New Noise Magazine Issue # 56 by New Noise Magazine

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ISSUE 56

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THE NEW WHAT NEXT CARPOOL TUNNEL AUTARKH SUFFERING HOUR DEMON HEAD FUTURE TEENS HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY FEAR OF A QUEER PLANET DIVIDE AND DISSOLVE REGIONAL JUSTICE CENTER BATTLE OF THE BAY PORTRAYAL OF GUILT DEECRACKS STALAG 13 CEVIN KEY KANGA TRACE AMOUNT BLANCK MASS GLITTERER GENGHIS TRON AMIGO THE DEVIL ADULT MOM ANIKA PYLE MELVINS 1983 EPICA EYEHATEGOD

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CITIZEN NOFX THE ART OF MARK DE SALVO

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ENFORCED THE SPILL CANVAS MOONSPELL HAIL THE SUN LANDE HEKT MIKEY ERG FARAH SKEIKY THE TAROT RESTLESS THE SHORTLIST ANALOG CAVE

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NOFX COVER ART BY MARK DE SALVO BASED ON PHOTO BY JONATHAN WEINER CITIZEN COVER ART BY NICK HAMM AND PHOTO BY RYLAND OEHLERS TOC SHOT OF DISCHARGE BY DAN RAWE

RETRACTION - ISSUE 55 LESS THAN JAKE COVER STORY WAS WRITTEN BY JOSH MARANHAS

BY NICHOLAS SENIOR PHOTO BY ELLERY BERENGER

PHOTO BY TERATOGEN

PHOTO BY JOSH RIEVEL

CALYX

Hometown: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Album: Stay Gone out now via Salinas Records RIYL: Comfort. Discomfort. Friends.

Remember the before times? When you could go over to a friend’s house and spend hours doing everything and nothing at the same time? Those special moments with those whom we hold closest are wonderfully comforting. Because of that closeness, those folks can challenge us in ways we never see coming. Calyx have been friends for over a decade, and as a result, there’s a unique sense that they are older than they are— this sure as hell doesn’t sound like a debut album. This is indie punk that embraces how weird, wonderful, and personal the best of the style is. Think Worriers and Joyce Manor, but more math-y and intricate.

EDITRIX

Vocalist Caitlin Bender actually moved out to Pittsburgh to be closer to the rest of Calyx— remember when that mattered, before Zoom? Bender notes that the trio have perfected the art of messing with each other’s songs to create something even better. “We want something musically interesting, but also it’s essential that it is rocking,” the band collectively state. “We didn’t set out “[The other members] like to say they fuck up the songs to write with a specific vision in mind, but we did write it in a and make them nasty, as if I don't expect it or hope for concentrated burst, with the sort of immediacy that comes it. I write songs in a certain way, but have also played from a new project. We do not want to be married to the in bands where the goal was to push what's expected of notion that we are exclusively ‘avant butt rock’ – the band’s time, tempo, and tone. It's a lot easier and chaotic to do general consensus is that that term captures the spirit of the that with other people. I can write parts hoping they're time in which we were writing these songs but is also, sincerely, gonna have fun with it. I can leave space, and I'm forced a joke – but we do like the way that that term, and our music, to change and make space. I think we just like making emphasizes how the music rocks and makes you feel as much as it might stretch your brain out.”💣 music [laughs].” 💣

PHOTO BY CARO RAMIREZ

ELLENDE

Hometown: Western Massachusetts Hometown: Graz, Austria Album: Tell Me I’m Bad out now via Exploding In Sound Records Album: Triebe EP out now via AOP Records RIYL: Nickelback but Good. Left Brain/Right Brain. Mathemat- RIYL: Duality. Meaning. Blast Beats. ical Headbanging. Can you get a do-over, a mulligan in real life? Ellende ask that Tell Me I’m Bad is a whole lot of things at the same time, tick- question with this triumphant re-working of a previous ling parts of the left and right brain simultaneously. Editrix piece of art. What previously existed in 2014 as Weltenfactiously label their sound as “avant butt rock,” and while nacht has been both re-worked, re-written, re-ordered, this isn’t exactly a prog version of Nickelback, there is a and re-recorded seven years later to reflect where striking undercurrent of the familiar way, way beneath the the band are at this time. Somehow, Triebe is a wholly glorious noise. Imagine prog, post-punk, noise pop, art rock, different beast and may help usher in one of the most and ’00s radio rock were put into a blender for a minute promising black metal bands in all of Europe. Rather than with a can (or three) of PBR. While I wouldn’t recommend mire in the darkness alone, Triebe finds a wonderful balthat anyone I like drink that beer-shake, Editrix’s record ance between melodic post-black sections, and majestic, really is beautiful in its wonderful ability to marry being almost transcendental speed and power. They recall Der almost viscerally catchy – you will try to tap your toes along Weg einer Freiheit in both tenor and tone, revealing a to the shapeshifting beats – while also pushing forward the wonderful depth of songwriting and thematic reach. That concept of what’s possible. It’s the best kind of prog music all was intentional and something L.G. wanted to play and a wonderful showcase for a wealth of talent in this trio. around with, as he explains: “[The record is] a lot about the way we live and the impuissance you feel when you try to change anything. Greed and profit shapes our world, and in our push for acceptance, we fail to see how beautiful and fragile the earth and the universe is. The German word ‘triebe’ means ‘desires,’ but at the same time, this word is used for ‘shoots,’ as in new branches of a plant. I love to use those polysemes because they demand us to take a step back, and that’s why Ellende seem to have this ambivalence. There is no ‘black and white’ in people and the world – except maybe black holes. Please don’t go there.” 💣

TOTAL RUBBISH

Hometown: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Album: Triple Negative EP out now via Born Losers Records RIYL: Escapism. James Bond. Haze. Here in New Jersey, with just about everything still closed, my favorite way to blow off steam is to put on my headphones and walk my hilly neighborhood while escaping into a new record. One of the best escapes has been Triple Negative, which feels like a mix of ’60s Bond hijinks, Midwest dreaming, and underground feminist meet-ups. It turns out that is spot-on for Total Rubbish, a trio from all over the country who ended up in Philly and wanted a reprieve from their collective past (and with 2020, the present). Interestingly, it too was a product of necessary distraction, as guitarist Cass Nguyen notes:

“I love the thought of our EP as being someone’s soundtrack for escaping! That’s kind of funny because that’s kind of what we were going for too— this kind of idea of escapism. During quarantine I was watching a ton of movies, like, more than I can count per day [laughs]. I made this plan for myself to watch every James Bond film in chronological order, and that’s how the idea for our first single ‘Honey Ryder’ sparked. I wanted to make something that reminded people of ’60s Hollywood, with a bit of a psychedelic flair. With some of our other tracks, I was really inspired by the time I had spent living in Chicago. I wanted to totally embody that Midwest, almost Detroit-era garage rock that all of my friends were playing back home.” 💣

6 NEW NOISE

PHOTO BY AARON SHARPSTEEN

PHOTO BY ANNETTE WILLIAMS PHOTOGRAPHY

NO YEAR

KARATE, GUNS & TANNING

Even with a name like No Year, you’ll be able to pinpoint a specific time and place when you first listen. So Long is wonderfully imbued with a mix of 90s Seattle and San Diego, an immaculately recreated mix of peak grunge and heroin-influenced post-hardcore. Songs feel almost idiosyncratic in individual approaches, but the destination and journey are equally important here. That’s not to say No Year are simply retreading the old. Instead, it’s that keen understanding of what made the old classic that makes me think So Long will be remembered for a long time. Written and composed well before the shit-show year 2020, so much of the pain and perseverance in So Long took on a whole different meaning now.

Named after a local strip mall in suburban Indiana, Karate, Guns & Tanning (KG&T) eschew the Oxford comma and easy characterization. Listing all the sounds on Concrete Beach would take forever, but if literally any music from the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, or ’90s appealed to you, then you should eat up the band’s unique industrialized, psychedelic post-punk. However, it’s not the inherently excellent riot grrrl choruses or their synthpop-on-acid ambiance that will stick with you. No, it’s the musical world inside Concrete Beach that is so easy to escape in that is the most impressive. This is subversive, feminist, and impassioned music, told the way that only KG&T can.

Hometown: Portland, Oregon Album: So Long out now via Inferior Planet RIYL: Rorschach Tests. Perseverance. The ’90s.

Hometown: Indianapolis, Indiana Album: Concrete Beach out March 26 via Self-Release RIYL: Twin Peaks. Road Trips. Strip Malls.

“It’s a sort of Rorschach test for me,” bassist Neal notes. “To go back and listen to some of the lyrics in the context of the last year and see how fitting a lot of them are, but I guess if you listen really hard, ‘Stairway to Heaven’ could be about walking up 10 flights of stairs with a hot pizza in hand, so who really knows? I will say, as we started collaborating on the writing, some big themes definitely started to come through, which were pretty easy to expand upon given how fucked the world was becoming in the last five years. It also didn’t hurt that I was going through one of the most protracted and painful personal experiences of my adult life as we worked on these songs, which in hindsight is pretty obvious with even a cursory listen. Despite being fairly transparent, I’d like to think that the lyrical themes are all pretty relatable to us humans, having our shared human experiences.” 💣

Keyboardist and vocalist Paige Shedletsky concurs. “The theme and imagery we conjured up around this record as a full compilation has been ever-evolving. At one point, I thought the record sounded like a bunch of angsty, Midwest cheerleaders stole an 18-wheeler on a psych-laden road trip. Each song has its own individual meaning lyrically, and what we were trying to evoke with it sonically, but the album as whole has taken on a few different themes. A big one was escapism - everything that transpired in the last year and just wanting to get the fuck out of here. I think we also strived to create a presence with this music. We are women, we are loud, and we want to be heard.” 💣 PHOTO BY ANDY FORD

PHOTO BY MARS VALLON

GRAVESEND

PUPIL SLICER

RAT TALLY

Like a cruel psychopathic serial killer stalking in the shadows, Gravesend (named after the famed cemetery in Brooklyn) feed off the seedy underbelly of a city. There’s a violent menace at the heart of Methods of Human Disposal— a real heartwarming name if there ever was one. While so much recent grindcore has skewed towards the melodic and listenable, Gravesend push the boundaries of extremity without sacrificing neck-snapping songwriting. There’s a care beneath the horror, or maybe the care and horror are the point, as the band collectively note.

One of the most interesting aspects of the modern music moment is bands finding ways to carry on the spirit of the greats, rather than merely recycling riffs and ideas. Take the horrifyingly named Pupil Slicer (shudders) for example. These Brits embody the sort of chaotic mathcore of The Dillinger Escape Plan and Converge, but there is so much more to discover on their astounding debut. They play with songwriting, genre, and mood like mad scientists with an emotional undercurrent and melodic power that, while not obvious, is immediately arresting. This is the most exciting new heavy British band around. So, it’s funny that they started as a semi-joking side gig.

6131 Records has an impeccable record of finding amazing artists seemingly out of nowhere who go on to do wonderful things. If there’s any justice in the world— and I’m genuinely starting to think there is— Rat Tally will be the next to break out. “Shrug” is one of the best, most immediately arresting singles I’ve heard in years, because Rat Tally, the name for solo artist Addy Harris, has laid her soul bare on this haunting track. There’s a Death Cab For Cutie-by-way-of Phoebe Bridgers vibe to the indie rock ditty, but the lyrics just absolutely wreck me every time. The personal frustration and shame contrast wonderfully with the musical confidence on display— Harris’ vocals are haunted yet gorgeous, and the song feels like it’s slowing down time to extend the pain contained within. So, where did this song come from?

Hometown: New York City, New York Album: Methods of Human Disposal out February 19 via 20 Buck Spin RIYL: Urban Decay. Violent Stories. Grind.

Hometown: London, U.K. Album: Mirrors out March 12 via Prosthetic Records RIYL: Side Projects. Horrifying Eye Doctors. Chaos.

“We tell real stories of the seedy and dark sides of the urban jungle you only hear about in local news, by word “When I started this project with our original vocalist, it was of mouth or see in film. The things you see walking the sort of just a jokey side-project for some unused grind riffs, side streets or hear in the distance at night. We tell the hence the name being the silliest gore-grind sounding thing stories of underground drug and skin trades that existed I could think up,” vocalist and guitarist Katie Davies laughs. in different times and places across the boroughs. The “Josh [Andrews] joined up as our drummer to play the songs crime-doers, the committed, and the dead.” we'd written for that first EP, and then our vocalist left shortly after, leaving me and Josh with complete creative control. The result is a mortifying portrayal of a city in fear and a seri- We both had a lot in common with what we wanted to be ously amazing slab of grindcore. This may be one of the best doing with a project, so we steered more in the direction of grindcore records since the ’90s. The fact that the members are wanting to capture the chaos and energy of bands like TDEP, Converge, and Code Orange.” 💣 shrouded in secrecy only makes for better ambiance. 💣

Hometown: Chicago, Illinois Album: Shrug single out now via 6131 Records RIYL: Mental Health. Honesty. Cellos.

“I wanted to convey this frustration I had within myself, about wanting to be with someone so badly, but not feeling like I deserved it, or being scared that I would destroy it because of my mental health issues,” Harris states. “It’s so hard to navigate, and I wanted to write a song that captured the yearning that I felt like I had to force myself to bury. Max and Sean [from 6131 Records] helped me bring that atmosphere and feeling to life.” 💣

NEW NOISE 7

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PHOTO BY DIANA ZADLO

PHOTO BY ARTHUR EARNEST

WHITE VOID

THIRDFACE

Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee Album: Do It with a Smile out March 5 via Exploding In Sound Records RIYL: Humor. Live Shows. Social Commentary.

Hometown: Carrboro, North Carolina Album: Volume One out now via Don Giovanni Records RIYL: Friends. Surprises. Telephone.

White Void is the brainchild of vocalist Lars Nedland (Borknagar, Solefald) who realized some songs he was writing with a mix of ’70s occult rock and ’80s new wave wouldn’t quite fit in his other bands. Thus, he assembled a group of talented folks who helped him embody this concept of bluesy, danceable throwback tunes that surprise with an exploration of the philosophical ideas of Albert Camus, as vocalist Lars Nedland notes:

Do It with a Smile is both a harsh and gorgeous listen, but Thirdface’s debut is most striking in how it is crafted like a live show – even down to the droning improv-style interludes to allow time for the band to switch guitars and hydrate. Their brand of bass-heavy hardcore takes cues from noise rock, grind, and sludge, and it’s performed with the ferocity few are able to conjure up. One of the more interesting aspects is vocalist Kathryn Edwards’ sardonic literary references and humor— with references to Clive Barker, Westerns, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It’s impossible not to grin along to just about everything Thirdface have done here. Edwards expands on the lyrical dichotomy a bit:

Featuring members of Polvo, The Love Language, and Bat Fangs, Speed Stick’s first record is one of interesting concepts, but it’s the execution that’s even more impressive. Dual drummers Laura King and Thomas Simpson recorded drum parts for nine songs and sent them off to different friends to see what musical flowers those seeds could produce. The result, Volume One, is unlike anything I’ve ever heard before, a cohesive unit untethered by genre or style. Broadly speaking, this is indie rock, but keep your mind open as you explore these tracks.

Hometown: Norway Album: Anti out March 12 via Nuclear Blast RIYL: Absurdism. Camus. Space.

“I have been interested in philosophy my entire adult life, and especially the directions of absurdism, existentialism, and nihilism. Anti is based on the absurdism of Albert Camus, which has a fascinating take on existence and how to relate to it. According to Camus, life is irrational and without reason, so “I always try to talk about things I experience or feel submerged we’re bound to ask questions: who am I? What is my purpose? in the context of my other interests, which leads to me framing How do I handle the difference between what I need and what the take down of abusers, lowlifes, and other general wastes the world serves me? Anti asks these questions and relates to of space within lyrics about vampire hunters and anime referthem in a stream of consciousness fashion. It’s chaotic, faulty, ences. This isn’t to hide their bite, but to add a smile and nod incomplete, and deeply human, but it sets out to do the only behind the snarl. The great degree of dissatisfaction with the thing it can to handle the white void of the absurd: to accept it way systems that we are trapped in continue to run will forever and to live the contradiction in constant revolt.” 💣 be a thorn in my side, great for lyrical content though.” 💣 PHOTO BY JEREMY SAFFER

TRILLIONAIRE

Hometown: Boston, Richmond, Seattle, and Nashville Album: Romulus out now via Nefarious Industries RIYL: Art Deco. Beauty. Clay.

“We wanted to share our beats with our friends, and make a record that was full of surprises, and that is what we got,” they share. “We had no idea how the songs were going to sound until they were sent back to us from everyone. We drove the ship, they steered it. Not knowing what to expect was the best part of making this record. Some of the beats we delivered were interpreted completely differently than we expected. That’s what made it so fun! We knew everyone involved would deliver the goods.” 💣

PHOTO BY JAMES GIBBS

REST EASY

Hometown: Vancouver, Canada Album: Sick Day EP out February 12 via Mutant League Records RIYL: Wearing Friends Down. Low Expectations. Punk.

With an emphasis on art deco motifs, borderline spiritual “I don’t think we had any special end vision for the release,” (but not religious) lyrics, and a musical mash-up of prog guitarist Kenny Lush laughs. “We aren’t that smart. I think and grunge, there’s a lot going on in this new supergroup, the end goal was wanting to put something out our old, featuring current and former members of Revocation, jaded friends would think wouldn’t suck.” Inter Arma, and Ken Mode. Musically, if there is a midpoint between The Mars Volta and Alice In Chains, with Boasting members of Daggermouth and Shook Ones, some Mastodon thrown in, it’s Romulus, and while that Sick Day is a four-song dose of gloriously fun, melodic, blend shouldn’t work, it’s a huge credit to the talent on hardcore punk that doesn’t suck. Each tune has its own display that it does. Vocalist Renee Fontaine revels in the flair and leans harder into one of three modes: melodic, gorgeous soundscapes and painting a uniquely emotive hardcore, and pure punk rock. The band almost didn’t tenor atop it all. The music was composed before the lyr- happen, as Lush had to get worn down by longtime friend, ics and vocals, so how did Fontaine help pull the complete drummer Jimmy Walsh: work together? “At the end of 2018, after asking me sporadically over the “I draw on imagery that dances before my closed eyes. year, Jimmy hit me up again about doing a band. We Usually, the personality of the piece evokes a lyric. If I live in different provinces, so I was always not too excited feel there is an idea worth pursuing, I will build upon that about it. But finally, he just sent me some drum tracks and initial image. It begins as wet clay and takes shape and said, ‘if you want, figure out Garageband, and try and put hardens during the editing process.” some guitar to this.’ I know we had pretty similar tastes in music, so I did my best at trying to rip off Lifetime, and If ever there was a band meant to film a music video in the from there, we just spend the next few months sending art deco jungle of NYC, it’s Trillionaire. So, close your eyes, music back and forth.” 💣 picture the angular glory, and give a spin.💣

8 NEW NOISE

SPEED STICK

COLLAPSE CULTURE

Hometown: Asheville, North Carolina and Oakland, California Album: Self-titled out now via Pax Aeternum RIYL: No Comfort Zones. Zoom. Dancing.

Collapse Culture is perfect for that musical omnivore in all of us— those who love great music of just about any type and adore the hunt for new music. Created during quarantine by two metalheads with time in bands like Bleach Everything, US Christmas, Kowloon Walled City, and Strangelight, Collapse Culture is brimming with dark, electronic ideas and a persistent, paranoid energy. If you love artists like Burial, Andy Stott, or Bill Laswell, welcome to your new favorite group, who just may have more in the works soon, as Graham Scala shares: “I actually wrote almost all of the songs as a solo project initially. I started realizing I'm not that good at writing bass parts for electronic stuff, and around then, I noticed Ian [Miller] making a Facebook post looking for collaborations to do in his quarantine downtime, so it was a perfect fit. I asked him for some Bill Laswell-type low end, and he delivered within a couple days. We're almost finished with a follow-up, and he's been considerably more involved with the creation of that from the outset, adding not just bass but other elements as well. Ian's great to have as a collaborator, not only because of his musical abilities, but because, like me, he's musically omnivorous and can adapt to pretty much any aesthetic, from grindcore to synth-pop. It’s funny because we've never actually met in person and had only known each other online prior to this.” 💣

THE SOUNDS OF MISSING THE LIVE LIGHT

INTERVIEW WITH DRUMMER DANIEL STAUFFER BY JOHN B. MOORE

an Francisco-based Carpool Tunnel came to be thanks to the same technology that has been powering late night booty calls for most of the past decade.

created ‘Better Now,’ ‘Flora,’ ‘Closer,’ in that house.” The sound of Bloom is appropriately eclectic, given the band’s influences, a mix of psychedelic pop, accentuated with fuzzed out guitars and some strong, hummable melodies.

“[How we met] is always a fun one to answer—Tinder,” says drummer Daniel Stauffer. “We met on an app called Vampr. It’s basically Tinder for musicians. We put “We definitely all come from similar, yet ourselves out on the internet and swiped different musical backgrounds,” Stauffer right at first sight.” says. “Some not-so-obvious influences are Durand Jones and The Indications, That was almost four years ago. In the in- Tame Impala, Daniel Caesar, Bob Marley & The Wailers, Mac Miller, OG terim, the band played a ton of shows and wrote music, eventually pulling together Sleeping with Sirens, BB King, Pink Floyd, enough for a record. Their debut, full- and The Eagles.” length album Bloom, comes out February 26 via Pure Noise Records. California was one of the first states to go into lockdown to help stave off the spread “Some of these songs we’ve been playing of COVID and the band spent the first three months of the shut down all quarantined for years, and others we wrote literally the week before we recorded the album,” together. says Stauffer. “We all moved in together in 2018, and this is when we really dove “We were able to transform our uncertainty, into the completion and heart of Bloom. stress, and emotion into reflective songs,” Through our coming of age and the says Stauffer. “And we are so grateful we beautiful scenery of San Francisco, we were able to do that. Luckily, surrounded

by nature in Santa Cruz, we were able to “There’s really no replacing the energy and feel of being in the moment, surescape the outside world, and create a rounded by a loving crowd in the presnew one full of love, relief, and belief that just like everything else, this too shall pass.” ence of live music,” Stauffer says. “We are a live band. We come together to create energy, joy, freedom, and expresCut off from touring last year, and with an album recorded, the band—like many—dis- sion to share with our amazing friends and family who come out and dance at covered the potential and the limitations of our shows. That’s what we value the most online shows, including several shows they as a band.” 💣 performed in the Minecraft world. PHOTO BY MICHAEL HANANO

“You learn what works and what doesn’t,” he says of this method. “And then, the actual recording of the tracks is smooth and organic.”

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST AND GUITARIST DAVE BARTON BY JANELLE JONES

ong-running, Montreal-based, Celtic punk collective The Peelers are releasing their fourth album on March 12 via Stomp Records. The 10-song Down and Out in the City of Saints is imbued with an undeniable and ferocious sense of spirit, feeling, and power.

On the intense feel of the record, frontman and songwriter Dave Barton says: “We wanted to capture our live sound as

much as possible, because the nature of our brand of music is high energy, anthemic, and made to be experienced in person, and we hope the album conveys that.” Barton also explains that there has been progression since The Peelers’ inception in 1999. “This new one feels right, and in my opinion, it’s our best work. We’ve also incorporated

a lot more influence into our sound and moved away from the more traditional feel towards something we’re a little more comfortable with. The Celtic influence and the whole Irish experience in North America are always present, but you’ll also hear some Clash, Rancid, Tom Waits, and others.” Of the 10-song batch, Barton mentions that six of the songs had previously been in their setlist.

Two tracks, “Glad to See the Back of You,” and the anthemic closer “From Here to Halifax,” are actually “re-workings of ideas we had demoed back in 2004, believe it or not,” Barton confides. The guys started recording in December 2019 and then played out in Western Canada in March 2020, after which everything was halted because of COVID-19. They later resumed recording and finished up in mid-June. So, Barton says, the record has been ready to go for a while. The label thought it best to hold off on releasing it, though, in order to, as Barton relates, “see how the pandemic played out, and to release the album around Paddy’s Day 2021. So, we’ve been waiting patiently to get this out there because we’re super proud of the art.” “We love playing live,” Barton says. “We love the camaraderie of being on the road and meeting new people, seeing the world, old friends, playing with great bands, and that’s all been put on hold. It’s been a tough hurdle, mentally.” In the meantime, they are recording two videos and they hope to be able to get on the road at some point. One positive that came out of not being able to get out like normal is that Barton is almost finished writing their next record and expects to record the new songs later this year. 💣

10 NEW NOISE

THE SOUNDS OF NEW AND UNEXPECTED DIRECTIONS PHOTO BY STEPH BYRNE

INTERVIEW WITH MULTI-INSTRUMENTALIST MICHEL NIENHUIS BY CALEB R. NEWTON

ichel Nienhuis, a founding mem- The result is indeed a bit psychedelic at ber of the Dutch, avant-garde times, but it turned out to be perfect for metal group Dodecahedron, has this album.” joined a new group of collaborators under the moniker of Autarkh. The project’s Lyrically, Nienhuis explores metaphysdebut, full-length album, Form In Motion, ical questions on Form In Motion. On a March release from Season of Mist, “Turbulence,” for instance, he sings of a combines blistering, metal riffing with an “power greater than ourselves,” while on array of uneasy electronica deftly inter- “Introspectrum,” he discusses a search for woven throughout the experience. This a “unifying principle” for “all of physical ambitious, avant-garde metal release reality.” The music poignantly fills out feels remarkably heavy, with rhythms these sentiments with strikingly intense described in songs like ‘Turbulence’ and that feel off-kilter yet ambitious, provid- and emotionally piercing riffing that “Turbulence,” to the comparatively slower and broadly majestic sounds of “Lost To ‘Cyclic Terror,’” Nienhuis shares. “This ing a psychedelic edge for the musical charts a truly ambitious and expansive Sight,” the music throughout Form In Mo- linear way of movement is very real for journey. sonic voyage. everyone. Time and effort will get you to tion— which features the performances your goal. But it seems there is a whole of Nienhuis on vocals, guitars, bass, and “Some of the songs on Form In Motion were “When I was trying to capture the right different, non-linear and more satisfyprogramming; David Luiten on vocals already mapped out as demos for the words in order to put those vague but third Dodecahedron album,” Nienhuis profound kinds of realizations into lyrics, and guitars; Tijnn Verbruggen on syn- ing way to approach your goals that is not new in human culture, but only this explains. “I had come up with a concept sometimes the music— which was fin- thesis and beat design; and Joris Bonis century the Western world is catching up on synthesis and sound design— feels for writing the guitar harmonies that ished before the lyrics— would reveal a because there are publications that deI liked, and I wanted to continue that bit already in what direction it should go,” like a broad look across an otherworldly scribe in detail the chemical, physiologhorizon. concept with these songs for Autarkh. I Nienhuis shares. ical, and mental workings of meditation, would write one guitar part consisting of and the letting-go of ego and the insights only dyads in the midrange and would From the fast and mechanized-feeling “Everyday life is very real, obviously, and that can bring.” 💣 the confrontation with those limits is then try to harmonize them with a riff. guitars that appear on the aptly named

PHOTO BY EMANUEL RUDNICKI

INTERVIEW WITH SAMPLER AND KEYBOARDIST TIMOTHY POPE BY ADDISON HERRON-WHEELER

he Amenta’s new record, Revelator, comes out February 19 via Debemur Morti. The album was initially written for another project, and, as such, brings out a new, fresh sound.

songs kind of open up a bit more. I think there's a lot more scope to kind of walk around in them. We’ve been finding new, melodic ideas, which hasn’t been our focus in the past.”

“We actually started writing for a new project,” explains sampler and keyboardist Timothy Pope. “We decided that we were kind of burnt out on The Amenta. We didn't want to keep writing the sort of same kind of stuff, and we didn't want to keep repeating ourselves or repeat ourselves at all. So, we started writing for a new project and came up with a whole bunch of new stuff, probably about 12 songs that we really, really liked, that were in a very different direction.

Along with that new, melodic direction, the band got more real and raw in their lyrical approach.

“But, during that kind of process, we fell back in love with what we're doing with The Amenta, and we noticed that a few of those songs, with just minor change, could actually fit into a kind of a new idea for the band.”

“As I get older, I'm less interested in dressing up the lyrics in mythology and more interested in something real,” Pope says. “In the past, I've had a theme that I wanted to write about, and I'd write lyrics to that theme. But I found that the way I write now is, I tend to write try and access phrases that aren’t necessarily literal but have more depth to them.”

“So, what I did was, I had a little book that I walked around with for three or five years, or something like that, throughout that writing process, and I just wrote as things occurred to me,” he continues. “I write Part of that new direction for the Aus- phrases quite often, plays on words and puns, or portmanteau words that meant tralian band comes from adding more something to me at the time. It's a bit like intense, immediate melody to the songs an abstract artwork, where you're presentand opening up the song structures. ed with … not necessarily a meaning to be interpreted, but you're presented with a “There has been a lot of depth and melowhole bunch of images or minor meanings dy in our songs, but perhaps people miss it because it is so upfront and intense,” that clash and create a kind of confusion or intrigue, and force you to create meanadds Pope. “This time, we wanted to let ing in your own head.” 💣 those things breathe a bit more. So, the

12 NEW NOISE

THE SOUNDS OF REINVENTION FOR A NEW NORMAL

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST CARLOS ZEMA BY NICHOLAS SENIOR

PHOTO BY ANDREW GONZALES

did not need to be in the same place for us to be able to make things happen.” Throughout Psychosomatic, it’s easy to be entranced by the virtuoso performances. There's a personality to the hooks, leads, and solos that just leaps out of the speakers and gives me chills. Zema is appreciative and notes where the band members came from helps inform where they are now.

t seems like the isolation and fear of the pandemic served as a creative outlet for a lot of artists, but few took it as literally and seriously as the multi-national, progressive, power-metal group Immortal Guardian. Their sophomore record, Psychosomatic, out February 12 via M-Theory Audio, was the result of bold decisions and the need to write about their very visceral reactions to COVID-19. In fact, the band had a record ready to record about a year ago, only to realize not only did it not fit what they wanted to say about the state of the world. They felt they could do so much better.

that we could do during this period of time was to jam our souls out and pour “Ditching the other album and starting from scratch only made total sense,” our hearts into this new music!” says vocalist Carlos Zema. “Taking into consideration whatever the whole entire “I was very surprised with how fast we disworld was going through at the time, covered ways to compensate for not being in a studio together, and I also was including ourselves. Our creativity was very pleased to find that actually these blowing up through our urge to play all new ways, turned this process more the dozens of shows we had scheduled effective and more productive,” he for 2020, and the only thing we found

continues. “The necessity of dedicating time and effort to make it happen actually made us spend hours and hours with each other, even though we were far from each other. Therefore, it forced us to be more objective and more focused in details, rather than trying stuff out of the blue in a room. Also, with the development of the ability to record ourselves at home, we discovered that we really

“Honestly, we all come from very simple backgrounds, very humble families, and we all have fought really hard to acquire everything in life. Giving your everything, playing our best, and singing our best is almost as religiously important, as it is for us to survive another day. I feel like we all go above and beyond, pouring our hearts out, every time we jam. It’s about remembering all the burdens, all the hardship, and all you have to overcome. We all try to concentrate in our performance, in the moment, in what the song is trying to pass through, as a message, as the vibe, and for us, the dynamic and interpretation is as important as what you’re playing.” 💣

INTERVIEW WITH BASSIST AND VOCALIST DYLAN “DGS” HASELTINE BY ADDISON HERRON-WHEELER

t appears that everyone has been taking the downtime of the pandemic to reinvent a sound or hone-in on a process and blackened-death metal heathens Suffering Hour are no different.

This time around, vocalist and bassist Dylan “DgS” Haseltine claims the band really stepped up their game and brought even more creativity to the mix. “It all started with [guitarist] YhA writing the songs and demoing them out,” he explains. “Then, IsN came up with his drum parts, and I wrote the lyrics and my bass parts throughout the process. When it came to the recording, it was all very isolated. Everything was tracked separately in different places and over the course of many months.” “This is how we’ve been doing things for a long time now, as YhA actually lives in a different state,” DgS continues. “I think it’s a unique way of doing it and gives every single aspect of the record time to properly formulate.” Similarly, the lyrics on the record stay true to the dark themes the band are known for, but take things a step further, touching on issues like mental anguish, self-reflection, and awakening more deeply than they have on other records. And, as if all that

wasn’t enough, the band are already planning for their next record. “For album three, we’re going to approach it in a lot more of a collaborative way, and the recording process is probably going to flow in a less disjointed manner,” DgS explains. “We’re going to try to have the material all rehearsed and hashed out in a more traditional fashion well before recording.” Hailing from Minnesota, Suffering Hour’s blackened sound makes sense when you think about the similarities between the frozen tundra that is Norway and the Northern Midwest, but it doesn’t make as much sense when you think about the local scenes in those two places. Still, though the black and death metal scene in Minnesota is smaller than most, Suffering Hour still have a sense of community. “We do have a lot of support here,” explains DgS. “We seldom play home shows, but when we do, the turnouts are really decent, and the crowds are enthusiastic. The scene here is pretty minimal, for the most part, but it seems like there’s been some more legitimate bands popping up lately. Bands that take their art seriously and are actively trying to get out there and putting out good releases. Some notable ones are: Void Rot, Sunless, and Ulkum.” 💣

PHOTO BY ALVINO_SALCEDO

NEW NOISE 13

THE SOUNDS OF SUCCESSFUL STRUGGLE PHOTO BY ADRIANA ZAK

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST, GUITARIST, AND KEYBOARDIST MARCUS FERREIRA BY ADDISON HERRON-WHEELER

eaning into the grimy, classic sound of old-school death metal, Demon Head return with a new record, Viscera, out now. According to the band, the album represents a new beginning.

much space as the electric rock elements,” Ferreira says. “On previous albums, I think these layers of the music have been hidden in the background, but now we're confident enough to bring them to the fore.” In terms of lyrical themes, Demon Head dive into narratives about totalitarianism and loss—themes that, although the record was written before the pandemic, still hold up.

“It comes down to two aspects for me—one being that we've worked through some “On this album, there are two overarching personal and collective crises and chang- narratives of how humans search for meaning in the face of loss and meaninges, which has been hard but bound us closer together than before,” says vocalist, lessness,” Ferreira says. “One is chapters guitarist, and keyboardist Marcus Ferreira. in a personal journey towards liberation, while the other is a societal move towards “Our kinship feels adamantine now. The totalitarianism. I've always been interestother is musically, where I think there has a world completely of our own, recording ed in the experiential dimensions of world been a slow shift within our writing of and Gjerlufsen, then recorded in Sweden. all the rest of the instruments and vocals.” history, politics, and myth, and I think thinking about music, which has really there's so much wrong going on in the “We have always recorded everything our- “This is a demanding and very pleasurable come through on Viscera.” part of our recordings which I really enworld right now that it's hard to close your selves to tape in our studio or a country joy,” Ferreira continues. “Music psychosis, eyes to all of it—which might bring some On previous records, the heaviness and house, but this time, we decided to hire cabin fever, sleep deprivation, harmonic much-needed change with it after this classic influence came through loud and Flemming Rasmussen to engineer the dreams, walks in the woods, home-baked pandemic, I hope.” clear, but now the band are taking a drum and bass tracks in his studio just next cinnamon buns, sunsets in the snow. Afmore experimental approach. to ours. This meant that we could focus on terwards, the songs were mixed by Martin The record came together easily, despite creativity, while I personally could learn a the fact that some of the band’s members “The difference to me is that we are more lot from someone who has recorded mu- Ehrencrona and mastered by Magnus Lindberg with great skill and dedication, open in regard to form and instrumenta- live in Ireland and some in Sweden. The sic for half a decade. After two days in his in accordance with our wishes and many record itself was mostly written on acous- studio, we drove to a house in the woods tion—the narratives are more fluent and demands.” 💣 tic guitar, first in Ireland, by guitarist Birk acoustic, and orchestral parts take up as of Sweden, where we spent three weeks in

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST PAUL GREEN BY NICHOLAS SENIOR

uality is often portrayed as two opposing sides at war with each other: good vs. evil, dark vs. light, harsh vs. melodic, etc. We like and are comforted by the balance between what we perceive as with us being opposite what is against us.

However, British post-metal giants Devil Sold His Soul harness duality to produce great vs. excellent, while delving deep into the peaks and valleys of the human experience. Their first record with new label Nuclear Blast, Loss, out April 9, is a haunting-yet-hopeful reminder of what it’s like to struggle through existence. It’s also their first to feature both of their wonderful vocalists dueling it out: longtime singer Ed Gibbs and relative newcomer Paul Green. Through the excellent deployment of Gibbs’ and Green’s emotive and impassioned vocals, Loss only highlights what Devil Sold His Soul do best: craft arguably the benchmark for hardcore-infused post-metal. Loss embodies Devil’s unique ability to wring emotion through every note, making for a new classic that fans should eat up. The fact that this, their first LP in over eight years, likely wouldn’t exist without a reunion tour of their most famous release is a humorous aside that isn’t lost on vocalist Paul Green. When he replaced Gibbs in

14 NEW NOISE

PHOTO BY FINN POMEROY

2013, a year after Empire of Light, Devil’s creative well seemed to be running a tad dry. Thankfully, as Green notes, things changed dramatically when they brought Gibbs along for the 10-year A Fragile Hope anniversary tour. “[The band] had just released Empire of Light, so I think a lot of the energy had been sucked out because they just finished doing one,” he says. “And then we did the EP. And then, after that, we just weren't getting us anywhere, really. We were just plateaued at a certain level. It was still nice level to be playing at, especially for people that still work outside of the band, but it didn't feel like it was ever going to come around.” “So, then we did the A Fragile Hope 10th anniversary shows,” Green continues. “And brought [Gibbs] back in. And we just had a wicked time. I think just having a bit of positivity does a lot of good for people. And it just spurred us on. We went and toured Japan. Everyone's buzzing. And then we just sat down and started writing the record. “And there were some pretty bad times in there, on a more personal level for some of the members, and that helped us build the platform of what the album is going to be about. But I guess if we hadn't done the A Fragile Hope shows, I don't think we would still be around.”

That sense of duality, of loss and perseverance, fuels the dynamics of Loss. No matter how dark things get, the spirit pushes on. The title track is a monumental, metallic tear-jerker, as Gibbs and Green repeat truly captivating lines. They wanted the song to be a tribute to drummer Alex Wood’s mom, who had passed, which only increases the chances of a personal Niagara Falls. Green expands on how the song came together: “‘I interviewed Alex for about an hour or two, just on a friend level. He knew what we were going to do with it. Just to see how

he felt and see how he was feeling and how, from his perspective, the situation, and life, and everything have been since then. I just wrote down loads of stuff that he was saying whilst we were talking, and then I turned that to lyrics. “Basically, everything that's there lyrically is something he said about his mom passing. I don't know. We were trying to make it as real as possible, where it delves as deep into people's personal suffering as such. And at the end of the track, where it cuts to nothing, the sound of waves is actually footage taken of her last holiday with the family at the beach.” 💣

THE SOUNDS OF SEQUENTIAL STORYTELLING opening track. I thought we might have to overdub, but we decided to see if we could get it live first. We did. I always want the songs to represent how I play, think, and feel in the moment.”

INTERVIEW BY J POET

PHOTO BY AKASHA RABUT

lthough she lives in New Orleans, singer and songwriter Esther Rose draws her inspiration from country music’s golden age. There’s nothing retro about the sound she creates with her band, but the songs on How Many Times, her third album, often recall the early hits of Kitty Wells and Wanda Jackson. While there is a lot of lap steel in the arrangements, it’s played with a rock edge, avoiding the clichés of long, mournful sustained notes.

“I don’t consciously aim for any particular sound,” Rose says. “The music is the product of the band’s considerable experience and how we phrase our playing together. We’re all millennials and listen to lots of music. I remember Rose made How Many Times in New Orleans, best and streamlines the mixing process. going to the library to borrow CDs. I’d writing and recording over a three-year You have what you have. I don’t like waste. get hung up on a record and listen to it Maybe it’s my Spartan mentality? I love period, finishing up just before the COVID for years. I’d know every nuance, every lockdown of 2020. The songs were cut live— listening back to the takes on the reel to solo, every syllable. I don’t do the Spo- the band playing and singing together in reel. It’s magic to watch the reels move tify playlist thing. I want to hear entire and hear the songs. You feel what you did one room— direct to analog tape. albums, the songs in order. I spend a when you were playing. long time working on the sequencing of “We added vocal harmonies on a few my records. I want them to tell a story, songs, but everything else is live,” Rose “Like, I decided to do a high harmony with and it’s in there, if you listen.” says. “Analog makes everybody play their my fiddler to close ‘How Many Times,’ the

Many of the songs on the album explore failed affairs, missed connections, and the grief one feels at the end of a relationship, but Rose says it’s not a breakup album, as such. “As I was writing ‘How Many Times,’ [the song] I had a breakthrough moment of being. I realized the feelings at the end of a relationship aren’t about numbing out, but going to a deep place in your soul and finding resiliency and beauty there. I was dealing with jealousy, loneliness, fear, and mourning, and tried to go straight in and feel those things more than ever. When I was finished writing it, I was so lost in the joy of singing and playing music, I was carried out of the crappy mood I was in when I started writing it. At the end of the song, there’s a lot of joy.” “I write for myself and I know what works for me, although being too vulnerable can be a mistake,” she continues. “I have a hard time separating my personal and professional lives. I don’t want to be a confessional artist. I want to be a songwriter for all people. I don’t want every song to be a gooey narrative of what I’m going through.” 💣 PHOTO BY LINDSEY BYRNES

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST KELC GALLUZZO BY JOHN SILVA

“

ou cannot be a musician if you don’t have people supporting you. And the support that I’ve found from people, I think my gratitude and appreciation for it is so real and so important, which I think is something people will understand when they hear this record more too,” says Jetty Bones lead singer Kelc Galluzzo. Galluzzo’s deep appreciation for the people who connect with her music is on brand—she’s a kindhearted person who preaches self-care from the stage and loves connecting with fans offstage. The merch table chats are one of the things she misses most from pre-pandemic times.

“I always invite people to come talk to me when the show’s over, at the merch table,” Galluzzo says. “As soon as the set’s over, I go back to the merch table, and those conversations are something I miss so much with not being able to tour. I don’t think people realize that they mean just as much to me. Fans connect to music because it makes them feel less alone. I don’t think fans realize the artists need it just as much.” Galluzzo is known for her incredibly vulnerable lyrics, but Jetty Bones' new record Push Back, which is out February 26 on Rise Records, is her most personal piece yet, sharing her story of

depression and suicidal ideation. Galluzzo was very intentional in the song arrangement on Push Back, creating a narrative throughout the album, both lyrically and musically. “The album definitely starts off sounding very pop, very polished. And then, it gradually takes a darker turn,” Galluzzo explains. “The theme on the record follows what it’s sonically doing as well.” The pacing of the album represents the two parts of Galluzzo, how she presents herself to the public and what she’s really dealing with internally. “I’m starting from the perspective that I think people see me as,” she says. “And it has the aforementioned poppier notes to it, because I think a lot of people see that music as somewhat fraudulent, as kind of a fake face that people are putting on. That ties right into the theme. I wanted to start people where they see me and bring them all the way back down to where I was when this project started.” Because she talks so openly about mental health, some may assume Galluzzo is fully healed. She hopes this record will show that recovery is an ongoing process. “I definitely realized that my willingness

to discuss these things and my ability to handle them was being perceived as me being completely healed and better and fixed,” she explains. “And I’m not at all. So, I did definitely feel a pressure to, I don’t know, be the poster child for recovery. When recovery isn’t a cut-and-dry thing, it’s something you deal with every day.” Push Back ends with “Bug Life,” a track that includes a suicide note Galluzzo wrote and recorded five years ago. It may seem like a dark way to end the record, but the real story has a happy ending, because Galluzzo did not end up taking her life that day. She’s still with us. She notes that there’s so much that

has happened in the past five years that she’s grateful she got to experience. “I started a Twitter thread on my personal profile; it’s a really long thread of all the stuff that I would have missed, and I’m so glad I’m here for it,” she says. Galluzzo put the suicide note in the song to show that her life didn’t end when she thought it would. And, in that sense, Push Back is a record of encouragement. “I wanna use that song to help other people realize that there is more after the moment you think that there isn’t,” she says. 💣

NEW NOISE

THE SOUNDS OF UNCONVENTIONAL APPROACHES

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARISTS DANIEL RADIN AND AMY HOFFMAN BY JOHN SILVA

he premise was that we played in a band in high school, wrote songs about being in high school, and then formed the band,” says Future Teens guitarist Daniel Radin of the Boston-based emo-pop band’s origins. “That was quickly shed when we realized that it was funnier to us than anyone else, and it was going to be really hard to explain, as you can tell.”

“

it’s also such a ridiculous situation.’ Especially when it comes to relationships.” Their philosophy of finding humor and joy in unfortunate situations certainly helped them in adapting to the global pandemic this past year. The band rehearsed their new EP, Deliberately Alive, which is out March 12 on Take This to Heart Records, while safe and socially distanced, and they found a way to make the best of the experience.

Although they quickly dropped the “teens in the future” gimmick, Future Teens does have a knack for writing “We had one, single day where we all tongue-in-cheek lyrics which help light- drove separately to Daniel’s parents’ place in New Hampshire and set up on en up songs about heartbreak and other opposite corners of a barn,” Hoffman painful topics. explains. “[We] masked up and practiced for two days and camped on the proper“A big part of writing lyrics is Daniel and I ty. It was really nice.” trying to pull lighter or funny elements of a painful story. Trying to find some kind The group was able to socially distance of levity to help tell a story,” says guitarist while recording last summer as well. Amy Hoffman. “Personally, I’ve been in situations where … sometimes you’re in a such a low place that it’s actually absurd, and it’s actually sort of funny,” Radin adds. “You’re just like, ‘Can this be worse? I feel so bad but

PHOTO BY ADAM PARSHALL

“We rigged up all of the cables from Daniel’s basement up to us [in the] driveway,” Hoffman says. “Maya [Mortman, bassist] and I both recorded outside. We were able to engineer everything at Daniel’s.”

The EP features four original tracks and “There’s just something about seeing a one cover of Cher’s 1998 hit, “Believe.” live performance and hearing multiple True to form, the band split vocal duties, people sing and hearing multiple peowith Radin performing lead vocals on ple’s perspectives that can be refreshing two of the originals and Hoffman picking in a way,” Radin says. 💣 up the other two.

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST AND VOCALIST JACK UNDERKOFLER BY J. POET

fter a series of well received EPs and videos, Dead Poet Society decided it was time for a collection that would showcase the band’s distinct style. Their overwhelming, twin-guitar attack and explosive rhythm section makes them hard rock contenders, but there are hints of hip-hop, blues, funk, R&B, and lots more bubbling through their arrangements.

“Our drummer, Will Goodroad, has a rath- There is a brooding air to many of the songs er extensive R&B background,” explains on the L.A. band’s debut album, titled -!-, Jack Underkofler, the band’s singer, and out on Spinefarm Records on February lyricist, guitar player and co-producer. “I 12. Underkofler says they chose the unique think the way he plays is a huge part of title for its enigmatic overtones. our sound. We’ve all been infatuated with old, delta-style blues and the ominous “It represents the album in a visually vissadness that it evokes. It’s so honest and ceral way, especially when you look at it to the point. I think that’s why it captivates while listening to the music. It’s sort of a us so much.” subconscious onomatopoeia. It feels like a sound, and that sound is our music.” PHOTO BY HEATHER KOEPP

The band’s sprawling approach is produced in large part by the fretless guitars that Underkofler and the band’s second guitarist, Jack Collins, play. They produce a fluid tone that can take the melodies in surprising directions. “Our guitars open up a new, creative vein to an instrument that can feel a bit archaic,” Underkofler says. “You can’t play them like regular guitars, and that limitation forces you to get creative with how you write. There’s a freedom to write and play to the strengths of that sound. You can tell it’s a guitar, but it also sounds different, in a way that we love.” The album occupies a vast sonic space, with textured, almost ambient touches swimming in the background. There are funky rockers like “Future of War,” bluesy

16 NEW NOISE

tunes driven by Nick Taylor’s unusual bass lines, like “Love You Like That,” and “Haunted,” the quiet, acoustic ballad that brings the album to a peaceful close. The band self-produced most of the album, but brought in Alex Newport (Death Cab for Cutie, Bloc Party) to help out on five tracks. “He’s an awesome guy and fun to work with,” Underkofler says. “He did an amazing job. We all like big sounds. Except for the drums and vocals, we do the recording using direct input for guitars and bass. Then, we play around with different tones until we find something that makes us go ‘Fuck, yeah!’ In college, Jack studied record engineering, and I studied songwriting, but our production skills were honed by just sitting at the computer, trying new things. Sometimes, where the arrangement goes next will be very apparent, and sometimes it’s elusive, and it takes a lot of arguing.” “We’re trying to get better at not overthinking or spending too long on an arrangement, but sometimes we can spend days on a single line before anything ends up working,” he says. “We all love all styles of music. It matters less to me what the genre is and more how the particular song makes me feel.” 💣

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THE SOUNDS OF PATIENCE AND PLANNING

INTERVIEW WITH MULTI-INSTRUMENTALIST MATTHAIS SOLLAK BY ADDISON HERRON-WHEELER

ertain bands are able to tap into our most secret fears, our innermost heartache, in a way that actually heals and uplifts us, both through the catharsis of music and song and through lyrical content. Those bands are few and far between, but Harakiri for the Sky are one of them.

ruary of this year. All of the recording was done pre-pandemic, and the band sat on the record for an entire year, dealing with several different release delays.

“It’s a bit tough because it’s been such a long period of time already,” says multi-instrumentalist, founder, and songwriter Matthais Sollak. “We are in our third, hard lockdown right now; that means everything is closed except grocery stores, pharmacies, and banks. We miss playing concerts, so it’s not easy to cope with, but we just have to accept that the pandemic exists and make the best of it.”

Despite these delays, however, and the obvious touring disappointments, the band are thrilled to finally have their music out in the world. As on previous records, Harakiri for the Sky’s specific blend of post-metal and hardcore elements with classic, melodic, black metal creates a bleak soundscape on which to work out trauma and despair. And though Sollak doesn’t want to speak for vocalist and lyricist Michael “JJ” V. Wahtraum, he can confirm that similar themes appear on this record.

“We planned an unofficial release in September 2020, but it was already pretty clear early on that wasn’t going to happen,” Sollak explains. “So then, we had the However, while their music may tran- official release date of January 29. Then, scend space and time with its melodies, we had delays with the pressing plant because apparently they had a COVID dark qualities, the men behind the music cluster there, so everything got delayed, are, in fact, mortals like the rest of us, and and we had to move to February. Now, have been dealing with the impacts of finally, it’s coming out, and we’re really COVID. Currently, Austria is on a strict lockdown, and they are feeling the effects. relieved.”

Harakiri for the Sky are a perfect example of a band faced with major delays due to the pandemic. While they had their entire forthcoming album, M re, recorded last “The lyrics are always a snapshot of a February, it didn’t get released until Feb- certain period of time, and his disap-

INTERVIEW WITH BASSIST JARKKO AALTONEN BY ADDISON HERRON-WHEELER PHOTO BY ALAN SNODGRASS

pointments and experiences, whatever he goes through,” Sollak confirms. “There’s always an emotional intensity, and this record deals with different subjects; for example, some of it is about a friend who died recently. When JJ brings me new lyrics, I always know exactly what they’re about, because we’ve been friends for 10 years. Even though he uses metaphors and everything, I know right away what he’s touching on.” And, like all the other bands out there try-

themes on the new record. “We have, of course, some of the traditional stuff we’ve always had with the local legends, but a lot of the songs are about mysteries, murders basically. For some reason, one of the big themes this time, which is different, is unsolved murder cases.” Korpiklaani’s new record, Jylhä, is out now via Nuclear Blast, and it represents a fresh take on their music while still preserving their classic, folk sensibilities. In addition to taking a darker lyrical approach, the band also spent a little more time dialing down the details of the album, focusing on each element in the studio thanks to the extra time they had.

time around, their new album has a dark innish, folky, and admittedly a little theme: dead people. more upbeat and cheerful than your average metal band, Korpiklaani aren’t ashamed of the classic “For some reason, dead people, '' says influence or pep in their sound, but this Jarkko Aaltonen, bassist, about the lyrical

18 NEW NOISE

ing to process COVID heartache, they’re also coming to terms with the fact that some of their coolest plans have been cancelled. “It would have been so exciting; this would have been our first U.S tour last year, and we were really stoked,” he laments. “We were going to go to Turkey for the first time and do all these cool things. Now, we’re just sitting at home, and our whole, daily schedule is completely different. Shows are something we really miss.” 💣

and that’s what makes this album stand out more from the rest.” In addition to the new record, the band have, unsurprisingly, released a vodka to go with their musical ode to the drink, a track just titled “Vodka.” According to their website, “Korpiklaani Vodka is a premium, grain-based vodka from the land of a thousand lakes. Distilled, handpicked spruce, together with the purest water in the world, form a product with a unique forest aroma and perfect smoothness.” Plus, it comes in a cool, classy bottle. However, on top of all the good, the band are still bummed about how much has been cancelled when it comes to shows and festivals, but they’re trying to take the good with the bad.

“So, this time, we actually had a pre-production period where we went through all the drum parts, all the guitars, all the bass parts, and actually went through every- “Everything is getting cancelled, but you thing, down to the details,” Aaltonen ex- have to have a plan,” Aaltonen explains. plains. “Once we actually got to the prop- “And then, whether it gets cancelled or not, so be it. It has been a bit better here in er studio, we didn't need to do anything Finland than in the rest of the world, but on the record. We had already decided there are still no shows, and what we what we wanted to do and what we didn’t want to do. We were very well-prepared, have coming up is still getting cancelled. We want to get back out there, but at this and I think that shows on the album. We paid so much more attention to detail, point, who knows when that will be.” 💣

SHAMIR PHOTO BY SHAMIR

PHOTO BY JRAT BARNES

BY ADDISON HERRON-WHEELER

iving his best life as an out, non- However, despite the awesome duty to specifically speak on these out if I’m being misgendered. Why binary artist in the indie and ex- success, as a queer person of col- things,” explains Shamir. “But, I do would I let these things run if I was perimental space, Shamir Bai- or, he is constantly dealing with think it’s my duty as an artist to talk being misgendered?” ley has been interested in music since micro-agressions, as well as critics about all of my experiences, just try childhood, when he’d listen to his aunt who want to make his sexuality the to show how I see things through my As if navigating the music world wasn’t enough, Shamir is also getmake music in her room. Sneaking in only topic of conversation. eyes the best that I can.” ting into fashion designing. to watch her as young as pre-kindergarten, he knew this was the direction “For a while, it was the only topic, He also doesn’t have a pronoun life was going to take. me being nonbinary,” he explained. preference, and gets frustrated “This clothing company hit me up, “People would not even have the when people in the community as- and at first, I thought that it was Now, despite the pandemic, he’s terminology. They would just make sume his only acceptable pronoun kind of crazy, but what I love about it is, they let me do what I want,” he making headway in his career, as up shit, just about my gender iden- is “they.” says. “I’m not necessarily a designhe has successfully released his tity, my sexuality. Now, I get excited initial, self-titled album, as well as when interviews are actually about “I find it frustrating when a publica- er, but this company works with AI. a video from the album, “Diet,” to my music.” tion will post about me with he/him Everything is designed through AI, much acclaim. pronouns, and then you’ll see peo- so the AI kind of poops out a bunch While he has never shied away ple in the comments hella angry, of ideas and kind of tailors them.” “It exceeded every expectation I from being out and queer in the like, ‘They, not he!’ I feel two ways have for it,” he says of the new vid- music world, with song titles like about it. One is, not all nonbinary Get Shamir’s self-titled album now, eo. “From the beginning, I felt like I “Straight Boy,” he doesn’t want to be people go strictly by they/them. It’s and stay tuned for more specific was constantly on a hamster wheel, seen as just a queer musician, or not a default pronoun for all non- music and clothing announcejust trying to keep up with every- just a Black musician. binary people. And second of all, ments soon. 💣💣💣 thing, because everything had exit makes it seem like I don’t have ceeded my expectations.” “I don't think it's necessarily, like, my enough autonomy myself to point

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PHOTO BY BILLY EYERS

“

INTERVIEW WITH SAXOPHONIST/GUITARIST TAKIAYA REED AND DRUMMER SYLVIE NEHILL BY MARIKA ZORZI

he destruction of the earth, “The album is named Gas Lit bewhite supremacy, the contin- cause of the pervasive existence ued oppression of indigenous of pain and suffering—that is often people, Black people and people invisibilized and causes erasure, of color, the prison industrial com- provoking an even greater trauma,” plex, capitalism— all these unsus- Reed and Nehill say. “It’s called Gas tainable, violent forces must end. It Lit because it’s such a tremendous is unsustainable for the earth and problem that is costing people people bearing the burdens of white their lives and normalising systemsupremacy and fragility to continue ic tragedy, justifying the colonial under the colonial project.” project, white supremacy, genocide, and colonial governance. Few bands use their voice and Gas Lit seeks to acknowledge the platform quite as powerfully as unacknowledged.” Divide and Dissolve. Mirroring the brash, bone-crushing potency of The eight tracks on the album adtheir dynamic drone music, the mirably encapsulate the message formidable Takiaya Reed (saxo- behind Divide and Dissolve’s music. phone, guitar, live effects) and Sylvie Nehill (drums, live effects) carry “We seek to honor our ancestors, their fight and their ancestors fight nature, water, forest, and our inforward each and every day, using herent connection to the Earth the power of their performances to with our music,” the band say. “Gas draw attention to the ongoing bat- Lit was prompted by [producer] tle against systemic oppression. Ruban Nielson getting in touch with

us about producing one of our albums. We were delighted to begin working with him.”

sic continues to be a springboard for collective resistance.

“Music is a great outlet for expressThere is an undeniable chemistry ing things that are bigger than us, between Reed and Nehill when in- which is usually the provenance for situations that do not feel good,” terlocked in their waves of sound. “We began collaborating by pick- Reed and Nehill say. “It’s important ing up our instruments and playing to try to be hopeful every day and together, but an important part of to do whatever is within our capathis process was also spending a lot bilities, while also calling into quesof time around each other every tion the entitlement we feel about day,” Reed and Nehill continue. “A so-called change.” crucial element in our collaborative process is us connecting with “You cannot have the light withour ancestors. The album was a out the darkness,” they conclude. joy to create. It was a project sur- “There’s a misconception that dark rounded by love and connection equals bad and light equals good. with the earth, our ancestors, and Our bodies and minds are interacting with both non-hierarchiloved ones.” cally. We exist in the darkness and Whether that be through pointed at- the light, as does our album that is tacks or something more existential, consumed by immense heaviness sung quietly or performed as loud as and beauty.” 💣💣💣 can be, for Divide and Dissolve mu-

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22 NEW NOISE

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MICHAEL THORN

“Ultimately, I would say the cornerstone of this record would be having a little bit more space within the songs to be catchy,” says Shelton. “I usually step on things really fast, where like if something is the ‘mosh part,’ I tend to go away from that very fast, whereas this record, it was like – well, what if we spend a little bit more time and allow the songs to be catchy? And I think just finding every way to add some element of an earworm wherever possible, instead of making it just a fast record – trying to find things within the vocals and the instruments to stand out unto themselves.” The energy reflected in Crime and Punishment is carrying Regional Justice Center forward.

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST / DRUMMER IAN SHELTON BY CALEB R. NEWTON

rime and Punishment, the against constricting boundaries. crushing new album from “My whole goal is to anecdotally West Coast hardcore crew highlight things that I’m actualRegional Justice Center – a March ly experiencing instead of telling release from Closed Casket Activ- anybody this is right, this is wrong,” ities – feels like a musical flame- Shelton explains. “I’m just saying: thrower operating at maximum This is what’s happening in my life, capacity. and a lot of people don’t see it from as good of an angle.” The group performs with a familiar hardcore palette, with which they Although the record features less craft searing bursts of sound that than 15 minutes of music, Regional seem to reflect crushing mental Justice Center have packed a ton of tension via intricately heaving dy- blistering dynamic swings into the namics. Within the world of Crime experience. and Punishment, there’s really no escape from the billowing stress. “I would say that a main way that a lot of the writing gets done is hear“The main [theme] is kind of an ex- ing things that are non-hardcore, amination of what level we accept such as a lot of classic rock or pop the lives that we’ve been given,” things,” Shelton explains. “I hear vocalist and drummer Ian Shelton either rhythms or various things I explains. “And to what degree does think could translate, and they kind your own self believe that you de- of set me down a path of converting serve better, or that you deserve it into something that is sonically what you come from, and the con- abrasive. I mean, obviously that’s scious rejection of that, or the sub- run through a filter of the classics conscious embrace of it – things that I grew up on, such as Crossed such as the addictions of your Out. I think this record was very inparents or class, and just various tentionally heavier and even more things that you have no say in. But abrasive than previous records in as you get older, you can choose, if trying to really bring out a new level you consciously are aware of it, to of nastiness.” reject or change your life, and this [record] is very much structured in That “nastiness” courses through the way of what’s given to me and the hard-hitting album from the then what I’ve done instead.” comparatively slower “Inhuman Joy” to the dizzyingly fast “Solvent” Escaping one’s background can and beyond. Throughout the music, prove more difficult than expect- Regional Justice Center – including, ed, and the intensely heavy record besides Shelton, Alex Haller and seems to reflect a desperate push Che Hise-Gattone on guitar and

Steph Jerkova on bass – maintain a hoarse and abrasive hardcore edge, preserving the genre’s brute force while exploring fresh rhythmic territory.

“It’s about really just listening to music constantly instead of ever feeling satisfied,” Shelton shares, discussing his creative process. “I never have had the feeling of, ‘oh, I’ve really done everything I can,’ because I am just constantly thinking – I could do so much better. I feel really accomplished with this record. I’m really proud of this record. But at the same time, I’m like well, alright – now I need to find a way to write a better one.” 💣💣💣

NEW NOISE

ILLUSTRATION BY JIM KETTNER

CUT OR TEAR HERE AND HANG UP!

CUT HERE AND HANG UP

ca’s oldest pastime is all in good fun. It’s all “[f]un shit,” she explains. When asked about how they plan to promote their joint releases, Toone is disarmingly honest. “I’m hoping Rev knows …” she answers with a laugh. Todd picks up the thread of her bemused frustration. “It’s funny because none of us in the band are big internet people, or know how to promote ourselves on the internet,” he says. “I was like, ‘Fuck, am I gonna have to get a Twitter? I don’t want to do that.’” The solution of social media, of course, comes with its own host of problems, as described by Toone: “Band Twitters are hard. It’s hard to not be corny. Taylor, you don’t want to be a reply guy.” “I don’t even know what that means.” Todd responds. PHOTOGRAPHY BY VERONIKA REINERT

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALISTS TAYLOR TODD AND MAE TOONE BY M.REED

rban Sprawl and Tørsö are Bridge. It was an image inspired was in second grade, and I thought two savage sounding old by a poster Todd had in his room it was so sick!” school hardcore bands with as a kid. “Mae’s a big A’s fan,” Todd continorigins in the San Francisco Bay Area. They’ve both released 7”s with the “The poster was based on one for ues. “I’m a big Giants fan. We’ve allegendary Revelation Records in a the ’89 World Series,” he says. “The ways talked about baseball and talkjoint promotion early in 2021, with Ur- Giants and the A’s played each ed shit to each other about baseball.” ban Sprawl dropping Concrete Alter other. There’s these two muscular and Tørsö unleashing Home Wrecked. baseball players and they’re fight- Toone quickly clarifies that the ing over the pennant in the middle smack talk that she and Todd sling “Alright, well, here is something so of the Bay. I had that poster when I back and forth concerning Ameriyou don’t forget we’re a band,” Tørsö singer Mae Toone admits.

“It’s a guy who replies,” is the explanation Toone offers him. The world as we know it may still be in the process of falling apart, but we can rest assured that the friendship between Urban Sprawl and Tørsö is stronger than ever. 💣💣💣

READ MORE OF THIS VERY HUMOROUS CONVERSATION AT WWW.NEWNOISEMAGAZINE.COM

She explains that Home Wrecked was recorded during a pre-COVID session. Toone now lives in New York while the rest of her band still resides in California. The logistical complications this imposes have made it impossible for her to work on new material since the start of the pandemic. “Hope you guys don’t want anything [new] from us for, like, five more years, or however long it takes for us all to get vaccinated,” she says. “This is it. We’re fucked after this.” As much as Urban Sprawl’s lead singer Taylor Todd was excited about his band’s new record, he was even more charged up about the artwork Revelation had sprung for. A sprawling poster depicting kaiju-sized versions of Tørsö and Urban Sprawl’s members fighting each other over the Golden Gate

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hen things get bad, I’ve taught myself to just dive in and suffer through any pain,” says Portrayal of Guilt guitarist and singer Matt King. “I always seem to find myself on the other end.”

one was pretty straightforward.” The new songs show an evolutionary leap for a band that was already pretty far along to start with.

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST MATT KING BY MARIKA ZORZI

To say that Portrayal of Guilt write grim songs is an understatement. Since forming in 2017, the Austin band has always shared harsh and brutal sentiments through their releases. Now, on their second album, We Are Always Alone, out via Closed Casket Activities, the band explores the notion of eternal isolation.

PHOTO BY ADDRIAN JAFARITABAR

Even though it was birthed under the specter of a global pandemic, it’s hard to argue that We Are Always Alone is any more dire than the rest of the band’s catalog.

“I feel like shit,” King says. “People are exposing themselves for who they really are, but I have a feeling this new year will bring a lot of well-deserved karma.”

“I always read the lyrics while listening to the final product and find myself scared at how depressing and violent it reads,” King confesses. “I’m not sure if I’d ever talk about those feelings elsewhere.”

“On a personal level, the past year has been the most miserable experience I’ve had in my life, mentally,” he continues. “It seems so many have been experiencing a heavy amount of injustice and loss, especially with this pandemic.”

Despite everything, at least King remains confident in the future of the band.

We Are Always Alonewas written and recorded ahead of schedule, King says. “We finished writing the album in between tours in early 2020, with the plan to record it after a tour we were only able to do half of last March. Our original plan was to record in our practice space like we had been previously, but because of COVID-19, it was shut down shortly after we returned home. We

“Our songwriting has definitely evolved since we started, and we’re proud of that, but we’re not consciously doing anything different,” King says. “What I think sets this album apart from previous material is the fact that we recorded in an actual studio. We’ll probably continue to do that.”

were able to line up a studio last minute to record in, which we hadn’t done be-

fore, so that gave us more time to work on things. The recording process for this

“I recently started taking our label more seriously, so we look to build that into something substantial this year and beyond,” he says. “As soon as we’re able to tour again, we plan on traveling as much of the world as we can, of course. It’ll be fun compiling a set with so much new material to work with. Until then we’re looking forward to announcing multiple records that will follow the release of We Are Always Alone.” 💣

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST DAMIAN CHACON AND VOCALIST HAYDEN RODRIGUEZ BY M.REED

olumbus, Ohio’s For Your Health are not only one of the best sounding screamo bands to come tearing out the gates in “Twenty-Nine Scene,” [2019 for those not in the know] they’re also one of the hardest driving bands in the country.

PHOTO BY PHONE FENK

“For this new record, we had this timeline where we had to finish writing the songs, record them, mix and master, and do all the art and design, and get it all pressing ready in three and a half weeks,” Chacon explains. “And we did it!”

“Last year we were on tour all year round,” the band’s guitarist Damian Chacon recalls. “Our tour schedule was supposed to have been super expansive,” vocalist Hayden Rodriguez confirms. “We intended to do well over 100 shows.”

An award-worthy understatement. Despite, or maybe because of the way it was made, In Spite Of has a palpable and expansive energy that pierces the ear while it tickles the senses. Not a surprising outcome, given the nature of For Your Health.

But when COVID hit, For Your Health reluctantly had to ease up on their van’s gas pedal, literally, for their own health and safety. For Your Health formed when Chacon and Rodriguez found themselves with long stretches of time and nothing to do. Chacon had recently lost his job where he and Rodriguez had both worked. They had bonded over food and music, and Rodriguez’s former band had broken up

26 NEW NOISE

This is exemplified by the speed at which their new, and fittingly titled, record, In Spite Of, came to be.

just as they were about to leave for tour. “I didn't have a job,” Chacon explains. “Hayden had time off, and [I met] Johnny [Deborde], who was Hayden’s friend, and Sandro [Zambrano-Villa], our original drummer, was his roommate, and it was all like… ‘Ok, these are our people.’”

At first glance, a band that formed, by all appearances, out of convenience and boredom would not seem be the most driven or cohesive group. But if there is one thing that For Your Health does better than most, it’s defy expectations, especially when presented with a challenge.

“It’s about trusting each other and believing in our tastes,” Chacon says. “And Hayden’s vision is very thorough, thoughtful, and expansive. So, it’s all about having that drive. Our passion for it, our determination, and that connection that we have to each other.” 💣

PHOTO BY JOHANNES WARTBERGER

INTERVIEW WITH DRUMMER MIKE DEE CRACKUS BY HUTCH

ustria’s DeeCracks have “The highlight of 2020 was recording already. In Japan the crowd was very Mike adds, “It’s a fun ride throughout deployed three full- lengths Serious Issues and all the work that shy and you had to win them over. all 16 songs, I think.” His pride is paland numerous EPs and splits came with it. Matt (vocalist) had the Both great countries to tour in. Chi- pable, comparing it to prior work. “It since 2009. Their fourth LP, Serious Is- songs ready before the pandemic hit na was the craziest tour we ever did. has got great songs on it and it’s the sues, out March 12 on Pirates Press Re- and we had the studio booked in May. We had 22 shows there in 26 days. We best sounding one too, if you ask me. cords, is catchy, gruff punk seasoned Luckily, Austria just opened up again travelled via high-speed trains and The sound is a lot less polished than with garage and surf influences. in May, so we could actually go do only played major cities. The smallest our previous records and has a more it. It felt great, Matt wrote some killer one had 1.5 million people, if you be- garage-y approach. I just love this Mike reflects with insight on how he songs again and we all had a blast lieve the numbers. It was weird, peo- record, no matter how it will be reutilized forced isolation to reset and working on them.” ple treated shows like going to a mov- ceived, everything felt great and went prioritize. Punk is a genre defined by ie. They show up 15 minutes before we smooth with this record since day one.” energy, but the break proved fruitful. 2013 saw DeeCracks tour Japan and play and leave right after. The shows It also aligned with their schedule to Russia; 2015, China. They have also were all very different there.” Serious Issues does in fact feel like an record. toured North America —well, Canappropriate reflection of 2020 in tone, ada and Mexico, as Visa issues had Serious Issues announces its tone on ei- remiss and cautious. That however “To be honest, I actually kinda enjoyed them banned from the US. ther side of the LP, as each begins with a happens to be a coincidence, Mike the lockdown a lot at first. Life had surf instrumental track. Side A punches explains. been hectic. We’d been touring a lot “Touring all of those places was great. proper with the first vocal track, “The and working next to that. So, although We love the adventure of it and it is Samurai Challenge.” The album has “The funny thing is, that the record the break was forced upon us, it was the best way to travel. The first Japan turbo-charged songs with stand outs deals with depression, isolation and also much needed. We didn’t see tour was actually right after our first like “A Reason,” “The Window,” “Kill or the question of how important it is each other for a long time, which was tour in Russia, we flew from Moscow Cure,” and “Not Today,” an aggressive to be a part of something, which tocrazy given how much time we spent to Tokyo. That was quite the cultural anthemic declaration. But DeeCracks tally fits the time, but Matt actually together in the past 18 years.” change. In Russia people were show- has some mid-tempo, respites among wrote all of those songs before the ing up drunk, offering us whatever the sixteen tracks: “Don’t Throw It Away,” pandemic. But, yeah, you should give Quickly seeing the glass as half full, moonshine vodka they were having “Lost in the Middle,” and “A Night Like this record a chance and find out for Mike changes gears. and going nuts during line checks This” – with a sonic nod to Weezer. yourself.” 💣💣💣

28 NEW NOISE

PHOTO BY ALBERT MUNOZ

THE NARDCORE BIG FOUR BY TOM CRANDLE Oxnard, California is only about 60 miles northeast of Los Angeles proper, but it might as well be on another planet. There is none of the glitz and glamor typically associated with the City of Angels. Instead, it’s a working-class coastal town that’s home to seamen, longshoremen, and farmers. Oxnard is also home to its very own punk scene, lovingly known as Nardcore, starting in the early ’80s. The following is a brief introduction to the Big Four of Nardcore, and the four essential albums that you should check out to get started on your journey to the land of no toilets.

AGRESSION - DON’T BE MISTAKEN (1983)

NARDCORE FOR LIFE

Pretty much anyone who was there will tell you that Agression bassist Big Bob Clark was one of the most important figures in the nascent Nardcore scene. The early nucleus of Agression came together about 1980 and was made up of skaters sponsored by Sims, including Clark. Don’t Be Mistaken was an early release on the Stern brother’s Better Youth Organization Records and has largely remained in print. (The Stern brothers were also the core of the band Youth Brigade, and they still run the very successful Punk Rock Bowling and Music Festival in Las Vegas.) This makes it one of the easiest, and cheapest records on this list to find. While there hasn’t been any new Agression music in 15 years, you can still occasionally catch the band gigging around SoCal.

DR. KNOW - PLUG-IN JESUS (1984)

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST JOHN CRERAR BY TOM CRANDLE

’s been four decades since Stäläg 13, one of the four original Nardcore bands, formed in Oxnard, California. It’s been 37 years since they released their undisputed punk classic, In Control. Still, 2021 seems like as good a time as any for a proper follow up. Fill In The Silence will arrive on February 29, through the combined efforts of Puke N Vomit Records and Plain Disguise Records.

John Crerar, a self-described Nardcore fanatic, replaced original Stäläg 13 singer Ron Baird about seven years ago, after Baird relocated to Australia. Crerar has howled for The Missing 23rd, Stop Breathing, Dad Brains and a bunch more. With Baird’s blessing, the band carried on and has been busier than ever. With Crerar at the helm, Stäläg 13 even managed to tour Europe for the first time. Crerar was a natural fit. He explains: “I knew the guys. I knew the songs. I could sing the songs. We started playing a bunch with the In Control lineup with me singing. People wanted us in Europe, so we toured Europe.”

[Blake Cruz] basically talked me into “Drummer Larry White, he’s in the it. He’s a good motivator!” picture on the Stäläg 13 record In Control, but he didn’t record the “I’ve never really been nervous when drums. He joined right after they reI put out music, but now I’m like, fuck! corded,” Crerar explains. “I know he What did we do?” Crerar laughs. “It wanted to record his drums on those put fear in the back of my head.” songs he’s been playing for 35 years.” Fortunately, his fears have been un- “Larry is like the Nardcore hero dude. founded. “So far people have been He was in Agression, then he was in stoked,” he reports. Stäläg 13, then he was in Dr. Know,” Crerar continues. “That’s the cool Fans should be stoked. Fill In The Si- thing about the scene out here. The lence manages to be both modern old dudes still hang out. The young and classic sounding. Ultimately, kids hang out. When there are shows they found a way to bridge the past it’s cool.” and present. Speaking of shows, Stäläg 13 did “The new record isn’t really all new manage to sneak one into 2020. songs,” Crerar says. “They had a bunch of songs they would play that “There’s a place in Oxnard, a big parkweren’t on In Control but were from ing lot at the community center, and back in the day, and they still play they’ve been doing shows there. We now. Half of the songs on the record did a show with Pulley there over the are kind of those songs.” summer,” Crerar recalls.

“They have a demo from before In Like most everything else in 2020, it Control came out,” he continues. “It’s was a little strange. a shitty-ass recording, so we kind of retooled some of those songs and I “It was cool. It was just really weird to wrote new lyrics for them. So, some of play for cars and have people honk As confident as Crerar was singing it is that and some of it is brand new.” at you,” Crerar concludes. those old songs, the idea of making a new record was still intimidating. Stäläg 13 also re-recorded two A new record from Stäläg 13 in 2021 songs from In Control, “Conditioned” is also a little strange— but, with Fill “I kind of didn’t want to do it,” he con- and “Black Stix,” for Fill In The Silence. In The Silence, it’s definitely a good fesses. “It took a little convincing for The reasoning behind that is actual- kind of strange. 💣💣💣 me to do it, but our guitar player ly kind of endearing.

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Dr. Know was formed in 1981 and was, at various times, fronted by former child star Brandon Cruz, although he left before the recording of Plug-In Jesus. (Cruz is best known for his starring role in the TV series The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, but he also later sang for Dead Kennedys and Flipper.) Guitarist Kyle Toucher sang on Dr. Know’s most important album, Plug-In Jesus. The record had a strong anti-religion message, but the key track was probably “Mr. Freeze”, which was later included on Slayer’s 1996 punk covers album, Undisputed Attitude. In 2021, there are a couple of versions of Dr. Know kicking around, one fronted by Cruz and another by Toucher.

ILL REPUTE - WHAT HAPPENS NEXT (1984)

Ill Repute might be the definitive Nardcore band. In 2014, the band was recognized by their city council and mayor for their “revolutionary musical talent.” Later that year, they were inducted into the Ventura County Music Hall of Fame. Founding guitarist Tony Cortez is even known as the Mayor of Nardcore! Their 1983 EP, Oxnard - Land of No Toilets, was essential to defining the Nardcore sound. Their definitive album came the following year and included a memorable cover of the ’70s AM radio hit “Cherokee Nation.” Unlike many of their ’80s punk contemporaries, Ill Repute continued to make worthwhile albums well into the ’90s.

STÄLÄG 13 - IN CONTROL (1984)

Formed in 1981, Stäläg 13 were heavily influenced by the straight edge scene developing on the opposite side of the country in DC. Their debut EP, In Control, extolled the virtues of being clear headed and alert. Dr. Strange and Puke N Vomit Records have made an expanded, LP-length version of this classic relatively easy to come by. In more recent years, original singer Ron Baird moved to Australia. With Baird’s blessing, the band has carried on with second generation Nardcore vocalist John Crerar (vocalist for a laundry list of Nardcore and SoCal punk and hardcore bands). Stäläg 13 are the most active of the four original Nardcore bands, with recent tours of Europe and Japan. They also have a brand-new record for 2021. Could Fill In The Silence be the next great Nardcore record?

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THE NEW INDUSTRIAL AGE

“There is a natural flow with music, how it happens around me, so this time, my emotions were more personal. That's why Resonance exists.”

INTERVIEW BY CHRISTOPHER J. HARRINGTON

he enveloping and lucid “The record was made from songs and apocalyptic sits at the precipice. The album, featuring collaborations track, “Sorry I’m Going to I started a couple of years back un- Resonance is in many ways offering with Edward KaSpel (The Legendary Think Positive,” off cEvin Key’s til now, and a lot has gone on,” Key a distinction, offering method and Pink Dots), Chris Corner (IAMX), Otto newest solo endeavor, Resonance explains. “I felt an oncoming storm analysis for a world turned upside von Schirach, Dre Robinson and (due out February 19 via Artoffact of emotions. The music provided an down. Technology cannot become others, is fluid and Socratic. Both diRecords), is the sort of composition escape, and as the year rolled on to isolating, and this is where Key has rect and open in an endless sort of that maps out the language of exis- 2020, it became clear that I was ex- always shined through, using the inor- way, something that has a traveling tence: the chilling humanness is em- pressing a lot of emotions. ‘Sorry, I'm ganic to connect the organic, paving rhythm, heightened by the variance bedded in every inorganic pulse. It’s Going to Think Positive’ is really my the way for conversation. of its collaborators. an effect only electronic music can motto, in the sense that I could have achieve, something the legendary just thrown it all down and walked “Well, I've always felt overly empa- “I love happy accidents,” Key notes. Skinny Puppy co-founder has a little away as part of me felt, but fortunate- thetic to any issues involving ani- “So, in some ways it's nice to jam experience in. ly the musical therapy kept me active.” mals, people's rights, and just the out some ideas and see if anything general state of the world,” Key ‘happened,’ then go back and see “I like a song that makes me feel Key’s impact on electronic music says. “Lately, with witnessing the how other accidents could possibly good,” Key notes. “Not sure what through bands like Skinny Puppy, Trump regime, I've kind of felt like, be interjected. I can't say there is a exactly that is, but certain sounds Download, platEAU, and The Tear ‘hey, don't you people see what's regular method for songwriting. Foland combinations can make for a Garden, has shaped the contempo- going on here?’ My biggest prob- lowing inspiration and intuition is a resolving kind of feeling.” rary electronic world as we know it. lem was how few seemed to be re- goal. Following a creative spark or His unique way of using technology ally speaking about how we are all energy. Quite often I will lay down a Key’s new record is about that inner to shape organic life stretched the being sucked into that whole world. bunch of ideas and then go back afcorrelation resolving itself as an boundary of what computerized mu- It was head shaking. Now it seems ter and see how they hit me. If I give emotion. It’s both the specific and sic could be. For Key, it was always that we are opening our collec- enough time to forget the technical the ethereal that shines through. about life, and therefore the fusion tive eyes after witnessing January aspects and just listen to where it What's presented is a human story of real and imagined universes was 6. I guess it's a ripe time for some went, I often judge things based on and a hope for something more, a seamless and transcending. The cold- politically active music. I felt that the musical language.” notion all of us can identify with ness of robotic motion was turned more so in 2016. There is a natural these days. Resonance is a data col- warm, even while it was still dark and flow with music, how it happens Resonance is in the key of life, a natlection of human origin, with Key’s desolate. The connection to the hu- around me, so this time my emo- ural cubistic vision, the sound of the inner and outer world shaping its man heart is paramount for Key, and tions were more personal. That's past and of the future. 💣💣💣 methodology. here, in 2021, a breakdown very real why Resonance exists.”

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INTERVIEW BY CHRISTOPHER J. HARRINGTON

t’s the phantom conception of a city that you connect with on L.A. artist and producer KANGA’s newest release, You and I Will Never Die, out March 26 via Artoffact Records. The tones and variance equal the urban landscape, the eternal night, the color and the darkness. Yet, it’s the human element that supersedes the inanimate, and thus, the record is twofold, a maze of modernity.

my album faves. From there, I really relished that era of alternative and electronic music, everything from NIN, to PJ Harvey, to the Chemical Brothers. But, I also got a lot out of listening to dub artists like Ed Solo, Joker, and DJ Screw. I wanted to be all of these artists all at once in this one little body. I think I still do, probably.” You and I Will Never Die fits that aspiration, a record with variance abound. Hard industrial, future pop, neo-electronica, moments of technical stillness, then club ecstasy, the album is many things and one thing as well: a singular vision, KANGA’s voice the equilibrium balancing each aesthetic.

For a record so indebted to one’s outside environment, it is KANGA’s internal environment that pushes the album beyond. As all artists have been forced to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, KANGA used the experience for reflection, for inward transformation. What does it mean to be an artist during these times?

“I think when I was younger, I really romanticized the foreboding, lonesome cityscape as a bewitching villain that needed to be defeated,” KANGA notes. “But really, it was more like being in a toxic relationship with a narcissist. The highs are exciting, and the future could be so promising, but somehow, the loneliness over- “I was producing long before I began whelms, and somehow, it’s always your singing,” she says. “It actually wasn’t in fault. The city really lets you believe my plans to sing, I just recorded a loop that you can change it, tame it, but we of myself singing quietly and sampled it all know that never works.” into a track I was working on. It ended up getting mildly popular during the SoundInspired by the early electronic Cloud days, so I figured I would keep goand industrial innovators, KANGA ing in that direction.” creates music that is completely welcomed by the heart, and yet Luckily for us, You and I Will Never Die is still cold to the bone, the bleak the result of said direction: an album that cityscape that is grey and broken, touches many angles, many emotions decayed and gone. Much like her and visions. KANGA’s dark parlance musical heroes, the artist resolves resolves evenly with her excellent producto make beauty through chaos: a tion. Every section pulsing, pushing the enpure, industrial mindset. velope of club dynamics. She knows how to program for optimal usage, both technical “Nirvana was the first band I ever and organic. really got into, but I think it was probably Skinny Puppy that really “I treat my voice similarly to how I treat all the blew my perceptual doors open,” the other instruments in the composition,” she artist notes. “Ever since I heard “Wor- explains. “I think that helps me look at the track lock,” there was no going back, more objectively, since I don’t have the luxury or but Too Dark Park and The Process are the desire to have someone else giving me notes.”

“Well, the record was written before the pandemic,”KANGA

notes. “It was just the mixing and the fixing that happened after the shutdown. Finishing this project in the context of a civilization on fire added an extra weight to it. The outside forces sort of pulled me out of that navel-gazing self-reflection that a lot of us can easily become infatuated with. I almost felt guilty for making something that seemed so selfish in this larger context. But once everything was wrapped up, I felt that beautiful sense of release, and suddenly, I felt that the album (and maybe myself) could exist in tandem with this wild experience instead of in opposition to it.” 💣💣💣

“...I think it was probably Skinny Puppy that really blew my perceptual doors open.”

PHOTO BY MICHAEL MENDOZA

NEW NOISE 33

THE NEW INDUSTRIAL AGE

PHOTO BY ANNA MRZYGLOCKI

“My goal has always been to expand Trace Amount and industrial music beyond its traditional senses.”

INTERVIEW WITH PROJECT MASTERMIND BRANDON GALLAGHER BY CHRISTOPHER J. HARRINGTON

hen Brandon Gallagher, Endless Render sounds like that haraka Trace Amount, was rowing journey, with its suffocating writing 2020’s Endless mindscape, collapsed walls, and reRender, he was right smack down arranged space. It's an industrial rethere at ground zero. The record’s cord that is infinitely driving towards dark, phobic structure wore its influ- a collapse. You can feel and hear ence on its sleeve. Recorded partial- the walls caving in, the outside world ly in an eight-by-eight-foot cement stretched to its limits, the constant cube practice space in Brooklyn, and never-ending strife in a world which Gallagher had all to himself squared by rotten technology. due to the COVID-19 mass exodus from the city, the trips to and from “The title has a few different meanthe space were of particular note. ings,” Gallagher explains. “The literal struggle of creating video work that “I would go there and track vocals,” takes forever to render out, or maybe Gallagher notes. “But I would have even the constant doom scrolling and to walk by the hospital, and the side just seeing endless amounts of viostreet next to it was lined with freez- lence, corruption, and hate - always er trailers, aka pop-up morgues. It swiping down to refresh it once more.” was hard not to be influenced by my surroundings, seeing doctors in Gallagher teamed up with drummer hazmat suits wheeling bodies into a Billy Rymer (Dillinger Escape Plan) trailer during the 10 minutes I'm out- on two tracks from Endless Render, side a day, geared up with a medical and he’s collaborating with NYC’s mask and sometimes gloves, only to Body Stuff on his latest composition, lock myself in what felt like a cell to the punishing “Concrete Catacomb,” scream for a few hours.” due out February 5. Being a drum-

34 NEW NOISE

mer first, Gallagher sets his songs up with the beat as center structure.

landscapes. That is the gateway inside the unique world Gallagher conjures. Fusing disparate tones, he’s able to heighten one’s senses.

“The way I write Trace Amount tracks are mainly based on the rhythm,” he says. “I just find noises to go where I “It's always going to be the energy have the rhythm mapped out.” and tone for me,” he remarks. “I want my tracks to have an edge to On “Concrete Catacomb,” Body them that either makes you want Stuff’s Curran Reynolds (Today is the to smash something or hit the club. Day, Wetnurse) and Ryan Jones layer Hopefully both.” guitars and vocals over an existential graveyard, a song both spirited Trace Amount are able to transcend and cursed. through a mission of diversion, of equating space with non-space, and “Curran and Ryan dug the track, so I energizing through misery. It’s future wrote lyrics, tracked the vocals, and music, culled from the past, streamsent it back to them with the inten- lined for the present. tion of letting them go off what I had already laid out - more of a comple- “My goal has always been to expand mentary action, rather than writing Trace Amount and industrial music together,” Gallagher says. beyond its traditional senses,” Gallagher quips. “And incorporate eleTrace Amount teeters on the edge of ments of trip-hop, harsh noise, techtwo worlds, two polar reactions: a no, and pop music, because I can world of unison, of hope, the other find inspiration in a lot of different one of despair, of endless and dire aspects.” 💣💣💣

n Ferneaux is the newest album from Blanck Mass, the electronic project from Benjamin John Power. Out through Sacred Bones, In Ferneaux is a travelogue rooted in nostalgia.

INTERVIEW WITH PROJECT MASTERMIND BENJAMIN JOHN POWER BY DOUGLAS MENAGH

“Not only is it a documentation of how I saw myself going through a grieving process,” Power adds, “but I’m using very physical experiences to convey that, in the way that feels best to me at the time, being in isolation.”

“It is focused on the past,” says Power. “The present, whilst I was writing this record, to a certain degree, and the future, moving forward, using this as a tool of personal growth.” In Ferneaux arrives nearly a year after the pandemic upended the lives of everyone on this planet. When lockdown began, Power, who resides in East Lothian, Scotland, threw himself into work.

In Ferneaux is a two-song album. “I’ve done a couple things like this before even, like The Great Confuso that I released was a triptych,” Power says.

“At the beginning of lockdown, I was still in the live kind of space,” says Power. “I actually started to do a series of streamed, live, improvised shows.” Power produced singles by Kite and worked on soundtracks. “I also have been scoring movies and TV stuff,” he says. “I’ve been doing production. I’ve done remixes.”

member. I lost my father a couple years back in very shocking circumstances. It was an accident, so I’ve been struggling with that and going through the grief process during that.”

PHOTO BY HARRISON REID

long time now,” Power says. “Like over a decade, but I never really knew what to do with them.”

Zealand. A lot of it is kind of like emotion driven. There’s a lot of abstraction going on there.”

Power picked material from his travels, resulting in a musical travelogue.

For Power, making In Fearneaux was also a way to process grief and address isolation.

He assembled In Ferneaux from field re- “There’s quite a lot of old stuff, and then “Obviously, there’s a pain felt globally,” he cordings he had collected over the years. there’s also some very new stuff on there,” says. “I lost a family member to COVID whilst I was going through a prolonged he explains. “So, for example, from my last “I’ve been collecting field recordings for a grieving period for a very close family travel or visits to see family members in New

“I wanted these all to be a seamless piece of time,” he adds. “Not to really differentiate between when things happen, but more to reflect an emotional journey that doesn’t necessarily have a set amount of time. On the current state of music, Power says, “I do feel for record labels who are releasing music now, especially a label such as Sacred Bones, whose roster is live musicians.” “We’re still trying to figure out what that is,” Power says, about the future. “But surely music has a place with all of us still.” 💣💣💣

PHOTO BY JORDYN BESCHEL

INTERVIEW WITH PROJECT MASTERMIND NED RUSSIN BY ROBERT DUGUAY

oing from Kingston, Penn- had an idea of what I wanted to sylvania post-hardcore be which is a minimalistic kind of act Title Fight to his own thing that would just be me and project, Glitterer, while living in New a shapeshifting idea that didn’t York City, Ned Russin has had to have a concrete form,” he says. make some adjustments. Parlaying “Then I wrote some songs, I played ideas off a group of people can be some shows, and I started to figure a whole lot easier than deliberating it out at that point. Then I released by yourself. It’s also a lot more diffi- an EP, played some more shows cult to get out of your own way when and I followed that up with Looking my style, but I was also listening to you’re creating your own art rather Through The Shades in 2019, while new bands and having new life exthan collaborating with someone really getting a hang of what the periences. Those things also colored else. While dealing with these things, project was.” the songs and as I got more comfortRussin has managed to fine tune a able, I changed the process a little bit. minimal punk sound with his soph- “There’s nothing set in stone and I think The process changes and the instruomore LP as Glitterer, Life Is Not A that’s the nice thing about it,” Russin ments change but the goal has never Lesson, which is due out on Febru- adds. “For the most part, it feels like changed for me, it’s ultimately not ary 26 via Anti- Records. There’s a I’m doing what I’ve always been do- something that I really think about.” raw tone that’s consistent within the ing, which is trying to play music that album, along with its driving riffs I like and try to accurately represent Regarding the coming months, with live and intense vibes. myself through the music that I write. music still being shut down because of It’s a difficult goal but it’s something COVID-19, Russin wants to be selective This minimalistic approach from that I think is important.” when it comes to doing virtual events to Russin is what makes Glitterer stand promote the new album. He also wants out. There’s also a sense of artistic “The songs from the beginning of Glit- to still be in the mix when it comes to freedom that comes with the proj- terer sound a certain way because I what people are paying attention to ect that he very much appreciates. was fiddling around with instruments musically this year. I’ve never used before,” Russin says, “When I was deciding to do Glitterer about his creative process. “I was “Even though this is uncharted terriand I was starting to write songs, I getting comfortable with changing tory, I’m just flying by the seat of my

36 NEW NOISE

“live music is about as close to a sacred, spiritual thing that exists on this Earth, and I respect it so much that going virtually feels like doing it a disservice..” pants at this moment,” he says on his plans for the future. “I’ve played one virtual show so far and it was kind of weird, but it was for a great cause and I enjoyed doing it. To me, live music is about as close to a sacred, spiritual thing that exists on this Earth, and I respect it so much that going virtually feels like doing it a disservice. I don’t think people are trying to replace live music by any means, but I want to just wait until I can really do the thing. With that being said, if the right opportunity came around, I wouldn’t say no to anything, but it needs to be done well. Other than that, I’m just going to try to put music that people can listen to while being available for conversation and existing anyway I can in 2021.” 💣💣💣

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST HAMILTON JORDAN BY NICHOLAS SENIOR

ike the best psychological thriller, there’s an unnerving yet gorgeous quality to Genghis Tron’s wonderful, comeback record. Dream Weapon, out March 26 via Relapse Records, is their first release in over a decade, and it represents both a seismic shift in sound and a refinement of all the things the band do so well. It’s decidedly more melodic yet also more menacing. It’s best experienced in one complete sitting, though the likelihood of repeat listens is high.

It's impossible to not feel overwhelmed at times with the record's beauty and quiet brute force. The title is extremely appropriate here, as this record does feel like it connects to a deeper subconscious than even Genghis Tron’s previous records that focused on the power of noise. “Sonically, we had a strong goal to create an immersive world that the listener can get lost in,” Jordan says. “As music fans, Michael and I both really dig albums that achieve that. Part of that for us is creating a coherent album that flows as a single piece of music, instead of just being a collection of songs. That was also our goal with Dead Mountain Mouth and Board Up the House, but I think Dream Weapon achieves that better than either of those albums did.”

“Although we always intended to make another album,” guitarist Hamilton Jordan answers, “I don’t think either Michael or I had any idea that it would take this long. The years just flew by, and we lived on opposite ends of the country, and during many of those years we were each writing very little music because we were so busy with other stuff in our personal lives.” Jordan notes that the current pandemic also had a logistical impact, requiring drummer Nick Yacyshyn record remotely in Vancouver rather than with the rest of the band in Massachusetts. As to whether it impacted Dream Weapon, Jordan expands: “Although most of the songs for this album were already written and demoed before the pandemic hit, the album really came together during the spring and summer months of 2020. So, those early months of the pandemic were critical to finishing the album. We already had a loose lyrical concept in mind, so I wouldn’t say the pandemic affected the album’s lyrical themes, but I do think those dark

That sense of duality exists in the lyrical themes of the record—there’s an initially haunted, disoriented feeling that eventually makes way to a sort of comfort in the face of cosmic fear. Jordan concurs:

Jordan responds. “Which is that we still wanted to make a ‘heavy’ record, but without relying purely A lot of people will hear this record on caustic tones and brutal vocals and think Genghis Tron have gone and cluttered blasting rhythms to soft, but I can't help but feel like get there. I still love (and listen Dream Weapon is just part of the to) my share of ‘brutal’ extreme band's natural evolution, rethink- music, but for Genghis Tron, that ing what “heavy” can mean. Was sort of approach just didn’t feel the push away from more tradition- genuine to Michael or me anyally harsher elements intentional or more—at least not for this record. organic? I can hear similar motifs We still aimed to make something from Board Up The House that exist in dark and ‘heavy,’ but we wanted a song like “Ritual Circle,” that is pro- to explore heaviness through other pelled by Nick's incredible drum work. means so that it came from the arrangements themselves, which are “You touched on something very true,” more layered and repetitive.” months left some sort of psychic imprint on what we created.”

“It’s important to us that the lyrics for each song be left open to interpretation, but broadly speaking, I would describe Dream Weapon as an album-length meditation about finding acceptance with the fact that humans’ time on Earth is inevitably limited. While it can be sad and scary to reflect on this, I think there is also something beautiful and comforting to realizing that the planet will endure and flourish long after we’re gone. In the meantime, there are so many opportunities for us all to feel gratitude for our time here, and to experience beauty and love.” 💣💣💣

NEW NOISE 37

PHOTO BY ALAN SNODGRASS

INTERVIEW WITH PROJECT MASTERMIND DANNY KIRANOS BY JOHN B. MOORE

anny Kiranos, best known as Amigo The Devil, had plans to spend most of 2020 on the road.

“We were supposed to be on tour the whole year and had to postpone or cancel a lot of dream tours that had finally been booked,” says Kiranos, on the effects of COVID-19 for the band. “We were actively on tour with Murder By Death, which we’d been looking forward to for years, when the pandemic really took a turn. Every show was basically all of us sitting in the back wondering if that was the night we call it, or if we’d get lucky and it would get under control. I can’t believe how incredibly wrong we were.”

the vans in silence and sensing a panic over everyone. At the time, they assumed it would just be a few weeks, and then they’d all be back together on the road. “But, those weeks were going to feel like forever ... little did we know,” he says. Taking advantage of the forced hiatus, Kiranos wrote and recorded the follow-up to his widely praised debut. The new record, Born Against, comes out this spring.

“As far as writing, I’m constantly working on stuff in my head or on little napkins and scrap paper, but never really have time to finish what I start,” Kiranos says. “This has been a small, personal silver The day the tour was shut down, lining amongst the horrible globKiranos remembers packing up al circumstances, to finally have

38 NEW NOISE

is still steeped in dark humor and his unique brand of metal- and punk-infused folk music. Songs like “Letter From Death Row” and The biggest difficulty he admits to “24K Casket” are some of the best in writing Born Against was remem- Kiranos has ever written. bering that the new record is supAnd, with the album coming out in posed to be exactly that – new. April, he is starting to see the glim“It’s so easy while writing to com- mer of hope that shows will return pare anything that hasn’t been sometime in the near future. released to the older stuff and doubt whether it’s up to par,” Kira- “I’ve realized that this down time is nos says. “When that happens, I not going to exist again for a long usually have to remind myself that time, so I’ll just be at home writing ‘competing with myself’ is the easi- more while I can,” he says. “Realest way to kill creative honesty, or ly taking advantage of not having honest creativity. The new record anywhere to be, running around is supposed to be growth and, for with our dog and cat while I can. I’m hoping to find the balance beme at least, it doesn’t feel like moving forward if I’m just recreat- tween home life and touring that I wouldn’t have had an opportunity ing or modeling from the past.” to explore otherwise. We’re all going to get through this.” 💣💣💣 Like its predecessor. Born Against time to write and finish new songs. I usually just throw them away or forget the ideas altogether.”

PURENOISESTORE.COM

PURENOISE.NET

brand-new Adult Mom record is on the horizon. Entitled Driver, the album sees Stevie Knipe explore themselves like never before and take a musical direction that truly proves how they have progressed as a songwriter and musician. Driver sees Knipe explore the emo, shoegaze, and synth pop genres at an explosive rate and is truly their best work to date. Knipe has new confidence in their music, a spark of self-belief that has been slowly blooming since they began attending university.

INTERVIEW WITH PROJECT MASTERMIND STEVE KNIPE BY ROB KENT local scene there was so amazing, and it was so inspiring. I had never experienced a DIY punk scene before, due to myself growing up outside the city. I was a massive emo fan during my teenage years, and all the shows I went to were at 2,000-capacity venues, and that's what I thought performing was.” Proving that the DIY circuit was everything Knipe was looking for, the audiences have truly embraced the musical expression that is Adult Mom. Knipe further explains how that pivotal moment still remains with them.

“Everything changed for me when I went to university,” Knipe says. “The “University opened my eyes to

PHOTO BY DANIEL DORSA

smaller and independent gigs,” they say. “This drove a huge hit of confidence into my music, and it's the reason I started making music.”

as a producer and have full control over the recording and creative process.

“This is the first record I have ever produced, and the way the record was approached was to thoroughly take time and space with the pre-production,” Knipe says. “The goal was to create an album that explores so many textures but re“Perception is something I really mains authentic to the original thought against thinking about,” sound, and I think that's exactly Knipe says. “When I first started what has been achieved.” writing songs, I had the mindset that nobody would know my music, and Which provides a further explanathat naive freedom was at the fore- tion as to how Driver became such an honest and pure expression of front of the songs” Knipe, and the most complex Adult Driver sees Knipe take their first role Mom album to date. Having an audience and fans anticipating a record’s release can cause some paranoia, but Knipe does not let other people's opinions distort their art.

Lyrically, Driver explores the aftermath of heartbreak; the after-credits scenes we never get to see are all revealed on this album. “This record is about heartbreak and my experiences, but it mainly focuses on the aftermath of those events and the purgatory state that we find ourselves in,” Knipe says. “So much of life is about the ‘big moment,’ so I wanted to explore the stages after these big events in life. This record absolutely documents this.” It’s an interesting and unique lyrical approach that, once again, highlights why Adult Mom is such a gripping musical project, and just why Driver will connect with all those who listen to it. Knipe leaves us with some final comments on what they truly hope listeners will get out of this record. “People relate to my music, and I really think this record will make a lasting impression on people and stay in their heart,” they say. “Longevity is an element I want my music to have, and I want this album to make people feel the way records made me feel growing up. Music defined who I was when I was a teenager and now.” “I even carved all the lyrics to a ten-minute Bright Eyes song into my bedroom wall once,” Knipe jokingly concludes. 💣💣💣

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PHOTO BY JESS FLYNN

INTERVIEW BY JOHN SILVA

when I was mixing the record, and it was one of those moments that gives you chills,” Pyle says. “I wanted to include them because so much of the record is about intergenerational lessons, whether that’s intergenerational trauma that we inherit from the trauma of our parents and grandparents, but also, this kind of intergenerational wisdom.”

and we can’t reclaim the past. We’re Today, over a year after her father’s not the past, and we’re not the future, death, Pyle keeps a photo from a all we have is moments, and I think the calendar she found while cleaning greatest joy that we have in life are out his house. She framed it and says “good morning, dad” to it every mornthese little moments of beauty.” ing. Through routines like this and Wild River puts Pyle’s lyrical prowess through the memories she shared with on full display, blending beautifully her father, even the little moments like written songs with thoughtful poetry. getting key lime pie with him on the She weaves these two art forms to- way to the airport, Pyle is able to keep a piece of her dad with her forever. gether seamlessly.

ome of the material was pre-existing and then some of it was materialized in response to the passing of my dad, but it was all synthesized together as part of my grieving process,” says Anika Pyle, on her upcoming solo record, Wild River. Known for her work with bands like Chumped and Katie Allen, Pyle’s solo debut is an intimate portrait of The last piece of wisdom Pyle’s her relationship with her father, and grandmother imparted to her was “I really wanted to find a way to “The people that we love, when of the grieving she went through after “start with joy.” This becomes a reoc- bridge those two mediums,” she we lose them, we don’t lose them his sudden passing in fall of 2019. curring theme on Wild River, in which says. “Because what I do the most completely, because the things we Pyle finds joy in the simple-yet-mag- is write songs and write poems, but learned from them and the moWhile putting the record together, nificent beauty of life. they kind of operate in this separate ments that we shared, we always Pyle came across some recordings world. Even though, what is a poem have,” Pyle says. “Working through of her late grandmother, from right “The record is pretty heavily nature but a song without music, and what this process of trying to hold onto before she died. With the death of themed,” she says. “And the natural is a lyric but a poem?” things, it’s like being in the middle of loved ones being a prominent theme world and these tiny moments of joy, a wild river. You’re trying so desperon Wild River, it seemed fitting to in- the smile from the stranger on the bus, In addition to a vinyl pressing of ately to hold on to something that clude the recordings on the album. or the butterfly, the great migration of the record, Pyle is also publishing a you can’t control, so sometimes you the monarch, or the still country creek book of poetry and lyrics from Wild just have to allow yourself to let go.” “I was hearing them for the first time outside. We can’t control the future River, along with original artwork. 💣💣💣

NEW NOISE 41

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST BUZZ OSBORNE BY ANGELA KINZIE

or nearly 40 years, Buzz Osborne and the Melvins have been a pivotal influence as well as a popular mainstay in the undercurrent of the grunge and metal scene. Formed in 1983 in Montesano, Washington, their rich, complex sound, which has explored everything from sludge metal to experimental, from punk to noise rock, was immeasurable when it came to laying the groundwork for what would become grunge, influencing bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden.

Thirty years and several lineup changes later, Osborne came together with original drummer Mike Dillard and (almost) original bassist Dale Crover under the moniker Melvins 83, and in 2013 released Tres Cabrones. Scheduled for release in February of 2021, the band’s new album Working With God is the second full-

length to use the Melvins 83 appellation. According to the group’s Ipecac press release, they chose the title because “it was time to get right with the lord.” It also states that the trio is “as close to the original Melvins lineup as we’re willing to get.”

Boys, the band also put their stamp on “Goodnight Sweetheart,” by Sha Na Na, and “Fuck You,” by ’70s folk icon Harry Nilsson. Most of the record was written and recorded prior to the COVID-19 quarantine. However, Osborne says that one of the best parts of 2020 was spending time at home with his wife, Mackie.

The first single, “Brian, The HorseFaced Goon,” was released in December, with “Caddy Daddy” following in January. Both feature the “We’ve now been married 27 years,” Melvins’ signature sludgy, chunky he says. “And in the last year, we guitar riffs, and heavy, driven sound. realized this was the longest we’d ever been together without me beWorking with God opens with a paro- ing gone. Because I’ve toured the dy cover of The Beach Boys’ classic, “I whole entire time we’ve been marGet Around,” titled, “I Fuck Around.” ried. It’s just us two, we don’t have kids. We’ve been sheltering together “We’ve always wanted to do that,” Os- at the house for a long time, and we borne says with a hint of humor in his realized that us hanging out togethvoice. “That was a really hard one to er is actually quite enjoyable. Lying do. People tend to think things like in bed next to her and watching a that are easy to do. It’s not easy to do!” movie with the dogs in the bed is as good as it’s gonna get for me, and In addition to covering the Beach I’m okay with that. I win.”

Regarding the start of 2021 and the pro-Trump protests at the U.S. Capitol, Osborne says: “I’m not a fan of protesting in any way. I don’t like it. I especially don’t like rioting or looting. I don’t care who’s doing it, and I don’t even care if I agree with what they’re protesting. I don’t like it. I don’t like things being destroyed. I’m not into it on any level, for any excuse. Just the same as I wasn’t into the rioting before, that’s been going on for the last six months. I view it the exact same. I have a dim view of all of it. It has nothing to do with what I think. I just don’t like that kind of action. I don’t think you have the right to go out and destroy private property, government property, or anything else along those lines. I think if you do it, you’re wrong.” 💣💣💣

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE MELVINS

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44 NEW NOISE

on The Holographic Principle, the only other album to feature real, live orchestral elements. “The Holographic Principle was a great album, but it was also like high energy, it was really in-your-face,” Simons says. “And after that, we were also touring to promote the anniversary edition of our Design Your Universe album [which came out in 2009], and I always loved it, but I fell in love with it again, and I felt like I wanted to go a little bit back towards that kind of vibe as well.” The lyrical themes on Omega are especially relevant in these perilous and troubled times. “The biggest part is the balance between light and dark, yin and yang, that we have within ourselves, and that it needs to be in balance, so you got to restore the energies,” Simons explains. She specifically mentions Omega cuts “Abyss of Time,” “Freedom,” “Synergize,” and “Rivers” as being about “trying to get back on track.” She adds: “There's some other topics as well, like with ‘Code of Life,’ it's about genome editing, about the CRISPR technique to cut and paste DNA, like humans trying to play God by creating designer babies.” The track “Kingdom of Heaven,” meanwhile, the third and final part of a trilogy that began with 2014’s The Quantum Enigma, is about science and spirituality converging to reveal the true meaning of life. “That's the question we've been trying to answer for a long time now, probably since the beginning of Epica,” Simons says. INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST SIMONE SIMONS BY MIKE GAWORECKI

Hence the album’s title, Omega, n spite of all the recent lockdowns the whole world to a screeching halt. The Essence of EPICA, during their which is a reference to the last letter and travel bans, Epica have not ostensible down time. And then, in in the Greek alphabet. The name is only managed to complete their “I mean, if everything would have November of 2019, they convened in not meant to suggest that this will be first album in five years—Omega, the been planned a little bit more into a house in rural Holland to hammer the last Epica album, Simons is quick band’s eighth album overall, due the future, we would have run into out the songs that would become to point out. out February 26 on Nuclear Blast— some troubles,” Epica vocalist Sim- Omega. they have also written and recorded one Simons says. “The Omega Point is this spiritual the most expansive, and, dare I say, “All of us have different views and belief in scientific speculation that epic music of their career. Even the songwriting for Omega opinions and we’re all composers of everything in the universe is kind of was completed under the gun. The the music,” Simons says. “But, I guess fated to spiral towards a final point Omega features a full symphony or- band had decided to take a richly that's also the strength of Epica, that of divine unification. So, when the chestra, a first for an Epica studio al- deserved hiatus in 2018 following our music is so diverse.” earth is reaching the Omega Point, bum and a considerably important more than 15 years of uninterrupted everything that exists will become broadening of their sound, consid- activity capped off by the touring The band was interested in achiev- one with the Divinity, and that is a ering they are known as one of the cycle for their seventh album, 2016’s ing a more “organic sound” on topic also of the Kingdom of Heavforemost symphonic metal bands. The Holographic Principle. During Omega, according to Simons, which en Trilogy—but not a hidden mesOmega also includes a full choir and that tour, Epica played their 1000th probably explains why they enlisted sage that this is the last Epica album. a children’s choir, all of which were show together. They didn’t disap- an actual symphony orchestra this That's not how we intended it. Let's recorded, along with the rest of the pear from public view altogether time around, rather than relying on see how the pandemic thinks about instrumentation, by January 2020, during their hiatus: the band still synthesizers and samples, or using it!” 💣💣💣 just before the pandemic brought completed their first autobiography, smaller string ensembles, as they did

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PHOTO BY JOE CALIXTO

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INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST MIKE IX WILLIAMS BY M.REED

ew Orleans stalwarts EYEHATEGOD have been spreading their odious strain of crusty, southern-fried sludge metal around the globe for more than three decades now. They have a new record out on Century Media this March, which is a testament to their worldly travels and hard-won victories as a group – aptly titled, A History of Nomadic Behavior. The album was mostly recorded between 2018 and 2019, with Mike IX Williams adding his vocal tracks in Chicago this past summer.

If it weren’t for the onset of the pandemic, the record might not even be coming out this year, as the band would probably still be on the road if they hadn’t been forced to shelter in place. Before March of last year, the band seemed unstoppable. EYEHATEGOD had begun a tour in mid-2017 and spent almost every day between then and the forced lockdown on the road. During that time, they were seemingly powered by little more than the force of their collective will and a handful of cat naps.

“We had just done the Napalm Death tour at the end of January and the beginning of February of 2020,” Williams reminisces. “We had like five or six headline shows after the Napalm Death tour.” It was at that time that information about the growing pandemic was becoming part of the daily news cycle around the world. Wearily, the band trekked across Ukraine and reached Kiev just as the seriousness of the situation became resoundingly clear. “We got to our hotels, we had just eaten, and went to sleep,” Williams says. “And then we heard that they were shutting the borders. Like, ‘If you're not out of there by a certain time, you'll have to stay there.’ It was wild, man, it was really wild.” Ending their tour, even during a world halting, historical catastrophe, weighed heavily on the guys in EYEHATEGOD, as they were forced to cancel the remaining dates of a tour that would have taken them through Moscow and beyond.

“We feel really bad about it, it sucks,” “We flew every day in Southeast Asia,” Williams says. “We're gonna make Williams says. “We'd get in and the first those up,” thing we'd want to do is take a nap.” Thankfully, the band was able to get After catching a wink, the band on a plane and back to the States would be bustled to their gig, play, without incident. Others, Williams hike back to the hotel for another knows, were not so lucky. nap, and then have to leave to catch “We were over there the same exanother flight at around 3am. act time as Testament and, I think, Keeping such a grueling schedule, Death Angel,” he says. “They were EYEHATEGOD racked up enough doing a tour a few cities away, and air-miles to make Hermes want to those guys ended up getting COVID. hang up his winged slippers in de- A bunch of people on that tour got feat. The band bounced between really sick. It was not good.”

Vietnam, New Zealand, Taiwan, and Japan, before leaping over to Eastern Europe for another stretch of dates. Their adventure would have continued to this day, had the fates not intervened while Williams and the band were leaving Greece.

Despite the events of the past months, Williams remains undeterred. When asked what his hopes for 2021 were, his response is simple: “Honestly, we just want to get back out on tour.” 💣💣💣

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I would say everyone in the band, since we started making the record— which was almost a year and a half ago— has gone through changes that have essentially changed everybody permanently.” 48 NEW NOISE

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOE CALIXTO

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST NICK HAMM BY CALEB R. NEWTON

ife In Your Glass World, the latest record from Toledo, Ohio’s trailblazing indie rock group Citizen— a March release from Run For Cover Records— bursts with energy.

The group’s fourth full-length turns into more confrontational territory than the band have explored in the past, with consistently abrasive rhythms held together by brisk energy that keeps the music moving forward. Within the very first moments on opening track “Death Dance Approximately,” there’s a grinding edge in the rhythms, and this in-your-face spirit reappears elsewhere on the album, on tracks like “Pedestal.” “There’s kind of a purposeful shift away from I guess what people would have come to know Citizen to be, in terms of the emotions being centered around sadness and melancholy, mostly in the instrumentation,” guitarist Nick Hamm explains. “There’s a lot of anger in the [new] songs, especially lyr-

ically, but I think that that kind of worked out being felt in a lot of the instrumentation too. A lot of the songs are upbeat, a lot of them are dance-y, but a lot of them are pretty aggressive too.”

necessarily good things, and so a lot of the writing really was kind of played by ear in a sense,” Hamm shares. “I would say everyone in the band, since we started making the record— which was almost a year and a half ago— has gone through changes that have essentially changed everybody permanently.”

just the way that things seem to be going. And that last song is a really sad song to begin with, and then the end of the song is probably the most positive that I’ve ever heard Mat on a Citizen song before, and honestly I was surprised when he wrote the lyrics because it felt like the clouds breaking a little bit at the end of this record that is pretty stormy.”

Overall, Life In Your Glass World features rather rich dynamic swings. After the icy blasts of the particularly intense opening two The energy across this latest Cititracks, follow-up songs, includ- zen effort culminates in the subtly ing “Blue Sunday” and “Thin Air” but increasingly triumphant “Edge “I just thought it was a great way feature a rather breathable and of the World,” which feels rather to go out,” he continues. “I also soulful edge to the rhythms. The powerfully placed as an album thought, I always have this thought album’s gentler moments— includ- closer. “But at the end of the day, in the back of my head [that] this ing an acoustic guitar appearance there is beauty in tragedy,” Kerekes could be the last Citizen record, or on “Glass World”— don’t venture energetically sings as a relatively this could be the last Citizen song particularly far from the simmer- unbroken drum rhythm helps build even. I just thought that that was ing tension at its core. The sounds the surging, heart-pounding ambi- such a nice way to wrap things up themselves seem to encapsulate ance. and kind of go out on this tone of, an inwardly tiring push-and-pull while we kind of aired everything between exuberance and frustra- “What I loved about putting ‘Edge out that we have to air out, things tion, and they powerfully reflect an of the World’ last on the record aren’t so bad, and things could experience of straining emotional was that pretty much the whole definitely be worse. I don’t always chaos with freeing honesty. record apart from a couple songs subscribe to those feelings, so it’s are really blowing off some steam, kind of nice to just have that on re“It seems like during the writing and kind of exorcising these frus- cord.” 💣💣💣 process of this record, things un- trations with people around us, or expectedly kept happening, not maybe not people at all, maybe

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INTERVIEW WITH “FAT MIKE” BURKETT BY DEREK NIELSEN

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PHOTO BY JONATHAN WEINER / PAINTING BY MARK DE SALVO

PHOTO BY ALAN SNODGRASS

“WHEN YOU'RE DOING A LOT OF DRUGS AND STAYING UP LATE AND NOT HAPPY, YOU'RE GONNA WRITE SOME DEPRESSING SONGS.”

“I SAW ROCKY HORROR WHEN I WAS EIGHT, IT CHANGED MY FUCKING LIFE.”

I recorded it from the TV onto a cassette player and it's been the soundtrack of my life.”

When “Fat” Mike Burkett repeatedly circles back to Rocky Horror Picture Show and the vital role it played in the development of his identity, a funny thing happens. There’s a shift in the lens, and suddenly the NOFX bassist, frontman, and songwriter’s entire musical

persona comes into sharper focus. personally think anyone’s done a good job of it except for Pink Floyd. Many NOFX songs are just as influ- A lot of people have tried, and they enced by showtunes and Broadway always fail. I didn’t wanna fail, and I spectacles as they are by West Coast kinda felt that I failed.” punk rock. Just listen to the chorus of “Leave it Alone,” off the band’s Upon playing the double album for most prolific album, Punk in Drub- some friends, it became clear that lic, and tell me you can’t picture Dr. the songs centered around darker Frank N. Furter singing those “da- subject matter were the standout na-na’s” while doing the can-can. tracks. If Burkett has indeed folBoth Rocky Horror and NOFX were lowed Rocky Horror's lesson of givpanned by critics but have slowly ing yourself over to a life of pleasure, built dedicated audiences, ascend- Single Album reflects the dark side ing to the level of social institutions. of that lifestyle, on both a personal So, don’t be alarmed by a jarring and social level, with songs centered tonal shift upon hearing NOFX’s around gun violence, Burkett’s dinewest release, entitled Single Al- vorce, and the deaths of friends and bum, which drops February 26 via family from drugs and cancer. As Dr. Fat Wreck Chords. Frank himself would say, “It’s not easy having a good time.” “Making a double album is hard,” Burkett says, explaining the cryptic “I started writing a couple years nature of the record’s title. “I don’t ago and I was in a bad place in

my life,” Burkett elaborates. “I was in the middle of a divorce, living by myself in a big condo in SF, my musical lost our big producer in New York over artistic differences— so, kinda starting over. I was in a bad place, doing a lot of drugs, drinking a lot. So, when you're doing a lot of drugs and staying up late and not happy, you're gonna write some depressing songs.” The album opens with the fittingly titled song, “The Big Drag,” a six-minute opus built on tectonic chord progressions and distorted-beyond-recognition bass tone. To call this song bleak would be a vast understatement— you don’t start a punk record with a six-minute song unless you mean business. The pace kicks back into familiar

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16-year-olds do that.” When NOFX began, Burkett was exactly that – an angry teenager. But decades of living that way will eventually catch up to anyone. After being hospitalized with a bleeding stomach last fall, Burkett decided to put himself into rehab, where he worked on changing his perspective. It’s these moments of self-reflection when Burkett looks back through the clear lens of sobriety to the moments when he actually felt the most punk. “Even at the age of 44, I still looked into the mirror sometimes and thought what a coward I was. And when I heard that song, ‘When I clung to her thigh and started to cry cause I wanted to be dressed just the same,’ I thought, ‘Yeah, I've always wanted to dress like that, and it took me 44 years to actually get the nerve.” PHOTO BY GREG JACOBS

NOFX trajectory on the third track, “Fuck Euphemism,” and dives headfirst into Burkett’s sexual identity. His views on the subject are expressed with as much grace and nuance as you’d expect from a NOFX song, but Burkett stands behind his words. “The thing is, people are gonna wanna give me shit, but if you actually read the lyrics and think about it, I’m not saying anything that’s not PC. Why you gotta call me straight? That’s not how I identify. They’re prejudging me. I’m fucking queerer than most people! I’m fucking kinky as hell! I’m a weirdo. Kink will never be part of the letters of the LGBTQ community. And that’s okay!” “But I do think it’s funny that even most gay people will say, ‘I was born this way - you chose to be that way.’ I’m like, ‘What the fuck are you talking about? How would you know? And why can’t I be born with genes that make me more feminine or submissive? Or anything? Who cares?’ I just think it's funny that they try to be inclusive. But they’re not that inclusive.” Luckily for Burkett, being an outsider within a community already composed of outsiders is familiar territory. “It's like the music business!” he continues. “I don’t want to be part of the music business either. If there were punk rock awards, no one would go! It would be embarrassing to get a fucking trophy like the Grammys. We don’t wanna be part of the music industry, and I don’t want to be part of that community that has so

52 NEW NOISE

many rules and words. But I respect the hell out of them, and I stand with them! Like when Trump made it illegal for transgender people to be in the military, I posted a picture of me— the most feminine picture of me, ever. Even though I’m not transgender, I am transvestite! And I'm standing with y’all. I stand with the community, but I just like to call shit out when I hear it. That’s why the title is ‘Fuck Euphemism.’” Many fans are vocal in lamenting the lack of political vitriol from the band’s early releases – this is the same band that created the Punk Voter Tour and not one, but two Rock Against Bush compilations.

“The first time I cross-dressed was in Luxembourg,” he continues. “I went Being completely open about his out to dinner and played a show. sexuality has given Burkett a sense But going out to dinner, that was of personal acceptance, which it- even cooler because I wore a pink self can be a revolutionary act. slip. Besides that, I was just like me. I got stared at like I was a punk rock“People want me to get really po- er in the ’80s! But once we were in litical because of Trump,” he says. the restaurant, no one treated me “But it’s not doing any good right weird. And then I got to the show now and it's not interesting, it's just and a couple of the guys in Lagfanning flames. I like to tell stories wagon were laughing at me. And that make people think about life Joey was like, ‘Shut up dude! Mike’s differently. Super protest music wearing a dress! Who cares?’” makes the world an angrier place. I don’t like singing things that are “It kind of bothered Smelly for a while trite. And seeing anti-Trump songs is too, because he thought it would just so obvious, it’s like saying you’re hurt our image. But we hurt our against child slavery. Or you're re- image every fucking show we play,” ally pro-water. I’m not gonna sing Burkett concludes with a laugh. something so obvious, I'll let angry 💣 💣 💣 PHOTO BY ALAN SNODGRASS

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ARTIST SPOTLIGHT BY JOSHUA MARANHAS

ark De Salvo is a professional artist, working in love and with a paintbrush. He expresses his adoration for music and skate culture by pushing paint into canvas. From album covers like NOFX’s Heavy Petting Zoo and Lagwagon’s Let’s Talk About Feelings, to the covers of magazines like Thrasher and New Noise, deSalvo has a heart that’s been quietly on display for 25 years, and he helps musicians, skaters, and others visually express their own, loudly.

De Salvo grew up in Reno, Nevada. As a kid, his desire to create, coupled with his interest in counterculture, never waned, but rather flourished with practice. He devoted hours to art, the way you practice a kick flip. He kept his eye on the sketchbook and continued to draw. His skills surpassed those around him. He excelled creatively, with a pencil in hand, early in life. “I actually went to art school and all that stuff,” De Salvo says. “But I think, growing up, all kids like to draw, and color, and paint, and sculpt. I think it’s around middle school when you’re becoming a little more self-conscious about what other people are doing, comparing the stuff that you're drawing or painting to other kids in your class.” Like many teenagers, De Salvo wasn’t much of an early riser. After missing a bunch of morning classes, he chose a GED over high school graduation and skipped out of school early. He followed his ear for punk to San Francisco, where he graduated from the Academy of Art College. Art school grew his knowledge of working commercially, and his self-confidence was growing, too. “I sent a letter to Fat Mike [Burkett], said that I like to paint and, and I do it on time, if he had any artwork he needed, give me a call,” De Salvo recalls. “He called me; I went down into the Fat Wreck Chords offices and showed him my portfolio, and I ended up doing a cover for Heavy Petting Zoo—that led to another, then other bands being interested in what I did; at the same time I was designing skateboards

54 NEW NOISE

for Real Skateboards. I did a cov- “Mike tries to blame Heavy Petting er for Thrasher, and it was just the Zoo on me,” De Salvo says. “He things I was into.” never mentions the fact that he actually sat down on the floor of De Salvo's pieces tend toward a Fat Wreck Chords, in his office, and retro, Americana aesthetic, and sort of pantomimed how he would are often informed by irreverent, be fondling this sheep. There's lots comical narratives, he says. Exam- of discussions about the sheep ples are seen all over the album fighting to get away, you know, covers he’s painted. back and forth like that.”

De Salvo paints mostly in acrylic paint, but what he puts down is more than paint; he makes pictures out of the feelings that musicians put in their music. He makes an album a complete work of art— making a record both audio and visual. He recently did the cover of Death in Venice Beach for The Bombpops.

“I was talking to Jen [Razavi] a lot, and she was describing different parts of it, all these different elements and so many different songs,” De Salvo says. “It put this idea in my head to not just fixate on one image—I put together this collage style image. I told Jen I wanted to try to do something like that. It is actually funny because in what I put together, she ended up focusing on one area of it, which was the bottom left corner. She focused in on that area

and said, ‘we like all this stuff, but what if we just do this area?’” De Salvo lives and works in San Diego now, and he puts the same effort and pride into everything he creates. Whether De Salvo is spending a day, a week or longer on a painting, he captures the soul with every brush stroke, the character in every finished piece, and exhibits his own, unique skill wherever a painting is shown. 💣💣💣

FOLLOW HIS WORK ON INSTAGRAM @MARKDESALVO

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY MICHAEL THORN

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST WILL WAGSTAFF AND VOCALIST KNOX COLBY BY OWEN MORAWITZ

ill Grid, the first full-length album from Virginian crossover merchants Enforced, and their Century Media Records debut, is a record that expands the group’s focus from the hallowed halls of thrash and hardcore towards the unbound territory of sonic extremity.

Of course, it’s hard to talk about any music in 2021 and not have the discussion reflect the glaring, shitshow situation of the last twelve months. Yes, there was (and is) a global pandemic. Yes, there were (and are) growing signs of social and political unrest. No one really wants to belabor this point, but sometimes, life cares not for subtlety. “We recorded [Kill Grid] right around the George Floyd protests, and everything that I had written about was coming true,” says Knox Colby, the band’s vocalist and resident throat-shredder. “I was trying to write about something that I didn’t think could or would exist, but now I’m watching it in my own town. I’m watching my album unfold. It’s nauseating. It’s terrifying.” “We only really started recording this past March, but a lot of the songs had

56 NEW NOISE

raring to go, champing at the bit to destroy stages once more with razor-sharp riffage, gruff vocals, and a devastating thrash intensity that pays homage to early Slayer and Exodus. Lyrically, however, Colby is also the first to admit that Kill Grid displays an eerie prescience towards the world’s current state of affairs. “It was all locked in previously, [which] is why I find this record really kind of chilling,” he says. “Especially, you know, with the U.S. Capitol being stormed and attacked, and we had just dropped our video and single for ‘Malignance.’ This song is about an insurrection where you get shot in the belly, and then someone legit got shot in the stomach. I was like, ‘This is weird here. Like, this is uncomfortable.’”

been at least partially in progress for crept in on the album’s creation. probably at least the year prior to that,” says guitarist Will Wagstaff. “We were “Mainly just because of the safety prejust kind of always writing stuff, and we cautions,” admits Wagstaff. “But there And, while he might not have set out kind of wanted to go in a different di- were also the protests going on and to be the Nostradamus of metal (or rection, a little bit more extreme than a lot of unrest, so it was often like, ‘Is “Knoxtradamus,’’ if you will), Colby is just straight up crossover music. So, with today really a good day to go record? certainly on board with the band’s recording, once we [were] prepared You know, there’s a bunch of dudes debut album acting as the perfect and ready to record, once we [got] in with assault rifles walking around musical accompaniment to what’s downtown—so, probably not. We had sure to be another tumultuous year. there, it’s just no bullshit.” done a full month-long tour in JanuForged amid COVID-19 ravaging the ary [2020]. So, I think we were all quite “I do think that it makes [Kill Grid] more country, alongside growing civil dis- hyped up on that, and we really want- of an interesting listen—because it’s true. I didn’t mean for it to be true, order and discontent, it’s remarkable ed to kind of get running with stuff.” and I didn’t want it to be true. But, that Enforced managed to pull Kill Grid together at all. To this end, the With that attitude in mind, pre-re- now it is. So, yes, it’s something to think group acknowledges that feelings of lease singles like “Hemorrhage” make about, even if it’s becoming a very anxiety and uncertainty gradually it clear that Enforced are ready and scary album.” 💣💣💣

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INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST / GUITARIST NICK THOMAS BY JOHN B. MOORE

ick Thomas and his bandmates in The Spill Canvas had built up an impressive, global fanbase throughout the early aughts by blending vividly smart lyrics into the emerging neoemo genre that took over the punk scene at the time.

On March 5, Pure Noise Records will put out Conduit, the band’s first LP in nine years. The Spill Canvas had been in contact with the label before heading into the studio to work on the record. Out of all the labels the band considered working with, Pure Noise, seemed to be the most interested in what The Spill Canvas were trying to do with this new chapter, versus simply retreading old ground.

But, over the past 10 years, while fans were clamoring for new music from the band, frontman and The Spill Canvas co-founder Thomas was struggling with his own demons. “We began making Conduit in March of 2019. Although a lot of “I had to put the band on hold so I the lyrics and musical elements could direct my energy into getting spanned across the last nine clean off a heroin and opiate ad- years,” Thomas says. “So, we defidiction,” he says. “Needless to say, nitely had a lot of material to sort it took some time to find my way through and work with.” to the surface. At one point during the hiatus, while in the throes of The band decamped to rural Pennrecovery, I wasn't sure I'd even be sylvania to record the album. able to play guitar again due to the loss of basic motor function “Our manager and engineer, John in my hands. But, as it slowly came Rupp, lives in the woods near Easton, back, so did my hope and desire to Pennsylvania, and has a connection continue pushing forward with new with the Soundmine Studio owner Spill Canvas music.” Dan Malsch, which led to it being

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the best option for us to make the with fans on their social media album on our own dime,” Thomas channels. says. “I feel you can really hear the influence of that isolated area in “We remain hopeful that this new the winter within the album.” music will still be able to thrive in the current state of the industry,” ThomThat’s not to say everything rolled as says. along smoothly. Like every other band across the globe, the pan- Despite just having finished this demic and its restrictions had an last record, the band is already impact on Conduit. working on their next return to the studio, and hopefully hitting the “The release was most certainly af- road as soon as it’s safe to tour fected; we basically had it done but again. our talks with Pure Noise got put on hold once the pandemic hit,” Thom- Until a time when he can say it as says. “Aside from that, we've been face-to-face from a stage, Thomas hit hard just like every other full time wants to thank every fan, both new touring act. But, we've done our and old, for “keeping this machine best to pivot and adapt, creating a running and being the lifeblood of Patreon, while I've started my own this dream.” Downwrite shop where I write custom songs for fans.” “Also, [I] would like to extend a message to all those struggling with Touring has always been the addiction and mental health issues band’s bread and butter to pro- that you're not alone, and to stay mote new music. Along with Pa- strong and seek help because it's treon, the band have adapted out there,” he concludes. 💣💣💣 with livestreams and engaging

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST FERNANDO RIBEIRO BY ADDISON HERRON-WHEELER

oonspell are nothing if not prolific. Together since the early ’90s, they are prepared to launch their 12th studio album, Hermitage, on February 26 via Napalm Records. But, all Moonspell fans will tell you that no two of their albums are ever alike.

“We always try our best to make each album distinctive,” explains vocalist Fernando Ribeiro. “Unique is too big a word. Songwriting and performing, as far as we’re concerned, doesn’t have a formula, or we haven’t found

making for one of the smoothest records to date, a fusion between all the band’s elements. They took an old-school vibe with the recording, using tape layers instead of computer sampling.

that enclose us, destroying our empathy and love to one another.” While they are as heartbroken as everyone else about the unwanted break from live music, Moonspell remain hopeful for the future, and have some exciting plans in the works.

out the sweat and the taste of cheap beer, but we’re not going down without exhausting all options. We need to stay in the fans’ radar, and we need to be thankful for every little way they choose to support us.”

They also explored some more exThe band are currently planning a istential lyrics on the new record, a “secret show” sometime before sumfitting theme for the current times. “It goes without saying that 2020 has mer, one that will be livestreamed been a violent blow to live music,” Ri- from a special location to all fans. “I believe there’s a strong existential- beiro says. “Bands tried their best to They are also hopeful that they will ist vibe on this one, a ‘where do we adapt and survive, but with the shit- actually get to play some of the fesgo from here’ thing,” Rebeiro says. “I ty, digital deals and the overall ex- tivals they have lined up. Ribeiro is started writing about hermit saints, ploitation of ‘content’ creators, the also taking a venture outside of mu-

“It might not be rock ‘n’ roll without the sweat and the taste of cheap beer, but we’re not going down without exhausting all options.” one that we’re happy with, so we do take our time experimenting a few ideas. In our opinion, this album is a bit more ‘no strings attached.’ The song formats are more fluid, so to speak, and we took a lot of the symphonic and gothic layers of our past works and replaced them with more spacy and progressive atmospheres and vocals.” Thanks to Jaime Gomez Arellano, who they worked with in the studio, their ideas were able to come to life,

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their retreat from society, and their fact is that it doesn’t look great for sic and working on a novel. eventual comeback to help ‘enlight- touring musicians. Some people say en’ the community they left behind, that after the pandemic, it will be a “Personally, I am putting the final but also, I was talking about taking free-for-all, orgies and swarms of touches to my first novel, due to be a break already in the world before people at the shows. I don’t know if out here in Portugal via Random COVID-19. Now, it is all happening I can agree. I think people will cher- House/Penguin,” he says. “It’s a story around us, the sanitary and humani- ry-pick, and we hope they put us in about the war between a poor and tarian crisis, the wild capitalism with- their basket too.” a rich neighborhood, the sexual out rule, the fact that we have placed pursuit of the young protagonist, killourselves greedily at the center of our “Having said that, we played four er teens with two heads, amputated worries and ambitions, and not the shows in 2020 with a crowd, did a diabetics, earthquake births, and community, I believe that we have very successful streaming, and kept so forth, all taking place in the ugly made ourselves into some negative on planning alternatives,” he contin- suburb I was brought up in my childhermits, and built our own stonewalls ues. “It might not be rock ‘n’ roll with- hood.” 💣💣💣

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PHOTO BY JOE CALIXTO

“Whenever this ends— whether it’s months or whether it’s years, however long—where do I want to see myself at the end of it?”

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST AND DRUMMER DONOVAN MELERO BY OWEN MORAWITZ

or Donovan Melero, spending time away from his duties as frontman, lead vocalist, and drummer for Californian post-hardcore outfit Hail The Sun during the COVID-19 pandemic was a chance to expand his already impressive skillset, while also keeping an optimistic eye looking towards the future.

“The first thing I asked myself was, ‘Whenever this ends— whether it’s months or whether it’s years, however long— where do I want to see myself at the end of it?” Melero says. “Where do I want to be when things come back in? What position do I want to be in moving forward?’ Because it’s gonna change everything. When all this happened back in March, I took like three weeks off to just unwind. I’d realized that there were so many things that I was doing daily that were constantly weighing on me, and I didn’t realize it until they were gone. With that mindset, I immediately started working on an

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idea I had had for quite a while, but “I think it just felt good at the time,” routine and did most of the tracking never got a chance to execute. So, I explains Melero. “I was really on a at night. We just ploughed through it. started working on kill iconic music heavy kick for a couple of weeks It wasn’t like we were trying to pull a magazine. I started flying lessons as during this cycle. And I wanted to rabbit from a hat or anything either. well, to get a private pilot’s license have that same type of feeling I got A lot of the ideas were just flowing over this last summer. I also wrote listening to a Glassjaw or Every Time out and we were just piecing them a lot of solo music, and we had to I Die song. I’m like, ‘I want to really together.” put off the Hail The Sun record for feel this stuff. Fuck it.’” about six months. We just kept thinkThe result is 10 songs that find Hail ing of ways to make this rollout bet- To write and record New Age Filth, The Sun pushing their creative ter. So, when the time actually came, the band—consisting of Melero, Aric boundaries in every way, taking the we were very prepared for the roll- Garcia (guitar), John Stirrat (bass), band’s penchant for crafting lush out that’s happening now.” and Shane Gann (guitar)—spent instrumentals and soaring vocal over a month living in an apartment melodies to lofty new heights. The record of which Melero speaks attached to producer Kris Crumis Hail The Sun’s upcoming album, mett’s (Dance Gavin Dance, A Lot “Something we had a huge focus on New Age Filth, set for release in April Like Birds) studio. this batch was just trimming all fat, through Equal Vision Records. On cutting that shit off and having it be their fifth LP, the band pull from “Kris is a fucking mastermind,” Mele- completely prime product, with only a wide range of sonic influences. ro says. “He’s an expert at his craft. the parts that matter,” says MeleSome, like Saosin and Circa Survive, As we were going through all these ro. “We tried to get it down to the have been long-standing elements songs, he didn’t have a ton of edits, point where if one of the parts had of the band’s back catalogue and almost no edits, as far as arrange- been missing, the song would not feel sound. And yet, tracks like the con- ments. So, I think that was more fo- complete, but if something could be cussive “Parasitic Cleanse,” or the cus than we’ve ever had for an al- pulled, and it didn’t really affect the barnburner closer “Punch Drunk,” bum cycle, you know, getting it down song or it didn’t contribute to the song, reveal a muscular, more primal to what was essential. Outside of then we would cut it. And I think that edge to the band’s music. that, we just got into our daily writing shows tremendously.” 💣💣💣

FRAYLE

NATHANIEL SHANNON & The Vanishing Twin

BURNING TONGUE

Formats: digital / streaming / T-SHIRT

Formats: Emphemeral Cassette Box, digital / streaming

Formats: Vinyl record, printed book, digital / streaming

“Haunting, hypnotic mix of crushing Sleep-style doom and cooing ethereal vocals à la Cocteau Twins' Elizabeth Fraser.” –Revolver

“There are very few times that you listen to music & it’s something brand new with its own identity & style. A dark dreamscape of life with faceless people & the distant sound of sirens.”–Steve Austin (Today is the Day).

Prisoner’s Cinema, is eleven new songs of crushing nihilism that nod to the shadowy side of hardcore punk– This is real hate, played real fast. COMING SOON

RING OF FIRE

THE THREE MOTHERS

PRISONER’S CINEMA

BUY

LISTEN

@AqualambRecords

BEING HERSELF FOR A CHANGE me to make sense of some sort of thoughts that I’m having, and so I’m always writing kind of along the way. Writing this album was definitely like a helpful process for me, and quite grounding, I guess, without sounding too much like using therapy buzzwords. It makes me feel a bit more peaceful, and I know myself slightly better once I’ve written some songs, and that’s definitely the case for this album.” The album ranges from the straightforward acoustic opening of “Whiskey” to the subtle rhythmic swagger of “Hannover,” and onward to the rather full sound of “Undone,” which Hekt released as a single. “It’s really rewarding to be able to play lots of instruments, and I’m a bit of a control freak, so I really enjoyed having full creative control on writing the musical parts, and not kind of giving up parts of the song to other people,” Hekt shares. “But then, having said that, you kind of lose certain parts. There’s potential to take the songs in a different direction if you had the input of collaborators, but I personally really enjoyed it, and I think it’s quite interesting to see how far a song can go with only my ideas, and for me, it’s quite interesting and fun.” Going to Hell closes with “In the Darkness,” a piece of subtly triumphant praise and encouragement for democracy. Originally, Hekt wrote the lyrics for a piece performed by a feminist choir in southwest England.

PHOTO BY GINGERDOPE

INTERVIEW BY CALEB R. NEWTON

n her debut full-length solo namic yet centrally focused collec- side broadly strummed acoustic album, Going to Hell – avail- tion of music. guitar melodies, Hekt includes subtly able via Get Better Records – heart-rending lines like: “Your friends U.K.-based singer-songwriter Lande “The songs have quite differing themes from home start acting strange when Hekt presents a stirring collection of throughout, but the theme that I kind you try to be yourself for a change,” musical self-contemplation that ex- of wanted to push and highlight over and the earnest music itself seems to plores, among other themes, Hekt’s the whole album is the queer issue, carry a similar ache. journey of coming out as gay. because the whole album is kind of like a documentation of me coming “I kind of write songs unintentionally,” Although Hekt’s longtime band out as gay,” Hekt shares. Hekt explains. “Not necessarily toMuncie Girls perform with a more wards a project, just because it’s helppunk-oriented vibe, Hekt founds the The title track, which appears towards ful for me to write down lyrics at the songs on Going to Hell upon gently the end of the record, confronts an- time and make a song about it, bepoignant guitar melodies and her imosity towards queer people within cause for some reason it just makes own singing, delivering a richly dy- certain Catholic communities. Along- me feel a lot better, or it just helps

64 NEW NOISE

“I definitely think that everything’s so bleak all the time, and pretty horrifying,” Hekt observes. “I think if we can feel some sort of hopefulness, or at least any kind of spark of politics that we might feel that there might be positive action towards, then I think that’s really good. I don’t often write positive songs – I’m normally writing quite miserable songs – but I was really happy to be able to put that song on the record, because I do think it’s got a certain level of optimism, and like the idea of protecting democracy against fascism – which is what the song’s about – as well as partaking in our political system, while also understanding that there are actually other ideals to be working towards beyond a kind of half-hearted democracy that we are trying to protect at the moment.” 💣💣💣

NEW NOISE 65

PUNK’S RENAISSANCE MAN INTERVIEW BY JANELLE JONES

he prolific multi-instrumentalist Mikey Erg— who has played with innumerable punk bands over the years, including his other namesake band, The Ergs— is back with his latest album, a self-titled, 10song, fast-moving, adrenaline-fueled gem, out February 26 on Rad Girlfriend Records.

of their momentous 1977 self-titled debut. And let’s just dig into how that all happened, because, yeah, it’s cool. Erg mentions he was in Camden Market and didn’t realize the spot that The Clash had been photographed in was right there, but he was at a Doc Martens store and they “pretty much said if you walk out that door and look ahead, that’s where this picture was taken.”

“It’s funny, ’cause it’s kind of an allover-the-place record on one hand,” he says. “And then on the other hand, Naturally, he had to take a photo. there’s a few songs on there that I feel like are the most Ergs-y songs I’ve “I posted it online and my friend Jay done in a while, in the style of that old Insult, who did the artwork for the band. I think it’s got something for ev- record, he as a joke mocked it up erybody. I hope people dig it. I think and made it look like The Clash alit’s certainly more punk-influenced bum, and I was like, ‘I’m using that for than the last record I did, so that’s something at some point.’” And so, it became the cover art. something.” “Hopefully the punks will dig it,” he laughs. “Hopefully they see the cover and check it out.”

Interestingly, the frontman says this album might not have even come to pass if not for the restrictions and upheaval to normal life of the last year.

The cover art of which he speaks happens to be Erg standing exactly where “I feel like this record definitely The Clash posed on the iconic cover wouldn’t have been written if all this

in The Measure, and Chris Pierce from Doc Hopper, who also owns the recording studio Volume IV in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

“We’re all going crazy sitting in our houses not playing music,” Erg explains, of the decision to get together. “So, we just started meeting every few weeks and playing and doing a little COVID stuff hadn’t happened, be- bit of recording.” cause I wouldn’t have had the time. I’m sure I would’ve been on the road He says at this point he had the idea all year, so it was nice to have the time to just do an EP, “an interesting stopto just put this together.” gap between my last record and whatever my next full-length record So, that’s a positive. Erg also looks would be.” But the songs came about at it this way - with a new record out really quickly, and he soon had eight now, and having people hear it and originals. get acquainted with it, once things get more normal, “hopefully people will “I pretty much wrote them in almost know the stuff by the time we go out one sitting,” he says. “I sat down to and play.” He wanted to put some- write and went back and just revised thing out now “just to do something a couple of things.” with this time.” And then they added two covers he “It was nice to just get together for wanted to do, Green Day’s “Going to a couple of days and make some Pasalacqua,” which they had been noise, because I never had this long playing on tour, and the hard and fast of a break,” he says. For reference, Pearl Jam ripper, “Spin the Black Cirhe started out playing 20 years ago cle.” Of the latter’s inclusion, Erg says at age 20, so he’s had this going for he was out running one day, and the a while. He details of the situation at song came to mind. the time, “I hadn’t played drums in six months at that point and barely “I wanted it to be track two on whattouched an electric guitar.” ever this record ends up being,” he says. “It’s the punkest Pearl Jam song, So, in August, he got together with his so I feel like it actually fits on the friends Fid, with whom he’s played record.”💣💣💣 PHOTO BY PAUL SILVER

66 NEW NOISE

STAY IN AND STAY SAFE WITH THESE ADULT TWISTS ON SOME CHILDHOOD FAVORITES.

INTERVIEW BY FRANKIE TOROK

“It's very strange to be walking your dog in your neighborhood and see signs that say, ‘avoid downtown; there's fascists in town, and they might be dangerous.’”

“When my family, my neighborhood, my community needs me, I want to be able to answer that call and have the energy to do it, instead of being wiped out all the time,” she says. “I think a lot of people this past year have started to understand that they have an identity beyond what their current job is. And, I'm one of those people, and I'm figuring it out.” 💣

urviving 2020, we all deserve a little self-care and mindfulness. No, I’m not talking scented candles and bubble baths (although if that’s what you’re into, go for it!), I’m talking coloring fun with your favorite D.C. hardcore and DIY bands, courtesy of photographer and proud, D.C. resident Farrah Skeiky.

she reflects. “This is where we are right now. But the people who live here are resilient and proud to live here.”

dissatisfied, and this isn't enough, and I deserve more.’”

Skeiky started off the year from hell publishing her first photo book, which Skeiky has no disillusions that things tied in with her first solo exhibition. Skeiky moved to the city from Seattle are going to improve overnight. When the world came to a standstill, as a teen, with iconic Dischord bands she created a coloring book based on making the move bearable. “The normal that we had before her incredible photography of bands Trump wasn't good,” she says. “Black such as Ceremony, HIRS, and Scream- “The only thing that made me excit- Lives Matter didn't start under Trump, ing Females, because she wanted ed was the reputation D.C. had as it started under Obama. Trump was a relaxing-but-fun, happy medium far as music,” she says. “I knew that, not the first president to call in the between the usual, intricate mandala culturally, it was going to be an National Guard on protesters. This patterns and cartoon sloths. exciting place to be. It was cool to needs to be better than Biden fixing be able to be immersed in it. It was the things that Trump did wrong, it “I started practicing tracing my own nice to not just read about a band has to go further back than that.” show photos to create some coloring or find a tape at the store; I could pages for my friends,” Skeiky says. actually go see them.” As for what’s next for Skeiky, she has “And they were very calming for me. So, a monthly, downloadable coloring what could a whole book of this do for Now, Skeiky is as passionate as a D.C. page planned for throughout 2021, other people?” native, spending years in the city soak- with 100 percent of the profits going ing up the politics, seeing injustice on to an organization chosen by the These little distractions were definitely the front line. She’s optimistic that the featured band. She’ll be releasing needed for Skeiky and her neighbors, government’s failings throughout the more postcard packs and trying her living in the city essentially known as the pandemic will spark more action. hand at digital drawing. This is all place the whole country goes to protest. alongside the increasing amount “If this time in America doesn't radi- of photojournalism and occasional “It's very strange to be walking your dog calize more people, I don't know what video directing. in your neighborhood and see signs that will,” she comments. “I don't know what say, ‘Avoid downtown; there’s fascists in will make you finally comfortable But most importantly, Skeiky is trying to town, and they might be dangerous,’” enough to speak out and say, ‘I'm find balance in her life.

custom, paper dolls that look just like the band for their “Fuck Euphemisms” video.

BY ADDISON HERRON-WHEELER You may recognize HE Creative, also known as Howell Edwards, from his work illustrating icons like Brody Dalle of the Distillers, Gwen Stefani, and punk rock versions of Disney princesses. Most recently he collaborated with Fat Mike and Fat Wreck Chords to create

68 NEW NOISE

“The core band members of NOFX worked closely with Howell on the video, which depicts life-like, ‘paper doll’ illustrations of them, each with shifting outfit ‘changes’ swiping on and off them from each direction,” HE Creative’s press release shares. “Fat Mike’s aesthetic, of course, is mostly an array of fetish and BDSM clothing, as the song topically talks about the frustrations of ‘passing’ as cis or straight within queer and/or leather/kink communities.”

Through this, the dolls play with our concepts of gender, of “normal” versus subversive, with a simple change of wardrobe. Among the offerings at www.hecreative.com are the Doll Parts Book, which features 40 pages of illustrated paper dolls to cut out and play with or to just enjoy; Give Thanks, a book by HR of Bad Brains and Edwards focusing on the importance of positivity for children, and E is for Epitaph, a Golden Book- style children’s book that benefits Save Our Stages. Relive your earliest childhood memories or give a youngin’ a punk rock head start! 💣

BY MATT LUBCHANSKY The only bad thing about this hilarious-yet-poignant graphic novel is that there are no god damn recipes. Aside from a little untruth in advertising, Matt Lubchansky has distilled all of the lies that the right says about the left and Antifa into one glorious and amusing story about the rise of an Antifa super soldier. I have spent way too much time online the past four years, and it’s clear the author is a kindred spirit. The Antifa Super Solider Cookbook has a wealth of callbacks for any of us too-online folx: our favorite sports mascot Gritty, underground Antifa meeting places, secret DNC funding, and of course the (not funny) lack of police and government accountability. It’s a rare treat to be able to chuckle and deliberate at the same time, but Lubchansky’s acerbic wit really elevates this superhero origin story into something special. -Nick Senior

INTERVIEW WITH WINSLOW DUMAINE BY ADDISON HERRON-WHEELER

f you’re a fan of metal, horror, Describing their love as “beautiful sci-fi, video games, or D&D, you and catastrophic” and his ex as need to check out The Tarot Rest- “wicked and toe-curlingly cruel,” Duless. Winslow Dumaine just created maine had to get out of the abusive his third version of this awesome relationship he was in, despite the deck, and it may just be the gnarliest, intensity of their connection. spookiest yet. was sad that this person I had want- deck, or any of the references, you can “I was in tatters. My whole identity was ed to have a family with, we were still enjoy some spooky, limitless art. But there’s a deeper story behind the annihilated. And I was very, very alone. going to get married, we were going tarot cards, one that goes beyond I was completely devastated and alone.” to have kids, it was fate, was gone.” “There are a lot of references that are name-dropping and gleefully worshipvague enough that they can apply to ing some of the best metal and coolest From that pain, a pain so dark that And with that, there are also con- anything; there are secret references stories out there. Of course, that plays a Dumaine experienced self-harm nections to the present day and the that are specific to me,” he says. part, but Dumaine was actually inspired and suicidal ideation, he decided issues unique to 2020 and 2021. “Frank Ocean writes about his own, by something much darker. to make art instead of taking his own specific heartache, but still, tons of life, and the result of that project was “This deck is about heartbreak,” Du- people listen to him and go, like, ‘It’s “In sixth grade, I met this girl, and it these three editions of tarot cards. maine says. “It’s about yearning. It’s almost like he wrote that about me.’ was young love; we fell in love,” he This third deck is even darker than also about sex, violence. It’s about And that’s kind of my goal, to create explains. “It was like this ongoing, the first two. trauma. They’re specific allusions to reflections on really catastrophic back-and-forth thing. I didn’t realize proud boys and white supremacists. pain.” until much later that she was very, “There's a lot of art in this world that It’s about the downfall of the United very manipulative, very exploitative I like, but almost none of it is intense States. All told, through a grand, gro- Get the new deck now, and check and destructive. We were in love, but enough,” Dumaine says. “It never tesque, fantasy opera.” out The Tarot Restless online for the we never dated until we were, like goes far enough for me. And so, inother editions and plenty of other 25, and I based a lot of my identity stead of writing a bunch more poetry, However, if you’re not familiar with Du- cool merch that transcends life and around this person. and creating more art about how I maine’s story, the imagery behind the death. 💣

To quote the Tool classic “Schism"—"I KNOW THE PIECES FIT," and Zee Productions imprint Rocksaws has you and Maynard James Keenan covered on the puzzle pieces fitting. Featuring 500 and 1000 piece puzzles of some of the most famous cover artwork in rock and metal, Rocksaws' most recent puzzle batch includes some killer Nick Cave and Killing Joke records. Older catalogue highlights are the stunning, art deco goodness of Ghost’s Meliora, the 500 shades of grey in Napalm Death's Scum, and Morbid Angel's terrifying ode to insanity Altars of Madness. That said, the wealth of genuine classics (Ramones, Metallica, Rush, etc.) should fill up anyone's time wonderfully in 2021. Hopefully you are more patient with puzzles than I, dear reader. - Nick Senior 💣

NEW NOISE 69

DON’T SLEEP ON THESE SPECIAL RELEASES... BY HUTCH THE ANTAGONIZERS ATL

THE CHISEL

COME SEE ME / NOT THE ONLY ONE BEACH IMPEDIMENT/LA VIDA ES UN MUS/ BLACK HOLE RECORDS

Following one of 2020’s best EPs, Deconstructive Surgery, The Chisel kick of the new year with a masterful touch of Oi! Five young men from various parts of England converge to sling three new tracks in under seven minutes. Members have honed their skills in notable groups such as (but not limited to) Abolition, Arms Race, Chubby & The Gang, Crown Court, and Violent Reaction. A hard, gritty, punk release, the charmer here is the mid-paced stomper, “Not the Only One,” which sounds like a lost track of an early Cockney Rejects’ album. The lads are in the studio again in February 2021 to record another EP and an LP. 💣

KINGS PIRATES PRESS

Revamped line-up with full-time keyboards, dual guitars, new drummer Don Tonic, and new bassist Wynn Petit (DDC, Fatskins, Strike First), Antagonizers ATL add to their impressive rebirth in the 2010s. This full-length embodies street rock ‘n’ roll with a raucous sound, infectious hooks, rebellious lyrics soaked in working-class camaraderie, and seductive, gang vocals. Kings embodies the hallmarks of unifying punk in these isolating times. The legend, Bohdan, still has a powerful voice after decades—literally, in his chords, and figuratively, with his lyrics. And Fields’ organ truly adds a layer of warmth to the sound. The 10 tracks operate with full octane delivery, especially with the flare of the lead guitar’s salient presence. You won’t sit still. 💣

HIGH COMMAND

EVERLASTING TORMENT SOUTHERN LORD / TRIPLE B RECORDS

Massachusetts and Rhode Island dudes playing foreboding, crushing hardcore mixed with taut thrash riffs, High Command remind us they are still pulsating. Southern Lord released the digital version of this album, while early 2021 will see it get the vinyl treatment on Triple B Records. Recorded at the revered Machines With Magnets (also in Rhode Island) and then mastered at Audiosiege by the impeccable Brad Boatright, High Command’s ferocious sound is powerful and captivating. With two tracks coming in at 10 minutes, the band showcases evil, metal mastery. 💣

CROMAGS

TERROR

SINK TO THE HELL WAR RECORDS

Seventeen years deep in hardcore, Terror have earned world tours and a reputation for fervent dedication. Even with lineup changes, they recruit scene veterans continuously. Terror continue to kill stages—they were my last show before COVID! The band are lauded, album after album, by metalheads, hip-hop heads, hardcore kids, straight-edge dudes, and skinheads, for their ferocity, passion, and persistence. Terror release EPs and LPs on large and small labels, constantly spreading the love and churning out voracious hardcore. This time the platform is Andrew Kline’s (Strife, Berthold City) WAR Records. You know what to expect and it continues to slay. On this release, Terror compile four unreleased songs, two from the Keepers of the Faith demos with re-recorded vocals, and there are multiple options for colored vinyl. 💣

2020 EP MISSION TWO ENTERTAINMENT

After releasing a surprising and impressive full-length early in 2020, Harley Flanagan now closes the door on that cluster bomb of a year. This EP is meant as a chronological document of the previous eight months. With track titles such as “Age of Quarantine,” “Chaos in the Streets,” and “Violence and Destruction,” its tone and attitude are both apparent. Stuffed with fast rippers driven by Harley’s gritty bass, 2020 is a fresh supplement to In the Beginning that proves Flanagan is still rife with song ideas and an unrelenting anger at this chaotic quagmire. Serendipitously, the duration of this EP comes in at 20 minutes and 20 seconds. 💣

THE TEMPLARS

SUBZERO

HOUSE OF GRIEF UPSTATE RECORDS

After 22 years, the original members of NYHC stalwarts Subzero, Lou DiBella, Larry Susi, and Rich Kennon have now recruited Matty Pasta (Skarhead) on guitar, and the mighty Riggs Ross (Rag Men, Madball, Hatebreed, Skarhead) on drums. They recorded their final EP and House of Grief seven-inch, the carrot on the stick for NYHC fans. House of Grief combines a new track backed with a re-recording of “Necropolis” from 2002, as a teaser for next year’s EP. Upstate gave the two dark, pounding, metallic, hardcore tracks a fine treatment, with art by renowned hardcore artist and tattooer Dave Quiggle (also the guitarist for Disciple AD, No Innocent Victim). The release is available on colored vinyl in translucent blue, pink, and black. 💣

CLOCKWORK ORANGE HORROR SHOW 12” EP TKO RECORDS/TEMPLECOMBE IN 1995

The Templars released the classic Clockwork Orange Horrorshow, a double-gatefold, seven-inch EP with four original tracks (including the greats, “Doin’ the Dirty” and “War on the Streets”) and two classic covers, “Teenage Warning” by Angelic Upstarts, and “Leaders of Tomorrow” by Major Accident. Adorned with Clockwork-themed imagery and timeless art by Alteau, this EP is now remastered for 12inch, maximum sound by vinyl guru, Adam Gonsalves. This masterpiece is available once again for those who either missed it or want the power of a 12-inch, maxi-EP sound. Featuring screen-printed covers, variants of white and black limited covers, and a regular version on (what else?) orange vinyl. 💣

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NEW NOISE

ANALOG BECAUSE CASSETTES RULE HARD AND NEVER REALLY AGE, T HE ANALOG CAVE IS HERE TO BRING YOU SOME OF THE BEST IN UNDERGROUND TAPES A ND COLLECTED VISION. A CASSETTE IS LIKE YOUR BEST FRIEND, YOUR MOST TRUSTED TRAVEL PARTNER, AND A SPECIMEN OF IMAGINATIVE FANTASY AND OTHERWORLDLY DIMENSION. POP ONE IN AND TRANSFORM. RIDE THE HIGHWAY ETERNAL.

BAMBOO MC: THE LEGEND OF JENNY VEGA (HEART OF A LION): ICY PALMS RECORDS NYC’s BamBoo MC shares a true vision on his newest release, The Legend of Jenny Vega (Heart Of A Lion). Stories here are shaped by the rapper’s classic style, sculptural flow. His aesthetic is complimentary to the world he weaves. It’s about his everyday, about the living, breathing current that Big Apple MCs from Run-DMC to Wu-Tang Clan to Uncommon Nasa have all fused their imagination with. BamBoo MC is a continuation of that energy, of the unique spark of Gotham intensity and old-world darkness. He’s old school in his methodology, and it’s refreshing and still contemporary, beats and rhymes flip atop and spin around one another in an endless cycle of urbanity and creative wisdom. Tracks like “Let it Be (A beautiful Day)” showcase the rapper’s unique parlance, an intricate juxtaposition of the past and the future. “Black Leopard,” which features Vordul Mega and Residue, is a round robin of flow, a classic shortform of street poetry and hip-hop. “Letter B” is the sort of legendary composition hiphop records are born for, a rap ballad with words raining down from the sky, emotion and force dance around the writer’s universe. The record achieves transcendence because every area BamBoo MC covers is strong, complex, and able to play off of, and flow with, the overarching themes the album covers: there’s social theory, individual philosophy, relationships, and the knowledge of the streets.

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CARDINAL WYRM: DEVOTIONALS SELF-RELEASED

SERRATER, SERRATER: ALREADY DEAD TAPES & RECORDS

VARIOUS ARTISTS: NEBULA ARANEA #01 BELLA URSA RECORDINGS

Bay Area art doomers Cardinal Wyrm’s latest record, Devotionals, shifts forms so often, it has the ability to take you from one environment to another without ever leaving either. Meaning, the writing, while intricately varied, is interwoven and wrapped as a singular and forceful effort. In effect, you are privy to something real, something unique. Most extreme metal bands cannot (or don't dare) stray from one set vision. Cardinal Wyrm never consider those consequences, moving from ocean doom to mushroom psychedelia to post punk patterning, often within one single song. Each form though, is particular to the band, meaning it’s their own take, without compromise. And that stance shines throughout the whole record. It’s how you get songs like “Abbess,” which is going one way, and then almost, as if possessed by freak jazz, strays into extended territory, a sort of mix between classic metal and ’80s art punk (which really is the case on “Do We Have Another Battle Left In Us?”). Intricate drum and bass patterns from Pranjal Tiwari and Leila Abdul-Rauf, are geometry synced to guitarist Nathan A. Verrill’s riffage and free-forming solos. Tiwari’s vocals are center-structure, but similar to the band’s overall sense of optimization, both Abdul-Rauf and Verrill add warm and dark vocal textures that heighten Tiwari’s centering, creating more dynamics atop the swirl of individualization that is Cardinal Wyrm. A different and exciting sort of doom is created here. It’s its own sound, something exceedingly difficult to do in age of simulation.

What is the absence of sound? Where is the center of the void? If the universe is infinite, does that mean time and space will at some point collapse, and everything will run backwards? Serrater’s self-titled collection of recordings from 2017 through 2020, contains questions, and no answers. Which is pretty awesome, actually, because what good is questioning the meaning of something, if something could really only be as it truly is: infinite, without question, without full depth, with that half depth actually being the infinite that camouflages it? There are circles through the album’s six movements, each a deep mystery with an ever-tunneling regression, which would be a progression, actually. Many fragments are treated this way, there’s a section in “Movement II” which confirms this backwards, forwards juxtaposition, noise intertwined with noise, surrounded by space, common themes that come to mind are blankness, with and without the void. A section in “Movement III” sneaks up on you, and you find yourself treating the interaction in a way that transcends the typical listening experience. I wouldn’t say it’s physical music, even though it is very heavy in many ways. It’s dream music, or nightmare music, if that’s your destination. It’s repetitive, but upon closer evaluation, in fact there is absolutely no repetition, there is the void, which was hidden. Serrater is philosophy music, and there is perfect calm to this chaos.

Ursa Recordings is out of Strasbourg, France, dedicated, they note, to “astral electronics for cosmic dance floors,” which is apt, for their first physical release, Nebula Aranea #01, the first of the Nebula Aranea series, is a collection of electronic artists that share a similar beyond the horizon type of approach. The 11-song cassette features artists such as the hard-breaking techno of Drvg Cvltvre, the spiraling free-form post-electronica of Nocto, the minimal, beat glitz of Lloyd Stellar, and many more. The music is varied and collides together as a patchwork of contemporary art technology. Clarence Rise’s “Post Trauma” is a good example of modern visual techno, not straight enough to call it a particular type of anything at all, ever so drifting towards experimental madness. There’s also much smoothness to this track, and a sense of freeform and ecstasy, in a film sort of way. Jan Loup’s “No Mercy” has acid and dance around its edges, at its center is breakcore heavy, but always aware of not pushing its luck: therein lies its beauty. The whole experience is enhanced by the cassette’s artwork, done by the master collage maker, Bill Noir, whose work is like the extension of Man Ray, M.C. Escher and James Rosenquist, the perfect artist to visually show the feeling, variance, and quality of the artists contained in this mix. You pop the tape in and transcend time and space. Electronic music made with the mind and the body.