New Noise Magazine Issue # 57 by New Noise Magazine

PAERISH AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE

APRIL 23 "Getting to collab with them was an incredible experience. They deserve to be huge. Honest, real, but massive songs." - Will Yip (Producer)

MESSIER AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE

MAY 7

"...their music — as illustrated by the two singles released so far — walks the fine line between gritty aggression and delicate sensitivity." - Substream Magazine

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ISSUE 57

THE FRONT THE NEW WHAT NEXT 6 10 BONGZILLA DOLLAR SIGNS 13 MONASTARIES 14 TERMINAL BLISS 16 20 FEAR OF A QUEER PLANET 22 PM PRESS 24 BOOK NOOK 26 SARGENT HOUSE 27 BEN CHISHOLM 28 YOUTH CODE X KING YOSEF 30 SHOW ME THE BODY 32 BLACK AND DEATH METAL IN 2021 34 THE CROWN 36 BODOM AFTER MIDNIGHT 37 LUNA’S CALL 38 CANNIBAL CORPSE 40 HORNDAL 42 GOD IS AN ASTRONAUT 43 AMULETS 44 ÅRABROT 46 BIG|BRAVE 47 ICEAGE

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FEATURES 48 52

TETRARCH THE ARMED

THE BACK 62 64 66 68 70 72 74 76 78 80

CHEAP TRICK CHECK YOUR HEAD MDOU MOCTAR THE LION’S DAUGHITER THE REVEREND PEYTON’S BIG DAMN BAND SEIZED UP GOD’S HATE ETERNAL WAR DESIGNS THE SHORTLIST ANALOG CAVE

TETRARCH COVER PHOTO BY GUILLERMO BRICEÑO/GRAPHIC ARTWORK BY KEVIN MOORE THE ARMED COVER PHOTO BY LUKE AWTRY, MATT HOWES AND AARON JONES TOC SHOT OF JAPANESE BREAKFAST BY ELENA DE SOTO

BY NICHOLAS SENIOR PHOTO BY ELLERY BERENGER

PHOTO Gabrielle LeBlanc

AREPO

Location: Virgina/North Carolina Album: Self-titled, out now via Pax Aeternum RIYL: Freedom. Innovation. Friends.

What happens when friends just get the chance to do whatever they want? I know most of us over 25 can’t conceive of such freedom, but we certainly can remember those times in our lives when we had a ton of opportunity, and the companionship to make that time worth it. Graham Scala and Ryan Parrish have been longtime friends and co-collaborators, most notably in excellent hardcore band Bleach Everything. So, when they got the chance to do something entirely different, you wouldn’t expect the result to be paranoid ambient music, right? Well that’s exactly what Arepo is: haunting, daunting, effervescent ambient music. All of the energy you’d expect from noisy hardcore lifers was put into this latest project, but it’s a totally different experience. Arepo is glorious and terrifying, and according to Scala, the sound of the debut was wonderfully freeing: “I think this album was undertaken out of a sense of wanting something open-ended and unconstrained. Anyone familiar with either of our projects, even the most interesting ones, will recognize that each has a general sound. Like, if you’ve heard Ryan in City of Caterpillar or Suppression, you have a general idea of what any other of those bands’ albums will sound like, even though they’re some of the most interesting bands in their respective subgenres. Arepo was us trying to do something with zero inclination towards pigeonholing ourselves.” 💣

CAPRA

Hometown: Lafayette, Louisiana Album: In Transmission, out April 23 via Metal Blade Records RIYL: Horror Imagery. Sobriety. Roller Coasters Capra are truly captivating in their approach to metallic hardcore. Taking major cues from personal favorites Comeback Kid, their sound marries a retro ethos with modern frustrations. In Transmission is a record imbued with a purpose and power, thanks in large part to how the formidable pipes of vocalist Crow Lotus work with the musical chaos. Few hardcore records truly sound like a live show, so Capra’s debut is especially impressive. So much of the record details personal and society trauma, but it’s never left in the complete dark–there’s always some light at the end of the tunnel, or at least something to strive towards. That ability to work in the dark and light really works to Capra’s favor. Guitarist Tyler Harper acknowledges this when talking about the band’s ethos: “We’re all really big fans of both horror movies and sci-fi movies, so I think that plays into it in some way. We have also been down in the dirt and struggled with a lot of various issues over our lives. For me personally, it was addiction. I was down in a hole for years and felt like I couldn’t escape, but finally switched my mindset, climbed out, and am now six years sober. That part of my life played a huge role in how this band was conceived. Being able to overcome an obstacle that seemed impossible really set the focus for how our music is written and the way we interact with fans. Life is a wild ride. We try to channel our deepest frustrations and aggression into the music, while remaining positive and hopeful, letting our listeners know that we’re right there with them. Nothing is impossible.” 💣

PHOTO Amanda Pitts

DAZY

Hometown: Richmond, Virginia Album: Revolving Door EP, out now via self-release RIYL: Bruce Wayne/Batman. Haze. Melodies I’ve always loved the idea of people that have two lives, in part because I have two lives. My professional life and my New Noise life are completely separated, in large part because I love music so much and can’t imagine it not being in my life, and you do not want to hear the music I wrote. Thankfully, many others are much more talented in that sphere than I, chief among them is publicist and all-around great guy James Goodson, who has a lo-fi, shoegaze-y punk outfit for his musical ideas. Imagine The Jesus and Mary Chain, Lemonheads, and early Green Day thrown in a blender, and you’re most of the way to what makes Revolving Door such a delightful listen. Goodson is bashful in talking about his project, but if these are but three of his ideas, here’s hoping he has many more coming soon. He elaborates on his influences and mindset: “As you can probably tell from a lot of the artists I’ve mentioned, I’m pretty inspired by songwriters who have some bite in their music but aren’t afraid to go straight for the big, catchy hooks. That sweet and sour dynamic just never gets old to me. Pretty much all Dazy songs either start with a drum machine beat or just some guitar chords I happen to be messing with. I’m not really much of a shredder, so when I’m playing guitar, I’m almost always just toying with chords and humming a melody. I have a ridiculous amount of scratch recordings of me playing guitar and humming some nonsense, so a lot of times I’ll just pick one of those rough ideas that strikes me and expand on it from there.” 💣

DISHPIT

Hometown: Montreal, Quebec Album: Dishpit, out now via self-release RIYL: Curiosity. Brash People. Great Songs. Our brains naturally want to neatly categorize things, as it helps us when we encounter something new to place it with the other things we’ve experienced. That’s part of the fun with Dishpit—what the hell exactly is this band? Most broadly, the Montreal group play a mix of riot grrrl, grunge, and post-punk. However, each song on their lovely, self-titled debut is distinct from the others. The fact that the record is wonderfully cohesive is by sheer force of will (and some clear sorcery on the band’s part). This is a seriously fun album by people who, despite telling some harrowing tales of frustration, clearly love what they are doing. Vocalist and guitarist Nora Kelly concurs with the idea that the band are playing in their own ballpark, so to speak:

PHOTO Jesse Gotfrit

6 NEW NOISE

“We all grew up on grunge and punk music, but I think Dishpit is doing something abnormal even within those genres. Neither Jed [Stein, bass] nor I have been classically trained in our instruments, and that’s led to some pretty strange song writing. We’re always writing in odd time signatures like 5/4 or 7/4. I think Dishpit is still fun for us after many years because every song is an experiment in songwriting and structuring. Both of us are huge personalities on stage and love to subvert people’s idea about women who play music by being loud, confident, and all-around unapologetic.” 💣

PHOTO Ebru Yildiz

HANNAH JADAGU

RULES

Hometown: Mesquite, Texas/New York City Album: What Is Going On? EP, out April 23 via Sub Pop RIYL: First Impressions. Questioning Your Place in the World. Indie Pop.

Hometown: Hamilton, Ontario Album: The Bummer Circus Comes to Truth City, out now via Stomp Records RIYL: LSD. Friends. Being Spontaneous.

How do you make a good first impression? What sorts of anxiety and excitement goes into your first encounter with a whole new group of people? I moved around a lot as a kid, so I had the chance to appreciate the good (chance to start over, reinvent yourself) and the less good (losing friends, starting over again) of first impressions. I don’t know that I’m better at them than I was in adolescence, but I can say I still am nowhere near as good at them as new Sub Pop singer Hannah Jadagu is. Her debut EP is a wonderful collection of indie pop that somehow feels timeless. Each of these five songs is anchored by her airy-yet-impassioned voice and some nice guitar melody. There’s a great density to explore throughout, but it’s that initial “holy shit” that will stick with you. What Is Going On? feels like the work of an accomplished artist, not a debut, so here’s hoping Jadagu can continue to grow and cultivate her craft in future releases.

Everything about the hilariously-titled The Bummer Circus Comes to Truth City rules. The Ontario punk/hardcore scene is notoriously incestuous, with musicians sliding in and out of bands like a horny, lonely college kid and a fleshlight. Hell, even the way this album was created feels like a dumb college idea—let’s get high as hell on LSD and record something. The fact that the resulting record is such a wonderfully tight batch of psychedelic hardcore—and something that doesn’t sound like a drug-fueled snoozefest—is a miracle unto itself. Rules sound like The Bronx on acid, cocaine, and a dash of prog (all drugs parents should warn their children about). However, The Bummer Circus... is something wholly unique and special, a record that somehow gets better and weirder during its runtime. Bassist Chuck Coles speaks to why Rules hold a special place in his heart:

“This project means a lot to me. I spend a lot of my time touring, writing and performing music, and this project has always had to take the back seat due to my touring schedule. We are all very close friends and the chemistry we share comes across on the recording. “For this record, I wanted to talk about who I am and my experiences that have shaped The only way we could get that across is if we recorded it live. I wrote two of the songs on me so far. I also wanted to highlight common issues for people who look like me or are the train on my way to the studio and showed everyone that day, and we recorded it at going through what I am. This record was a diary of sorts that I’m sharing with the world night. We caught magic. I live for those moments. I like not really knowing what’s going on and see where it takes you. Fortunately, this didn’t turn into unlistenable noise. Hats off to and reflects a lot of me, but I also feel like can resonate with many people.” 💣 the producer for trying his best to work with four musicians high on acid for a few days.” 💣 So, what did she want to talk about with this first batch of songs?

PHOTO Brendan Burdzinski and Kathleen Hefty

LUCA YUPANQUI

PHOTO Alison Green

SILVER SYNTHETIC

Hometown: New York City Album: Sounds of the Unborn, out now via Sacred Bones RIYL: Patience. Experiments. Hope.

Hometown: New Orleans, Louisiana Album: Self-titled, out now Third Man Records RIYL: Retro. Diamonds in the Rough. Vinyl.

I always admire the creativity of artists generally—it’s literally all I do for New Noise. However, I’m not sure I’ve seen an idea quite like this one. Luca Yupanqui has technically performed on a record in negative months, aka prior to birth. Let me explain. Married couple Iván Diaz Mathé and Elizabeth Hart wanted to see what would happen if they used biosonic, MIDI technology to translate Luca’s in-utero movements into sound, and the resulting album—Sounds of the Unborn—is musical experience in all senses of the word. The words that immediately come to mind are “fluid” and “alien.” There’s a distinct, sci-fi element to the record’s sounds, almost visualizing a maritime journey to the depths of the ocean. That sense of adventure played out in interesting ways, as Mathé notes:

A consistent theme over the past couple years seems to be artists finding a home for previously unreleased and unexpected songs. I’m not just talking about side projects, but I think all this time spent at home and isolated has helped a ton of musicians fall back in love with styles of music unrelated to their main work. You can add in Bottomfeeders’ vocalist Chris Lyons to that list, with his throwback rock project, Silver Synthetic. Everything about this debut self-titled feels like a long-lost vinyl from your parents’ basement: the harmonized vocals, the mid-tempo jams, even the warmth in the sound—it’s all gleefully old-school. It doesn’t hurt that Lyons knows how to write an excellent song. There’s no frills, nothing breaking ground, but god damnit, I can’t think of a record that plucks at my heartstrings and speaks to my soul in recent memory quite like Silver Synthetic does. So, how did this band come about for Lyons?

“If you pay close attention to the beats, you will find that there is no repetition at all, that’s what I find beautiful; there is an ever-progressing shape to things; they may seem “I had a bunch of songs laying around and needed to find an outlet for them. I started looped at moments, but there was no intervention of that kind. The album was recorded playing them with a few friends around New Orleans, and finally the right people came during Elizabeth’s seventh and eighth months of pregnancy, and although every session together, and it really stuck. It was definitely refreshing to sort of let go and just play whatwas distinctively different from the others, I wouldn’t be able to connect that to the stag- ever I felt like playing. Bottomfeeders became a very specific sound, which is great, but es; I think it had to do more with the vibes and context of every, individual session.” 💣 Silver Synthetic became this more liberating song writing process where I could just throw anything at the wall.” 💣

NEW NOISE 7

PHOTO MJ Haha

PHOTO Oscar J Ryan

STRETCH PANIC

Hometown: Austin, Texas Album: Glitter & Gore, out now via self-release RIYL: Halloween. Rainbows. Compassion. I’m not one to criticize a band for when they release an album, but literally everything about Glitter & Gore is perfect for Halloween. The word I’d use to best describe the album is “spoopy,” radiating this eerie goofiness that those of us who love horror can’t help but smile about. In fact, the scariest parts of Stretch Panic’s album are the terrors of society and humanity. The group’s self-described “ghoul pop” feels like riot grrrl filtered through both new wave and Tim Burton’s sensibilities. The songs are wild, wonky, and wonderful in equal measure, and it’s impossible not to love what magic Stretch Panic are able to conjure up here. Vocalist, keyboardist, and guitarist MJ Haha describes some of the band’s intent thusly:

THE CLOCKWORKS

Hometown: London, U.K. Album: Enough is Never Enough single, out now via Creation23 RIYL: Notebooks. Melodies. Shakin’ Hips.

If one single is enough to tell, The Clockworks are set to be the biggest U.K. breakout band of 2021. The ingredients are all there. Snarled, working-class lyrics, anthem-sized hooks, The Strokes-but-better rhythmic riffs, and just enough punk edge. “Enough Is Never Enough” is the best song I’ve heard since the pandemic started, and the songs they’ve been steadily releasing before and after this absolute gem are equally up to snuff. There’s potential, power, and a sense of fucking fun that feels like lightning in a bottle. Of course, all this hype is the result of tons of work before The Clockworks got here, so vocalist and guitarist James McGregor lets me behind the curtain a bit:

“As an album, we hope it becomes a favorite for all who loves things glittery and ghostly, like graveyard birthday parties. On the surface, all the songs are these kind of love notes to everything fun about Halloween—witches, vampires, ghosts, demons, zombies, and horror movies PHOTO (the movies Carrie and Psycho, specifically), but beneath that, each one has its own story about Olivia Mead relationships, empowerment, love, and limbo. We also wanted to subvert some of the monster “I spend a lot of time writing lyrics in little notebooks. I nearly always write to a mental rhythm archetypes and ask, ‘who is the real monster?’ Such as in ‘Burn the Witch,’ where the true and/or melody line. So, that is sometimes how they start. I’ll bring a basic outline of a song monster is society. In many of the songs, the underlying message is everyone deserves love and to the lads, and we flesh out each instrument from there. But sometimes, one of us will just respect, even if they are a witch, or a ghost, or a vampire, or a zombie, or a human.” 💣 be playing a part, everyone will jump on it, and suddenly there’s a basic track going that I can write lyrics to later on. That’s what happened with ‘The Future Is Not What It Was.’ We PHOTO were working on our song ‘Stranded In Stansted,’ and we took a break for a few minutes to Olivia Mead clear the palate, and the three lads started playing what is essentially the whole musical part of ‘The Future Is Not What It Was.’ I recorded what they were playing on my phone and said nothing, and came back a few days later with the lyrics and vocal line.” 💣 PHOTO Master Kontrol Audio

VISION VIDEO

Hometown: Athens, Georgia Album: Inked in Red, out April 16 via self-release RIYL: Dancing. Crying. Reality.

It’s impossible to separate the art and the artist with Vision Video. Inked in Red is one of the best in the recent, ’80s-style, synth-y post-punk revival, brimming with shimmering guitars, bright keyboard melodies, and dark lyrics. Each of these ten songs is a revelation, memorable yet haunting. However, it takes on a whole new appreciation with the story of the band’s mastermind, vocalist and guitarist Dusty Gannon. An active paramedic, firefighter, and veteran of the war in Afghanistan, Gannon has seen a lot and had to deal with more than most (certainly me). However, nothing about Vision Video is necessarily woe-is-me. Instead, it’s a celebration of a new part of a life that saved Gannon, as he puts it. That definitely gives the record an added layer of meaning, huh? “The purpose and message of this music is everything to me,” Gannon explains. “The fun, party-like danceability of our sound is, in a way, a metaphor of this figurative mask that I have worn for people in the past, and sometimes continue to do. At face value, I was a stable, fun-loving, and easy-going person, but behind that was festering, ignored mental illness that was creating a desperate and deeply manic storm within me. This music and this band literally saved my life at a profound low point, when we were getting ready to record the album.” “When I had decided to leave the active army, I was grappling with a lot of stress from my deployment in Afghanistan, and I had been slowly writing tracks as a form of catharsis to overcome it,” he continues. “I moved back to Athens to try my hand at starting a serious musical project. I ended up joining up and getting trained as a paramedic and firefighter for a metro Atlanta fire department, where I currently work. That brought new and intense levels of trauma and stress to contend with, so Vision Video is the end result of me trying to process some of the horrible things that I’ve experienced. 💣

8 NEW NOISE

WENCHES

Hometown: Bloomington, Indiana Album: Effin’ Gnarly, out now via Master Kontrol Audio RIYL: Refuse. Motorcycles. Amps. Frequent readers of this column (smart, savvy folx of all kinds) know that I love me a good metaphor, but I can’t think of anything particularly interesting to convey why Wenches is good. I don’t know, man, the record just fucking rocks. It’s like a glorified mash-up of AC/DC and The Stooges, playing an outdoor show at a motorcycle bar. Assembled from the “broken bits and leftover chunks” (their words) of the Midwest punk, hardcore, and metal scenes, Wenches are much more than a glorified ball of trash. Instead, the quartet carry the sound of a much larger band, with all the intimate energy of a basement show. Roaring vocals, kit work that never quits, silky-smooth basslines, and guitar work that is never showy but always fun—Wenches are much more than the sum of some excellent parts. So, what was the band aiming to do with this debut?

“I had been envisioning a rock band,” vocalist James notes. “With some equal parts James Brown soul, doomy blues sounding Black Sabbath riffs, and the grit of early AC/DC records. Throw in some of that raw Stooges-sounding ballsy-ness, and you end up with that gnarly sound we achieved on the album. I’m all about big amps and playing loud as hell at live shows, and it’s hard to get that sound on record, but Mike at Russian Recording knows how to pull that off, and I think it worked really well on this session.” 💣

PHOTO Peter Beste

SILVER TALON

Hometown: Portland, Oregon Album: Decadence and Decay, out May 21 via M-Theory RIYL: D&D. Gnosticism. Metal Silver Talon’s whole ethos is glorious, and it seems to be this simple: what if we took tabletop RPGs and made them as metal as humanly possible? From the cover art by famous fantasy artist Gerald Brom (Magic: The Gathering, World of Warcraft), to the fantastical subject matter, and even the delightfully over-the-top speed metal that makes it all work, Silver Talon is very extra. It’s a huge credit to the band that the actual record feels distinctly human yet powerful. The musicianship on display is astounding, but the songwriting is impressive and incredibly catchy. There’s also a retro feel to the album that is distinct from more typical power metal groups—though fans of bands like Unleash The Archers and Primal Fear will be in heaven—and some of the songwriting even skews into prog territory. However, it’s the album’s artwork and theme that add that special layer to things, as guitarist Bryce VanHoosen elaborates: “There’s a massive sense of rebellion and defiance in that image, with the witch having severed the head of a demon, something that typically is the object of the witch’s reverence. That whole spirit of a sort of gnostic rebellion definitely influenced the mood of the album. There’s a lot of talk of false gods, illegitimate rulers, battling against fate itself, that sort of thing. When that’s your subject matter, the themes can get somewhat political. Using fantasy and sci-fi elements is a way to both lean into that, but also to diffuse it of any leftright, red-team-blue-team prejudices. We can talk about the struggle of humans against insurmountable odds, crushed under the wheels of the empire at a fundamentally human level, rather than at a level that just shuts down conversation.” 💣

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST/VOCALIST MIKE “MULEBOY” MAKELA BY ADDISON HERRON-WHEELER “I mean, it’s not a bad time to be a pot band, zilla wanted to highlight where they come that’s for sure,” says Mike “Muleboy” Make- from and celebrate the fact that people still care about their music so many years later. la, guitarist and vocalist of Bongzilla, about the current climate and what it means for legal cannabis and cannabis-themed metal. “I was surprised when we started again how much interest in the music there was,” Makela adds. “Before, we would play to 25 “It’s a lot easier to get really good weed. I people all over the country, so it’s surprising mean, we used to have to smoke brown to see the turn-out now, but I also never weed a lot when we’re on the road, so that thought pot would be legal in the U.S.” has changed a lot,” he laughs. Truly, Bongzilla have been around the block since they started playing music in the mid’90s. They were churning out weed-fueled riffs and capitalizing on cannabis in metal far before it was cool, when stoner metal and doom were young, and during the height of the war on drugs. Now, they’re coming out with a new, post-pandemic album in 2021, when the U.S. is possibly on the brink of federal legalization. “I think it’s awesome,” he says of the new state of the world. “There is decriminalization where we live, so you can have, like, a quarter pound on you, and you can smoke in public, but it’s not legal. But Madison [Wisconsin] has always been a huge marijuana town. There’s a big marijuana festival called Harvest Fest that goes back to ’74, I think.”

He also admits that the band are really leaning into the effects of THC lately, jamming so much Makela jokes they thought about changing their name to the Bong Brothers Band. This time around, even though it has been 16 years since they released music, the energy they channeled through weed-fueled riff sessions came naturally, and the jams turned into songs quickly. And Makela has more to celebrate besides just new riffs and lots of good bud. The band have also been spending time on their label imprint, Gungeon Records, through which they are releasing split seven-inch collaborations with other bands, starting with a Boris/Bongzilla split album, a mouth-watering pairing for doom fans. Other releases we can look forward to in the future are with Fister and The Goddamn Gallows.

This saga of acceptance inspired the band’s latest album title, Weedsconsin, out “Back in the day, we used to release seven April 20, of course, via Relapse Records. inches before we hooked up with Relapse, so we wanted to get back to that,” Makela While Wisconsin has not stepped up to be one of the first states to fully legalize, Bong- says. 💣

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST TOMMI HOLAPPA BY ADDISON HERRON-WHEELER Dealing with personal issues and re“We’re pretty excited because this feels flecting the tone of the past few years, fresh for us, a bit like a new direction,” says guitarist Tommi Holappa about Green- Greenleaf have taken on some heavier leaf’s new record, Echoes From A Mass, issues on this record. And, while it’s still released March 26 via Napalm Records. great music to smoke to, despite the more serious tone, the band often laugh “We didn’t really decide, ‘OK, let’s go in this at the cannabis queries they get, since direction or that direction,’ it just happened they don’t actually partake. naturally. Some of it came out, and it wasn’t really typical Greenleaf stuff, but I think it “I personally don’t smoke, and I know that all sounds really good in the end.” some of the guys have, but it’s not regular,” he explains. “We live in Sweden, and it’s a Tapping in more to their psych rock and lot harder to get cannabis here than in blues roots, Greenleaf took some chances with a name like that,’ but no,” Holappa adds. other places. When we rehearse, we never with this music, including with the lyrics. The As for what the future holds, Greenleaf drink, because it’s easier for us to stay songs aren’t humorous or lighthearted, but have started writing more material, but clear headed and write music, but then dark and serious. they are taking their time when it comes to afterwards, if we have done the recording releasing something else, wanting to pri“This album, it’s about all the feelings,” or something, we can have a few drinks and oritize the promotion of this record first. Holappa explains. “It’s about love. Lyr- relax, and just enjoy the music.” ically, it’s a very dark album compared to before. On old albums, we had a little “We did a show with Bongzilla a couple of “People should check out the new album and see what we have come up with,” Hoyears ago, and they asked us about the name more fun, and this time around, the lyrics lappa concludes. “It’s a little sad, a little of the band, like, ‘You must be into smoking weren’t as happy.”

10 NEW NOISE

PHOTO Peder Bergstrand

happy. It’s a nice mixture, and it’s not just the typical stoner rock album. There’s blues elements in there, and there’s heavy stuff too. I think a good album should be like a good movie, it should have a start, and then you get excitement in the middle part, and then it should explode at the end, and also maybe have ups and downs. That’s the way a good record should be, and I think we have done it this time.” 💣

PHOTO Ali Rivera

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST LEVI WATSON BY CHRISTOPHER J. HARRINGTON

all Silent lead vocalist Levi Watson “The record’s critical of many aspects of humay be a family man and elemen- manity,” Watson says. “These are the topics and things that I want associated with our tary school teacher these days, but music. I’ll let Natalie Merchant sing about when it comes to writing a new record with beautiful things; we’ll sing about the ugly the band he formed with his brother (and things.” drummer) Damon, and guitarist Danny Galecki nearly three decades ago, the The album’s eight songs fuse hardcore focus remains the same. punk’s kinetic energy with death metal’s spiraling dimension, offering a duality of “I don’t picture how much I love my family directness and abstraction. Watson is a and kids when I hear Damon playing fast poet in the grandest sense, a lyricist continover speed-picked guitars at incredibly loud volumes,” Watson muses. “In my head, ually on the prowl. growth and human connection. Fall Silent level, merging hardcore’s ethos and death I picture fire, war, violence, sweat, feces, still stand strong after all these years. metal’s grandiosity. It’s a human issue, but desperation, maggots, blood, swords, can- “I keep a canvas bag that has a bunch of scraps of paper with lyric ideas in them,” submerged into an abstract puzzle. nonballs, grease, anger, and destruction. In “Our lives have diverged quite a bit he explains. “If I am at work, or reading, or that specific order.” since the ’90s when we lived together, running, or driving, I have to immediately “The fact that we all know that things are worked together, and played in the write ideas down or they fly out of my head. bad for us, yet we still partake in these Now that’s a barrage. And the perpetual band together,” Watson says. “Despite destructive activities, feeds into our need I also keep a pencil and notebook by my onslaught that greets listeners on the to destroy ourselves,” he relays. “Of course, this separation, when we get together to bed. I always come up with good shit right group’s newest album, You Knew I Was play, we have that muscle memory, and there are exceptions to that rule, but the before I fall asleep, and if I fall asleep, then Poison, released March 5 via Revelation everything sort of falls back in to place. majority of us wreak havoc on our bodies Records, deals with those themes in spades. I forget about it.” It’s a wonderful thing to have this kind and environments on a daily basis.” A cornucopia of humankind’s darkest of connection to other people, and I movements put to the classic hardcore/ The title track is nuanced, but seek deep am thankful that I get to play music with You Knew I Was Poison is a testament to the into its structure, and you’ll grab hold of death metal sound that propelled the band such talented individuals.” 💣 opposite, a record that proves the power of its notions. Watson is speaking on a grand to success in the mid-’90s and early 2000s.

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST TIM SINGER AND GUITARIST STEVEN CRUDELLO BY HUTCH

o Escape were, and now are again, a hardcore band from Ocean City, New Jersey. The band self-released their demo in 1990, the split with Turning Point in 1991 (on Temperance), and Just Accept It (Overkill Records) in 1993 before ending their run as an innovative, heavy, metallic-hardcore band. The group would eventually reform in 2016 to perform a few reunion shows. Now, 2021 will see Hellminded Records releasing Selective Punches, an EP of six tracks that have been percolating for a couple of years.

“I believe we got asked to do a reunion show [in 2016],” Crudello says. “We had recently been more in contact with each other and decided to do it. Playing older songs was fun, and we talked about re-recording a song off the demo. However, we started feeling inspired, and I started coming up with new riffs at practice, and things moved forward from there. Playing old stuff is cool, but creating new music feels way better.” Singer explains that No Escape’s path had led them together before the tumult of 2020.

For vocalist Tim Singer, No Escape were the precursor to his incendiary screams fronting some New Jersey Noisecore legends on two of the most respected albums in the canon of heavy music— Deadguy’s gamechanger, Fixation on a Coworker, and the sole, revered LP by Kiss It Goodbye. Singer also sang for Deadguy’s two previous, powerful EPs, Work Ethic and Whitemeat, both from 1993, after No Escape’s demise.

“Nothing special about 2020, honestly,” he says. “At least not in terms of the political climate. Although 2016 may have woken something up in me in terms of wanting a platform to express some frustration and angst, even if it was just as an outlet for my own sanity. We debated a new name, but since it’s three of the four original guys, we didn’t think we needed to.”

In 2021, the band sounds invigorated, rife with fresh, crisp, angular riffs from guitarist Steven Crudello. Selective Punches boasts a bounty of tracks that sound urgent and damn heavy. The fertile minds of No Escape were bound to burst with ideas.

“We actually recorded the first batch of songs at the end of 2018, and the second batch at the end of 2019,” he says. “It just took a while to finish. It was proving difficult getting our schedules together for a bit. We also brought in our new bass

12 NEW NOISE

Crudello validates the timeline.

player in the middle of that. We thought about the name for a minute, but we felt like it still sounded like No Escape.”

listener down in the mire of paranoia. And this is what No Escape needed to exorcise. Not related to 2020, just in general. And that’s what reflects the authenticity of these emotions.

Selective Punches is fraught and loathsome. The frantic stress is exemplified with panic and abject anxiety. Singer’s “There’s a real sense of angst in the air that I’m sure we tapped into,” Singer vocals are as powerful as ever, and his says. “Nothing concrete, but maybe a delivery runs the gamut from spoken and sense of urgency or a big ‘fuck you’ to spastic, to growls and screams, which makes it feel like he’s in your in his head, society at large.” a visceral stream of consciousness. “As we wrote the music before 2020, that didn’t really apply,” Crudello adds. The guitars paint with claustrophobic tones and a confrontational riff “But, I did really use this band as an outlet for my anxiety, anger, and frustration structure. Drum and bass patterns are for sure.” 💣 sludgy and burdensome, weighing the

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/SONGWRITER/GUITARIST ERIK BUTTON BY J POET

ollar Signs began performing in Charlotte, North Carolina, as an off-the-wall, folk-punk duo with Erik Button on acoustic guitar and Luke Gunn on various horns.

“Fast songs are the most fun to play live,” Button says. “People are getting more into listening to lyrics, which is a good thing, but not everybody’s figured out how to play fast, with a bunch of energy, and still be able to say the things they want to say. We talk about real relationships between real people.”

“We weren’t playing shows, just recording stuff and putting it up online,” Button, the band’s main songwriter, says. “We called ourselves Dollar Signs because we want- “We’re conscious of male privilege, and how guys can whine and complain about ed an ironic name. The idea of a folk punk problems without reflecting on the ways duo making it big by putting acoustic they contribute to their own behavior. Our songs up online seemed preposterous.” crowd is pretty diverse, racially and sexually, with lots of LGBTQ+ fans. I write songs After the duo started playing live, they that could be diary entries, so I’m happy added Dylan Wachman on bass and that people who aren’t like me—women Arion Chamberlain on drums and went and gay folks—can relate to them. I startelectric. Tommy McPhail joined on lead ed with a self-deprecating style, which is guitar in 2017, and they became a solid still there a bit, but I’ve evolved into using touring unit. Button’s a prolific writer, and humor in a smarter, more gentle way.” the band have made two albums and several EPs, leading up to their current As promised, the songs on Hearts of Gold offering, Hearts of Gold, out now on Pure deal with dysfunctional relationships in Noise Records. a realistic manner. “I’m Afraid I Make The album’s 12 tracks clock in at 32 minutes, Your Depression Worse” starts slow and most of them rockers taken at blistering tempos. morphs into a full-bore rocker that por-

PHOTO Jake Cunningham

“I thought it would be cool to make the last song on the record the title track,” Button says. “We thought that song was the thesis the whole record was based on. Now that we’re all older and starting to settle down, The driving punk of “B.O.M.B.S.” describes a you begin to realize it’s time to stop lookprotagonist who makes a joke of everything ing for catharsis in the bad things that in his life, including his therapy sessions. The record closes with a startling change of pace. happen to you. You start coming to terms The title track features Button on acoustic gui- with the ways you need to change, so bad things don’t keep happening to you.” 💣 tar, singing about the realization that facing up to your problems, and making positive changes to solve them, isn’t always easy. trays a guy pleading for connection, while knowing everything he does is pushing people away.

INTERVIEW BY ROB KENT

emember Sports are turning “We are much more confident about the page after a long year our writing and what we want out of of sitting on their fourth al- music; we are serving the songs to bum. The Philadelphia four-piece their truest extent now,” they say. “We have found a new union within their know each other so well after so creative atmosphere to craft this ex- much touring and we are aware, cellent album and can finally present more than ever, of our strengths. We their new record to the world. are a solid unit on this album.”

Titled Like A Stone, and out on April 23, the new album is a true progression for this band—the result of four, talented musicians letting their natural thoughts and ideas lead the way. The band set out with no result in mind but to work together more than ever and let their creativity evolve.

The band leave their final thoughts for the hope that times and circumstances change for new, young bands opening tours in the future. They reflect on a factor they hope to see change, with the band acting as a role model and trend-changer for future tours.

“We needed to take this direction even “Headlining bands need to pay openif we didn’t have a goal in mind; we ing bands two to three times as much needed our natural creativity and as they do, and openers need to processes to take hold and drive this make sure they are asking for more album to an atmosphere we needed money,” they say. “We did not know to venture into,” the band collectively how the ins and outs worked when say, proving how Like A Stone brings we started touring and opening for together all the musicality and results people. Since we have become the in a truly cohesive album. headliner ourselves, we know how paying support bands works. Bands The band give further explanation as who sell out 1,000-capacity rooms to why Like A Stone is a record that begs might give the opener $200—that is for attention and deserves to be placed unacceptable, as that might be five as a bookmark in modern music. minutes of merchandise sales.” 💣

PHOTO Sonia Kiran

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INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST AARON WRIGHT BY NICHOLAS SENIOR

“

To begin with? The riff. All day, the riff. Nothing but the riff.”

metal have been fruitful in giving a certain segment of the population the musical fulfilment that only metal can provide. So, how did Monasteries continue on such a storied tradition?

So sayeth guitarist Aaron Wright, when asked what his band, Monasteries, focuses on. Taking their name from the dwelling place of a religious “We’re always trying to keep people order, Monasteries seems perfectly on their toes, changing it up as much suited to carry on the work of God/Sa- as possible, but, ironically enough, tan, that is, metal of the highest order. the word that gets thrown around the That’s totally evident when destroying most when we’re writing songs is ‘flow.’ your neck to the U.K. act’s latest for Does the song flow? Does it make Seek and Strike. Silence, out April 23, sense? Even if within 10 seconds we’re is a true clinic in how to pack as many in two totally different genres, did riffs as humanly possible into five songs, it make sense for us to throw those and somehow manage to craft mem- together, or was it jarring? I think the orable, monumental music. Their tech- focus on making a song fit together nical, deathcore style is the perfect well is probably the most integral vehicle for such pious goals, resulting part of our creative process with in songs that expertly play around with Monasteries, because we can write tempo, tone, and subgenre while never cool individual riffs until the end of sacrificing in riff quality. time, but then, being able to piece those together into a coherent story Ever since some previously unknown is what we strived for with this record, dudes in the U.K. Midlands founded and what we’ll continue to do moving Black Sabbath, the past 50 years of forward.” 💣

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST MATT ANDERSON BY CALEB R. NEWTON

he Midwestern, metallic-hardcore crew Purgatory sound punishing on their new album, Lawless To Grave, an April release from Unbeaten Records.

The album feels like a filth-soaked, musical chainsaw with a piercing, metallic edge in the guitars amidst a formidably staggering weight in the overall sound. Ultimately, Lawless To Grave feels inwardly menacing and relentlessly pummeling, and the powerfully huge sound feels immersive, like getting hurled straight into the ominous musical portraits that Purgatory have crafted.

in on for this record were the lyrical themes of each individual song, and even just specific parts, and really, really trying to emphasize that feeling and that mood through the way that the music actually sounds,” Anderson says. “It’s become very important to us to really, really try to dive in and use everything that we’re feeling inside, and everything that is just affecting us personally, and just throw it outwards towards music, and hopefully have other people understand, and maybe even feel the same way.” Purgatory carve themselves a unique, sonic space, although they’re eager fans of other, hard-hitting greats like the NYC, metallic-hardcore group Merauder.

“I would say that this record in general, and most of the stuff that we write, definitely gravitates towards a lot of the uglier, darker things that happen in people’s everyday lives, our everyday “We don’t want to define a certain, specific lives, and people that we’re associated with,” genre,” Anderson explains. “I know it’s metallic hardcore technically, but we’re not a beatvocalist Matt Anderson explains. “Part of being down band. We’re not a straight-up hardcore involved in hardcore and the heavier music band. We’re not a straight-up metal band. realm in general is being around and exposed We’re a good combination of all these kinds to a lot of dirty, ugly things, but being aware of of things, so the intention is definitely to write it and not just brushing it off or being ignorant very metallic-influenced hardcore, because towards it. We face a lot of things head-on, and that’s all the stuff we love, but we don’t want I mean, it’s a blessing and a curse because it to define one single sound out of it.” doesn’t make anybody naïve, necessarily.” Anderson is conscientious about the feelings of the instrumentals on Lawless To Grave. Every element, ranging from the grueling guitars to his own roared vocals, feels fueled by a similarly devastating rage.

The weight of Purgatory’s sound almost immediately summons images of intense club shows, but Anderson is also very interested in the personal element of the band’s music. The sonic heaviness is not the entire point.

“Something that we really, really tried to hone

“With our record, the thing that we hope to

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PHOTO Carl Battams

accomplish, and succeed at, is writing the kind of stuff that’s very real, even if it’s dark and gritty, and very raw to listen to,” the vocalist says. “Some of it might make you feel a little uncomfortable—there’s some pretty heavy themes on this record. It’s real. It’s real life, and it’s not just us that are going through it. There are so many other people that struggle with the things that we write about, and having the opportunity, and hopefully getting through to people and having them hear it, and feel like, shit, like, I go through all of this

stuff as well, and I know that there’s an end in sight with some of the things that I, or these people, are struggling with—that’s a huge thing for us.” Lawless To Grave doesn’t sound blindly heavy—the songs, even if blistering, are clearly dynamically personal. As Anderson puts it: “One thing that I would love to accomplish with the record is having even just one person latch onto something and say, ‘OK, I’m not alone in the way that I feel.’” 💣

PHOTO Nabila Mahdjoubi

INTERVIEW WITH DRUMMER JULIEN LOUVION AND VOCALIST/GUITARIST MATHIAS COURT BY JOSHUA MARANHAS

rance’s Paerish will be releasing aged to shoot two music videos for the first Fixed It All in April on SideOneDum- singles of our upcoming album.” my Records. It’s been two years since they went to Philadelphia to work with Will “Twenty-twenty was tough, but I wrote many Yip at Studio 4 on the album. When they en- demos at home—so that’s cool,” adds tered the studio, they knew they didn’t have guitarist and vocalist Mathias Court. “We’re or 2000s. A lot of people say that we are a a label, but it turns out there’d be a few also planning on recording and filming live shoegaze band, but that really isn’t us, even more obstacles in their way due to COVID. sessions of the new songs. Hopefully, we will if we understand [the categorization] for make it happen despite all the restrictions.” some songs. I don’t think genres are dead, Drummer Julien Louvion sets a timeline for but they’re in constant evolution. More and their new record. Court writes personal music, but he hopes more bands are mixing influences, which people relate and connect the songs in sometimes are very different. I’ve always their own way. “The album will be out on April 23, so literally found this interesting, but never really extwo years later,” he says, laughing. “At first, perienced it [myself].” we wanted it to be out in January or Febru- “It is very, very personal,” he says. “I always ary of 2020; we feel lucky it wasn’t!” loved making up my own stories while listening to my favorite bands. So, I definitely try A lot of Court’s inspiration starts first thing each day, and he draws from other media. Twenty-twenty in France was as complicat- and stay vague enough for everyone to make up their own stories. At the end of the day, ed as in the U.S., and the story of Paerish is each person [has their own] relationship with “Mostly [I wake] up early in the morning to similar to all bands. find inspiration or play guitar while watchthese songs, and I think that’s very cool.” ing movies or video game livestreams,” he “We’ve constantly switching from complete lockdown to curfew for months now,” Lou- Any resemblance to shoegaze isn’t how Paer- says. “I try to gather little stories or bits of my life I found peculiar or worth noticing. ‘Mike + ish see themselves. Nonetheless, they haven’t vion elaborates. “We can’t really rehearse Susan’ is the perfect example [of] that. There completely given up on genre, either. because most of the studios are closed. We are about four or five different stories and all have jobs besides the band; at least we got something to do. But yeah—very weird “We like to say that we’re an alternative rock anecdotes I’m telling at the same time.” times. We really hope things are going to band,” Louvion says. “We try to mix our acDespite the delay in the album’s release, move forward this year. At least we man- tual influences with older ones from the ’90s

the stars are aligning in 2021. Paerish are doing their first record for SideOneDummy and they’re hopeful for the future. “Looking for a label took some time after we got the album mixed,” Court says. “These things can take a while when you’re an unsigned band, we’ve [known] that since the first album. We’re very happy now to be part of the SideOneDummy family, especially as a French rock band.” Court concludes by saying he’s hopeful for the same things as any musician or music fan. “Being free to go out and do whatever I want at any time, experience new things, as much as I can,” he says. “I truly don’t think you can be inspired by staying home all the time, and I’m curious to see if this whole pandemic year will have a positive or negative impact on creativity and on upcoming music releases.” 💣

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST/VOCALIST ANDY DIAZ, BASSIST/ VOCALIST GRAYUM VICKERS, AND DRUMMER/VOCALIST NICK DOLAN BY CALEB R. NEWTON

afety, whose new album Greetings from the Sunshine State dropped this March from Jetsam-Flotsam, is built around the longtime friendship of members Andy Diaz, Grayum Vickers, and Nick Dolan. For this latest record, Diaz—who handles guitars and vocals—says that Safety angled to “create a darker, more brooding, spacious sound,” and this effort shines in the music.

The energetically exuberant punk group have existed for quite a while, with publicly available releases stretching back to 2008. Safety have roots in Florida, but these days, they’re spread from Argentina to New York City. “I feel like we’ve been a band for so long because we like a challenge, and we like to adapt to stuff,” Vickers, who performs bass and vocals, shares. “And so, this pandemic and us being apart, it’s just another chapter for us, and I think we’ve been doing it for so long, it’s almost impossible to quit.” The exhilaratingly forceful music of Safety reflects the connections between their mem-

bers, from the grungy and driving punk riffing that opens their latest record, to the mellower vibes on “Everglader” and “Spanish Moss.”

PHOTO Justine Sweetman

height of the Trump presidency, and stuff “I wrote the lyrics, at least for the song in the outside world was looking very Overall, the music feels rather relentlessly ‘Everglader,’ just reminiscing about my grim and stressful, and so all that stuff energetic, even in the softer moments. time with one of my best friends, and then kind of spiraled into those songs. ‘Song of just how that brings up the nostalgia for “Spanish Moss,” for instance, feels soulfully the Night Gator’ is literally just about me Florida, where he lived and where we anthemic, as if Safety have musically walking home from work super late and always hung out,” Vickers shares. captured the feeling of sitting around with just feeling totally defeated, a sense of a friends at a woodsy Florida campsite and sort of loss of identity. There’s a lot of that, Safety hope to look forward with these talking through very true-to-life travails. I think, in there.” songs. With preorders, they raised money for the Florida Rights Restoration Coali“All of our musical growth has happened Safety have had the opportunity to rack up tion, which supports the reinstatement of together,” Diaz explains. “It’s been a memorable concert experiences over the voting rights for disadvantaged people minute, but it’s been great. I’ll listen back course of their lengthy existence. who’ve been in the justice system, and on to some of the old stuff and it just very specifically captures a moment of my life, a personal level, Diaz, Vickers, and Dolan and Grayum’s life in the songs he’s written, all agree that the band provides substan- “For anyone that’s seen us perform in person, that’s definitely the word I would use, tial catharsis for the group’s members. and then all these years later, I’m listening cathartic,” Dolan, who handles drums and to the new record and feeling the same vocals, explains. “We definitely let loose way. It’s just, like, another chapter that I “I was probably in a pretty dark place,” Vickers on stage. It just plays into how strong we explains, discussing the period in which have a tangible way to review of my life.” they created Safety’s latest record. “I mean, feel about some of the parts that we write. I think we tailor a lot of them to really be frankly, I was really working a ton in the Thematically, Greetings from the Sunshine heavier in person, and stuff like that. I think service industry, feeling really disillusioned State deals with (among other elements) being a part of this band has always been the loss of a longtime friend of the band, with New York in general, with that whole a huge catharsis for me.” 💣 scene, and then also it was during the who passed away.

NEW NOISE

quickly and would just be giddy as the parts of certain songs would develop, and we’d each keep making suggestions until we got the songs where we wanted them.”

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST CHRIS TAYLOR (CRIS CRUDE) AND GUITARIST MIKE TAYLOR BY SEAN MCLENNAN

“

It’s everything all at once. You better believe it’s urgent; it’s mad; it’s late on rent, unhinged, feral, trapped in a corner, fighting for its life, on the edge of collapse. It comes from a place of both love and hate, compassion, hope, and the promise of a future that doesn’t end like a sci-fi novel.”

and a lot of other things in a time of apocalyptic, post-logic,” he says.

The assertive nature and immediacy behind the brand of punk that Terminal Bliss creates represents “the idea of an outlet for void commiserations,” says Chris Taylor.

so many good bands over the years that it’s just a damn pleasure to finally jam with them in my 40s!” Mike Taylor says. “It’s really just a ‘rearranging the deck The Taylor brothers have a very strong bond “The scenes [in this area] have always chairs of the Titanic’ sort of trope, that that goes back much further than this album, been this way. Everyone is always interest- un-ironically stands true regardless of beginning when they were young and spill- ed in playing with one another.” its surreal literalism.” he continues. “The ing out into the region where they grew up. way I see it, none of us have any choice Indeed, the brothers have been playing in The experience that each member at this point. It seems we are all going to bands together since they were teens. That brief and to-the-point description brought to the table for this project al- the same hell in a hand basket, and while is how Mike Taylor, guitarist of Richmond, lowed for the sound of the band to unfold it’s slightly comforting to distract yourself Virginia-based hardcore punk band “I can honestly say Chris and I have always very naturally. from the fact that the ship is sinking, the shared very clear, symbiotic musical reTerminal Bliss, refers to the aggressive world is in very real despair. Many people lationships with each other,” Mike Taylor “What you hear on Brute Err/Ata is pure sound the band musters up on their and many other living things already live says. “We’re very musically in tune with debut album, Brute Err/Ata. The 10-track excitement and inspiration,” Mike Taylor in that awareness on a daily basis, and I each other. Chris is my favorite vocalist recording—out now on Relapse Records says. “The energy was very positive and guess I’m yelling at the ones that are still and favorite lyricist on earth, and I’ll go and clocking in at just over a blistering 10 inspired. We were writing these songs pretending that it isn’t happening.” 💣 minutes—is a product of the frustration, to the grave with that statement.” anger, and anguish that comes along with The two have been constantly active ever being surrounded by the “hyperobject of since, utilizing the family of passionate muconsumption,” and all the negative side sicians that reside in the land surrounding effects associated with people’s relentless their hometown. desire to consume.

“[The area] has always been so intermingled and enriched with so many talented musicians and friends, that it’s inevitable that many of these players would come together over the years in so many different combi“A brute force algorithm, one programmed to nations,” explains Mike Taylor. This is where solve something by ramming failed answer Terminal Bliss drummer Ryan Parrish (who after failed answer at it, only arriving at a solution by sheer, thoughtless determin- has also worked with Iron Reagan, Darkest Hour, Mammoth Grinder, City of Caterpillar, ism, ‘brute force’ without learning, relying and many more) and bassist Adam Juresko instead on a barrage of errors (errata) to (City of Caterpillar), came into play. solve the problem.” The name of the album came about while writing the lyrics, adds vocalist (and Mike’s brother) Chris Taylor:

“[That] sums up nicely how I feel about music

PHOTO Chris Boarts Larson

“I’ve watched both Adam and Ryan play in COVID-19 made such plans impractical, and by now, they are only a distant memory.

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST SAM PURA BY M. REED

s the story goes, the beloved metalcore band Heavy Heavy Low Low decided to reunite for a tour in 2020. The band had a solid run in the 2000s, breaking up in 2009 after a tour of Australia. That tour resulted in band member Rob Smith being detained by Australian authorities for attempting to enter the country without a visa (the incident was actually

detailed in an episode of Border Security: Australia’s Front Line, which premiered on Australian TV in 2012). Despite this, or possibly because of it, Heavy Heavy Low Low describe the tour as their “most fun.” In 2019, the band made the decision to reconvene, determined to finally get back on the road and greet their fans. Unfortunately,

In the wake of the cancelled tour, however, a new project was announced—Bone Cutter! Comprised of original Heavy Heavy Low Low members Robbie Smith, Chris Fritter, Andrew Fritter, and producer-turned-guitarist Sam Pura, the band’s self-titled EP is a blast of violent, bone-splintering hardcore inspired by death metal and horror movies.

“I just got extremely busy with the wave of pop-punk revival projects and never really had the time to dive back into the sessions,” Pura says. Pura’s desire to make music for himself again, and the free time allotted by quarantine, are what resulted in the final touches being added and the project reaching completion.

Despite popular belief, Bone Cutter and their first release are not entirely products of the pandemic-induced quarantine. The project has actually been in the works for over ten years, its origins lying in that aforementioned, final Australian tour by Heavy Heavy Low Low.

As for the results, Pura and company are very pleased with the way that Bone Cutter’s debut came out, and he compares it to the great, pulp slashers of the late ’70s and ’80s, like Driller Killer and Pieces.

“I remember hanging out in Australia chatting before our final set of the tour,” Pura says. “Rob said, ‘Let’s just start a whole new band, but Sam, you have to actually play guitar and write! Not just produce.’”

As for Heavy Heavy Low Low and how they have helped to inspire the current generation of metalcore acts like For Your Health, Pura is clearly grateful for anyone who still holds his past work in high regard.

That is more or less how Bone Cutter got their start.

“I think it’s really cool,” he says. “It reminds me that music is truly magic. Like a quilt of human emotion passed from generation to generation, added to, altered, torn apart, but always forming something special. Some beautiful ouroboros.” 💣

Pura and the rest of the band took some time to record once they returned Stateside. The project languished, though, due

16 NEW NOISE

to both inertia and Pura’s work as a music producer, recording albums for bands like The Story So Far, State Champs, and Hundredth at The Panda Studio.

INTERVIEW BY ADDISON HERRON-WHEELER

Topping off the otherworldly experience olbrud are known for performing of these November nights, the temperatheir black metal soundscapes at ture inside the tower was little above zero, unique locations, and this habit resulting in visible breath and freezing resulted in the release of Levende I Brønshøj Vandtårn, a carefully curated, live dou- instruments. ble-album and video, available March 26 through Eisenwald (US) and Moondrop “I think to some extent, we’ve long wanted to capture the essence of a live perforRecords (Scandinavia/World). mance with the raw power and energy that’s often sacrificed in favor of perfecPlaying a specially arranged set at the colossal Brønshøj Vandtårn for two sold- tion on studio albums,” they add. “It was our Scandinavian booker, Anders Wind, out nights in a row and recording both who initially brought up the option. At first, shows, Solbrud managed to capture a we thought a 15-second, massive reverb truly unique and special sound. chamber sounded like a bad idea for a concert location, but upon visiting the “With the extreme acoustic properties place on our own, we just immediately inside the tower—15 seconds of physical thought: Definitely—we’ll do this!” reverberation—it is quite a mesmerizing experience to step inside the huge conIn addition to their love for the live and crete cylinder, while its massive towering beams reach up 34 meters above you,” immersive experience, they also record their albums with the vinyl listening expethe band says. “We set up our equipment around the center of the tower, thus al- rience in mind. lowing the audience to circle the premises for a change in visual and indeed audito- “Rehearsing and putting together the set was slightly rushed, but we knew we ry perception of the performance, as the wanted to bring songs from all three, water towers reverb would increase, the previous albums to the table, along with further away from the sound sources you one brand-new track, ‘Sjæleskrig,’ that found yourself. To also capture this unique worked really well out there. Thinking reverberance of our concert, we installed vinyl first, we needed natural breaks microphones along the spiral staircase in the set for turning record sides, and leading towards the towers peak.

PHOTO Adriana Zak

we combined the songs in pairs of two so one leads straight on to the other, while we also rearranged some slightly, allowing for more air and resonance in the music at this special location.”

and mixing those in with medieval themes and lyrical tropes, the live version of this record is one that truly stands out as a live, immersive, and visually appealing experience. 💣

Touching on themes including rebellion, repression, and staying true to oneself,

INTERVIEW WITH BASSIST ALEXANDER ORLOV AND DRUMMER JERRI LASSINNIEMI BY ADDISON HERRON-WHEELER

ast Five are a band who stand apart for their unique blend of post-punk, metal, and alt rock, a blend which could easily be trite, but in their hands, sounds inspired.

During the pandemic, they’ve been holed up in their home country of Sweden, sitting on the exciting news of being signed to Eclipse Records to release their latest album, Detox., out last May. “When we signed with Eclipse, right when that started up, the pandemic hit,” the band says. “So of course, we couldn’t go on tour. We hadn’t done much work booking yet, so we didn’t have to cancel anything, but still, it was very disappointing.” Finally, some of that disappointment subsided, as the band was able to get

18 NEW NOISE

together recently and release a new single, “Dop(e)amine,” along with an original video.

“It just kind of wrote itself. At the end, we jammed it. Then, we played it live once, and we rewrote some parts of it.”

“We actually got together like a real family, “Dop(e)amine” is a song about “standing and everyone participated,” they explain. up for what you think is right and fighting

to make the change you want to see,” according to the band. It also touches on how dopamine works as a reward system for the body, taking the metaphor of self-satisfaction a step further. 💣

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GET BETTER RECORDS’ SUNDAY, SOMEDAY COMPILATION BY ADDISON HERRON-WHEELER

f you’re in need of some new, care for Gabe Darling, aka Full On queer music to kick off your spring, Mone’t. check out Sunday, Someday, the new, Getter Better Records compila- “Queer and trans representation is tion album. important because society is constantly trying to erase us,” Darling To promote the compilation, Get says. “For me, knowing that it was Better Records teamed up with Little possible to be gay and trans and Amps Coffee Roasters, who put out Black all at the same time was a line of Super Tasty Instant Coffee half of the fight. If people don’t to go with the album. Sales of the see folks who look like them doing record, and the coffee, go to LGBT the things that they want to do, it Center of Central PA’s Common will feel impossible to achieve.” Roads program. The friends and label mates wanted All about collaboration and to make sure they were putting repcommunity versus capitalism and resentation first in order to show othcompetition, the record celebrates ers in the scene they are not alone. friendship and puts queer, trans, nonbinary, and agender artists front “When I was a teenager and first and center. On the compilation are getting into punk music and going KOJI, Full On Mone’t, Potty Mouth, to local shows, I rarely saw anyone Nervus, and Solstice Rey. Originally perform on stage who wasn’t a cis, slated to go on tour together, this het, white man,” says Ally Einbinder, collaboration is a result of the bands bassist of Potty Mouth. “For a subculstaying in touch and hyping each ture that was supposed to challenge other up during Sunday Zoom calls. the status quo, it sure looked like it Some proceeds from the record was doing a lot more to uphold it. also go to support top surgery after- The politics of punk are what initially

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drew me to the music, but I almost never saw those purported ideals practiced in a meaningful way in the community.” “It wasn’t until I was in my 20s—many years after I had been regularly going to punk shows—that I finally felt confident enough to try and teach myself an instrument. I have no doubt that I would have felt that confidence much earlier had I seen more people like me on stage. The most rewarding part of being in a band has been providing some of the representation for others that didn’t exist for me when I was a kid going to shows.” Literally created as a way to make the best of a bad situation, this record helped pull the bands through an extremely tough time for musicians. “When our tour was cancelled, there was so much grieving to do beyond just a change of plans,” says Koji Shiraki of KOJI, vocalist, guitarist, and

synth player. “There’s the history of violence that led to this moment and the gross mishandling of the pandemic. The virtual space we created has allowed for healing, creativity, joy as we moved through the challenges of COVID-19 and a rightful uprising. Whether we were dealing with isolation or plugging in with the social movements locally, we were able to support each other. Having a record to celebrate these relationships while also holding space for queer, trans, and POC experience is amazing.” 💣💣💣

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NEW NOISE 21

INTERVIEW WITH CO-FOUNDER RAMSEY KANAAN BY JASON SCHREURS

ike the record industry, the publishing industry is in a constant state of flux, often to the detriment of smaller publishers. Independent bookstores are being crushed under the boot of the large chains who, in turn, are being pounded into the dirt by Amazon. Formed in 2007, radical, independent publisher PM Press have seen monumental changes in publishing. Co-founders Ramsey Kanaan and Craig O’Hara, along with a small group of agitators, have fended off industry bullshit and kept their vision the same.

“PM started with the old-fashioned concept that ideas actually matter,” Kanaan says. “It was born out of a desire to disseminate those ideas and find as many creative and effective ways as possible of doing that. Since then, I don’t think the vision has changed at all.” PM publish books on a number of topics, including anarchism, race, economics, and gender. They are dedicated to bolstering the voices of radical authors, artists, and activists. And, yes, PM have a history of publishing punk books, including ones about Black Flag, Crass, British anarcho-punk, and an upcoming history of Victoria, BC punk weirdos Nomeansno. “Most of the people in PM came out of punk rock, so we’re following our interests,” says Kanaan, who was the vocalist in Scottish anarcho-punk band Political Asylum in the ’80s. “As

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a propagandist, as a communicator, or as a political organizer, for that matter, you start with what you know and what you’re comfortable with.”

“Fundamentally, the reason that PM exists is because we are revolutionaries, and we want Kanaan has been selling radical to destroy capitalism; we want books for more than 30 years. to destroy the state, and we He started AK Press in 1987 and released books and spoken word want to have a better world.”

CDs by activist writers such as Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn. AK also aligned itself with progressive, political, punk bands like Propagandhi, a connection that’s remained intact with PM.

sold more books face-to-face than in retail stores.

Amazon came along in the mid’90s and is eventually destroying all the chains. From all angles, the It’s a necessary approach, as the old ways of doing it are being commainstream publishing industry pletely … fucked.” swallows the voices of diverse “We can call up Jello Biafra and and often marginalized writers. With 11 employees hoping to make say, ‘Hey, can we come and table As independent book outlets a modest living, and no source of at your show,’ and he’ll say, ‘Yes, are forced to shutter themselves funding other than book sales, PM please,’” Kanaan says. “Or NOFX, every day, small publishers like publish books that can hopefully or whoever, because these are PM scramble to find alternate pay the bills without wavering from friends of ours, and they’re con- ways to disseminate information. their original vision. temporaries of ours, and people that are aware of us, so we’re “It’s not only the destruction of the “There are many books that we not some weird outsider trying to independent bookstores and re- choose to do out of love, or belief cord stores, but the destruction of in them, and many of the books muscle in or impose ourselves.” the specialty stores,” Kanaan says. we’ve done have lost money, but, In addition to punk shows and “In the book trade, that meant, as an nevertheless, anything we do has festivals like Punk Rock Bowling outgrowth of the ’60s and early ’70s to have that financial compoand Pouzza, PM sell books at and the new social movements like nent,” Kanaan says. “Fundamenbook fairs, info shops, confer- gay liberation, women’s liberation, tally, the reason that PM exists is ences, and political demonstra- and black liberation; there were because we are revolutionaries, tions. They set up shop at 500 gay bookstores, black bookstores, and we want to destroy capitaldifferent events in 2019 alone. feminist bookstores. By the end ism; we want to destroy the state, In the five years leading up to of the ’80s, early ’90s, they’d been and we want to have a better quarantine, Kanaan says PM destroyed by the chains. Then world.” 💣💣💣

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BOOK NOOK

Admittedly, writing about the painful moment she first heard her friend had died, callously told to her at a bar by one of Laughner’s ex-friends, was tough.

own bands and sang back up for everyone from Culture Club to Tears For Fears (most notably on The Seeds of Love Tour). She’s also written songs for a slew of musicians in disparate genres, from Matthew Sweet and Lydia Lunch to The Pointer Sisters. She is finally ready to write another memoir, this one focusing on her own career.

The publishing industry calls books like these ‘misery memoirs,’ but different writers deal with trauma in extremely different voices,” Bertei says. “And the strength and beauty of each storyteller’s voice either “I love singing,” she says. “It saved my life. I appeared as confident, tough, and cocky grabs and holds you, finding the beauty in when I got to New York, but it was a ruse. the darkness, or it doesn’t. Hard memories The next memoir takes off from where the require a forensic dive, to not just wriggle in the pain of them, but to find the meaning, Peter book ends. In NYC, 1977. The scene I landed in, when I joined the Contortions. the light. My favorite, guiding quote of all time is from Jean Genet who said, ‘To es- We called it No Wave when we began recording with Brian Eno. It took years cape from horror, bury yourself in it.’” to find my confidence as a singer, and the journey through the corporate music In the decades since losing the friend business is quite a story too.” 💣💣💣 who was among the first to encourage her musical career, Bertei has fronted her

INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR ADELE BERTEI BY JOHN B. MOORE

dele Bertei has lived a fas- made specifically as an award for those cinating life. Raised in foster who donated money. Aside from a few people getting in touch and asking for the homes, a Catholic Conbook, I didn’t sell that edition.” vent, and reform schools around Cleveland, she was rudderless until Smoke Veil’s Frank Mauceri contacted meeting musician and proto-punk Bertei about using a few tracks she copioneer Peter Laughner. Thanks to wrote with Laughner for a box set his some early guidance and encour- label was putting out, which is how she first agement from Laughner, Bertei forged a connection with the label that would go on to a fascinating and would ultimately, formally release the book. successful career as a musician, film“When he sent the package, and I saw what maker, and writer. But it’s Laughner, a phenomenal job he did curating Peter’s and her friendship with him, that music, including the inside book and the Bertei chose to write about in the artwork, I was stunned in all the best ways,” Bertei says. “That box set helped liberate memoir Peter And The Wolves.

Originally self-published in 2013, Smog Veil Records has just re-released this compelling, tragic, and beautiful ode to friendship. Laughner died in New York in 1977 at the age of 24, not long after Bertei moved there to jumpstart her music career, alongside some fellow, Cleveland friends and musicians.

Peter from the macabre, live-fast-dieyoung image his ghost carried. It was a no-brainer to work with Frank on publishing my memoir about Peter.”

The reaction from those who knew Laughner has been positive, Bertie says. Writers and artists she admires have sung the book’s praises, and she’s grateful for that.

Her friendship with Laughner was some- “Grateful to be able to elevate his story in the same spirit as Smog Veil has with the thing Bertei always intended to write about. box set,” she says. “So far, I haven’t come “I’ve wanted to tell this story since it hap- across any negative reactions. It was important for me to state up front how the pened, but didn’t feel ready until 2010 book is my experience of him, and the or so,” she says. “The first version wasn’t technically ‘published.’ I launched a Kick- people surrounding us in that particular scene. Everyone who knew him will have starter campaign to raise a bit of money a different story.” to write my memoirs, and had the book

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HEAVY METAL IS MY LIFE COACH INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR DANIEL DELUCIE BY ADDISON HERRON-WHEELER

If you’re like every single human out there, 2020 got you a little off the rails, and now, you’re putting together the pieces. If this has led you to look for positive support, and you also love metal, you should check out the new book Heavy Metal Is My Life Coach. “Heavy metal is the secret weapon I have in my arsenal for facilitating lasting change,” says author Daniel DeLucie. “Heavy metal makes me a better person. Metal reminds me how to live. It reiterates the core, self-help principles and drills those into my headbanging head. Confidence, overcoming fear, independence, self-worth. It’s all there, in your face, and backed by thundering sound and explosive energy. It’s the motivator to destroy all motivators. It’s the power source always at the ready. Heavy metal is my life coach.” Metal and motivation, we’re into it! But it’s not just Andrew W.K., party rhetoric— there’s a method to his madness. “If there is one thing heavy metal is known for (besides satanism, suicide, and leather), it’s being over the top,” DeLucie explains. “Metal is extreme, exaggerated,

and intense. If rock ’n’ roll is a sandwich, heavy metal is a triple-decker with a pound of meat; dripping, melted cheese; gobs of mayo; and six toothpicks holding it together. You don’t bob your head to metal; you bang it. You don’t dance to it; you slam. You don’t listen to it; you crank it.” Grab the book now at bigelectron.net. 💣

INTERVIEW WITH FOUNDER CATHY PELLOW BY JOHN SILVA

n the past 15 years, Sargent “I don’t have artists that went down,” she says. “I only have artists that House Records have been home [have] sustained, like Chelsea to some of the most interesting Wolfe, Deafheaven, Russian Circles, bands in alternative music, from these are all artists that I’m really Tera Melos to Chelsea Wolfe. The proud of, and that I’ve worked longevity of the label and the [with] for 10-plus years. They’re still bands on their roster can likely be attributed to the way the label is run. Founder Cathy Pellow is a band manager first and foremost, and by combining band management and record distribution into one entity, she’s able to cut both costs and creative blockades.

“The premise in which [Sargent House] was started was really a partnership between myself and the artists that I manage,” Pellow explains. “I started putting out records for them in an effort to simply have control of how we wanted everything to be done mutually and to retain the kind of artist integrity and operate in a very artist centric way.” Sargent House don’t cater to one, particular genre. The common denominator amongst all the bands on the label is that they put out interesting music. From the very beginning, Pellow has worked to create an environment in which creative bands thrive. “I liked weirdo music,” she says, “I liked music that other record labels weren’t trying to sign in the first place. I was helping these underdog artists that I thought were criminally underrated.” The Sargent House roster is stacked with bands that have stood the test of time. It’s difficult to keep any band going for over a decade, let alone a DIY band. But artists Pellow works with have done just that.

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putting out really important, good a fucking record. Now that people records. They never compromised.” are streaming, I think that they do feel a sense of, ‘Hey I guess it’s for In an industry known for cut-throat free, so I’ll kick you $20 ‘cause I saw recording contracts, Sargent your dog has a vet bill, and you’re House stand out as a label that at- trying to raise money for it.’” tempt to make sure their bands are fairly compensated for their art. The mission of Sargent House remains unchanged after 15 years. “I’m here to be creative, to raise Pellow still prioritizes bands she the artists that are already really finds interesting over bands chastalented that I choose to work ing popularity. with, to give them the best chance at succeeding, and being able “I never chase genres,” she says. “I to buy a home, and live like a never chase trends. I just simply normal person, and not have any pick things that I genuinely think other jobs except making music,” [are] great.” she explains. She takes pride in the fact that the The music industry is always chang- label have never compromised ing, and Sargent House is always their values and is still providing a adapting. People aren’t necessar- home to “weirdo bands” all these ily unwilling to pay for music any- years later. more; they just pay for it differently. “I’m the most proud of still being “Things like GoFundMe have be- here, still supporting and nurturing come very educational in just how new artists, and knowing I played a much people are willing to give to very significant role in artists that things they like,” Pellow says. “It’s are on their seventh and eighth easier to see somebody donate records, and are going to be leg10 dollars than to get them to buy endary.” 💣💣💣 PHOTO Chelsea Wolfe

BEN CHISHOLM B

EN CHISHOLM IS NOT JUST A COMPOSER, PRODUCER, ENGINEER, MIXER, AND MULTI-INSTRUMENTALIST; HE’S ALSO ONE OF THE MASTERMINDS BEHIND SOME OF THE BEST ALBUMS EVER RELEASED.

“‘Producer’ is sort of a nebulous title which can mean so many things,” he says. “I guess first and foremost, I’m an artist and a musician, and the utilitarian label for the kind of work I do is ‘production.’ I think I find myself in this role due to my desire to collaborate with all the wonderful artists I’m lucky enough to know. My ‘production’ work could range from adding a little piano part, to completely deconstructing an artist’s song, and then putting it back together with them.” The beginning of Chisholm’s career dates back to when he was just a teenager. “I started recording all of the bands I played in starting in my late teens,” he says. “I was also into making electronic music separately, but it was always just for fun. At a certain

point in my early 20s, I started to influences are, and for others, I just though, I’m really happy to be part merge the loud, guitar music with want to know what the lyrics mean of the perplexing madness that is the industrial, electronic music I was before I dig in, so I can try to support The Armed. I think we ended up with making. I played in and recorded the song on that level,” he explains. something really special.” with various bands around Northern “Then, I try to focus on every element California, but the first real, notable in a song—zooming in and out on de- Even though last year was not easy collaboration was working with Chel- tails, from macro to micro. Every song due to the pandemic, Chisholm sea Wolfe on Apokalypsis. That was can be a world unto itself. Generally, managed to work on many new the first widely released album I did a song or a mix will simply just click projects. any production work on.” when it has a certain feeling to it, and then I know to step back. But, I seem “After flying home from the Chisholm is well known for being to run into Parkinson’s Law, which COVID-cancelled, European tour Chelsea Wolfe’s longtime collab- states that ‘work expands so as to fill last year, I was fortunate enough to orator. The multi-instrumentalist the time available for its completion,’ be able to throw myself into creating has been playing and working with so sometimes I’ll work with a track music and to continue to learn more about recording with all the sudden, Wolfe since 2010. right up until the deadline arrives.” extra time at home,” he says. “That’s “Every record I’ve worked on with Chel- Chisholm has also produced all I’ve done with this time—write, sea has been an amazing journey,” ULTRAPOP, the new album by The record, and absorb as much new he says. “I always come away with so Armed that will be released via information as possible. We were given some extra time to hone our many new layers of understanding. Sargent House in April. craft, though it was framed in loss I’ve been lucky enough to continue to work with Chelsea for over a decade “They were the biggest challenge and isolation, so I know it wasn’t an now, and it’s an ever-evolving quest for I’ve ever faced, but I can’t really especially inspiring time for many. beauty and new depths.” talk about that due to the comical That said, I think we’re about to see amount of non-disclosure agree- a tidal wave of extraordinary work Chisholm’s approach changes with ments they asked me to sign,” he says. from artists across the board—some every band or record. “It was truly a strange and intense of the best work yet from many. I know experience. I worked all remotely, via that Sargent House has an incredible “With some, I like to know what an email, never speaking to anyone on slate of releases coming up around artist’s external musical and sonic the phone or in person. In the end, the bend.” 💣💣💣

NEW NOISE

“It is one of the best fucking things that’s ever happened.”

YOUTH CODE X KING YOSEF “[George] called me while I was out on tour,” Taylor recalls. “And he’s like, ‘Hey, I’m supposed to hang out with this guy, and blah blah blah…’ and I was like, ‘just fucking do it!’” Pelletier recounts a similar situation with his girlfriend. “I literally had the exact same conversation beforehand, where I was like, ‘I don’t know if I want to go. I’m kind of nervous and intimidated.’ And then my girlfriend was just like, ‘Why wouldn’t you go? If it’s weird, you can leave.’ And then, I showed up and we hit it off immediately.”

INTERVIEW BY M. REED

they’ve all experienced, as well as the traumas they’ve endured. Due to this, she feels a certain kinship with Pelletier, one that is reciprocated by Pelletier as well.

outh Code is a vicious noise and alternative metal project brought to life by vocalist Sara Taylor and electronic sound artist Ryan “There was an instant, sibling chemGeorge. King Yosef’s music is an istry,” he says. He then clarifies what outlandish and brutal combina- he means by this statement. “We all tion of trap, hip hop, and death just pick on each other. But specifimetal composed by electronic cally [Taylor] and I. I don’t feel like I producer Tayves Yosef Pelletier. pick on [George] very much.” More than a few fortnights separate the two in terms artist in The collaboration was the result of terms of age and culture touch- George checking out Pelletier’s music stones, but their dissident sounds and then asking over social media if could not complement each oth- he wanted to connect for a beer next er more perfectly on their new, time he was in Los Angeles. collaborative album, A Skeleton Key in the Doors of Depression. “I remember what I was doing; I was running errands, and I went to Taylor, George, and Pelletier could the bank,” Pelletier recounts. “And not be more pleased with the results I got messages as I was getting of their collaboration either. out of the car. And it was from the Youth Code Instagram.” “It’s weird how well our styles came together, even though we are The messages came as a bit of a coming at it from different places shock to Pelletier. He had been a in terms of inspiration,” George fan of Youth Code for years, but explains. “But, we gel so hard! Like, never expected to be on their radar. if you gave it blindly to someone, they wouldn’t know we weren’t in “This dude wants to hang out and talk the same genre.” to me about music,” he says. “I mean, I had only been studying what he Taylor attributes the success of has been doing for the last two years the collaboration to the hardships straight. I was very nervous.”

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Taylor still seems a little shocked that both men’s natural shyness almost prevented the collaboration from taking flight. As for her feelings towards the results of the collaboration, they are unambiguous.

Pelletier accepted George’s offer, but ironically, the meeting almost “It is one of the best fucking things didn’t happen, and both men con- that’s ever happened.” 💣💣💣 sidered cancelling before talking to their partners.

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/BANJO PLAYER JUSTIN CASHWAN PRATT, BASSIST HARLAN STEED, AND DRUMMER NOAH COHEN-CORBETT BY M. REED PHOTO Asha Maura

“

The city can often seem like it’s there for tourism, whereas we are concerned with those who are endemic to the city.”

entirely at their new studio, located at Corpus Headquarters in Queens. The studio space was built during the time the band spend in quarantine, and it has opened up some exciting opportunities for them in terms of writing, recording, and maintaining creative control over their output. “We were very pleased with the results,” Steed says. “It’s amazing to go to other places to make music, but there’s something really amazing about having this kind of creative space available to us.”

A quote emblematic of New York City hardcore band Show Me The Body’s approach to music-making and community engagement. A statement gravid with decisive intent, delivered by the band’s frontperson, Julian Cashwan Pratt. Show Me The Body have been around since at least 2013, and since 2014 have been comprised of bassist Harlan Steed, drummer Noah Cohen-Corbett, and vocalist and banjo-wielding barbarian Julian Cashwan Pratt. They released their debut LP, Body War, in 2016 following

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a series of well-received EPs. However, it wasn’t until 2019’s LP, Dog Whistle, that the band really seemed to come into their own.

Show Me The Body now follow that master stroke with another EP, appropriately titled Survive. It is their first release recorded

“We spent years, and years, and years going to other places to do everything,” Pratt says. “When you go to record, you’re like, ‘Fuck, we gotta do it real

pus undertakes to benefit their community. They also hold coat drives, host a book club, and do work with local shelters.

PHOTOGRAPHY Michael Thorn

One of the programs that they are most excited about is the residency they offer at their studio. “We’re doing a quarterly residency where anyone can apply,” Pratt explains. “It’s basically a weeklong, studio session that they can get for free. We just launched it, and we’re super excited to get our first person in there.”

hood kids can get together and play with the band’s equipment. Pratt describes the scene from the last event held before virus shut down the city.

“We got some commercial space in a basement and we set up all of our gear, and kids who we did not know, like 15-year-old kids, came in and blasted out on our equipment. It was super ill. Everyone was free-styling, and kids were down there two-stepping to what kids were just laying down. Something that the band are It was beautiful.” also looking forward to doing, after the pandemic, is another “New bands were formed that community event they call Cor- day,” Steed adds, proudly. pus Jam, a day when neighbor- 💣💣💣

good, real fast!’ Prior to having a studio at Corpus Headquarters, we didn’t have a place to practice. Here, we have a practice space for the first time. Before this, we were practicing in a storage unit.” To a degree, the EP reflects Show Me The Body’s new, more stable arrangements, with some incredibly tight, refined songwriting, and a crisp, balanced, and unostentatious production. However, the band are far from settled and satiated by their surroundings, as the title track and its video make clear. The video depicts a montage of folks training in boxing and self-defense in various, actively industrial settings throughout

the city. The video’s concept flows from the self-defense classes offered through the band’s affiliated, community-facing organization, Corpus. “Self-defense is a big part of Corpus,” Pratt explains. “You have to be able to protect yourself and be able to protect those around you. A lot of those people who were in the video are trained boxers. We just want people to feel confident that they can protect themselves, and that they can protect their friends.” The self-defense classes were held over Zoom during the pandemic to avoid spreading the virus. And martial arts training is not the only initiative that Cor-

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IT’S HARD TO BELIEVE METAL IS A LITTLE OVER 50 YEARS OLD THIS YEAR, MAKING IT ARGUABLY ONE OF THE YOUNGEST STYLES OF MODERN MUSIC. BECAUSE OF THIS RELATIVE YOUTH, METAL FANS CAN LIKELY PINPOINT THE MOMENT, SONG, OR RECORD DURING WHICH THE STYLE CLICKED WITH THEM, AND HOW. NO MATTER HOW LONG THEY’VE BEEN A FAN, METAL FESTERS AND GROWS LIKE A RASH THAT WON’T QUIT. THE BANDS HEREIN REPRESENT CURRENT METALLIC ROYALTY, AND NEW AND FUTURE RULERS. ALL OF THEM PROVE THAT METAL, NO MATTER WHAT STANDS IN ITS WAY, CARRIES ON.

PHOTO Saturnal Records

INTERVIEW BY NICHOLAS SENIOR

’m currently playing A Plague Tale, a survival horror game about the Black Death that is somehow a gorgeous and truly haunting experience, seeing the descent of the world through the eyes of two children you must keep alive. Much of the game’s aura and experience ties into the masterful new record from the Russian black metal collective, Hymnr. This debut, Far Beyond Insanity, out April 23 on Saturnal Records, reflects on the plague’s arrival to a small town, Bjoergvin in 1349 (a notable year and number for black metal fans). However, the stories of pure,

unadulterated darkness and human filth only add to the wonderfully blackened experience Hymnr have manifested here. Far Beyond Insanity is a stunning collection of long-form black metal that never feels post or progressive, but wondrous songwriting, evil intentions, and just the right did sort of create itself, lending anamount of delectable dissonant other layer to the auditory horror. melody add up to what I can only “After the first track was manifested, describe as gorgeous. it was more about keeping up with Not one minute feels wasted, as the where this album wanted to take us. record spirals deeper into an alluring It was, for us, also a trance-like state. sense of gleeful insanity. Interestingly, As it evolved and escalated more the band notes, Far Beyond Insanity and more, we couldn’t do much

INTERVIEW WITH MULTI-INSTRUMENTALIST T (SHE) BY NICHOLAS SENIOR

here’s a storied history metal has with the places it comes from. Just saying a country or location can give listeners an expectation of sound: Norwegian black metal, Swedish death metal, Cascadian post-metal, Bay Area thrash. Now, I think we need to add Siberian frost metal, as there is something uniquely, gorgeously special about what Nordgeist have accomplished with their debut. Frostwinter, due out April 23 via Kunsthall Produktionen, is one of

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those evocative records that, if you close your eyes, you can picture exactly the setting the artist is painting. For Frostwinter, there’s a dichotomy at play, wrestling with fierceness of persistent winter, and the power of creatures to persevere in such starkly inhospitable conditions. That power of survival is reflected in the sole author and creator of Nordgeist, multi-instrumentalist T, a woman who has

more than to hang on. It was a very different state of mind, to just go with it, but that is also what made it what it became. The songs aren’t long because we planned them to be, but in the writing process, they just took us further into darkness and despair, a feeling we couldn’t break from. You can’t fight evil, you know.” 💣

PHOTO Eugen Kohl

crafted one of the most enchanting black “I come from a region where winters occupy most of the year. The winters here are metal debuts in recent memory. Frostwinter very special, in the sense that they consist is probably closest to Cascadian black of a predominance of darkness, and give metal in its mix of harsh sonic atmosphere the impression that winter will never end and appreciation for nature, but–and it and the sun has set forever. However, sounds weird to say–I can hear the wind life does exist in this almost hostile enviand snowfall through the speakers. There’s ronment. People live here, many animals a palpable chill to the recordings, that that defy nature and have adapted to ironically gives these four songs a unique warmth. I asked her to reflect on the al- the environment. This is exactly what the album is about.” 💣 bum’s creation:

INTERVIEW BY CHRISTOPHER J. HARRINGTON

he shadows hang low in Montreal at night. There is a fog that illuminates this darkness with a vague, red mist. What is created here? Who are its inhabitants? Is there a direct reflection? Spectral Wound calls the place home. Their music is perhaps second-wave black metal at its core, but it resists any direct classification, and thus, its unique propulsion shimmers throughout. For the group consider reflections moot.

the traces of the circumstances of its production,” the group explains. “There is an obsessiveness, a perverse, anxious tension that runs throughout, that reflects the isolation and existential uncertainty of the first year of life under plague.” The record bares that truth in its soul. A recording that doesn’t leave much room for air, suffocating and abrasive, it wrangles and tugs through six, violent numbers. There is not so much a context as a general state of nothingness, a void centered along a path leading nowhere.

“There are few, if any, direct reflections,” they say. “There is always “You could say that the backcloth of distortion, diffraction.” A Diabolic Thirst is the convulsion and fitful collapse of empire,” the And so their new record, A Diabolic band quips. “The imperial saison Thirst, out April 16 via Profound noire, if you will.” Lore, descends into sonic madness without regard for its circumstance, The style of their music, a tradition which would be categorical. It is that spans from Venom and Celtic more random than justifiable, and Frost, to Mayhem and Krallice, is one yet, it is the very physical circum- that is directive, impressionable. But stances that produced the bleak now, the band argues, the impresrecord. The band starting recording sion has become the reality. The just went COVID hit, and the process simulation has become the real. was delayed for several months. “Black metal has always been “In this respect, I believe it bears preoccupied with apocalypse,”

the group says. “But, this has now And so, the faint lights that flicker become the prevailing spirit of throughout the record, the pains our age, of the mainstream itself. of human experience that are The culture and politics of the barked and raged, are not fantasy, West are a death cult. But, this but reality. A truth hidden from a conviction that we are at the brink species blindfolded, disillusioned. of Armageddon belies a more At its heart, though, the record unsettling and more dismal truth. swings with the best of ’em. A spirit The tragedy that we have brought that will never die. upon ourselves is not that the world is ending, but that it is not. It per- “At the heart of black metal is heavy sists, and likely will persist, lurching metal,” the band reminds us. “Is rock cataclysmically, well beyond the ’n’ roll.” 💣 limits of our sanity. Tomorrow will be worse. Magic will not save us.”

INTERVIEW WITH MULTI-INSTRUMENTALIST WINTHERR BY NICHOLAS SENIOR

f you’ve never heard of Tschäggättä, and the suspense of discovering reality is at the heart of Geister. go look it up right now (I’ll wait right here). The odd yet horrifying All of the group’s works are told custom of wearing furs and masks in through the lens of “The Wandera Swiss valley town before the start er,” who has been an enduring of Christian Lenten season is ripe for character for Paysage D’Hiver. metallic interpretation. Did we menMulti-instrumentalist and sole tion the goal was to scare children creator Wintherr elaborates on and create a little havoc in town? this idea: Who better to do so than one of the most interesting new black metal acts, Paysage D’Hiver. They have “The only possibility for the hubeen around since 1997, releasing man realm to get into contact some of the best atmospheric black with the wanderer, or the world metal demos, only to finally release of Paysage D’Hiver, is through a true debut album last year with Im something like this mask cult, and Wald. Technically the 13th chapter of this is what this album visualizes. Paysage D’Hiver, Geister out April 23 So, it is the most worldly Paysage via Kunsthall Produktionen, showcases the power of black metal storytelling, d’Hiver album. The wanderer and how a great background can liven tells what these ‘ghosts’ (to him) up already excellent music. tell him about their world, which

PHOTO Hannes Bar

What’s maybe most impressive is the visual quality to Paysage D’Hiver’s latest. It really does feel like wandering through a forest in Switzerland, all while being chased by creatures that (we hope) are just humans dressed up to scare. The fear of the unknown,

is in fact the human realm. I used this ‘worldly’ concept to mildly bring in some of my personal criticism towards the human realm and what’s all wrong here. And there’s a lot to criticize, in my opinion.” 💣

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INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST MARKO TERVONEN BY HUTCH

he Crown have been igniting fiery, “The only thing COVID has done is my view, one of the stronger songs. They just such a fantastic, American word. blasphemous riffs for 20-plus help our album,” he says. “We were really differ from the meat-and-pota- Plus, the album has blue and yellow in years. Adhering to the rebellious scheduled to record our album in May. toes Crown stuff— which will always be it, like the Swedish flag, and Sweden is spirit of rock ’n’ roll, The Crown start The shit hit the fan somewhere around a part of [our albums]. In the end, we still a monarchy.” with savage death metal and add February. It became a mess. We had created a more varied album, which, I nods of first-wave black metal to to postpone recording. We had to stop believe, made it a better album. If you “We all have seen a warrior on a horse a ensnare the eardrums of dedicated rehearsing for many months. But ac- have followed us for years, you know we hundred times,” laughs Tervonen. “But fans globally. tually, during that time, we were sitting basically, on every album, we try to do we wanted [an] over-the-top, epic feel.” at home, thinking about the album, something different. I would hate to do a The band have consistently released thinking, ‘Is it good enough? Should Crown album from a template or recipe. That epic impression is fully realized records every few years since 1995. we do something different? Should we I want to have an open mind and create when the album is ordered on vinyl. This year will see Royal Destroyer change something?’ In the end, some a new feel to it.” Christian Sloan Hall, who also did the released on Metal Blade, a brilliant really important ideas came up. So, artwork for Cobra Speed Venom, was follow-up to 2018’s Cobra Speed during that little break, we removed As far as the title of the album, Royal down to rejoin. The Crown decided, Venom. Along with the new release, two songs and added two completely Destroyer ties in multiple themes and “Let’s take this to 11 and go with it.” guitarist Marko Tervonen points out new ones. They made the album better. ideas. Tervonen explains that the the atypical winter he and his band- Thank you, COVID. That’s the only good band’s bassist, Magnus Olsfelt, “has “The cover is only 50 percent of the mates have experienced this year in thing you ever did.” named all of our albums and always image when you open on the gatefold their home country of Sweden. has great fucking ideas. He likes to album,” Tervonen says. That impulse birthed some friction and create a title first and then approach “We haven’t had snow at all until a intense discussions within the band. with that feeling.” While COVID dismantled the touring week ago,” Tervonen confesses. “We But ultimately, the two new tracks add options, in the age of digital streaming, usually get it in October and Novem- a fresh and relevant representation of “We tried to come up with something merch is revenue. Shows are revenue. ber. I don’t know who is to blame, but I The Crown. that sums up the album,” Tervonen con- But despite having the output of a band have only shoveled once.” tinues. “We don’t usually do concept which relies on the album and touring “Those two songs that we added differ albums or themes because we have cycle, The Crown are stable and situatThe obvious, initial question is how from the other stuff,” Tervonen says. “We different writers in the band, [yielding] ed without the revenue. For them, the Tervonen and The Crown have dealt added the really slow song ‘We Drift On,’ different vibes. But ‘royal’ links to our propulsion and motivation is strictly the with the pandemic. and the last song, ‘Beyond the Frail,’ from band and our name and ‘destroyer’ is emotional reward. 💣💣💣

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INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST PVIII BY NICHOLAS SENIOR INTERVIEW WITH MULTIINSTRUMENTALIST 鬼 (GHOST) BY NICHOLAS SENIOR

hanks to that famous mother lover Sigmund Freud, we think of fixations in terms of the psychosexual, but for the nameless entity 鬼 and his truly haunted second album, it’s more important to understand that word in terms of a singular, unfailing focus. The record’s themes are harrowing and penetrate the deepest, darkest portions of the human mind, but that attention to detail also plays out in one of the most original pieces of dark metal in years. Fixation, out May 14 via new label Prosthetic Records, is a swirling specter of symphonic black metal and ’00s metalcore, with no obvious peer. Like the descent into mental illness at the heart of the record, Fixation morphs during its runtime into a blackened spiral of despair that truly left me floored by its vision, execution, and emotion. It’s impossible to experience this record and not be left in a state of grief for the author. 鬼 explains the tale at the heart of the record, and why it’s such a pained listen:

“To put it as straightforwardly as possible, the record is a time capsule for one of the darkest times of my life, as I observed a loved one endure the throes of intrusive thoughts, suicidal ideation, and a subsequent suicide attempt. I think a lack of coping mechanisms in general led me to completely immerse myself in the creation of this record and express the feelings I had towards the situation in the only way I knew how to. Fixation is the result of me feeling utterly helpless once the realization set in that I was completely unequipped to help them.” 💣

PHOTO Anja Herman

extreme metal, no matter how fast, how etal is not known for moderation or heavy, or how evil a song gets. restraint, though sometimes it is at its best when bands can rein themselves in. For German act Thron’s third album, As guitarist PVIII elaborates, that sense of Pilgrim, out now via Listenable Records, putting the proverbial pedal to the metal was the point on this, their magnum opus: the complete opposite is true. Everything about Pilgrim is excessive, the riffs, the “We wanted more variety, more different moods and emotions and atmosphere, atmosphere, the lyrics, even the pervasive sense of evil—all of it is pushed to the ex- but also more rough edges and filth. Just treme, resulting in Thron’s best record yet, more of every facet. And we wanted to be more than a Dissection or Necrophoand one of the most purely fun metal bic tribute band. Sure, we have these releases of the past year. The group’s sonic footprint echoes that mindset, influences, but we also have many other influences, stuff that you won’t hear on borrowing from second-wave black the aforementioned bands’ albums. We metal, death, thrash, and ’70s prog in wanted to prove to ourselves that we can liberal measures. Put plainly, Pilgrim stand on our own feet, not just following sounds a lot like I’d imagine Tribulation trends, but being a force to reckon with. would if they were more blackened Sounds a bit dramatic, but we had this death than eerie heavy prog metal. That attitude like, ‘Let’s fucking do this, no band’s famous sense of spooky melody is a key element in Thron’s success. Pil- compromises.’” 💣 grim excels in bringing extremely catchy

PHOTO Phillip James Torriero

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST AND VOCALIST M. CZERWONIUK; DRUMMER, GUITARIST, AND VOCALIST T.HORROCKS; AND BASSIST E. TROUP BY ADDISON HERRON-WHEELER

ike many other bands this year, part of the continuous process of songWode were hoping to have their writing. However, they also branched new record, Burn in Many Mirrors, into a few more experimental directions. now released April 2 via 20 Buck Spin, out as early as last fall, but it didn’t “It’s probably not as tied to black happen. Still, also like many bands, metal as the other albums were, in they claim the extra time helped terms of the tempo and that kind of them hone and refine their sound. thing,” the band explain. “It’s more just like a heavy record that has got “When we got going, the process was a lot of death metal and black metal running really smoothly, and it came in it. When we started putting these together quickly,” the band say. “It really songs together, it felt like it could go wasn’t a drawn-out process or anything, to a different place than what we’ve once we finally got in the studio.” done before. It kind of feels a lot more rooted in where we’re from, ManchesWith this record, the band picked up ter, more of an urban area, and the where they left off with the last one, as feelings of the chaos of the city.”

Taking on an almost magical re- “I think it’s probably a bit disingenualism, death metal vibe, the lyrics ous to live in the city and write songs focus on the urban as well as myth- about the wilderness or whatever,” ological themes of the underworld, the band say. “I wouldn’t say everyfrom writers like William Blake and thing is necessarily set in an urban Underland by Robert Macfarlane, environment, but it’s more like the the album took on themes of the un- feelings we experience ourselves, derworld, the literal underground. the chaos we experience.” 💣💣💣 As for the city themes, Wode strive to tell an honest story about their surroundings in their lyrics.

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PHOTO Terhi Ylimäinen

he world got exciting news last year, amid the horrors of the pandemic, when Bodom After Midnight announced they were going to spring onto the scene and pick up where the previous band of guitarists and vocalists Daniel Freyberg and Alexi Laiho, Children of Bodom, had left off.

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST/VOCALIST DANIEL FREYBERG BY ADDISON HERRON-WHEELER the legacy of the band’s latest music. Now, Paint the Sky With Blood, out April 23 via Napalm Records, and released as an EP, stands as his final legacy. “Alexi wrote the riffs and melodies, and how he works is very old-school,” says Freyberg. “He doesn’t do any demos beforehand. He comes with a riff or melody to the rehearsal place, and he shows everyone there the parts and how to play them. And then, we go from that, and we get it all down as a band.”

with his last effort, the band are planning to close the chapter with this EP.

enal guitar player. But, I think the most important thing was his music, how he invented this new style where he combined “I think we won’t record any black metal, glam rock, and more music, for many rea- whatever else, so easily.” sons, but mostly because the word ‘Bodom’ is pretty much However, just because Laiho Alexi-trademarked,” Freyberg tragically passed, and took the explains. “I think the band died band with him, doesn’t mean with him, and we’re not gonna that Freyberg is walking away record any new material.” from music. He is working on a new project that has been on As for Laiho’s legacy, Freyberg hold since the tragedy, and is thinks it will live on through his excited to make strides with it creative endeavors. once the EP is out.

Then, just like that, the spark of hope was extinguished in a drastic way. On December 29, 2020, Laiho passed away from complications related to liver disease. He was gone way too Laiho was meticulous when it “He was a guy who created a to- “I’m definitely going to continue,” soon, but in addition to the came to songwriting, and while tally new style of music, and on he says. “I won’t stop.” 💣💣💣 music he left behind, he left he only left three songs behind top of that, he was a phenom-

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death metal group Luna’s Call decided to get their musical degrees at Brighton Institute of Modern Music—which is how most of them met, coincidentally. It’s no surprise that their first record for new label Listenable Records is a PhD: Pretty Huge Deal. Void, out May 14, might be the best prog death album since Opeth’s Ghost Reveries, in part because of how skilled Luna’s Call are at making dazzling music seem so punchy. As with the best of the style, Void is all about flow and feel, the type of vinyl your parents PHOTO (or you, a retrophile) would Sophie Hillman put on and let envelope them for an afternoon. There’s so INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST/VOCALIST NEIL PURDY much to discover and apBY NICHOLAS SENIOR preciate, and it’s no surprise veryone’s journey into the take the educated route to that guitarist and vocalist Neil glorious darkness of metal musical enlightenment (en- Purdy came to metal through is different, and some even metal-ment?). U.K. progressive prog, as he notes:

“I grew up listening to a lot of Queen and ELO, then towards my teenage years this progressed to discovering Metallica. It wasn’t until college, and meeting other musicians, that my descent into extreme music began. As a guitarist, I loved the challenge that extreme metal music brought with it. I remember learning a lot of Necrophagist and Dark Tranquillity songs. Ironically, I was never a fan of extreme metal vocals until discovering progressive death metal. The use of mixed vocal styles bridged the gap and helped me to finally understand and appreciate the technique. This opened my eyes even further to other genres within extreme metal.” 💣💣💣

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST CAMERON BOGGS BY NICHOLAS SENIOR

ortured Whole, the debut album from Ohio group Sanguisugabogg, is sincerely, ludicrously disgusting, and I couldn’t love it more. Death metal is often best (for me) when it cleans itself up and allows for the sheer, heavy technicality to shine through with clarity. When there’s a warmth to the recording, you can feel the passion oozing through the speakers. This record is the complete and total fucking opposite of that concept, all ooze and nothing clean. Tortured Whole, out now via Century Media, revels in a sort of pulsating, repulsive grime. Sanguisugabogg are brutal death metal unafraid to push the boundaries of sound while understanding the importance of having a good time.

people go ‘what?!’ I didn’t want there to be any filler riffs whatsoever. There is always going to be one goal with this band, and that is to make the heaviest shit we can shit out, and keep it groovy and fun at the same time. The flow to everything really came very naturally, and I am so happy and proud of it. We had a couple different song orders for the album until we landed on the final one, and I think it just really made everything hit even better.”

PHOTO Chongripper

There’s also something wonderfully wholesome beyond the splatterpunk lyrics and shapeshifting, metal noise, highlighting the unifying power of and I see that happening already with queer kids feeling more safe in riffs: a scene that is perceived as pretty “Death metal has really given me masculine, I guess. I’m really excited Guitarist Cameron Boggs talks about some of the best friends I’ve ever had, for the future! As a queer, non-binary and keeps giving me more friends kid playing death metal, you hear their goals with this record: and cool shit to listen to,” Boggs says. some weird, phobic things being “My goal with writing this album was “I hope I can just keep giving back to thrown around. It’s definitely pretty simply for every single riff to make it and make an impact on it myself, uncomfortable, and if I were new to

going to shows, or had a new interest in death metal, I would be completely put off. I just want everyone to know that we don’t like or tolerate that shit, and any discrimination won’t fly. I want everyone to feel safe, happy, and free in our corner of death metal, and I hope we are doing a decent job at putting that out there!” 💣💣💣

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PHOTO James Alvarez

“The idea is that, if you’re still functioning as a band, that potentially your best album should be coming in the future. It shouldn’t have already happened.” INTERVIEW WITH BASSIST ALEX WEBSTER BY NICHOLAS SENIOR

ow is it humanly possible With the introduction of guifor a band’s best output to tarist and producer Erik Rutan come 15 albums in? Well, (Hate Eternal) formally into if you’re legendary death the band, Cannibal Corpse’s metal act Cannibal Corpse, now trademark thrash-y, goyou expect nothing less. Their re-splattered death is as fresh latest, Violence Unimagined, out and festering as ever. Seriously, April 16 via Metal Blade, some- songs like “Inhumane Harvest,” how showcases that not only “Follow the Blood,” and “Slowly does the band who has written Sawn” rank among the band’s more genre classics than I’ve greatest songs to date. Instead had relationships seem more of coasting into legendary fired up than ever at this stage status (as one might expect), of their career, there’s also Cannibal Corpse appear to be good reason for that. reaching their creative peak.

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As bassist Alex Webster notes, in the future. It shouldn’t have bringing Rutan aboard only already happened. We don’t made the band stronger: want to coast on what we’ve already accomplished. We “Erik has been awesome; he want to try and write the best brings a whole bunch of en- album we’ve ever done. And ergy. He wrote three songs, that’s what we’ve tried to do music and lyrics. He’s already all 15 times, actually. And that’s been part of the family. We’ve what number 16, whenever that been close friends with him for happens, will be our attempt at decades and worked with him writing the best album we’ve on four of our albums before ever written again.” Violence Unimagined, just as a producer. But still, that’s a big Part of the reason the band deal. Now, him having pro- have been able to not only duced this album, he’s tied with maintain consistent greatness Scott Burns for being the pro- but improve year after year ducer who’s worked with us the is an understanding of what most. So, he comes into it, and they do best, and continuousit’s the most natural, seamless ly improving further on that transition ever.” one element. “And you’re right about the legacy thing,” Webster continues. “We really want to make whatever we’re currently working on the best that we can. The idea is that, if you’re still functioning as a band, that potentially your best album should be coming

“For us, we kind of settled into the idea that the way we should push ourselves the most, and what we excel at the most, is our song craft,” Webster acknowledges. “That’s ultimately it. We feel like we’re pretty accomplished players as far as

the kind of speed we can play “But then there’s other times, too. and the technicality we can Like, looking at how Erik wrote handle. But those are means ‘Ritual Annihilation.’ There’s a to an end at this point. The end super heavy riff at the end of that we seek is to write the best that one. I don’t want to call it collection of songs that we’ve a breakdown, because that’s ever written.” taken on a different meaning over the past 15 years of so, but So, what does that mean we’d call it a mosh part in the exactly? ’80s. That part is so heavy. Of course, it only happens once, “I’ll start out with a fairly normal but that’s enough. That part, song structure,” Webster says. you’re waiting for it. Once you “But if the riffs are super heavy get to know that song, then and kind of unusual as well, you’re enjoying the rest of the like maybe an odd-metered riff song, but you’re like, ‘Oh boy, is mixed in there or something I can’t wait until that one part like that, it doesn’t matter that comes.’” there’s this kind of standard song structure. Like A-B-A-B, and then If there were any doubt at all, a C and a D section, and then one listen to Violence Unimagback to A for the solo, and then ined, and even the most casual a B at the end. Those are normal Cannibal Corpse fan won’t be structures used on some of my able to wait to see where the favorite albums ever, like Rain- band go from here. A creative ing Blood by Slayer.” peak this far into a career? It’s only surprising until you That concept plays out dif- hear this classic in the making. ferently depending on who is 💣💣💣 writing, Webster notes:

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GHOST SHIPS, VAMPIRES, AND THE SPECTERS OF CAPITALISM ARE ALL CHARACTERS IN THESE STUNNING CONCEPT ALBUMS. THE BANDS USE INSTRUMENTATION

PHOTO Daniel Liljas

giants cleverly manipulate the media and government to establish a power rooted in fascism. Lake Drinker sees this monster coming.

INTERVIEW WITH DRUMMER PONTUS LEVAHN BY CHRISTOPHER J. HARRINGTON

“Obviously, we’re not against technology as such,” Levahn notes. “It’s just weird how communities and human lives ultimately comes in second. I mean, Google planning huge, server facilities in Horndal is not about saving the town. It’s about ones and zeroes (in the pockets of non-Horndalians).”

ike all too many towns and cit- “My brother Henrik [guitars, vocals] the point. And the album endures: afies across the world, Hordnal, just realized that the story of our ter repeated listens, it only gets heavier, a locality situated in Avesta hometown is so metal,” drummer Pon- stronger, and more satisfying. Municipality, Sweden, is a broken tus Levahn explains. “The local steel place, the aftermath of capitalism and mill, the brutal injuries the workers “On this album we really tried all ideas,” dehumanization. There is nothing left, suffered, the shutdown of factory, the Levahn says. “We tried to match the save the spirit of its inhabitants. widespread unemployment, the empty instrumentation, the rhythms, sounds houses, and the theatre play written and tones with our lyrics about molHorndal, the band, formed to tell the and performed to protest against all ten steel, chimney smoke, despair, Horndal, the band, in the spirit of punk, fight the good fight, a voice in the story of their town, to put to music the this. It depicted the devil (played by evictions, and hopelessness.” darkness, a spirit to keep hope alive. history and manipulation the town our father) coming to crush the factory encountered. It’s a heavy tale, and and send the community to an early Horndal, the town, shares its fate the quartet’s burly hardcore and grave. We felt we HAD to start a metal with thousands and thousands of “Music, art, and culture are like cocksludge is an apt soundtrack. Twen- band to tell this story.” others: a physical setting to maximize roaches,” Levahn explains. “It seems ty-nineteen’s Remains told the story profit and then lay to waste. The like they can survive anything. The of the town’s steel factory (which em- Lake Drinker infuses hardcore punk’s dehumanization of peoples in small Black Death is here again, and idiots ployed nearly every resident) closing dynamism with heavy metal’s perpetu- towns and small cities is the history like us just keep on making albums. down 40 years ago, and the defiant al barrage, with riffs that overlap and of the industrial age, and especially You just can’t stop it. So, I guess that is act of a local theatre group perform- pummel, a sound that gets directly to in America, where currently, tech hope.” 💣💣💣 ing a play concurrently.

Lake Drinker, due out April 9 via Prosthetic, continues the saga; this time, it’s a tale about an American tech giant looking to cut down forests, bent on exploitation (Google bought 109 hectares of land in Horndal in 2017). Horndal, the band, stand in the way.

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“We tried to match the instrumentation, the rhythms, sounds, and tones with our lyrics about molten steel, chimney smoke, despair, evictions, and hopelessness.”

TO TELL THE STORIES OF THOSE PUSHING AND PERSEVERING AGAINST THE ODDS, AND IN SO DOING, PUSH THE BOUNDARIES OF AURAL CREATION.

INTERVIEW WITH PROJECT MASTERMIND ANTON BELOV BY CHRISTOPHER J. HARRINGTON

auan’s newest offering, bursts of post-rock and smidgens Ice Fleet, due out April 9 of black metal that contrast against via Artoffact Records, is a the central theme, Kauan speak to chilling affair, and yet, within its fa- their readers through a series of imtalistic nature, one is offered the op- ages that scatter dreamlike against portunity to hope. It is a landscape the horizon. piece, a circular record based on the true story of an unidentified “I wanted to find something half-legfleet of ships discovered in 1930 in endary for Ice Fleet,” Belov notes. northernmost Russia, completely “Something that had no proof of frozen under the permafrost. The what is most important, no photos crew and passenger’s bodies were or any other ‘physical’ evidence. fully preserved, a nightmarish time The lack of facts and open-ended capsule of environment and pain. state of the story excites the imagination and then I, as a composer, “This is a tragic story about brave reach my goal: to show an audio people who departed from their movie with a deep emotional conhomeland because it wasn’t a safe nection to every listener.” place anymore,” Kauan mastermind Anton Belov relays. “They packed ev- The sparse beginnings and endings erything they could, decided to leave, of songs like “Taistelu” and “Maanand the only way to do it was to cross pako,” lull the listener into a trance, a Nordic ocean. Not an easy task.” offering an emotional rest-bench, only to be shattered to pieces midThe band is able to capture the de- way, through chaos and madness. spair, and hope of a possible future, through guitar-scapes that sur- “In ‘Maanpako,’ for instance, you’ll round the impending disaster. With hear a crying lullaby to the past,”

PHOTO Alina Belova

Belov explains. “Someone on the to and sees. The record’s soft edges stern of the ship looking at a reced- bend down into destructive zones, ing shore, realizing that maybe, they looping the human experience, a will never see their home again. This reflection of the spirit of life. The brings memories and lurid feelings. record’s simplicity masks its aged From the other side of the same wisdom and boldness. ship, on the bow, there are entirely different thoughts and feelings: de- “Composing-wise, I’m adept at the fiant adventure and discovery, new philosophy of ‘freedom interferes with creativity,”’ Belov says. “The life and exciting unknowns.” more we have, the less pure the art Ice Fleet is an experience one listens we’re doing.” 💣💣💣

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST AND VOCALIST BRYCE SEDITZ BY ADDISON HERRON-WHEELER

lagueweilder are back and filthier than ever with a new album, Covenant Death, out April 2 via Disorder Recordings. While the writing period stretched over the past year, they are excited to finally be putting the album out into the world.

“I ended up recording everything in my bedroom, just sitting in the room I’m in now, and I think I wrote, like, three songs on the spot, did the lyrics, did everything here,” says vocalist and guitarist Bryce Seditz. “Then, I sent them over to Jeff Wilson, who plays bass and synths, and Mike, the Disorder Records guy, who mixed and mastered everything.” This record is a concept album, inspired by the greats of vampire lore like Anne Rice and Bram Stoker. “It’s basically about a man who turns into a vampire, and he’s not very

happy with his life before, so he’s looking for something else,” Seditz explains. “Then, he starts to realize that everybody he loves is dying in front of him, and he doesn’t have anybody left, and would like to die as well, but he can’t. So, that’s basically the premise of it, and it goes through the stages of grief. All the songs represent the stages of grief that he goes through, and it’s obviously personal as well.” In addition to the deeper themes, there is also a fair bit of fun on the record. Inspired by old vampire movies like Lost Boys and From Dusk Till Dawn, there is a campy vibe to balance out the more serious message. Combining serious issues like mental health problems and acceptance or denial of death with the macabre and horror, the new Plaguewielder record is what the classic themes in metal are all about. 💣💣💣

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THE ATMOSPHERE OF GHOSTLY TENSION AND RELEASE

GOD IS AN ASTRONAUT nervous intensity that has nowhere to go and so explodes outward. The anxiety is palpable enough that friend and album cover artist David Rooney felt it was the stuff of a literal nightmare.

PHOTO Bryan Meade

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST/PIANIST/SYNTH PLAYER TORSTEN KINSELLA BY BEN SAILER

f you’re not an expert on Vietnam War history, you may never have heard the propaganda campaign Operation Wandering Soul, where U.S. forces recorded eerie sounds and doctored voices that purported to be dead Viet Cong soldiers exhorting their compatriots to give up their guns. The recording was dubbed Ghost Tape Number Ten and blasted from loudspeakers, preying on a Buddhist belief that the deceased must be buried

properly, or else their spirit will wander the earth forever. Even if enemies detected the ruse, the effect was chilling, nevertheless. Take a listen to God Is An Astronaut’s recently released, tenth, full-length record Ghost Tapes #10, and it’s easy to hear how that uneasy sense of dread could inspire the record’s title. It’s an uncomfortable exercise in tension and release (with a heavy emphasis on tension), generating

a planned, 15-year anniversary tour for their pivotal, 2005, landmark All Is Violent, All Is Bright) and bassist Niels Kinsella losing his stepmother to cancer before their U.S. tour in late 2019, the heightened sense of unease that permeates Ghost Tapes #10 feels like a natural release of negative energy. So much for mellowing with age.

“When I played him some of the early demos for the new album, it reminded him of a reoccurring dream where planes would fall from the sky and would just “Each album is essentially a snapshot in stay suspended, hovering and never time shaped by the events we experihitting the ground, but still disintegrat- ence,” Kinsella says. “For us, writing and ing,” guitarist, pianist, and synth player playing music is a cathartic experience.” Torsten Kinsella says. “To me, it represents being on the precipice of destruction.” There was one creative benefit to life under lockdown though. While the band had long Not exactly easy listening perhaps, but then used high-end, digital-modeling guitar gear again, the long-running, ambient, instru- (which emulates the sound of multiple amps mental band hailing from County Wicklow, and effects, dramatically reducing the Ireland have never been associated with amount of gear they needed to tour the post-rock’s more delicate side. This time world with), they were able to return to the around, they’ve pushed themselves to more organic sound of traditional tube experiment with ever-more-challenging amplifiers and single purpose stomp boxes. rhythms and arrangements, pushing the drums-and-bass section closer to the fore- “The rawer guitar tones really play a big part front, navigating twisting time signatures in the overall sound; the new album is more beneath blasts of discordant riffage. It’ll vibrant and intense as a result,” Kinsella says. be familiar enough territory for long-time “I don’t think the material would have turned listeners, but with some added aggression. out the same if we had continued to use digThat extra edge is a by-product of diffi- ital amp modeling equipment. The breakup cult circumstances. Fueled in part by the in the noise-laden sections would not have frustration of cancelled tours (including been possible.” 💣

THE ATMOSPHERE OF URGENCY AND ABRASION

HIRAKI INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/ SYNTH PLAYER JON GOTLEV, GUITARIST TUE SCHMIDT RASMUSSEN, AND DRUMMER TIM FREDERIKSEN BY CALEB R. NEWTON

There’s a real urgency in Hiraki’s sometimes-gruelingly-forceful sound which reflects the urgency of its creation.

thing, is like—of course that’s how we have to do it,” Gotlev says. “That’s how this song came to be, and the whole essence of the song as well. It just boiled down to that, and with her screaming that, it’s so perfect, and we’re so happy that we got her to do that.”

“It was never really a question, whether to do this or not,” as Schmidt Rasmussen puts it. “It was just—let’s just go full speed.”

Drummer and backing vocalist Tim Frederiksen agrees, saying “it’s so crazy” that Drolshagen ended up featuring on the song.

think we sort of embraced the challenge of having to find our own way in this.”

Besides stylistic inspirations from groups like The Body, Hiraki explain that they also took a cue from their manner of working.

he Danish trio Hiraki pack thunderous, synth punk into their “They inspire us in the sense that they do hard-hitting, new album Stum- their shit like they want to do their shit, and that gives us the feeling of, ‘Of course we bling Through The Walls, an April release can do that as well,’” vocalist and synth from Nefarious Industries. The album’s artist Jon Gotlev explains. contorting, relentlessly driving rhythms feel jarring, like fiery, psychological unease. “Common Fear,” which opens the album, features a guest spot from vocalist Cara Hiraki expertly interweave punk abrasion Drolshagen of the cutting-edge, Detroit, with disorienting synths, and the group’s hardcore collective The Armed. venomous onslaught could be compared to groups like avant-garde, metal powerhouse “We’re fanboys, all of us—really, we are,” The Body, who Hiraki cite as an inspiration. Schmidt Rasmussen says of The Armed, explaining that they first connected with the band “You’ve got to be somewhat nerdy to dig into when Hiraki got the opportunity through a “suthat stuff,” guitarist Tue Schmidt Rasmussen per proactive” booking agent to play a couple observes, discussing their influences. “We of shows with the group in Europe. took some time to really dig into, ‘What is our place in this?’ The good thing about Gotlev says that Drolshagen—who was “so those bands is, it’s almost impossible to fucking game on it”— recorded her performake a copy. That gives the advantage that mance in her car, and he connects the exwe’re somewhat forced to find our own way perience to the ideas underlying the music. in this, and even though it would be easier sometimes to just say, ‘OK, let’s all sound like whatever,’ it’s an ongoing challenge, and I “That’s probably the essence of this whole

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lives, and what’s happening in the whole world,” Gotlev says. “It’s not songs about partying or going to town—it’s about individuals. It’s about being a human and having a place in this world, and how you can change that, or how you find yourself being a part of this world.” That journey can be arduous.

“The whole album is actually both saying that we’re going towards the whole fascist empire, but also kind of questioning our place in the world and what we actually do,” Gotlev adds. “Do we do enough? Are we too narcissistic? It’s kind of the mix of “A lot of times, when we meet, it’s us three in, wanting to do something and the queslike, a therapy group discussing our lives, tions of: are we doing enough, or are we actually doing the right thing?” 💣 but also what’s happening outside our On a more personal note, the music of Hiraki deals thematically with the clash between personal drives for fulfillment and grim realities.

PHOTO Peter Drastrup

THE ATMOSPHERE OF FIELD RECORDINGS AND TAPE LOOPS TO EXPRESS THE CYCLES OF NATURE

AMULETS

PHOTO Qu

back; they’re very memory-triggering,” Taylor says. “I do think there’s a lot of beauty in capturing You are privy to a movement here, a real-world sound and then crea collection enveloped within an ating my own world around it, and ever-changing construct. having this, like, blend of reality, my hyper-reality, or my generat“It starts off in a very aggressive ed emotional reality, that I create.” way,” Taylor notes. “But, it does develop into a literal blooming into The looping of Taylor’s cassette something more beautiful, into tapes mirrors the cyclical nature something that is more serene of the universe, Earth’s revolution and scenic.” around the sun, the blooming of flowers every spring. Even through “Blooming,” the song, extends into a global pandemic (Blooming was “The New Normal,” and then five written and recorded this past more compositions that fuse field year), there was always the sun’s recordings, tape loops, and guitar ecstasy shining through. sounds into a cacophony that is a direct interpretation of the “When I first started to create it, I natural state (both mental and remember thinking it was a darker physical) around us. The music album,” Taylor explains. “Like, it was of Amulets causes some serious more of a pessimistic album, like this revisiting of the past. sucks; everything sucks. I couldn’t see people, and I remember going “I think a field recording, those for daily walks to clear my mind. It types of sound, like smells, you was beautiful out; spring in Porthear them, and they take you land is amazing, and I remember

INTERVIEW WITH PROJECT MASTERMIND RANDALL TAYLOR BY CHRISTOPHER J. HARRINGTON

et against the backdrop of nature’s vague and heightened beauty, Amulets’ newest record, Blooming, out April 2 via The Flenser, opens with a darkened guitar riff that transfixes and then blends naturally. It haunts, frightens, and then becomes one with the perpetual growth, the ongoing experience of an Amulets recording.

“I wanted to start this record off with a jolt,” Randall Taylor, the mastermind behind the one-man, art-and-sound project, relays. “I think, to start the record off like that, it’s a jarring thing, and people are going to be like, ‘What the fuck,’ or, ‘I’m curious.’” The aftershock of the riff is minimal, as the album swallows its forcefulness and layers it out over an eternal transmission of form.

walking around and feeling the positivity of growth in that, everything around me being so bright. Simultaneously, the world was so dark at the same time, and there was this juxtaposition of real beauty and darkness; it was both uplifting and a reality-check. There is an end, but things are cyclical and seasonal, and you go through the bad shit, and you go through darker times; you go through winter, but with that, there will be a nicer time; there will be a spring, and there will be a blooming, eventually.” 💣💣💣

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THE ATMOSPHERE OF CHURCH-FUELED, SOUTHERN-GOTHIC EXISTENTIALISM STEEPED IN CLASSIC ROCK ‘N’ ROLL

PHOTO Mishael Phillip

ÅRABROT

INTERVIEW WITH PIANIST/VOCALIST KARIN “DARK DIVA” PARK, AND GUITARIST/VOCALIST KJETIL “TALL MAN” NERNES BY ADDISON HERRON-WHEELER

rabrot have always been a band who take bold chances when it comes to their sound, but their latest record, Norweigan Gothic, out April 9 via Pelagic Records, is a truly unique collaboration. The result of the romantic and musical pairing between Karin “Dark Diva” Park, pianist and vocalist, and Kjetil “Tall Man” Nernes, guitarist and vocalist, the record taps into something new and creatively refreshed.

their lives to music together, Årabrot are in a unique space when it comes to getting creative.

“Up until now, I’ve been by myself for some time with the band,” Nernes says about the new partnership. “Even though there have been many people contributing, I’ve run the whole business and the whole band, and I’ve written all the songs, but this time around, she is much more a part of it. And that’s a nice change for me.”

“I was inspired by the classics, like Iggy Pop and The Stooges, stuff like that; I had that kind of thing in mind,” Nernes says. “That’s where it started, and then it developed through the years, and I’m really happy with the way it turned out.”

“It’s a nice change for me, too, because we met three years ago, and we’ve run our projects separately since then, but gradually, we’ve been gravitating toward each other musically,” Park echoes. “We’ve been sort of merging our careers more and more, and it’s been a long process, but now it feels like a team.” Living together as a family in a gorgeous, rural church building, and dedicating

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Nernes is always creating and looking forward when it comes to Årabrot. He started writing the songs for this record right after the last record wrapped up, and then started working on the lyrics and putting the whole thing together. The vibe of Norweigan Gothic is inspired by rock ’n’ roll classics.

Lyrically speaking, the album isn’t a concept record, but it does incorporate many of the ideas that the band have been focusing on. “There’s a little bit of a Cormac McCarthy, Southern Gothic kind of feel, and I was even reading some German philosophers during the writing process, so that kind of seeped in, consciously and subconsciously,” Nernes says. “I think this record kind of mirrors the records we have here in the church, and the books we have on the bookshelves. It is kind of a mishmash of rock ’n’ roll records, surrealism, and the late 19th century, decadent literature, with maybe a little German philosophy and occultism mixed in.” 💣💣💣

THE ATMOSPHERE OF BLOOD SOAKED, GOTHIC SURF GUITAR

NAT JAMES RUFUS INTERVIEW BY NICHOLAS SENIOR

The opportunity to try something different is something most of us have become familiar with over the past year, unfortunately. For most of us, that involved picking up a new hobby or learning a new skill. For others, like me, it involved a shit-tonA of reading and doom-scrolling Twitter (do not recommend that one). For Nashville artist Nat James Rufus (The Bad Signs, Blacklist Royals), he had the chance to try something completely different than his other bands. His self-released EP, Goes Solow, which is out now, is a surprisingly wonderful foray into surf rock. What immediately hit me with this record is how immersive and visual it is. That goth-y darkness from The Bad Signs is still there,

but it’s more playful, with almost a controlled chaos. Visually, I picture the vampire western A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, set in Venice Beach instead of Iran. What were some of Rufus’ inspirations for this record?

“With new musical projects, I tend to work backward,” he says. “I see a scene in a film or a photograph that sticks with me, then write songs for that ‘world.’ From there, I try to pull from opposite ends of my spectrum of influences, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is a perfect example. Vampires + spaghetti western = something new. With my solo project, visually, I had in mind Poison Ivy from The Cramps with Medusa snakes in her hair, Samhain covered in blood. I really just wanted an excuse to paint my face and go crazy.”

THE ATMOSPHERE OF FRAGILITY IN HEAVINESS AND THE EBB AND FLOW OF THE SUBCONSCIOUS PHOTO Mishael Phillip

B I G | B R A V E INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST/VOCALIST ROBIN WATTIE BY CALEB R. NEWTON

ITAL, the fifth, full-length album “The lyrics paired with music quite gale-force guitars, feels pro- fragility and dynamics in composifrom the Montreal post-metal unintentionally yet perfectly,” Wat- nouncedly poignant. For this latest tion, and ebb and flow into and out trio BIG|BRAVE, packs trance- tie observes. “It came down to what effort, Wattie and founding guitarist of that heaviness, almost subconlike waves of musical tension. sounded best with the melody and Mathieu Ball created with drummer sciously. But the sounds that speak phrasing I had loosely drafted. With Tasy Hudson, who joined up with the to us the most are often indeed The sonically majestic record, an that said, if the songs were solely group after the release of their 2019 loud, heavy, and gritty. There is April release from Southern Lord instrumental, I believe they would effort, A Gaze Among Them. simply something about amplitude Recordings, thematically explores still emote. It is when vocals are and gain that feels right and approliving through present-day racism, mixed in where most listeners hear “With every album, we branch off priate when trying to express our as reflected by lead single “Half the emotions best.” from where we started and explore,” outlook on the world.” Breed.” On that song, vocalist the group explain. “But, we always and guitarist Robin Wattie uses a Although the music’s landscape return to our original, austere The group hope that “listeners find passage from Alexander Chee’s feels sparse, the melodies are soundscapes and primordial song whatever they can in this album,” 2018 book, How to Write an Au- powerful. structures, all while experimenting although they add that there’s tobiographical Novel, for lyrics, with what our instruments are ca- certainly a foundational level of exploring life as a mixed-race “Sonically, we made a concerted pable of in relation to space, air, catharsis. individual between “the ruling class” effort in keeping it as bleak and and amplification.” and “those who are ruled.” bare as possible,” the band add. “It “There is definitely a level of catharis easy to get caught up in adding Across VITAL, BIG|BRAVE utilize sis in the music. Especially when The instrumentals across VITAL more, as we are surrounded by fast- richly compelling dynamics, from played live, as there are certain starkly support the weight of Wat- paced lifestyles and an assault of the tensely repetitious riffing on things that we’ve found that can tie’s words. “Of This Ilk” and the title sound. Just because you can add album opener, “Abating the In- only be expressed sonically. But, we track, which together close the five- more, doesn’t necessarily mean the carnation of Matter,” to the more also play with tension quite a bit. song record, feature bouts of par- songs need more. It is an exercise spaced-out hits of “Half Breed.” Now that shows are not a thing for ticularly brisk instrumentation, but in restraint, and to slow down our Even in its slowest moments, VITAL the moment, the three of us often most of the music sticks to a slower pace, our own breath. It is an exer- feels jarringly resolute. talk about how much we can’t wait tempo that feels resoundingly gran- cise in active listening in what each to play this new record live, to physidiose. The songs feel immersive song requires to feel whole.” “As much as we love heavy music, cally express what it is we’ve worked and forceful, like venturing across we do not necessarily strive to on. Without the possibility to play a wind-swept, metaphysical plain Every element of the music, from create heavy music specifically,” live, to release, this tension is now with little but an inward light. the thunder-crack drums to the BIG|BRAVE explain. “We play with greater than ever.” 💣💣💣

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THE ATMOSPHERE OF RAIN-SOAKED, HAZY DILAPIDATION PHOTO Mishael Phillip

ICEAGE

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST ELIAS BENDER RØNNENFELT BY OWEN MORAWITZ

et’s get one thing out of the way real quick: Seek Shelter, the newest LP from Danish, post-punk rockers Iceage, is not a pandemic record. Speaking to vocalist and guitarist Elias Bender Rønnenfelt through a hastily patched Zoom connection, it’s clear that any reference such an eerily prophetic title might have to the last 12 months of collective, global trauma is purely coincidental.

“As a title, it wasn’t supposed to be an analogy for any one thing,” says the affable and softly spoken frontman. “I just felt like there was a thing weaving through the songs, that they were all in some sort of nasty weather, figuratively speaking. There was [something] in them that was longing for haven, for redemption, for a safety that they perhaps didn’t have.”

Rønnenfelt isn’t just waxing figurative about the weather, though. In all the ways that objects (or people) can be viewed as the product of their environment, Seek Shelter—the band’s fifth full-length album and first for new label Mexican Summer—is no exception. “We were there for 12 days, and I think it was raining for ten of them,” says Rønnenfelt of Namouche, the dilapidated, wood-panelled, vintage studio in Lisbon, Portugal, where the band decamped to record the album in late 2019. “The rain was coming down from the ceiling in such a way that at some points, we had to have buckets on the floor to catch the raindrops. It was quite unkempt. It felt a bit haunted, a bit cracked. There [was] a lot

of atmosphere in the way that it hadn’t been that well attended to. A lot of things didn’t work.” While such a location might sound less than ideal for a new, creative project, Rønnenfelt is quick to add that the experience was an overwhelmingly positive one. “I’m not slagging the studio; it’s quite fantastic in that way,” explains the frontman. “You can smoke in there, which is a rare thing these days. And there was an all-round great guy that owns the studio who also helped along with the smoke—like two, three packs of Marlboro cigarettes a day in the little mixing room. So, there was this haze of nicotine in the air. Maybe that paints a picture?”

Indeed, it does. Listening to Seek Shelter, the impressions conjured up are both vivid and abstract. Lead single “Vendetta” spins up a woozy, lethargic groove worthy of The Bad Seeds at their best, with lyrical detours into street-side drug dens and cut-throat economics. The jazz-inspired “Drink Rain” and harmonica-inflected “Gold City” appear to be crafted with the dank corners of a dimly lit lounge bar in mind. Elsewhere, bright horn sections complement the forlorn rhythms of “Dear Saint Cecilia,” evoking the patron saint of music and poetry, and the somber “Love Kills Slowly” makes full use of a gospel choir collective. Mystical closer “The Holding Hand” pitches Rønnenfelt’s intoxicating incantations against a sprawling, sonic palette populated by unsettling violins, electronic glitches, and eerie melodies. Alongside long-time collaborator Nis Bysted, Seek Shelter also marks the first time Iceage have enlisted the services of an outside producer, recruiting the talents of Sonic Boom (aka Pete Kember of Spacemen 3, who had previously expressed his desire to produce for the band in an interview). Rønnenfelt describes Kember’s presence as a necessary desire. “We didn’t need anybody to go and tell us what to do or to rearrange the song writing itself. We needed a sparring partner who had ideas,” he says. “[Kember] just came in with a truckload of strange pedals and equipment, and machinery, and guitars. It was all very natural and loose. He would jump in with an idea for a sound, or we could talk with him about it. You know, especially for me, not being very technically minded, I usually speak of sounds in a sort of imagery, and he could very much pick up on that. Like, if you need your guitar to sound like a car crash here, he knew what we were talking about. So, yeah, it was just a very free-flowing experience.” 💣💣💣

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PHOTO Guillermo Briceño GRAPHIC ART Kevin Moore

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST DIAMOND ROWE AND VOCALIST/GUITARIST JOSH FORE BY NICHOLAS SENIOR

eorgia’s Tetrarch are one of the buzziest hard rock/metal bands around right now for good reason. Their Napalm Records debut, Unstable, out

April 30, will unfairly be labeled nu-metal and missed out by many. No, this is a band like Slipknot, Metallica, and even Korn who has the potential for serious longev-

NEW NOISE

PHOTO Guillermo Briceño GRAPHIC ART Kevin Moore

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ity because the songs feel timeless and immediate. It’s impossible to not be hooked in by the giddy dichotomy of heavy melody that Tetrarch have nailed already on album number two. It’s funny then that the band might not have happened if vocalist and guitarist Josh Fore weren’t a little more open-minded in middle school, as guitarist Diamond Rowe tells it: “We met when we were at seventh grade when I started at his school. Our school was small. There was 75 people in our grade or something. It’s one of the things where you just knew everybody at the school. And if you didn’t know them personally, you could eventually bump into them. So, I knew he was the

Rowe says. “It was nothing that I ever paid attention to or set out to do. For me, growing up, my favorite “[Laughs] Very rarely now, guitar players were guys but it’s definitely fun to like Slash and Kirk Hammett, just like white kids with long tease him about it.” hair. That’s what I wanted to The pair bonded over be. Well, I definitely wantwatching live DVDs of Me- ed to be like Kirk Hammett tallica shows and wanting [laughs]. to do that someday. That thrash background is to- “No part of me ever thought tally evident in these are- like, ‘Oh, you’re the Afrina-ready songs, that sense can- American female. This that Tetrarch may be an is going to be different,’ or influence one day on others anything like that,” Rowe continues. “Until we start(more on that later). ed growing, people would “We’ll never be the heaviest always tell me like, ‘You’re band in the world,” Rowe doing something really difinsists. “We’ll never be the ferent.’ They see someone most melodic band in the that looks like them, or they world. I think the fact that see someone that looks difwe walked that line, it has ferent that they don’t usually been really beneficial for us, see and they’re like, ‘Wow, and it was very genuine and let me check out the music his band at first because you were a girl? How many times has “I told you so!” come up?

“No part of me ever thought like, ‘Oh, you’re the African American female. This is going to be different,’ or anything like that,.” natural. We did write the music that we love, and we grew up loving those bands that seem to transcend time because of their good song writing abilities. So, that’s probably where it came It didn’t work out well initial- from too as well.” ly, as Fore notes: That sense of purpose and “I can remember Diamond influence on future genergetting her guitar, and it was ations may pay it forward like that [B.C. Rich] Warlock. for Tetrarch, as Rowe gets Then bringing that to school, to carry the flag for women– we were jamming together, especially women of color– and we started becoming who feel underrepresented friends. But for some reason, in heavy circles as more than I don’t know why, it felt stu- just a vocalist. The concept pid. I was like, ‘I don’t want of having to be a source of a girl in the band.’ And lit- identity and representation erally, within 30 seconds [of wasn’t something that Rowe hearing her play] I was like, initially considered, though ‘Yeah, this is amazing.’ And she is eager to see positive change in the future. I’m so glad now, obviously.” only person that played guitar in remotely the same style that I was interested in. When I started getting into that kind of music, I started trying to befriend him.”

that’s being made by this person and their band.’ I’m really proud to represent, and lead the charge, and everything like that. But it was like I said, a great natural progression. It wasn’t something that I set out to do. It was just, I love heavy music so much. I love playing guitar, and I love performing and playing music with Josh and the band, and it just naturally happened.” With a breakout-worthy album ready for release and a chance at touring later this year (God/Satan willing), Tetrarch really do have all the talent and tools to be the next big heavy metal band. 💣💣💣

Does Diamond bring up the “What is really cool about it fact that he didn’t let you in was just how natural it was,”

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THE ARMED PHOTO Aaron Jones

PHOTO Aaron Jones

WHO IS DAN GREENE? PHOTO Luke Awtr y

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PHOT Aaron Jo O nes

PHOTO Matt Howes

PHOT Aaron Jo O nes

Mystique tends to encircle the Detroit hardcore collective known as The Armed, but that’s not the only draw. ULTRAPOP—the latest record from the collective—feels frenzied, but it also features slick, catchy grooves.

NEW NOISE

Led by the omnipotent Dan Greene, the group’s music— including their latest fulllength album, ULTRAPOP, an April release from Sargent House—lands like little else. The Armed mash galloping hardcore together with disorienting blasts

ADAM

of pop, crafting a sound

GUITARIST + VOCALIST

that feels like a blissfully delirium-inducing carnival ride that just doesn’t stop. Though this album is supposed to reveal the members of this mysterious cabal, the more one tries to sift through the truth and misdirection, the less clear it all becomes. Like a colorful Rubik’s cube, the more you twist and examine, the more convoluted it becomes. Are we creating more questions than answers? Perhaps. But the only answer that is really needed to be found is how an album can be this good. REFRACT! 💣

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any writers have tried to crack cious about anything throughout the “The Armed Code.” They spec- entire process. It’s more so just how ulate one who is in the band, the creative seems to work for us.” what is the intent behind it, and how it operates, among many other “Lyrically, sometimes, Dan [Greene, guiquestions. Well, Adam Vallely is tar] for example will sing an entire song here to shed a little light on how the on a demo and send it to me or Jonni band functions, and his role in the or Clark and ask us to write what we functioning of said band. think he’s saying. So, then it becomes this sort of game of telephone. Then “The Armed is a large collaborative ef- we’ll utilize what comes out of that and fort between many people,” he says. integrate it into a more focused, more “And the vast majority of them are intentional narrative. So yeah, it’s sorta multi-instrumentalists. So, there’s sort just very different track by track! Some of a wildly different approach, and songs are almost front-to-back one drastically different personnel, from person. And plenty others have the fintrack to track. That said, I sang a gerprints of like 16 people. Whatever majority of the vocals on this album— services the end product best.” along with Jonni [Randall, bass and vocals] and Cara [Drolshagen, vo- The fruits of this collective’s unique cals and lyrics]. I wrote some of the approach to creating, is, well, the songs. I played guitar and synth on a creation of unique music, as new few of the takes that made the album. album ULTRAPOP sounds like nothA little bit of everything.” ing else you’re likely to hear all year. Its mixture of sunny pop and In fact, everybody involved with in noisy hardcore might be jarring to The Armed plays a part in the cre- some, but to others it will be manna ation of their music. from the gods. It’s as if they took the pop flirtations of their previ“It’s definitely a group effort,” Vallely ous album, 2018’s Only Love, and explains. “Even lyrics for specific pushed them completely to the tracks are often shared and col- forefront, to create the glorious, laborated upon between numerous musical mutant that is ULTRAPOP. people. But it’s not at all some sort of “committee think” type of approach. “I think we try and look at our output We’re not trying to make everyone as one holistic project happening happy or appeal to everyone’s egos. over time,” Vallely says. “Dan has Much the opposite, no one is too pre- been adamant about this ap-

PHOTOGRAPHY Aaron Jones

way to produce the end-result—which is the greatest music on earth.

VALLELY BY THOMAS PIZZOLA

proach. About ‘earning’ what comes next. And about expanding territory in a way that retains novelty and individual point of view. I think ULTRAPOP is definitely built on the foundation of Only Love. But it’s almost like Only Love was the experiment, and ULTRAPOP is the full realization of a theory, in some way. Only Love used pop vocabulary and sensibilities juxtaposed on a hardcore album. ULTRAPOP uses hardcore vocabulary over a pop framework. It sounds like a small, perhaps bullshit thing to say. But it is, in my assessment, a super important distinction between the two.”

people. Sometimes, some of those people write music. Then sometimes, different people end up performing it on the record. Then, a different configuration of people will play that song live. It’s not supposed to be the conspiracy it ended up being. It’s just not a very typical arrangement for what most people think of when they think of a ‘band.’”

One also can’t mention The Armed without talking about the many theories behind who is in the band, who is behind the band, and what their intent is. As stated in the opening paragraph, many people have tried to crack “The Armed Code,” and have only come up with more questions. Maybe the point “So, the focus, first and foremost, is isn’t to crack anything, but to enjoy always on the art. But the art, to us, the glorious, bonkers, and unique is everything. The music. The visuals. music they put out. The way it’s delivered. And how much you understand about how it At least that’s Vallely thinks. For this was created.” part, he’s doing his best to “demystify” the mystery of The Armed. He’ll “Maybe we’re not trying to ‘mess with set you straight. you’ so much as we’re challenging you to question why you care about “I think the ironic thing is that initially, certain things,” Vallely says. “Why is the idea of anonymity was supposed authorship important to the media to completely remove the consider- you consume? Why is authenticity ation of membership for the audi- integral to your enjoyment of a ence,” he says. “And what it ended product? Would we be less good, or up doing was inadvertently creating would the art be less valid, if all of a “mystery” that people seemed to this was paid for by Coca-Cola?” think should be solved.” “Enjoy Coke. Enjoy confusion. Long live “But the mystery wasn’t, and isn’t, sup- The Armed,” he finishes. posed to be solved,” he continues. “The Armed is a big group of a lot of Amen! 💣

the needle with some contribution toward novelty of thought and creativity in a space that is woefully stagnant most of the time.” One can’t talk about The Armed and not discuss their unique take on membership. Many people make up The Armed, some are more visible than others. Regardless, of who is in the band, this fluid approach to membership leads to a unique experience for all involved. It informs to their approach to music. They are not a traditional hardcore band, making music that doesn’t sound like a traditional hardcore band. It leads to a sound all their own.

ULTRAPOP will definitely get people They wouldn’t have it any other way. talking. Some might be turned off by the odd juxtaposition of sounds, “I think, overall, it leads to a thoroughly but others will be likely enthralled. unique end-product that couldn’t Either way, it will get people talking. exist any other way. A giant, formless It’s The Armed’s intent to create a collaborative leads to plenty of lopiece of music that will get a reac- gistic challenges, as I’m sure you can tion from the listening public, good imagine. But it also opens us up to so or bad. Or more than likely, both. much more creativity. It opens doors to more collaborators. For every neg“We wanted to rustle some feath- ative, there are two or three positives, I ers,” Vallely says. “We wanted to think. It also leads to this strange kinconfront the importance of au- ship in the group. A weird familial, milthenticity and authorship in art. We itaristic vibe where ego is sacrificed to wanted to confront the value sets the greater good. The Armed is not a people use to measure the validity band of best friends. But in another of music. Most importantly, we just way, there’s this incredibly deep bond, wanted to challenge people in an because it’s such a unique experiunexpected way. To try and move ence. Again, overall, I think it’s the only

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CARA DROLSHAGEN

VOCALIST

BY THOMAS PIZZOLA

PHOTOGRAPHY Aaron Jones

he Armed aim to upend the con- ly surprise and delight, as well as Drolshagen contributed to the new ventions of extreme music with confuse many listeners. Its mixture of album in a variety of ways. In fact, every album they release. On their pop music with extreme music makes her fingerprints, or shall we say voice new album, ULTRAPOP, which is out it one of the most unique sounding prints, are on almost every song. now on Sargent House, they manage records released this year. It will defito do that, by mixing sunny pop music nitely ruffle a few feathers. “I wrote lyrics and sang in some cawith noisy metallic hardcore to cre- But that’s the point. pacity on every song,” she says. ate a mutant sound unlike anything likely to be heard this year. “We’re trying to rid the playing field In addition, ULTRAPOP was created of expectations,” Drolshagen says. and produced in a variety of loIt’s their way of challenging the status “As far as an artform is considered, cations, which just fits the unique quo in loud rock. music in particular is filled with pre- approach The Armed take towards dictability. Standards to be followed. creating music. “What is supposed to be a subver- We wanna keep people on their feet. sive genre—aggressive, hardcore, When you become aware of the pat- “[It was recorded] pre-pandemic,” extreme music—has turned into a terns, you can break them. That’s what Drolshagen says. “All over the globe. complete caricature of itself,” vocal- we set out to do.” I was living in NYC at the time, and ist and lyricist Cara Drolshagen says. when I couldn’t make it to Detroit, I “We wanted to confront that.” To that effect, the band enlisted noted would go to Rivington Music in the producer Ben Chisholm (Chelsea East Village, scream in the basement, In fact, they started down this road Wolfe) for this album. For past releases, and send tracks to the guys in Detroit. with their previous album, 2018’s Kurt Ballou was the main producer. The first sessions were recorded at critically acclaimed release, Only Love. This time, the band decided to change Electrical Audio in Chicago. Some of ULTRAPOP sees the band taking themes it up a little bit, though Ballou still had a it was recorded in a variety of hotels explored on that previous album and part in the album’s creation. and places we stayed on our last pushing them to the forefront, creating European festival tour, which had a another unique listening experience. “Kurt is still very much the executive giant week-long gap between shows. producer of this album,” Drolshagen And then some of it was recorded at “It’s an exploration of a different says. “So, that hasn’t changed. As for God City as well.” pattern, and the intent of breaking it,” Ben, he’s a genius who understands Drolshagen says. the math behind the music, and the The album also contains a variety opportunity to reconfigure its numbers of guest performers, including Mark ULTRAPOP is an album that will equal- in new ways, to find different solutions.” Lanegan, and Queens Of The Stone

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Age guitarist and multi-intstrumentalist Troy Van Leeuwen, among others. Though, given the fluid nature of membership in the band, Drolshagen doesn’t necessarily look at these performers as “guests.” They’re part of the collective now. “We are all The Armed ⋈,” Drolshagen says. It’s interesting to note Drolshagen’s answer, because, since their inception, the band has operated under a shadow of mystery. People didn’t know who was really in the band and who wasn’t, which led to a lot of speculation and theories online. Judging by the above answer, anybody who performs with the band is now part of the band. The Armed are many different people—though Drolshagen has a more down to earth explanation for all these questions and crazy theories. “It’s weird, the more direct we are about who’s in the band, the more people think we are lying,” she says. “I remember when I joined, everyone kind of laughed and thought it was a joke, but I’m actually very much who I ‘claim’ to be.” 💣

CLARK H

PHY PHOTOGRA nes Aaron Jo

SYN T

HES

UGE

IZER

I K S R A L O T S N DA GUITAR

LS + VOCA

CHRIS SLORACH ITAR VOCALS + GU

PHOTO Matt Howes

DAN GREENE

VOCALS GUITAR +

NEW NOISE

PHOTOGRAPHY Aaron Jones

JONNI RANDALL VOCALIST + BASSIST

Love, and now, to a greater extent, ULTRAPOP, we really forced ourselves to break songs down to their most basic levels before even considering a larger arrangement. Keeping things simple, paired with an unwillingness to move forward with something until it was exactly what we wanted, kind of became the ULTRAPOP mindset.”

ith their relentlessly unpredictable music, The Armed sound like a frenzied embrace of being alive. Their creations rattle on par with a neon-colored firestorm, with songs that are so thickly interwoven that they seem like two—and maybe even three! —bands playing at once. None of the elements of the ULTRAPOP sound feel tempered down. “I think a lot of the concept behind ULTRAPOP confronts the ways people have to justify their appreciation of certain media,” vocalist and bassist Jonni Randall observes. “People have to say something they really love is a ‘guilty pleasure,’ because certain things are corny or are perceived as less ‘authentic’ in some capacity than something else. Amongst other things, at its core, ULTRAPOP is sort of a reaction to this.” Within the electrifying instrumentals, there’s a crystal-clear forward-moving rush, but the songs still come across as a dizzyingly intricate musical tapestry. Ultimately, The Armed feel pummeling—but diving into ULTRAPOP also feels like entering a sweat-soaked dance party. “It sounds fucked up to say now, but we really wanted simplicity to be at

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the foundation of the aesthetic form of ULTRAPOP” Randall explains. “The idea that everything needed to be distilled down to its most potent form was really important to us. In the past, working a song out with the entire arrangement in mind has worked well for us. But starting with [2018’s] Only

think our records, ULTRAPOP included, still convey that love. Pop music just seems to come with less preconceptions of what’s acceptable to the greater audience. So, with ULTRAPOP we are more set on creating new spaces within or outside our genre that are heavily influenced by a pop sensibility.”

Randall observes that ULTRAPOP, The Armed began amplifying the while ferocious, is “mixed like a pop poppy element of their sound on record” –all of the elements really, Only Love. That album kicks off with well, pop. the scorching single “Witness,” interweaving meteoric riffing with a tidal “For ULTRAPOP, we really wanted to wave of poppy noise, and those vibes take the maximalism we found in the extend across ULTRAPOP mix for Only Love and refine it through a broader, more separated mix,” he Randall is fond of the open-minded- explains. “We wanted the bombast of ness within pop music, he explains, hardcore mixed like a pop record— although he notes that The Armed while still retaining that harsh underalso remain attached to aggressively current. I think it’s allowed this record heavy music. to sound really tough, while leaving the necessary bandwidth for the more “To be honest, the thing I like best unbridled beautiful sections.” about pop music is how truly broad its definition is,” he shares. “Pop mu- There’s definitely a shimmering sic, especially today, allows artists thread of beauty within ULTRAPOP Exto explore a larger range of sounds, plaining that The Armed “wanted to styles, and attitudes, and I find that make shit ferocious only if it needed really attractive. People seem to think to be,” Randall adds: “We wanted that we are dead set on obliterating to make a record that felt like it was our genre. I think I can speak for not at war with itself or with anyone’s everyone and say that we love heavy, expectations. We are super grateful aggressive music. It’s what brought for our past, but we didn’t want to be us all together in the first place, and I beholden to it.” 💣

URIAN HACKNEY

DRUMMER

LTRAPOP is ferocious, and part of that intoxicating frenzy comes from drummer Urian Hackney, who ordinarily performs as part of the rock band Rough Francis but recorded with The Armed for this new full-length effort.

free jazz legend Ornette Coleman and rock luminaries The Stooges, among others.

BY CALEB R. NEWTON

ULTRAPOP doesn’t feel totally disconnected from these points of reference—it feels instead like a musical kaleidoscope, spreading out an exhilarating experience like dancing on a rickety rooftop.

Ultimately, the record, which is an April release from Sargent House, feels explosive, like watching a riverside fireworks show on repeat “It’s pretty insane stuff to play,” Hackfrom the vantage point of one of ney says. “We had a short time to the soaring shells. The Armed blend record so as much as I wanted to brash pop with steamrolling hard- throw my drums across the studio core, crafting an invigorating musical and scream, I had to really stick to freak-out that feels exhaustedly lively. the program and charge through It’s absolutely pulverizing, but at it. My strategy and saving grace for times, it’s also strangely catchy and getting through the session was drinkdanceable, sparking a sense of a ing garlic tea first thing in the AM. It kind of gleefully adventurous reverie. oxygenates your blood, so it helps with blood flow, it’s anti-inflammato“I feel like it’s important to breathe new ry, and it’s hydrating. All good things PHOTOGRAPHY Luke Awtry

life into heavy music, because every- for intense sessions. GodCity smelled latter suffered an elbow injury. More The Armed, who haven’t always one has their staple record they can horrendous after the tracking, but I recently, Hackney shares that his been forthcoming about who’s acconnect to a certain genre, whereas think the takes came out alright!” part of the recording process for tually involved in the project, also this one doesn’t necessarily fall into ULTRAPOP—which involved Converge feature singer-songwriter Mark a definitive category,” Hackney Hackney originally connected with guitarist Kurt Ballou’s GodCity Stu- Lanegan and Queens of the Stone shares. “Yes, you can pinpoint certain The Armed via a family member, dio—went pretty smoothly. Age guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen on derivatives from certain bands or Horrace Wallace, who went to high ULTRAPOP. songs in the music, but looking at the school with the group’s Dan Greene “It was relatively normal… kinda,” record as a whole, I feel like it’s pretty and even played in a punk band with Hackney says. “[Dan Greene] told “Since Ben [Koller], Chris [Pennie], unique. My goal as a drummer is to the eventual member of The Armed me beforehand that it would just and Nick [Yacyshyn] played on the convey my influences throughout the when they were both in their early be me, Adam Vallely, Kurt, and previous records, I definitely had nuances of my playing, and while I’m teens, according to the drummer. [recording engineer] Zach [Weeks]. all of their styles in mind,” Hackney playing heavy music, almost none of I’m already good friends with Kurt adds. “But specifically, Mel Gaynor the foundation of my musical influ- “Dan reached out to Horrace be- and no stranger to GodCity, so I still from Simple Minds was the influence is heavy music.” cause he knew we were relatives, and felt like I was on home turf. The one ential compass in my approach to he heard I filled in for Converge and kinda weird thing about the ordeal ULTRAPOP.” Lately, Hackney has been listening was interested in having me be a part was I had to sign a bunch of NDAs to artists like jazz pianists Charles of the new record,” Hackney shares. before the session. Also, after the With so many layers, ULTRAPOP feels Mingus and Ahmad Jamal alongside fact, I found out that Ben had actu- like it could be picked apart for European avant-garde pop group Hackney filled in for Ben Koller in ally recorded the whole record al- days on end. 💣 Stereolab, he shares, also naming Converge back in 2019 after the ready, so I felt a little weird about it.”

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PHOTO Luke A

wtry

PHOTOGRAPH Y Aaron Jone s

60 NEW NOISE

BEN KOLLER TROY VAN LEEUWEN GUEST GUITARIST

DRUMMER

BY CALEB R. NEWTON

rom his longtime part of the Mas- ney, who ordinarily performs as sachusetts metallic hardcore part of the rock group Rough Frantrailblazers Converge, to his roles cis, but filled in for Koller himself in in the heavy rock group Mutoid 2019 after the longtime Converge Man and the crust punk crew All drummer suffered an elbow injury. Pigs Must Die, drummer Ben Koller is prolific. After recording for the 2018, “The songs are always off the wall, full-length album Only Love from and they always want lots of energy, the ambitious Detroit hardcore so I suppose that’s the guiding light,” crew known as The Armed, Koller Koller shares. “However, that energy returns for their latest full-length kind of got sucked out of the room as Dan [Greene] kept showing me effort, ULTRAPOP. YouTube clips of Urian Hackney The Armed carry a sound that, while filling in for me with Converge recognizably connected to heavy and telling me to ‘play more like music traditions, feels entirely their that.’ Dan’s an incredibly awkward own. Carrying on with ideas that guy, and I thought for sure he was they first explored in detail on Only playing around at first. But, he literLove, this latest album combines ally kept saying ‘Urian is the future.’ spastic and disorienting pop with Obviously, months later, when they had Urian re-track 70 percent of gut-rattling blasts of hardcore. the album, it became obvious that “It’s terrible to play!” Koller pointedly he was not joking—in fact he was shares. “The chorus of ‘A Life So being incredibly literal.” Wonderful’—one of my few takes to make the finished album—feels The Armed have often been cagey like you’re sprinting, deadlifting, about who exactly is involved with and repairing a watch all at the the project, providing a chance same time. There’s something to sink into the music almost on its compelling and addictive about own in the shadow of the disjointed, those challenges, though. I made artistic metaphysics that the group sure my eating was dialed in—ate has highlighted. Koller connects lots of anti-inflammatory stuff start- some of his recording experience to ing the week before going in [for these ideas. recording]. Lots of stretching and “Taking cues from videos of a guy conditioning for sure.” playing your parts is an incredibly As for other ULTRAPOP prep, Koller meta experience,” Koller shares. “I says that after recording Only Love, was essentially trying to take on the he “tried sending [The Armed’s] spirit of a guy trying to take on the Dan Greene a text on occasion but spirit of me. The Armed is mired never really heard back.” Koller dis- in all these strange identity and covered that the number was dead ownership concepts, and I think, in retrospect, this was part of that. But, after trying to place a call. at the time, it was not particularly “I had heard from some of the other pleasant.” guys in the band that he uses like six-plus burner phones at a time,” These days, Koller has been enjoyKoller shares. “He’s super paranoid ing checking out Hackney’s perforand often gets new phone numbers mances across the album. when approaching new people. I’m assuming he got one when we start- “Well, considering most of my played working together and let it go ing has been replaced, I’m enjoying after we wrapped on Only Love. We listening to my advance copy of ULeventually reconnected via a totally TRAPOP!” he says. “It’s all new to me!” new email address when we started Sonically, The Armed tend to chamdiscussing the new album.” pion the cascading chaos that their Koller’s performances appear on music reflects. As Koller observes: ULTRAPOP alongside contributions “Experimentation is the only way from fellow drummer Urian Hack- heavy music survives.” 💣

BY CALEB R. NEWTON

he Armed blend scorching hardcore with caustic blasts of pop, soaking their musical ventures in distortion and effects that make the adrenaline-drenched album feel immersive and vigorous. The powerful sound is physically formidable, and the enlivening streaks of energy that rush through the album make it pop like a sudden dance party in the middle of a thunderstorm.

en explains. “I didn’t really remember what I played since it was so long ago. It took me a while to figure out which songs I played on, since they had different titles and arrangements at that time. Honestly, the mixes sound so insane with distortion, it’s hard to tell what the fuck is going on. All I know is that the check cleared, and they seem happy.”

ULTRAPOP follows The Armed’s 2018 On ULTRAPOP, songs including full-length album Only Love, which “Masunaga Vapors” and “Where explored similar musical territory, Man Knows Want” feature partic- and although the group promoted ularly whimsical, apparent guitar a lineup listing ahead of this latest lines whipping through the mix, release, there are still some enigmas. while “A Life So Wonderful” and “An Iteration” hinge upon comparatively “I can’t answer that question due to breathable and oddly danceable one of the many NDAs I had to sign performances, like sudden rushes of to get my check,” Van Leeuwen adds, emotionally oxygenating relief. when asked about any adjustments to his ordinary style of playing that The album culminates, in part, with he might have had to make for cathartically resounding, rhythmic recording ULTRAPOP. “But I will say blasts on “Real Folk Blues”—on which that they required me to wear cerTroy Van Leeuwen, longtime gui- tain ‘attire’ while recording these tarist for the California rock group tracks. It takes a lot of money to get Queens of the Stone Age, makes an me out of my robe and slippers.” appearance. Lately, Van Leeuwen has been “I was entirely unfamiliar, but an ex- listening to 1978’s First Issue by the travagant, monetary offer came in British post-punk trailblazers Public through my agent. It wasn’t awful, so Image Ltd., 1980’s Gentlemen Take I decided to go for it,” Van Leeuwen Polaroids by the British new wave shares, discussing his connection with group Japan, 1974’s They Say I’m The Armed ahead of recording. He Different by the American funk singadds “I had to sign more NDAs than er Betty Davis, and more. I’ve ever seen in my life.” Van Leeuwen appears on ULTRAPOP Through a feat of songwriting voo- alongside a whole host of other perdoo, ULTRAPOP runs on consistently formers, from drummers Ben Koller forward-moving energy, but the of Converge and Urian Hackney of path feels whimsically wild. The Rough Francis, to singer-songwriter musical rapids feel so organically Mark Lanegan, who has a guest spot smooth that ULTRAPOP almost feels on the free-wheeling album’s closing mystical—which The Armed keyed track. into for a pre-album announcement series of shenanigans involv- “I feel that nothing worthwhile haping a cult-like website for “The Book pens in the art world without of the Book of Daniel,” referencing experimentation,” Van Leeuwen the group’s ubiquitous Dan Greene. observes, pondering the process. “Did I mention that I got paid hand“I play on ‘All Futures’ and ‘Real Folk somely to play guitar on two songs Blues,’ so I’ve been told,” Van Leeuw- for this record?” 💣

NEW NOISE

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST AND SONGWRITER RICK NIELSEN BY JIM KAZ

ne of the best things about music is the discovery process. Hearing something new for the first time can be a transformative experience, making the creator a longstanding and crucial part of your playlist—and your life.

no matter where you’ve sown your musical oats. While maybe not as prevalent and universally successful as the likes of Springsteen, Pink Floyd, or KISS, the band have forged a perpetual niche for themselves with an enduring appeal among the outsiders, orphans, and musical Cheap Trick are one of those misfits of the world who seembands that rapidly become es- ingly relate to the band’s pensential listening upon discovery, chant for not being pigeonholed.

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Despite scoring some major hits in the past, the band members have also suffered their share of struggles and setbacks, but somehow have always scratched their way back, culminating in a highly notable induction into the Rock ’N’ Roll Hall of Fame in 2016. From the accidental hits to the offbeat, deep cuts, Cheap Trick

are one of the few bands that transcend genres and scenes, with a massive back catalog of staples, and no sign of slowing down anytime soon. The band—consisting of Robin Zander in vocals, Rick Nielsen on guitar, Tom Petersson on bass and Nielsen’s son Daxx on drums, replacing original drummer Bun E. Carlos, who retired from touring in

PHOTO Martin Thompson

2010—are, at the time of this writing, just about to drop its new album In Another World on major label BMG Records. A major label release is a feat in itself in a day and age where major labels are few and far between, and not hyper-focused on releasing new material from legacy artists, especially those who aren’t still selling out arenas. “We try to stay somewhat relevant,” says Nielsen. “We’re songwriters, and we’re a band that still wants to do it—even if it means using our own money, which we’ve done before.” This is a key distinction between Cheap Trick and so many other classic bands who make their living playing greatest hits playlists with—in many cases—only a fraction of their original lineup in tow. “We don’t just rely on the old

stuff,” says Nielsen. “If you’ve got songs, do it.”

Put together during the uncertain times of the COVID-19 pandemic, the album is special for a And he’s got the albums to number of reasons, one of which prove it, as Cheap Trick have is that it marks Cheap Trick’s released several LPs worth of 20th studio release. But beyond all-new material in the last few that, there’s a more profound years alone on various labels, significance. including some independents. “The title has a deeper meaning, “With BMG, we’ve got a new lease as it feels like we’ve been living in on life, and hopefully we can another universe,” admits Nielsen. record more,” Nielsen adds. The band was able to make amAnd that brings us to In Anoth- ple use of its down time, however. er World, an upbeat collection of all-new material and one “We finally figured out the alcover that showcases the bum sequence, the title and the band in top form. There’s the album cover. And now, the rest requisite power pop (“The is up to BMG,” he adds. Summer Looks Good on You”), punk-pop (“Here’s Looking at The album closes with a rauYou”), hard rock (“Light Up the cous cover of John Lennon’s Fire” and “The Party”), and the “Gimme Some Truth,” which feaBeatles-esque (“Quit Waking tures fan and former Sex Pistol Me Up”), all of which have a Steve Jones guesting on guitar. flair for the eerie or idiosyncratic, another Cheap Trick “When we did [his radio show/ signature move. podcast] Jonesy’s Jukebox, we

were going to play a song with him and we started doing “Gimme Some Truth,” and he fell right into it, so we all said we should get him on our album. He also really liked the guitar I brought with me, a ’62 Dwight Coronet. I think he thought I was going to give it to him. That didn’t happen.” With In Another World, Cheap Trick have yet again defied all odds and put out a top-notch record on a major label that is sure to be a welcome addition for fans and those looking for something new to be aurally infatuated with. For a band now close to 50 years in existence, one has to wonder what the secret sauce must be. “The key to our success is that we still like what we do and have never given up. The work ethic is there, and we treat each show like it’s our first show. We take it seriously, but don’t take ourselves so seriously.” 💣💣💣

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CHECK YOUR HEAD

Mental Help for Musicians

INTERVIEW WITH HOST MARI FONG BY JOHN B. MOORE

ari Fong is a veteran music journalist and certified Life Coach for musicians. It seemed only natural then that her next step would be to launch a podcast talking to musicians about mental health.

donated their recording studio and an audio engineer, and the CHECK YOUR HEAD Podcast was born.

As a longtime music journalist, including a stint at Sirius XM, Fong was able to tap into the goodwill she had built over the years with music publicists to find musicians willing to come on her podcast and talk about some pretty personal issues.

“My first thought about doing something with mental health and musicians was in 2017, when Chris Cornell of Soundgarden and Chester “The first notable musician on board Bennington of Linkin Park both lost was Sir Bob Cornelius Rifo of The their lives to suicide,” Fong says. “It Bloody Beetroots, an electronic DJ was that ‘one-two punch’ made me think of all the other musicians who have died from a similar fate, either by unresolved mental health issues or addictions tied to mood disorders like depression or anxiety.” So, in 2019, Fong launched the CHECK YOUR HEAD podcast, which she hosts and executive produces. “I’ve also had bad bouts of depression throughout my life and knew about the ongoing pain, and the fear and confusion that went along them,” she says. “After some persistence and detective work on my part, I finally found the solutions that worked for me. It was such a tough struggle that I wanted to do something to help others.” Fong first become an advocate for mental health and musicians by partnering with a local charity and put on a dance and music benefit, called The Chinatown Get Down, to raise funds and awareness. They ended up selling out the venue. She struck up a partnership with the nonprofit Sweet Relief Musician Fund and pitched them the idea of a podcast. Fong found a location in Los Angeles, LemonTree Studios, that

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PHOTO Sylvia Garcia

and musician who often performed with Tim Bergling (aka AVICII), who lost his life in 2018 to a mood disorder and addiction,” Fong says. “Sir Bob was also on a mission to speak out on mental health, so he agreed to being a guest.” She has since landed Gilby Clarke (Guns ’N’ Roses) to talk about his struggles and addiction. Drummer and comedian Fred Armisen came on to talk about his years in the punk band Trenchmouth. She has also started featured interviews with top

experts in the mental health field who would give listeners an understanding of mood disorders and various solutions to try for recovery. Everyone from Linda Ronstadt to Kevin Lyman has appeared on the podcast. Admittedly some guests are easier to persuade to talk about these personal matters than others. “Before the interview, I start with a short conversation about the podcast’s mission, encouraging guests to be open and honest with their story, and to speak from the heart,” she says. “Just like with music, the more vulnerable and honest musicians can be with their lyrics the emotions put in their melodies and singing style, the more the music can connect with fans and provide healing. A guest musician’s ability to open up really depends on their personality, but I do my best to make them feel comfortable and safe.” The mission of CHECK YOUR HEAD has always stayed the same: to normalize the conversations on mental health, to encourage others to get help, and to provide solutions for recovery. In fact, through the podcast’s website, 110 organizations, groups, apps,

and more are available to assist musicians and listeners in finding the mental help that’s right for them.

“2020 has been a difficult year for so many reasons and 2021 will be another unpredictability and change,” Fong says. “You may be experiencing a rollercoaster of emotions, feelings of anxiety, loneliness, depression, and more, and those are all normal feelings. However, if your emotions start to have a bad effect on your life or relationships, start to look for the causes and resolutions. Listen to your emotions and pay them respect, they are telling you something.” 💣💣💣

PHOTO WH Moustapha

INTERVIEW WITH MAHAMADOU SOULEYMANE BY M.REED

dou Moctar, or Mahamadou Souleymane, is a guitarist from Niger who performs an eclectic version of folk music endemic to the Tuareg tribes to which he belongs. The Tuareg people are a nomadic ethnic group who primarily make a living as cattle traders, and whose merchant routes take them across multiple sovereign territories in Northern Africa including Mali, Niger, Libya, Algeria, and Chad.

world over the course of five wonderful albums.

This year, Souleymane was preparing to release his sixth album, Afrique Victime, through Matador Records when political violence broke out in his native Niger. The unrest was the product of a contested presidential election, the results of which were announced in February of 2021, with the Party for Democracy and Socialism The majority of Tuareg practice candidate Mohamed Bazoum a specific version of Islam known being declared the winner over as Maliki, and Tuareg men are the Central Party candidate distinguishable by the heavy Mahamane Ousmane, who veils they wear over their faces had previously served as Niat all times, even while at home. ger’s president in 1993, before In addition to trade, the Tuareg being ousted in a coup. are known for their fighting prowess and have played signif- The violence arising from the conicant roles in the many conflicts tested election results occurred of North Africa’s recent history. almost immediately, with gangs attacking storefronts, burning homes Most importantly to Souleymane, and assaulting people in the street. though, the Tuareg people have The election was meant to Niger’s a tradition of folk music, which first peaceful and democratic he has managed to bring to the transfer of power.

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“People are not sure where the terrorists are,” Souleymane relates. “They might be nearby. And we’ve got to be careful about every little thing: like what we say, what times we leave our “The Central Party was very un- house, and who we are with happy about this Tuareg victory,” while we are out.” he explains. “This is the first time that the Tuareg people were Still, Souleymane remains hopeful represented in this way. So then, for the release of Afrique Victime protests broke out in the city, and and the inspiring impact that he they were burning down partic- hopes it will have on his people ular Tuareg shops. Which is just during this moment of instability. pure racism, in my opinion.” “It’s a tradition for Tuareg warIn addition to anti-Tuareg vio- riors to listen to music to find lence, Souleymane is increas- courage during unstable times,” ingly concerned with the way he explains. 💣💣💣 that the jihadist group Boko Haram has used the chaos of the election to increase their activities in the region. This is worrisome not only because of the politically destabilizing effect this could have, but also because Souleymane is a musician, and therefore runs the risk of being specifically targeted by the jihadists. As a result, he has to be very cautious while away from home. While the violence has not delayed the release of Souleymane’s album, it has filled the rest of his life with uncertainty, as the Tuareg people were aligned with Bazoum.

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST/VOCALIST RICK GIORDANO BY ADDISON HERRON-WHEELER

“It wasn’t intended, but I think you can kind of hear the isolation on the record a little bit, and maybe a little bit of paranoia and claustrophobia.”

he new record from The Lion’s He also realized that, like many Daughter, Skin Show, is out April 9 bands, what was coming out lyricalvia Season of Mist. While in many ly during such a strange time was a ways, the record continues the same bit darker than previous material. musical and lyrical story, it also takes on new territory, delivering into “I’m one of those people who writes deeper song structures and forms lyrics, and then afterwards, I have thanks to the added downtime of the to figure out what the hell that all pandemic. meant and where that came from, and sometimes, I don’t really know Skin Show was written and recorded “I don’t think we’ve ever made the where it came from, especially in Giordano’s home office rather same record twice, but this one is with some of the darker stuff,” than in the studio with the band. probably the most similar to the one Giordano says. “I have to piece it On top of that irregularity, he also that preceded it,” says Rick Giordano, all together and kind of face those experienced a house fire and had guitarist and vocalist. “It’s made of aspects about myself. On this one, to spend some of his writing time in a the same stuff, and we didn’t switch the themes have more of a focus hotel room, just working with a laptop anything up too much. The whole on guilt, sexuality, and voyeurism, and a guitar. As a result, he spent a quarantine thing has changed the kind of a sleazier vibe. I’m not sure lot of time getting back to the basics, way the songs were written, so it put a where all that came from, but it was enjoying guitar, and learning to play bigger focus on the songwriting itself. more interesting to explore than, classic rock songs from YouTube. I think it made the songwriting stron- you know, just the regular violence, Right after the stint in the hotel, Giorger because, instead of us in a room hate, and aggression, things that dano got to move back into his house, bashing stuff out and seeing what we’ve talked about in the past and and then quarantine hit. worked, I wrote everything at home, that bands have kind of done to without those guys. So, it was really death. It was a more interesting, “It was really strange because once more about, ‘OK, what’s enjoyable to more risky, and a bit of a darker I got started writing, I was kind listen to and to play?’” path to take.” of confined in the space,” he ex-

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plains. “So, I think you can kind of hear that. It wasn’t intended, but I think you can kind of hear the isolation on the record a little bit, and maybe a little bit of paranoia and claustrophobia.” The album was recorded at Firebrand Studios, where The Lion’s Daughter have recorded their previous two albums as well. They had more time in the studio this round to get things right, since they hadn’t been rehearsing and playing shows leading up the recording of the new record. The end result is something evolved and dark, a natural continuation of the band’s sound. 💣💣💣

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TETRARCH revives the scene with addictive modern metal and hard rock!

A trifecta of punk rock attitude, pop-laced rock and metal prowess!

Dark Occult Rock innovator CVLT OV THE SVN: THE RETURN OF MYSTICISM IN ROCK!

WE ARE THE DRAGON

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THE REVEREND PEYTON’S BIG DAMN BAND

PHOTO Tyler Zoller

INTERVIEW WITH REVEREND PEYTON BY JOHN SILVA

ance Songs for Hard Times, It was in this highly stressful time, by the latest album from The the light of candles, that Peyton felt Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn the inspiration to write. Band, might be the most aptly named record of the year. It “I’ve never had music pour out of me is full of the catchy, blues-rock riffs in this way,” he says. “I just started for which Reverend Peyton is known, writing these songs, frantically writing but the circumstances in which it was these songs. I had a couple of ideas written were stressful. that I brought to the table, but 90 percent of it was all just written right then.” “March 12 [2020], we got home, and Breezy (Peyton’s wife and bandmate) As Breezy began to recover, Peyton was so sick that I had to take her to performed the songs he had written the hospital,” Peyton says. “We go to for her. the hospital, and the doctor says, ‘Look, we don’t really have coronavi- “I had candles in the house because rus tests right now.’” we didn’t have any electricity,” he says. “And I said, ‘Breezy, I’m gonna The doctor tested Breezy for every- play you some songs, acoustic right thing they could, all but guarantee- here. I’m gonna put on a show for ing she had COVID-19. With Breezy you.’ I set up a little concert of all sick in bed, and an uncertain future these songs I had written while she for musicians and the world at large, had been asleep over those last few it felt like everything was crashing days, when she was just in bed. And down around Reverend Peyton. But she said, ‘I think they’re the best songs the universe still had one more punch you’ve ever made up.’” to throw at him. The songs on Dance Songs for Hard “We were at my house in Brown County Times are deeply personal to Peyton [Indiana], this two-room cabin, for and relevant to the environment in more than a month by ourselves,” which they were written. Peyton says litPeyton says. “And during a period of eral lyrics are inherent to blues, sometime in that, the power went out.” thing the genre shares with punk rock.

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“[With] folk [and] singer-songwriter from under us. “Too Cool to Dance” stuff, there’s a whole lot of fiction is about wanting to enjoy every that’s written,” he says. “People tell moment to its fullest once we can these stories; they weave yarns, and dance together at concerts again. maybe there’s humanity in them, but they’re tales they created out “I was sitting around in the dark of thin air. Whereas blues music thinking about how, personally, I isn’t that way. Blues music is almost don’t wanna be too cool to dance,” entirely autobiographical. It has to Peyton says. “You look at a little kid, come from your own well. If there’s a little kid seizes the day. I wanna anything that’s the same about seize the day. I didn’t want to take punk and blues music, I would say anything for granted. Every little it’s that. Punk music tends to be very thing, every little bit of social interautobiographical as well.” action that we crave and need, has been robbed from us by this virus Dance Songs for Hard Times is a per- for the time being. I don’t want to fect time capsule of the past year be too cool to dance when we can and of where we’re at right now, dance again.” 💣💣💣 as we anxiously await the all-clear to see our friends again and hug each other in sweaty music venues. The fifth track on the album, “Too Cool to Dance,” may appear to be a lighthearted song on an otherwise-somber album. But dig a bit deeper, and the song is a melancholy expression of what many musicians and music fans are feeling right now. We haven’t been able to dance at shows together in over a year. We now know what it’s like to have live music, and the community that comes with it, pulled right out

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST CLIFFORD DINSMORE BY JANELLE JONES

“

It was a great way to keep everyone inspired and just staying busy,” says Seized Up vocalist Clifford Dinsmore about the making of their second release, the blistering, three-song Marching Down the Spiral EP, out on Cursed Blessings.

“That’s so important for a band right now, to try and not get too frustrated and lose steam and momentum, and just keep making stuff happen,” Dinsmore continues. “At least making new music and doing as much as you can to be in contact with people—interviews, whatever. That’s kind of what’s keeping the scene alive right now—just people supporting music, and buying music, and reading the magazines, and staying in tune to what’s happening, despite the fact that you can’t go see live bands.” The new EP is the follow-up to the Santa Cruz-based, oldschool, hardcore-punk band’s debut LP, Brace Yourself, which came out last October on Pirates Press. The four-piece, which features Dinsmore (of Bl’ast! fame), bassist Chuck Platt (Good Riddance), guitarist Danny B. (All You Can Eat), and Andy Granelli (the Distillers), had recorded that album before all the COVID restrictions, and have only been able to play three live shows in total as a band, two in Santa Cruz and one in San Francisco. “The real bummer is, we came out of the gates pretty strong, and it was just weird to put out a record and not be able to play shows and tour on it,” Dinsmore says. “It’s a really fun live band. Basically, the songs were designed to be played live, to be played aggressively and hard.”

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Still, he looks on the bright side, that they were able to at least get out and play a few shows during that pre-pandemic period and test the waters as a band. “The really cool thing is, even though we only got to play three shows, at least we got to play those three shows,” Dinsmore says. “We got to experience what it was like to play in this band Seized Up that was a new band. We know that it works.” Seized Up recorded Marching Down the Spiral in September 2020, and, as mentioned above, writing new material has kept them busy and engaged. “That’s the one thing you can do,” Dinsmore says. “You can stay productive in that way.” And as a band that focuses more on socio-political topics, Seized Up have had a lot to work with since their inception. “There was no shortage of songwriting material to draw from in these times, for sure, especially for a band like Seized Up that’s generally kind of pissed off music in general,” Dinsmore says. “There’s plenty of relevant lyrics to write at this point in time.” In keeping with their stay-busy attitude, the band are hard at work on their next full-length, which the frontman is envisioning as “the logical extension” of their first blazing LP. “The songs are really coming together where we’re really starting to get back on track, have a more thematic approach to the whole picture, the whole record,” Dinsmore concludes. 💣💣💣

PHOTOGRAPHY Alan Snodgrass

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ALEXI LAIHO’s LEGACY – HIS LAST RECORDINGS! A final salute to three decades of explosive Metal!

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wrote nearly 100 percent, beVAN NUYS’ HARDEST “He sides Colin helping with the solos,”

GOD’S HATE

The track, “Eternity of Hate,” is a deeply personal and cathartic endeavor for King.

King says. “He is one of the most musically gifted people I have ever met in my life. I know the “The lyrics are my story to my son,” he word ‘genius’ gets thrown around; says. “Throughout my entire life, I’ve I honestly think he is a musical ge- had issues with anger: in relationnius. I have never seen someone ships, relationships ending poorly, write an entire record in his head. or jumping the gun and getting in INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST BRODY KING BY HUTCH To that have that much stored in a fight with somebody, or, in school, your brain seems like insanity to getting in trouble with teachers. It ife is hard. Be harder. This is The Youngs have forged rep- me. I can barely remember the has always been my default emotion. the mantra of Van Nuys’s God’s utations of their own. Both lyrics to all the songs.” Whenever anything goes wrong, my Hate. Brody King, vocalist, has brothers rotate between vocals, response is to just get angry about it. proven his tenacity. He fought for drums, and guitars in various Life is hard. Be harder. King Getting married, having a wife and a years—several times a week over bands. Taylor is a producer and elaborates: partner in life, that has helped me a those years—as an amateur wres- engineer (Rotting Out, Forced lot. [Having someone say] ‘you can’t tler. His motivation paid off, as Order, Mizery, Regional Justice “It doesn’t necessarily mean be- be like this all the time.’ Even more so now he is a professional wrestler Center) and has played in heavy ing tough to me,” he says. “The with having a child. I still have some for Ring Of Honor Pro Wrestling. riff churners such as Disgrace, phrase is [an] overall ethos that of these issues that I am working Eyes Of The Lord, Nails, Ruckus, I and the band members live by. through. They have been with me Running parallel is the tale of and his main focus, Twitching It means to be able to have a my whole life. I don’t want that to God’s Hate releasing their new, Tongues. Colin also plays in Eyes full-time job, having kids, train- be passed on to them. I now have self-titled record. It has been Of The Lord, Ruckus, and sings ing, wrestling, and persevering two children. It’s my responsibility as five years since their prior re- for Twitching Tongues. into making that a career. You a father to right those wrongs that I cord, Mass Murder. King joined have to have an internal hard- had, so that they don’t have those his teenage friends, Taylor and God’s Hate also boasts Martin Stew- ness to be able to push through same issues growing up.” Colin Young, to make the hardest art of Terror and Donnybrook!, and make these things happen. I and heaviest music they could. Alec Faber, and Anthonie Gon- think that goes for anyone with Sometimes being hard is making Hardcore fans declare mission zalez to round out the three-gui- a passion or a dream. You’re the hard choice. Most of the time, accomplished. Closed Casket tar attack. Taylor Young wrote going to get beat down. You’re being hard is fighting your own Activities have delivered this con- all the music and played drums going to be told no 100 times be- instincts, and the innate reactions crete block of sonic destruction on the album, even during these fore you’re told yes. That perse- of your past, towards being a difon vinyl and digital. quarantine times. verance is that hardness in you.” ferent, stronger person. 💣💣💣

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PHOTO Melissa Dieterich Photography

INTERVIEW WITH OWNER LAURA VOSBERG BY ADDISON HERRON-WHEELER

f you want to look fabulously brutal and wear jewelry that will have everyone else at the show or festival (assuming those ever happen again) turning heads, you should get jewelry from Eternal War Designs.

dent wearing it, like they’re on a throne,” explains Vosberg. “Like all the old, fantasy covers—I want to create jewelry for that.” Addressing the elephant in the room, Eternal War Designs makes a lot of jewelry that celebrates pagan ancestry, putting battle axes, swords, and crescent moons front-and-center. Unfortunately, European-centric paganism is often associated today with the alt-right movement, but Vosberg will have none of that, and she makes that extremely clear with the actions her company takes.

Founded and run by Laura Vosberg, the inspiration behind her company is simple: paying tribute to metal, doing good, and looking badass. “I started making jewelry in high school, just to recreate things I saw, like being in art classes and around the punk community and having a bunch of punk friends with a ton of DIY stuff,” she explains. “We would go to a show and see somebody with some cool earrings, like bone earrings or something, and I’d be like, ‘I can make that!’ Like, ‘We can make that; we can do that!’”

“We do mutual-aid events for the community. We donate, and we do giveaways and raffles,” she explains. “We did some for BLM, and we’re in Texas, so I want to do some for Texas relief. I think it’s important to make your bones, weapons, and other ba- matter their gender, they feel like dass flare and sparkle were her a Frank Frazetta painting when inspirations. they don their badass, giant, decorative pieces. Vosberg hopes that when someone wears her creations, no “I want someone to feel confi-

Starting with the pure drive to make jewelry she would also want to wear, Vosberg created what she saw herself and her friends, as well as others in the DIY punk and metal scenes, wearing. Big hoops, cool gauges,

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support pretty obvious, and be pretty transparent, no beating around the bush.” eternalwardesigns.storenvey.com

💣💣💣

DON’T SLEEP ON THESE SPECIAL RELEASES ... BY HUTCH REISSUES:

ZOUO

PETER MURPHY

AGONY REMAINS RELAPSE RECORDS

Cherry Nishida was a punk in the early ’80s in Japan, adoring UK Subs and The Clash. Then he heard Discharge, and his world shifted. Zouo is what resulted when Nishida and some local skate punks got together. They released “The Final Agony” and two tracks on Hardcore Unlawful Assembly, both in 1984. These six tracks merge to create Agony Remains: gritty, crusty, heavy punk reflecting Nishida’s disdain of religion and government. Fans of GBH, Venom, GISM, and Death Side will appreciate this final, remastered version. Digitally, this unravels to 41 tracks, comprised of the six studio and three live sets. Relapse and Nishida are also releasing S.H.I., nine tracks of equal abrasion and spite. Nishida now incorporates other elements of metal, rock, and industrial, but the punk vitriol still rages. 💣

EPs:

EXTINGUISH

EXTINGUISH CREATOR DESTRUCTOR

2021 VINYL REISSUE PROJECT BEGGARS ARKIVE/BEGGARS BANQUET Beggars Banquet Records’ reissue division, Beggars Arkive, will be taking on one hefty project in releasing Peter Murphy’s solo records and an additional rarities LP, beginning in April and continuing through 2021. It will also be available as one box set, designed by Chris Bigg, limited to 500 copies worldwide. Peter Murphy began his career with Bauhaus, as they dominated the post-punk, goth-rock world from 1980 to 1983, releasing four records. Murphy began releasing music on his own, embracing some varied influences by bringing his darker, macabre vision to the charts, not the reverse. 💣

COMICS:

CRADLE OF FILTH MALEDICTUS ATHENAEUM INCENDIUM / OPUS

Sacto’s Extinguish are about drop the proverbial bomb. Heavy, thunderous, metallic hardcore with production favoring the low end, Extinguish’s self-titled, debut EP hits hard. They gladly tout influences such as Gut Instinct, Next Step Up, Grave, and Obituary. Throw in contemporaries like Xibalba. God’s Hate, Enforced, and the picture is painted in bleak, oppressive colors.

Well, the lords of symphonic black metal have achieved the highest level of dark ascension, a comic book! Incendium and Heavy Metal Entertainment (yes, the people responsible for the magazine and animated movie) announce the launch of Maledictus Athenaeum, a Cradle of Filth comic book, five-issue anthology series, under the all-new, music-focused OPUS imprint. Each first printing will be limited to 2500 copies at $16.66.

Extinguish proclaim their misery on their sleeve. The band spew an unabashed derision for a world of “horrors, sadness, and abuse of power” which engulfs the majority of the silenced masses due to a “failed state of politics and leadership, corrupt police, [and] politicians.” Extinguish are here to amplify the voice of the lower classes, and they provide an incredibly angry and harsh soundtrack of double bass, thick riffs, and breakdowns. 💣

Cradle of Filth promise tales of “occult histories, sealed records, and cursed artifacts. This unholy archive explores the far corners of Cradle of Filth’s musical legacy, a vast universe of Ageless Vampires, Mythical Creatures, and Vengeful Gods.” The artwork will be culled from the pens and pencils of artists who illustrate pages of Heavy Metal magazine. Action figures also available for $29.99 (that’s actual fact). 💣

UNEARTHED:

VITAMIN

RECORDINGS 1981 DON GIOVANNI RECORDS

Vitamin were punk from Boston, punk in the same manner as Minutemen, Flipper, DEVO, Butthole Surfers were punk. By defying parameters of any genre, they were freaks. And freaks were punks. Vitamin didn’t adhere to, say, Boston peers like Mission of Burma, SSD, DYS, or Negative FX. Recordings will be the first time their music has been made officially available. Vitamin swore allegiance to fun, and shows were defined by spontaneity and chaos. Starting in 1979, Boston teenagers Jason Shapiro, 14, and Mike McGlinchey, a few years older, wanted to indulge in the freedom of art-punk and no wave, and knowledge of playing an instrument was not required. The creativity captured here represents true freedom that sparked and ignited Vitamin for three short years. 💣

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ALAN VEGA

MUTATOR SACRED BONES

A visual artist in the New York scene in the ’60s and ’70s, Alan Vega became half of the pioneering and revered duo, Suicide. That band disbanded, and Vega would release solo music which continued his venting until he passed in 2016, and beyond. 2017 brought fans IT. This year will see Mutator, which was recorded between 1986 and 1988. Vega has worked with Alex Chilton, Ben Vaughn, Ric Ocasek, Al Jourgenson (in 1983!) and Lydia Lunch. Liz Lamere was with him recording and producing his constant output since 1990. His electronic soundscapes depict chaos and confrontation, political and personal. His voice spouted provocative agitation over aggressive beats for forty years. And he ain’t done yet. “Mutator is the first in a series of archival releases from the Vault that will come out on Sacred Bones Records. It was recorded with his longtime collaborator Liz Lamere and discovered in the vault in 2019 by both Lamere and his close friend and confidante Jared Artaud (The Vacant Lots). Soon after, they mixed and produced the songs into the visionary album that was lurking within those tapes.” – Sacred Bones, 2021. 💣

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NEW NOISE

BY CHRISTOPHER J. HARRINGTON BECAUSE CASSETTES RULE HARD AND NEVER REALLY AGE, THE 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.

VESA BEATS

ROLLIER

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TURRIS EBURNEA

A SPECIAL WAY ACORN TAPES

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SELF-TITLED CALIGARI RECORDS

This cassette was put out a little less than a year ago, so it’s not exactly a current release, but it is timeless. It’s a collection of songs by the old-school beat maker Vesa Beats, dedicated to his hometown of NYC, which is meaningful. For the past year, living in the city has not been like it once was, and this tape reminds one of the walks you could take back in the day, even if that day was only one year ago. So, it’s nostalgic, and rightfully so, for Vesa Beats has sampled from some very blissful jazz, soul, and freeform, that sonically is NYC, around every corner, the smoke in the air, the sunny haze on the Q across the Manhattan Bridge, over to Union Square, down Broadway, across to the Village, nights of twinkling lights, heat from underground, vinyl, subway fog, people, people, more and more people. A Special Way is a reminder, and hope, for a day when one can once again walk around the Big Apple without a mask, with headphones on, taking in the universe, living as one within the gigantic beat. 💣

Rollier could be described as deep house, for its background vanishes forever. This form of personal techno is colorful and invigorating in an all-inclusive way, meaning, this is music to dance to, live to, dream to, it’s music that feels like dirt and plants, and not machines, and that’s an interesting form. The machine processes the mind, splattering out the combination, the equation, which can only by truly processed again by another mind. Double Double is funky; it’s edgy; it’s neurotic (in a good way); there’s immense soul contained within the eight compositions that stretch the body in an almost-simulative manner, though it’s not simulation; it is not hyper-real; it is real, and that’s why the jagged edges feel organic, and there’s direct access to a human, to a soul, to the earth below and the stars above. Oreille Gardée is an electronic label out of Mexico City and Lorient, France. The artists on the label are all really cool, offering extended interpretations of modern electronic music. I highly recommend. 💣

Zirkular Dion is a forceful techno-beat project out of the Ukraine. I say forceful because the patterns are simplistic in nature, but drift towards the aggressive in totality. Even when they’re not hard, like on “Везунчик молодец,” they still convey an immediate presence; there’s little space, and that’s no problem at all. The music is unique in that it is hallucinatory while still holding fast to the ground. Its base is its key, and from there, the music can morph into challenging and artistic forms, like on “Мышиный путь,” where varying elements fuse to create a shadow effect of electronic transmission. The shadow in this case is the past. Old-school vibes are the song’s DNA, though it’s still absolutely contemporary. “Кольт” is about place, European free dance, and it is infectious, like the whole record, which surges and blinks like computers born in an inhospitable future in which mankind is directed by a voice, in this case, Zirkular Dion’s. It’s music you can do anything to, and that’s righteous. 💣

Turris Eburnea, ivory tower in English, are an Italian/NYC duo who make spiral and complex death metal that sounds great and never gets in its own way, grinding and twisting with shards of openness and taste that are rare in today’s age. Gabriele Gramaglia (Cosmic Purification) and Nicholas McMaster (Krallice, Geryon) work in tandem to deconstruct patterns, science fiction and urban. The group’s sound has the angular precision of some of McMaster’s other, NYC-based projects, but is a totally unique entity, spinning circles around a central idea, working with bright lights that clang against brainstorms that fueled said notion. The best thing about the four-song cassette is the space that is broken up. Death metal is never this breezy, but there’s never any edge lost, quite the opposite in fact. The space that is dug out works as a gateway to transform the cubistic nature of the recordings. There’s a sense of time melting away, drifting through a geometric portal to hell. This is great! 💣

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