Issue 18 - November 2013
1942-2013
Oderus Maximus
ROCK’N’ROLL HAS LEFT THE STRIP Hair Metal has relocated and evolved. Finland’s n.1 poster boy is more than just a pretty face: monogamist, fit, in touch with the fans. Time for Olli Herman and his crew to cross the pond?
Sonic Shocks - Issue 18
November 2013
R.I.P. LOU REED 1942-2013
Page 2
U.S. singer/songwriter Lou Reed has died at the age of 71. Lou, who cut his teeth in the industry as frontman of the influential band The Velvet Underground back in the late Sixties, went on to be one of the most respected song writers of his generation. Inspiring artists from Weezer to The Jesus and Mary Chain, as well as having his songs covered by the likes of David Bowie, Nirvana and R.E.M., Lou was an original, and his loss will be felt by many. Despite not really gaining mainstream approval at the time, The Velvet Underground are often quoted as being one of the most influential bands ever. To quote music producer Brian Eno, "The first Velvets album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it started a band". Reeds solo work is also littered with classic songs, with Perfect Day and Walk On The Wild Side being ideal examples of how to write a great song. After his well documented spells of drug and alcohol abuse, Lou had a liver transplant in May this year and had posted on his website in June that he was "a triumph of modern medicine”. Having released 20 solo albums, as well as his Velvet Underground material, Lou’s place in rock history is assured. Thanks for the memories, Rest In Peace....Lou is survived by his second wife musician and performing artist Laurie Anderson. By John Morgan
P. 15: SAHG’S GATE TO THE MUSICAL GALAXY Interview by Matt Dawson Page 3: GWAR - Balls, Booze and eternal life Interview by Matt Dawson
P. 16: NOCTUM - RESURRECTED IN EVIL Interview by Matt Dawson
P. 6: RECKLESS LOVE - NOTHING BUT A MERRY METAL TIME Interview and photos Cristina Massei
P. 16: DAMNATION PREVIEW By Matthew Tilt & Matt Dawson
P. 8: CULT OF LUNA - THE LIGHT CHASERS OF DAMNATION Interview by Matt Dawson
P. 17: OBLITERATION - INTO THE DARKNESS Interview by Matt Dawson
P. 9: AYREON Interview by Matt Dawson
P. 18: AT THE MOVIES By MatthewTilt Late Mizoguchi, Exposed, Sake-Bomb, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Twixt, Wonderfalls.
P. 10: AMERICAN FANGS - TRUE PUNK ROCK BLOOD Interview by Cristina Massei Page 12: LOKA Interview by Nelly Loriaux
P. 21: MUSIC REVIEWS By Matt Dawson, The Reverend Eddi Blues Pills, Ghost (B.C), The Way They Run, Thriller - A Metal Tribute to MJ, Whores, Winds of Plague
Page 13: THE GOLDEN AGE OF BURLESQUE by Sophia Disgrace Harem Scare Halloween Show, Dames’n’Flames Bonfire Burlesque, La Soiree, Miss Boudoir’s Photography & Styling
P. 23: LIVE By John ‘Hank’ Layland, Matt Higgs, Scott Green, Alessia Cifali, Kristian Kotilainen, Simona Palazzo LetLive, Alter Bridge, HIM, Deer Tick
P. 14: THE RELAYS - A NEW RECESSION ABOUT TO HIT YOU! Interview by Cristina Massei
P. 24: BRIDGET JONES - MAD ABOUT THE BOY Review by Cristina Massei
PLEASE NOTE: We listen to everything but - in your own interest - we don’t always review it...
EDITORIAL TEAM: EDITOR IN CHIEF: Cristina Massei MUSIC EDITOR: Matt Dawson MOVIES & TV EDITOR: Matthew Tilt EVENTS & NIGHTLIFE: Nelly Loriaux UNSIGNED EDITOR: Dan Balchin US CORRESPONDENT: Denise Britt BURLESQUE: Sophia Disgrace
CONTRIBUTORS:
CONTACTS:
WRITERS: John Morgan, The Reverend Eddi, Scott Green, John ‘Hank’ Layland, Alessia Cifali
Email info@sonicshocks.com for general enquiries and advertising@ sonicshocks.com if you need information on advertising with us.
PHOTOGRAPHERS: Cristina Massei, Matthew Higgs, Nelly Loriaux, Scott Green, Alessia Cifali
Refer to the contacts page on www. sonicshocks.com before sending unsolicited material and make sure to direct to the right person.
November 2013
Sonic Shocks - Issue 18
Page 3
By Matt Dawson It’s not every day that Matt Dawson gets to speak to a ruler and overlord of the Scumdogs but when Oderus Urungus wants to talk about the new GWAR album ‘Battle Maximus’ he answered the call and what follows is a conversation about immortal life, alcohol and how the substance known as jizzmoglobin holds the key to it all. Let us begin by talking about the concept behind ‘Battle Maximus’… First and foremost it is the first record we’ve done since the great cosmic passing of the mighty Flattus and the first we have done with our new Scumdog brother – Pustulus Maximus, the first we have done in our Slavepit Studios AND it’s the first record about the latest source of nuclear powered mutant asshole that GWAR is forced to confront on this latest EPIC chapter in GWAR’s already fairly epic history. I believe it’s about someone named Mr Perfect. Yes – and we’re not talking about the cheesy American wrestler from the 80’s/90’s, we’re talking about a creature from the future who has bred a race of master mutants and seeks the one thing from GWAR that he does not have in his repertoire of infernal skills, I speak of course about the ability to live forever like that Queen song, the Highlander [Oderus then tries to do a Scottish accent] Aye, the highlander [sings] Who wants to live forever? I can’t sing it like Freddie Mercury can but anyway I digress. Mr Perfect wants that power and who wouldn’t want that damn it? To be like Freddie Mercury in the Highlander and me of course, I’m in there too but anyway that’s what it’s all about but first and foremost it is a tribute to our fallen Scumdog warrior – Flattus Maximus, hallowed be his name. I hear the sound of far off booming Dirge Horns, they’re going off all the time around here and quite frankly I’m getting SICK OF IT! Where does the power to becoming immortal actually lie then? A substance called jizzmoglobin which we touched on briefly in our film Skullhead Face, it’s basically all the best chemicals that your body produces, everyone knows it produces serotonin, adrenaline and that shit that makes you trip really hard (DMT). All of that’s inside of you and all the other drugs that you take kind of stimulate all those agents in your body, what jizzmoglobin is: all the elements of your body distilled down to about 8ccs of liquid and upon death evaporates from the body unless it is harvested correctly. GWAR are big fans of harvesting this as in fact we seem to be natural repositories for jizzmoglobin. I THINK that there should be an episode of Doctor Who dedicated to it, we would fit into the pantheon quite nicely I think, fucking Greek mythos has got nothing on
Balls, Booze and Eternal Life us god damn it. It’s been represented in different religions as different things like the soul and the spirit. We call it jizzmoglobin and the biggest repository of it on this planet is located in my tripronged scrotal nut sack! I expected that for some reason [laughs] That’s the short form answer by the way, I could write a novel but I’m simply too fucking lazy! How was Pustulus initiated into the band? The audition process was the Battle Maximus in which he waged sonic war against his brothers and quite frankly the conflagration of the conflict formed a pulsating plasma ball about a mile or so away from the Antarctic fortress, we were all checking it out watching through the window and then we were like ‘Fuck! We’d better get down to the basement because this shit is going off the fucking handle’ so yeah we cowered for a little while, I don’t have a problem with that – I like to cower down in my underground bomb shelter, there’s pinball machines and shit down there. Anyway I waited for the battle to be over and then we heard this booming sound at our front gates, the gates sprung forth and there stood Pustulus of course covered in acne, it’s kind of why he’s so pissed about everything, he’s got the worst fucking case of acne I’ve ever seen, his acne has acne. He’s got it so bad you can smell it, you can hear the zits popping. Every teenager in the land will understand his plight then. Yes. I think they’ll feel better about
themselves, they’ll look at Pustulus and go ‘look at how many zits he’s got, look at how bad it is, he really looks like shit BUT my girlfriend is sucking his penis right now so that will help him out.’ What would you say then is the legacy of Flattus? He will be forever remembered, I think a lot of people need to understand that in the evolution of GWAR when we first de-thawed we were going through many changes – our brains had been frozen and even though we had sent out nocturnal emissions with our thoughts to those that were overrunning the planet while we slept we were like babies when we were reborn – if you can imagine a 40 billion year old baby. When we got addicted to crack and heavy metal that pretty much took over everything for a while but then we started to open up and thaw out a little bit. It took about 5 albums for us to warm up – although we’re not warm blooded, we can adapt our temperature to the environment we’re in – it took a while to be completely limber, I mean if you were frozen for 50 million years, you fucking try it, you’ll be groggy for a while! You’ve seen that movie Alien right? Yes. Now when they wake up from their little journey in outer space when they’ve been in suspended animation they don’t look like they’re doing all that great, do they? No, a bit groggy and tired. It was like that for about 10 years for GWAR, so Flattus – gentle giant that he was, probably because he smoked
November 2013
the most weed – he was the first one to emerge from this stupor and the way that he blasted us on to the true path of GWAR which is metal was with his fucking guitar, and starting with 2001’s Violence Has Arrived – though we had always stayed heavy and the live shows were also heavy we had started to experiment with all kinds, everything from opera to country and western, we wanted to understand everything and Flattus will be remembered for being the first member of GWAR to be ‘OK, we’ve done this enough for now and it’s time to get back to being a metal band’ and he did that by writing some fucking amazing metal songs and hopefully it’s continued into the new album as well. We have an amazing catalogue of songs that at any time I want I can whip out ‘Fishfuck’ – and I will at some point. Recently you guys held the GWARB-Q, how do you think this year’s instalment went? It was amazing, by far the best one yet. The line-up was better, there were more people, we poisoned thousands with our GWAR beer, we figured out GWAR B-Q sauce doesn’t shift well – it’s in glass bottles and usually we ship things by catapult and it didn’t work very well, lost a lot of orders that way but still people were driving their bikes into the lake, some even their cars and people were shitting in the woods. It was a blur of chaotic activity AND believe it or not there was actually ONE or maybe TWO hot chicks there. So it puts the Gathering of the Juggalos to shame then? I believe the clowns do pretty well, it’s not that the chicks aren’t hot, it’s that they’re dressed like clowns. Sometimes that turns people on, I mean clown sex is SCARY! Even if you don’t like ICP you’ve got to hand it to them for the complete fantasy world that they’ve created, in a sense they share a lot in common with GWAR. So what would be the main deal in a GWAR beer? Alcohol or at least that’s what it’s supposed to be! Don’t worry it’s not one of those gay beers like Raspberry, lemon, elder mush berry, casserole flavoured beers, I believe they say is a pale and I was happy to know it wasn’t hoppy, as much as I hate to admit it I’ve been drinking a lot of apple cider lately and that shit is pretty fucking good – alcoholic soda pop and gives me that apple gut. It’s very acidic – can you believe that a 50 billion year old chaos demon can actually get an upset tummy? Maybe I’m getting old. The thing is in Earth years I’m 50 billion but in Scumdog years that is negative 13 which means I’m just entering puberty but because I was born fully grown I am actually shrinking as I get older so I’m entering puberty but the END of it and I’ll be going backwards through it. Like I said – Doctor Who, the Doctor
Sonic Shocks - Issue 18
and I would have a great time with the TARDIS or the re TARDIS as Oderus calls it. What are the chances of UK shows? There are fair because for some reason a lot of people don’t seem to want GWAR to play, a lot of the promoters are like ‘for the risk involved with the show, the returns aren’t simply big enough’ and that’s truly sad because our last tour was cancelled at the last second which fucking pissed me off but we’re not going to dwell on that – we have a new album coming out which you should be able to find easy over there, it kicks fucking ass, I’ve been doing a TON of interviews so I can hope there’s some buzz growing – there should be something late Spring/summer. How do you feel metal has been as a genre in 2013? Well I have to say I’m an old fuddy-duddy, I still find myself listening to the old classics over and over again. It’s very rare when a band breaks the surface enough that I pay attention to them and I’m not sure if that’s just because I’m an old fart or because I really think the music of the past is better. Every now and then there’ll be a band like Watain or the new Carcass album I really like, let’s see: Amon Amarth, of course Lamb Of God and Municipal Waste – some of the guys that are on the cutting edge – I really like those bands and I see they’re doing new things but some-
Page 4
times I ask myself ‘Is the golden age of metal over?’ ‘Has it been over for a long time?’ and ‘If that’s true where is metal headed? I’m not really sure. It’s really weird when you look at these kids today wearing t-shirts of bands that were from freaking 30 years ago and one of those IS GWAR! It’s like we invented this shit, we’ve been doing it the best ever since and nobody has got any better at doing it so it makes you wonder what will happen when we’re gone – but we’ll never be gone because we’re immortal so I guess we’re set – I guess you’ll see Slayer and Motorhead cover bands in the future. As we wrap up this conversation – Oderus then decides to give a rallying cry to all the UK fans of GWAR. Get out there, support the Battle Maximus and remember to demand your GWAR, continually ask promoters and friends about ‘When will Gwar come back?’ because it’s the greatest fucking show in rock and roll, the new GWAR show is the fucking greatest we have ever done and in the name of Flattus I COMMAND YOU to demand your GWAR we must return to Europe and sink the place once and all. Until then this is your buddy and overlord Oderus Urungus singing out!
November 2013
Sonic Shocks - Issue 18
Page 5
November 2013
Sonic Shocks - Issue 18
NOTHING BUT A MERRY METAL TIME
By Cristina Massei I turn around to realize Olli Herman is standing, tall and beautiful as always, right next to me waiting for his interview. He greets me with his perfect smile and a hug, and while looking for somewhere quiet for our chat we start catching up from where we left it last time. Humble, kind and extremely likeable, Olli has very little in common with those who influenced him: no trace of the God-like arrogance of a Bret Michaels or any Motley Crue sleazy attitude, this guy is a true Prince Charming and, most importantly, a passionate music lover who clearly is not just here for the booze and the bitches. Gone are the consumed clichés, leaving just the rock’n’roll and fun of late 80s Sunset Strip, when a rock show was ‘nothing but a good fuckin’ time’. And it all comes, funny enough, from cold Finland - home of Black Metal, burnt churches and dark rituals. You might think this is not very ‘rock’n’roll’, but at a time when we’ve seen it and done it all by the age of 13, maybe this is what we’re longing for; at least, this is what all the sold-out shows and army of fans seem to tell us. Are the US next? Paris Jackson tweeted the latest Reckless Love video commenting that rock is back, but only in Europe; after a third successful album, ‘Spirit’, the Finnish show their clearly here to stay and they’re now urged to expand their kingdom. Let’s find out from Mr Herman himself if the boys already have a plan for world domination… Let’s start by talking about ‘I Love Heavy Metal’. This track name drops quite a few of your influences, how did that song come about? It was just an idea, I got this demo from Pepe and our producer that was done with acoustic guitar and for a long time I couldn’t think of any lyrics for the song and I knew it was killer
and I wanted a good set of lyrics for that. Suddenly it struck me, I Love Rock and Roll has been one of my favourite songs ever for such a long time and I’m a sucker for good titles so I had to steal it but make it a little bit of my own so ‘I Love Heavy Metal’ – those words were like pieces of a puzzle that just clicked and it was perfect, the message was perfect and it’s just a happy coincidence that it sounded a lot like Poison’s ‘Unskinny Bop’ and a lot like Def Leppard’s ‘Rocket’ which also them naming a few of their idols as well but they’re not doing that throughout the song so I decided to go for it. I Love Heavy Metal is the only lyric written for that song by myself! [laughs] So would you classify Reckless Love as a heavy metal band? Merry Metal! Well if Van Halen can be classified as heavy metal then Reckless Love should be too but I don’t agree it should be metal – I see ourselves as more pop/rock/metal. I like Merry Metal! Merry Metal’s great but .. It’d go down well at Christmas. Yeah, I mean heavy metal’s such a broad term , it covers so much and yeah sure enough it covers Reckless Love too and many of our idols – Def Leppard’s genre is called the new wave of British Heavy Metal. Like Saxon... Yeah and they’re nothing like Def Leppard. I find that a lot of these kinds of bands the attraction is the live show which is a big part of your success; how has your live show progressed since you started? Not that much actually. We’ve always had the same energy on stage, it’s probably that we’ve become more professional doing the set list, we play longer, we’ve mastered our craft bet-
Page 6
ter than we used to do – in 2010 there was so much new for us and half of the set was like being in awe ourselves ‘Fucking hell this is awesome!’ Nowadays we get to enjoy the whole set list from the first song right down to the last. There’s more presence on stage- sure we’ve got a light technician with us now and there’s little bits and pieces we come up with but we still don’t have any gimmicks, we don’t have pyro or anything like that and that’s because it’s honest, straightforward merry metal, it’s Reckless Love. Is there any artist that influences you when you’re on stage? All of them of course! The new jackets that were made, I got the idea because I’ve been a huge fan of Judas Priest since I was a kid, when I was a teenager I wanted to be Rob Halford! during ‘Metal Ass’ I thanked our mixing engineer for letting me be Rob Halford for one moment at the end of the song [laughs] or at least sound like him. It’s also the punk element of us that comes from the early Van Halen stuff. Every band and song that I mention in ‘I Love Heavy Metal’ – it’s all in the look, we’ve copied everything from those bands [laughs] You seem proud of it though… It’s not like we’ve consciously copied them, we started out as copying them of course – when you’re a kid you look up to your idols, word for word, note for note, shirt for shirt – you do it exactly like they did; after a while when you’ve grown up and you’ve done that for years it starts to come out naturally and you don’t think about that anymore, and suddenly you realise you’ve mixed so many different pieces together it’s like a puzzle, a mosaic: I took that bit from David Lee Roth, that bit from Rob Halford and that bit I took from Paul Stanley and added a little bit of my own there too, now it looks like me – it’s something nobody’s done before. Do you think that Spirit sounds a lot more like you? I think the production is better – the first album sounds like a demo compared to this one. Last time I saw you was after Animal Attraction came out, and that had a few mixed reviews; with Spirit everyone seems to agree that they love it – critics and fans alike. It’s always a bad sign when critics love the album [laughs], if the fans love it that’s the most important part and why we do music: we do it for ourselves and the fans , fuck critics, I don’t like critics – it’s just one person’s opinion, I’ve read a lot of reviews of this album that it sucks. Did you? Yeah – at least in Finland someone said we were ‘the worst effort to try and imitate what was once great’… fair enough! England was the first country to welcome you besides your own; I remember the London Barfly show that sold out before your debut album was even out! How does it feel coming back to London? I know there was the residency last year, is there a particular vibe coming over here? Of course. Especially London and Nottingham have a soft spot for Reckless Love, we had a great show there during the tour and they took a picture during the show which they later added to their backstage area. I posted it to my Instagram. We’re among Motorhead, Steel Panther and bands like that – it’s a real honour! We feel like there’s a little part of English inside Reckless Love for some reason. This was the first country outside of Finland that decided to release our album and we just took the chance and gave our hearts to the UK – they’ve treated us well. So there might be another residency?
November 2013
I’m not sure about another, it takes a long period of time and to be honest right now we don’t have time for more than 9 shows in the UK because we’ve got a massive tour going on in Finland, we’ve just put out the album in Japan, it’s coming out in German speaking countries and there’s a shit load of stuff to do in other countries. The UK will always have a special place in our hearts though. I’ve read Paris Jackson (Michael’s daughter) tweeted your video and said that rock is coming back – but only in Europe… She tweeted that yeah, and I wished she lived in Europe because there’s stuff like this. So is there an effort now you’ve released your third album to break into the USA? It depends on so many different things:, it’s not up to us. We get hundreds of emails a week saying ‘You should bring Reckless Love to Brazil’ or Argentina, the USA and Canada. We would love to bring it there because Merry Metal is for everybody, it’s not ours to keep and we’re going to do that but it doesn’t make sense for us to come there and pay a fortune. We’re not after the money, we just want to cover expenses, we don’t want to live on the street because we wanted to do a US tour and we have to release an album in the region. It’s up to Universal, we’re signed to them and right now the politics is moving towards a situation where we are able to negotiate with other record companies hopefully as well outside Finland. We shall see what the future brings , I’m not saying any specifics because I don’t know if I can legally [chuckles], we’ll keep our fingers crossed we can get it out to as many countries as possible and tour as many as humanly possible. There is a possibility then. Hopefully yeah; in this modern day era it’s internet above all, and the album’s already out there so is there a record company that wants to put out a record that is already out there? So more than likely with the next one. You never know, that’s the problem with internet – you release the album in the UK and Finland , it’s basically out in every country and no record company wants to touch that any more, at the same time someone closes the door for Reckless Love to come to Brazil or Argentina because it’s out there already. Record companies think that the fans that have heard it don’t want to buy the album anymore which is partly true but not all true, the situation is difficult but we’re a bunch of happy go lucky people, keep our fingers crossed and the flag held high. We’re not going to get depressed about the situation, it’s a good one. People want us to come everywhere and that’s fucking great – believe me we will bring Reckless Love everywhere once it’s humanly possible. I’m not going to ask you if this is your best album so far because every artist says so – which makes sense. What I want to ask you is why do you think this is your best album? We achieved everything we decided to achieve – we wanted to write a hair metal album with an exclamation mark and we succeeded in doing that and maybe even one more exclamation mark [laughs]. I can’t give you reasons but the reaction that I had when I first heard the final master tape of the album which was last July I think , after I heard all the songs I shed a tear or two of pure joy at having done such a good album. It felt remarkable to achieve something like that. If you wanted to do a side project what would it be? I can’t imagine what it would be because I
Sonic Shocks - Issue 18
feel like I’m in the same tier of creativity that comes into Reckless Love. Pepe writes the music, I write the lyrics and our producer writes some of it with Pepe as well. Right now we’re in good control of what we’re doing so if we did anything different we might as well put it under the Reckless Love name because it’s not like we’ve restricted ourselves, it’s how we naturally express ourselves. When you listen to tracks like ‘Hot’ and ‘Edge Of Our Dreams’ they’re not hair metal, they’re more like pop filtered through hair metal, you can hear it through ‘merry metal headphones’, it’s just a flavour that adds to the songs and we have the same philosophy behind all our songs. ‘Sex, Drugs and Reckless Love’ had no guitars in it when we first wrote it but in the end it just felt natural to add guitars and play it with them, it’s such a simple, straightforward rock and roll tune. The simple ones are the best ones, they’re the ones that make you think ‘Why didn’t no one think about this before?’ Exactly. ‘Hot’ was something similar, I think we managed to have a simple tune, the melody just goes up, it doesn’t even have a real chorus in it. It just felt natural. I see you’re very happy with this album. How’s the tour been going so far? It’s been a perfect tour – well maybe not perfect but close to it. There’s always room to improve yourself. Now to the more shallow questions… One all your male fans would like to ask: what’s your health and fitness regime? Actually I sometimes wonder why myself why my body is in the shape it is! I eat what I want to eat, of course I don’t eat all the time and the sizes aren’t that big. Even though they say eating fast is bad for you, I always finish my plate first! My workout is irregular as my life is – for the past 10 days I haven’t seen a gym, all running is on stage! I hate working out in the mornings [laughs] I think I’ve got good genes and when I’m not on tour I exercise as much as possible which basically means 3 times a week but I don’t have a regime. Any particular secret or ritual? Well, when I’m home, a lot of sex in the sauna with my wife [laughs]! One for your female fans now… If you were
Page 7
going to fund the next album through Pledge/ Kickstarter next, what would be the price tag on having dinner with you? Dinner and that’s it? Well, you can buy me dinner, that will do! I’m not for sale really, it feels strange to promote the album and take somebody’s money because they could meet me; if you come to the back I’ll shake your hand, take a photo and sign an autograph. But I’m not going to take you home [laughs]! Do you find it hard to keep direct contact with the fans now that you’re so busy? No, people come to see our shows, we’re physically in the same room even though we’re backstage we’re in the same building. We’re here for the fans and we try to meet them after every show – after towelling off and slipping into something dry, or singing tomorrow might not be an option! Where do you see Reckless Love in a decade? That’s interesting because someone asked me what my ultimate goal would be as a musician. Iron Maiden released their first album in 1980 and we put out ours in 2010; Iron Maiden now in 2013 have been around 33 years after their first album and they’re huge doing stadiums. I wish 33 years from now we’re going to be the same size, but hopefully there’s no line up changes! Your profile picture on Facebook is one I took of you at that very first gig at the Barfly and I’m sure you have better pictures of yourself… Why still that one? It’s a reminder for me; that was during the first tour and a reminder of where I started. People change theirs every day, I have Instagram for that. I’ve kept that picture fo over 2 years and that’s a long time in the Internet era! [laughs] What else would you like to say to the fans? Be yourselves, be proud of it and live your life like a die-hard, never give up! As we turn off the recorder, Olli thanks me for that shot and the many after that, remarking how important that gig is to him and how he’ll never forget where he started, how grateful he is for being where he is and doing what he does. And there was me, thinking it was about those ripped abs! There’s definitely a heart in that sculpted chest and a brain under the blonde hair, and they’re all original rather than attached to a bandanna… Respect, mister. World domination awaits you: this planet needs a good dose of Merry Metal.
November 2013
Sonic Shocks - Issue 18
To be honest when I learned to play guitar at 15 , the guy who was teaching me and I – we would play punk and hardcore and would try and copy songs from bands we liked – I remember one of the LPs that he had was Streetcleaner so I mean Godflesh has been with me since the day I got into music seriously so in that sense to see that Justin made a remix. When it comes to influence I wouldn’t say much to be honest, that’s a completely different thing but Godflesh and Streetcleaner have been part of my history as a musician, that’s the period where I learned how to write songs, I played completely different music at that point but still it was a big honour because actually the label asked us if we wanted to do a remix and we said no because basically I don’t like remixes but we decided ‘well we could do one remix’ they then asked who I wanted and I said ‘ask Justin if he’s up for it’. They asked us which song and we’re like ‘just give him the 20 minute track!’ The thing is, what came back from that was very impressive because I thought it sounds like a mix between Cult Of Luna and Jesu and I completely love it and it was a great idea to put it on the EP, it’s a perfect closer. It has the resemblance of the song but it’s completely different – exactly the way a remix should be, a lot of people doing ‘remixes’ is basically putting another beat on and doing something chaotic, that’s taking the easy road but this remix – he’s put his own touch on it so we’re super happy about that. Metropolis was seen as a main influence for the Vertikal series – what would you say were other influences? That [Metropolis] is not really true, Metropolis wasn’t an influence in itself, we were very much influenced by German expressionism which the crown jewel is basically Metropolis so that’s why it came into the picture but also futurist from the 1920’s, art deco and that kind of thing was the main influence for the album. Of course the idea of doing an album that would sound like a make believe city where people are just cogs in a big wheel, that’s what we were after. I think we managed to do that pretty well, at least we held very firm to the vision we had, we didn’t want to stray from that at all so I’m happy with how it all came out. Earlier in the year you did some UK shows – how do you feel they went? I think every show went really good as far as I remember – Glasgow was the second show of the tour and that was really interesting – it’s always nice and we played in a super small venue, it was fun to show we can play small venues. Of course Damnation Festival is coming up – headlining the Eyesore Merch stage – how does it feel to be playing there? I’ve been told it’s a great festival, when you start hearing good stuff about a festival from independent people they must be doing something right so I can’t wait to get there and see if what people say is true, people were keen on us playing this festival so we accepted and we’ll see! [laughs] If you have time – which other bands are you hoping to catch? I hope I get to meet The Ocean guys, Katatonia are playing, Carcass I saw at a Czech festival earlier this year, God Seed – I want to see God Seed. That’s about it! [Laughs] After Damnation what are the plans for Cult Of Luna? We’re going to take it easy, this is not a sprint, we’re in this for the whole marathon thing. We’re going back to being one album every 18 months type of band, that’s not going to happen so we’ll see what’s going to happen. As you may know Mikael from Opeth is behind the Friday of Roadburn in 2014 – if you could do your own who you would pick and why? I’m not going to answer that question because that will be answered later on… Nice and cryptic! Finally since we’re getting near the end of the year if you could give us 3 albums that you liked – which ones
The Light Chasers of Damnation As one of the headliners of Damnation this year Matt Dawson talks to Johannes Persson about how it feels to play the illustrious festival, his punk/hardcore background , German expression leading to Vertikal, Justin Broadrick remixes and his favourite albums of the year. To begin since you’ve just finished a tour with TesseracT and Katatonia how was it? It was great. We hadn’t been in the USA for quite some time so we didn’t know what to expect, we had this 4 band bill with TesseracT, Kataonia and Intronaut, it was an interesting line up and the reception we got was amazing, almost every night was really good. We’re happy that we did it, it took us 8 years to get back to the USA, it was definitely worth it! Every band on the bill was different to one another and I think sometimes that’s not ideal but with these 4 – we were different from one another but still in the same kind of universe. Vertikal II has been out for quite some time at this point – what led to its creation and what do you think of the reception it has received? All the songs on the EP were recorded during the album so we had known for quite some time it was going to be released, during the recording process we had an idea of maybe doing a double album but I didn’t think we had the material to back it up and you should never do anything for the sake of it so instead of doing a double album we just thought let’s just release these 2 in such a short time period so it would be perceived as part of the same release and I hope that’s how it was perceived because they belong together. As for the reception – you don’t get as much press as when you release an album of course but I was quite surprised because these tracks are a bit more experimental than the album and I was very surprised that people got into it actually the way they have, I thought the response would be that we had gone too far with the experimentation but I haven’t yet heard any or maybe our press girl isn’t sending the bad reviews I don’t know. [chuckles] Now the last track on the EP is a remix of Vicarious Redemption by Justin Broadrick – how was it to have a remix created by him and how much would you say Jesu/Godflesh have as an influence on the band?
Page 8
November 2013
Sonic Shocks - Issue 18
would they be? Oh man I don’t even know what’s been released! I’m getting too old. Right now I’m listening to soundtracks like The Last Of Us, actually one album – which isn’t metal at all – that I’ve listened to is Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip – Repent, Repel, Repeat. I love that, lyrical genius and amazing in so many ways, I remember that one because it came out like 2 weeks ago [laughs!] It’s a bit harder, harsher and heavier, the tone is more bleak than the other albums, there must be more than this though [laughs]. [Johannes then types into Google best metal albums of 2013 and scrolls down a site’s list..] You know what I thought the last Black Sabbath album was actually good! [He keeps looking though] YES! One of my favourites – Queens Of the Stone Age, they’ve been going downhill since Songs For The Deaf but the last one I listened to a lot plus I saw them in Stockholm, it was a really great show. That’s pretty much it. Sabbath’s a weird one for me as I didn’t think Brad Wilk was the best choice for the drums. No. one thing I can hear on it though is that they REALLY tried to make it sound like a Sabbath album from the 70’s but I think they’re good songs, I wouldn’t say I’m a big Sabbath fan – I like the first 4 and I know as a metal musician you should look at them as gods and I don’t – but they’re a good band. Being born in ’79 and brought up in hard rock and metal my entire life I can’t imagine how heavy that must have been when it came out – pretty much the same time as Let It Be by The Beatles! You just said the thoughts when it comes to metal and Sabbath – do you see Cult Of Luna as a metal band or something else now? We are most definitely a metal band but we have never been a part of the metal scene, when we started I was from a punk/ hardcore background and most of the guys weren’t from either a punk or metal background which I think is a really good thing because if you don’t know a genre, you don’t really know what rules you should live by – you can’t break or obey rules you don’t know of. With that said it’s been an amazing advantage for us as a band, we’re undoubtedly a metal band and there’s no reason to deny that. Obviously I listen to a lot of different things but mostly heavy stuff so I’ve never been a part of the scene but I grew up with Kiss, Motley Crue. I listen to everything from electronic noise to the occasional pop song every now and then. I’ve said to a lot of metal musicians who’ve asked me about how to start when it comes to music writing: do something that’s not your genre because if you do no one’s going to be able to notice and make sure that you write songs influenced by other things than metal because then you’ll find something that’s unique. There are a lot of bands that sound the same and that’s not necessarily bad – I can’t tell thrash and black metal bands apart but you can still enjoy it but there’s a lot out there that don’t touch me because you can hear what they’re trying to copy and I’m getting too old for copies of copies! People in their 20’s now – when they think of punk, they think Fall Out Boy because that was punk when they were 10/15 and they’ve never heard of Black Flag, Minor Threat or the first punk band I listened to – Discharge. I remember being in a football tournament and there were these punk kids standing by one of the pitches playing something heavy and I was drawn to them because they looked dangerous and I was into that kind of stuff. I was a sports kid when I was 11 and I went up to them and asked them what they listening to, they said Discharge and one of those guys I ended up going to the same high school as. The first album I brought with my own money was Sepultura’s Arise, I got all the Crue, Guns and Roses and Poison off my parents but they wouldn’t buy Metallica’s Kill Em All or Sepultura’s Arise due to the violent covers! [Laughs] Both Vertikal and Vertikal II are out now via Indie Recordings. Catch them headlining the Eyesore Merch stage at Damnation Festival November 2nd.
Page 9
Returning to his Ayreon project Arjen Anthony Lucassen talks to Matt Dawson about working with Prog legends such as Keith Emerson, what led to the Theory Of Everything, and how he discovers new talent. Here’s a taster… The Theory Of Everything is a return if you will to the Ayreon mythology because you mentioned taking a break from it for a period of time, what led to the break? What I said with the last Ayreon album was the whole story arc that’s been spanning over I think 7 albums was getting too complicated, I didn’t understand it myself any more, I had to ask the fans so the whole science fiction story about forever and Planet Y, the whole thing, so what I said back then was I’m going to end that story and start a completely new one and I’m going to do a lot of things differently. I’m working with singers and instrumentalists now that I’ve never worked with before and a completely new way in the studio with this album, it’s a new story, no connections to the old story, it’s not even science fiction so that was a big challenge for me. This time you worked with Marko Hietala from Nightwish, Tommy Karevik from Kamelot, Cristina Scabbia from Lacuna Coil and JB from Grand Magus who are all well established in the symphonic/power/ heavy metal and rock scenes but there’s two singers many people may not know in Michael Mills and Sara Squadrani. What led to you to working with them? What I like is a mixture of guest musicians, if you look at this album I’ve got many of the old heroes from the 70’s, famous singers like you said from Nightwish, Kamelot and Lacuna Coil but also I always want to have a couple of unknowns on there, just people that I hear on Youtube… I read a lot of magazines and every time I read something about a band that interests me I write down the name and check them out. Sometimes there’s such amazing talent that I think ‘Oh my God, no one knows this person and I want to give them a chance and a good chance is to sing on an Ayreon album.’ For instance Michael Mills from Toehider – I read a review that compared his music with old Queen – Queen II which is one of my favourite albums of all time, so I checked him out and was completely amazed; on the Youtube’s sidebar you get recommendations and there was a guy playing [Jethro Tull’s] ‘Thick As A Brick’ on an upside down bauzouki and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ on acoustic guitar in 1 take. I left a comment on his Youtube and it turned out to be Michael from Toehider so I got in touch with him saying I’ve got to work with you and he said ‘say the word, I’ll be there!’ He stayed in Amsterdam for a month because as he put it ‘you can choose when you want me in your studio’ because I only needed him for 2 days. To give a guy like that who’s an absolute virtuoso genius a chance, that’s just great in the hope that people will discover his music. How do you feel about the band’s evolution? When I started Ayreon I had no idea that it was going to be a continuation you know? All the years before that I tried to do what people wanted to hear, my last band Vengeance was typical 80’s hair metal stuff, somewhere between AC/DC and Van Halen, of course grunge completely swept it away – and I liked grunge: Nirvana and Alice In Chains – so we tried to do that kind of stuff but people didn’t want that of us, we tried to do something we’re not. I thought let’s do a solo album, let’s write some really commercial tracks – that flopped hopelessly, people hated it and didn’t want to hear that from me. I then thought ‘Let’s do something *I* like’, at least if I have kids – which I probably won’t – I can at least tell them that this is the stuff Daddy is proud of – 100% my stuff so I mixed Prog with metal, folk, electronic and classical – everything that I liked, all my influences and I expected no one to like this stuff. Indeed when I finished it no one wanted to touch it, I’d been shopping with it for a year – a lot of [people at] record companies said they loved it and they would play it at home but we’re not going to sign you! Read the full version coming soon on www.sonicshocks.com
November 2013
Sonic Shocks - Issue 18
Page 10
TRUE PUNK ROCK BLOOD By Cristina Massei Discovering a new awesome band I don’t know and finding out they’ll be playing in your town relatively soon is what I call a good day... Even better when you get a chance to talk to their frontman and see the passion behind the wilderness.. Vampires and fangbangers of the world, I give you Gabe Cavazos! You guys already have a full length album released in the US, why did you decide to go for an EP over here? It was a chance to start with a clean slate. We’ve been up and down, with new guitarist in and out of our band..it’s been such a roller coaster. People ask us who we are? What are we about...and it all starts with that EP. How did you pick the songs for the EP? Sonically, the songs made sense together. A bit of everything from our band...and those aren’t even scratching the surface of what we are about, but they represent the grit, and the poppiness we love as a band, as well as the spirit. When are we going to get the full album over here? I’ll bring it on December 1st. ;) I’ve heard you put up quite a wild show. What can we expect when you come visit us with Papa Roach this winter? I don’t want to get locked up abroad by any means, but playing live is what we live for. Trying to capture the essence of a band’s live show on an album is always a fun challenge, and it’s usually dwarfed once we have a chance to take the leash off. I think I may set myself on fire. Does the wildness end on stage or does it continue after the show?
We’re extremely in tune with one another as a band, so the energy typically travels with us off stage like smoke. I’m sure it sounds corny, but we live for this. We consider ourselves underdogs and don’t usually feel like people respect or get our rhythm until the last note in the set is struck. We go straight from the stage into the crowd to keep that rhythm pulsing. It’s a must to keep the good vibes going. Jacoby Shaddix called you ‘a vicious band that bleeds soul from their punk rock heart’: do you agree with that definition? 100% !! And folks can disagree and attempt to define all day, but at the end of that day, there’s no need to lie to ourselves. You can see this in our bones. ‘Sorry’ is quite a break from the rest of the EP, would you like to tell me more about what inspired it? My twin brother and I were raised by my single mother, who at one point fell on hard times. We found ourselves homeless for a while. Being a young child, you don’t fully understand the difficulties your parents are dealing with at times. I didn’t come to realize what she was balancing in life until I was much older. There were times where family wanted to help us and she was so determined to dig herself out of this particular situation that she refused their help. I think about those times often. It’s hard not to. The song is about her pride and the lessons that carried over to us as a family. Aside from that particular song, what usually inspires your songwriting? Inspirations change daily. Altogether, I would say being in tune with oneself and your surroundings is the best source. Your antenna is always up and you’re constantly receiving the urge to create while bouncing those ideas back and forth. What would you say are your main Influences? I’m more obsessed with how “deep the
rabbit hole” goes than I’d like to admit. That curiosity has been a huge influence since I opened my first book as a child. It’s highly important to what we do as a band and how I live as a person. Remaining in this constant state of discovery is what brings me into another good day. You’ve been playing with a very diverse range of artists, which one do you feel was musically closer to American Fangs? Sevendust! Mainly because they’re this heavy, sharp, thoughtful band that’s always honest in their music, as they grow. They’ve got these wonderful 3 part harmonies skating over these tough riffs and then they bring you down to earth, down to this sincere moments with beautiful songs like ‘Got a Feeling’ and ‘Angels Son’. It’s safe to say my entire band’s jaw dropped every night watching these gentlemen perform. What do you hope the new year will bring for American Fangs? More shows! More shows overseas. Maybe some health Insurance. Definitely an onsite chiropractor! And finally, can I ask how did the name come up? A great deal of our bands characteristics and songs came from happy accidents. We were even a complete band when we were going by the name, ‘Fangs’ and that name was unfortunately being used. We threw around a few suggestions and ultimately landed on American Fangs. America can be out of its fucking mind. It can also be a quiet onlooker. In the end who knows what you get. It felt like the perfect name. The Pomona EP is out now, available on Amazon and iTunes. To see American Fangs live with Papa Roach in December, get dates and tickets via Ticketmaster. To find out more, head to www.americanfangs.net
Sonic Shocks - Issue 18
November 2013
Page 11
SAHG
DELUSIONS OF GRANDEUR OUT 28.10! Sahg master the Art of Rock!
FACEBOOK.COM/SAHGBAND
OBLITERATION BLACK DEATH HORIZON COMING 11.11! FACEBOOK.COM/OBLITERATIONOFFICIAL
GLITTERTIND DJEVELSVART COMING 25.11!
FACEBOOK.COM/GLITTERTINDOFFICIAL
GEHENNA UNRAVEL OUT NOW
CULT OF LUNA VERTIKAL II OUT NOW
VISIT SHOP.INDIERECORDINGS.NO FOR EXCLUSIVE CDS, SPECIAL VINYL AND MERCHANDISE! DIGITAL, GO TO DIGITAL.INDIERECORDINGS.NO
SONICSHOCS_FULLPAGE.indd 1
SARKE ARUAGINT OUT NOW
INDIE RECORDINGS PLØENS GATE 1, 0181 OSLO - NORWAY WWW.INDIERECORDINGS.NO
10/16/13 11:41 AM
November 2013
Sonic Shocks - Issue 18
Page 12
By Nelly Loriaux n the current, colourful world of Japanese music, between J-Pop and Visual Kei, a brand new, more traditional rock band captured Nelly’s attention. LOKA are on their way to Europe, yet the UK seem to be late on this one. Maybe we can help them discover this four piece which we’re sure would do pretty well with our audience Our UK readers are unfamiliar with LOKA so could you introduce yourselves to them? Kihiro : Vocalist, originally from Tokyo, an EDO boy! I grew up half of my life in California and toured across the US with my previous band called “Supe”. KEN’ICHI: Drummer, originally from Ehime, the land of tangerines! I used to play for a major band called SEX MACHINEGUNS in Japan. Katsumi: Bassist, originally from Okinawa, but grew up in the ghetto side of Tokyo! Used to play for a major band called Clayfish, also played as a guitarist for one music video of “Kuroyume”, song !Love me do”. SIN: Guitarist, originally from Kanagawa, I’m the youngest in the band :). Originally guitarist for visual kei band “WIZARD”, also the only guy with a visual kei band background lol. Where you are from, how did you meet up, what’s your musical background? Kihiro met KEN’ICHI through a mutual friend, they started jamming together from 2011, and actually formed a band called “All the World is Waiting for the Sun”, though lasted for only 3 shows. A year later after the two formed LOKA, they met Katsumi through Kihiro’s mutual friend band, “BACK-ON”. SIN was also met through Kihiro’s mutual friend from band “High Speed Boyz”. I understand this was primarily a solo project, what made you decide to form the band? It was first Kihiro’s solo project, though after KEN’ICHI decided to leave SEX MACHINEGUNS and join LOKA, the two decided to form a new band together. Though they were very careful and slow in deciding who to chose as their formal member. So the first year, all guitarist and bassist were support members. LOKA actually became a 4piece band on August of 2013. Has the writing changed now? Yes, we now create songs with the 4 of us. Before it was mainly Kihiro and KEN’ICHI putting out the ideas and getting help from their friend guitarist. Right now, we make the first phase of the song in the studio with the 4 of us. It’s much more progressive and the sound is changing more as a “band”. The first song that was made is “FROM YESTERDAY” and followed by a new song still not released “11th HOUR!. Japan has a long standing reputation of primarily serving its ‘domestic’ market, is there a place there for hard rock? Of course, hard rock scene always existed in Japan, though most was aimed against foreign bands. Nowadays there are so many hard rock, metal, punk, bands that create a huge scene in Japan. Maybe its not just shown in the main media, but the scene is there. Kihiro is actually one of the singers who created the “LOUD ROCK” scene in Japan with his previous band “Supe” along with other bands like “Pay money to my pain”, “Coldrain” and “SiM”. Social media and technology have become more and more important forartists these days so how do you engage with an audience that regard Japanese music as a ‘secular’ market where J-pop and anime seem predominant? We just do what we do really… The music speaks for itself, even if we don’t have a song tied up with an Anime if the song is cool people will react. If we don’t believe in that, that means we don’t believe the power we have against our music. Besides, we are a ROCK BAND, we don’t aim to be a secular music, we work to become one.
It is fair to say that westerners do not regard Japan as a hard rock heaven, any strategy to convert them? Come to our country and see for yourself lol. We feel the next world standard Rock will become Japanese Rock bands. Now watching and listening to your videos I can see a progression from a more 80’s hard rock style ( everybody rock’n’roll) to 90’s Nu-metal (i.e. Naked To My Soul), so how would you describe your style of music? Since we just did become 4 piece band few months ago, we are still in the phase of developing our own style. However, we do seek for a sound that somewhat sounds 80’s & 90’s Rock, Metal but with a taste of synthesizers and computer composed music. You recently won ‘the MuzicNotez Rock Battle!’, although I am pretty sure you feel ecstatic about it, what does it represent for you? what’s next? Ummm… actually we were pretty confident that we will win lol. We have great loyal fans that support us not only Japan but overseas, and that means everything to us. So we try hard to relate with our fans as much as we can in our own way. So with that in mind, winning a competition is just one phase, we aim higher to gain more “wins” But for that, we need the fans, for the fans they need good music from us. You are shortly embarking on a EU tour, I am a bit surprised there are no dates in the UK, Any particular reasons why? Well…no reason for us, if we were called to come, we’d definitely love to get a taste of UK crowd. So promoters and booking agents, get on your phone and computer and give us a call! lol Looking into the future, any new releases in the pipeline? Yes, we are looking forward to release our first album as a 4 piece band next year 2014. It’s gonna sound more solid, more color as a band. We are now touring, touring, and touring while we work to write new songs on are days off… crazy schedule but its worth it :) Hope everyone checks our Music Videos before the new release, since that is now the only way to listen to it. LOKA is a sanskrit word for ‘WORLD’, was it intentional or is there another meaning for your choice? Yeah, Kihiro named it for hopes of being an WORLD CLASS BAND and not just an international touring band. The word “world” implies many things for LOKA other than the music. Its the fans, city, air, smell, noise, sight, sex, girls… everything. We want to interpret every experience and perform it in our music and the live shows. That is what you will see in our show, so come and feel it UK!!! For more info check these out: Website : http://loka-official.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LokaOfficial Mail Magazine : http://loka.loudrock.net/en
November 2013
Sonic Shocks - Issue 18
Burlesque! Welcome to your one stop drop for all the news on the best burlesque nights, in the capital and beyond! My name is Sophia Disgrace and I’ve performed at numerous events in the U.K and abroad, from festivals to the most exclusive clubs. I tend perform in a neo burlesque style and incorparate other elements, such as fire play, into my routines. Burlesque - or ‘the art of tease’ as it’s also known, first rose to prominence in the 1950’s; in recent years it’s enjoyed something of a revival, with stars such as Dita Von Teese helping to popularise the scene once again. Here are my pick of all things burlesque this month...
Page 13
By Sophia Disgrace Sophia’s picture by MS Photography
Harem-Scare Halloween Show
@ The Picturedrome, Northampton Friday 1st November 2013 From 7.00pm-11.30PM Prepare yourself for thrills, chills and lots of crazy antics at this one off Halloween themed event. Burlesque heavy weights Beatrix Von Bourbon, Banbury Cross and plenty of other sultry temptresses promise to make this years Halloween a truly memorable one! Also indulge your darkly comic side with the one and only Mr Joe Black and delightful hostess Mysti Vine. Expect a few extra surprises over the course of the show and theres a prize for best dressed! Go get mummified!
This month’s velvet curtain reveals... Burlesque Spotlight!
Miss Boudoir’s Photography & Styling
Cheshire - Lancashire
Tickets from £10.00, please call for further information 01604 230777
Dames and Flames Bonfire Burlesque Night
@ Telfords Warehouse, Chester Tuesday 5th November 2013 From 7.30PM-Late Fireworks and sparklers! Wonderful vintage games! A sci-fi lounge showing sci fi films! A real life DJ and dancing burlesque girls with a sci fi twist!I LOVE the theme of this night, it sounds out of this world! Burlesque from Lara Gothique, Susie Sequin and a whole host of alien-tastic beauties. Don’t miss out, go get yourself abducted today! Tickets £10.00 available via Skiddle.com
La Soiree
@The Roundhouse, Camden - London From 23rd November to January 2014 From 7pm Sundays, 8pm Tues-Thurs and 10pm Fri-Sat. After a successful stint touring venues world wide, from New York to Sydney, La Soiree is back in London just in time for Christmas. Expect an edgy extravaganza of cabaret, burlesque, comedy and more. The ever changing, vaudevillian inspired line up includes performers from the award winning 'La Clique'. Mayhem, frivolity and more than a touch of mischief is guaranteed! Please note, due to the nature of some of the performances this event is over 18's only. Tickets prices vary, contact Roundhouse Box Office for more information on 0844 482 8008
Fancy a day of pampering and decadence with a twist? Why not book yourself (or if you’re feeling generous, a loved one) in for a make-over and photography session with a difference, at Miss Boudoir. Run by award winning photographer and digital artist Emma, Miss Boudoir specializes in pin up and vintage photography as well as wedding, erotic and commercial. Various packages are available, and are all set in sumptuous surroundings befitting of the themes afore mentioned, which once booked are yours and yours alone for the session in hand. Embrace your inner starlet! Refer to www.missboudoir.com online for further information.
Sonic Shocks - Issue 18
November 2013
Page 14
By Cristina Massei They’re already selling out venues in the Manchester area and they’re now descending down South to bring their ‘Recession Pop’ to the rest of the UK. We still don’t know exactly what ‘recession pop’ is, but we know it sounds damn good after listening to the first couple of tracks we came across, so we decided to have a chat with the Relays and get ready for the invasion...
A NEW RECESSION ABOUT TO HIT YOU!
First of all, looking at your Facebook you describe yourselves as ‘Recession Pop’: can you explain our readers what Recession Pop is? We played a show in Manchester recently for BBC Introducing. It was packed and mental. A guy crowd surfed to the front with a paper Primark bag, pointed to it and said “It’s you! You’re Recession pop!” and it kind of stuck. When and how did you guys get together? The current line formed about 2 months ago. We knew each other from different bands and decided to start a super group and take over the world. Are you full time musicians or do you still have day jobs to pay the bills? Some of us work, some just part time. As long as there’s enough cash to record new stuff that’s fine. The bills can wait. You’re already selling out venues in and around the Manchester area and your debut single ‘Last Night She Said’ has been aired on BBC; what’s the secret to getting noticed so quickly in today’s overcrowded music scene? Hard work and having all the best songs. You can’t just have one or two good tunes. It needs to be great across the board. You need to imagine there’s another band working harder than you, then you try and beat them. In the 90s, you could get signed if you had a cool haircut, now you have to have everything perfect to stand
a good chance. Next step, world domination: when are you planning to invade the rest of the UK and give everyone a chance to see what The Relays are all about? Next Thursday! We’re playing Camden for the next show of the single tour. We have a couple of London dates, plus Manchester, Sheffield, Liverpool and Glasgow. The tour is on our website - therelays.net. In the meanwhile, How would you describe a Relays live show? The perfect balance of perfectionism and chaos. And loads of lunatics dancing. When can we expect a full length album from the Relays, do you have some material ready yet? We have a good stack of material recorded. Enough for a very good album. We’ll see how the writing goes over the winter and make a decision then. We›d like to do another couple of singles first. In the meanwhile, we have a single and a free download – ‘You Invented Horror’; is there any more of your music available on the World Wide Web, and where should we go? There are quite a few tracks available to stream on soundcloud. com/therelays and there will be some new exclusive material available from therelays.net in the very near future. Which bands influenced you and which new ones should we keep an eye on – besides you? Music is so easy to get hold of these days. Each song is influenced by completely different artists. I’d say there are definitely Oasis, Killers, Foals and Stone Roses sentiments running through a lot of our songs. As for new stuff, check out The Waterpistols! Beady Eye, High Flying Birds or Oasis reunion? Oasis but maybe in a couple of years when everyone is craving it again. Really liking the new stuff Liam Gallagher is doing with Beady Eye though. The sleeves for your first two singles are designed by Brian Cannon (Verve, Oasis and more); how did you get him involved? We’ve known Brian for a long time. Adam appeared on a couple of his sleeves a few years back and kept in touch. He’s really into the sound and what the band are doing so agreed to design the artwork. 2013 is nearly over: make a wish for 2014. Glasto and Jools Holland. Any last famous words? To quote Brian: “Let’s have some fun, ‘cos we’re all gonna die in a bit.” Site: www.therelays.net Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheRelays Twitter: https://twitter.com/therelays Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/therelays
November 2013
With their new album Delusions Of Grandeur making its 70’s/metal/psychedelica/progressive hold on many a music fan Matt Dawson talked to Tony Vetaas (bassist) to get more insight into the concept, their influences and more. You created this new album with a concept in mind – why did you decide to make that decision and do you feel that there will be more concept based records in the future? Making a concept album was kind of a coincident. We came up with a title in the beginning stages of the planning of the album, Delusions of Grandeur, and started throwing around song ideas connected to the title. There was a lot of coinciding ideas and the thought of a concept album was born. The album tells the story about a person, whose delusions of grandeur escalate to the level where they consume him completely. He loses touch with everyone around him, and isolates into his own imaginary world, where he takes over the whole universe. In desperation for more power, he loses his foothold and drifts weightless into space, and disappears in the darkness. Working on a complete story for the whole album turned out to be a very good way for us to work and it brought out a lot of creativity and everyone could participate. It gave us a solid fundament to base the lyrics on. If the right ideas come along, I think we definitely will try to work like this again. And there might be more concept albums from Sahg in the future. But all I can tell you for now is that there are a lot more stories out there waiting to be told. Next year will be the 10 year anniversary of the band – how do you feel the band has evolved from beginning to now? First of all we have become better musicians and have evolved as songwriters. We have also become more confident about what we do, which makes it easier for us to take a chance or two. The band has also made it´s mark and found it´s place in the music scene. We have had some good tours and that is always a good experience. I think its fair to say that the band now are more experienced and confident overall. Delusions of Grandeur is a step into the unknown for Sahg and the purpose is to explore and conquer new territory. and to be here now shows the evolution of the band quite well, I think. How was it working with Iver Sandoy?
Sonic Shocks - Issue 18
’s Gate to the musical Galaxy
This was our first time working with a producer that really took hold of the process of making the record. That gave us more freedom to concentrate on the musical aspects of the process. We didn`t have to worry too much about all the stuff that goes on besides the performing part of it. Iver came along early on and brought ideas and advices to the writing process. We hit it out well from the start. He knows his stuff and have much of the same background as the rest of us. He also knows the band well through friendships with members of Sahg. He has followed the band from the beginning and knows and understands the basic ideas for what Sahg is all about. We probably couldn’t have found a better producer so close to our base. How was it working in Solslottet studios? First part of the recordings were done in Duper studio, next door to Solslottet. Duper has enough space to fit the whole band in there, so we set up our gear and recorded live, which was the way we wanted to do it. It turned out as a great experience. We got the energy and the dynamic we were looking for. It was important for us to try to create a feeling close to the feeling of a live gig with the band, and I think you can hear that on the record. We also recorded on tape, like in the old times. Guitar overdubs, percussions, all the vocals and all the other ”extra seasoning” was done in Solslottet. This is our producer’s own studio, a nice, little place, perfect for laying down the finishing tracks. We have a really good feeling about the way we recorded this album, it was the right way to do the kind of album we
Page 15
wanted to make this time. Great way to do it! What was the mindset of the band going into the recording of this record? We where determined to try to make something different than we had before. Open some new doors and try to explore and challenge our musicality in ways we had not done before. We wrote a lot of stuff. Had a lot of ideas. Some of them might end up on a record in the future. We tried various approaches to the material we had written, and spent a lot of time in the rehearsal room trying to get the right feel, dynamic and sound to the material. I think we came very close in the end to what we wanted this to sound like and we might follow the same track when we start to work on our next one. Which bands and films influenced the creation of the record? Sahg is a band with roots in the early heavy rock. In the footsteps of Zeppelin, Purple, Sabbath. We also have a strong relationship to the British metalwave in the 80`s, the thrash movement and some of the grunge from the 90`s. This is what we grew up with and it`s the core of our musical expression. That said we also listen to other genres like prog and psychedelia, and newer bands like Mastodon and Opeth brings in fresh ways to see things. But mostly we make music we wanna hear ourselves. Sahg is first and foremost to our own satisfaction. That said, we are of course happy when others dig it too. Conseptually, a lot of inspiration came from classic science fiction novels and movies, like ’2001: A Space Odessey’, which inspired the way we evolved the concept into a psychedelic, cosmic sphere. Also, the sheer brutality of history has had a central influence on the ’Delusions ...’ concept. The worst delusions of grandeur are reason to the darkest milestones of history, like Holocaust and the countless other barbaric events that quite contradictory have helped to shape civilization and the modern world. It is the great ethic paradox of our excistence. Plans for UK shows in the future? We will definitely return to the UK soon. We have had a blast every time we have toured over there, latest during the two tours we did in the spring, so it is a goal for us to go back, the sooner the better. We are in the planning of touring the album as we speak, but nothing is official yet. Hopefully, we see you some time in 2014. In the meantime enjoy our new album, Delusions of Grandeur.
November 2013
Sonic Shocks - Issue 18
Page 16
that the reason it gets mentioned more now is because we decided to have a stronger metal touch on this record.
PREVIEW
What can we expect from Noctum in a live setting? An atmosphere that justify the dark and heavy music, it will be a new band and a new stage show. What are the plans for UK dates? We got a agent in Europe so hopefully we will visit the legendary Island shortly.
Noctum carry on raising the occult metal and Uppsala flag high. With the magic of bands from Uppsala and occult metal weaving its way into many a fan of rock and metal’s heart, it was only fair that Matt Dawson would speak to Tobias Rosen (bassist) about Final Sacrifice, how they want you to see the story and the rise of both the Occult metal and Uppsala. How did it feel to sign with Metal Blade? It felt surrealistic. It took quite some time to understand what it actually meant and how bright the future was. What was the mindset of the band going into making Final Sacrifice? “Dark and Heavy” We really wanted to make a mark and show how we sound today, almost 3 years after our debut album. Explain the conceptual link between the songs on Final Sacrifice We have decided not to reveal the storyline, instead we want to see what people come up with! But it’s a fictional horror story that combines the music, lyrics and the artwork. In my opinion there is a touch of Mercyful Fate/King Diamond on the record – particularly on tracks like Resurrected In Evil – was Mercyful/King a big influence on the band? It has always been a huge influence as many other bands, I think
What are your thoughts on the rise of Occult metal in recent years? I think the term “occult metal” just makes it easier for the journalism, saying that everything that’s dark or a part of the “70’s wave” is occult, however, the bands that’s often included in such terms these days have a interesting approach and there’s a lot of great bands out there. What is it in your opinion that has made Uppsala quite popular with metal fans in recent years given bands such as Watain, In Solitude and yourselves all reside from there? We are a small town but I think the saying “Quality before Quantity” applies here. I have no idea why really but there’s a lot of great bands from Uppsala. On a statement that I’m sure we can all agree on Noctum’s album Final Sacrifice is out now via Metal Blade.
By Matt Dawson & Matthew Tilt Damnation in nine years old this year. Nine years of some of the darkest, most varied line ups the North has ever witnessed. To celebrate this they’ve added a fourth stage to enhance the doom element of the festival and cut down on those pesky clashes; all this means that there is no reason for you to miss any of the 12 bands we’ve picked for your listening pleasure, here at Sonic. Electric Amphetamine Stage Damnation getting a nice slab of doom is a perfect addition to an already thriving festival and Moss allowing their ‘Horrible Night’ to run wild makes perfect sense. These Londoners have already played the festival’s spiritual brother in Tilburg – Roadburn- earlier this year so it’s time for Leeds to experience the madness that dwells within. Serpent Venom are a last minute addition to the bill (replacing Mourning Beloveth) but for our second slice of London misery will satisfy nicely – traditional doom at its finest. For the headline act however it was a perfect match – two years ago they were one of our highly rated picks when they played and we have to applaud the Damnation organisers in giving Conan the slot, recently signing to Napalm Records their doom magic is granted to blow you away as it crushes all that dwell within. Eyesore Stage Clearly having some doom left over after filling the Electric Amphetamine timetable, Dirge will open Eyesore with a set heavy enough to pulp even the bravest of patrons. This Parisian foursome combine a host of instruments and effects, alongside screams of pained desperation to create something that would play over Dante’s Inferno; hints of their industrial background remain but their current sound tinkers with drudging post metal. With horror and metal often overlapping any selfrespecting film fan should endeavour to catch Year of No Light. Their full length Vampyr is an eponymous soundtrack to C.T. Dreyer’s 1932 classic, while their previous splits maintain that element of the cinematic across epic soundscapes of heaviness that do
November 2013
for shoegaze what a meteor would do to the shoegazer. Is it cheating to pick the headliner as our pick? Who cares when the band are Cult of Luna? A band as likely to seduce you as they to crush you, they can lay claim to a series of intelligent, engaging albums that feel like separate stories within a complete world. Sure they clash with Rotting Christ but for us that’s a no contest. Terrorizer Stage Of course you might prefer something fast and brutal, while Damnation aren’t going to leave you disappointed either, especially not with local grindsters The Afternoon Gentlemen shaking off those cobwebs as the second band on the Terrorizer Stage. Taking elements of power-violence, hardcore and grindcore these boys hit the stage with ferocity and technicality. Maintaining that technicality, Dyscarnate take things down a more guttural road with their monstrous death metal. A three piece making the sound of five and a marvel to see live. Of course all-dayers can be tiring, so half way through the day why don’t you enjoy the surprisingly beautiful, wondrous black metal of Negura Bunget. From those raspy vocals to the themes and the feeling of darkness there are elements of pure darkness throughout, but often done in such a melodic, interesting way that even non-black metal fans should check these out before continuing to bitch that there are clashes between the four headliners. Jagermeister Stage It’s wonderful that opening this stage in 2013 is a band that features part of the band that last year blew us away at Sonic in Primordial – Twilight Of The Gods started as a Bathory inspiration but now with a deal signed with Season Of Mist it’s time for others to see what this band can really do. Not to be confused with the Swedish suicidal depressive metal of Shining , the Shining appearing at this year’s event is musically mad as Jorgen Munkelby combines black metal elements, jazz and with One One One manages it make near enough accessible to the masses. These have to be experienced and have the biggest chance of becoming the surprise MVP of Damnation 2013. Finally we get to the reason tickets have sold as high as 2008, coincidentally the last time this particular band played – ladies and gentlemen we give you the mighty Carcass. With fever pitch running high since they were the announcement to open this year’s festivities and with Surgical Steel being one of THE metal albums of 2013 it’ll be an exciting end to another year of celebrating metal. It’s simple as this – if you want an all-dayer of metal – whether you prefer black, stoner, sludge, death or doom Damnation as always should rank high on the festival list and with next year being the 10th edition it’ll be fun to see what they have up their sleeve to really throw a party.
Page 18
Sonic Shocks - Issue 18
With their black metal and death metal combination Obliteration have created the strongest record of their career – Matt Dawson spoke to Sindre (vocals) to find out about their mindset, the DIY approach and Fenriz. What was the mindset for Obliteration going into recording Black Death Horizon? The mindset for the recording was basically the same as always. We want the production and sound not only to reflect, but to enhance the music and the energies it holds. We want our work to sound dark, insane, horrid and evil, yet spontaneous, punk and free. To achieve this you have to spend a lot of time getting your instrument to sound just right, and very little time recording it. This makes the recordings sound alive. We also do everything ourselves, just with the assistance of Kick from Nekromantheon, our fifth member. The mindset for the songwriting on the other hand varied a lot from the last album. We did not think much of inspiration sources and styles etc, we just wanted to create an album that was dark, fast, aggressive and has somewhat of its own atmosphere. We followed ourselves instead of mental funeral, in a way, and we wanted it to rock. What makes the DIY approach so integral to your sound in your opinion? I’m not completely sure. We just feel at home when we do everything in our own way, ourselves. Hell is other people. But we do not come from the DIY punk scene or anything, and I do not have a close political affiliation with the DIY punk culture/scene, I just adore and respect it. If there were other ways to produce music that worked this well, I might have done that. But so far this is the path that suits OBLITERATION the best. The thing that is alpha and omega for me and Obliteration is that the music and our art are completely honest, and by writing, recording, mixing and doing the artwork/layout etc ourselves DIY style, the message comes through without unwanted disturbance. How did it feel to be endorsed by Fenriz? We’ve been “endorsed” by him for quite some time now. It’s cool, but he supports new bands all the time. I’m not sure how big a difference it was, but I’m glad to see that new young bands are getting a proper boost by getting chosen “band of the week”
into the darkness
etc. But yeah, it was a great honour and still is. He is a living legend with a vast knowledge and love for great music in most genres, and I’m sure that he is a big part of the “revival” of old school sound and DIY ways in metal. Kudos! What is it do you feel about Kolbotn that makes it thrive amongst death/ black metal circles? Kolbotn is just my hometown, if you can call it a town. It’s located just 20 min outside Oslo. It is a place with a weird atmosphere that emerges in places that are caught in the midst of desolation and metropolis. And the people from here gives a damn when they do their art, quality matters to them, at least in my circle of Kolbotn folks. And given the small number of musicians from Kolbotn, the amount of great bands are surprisingly high. Aura Noir, Obliteration/Nekromantheon, Condor, Mion’s Hill, Gouge, Lamented Souls, Infernö, FLIGHT, Beyond Dawn and Darkthrone are some of the best bands, and I’m certain that there’s more to come. Thoughts on the state of Black Metal? If you’d asked me a few years back, I’d have to say that there were only 2 good bands, Orcustus and Darkthrone. But now the scene has truly risen from the grave. I’m thinking specially of the Nidrosian scene with bands like One Tail, One Head, Dark Sonority/Kaosritual, Vemod, Celestial Bloodshed, Black Majesty and the mighty MARE. The forthcoming MARE album will be the end of an era, and the beginning of another. It will be legendary, mark my words. Their performance at Nidrosian Black mass was one of the most intense experiences of my life. But there are great bands all around world doing a unique and own style of black metal. Urfaust from Holland, Negative Plane from USA, Pseudogod from Russa, Midnight doing their perfect Venom thing in the States, Cultes Des Ghoules from Poland etc etc. The list is endless, evil has no boundaries. Plans for UK shows? Nothing specific as of now. We would love to come back, and I’m going to do my best to make sure that it happens sometime next year. We have really appreciated our UK shows in the past, and I can only imagine that it will be even better now that the BLACK DEATH HORIZON has dawned upon us.
November 2013
Sonic Shocks - Issue 18
Page 18
By Matthew Tilt
Director: Beth B Matchbox Films (Out Now)
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi Oyû-sama (1951), Ugetsu monogatari (1953), Gion bayashi (1953), Sanshô dayû (1954), Uwasa no onna (1954), Chikamatsu monogatari (1954), Yôkihi (1955), Akasen chitai (1956). Eureka Entertainment/Masters of Cinema (Out Now) An undisputed legend in Japanese, Kenji Mizoguchi created some of the world’s greatest films over his long career; yet with 94 known credits it is only his last 12 films that really garnered attention outside of his native country. Eight of these films are collected here, debuting on blu-ray through Eureka’s Masters of Cinema label and offering any cinephile the chance to (re)discover a catalogue of incredible work. Each film gracefully wanders across genres, transcending the historical settings and still portraying a strong message. His down to earth characters ring a chord whether it’s the widowed, alienated emperor in Yôkihi, the struggling Geishas in Akasen chitai or the haunted villigers of Ugetsu monogatari, his most famous work. Master of the long shot; Mizoguchi patiently fleshes out his characters, capturing each movement, each conversation, moving slowly across the landscape, showing the vastness of whatever landscape he chooses be it feudal Japan on the brink of war, or a modern view on his world. His realist style allows the scripts to shine. Humour arising from the conversational style of the performances, each actor finding their own niche in which to create a character. Mizoguchi also adds a touch of irony to his films; Yôkihi’s emperor gradually becomes a prisoner to the laws he himself brought in, politicians walk in and out of the brothels they want to shut down. Mizoguchi finds a tragic humour in life and displays it fully. One thing that stands out is his use of strong female characters. They are nearly always a voice of reason in the films presented here, garnering some power over the men in their lives be this through a subtle haunting, an honest, impas-
Exposed is a wonderful film; from the opening scenes it aggressively pushes onto you this world of extreme burlesque, pushing boundaries and attacking the misconceptions about gender, sex and disabilities. Mixing talking head interviews with footage of the performances and some filming outside of the clubs; director Beth B ensures we know plenty of background about the stars which helps give each performance a deeper context and allow even the most timid viewer to relate on some level. With no narrative as such the viewer is thrown in the deep end, much like the audiences of these live shows, and this helps present a broader range of themes throughout with the emphasis solely on the performers. All these themes revolve around acceptance. Not necessarily from other people but for themselves. Whether battling with their own interpretations of gender like *BOB*, who is utterly charming whenever on screen, and Rose Wood or overcoming an all too obvious disability like Mat Fraser. Reading up on the performers you might feel like Beth B has skewed the bigger picture. Each of these performers are both celebrated and marginalised by wider areas of culture, areas that often played parts in the creation of their characters. Beth ignores their more mainstream work which robs the film of some context; to believe that these people are only accepted within this extreme outlet is to underestimate the work they have done. For the curious though Exposed acts as a wonderful gateway film. A glimpse into a world you may not know had even existed until Bunny Love begins coating her labia with lipstick. Exposed hits hard at first, but gradually allows you into the energetic, highly creative world within. sioned voice or by simply taking control of their own sexuality. Indeed several of the films deal with relationships, with a leaning towards the female perspective, which shows Mizoguchi not only to be a great film maker but an examiner of the morals and hypocrisies facing women at the time. Political intrigue and class also looms large, drawing parallels between period pieces and modern day events; often boiling these down to Cain and Abel allegories. Families are torn apart, often brothers with different views, and from these simple tales this director explores the wider impact of these actions. The black and white transfers look incredible. The use of shadow and light is stark, almost telling the story itself, while Yôkihi, ironically the only colour film here, shows its age more but still shines during its Festival of Lanterns sequence, its bright colours capturing the vibrancy of the event. For those new to Mizoguchi this is the perfect starting point, capturing a genius in the twilight years of his career and making you want to delve deeper, find out where these films came from. For those already in the new than the new transfers, the, as always, detailed booklet and the discussions from Tony Raynes add a new depth to these already loved masterpieces.
November 2013
Sonic Shocks - Issue 18
Page 19
Director: Junya Sakino Starring: Gaku Hamada, Eugene Kim, Marlane Barnes Third Window Films Junya Sakino’s Sake-Bomb is, for the most part, a deceivingly light and enjoyable film. It works on several levels, not least the rather predictable road trip/fish out of water story, and effectively claims Asian stereotypes before turning them back on the audience. The story focuses on Sebastian, an Asian American angry at the world for the endless array of stereotypes, and his cousin Naoto, a naïve Japanese man who has come to America to search for a girl he loves. Jeff Mizushima’s script cleverly works its way around several issues; fleshing out the initially off putting Sebastian and allowing both characters to grow realistically without any sudden leaps in personality. The title, a cocktail made by tipping Sake into a pint of beer, represents the culture clashes that the protagonists encounter, wholly embodied by Sebastian who enjoys an American lifestyle while building an internet following trashing the culture he loves. The film focuses on Sebastian’s journey; Naoto is shown early on to be the more levelled and accepting of the two, lacking Sebastian’s need for conflict, and he plays a major part in bringing his cousin round and making him realise that not everyone is against him. To paraphrase The Social Network; people don’t hate you because you’re Asian; they hate you because you’re an asshole. One troubling element remains. Despite deconstructing racist stereotypes and even dealing with latent homophobia Sake-Bomb holds some rather mean spirited feelings towards women. Early in the second half Sebastian calls a girl a slut for wanting to sleep with various men of different races, having witnessed the transformation of this character we are led to assume that Sebastian will make amends for this comment but he never does, instead we find out that Naoto’s dream girl is also a ‘slut’. This unfortunate bout of misogyny taints the final part of what is a wonderfully bittersweet ode to the culture clashes around us.
Original Trilogy Boxset Medium Rare Entertainment (Out Now) With the Michael Bay produced reboot looming large and the instantly forgettable 2009 attempt long gone it seems only right to revisit the 90’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles trilogy; it was after all the first time many of us were exposed to the four inexplicably surfer-esque dudes. Now no amount of nostalgia will save the rather cynical, misjudged Turtles in Time and even the hardiest of Turtle fans will admit that the combination of Vanilla Ice and that final, anticlimactic battle tainted The Secret of the Ooze; there is no doubt that the first film is about as good as a family film can get. With a script packed full of pop culture references that, surprisingly, have aged rather well, the charming Henson creature work and some game performances from the cast it’s little wonder that this became one of the highest grossing independent films of all time. What’s strange is that in a film populated by talking rats, mutant turtles and monstrous, bladed martial arts experts, the supporting cast are fully fleshed and just as entertaining. Judith Hoag, unfortunately replaced by Paige Turco for the sequels, is brilliant as April; the hardy reporter who helps the Turtles uncover Shredder’s plans and a young Elias Koteas keeps the quips coming as street vigilante Casey Jones; a character who is one of the few beacons of light during the third entry. So before the explosion heavy, Megan Fox heavy 2014 edition is released make sure you pick this up and sit the kids down in front of it. As all the best family films do TMNT manages to please the grownups as much as the younger viewers and if the second and third parts droop somewhat in quality there’s still an aura of nostalgia that keeps you watching.
November 2013
Sonic Shocks - Issue 18
Page 20
Director: Francis Ford Coppola Starring: Val Kilmer, Bruce Dern, Elle Fanning Metrodome (Out Now) That Twixt, the latest directorial effort from Francis Ford Coppola, has gone straight to DVD will be a surprise to some people; indeed the focus of many cinephilic conversations was whether it would be released in the UK at all. Now, two years after completion, we can see why it took so long. It’s awful. Val Kilmer is a writer on his last chance, short on money and popularity and desperate for a new idea. Upon arriving in the latest dead end town on his book tour he becomes embroiled in a murder mystery that may involve vampires and may be linked to his own life. Kilmer seems bored throughout, and his co-stars do little to lift his performance; Elle Fanning gives a passable performance despite, as in the case of Ben Chaplin, being woefully miscast. The pace is meandering, punctuated by jarring genre jumps, which means the gothic tone never gets off the ground, growing slowly more ridiculous as the film plods forward. This is a film designed by an ego. There are good scenes, most notably the montage where Kilmer attempts to write the first line of his novel, but they feel like inserts from another film, as if Coppola really nailed these certain scenes but then lost interest in the rest. It even looks cheap. Dour and muddy instead of atmospheric, while the costume design is truly dire, most notably Chaplin’s Edgar Allen Poe who looks more like a depressed Kevin Kline. If otherworldly was the aim here than perhaps Coppola has succeeded because Twixt is worlds away from his best work. His foray into arthouse before this may have been tedious but this is the director flipping the bird and making fart noises at the audience.
Creators: Bryan Fuller, Todd Holland Starring: Caroline Dhavernas, Katie Finneran, Tyron Leitso Mediumrare Entertainment (out now) No less than eight years after it was screened this quirky comedy gets a UK DVD release and it more than justifies the wait. Focusing on Jaye Taylor, a 24 year old retail clerk at the Niagara Falls gift shop, Wonderfalls slips perfectly into the post-Scrubs era of sitcoms; mixing the surreal and slapstick with a more traditional, people orientated style of comedy. While the focus is undeniably on Jaye and her sudden ability to hear anamorphic objects, wonderfully portrayed by Caroline Dhavernas, a lot of the best scenes come from her family. Katie Finneran steals every scene she’s in as Jaye’s meddling, chain smoking, lesbian sister and Lee Pace’s gradually increasing role as her cynical brother becomes a highlight; all of this backed up by the supporting cast including Tracie Thoms and cameos from a host of recognisable faces including Eddie Kaye Thomas, Beth Grant and Louise Fletcher. Occasionally the ball is dropped; Jaye’s potential relationship with the new bartender Eric quickly slips into a predictable on/off cycle until an admittedly entertaining four episode arc towards the end and while each episode’s genre pastiche – which become more and more recognisable – is entertaining there is rarely a need for the show to go beyond half hour. At an hour the script occasionally feels bloated, desperate to stretch the light stories paper thin. By cutting down the running time and melding a couple of episodes together those quips would shine just a little brighter and the pace would match the fun story. That said this is still an unfairly ignored series that shrouds its familiar heart with a tinge of the bizarre. Perhaps it’s best that Wonderfalls only lasted one season; so many shows, including the Lee Pace starring Pushing Daisies, showed that these curios often run out of steam quickly while this remains an immensely watchable, unspoiled experience.
Sonic Shocks - Issue 18
November 2013
Page 21
ALBUM REVIEWS
BLUES PILLS Devil Man EP Nuclear Blast – Out Now It’s been an interesting year to see labels pick up on the blues/ soul and rock crossover scene, with bands like The Graveltones and The Temperance Movement making their mark on the world; now we have Blues Pills to continue the march forward. Their goal: to get you mellowing out to the grooves within. Right from the start the powerful voice of Elin Larsson hits your ears as she sings the title track chorus, then the band kicks in bringing with it a cornucopia of soul – this is the music harking back to the days of bands like Fleetwood Mac but minus the pretentiousness surrounding it, the structure of the songs are kept simple enough to get the hardest of souls to tap their feet. Not only is Elin one of the strongest singers in recent times, we also get great solos from Dorian Sorriaux; given his young age we can expect a bright future ahead – the beginning of ‘Time Is Now’ is something that transfixes you and make you notice how skilled this man is. He’s obviously grown up listening to Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix. There are just times where you want to kick off your shoes, forget the madness of the world and just mellow out: you could do nothing better than to stick the Devil Man EP and relax. Blues Pills are next in line to grab your attention – be ready. By Matt Dawson
GHOST (B.C) If You have Ghost EP Spinefarm - Out Nov 19th Call them the leaders of the Occult Rock revival if you want but there’s no denying that by combining Satan, the legend of Bathory and other elements Ghost (B.C) have gained quite the recognition in 2013 ending the year touring with the likes of Avenged Sevenfold and Alice In Chains. So how do Nameless Ghouls and Papa Emeritus II celebrate? Get Dave Grohl to help produce one of the most diverse covers EPs in quite some time – because they actually try to make it their own. How diverse you ask? Take a pinch of psychedelic, add Swedish pop legends ABBA, a tinge of slight camp in Army Of Lovers (and trust us – watch the video for the original version of Crucified, it’s crazy) and Goth in Depeche Mode all given the craft that Ghost take make the song sound more sinister than it was before but keeping some sense of the original intact. Granted the songs they pick are sinister in themselves – ‘If You Have Ghosts’ was recorded not long after Roky Erickson had been released from a state hospital, diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia - Abba’s ‘I’m A Marionette’ talks about feeling like a puppet, ‘Crucified’ by Army Of Lovers is self explanatory and ‘Waiting For The Night’ is either about suicide or the crucifixion depending on your interpretation. What we get with If You Have Ghost is a nice EP to tide us over while we await the next age of Ghost (B.C) – whether this means Papa Emeritus III is due soon remains to be seen. By Matt Dawson
The Way They Run ‘Safe Haven’ Blackstar Foundation – Out Now
Thriller – A metal tribute to Michael Jackson Deadline Music – Out Now
Sprung from all corners of Sweden, The Way They Run have probably given us the EP of the year. Released on Blackstar Foundation on the 18th October, each song on this 4 track EP ‘Safe Haven’ is a hit in its own right. If you are a fan of melodic punk rock, then these four anthems are for you. The Rev really means it with this EP, not a wasted riff, melody or line on ‘Safe Haven’. They open with Eye Witness, a strong instrumental song with gang style vocals. Twin guitars give a full and tight sounding sound, aiding the anthemic quality. Drifters has more of a lead feel guitar wise and a more frenetic drum sound, guitar breaks create a great build up to the lead and then verses. The song works well on so many levels. Between Wages is a track that anyone out of work can relate to. Guitars and vocals are so well intertwined here Cross Bearer opens with a killer intro and then kicks in to a great melody. The guitar lines here really come into the fore. This track amongst the others has sublime and emotive harmonies. Yet another track that works so well on more than one level. All four give the listener more with each listen, there’s so much depth to each song. All I can say is where have Sweden been hiding this band? Vinyl junkies will have their appetite sated with it released on 7” as well as the now standard digital format.
Blame the feeling of morbid curiosity that rattles inside the brain, wondering how people like Chuck Billy from Testament, Corey Glover of Living Color and more could do some sort of service to the great artist’s songs, but there’s always a law when it comes to cover albums: for every couple of fairly decent ones the majority are going to be a complete absolute disgrace. Thriller: A metal Tribute to Michael Jackson starts off OK; Chuck Billy doesn’t try to imitate MJ, he takes it into his own world and doesn’t try to call upon the spirit of Michael like Derek Acorah. Following that however we get poor attempts of Man In the Mirror by Danny from Asking Alexandria, Black or White and an amusing cover of Shake Your Body (Down To the Ground), and still we haven’t reached the bottom. Step forward Chris Jericho and Paul Dianno. Jericho sounds woeful (and half asleep) on ‘Dirty Diana’ while Paul Dianno with this rendition of ‘Bad’ (and that’s such an apt song) makes sure no one will miss him when he retires at the end of the year – there’s only so much ‘Maiden legacy’ you can piss away and he takes every last drop down with it. The last track on the record is Alien Ant Farm rerecording and taking the soul out of their cover of Smooth Criminal. Listen if you must to the opening track and Corey Glover’s decent version of Billie Jean, the rest can be kept in a vault never to be unearthed again.
By The Reverend Eddi
By Matt Dawson
November 2013
Sonic Shocks - Issue 18
ALBUM REVIEWS
LIVE!
Page 22
LetLive, @ The Asylum
With Night Verses, The American Scene and Aurora Birmingham – 5th October 2013 By John ‘Hank’ Layland – Photo Matt Higgs
WHORES Clean Brutal Panda Records – Oct 29 From Atlanta, Georgia, noise rock trio Whores release Clean on the 29th October. Fans of Shellac, Melvins, The Jesus Lizard and Unsane will take to this like a duck to water. Produced by Ryan Boesch, who has overseen projects by Helmet, Tomahawk and Fu Manchu. Whores have given us few melodies here, rather slabs of unrelenting pieces of music. Jake Shultz’s fat fuzzy bass lines rattle one’s skull from the get go and there really is no let up from start to finish, they often take the lead guiding the song into phases. Whores simply give us ‘destructo party jamz’ time and time again with a great southern edge to them. Songs like Baby Bird and Last Looks give the listener metalesque muscle inter twined with post punk / hardcore vibes. Whores have really taken the above bands and add Helmet into the equation and taken things up a notch. I Am Not A Goal Orientated Person and Blue Blood reveal to the world the personal moments Whores have undergone. But it really is the harshness and bludgeoning intensity that draws one in. Songs this intense shouldn’t be so catchy, but Whores have realised this. Weighing in at just over 24 minutes, one might think that this is a short album, but with it simply finishing, I found it time to simply re-play. Noise-rock fans are most definitely going to see this as one of their highlights of the year. By The Reverend Eddi
Future Of The Left How To Stop Your Brain in an Accident Prescriptions Music – Out Now ‘The music industry is lying to you, it is telling you that you are excited or rather you have confused excitement with the fear of missing out.’ Future Of The Left have taken the Pledge route, and record company means you can get a bit more venomous shall we say. Andy Falkous’ lyrics have once again hit the nails on the proverbial heads – the welfare state, the state of reality TV in media (Singing Of The Bonesaws), the egos people encounter (Johnny Borrell Afterlife) and of course the record industry (Singing Of The Bonesaws and how to spot a record company) all come into the crosshairs and are handled with the equal use of sarcasm and amusement they richly deserve even with a kazoo. It isn’t all just anger all the time however – ‘French Lessons’ slows things down while closer ‘Why aren’t I going to Hell?’ has a sense of tension and a Tom Waits vibe around it with the low voice and acoustic guitar throughout. If you’re sick of the Katie Hopkins of the world and their ramblings gaining attention and the flavour of the month gracing covers, listen to Future Of The Left: you’ll find others share your view. If you want to continue being afraid then carry on but some of the most exciting music slips through if you don’t look hard enough.
It’s early doors at the Asylum in Digbeth tonight and the queue outside is already buzzing with anticipation . Opening band Aurora sound spectacular. Melodic yet heavy in all the right places and blessed with a vocalist that could give Angela Gossow a run for her money, their brand of metalcore is the perfect appetiser to what’s to come . Consummate shoegazers The American Scene don’t fare quite so well, not for lack of talent department, but they seem like a bit of an odd fit on tonight’s bill, and their lack of interaction with the audience leads to a set that feels a little too played by numbers. Night Verses redress the balance. Formed just over a year ago when ex-The Sleeping singer Douglas Robinson joined forces with a little known band from Fullerton California, they have gone on to make quite a name for themselves and it’s easy to see why. Robinson prowls the stage like he owns it, dripping with sweat as the band hammer though material mostly taken from their latest release - “Lift Your Existence”. As the discordant outro of “I’ve Lost My Way Back Down” signals the end of their allotted time it’s obvious that they’ve made a few new fans here in Birmingham. Hot off the Vans Warped Tour they’re obviously fired up and ready to go as they bound out to the introduction of “Banshee (Ghost Fame)” with vocalist Jason Butler tearing a guitar amplifier down from the rig behind him as he goes, seemingly as if to punctuate the bands arrival on stage in the most rock and roll way possible. They take things up another notch with “H.Ledger” and “Dreamers Disease”; the crowd loving every second of it. Even Jason appears to be tearing himself out of his own clothes with excitement by the time the band kick into a breakneck speed cover of Black Flag’s “Fix Me”. It’s difficult to encapsulate the energy in the room with words, but imagine the most fired up band you’ve ever seen playing a sold out hometown show, then add ten percent more energy on top of that, a lot of extra heart to go with it and you aren’t far off. The crowd sing the words of “Pheromone Cvlt” back to the band with such passion that Butler and Co. can’t help but grin from ear to ear. Not many acts these days perform with such a raw, honest approach to their audience. Jason Butler climbs into the venues rafters at one point before leaping off stage into the welcoming arms of his fans. The 10pm curfew rolls around all too soon though, and before we know it the band are treating us to a well deserved triple encore of “Le Prologue”, “The Sick, Sick, 6.8 Billion” and “Renegade ‘86” that goes down a storm. When the lights go up afterwards the impact Letlive h a v e made on tonight’s audience in Birmingham is all too clear.
November 2013
Sonic Shocks - Issue 18
Page 23
LIVE! DEER TICK @ Imperial Club
Mitte, Berlin - October 4th 2013 By Kristian Kotilainen – Photo Simona Palazzo
ALTER BRIDGE @ Wembley Arena with HALESTORM & SHINEDOWN
London - 18th October 2013 Review and photo by Scott Green Since their hugely successful 2011 Wembley Arena concert and subsequent Live DVD release, England has eagerly awaited Alter Bridge’s return; tonight they’re back with force in support of their newly released album, Fortress, they upping the ante by bringing two solid and popular supporting acts in Shinedown and Halestorm. That quality was apparent from the first note of Halestorm’s “Love Bites (So do I)” when a nearly already half-full Wembley - two hours before the main act - erupted with cheer and sang along. Lead singer Lizzy Hale’s charisma and presence on stage was commanding and the crowd loved it. They finished off their set with the biggest hits from the sophomore album “The Strange Case of…” but they did nail a cover of Judas Priest’s “Dissident Aggressor” and the crowd soaked it all in with everything they had. Shinedown came on displaying a new, cleaner look for the promotion of their latest Amaryllis. Uniquely playing the smartness of their dress against the some of the harder of their songs brought a new freshness to the rock band vibe. Opening with “Devour” and continuing with a solidly chosen mix of songs from their current and past albums, the second act of this tour finished their exciting 10 songs set with “Bully” and brought the house down. The stage was perfectly set for the main event (pun intended) and Alter Bridge came on with an energy that immediately brought the sold out crowd into hysteria. Using the first single from the latest album, Fortress, “Addicted to Pain” set the standard for the rest of their show. This was more than just a mix of their greatest hits and new albums songs as the band also chose some of their lesser known, but equally impressive songs like “White Knuckles”. The ebb and flow was perfect and finished with an ideal crescendo of an acoustic version of “Watch Over You” followed by “Rise Today” and “Open Your Eyes”. They made a unique choice of encore by playing the two opening songs in order from ABIII, but I understand choice as those two flow together so well and “Isolation” hits you to the core. All in all, the event was well orchestrated and all three groups delivered beyond expectations.
I’m a bit of a late bloomer and it was quite recently that I first discovered the Rhode Island band Deer Tick. Their sound, combined with frontman John McCauley’s lyrics and voice, is so present that it cuts straight into your emotional centre. When I heard that Deer Tick were gonna play Berlin - I was stoked. The fancy Imperial Club in Mitte is pretty hidden away and that could be the reason only about 100 people turned up to this gig. It should have been packed. Deer Tick began their set with “The Rock” from their latest album “Negativity”. The song slowly built up to an explosive climax and was directly followed by the hit “Main Street”. This is a dynamic five-piece and it’s a joyful celebration from “The Bump” and “Let’s All Go To The Bar” - to slower tunes like “Smith Hill”, “Dirty Dishes” and “Ashamed”. Actually, to me – most of Deer Tick’s songs have a melancholic, longing feeling to them. And I like that. The whole performance was intense and honest and you could feel the band being there with you. Deer Tick invites you to a show and they deliver, something you could not say about the sound engineers since the sound was awful. I didn’t let that lower my enthusiasm for the band though. As one of the encores McCauley, alone with his guitar, gave a haunting performance of Nirvana’s “All Apologies”. Like Kurt Cobain, McCauley has the look of a simple man but whose soul generates such magic. It’s also come to my attention that the guys are involved in a Nirvana tribute band called Deervana. I’d like to call Deer Tick’s music alternative country-grunge rather than alternative country or alternative folk. But on the other hand - I hate labelling music. Deer Tick will continue touring into 2014 and don’t forget to catch them on January 23 when they play The Garage in London. If you have any sense of what intelligent, great music is - Deer Tick will open a new door for you.
HIM @ Civic Hall
Wolverhampton – 21st October 2013 Review and photo by Alessia Cifali Quiet Wolverhampton is about to be hit by a glacial wind from the north. This is not a weather warning, I am talking about Finnish rockers HIM. After a 3 years hiatus,due to the drummer’s health issues, HIM returned in April with new album ‘Tears on Tape’ and, after an acclaimed performance at Download, they embarked on a tour across the pond, sharing the stage with Volbeat, All that Remains and Airbourne. But, let’s go back to Wolverhampton. Some of the fans have been queuing from the crack of dawn, all pretty eager to see their favourite Finns performing again tonight. Support comes from Caspian, from Boston Massachusetts. Their instrumental rock is well received. HIM tend to create a very intimate atmosphere, with dim lights on stage. Every tog’s nightmare. Imagine my surprise when Ville and Co arrive on stage literally flooded by light! Thanks Timo Kauristo for the astonishing job, and making my life easier tonight (Kiitos Timo!) The show opens with “All Lips Go Blue” from the new album. The band don’t waste time, they wants to play and they want to do it without unnecessary interruptions. They sound better than ever, all seemingly working in symbiosis. Despite mostly delivering great shows, there have been mistakes in the past; recently however the band have worked very hard towards what today is clearly their best performance, achieving and perfecting the sound that has been their trademark from the early days. The setlist is well arranged with a good mix of new and old. From “Join Me in Death” and the evergreen “Wicked Game” (Chris Isaac’s cover) to “I will be the End of you” and “Tears on Tape”. The powerful riffs from guitarist Linde are the cherry on top of a good dose of fine music. To conclude the evening, Ville asks the fans to chose between “When Love and Death Embrace” and “Sleepwalking Past Hope”. The crowd screams their lungs out and “Sleepwalking Past Hope” wins the final. Outside, fans gather delighted, commenting the evening and planning the next show.
November 2013
Sonic Shocks - Issue 18
Well done to Helen Fielding for finding the solution Sex & The City writers couldn’t come up with! At the middle age intersection between ‘happily married’ and ‘depressingly single’, she makes Bridget a widow and starts anew. Bridget is still counting pounds and glasses of Chardonnay, cigarettes replaced by bags of grated cheese, trying to embrace technology only to do with Twitter what she used to do with her phone: checking obsessively for messages (0) and followers (0). Her insecurities are now those of a middle aged mother, struggling to keep up with school mums and to shed off the baby weight her two kids left on her. Getting back in the game? Not interested, until with a little push from her friends she finally remembers what she’s been missing: sex. As she gets to grip with technology and calories, losing pounds and earning followers, she obsesses again searching for approval in the cyberworld, her moods going up and down with her popularity as measured by Twitter. Still clumsy and gaffe prone as ever, she manages however to find sex and validation in a hunky toy boy and even has a go at resurrecting her career. Will it last? I can’t tell you that of course. But I can tell you that ‘Mad About The Boy’ exceeded all my expectations: funny, tender, witty, able to take all the issues of any real middle aged woman – especially single ones – and get her to smile about them after all. If our Jones might sound a bit depressing at the start – overweight, doubting her motherly skills, unable to cope on her own and living in the memory of OC husband Mark Darcy – she picks herself up soon enough in a rather realistic timeframe, following the light to the end of the tunnel, giving mature womankind a hope and a smile. And what will get you smiling even more is good old Daniel Cleaver, still there, still the funniest and most British ‘bad guy’ in the history of romantic comedy: Fielding scores a winner again by keeping an essential character in the picture and giving him a new role without robbing him of his identity. Extra points for killing off the most boring male ever invented: I couldn’t have coped with any more of Darcy’s
Page 24
underwear-folding antics, let alone his collection of Christmas sweaters (a big hit at Primark this year, maybe to celebrate his departure). You might not have expected what’s coming in ‘Mad About The Boy’, yet as you read you will realize this was the only way for Bridget to make her way back without falling in the trap so many sequels have killed themselves on. As you’ll close the book with a cheeky grin, you’ll look at yourself in the mirror and think those rounded hips are not that bad after all, burning down the kitchen is ok every now and then, and your lost Twitter followers will eventually find their way back. Sure, this is a women movie rather than a girls one, but where are all those who were 30something and single when Bridget was still smoking and falling for Cleaver’s sleazy charms? That’s the audience for Mad About The Boy, and it’s an audience who needs more attention than their younger counterpart, after 6 series and 2 movies of Sex & The City ended in the worst possible fashion. As we go to press, rumours on the web are that we might not see this latest instalment of Bridget Jones on the big screen: that would be a shame. A Bridget Jones movie with a mature Hugh Grant, no Colin Firth, an Ashton Kutcher toy boy type and may be a Downey Jr as Mr Wallaker? I’m buying it.