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Chronicles of Chaos Issue 039
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CHRONICLES OF CHAOS e-Zine, May 19, 1999, Issue #39
http://www.interlog.com/~ginof/coc.html
Editor-in-Chief: Gino Filicetti <mailto:ginof@interlog.com>
Coordinator: Adrian Bromley <mailto:energizr@interlog.com>
Contributor/Copy Editor: Pedro Azevedo <mailto:ei94048@fe.up.pt>
Contributor/Asst. Copy Editor: Paul Schwarz <mailto:saul@cwcom.net>
Assistant Copy Editor: John Weathers <mailto:anguish@mindspring.com>
Contributor: Alain M. Gaudrault <mailto:alain@gaudrault.net>
Contributor: Brian Meloon <mailto:bmeloon@math.cornell.edu>
Contributor: Adam Wasylyk <mailto:macabre@interlog.com>
Contributor: Aaron McKay <mailto:aaronm@trxinc.com>
Contributor: David Rocher <mailto:el_rojo@dial.oleane.com>
Contributor: Gabriel Sanchez <mailto:mwnoise@yahoo.com>
Contributor: Alex Cantwell <mailto:cvantwell@juno.com>
NOTE: For more Chronicles of Chaos information, check out the
'Details' section at the end of this issue.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Issue #39 Contents, 5/19/99
---------------------------
* Editorial
* Loud Letters
* Deadly Dialogues
-- In the Woods...: ... Of Delightful Melancholy
-- Immortal: We Worship Winter
-- Amorphis: Living Up to Their Name
-- Primordial: Dark Songs of Erenn
-- Ashes You Leave: Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust
-- Bethlehem: From Here to the Unholy Land
-- Epoch of Unlight: Of Epoch Proportions
-- Witchery: Celebrating Metal's Past
* Independent Interrogations
-- Dichotic: It Ain't All About Fishin'
-- Infestation: Infesting for the Future
-- Odeum: The Swedish Invasion Continues
-- Soriben: Spanish Doom Is Growing
* Album Asylum
-- Allegiance - _Vrede_
-- Amorphis - _Tuonela_
-- Antestor - _The Return of the Black Death_
-- Arkh'aam - _The Blue Beyond the Black_
-- Ashes - _And the Angels Wept_
-- Ashes You Leave - _Desperate Existence_
-- Burial - _Mourning the Millennium_
-- Burzum - _Hlidskjalf_
-- Various - _Chords of the Grave_
-- Carpathian Forest - _Black Shining Leather_
-- Clawfinger - _Clawfinger_
-- Crest of Darkness - _The Ogress_
-- Diabolique - _The Black Flower_
-- Discern - _Revive and Rebuke_
-- Emperor - _IX Equilibrium_
-- Em Sinfonia - _In Mournings Symphony_
-- Various - _Extreme America 3_
-- Various - _Freak Animal Zine #11 CD_
-- Fredrik Thordendal's Special Defects - _Sol Niger Within Version
3.33_
-- Garden of Shadows - _Heart of the Corona_
-- Gordian Knot - _Gordian Knot_
-- Government Alpha - _Q_
-- Horde of Worms- _Horde of Worms_
-- Hypocrisy - _Hypocrisy Destroys Wacken_
-- Hypocrite - _Into the Halls of the Blind_
-- Immortal - _At the Heart of Winter_
-- Immortal Souls - _Divine Wintertime_
-- Imperial Domain - _In the Ashes of the Fallen_
-- Jesus Martyr - _Sudamerican Porno_
-- Krisiun - _Apocalyptic Revelation_
-- Long Winters' Stare - _Before the Dawn, So Go the Shadows of
Humanity_
-- Lungbrush - _Old School New School_
-- Manowar - _Hell on Stage Live_
-- Morgion - _Solinari_
-- Motorhead - _Everything Louder Than Everyone Else_
-- MSBR / Die Lebensmittelvergiftung - _Collaboration_
-- MSBR / K2 / Magmax - _Split_
-- Napalm Death - _Words From the Exit Wound_
-- Narnia - _Long Live the King_
-- New Eden - _Obscure Master Plan_
-- Nightwish - _Oceanborn_
-- Odium - _The Sad Realm of the Stars_
-- Paramaecium - _A Time to Mourn_
-- Rotting Christ - _Sleep With Angels_
-- Sculpture - _Spiritual Matrix_
-- Sick of it All - _Call to Arms_
-- Sins of Omission - _The Creation_
-- Steel Prophet - _Dark Hallucinations_
-- Various - _Straight to Hell -- A Tribute to Slayer_
-- Taetre - _Out of Emotional Disorder_
-- Various - _To Live Is Ever to Be in Danger_
-- Turmoil - _The Process of_
-- Ulcerate Fester - _Souled Out_
-- Welter - _The Elder Land_
-- Various - _Where We Go, Others Can Only Follow..._
* New Noise
-- Butchery - _The Coming Plague_
-- Downthroat - _I've Got My Mother's Eyes_
-- Enforsaken - _Promo 1999_
-- Odeum - _The Pleiadean Diaries_
-- Soriben - _Ancestros de Insania_
-- Thanatos - _Melegnia_
-- Thought Masticator - _Deception_
-- @@@@# - _Evolving Strains_
-- Meth - _Abstract Mental Chaos_
-- Sheen - _Sheen_
* Chaotic Concerts
-- The Darkest Night of the Year: Dimmu Borgir, Dark Funeral and more
-- Deutsche Disappointment: Entombed and Skinlab in Frankfurt
-- Nile's No Show, Not Nice: Fear Factory and System of a Down
-- Honey, Please Don't Read This Review: Propain and friends in Hanau
* What We Have Cranked
* Details
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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(_____)
by: Gino Filicetti
Greetings loyal readers. I would like to take this moment to
apologize for our apparent lack of punctuality. This issue is MORE
than a little overdue as I'm sure you're all aware of.
As you can tell, this issue is bigger than usual, containing
more than two months worth of reviews and stories. In fact, it is our
second biggest issue of all time, so put that in your bong, and smoke
it! :-)
You can expect us to be on time for quite a few months to come;
now that I'm enjoying my summer break, I'll have a lot more free time
to dedicate to CoC.
Enjoy this issue, and we'll see you all again really soon with
Chronicles of Chaos #40.
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M MMMMMMMM 88' `88 88 88 88' `88
M MMMMMMMM 88. .88 88. .88 88. .88
M M `88888P' `88888P' `88888P8
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M MMMMMMMM .d8888b. d8888P d8888P .d8888b. 88d888b. .d8888b.
M MMMMMMMM 88ooood8 88 88 88ooood8 88' `88 Y8ooooo.
M MMMMMMMM 88. ... 88 88 88. ... 88 88
M M `88888P' dP dP `88888P' dP `88888P'
MMMMMMMMMMM
This is the column where we print those lovely letters our readers
decide so graciously to write us. Whether they be positive, negative,
ignorant or just plain spelled wrong, you can rest assured that
they'll be here in their original form. If you'd like to see your own
letter here, e-mail it to <mailto:ginof@interlog.com> and enter
'Attention Loud Letters' in the subject field. Hopefully all letters
received will be featured in upcoming issues of Chronicles of Chaos.
Date: Fri, 26 Feb 1999 18:28:57 +0300
From: "Boitsov Eugene" <ewgenij@cityline.ru>
Dear CoC;
Though I greatly admire your magazine for excellent coverage of metal
scene, I would like to object on one particular point. The albums
should be reviewed by someone with a more open mind (or I'd rather
say proclivity) to certain styles.
For example, you did not leave a stone unturned criticizing Master's
Faith is in Season and Ritual Carnage's Highest Law. Let me assure
you that I've heard nothing better in this particular vein, and same
can be said about many others who love such kind of aggressive
straitforward thrashy death metal, and who would not be able to
support 5 minutes of cacophonous freaks like Dying Fetus or
slow-crawlers like Illdisposed.
Great Ciceron once aptly put it: "De gustibus et de coloribus non est
disputandum" (Dispute about tastes and colors can put us in deep
shit).
Yours truly,
Eugene Boitsov, Russia, Moscow
Date: Sat, 10 Apr 1999
From: NGUTIE25@aol.com
Subject: great zine!!!
You have a great zine hear!!! its great to see interviews with
marduk,satyricon,(etc.) I wanted to ask if someone could please
review apollyon's new mcd called diaboli gratia? its on full moon
productions. ive searched all -over the internet for a review but i
cant find one. its a dannish black metal band. ive heard one track
off of a compilation cd and it was excellent!! even though it had
piano and female vocals, it is a very brutal and raw black metal song
with great growling vocals!! but before i buy it i wanted to know how
the rest sounds(ive been burned by too many shitty cds with one or
two good songs) and how many songs are on it (since its an mcd and
all).i really appreciate it. keep up the great work!!!!!!!
p.s. has the been a review of blood storm? its an american black
death metal band, thats another i heard is good and should definitley
review.
[Blood Storm's _The Atlantean Wardragon_ was reviewed in CoC #25 by
Adam Wasylyk. -- Pedro]
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999
From: Steve Cox <stevecox@bitscorp.dxfc.com>
Subject: Attention Loud Letters
I'm writing mainly in reply to 'Black soul' who wrote in about Black
Metal and the Trendy people following it.
First of all. I don't like Black Metal. I like Heavy Metal, Bands
like Pantera, Entombed, Slayer Machine Head, Older Metallica,
Megadeth are my cup of tea but so are bands like Life Of Agony System
of a Down, One Minute Silence and a few other bands like this who
suddenly became trendy a few years ago.
But the main band I want to talk about is Pantera.
I got into Pantera in 1992 after hearing Walk on the radio, and
noticed that a lot of people got into pantera then as well. So in a
way I suppose I walked right into a Trend. I followed Pantera and
still do even though they've gone from being Trendy (Vulgar Display
of Power) to just another metal band (Far Beyond Driven) To Drug
Fueled whiners (Great Southern Trendkill) and so on.
I've always liked them and stayed true to my calling.
You say you were into Death Metal but then went into Black Metal when
things got to commercial. Why do you think that suddenly you're
seeing everyone wearing COF tops and liking Black Metal. Looks like
you walked right into a Trend as well.
It's a bit shit isn't it? But, Like you, I despise people who don't
do anything but follow the latest trend. All of the little Korn fans
that suddenly liked Pantera when Korn said they were cool an now are
into COF because someone said they were cool. All the little Marilyn
Manson fans who suddenly liked Rob Zombie because he sounded a bit
like MM and they seemed to like each other.
However people like this feed our bands, they go out and buy the
shirts, the CD's the mags with them on the cover and they're a
necessary evil. As much as we hate them they are keeping our music
alive. So try to be a little more tolerant okay!
Personally I am quite happy to see Pantera sell a 20,000 arena, I
know they haven't sold out, they're just doing a job and doing it
well. Commercial success doesn't mean you have to hate someone. If
Pantera, Slayer and other talented bands continue to respect their
fans and don't act like arseholes then I say let them make all the
money they can.
Even though I don't like them I hope cradle of Filth sell 100,000,000
records and reach the top of all the Charts in the world, then we can
spread a message that we can't be discounted and deserve respect from
everyone else.
Like what you like and be respectful, teach the young, don't burn
them. Peace.
Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1999
From: Bill Cosby <jupiterianvibe@hotmail.com>
Subject: Attention Loud Letters
It's rather ridiculous how people rag on Cradle Of Filth for not
being 'black' enough or extreme enough and whatnot. Forget the
labels. I don't believe they're black metal anyway, and that's fine.
I think they blow all black metal bands to pieces. Who cares what
style they are? If it's good, I listen to it. If you don't, why
bother saying OTHER people shouldn't, or start namecalling "You're
not a TRUE black metal fan if you listen to Cradle Of Filth!". That's
about the same as saying someone's not a true metalhead if they wear
Levi's 501 brand of jeans. But if you're not obsessed with brand
names and can judge them based on the music, that's fine. I don't
care if you don't like them. Just don't go around labelling or
telling people what they should and shouldn't listen to.
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999
From: Josh Tasker <linenoise@rocketmail.com>
Subject: Satyricon interview (CoC #38)
Just to clarify, Satyr was talking about "Apoptygma Berzerk" (a
Norwegian one-man industrial act) when he said: "...we're even
bringing in this guy who plays in [couldn't quite hear what he said,
it sounded like "Uperting My Berserk" -- Paul], who played in a black
metal band called Mock, which was a crappy band, but this guy has
turned into becoming interested only in industrial and electronic
music..."
The guy's name is Stephan Groth (aka Grothesk).
--Josh
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. . . O F D E L I G H T F U L M E L A N C H O L Y
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CoC talks to Jan Svithjod of In the Woods...
by: Pedro Azevedo
Looking back upon the band's three full-length albums, one thing
is common to them all: each of them stayed in my CD player for a lot
longer than the average during the first few months of ownership. It
happened with the hugely atmospheric doom/black of their classic
debut _HEart of the Ages_, happened again with the marvellous piece
of emotional, melancholic metal that is _Omnio_ [CoC #25] and yet
again with the atmospheric and strange, yet full of subtleties and
secrets, latest release, _Strange in Stereo_ [CoC #37]. None of these
contains music made for the casual listener; rather, they contain
music that can reward the persistent one, for ItW are a band that has
always shown very strong personality with each release. Vocalist Jan
"Ovl" Svithjod called me from Norway one wintry night for nearly an
hour of conversation that resulted in the interview that follows --
time that was very well spent for me, I might add. Read on; if good
emotional music interests you, this interview and the band's work
should be very worthy of your time as well.
CoC: How are things in Norway?
Jan Svithjod: At the moment, very calm, not too many things
happening. You know, usually during the Winter season,
apart from the holidays, Norway's usually dead. People
go to work and people get back from work, fill up their
stomachs and watch television -- the usual crap things
to do. I don't even have a television, so I have to
figure out something else to do, like talk to you, for
instance. <laughs> You know, try to come up with
something constructive.
CoC: The black metal elements in your first album are quite obvious,
also in some of your vocals, your shrieks, which were really
extreme and have since then changed a lot. Besides the obvious
technical matters, how would you say the emotions you try to
express through your voice have changed with time? There seems
to be a lot less anger and anguish in your voice now, it
suggests a different attitude.
JS: When we started out, especially when we did our first demo, we
were very much into Bathory, especially _Blood Fire Death_ and
the _Hammerheart_ album, and that had a lot to do with our sound
in the first place, but I think it was even on the demo that I
got really tired of doing those kind of screechy vocals, because
at the time there were so many bands doing the same kind of
things, so I thought we had to come up with something different.
When we were recording the vocals for the first album,
personally, I wanted to do about 80 to 90% of clean vocals, and
then a bit of the screechy kind with effects and stuff, but the
other guys thought that the music was written 50% for screechy
vocals, so let's just do it on this album and we can change for
the next one. That was just what we did on that first one. As the
lyrics changed quite a lot from the first album to _Omnio_, the
vocals and the music changed a lot -- the vocals had to go in the
same direction, I thought. Concerning the lyrics, they had to be
expressed in a totally different way from what we were dealing
with in the debut album. I think we managed to still keep the
balance of the very heavy parts and the very slow parts, but we
did the vocals in another way. For the slow parts, we had low
kind of melodious vocals and on the heavier parts we did heavier
vocals, which are also present on some parts of the new album. I
just wanted to try and come up with something different
vocal-wise and just see what comes out of it and do it more
personally somehow, make it sound like something individual and
not really just a copy of anything else.
CoC: What do you feel when you listen to your first album nowadays,
considering it is such an emotional and atmospheric record and
also so different from what you are doing now?
JS: I always have the idea that every step you take to reach
something is as important as any step you take, so I think the
first album was very important in order to become what we sound
like these days. For a debut album, I think it's a very strong
debut in the first place, and I think it has something -- even
though it has a lot of the black metal elements in it --, I think
it offers something completely different. I don't think I have
listened to it since the _Omnio_ days or something, but I'm very
proud of the album and I think I can speak for the other guys [in
the band] as well. We don't try to deny something we've done,
because it's like a diary of what we were back then and it was
like five years ago that the album was released; things have
changed, but we're still very proud of it.
CoC: Why are there two capital letters in "HEart" in the album title
_HEart of the Ages_? What are the ideas behind that?
JS: Well, I never heard that question before. <laughs> It was
supposed to be our kind of humble gratitude to nature and it's a
very kind of "man versus nature" album lyrically that one, and
also musically in many ways. The first two capital letters mean
that you can read the title as "Heart of the Ages" or "Art of the
Ages", so it's just to split the word into two different
expressions, to pay salute to our environment; it was somehow the
tricky way of doing it.
CoC: Then came _Omnio_, which brought plenty of musical changes, and
seems to me a concept album. What was the concept behind it, if
there was one?
JS: We didn't work on it as a concept album, especially not
lyrically, but we worked the whole album together musically as a
concept. _Omnio_ was the first album we did as an entirety
somehow, we composed and rehearsed the songs in the same kind of
tracklisting that's present on the album, that was the first
album we made as an entirety instead of just a set of individual
songs. Lyrically, we didn't try to come up with a concept, but
looking back at it now, there seems to be a very red thread going
through the whole thing in a way. I think it's very introspective
in a way, deals a lot with philosophical questions and a lot of
things that are written between the lines, so there's a lot of
questioning on that album, questioning why things are the way
they are, trying to understand the bottom of yourself. The first
song was very much based upon an experience of going out at night
and looking at the stars. A lot of people walk around on planet
Earth with their noses high up in the sky and I think the only
way to pull them down again from doing that is to push them out
on a starry night and see how big it all is and reduce the person
to nothing almost. A lot of this questioning was present on that
one.
CoC: There's some quite interesting artwork in that booklet; I am
especially interested in the illustration chosen for "I Am Your
Flesh". Can you tell me more about it?
JS: "I Am Your Flesh" is probably the most personal lyric that I ever
sung, but actually I didn't write it myself. It was a friend of
mine who did it, and it's very straightforward, very naked, very
honest. When I saw the lyrics, I really knew his situation, which
was very heavy, and I just burst into tears, because it was so
heavy and so personal, and it's a very heavy thing to do, to
deliver yourself, in a way, like that. And we were in contact
with this Finnish guy called Juha Vourma and he sent us some
samples of work he had done. In between all these paintings, we
found the one which is printed together with the lyric. When I
saw the painting, I thought "this is it, this is the lyric
materialized". I think it speaks for itself. So we paid the guy
what he charged for that painting and we put it in the booklet.
It's also on the front cover of the LP, actually. I think we only
made 1000 copies of it or something, and I reckon that like 90%
of them went to Greece, as they usually do... they're totally
violent freaks down there! <laughs>
CoC: What is your "omnio", what is your "everything"?
JS: I don't know, it's probably just the feeling of belonging to an
entirety. There are so many things happening... if you make your
idea about the world through the media, especially, there are so
many loose threads... an "omnio" is probably just to tie up the
loose threads and feel like belonging to an entirety, within
yourself but also among the people you relate to, trying to find
a deeper form of understanding between people, I guess.
CoC: Despite leaving behind the black influences, _Omnio_ was still a
very emotionally intense album, not to mention musically
remarkable. _Strange in Stereo_, while more experimental, is
also quite emotional. Will you ever make an album just for the
music, leaving behind the kind of emotional contents that you
have always used so far? Will the "delightful melancholy" you
spoke of in the very start of your first album's booklet always
be a part of your music?
JS: I think that as long as In the Woods... exist, we'll always carry
that kind of tension and atmosphere within the sound, because the
lyrics and everything that has to do with us as private persons
is very... I mean, sometimes when we go to rehearse, we don't
even rehearse, it's like two or three hours of therapy. <laughs>
Because people are usually very unstable mentally, in a way. I
think from the beginning we said we were going to do something
very honest, and if people like it, it's a bonus; if they don't,
they don't have to buy the album. As long as we carry our
releases under the name of In the Woods..., it just has to be
emotional in a way, it can't be done in another way, because that
wouldn't be honest at all.
CoC: _Strange in Stereo_ is, again, very different from its
predecessor. One of the main differences is that it seems to
lack, for the most part, the feeling of continuity that was so
strong in _Omnio_. Why did that happen?
JS: When we did _Omnio_, we thought of making a very epic album, with
very long but still strong compositions, and we tried to tie them
together as well as possible. Now we've made an album with this
musical entirety somehow, with very long songs, we thought it's
time to move on and do something different. So we started to
write new songs and this time, maybe even more than we did on
_Omnio_, we tried to come up with an entirety, but it took a lot
of hard work, because when we rehearsed the base of the song, we
felt there was a lack of something in there. So we tried to throw
out the keyboards and put all the effects parts in the guitars
instead of using the usual keys and stuff. So I think there is
somehow a bit stronger entirety on _Strange in Stereo_, but all
the spice that has been added on top takes a lot of time to dive
into and go through it to see the bottom line and the base of the
music. Even though musically it has a lot of differences in it, I
still think there's a very heavy red thread running through it,
emotionally at least, even though musically it might sound a bit
far out in places. But it was the sort of album we had to do, and
we couldn't do the second part of _Omnio_ in a way. This time,
like we didn't do with _Omnio_, we tried to come up with
different sounds for each song and make them sound a little
different, so there's a lot of variation and variation is a very
heavy codeword for the band in general. So there's a lot of
variation, but there's still a sort of base tension that's
running through the whole album in a way.
CoC: Could you tell me more about the lyrics from "Vanish in the
Absence of Virtue"?
JS: It has a lot to do with a moral question. If you look around --
and like I was mentioning previously, especially in the media --,
you see a lot of greed and... have you seen the movie "Seven"?
CoC: Yes... one of my favorite movies, actually.
JS: OK, that's probably the best way to describe all these dirty
deeds. It has a lot to do with how people respond to different
situations and why they try to do it. It probably has to do, from
the writer's point of view, with feeling very foreign in today's
modern world, because you feel there's a lack of common energy,
people only think about themselves -- not everybody does, of
course, but especially when it comes to capitalism you have the
really big companies that build factories in the third world just
to increase their own profit. Like the title indicates, you just
feel like digging a hole in the ground and just fall into it
somehow.
CoC: You were talking about the media... World War III may be
starting today as we speak, so...
JS: Yeah, I heard there's a lot of heavy things going on in the
Balcans...
CoC: Something more for the media to keep people busy with?
JS: Yes, in many ways, like it happened with the Gulf war. There's a
lot of manipulation, I think, especially from NATO and the US,
maybe even Great Britain also. The sort of world picture we get
from the media is pretty much... how can I put it?...
CoC: Distorted?
JS: Yeah, I think it's very much distorted in many ways. A lot of
journalists only try to get the big story, that's the big honour,
and I don't think it's very objective. A lot of the news becomes
very subjective, and that distorts people's views of what's
happening around them.
CoC: That made me think about misanthropy for some reason, which in
turn reminds me of asking what ItW are going to do as far as
record labels are concerned now that Misanthropy Records is
closing down [this Summer].
JS: If we manage to sell like we did with _Omnio_, which I doubt that
we'll accomplish, I think we'll have just enough money to go into
a studio and record the next album and just pay everything
ourselves. I think we're going to do that, and not record an
album under the influence from a label this time, and just see
what comes out of it. When we have everything finished, we'll
just try to see if there's any interest from labels, and if
there's no interest at all we're probably just going to release
it ourselves through the Internet or something, I don't know.
CoC: Well, I suppose there'll be interest...
JS: Yeah, but we're not really worrying about not having a record
deal or anything, we'll just concentrate on the music and we'll
take care of the label deals afterwards.
CoC: Did you ever worry about producing a successor to such a highly
acclaimed album as _Omnio_ while making _Strange in Stereo_?
JS: No, not at all, because it was like a paradox when we did
_Omnio_. If we're talking like as close as possible to a trend
thing that's been going on, in the present, I think maybe _HEart
of the Ages_ is the closest you get in ItW terms, and a lot of
people accused us of going commercial and all when we released
_Omnio_, when we knew upfront that if we were lucky maybe it was
going to sell like half what _HotA_ did, at actually that came
through as well -- I think _HotA_ sold twice as much as _Omnio_
did, actually. <laughs> [Out of curiosity, I asked Misanthropy
Records about this and they confirmed it. -- Pedro] But still
we're being accused of going commercial and being musical whores
and all. But as I mentioned, we never started this project to
become rock stars or anything, we said we were going to do it
honest and if people and critics like it then that's really
great, but if they don't, they don't have to deal with it, they
have their own choice. So we don't really feel the pressure of
anything, the only pressure we have is that the new album has to
sound better than the previous one, and if we can accomplish
that, then the world is still turning... <laughs>
CoC: Your female vocalist [Synne Diana] had a very important role in
_Omnio_, but she actually doesn't seem to participate in _SiS_
so much. Why?
JS: When we did _Omnio_, she was studying different courses to be
able to get into university, and on this new album she started to
do pre-university courses, which took a lot more time, so she
didn't really have the option to work that much with the band,
she was just participating mostly in the studio and a few of the
rehearsals. She didn't have much time. That's just something
we'll deal with for each release, we'll see how much time she's
got and how much we can get out of it.
CoC: Since _SiS_ is definitely not an easy album to get into, what
would you recommend to potential listeners to help them enjoy it
better?
JS: One of our guitarists, Chris, comes out with 70 to 80% of the
base music, and usually when he presents the songs to me,
recorded on a tape, just some guitar ideas and stuff, the best
way for me to grasp his works is just to lay down on a couch,
close my eyes and almost fall asleep. There's a twilight zone in
between there and if you like balancing on the verge of being
awake and falling asleep, that's usually when the music hits me
right through, it's like an arrow flying through your whole body
somehow. I especially did that with some new songs that he
presented for the new album and it was a totally far out
experience -- it didn't have anything to do with any sort of
intoxication of any form, we were both totally clean, and it was
just a totally weird experience. I tried that with _SiS_ as well,
when we did some rehearsal tapes and stuff. That might be somehow
a gateway to the music, and then after that you can find the
depth of it.
CoC: What path would you consider most likely that you'll take in the
future: a return to some harshness and greater contrast; even
greater experimentation towards more atmospheric music; or a
greater development of the style found on "Cell" or perhaps
"Vanish in the Absence of Virtue", a more melodic path?
JS: From what I've heard of what we've been working on so far for the
next album, I think it's the most sad ItW album to this day. It's
very hard to say only from a few guitar ideas, but I think they
are very strong and if I manage to develop the vocals -- and the
same goes for Synne as well, for the female vocals --, if we
manage to develop in the same way that the guitar works have been
developing so far, I think sound-wise we might go back more to
the very gentle, easy sound of _Omnio_, but the music will be one
of the most sad things we've done so far.
CoC: That'd be great for me, since my favorite style is doom metal...
JS: Yeah, and that's the weird thing with it as well, because it's
not really fast, but it's not really doom. It's hard to put the
right words to it, but it's definitely very much ItW and very
emotional.
CoC: About live shows -- any chance you'll be coming down south soon?
JS: We've done one European tour so far, and also we've been down in
Germany for a few gigs at the time -- I don't think we've played
live since a couple of years now, it's been a long time, but
we've tried to focus on the albums as well. There's also a lot of
problems involving the members, it's very hard to go on tour
because some people have a hard time in handling a lot of people
and also, which is a very important thing, we always end up
losing a lot of money every time we do this. I feel that somehow
ItW might fall in between two chairs, because on one of the sides
we're still being very much linked to the black metal scene, and
on the other the music is slow and laid back, so it's kind of
hard to hit the right kind of audience and to pull a lot of
people out of their chairs to go to an ItW gig. When we did the
European tour we lost a lot, like four or five thousand pounds, I
think, so it's pretty heavy. The other guys are going to work on
the new album, I'm going to travel for a few months, actually, so
I think not this year, but maybe next year if the situation
allows it, we'll probably try to do something. It's been two
albums since we've done any gigs, and it's about time to try out
some of the songs in a live situation. The guys are generally
getting better now and they become more keen to try and see how
what sounds like in a live situation.
CoC: I know you have played live with Katatonia in the past, which,
in my opinion, is a combination with huge potential. Will that
ever happen again in the future, perhaps with better conditions?
JS: I don't know, I haven't really followed on what's been going on
in the underground for the past years, because I was very much
into it previously, selling demos and all, and I really didn't do
anything else but work and go back home and write letters and
stuff. I did that for a few years and I got really tired of it
after a while. I'm not really too much into what's been going on,
but I believe that there's people around that always have a good
advice for any kind of band that we would be able to tour with.
We would really like to do a double bill kind of thing, in which
you play first one night and last the other night.
CoC: What made you choose such a band name as In the Woods...? And
why the three little dots that always appear in In the Woods...?
JS: Yeah, that's a good question. <laughs> For a start, we didn't
want the typical metal name, because we knew that if we were
going to do something honest, we were probably going to change a
little bit after a while, so we needed an "open" name that would
work with different kinds of projects under it. I don't think
it's a typical masculine heavy metal kind of thing, and it's also
some kind of a metaphor for trying to see the world and the
environment from a different perspective. The world is going more
and more into urban forms and this is like the total opposite,
you still have some of the conservative things about it. It's not
that you are afraid of any kind of technical evolution or
whatever, but I like to see it as a metaphor of ourselves still
operating on the side of things, and kind of watching the whole
thing from an objective point of view. The three dots, it's
something that just had to be there, somehow, it's something that
never really ends, it just keeps on going and going and going...
it just had to be that way.
CoC: There is something in your debut album which can be translated
as: "I am not afraid to die, but I am afraid not to live. Am I
alive?" This sentence suggests the idea of a clear distinction
between living and just surviving, just existing. What are your
thoughts on this?
JS: I was together with a girl at the time, and she was dealing with
a lot of... she thought she was becoming adult too soon, in a
way, and she didn't really want it that way, because she thought
things became a bit too serious around her. She sent me a
postcard, I think, or something, with that sentence, or those
sentences, on it, together with "yes/no" checkboxes. The first
philosophical question should be whether it is worth living or
not, and I thought it was done in a very naked way, but still
very... how can I put it, it's very hard to find the right words.
I think she saw the bottom line, you know, and I was totally
"wow, this just has to be on the album".
CoC: Are -you- alive?
JS: I reckon I am. But it delivers a lot of complications, because if
you want to stay alive all the time, it demands that you always
try to bring everything that you do a step further every day, and
sometimes it might be very hard. I know I'm not alone on this, I
know there's so many people dealing with the same kind of
thoughts. You don't really try to let things go by, you have to
live everything totally, 100%, to feel alive, and you might be
dealing with a lot of complications and it might give you a lot
of very hard times. But I think in the end it's very much worth
it, because you get the chance to see the bottom of yourself, and
only when you see the bottom and the dark on the bottom, that's
the only way to see the real kind of light, in a way. I think you
need utter darkness to feel the utmost form of joy, definitely.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
W E W O R S H I P W I N T E R
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CoC interviews Abbath from Immortal
by: Paul Schwarz
If you have not yet experienced the music of Immortal, then you
have not yet discovered some of the finest black metal the Norwegian
scene has ever brought forth. The band's second album _Pure
Holocaust_ is a black metal classic; grim, cold, harsh, fast, black
as pitch and uniquely Immortal. _Battles in the North_, which
followed _PH_, is faster and more brutal but likewise excellent; it
includes what is probably the band's best known song, "Blashyrkh
(Mighty Ravendark)". Immortal's last album, _Blizzard Beasts_, wasn't
bad but didn't really capture as dark and black an atmosphere as
their previous releases, even though it was possibly yet more brutal
than _BitN_. However, it didn't signal a decline as is evidenced by
the band's latest output, _At the Heart of Winter_. _AtHoW_
encapsulates everything that is brilliant about Immortal's unique
form of black metal, while also bringing quite a lot of new ideas
into the previous musical structures. However, one very significant
change, external to the sound of the album, is the departure of
Demonaz Doom Occulta from the line-up. Abbath and Demonaz had been
the essential core of Immortal until recently (drummer Horgh who
joined on _BB_ is now a permanent contributing member of the band),
but tendinitis invalided Demonaz out of the band for good -- he had
already missed tours for treatment but later found out that he would
never be able to play guitar, at least at the speed he did in
Immortal, again. A cold end for Demonaz, but certainly not the end
for Immortal, as Abbath explains.
CoC: How did the departure of Demonaz affect the songwriting for _At
the Heart of Winter_?
Abbath: Well, I have always made most of the music, so it didn't
actually have any big effect, you know. I have always made
most of the arrangements and we have put them together, we
have made the -structure- together. But this time he was not
around when I made the music and, you know, it was no
problem, it didn't have any effect actually. He wrote the
lyrics and he was really inspired by my music, so he offered
to write the lyrics and I had a bunch of proposals to the
lyrics, inspirations for the lyrics, but he's the expert so I
gave him all the credit for it.
CoC: What are the lyrical themes in particular, are they different
from those covered on previous albums?
A: It is still the Frostdemon realm concept, beyond the depths of the
plains of the North, it's still the Blashyrkh concept, which is
the heart of winter in our vision, it is a total fantasy concept.
For us the concept has no limits, it is a very awesome concept
which we are really proud of; we still write about this concept
because we don't think it has any limits to what we can put into
it.
CoC: It is something you've made very much your own as a band.
A: Yeah, it is our fantasy, it is our work, fantasy work. It is like
our Mordor [for those unfortunate enough not to know, the land
ruled by Sauron, the Dark Lord, in J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of
the Rings" -- Paul], if you know what I mean.
CoC: Yeah, I know what you mean. Will Demonaz be continuing to work
with the band in any way?
A: Umm, he will probably be working with me when it comes to lyrics
in the future; I will do more myself, I am getting more trained
now, I am getting better in English, to form sentences in the form
of verses. I am getting more into that now and I have an English
friend called Simon Doncaster which I am going to work a little
bit with, and he has also worked with Demonaz in the past. So I
think I am going to do most of the work, the basic work, myself,
and to get it perfect I will work with Demonaz and with Simon.
Demonaz is working more with management stuff for us now, fixing
dates for gigs and stuff, and doing more stuff so we can focus
more on the artistic side of the band. He's still around, he was
forced to leave because of his injuries, but we are still very
close and Immortal still means a lot to him. He loves to be around
and we love to have him around, and he's also with us on the tours
making sure the money comes to our hand and stuff like that. He's
very good at these kind of things on the business end.
CoC: With this new album, what would you say are the biggest
differences between it and your other albums? I think what I'd
say generally is that it concentrates a little less on speed
than _Blizzard Beasts_ and _Battles in the North_ did.
A: We have focused to be more open this time and more diverse, and it
is very important for us to develop our style, at the same time to
make our music more listenable and our style more open so that new
people, and our old fans as well, can get into our style more
easily, and have a better understanding of what we do. We didn't
want to be so one track minded and we didn't want to rush so much
into it this time, we want to slow it down and make our music more
atmospheric and more catchy.
CoC: I found also there was more music, there were much longer
periods without vocals.
A: Yeah, that's just how it turned out to be, you know. I think the
music does most of the talking on this album and for us it is very
important to develop. I think the intensity and the atmosphere is
more important than the blasts themselves and I think that's more
the right Immortal atmosphere, to still have blasts, but we don't
want that to be the main stuff in our music. We want to be more
diverse and more open, we want to give our listeners a bigger view
of our music.
CoC: It's like on the song "At the Heart of Winter", you have that
whole two minute keyboard intro which shows a very atmospheric
approach.
A: Yeah, for me that intro... when I was making that intro it was
like watching the plains of the North, you know, the Winter plains
gave me an inspiration of the beauty of the plains and the
atmosphere and the beauty of a Winter landscape, and when the
music starts it's like you go beyond. That's what I felt when I
made the song, when the drums come in and the guitars and
everything come in we go beyond that picture, we go into the
depths of the North and it's like the beauty turns into a brutal
realm of demons. I love the contrast, I love to have lots of
contrasts in our music. I love to compare the beauty and the evil
and brutality to each other, I want to include all those kinds of
differences and contrasts into our musical concept, so really,
with this album, I really wanted to create the right atmosphere in
all kinds of ways.
CoC: So, in a sense, part of it was a plan, to do things in a
slightly different fashion to attain a goal that you've always
been trying to get to?
A: Yeah, yeah, it was like when I started to write this album I went
more back to the old roots, and the old atmosphere, and the old,
what shall I say, inspirations which I had earlier on and based
more the songwriting on that. And I found that way more
interesting to have more diverse and a bigger, larger concept. So
I found it a lot more interesting and inspiring to work on that
basis.
CoC: As opposed to _BB_, where you were more influenced by _Altars of
Madness_.
A: Yeah, it's like _BB_ was a bit more one track minded, I think. We
were a bit confused when we were making that album. We didn't
actually know what kind of direction we wanted to go. Actually, we
lost a lot of the old, basic influences we had. Also, you know, a
lot of people who support that album say that it reminds them a
bit of Morbid Angel, and I've got to admit that. We have always
been fans of Morbid Angel, but I think it was wrong for Immortal
to take that kind of direction with our music. So the song on that
album which has the right Immortal atmosphere is definitely
"Mountains of Might" [not similar to _AoM_]. But I really regret
that we didn't make the concept of that album [better], I really
hoped that we didn't bite off more than we could chew, which we
did with that album. That was not the right direction for Immortal
to go, but anyway it's great, most of the songs are great, but we
should have realized when we were in the studio that we should
have waited and worked more on the songs, but it was too late; we
should have done a demo first. And also, when I made _AtHoW_ I was
working more with studio machines when I was making the
arrangements, so it was a lot easier to get the right impression
of what I was doing and also with that done it was easier to make
the riffs, it was easier to get a good sound to them. It was like,
you know, with _BB_ we were only thinking "fast, brutal", and we
went on a wrong track, actually. It was a turning point for us.
CoC: I think that happens to some bands sometimes, they make one
album that they look back on and disagree with having made and
make, as a result, a better album.
A: Yeah, I think we pushed that kind of thing to the limits with
_BitN_ and we should have turned at that point and not continued
that kind of thing. But you know, it doesn't matter now actually,
were not interested in going back and changing anything, we want
everything to be the way it is. But, you know, the most
interesting thing about _BB_ is the sound, we were fuckin' around
so much in the studio and nothing worked out the way we wanted.
And we were finished, we just wanted to be finished, and we were
tired of working in the studio with that album and we wanted just
to stop and release it, and didn't realize that the sound on most
of the songs was so fucked up. But, you know, I don't regret, you
just have to carry on and I feel we are back on the right track
now, and that is the most important. The most important is to take
the best side of our style and carry on and base the development
on the right influences.
CoC: Talking about sound, what most influenced you to move from
Grieghallen and record in Abyss instead with Peter Tagtgren?
A: With _BB_ we actually recorded in another studio called Sigma,
only the first three albums were recorded in Grieghallen. The
problems in Bergen is we needed the right -- a big producer, a
person who had a really good understanding of our music and, you
know, these people in Bergen are very good technicians, but they
were not into our music and did not have anything to give us. And
we were not skilled enough ourselves at that point to find the
right sound. And so we had an offer from Osmose to use Peter from
Abyss and we heard a lot of good stuff about him and the rumours
were true, for sure. He had a really good understanding, a lot of
patience, and also this time we recorded all the songs beforehand,
in the rehearsal room, with a four track studio machine. So we
could present the songs to Peter before we started out. So, I
discussed with him what kind of sound I wanted and he found the
sound right away, you know, very fast, and he really knew what way
I wanted to go with the sound. It was a real pleasure working with
him and we worked very fast, you know, we had all the songs
rehearsed and everything was ready before we went down there. We
booked the studio for one month and we were finished in less than
twenty days, so it was great.
CoC: Do you feel that black metal is a style that allows you to be
totally creative, or do you think there are restrictions on what
you can do and still be black metal?
A: What do you mean?
CoC: In terms of making music which you feel to be an accurate
representation of black metal, do you think you can play around
with a lot of different things, a lot of different influences,
or do you think there is a certain, kind of, way of playing you
have to stick to?
A: We don't follow any rules; there's no limit for us, actually. We
do what we feel is right for our style, we don't think we should
do it like -this- or like -that-, we follow our intuition. But of
course, you know, for me it is very important to have an "old
time" feeling, that we have a lot of roots in our music and for us
it's important that we don't turn hype. I don't feel it's right
for Immortal to have synthesizers leading our music, you know, we
have synthesizers on the album in some of the arrangements but it
is important that the main instrument which leads the atmosphere
is the guitar. With some arrangements we have put synthesizers
behind the guitars to lift some of the riffs and some of the
atmosphere in some of the riffs. For us it is important to be a
bit old fashioned, but at the same time develop and make a new
thing, at the same time be totally Immortal, at the same time fit
into this day and age with our music. That's all we think, other
people, other bands they are into more hyped... I think some bands
really forgot the real root in metal and I think more bands should
have had more. There's a lot of new people coming into the scene,
there's a new generation coming up and I personally think it is
important that these people also get into the old time [sound] and
the roots. That's my opinion, you know, that's what I think.
CoC: That's similar to what Satyr from Satyricon said when I asked
him a similar question. He said that he didn't see that there
were limits but he did feel that he'd rather have black metal
bands listen to and get inspiration from Darkthrone than get
inspiration from Cradle of Filth. In terms of just what
different people like out of it, I think, myself included, a lot
of people like the older influences like Celtic Frost and
Bathory as opposed to the female vocals and the gothic sound.
A: I think it is very important to develop the metal in general, it
is very important that the music doesn't stagnate. At the same
time I think it is very important that the bands realize that it's
very important to develop -and- keep the old metal influences. And
not going back and being exactly [like] all those old bands were,
but be creative and create new stuff based on these old time
influences. I think that has a great deal of importance.
CoC: Why did you decide to change your logo?
A: Well, I wanted this to be a new era of Immortal, we wanted the
four previous albums to be exceptional and also, when it comes to
the cover, it was only me and Horgh who did this album and we
didn't want to present the band on the cover as a duo, we wanted
_BitN_ to be exceptional when it comes to that. Also, it is a big
change: we have a painting, a very professional painting which
really tells the whole concept and adds the right atmosphere to
our music and there was the concept. It's like the Blashyrkh we
see in our vision and we love to present this kind of vision in
that kind of way with _AtHoW_. We had an offer from Osmose to use
a professional painter and I thought, "yeah". I sent a proposal
and I thought it would be pretty good, and I was just amazed.
Also, I wanted a more pronounced logo this time, and a logo which
was more readable. I think the name is more important than the
logo itself. When people see the cover, I want people to see who
it is right away. And Herve from Osmose, he got a person to design
a new logo and I thought it was great, some people do like it and
some don't. The most important is that I wanted it that way
myself. I think some people, and some old time fans of Immortal,
are a bit disappointed right now, but I think they will accept it
more in the future. We still use the old logo, it's on the CD,
it's just not on the front and we don't have it as the main logo.
I think the old logo is cool art but it is more important for me
now that we... it is like a new era and it is very important to me
that the name is very clear to everyone. Anyway, it is just a logo
and I think the music and the cover itself and all that concept is
still Immortal, it still sounds Immortal, we still have -our-
style, it's still Immortal concept, that's what's most important,
of course. Also, at the same time, everyone can see what kind of
band it is, what we're called.
CoC: Any final word?
A: I just hope that people understand, especially the old fans,
really understand our new era, our change and our development, and
I hope that the old timers can still stick to us and have an
understanding of what we do, and the new people as well, you know.
To me, I think we are doing the right thing and I hope that people
around have the same understanding of what we do, and that people
understand that we are still totally Immortal, but in a more
professional way. I hope that people don't feel that we have
"wimped out" or anything like that, since _BB_ was so brutal. The
intensity is still there, the brutality is still there; it's more
back to the basic Immortal and more melancholy.
CoC: I think, for me, in all the right ways it's a much darker album,
to me it taps better what I like, what is "heavy" about black
metal. _BB_ is much like a death metal album [and note that I
-love- death metal and its feeling, but, to clarify, I don't
feel _BB_ captures a great death metal feeling -- Paul], this
album captures much more of the black metal spirit.
A: Yeah, the new album has a lot more atmosphere, it's deeper, more
cryptic, but at the same time it is more open and I think that's
the total right thing when it comes to Immortal.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
L I V I N G U P T O T H E I R N A M E
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CoC interviews Amorphis
by: Adrian Bromley
Heaven and Hell. Two distant places within our universe that
continue to fascinate those of us on planet Earth. Two locals that
cry out for understanding and interpretation. Two places in our mind
set that have been explored and evaluated throughout time within
metal music. Places, in one aspect, where demons lurk and another
realm where angels soar. Finnish metal minions Amorphis have leapt
into the analytical world of sky palaces and the grim underworld with
their latest _Tuonela_. Quite the fascinated overview, if there ever
was one.
"Tuonela is quite an interesting word, I think, and a fitting
name for the album title", notes guitarist / creative mastermind Esa
Holopainen about the album title of their latest effort. "Tuonela is
somewhat of an underworld of sorts, a place between Heaven and Hell
where a lot of the older Finnish people believed is where your soul
goes when you die." "_Tuonela_ was chosen as the album title because
we thought it gave quite a good description of what the album was
about. It reflects and describes the music that we did perfectly.
It's a good assortment of two distinct worlds rolled into one. It's
significant to the progressive angle of _Tuonela_."
"Our change has come with natural progression. We're pretty
happy with the fresh sound of the recording and the material on
_Tuonela_", says Holopainen on the new LP. "It's better produced for
the most part, too. We, as a band, wanted to make sure that this time
around we were able to bring about certain changes to the band.
Changes that seemed to showcase where we were progressing to. We
achieved that here."
Along with his friends and cohorts -- vocalist Pasi Koskinen,
guitarist Tomi Koivusaari, bassist Olli-Pekka Laine, drummer Pekka
Kasari and session keyboardist Santeri Kaltio --, Holopainen is
pleased with the band's transformation since their 1992 debut
full-length disc _The Karelian Isthmus_ and on through such classic
releases as _Tales From the Thousand Lakes_ (1994) and 1997's
groundbreaking _Elegy_. He's happy with Amorphis' state of musical
diversity in 1999 and hopes their fans will like it as well. "I
believe most of the fans will enjoy what we did here. People who have
become fans of the band have come to expect changes within our music
from album to album. It's what we are all about. All of our albums
are different and that's what we want."
"When people first heard Amorphis, they were enchanted by the
variety of what we were doing. Leading up to the last record,
_Elegy_, people understood that over the years this was going to be
brought through an experimental phase as we went along. People
shouldn't be surprised with _Tuonela_, rather impressed that we have
brought more variety to Amorphis. It's an exciting way to hear the
band."
_Tuonela_ was a lengthy album to assemble. The band toured
consistently with _Elegy_ and, as Holopainen explains, long recording
sessions is something Amorphis tries to avoid. "It took a while for
us to get off the road and into the studio. It was unfortunate that
it took a while to get things going, but you know what? Once we got
the road travelling out of our system we were able to get the writing
underway. No need to really lull over ideas. It all came together
rapidly and that was a good sign. It took about half a year to
assemble the music, but once we got through that process, _Tuonela_
came together quite nicely."
"When we go into record, we wipe the slate clean and start from
scratch. Sure our past efforts are a guideline for us as to what we
have achieved as a band, but for the most part we keep it in focus as
the creative process goes. If we do go back and hear older stuff,
it's not to copy those styles or sounds, but more so for some form of
analysing of what we did previously and how we could have done things
differently."
A lot of different instruments were used on _Tuonela_,
everything from saxophone, sitar and even a flute. At any time did
Holopainen think using those varied musical instruments would disrupt
the varied style of Amorphis? Or did it enhance it? "A famous Finnish
folk artist [Sakari Kukko] played the flute on the record and it was
su
ch a great experience for us, as we have been big fans of his work
for years. Pasi [Koskinen; singer] met him in a bar and introduced
him to the band. Who cares what people think about us introducing a
flute into Amorphis' sound. It was an honour for him to play with us.
That's all that matters."
On newer bands, he comments: "I think there are a lot of bands
out there nowadays that are really into making their music stand out.
It's great to see that, but then there are all of these bands that
are picking up on trends and bringing nothing to the music scene
except more of the same band styles. Those bands don't survive.
Amorphis has always believed in being unique. Bands need to focus on
that."
Since early 1991, Amorphis has been a playing ground for
Holopainen. It's been a worthwhile experience for him to explore his
musical creativity. His love for music runs deep. "This all started
out as a fun thing to do. Y'know? Get in a band with friends and play
songs. It was fun. We were very lucky as a band, because it didn't
take long to get signed. We've been in a very lucky position for the
last few years with tours taking us outside our homeland of Finland
to play shows. It's gotten our name out and helped us to sell
records."
"Regardless of playing shows and selling records, it's still
about the making of the music", says Holopainen with a sincere tone.
"We want to be happy with what we do. Of course there are times when
you are mad doing this and it seems like there is no point continuing
on because you are lagged behind by label politics or just recording
the material. Sometimes you just want to get away from it all and
rest in your house with your wife and child. Y'know what I mean? This
industry takes away a lot and is quite demanding, but it also gives
back quite a lot."
So, in closing I ask, is this their best record? "Of course, it
has to be", says Holopainen quickly. "I mean, if _Elegy_ was our best
record, then why even release _Tuonela_, right? You always have to
think that the current record you have finished up is the best,
because that is your current musical creation. It symbolizes just
where you stand. Who wants to put out a record that isn't as good as
the last one? Not us. We always try to outdo ourselves and I think we
did that here with _Tuonela_."
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D A R K S O N G S O F E R E N N
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CoC interviews Alan Averill Nemtheanga of Primordial
by: Pedro Azevedo
_A Journey's End_ [CoC #33] still is definitely one of the
albums that I find most remarkable in my collection as far as musical
personality goes. Primordial's latest full-length effort is unlikely
to seize the listener upon first spin, but it can grow -immensely- on
any fan of doomy music if it is given the chance. By mixing complex
songs full of marvellous details that reveal themselves with repeated
listens and three shorter songs that really inject variety into the
album, Primordial have created one of those albums in which every
song clearly seems to be there for a specific reason and not just
because they had some spare riffs they could use for another track.
The following is an in-depth snail-mail interview with the Irish
band's charismatic vocalist Alan Averill Nemtheanga.
CoC: Many bands out there just want to put together some musical
ideas, a band name and cover art that will capture the potential
buyers' attention, and release albums. _A Journey's End_,
however, seems to have been made in a different way. I think
there must have been a lot of thought and care put into lyrics,
cover art and, of course, music in order to make it all work
together. What was the process that led to this final unity of
music, lyrics and artwork?
Alan A. Nemtheanga: You are right pretty much. A lot of time,
thought, arguing and deliberation goes into the
songwriting. We are pretty slow songwriters and
this is really due to our attitude towards the
songs. We never let anything we aren't totally
happy with into the songs. There are albums worth
of discarded riffs out there! We try and approach
the songs as a whole particular feeling or
atmosphere rather than simply riffs juxtaposed
together. As for the lyrics, I simply write when
I feel the need or the urge to write and I try
and place the lyric or words most fitting to the
music's atmosphere in rehearsal and gradually it
all comes together. Things like artwork are
really my department, so to speak; generally I
either have too many ideas or we are so
concentrated on the music that after recording we
are left with very little visual compliments. The
process that leads to all this is unwavering
commitment to never compromise our music and our
vision, irrespective of trends or scene changes.
We play whatever the fuck we want... exclusively.
CoC: Please tell me more about the album cover. What does it
represent within the album's concept and how did you find it? It
seems to have a certain antique look to it, or else it has
probably been made to look that way, and seems to fit the lyrics
and music in a way.
AAN: Strange you should mention this. Actually, originally we had a
different cover and we had all settled upon it, but Misanthropy
[Records] hated it and put pressure on us to change it... and my
biggest regret with _A Journey's End_ is that I listened [to
them] and changed it. The original cover was more suited to the
lyrics. The cover you see is a very quick job by master Stephen
O'Malley and, while not being exactly as I wanted, it does
reflect the sombre, natural and earthy feel to the music. It's a
photo from the turn of the century, even though it doesn't look
like it. Some people call it "The Brown Album"! The logo should
be in gold and be much bigger, which is also very annoying. The
vinyl version [on Hammerheart Records] will have the original
cover.
CoC: There has been, in my opinion, quite a progression in your music
since the _Imrama_ days, even though it was a good debut album.
How would you describe that progress?
AAN: There was a long gap between albums and it's natural that we
would evolve as individuals and musicians. I am still very proud
of _Imrama_ and it was good for its time and the circumstances
under which it was conceived, but it has its flaws! As musicians
we have come to understand music theory and structure and have a
greater understanding of what it takes to write a Primordial
song. As people we have also evolved, how we look at the world
and how we relate to each other as individuals has grown and
evolved. Our songs now are more mature and coherent than
before... with a greater compliment of light and shade. We have
come to understand that the violent parts shall sound even more
so when placed with sombre and melancholic movements. We are
always evolving.
CoC: I was quite glad to still find some harsher vox on _A Journey's
End_, which in my opinion work very well with the clean vocals,
which have also improved. Will you keep using them in the future?
AAN: Like I said, light and shade! I try and utilize as many
different vocal styles as possible, I try and enhance whatever
atmosphere that particular song may have. There are many
different vocal styles on _A Journey's End_ and in the future I
will do anything and everything that adds to the music.
Primordial will always also have harsh vocals... that is
something I will never leave behind. Our roots are black metal,
and there will always be something of that in the music. Like I
said, whatever suits the music the best...
CoC: Your clean vocals on _A Journey's End_ are often among the most
emotional I've ever heard. What overall feelings and experiences
do you try to portray through your vocals? Where do they come
from, what is it that generally inspires you?
AAN: Thank you. Basically, the lyrics are a very personal thing and
this "personal" quality is something that very much goes into
the singing. Basically I try and put every part of me, to put my
soul into the songs. That is what you are hearing. I'm just
trying to enhance the atmosphere in the most fitting way
possible. Whatever the lyrics may be about is what I am trying
to get across. The passion and conviction. To properly explain
my inspirations is a long and very detailed text... and I
wouldn't want to bore you! What you are generally hearing is the
way it is. I do get inspiration from other singers, I'm
-totally- in awe of Eric Adams [Manowar], David DeFeis [Virgin
Steele], Johan Langqvist [first Candlemass album], Messiah
Marcolin [Candlemass], Ronnie James Dio, etc, etc...
CoC: What's the story behind the remarkable "The Dark Song" of Erenn?
And who, or what, is Erenn?
AAN: Erenn is Ireland... in old Irish (language). The lyrics are
simply an invocation of our country by 13th century heathen poet
Amergin Glungel. The words are mighty... dark, tragic and
evocative, we had to put it to music. It says more about Ireland
than I could ever... it is the perfect invocation of Erenn. Dark
and tragic. I don't think you're going to hear a track like this
on any metal album, really!
CoC: I find "Autumn's Ablaze" a very beautiful, emotional track --
your vocals and lyrics and also the music. Can you tell me more
about it?
AAN: It's difficult to dissect songs or to take them out of context.
"Autumn's Ablaze" uses the imagery of the passing of the seasons
to convey a feeling of immense loss. It reaches the depths the
soul can go in resignation and realizing that some things you
may never have... to simply dream them is the only key. The
feeling of being alone and questioning your worth, and your
place in the world. However, it is not a negative or pessimistic
song... it respects the beauty in the unattainable... from
everything to a woman, a place, a time, an emotion. It does not
have an answer, but it never really poses a question?!...
Falling from grace is a beautiful thing to behold!
CoC: The title track's lyrics seem to be related to the
political/religious situation in Ireland. What are your thoughts
on this and on that whole situation?
AAN: Not really, I never really thought of it in that way until after
the song was done; it seemed somewhat poignant. A slight
reflection on our troubles. Again, this song deals with loss...
seeing a people lose touch with their natural surroundings...
wondering aloud is this what so many died for... for this
society. An honourless society. But it is not an aggressive
lyric. More a malign deep seated remorse at a people losing
their fire! In a way, it is similar to what Ihsahn [from
Emperor] is saying in "The Loss and Curse of Reverence", only
not as bitter or aggressive. It is saying there are lessons to
be learnt... but no one pays attention... and I am not a
teacher. Let them be the architects of their own demise...
CoC: You use many Irish elements in your music, which certainly helps
to make you quite a unique band. Besides the fact that those
elements do strengthen your music, how important is it for you
that people will recognise you as being an Irish band?
AAN: To be recognised as being Irish is a very important thing for
us; whether we like it or sometimes not, we are seen as
ambassadors or standard bearers for our country, being the most
well-known band from Ireland. We are of course proud of our
culture and heritage and of course living here does affect our
music. We do have an Irish feel, but we don't like to be blatant
and obvious about it... we are subtle. We like to confound
people's expectations that we should be recycling Celtic myths
and ripping off traditional music. We forge our own sound. Being
Irish will always affect us and be a part of us, and we are
comfortable and proud of that fact.
CoC: "Solitary Mourner" is a very unique, very emotional track which
can really reach deep inside the listener. What were the ideas
behind it?
AAN: I guess it is a little strange, I didn't really think about it
at the time, but looking back "Solitary Mourner" is a rather
public exorcism, and an uncomfortable listen for many people.
The title "Solitary Mourner" is slightly lifted from a Leonard
Cohen track called "Queen Victoria". The track itself has more
than a little nod in the direction of Leonard, as he is a little
bit of an idol of mine. I think that enough of me has gone into
that song that I don't need to explain it, really. Let's just
say it's a paean to loss, self loathing, dejection and
depression. In case you can't hear it!... [Highly unlikely. --
Pedro] A suicide anthem for all the kids, huh?!
CoC: "Bitter Harvest" is indeed a rather bitter song, I'd say. Your
vocals are more aggressive there than anywhere else on the
album, moreso than on "Graven Idol" where you also use harsher
vox; they are especially harsh towards the end of the song,
where you practically scream out the last few words. That song's
lyrics are also particularly intense, too. What made you choose
to finish your participation on the album like that? What do you
want to express with it?
AAN: The bitter tone of the lyrics lent itself to be screamed, and we
will never leave those vocals behind. It wasn't on purpose, but
it was good to bring the album to a close with something really
aggressive and violent and then let the listener come down with
"An Aistear Deirneach". "Bitter Harvest" is just my vitriolic,
bitter and violent scathing attack on the grey mass of society.
At the grey ugliness. It is inspired by a book called "Journey
to the End of the Night" by Celine (Louis Ferdinand, French
author) and it is a grim and depressing, yet compelling, littany
of human failure, compromise, misery and dejection. "Bitter
Harvest" is an open expression of contempt and misanthropy
towards "them". Never let the bastards grind ya down.
CoC: Overall, I feel that every song on _A Journey's End_ has a lot
of personality, the songs all have their own identity. Did you
specifically want to make sure this would happen?
AAN: Definitely, each song has its own feel, Primoridal is definitely
a band that you can put tunes to the names of the songs in your
head. They are all memorable and distinct. We put a lot of work
into the songs to make them so. That sense of identity is
perhaps our strongest point... no two songs are really that
similar.
CoC: I know you have left Misanthropy; for some reason, I felt your
band, for several reasons, sort of fitted well with that label,
or at least with it's name. What happened? What's the story
behind your signing for Hammerheart?
AAN: Well, Misanthropy is folding... finished. It's being sold. [I
didn't know that at the time I wrote the questions, obviously,
but indeed, unfortunately, Misanthropy have confirmed that they
shall cease their activities this Summer. -- Pedro] So, really,
we had no choice. Besides which, things were not going very well
and the label had painted itself into this "avant garde"
leftfield label... that critics love but doesn't sell... and
doesn't get tour support. It is better for Primordial to be on a
more metal label as we are a live band... we want to tour and
get out there, not only remain obscure and a musical elitist's
choice. We want to get out there, play festivals, let as many
people hear us as possible. We want to see the whites of
people's eyes down the front, my friend. As metal was intended.
Well, with Hammerheart, we know Guido for years and he's a good
friend... and an '80s child also! We'll be OK there... however,
no label is perfect, to say the least.
CoC: A new EP is supposed to come out on Hammerheart now. What can
you tell us about it as far as the changes in your style and the
contents (new material, something else) of the EP are concerned?
Is there a release date yet?
AAN: There will be two new tracks and two reworkings of old songs.
Overall, it's more uptempo, heavier, more direct and it has a
greater emphasis on light and shade, i.e., when it kicks ass it
does just that and when it's grim or melancholic it's just that.
People, I think, expected us to go off in a sort of folk tinged
Led Zeppelin avant garde direction, but if anything this is more
metal than ever... but still very Primordial. I'm confident
about it... it's very focused and together. Another new journey!
It should be out in late May: _The Burning Season_.
CoC: What is the situation concerning your next full-length album?
AAN: We hope to do it in the Autumn and for it to be out at the end
of 1999! It promises to be an epic work. More mighty and rousing
than before. We'll see, time shall tell. It will be on
Hammerheart Records.
CoC: In which ways do you think Primordial's music will develop in
the future? Where do you think your sound is headed?
AAN: As I've just said, the music will take each one of our
characteristics and work on it further, i.e., the light and
shade of the music will be more extreme. A lot of diversity and
experimentation, yet also more straightforward heavy metal
sensibilities. More epic and barbaric, yet also more
melancholic... and darker again!
CoC: What are your plans regarding concerts and perhaps touring?
AAN: We want to!... I've been in the band for eight years, Ciaran
[Mac Uilmm, guitarist] and Paul [Mac Gawlaigh, bassist] have
been playing for eleven years! We have paid our dues... we want
to get to Europe and play. Hammerheart will hopefully sort this
out. It has to happen this year. We are hungry for this.
CoC: Based solely on each band's characteristics, I think Primordial
and Anathema playing live together would be an outstanding
combination. What do you think about that? Any chance it will
ever happen (if it hasn't yet)?
AAN: Actually, we've played with Anathema twice here in Ireland. That
would probably work pretty well. I think we could really tour
with anyone, except for brutal death metal bands or something.
Rotting Christ, My Dying Bride, Moonspell, Katatonia... whoever.
Anything, really!... Well, apart from Gorgoroth or Internal
Bleeding or something.
CoC: Feel free to add anything left untold which you would like to
make known...
AAN: Thanks for your time and your effort. We appreciate it. I wish
you your will. Watch out for the new MCD and hopefully we'll see
you down the front in Portugal or wherever you happen to be
reading this. Until then. Hail and kill...
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A S H E S T O A S H E S , D U S T T O D U S T
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CoC interviews Gordan Cencic of Ashes You Leave
by: Pedro Azevedo
Amidst the current flood of bands allegedly playing doom metal
with lead female vocals, only a few have a doom component strong
enough to justify that label. Ashes You Leave are one of those. Not
hiding behind the "gothic" doom metal with female vocals label that
has become so fashionable lately (undeniably with some occasional
fine results as well), Ashes You Leave have released a very worthy
follow-up to their doomy debut _The Passage Back to Life_ all the way
from Croatia, and it turns out to be one of the best doom metal
albums I have heard in a while: _Desperate Existence_ [reviewed in
this issue]. Drummer Gordan Cencic answered my e-mail questionnaire.
CoC: Most people (myself included) know very little about the
Croatian metal scene. I personally only know Castrum, besides
Ashes You Leave, of course (and I must say I prefer Ashes You
Leave by far). Would you like to tell us more about Croatian
metal?
Gordan Cencic: The metal scene in Croatia is very poor, and it's
fading away more and more every day, because simply
the bigger media are constantly trying to destroy the
"Metal world". Small individuals are destroyed as soon
as they show themselves a bit. Here rules the politic
that says that all that is "metal" is bad. But still
there are a couple bands and fanzines that are alone
against everybody. Hail to them! Ashes You Leave is,
together with Castrum, the only band that has, in the
last twelve years, succeeded to break abroad, and we
are also the only doom metal band in Croatia. Besides
us, there is still a small number of metal bands, but
their activity is very hard to hear.
CoC: You have been producing some very doomy music; what everyday (or
other) influences cause this?
GC: Doom metal is, for us, a way of living and creating, and because
of the fact that it was created by the gathering of not too
optimistic people, it was the most appropriate musical style for
us. Besides religion, which is one of the greatest sources of
inspiration for us, our creativity is "helped" by this decadent
world around us.
CoC: What about musical influences? I can find some clear doom/death
influences in your music, but it remains a bit different from
the usual; I can say the same about the female vocals.
GC: If we are speaking about influences in the music of AYL, then we
can freely talk about My Dying Bride, Cathedral and Pink Floyd,
but in our future work we will try to remove any other influences
from our music. Regarding the female voice, I can only say that
we didn't want a standard female gothic voice, a girl sounding
like a seven year old; we wanted a strong female voice.
CoC: In my opinion, you are also a lot doomier than most bands who
use lead female vocals. Do you agree? Why does this happen?
GC: I'm not 100% sure that we sound a lot more "doomy" than other
bands who are using a female leading voice, but there must be
some truth in your claim; I think that mainly it's due to Dunja's
voice and the honest expression of all band members while we
create music, contrarily to some other doom bands, who think that
this music is simply a good trend and end up growing into
complete boredom and slight comedy.
CoC: What's happened in the band, musically, between the releases of
_The Passage Back to Life_ and _Desperate Existence_?
GC: In time, we started to experiment more and more with other
musical styles, so that we could express ourselves more
completely. Besides that, we have also grown as persons and
musicians.
CoC: Why did you choose the title _Desperate Existence_ for your new
album?
GC: The album _Desperate Existence_ is composed of almost hysterical
depression. The band was in that kind of state because of all
kinds of problems created by some ex-members, and during that
period of time the chances that our second label Arctic Serenades
would fall apart were getting bigger and bigger. This really
happened, and then we didn't even think Morbid Records would be
interested in AYL. In fact, you can say that we were really in a
state of complete despair.
CoC: What exactly is depicted on the front cover of your new album?
GC: Regarding the cover page of the new album, it represents a fallen
angel who changes from a sacral shape into damned shape
(desperate existence). It's symbolised with a shadow stretching
from a normal cross that's in a gothic window, which mutates from
the sight of the fallen angel, in the form of an inverted cross,
which the angel is entering.
CoC: The fourth track on _Desperate Existence_, "Et Vidi Solem
Evanere", and also the last one are quite different from the
rest of the album; I personally like "Et Vidi Solem Evanere"
very much. What were the ideas behind these tracks? What were
you trying to achieve with them?
GC: Like on the first album, there are songs which we thought we
would present much better in a classical way, or in another way
without using guitars and drums. It is simply our choice, and
besides that I think that an album is more interesting with some
more variety.
CoC: Now that you have a new album out, what do you think your music
will evolve into next? What changes do you see as most likely to
happen in your music soon?
GC: Like I mentioned before, AYL is still developing, and let's say
that it will continue to use a lot of elements of Croatian folk,
and let's say that the new material will have a bit more of a
gentle sound. It will all be placed in an atmosphere of
melancholy and depression, so we will still be playing our own
style.
CoC: What are your plans for the near future? Do you see yourselves
leaving Morbid Records and signing for a larger label?
GC: Our near future plans are tied with putting out our third album,
but there is still a lot of work to do, and also eventually a
Summer tour. Regarding Morbid Records, we are still planning to
stay with them, because they are really highly professional, and
besides they represent a big second family for us.
CoC: Are there any words you would like to add to conclude the
interview?
GC: Don't ever give up, because only the brave are winning, and keep
the doom flame burning!!
Contact: Gordan Cencic, Franje Candeka 23b, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia
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F R O M H E R E T O T H E U N H O L Y L A N D
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CoC interviews Jurgen Bartsch of Bethlehem
by: Aaron McKay
In the not too distant past, I spun Bethlehem's new MCD,
_Reflektionen auf's Sterben_ [see CoC #38], and found myself reeling
on the floor from its severity. After an elongated recovery period, I
possessed enough presence of mind to dial the number for Bethlehem's
label, Red Stream, get them on the phone, and set up this interview.
Damn fine move, too, even if I do say so my damn self, thank you;
otherwise I would not be able to share some of bassist/founder Jurgen
Bartsch's insight with you, the devoted CoC reader. I highly
encourage you to pour over the e-mail exchange between myself and
Jurgen keeping in mind the periodical translation predicaments that
arise when your interviewee is as German as the eccentric music that
he creates. Enjoy!
CoC: Before we get into some of the complexities of Bethlehem's
music, can you relate a little bit about the band's history for
the Chronicles of Chaos readers, maybe to include Klaus Matton
and Marco Kehren's departures from Bethlehem, please?
Jurgen Bartsch: Bethlehem was formed late summer 1991 by Jurgen
Batsch (bass) and Klaus Matton (guitar). A first demo
was done in September 1992, another one followed
March 1992 and was re-released as a 7" _Thy Pale
Dominion_ in August 1993 by Nightmare Records (a
skinhead label) in our hometown [re-released by Red
Stream in 1995]. [At the] end of 1993 we got our
first record deal with Adipocere Records from France,
which resulted in the _Dark Metal_ CD, which was
released in August 1994. After the debut album, we
changed record companies again, [this] time to work
with the masters of pure horror and sickness, Mr. Red
Stream. This partnership resulted in _Dictius te
Necare_ (1996), _SUiZiD_ (1998) and the _Reflektionen
auf's Sterben_ MCD (1998). Bethlehem is destined by
lotsa member changes, because Klaus and me [always]
want to sound different from album to album. That's
the reason why Marco Kohnn just did the _SUiZiD_
album with us, although he never got [to be] a main
member. He just did the vox thing for the last album
because we just needed some more help. He was never
planned as a full member, although he can [be] seen
in the photos in the CD booklet. This just shows what
friendship means to us, because Marco still is one of
our very best friends ever. Probably he will add some
vox lines on the next album too. [I] must think about
that. Just Cathrin stays as full member and mainly
will sing the next album again [the] way she did on
_SUiZiD_, although nearly everybody thought her vox
were sung by Marco Kehren. <laughs> Marco [is] now on
his fourth full album with Deinonychus. This time [I]
play the bass. The album will be recorded in August
1999 by Marco, myself and probably the new/old Cradle
of Filth drummer.
CoC: Tell me about "Wolfsstunde" ("The Wolf Hour"). What possessed
Bethlehem to rework this particular song from the _Dark Metal_
album? And how, in light of these new versions of "Vargtimmen",
does the band look upon the original song?
JB: The original song is quite okay, but we like new versions
[better]. They're just better played, arranged and, of course,
recorded. Doing covers of [our] own albums has a long tradition
in Bethlehem and started with "Verschleierte Irreligiositat" on
the _Dictius te Necare_ album. This song is a _Dark Metal_ cover
song of "Veiled Irreligion". Damn, we liked the idea [of]
covering ourselves instead of other bands, although we did an
Iron Maiden cover of "Where Eagles Dare" [_Piece of Mind_]. But
this song was originally done for an Iron Maiden tribute, but
never was used for this. It can now be heard on the Red Stream
compilation CD under the German title "Tiermutter", which
[translates] in English to mean "Animal Mother". Basically this
song [was] more [of] a Bethlehem song than an Iron Maiden one,
because we don't like just copying the original version. This
would bore us to death and still is another reason why we hate
doing covers of other metal, or whatever, band. No, we go on
copying ourselves because this means pure fun, sickness and
horror. <laughs>
CoC: As far as you know, was there a cry from Bethlehem fans for more
of a return, if you will, to Bethlehem's pioneering primeval
material found on _Dark Metal_?
JB: No! Definitely not. T'day, folks more are interested in the new
stuff, I guess, although _Dark Metal_ sold thousands of copies in
Europe (and still sells).
CoC: Why did the band opt to place "Vargtimmen", in different forms,
in two distinctive ways on the MCD _Reflektionen auf's Sterben_
("Reflections on Dying")?
JB: I dunno. Maybe this time we fell too much in love with our own
covers and wanted to have it [on the release] twice. One version
destined by keys and vox; the other by loud guitars.
CoC: What exactly is taking place with regard to the discussion on
the final track, six, on _Reflektionen auf's Sterben_? Whose
music or what song can be heard in the background toward the
beginning of the track?
JB: The "Tiermutter" [Iron Maiden] cover can be heard in the back of
this "soap opera". The "discussion" is about drugs. Some lame
junky came [into] my flat and asked me and Reiner Tiedemann (the
band's roadie) for some hard stuff, though he knows that Reiner
just deals with soft stuff. I got pissed about this asshole and
tried to beat him up. I'm successful while Reiner tries to save
my interior decorations. Reiner and me just wanted to record some
guitar/bass stuff before [the junky came in] and therefore
everything on this [track] was recorded on an 8-track recorder.
We decided to put this on the record to show everybody how crazy
and dull livin' in our hometown can be when every damn bastard
comes [in] your house asking for some stupid drugs and stuff.
It's the hood, man, and [even] today lotsa folks just come in my
house without ringing the doorbell; sometimes cops, sometimes
[heroin] junkies. It sucks livin' here.
CoC: I personally found the instrumental track, "Angst atmet Mord",
and "You Must Play With Yourself" (or "Du Sollst dich Toten") to
positively be a couple of the most powerfully crafted pieces
that I have ever heard from ANY band. "Angst atmet Mord" has a
strain of skilfully laid soulful black metal riffing pumping
through the course of the song, contrasted by the next track,
"You Must Play With Yourself", creating a torturous hopelessness
within both music and lyrics of that song. How is it that the
band can be so completely diverse, yet hold everything together
from song to song?
JB: Thank you very much, bro. We feel honoured by your words. Thanks.
Well, yeah, I dunno again. See, we can't control our songwriting,
because it just comes out of us; from our heart and soul and
sometimes our balls as well. We never practised a lot for an
album, e.g., _SUiZiD_ and _Reflektionen auf's Sterben_ [both
were] composed in a [couple of] weeks. We used every idea which
came [to] Klaus' and my mind and that basically was it. We always
think people will hate that diverse trash which means nothing but
fightin' boredom to us. We [take] long breaks during a year; just
hanging around, killing the next hippie we see. If we get too
bored killing hippies, we join the re-room and "write" another
stupid Bethlehem album, which basically is the whole story.
CoC: What is it like to be on the movie "Gummo" soundtrack with some
other very impressive groups like Absu, Bathory, and Burzum?
JB: This is nuthin' but K-I-L-L-E-R!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
CoC: How did Bethlehem come to pick "Schuld uns'res knocherigen
Faltpferd" and "Verschleierte Irreligiositat" for "Gummo"?
JB: It depends on Spider from Brooklyn who once asked us whether we
would be interested in doin' a song for the "Gummo" movie. We, of
course, agreed, and therefore she built up the contact with New
Line Productions. NLP sent us a contract and some good money and
we started to record a song called "Schuld uns'res knoch'rigen
Faltpferd's" (the song was written wrong on the soundtrack CD).
Unfortunately this can't be translated into your language. This
song was one of the two last songs we recorded with Landfermann
in the Burnt Gus music studio. Klaus had the idea for that song
and it was done in a day and a half. Personally, it's one of the
best Bethlehem songs ever, because it has ultra sick German
lyrics and fantastically combines different styles and directions
from fast black metal to soft commercial atmospheres. [I] guess
NLP liked that song most, because it [can] be heard [at] the end
of the movie instead of just the few seconds [during the movie
that] every other band and [their] songs [get]. [NPL] also bought
"Verschleierte Irreligiositat" from the _Dictius te Necare_ album
and used some notes [from that song] for the movie, too.
CoC: Winding down, are there any plans to tour the United States?
What does touring in general look like for Bethlehem in the
coming months?
JB: There are no plans to tour the States, because there's no money
in goin' overseas. We're really poor, and this is the truth, and
no promotion... We haven't got money to buy new clothes, CDs or
whatever. We just have some money to fuckin' exist! Definitely
-no chance- of goin' overseas! Definitely not! Although we, of
course, would all worship the idea [of] playing live in the USA,
one day. In the coming months there will be no touring in Germany
because Klaus and me want to start searching [for] new band
members for another full [length] album on Red Stream sometime in
1999 or 2000. As I said before, [I] must concentrate on
Deinonychus, as well as on another band that I am going to form
with some dudes. This new band will have nothing to do with metal
in general, but more with kind of commercial mixtures of techno,
club-house, drum and bass, trance and thrashy guitars, bass and
extreme vox in the German language again. Therefore... no time
for playing live at the moment.
CoC: I want to congratulate you and Bethlehem for being a powerfully
superior band in an ever increasingly crowded genre. Thank you
VERY much for your time and agreeing to do this interview.
Please end with anything you would like to relay on to the
Chronicles of Chaos readers.
JB: Thanks again, man, for your gigantic words and HAILS to all US
metalheads [Don't forget us Canadians! -- Gino]. Thank you very,
very much for your grateful support and help in the last years.
YOU ALL RULE!!! We luv ya -- Gepriesen sei der Untergang.
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O F E P O C H P R O P O R T I O N S
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CoC chats with Tino LoSicco of Epoch of Unlight
by: Aaron McKay
If Gorgoroth's _Destroyer_ is hardcore black metal, then Epoch
of Unlight's _What Will Be Has Been_ is searing genuine
quintessential black metal. I looked forward for quite some time for
the opportunity to exchange words via e-mail with EoU's (incredibly
intelligent) drummer, Tino LoSicco. When listening to Epoch of
Unlight, I personally find their music to be fantastically strained
across a vast chasm by an unimaginably complicated dual vocal thrust,
as well as an intelligible instrument differentiation. I asked Tino
about these intriguing aspects of the band, in addition to some other
points that I hope you find interesting. So, plant your ass in a seat
and take a look below at what Mr. LoSicco had to say.
CoC: I understand that you lost your second guitarist, Randy
Robertson, recently. What happened and how, if in any way, will
this affect EoU?
Tino LoSicco: Let's see. We actually lost both Randy and our bassist
Pierce. After the recording of the full-length album in
July, Pierce and Randy quit the band. Basically Pierce
quit because he got married recently and his wife had a
kid. He couldn't handle both the responsibilities of
playing in band and raising a family. His departure
came as no surprise to us because of waning interest he
had shown in previous months. His brother Joe
(identical twin, actually) has now taken his place.
Randy had actually informed us that he wanted to leave
the band earlier in the Summer, but that he would stay
until a replacement had been found for him.
(Unfortunately, the replacement that we found wound up
quitting due to lack of time and effort as well.)
Randy's departure from the band was due to personal
reasons in his life which were affecting his playing
and devotion to the music. So at this point the band
consists of Jason Smith (guitar and vocals), Joe Totty
(bass), and myself (drums). We are still taking
auditions for Randy's spot. It's just a slow process
due to the lack of musicians available in the area.
(And of course absolutely NO one wants to come to
Memphis.) Timing couldn't have been worse also, because
we've had so many shows coming to town that we've
gotten to open for. We've been stuck doing the shows as
a three-piece with Jason now handling all of the vocals
as well as guitars.
CoC: I have been curious about how the band came to utilize the
two-pronged attack with regard to the vocals -- one definitely
black/death in style and the other almost -serpentine- in sound.
Who is who and how did EoU come to uncover this complementary
dual-vocal assault?
TL: The lower vocals were performed by Jason and the higher vocals
were done by Randy. It was something that developed from the
lyrics I was writing and the need to inject different points of
view and personalities into the body of the stories. It
contributed more to the live shows as well.
CoC: What I absolutely -love- about EoU is the fact that every member
in the group's instrument can -clearly- be heard. As is so
pervasive in the black/dark/death metal arena, members and their
playing ability tend to get lost in the havoc of the music that
defines the band. This is -not- so with EoU. How do you manage
that?
TL: Thanks. Clarity and precision are actually two of the things we
stress in our rehearsals. It just doesn't make sense to put the
effort into creating a piece of music and then having it not
appreciated because of poor or sloppy musicianship. In the studio
we take our time to bring each part out. (That's why [there] were
only three songs on one of the older MCDs... studio expenses.) I
totally agree with you that many of the bands in this scene
suffer from indiscernible productions and lack of clarity. It's
unfortunate, because I would probably enjoy listening to more of
them otherwise.
CoC: Does the band emphasize one aspect, music or vocals, over the
other, or is it more of a unified front effort on the part of
all the members?
TL: The music always comes first. I don't believe in writing the
lyrics until the song is complete. The lyrics seem to have a
better flow rather than fitting a bunch of text to music. I do
try to outline the stories first... but it is a -very- rough
outline and still depends on the song structure.
CoC: Regarding _Black & Crimson Glory_, how in the world did you
record, mix -and- master the MCD in four days? Simply necessity?
Monetary?
TL: Both. Necessity in that it was during the school semester for me.
Monetary because we recorded at one the best studios in the city.
We were tired of the poor production we had gotten in the past
and all the wasted effort on our part for trying to bring our
individual instruments out. Previously used studios just didn't
have all the equipment that we needed access to. And, actually,
the CD was done in three days... the engineer needed a day off
before mixing to give his ears a rest.
CoC: _What Will Be Has Been_ is, in some small regard, a kind of a
compilation of EoU's earlier material with particular regard to
the last track from _Within the Night_, as well as all the songs
from _Black & Crimson Glory_ with some new songs, right?
TL: It wasn't meant so much as a compilation. It was just as I
mentioned before we felt the early releases were lacking in
production and that more appreciation for those 4 songs could be
gotten if we re-recorded them. We still close every show with
Immortal Crucify (and its the oldest song we play live). Another
factor in re-recording those songs was that we only released 500
copies of each MCD. We thought that this would give more people
access to the early material that might not have heard it before.
CoC: Is the song "Crimson Might (and Glory)" on _What Will Be has
Been_ a kind of continuation of an idea started on _Black &
Crimson Glory_?
TL: Both tie into the Brian Lumley Mythos of whom I draw great
inspiration from. (In case you are unfamiliar with his work,
Brian Lumley is an English horror/science fiction/fantasy
author). _Black & Crimson Glory_ represented more of a
personification of one of the characters in the lyrics. "Crimson
Might (and Glory)" describes an event in the life of the same
protagonist.
CoC: How did the early forms of EoU, like Enraptured and Requiem,
affect how the band is and how it sounds today? I think I
remember reading that there was a major change in writing style
from Requiem to EoU. True?
TL: Enraptured was more of a traditional US death/grind band. It was
a starting point for us. Both the writing and our early
musicianship were still -very- much in their infancies. Requiem
was more of an attempt to improve ourselves in both of these
areas. With the small line-up change, ideas became easier to
share and we pushed ourselves a little more to stand out. Requiem
is essentially what EoU sprang from. The name change was due to
the existence of about 20 other Requiems at the time. The major
change you mention was probably the change in vocal stylings, not
to mention the introduction of a slightly more "melodic" sound.
CoC: Where did the band come up with its current name?
TL: Jason and I came up with it one night after receiving the
hundredth flier for another band named Requiem. The name of the
band was derived from the individual meaning of the words
involved. Epoch literally is taken as "the beginning of a new and
important period in the history of anything". Unlight describes
the darkness or blackness that has always existed around man and
his kind. When combined, the two convey the ideology or
motivations behind the band's existence.
CoC: It has been my experience that The End Records is arguably one
of the best labels out there currently. A good case could be
made that you are the label's "strongest" band. What is it like,
being on The End?
TL: Andreas and Sergey have been very good to us. Andreas seems to be
working hard on promoting the label. We've even had some of
Florida's elite death metal bands come through here and even they
have mentioned The End Records. Andreas was very receptive to our
input as to album artwork and even contracted out the incredible
work on the cover. Also, both are very easy to talk to. It's more
like discussing music than business with them.
CoC: Okay -- "Silver Mistress" is phenomenal, as is "Immortal
Crucify" and "Conflagration of Hate", but what I am overwhelmed
by is "Ad Infinitum". The song is so impossibly complex. I have
yet to see a group do what EoU has done with incorporating works
from Shakespeare, Anne Rice, and John Milton in their music --
like on this song. What does "Ad Infinitum" mean to you?
TL: "Ad Infinitum" quite literally is Latin for "infinity" and again
is an analogy for one of the recurring motifs in the lyrics as
well as a tie in to the band name and belief itself. The song is
a result of trying to spend too much time writing one song...
taking a break from that song... and suddenly having a completely
different idea for a new song. I believe "Ad Infinitum" came
together faster than any of the other songs on the album.
CoC: Let's talk for a minute about the album cover of _What Will Be
Has Been_. I understand that it was done by an illustrator from
Dreamworks SKG.
TL: Yes. I believe his name is Jose' Luis de Juan. It was a cool
arrangement. I sent him my ideas for the artwork and he would
send sketches back to us before finally painting the full scene.
I like the way the packaging allows for the entire picture to be
seen without distorting it.
CoC: On the album, I noticed that the track listing on the back of
the release is not exactly the order that the songs are in. Was
this a last minute change of mind as to song order?
TL: No. This is a layout error on the part of the label. The list on
the back of the CD was sent to them months before we recorded as
just a list of the songs we were planning to record. The order
that the lyrics are in is actually the correct order.
CoC: What groups do you find yourself listening to these days and who
would you choose to hit the road with if the decision was left
solely to you?
TL: Well, being the huge Gene Hoglan fan that I am, I listen to any
project he touches. I've already worn out my copy of the new
Death album as well as Bal-Sagoth's _Battle Magic_ and the Iron
Maiden remasters. I'm a big thrash guy, too. I'm much more likely
to pop in Overkill's _Under the Influence_ or Dark Angel's
_Darkness Descends_ before listening to any death metal. There
are way too many other bands to list, but I'm always trying to
get ahold of something new -- anything where the band is pushing
themselves to create something new or create memorable music. In
that respect, I guess you could say I'm a fan of the Gothenburg
sound just for its mastery of melody. I think as far as touring
goes, we would be open [to] touring with almost any band playing
-heavy-, aggressive music.
CoC: The band is tentatively scheduled, as it was previously, for the
Milwaukee Metalfest this year, correct?
TL: Yes. We are set to play the Rave stage some time after seven in
the evening. It should be a step up from the 5:30 time slot we
had in the past. The Fest is to be the last stop on a two week
tour we are planning for the Summer with Mental Home.
CoC: Thank you -immensely- for this interview. Please allow me to
thank you from some associated with Chronicles of Chaos, as
well, for EoU's music. A FANTASTIC effort! You have the last
word...
TL: Thanks for the support of the band. Currently we are writing new
material for the next album, which will probably be released some
time early next year. As I mentioned previously, EoU is playing
Milwaukee and will play the Michigan fest if it happens this
year. For any more info on the band I can be reached by email at:
tlosicco@cc.memphis.edu or through our web site at:
www.people.memphis.edu/~tlosicco/EOU.htm YFLHD!
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C E L E B R A T I N G M E T A L ' S P A S T
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CoC interviews Witchery
by Adrian Bromley
Accept, W.A.S.P., Judas Priest and the mighty Black Sabbath.
Fuck yeah! Classic pioneering metal bands for us all to digest. It's
only right for us to pay homage to these bands. Witchery does. Just
what am I talking about, you say? Well, let's just say Witchery has
done it again.
Hot on the heels of their successful debut disc _Restless &
Dead_, the black metal charged, thrash/speed metal enhanced
supergroup disc out some of metal's finest classic with a rip roarin'
finesse that only Witchery could call their own. The MCD calling
itself _Witchburner_, showcases such covers as Accept's "Fast as a
Shark", W.A.S.P.'s "I Wanna Be Somebody", Judas Priest's "Riding on
the Wind" and Black Sabbath's "Neon Knights" -- plus three all-new
compositions.
Guitarist Jensen fills Chronicles of Chaos in on goods about the
MCD and upcoming Witchery material. "We have been listening to the
new material that we have just finished up today and it's quite good.
The MCD was a lot thrashier than the first record and the new record,
titled _Dead, Hot & Ready_, is very heavy metal oriented. It's faster
than _Restless & Dead_ and that just goes to show that we aren't
slowing down either. We've picked up the pace."
Continues Jensen, "This year we want to put out four albums and
we are going to achieve that. We have stuff ready to go. I think it's
great to be able to do this and have the drive to put out a good
amount of material within a year. For me, personally. I hate it when
it takes bands two or three years to have a follow-up record. I mean,
fuck that! If you like to play, write a song. Get the fuck away from
the Nintendo and write something. Basically, if you have ideas,
record them and put them out. We do."
So how did Witchery go about choosing these specific songs for
the release? There must have been hundreds of classic songs that
could have been covered. Right, Jensen? "We always had focused on
these songs, seeing that we had practised them a lot in rehearsals
and there was another one that didn't make the cut. It was "Screams
From the Grave" by Avator. We felt it didn't go along with the rest
of the choices, and plus we wanted to have a very '80s heavy metal
vibe going."
"We sat down as a group and discussed what was going to be
covered", explains Jensen. ""Fast as a Shark" was going in no matter
what. There was no discussion over that one. We all totally agreed it
needed to be covered. It's such a fucking great song. There was no
real fighting or heated discussions over what songs were to be
covered, though concerning the Black Sabbath cover there were some
ideas going around. I chose the Black Sabbath song and while there
was no arguing, I had to really present my case on why we should
cover it. It had to be covered. "Neon Knights" has Ronnie James Dio
singing on it. He has the best voice in metal."
"It turned out cool that we did the song", says Jensen. "I mean,
everyone who covers a Black Sabbath song always covers a song that
Ozzy Osbourne sings on. I got into Black Sabbath with the _Live Evil_
album and the first track is "Neon Knights". It only seemed right to
cover that song."
How does Jensen feel about bands covering songs? "I think it
shows great respect when bands cover other bands, but what I don't
like is when they cover songs just to get a boost out of covering it.
That is something I don't like. We covered these songs because we
felt that these songs were being overlooked by the metal collective
of today. Everyone was more into Dimmu Borgir and these fans hadn't
heard the _Restless and Wild_ or _Screaming for Vengeance_ albums.
These are great albums to discover and people need to know the
history of metal. That is why we did this. It wasn't to get a bigger
career move from covering these classics. We fuckin' love these
songs. They still kick ass."
Will there be another MCD of covers? "Never say never. Maybe not
four covers again, but maybe one or two here and there. Who knows? By
covering these four songs as close to the original as possible, I
think next time out we might change things around. For example, we
might do "So Tired" by Ozzy Osbourne and add like a double-bass drum
or something like that. Just soup up the songs so they can be a full,
hard-on Witchery song. We want to just rock out and play them as
Witchery should."
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I T A I N ' T A L L A B O U T F I S H I N '
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CoC Interrogates Canada's Dichotic
by: Adrian Bromley
Finally, after sometime of regrouping and pulling myself
together after a severe kicking from Halifax, Nova Scotia's Dichotic
and their disc _Collapse Into Despair_ [CoC #37], I managed to snag
an e-mail interview with two of its members: singer Raland Kinley and
drummer Neil Grandy.
Words cannot describe the vengeful anger and adrenaline that
sparks life into the powerful hybrid of death/grind metal found on
_Collapse Into Despair_. To tear a quote from my review in CoC #37, I
stated: "[...] Slamming down a driving force equal to that of a
tornado, Dichotic lash out at the listener with fierce death metal
anguish, rallying behind killer riffing and a vocal style that could
peel paint off a wall." A word of advice to all metal fans out there
craving good, solid metal. Look no further, Dichotic is here. These
guys deserve to be in the pages of CoC. They rule.
So, sit back and read what the guys from one of Canada's best
unsigned bands had to say about new material, metal music of the '90s
and the scene out East. Enjoy.
CoC: For a young, relatively unknown band, how hard is it to get your
material out there to the public? How do you get noticed?
Neil Grandy: Well, the band [the quintet is rounded out by guitarists
Jeff Calder and Richard Guy and bassist Scott
Armstrong], as it is now, has been around for about two
years. We really started about eight years ago. We
didn't do much the first six years, except piss people
off (bad shows, some bad songs). Over time we changed
the name and the members and started to write better
songs.
Raland Kinley: It's difficult to get people to notice our music. The
Internet is a great vehicle for distribution, but what
we'd really like is some exposure in one of the larger
print zines, like Metal Maniacs or Terrorizer, and the
opportunity to play some bigger shows. We've sent out
a lot of promos to zines big and small, printed and
online. So far, the reaction has been good.
Unfortunately, we live in Halifax, and the scene here
is small and immature. So we pretty much get the same
people coming to see us at every show. Death metal
just isn't that big here. Basically, we connect to the
underground scene through the Internet. It costs
almost nothing to set up and maintain a website, and
anyone from anywhere in the world can hear our stuff.
CoC: Major influences? How do you incorporate them into your music?
New material on the horizon?
RK: Vocally, I am influenced by Frank Mullen, Lord Worm and Barney
Greenway. I think I can sound a bit like all of these guys at one
time or another. Musically, I listen to death metal, traditional
metal, prog-metal, prog-rock, ambient stuff and some electronic
stuff. I really only reference the death metal vocalists for my
vocals. Lord Worm inspired me to try creating different sounds
with my voice. He was truly the master of extreme vocals.
NG: Influences... well, I hate to say it now, but Lars. I started
playing because of _... And Justice For All_. Then I heard
Suffocation and Morbid Angel and drumming as I knew it was
changed. It really wasn't until I heard _Human_ in '91 that
everything really changed; I wanted to start playing like that. A
few years ago I heard Cryptopsy and that kind of changed the way
I try to play, again. I still try to play the fast stuff, but
keep in mind the riff and think: "there doesn't have to be grind
behind every riff." Terry Bozzio is by far my favorite drummer
and I try use some of his fills in our songs, but what I get from
his videos and solos doesn't quite work in our stuff. But there's
no harm in trying.
RK: New material is in the works for our next CD called _Lowest
Common Denominator_. The newer material could be described as
stupidly hectic death/grind.
NG: The new music is a lot faster than our last CD. The songs contain
more riffs, but are generally shorter than on _Collapse Into
Despair_. We're just writing riffs and songs. We don't try to
write a fast song, so whatever you hear is just what we felt like
doing. Who knows what the next one will sound like.
CoC: Is it hard being a Canadian metal act? Some acts say it is --
are you experiencing that?
RK: I don't think the "being Canadian" thing hinders us too much.
It's -where- you live in Canada that can hurt. Living in Halifax
makes it difficult to play a show in the larger cities --
Montreal, for example.
CoC: Metal music seems to be coming back to a degree. Are you happy
with the bands playing metal no
wadays? If not, what changes are
needed to make things fresh in today's scene?
RK: Metal does seem to be coming back a bit these days, but I can't
say that there are a lot of new bands I'm listening to. A lot of
the veteran bands have become better. For instance, Cryptopsy is
really pushing metal to its most extreme limits. Emperor is doing
some cool stuff too, and Meshuggah is amazing. However, there are
too many horrible Korn/Pantera wannabe bands out there right now.
I find the Korn/Pantera styles of music to be extremely boring to
begin with, so all of their imitators are even more intolerable.
Today, metal needs more bands doing something original.
NG: Just don't bounce when you play. I hate that.
CoC: What other local metal acts are worthy of note in your neck of
the woods?
RK: There are only four others, so I'll mention them all:
Cephalectomy, Wohedness, Burning Moon and Terratomb. There's the
entire Halifax metal scene.
CoC: In terms of playing material and recording, what is the writing
process like for Dichotic?
RK: I write most of the lyrics and figure out my vocal parts. As for
the music, one of the other guys usually has a pretty good idea
of how a song's going to go before it's "auditioned" for the rest
of the band. Everyone starts throwing things in, and eventually
it's a "song".
NG: Writing songs is basically us sitting around listening to riffs
and then deciding which one of them will go next. It is very rare
for someone to come in and say they have a whole song done. But
it does happen. Scott [bass] is usually the one with complete
songs. We'll listen to it and then learn it.
CoC: Do you think most younger bands get neglected unless they have a
particular sound or schtick?
RK: This can happen easily and I'm sure it does, but even if a young
band is not playing stuff that is 100% original, if they can
execute their material with a lot of poise and authority, they
will get noticed by fans of metal. Being 100% original in metal
probably isn't possible. Otherwise, your band probably wouldn't
be identifiable as metal. Getting noticed depends a lot on who
you know and where you live. Having talent can help, too.
Gimmicks only go so far, it's really about music.
CoC: Is this a full-time gig for you, or do you still concentrate on
job and/or school? Are you pursuing this to become a full-time
job?
RK: Dichotic is not a full-time thing at all. We all go to school or
have day jobs. We get paid nothing for shows around here, and we
certainly don't recover the investment we put into our
recordings, so it's necessary that we do other things. If
Dichotic could be a full-time job, I would do it, but I think
that the chance of this happening is remote. On the other hand,
keeping it as an expensive "hobby" keeps it pure, in a way. We're
doing this because of the music, not for any financial reason. If
money ever became an influence on the music, well, that'd be the
end of it.
CoC: Any label interest yet?
RK: Not really. We're hoping our next CD and playing a few larger
shows in Quebec might create some more label interest, but it's
not something we're really concerned with. Relapse liked
_Collapse Into Despair_ enough to list the CD in their mail order
catalog, but nobody is knocking down our door to sign us. They're
too afraid. <laughs>
CoC: What do you get out of the music of Dichotic? Feelings? Emotions?
RK: For me, playing in Dichotic is a once in a lifetime opportunity.
I just love playing live and being able to go insane for 40
minutes onstage and have people appreciate it. It's a rush. Few
people ever get to produce a CD to call their own or perform for
an audience. At the end of the day, I'll be able to say I
accomplished both of these things and I had a lot of fun doing it.
NG: I don't really get anything from playing Dichotic's music. I
mean, I started out playing one way and this is where it went. I
didn't try to play like this, so doing "this" is part of how I
play. As far as feelings and emotions go, I mainly get pissed off
when I play bad. But the music doesn't make me feel a certain way.
CoC: For how long will you do this until you give up? Will you ever
stop playing/singing music?
RK: Dichotic will continue as long as we all live close enough
together that we can rehearse and write new music. If our more
sane careers carry any one of us elsewhere, Dichotic will come to
an end. Unfortunately, there aren't enough other musicians in
Halifax with either the talent, interest or stubbornness to
replace a member of Dichotic, should one of us leave. There is no
timeline for when something like this might happen, but it is
inevitable. I don't know of any other bands in Halifax looking to
play in this genre in the future, so for me, Dichotic is probably
going to be my only gig.
NG: I think I'll always be playing drums, but who knows what style.
CoC: Any last words, gripes, etc...?
RK: If you are interested in Dichotic, check out our official website
or the Discorporate Music website. Thanks to Adrian and CoC for
the interview.
Contact: Dichotic, 2476 Robie Street, #8 Halifax, NS B3K 4N1, Canada
Phone: (902) 423-6828
mailto:dichotic@hotmail.com
WWW: http://is2.dal.ca/~rfguy/dichotic
WWW: http://home.istar.ca/~discm
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I N F E S T I N G F O R T H E F U T U R E
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CoC talks to David Hirshheimer from Infestation
by: Paul Schwarz
Since the bones of Carcass (one of the best death metal bands
ever to exist) were ground into dust three years ago, there has not
been a band who have made me feel that the UK still has a serious
player in the death metal arena -- that was, until a few months ago.
Infestation are the best death metal band from the UK I have heard
who are currently in existence. The band's _Curse of Creation_
demo/EP [CoC #36] impressed me greatly and I was prompted to seek out
this interview with drummer David Hirshheimer. Here are the spoils of
our little conversation about where Infestation have spent their past
and where their future may lie, along with plenty about the band's
invigorating present...
CoC: Could you give a brief history of the band and tell us how you
got together originally?
David Hirshheimer: I used to play in a band called Hangnail, who are
now semi-famous. That was about three years ago.
Jamie [Evans, guitar] was a really good friend of
mine, he used to play in a band called Mind
Disorder, and our two bands used to play together.
So eventually we thought, "Well, we both like the
same style of music -- death metal --, so let's
just form a band". So we left our bands and formed
a band which was to become Infestation. We came up
with a few good songs, thought we needed to
expand. We started advertising, which didn't
really work, and [then] we met up with Dave
[Samuel, vocals] and Joe [Giuseppe Cutispoto,
guitar], who were in a band called Domination
together, [at] a Cannibal Corpse gig in 1996. So
we met up, they came 'round to my house to watch
me and Jamie play what we had got together, and
they liked it, and that's it, basically. And
fifteen songs later or whatever we're going quite
strongly.
CoC: Before _Curse of Creation_, had you done any other demos?
DH: No. So we were really lucky we got the lucky break with the EP.
The engineer we knew just said: "I work in the studio and the
guy's gone away, come along and we shall see what we can do."
Amazingly enough we done it in... well, it was a day, but it was
actually six hours we had to do it in.
CoC: That's pretty spontaneous.
DH: It was very rushed and if I'd had more time I would have spent a
long time recording, but because we were on a time limit, I just
had to say "all right, that's good enough".
CoC: So you were relatively pleased with it. How well do you think it
represents the band's sound?
DH: Well, I have to admit I don't know what our live sound is like,
but from what I'm told, because we've got triggers on the kit and
the guitars are so distorted, the overall sound out of the front
of any PA is meant to be a crystal clear, perfect sound. I find
it hard to believe because I can't hear [it]. But people are just
saying: "You don't need the bass player, because you've got the
low-end of the kick-drums and you've got the low-end of the
distortion and it just comes out in a perfect spectrum of
frequency." So we just don't feel we need it. When we formed the
band, I was like, "We've got to have a full set-up here, we've
got to have the bass and everything in it", and when we started
playing together it was very much like, "I'm not sure about this,
I don't really want a bass player now". The amount of people who
come up and say "You must have a bass player", but why? Then
there were people saying "You don't need one", so everyone's got
mixed feelings.
CoC: So [getting a bass player] is certainly not a primary concern.
DH: I don't think it is, but there's obviously people in the industry
who'd like to see us with one. I think also [though], it is a way
of making the band look slightly different, unique in a way, you
know, each band's got their own sort of way of doing things: some
use make-up, some use extreme styles of music, we just don't use
a bass player. And, for us, we feel it works. If some people
don't agree, fine, you know.
CoC: I think it varies from band to band.
DH: Yeah, sure, you can listen to certain styles of music -- death
metal is one of them styles where if you stick too much low-end
in you might take away some of the clarity of what's supposed to
be going on. Like the definition of the drums between the
guitars, because the drums and guitars are very close in this
music, they play a very important part together. In classical
metal, as I call it, you need a lot of difference between the
drums and the melodic parts of the guitar where the bass will
step in and help out.
CoC: I'd say it also varies from death metal band to death metal
band: it is probably more important to Cynic or Sadus than it is
to Deicide.
DH: Yeah, I mean with Deicide, to be honest, we went to see them on
Sunday [see CoC #38 for review] and you don't notice he's really
playing. He's just playing what the guitar's playing. With
Cannibal Corpse, I'd admit it's a different matter, that bloke
knows how to play and he plays along with the music, not to the
music, you know.
CoC: Alex Webster is a pretty impressive bass player.
DH: He is a very good bass player, but he's not just impressive in
that he can play the bass, but that he actually contributes a lot
to the music, he doesn't just follow what the guitars are doing,
the guitars are off on another planet and he's sticking very
close with what the drums are doing and the vocal patterns and
stuff.
CoC: What are the plans for recording any kind of full-length, and
what is the situation with material apart from _CoC_?
DH: Well the situation with material is -- I think we have about 15
to 18 songs, but we wouldn't obviously use all of them in a
recording situation, we might use 10 to 12. We keep the quality:
the fast ones, the slow ones, the ones that have really got
feeling and emotion put into them. Basically, if we can all
afford to, we might just go whack out another recording, but I
don't know if I can see the point in that. I'd rather wait and
get the final responses out of what we've just created with this
EP, because it seems to be doing well, we've picked up the
interview in Terrorizer, we've got on radio with it, we've got in
the Garage [London venue -- Paul] with it... it has brought a lot
of things, this EP. It has done a lot of business for us, so
maybe [that] will spark up high interests of business.
CoC: So at the moment you are hoping or looking to find a label to
release a full length or to re-release the EP?
DH: Well, it would be nice to have a label to let us know and say,
"We'd like to record with you". That would be nice, that would be
the dream future of this band.
CoC: Which label would you have in mind if you were thinking of a
label [to sign to]?
DH: It's a difficult thing to say in this country, I'm not amazingly
cued up about how the industry works, especially over here. I can
see that certain labels pick certain styles of music, and so on
and so forth. Here I can see that Music for Nations would be a
good one because I know they're a big label in this country.
Century Media pick a few things out of this country. I don't
know, the ideal one would maybe probably be something like
Roadrunner or something, something that has got a lot of good
death metal on, and we just have to pray for something like that,
I suppose.
CoC: What has inspired you or influenced you to play this kind of
music?
DH: Well, in the beginning we were very much into Deicide, Cannibal
Corpse, Morbid Angel, and Malevolent Creation especially.
Listening to their _Retribution_ album, we were like "Fuckin'
'ell, this is really good, we'd like to be able to play like
this" [I laugh -- Paul]. We were tryin' to nick ideas and steal
parts from there and make it into our own. But that was then, and
yeah, it reflects a bit on our music now, but when we play, when
we rehearse and when we create new material now, it is a
completely different thing. Someone comes out with a riff and
it's like, "This fits our style". It's not like, "OK, that sounds
like a Deicide riff, oh that sounds like Slayer". No, it's not
like that, it's like, "That sounds like what we're doing".
CoC: OK. Deicide concentrate a lot on the power and brutality of
death metal, whereas Cynic, and bits of Cryptopsy and other
bands, concentrate more on technicality and virtuosity. Which
aspect of death metal [from the above] do you think Infestation
embody more?
DH: Where do we fit into that? Yeah, you're right in saying that
Cryptopsy and the bands like Death and Cynic; they -are- very
technical and they know how to do that sort of stuff. And
Deicide, they've got slight technical parts in their music, but
their music is like a constant, flowing music, there's not a lot
of breaking up, there's not a lot of time changes; I mean, there
probably is, but you really have to sort of listen and pick 'em
out.
CoC: Mostly on _Legion_.
DH: Yeah, _Legion_ was a very technical album, I mean, for me to
listen to that and think about drums it's like "My God, what's
the boy on!" [I laugh, he chuckles -- Paul]. Yeah, but relating
that to what we're doing, we listen to a wide range of the death
metal [genre]. We like the Deicide sort of stuff, we like the
Cryptopsy stuff because the Cryptopsy, even though it's
technical, it's got some real nice feelings in it, very nice,
like, "Wow, the emotion that's coming out of that... fuck!"
CoC: Agreed.
DH: And we tried to pinch a bit of everything. We tried to pinch a
bit of technical, even though we're not masters at it, and we try
and pinch a bit of the Deicide... the running feel that they have
and try and just mix it up and see how it works.
CoC: So could you see the band, in a couple of years, using guitar
synths and going for creating more atmosphere?
DH: I don't know about that. Atmosphere is a very tricky situation in
the death metal business without using a keyboard and no-one in
the band is a real big fan of keyboards.
CoC: So no Nocturnus wannabes then. [I laugh]
DH: No, can't really say that. We're just more like drums, guitars,
vocals and... well bass you know about. <laughs> So, we just try
and create the best atmosphere we can with the tools we're using.
CoC: And it works very well.
DH: Yeah, it's coming along, you know. We got some really cool ideas
about how to structure songs and stuff, sort of muck it about and
see what fits; there's no real planning in our music it's just
what comes from our heart and what comes from our head and what
relates through to our hands and feet or whatever we're using to
play the instruments.
CoC: What's your position or plans as far as touring goes?
DH: Touring is a very tricky sort of thing [where] we're concerned. I
mean, everyone would love to do it, but you have to be dedicated
to the band 100% and everyone has to try and earn a living, keep
a job, keep a house and pay rent. So, for all four of us to just
say "Right, okay, we've got a tour to do, just drop everything,
jump in a van" -- I mean no-one's got enough money to do it
anyway, but if we could we would.
CoC: What do you think of England's attitude to metal?
DH: Poor. I mean, I don't know many other countries, I haven't
actually been to a lot of countries and seen what the metal
situation is like, but I just know, from magazines and people
telling me, that it's a lot better than here. And you know, I've
seen it when Slayer have been totally mobbed, I've been to the
Astoria to see Obituary and it's good to see that, and you don't
see it now, that's the sad thing about it. We were all hoping to
see Deicide at -the- Astoria, [the Astoria in London is split
between the LA2, downstairs, about 500, and the LA, upstairs,
about 1500 -- Paul], but we were really shocked to see that it
was the LA2; we wanted to see them play a big venue for once.
CoC: The UK sometimes seems to be bad at supporting scenes which are
growing, but it really varies. With death metal in the early
'90s and late '80s, this country produced a lot of good death
metal and grindcore bands [and John Peel, Radio 1 DJ, did
sessions with such bands as Napalm Death, Carcass, Extreme Noise
Terror and Bolt Thrower], but now it has kind of dried up. Apart
from yourselves and a few others there aren't that many UK bands
still doing this sort of music.
DH: That's the thing, we're always on the lookout to see what other
bands there are out there, in this country, playing this similar
style of music and, to be totally honest with you, in the
underground scene I have only seen about, maybe, four at the
most, but that's only in London. I can't speak for the rest of
the country because I haven't had a chance to get 'round to see
it. On the big scale, the bands who are signed, I can probably
name them on one hand. But that's the sadness of it, and it is a
pity.
CoC: Do you have a final message for the readers?
DH: Basically, just keep your ears open, keep it heavy, keep it
nasty, keep it brutal, forget all that fuckin' popular shit and
just... enjoy. It's about enjoyment, that's what I think.
[Since conducting this interview, David has left Infestation to join
Cradle of Filth as their new permanent drummer; I can't say I'm
surprised he accepted such an offer, but for me, personally, I would
rather he had stayed with Infestation. I hope that the band choose to
continue without him and that finding a replacement does not in any
way cripple the progression of their career from here onwards. I wish
them all the best and hope David is happy with his move. -- Paul]
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T H E S W E D I S H I N V A S I O N C O N T I N U E S
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CoC interviews Chrille Ludvigsson of Odeum
by: Pedro Azevedo
Odeum are one of Sweden's many new bands that emerge seemingly
every day to continue this Swedish metal invasion that has,
fortunately for the listeners, been going on for the past few years.
After releasing their _Factor of Tantrum_ demo [CoC #30], Odium have
changed their name to Odeum, released two more tracks under the title
_The Pleiadean Diaries_ [reviewed in this issue] and prepare more
songs for a very likely full-length release apparently bound to
happen in the future. Read about them now; you may well hear about
them in the future, if the band keeps progressing like they have been
so far.
CoC: Since you're still a young and unknown band, how would you
describe your style to our readers?
Chrille Ludvigsson: Well, I know it is a cliche, but the Gothenburg
scene has inspired us quite a bit; I guess I
don't have to mention any bands... We have
actually just recorded two new songs and they are
a little more eclectic in the sense that both
myself and our new guitarist have contributed to
the songwriting. Our lead guitarist Henrik wrote
all the earlier material.
CoC: Sweden has produced many talented death metal bands in the past
few years. How do you fit in such a competitive environment?
Does that worry you?
CL: Absolutely not! I mean, we are not playing music in order to
compete against other bands. In fact, bands here in Sweden tend
to be very supportive to each other and we have made good friends
in some bands. As you said, the environment is competitive, but
the bands themselves neither think nor worry about it. Not in my
opinion, anyway.
CoC: Which bands would you name as being most influential to your
music, and which ones are your favorites?
CL: Well... In Flames, Dark Tranquillity and At the Gates have been
great influences, but personally I am a bit tired of the overly
"happy" melodies that a few of these bands use; the riffs I write
tend to be a bit more melancholic and grim. I listen a lot to
Dimmu Borgir, Diabolical Masquerade, Opeth, Borknagar, Embraced
and other bands in that style. So I guess our music is a blend of
these different styles. Our new guitarist writes a lot of classic
heavy/power metal riffs, so that's another aspect that will be
incorporated into the music in the future. Keyboards are another
thing that we have begun to experiment with in the studio to a
greater extent than before; I am actually going down to the
studio right now and will work with some piano lines for the
newest songs.
CoC: Are there any lesser known Swedish bands you would recommend as
having a lot of potential (besides Odeum, of course)?
CL: Lesser known, ey? Hmm, we are good friends with a great
heavy/death band called Mortum; their debut was released on
Invasion Records a few months ago and it kicks ass! Dead Silent
Slumber is also very good; it is some kind of one-man project and
the music is incredible! Blazing Skies are also worth mentioning.
CoC: You have changed your band name from Odium to Odeum recently;
why? Was that because of Nocturnal Art Productions' band Odium?
CL: Partly; we discovered, after we had taken the name, that there
were about three or four different bands and zines called Odium,
so a change was just a matter of time. Odeum is a better name
anyway, and we are quite happy with it.
CoC: What else has gone on in the band since the _Factor of Tantrum_
demo?
CL: We have been looking for a second guitarist and, as I mentioned
before, he has been found in the form of Bjorn Lundberg, who is
an old friend of ours. We shared a rehearsal room with his old
band and when they split up he joined us. Other than that, we
have just been rehearsing, writing new songs and developing our
sound.
CoC: What's the next step after these two new songs, released under
the title _The Pleiadean Diaries_? Do you have a label contract
in sight yet?
CL: As I said earlier, we have just recorded two new songs and we
will send them and _The Pleiadean Diaries_ to suitable labels.
There have been interested parties but none who could give us any
financial support whatsoever, and we basically don't feel like
paying the studio cost for an album ourselves.
CoC: What do you aim to achieve with your band in the future? What
are your main objectives?
CL: A contract is of course our main objective at this point; we have
the material to make a killer album. There is nothing signed yet,
though. We're waiting for a reasonably established label, rather
than signing for the first cellar-based label that comes our way.
Our music deserves it! Otherwise we wouldn't be interviewed in
the biggest on-line metal mag now, would we? <laughs>
CoC: Any concluding remarks?
CL: Thanks a lot for the interview and be sure to hammer out more of
those great chronicles, man!! Visit our website, people! High
quality MPEG3 files are available!
Contact: mailto:odium666@hotmail.com
WWW: http://home8.swipnet.se/~w-81012
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S P A N I S H D O O M I S G R O W I N G
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CoC interviews Manuel Ponce de Leon of Soriben
by: Pedro Azevedo
Spain has never really been known for exporting a lot of quality
metal bands, and they certainly have never been known for their doom
metal, even if names such as Golgotha and Poetry may come to mind.
But there is one young doom metal band that has been very steadily
growing during the past few years: Soriben. Their promo CD _Ancestros
de Insania_ [reviewed in this issue] shows just how much this young
band has grown and how much of a promise for the future of Spanish
doom metal they are becoming. If the band is able to keep up the work
rate without losing direction, if they are able to keep growing like
they have been so far, they may very well have quite an interesting
future ahead of them -- this led to the following e-mail interview
with bassist Manuel Ponce de Leon.
CoC: Please tell our readers about Soriben's musical objectives.
Manuel Ponce de Leon: Since we started up the band, we have always
had two things in mind concerning our music: we
wanted it to be dark and we wanted it to be
metal. While we were growing as a band, our
sound went through several different stages,
from death metal to more doom-like stuff. Now
we are on the same track, but trying to merge
all our influences in a more rational and
experimental manner, because that's the only
way to create something unique and original.
But don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about
samples and techno stuff! We've always been a
metal band and we always will be, that's for
sure!
CoC: What are your main musical influences, which bands would you
name as being most important in the process that lead to the
music now played by Soriben?
MPdL: Mercyful Fate, King Diamond and Morbid Angel were the bands
that pushed us into forming Soriben. We've always admired
Mercyful Fate's and King Diamond's ability to create those dark
atmospheres, as well as the diabolical strength and intensity
of Trey Azagthoth's band. We wanted to transmit the same
feelings with our music that their albums transmitted to us,
not by copying them, but by doing it in a personal way. Other
bands that we all like, since we are into metal, are Death,
Deicide, Candlemass, Hypocrisy, Iron Maiden, as well as several
classical composers -- we also like the darkness of some Bach
pieces, for example, and that's something we always like to
work with. We've learned things from all of those bands and
many others, and we've used them in our own way.
CoC: You were all still quite young when you formed Soriben a few
years ago; how do you think that has affected the band's
progress?
MPdL: Yeah, that's true. Soriben began as one of those non-serious
teen bands, when we were only fifteen or sixteen years old.
Since then, we have had very few line-up changes. Musically, we
all have grown up [playing] in the same band and we are quite
comfortable playing together -- that's the positive aspect. On
the other hand, it was very difficult in those days -- hell, it
still is! -- to push with the band onwards, considering our age
and the few means we had -- crappy equipment and lack of both
money and experience. But thanks to the support of many people,
things are a bit easier now. Through these years we spent
together, we realized that the only thing that matters in a
band is perseverance. We are not in a hurry to become a "big"
band, we just want to write songs and do the best we can.
CoC: How satisfied are you with your promo CD _Ancestros de Insania_?
MPdL: Very satisfied. The songs featured in the promo CD have many
hours of work behind them, and this time the production is very
good. The studio work was also very hard, note that it was just
the second time for us in a recording studio and we had to
repeat some things hundreds of times! So we are very proud of
the promo CD. Anyway, only the people's response can make this
work really worthwhile. We are anxious to release it, so people
can give us a chance!
CoC: Now that you have a promo CD ready, what are your plans? Any
label deals being studied yet?
MPdL: Yes. _Ancestros de Insania_ is a self-financed promo CD; it was
recorded to be released as an MCD through any label that might
be interested. Now we are studying a deal from Canadian label
Frowz Productions. They want to release it as an MCD, just as
we wanted to, and they also offered good conditions. If
everything works out as expected, we will sign with them for
the release of _Ancestros de Insania_, although they had some
problems in getting the contract sheet to us -- but we all know
the horror stories of the postal services. Anyway, nothing's
confirmed yet. We also had some deals from other small labels,
and from other not-so-small labels like Shiver Records (they
wanted to release it as a split demo through a division label),
but the deal that we feel fits our intentions the best is
Frowz's one. It is a new label that is betting very strong on
many new bands and that's perfect for us.
CoC: What's the metal scene like in Spain nowadays for a young band
like yourselves?
MPdL: The underground scene in Spain is getting a lot better. I have
to admit that it wasn't that way a few years ago, but I guess
better times are coming; we have many new and killer bands and
labels constantly developing. There's also a growing interest
in the scene; I know it because now we have a bunch of new
zines and mags, something that seemed impossible not long ago.
Our scene was never well-known outside our frontiers, but this
is going to change very soon -- if it's not changing now! --,
as we have very good bands here. I always say that this is the
country where the guitar was born!
CoC: What are your main goals as a band now? What would you like to
see happening in the band in the near future?
MPdL: Nowadays, our main goal is to keep on working and improving our
songwriting, in order to have enough stuff ready for a possible
album in a year or so. Paco Villena [founder member] left the
band, so we also have to work a lot with our new guitarist
Jorge James. As far as the second part of the question is
concerned... well, I suppose that I would like our MCD to have
good acceptance by both press and public; this way, the name
Soriben would be a bit more well-known around there. That
doesn't depend on us exclusively, it also depends on some other
factors like promotion and even luck, so we will have to wait
and see what the future has in store for us. One thing that you
can be sure of is that we are going to keep on working as a
band to continue developing our style.
CoC: What about long term plans? What do you intend to achieve with
Soriben?
MPdL: It's very difficult to say what can happen with Soriben in a
long term period. We don't have long term plans, we just mark
small goals depending on what our needs are in each moment.
Regarding what we intend to achieve, right now we just want to
improve as a band and make our music, record it and release it
if that's possible. No doubt about it, if things go well for us
in the future, we will follow more ambitious goals, that's for
sure!!
CoC: Would you like to add any closing comments to this interview?
MPdL: Of course I would! First of all, I would like to thank CoC and
especially you, Pedro, for the interview and the support you
gave us so far. Sincere thanks from all the band. Thanks also
to everyone reading this interview! Remember that you can check
out our website and download MPEG3 files from our promo CD to
get an idea of what our music is about until our MCD is
released -- give us a chance!! Thanks again for everything and
keep on supporting the underground! Metal rules!
Contact: mailto:soriben@geocities.com
WWW: http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/1048
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
_____ .__ ___.
/ _ \ | |\_ |__ __ __ _____
/ /_\ \| | | __ \| | \/ \
/ | \ |_| \_\ \ | / Y Y \
\____|__ /____/___ /____/|__|_| /
\/ \/ \/
_____ .__
/ _ \ _________.__.| | __ __ _____
/ /_\ \ / ___< | || | | | \/ \
/ | \\___ \ \___ || |_| | / Y Y \
\____|__ /____ >/ ____||____/____/|__|_| /
\/ \/ \/ \/
Scoring: 10 out of 10 -- A masterpiece indeed
9 out of 10 -- Highly recommended
7 out of 10 -- Has some redeeming qualities
5 out of 10 -- You are treading in dangerous waters
3 out of 10 -- Nothing here worth looking into
0 out of 10 -- An atrocious album, avoid at all costs!
Allegiance - _Vrede_ (No Fashion Records, March 1999)
by: Pedro Azevedo (8 out of 10)
Having been recorded at the Abyss Studio, _Vrede_ was more than
likely to at least sound good. As it turns out, it sounds a lot like
Enslaved's brilliant _Blodhemn_, which was recorded at that same
studio -- not only is the musical style quite similar, the production
itself strongly brings _Blodhemn_ to mind. How bad can that be? Well,
on one hand, Allegiance won't certainly be getting any marks for
originality. But on the other hand, there is some quality black metal
with a certain (somewhat subdued) Viking scent here. While Allegiance
never reach the brilliance of Enslaved's masterpiece, _Vrede_
("wrath") is a very effective album in terms of brutality, speed,
skill and musical interest -- not to mention the production, of
course, which helps a lot. Ultimately, it all depends on the
listener: simply put, assuming you enjoyed the latest Enslaved,
you're very likely to also enjoy _Vrede_ (even if it is by no means
as great as Enslaved's excellent album), unless the idea of owning
two albums that sound quite similar is a major problem for you.
Amorphis - _Tuonela_ (Nuclear Blast, March 1999)
by: Pedro Azevedo (8 out of 10)
It's somewhat interesting, and perhaps in a way even funny, that
"Tuonela" is supposed to mean "Hades, the underground", like Amorphis
care to explain in the booklet, because _Tuonela_ is again softer,
musically and atmospherically, than its predecessor. Needless to say,
long gone are the days of _The Karelian Isthmus_ and _Tales From the
Thousand Lakes_. The differences relative to their finest album,
_Elegy_, may not be as shocking upon first listen as they were when
_Elegy_ came out and was compared to _Tales From the Thousand Lakes_,
but the overall feel is again lighter than before. (For those who
care: there's only one track left that features growls, and it's not
Koivusaari who performs them anymore.) Nevertheless, even for myself
-- and I generally cannot stand music that sounds anywhere near happy
--, _Tuonela_ is still quite an enjoyable album. Why? Mainly because
Amorphis are excellent musicians, so practically every song has some
remarkably smart melodies that will remain in your head all day long
after just a few listens. Unfortunately, only the title track and a
few other passages are anywhere near what can be called doom and the
atmosphere is generally far from dark -- this doesn't have as many
emotional moments as the superb _Elegy_ does, but Amorphis still
don't make -happy- music either. It's all quite light, but it just
flows very well and the music is very good practically throughout the
album, as one would expect from Amorphis. A final note (since EverEve
are a Nuclear Blast band and so are Amorphis), and unfortunately a
very sad one: EverEve's vocalist Tom Sedotschenko has committed
suicide. Sad news indeed.
Antestor - _The Return of the Black Death_ (Cacophonous, 1998)
by: Alex Cantwell (9.5 out of 10)
After a little confusion regarding the availability of this disc, I
obtained it at long last. I slowly grew to appreciate the sound of
Norway's Antestor when I first heard their tracks on the _Northern
Lights_ compilation, in which they incorporated a combination of slow
and plodding rhythms, droning keyboard passages, and black metal
stylings. With 1997's _Martyrium_, which was never officially
released (although I have had the privilege of hearing it) due to
legal hassles with then label Morphine Records, Antestor, for the
most part, took a headlong plunge into black metal, but still
retained the ominous keyboards and doomy riffs. _The Return of the
Black Death_ finds the band in their finest form yet, combining all
of the above elements with a new ferociousness, and with crystal
clear clarity. This album reminds me of why I was attracted to black
metal in the first place, as it is rich with all of the elements that
make up the genre, which is also why I chose to give it such a high
rating -- as black metal albums go, this one is all-inclusive and
all-encompassing. _TRotBD_ gives me a cold feeling, much like Ulver's
_The Madrigal of Night_ and Enslaved's _Blodhemn_ did. My favorite
track is "Kilden -- Lik En Endelos Elv", which has a lot of speed and
is played with chords very high up on the guitar neck, then sweeps
into an atmospheric ether, and back again into the speedy parts.
"Kongsblod" is a close second, as it features an awesome "war metal"
riff and ends with the guitars somehow sounding like bagpipes! "Sorg"
and "Ancient Prophecy" are the slowest, doomiest tracks, giving the
keyboards a lead role, while "Gamlelandet" and "The Bridge of Death"
are built upon speed. After many listens, I still cannot contain my
zeal for this release. Even with all of the fury and speed of the
totally ripping black metal parts, the keyboards are very prominent
in several songs; so much so that it would be safe to say that if you
do not like keyboards in your metal, you will not like Antestor. It
is interesting, I think, that they never do quite get up to full
speed -- there are no blast beats at all, but among the sombre
atmospheres that run throughout, those one-two beats seem awfully
fast. Point taken and mission accomplished, guys. I would definitely
recommend this release to fans of Enslaved, Astarte, and even
Skepticism.
Contact: Cacophonous Records, 231 Portobello Road
London W11 1LT, England
mailto:ssander@c2i.net
Arkh'aam - _The Blue Beyond the Black_ (<Independent>, April 1999)
by: Adrian Bromley (8 out of 10)
This French duo have quite a good project on their hands. The music
is rich in complexity and vividness. And the ideas streaming from
this release? Too many too count, but oh how they compliment one
another. From slow guitar strumming and head busting drum pounding to
hyper active banshee wails and aggressive overtones -- not to mention
flute playing --, Arkh'aam play out a masterful array of songs that
wind together so passionately. Within three acts -- The Involution,
The Summoning and The Evolution --, the band showcases a constant
love affair for all things dark and it comes to the surface time in
and time out. It's the true vindication of masterful musicians that
makes this release glow so brightly when in reality shrouded in
darkness. A perfect tale told by guys with talent.
Contact: Residence des Cotlais, 19 Avenue de la Bouvardiere,
35 650 Le Rheu, France
Ashes - _And the Angels Wept_ (Necropolis Records, 1998)
by: Nuno Almeida <mailto:messiah@pulhas.org> (8 out of 10)
Ashes are Swedish and this is their first EP, after the release of
their debut _Death Has Made its Call_. Contrarily to its somewhat
boring old-school black/death metal sound (in their own words), _And
the Angels Wept_ is much faster and shows a much more aggressive
sound, partly due to the addition of a new drummer, Mikael Wassholm,
replacing Timo Hagstrom. The EP contains six songs and lasts for just
over 20 minutes. Jonas Magnusson's vocals are very good, following
the black metal tradition. The music is fast-paced black/death, but
very melodic, in the Swedish tradition. It still holds the old-school
feeling, and reminds me a lot of Dissection, although Ashes have a
far less epic feeling. They even have a track called "Son of
Mourning", but it's not related to the original Dissection song. On
the last track, "To the Bone", the old-school feeling becomes much
more evident. Overall, _And the Angels Wept_ is a good release that
has left me anxious to hear their next full-length album, which will
hopefully be out later this year. One final note regarding the band's
promotional photos: looking at them, I would have said that they were
on some kind of techno project, with their short hair, sunglasses and
any-color-but-black t-shirts.
(Also reviewed in Ancient Ceremonies #3 -- http://come.to/ac_zine/)
Ashes You Leave - _Desperate Existence_ (Morbid Records, March 1999)
by: Pedro Azevedo (8 out of 10)
Here's a band that really plays doom metal with female vocals,
contrarily to so many "soft" doom bands in the genre nowadays. Dunja
Radetic's vocals and flute and Marta Batinic's violin definitely
contribute to the doom atmosphere. Dunja's vocals are not only
excellent but also often quite different from the norm -- she
experiments a lot with her voice and sings very emotionally. Not many
male vocals (either grunted or screamed) are used in _Desperate
Existence_, but they are effective. And then there is the
instrumental side: while Ashes You Leave can use some keyboards and
violins here and there and even some flute melodies, these musical
flourishes do not detract from the doom atmosphere of _Desperate
Existence_. Only the guitar sound tends to be somewhat weak (although
the guitar work itself is good), and overall the production is just
average, which is a shame (and one of the main reasons why the rating
isn't higher). The songs are generally very well put together,
interesting sections successively flowing throughout most of the
album -- notice the almost Elend-like "Et Vidi Solem Evanere"
interlude and especially the superb title track. Quality isn't so
constantly high after the fourth track, unfortunately, even though
there still are plenty of very interesting passages to be heard.
Although Ashes You Leave come from such an unusual place for metal as
Croatia, they can sure beat a lot of their much better known
competition as far as -doom- metal with female vocals is concerned.
Burial - _Mourning the Millennium_ (<Independent>, April 1999)
by: Adrian Bromley (4 out of 10)
See, if the music on this record was a bit better than what we got
here, then I would have given this LP by Burial a better mark. But I
won't. The music, going along quite nicely with the mediocre (if
that) vocals, is a rather poor affair when you break down the sounds
the band is working with. Death growls and overused song structures
help shape this five-song outing into a pretty much generic sounding
effort. No real ideas are carried out here, rather focusing on fast
as fuck drum beats and such sinister vocal arrangements. I'm feeling
left in the cold here, guys -- this gets boring after a while and I'm
hopefully the last one to tell you that.
Contact: P.O. Box 2216 Westfield, MA USA 01086-2216
mailto:burial666@aol.com
WWW: http://www.angelfire.com/ma/BURIAL
Burzum - _Hlidskjalf_ (Misanthropy Records, April 1999)
by: Pedro Azevedo (5 out of 10)
And so Varg Vikernes strikes back from Trondheim prison with the
second chapter of the trilogy that started with 1997's _Daudi
Baldrs_. Skipping all political issues and concentrating on the music
offered on _Hlidskjalf_, I was reasonably interested by its first two
tracks. Although rather repetitive, their structures evolving slowly,
both are good examples of what this keyboard-only Burzum can achieve,
even if neither of them is very dark or depressive -- nothing on this
album really is. Indeed, there is nothing on _Hlidskjalf_ that comes
close to matching "Illa Tidandi" from _Daudi Baldrs_, the only track
I found really interesting so far in Burzum's keyboard era. Needless
to say, there is nothing here to be compared to albums such as _Hvis
Lyset Tar Oss_ or anything of that ilk; this is strictly
keyboard-only ambient music with folk influences. Totalling less than
34 minutes, after the first couple of reasonably good tracks
_Hlidskjalf_ tends to become uninteresting and occasionally even
downright annoying, a couple of times not far from becoming a
lullaby. _Hlidskjalf_ occasionally shows that it could have been a
better album than _Daudi Baldrs_, namely on those first two tracks,
but it ends up failing afterwards and turning into a rather dull
album.
Carpathian Forest - _Black Shining Leather_ (Avantgarde, August 1998)
by: Nuno Almeida (10 out of 10)
It's about time! After three years of seemingly endless wait, here it
is! The follow-up to their excellent debut MCD _Through Chasm, Caves
and Titan Woods_. This classic cult Norwegian band almost doesn't
need introduction. Having started in 1992 and released two demos
(1992's _Bloodlust & Perversion_ and 1993's _Journey Through the Cold
Moors of Svarttjern_), they signed for Avantgarde and released the
previously mentioned MCD in 1995. After the re-release on CD early
last year of their legendary first demo plus some other goodies from
the band's early years, _Black Shining Leather_ is now finally
released. Was it worth the wait? It sure was! J. Nordavind and R.
Nattefrost, helped by Lazare of Solefald on drums, managed to create
a cold, primitive and raw, Hellhammer / Celtic Frost influenced
display of Norwegian black metal. The material on the album was
composed throughout the last four years, which explains the fact that
the musical style changes frequently between songs, alternating fast
and raw songs with more melancholic, slow to mid-paced ones. Vocals
are the usual black metal rasp, changing to whispers on "Pierced
Genitalia", a very eerie, dark ambient song, and the last one, "A
Forest" -- this one being a cover of The Cure's classic. Though
apparently not related to the rest of the tracks, this cover fits the
rest of the album well, with its gothic feeling, whispered vocals and
cool, almost mechanical drums. Keys are used in a simple yet very
effective way, helping to create truly eerie, dark and cold melodies
throughout the album. Overall, a great release, and one of my
favorites of 1998.
(Also reviewed in Ancient Ceremonies #3 -- http://come.to/ac_zine/)
Various - _Chords of the Grave_ (Cross Rhythms, 1998)
by: Alex Cantwell (8.5 out of 10)
This comp serves a great purpose, in that it puts to CD demos that
were previously available on cassette only from these great and
almost unknown bands, which include Obliteration, Evisceration,
Disencunbrance, Oblation, and Flesh Walker. Each song has been
remastered, so this stuff sounds as good as it's ever going to get.
The Obliteration tracks are from their 1997 demo _Dying Age_, and
they are comprised of Suffocation-style raging death metal. This band
is now known as Death List, but many agree that the Obliteration
material is superior to what they did as Death List on _Severed_ [CoC
#34]. Pummeling double bass, psycho leads, and catchy rhythms are
some of the things that made this band great. Evisceration are next,
and I must admit that I had no clue about them before getting my
hands on this. The three tracks on this comp are the style of brutal
death metal that was popular in the early '90s. I'm not bagging them
for it, believe me, I still like that style very much, but I must
admit that these songs sound just a bit dated. Fans of the genre,
take note that Evisceration plays this style very convincingly. The
third band is the "one hit wonder" band Disencumbrance. Their demo
_The Betrayal_ was mighty indeed, and then they were no more. In my
mind, they were able to combine the speed and abandon of grind with
the technical accuracy and song structures that make good death
metal, and do it better than any other band I have heard. I am so
glad to have these three songs on CD because I have worn out two
copies of the tape! I would not hesitate to recommend the purchase of
the whole CD for these tracks alone to anyone who enjoys sustaining
physical damage and impairment from ultra-downtuned death metal. It
is absolutely top notch material. Oblation follow with four songs of
well played -- you guessed it -- death metal. These songs are all
quite good, mixing good musicianship (especially the guitar leads)
with heavy and creative death metal song structures. Oblation even
went so far as to make a video for the song "Dead Unborn", so it's a
wonder why they never released a full length of any kind. Flesh
Walker, with whom I was not familiar, conclude this comp with one
song of very raw death metal. I would highly recommend _Chords of the
Grave_ to any fan of death metal and to anyone into perusing the
underground for talented or obscure bands, but especially to those
who have or want the hopelessly out of print demos from which all of
the material is taken.
Contact: Cross Rhythms Music, 11408 Audelia Rd #4786,
Dallas, TX 75243 USA
mailto:g-card@ix.netcom.com
WWW: http://www.crossrhythmsmusic.com
Clawfinger - _Clawfinger_ (The Music Cartel, April 1999)
by: Adrian Bromley (8.5 out of 10)
I was totally not expecting to get into Clawfinger as much as I have.
I am left wondering just where did the band go right this time out.
Having heard their stuff in the past, I can honestly say I was not
really intrigued by the bands meshing of rap/metal and electronics.
It was interesting, but nothing newer or ear-catching as to what
other acts were doing. But something clicked here and I took note.
This was cool-ass stuff. Besides the sometimes goofy rapping that
vocalist Zak Tell emits from time to time, most of the time his
rapping and the momentum of Clawfinger work into a nice groove.
Choice cuts: Opener "Two Sides", "Biggest & the Best" and "Not Even
You". With Clawfinger I've learned to keep an interest with a band
before writing them off. Glad I did, 'cause this is easily one of my
surprise albums of the year.
Crest of Darkness - _The Ogress_ (Listenable Records, April 1999)
by: David Rocher (9 out of 10)
The apocalyptic, shape-shifting soundtrack to the life of the
murderous Belle Gunnes unfolds here in nine chapters that truly
succeed in unveiling a corner of a madly bloodthirsty deity's mind.
Rapid, chaotic black metal riffing instantly merges into overlaying
curtains of synthetics, haunted by the chilling chants of Kristin
Fjellseth, in deep contrast with Ingar Amelien's grating rasps, to
suddenly explode in violent, strident thrashing tones and rhythms
that are frequently accompanied by distorted, un-melodic, clear vocal
lines, not dissimilar to Kraftwerk's. Lyrical and melodic vocals are
in fact used very parsimoniously, and are sung with great talent by
Kamelot's Roy Khan. Keeping track of the ogress' mind is no easy
task, as her moods wander from brooding, awake feelings of remorse to
the most insane, bloodthirsty rage -- the expression of her tormented
soul is these violent, eerie songs, which unceasingly writhe and turn
from atmospheric, anguished, multi-layered experimental soundtracks
to pummelling, devastatingly heavy metallic sections tinged with
industrial sounds; as peaks of anguish are reached, these form
searing black metal cavalcades that succeed in capturing a kind of
eerie grandeur fused with the coldly calculated fury delivered by
other un-symphonic Norwegian black metal perpetrators. A whole
lifetime of schizophrenic, inaccessible blackness, graced with huge,
ample sound, is what this excellent album has on offer -- dare to
venture and meet it!
Diabolique - _The Black Flower_ (Black Sun, March 1999)
by: David Rocher (8 out of 10)
It seems Kristian Wahlin's band unfortunately never will get metal
audiences to grant them the recognition they so clearly deserve, and
_The Black Flower_ will only help make this reality clearer --
however, it may open a whole lot of gothic ears to their laid-back,
quiet, and somewhat more accessible sound. Quite a contrast to the
powerful intonations of _Wedding the Grotesque_, _TBF_'s tones are
distant, almost unclear at times, and perfectly fit in with the way
in which the band have replaced their restrained metallic
aggressiveness with very delicate keyboard or undistorted guitar
melodies, that are carried by Kristian Wahlin's deep, silk-smooth
vocals, and emphasised by many convincing effects. This new approach
to their music graces Diabolique's sound with a distant, tranquil
feel, that is however rather disquieting at times. No brash displays
of excessive technicality interfere with _The Black Flower_'s calm
atmospheres; Diabolique's new orientation defines itself as a
brooding, undisclosing, mysterious, almost shy expression, which is
definitely as classy as some bands' new musical directions sound
vulgar and revealing. The Diabolique quartet seem to have found their
path, a path which should prove to be far more determined than the
slightly hesitant, yet excellent, metallic arias of _Wedding the
Grotesque_ or _The Diabolique_.
Discern - _Revive and Rebuke_ (<Independent>, 1998)
by: Alex Cantwell (8 out of 10)
This CD kicks you right square in the arse immediately after the play
button is pushed. To my amazement, this frighteningly good death
metal is played single-handedly by one Bill Fraser, who once upon a
time played drums for Oblation. He has done an astounding job,
because _Revive and Rebuke_ in no way, at all at all at all, sounds
like a one-man project. Every note and drum hit fits perfectly into
place, and like I said before, will totally kick the listener in the
pants. The CD is an eight song affair of very aggressive American
death metal, with the exception of an acoustic instrumental, and the
main riff from Kiss' "She" as an outro. I will not compare this with
any other bands, so as not to give you any pre-conceived ideas about
Discern. Instead, I will make a safe, broad statement; if you like
fast death metal with loads of double bass and deep vocals barking
out fast paced lyrics, (you know, all the things that make great
death metal), then by all means make a point of tracking this down. I
really hope to hear more from this guy in the future.
Contact: Discern, 11408 Audelia Rd #4778, Dallas, TX 75243 USA
mailto:discern@flash.net
Emperor - _IX Equilibrium_ (Candlelight, March 1999)
by: David Rocher (7 out of 10)
The fourth moon of 1999 would have had the mighty Emperor crowned,
had he continued to exist in the dark symphonic shrouds of _Emperor_
or _In the Nightside Eclipse_, a shroud through which somewhat vulgar
light had already begun to shine with the excellent but distressingly
revealing _Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk_. Sadly though, the Emperor
has turned his back to the tangible obscurity which reigned on his
first full-length, _ItNE_, in favour of a "heavier" approach; a form
of rather frantic black metal, which is in fact clearly tinged with
the loud, hysterical tones of death metal, and in fact does the once
majestic Norwegians much prejudice: complex yet unintriguing,
emphatic yet unattractive... The heavy, clear and sharp sound they
have now opted for indeed perfectly highlights all instruments, thus
depriving _IX Equilibrium_ of any obscurity it may have retained;
their tentatively "powerful" sound is however merely decent when
compared to the crushing force developed by Peter Tagtgren on
Immortal's latest barbaric onslaught, _At the Heart of Winter_. In
addition to this, and even though Emperor have, as on _Anthems to the
Welkin at Dusk_, taken great pains to take very resourceful
arrangements to a new peak, and do indeed demonstrate very honourable
technical play, most of the guitar lines played on _IX Equilibrium_
are dramatically uninspiring, and even often literally reek of
deja-vu, as on the title "An Elegy of Icaros", which disappointingly
sounds like a mildly blackened variation on themes from Morbid
Angel's _Domination_, or the track "The Source of Icon E", which
features Ihsahn in a laughably feeble vocal attempt to equal King
Diamond. Quite honestly, _IX Equilibrium_ isn't a -bad- album, far
from that -- as a matter of a fact, I might even have given it a
disinterested but favourable welcome, had it been an unexpected
assault from a lesser-known formation --, but it is certainly
Emperor's most predictable, and therefore unconvincing, work to date,
and sadly demonstrates that the band have opted for a musical
orientation for which I do have trouble forgiving them, who spawned,
anno 1995, one of the most enthralling opuses ever to sear the black
metal scene.
Em Sinfonia - _In Mournings Symphony_ (Martyr Music, April 1999)
by: Adrian Bromley (9 out of 10)
To call this great would be an understatement. How about amazing?
Stunning? Unbelievable? The list could go on, and it probably would
for another ten or more adjectives, but the bottom line here is that
Em Sinfonia have stumbled upon something great here. Fans of The
Gathering, My Dying Bride and Moonspell take note, there is a new kid
in town and you better keep your chops up or you could be dethroned.
With masterful precision and some of the best melding of doom/gloom
sounds, strong guitar riffs, violins, spoken word and choir-like
chantings in the past few years, Em Sinfonia glides its way into our
hearts and minds with tales of love, darkness and life. Powerful
expressionism streams from this four-song release, basking in
brilliant production (thanks to guitarist/producer Brian Griffin) and
showing off the talent of this well-rounded group of musicians (eight
in all). While all four songs are superb, the power and passion of
what the band is capable of is showcased strongly within the title
track. A prime example of musical creativity in top form. Get a copy
of this before all your friends have it. You don't want to be the
loser of the bunch now, do you? Didn't think so. Find it.
Contact: Em Sinfonia c/o Brian Griffin 12564 W. Dorothy St.,
Beach Park, IL, 60087 USA
mailto:EmSinfonia@aol.com
WWW: http://members.aol.com/synfonia1/emsinfonia.html
Various - _Extreme America 3_ (Knot Music, 1999)
by: Gabriel Sanchez (6.5 out of 10)
Before I start this review, let me shout this one out to all of you
doing noise compilations on vinyl: always, always, ALWAYS make sure
to separate the tracks. This whole "blend all tracks into each other"
stuff just doesn't float my boat. There are only six artists on here
so I will try to touch on them a bit here (maybe). The compilation
opens up with 00 Species, whose track is really way too short for me
to get into (this is a trend on this release, by the way) and the mix
is turned down way too low. Normally I'd cream my jeans ov
er them,
but this time I'm just left going "eh?". Walled Lake's track isn't
noise, so I will be a dick and just say it sucks. Flutter's piece
suffers from the same syndrome that 00 Species did in that it is way
too short. Just as it is winding down, I'm actually getting all
pumped up for ten more minutes of it. The second side of this is
total throw away with Lockweld and Better DisEase doing their best to
bore the hell out of me. Audible XXY make a nice attempt at holding
my interest but find themselves the victims of too little space.
Perhaps just a three way split with Audible XXY, Flutter, and 00
Species would be a better idea next time. Yes? No? Maybe so? Grab
this one if you find it in a record store cheap, but otherwise focus
more on finding full length releases from the three artists I just
mentioned. All the other stuff on this 7" is just a waste of 4 1/2
minutes.
Contact: Knot Music, PO Box 501, South Haven, MI 49090-0501, USA
Various - _Freak Animal Zine #11 CD_ (Freak Animal, 1999)
by: Gabriel Sanchez (7.5 out of 10)
I'll just start this by stating the zine this CD comes from is decent
but, overall, you can use it to line your bird cage with after
reading some of the interviews, because it's the CD that makes this
whole deal worthwhile. It would seem that just about every aspect of
the noise scene is represented on this nice compilation disc, as it
features artists as varied as Japanese noise legend Merzbow to those
new American punks of noise Flutter and of course everyone and
everything in between. While there is defiantly some crummy power
electronics / my-act-is-more-evil-and-dark-than-yours shit artists on
here (COUGH DEATHPILE... DIE DIE DIE YOU FUCKING SHITTY ACT! AND
OTHER BANDS WHO USE DEATH IN THEIR NAME!), there's a plethora of
skilled artists like Stimbox or the man who really steals the show on
this disc, Kazumoto Endo. The other stand out track on this disc
comes from R.H.Y. YAU, whose "I Have Hurt You Today -- I'll Do It
Again" really augments his very different approach to the whole noise
concept and serves as a nice addition (if not somewhat off beat) to
this compilation to round it out. Like with any compilation, you are
going to get some bad (COUGH DEATH SQUAD... YOU SUCK TOO!), but there
is more than enough good to make purchasing this zine for the CD well
worth it. Highly recommended by yours truly (isn't that enough?).
Contact: Freak Animal, PO Box 21, 15141 Lahti, Finland
mailto:fanimal@hotmail.com
Fredrik Thordendal's Special Defects - _Sol Niger Within Ver. 3.33_
by: Adrian Bromley (7.5 out of 10) (Relapse / St. Clair, April 1999)
Finding enough time to pry away from his duties with powerhouse
outfit Meshuggah, Thordendal and his new armada of cohorts (a whole
slew of sick puppies, I tell ya!) really do some serious mental
damage with _Sol Niger Within Version 3.33_. This release, a fucked
up one at that, is all over the map. It's just, like, out there.
Metal riffs a plenty fill up this release as the group of musicians
take charge and make this one ride you'll never forget. Too complex
to get into, yet easily palpable by those craving eclectic song
structures (well, as eclectic as they'll get) and off-kiltered song
writing. Interesting, to say the least. Where do musicians get ideas
like this? I'm stumped, but still loving this.
Garden of Shadows - _Heart of the Corona_
by: Nuno Almeida (8 out of 10) (X-Rated Records, October 1998)
Very interesting debut from this North American band. _Heart of the
Corona_ was originally released as a demo in the Spring of 1997, but
due to the recent signing of a contract with X-Rated Records, the
band decided to re-release it as an MCD with re-mastered sound and an
extra track, "Shards of the Here". Garden of Shadows play a very
melodic, atmospheric, melancholic kind of mid to fast-paced death
metal. The use of keyboards helps the overall emotional and
melancholic atmosphere of the album, although they get quite pompous
and symphonic at times. Guitars are very, very melodic, and are
easily the main feature of their music. There are also some acoustic
guitar parts, usually used as intro/outro on some songs. As for
vocals, Chad is a growler, so you know what to expect; still, his
vocals fit the music quite nicely. Guitarist Mary helps with some
very nice ethereal vocals on "Apollonian Realm", which is, along with
the title track, the best song of the album. A good opening act from
Garden of Shadows, which in my opinion is worth checking out. One
more thing: although this album is sold as an MCD, it's actually
almost 40 minutes long.
(Also reviewed in Ancient Ceremonies #3 -- http://come.to/ac_zine/)
Contact: X-Rated Records, c/o Mathias Kietzmann, P.O. Box 1-2023,
Cuernavaca, Mor., C.P. 62001, Mexico
mailto:x_rated_records@yahoo.com
Garden of Shadows, c/o Brian R., 14712 Botany Way,
Gaithersburg, MD 20878, USA
mailto:bmissant@aol.com
Gordian Knot - _Gordian Knot_ (Sensory/The Laser's Edge, March 1999)
by: Paul Schwarz (9 out of 10)
When I heard that Cynic members Sean Malone and Sean Reinert (bass /
chapman stick and drums respectively) were collaborating on a project
again, it is needless to say that I was intrigued and excited by what
the result might yield. When I further found out that the project,
masterminded by Malone, would not only be instrumental but also
feature guitar/stick contributions from members of Dream Theater,
Watchtower and King Crimson, my anticipation and interest were
further heightened. I myself am pleased with the results this
collaborative project have yielded. Atmosphere building is a concern
and is achieved in some tracks by the use of well-manipulated
keyboards, while at other times the interplay of guitars, drums and
bass is all that is needed to carry the listener from one plain of
exquisite musical beauty to the next. There is a considerable amount
of experimentation, though less of a dynamic range (in terms of going
from harsh to gentle) than was present with Cynic, especially with
somewhat syncopated time signatures and technical, often beautifully
melodic, guitar leads and overlapping acoustic and electric
structures. One experimental aspect of the album is the part which
also lets it down slightly for me. This is the use, on "Redemption's
Way" and "Srikara Tal", of a drum machine producing a continuous,
unabrasive tribal rhythm behind the interplay of guitar and bass,
though Reinhert adds additional drum fills to the latter. This is
different, but I find the machine-like feel it captures doesn't mesh
well with the playing and, as the tracks progress, that one rhythm
can really get to bore and slightly irritate me. These tracks are,
however, minor let downs on an album which contains diverse and
moving tracks like "Code/Anticode", "Reflections", "Singularity" and
the track which harks back most to Cynic, "Rivers Dancing". The
quality, not only of playing but also of writing, is excellent.
Though it is evident that all the contributors to this project are of
a standard technically that many can only dream of, none of this
sounds "wanky": there is no self-indulgence at the sacrifice of
musical quality. _Gordian Knot_ is a revealing and moving musical
journey and one which I think anyone with a critical appreciation of
music should allow themselves the pleasure of experiencing.
Government Alpha - _Q_ (Spite, 1999)
by: Gabriel Sanchez (8 out of 10)
For some reason, I am in a really strange mood when it comes to noise
lately, so perhaps my reviews are going to be loaded to the brim with
bias and unevenness abound. Either way, I'll just make a quick
comment here... THIS TAPE FUCKING RULES. Man, am I hyper or what? But
then again, this is noise that one can get hyper to as it is 46
minutes of absolutely beautiful harsh electronic madness from one of
the best artists to come out of Japan's new brew melting pot of
noise. The high end stuff is ear piercing and the low end stuff just
rumbles your guts until you almost want to throw up (but in that good
kind of way). How can you go wrong with a recording that actually
forces your stereo unit to let loose sounds that contort and alter
your physical being? In a day and age when the noise field is being
filled to the brim with piece of shit power electronic artists all
trying to "out dark" the other by using 25 minutes of lame, boring,
monotonic sounds, it is refreshing to get your ass truly kicked by
something that actually required a bit of THOUGHT and, uhm...
ORIGINALITY, and, oh yeah, SKILL (you got that, all you lame fucking
noise artists out there?). EVERYONE IN THE POWER ELECTRONICS SCENE
MUST DIE! OK, enough of this... I'm sure this off base is going to
leak into my other reviews this issue. Anyhow, buy the damn tape
because it's Government Alpha... it's harsh noise that whips the hell
out of anything Merzbow has put out in three years... and what the
hell else do you have to spend $5 on? Thanks.
Contact: Spite, PO Box 51653, Kalamazoo, MI 49005-1653, USA
mailto:mononanie@aol.com
Horde of Worms - _Horde of Worms_ (<Independent>, 1998)
by: Alex Cantwell (6.5 out of 10)
Horde of Worms apparently call themselves Canadian Blast Metal, and
play music that is only somewhat entertaining or creative. As with
Kekal, the addition of a real drummer would launch them into near
greatness. The riffs and the "vokills" are definitely lethal and
create good songs. However, that stupid drum machine is quite
annoying and distracting. The "snare" sounds quite ridiculous and all
the sounds in general are almost pathetic, especially during breaks
in the music where these "drums" become the featured instrument for a
short time. Something else that qualifies as being pathetic is the
lead guitar sound, which is no doubt due to the fuzzy, tinny sound of
a Boss distortion pedal, and perhaps the self-production. Despite all
this, there are many enjoyable songs, and the potential to really
shine on their next release is definitely lurking around somewhere.
Contact: Horde of Worms, 1 Anglesly Blvd., Suite B,
Islington, ON, Canada, M9A 3B2
mailto:wormy_2@hotmail.com
Hypocrisy - _Hypocrisy Destroys Wacken_
by: Adrian Bromley (9 out of 10) (Nuclear Blast / PHD, April 1999)
Admit it. You thought it was over after the brilliant _The Fourth
Dimension_. I did. I was sure the band was packing it in. But to much
of our relief, the band re-grouped and started writing again. This
live album, recorded at last Summer's Wacken Open Air festival, is
the true testimony of how good this band is. Just listen to the
tightness of the band and the killer live sound. Such professionalism
rarely gets captured live. This is supreme, my friends. And with a
fuckin' blistering new record out this month (the self-titled
release), it seems as though Peter T. and Co. have hit us up with a
double dose of goodies to gnaw on. Let's hope the band (it looks
pretty good, my friend) has attained a second wind and keep putting
out good material as we head into the millennium. Hypocrisy slays
with classic live renditions of "Roswell 47", "Pleasure of
Molestation" and "Osculum Obscenum", to name a few. Too good to pass
up, people. Go get it.
Hypocrite - _Into the Halls of the Blind_
by: Pedro Azevedo (7 out of 10) (No Fashion Records, March 1999)
No, Hypocrite do -not- really sound like Hypocrisy, even though they
are also a Swedish death metal band. This is more mid-paced melodic
death metal and, even if not entirely dissimilar to Hypocrisy, once
you consider the crowd that now constitutes the Swedish death metal
scene, there's not much more than the band name to remind you of
Hypocrisy in particular. Hypocrite are one of those very competent
Swedish bands that don't really stand out from the crowd;
nevertheless, would the whole album have been as good as its three or
four best songs, the rating would have been a bit higher. As it is,
several tracks are just average Swedish death metal and the whole
album is the usual mix of really nice moments and passages that just
keep you waiting for the next really nice moment and not much else.
Produced by Dismember's Fred Estby, _Into the Halls of the Blind_
turns out to have a less than stellar production -- sounds to me like
it could have been stronger, especially the vocals. All put together,
it's one of those Swedish death metal albums that are unlikely to
disappoint any fans of the genre, without being anything outstanding
overall either.
Immortal - _At the Heart of Winter_ (Osmose, February 1999)
by: Paul Schwarz (9 out of 10)
I don't know about you, but after less than ten listens I found
Immortal's last album, _Blizzard Beasts_, was a little uninteresting
and most definitely a step down in quality from the excellent
_Battles in the North_ or the classic _Pure Holocaust_. I thought at
the time that the band might have hit a creative rut and wondered
whether they would again grace my ears with music which would impress
and move me as much as their earlier releases did. I shouldn't have
worried. Despite losing his Doom Occulta "brother" to tendinitis,
Abbath has forged on with drummer Horgh and they have made an
Immortal album which not only cements the bands reputation as one of
black metal's finest, but also shows that they can develop their
style without losing their essence. This album abandons the path of
speed which Immortal have been travelling at increasing rates on
since _Pure Holocaust_ and opts on the whole for a slightly more
relaxed pace. There are still blasts and speed, believe me, but the
band are utilizing it where they were before coming close to relying
on it. _AtHoW_ is also more music-focused; there are more riffs and
they are given more time and space to breathe from the vocals as well
as being astoundingly well-pronounced by Peter Tagtgren's slick
production. The album has a dark feel and captures, through the
combination of riffs, drums, vocals and sparingly used keyboards, a
chilling atmosphere which fits their lyrical concept and fantasy
themes effortlessly. The symbiosis is successful: the album takes the
enraptured listener into the "Heart of Winter", into a world of
Immortal's own creation.
Immortal Souls - _Divine Wintertime_
Mordecai -_Through the Woods, Towards the Dawn_
by: Alex Cantwell (8 out of 10) (Little Rose, 1999)
Both Immortal Souls and Mordecai were featured on the glorious _From
Kaamos to Midnight Sun -- Finnish Metal Compilation_ [CoC #36], and
with the release of this split EP, we get to peer into these two
band's worlds with a little more depth. Hopefully full-lengths from
each band are soon to follow. Immortal Souls continue to improve upon
their Iron Maiden-influenced black/death metal. Some of the song
structures and sounds even remind me Sentenced's _Frozen_ at times.
Man, can a review of a Finnish band be written without mentioning
Sentenced? Maybe I'll try harder next time. Anyway, Immortal Souls
are a quality band who utilize a variety of melodic guitar work with
aggressive vocals, memorable songs and creativity. However, they have
apparently dropped the doom influence that was very strong on their
demo _Reflections of Doom_ [CoC #34]. On the other hand, Mordecai
draw upon some darker influences to create their sombre, yet
aggressive, style of black metal. Totally new to the scene, I would
say that only good things can come from this band. I really know
nothing about them, but that doesn't matter because their music
speaks for itself -- as it should be. Like the above band, Mordecai
also have a keen sense for utilizing catchy melodies, and they use
clean vocals on two of the songs to great effect. Within the four
songs contained here, they seem to spend equal time between hammering
away and playing mid-tempo stuff. In summary, this is not demo
quality music -- this is the real deal, and Little Rose is finding
some amazing Finnish talent, so I would think that they are worth
your interest and support.
Contact: Little Rose Productions Ky, Box 533,
40101 Jyvaskyla, Finland
mailto:lrose@sci.fi
Imperial Domain - _In the Ashes of the Fallen_
by: Adrian Bromley (6.5 out of 10) (Pulverised Records, April 1999)
There is just something about the music of Imperial Domain that I am
getting a bad vibe from. I can't place my finger on it, I just know
it's there. Overall, the death metal sounds of the band are
collectively paired with some serious guitar work and a deafening
rhythm section (think close to In Flames, though not as complex).
While the vocals go from death growls to sinister snarls of anxiety,
Imperial Domain keep their head above water, managing to stray from a
generic sound. The key to this band's secret is their ability to
sound pissed off and fighting each song like there is no tomorrow.
That's when it works. When the band tries to stay too much along the
line of solid song writing, that's when it falters. This sextet has a
lot of potential, they just need to work out kinks. The need to
loosen up a bit and go rabid with the material. The guitar work needs
no touch-ups, just clean up the rest, guys.
Jesus Martyr - _Sudamerican Porno_ (Repulse Records, April 1999)
by: Adrian Bromley (9.5 out of 10)
If there was any record out there that could split open your skull
with one foul swoop, then the debut of this powerful (I MEAN
POWERFUL) Argentinian quintet Jesus Martyr is it. Meshing the
maniacal mayhem of industrial music, the raw attitude of moshcore and
the reckless speed of thrash metal, Jesus Martyr lay it all on the
line and deliver a solid, powerful mix of goodies to crank loud. Run
for cover as these fuckers mean business. Get trampled by "Next
Biological Crisis" or the full-throttle aggression of "Carnivore". If
you've got the guts and the stomach to take in such brutality, then
find this. You'll be thanking me.
Contact: Jesus Martyr, c/o Santiago Bertes 365,
1424 Buenos Aires, Argentina
mailto:jesusmartyr@hotmail.com
Krisiun - _Apocalyptic Revelation_ (GUN, October 1998)
by: Paul Schwarz (9 out of 10)
This record only just grabbed the 9 out of 10 you see above. It is
good, damn good, but it is also ever so slightly close to being
lacking in sufficient originality for a 9. Basically, Krisiun kick
ass with ridiculous speed, thundering drums, ripping guitars and
tortured vocals, but they also kick ass in a style which belies the
influence of Kreator particularly strongly. They are far from retro
and if there were anyone I would choose to properly carry on the
legacy records like _Pleasure to Kill_ and _Extreme Aggression_ left
it would most probably be Krisiun, but still the band could sound a
little fresher. Minor gripes aside, though, _Apocalyptic Revelation_,
like their _Black Force Domain_ debut, seems unlikely to disappoint
any readers who crave brutal, speed driven death/thrash madness of
which Krisiun are of the highest order. Their technical ability is
utterly phenomenal and the leads, drum breaks and beats which issue
forth from _AR_ almost literally riddle the mind with bullets of
aural energy, such is their fury. Outplaying Krisiun would be a
challenge; seeing them live might be dangerous, but I'm sure it would
be quite an experience.
Contact: C.X. Postal 13444, 01059-970 SP, Brazil
Long Winters' Stare - _Before the Dawn, So Go the Shadows of
Humanity_ (Dragon Flight, April 1999)
by: Pedro Azevedo (8 out of 10)
This debut full-length from LWS, follow-up to 1998's _Cold Tale
Eternal_ MCD [CoC #32], is one of those albums in which you can hear
that it's essentially the same band as before who's playing, but also
that a lot has happened since their previous release. One of the main
differences concerns the keyboard work: there's plenty of piano to be
heard, which tends to be used in a different way from most other
bands, and coincidentally often to my taste. The contrabass that made
their debut EP that bit special doesn't have such an important role
anymore, though, which was somewhat disappointing for me;
nevertheless, the improved use of keyboards almost compensates that.
The vocals are a lot more varied, less predictable and overall better
than before as well. The songs are a lot longer than before, although
a few of them are a bit too long and begin to grow repetitive towards
the end. LWS have grown musically, and have produced an album that
doesn't really sound like any other band in particular. The music is
generally slow, with an unusual guitar/drum sound and rhythmic
section, plus the varied vocals and those keyboards that also tend to
deviate from the norm in a positive way. Although I think that LWS
can still achieve a more consistent album than this one, _BtDSGtSoH_
is nevertheless quite an enjoyable doom metal album that contains
many interesting and often out of the ordinary sequences --
definitely worth checking out.
Contact: Dragon Flight Recordings, 788 Reservoir Ave., Suite 294,
Cranston, RI 02910 USA
mailto:dragonflightrec@yahoo.com
WWW: http://listen.to/dragonflight
Lungbrush - _Old School New School_ (Pavement/St. Clair, April 1999)
by: Adrian Bromley (2 out of 10)
Did Pantera change their name? Did they? Why was I not informed?
Oh... wait a second. This is Lungbrush. I swore it was Pantera, or a
second rate one at that. If your cup of tea is aggressive heavy
metal, heavy riffs and a Phil Anselmo wannabe fronting it, then
Lungbrush is for you. If not, stick with Pantera's _Vulgar Display of
Power_ or _Far Beyond Driven_.
Manowar - _Hell on Stage Live_ (Nuclear Blast, February 1999)
by: Paul Schwarz (9.5 out of 10)
This is real metal. There is nothing false about Manowar, they are
the real deal and in this mere human's opinion the greatest heavy
metal band ever to have been in existence. This is the band's second
live album and contains a totally different selection of songs than
the last _Hell on Wheels_ did. It also features, for the most part, a
different "side" of Manowar. _HoS_ contains many of the band's most
classic, -epic- songs. Thus, the incredible power and emotion of
brilliant live renditions of "Dark Avenger", "March for Revenge" and
"Bridge of Death" are among the wonders available within _HoS_. The
second disc brings forth "Heart of Steel" and "Master of the Wind" in
electric live form along with the storming force and might of "Blood
of the Kings", "Outlaw" and "The Power". Also among the 16 tracks on
offer are two of Joey's bass solo pieces, his two classical
conversions: "William's Tale" and "Sting of the Bumblebee". These
sound great, though -I- would also love to hear him do "Thunderpick"
live. Of course there are songs I would still like to hear live which
aren't featured on either live album, but this is simply because
Manowar have written so many brilliant songs, not because they have
chosen tracklistings for either album badly. Basically, if you want
to hear the power which Manowar has live, if you want to have that
power, that energy, at your fingertips, to invigorate you when you
need or want it, you need _Hell on Stage_, and I am among you.
Morgion - _Solinari_ (Relapse/St. Clair, April 1999)
by: Adrian Bromley (7.5 out of 10)
There has always been something fascinating about the work of
California doom act Morgion. The band's debut outing _Among Majestic
Ruin_ was heralded by metal fans as an exquisite piece of work.
Beautiful tapestries of metal woven into a fine piece of work. Gritty
vocals accompanying some of the most masterful -- not to mention
heavy -- guitar tones in the last little while was what made up
_Among Majestic Ruin_. With their follow-up _Solinari_, the band
continues on creating some lengthy bits of material, cheered onward
by the sullen ways of the band's guitar tones and the well-crafted
song writing. Just feel the sincerity in the harsh vocals of Jeremy
Peto, or the aggressive nature of Rhett Davis' drumming style.
Stunning. For the most part, the band has once again captured the
magic, though as a whole this is not a true masterpiece. With some
dips and turns of the band's vocal styles, mixed up with some out of
character song structure ideas, the band loses some initiative in
their form of attack. Rather than stick to what they do right, they
seemed to have ventured out a bit. Experimentation is all a must for
music, but sometimes loosening what you have sets you adrift. Still
one of the most promising releases (and bands) out there right now.
Motorhead - _Everything Louder Than Everyone Else_
by: Paul Schwarz (8 out of 10) (BMG/CMC, March 1999)
This double-CD, two hour, 25 track live album comprises a single show
the band played in Hamburg, Germany, in May 1998. It is faithful and
powerful and, though you have to swap discs, recreates the feel of a
concert well, because it has the continuity of being recorded on one
single night. I think if you saw Motorhead on this tour and you
wanted a "souvenir", _ELTEE_ could be a good choice of trinket, but
for the rest of us it is a question of whether you want a Motorhead
live album and whether you want -this- Motorhead live album. The
advantage of this live album is that you get material spanning most
of the band's career, from Clarke/Taylor era classics like
"Overkill", "Bomber", "Orgasmatron" and, of course, "Ace of Spades",
to later notables like "Killed by Death", "I'm So Bad, Baby I Don't
Care", and "Born to Raise Hell". This is an advantage if you are
interested in later Motorhead material and may be the only thing
which makes this worth getting if you already have _No Sleep 'Til
Hammersmith_, the bands number one charting live classic. Nearly
every song is well performed, capturing the live power the band are
famous for, and the setlist is one I have enjoyed listening to.
Overall, I find it hard to know whether to recommend this; it is cool
and gives you the chance to hear Motorhead rocking like only they
can, but then again it is a live album and I wonder whether you
wouldn't be just as happy rocking out to the studio albums of theirs
that you already have and saving yourself X amount of cash. If you
don't own any Motorhead albums and want a selection to begin with, I
would recommend _ELTEE_ to you as a good place to start; my Slayer
initiation was with _Decade of Aggression_ and this is a similarly
representative sample to begin with. I would point out though that if
you are only interested in the band's classic line-up and the
material that was produced by it, you'd be better off with _NSTH_,
and you get the selfsame three individuals cranking out the tunes too.
MSBR / Die Lebensmittelvergiftung - _Collaboration_
by: Gabriel Sanchez (8.5 out of 10) (Flenix Records, 1999)
Well, this isn't harsh noise, but you know what? IT'S BETTER THAN
POWER ELECTRONICS! (Yes, the theme continues...) If you are a wise
human being and decide to purchase this fine slab of vinyl, what you
will have is a rather odd, but at the same time highly entertaining,
release from Japanese deity of noise Koji Tano (MSBR) and a fellow
Japanoise artist who I am at this time unfamiliar with, Die
Lebensmittelvergiftung. This is a bit off beat for MSBR, as it is
less of a drawn out harsh tonal work as much as it is a more abrasive
ambient piece, though with a shitload more innovation on the sounds
and editing than just about any ambient you will find out there these
days. The first side is pure MSBR with supplied sounds by DL and
really isn't that much of a stretch for a lot of what you hear from
MSBR these days, only a tad bit lighter. The second side is a very
strange remixing of sounds which resembles nothing of what I am used
to from MSBR. The sounds are there, but the style is all wrong (well,
not wrong, just different). Perhaps this is the style that DL
incorporates on their solo works (I wouldn't know, unfortunately),
but either way you won't get any complaints out of me, as I found
myself knocking the needle back on my turn table to experience a
number of moments in this composition which I found as nothing short
of magical in a way that only a surrealistic poet dropping acid could
explain. In other words, it has something so much noise and power
electronics is lacking and that is... INNOVATION! Got that? So this
is where I give you readers the choice... you can either drop your
time with some repetitious slop that seems to infest the lovely noise
scene today or you can check out something that is time tested good
like MSBR and this newbie he tag teams with. It's your choice, of
course... I'm just giving you my goddamn opinion to guide you.
Contact: Flenix Records, 1-108 Anjoji Matsuyama,
Ehime 791-8006, Japan
mailto:mail@msbr.com
MSBR / K2 / Magmax - _Split_ (MSBR, 1999)
by: Gabriel Sanchez (8 out of 10)
I believe this is the first time I have ever reviewed a three way
split and I must confess I am not entirely sure how to approach it.
In the beginning of it all is a live track from a veteran of the
Japanoise scene (and an artist who is continually growing on me),
MSBR. This live piece is less along MSBR's harsh side and instead
makes moves towards a more atmospheric feel. Despite expecting a more
"in your face" type of sound, I can find little to gripe about a
sound that is as dynamic as that of MSBR. K2 supply two tracks of
their own during this three way dance. It's what you would expect
from K2: crashing metallic sounds, whirlwind pulsations of subdued
electronic madness, and more quick changes to the noise than one
could possibly hope to keep track of. Though I would never put K2
into the realm of being the harshest noise artist in the field today,
his tracks came off as quite the shock following the more laid back
approach that MSBR chose to take. The fun little three way finally
comes to a close with Koji Tano of MSBR's other project, Magmax.
Until this album, I had not the pleasure of hearing Magmax and if
this one track is any indication of the work Koji is producing under
this name, then I am hooked. Much of the sound revolves around
projecting the more dark psychedelic aspects of MSBR, but interlacing
it with a variety of moans, screams, and cries supplied by (I would
assume) Koji himself. Though this type of style can sometimes creep
into the realms of cheesy, I have heard it work wonders for groups
such as Bastard Noise and Magmax seems to have captured that same
energy. Even if the other outpourings of Magmax are not along these
lines, this one track was enough, in my view, to put this release
over the top from being simply good to great. A worthy addition to
any noise fan's collection, in my view, and also a very good way to
sample three of Japan's more worthy noise projects.
Contact: MSBR, 2-2-12-101 Hanegi, Setagaya, Tokyo 156-0042, Japan
mailto:mail@msbr.com
Napalm Death - _Words From the Exit Wound_ (Earache, April 1999)
by: Adrian Bromley (8 out of 10)
It only seems right for the band that helped begin (or at least lay
the groundwork) for all of this genre moulding metal to have a solid
release as this century comes to a close. Had this been a bummer of a
record, I think I would have given up on Napalm Death. But my metal
friends, _Words From the Exit Wound_ is quite the piece of work, so
there is no need to panic. Much in the vein of the brilliantly
crushing last effort (1997's _Inside the Torn Apart_), Napalm Death
has once again upheaved their sound to much stronger and precision
oriented numbers, relying heavily on slight melodies and pure
punishing rhythms. Singer Barney Greenway's vocals are in top form
too, lashing out a vindictive tongue of musical mayhem with each and
every breathe. It's stunning to see that through all the metal
meldings and style changes that have shaped metal over the years,
Napalm Death still adhere to their principle song writing structure
and stay sounding like Napalm Death. Can you imagine Napalm Death
showcasing black metal or gothic rock tendencies? Eek! While not as
potent as _Inside the Torn Apart_, Napalm Death serve up plenty of
action here (i.e., "Next of Kin to Chaos," "Ulterior Exterior" and
"Clutching at Barbs"). I saw them live a month or so back and they
ruled. The new stuff carried off well live.
Narnia - _Long Live the King_ (Nuclear Blast, March 1999)
by: Paul Schwarz (2 out of 10)
Well, what can I say? I'll start with pointing out that this band
have only plundered from C.S. Lewis' selection of classic children's
books for their name, cover (which is bastardised) and a song title
or maybe two. This is not _Themes from C.S. Lewis "The Lion, the
Witch and the Wardrobe"_. This is probably good in that the Narnia
stories, much as they are involving and well-written, are not really
appropriate material for heavy metal lyrics. I don't want to restrict
anyone here, but I don't think anyone could pull that off
convincingly. No, instead we are treated to endless Christian
preaching, worshipping and thanking. Sorry to sound prejudiced, but
my atheism is not the reason for my ridicule. These lyrics are
downright crappy, predictable, typical "everything's great 'cause I
found God" garbage. A sample: "Oh my lord, from heaven above, give me
strength to carry on, Lord give me shelter, every night every
morning, Lord give me shelter, all through the pain". The music
consists of melodic rock/metal with very "German" sounding vocals
(HammerFall doing pop) and plenty of cheesy backing keyboards. There
are some decent riffs and guitar runs, but quite honestly the only
reason I can think of for these guys to be signed to Nuclear Blast
would be Markus Staiger trying to make up with God over giving the
world so many (excellent) Satanic bands. This is false metal, I say
death to it, and I'm pretty sure certain other Nuclear Blast signees
would agree with me.
New Eden - _Obscure Master Plan_ (Nuclear Blast, 1999)
by: Alex Cantwell (7 out of 10)
I don't care for this a great deal, although I would encourage fans
of their debut album _Through the Make Believe_ and also any Elegy
fans out there to at least give it a spin. I have given it about all
the spins I'm going to give it, and I was not satisfied, especially
since it was their first for Nuclear Blast. What were they thinking?
Some of the vocal melodies are way off, but seemingly intentionally.
Why? Sometimes the vocals are just plain annoying. Worse yet, some of
the guitar melodies don't jive with what is going on in the song. Did
they forget how to write the killer melodies that were displayed on
_TtMB_? Just because you can play with great technical skill doesn't
necessarily mean that you can write good songs. I think that they are
trying to be a bit abstract with their songsmithing now, but sadly it
just does not sound good. When they get going, get into a groove, and
start letting the leads fly, then they put out some great music, and
there are many songs that provide saving graces for this album. Also
the lyrics are intelligent and are definitely an asset, but _Obscure
Master Plan_ falls short because of (over) "creativity".
Nightwish - _Oceanborn_ (Spinefarm, December 1998)
by: David Rocher (10 out of 10)
Unless this year effectively -does- see the troops of Muspellheim
washing over earthly shores, I don't really see what could reasonably
hold this fantastic act back from attaining the same recognition
level as a referential band like Therion. Hailing from Finland, this
harmonious quintet, fronted by the enrapturing vocalist Tarja, play a
fine, melodic brand of metal, that revels in dimensions somewhere
between Children of Bodom, Stratovarius and Therion's excellent
latest works. Nightwish's music structures and general tone sound
rather progressive, yet their music is almost systematically
constructed around a fairly heavy rhythmic section, which is clearly
strengthened by the crunchy, Tico-Tico kind of powerful sound that
_Oceanborn_ boasts. All musicians display a wide span of technique
and imagination in their songwriting, and excellent keyboard lines
admirably complete the melodic, technical guitar work; drummer Jukka
is extensively active too, yet clever enough to never get vulgarly
technical or spectacular, and his rather bouncy playing gives tracks
such as "Stargazers" (-not- the Rainbow classic) or "The Pharaoh
Sails to Orion" a very dynamic, spectacular streak. The almighty
crowning parts of this album, though, are undoubtedly vocalist
Tarja's enthralling, majestic and very varied chants; rarely has a
female singer graced metal with a voice this deep, warm, and
emotional. With this competition of extraordinary imagination and
very skilful musicianship, _Oceanborn_ rises miles above the
blandness most releases boasting female vocals cannot avoid, and
indeed oozes with the essence of a truly magical album, whose beauty
is often so searing it will have you lost for words, and whose
furiously communicative energy is nothing less than a near-religious
commandment to wreck your neck. All chapters of this opus are
beautiful -- captivating, even --, powerful and unbelievably catchy;
Metal in fact seldom gets much better than this, and I can only
regret not having discovered these fantastic Finns earlier. Truly a
revelation, that has set me on the tracks of Nightwish's previous
opus, _Angels Fall First_.
Odium - _The Sad Realm of the Stars_
by: Nuno Almeida (9 out of 10) (Nocturnal Art, August 1998)
Listening to this debut album from Odium, I can't help but thinking
"boy, Mr. Samoth sure knows what he's doing with his label." Odium
are another great Norwegian band releasing an album through the
Emperor guitarist's own label, Nocturnal Art Productions. The cover
art is very similar to Limbonic Art's -- which is no surprise, since
it was also done by Morpheus. The cover displays a warrior sitting on
his throne, as he sadly gazes at the vast, endless universe. A very
melancholic scene. And it perfectly describes Odium's music. Pure
darkness, hate, coldness and sorrow. The music is typical Norwegian
black metal, always very fast and extreme, the keyboard being used in
a very effective way. I even dare to name it the most important
feature in their music, since its role in creating the sometimes sad
and melancholic, other times majestic and epic melodies is more than
important -- it builds landscapes of cold melancholy and sorrow and
makes a nice contrast with the fuzzy guitar, the very fast and tight
drumming (courtesy of Eek from the Norwegian doom metal band Funeral)
and especially with Secthdamon's agonizing screams. Great vocal
performance. Just check the title track and the last two tracks of
the album, "The Brightness of the Weeping Kingdom" and "Riding the
Starwinds", to see what I mean. Emperor's _In the Nightside Eclipse_
comes to mind when listening to _The Sad Realm of the Stars_. The
overall cold and dark feeling is very similar, although Odium do have
their own style. A very, very good release. Hell, I'm tempted to give
it a perfect rating! One final note: the album was recorded in 1996,
but was only released almost two years later, due to problems with
their previous label, the French Velvet Music.
(Also reviewed in Ancient Ceremonies #3 -- http://come.to/ac_zine/)
Paramaecium - _A Time to Mourn_ (<Independent>, 1999)
by: Alex Cantwell (7 out of 10)
It is truly "a time to mourn" when I am forced to give a Paramaecium
release anything less than a 10, but that time has now come. With
this, their fourth release, we find bassist/vocalist/founder Andrew
Tompkins still flying the Paramaecium flag of doom, but for the first
time without the astounding drumming talents of Jayson Sherlock.
However, Ian Arkley (Ashen Mortality, ex-Seventh Angel) on guitar is
a welcome addition to the fold. Although there are violins and flutes
on some songs, there is something missing from this album, as
compared to previous releases, and I think the word for it is
"grandiosity". _Within the Ancient Forest_ and _Exhumed of the
Earth_, were huge, important doom epics. _ATtM_ falls a bit short in
this area. "Betrayed Again" and "Even the Walls" are sadly just plain
boring -- they are just too slow, and pointlessly so, dragging butt
for seven minutes or so. The first track "A Moment" and the album's
closer "Unceasing" tread familiar territory, igniting memories of
Paramaecium albums past, playing doomed out death metal in the style
that only they can do. I was also disappointed by the absence of the
wonderful Rosemary Sutton, who has contributed greatly in the way of
vocals on past releases, especially since I had read some months back
that she would indeed be on this album. Tracy Bourne does a good job
with the female parts on _ATtM_, but it's just not quite the same.
Hopefully, Andrew and Ian will form a real and true line-up for the
next release, so that it may be more of a band effort, though they
must be commended for writing and performing another memorable
chapter of the great Paramaecium saga. I would not hesitate to
recommend this to any fan of doom, but I would recommend previous
albums over this one to the uninitiated.
Contact: Paramaecium, PO Box 46, Forest Hill, 3131, Australia
mailto:andrew@paramaecium.com
WWW: http://www.paramaecium.com
Rotting Christ - _Sleep With Angels_ (Century Media, April 1999)
by: Adrian Bromley (8 out of 10)
I was pleasantly surprised by the work found on _Sleep With Angels_,
having been a fan of the band for sometime, breathing a sigh of
relief as the band still wallows in the darkened, black metal realms
of uncertainty, but still soothing for bringing into their songs some
interesting concoctions. While their early stuff (i.e., _Passage to
Arcturo_ in 1991 and 1993's _Non Serviam_) was groundbreaking and
allowed them to become the front runners in the rather combative
black metal scene, there was always something really tranquil and
mystical about the work of this Greek band. While frontman Sakis has
lengthened himself a bit from the bands early roots, moving slowly
towards some melody and consistent rhythms, it's his stunning vocal
style and matching of the music to it that is the true bread and
butter of this release. Not in a long time has a record been so
flavourful in song structure, allowing such a brilliant atmosphere to
stem forth from the recording. Choice cuts: "After Dark I Feel", "You
My Flesh" and "Thine Is the Kingdom". Fans will love this, I suspect,
and I'm assuming many new legions of metal fans might latch onto such
a superb release.
Sculpture - _Spiritual Matrix_ (Lowroof, 1998)
by: Alex Cantwell (7.5 out of 10)
First off, this is not the Sculpture from Portugal or wherever; these
guys are from The Netherlands. This Sculpture play an angry style of
late '80s thrash. Their ten compositions on _Spiritual Matrix_ are
admittedly a bit simplistic, but powerful nonetheless. Could it be
that they are just playing the music that they enjoy, instead of
playing what everyone claims is "relevant"? I believe that is the
case here, because these songs are played with conviction, and a lot
of it. I can't justify slamming a band for playing thrash, unless of
course it is of poor quality, because I still listen to quite a bit
of it myself, 1999 or not. That said, on to the music. Sculpture's
two guitarists employ very skilful riffing, and have a good handle on
harmonies and counter melodies, complementing each other and the
songs a great deal. All the songs contain great guitar solos and
actually all of the band should be commended for good performances
all around.
Contact: Lowroof Records, Debora Bakelaan 162,
1962 XT Heemskerk, The Netherlands
mailto:lowroof@knoware.nl
Sick of it All - _Call to Arms_ (Fat Wreck Chords, February 1999)
by: Paul Schwarz (9 out of 10)
Sick of it All present us with another 30 odd minute slab of New York
hardcore, and once again it is of the highest quality. Though little
has changed in the band's style since _Scratch the Surface_, there
have been a few minor fine tunings. The band capitalize a bit more on
the leanings of punk (especially of the "oi" variety) and make a
little more effort to mix melody into their already considerably
catchy hardcore anthems. Overall, though, there will definitely be
people who will shun this release for the lack of development it
displays. This would be a mistake in my view. It is not originality
which draws me to _Call to Arms_, it is sheer listenability. The 30
odd minutes of hardcore (with a humorous acoustic dirge called
"Greazy Weazy" included at the end) are catchy, infectious, varied
and so well written that I find it hard to find a moment where it
bores me or I don't feel it is worth continuing to listen to. What is
great as well is that I find this album lyrically satisfying, with
the sentiment and delivery being equally favored by myself. Overall
SoiA have fulfilled their purpose, in my opinion: to give us another
selection of great hardcore tracks. Maybe they could do more and push
the boundaries of hardcore, but I'm perfectly content with what _CtA_
already has to offer.
Contact: PO Box 193690, San Francisco, CA 94119-3690, USA
Sins of Omission - _The Creation_ (Black Sun, 1999)
by: David Rocher (9.5 out of 10)
With a skin-bashing department very efficiently filled by Dennis
Ekdahl of Raise Hell, this Swedish act have actually succeeded in
offering a rather new expression of death metal, and display great
talent and knowledge in fusing the sounds of the now notorious
"Gothenburg death metal" style with more intricate, heavy and
thrashing sounds, that would in fact remind me of an aggressive
mutation of twin guitar assaults a la Judas Priest merged with
faster, more aggressive measures of extremist contemporary musical
dirges. The very melodic guitar play from Tony Kocmut and Martin
Persson always remains heavy enough to grace _The Creation_ with
power and catchiness that the names At the Gates or Dark Tranquillity
are not unfamiliar with; needless to say, Dennis Ekdahl's very
talented pounding rhythms are murderously energetic, and varied
enough to always perfectly create a flawless backbone for the
syncopated, almost rivalling axe attacks. Demonstrating much energy,
creativity and a taste for sharply controlled chaos, _The Creation_
hulls metal that can musically trickle through a euphonious,
mid-paced melody, before brutally swelling into a raging, violent
death metal surge, which in turn carries the song through to a bouncy
speed metal-like section, or may as well merely let it fade into
another laid back twin guitar part. The swift strings are always
fantastically imaginative and inspired, and the frequently diverging
guitar lines often collide, to great effect, with the massively heavy
bass and drums. Clear vocal lines (duelling, of course) are used very
sparingly, and thus avoid becoming a mere reflex movement whose
facility increasingly many bands now succumb to. Considering the fact
that the Sins had no vocalist at the time of the Fredman recording
sessions, Tony Kocmut did a very convincing job at this post; better
news still, with the adjunction to their formation of rabid screamer
Marten Hanssen, of the late A Canorous Quintet, Sins of Omission's
music is most likely going to be granted an extra serving of
aggressiveness -- which it by no means lacks! These heavy, thrashing,
melodic deathsters are certainly destined to become a force to be
reckoned with, and many bands hoping to play in their league are
going to have a hard time keeping their musical standards this high.
Steel Prophet - _Dark Hallucinations_ (Nuclear Blast, March 1999)
by: Paul Schwarz (6 out of 10)
As this album begins, the first thing that struck me about it was its
impressively heavy production. The kickdrums are pounding and in fact
the whole drum kit punches comfortably through the music throughout
the album. The guitars are close to being as powerful but lag behind
the drums a little. With these weapons of mass destruction at their
disposal, Steel Prophet deliver _Dark Hallucinations_, an album which
draws heavily from the melodic speed/thrash sounds of early
Annihilator and, of necessity, has many of its roots planted in
classic Judas Priest. The result is far from bad in terms of
technical proficiency or even songwriting. However, the vocalist's
style does not appeal to me or seem to fit the music brilliantly.
When you take into account the fact that the lyrical concepts do not
grab me (they seem to consist of a five song "concept" piece with
significant influence from Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" and some
rather pedestrian stuff dealing with alien encounter themes) and that
the music is not spectacularly original, you have a record I really
can't see myself putting on again. Fans of Iced Earth's last record
may enjoy this, though, I feel.
Various - _Straight to Hell -- A Tribute to Slayer_
by: Aaron McKay (7 out of 10) (Deadline Music, 1999)
Rather nice to have Hypocrisy, Brutal Truth (RIP), and Dissection
plowing through some of Slayer's best material in tribute to these
colossal kings of metal. Thirteen bands, appropriately enough, tip
their collective hats to Slayer's musical prowess covering some of my
favorites like "Chemical Warfare" and "Necrophobic". If you've heard
tribute albums before, then this one will not present any surprises
to you. Every band reverently moulds Slayer tunes with their own
particular style as a metalsmith bangs out creation after creation
with hammer and anvil. A choice few additions on _Straight to Hell_
are certainly worth special mention. The Electric Hellfire Club and
Jungle Rot pounding out "South of Heaven" and "Fight Till Death",
respectively, are simply spectacular. Chapter 7's version of
"Mandatory Suicide" is dead-on balls accurate and simply flawless,
but what really completely knocked me for a loop was a band called
Naked Lunch reworking "Blood Red". An exercise in metal precision
seasoned with a light, highly groovy techno feel that would be well
utilized in a horror flick like, say, "Evil Dead". If you fancy
yourself a Slayer junkie, you cannot go wrong with this effort. I
might even say that _StH_ has enough pull to draw in a slightly more
diverse crowd centering around Slayer's proven grandeur.
Taetre - _Out of Emotional Disorder_ (Diehard, April 1999)
by: Paul Schwarz (8.5 out of 10)
It is very unusual for me to feel that a press release actually sells
an album short in my view. In fact, I really can't remember a single
time a press release didn't go OTT on praising an album, however
monumentous or utterly rubbish that album turned out to be, in my
opinion. So here is the exception, and Taetre's second album is
exceptional in more than just the way its content relates to its
press release. Though I will admit the core of their sound is still
that of brutal melodic Gothenburg death metal, Taetre have evidently
tried to do more with this album than simply to rewrite their debut.
One of the things I felt _The Art_ was lacking in was variation and
this led to it becoming tedious before its 41 minutes was finished.
_Out of Emotional Disorder_ may only be 37 minutes by comparison, but
the fact still stands that it holds my attention for its whole
duration. Taetre have, quite simply, written better, tighter and more
dynamic songs. They utilize acoustic and keyboard backed sections for
the purpose of creating a dynamic, and they do it well, almost as
well as their countrymen At the Gates (RIP) or Dark Tranquillity.
Taetre retain their brutality throughout this release, even in their
interesting and effective cover of The Rolling Stones' "Paint it
Black", though they still lack the kind of dark, encapsulating
atmosphere which dethroned emperors Dissection were masters of and
Dawn have exhumed from the crypts of eternity for the present. But
Taetre -are- doing well: Andy LaRocque's production works well for
them and in just a year they have developed their songwriting
immensely without sacrificing their integrity; that's more than can
be said for many a band.
Various - _To Live Is Ever to Be in Danger_ (Red Stream, 1999)
by: Aaron McKay (8.5 out of 10)
If for no other reason than Bethlehem's "Tiermutter", Iron Maiden
cover, [see the Bethlehem interview in this issue] is on this
compilation, I would own this, if I were you. It would seem to me
that the Red Stream bands, Bethlehem and Necrophagia, are raising the
bar so fuckin' high with recent efforts that concern quite possibly
is warranted that some of my favorite groups, currently, might not be
able to close in the distance these bands are creating. An unreleased
track, "Rising", from France's blackened Himinbjorg is prominently
put forth here, as is "Pouring" from the Skepticism 1995 demo.
Ranging in convolution from pounding mood laced tracks like Wejdas
self-titled song to the almost Mortiis-esque Nightmare Lodge's
"Mankind Sanctuary" to the sounds of death emanating from Obliveon's
"The Scrutinizer", this compilation is just what the doctor ordered
for even the most benign and mundane among the musically apathic out
there. Also, allow me to give a shout out about the fact that there
is an unreleased Necrophagia 1998 piece present here too, entitled
"It Lives in the Woods". If exposure to new shit is a cup of tea you
might like to drink from, Red Stream just finished brewing a pot
called _To Live Is Ever to Be in Danger_ and read -those- tea leaves,
boys and girls!
Contact: Red Stream, P.O. Box 342, Camp Hill, PA 17001-0342, USA
WWW: http://www.rstream.com
Turmoil - _The Process of_ (Century Media / St. Clair, April 1999)
by: Adrian Bromley (9.5 out of 10)
This I was not expecting. This floored me and I'm still picking my
teeth off the floor. In totally ULTRA heavy fashion, the ferocious
assault of Turmoil breaks down all walls that you may have and shoves
their totally metallic-tinged hardcore numbers down your throat.
Having been an average fan of the band since their earlier EP release
_Who Says Time Heals All Wounds_, this record has turned me into a
true believer. These guys are for real, easily surpassing a lot of
the heavyweights within the hardcore/metal scene with this blistering
collection of goodies. From opener "Playing Dead" to "The Locust" and
the shit-kickin' "Staring Back", Turmoil know the right buttons to
push to get the juices flowing. Anyone steals this copy from me and
they die! I'm serious...
Ulcerate Fester - _Souled Out_ (<Independent>, 1999)
by: Pedro Azevedo (5 out of 10)
Having started as a death/grind band ten years ago, Ulcerate Fester
have certainly changed a lot since then -- most likely since the
current vocalist, Michel de Groot, joined the band. From death/grind
they changed to the mid-paced groovy form of metal that they now
play. I cannot tell which style is best for them, since I never heard
any of their past efforts, but _Souled Out_ shows a band that is
technically competent and experienced but still lacks the ability to
create songs that can captivate the listener. The vocals don't help
matters much, but the songs are just as excessively safe and
unchallenging as they are competently performed; there's nothing
extreme going on here and the songs are neither really annoying nor
really capable of capturing the listener's attention -- they're just
there.
Contact: Michel de Groot, Rozenstraat 31, 7601 AL Almelo, Netherlands
(Price: $15)
mailto:legrand@solcon.nl
WWW: http://home.wxs.nl/~ulcerate/
Welter - _The Elder Land_ (Berzerker Records, 1998)
by: Nuno Almeida (8 out of 10)
Welter is a Dutch one-man band. In this rather long (45 minutes)
debut, labelled as an MCD, Herr Krieger played all the instruments
and created what can be called a Viking/heathen metal album, clearly
influenced by the likes of Falkenbach, Bathory, Burzum and especially
Northern folk. The album consists of an interesting mix of old, raw
black metal and folkish kind of songs. After a short intro,
consisting of folk chants, comes the epic "Ingvian Pride", a
nationalist song sang in English. It's pretty good, with clean, sad,
folkish vocals by Herr Krieger. Then comes "Friesche Viking", a raw
black metal track. This is a cover of an obscure Dutch black metal
band called Black Art. After a rather amusing intro called "The Law
of the North", with Herr Krieger singing things like "We'll step upon
your little toes / The law of the North / If we want, we'll break
your nose / The law of the North", comes the best track of the album,
in my opinion. "Vitgedroogd Bloed", a Burzum-like song, with two very
good and grim guitar riffs that are alternatively repeated. Vocals
are the usual black metal rasp. Half the songs were recorded on a
professional studio in the USA and the other half on Herr Krieger's
own studio in the Netherlands. So, from track five until the end, the
sound quality is a bit lower, as the sound becomes thinner. Track
five is another raw black metal song, in the vein of Bathory, with
the usual black snarl. After that comes "Bij de Sabelking", another
folkish track, but this time combining both clean and rasped vocals.
As in "Ingvian Pride", the guitar is fuzzy and raw. After a short
instrumental outro that reminds me a lot of Mortiis comes another
cover: Absurd's "Mourning Soul". The use of clean vocals doesn't
quite work on this speed metal track. If you're into Falkenbach's
type of music, my advice is to give Welter a chance.
(Also reviewed in Ancient Ceremonies #3 -- http://come.to/ac_zine/)
Various - _Where We Go, Others Can Only Follow..._
by: Pedro Azevedo (8 out of 10) (No Fashion Records, 1999)
Having released albums such as Katatonia's _Dance of December Souls_,
Dissection's _The Somberlain_ and also both Dark Funeral and A
Canorous Quintet albums, plus about a couple dozen others, No Fashion
Records have been responsible for the release of some great Swedish
metal over the past few years. Exclusively dedicated to Swedish
metal, this compilation presents 75 minutes filled by the work of
fifteen of No Fashion's bands. Only two of these bands have two songs
in the compilation, namely Dark Funeral (not surprisingly) and
Noctes, which makes it hard to understand why it is that A Canorous
Quintet's excellent debut _Silence of the World Beyond_ isn't
represented in this compilation. Dark Funeral present a cover of King
Diamond's "The Trial", taken from their upcoming MCD _Teach Children
to Worship Satan_, together with their "Thy Legions Come" from
_Vobiscum Satanas_, while Noctes add a somewhat disappointing track
from their new album _Vexilla Regis Prodeunt Inferni_ to the more
interesting "In Silence", taken from their debut _Pandemonic
Requiem_. This low-priced compilation features some of Sweden's
finest bands, such as Dark Funeral, Ophthalamia and the sadly
deceased A Canorous Quintet, while most other bands keep the quality
level quite high. There's not much variety, since it's all based on
either Swedish black, death or a combination of the two, except
mainly for Insania's power metal (which is hardly a change for the
better). However, I don't consider that bad at all -- quite the
contrary --, since whoever is going to buy this compilation should be
interested in Swedish metal anyway. In that case, there's plenty of
interesting music here and this can very well be a worthy purchase in
case it really is sold at a low price, like it's supposed to be, and
the buyer isn't familiar with most of the featured bands, which are:
Decameron, Noctes, Allegiance, Ablaze My Sorrow, Hypocrite,
Vinterland, Insania, Lobotomy, Vermin, Dark Funeral, Ophthalamia, A
Canorous Quintet, Moaning, Mork Gryning and Lord Belial.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
__ __ _
/\ \ \_____ __ /\ \ \___ (_)___ ___
/ \/ / _ \ \ /\ / / / \/ / _ \| / __|/ _ \
/ /\ / __/\ V V / / /\ / (_) | \__ \ __/
\_\ \/ \___| \_/\_/ \_\ \/ \___/|_|___/\___|
If you have a band, don't forget to send us your demo with a bio if
you want to be reviewed; our address is included in the zine's header.
Scoring: ***** -- A flawless demo
**** -- Great piece of work
*** -- Good effort
** -- A major overhaul is in order
* -- A career change is advisable
Butchery - _The Coming Plague_ (1-track promo)
by: Paul Schwarz (*****)
This was quite a surprise. Judging by the meat and potatoes name I
was expecting meat and potatoes American death metal -- how wrong
one's assumptions can be. Butchery are one of the more talented and
original death metal demo bands I have encountered in the last twelve
months. From their intro, taken, I think, from "The Devil's Advocate"
and thus expertly delivered by Al Pacino, comes blasting a selection
of twisted riffs, tortured vocals and manic percussion which reminds
instantly, though favorably, of Gorguts circa _Erosion of Sanity_.
The band are not a clone, however, and in any case the quality of
their production and skill with which they play is of such a high
standard at such a preliminary stage that I think it would be injust
not to award them ful
l marks. I await further material from this band
with bated breath.
Contact: Butchery, PO Box 20, Holtsville NY 11742, USA
mailto:xbutcheryx@aol.com
Downthroat - _I've Got My Mother's Eyes_ (6-track demo)
by: Pedro Azevedo (****-)
In order to fully understand this demo tape's title, _I've Got My
Mother's Eyes_, one must look at what's above it on the front cover:
the black and white picture of a badly beaten young girl whose eyes
are both -very- swelled and black. Yes, this is brutal death/grind,
like it or not. The horror movie samples in the beginning of both
sides of the tape are far from innovative, but they certainly do
their job in setting a certain atmosphere. However, the band doesn't
hesitate in doing some instrumental and sample-based jokes: cartoon
samples in the middle of one of the songs? And "he's a jolly good
fellow..."? Anyway, it's a good thing that the rest is good enough to
prevent these things from becoming too much of a problem --
Downthroat play their death/grind at speeds ranging from very slow to
very fast quite well. Even though the production is very acceptable
for a demo tape, the growled vocals sound somewhat muffled, although
they are supposed to be very impressive live, while the more screamed
vox reminded me of Intestine Baalism. Overall, despite the annoying
passages described above, Downthroat have made a very good
death/grind demo.
Contact: Downthroat, Apartado 1157, 3780 Anadia, Portugal
Enforsaken - _Promo 1999_ (2-track demo)
by: Nuno Almeida (***--)
Nice debut work from this North American duo. Mostly influenced by
the Swedish death metal scene (bands such as early Entombed,
Dismember, Dark Tranquillity and In Flames), Enforsaken manage to
display good potential in this two song promo tape. The first song,
"Into the Everblack", starts fast, evolves into a mid-paced death
metal song with a dominant guitar riff, then gets fast again and
repeats the fast-slow combinations until the end. The second song,
"Standing in the Shadow of Suicide", is better, with an overall
"Gothenburg feel". Despite the lack of originality, it's still a nice
song, with a very good solo near the end. Steve Stell's vocals are
OK, following the Swedish style. The sound quality could be better,
but it's acceptable since this is a demo.
(Also reviewed in Ancient Ceremonies #3 -- http://come.to/ac_zine/)
Contact: Enforsaken, 400 Manda Lane 302, Wheeling Il. 60090, USA
Odeum - _The Pleiadean Diaries_ (2-track demo)
by: Pedro Azevedo (****-)
Listening to these two new songs from Odeum for the first time, just
about five seconds into the first track I was already nodding my head
to its opening riff, which reminded me somewhat of some of
Dismember's more fast-paced songs on _Death Metal_ (like the
brilliant "Misanthropic", for example, even though of course not
-that- good). Odeum, formerly known as Odium (I assume they changed
their name because of Nocturnal Art Productions' Odium, but I'm
guessing), again prove with these two new songs that they are a
skilled Swedish death metal band. In fact, the two new songs flew by
so quickly the first time I listened to them that I actually turned
to side B, found their previous demo _Factor of Tantrum_ [CoC #30]
recorded there and ended up listening to it as well, which I hadn't
ever since I reviewed it several months ago (not because it wasn't
worth it, though). The reason why both demos were there is that these
two new songs come as a bonus with the purchase of the original demo
for $5 (or maybe it's the old demo that comes with the new songs,
whatever). This may not be anything groundbreaking or breathtaking,
but it's definitely some quite enjoyable Swedish death metal. I hope
that the next time Chrille sends me new Odeum material it'll be
recorded on CD and have professional production and a label releasing
it, for while Odeum may not be one of the very best Swedish bands
around (the competition is huge anyway), they're certainly not any
worse than a lot of what's being released, either.
Contact: Chrille Ludvigsson, Vattugatan 15b,
28131 Hassleholm, Sweden
mailto:odium666@hotmail.com
WWW: http://home8.swipnet.se/~w-81012
Soriben - _Ancestros de Insania_ (5-track demo)
by: Pedro Azevedo (*****)
Comparing this 30 minute long demo CD with their demo tape from a
couple of years ago, it's easy to perceive that Soriben have come a
long way already and their skills have improved considerably.
Although still quite a young band, Soriben have now been together for
quite a while, and it shows. _Ancestros de Insania_ is very
competently written, played and produced as far as demos go and shows
a melodic sort of doom metal that often has a lot going on
instrumentally, and Soriben certainly manage to play tightly
throughout. The clean vocals, however, both male and female, need
work -- it's actually a good thing that the female vocals appear so
seldom. The death vox are more competently performed, though.
Throughout the demo, Soriben's compositions unfold to reveal a band
that can already achieve some remarkable moments and simultaneously
keep things interesting enough the rest of the time, guitars and
keyboard successively taking the spotlight. Soriben still need to
work very hard if they are to release a competitive full-length in
the future, but as far as demos go, _Ancestros de Insania_ is
certainly one of the best I've listened to in quite a long while.
Contact: Soriben, P.O. Box 7260, 41005 Sevilla, Spain
mailto:soriben@geocities.com
WWW: http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/1048
Thanatos - _Melegnia_ (6-track demo)
by: Pedro Azevedo (****-)
Some bands' musical outputs just defy description, and I remain
unable to find a suitable label for _Melegnia_. One might say that a
groovy death metal backbone is often present, or that they
occasionally sound just a bit like Blackstar or a couple other
groovier bands, or that they insert some atmospheric passages... and
yet it's still hard to make sense. Whether this is a good thing or a
bad thing strongly depends on the listener, however, because this is
very unusual music. With a strong production thrusting their music,
Thanatos can achieve interesting moments just as well as they can
leave you wondering what was going through their minds when they
thought that section would fit the song. How often will the former or
the latter occur depends mostly on the listener, because most of
these situations are a lot less than clear-cut throughout this demo
CD. As far as I'm concerned, this is worthy of attention for some of
its ideas and for several instrumental passages, which are all helped
by the very competent production and the CD release (they need better
artwork, though), but for my taste, I find a few sections less than
appropriate. Overall, this is at least a band that seems to have a
positive attitude as far as originality is concerned while they still
simultaneously manage to achieve plenty of interesting moments;
definitely not for everyone's taste, though.
Contact: Thanatos, a/c Guilhermino Martins, Rua dos Combatentes,
5030 Santa Marta de Penaguiao
mailto:thanatosband@hotmail.com
WWW: http://www.angelfire.com/pq/thanatosband
Thought Masticator - _Deception_
@@@@# - _Evolving Strains_
Meth - _Abstract Mental Chaos_
Sheen - _Sheen_ (Scratch Bladder Productions, March/April 1999)
by: Adrian Bromley (7.5, 8, 7, 9 out of 10)
I still can't believe all of the stuff I get sent from Bill Sannwald.
It's amazing that this guy has such creativity flowing within his
veins. Featured last issue, Bill Sannwald has once again gone off and
assembled a wide array of eccentric goodies to give listen to. With
such a slew of new ideas seeing the light of day, one might wonder:
Are they good? Is it all repetitive? The answer: no. What Sannwald
does, and I tried to explain this in my story with him, is that he
has the unique ability to make music out of anything. His works have
always been lopsided, meaning his creative patterns are never really
forced or follow the same style all the way throughout. If he were
driving down the street for example, he'd be swerving from side to
side. Is it worth the ride in the Sannwald mobile? Oh yes. From the
translucent and hypnotic patterns of the always versatile Thought
Masticator with its up and down, start 'n' stop ways of musical
endeavours to the rockin', doubly-weird assemblage of ideas with the
odd @@@@#. @@@@# is quite a good project in my books for Sannwald, as
it allows him to venture out certain ideas that he has yet to
capture. The ultra brutal black/Viking metal ways of Meth is very
professional, with some cool-ass darkened riffs and vocals that would
peel paint off walls. Sinister stuff. Beware of the Hordes of Meth!
Finally Sheen. Yes, as you might have guessed, reckless actor Charlie
Sheen is the showpiece of respect here as Sannwald and Co. dish out
some meaty hooks of metal in respect to one of Hollywood's notorious
bad boys. This is so dirty in metal filth, that this music could have
easily done some time with Heidi Fleiss' women as Sheen did. Yeah,
baby! While I liked Sheen the best out of all of Sannwald's demo
tapes, due to its complex and totally out their rally of ideas
(though @@@@# kicked ass too), it's a total given for many interested
to contact him and scope out his literally hundreds of ideas. I'm
still hooked on this guy. Keep 'em coming, Bill!
Contact: 3538 Paseo Salomoner, La Mesa, California 91941, USA
mailto:Keirka777@hotmail.com
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/\ _`\ /\ \ /\ \__ __
\ \ \/\_\\ \ \___ __ ___\ \ ,_\/\_\ ___
\ \ \/_/_\ \ _ `\ /'__`\ / __`\ \ \/\/\ \ /'___\
\ \ \L\ \\ \ \ \ \/\ \L\.\_/\ \L\ \ \ \_\ \ \/\ \__/
\ \____/ \ \_\ \_\ \__/.\_\ \____/\ \__\\ \_\ \____\
\/___/ \/_/\/_/\/__/\/_/\/___/ \/__/ \/_/\/____/
____ __
/\ _`\ /\ \__
\ \ \/\_\ ___ ___ ___ __ _ __\ \ ,_\ ____
\ \ \/_/_ / __`\ /' _ `\ /'___\ /'__`\/\`'__\ \ \/ /',__\
\ \ \L\ \/\ \L\ \/\ \/\ \/\ \__//\ __/\ \ \/ \ \ \_/\__, `\
\ \____/\ \____/\ \_\ \_\ \____\ \____\\ \_\ \ \__\/\____/
\/___/ \/___/ \/_/\/_/\/____/\/____/ \/_/ \/__/\/___/
T H E D A R K E S T N I G H T O F T H E Y E A R
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dimmu Borgir, Dark Funeral, Dodheimsgard and Evenfall
at the Hard Club, Gaia, Portugal
April 11, 1999
by: Pedro Azevedo
Four black metal bands in one concert is something more than
unusual here in Portugal, so I was really looking forward to this
show, especially considering the excellent sound quality that the
Hard Club usually provides -- which was, again, the case. The first
couple of bands, Evenfall and Dodheimsgard, were unknown to me. Their
performances totalled about 25 minutes each, but that's about all
they really had in common. While Evenfall were reasonably consistent
but very unoriginal, Dodheimsgard were very original but lacked
consistency. Evenfall played some polished, mostly mid-paced black
metal, something like a slower version of Cradle of Filth. They were
competent live, but they really lacked originality -- I even think
I've heard at least one of the keyboard melodies in a Hecate
Enthroned song before. They did, nevertheless, succeed to entertain
reasonably well, since their performance tended to improve as songs
went by, but overall were hardly interesting.
Dodheimsgard, on the contrary, were anything but predictable,
both visually and musically. Very unusual black metal
experimentation, apparently drawing influences from Darkthrone. They
had some great, and also quite original, moments, especially during
the new songs, which include some keyboard work. None of the
electronics that are supposed to be present in their new full-length
were used live, though. The older songs, which show a different
style, weren't so good and a significant part of their
experimentation wasn't very successful. Some of the audience wasn't
very happy with them, but I did enjoy watching them and they did play
a reasonably innovative and occasionally quite interesting show.
Considering the (once again) excellent sound quality, I was more
than looking forward to Dark Funeral, but their 45 minute long set
wasn't entirely satisfactory. It was brutal -- very brutal --, but
what made them better than the average on CD was their ability to add
guitar melodies to their remarkable harshness, especially on
_Vobiscum Satanas_, and those melodies were generally forsaken live.
It was still a good performance, very brutal and rhythmically well
done, and the audience reacted quite well. They played a good
selection of songs from both full-length albums, plus "Open the
Gates" from their debut MCD and a fine cover of Slayer's "Dead Skin
Mask". It could have been an outstanding performance, had they been
more careful with their guitar playing, but it was still definitely
worth it.
Finally, over an hour and fifteen minutes of Dimmu Borgir.
Similarly to what happened with their somewhat surprisingly excellent
new album, _Spiritual Black Dimensions_, their live performance was
far better than I expected after having watched live recordings of
theirs a couple of times on TV. As a matter of fact, their live
performance was absolutely excellent. The sound was simultaneously
thunderous and very clear. New drummer Nicholas Barker (ex-Cradle of
Filth, who are supposed to have Was now) delivered a remarkably
powerful and tight performance, even moreso than when I saw him with
Cradle of Filth. Guitars and bass did a great job, while the
excellent and very clear keyboard background provided a melodic base
for the other band members to shred upon. In fact, the keyboards were
so well handled that it sometimes seemed almost too good for a live
situation. The vocalist did seem to be using a lot of effects on his
voice, though. In the meanwhile, tour bassist (and full time
Borknagar vocalist) Simen Hestnaes also performed his clean vocal
parts from _Spiritual Black Dimensions_ very well -- a highly worthy
addition to their line-up, even if only for this tour. In addition to
the great sound, the playing was surprisingly detailed, and yet
aggressive and sometimes tremendously fast. -Very- impressive. I am
sure that most of those who slag Dimmu Borgir for being a
"mainstream" black metal band would have been blown away -- I'm not
their number one fan either, but these guys just do have a lot of
quality, and not only is their new album great as their live
performance at the Hard Club was simply outstanding, -much- better
than I expected, even if made far easier by the superior sound
quality. They played almost all of _Spiritual Black Dimensions_, if
not -all- of it (the live version of "Reptile" was especially great),
plus an impressive medley of songs from _Enthrone Darkness
Triumphant_, the full versions of "Mourning Palace" and "In Death's
Embrace" from that same album and the classic title track from
_Stormblast_. An amazing performance.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
D E U T S C H E D I S A P P O I N T M E N T
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Entombed, Skinlab and Kill II This
at the Batschkapp in Frankfurt, Germany, February 25, 1999
by: Matthias Noll
This February seems to be a bad time for tours. Like at the
Pro-Pain gig only a disappointing amount of people showed up. Maybe
250 in the Batschkapp, which is well suited for 600 or more. Quite a
frustrating sight even if the disappointing new Entombed album might
be a valid explanation. The place was nearly empty when British
metallers Kill II This entered the stage and turned out to be the
crappiest band I've seen on stage since Einherjer last year. I can't
help but wonder why a band with such uninspired and boring songs ever
got a record deal. Riffing and choruses you have a heard a million
times before, a singer who is unable to sing in tune as well as to
sound heavy and aggressive -- what a bore. Kill II This might be a
bit better on record, but to use Kreator's words: "no reason to
exist".
Things improved dramatically with Skinlab. I only knew one of
the songs off their debut album and always considered them as some
lame Machine Head clones, but this turned out to be completely wrong.
On stage the band acted like lunatics, wielded their guitars as if
they were intending to split each other's skull open and visibly
enjoyed themselves and their music. A damn good band with a
breathtaking drummer. For a review of their new album, which hits the
nail right in the head, please see CoC #38.
Entombed then stormed the stage and a hammer called "To Ride,
Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth" hit the fans right in the face,
directly followed by "Demon" from _Wolverine Blues_. I was more than
relieved by now, because their vicious downtuned guitar sound was
back again and not gone as on _Same Difference_. Nicke Anderson's
departure seems to have been the death blow for Entombed in the
songwriting department; in the live situation, their new drummer
proved to be a blessing. While I always had the impression that Nicke
was more stumbling through the songs than giving the band a reliable
backbone, I have to say that I've never seen this band so tight
before. The definite highlights of the set were the fucking heavy
"Damn Deal Done", "Hollowman", "Night of the Vampire" (!), "Crawl"
(!!), and the awesome "Out of Hand". To play only three new songs
definitely was the right decision for Entombed. "Addiction King"
sounded allright, but the other two sucked. The crowd continued to
rage and bang heads throughout the whole set, which reached its
climax with the last song, "Left Hand Path", especially during this
song's chilling, doomy ending. I thought Entombed had bitten the dust
with the release of _Same Difference_. They proved me wrong and are
definitely still a force to be reckoned with. Let's see what the next
album will bring, but don't miss them on tour.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
N I L E ' S N O S H O W , N O T N I C E
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fear Factory, System of a Down and Static X
at the Embassy in London, Ontario on April 1st 1999
by: Adam Wasylyk
The immediate disappointment of the show was that Nile wouldn't
be opening things up. Many in the crowd were visibly upset as the
news spread through the attendees, including our own Alain Gaudrault.
So instead of being able to witness one of America's hottest
death metal acts, I had to suffer through mass quantities of
industrial drivel. Where's the Trenchcoat Mafia when I need them??
Static X put on a good set of mediocre industrial, hardly
rousing any of those in the crowd. 'Nuff said.
System of a Down are apparently quite the thing as of late with
the industrial crowd, landing some prominent tours including the
recent Ozzfest. Some of the crowd were really into it, but the
majority of those here for Fear Factory couldn't care less.
Fear Factory eventually took the stage, and would go on to kick
the ass of everyone in the packed Embassy, including yours truly.
They would play a wide variety of tracks, including "Martyr",
"Scapegoat", "Demanufacture", "Replica", "New Breed", "Shock",
"Edgecrusher", the title track off their new album, "Obsolete", and
the song that's featured on their newest video, "Resurrection". What
also made this show have all the more impact was not only the
exclusion of any _Remanufacture_ material, but the inclusion of the
godly "Scumgrief (Deep Dub Trauma Mix)" track found on FF's _Fear Is
the Mindkiller_ EP. Amazing!
And I was thought Morbid Angel were the best live band I've
seen! Fear Factory's set tonight held a level of intensity that I've
never experienced before. Never has my voice been this hoarse before,
it was a "best of" Fear Factory right before my very eyes! This band
could very well be the best metal band touring right now.
If you haven't seen this band live, all I have is one question:
"What the fuck is wrong with you?!?"
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"HONEY, PLEASE DON'T READ THIS REVIEW"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pro-Pain, Temple of the Absurd, Die Allergie and Run Devil Run
at the Schweinehalle in Hanau, Germany, February 21, 1999
by: Matthias Noll
After Pro-Pain supported the controversial but top selling
Boehse Onkelz on their last German tour, I expected a big crowd at
the Schweinehalle. I'm still wondering why only 150 people turned up,
but those that didn't come definitely made the wrong choice. Run
Devil Run, featuring some ex-Spudmonsters members, started the show
in good style -- their old school hardcore sounded very energetic and
convincing. Probably a rather average band on record, they surprised
me on stage and were quite entertaining. While I don't think Run
Devil Run will ever make it big, they might be able to attract a
loyal following in the hardcore crowd.
Die Allergie, a five piece with one guitar and a keyboarder
hailing from Germany, were up next. Their music sometimes reminded me
of Fear Factory and was based on heavy industrial style riffing. The
German lyrics sounded quite cliche sometimes and the singer was
definitely the weakest part of the band. No voice for singing, no
throat for an interesting aggressive style. Still, their set was
enjoyable due to the good sound. They have a new album out which
probably isn't that interesting for anyone overseas. If someone is
familiar with the German band Schweisser and enjoys their style, Die
Allergie should be worth checking out.
The next band, Temple of the Absurd, featured a female vocalist,
Sabina Claasen, ex-Holy Moses. Sabina's style isn't much different
from her Holy Moses days: death metal grunts, sounding like an angry
dog, and you would never guess it's a woman. Nowadays she also does
some raspy parts which sound like a black metal parody plus spoken
parts in German which sounded completely cheesy. The music doesn't
really fit into the existing categories, being dark, heavy, not very
technical and mostly midtempo. I hate that monicker but you could
call them "death 'n' roll". The band played tight and professionally
but never really managed to step out of the "heard it all before"
category.
Now it was time for Pro-Pain. Some funky '70s disco intro was
slowly drowned with an orgy of guitar feedback before the band headed
straight into "Stand Tall". My mouth dropped open, unable to believe
that what I heard was true. AAAArghhhhh, I screamed as the wall of
sound just blew me away. So crystal clear and ultra heavy, I'm not
kidding when I tell you that I was afraid I would lose my feelings.
Every guitar chord was fired at the audience like a bullet. This was
my personal dream of what metal should sound like coming true. But
let me step back and try to analyze it: the reason why Pro-Pain is
such a fantastic live band is definitely a combination of their
perfect live sound (wonder where they find such capable engineers)
and their simple but effective song material. Pro-Pain with a bad or
even average live sound would be a mediocre experience. But a superb
"all men play on ten" sound catapults this band into another
dimension of heaviness. Eight out of the ten times I saw them so far,
they achieved exactly this, even in an open air environment where
most others simply sucked sound-wise. But let's continue with the
gig: The band did not stop for a second after the first song and
mercilessly played "On Parade" and "Act of God" immediately after
each other. With a set lasting for one hour and ten minutes, they
easily reached the impressive net playing time of 65 minutes. That's
what I call value for money. The new members just fitted in
perfectly. Guitarist Eric Klinger contributed a lot to the stage
action, jumping around like a punching ball, and the new drummer
played solid like a rock. And what a setlist: "Foul Taste of
Freedom", "Iraqnophobia" and "Pound for Pound", "Make Love Not War",
"Crush", "Don't Kill Yourself to Live", etc.. I was close to hoping
they would play a bad song because my neck muscles just weren't able
to endure more headbanging. Even if by now I might sound as if I have
completely abandoned any objective point of view, I have to tell you
Pro-Pain live is better than good sex. Let's all hope my girlfriend
will never read this.
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W H A T W E H A V E C R A N K E D ! ! !
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gino's Top 5
1. Life of Agony - _River Runs Red_
2. Limp Bizkit - _Three Dollar Bill_
3. Monster Magnet - _25.....tab_
4. Hypocrisy - _Hypocrisy Destroys Wacken_
5. Type O Negative - _Bloody Kisses_
Adrian's Top 5
1. Skinlab - _Disembody: The New Flesh_
2. Pissing Razors - _Cast Down the Plague_
3. Roadsaw - _Nationwide_
4. Sick of it All - _Call to Arms_
5. The Gathering - _Mandylion_
Brian's Top 5
1. Aghora - _1998 demo_
2. Nomicon / Sarnath - _<split>_
3. Glacial Fear - _Atlasphere: The Burning Circle_
4. Tears of Euphony - _Tears of Euphony_
5. Fleurety - _Min Tid Skal Komme_
Alain's Top 5
1. Morgion - _Solinari_
2. Enslaved - _Blodhemn_
3. Opeth - _My Arms, Your Hearse_
4. Grip Inc. - _Solidify_
5. Incantation - _Onward to Golgotha_
Adam's Top 5
1. Emperor - _IX Equilibrium_
2. Anathema - _Serenades_ + extra tracks
3. Fear Factory - _Obsolete_
4. Moment Maniacs - _Two Fuckin' Pieces_
5. Type O Negative - everything!
Pedro's Top 5
1. Enslaved - _Blodhemn_
2. Dimmu Borgir - _Spiritual Black Dimensions_
3. Emperor - _IX Equilibrium_
4. Ashes You Leave - _Desperate Existence_
5. Amorphis - _Tuonela_
Paul's Top 5
1. Meshuggah - _Destroy Erase Improve_
2. The Chasm - _Deathcult For Eternity_
3. Gordian Knot - _Gordian Knot_
4. Autopsy - _Fiend For Blood_
5. Monstrosity - _Millenium_
Aaron's Top 5
1. Desire - _Infinity_ (thanks, Pedro!)
2. Bethlehem - _Reflektionen auf's Sterben_
3. Pro-Pain - _Act of God_
4. Horrified - _Animal_
5. Nokturnal Mortum - _To the Gates of Blasphemous Fire_
David's Top 5
1. Nightwish - _Oceanborn_
2. Sins of Omission - _The Creation_
3. Immortal - _At the Heart of Winter_
4. Cradle of Filth - _The Principle of Evil Made Flesh_
5. Morgion - _Solinari_
Alex's Top 5
1. Immortal Souls / Mordecai - _Split EP_
2. Pink Floyd - _Ummagumma_
3. Sculpture -_Spiritual Matrix_
4. Led Zeppelin -_The BBC Sessions
5. Gorgoroth -_Destroyer_ (Thanks Aaron!!)
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FTP Archive: ftp://ftp.etext.org/pub/Zines/ChroniclesOfChaos
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CHRONICLES OF CHAOS
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Fax: (416) 693-5240 Voice: (416) 693-9517
e-mail: ginof@interlog.com
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DESCRIPTION
~~~~~~~~~~~
Chronicles of Chaos is a monthly magazine electronically distributed
worldwide via the Internet. Chronicles of Chaos focuses on all forms
of chaotic music including black, death and doom metal, dark/ambient,
industrial and electronic/noise as well as classic and progressive
metal. Each issue will feature a plethora of album reviews from a
wide range of bands, as well as interviews with some of the
underground's best acts. Also included in each issue are demo reviews
and indie band interviews.
HOW TO SUBSCRIBE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You may subscribe to Chronicles of Chaos at any time by sending a
message with "coc subscribe <your_name_here>" in the SUBJECT of your
message to <mailto:ginof@interlog.com>. Please note that this command
must NOT be sent to the list address <coc-ezine@lists.colorado.edu>.
AUTOMATIC FILESERVER
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All back issues and various other CoC related files are available for
automatic retrieval through our e-mail fileserver. All you have to do
is send a message to us at <mailto:ginof@interlog.com>. The
'Subject:' field of your message must read: "send file X" where 'X'
is the name of the requested file (do not include the quotes). Back
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End Chronicles of Chaos, Issue #39
All contents copyright 1999 by individual creators of included work.
All opinions expressed herein are those of the individuals expressing
them, and do not necessarily reflect the views of anyone else.
