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- Contents May 2016 Vandala

8 REVIEWS & EDITORIAL Zakk Wylde - Book Of Shadows II (Rock) Explosions In The Sky - The Wilderness (Rock) Mogwai - Atomic (Rock) Daniel Jordan - Killed By Love Genre (Hip Hop) Autolux - P"sy's Dead (Rap/Rock) Bleached - Welcome The Worms (Pop) School of Seven Bells - SVIIB (Pop)

14 LIVE MUSIC & PHOTOS

Blackberry Smoke Brings the Southern Rock Photo Highlights - ZZ Top Aaron Lewis Brings The Country to Chumash Casino Resort Santa Ynez Photo Highlights - Metric Photo Highlights - Walk Off The Earth Testa Shakes The Walls at Sold Out Show Photo Highlights - Marianas Trench 20 Years of Rip-Hop! Long live The Kottonmouth Kings! Slayer: Louder Than Hell and Still Killin' It An Unforgettable Night of Relentless Hard Rock featuring Starset and Breaking Benjamin! Photo Highlights Pigeon Park and Gob Photo Highlights - Offspring

60 COVER STORY Lita Ford: Great Scott! Let's Take a Time Capsule Back to the 80's! Lita Ford is the true definition of what 1980's hair metal was all about! With her new album Time Capsule' just released and her touring we caught up with her to talk about the 80's, the album in depth and more.

44 INTERVIEWS 44 What Truly Lies Behind Those Crazy Eyes An Interview with Richard Patrick of Filter 52 Folk's Not Dead: An Interview with Jeffrey Lewis 68 Enter Shikari: Expanding and Accelerating with Rou Reynolds 76 Mortiis - Who is The Great Deceiver? 04 VanclalaMagazine.Com - May 2016

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Zakk Wylde - Book Of Shadows II (Rock) By Ashton Clemmer - 4/5 Dragons When Zakk Wylde last released a solo album, I was only three years old and his music wouldn't be found in my mother's Madonna, and Celine Dion laden CD collection. However, in my early teenage years, I would stumble upon Book of Shadows (1996) rooting through my older cousin's CDs. This would be one of my favourite albums growing up, and was more than likely the catalyst for my fondness of Wylde, Black Label Society, and anything else he touched. Though I didn't have to wait this long like some, twenty years later the sequel to Wylde's solo album is upon us. Book of Shadows II was released in early April (2016) and though it's not his heaviest work, it's something you'll be happy you waited for. If you're a fan of B.L.S. (Black Label Society) or the work done with Ozzy Osbourne, and aren't familiar with Zakk Wylde's solo work, then you're going to be taken back by the sound of this record; you won't be head banging, instead, you'll find yourself swaying side to side. Autumn Changes, kicks off the record, and with the sounds of a Hammond organ, Wyldes guitar and his timeless vocals, you get a sense immediately for a southern rock inspiration, and the album progresses you pick up on some blues and country inspiration, like in the song, Yesterday's Tears. Though there isn't any mind blowing drum solos, or complex fills, drummer Jeff Fabb does well in aiding the vibe of each song, allowing for a more sentimental feel within each track. As Book of Shadows II continues, you begin to feel the raw emotion that Wylde has put into the record. However you interpret Wylde's lyrics, you hear the stories about difficult choices and growing from past mistakes or events in life that can open the door to nostalgia for the listener. Wylde sticks mostly to his acoustic guitar on the album, and reserves his electric axe mostly for solos which gives tracks an interesting contrast, and reminds you that the guy can shred in any atmosphere, and showcases his expertise guitar skills, especially in the tunes Darkest Hour and Eyes of Burden. The album contains fourteen tracks, however if you were to purchase the Bonus Track Edition, you would find the song, Sleeping Dogs at the very end of the record, but this time accompanied by the vocals of Slipknot/Stone Sour singer Corey Taylor. Being a huge Slipknot and Stone Sour fan, I was excited to see what twist would have been made to the tune, but found it was a carbon copy of the same song I heard only five minutes earlier, only adding Taylor's vocals to some verses and clipping where Wylde's were in the original. I enjoyed the song, but would have liked to have heard something done differently with the track that could have complimented and utilized the powerful vocals of Corey Taylor. The slower more affectionate jams allow you to really kick back, and enjoy a side of Zakk Wylde that isn't as pronounced as his heavier, metal inspired music. Though the music does show different inspirations throughout Book Of Shadows II, there is still continuity and I would have liked to hear a bit more diversity within the album. The formula Wylde has used is impactful, and resonates with the listeners, due to the expression of the heart-felt lyrics, and the slower more intimate vibe of the music. I found that the heavy usage of an organ throughout this record, can give you the feeling that you're listening to songs from A Book of Hymns for The Church of Zakk Wylde (that might get me out of 08 VandalaMagazine.Com - May 2016

bed on Sunday), but does allow for a very unique listen and compliments the tone the of the record. If you were a fan of Book Of Shadows (1996) and still are two decades later, Book Of Shadows II is a great addition to the classic and will fit comfortably in your collection. www.zakkwylde.com

Explosions In The Sky - The Wilderness (Rock) By Michael Smith - 4.5/5 Dragons It's been almost exactly five years since we have been delivered a new full length album, and BITS as provided fans new, old, and yet to come, possibly, the most vibrant work the band has created. The â&#x20AC;˘ 4s'il.DERNEK, album gushes brash form of mystery and intrigue. Every track setting a new foggy landscape for your mind to explore, get lost and discover something new. The haze of each tracks intros progressively fade and you are surrounded and maybe a bit overwhelmed by all the colors that surround you. Vivid mental/musical scenery conjuring every emotion from the most melancholic to the most spastic. The progression of every track leaves the mind impatiently craving to know where you are about to be taken, that is best illustrated the album's final two tracks, "Colors in Space" and "Landing I Cliffs", which on their own, are an illuminated psychological journey firing off from the synapse and touching every part of the brain. www.explosionsinthesky.com

Mogwai - Atomic (Rock) By Michael Smith - 4/5 Dragons On this latest release from the band fans will notice a departure from the sound the group created on 2014's Rave Tapes and a return the heavily layered and dizzying environment, similar to 2003's masterpiece Happy Songs For Happy People. Theoretically Atomic is a soundtrack of reworked selections from the BBC's documentary Storyville-Atomic: Living in Dread and Promise, however, like the band's previous soundtrack work, the music is strong enough to be its own entity. The tracks on this release waste little time before breaking in an anxious sonic fury of doom ridden excellence. Listeners are taken on an ominous journey, through space, kicking off with the track "Ether" instilling a sense of pride and hope, before transforming, almost immediately with the synth heavy calamity of "SCRAM". Now listeners ride knowing something (exciting) anxiety knowing something has gone wrong, and the powerful sense you are not making it home. That anticipation is tenacious, and provide outlets to all sorts of emotional of portals. www.mogwai.co.0 May 2016 - VandalaMagazine.Com 09

Reiviiew Daniel Jordan - Killed By Love Genre (Hip Hop) By Chad Thomas Carsten - 5/5 Dragons Independent hip-hop underground favorite Daniel Jordan delivers his die-hard fans the most personal release of his career titled "Killed by Love". Killed by Love (released purposely on Valentine's Day and entirely produced by Bad Mind) is an album that is directly aimed at making sure the broken-hearted don't feel all alone and hopeless on Valentine's Day. It's the people who find love in all the wrong places, thus the hopeless romantics continually struggle on day to day basis to find the real meaning of what true love is all about. The album may alienate some of Daniel Jordan's fan base, who are strongly attached to his darker morbid style. But the other side of his fans (those who are more open minded and are down with an artist taking a major risk with venturing into brand new unknown territory.) will no doubt fall _af-V.7C) straight in love with Mr. Jordan's heart shattering journey. The wordplay embedded inside the album finds Daniel Jordan pouring out his entire heart and soul, as if the blood from his very own heart was the ink inside a pen that bled out the lyrics onto the paper the love songs were originally written on. Overall, Killed by love will take listeners deep inside a lost heart shaped box that's locked away in the pits of hell, filled with nothing but an unapologetic personal raw hip-hop narrative. The lid of the heart shaped box can barely close thanks to the power of the overwhelming energy found within Daniel Jordan's mind. Cupid's very own arrow can't pierce this one! For fans of Esham, Saint Etienne, The Motels, and Portishead. Main track picks include "Killed by Love", "The Phoenix", "Nothing Lasts Forever", Only the Lonely" featuring Stephanie Baumann, and "Everybody's Been Defeated". www.killda nieljordan.corn

Autolux - P*ssyrs Dead (Rap/Rock) By Michael Smith - 5/5 Dragons It's been six years since we last heard this band, and this album is well worth the wait. Dark and very mysterious, Pussy's Dead has all of the intriguing factors of previous Autolux albums, but more prevalent than ever, it is without a doubt the strongest of the group's three albums. A sense of tragedy lingers throughout, but the sound and songwriting are much deeper, mature, and the trio create bass heavy beats that will give you chills. The bands aseptic glam-goth sound layered on top of classic shoegaze guitar fuzz is something truly original, and at times ("Soft Scene") incredibly sexy. The vocal work of drummer Carla Azar is the star the album and is used sparingly enough to keep you craving for it, even if it's just for a line. The album's closing track, "Becker", is the purest embodiment of the band. Soft vocals, murky, heavy 10 VandalaMagazine.Com - May 2016

Album Remiew weighted bass, hopelessness, fiendish and impeccable. www.autoluxunet

Bleached - Welcome The Worms (Pop) By Michael Smith - 5/5 Dragons The sophomore release from the sister duo is a spectacular creation of the modern LA pop-punk scene. Built on the back the duo's personal struggles (ending of an unhealthy relationship, eviction, "Chemical Air", drinking and general excess) comes an upbeat and fun record. Welcome the Worms sees the group evolve their sound, losing a lot of the surf rock inspiration of the first record, 2013's Ride Your Heart. This release adopts a more 90's riot grrl sound, abating the characteristics of the Emerald City, in favor of the San Fernando Valley. The So-Cal sound and aura encompass the entire record and should make the any listener crave sun, palm trees and angsty behavior. The songwriting is exciting, and contagious. Despite the dark subject matter and influence of this album it is a bright release that is a wonderful compliment to ditching class or work and driving through the city with on a sunny day. The first single "Keep On Keepin' On" should finish as one of any listeners favorite songs of 2016. www.hellobleached.com

School of Seven Bells - SVIIB (Pop) By Michael Smith - 4/5 Dragons The latest release from this indiepop group is an exciting, colorful and fun adventure. A perfect record for a Friday night, with neon lights reflecting off the puddles on the sidewalk. Your friends and you have been out all night, now it is time to get a few slices of pizza, sober up and pretty much take in the happenings of the evening. You're laughing, telling stories as if they happened years ago, even though it was less than an hour ago. Nothing other than what's going on with your group matters right now, and this is the most fun you've had since the last time all of you went out together. Your thoughts are a montage women dancing in slow motion, jewelry theatrically swinging kind of on beat to the song playing. Danceable, jazzy, with a bit of mystery, SVIIB is everything you want your night on the town in Brooklyn to be. www.sviib.com

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Blackberry Smoke Brings the Southern Rock Article and Photos by L. Paul Mann Blackberry Smoke hailing from Atlanta, brought a rock drenched set of wailing guitar music to the Samala showroom at the Chumash Casino Resort, in the best tradition of classic southern rock. The show Thursday night, April 7th featured the bands original music, reminiscent of the best sounds in Southern Rock, much like The Black Croves, The Allman Brothers, and Lynyrd Skynyrd. The group ventured into jam band territory on several occasions and also played an inspiring acoustic set. There are no weak links in this five piece group of veteran rockers. The lineup consists of Charlie Starr (lead vocals, guitar), Richard Turner (bass, vocals), Brit Turner (drums), Paul Jackson (guitar, vocals), and Brandon Still (keyboards). The bands sound crew took full advantage of the awesome Samala sound system, providing excellent results. The band moved through all the different sounds that make up the broad spectrum of Southern rock. The group paid tribute to their country roots with a moving cover of the recently departed Hank Williams. But the band showed they could play hard Rock just as well. Keyboardist Still took the spotlight when the band played a Led Zeppelin cover woven into the middle of the bands own song, "Sleeping Dogs". The group even played some bluely tunes. A quick check of setlist.fm shows the band mixes up their set every time they play, making every concert they perform a unique one. The band played "Rock and Roll Again," off their, "Holding All the Roses album," and they followed it up with "Good One Comini On," one of the show's sing-a-longs. This ushered in the traditional opening of the front of the stage and fans swarmed the band, trying to catch some of the guitar picks being generously tossed by the guitarists. The acoustic set included "Lay It All on Me" and "Ain't Got the Blues" back to back. Blackberry Smoke's set also included "One Horse Town," "Holding All the Roses" and "Too High," among others. The group first played in Santa Barbara several years ago as a young opening band for the Zach Brown Band, and in fact, is signed to Brown's record label, The band is on a tear of late doing a bunch of their own headline dates, as well as opening for Govt. Mule on a cross country tour. www.blackberrysmoke.com www.facebook.com/BlackberrySmoke www.twitter.comfblackberrysmoke 14 VandalaMagazine.Com - May 2016

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Aaron Lewis Brings The Country to Chu mash Casino Resort Santa Ynez Article and Photos by L. Paul Mann Aaron Lewis, best known as the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of the post-grunge rock group Staind, brought his Country music solo project band, to a sold out crowd at the Samala showroom. The feisty and opinionated song writer began his set with a patriotic call to the audience to stand up and recite the pledge of allegiance towards the giant American flag that he used as a backdrop to his stage. Fortunately he kept his conservative political comments to a minimum and, instead, let his song lyrics do the talking. In fact, in one of his songs, the refrain says, "I let my songs do the talking". The 43 year old singer grew up a classic American mutt in rural Massachusetts, with a Jewish mom and Catholic father of varying nationalities. The brilliant songwriter has always taken a page from his life experiences when creating his music. His former hit songs with Staind dripped with a young adults' angst and anger, dealing with themes of depression and disillusionment. But his solo material, which also delves deeply into a working man's angst, is much more upbeat in expressing his pride in his working class roots. Lewis had the crowd in his pocket from the moment he walked onstage. A cheer went up in response to his recital of the pledge of allegiance from the crowd that was fully standing with hats off and hands across their hearts. Lewis' first song of the evening, "Country Boy," off his 2011 release "Town Line" was a crowd favorite of the night being welcomed with numerous shout outs throughout the song. Then Lewis and his band took the euphoric crowd on a winding country journey for the first part of the show, including his new classic song "Northern Redneck." It is obvious that Lewis new music in the Country vein is closest to his heart. But when he threw in some reworked songs by Staind, the crowd roared their approval. The transition from rock to country music genres is a giant leap to make but Lewis has certainly done it, keeping all his life experiences intact. There were plenty of Staind fans in the crowd hoping to hear their favorite songs and they got their wish later in the night. But it was the new material that made the biggest impression on the majority of the crowd. There is no doubt that Aaron Lewis is a master song writer, no matter what musical genre he picks to deliver his message. 18 VandalaMagazine.Com - May 2016

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Tesla Shakes The Walls at Sold Out Chumash Casino Resort Concert Article and Photos By L. Paul Mann Tesla came to the Samala showroom at the Chumash Casino Resort in Santa Ynez to rock a sold out crowd, Thursday night March 24th. The band is celebrating the 30th anniversary of the 1986 release of their mega hit album, "Mechanical Resonance". The group opened with a thunderous explosion of rock, perfectly representing the classic hair band sound of the 80's, that they were a significant part of. The sound had an undeniable similarity to that of veteran rockers Aerosmith. From original lead singer, Jeff Keith's raspy wailing vocals, to original guitarist extraordinaire, Frank Hannon's mercurial guitar antics, the Aerosmith comparison cannot be understated. But Tesla, a decade younger than their rock star compatriots in Aerosmith, still play with a more raw and ferocious style associated with younger rock acts. It is hard to believe Hannon has been singing with the classic raspy rock voice for over thirty years and still has the throat skills to wail like a teenager. Hannon's guitar playing was nothing short of phenomenal. The guitarist channeled everyone from Peter Frampton, with his helium voice box, to Jimi Hendrix playing with his teeth. Original drummer Troy Luccketta and bassist Brian Wheat, who have been playing together since 1981, laid down a thunderous symbiotic rhythm that literally shook the walls of the Samala showroom. The band was rounded out by their newest and only non original member, the masterful guitarist, Dave Rude. Benefiting from the always stellar in house massive sound system, perfect stage lighting, and awesome big screen live video production, the show was an explosive rock extravaganza that would have been impressive in a large arena venue. But with the Samala showroom still cut in half for the continued Casino expansion project, the larger than life show wowed the lucky 600 or so music fans at the sold out event. Tesla took to the stage to a roar from the crowd as the band launched right into "Rock Me To The Top". Then it was ear plug time when the explosive sound system seemed to turn up a notch as Tesla slid right into "Edison's Medicine." This had the audience on their feet with their fists pumping, and the crowd sang along on the chorus. "Gettin' Better" came next completing a trio of classic rock songs from the band. Hannon then announced that the band would be playing a song that they hadn't played in 28 years, "Cover Queen". A quick check on Set List online, indeed shows that the band has only played the song live 19 times, since it appeared on their first album. After several more classic rock tunes, the band then really showed their range by performing an acoustic set, inspired by their 1990 album "Five Man Acoustical Jam". They played an inspiring version of their cover hit song from that album "Signs," which was originally a hit for the one hit wonders, "Five Man Electrical Band," back in 1971. The acoustic jam also featured some innovative covers including a morph into "Truckin" by the Grateful Dead and the classic "Thank You" by Led Zeppelin. The group switched it up again for "Life is a River" which featured bassist Brian Wheat on keys and guitarist Dave Rude on bass guitar. Just as the band returned to their biggest rock hits, the traditional opening of the front of the stage brought a flood of ecstatic fans swarming the area. The band, energized by the animated fans, played with a renewed sense of vigor pitching endless guitar pics into the crowd and let the audience sing in the Microphone and strum their guitars. By the time the band closed their 100 minute set with an encore of "Modern Day Cowboy" the crowd had gone into a ballistic bliss state, some even holding up a few of the 14 million albums that the band has sold in reverence. Long live Tesla! Long live rock! 24 VandalaMagazine.Com - May 2016

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20 Years of Rip-Hop! Long live The Kottonmouth Kings! Article by Chad Thomas Carsten Photos by Michael Johnerson The Kings and Queens (fans of the Kottonmoth Kings) of Billings, Montana were practically drooling all over themselves awaiting in anticipation for the show (held at The Pub Station) to start. Some were in line four hours before the doors were even open to the public. You could feel the massive energy emanating from their bodies thanks to the excitement level; it was close to being an intense feeling, but felt extremely positive at the same time. People looking for a place to park were bumping the rip-hop tunes of the Kottonmouth Kings from their rides (with their subs coaxed out to the fullest) loud and proud, while the other fans already in line were chanting "KMK" and singing their favorite KMK tunes happily together, like one big music family. Indeed, It was a beautiful site to witness, especially since it occurred right before the show kicked off. First to perform live was long time fan favorite within the underground community "Chucky" of DGAF! Fans roared as soon as we stepped out onto the stage. Chusky did some superb freestyle raps and paved through his set rather quickly, but it was still a flawless set regardless of the length and the fact that only really matters in the long run is the fans were undoubtedly very happy to see him live. Independent female emcee (haling from Philadelphia) Whitney Peyton conquered the stage with her very own unique brand of hip-hop via the "Underdog Movement"! Whitney sure knows how to keep the crowd riled up and put on a hell of a show! She's no amateur and is absolutely mind blowing live all the way through her set! Whitney has no fear; the word fear does not exist in her vocabulary. Fearless sure does tho! You never knew what she would do next and that's what made Peyton's set so great! During her performance She jumped off stage to crowd-surfed a few times, jumped up on the bar for most of a song (the bar tender seemed a little upset, but it was all in fun. No need to be upset.), and later on towards the end of her flavorable set, rode through the middle of the crowd (smiling ear to ear) while on top of the shoulders of a male fan. After her set, Whitney immediately went to her merch table and was beyond thrilled to meet every single fan inside the venue. Now that's the attitude that defines the true meaning of authentic hip-hop! If Miss Peyton is ever near your town, don't 28 VandalaMagazine.Com - May 2016

miss the show! You'll probably end up regretting it later. After 20 years of performing the greatest blend of punk rock and hip-hop to ever exist, The Kottonmouth Kings show no signs of ever stopping. They may even keep trying to do shows when they reach past 60 years old with how much energy the rip-hop pioneers put into their live show presently. Their passion of playing music together is stronger than ever! Even without Johnny Richter being part of the group anymore, the shows are still one hell of a grand time! In Billings, Montana fans knew every single word to all their songs and sung so loud and proud that the next city over probably could hear them. No joke! Some fans were tearing up from all the positive vibes floating around, because people were so happy to be at the concert, especially the people grooving all out on the dance floor as if they were dancing to save there very own lives)! More than a few fans were kicked out of the venue for trying to spark up a joint/pipe full of marijuana inside the venue. It pissed people off, but nothing anyone could really do about it without getting kicked out too. Meanwhile, D-Loc- The Dirtball, and Daddy X were constantly moving around by jumping back and forth on stage and they were perfectly in sync with each other's rhyming schemes. It was incredible the way they worked to you could also tell by the smiles of every member on stage that they were so thrilled to be in the big sky area and give it their one hundred percent absolute best! Towards the end of the set, The Kottonmouth Kings invited all the ladies to jump on stage to dance, ending the night as a night to remember forever. www.kottonmouthkings.com and www.whitneypeyton.com

May 2016 - VandalaMagazine.Com 29

Slayer: Louder Than Hell and Still KiIlin' It Article by Ashton Clemmer and Photos by Dana Zuk Photography There was a rumbling coming from downtown Edmonton, Alberta on Tuesday, March 15th, 2016. It wasn't heavy construction, and it wasn't an earthquake caused from the fracking in Fox Creek. It was something much deeper inside of earth, closer to Beelzebub himself; Slayer's North American tour was in town, playing the Shaw Conference Centre. Accompanying the legendary metal group was special guests, Testament, and Carcass to make one Hell of a line up. On what would be a night of intense hardcore metal, insane mosh pits, and impressive showmanship, this was one show, you'll be sad you missed. A night that's kicked off with a legendary band like Carcass, is the perfect foreshadowing for the carnage that would ensue. With a thunderous set list, provoking the most inner rocker within everyone to be set free, the mosh pits took off and were punishing to say the least. Fuelling the energy in the crowd, Carcass displayed their masterful techniques that reflected their experience. While maintaining consistent head spins, and throwing in some fierce leg kicks, Bill Steer delivered entertaining antics while the showcase of his intricate guitar playing never faltered. The powerful growl of Jeff Walker pulled the audience into his grasp, as he encouraged them to sing along with him; the crowd happily accepted the invitation. After exiting the stage, concert-goers were still buzzing and were eagerly awaiting the acts to follow. With the amount of energy that Carcass emitted within their set, it was easy to see why this group was apart of the tour. When Testament took to the stage, there was an energy felt simply from their presence in the building that would only build and become more powerful throughout their set list. For myself, the powerhouse behind this effect, drummer Gene Hoglan, who for the group's entire performance, was the f*cking man. His ability to project a high amount of intensity, and build momentum is so forthcoming, you attention is constantly on him. Vocalist for Testament, Chuck Billy kept the momentum moving with great vocals and on stage charisma. With half a mic stand, accompanying his microphone, a very bad ass half of a mic stand (that lit up none-the-less), Chuck belted his heart out and made each tune memorable. His involvement with the audience encouraged heavier moshing, louder singing, and at one point during the tail end of their set inspired a booming "Wall of Death" that drew blood from some of the participants. The crowd was fully engulfed in Testament's performance and showed the long time metal group plenty of love by fist pumping, and head-banging to each song. During the fan favourite, "Practice What You Preach", people screamed along until they were red in the face, either from excitement or because their mosh-pit wounds were still bleeding. After a quick trip to the bathroom to jam some already wet paper towel in their open wounds, concert-goers flooded the floor as the the lights went out and images of crosses turning from right side up, to upside down were projected on the raised curtain covering the view of the stage. Slayer was coming, and I have never seen beer gardens empty so quickly at a show before. The security made the sign of the cross over their chests as waves of fans poured from the restricted drinking area to get to the front of the venue. The curtain dropped and in front of the crowd stood the almighty Slayer. Bursting right into their setlist, Repentless, the title track from the group's album released in 2015 began blaring and thus began - the pits. Hair, arms, legs began thrashing about, mostly hair as the head banging was in full swing. Catching my eye for the majority of Slayer's set was guitarist Gary Holt, and his impressive collection of ESP/LTD guitars, one of which was painted with his own blood. Dawning his "Kill the Kardashians" t-shirt, Holt was energetic, engaging, and put on one hell of a clinic showing his musical talents are not to be f*cked with. Kerry King was terrifying, as is tradition, with multiple thick chains hanging from his waist, the nightmarish shapes of his B.C. Rich Guitars that could double as a weapon Satan himself 30 VandalaMagazine.Com - May 2016

would use, King lived up to fans expectations and delivered a brutal performance in a good way) demonstrating his expertise in breakneck speed-metal music. Together King, and Holt provide tons of entertainment on stage that allows the crowd to feed of their energy, on top of the aggressive music Slayer is known to produce. For the first part of the set, Araya didn't address the crowd much, other than the occasional, "Thank you" after a song. Although that seemed to be all it took as those two words would send fans into a screaming frenzy. Nearing the end of their show, Araya addressed the crowd stating how thankful he was for everyone in attendance, the crowd reciprocated with screams and chants of "Slayer! Slayer!". Wrapping up their massive set list, Slayer showed why they are the best in the business as they performed over 20 songs demonstrating their endurance and determination while playing live. Fans couldn't have been happier with the outcome of the show, and as they walked through the halls of the Shaw Conference Centre, chants of "Slayer! Slayer!" echoed through the building and out onto the streets of Edmonton. Every expectation was lived up to and you received nothing but the best from Slayer. They kept it classic while performing newer material, and kept their formula the same after all these years; they showed up, riled up a bunch of metal heads, offended old people, then disappeared into the night... and yes, it was loud as Pck. www.slayer.net www.testamentlegions.com www.facebook.com/OfficialCarcass Photos on the next 4 pages by Dana Zuk Photography

May 2016 - VandalaMagazine.Com 31

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An Unforgettable Night of Relentless Hard Rock featuring Starset and Breaking Benjamin! Article by Chad Thomas Carsten and Photos by Michael )ohnerson Upon arriving at the Shine Auditorium rather early, the line was already wrapped around the venue almost the length of a mile with hundreds of crazed fans waiting in excitement to see the show! Tons of fans were sporting their favorite Breaking Benjamin tour t-shirts proudly and fans still in their vehicles frantically looking for a place to park were blasting their favorite Breaking Benjamin tunes as loud as possible. You could tell by all the big smiles that the fans were so beyond happy for the simple fact Breaking Benjamin were finally in Billings, Montana for the very first time. And their smiles were absolutely infectious, because upon looking at their smiles you were smiling a long with them. First to hit the stage were science fiction rock genius's "Starset"! Their stage show was like watching a live action Star Trek film via a theatrical play, but in hard rock format. Their live set would even make Ridley Scott proud! Most of the band came out donning space suites and wore them throughout their entire set. The only one not to wear the space gear was frontman Dustin Bates. He acted as the space captain and guided the band and the music into the depths of deep space. The giant screen that displayed behind the band, (while Starset poured out their entire rock souls on stage) was there to take the crowd on a journey through the stars, countless nameless planets, and galaxies so beautiful looking you would wish you were aboard a NASA space shuttle traveling the universe exploring new opportunities and escaping the average boring nine to five life for good. The crowd became the most hype during Starset's smash hit single "My Demons". They sang so loud, I'm sure some possibly damaged their vocal cords with how much power the audience gave singing every single word. Overall, Starset are phenomenal live and will continue to dominate cities worldwide with their original science fiction sound. A must see live band! After the show Starset wasn't afraid to meet the fans and were as much excited to them, just as the fans were. They happily took pictures with everyone who asked and the entire band signed autographs throughout the rest of the night.

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MICHA 36 VandalaMagazine.Com - May 2016

The last to play was Breaking Benjamin and boy did they put on one hell of a show, leaving attendees breathless by kicking of their set with "So Cold"! The first time Breaking Benjamin performed in Billings, Montana and it was exactly everything a

Lime @omen-age° Montana fan could've ever hoped for and then some! The stage effects were, perfectly timed, and added much flavor to the performance. The band was very attentive to the fans - everything was centered on pleasing the crowd and having a great time. They played a wide variety of songs from all of their albums, and the performance was mind-blowing. Found Member and Lead Vocalist, Ben Burnley, did an astonishing job of introducing the other musicians in his band, and he even let each member sing and lead the crowd with their favorite Breaking Benjamin songs throughout the performance. A fight broke out between two ladies in the middle of the song "Blow Me Away" and Ben was not having any of that "fight bullshit at a Breaking Benjamin show". He immediately stopped the song and told them to quit fighting, for it was "Ruining the fun for all the others". After that ordeal, the band jumped right back into "Blow Me Away", as if the interruption never occurred. Towards the end of the set Ben came out with a red light saber and paid homage to Kylo Ren of Star Wars. Which quickly followed into the band covering Darth Vader's "Imperial March". Which lead into a 90's medley covering the likes of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit", Tool's "Schism", Metallica's "For Whom The Bells Toll" and even Pantera's "Walk". It was pretty kick ass and flawlessly captured the bands greatest influences. Breaking Benjamin pretended to end their set with "I Will Not Bow" and told the audience they will see them again next time. The fans starting chanting "Breaking Benjamin" soon after the fake ending, which ended up with the band doing an encore. And that encore was Breaking Benjamin's greatest single of all time "Diary of Jane". The fans sure went wild, thus perfectly ending an unforgettable night of hard rock that will be remembered for the rest of the fans lives!

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TrOermiew. Mat Truly Lies Behi d lihose @logy Eqes Filter is back with their heaviest and darkest album to date Crazy Eyes! Vendala greatly appreciates the founder and frontman of Its a quick one, but fans of Filter will appreciate the details

Richard brought forth inside his answers to our questions! Industrial fans enjoy! What one word best defines Crazy Eyes as a whole? Richard: To be brutally honest, I wish I had two words. [Short Pause] Raw! It's very raw! It's very exposed and intense. Let's discuss the true meaning behind the album title Crazy Eyes and how it relates to your personal life? Richard: We've had a stretch of mass shootings in America. My wife and I noticed, starting with like the VP guy, he's f*cking crazed! He's looking at the camera and he's got a gun and he's crazed, ya know. And the guy who shot Gabrielle Giffords, he's got that look! Then another pops up and I'm like "My god, there is another one! We've got another crazy eyes over here!" My wife and I were like "Yea, Crazy Eyes, there you go, there's another one!" It became this incredibly sad trend and there is something hysterical in the world today, ya know. I love Taylor Swift; my daughter loves Taylor Swift and all those people are amazing. People like Justin Beiber, they're gorgeous and they love to sing about sugary sweet stuff, but the problem with that is who's going to keep it real? That's what music is about; it's about telling the other side of the story. And there is this general feeling of just insanity out there in the world from my perspective. I mean, it's always been there. It was a little bit more hidden back in the day. But it just feels crazy! It feels like it's becoming unhinged. We've had three riots in three major cities in the last couple years. The government is trying to kill itself. But no one wants that, except for the people on the far right. We've got crazy eyed gunman's showing up at kid's schools. It's crazy! It's f*cking insane! All of that stuff is just amazing to sing about for me, because you have to really look at stuff like that. Crazy Eyes takes Filter back towards its darker heavier industrial roots! What's the main factor behind the reason for going down the darker/heavier path? Richard: It was just kinda like it's been far to long in coming. You can't just throw distorted guitars and have a happy melody over it. You have to truly dig in and go minor. You have to go minor. You can't just be in a major key and think that like people are going to be fooled with really distorted guitars. It honestly came about in the right way. We were playing, just messing around with sounds and then this mass shooting happened and I just started thinking about it and was like "Man, I really want to understand this!" And I just started singing. But I've always been into, ya know, like the end of "Kid Blue", it was the funnest and easiest thing I've done in so long. And "Kid Blue" is probably one of my favorite jam moments in a band, in a very long time. The decision was like "Look. Beiber is going to have this shit locked away for five years" and honestly when I did "Take a Picture", it was like a punk rock prank at the time. Think about who was big? Saliva, Limp Bizkit, Korn; all those bands were really big back then. And to me I was like "What's the opposite of really heavy? And un-rap/un-nu-metal?" So I went and did "Take a Picture" because I was trying to musically give the audience what drugs felt like. Ya know, drugs and alcohol and why addiction was so evil, because it feels like that song sounds. It's just the most luscious/amazing feeling when you're high. For us addicts that's where the devil is. In Japan the more petite and cute something is the more evil it is. A lot of the comic book characters and stuff like that. You gotta kinda remember that. 46 VandalaMagazine.Com - May 2016

Inhermiew, Richard EtaVile, What's the true metaphor behind the line "I've Got my Reason and my reason is sound" inside the track "Mother E"? Richard: "Mother E" to me is about a mass shooter who is trying to convince himself internally and he's got this mantra and he's just sitting there saying "I've got my reasons." and then he unleashes and he stops to reload. Then hears the crying and the whimpering of his victims. That's when you hear the cello. And he's sitting there saying, "My heart lies beneath. I'm a suffering fool" He knows he's making a mistake! He gets it. But then he starts to whip himself up into a frenzy again. And then he's like "I've got my reasons and my reason is sound." Then he finishes with what he's doing. To me, I have to understand that kind of crazy. Like you, most of us live our lives and we are compelled to help people. It's a natural adaptation that we have through evolution. We are compelled to want to help people and that's why we're the most successful mammals on the planet. Because the by-product of being incredibly emotional and being very worried about your fellowman/kids/your wife or whoever, the by-product is all this intelligence. The ability to when we became self-aware and we understood each other, we started communicating to each other. That's the point to where we're at; a very high level of consciousness. So, none of us really know what it's like to be a crazy eyed killer. And to me, as an artist, I kinda want to find out what the thinking sounds like. I want to find out what that kind of insanity sounds like. That's what a lot of the record is. Can we dive into the details of what motivated you to write the song "Pride Flag"? Richard: I'm trying to understand why gay marriage is such a f*cking issue?! Well, it's because the far right are Christians and they believe in certain pars of The Bible. Not the part about being nice to your slaves, because that one was about 150 years ago. 150 years ago that's how they justified slavery. But now they've pulled that one back and now its, "Men can't sleep together, that's just icky." So now they're pushing this shit all through out the government and trying to do whatever they can to stop it. The reality is, it's an ancient text. It's something from the Bronze Age. As Bill Maher once famously said (and I think it's totally right) "They didn't know what the germ was, they didn't know what the atom was, they didn't know where the sun went at night and your letting this book tell the rest of us how to live." It's not cool, ya know. Our country is based on the division of Church and State. You tell that to Ted Cruz and he's like "Its not! It's about values". He's a f*cking douche! But Pride Flag is about "Can't we just be happy that we love each-other?" Like can't we just have that? Can't we just accept the fact that people just want to be together? Who cares If they want to be married, who gives a shit! Ted Cruz: "It's supposed to be between a man and woman!" No it's not, that doesn't f*cking matter! You don't know what God thinks! You don't know what any of this shit is. It's just obvious shit to me. Lady Gaga said something about it in "Born This Way" and I agree with it. To me it's like, let's get at the root of it. And it's this crazy old ancient text, let's get rid of it! How does the production/sound within the track "City of Blinding Riots" capture the current state of society as it is today? Richard: Well, the production; we grabbed a lot of fight scenes off of Youtube. We scoured around and found audible fighting. That's another thing, when I was in Iraq there was an alarm that goes off and there was what they call "Operation Roundup", which is someone who has broken onto the base. And so you have to go back to your part of the base and stay there until it's all clear. And so we kept hearing this alarm sound [*makes alarm noise*] and so we used that. That's how the production made it sound like society. But the attitude of the music is just like, "wreckless and abandoned". May 2016 - VandalaMagazine.Com 47

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Just completely for example, like going back to the lyrics "Celebrating for nothing, but it feels ok". Sometimes you gotta blow shit up! It's kinda like some of the reasons why people are voting for Trump, because they want to blow up the Republican Party. I kinda see that. But I don't want to blow up the government/I don't want to hurt everybody. And i think that is what rioting is like. Dr. Martin Luther King JR said, "Riots happen when people feel voiceless." I think there is a lot of sentiment in that. I think that what we've/I've heard for my whole life that people who are black get picked on and bullied by the police. There is something going on! And that's why 0) Simpson's case was so decisive. White people thought he was guilty and black people wanted him to be innocent. And you start thinking "Why?" Because it exposes the truth that there is racism within the police force and your thinking "Well he did kill her." So there is this question mark. But when you see that when the average person now has an HD camera in almost every single phone and something starts going on and there's a scuffle. And a guy who doesn't want to go to jail, because he's selling one single cigarette and he resists. Next thing you know he has a massive heart attack and he feels like he's being strangled and he dies. Then you see another person who is running away from a police officer and he gets shot in the back you, start to realize that there is truth to these brutality claims. When the justice department did a huge report on Ferguson, you start seeing that they're targeting that neighborhood of Ferguson and they're targeting it to make money to make funds. So there is a lot of injustice out there and that's why "City of Blinding Riots" makes sense to me. Whom do you want to be the next president of the United States and why it's important for the younger generation to go out and vote? Richard: I want a democrat to be in the White House. It's incredibly important for young people to vote, because old people are going to vote for sure. Many of the older folks are feeling like they're going to lose what they have and they vote for conservative principals. I think that if you want to have a voice you've got to vote! If you want to talk politics, you've got to vote. You have to put your money where your mouth is and show up to vote. It's just really important.

Filters latest album "Crazy Eyes" featuring "Take Me to Heaven" and "Nothing in My Hands" is out now and available at all the regular places such as iTunes. Also be sure to grab your tickets for Filters tour through the USA which is currently happening until the end of May. After that the band heads through Europe. Full details at any of the following links online: www.officialfilter.com www.facebook.com www.twitter.comiofficialfilter

48 VandalaMagazine.Com - May 2016

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New York City's Jeffrey Lewis is a man with feet in several worlds. Between his work writing and illustrating comic books and his music which travels through punk, acoustic folk, and noisy rock 'n' roll, he and his monolithic talent shine through the prisms of various modes of expression. On his new album, Manhattan, his decade-plus of story-telling and emotional honesty in songwriting coagulate into what may be his most solid release yet, earning accolades from Will Oldham as well as members of Pulp and Death Cab for Cutie. Though preparing for some East Coast dates and a European tour while working on the latest issue of his comic series, he still agreed to sit down and shed some light on his work. so, start with a fairly obvious question: Who are Los Bolts (and who's singing on "Avenue A")? Jeffrey: At the moment Los Bolts are Emily Mem Pahl on bass and Brent Cole (Moldy Peaches, Dufus) on drums, but we're going to add my brother Jack soon as a 4th member, so there'll be some additional instrumentation starting around April and Ma y The vocal on Avenue A were Caitlin Grey, she played bass on a lot of that album, and she toured with me as my bass player for all of 2014. But she jumped ship and lives in Connecticut now. Do you find yourself moving from punk-inspired energetic music towards a more contemplative approach or do you think that'll vary from album to album? Jeffrey: Usually people ask me the opposite, like "you're an acoustic folk musician, why have things been getting so loud lately?" To me I've essentially always been an indie-rock band with one foot in an acoustic realm and one foot in a noisier realm, I'm very into that dynamic, the way the earliest Sebadoh stuff was, or 90s To La Tengo stuff, or the Violent Femmes, or even bands like the Grateful Dead or the Velvet Underground, they certainly didn't stick to one kind of speed or volume or style. I'm coming at it from a different angle because I'm not a musician I'm a comic book artist, so my ambition was always like how can I be like one of these bands despite not being a musician? You're about to go to Europe. How do they respond to music that's largely rooted in Americana? Jeffrey: When I'm in a non-English speaking country I try to play less of the wordy songs and more of the stuff that's a bit more musical. It's hard to say what people's impressions of the material is, whether or not other people think of the music and the songs in a way that I would agree with or not, but I think people appreciate the New York element of it, and I think that's part of the vibe of it even when touring in America, there's that sort of exotic element to people anywhere outside of NYC. If there was a record store that put albums on shelves based on where it's from, I would hope that there would be a NYC shelf that would have the Fugs, Richard Hell, Jeffrey Lewis, etc. But that's just my own impression of other people's impressions, it's hard to say. I've definitely always done a lot of touring overseas, the first tour stuff I ever did was in Holland and England in early 2002, then in Germany and Ireland later in 2002, then another tour at the end of 2002 with France gigs involved, and it was usually like that quite a bit in the early years, multiple tours overseas each year. I 54 VandalaMagazine.Com - May 2016

didn't start doing more USA touring till 2004 or 2005, just booking myself solo to play in people's backyards on the west coast, traveling by greyhound, stuff like that, starting very small in the USA at a point when I'd already built up a pretty good touring circuit in other countries. Tell us a bit about the videos you bring on tour. Jeffrey: I have certain songs that lend themselves to being illustrated, so ever since about 2001 I've had this project to do big drawings to accompany all the lyrics of the songs that would make sense to perform this way. I've now got almost 40 of these big books, each book is the art that goes with a certain song, so when I play a show I usually take maybe 2 or 3 of these books with me so I can do them at different parts of the set. At a certain point the shows were getting too big for audiences to be able to see the art in the books, so I switched to using a projector on stage. Now whenever I play a show I've got the projector with me, as well as a couple of the books, and when I arrive at the venue I try to figure out which method would be better, to show a couple of the visual songs. The projector has the advantage of giving me access to dozens of different ones, but the books are more intimate and charming in a hand-made way, with the books it doesn't matter if an amp gets unplugged or a projector bulb breaks or any technical difficulties like that, the books are completely low-tech, so they are also a good back-up plan if something goes wrong. What're you working on in visual art these days? Jeffrey: I've been working really hard on finishing my new comic book issue, which is Fuff # 11, I've basically worked on it every single day for a couple of months, it's almost done but I'm desperate to get it finished and send to the printer so I can debut it at the MoCCA indict comic book festival here in NYC in early April. Do your twin pursuits of music and comics overlap often or are they separate worlds for you? Jeffrey: It's difficult to do both because they are so time consuming, especially comic books, I've been spending so much time on this new comic I've written zero new songs lately and have had barely any gigs or rehearsals with my band. What do you think the medium of comics can do that songwriting can't, and vice versa? Jeffrey: One major attraction for me about comics is that I can listen to music while I work. I love just sitting at my table all day working on a comic book page while listening to records, one record after another, for hours and hours. May 2016 - VandalaMagazine.Com 55

In a time when art and entertainment is so many loud noises and bright colors, do you find it tough to gain traction putting out some of your more subtle, thoughtful music? Jeffrey: There are definitely certain songs that are scary to perform because I don't know if feel stuck in some long performance while the audience's attention drifts away. But on the other hand, it seems like whenever people in the audience shout out for songs it's almost always the long quiet ones that get requested, which seems weird to me. This last one's largely out of personal curiosity: Any plans to illustrate The Pigeon? Jeffrey: No, I don't have any plans to illustrate the Pigeon... I thought about doing this, but there's not much to draw, really. If you really think about it, what would you draw for 90% of the song? It's just a guy and a pigeon, only two characters, in one location, with very little action other than talking. It would be a series of very similar drawings, one after the other, if I was to illustrate these lyrics. The songs that get illustrated are only songs that have different visual things happening in every single lyric, something that could be fun or enlightening to draw, it's a small segment of songs that really lend themselves to this sort of form. And actually nowadays I usually write those songs specifically to be drawn. When i started doing the illustrated songs it was more like "which of my songs would be good to draw?" but in recent years it's almost all been song that were written already knowing that it was something I'd be drawing, so the writing could make the most sense for that sort of thing. To find out more abour Jeffrey Lewis, his band and his comics visit: www.facebook.com/JeffreyLewisBand www.thejeffreylewissite.com www.jeffreylewis.bandcamp.com

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Comer Imteriviiew Lita Ford is the true definition of what 1980's hair metal was all about! Her new album Time Capsule further proves she's still able to kick ass and create timeless music that will forever melt the hearts of Rock 'n' Roll fans worldwide! What one food dish best describes the 1980's era of Rock in' Roll? Lita: A food dish? Oh wow that's a cool question! I like that! I would say a Jack Daniels Omelet, [Laughs] Why would you pick that? Lita: Well, Jack Daniels was a big part of the 80's and I remember one morning waking up and making my friend (that I stayed the night with) breakfast and he said to me "You know I'm a little hung over," and I thought "Well he needs the hair of a dog," and I poured some Jack Daniels in his omelets. [Laughs] Your current favorite model of guitar that you like to play on stage? Li" - My current favorite model? Well you know I'm a BC Rich fan, but my favorite BC Rich's were from the early 80's. They just don't make them like they use to, unfortunately. So BC Rich's is you know they make warlocks, they make mocking bird, they make personal double necks pretty freaking awesome! I would have to say my white double neck, I call it the twins, but they're not identical necks, one neck is the twelve string and the other neck is a six string. It has a built in pre-amp and the twelve string neck has a built in flanger fader type of thing and then when you click over the six string it has a power boost jerk, so it really makes a huge difference between the two necks and plus it's a prototype there's not another one like it in the world! It's made smaller than the usual BC Rich, (Rich Bitch Double Necks) it's the box shape, its smaller because it was too big for me when I originally► got it, it was like wearing a dress, I didn't have to wear any clothes because you couldn't see my► body► anyway. It was crazy! It would go from the top of my boobs and cover everything and I said to them "You know I don't even need to wear any clothes with this." And they said "Let us make you one that fits your body better," so they made me a prototype on the back of the head stock it says "prototype" it has the date (which is 1982) and on the other neck it says "We love you Lita!" it's so awesome, it's my favorite guitar! The tracks that became to be the heart and soul of your latest album "Time Capsule" were discovered inside of a closet of your home on analog tapes. It sounds like they may have been previously forgotten. What's the true story behind finding them? Lita: They were never really forgotten, I always knew those tapes were there and they kind of haunted me in a way because I wanted people to hear them, but I thought they needed to be released at the appropriate time and I think now was a good time to release them. A lot of people miss the 80's, a lot of people never got to live through the 80's because they were too young, you know and they're hearing it through their parents and I think "Time Capsule" was something that was put together because first of all the songs are amazing and second of all so many great musicians on these songs just to crown into this little piece of rock n roll history, which is why I call it "Time Capsule", it literally is. Are you able to describe the thoughts and feelings that rushed through your mind when you finally discovered the songs were playable? Lita; Well, I knew they would be. I just feared traveling would bake them and made sure the tapes wouldn't flake and made sure everything held together. That was my main May 2016 - VandalaMagazine.Com 61

Imteriviiew. @neat Seok,0 etas Take a lime Rapsu e 13aok to Mile Dis! concern and because they had been to the Caribbean and the closet being in the Caribbean, the salty sea air kind of eats everything up. Sometimes when you leave things long enough, it will. So I was worried about that more than anything else. So we baked these tapes and transferred them to digital and there we remixed them. We didn't touch any note, we didn't brush up any vocals, all the noise click mistakes/anything that you're going to hear, is as it was when it was recorded. This was pretty cool and it's got a great vibe to it! Can you give us in an approximate time frame of the year the songs were very first created? Lita: Yeah! It was created around the late 80's. Some of it was a little earlier. It wasn't all done at the same time. It holds its place in time. It still kicks ass! It still applies to today. It's just a brilliant piece of Rock 'n' Roll history! Did you have other album titles in mind before finally choosing Time Capsule? Lita: Like somebody said to me "Girl, it's like a time capsule!" I went "Yeah, that's it! There you go! There's the title." I wasn't so concerned with the title that much, because the contents of the album is what's more important to me. It was more about the content of the album. And unlike "Living Like a Runaway" it was all about the entire package. The album, the title, the title track of the song, And now here we are doing a book "Living Like a Run Away" and hopefully one day I would like to do a major motion film. You worked closely with a lot of rock legends (David Navarro, Cheap Trick, and even Gene Simmons) for Time Capsule. How did you go about recruiting who you wanted to be on the album and why? Lita: Well, The Runaways grew up with Cheap Trick. They're like our brothers! They were friends of mine and would hang out. We were writing songs just doing silly things in the studio. You know, goofing around and I said to them, "You guys want to sing on this one song that were doing? It's called "Killing Time!" And they were so excited! They went in there and just tore it up on the backing vocals! It wasn't something at the time that we thought would ever see the light of day, just at that moment while we were recording it. And also I had grabbed the engineer who did the singles "Close My Eyes Forever" and "Kiss Me Deadly". He did that album. So that engineer was amazing and I had to use him on those tracks that I did with Rick, Robin and Jeff Scott Soto. Those were all done by George Tutko (the engineer). So he produced me and I produced the band and the musicians. So I knew he had my back when I went in with him. It was really great! I knew I was in good hands, but George has the best sound and it's still very worthy today! Are there any more behind the scenes details you like to share when recording Time Capsule? 62 VandalaMagazine.Com - May 2016

Lita Ford Lila: Not really. It was just a period of time where I had free. I wasn't doing anything. A lot of the people that were on the record were just at that place at that time. We would grab David Navarro and threw him in the room and said, "Here play it". "What you want me to do?" replied Dave. "Play Madeline!" It was pretty cool. David is so talented! There really isn't anything he can't play. David's also funny. Billy Sheehan was changing lyrics on the songs and that was pretty funny you know, cause we would just make jokes out of them. Of course Gene Simmons is Gene Simmons, kinds an asshole Laughs It was interesting trying to write with Gene, as he was just so serious about what he was doing, but very cool! Can we discuss the back-story behind the intro of the album? What exactly is going on inside this skit? Lita: It's Chris Holmes looking for the keys to his ford. Its funny! Some people have asked if he's mad at me. No, it's supposed to be funny. He opens the garage door and he finds me in the garage with his ford truck revving the engine and I take off. You hear the diesel engine taking off and then I pick it up with my guitar live and make the truck engine sounds with my guitar, which starts the show! It was cool! The first real track to kick off the album is sort of a power ballad, instead of a harder edged song. Can we dive into the details behind the track "Where I Will Find My Heart Tonight" with Jeff Scott Soto? Lita: "Where Will I Find My Heart Tonight", is a power ballad?! I never heard it called that before. I mean it's definitely not a rocker, but it still has a lot of energy and power with the way Jeff sings and the huge chorus you know, it's got that arena rock chorus! It's a good song and the huge chorus was fun to make! Is there a deeper meaning behind the line "She's too much too old, to be so young" inside the track "War of Angels"? Lita: *Sings the bridge of the song* It's about her bringing a gun to school. She seems too old to do something so silly, like bringing a gun to school to protect herself. It's good against evil; a fight against gangs and being surrounded by violence in the 1980's with all the different gangs and the good people being surrounded by the bad people. Was the track "Killing find" created for the fans as a way to help their hearts heal, after a bad break up? Lita: Yeah, the title is pretty self-explanatory. It's a love story gone bad. I mean, how many people have had rotten relationships? It's like in school, you grow up with someone and then you have a boyfriend and you know, all of a sudden the next thing you know, they've got another girlfriend. I think a lot of people will be able to relate to that. It's a pretty powerful song! Lita: Thank You! Rick and Robin of Cheap Trick) rocked it! Does the King of the Wild Winds represent bikers? And whom exactly is the king searching for? Lita: Yes. Really good call! He is in search of his queen tonight. It's just a song for bikers and a kick ass song too! The Runaways did some shows in Belfast, Ireland, overseas through Europe. There were some issues with security and I remember the Hells Angels stood on stage with us to protect us. They were cool! They were like "Don't mess with these girls or you're going to have to get through us first!" Bikers are a breed of their own, you know. We play Sturgis once a year and it's like seven hundred and fifty May 2016 - VandalaMagazine.Com 63

Irtierivoiew, @neat Seatb etas Take lime gapsu e Balk to tliie AK! thousand bikers! Who does Mr. Corruption represent as a whole? Lita: Well, Mr. Corruption was written a while back when we had issues with record company executives. Basically it says "Another weasel in a three piece suite/ a closet full of skeleton just roaming up for you watch his eyes/ his smiley face/ he wants you for his trophy case/ bend over if you please/ Mr. Corruption" It's just a song about like, it could be the attorney that's doing you wrong or it could a be a record company executive doing you wrong. That's corruption! You worked closely with Gene Simmons on "Rotten to the Core". Is the song a tribute to the glory days of early Rock 'n' Roll, when parents thought musicians were the villains of society? Lita: You could say that. Gene had already started on "Rotten to the Core", that was something that he already had going on his plate. He thought he'd show it to me and see if I liked it and what I liked about it was the bass line! It shows Gene tool You can really hear that it's Gene playing. And it's Bruce and I playing rhythm guitar. It adds a lot of attitude to it! It sounds like it's straight out of Alice Cooper's back catalogue in terms of the lyrical content. Lita: Right! Alice is like one of my favorites! Can we break down the track "Anything for the Thrill" and what exactly inspired it? Lita: "Anything for the Thrill" is really about somebody who kind of has a death wish and doesn't care. So they do dare devilish things like, they might jump off a bridge on a bungee cord; just dare devil kind of stuff. Anything for the thrill, six foot deep with time to kill. It's just a dare devil type of song, like whatever gets you off /whatever excites you. Even though it could kill you. "What makes me happy, so I'm going to do it," type of thing. It's what you love. I mean look at Christopher Reeve's; his thing was that he liked jumping horses. And it killed him in the long run. Some things in some sports are really dangerous. Racecar driving is another example. How satisfied are you with the final outcome of Time Capsule? Lita: Oh god, I think it's amazing! It's a really great piece of work! The vinyl is going to be cobalt blue. It's going to be amazing! We did the artwork (Me, Gene and Kirk) with an 80's photographer. We did everything! You know we really kept it true to the 80's. We put in the photographs featured on the album cover. They were taken from those recording sessions for the album. The magazine covers that we threw on the table was all from the 8OTs. It's all a really nice package, even that awesome placement of the hair spray. Your legacy is legendary! What would you say is your greatest accomplishment thus far in your career?

- Ita: In my book know I talk about receiving Guitar Player's Magazine Legends Award, because there are not a lot of people who have gotten that award and I thank Guitar Player Magazine. And I thank Cherie Curie who presented me with the award. To me that was a milestone in my life! It's a huge jump to be recognized and to be in the same category as people like Joe Perry and Les Paul. Any advice you like to share to young ladies who look up to you, who continue to chase their dreams of wanting to become a successful musician? Lita: Follow your heart and if you have a vision of what you should be and who you 64 VandalaMagazine.Com - May 2016

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Just over a month ago, Enter Shikari headlined a show in London, at Alexandra Palace that had attendance of 10,000 people. What was the experience like to play for an audience of that calibre for the show you were headlining? Rou: It was very surreal. Most of the show was a blur to be honest, as they normally are; shows that are that big where you're just so full of adrenaline. You're rushing around doing press, and last bits of editing the production, the show, or the lighting as we literally do everything ourselves, show days are always full on. It was the biggest headliner of our lives so it was an incredible and very vibrant day. What was the most special moment to you about that show? 1ou: Walking out on stage and seeing the massive energy and passion, and the enthusiasm in people's faces that were there. Knowing that there was people there that have followed us from day one, ten years ago, and knowing that there were people there who were seeing us for the first time and how excited they all were about it. There was such a vibe in that room and it's such a wicked venue as well, I love Alexandra Palace because it's one big ass room. There's no balconies, no levels, everyone there is in one big, pit, if you'd like (laughs) and it's always such an incredible atmosphere. What element does it give to a show, when you have everyone in one area like that? Row Just that sense of community and the sense of one mass, one entity really, I think that when you start playing arena sized venues, a lot of the venues that offer that size are often quite sterile or corporate and full of advertisements, and their fine. However think with venues like Alexandra Palace it feels more like going to an old school rave venue where it's a bit dark, and a bit drab but all that just adds to the vibe of it all and it's certainly not sterile, or full of corporate logos and things. It really feels like a music venue where the music takes the focus. In the future, as the band grows and plays larger concerts, will it still be important to play the smaller, intimate venues? Rou: Yes. I find that we usually are yearning for what we're not doing (laughs). I guess it's kind of like classic thing of wanting what you can't have I suppose. If we've done a run of really big shows or festivals, playing to so many people, we sort of ache to be back in a dirty, sweaty little venue playing for a few hundred people again. Then after a month of doing just that, we'll start getting ideas about big productions and wanting to be on big stages again. There's these two sides to us really, where we want to keep the best of both worlds. What are you able to do differently in the bigger venues than if you were playing the smaller stages? Rou: Oh man, so much. That's the main thing that excited us and for the first time, I think now we've got some really stringent ambition after doing this tour. Perhaps because we didn't realize that the amount of extra creativity and the amount of atmosphere that you can build in a big open space allows you to be so much more creative. We did quadraphonic sound which is basically 4.1 surround sound and no one really does that; the last people to do that was Pink Floyd and it's quite an undertaking. It took months and months of programming and reprogramming the set and all the electronics to be four outputs instead of the normal stereo 2. We also had a huge screen behind us and instead of just paying someone to do some visuals, we really wanted the visuals to reflect the music and come from the same headspace that the music comes from and I guess out of a bit of naivety, I took all of that on myself. It was adding another dimension to the whole Shikari Live experience and it felt quite different from May 2016 - VandalaMagazine.Com 69

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any other screens because we didn't get it professionally done. It was kind of "punk" in how it was made, where things were kind of pillaged from everywhere and slapped together. It was a really interesting build up experience on this tour but it's made us really excited for the future and what we're going to do next. You've just wrapped up the European tour, and now coming over to the U.S and Canada, do you find the atmosphere of the shows are different in any way? Rou: No, not really different. The amount of passion and intensity is still the same, but I guess through reputation or word of mouth, that people that come to our shows are always full of energy and out to have a good time. There's a real sense of community wherever we go in the world and we're really lucky to have that. Obviously things are a lot smaller for us out there [North America] but it's still definitely just as fun. I noticed the last European date for the tour, was Brussels, Belgium. What was it like playing in the city only a week after the attacks? Row It was a strange atmosphere in the city, and we actually got a police convoy to take us in. The police insisted we had a convoy to take us into the city centre because most of it was still closed and it was pedestrianized basically. Our venue was maybe 50 or 100 meters from where the attack happened and it was crazy just stepping out of the bus in the morning and taking a short walk and seeing the huge amounts of flowers and it was really emotional. The city itself was up and running again, people were working and it felt like there was a real sense of everyone trying to be fortified and just carry on. It's a very hard atmosphere to describe to be honest because you could still feel the sense of sadness and shock, but people were trying to have that stiff upper lip, and not let it interrupt their lives too much. The show itself was really great and I think people really appreciated having that outlet. We really like to make sure our shows are really communal, because our music has always been about one thing really; unity. I think people appreciated that we didn't cancel, because a lot of people expected us to do so, but without wanting to be disrespectful for a city that needs time to mourn, I think most people thought it was important that the city carry on as normal, where art and culture doesn't feel threatened. It's a resilience I suppose, and after things like that happen it brings people together and you forget smaller issues or qualms that are going on in you're life. It puts everything into perspective. Being that the show was an outlet for a lot of people, how does it feel knowing that you can provide that outlet and comfort for people? Row It's amazing. It's often quite bewildering, the amount of emotion you can inject into people's lives, the amount of anything that you convey in your music and the great thing about music is that we're completely vulnerable to it. Music can change our emotions and it can adapt how we feel and see outlooks; it's extremely powerful. It's a great honour to be able to use it to inspire people or allow people to have that emotional outlet. There were certainly a lot of tears on the night actually, and you could really tell it was a very special outpouring and quite cathartic for a lot of people. Coming into America right now, with the campaigning, and the elections coming up fairly soon. Do you think that the U.S. fans will relate to some of the political content in your songs this time around, than your previous visits? Row To be honest, I tend to keep away from party politics, I'm more interested in wider concepts and philosophy and things like that. Times like these where people feel like they have a say, every four or five years, depending on what country you're in, you finally get that chance to do your tiny bit of democracy. It's an inspiring time because 70 VandalaMagazine.Com - May 2016

Interview. Rou Reynolds people start to speak out and speak up about what they believe in. It makes tours more interesting, especially when we're playing these smaller venues and we can hang out on the march stand and speak to people face to face and get a feel for how people are reacting in the local areas. This tour only stems north of the U.S. border for a few dates. Are there plants to return to Canada and play more cities? Row Nothing at the moment. We'd certainly like to, but it's just a struggle to fit a massive land mass into one month, or six weeks like this tour is (laughs). There's quite a few festivals on this run, which we've never done before and they help make less of a dent economically, because they pay a bit more so we had to root around them because they were booked first. So unfortunately there's only three or four dates in Canada and we'd certainly love to come back because every time we play a show in Canada it always feels really worthy, and there's a lot of passion there. Accompanying you for each show along the North American tour, is Hands Like Houses and The White Noise. What was a deciding factor for having these groups on the tour? Rou: We've toured with Hands Like Houses a few times before and they're all sterling chaps. To be honest, I don't know much about The White Noise, but from what I've checked out of their music, and everything I'm really looking forward to catching both of them live. The White Noise definitely gives off more of a punk vibe in their music, do you think that having diversity in the bands is important on a tour? Rou: Yeah, always. It's difficult, especially in America because the sort of scene we often find ourselves in, I don't really know what to call it, but that metal-core, or alternative scene is often completely saturated with drivel, and bands that sound exactly the same as every other band in that scene and it's hugely uninspiring. It's important to us to find bands that we find interesting just to keep our mental health running high (laughs), when we're cramped in a little van touring for six weeks. I'd like to talk about your single "Redshift", that was released a few months ago now, there is a lyric in the song that says, ".. It appears that Heaven's been abandoned..." Can you elaborate on the line and what inspired the lyric? Rou: I guess that line can be opened to all sorts of interpretations. The song itself is heavily inspired by 20th century cosmology. There's been some incredible progresses in the last 100 or 150 years in astrophysics and cosmology and I find that a lot of our music is inspired by science, because you're at the cusp, the very —Tiem■•■• — .dr7 edge of human knowledge for whatever science you're studying. It's hugely inspiriting because it means you're writing music about stuff that 51-11KARI hasn't been written before. Instead of just PEDSHIFT writing recycled love songs or about emotions that you know at least ten songs that are going to be better than yours, about this emotion or scenario (laughs). Redshift is all about how our universe is expanding and how it's accelerating in its expansion to the point •

May 2016 - VandalaMagazine.Com 71

InIterimiew? Enter Si[nikari where a couple trillion years from now, if some civilization on some planet, somewhere is looking out from their planet out to the universe, they'll basically deduce a completely false version of the universe. Everything will have sped away so fast from everything else as the universe expands and accelerates, that they'll look out and they won't see any other galaxies because they'll be speeding away at the speed of light. Since you can't see anything at the speed of light, life forms in the future will deduce that they're completely alone in the universe. That's what I meant by, "Heaven's been abandoned" because they'll literally look up and there won't be any galaxies in the sky to look at or observe and I just thought that was incredibly sad. Really the song is about how lucky we are to live at this point in the universe's age. In the music video for "Redshift," you see the world born and then destroyed. Is this a representation at all of how the planet is deteriorating as it goes through this cycle? Rou: To be honest, the video was just a lot of fun. We had a director who we've been working with awhile who is a complete wizz-kid at visual effects and we wanted to have the Earth implode upon itself whilst were playing. The actually meaning of the song that I just described is obviously very hard to visualize in depth, so we went for something a bit more fun and a bit more sci-fi for the video. While you're writing songs, to what degree are you focused on trying to get your message to relate to your listeners? Rou: I think unless you're just stating things very clearly, very unambiguously, or very un-artistically, people are always going to have their own interpretations of your lyrics and of the music. I've got no problem with that and I think that it's important to open their arms, take in the music and make it their own. For me, what the lyrics, what our messages are in our music, for me that like a second layer of things. If people are willing and able to find the time to work out what we're talking about and become interested in those topics, that's the second win. If we've got them listening to the music and enjoying that, it's amazing and if people are intrigued and interested by the lyrics and our various stances for things in the world then that's wicked. It's the icing on the cake. Do you feel a special bond with the fans who understand your music, and do you get a sense that they feel connected to Enter Shikari? Rou: Yeah, absolutely. When I see people literally bellowing back the lyrics with the same amount of passion that I put into writing them, there's nothing that beats that. It's great to see people having fun, but when you know people really mean the words they're singing. There's nothing in the world that beats that feeling. Is having a great connection with your fans, something that's important to you? Row I almost hesitate to use the word, "fans." I try to think about the people that like our music as people who are very similar to me. I make music that I love, I'm the biggest fan of my music and if I wasn't, what would I be doing? People want honest music that I enjoy, so if people love this music that I'm making the same way that I do, there is an immediate connection there. I already know so much about the person who is listening and enjoying it, because we have a similar music taste, possibly outlook. Our music is so diverse that it takes a lot more effort for people to get into our music because it's not the most immediate, middle of the road, easy listening music. It makes me appreciate that person as well because I know that they've had to sort of work at it; a bit of effort has to come from the audience which is really important to us. It makes me have a complete respect and want to build a friendship with everyone who likes our music because I immediately feel connected to them. 72 VandalaMagazine.Com - May 2016

Imberiviiew, Rau Reydnolds Other than through music, what do you do that you feel helps build a strong bond between the band and its listeners? Rou: Something we've always tried to do, is completely not have a pedestal. Not make us seem untouchable, pop-star/rock-star entity. That's not what we've ever been about so it's very important to be very approachable and be the people that we are, just normal people like everyone else. Whether that's in person at shows at the merch tables or the bar or if it's online. I'm on Twitter pretty much 24/7 speaking to people, to people, conversing, getting into arguments you know, just like every other f*cker (laughs). Mentioning Twitter, there was a recent post stating, "We never stop producing." After the touring, can we expect new music later in the year? Rou: Yeah. We've just started demoing and live been writing for a few months, just getting the first ideas really. I think for the first time, I have a vision, where a lot of what we've done up until now has been very much off the cuff; sitting down, writing music, seeing what comes out and going with it which has totally worked for us I think, I hope. It feels like we're about to begin Enter Shikari Mach 2. Its going to be an exciting next few years for us but it's a long ways off as we've got a lot of touring and festivals so we won't be in the studio until the very end of this year. www.entershikari.com www.facebook.comientershikari www.twitter.comientershikari www.youtube.comiuseriAmbushReality

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Interview By Chad Thomas Carsten

Norway's Mortiis is back with his most anticipated release ever and that release is The Great Deceiver; A crushing industrial music effort that is bound to take listeners into the hellish musical mind of Mortiis for the better. How exactly did growing up in Norway influence who you are as a musician today? Mortiis: Not in a single f**king way! [Laughs] Growing up in Norway was basically not seeing shows, not being able to get a hold of records. Not really being part of a scene. Norway in the 80's was probably what it's like growing up in Kazakhstan today in terms of music. Foreign hard rock, heavy metal, or any sort of alternative musical culture, it was like a big ass-f**king wall, you know. Unless it was like Motley Crue, Iron Maiden or some huge 80's band, nobody did shows here. I remember like 87 or something, I was like 12 and Slayer actually played here in Oslo in a smaller venue. It was a revolution! And I obviously wasn't allowed to go, because I was 12. Imagine that in 87 Slayer were kind of a big band. That was an underground crazy ass thing happening and it blew people's minds. Slayer, you know! You're used to seeing (twice a year) Motley Crue, Iron Maiden, or maybe Kiss, the guys who sold millions that's what you got. There was nothing under the surface. None of that stuff really made it over. It was frustrating, because later on you realize you really didn't have to travel far to go to Sweden, where they had a shit load of shows happening and Denmark, who had all the really cool underground German bands from the 80's like, Kreator, Sodom, Destruction; they were doing shows in Copenhagen. But Norway was weird, because it was shut off. It's always been kind of conservative and religious. It's opened up a lot and ironically who turns into the export for a lot of this music 25 years later? It's f**king Norway! It's ironic. You've been recording music for over 25 years, how do you keep your creative process thriving? Mortiis: Ranting on like a madman like I just did *Laughs* I don't even know. Am I still creative? I'm not sure if I'm the right guy to decide if I'm creative or not. I don't have a formula or anything like that. Whatever I do, I just try to stay modest about it and be whoever I am at the time. The only personal aim I have for long term speaking I suppose is, if I can be able to stand for something 25 years later, then I know I've done a good job. Some people write a record in three months and it's done. I'm more like an on and off sort of guy. My records spend a long time in the pot stewing away. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing, but it certainly means that they're not snap shots of a point in time. This is Mortiis right now captured in the moment. We're not like a punk rock band where ifs like more of a collaboration between bands. It's kind of just me sitting here with a bunch of electronics bashing things out on and off, month in, month out. Then going back to reprogramming/redoing shit and adding more stuff to it. And taking stuff away; it's a studio thing I guess. It's not really Rock n roll; I realize that. How do you use your own music as a positive weapon? Mortiis: Hey, here's a knife! I'm going to stab you in a positive way. [Laughs] For me, I don't know if positive weapon fits the response, but I have all these frustrating feelings and emotions like most people do. I think mine might run a little deeper than most people. I tend to go a little f**king nuts on some things. I like the fact that I can sort of take my hang ups and issues and put that into music. And actually make something constructive out of it. To me, that's kind of like a privilege to take something that is negative and actually twist and turn into something that is 78 VandalaMagazine.Com - May 2016

limberiview? Who is The Eneat IDe@eimeriP constructive and hopefully somewhat creative and productive. So, in that sense I suppose you could call that a positive weapon. I kind of take all the bullshit the world feeds at me and turn it into my own thing and throw it back at the world. It's a well-known fact that The Great Deceiver was started in 2008. What brought forth the decision to finally release the album for 2016?

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Mortiis: In 2008, we had a few songs ready. Looking back it was kind of in a fetal stage. That stuff was really worked on and re-worked. More stuff was created between 2008 through 2011. I would say 2012 was when the album was actually finally kind of ready. We had already mastered the thing like three times. Everything was done three times it feels. Everything from recording any sound you can imagine on the record was already sort of being done and over analyzed sometimes. I think we just spent to long, possibly. It always got better. Obviously I just contradicted myself, but you can never spend too long if it gets better I guess. You kind of get sick of it after awhile. You're kind of going "F**k man, we got to let this record go! We can't hold on to this kid anymore, it's like a teenager now. We got to let it out in the world." We were ready to do that probably around 2012. That's when we started. We put out the "Perfectly Defect" record a few years earlier. Which was kind of a record that was made sort of at the same time as "The Great Deceiver". We had a shitload of songs and whole bunch of them were set aside, because they were so strange. And we figured all these songs would be really cool to do, as its own album. I think at a really early stage we weren't quite sure with what we were doing with all these songs, you know? So, "Perfectly Defect" came out and that's the back-story where we decided, "F**k the record labels and the industry, we're going to put this out straight for free, for the fans!" as a cool kind of thing. But with "The Great Deceiver", around 2012 when were done with it and it was mastered for the third time we figured we were ready to try and go back into the music industry to see if there was any way we could cooperate with a label. Because at the end of the day our record label, they put in a lot of time and effort into creating their contact network, distribution, and all that stuff that only really a record label can sort of provide. So, we figured if we could actually figure out a way to cooperate with a label where we're all happy, everybody feels like they're making money, because at the end of the day it's called a music industry, not the music social welfare center. You got to be realistic about it. We had a bunch of conversations and negotiations and we waited around for some really slow record industry people. Always next week, next week, next week! I just watched for the first time, because I've always had this prejudice against Jared Leto, but I watched a documentary the other day and all the crap he went through with his band and it was like "I recognize some of that!" We're at this way lower level obviously and they're like at this million-dollar level, but it's exactly the same! Just an eternal back and forth banter with record labels that won't May 2016 - VandalaMagazine.Com 79

give you anything. Even down to the shitty maggot label that we're at all the way up to the million-dollar, crazy-ass five thousand dollars a day lawyer bullshit level. Same motherf**king thing! They would say "Tomorrow." then it would be next week, and then it would be back to tomorrow again. You just sit there week in and week out and you're kind of going "I'm literally getting older, man!", while I'm waiting for something to happen. And you're constantly being told to hang in there. That happened repeatedly with various labels. Until you realize it's been a certain amount of years. How long am I supposed to f* *king hang in there? It was like having a carrot waved in front of your nose. The labels would promise all these things, but they never followed through. So after (I don't even know how long), we just decided to say, "F**k everything!" And we started our own label "Omnipresence Productions" and secured distributions through MITI; a distribution of Megaforce Records. It just frustrates me now, because it was really just the mistake of us thinking we could work something out within the record industry. We should've known from the start it was impossible and a big waste of time. Lesson learned! It was a long dark night, but the light finally came! Can we break down the Zero Era and why you decided to go back to Zero instead of 4? Mortiis: Once you go to four, people are going to be anticipating for five. When is this going to end? I was looking into the future and thinking it was going to get a little bit tacky soon if I keep doing this. Where was it going to end, era twenty-eight? So I was thinking, "I'm just going to kill this f**ker off." And it was kind of cool back in the day, because it had more relevance, especially when I did era two. The whole idea when I made "The Smell of Rain" was to indicate a massive huge change in the musical direction between everything that happened before and the stuff that was going on with that record. That was me wanting to play fair with all the fans, because the musical difference back in the day was so profound and big that I just really wanted people to know that bought the album that there was some kind of indication that something had happened. When "The Grudge" came out a few years later, that was a much more harsher sounding record and that felt like it was also different, so I called it era three. Then all kinds of shit happened and I just kind of ignored the whole era thing. We changed the logo and everything to during this actually. But with this one I wanted to bring the old logo back, because I actually really liked the old logo. I started thinking "Do I bring the whole era thing back and do we keep ignoring it?" Or we could do a little bit of tongue and cheek thing and call it era zero, thus f**king with people's heads. That's all there is too it man. How does the Great Deceiver differ from past Mortiis releases? Mortiis: In Broad terms, I think we did a much, much better job production wise and by that I mean, pretty much everything. The performances are better, the songs are better written and I think we re-discovered a little bit of a melodic side of Mortiis, in which was kind of lost on one or two records to some degree. We spent a long time on certain records like "The Grudge" and maybe "Perfectly Defect". "Perfectly Defect" is kind of a little bit like "The Great Deceiver", but way more artsy and weird. But with certain things we spent on past recordings, I might have gotten too caught up in the ideas of experimenting with sounds and layers. Possibly forgetting a little bit about the certain melodic content and the musical content. But with "The Great Deceiver", I think we have a really good mixture. It still has a lot of strange noises and weird shit going on in the background that you may even need to wear headsets to hear all of it. It never got in the way of the actual songs. That's how I feel. Naturally it has dance 80 VandalaMagazine.Com - May 2016

Interiview. Who is The Great Deceive ?

layers and really kind of a heavy sounding record. That's the only way I can break it down. Who is The Great Deceiver? And what does the Great Deceiver represent as a whole? Mortiis: This is like philosophy class here [Laughs] to be honest, it's an expression. It's not very original. I know some have used that expression. I kind of stole it off this really old King Crimson record. They had a really cool song, possibly from their first record. It may have been a late sixties/early seventies album called ''The Great Deceiver". I've always liked the expression and of course when I realized it was slang for the devil, I of course liked it even morel Guys like me; we're drawn to that. Just by pure aesthetic reasons. I find this whole idea of the devil and the nation of hell (especially in biblical sense), very fascinating! It's strange and fascinating! And it's attractive to me. As this record went a long it's way and dealing with all the complications coming and going; and us taking forever to record it and all the frustrations in terms of actually being able to release it and not getting f**ked up along the way by record labels, symbolically that title started to really make sense to me. This record has gone through so many different personalities, it really changed a lot along the process of creation. These songs started out as one thing and ended up becoming something completely different. Which justifies with what I just talked to you about. The more that stuff piled on during the lifetime of this record, the more sense it made to me to use that title. I had other working titles in mind, one of them being "Road to Ruin". But then somebody pointed out to me "What if the record is a total failure and everybody hates it? They're going to use that title against you!" [Laughs] It could so easily happen; also that's a Ramones album title. Of course you can't use that. I really couldn't have done it either way. It's just a little too big and a little too cool for me to steal that title. So I left it as a song title. And that's how we ended up with "The Great Deceiver!" May 2016 - VandalaMagazine.Com 81

Recording wise, what was the most challenging moment you faced when preparing for the album and how did you overcome the situation? Mortiis: There really wasn't any preparing for the album, because the way that we make music is that just come up with pieces and once I feel like we're at this level where it's sketched out enough to have the feeling of being a song we start adding vocals, guitars, and build it up brick by brick and record it as we go. So it's not a matter of having all twelve songs ready and next week we're going to do vocals on all these songs. Vocals might be recorded over a course of a couple years. The first couple songs might be ready and I go in and do vocals. Then go back and work on more songs and then a couple weeks or months later go and record those songs. So, to be honest the most challenging was mixing. It was pretty much just me and levy (my guitar player) handling the mixing. We're not producers. We're not really engineers. But obviously since we don't have a million dollars, we can't bring all these big shots in that I would've liked to do. I would've loved to bring certain people in. It's not possible. So we just kind of stood there in the studio and I got these really good deals. Thankfully we weren't really pressed for time. Each song is so multi-layered that it's absolutely ridiculous. We are talking about a hundred plus tracks per song and we had to try and make all this stuff fit in and not sound like a big mess. I think we spent two or three days mixing each song, which is insanity in any standard. You ask any engineer in the world and they just piss themselves laughing if they heard someone say this. Taking three days to mix a song, who the does that? [Laughs] We did. That was definitely the biggest challenge! It took like a month to mix the record. What's the true meaning behind the track The Shining Lamp of God? Mortiis: Interesting fact for the video. There is a scene (I can't recall if It made it into the video, because I haven' watched my own videos.) Where I'm pulling my own teeth out. And the interesting thing about that is the week before we went over to shoot the videos (Shining Lamp of God and Doppelganger), I had to have my tooth pulled out, because it had gotten really bad, unfortunately. The dentist said, "We've got to pull it!" And I was like "Yea, okay", but once he pulled it I asked if I could keep it, because I wanted to bring it over for the video shoot and see if I could use it as a prop. Which we did and so I think it's only in the video for like a fraction of a second, but there is supposed to be a scene where you can see me pull something out of my mouth. But what I'm actually pulling there is that old rotten tooth that actually is pulled out and used to be in my mouth. So that makes me really laugh it's kind of chaotic in terms of lyrics; it's a bit skitso. At the core of that song it's me wishing that I could just read people's minds. It would make life a lot easier. It's like the concept of telepathy or something similar to that. It would help avoid so many problems. [Laughs] But probably equally could create even more new ones. What does the Road to Ruin look like? What type of vehicle would be your preferred choice to drive top speed through the road to ruin? Mortiis: It's a dark endless tunnel. Nothing! Just void. Black dark terrible void, because that's how I feel sometimes. Like in a terrible dream. That is the road to ruin. Your mind slowly dissolving into helpless chaos. The vehicle? I don't even think there is a vehicle. It's your own two legs drifting and unable to stop it. That is the worse place to be. How does "Feed the Greed" relate to the world as it is today? Mortiis: That one was written from my personal experience and perspective of human 82 VandalaMagazine.Com - May 2016

Imberiview. Who i5 The Eneat IDe@eiver? greed. My meanings for human greed have largely been in the field of the music industry, naturally. That's kind of where I've been operating. It's deeply inspired by certain people in the music business. I won't mention names, because they don't deserve the attention. The whole idea behind that song is quite simple. It's pretty much "F"k you, you greedy motherf"ker!". It's human greed and corruption and what people are capable of doing to squeeze out an additional drop of blood. Any advice to musicians just starting out? Mortiis: Don't sign the wrong deal. Be very careful if a label wants your publishing. That's a different aspect of the recording industry/different type of copyright, but it's very important especially if your music has potential to be in movies/radio. That's where publishing gets really relevant there is this thing called the three-sixty deal, which to me sounds like a total nightmare. I would never even touch one. It basically means the record label gets a cut out of your touring income; merchandise income, publishing income, etc. In simpler terms if you get played on the radio or your music gets used in video games or movies, they take a cut out of that. It's like this greedy spider with its legs stabbing at every piece of potential income that you have. That's the three-sixty deal, so be very careful with what you sign. www. m ort i is. corn P.

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