With Care albums or Death’s Leprosy or even Kreator’s grind classic “Toxic Trace” from Terrible Certainty. Even Gwar chastises the carelessness of mankind via their gory mutant stage personae in addition to having an album called This Toilet Earth.

France’s Gojira, however, like their Japanese namesake (known better to the western world as Godzilla, which was also the band’s name before they switched to the Japanese enunciation in 2001), produces a bombastic, surface-rattling din that roars and screeches through their experimental death throes. Their sound is brute ugly and strangely quixotic in the same measure, but ironically Gojira’s aural devastation is all in the interest of expounding the merits of a green-minded society, a world ideally more interested in replicating—or at least preserving—an optimistic texture to the land where the bucolic remains thus.

They may be too heavy for Al Gore’s listening pleasure (you know Al’s wife would’ve missed Gojira’s point altogether and strapped them to the Moral Majority crucifix, given that she and her PMRC cohorts had the gall to misconstrue John Denver’s “Rocky Mountain High” as a drug tune), but at least Gojira’s environmental ethics are in accordance with the former presidential candidate’s headline-grabbing stance against global warming, which has become a rally charge in the latter half of the this decade.

A byproduct of a plunged atomic wedgie, Godzilla enacts his revenge upon humankind with vociferous blaring and haphazard demolition. Through four albums, Gojira has been working on the side of the earth while blaring their raucous and frequently artistic music with a massive rhythm section filled with chunky chords, tailspun beat patterns and a wailing vocalist in the form of Joe Duplantier.

Guiding their listeners “into the realm of imagination,” as Duplantier observes, Gojira is currently pounding bricks on tour in support of their latest creation The Way of All Flesh. Heavier and crunchier than their previous album From Mars to Sirius, Gojira’s latest album is all about winding rhythms, death metal desolation and a highly developed appreciation for sub-layers. Full of cyber tweaks à la Voivod though still retaining death measures and modified metalcore strikes on songs like “All the Tears,” “Vacuity” and “The Art of Dying,” Gojira projects an understated delight for no-rules, tech-filled death metal that makes the band one of the genre’s most progressive, alert-issuing units on the scene today.

“We just wanted a name that would represent the music we try to create—heavy and crushing,” Duplantier states. “Godzilla was just the perfect name for us. It’s also pretty interesting that this monster was born from nuclear wastes and fights back from underwater. It’s representative of humanity destroying itself by abusive behaviour toward nature.”

In the upswing of American “Go Green” campaigning (which is reportedly one of President-elect Barack Obama’s immedi38

Gojira

ate objectives when he begins his term in office), the rest of civilization is slowly waking up to a world gradually being decimated by biological deterioration, frayed ozone and callous over-consumption of resources. On their 2003 album The Link, Gojira began to spread their message of large-scale depredation, eventually collecting a worldwide audience to their cause with 2005’s From Mars to Sirius.

In a country customarily concerned with being fashionably hip at all times, the danger of a neo-Roman America treating the “Go Green” movement as a mere fad instead of a serious commitment weighs heavily in the grand perspective of proper ecological advancement.

Joe Duplantier believes, “I think a real change comes from an awakening of the consciousness inside of each person. No matter how it begins, I think all the ‘Go Green’ campaigns of the world are better than the deadly inertia that paralyzes humanity when it comes to ecology. They are some big decisions to take, more radical than the ‘bicycle day’ [a staged protest against soaring gas prices in Paris in which citizens commuted strictly on bicycles instead of automobiles]. At the same time I agree that a lot of people just try to get a good conscience from these kinds of actions and don’t really try to face the situation we’re going through right now.”

Gojira engages in ecological warfare through its music, though not to blunt procedures as say, Cattle Decapitation. Instead, Gojira structures their unpredictable songwriting to ebb postmetallic atmospherics with stamping thrash splinters and grinding hardcore rhythms, all with a subliminal mechanical resonance personifying the defragmentation effect of Mother Earth. On The Way of All Flesh, they go to such extreme measures as to send their listeners out in polluted channels to “Toxic Garbage Island,” a hypothetical terror zone of environmental despair. “‘Toxic Garbage Island’ is about a patch of floating plastic wastes in the Pacific Ocean twice the size of Texas,” Duplantier explains. “It’s compared to an island made of garbage but it’s in fact right under the surface of water and it’s like a cancer growing every day, fed by human activity on earth. Only a few people know about that.

I wanted to call a song this and talk about it in order to inform people, but also to express how pissed off I am. I think everybody should see how their mistakes affect others, but also all the beautiful living beings such as turtles, seals, dolphins and sharks killed every day just because of plastic bags being thrown in the sea.”

While Gojira principally assumes their pro-ecology platform, one of the fundamental concepts the band has traditionally explored is death and the various physical and psychological studies of transient passage from an enlightened human state into the next life.

“The Way of All Flesh is talking about the human soul as always in Gojira’s lyrics, and about the mysteries of life in general using the spectrum of death. What is the greatest fear of humanity and at the same time the most common thing down here? Death. I think it’s the unknown and mostly what’s awaiting us after we die that

Ray Van Horn, Jr.

makes us want to turn our backs on this subject. I like to use my imagination combined with my intuitions and personal beliefs to build the ideas of the songs. I like the concept of facing our inner fears in order to find peace in life; that’s what I’m trying to do. I personally believe in the immortality of the soul.”

Turning to the classic thrash band Death, Duplantier acknowledges the late Chuck Schuldiner’s progressive work on Human, Individual Thought Patterns, Leprosy and The Sound of Perseverance has had a lasting and almost exclusive impression on his own.

“Death is definitely one of our big influences, along with Morbid Angel and Sepultura. We had a whole period when we started the band when Death was the only band we could listen to. I think Chuck would probably understand what we’re doing today because we learned so much from him and somehow we feel on the same page. I like to think that from where he is now, over the clouds, he’s banging his head listening to the new wave of death metal...”

Duplantier’s affinity for Sepultura ended up bearing a twist of fate when the Cavalera brothers Max and Iggor (as he spells it these days) resolved past differences and reunited for their explosive side project Cavalera Conspiracy. Selected to play bass on Cavalera Conspiracy’s debut album Inflikted, the opportunity to rub elbows in the studio with his renowned peers brought Duplantier sincere joy.

“I have to say that it’s been an amazing experience to be able to work with Max and Iggor Cavalera, and also Rex Brown and Logan Mader. It was way beyond my dreams to collaborate with members of some of my favourite bands and main influences: Sepultura, Pantera, and Machine Head! I am stoked to be part of this Conspiracy. I did the bass on the album and also the guitars on four songs, but from the start I told them I just couldn’t be part of the tour since I was already working on Gojira’s album at that time.”

As Gojira tapers their rampant double-timed breakaways with cyberpunk nuances and airy guitar swipes to create a highly agitated and sometimes elevating discordance on complicated songs like “Yama’s Messengers,”“A Sight to Behold” or “All the Tears,” The Way of All Flesh may yet prove to be a transitional entry in the band’s discography.

“I have a feeling of how the next album will sound,” Duplantier ponders, “and I can tell it’s going to be an evolution compared to this one. We will certainly dig more into brutality and at the same time into weird melodies and crunchy riffs with strange structures. We are big fans of music, suffice it to say.”

Whether or not the planet will be any greener by the time Gojira sets its booming proverbial foot down on album number five remains to be seen in the midst of continued Middle Eastern combat, much less a world faced with the reality of emergent natural storms bearing catastrophic capacities.

Just try telling Mother Nature to simmer down…

39

Meet the Satanic Willy Wonkas of

Bigelf “For me, progressive is a band pushing their own limits.”

Damon Fox is a counterculture genius and his band Bigelf is a monstrously progressive unit working under the radar of even far-flung underground artists of today, much as their forefathers Gentle Giant, King Crimson, Renaissance, Nektar and The Pretty Things did in the late sixties and seventies. Each of the former are now revered icons perhaps one tier in the grand scheme of rock evolution below Yes and Emerson, Lake and Palmer, but the common factor between them is a boundary-crossing devotion to artistic rock expression.

In the case of Fox and Bigelf (which is also lovingly referred to by Fox as “The Elf”) true prog rock never died, nor did the grand spectacle of music presentation circa the ’70s when you stop and hear the classic rock calliope underscoring the band’s latest album Cheat the Gallows.

Only their fifth studio album in 16 years together, it’s a revisionist circus of doom, with nearly insane transitions between towering rock and slinky jazz-prog while chucking in a few tonguein-cheek pop roasts such as “Superstar” and the Lennon-esque mope-a-dope single “Money, It’s Pure Evil.”

“I guess one of the main goals of Bigelf is to cross over into a multi-genre kind of facet,” Damon Fox observes about his band’s gleefully unorthodox approach to retro sludge rock. “I like knowing it doesn’t have to be a certain genre. In my mind there’s too many rules of listening, and in The Elf we take a lot hits and slams for being so multi-genre. A lot of people don’t like their Beatles mixed in with their Sabbath or they don’t want to hear any glam with their stoner. I just think it’s funny people get up in arms about it. They don’t want to hear Queen and Uriah Heep together. That’s the whole point of Bigelf, is to hopefully do something original. It should feel familiar to you but not familiar. It’s definitely catching on, though you can’t please everybody.”

If anyone can be considered to be passionate about music, Damon Fox’s entire life might be said to be a conservatory unto itself. In possession of a vintage instrument collection that the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame would be interested in showcasing, Fox’s infatuation with rock drifts back far beyond Bigelf’s inception in 1992.

“Definitely a lot of bands growing up had a huge impact on me, a lot more ’70s stuff. The Beatles had this sort of omnipresence. The Beatles in my teens was just non-stop; I was running around high school playing song splices and saying ‘Here’s this tape, check it out!’ and people would be like, ‘Dude, you’re kinda weird!’ I was like, ‘But you’ve got to hear this splice of tape, check it out!’”

For many music fans, owning a vault of albums would be sufficient. However, Fox’s obsession with rock music extends to collectibles, even ones he’s never attained: “Deep Purple, those candles on Burn, I used to look at them when I was kid, not even 10 years old, and I remember looking at those and just freaking out! In the ’90s I had a friend who knew my parents and there was this music auction book that had come and it was inviting you to join the things that were in there. It was ridiculous; it was mostly an Elton John collection, so it was phenomenal. But the one thing I wanted that I actually didn’t reach, was those Deep Purple Burn candles! I took my album out and they were burned exactly the same way so yeah, it was them! They were 1200 dollars and I was like, ‘I have to get them!’ I wish I’d gotten into the auction. Can you imagine having the candles to Burn?”

Fox’s old-school mentality just doesn’t apply to Bigelf’s retro rock savoir faire. To hear Fox talk about the way music was obtained years ago versus Generation Tech’s instant accessibility is like a nostalgic walk down Penny Lane.

“Kids today can just go to YouTube and dial up anything they want. When I got it, man, you had to drive and search out prog rock record stores and special shops that had those collections.

Then you had to go ‘Hey, do you have any King Crimson?’ then you’d pay the guy, get some VHS and go home and just die! Now the immediate access to all that stuff is just insane! I remember even when Bigelf was just a fledgling band finding Straight-Up by Badfinger on vinyl, which is 40

Bigelf

JEX

one of those weird collectible, hard-to-find albums. You go into a record store, it’d be on the wall for $100.00 and go ‘fuuuuck!’ We’d be constantly on the lookout when we’d go on these micro tours and we’d all argue in the B section who was going to be able to look and find the Badfinger album for $5.00 or something, and it’s just amazing that stuff is now so accessible. It’s all out there. It’s excellent, but it changes the dynamic of the way your brain processes the exclusiveness or specialty of its magic.”

THOTH

The fact Damon Fox and Bigelf have transcended their initial Sabbath-inspired boom on their early albums Closer to Doom, Goatbridge Palace and Money Machine isn’t nearly as remarkable as the fact that Cheat the Gallows plays like a Who’s Who gonzo rockfest. Categorization becomes futile. Fox says fans and friends are referring to the album as Bigelf’s “Sgt. Pepper moment.”

Genre? Not one to be found or even thought of in Bigelf’s iron butterscotch world.

“The hard part about subgenres of music is this,” Fox states. “Unless you can make a real crack in the mainframe, it’s not going to change anything. To me, metal and punk, stoner, even some of the other stuff like rap, for instance, it’s all a separate genre, but it’s all a minority in some way.

Metal is just starting to come back, which is great, but for me, the important thing is to make a crack in the mainframe in order to change things. In this day and age a lot of people are real stuck in their genre or type of listening, whereas 10 or 20 years ago you listened to lots of different music. When I was growing up it was Zeppelin, it was Sweet, but you also did a little listening to the Beatles, the Bee Gees, who at some point were still pretty cool.”

Stone Cold Evil

By Adrian ‘The Energizer’ Bromley

Call it powerful. Call it doom. Call it “alchemical doom,” as the band does. Whatever description you hand out to the mighty ways of Jex Thoth, you can’t deny the seductive allure of the rumbling, ’70s-flavoured psychedelic doom rock that makes up their self-titled debut for I Hate Records. It’s a truly hypnotic dose of musical creativity that’ll leave you hitting the repeat button on your CD player. Yes, it’s that good!

With most of the songs building towards a precise point while providing ear candy and time signature sways, Cheat the Gallows is an album requiring a patient ear. However, Fox would likely agree the payoffs are worth waiting for, and the waits are seldom long. While Bigelf makes great use of Hammond organs and Mellotron, Cheat the Gallows is dedicated heavily to ever-changing moods.

I can’t believe it has taken UNRESTRAINED! this long to do a feature on the band (should have been last spring), but here we are at least. The secretive world of Jex Thoth opens up to us just a bit, but we’ll take what we can get…

“Every band has the process of making songs and it’s not pain; it’s just a matter of finding the right tunes to make a record. With a band spread as far out as Bigelf is, it can be a little daunting to make the correct soup, because literally you have ten songs on the record where three or four are more in the rock category, three or four are in the sort of Beatles mellow type of psychedelic category, and there’s a couple hardcore epic prog numbers. If you pull one or two rockers off to make the album shorter, that totally changes the dynamic of the record. We’re just looking for the best material in the best way. All of the songs are different and I’m very proud of this album.”

First you must understand, we all shared the same idea, to make melodic and heavy occult rock music that would stand out. The album is based on “songwriting” as opposed to “sounds.” Whether we succeeded in writing good songs, that’s for the listener to decide. We like it. The voice of Jex inspired my contributions to the songs, but we are influenced by many things esoteric and otherwise. It’s impossible to list our influences here; many of them are non-musical, philosophical, theological.

Recently signing Bigelf to her corporate-sponsored label Custard was 4 Non-Blondes singer Linda Perry. Also behind the success stories of pop stars such as Alicia Keyes, Pink, Christina Aguilera, Vanessa Carlton, and James Blunt, Perry’s acquisition of the space trucking Bigelf may leave a few heads to be scratched. However, Damon Fox has nothing but praise for Perry and he describes her as having a rocker’s soul, one with the courage to sign and let loose Bigelf to create what to this point is their masterwork.

“I think people like Linda have everything correct in mind as far as where music needs to go. That’s why she signed Bigelf and that’s why she put Cheat the Gallows out. She’s really a true rocker at heart. Truth be told, I think Linda’s in a way a kind of song doctor. When people want to get real, when they want to get rebellious, when they want to get fucked up and dirty, they go to Linda.

Linda loves The Who, she loves Led Zeppelin, and Pink Floyd’s her favourite band. Her and I went to see Roger Waters at The Bowl. She’s loved Bigelf since her and I met ten years ago. Linda’s heart is behind Bigelf, which is good. To get Bigelf out into the forefront, you’re going to need somebody like Linda who’s willing to show she’s got a pair, you know? She’s the real deal in my mind.”

Naturally some naysayers are wont to crucify a band like Bigelf for having relations with a big label, which Fox dismisses as bunk, asserting that his friendship and working affiliation with Linda Perry is precisely what Bigelf needs for sustenance as creators, much less scene survivors.

“People ask questions about The Elf and the industry and ‘shaking hands with the devil’ or ‘How does The Elf get together with the business side?’ How does it work? It was pretty easy! Linda said ‘Okay, you guys just do what you want.’ We went into the studio, she checked in with me a couple times, I played her some demos and mixes and told her those were the songs we were going to do.

She said she really liked that, didn’t like this, and when we said we really liked something, she’d listen to it again. It was so basic. She basically let us make the complete record that we wanted and she put it out. As far as a band like Bigelf goes, what else could you ask for? From the get-go she said to me, ‘Don’t think you need to edit yourself for me. Just do the music you’re going to do and if I think that there’s edits—meaning changes—I’ll do that.’ The changes were so minimal, if that, and most of it was a good thing because you can’t just leave me in the candy store! The songs will start to have diabetes!”

When all is said and done about Cheat the Gallows, Bigelf will undoubtedly have been said to have taken a shot by being honest with themselves. Though not for every taste, a band that sacrifices preconceptions and reputation to move forward is one likely to be remembered.

“I don’t know if anyone’s going to follow us on this one. It’s hard to say. This was destined to be a carnival kind of record. We got it out of us and now maybe we can move on to something else! I think it’s definitely a vacant area. The circus thing is a dangerous ground, man. It’s big entertainment, but the whole point of it is it’s kind of twisted, it’s dark, it’s kind of festive, it has a little bit of camp in there. For me, it’s good! I’m into it. I love the satanic Willy Wonka thing going on. No problem for me!”

Ray Van Horn, Jr.

Let’s talk about the album and what inspired the music and ideas that went into it. How far from the original concept of the album do the end results differ?

Are you a fan of studio work? What new ideas and/or techniques did you bring into the studio work if any?

Clay [Ruby, producer] is very secretive about how his studio works, but this is all done on a small budget, so it’s nothing fancy. It’s a mix of modern digital things and shitty old gear from the ’70s, amps that make loud buzzing sounds, crackly old fuzz-wah pedals and analog effects, half of it broken, but we don’t like giving away trade secrets. You should have seen the bass we used, it was like an ’80s purple Destroyer-copy bass someone threw in the trash. The organ smelled like mold and the drumkit was literally stolen from a nearby high school.

The influences and styles that make up the band—’70s rock, psychedelia, some noise and doom and more—provide a truly unique experience for all, not to mention the great vocals. How hard was it to bring all of this together and fuse it as one? I can only imagine…

It wasn’t difficult. We are all on the same page. Jex’s vocals tie it all together, and aside from a few musical interludes we thought of the song first and lead vocals as the centre of it all. We are open to all kinds of music, experimental, pop, metal, krautrock, folk, but it’s all serving this heavy and dreamy sound we are trying to achieve. It’s an almost religious feeling we are after, tainted with a little blasphemy.

Was the album assembled song by song or in bits and pieces?

Almost all the tracks were pre-written and demoed on four-track. There were three songwriters on the record, and we all traded tapes. Then some improvisation and “chemical” influence in the studio created a more collaborative process concerning the arrangements. Clay’s production work also added a compositional element, as the organ and synth sounds reveal new layers.

How important has the Internet been in terms of getting the band’s name out there and keeping in touch with your fanbase?

Well, first you have to make some decent music and then you can use the Internet for all the other bullshit. I Hate found us on MySpace [www.myspace.com/totemdoom], but I don’t know how often that happens. I like the Internet for sampling different bands. Yeah, it’s fine, but not as exciting as it once was to find a Corrosion of Conformity LP in the back of a dusty record bin.

What do you think of today’s music scene?

As far as new releases, it’s thriving. For someone who likes heavy music, it’s paradise (or Hades). There is a lot of amazing music out there: Moss, Dead Reptile Shrine, Wold, Until Death Overtakes Me, Dead Raven Choir/Wolfmangler, Corrupted, Earth...

The band has garnered a lot of praise and some success over the last year or so. How do you feel about all of the attention? Do you consider yourselves a success?

We are very much an isolationist band actually. We trade ideas and write songs, but we have never attempted to make it a “career” as some bands do. I don’t know why people give a shit and keep writing about us, maybe because it’s unusual to have a female vocalist or because we sound a little different.

So far all the praise and attention hasn’t changed our lives, but we don’t expect it to. We just want to make music that we would want to hear.

Jex Thoth

41

A Kre ation K arol M

ille Petrozza is not dead, to begin with (with apologies to Charles Dickens). There is no doubt whatsoever about that. The register of his survival came from his record company, his PR people, my editor, and the man himself. Petrozza released it, his latest album in a long line, and Kreator’s name is good upon “excellence,” for anything they choose to put their hands to.

No one would blame you if you thought Petrozza and company (Jurgen “Ventor” Reil, drums; Christian Giesler, bass; and Sami Yli-Sirnio, guitar) were dead. Their last release, Enemy of God, was their most successful venture since Coma of Souls, with the resulting popularity re-explosion propelling them toward three years of touring. And after that blistering pace, there has been nary a peep from the German thrash camp in nigh over a year.

They did not die of over-exhaustion, or being mobbed alive by fans. Alive and well they are. Indeed, it is because of that year off that Kreator has re-entered the spotlight with Hordes of Chaos, a ten-track thrash tornado of tempestuous resolve. So, the war drums sound once more, as Petrozza plays ambassador for all things Kreator, as his spirit comes to visit us (via the phone, of course), and warn us of the dire kreative tidings heading our way.

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Kreator

By Alex Ristic

THE GHOST OF KREATOR PRESENT When I heard the new album, it was so brash, listening to the music one could scarcely distinguish the inspired brutality of “Destroy What Destroys You,” or “Radical Resistance,” from an earlier, younger Kreator. Endeavoring to pierce the music and find out what lay beneath with our ferret minds, we lingered for him to call us, and waited for the hour.

Our first riposte is indeed about his well being, as Petrozza re-affirms the recent events leading up to Hordes of Chaos.

“I started doing the demo tapes last year, almost two years ago,” states the spirit of all things Kreator. “Even collecting ideas over the years, riffs here and there, coming up with new stuff that was different from the last record took a while. And we toured quite a lot for the last record, there’s always some touring to do, and always some places we haven’t played at. When we did the European tour with Celtic Frost last year we had a lot of stuff playing live, playing festivals around Europe. So rather than just putting out something that’s kind of…not really worked out the way it could have been, we waited a little longer and started the recording when everything was done. We were very prepared for the studio.”

His preparedness also extended to the lyrical aspect of his job. Petrozza took his time with penning the caustic songs laced in Hordes of Chaos, with the societal and political jabs spicing things up nicely as only the veteran can.

All the eras of Kreator are stored within Petrozza. It is what he is now that will lead Kreator into the future. And it was from his past that he moved forward to what he is now. While not necessarily easy, his experience has served him well with writing biting, hard-hitting songs, not the least of which are the last three songs, “To the Afterborn,” “Corpse of Liberty,” and “Demon Prince,” which are taken together to form a story, something Kreator has never really done before.

“I’ve always got different topics, or there are different themes that I write about. Sometimes the idea pops up in my mind to come up with a concept record, but to be honest, it’s thrash metal and I don’t think that works with this kind of music. I have never heard a concept thrash metal record; I don’t know if there is one. I don’t know if it would work. I have so many different ideas, so when you write a song you have to write the lyrics that are going to somehow fit the concept, whatever you come up with, and it would be kind of limiting. So, rather than have a concept record there are three songs on the record that kind of have a link, the last three. They have something in common, maybe you can take each three songs as one huge concept piece at the end of the record. That might be the closest you get to a concept record from Kreator. I wrote these two songs, ‘To the Afterborn’ and ‘Demon Prince,’ that are linked. ‘To the Afterborn’ are people who live after we have died; maybe in 100 years or 50 years, or whenever, when we’re all dead. I wouldn’t call it a warning. It’s more like a message.

Like if somebody listens to music after we’re all gone maybe they can get some kind of idea of the kind of world we lived in. I think that’s a good way of letting people know how life was. When we look into the past and we listen to music from years ago we can kind of get an idea of how people felt. There’s a lot of songs, for instance, about being able to live through things and to overcome, or the concept of losing your integrity, or speak to what you really mean, written about your own life, in your own way. Those songs, in my opinion, kind of touch this, they have something in common.

And then there’s an acoustic piece called ‘Corpse of Liberty’ in between, which is, to me, is dedicated to the people that died in war, especially in wars that were done for the cause of liberty. ‘We are creating liberty here, therefore we have to go to war.’ It causes death and destruction.”

The word “violent” is often associated with Kreator, and although at times apt, it should be used more accurately to describe the release of energy the band brings with its normally fast, heavy hitting sonic fury. Learning from the past, the band knows it is this energy that a live audience will feed off of.

“The last year before doing this album we toured so much and had become a very, very active live band, and that, to me, has become very important. So we wrote all these songs, every song that you hear, is something that we could produce during a live situation, and that was something that we had on our minds. I like catchy songs, I really do like when people remember the lyrics and remember the songs and sing along to it. I think that’s always been a strong part of Kreator. It is a little bit Iron Maiden-ish.

When it comes to leads I’m a more jamming style, and Sami’s more controlled, in-key, crisp,” he laughs.

I’m a very instinctive player; I know the scales but I’m not always in scale, or in-key. Andy Sneap, the producer of Enemy of God, will probably scream when he hears the solos on this record. He was never into it. I always started with a trademark, when you go totally out of key, and we’ve done it since Pleasure to Kill, but he never liked it. He thinks it’s wrong. It is wrong, but it sounds cool.”

Another well-crafted gem is the title track and album opener, “Hordes of Chaos.” Petrozza fills us in with a few details about what was behind the destructive ditty.

“To me, my lyrics are very grabbing, very direct, not street language, but detailed. When you read the titles it’s right in your face. First, of course, I see people and I see them rioting against the government, rising against what makes them pissed off; standing up for what you believe in. Coming up with new concepts and new ideas, and living out your own life. On the other hand, it should be fast, of course. We play everywhere all over the planet, a whole world of metal fans, and they have to live with everyday struggles as well. When they come to a Kreator show they can kind of forget about these things for two hours. It’s a great release of energy in a positive way.”

An interesting thing about Kreator is that they let their imagery, or rather the images you gather from reading the words, seep into your mind, but at the same time, all is not as it seems. A violent revolution need not be violent in a physical or harmful sense

“I mean, you could look at it both ways. Of course, rebellion can be very many different things. When you’re younger you really destroy things without thinking about it. We’ve all done it, when we were kids, for no reason, smashed things and stuff. When you get older, it’s more metaphorical. People that I hang out with, people that I like, people that really matter to me have a view and a vision and a positive way of dealing with life. And I think that’s something where you can also understand lyrics like that. ‘Destroy’ can also mean hanging out with people that are positive [laughs], destroying negativity.”

He elaborates further, and his answers lead one to believe in the passion of his convictions. The environment, the homeless and poor, religious dogma, war, hatred, and a whole host of other socio-political issues have surfaced throughout the ages of Kreator. One could almost say Petrozza is consumed by these issues, as his answers are well-thought out, signifying the mental energy he devotes toward them.

“Change doesn’t have to be violent in a physical way. It has to be a violent change in thinking, in the way we treat the world, and in the way we treat people in third world countries. This world is based on capitalism, or ultra-capitalism, which is very, very, in my opinion, very inhumane, and never fair. There’s countries that make a lot of food, but they’re still starving. I think there’s so much food in this world. The whole world could be fed if governments could find a way of really taking care of things. Nobody would have to die of hunger. But this is not happening yet. There’s still a lot of things in the world that are wrong, and some things that are just fucked up. I think in the third millennium there should come one day anew, with a new way of feeling and a way of treating the planet and each other, and there should be different policies than war and destruction and hate. We should overcome that and start working on things getting better, rather than destroying things and taking from the poor.”

THE GHOST OF KREATOR FUTURE Awaking in the middle of a prodigiously tough contemplation, Petrozza pauses to get his thoughts together. The issues of the day have been around in the past, are currently in the present, and as long as the world continues upon the course that it is on, we will continue to suffer global maladies for the foreseeable future. And so, the singer/guitar player reflects that as long as there are things to sing about, he will still be singing them.

“I mean, as the years pass by, it’s not like I’m calming down like some people might, but I don’t. It doesn’t matter to me; age is not relevant. I think the older you get the more you know, and the more you see. And if you see a lot more of the world as you get older there’s a lot more reasons to be full of hate and anger. It’s not that I have mellowed down or something. I’m hoping that will never happen, not that I’m trying to go through a teenaged rebellion period in my life. It’s just the way that I am.

I’m still getting pissed off about a lot of things. I still think the world is not a perfect place, which it can’t be because it’s human nature. Then again, I think through music, and through my lyrics, I have the right to talk about it, and to write down my thoughts about how I feel. As long as I feel that way I will continue writing angry music, of course.”

He won’t just be battling social injustices anymore though. Although Kreator has seen a reemergence of success, one day they may have to battle the dreaded “downloading syndrome,” which could curtail their survival. Petrozza admits that the metal populace still, for the most part acts like a collective and purchase the products they truly desire…for now.

“I have a lot of friends that listen to alternative music, and they think metal people are so happy because they are the only people that are still buying records and want to have the original album art work and the whole deal. And I think that helps differ metal from all other forms of music. People are real fans, they’re collectors, and I think they’re great. They’ve kept the tradition even though downloading hurt the whole recording industry. It hurt pop and the mainstream a lot more than it hurt metal. It’s such a huge collective of people worldwide. In all parts of the world, I bet you could go to a village in Africa and you’re going to find some metal fans there. Me, as an artist, all I can do is write music. However it is marketed, that’s not my job. I don’t want to get too involved. I really believe that if you write a good record people are going to buy it. Not that I want to compare Kreator to AC/DC, but people are saying ‘the record industry is suffering,’ but all of a sudden AC/DC put out an album and four million people, or a ridiculous amount of people, buy the album. The album, they didn’t download it, they went into a shop. I might be naïve, but I think if you write a great album or quality music people are going to want the original, and I’m the same way. Maybe some younger kids don’t, but if I would be too negative about things I would not enjoy life anymore,” he laughs.

Looking slightly further into the future, once Hordes of Chaos has been released, it will be the band’s 24th anniversary as a recording outfit. With that being the case, and knowing touring and other commitments won’t let them release an album of new material for 2010, why not just hold onto the release for another year?

“I’m not the kind of guy that celebrates anniversaries; I don’t even celebrate my birthday anymore.

I don’t take these things too seriously. Of course, I’m kind of happy about the fact that the band has been around for so long and that we’ve kept doing it, but celebrating an anniversary to me is almost like ‘I’ve achieved something, I’ve done something, I am something.’ I always start questioning things all the time, and just because I’ve played music for that long doesn’t mean that I cannot still progress and show new and different things. To me anniversaries are not very relevant. I told them [SPV] that we’re not that kind of band. Maybe there will be some silly kind of thing, but it makes me feel kind of odd. It’s like working in an office for 25 years; it’s nothing special.”

Kreator

43

What is special to Petrozza is the upcoming 2009 tour for Hordes of Chaos with Bay-Area thrash stalwarts Exodus.

“I can’t wait. It’s going to be great. We did a couple of dates with them, but we’ve never really toured with them. To me, it’s almost like ‘whoa, Gary Holt is playing before me on the bill.’ He’s one of the reasons I picked up the guitar. We will have a lot of fun with them.

They’re great guys and it’s going to be a great tour.”

THE GHOST OF KREATOR PAST The past slowly, gravely, silently approached. Even when talking about the future, the skeletal hand of time reaches out from the blackness to harkens back toward yesterday.

It’s true, however, that Kreator would not be were they are now without having traveled the roads to get here. And seeing how there are no official plans to fete the band for their quarter-century of achievements, Petrozza looks back and lends his thoughts about the growing process through the years, album by album.

Endless Pain “When we did Endless Pain we were all kids; we were still in school. I think I was 16, 17 years old and we went to Berlin for the first time. It was all very exciting. To us it felt like it was our one sure thing. We never even dreamed about the second album. I think, for what it was, it has a lot of cool ideas. Some of the songs are a little shaky, but it’s a very cool first album.”

Pleasure to Kill

“Outcast is the return of Ventor, but Ventor was not in good shape because he hadn’t played drums in a while. To me, it’s a dogma album, there’s maybe one or two solos on this album. It definitely has some good songs on it, like ‘Phobia,’ which is one of the strongest Kreator songs, so for that Outcast is a good album.”

Endorama “Endorama is almost like the Kreator album that should have come out under a different name. A lot of people say that, and I think some of them are right. From a fan’s point of view they’re definitely right. From an artist’s point of view I didn’t really see the need to change the name because I was writing the songs. On the other hand, those songs were very different from what I had written before. I tried to come up with melodic stuff, and instead of angry songs I wrote more sad songs. Maybe my life wasn’t… I wasn’t a really happy person at the time. It sounds like a really melodic Kreator album. It was definitely an important album if you think about what happened afterward. In my opinion it is a great album, but maybe some fast stuff could have loosened it up a little bit, but I wasn’t in the mood for writing fast songs at the time. If you look at Violent Revolution, which was a mix between Endorama and early Kreator stuff, the melodies are very much like Endorama, but it has fast songs on it. Violent Revolution is one of the best Kreator albums.

Violent Revolution

“We did a tour with Voivod, and we were already a touring band at the time. We wanted to progress and so, on Terrible Certainty, you can hear a lot of progressive elements. It has some real cool songs like ‘Toxic Trace.’ The production could have been better, in my opinion, but overall the album is quite solid.”

“You can hear it on every Kreator album. The music comes out of my stomach, not from my heart. I don’t think about it too much, I just do it, and if it feels right, I do it. I wasn’t thinking that I had to write a fast record, it just came out of me that way. It worked, and it felt great. I was rediscovering fast and progressive music again. On the lyrical side of things I was definitely going more into [a religious] direction. You can see it coming. All of a sudden religion became relevant again. When I was a kid no one really took religion seriously, but all of a sudden we had the new millennium and people were going on about God and religion being important. Extreme conservative forces and fundamentalists all of a sudden had power again, and to me that was very disturbing, which was why I wrote a lot of songs about it. Of course I had some anti-religious songs in the past, but it wasn’t a big thing, nobody took it seriously from my generation, and the next generation didn’t either. Then all of a sudden these people here in Germany, young people, 19-yearold kids went to see the Pope speak on a huge plain with millions of people there. I was like, ‘This can’t be happening.’”

Extreme Aggression

Live Kreation

“Pleasure to Kill was… We became more aware of the fact that there were people out there who liked our stuff, because Endless Pain sold a lot of records. We were aware of that and we heard, at the time, we heard a lot of Possessed and Slayer, and we wanted to come up with an album that was heavier than they were. I think Pleasure to Kill, to some fans, is one of the essential Kreator records.”

Terrible Certainty

“It was the first album we produced for a major record label, Epic Records, in America.

It was definitely influenced by more technical thrash stuff, like Megadeth. The guitar is almost progressive, but on the other hand we had songs like ‘Betrayer,’ ‘Extreme Aggression,’ and ‘Some Pain Will Last,’ which were some of the best songs that we had written up to that date.”

Coma of Souls “It was almost like an extension of Extreme Aggression. It’s more thought out, it’s more detailed, and it’s a lot more melodic. Coma of Souls is like Extreme Aggression with a more melodic edge to it.”

Renewal “For us it was almost like an album where we wanted to make a statement. People were expecting certain things from us, whether it was the record company or the fans, but we wanted to do what we wanted to do. Renewal was like an ego album. We wanted to write the music that we thought was representing the band. We kind of went back to basics, we used almost primitive riffs, and they weren’t very technical songs. Renewal is definitely a Kreator album not like any other Kreator album.”

Cause For Conflict “It’s my least favourite. Ventor’s not playing on it, and I think some of the songs are really cool, but the production I don’t really like. It’s a very chaotic album, but not in a good way. It has a lot of great drum stuff, don’t get me wrong—Joe Cangelosi is a great drummer—but I don’t think it sounds like Kreator… Kind of like Kreator, but not. The band was falling apart, if you ask me. Ventor was not in it anymore, or Rob [Fioretti, bass], which was two founding members, and we had Blackfire, and the chemistry in the band wasn’t right; it didn’t feel right.”

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Outcast

Kreator

“It’s a nice mix. I picked all the songs. We took a 16-track mobile recorder with us on tour, and for the time we picked so many songs we knew our fans would want to hear on a live record, and I think it came out really cool.”

Enemy of God “It’s a very important album. It’s an extension of Violent Revolution and it has some very strong songs. We did three years of touring and it was a lot of fun. It’s one of our fans’ favourite records. It’s definitely the most successful album that Kreator has released since the ’80s. The good thing is that, aside from our older friends, we gained some new fans, which is amazing. We go to a show and play to 18-year-old kids; it’s just amazing, it’s great.”

You can tell through his walk down memory lane that each Kreator album borrowed something—whether in sound, emotion or other factors—from its predecessors. In fact, one could argue that the progression in Kreator has charted along the same lines as the personal evolution that Petrozza has gone through himself.

“I was always thoughtful, even when I was a kid, but maybe I was not very controlled.

When I was 17 years old I was thinking about things… No, let me put it this way; I was always thinking about certain things and I had already tried to understand things, the meaning of things. On the other hand, I was able to understand the things that I had found. When you get older, you start to get more experience, you’ve met a lot of people, more than when you were younger, and out of experience, without trying to sound old or something, when you get older you experience a lot more, you’ve been through a lot of good things and bad things. You get disappointed in life, your relationships break up, you experience death, people die around you, and these things are not really present when you’re a kid. I think it’s just a different way of looking at things; just the fact that you have been understanding things for a lot longer than when you were a kid.”

His understanding and wits have also allowed him to remain in the game as long as he has. After being in the dog-eat-dog industry of the music business, Petrozza used his observations to steer clear of many obstacles, a feat in itself, never mind the mind-boggling output that, for the most part, exceeds expectations for a quality release. One thing Petrozza knew that would lend itself to a longer career would be not falling into a trap of drugs and alcohol, a claim many of his contemporaries, and those he has outlived, cannot attest to.

“I think I was always aware of the fact that if you mess with certain drugs you’re going to die,” he says with a laugh. “I’ve seen it happening, and I was never an addict or an addictive person. I never did anything. Even when I was around tons of weed I was never addicted to weed. I was a guy for a certain period, maybe half a year or year, where I was smoking weed all day, and then the next day I would just quit and stop, and wouldn’t do it anymore. I think, to me, there were always more important things than doing drugs or drinking alcohol. I drink sometimes, but I think there’s more important things in life. To be honest, it might sound a little cliché or maybe a little pathetic, but I think music has really saved me from doing all these things that are unnecessary. I like playing music, and I like playing music with a clear head. I never understand how people can get drunk and then start playing, because when you play there’s a certain high already, and it’s not necessary to do drugs or smoke weed to play. I was always getting into the music so much that it was almost like doing drugs, so music has really saved my life!”

THE END OF IT Alas, the time was no longer our own. The time of our past is gone, and the time of the future has yet to come calling. All that is left before is to tie up loose ends in the time we now have remaining.

Kreator past, present and future have all come to the fore. The paths Petrozza and his crew have followed are intertwined, and would not be what they are unless they had intersected. For now, until future chapters are written, the spirits contained within Hordes of Chaos will have to appease your palate. Well, there is one other small morsel to be had.

“That video to ‘Hordes of Chaos’ is so fucking metal, you wouldn’t believe,” Petrozza laughs. “Just imagine a mix of ‘Conan the Barbarian,’ and ‘300,’ and that’s what the new video looks like. It’s fucking amazing. It is also cliché, but we have worked with Jorn Heitmann, and in my opinion he’s the best video director there is at the moment. He’s great, he came up with this concept, and if any other director would have suggested it I would have said no. It’s going to look very, very good. I’ve seen some sequences already and it’s going to be very, very brutal, very dark. We play on a mountain of corpses. It is very cool.”

May that truly be said of us, and of all of us. And so, as Mille Petrozza observed, “Love us or hate us, every one!”

neuraxis

45

“Contentment is the death of creativity.” While this might not be the first time that sentiment has been uttered, it’s nevertheless true. This realization was voiced by Jesper Liveröd, bassist for Gothenburg metal maestros Burst. UNRESTRAINED! got a first-hand account of just how true this is for a band that’s never afraid to try something new.

Looking at Burst’s current travel schedule, something seems amiss. Hot on the heels of the release of their fifth full length, Lazarus Bird (Relapse Records), they only have a handful of shows booked.

When asked about the down time, Liveröd explains, “We’re very ‘down timed’ right now, and have a pretty good reason too. Usually when you release a record, the normal thing that most bands do is get on the road and stay on the road. The release of this album coincided with the band’s first baby being born. Our guitarist Robert just became a father about a week after the CD was released. We wanted to let him have some time with his kid. After all, people’s needs come before the band.”

It’s not every day you see a band that’s willing to put their careers on hold temporarily for a baby, but then again, Burst isn’t your typical metal band. Liveröd helps put the situation into a little more perspective.

“I’m not trying to be a sensitive artist here, I’m just being realistic. We took the position a couple of years ago that we weren’t going to do this as a career. If you want to be a professional band and make a living off of music, you have to tour all year round, and that doesn’t work for us, because then the music becomes a job and that takes the mystery out of it. We decided that we were going to tour only as much as we were having fun, and not doing it because we had to. It’s the making music part and having a good time that matters to us.”

For Liveröd, keeping the band and music in perspective is paramount. “This band means a lot to us; it’s been a focal point for the majority of our adult lives. That’s why we’re also very careful not to exhaust ourselves with it. I like music to be escapist. I like touring. It’s like you go out there, you have a good time, meet all these people, there’s all these experiences, performing and being in strange places and strange situations. It’s kind of a lure, but I hate to see it being spoiled by it getting a feeling of being a job.”

More to the point, Burst’s approach to their music is what keeps the fans and critics abuzz about their output. “When you don’t have the aspirations to write and become better, your creativity dies. I’m really grateful that everyone in the band is still hungry to develop everything, and that everybody is still such huge fans of music. Nobody would be in this band if the music didn’t capture us. We don’t do it for the career; we do it for the music. You have to keep yourself inspired, and to do that you have to let go of your previous ideas of what you need to do,” says Liveröd.

While they may have a new album, their writing style is the same as ever. Liveröd outlines their process thusly: “We’re a jam band basically. When we make music, somebody comes in with a basic idea for a riff or a cadence or something like that and then we start playing it, and then everyone develops it in their own way. It takes leaps and goes places that you don’t expect. It’s kind of like the song takes over the process from us. After a while, it’s almost like we lose control. It’s a lot to do with catching the vibe of the song, like ‘Yeah, I’m getting the feeling that we need a really fast part here, or a metal part here,’ because it’s a naturally progression from that riff. It’s a pretty democratic process for us. Everyone contributes in their own

way. Burst is a pretty much guitar-driven band, and this time more than ever, the two guitarists were the originators of most of the basic ideas for riffs and arrangements, but that’s not to say that they do it on their own. You could say that the two guitarists were the two captains steering the ship this time.”

Liveröd is quick to explain that the writing didn’t begin and end with the guitarists, saying, “It’s a matter of realizing who has the most creative ideas at the time. It’s a growth process when everybody needs to learn to take a step back when writing music, because in the past there have been times when there has been a lot of arguing and debate about this and that because everybody wants their thing. Instead of looking to what the music needs, it’s just been everybody trying to get their part in without really considering what’s best for the actual song. This time everyone tried to take a step forward when needed, but presenting cool ideas when they had them, but taking a step back when realizing that somebody else was being creative and has good ideas. At the end of the day, it’s a jam session. It doesn’t matter if somebody tells you this is the way the riff goes, or the melody goes; they can improvise and do their own thing. In the end, it doesn’t sound like the original idea anyways.”

While the band writes the music collectively, the lyric writing is a different matter. “It’s mostly me and one of the other guitarists, Jonas, who write the lyrics. It’s because it’s a much bigger part of trying to incorporate the vocals into the music, as opposed to making the music and then putting vocals on top of it. Letting the vocals take an integral part of the actual songwriting. There’s so much you can go with vocals if you give it a shot,” explains Liveröd.

Compared to past albums, the lyrics for Lazarus Bird reflect the band’s proclivity for genre defiance even more. Liveröd isn’t shy about his lyrical philosophy either. “I know that some people don’t care much for lyrics, but for me personally, they’re really important. I write the majority of the lyrics, and Jonas writes a couple, but I think that we all regard the lyrics as something that can really make or break the album. If an album is really good musically but has really embarrassing lyrics, it lowers the sense of the album for me. It’s not that we took the lyrics less seriously this time, it’s just kind of that we got to a point where there was no concept anymore to try and uphold, no preconception about what a band like us can write about. Writing lyrics was as much a process of letting go of the genre limitations and the limitations of what you can do as a metal band. That’s been really driving for the music as well. For us to evolve, we just had to let go of certain limitations that come with being a metal band. ‘You can do this, but you can’t do this. This does not fit within a metal context and this does.’ We really tried to be forthright and direct this time. It wasn’t something that we discussed, it was just something that Jonas and I realized when we were finished with all the lyrics. These lyrics actually deal with specific things, unlike other years, they’re about something instead of just being generic metal. The lyrics are very stark and emotionally direct. They’re specific, for lack of a better word,” says Liveröd.

With the band once again flexing their creative muscles with the music and lyrics, where does Liveröd see Lazarus Bird stand against the rest of the band’s discography? “I think this album is the most important to us. It’s a manifestation of so many things that are important to us as individuals. It’s one of the most musically challenging albums that we’ve done. We took our respective musicianship to the limit to make these songs challenging. This time, it was for ourselves. I really don’t care now how people receive it and how they listen to it, or how people think we should play.”

Rising Above Genre Limits 46

Burst

By Dave Sanders

abysmal dawn

47

Pr olificu s Sath anas

By Scott Alisoglu

B

e careful when you walk out the door of your home in the morning; you just might trip over a Horna release and break your leg. There are that many floating around out there, somewhere in the neighbourhood of a gazillion, I believe. There is never a dearth of releases—whether full-length, limited vinyl editions, EPs, or any of the numerous high-quality splits—from the Finnish black metal powerhouse. Amazingly, quality never seems to suffer, no matter how prodigious the output. It is one thing to be creatively inspired, but one would think the members of Horna are writing all the time. According to guitarist/vocalist Shatraug, that is not necessarily the case.

“I could say that at least I’m very creative,” he laughs, “but it doesn’t mean I would be writing all the time though. The way it goes here is that I could remain dormant with inspiration for weeks or months, and then at one spark write and compose for many days and nights in a row. When the surge of creativity takes over I’m like possessed. Nothing earthly can move me; I can’t bother even eating or taking care of normal things.”

When a band is this prolific, the concern most assuredly pertains to repeating oneself or failing to keep each effort fresh and exciting. Yet each Horna release is bursting at the seams with energy and ever-improving songwriting. Granted, the style is always recognizable as Horna and the progression from one release to the next is certainly not of the Enslaved variety, but familiarity does not mean redundancy either. Still, one would think that the members of Horna are at least a little worried about making the same album over and over again.

“No, not really,” comes Shatraug’s quick reply. “Whenever we recorded something, it took ages to get released and by the time we had something out there was already another recording made or a bunch of songs written that only needed to be finished. The worry of repeating the same formula should be a concern of every band there is. So far we have not fallen for that, and as long as we find a way, there will not be such a mistake.”

The rainstorm of creativity does not look to be subsiding any time soon. Horna has made its most compelling release to date in Sanojesi Äärelle (translation: “to the fountain of thy word”) and it is a double-disc set to boot! The undiluted savagery and rawness remain, yet Sanojesi Äärelle is a grander album with more moods, pace changes, and layered dynamics, a description with which Shatraug agrees.

“You are on the spot. The whole recording is made on analogue with eight tracks, recorded, mixed, and produced by ourselves alone. Even so we took the best out of our possibilities and you’ve heard the result. Some of the chords, harmonizing and little things have not always been heard from Horna albums, but during the releases we’ve done since 2001, they have been there.”

Here again, the question one must ask is how a band with over 30 releases under its collective belt was able to summon the will to record two discs of material. Was it a sudden burst of creativity?

“No, it had nothing to do with sudden inspiration; quite the contrary,” says Shatraug. “The album was written during last five years and gathers everything we saw was leading down a certain path and with energy to it. Originally, we were aiming to make two different albums, but in the end we chose to include both on the same release, instead of leaving the other to wait for its time.”

Each disc offers a different feel and moderately different musical approach. The first disc is the more aggressive (though not entirely speed-driven). The second is deeper in sound and more sorrowfully hypnotic in mood (for the most part anyway); due in no small part to the slower pacing and the bone chills felt from the chords and harmonies played.

“Ritual one is darkness, death, aggression, and pain,” explains Shatraug. “Ritual two is the shining glory, upheaval of satanic spirit, and the completion. Both are of the same burning flame, as if two sides of a coin that was cast forth from the abyss. It was the idea all along that ritual one would be the more aggressive act. Ritual two is made in praise of Luciferian light and its shining influence on our lives. It could bear no other atmosphere than that of grandeur, awe, and aspiration. It is our sacrament both in sound and literal approach. The hypnotic feel of the second ritual was achieved to make the finality of commitment overtaking, leaving no questions to be asked.”

48

Horna

The album is the biggest grower in the Horna catalogue. Most will not find it easily absorbed with only one or two listens, as previously undiscovered layers reveal themselves with each subsequent spin. Depth is a relative term in black metal, but there is no question that Horna has written an album that requires more attention on the part of the listener to fully appreciate.

“It wasn’t intentional, but when the album was finished we all thought it was going to be something a little bit harder to get into than all the previous Horna albums were,” Shatraug affirms. “It is of course something I can put my pride in and I think it has been achieved mostly because of the long timeframe during which the songs were created. When we started talking about Sanojesi Äärelle we made sure it was going to clean the table of all unfinished ideas and songs we had stocked in our notebooks, minds, dark hideouts, wherever. We aimed to do this and achieved the goal we set. When recorded, all of the songs had already stood the test of time in our own hearts.”

As it turns out, two of the standout tracks (at least to these ears)—“Orjaroihu” and “Risti Ja Ruoska”—on the first disc are not even new songs. On the former, Corvus’s brief shift to a guttural vocal style (just one example of his fire-breathing performance on the album) and the acidic guitar tone and sections of particularly jagged riffing offer a soul-flaying ferociousness, while the latter makes an impact solely because of the primal aggressiveness in the riffs.

“Both songs date a long way back and are some of the oldest on the album,” Shatraug points out.

“Actually, both were previously released on limited vinyl. We chose them to give the songs a proper sound and performance, and they both fit the album perfectly. It was never a question of not having anything else to put there; the aggression had to manifest itself again. As for Corvus, he has simply lived in the moment when performing his vocals. There has been no other guidance than that of his uncelestial [sic] majesty’s grace upon his brow.”

The mention of limited vinyl releases begged further exploration beyond the specifics of Sanojesi Äärelle. Horna has released a slew of these limited edition platters. Although there is no reason to question the band’s integrity on the matter, one still wonders about the finality of the “limited” part.

Shatraug does not mince words about the issue and we soon find out that his opinion about the resurgence of vinyl’s popularity may not be all that it is cracked up to be.

“The limited vinyl releases have mostly been limited for a good reason, and looking back I think most of those represented the feelings and ideas of that time. Even with re-mastering everything would sound very different from another. As long as Horna exists we are not going to make old vinyl releases available. It is time to think of that when there is no longer anything to add to it.

“But for me vinyl has been the most precious and important release format ever since I was a kid.

Back then we didn’t have any CDs of course, but nowadays I still want the cover art, vinyl bags, everything, even the small crackling and hiss of the LPs. I also love analogue sound much more than anything digital. The increased interest in vinyl is not just a positive thing though. There are far too many releases being put on wax, and labels and bands seem to forget that it is not just about vinyl, but also quality. Not everything should be put on vinyl, damnit!”

As exciting as the prospect of two discs worth of Horna material may be, the announcement of the band’s first ever U.S. tour, which by the time of this story’s publication will have concluded, may be even more enticing. The touring lineup of Shatraug, vocalist Corvus, guitarist Infection, bassist Qraken, and drummer Vainaja is is raring to have a go at American audiences. So have the Finns been spending long, grueling hours in the rehearsal space preparing for the onslaught? Not quite.

“Yeah, we’re damn thrilled to get the tour started finally,” Shagtaug exclaims. “It is indeed the first time we have been out of Europe and we will aim to make an impact! Believe it or not, we have had only one rehearsal and won’t even have time to have another. Horna hasn’t been a rehearsing band in 10 years now; we have just taken the moment and immortalized it whenever the need be. I can’t even remember when was the last time somebody did vocals at our rehearsal bunker for example.

We are going to play around 50 minutes each night, I think, give or take. There is not going to be one night that is the same as another; we take pride in performing a set that is not premeditated.

It will be fire and brimstone!”

O

ne of the most exciting, invigorating slabs of true metal to make its way into my grubby hands this past year has been Overlords of Chaos, the third album overall by Portuguese power trio Ironsword. After two previous releases through Solstice guitarist Rich Walker’s Miskatonic Foundation, the band has found a new home on Pittsburgh’s Shadow Kingdom Records. The label has quickly been making a name for itself by releasing some of the best underground classic heavy metal to see the light of day in 2008, and this leads the pack as their best release yet.

that you have dedicated the album in his honour? How has his writing affected your music, thematically?

Led by the strong vocal delivery of guitarist Tann, Ironsword’s “Blood and Honor” has impressed this writer so much that it has become my official anthem for the fall and winter of 2008, and something that Kevi-Metal and I make sure to spin each week on our metal radio show. The album as a whole has been so inspiring that I had to drop a line to the band to find out just where the fuck they’ve been all my life! Part of that interview, answered by guitarist Tann, is reprinted below.

Our second album Return of the Warrior was also dedicated to the memory of Robert E. Howard. I’m sure most of our future works will continue focused on his writings. This gives you an idea of how diehard fan I am and how his work affects our music. I grew up reading the Savage Sword of Conan comics and in time I discovered and become more fascinated with the writings of Robert E. Howard. Not only is he my favourite writer of all times, but in my opinion the worthy father of the sword and sorcery genre. He somehow turned fantasy reachable and credible. Every character, every race and kingdom he created can be faced as a reflection of our daily reality. The decline of civilization and the quest for freedom and so on. Apart from being a brilliant storyteller, he defined heroism and adventure in its purest form into something greater than life itself. It’s difficult to express my views when you’re such a diehard fan…

I want to congratulate you on the new album. It is one of my favourite records of the year. I know it is your third overall, but as I am sadly unfamiliar with the previous albums, I am curious on your feelings about it. Is the band happy with the final outcome? How was this album approached differently than previous recordings?

As previously mentioned, this is my first introduction to the band, so I was wondering if you could give a brief history of the band. How did you come together, and what reasons caused you to form Ironsword? I know there is a connection to Moonspell in the band’s past. Who played in that band?

Thanks for the kind words. Yeah, I can say that we’re extremely happy with the final result; it turned out exactly how I had in mind. The production is raw without being ragged, which I believe gives the music a barbaric edge I personally was looking for. Above all, it sounds totally ’80s! A clean, pretty, slick, and polished production does not fit in the spirit and concept of Ironsword.

Actually, it was me who played guitar in Moonspell for almost two years. I recorded with them the mini-CD Under the Moonspell and the debut Wolfheart. Shortly after, I formed Ironsword in 1995 to be exact. In the beginning it started as a one-man-band simply because I couldn’t find talented and available musicians to join the band. Back then, everyone was into the death or black metal trend, so traditional heavy metal was considered dead, outdated, and sort of scorned. Besides, all of my friends were already playing in other bands and could not afford to compromise with another full-time band. I recorded two promos between 1995 and 1998. The first album was released in 2002, the second album Return of the Warrior in 2004, both by the (British) Miskatonic Foundation label. The first show ever in almost 10 years of existence happened in Germany at the Keep It True Festival, sharing the stage with bands like Manilla Road, Cloven Hoof, Attacker, Blitzkrieg, and others. There were some lineup changes in between as well. The third album Overlords of Chaos was released in 2008 by Shadow Kingdom Records. They have been very professional so far, supporting us more than 100 per cent! They were completely out of their minds when they decided to sign a band like Ironsword!

My main goal for Overlords of Chaos was to create an album somehow more complex, heavier, and darker than all previous stuff—epic metal out of the norm, keeping our typical catchy sing-along choruses, et cetera.

It’s a better-balanced album between epic mid-tempo tracks and speedy thrashing rage. I believe it stands one level above in terms of songwriting compared to the previous works. Basically I wanted the whole atmosphere dark and obscure, so I guess it was a natural progression for the band.

The album is dedicated to the memory of writer Robert E. Howard, the troubled yet brilliant writer best known for Conan the Barbarian, Kull, and, of course, The Shadow Kingdom, which I am assuming is what your current record label is named for. What is it about his writing that is so special to your band

I decided to form Ironsword because it’s my passion to create and play, from the heart and soul, heavy metal music in a very honest and sincere way. Ironsword is my life and I simply cannot live without creating and playing music, I feel it’s a true calling and I

will always do it until I die!

What bands influence your art? Which groups did you look to for inspiration when you formed Ironsword? Which current bands do you feel a kindred spirit towards?

Obviously, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden have an important role. Have I mentioned Manilla Road already? There are lots of other bands like Omen, Tank, Brocas Helm, Cirith Ungol, Pagan Altar, and Black Death. Also, stuff like Hawkwind, Ted Nugent, Blackfoot, Buffalo, and Black Horse. Lots of NWOBHM and U.S. power metal… Well, the list is huge! I grew up in the ’80s listening to real heavy metal so it’s natural to me that our music is reminiscent of those times! Everything just comes out naturally; instead of aping our influences, we pay homage to them. The fusion of these bands mingled with our own personal ideas, forges a sound that is uniquely and unmistakably Ironsword. We always try to personalize our own sound each release. About current bands, I really like The Gates of Slumber, Portrait, Battleroar, Assedium, Battleram, Holy Martyr, and Wrathblade. These bands know the meaning of real heavy metal and make it sound fresh, interesting, and uncompromising.

Manilla Road is a band that seems to be close to your band’s heart. You even got MR vocalist Mark Shelton to perform backing vocals on three album tracks. How did this pairing happen? How hard was it to get him involved and what does it mean to the band that he agreed to do it?

Everyone who knows me personally can tell you about my fascination for Manilla Road. They are my fave band and I don’t deny the obvious influence and inspiration. I met Mark Shelton in Athens when they played there for the first time in 2002 and have been in contact with him regularly ever since. I asked Mark if he could do some backing vocals to our new album. I sent him a rough mix with the songs, and he recorded everything at his own studio, in Wichita, Kansas. He sent me the stuff a few weeks later and I was blown away. He was so kind for doing that, and for me personally, it was an old dream of mine come true. Sure it’s flattering when people say that we are the Portuguese Manilla Road, or that Ironsword is the only band that really sounds like Manilla Road 20 years ago. However it was never my intention to disrespect and rip off Manilla Road, because they are a unique band so they can hardly be copied. Everything I do in Ironsword is just my humble honest homage to one of the greatest bands in heavy metal history. The involvement of Mark Shelton is definitely for me the highlight of Overlords of Chaos. You can forget the rest.

What are the immediate and long-term plans for the band now that the new record is out? Will you be doing any more touring, either in North America or over in Europe to support it?

We really hope so. There are plans for a European tour, although it’s too early to advance anything. Ironsword is an underground band, so things tend to work slower than normal. I’m sure all bands have the same speech. It may sound way too cliché, but I’m really looking forward to some live shows in North America. I know there are a lot of people interested in our music, so that would be awesome to do some dates there for the first time. Immediate plans… Shadow Kingdom Records will release the vinyl version of Overlords of Chaos early 2009 and hopefully a new album in late 2009. Long-term plans…still continue to create good quality old-school raw epic metal music!

Ironsword

49

50

ihsahn

CRIPPLE BASTARDS

H

appy birthday, Cripple Bastards! My how you’ve grown.

No, really. To the untrained ear, the 20-year-long list of releases from Asti, Italy’s long-standing provocative grindcore institution may sound like short burst of noise after short burst of noise—and we’d be lying if we said everything that has followed since the day one Guilio “The Bastard” Baldizzone organized a rehearsal on the top floor of an abandoned factory with his fellow extreme-music-obsessed chum, Alberto the Crippler, has been top-of-the-line, especially some of those early cassette-only releases—but, being able to maintain a stable lineup over the last few years has definitely helped the band progress towards pummelling grindcore efficiency, as evidenced on their Desperately Insensitive album. They’ve just upped the ante with their latest full-length, Variante Alla Morte. Also illustrating the whys and whatfors behind the history, growth, and all the troubles and hardships Cripple Bastards have hurdled since 1988 is the achingly comprehensive, 4-plus hour documentary/main program of their official DVD release, Blackmails And Assholism, released earlier this year. UNRESTRAINED! tracked down Guilio the Bastard via his preferred medium of email to discuss the organic steps forward towards increased brutality on Variante Alla Morte, how not letting go can get you in a heap of shit, and what keeps the fire burning 20 years down the track.

In watching Blackmails and Assholism, it’s plainly obvious that as time has gone on, your relationship with the underground has become increasingly strained. Has this relationship continued to sour? In what way has this relationship affected Variante Alla Morte?

Well, it depends on what underground you’re talking about. The DVD documentary points out that as years went by Cripple Bastards have gone through a radical change of both audience and musical background. In the first decade, we were mainly linked to the DIY punk/hardcore scene whose network is based on self-productions, trades, tours booked in squats, and, above all, some unavoidable political schemes. In the following years, after many conflicts and the many negative stories you can watch on the DVD, we gradually departed from that and started to play in different kinds of venues for a different public. Here in Italy and some other countries, CB have started from scratch and gradually built a solid following of fans coming both from extreme metal and from non-political hardcore; simply those who “don’t give a shit” about certain matters. But in a few parts of Europe (specifically Germany and France), we still haven’t had the chance to re-establish a relationship with the underground because we don’t tour that often, so nobody has seen us there after the change. Honestly, I have no idea if all these moves have affected the new album, but I would say not; we simply passed to a different audience and things are still increasing and developing. Usually, even those who gradually turn into our worst enemies and backstabbers are still buying (or at least downloading!) our albums secretly; they keep enjoying the music and need to see if there’s something new to talk shit about.

The tagline on your Web site reads “Controversial Hategrind Since 1988.” Do you still revel or take pleasure in creating controversy? Have your feelings of hatred, disgust and ire grown stronger or become muted over the past few years?

What fuels this hatred?

CB is labelled as a controversial band not by our choice, but because of the many incidents that have happened through the years. Many might think that it’s all provocation to raise diatribes, start fights or simply to get attention. But, in reality, I wish many of the things

By Kevin Stewart-Panko

that made us “controversial” had never happened. Let’s say that, on one hand, the part of the scene that has clashed with CB is very narrow-minded and chained to a list of rules that can’t be broken.

On the other hand, CB is all about revenge and overreacting, so a lot of things that any other band would have probably let go have become the roots of arguments and fights for us. It’s a matter of mentality, I guess. But if your question also refers to the hatred and negativity we express through the music and the lyrics, well… that’s all about everyday life. CB is just a way to vent out the many bullets we bite every day; the hatred comes from existential disgust and malevolence. It’s the eternal war of the individual versus the outside world and increasing overcrowding.

I don’t speak Italian (or Serbian, for that matter), but looking at some of the new song titles, I can get an idea of what you’re singing about. Has your lyrical focus or direction changed on the new album? If not, is there anything different about the approach or structuring of your lyrics?

The lyrics on the new album are mainly a new chapter to what has been previously said on [previous albums] Misantropo a Senso Unico and Desperately Insensitive; it just goes deeper in developing certain topics. Variante Alla Morte means “Death variant” and it mainly focuses on those people living a vegetative existence in passivity—not feeling life at all, blindly accepting schemes imposed from above. And, as I mentioned, it’s the constant struggle of the individual versus the planet’s increasing overcrowding, the death of nature, the growing sense of apathy suffocating us. As always, there are a lot of real-life stories mixed in. On the previous two albums, we had specific songs about drug addiction, prostitution, suicide, and so on. On this new one you get “Stupro e addio” (Rape and goodbye) which portrays rape through the eyes of a rapist; “Sangue chiama” (Blood calls) that is a parody on tough-guy, street-style poserism seen through CB’s “two eyes for an eye” mentality; “Lo sfregio e le sue ombre” (The scar and its shadows) which is our new anthem for those who get screwed by love; “Auto-azzeramento” (Self-zeroing) that deals with work’s annihilation. It’s everyday life seen through CB’s eye in 2008; there’s always something new to say.

How about the music? It seems that the songs on Variante… are catchier with more groove, but just as ruthless and violent sounding as the past. Is this something you might agree with? Does this come subconsciously with experience or was it a deliberate move on your part?

Yes, I agree with what you say. Variante Alla Morte is a natural step forward after 20 years of Cripple Bastards, not a deliberate move. It also depends a lot on the fact that while the older albums were 90 per cent written by me and retouched by the other members, on this new album (as on the previous split 7-inches with Eyehategod and Sublime Cadaveric Decomposition) it’s the work of four people together, each taking part in composing, so you get the influences/ideas of all of us mixed in.

Thanks for the lead-in to my next question. How has having a stable lineup for about eight years now affected life in Cripple Bastards?

It’s been extremely important. This lineup has played hundreds of shows and done a lot of work together, plus we are good friends.

It helps a lot in reaching the right formula for creating new songs, having a solid style and a well-trained live approach. It’s the definitely the best lineup CB has ever had.

Songs like “Gli Anni Che Non Ritornano” and “Auto-

Azzeramento” sound like you guys stepping out of the norm and exploring new territory, even if the departures are very slight. Are these songs that have been sitting around for a while that you’ve just got around to using or completely new compositions?

“Auto-Azzeramento” is the re-recording of “Self-zeroing” that came out in 2004 as our side of Eyehategod split EP. I just translated the lyrics into Italian (as they were originally written in English) and adapted them to the song. We have played it live tons of times so, yes, in this case I’d say it has been sitting around for some years. We wanted to record this new version in Italian because we thought it’s a great track that deserved to be recorded at Studio Fredman. We did the original version here in Italy and it had some production mistakes and sounded weak compared to what we had in mind.

“Gli Anni Che Non Ritornano,” instead, was done two weeks before entering the studio, so it’s a brand-new composition that was put together quite quickly.

I still haven’t seen the full artwork for the new album. Can you describe it and what you were trying to convey with the images you used?

The artwork is a fantastic drawing by Majo Rossi, an Italian artist who works on the [Italian] comic series, Dampyr. It has a long line of children jumping down an escarpment ending in a black sea full of sharp stones. The children’s faces are dull, hallucinated, without emotions. As I previously explained, the album wants to portray those who don’t feel life and slowly walk towards their annihilation and death, so this is the meaning of the drawing. The CD layout was made as fold-out poster; on the front cover square there’s just a small detail of the whole drawing that doesn’t reveal the entire concept. Once you open the poster you get it all.

Over the years, what has Cripple Bastards come to mean to you? What role does it play in your life and how important and time consuming is the band? How do you find balancing it with all your “adult responsibilities”?

All of us in the band have jobs, families and a private life. Playing in CB is a huge passion and fun, in most circumstances, so every one of us manages to find the time to play shows, practise, come to the studio and so on. In my individual case... You know, I started the band 20 years ago and I have always worked hard to keep it together and active, to have it always “on the map” even if we come from fucking Italy, which certainly doesn’t help. CB is a part of me; I’ve spent over half of my life doing this, and it hasn’t just been satisfying experiences, but also fights, disillusions and doors shut in the face. Even when CB no longer exists, it’ll still be a part of me because I grew up doing this and I am a bastard in full effect!

When you started this band, did you ever think you’d be celebrating 20 years of Cripple Bastards?

When I started CB I was 13. My dream at that time was just to do a 7-inch and then disappear. I never thought this could last for so long. I’ve been very close to stopping the band many times, especially in the first decade and later when Alberto the Crippler left. Sometimes I’ve kept it going simply because I didn’t want to see our enemies say, “Yeah, CB has finally disbanded!” Man, I was recently reading a message board where people were discussing about the death of Tony, the bass player of our friends Agathocles.

Somebody wrote, “It’s so sad that these kinds of things always happen to good people and not to dickheads like Cripple Bastards.” So you see, this is the fuel that keeps us strong and motivated!

Criple Bastards

51

NECROBLASPHEME Destination:Devastation

“Our music changed with us. I think we assimilated our influences in a smarter way; we have now our own sound, our own vision of brutality,” starts Necroblaspheme singer Yann when asked about the evolution of the band from their inception in 2001 and up to the present day with the release of Destination: Nulle Part (Agonia). “We grew up and so has our music. We’re more mature and open-minded musically; it definitely makes our songs much more interesting now. Some of the songs of this album are quite old actually and were written right after the recording of the first album and that’s what gives this feeling of continuity between Introducing Pure Violence [2002] and Destination: Nulle Part.”

The great thing about the music of Necroblaspheme is that they don’t own up to being anything more than a death metal band.

It’s a simple blueprint, but they do have their own style of playing death metal and I personally think that’s why people will take note of this album. That and its sheer death metal power.

“We’re not in competition with other bands; I don’t think we can be easily classified in the death metal scene. I have to confess that I have some difficulties listening to the new extreme metal bands. I don’t like this feeling of racing to be the most technical and the fastest one; there are no more feelings and ‘groove’ left in this attitude. Give me a good Obituary or Illdisposed record and you’ll make my day,” he laughs.

While the band only has two albums out, they have been playing the music scene for close to a decade, molding their death metal approach and passionately coming into their own sound. No

52

Necroblasphem e / Blindead

By Adrian ‘The Energizer’ Bromley

doubt their studio work and experience has shifted just as much.

“We’ve learned from past work. This time, we stayed two full weeks in the studio, while we only stayed 10 days for the first album. We were much more able to avoid the mistakes we’ve made on Introducing Pure Violence: the thought that you just have to come in studio, record each track in one shot and it’s done,” he laughs. “This time we wanted to have more of an effective approach, as the music was much more complicated and intense. We started to work on the recording six months before entering in studio, and I thought that wasn’t even enough: we were still thinking of doing some improvements here and there.

Next time, we’ll be even more fully prepared before entering the studio, having a very concrete idea of how the album will sounds like.”

He adds, “The other big difference is that, for this recording, we had to go 400 kilometres [250 miles] from our homes to a very isolated place. We were totally involved in the work, having only one single thing to think about: do our very best for our music.

And of course, what else can you possibly think of when you are only surrounded by cows?”

I ask the singer to explain the meaning behind the album title.

“Nulle Part means ‘nowhere’ in French,” he replies. “We wanted to illustrate this particular state of mind that was growing in us through the years. We decided to keep the title in French to emphasize the very personal way we feel those things. Actually, the title and the artwork contrast with the content of the album,

which is very structured. We worked a lot on the tracks’ order to build the intensity until the reach of the apotheosis by the last song ‘Nameless,’ in which you can get an idea of what we mean by chaos and extreme music.”

The album does indeed have a great buildup. Great song. There are a lot of bands doing that in extreme music—taking things to a new level and doing mind-blowing stuff. What bands is Yann a fan of in today’s metal scene?

“I don’t feel anything in common with new metal bands,” he says, “and I think it’s quite the same for the other members. I’m a true Volbeat fan, because they have their own sound, their own style.

I would love to find some new extreme bands perpetuating the feeling of those old bands, with a fresh modern sound. I guess I’ll have to spend some more time on MySpace,” he laughs. “Apart from that, I try to listen to a lot of French metal bands. We have a very good scene down here, but they definitely deserve more support.”

I love French metal bands. They always have something unique to offer. So what does Yann think of the French metal scene? “I love it too. We generally have good contacts with other French bands, and I guess there is a healthy ‘competition’ between them. I suggest you keep an eye out for bands like Phazm, Hypnosis, Drowning, and Temple of Baal who are bringing great music to our national scene! I think France, especially in these days, definitely has something different to propose in extreme metal scene.”

celestial sea

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54

torche / dantesco

BookofBlackEarth

Mass indoctrination

“Death grunge. Death grunge, and death metal.”

It’s a descriptor coined by TJ Cowgill, guitarist and vocalist for extreme metalers Book of Black Earth.

Featuring guttural vocals, actually discernable bass, a full-time keyboardist and extremely complex riffing overtop lush doomladen breakdowns, BoBE has just released their first full-length and Prosthetic debut Horoskopus. Now, the group is ready for wherever their three album deal with the label will take them, starting with the brand-new disc.

“Horoskopus is sort of pig-Latin for horoscope, and the whole album is about the astrological origins of Christianity and all monotheistic religions for that matter,” says Cowgill. Although he is reluctant to call it an indictment of organized religions that believe only one deity exists, Cowgill does define it as “critical.”

“Most modern religions don’t know their origins of their practices so it was to help point out how the origins aren’t what people necessarily think they are,” he says. “If you comparatively study religions you understand that’s the case pretty quickly. Upwards of thousands of years, 3000 to 5000 years prior to Christianity’s existence, people were already worshipping saints very similar to what Christians believe in.

“We focused on Christianity because we live in a Christian state,” he continues. “But when you do a comparative of religions you can see parallels between all monotheistic faiths… You can draw parallels between Mohammed and Jesus, Abraham and Jesus, Krishna, and find traits that are similar to older Sun Gods of Mithras and Ra.” Indeed, analysis of Mithras and Jesus results in numerous comparisons, including both deities born of virgins, having 12 travelling companions, performing miracles and rising from a tomb three days after death. While the parallels of Ra (the ancient Egyptian Sun God) to Christianity aren’t immediately obvious, there are theories suggesting monotheism’s origins trace back to Sun worship.

This interest in religion and its facets is merely intellectual, as Cowgill’s beliefs clearly do not adhere to its application.

“I don’t think [religion] should have any part in any political decision ever. It should be kept completely separate,” he asserts. “The way the world is, it’s taught we have to respect our religions, no matter what they believe in, even if it’s detrimental to society.

That’s unfortunately keeping certain parts of the world in basically medieval times. Like certain practices of stoning people to death, or throwing homosexuals off a cliff. Using these biblicalera punishments for things that we can rationally determine at this point in our human existence… ” he trails off and gathers his thoughts.

“Whether you’re an atheist or a Christian or Muslim or whatever you shouldn’t allow people to instigate that as a body armor to allow them to do whatever they want. That’s completely unacceptable in my opinion.”

It’s not only using religion as a crutch that frustrates Cowgill, who throughout the interview seems strongly in favour of accountability. He also questions the American government, which he feels is inherently flawed.

“Were pretty laid back,” he said. “It’s not like Fear and Loathing, although it feels like that sometimes.” A background voice lazily pipes in, “Right now it does!”

“I wrote most of the stuff sober, but we do all kinds of…” he hesitates. “I mean, I don’t know how much I can say. We did legal stuff like salvia. When we played Detroit and were about to go over to Canada I had a vial of Salvia Divinorum and we weren’t sure if it was illegal or not.”

“The bad part about that is the past 50 or 60 or so years the president and the vice-president typically appoint people into the White House and into those positions that help further the agenda of the industrial material complex and the CIA,” asserts Cowgill. “It’s like a shadow government that makes the current form of democracy more like a cartoon form of democracy. It really doesn’t matter who you vote for, because ultimately other people will tell them what to do. If it was a dictatorship, which I am happy it’s not, but then you’d actually be voting for the person, all of congress too, all kinds of positions in the Supreme Court. [In the USA] you’re voting for the person who you hope will choose the right people. That’s not democracy to me. That’s total idiocy.”

Although the drug is legal and derived from a member of the Labiatae plant family, its effects include mind-alteration and inducing what has been called “divine inebriation.”

It’s easy to see his opinions mirrored in the lyrics from Horoskopus.

Including original members Cowgill and keyboardist Hank Guthrie, BoBE is now officially solidified with bassist/vocalist Dav Tafoya-Garcia, guitarist/vocalist Tony Lombardi, and drummer Joe Axler.

“I like ‘Death of a Sun.’ It’s a really cynical look at the whole Christian faith and how many people have it wrong. They are believers and they don’t really know what it means,” said Cowgill. “‘From Heaven’ is also one of my favourite songs on the album.

It’s inspired by the story of Egyptian wizards who work their way into heaven using ancient magic, and no one can expel them, not even God, because they are so powerful. It’s an allegory obviously on how you can achieve that kind of knowledge without being Christian, and the song itself is about refusing to give that up because of dogma claiming you can’t achieve that knowledge.”

Strangely enough considering these sentiments, a quick glance at their MySpace superficially claims that Book of Black Earth’s genre is “Psychedelic / Religious / Death Metal.” Cowgill says the tag is a joke, but it proves to be quite accurate.

“I’d say we’re psychedelic because we do a lot of psychedelic drugs and we write nine-minute-long songs sometimes,” he said laughingly. “But obviously we don’t sound like a lot of psychedelic bands. The religious thing is that we talk about religion more than any other subjects, but were definitely not religious.

We don’t subtract any dogma at all—and death metal because we are closer to death metal than anything else.”

It raises the question of what said psychedelics have been imbibed by the quintet, but Cowgill is scant on details for legality’s sake.

“Luckily it only lasts 5 or 10 minutes,” responds Cowgill. “We weren’t sure bringing a tiny brown vial of basically green dust [over the border] would be a good idea. But I mean, were not on mushrooms all the time or anything like that. We like to have a good time and party like anybody else.”

It’s easier for the band to relax and let their guard down now that problems over their lineup, which saw a revolving door of musicians enter and exit over their five-year history, have been solved.

“This is the best lineup we’ve ever had,” said Cowgill. “Everybody is good friends and everybody is really good at what they do.

When we recorded The Feast [their 2006 mini album] we had problems with how people played their instruments and the process. This was just easier. A lot of easier. Everybody is at the top of their game as far as I’m concerned.”

Now that the band is solidified, their sound is akin to death/ black metal with crust-punk overtones. Featuring the cookiemonster vocals made famous by Chris Barnes, the guitar work varies from catchy chord progressions to all-out shredding, then morphs from doom-laden to ferocious from track to track.

Raging drumming high in blast beats and cymbals underpins the arrangements, while the rarely discernable keyboard and meaty bass flesh out the static-heavy production.

This genre mish-mash is common in newer metal groups, and in the case of Book of Black Earth, it melds nicely into a sound that is decidedly and enjoyably their own.

Cowgill concludes, “In reality, we just draw our own influences from music we like; we really make it our own thing!”

By Sarah Kitteringham Book of black earth

55

Kampfar

By Laura Wiebe Taylor

A Study in Contrasts and Honesty Dolk of Kampfar is extremely certain about the honesty of his band’s music, meaning Kampfar is something he is (and must be) willing to stand behind completely. But that honesty also extends to the vision of Norway that Kampfar’s music depicts— dark secrets under official histories, urban enclaves surrounded by thick forest, folklore intermingled with historical fact. That might not be the exact picture that comes to mind when listening to the band’s latest album, Heimgang. The historical and folkloric narratives only become clear if you can understand Norwegian-language snarls, and the composite storm of black metal guitars, catchy hooks, and creepy synth accents reveals only traces of folk-inspired melodies. Just the same, even though the specific details don’t always translate, Kampfar’s passion and sincerity speak a more universal tongue.

As the joint project of vocalist Dolk and guitarist Thomas, Kampfar dates back to 1994, emerging out of the context of Norway’s well-established black metal scene. A “chaotic period” of downtime interrupted the musicians’ activities after the end of the ’90s, but when interest in Kampfar refused to wane— especially calls for live shows—Thomas and Dolk reconvened with an altered mission and, soon, two new members, bassist Jon and drummer Ask (aka II13).

Dolk explains: “In the beginning we really didn’t want to be anyone else than just me and Thomas. So for many years this was 56

Kampfar

the situation. But during that time we received so many offers to play live and I got something like ten mails each week for the last four years or so only from people asking about the whole situation and the live situation of Kampfar. So when me and Thomas finally got back together again we really wanted to do something more than just release albums over and over. We at last made the decision for making a full band.”

such a huge and great brotherhood. To me it seemed like the total opposite sometimes. In some way, the true basic was more present at that time, because the scene nowadays is much lousier and pitiful. But then, on the other hand, there was also even more jealousy and trendy followers at that time than now—people who said things just because it was the right thing to say. It is, of course, a two-headed monster this one.”

Even with drummer Ask in the Netherlands they still manage to rehearse one weekend in every month: “We lock ourselves into the rehearsal place and breathe Kampfar for three days and nights. Not even our ‘friend’ whiskey is allowed then. This works really great for us, and even better than before, I think.”

Dolk’s early love of Norwegian black metal feeds his distaste for musicians who try to cash in on the scene’s infamy. His own connection with the music has been more personal but not restrictive. “Due to the fact that I lived in a small place called Gressvik during the early ’90s I had the opportunity and freedom to be more into my own world, and I’m really grateful for that.

I both guess and hope you can hear that even from the early works of Kampfar. I was maybe more free and had only myself and my music to focus on, more than competing and discussing with others all the time which direction was the correct one.

Nevertheless, I have deep roots in the Norwegian black metal ‘society,’ so to speak. I mean, I have been into this since ’91, so I have made many ‘friends’ and brothers here during the years.”

If Kampfar is stronger than ever, the band’s strength spikes at a time when underground metal, especially pagan metal, maintains a healthy hold on the global anti-pop music market.

Reflecting on the differences he’s noticed in the scene, Dolk mentions the prominence of black metal and the popularity of what he describes as “the more typical fiddling folk metal.” But it’s Norwegian black metal that most interests and concerns him.

“The metal scene in Norway has changed a bit since the early ’90s, that’s for sure. But the Norwegian scene has never been a very open one, and it makes me really sick when I hear those fuckers that glorify this early period with such big words, even if most of them even didn’t experience it themselves! It was not

Creative freedom allowed Dolk and Thomas to establish a clear and sincere vision for Kampfar from the beginning: a vision forged in nature, heathendom, and metal. Dolk explains: “The main idea behind it all is just as simple as that I really wanted to

do some more real and honest work in this music scene than these tons of ‘evil’ bands with no substance. With Kampfar I wanted to create something that is 100 per cent real to myself, both as a person and musician. To me Norse pagan folklore is still the whole ground principle for Kampfar’s music and could never have been something satanic. Kampfar has never been a political and anti-human band either.”

Earlier in Kampfar’s development, the band’s focus on “myths and history from the elder times” may have clouded the individual honesty of the lyrics Dolk was singing. The new album Heimgang conveys a clearer sense of his intent—more close and personal stories but drawn from history and heritage, no “fiction or fairytale metal,” he emphasizes.

“The word ‘heimgang’ is, in fact, a word that was used here in the North some hundred years ago, explaining the path or connection between our own existing world and the underworld, so it’s pure history. Almost 80 per cent of this album is written about true events that happened here in the North, events and strong thoughts and beliefs of the dark folkloric stuff people used to believe in hundreds of years ago. This is stuff that people have totally forgotten in these days. So you can maybe say then that Heimgang is a history lesson from the forgotten North.”

Of the true events and dark myths that make up Heimgang’s thematic framework, mined from Norway’s 200- to 500-year-old past, Dolk was willing to outline one particular story as an example: the tale that inspired the song, “Antvort.”

“Antvort was a priest that lived just one kilometre away from my house. He was practising about 200 years ago in a local church. The church is still around today, so it’s quite fascinating to see it now in real life and then know the story behind it all. Antvort was what the locals called a ‘black priest,’ so he had a lot of knowledge about both the white and dark sides of things. Officially he was a white priest and the Norwegian state was supporting his acts of God, but the locals and especially the kids knew that there was a different side. This song and also the rest of the tracks on Heimgang deal so much more with true history and dark, actual local events from my home place. So for me this is definitely the most personal album so far, no doubt about it!”

Musically, Heimgang is both raw and catchy at once, in a more refined relationship of contrast and opposition than Kampfar’s previous album, Kvass, and backed up by a richer sense of atmosphere. Dolk attributes the difference to Kampfar’s long stretch of inactivity and subsequent return to form. “With Kvass the case was more that we had been away for seven years from this scene, so it was necessary for us to be able to sketch the highway over again, so to speak. And Kvass really is a highway in my opinion, so maybe we forgot a little about the atmosphere. We also have got much more time together now and we have better learned to grow into a whole unit and band with four equal members. It seems like things have come more into place and we are definitely heading in the right direction with our music.”

For Kampfar the right direction isn’t a different path—more a certain collective confidence of stride—and there’s no chance that the band’s pagan focus will fall by the wayside. “The essence of Kampfar has always been pagan/heathendom, superstition in mankind, life in general and, not least, nature. Without nature, Kampfar wouldn’t have been Kampfar. Nature has always been the main force and inspiration for creating such music for me,” says Dolk.

“Nature is in my soul, it’s my religion! What could possible be more true than this? Nature, heathendom, and metal is just me.”

Kampfar’s Norwegian lyrics (all but “Norse” and “Ravenheart”) add to the band’s honest approach. “I am Norwegian and therefore I express myself best in my own language,” Dolk asserts. “And a lot of the topics my lyrics are dealing with are northern topics, nature, mythology and superstitions that lie in the Norwegian nature. These are very important issues in Kampfar’s music and aura and therefore also best expressed in Norwegian, I think.”

For English language speakers, “Ravenheart” (off Kvass) sums up the pagan black metal movement as it fuels Kampfar, but Dolk is emphatic that he doesn’t mean “movement” in the sense of “organisation” or “laws”: “Fuck that! This is more about freedom and free thinking, heathen thinking, heading for a goal and in a true way towards yourself—under one banner, heading in the same direction, but no fucking organisation or group. Follow the ravenheart!”

The harsh, dark north, its wild beasts and untamed landscape—that’s the image of Norway “Ravenheart” invokes. Yet the Norway Kampfar inhabits is also a nation of populated communities, urban decay, and oil-infused wealth. A series of photos by Peter Beste captures this disparity in stark relief, framing Dolk amidst the harsh wilderness, but also set off against a background of urban graffiti.

Dolk: “Peter took these pictures in 2007 and he is a great photographer that really wants something different than everyone else. The ‘urban’ picture is taken in the centre of my town, Larvik.

It’s a big contrast in that picture, which also shows a true story of the whole situation here at my home place. Norway is like that, you know…big contrasts all the way. I mean, I can just leave my home and walk for one minute and I will enter the deepest forest. Or I can go in the opposite direction and enter the centre of this small town in a weird and urban way.”

In the midst of this weird transitional space, Kampfar remains totally focused and dedicated to authenticity. “We will stick true to our roots and try to be able to show people what our music is all about, and maybe that is the most important thing,” Dolk reflects. “We will be honest in our work and with the sound of it all. Kampfar must always be honest and true to our hearts, otherwise it wouldn’t be Kampfar anymore.”

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58

mar de grises

Grinding Workload

By Adrian ‘The Energizer’ Bromley

A

s far as newer experimental death/grind/noise bands go, DuBois, Pennsylvania’s Artica are definitely one of the few that come to mind. The band’s music swirls with a cage of horrific vocals, grinding guitars and a punishing rhythm section that could instantly send any crowd of metalheads into a chaotic mosh pit. Broken bones for sure.

Their Compton Records debut EP entitled Thought Patterns of an Uncivilized Businessman serves up some great stuff, relentless brutality that truly showcases their mark on the scene and makes a cool addition to the already solid lineup at Compton Records.

UNRESTRAINED! hooked up with guitarist Duane to find out what sets the band in motion, how to get along with your label, and what the fuck there is to do in DuBois. I’ve been there, and it’s a small, small town.

It’s good to see some variety delivered with brutality. Is that an easy process to bring out in music? A lot of bands try, yet struggle.

I don’t think we really try, to be honest; we work well together. Our influences really don’t come so much from other bands. Of course there’s inspiration of some sort, but mainly we create music simply by a collective collaboration that ultimately bounces off one another. We personally believe that there is too much of the same when it comes to genres, so we try to make our music as different as possible.

Tell me about the band’s early days and where we are today. How much have the band’s initial ideas changed with how you shaped the band?

I think in the beginning we struggled to find what we were trying to accomplish, but through time it really just came to us. We were having a difficult time keeping bassists, so it obviously made writing much more difficult. When we were experimenting, we even added keyboards to see if that was a piece of the writing puzzle that we were missing, and it really just began to sound too much like a not-so-good BTBAM. Once again we realized we were falling into a well-known genre, and that’s not something we wanted to achieve.

What’s the significance of the EP title? What inspired it?

Anyone can take our EP title and make it into anything, but mainly we’ve grown up watching TV, listening to the radio and came to realize that everyone is a businessman: pick your suit and tie, whether it be a nice three-piece suit in an office and/or a lower class citizen on the street, some successful, some not. Either way, no matter what you may think, every establishment contributes in its own way. Every employee involved in a business always has alternate thoughts about what they do every day and doing the job they probably hate but still continue to do it. They just go about doing it and put on a fake smile to please others around them.

As I mentioned before, the EP offers a really diverse and unique sound. How hard is it to stand out nowadays in the music scene?

It’s extremely hard to stand out and get the people’s respect. With so much of the same music, it almost seems as if people are too comfortable to be introduced into a different type of music and accept it.

We’re surprised that even you at UNRESTRAINED! say we are diverse and unique. It’s what we’re going for, so we appreciate hearing from you.

How did you hook up with Compton Records? How has the experience been?

Actually it started with Justin. He was listening to I Declare War, Compton’s very own, and introduced

it to the band. It’s safe to say we all enjoyed the music, but what really stood out for us was John’s demon-like voice, so different; we’ve expressed our love for something different. After investigating Compton, we realized that this is exactly what we’ve always wanted. Artica is strong about staying underground. Duane, being the persistent person he is, insisted on messaging and emailing [label owner] Dave Compton every day—several times a day—until he got a response. Dave then responded with basically a list of things we would need to accomplish. We’re a band that gets things done in a short amount of time. We believe that it helps to not only be musically appealing to Dave, but make him comfortable in knowing we will work hard to achieve anything he wants or needs. When all the paperwork was out of the way, we—band and label—started working hard, and we are really starting to make some headway into the music industry. Dave is really like a father to us. He takes care of us, makes sure we have everything we need. He’s a great person, brilliant, and not only in a business sense, but personal as well.

Are you working on a full-length anytime soon? Why not do a full-length first, then an EP? We are currently writing some new material in hopes that we do good with this album, as far as selling and building a fanbase. If this works out, Dave will work with us to put out a full-length sometime early next year. We think an EP is the way to start out; it’s like building steps, anticipating that it will be a success. If it is one, we know that spending money on a full-length next would be a smart business move on our part.

The time you spent working on the debut EP, did you like studio work?

Yes. We recorded at Zaring Productions in Middleburg, Pennsylvania. We think it was an amazing experience for all of us considering none of us had ever recorded in such a professionally well-rounded environment. Not only was Joshua S. Zaring great, what he did as an engineer, but he became one of our closest friends. I think the CD’s sound quality is amazing.

In closing, I’ve actually driven through DuBois, Pennsylvania. It looked small, as in not much going on. Is that a fair statement? Where did you guys find the fun there?

As far as Justin, Tony, and Devin, they have their fun in a more herbal atmosphere to get through a day in this shit town. An example: we all live together and our living room is more clouded than a Cypress Hill concert. As for myself, I drink Diet Pepsi, chew on some Grizzly and you’ll find me playing Call of Duty 4 on Xbox and/or being the responsible one by taking care of the business, booking, managing, and so on.

Artica

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Doing it for the kids!

M

aria Brink—singer/frontwoman for Southern California’s In This Moment—must be on cloud nine right now…or at least cloud eight.

Her band’s second album The Dream (Century Media) debuted at number 70 on the top 200 Billboard Album Charts, they are currently on tour everywhere and recently filmed a great video for one of the catchiest songs I’ve heard in a while, first single “Forever.” Life is grand, ain’t it?

“It has been a lot of fun so far, but a lot of hard work and touring is just as intense as it was. Even more now with us being out more on the road and becoming more popular with the kids,” says an obviously drained, yet vibrant Brinks down the line from somewhere in Milwaukee. We were supposed to talk weeks back, but she was ill at the time. She seems to still be nursing something still, but starts up again, “You got to go with it and make it happen. We’re so happy people have embraced us and our music.”

The road to where they are now started with the emergence of MySpace, as well as massive Internet marketing on their end and do-it-yourself touring. They put a lot of work into the early days and it is paying off.

“I look back at those days and see it as something most bands have to go through, but when you really want to get noticed and make a name for yourselves, you really go the extra mile sometimes. Century Media noticed and it has been a great experience since then.”

The new album is a lot more commercial sounding, but still 60

In This mom ent

heavyset with catchy choruses. Some might call it mainstream, Brinks calls it growth.

“We’re still recording and writing the same music, just trying lots of variety. We don’t want to be doing the same stuff we did early on or even with our last album A Beautiful Tragedy [2007]. The thing with creating music is that there is a process to it and sometimes it takes a few weeks to get one song down; sometimes it just flows. We had a lot of flowing ideas, new ideas that just surfaced with this album. I’m excited.”

She adds, “As for a song like ‘Forever,’ it is full of hooks and catchy vocals and riffs, but that is the way it came out. We didn’t aim for a commercial hit or anything. I think the video we did is awesome and it only enhances how good the songwriting is and brings out this visual, as we do with our stage show each night.”

The topic turns to the music scene.

“We are seeing a lot of great bands out there right now—we play with a lot of them. I’m excited to see that because when we started out it was tough to find bands doing something unique and different. Everyone sounded like this band or that band. It’s important to find your sound and style. We know no band is unique, but if you can get in the right frame of mind you can do something that will get people to take notice.

“The studio work was different this time around because we kind of knew what we were doing, opposed to last time when it was all fresh. We’d all love to be on the road all the time, but studio is a necessary evil as most bands will tell you. Some

people live in the studio for months, years. Axl Rose!?” she laughs. “But we knew we had to get off the road, write music— though some were written on OzzFest last year—and just get through it. Now that the album is out and I see the grueling tour schedule, I kind of wanna record again. I’m kidding… Touring is where we have the most fun and meet all of our great fans. It’s difficult sometimes for meet and greets because I’m so drained and can’t make it out, but I hope our fans understand we always wanna be 100 per cent and if I need to sit out meeting fans on a tour stop so the tour can carry on, that’s the deal with it all.”

Unlike most frontwoman who tour the metal music circuit, Brinks has something else to keep her mind busy while on tour. And it’s not guys slobbering over her chest and looking up her skirt.

“My son is the most important thing to me. If we’re on tour and I need to go see him, whether it be an award he is getting or he gets sick, I’ll make time to be there. That’s the way it is. He is a teenager now and is doing fine, but I still worry when I’m gone.

I had a teenage pregnancy and had to grow up real fast and make the best of it, and I did. I don’t want my music lifestyle to put him on the back burner to touring and playing shows. That’ll never happen. It’s simple, really.

“Even though I rock out each night and have tattoos and live in a tour van, I’m always going to be a mom first. That’s what means the most to me. Plus my son thinks I’m cooler than his friends’ moms,” she laughs.

By Adrian ‘The Energizer’ Bromley

raunchy

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m elencolia estatica

Slaves to the Grind!

By Adrian ‘The Energizer’ Bromley

“I personally hate the studio…or at least when it is us recording,” starts off Beneath the Massacre’s frontman Elliott Desgagnes. “I think there is a vibe that is pretty hard to capture on CD. It’s not like when we have a problem on stage one night and that we need to fix stuff for the next show. What is on the CD will always be there, and knowing that makes things more stressful sometimes. We tried to make things differently this time though. We worked shorter days and thought twice before we would assemble and record parts for the new album [Dystopia, on Prosthetic Records]. It was planned that way with Yannick St-Amand [Despised Icon, Ion Dissonance] because we wanted to have a good time in the studio and try to make it as laid back as possible.”

lot of people? We had a lot of help from friends from the Montreal scene like Ion Dissonance, Despised Icon, et cetera. Then there is everyone working at Galy Records that were very helpful too for us in the early stages of our career. And then of course, Prosthetic Records has been doing an incredible job for over two years now. They’ve been nothing but great to us and we really like the way they work with us.

I just feel lucky that we always had a good relation with our labels and different business partners.

So trying new ways to record sounds like it went well. Unlike their earlier works, which were still intense meshings of technicality and brutality, the new album’s sound and delivery makes for a triumphant technical/death/grind machine bent on crippling anything it comes in contact with. The ferocious nature of the machine has been intensified ten-fold. The band’s momentum has leapt forward in bounds. What was the mindset that went into the music and lyrics on Dystopia that led to such a cataclysmic charge?

You guys tour like motherfuckers! “Yes we do,” he chimes in. “I definitely like the fact that we get to see our fans around the world. It is a weird connection. It is a weird thing to meet someone from another country that speaks a language you barely understand telling you that you are his favourite band and that he goes crazy when he listens to your music,” he laughs. “But on the other hand, it’s hard in the long term to be away from home most of the time. It’s hard on relationships and you start missing the people you truly care about.”

“We were all very excited about going back to the studio because even though Mechanics of Dysfunction [2007] has been released for only a year and a half, it’s been over two years that it was recorded and written. So we could not wait to let people hear what we’ve been working on lately. We really wanted to make an album that we would be proud of musically, lyrically and production wise.

Half of the album has been written on the road because of our touring schedule, and I think it helped us a lot to concentrate on one song at a time and not the entire album at the same time. So yeah, we came at Yannick’s studio pretty excited and with a laid-back attitude that we didn’t have for our two previous releases.

The band has become rather well known and successful over the last few years. What do you credit that to? “Well, I think it all starts from the music. We’ve managed to have our own sound, which is something that is rather hard to do nowadays. But we could not have done it alone. We’ve always been hard-working guys that made good friends and contacts along the way. So I guess we have to thank a

“But most importantly, I feel that it is our fans that help us the most,” he says. “BTM fans are as intense as it gets and they have always been extremely supportive. I think that in the end it’s them that made the difference.”

The topic shifts to their home base: Montreal, Quebec, Canada. A lot of great young bands have come out of Montreal’s metal scene over the years. How is the scene now? Are you proud of Montreal’s metal scene?

The singer responds, “Definitely! Montreal is an awesome place for music. No matter what type, you’ll find a lot of great artists. There is so much going on in metal only. There are new bands that are up and coming like The Plasmarifle, The Last Felony, et cetera, but there are also bands that have been around for a long time that are not too known outside of Quebec.”

He ends off, “I am proud of the fact that Montreal’s bands try to have a particular sound and do not try to do whatever it is cool to do at the moment. But that being said, not everything coming out of Montreal is awesome. We have our share of shitty bands…”

Forever Mourning

By Adrian ‘The Energizer’ Bromley

R

Masterfully in Focus

yan Chilcote, metal musician and founder of black metal outfit Forever Mourning, is well aware of the impact that his music has made upon those who have heard it. Good stuff for sure, their latest independent release Emerging from the Shadows is a welcome assortment of black metal rhapsody and atmospheric evil. It’s pretty much quality symphonic black metal that borrows from the ways of Dimmu Borgir, Emperor, and of course the staple, Cradle of Filth. But there’s more to offer than just that. The band does have their own style and sound, and that’s crucial these days. Their latest is easily one of the best independent releases I’ve heard in a while.

“Thank you for your kind words!” answers Chilcote when he hears my thoughts on the release. When asked about what sets them apart from other bands out there, he continues, “Our songs go somewhere—simple as that! Our songs build and build. I have to say that is a priority when constructing an entire song in Forever Mourning. Yeah, sure, anyone can make a kick-ass riff, but to go from point A to point B and really have the song push and pull is the real trick! I cannot stress this enough.”

The thing that blows my mind is that as a duo, Forever Mourning has a lot going on—it sounds like a full band, with a symphony and major label backing. The band is playing music that could easily compete against many of the signings flooding the metal market.

What’s Chilcote’s take on today’s metal/extreme scene?

“I think it is healthy, but at the same time there seems to be quite a few bands that just put stylistically cliché elements together with no real quality substance! Sure, the recording/mixing is great, the musicianship is outstanding, but it takes more than those elements to make a good record. Above all, it takes time to have ideas that

will stand in the end. Our music takes a few listens to take in because there are many things going on at once. I prefer my music like that, at least in this project.”

And I have to ask because of what I just stated about the might of the duo’s talent, why did Chilcote settle on just being a two-piece for Forever Mourning? Has it been difficult in regards to the recording process? “Actually, I strongly prefer to be minimalistic with cowriters! In all my years of working with bands and other members, I work best either by myself or with somebody who totally gets my vision, which seems to be an extremely rare occurrence. Erin is the only other musician that truly understood my vision, and vice versa. We connect on a very high level musically, to the point that the other often anticipates what direction the other will take with his writing direction. I’m not talking typical riff changes here, but very abstract ideas!

“Another reason for being minimalistic in regards to members is that for the music to function properly, all the musicians need to play the right note(s), and the right succession of notes,” continues the guitarist. “The leading tone in that V7 chord better resolve to the tonic, or the use of the Picardy third better be applied to strengthen that cadence/ending—these are all very basic things that need to be understood in order to push and pull the musical maelstrom, especially in a full orchestra environment! For those who understand that, you should get my point exactly in regards to my reasoning to minimize co-writers. In this I can write all the instruments and ensure their proper function. With many band members, things like this totally get lost in the process! This is a huge deal for any project, but an even bigger deal for a large orchestra. In regards to the recording process, it actually makes

it easier to record when only having two members. I know that sounds insane, but I built a studio specifically for Forever Mourning, and everything is streamlined. Using the very high-end virtual instruments we use (the ones you hear on the big screen), it takes multiple computers running over a network to truly run the orchestra, choirs, and some new things that I won't tell you about for the next album. One thing I have learned over the years to maximize creative flow is to separate technical studio/computer work and the creative writing process. Both use very different parts of the brain, and shifting gears constantly will wear you down and you will lose all focus. Multitasking for efficiency certainly does not apply here.”

In closing I ask Chilcote about whether or not the band is pursuing a label or if they even have any interest to get signed? They’re doing a good job as it is. “Ah, the label thing,” he begins. “It has been on the bottom of our list the entire time. Total opposite of almost all new bands out there. Will it become a priority? Put it this way, it would take a good deal to make it happen. And they better be able to do a better job at promoting than I can! The music industry is changing, and the playing field is starting to level off for DIY bands versus labels. I’ve seen many bands get signed and get pushed to the bottom of the barrel. Bound by a contract to do more albums, but not bound by contract to have the albums pushed. Besides, who cares more about your project anyway? Yourself! No one will ever care more about a project than the person that is doing the project.

Are we opposed to signing with a label? Not if the right one comes along, that is for sure! So far the right one hasn’t come our way; maybe that will change, maybe not. But the music is number one in our book, not getting signed to a label. And guess what, we own ALL rights to all of our music!”

Beneath the Massacre / FOrever Mourning

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By Jay H. Gorania

S

ome people have been known to somehow perversely enjoy their sorrow. They don’t all necessarily hide in dark corners holding candles, though.

“I like to listen to a lot of Type O Negative. That band rules! October Rust is my favourite album, it’s just, like, so sad, and I like feeling sad,” Elizabeth Schall laughs. “Just when you’re by yourself, it’s just…I don’t know. I don’t know how to explain it really.”

Constantly giggling to the point of being giddy and reflecting an oftentimes “bubbly” nature, one might find the preceding statement too contradictory for comfort. But after listening to the melodic and melancholy-fueled death, black and thrash attack of Within One, the debut full-length from Los Angeles’ Dreaming Dead, the band Elizabeth fronts as guitarist/vocalist, the authenticity of her bleaker perspective on life is almost painfully obvious.

But like many musicians, it took Elizabeth a while to find her niche.

After learning how to fix and build guitars at a music college and playing guitar for a few years with Orange County’s black metal act Winterthrall in her early twenties, Elizabeth wound up trotting the globe with The Iron Maidens—the all-female tribute band to, um, Iron Maiden.

“During the time I was in The Iron Maidens, I was really thinking about putting my own band together because all in all it was a tribute band, and it’s cool metal. I mean, Iron Maiden is awesome.

I’ve never been the biggest Iron Maiden fan, but I always thought it would be a good opportunity for me to learn a different style and go out on the road and get some experience, but it was still this feeling that, ‘Well, if I ever want to put my own band together and fulfill my dreams of fronting a band, I should start now, and if it doesn’t work, later on I can always be in a tribute band.’ That’s when I started recording my own material.”

With the encouragement of drummer Mike Caffell, what she says she initially intended to be a recording project became something more following the recording of their Through the Eyes of Insanity demo. As a working moniker, that demo fell under the same name of a band she was in years earlier, Manslaughter. On face value, the name might conjure images of man-loathing worshippers of The Great Kat, perhaps tearing up male dolls on stage. After being in an arguably gimmicky all-female band, did Elizabeth really want to continue bringing attention to the fact that she’s a woman?

“That’s why I wanted to change it. I used to be in a band called Manslaughter when I was 18. I kind of grew up with the name, and I always played in a band with guys. It was kind of a punk

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band so it worked really well. And when I started my first band, it dawned on me. I felt like I was creating the wrong attention,” she says, though adding she continues to toy with the idea of using the name Manslaughter for an all-female metal band.

Not in abundance, but Elizabeth says the predictable, chauvinistic, thug-head remarks have been hurled onstage before, to which Mike adequately and diplomatically thwarts by showing the crowd his tits. Yet old-world prejudice unfortunately continues to exist in certain quarters.

“When we were on tour in October, we played shows all up the West Coast and it was totally cool, totally well received, and people would come up and wanna talk. But the more Midwest we played, people didn’t wanna talk to me. I don’t know if they were mad, or maybe it was just the people, but I got that weird sense that maybe [some people think] women should have a certain place and it was totally off to see a girl fronting a band with this kind of music. Maybe I’m tripping. Maybe I’m just being paranoid,” she laughs.

“It was never expressed, but I thought it was kinda weird. Maybe it’s that feeling that ‘your place is somewhere else.’ But I don’t really care. And it didn’t happen a whole lot. It’s not something that I’m worried about. It was just something that stood out this last time on the road, because I don’t remember it being like that in prior tours.”

Whatever her “place” may or may not be, Elizabeth’s introduction to metal came years ago. Born in Orange County, and eventually moving back to California when she was 18, her parents moved the family to Chile, where they’re from, when she was ten.

“I think I had certain struggles as a kid because my parents realized they kinda fucked it up when we moved to South America, but my mom was pregnant with my little sister so we couldn’t move back, so they really resented the move. It was really stressful to see the back and forth between the parents. There was a lot of stress, culture shock, and rejection at school. I was kinda introverted because I didn’t really have an outlet. I really didn’t have friends. I guess after a certain time I started making friends, but I think the damage had been done at this point. I was doomed to be rebellious.”

Those friends introduced her to thrash metal and acts as varied as Mr. Bungle.

“Metal to me, I just couldn’t believe it. And forget about the first time I played an electric guitar, that was just the biggest thing for

me. In South America at the time, it was really hard to get bass strings or a guitar itself or an amp. It was, like, an event. Buying my first electric guitar when I was 16 was the most amazing event in my life. It was just very expensive stuff so you really had to want it and figure a way to get it. So to me it was just kind of one discovery after another, and it just kind of intensified as I learned more and more about it. And I kind of feel like it’s still like that. When you’re a kid, the feeling of wonderment is constant. I kind of feel like that lots still. I think it’s something important to hold onto. Metal is the rebellious child within me that I refuse to let go of.”

Needless to say, moving to South America was a pivotal moment for Elizabeth on many levels. “It was definitely an eye opener because I remember in elementary school thinking the U.S. is the only country that exists. You don’t think of anything outside of the U.S., and then when I lived in South America, [I realized] there’s this really big world out here, and to acknowledge something like that when you’re that young makes you open to everything in life.”

Judging by her tastes ranging from Cryptopsy and Vader to Mars Volta and Miles Davis, she’s certainly become open to things in the realm of music. Not that Dreaming Dead are incredibly groundbreaking at this point, but their adventurous spirit can be felt throughout Within One. “I don’t like to over-think the music, and I want people to be able to understand what I’m trying to express, so I don’t like to get overly technical with my playing. I just want solid writing and I want people to be able to enjoy the music, so I think as long as there’s a good groove going on and as long as that isn’t being affected by all these extra things that shouldn’t be there, that’s our initial approach. We’re still definitely working [on] our sound.

I think we’re still experimenting with our styles, like black metal and thrash and death metal and doom and acoustic stuff, and I think we’re always pushing the heavy groove and a lot of variety and keeping it fresh.”

But does Dreaming Dead want to find a sound that’s ultimately original?

“Definitely, but it’s almost like I’m constantly pushing to achieve this impossible perfection, so I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to say we’re not gonna be open to experiment. I kinda feel like that’s a good thing because if we were to ever be like, ‘Okay, that’s our sound,’ it kind of makes me nervous because it makes me think I’m not trying to be innovative. So I think we’ll always experiment with things here and there.”

Raw

“Our latest album continues in the same way all of our new albums are received: with strongly polarized reactions. Some reviews will write ‘not recommended to those who can’t stand SUNN O)))’ when we have nothing to do with that band and/or sound, while others will say our music is crap and to flush our music down the drain. We can’t help but laugh at reviews like these,” starts Tronus Abyss founding member Atratus about his band’s latest opus Vuoto Spazio Trionfo (ATMF). “These comments make no sense and warrant no explanation, especially when written by individuals who claim they only listen to extreme music. I guess for them ‘extreme’ is just ultra-fast guitar riffs and lyrics about Satan, orgies, and Sabbaths. The extreme goes way beyond these clichés and I think that in order to listen to T.A. it takes more than just a liking for the extreme. The extreme is not out there in the open; it’s hidden and subtle and only the enlightened few can grasp it. On the other hand, however, the majority of people who have actually heard the record said are very enthusiastic about it, calling it a nice li’l gem.

“But like I said, we’re used to this. You either hate us or you love us. That’s the best part of our music, the fact that it always touches both extremes. It gets complicated dealing with reviewers when they try to compare different musical realities: We’re like nobody else—our music is unique. Unique is our way to make music and unique is the feeling you get from our songs. To be honest I find the need to constantly compare bands and genres completely useless. I think it’s important to understand that every artist is a separate entity.”

And as noted, it’s the uniqueness of T.A. that once again shines with an assortment of creative impulses and arrangements that allow Vuoto Spazio Trionfo to stand tall and poignant. They give you a reason to want to explore it more.

“There is no underlying theme. In the past two or three years we seriously devoted ourselves to non-studying the Zen and Advaita Vedanta non-doctrines,” says Atratus. “In our latest record we played and expressed our most instinctive emotions. There’s not a lot we can say right now. What we wanted to say is on record; you just have to let it flow.

“We have a particular way of making music. The only things we record in advance are the guitar parts, and sometimes not even that. Mord is the writer of all our music. Now we have a new bass player, and he’s writing too, but it’s the first time someone other than Mord does. Mord writes a song, ‘il Monaco’ arranges it for the keyboard, and ‘il Barolo’ writes the eight-string bass parts.

Sometimes I add some ambient parts myself, but mostly what I do is sit down on a chair, close my

Inst

inct

, Raw

Emo

tion

eyes and let the music carry me away: words come to the mind that I will use with the music to tell a story just for that moment in time. The next time it will all be different, with other visions and other words. A lot depends on what I’m eating, drinking, or smoking at the time. Every time it’s different words. Our emotions need to flow and can’t be captured on paper. We always record all our tracks, and then in the studio we improvise what fate has decided is going to be the final version.”

With each recording, each artist, whether consciously or subconsciously, sets out to make “the better record.” T.A.’s founder doesn’t really have his finger on which one it was, other than the fact that the results are what they are, and he accepts that. Vuoto Spazio Trionfo is a different beast—so be it.

“Maybe deep inside we wanted to make a better record than our previous one. It’s human to want to get better,” he says in his analysis of the new release. “But if you look closely you can see how things find their own path to follow. It’s automatic, it just happens. Things happen spontaneously, like the turning of the seasons…like the things that happen in our lives…like living and dying. This record created itself; nobody did anything. Believing you’re in charge of your actions is just an illusion. I went through this experience myself. You can believe me when I say that’s the way things are. We’re only actors put in motion by that thing called consciousness or one of the thousand other names of god. And yet aside from god or the conscience, there is something REAL that allows the conscience to express itself and project the world and all the universes we can only dream of. We are that something. Nobody is really alive, we are ourselves being lived through something that remains, as Lovecraft would put it, Nameless.”

There is a real passion imbedded deep within T.A. and with each listen to the new album it becomes more apparent that by working together, the musicians involved in this album have tapped into something special; a turning point of sorts for T.A. “We’ve always managed to get together and play when we felt like it instead of doing it as a job. We never thought of music as something you ‘had to do.’ Things flow freely, and one record a year or one in five years is the same to us. Our songs show how life itself is. The songs we write are based in real experiences, told through examples.”

He ends off, “Everyday life is our most incredible experience. Playing music is just one of our many pastimes.”

By Adrian ‘The Energizer’ Bromley Tronus Abyss

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Outlaw Order

On the Southern Nihilism Front

New Orleans, Louisiana just might be the hottest place on earth. Not temperature-wise (though try walking down Bourbon Street on an August afternoon in jeans and a black longsleeve and see how much you like it) but more so in terms of attitude.

During the weekend I was there this past summer, I witnessed more warm hugs, sultry looks, heated barfights, and fervent consumption of alcohol (that Kentucky bourbon sure burns on the way down) than I’d seen in my hometown all year, and it goes without saying that their music scene is positively sizzling. The NOLA underground is famous for its tight-knit community of musicians and supporters, who between them have produced some of the best and most enduring albums the extreme metal world has ever seen. Anyone who’s ever soaked in the oppressive, heatstruck intensity of Crowbar, Buzzoven, Acid Bath, and EyeHateGod knows just how potent, gripping, and sinfully heavy the New Orleans sound can be, and that that dirty, dopesick swamp sludge is unlikely to ever clean itself up or fade away. A true product of their environment, the battleworn dirt worshippers of Outlaw Order (“00%” for short) have arrived on the scene with a new full-length and a hell of a lot to say. The man behind the microphone, Mike IX Williams, was kind enough to shed some light on the inner workings of this infamous group of doomed souls and expound upon the virtues of non-virtuous behavior. Welcome to the end times.

Williams: Outlaw Order came into being out of the boredom and frustration from being in EyeHateGod and idly waiting for Jimmy Bower to finish touring with all the other bands he was in. I mean EHG has had a whole slew of troubles, and Jim’s by no way the only or first person to go out on his own and pursue other avenues, but that’s the main reason that the few of us decided we wanted to still play together and continue on the same New Orleans-inspired path. Crime and all of its influences and effects is the 00% concept. To damage and confuse society through threats and propaganda is our aim and to open their eyes to the corruption of the criminal justice system and world of evil cops and police brutality. Our manifesto is the Siege Mentality, which basically is a more detailed combination of the ‘concept and aim theories’ plus our vision of class war and chaos. A full written manifesto will be released on a future date on our Web site.

What is it about New Orleans that breeds metal and punk? It seems as though everyone I met down there was in at least two other bands, and everyone loved Black Flag as much as I do.

I don’t know why NOLA breeds so many great groups. One reason could be that we are semi-isolated in our widespread scene and we make our own entertainment from scratch. It’s funny you say that about Black Flag; they are highly regarded down here as a major influence for a lot of bands. Different eras in Flag’s career—some will say My War, some may say the Process of Weeding Out, others will harp on the Damaged record all fucking night. I love ALL of it, but I personally dig the early records and am a big Jealous Again fan. I’ve seen Black Flag six or seven times all on different tours, even back with Dez singing in 1980, ’81 or something. I lived in a home for boys when I was younger and we snuck out and walked like two miles to see them. I’ve got all kinds of Black Flag gig stories.

I’ve got to say, I’m a huge EHG fan, and when I found out that there was a band out there made up of four-fifths of the band, I couldn’t have been more excited. Outlaw 66

Outlaw Order / Deadlock

By Kim Kelly

se, but to establish yourselves as a unique entity with your own identity. Do you consider Outlaw Order to be a side project, or a whole new band? How does Outlaw Order’s sound and aesthetic differ from that of EHG?

Order really is made up of a veritable who’s who of the NOLA sludgecore scene—Soilent Green, Crowbar, Hawg Jaw, and, of course, EyeHateGod. How do you guys find time for all your projects? Do you ever tire of playing the slow stuff?

Well, first of all thanks for the support and your love of the music—it’s much appreciated! Firstly, it’s not all slow stuff, and, no, we never get tired. I’ll sleep when I’m dead. I like to keep busy; it keeps me out of trouble! We are all like that here in New Orleans. Playing music and writing and doing art is our way of life. I’m at a point in my life where being serious about the music supersedes getting high. It used to be the other way around. Also, my ’80s hardcore punk worship band, Arson Anthem, is definitely NOT slow in any way. I really can’t stand the “sludge” label, it seems silly and an easy way out for writers with no creativity.

I mean I’m a music writer as well and I’m guilty of using all the generalizing terms like “Speed/Death/Thrash/Black” and so on, but I don’t know, I guess when it comes to describing the music we’ve invented ourselves down here, it can’t pinpoint exactly what we do. They can try and pigeonhole it, but it’s gonna be a waste of everybody’s time.

I devoured the Legalize Crime EP, and am unbelievably stoked on the full-length. Why the five-year gap between Legalize Crime and Dragging Down the Enforcer?

The majority of the songs were written back at the same time as the EP and we never planned to let the un-recorded songs go to waste ’cause they were so good, so me and Gary [Mader of Hawg Jaw] never gave up and truly believed that we would get the tracks laid down sooner or later. The long period of wait was due to not trusting a fucking soul in the record industry. We still don’t, but some friends at Season of Mist made us an offer and it looked better than 99 per cent of the others, so we grabbed it.

Finally recording those songs was a great feeling, as is playing them live. It’s energetic stuff coming from us, not as doomy, but still fucking heavy as shit.

How does DDTE differ from the EP? Was this version of “Double Barrel Solves Everything” re-recorded for the full-length? What can you tell me about the new record?

Yes, that tune was definitely re-recorded, of course. Sonically, this LP is miles apart from the Legalize Crime EP; much better production, better engineering and all that. We did it with a relatively unknown buddy of ours, David Troia, at the soundboard. He’s worked with Down, Arson Anthem, Mudvayne, Otep, et cetera.

We went to him because, besides being fantastic at what he does, it was very comfortable and he is a part of our inner gang of friends. The studio process was simple, cut and dry, no bullshit y’know. That’s the way it’s gotta be with us. It’s rock and roll, it should be no frills and raw. We did clean up the trademark feedback of EyeHateGod a bit and we have a lot more lead guitar work done by Brian [Patton of Soilent Green] than EHG ever had, but it’s still destructive, in yer face, Southern and crusty.

You’ve expressed a desire to distance yourselves from the EyeHateGod connection – well, not exactly "distance," per

Yeah I wouldn’t say distance ourselves from EHG at all either, but we ARE a separate outfit with a totally distinct set of values and a more “going into battle” vibe I would personally say. Outlaw Order is NOT a side project; it is a touring, writing, fresh version of our Southern punk and metal. EHG’s lyrics are more on a personal level I would say. More about getting through life and love, hate, addiction- a lot about addiction was brought up in that group, relationships, things of that nature. 00% is still always embedded in reality at all times. We are also about the consequences of your actions and the direct action and illegal behavior of others, especially the lawlessness of those in power in this country. Outlaw Order’s lyrics tackle reality based subjects like class war, police brutality, injustice in the courthouses and jails, destroying the upper class society, working shit jobs, y’know, everyday stuff about throwing a monkey wrench or two into the system, et cetera.

What does part does Outlaw Order play in your life overall? What part of you does participating in this project satisfy?

The same primal thing that all of my bands satisfy: the pure expression of the ancient art of destruction of other people’s eardrums. Outlaw Order plays a part in the Outlaw Order part of my life. By the way, the main description of the name of this band is Outlaw Order, as to make disorder out of order, to turn organization into disarray.

What is it about this type of music that you love so much?

What got you into it in the first place, and what bands would you recommend to younger kids who are just starting to get into the sound?

I love everything about this certain type of music, it goes without saying, but I’m into all sorts of stuff. I got into rock and roll when I was way young, stuff like Sabbath, Kiss, Cooper, Stones, then later on to Ramones, Sex Pistols, Clash, Discharge, Dead Boys, Germs, Stooges, et cetera. I mean, you name it, if it’s intense and interesting I’ll check it out. The mid-’80s were Exodus, Slayer, Sodom, Bathory, Pentagram, Obsessed and on and on and on. Now I dig any and everything in between the insanely amazing cracks of all this junk. To a kid getting into heavier and/ or extreme tunes, I’d say, please check out the history of all this great music. Don’t be close-minded. Learn where the modern stuff came from. You won’t be sorry. Don’t limit yourselves; that’s how new and original strains of cool shit happen.

What’s next for Outlaw Order after the release of the record? Can we hope to catch you guys on tour anytime soon?

More writing and all the usual things a band does. We just played a killer show last week and yeah we’ll go on tour for sure. We’re going to Texas very soon, then plan on the rest of the world.

Check out our sites [MySpace sites exist for EyeHateGod, Arson Anthem, and Outlaw Order] and order my book Cancer as a Social Activity in its second printing from www.southernrootspub. com or www.thehousecorerecords.com. Also check out www. southernnihilismfront.com.

There has always been something special about Germany’s Deadlock. The music, the songwriting and the energy that they have brought to the forefront, along with a wonderful concoction of aggressive death metal riffs, keyboards and a pairing of melodic vocals and growls to please most fans of said style.

The band’s latest album Manifesto (Lifeforce) finds the band moving forward from their previous album Wolves (2007) in regards to production, songwriting and explosive melodies. After ten years, you’d figure they would be comfortable with their sound like most bands, but not these crazy kids.

“During all the years of our existence, we always improved our musical skills and the demand on ourselves,” starts drummer Tobias Graf. “But I think Deadlock has always been a warrantor for a fresh, innovative and unique sound. There are some things we always wanted to keep the same: We never care for any trends and hypes. It’s very important for us to entertain with our music; we always make the music we would like to hear for ourselves, and there’s no limit for Deadlock.

“It was just a normal level of progression and innovation. With every new output we pushed our music to the next level, and in my opinion the main changes have to go with lower steps to make it an acceptable progression,” Tobias continues. “On our way from Earth.Revolt [2005] to Wolves we had Sabine join the band as a permanent member and according to that decision, of course some changes and improvements in our style were the result. During the recording process for Manifesto we decided to create more special moments, give more room to new ideas and put the female and male voices more and more to their extremes.

Looking back to our older release I see constant signs of progression and also a huge loyalty to our ideals, and that is something very rare and special in today’s music business.”

As most musicians will tell you, labels do get nervous when bands try and experiment or break away from their original sound, as it might alienate fans. In short, labels don’t want to fix the kitchen sink if it doesn’t need fixing. That being said, Lifeforce seems to have been very supportive of Deadlock’s aim to try new things each time out, even if that means somehow shifting their sound somewhat.

“It has always been a good cooperation with Lifeforce. They fully support our ideals and ideas,” he points out.

“Furthermore we’re one of the top bands on the roster and the label is working hard and a lot for us. So that’s really good for Deadlock. We’ve had some offers from other (bigger) labels after getting more and more popular through our previous album Wolves… But we decided to extend our contract with Lifeforce due to their really good offer and our belief that it would be better to stay on a label where we have a top priority standBy Adrian ‘The Energizer’ Bromley ing, instead of starting as one of many other bands on a cramped roster of another label. During the last years we’ve become really close friends with the Lifeforce staff. So that’s also been a good reason to stay with them.”

While the band has taken it upon themselves to control just how they go about writing and building upon their sound and style, they too have control over how the studio work comes into play. “Since our previous album Wolves we’re doing most of the studio “Yes,” he responds. “Hopefully 2K9 will be a Deadlock year. We work and recording sessions on our own. Our main songwriter is have many plans starting with a European tour together with The guitarist Sebastian, and he is responsible for all sound duties in Haunted and All That Remains in January and February and lots the band and took over the recordings for those last albums in of festival appearances during the summer time. Maybe we will his very own studio called Slaughter’s Palace. Nearly everything play another tour later on that year and, of course, we would love is tracked by him, except the drums. We recorded them at Jacob to go to the USA or maybe once again to Japan. We are excited Hansen Studios, where also the mixing and mastering has been about what the future brings and to which countries and places done. Therefore it’s always a hard time for us being in the studio, our new baby Manifesto will bring us.” since it means a lot of work for ourselves. But we prefer this way He ends off, “But one thing is clear: in 2k9 Deadlock will be busier of recording an album though.” than ever before. We will see lots of new countries, so be aware of Are you ready for 2009?

Deadlock taking your town by storm, ladies and gentlemen.”

No Limit!

67

JANVS Italy’s Janvs continue to amaze me with their musical progression, a wonderful assortment of black metal-tinged numbers that simmer with aggression, passion and maturity. Their latest album Vega (ATMF) is a different beast than the stellar previous opus Fulgures (2007), as now there is more structure in the songwriting due to more individuals now involved.

Now with Vega, the scope of creative realms and emotional journeys truly manifest themselves into wondrous arrangements that strike with unforgettable intensity, the marks of their passages etched into our psyche.

Founding member Vinctor talks to UNRESTRAINED! about the evolution of Janvs’ music and why change is a good thing…

Musically where do you think Vega finds Janvs in 2008? Did the direction of this album turn out the way you had envisioned?

Yes, I think it did. Although an album comes to its final shape in a gradual way, I find it difficult to start with a very precise idea that is then delivered in a scheduled and tight way.

I begin working on songs with a somewhat broader vision and then I control the flow of ideas that come out following this general intention. The album has somewhat a life of its own and as it grows over time I have to dialogue with it in a harmonic way until we are both satisfied and done. We made a great leap forward from our previous album Fulgures, leading our music to a much more complete, complex and accomplished level under every point of view. We somewhat destroyed genre-barriers bringing in a lot of different influences but managing to keep our overall style and sound consistent and organic. We’ve become a metal band that is actually difficult to define using a sub-genre label. We have the extreme metal elements that were our main distinctive trait in the past, but we blended them with traditional heavy metal and progressive rock influences and with rock and post-rock colours too.

How difficult has it been to tap into your creative edge over the years?

Well it’s been a lot of work! A lot of things come into play when writing and recording songs and albums. Songwriting, arranging, musicianship, proficiency in using instrumentation, recording in the studio, lyrics...everything is connected, but it’s also a stand-alone department. There are lots of very skilled instrumentalists who aren’t able to write interesting music, a lot of people who write cool songs but aren’t able to actually record them in an effective way in the studio because they are used to playing only in the rehearsal room and don’t know how to actually arrange a song for studio recording. Lots of people have interesting ideas but don’t manage to play and use their instrumentation decently. I tried over time to dedicate the right amount of effort to every aspect of being a studio musician, my focus has always been on doing albums. I always strived to reach a sufficient proficiency in every field to be able to put on record what I had in my head from time to time. Of course I’m still very far from reaching a level of which I’m fully satisfied (if that’s actually possible) but I know I made some huge steps from the beginning of my musical career in a relatively short time, especially lately, and that gives me courage.

68

Janvs / Blood Tribe

Shifting, Turning, Growing…

By Adrian ‘The Energizer’ Bromley

I love the length of the songs and the variety. How important is that for you to have variety on each album?

It’s very important for me; I want every song to have its own strong identity. The sum of the individual identities of the songs shape the album and the album identity gives order and manages to contextualize every single episode it contains in the wider picture. It’s teamwork. All of our albums actually are concept albums, although we always try to be as subtle and elegant as possible without shooting things “in your face” too much. The alchemy to create organic pictures, as concept albums have to be, while giving a lot of variety to its individual components, is not easy to find, but I think it’s one of the most satisfying things when you manage to conquer it.

Lyrics and imagery are key elements in this regard obviously; it’s a task that requires mainly a great coordination between the different creative sides involved in the making of an album. I think Vega is so much better than Fulgures under this point of view.

The lyrics and vocal style on some of the tracks are very passionate. It really makes the music stronger when you can sense the passion like that.

Vega is the name of a star of the Lyra constellation; it was the Northern pole star until quite some millennia ago and will again serve as it in some other millennia from now. It has been the brightest pole star ever.

Vega represents the constant quest for a lost fixed point, for a true glimpse of light in the shadows, a journey searching for a home in the ambiguous cosmical territories of space and time through flaring apocalypses, torn between the longing for what is forever passed and the confused “vespertine” but burning hope that the day will break again in all its strength at a certain point in our lives or in the infinite sea of the flowing eras on another plane.

Microcosmos and macrocosmos lose themselves into one another, individual and cosmic fate are hardly separated in a reasoning that I wanted to take to the most universal and wider perspective possible while being extremely personal and private too. Vega also has some very interesting etymological roots concerning its name in various cultures and many cultural interpretations in a great number of very different civilizations, from Romans to Arabs and Assyrians that can relate in a very interesting way with the contents of the album. In short, our main influences have been love, loss, woe, hope, and despair.

Do you think the band has matured with this release?

Yes. In fact, I really can’t understand people who prefer the old album over this one. I mean I know this one is so much better than the other one...but I guess that’s very normal, actually. Every band has to confront these kinds of things constantly; you have to accept listeners’ subjectivness and stop bothering with it, I suppose.

However, every release for us meant a great step forward from where we were before it. Fulgures has been my first experience in a semi-professional studio; I gathered a lot of extremely useful knowledge from it. This time we really got much more defined in the pre-production process. I made quite a lot of instrumentation research, I changed the drummer to have a reliable team to work with (m:A Fog from Black Flame, Slavia, ex-Glorior Belli, ex-Disiplin came in), we fixed every little detail before booking a quite nice

studio. Then we came in and we had the album finished in a couple of weeks to respect the budget. [It was] quite a crazy time considering the complexity of the album and the fact that I was alone recording all the material except for bass, drums, and some vocal tracks. Bands like ours are the true heroes of the current market, not the ones who get half a million dollars to book incredible studios for entire months when they have to record horrible albums that could be done in a week...and also get much less damaged by file-sharing issues and that sort of things than we do! But that’s another story.

With Vega I think the band has no doubt shed a good amount of the black metal sound and style that was a part of the older music—that showcases growth. Did it just happen that way or was it a conscious effort on the band’s part?

I always tried to progress the most I could from album to album, because that’s my way of being and my way of enjoying doing music; it’s what comes natural to me. I feel the need to grow, evolve, improve. So it happened this way although some form of control and analysis over the material you are producing is always necessary for a band like ours, even if I find myself discarding very little material usually. I manage to stay pretty focused over the right vision. I think this question is deeply linked to a couple of the previous ones and to the next one. I fear I would risk to repeat a lot of the same things.

Why do you take chances with your music? Most bands like to stay the same, but Janvs doesn’t.

Because I have to take changes with my music. I would be killed by boredom otherwise. But actually I think that mainly sincere music always has to be an honest expression of its makers. I am a curious and tormented person who always likes to and has to think, feel, explore, search for different things in life. I think that it’s only positive that my music changes with me, although of course it’s always me in the end, and that will be recognizable on every release. Janvs will never get away from a quite precise stylistic and artistic perspective. Not that everyone has to go down the same path. I respect a lot of bands who didn’t change considerably over the years, but I have to feel sincerity and honest motivations behind this. I’m not the kind of person who sanctifies stagnation and commercial cowardice under words such as “old school,”“true,”“kult” and these kind of things. I always want my next effort to be an adventure that will showcase improvement, development, and new solutions reaching a new level. I want to be surprised at the end of the day by what I obtained, and I want listeners to be surprised too...in a positive way, hopefully. I could never stick to a formula and repeat that over and over for years. I would find the results to be simply fake music because I know that a single formula could never express myself as time goes by and because I would simply get bored to death and thus would see no point in the whole thing since this band isn’t and will never be my job.

What do you think of the music scene nowadays, in both the mainstream and the underground?

The bands that interest me the most are the ones who blend extreme metal with influences that I find interesting, such as progressive rock and psychedelic music. Bands like Opeth, Enslaved, Burst, Novembre...these are the kind of bands that I find to be the most interesting. I can’t tolerate anything that ends with “core” and I basically don’t listen to the bands who love to copy the music of 20, 15, 10 years ago over and over. If people want more novelty and interesting bands in the metal market, listeners should again start to really support the underground bands that really deserve it without waiting for big labels to shoot music in their faces.

Listeners have to make an effort to go beyond the overcrowding issue and recover the passion to make a worthy band grow—all the power is in their hand!

BLOOD TRIBE I’ve found over the years of doing interviews with bands, when the topic of the album title comes up you get diverse responses: some pretty generic, some boring and some intriguing. Then you get the rare story about a title that’s such a gem it’s almost a crime not to tell the reader about it.

Case in point, 1369: The Death and Dying Chapters the Dark Harvest Records debut from Evansville, Indiana metal monsters Blood Tribe. The groove-oriented death metal machine showcases a barbarian rampage, death metal riffs pouring out from every seam, and a vocalist who sounds like he eats shards of glass and scrap wood…but the tale of the album title is what takes centre stage right now.

“Actually the 1369 part of the title is what the band used to be called, but some of the original members of that band were Satan worshippers and they did a ritual one night after drinking to find a vocalist, and fame. Now, whether or not it actually had any effect, they did find a vocalist the next day,” explains bassist Fox nonchalantly as he has no doubt told this tale many times. “However, along with the vocalist came a curse of sorts.

They had a show already booked for that next night for which a flier had been made up and was pasted with slogans such as ‘Five bucks a small price for your eternal soul!,’ ‘Kill Yourself for Satan!’ ‘Set the housewives on fire!’ and several others. It just so happened that the night of the show a girl had been kidnapped, sodomized, raped, run over by a car and mutilated, and the last place she was seen was that show. So when the cops showed up at the venue they saw all the fliers and it was blamed on 1369. So the fame came as well, but with a price.

Ditching the Past

And since we still play some old 1369 songs, we wanted to record them as Blood Tribe to sort of make them ours and in order to put it to ‘death,’ so to speak. We just tacked on The Death and Dying Chapters to close this out once and for all.”

A far cry from Satanic worshipping, listening to the new album I love the whole intense vibe of the music, meshed with a real solid groove and punishing delivery. In your face! Pure violence!

What’s the difference between live and studio with the band?

“Throughout the many shows Blood Tribe has played, one thing remains a constant: the more brutal the crowd is, and the more brutal Blood Tribe is. We have had shows where kids have stage-dived off the PA, shows where kids have backflipped off the stage, moshing on stage with us. I played a show one night only in my boxers; it was a hot fucking night in Tennessee. The crowd afterwards tends to mostly remark about the tightness of the music, our drummer’s odd habit of playing with his eyes closed, the in-your-face vocals and just the overall experience of a show.”

And how has your studio experience been? Just as fun?

“It has been a growing experience for us. 1369 is our second release, so we knew what we were getting into with a studio.

Burning Darkness was an eight-track EP we released a year before 1369. We actually paid quite a bit of money for it, and while it was a bit smooth for our tastes it gave us a desire to find a more underground means of getting our next disc done. We went with Kill Co. Audio for 1369, the guy who runs it, Ryan Key, is a friend of ours who plays guitar in a local metal band eXesion.

That was a totally different experience altogether from the EP. It was all separate and pieced together in a control room with Kill Co. and it was a more relaxed atmosphere, just kind of letting it happen naturally rather than forcing it. The groundbreaking part of 1369 was actually just our drummer recording it with only a scratch guitar part, no bass or vocals. It only took him ten hours to get all of the drum tracks finished. In the studio our guitarist tends to be the driving force behind getting it to the next level. Without him there wouldn’t be a Blood Tribe.

“Well, honestly everything this time around was new, since we used a studio for the first EP. We just tracked our parts, did a few layers on guitar and vocals, and showed up to hear what he had for us. This time around we had full access to what was going on, from the mixing to the layering to the mastering,” continues the bassist about studio work on 1369. “We did use some drum placement software and obviously Pro Tools. The guitars were quad-tracked through Tom’s Randall T2 Head and a Mesa Boogie cab loaded with vintage thirties. The bass tracks we just phoned in via Fire Pod; no one needs to hear them anyway. I know the drum tracks were recorded without a click track to preserve the live feel and he used some minor effects on the vocals and bass guitar.”

He finishes off, “We like to keep it as live as possible so the listener isn’t disappointed at a show. However, the guitar player did forget his tremolo bar and had to use a Phillips screwdriver.

Fun fact, huh?” he laughs.

By Adrian ‘The Energizer’ Bromley

midnight syndicate

69

Pact with

T

he Devil’s Blood, oh how you amaze me. Your dark, ’70s occult rock ’n’ roll-inspired EP Come, Reap (Profound Lore), drenched with its psychedelic flair and brooding emotions, hypnotized me from my first contact with your music. I didn’t see this one coming, but it hit me alike a freight train and never let go.

For years I’ve been looking for a band like this, trying to find an album that channeled the same vibe and atmosphere that acts like Coven and Black Widow had provided the music scene in the ’70s. To this day my prize possession in my album collection of around 3,750 records is the original pressing of Coven’s controversial debut 1969 LP Witchcraft Destroys Minds and Reaps Souls, an album filled with tales of the occult and Satanism.

Who’d have thought a band from Eindhoven would be able to tap into such a majestic and truly mystical realm of creative energy? But they did, and their outing has received multiple spins from yours truly. You’ll have to find the Top 15 list this issue to see where it landed.

Amongst his busy days of touring, preparing rituals and delving into copious amounts of research of many topics—some familiar to us all, some secretive—The Devil’s Blood’s guitarist/mastermind S.L. chats with UNRESTRAINED! Let the spell begin…

Tell me about the early days of the band and its formation and where you think you have taken your vision from then till now.

It’s been a long walk and a hard road to come until I was ready for The Devil’s Blood. Making music since I was 12, I had been spending years and years searching for my own sound and feeling. Playing in dozens of bands and different styles varying from death metal, rock, black metal, hardcore punk, et cetera... I was finally at a point where I was a professional musician and with a band called Powervice I played constantly and gained a lot of experience. The band died while recording its debut album and through the frustration of this hopeless and utterly disappointing period I started to write music that was for once solely based on my own views and desires. It became clear to me quite fast that this music, being so close to my soul, was what I had been waiting for all these years.

I then started to look for musicians that shared my spiritual feelings or where at least able to set aside their personality in order to let this music be what it must be. The rest is as they say history: we recorded a 7-inch and now release Come, Reap!

The band has garnered a lot of attention with the live shows. How do you prepare for those live events? What do fans and the band experience during the live excursions? Is there a chance you’ll come to North America perhaps next year? I can only hope…

By Adrian ‘The Energizer’ Bromley

shows our influence clearly and people will most probably be able to pinpoint one or two themselves. No harm done, no stealing done, just inspiration that flows in mysterious ways.

In regards to studio work, how difficult is it for you to be able to tap into that atmosphere and sound that radiates such chaos and passion?

I personally prefer the studio environment, simply because then it is possible to perfect every single detail of what I hear in my mind. Even though we do dabble in chaos and in rage and at times these feelings are almost too extreme to harness in a “closed” space. But usually we do our best work when we have no distraction from anyone except the little red light on the control desk.

Let’s talk about horror and cinema, as these have had a definite influence on the band’s music, show, and image. What movies and directors have helped shape the sound and style of the band? Any five movies you enjoy the most?

Musically I think people like Morrison, Frizzi, Christopher Young and such have greatly inspired me.

The movies themselves are really numerous to mention but stuff like Village of the Damned, The Man From Planet X, The Devil Rides Out, The Twilight Zone series, Blood on Satan’s Claw, and so on…

How did you hook up with Profound Lore and how has it been so far? They are a strong label that releases a diverse slew of unique bands.

Well, the cooperation is still in its infancy of course, but we do have a good understanding of how and why we do things. Chris and I have almost daily contact on various matters concerning the Cult and that is exactly the way I like it. To have the feeling that what I am doing is also a priority for all the other people involved.

Where does a band like The Devil’s Blood fit into the current music scene?

The strange thing is that although we do make music that can only be described as rock music I really do feel more kinship with the black metal scene and the ideologies that flourish there. Then again, we seem to be put in the “doom” category by a lot of people and critics. All in all I’d say we fill a niche that’s been empty for years and years and we will try to keep it for ourselves for as long as we can.

Any hobbies outside of all of the work you put into the band?

We are currently working on a scheme that should be able to get us to North America to perform our Rituals there [The band has just signed on to work with Thunderdome Touring in North America— AB]. What to expect is the same thing you’d expect from a religious ceremony. An Austere gathering of souls in a meditative state in order to channel the powers of Chaos and Night and send these forth as praise to the Lord of the Dark Halls. It is hard to explain and many people who do not interest themselves for the religious aspect will simply see a rock ’n’ roll band performing the hell out of the songs we play, but for curious souls there is more, deeper within, underneath, inside.

No real hobbies, just passion. I try to devote the largest portion of my free time to the search for Truth and Gnosis, which means a lot of reading on various subjects of the Occult, Magick, Thelma, Christianity and Judaism, Anti Cosmos, Lucifer Ian Satanism, Cabala and Voodoo. Apart from that, nothing spectacular: a lot of working out, some painting on occasion, and apart from that I’ll try and invest all energy and motivation I have into the music and the Cult.

For fans of this genre of music I think it is obvious, but please tell me, who were the band’s early influences and can you still hear them musically? Any newer bands?

As things are now, we will use a significant portion of the year to promote the Come, Reap release before entering the studio in April. Then we will most likely do some touring before the release of the full-length album and after, I dare not speculate. The album will of course be in the same style of music, but again with a different sound. We try to give all the songs the sound they deserve and having delved quite far into the psychedelic soundscape on Come, Reap we will probably go for a slightly different approach this time. No use in repeating yourself and we’d like to keep it as interesting as possible. But don’t go expecting a style change; we’ll always sound like The Devil’s Blood and nothing else.

As far as influences go I could answer in a thousand words but I’ll keep it to the point. Bands as Roky Erickson, Kiss, Led Zeppelin, Black Widow, Coven, Jefferson Airplane, The Pretty Things, The Stones, The Beatles, and on and on and on the list must go… Newer bands such as Manowar, Dissection, Bathory, Darkthrone, Deathspell Omega, Urfa’s, Malicious Secrets, and a lot more... I don’t know if I can still hear their influences; I try not to anyway. I need to distance myself from the influences in order to be more creative. Sometimes however a single melody or vocal line seeps through that 70

Lucifer

The Devil’s Blood / Svarti Loghin

With the EP out now and getting a nice buzz, when do you expect we’ll be hearing the new album? Also, what can we expect? Any surprises?

If you had told me 10 or 15 years ago that the mammoth information highway known as the Internet would help black metal bands (or any type of underground band for that matter) get signed I’d have laughed. I’d have laughed loudly for sure.

Fast forward to 2008 and musicians and bands getting signed over the Internet is all the rage. Everyone from Job for a Cowboy to that “Chocolate Rain” kid are being courted by labels and then signed.

It’s happening with black metal bands too. I know, “What the fuck?” right? I thought the same way a few years back when underground bands with poor song samplings online started getting signed, but nowadays the Internet is a staple part of any band’s regiment to spread their music and image to thousands without leaving their homes, basements and even caves. And bands, fans, and labels are paying attention.

To the list of bands who were discovered on the Net we can now add Sweden’s ultra-cool depressing black metal act Svarti Loghin. Their debut for ATMF’s side label A Sad Sadness Song is entitled Empty World.

“They [ATMF] contacted us via our MySpace after they heard some rough mixes of Empty

World online,” begins bassist Raymond about signing to ATMF. “Everything has been great so far; they are really easy to cooperate with. They are a rising force I think, and their distribution and promotion is really satisfying. We’re very lucky that they took notice of us on MySpace and we’ve been able to see some exposure. What does come across as a negative aspect of the Internet is people downloading our new album’s music. It is disappointing and hard to control. We can’t do much.”

also added some new parts as it went along. Our songwriter S.L had a pretty clear vision of what he wanted to achieve and we did the most of it with the material we had.”

Speaking of the new album, and this being the debut with ATMF, how do you think it turned out? Was there any pressure? “We are satisfied with the results, though afterwards you always find details that none but the band would hear that we might have done in other ways if we had to redo it,” responds the bassist. “I can say that for the next record we’ll be using less distortion and try to get a cleaner more powerful sound, so that the parts that aren’t that black metal sounding get more space and audibility. We’ve changed up things on the newer material, so those parts have increased a bit more in the musical arrangements.”

And influences too?

He continues, “We recorded everything by ourselves; drums in a semi-professional studio and the rest we recorded with equipment we borrowed from friends. But we did not use any assistance for neither the technical part nor any kind of ‘producer’ so it was a very laid-back recording. We took all the time we needed. When we started, we had rehearsed the songs for quite a long time, but we

A lot of the passages seem very intricate with a lot going on. How hard was it to achieve that in the recording process? “We have used up to three layers of guitar for certain songs, used different harmonies, et cetera. Technically it’s not a problem, but I guess you have to have the ideas to back it up.”

“Yes. Those too. For us, it’s hard to put a finger on exactly who our influences really are. We listen bands like Xasthur and Isis, to ’60s psychedelic rock and onto depressive black metal. As for the black metal bands that help bring some darkness into what we do— and I can only speak for myself—but I would say I’m influenced

by Enslaved, Alcest, Abyssic Hate, Make a Change...Kill Yourself, Darkthrone, Shining and Melencolia Estatica.”

In closing I praise Raymond and co. for writing some of the most depressing music out there, with the album title serving as a fitting name for such material. I ask what inspired the trio to write and create material like this? “Although it might sound like a cliché, but: life. With all misery, not only in poor countries, but misery that is all around us on a daily basis it’s easy to find inspiration to get in the state of mind for writing depressing music.”

Their Empty World to Discover

By Adrian ‘The Energizer’ Bromley

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klimt1918

XYSTUS

Stage Presence!

By Adrian ‘The Energizer’ Bromley

Talk about fucking, ambition!

Xystus, the Dutch progressive metal band formed in 1999 by drummer Ivo Van Dijk and guitarist/vocalist Bas Dolmans, set out to truly take things to the next level. Following the success of two earlier releases the band set forth in motion the rock opera Equilibrio for their next project.

In 2006 they contacted the Utrechtsch Studenten Concert, the oldest symphony orchestra in the Netherlands, and started to work together. The two year collaboration— featuring the 60-piece USConcert orchestra, a 30-member choir, and Xystus enlisting vocal performances from Simone Simons (Epica), George Osthoek (Orphanage, Delain) and Dutch theater veterans Michelle Splietelhof and John Vooijs—resulted in the rock opera. Conceived as both an actual stage production and studio recording, Equilibrio was performed to four sold-out audiences in July 2008.

The new double-CD release of Equilibrio (Sensory) features key scenes from the opera that tells the tale of a wanderer named Diegu who finds himself caught between the forces of good and evil.

Amongst all the buzz that has stemmed from all of their hard work—not to mention the grueling task of assembling the DVD of Equilibrio (out in January 2009)—Ivo Van Dijk took time out to chat with UNRESTRAINED! about how Equilibrio came together and just how much work making a rock opera is.

“While in the process of writing and recording the second album [2007’s Surreal] I also played in another band for a short while, Sundqvist [a cello metal band]. The principal cello player, Michael, told me that he played in an orchestra, and since they were celebrating their 185

years of existence in 2008, they wanted to do something special. So there we had the opportunity to play with a full orchestra. We talked a lot about how we wanted to take full advantage of this thing, and after some band meetings, the idea of a rock opera surfaced. Everybody was very enthusiastic. Of course we had no idea what we got ourselves into at that moment. In the months that followed—approximately 19 months—we started to get a vague idea of what the plan actually was, and more and more people got involved: a coordinator, director, artistic leader, choreographer, tailors, light designers, a special production team consisting of six people, video designers, catering people. There were lots of times that we had the feeling that we were in it way over our heads, and there was just too much to handle. You can’t really imagine how it feels to be part of something so huge, and in the end we got to pull all the artistic strings, of course. We did feel that this was going to be something special and it paid off big time in the end.”

Working with an orchestra definitely must have been the biggest challenge you have ever faced.

“For sure,” he agrees. “We really are a ‘do it ourselves’ band, so we decided to see the orchestral recordings as a big challenge and take the production of that in our own hands as well. Of course we have experience recording a band and singers, but recording an orchestra was something completely new for us. Luckily we had a good sound engineer [Anton van Halderen] who did a great job and was a very close part of the team during the recordings. Unlike most orchestral recordings we decided to split the orchestra in sections. We had four days to record everything, which sounds like a pretty long time, but don’t forget there is orchestra all the time on the album, unlike Nightwish/After Forever for instance, where the orchestra

is present in some songs on some parts. This was a huge challenge for us, but I think we pulled it of pretty good for our first time. Since the orchestra is a classical one, playing things like Bach, Schubert, Strauss most of the time, this was a completely new world for them. Luckily Bas Pollard, the conductor of the orchestra, is probably the most hardrockin’ conductor I had ever seen, jumping up and down and really giving it his all while conducting these songs.

“Of course there was a big collision of different worlds in this production. Since most of the people involved in helping set up the production were also green behind the ears in doing this, they had their own challenges to take care of, mainly on getting all the right contacts and setting all the right gears in motion—PR, sponsors, the venue, and so on. We also did our fair share of supporting them with this, meeting with the artistic leader, director, tailor, to get all off our ideas out, telling them what we meant with the story, why we wanted certain things to happen and not happen. I could go on and on for hours about this whole aspect of the production, but hey, I've got more questions to answer, right?” he laughs.

With so much accomplished in 2008, what is planned for 2009?

He ends off, “First of all the DVD will be released in January.

We are still working on it as we speak, actually. It is a very interesting process, and luckily we have some great guys working on the video edits. These are professionals, and the same goes for the camera crew. These are all experienced people who work for various big Dutch TV channels.

In regards to other activities, we are talking with some bands to do a European tour as well. Besides that we are also looking into making Equilibrio a transportable show and do a club tour by the end of 2009. We just want to do some shows again, since that is what we are all about.”

Xystus

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OFERMOD

Breath of the

Dragon

Oc-cult adj., 1 of or pertaining to magic, astrology, or any system claiming use or knowledge of secret or supernatural powers or agencies. 2 beyond the range of ordinary knowledge or understanding; mysterious. 3 secret; disclosed or communicated only to the initiated.

By Terry Demeter

Since its earliest beginnings, black metal has always had a connection (intentional or otherwise) to the occult. Sweden’s Ofermod take this connection to a completely new level, one that not only casts an even darker shadow upon the underground black metal scene, but confronts the listener with an almost overwhelming amount of frightening, unnerving and esoteric occult lore.

We sought out Belfagor, the occult visionary behind the unholy philosophers responsible for the new album Tiamtü, and asked him to shed some light upon the dark path on which he treads.

Could you explain the political, religious, and occult philosophy of Ofermod?

There is no room for politics in Ofermod, or in the esoteric religion we represent, which is a sort of “philokaos” instead of philosophy, just as Sophia is a Greek counterpart to the Hebrew cosmic holy spirit Shechinah. We represent the dark, opposing side of the cosmic creation, the primeval forces of Chaos, and our Holy Spirit is Lilith, the dark mother and initiator into the qliphothic mysteries, spouse of father Samael and mother to all demonic forces in her loftiest form Tiamat, of which “Tiamtü” is yet another name, and in the esoteric mysteries the same as Lucifer, of whom Samael is a lower, blacker form. Lilith is Tiamat in holy exile near the bastard cosmos, inviting the worthy to enter the anti-worlds of Sitra Ahra, the Other Side. That is; the Left Light emanations of Chaos, called the Qliphoth in plural form, and in singular form a Qliphah. These anti-emanations are the dark counterpart to the cosmic creation and dwelling place of evil spirits, demons, destructive gods, the giants in the Norse myths, and the very fountain of limitless wisdom and occult knowledge, the secret and hidden sciences. I follow what is called the “Draconian Current,” and as a dark magician, like the Norse god Odin, I sacrifice myself to my Self to gain Luciferian gnosis on the Other Side, as well as magical power that can be used to alter what people normally consider as reality; in fact a bastard illusion, easily molded to fit the Will of the capable magician. I see the forces of Chaos as Holy, good and pure, while the creation of the bastard demiurge, i.e “God,” is an illegitimate, wicked perversion and abomination, yet I still often use words such as “evil” to describe the forces I’m aligned with, because from a cosmic point of view, they certainly are Evil. I must point out that this may not be the view of everyone working with the same current as myself, but the Left Hand Path has never been for sheep, but for wolves, the Alpha Beasts, each and every one a god or a goddess in themselves, deciding their own destiny, working beyond where the illusion of Karma reaches, in the very depths of the underworld.

How fundamental are these esoteric beliefs to your music?

The Satanic forces of Sitra Ahra are the very foundation upon which the entity of Ofermod stands! It is these forces that I conjure to be present on our recordings, and in a profound, esoteric way, our lyrics are a mirror of the anti-worlds, as all my writing is done in connection with meditation upon these symbols, or upon returning from an astral travel in these shadow sides of being/becoming/unbeing, where I have just been in close, personal with a personification of the force I intend to write about. My composing process is similar, except that I still am in a semi-trance state of mind while actually composing. I channel the chaos forces through my body into the instrument I compose with, which usually is the guitar. The sounds encountered during an astral projection into the realms of these destructive forces is very hard to duplicate, therefore I try to capture the feeling and atmosphere of these sounds, as well as a sonic form of the astral visions of course, in my compositions.

Has there ever been any problems considering the band’s strong occult and personal views?

Not that I can recall. However, I have heard that in the United States my other band, Nefandus, is on some list of bands that are considered to be Nazi sympathizers. This could not be further from the truth, but I guess this has to do with some of the controversial comments I made in various magazines in my youth, when I still aspired to play in the most hated band in the world. I used a lot of provocative language back then. But to sort things out: I associate with people of all creeds and colours. Some of my dearest friends are of Arabian origin, from Eastern Europe, from South America, et cetera. Back when I still was a professional criminal, two of my best and most loyal soldiers were from Somalia.

Hail Victory! So to be labeled a Nazi or a racist is very offensive to me. I actually also socialize with 74

Ofermod

people who call themselves Nazis or racists, but not because of their political viewpoints; we just happen to share a common interest in the martial arts and Norse mythology, among other things. Racial research interests me, but my interest greatly differs from that of a “proud Aryan.” Ha! As originally a Finn, yet born and raised in Sweden, I’ve got the warrior blood of Attila the Hun running through my veins.

I’ve even got the triangular birthmark right above my ass that is the sign of Attila's heritage!”

It has been a couple of years since your last release, and now you have unleashed your first full-length album, Tiamtu, upon the world. Were there other projects that you were working on during the brief hiatus?

No, there were no other musical projects. I have always been studying and practising the occult sciences. I have also been involved in various criminal organizations before my rebirth in the under-

world, and moved from what we call grey evil to black, spiritual evil.

What can you tell me about the recording of the new album? Did you approach the recording process differently at all than on past releases?

The recording process was very professional indeed, with only myself and our producer Devo (Marduk) present in the Endarker Studio, where it was recorded. All more complex magical work was done outside of the studio, at my home, which is also my private temple, as it would have been difficult to travel back and forth to our mother temple, which lies elsewhere. Also, a lot of magical work was done out in the wild. And Devo understood when it was time for me to meditate in the studio to put myself in the state of mind that is required to record a true black or death metal album, so everything went smoothly. When the music was recorded, Nebiros came and did his vocals during two separate sessions. Then it was only for me to cast some final curses upon the entire opus, and that’s about it.

How has the Ofermod sound developed over the years, and what sets you apart from other black metal bands?

In a way, we have been a strong influence upon the entire orthodox movement within black and death metal, and still after more than ten years after our first release one can immediately hear that it is Ofermod coming out of the speakers, so we have indeed our own sound. But it has matured during the years, just as Nebiros and I have matured as individuals. Stagnation, musical as well as personal, is an enemy to be conquered with discipline and force. People will always be able to recognize an Ofermod release as something superior to the rest of the so-called scene.

The cult keeps on blooming with more power than ever, while the scene keeps on degenerating.

When it comes to Ofermod, we stand right at the frontline of the orthodox Death Militia, true black metal bands included, but have nothing in common with the scene, but Deathspell Omega, Funeral Mist, Watain, Katharsis, Teitanblood, Marduk and such bands have our fullest support.

What, if any, are your current plans? Will you be doing any touring to support the new album?

We will start rehearsing with our live musicians this coming week. Our plans are to do some single gigs with bands like Watain, and next fall we will join Marduk on their European tour.

Would you care to comment on the details of your incarceration? Did it at all influence the music direction of Ofermod in any way?

And what is there to comment about? One must be prepared to take the consequences of one’s

actions. This is in the past, and has nothing to do with Ofermod. It did not influence the musical or the lyrical direction of the band at all.

Many bands are unable to focus on their music full-time. Do you have other careers to attend to while you’re not writing or recording?

My ambition now is to start a distribution company on the coming Ofermod Web site, where I will sell exclusive t-shirts with bands like Ofermod, Marduk, Teitanblood, Abruptum, and of course my other band Nefandus, with which we have just recorded a full-length album entitled Death Holy Death, with guest appearances from Morgan of Marduk, Möller of Arditi/Puissance, and Thomas Karlsson, occult author and founder of the qliphothic, Draconian initiatory order Ordo Draco et Atri Adamantis back in 1989. I will also sell CDs with worthy bands, as well as occult literature on my Web site. It will get underway sometime early next year.

What’s next for Ofermod? Have you prepared any material for a new album?

I am already working on the next full-length, but these things take time. In the meantime, check out the album by Nefandus, due to be released within a few months. We are now negotiating with a label about all the details.

Ofermod has been together for over a decade, but you’ve only four releases (one single, an EP, and now the new album). What factors have played into that? Is it a matter of scheduling?

We have during our 12 years of existence released the 7-inch EP Mysterion Tes Anomias, the MCD Mysterion Tes Anomias, and now our full-length album Tiamtu. I have had priorities other than music in the past, but now I am in the position that I can put the effort and energy behind each one of my musical projects, Ofermod always being priority number one, that they deserve.

I strictly refuse to release anything that is less than perfect. I’m a musical perfectionist, and the so-called scene would be so much better if there were more musical perfectionists out there.

Instead we must compete for the attention of the listeners with bands that perform complete shit, just because the record labels have no taste and release with big promotion campaigns what is something so lousy that I couldn’t even compose such shit even if I tried to. We are the head of the Orthodox Death Militia, and will now continue to release material on a regular basis that is better and stronger than ever before. And as I have pointed out, my music is a vessel into which I can point my creative magical rod, so there are no limits to what power we can unleash upon the world.

reviews

75

D

enmark’s Exmortem is celebrating its 15th year in the death metal trenches. It is a more impressive milestone than one might think. Bands in the death metal genre must be determined, resilient, and in no way, shape, or form driven by the mighty dollar. Staying afloat long enough to record another album is often harder than even those outside of the business realize. To survive in a Danish scene that has not always been widely recognized for its death metal (that is changing) attests to the quality of Exmortem’s music over six albums and guitarist/founder Martin Thim’s steady hand in guiding the ship though a maze of labels and trends. You have to wonder then if Thim thought Exmortem would still be around in 2008.

“Back in the day I didn’t think it would last this long,” he confirms, “but I’m happy it did, and we are one of the bands that actually gets better with each album. I’m very proud of that. There are a lot of memories, both live on tours with bands like Behemoth for example, but also on a personal level; we have spent hours together in the band. I am especially proud of the new album [Funeral Phantoms]. It is a perfect way to celebrate our 15th year!”

It is indeed. Not only is Funeral Phantoms a stupendous follow-up to 2005’s Nihilistic Contentment, a watershed release of sorts on Wicked World/Earache, but it is an entirely different affair than its predecessor. In other words, it is not Nihilistic Contentment Part II, yet the band’s identity has been retained. Exmortem has taken the unmitigated, fast blast brutality of that album and done an about-face by slowing the pace considerably and creating a bludgeoning bulldozer of an album rife with knurled textures and grim atmosphere that Thim has called “a true death metal album with a fascination of death.”

“We have always worked hard to grow with each album and always top ourselves and go in new ways,” Thim explains. “This time we just wanted to develop even more and I really felt like making music with more variation and with focus on the feeling, more than anything. It’s hard to explain how you create music with a fascination of death, but I can say that I’m just really tired of all the bands that sound too polished, clinical and with focus on, for example, the technical aspects. They forget to write good songs, and that is what it’s all about if you ask me.”

Polished Funeral Phantoms is not. It is an album full of dread in its deep grooves and churning grit, in the percussive might of drummer Morten Siersbaek, the growling bass of Kim Nielsen, the ungodly guttural roar of vocalist Simon Peterson, and the abrasive and knotted riffing of Thim and Andreas Schubert. It defines the old adage that heaviness does not necessarily mean speed.

“Absolutely this is by far our most heavy album and again it is also about sound and feeling,” says Thim. “We have always worked to create this kind of feeling in our music, and earlier we tried to achieve it through speed, but now we have found a new way, so to speak. I think a lot of the inspiration comes from bands like Celtic Frost, Black Sabbath and stuff like that.”

That is not to say that Funeral Phantoms is devoid of speed bursts and whiplash moments, sometimes when you least expect it. The elephantine movements of grinding annihilation are made that much more devastating when the explosion does hit. But what really sets the album apart from the far-from-thinning herd is the expert harnessing of an ever-elusive death metal attribute that Thim touched upon: atmosphere.

“I am really glad that people say this because that is exactly what we wanted to achieve! I must say that it’s all about the songwriting, the riffs, structure, vocals, et cetera, and of course the sound on the album and the live performance. With the new live set, people have been really into it and say that we create a really unique feeling.”

Part of the reason for the sonic destructiveness of Funeral Phantoms comes from the recording itself. Nihilistic Contentment saw the band enlisting the services of über producer Tue Madsen with grand results. This time the band took on the task itself with the assistance of mixer Jacob Bredahl.

It was not your tried-and-true studio experience either, as the band took a mobile approach, journeying to no less than three studios to accomplish the feat.

“We really did have a different approach to the recording this time,” Martin recounts. “We didn’t plan as much as we usually do, meaning that we, for example, had not planned what tracks should have what lyrics before we started the recording and all the extra guitars were more or less also [a decision] made in the studio and so on. But we had a really strong vision for the album and the sound, and that’s how it turned out just so good. It wasn’t really planned that we should use so many locations, but it just ended up that way and it could have ended up in a mess if we hadn’t had this strong vision from the beginning. And it was cool working with Jacob. He is really easy to work with and he gave us the mix we where looking for, so it turned out really perfect. I think that we could easily end up working with him again.”

In addition to the chilling artwork, featuring several menacing “creatures” (as Thim calls them) found throughout booklet, the final piece of the recording puzzle is the lyrical content, yet another finely honed quality that contributes to the album’s enveloping obsidian nature.

“The lyrics are very anti in a way. [The Funeral Phantom] could be a lot of things, but it could, for example, be a creature that I would call anti-human. I’m very inspired by things that happen around the world and, you know, books (Dante is for example a direct inspiration for one of the songs), movies, and stuff like that. It all just molds together and ends up in the lyrics. This time I kind of describe a not-too-positive future, but with inspiration in the world of today.”

As evidenced by Thim’s preceding discussion of the music’s finer details and unyielding vision for Funeral Phantoms, Exmortem is not a band to release an album every year. Thim has always taken the necessary amount of time to do it right, as the three years since the release of Nihilistic Contentment illustrate. So what is the reason for the long periods of down time between albums, such as the three-year stretch between these last two releases? The answer has nothing to do with wasted time on Thim’s part.

“After the last album and the touring in connection with it, we kind of needed a break and wanted to spend some time to figure where to go with the band and the music from there. We didn’t really plan to use that long time, but that’s how it ended and we are really pleased with the way everything turned out.

“Actually I’ve been working a lot,” he continues. “I’m working in advertising and built up a small bureau from three to twelve people, before leaving just a few months back, so that kept me rather busy for some time obviously. I also helped the guys out in Illdisposed and played with them for two years, started www.metalroyale.dk, and helped my parents start a restaurant. But yeah, I’ve been really busy, but I like it that way and I am always involved in different projects, be it music or work.”

Add to that the search for a new label again. The band left Earache after the release of Nihilistic Contentment, ultimately ending up on Denmark’s Mighty Music.

“I guess Earache expected a more active band, you know; more touring and so on,” Thim says, “but that’s not the way we want it. We like to play live, but the touring life is not my liking. I’m more [inclined] to the creative process than the repetitive part on the stage I must admit. So we just agreed with Earache to end the contract. As for finding a new label, we did it the old way, recorded two new songs and sent out a bunch of promos. In the end it seemed like a good idea to be on a Danish label again. It makes everything very easy and we got a good priority on Mighty.”

Though probably more to do with happenstance than any concerted effort on the band’s part to label jump every time the opportunity presented itself, Exmortem has a wealth of experience dealing with the recording industry. Prior to Mighty Music and Earache, the band has seen its albums released by the likes of Osmose, Hammerheart, and Unique Leader. As one would expert, the experiences have been unique and varied, to say the least.

Exmortem The Phantom Menace

“As for Hammerheart Records,” begins Thim. “I think they maybe were too busy growing or something, but it all ended too soon. Osmose is a really underground label and I really respect Herve’s work, but they are at the same time the least professional, but in a kind of positive way,” he laughs. “Their funny English, for example. Earache, I can’t really figure out that label. They’ve got some potential, but so far don’t seem to really be able to manage it properly. Unique Leader is an okay upcoming label, but the communication can be really hard. Your label should be your partner and together you want to get your music out there and people to recognize and support the band. We want to make proper and good releases and support them with good shows and so on.”

So what of the next release then? Will fans find themselves hungering for a new Exmortem album after another painful wait?

“It’s hard to say, but I don’t think so. We know what we want now, so I hope that we will enter the studio again in 2010.”

By Scott Alisoglu

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Exmortem

Melancholic Majesty

By Adrian ‘The Energizer’ Bromley

those early influences, how they helped shape the band and who inspires you now.

A few of them are still making a great impact on the music. Not as much the Goth bands anymore. We all have pretty varied musical tastes in the band, with a lot of similarities also. We have certain bands that all of us in the band like too of course. It’s a big span from melancholic pop, to prog-rock, to more brutal stuff, black/death metal, grind and so on. Much of the music we all listen to often contains a big deal of melancholy though, which I think obviously our music reflects a lot; we rely much on the melancholic element. I personally think that the most of today’s music scene is quite lame, but that is of course a result of the access people have to music today. There are countless new bands every year and you are exposed to so much music without even knowing it. Most of my influences are from the ’70s progressive scene, and also from newer bands like Tool, Porcupine Tree and Opeth. But, as I said prior, we listen to a lot of different stuff in the band, and I think that helps shaping our sound to something unique and special.

I think this is easily one of the strongest debut releases I’ve heard. There is a lot going on and the energy the album exudes is something to behold. What do you think sets you apart from the rest of bands out there? Why do you think fans reading this interview should listen to In Mourning?

Thank you kindly! We always try to focus on what’s best for the songs and the atmospheres of the music.

No one is interested in showing of any instrumental elitism or so; it’s all about creating good songs. We rely much on melancholy, melody and atmosphere, and I think maybe we have a more melodic and melancholic approach than most of the other death-metal bands on the market, with some exceptions of course. I think also the fact that we have so diverse musical-tastes within the band shapes us to something special. There are five quite different music minds that have to approve of every part in every song before we can consider it complete.

How difficult and challenging was the recording process?

R

emember this band: In Mourning. The Swedes have delivered upon to us a masterful and truly breathtaking album, titled Shrouded Divine (Aftermath) The album delivers moody doom that fuses within its core death metal intensity and melodic progressive elements. And while the band was tagged early on as following closely to Opeth's style, the band has stepped far clear of that for the most part.

They have come into their own passionate and creative edge, something that becomes apparent as Shrouded Divine unfolds.

UNRESTRAINED! was fortunate enough—through last minute e-mails—to coordinate an interview with the band before we went to press with issue #39. Phew! I’d hate for this story to be held over till next March. The band needs to be discovered. Thanks to spokesman/bassist Pierre Stam for coordinating this all and giving us some insight into this remarkable release.

Tell me about what led to the beginning of the band and where you feel you are now musically.

The band was founded in the late ’90s by Tobias and myself. And in the beginning we were really inspired by the Goth-metal scene and bands like My Dying Bride and stuff like that, this led to the sound on our first demo with a lot of keyboards and female vocals, in addition to the growls. But as time passed we grew out of that type of sound and started bringing in some more progressive stuff to the music and we have had a lot of member changes throughout these years, so it took us quite a long time to find the right sound and people for the band. Today we have improved our skills and tightened our sound and it’s quite a great leap forward from how we sounded in the beginning.

With the members in the band right now, and with the sound we have achieved with our latest release, we really feel that we are moving in the right directions.

You draw from a lot of influences, some more obvious than others, yet you still manage to create your own style, and I quite enjoy that. Tell me about

We had rehearsed the material really well before entering the studio, so it wasn’t all too difficult to record the music. But it was a big challenge to find the right sound and to make the arrangements perfect on each song, so that was a really inspiring process but a lot of hard work too. We chose to work with Jonas [Kjellgren], as producer. We recorded our last demo Grind Denial with Jonas too, and we felt great about the whole experience, both while in the studio and with the final result, so we felt quite confident with recording our album there too. We are very satisfied with how the sound on the album turned out. We recorded the stuff really fast; in less than two weeks all the music was recorded. The whole band really enjoys being in the studio environment and the creative process that comes with it, so that was a great time for us all. We didn’t use a lot of new equipment on the recording. We mostly went for the stuff we regularly use when we play it live and then Jonas made some magic touches to the sound to get it perfect. So the album is basically only containing stuff that we are able to play live, and there aren’t a lot of layering and additions on there that we cannot handle to play in a live situation, with a very few exceptions. Also, there wasn’t really enough time to play around very much either. We had our material, at least the major parts of it, complete and rehearsed when we entered the studio and we had a quite precise amount of studio time to get it all recorded.

The title of the album, Shrouded Divine, fits the sounds and tone of the album’s music. Why was that title chosen? Is there a meaning behind the album title?

Not really. It has a meaning, but only as the title of the song with the same name. The song “The Shrouded Divine” is lyrically about people that are not allowed to be who they are. And how religion and society can be the “shroud” that covers the beautiful and divine individuals, and makes people look, think and act the same way and after certain rules. And that, in my opinion, holds the beauty of mankind back.

I stumbled across your band via the Internet, listened to your music, approached the label for a CD, and voila—story! It seems that the Internet has changed everything for the music industry, be it good or bad. In your case, it worked out.

As a place to get in contact with fans and the music people and to promote your music it is probably an unbeatable instrument. And when your band is on an indie label like us it’s almost a necessary source for reaching out to new listeners and promoters. We use the Internet quite a lot to reach out to new listeners, and since today almost every household has an Internet connection and so many people are using Internet to find new music, it would probably be a dumb idea to not use it when trying to promote your music. Also, since so many record stores are closing almost everyone is buying their CDs via the Internet too.

In Mourning

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Darkthrone D

arkthrone, unholy Darkthrone. Early in its long (and far from over) history, Darkthrone played a pioneering role in the second wave of black metal. Never one to stay in the same place for very long, the band then made what many saw as a questionable move away from the sound that defined its classic trilogy of A Blaze in the Northern Sky, Under a Funeral Moon, and Transilvanian Hunger. Some among the black metal cognoscenti took this shift as a wholesale abandonment of the genre and all for which it stood.

Nothing, in fact, could be further from the truth. While Darkthrone may have been associated with the second wave of black metal by virtue of its time and place, the hellish duo behind the band, Fenriz and Nocturno Culto, always associated their band with the first wave of black metal, prior to the establishment of rigid genre boundaries.

Back then, black metal had more to do with attitude and spirit. Darkthrone has always remained firmly entrenched in that black metal ethos.

Over the course of the last three albums, the band has explored this ethos as it exists at the bloody edge of several genres, including crust punk and speed metal. In the process, the band revealed that these musical styles have more in common than the genre-fixated mindset of the present day typically comprehends. With the current album, Dark Thrones and Black Flags (Peaceville), Fenriz and Nocturno Culto once again find themselves in the unenviable position of being misunderstood.

Is it any wonder that the band displays such disdain and mockery for those who choose to throw peanuts from the gallery? Dark Thrones and Black Flags is generally—and quite incorrectly—taken as an homage to punk when, in fact, it is an exploration of the blackened side of epic/traditional ’80s metal.

Fenriz details all that is unholy and misunderstood with a level of honesty, passion, and energy that is unmatched.

I was surprised by the amount of traditional/epic metal that can be found in the melodies, the riffs, and vocals on Dark Thrones and Black Flags. While you have often cited your appreciation for bands like Omen and Manilla Road, songs such as “Norway in September” and “Hanging Out in Haiger” serve as the most explicit musical statements to this effect. “Hiking Metal Punks” reminds me tremendously of Broca’s Helm, actually. At least to my ears, this is the album where it sounds like Darkthrone just “went for it” in terms of foregrounding that element. What is your view on the balance that you struck between trad metal, crust punk, and black metal on the new album? Do you feel that the emphasis that many are placing on the punk element is misplaced?

I should have expected it, what with that title and all, but I always hope someone will see my creations the way I do. Sadly, I have, throughout the ages, said that only one thousand people worldwide seem to fathom what I am currently doing. So, I get punk questions from every damn journalist because of the “black flag” in the title, but really the title just sat very well with me in my mind when I accidentally coined it. However, it’s great to talk about punk. I like both punk from the ’60s like The Sonics up to the present days. I like metal from the ’60s up to now too, so...let’s say [that Dark Thrones and Black Flags has a] 70 per cent metal [to] 30 per cent punk ratio. But that doesn’t mean there’s a lot of punk on this album, [there are] not many punk riffs, but our attitude, 78

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the way we work in the studio, [and] the studio too…now that’s punk! In short, there was more actual punk music on The Cult is Alive and Fuck Off and Die [generally abbreviated as F.O.A.D. for not-very-mysterious reasons—TB] albums. It seems that I’m making the speed, NWOBHM, rock, black and punk [ideas] and then Ted [Nocturno Culto] is there with some traditional heavy metal and doom/death riffs.

Many seem to view Dark Thrones and Black Flags as a direct continuation of F.O.A.D. Again, I think that this album is incorporating some elements into your music which are quite distinct, especially in terms of guitar and vocal melodies, but also in terms of the more “epic” atmosphere of many of the songs. Do you view these albums as closely related or as quite different entities?

I think we have been slowly moving back in time, down the road of [the history of the] kings of metal. So this was just a step further back in time, except for the album’s opening riff. If we were a retro band, I would never allow myself to use that riff. Anyway, people are sheep; it won’t matter. As the album covers [for F.O.A.D. and Dark Thrones and Black Flags] are in the same style, people will view them in the same way. No skin off of my nose. I have certainly begun to make use of several of my voices now.

I have countless voices, as I discovered when I was doing vocals between 1987 and 1995 before I had a hiatus from doing vocals.

One of the things that I like best about Dark Thrones and Black Flags—and again, this causes me to recall the LPs of the early ’80s—is that every song is different and has its own personality, but yet is still very much Darkthrone in its essence. During the songwriting process, did you spend much time working with Nocturno Culto to achieve this result, or was it just a happy coincidence?

No! We never work on those things! We are not control freaks! We make no plans, we are driven by a lot of coincidences, we have mega balls and dare to keep first takes, mistakes, and so on. This ends up sounding like a lo-fi role model for kids that constantly met the wall of click drums and Pro Tools since fuckin’ 1991! I use a lot of energy trying to figure out which song ends up where on side B and A (that’s been one of my jobs always) but apart from that it’s pretty much gung ho and winging everything a lot! My entire life experience is used for this…and a lot of gut feeling.

What was it that compelled you and Nocturno Culto to start trading off on many of your duties, such as writing lyrics, singing, and so forth?

Well, we always had to play everything. We are just two and we know all the instruments. When Ted suggested we just buy our own portable studio, it was a new start for me because that is what we should have done in 1988 but we didn’t have money or time or anything. It was like one of those stories where you could choose the rest of the story [such as the “Choose Your Own Adventure” books—TB]. In 2005, it was sort of going back to 1988 for me and choosing another path. So I went wild and broke my chains! I changed the way that I wrote, [by which I] mean I wrote lyrics for the songs and not just poetry and leave it to Ted like I usually did before. So that meant I also knew how the singing should go and then I’d just do it myself because I hate teaching other people my stuff.

Tell me about the role of your studio, Necrohell 2, in terms of the following: a) your ability to achieve the production values that you desire and b) your ability to explore ideas and release albums at your current pace.

I leave it to Ted, then I can be sort of a fan of my own band more. If I took over the mixing I would just feel responsible and it would ruin a lot for me. For me, it is highly coincidental—just the way 99 per cent of the underground stuff from the 1980s was done. Many were not satisfied, but it ensured that demos and underground albums had their own sound. Not like the 1990s when so much sounded the same. Since 2005, we just write a song each and then we record them. When we have 35 to 40 minutes, then that’s an album. The current pace is nothing. In the early 1970s it was normal for bands to do two albums a year and tour at the same time. This is very smooth—just writing at our own pace. It’s like five songs a year. I wrote and recorded Transilvanian Hunger in two weeks!

When and why do you think that black metal, as a genre, “forgot” about its punk roots (or perhaps “pretended like they didn’t exist” would be more appropriate)? Over the course of the last few albums, was there any intention on your part to highlight the “forgotten” history of black metal as to its actual relation to punk?

Monotony was a reaction to the hectic ’80s. Monotone started greatly with VON, Burzum continued [it and] other black metallers warped the style completely, but still with soul and an ugly sound.

Then, people started thinking “Hey, what if we become progressive instead of primitive?” or “Hey, what if we play Transilvanian Hunger twice as fast with modern sound, synth and female vocals or a drum machine,” that’s when it turned to shit. The long passages of Burzum were copied by others but with a modern sound where everyone could start thinking about another line on top of the riffs themselves while others started filling it with synths…and BOOM, the punk was gone. Just giving some Venom or Hellhammer feeling ensures the punk [sound persists]. Or, listen to “Into the Crypt of Rays” [the first track from Celtic Frost’s Morbid Tales] and then explain to kids that this is actually 40 per cent punk instead of what they think it is.

While watching the bonus live performance on Nocturno Culto’s The Misanthrope documentary taken from Darkthrone’s early days, I could not help but notice that “Thulcandra” was very similar—in sound and attitude—to Dark Thrones and Black Flags. Do you hear a similarity? I think that an argument could be advanced that this album, though generally taken as part of Darkthrone’s supposed departure from socalled “black metal,” is in fact a very direct return to your roots.

Correct! You just won your own weight in Mutilated’s Psychodeath Lunatics demo. Euronymous sold this to me when I visited his parents’ house in 1989. Actually, you are the first one I’ve heard saying and thinking this yourself. What I say is this: what we do now is what we would have done in 1988 if we had the skills, experience and knowledge. We had grown up in the 1970s, but in 1988 we were more into the recent past than now. I have hundreds and hundreds more releases from the 1980s now than I had then, but we get even more into the 1970s now than then. [However] our core playing is always from the 1970s musicians. Me the drummers and Ted the guitarists from Judas Priest, Black Sabbath and also Alex [Lifeson] from Rush.

Is the character who has appeared on the covers of F.O.A.D. and Dark Thrones and Black Flags going to be a recurring figure à la Eddie? He reminds me a lot of the chainsawwielding figure on Slaughter’s Surrender or Die. Was this an intentional homage?

I was expecting a lot of people spotting that, but again you are the first (that I recall) journalist that has brought the Slaughter dude to the table. Congratulations! You just won your own weight in original “I Hope You Die in a Hotel Fire” shirts with Righteous Pigs! Ted and me had to have a (very seldom) talk about this character and what he would look like. I said “Mohawk!” and he said “Helmet!” and so it was. Originally we wanted him to have lots of old patches like Rush and Manilla Road, but we found out that we would have major problems with rights and lawyers and all that shit, so I said “Butt that! Let’s just promote new and upcoming bands instead.” So we had the barbaric speed thrashers from Deathhammer on our first Mr. Necro [Evidently the name of the character—TB] and now Nocturnal on the new album. We are still excited about what I’ll pick for the next one, huh?

After many years of metal being dominated by bands that were more about studio perfection and showing off technical skills, it feels like there are more bands getting in tune with the older attitude and values. I have always viewed Darkthrone as seeking to represent this more general spirit rather than attempt to uphold some sort of artificial genre creation known as black metal. In some respects, I view the former as the “first wave” of black metal where the spirit coalesced and the latter as the “second wave” of black metal where the genre definition became rigid. Even though Darkthrone is associated with the Norwegian second wave, I have always viewed the band as more in tune with the first

wave. I view this as at the heart of the problem that Darkthrone has encountered over the years—many fans associate the band with the (second wave) genre while the band associates itself with the (first wave) spirit. What is your take on this matter? Do you feel that the time and place at which Darkthrone achieved worldwide recognition has been both a gift and a curse?

Tell me about it!!! And it never ends. For ten years I was only sent demos copying various 1990s styles, but I have not been into those styles since 1992 for the most part. I liked Mayhem’s Live in Leipzig as it was very inspirational. I liked the riffs that Snorre [Ruch, a.k.a. Blackthorn] and Euronymous made—the typical Norwegian black metal riffs—but when I made riffs “like that” it sounded more like a continuation of the simple “finger-moving” riffs that Quorthon did in 1987. I fused this with Celtic Frost on A Blaze in the Northern Sky and continued this style (although very inspired by other 1980s stuff like Destruction and first Vader demo) but my main take on any 1990s style was the monotony VON made in 1991 and Burzum continued. I quit that style in 1996, but I’d already lost faith in black metal in 1993 [as I watched it] becoming like the trend of death metal in 1991. I tried to learn from my mistake. Everyone who hung around my court in the 1990s knew that my heart was 98 per cent in the 1980s black metal and thrash and whatnot. I had bands I liked in the 1990s which I don’t understand why I liked it at the time, but I was definitely not feeling at home after 1992 was over. The Helvete shop wasn’t open after late 1992 either. Many of the primitive bands started to play progressive while we had been progressive in 1989 to 1991 and had went completely the other way! We are still named as pioneers of the 1990s but I always felt—and said in most interviews—that we basically paid homage to Bathory and Celtic Frost / Hellhammer!

Back around the time of Ravishing Grimness, you discussed in an interview how the lyrics were written as something of a catharsis, as an attempt to release a pain that your mind had suppressed. When I look at the pictures and lyrics featured more recently, it appears that things have changed for you dramatically—either in terms of your personal life or your relationship to the lyrics that you write, or perhaps both.

I wrote (and walked, in the forest) myself out of a depression that struck in 1998 and lasted into the 2000s. Since 2003, I have worked every day to beat the partying lifestyle of Oslo. I stopped going out in May 2005. Back in 2003, I got into tenting and I never looked back. I am known in the forest scene in Oslo. There are 1560 square kilometres of forest, so I do a lot of work for it and I have been in many magazines, written newspaper articles (also one chronicle with my friend, the ecology professor Mikael Ohlson), had a television special titled “Nrk ut i naturen—nærturer.” Year by year, I have fought myself into a better frame of mind and life.

Then Oscar from Old helped me to realize that it was a new and fresh underground in the 2000s with kids playing barbaric 1980s metal again instead of boring 1990s black metal copies. I have been a part of that [scene] since 2004, working more with trading and networking now than in my prime underground years of 1987 through 1989. I strive against that trend of those modern metal bands [whereby they] basically listen only to their old stuff or to the bands they tour with. They have lost and they don’t even know it yet.

I have involved myself in our metal world singing about what is great and not-so-great, maybe inspired by Judge. I was always into NYHC [New York Hardcore], and it is my favourite music to listen to when strength training—but Judge takes the cake. I write about my life and my experiences, much like Lemmy did when he kickstarted Motorhead. Remember, he did that when he was 30, not a youngster. That’s why his lyrics have a lot of natural authority. I am not saying my street lyrics will be classic, but I sure as fuck burn for what I sing about.

For many years, Darkthrone’s public presence was what could only be described as “conspicuously absent.” By this I mean that, despite the band’s intentions to the contrary, the limited interviews and photographs generated as much if not more discussion than would have been the case had Darkthrone been more visible. How do you feel that Darkthrone’s more recent decision to do more interviews, more openly discuss topics once considered off-limits, publish more photographs, and even release its own documentary, has changed the public perception of the band?

My freedom has been gained! I break the chains like the 1980s told us to (Cro-Mags, Omen, Thor, for chrissakes!). I think, as usual, the question is perfect. I can only add to it with my angle. What I can say is I don’t know the public perception of the band. I can only see it from the inside and you all can only see it from the outside! “It’s the curse of love”—that’s a deep AC/DC reference.

Of the more than one thousand interviews I ever gave in my time, you are clearly the one that has understood most.

Dear sir, let me finish off with a list of active bands I support these days: Hellish Crossfire, Enslaved, Hellrealm, Chemikiller, Banished Forced, Slogstorm, Blüdwülf, Death Beast, War Crimes, Bastardator, Creep Colony, Tyrant Sweden, Nattefrost, Corrupt, World Burns To Death, Nekromantheon, Enforcer Sweden, Nocturnal, Jex Thoth, Deathroner, Sonic Ritual, Mäniac, Morne, Alpha Centauri, Demon’s Gate, Doomed Beast, Resistance, Karnax, Evil Army, Witch Usa, Virus Norway, Aura Noir, Orcustus, Lonewolf, The Devil’s Blood, Farscape, Vomitor, Old, Deathhammer, Em Ruinas, Salute, The Batallion, Zemial, Gasmask Terrör, Eidomantum, Portrait, and so on.

And so it goes. Rally ‘round the black flag. Darkthrone, unholy dark thrones.

By Tate Bengtson

Darkthrone

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album. It had a timeless message. We always thought that ‘Church…’ was our ultimate power ballad, so we always wanted to put it on a record. We went as far as making it a title track this time just to make sure that it had a home.”

Listen up, aspiring metal singers. If you’re wondering if you can get by with a bit of the old grunt ’n’ growl, John Cobbett of Hammers of Misfortune recommends that you step up your game.

“If you’re a male vocalist and you actually learn how to sing melodically, chicks love that shit, man. They really do. There’s this macho thing where people think singing is kind of faggy or whatever. Not at all, man.

Girls fuckin’ love it.”

So start practicing your scales, get in with the right bunch of fellows, and soon you’ll be beating them off with a stick. And if the ladies don’t come flocking, then at least you’ll have the chops to front a cool band like Hammers of Misfortune, who have spread their melodically overloaded metal stylings across two new albums, Fields and Church of Broken Glass (packaged together and released as a double CD and double LP on Profound Lore and 20 Buck Spin respectively).

Hammers of Misfortune themselves definitely aren’t in it for the easy action, as Cobbett observes: “Music geeks—that’s our crowd in a nutshell.” If that’s really the case, then HoM’s audience will be more than happy to pore over these two albums.

They’re ambitious, vaguely conceptual, expansive, varied, and flow with the kind of logic that makes for an all-encompassing listening experience. The roots of the project go back a few years in Hammers of Misfortune history, to the sessions for the 2003 album The August Engine.

“Doing a double album is something that we wanted to do with The August Engine,” says Cobbett. “We recorded a lot of material for that album and the songs that got mixed clocked in at about a hour and a half. I started to get the sense that the whole thing was collapsing under its own weight. There was just too much material, and it was bloated. We wound up chopping 35 or so minutes off the whole thing and putting out what is known as The August Engine.

“So what I decided to do [with Fields and Church…] was instead of putting out a double album where you just listen laterally through an hour and a half of music, we’ll split it into two. That way it’s like a two-course meal instead of having to eat the whole thing. Then that idea started with the idea of putting out a double vinyl where you’re limited to 20 minutes a side before you start to lose audio quality. With vinyl you can get 40 to 45 minutes per disk, so it limited us to the amount of 80

Hamm ers of M isfortune

time we could put on each disk. That actually made it kind of fun. It was almost like a game. What’s side one going to be like?

We had to map out each side individually.”

Ah, the sacred and nearly lost art of album sequencing. As anyone who made mix tapes during the heydays of the cassette can tell you, trying to sequence tracks while dealing with your format’s time restrictions can be an exacting process. With Fields and Church of Broken Glass, Cobbett employed lessons learned during the making of The August Engine.

“You have to really think ahead as far as the flow of the record,” he says. “The August Engine originally started out with an instrumental into a power ballad into an acoustic song, and it just seemed to take forever till it really started to rock. I can understand why a lot of people I was sending it out to started to lose interest. You have to open strong and then keep it strong. We’ve learned that if there’s going to be a ballad or a slow acoustic thing you’ve got to kick it up after that. You have to take that into consideration. If you have a couple slow songs and an acoustic number, which we always do, you have to know where those are going to go. That’s the reason why [the title track] ‘Church of Broken Glass’ didn’t make it onto The Locust Years [2006] or The August Engine. We thought it was a great song, but we just couldn’t find a place for it where we felt it wasn’t going to fuck up the momentum of the overall album.

So with ‘Church of Broken Glass,’ we decided that the best place for the song is the middle of side two, so we made sure we had two pretty rockin’ songs to put on either side of it.”

“Church of Broken Glass” is indeed a great song, stately and powerful, so it’s fortunate that it found a place as the penultimate track on the album. Cobbett obviously sensed it was a special song as well. “‘Church…’ was like this country song that could fit on any

Although Church… and Fields are two separate albums, they do appear to be related to each other, judging by their contrasting cover art—Fields is leafy and green, while Church of Broken Glass is industrial and tinged with rust. Cobbett admits that there is an element of rural/urban contrast between the two albums, but stresses the social commentary angle as a more significant theme, especially on the Fields album.

“There’s other elements to [the material on] Fields. ‘Motorcade’ obviously takes place in a city. ‘Rats Assembly’ obviously takes place in a prison. These are not rural environments…unless you’re on a prison farm. So it’s not directly rural. It’s more about a matter of what you would define as the working class and the peasant farmer. The people who actually go out into the fields to work, or for that matter fight wars in fields, these are always the poorest people. The role of this person who used to be called the peasant has changed, especially in Western cultures.

Now we have undocumented workers who are being basically treated like indentured servants, and we have a working class, especially in America, that’s been totally disenfranchised. All the manufacturing jobs are gone, and you can see how the definition of the peasant or the worker has changed a lot and will continue to change, especially as global warming starts hitting and the economy keeps melting down and all that kind of stuff. There are elements of all that stuff in Fields.”

This incarnation of Hammers of Misfortune features a revamped lineup, including two new vocalists, Jesse Quattro and Patrick Goodwin, who also contributes guitar when the band plays live. Goodwin replaces the highly regarded Mike Scalzi, who found at last that his commitment to his band Slough Feg had to take precedence over this major new HoM undertaking.

“Mike’s been really busy touring with Slough Feg,” says Cobbett.

“He goes out with Slough Feg as much as he can. That’s the original reason why I left Slough Feg back in ’04, because I had to start working on a Ludicra album and a Hammers album.

So it was pretty much the same thing in reverse. I made the decision to make another Hammers album, which is always a big deal, and we started asking Mike to come to practice, and

when he finally came, he was like, ‘You know what? I just don’t have time for this. This is obviously going to be a big project and I don’t see where I can fit this into my schedule.’ It wasn’t an easy thing. He and I both know that he was a really important part of our sound, so it wasn’t a cavalier thing. But what are you gonna do? I couldn’t exactly just go, ‘Oh, I’m going to stop writing Hammers of Misfortune songs now.’ I had to do something.”

Fortunately for Cobbett, Patrick Goodwin from fellow Bay-area rockers Dirty Power was primed to come on board and start belting it out for Hammers.

“We decided that he was the only guy we knew who could fill Mike’s shoes,” says Cobbett. “Not only was he a really tough rock and roll singer, he was also a killer guitar player, which we need for the live shows to execute the guitar harmonies. He was also a big fan of Hammers—a little bit of enthusiasm goes a long way. The choice was pretty obvious because I couldn’t think of anybody else. It’s tough to find male vocalists who can actually sing. If you see a guy who’s playing really good guitar and he’s stepping up to the microphone he’s almost always going to start growling at you. It’s really hard to find male singers.”

Having a new singer required Cobbett to adjust his writing style somewhat, although the changes were more to suit each vocalist’s personality quirks than to accommodate differences in their singing styles. With so much depending on a singer’s ability to deliver lyrics convincingly, Cobbett has sometimes found himself in a tight spot while overseeing vocal sessions in the studio.

“I’ve been writing for Mike’s voice for a long time and you have to imagine him singing the lines in your head. I’ve actually had Mike refuse to sing lines in the studio before. He’ll be reading through the lyrics sometimes for the first time in his life when he’s actually at the goddamn session… This is how we operate—by the seat of our pants. Everything’s always a day late and a dollar short.

He’ll look at the lyrics and go, ‘I’m not singing this. You expect me to sing this? This is absurd.’ I’ll be like, ‘Oh, uh, I can’t really make

I

t has been a while since we have heard anything from Hades (that was 2001’s DamNation), but now thanks to ultra-heavy Italian metal label Cruz Del Sur, we can check out the band at their prime with the live DVD, Hades Bootlegged In Boston 1988.

“Honestly, Adrian… Nobody has ever had any interest!” says guitarist Dan Lorenzo with a slight chuckle when asked why it took so long for a live DVD from Hades to surface. “For real, people have been asking us for years. Hades always seems to garner the most interest when we’re not a band. I swear, I’ve received the best tour offers right after we broke up in 1989 and in 2002. I have a kick-ass day job, a wife I love immensely, fun seven days a week, but nobody enjoys promoting their past more than I do.

Jay Bones produced Behind the Metal [included in this release] which has dozens of clips from a bunch of old Hades shows, TV appearances and so on, and right after Jay finished that, I found what I believe to be our best show ever: December 30th, 1988 in Boston. I had to get somebody to release this. We still have fans who pick Hades as their favourite band ever. Our songs still hold up. Hades were different than your typical thrash band, and I think this DVD will show that we deserve to be remembered and hopefully people will see us as an underrated band of that era.”

The band’s first-ever live DVD includes footage of the band’s December 30, 1988 concert in Boston as the opening act for Manowar and Nuclear Assault. It includes interviews with Dan Lorenzo, Alan Tecchio, Jimmy Schulman, Ed Fuhrman, and Scott LePage plus old video clips, live footage and TV show appearances.

“Looking back I just remember how fucking green we were as

him sing it if he’s not going to sing it.’ So I have to go change the fucking words right there on the spot. Sometimes that happens, you just never know. So I would try to picture Pat’s voice singing stuff. Or in some cases I didn’t picture anyone singing and I would have both singers try it out and then see how it sounded.

together with Sigrid [keyboards] and Chewy, or just me and Ron. Whoever can make it. We’ll have just the singers come over and practise at the piano. Any practice that we can get before we go in. Then the last week before basic tracks we try to do what we call boot-camping, and run through all the songs every day.

“We set out to make a more vocal album from the beginning. We wanted to have lots of vocals, plenty of lyrics. A lot of our albums in the past have suffered in certain people’s opinions from a ton of music and then not that much vocals. We wanted to make sure that at any one time it didn’t go for too long without some vocal coming in. We wanted to make vocals another instrument.”

“Black Sabbath before they recorded Paranoid, I think they practiced for two months, eight hours a day, five days a week.

It was a full-time job for them. That’s an insanely great amount of practice. That’s why that album is so live. They basically just went in there and ripped through it. In those days there was enough logistical support for bands to do that. We’re all trying to work around work schedules and school schedules and all kinds of other shit and we can only get together at certain times.

Unfortunately we do not have that luxury. But we did pretty good. We did the whole [16-minute] ‘Fields Trilogy’ from the beginning of ‘Agriculture’ to ‘Motorcade’ in one take, first try.

That’s not too bad. We didn’t do any editing; we played straight through all the songs from front to back. That’s not the way most bands record these days; most bands edit things together, but we’re against that. Every performance has a different quality to it, especially with the drums. Chewy didn’t have time to work out all the parts for all the songs, so a lot of the stuff that he’s doing is sort of improvised. But I think that’s great. There are moments on there that we wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. Even the mistakes are cool. There are some huge mistakes on there, but those became part of the arrangement. We weren’t supposed to stop there, but I guess that song has a stop in it now,” he laughs.

Jesse Quattro, the other new addition to the Hammers of Misfortune choir, was more of a discovery out of the blue.

“I’ve known about Jesse for a long time through her band Carniceria,” says Cobbett. “She also did guest vocals for EyeHateGod one night at this warehouse show I was at. I never really knew her, but she would always be doing this crazy guttural vocal screaming stuff. She was expert at twisting her voice and doing crazy shit, but I did not know that she was a gorgeous melodic singer, so I never even thought to ask. The only thing I had seen was that show where she was growling like a wild animal. But it turns out she’s got a really beautiful singing voice.

I didn’t know this or I would have asked her right away, but I was told by Ron [Nichols] the bass player that we should try her out.

She came in and we were like, ‘That’s the voice, man, right there.’

Immediately I was sold—she’s got the voice for Hammers.”

With Cobbett splitting time between HoM and black metallers Ludicra, marshalling the full complement of troops for band practice is a constant challenge, especially when a new album looms on the horizon.

“When recording, it’s always a desperate situation,” admits Cobbett. “There’s never enough time, there’s never enough money, and there’s a mountain of material that we have to climb.

So I’ll get together with just me and Chewy [drums], I’ll get far as business. We released Resisting Success in 1987 and never even knew we needed a booking agent. I booked a bunch of shows, [bassist] Jimmy Schulman booked L’amour for us. After we released If At First You Don’t Succeed we finally realized we needed a booking agent. So we made less money, but got on bigger opening slots,” he recalls of that metal era. “We did three shows with Manowar and Nuclear Assault and Wargasm with Meliah Rage opening in December of ’88. We played in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Boston. The Boston show was actually a couple days after the first two shows because Manowar flew to Texas in between Rhode Island and Boston to open up for Ted Nugent in Texas. I remember before the first show there was this little guy talking to all the bands. I assumed he was Manowar’s road manager. He was going on and on about how all of us were equal, we’d all get soundchecks. We never got one soundcheck and I later found out the little dude was Manowar’s bassist Joey DiMaio. I remember somebody who worked for Manowar telling girls they weren’t permitted backstage unless they would have sex with the band—real classy stuff. I was a huge Manowar fan after the release of their first CD until I saw them live. Spinal Tap would laugh at them.”

No doubt the music scene has changed since the DVD was shot.

Have you embraced the evolution? “Fanzines were the Internet.

Man, I loved fanzines. You could be working a day job, unloading trucks, making $4.25 an hour, but when you came home to find yourself on the cover of a magazine it made you get through the next day. Word of mouth was crucial. Obviously the Internet changed everything! Back then, my biggest fear was kids dubbing

So what’s left for a man who, having delivered another mammoth and majestic Hammers of Misfortune opus, has no other plans except to get the band out on tour this summer? Well, Cobbett feels an ominous stirring: “I’m starting to get this insane urge to starting writing another album, but I’m resisting that. I’m not going to put everyone through that again.”

By Rob Hughes

Caught in time advanced copies of our music onto a cassette. And back then I think bands actually strived to release ten great songs. Maybe bands still have that as their goal—if it is, I don’t hear it. Maybe I’m just a bitter bastard.”

He adds, “The Internet and bands’ shitty songwriting abilities have completely killed the music business. In a way, I’m fine with that because the music business is filled with terrible people. If you’re just interested in notoriety, the Internet rules. If you want to make a living playing music...not so much.”

After a few records as we crossed the millennium, Hades has once again disappeared. Are plans for more music from Hades in the near future? “Well, Alan [Tecchio] and I are talking again.

We have a kooky relationship. We’re either super close friends or he’s not speaking to me. At the time of this interview he’s speaking to me. We’ve received a few offers to do reunion shows and we’ve accepted one. We’ll be at Keep It True in April 2010. Ron Lipnicki, who played drums on our last CD DamNation, will be on drums—he’s been in Overkill the last two years—myself, Alan, Jimmy and Ed. Jimmy lives in L.A. now, but he loves Hades and wants to fly out a week before to rehearse and do a show in NYC or NJ.”

BY Adrian ‘The Energizer’ Bromley Hades

81

Atmospheric Disturbance

By Rob Hughes

Some smartass—possibly Frank Zappa, Elvis Costello or Steve Martin, depending on your source—once said that writing about music is like dancing about architecture. Sometimes writing about music does indeed feel like a futile exercise. You string adjectives together, reduce your thesaurus to tatters, and bust out the comparisons and superlatives only to read your work back and realize that your attempts at capturing the elusive appeal of a piece of music are inadequate or, at worst, nonsensical.

dom, especially considering he has been making music in a completely different context for a number of years.

Cynic, thankfully, have made the job much easier. With the title of their new album, Traced in Air (Season of Mist), you have the perfect description of their sound. This is music in full flight, held aloft by the talent and focus of Paul Masvidal (guitar/vocals) and Sean Reinert (drums, keyboards) along with Tymon Kruidenier (guitars) and Sean Malone (bass and Chapman Stick). It’s adult music played by seasoned musicians pushing the rhythmic and melodic possibilities of rock (never mind metal) to new limits, sharing rarified air with pioneers like Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, and King Crimson.

Progressive metal has come a long way since Focus was released. There are now package tours and festivals wholly devoted to the genre, and a worldwide fanbase eagerly lapping this stuff up. In 1994, Cynic, having no peers to tour with, had no options but to hit the road with Cannibal Corpse. “I love those guys, but not the best tour for a band like Cynic in terms of audience,” says Masvidal. One can easily imagine that a Cannibal Corpse crowd wouldn’t have much patience for a set of intricate jazz metal. The musical climate in the early ’90s was definitely a lot less receptive to bands of Cynic’s ilk than it is today.

Cynic, of course, are the progenitors of technical death metal who burned brightly for one perfectly realized album (1993’s Focus), then broke up, remaining influential during their absence. After reuniting for some 2007 live dates, Cynic have finally issued the follow-up to Focus. The recent mania for cult metal reunions hasn’t produced many recordings of lasting worth (is any one still listening to Monotheist?), but Traced in Air is an utterly fresh sounding album that stays true to the original essence of Cynic, with no trace of trend-following or ham-handed concessions to fan expectations—only confidence and mastery.

Masvidal, amazingly on the ball for someone who just landed in New York after a red-eye flight from Los Angeles, is quick to credit the fans who attended the reunion shows for helping inspire Cynic to create Traced in Air. “I always make music for myself first. That’s the bottom line in terms of writing and being a musician, but in terms of inspiration and gathering energy on a reciprocal level, I’d say 50 per cent of it was the audience from those shows. What happened was, not having toured in the metal scene since the mid-’90s, I discovered there was a whole new generation of listeners that were a lot more receptive and open to what we were doing, besides the older Cynic fans who had grown with us. I was really inspired by the love and energy and enthusiasm that poured out of these Cynic fans.

It definitely mixed into the pot in terms of the equation of what inspired the record.”

Reforming Cynic also appealed to Masvidal’s sense of artistic free82

Cynic

“Part of the liberating thing about Cynic for me as an artist and a musician,” says Masvidal, “is that there aren’t any [parameters]. I feel like I can do whatever I want and I’m not trying to stick to a certain thing, which I learned how to do very well coming out of film and TV music. So it was like, ‘Wow, this is boundary-less.’”

“There were the subgenres—the melodic metal, power metal bands,” says Masvidal about the metal scene back then. “There was the beginning of black metal essentially, but it wasn’t really separate from thrash and death metal. There was essentially the same combination that there is now, but everyone was thrown into one category, and it was just basically the extreme version of heavy metal. I think it’s gotten so much more refined in terms of the specifics within each genre, and there’s more people listening to it. It’s gotten bigger. So it seems like you can have a progressive rock tour and a black metal tour and a death metal tour, and they actually do well. It felt a little bit brutish back then, a little less intelligent if I can put it that way, a little more about just processing all of your anger and rage, and a very primal, visceral kind of approach to the audience. It wasn’t this other thing that we kind of discovered when we did this reunion tour, which was a different kind of audience, a different kind of listener, somebody that appreciated something other than the extremity, and was more curious about the musical aspects. It was really encouraging. That’s where we were always at as listeners ourselves. We were trying to find our people. I think we found them, or maybe they found us.”

Now that Cynic has arrived in the promised land of open-minded listeners and a thriving progressive metal scene, it’s a good time to look back and realize how far Cynic has come. Never mind the hordes of hostile death metal fans, Cynic had other existencethreatening challenges to confront and conquer.

“During Focus we were late teens, early 20s,” says Masvidal. “We were kids, and we were a lot less experienced. We were kind of against all odds. The circumstances that went into making that record, from our gear being held by a promoter in Europe at the end of the Human tour [Masvidal and Reinert had joined Death temporarily], to Hurricane Andrew hitting and wiping out south Florida… There was a lot of psychological sabotage that was happening. Those things kind of kicked our ass. At the same time, they forced us to get to work, and I’m really grateful for all those things, because they made us. That extra year we had [before starting work on Focus] was just massive in terms of growth. But we were in a scene that was really challenging. People didn’t understand what we were doing, and we felt very isolated and alone. There wasn’t a lot of support.”

By contrast, the recording of Traced in Air, as Masvidal puts it, was “unruffled” by personal and meteorological turmoil. The record sounds relaxed and breezy even as it reveals new depths with each listen. Strange, pixilated riffs shimmer then fade, rhythms groove in all manner of odd time signatures, and Masvidal’s vocoderenhanced voice soars overtop.

Masvidal offers his recipe for a Cynic song. “I would say, especially these days, there’s a lot of tension-release stuff that happens harmonically and melodically in terms of small and concentrated harmonic language. There are really tight, clustery chord shapes and then very expansive, open ambient stuff, and it’s that contrast of really huge and really tiny and intimate that I think we refined and got better at. For me it’s really just about writing an interesting song that has a sense of continuity and cohesiveness, but at the same time is adventurous and fun to listen to. It’s definitely layered and dense harmonically. There’s a lot of complex stuff happening that isn’t really obvious at first. So it’s a tapestry of all these differ-

ent colours and fabrics that get woven in and it creates this really beautiful kind of collage. But each tune is unique too, so it’s hard to narrow it down to specific things.”

What’s remarkable about Cynic’s art is that they manage to cram all these elements into songs that rarely break the five-minute mark—this in an era where every shoegaze, stoner, or prog band routinely saws away for 10 or 15 minutes per track. Some may hail the adventurous spirit of these bands; others may decry the lack of songwriting discipline on display. Thankfully, for listeners left weary from all this needlessly epic music, Cynic prefer to work in miniature. Traced in Air’s eight selections whiz by in a mere 34 minutes.

“In terms of how compact and direct the arrangements are,” says Masvidal, “that probably came from years and years of listening to The Beatles. They had this thing happening in their arrangements where they felt really full and really complete, and then you look at the song and it’s 2 minutes and 32 seconds. How did that just happen? It’s concentrated, really well arranged music. I got into trying to understand that and applying it to my own work as a songwriter.

I find that in general progressive music tends to do the opposite.

It’s meandering; they just go into all these different sections.

Personally I like it really direct and compact, hence the 34-minute record. I’m just a fan of that. I don’t know if it’s the pop guy in me, but I just really like concentrated, dense arrangements. I’ve had songs in my past that have gone into seven and eight minutes, but I’m really careful about that because it has to stay interesting. A lot of times I feel like it doesn’t need to go into all these other directions unless it makes sense in terms of supporting the larger idea of what the song is. I find myself editing a lot just to get to the juice, the core seed of what this idea is, and making that a really effective little concentrated piece.”

The work involved in paring each song down to its essence is painstaking. Every song on Traced in Air was demoed several times, honed and burnished until it reached its final state of grace.

Surprisingly, given the material’s complexity, Masvidal begins writ-

ing the way a typical singer/songwriter would—with two hands, one instrument, and a voice.

“With this record we went through about four stages of preproduction where we literally demoed every song that many times. It starts out as a guitar/vocal or piano/vocal thing. It’s just me at home alone. Then I bring Sean in and I flesh out the rhythmic aspects of it. He has these electronic drums called V-Drums and usually they’re set up in my studio so we can do this instant interpretation of a song with drums. I like to move along and keep the freshness in terms of what I think a song needs, because that first thought has a lot of purity. If I over-think something it loses something. It’s a sense of brevity and urgency. Then I take it back to the drawing board and start thinking about the layers and elements, like what other colours harmonically can happen guitar-wise, what’s the bass groove. The first demo pretty much has the melodic and harmonic foundation intact in terms of the arrangement and how the melody goes over these chord changes, and that to me essentially is the core of the song. From there it’s more decorative and fun. ‘Let’s push this, let’s expand this section by one bar, let’s cut this section one bar. This is an interesting thing; let’s make this part bigger. And let’s reduce this section and let it just be guitar and vocal.’ It’s this constant playing around with the arrangement until it feels like it makes sense.”

The Beatles were perhaps the first group to use the studio as an instrument, which is an approach that Masvidal is applying to a large degree in his work with Cynic. Along with Reinert, new guitarist Tymon Kruidenier, and Focus alumnus Sean Malone (who appears strictly as a session player), Masvidal was able to turn the Traced in Air sessions into some serious fun.

“It’s a real art form, really, making music and writing it and imagining what you want it to be. Then articulating that in the world in terms of an auditory re-creation in terms of recording format, it’s an art form; it really is. I think those of us who live in studios and get more articulate with those kind of details get better at it in terms of how to get what we’re hearing in our head onto tape. I feel like

we’ve gotten pretty good. Sean [Reinert] and I are kind of studio nerds, so it’s where we’re comfortable. We like to play and have fun and really get into the performances and into the details. It’s like an enjoyment thing for us. It’s not about fixing and repairing, it’s more like, ‘Wow, yeah, let’s do that,’ and it becomes fun. I really love the studio. I think I’ll grow old in a studio,” he laughs.

Masvidal has described the album as having a beginning, middle and end, but denies approaching the album with any grand lyrical or musical concept in mind. It’s only in the post-release afterglow that themes and patterns emerge.

“It’s one of those things where I don’t really understand a lot of times what I’m writing or working on until after the fact,” says Masvidal. “Now when I take a look at what’s happened in terms of the continuity of the record and the flow, it’s interesting what’s happened for me. I almost see it as this perspective of some being or a person from another realm in a human body having a human experience and trying to articulate that in a very concentrated format. It seems like there’s this birth that happens with [opening track] ‘Nunc Fluens,’ and it’s kind of the creation phase, and then it goes into all these little phases. ‘Nunc Fluens’ is the birth and [closing track]‘Nunc Stans’ is the death. It’s like this mini lifetime in a sense. But of course there’s this whole spiritual perspective that’s kind of wrapped around that experience. I don’t know how to articulate it very specifically because it almost cheapens it when you get too specific. I want everyone to have their own version of the story.”

Masvidal, a serious practitioner of yoga and avid reader, is proof that a peaceful, open mind can be a powerful asset. Although Cynic must be dominating his existence these days, having flown across the continent to promote the album and soon to tour the world, he still considers music to be just one part of a complete life. “I’m really realizing that it’s all just one big thing. There’s no difference between the music and walking down the street. It’s all part of the action of just being present with your life. It doesn’t matter what I’m doing as long as I’m here while I’m doing it.”

83

25

Albums of

W

2008!

hile Opeth made its name based on its ability to take its core sound and apply it in radically different ways from one album to the next, that sense of boundless creativity had been curtailed on the last several studio undertakings. While fine albums, Deliverance and Ghost Reveries were not as daring as the classic albums upon which Opeth built its reputation. The band had something to prove. It had to take a chance. With Watershed, it did exactly that.

With Watershed, Opeth divided its fanbase. Opeth bravely stepped outside of its formula.

Most obviously, Opeth incorporated more progressive rock influence in a way that conferred a sharper profile upon its metallic elements. With increasingly prominent fealty to ’70s prog rock, the keyboards provided a stark, even tense, contrast to newcomer Martin Axenrot’s drum approach, which was more brutal and jarring than his predecessor’s jazz-tinged smoothness.

Compositionally, the heavier sections boasted a cohesion and focus that had occasionally been lacking on recent albums while the melodic sections cut disturbing subtleties into a surface that was tense, nearly bursting, with restraint. All of this amounts to an album that is not only classic Opeth, but also deserves to be named as the band’s most sophisticated use of progressive tactics to attain its longstanding goal of depicting sickness, anxiety, fear, nostalgia, and death in musical form.

Like every genuine change, there will be those fans who feel alienated as a result. So be it. It is clear that this album has resonated among the Unrestrained! writing staff—and, I am confident, many of our readers—with remarkable strength and consistency. With Watershed, it is with good reason.—Tate Bengtson 84

U!’s Top 25 Albums of 2008!

U!’s Staff Top 15 Picks!

Scott Alisoglu 1. Pharaoh - Be Gone (Cruz Del Sur) 2. Master - Slaves to Society (Ibex Moon) 3. Raunchy - Wasteland Discotheque (Lifeforce) 4. Grand Magus - Iron Will (Rise Above) 5. Grave - Dominion VIII (Regain) 6. Krisiun - Southern Storm (Century Media) 7. Merciless Death - Realm of Terror (Heavy Artillery) 8. Testament - The Formation of Damnation (Nuclear Blast) 9. Origin - Antithesis (Relapse) 10. Enemy of the Sun - Shadows (The End) 11. Lair of the Minotaur - War Metal Battle Master (Southern Lord) 12. The Gates of Slumber - Conqueror (Profound Lore) 13. Vicious Art - Pick up this Sick Child (Mighty Music) 14. Phobia - 22 Random Acts of Violence (Willowtip) 15. Misery Index - Traitors (Relapse) Tate Bengtson 1. Opeth - Watershed (Roadrunner) 2. Ihsahn - angL (Candlelight) 3. Enslaved - Vertebrae (Nuclear Blast) 4. Hail of Bullets - ...Of Frost and War (Metal Blade) 5. Woods of Ypres - Woods III: Deepest Roots and Darkest Blues (Krankenhaus) 6. Grand Magus - Iron Will (Rise Above) 7. Caina - Temporary Antennae (Profound Lore) 8. Darkthrone - Dark Thrones and Black Flags (Peaceville) 9. Dismember - self-titled (Regain) 10. Winterfylleth - The Ghost of Heritage (Profound Lore) 11. Harvey Milk - Life… The Best Game in Town (Hydra Head) 12. Mitochondrion - Archaeaeon (independent) 13. Dead Congregation - Graves of the Archangels (Nuclear War Now!) 14. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Dig Lazurus Dig (Mute) 15. Cynic - Traced in Air (Season of Mist) Adrian Bromley 1. The Devil’s Blood - Come, Reap EP (Profound Lore) 2. Janvs - Vega (ATMF)

1. Opeth – Watershed (Roadrunner) 2. The Gates of Slumber – Conqueror (Profound Lore) 3. Testament – The Formation of Damnation (Nuclear Blast) 4. Woods of Ypres – Woods III: Deepest Roots and Darkest Blues (Krankenhaus) 5. Torche – Meanderthal (Hydra Head) 6. Enslaved – Vertebrae (Nuclear Blast) 7. Wetnurse – Invisible City (Seventh Rule) 8. Intronaut – Prehistoricisms (Century Media) 9. Hammers of Misfortune – Fields/Church of Broken Glass (Profound Lore) 10. Disfear – Live the Storm (Relapse) 11. Meshuggah – obZen (Nuclear Blast) 12. Krisiun – Southern Storm (Century Media) 13. Hail of Bullets – ...Of Frost and War (Metal Blade)

3. Opeth - Watershed (Roadrunner) 4. Wetnurse - Invisible City (Seventh Rule) 5. Woods of Ypres - Woods III: Deepest Roots and Darkest Blues (Krankenhaus) 6. Klimt 1918 - Just in Case We’ll Never Meet Again (Soundtrack for the Cassette Generation) (Prophecy) 7. Hammers of Misfortune - Fields/Church of Broken Glass (Profound Lore) 8. Jex Thoth - self-titled (I Hate) 9. Meshuggah - obZen (Nuclear Blast) 10. Cult of Luna - Eternal Kingdom (Earache) 11. Melancolia Estatica - Letum (ATMF) 12. In Mourning - Shrouded Divine (Aftermath) 13. Hollenthon - Opus Magnum (Napalm) 14. Abysmal Dawn - Programmed to Consume (Relapse) 15. Raunchy - Wasteland Discotheque (Lifeforce) Chris Bruni 1. Bohren & Der Club of Gore - Dolores (Ipecac) 2. Lifelover - Konkrus (Avantgarde) 3. Hammers of Misfortune - Fields/Church of Broken Glass (Profound Lore) 4. Krallice - self-titled (Profound Lore) 5. Ocrilim - Anwyn (Hydra Head) 6. Leviathan - Massive Conspiracy Against All Life (Moribund) 7. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Dig Lazurus Dig (Mute) 8. The Gates of Slumber - Conqueror (Profound Lore) 9. Aura Noir - Hades Rising (Peaceville/Tyrant Syndicate) 10. Caina - Temporary Antennae (Profound Lore) 11. Dead Congregation - Graves of the Archangels (Nuclear War Now!) 12. Hooded Menace - Fulfill the Curse (Razorback) 13. Sigur Ros - Med Sut Leyrum Vit Spilum Endalaust (X1) 14. Portishead - Third (Island) 15. Fucked Up - The Chemistry of Common Life (Matador) Jay H. Gorania 1. Jucifer - L’Autrichienne (Relapse) 2. Soilent Green - Inevitable Collapse in the Presence of Conviction (Metal Blade) 3. Gojira - The Way of All Flesh (Prosthetic) 4. Cripple Bastards - Variante Alla Morte (FETO) 5. Complete Failure - Perversions of Guilt (Supernova)

14. Grand Magus – Iron Will (Rise Above) 15. Cult of Luna – Eternal Kingdom (Earache) 16. Amon Amarth – Twilight of the Thunder God (Metal Blade) 17. Origin – Antithesis (Relapse) 18. Caina – Temporary Antennae (Profound Lore) 19. Soilent Green – Inevitable Collapse in the Presence of Conviction (Metal Blade) 20. Krallice – self-titled (Profound Lore) 21. Jucifer – L’Autrichienne (Relapse) 22. Isole – Bliss of Solitude (Napalm) 23. Gojira – The Way of All Flesh (Prosthetic) 24. Earth – The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull (Southern Lord) 25. Winterfylleth – The Ghost of Heritage (Profound Lore)

6. Origin - Antithesis (Relapse) 7. Light Yourself On Fire - Intimacy (Seventh Rule) 8. Cryptopsy - The Unspoken King (Century Media) 9. Wetnurse - Invisible City (Seventh Rule) 10. Annihilation Time - Annihilation Time III: Tales of the Ancient Age (Teepee) 11. Hate Eternal - Fury and Flames (Metal Blade) 12. Light This City - Storm Chaser (Prosthetic) 13. Meshuggah - obZen (Nuclear Blast) 14. Dreaming Dead - Within One (Ibex Moon) 15. Saviours - Into Abaddon (Kemado) Ray Van Horn, Jr. 1. Byzantine - Oblivion Beckons (Prosthetic) 2. Bigelf - Cheat the Gallows (Custard) 3. Boris - Smile (Southern Lord) 4. Earth - The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull (Southern Lord) 5. Cavalera Conspiracy - Inflikted (Roadrunner) 6. Enslaved - Vertebrae (Nuclear Blast) 7. Keep of Kalessin - Kolossus (Nuclear Blast) 8. Nachtmystium - Assassins: Black Meddle Pt. 1 (Century Media) 9. Master - Slaves to Society (Ibex Moon) 10. Bullet For My Valentine - Scream Aim Fire (Jive) 11. Trivium - Shogun (Roadrunner) 12. Alice Cooper - Along Came a Spider (SPV) 13. Iced Earth - The Crucible of Man (SPV) 14. Wetnurse - Invisible City (Seventh Rule) 15. Opeth - Watershed (Roadrunner) Rob Hughes 1. Opeth - Watershed (Roadrunner) 2. Dead Man - Euphoria (Meteor City) 3. Woods of Ypres - Woods III: Deepest Roots and Darkest Blues (Krankenhaus) 4. Wetnurse - Invisible City (Seventh Rule) 5. Earth - The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull (Southern Lord) 6. Cynic - Traced in Air (Season of Mist) 7. Sculptured - Embodiment (The End) 8. Enslaved - Vertebrae (Nuclear Blast) 9. Guapo - Elixirs (Neurot) 10. Nachtmystium - Assassins: Black Meddle Pt. 1 Top 25 albums of 2008

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(Century Media) 11. Hammers of Misfortune - Fields/Church of Broken Glass (Profound Lore) 12. The Gates of Slumber - Conqueror (Profound Lore) 13. Made Out of Babies - The Ruiner (The End) 14. Hail of Bullets - ...Of Frost and War (Metal Blade) 15. Jex Thoth - self-titled (I Hate) Kim Kelly 1. Samothrace - Life’s Trade (20 Buck Spin) 2. Thou - Peasant (Autopsy Kitchen) 3. Winterfylleth - The Ghost of Heritage (Profound Lore) 4. Steve Von Till - A Grave is a Grim Horse (Neurot) 5. Azaghal - Omega (Moribund) 6. Coffins - Buried Death (20 Buck Spin) 7. Jucifer - L’Autrichienne (Relapse) 8. Arghoslent - Hornets of the Pogrom (Drakkar) 9. Outlaw Order - Dragging Down the Enforcer (Season of Mist) 10. ASRA - The Way of All Flesh (Black Box) 11. Ascend - Ample.Fire.Within. (Southern Lord) 12. Behexen - My Soul for His Glory (Moribund) 13. Horna - Sanojesi Aarnelle (Debumur Morti/Deviant) 14. Woe - A Spell for the Death of Man (Stronghold) 15. Book of Black Earth - Horoskopus (Prosthetic) Sarah Kitteringham 1. Torche - Meanderthal (Hydra Head) 2. Bison B.C. - Quiet Earth (Metal Blade) 3. Chad VanGaalen - Soft Airplane (Flemish Eye) 4. Disfear - Live the Storm (Relapse) 5. Gojira - The Way of All Flesh (Prosthetic) 6. Intronaut - Prehistoricisms (Century Media) 7. Genghis Tron - Board Up The House (Relapse) 8. The Gates of Slumber - Conqueror (Profound Lore) 9. Pig Destroyer - Natasha EP (Relapse) 10. Sigur Ros - Med Sut Leyrum Vit Spilum Endalaust (X1) 11. Brightblack Morning Light - Motion to Rejoin (Matador) 12. This Will Destroy You - self-titled (Magic Bullet) 13. Harvey Milk - Life… The Best Game in Town (Hydra Head) 14. Origin - Antithesis (Relapse) 15. Blindead - Autoscopia: Murder in Phazes (Deadline) Rajah Marcelo 1. Krisiun - Southern Storm (Century Media) 2. Meshuggah - obZen (Nuclear Blast) 3. Testament - The Formation of Damnation (Nuclear Blast) 4. Intronaut - Prehistoricisms (Century Media) 5. Dystopia - Dystopia (Life Is Abuse) 6. Aborted - Strychnine 213 (Century Media) 7. Mgla - Groza (Northern Heritage) 8. Misery Index - Traitors (Relapse) 9. Outlaw Order - Dragging Down the Enforcer (Season of Mist) 10. Esoteric - The Maniacal Vale (Season of Mist) 11. Soilent Green - Inevitable Collapse in the Presence of Conviction (Metal Blade) 12. Metallica - Death Magnetic (Elektra) 13. Hail of Bullets - ...Of Frost and War (Metal Blade) 14. Subrosa - Strega (I Hate) 15. Abysmal Dawn - Programmed to Consume (Relapse) Sean Palmerston 1. The Gates of Slumber - Conqueror (Profound Lore) 2. Opeth - Watershed (Roadrunner) 3. Isole - Bliss of Solitude (Napalm) 4. Toxic Holocaust - An Overdose of Death (Relapse) 5. Various Artists - This Comp Kills Fascists (Relapse) 6. Intronaut - Prehistoricisms (Century Media) 7. Hammers of Misfortune - Fields/Church of Broken 86

Top 25 albums of 2008

Glass (Profound Lore) 8. Tyr - Land (Napalm) 9. Testament - The Formation of Damnation (Nuclear Blast) 10. Death Angel - Killing Season (Nuclear Blast) 11. Alestorm - Captain Morgan’s Revenge (Napalm) 12. Unearthly Trance - Electrocution (Relapse) 13. Torche - Meanderthal (Hydra Head) 14. Krallice - self-titled (Profound Lore) 15. Grand Magus - Iron Will (Rise Above) Kevin Stewart-Panko 1. Disfear - Live the Storm (Relapse) 2. Torche - Meanderthal (Hydra Head) 3. Hayaino Daisuki - Headbanger’s Karaoke Club Dangerous Fire (Hydra Head) 4. Paint it Black - New Lexicon (Jade Tree) 5. Taint - Secrets & Lies (Candlelight USA) 6. Ghostlimb - Bearing & Distance (Level-Plane) 7. ASG - Win Us Over (Volcom) 8. Trap Them - Seizures in Barren Praise (Deathwish) 9. The Endless Blockade - Primitive (20 Buck Spin) 10. Wetnurse - Invisible City (Seventh Rule) 11. At the Soundawn - Red Square: We Come in Waves (Lifeforce) 12. Intronaut - Prehistoricisms (Century Media) 13. Metallica - Death Magnetic (Elektra) 14. Early Grave - We: The Guillotine (Ironclad/Metal Blade) 15. Gridlink - Amber Grey (Hydra Head) RealDeadOne 1. Ayreon - 110101 (InsideOut Music) 2. Opeth - Watershed (Roadrunner) 3. AC/DC - Black Ice (Columbia) 4. Biomechanical - Cannibalised (Earache) 5. Falconer - Among Beggars and Thieves (Metal Blade) 6. Brother Von Doom - Relentless (Deathcote) 7. Testament - The Formation of Damnation (Nuclear Blast) 8. Cephalectomy - The Dream Cycle Mythos (Discorporate Music) 9. Woods of Ypres - Woods III: Deepest Roots and Darkest Blues (Krankenhaus) 10. Kalmah - For the Revolution (Spinefarm) 11. Amon Amarth - Twilight of the Thunder God (Metal Blade) 12. Cerebral Turbulency - Segregace K 0 (Khaaranus) 13. Tiamat - Amanethes (Nuclear Blast) 14. Dragonforce - Ultra (Roadrunner) 15. Judas Priest - Nostradamus (Epic) Alex Ristic 1. Krisiun - Southern Storm (Century Media) 2. Opeth - Watershed (Roadrunner) 3. Icarus Witch - Songs For The Lost (Cleopatra) 4. Testament - The Formation of Damnation (Nuclear Blast) 5. Motorhead - Motorizer (Steamhammer) 6. Deicide - Till Death Do Us Part (Earache) 7. Judas Priest - Nostradamus (Epic) 8. Into Eternity - The Incurable Tragedy (Century Media) 9. Kate Perry - One of the Boys (Capitol/EMI) 10. Brave - Monuments (Independent) 11. Hate - Morphosis (Listenable) 12. Sister Sin - Switchblade Serenades (Victory) 13. Operatika - The Calling (Scarlet) 14. Iced Earth - The Crucible of Man (SPV) 15. Estelle - Shine (Atlantic) Dave Sanders 1. Disfear - Live the Storm (Relapse) 2. The Gates of Slumber - Conqueror (Profound Lore)

3. Cult of Luna - Eternal Kingdom (Earache) 4. Torche - Meanderthal (Hydra Head) 5. Genghis Tron - Board Up The House (Relapse) 6. Burst - Lazarus Bird (Relapse) 7. Amon Amarth - Twilight of the Thunder God (Metal Blade) 8. Hate Eternal - Fury and Flames (Metal Blade) 9. Made Out of Babies - The Ruiner (The End) 10. Scott Hull - Requiem (Relapse) 11. Soilent Green - Inevitable Collapse In The Presence of Conviction (Metal Blade) 12. Neuraxis - The Thin Line Between (Prosthetic) 13. Celestis - self-titled (Independent) 14. Iced Earth - The Crucible of Man (SPV) 15. Metallica - Death Magnetic (Elektra) Jose Carlos Santos 1. Scott Kelly - The Wake (Neurot) 2. Trinacria - Travel Now Journey Infinitely (Indie) 3. Pyramids - self-titled (Hydra Head) 4. Virus - The Black Flux (Season of Mist) 5. Trap Them - Seizures In Barren Praise (Deathwish) 6. Hail of Bullets - ...Of Frost and War (Metal Blade) 7. Menace Ruine - The Die Is Cast (Alien8) 8. Lair of The Minotaur - War Metal Battle Master (Southern Lord) 9. Mouth of The Architect - Quietly (Translation Loss) 10. Esoteric - The Maniacal Vale (Season of Mist) 11. Rotten Sound - Cycles (Spinefarm) 12. Black Sun - Paralyser (At War With False Noise) 13. Unearthly Trance - Electrocution (Relapse) 14. Steve Von Till - A Grave Is A Grim Horse (Neurot) 15. Grand Magus - Iron Will (Rise Above) Laura Wiebe Taylor 1. Virgin Black - Requiem-Fortissimo (The End) 2. Moonspell - Night Eternal (SPV) 3. Mar de Grises - Draining the Waterheart (Firebox) 4. Isole - Bliss of Solitude (Napalm) 5. Daylight Dies - Lost to the Living (Candlelight) 6. Agalloch - The White EP (Vendlus) 7. October Falls - The Womb of Primordial Nature (Moribund) 8. Amon Amarth - Twilight of the Thunder God (Metal Blade) 9. Woods of Ypres - Woods III: Deepest Roots and Darkest Blues (Krankenhaus) 10. Mamiffer - Hirror Enniffer (Hydra Head) 11. Opeth - Watershed (Roadrunner) 12. Mindless Self-Indulgence - If (The End) 13. Krallice - self-titled (Profound Lore) 14. Caina - Temporary Antennae (Profound Lore) 15. Cult of Luna - Eternal Kingdom (Earache) Brian Wright 1. Eliminator - Breaking the Wheel (Suffering Jesus) 2. Warrel Dane - Praises to the War Machine (Century Media) 3. Biomechanical - Cannibalized (Earache) 4. Eluveitie - Slania (Nuclear Blast) 5. Opeth - Watershed (Roadrunner) 6. Hollenthon - Opus Magnum (Napalm) 7. Enslaved - Vertebrae (Nuclear Blast) 8. Meshuggah - Obzen (Nuclear Blast) 9. Sahg - II (Regain) 10. Manilla Road - Voyager (My Graveyard) 11. Dismember - self-titled (Regain) 12. Jeff Loomis - Zero Order Phase (Century Media) 13. King’s X - XV (InsideOut) 14. Communic - Payment of Existence (Nuclear Blast) 15. Aanal Beehemoth - The Forest Paranoid (Suffering Jesus)

AANAL BEHEMOTH Forest Paranoid (Suffering Jesus)

What in the fuck?? Um, I really don’t know what to say here, folks The album jacket describes this as “100% Ultra-Misery Blackout Metal Neckro-Punk Psykosound,” which ia a bit of an understatement. The colossally messed-up Finnish individuals responsible for this “thing” are lovingly referred to as “Deathly Fightar” and “Crazy Bombar,” and list “Exorcism” as one of their instruments…how quaint. Disturbing, poorly recorded, directionless, bizarre, and most certainly over-the-top (or crawling “far beneath the bottom”, to coin a phrase), this is nothing more than a mindless and irreverent fringe “act” that quickly loses its…“charm” or “appeal” don’t seem to be the right words, but you see where I’m going with this. Aanal Behemoth (or AxB as they refer to themselves) is, without question, trying to out-evil and out-shock their fellow countrymen (must be something in the water over there, I dunno), but managing only to fail in epic fashion. There simply isn’t a single microbe of merit to be found anywhere on this album. The music, the “artwork”, the band pic, and the lyrics are beyond…well, beyond I don’t know what; I’m really at a loss for words. I have a sneaking suspicion that my editor Adrian sent this to me to review just to fuck with my head. Well played, old friend. I won’t forget this, trust me! I would strongly urge our faithful readers against buying this garbage, but if you get a chance to hear it, do so. You certainly won’t thank me, but you’ll be pleased to find that there is indeed worse music out there in the world than the seemingly endless supply of loathsome (c)rap and hip/hop.

Bottom line: imagine Impaled Nazarene’s Mikka in a talentless high-school crust-punk band having a drunken three-way with Charles Manson, and GG Allin all while experimenting with various sound effects (and pharmaceuticals) and having no idea what the hell they’re playing…yet recording it anyway. <Terry Demeter> -0-

AC/DC Black Ice (Columbia)

Where to begin? Yes, Black Ice is the megaton hammer, the Ballbreakerbreaker and much stiffer than your upper lip. Everyone waited eight years, but no one forgot the most iconic rock band in history. AC/DC arrogantly crush any notions of cliché and passé with Black Ice, making foot stomping cool once again, so cool that I made a hole in the bottom of my Toyota. Bands with such longevity and consistency are few and far in between, and it’s that confidence and pride that gives you comfort when you crank the volume on a Young brothers riff, sort of like cracking open your favourite beer. You’ve probably been told 10 times by now from the loser sitting next to you at work that “AC/DC haven’t changed in years.” Yeah, preach on, chief. If you mean change like that other 2008 release from that other huge metal act who are now trying to backtrack, let me tell you the grass ain’t greener. Angus’s playing sounds fresh too, just as it did 28 years ago, and Phil Rudd’s relentless drum groove sounds like he’s bashing his kit as hard as he can. The production is much more electric that the last few, and the bluesy vibes are almost gone. Back to the raw deal, Brian Johnson has finally shaken off the forced Donald Duck vocal style he’s had since, well, Blow up Your Video.

Sounds like he’s 30 again and I don’t care how they did it. With the term “rock ‘n roll” in three song titles and “Rocking” in one, there’s no lack of rock on Black Ice. Actually, we get a whopping 15 tracks, so if you split that you can consider “Black Ice” a two-album compensation for the past eight years. I like that perspective, and more is sometimes better. Here’s another angle: 15 tracks on this thing and I only dislike one. It barely gets any more solid as that, folks. Go out there, have a good time. <Real Dead One> -9-

ACID WITCH Witchtanic Hellucinations (Razorback)

Welcome to one of Razorback Records’ more unique releases in its storied history. Dubbed “acid chugging doom” (and boy, does the description ever fit) Acid Witch’s Witchtanic Hellucinations is a towering inferno of psychedelic, brain-bashing doom with superbly written songs to boot. We are not talking about the slow, bottom-crawling brand of doom either. Most of these tracks move at a steady pace approaching mid-tempo with occasional time shifts to a quicker pace. The tunes groove and punish with outrageously crushing riffs and absolutely electrifying guitar solos that are as paint-peeling as they are catchy, right down to those prototypically watery effects. Just listen to the lead guitar cry out over the sound of an icy cold organ (found throughout the disc as well) before a monolithic riff comes crashing down like a 747 plummeting from the sky on “Cauldron Cave.” The parched throat growls and sounds of bubbling witches’ brew and demented cackling give the songs an extra dose of the macabre. There are moments that

will make you wonder if this is what Electric Wizard might sound like on even more acid, albeit after the Razorback makeover. There isn’t a moment of drag on Witchtanic Hellucinations and Acid Witch still sounds like a band right at home on the Razorback roster. Occult metal is rarely this addictive. <Scott Alisoglu> -8-

ADVERSARY Singularity (Trustkill)

Just when I thought Trustkill had abandoned their metal community for helping keep hardcore and metalcore bands in the spotlight, here comes Virginia’s metal machine Adversary. Serving up the Gothenburg sound to some extent, it’s obvious the band took note that that wasn’t what was needed to control their sound. Don’t fall into the mass pile of others brandishing that sound/ style. What happens though is that Adversary makes their mark with some maniacally charged, yet dizzying guitar riffs, intense vocal screams, and a good melodic edge. Check out the title track, “Wisdom in Regret” and opener “Hedonist.”Tight and in focus, the production on this album couldn’t be any better. Adversary’s debut is top-notch material. A massive sonic assault that’ll leave your ears bleeding and your bones bruised. Watch out for this one! <Adrian ‘The Energizer’ Bromley> -8-

AMON AMARTH Twilight of the Thunder Gods (Metal Blade)

You don’t need time for Twilight of the Thunder Gods to sink in. It’s not that kind of album, and Amon Amarth aren’t that kind of band. They don’t build things up. They just start at the top and then build their way higher from there. Taking that romanticized Viking imagery, mixing it with the absolute purest of fist-pounding and sledgehammer-heavy riffs and coating it with the heaviest possible production is something Amon Amarth has perfected into an impenetrable force by now. I would say that this one along with the last two has been an apex of sorts for the band, who are a household name amongst the metal crowd at this point, and it’s only a matter of time before word gets out to the rest (if it hasn’t already).

Vocally maybe a bit above some past efforts, Hegg sounds a tad more genuine.

And what’s not to like about those wind-swept riffs, summoned just in time to blow your hair into that perfect Viking pose. But posing aside, because there’s a lot of it, TotTG is track after track of pure enjoyment, and only furthers the band’s consistency for quality epic metal. <RDO> -8.5-

ANTAGONIST Exist (Prosthetic)

A breakdown of “Bomb Shelter” (track 1) on Antagonist’s second full-length, their first for Prosthetic Records: blast beats, screech/growling vocals, high-end wank guitar solo, clean melodious vocals, screeching, clean vocals, screeching, clean vocals, breakdown, screeching. A breakdown of the title track which follows: high-end wank guitar, screech/growling vocals, screeching, clean, screeching, clean, blast beats, screeching, breakdown, clean vocals, instrumental assault, screeching, blast beats. “Amnesia Ln.”: blast beats, screeching, partial instrumental assault, screeching, growl/screech… first emotional breakdown featuring harmonious crooning which ends with a frustrated roar.

Many obligatory details can be mentioned. The production is clean, the level of musical ability is acceptable, and the packaging is nicely created. However, Exist is indistinguishable from countless other artists and certainly not the cream-of-the-crap which has flooded the metal market in recent years. <Sarah Kitteringham> -4-

ARCKANUM Antikosmos (Debemur Morti/Moribund)

Hail, Shamaatae … You grace us once more with your dark, malevolent, and iconic glory. After close to a decade, Sweden’s legendary Arckanum returns with another bleak and sinister black metal opus. May heaven and earth quake in its black and primal majesty! Overflowing with venomous chaos, Shamaatae delivers Arckanum’s epic and triumphant fourth full-length album, unleashing his unique aural mysticism centred on a personal philosophy of ChaosGnosticism and Anti-Cosmic belief. At times complex and almost frightening with its magickal conviction and power, Antikosmos is the kind of ancient black metal force that this writer absolutely fuckin’ revels in. Captivating and brilliant, it will no doubt be hailed as a modern day classic, and take its rightful place alongside Arckanum essentials Fran Marder, Kostogher, and Kampen. I just wish I could read the damn lyrics. Highly recommended and essential listening for those who long for the black metal of ages past. Hail Strength! Hail Victory!

Hail Chaos! Hail Arckanum! <T. Demeter> -9-

BAPHOMETS HORNS Perpetrators of Genocide (Morbid Moon)

From the seedy underbelly of, uh, Connecticut come “Satanic Fucking War Metal” barbarians Baphomets Horns. Perhaps you are already familiar with their anti-classy/anti-antiseptic out-of-print Satanic War Command cassette or their Satanic Forcefucked Annihilation split with kindred spirits Amputator. If you’re not, then full-length Perpetrators of Genocide will paint the same frightening picture, as “progression” is anathema and loud Satanic praises paramount. The members—with their startling prophetic birth names of PS Christrape (Rape Axe), Funeral Fuck (Warhammers), Angelblood (Commands, Nuclear Rape), and Al-Nihilation (Bludgeoning Death Saw)—bring a 10-track collection of flame throwing, pitch-black savagery with a beaten-bloody production. The swirling razor blade riffs are just plain lethal and the maniacal shrieks rivaled only by those of Thornspawn. Comparatively more “accessible” than Black Witchery, but certainly cut from the same cloth, Baphomets Horns rip shit up at full, blasting speed from the opening carnage of “Nuclear Rape Assault” and don’t stop until the last notes of “Bestial War March” waft through the smoke-choked air.

Perpetrators of Genocide is a genuinely strong representation of war metal that attacks without mercy and is guaranteed to rattle the fillings right out of your teeth. <S. Alisoglu> -7.5-

BENEATH THE MASSACRE Dystopia (Prosthetic Records)

Blindingly fast riffing and blast beats open Beneath the Massacre’s Dystopia, the Montréalers’ second full-length for Prosthetic. Quickly joined by cookiemonster vocals, jarring and irregular signatures and a constant onslaught of guitars and drums, the deathcore band quickly falls into a monotonous trap of little progression despite clear instrumental chops. Unfortunately, the obvious talents of the band are scarcely overextended throughout the short disc, which varies little save for “breakdowns” with actually discernable chords and interludes marked by sweep picking. Each track is barely recognizable from the next, which is unfortunate considering how much the band could have done with their obvious talents. <S. Kitteringham> -6-

BESTIA ARCANA To Anabainon Ek Tes Abyssu (Knightmare)

If there was an album that signified the inner struggle and frustration that one faces in a truly horrific nightmare, then the latest release from atmospheric/ black act Bestia Arcana’s serves as THE album. It really does capture that trapped feeling, uncertainty, and real scary scenarios. Cavernous, dark and full of evil, the terror looms in the shadows, waiting to tower over you with its intensity and atmospheric mind-fuck. The harrowing screams that lead into “The Poison of Mannaseh” are enough to send many music fans running. I’m sure of it. I don’t want to know the methods to this madness, I’m just glad the visions of To Anabainon Ek Tes Abyssu are not in my head, ’cause for sure I’d have died in my sleep by now. Creepy stuff for sure! <A. Bromley> -9-

BLACK LOTUS Harvest of Seasons (Bleak Art Records)

Victoria Canada’s Black Lotus return with their second full-length since their formation in 2003, Harvest of Seasons, a harvest of symphonic blackness heavily reminiscent of Borknagar’s last few. Classy artwork with the usual tinted and grainy photographed trees to add ambiance, the songs are blastbeaten throughout and accompanied by synth keys, screams, and periodic melodic chants. There are especially cool musical moments and vocal diversities at the halfway mark with “Terra Hiberna,” an over 9-minute opus of clearly refined metal. From that point on, there’s no letting go for Black Lotus, where the few opening songs dragged a bit, the rest suck you into a windy vortex. I’m impressed, what else can I say? <RDO> -8-

BLACKWINDS Flesh Inferno (Regain)

At first I was looking forward to hearing this album, simply due to the Setherial connection (Blackwinds is Lord Mysteriis’ side project)…but then I hit “play.” Let me tell you, there’s nothing more frustrating to a reviewer than having an album that leaves you feeling nothing.

Unfortunately, that is the case with Flesh Inferno. It’s not a bad album per se, but neither does anything really stand out about it. You’ve heard these riffs and dark melodies countless times, the lyrics are of the standard fare, caustic yet far from anything original. Even if the album was recorded well and played reviews

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by veteran black metallions, that doesn’t change the fact that you’ll be left with a definite sense of indifference. We’ve just been exposed to far too much of the same for far too long. Bland, uninspiring and paint-by-numbers black metal seems to be everywhere these days, and it makes me wonder if the satanic bastard child of the music world has finally run its course. It’s become increasingly difficult to find those dark gems that grab us by the throat and evoke those long-lost feelings first conjured up black metal’s elite practitioners…and this is sadly not one of them. <T. Demeter> -5-

BLOODBATH The Fathomless Mastery (Peaceville)

Though it doesn’t feature the same lineup as past efforts, this death metal super-group (originally founded in 1998, believe it or not) still boasts an impressive roster: Mikael Akerfeldt (Opeth), Anders “Blakkheim” Nystrom (Katatonia), Jonas Renske (Katatonia), Martin “Axe” Axenrot (Opeth, Witchery, and Nifelheim), and relative newcomer Per “Sodomizer” Eriksson. Unfortunately, you won’t find The Fathomless Mastery to be the sort of album you’d expect to hear from such metal luminaries. It’s definitely not as brutally delicious as their previous full-length efforts Resurrection Through Carnage or Nightmares Made Flesh. The album (though possessing a fairly well-rounded sound) plods along track after track, rarely forcing the listener to take more than a casual notice.

Several listens in, and with an intense desire to really like the album, I feel that somehow Bloodbath came far too late to the massacre. Though Akerfeldt’s growling vocals (which sound somewhat different than on Opeth albums) and Axenrot’s intense drum work are definite highlights throughout the album, the songs are inexplicably pedestrian by death metal standards and the guitars are nothing short of under-whelming (any interesting riffs are too few and far between to really have an impact on this reviewer). One can only speculate what happened here. Perhaps the problem lies with a group of stellar musicians whose sole focus lies (and rightfully so) on their main creative outlets, preventing any sort of tangible cohesiveness to take place. Maybe bringing Swanö and Tägtgren back into the fold would save this drowning project.

Regardless, The Fathomless Mastery is unmistakable proof that even a finely tuned, high-performance machine can have its share of unforeseen mechanical breakdowns. Disappointing and mediocre, essential only for die-hard collectors and completists. <T. Demeter> -4-

BROKEN OHMS Nocturnal Emissions (Dirty Reynolds)

This is a pretty average album by a somewhat average rock ’n’ roll outfit that seems to be serving up jam-like rock anthems that we’ve heard over and over.

However, I have to admit, Canada’s Broken Ohms kept drawing me back for repeated listens with their catchy riffs, a vibrant atmospheric swagger and singer Peter Hubley’s dead-on Chris Cornell vocal style (think Loud Love-era, tuned down a notch). With a subtle stoner rock vibe emanating over their sound (Fu Manchu. QOTSA, Nebula), Broken Ohms are able to bring a somewhat different vibe to what would be standard rock songs, especially my fave “So Mean,” the trippy “For the Air” and hard nugget “Fear of God.” A mediocre score yes, but this band has potential, so don’t let the rating scare you away. <A. Bromley> -6.5-

BROTHER VON DOOM Relentless (Deathcote Records)

There’s something eerily appealing about this Brother Von Doom disk, Relentless. On my desk here, I probably have a half dozen CDs with cover art depicting some type of fancy swordwielding shirtless warrior, but this one isn’t like the others. From the get go, Relentless is so precise and fires on all pistons like a beautifully chromed beast of sorts, fast and pushy but not overly mathematical or confusing so as to retain its core listenability. Vocals are energetically grunted and screamed in a stable monotonous manner, perfectly fitting to the form yet uniquely delivered. Guitars and riffs are melodic but to the most aggressive degree possible, heavy use of twin leads, and the solos are almost entirely above average. Percussively, it’s a monster often hammering instead of just keeping tempo, and finally the bass is buried under there somewhere. No need to mention standout tracks because it’s all of them, and trust me when I say, in a genre as tired as melodeath, this is your ticket not only back to Sweden, but back to a newer brighter Sweden, straight out of Ohio. Really incredibly impressive debut album and repeated spins come easy. <RDO> -9-

BULLETWOLF Double Shots of Rock and Roll (Abyss)

The title says it all. It couldn’t be any simpler, really, to describe the music of this dirty, swagger ’n’ roll stoner rock band Bulletwolf. And the instructions to enjoy such songs “White Trash Whiplash,” “Hungoverit” and “Half Drunk” are even easier: crank the music, grab some beers and get fucked up! If you’re a fan of Black Sabbath, Sleep, Down, Cathedral, Motörhead, and Clutch, then there is no way you are going to miss out picking this baby up. Go for it… It’s calling for you, whiskey bottle in one hand, shot glasses in the other. <A. Bromley> -888

reviews

BURNING MOON Damnation (Independent)

It has been a long time coming and once again, we see a release of one of Canada’s most cult black metal band: Burning Moon. The band disbanded in 1999 after a slew of well-received demos so it has been close to a decade without a release from the one-time chaosmongers of the black metal circle across Canada. While Damnation will pique a lot of interest, something is indeed not settling well here. Of course we find the band storming through a rabid, chaos-filled campaign full of sinister riffs, damned vocals and raw production, but save for tracks like “Vampire’s Curse” and “Devil Flesh,” the album just comes across standard—especially with the evolution of black metal. This isn’t bad by any means; I’m just thinking too much time away from them has lessened my appeal for Burning Moon’s music. I’m still gonna recommend this to black metal fans, but I’m done after the few spins I’ve given it. <A. Bromley> -5.5-

CAPTAIN CLEANOFF Symphonies of Slackness (No Escape Records)

I don’t know what the Captain has cleaned off exactly but Captain Cleanoff leave things messy enough for me. This is their debut and it took over 11 years to get here, and although the songs are good, I doubt the time was spent writing all 21 of them. Logo looks like Cannibal Corpse, album title sounds like Carcass, but Australia’s CC stick to the grindcore. SOS is blast-beaten and proud, and sorta sloppy and rockin’ at the same time if that’s possible. Not groundbreaking and repetitive, but fans of the genre should enjoy. <RDO> -6-

CHRIST BEHEADED Open the Gates of Hell (Abyss / Darker Than Black)

With enough attitude and anger to fuel their black/death metal campaign across the frozen tundra lands of the Midwest (at least at winter time), Christ Beheaded’s debut EP does a marvelous job of capturing just what makes black metal work: an uneasy sense of chaos, overturning what’s right and wrong.

In essence, it’s raw and reckless. That being said Christ Beheaded becomes yet another band that has been able to lay claim to their place in said genre, but faltering just a bit from the trophy space and making a name for themselves, setting themselves apart from the pack. The band does have some truly effective anguished moments (the title track) and I’m willing to check them out come the full-length. <A. Bromley> -6.66-

COSMIC ATROPHY Codex Incubo 9Metalbolic Records/Suffering Jesus Productions)

Codex Incubo is the sci-fi tinged debut release from Missouri City, Texas death metal duo, Cosmic Atrophy. Juan Garcia handles guitars, with Cory Richards handling guitars as well, along with the drums, bass, vocals, and lyrics. Cosmic Atrophy have been together for less than a year, and their youth as a band shows. The band is technically proficient, but doesn’t move much beyond the basics, or offer anything that’s new or different. Garcia and Richards don’t sound as if they have gelled, and are simply playing the parts as written, and not playing to each other’s strengths. The best track is the ambient instrumental album closer, “Adrift in the Lifeless Sea of Black,” which is arguably the most interesting on the album. Cosmic Atrophy is a young band, and hopefully with time they will mature into a more diverse and talented band. <Dave Sanders> -4-

CROWN THE LOST Blind Faith Loyalty (Cruz del Sur)

Italy’s heavy metal label Cruz del Sur has had a great streak going by signing some great bands to the label, such as Slough Feg, Pharoah and now Crown the Lost. The Pittsburgh-based melodic heavy metal band is very good at what they do. It’s obvious they are dedicated to their craft. Singer Chris Renaldi brings a dynamic approach to the vocals here, soaring effortlessly with each and every turn, always making an impact. And the music? Blazing guitar riffs and a tight rhythm section complements the solid production on Blind Faith Loyalty. This is easily one of the best sounding debuts I’ve heard in some time, the power of the band surging in all the right spots. Fans of the label’s roster, not to mention bands like Nevermore, Iron Maiden, and King Diamond, should be into what the band offers. It’s great to see the band mixing heavy metal/thrash and melodic metal and keeping things on the edge and different to what’s going on out there right now. <A. Bromley> -8.5-

DARKTHRONE Dark Thrones and Black Flags (Peaceville)

Love ’em or hate ’em, Darkthrone are back with another stylized black metal assault. Now, I completely understand that there are tonne of metal purists out there that still dream of a return to the unholy days of Under a Funeral Moon, Transilvanian Hunger or Panzerfaust, but I think it’s fairly evident that Nocturno Culto and Fenriz are content to have their musical legacy continue to challenge/enrage/shock/excite the black metal world. The past few years have seen the Darkthrone releases casually venture into some rather interesting areas, while still holding fast to their signature BM roots, and the same can be said for Dark Thrones and Black Flags. The problem with this, though, is that there doesn’t seem to be much of a commitment to really stirring things up musically or lyrically. The riffs and drumming are definitely album highlights and are beyond reproach (Fenriz has never sounded so fuckin’ good), yet the

forays into thrash, punk, and doom don’t stray too terribly far from the comforts and confines of Darkthrone’s black heritage, which leaves me to wonder if they’re truly experimenting, having fun, or just testing the waters to see if anyone is paying attention. I quite like the opposing elements of tangible atmosphere weighed against an almost infectious headbanging forcefulness that play off one another throughout the album. Sadly, this wicked dichotomy is tainted by Nocturno Culto’s dire vocals, which leave a lot to be desired (a frequent complaint of mine when it comes to Darkthrone as of late) and do absolutely nothing to help the already poor, almost amateurish lyrical content of the album, raising the question: just how many pro-metal anthems do we need on one album? Regardless of its blemishes, Dark Thrones and Black Flags is still a damn fine metal album. As with past Darkthrone releases, it’s sure to have rabid fans and detractors alike debating its merits (or lack thereof, depending on your point of view) deep into the night, ensuring its rightful place among the crucial discography of one of black metal’s most prominent and infamous icons. Bottom line: I say “Buy it and try it!” If it’s not up to your standards, trade it away and keep the music alive. <T. Demeter> -7.5-

DEADWEIGHT Origins of Darkness (FETO)

Deadweight have a contemporary quality that borrows from the post-metal sphere, but that doesn’t keep them from staying on task with the brutality characteristic of American death metal.

Pummeling almost constantly and exhibiting impressive command over their instruments, Deadweight properly allow their music to unravel organically and aggressively, sounding like a tech-death metal band pushed down a flight of stairs, bouncing its way down violently while stubbornly staying on beat all the way down. Beautifully constructed at many points, the band utilizes melody, and not in a tiresome Swedish kind of way, at climactic peaks (in the end of “Darkest Day,” for instance). Elsewhere, vocalist Rich Hadley gets down, dirty and guttural on “Watcher” and “Scriptures” as his band takes off their gloves and throws their fists recklessly with thrashing death metal. The closing number of Origins of Darkness, “Dead Man Crawling,” offers the best example of the band’s keen sense of heavy groove somewhat reminiscent of Roots-era Sepultura. Kids who waste their time with deathcore would love this stuff if they knew about it. - <Jay H. Gorania> -7-

DEVASTATION Idolatry (Rockadrome)

Old school Texas band Devastation are back after a lengthy hiatus (sort of), thanks in part to the hardworking individuals who have helped this reissue took shape. The album, originally released in 1991 on Combat Records, was a fuckin’ welcome to already fading thrash scene. I meanback in 1991, while still vibrant, metal was spawning a good assortment of other genres (such as death and black metal) that slowly eclipsed thrash. With legendary Scott Burns (Death, Obituary, and Sepultura) producing, you know what kind of album you’re going to hear. It still sounds good to this day: tight, yet with a little bite. The reissue comes with revamped cover art, a 12-page full-colour booklet, and bonus tracks recorded with the new lineup. The bonus tracks are a nice addition. It takes a lot to come back to something after so many years, and when you do, it really is worth it. Good to see Rockadrome and the band going that extra mile for this release. And yes, Kevi, I have this on vinyl. <A. Bromley> -7-

DIE HARD Evil Always Return (Abyss)

With a definite nod to the old-school days of say, Venom, Kreator, Razor, and Sodom, we find Sweden’s newer metal juggernaut attempting, and succeeding, to impress us with all that they are capable of doing. They know the drill. They deliver the goods. An ace production helps bring about some more might and firmness to the raw tones of yesteryear. This is by no means softer, in fact, more versatile and rougher on many attempts (case in point the potent “Black Mass”).

A worthy album if you want to relive the older days of metal. And who doesn’t?

And, oh yeah, the drummer from Watain is in this band. <A. Bromley> -7-

DIMENTIANON Live Promo (Non Compos Mentis Records)

The album title, Live Promo, says it all. The album was recorded live and sounds terrible. The volume needs to be turned way up to make out any of lead singer, M’s stage banter. Once the music hits, the sound doesn’t get any better.

The quality is fuzzy, almost as if it was recorded on an answering machine.

Because of that, there’s no way of telling whether or not the band actually sounds any good. Dimentianon needs to try again with better production. <D. Sanders> -2-

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EARLY MAN Beware the Circling Fin (The End)

The guys in Early Man know how to tap into something good and not let go. The band’s four-song EP for The End Records is a wonderful, thrash-tastic display of metal know-how and homage to the early days of NWOBHM (early Def Leppard, Savage, and Saxon). Opener “Sinking the Blade” will rip your fucking head off with its anthemic fury and riffs, while “Coiled Like the Snake” will eat up every one of those snot-nosed li’l thrashers now wading the thrash revival.

Stick with Early Man, people. They’re playing it for all the right reasons. Now crank this! <A. Bromley> 8.5-

EKPYROSIS Mensch aus Gold (Paradigms Recordings)

I don’t know how and/or where Duncan (owner of Paradigm Recordings) finds the musicians/bands he signs and works with, but he always manages to find some truly unique stuff that sets the bar for most other labels. Same can be said for Profound Lore Records. So here we have Mensch aus Gold, the one-track, 30-minute outing from Germany’s Ekpyrosis that would need more than a page to describe what you feel as the album’s journey begins and ends.

This is black metal done with restraint and complexity, a rearing beast of inner emotions, tranquil spoken passages, and haunting noise directing the course of the album’s single track as it moves along. Uncertainty and dark thoughts circulate and truly never let go. Powerful stuff that might not be understood at first, but with enough time and patience it’ll surely settle in and knock your psyche around for a few rounds. <A. Bromley> -9-

ENFORCER Into the Night (Heavy Artillery)

Kevi-Metal gives it thumbs up for their thrash madness! I’ve got a huge erection over their old school NWOBHM homage in their music [too much information, Adrian—RH]. The liner notes end with the mantra in a lightning font “Power Speed Death.” Enough reason to pick this up and know that on Into the Night Sweden’s Enforcer destroys all! Full on heavy/thrash metal! <A. Bromley> -9-

ENSLAVED Vertebrae (Nuclear Blast)

The promise of a new Enslaved album is enough to send the entire metal world into a state of violent agitation and hopeful anxiety. Few bands can stir the worldwide metal collective in such a way. It took quite a while for me to get a copy of the latest chapter in their musical odyssey, and so I must admit that I almost fell victim to the hype surrounding Vertebrae, their 10th release. While waiting to hear the album, I did a bit of research, and found that the inspiration for the title (and to some extent the music) stems from Ivar Bjornson reading a profound Tom Waits statement pointing out that a giraffe and a mouse possess identically formed vertebrae, and when you extrapolate that point further, one can speculate that they were, at some point along the evolutionary path, of the same species. After reading that, such was my excitement for this release that my admiration for this group almost prompted me to write the damn review before I heard even a single note. That, in retrospect, is definitely not a good sign. Has the impossible happened? Have Enslaved become—shudder—predictable? Well, read on.

Indeed, a subtle extension of heavy prog vision from Monumension, Below the Lights, Isa, and more recently Ruun (which are all categorically brilliant), the newest album seems to have captured the once-warriors from Norway languishing in atmospheric familiarity. That is to say, I don’t quite hear much actual progression here. It’s a worthy release to be sure, but nowhere remotely as challenging as I had banked on. The Pink Floyd influences are present once more, though we’ve been saying that since 2003. Surely it’s about time that such an imaginative and inspired group realize that they are on the brink of deadly stagnation. I just don’t hear the daring musical exploration that many of us have come to associate with Enslaved. For the past eight years, these epic Norse progressives have been on a stellar journey into the unknown, and now that they have arrived at their “destination,” it’s as though they’re not quite sure where next to conquer. I fear they have gone a step too far in the right direction, and desperately need to return to a much heavier form, or they may just risk losing sight of their visionary path and potentially invalidate the incredible triumphs they have achieved thus far. As curmudgeonly as this review sounds, the album is still quite good, and by no means irrelevant, yet at the same time patently “middle-of-the-road” for a new-era Enslaved release. The guitar work and riffs are both surprisingly average (there are a couple of really poor moments where they are akin to something you’d hear from alt-rock college-radio darlings), and the clean, harmonized vocals are one dimensional and uninspired, making them somewhat bothersome, rather than engaging. The opposite, however, is true for Kjellson’s black metal shrieks, which are raw and intuitive as always. As for the songs themselves, though possessing a unique essence, most are devoid of the dream-inducing contrasts and destructive/constructive experimentation I had hoped to hear (“New Dawn” and “The Watcher” are the two lone stand-out tracks). But one must ask, have they inadvertently created their own form of musical convention? I’d much prefer they upset the balance rather than trying to maintain it. The highlight on the record has to be the drumming, for which Cato Bekkevold receives extremely high praise (he also plays in Red Harvest

for fuck sakes, of course he’s gonna be brilliant). Far be it from me, a lowly pseudo-journalist, to dispense advice to veritable metal icons Ivar and Grutle as to how they should properly steer their black-prog longboat, but this scribe hopes they have the wherewithal to remember, re-evaluate, restore, rise, and reign once more. Perhaps with future listens Vertebrae will reveal its secrets and alter my opinion. Time will tell, but for now it stands, much to my dismay, as an exception to the rule of Enslaved. (Check out the Trinacria review in this issue of U! for more surprising Enslaved-related music.) <T. Demeter> -6-

EREB ALTOR

By Honour (I Hate)

Chances are very few of you will have heard of this band up until reading this review, but hopefully that will change and Sweden’s Ereb Altor gets a little more attention time from the metal community. The Swedish duo’s Viking/doom metal is masterfully delivered, very similar to the early works of the Bathory’s Viking-era Nordland I and II, still wondrous in its approach to breaking free from replicating the master and finding their own groove in things. Awesome production and songwriting shines down upon By Honour, allowing most people of this genre to understand just what it takes for fans to keep coming back for more (such as the title track, “Dark Nymph” and “Awakening”). The doom atmosphere matched against the Viking tales and sieges of the North showcase a band that will no doubt have a following for years to come. Best to them. I’m impressed. <A. Bromley> -8-

EXECRATION Syndicate of Lethargy (Vendlus)

Good goat! This year has seen some seriously dark ’n’ doomy, old-school death metal releases. You can now add Syndicate of Lethargy by Norway’s Execration to a list that also includes Dead Congregation’s Graves of the Archangels and Necrovation’s Breed Deadness Blood. Kindred spirits indeed, Execration oozes atmospheric dread with an album that predictably, though skillfully, combines styles heard on early releases by Incantation and Immolation, as well as the occasional nod to vintage Gorguts. The riffs twist, turn, and slither around a rhythm section of warm, creeping bass lines and a percussive cacophony that swirls in and out of the arrangement while somehow keeping the songs grounded. Much like the vocals on the aforementioned albums from Dead Congregation and Necrovation, guitarist Chris Johansen bellows forth from the depths of hell, the icing on a moldy sound that is raw and putrid, yet surprisingly strong from the standpoint of instrument separation. By the time you’ve crawled out the other side of 11-minute closing track “Clinging to Existence,” you’ll be begging for a shower. Add a half point to the score if originality is not a point of concern for you. <S. Alisoglu> -7.5-

EXODUS Let There Be Blood (Nuclear Blast)

Bonded by Blood stands as one of the true gems in the history of metal. With heavy-as-fuck riffs, catchy arrangements, and ample amounts of aggression, Exodus crafted a milestone in thrash for generations to come. So having established how much these songs rule, it would seem perfectly understandable that remaining members from the “Bonded” lineup Gary Holt and Tom Hunting might want to revisit this classic material and update it with a modern sound for mass consumption for the MySpace audience, most of whom weren’t even born when “Bonded” was released. This would all be good and well, but Exodus already paid homage to their classic debut back in ’97 with their live reunion album Another Lesson in Violence which included all of the tracks from Bonded by Blood except for “Metal Command.” Two years later, a remastered reissue of Bonded by Blood surfaced, making this 2008 re-recording all the more peculiar. Nonetheless, Let There Be Blood has arrived and compared to the original, there’s very little difference. Obviously with the assistance of producer Andy Sneap, improved recording technology, and some 23 years of studio and road experience since Bonded…, the band is on top of their game, so the songs are delivered with more immediacy and thicker, louder production. Vocalist Rob Dukes and guitarist Lee Altus deliver strong renditions of the songs, remaining faithful to the originals and staying as true to their form as possible. Frontman Dukes in particular delivers plenty of venom to the mic, at times coming across as even angrier than his predecessor Paul Baloff, sans the tounge-in cheek charisma the late frontman brought to the table. If you’ve never heard Exodus before, Let There Be Blood serves as a fair wading pool for the kiddies before diving into the band’s deep catalog, but for the diehards it serves as an absolutely unnecessary purchase, which raises the question, “It it ain’t broke, why fix it?”

Save your dough for the Atrocity Exhibition Exhibit B instead. <Rajah Marcelo> For the songs, performances and uninitiated: -8-, For people who already have Bonded by Blood: -1-

FALL OF THE IDOLS The Séance (I Hate)

No matter how varied or assorted doom metal shapes itself and/or where a band is from, it always comes back to the atmosphere and emotions that stay long after the music ends. Some bands’ sound/style resonates for hours, some weaken and disappear with the next CD thrown on the stereo system.

Finland’s Fall of the Idols are prefect example of a band of this genre tapping into something different and diverse, on tracks like “Nosophoros,” “My Home the Gallows” and “Cold Air” (which could be a Sabbath outtake). Great delivery for the most part, as the album falters its stride somewhat mid-album, but it’s

still quality doom material. And I really dig the fact that singer Jyrki Hakomäki delivers a Jim Morrison kind of croon on various tracks. Very cool. If you’re a fan of doom, then definitely worth checking out. If you need more incentive, think mid-era Cathedral mixed with Candlemass and of course, Black Sabbath. <A. Bromley> -7.5-

A FOREST OF STARS A Corpse of Rebirth (Transcendental Creations)

There are bands that take chances. And then there are bands that REALLY take chances. Take UK obscure/atmospheric/black metal band A Forest of Stars, an incredibly ingenious band that has somehow tapped into something all their own and run with it. With a strange back story and captivating namesakes for the members involved (not to mention the killer digi-pak reissue of their independent release) you can’t help but be lured into their world. Turning back is no option. Meshed together by howling screams, eerie atmosphere and an abundance of violins and psychedelic shockwaves of avant-garde blackened metal, similar in aspects to bands like In the Woods, Arcturus, Solefald, Ved Buens Ende in regards to how they bring about a unique array of style and creativity with each composition, but more sinister. A soundtrack of madness and uneasiness.

Nothing is as it seems, yet the band’s bombastic approach truly paints a horrific picture for us all to digest. Bizarre. <A. Bromley> -8.5-

FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND Memory and Humanity (Join Us Records)

Funeral for a Friend is hardly worthy of mention in any metal publication.

Clear, emotion-dripping vocals alongside traditional rock chord progressions does not an extreme band make, and hardly used metal instrumental interludes which are too hard to remember alongside the sappy acoustic intros that bleed into pop-punk. Sure, this is well suited to people who enjoy their pop/ rock with heavy elements, yet it’s hard to shake the feeling FfaF is better suited for mention on MTV gossip breaks or the band you might try to get your little brother or sister into before you introduce them to the “good stuff.” You know, the bands that are actually heavy. While they can possibly be thanked for being a gateway band that may eventually get kids and teenagers alike into heavy metal or hardcore, they are rendered unlistenable for someone who is already there. <S. Kitteringham> -3-

GHOULUNATICS The Beast Of (Galy Records)

Montreal’s own Ghoulunatics have been together since 1994, and this year they decided to call it quits. You can think of Beast Of as a last hurrah for the band—a last hurrah that wasn’t needed. Every song sounds the same. Death ’n’ roll with growled lyrics which are hard to make out at the best of times. With repetitiveness comes boredom, and those are the only two feelings you’re left with after listening to the Beast Of… <D. Sanders> -3-

GORGOROTH Black Mass Krakow DVD (Metal Mind)

I worship all things Gorgoroth-related, so I’ve been looking forward to this controversial release with great anticipation for the past four years. Originally filmed in 2004, the now-infamous show recorded in Poland (complete with official accusations of blasphemy and animal cruelty, and the subsequent seizing of the master tapes by Polish authorities) finally sees the light of day to unleash its diabolical shadow upon the black metal masses. The details of the legal and moral battle to release this film are easy enough to find online, so I won’t belabour the issue any further, but in the end Gorgoroth triumphed— that’s all that matters. As with virtually every other Metal Mind production, Black Mass Krakow has superb packaging (I picked up the limited edition version with the metal case, of course) and all the usual Metal Mind bonus goodies, and also includes a two-song bonus video performance recorded live at the 2000 With Full Force Festival in Leipzig, Germany. The main concert sounds and looks great (though one does tire of the constant sweeping aerial shots of the countless sheep heads that grace virtually every square inch of available space on the stage; impaled on spikes, hung on barbed-wire barricades and lovingly arranged on the floor before the crowd). Amidst the blood, gore, spikes, corpsepaint, and ceremonial faux-crucifixions, Gorgoroth performs 13 satanic black metal hymns for your listening and viewing pleasure. As with any live performance, there are personal favourites that are missing from the set, but when all is said and done, Gaahl, Infernus, King Ov Hell, and Kvitrafn collectively give a solid, and memorable performance in one of the best live black metal DVDs I’ve ever come across. It must have been incredible to witness first-hand. My only real complaint (besides the lack of any interview with the band or any behindthe scenes footage) is this: being a huge fan of symmetry, it annoyed the hell out of me that one of the hooded naked female “sacrifices” (there were four of them, two female and two male) decided she couldn’t handle it anymore, and left the stage only four songs into the performance! It really affected the overall look of the otherwise incredible stage. Whether her departure was due to physical discomfort of the cross, or the punishing black metal assault raping the air around her, I can only guess, but her decision to “shit the bed,” as it were, affected the on-stage shots taken by the multiple cameras flying around the band for the rest of the show, as they tried to avoid showing the unoccupied cross. Come on, as if one of the fine Polish metal queens in the audience wouldn’t have gladly shed her clothes and gotten up there to be a part of the infernal black metal glory that is Gorgoroth live! <T. Demeter> -8reviews

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HACKNEYED Death Prevails (Nuclear Blast)

Hailing from Aalen, Germany, the youthful Hackneyed are poised to make their mark on the death metal scene with Death Prevails, their inauspiciously titled debut album. At first listen there’s a lot to dislike about the band and said album. First the atrocious, cheesy cover art which represents more of a silly looking halloween ornament-styled cartoon than anything remotely disturbing. There’s the band name Hackneyed , which Webster’s dictionary defines as “Trite, stale. Lacking in freshness and originality.” Although you can give the band points for honesty, no one really wants to hear a band who represents themselves as clichéd from overuse. Then there’s the band’s actual songs and music in which the band proudly wear their influences on their collective sleeves , procuring any number of riffs, ideas, and beats from more established artists such as Aborted, Carcass, Behemoth, Cannibal Corpse, and others. The good news? When you consider how young the band members are (all are under 18) you can’t help but admire the ability, proficiency and obvious talent the boys bring to the proceedings. Vocalist Phil brings power to the growls, unleashing both deep, gutteral Aborted-meetsMalignancy lows to higher pitched Carcass-styled snarls with enthusiasm.

Guitarists Devin and IX crunch out plenty of chainsaw riffage and squeals while drummer Tim delivers some capable (though heavily-triggered) double-bass and blasts. So these boys can play, and play well with solid production from Roger Gruninger offering precise, crystal-clear sound. Despite a multitude of red flags, drawbacks, and flaws, Hackneyed has the potential to do great things in the future. Some roadwork will help, but if the band can somehow forge their own identity instead of blatantly lifting their sound from others, the band has a real shot at becoming contenders. <R. Marcelo> -5-

HATE Morphosis (Listenable Records)

I haven’t listened to Poland’s Hate since…let’s see…1998? I’m pleasantly surprised by the fact that their sound comes across as fresh, innovative, and above all, quite catchy. Hell, I could headbang to this all night long! Now, I fully understand that to be labelled “catchy” can be considered by some a huge insult in the world of brutal death metal, but Hate has moved on from their earlier incarnations, and for a band whose current stock and trade is that of melodic blackened death metal, this is nothing if not a positive step. Like many metalheads out there, I am beyond jaded by the seemingly endless glut of bands that sound exactly the same as everyone else and don’t even realize it. It makes one wonder and lament at the dismal future of extreme metal. In Hate’s case, you have a band that has clearly defined the need for melodic structure, rhythmic flow, dynamics and riffage throughout their songs. They’ve taken the time to craft these tracks into top-notch compositions, instead of just throwing together random ideas, turning up the volume and playing as fast as possible. By no means a perfect record; the subject matter found on the album is less than enlightening, the drums are mixed just a bit too far back for my liking, and Adam (the First Sinner) has a growl that can be mistaken for countless other vocalists out there, but Morphosis is impressive nonetheless. The far-above-average riffs and quality songwriting will certainly prevent you from throwing this gem upon the stacks of other forgettable death metal albums that you only bothered to listen to once or twice. Standout tracks include “Threnody,” “Catharsis,” “Resurrection Machine,” and “Erased.” A few more listens and this reviewer is definitely going to go back and hunt down their earlier material to see what I’ve been missing out on all these years. <T. Demeter> -7.5-

HELLACAUST Inevitable Dementia (Morbid Moon)

Out of the wreckage of goregrind band Agoretion rose Hellacaust, a wildly thrashing Canadian black metal outfit with loads of venom spattered attitude.

Black metal with the savage riffing of underground ’80s thrash (the kind that began leaning toward death metal) and an unrelenting fast blast attack, Inevitable Dementia is nothing if not sadistic as hell. The vocals of bassist Necromancer (whose four strings are barely audible) are of the rage-filled, throat shredding variety and together with the hyper drumming of Hellspawn and a bevy of jagged, razor-sharp riffs, the album accomplishes the presumed goal of full-blown terror. But for as many times as one could praise the band for writing songs with more than a basic set of movements, including several crushing compositional changeups, there are just as many moments when it seems like the boys are trying to do too much. It is not so much a problem of ineffective delivery, as Inevitable Dementia is brutal as fuck and in your face.

Something just seems to get lost in the relatively ambitious arrangements.

A more fundamental approach would be better suited to this style. Is it a big downside? Not at all, and, frankly, it’s not like there is a lot to bitch about, only that the album could have been far more impacting with some streamlining. <S. Alisoglu> -6.5-

HOLY MOSES Agony of Death (Wacken Records)

Holy Moses, one of the pioneering Teutonic thrash gods, should be refreshing thrash fans around the globe with this release. Agony of Death is loud and tight as a drum, and Sabina Classen’s history-busting vocals are there for you to 92

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behold, every bark and snarl of it. Damn, I would swear she’s Angela Gossow’s mom, and makes Gossow seem like a little girl in any case. Anyways, it’s always nice to see such an ancient act returning regardless of form (the lineup is messed up), and with such a great production. The only problem is the usual thrash anthems aren’t present, and even after multiple listens, I don’t get the same goose bumps I get from their listening to their German counterparts. It’s not weak in any way, it’s just the songs don’t claw as heavily as they should; they just grab you then let you go. It’s like catch and release fishing just when I’m ready to gut the thing. All bitching aside, there are some gems such as “Imagination,” “World of Darkness,” and a few others, so it’s worth the listen! <RDO> -8-

HOUSE OF LORDS Come to My Kingdom (Blistering Records)

The ’80s are alive and well thanks to LA’s House of Lords. Although they formed in the late 1980s, they’re still carrying on the arena rock/hair metal flame.

The songs have a distinct Def Leppard/ Whitesnake approach with keyboards, blistering guitar solos, triumphant vocals and soaring, harmonized choruses. Although they are hardly breaking new sonic ground, House of Lords do what they do extremely well. The musicianship is tight and vocals pitch perfect. The only problem with the album, and it’s a small one at that, is the rhythm section could be turned up in the mix. While the glory days of hair metal may be long gone, House of Lords may not have much of an audience, but for those last remaining torch bearers, Come to My Kingdom will surely be a hit. <D. Sanders> -8-

I AM GHOST Those We Leave Behind (Epitaph Records)

We Dance With Monsters opens California’s I Am Ghost’s second full-length with a whisper. A breathy female voice tells a macabre tale of heartache over top a carbon copy of the piano heard on Sally’s Song of the commercially raped Nightmare Before Christmas. Quickly the listener can deduce that this band that wear eyeliner and cater to the 14-year-old-way-too-tight-pants-black-hairswept-across-the-eyes bandana wearers. Thus the tone is set for the 14-track disc: all style and no substance. Like many of the relatively new “spookycore” genre, it varies from clean melodious vocals and back up harmonious crooners to occasional screaming accompanied by short bursts of blast beats with driving guitars. This is followed by cheesy breakdowns and violin and cello thrown in occasionally for good measure, all equating to catchy modern scene-pop akin to anything you’ve heard on the MTV. This has all been done before, and to a much more able extent. <S. Kitteringham> -3-

JANVS Vega (ATMF)

With folk metal covering a multitude of facets nowadays, Janvs takes its haunting echoey elements, and marries it pan flutes, along with guitars and growls of course, to create an earthy form of black metal, which the elitists would never endure. So for good measure you throw in some moody ambient pieces, made popular by bands such as Katatonia, Rapture and Daylight Dies, and thus the folk denomination is earned. And yes indeed, we aren’t kidding, Vega is that jam-packed with the aforementioned elements, but is arranged in such a way as to make sense. The progression from segue to segue is handled smoothly, with sections picking up the pace where it needs it, slowing in others as it needs as well, and using empty spaces for other instrumentation to be heard. The vocals can also go clean, but mostly in the slower melodic parts, while the growls help to propel the faster, more aggressive bits. Vega is also subject to a solid production job, not making it sound sterile or cold, letting organic movements flourish. About the only trouble with Janvs’s output is that there appears to be no signature stamp. At times one may be reminded of Opeth, or even Katatonia, at times Agalloch rears its head, and others even Bathory and Finntroll. But at no time does one shout out “there’s the sound!”

Very entertaining creations, or even re-creations, but alas, no stand out mark to call their own. <Alex Ristic> -7-

KILL THE CLIENT Cleptocracy (Willowtip)

At just over 22 minutes in length, Kill the Client’s second album Cleptocracy sees the band doing what they do best, unleashing relentless, no-holds-barred grindcore. Taking cues from grind kings Pig Destroyer and Nasum, Kill the Client keeps the barrage coming and the intensity level high throughout the album’s generous 18-track excursion.

The onslaught is continuous, the speed is blinding, and the delivery precise.

With ultra-fast tempos being the order of the day, the only real drawback is that the songs tend to bleed into one another and the listener may find it difficult to uncover any hooks to grasp onto. Nonetheless opener “Divide and Conquer,” “Consumption is Intoxication,” “99% Turnover Rate” and the rare- sludge oriented “Downfall” come to mind. Huge mega props go out to blastmaster extraordinaire Bryan Fajardo, who executes a career drum performance displaying why he’s become the drummer of choice for Gridlink, Noisear, and live session for Phobia, in addition to Kill the Client. Cleptocracy is an explosive

audio assault primed to put Kill the Client firmly on the map in the world of grind. <R. Marcelo> -7-

LANDMINE MARATHON Rusted Eyes Awake / Label: Level Plane

I’ve gotta admit, I was a little apprehensive when I first heard about this band.

So, you’re telling me that what we’ve got here is a female-fronted, metal/hardcore band from Arizona, that, instead of ripping off whatever third-generation deathcore act is burning up the Hot Topic sales charts this week, channels the earliest days of death-grind glory and melds the battle groove of Bolt Thrower with the nasty gutterbeats of crust punk? I smelled a rat. Luckily for me (and you!), Landmine Marathon is the real fucking deal, and Rusted Eyes Awake is one of the best records I’ve heard all year. The Bolt Thrower influence on Rusted Eyes Awake is loud and proud, fused with that classic Earache groove ’n’ grind that digs up shreds of Morbid Angel and even old-school Entombed. Hell, they even got that filthy, bottom-heavy guitar tone just right. Add in a fine layer of crusty grime by way of Doom/Discharge and some seriously gnarly vocals, and there you have it—a truly wrathful death march to victory. Singer Grace’s raw-throated growl puts glamazons like Angela Gossow to shame (and I’m dying to ask what brand of firewater she’s been downing—that girl sounds like she’s been gargling a throat’s full of broken glass since the day she bought her first Infest patch). I bet this band annihilates live, and leaves a trail of blood, smoke, and broken forties in their wake. In grind we crust, motherfuckers! <Kim Kelly> -9.5-

LECHEROUS NOCTURNE The Age of Miracles Has Passed (Unique Leader)

South Carolina’s Lecherous Nocturne made a small splash with Adoration of the Blade on Deepsend Records in part because of Dallas Toler-Wade’s (Nile) involvement as drummer and in part because it is an unhinged slab of brutal, technically proficient death metal.

The band seems even more at home on underground DM juggernaut Unique Leader and The Age of Miracles Has Passed sees Lecherous Nocturne taking a more controlled, song-centred approach to its otherwise merciless onslaught. The running time has increased to a whopping 28 minutes, up from the 23 minutes of its predecessor, and the act ensures that not a second is wasted. The majority of the songs still rely on an up-tempo approach, but the down-tempo transitions on songs like “Edict of Worms” are surprisingly effective. In fact, the title track is a stunning slow grinder with grim atmosphere to go with its metallically glistening chords. In addition to an approach that has reined in the chaos, the biggest difference comes by way of Jason Hohenstein’s vocals. Leaving most of the shrieks heard on the last album behind, Hohenstein focuses primarily on his lows with an intelligible roar rivaled only by someone like Kyle Symons (Hateplow, ex-Malevolent Creation).

Lecherous Nocturne sure as hell haven’t mellowed out; they’ve just upped the songwriting ante, making The Age of Miracles Has Passed an easier meal to digest for those outside of diehard death metal circles. <S. Alisoglu> -7.5-

MAELSTROM It Was Predestined (Perfect Storm Recordings)

Maelstrom are a mean and snarly power metal band, and they aren’t afraid to keep things raw instead of sparkly on this short 3-song debut EP (full-length out next summer). The power genre these days is all about keyboard infestations and computerized solos, but here’s a band that embraces a more natural aggression, something Blind Guardian used to do prior to Nightfall. There’s still some huge differences though, first one being the vocals which are near deathly, only remotely sung and filled with mad contempt. The vocals also stand proudly in the forefront of the mix taking other parts out of focus. Second unusual thing is how Maelstrom scratch their way through some twisted solos.

The imperfectness somehow passes off as something credible and with style, and I’m reminded for once that not all shreds need to be perfectly picked. Cool cover art too, I predict the T-shirts will sell. <RDO> -7.5-

MAGNUS Alcoholic Suicide (Holycaust)

Talk about old-school metal. Poland’s metal/death/thrash band Magnus get much-deserved reissue from the good folks at Holycaust. A classic album only available on tape from Metal Mind (circa 1994) is now on CD. Voila! Now metal fans, track this baby down. Fast, furious and a little bit dangerous, Alcoholic Suicide is an unstable as its title; it could crash at any time, but still surprisingly keeps the listener going till the end.

Soaring guitar riffs, non-stop death metal drive and punishing vocals keep the movement of this album steadfast. Kind of like old-school Slayer meets the ugliness of Usurper’s metal delivery and Kreator’s thrash mid-era. Man, Polish guitar players can sure shred, and hey, Magnus, nice Motörhead track: “Kill Me (To Lemmy).” <A. Bromley> -7-

MARIONETTE Spite (Listenable Records)

Genre blending and gender bending have been metal staples for years. It was

only a matter of time before a band combined the two, and with that, we have Sweden’s Marionette. They wrote Spite with the intention of melding the ambience of Japanese music with the harshness and aggression of Swedish metal, along with adding the look of Japanese Visual-Kei (big hair, make-up and long flowy clothes are trademark Visual-Kei). While there is little in the way of ambience in Spite, the band has the Swedish side of their sound down pat. Their guitar melodies are solid, along with the driving bass and drums. The addition of keyboards adds a rarely heard dimension to the Gothenburg sound.

Sometimes the keys work, and sometimes they don’t. The one major complaint with the album is the vocals. They’re heavily distorted and screamed in an almost early Thomas Lindbergian timbre, but nowhere near as well. The garbled vocals make it hard to decipher lyrics most of the time, leaving it to the backing vocals to make the lyrics understandable. With some work on the vocals, and a greater emphasis on the Japanese ambience, Marionette are definitely on to something. <D. Sanders> -6-

METALLICA Death Magnetic (Warner Bros.)

Here’s a band every self-respecting metalhead hasn’t given a shit about since, well, a long time, releasing Death Magnetic as a so-called return to form in what seems like an attempt to cater to us for once. I’m gonna be open here, when I was buying my first metal albums Metallica were huge, so huge in fact that I always said: “fuck them and their horse,” while buying Testament or Death Angel albums instead. I blame teen angst. My point is, I’ve never been a fan, but I’ve remained familiar with their catalogue over the years, hard not to. I respect the breakthroughs they’ve made a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, but this is now. We live in an age where for every deer-looking-into-headlights Metallica fan, there’s a thrash metal band somewhere sweating blood and playing something much more interesting. That aside, Death Magnetic isn’t all that bad, and another Black album is better than another Load. Funny enough, I can forgive the blurry “loudness war” production fuck-up. Who are you gonna blame, Metallica? At least they wrote quality songs this time, so not all is left unforgiven. Track by track, you’ve got some that work (“The End of the Line” or “That Was Just Your Life”), and some that don’t after the songs’ lonely singular cool riff passes you by (“Broken, Beat & Scarred” or “Cyanide”). James sounds pretty solid and the band seems in good form, but all the rejoicing should stop because next to St. Anger anything sounds like Master of Puppets. So no, Magnetic isn’t a masterpiece, but it’s definitely listenable; just feels like a little too little too late. <RDO> -7-

NAPALM DEATH Time Waits For No Slave (Century Media)

While some will say that THE best era of UK grindcore legends Napalm Death was the early years—Scum, From Enslavement to Obliteration and Harmony Corruption—I think it’s safe to say that the diehard fans (and even the band might agree) that over the past eight years and five albums (including upcoming Time Waits for No Slave) the band has truly crushed us beneath the weight of their grindcore intensity and creativity, leaving us but dust and bones along the road side of mankind. If you’ve got them, play them in order from the monster that ignited it all—2000’s Enemy of the Music Business—onto Order of the Leech, The Code Is Red... Long Live The Code, Smear Campaign and the new one, and you’ll fully understand the momentum streaming from the Napalm Death camp over the years and now as we head into 2009. This isn’t about the speed anymore (there is still lots of it) but more about the message, the drive to inform and the need to keep in touch with the changes of the world we live in. Choice cuts include “Work to Rule,”“On the Brink of Extinction,” “Procrastination of the Empty,” and “A No-sided Argument.” For a band that has been around for more than two decades, and an intelligent one at that, they have only hit a bump once or twice in their career, but never fully derailed like many others. This will be in my Top 15 of 2009…and yes, I’ve already marked it down on a notepad. Long live Napalm Death! <A. Bromley> -9-

NYIA More Than You Expect (FETO)

Aggressive, ambitious and memorable, More Than You Expect is a solid album from start to finish. Whether or not they were influential, Nyia actually do something creative and original with the abrasive, stuttered sounds of Dillinger Escape Plan (and perhaps Meshuggah). Another possible influence is Godflesh with Kuba Leonowicz’ sedated, spacious melodic vocals as well as the overall discomfort of their music. In terms of gruff vocals, Leonowicz shreds his chords with a barking quality that’s truly tortured and menacing (also similar in some ways to that of Justin Broadrick). On “Mornings Copper,” said melodic vocals open things up before a Helmet-like groove kicks in, finally unwinding with Leonowicz spastically rambling like Mike Patton. Reference points aside, enough can’t be said of Nyia’s originality in the manner in which they’ve assembled familiar sounds. The slow-paced melodies of “Bored Song” and the ambient guitars coupled with the sounds of chirping birds on “Desert” provide soothing interludes to what’s otherwise a cutthroat assault throughout More Than You Expect. Bird banter also fills the aptly titled “Birdies.” A theme?

Pointless inside joke? Sick fetish? Who knows? What I do know, however, is that Nyia is a band to watch for. - <J. Gorania> -8-

OFERMOD Tiamtu (Norma Evangelium Diaboli)

Aside from the EP Mystérion Tés Anomias in 2005, Tiamtu signals Ofermod’s first full-length record. The cult status of this Swedish enigma, composed of M. Belfagor (all instrumentation) and L. Nebiros (vocals) was apparently cemented based solely on the aforementioned EP. And with the announcement of a new album, the unholy legions of dark practitioners have been drooling and wetting themselves with uncontrollable excitement. Maybe I’ve missed the boat or perhaps I’m just getting too old to enjoy Ofermod’s brand of filthy, grim, bleak black metal…or maybe it’s just that I’ve become too desensitized and jaded to care. Chock full of esoteric, occult diatribes and imagery, one needs a discourse on alternative philosophies to even come close to understanding the underlying message (if there is one) In fact there is so much “information” being thrown at the listener that one can’t help being demoralized by the sheer religious and philosophical weight of it all. Tiamtu should be the type of colossal black metal that appeals, so why does it fail to capture my imagination? It may be because the actual music seems almost secondary to the occult teachings contained therein. Now, I listen to metal for a plethora of reasons and certainly one of them is to be entertained. Frankly, this community-college philosophy course called Tiamtu is far too much bark and very little bite. Your hate mail is welcomed and expected, as always. <T. Demeter> -5-

OHGR Devils in My Details (SPV)

ohGr, the brainchild of electro-freaks Skinny Puppy frontman Nivek Ogre and musician/engineer Mark Walk, is a clear product of the Pro Tools revolution. As evident in the group’s third full-length Devils in My Details, which proudly proclaims it was in fact “recorded in a marathon Pro Tools session,” its spastic and harmonious noises are not of human creation. Technology has revolutionized the music industry and this particular result is amongst the scant positives of this partnership. This collaboration of revolutionary musicians yields fascinating results. The 11-track album is a mish-mash of styles and genres which varies greatly, aided by unclear distinctions between tracks which simply bleed together. Calming and hypnotic blips are accompanied by strangely soothing lyrics, which then transition to jarring dissonance and harsh vocals. It’s hard to identify a highlight: instead, the album warrants thorough listening at full attention to fully capture the extremes of whimsy and terror. The disc suffers scantly, only faltering when a few sections feel ill-placed. However, it’s nearly constantly excellent and a compelling reason to shell out cash—at least so it can be enjoyed in its entirety. <S. Kitteringham> -8-

OPERATIKA The Calling (Scarlet)

A lot of people hate comparisons, bands and editors included, but a short three-line simile can often do more than a blustery grandiose refrain. That, and when you have word counts, they can be of immense help. Having written that, take the music of Kamelot and add the vocal stylings of Epica, and Operatika is born. The vocals follow a more traditional operatic line, like those once used

by Rain Fell Within, but relies on traditional power metal elements to move it forward. Unlike Nightwish, which appears to be written around the vocals, and at times can be pandering to an audience (in a good way of course), the music of The Calling is almost unrelenting in its melodic fury, forcing the vocals to fit to its pattern. In this case it works, especially on all the fast-paced hard-driving songs like “Gladiator,” and “Tears of The Sun.” As intriguing as that is, whoever is responsible for the arrangements and blending of all relevant elements is the true master here. Taking styles from bands is one thing, creating your own sound with them is another, and that’s where Operatika succeeds. You would be hard pressed to nail a dead-on comparison with any of their contemporaries, and at the same time the material on The Calling holds its own, giving the listener another viable option to run to for the genre of operatic metal. A solid gem for fans of this style of music, and for those who enjoy a good power metal romp as well. <A. Ristic> - 8-

PHAZM Cornerstone of the Macabre (Osmose Productions)

The opening track “Love Me Rotten (Love Me True)” of Phazm’s third fulllength, which follows from Hate at first Seed and Antebellum Death n’ Roll, is surprisingly good. It must be admitted that reservations arise when the album features a claim that the group is “one of the most outstanding and creative bands of today,” but it’s not a far stretch to lump them in with both verbs. Phazm’s unique brand of catchy death metal with danceable rock structures combine to make music that’s enjoyable and fun, and best of all, music that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Melding the classic elements of death metal (blast beats, guttural vocals, cymbal heavy percussion and thick bass) with the verse-chorus-bridge elements of popular rock, the three musicians created head-bobbing tracks that incite constant movement. Particularly on “Damnation,” a track that opens with a rock-infused intro tuned way down accompanied by the tapping of sticks, the band displays their true talents for genre mashing. Aided by a clear adoration for the anti-climactic doom/stoner genre, “Welcome to My Funeral” is another highlight, featuring down-tuned

meaty riffs and thunderous drumming. At 11 songs, this 47-plus minute album is short, sweet and fantastic. Let’s just hope they get the fans and attention they sorely deserve. <S. Kitteringham> -9-

PHOBIA 22 Random Acts of Violence (Willowtip)

Now this is grindcore! Phobia, like label mates Kill the Client, play real grindcore with intensity and spirit; none of this new-school, down tuned, death ’n’ grind with breakdowns trying to pass itself off as the real deal. With the appropriately titled 22 Random Acts of Violence, Phobia has made its most complete, skillfully arranged, and sonically devastating album to date, rivaling even the likes of Pig Destroyer. The John Haddad recording and Scott Hull mixing/mastering only makes the album that much more damaging to the senses. And yet it is not simply a rehashing of grindcore’s standard blast-beaten, growl ’n’ shriek style (although there is plenty of that too). Filled with killer riffing and copious amounts of quick-shot groove, some of the album’s best songs are those in which Phobia marries its grindcore to crust punk. You will hear it in the gang shouts and flow of “Ultimate Suffering” and “Sane,” the thrash/punk of “Rise Up,” the swing of “I Reject” and the album’s definitive (and downright catchy) crust punk-ridden anthems “Beer, Bitches, and Bulletbelts” and “Depression is a Killer.” Few grindcore albums are able to stomp your guts out and provide you with this much individual track identity and memorable songwriting. Great shit! <S. Alisoglu> -8.5-

POISONBLACK A Dead Heavy Day (Century Media)

Perhaps it’s the climate, but for some reason Finland has a history of producing premier gothic-inspired metal. From the ashes of the now defunct Sentenced has risen Poisonblack, led by former frontman Ville Laihiala, who now handles guitars and vocals. With A Dead Heavy Day, the band’s third full-length release, Laihiala has moved the band further away from his lineage while not completely abandoning the sound that made him the musician that he is. The album as a whole is the most guitar driven of their discography, and has for the most part left the slower, ballad-like songs to the wayside. There’s still an air of atmospheric keyboards, but the focus of the band has shifted more towards a heavier, metallic sound. The album starts with a short bluesy intro track before launching headlong into “Diane,” a straightforward rocker (the prototype for the rest of the rest of the album). “Left Behind,” “Bear the Cross” and “Hatelove” are much closer sonically to the band’s trademark sound. Keyboards play a larger part in these songs, adding layers to the songs, and making them arguably some of the strongest on the album. While Sentenced may be dead and gone, Poisonblack helps fill the void admirably. <D. Sanders> –7-

QUINTA ESSENTIA Archetypal Transformation (Deathgasm Records)

Alabama’s Quinta Essentia, an experimental black/death metal trio, has created a bizarre mish-mash of metal on their second full-length Archetypal Transformation. Featuring dual guitars that harmonize, solo and duel, alongside discernable bass, constant double bass and simplistic vocals that are often too low for their own good, the disc is a strong example of a local metal band releasing something that more than their hometown cares about. Although it’s a strong disc, some tracks jam too much in. “Formative Evasion,” which features a 48-second intro that perpetually repeats itself, followed by bass vocals, then the chorus, then goes on to a screechy solo and black metal vocals, then continues with the intro instrumentals, progresses to riffing…all before the four-minute mark, is one such example. In contrast, “Forgotten but not Undreamt” is several minutes longer but fuses comfortably. The seven-track disc, whose songs generally continue far past the seven-minute mark, mostly blends several songs into one and in the process guarantees there is something for everyone. That, coupled with fantastically clean production which allows each instrument to shine, results in a great disc that fans of many metal genres could enjoy. <S. Kitteringham> -7-

REMEMBERANCE Silencing the Moments (Firedoom Records)

Classical or operatically arranged funeral doom with harsh vocals, that’s Rememberance. Their second album Silencing the Moments is beautifully done and spins with some sort of heavy and dramatic purpose, crawling doomy riffs and poetic moods, and accompanied by piano to accentuate the doom (as if it wasn’t bleeding quite enough). It could also easily play as an art film soundtrack; I’m sure it would add weight to just about whatever imagery one would place on top of it. Bottom line though, after six long tracks of this you’re left feeling like something was left out, something missing. I won’t call it simplistic because I really think the songs were handled with care, but there’s got to be more to this void. <RDO> -6-

REVOLUTION RENAISSANCE New Era (Blistering Records)

Timo Tolkki started Revolution Renaissance in 2008 after leaving Stratovarius, quickly establishing an elite line-up of musicians, most notably vocalists, to further his creative vision. The album features performances from Tobias Sammet from Edguy, Michael Kiske of Helloween fame and Pasi Rantanen from Thunderstone. The music has a decidedly Stratovarius bent, as the songs were reviews

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originally intended for the former. The whole album is power metal through and through, with a few ballads, a few mid-tempo songs and a few standard power metal songs. The album never quite hits the mark, often times coming off as cheesy. The worst offender is “Glorious and Divine.” While the music is passable, the lyrics are complete drivel, masquerading as meaningful and thought-provoking. With lyrics like “Look in the mirror and tell me the latest fashion news,” it’s hard to take seriously. With luck, Timo will be able to find some permanent members, and learn to write better lyrics. <D. Sanders> -5-

SLUDGE Lava (Mighty Music)

Guess what I was expecting here wasn’t what I got. Sludge’s Lava is not exactly typical rubber-boots-dragging-through-the-mud stoner/doom, but more of a indestructible freight train smashing through a brick wall. That’s track one; the rest is similar but too bad it’s littered with breathing and various sound effects—in other words, filler. What’s the point of sound effects anyways?

Don’t answer “atmosphere.” That only works when the songwriting is cared for in the most flawless and immaculate of ways, which I don’t think happened here. Anyways, fillers and sound effects aside, this is very listenable, but I don’t like fast forwarding. <RDO> -5-

With the sad world it has now become without Quorthon and his efforts in Bathory, someone needed to take up the Odinic/folk metal banner as only he could. Sadly, Svarti Loghin is not it. Bad production is just that: bad production.

Some bands use it as a gimmick, but even that’s run its course. This is not an element that should be adopted or applauded. When you have to turn up the sound twice as loud as the previous CD from the same label to get somewhat tolerable sound quality, it just screams something’s wrong. Credit where credit is due, the songs are crafted in a very Bathory way, somewhat epic, with highs, lows, crescendos, acoustic instrumentation, and discordant guitars. And from what can be discerned, the lyrics seem to be along the same lines as well, delivering forth lines about vast cold wastelands, and myths of winter. It, however, just puts forth worship, in essence, rather than anything new. While the attempt is admirable, and the genre is viable, the problem lies in the lack of evolution. Nothing on Empty World has the ability to replace anything it was derived from, thus making it a phyrric attempt at imitation being a form of flattery. Nothing to knock off Twilight of the Gods here. < A. Ristic> -4-

TEARS OF MAGDALENA Myths and Legends (Scarlet)

As gothic and dark as it is operatic, Tears of Magdalena doesn’t reinvent the genre started by Theatre of Tragedy and After Forever, but they help refine it.

Musically, Tears… can be said to write scores to fantasy movies or novels, with the guitars and drums, among other instruments, painting rides of dark horses on the gallop, or even armies on the march. And singer Magdalena either takes the listener on the journey as a narrator, or can even synthesize empathy from them through her heartfelt powerful renditions in the first person. Not that Tears… are better than their comrades in genre, but they seem to have the ability to bring the music down to earth on a more human level. While sometimes what works in the studio and on CD can sound fantastic, Myths and Legends almost makes the listener want to look for an accompanying DVD or visual aid to verify what goes on in the listener’s mind. The songs can be compelling, which is good no matter how you paint it, creating a bridge between listener and artist. Or it could just be me. At any rate, Myths and Legends is quality stuff. < A. Ristic> -8.5-

TENEBRARUM Winter (Hateworks)

The genre of gothic/classic/metal has gone through many cycles of evolution over the years, and at some point really did kind of fade to the wayside a bit.

Bands like Moonspell, Lacrimosa and countless others in the ’90s had helped shape the scene, but as we headed into 2000 the genre faded a bit, at least in my opinion. While Columbia’s Tenebrarum may not be the choice pick to save the genre and re-ignite the bands of this genre out of the darkness (as much as they need to) but their gothic-classical-tinged rock offering of Winter is unique in its own right, thanks to some great melodic and growling vocals and some masterful songwriting/musicianship. They are a talented bunch, no doubt. Choice cuts: “Panzer Division,” “On Step” and my favourite, the cover of Colombian techno/pop band Estados Alterados “El Velo.” It’s is a truly powerful song, reworked with a Sister of Mercy-ish style, passionate vocals and a sirenlike wail of the violin. Gorgeous! Tenebrarum are worth investigating if you’re into the whole goth/classical metal scene. <A. Bromley> -7-

THANATOSCHIZO Zoom Code (My Kingdom Music)

Portuguese prog/experimental metalers ThanatoSchizO are back with their fourth full-length, Zoom Code. ThanatoSchizO don’t start off on a good note with Zoom Code, as the first impression that hits the listener is the strong sense of Lacuna Coil. The song remains the same. So to speak, with alternating clean and growled male vocals, clean female vocals, heavy/chuggy guitar parts, electronic accented instrumentals. There’s really nothing here that hasn’t been done before, and what is new is just plain boring. <D. Sanders> -5reviews

As a band, Total Fucking Destruction may just possess the most fitting moniker out there. Not content to simply grind your face into a bloody, blast-beaten pulp, TFD take it upon themselves to provide the blistering soundtrack to a total breakdown of societal ideals; an apocalyptic war on terror, justice, and all that we hold dear. Equal parts performance art, breakneck grind, and vitriolic social commentary, TFD aim to destroy—and damned if they don’t deliver.

Peace, Love, and Total Fucking Destruction is the band’s debut for Enucleation Records, and it’s like nothing you’ve ever heard before. Imagine the Minutemen on crystal meth, and you’re halfway there. Tempered with the band’s signature hashgrind and a bevy of anthemic punk rock singalongs (that quickly descend into gibbering madness), the sonic experimentation, balls-out mindfuckery, and straight-up rock ’n’ roll found on this release defies convention, description, and, er, pretty much everything. Add in some of the best song titles this side of AxCx—see “Seth Putnam is Wrong About a Lot of Things, But Seth Putnam is Right About You,” and “Fuck the Internet” for proof of that—and you’ve got yourself a TFD record. Not for the faint of heart or the orthodox grindfreak; this one’s for the open-minded, the conspiracy theorists, and the eternally pissed. <K. Kelly> -8.5-

TREACHERY Treachery EP (Czar of Crickets)

SVARTI LOGHIN Empty World (ATMF)

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TOTAL FUCKING DESTRUCTION Peace, Love, and Total Fucking Destruction (Enucleation)

The paths of evil and chaos must have aligned when Hecate (American/ Austrian Hardcore/Breakcore producer Rachael Kozak) hooked up with fellow industrial noisemongers Abelcain and Slutmachine and decided to tackle the black metal genre with this feisty, outing that dabbles into industrial, EBM, noise and black metal. Hecate’s horrific shrill vocals on this three-song EP could take on the work of Attila (Mayhem) at times, and the black metal atmosphere is rambunctious, dirty jagged slopes of darkened aggression that fade into the shadows. Some scary and powerful stuff from a project that has just set itself in motion. I’m excited for the future—bring it on, Treachery! Scare the shit out of us! <A. Bromley> -8-

TRINACRIA Travel Now, Journey Infinitely (Indie Recordings)

Formed in 2005, this collaborative side project includes Enslaved members Ivar Bjornson, Grutle Kjellson, and Arve “Ice Dale” Isdal along with members of Norwegian noise merchants Fe-mail (Maja S. K. Ratkje, vocals/programming and Hild Sofie Tafjord, horns/programming) and Emmerhoff (Iver Sandoy, drums) rounded out by Espen Lien of Slutmachine (bass). What began as a one-off commissioned performance has given birth to a “full-fledged maelstrom.” The mere involvement of Enslaved should have those-in-the-know frothing at the mouth, and rightly so. Although I was apprehensive at first (the label describes Trinacria thusly: “Enslaved’s artistic, occult extension!

These Norwegians prove that there is beauty in chaos. Incongruous, exhilarating soundscapes—challenging and highly innovative music performed by Norway’s finest. Trinacria take you across the border into a realm where beauty meets chaos. Enslaved meets Neurosis meets Lisa Gerrard”), it wasn’t long before I was completely and utterly ensorcelled by what I heard! This is Enslaved on acid—trance inducing, thought provoking, frenetic and yet carefully structured. At times chilling in creation and execution, this collective meshes the mundane with the bizarre, melding the experimental with the familiar.

Littered with feedback and noise, the album cascades with spirit-stealing, emotional vocals (male and female), and the clever use of almost subliminal samples demand/command the listener’s complete attention lest you miss something critical. At first somewhat intimidating, the album soon engages one with its unique ideas and luscious soundscapes (just like Neurosis, hey?).

The title track nearly brought me to tears with its soaring power and haunting brilliance. A fascinating and creative vision that will surely leave you wanting more (that’s a line I had hoped to use to describe the new Enslaved record, but TNJI eclipses it!). Without question, one of the outstanding releases of the year.

Highly regarded and highly recommended. <T. Demeter> -9.5-

TRONUS ABYSS Vuoto Spazio Trionfo (ATMF)

One would not accuse you of shuddering if you thought of the concept of drone and black metal being married, yet, Tronus Abyss make a significant stab at it with Vuoto Spazio Trionfo. While not as slow as traditional drone, the fare is by far too slow for those who love black metal’s shredding, thrashy ways. On the other hand, the discordant guitars and atmospheric keyboards/electronics usually incorporated with more gothic black metal blends well here, creating a scene for a future, harsh dystopia. Not emotive in an angry or romantically dark way, Tronus Abyss captures a more desolate, cold, lonely feel; a soundtrack to a future world engulfed with technocratic despair and loneliness. The one cramp will be the niche Vuoto Spazio Trionfo has kind of dug itself into. While some will be able to appreciate it for its artistic merit, the lack of sonic warmth and catchy songs will not make this an avidly sought release. Still, points for something new, and executed well. < A. Ristic> -7.5-

V/A The Music Of Artisanship & War: Vol II (Diminished 5th)

Like any assortment of bands on a compilation there are a few gems, a few clunkers and some that just get a passing grade. While I don’t have the time and space to speculate on all those involved, I will say that East Coast Canadian label Diminished Fifth has done a fine job showcasing talent from out there, bands are getting exposure through their hard work and conviction. The compilation is great because it covers all spectrums of the music scene, so something is there for everyone. If I had to pick out worthy tracks to scope out, it would be the

material from Coffin Birth, Cephalectomy, and Gallactus—all badass in their own style and approach. Best of luck for Vol. III. I know the bands appreciate it! <A. Bromley> -7-

VORTEX In Movement (Convergence Musik)

The sheer brilliance of Vortex can be summed up in the lyrics of the closing track “Within the Mind.” “Beware the beast/ don’t feed it/ I entreat you/ don’t nourish the beast/ it will rip your hands off/ and you’ll bleed to death.” Other distinguishable factors include constant double kick, roar/growl vocals which alternate from their native French to English, clean guitar production, meaty bass support and songs that can hardly be distinguished from one another.

Oh! And brilliant lyrics, which also include “God cries and suffer/ they’ll die tourmented (sic), they will never rest/ Living by the rules of the demon” or “No more questioning (sic)/ It all feels right, No futur (sic), no past/ only this time.”

Speaking French as a native tongue is not to blame here. Vortex’s management’s inability to utilize a spell check is. <S. Kitteringham> -3-

WOE A Spell for the Death of Man (Stronghold Records)

Whoa! I was really caught off guard by this fuckin’ monster of an album. When I read “one-man USBM,” all I thought was “Ugh, here we go again, another musical trainwreck.” Brother, do I stand corrected! Bleeding with suffocating suicideblack metal, A Spell for the Death of Man is Woe’s debut album, believe it or not.

Hailing from Philadelphia, solo artist Chris Grigg is responsible for everything you hear on this little platter of soul-crushing, mind-wrenching misery. Taken from the official Web site: “WOE was created in early 2007 to create potent black metal. Originally intended as nothing more than a casual experiment, it quickly changed from bedroom black metal project to the primary musical force in its creator’s life. No drum machines, no corpse paint, no Renaissance Faire speak, no fake names, no lies. Honest, dark black metal, faithful to tradition without spewing clichés.” Casual experiment? Are you kidding me? Thanks be to the spirit of Quorthon that Grigg decided to take this project seriously! Both musically and lyrically creative, the album is laced with visceral emotion and forged with depressing severity. Woe has really created something special here. I hazard to use the phrase “blackened-doom,” but it seems more than appropriate given the unconventionally deep lyrical weight, bleak and haunting prose of the damned steeped in personal loss and mourning the utter hopelessness of life.

Grigg must have a great many mental and spiritual demons to exorcise/exercise, and his drumming, guitar work and vocals are wildly impressive. Damn, exactly where has this guy been hiding all this time? Raging and relentless, A Spell for the Death of Man is an absolutely stellar first album, and deserving of all the acclaim it is surely to receive. <T. Demeter> -8-

WOLVEN ANCESTRY The Wrath of Gaia + demos (Archaic North)

I should point out that while I have had this band’s release in my possession for a good year or so, it is not till now that I ventured forth to review it after seeing them live recently with Woods of Ypres.

Both bands put on a great set that night, though it was the truly unique clamoring of black metal rawness, the Northern imagery (furs, corpsepaint and wolven headdress) and aggression that allowed Wolven Ancestry to leap out at me. I’ve been familiar with their black metal background for some time, hence why I was going to someday review the CD. Finally I got to it… Wrath of Gaia is a strong record, a little unbalanced by the complexity and drive of the band and the raw production going hand in hand, but overall the band’s black metal numbers and outdoors sounds (snow blowing, wolves howling, winds) work. That’s not to slag what is going on here at all. What I mean is that this band’s approach to bringing a unique edge to their semi-melodic black metal and folk-tinged numbers is stalled in spots with the production it has. With such a grandiose delivery and workload put into each song, this band deserves a better production, even though in all fairness, black metal has always been rooted in fuzzy guitars/ noise, banshee vocals and raw/weak production. At least the way underground fans perceive it to be. With each listen you cannot deny the strength of the band’s passion on numbers like “And Gaia’s Wrath of a Thousand Forms of Vehement Torture Will Be Brought Upon Ourselves, The Self-destructing Human” and “With Northern Twilight Resplendent, We Follow the Moonlit Path in Search of Habitable Lands” or not want to worship the album closer, “A Bloodline of Immortal Passion Bestowed the Harmony of Man and Wolf”?

Wolven Ancestry knows how to bring the Northern edge to their music, so here’s to a successful journey into the dark-hearted abyss of the music industry. I’m sure they’ll be able to take on any challenge as they’ve proven they are capable of delivering the goods. UPDATE: The band is currently working on the follow-up to this album and has already released newer material on a compilation this year (featuring Empyrean Plague, Darkblood, and others; courtesy of Archaic North). The new stuff is definitely some of their stronger material. The band has stepped things up, allowing their music to become at one with itself, losing any question of whether they can compete in this genre or not. Fuck that, they own it. Their style and sound is quite distinct and memorable, the three new tracks diligent in their ways of drawing the listener in, especially the monster track “Our Star-guided Journey to the Realm of Neverending Life.” Fucking superb craftsmanship! The band continues to surprise me and it’s obvious why they are considered one of Canada’s best black metal bands—if not the best. Looking forward to the next album! <A. Bromley> -8- / -8.5-

95

Old Wine New Bottles, REISSUES COLUMN

By Tate Bengtson

reissues selected for this edition of the “New Bottles, Old Wine” column all have one thing in Tthishecommon: each is the product of a band that has earned a cult following over the years. Of course, in day and age, practically any band that did not hit it big can lay claim to a cult following, so perhaps

the significance of the term has been diluted to the point of utter triviality. That may well be the case.

And yet, the term is a meaningful description of each of the below bands’ trials and tribulations as they presented their music to an audience…only to meet with limited popularity, frustrating obscurity, and recognition long after the fact. Then again, imagine a world in which Righteous Pigs topped the charts? Imagine frontman Joe Caper wrapping himself in the mantle of elder statesman. A fearsome thought indeed. Some bands are best reserved for the few, and Righteous Pigs is undoubtedly one of them. The first score is for the quality of the music and the second is for the quality of the reissue.

AFFLICTED

Prodigal Sun (Nuclear Blast / Metal Mind; 1992) While the early ’90s produced a bounty of bona fide death metal classics, it is all too easy to forget that the genre was swamped with mediocre bands. This fact is important to bear in mind; not only so that we do not indulge in the temptation to look back at this time with rose-coloured glasses that only see the classics and not the mediocre, but also because it helps to explain why bands such as Afflicted never gained any traction. With the field so crowded, it was inevitable that a few gems failed to register a blip on the radar screen. Prodigal Sun certainly deserves to be counted among those forgotten gems, despite a few flaws. While the Sunlight Studios production harks to Entombed, Dismember, and other contemporary proponents of Swedish death metal who recorded in that famed studio, once past the (in the case of Prodigal Sun, disappointingly thin) buzzsaw guitar tone it is clear that Afflicted is in a completely different headspace. With intricate song structures twisting and turning in an unpredictable and often bizarre fashion, the riffs found a comfortable home with which to race through an esoteric array of ideas that touched upon Middle Eastern scales and an off-kilter psychedelic vibe. While Afflicted’s penchant for eclecticism does sound rather slapdash on “Rising to the Sun,” the band generally exhibits considerable taste in its use of heterodox elements. Vocalist Michael Van Der Graaf is a decent growler who can sound vicious one moment and certifiably insane the next, which is not a bad pairing for the direction taken by the instruments. Unfortunately, Van Der Graaf occasionally wrestles with how to approach the particularities of Afflicted’s peculiarities. There are times when he plays it safe when he should have taken a few risks (such as “Consumed in Flames”) and, conversely, times when he should have went off the deep end and yet opted to keep his inner lunatic closeted (for instance, the aforementioned “Rising to the Sun”). While Prodigal Sun suffers from a few problems, including vocals that did not always hit the mark, treble-heavy production, and songwriting that can be scattered, the good points more than outweigh the bad. The concept was spot-on, even if the execution stumbled. While the absence of bonus tracks and biographical liner notes do not offer a lot of added insight, the mere fact that this album is once again available is a value in itself. -7-/-7-

DEFECATION

Purity Dilution (Nuclear Blast / Metal Mind; 1989) Running just shy of 27 minutes, Defecation’s debut makes its point with a surfeit of speed and violence.

Featuring Mitch Harris and Mick Harris (unrelated), both of whom have done time in Napalm Death, Defecation was a nearly relentless blast of grindcore that played an important role in fusing metallic riffs and production values with the punk-influenced speed and energy that had traditionally dominated the grindcore genre. While not as deep as colleague Barney Greenway in pitch, Mitch and Mick’s alternating vocals oscillate between death-laced growls and hoarse snarls, with the former generally being paired with the mid-tempo and riff-oriented material and the latter linked to the fast ’n’ blast tunes. The riffs are surprisingly memorable and the guitar tone has a fair amount of punch to it, which goes a long way towards making the music memor96

reissues

able. This is particularly apparent on Defecation’s rare excursions into groovier territory, which act as a counterbalance to the speedfreak sections. For its time, this was quite an extreme dose of grindcore, and while numerous bands have since outdone Defecation on that front, the performance, intensity, and quality of music makes this timeless. The bonus tracks are nonexistent and the liner notes are far from revelatory, so the main point of interest surrounding this reissue is the fact that it makes the album more readily available. -8-/-7-

RIGHTEOUS PIGS

Stress Related (Nuclear Blast / Metal Mind; 1990) I am unsure what it is about Righteous Pigs, but I have always had an inexplicable soft spot for this band, and particularly this album. Poorly recorded and mixed, stumbling out of the blocks with a terrible opening track by the name of “Eulogy,” and limited by one-dimensional songwriting… and yet, there is a certain charm buried in the muck and mire. Much of it has to do with Mitch (Napalm Death, Defecation, Meathook Seed) Harris’s guitar riffs, which are pleasingly heavy despite a production which confers an annoying amount of buzzing treble upon them. Mainman Joe Caper spits out the sophomoric lyrics with all the grace of a bulldozer in a china shop, alternating between a hardcore yell and a constipated growl. Righteous Pigs hops between mid-tempo beatdown material that showcases Harris’s best riffs and semi-frequent up-tempo blasts that add a welcome dynamic to the music. However, it quickly becomes apparent that the music skills of one member in particular were lagging: the drummer. With many of the drum patterns burdened with ill-chosen notes and ill-chosen transitions and fills, this proves a distraction that is partially obscured by the sheer primitive fury of the music. In the end, all that is really in this album’s favour are some decent riffs stuffed into poorly conceived songs and Joe Caper’s inimitable vocal performance, which imbues the music with superlative bad attitude. Taken together, these qualities manage to make what should be a thoroughly bad release surprisingly enjoyable. Also featured as a bonus is the entirety of the band’s 1989 debut LP, Live and Learn, tacked on at the end. It is remarkable to listen to the debut and then to Stress Related, as it becomes apparent that the latter marked a significant step forward for the band, believe it or not.

The recording on the inaugural release is muddier, the mix is worse, the lyrics are more lobotomized, the drumming is more inept, the songwriting even more primitive…and yet I can’t quite turn this off.

A basic biography serves as liner notes, although full lyrics are also included so that we can read Joe Caper’s witty musings on laxatives, popping zits, and incarceration. Shakespeare this ain’t. -6-/-7-

RIGOR MORTIS

Rigor Mortis vs. The Earth (Triple X / Metal Mind; 1991) Rigor Mortis cut an eponymous LP and an EP titled Freaks that were top-notch slabs of thrash, but by the time of the band’s sophomore LP, Rigor Mortis vs. the Earth, some of the steam had subsided.

Sure, Mike Scaccia’s fantastic guitar playing remains at the forefront, which absolutely smokes on songs such as “Contagious Contamination.” Co-vocalist Doyle Bright’s mixture of shouts and growls was well suited to the songs that he sang on. However, the main problem is that Doyle shared the microphone with Casey Orr. When the latter took over vocal duties, the approach became punkier and did not play to the band’s skills; indeed, the unfortunate decision to cover The Ramones’“Psycho Therapy” epitomizes this (mis)direction. While Orr’s contributions detract from the quality of the album to an unfortunate degree, the remainder is good for what it is. While not up to the level of “Contagious Contamination,” deep-album cuts such as “Asphyxia” demonstrate that Rigor Mortis that can thrash with the best of ’em. While not particularly dark in atmosphere—indeed, Rigor Mortis often comes across rather campy, albeit in a rather good way—the energy level is ridiculously high and the musicianship impressive. Scaccia has his speed metal guitar chops down pat, shredding with an energy, precision, and intricacy that is brain-boggling on more than one occasion. If the album does improve upon its predecessor in any way, it is that the production is crisp and reasonably powerful, with a nice balance accorded the several instruments. There have been a variety of reasons suggested as to

why Rigor Mortis attempted to pursue two different styles. Regardless of the reason, the album fails to cohere as a result. The best of the Doyle-led songs would make for a great EP, so perhaps the best solution is to program out the worst tracks and enjoy the remainder for what it is: great thrash. Lyrics and biographical liner notes are included in this numbered digipak. -5-/-7-

RITUAL

Widow (Legend / Shadow Kingdom; 1983) Valley of the Kings (Romany / Shadow Kingdom; 1993) Now these are a pair of reissues done right. Thick booklets, each boasting new cover artwork that is much more representative of the music (the embarrassingly bad original art is reproduced on the back of the booklet, for those who desire authenticity or otherwise are looking for a hearty chuckle), and even a recent interview with the band’s frontman conducted by the owner of Shadow Kingdom Records. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of Widow is that it has not (yet) earned a wider following, as the musical quality is such that the band should certainly be better known.

With a powerful grasp of melody at its disposal, Ritual fires off impressively catchy songs that are not far removed from the likes of Savage, Angel Witch, and Diamond Head. However, there is something else at work with Ritual, particularly on Widow. The band favours the mid-tempo to an unusual degree and, while this might not sound particularly revolutionary, within this rhythmic restraint Ritual conjures an atmosphere that is epic and evil in equal measure. Every step is carefully measured in such

a manner that, when combined with the occult themes, imbues the music with a sense of cryptic calculation as if it were written as the soundtrack to an esoteric rite. Even when a bouncier tempo is introduced, as heard on “Journey,” the band darkens the tone with bleak-yet-impassioned guitar leads and vocals that convey a feeling located between nostalgia and remorse. -8.5-/-8.5It would be a decade before another Ritual album would see the light of day. As was the case with its predecessor, the album was released to little fanfare, apparently due to label issues. Now enjoying a new lease on life, Valley of the Kings shows a band that has not deviated from its core sound to any significant degree, but has used the interim in order to refine its approach. This refinement entails positive and negative effects. On the positive side, the adroitness of the vocals and guitar leads create some truly beautiful passages in which every note is well chosen and every arrangement flawless.

On the negative side, the distinctly sinister atmosphere heard on Widow has waned considerably. The weight given that each listener gives to the positive and the negative will determine how everything balances out. While the painstakingly polished compositions do not pick up the slack left in the wake of the diminished atmosphere, the band presents something that is nonetheless enjoyable in its own right. The key elements—the mid-tempo drums, the never-overwrought guitar leads, the impassioned vocals—remain in place and work together in showing a band with a very fine grasp of composition. While the unswerving tempo and consistent style of interaction of the rhythm team on Valley of the Kings does cause the album to plod a bit, it stands as a worthy successor in its own right. As was the case with Widow, this reissue features a ton of pictures, full lyrics, reproductions of several flyers and press clippings, and a new cover that replaces the hilariously bad original image. -7.5-/-8.5-

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97

Real Dead One’s Independent Cafe

The best part of waking up, is

METAL in your cup.

HAILZ! Sitting here with my Tim Horton’s coffee, black, blasting all sorts of unsigned shit, the good, the bad, the ugly, I can’t help but think: “How did this happen?” Couldn’t tell ya, but here it is, a column just for unsigned acts, the ones still going through growing pains, or the ones that have managed to magically escape ever being signed. Still on the indie circuit, these groups will be reviewed by my cocky self, from my cozy metal corner in New Brunswick. The unsigned acts I review are from various independent hellions around the globe, so pull up a chair, get yourself a mug and let me filter the most current batch...

Accion Terrorista (Independent 2008) www.myspace.com/accionterrorista

Accion Terrorista opens with “Batalla” and a very loud and awkward riff which makes me squint and hope the dude doesn’t bust a string. But it’s a good kind of danger and so, crappy production and terrorist themes aside (there’s a picture of an airliner flying into a certain building on the cover) this is some quality lo-fi thrash that might as well have existed in the old tape trading days. The tracks are kept very short and vocals are overly ugly and yelled out steadily and with a more classic thrash rhythm than you’re used to hearing. It’s cool too, as vocally or in several other aspects musically, Accion Terrorista chooses to do their own thing, and not mimic any pioneers too blatantly. So for a very short demo, 4 songs and 2 of which are less than 2 minutes, all played sloppily as fuck but it’s fun regardless. A great example that sometimes production and quantity isn’t everything.

Aeons of Eclipse : The Hour of Desolation (Independent 2008) www.aeonsofeclipse.com or www.myspace.com/aeonsofeclipse

Very cool above average and complex-death from Glasgow, Kentucky, Aeons of Eclipse must have had a hole burning in their wallets when they recorded The Hour of Desolation, because it sounds so fresh and crisp. A quick Google and I’m impressed to see this is their full length debut. Vocals sneering and scornful, wrapped around a plethora of intricate riffing and soloing, AoE delivers metal as compelling and vile as their attractive post-apocalyptic cover art, and leave very few stones unturned. Favorite parts include “Archaic Oblivion” even with its very light keyboard usage, “Forever Enslaved” with its epic musical intro, and just the overall uninhibited vibe straight through. It’s honestly got very few dull parts so you can listen to any track and be instantly interested, but the cost of this balance is a flatter than normal consistency which does feel a tad repetitive, if that can even be a complaint.

by fun sweeping riffs. Overall hooky and probably an interesting show for a specific crowd, but nothing to write home to your metalhead buddies about as they windmill practice, at least not just yet.

Ahoora : All In Blood With You (Independent 2008) www.ahoora-band.com or www.myspace.com/ahooraband

Ahoora creeps ahead into the unknown, whispering from some sort of maddening Iranian power metal plant, as All In Blood With You is played on my PC speakers from a downloadable format. I’m explained by Ahoora’s guitarist Milad: “We live in Iran and rock music in any form is forbidden, so… we are a banned act. That’s why we cannot send any stuff. It will be seized by the authorities.” Fair enough.

Primarily focused on representing themselves as a power metal act, Ahoora aren’t any sort of frilly pirate shirt wearing groupies, their brand is moody, almost black in tone and digs deep into your bones.

The riffing is very reminiscent of Iced Earth’s infamous fast-paced staccato chug-chuga-chug-chug, an emulation I’m sure the band is aware of. The production sounds like a ghetto blaster smothered by pillows, quite buried, but it works on the overall vibe considering the band’s Iranian location, a nation whose world-wide reputation precedes whatever other notions one may have. The song ideas sound fresh and not rehashed, and flows from faster mid-tempos, to crawling gothic speeds accompanied by almost vampiric vocals. Cool, collective and true metal can come from anywhere, this proves it.

Left In Ruins : Straight Out of Hell (Independent 2008)

For reviews contact realdeadone@hotmail.com with email subject “Your Band Name / Unsigned Review”

www.leftinruins.com or www.myspace.com/leftinruinsmetal

Really cool, grim but not black, fun but not happy, blistering but not tiring, Left In Ruins have a solid piece of very angry/deathly metal on their hands with Straight Out of Hell. Although the cover and band logo looks straight out of high school art class, Straight Out of Hell is musically sound and littered with quality songwriting and production values. The overall mix could be a little tighter and sounds slightly distorted but it’s definitely excusable. A highlight for me is the up-tempo track “Declaration Under Fire” which gallops through and sweeps through with its catchy barked chorus.

Rating System:

= Getting withdrawals = Pretty watered down = Needs refilling

Severed : What It Has Become (Independent 2008) www.severedband.com or www.myspace.com/severed

Three-song demo from New York`s Severed sounds cool enough at first, but grows thin. Vocals stand out as they alternate between grunts, shrieks, and authoritatively spoken words and the guitars cover a wide range of melodies. There is an excessive use of the dreaded simplistic and slow chug-chug, even for just three songs. Still, lots of energy in many parts, but lots of stop and go too, often complimented 98

reviews RDO’s Independent Café

= Kinda perky = One nice hot cup ‘o java = No Sleep ’til Hammersmith! = Tim Horton’s

99

! a h c t e You B

Marillion? D.I.Y. Kings?

By Kevin Stewart-Panko

U

nrestrained!, being a publication that focuses on the many forms and fashions of extreme music, by default ends up primarily highlighting the underground outside the major labels and the bands that often chalk their existences up to an independent network and DIY ethos. Of course, there are different degrees of Do-It-Yourself and this column has previously featured its fair share of DIY subscribers, but I was surprised as shit to find out that one of the two bands currently ruling the world of DIY (since Fugazi broke up, anyway) is Marillion. Portland, OR’s grind-punk heroes Tragedy are the other, but since they seem to love their privacy and isolation as much as I love their music, let’s focus on Marillion. Plus, the story of how they came to be where they are today is pretty fascinating.

Most people know Marillion as the band with the frontman named Fish (nee Derek Dick; good move on using a pseudonym, dude) who play very English prog-rock along the lines of Yes, Rush, Gabriel-era Genesis, Van Der Graaf Generator and… Sorry, what’s that? Oh, Fish quit the band 20 years ago? You don’t say. Okay then, allow me to admit that I’m not a Marillion fan. Actually, I can’t even claim that much because I don’t think I’ve ever really heard much of the band. However, the Interhole has informed me the band has had a number of charting singles and albums over the years (and that, ironically enough, their second album was titled Fugazi), none of which I’m familiar with except for “Kayleigh.” But isn’t that a drippy, pop ballad that horny teens would swap spit to in the backseat of whatever hearse-sized, gas-guzzling monstrosity the American auto industry churned out during the ’80s? Basically, I’d have a hard time identifying Marillion’s corpses with their dental records on hand. But you don’t have to be a fan to admire the way they’ve managed to step outside the industry machine, especially after, and because of, being part of it for so many years. Certain articles I used in researching this piece have stated that Marillion are as creatively on-the-ball now as they were in their glory days. This may or may not be true, and I don’t particularly care because this isn’t our focus.

After the release of 1997’s This Strange Engine, things started to take a turn for Marillion. They signed to a label called Castle after fulfilling their contract with EMI which had them in still debt even after moving over 10 million albums in about as many years. The post-EMI plan was to license future albums to Castle, retain song rights and grab a bigger cut of the profits. A good plan indeed, except that releasing an album via Castle was the equivalent of releasing an album via my label [note: I don’t run a label and don’t know how to run a label]. Castle meant well, but really didn’t know what the fuck they were doing in terms of promotion, of which there was very little, and tour support, the lack of which threatened to kibosh a U.S. tour. Thank the ether for the fans, who raised over $60,000 online to keep the American tour alive. Light bulbs went off in Marillion’s heads the same way Jake and Elwood Blues found divine inspiration in The Blues Brothers.

The Internet! The fans! The money! The band! The ability to raise money through the Internet from dedicated fans for the benefit of the band! Fuck yeah!

They began taking the word to the streets with their eleventh album, Marillion.com. Marillion.com was still distributed under the Castle banner, but it was self-produced with help from the squirrelly looking dude from Porcupine Tree and the album’s title was a reference to the band’s use of the Internet to communicate with their fans. While preparing the album, management invited fans to send passport photos to be featured in the booklet. In addition to the album’s main program, they made a companion disc named Marillion.co.uk which was available for free to every100 Knowing the Business

one who bought the album. The second disc had a collection of various live and demo tracks, as well as an interview video and, to this day, continues to be updated with newer songs and is still available from their website. It was from here on in that Marillion saw the beauty in DIY, independence and their ability to shun record company models and advance/royalty structures all the while involving their fans in the process.

Instead of getting an advance from a record company for their next album, they decided to experiment by asking fans if they’d help fund the follow-up by pre-ordering it before recording even started. The result was over 12,500 pre-orders, which raised enough money to record and release 2001’s Anoraknophobia. The band was able to strike a distribution deal for the album for their label, Racket Records, ironically with EMI. Essentially, following the success of the North American tour that was underwritten by the credit bolstered to them by their fans, Marillion managed to cut out the middle-man in terms of securing an advance while giving back to the fans in the form of a deluxe copy of Anoraknophobia with a bonus CD and the name of everyone who contributed the 16 pound (around $30 today, closer to $42 back then) pre-order amount.

The success of Anoraknophobia allowed the band to start recording their next album, but they decided to leverage their fanbase once again to help raise money towards marketing and promotion of Marbles, their thirteenth album. Once again, the band put up the album for pre-order, this time when the record was about halfway complete. Fans responded by pre-ordering 18,000 copies.

While this doesn’t bode well for the band being able to brush aside the criticisms of fans, as there are bound to be segments who don’t like this and that, not because they’re playing the role of self-absorbed, arm-chair critic, but because not everybody can like everything, it illustrates something that fans of independent and DIY music have known for years: that it is possible to be successful outside the majors if you’re willing to do the work involved. Also, whether this whole experiment would have been as successful had Marillion not had the fanbase to originally bum cash from is anybody’s guess. However, my guess would be that I don’t think 18,000 people would be throwing down x amount of dollars towards an unproven entity. But hey, Marillion figured a way to do things their way and ran with it to the tune of being true to their musical vision and surviving the music industry twice as long as they probably would have had they remained slaves to EMI. Pre-ordering as a way of raising funds and giving back to the fans via special editions, customized double-CDs, box sets and so on (and variations of) is something Marillion has made use of since, including their latest album, Happiness Is The Road. But it’s not like the band just borrows cash from their fans in exchange for music and specialized liner notes. Marillion continues to give back in unique ways.

When it comes to live shows, Marillion allows fans to choose set lists, even going as far as allowing wannabes and hardcore fans of varying musical ability to join the band on stage. Now, I’ve never witnessed this, but you don’t have to be Nostradamus to know this can go one of two ways. For those too afraid (or too smart, or too self-aware) to get up in front of rabid throng of pedantic fans, the band created .WAV files of the individual drums, guitar, keyboard, bass tracks and both dry and effect-laden vocals of Anoraknophobia’s songs available both for fans who want to either play along, create their own mix or do remixes. They invited anyone to attempt a re-mix with the plan being to release an album of the best remixes and finalists appearing on the com-

pilation, each receiving £500. Most recently, the band released a downloadable version of their new album’s first single (“Whatever Is Wrong With You”) and asked fans to make their own video with the best video taking home £5000. Then, they went ahead and made some noise—sounding like a defiant punk band in the process—by making the new album available for free on peerto-peer file sharing networks. However, the tracks were specially encoded so that when they are played, a pop-up box appears asking listeners to give the band their email address for marketing purposes and to drum up other streams of revenue, such as offers on Marillion merchandise and concert tickets. Okay, that last part doesn’t sound quite so punk rock, but you might describe it as the prog-rock parallel to punk and hardcore bands announcing PayPal donation accounts on lambgoat.com. They’ve also got into the business of further protecting their fans (and themselves) by speaking out on the merch commissions venues often foist upon bands for the “privilege” of selling their merch on the venue’s property. Gigs have often been cancelled at venues engaging in this common and accepted form of unregulated extortion.

And it goes on. Marillion has become as much a business as they are a band. They manage themselves, with each individual member taking care of a specific area of business: managing the web site, doing accounting, et cetera. They also have Racket Records for themselves and any side or solo projects. They have a small number of full-time employees, including Colin Price, who does double-duty as Racket’s label manager and guitar tech when the band hit the road, and Lucy Jordache, a fan-turned manager who used to work for EMI and fought against industry bureaucracy in compiling a bunch of extensive best of/re-issues that EMI weren’t originally planning on making very extensive until she got involved. The band have an operations compound located on a trading estate in Buckinghamshire from where they run their label, merchandising warehouse, the offices where all the band business is conducted and their studio, which is reportedly totally state-of-the-art.

They also have various Marillion weekend festivals—one is being held in Montreal in the spring of 2009—where they often premiere new material, play fan-chosen set lists, have fans jam with or replace one of the band members on stage. During the day there are activities such as Marillion pub quizzes, soccer tournaments, signing sessions, kids’ activities, Q&A sessions and much more. It’s kinda like a Manowar convention, except with not nearly as many drunk, shirtless Germans running around, and probably nowhere near as funny.

The way Marillion go about the business of music and the way they service and cater to their audience is totally unique. With virtually no radio play or media exposure of any kind, they have managed to maintain and sustain a huge fan base, sell hundreds of thousands of copies of each album and, with the conventions, attract new generations of fans. Of course me being me, checking the band out still hasn’t become a high priority on my list, but you gotta give respect where respect is due. And respect is definitely due in their case.

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