WARBRINGER

THE MORE THINGS CHANGE THE MORE THEY STAY THE SAME WARBRINGER INTERVIEW WITH SINGER JOHN KEVILL BY HUTCH power Kills’ is about the power of modern

Warbringer expected to be celebratlished sound is how we expand creatively. weapons, ‘Crushed Beneath the Tracks’ is ing with their rabid fans pounding Instead of expanding into something about replacing humans with machines in fists and headbanging across the else, we go further into ourselves, our the workforce, ‘Glorious End’ is about what country to bond over their sixth album, own identity, and our own sound. This industrial weapons did to brave men 100

Weapons of Tomorrow, out on Napalm Reitself is evolution and development. I years ago (with implications for the future).” cords. But, in the quarantine times currently think this path of our sound only became suffocating this country, things are, well, clear following the last record, Woe to “But that’s just a few of them. ‘Defiance weird. the Vanquished. Continuing in that same of Fate’ and ‘Unraveling’ are both two path pushes creative expansion, because different sides of an intra-personal “It’s weird indeed,” says vocalist John Kevill. we were doing things like melodic or black “Putting out an album while staying at home metal elements, as well as long epic or prois very different from how we’ve done it gressive songs. So, just continuing in our own every other time. We have no tour dates direction and being ‘more ourselves’ is the until the end of the year. It is a strange path to our creative evolution.” time indeed.” Warbringer has built a respected legacy

Vancouver-based heavy, progressive band Neck of the Woods unveiled their latest record, The Annex of Ire, out now via Pelagic Records. Channeling a darker, heavier sound, the band tapped As far as the main songwriting, the core of

However, different parameters create the band remains steadfast. “Me, Carlos different opportunities. “Under quarCruz (drums), and Adam Carroll (guitars) antine, I have plenty of time to do every do a lot of the songwriting, and all three single interview or piece of press which of us have been there since forever ago,” comes my way, and that’s not a bad thing! Kevill says. The writing of Weapons of

So, seeing as we can’t control these globTomorrow, was also enhanced by new al events, we have to try to make the best bassist, Chase Bryant, who Kevill credits of them.” with “(bringing) a lot more to the table in

terms of writing bass lines.” into the bleaker side of their creativity to unleash an album they’re extremely proud of. ing album than our previous work, but that wasn’t on purpose,” explains Dave Carr, guitarist. “We’ve always written for ourselves, and these tunes just came out a little heavier. Ron, our ‘at-the-time newbassist-now-turned-guitarist,’ also had an impact on our sound. He brought some killer riffs to the table, and even though he was the new guy, he fell into our groove with relative ease.” To match the darker sound, the band went the same route with their lyrics, bypassing a positive message to exorcize the demons that can be found in anger. “Lyrically, The Annex of Ire is a little less positive and uplifting than our previous release, The Passenger,” says Jeff Radomsky, vocalist. “This album focuses on experiencing, understanding, and processing anger and hate, with emphasis placed on self-awareness, and fostering positive relationships with both yourself and others.” Neck of the Woods also took a different approach to writing and creating the album. “The writing process was different this time around,” says Carr. “The Passenger, for example, was mostly the five of us hashing out riffs in the jam space and putting songs together, then just doing

over their twelve years as a band, but As outstanding fiction does, Kevill delves

Kevill and company do not feel pressure into the current world’s arsenals and to do anything but make the record they extrapolates through his lyrics. He exwant to, instead of struggling to balance plores projected ramifications of our continuing their sound or expanding it technology on each song. “You can with creativity. “We didn’t regard those draw a line through many of the songs two elements as oppositional,” Kevill says. that they somehow relate to ‘fear of the “The way I see it, continuing our estabfuture’ as a theme,” he explains. “‘Firestruggle, the search for meaning. In one, the speaker triumphs, in the other, he loses. ‘Outer Reaches’ is a fictional sci-fi story about explorers on an exodus from Earth. ‘Notre Dame (King of Fools)’ goes into the themes of Victor Hugo’s famous novel, and then also muses on the burning of the cathedral and the loss it represents.”

“I try to write albums with diverse and interesting subject matter,” Kevill concludes. “And I definitely try to write in such a way that whatever I write will be relevant at any time. I don’t hit present day themes ‘on the nose’ for this reason. I want to write an album that will last and remain good

NECK OF THE WOODS INTERVIEW WITH SINGER JEFF RADOMSKY AND GUITARIST DAVE CARR BY ADDISON HERRON-WHEELER

“The Annex of Ire is a much darker-sound

for a ton of listens.” �� floor recordings as our pre-production. With Annex, I did most of the pre-production at home, laying down riffs and then programming some basic drums for Jer [drums] to get an idea of where I was going with it. The advantage here was being able to constantly listen to an unfinished song. If I only had two minutes of a new tune and wasn’t sure where to go with it, I would listen to it over and over until something came to me that felt right and would do the song justice. Once the song has some structure, you can send it off to the guys, so everyone knows what to expect next jam. I’m sure many other bands have been doing it this way for some time, I just resisted the technology forever.”

The recording process was also a bit different this time around. They went to Jesse Gander of Rain City Recorders in order to capture a more raw, organic sound that really put the finishing touches on an album filled with different approaches. Instead of using multiple amps and trying to layer their tone, they went for the “less is more” approach. The result is something different and a bit more polished, but definitely a record the band is proud to call their own. ��

SPIRITUAL DARKNESS ORANSSI PAZUZU INTERVIEW WITH SINGER AND GUITARIST JUHO "JUN-HIS" VANHANEN BY ADDISON HERRON-WHEELER

Aname synonymous with both mystery and greatness, Oranssi Pazuzu have been making music since 2007, and have always been ahead of the curve when it comes to psychedelic, experimental, black metal. Yet instead of thinking of themselves as trendsetters, the band just does what comes naturally.

“With this album, I think it was really interesting because we were able to do things a bit differently,” says vocalist and guitarist Juho “Jun-His” Vanhanen of their latest album, Mestarin kynsi, out now via Nuclear Blast. “Rather than going for the wall-of-sound approach, we really wanted to do something else, something a little more minimalistic. There are so many people in the band, and we’ve gone for that approach in the past, but we wanted to change it up.”

As they broke ground on this recent record, Oranssi Pazuzu leaned into their classic, ’70s psych influence as much as they honored their black metal roots. They used a sampler, a lot of keyboards, and experimented with soundscapes

BY ADDISON HERRON-WHEELER

Since 1984, Thanatos have held the title of first death metal band from the Netherlands. Although they may not be as mainstream as some of their British, German, or American counterparts, Thanatos were one of the first bands to blur the lines that turned thrash into death metal. Now, in 2020, they’re still kicking and just released a new record, Violent Death Rituals, out now on Listenable Records. Vocalist and guitarist Stephan Gebéd filled us in about their lengthy career, blistering music, and future plans. “I think with this album, we managed to bring back the dark and ‘more evil’ feeling that we had on our second album from 1992 missing ever since,” explains Gebéd. “Our previous albums had plenty of speed, aggression, and heaviness, and basically there was nothing wrong with our previous album Global Purification, but this time, I think we managed to spice things up by adding that one, missing ingredient. Apart from that, we’re really satisfied with the way this album turned out both musically and production-wise.” The record has been in the works since 2018, when the band members traded material back and forth to create the album. and ideas, and even more electronic elements, to create the unique sound on Mestarin kynsi. While it still has a lot of the classic, heavy elements they are known for, it is even more attached and psychedelic than previous works.

In terms of lyrical content, there was just as much intention behind what the band wrote, and the experiments they engaged in, as there was in the music.

“We tried to make songs that would feel like spells, or curses,” Vanhanen explains. “We were thinking a lot about mind control, paranoia, things like that. They also take a look at how things are very polarized today. There are basically two sides. There is no middle ground. We came up with this kind of

Lovecrafitian character who has a kind of religious, cult following. He could get people to do anything because they would be on one side or the other.

It’s not really supposed to be any real character or politician, more like a

Lovecraftian beast that just represents how the world is today.” “Usually, one of us comes up with a rough version of a song, and we all add our two cents to that,” adds Gebéd. “We recorded the drums at Michiel van der Plicht’s (God Dethroned) drum studio. Guitars and bass were done at our home studios, and I recorded vocals in a small, local studio in Rotterdam. Then, we sent the recordings to Dan Swanö, and he provided a blistering mix of it all.” The focus of the lyrics on Violent Death Rituals is organized religion and the harm it’s done, as well as war, horror, and death rituals. They’re excited about the new record, and a little disappointed that they can’t promote it properly due to COVID-19. “It’s a real pain in the ass that we cannot promote our new album with live shows, that sucks big time,” Gebéd admits. “We can’t even rehearse for the time being. To be honest, I don’t see much touring happening anymore this year. We have some shows and fests lined up this summer which will probably be cancelled, and I’m also afraid the shows planned for this fall might be in danger.” While lack of touring is certainly a bummer, Thanatos have been at it since 1984, and they don’t plan to stop now. Look out for more tour announcements as restrictions let up. �� Anyone who has been paying attention to experimental black metal over the past few years realizes that Oranssi Pazuzu are a force to aspire to, but the band doesn’t focus on being a light in the darkness for others. They just want to make what feels legitimate to them. “Frankly, we just don't care. We just want to make music. If someone can do it better than us, then they should, but we

THENATOS INTERVIEW WITH SINGER / GUITARIST STEPHAN GEBÉD

(Realm of Ecstasy), and which had been

just want to play. ��