Issue 56 of Stencil Mag

www.stencilmag.co.uk

Interview with Josh

What was it like to be an upcoming band in Melbourne?

Melbourne is a great place to start your career as a band. Here we have always had such a thriving scene where people are drawn in to shows, drawn in to the culture of bands, and are incredibly supportive of one another. Over the years I’ve seen several friends in other bands move to Melbourne in order to further themselves and play the best shows possible, work with some great local producers and connect with a larger fan base. There are some great venues to play like The Corner Hotel and Max Watts in the city, and the opportunity for bigger shows and festivals are definitely there, it’s just whether you’ve got what it takes to make it onto the bill. There is definitely no shortage of talent in Melbourne.

There’s also a great sense of friendship in the Melbourne scene, as well as the Australian scene overall. I grew up going to local shows here and have always felt a connection to the scene here, so it’s crazy to think that we’re now able to take our Melbourne brand of Post-Hardcore all across the country…and hopefully soon to be a few other places around the world.

Was there a particular moment when you realised that you had the potential to make a career out of music?

As a band, I think there has always been great opportunity for Drown This City to make it some way in the music industry. Prior to joining the band, I knew that DTC had a massive amount of potential, evident from selling out the very first headline show to touring in support of big international names.

Considering I started making my way around the DTC camp in Mid-2018, personally I think that feeling that this could actually be our career really hit when we got asked once again to play UNIFY 2019 and join In Hearts Wake on tour earlier this year. There was this sort of swelling feeling within the team that things were starting to heat up, and that we had an opportunity to really make something of this.

The future looks brighter than ever, I’m still pretty much in shock that we’ve received as much attention as we have, that people come to shows and sing back the words to our songs, and that we’ve got a label and management that back us as hard as they do.

So, how did you end up signing to UNFD Records, and what have they been like to work with so far?

It’s actually crazy how long we held onto the news of signing with UNFD. Probably about an hour before we played our set at UNIFY this year, we were signing contracts with the UNFD team, sipping champagne and having chats with everyone about our future together. We then got up on that stage with this overwhelming sense of fulfilment and energy, I think we all really vibed off that for the entire time we were there, even if at that time no one knew what had just gone down.

The UNFD team has been fantastic to work with, everyone involved is really dedicated to helping us achieve what we want, and are passionate about what’s next for Drown This City. It’s nice to have an entire team to work with who want to help us get to where we want to be. UNFD has always been the label that I’ve personally wanted to sign to, they have an incredible roster of bands, and for Drown This City, I reckon it’s a perfect fit.

Was there a particular song or moment that started the process for 'Alpha // Survivor'?

I think one of the driving factors towards bringing ‘ALPHA // SURVIVOR’ to existence today was that the band already had an extensive backlog of demos and ideas which could be tapped into and used for future material. When the previous songwriter left the band, my band mates have expressed to me that it had left them feeling uncertain about the future of the music. I think that’s pretty fair enough to be honest; it would be daunting to conceive a future with so much improbability in what was going to happen next.

Prior to being asked to join, the team worked with one of our close friends outside of the band to bring together guitar parts for several of the songs on the EP. It was not until a number of tracks were complete that I was able to apply myself into the writing process, however I think that’s what is really cool about this release.

It’s an amalgamation of expression, between multiple creative minds who shared the same goal of creating something that was going to bring Drown This City back from the depths, and push us to channel some of the demons that had found their way inside the walls.

How did you get to the EP title 'Alpha // Survivor', and what does it mean to you?

Deciding upon the title ‘ALPHA // SURVIVOR’ stemmed from a concept which the band feels quite passionately about. We were discussing what we wanted to stand for as a band, what was important to us and what brought us together to create music. We realised that something that plays a part in all of our lives is this split in emotion that can disrupt how we see the world and how we carry ourselves.

To be your “Alpha”, is to be your best version of your self, to be the person that you are most proud of and who stands for what you believe in. The “Survivor” I guess can be explained by saying that we may not always be able to push that “Alpha” in us forward, whether it’s because of emotions, circumstance, etc., but in doing so even in the face of adversity, is what makes us powerful. In other words, it’s not a bad thing to challenge yourself and push yourself to be your best.

Can you elaborate on some of the main themes and influences that run throughout 'Alpha // Survivor'?

Each song on ‘ALPHA // SURVIVOR’ plays towards an overarching concept of triumphing in the face of adversity, or feeling powerless in the face of it and searching for that reprieve. The best song that explains this is ‘Stay Broken’, which carries the line “Alpha, realise your power”. I feel like this in itself really sums up what this EP is about, realising your worth, your brilliance, your capacity for greatness, and actualising that. Another example is ‘In Your Image’, which focuses on the feelings associated with the false expectations of others and the pain that can be caused by this.

Each track carries this ebb and flow of human emotion and reaction, and I think that for the listener, it is going to be an interesting EP for them to interpret and take away their own meanings, as everyone experiences things differently. Whilst the personal stories and true meanings of songs are heavily layered within the lyrics, they contain plenty of room for the listener to interpret and identify with in their own way.

You've said that "We’ve been through heartache, break downs, low moments and the highest of highs and together have only gotten stronger" so can you elaborate on that, and maybe how putting together this release, compares to what you’ve done before?

To pull some words from Alex’s mouth, I know she would want me to say that this release finally feels like the band has found each other. This is the first time each member truly feels like this is a complete unit, and as friends we’re pretty much inseparable. To come to that conclusion from some of the troubles that the band has faced in the past, I think is a testament to how much people around you can bring you home, can bring you closer to feeling like your true self. Sometimes when you can barely believe in yourself, you have these truly powerful people around you who bring you up and make you feel again.

I think when we speak of the strength that we have found, we owe a lot of that to the fact that we are powerful together, we feel like we can achieve anything because of the transparency that we share with one another. This release has been a journey of rediscovering the passion and drive to creatively work towards something together, and so far the response has been incredible.

Who produced 'Alpha // Survivor', and how would you say that they helped shape it?

We worked with Alpha Wolf guitarist Scottie Simpson to bring ‘ALPHA // SURVIVOR’ together. He is an excellent producer with a wealth of knowledge in production, songwriting and instrumentation. Bonus is that he is also a genuinely lovely dude. Whilst I didn’t spend a great deal of time in the studio for this release due to joining towards the latter part of the recording process, I had worked with Scottie in the past and found him to be an absolute professional.

In the days that I did spend working on ‘ALPHA // SURVIVOR’ in the studio, there was a collective effort to produce something together that we could all be proud of. Sometimes it’s the case of having things right the first time, but sometimes a riff can be just a little better… and you tweak it, and you find that with an outside perspective, sometimes you access a side to a song that you never might have put down if it weren’t for working with a producer.

Going in with a bunch of pre production tracks and going “Yo, let’s turn this up” is going to yield a way higher reward sometimes as opposed to closing off thinking that one way is the only way, it’s just about having an open mind at the end of the day.

What was the hardest song on 'Alpha // Survivor' to put together, and why?

There was a point in the writing process where we had a complete EP’s worth of songs ready to go, however due to having different distributors for previously released tracks, we found ourselves in the position of having to conjure up two new songs within a very short time. The result of that process was ‘Stay Broken’ and ‘Love Makes Cowards of Us All’. Our drummer Anthony (Pallas) and I worked on ‘Stay Broken’ together, which ended up being the opening track to the EP, and ‘Love Makes Cowards of Us All’ was written outside of this process, and completed within the studio with Scottie to bring you the track which is on the release.

We were surprised by how fast these tracks were pulled together despite the pressure that was associated with delivering them in a timely fashion, and they turned out to be some of the best material on the EP. Alex even wrote the lyrics for both tracks in a single day, with the ‘Stay Broken’ chorus being written in the studio on the day of tracking. Sometimes it’s the surprises in the creative process that create some of the best results.

What else can we expect to see from Drown This City in 2019?

We’ve got a few more surprises to drop along the way. I can probably talk about the current neat run of headline dates up the East Coast which goes to the start of August with some of the most talented Australian bands, including a Brisbane show with our UNFD label mates Sleep Talk, and we’re looking forward to also dropping some new visuals for a few tracks from the EP. I guess time will tell a little more, we have plans to tour before the end of the year, and everything that comes with that, but more news on that soon enough. I guess what I can say at this time is that we’re really looking forward to what the next 6-12 months holds in store for us, we’re dying to see how far we can push our limits, and to see what everyone thinks of the newly reborn Drown This City.

So, how did The Frights originally get together?

Richard and Mikey started the band to play a single show in San Diego back in 2012, and pretty much everything after that has come through sheer luck. And drinking.

What was it like to be an upcoming band in San Diego, California?

Sometimes pretty brutal. San Diego is our home and we love it but a band starting out as young as we did has to really, really work for everything they get. At the same time, I think we would absolutely not be a band at all if we didn't grow up and play where we did. We're all super thankful for that.

Was there a particular moment when you realised that you had the potential to make a career out of music?

It still hasn't come yet.

Interview with Marc Touring wise, what have you been up to this year, and can you give us a couple of personal highlights from your time on the road?

So far we've done a quick West Coast run and a couple weeks in Europe with Taking Back Sunday!

Looking back on ‘Hypochondriac’, how happy are you with this album still, and what do you think that it's done for the representation of The Frights?

Everything we make is perfect and should be required listening. But in all seriousness, of course we're proud of it, and we're happy that it's been doing a lot for us.

What songs are you still really enjoying performing live from ‘Hypochondriac’ at the moment, and why?

All of them. It's a perfect record. Let me say that again -- P-E-R-F-E-C-T

What do you think was the hardest song to put together, and why?

There wasn't really one that took any longer than the others per se. ‘Goodbyes’ was probably the easiest because it was basically done in the demo.

How did you end up working with Zac Carper, and how would you say that he helped shape the album?

Zac did our last record also, so we ran it back with him. He's got a particularly manic way of doing things but we owe him a lot. He helps us get out of our comfort zone and make sh*t that challenges us which is super important.

How did the idea for a live album come about, and what did you enjoy the most about putting a live version of the band out there for the world to hear?

It was not our idea, and we didn't think that particular performance was better than all of the others. But the actual concept of us losers putting out a live record is sick as hell!

How would you say that the sound of The Frights has grown/changed since the release of your self-titled album?

Our lip-syncing live has become exponentially better.

What else can we expect to see from The Frights in 2019?

We've got the summer off, and then more stuff TBA later this year. Hopefully we'll be more tan by then, but no guarantees.

Interview with Theo

Touring wise, what have you been up to this year, and can you give us a couple of personal highlights from your time on the road?

We started off the year with the announcement of our debut album, ‘Lonely World’. That was a really exciting moment for us as it’s something we've been working towards for a long time. Musically we all feel it's the best work we've written to date and it was really encouraging to see people respond so positively to the songs we've released off it so far.

Following the release of the first two singles off the album (’Lonely World’ and ‘Talking In Your Sleep’), we headed out with Casey on their final tour. This was really special for us as we've been friends with them for the last 3 years since our first shared tour. Hence, being asked to play on their final EU/UK tour was a real privilege for us (although we're obviously very sad to see them go). For me, a personal highlight from that tour was definitely the two sold out shows we finished with at The Dome, in London. Seeing people react so passionately to the new songs at what was technically a home town show for me (I live in London) was really humbling. I also had family and friends in the crowd which makes it that little bit more rewarding of an experience. Plus getting to sleep in my own bed after the first show was a great moment!

Was there a particular song or moment that sparked the creative process for ‘Lonely World’?

We were on tour at the time if I remember correctly, not too long after the release of ‘In Sickness & Health’.

The conversation of beginning the writing process for a full length came up during a long drive. At the time I wasn’t writing but happened to have an instrumental demo on my phone that I’d written and produced the year before, shortly after the recording process of ‘IS&H’, so I decided to show it to the guys. In my eyes, the experience of simply sharing an unheard idea sparked the creative fire to get writing again. Although that song was never actually used, I think it helped gauge a potential direction to take the sound in instrumentally.

How did Ben Lumber become a part of Acres, and what has he brought to the creative approach of the band so far?

Getting Ben in the band happened at a time where the band could have gone in many directions. When we held auditions, we gave little direction to the people that tried out besides to do whatever it was they do best.

There was no criteria saying they had to sing or scream in particular.

With that said, when Ben sent in his audition it became clear that the band could head in a very exciting direction with him. One we had potentially wanted to take for a while but hadn't been able to with our old vocalist. Since then I think we've simply adapted our sound to one that compliments both his voice and the instruments just as well. Letting the instruments breathe where they need to, so Ben's voice can truly shine through. Equally, letting them scream louder than ever when the time comes for the instrumentals to take the lead melody.

Can you tell us a bit about the themes and influences that run throughout ‘Lonely World’?

To put it simply, ‘Lonely World’ is a culmination of all the things we wanted Acres to be originally. It's angrier and more unforgiving than ever at times, yet I think there's also a lot of beauty to be found on the record.

Making sure there were some really great choruses was a big focus too, I think. We're all big fans of the kind of bands that take choruses up a level constantly and wanted to create some of our own that really felt as big as we could make them be. The song ‘Lonely World’ is a perfect example of this I think and there's lots more from where that came from on the record!

What was the hardest song on ‘Lonely World’ to put together, and why?

We have a song on the album called ‘Lullaby’ which for myself personally probably took the longest to come up with. The actual process of piecing a song together instrumentally after the initial idea exists is usually pretty fast for me. I tend to start writing in the afternoon with the aim of finishing a fully fledged demo to send to the guys later that night (any time between 12am and 5am on average).

That said, the thing with ‘Lullaby’ that was hard wasn't actually putting the song together but more so deciding what kind of song it should be in the first place. From the beginning of the creative process we were all pretty clear we wanted a song on the album that touched on a more gentle side to our sound. When it came to the time of writing ‘Lullaby’, we already had a fair amount of songs in the bag that we imagined could be lead singles, along with a few heavier ones. It really felt like the right time to throw a curve ball in the mix.

For myself, writing stripped back music instrumentally is something I feel I come to quite naturally, having done a lot of it for side projects over the years. With that in mind, I think I put a lot of extra pressure on myself to come up with something that felt particularly special for this song. It felt a little too easy to write a standard stripped back song. I wanted to touch on new grounds whilst keeping true to the sound Acres does best.

I tried numerous times to write what I thought the song needed to be without any luck. Nothing seemed to be hitting the spot I wanted it to and most attempts just felt like a big let down.

Ultimately I think I was looking in all the wrong places. Searching for quick inspiration rather than really testing myself as a musician. It was only when I stopped trying and began simply playing around with creating new textures that it came. As a result, the inspiration instrumentally came from the art of layering more than anything else. The sound design side to writing is something I've become increasingly interested in over the years and I think this song really plays up to that. Its subtle layers come in and out, dancing around beneath the vocal passages, supporting them as the song grows to its eventual climax, in a cathartic force of melody and emotion. It's one of the songs I'm most proud of on the album without a doubt.

Who produced the album, and how would you say that they helped shape it?

Before answering this question I think it's important to state as a band we were very strict on the quality of the final demos we had before entering the studio. Everything demo was produced to a very high level meaning by the time we came to the studio, most of the layers and musical details already existed. We achieved this instrumentally through the work I did at my place. I'd then send the instrumental stems to a great producer and friend of Ben's, Ash Scott who would work with Ben on laying down the vocal parts before finally mixing it all together. We owe a lot to Ash for his devotion to helping that process and I don't think the final product would have been on the level it is without his involvement and talent.

That said, when it came to the final versions of the songs, we decided to record at Outhouse Studios, based in Reading, England. A lot of brilliant records have come out of that studio from bands like Architects, Lower Than Atlantis, You Me At Six, Deaf Havana etc. so we were really excited to go there. We spent just short of a month at Outhouse recording with producer, Simon Jackman who made it the best experience we could have asked for. We all got on super well with Simon which makes such a difference I think. There's nothing worse than recording songs you care about with someone you don't get on with.

His involvement was also really helpful in lending an outsiders perspective on the songs. At this point we'd spent so much time listening to the songs that it was hard for us to know what needed to be changed. He was great with that and also really helpful with a lot of the vocal harmonies, being a singer himself. We've all become great friends with Simon since and hope to get the chance to work together again!

How did the artwork for ‘Lonely World’ come together, and what does it mean to you guys?

The artwork fell into place quite naturally after finding an artist whose work we really appreciated and felt was suiting to the visual tone we wanted to set for the album. I think the cover art itself and what it depicts is quite ambiguous. One that brings the viewer into the mind of the figure we see pictured on the cover, what they might be thinking or what is happening out of sight (considering we see little of the person shown on the cover or what precisely they may be looking at). This felt very suiting as a lot of the subjects the album covers are ones that don't naturally come into sight unless addressed. Feelings of loneliness, abandonment, hopelessness etc.

I also like to think the album cover could be depicting someone looking out into the “Lonely World” that modern society has created before them, thinking of all the subjects the album covers and how they wish they could address those things, face to face with the people they involve. Besides that I'll leave it up to interpretation!

What was it like to film the music videos for ‘Lonely World’ & 'Talking In Your Sleep' in Latvia, and if possible, can you tell us about how each track came together?

Shooting with TRE Films was a real dream for us. I've been a fan of his work for a few years now but had never had the opportunity to work with him in person. So when the opportunity finally did arise with the album, we jumped at it.

Shooting in Latvia in the height of winter was an experience in itself albeit, having to cope with shooting in sub zero temperatures at points, both indoors and outdoors on location. We even got stuck in a bit of a snow storm one morning, having set off before sunrise to begin shooting some of the outdoor scenes for ‘Lonely World’... Our van got stuck in the snow a fair few times, meaning we'd all have to get out and push it, some times more successfully than others. Ultimately I think this all added to the experience and made for some pretty cinematic shots!

‘Talking In Your Sleep’ on the other hand, was shot in an old textiles factory I believe, with huge wall to wall windows all around the main hall which we used for the performance scenes. This made for some great shots but at the time, truly felt as if we were playing in a massively oversized glass freezer... A few takes into the song and our movement began to create enough heat to melt the ice on the floor beneath us, making it pretty hazardous actually. Surprisingly I think ‘Talking In Your Sleep’ was actually the colder of the two videos for us.

Everyone was practically wearing makeshift balaclavas by the end to stop their faces from getting too chilled!

How excited are you for your upcoming UK tour, and what can attending fans expect?

I can't wait. I think it's going to be a really great one. We're so happy to be taking out such great supports too.

Parting Gift are a band we've all really appreciated for a while now and I'm excited to see how Captives (UK dates) and Tripsitter (EU dates) go down too!

What else can we expect to see from Acres in 2019?

We're excited to be playing some great festivals. We'll be finishing the summer with a set at the UKs Burn It Down Festival which should be cool, lots of brilliant bands. We're also looking forward to celebrating the release of our album hugely, I'm really excited to see where that takes things for the band. Besides that, more writing and hopefully more touring!

Interview with Mikey

Who is answering the questions?

Touring wise, what have you been up to this year, and can you give us a couple of personal highlights from your time on the road?

We’ve been very busy touring all over the UK since the start of the year. We were fortunate to be asked out as main support to Our Hollow, Our Home earlier this year, which was a real highlight for us as it was our first full support tour. We’ve spent most of our career as a band scrabbling around the UK scene, booking all our own tours from scratch – from booking venues and bands, to running the door, we covered it all. Being asked out on this tour felt like justification of all our hard graft, and getting to go out with our friends was an added bonus!

We’ve also headlined a bunch of small underground festivals, which has been awesome as we got to go back to our roots of playing absolute sweatboxes, up close and personal with the crowd. These kinds of shows always have a really special feel so we’re blessed to have been involved in so many this summer, with more yet to come!

You also got to take on Download Festival recently! So how was that, and how rewarding was it for you to be a part of such an iconic UK event?

It’s a weird one really, because I’ve been asked this a lot, yet I’m still not really sure what I’m supposed to say?! THECITYISOURS is an unsigned band that have grafted for every opportunity we have ever received. If opportunities haven’t come to us, then we’ve gone out and created them for ourselves. Download is the “holy grail” for most UK bands in and around the metal genre and a festival we have attended many times over the years. So, for Takeover at Download festival, to ask us to headline the Doghouse stage on Thursday night was a completely overwhelming experience. Being in that tent on that stage meant we were in the thick of likeminded people who were out to have a good time! The weather was savage, but that didn’t dampen the energy in the tent one bit! It was absolutely electric and a real milestone in the career of our band! A show we’ll never forget.

So, when did the first glimpses of 'LOW' come about, was there a particular song or moment that maybe sparked the creative process for the album?

After our last EP ‘Hollow Hope’ was released we had written and recorded 4 new songs, but had no real idea of the direction we wished to pursue. Writers block had settled in and was beginning to take its toll on my own self-esteem. There was a lot of pressure from the team surrounding the band at the time to make some decisions on our next moves, and I was mostly responsible for trying to figure a lot of that out.

Unfortunately, it all got too much, and battling with anxiety I went into complete shut down. I’d always found it difficult to talk about my mental health, but our tour manager pulled me aside and gave me just the talk I needed. He just told me to be honest with myself and write down how I was feeling about the pressures and circumstances that had lead me here. The next day I recorded the first demo of what would become the title track of our debut album ‘LOW.’ That sense of honesty in myself seemed to just click everything into place and the rest of the album was written just a couple of months later.

You've said that "Every band goes through hardships… Ours very nearly pushed us to breaking point." so can you elaborate on that, and how the road to this album has compared to anything else you've gone through in the past as a band?

In the short time we have been a band, we’ve had our fair share of issues to overcome. The loss of family members, broken relationships, broken homes have all occurred, but our band was always our constant – the focus that held us all together. However, last year we had 2 founding members leave the band in the space of a few months, which totally turned our world upside down. The financial strain of supporting ourselves as a band was increasing further and further, and the stresses of having to take such a huge step backwards had us questioning whether we even wanted to continue as a band.

This, coupled with my own issues, led to the birth of the 'LOW' concept. We took some time to reflect on all the positive things that THECITYISOURS had brought to our lives and realised we still had a lot left to offer, so we channelled all of the emotions we were feeling into creating an album that reflected our journey and one we could really be proud of.

How did you get to the album title 'LOW', and what does it mean to you?

Every song on the album is written about a personal experience of ours. Unfortunately, most of these are negative at the core, but the album was our means of coping with these and helping us to find the metaphorical “light at the end of the tunnel.” The conception of the album was a dark time for us as a band, but the process has ultimately saved us, both mentally as individuals and as a band. 'LOW' is a reflection of the process as well as the content of the album and its subject matter. We hope its birth into the world allows others to relate to the songs and seek comfort in them the same way we have.

On this record you "take an introspective look at mental health and self-betterment" so can you tell us more about these important themes, and how they've gone on to shape 'LOW'?

We have always tried to wear our hearts on our sleeves as a band. Our songs have always been written about our personal experiences, emotions and feelings, though often, we have dressed them up in a story or fabricated scenario to save face and avoid the stigma revolving around mental health. Mental health, particularly in males, is a subject that is so often overlooked and the journey towards creating 'LOW' helped us to realise that it was time that we stopped trying to hide behind what we thought other people wanted us to be and start crafting our band around the way we truly felt.

As 5 young males in the UK this album helped us to realise that is was okay, if not healthy, for us to publically express our feelings and emotions. This honesty has not only been a liberating experience musically, but also helped us to feel better in ourselves, and that is the message we want to try and spread to any listeners of this album. These songs are our coping mechanism, written about real life hardships that have helped us pick ourselves up and come back even stronger than before. We hope anybody listening can interpret the songs in their own way and seek the same level of salvation and support we have from the record.

How did you end up working with Oz Craggs, and how would you say that he helped shape the record?

Oz is an incredibly talented musician and producer that we are now very lucky to be able to call a friend. We have worked with Oz on every record we have produced as a band, so it was an absolute no brainer to have him produce the album. We’ve built a relationship of understanding where he seems to understand us, better than we understand ourselves in some cases, so he was a great, calming influence on our record. He really helped us define how we wanted to present the album, and then sculpted the songs we had written to fit neatly together into a cohesive selection of stories, beautifully told through his wizardry in production. We’re very blessed to call Oz an integral part of our team and cannot thank him enough for his contributions to this album.

How did you end up working with Connor Hallisey, and what did he bring to the track 'Bare Bones'?

Connor has been a friend of myself and the rest of the boys for a good few years now. We’ve played a whole host of shows together over the years and always had a great relationship with him outside of the music scene. We’ve always admired his unique vocal style, so when considering potential features for the album there was only really one name that was ever put on the table. We gave him quite a challenge in choosing a stripped back section of the track to make his own, as we really wanted to showcase both our own versatility and the sheer power and emotion of Connor’s vocal. When we heard the first mix we were totally blown away and it was instantly obvious that his inclusion on the record was the perfect move for ‘Bare Bones’.

Tough question time, what was the hardest song on 'LOW' to put together, and why?

‘Here At All’ is the final track on the album. It is written about the loss of a close family member within the band and is arguably the most emotionally driven track on the record. I found tracking my vocals particularly tough on this one as it was almost a realisation of everything that had happened in creating the album. I was met with a whole array of questions surrounding the album. “Was it good enough?

Were we doing the right thing?” It was an incredibly emotionally overwhelming atmosphere and I found it quite difficult to shake that initially, but Oz pulled me aside and helped me to channel that into my vocal performance. I’m really proud of the way the track turned out for me vocally, but importantly I feel it rounds the album off really well, not only sonically but also contextually.

What else can we expect to see from THECITYISOURS in 2019?

August 2nd will see the release of our debut album ‘LOW.’ We are celebrating with a release party at Boston Music Room in London the day after, and we’re really looking forward to showcasing the last 2 years of work in our hometown. We then head out to play an array of festivals across the UK, and have more tour dates in the works for the end of 2019, so watch this space!

Interview with Tom

How did Thank You Scientist originally get together?

Thank You Scientist started as a catch-all for random music I was writing. It morphed into a real band around 2011. I reluctantly sang and played guitar in the early version of the band. The band morphed and expanded to eventually feature a bunch of friends, some I knew from music school and some not.

How did you get to the band name Thank You Scientist, and what does it mean to you?

It means absolutely nothing, but I love hearing people theorise. Though if someone asks me if it's from the movie, "Half Baked”, one more time I might lose my mind.

What was it like to be an upcoming band in New Jersey?

Smelly and not lucrative.

How did you end up signing to Evil Ink Records, and what have they been like to work with so far?

Well, to make a long story short, one of Claudio's employee's gave him our CD. He dug it and came to one of our shows. Then we signed many pages of legalese. Now we are more poor but have more Facebook likes.

Can you elaborate on some of the main themes and influences that run throughout 'Terraformer'?

The secret torment of Tim Allen as a direct result of his feelings of inadequacy, stemming mostly from his relationship with Tool Time co-host Richard Karn. It all culminates in a gritty unreleased episode deemed too shocking for the public. ‘Terraformer’ IS that episode!

You've said that you "felt totally creatively renewed". So can you elaborate on that, and maybe how putting this record together compares to anything that you've done before?

It was definitely the most collaborative Thank You Scientist album thus far. The work required due to the scope and length of it really energised me.

What have the new members Joe F, Sam and Joe G brought to the creative approach of Thank You Scientist?

As I previously stated, this was the most collaborative TYS album thus far. Everyone brought their own unique touch to the album. The new guys totally knocked it out of the park and got the band to explore new avenues.

Tough question time. What was the hardest song on 'Terraformer' to put together, and why?

The title track is really tricky. The titular song needs to be a banger, so there is that added pressure. This song also features a bunch of extended techniques on the fretless guitar.

Some really subtle, some very obvious. We spent a lot of time on ‘Chromology’ as well.

You recently unleashed 'Swarm'! What can you tell us about this track in particular?

‘Swarm’ is a particularly wild n'crazy number. It's very frenzied and quirky. I think the manic feeling of the music really conveys the message of Sal's lyrics. Nick Hipa from As I Lay Dying made a really cool animated lyric video for it.

How did the awesome artwork for 'Terraformer' come together, and what does it mean to you?

We commissioned a few unique artists to take care of it. Templar did the front cover. I saw this piece a long time ago and knew immediately that it had to be the next album cover. We've had a long relationship with Templar, as he also did the cover for ‘Stranger Heads Prevail’. The back cover and inside panel was done by Lady King Collage, a friend who happens to be a pretty amazing artist. The lyric book was designed by Shamfoo. We met Mr. Foo while we were on tour. He gave us an incredible hand drawn poster of the band that just blew us away. We started working with him for merch designs. The more we worked with him the more we realised the breath of his talent. He put so much work into each panel of that book. We are really proud, and I think he helped us make something extra special for our fans.

What else can we expect to see from Thank You Scientist in 2019?

A more brazen hyper-sexualized image. More overt product placement from our corporate sponsors at Creamco. Likely more back hair and other unsightly things that come with age.

Interview with Chris

So, touring wise, what have you been up to this year, and can you give us a couple of personal highlights from your time on the road?

We just got done with a tour with He is Legend and The Damned Things. We sprinkled in a few headline shows and it was awesome! We also saw Ron Jeremy crash his car on the sunset strip so that was interesting.

When did the first glimpses of 'Motherbrain' come about, was there a particular song, or moment, that maybe sparked the whole creative process for the record?

Out of the 100 or so songs we wrote for the record one of the ones that rose to the top was a song called ‘Motherbrain’. It ended up not making the record so Brandon (Yeagley) found a way to sneak it into the song ‘Blackout’.

Can you elaborate on some of the other main themes and influences that run throughout ‘Motherbrain’?

We tried to break some of the stereotypes with us I.E. Brandon only sings high all the time and we are a 70s rip off band. This one is more modern for sure. Leaning more on dark 90s grunge at times than 70s Zeppelin.

We've been told that this is your "Darkest" record to date. However, for you, when you look at 'Motherbrain', how would you say that the sound of the band has grown/changed over the last couple of years?

This record is more centered around vocal melodies and hooks than just ripping vocals (which is also awesome) and guitar solos. There are a lot of different flavours on this record. On one hand dark... the other poppy... the other funky.

How did you end up working with Corey Lowery, and how would you say that he helped shape the album?

We got to know Corey through management. He helped us just make decisions on songs we’ve been up in the air on. He really brought to the table an articulate touch. Having a fresh perspective really helped the songs get to the next level.

How did you end up working with Johnny Andrews, and what was he like to work with?

He definitely makes all the right decisions in songwriting to write hits. Sometimes we would veer off in another direction or to our default and he would redirect. We would say “does this work? What do you think Johnny?”

“Yeah if you want 5 spins a week” haha. I guess that there are rules in the hit factory.

As well as this, you also got to collaborate with Brian Vodinh, so how did he help with your approach to penning a track?

The exact opposite as Johnny. We tried to write the stereotypical Crobot song. In one day we wrote ‘Burn’ and another that didn’t make the record but was also awesome. It was just like he was a dude in the band for a day.

How did the music video idea for 'Keep Me Down' come together, and can you tell us a bit about what the song really means to you guys?

It was a fun one we wanted to make with our buddy Mike Danger. That song was our welcome backtrack and was written in the 11th hour before the studio. Sometimes our favourites happen like that.

Tough question time. What was the hardest song on ‘Motherbrain’ to put together, and why?

‘Low Life’. It was a little uncomfortable for us at first but Corey really helped to make it rock. I can live with that.

Looking back on 'Welcome To Fat City', how happy are you with this album still, and what do you think that it's done for the representation of Crobot?

I think it’s an awesome record... some songs are stronger than others but on par with SS. We tried that for a few years and now to try something a little different.

It’s still in the world of Crobot just a different take. Who knows what will be next.

What else can we expect to see from Crobot in 2019?

Brand new merch store and products. New hot sauce!

Some more touring and just us getting back out there and reclaiming the throne. Whatever that is... maybe just the porcelain throne.

Interview with Danny

So, when did the idea for Elvana first come about?

Well it’s a funny story. We all met after we all got into a knife fight over an unclaimed cheeseburger at a popular fast food outlet. Once the crowd dispersed we made our peace and discovered our mutual love and passion of all things Nirvana and Elvis Aaron Presley. To our surprise no one had yet to combine the two so we proceeded to explore this crazy idea and things kinda went from there. I never did find out who got the burger in the end. True story.

What else can you tell us about that time. Like what was it like to originally practice those songs together, and just realise that this unique combination worked so well?

Before we tried it out we spent about 2 weeks solid searching the internet to see if this had already been done. To our amazement it had not. The first few times we tried it it was pretty surreal but we kept working at it and now it’s just got way out of hand.

So, how did the current band member line-up of Elvana come together?

Elvis and I knew we wanted to do this so it was a case of finding someone who could hit the hell out of the drums well. Fortunately my baby brother had just returned to Disgraceland after spending some time over seas. Our momma said it was okay as long as we promised not to feed him after midnight. We found our bass guy playing a game called “scrap heap challenge” outside a night club. He had food and we were hungry and broke so he was in.

Was there a particular moment when you realised that you had the potential to make this a really serious live act?

When we did our first UK tour and by the third show in we were starting to sell out venues. That was a pretty incredible moment for us and the realisation hit that this may have some legs.

Touring wise, what have you been up to this year, and can you give us a couple of personal highlights from your time on the road?

Okay, so 2019 started off with a couple of shows in Dublin and Belfast which were a total blast. No one was sick on the “vomit comet” that shuttles you across the ocean to the Emerald Isle so that was a huge bonus.

We had a couple of huge shows at Manchester Albert Hall and Shepherds Bush Empire. They were the biggest shows we’d done and were just incredible. We played some shows in the US which were a total blast, our bodies are only just recovering from the diet out there. Bass Guy has started passing solids again and can finally say “tomato” without sounding like an extra from Goodfellas. He didn’t soil his slacks mid show like NYC in 2018 so that was something of a bonus. We’re in the middle of festival season and we played Download recently which was just insane. Elvis split his pants in half early in the show … he managed to keep the boys in the barracks though. We recently played 3 shows at some festival called Glastonbury (me neither) which were pretty darn swell. If they keep at it there they might have a successful festival on their hands.

You guys were all in hard working touring bands before this, so how would you say those times compare to what you are doing with more of a cover project?

We’ve all paid our dues man. We’ve done “The Dog & Handgun” on a Tuesday night in some UK backwater playing to one man and his dog. They do build character and you find out a lot about yourselves and your bandmates. We’ve managed to draw on our collective experience both good and bad to ensure we can do this and still enjoy things. We haven’t all killed each other yet so the proof is there.

What songs have you really been enjoying performing live the most at the moment?

Personally, ‘Rape Me’ - ‘Love Me Tender’ and ‘Molly’s Lips’ recently. We haven’t played ‘Molly’s Lips’ much before so it’s quite fresh but it’s a great tune for people to dance to. The lyrical juxtaposition of ‘Rape Me’ ‘Love Me Tender’ is just f*cking beautiful man.

What tracks would you really like to merge together next that you haven't done so already, and why?

Well sir, I ain’t gonna start giving away trade secrets but we got a whole load of cool ideas we’re working on for our UK tour later in the year.

How excited are you for your upcoming UK touring commitments, and what can attending fans expect from your live show?

We are as excited as a rabbit on the first day of mating season for this! We’ve got some great ideas for the show and it’ll be a joyous melting of the minds of Elvis and Nirvana.

When you look back on Elvis and Nirvana, why do you feel like they became so iconic?

Because nothing can touch them for what they were, what they did, who they influenced and how unbelievably awesome they were.

What else can we expect to see from Elvana in 2019?

A significant increase of Bass Guy facts (if you’ve caught one of our shows you’ll know what I mean) Euro dates in September, UK Tour October - December. We’ve also got a special Unplugged show in November that is going to be real swell.

Interview with Jake

Touring wise, what have you been up to this year, and can you give us a couple of personal highlights from your time on the road?

We did a short European tour in April with our old friends in Dead Swans and Swain, then did some U.S. record release shows in the Northeast. It felt awesome to get back out on the road and have the shows be ragers, even after some time away working on the new record.

When did the first glimpses from your Self-Titled album come about? Was there a particular song or moment that maybe sparked the whole album cycle?

We wrote the ideas for a couple songs during soundchecks in 2016, and then got together in the Spring of 2017 in western MA to work on some solid demos and to just kind of see what happened. The results were awesome - we had a great time jamming and the ideas just flowed. At the end of just a few days we had a bunch of demos from ideas everyone had been working on, as well as a few new songs we wrote all together. The writing and refining process continued over the next year, but that first writing session really sparked the momentum that kicked everything off.

This is your first release in four years, why do you think it took this long for the record to come together, or did it just naturally happen that way?

I think we all needed a breather after the last touring cycle, and then had to really figure out what we wanted to do next as a band. We didn't mean to take a certain amount of time off, but by the time we had a short break, got excited about writing, wrote the record and figured out who to record it with, it had already taken a minute. None of this stuff happens quickly.

So what made you want to have this album be a Self-Titled album?

We had a few titles that we had tossed around, but nothing that really stuck, and we had already been saying how this felt like the most band-defining album yet, so the idea to make it self-titled was really natural.

We've read that on this album "Archambault explores his own "Glass family"" So can you elaborate on that, and if possible, the lyrical approach of the album?

That's all Derek's domain, but I know with every album he explores not only a new character, but narrative approach. This is the first record from multiple characters perspectives and narrative voices.

How would you say that the sound of Defeater has grown/changed on this album?

This is the record we've always wanted to make - raw and dirty and beautiful and natural. I think we were finally able to realise our vision in this record in a way we hadn't before.

How did you end up working with Will Yip, and how would you say that he helped shape your Self-Titled album?

Will was our first choice of producer, and when he was excited about doing the record and Epitaph was willing to make that happen, we locked it all in. Working with him ended up being even better than anticipated. We were all on the same wavelength with refining songs and exploring new ideas, and his enthusiasm and energy pushed us to another level. That dude is an inspiring, passionate musician and producer. He's a true team player and makes you push yourself further than you think you can go. We had a really good idea of the record we wanted to make when we went into the studio, but he unquestionably made this the best it could have possibly been, and contributed ideas we never would have thought of.

Tough question time. What was the hardest song on the Self-Titled record for you to put together, and why?

I keep using the word "natural" to describe the process, but it's true - there weren't really any difficult songs to put together on this one. We all know what we need to do in this band and how to make it the best we possibly can. The only "difficult" moment writing-wise I can remember was that we all got really attached to a previous vocal idea for ‘Atheists in Foxholes’, and it took a while for us to come around to Derek's final idea for it, but that's just because we got too attached to the old idea too quickly. Now I can't even remember the old one and I think the final one rips.

What can you tell us about your latest track to be released 'Stale Smoke'?

'Stale Smoke' came together when we tried to write a real heavy, dirty jam, and then made the bass the centerpiece of the song. Will made everything sound as gnarly as possible. I love playing that song.

Looking back on 'Abandoned', how happy have you been with the response to this album so far, and what do you think that it's done for the representation of Defeater?

We've all been blown away by the response to the ‘S/T’ record. It happens to be everyone in the band's favourite thing we've made to date, but you never know how that will translate to people. I really love ‘Abandoned’ as well, but after a few years there are some things I'd do differently, or that I wish sounded different. I think people were excited about 'Abandoned' being our first Epitaph release, but the response to ‘S/T’ has been humbling and honestly pretty insane. We're all really thankful that people like it.

As a UK based publication, we must ask, what do you remember the most from coming to the UK for the first time?

Nando's olives. And the Underworld in Camden, and the Lost Well in Leeds. But especially the olives at Nando's. Sweet Jesus.

What else can we expect to see from Defeater in 2019?

We're doing U.S. touring in support of the record, and some of it is with our friends in Modern Life is War. That's about it at the moment - we hope to be back to the UK as soon as possible though.

Interview with Erick

Touring wise, what have you been up to this year, and can you give us a couple of personal highlights from your time on the road?

On a tour right now with JD Beck and DOMi. All the shows have been great so far. Really love the energy at the shows. This is our first tour in an actual bus so that's pretty cool.

When did the first glimpses from your Self-Titled album come about? Was there a particular song or moment that maybe sparked the whole album cycle?

Some ideas for songs happened like a year before the album was tracked. We usually just have a couple riffs written for one and it sparks the rest of the song. ‘Ghost’ was the first song that was finished before tracking.

That song was kicked off by a drum loop our buddy Brian Evans sent us. We wrote most of the song to it.

How would you say that the sound of CHON has grown/changed on this album?

We did more stuff on our own with this album. Like track the guitars and FX. I think that helped to make the album its own.

Tough question time. What was the hardest song on the Self-Titled record for you to put together, and why?

Some songs hit fast when writing. Like you'll come up with part after part and finish the arrangement fairly quick. Yet others will take some time/need fresh ears and time to finish. So, probably ‘Cloudy’ for me; getting the solo right took some time.

How did the artwork for the SelfTitled album come together, and what does it mean to you?

This badass abstract artist Kerry Hays did the artwork. We sent her some song works in progress and she thought up that piece. I think it means “layers”, like where some points fall others meet and join together. But there’s more behind and in front forever.

How did the music video idea for ‘Pitch Dark’ come about, and can you tell us about how that track in particular came together?

We wanted the guitars to be tuned lower for this one, as it felt like it fit the song more. For the video we always had the idea of doing something with VR in it.

Looking back on ‘Homey’, how happy have you been with the response to this album so far, and what do you think that it's done for the representation of CHON? ‘Homey’ is sick. I like it a lot, and the response has been great from what I can tell.

What songs are you still really enjoying performing live from ‘Homey’ at the moment, and why?

I like playing ‘Waterslide’ and ‘Checkpoint’. ‘Wave Bounce’ is cool as well. Anything with sick shreddy parts and chord changes are cool with me.

How excited are you for your upcoming UK tour, and what can attending fans expect?

Expect to hear some of the new songs. I like playing these new ones.

What else can we expect to see from CHON in 2019?

Lots of touring, might write some new stuff as well…we'll see.

Interview with Kevin

So, you might of had this question a lot, however, for our readers, can you tell us a little bit about how Bad Books originally got together?

Andy and I met a little bit before we both opened a tour for Brand New in March-April 2007. We got along pretty immediately and started playing on each other’s sets on that tour, literally within a week. By the end of 2008, we’d already done a half dozen tours together in various iterations, spent a ton of real-life time together, and begun talking in earnest about making music together. My former manager John Mathiason kinda nudged us to get it on the schedule around the end of 2009, and we did January 2010 down by them; the first session ended up being 80% of the first record. It has rolled from there.

Was there a particular moment when you realised that this would be more than just a side project, that it was something you could take on the road, put together more albums/releases with etc?

I think during the recording of that first album it was pretty quickly apparent that it was “A Thing.” That the sensibilities gelled and what we could make together was exciting. It felt like it had its own character and personality and value right away and that has only clarified over time.

Touring wise, what have you been up to so far this year, and can you give us a couple of personal highlights from your time on the road?

The Shaky Knees show was really incredible and promising - reminded us that people really did connect to this project and those first two records, that there was genuine excitement for it to be back around. And the first leg of the ‘III’ run was special. Wonderful, present, connected audiences and a lot of belly-laughing and memorable, beautiful shows. Kind of chain-smoking highlights, which is lovely.

When did the first glimpses of 'III' come about then? Was there a particular song, or moment that maybe sparked the whole creative process?

We got together in April 2017 to kind of kick the tyres and see if a song popped out. Andy called an audible and suggested we, instead, try and record a 10 song, “Basement Tapes” style record in 72 hours, two guitars, two vocals, 5 songs a guy. We built the bones then and decided to revisit it when we were all next available and see what it was all feeling like, what clothing the songs were asking after, and the record as it presently sounds was born of how we addressed those worthwhile skeletons.

There is certainly a bit of a gap between 'II' and 'III', was that intentional, or did it just naturally happen this way? Maybe it didn't even feel like that long to you guys at all?

It sort of didn’t feel all that long, because in the 6 years since Bad Books played shows, we did so much stuff together in our other projects and day to day lives, so Bad Books never seemed very far, even if in a technical sense it was sleeping. It happening now is a product of schedule alignment and us having space to prioritise it and get it right.

You mostly produced this record yourself, can you tell us about how that process works, and how maybe, creatively freeing it is to work this way?

I love working that way with Andy and Robert. They’re both so good at what they do, and constantly challenging themselves to be better & more refined. It’s a very particular dynamic and environment because we trust each other deeply and also simultaneously want to do great work together and crack one another up; I think we mostly keep that in balance and the light moments punctuate the intensity nicely. Every idea is allowed in the room; we send out the probe and see what’s right, instrumentally, melodically, structurally, every corner of it. It’s a really rich experience in that way and generates lots of “a-ha!” moments along the way.

You did also get to work with Ethan Gruska & Catherine Marks, so can you tell us what they were like to work with, and maybe what they brought to the process?

They are both artists, and they performed their respective functions artfully. Ethan added so much atmosphere and texture and subtle weirdness to what was there. He really understood the mission and helped slant things beautifully, this tasteful layer of crooked lunar prettiness. And Catherine sat everything down where it was supposed to, flung the rest out into space, and really presented the picture as it was meant to be seen. I cried multiple times listening to her mixes, which sounds ridiculous but it’s true. She found the most articulate beauty in each song and clarified it for broadcast.

You are all from two well known acts, so as songwriters, can you tell us about how you worked together on 'III', and how it compares to what you have done before as Bad Books?

I think we trust each other more and more, and we already did so much. So, often, the structure of a song is 80+% there for either of us, and what makes it Bad Books is how it takes its final shape through our workshopping, how the arrangements take shape, the subtle experimentation that lands things where they live. I think we’ve both gotten better at that process in our work separately, which informs how we move around in it in our work together, and I think in that sense, and in its overall sonic cohesion, it’s the most fully realised Bad Books record.

Leading on from this, and if possible, can you tell us about some of the lyrical themes that we can expect to hear on 'III'?

I think it’s ultimately a record about people, and the responsibility we bear seeking out threads of hardfought optimism and moments of tenuous peace in a world that can make those pursuits challenging, which ultimately further elevates the importance and necessity of those pursuits.

Tough question time! What was the hardest song on 'III' to put together, and why?

Definitely ‘Army’ - it’s such a bear, both with respect to content & arrangement & just the length of it, its duration. We wanted to honour the powerful lyric and engrossing story by not short-shrifting the music side.

It needed to be dynamic and lyrical and narrative in its own right, treated subtly. It required a lot of focus and energy finding the right balance of what should and what shouldn’t be there, and where, and when.

Now that the record has been out for a little bit, when you look back at it, how would you say that your sound has grown/progressed on this release?

I just think we had a clear picture of how this group of songs would be best served - wide-screen, cinematic, deliberately adorned - and I’m proud of us for not repeating ourselves and sticking to that picture, because I think the songs benefitted greatly from that intention.

How did the artwork idea of fusing you all together come about, and what does it mean to you?

I think in obvious ways it speaks to a sense of solidarity and creative commitment to the body of the thing the song being the most important thing, greater than the sum of its parts. It also addresses visually the kind of “blurry self” being wrestled with throughout the record - who or what we are at any given time. We’ve worked so extensively throughout all of our respective projects with Jordan Noel and Brian Manley and knew they’d crush it and bring a better and more vivid life than our verbal explanations ever could - and they very much did. I think their results are striking and very suited to the record.

As a UK based publication, we must ask when can we expect to see you do some dates over here, and what do you like the most about touring here as musicians?

I’m not sure at present that the band will get over in the immediate future. That said, I love coming there and 2021 actually marks 20 years since the first little DIY tour I ever did there. I like the passion & commitment to music there. I like the countryside, and I like how each place feels like itself – the distinct regional personalities. And that you can get good food at your petrol stations. A big thing for a touring person, an M&S.

What else can we expect to see from Bad Books in 2019?

We’ve got the West coast US tour in August, and then we’ll see what shakes out & makes sense.

Interview with Marcus

When did the first glimpses of 'Alien' come about, was there a particular song or moment that sparked the whole album cycle?

We first started working on the initial ideas for the album about 2 years ago. The first few songs that came about were ‘Bloodline’, ‘Talking Heads’ and ‘Vultures’. We set aside as much time as we needed to work on this album but those songs haven't changed a whole lot since we wrote them and set the tone for the rest of the album both musically and lyrically.

So, how did you get to the album title 'Alien', and what does it mean to you?

The title ‘Alien’ relates to the alienation I felt like many people feel growing up in an unhealthy environment as well as the more prominent electronic elements featured this time around. I also thought it would throw people off, have people thinking that it would be a spacey, alien themed album when in reality, it's the rawest, most personal album we've ever released.

The album reflects on your youth. Can you tell us a bit about how this lyrical approach came together, and maybe what else we can expect on that front from 'Alien' overall?

‘Alien’ talks about my upbringing with drug addicted parents and a violent father and the effect that had on me growing up. For a long time, I was embarrassed to tell this story as I thought I'd be judged for my parents actions but as I've come to talk about it more, I realise how many people went through the same or a similar thing and hope to show people you can leave that legacy behind and create a new one. I have wanted to tell my story for a long time but haven't felt comfortable in the past but this felt like the right time.

We've read that Alien is not "a continuation of the space and futuristic themes that have characterised previous Northlane albums", so can you tell us about how maybe this different approach has effected the sound of Northlane on 'Alien'?

This was the natural progression, especially with the darker tone of the music that Jon was writing. Josh really encouraged me to write about my experiences and though it was difficult to reflect on those periods of my life, this is the most proud I've ever been of a Northlane album for that reason. There was no decision to intentionally stay away from the lyrical content you may have come to expect from Northlane but I think people will really be able to relate to this more personal stuff, that's the kind of music I relate to and enjoy listening to, so once we got started, it kept flowing.

You guys produced the album! How did that idea come about, and how creatively rewarding was it for you to work this way?

We are extremely proud of what we achieved producing this album ourselves. We have learnt so much from the many amazing producers we have worked with in the past but along the way, we have learnt to be more confident in our own ideas. Allowing ourselves more time to put ‘Alien’ together also meant we could leave a song, sometimes for weeks or months at a time, then come back to it with fresh ears. We are always extremely picky but in the past, we haven't had that luxury. So in my mind, this is the truest and most well constructed representation of our music.

You've just unleashed 'Talking Heads'! What can you tell us about it?

‘Talking Heads’ is about anxiety and the "voice's in your head" trying to tell you that you're not good enough.

So many people deal with it and it's something that is often hard to explain and talk about. Like many of the songs on ‘Alien’, it's a reflection of my own ongoing experience but I hope songs like this can help others be open about their mental health. It was one of the first songs that was written and felt like an appropriate subject considering the frantic nature and strange structure of the song.

How did the music video idea for 'Bloodline' come together, and what was it like to work with Jason Eshraghian?

I wanted this video to closely reflect the subject and lyrics of the song, more so than it has been done with past videos that might have been more metaphorical. We've worked with Jason on all of our music videos since ‘Rot’ and I don't think I could have done this one with anyone but him. It's a slightly dramatised look into the kind of upbringing I had, showing a fathers struggle with addiction and the impact it has on his family, especially his son. It was extremely hard to see the set of this video as it was like walking into a time capsule and since its release, I've only watched the videos a handful of times. It is extremely real but that was the way I wanted it to once again start a conversation on these issues that many people have struggled with.

Tough question time. What was the hardest song on 'Alien' to put together, and why?

I don't think there was any song in particular that was most difficult to write. As all of the songs come from a pretty personal place, they all took a lot of energy and time to write. We did spend a lot of time going back and forth with the chorus for ‘Bloodline’ though. We tried 10-15 different chorus', got opinions from a bunch of different people but eventually realised that we were over thinking it and reverted back to the original. We thought that the chorus should "take off" when it kicked in but with the darker tone of the song, this low, monotonous version felt perfect, giving off that feeling of being numb to the pain.

Looking back on 'Node', how happy are you with this album still, and what do you think that it's done for the representation of Northlane?

I'm extremely proud of it looking back, considering the pressure we were under at the time. We recorded that album 5 months after I joined, most of it being written on the road. All of our albums represent the time and headspaces we were in at the time and for me, ‘Node’ was just the first step in us finding ourselves in this new form. It's interesting because at the time, a lot of people thought the change was far too drastic but a bunch of people have since said that ‘Node’ is their favourite album.

What songs are you still really enjoying performing live from 'Node' at the moment, and why?

‘Rot’ was the first song I put out with the Northlane and will always be special for me and ‘Obelisk’ has been a staple in the setlist since we put it out. They're a lot of fun and since Brendon's joined the band, he's brought new life to those songs live.

How excited are you for your upcoming UK tour, and what can attending fans expect?

The UK has always felt like a second home to us and we always strive to come back with a bigger and better show than ever, this time is no different! There's also a different kind of energy with these new songs that I think will translate to something pretty special live. We can't wait to get back over there!

As a UK based publication, we must ask, what do you remember the most from coming to the UK for the first time?

My first show in the UK was in London and I've loved coming back to the UK ever since. The people are warm (despite the weather), super loyal and love live music. I was lucky enough to play The Roundhouse supporting Parkway Drive for my first time and it will always hold a special place in my heart!

What else can we expect to see from Northlane in 2019?

We’ve just kicked off the Alien World Tour in Japan with Crystal Lake ahead of the release of the album. Then we're off to North America, heading back to the US for the first time in about 3 years! After that we head back home for the Australia/NZ leg before finishing off the year in Europe and the UK with you guys! We get back home just before Christmas so we've really packed the end of the year out. Expect to see us just as busy in the New Year!

Interview with Chad

Touring wise, what have you been up to this year, and can you give us a couple of personal highlights from your time on the road?

We just wrapped up a short run of East Coast US shows. Always a good time playing shows in front of our dedicated fans who embraced a set comprised mostly of the new record.

Was there a particular song or moment that sparked the creative process for 'Six'?

‘Stone’ was the first song on the record that really motivated us to push the envelope for the rest of the album. We knew as soon as we tracked it that we were on the right track to create something a little different, yet still keeping true to the foundation of the band.

Why do you think that there was a big gap between this record and the last, or did it just happen in a much more natural way?

We’ve never put ourselves on a time crunch with releasing new material. When we start to feel that itch things start coming together. It worked out exactly how it should have, organically.

Can you tell us a bit about the themes and influences that run throughout 'Six'?

There weren’t any certain themes we tried to adopt for this record. As I mentioned, ‘Stone’ was the first track that really showed us we were capable of more than what we’ve previously released. We of course had the mind set that this record was meant to be a little different but each song flowed very well with what we were looking to accomplish.

What was the hardest song on 'Six' to put together, and why?

‘Hypnosis’ and ‘The Storm’ are two tracks that stand out to me because they were much softer than the rest of the album so we had to navigate how to incorporate songs that were a little out of the box for us. In the end, I think they turned out great.

How did you end up working with Josh Schroeder, and how would you say that he helped shape the album?

I’ve been personally working with Josh for close to a decade. He’s been recording some of my favourite local bands well before I even started playing in bands in the early 2000s. Josh has always been a good friend and a hell of a producer. Just like us, he’s rode the roller coaster of the music industry and really found his sound and groove in what he does. We all live fairly close to each other and having someone who has been able to share that growth coming up together really helps you feel at home in the studio.

How did the artwork for 'Six' come together, and what does it mean to you guys?

We had a few ideas of how we’d like the artwork to look. We wanted something simple and clean. In hindsight there are most definitely a few things I would change, but all in all I think the simplicity of the artwork shows the maturity of the band. Less about how cool it looks and focused more on the content inside it.

How did the music video idea for 'Stone' come together, and if possible, can you tell us about the lyrical content behind this rack in particular?

We’re a Michigan band, and we wanted something that showed the beauty of the seasons. The vibrant fall colours with the dark setting of the early days as we get closer to winter. Lyrically ‘Stone’ is a song based around pushing forward through each and every hardship you face daily. While some of the lyrics start off with a more negative approach as the song progresses it steers you in the direction of knowing that no matter what, you’re not alone.

Looking back on 'Heavy Hearts', how happy are you with this album still, and what do you think that it's done for the representation of For The Fallen Dreams?

I loved what we came up with for ‘Heavy Hearts’. It was my first record back with the band after a five year absence. It showed the maturity of how we’ve progressed as musicians in those years apart but still showed fans of old and new that we were embracing our roots with my return.

What songs are you still really enjoying performing live from 'Heavy Hearts' at the moment, and why?

‘Emerald Blue’ is one of the most energetic and fun tracks to play live, it’s been in our set since that record was released. ‘Dream Eater’ and ‘Amnesia’ are also two of my favourites to play live.

How excited are you for your upcoming UK tour, and what can attending fans expect?

We cannot wait to get back to the UK! Our fans over the pond have always been some of our favourite to perform in front of. Looking forward to that section of the tour and the fish and chips that come along with it.

What do you remember the most about coming to the UK for the first time?

Being able to take in our surroundings was a very surreal experience at that time. Knowing that we’ve been able to travel thousands of miles away to different countries just because people enjoyed and believed in the music we made. The fans embraced us with open arms, moments like that you never forget and we’re extremely grateful for that.

What else can we expect to see from For The Fallen Dreams in 2019?

We will be working on new music this winter and gearing up for a number of different runs in 2020. Look forward to seeing everyone in 2019/2020!

Our Story so far…

Voidnaut is a metal band based in Athens, which was formed in 2013 by Kostas Krikos and Steve Venardo as a small project.

Not long after, Kostas Alexakis (drummer of Acid Death) and Kostas Tasakos (Ex-Double Square) joined and started working on original material as a full-fledged band, with influences ranging from Disturbed / Pantera and the overall sound of American Heavy.

The band released its debut album titled ‘Nadir’ on February 8th 2019 via 7hard records and has received numerous great reviews from around the world!The album was mixed/produced in Devasounds Studios by Fotis Benardo (ex-Septic Flesh, SixForNine) mastered by Steve Lado (Tardive Dyskenisia) and all artwork done by Giannis Nakos (Remedy Art Design).

Voidnaut are…

Kostas Krikos – Guitars Steve Benardo – Vocals Kostas Alexakis – Drums Kostas Tasakos – Bass

‘NADIR’ - OUT NOW! Facebook.com/Voidnaut Reverbnation.com/voidnaut Instagram.com/voidnautgr Twitter: @VoidnautOffcial voidnautofficial@gmail.com

Interview with Kelly

When did the first glimpses of 'Daydream Explosion' come about? Was there a particular song or moment that maybe sparked the whole album cycle?

Not exactly… we try to write all the time and put out an album every 2 years - ish. By about the 1 year mark after an album release we always get a bit restless and anxious about what is next. We started writing and put out an EP for our Patreon fans. Those 3 songs (’In Your Face’, ‘Kat’s Meow’ & ‘Last Ones On Earth’) were the start of the album. The reception was awesome and we kind of took them as our starting point.

Once that was out we decided it was time to launch an album preorder… then it was full speed ahead!

What made you want to release 'Everything' first, and can you tell us a bit about how this track in particular came together?

I love that song. It’s a love song to each other (my husband is also my musical partner) and our fans and is one of our best written songs ever. I thought it would be a good peek into what was to come. It was one of the later songs in the writing process. Luis had the music down and I kept putting off writing lyrics for some reason. I came home from somewhere in the middle of the day and heard Luis on the piano… and it hit him!

We sussed out the rest that night after putting our kids (2 and 5 yrs old) to bed.

So, how did you get to the album title 'Daydream Explosion', and what does it mean to you?

Oh man… we had at least 30 different titles, ‘Pink Pachyderm Pajama Party’ was it for more than a day… but after about 2 weeks of pulling out our hair we had the cover art idea and an image of my head and neck x-ray was the central theme. I’m a MAJOR daydreamer (you could also say easily distracted hahah) and the music that comes out is like all the stuff in my mind exploding out into the world so it was almost a literal description of the art that would come next. And it sounds cool, right?

We read that there are some pretty intense lyrical themes inspiring this album. So if possible, can you tell us more about what we can expect from the lyrics that run throughout 'Daydream Explosion’?

As always, you can expect an energetic, melodic and hooky delivery. Sometimes it can get a little pointy and rough around the edges but falls within the bounds of Dollyrots-style.

Thematically we hit a lot of things this time around; partying, the end of the world, love, longing, frustration, reflection, gratuity and geeze... more more more! We like to joke that it’s just 8th grade poetry, that’s even a line on the album but in truth we’ve honed this songwriting thing over the last 7 albums and I feel like we really reached a new level with this one. Luis and I work well under pressure so typically we will set a date for the completion of the album before it’s anything more than an idea. For 'Barefoot & Pregnant' and 'Whiplash Splash' our date was the actual due dates of our kids. For this one we booked time at a studio we’ve dreamed at recording in since our adolescence, Pachyderm in Minnesota. AND put down the deposit. Sadly my dad passed away 4 weeks before our flight and to hit our song goal (20 songs) seemed impossible. I just wanted to curl up and cry, not go make peppy Dollyrots music, BUT we had no choice. So, like other times in life we put one foot in front of the other and made it happen. We look at music and art as a bit of a mystical thing… and we would put the kids to sleep each night and go out to our studio and try to grab ideas out of thin air. I absolutely couldn’t have done it without Luis, he made the bulk of the music happen and encouraged me every step of the way. We never give up...

You've said that "the album creation was cathartic", so can you elaborate on that, and maybe how putting this album together has compared to anything else that you've done before?

Sure, the last 3 albums have come with a huge shift in life for us… as I mentioned above they were written and created while I was pregnant and then this one as I mourned the loss of my dad. When something really big like that happens I think it’s hard to go back and do some of the things you used to do normally. Because they’re different now. Especially something artistic. Fortunately I didn’t have a choice. I just had to start and get through it. By getting back to the thing I love to do I did feel a little better every day. I also think it helped me tap into some deep feelings and emotions because of where my mind was at the time.

How did you end up working with John Fields, and how did he help shape 'Daydream Explosion’?

This was our 6th full length album with John. At this point he’s kind of the band member we don’t tour with.

It’s just such a fun, fluid and wildly productive experience each time. He totally gets us and helps create the sounds we have in our minds. He’s the official keyboardist of The Dollyrots. We record as we write so we arrived in Minneapolis to his studio with a lot of music already down and he adds the bells and whistles, makes us fix things that don’t seem as good as they can be and then lastly we add drums together. Noah Levy, a friend of his and now ours, stepped in for that role on this album. John is kind of our George Martin.

This time around there were a couple songs that were half-baked that we wanted to record. ‘Flippy In My Red Dress’, for example was just a ROUGH demo with a couple verses and chorus and turned out to be nothing like the demo. It’s AMAZING! But something we couldn’t have done without his direction. It has a Rockabilly, Swing, loungy sound that turned out to be one of my favourites. Same thing with ‘I Know How To Party’. that one grew a lot under his direction.

Tough question time. What was the hardest song on 'Daydream Explosion' to put together, and why?

These are always tough questions… it’s like having a baby I think. I try to think back and forget a lot of the harder stuff. I know the whole thing was a bit of a mental, sleep-deprived exercise but now it’s a positive memory and the art we made will make me proud for the rest of my life.

How did the album artwork for 'Daydream Explosion' come together, and what does it mean to you?

Well, this is kind of tragic and perfect… Luis and I were in a car accident… back seat and got rear ended. Had to get x-rays, MRIs etc and are still dealing with the aftermath. BUT we posted a quick pic of my head/neck x-ray on Instagram and a fan insisted it should be the album cover so we decided to use it and it TOTALLY fit the album title. Totally an accident… huh huh huh.

This is your first time working with a label in a very long time. How did that decision come about, and what has the whole process been like for you with 'Daydream Explosion’?

Well, we’ve been on a couple amazing labels; Lookout/Panic Button and then Joan Jett’s Blackheart Records. And without those experiences we wouldn’t be the band we are today. With the rise in crowdsourcing around 2011 we felt like we should give it a shot. Blackheart totally understood and we moved forward with our fans.

Wicked Cool is a very artist friendly record label… I mean, it’s run by Little Stevie Van Zandt and that guy knows what this life is like. We’ve partnered with them in the past on a 7” and they’ve always been great supporters of our band on Little Stevie’s radio station on Sirius/XM called Underground Garage. We sent them some demos and they loved it. They understood that we needed to still keep our pre-order DIY thing going with our fans and gave us the space to do that while taking a lot of the production and distribution worry off our plate. It was just the right choice for us and something fun and different to try.

What else can we expect to see from The Dollyrots in 2019?

Whoooo! Well we’re currently on a plane. Gonna have a lot of planes, RVs and Lyft rides in our future. We’re hitting Tempe, Vegas and LA the weekend of the record release (July 12th) then head to the Bay Area for the Warped Tour 25th Anniversary weekend. Get home for a couple days and back in the RV for our East Coast tour and then a festival in Monument, CO, FEST in Gainesville and other stuff I’m forgetting I’m sure. That just gets us to Halloween.

Story is… we never stop. And with the best album we’ve ever made we’re going to do all we can to get it out to as many people as possible.

Come say “HI!" on social media and at shows! We’re always at the merch table after shows… our fans are what keep this band going. We love hanging out with them!

Interview with Jaret

Congrats on celebrating your 25th anniversary as a band! What has this whole time been like for you, and how rewarding has it been for the band overall to be reflecting back on your career whilst putting out new music and being on the road?

It is kind of hard to explain. I know it is an enormous milestone, but it doesn’t quite seem real. We have done so much, seen so much, and then there is the insane catalog of music. It has been pretty incredible. And something I never thought we would accomplish.

How did the cover track 'Sometimes I Don't Mind' come together, and what did you find the most exciting about giving it the Bowling For Soup approach?

We absolutely LOVE the Suicide Machines. This song came off an album that both the fans, and the band look back on with angst. But BFS wore this album out in the van. And I always thought this song should have been huge. We are doing a cover every month for a year, so I finally got the opportunity to cover it and I am SO happy with how ‘Sometimes I Don't Mind' turned out! I sent the video to the singer of the band, Jason Navarro and asked what he thought. He said, "It's cute, Let it fly!" I don't think I could have asked for a better endorsement!

You guys are doing a cover song every month for a year! How did this idea come about, and what has it been like to achieve so far / what else can we expect?

The covers will be all over the place! From punk rock stuff that no one will recognise, to hit songs that will seem crazy for us to cover. We have always had good luck with our cover songs. And in this world of streaming music, I just decided to embrace it! It is fun to get the bands’ reactions as well. I am stoked for these things!

You recently did a live version of Jaret Goes To The Movies as part of the 25th anniversary celebration! How did it go, and for readers who haven't checked out the podcast just yet, what can they expect from it?

It was incredible! It was actually the second LIVE podcast. This one was Taimak from The Last Dragon. He was stoked about the format and fans of the band, the movie, and the podcast really had a blast! I am hoping we can keep doing these for sure! The podcast itself is really fun. It is kind of like a radio morning show really!

Only we talk about a movie that we watched that week, along with anything and everything else that we are thinking about!

Touring wise, what have you been up to this year so far, and can you give us a couple of personal highlights from your time on the road?

It is a busy year. Co-headlining with Reel Big Fish at the moment. Our first leg, we had the band Nerf Herder on the tour with us. IT is pretty incredible to have a band that you have listened to for 30 years open for you!

So much fun!

At this point in your career, how do you go about picking a setlist!?

Well, there are certain songs that we HAVE to play. It can get difficult with short sets, because if we just played all the hits, it is like 45 minutes to an hour…And that is with no jokes! Which is the best part of our show to be honest. Rob coming into the band has been fun. He comes up with songs that he wants us to play all the time. Keeps us in our toes and from getting in a rut!

It's been ten years since the release of 'Sorry for Partyin'' Looking back on this album, what do you remember the most about putting it together?

We were in Austin for a month. It was like being in college! We had so much fun! We bought a barbecue grill and grilled every night. Worked long days and went to the same bar every night. It’s probably the most fun we’ve had making a record, and they have ALL been fun!

How excited are you for your upcoming appearance at Reading/Leeds Festival, and what can attending fans expect?

I am stoked! Reading and Leeds was our first ever trip to the UK! So being there while celebrating 25 years is just amazing. We have some fun stuff in the works. I guarantee we will make headlines!

Also, what do you remember the most from playing this festival for the first time?

I just remember an empty tent. 10 minutes before we played. And I thought, well, at least we got to come to the UK! We walked out on stage and there were people as far as you could see! Just bursting the tent! We played ‘The Bitch Song’ that day, and the love affair of BFS and the UK began! And we are still doing well in that relationship! Haha.

What else can we expect to see from Bowling For Soup in 2019?

Lots of USA shows. A cover song each month for free and 3-4 original songs that will go straight to stream! All free! Then we come back to the UK in 2020!! It is busy, and I am old…But I still love it!

When and how did the idea for Laura Jane Grace & the Devouring Mothers come about, and can you tell us how the initial line-up was formed?

Well in 2015 I was finishing up working on my book at by that point I had already been sitting in front of a computer screen for way too long and wanted to go out and see if what I was working on resonated with people in a live setting so I booked this 2 week long tour of the North East for these shows that were going to be a mix of reading from what would become the book and playing Against Me! songs kind of stripped back and acoustic, and also throwing in some fun covers. I asked Marc and Atom to come out and do the tour with me. Atom plays drums in Against Me! of course and Marc has recorded the last couple of Against Me! records at his studio in Michigan, he's also the band's touring sound engineer and had been our tour manager for years too, so it was all coming from the same family as the band. So we went out and did the tour and it was a lot of fun and as we were going I was like "this needs a name, we're a band, it's not Against Me!" so I dubbed us the Devouring Mothers after a Niki de Saint Phalle art book I had picked up at a museum bearing the same title. The tour went great and after I suggested that we should try recording something just the three of us, because we were working really well together musically. So that following summer we went into Marc's studio and recorded like a dozen Mountain Goats covers, the Mountain Goats are one of my all time favourite bands. Recording the covers went really well too and I suggested that it would be rad to try recording an album of originals sometime. -

- The idea was stored in the back of my head. I'm always working on songs and had been writing steady since the last Against Me! album came out in 2016. As 2018 was starting out we were all talking about working on a new Against Me! album but things were kind of amiss with the chemistry in the band for writing, and it was ending up that Atom and Marc and myself were just getting together to work on the songs. We laboured on like that for a little while under the premise that it was for an Against Me! album but as we progressed I just knew that was dishonest and then as things started changing in Against Me! with Inge leaving and Andrew coming back it just felt right to separate the two for sure and do what I had been wanting to do with the Devouring Mothers, then start fresh in the Against Me! world with Andrew once we had settled in. Have you seen Metallica's documentary ‘Some Kind Of Monster’? You know when Jason Newsted is on the outs and James and Lars are jamming with Bob Rock on the bass and they talk about the idea of Bob Rock just joining the band on bass? That's what happened here almost exactly, except we just kept running with the idea and it became its own band.

Touring wise, what have you been up to this year?

We started the year off with a 7 week long North America run for ‘Bought To Rot’ with our friends in Mercy Union and Control Top. That tour started off at SXSW which is always a spectacle of sorts. In May Against Me! played shows every weekend, starting off with Pouzza Fest in Montreal, our first time there and then we also did the Lost Weekends with Frank Turner in Boston.

Devouring Mothers just got back from an Australian tour a couple days ago and then up next Against Me! is playing with Weezer at the North Dakota State Fair at the end of July, then Devouring Mothers head over to the UK and Europe in August and September. It's been a busy and fun year.

So, when did the initial vision for 'Bought To Rot' come about?

I guess it was just a feeling of readiness that I had. I’d been working on the songs for a while, really spending time with them and they had kind of aged to a point of being ripe and I knew that they weren't an Against Me! record, especially if it was going to mean waiting to record and release them. They just had to go and had to go then or they were going to rot, the goodness was going to be lost. I didn't want that because I had worked so hard on them. I really had a strong and singular vision with the songs. I wanted to record them quick, track them live, and release them quick, and I wanted Bloodshot, a Chicago label in particular to release the album, and I wanted it to come out in November so I could throw a birthday party and have an excuse to go out on my birthday and I knew that this was what I wanted to do with 2019, tour around playing the songs while working on a new Against Me! album. It feels good to be uncompromising in vision.

How did you get to the album title 'Bought To Rot', and what does it mean to you?

Just what I said above. Like fruit and vegetables. You buy it, it sits there, if you don't eat it then it rots and you throw it away and all the goodness is wasted. I guess it's about wasted potential in general, so much wasted potential all around us and for what? Also in being uncompromising with vision how does that effect the art?

Wanting to release it how I wanted to release it, the sacrifices in commercialism that are made which curtail the potential reach of a project, I don't know if that makes sense, it's like here's another 14 songs to throw on the scrap heap of history, a lot of work went into them and then they're pressed on a record and it's all forgotten about eventually. Rot. It's a very American feeling right now, rot.

We've read that the album focuses on your “fractured relationship with her adopted hometown of Chicago", so can you elaborate on that?

That's just what a bio says when you have a song called ‘I Hate Chicago’ on a record. They're just phrasing it in a nicer way but I prefer my wording. I hate Chicago. I feel like this town was kind of jerky to me and not very welcoming when I first came here so I've made it a one person mission to damage the tourism industry here and dissuade people from ever visiting Chicago. I'm kidding of course but also f*ck this place. There's a running theme of displacement through out the album, questioning where you belong, trying to figure out your place in the world. A lot of references to hotels, places of refuge in transient living. I didn't really choose to live in Chicago, life just kind of put me here and I don't have a real choice in leaving right now, it's a unique perspective that intrigues me, the idea of hating someplace but being stuck there, and the place saying f*ck you leave and not being able to so where does that put you then? What are you supposed to do in a situation like that. You still have a right to exist and take up space. I don't know, the grass is always greener.

How did 'Full Moon Fever' become such an influence for this album, and why do you think it has gone on to mean so much to you?

Like I was saying how we recorded a bunch of Mountain Goats covers, well I had learned those covers when we were on tour with Green Day and I was kind of doing a character study on the Mountain Goats to be productive with down time on the road. Well it was right after that when Petty passed away and I did that same thing with Petty after he passed, went back and learned a bunch of his songs, studied them, the way he would write and play. ‘Full Moon Fever’ was the first CD I ever got, when I was like 10 years old? So that album had a huge impact on me as a kid. I realise that he was the same age as me when he recorded that album, 37 and it kind of got in my head, like that's what he did when he was 37, so what am I doing? I wanted to test myself like he did. It goes a little deeper too though.

I was sitting at home playing along to one of his records then and I was playing this old Jaguar that I never play because it's an antique and worth some money and I was like "oh this sounds so good like it could have been on the record" and then I slapped myself for being a dummy and realised I had bought the guitar off Stan Lynch who played drums in the Heartbreakers and that the guitar could very well have been around when they were recording all those seminal albums because it was that old and it was his and why not then?

But I started thinking how sad it must be to be a drummers guitar because you know then that you'll never be a guitar played on a record or played onstage and if you're a guitar that's got to be all you want in your existence and I realised how sad it was that Stan had never played the guitar because it was in perfect condition and had obviously never really been played since the 60s. Then I bought it and stuck it under my bed and never played it either and that just played into the whole theme of the album, the idea that it was just rotting in its case under my bed. So I decided this was the album this guitar was made to be played on, this was what it had been created for.

Who produced 'Bought To Rot', and how would you say that they helped shape it?

I mean there was no producer appointment ceremony, it's just kind of an unspoken thing. We're all pretty in line with the standards of tuning and timing when it comes to recording and we arranged all of the songs together before going into the studio. Once we got there we all knew what we were supposed to do so the mics were set up and we were off to the races. I loved making this album. 14 songs in 7 days. We did two songs a day. Every morning Atom and I would wake up and go run 6 miles then we would record all afternoon and into the evening really just going for perfect takes where nothing had to be corrected, it was all about the feel and running the songs until we just nailed one of the takes. So satisfying.

What was the hardest song on 'Bought To Rot' to put together, and why?

Hmmm. I had trouble with ‘Born In Black’. Initially the intro and reintro before the 2nd verse had guitar soloing similar to what happens at the end of the song and I just couldn't figure out what to do with the soloing that was interesting enough for it to happen 3 times in a song. So I was just sitting on the couch riffing when Ray, Marc's roommate walked by and said something like "Oh, just running some generic riffs?" and I had a eureka moment. I realised that what I was doing was way generic and didn't need to happen so much, that just putting the solo melody at the end of the song made it more unique and palatable, it made it work. It was a slightly offhanded remark that provided the key in this situation.

What made you want to release 'Apocalypse Now (& Later)' first, and can you tell us about how this track in particular came together?

I guess I wanted to release it first just specifically because of the happy memories behind it and it was one of the first songs written for the album. Against me! was on this tour in Australia back in 2017 called Groovin The Moo, it ended in Perth which is Western Australia, you're really out there, feels far away from the rest of the world. The day after the tour ended we had time to kill before flying out that night and it was James’ birthday. I was with someone special to me and we woke up that morning and then we all went and visited Bon Scott's grave, he's buried there. At the end of the road his cemetary's on there's a go-kart track, so after we hung out at his grave and said hello we went and rode go-karts, then we drove up to Freemantle and went to this incredible restaurant to have a Birthday dinner for James. Lots of drinks and laughs and after there was an amusement park across the street so we went and rode the ferris wheel and just ran around on the beach playing in the surf. It was a really magical day and a great end to the tour, a great memory all around. Getting back on the plane the rest of the world was coming back into view and all the drama and hate in the news around Trump and it all just seemed like the apocalypse in motion and I felt guilty for having had such a great day but also I didn't want to feel guilty because I know how important it is to live a day like that to its fullest if you ever get the chance. So I wrote that song to commemorate the memory. It seemed like a good first foot to start out on.

How excited are you for your upcoming UK tour, and what can attending fans expect?

I'm very genuinely excited. It was important to me that this album tour came to the UK and Europe. People had been asking about it online and I couldn't really explain how hard we've been working to make it happen and really it's thanks to teaming up with Frank Iero that we're able to. I respect Frank a lot and what he's been doing with his solo records and I think the pairing is really strong especially with Mobina Galore added to the bill.

What do you remember the most about coming to the UK for the first time?

I remember thinking that every older punk I saw must surely have been in one of the old UK punk bands I grew up listening to. I quickly learned this was not the case. People argue about where punk started, who the first punk band was but for me I'll always associate the start with the UK so it was like walking into a living museum for me in a sense. I was so in awe and impressed by the dumbest stuff. All I wanted to do was go to record stores and search out old Crass records 7"'s, which I did a lot of.

What else can we expect to see from you in 2019?

We've got a couple recordings we're sitting on that we're hoping we'll share some of at some point but mostly the rest of this year will be working on the next Against Me! records and playing shows with both bands. We'll see what else comes our way.

Interview with Sam

Touring wise, what have you been up to this year, and can you give us a couple of personal highlights from the road?

We've not done a whole lot show wise this year. It's been more the case of getting the album finished & waiting for that to drop. We've been lucky enough to have played some amazing shows over the years though. Roundhouse and our Reading set in 2014 always stand out to me.

When did the first glimpses from your Self-Titled album come about? Was there a particular song or moment that maybe sparked the whole album cycle?

Well the beginnings of ‘Black Holes’ started when we were still touring for the ‘Wired’ campaign. At that point in time we knew Mikey would be leaving so it was important for us 4 that we started writing in preparation for when that moment came & we actually had songs written & ready to go. The whole thing was recorded in 4 different sessions which is the first time we've ever done that. I remember when we wrote ‘Fine Lines’, which was recorded in our first session, with that I really felt like we had found the direction that we wanted to take the album.

How did the music video for 'White Lies' come together, and what does it mean to you?

The idea actually came from myself, which is rare because normally I don't care too much for videos but I was absolutely sure I didn't want it to be a performance video. The song itself is about my struggles to open up to people and how I hide how I feel in the fear of them seeing a side of me they might not like, which therefore makes me feel like I'm being dishonest to the people I care about.

Sometimes it's a pretty big weight to carry & this song in a way is my way of trying to tell them the truth & what I sometimes go through inside my head.

We were fortunate enough to catch you guys at 2000 Trees Festival last year. One of your first shows with yourself taking on vocal duties. You smashed it, however for you, what were those first couple of shows like with the new line-up shift?

I wouldn't say I was nervous but I was definitely apprehensive going into the first shows as a 4 piece. After the first couple of shows though it all felt pretty natural to perform, being a frontman however is something I don't think I'll ever get used to.

How did the writing/recording process on your Self-Titled compare to anything that you have done before as Mallory Knox?

Writing has always been the easiest part of being in this band. It's where I get the most enjoyment too. I was never worried about us writing a new record as a 4 piece with me as the singer. We'd written a lot of our old songs like that anyway.

The change was the direction in where we wanted to take the new album. We wanted this record sonically to be something very different from our previous work & like with anything new it takes a little time to get into the flow of it.

So what made you want to have this album be a Self-Titled album?

With everything that's happened to this band in the last 18 months it genuinely felt like an achievement to even be able to do another record. It just felt right to have this one be our self titled simply because of the journey we had to go to even get to this point.

Who produced the album, and how would you say that they helped shape it?

We recorded this record with Adrian Bushby. We knew with this record it needed to sound true, it needed to sound real and the furthest thing from fake & we were all confident that Adrian was the guy to go to for this record. He was very good at almost leaving us to our own devices on the creative side, which is always how we like it. The stuff he did bring to the table may have been small in quantity but in terms of how much they added to some of the songs they were huge.

Tough question time. What was the hardest song on the SelfTitled record for you to put together, and why?

‘Psycho Killer’ was a pretty good one to get stuck into. All I took to rehearsal was the vocal melody & we built everything around it from there which for us was a completely different way to write, which was quite refreshing.

So, what do you think that you've learnt the most as a band by making this Self-Titled record?

I've learnt that being in the studio is where I've felt most at home without actually being at home. I enjoyed the shows & some of the extra stuff that comes with being in a band but for me being in the studio making what you've created come to life is one of the most special things I've ever been a part of and probably ever will be.

Looking back on 'Wired', how happy are you with this album still, and what do you think that it's done for the representation of Mallory Knox?

Looking back I'm still proud of ‘Wired’. It has some of our best work on it but at the same time there's a couple that we could have done more with. I don't think I'll ever look back on that record & regret it as a whole, I'll just always feel it never really reached its full potential.

What songs are you still really enjoying performing live from 'Wired' at the moment, and why?

‘Better Off Without You’ always seems to go down as one of, if not the best song in the set so I always look forward to playing that one just for the crowd reaction alone. We recently bought ‘California’ back into the live set as well & that's been a really fun one to play.

How excited are you for your upcoming UK tour, and what can attending fans expect?

The tour should be a lot of fun. We've been waiting to play some of these new songs for a long time now & it'll be great to finally get them out there. Obviously we'll be playing some of the older stuff too but it'll be nice to integrate the old in with the new.

What else can we expect to see from Mallory Knox in 2019?

All we're focused on right now is releasing our new record and doing this UK tour & going from there & that'll take us basically up to the end of the year anyway.

From there, who knows what tomorrow will bring!

So, when did the first glimpse of 'Rewind, Replay, Rebound' come about then? Was there a particular song, or moment that sparked the creative process for the record?

Well we’ve been working on tunes for a while actually. We spent a lot of time in the rehearsal room, doing pre-production, demoing songs, etc. So we were pretty well prepared by the time we actually entered the studio. We also worked on some ideas out on the road, ‘The Everlasting’ is actually one of the first songs that came together, and we’ve been playing that one for quite a bit now. So yeah, that’s basically how it went down.

The first song you released as a single was 'Parasite'! The song itself is only 37 seconds long, so how exciting was it to release something as interesting as this first?

The song is almost an interlude really. I don’t know where the idea to release that first came from, but I thought it was pretty cool. It was just meant to be a teaser, and that’s exactly what it is. It’s a super short song.

Interview with Rob Can you tell us about some of the lyrical content that runs throughout 'Rewind, Replay, Rebound'? What can we expect from it?

I think that every song on this album is totally different. It’s a mixed bag. There’s something for everyone. There’s heavy stuff, there’s melodic stuff, and yeah, there are some really personal lyrics coming from Michael, for example, there’s a song about his daughter. There is somewhat of a theme, but it’s not really a concept record at all.

This is your third album with Volbeat! How would you say that the writing/recording process has compared for you this time around? How has it grown with the band over the years?

Well, it’s definitely grown. I think that we are all more comfortable with each other. We were comfortable right out of the gate when I jumped on board, but it’s even more so now, and we are just having a lot of fun working on the music. The vibe and the chemistry is good. The spirits are really high.

You originally came in as a producer right? So it seems like you have a great creative energy with the band, to go from that, to actually being in the band! What was that whole change over like for you?

So yeah, we had been friends for a number of years at that point, back from when Volbeat took The Damned Things out on tour, that’s when we all met. We became friends, and I became a fan instantly when I heard the guys. Before that tour I didn’t really know who they were. There was just a lot of hype about this new Danish band that were hitting the scene. As soon as I saw them live I was hooked. I loved the music, and the vibe. We stayed in touch.

The idea of going into the studio with the guys, and cutting a track or two was definitely something that we discussed, way back then, because they were fans of The Damned Things album that I produced, and some of the Anthrax material that I had worked on. Our schedules at the time didn’t really allow that, obviously they are from Denmark, and I’m from New York, and we were both touring like crazy. Everything changed when I left Anthrax. The timing was right! Michael called me up to see if I was still interested in working on some Volbeat music, and I jumped at the opportunity. It just really clicked, and here we are. It’s been a wild ride, and we are having a lot of fun.

You guys produced this album alongside Jacob Hansen once more. Can you tell us about what you enjoy the most about working with Jacob, and maybe, how he helped shape 'Rewind, Replay, Rebound'?

Well Jacob has been working with the band since day one, since the very beginning. There’s a certain level of comfort between the guys. I think that plays a big role. It was cool, we kind of all work together. It wasn’t too dissimilar from the last record where we had two different studios going at the same time. I was in one place, and they were in another etc. Then we would just meet up every other day or so. We all worked really well together on this one.

Is it creatively freeing to work this way?

Yeah, I think so. I think that the fact we are all on the same page musically is what allows that to happen. If we weren’t seeing eye to eye on stuff, then that would probably be a nightmare. We are all coming from the same place, and I think that we are all sharing the same vision. That’s how that works.

How would you say the sound of the band has grown/changed on 'Rewind, Replay, Rebound'?

We took all of the elements of the Volbeat sound, and pushed them even further. The melodic stuff was even more melodic, and then the heavy stuff is even more heavy! We’ve already talked about how there are a lot more personal lyrics. You also have some characters on this record as well, like Bonnie and Clyde. Like I said, there really is something for everyone on this album. Some of the stuff might be a little more poppy than what some people are used to, but I don’t know if that’s the right word. We definitely went into the studio and made the best record we could possibly make at the time. We are really proud of these songs, and we can’t wait to play them for the fans. It’s going to be a blast.

You reunited with the Harlem Gospel Choir on this album! So how was that, and how rewarding is it as a musician and producer to work with a choir!?

So we worked with them on the last album as well. They sang on a song called ‘Goodbye Forever’, they’re amazing. They are phenomenal to work with as a producer, and they are so professional. It was a lot of fun. They nailed it, as they do. The cool thing about them is that there’s a certain magic that happens when they are singing together in the room, and the trick is to capture it in the right way for the song. When you do, it just brings that song to a higher level, and that’s what we did with these tracks.

How did Neil Fallon end up joining you on the track 'Die to Live', and what was he like to work with?

Well, we are huge Clutch fans, we love those guys. Volbeat and Clutch have definitely played a lot of shows together in the past. It’s something that the band had talked about even before I had joined. It was an idea that was talked about, so I guess that it was just a matter of timing, and finding something that worked for that kind of collaboration, and I think we did that with this track. Neil totally nailed it, he did his vocals on his own, and sent them back. It sounds great.

There’s even saxophone and piano on the track, it’s sounding huge!

Thank you. It really sounds old school, it’s got the Jerry Lee Lewis style to it, this vibe that I don’t really think exists in today’s records. It’s pretty cool.

Gary Holt also joins you on 'Cheapside Sloggers', so could you also tell us a little bit about that, and how that track in particular came together?

Yeah! Gary is a good friend of ours. It’s funny, because when I first joined Volbeat he was one of the first guys to hit me up and congratulate me. He is a really good dude, and I love him. We are all really big fans of him, so it just seemed to make sense to have him on a track. Also, he totally smashed his solo on that song.

Backing vocalist Mia Maja joins you on this album once more. How did you originally start working with her, and what does she bring to a Volbeat record?

Well Mia is from Denmark, and her and Michael crossed paths somewhere out there. I don’t really remember the exact story, I believe that he was at one of her shows? She is all over our last record, and she is all over this new record as well. She is great to work with. Her voice really compliments the tunes vibe wise. It really, really works.

How did Kaspar Boye Larsen become a part of Volbeat, and what do you think he's brought to 'Rewind, Replay, Rebound'?

One of the main things Kaspar brings is the chemistry. He is just a really positive guy, and he is one of those dudes who is just always in a good mood. I’m kind of the same way. It just really works when we are all together. There’s definitely a vibe when we are all together. He is a great bass player as well, so he brings that to the table, and you’ll hear that on the record. He was obviously a part of the preproduction as well. His ideas are in the mix, and it worked out really well.

How did ‘Last Day Under The Sun’ come together?

It’s interesting how that one came together. We started jamming it in the rehearsal room, and it pretty much came together really quickly. I came up with that opening riff, and the verse riff, kind of by accident. We were just jamming. So we developed it from there. Michael had the chorus mapped out with what he was singing, and how the melody would go. It’s just super catchy, and powerful. From there, once you have that element, the song just writes itself. We rolled with it, and it came out cool. I definitely put a lot of thought into the solo on that track, to make sure that it really went somewhere else.

You’ve got this song, the choruses are heavy, the verse had this groove. Almost like a cross between The Rolling Stones and Michael Jackson. That’s what it reminds me of, which is interesting, and it’s very different from anything the band has ever done before. So, I wanted the solo to have its own flavour, and its own story. I spent a lot of time working on that solo, trying to make the song go somewhere else in that spot.

Touring wise, you haven't been too busy just yet, however, how have the dates been for you so far, and what has it been like to play some of the newer material live?

We’ve been playing ‘The Everlasting’ for a while now. We did a big tour with Godsmack in Canada, and we were playing that every night, it goes over great every time. We were playing ‘Parasite’ as well, and that goes over great, even though it’s super short! We just did two shows in Scandinavia and we put ‘Leviathan’ and ‘Last Day Under The Sun’ into the set. Both of those songs go over amazing, and we’re really excited to be playing them every night. We are going to get tighter and tighter playing them as well! As we’ve only played them twice at this point. It’s going to be great.

How excited are you for your upcoming UK tour, and what can attending fans expect?

For me, the UK is actually my favourite place. I have a special thing with the UK. Growing up, all of my favourite bands have been from there, from The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest. They are all from the UK. So for me, every time we play there, it’s always a huge deal. I’ve been dying to come back to the UK for a long time. I’m super excited, and I know that the rest of the guys are as well. It’s been a minute since we’ve been there. We are really looking forward to that tour.

What do you remember the most from touring in the UK? I think that the first time was at Download Festival. Download is always a great time, and I might of played Download Festival more than any other musician at this point, between Anthrax, The Damned Things, and Volbeat. Even when it’s raining it’s great, and the fans are so into it.

What else can we expect to see from Volbeat in 2019?

We are going to be out on the road busting our asses for a while now, in support of this new album. We are going to try and take it to as many places as we possibly can. That’s basically it. 'Rewind, Replay, Rebound' drops on August 2nd and then we are touring like crazy!

Interview with Josh

Touring wise, what have you been up to this year, and can you give us a couple of personal highlights from your time on the road?

Well, touring-wise we’ve been busy. We were in Europe right before this summer tour we are in now (w/ Every Time I Die and Mastodon), and after this tour we will be heading back to Europe for a few weeks. The highlights have been just... the whole thing. It certainly isn’t lost on me how lucky and how amazing our rise has been. We’ve been a band for almost 20 years! Looking out at a sea of fans in each and every city never gets old. I'd have to say that is the highlight of every tour. Or maybe the highlight was when I threw a pair of drum sticks at Brent from Mastodon and he got super pissed and told me “I’ll make this tour dangerously uncomfortable for you” haha. I usually try to keep the guy with tattoos all over his face on my side. A rare misstep for ol’ Josh. He’s a teddy bear though.

So, looking back on the release of 'The Unheavenly Creatures', how happy have you been with the response to the album so far, and what do you think that it's done for the representation of Coheed & Cambria?

I think the response has been overwhelmingly positive. ‘UC [Vaxis – Act I: The Unheavenly Creatures]’ is very much a Coheed record in terms of its scope and the arc and the eclectic range of the music. I think for a band like us you don’t REALLY know how it’s received till you see your fans screaming it back at you. First week sales and Billboard charts are all fine and good but I know we did our thing and did the base justice when I see people screaming along with their hands in the air.

You're right in the touring cycle for 'The Unheavenly Creatures' at the moment, so we must ask, what songs are you really enjoying performing live from the album at the moment, and why?

All songs are different live than in the studio. Always. Finding that balance and marrying the two is something I think we are really good at. Right now I love playing ‘Dark Sentencer’ (the first song on the new album), because it’s comfortable but still new. And seeing the fans with their fist raised in the air to open the show is amazing. It’s all about how they react. Always. But that song is a banger. I wasn’t 100% sold on the ultra simple drums in the verses at first but it plays. It f*cking plays hard.

You've just unleashed 'The Pavillion' as a single! Can you tell us about how this track in particular came together, and maybe what it means to you?

‘The Pavilion’ was a song we had demoed a long time before we went and made the album. I remember Claud saying he actually wrote that years ago which makes sense because it feels like it’s off our last album to me. ‘TCBTS [The Color Before The Sun]’, was a break from the Sci-Fi story line when we released it in 2015, but in true Coheed fashion the song takes on a new life once added to the fictional story. To me, it’s a beautiful song about something we all feel. And that’s the blurry line between life on the road and life at home. And the push and pull between them. I love that song.

There's a change.org petition to get your stories into the Netflix world, so can you tell us about what you think of this, and maybe what you’d like to see come from it if it did happen?

Well, that’s a question for Claudio. Id like to see him have his dream of crafting an actual TV show or movie come to life. But I also have wondered to myself if that’s the end of the band honestly. Only time will tell.

Claudio has always spoke about incorporating a cartoon or movie into the live show but if I’m being honest, my fear is that when our dreams don’t connect what was all this for? But that goes back to the other question about ‘The Pavilion’ and home life and the push and pull of where your path leads you. If this thing becomes a TV show and has success...is that the end of the band for the most part? Should I be focusing my time and energy on something else that may not be as lucrative as this but will be here in 10 years!? That I have something to do with!? It’s all connected. But in terms of Claudio, my friend, I hope he’s able to make his dreams come true. Up to this point our dreams have always intertwined and although I have nothing to do with the comics it isn’t hard to imagine - no band - no comics. No band - no nothing. And in my mind I take a good portion of the credit for getting us a record deal. It’s something I always felt was one of the tent poles this whole thing was built upon. Long before labels and mangers etc... Even though nowadays, word is someone was going to send a demo to the label, it was the singer of the band that I was touring with (Ashton Holmes) that brought our demo (one of the 100-150 CDRs I burned to hand out to people along with a demo), to EVR. He was so brash and cocky they just had to listen to it haha. So... it’s laughable to think that somehow Coheed was such a no brainer that success was inevitable because we’d been passed over by everyone up to that point. Meaning we were around and playing and..... not a lot of people cared. Two guys at the label wanted to go for it. Kurt and Dan at EVR. The rest of the label? Said no. But... the past can be malleable I’ve found.

You guys did an a capella version of 'The Gutter', how fun was that, and what did you find the most exciting about doing this kind of version of the track?

‘The Gutter’ a capella WAS fun! As we were rehearsing it I told the guys I didn’t want to do it. I felt stupid beat boxing and Trav and Zach were a little tipsy and they were killing the backing vocals. Not the recorded version everyone’s seen but that first go at it in the back of the bus. I was afraid I’d mess it up by singing out of tune. Looking back, I don't know why. I should’ve sang more, haha. But the beat boxing was the sh*t so... all good.

How excited are you to be headlining the awesome ArcTanGent festival here in the UK, and what do you think that fans can expect from the set?

We are headlining? Wow. Haha. You can expect us to give everything we’ve got on that stage. Often times it’s hard for me to walk after a show. I leave it up there. And not the phoned in answer where I CLAIM to leave it up there. I truly leave it up there on stage. Everything I got. And that’s what people can expect from us every time we play.

What else can we expect to see from Coheed & Cambria in 2019?

Well, you can expect a lot of shows. We have a new record out and shows to play. That’s what the plan is for 2019! I know we are heading to Australia in December. Actually, we will be there on my birthday, December 6th!

Can you tell us about how you came to join Killswitch Engage back in 2003?

Yeah that’s forever ago, well Howard and I were in Blood Has Been Shed together, another hardcore band and they had just gotten off tour doing Ozzfest for the first time, things weren’t working out with the drummer that they had. Adam played drums on the previous record and then they had one of their friends playing drums for them and it wasn’t working, luckily because I knew Howard I went and jammed with the guys when they got home and I guess I didn’t blow it and they were fine with it. They haven’t kicked me out…I’m still here.

How did you get into playing drums and who/what are some of your biggest influences?

I started when I was about thirteen, I played a couple of other instruments, I played viola and trumpet but I was drawn to drums, I think I liked that it was a little bit more athletic as your whole body is involved and I liked sports. Zeppelin was first and then after that I got into Rush, I mean this is really typical drummer stuff, from there I got into heavier music like thrash metal and then into more progressive music, and went from there.

So the new album ‘Atonement’ is out August 16th, What was the writing and recording process like for it?

We got together a couple of years ago to start getting ideas together, immediately we had a ton of songs so we decided to get as much material as possible which seemed like a really great idea, except it isn’t when you go into the studio to record twenty one songs just to see which ones you are going to keep later. We got burnt out on it and it made so much more work for all of us. The process went on for a long time and in the middle of it Jesse had to have surgery on his throat which delayed the process of course and it was a little scary, and then we had tours come up. Like Iron Maiden asked us to tour with them and of course you say yes, gladly. We put the record on hold to tour with them guys, so it just seems like a lifetime ago that we started working on it but we are all glad it’s finished and ready to see the light of day.

So, how did you get to the album title 'Atonement', and what does it mean to you?

Initially I was a little nervous that people were going to see it as us saying sorry about ‘Incarnate’. I think it’s more not just personally for us, it’s more general for all of us trying to come together and fix and make better the problems that have come up recently in the last Interview with Justin few years.

Leading on from that, Jesse said that "The new album is a reflection of perseverance and passion through the trials and suffering of our existence", so if possible, can you elaborate on that, and maybe what we can expect from the lyrical side to 'Atonement'?

I would say that’s a good way to put it, I think its definitely pretty personal for him (Jesse) but just in general everyone, we have been doing this for a pretty long time, we have evolved and all gone through a lot of stuff and we are all at that age now where we are getting a lot older and you can look back. We are middle aged men right now, we’re not kids anymore, and when you get to that point you start looking at things you have gone through in your life. It’s almost like a midlife crisis except instead of going out and buying a Camaro you learn from it and get stronger from stuff that’s happened to you.

Jesse had to go through some intense vocal surgery whilst putting together this record.

How scary was that for the whole band, and how maybe rewarding/cathartic has it been to see him see it through and put together 'Atonement'?

You definitely are nervous for him, I mean I’ve never had to have hand surgery or anything like that and I’m sure if I did I would be terrified, but we were all confident that he was going to be alright and hopeful or cautiously optimistic. I think that he learned a lot about his voice from it and you can kind of hear a little change in it from before until after, he’s just more confident with his voice now. It’s interesting that surgery would make you more confident but it sounds to me like that happened, learning how to control it better. You just learn your instrument, everyone learns their instrument as they play longer and longer so that was definitely part of it.

Looking back on 'Incarnate', how happy are you with this album still, and what do you think that it's done for the representation of Killswitch Engage?

I think that record came out great, the only thing is we feel like for whatever reason it didn’t have the right push that we needed to get out of it. We were pretty stoked on how it came out and there’s a bunch of songs on that record that we really like but like I said, it didn’t get as much of a push as we hoped it was going to get.

There were maybe a couple of songs that were slight missed opportunities on that one but it happens, it’s no big deal. It’s still the record we wanted to make and we are happy with that one for sure. It’s interesting because when we play songs from it, it seems like there are a lot of songs people don’t know very well. I’m trying to rationalise it by the world of streaming and that no one actually listens to records all the way through anymore. The videos from that like ‘Strength Of The Mind’ and ‘Hate By Design’ people know but when you start getting outside of those songs there seems to be a lot of crickets when playing live, but I’m just going to say it’s all streaming’s fault!

How excited are you for your upcoming UK tour, and what can attending fans expect?

The UK has been so good to us, like forever. So every time we go there we are blown away by how sweet all the fans are and we have had some really incredible shows there over the years. We are always thrilled to go there. We are going to push this record and play a bunch of tracks from it, we are excited to play new songs and get them worked up and nice and tight, that’s what we are planning on.

What do you remember the most from coming to the UK for the first time?

For the first time what I remember the most is walking around and trying to find SIM cards or calling cards so I could call people at home! I had a cell phone but it didn’t work there so that’s what I remember most, going into all those little stores and buying phone cards. I’m surprised I remember that because it was like fifteen years ago!

Touring wise, what have you been up to this year, and can you give us a couple of personal highlights from your time on the road?

Yeah, there’s been a lot of cool moments, I feel like the first couple of years of touring I didn’t take nearly as much advantage of seeing things and going out and doing stuff and I have got really good at that lately, especially in Europe you know at places that people in the US vacation to and I would be there and wouldn’t do anything. I was just lazy but we have done a lot of cool stuff lately like in Salzburg we went up this mountain which was beautiful, I try to get out and walk around and see as much of the place as I can now. My friend put it best, he said “anytime you go towards the water or up the hill, you will always find cool stuff”, he’s right. It’s good advice.

Somehow it's been just over ten years since your Self-Titled album came out. Looking back on this release, what do you remember the most about putting it together?

That was very different because we didn’t have Adam producing the whole record, it was the beginning of everything with Howard not working out anymore. I don’t know how to put it exactly but we were going through a whole bunch of stuff and his heart wasn’t in it the same way and it was a trying ordeal. That record was one we were really excited for and for whatever reason it didn’t fulfil everything we were looking for. However, we wrote a lot of good music that we were really stoked on. I remember when we went into record and were doing a lot of demos that we were all very excited about, it’s weird how things happen. Interestingly we don’t hear from people too much about that record or people asking for songs from that one.

What else can we expect to see from Killswitch Engage in 2019?

Hitting the road, we’ve got some more videos eventually coming out so keep your eye out for that, yeah just the same kind of stuff we usually do, go out, play shows and get drunk.

What was your first major acting project, and what do you remember the most from this experience?

Well the first major one was Guyver: Dark Hero. That was the first movie that I was the lead in. That was an amazing experience. We shot it for three months up in the Angeles National Forest, and on a sound stage in Van Nuys. It was my first movie experience. Plus, I was the lead, so everyone was nice to me.

So, how did you get the part of Solid Snake, in the now legendary Metal Gear Solid?

Well I just got called to an audition at a weird little house in Hollywood. I went down and read for it. The director Kris Zimmerman was the casting director on Captain Planet where I had done my first Hollywood voice over job. That is part of the reason why I got called in. I think part of the reason why I got the part was because I had been in Guyver, and I believe that Hideo Kojima was a fan of that movie. So that’s how it all came together.

We read that when you originally started working on Solid Snake you were worried as your voice then didn’t match his? So how did you go about tackling that, and how did you really want to approach/portray this character?

Yeah, I initially auditioned with my voice. I was considerably younger at the time, I was playing a lot of heroes, and young go getters. Then I read the script and the first scene was Snake complaining about having been brought out of retirement.

People kept talking about how he was a legend on the battlefield. He had already given it up. It just didn’t kind of match with what I had initially gone in with, my youthful, cocky enthusiasm. So, just the nature of the character, and what he was saying to the Colonel, about how he really did want to be brought back. I just added some drag to the voice, and I aged him up. I try to indicate emotional scarring through the voice.

What do you remember the most about your first day of actually working on the game?

They had the original artwork up on the walls, it was really beautiful. Then part way through the day, they showed me the cutscene where Snake takes down the Hind D helicopter. It was just so epic, and cinematic, and I had never seen anything like it. I started to realise that this was going to be a pretty amazing project. They told me that it was going to be the first game where the character that you were playing was the same character that would appear in the cutscene. It would feel like a seamless movie. So I started to realise some of the technological advancements that were going to be used in the game, and the extreme artistry that was going into it. It was very exciting.

So was there a particular moment when you realised that Metal Gear Solid was a worldwide hit?

I don’t remember the specific moment, but the first game came out, and I remember people were very excited about it. I knew it was doing well. I don’t really know how I knew that. We had the internet, but it really wasn’t the hype machine that it is now. I guess I probably read it on the internet that it was selling well, and that the fans were excited! But again, seeing what they showed me on that first day, I kind of knew that people were going to freak out over the game.

Flash forwarding here a little bit, what was it like to take on Old Snake in Metal Gear Solid 4, and how did you approach doing this version?

It was interesting. Metal Gear Solid 4 was a pretty emotional roller coaster, because Snake was dying, suffering accelerated ageing. So it sort of played into my original concept of him, that he was a little bitter about the hand that he had been given, but still he is an unstoppable soldier, so he just keeps on going, and doing his job. Then I decided that, if he was rapidly ageing, I wanted the voice to steadily deteriorate as the game went on. So that was how I approached it. However, it was kind of difficult as we recorded a lot of the scenes out of order, so I had to figure out what percentage of the game we were in for each scene, so I could decide how his voice would sound. It was a bit of a challenge.

As the graphics and technology of these games got better and more advanced over the years, did this maybe help/change the way that you voiced Snake?

Yeah, definitely. He didn’t really have a face in the first game, it was still impressionistic. Because the games are so strange at times, the Snake voice was a little over the top. Not quite a regular human being, more of a legendary soldier. I wanted to retain that throughout the games. As they got more photo realistic I felt that the voice needed to sound more realistic as well. It was kind of a balancing act.

We know that you go through the Metal Gear Solid games and play them yourself, so I wanted to ask, which boss did you find the most fun to fight against, and why?

There are so many amazing boss fights. I really love the sniper battle at the end in Snake Eater. I thought it was really cool, zen, and creepy. I love the final battle with the Boss in Snake Eater as well, with the falling cherry blossoms. I think that that is just one of the most beautiful sequences in gaming history. The fight against Sniper Wolf, Vulcan Raven, Gray Fox, in the first game. Psycho Mantis. I can kind of go on and on. The battle between Metal Gear Rex and Ray in Metal Gear Solid 4 is astounding.

The final battle with Liquid in Metal Gear Solid 4 is incredible, going through all of the old scores. That was an amazing game.

Really tough question time now. What was the most rewarding scene for you to do as Solid Snake, in the entire time you played him in any of the games, and why?

Well again, the final battle against the Boss in Snake Eater was very emotional. It was so beautifully executed, so that was a real honour to be a part of. The final goodbye scenes in Metal Gear Solid 4 were very satisfying and sad. I love in Peace Walker when he is talking to the Boss’s AI, and he is just like “Why Boss, why!” He is just trying to get some answers. He is speaking to the basic intelligence of the Boss, but at the same time it’s a computer, so it can’t explain all of its motivations. I thought that that was a really brilliant way to sort of bang his head against the wall, he was never going to break through.

So, when you look back on it, why do you personally think that the franchise went on to become so iconic?

There are a number of reasons. The story is so complex, it’s just got endless corners, and strange little detours. It’s almost impossible to understand it entirely, and that’s very compelling to people. They want to figure out what it all means, and there really is no way of figuring out what it all means. Which is a great way to tell a story. I think that part of it, each game was so revolutionary with its technology and its gameplay. Each game was so prescient as to what was going to happen in the world ten years on. It was almost like being able to read the future. Taking all of the games in one, it’s more than what you get out of a movie franchise. It’s almost like a series of novels, this endless epic story that you’re woven into. At the same time, you’re feeling the threat that the character is feeling, because your character can die. I think all of that combines to make a very compelling narrative.

Right. Let's talk about the world of writing. How did you transition from acting to doing the screenplay for X-Men? Well, it’s a strange series of events. I had always studied writing, I have been writing for myself for many years. I produced a little film called Burn (which people can see on YouTube, I just released it on there) in 1997, and then I began to realise what it was like to work on the other side of the camera, and that was very exciting. I had a hand in sort of helping to shape the script. But then I was a broke film producer, and I got a job answering phones on the movie X-Men. Bryan Singer kept complaining about the script, and how it was going to destroy his career, and that he didn’t really understand the X-Men. I knew the comic books very well, so I suggested a scene to him, and he said “Yeah! Go write that for me” and so I did. He started having me do re-writes on the film. I ended up getting sole credit on the movie and it was just lightning in a bottle. It was the right place at the right time.

How would you say that those original X-Men movies that you worked on went on to inspire and change the way that we see superhero movies now?

So studios weren’t really willing to put a lot of money behind any comic book movie that wasn’t Superman or Batman. They had wanted to do Spider-Man as well, but they hadn’t figured that out yet. There was a big back lash against Batman & Robin, the sort of campy approach to Superhero movies. When we did X-Men, Bryan Singer didn’t do it because he was an X-Men fan, he did it because he wanted to make a real movie about people. Me, I was inspired by Chris Claremont’s writing on X-Men, where they were real people. They were going through incredibly adult relationships and situations, so that was the way that we approached it.

Nobody really thought that it was going to work, everyone was afraid that it was going to be a disaster. But I think we found a nice tone, and a nice balance of humour and action. Human tragedy, and personal pain, that kind of mixed together to create something different for a superhero movie, but it was very similar to what we had been reading in comic books for the last 20-30 years. I think we took what was cool that was happening in comic books, and we translated it directly to the screen. Kevin Feige worked with us on X-Men as well. We all just approached it as a real film. After this we started to get better and better comic book films.

People that took these stories more seriously. They didn’t have to make jokes about the capes, or apologise for their powers. Any of that. It had always felt like the studio were embarrassed to make comic book movies, and they had to make fun of comic book fans to do it. That was not the approach we took, we didn’t think that that approach was particularly effective. So I think that those are the ways in which we helped move the genre forward.

It's been ten years since the release of Watchmen! So we must ask, how did you get involved with this project, and how did this somewhat darker superhero world compare for you overall as a writer, as opposed to what you did on X-Men? X-Men had come out, and was a big hit. People were asking me what I wanted to do next, and I said “Well, if I’m going to be a comic book movie writer, then I want to do the greatest comic book of all time” So I suggested adapting Watchmen, we figured out who had the rights. So we went, and I pitched to them. I originally pitched them a six hour HBO mini-series, but they wanted to do it as a film, and they asked me if I could do that, and I said “I don’t know, let me give it a shot” so I adapted the book into a long epic film. What was it like working on something so dark? Well, the darkness is what makes the Watchmen, Watchmen. It’s so compelling. It takes what we did in X-Men in terms of trying to present a real world, and really, it takes it to its extreme. It talks about nuclear annihilation, the violence of street vigilantes, impotence. It’s really dealing with some very adult issues. So, I was very excited about that. I was less a writer on that than I was an adaptor of Alan Moore’s work. I very much viewed my job as translating the book to the screen, and protecting it from all the various studio execs that were afraid to film it as is. I really looked at myself as a champion of Alan Moore’s masterpiece.

You spent nearly a decade trying to get Watchmen made, so can you tell us about the road leading up to the release of the film, and what it was like to see it finally come to life?

Most movies take an average of 5-10 years, if they ever get made at all. This one being as expensive, and twisted, and long and dark as it is. It’s really surprising that we got it made at all. Nine years, four studios. That was an epic journey in itself. However, we all believed in it, and we all thought that it was worth making. We also really owe it to Zack Snyder, who on the heels of his breakout film 300 decided that this was the film that he wanted to make. It was going to take a juggernaut director to get it made, and he came along at exactly the right time, and I’m really grateful to him for that.

There was a lot of talk about a Black Widow script recently, which someone put online which was of course the one you worked on. Regardless of that, I was wondering if you could tell us what happened to this project in the end?

Yeah, that was a great disappointment. We had it set up at Lions Gate in 2004, I was very excited about that one, and I was very happy with the script. There were a bunch of female driven action movies that came out on one weekend that didn’t do well, so the studio decided that a stand alone female driven comic book movie couldn’t work. So then we were dead, and that was a grave disappointment.

So you’ve done acting, and you’ve done writing/screenplay work, so of course you had to take on directing, with one of your most recent projects being Wolves! Can you tell us about how that film came together, and what you enjoyed the most about being in the director's chair?

Yeah, that one took about 7 years to put together. I don’t know how it came together, someone just decided to put up the money, we were all stunned. So we had the budget, I flew up to Toronto, and we started casting. We were lucky enough to get Jason Momoa to come in to play Connor, the baddest wolf in the woods, Lucas Till, John Pyper-Ferguson, Merritt Patterson, Stephen McHattie and more. I had this amazing cast. We shot it over the Canadian autumn. It was just a spectacular experience. I got to work with amazing, professional artists, and we put together a pretty fun film. Nobody saw it, but I really enjoyed making it.

Recently you took on the voice of King Shark in The Flash. So how fun was that experience, and what did you enjoy the most about being in this DC world?

Screenwriting work is constant pain, and difficulty, and occasional triumph. Voice over work is just flat out fun, so being a nine foot tall, great white shark man trying to kill The Flash, was a pretty great time. Yeah, it was cool to be a part of the DC world, I started my love of comics with DC, I used to read The Flash, Superman, Batman, so it was really a great honour to do that. The part is just so fun and crazy. He is pretty straight forward, he wants to eat The Flash, and he is always annoyed when he doesn’t get the chance to do so. So, that was pretty fun.

What else can we expect to see from you in 2019?

Well, I was the co-writer on a Netflix TV series called Warrior Nun, that’s coming out at the end of the year.

I helped develop a series called Albedo with Evangeline Lilly which will be coming out this year. I just starred in a game called Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night which is very exciting and then I’ve got other projects that are secret. However, I’ve got lots going on.

The Ashley Bean Band is a rock band hailing from Peoria Illinois.

Over the years, The Ashley Bean Band has had influences that have molded their career into what it is today.

Cathy Reynolds, four time CIA Gospel Artist of the Year, Mike Isenberg of the International acclaimed family band, The Jets, back-up musician, Rusty Hall, and John Coulter, Marshall Tucker’s sound engineer, Journey, and Diana Meltzer founder of Seether, Evanescence, and Creed, have helped direct this young energized rock band.

The Band has also been featured in several magazines. Their music has been compared to Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, as well as Alice In Chains and Nirvana, what a combo of musical innovators without compromise to follow trends but rather create them. The Band would say it is Classical meets Rock. All of the lyrics and music are Ashley's original creativity a style of her own. All of the music is heartfelt and unique. Her voice style and genre is distinct, raw and gives her music an incredible commercial but almost underground sound, at the same time it’s also timeless, not pretty and pink, but black on black.

Facebook.com/ashley21bean / Instagram.com/ashleybeanband / Twitter.com/christinabean73

Facebook.com/bedandbreakdown

When and how did you first get into acting?

I was at Ulster County Community College, known as a Junior college in those days. I had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up and it allowed me to experiment with all sorts of things while not costing a fortune as a State school would have. I discovered I liked acting there but also that I loved puppetry more.

What actors influenced you the most growing up, and why?

If I think back to my childhood I’d say it was Jerry Lewis who I tried to be like the most. He was awkward like me but he made people laugh, which I wasn’t very good at.

What was your first major project, and what do you remember the most from this experience?

While I was at the State University at Albany I decided I would build and perform a puppet show of the Chinese fairy tale of the Blue Willow Legend. I had to turn the damp cellar of our student apartment into a puppet building workshop to make the figures and sets, while writing the script and designing an advertising poster, while coercing friends into helping with lights, doing the live music, and take tickets on the door. While all this was going on I still had to do all my course work so I wouldn’t fail out of school. I can’t remember getting much sleep.

So how did you originally get the role of Admiral Gial Ackbar?

I didn’t, or at least he wasn’t called Gial when I was doing him. I was designing animatronics for the aliens in Phil Tippett’s workshop, one of whom was a big red Calamari squid. I asked Phil if I could perform him as well as the two I had already been given and he said yes.

Can you tell us a bit about what you remember the most from your first ever time of being on set as Ackbar?

It was the scene when he was addressing the troops with the hologram of the Death Star floating in the middle. From out of Ackbar’s right nostril I could see Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Billy Dee Williams, Caroline Blakiston, and a host of other famous British actors. And there was me, the great pretender, the kid who only a few years earlier had been trying to work out how to build a puppet in a damp cellar. I was sure it was just a matter of minutes before I was found out as a complete fraud and sent packing. But I fooled them all in my clever disguise.

What can you tell us about the makeup process for this character at the time? How long did it take to get ready?

Compared to some I was very lucky. Just put on the costume, pull on the head and arms, tuck in the bottom of the neck flange and I was off, so under 10 minutes. It actually took longer to get the costume off because by now it and I were drenched in sweat. It could take two dressers just to pull off one arm while I held onto something solid so they wouldn’t pull me right off my feet. It was very hot and not recommended for claustrophobics which I am by the way.

Also, as you've played the character in more recent films as well, then how has this process changed/improved over the years?

The original Ackbar was a cable controlled full body suit for establishing shots, and a hand puppet of my own design for the close-up dialog shots. Now I’m strapped into a carbon fibre helmet attached to a fibreglass scull with up to 30 servos all whirring and moving in between. If you imagine putting your head into a cage full of live budgies all chirping and trying to peck your eyes out you would come close to the experience. I’ve got ear pieces in both ears so I can hear the dialog I’m acting to over the noise of the servos and the person shouting “STOP” before I walk off the edge of the set.

What was the hardest scene for you to do as Admiral Ackbar, and why?

It was Ackbar’s last scene after we had won the battle and the Death Star had been destroyed. The director told me to jump out of my chair and dance around for joy. But I’m so old I came real close to being drafted to Vietnam. I grew up in the sixties when all the hippies were protesting the war. You can have pride in the sacrifices that were made to win a war, but it’s not something to celebrate. So when they called turn over I thought about all the lives we just blew up. And the people on our side that didn’t come back and the weight of it all pushed me down in my chair. The director was furious and told me to dance around on take two. But I said he already got Ackbar’s performance and if he wanted someone to dance around he would have to put someone else in the costume. Take one stayed in the movie and I’m very proud of that.

Can you tell us about the puppet/creature workshop team that Star Wars has? What is it like to be a part of, and how do they go about creating such a believable world for everyone watching?

If you want to quit work at the end of eight hours then there is no need to apply. But if you want a really well equipped playpen to share with a bunch of amazingly creative people who have dedicated their lives to pulling dreams out of the air and turning them into three dimensional realities then there is nothing else like it. But you better be quick because CGI is turning that world into a distant memory soon to be forgotten.

Why do you think Ackbar has gone on to become such a cult classic Star Wars character?

I asked a young girl at one of the conventions why she liked Ackbar, wasn’t she frightened of him? “Oh no,” she said, “he has such big beautiful eyes”. I was very flattered by this as I had spent a long time on the lathe turning up a pair of eyes that could look straight at you even though they were on the outside of the character’s head. That’s the technical stuff, but I think Ackbar has got more humanity in him than most people you will meet on the daily commute. Funny, that’s what a lot of people say about me after they talk to me at a convention.

The Last Jedi was obviously an essential film for Ackbar. Looking back on it Tom Kane spoke about how he wasn't too happy with the way Ackbar went out. However for you, how do you feel about his death?

With the way that things are run now I had no idea that Ackbar was even going to die until the day they threw me, sorry blew me out of the window. We are only allowed the page of the script that we are shooting on the day and then only if we have lines to say. The best I can say is at least I got to keep my character. Unlike a lot of the other characters, I was the only one who ever brought Ackbar to life.

Tough question time. Which director did you find the most rewarding to work with as an actor in the Star Wars world, and why?

It was Richard Marquand. Animatronics was brand new back then and he gave me time to rehearse and a script to work with so I could create a whole living character. I showed him what I thought the character should be and he said “let’s shoot it.”

What else can we expect to see from Tim Rose in 2019?

Tim is tired, all those endless hours of trying to create movie magic have come at a cost. But if you look way in the distance you may see him sailing by in his little wooden Folkboat. But if it’s pointing straight at you look out ‘cause he’s still learning the ropes. And making more puppets...

The St. Pierre Snake Invasion – Caprice Enchanté Alt punk/rockers from Bristol UK release their sophomore album. Opener ‘The Safety Word Is Oklahoma’ is brash, dark and looming with elements of hardcore, it draws you in immediately and is a very powerful hard hitting start.

‘Braindead’ is a stand out track that displays something a bit different. It has an organic feel and is highly energetic and packs a lot of swag and attitude and possesses one of biggest and best choruses. The frantic and urgent ‘Carroll A. Deering’ again takes things in a different direction, with a more stripped back and less aggressive approach. It has some interesting transitions and just when you thought it couldn’t get any weirder or diverse, a choir comes in before crashing sounds dominate – this one takes you on a wild ride.

Single ‘Casanovacaine’ is fast, melodic and unstoppable and is a very solid and representative song for the album, making for a good choice of single. Title track ‘Caprice Enchanté’ is progressive and suspenseful with a great aggressive chorus, it also sums up the album nicely. The biggest shock and surprise has to be the beautiful gospel inspired ‘It Gave A Lovely Light’ – I don’t think anyone was expecting that and it gives you a moment to catch your breath and digest all the heavy barrage until this point.

In extreme contrast ‘Omens’ follows with a doom vibe and is very heavy and dark. Keeping up the momentum ‘Not All Who Wander Are Lost’ is another cracking hardcore inspired offering. Ending this crazy release is ‘I Am The Lonely Tourist’ which sees a change in pace, with a chilled guitar intro, and for the most part the track remains ambient and mellow, it’s only towards the end that you get the kick with aggressive vocals creeping in to see us out and bring us full circle. Making for a fitting way to end with both lighter and dark elements.

They pack a lot into this and overall it is unforgettable. It will require re-visiting to fully comprehend the chaos that ensues in these thirteen tracks. CL

Motionless In White - Disguise American metallers from Pennsylvania release their heaviest offering yet. The title track opens the album with creepy intro music before heavy dance vibes kick in and make you want to let loose. This is infectiously melodic and is bound to be a great fan favourite, especially as it’s hard to get out of your head and highly energetic. A striking way to kick things off.

‘Thoughts & Prayers’ possesses a massive heavy sound, it is dark, frantic and all-consuming with a brilliant characteristically clean memorable chorus, it is a crushing track. ‘Undead Ahead 2: The Tale Of The Midnight Ride’ features more eerie sounds/music to help set the scene and atmosphere which is very effective. It is alarming yet intriguing throughout with vocals that are fierce as hell and it goes full throttle but as you would expect, it breaks up carnage with clean vocals. ‘Another Life’ offers a softer balladesque sound which is equally as powerful as when they are giving it their all with brutality. ‘Broadcasting From Beyond The Grave: Death Inc’ is very Marilyn Manson inspired but seems a little forced at times. Although you can’t deny it is very catchy.

Closing song ‘Catharsis’ shows a different side to the band with a slower more vulnerable approach, it shows off Chris’ vocals well and is highly emotive. It takes you full circle and gives you time to reflect on the rest of the album. This album is striking, compelling and extremely melodic, there is no disguising that they know how to create stomping, highly charged alternative anthems. This should certainly please the masses. CL

Krysthla – Worldwide Negative British extreme metallers Krysthla unleash their follow-up to 2017’s critically acclaimed ‘Peace In Our Time’, with third album ‘Worldwide Negative’.

Impressively pre-orders from the band's fans have seen the album reach number two in Amazon's Hard Rock/Metal and Heavy Metal charts, with Slipknot's upcoming album at number one. That is quite the accolade, so is it worth the hype?

Opening track ‘Negative’ is immediately melodic and crushing, with fierce demanding vocals from Adi Mayes and certainly gets things off to a blistering start. It leaves you fully satisfied and hungry for more.

‘Reawaken’ keeps things heated and strong being very dynamic and allconsuming especially with bouncy heavy as hell riffs and effective clean vocals. ‘Zero Sum Game’ possesses a frantic gripping start and is extremely melodic and powerful throughout making it a must hear.

‘White Castles’ follows and lulls you into a false sense of calm before the mighty roar and crashing of instruments kicks in. This is another solid and thunderous track which you come to expect and it fits the calibre you imagine. Closing song ‘The Gift’ sees soaring guitars, and is delivered in a brutality concise and mighty way, making for a cracking way to end. You should happily accept this “gift” with honour.

Given the hype and anticipation of this release it is safe to say it delivers on all fronts and should leave metal heads thoroughly content with these eight technical and well-structured striking outputs. CL

Thank You Scientist - Terraformer American Progressive rockers release their third album. This time around it includes a saxophonist, trumpeter, and violinist as full time members which as you can imagine gives them quite a signature sound.

Opener ‘Wrinkle’ sets the scene in a strange and upbeat mellow fashion. Its bouncy and energetic start flows nicely into the first full length song and first single ‘FXMLDR’ which is inspired by the popular cult TV show The X-Files, it gets things off to a weird and exciting start that is very melodic and fun. Coming in at over 7 mins long, it is a joy to keep listening to with its tuneful and fun transitions.

‘Everyday Ghosts’ again takes us on many twists and turns, in this very unpredictable and intelligible song. Single ‘Swarm’ is heavier and more progressive than previous offerings and features some great technical instrumentation and is extremely captivating throughout. The short ‘Shatner’s Lament’ slows things down a bit in a chilled vibe and helps add yet more variety and provides a chance to process all that has happened before.

‘New Moon’ delves into a more exotic side and with serene sounds, balances things up nicely. Title and closing track ‘Terraformer’ picks up the pace – it is joyous, fast and packed with so many sounds and unpredictable turns. It is a great title track and way to end as it embraces all their best elements and signature sound wonderfully. The album is very vibrant and different which is refreshing, it makes it shine and stand out, offering elements of jazz, progressive rock and more. It is so expansive, dynamic and it features endless creativity. CL

The Dangerous Summer - Mother Nature I will start by saying that this is probably one of the most enjoyable albums I’ve had the pleasure of listening to in a while. Earlier in June The Dangerous Summer released ‘Mother Nature’ through Hopeless Records. The Maryland native band offered a twelve track full length album with this release that somehow seemed to combine both difficult subject matter with earthly, downhome tones that seemed to perfectly coat my day with a layer of comfort.

The album opens with ‘Prologue’, and is then followed by ‘Blind Ambition’ which is a softer, rolling track. Quite honestly, I often encounter albums that open with their heaviest, hardest hitting track which can be quite a successful method to catching attention but it does set some albums up to become lackluster as the time goes on. Here, I feel quite the contrary. ‘Blind Ambition’ deals in what seems to be some difficult matter, with an uplifting swell. Although perhaps it is not the hardest hitting track, it is the most triumphant. It offers a refreshing glimpse at true emotion coming through sound. ‘Virginia’ rolls in a little hotter with a slightly more upbeat rhythm, but it still keeps a hand on refreshing and cool riffing. As the album progresses, it proceeds out of a nostalgic pop punk, and into a more indie-pop sound which, despite the fact that I was initially turned off by it, I grew to like it. The progression between sounds ultimately does well for the album, and it really speaks to these guys’ growth as a band, and as artists from their beginning in 2006. For contemporary pop punk fans, it is a step outside of what I would consider to be your typical pop punk album but hey! That’s a good thing! LD

The Bottom Line - No Vacation UK pop punkers The Bottom Line have released their new album, ‘No Vacation’ just in time for the summer. Although it was a solid attempt at the next pop punk release of the year, I was left feeling a little unfulfilled with some of it. ‘Over and Over’ is one of the stronger songs on this album in my opinion, and outshines the two tracks that precede it. The intro does well to set it apart from the two songs before, it’s more purposeful, and less of a runaround. ‘Everything’ felt the same, in that it was a diamond of a few that were less than shiny. Both that I have highlighted so far kept a consistent rhythm, with textbook pop punk riffing.

‘California’ was a strong choice to end out the album with a swinging chorus, and a strong bridge that was strangely reminiscent of mid 2000s blink-182. ‘In Your Memory’ wraps up with a strapping intro, with a chorus that slows it down just a tad and does well to serve as a solid baseline to the album. I was happy to find a few solid listens here, however having to wade through what felt like a lot of lackluster tracks almost ruined the enjoyment of the others. LD

Eva Bartok - Self-Titled Post punk trio Eva Bartok really took the cake on this self titled EP. They brought the heat to the post punk world, and are relentless through and through. ‘Lies and Trickery’ opens the EP with a slamming intro that refused to let up. All the tracks fall just under 3 minutes long which isn’t very long however it serves these guys well. ‘Chess Club’ shows the capabilities of their vocals which are somehow even more blistering than the rest of the riffs. ‘Mexico’ rolls in with a surf’s up intro, and verses riddled with screams that’ll make your ears bleed - in my opinion, this is easily the strongest moment on the EP. Not that they aren’t all bangers, but this one is especially bang-y (if that’s even a word-- but it is now).

‘Houses’ immediately drops into a raging riff and screams to light it off, and keeps the pace to wrap up the EP. We can expect this EP to drop on August 23rd, and I certainly cannot wait for all of you punks out there to get your ears on it! LD

Allusinlove - It's Okay To Talk Yorkshire based outfit Allusinlove once known as Allusondrugs present us their debut album ‘It's Okay To Talk’. A number of different styles can be heard throughout the album, for example, the opening tracks of ‘Full Circle’ and lead single ‘All My Love’ both sound like something out of the mid to late 1990s and they’re really not shy about it. Frontman Jason Moules gives an impressive display on both opening songs as he displays his outstanding range from tearing through the opening ‘All My Love’ to the midway point where it becomes soft-spoken. Then add to this a heavy sounding riff and a driving drum part from Connor Fisher and it all builds itself to a crescendo by the end of the song.

‘Lucky You’ has Jason Moules providing a distorted vocal sound but it doesn't take away from how powerful his presence is on the track. Again this song has a catchy chorus to it and some amazing guitar work at its core. It carries on where the first two songs of the album left off, and it keeps up the energy and momentum the start of the album gives itself.

‘Sunset Yellow’ is one song that's wide open to interpretation and allows you to take the words and music and apply them to whatever situation you might find yourself in daily life. The band themselves have said that this song represents the birth of the band as it's the first song they ever wrote together. The deep sounding bass opens things with Moules vocals crying out with such emotion it feels like he's baring his soul. This is the track where everything works perfectly in terms of musicianship and creativity, you can really tell the band left everything on the table for this, and what a job they did.

The album keeps on moving with impressive moments like such as ‘All Good People’ with its pure indie pop sound and ‘Bad Girls’ which is very good in its own right. When we come to ‘Lover I need a Friend’ to me the album moved things up a few more notches. It's a little strange sounding at first but it doesn't take too long for Moules’ vocals and the great sounding guitar work to suck you right in.

The middle solo is an amazing listen and worth hearing more than once. The track has a lot of intricate moments on it as well and you can tell the band spent a lot of time making sure they got those spot on.

The Title track ‘It's Okay To Talk’ is a slightly more relaxed but none the less impressive listen that helps begin to wind down the album nicely before we are given the final track ‘The Deepest’ to close out the album.

Another slower relaxed song but Moules still gives an emotional all out performance backed fully by his band mates for one last hurrah. LS

Drown this City - Alpha//Survivor Sometimes when a band such as Drown this CIty goes through line up changes, it’s a hard but not impossible process to reach the top. In this case for this Melbourne band, change ended up getting them signed recently to UNFD. This recent 2019 EP is proving that big things come in small packages as this was one of the best produced 19 minutes to be heard from the band as of late.

‘Stay Broken’ although only the first full listen on the EP really puts us in the ambiance of what to expect for the remainder. Effortless “djenty” guitar patterns, sick screams and clean vocals from female vocalist Alex Reade are heard. With Pallas’ powerful and invigorating drum kicks, and Matt Bean’s screams and growls make gems like ‘Null’ and ‘Void’ absolute must listens. Drown This City have clearly taken the time to create stand out music with ‘Alpha//Survivor’.

Once the listening experience is over, you wish there was more.

Overall this has been an impressive start for Drown this City. They are without a doubt one of the best current Australian bands to look out for within the next coming years, and that is thanks to this EP. ‘Alpha//Survivor’ have shown progress and change in the best of ways, and only time will tell where this band will go next. SA

Phoxjaw - A Playground For Sad Adults In 2018 PhoxJaw were making waves with their earth-shattering live shows playing songs from ‘Goodbye Dinosaur’ which gained them a lot of attention.

Now the band return with a new EP called ‘A Playground For Sad Adults’. Six brand new tracks for fans to feast their ears on.

We open things up with the title track which is a short instrumental listen before we are plunged right into ‘Melt, You're a Face of Wax’. It's a riff-heavy hard hitting song which fits the name perfectly combined with frontman Danny Garland’s brutal sounding vocals. If you're listening on headphones like I was it does feel rather unsettling at times but you will enjoy it all the same. One of the their major strengths is the way they can create an awesome atmosphere with their music which is what you get with ‘Melt, You're a Face of Wax’. ‘Monday Man’ is a catchy number with a driving guitar sound that packs a real punch. Add to it the screaming vocals and it all works together to produce one hell of a powerful dish. ‘Monday Man’ is an alt-rock dream with the band using a sound that reminded me of early Deftones, as it displays a bit of diversity and that's never a bad thing. The oddly titled ‘Whale, Whale, Whale’ is as strange a song as the title suggests. It feels like two songs have been mixed together and this is the outcome, on one side you have the heavy duty guitar sound and screaming vocals and on the other is a more atmospheric sound. It’s like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. ‘Bodiesinthewall’ opens with a haunting piano mixed with the familiar guitar sound of Josh Gallop and Alexander Share, the vocals from Danny Garland on this track are much more relaxed than the rest of the EP which makes a nice change however they have a very much dark undertone to them. It all builds up and up throught-out the song and concludes in a crescendo of pure raw noise. ‘The curse of the Button Man’ changes to a slower tempo which gives it a lot more atmosphere and a feeling of uneasiness. Ending with a haunting chant of “The Playground Falls the Playground falls the Playground falls silent" it feels like something out of a horror movie and is a solid closer as it leaves a sense of something more to come from PhoxJaw. What that something is we will have to wait and see. LS

Heart of a Coward- The Disconnect After not hearing from the UK band for quite some time, Heart of a Coward have returned with their new 2019 heavy hitter ‘The Disconnect’. From the very beginning we get one of the best bang-up moments on the whole album ‘Drown In Ruin’. With an epic guitar intro and energetic chord progressions throughout the track is backed up with heavy and honest lyricism, it’s hard not to want to continue to listen. Though there are considerable differences concerning the change of vocalist, Kaan Tasan is quickly proving that he has what it takes to fill the shoes of prior more heavy based vocalist Jamie who left the band a short time ago back in 2017.

Other track darlings such as ‘Collapse’, ‘Senseless’, ‘Return to Dust’, and ‘Isolation’ sit at the top of the list as some of the best written on the album.

Unclean higher-pitched screams seasoned with Kaan’s beautiful clean vocals reminiscent of old Linkin Park’s past album ventures shows that this is a different kind of album we are dealing with compared to its predecessors. This isn’t a bad thing by any means as the vocals fit the style that ‘The Disconnect’ is trying to achieve, Heart of a Coward is not trying to sound like anything we have heard before. ‘The Disconnect’ is uniform and cohesive from its raw lyrical content to the instrumental prowess, something I don’t feel that the last few albums were able to achieve.

While some may feel this isn’t as heavy as past efforts such as 2015’s ‘Deliverance’, this is still one of the best albums the band has come to muster up to date. With its melodic metalcore approach rather then its past progressive djent styles, ‘The Disconnect’ ties it all together with Kaan’s superb vocals, Ayers and Haycock’s storm-tossed guitar riffs, Mansbridge’s punchy drum elements, and overall beautifully written lyrical content. For these reasons ‘The Disconnect’ deserves a listen as it combines all the things we have always loved about this band but also shows they are not afraid to venture into new musical territory to establish a slightly new sound. SA

Woes - Awful Truth Pop punk has had one major problem over the last few years in terms of the over saturation of the genre. However, as the years have gone on a few bands have managed to break out and make a name for themselves. Now Scottish band Woes present their debut album ‘Awful Truth’. Straight away you can tell this album has the potential to be something a bit different with the use of synths combined with Fleetwood Mac of all things it works surprisingly well.

‘Fake Friends’ Is one of those types of tracks that you often get with pop punk where the chorus is one that will be stuck in your head for days. However, for all the good it does, it suffers from a fade out style ending which takes away from the strong start the album gave itself. ‘Money Shoe’ and the title track ‘Awful Truth’ are up next. The first of which I really couldn't tell if it was trying to be more pop and punk or vice versa, even so the guitar sound in this is big and powerful. It helps pack a punch while the rest of the song remains solid. In the title track the guys seem to take a step up in terms of sound, and it feels like this is the first time on the album where they’re all on the same page, even if the lyrics do leave something to be desired. The strongest part on the album for me was ‘Mess’ as it's where the lyrics are at their strongest and the words and music combine so well together, particularly the catchy chorus and the amazing melody.

Woes aren't doing anything new but are trying hard to make themselves stand out from the rest of the pop punk bands in the already overfilled pound. When everything comes together they make it work to their advantage and there's enough material on this album to keep listeners interested. The songs where the band try to experiment are very much hit and miss for me, never the less it's a solid album for a debut and it gives this very young output a great foundation to build on for the future. LS

CHON - Self-Titled The new Self-Titled album is 12 brand new songs packed into 36 minutes. You can already tell how much the band has developed in the time between albums particularly in terms of their sound. Right from the opening of ‘Ghost’, you can hear the feel-good vibes that stay with the music through this album. ‘Ghost’ was one of my favourite tracks on this record, as the guitar work at times is rather complex and yet very playful. It just showcases how skilled they really are.

Often at times on the album, with tracks like ‘Cloudy’, ‘Visit’ and ‘Gift’ you will find yourself being taken away to a sunny beach somewhere in the world, and that's the power CHON possess with their music. An interesting thing to note is that CHON very rarely put words on to any of their songs relying more on their music to speak for them. This is certainly the kind of album where it will take multiple listens to be able to pick out all of the finer points. A good example of this would be ‘Pitch Dark’ that combines an acoustic style opening with a catchy middle section before reverting back to the haunting acoustic sound to close it out. It displays a few different techniques and they are carried off effortlessly.

‘Rosewood’ is a frantic listen that’s filled with a lot of different sounds and styles that build and build until its more relaxed fade away ending. The calm silence is suddenly shattered as it bursts into life for a whirlwind track that doesn't let up until the final few seconds.

The album begins to wind down but the band don't let up with ‘Spike’ and ‘Dead End’, each song has its own unique feel to it the first being fast up tempo with a catchy rhythmic beat to match as the guitars work their magic through the song. The latter being much slower and laid back but it still sounds as captivating as ever.

This is another of those tracks that will paint its own picture in your mind.

CHON have raised their game with this album by creating 12 amazing pieces of music. They have worked hard to get the sound they want and you can tell a lot of effort has gone into the making of this album and here the band does present something refreshing that I'm sure will keep a lot of their fans new and old very happy. LS

Biffy Clyro - Balance, Not Symmetry The titular first listen starts off with a heavy drum beat and guitar riff. The shouted vocals instantly capture the audience's attention and demand them to listen. The singalong chorus slows the fast-paced song a little, but apart from that, this is a fantastic opener to the album. ‘All Singing and All Dancing’ is slightly slower than what has already come, but it has a certain charm to it that fans of their heavier songs will be willing to forgive them. The funky build up is a particular highlight.

Just to quickly say, my only issue with this album is it's very long, clocking in at seventeen songs, and a runtime of an hour and five minutes. Highlights include a slow acoustic dime called ‘Different Kind Of Love’, and the frantic rock of fourth song ‘Sunrise’ that sounds like something out of a film from the 1980s (which would kind of make sense right, as this is a soundtrack to a movie!). ‘Navy Blue’, is a piano/synthesiser interlude track that makes the smooth transition to the next song, ‘Tunnels and Trees’, which mixes synths with guitars perfectly, and doesn't allow one instrument to outshine the other.

‘Yellow’ (not to be confused with the famous Coldplay song) is a beautiful piano interlude with a synthesiser in the background that sounds like a heartbeat. The final track, ‘Adored’ is a slow ballad that allows singer Simon Neil's vocals to shine, especially as the only instrument used is a piano. The other songs on the album did show Neil's wide variety of vocals, but they were also often lost amongst the heavy instruments, so having a stripped back part as the last one allows the listener to really appreciate Neil's voice.

In conclusion, despite the length of the album, 'Balance, Not Symmetry' is a great introduction to Biffy Clyro's music, and it is also a great addition to any of their fans' collection. KB

Get Your Head Straight - Contrast This 5 piece pop-punk unit from Milton Keynes, England recently released their debut EP ‘Get Your Head Straight’. And I'll be honest with you, as I should. With my first few listens I was not feeling this release. It took a few listens for me to get into it. But that's OK. I'm glad I kept going back to it because this is what a first release should sound like. It's not perfect, it' not even close to perfect. It’s five friends making music that they enjoy and at the end of the day, that's all that matters. And I'm sure there are people out there that love/will love this album. Who knows, in a few years I may look back and realise that this was the release that restored my faith in pop punk. Time will tell.

The album starts with the song ‘Excuses’. A a nice poppy number to open with.

While not their best song, it’s a solid opener. It serves its job well. You get a good idea of what to expect from the rest of the album. Even though summer is almost over, it has a good summertime groove and I for one appreciate that. Next up we have ‘Swansea’.

This is where we start getting a better idea of where they are going with this release. This is a very solid track. It would fit nicely on a playlist with Neck Deep, Knuckle Puck, and Like Pacific. It’s very much in the vein of the pop punk that is popular at the moment. If this isn’t a single, it should be. From this point, the EP gets better and better. Each song improves on the one before it. The two standouts are ‘Medusa’ and ‘Consider’. This is where Get Your Head Straight really shine. Both are outstanding and also very contagious, as a good pop punk song should be. ‘Medusa’ is easily my favourite on the release. It just flows so well. This is the track I catch myself singing often, and you will also. ‘Consider’ is a great last track. They saved the best for last and man is this a banger. We also get to witness the vocalist at his best, as it shows what he is capable of. It leaves the listener wanting more.

As far as first releases go, this is pretty awesome. If you are a pop punk fan then I highly recommend giving this a listen. You’ll dig it. I really am glad I didn’t give up on this album. And if they ever make it to the States I’ll be in the front row singing my heart out. RC

Dinosaur Pile-Up - Celebrity Mansions In my lifetime I have been called many things. Some of them true, some not so much. One thing I have been called a few times is a music snob. And I get why. I can be really selective and opinionated when it comes to music. One thing that I know I do is I won't listen to a band if the name is really weird to me or just crazy.

That has been the case with Dinosaur Pile-Up. This is a name I have seen for a few years now and I never gave them a fair shot. And also most places I saw their name was on metal / hard rock tours and festivals. Not really my cup of tea.

Let me tell you, don’t be that person. This band is full of talent and I would love to experience them live.

If alt-rock is your poison then this is the band for you, that’s if you already don’t listen to them. The album starts with the banger ‘Thrash Metal Cassette’, which is a very Foo Fighters sounding track. The guitar playing is on point and at one moment the guitarist straight starts to shred and it's a thing of pure beauty. ‘Back Foot’ is a little different from the first track, it has a hip-hop feel to it, but it works. At times it reminds me of Family Force 5. The vocalist raps a little and he kills it. This is a very fun experience. And guess what happens with the next track? You got it, they changed it up again. With ‘Stupid Heavy Metal Broken Hearted Loser Punk’, this time, they decide to go a little pop punk sounding and they nail it. It reminds me of early 2000s pop-punk on TRL.

After that, the album stays pretty consistent with its sound, which is alt-rock. And I'm OK with that because they do it really well. I see why The Pixies had them open for them once while on a tour of the UK. ‘Black Limousine’ is hands down a favourite. I like storytelling and imagery. I like to be able to form a picture in my head and I can with this one. And it's something beautiful.

This album is one that I was not expecting to enjoy. I’m glad that I did. From start to finish this is a very solid release. One that should not be looked over in 2019. RC

Sum 41 - Order in Decline Are there acts that you only know their hits? The ones you have heard on the radio or seen music videos on TV? That’s what Sum 41 has always been for me.

I only know the singles. I have never been able to get further than that. With the release of ‘Order in Decline’, their seventh studio album, I unfortunately don’t see this changing. The album starts with ‘Turning Away’, one of the better highlights.

As I’m a fan of a good opener and a good closer. This is that. It has an epic feel to it. It feels as if they are preparing you for what’s to come. The buildup is really nice. So for about 50 seconds, you are wondering, where is this going, and what’s coming after. Well, next up is ‘Out for Blood’, and it’s really awesome as far as rock goes.

Ultimately, the one thing about this album is that Sum 41 are all over the place with their sound. It’s almost as if they didn’t know what direction they wanted to go with the album. At times I get a Muse feeling as noted on ‘The New Sensation’ and then I get a Linkin Park influence with a few others. I even heard a song sounding like The Offspring in there. The more punkish parts are more The Offspring, which I can get behind. There is more shredding than I thought would be on the album and I do like that. At some point, every song manages to show off their guitar playing, and sure it's nice to actually hear guitars in music today!

Above I mentioned opening and closing songs, and if this were a journey, they have done well. The closer ‘Catching Fire’ is a slower number, probably the slowest on the album. It's a little sombre, it’s not as upbeat as when we first meet them and that’s the case with the closing song. So it fits here perfectly. Overall, this is just a solid release, and sadly for me, not much more than that. RC

John Floreani - sin First track ‘Oh Brother’ starts off with a simple drum beat accompanied by an acoustic guitar. John's vocals are very soft, and work well with the instruments.

The instruments and vocals are intense during the bridge. The handclaps that make their way into the outro are something that could easily be envisioned in a live setting.

‘Don't Wait Up’ has a slightly more grander feel than the previous song due to the instruments including the sound of a bell in the introduction. The vocals feel a lot stronger in the chorus due to the backing being toned down, allowing the vocals to shine. Fourth track ‘Cocaine’ starts off with some studio room dialogue before kicking into a flurry of strings that carry it. The only issue with the strings is that they often outshine the vocals. The addition of a piano and electric guitar make the instruments the real highlight of the song, whereas after - ‘Ugly Love’ - is the complete opposite as it starts off with a deep bass guitar that unfortunately gets lost as everything joins in, but the vocals are clear.

‘Before The Devil Knows I'm Dead’ starts off with a slow strum of an electric guitar as an almost radio like voice repeats the phrase “Pray for me”. John's vocals are very sombre and feel appropriate for the tempo.

The addition of the soft drum beats in the background make it feel like it belongs on a movie soundtrack, and it is a highlight of the album. The abruptness of the ending of it makes the listener want to hear more.

Unfortunately, the penultimate output seems to blend into the previous one as they are both very slow, and the lyrics seem very unoriginal. Luckily ‘I Don't Want To Be Here Either’ is a very beautiful piano ballad that tells a story throughout the lyrics. In conclusion, ‘sin’ is a varied and very impressive album, that - despite some production issues and strange lyrics - has a good mixture of impressive vocals and instruments. KB

Curse These Metal Hands - Pijn & Conjurer The world of heavy music has many things to thank the ArcTanGent festival for.

One of the more recent reasons they have given us to be thankful is that it was on their hotbed grounds of post-rock and ambient metal that Curse These Metal Hands first saw the light of day. A unique combination between two of the UK's hottest talents of the last eighteen months - Pijn and Conjurer - Curse These Metal Hands is both nothing like what you might expect given the sum of its parts, and also so much more.

Fans of the likes of Cult Of Luna, ISIS, Baroness and Pelican are likely to be absolutely delighted with the Curse These Metal Hands EP. It's only four tracks, but still manages to clock in around the forty minute mark, with not a second wasted. The bulk of the opening ‘High Spirits’ is spent in the ambient ethereal plains usually reserved for the likes of Red Sparowes and latter ISIS albums, with a touch of Baroness and Mastodon about it too (especially with the vocals). ‘The Pall’, particularly in the second half, is reminiscent of some of the early Cult Of Luna work with the harsh vocals and use of static and distortion helping to enhance an already considerable sonic experience. The third track on the EP, ‘Endeavour’, is the whippersnapper of the release, clocking in at barely two minutes compared to the epic lengths of the other three. Don't let its short running time fool you though, it's still packed full of brilliant post-metal riffs and vocals so harsh they'd make most black metal bands go back to the drawing board. The concluding track, ‘Sunday’, is the standout track for instrumentation in what is a very high quality performance throughout, particularly from the triple guitar attack of Dan and Brady from Conjurer and Joe from Pijn. The clean vocals on ‘Sunday’ are also a nice contrast to the vocal approach used elsewhere. The last third of the track melds ambient and heavy in a wonderful blend, almost like michelin starred food for the ears.

There is a wonderful quality about Curse These Metal Hands that only the very best releases have. It is incredibly easy to completely lose yourself in the music, the EP feeling like it has only taken a couple of minutes to go from start to end. It is one that will have fans of ambient metal, post-rock and post-metal reaching for the repeat button over and over again. A must have and must hear release for 2019 and beyond.

JG

Stray Cats – Birmingham, 02 Academy - 23/06/2019 Support came from Aussie band The Living End with their rockabilly infused punk rock with frontman Chris Cheney greeting the audience with some comical banter, “if it wasn’t for The Stray Cats, you’d be watching some other shitty band, cos we wouldn’t be here” to which the crowd chuckle, although their impressive 40-minute set was far from “shitty”. Drummer Andy Strachan was outstanding and Scott Owen who continuously leapt up on to his double bass, which is considered his signature move, boasts quite possibly the fastest and most talented plucking hands in rockabilly history, alongside Lee Rocker of course.

‘Till The End’, ‘Death Of The American Dream’, ‘How Do We Know’ and the humorous ‘Uncle Harry (Pisses In The Bath)’ provide more than enough sing-along moments, and tunes you could shake your hips to, which perfectly warm up a crowd who clearly need no encouragement.

Fans scream and applaud as the original founding members of The Stray Cats, Brian Setzer (vocals, guitar), Lee Rocker (double bassist) and Slim Jim Phantom (drums), appear on stage which has a small and minimal setup and launch straight into ‘Cat Fight (Over A Dog like Me)’ and ‘Runaway Boys’. Still sporting their slick back hairdos and bandana neck scarfs just like they did throughout the 80s, they appear as ageless as their music. New track, ‘Three Times A Charm’ and old-favourite ‘Stray Cat Strut’ play through and with their unmistakable Stray Cats sound, the New Yorker rockers really have got the crowd worked up in to a frenzy. ‘Gene and Eddie’, ‘Cry Baby’, ‘(She’s) Sexy & 17’ and ‘Bring It Back Again’ which is sung by double bassist Lee Rocker, follow. Setzer is one of the most important rockabilly guitarists around today and really knows how to make his guitars sing, no guitar is better suited to rockabilly than the Gretsch and it’s around this time people might begin to understand why Setzer is a longstanding lover of them, aside from the fact that Eddie Cochran played one! Their set was nothing short of electrifying, as Lee Rocker insisted on standing upon, spinning and slapping the hell out of his double bass (you can see why he won the Bass Player Lifetime Achievement Award), Slim Jim who’s playing a really simple but effective kit, refusing to sit down for more than 5 minutes at a time, and Brian Setzer swinging his Gretsch around, eyes closed, with his infectious guitar licks alone making you want to get up and move. It’s really no wonder the room had been converted into a sweat box of bopping, jumping and rocking bodies. In Setzer’s own words “whatever gig you’re at tonight, it aint as cool as this” and damn he was right; with each of them going on 60, they were purring again as they managed to triumphally knock the socks off Birmingham O2 Academy. ‘Rock This Town’, ‘Rock It Off’ and ‘Rumble In Brighton’ close their set and it was very clear why these rockabilly legends are still very much relevant in the genre that started out more than four decades ago. EB

Kiefer Sutherland - SWX Bristol - 22/07/2019 When we heard that Kiefer Sutherland was starting a country music career a couple of years ago, we were extremely intrigued by this move, and in the end we became eager to see him live after listening to 'Down In A Hole' and most recently 'Reckless & Me', as they both simply showed that he was passionate about this music, and wasn't just hiding behind the fame that his name holds. Although he has now built a name for himself in the country music scene, we have no doubt that there were people, of course, there to see him based on his acting work in 24/The Lost Boys etc, but that's not a problem for Kiefer, because with the performance he put on this evening, he will undoubtedly have many of those fans buying his material on the way out. From the moment Kiefer comes on stage (he literally comes on, screaming at the audience) there's an energy there, you can really tell that he loves playing music, and that he wants a big future in it, his backing band are all absolutely spot on, and look like they want to be there, whereas with some bands, you can tell when session musicians are simply put, just session musicians. Throughout the set he is getting in his band mates’ faces, jamming with them, and honestly, just having the time of his life, and that's really great to see from any band or act, a chemistry that goes across to the audience. Music is supposed to be fun right?

He treats us to songs such as 'Reckless & Me', 'Not Enough Whiskey', 'I'll Do Anything' and MANY more.

Throughout the performance he also tells stories about certain times of his life, whether it was how he grew up, hard times, or just how much he appreciated everyone coming to the show, and what that all meant to him. Talking of his own history, he ends with a cover of 'Knockin' on Heaven's Door' which is an extremely personal song to him as it relates to so many of his own memories growing up. It was a great end to an exceptional set, and we're really excited to see where Kiefer goes from here! AD

So here we are, once more at the legendary Download Festival! An event that not only celebrates some of the most iconic bands out there, but that is also ground to discovery for some of the absolute best upcoming acts that the world has to offer. It really is an essential date for rock fans within the UK, and it's a pleasure to be back here (even if it did rain for the majority of the weekend!). So read on, as we take a look at just some of the highlights of the weekend.

Friday How Skid Row are this low on the line-up we have no clue! These 80s rock legends are perfect for Download Festival, and hits such as 'I Remember You' and 'Youth Gone Wild' bring the crowd together to sing in unison! For one of the first bands on the Friday, they do an incredible job at getting the crowd warmed up (ZP Theart is a truly great singer and frontman) in a hard rock way. If you read the last issue of Stencil Mag then you were already informed that Blackberry Smoke are perfect for this kind of setting. Their fusion of country rock and hard hitting music is simply brilliant to watch, and judging by the HUGE crowd in front of them, it looks like this performance has brought them even more fans, and rightly so. Somehow I've never seen Clutch live, and after their set I'll be making sure that I see them again as soon as possible. Frontman Neil Fallon is one hell of a singer, throughout the set he is as close as he can to the front of the stage, he really does his absolute best to communicate with the crowd, and this emotion really pays off, because for one of the first bands on the main stage, they had an absolutely insane reception. With their raw sound we were treated to a stack of tracks from 'Book of Bad Decisions', fused with older gems, perfect.

Previous Stencil Mag front cover heroes Whitesnake are up next on the main stage, and what a show they put on, new songs like 'Shut Up & Kiss Me', 'Trouble Is Your Middle Name' go down SO well, and already sound like Whitesnake classics, and will surely be in the set for a LONG time. To add to this, the band also give us mega hits like 'Slow an' Easy' and 'Here I Go Again', performed with ease and passion. They prove that they are more than worthy of being third from headline on the main stage. The Interrrupters are the band of the minute, and from the set it was quite clear to see why, with 'Gave You Everything' and 'She's Kerosene' under their belt, they have the songs that already sound like classic ska tunes. With circle pits opening up, and the crowd singing as loud as they can throughout, they put on a fantastic show, and we have no doubt that they have a HUGE future ahead of them. Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators are no strangers to Download Festival, between this project, Guns & Roses and Alter Bridge, they have plenty of experience when it comes to performing to one of the best crowds in the UK festival circuit.

They put on a show which confirmed that they were pretty much at “home�. There were no awkward moments, and it was just awesome to watch. From the outstanding vocals on show from Myles, and the out of this world guitar work from Slash, this was a great Download moment. With anthems like 'Driving Rain', 'World On Fire' combined with a Guns & Roses cover of 'Nightrain' they band show off all angles of their diverse talent.

Me First and The Gimme Gimmes headline the Avalanche Stage, and show that just because they are a covers band, they are something that you REALLY need to see live. Before they had even come on, the crowd were extremely energetic, maybe because it was Friday night at Download, and those in attendance have a renowned energy about them as it was the first day of live music, and they had survived the flooded fields of Donnington. As they played in a tent, you really can hear the atmosphere in the air, with the roar of the crowd echoing off the ceiling. Throughout the set the band were 100% engaged with the audience, and they gave everything they could. Frontman Spike Slawson kept a commentary going, and by doing so, he created more of a community, than just another live show. The set saw the crowd swaying from side to side, with huge mosh pits at the heart of it, 'Jolene' being one of the best soundtracks to that setting. What a band.

Saturday If you are hungover, and are feeling a bit rough on Saturday morning, well, you'll be pleased to know that Alien Weaponry have no mercy, and are here to play as loud as they can to both wake you up, and bring you straight back into the Download Festival atmosphere. With a stomping heavy metal display, they get the crowd moving, and open the main stage in style. One of the best things about Download is that the music on display is always very diverse. Royal Republic are up next, and from the first note they confirm what I'm trying to say. The juxtaposition between them and the last act Alien Weaponry couldn't be anymore different.

Promoting their new release 'Club Majesty' they are as tight as ever as they move through their hip shifting and toe tapping tracks. 'Tommy-Gun', 'Full Steam Spacemachine' and 'Stop Movin'' are infectious and they show that they can survive and satisfy any audience that's put in front of them. If you've read their interview in the latest issue of Stencil Mag, then you already know what Elvana are, but if you haven't please let me remind you that just like the name suggests, this band are a fusion of Elvis and Nirvana, in the coolest possible way you can imagine. Taking on the Zippo Encore Stage, and for a cover band, we were simply blown away by the huge crowd that had turned up to see them. They show that they are not just your average cover band. Jumping from Nirvana songs into Elvis songs obviously works, and they have struck gold with this combo. 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' is a huge moment, and it has everyone from the front to the back jumping along. Don't miss out on Elvana when they tour the UK shortly.

Animals As Leaders are on next, and they change up the tempo with their progressive instrumental sound. Sure, the crowd was not jumping around and causing mosh pits like they were for Elvana, but they were instead watching with an intense look of awe, as it is pretty hard to keep up with these awesomely talented musicians. 'Tempting Time' and 'CAFO' work well against a luckily sunny Download backdrop, however I do feel that there are bigger moments to come from them in the UK circuit yet. Next up is for me, one of the most anticipated sets of the weekend, it's Skindred taking on the fourth to headline slot on the MAIN STAGE. The music that Skindred create is 100% designed for a live crowd to be singing and jumping along to. The whole set is full of absolute hits, and there really isn't much time to breathe. 'Pressure', 'Rat Race', 'Ninja' and 'Nobody' get a crushing response from the audience (honestly, if you were in the mosh pits, then crushing is the right word to use here), and the talent and performance that is on display is something of a higher level, they smashed it. Further highlights from just this one set include crowd jump along anthem 'Warning', new song 'Machine' which even had guest vocals from Reef singer Gary Stringer, and of course, the Newport Helicopter (they get everyone in the crowd to spin their t-shirts around, chaos).

Trivium have the crowd clapping along straight away, and ensure that everyone is completely invested in their performance. For those that have attended Download for more than a decade, then you'll know that this is where the career of Trivium started, they opened the main stage here before. So if you were there, then you can really see this full circle sort of moment happening for the band, as they do mention it through the set, and from this you can both see how far the band have come over the years with their success, whilst getting the feeling that this is sort of “home” to them as well, and it shows with their emotion fuelled approach. 'Until the World Goes Cold', 'Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr' and 'In Waves' cement them as Download legends. So I've mentioned before about how Download tends to bring in a diverse set of styles, and with Die Antwood they continue that with probably the most unexpected act of the weekend, this South African Dance group are very high up on the main stage, and before Slipknot, they really have to do everything they can to bring the interaction. Chase & Status & The Prodigy have proved the pallet that Download has to offer before, and they do this in a somewhat similar way tonight. With the scariest looking DJ you'll ever see they cruise through 'Ugly Boy', 'Banana Brain, and 'Enter the Ninja' and confirm that there's a place for them at the event.

Last up, it's Slipknot, and wow, what a show they put on. At this point in their career, pretty much every song they play is a MEGA hit, and has probably been played in almost every rock club across the globe.

Even their new songs 'All Out Life' & 'Unsainted' are sang back to them in full volume, and are obviously on their way to be being just as well known as their other tracks. Corey says how Download is “home” to him, and from their adrenaline performance it's quite clear that this is true. If you look at the big screens on display, within seconds you'll lose count of how many circle pits there are. With new tunes and even new masks celebrating this era of Slipknot, this doesn't mean that that is all they focus on this evening, like I said, they play a shed load of anthems, and tracks like 'Before I Forgot', 'The Devil In I', 'Duality' show their journey in an exciting way. The icing on the cake is 'Spit It Out', which has EVERYONE in the audience forced to sit down before the last part of the track kicks in. Epic.

Sunday Starset are here to give their fusion of hard and alternative rock, and it works well, their roller coaster set list of tracks from 'Monster' and 'My Demons' get the crowd moving, and to put it simply, and if this is anything to go by, then this is certainly a band to look out for. Next up we have State Champs on the Zippo Encore stage, and now, considering bands like All Time Low have played on this 2nd stage before, then you would of thought that these guys would of fit right in, however, they had a tough start building up a connection with the audience, and sadly due to some sound issues (the bass was very, very loud and overpowering) it seemed like the message wasn't going across. As the set went on, things improved rapidly. Hits like 'Secrets' & 'Dead and Gone' brought the State Champs fan base out of the crowd, and in the end they left fans wanting more.

There's some big potential here. In an attempt to watch as many bands as possible, at this point, we're running to watch Our Last Night, who sadly missed the mark here, and fell a little bit flat throughout the set. Maybe it's because in the Avalanche Stage everyone couldn't move due to the floor being just so muddy at this point, but it felt like the band struggled to get their attention, even though songs like 'Soul Speak' and 'Common Ground' are absolute gems. We hope that the next time they return, they'll hit a bit harder. Running back to the Zippo Stage, it's time for Beartooth, who with their now well known wild live performance continue to unsurprisingly rise and rise throughout the metal scene. Part of this is definitely down to the charm and determination of their frontman Caleb, who for us, is one of the best "modern rockstars" there is, he brings you in with stories that relate, and then the band tear you apart with their powerful riffs, it's a cocktail that hits the spot. So with mosh pits opening from side to side, the crowd singing along to every song, they go down as one of the main standouts (for us) of the weekend. 'Beaten in Lips', 'In Between', 'Aggressive', are all HUGE to witness, and we have no doubt that their rise will take them far onto the main stage the next time they decide to stop by Download.

Guess what, we're back at the Avalanche Stage now catching The Amity Affliction, and what a set they put on, they effortlessly win over the audience in front of them, and singalongs such as 'Pittsburgh', 'Drag The Lake', 'Don't Lean On Me' combine to make a brilliant set list that leaves everyone exhausted. At this point, we are running up the scenic hills of Download (well they would be if they weren’t drenched in mud) to the Dogtooth stage to watch Coldrain, a band that have flown all the way from Japan to be on one of the smaller stages at Download, if that's not commitment, then we don't what is. From the get go, they get the attention of the crowd, and a mosh pit opens up in front of them, these guys fire on all cylinders, and they do not miss a note, whilst visibly looking like they are having the time of their lives, all elements that add up to a cracking live show. Highlights for this include their frontman Masato, who shows us just how insanely talented he is as a vocalist, as well as the track 'Feed The Fire' which in just one song provides what this band are all about. If you haven't heard of them just yet, then I strongly advise that you give them a listen. Next up, we're back on the main stage to witness the iconic Smashing Pumpkins, at this point the clouds were ready to drop another load of rain on us, and everyone was pretty much ready to go home, put the kettle on, and watch Netflix, but, the energy was still there, and Download showed you why it's one of the most relentless UK festivals out there. With an incredible, and I suppose, somewhat wacky backdrop of clowns that obviously have some deeper meaning, they put on a spectacle by performing MEGA hits such as 'Disarm'. 'Cherub Rock'. Reminding us why they were on the main stage. Billy Corgan cruised these songs with so much ease, and talent, it kind of made you mad how easy he made it look. The sound of The Smashing Pumpkins is so unique, and they really are pivotal when it came to providing a balance to the festival overall, so in all categories of performance and importance, they get the thumbs up from me. In case you were wondering where a lot of the Download Festival crowd had gone, we can tell you, they were all swarming to see the last ever UK show from Slayer, now that's an important statement. They have a HUGE following over there, and headlining the second stage is probably the most perfect place for them to do that. 'Repentless', 'Raining Blood' and MANY more monster metal tracks are played, and they put on a set that is one, the perfect end to a Download weekend, and two, the best possible end when it comes to showcasing how essential they have become to the UK. Brilliant. AD

So we did it, we survived the rain to witness another incredible Download Festival, until next time! You can get more info about the event right here: http://www.downloadfestival.co.uk