METAL ZINE SCIONAV.COM VOL. 4
Immolation - GridLink - Cancer Bats The acc端sed Flenser Records - Saviours
STAFF
Scion Project Manager: Jeri Yoshizu, Sciontist Editor: Eric Ducker Creative Direction: Scion Art Director: malbon Contributing Editor: J. Bennett Graphic Designers: Nicholas Acemoglu, Cameron Charles, Gabriella Spartos
CONTRIBUTORS
Writers: Maud Deitch, Etan Rosenbloom, Adam Shore Photographers: Greg Bojorquez, Courtney Frystak, Scott Kinkade, Amelia Prime
CONTACT
For additional information on Scion, email, write or call. Scion Customer Experience 19001 S. Western Avenue Mail Stop WC12 Torrance, CA 90501 Phone: 866.70.SCION / Fax: 310.381.5932 Email: Email us through the Contact page located on scion.com Hours: M-F, 6am-5pm PST / Online Chat: M-F, 6am-6pm PST Scion Metal Zine is published by malbon. For more information about malbon, contact info@malbonfarms.com Company references, advertisements and/or websites listed in this publication are not affiliated with Scion, unless otherwise noted through disclosure. Scion does not warrant these companies and is not liable for their performances or the content on their advertisements and/or websites. © 2011 Scion, a marque of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., Inc. All rights reserved. Scion and the Scion logo are trademarks of Toyota Motor Corporation. 00430-ZIN04-MT
Cover: Image from “Mancoon...Turkey Warlock” video by Weedeater. Directed by David Brodsky.
SCION A/V SCHEDULE SEPTEMBER
Scion A/V Presents: Wormrot — Noise (September 4) Scion Metal Matinee at The Roxy in Los Angeles, CA Featuring Cerebral Ballzy, Murphy’s Law and Repulsion (September 10) Scion Presents: A Product of Design curated by Gluekit at Installation LA (September 17 to October 8)
OCTOBER Scion A/V Presents: Immolation (October 4) Scion Metal Matinee at Reggie’s Rock Club in Chicago, IL (October 8) Scion Metal Matinee at TBD in Los Angeles, CA (October 9) Scion A/V Presents: Immolation Tour Wreck Room in Toronto, ONT (October 5) The Basement in Kingston, NY (October 7) Montage Music Hall in Rochester, NY (October 8) Broadway Joe’s in Buffalo, NY (October 9) The Gramercy Theatre in New York, NY (October 10) Bogie’s in Albany, NY (October 11) Championship Bar and Grill in Trenton, NJ (October 12) Peabody’s in Cleveland, OH (October 13) The Alrosa Villa in Columbus, OH (October 14) Blondie’s 2281 in Detroit, MI (October 15) Reggie’s Rock Club in Chicago, IL (October 16) Larimer Lounge in Denver, CO (October 19) The Complex in Salt Lake City, UT (October 20) Cheyenne Saloon in Las Vegas, NV (October 21) Chain Reaction in Anaheim, CA (October 22) The Clubhouse in Tempe, AZ (October 23) Backstage Live in San Antonio, TX (October 25) Scout Bar in Houston, TX (October 26) Scion Presents: Use Me curated Yuri Psinakis at Installation LA (October 15 to November 5)
NOVEMBER Scion Metal Matinee at TBD in Los Angeles, CA (November 12) Scion Presents: From Here to Eternity curated by Kenton Parker at Installation LA (November 19 to December 17)
SCION A/V PRESENTS MUSIC VIDEOS Hate Eternal, “Lake Ablaze” Immolation, “A Glorious Epoch” Weedeater, “Mancoon...Turkey Warlock”
Exclusive interviews & performances from
Mi d n ig h t F r o m A s h e s Ri s e S av i o u r s Ceremony Noisear Plus free music downloads, event info, Scion Streaming Radio & much more
scionav.com
GAZA
Story: J. Bennett / Photography: Amelia Prime & Greg Bojorquez
Even the most cursory of listens to either of Gaza’s two albums, 2006’s I Don’t Care Where I Go When I Die and 2009’s He Is Never Coming Back, reveal a band that straddles the increasingly blurry worlds of metal, hardcore, sludge and grind without lingering very long in any of them. Vocalist Jon Parkin says that’s because the Salt Lake City-based quartet stresses originality over rigid genre identification. “A lot of what’s going on in metal right now is parallel to what happened to punk rock in the 1980s and hardcore in the 1990s,” Parkin says. “There’s a lot of fronting and posing going on. It feels like a miniature Hollywood, where a disaster movie does well and suddenly you’ve got ten in a year coming out. That comes and goes. Original bands will last. We work real hard to take what’s come before us and make our own sound with it rather than mimic or perpetuate.” Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Gaza can deliver every last decibel of their dissonant, hyperaggressive goods live. “Anyone who comes to see us will get a very loud, gimmick-free punk rock show,” Parkin promises. “It should be a place where you can find an outlet and a room full of people who might see the world similarly to you. We’ll play as well as we can and as loud as they’ll let us.”
facebook.com/gazamusic Watch an interview with Gaza and videos of their live performance at Scion’s Metal Matinee series at scionav.com/metal
BurninG LovE Story: J. Bennett Photography: Greg Bojorquez
It’s not often that a musician’s side project ends up becoming his primary band, but that’s what happened to vocalist Chris Colohan in 2008 when prominent Toronto hardcore outfit Cursed broke up after they were robbed of their passports and all their earnings at the end of a European tour. Colohan had started Burning Love the previous year with Our Father members Easton Lannaman, Pat Marshall, Andrus Meret and Dave O’Connor (who has since been replaced by Alex “Hawk” Goodall), and suddenly found himself with more time to devote to his new project after Cursed’s demise. “I had to take a few steps back from everything, let alone music, after what happened,” he explains. “But within a couple months I wanted to step it up and get back to it. It’s what I love doing, so I’m going to be doing it regardless of the liabilities that come with the territory, or how many times I have to walk away from something that a bunch of us have put a lot of years and work into. Burning Love was already there and ready for it.”
Burning Love’s full-length debut, Songs For Burning Lovers, fuses propulsive stoner-rock grooves and turbo-charged punk riffage with Colohan’s seemingly deep affinity for Henry Rollins-era Black Flag. Lyrically, Burning Love is far more positive than Cursed’s venomous tirades. “There’s definitely a shift in approach, if not subject matter,” Colohan says. “The content isn’t really all that different, but it has to fit the context of the music it’s made for, which is still loud and chaotic, but with a very different energy—more fun than bleak. My comfort zone is one particular side of my mentality—the dark and nasty, paranoid and apocalyptic point of view. And it’s genuine, but not a healthy place to live in fulltime, you know?” burninglove416.blogspot.com Watch an interview with Burning Love and videos of their live performance at Scion’s Metal Matinee series at scionav.com/metal
records Interview: Etan Rosenbloom
In just under two years of existence, San Franciscobased label Flenser Records has curated a small but respected roster of out-of-the-box metal acts. From its inaugural release by one-man black metal project Palace of Worms to the epic For Winter Fire by Louisville doom bringers Seidr, Flenser is going its own way. We caught up with label owner Jonathan Tuite for a look inside Flenser’s operations.
Why did you start Flenser? I had heard this Ghast record, May the Curse Bind. I really wanted a vinyl version, and there wasn’t one available, so I contacted the band and asked them about that. It went from there. The purpose has kind of changed since then. I’m not into doing just the vinyl editions anymore, but that’s really why it started. Early on, many of the bands you signed were from the Bay Area. What’s special about that region’s metal? There does seem to be a theme of good outsider metal here. You look at bands like Von or Weakling, which were both early, very important black metal bands. I don’t know exactly why that is. San Francisco is a pretty nice place, there’s not a huge amount of social oppression here, but it does seem to result in outsider black metal that is unique here. That’s not necessarily the reason that I’ve signed San Francisco bands, it’s partly just a matter of access. But it also does seem like there’s a lot going on here. What do you look for in a band you sign? I don’t have a specific aesthetic I look for in the bands. In general, I seem to be into bands that are just a little bit different than what’s going on in the genre. So with Panopticon, that’s not straight-up black metal. There are crust influences, he’s an anarchist. I kind of like that that’s outside of the regular black metal world, although it has roots there. That’s true for most of the bands on the label.
necrite “sic transit gloria mundi”
skagos/panopticon “split”
Are there personal qualities, or a particular work ethic, that you look for in a band beyond the music they make? More recently that’s something I look for. If a band wants to tour and is really excited about that, that’s a plus. But that hasn’t been the thing that has drawn me to bands. It usually just feels right. It’s the whole package. I have to like the music and like the people and like whatever message they have. Or at least not completely hate it! To what extent is Flenser a DIY label? I don’t think it really is a DIY label at this point. When it comes to releasing vinyl, I might press an insert and package it myself, but I’m not hand-screening anything. I’m not building the packages. I’m definitely getting things manufactured by people. I have people helping with artwork, but besides that, pretty much everything’s me. So I don’t consider it a DIY label, but I definitely appreciate that aesthetic, and especially the ethics of a DIY label, in terms of trading and how you treat your artists. Which is the most important release in Flenser’s history? And which best embodies what Flenser is about? The label’s changing. The most recent release, by Seidr, is definitely the release I’ve pushed the most and felt like I’ve really hit a stride with. Probably my favorite release was the first Bosse-De-Nage selftitled record. A lot of people really didn’t like that record very much, but I thought it was amazing. I used to listen to it all the time. But I don’t know if there’s one specific release that sums up the label or is the most important release. It’s all part of a progression for me.
pale chalice “afflicting the dichotomy of trepid creation”
Bosse-de-Nage “II”
theflenser.com Seidr “For WInter Fire”
DAVID BRODSKY Brooklyn-based director David “My Good Eye” Brodsky has shot Scion A/V videos for the likes of Municipal Waste, Kylesa, Landmine Marathon and Hate Eternal. His most recent assignment took him to Wilmington, North Carolina, to shoot a clip for “Mancoon” and “Turkey Warlock” by veteran sludge merchants Weedeater. Brodsky tells the tale of making the video:
The house we shot in was where Weedeater started 14 years ago. It’s this old, beat-up house in the North Carolina swamp. The person who is currently living there was kind enough to give us access to it for the day. All the phone numbers the band had written on the walls were still there, and there were Weedeater stickers all over the house. The original idea was to shoot a day-in-the-life type of thing about Dixie Dave [Collins], the band’s singer/bass player, but it turned into a video for two short songs put together. The first song is called “Mancoon,” which is apparently about a man who is also a raccoon. The second song is called “Turkey Warlock,” which is something that Dave made up. It’s basically a sloppy joe made out of turkey, but because Manwich is a brand name of a sloppy joe product and a warlock is a male witch, he decided to call it a “Turkey Warlock.” And then he wrote a song about it.
So we combined this bizarre subject matter and turned it into a bizarre video. It’s styled as a silent film, and the simplest way to put it is that it’s kinda like that fairytale about Goldilocks, the girl who wakes up in the house with the bears. In the video, Weedeater wakes up in the house of the Mancoon. For some reason, the Mancoon is living with this creepy guy who forces Weedeater to eat a huge turkey sandwich. Then they sneak out and get hunted down through the swamp, get caught and—not to spoil it for you—are brought back for yet another delicious meal. It’s hard to make sense of, but it makes complete sense to the band. I tend not to ask where these things come from, because sometimes it’s better to not know. It kind of takes the romance out of it. As told to J. Bennett To see more of David Brodsky’s work, check out mgenyc.com Watch David Brodsky’s videos for Scion A/V, including “Mancoon...Turkey Warlock,” at scionav.com/musicvideos
Only two people have been with Seattle thrashcore pioneers The Accüsed since the beginning: guitarist Tom Niemeyer and zombie mascot Martha Splatterhead, the star of many Accüsed songs, album covers and merch items. We asked Niemeyer to tell us everything he knows about Martha. HER PURPOSE Martha’s main purpose has always been to rid the world of dirtbags and weasels. She’s a superhero in a way, and she does suddenly appear in places you didn’t expect her to, to get justice done. Pretty quick and brutal justice. HER ORIGIN We were all sitting around as a band in 1984, designing flyers for a couple shows we had coming up, and we were reading so many comics that Blaine [Cooke, former vocalist] had. One of them had this woman with a knife on the cover of it. Blaine said, “How about something like this?” So I sketched out this crazy extreme version of what he was showing us, added some big long fangs, some goofy rocker-guy hair, an outrageously large bosom, and I think she had little tiny tiger skin underwear on. Blaine said, “We should call it Martha Splatterhead. We used to have BB gun wars back in the day, and one of the guy’s name was ‘Splatterhead.’” And Martha was obviously a woman’s name. And she was born.
HER SIZE We knew that people weren’t walking where they would see our flyers. It’s raining all the time [in Seattle], so they’re gonna be in a car. That’s why the knife’s so big, the chest is so big, and why the logo is hopefully big enough for them to see while they’re going 45 miles an hour through a rain-soaked window. HER LONGEVITY If we’re ever like, “We gotta have another song. What’re we gonna write?” there’s always Martha. You can send Martha to the Harlem Globetrotters, send her to space, you can do whatever you want. She’s not only consistent and cool, she’s also handy. As told to Etan Rosenbloom splatterrock.com Watch an interview with The Accüsed and videos of their live performance at Scion’s Metal Matinee series at scionav.com/metal
Story: J. Bennett Photography: Greg Bojorquez
The music of Cancer Bats, Toronto’s mayors of death & roll, pulls from a deep resource of influences. Their albums burst with Entombed-style riff riots, thick New Orleans sludge-stomp and raucous gang-style backups. They also do a mean cover of Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage.” We caught up with vocalist Liam Cormier and guitarist Scott Middleton just prior to the band’s Scion Metal Matinee performance at the Roxy in Hollywood. Do you think that there is anything uniquely Canadian about Cancer Bats? Liam Cormier: I think that there is something very Canadian about the type of metal that we play, in terms of [heavy] Canadian bands being sludgy. There have always been bands from our area, or from all over Canada, that have this heavier sound, like Kittens in Winnipeg and Thrush Hermit. It’s that way even in the indie rock scene with bands that we grew up on, like the Swarm and Cursed. What do you get out of Cancer Bats that you didn’t get out of bands you were previously in? Scott Middleton: This is the first band where I was the only guitar player and had the responsibility of writing all the songs and the riffs. When we started the band, I never had done anything like that before, so it was a real challenge. It was cool because it really pushed my playing and made me a better musician. When you play in a two-guitar band, it is really easy to be lazy and sit in the back.
With this, you have to be on it and be the anchor. Cormier: Obviously, when Scott and I started, it was fun. We wanted to do something that neither of us had done in other bands before, like, “Lets have rock & roll, and let’s have hardcore and punk.” But then it came to a point were it was like, “OK, this is going to be serious,” so we needed to find guys like [drummer] Mike [Peters] and [bassist] Jaye [Schwarzer], who are really serious. As much fun as Scott and I were having with it, we also wanted to be a full-time band and to tour. We had to get guys that were really cool and fun to tour with, and were good at headbanging. How would you describe Cancer Bats’ musical philosophy? Do you have one? Cormier: Thinking back on when we started the band, it was just to have fun and to play music that we liked and to do something that we felt like other bands weren’t doing. We’re about to write our fourth record and we’re still thinking of it in the same way.
I think that some of the appeal of Cancer Bats is that there is a little something for everybody. Metal people get into it, punk kids, hardcore kids, etc. Do you think of the band as kind of like a melting pot? Middleton: I think that it’s like a modern-day crossover, like when people used to talk about the punk/thrash/metal crossover back in like the early to mid-1980s. We all listen to so many different kinds of music that influence us and we just play those kinds of music in our way, and it just comes together. No matter what we try, it always still sounds like us, even if we go on something that is a bit of a departure.
What would you like the audience to get out of a Cancer Bats show? Cormier: Sometimes we’ll have a crazy pit and it’ll be awesome. Other times it will be adults that are standing there, just smiling and stoked, and there’s one kid trying to start a pit and he is so bummed. But I’m just as stoked. It’s just different vibes. cancerbats.com Watch an interview with Cancer Bats and videos of their live performance for Scion’s Metal Matinee series at scionav.com/metal
Interview: J. Bennett
Over the course of nearly a quarter-century and eight full-length albums, Immolation has created some of the most crushing death metal known to mankind. With a lineup currently composed of original members Ross Dolan (vocals/bass) and Bob Vigna (guitar) alongside drummer Steve Shalaty and second guitarist Bill Taylor, the band released one of its most formidable and memorable albums, 2010’s Majesty and Decay, 22 years into their career. And yet so much has changed both within the band and the wider death metal landscape since Immolation got together in Yonkers, New York, back in 1988. Ross Dolan explains. For the last several years, you’ve had two members in Yonkers, one in Ohio, and one in Florida. How do you make it work? Yeah, we’re a bit spread out now. Thankfully, today’s technology allows that. In the past, we all lived in Yonkers, and we’d get together on a nightly basis to write and rehearse. But it’s actually much easier now, believe it or not. We’re all pretty much in tune with what needs to be done, nobody needs to babysit anybody. When it comes to doing shows, we put a set list together and each rehearse on our own. If it’s a tour or something, we’ll get together at Steve’s house out in Ohio, just because his drums are there and he’s got the space. As far as writing goes, with the new computer programs Bob can essentially write a whole song, program some mock drumbeats and
“This music is honest, it’s primal and it’s edgy, and that’s what I’ve always liked about it.”
email it to us. So when we get together, we have a jump on everything. It’s not like it used to be. We were very bootleg in the past. I think this way actually keeps us sharper because we have to work harder on our own. Death metal has come a long way since you started in the late 1980s. What’s your take on how the genre has developed since then, and Immolation’s development within that? When we started back in 1988, if you’d told me that we’d still be doing this, I would’ve probably laughed. I mean, honestly. We were all into metal since our early teens, and like most fans of this type of music, we gradually got into heavier stuff because you’re always trying to find something more extreme. Music was definitely our drug of choice, and we got hooked early. But we were realistic from the start—we realized we weren’t gonna make a living off of death metal. So we adjusted our lives to work around our passion. We’ve always had full-time jobs, and always the kind of jobs, luckily, that allow us to go on tour and do our recording. But to see the scene grow and come this far and get this much recognition
is amazing. It’s nice to see it blossom, even though it’s still underground on a lot of levels. It’s not mainstream—it’ll never be mainstream—but that’s kinda what keeps it unique for the fans. The overall theme of Majesty and Decay is the abuse of power. Was that influenced by current events? Absolutely. If you read a newspaper or go online and read some of the headlines, it affects you. But I never wanted to be a political band, so we try to downplay that side of it. We write our lyrics in a way that’s not specific, but I think anyone with common sense can kind of get where we’re coming from. But that’s the cool thing about lyrics, I like to write them in such a way that everyone can get what they want out of them. It doesn’t have to be exactly what we mean. Do you think of death metal differently now, in terms of its limits and possibilities, than you did when you started the band? Well, we always believed in what we did. This music is honest, it’s primal and it’s edgy, and that’s what I’ve always liked about it. We always knew the music had potential if it was just given a chance and people could get past whatever their hang-ups were. I think most people hear the vocals and go, “What is that?” So that’s a hard obstacle to get around. But today, more popular bands have infused more mainstreamtype music with that vocal style, so it’s not that leftfield anymore. And that only helps our cause.
What a lot of people don’t understand is that the people who play this kind of music are really good musicians. I can attest to that because I’ve been on tour with a lot of these guys. It’s just a shame to see all these great musicians not getting the recognition they deserve. A lot of them are finally getting it, though. Today, you can see a guy like Alex Webster from Cannibal Corpse in Bass Player magazine. You’d never see that in the old days. Does the band mean something different to you today than it did in the ’80s? Yeah, it means more to me now. It means everything to me. I couldn’t imagine my world without it because it consumes so much of my life. I’m constantly thinking about what we’re gonna do next. I mean, going out to Steve’s place to rehearse is like a mini vacation for us. Touring isn’t work for us, either. It’s our time away from our jobs to do what we really wanna do. I think that’s why we’ve always had positive attitudes about what we do. It’s never been like a business. It’s fun for us, so we’ve never taken it for granted. It’s easy to get caught up in the nine to five routine, time just flies by. With this, you always have something to look forward to. myspace.com/immolation Watch the Scion A/V video for Immolation’s “A Glorious Epoch” at scionav.com/musicvideos
Photography: Scott Kinkade
GRID LINK
Grindcore fanatics the world over know Jon Chang as the former frontman for legendary (and sadly defunct) cult favorite Discordance Axis, as well as the current vocalist for both grind masters GridLink and speed-thrashers Hayaino Daisuki. What they might not know is that Chang is also the president of and lead game designer for Echelon Software, where he is currently developing the online video game Black Powder, Red Earth. He told us about the connection between video games, anime and GridLink’s dizzying new 13-minute album, Orphan.
Music and video games are both very cathartic, especially the kind of games that I like to play, which tend to be shooter games with really intense action. You get really emotionally involved in these games because they require deep concentration. It’s the same thing with music—I get really involved in it. GridLink is certainly a very abrupt in-and-out experience, and people have complained because our new album is only 13 minutes long. To me, that’s exactly how long that album needed to be. Anything longer would’ve been filler. Think of it as a short story if you want, but that’s the whole book, you know? A lot of old anime and, surprisingly enough, old video games, have themes about deciding what’s the best course of action, what’s the right thing to do, what’s the way forward. Certainly when I started off writing I didn’t understand that. I mean, I was 19. As I’ve grown older, more and more of that kind of message comes out in my lyrics. When I started in Discordance Axis, we were not a very popular band. We’d play shows and three people would come. No one was really interested in what we were doing because the music was so extreme and the message was very intense emotionally, but it wasn’t delivered with clarity. For the most part, it was about the fact that life forces you to make hard choices and there are no easy answers.
I think I got some of that from old arcade games like Ikaruga or Radiant Silvergun—these are what are called “bullet hell” games. The concept is that there’s a ship propelled across the screen and the background is scrolling by while thousands of bad guys are charging at you and bullets are filling the screen. You have to maneuver through these intense waves of bullets and destroy everything you come across. I think those games have strangely deep messages in that the protagonists in the background narrative are people in turmoil who are trying to do the right thing even though they don’t necessarily know how to do it. And it always ends up somehow going wrong. There’s a lot of that on Orphan, actually, if you wanna relate it back in a broad sense to GridLink—certainly the idea of trying to follow the right course through life, making decisions, and having them just backfire on you over and over again. For me, it’s funny how Orphan and video games in general coincide. Most of the games and anime I enjoy are pretty dark and there are rarely happy endings. They involve young people trying to become adults, and it’s easy to get destroyed in that process, especially today. It’s difficult to
“It’s difficult to find where you can be in the world. Is there any responsibility to do anything beyond having a happy life for yourself?”
find where you can be in the world. Is there any responsibility to do anything beyond having a happy life for yourself? Can you even do that? It might sound silly, but that’s the bigger picture of how these things interact with what I write. As told to J. Bennett Watch an interview with GridLink and videos of their live performances at Scion’s Metal Matinee series at scionav.com/metal
Story: J. Bennett Invisible Oranges is an extreme music website owned and operated by a Los Angeles- based Cosmo Lee, metal journalist who als o contributes to Decib The site takes its nam el magazine. e from the colloquial ter m used to describe the exa clutching gesture tha ggerated t many extreme metal bands make in their pro Squeezing the imagin mo photos. ary citrus is a sor t of stre et- level Masonic handsh much like the site itse ake that, lf, speaks to obsessive power of heavy metal. Oranges, you can read On Invisible remarkably thoughtfu l inte rviews with musicians, on salient journalistic chime in queries like “Are Album Reviews Dead?” and ongoing analysis of eve peruse Lee’s ry song on Metallica’s first four albums. Sadly, Lee recently ann ounced that he would be leaving the popula driven site on Septe r communitymber 24, 2011. His rea son? “I want to make explains. “I’ve written music,” he about music for a wh ile, but that’s not what I to do. I don’t have eno was meant ugh hours in the day to make music, though, needs to go. And that so something something is Invisible Oranges.” However, there is goo d news for the site’s dedicated followers. according to plan, Lee If all goes will pass his phantom fruit to a worthy succes think I’m so unique tha sor. “I don’t t when I leave the site its functioning will diminis my thought processes h. I think can be duplicated, and right now I’m in the finding people I can sch process of ool in my methods and principles so the site can doing what it does,” he continue says. “I haven’t had mu ch time to figure out issues, but I really nee succession d to come up with a pla n and people to carry out But it’ll happen. It nee that plan. ds to happen.” invisibleoranges.com
o a k l a n d Sc en e Rep ort Since 2004, Saviours has been keeping Bay Area metal alive with its gigantic, doomy sound. On their third and latest album, Accelerated Living, the band combines the breakneck riffage of classic 1980s New Wave of British Heavy Metal with the infectious twin guitar leads of Thin Lizzy. We spoke with guitarist Sonny Reinhardt about what’s keeping heavy music alive in his Oakland hometown. Eli’s Mile High Club Right now there’s a bunch of warehouse spots and smaller venues going on, and Eli’s Mile High Club. They’ve been doing quite a few punk and metal shows. They did a secret Sleep show that was pretty crazy. There was no advertising or anything but it was pretty packed. Crossing the Bay Area Divide The East Bay is definitely more punk oriented— grind punk and sludge and some thrash—but it’s pretty varied, and a lot of the different bands play with each other. People hang out a lot, it’s not super segregated as far as scenes go. There’s a fairly good crossover of stuff from San Francisco, and the San Francisco scene has good shows, and there are bands that will play both. Everybody tries to help each other out on both sides.
1-2-3-4 Go! Records 1-2-3-4 Go! Records is really cool. It looks like they’re going to be expanding soon and, from what I hear, possibly become a venue. Most of the warehouses and places besides Eli’s are all ages. 1-2-3-4 Go! is definitely my neighborhood store that I go to all the time. I also find stuff at swap meets. The Oakland Metro They’ve been doing a lot of really cool metal shows. They’re a bigger spot with a bar that’s allages. They just had Doom and Brainoil. They do bigger metal gigs. The Ruby Room Me and a couple friends do a metal DJ night at the Ruby Room on Tuesdays, and there’s a new metal DJ at Merchant’s on Wednesdays. Even if there isn’t a show, you can hang out and listen to metal. As told to Maud Deitch killforsaviours.blogspot.com myspace.com/saviours666 Watch an interview with Saviours and videos of their live performance at Scion’s Metal Matinee series at scionav.com/metal
B LO G ROLL
Interview: Maud Deitch From Slayer and Slipknot to the latest fresh-faced thrashers, Metal Injection is a website dedicated to exposing every subgenre of metal to headbangers everywhere. With videos, interviews, live coverage and a weekly “Livecast” podcast that offers, according to editor Robert Pasbani, “a metalhead’s perspective on world events,” Metal Injection is a mustclick spot for all things heavy. Below, Pasbani answers some questions about the history and the approach of the site. How did Metal Injection start? We’ve been doing Metal Injection for seven years. It started when we were in college, and two of us were TV and Radio Production majors. We would get together and hang out and watch metal videos, and then one of our friends made us aware of this metal show on Brooklyn Public Access (BCAT). We watched it for a few weeks and we would always get so mad at how terrible the show was and would be like, We could do this so much better than she’s doing it. Finally we were like, Let’s do it. Later we realized that there was a much bigger audience online, so we took it there. What was the initial objective of the online show and then the blog? The goal was always to expose all forms of metal. We cover the whole spectrum— mainstream metal bands like Slipknot and Lamb of God, but also really small bands, like Wormrot. The goal is to get some of the mainstream kids on the site and maybe hear some smaller bands and really get into the scene. The goal is to champion the metal cause. What has worked and what hasn’t? I’ve definitely learned that there is not as much money in metal as there can be in other types of websites. But it’s not about money. It’s very hard to predict what is going to become popular in metal. You can sort of guess, but you’ll never know. I never would have predicted that deathcore would become as big as it has now. This has taught me that you should always be nice to everybody because you never know who’s going to make it. It’s really nice when we interview a band on their first record or first tour, and then we can go back four or five years later and interview them again.
metalinjection.net
SCION ST REAM I N G RA DI O T OP PI C K S:
Adam Shore, host of Radio Doom! on Scion Streaming Radio and booker of the Scion Rock Fest and the Scion Metal Matinee series, spotlights what’s currently interesting him in the world of metal. Nightbringer Certainly not among the more popular black metal bands around, Nightbringer is a lost crew from Colorado who have been burning the candles at both ends, conjuring up truly awesome spells of chaos for 10 years over 10 releases. Firmly in the second wave, their music consists of the usual noise layers, shifting melodies, weird digressions and demonic vocals, yet there’s a overall mood, a power and density, and a very dedicated sense of mission that makes them among my favorite black metal bands. Their new album Hierophany of the Open Grave (Season of Mist) is a monster. Their last album 2010’s Apocalypse Sun (Anja Offensive) is even better, filled with an unfiltered, uncompromising intensity. Nightbringer doesn’t tour that often, so see them when you can. I did once, at a weird hollowed-out Mexican restaurant in Compton in Los Angeles last year. There were more people onstage than in the audience, and the sound was louder coming out of their monitors than through the rickety PA. But they were mesmerizing. Yob Doom is as much about the space around the notes as the notes themselves. Normal song components like lyrics, melodies and hooks are much further down in the list of priorities. There needs to be suspense and anticipation hanging off every chord, a feeling that that there’s something unimaginably heavy coming up next, soon, at the precise moment when it all it’s just too much. Then repeat. The best bands have a depth of maturity and a level of concentration unimaginable for us mere mortals. That’s Yob. Yob just crossed over from being a first-rate doom band to being one of the best doom bands ever. That’s partially due to the excellent Atma record now out on Profound Lore, but just as much because of the
amount of touring they are doing, and will continue to do, night after night, getting deeper and deeper into the zone. Lustmord Brian Williams has been making terrifying music for 30 years now, first as part of the SPK/sound terrorism crew and continuing through his massive collection of solo records, some of which get pigeonholed as “dark ambient.” But this is not some depressive sonic wallpaper, new age music for saddos. It’s precise, claustrophobic, constantly shifting and moving sound, and it sounds like no one else. Williams makes his living doing sound design in Hollywood— you’ve heard his terrifying soundscapes, whether you realize it or not, in films, trailers and video games. He talked about it at length recently in a rare interview for Radio Doom!, right before his first New York City show since 1981. (Yes he made the stunning visuals for the show too, go to YouTube now!). It’s easy to highlight his releases with the Melvins and Tool camp, but instead get records like 1990’s Heresy (Soleilmoon) and 2009’s The Dark Places of the Earth (Side Effects), put on headphones, turn off the lights and enter into a completely new world. Playing Non-Stop Alpinist, Lichtlærm (Southern Lord); Maruta, Forward Into Regression (Willowtip); Dark Castle, Surrender To All Life Beyond Form (Profound Lore); Deathspell Omega, Paracletus (Norma Evangelium Diaboli); Thou, To the Chaos Wizard Youth (Howling Mind); and yes, even Gallhammer, The End (Peaceville). Listen to Radio Doom! at scionav.com/radio/channel8
Check Morris at The Big Idea opening at Installation LA
The Acc端sed at Scion Metal Matinee in Los Angeles, CA
Cruel Hand at Scion Metal Matinee in Los Angeles, CA
Gaza at Scion Metal Matinee in Los Angeles, CA
Burning Love at Scion Metal Matinee in Los Angeles, CA
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All Pigs Must Die at Scion Metal Matinee in Los Angeles, CA
Guests at Scion Metal Matinee in Los Angeles, CA
Burning Love at Scion Metal Matinee in Los Angeles, CA
Guests at the Pacific opening at Installation LA
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