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Second Anniversary Mega-Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CHRONICLES OF CHAOS e-Zine, August 12, 1997, Issue #23
http://www.interlog.com/~ginof/coc.html
Editor-in-Chief: Gino Filicetti <mailto:ginof@interlog.com>
Coordinator: Adrian Bromley <mailto:energizr@interlog.com>
Assistant Editor: Alain M. Gaudrault <mailto:alain@mks.com>
Contributor: Brian Meloon <mailto:bmeloon@math.cornell.edu>
Contributor: Steve Hoeltzel <mailto:hoeltzel@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu>
Contributor: Adam Wasylyk <mailto:macabre@interlog.com>
Contributor: Drew Schinzel <mailto:drew@magpage.com>
Contributor: Andrew Lewandowski <mailto:kmvb73c@prodigy.com>
Contributor: Pedro Azevedo <mailto:leic97@tom.fe.up.pt>
Mailing List provided by: The University of Colorado at Boulder
NOTE: For more Chronicles of Chaos information, check out the
'Details' section at the end of this issue.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Issue #23 Contents, 8/12/97
---------------------------
- Editorial
- Loud Letters
- SPECIAL FEATURE: Milwaukee Metal Manifesto, MMF XI Revealed!
- Deadly Dialogues
-- Arckanum: The Wood is His 'Hood
-- Dimmu Borgir: Up From The Underground
-- Therion: Melancholic Musical Masters
-- Filthboy: Catchin' A Buzz
-- Iced Earth: Icing On The Cake
-- Godflesh: In The Flesh
-- Autumn Tears: Sorrowful Is The Beauty of Autumn
-- Testament: Thrash Up Yo Ass, Muthafucka
- Independent Interrogations
-- Hocico: Deep Emotions and Darkened Images
-- Archon Satani - _The Righteous Way to Completion_
-- Autumn Tears - _LPfDC Act II: The Garden of Crystalline Dreams_
-- Born for Bliss - _Flowing with the Flue_
-- Clockwork - _Search_
-- Crematory - _Awake_
-- Deathwitch - _Dawn of Armageddon_
-- Deceased - _Fearless Undead Machines_
-- Demoniac - _Stormblade_
-- Embalmer - _There Was Blood Everywhere_
-- En Nihil - _Blood Dreams_
-- Exodus - _Another Lesson in Violence_
-- Fracture - _Killernet_
-- The Gathering - _Nighttime Birds_
-- Hecate Enthroned - _The Slaughter of Innocence, A Requiem for the
Mighty_
-- Helheim - _Av Norron Aett_
-- His Hero Is Gone - _Fifteen Counts of Arson_
-- Iced Earth - _Days of Purgatory_
-- In Battle - _In Battle_
-- Isvind - _Dark Waters Stir_
-- Left Hand Solution - _Fevered_
-- Legenda - _Autumnal_
-- Marduk - _Live in Germania_
-- Red Tide - _Vicious Circle_
-- Skinlab - _Bound, Gagged and Blindfolded_
-- Sundown - _Design 19_
-- Swordmaster - _Postmortem Tales_
-- Symphony X - _The Divine Wings of Tragedy_
-- Theory in Practice - _Third Eye Function_
-- Therion - _A' Arab Zaraq Lucid Dreaming_
-- ... The Soil Bleeds Black - _March of the Infidels_
-- U.P. - _Mindfailure_
-- Acrobats of Apocalypse - _Acrobats of Apocalypse_
-- As Night Fades/FHNE - _Sounds for Another Universe_
-- Ledel - _The New Case_
-- Requiem - _Our Only Hope Is Death_
-- Porto's Own Metalfest?
-- Better Late Than Never: Deceased with Black Army Jacket
-- The Divine Dragon's Dark Flames: With A Dragon's Blaze Festival
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
_____)
/ /) , , /)
)__ _(/ _/_ _____ _ //
/ (_(__(_(__(_)/ (__(_(_(_(/_
(_____)
by: Gino Filicetti
Well, the time has finally come, my friends. Chronicles of Chaos
is now officially two years old, and still going, stronger than ever.
As you read this issue now before you, you will notice a few changes
in format throughout the magazine. For the past few months, the CoC
staff has been involved in overhauling the magazine. Our goal was to
bring CoC more up-to-date since a lot of things we had in our pages
were getting pretty damn old after two years. We've done away with
the separation between stories and chats, and amalgamated the two
sections into one, entitled Deadly Dialogues. Also, we've changed the
names of other columns, introduced new ratings keys, and changed our
description.
We hope you all find the 'new' CoC better than the old, perhaps
more readable, perhaps more friendly to your eyes, as long as you
benefit, we will have accomplished our job.
Our Milwaukee Expedition was a resounding success, I'm glad to
say. Everything went off completely smoothly, and we had a blast the
entire four days we were away. You'll notice that our MetalFest
reviews (one from each of the attendees) is the first order of
business this issue. Each 'version' of the review is written from
that particular writer's unique perspective, so go ahead and check
'em all out.
Well, I wouldn't want to keep you all from this awesome issue
any longer. Thanks to all our readers for making our two-year
anniversary a reality. Without readers, we'd be nothing.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
M""MMMMMMMM dP
M MMMMMMMM 88
M MMMMMMMM .d8888b. dP dP .d888b88
M MMMMMMMM 88' `88 88 88 88' `88
M MMMMMMMM 88. .88 88. .88 88. .88
M M `88888P' `88888P' `88888P8
MMMMMMMMMMM
M""MMMMMMMM dP dP
M MMMMMMMM 88 88
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: Sat, 19 Jul 1997
From: Philip C Hinkle <infestdead@juno.com>
Subject: Loud Letters
You should really consider printing your response to the letters you
get. Some readers ask good questions and I'm always disappointed when
there is no reply printed. It could be a good way to get some extra
information out there. I wouldn't want you to stop responding
personally when a question is sent to you. But it would be nice if
you would share your responses with all of CoC'c readers. Thanks.
Until Eternity Ends,
Phil
[Well Phil, you do have a good point and the reason I never printed
responses is that I did not want to pollute this section too much
with long responses from myself. However, you are right, and we will
try to publicly respond to any letter that lends itself to a
response. Remember though, that we do not have all the answers and
one of the main reasons we print Loud Letters is for our readers to
help each other out with this sort of thing. -- Gino]
Date: Tues Aug 5, 1997
From: Erik Ray, self #J-87779 (sent through snail mail)
Subject: Dear C.O.C.
I gust recieved your address from my homegirl Luna and I wanted
to know if I could get more information on your Death/Thrash/Black
Metal Electronic Internet Magazine. I also saw some people on gerry
springer (Talk show) who represented Chronicles of Chaos and it had
me quite impressed.
What I wanted to know for example is The price your magazine
runs for, What type of topics are listed in it, how many time a year
you recieve an issue, and last but not least will the Prison system
let it in side of their facility.
[Ha! What a trip it was receiving this letter... Jerry Springer?!!
WTF? Obviously this guy misunderstood that CoC is available only
through email. If "Luna" is reading, please tell Erik that we're
sorry we can't send him the mag unless he gets an email address.
Also, what the hell was he talking about Jerry Springer? Seems like
some kind of joke, but who knows? Maybe we have a secret cult
following that Jerry saw fit to dedicate a show to. :) -- Gino]
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
M I L W A U K E E M E T A L M A N I F E S T O
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Milwaukee Metal Mania XI
At The Eagles Ballroom Auditorium, July 25 and 26, 1997
This year's Milwaukee Metal Fest was a very special event for
Chronicles of Chaos. It marked the first time that 5 out of the 9 CoC
staff have been in the same physical place at the same time. Gino,
Steve, Alain, Adam and Adrian were all in attendance. Needless to
say, the entire experience was well worth the time and effort. Here
now are our own personal accounts of what transpired in Milwaukee.
Gino Gets Gritty
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Since the first time I'd hear of Milwaukee's annual MetalFest,
back when I was but a young adolescent, I knew that some day, perhaps
far in the future, I would have to experience it. Well, finally,
after all these years, my chance came, and the entire experience
passed so quickly, it's a crying shame we couldn't stay longer.
My main draw to this year's MetalFest was, by far, Venom. This
is a band that I have, and always will, worship. Some of you may
laugh and scorn, but to me, Venom, without a doubt, started it all. I
was also interested in seeing Cradle of Filth, and when learning that
both Napalm Death and Obituary would be playing, I was ecstatic!
Our 'convoy' consisted of seven people renting a mini-van and
driving for 11 long hours down to Milwaukee. So you can imagine, we
expected the 'fest to be well worth the effort.
On the first day of the MetalFest, we arrived at the Eagles
Auditorium early enough to catch all of the bands that played that
day. The venue itself is an enormous building that used to be an
antique ballroom. Nowadays, the insides of the place are pretty
decrepit, and the ventilation was non-existent. With inside
temperatures soaring to above 40C at times, you can imagine how
uncomfortable we felt. Add to this the absolutely horrendous
acoustics that ensued in the upstairs ballroom, and the muddy sound
of the downstairs 'Rave Room.' However, we weren't going to let minor
details hamper OUR enjoyment.
One of the lesser-known bands that left me more than a little
impressed were Jungle Rot. These Florida dudes kicked out some
heavy-ass death with a real groove that definitely leaves its mark. I
wanted to get backstage after their set to get their demo for review
in CoC, but as always, the 'roid monkey bouncers have to be jerks and
denied 'press scum' like myself from entering the sacred echelons of
'back stage-dom.' However, if anyone out there knows this band,
please get them to send us some material; it was just too good to
pass up.
Another highlight of the day was the 'surprise' birthday party
that was being held for CoF's Dani. Friday was his 24th birthday and
his label decided to get him a nice lovely tombstone-shaped cake, how
cute! Best part about this event was the free suds; even if it was
the pale piss-water you Yanks call 'beer.'
Obituary and Napalm Death played back to back sets in the
upstairs ballroom. Although I had already seen Napalm once in
Toronto, Obituary were totally unknown to me in a live setting. I was
fucking psyched to see them, but ended up being disappointed. The
problem with their set was obviously not their own: Their sound just
did not jive with the acoustics of that damned room. Needless to say,
I was peeved. Napalm had a marginally better set, but again, they
were ruined by the echo of that enormous room.
By far, THE BEST show Friday night, if not the entire MetalFest,
was performed by the almighty ABSU. I was totally psyched to see
these guys take the stage. I positioned myself in the photo pit, and
planned to stay put throughout their entire set. They came on in fine
fashion, and played an absolutely slaughterous set of drilling black
metal. Proscriptor, while positioned at the back of the stage behind
his drum kit, stole the show by shooting fire out of his hands and
yelping crazed speeches that came straight from his solo album. These
guys were definitely 'the shit.'
After an overly exhaustive first day, we couldn't IMAGINE going
to the club on Saturday and staying there from 12pm to 12am. We
therefore decided to chill out in our hotel room until 4:30pm when
Macabre was scheduled to play. Unfortunately for Adam (the world's
biggest Macabre fan), the sets were actually running early (!) and we
caught but the last few songs of Macabre. Unfazed, we continued to
check out some of the amazing lineup that was slated for this night,
although I had a hard time believing anyone would come close to
Absu's killer set.
Some notable bands that were unknown to me before the 'fest
included Angel Corpse, Vital Remains, and Hemdale. I was absolutely
pissed that I missed the majority of Hemdale's set to see the second-
rate Avernus. The few songs I did see had me in stitches; these guys
were absolute animals on stage, two thumbs up! Another band I missed
and am still regretting it were the Hanson of death metal, The
DeathKids. The band consists of a 10-year old growler, a 12-year old
drummer, and their biker-esque dad on bass. It was said that they
were comparable to a lot of 'premium' death metal bands. It's a shame
I didn't catch 'em.
First surprise I had Saturday night had to have been Cryptopsy.
Although I knew some of their material, I didn't know these guys were
gonna put on such an intense fucking show. From start to finish, it
was absolutely killer, not an inch of boredom entered my bones during
the entire set. Second surprise of the night was Hypocrisy. I had
forgotten that they were going to play the 'fest, and was absolutely
joyous when I saw their name on the roster. They played in the
upstairs room and I was dreading each second as they approached the
beginning of their set; I just KNEW the sound would suck, and I
didn't want to be disappointed. However, to my own, and everyone
else's amazement, Hypocrisy's sound engineer managed to tweek the
controls enough to produce the absolute best sound of the entire
MetalFest. Hypocrisy were definitely the highlight of Saturday.
Next up were Cradle of Filth, I positioned myself in the photo
pit, ready to go snap happy when Dani and the boys took the stage.
True to their huge theatrical image, the group took to the stage,
clad in their black 'poofy shirts' and plastic pants, corpsepaint,
fake blood, etc... The first three songs for which I was in the photo
pit turned out to be excellently executed. Dani's screams are
something I'll never forget: They pierced me from within and wouldn't
let go. When I got booted out of the photo pit, I had to join the
rest of the crowd and endured the horrible sound of the ballroom.
This definitely detracted from the "Cradle Experience(tm)" but I had
my fix, so I was a happy camper.
Finally, came time for the almighty Venom to take the stage. It
was now midnight, and I was close to collapsing from a combination of
heat exhaustion, muscle fatigue, and shin splints. But nothing was
going to tear me away from Venom. Alain and I both got into the photo
pit with our trusty cameras [thanks for the loaner, Adam -- Alain].
We got there early and stole the center stage spot from the other
"professional" photographers. Finally, after waiting what seemed a
year, Venom begun their set with an enormous explosion of at least 10
different flashpots! My face felt as if it had been blown away, but
it's all part of the 'magic' of Venom. The band played many of their
classic tunes, plus a few that neither Alain nor myself could
pinpoint; perhaps it was some new material? Regardless, Venom put on
a decent show, despite their 80s rockstar posturing, and fruitless
efforts to stir up the crowd a la Paul Stanley. By the time Alain and
I exited the photo pit, the rest of our group had disappeared.
POSEURS! We exclaimed, how DARE they ditch Venom, have they no
respect, are they so worthless and petty? Well, the answer was yes,
because they did not return until the end of Venom's set. But who
cares, it was their loss, for now I can die and say my life was
complete.
Well, the next day saw us rise at around 08:00, having gone to
bed a scant four hours prior. Needless to say, we were all totally
zombified, AND we had an 11-hour drive ahead of us, to boot. Luckily,
the drive went smoothly and Alain DIDN'T end up falling asleep at the
wheel, so we were all happy. My experience at the MetalFest was
definitely a positive one. I will admit that I was a bit anxious
about it, seeing how its track record isn't all that great, but in
the end, we turned out to have the time of our lives.
Steve Says It All
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As you're probably well aware, a steady intake of black metal,
death metal, and grind can provide quite an invigorating antidote to
the spiritually poisonous consumerism and conformity that clogs our
mainstream "culture." And as you can no doubt imagine, the mega-dose
of metallic extremity offered up by this year's Milwaukee MetalFest
proved to be a potent concoction indeed. Conspicuous quantities of
big-time musical might... lots of friendly and interesting people...
quality intoxicants... tangible energy all around... All these
elements and more came together in Milwaukee for a truly
unforgettable weekend.
Those who understand extreme metal's symbolic vocabulary
understand that it's largely about energetically and thoughtfully
embracing individual freedom and cultivating individual strength.
(Need help? See Milton's _Paradise Lost_ or Blake's _The Marriage of
Heaven and Hell_). It's true that all the "Hail Satan" and "kill and
kill again" stuff has been done over and over and over... But done
right - that is, with energy, sincerity, and authentic creativity -
the imagery can still be quite potent, especially when fused with
such incredibly powerful sound.
Speaking of incredible: Cryptopsy! These guys simply kicked ass,
turning in an absolutely manic set of their super-tight,
hyper-blasting death metal. New vocalist Mike DiSalvo proved to be a
great frontman, with lots of energy and presence, plus vocals with a
sharper edge than his predecessor's grunts. And skinsman Flo Mounier
- fucking unbelievable! (In fact, he was so into it that he collapsed
from heat exhaustion after Cryptopsy's set.)
And as long as we're talking potency, I should also mention:
Angel Corpse (ripping fast, tight, and sinister), Hemdale (grinders
who go nuts on stage, a total blast to watch!), Jungle Rot (solid
Florida death with great rhythms), Epoch of Unlight (technical,
blackened death), Wicked Innocence (wild progressive death), Blood
Storm (harsh black metal), Summertime Daisies (solid Canadian death),
the black-metal-ish drum-machine band whose name I've unfortunately
misplaced (sorry)... plus others I'll mention in a minute.
And let's not forget Incantation and Vital Remains - though I
had hoped for a bit more "oomph" from these guys, since they're both
favorite bands of mine. The muddy sound (almost all weekend)
certainly didn't help, especially during Incantation. Vital Remains
sounded a bit clearer, and were definitely very tight - great blast
beats, and a good vocal performance too. Another real highlight: the
mighty Absu - kilt-wearing, fire-breathing, blazing blackened thrash,
with great drumming from Proscriptor and crazed vocals proclaiming
their imaginative theology. Nice guys, too.
Of course, there were some bigger "name" bands as well, but in
the end, I thought the most memorable sets were by more underground
acts - Cryptopsy, Absu, and Hemdale, in particular. On Friday night,
I missed the re-formed Exodus, but I did manage to catch the end of
good old S.O.D., after Vital Remains finished up on the smaller
downstairs stage. Sergeant D. and company were entertaining, but not
what I'd call artistically satisfying, at least not when measured
against many of the other acts mentioned above. Still, you had to
love their new variations on "The Ballad of Jimi Hendrix". (Remove
"Jimi Hendrix" and plug in the names and jingles of some other
musical icons who've gone down for the dirt nap in recent years.)
Saturday night gave us Hypocrisy (in a rare US appearance),
Cradle of Filth (in their first-ever North American show), and of
course, Venom. Owing to Kataklysm's last-minute cancellation, I found
my way back upstairs in time to catch all of Hypocrisy - and wow, was
I impressed! Really great sound, and totally fiery, pro delivery of
some well-crafted and powerful songs. Cradle of Filth proved
enjoyable, too. I'm not a big fan of either their music or their
incredibly campy "mystique," but it was still cool to see the
excitement they generated, given that they didn't skimp on the blast
beats, the screams, or the overall aura of dark extremity.
As for Venom... This is probably going to cost me some "scene
points," but I skipped out on them after the first couple of songs.
After a great weekend dominated by struggling acts who maintained a
down-to-earth attitude AND played music which completely shreds
Venom's amateurish (albeit seminal) material, it was a bit annoying
to see Cronos and company up there copping rock star poses and
bossing the audience around. Yeah, there is the nostalgia factor,
and Venom deserves respect for being among the first - but if there's
one thing I took away from Milwaukee, it's this: The extreme metal
underground is really thriving right now, and the scene has at least
as much to gain by looking forward as it does by looking back.
Adam's Two Cents
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This was the second consecutive year that I've attended the
MetalFest, and I must say that this was the better of the two. I say
this in reference to not only the better quality of bands present, but
also in part to the people I went with. Sure, two 11-hour van trips
may sound like Hell (especially with Adrian's yammering), but a duo
called "The Jerky Boys" made the trip much more bearable. I don't
think I've laughed that hard that many times in my life! Pure
hilarity.
As I said, this year's show had much better bands than last year
(which incidentally did include acts that have played in prior
years). Highlights included Macabre, Absu, Morgion, Incantation,
S.O.D., Blood Storm, and Cradle of Filth. This year also featured some
good Canadian acts, them being Summertime Daisies, Obliveon, and
Cryptopsy (who blew me away, and I was not alone in those
sentiments). Even the vendors were better this year (and the prices),
as I picked up over $150 US in merchandise which thankfully saves me
from doing the mail orders that I had originally planned to do.
But when it comes down to it, it wasn't as much the music, but
the hanging out and the laughs we had (mostly at Adrian's expense) that
made this trip as amazing as it was. This was a trip that I won't
soon forget, and I hope it becomes a regular part of my yearly
itinerary from now on.
Adrian Always Has Something To Say
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Where to begin? Damn! I dunno where... it was such a blast for
all us CoC'ers - myself, Gino, Alain, Steve, and Adam (and Black Mark
label rep Ed Balog, Alain's girlfriend Kim, and silent metaller Mark)
- to be able to attend this year's Milwaukee MetalFest. 70 bands in
two days with more than 4,000 in attendance - it was a zoo! We
brought ourselves and lots of flyers to hand out to all those
attending the convention. We spread the word about CoC to a lot of
interested people. Hopefully many of them will become subscribers.
We arrived the night before (following a long 11-hour drive and
numerous listens of The Jerky Boys CD), and got right into party
mode. Cracked open the Jack Daniels, Jagermeister, and rum, [how
quickly you forget Adrian's most righteous leafy green -- Alain] and
partied it up. We were all excited about what was to come the next
few days. All these great bands, all in one venue.
The next day, the CoC'ers stormed the Eagle's Ballroom with our
flyers and earplugs in hand. The variety of bands that day was pretty
good. As was the second day. Indie bands like Jungle Rot and
Exploding Zombies ruled, as did the black metal dosages of truly
dynamic bands like Absu and newcomers Bloodstorm. Headliners S.O.D.
were pretty good, and other heavyweights like Napalm Death and
Obituary delivered solid sets - even though the sound for those two
bands rather sucked. The venue for MMF sported two stages, one on the
ground floor (The Rave Room) and one upstairs (The Ballroom) - and it
was easily distinguishable that the sound was far better below than
in the cavernous ballroom. Only second day headliners Venom and
Cradle of Filth were able to get almost near-perfect sound from
upstairs [you obviously didn't catch Hypocrisy's set; the clarity was
remarkable -- Alain].
There were also a few Canadian bands playing there this year.
Bands like Summertime Daisies, Obliveon, and Cryptopsy represented
Canada in true metal fashion.
The best bands of MMF, in my opinion: Cradle Of Filth (cool
sound, though not a lot of theatrics), Cryptopsy (even though I am
not a real fan), Hypocrisy, and Hemdale.
All in all, it was a success, and even though seven of us
crammed in a mini-van for an 11-hour trek all the way from Canada to
and from Milwaukee, drove through a massive rainstorm, dished out
lots of jokes and ridicule, and ate bad fast food (though Denny's
ruled all 20 times we were there), it was a great experience to soak
up. I'm already packed for next year.
Alain: Quick 'n Easy
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thumbs up: Hypocrisy, Cryptopsy, Obliveon, Morgion, cohorts in crime,
mad weed, Jagermeister, cheap CDs, Denny's.
Thumbs down: U.S. border cops, Obituary, Avernus, Cradle of Filth,
poor scheduling, unbearable heat and humidity, Miller
Beer exclusivity, grueling drive home.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
__ \ | |
| | _ \ _` | _` | | | |
| | __/ ( | ( | | | |
____/ \___|\__,_|\__,_|_|\__, |
____/
__ \ _) |
| | | _` | | _ \ _` | | | _ \ __|
| | | ( | | ( | ( | | | __/\__ \
____/ _|\__,_|_|\___/ \__, |\__,_|\___|____/
|___/
T H E W O O D I S H I S 'H O O D
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CoC speaks with Shamaatae, a.k.a. Arckanum
by: Steve Hoeltzel
Black metal's pre-eminent pagan praiser of Pan, solo Swede Shamaatae
esteems the forest's fearsome force. His most recent release,
_Kostogher_, combines blasting, straight-ahead black metal with grim
backwoods atmospheres, producing impressive results. (See my review
in CoC #21.) It's the second in a planned four-album forest epic,
which will be supplemented by a book, as well as a reportedly more
ambient side project, Tassemarkers Vaeruld. Intrigued by all this
timberland terror, I faxed the forest to find out more.
CoC: Compared to your debut, _Kostogher_ has a much grimmer and more
primitive production, which (I feel) greatly enhances the
overall power of the music. How did you change your approach to
the production process for this recording?
Shamaatae: The only difference between the two albums is the change
of studio. _Fran Marder_ was recorded in Abyss Studio,
where I got the clean and "trendish" black metal sound,
which I didn't and still do not like. Beware my third LP,
_Kampen_, and face the primitiveness and the grim demons
from Kaos.
CoC: Do you think that the sound of _Kostogher_ is the best sound for
Arckanum? Or could your sound become even more raw and ferocious
on future releases?
S: No, I don't think _Kostogher_ is the best sound of Arckanum. No
sound is the best for Arckanum: I am a living and revolving cosmos
of Kaos. I can't stay as one and in one way - I am several, and my
demons and I are the tentacles of Pan. We make rawer and rawer
creations for each day to come.
CoC: It is said that you performed some kind of ritual in the studio
during the recording of _Kostogher_. Is this true? In general,
how does ritual relate to your musical art? Do you think of the
music itself as a kind of rite? Are you especially interested in
the rites of any particular tradition, or in rites of your own
creation, or perhaps both?
S: Yes, I performed a ritual in the studio during the recording of
the intro, or the introduction of the track "Skoghens Minnen V
Ekks". The ritual is performed by us: the forest and its creatures
and me. I have only used it once and it seems to fulfill its
purpose.
CoC: Is Arckanum a one-man project by your own choice, or by
necessity?
S: Both. My inner and instinct took in place. [The fax is illegible
at this point, so "took in" may not be what Shamaatae actually
wrote. Can't tell. -- Steve]
CoC: Many (indeed, most) bands who play a style of music similar to
your own proclaim allegiance to Satan, whereas the works of
Arckanum are inspired by, and dedicated to, the great god Pan.
Do you see any important differences between Satanic sources of
inspiration and your own brand of nature-centered mysticism? Do
you see any important similarities?
S: Yes, I see important similarities. There are a lot of thoughts and
ways of living in Satanism that I strongly agree with. But I have
my own religion, and I stay with it, and I am faithful strongly to
Pan. As a Satanist, you worship yourself and count your ego first,
to be strong and not to be wounded. I live by nature, and we
agree, so if I didn't call myself an Arkanist, I would definitely
call myself a Satanist. But I do not believe in Satan, nor in God.
Those two fuck-ups can't exist, not in my way of thinking. Kaos is
the only thing lasting. Kaos is the mother of everything.
CoC: The concept of Kaos seems to play an important role in your art.
What does this idea represent within the worldview of Arckanum?
S: As I just said, Kaos is the mother of everything and is the only
thing that will last forever. Kaos is one of the pillars of my
religion. I live by, in, and of Kaos. I am a man from and of Kaos.
CoC: Clearly, forests are a great source of inspiration for your art.
Do you find other natural places similarly inspiring? (Meadows,
marshes, caves, swamps?) Or is there something unique to the
forest which you find especially potent? What is it about the
forest which you find so powerfully inspiring?
S: I love everything within the forest landscapes, caves, marshes,
swamps, etc. What I find so powerful with the forest is the chaos
that is pulsing through its veins, the sides and worlds that are
so well hidden that they might take five human lives to find. To
see the darkness as the key to a new dimension and as a burning
candle through paths that are gone in daylight. I think the spirit
world in forests is very important to remember, and not to destroy
the beauty of their kind. Societies are ruled by money, and cash
rules the stupid so-called humans that destroy the forest
landscapes just to get power and money. The damn fools are
reaching for the wrong power. Money ain't shit, and the same goes
for humans. If I am going to rule, I'll kill, rape and burn the
human bodies to a crisp and fuckin' piss on their ashes.
CoC: What do you think is in store for a civilization which turns its
back on Nature?
S: I don't know, but if there is a Hell (which I don't believe!), I
hope they burn and burn while their beloved and their children get
raped by the large-dick-demons and lacerated by glowing razors.
CoC: _Fran Marder_ and _Kostogher_ are the first two parts of a
planned four-part series of works. What can you tell us about
the next two parts? How will they relate to _Fran Marder_ and
_Kostogher_, musically and thematically?
S: I wanted to release all four albums as one, but I saw the
impossibility, so I had to release them as four albums. So I don't
see any difference between the four albums. They are just sorted
in four different sides/ages. You will hear differences in the
sound, of course, but not much. My new albums are not as the
four-part epic; it's another age.
CoC: I have heard that you are also planning a book. Please tell us
more. Is the book a collection of lyrics? Poems? Ritual?
Philosophy? Artwork? How will the book add to the totality of
your/Arckanum's self-expression?
S: I cannot tell that much about the book. But I've included the
things you named.
CoC: What can you tell us about your side project, Tassemarkers
Vaeruld?
S: It's a kind of ritual gathering that Sataros and I have created to
honor our mighty world Kaos and Pan and the Red Dragon. The album
will have two different chapters which raise our egos over the
supreme seas of blood. We cannot just go into the studio and
record the whole album, because our magic plays a big part in this
creation, and we have to listen to its ways.
CoC: Thank you for your artistry, and for taking the time to reply to
this interview. Any parting words?
S: Thank you for supporting the darkest sides of our tribe. May Pan
rape your Nymphs and your light.
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U P F R O M T H E U N D E R G R O U N D
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CoC speaks with Norway's Dimmu Borgir
by: Steve Hoeltzel
With the Nuclear Blast release (and fairly heavy promotion) of
_Enthrone Darkness Triumphant_, Norwegian black metal has surfaced in
its most unapologetically accessible incarnation yet. The combination
of talent, ambition, and professionalism which these guys undeniably
possess has drawn raves from many listeners (for example, see Pedro's
review in CoC #22) - while proving less popular with those who favor
crustier, more abrasive metallic material (for example, me). I
recently spoke to bassist Nagash, hoping to find out more about Dimmu
Borgir's priorities in the present, their plans for the future, and
their attitude toward their own more "underground" musical past.
CoC: How has the response to the new album been so far?
N: It's been really fucking good. We've been playing in Germany all
this week, and the crowd response has been way better than we
expected. And we've sold like 40,000 of them now [in Europe], so
everything seems to be going really well.
CoC: The album has a great sound - but I suppose that's what you get
when you go to Peter Tagtgren, eh?
N: <laughs> Yeah, yeah, that's exactly what you get.
CoC: How did you like working with him?
N: Ah, he was really good. He would just wait for hours and hours,
until you've got everything just right, you know? He didn't care
how long it took. He was good and precise. And it's really cool,
because we'll be going back in there next week to do a mini-CD, so
it will be good to work with him again.
CoC: What's the story on the mini-CD?
N: It'll be out in September. It'll be two new songs and two
re-recorded songs off the first album: "Raabjorn Speiler
Draugheimens Skodde" and "Hunnerkongens Sorgsvarte Ferd Over
Steppene". And we'll be doing a cover version again as well:
"Metal Heart" by Accept. And we're recording the new album in
January, so we're pretty busy.
CoC: It's been interesting to see the band progress and develop so
quickly. That transformation is something I want to ask about,
because the sound on the new album is, in a lot of ways, a lot
different from the sound that you pioneered on the first two
albums. So I wonder: what do you think of the first ones now,
especially _For All Tid_?
N: That's the most atmospheric album...
CoC: Yeah, that's my feeling too. Anyway, let me put it this way:
what's your attitude toward that earlier material, given that
the material you're putting out now sounds so different?
N: I still like the material, and when we play live we still play
that material. We still like it; we just naturally progressed. We
don't want to make ten albums of _For All Tid_ stuff, you know? We
love the songs, and _Stormblast_, too. We play them live. And
that's why we re-recorded some of them: because a lot of people
who hear the new album, most of them have never even heard of us
before - it's like everyone thinks over here that this is our
first album. So that's why we're recording some old songs and
putting them on as bonus tracks, so hopefully they'll go and buy
the old albums. But probably when they do buy the old ones,
they'll be like "What the fuck is this shit?!" <laughs> 'Cause
that's the mentality.
CoC: I really like the old ones. To be honest, I like them better
than the new one, because I think they have a somewhat more
unique sound. _For All Tid_, especially, because it's so
atmospheric.
N: The thing is, we just re-mastered it, and Nuclear Blast is
releasing _For All Tid_ again. We put the two songs from our
seven-inch EP on it as well, and it's going to be a full
digi-pack. Nuclear Blast owns the rights for it now, and they're
going to release that again, too. It'll be funny: everyone will
hear the _Enthrone_ album, and then they'll say, "Ah, must be the
new album" - and they'll buy it and go "Whaaat?!" <laughs> But
it's good.
CoC: Have you had to put up with a lot of criticism to the effect
that you've become too commercial now?
N: Especially in Norway, I suppose. But we don't care about it. I
don't like these people who run around and say "Ah, we play true
underground black metal!" I say, Okay, but we want to be able to
get the best out of our music. We want the best promoters that we
can get; we want the best sound. You can't do that by not getting
any money and just going to bad studios and stuff. So, for us, we
don't care what anyone says about that shit. We're doing fine now,
and that's what we care about.
CoC: How does it feel to be on Nuclear Blast?
N: It was different at first, but now it's okay. Like, sitting in the
Nuclear Blast office eating pizza doing interviews all day - thats
what I'm doing now. <laughs> For us, it's a relief. No Colours was
okay with _For All Tid_, but they told us, "We cannot do anything
more than what we've done." And when we went to Cacophonous, that
was totally shit. They didn't do anything, basically. Promotion,
everything we asked about, they'd say "Yeah, we'll do it," but
they never did it. So then we got off them, and we actually rang
Nuclear Blast ourselves, and they said "Oh, yeah!" So it's good -
we were really surprised. We just rang up, just hoping, you know?
<laughs> We got signed, off the _Devil's Path_ CD: that's what
they heard to sign us. And when they heard the new one, they just
couldn't believe it. <laughs> Everyone here is, like, just going
off about it, which is really cool. And it's good because, like,
we've been playing gigs this week, and all the Nuclear Blast
people turn up and watch and support, so it's been really good in
that way as well.
CoC: Have you been playing many shows since the album came out?
N: Yeah. We did a tour with Cradle of Filth and Dissection, about two
weeks before the album came out, just to promote it. We'd only
played twice ever before that! And then we're playing to huge
venues and crowds - it's like, "Wow!" We got chucked in at the
deep end, basically.
CoC: How did it go?
N: That tour was really cool. We played first, which was good for us.
And it was good to play with Cradle of Filth and Dissection,
because people who maybe hadn't seen us before or heard us before
would come to watch them, you know? We played at Dynamo, and we
just played at [Sorry - I can't make out the name of the festival
on the tape. -- Steve]. That was strange: it was us, Megadeth, My
Dying Bride, and Type O Negative or something - and there was like
20,000 or 30,000 people. I'm just walking past Dave Mustaine going
"Wow!" <laughs> We're doing a six-week tour in October and
November: all of Europe. It'll be us and In Flames and, I think,
Night in Gales.
CoC: North America?
N: I hope so. We want to go. We've asked, but Nuclear just wants to
check out the sales and stuff. We don't know how it would be: we
could walk out on stage and there'd be no one there, or we could
walk out and it'd be packed. For us, it's more just, you know,
curiosity. So we'll just wait and see how the album goes over
there, and if it goes well, then we should be there. But the thing
is, we'd probably have to go with Cradle of Filth or somebody.
CoC: Since you've been touring around, what do you think of the state
of the metal scene?
N: I think it's good. There are still [a lot of people copying other
bands], especially here with the old German bands, a lot of people
still copying Accept and Helloween and stuff. Which is okay,
but... The black metal, especially in Germany, I don't like very
much. We played with these black metal bands last night that
weren't too great. But it's strange: I think a lot of big labels
are going to start to sign black metal bands. Nuclear Blast just
signed another band that I play in from Norway as well. So I just
think big companies are going to start picking up the black metal
bands, like Music for Nations and Nuclear Blast and Metal Blade
and stuff. That's what it seems is just about to happen. So I
think, in a way, it's gonna really take off, like in a year or
two. But in a way, I hope it doesn't. <laughs> But in a way it's
okay, too.
CoC: Why do you say you hope it doesn't?
N: Just because I think it's okay to have one or two black metal
bands on each big label, but when they start just picking black
metal bands out because they're from Norway or Sweden or
something, you know, then it'll just be a trend thing, and you'll
have really crap bands on big labels, bands who don't really
deserve to make it there. It's just a reputation thing, and I just
don't want it to get to that.
CoC: I'm interested to hear you say that, because from here in the
States, it kind of seems like the big wave of black metal might
be dying down a bit.
N: I don't know at all what it's like over there, but in Europe, it's
going up. Myself, I haven't heard a really good American black
metal band - but the thing is, I couldn't even name one or two,
because over here we don't hear about it, or they don't get
promoted at all. But I like a lot of American bands. Florida is my
favorite musical part of the world! Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel,
Deicide, Obituary - that's what I listen to.
CoC: What do you think of the more underground side of the scene? I
know that's something that you were involved with early on.
N: I think it's underground. <laughs> And the people in that want it
to stay like that, you know? So that's cool, because they're
striving for what they want. But I don't know... especially at
home, it's like everybody sits around really evil and "We're
underground," and don't smile or laugh, and have spikes
everywhere, walking down the street with corpsepaint and spikes...
And the thing that really sucks about the underground scene in
Norway is that basically, the worst people into it are like 13,
14-year-old kids, you know? They're like, wearing spikes to school
and everything, and they just cause a lot of trouble, like beating
people up and smashing windows, and "Ah, this is the underground,
we have to make havoc," you know? But they're the ones who get us
in trouble. But then there's bands like Satyricon and Darkthrone:
they're really cool mates of ours, and they consider themselves
underground while we're not, but we can still sit and have a
normal conversation with them and drink out with them. Because we
respect that they're striving for what they want to do, and that's
to be underground, and they can respect that we're doing the best
we can. It's basically the younger people who just sit around and
don't laugh or don't do anything. That's what really pisses me
off: they're little kids running around, and it's just not good,
because they end up getting us in a lot of trouble.
CoC: Do you think that some bands end up limiting themselves
creatively because they want to project some sort of underground
mystique?
N: Yeah, yeah. A band like Darkthrone: if you speak to Fenriz... he
just writes for simplicity, and when you hear his drumming, he
always says he likes the straightforward beats and the easy drum
rolls. He wouldn't vary from that, because that's underground, you
know?
CoC: So I take it that you don't really care if someone tells you
that "Dimmu Borgir have turned their back on the underground?"
N: <laughs> Not at all; no one [in the band] does. We've actually sat
down all together and said "What do we do? Do we tell them to fuck
off? Or just say nothing? Or..." <laughs> But nobody actually
cares about it at all, and if we get hassled or get a question we
just say "Look: you're doing what you want to do, and we're doing
what we want to do. Respect that."
CoC: It seems like a lot of people in the underground don't have very
much respect for people outside of it... which I can understand,
actually, in so far as underground ideals are highly critical of
everyday society, commercialism, and so on.
N: But ours are too! I hate society, and for us, everything is just
chaos. You know, we do what we want when we want. I don't think
it's the ideals that they don't like. I think it's just, like,
being [available] in suburban shops - know what I mean? If your
records are out in society, then I think that's what they don't
like so much.
CoC: Yeah, then the mainstream folk can get their hands on it, and
underground people don't have exclusive access.
N: Yeah, that's exactly right.
CoC: Did you ever really consider yourselves a dedicated underground
band, or were you a band from the very start that wanted to take
it as far as it could possibly go?
N: That's right. We never sat around and said "We're an underground
band, and let's just play crappy demo tapes and shit," you know?
We're always striving to get to the best, and we're still going,
we're not even half way there yet - I hope. We've finally made it
to a place where we want to be, and we hope it doesn't just, like,
sit and go flat like everybody else sometimes does. We're just
progressing all the time. The new stuff is different as well -
just to do something different and keep it interesting.
CoC: In what way would you call the new (not yet recorded) material
different?
N: It's much more dark and atmospheric, bringing some old sounds back
- but with good production. And it's a bit more technical as well,
as in more melodically technical. It's not as aggressive as
_Enthrone_, but it's still really heavy, and it has the atmosphere
there as well.
CoC: Do keyboards continue to be very prominent?
N: Yeah, definitely.
CoC: What would you like to see the band accomplish over the next few
years?
N: We want to play heaps and make good albums and do a lot of good
stuff. We just want to see how high we can go, you know? We're not
just sitting here and going "Okay, we've made it now."
CoC: Any other news?
N: The keyboard player's out, since he (Stian Aarstad) didn't come to
Dynamo. A half hour before we got on the plane, he rings us up: "I
can't come." We're playing at Dynamo with like, 15,000 people,
whatever. So we had to play Dynamo with no keyboards - and he had
to go to work instead. After that, we're like, this can't happen
again, so he's out. So for this tour that we're doing now and for
all the summer tours, we're using Kimberly from Therion. On the
mini-CD, we'll probably just do keyboards ourselves, among the
band. And for the new CD... it's very hard to find a keyboardist,
in Norway especially.
CoC: Any crazy stage show stuff going on?
N: We haven't been able to do much, because basically, at the moment,
when we play gigs, it's really chaotic, because there's so much
shit to do. But when we do the six-week tour, that's when we're
gonna start doing crazy shit. <laughs> At the moment, we've just
got the backdrop and the fire-breathing stuff, all the normal
stuff.
CoC: Corpsepaint?
N: Yeah, yeah.
CoC: Is that something that you plan to stick with?
N: Yeah. Well, it mightn't always be full-blown, but it'll always be
like the white face and the black eyes and stuff... it mightn't
always be like the pictures on the CD. We look like that when we
play live all the time, and we'll always look like that [in
concert], but you might see some pictures where we have, like,
just white faces - like a more Goth approach. But that'll be just
for photos. Live, everything will be aggressive and full-on.
CoC: A lot of bands that were into corpsepaint early on are getting
rid of it now. How come you guys want to keep it?
N: Because it's an expression of ourselves. That's the way I want to
express myself, anyway. I could change, but at the moment I want
to keep it like that. But I can understand the other bands
changing as well, because if they've changed and it doesn't feel
right, then they shouldn't wear it, you know? So I can understand
it. But for us, we still want to have that kind of expression.
CoC: That's cool. I've always kind of liked corpsepaint - but it did
get kind of overdone.
N: Yeah, very. Especially, coming to Germany and seeing German bands
with corpsepaint on, we're just like "Oh, no." <laughs>
CoC: Do you get a lot of people wearing corpsepaint at your shows?
N: Yeah, and that's good, I don't mind that. Fans wearing corpsepaint
is great, because they get to see us in corpsepaint, so it's cool,
you know, looking out into the crowd and seeing people in
corpsepaint. It's great, because they care enough, they want to
show their appreciation by giving it back. But a lot of people now
- because the new album sounds good and all that, everyone's
saying, "How come you're still wearing corpsepaint when you're on
Nuclear Blast?" and stuff. And I just say, "Well, nobody told Gene
Simmons to take it off!" <laughs> And they weren't the evil-est
band in the world, you know?
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M E L A N C H O L I C M U S I C A L M A S T E R S
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CoC chats with Therion
by: Adam Wasylyk
What made Therion's last record, _Theli_, as amazing as it was, was
its combination of symphonic beauty and metal harshness. It's also a
record that contains a lot of emotion and feeling, something that is
lacking from many metal releases these days. Celebrating their 10th
year in existence, Therion have released _A' Arab Zaraq Lucid
Dreaming_, which is a mish-mash of different material from Therion's
past, along with some rare/new material. This release also marks
(celebrity?) appearances by Edge of Sanity's Dan Swano, Hypocrisy's
Peter Tagtgren, and Necrophobic's Tobbe Sidegard. I took the
opportunity to chat with guitarist/vocalist Christofer Johnsson over
Therion's new release, among other things.
CoC: Tell me about your new release, what's on it, and why you've
released it?
Christofer Johnsson: It's a 10-year anniversary CD, so it's not a
real record, but rather just a release. We
didn't really plan to release it at first, we
just had some leftovers from _Theli_ which was
just about to be released as a single, the first
three tracks on this CD. But the Nuclear Blast
office in Germany wanted us to include an Iron
Maiden track that we did for a Japanese tribute
album, and we also have this Running Wild
recording which we didn't really plan on purpose
[to include, but we recorded it] just for
ourselves as we used to play it live. They
wanted to include them for a mini-CD, but
mini-CDs kind of suck to promote it and to
manufacture it as a normal CD, but to sell it
for a cheaper price so the record company
wouldn't get anything out of it along with the
fans having to pay a lot of money to get only
five songs. But then I said, "Hey, it's been 10
years now, so we could do something around
that," so we went into the studio again and did
a re-recording of "Symphony of the Dead", made
another cover which was Judas Priest's "Here
Come the Tears", and we included a classic
soundtrack I did for a movie. Also, just before
we went into the studio again, we decided to do
an experiment in which we took the original
master tape with the classic soundtrack
recording and we added some guitars, drums, and
bass to it, and it turned out pretty well, so we
decided to include it as well. So instead of
having a CD single, we suddenly had a
full-length album. Of course, it's just an
anniversary release for the Therion freaks, it's
not a new album in any sense.
CoC: Since you've been around for 10 years, tell me about some of the
good or bad experiences Therion has gone through?
CJ: Most of the bad experiences have actually been good in the end
because we learned something out of them. During the very hard
years, when we did the first European tour, when we were on the
road we had a mini-bus, not even a van but a Japanese mini-bus.
We practically lost money on every show because of the expense
which we had to cover up in merchandise [sales]. And all of the
mess with record companies. We switched record companies like
fucking underwear in the beginning, changing companies for every
album until _Lepaca Kliffoth_, which was our fourth album. So I
guess all the bad experiences have been in the end quite
necessary for what we are today.
CoC: So you have come to a state of stability with Nuclear Blast?
CJ: Definitely. First of all, they treated us very well, even though
_Lepaca Kliffoth_ wasn't the success that was expected. They
treat all the bands [on the label] very good, even if they're not
well-selling bands. They took a very big risk when we recorded
_Theli_, which cost like $45 000. We sold about 22 000 in Europe
of _Lepaca Kliffoth_, and they gave us that big amount [of money]
which was more than twice as much as we were entitled to in our
contract. They said "never mind the contract, just go into the
studio and do the album." That's very brave, they could have lost
a fortune, so we really owe them a big thanks. Now things are
going well, and we're getting all of the attention that we need
from the record company to go on to further levels. As well as
being brilliant businessmen, they're actually big fans of the
music they're selling which, is quite important. The owner of the
record company is very down to earth. If you have a problem, you
can just call him directly and he can solve [the problem] for
you. It's not like you have this unreachable guy just owning the
company and squeezing the money out of everything. He's willing
to do a lot of hard work himself and make you feel much better.
We're more like a team than having a business relationship.
CoC: How well did _Theli_ sell, by the way?
CJ: In Europe, about 50 000 real CDs that were sold. Licensed
cassettes were released in Europe as well. In one way, that
really counts as people who buy the licensed cassettes are just
as big Therion freaks than someone who buys a CD for the full
price. So with licensed cassettes, I don't know. Maybe 55 to 60
[thousand]. Actually, we sold I think 2000 real CDs for full
price in Russia, which is amazing as well. For the States, not
very well at all, unfortunately. So them and Canada together,
barely 5000, which is like for every album we did, we sell 5000
over there. It's really strange, it's like we could release
anything, and still sell only 5000. So I guess we have some very
loyal fans overseas which is a positive thing, but also a
negative thing because we're always stuck at that number. And
with the opening of the Nuclear Blast office in America, I'm very
optimistic for the future.
CoC: Your choice of covers by bands like Running Wild, Judas Priest,
and Iron Maiden... were these bands instrumental in how Therion
sounded at any particular time?
CJ: The Scorpions, if you can believe, were the biggest real
influence for us. Scorpions in the 80s is not really my favorite,
and please note that Scorpions in the 90s is the worst rubbish I
can imagine. But the Scorpions in the 70s was one of the best
hard rock bands around, and not many people know this. They were
so brilliant back then and I got a lot of inspiration, especially
for guitar harmonies, and once I even stole a riff and put it
into one of the songs off _Lepaca Kliffoth_. Many people told me
"wow, this riff is so cool," and I tell them "it's a Scorpions
riff." So we did the Scorpions cover, "Fly to the Rainbow", which
is from their second album from 1974. A lot of people said
without knowing what it was, "hey, this new song is really cool,
a little odd for Therion, but really cool" and when I tell them
it's the Scorpions, they didn't want to believe me. It's just
something we really wanted to do, a payback to the Scorpions. We
like Maiden a lot, we grew up with them. The same goes to Judas
Priest, from the 70s, 80s, and 90s, Judas Priest was fucking
killer, and one of my favorite bands when it comes to listening
[to music], even though it's not really influencing my
songwriting. To tell the truth, I'm not really a big fan of
Running Wild at all, all I have is one album, the _Under Jolly
Roger_ album which is quite okay. That song in particular is a
good song, and a very good live song, so we play it live a lot.
Especially in Germany, where we don't have to sing the chorus as
the audience does it for us.
CoC: You did a soundtrack awhile back. What was the film about?
CJ: It's an art film, so it's like, you figure it out and tell me! I
like a cultivated movie, but art movies are sometimes too heavy
for me. I don't see the point or the meaning or message of the
movie, but it's quite a beautiful picture. It's hard to explain
what's it's about.
CoC: Did he seek you out to do the soundtrack?
CJ: He heard _Theli_ and thought it was impressive, and he asked me
if I would like to do something without the metal, just pure
classic with opera singing. I also added some small keyboards in
some places for a more movie feeling, so only 5% is keyboards for
an atmospheric feeling. It was a great challenge.
CoC: I've learned that Lars (Rosenberg, bass) and Jonas (Mellberg,
guitars, keyboards) have left the band. What were the reasons
for their departure?
CJ: They were actually fired because of alcohol problems. Jonas
started to drink in the studio. While we made the Maiden cover,
he actually flipped out totally and left in the middle of the
session, leaving me with an unfinished tape. It was an argument
between him and the studio engineer, and it resulted in that he
was drunk, therefore behaving like shit, and he just left in the
middle of everything, so of course, we fired him. Alcohol
increased his personal problems to limits that were unacceptable.
As for Lars, who'se been a friend of mine for eight years, it was
quite sad, but in the end, he made a conscious decision between
the band and alcohol, and he picked the alcohol. He's always been
a heavy drinker, and after awhile, we realized he was playing
like fucking shit, so we [as a band] started drinking less and
less. But he was drinking more than ever, and his playing was
very sloppy and we told him, "take it easy, drink after the show.
People are paying good money to see us play live, it's very
disrespectful to care more about getting drunk than playing a
good show." And one day, he fell on his ass on stage because he
was too drunk, and that was too much for us. We gave him the
choice, and we gave him a lot of changes, but there was never any
improvement. His disrespect for us and the crowd at our shows
resulted in us not wanting to do anything more with him as a
person or as an instrument. He then left for South America and
moved in with some fucking groupie that he met down there while
we were playing South America. He then got kicked out by the
groupie, so I guess that was his wake-up call as I heard he
stopped drinking. I guess he had to hit rock bottom, being kicked
out by a groupie onto the streets, and maybe his brain started to
work again. It's a real pity, as he used to be one of the best
bassists around in the Stockholm area, and now he's definitely
one of the worst.
CoC: And finally, what other musical possibilities do you see that
Therion may perhaps explore in future records?
CJ: You never know. I always want to do something new. It was very
good that I got to do the soundtrack because I was getting deeper
and deeper into classical music, and I think the next album could
have been the first predictable Therion record if I hadn't done
this classic soundtrack, because everyone would have thought that
we would do more classical stuff on the next album, which would
have been the case. I want to do something completely different
all the time so people say "hey, what's this new shit? Is this
Therion?". I don't know what direction to go into for the next
album. We have a couple of tracks so far, and we're scheduled to
record by the end of the year, like December. For the songs so
far, I would say it's still classic, and we still use opera
choirs, but there aren't as many classic cliches. If AC/DC played
rock and roll cliches, then we do classic cliches. If you listen
to the classic music itself on _Theli_, there's no originality,
we're just playing classical music. The soundtrack is a bit more
original, but I want to go even further than that. I want to do
very original classical music which I want to metal-ize into
Therion songs. I want to also include a lot of elements that we
never had before. I think we're gonna be more epic. I don't want
to say gothic because there's no other band that calls themselves
gothic that I would like to refer to, definitely nothing like
Sisters of Mercy or anything like that. I would say epic. Not
really the best word for it, but at least it's the closest thing
I can think of.
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C A T C H I N ' A B U Z Z
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chronicles of Chaos interviews Filthboy's Buzzy Beck
by: Gino Filicetti
It has been a long time since we last spoke with Pittsburgh's
Filthboy. Way back in Chronicles of Chaos #3, almost two years ago, I
spoke with Buzzy Beck about what it was like being a small band in a
big country. Now it's 1997, a full four years since Filthboy was
started by Beck and Kevin Sebastian, two high school buddies who
thought it'd be a blast to get together and make some intense music.
A lot has changed for Filthboy since we last encountered them.
They've gone through some painful member changes, they've had to deal
with the scum of the industry, Buzzy is now a married man, and the
band is finally signed. But the heart of Filthboy hasn't changed:
"Kev and I have always been at the heart of the writing. We worked
with a live drummer for a bit, so that really changed the music a
lot. But we didn't like how that was working, so we went back to
machines." He continues, "Our CD consists of all our old demos, plus,
like, 2 songs that were written last year."
Although it was thought impossible at times, Kevin and Buzzy
have finally found someone that they can wholly relate to, and let
into their closely-knit duo. That someone is Scott Lewis, former
Brutal Truth and Exit-13 drummer. "It was back to me and Kevin again
after two members left to pursue their own thing. We went down to the
Brutal Truth show here in Pittsburgh and Rich Hoak (Brutal Truth's
current drummer) got our poor asses into the show. We were just
hanging out, and to our surprise we found out Scott had been living
in Pittsburgh for two years."
"Danny Lilker (Brutal Truth's bassist) introduced Kevin to Scott
and three days later, he was in the band. Only, it's a lot different
with Scott, he's not just a changing member like it used to be.
Before, it was always me and Kev with a live band, now it's the three
of us at the helm." He continues, "Scott joined right after we
finished the disc. He doesn't play drums like he used to for BT
either, he plays bass for us. He is now like part of us. Not just a
guy in the band. Filthboy is now the three of us writing music. It's
great. It took us almost three years to finally find someone like
Scott."
Why, though, is Scott Lewis different from everyone else that
has come and gone throughout Filthboy's short history? Could it be
his well-known name that Buzzy and Kevin are eager to have grace
their roster? "<laughs> Yeah, his name, that's it! Actually, it's
funny, because people come to our shows in other cities because they
hear Scott is in the band and they are expecting total
grindcore/death. It shocks them when they see what we are doing, and
that we don't have a live drummer."
"Scott just really fits in. He is like one of us. We all agree
on things very easily. If the three of us are not doing something
involved in music together, we are just kicking around the city
together. It's more than a 'band' thing with us."
Lewis has been in the music scene for quite a while, so
obviously, he has brought a lot of maturity to Filthboy. Buzzy
agrees, stating, "Yeah, he's been around, he knows what to expect
from people. He keeps me and Kevin in check with reality sometimes.
He figures people out a lot easier than us. I guess we are somewhat
naive at times."
Since we last spoke with Filthboy, the number one priority on
their 'to do' list was to get signed by a label. Unfortunately, they
found out that things aren't always as easy as you would expect. "We
had been shopping our demos for the last year or so, and we had four
different labels VERY interested in us during that year. One of them
was as far as dealing with contracts. But everything just kind of
fell through and we decided that we were getting nowhere waiting
around for a label. So we just recorded the disc on our own and we
were going to put it out by ourselves. That's when we ended up with
None of the Above. They didn't have the money to sign anyone at the
time, but our disc was done. So Brett was like 'Hey, I will put that
out for you.' So that was that." He continues, explaining that, "We
are not really signed, we just licensed the disc to None of the
Above."
Having None of the Above release Filthboy's disc, entitled
_Diverse Reality_, while a blessing, still hasn't solved all of their
problems. "Unfortunately, for the people in Europe looking for the
disc, we have to find someone over there to release it. The CD is
only available in the States. But we are in touch with a few European
labels that want to put it out, so hopefully soon it will see the
light of day in Europe. We really want to have it released in
Europe." Why, though, is the band so anxious to see the disc get
European exposure? Does anyone in Europe even know the name Filthboy?
"Well, it's already doing great in the States. Caroline is reordering
more from None of the Above as we speak. In Europe, we had a bigger
following with all of our old demos. Plus, let's face the facts,
Europe is a MUCH better market for heavy music." Buzzy continues,
explaining how the Internet was the biggest factor in getting them
exposure in a continent they've never played. "Yeah, I've encountered
a lot of European tape traders on the 'net, and through IRC, I was
able to get the word of mouth started and tell people about Filthboy."
"There are some people over there paying ridiculous import
prices for the CD, and they don't deserve that. They should be able
to get the disc for a reasonable price. We are selling the CD on our
web page to people over in Europe and elsewhere to try and cut out
the import prices for them." Check out Filthboy's homepage at
http://www.lm.com/~hate.
It never ceases to amaze me how ignorant big labels can be of
the fresh, new, up and coming bands that are all around us. It seems
that they always end up signing utter garbage whilst the cream of the
crop is left to whither and rot in the pasture due to lack of
exposure. Over the past year of label dealings, Filthboy has come to
realize the truth about the record industry. "The industry is so
corrupt. It's resorted to back scratching and the 'what have you done
for me lately' mentality. It's just not about music. The problem we
have is that we don't kiss anybody's ass. Where most people or bands
just shut up, we voice our opinions and make it known how we feel. I
don't care, call it burning bridges or whatever. If we don't like
someone, we will tell them. We won't talk shit behind anyone's back,
we will tell it to their face." He finishes by saying, "I really
don't want to talk much more about it because it discourages me and
sometimes makes me wonder why I am even involved in the music
business."
As always, Filthboy's music is what says it all. Trying to
compare _Diverse Reality_ to the old demos is like putting a pig in a
beauty pageant. Things have changed tremendously. Buzzy comments on
Filthboy's new direction: "Well, I don't think it was a very radical
change, it was kind of the direction we have always gone towards. We
have always strived to NOT sound like a certain genre or band. There
is a lot of good music out these days, so we just had to keep
changing and evolving in a natural kind of way." Next, he queries me
by saying, "You have the old demos, how much do you think the music
has changed?" In response, I stated that, besides an improvement in
production, I thought the music itself had changed tremendously as
well. A lot of the 'typical' heaviness had changed into something
different but still heavy, and a lot catchier."
Filthboy has had its share of detractors, people who can not
accept the fact that a band needs to grow to stay alive. "We've done
away with the machine blast beats and fast guitars. I think we have
matured a lot since we were 19. We do get some people from time to
time that say we don't have much death metal influence in the music.
I can't help it, it's just what happened. We write what we write, not
because we stay in a certain realm or genre." He continues, "The disc
is getting great reviews. It might take people time to understand it
at first, but once they get into our stuff, they are hooked. We have
people that either LOVE what we do or HATE it completely. Not much
middle ground."
The new material seems to spring from more different influences
than the old stuff. Buzzy assures me that Filthboy's influences have
stayed intact. "We're still listening to all the old stuff we used to
listen to. We may have opened up to a bit more underground electronic
music, but we still love metal. I am listening to the new Entombed as
we speak." He finishes, saying, "Scott has got us to experiment a
little more than we had in the past."
Although playing live is one of Filthboy's strong suits, the
band has never been on a major tour. They have opened many shows in
Pittsburgh for a wide assortment of bands such as Overkill, Crowbar,
Life of Agony, Brutal Truth, and Suffocation. Filthboy has also
headlined a few small east coast tours. So what's in store for the
world this time around? "We are working something out with a booking
agent right now. We have to get out there and make people see us. We
have a big regional name, but not too many people on the west coast
even know who we are." He continues, describing Filthboy's stage
show, "We have lighting effects. Kevin gets pretty crazy and stuff.
It's not just a band playing, it's something you have to see. Plus,
the music is different live, we have redone the entire CD since it's
been released so that we could add crazier shit to the show." But
does Filthboy value theatrics? Is it an integral part of the Filthboy
experience? "We don't value it. On stage, we dress like we do
everyday, not in plastic. We just play in the dark with back
lighting. We are who we are, we don't have an image. I guess that
makes us punk rock now. <laughs>" When asked if they have any respect
for theatrical bands, Buzzy replies, "Sure, it's their thing. It's
just not our thing. We are into giving people something to look at,
but we try to keep the focus on music. A lot of industrial bands have
a bullshit "live drummer" backing up a tape on stage. It's just some
guy up there so people see a drummer. It's a perception thing. Fuck
that, we won't do it. I don't care if some kid walks out of a club
because we don't have a drum set on stage. That's pure ignorance. But
that same kid will love a 16Volt or Bile show because there is some
guy acting like he's playing drums. We don't hide the fact that we
use a drum machine."
These days, it seems that a lot of unconventional heavy bands
are getting the spotlight, such as Korn or Fear Factory. Although one
school of thought pegs them as being brilliant, another, more
underground group thinks of them as sell-outs. Filthboy could easily
be tagged in the same vein: Buzzy thinks that bands shouldn't be
shunned for ingenuity. "Well, Korn is Korn. I don't know why a lot of
the 'heavier' kids don't like them. Their first record was VERY
heavy. I was amazed at how big they got. The new record is not as
heavy or hardcore like the first. For some reason, everyone wants to
hate those guys. Maybe it's jealousy. On the other hand, bands like
Coal "Korn" Chamber, are a fucking joke." He continues, "What bands
like Korn and Fear Factory are doing can only open more doors for
heavy music. Although that new Fear Factory is pretty lame. <laughs>"
It is unfortunate that human nature includes a fear of change.
People tend to want things to stay stagnant and immobile, and usually
look down on bands that attempt to cross genres and breathe life into
a dead scene. "Everyone must have their own ideals of how a
band/genre should sound, but there are a lot of close-minded people,
and the thing that kills me is that these label A&R guys are supposed
to know so much about music, but where are their bands? If they are
so fucking enlightened, why aren't they the ones making the music?"
He continues his tirade, "We have had labels tell us they don't know
how they could market us and therefore want nothing to do with us.
You'd think being original would be good for a band, but labels
rarely see it that way. It's the industry, man, they don't want to
take a chance on anything that's different; they want you to sound
like band X, and that's that."
There is definitely a strong electronic, almost techno, presence
on Filthboy's new album. This is largely due to the use of drum
machines that gives the music its mechanical sound. Unfortunately, it
seems that electronic music has lately gotten a lot of "MTV
spotlight." This is probably the worst thing that could happen to
such a dynamic and fresh form of music; in the past, it seems that
everything MTV embraces, eventually whithers and dies away in their
clutches. Is it possible that Filthboy could seem mainstream to some
people because of the electronic presence on _Diverse Reality_? Buzzy
answers quite vehemently, "No! Come on, you have the disc, do you
think there is anything on there that could get played on MTV? One
thing that separates us from most industrial bands is that we have a
lot of METAL influence. In an age were it's trendy for bands to say
'We are not metal anymore,' we are not afraid to admit it." He
finishes the interview by saying, "A lot of bands that started out as
metal or even death metal, do some re-mixes and now say they are not
metal anymore. It's a complete fucking joke."
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I C I N G O N T H E C A K E
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CoC speaks with Iced Earth
by: Drew Schinzel
Of all the bands that have been around for more than just a few
years, Iced Earth is probably one of the most respected, and
definitely commands one of the most loyal fan base. It's not
difficult to understand why, with rhythm guitarist's and band
backbone Jon Schaffer's pummeling riffage, and Matthew Barlow's
full-throated vocals providing the core of Iced Earth's driving,
unique sound. Whether the band is laying out a sixteen-minute
orchestral epic like the timeless "Dante's Inferno", or just kicking
into one of countless unforgettable riffs, you definitely can not
mistake Iced Earth for any other band. With the release of _Days of
Purgatory_, the band has put forth a 74-minute slice of material from
the band's first two albums (the import double-CD has material off
the third, as well), with remastered production, new vocals, and in
some cases entirely re-recorded drum and guitar tracks. If you
thought you liked the band's early material, then _DoP_ will open
your ears to what it should have been all along. If, however, you
have never heard Iced Earth, then you have no idea what an excellent
band you are missing, and _DoP_ is your perfect recap. I was lucky
enough to have the opportunity to speak to Jon Schaffer on CoC's
behalf.
CoC: Why didn't Century Media (the band's label) release the double-
CD here in the US like they did in Europe?
Jon: I guess they felt that the manufacturing costs were too high
compared to the amount of record sales that they would get. I
wasn't happy about it, either, because I know that we do have a
pretty loyal following of American fans. What they are doing is
they're selling the double-CD mail-order from Century Media
direct for twenty bucks, which is a pretty fucking good deal for
an import of that magnitude, because it's two digi-packs. It's
an expensive thing to make, and overseas we sell five times what
we sell here, so they can afford to do that.
CoC: Do you think that around the first release, _Iced Earth_, the
band was overshadowed by the wave of death metal coming from
Florida, like Deicide, Obituary, etc.?
Jon: It had a little bit of an effect on us, as far as not being
taken seriously by the independent labels, because everyone was
on that bandwagon, the death metal thing. But you know, we were
around before that shit ever became. We were playing out here in
1986, out in Tampa. We played with Savatage and Nasty Savage,
Siren, Obliveon; there was a good metal scene here in Tampa. We
were called Purgatory at that time. But when we changed our name
to Iced Earth is when that whole thing started to happen with
death metal, and you know, yeah, it was tough, but we never
thought twice about what we were doing. A lot of bands changed
to death metal so they could try to get a record deal and we
never did that because we've always been what we're about, and
we've always stayed true to what we believe in, that's it. It
did kind of hurt people's opinion of us, by not taking us
seriously, but in turn, where are -they- now? The guys who
started the death metal wave are still around, but the rest of
the people who jumped on the bandwagon fell apart. We're still
here.
CoC: Besides the short four-date tour late this summer, do you think
you'll ever have the opportunity for a full US tour?
Jon: Well, we would like to do that, but it's really hard for a band
to pick up and make that happen. There have to be the right
strings pulled, we have to have the right company to make the
tour happen for us. We want to get out and play, but we can't go
out and headline America by ourselves. We are going to do these
four shows out in the mid-west. But as far as doing a full US
tour, we have to be support for someone that's going to draw
people, and that in turn costs a lot of money and takes a lot of
time to get that worked out. I'm not sure our record company is
capable of doing the things to make Iced Earth known in the
States. I mean, they're trying, and they're doing a much better
job than the old days, but is it good enough to make Iced Earth
big? I don't know. The States is a tough market.
CoC: Do you think the new "retro-80s" thrash trend will help the band
along at all?
Jon: I don't know, man. I doubt it. To be honest with you, I think
the only people that are going to help Iced Earth is Iced Earth.
If we get the right management team or record company behind us,
the sky's the limit. Right now, I don't see any help coming from
anybody, we never have. It's all been basically on our own.
Century Media's done a good job in certain parts of the world,
and I'm not ragging on them, but there're just some things that
they aren't capable of in this country, yet. And even though
it's a night and day difference between what it used to be, when
it used to -really- suck here in the States, the new staff is
doing much better, and our record sales each time we've put out
a record have doubled, even though they're very small numbers. I
think if we get up into the mid-west and start playing some
shows up there, we're going to be able to build upon our fan
base and really bring metal back to the US. That's what we're
hoping for. If once we start playing up there, we'll just keep
building and get more and more shows all the time, then we're
doing a good thing.
CoC: What's your inspiration for your riffs? What do you think about
when you're writing them? To me, they're some of the best I've
ever heard.
Jon: Well, first off, thanks for saying that, but I think Steve
Harris writes the best riffs ever. <laughs> I don't know, man, I
think it's just the inner rage that helps with that. I've always
had a problem with people trying to tell me what to do, and I
was very much a rebel, a "rebellious teenager" still, in many
ways. I have a lot of deep inner feelings about life and death,
and it all seems to be in a direction. I know a lot of it comes
from my past, my childhood, and it just comes out, I don't know
where it comes from. I don't know if anybody, any writer or any
true artist, could tell you where it comes from. I think it's as
much of a mystery to us as it is to the people looking at you
and wondering. It's just kind of a way of channeling your
emotions. Whether you're on a piano, or a guitar, or if you're a
singer, it's all what's inside of -you-.
CoC: You always seem to have one really epic song on each album, like
"Dante's Inferno" from _Burnt Offerings_ and "Travel in Stygian"
from _Night of the Stormrider. Do you regard these with any
special feeling?
Jon: Yeah, those are special songs to me. They're usually my babies
that I work on for a long period of time by myself. I don't
usually show them to anybody until I'm done with them. They're
always kind of my pet project, I always like to put one at the
end of each record as a little special closer. You know, I'm
working on one for the next album, and no one's heard any of it
yet. I don't know how long it's going to be, but it's probably
going to be longer than anything else on the album, to give it
that finale kind of feel to it. I just want to make it kind of a
trademark thing that we do; something cool and epic at the end
of a record to close it out nicely.
CoC: You're producing an album soon for a band called Silent Scream.
What can you tell us about that?
Jon: Oh, you heard about that? Yeah, they're just a young band from
Hamburg, Germany who approached us when we played there, and
they asked me. I said I'd see if I liked the music and I'd get
in touch with them. I get handed CDs from bands all the time,
and I felt like these guys had some potential. They've got some
good music; the vocalist needs work, he's my biggest concern
right now. But he seems like a nice guy, and he's taken the
advice I've given him. He's working hard, at least they're
telling me he is, he's taking lessons and stuff. So when they
get over here in September we'll see how it goes. I'm excited
about it because I've never produced anyone except Iced Earth
and I've wanted to do that kind of thing, so for me it's a
chance to get into another field of the music industry that I
really love doing. I like to take a song, and put my magic touch
to it. I like to work with bands who are respectful, anxious to
learn, and want to get into this business. I also like to let
them know what a nightmare they're in for, too. <laughs> At
least if I can tell people some of the things I've been through,
then I can help ease the pain of this career choice a little
bit, and try to give them a bit of advice, because I didn't have
any. I went through a lot of bullshit, the hard way.
CoC: What do you do besides music? A day job or anything?
Jon: Well, I haven't worked for about a year now, the band's finally
doing well enough to where I can make a very meager living. I'm
also sort of the micro-manager of the band, and I can't work
right now, there's just not enough hours in the week to do the
things I need to do for the band. Being the writer, the manager
of the band, and also play on tour, to get -ready- to play on
tour, it's really a lot of work, so I'm not working currently. I
mean, I do have a friend who has a music store, he sells guitars
and comic books, and I work for him once in a while when he
needs help. I used to work there full-time. Basically, in my
spare time, and it's very rare that I -do- have spare time, I
like building model kits. Monsters and comic book characters, I
build these things and hand-paint them, so that's a hobby. I
collect comics and toys, and there's a little escape from the
music world. But other than that, I spend a lot of hours on the
phone, a lot of hours with my guitar, though not as many hours
with my guitar as I would like to, because I do more business
than I probably should. But at this stage of the game, I don't
really have a choice.
CoC: What musical training have you had? Any lessons, or self-taught?
Jon: I'm self-taught, but I took my first guitar lesson last weekend.
So I'm going to continue to do that. I think I've reached a
point in my playing where I need to learn, because there are
some things that I don't know. I've never taken the guitar as an
instrument very seriously, I've always treated it as a tool to
write songs with. Now I want to know why I'm doing the things
I'm doing, just to learn the way it works, because I don't know.
Which is strange; I can hear everything in my head, I know the
way it should be, but I don't know -why- they are that way. I
never learned a scale in my life, and leads I never really cared
about, but now I'm going to learn some, just so I have that
extra bit of knowledge. Maybe I'll start playing a little lead
on our albums to give a different feel; Randy [Shawver] always
has kind of a dark, abstract feel to it, and the few solos that
I've done in the history of the band have been more of a
melodic, kind of bluesey kind of thing. If we mix the two
together, it might be an interesting addition to the band's
sound. But I am a -rhythm- guy. Steve Harris is my idol, I love
killer bass and drums, and rhythm guitar. That's what I'm into.
To me, that's the thundering backbone of a band.
CoC: For the next album, do you think you'll continue in the same
vein as _The Dark Saga_, or will you go back to the faster
riffing of the earlier albums. Where do you see the music
heading?
Jon: Oh, we just do whatever comes naturally. I don't like to say
"Well we're going to make it sound this way." I just let the
songs come out of me, that's the way I've done it for every
album. However they come out of me, that's the way it's going to
be. So far, their's a pretty good mixture of everything. Their's
some really fast shit, their's some really slow stuff, some in
between. There's one song called "The Prophecy" which is very
Maiden-ish but much more heavy and much more intense, but it's
got that feel to it. There's one that's kind of like a
Slayer/Metallica kind of thing. I mean, it doesn't -sound- like
that, I'm just trying to give you a genre that you can attach it
to. The epic thing that I'm working on is an Egyptian vibe, it's
going to have some very fast and furious riffing, and some slow
stuff, too. It's just Iced Earth. It's going to be like all the
other stuff but different than the album before it. But you're
going to know who it is when you hear it.
CoC: When do you think that'll see light of day?
Jon: It probably won't be out until next year. The way it looks, we
may possibly be going out on tour with Savatage and Rage in
October and November. That's Europe, and if that happens, it's
going to be forty dates. We'll be hitting territories in Europe
we've never played, so it's worth putting off the release of the
next record, because we have to take that opportunity to get
into Spain and Portugal, Norway, Denmark, Finland, some areas
that we haven't been into before; if we can get into those
areas, we have to make that happen.
CoC: Why do you think bands in the same general style as Iced Earth
are so rare in the United States? I mean, they're fairly common
over in Europe, but when the US is concerned they are sparse.
Jon: It's a difference in culture. You know, over here, people here
are basically fed the popular trends and what they're supposed
to be involved in by the media. They're fed a certain way to
think by radio, or MTV, or by regular television, everything
from what kind of clothing is popular, to what kind of hair
styles, or music, and over there it's not like that. I mean,
over here I've seen it happen dozens of times, whether it's
bands that were playing metal and jumped on the death metal
bandwagon, and then jump on the goth bandwagon, and then the
industrial bandwagon, anything they can do to try and get a
record deal. There're very few people in the business that are
loyal enough to stick to what they're all about, long enough to
make it. It takes a special breed of people who are willing to
tough it out and do something in which they believe. That's
maybe one or two people out of ten, and when it comes to bands,
Iced Earth is one of those one out of ten that is willing to
play what we believe in and what we're about, no matter -what-
it takes, until whatever time. If it becomes popular, we'll
still be doing it even after it becomes -not- popular anymore in
this country, just like Iron Maiden is still doing. I'm not one
of those people who feels like I have to bow down and kiss
anybody's ass, I never have and I never will. I'm not trying to
be arrogant or conceited, but I have confidence and faith in
what we do, but this is the kind of attitude that's kept this
thing alive for twelve years and that's going to keep it alive
for another twelve years. You know, we're not going to bow down
and change for -anybody-. We're going to do what we do because
we want to do it, and that's it. And there's just not enough
people around who are willing to do that.
CoC: What vein is your side project with Hansi Kursch of Blind
Guardian going to be in? The same speed metal style as Iced
Earth?
Jon: Yep. It's going to be my music and his words. It should be a
cool mixture. We wrote our first song when I was over at his
house, and we went to his little studio and recorded it, just
with the drum machine and stuff, but it sounded really cool.
It's really fucking dark. We don't even know what we're going to
call it yet. We were talking about touring Europe again with
[Blind Guardian] in the spring of next year, and then I'd stay
over at his house and we'd finish writing it. Then we'd come
back here, I was going to get Mark Prator to play drums on it,
that's the guy who played on _The Dark Saga_, and get Jim
Morris, the other producer for the band to do the lead guitar
stuff, and then me, I'll get bass and guitar, and Hansi'll do
the vocals. I'm excited about it because it'll have my kind of
music and Hansi's choruses, it should be a very interesting
mixture.
CoC: Well Jon, that wraps it up. Any final words to Iced Earth's fans
who'll be reading the zine?
Jon: Just tell them to check out the website
(http://www.icedearth.com), and stay true because we're going to.
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I N T H E F L E S H
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CoC interviews Godflesh
by: Adrian Bromley
"We want our live show to be different each time out," begins
Godflesh creator/vocalist/guitarist Justin Broadrick on the phone
from Birmingham, England. "We want to take this whole live show thing
and bring in a unique sound system and style to the way we want to
present ourselves. We want a DJ or club feel to what we are doing. We
just want to keep it different and to keep it evolving."
And is that the reason for the re-mix record - _Love and Hate in
Dub_ (re-mixed works of 1996's _Songs of Love and Hate_), to keep
evolving the music and styles introduced and represented in Godflesh
material? He answers, "Ever since our first album (1990's
_Streetcleaner_), we have had that mechanical side of what we do. We
(the band is rounded out by longtime bassist/conspirator Benny Green
and drummer Brian Mantia) are very groove-oriented and close to many
things like hip-hop. It was always a goal for us to have that style
embedded into what we do. Our initial goal of Godflesh was to have
this brutally heavy shit, but have a mechanical side to what we do:
To be groove-oriented. We always wanted a fat groove. Obviously, we
were able to get that fat groove, having a drummer, unlike before,
when we used a drum machine. Now, with a drummer, we can have this
groove going and mix it with drum machines to make this one, huge,
fat groove. We want our music to evolve, which it has, and we want to
defy serious pigeonholing. We are just mixing shit up. Every couple
of years we try to outdo what we did in the past and just try to make
a more fresher and original feel to Godflesh."
The duo of Godflesh, Justin Broadrick and Benny Green, formed in
1988, releasing their self-titled debut EP on Swordfish Records in
1990. They later signed to Earache (releasing _Streetcleaner_ that
same year), and from there, the band broke new boundaries with their
use of drum machines, heavy rhythms, and mixing and matching hard,
ferocious grooves with a definite strong industrial feel. The band
brought that sound to life several times over with such notable and
well-received release like 1991's _Slavestate_ album, 1992's _Pure_,
and the stunning 1994 release, _Selfless_. All in all, it has been a
strong effort by the band to remain heavy and intact, to broaden
their boundaries, but keep it unique and very Godflesh sounding.
When asked whether Godflesh will continue to evolve, possibly
losing their harshness and heavy rhythms and going for a new sound,
Broadrick replies: "Godflesh is what it always has been. The exciting
thing about Godflesh is how we go about approaching the sound that we
create. We do want to attain to what we are about. No matter what we
do, we want to have that. We want our sound. It will always be heavy
and groove-oriented."
And is Broadrick impressed with what he has been able to do with
Godflesh since the early days? "Yeah... I feel like we have
definitely achieved something. We have helped possibly in helping
change music. Helping mold the sounds of rock or metal music. I think
we have. This could be a bad thing, but I think we have contributed
to what music has become now. Bringing to the forefront an idea or
belief in amalgamating certain sounds and ideas into what you are
doing. I still think that we can change things more and more as years
go along."
On success: "From the get go of this band, we knew we would
never be a multi-million selling record artist. When we made
_Streetcleaner_, we never thought we would sell any records. We never
had a goal to sell records. What we reached, even with
_Streetcleaner_ alone, stunned us. We were really surprised at what
happened. We never thought we would get popular. People told us it
would happen, but we didn't see it coming."
The topic turns to the works of Ministry and Fear Factory. While
all three are very similar at times in sound and style, Broadrick
believes that Godflesh is in its own class of what they do. "Godflesh
has been around almost as much as Ministry and Fear Factory since
1991. I think Fear Factory has been influenced by bands like Godflesh
and Ministry. It's great to have that. It's inevitable that people
are into both Ministry and Godflesh and are influenced by us and
create a new generation of bands. It's great to see hybrid of bands
pop up."
He adds, "I think what we do is unique. We strive to be
influenced by other band and bring those influences and our ideas
into what we do. What drives me to make this unique form of rock
music is that I have never thought anyone is doing or will be doing
what Godflesh do. I guess there are people or bands that get lumped
into a category with us, but overall I think Godflesh has a very
singular sound."
Unlike most bands who follow trends, Godflesh has done the
opposite. The band has focused on their sound and style from Day One.
About bands following trends and/or fitting a certain criteria,
Broadrick responds, "It seems to be very fashion-oriented now. You
hardly ever see any long hair metal bands anymore because they have
all cut their hair and done re-mixes with their music. I mean, here
are these bands saying they cut their hair because 'it's the 90s and
not cool to look like that anymore.' Obviously, it is not cool to
look like Poison and Motley Crue anymore, and these bands are walking
around saying that they are doing this to stay in touch with what is
happening. It's bullshit. People are doing this because someone is
dictating, telling them what to do. It's not cool to be a metal hair
band anymore. It's easy for people like us to be cynical about this.
Years ago, when Godflesh came around, people didn't want to know who
we were or what we were about. They couldn't understand what we were.
They were all seeing and hearing that we had all these styles and
asking us, 'What are ya?' and we would reply, 'We are Godflesh.' Now
it's cool for bands to say what they are and not to be part of some
genre. It is being dictated that you have to be 90s and all this
shit. I don't think people are doing what they want to do. I mean,
I'm sure there are artists out there who are doing what they want to
do and aren't interested in other types of music and trying to bring
that to their sound, but for the most part, I see bands bandwagon
jumping. They are all going to where it is 'happening.'
Broadrick continues, "Years ago, there seemed to be a rule book
with what you were supposed to do, and now we have another one to
deal with. The book has all these things bands must do to be cool
now, and it's sad. It's sad that it has to go this way with certain
bands."
While the band has just released _LaHiD_, the band is gearing up
for new material and a new album sometime next year. The bandwagon
jump will not be a part of their future endeavors. "We haven't really
recorded a single track for the next LP, but doing this re-mix record
has been quite inspirational for what we are going to do with the
next record. The next album is going to be like a gigantic roller
coaster ride dynamically with what is going on," he notes. "There is
going to be a lot of information on the next album. The last thing it
will sound like will be _Selfless_. That record was very cut and dry,
and right now, I am not a big fan of that record. I think with our
last record, _SoLaH_, we opened up a few doors and expanded a little,
but with what we were doing. With the addition of a drummer, now, it
has made the music more direct. There is more scope to the sound, and
so the next record will venture into the areas that I want to go with
what we are doing. _SoLaH_ was a very groovy and organic Godflesh
rock record, which was similar to _Selfless_, but was a bit stronger
in production."
And as the music has changed, Broadrick notes the fan base and
fans coming to the shows has altered too. "I think our fans have
changed quite a bit. When Godflesh first came to the States (with
Napalm Death) with the album _Streetcleaner_, the audience we broke
into originally was a metal audience. Now I think it is more of a
crossover audience than just metal kids. After _Streetcleaner_, I
think we widened out our audience a bit. Now we seem to cater to a
lot of types of people. I would say that now about 40% of the crowd
coming to our shows are metal fans. When we came over in 1990 and had
to play before metal fans, I think we opened up their listening
tastes. It's funny, because people I meet told me that all they used
to listen to was metal, but after seeing or hearing Godflesh, they
opened up to a lot of areas in their musical tastes. I think that is
important and healthy for people to have many tastes when it comes to
music."
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S O R R O W F U L I S T H E B E A U T Y O F A U T U M N
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CoC interviews Autumn Tears
by: Pedro Azevedo
Two talented persons focused on producing high quality dark music:
Ted (keyboards, arrangements, vocals) and Erika (vocals,
arrangements) are just that, and high quality dark music is what
Autumn Tears is all about. _Love Poems for Dying Children_, their
debut, showed promise, even though it also presented some faults;
their new album, _Love Poems For Dying Children Act II: The Garden of
Crystalline Dreams_ is an improvement over the first in every way,
and a very impressive work. By releasing the album in the USA through
their own label, Dark Symphonies, Ted and Erika managed to control
everything about their work, and it shows. You can see just that from
the following interview, if you consider the quality of their
answers. The following is my conversation with Ted and Erika, Autumn
Tears. Their homepage is at http://www.borg.com/~lordxul/tears.htm.
CoC: Please tell us about the _Love Poems for Dying Children_
storyline.
Ted: The story of _Love Poems for Dying Children_ has to do with a
character which I created based on some of my earlier poetry and
a parallel to my personal stream of thought. She is Autumn,
representing, in my opinion, the darkest season. She has slept
for centuries and awakens to contemplate her existence and the
turmoil which it brings her. She is alone, lost, and grasping
any last emotion she can muster to try and help her realize why
she is what she is and why it agonizes her so. Act II elaborates
more on the continuation of her struggle and her quest for the
Garden of Crystalline Dreams, which is where the other
characters in the story come into play. The Garden represents a
place of sanctum, as well as a realm of judgement. This is where
she is forced to choose her fate, being either redemption or
damnation.
CoC: Musically speaking, what changed from Act I to Act II?
Erika: The entire style of the music became much more triumphant and
complex. We were very conscious the entire time as we wrote
the music in regards to how we wanted it to sound in final
form, since we now had experience with the studio and what
types of settings they could provide us with. Our emphasis was
on making the album sound as real as possible, as if we had
hired an orchestra, and to stay away from some of those very
annoying and fake sounding synth settings. Also, there was a
lot more emotion in the vocals, which had a lot to do with our
portrayal of the story that Ted had written. The album is,
overall, more rounded and finished than the first. There was a
lot more focus on the final result, which was not present when
we created the first album. This time, we knew exactly where
we wanted to go with the music and the package, and we made
sure we met our goals and were completely happy with
everything before we were done.
CoC: Could you describe your songwriting process?
Erika: The process is similar to writing any metal song. There will
be a riff that we think is cool, and then it gets combined
with other stuff that might have been hanging around, and
before you know it, the base structure of the song is there.
Then, Ted will write maybe one set of overdubs with that basic
structure. Usually, by then, we'll know what lyrics go with
the song (for _... The Garden of Crystalline Dreams_, all the
lyrics had already been written, some a very long time ago).
I'll go through the piece, decide on a melody that fits, and
ask for Ted to add another measure here or take one out there
to help fit the words. Sometimes, musical things occur to me
when I'm writing the vocal melodies, and those will go into
the mix. And then, we get into the studio and add more things,
like percussion or effects, and you have a song at last!
CoC: _LPfDCII:TGoCDs_ must represent a big effort of yours,
considering both its musical contents and the expected deluxe
layout. Is your label, Dark Symphonies, the best way to take
care of everything just the way you want it?
Erika: Dark Symphonies is the ONLY way for us to get what we want.
This way, we control every single aspect of the creation
process, from the matter of choosing a studio, to whom we have
do the printing of the packaging. Both Ted and I are
professionals in the field of graphic design and printing, and
we just could not allow the responsibility for a project as
complex and close to our hearts as this to be given to someone
who might not know exactly the best way to get things done.
Also, since we function as our own label, we never have to
worry about deadlines or limited budgets, which removes a lot
of stress from the entire process.
CoC: Are you planning to sign other bands for Dark Symphonies?
Erika: Absolutely. We look to give any other band that signs with us
the same excellent treatment and care we have given Autumn
Tears. Dark Symphonies will only sign first-rate bands with
first-rate attitudes, and in return for that, we will produce
first-rate releases with excellent packaging. We want to be
known as a top-notch label that will never screw a band over
or do a bad job. We have seen enough poor quality releases and
great quality releases to know what we want to do.
CoC: What are your main classical music influences?
Ted: As musical influences, I can include older Dead Can Dance
material, chamber music, contemporary soundtrack composers
(Patrick Doyle, Jerry Goldsmith, Basil Pouldoris, and Ennio
Morricone), as well as older classical composers (Bach and
Wagner).
CoC: About metal bands, what are your favorite ones right now?
Erika: I love the new Emperor (_Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk_, CoC
#22), although I do miss the mystical lyrics from _In the
Nightside Eclipse_. It's great to see that despite all the
hardships Emperor went through, they have not lost their
focus. I'm also enjoying the new Diabolical Masquerade, _The
Phantom Lodge_. Blackheim's talent is phenomenal, and I admire
him very much. What else? I just got the Midvinter CD, which I
also really like.
Ted: For myself, I feel that a lot of newer albums lack the feel and
emotion of masterpieces such as Emperor's _In the Nightside
Eclipse_, Immortal's _Pure Holocaust_, Katatonia's _Dance of
December Souls_ [One of my three most influential albums ever --
Pedro], Dissection's _The Somberlain_, and many others from
1993/94. These I still find myself listening to all the time
over newer albums.
CoC: How exactly did you create Deceit's voice (rather unusual for a
black metal voice)? Was it consciously done or did it just come
out that way?
Erika: I wanted to do Deceit's voice in an evil black metal style for
two reasons: it fit the character, and I wanted to show
everyone that a woman can do a black metal style of singing as
well as any of those other guys out there. [At least Erika
can, and I really liked those vocals -- Pedro] There's women
in black metal, playing bass and keyboards, but there's not
really any who do vocals, Netherworld's vocalist excepted. I
really am a black metal person at heart, and I'm very serious
about it, so Deceit's vocals were my way of saying, "See, I'm
not just some clean singer who can't do anything else." I
mean, I really admire Garm, because he's got all the bases
covered. I think the vocals came out really good, and you
can't really tell it's a woman doing them [True, you can't
tell it's Erika even -after- you know it's her -- Pedro],
which is what I wanted. As far as actually doing the vocals, I
just let myself get into the character, with all her vileness
and evil, and what you hear is the result. It was great fun.
The engineer in the studio didn't really know what to make of
me, snarling into the mike!
CoC: How did you two meet, and why did you decide to create Autumn
Tears?
Ted: Erika and I met in college seven years ago and have remained
friends ever since. We have both always been into the
underground, and music has remained a big part of our lives. I
had been writing the lyrics for three years, and decided one day
to put them to music, which I then began composing. I knew Erika
had been professionally trained as a singer, so I asked her if
she would be interested in working on the project with me. The
project helped us to express our emotions into music, and in
turn, creating a very dark atmosphere.
CoC: What kind of vocal training does Erika have?
Erika: I had vocal training in high school. I was in the chorus and
in several chamber groups, and our teacher was very tough. I
hated her because she did all these things to us to make us
learn breath control that would probably be considered abuse
now. One time, she had us all lying on our backs on the floor
with heavy dictionaries on our stomachs, making us push them
up and down so we'd develop the muscle. She was a formidable
woman, but her lessons stuck and I am eternally grateful. I
never stopped singing once I graduated from high school, and I
always am looking for singers singing challenging things that
I can try to imitate. By doing that, I don't get stagnant. One
moment I can be singing Celtic style, and the next, I'll
switch to opera or folk. The main point is to just keep
singing all the time, so the voice stays in shape.
CoC: Has Erika participated in professional projects before?
Erika: I did a little session work with the December Wolves on _Til
Ten Years_. That was the first time I'd ever been in a studio
situation, so it was both intimidating and fun.
CoC: How happy are you about having met Erika and creating Autumn
Tears? How important is this project for you?
Ted: I am both honored and extremely proud to have Erika involved in
the project with me. She is extremely talented and very
creative. Her participation has been invaluable. Autumn Tears is
a very big part of my life to which I am very dedicated, and I
am extremely grateful that Erika has helped to make it all
possible.
CoC: Please unveil some of your plans for the future of Autumn Tears.
Ted: I suppose we will just have to wait and see...
CoC: Any last words?
Ted and Erika: Thank you for the interview and for being so
supportive.
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T H R A S H U P Y O A S S , M U T H A F U C K A
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CoC chats with Testament
by: Drew Schinzel
After three long years of uncertain waiting by their fans, Testament
have finally released their new album, _Demonic_, on Mayhem/Fierce
Records. Diehard fans of the older material may be a bit miffed at
the band's new direction towards the heavier side of things, and
especially with vocalist Chuck Billy's deep vocal assault. Don't say
you didn't see it coming, however, with their previous release,
_Low_. Although aesthetically similar to _Low_, _Demonic_ is a
different beast entirely. With its heavy, chugging riffs and a
distinct lack of leads and solos, backed by the always pummeling Gene
Hoglan drumwork, _Demonic_ speaks for the fact that not -all- classic
80s thrash bands have "wimped out." Guitarist Eric Peterson takes the
time to speak about the band's history, their progression, line-up
problems, and many other things.
CoC: Many of your songs, past and present, have had a fairly strong
anti-government/anti-establishment flavor to them, such as
"Malpractice" railing against the medical profession. What's
your feeling on that subject?
Eric: Well, we never really tried to preach anything. There were
certain things that we would see here that would interest us,
you know? Like the "Malpractice" thing was from an Alex
[Skolnick] point of view. All that stuff came from Alex, like
"Seven Days in May", which was about Tienanmmen Square. There
was "Greenhouse Effect"; I mean they were all things that we
cared about, too, but they were brought to attention by him.
And then Greg, of course, with "P.C.". About as political as
Chuck or myself would get would be like "Hatred's Rise", you
know? <laughs>
CoC: Why did you guys have so many drummers in the past couple of
years? I mean, you had Jon Dette, Gene Hoglan, Jon Tempesta,
Paul Bostaph, Chris Kontos...
Eric: What's our reason for that? Well, it's just really cool, it's a
lot of fun, you know. <laughs> No, you know, circumstances.
Shit comes up, it wasn't our intention for Jon Tempesta to go
and join White Zombie, it wasn't like "Hey, why don't you join
White Zombie!" For Paul Bostaph, he basically was in the band,
and helping us out a tremendous amount, because Louie
[Clemente, the drummer for the first five albums] had left the
band right at the beginning of a tour, and we were going to
cancel the tour, but a lot of people were going to be upset, so
we went ahead and carried on with Paul Bostaph. He had actually
just gotten in Slayer... and so we called Kerry and Tom up and
they were like "We're writing right now, we don't need Paul
around for a little bit, we're going to get some ideas
together." So he was able to do that. We actually ended up
recording something with him on it, which is cool because it's
like a little time-piece you know. But he was never actually a
member, he was just helping Testament out as a friend. Let's
see, after that we got Tempesta, who we wanted to be in the
band full-time. After that, there was Jon Dette, and there were
just certain elements, it's been awhile now, I don't quite
remember, I think there was a cat-fight between Chuck [Billy,
vocalist] and Jon, something stupid. And then the opportunity
came up for Jon Dette to be in Slayer, so he took that route.
Chris Kontos was just sort of like a rebound thing for him and
for us. He got kicked out of Machine Head, we didn't have a
drummer. We had a great time, jammed together... he's a great
drummer, it just wasn't meant to be; different personalities,
whatever. Gene Hoglan worked out really good. I feel like I'm
naming off all my old girlfriends here, this is really funny.
<laughs> Yeah, Gene fit the job really good, but he was
committed to Strapping Young Lad, but he had some free time so
he came in and did a great job for the record. So now, right
after Gene, Jon Dette had just been released from Slayer, and
it was just good timing on that end. And he was like our first
pick out of 25 or 30 drummers we auditioned after Tempesta
left. It's good to have him back.
CoC: What was the deal with the three year wait between _Low_ and
_Demonic_? There were rumors last year that the whole band had
broken up. Was there any truth to that?
Eric: Yeah, there was a point. I think it was with the members Kontos
and [James] Murphy, [Greg] Christian, Billy, and myself, it
just got to the point where it just wasn't a band and things
weren't gelling. There were certain problems happening, and we
just hung it up. Then me and Chuck put it together, we wanted
to get it right this time, and not get those players, get
people we could hang with. You know, not that we can't hang
with James or Chris, they're cool people. Just that this lineup
we had put together, everyone was on the same page with what we
wanted to hit. And that worked out really good. So here we are,
with _Demonic_, and I think as far as where we want to be
careers, I think _Demonic_ is pretty much our forte. It's like
someone pointed out to me, "Where do you want to take this? Do
you want to get real big?" I think we're as big as we want to
be. I mean, it's the music is what it is. If this record went
platinum, or if it didn't sell shit, the fact still remains
that it's still _Demonic_, and it's still where we're at in our
music, you know what I mean? It's like, we can't be any richer,
because we're doing exactly what we believe and what we want.
And I think that goes with anything in life: If you're happy
doing what you really like then you're a very rich man.
CoC: Of all the albums you've released, which one are you least
satisfied with?
Eric: Well, you know they all have their times. Of course, after each
record you do, you go "this is my best record." And I truly
believe that, that _Demonic_ for me is one of my best records.
There was one record that after we were done with it I thought,
"hmm... maybe this isn't my best record," which was _Souls of
Black_ [my personal favorite, go figure -- Drew], which was
because it was put together so quick. But I listen to it now,
and its got a certain sound and a time piece, and it's cool, I
like it. Then, like _The Ritual_, too, I listen to that record
and I think it's cool, but I think "When we formed Testament
and what we're about, this isn't what Testament is about right
here." It was the industry talking to us, and management saying
"You gotta do this to survive, you gotta be like this." I think
right now, with _Demonic_ and _Low_, it's almost like the new
Testament, like what we're about now in the 90s.
CoC: Do you think the departure of Alex Skolnick (guitarist for the
first five albums) had a good influence on you as far as
songwriting, because since his departure, you've now released
your two heaviest albums ever.
Eric: Yeah, definitely. I think Alex believed in what he believed in,
and I believed in what I believed in, and in the end of it, we
weren't believing in the same thing. But now that he's gone,
and he helped pave the way for us, and us for him, I'm
definitely happy where we're at. I can't complain, I played
everything on the record, which was really cool for me.
CoC: When you guys started the band over ten years ago, did you think
you'd ever be releasing stuff as heavy as _Demonic_ now in 1997?
Eric: Most bands get lighter, or maybe more progressive, or simpler.
You know, in our genre, I'm watching bands that either fucking
wimped out, and they're not really themselves, or they've
gotten progressive, but they really didn't get harder, or more
true to what they were in the beginning. I think we're the only
band in this genre, besides Exodus, that have really stayed
true. There's bands that led this genre, no, there's -a- band
who led this genre who, just, to me, is bullshit now. I felt
proud that we took it to the extreme measure that we did, and
people can cry that it's too heavy, but if somebody wants to
hear a true to the truest artform of metal, then _Demonic_ is
for them.
CoC: On all of the previous four albums, there was always the one
slow ballad-type song, but there isn't one on _Demonic_. Is that
just because it wouldn't fit it, or was there a reason behind
putting one on each of the others?
Eric: We never really planned any of them. The only one that was
really planned was "The Ballad" (_Practice What You Preach_).
We used to always jam on slow jams, and we kind of went "We
need to put a ballad on our record." But after that, "The
Legacy", on the next record, that was the first song I ever
wrote, for the band Legacy, when we were called that. And the
first two songs we wrote were "The Legacy" and "Curse of the
Legions of Death", so that shows you right there that we were a
little bit of both. Because back then, we were listening to
Sisters of Mercy and Venom. We were listening to two totally
different kinds of music. But this time around, you know, I
just didn't feel like plucking anything clean like that.
CoC: Do you personally enjoy touring? You guys always seem to tour a
-lot- for each release.
Eric: Yeah, definitely... especially when you have something that you
like, and you like the guys in the band, it's really cool.
_Low_, we really didn't tour that much on, because of Atlantic
(their former and unco-operative record label) and stuff, the
bullshit that went down with that. But now, we've got a pretty
extensive tour lined up for the States, and Europe, and
overseas and stuff, so there's definitely a fair amount of
touring for this record. And we have ideas now for another
record, which, I don't think it's going to take us three years
to put out another record again.
CoC: Does your daughter like Testament? Or does she even know about
the band?
Eric: Oh, totally. She's almost four now, but if I put on my music,
she scrunches up her face, and puts her lips together and just
kind of goes "Yeah!" It's pretty cute. You know, she'll say
"Papa's music." And then she'll go "Where's Chuck? Where's
Chuck, papa? That's Chuck?" It's pretty funny.
CoC: How would you compare the handling of the band on Atlantic to
Mayhem/Fierce? I mean, Atlantic's got to be pretty impersonal,
right?
Eric: There were definitely people who were impersonal, but there
were also a lot of people there who were great. Whenever we
talk about Atlantic, or slag them, you know, most of it came
from the upper, top people who would approve stuff. But I have
to say that the people actually at Atlantic, the actual staff,
there were some really good people there. Whenever the main
objectives come up, they were overrulled, coming from up at the
top, looking at sales figures and not looking at what we're
about, what we need to take it farther. All they want to know
is, is it sticking, or is it not sticking. If it's not
sticking, move on to one that's sticking. Oh look, that's
sticking, go over there and work that. What, they're not
sticking? Fuck them. And you know, they had like ninety
releases that year, and we had _Low_, and Mayhem/Fierce had
two.
CoC: Which bands do you like and listen to right now?
Eric: I'm listening to a whole different spectrum of music. Right
now, I've been listening to Meshuggah's _Destroy Erase
Improve_. I like Entombed's record a lot, the new one. I like
the new Paradise Lost; they've really calmed down a lot, but
it's a good record. I still love listening to _Arise_
(Sepultura); I don't see Sepultura going on without Max, I just
think it's ridiculous.
CoC: But they were just going downhill with _Roots_, don't you think?
Eric: Yeah, there's another band who's kind of getting lost with who
they are and what they're about. Even though it was heavy, it
just... I mean, I can understand when you're a band and you've
been together that long, and you've been touring a lot, you end
up changing. You start getting into all sorts of trends. They
started, to me, going into kind of a Korn vein. You know, the
weird guitar, kind of like the beat, the low end. And I was
just going "Well, that's cool." There's a lot of bands doing
that. But if I want to hear that, I'll put on Korn.
CoC: Do you see yourself going in the same vein for the next album?
Eric: What I'm noticing now is that in our set that we're putting
together live, if we're going to be playing every night, six
nights a week, it's going to be hard for Chuck to sing like
that, all the time. So I think the new stuff will be a bit
mixed up, like "Dog Faced Gods" or "Together as One", not so
much just straightforward heavy vocals. Which is cool because,
like, "Demonic Refusal", I love that, but there are people like
the old fans who prefer "Dog Faced Gods", where it's mixed up.
But everyone's got an opinion, and we did what sounds good.
Basically, I can't tell you how we're going to plan out the
next record, how it's going to fill out. Chuck may end up
singing [clean] on the whole thing, I don't know. I doubt it,
though. We're totally into what we're doing right now.
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D E E P E M O T I O N S A N D D A R K E N E D I M A G E S
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CoC interrogates Mexico's Hocico
by: Adrian Bromley
Fueled by life's hardships, society, and all the other bad
things that has or continues to happen to themselves, Hocico creators
Erk Aicrag and Rasco Agroyan have done what most musicians do when
they experience such things: they write about it.
The band's debut LP, _Odio Bajo El Alma_ - on the Mexican record
label Opcion Sonica - is a intense journey through darkened visions
and harsh realities. With each listen and each track, the music on
_Odio Bajo El Alma_ paints a rather disturbing picture of society and
life in general as seen through Aicrag and Agroyan's eyes. Radiating
a harsh industrial/metallic/ambient sound with a dash of Skinny
Puppy, Hocico takes us through numerous emotionally-filled and
electronic-sounding songs that lash out at us with hate and
destruction.
Erk Aicrag took time out from wreaking havoc to talk to
Chronicles of Chaos by e-mail about the band, their music, and living
in Mexico. Here is how it went:
CoC: Tell me about growing up in Mexico and how it inspired you to be
in a band? What got you into music? What topics or ideas do you
express in your songs?
Erk Aicrag: Growing up in Mexico City has been very special for us.
As you know, we have a lot of ancient culture in here.
But it is much like other cities around the world, cities
that are dealing with too much information, drug
trafficking, etc... Here, it is a very violent
environment that we live in, and we have seen that since
we were little kids, and personally, we have had a lot
experiences with those situations and we gained a lot of
anger from it. We write about it now in Hocico's songs,
and we have always wanted to be able to vent all of these
feelings into our music. Hocico speaks about how we
perceive life here.
CoC: How did releasing numerous demos prior to this LP with Opcion
Sonica help the band?
EA: Releasing numerous demos before making this record helped us out
a lot. We got a lot of experience from recording and also, we
learned to trust ourselves in what we decide to do as a band. We
also gained a lot of support from the people who have believed in
us.
CoC: Explain to me the music scene there? Is it very competitive? Any
other good bands we should be on the lookout for?
EA: In the last three or four years, the hard music/electronic music
scene has grown continually. Bands to look out for are Ogo, Deus
ex Machina, Dulce Liquido (Racso's solo project), Artefakto, and
Encefalisis. There really is no competition between any of these
bands.
CoC: Like numerous other bands that consist of just two members
(Ministry, Trial of the Bow, etc...), what has been the hardest
part of creating music and seeing eye to eye with ideas? Is it
hard to make music? Why do you sing and write in both English
and Spanish?
EA: The hardest part is creating the structure in the song's
concepts. We discuss the feeling that we are trying to express in
particular. We go through a selection process to see what songs
will work for us. The way the creating of works, it goes like
this: Racso focuses in the music, and I primarily on the vocals
and lyrics. About why we sing in two languages? We sing in
English and Spanish because we try to keep in contact with two
types of cultures and people. We aim to sing/write in Spanish
because we are talking about specific themes that people in
Mexico will understand and relate to what we are singing about.
CoC: Where do you think the music of Hocico is headed to in the
future? Have you started writing new ideas for the band's music?
EA: Well, music is our way of living, so we can't leave it. We feel
very close to what we do and that we are able to work together to
create music. We want to do this for a long time. As for the
future of Hocico? We are always searching for new sounds and
experiences to bring to our sound. Right now, we are working on a
new MCD for release sometime in September of this year.
CoC: What does the band's album title mean to you? I know Spanish, so
I am familiar with the translation, but to others who may not
know, what does it mean? And the band's name? Are the
ideas/points of view within the record able to go hand in hand
with the album title?
EA: This album title (_Odio Bajo El Alma_) means 'hate under your
soul' or 'soul full of hate,' and signifies the hate that we've
hidden for a long time. To show that all this hate exists and is
part of us. The songs are very close to the title of the album
because they talk about situations and desires that enclosed us
in those moments of rage. Not all the songs on this album are
full of hate. Also, we try themes about spirituality and
introspection within the songs we write for. Hocico translates
into English as 'muzzle,' and in our country, this word is used
to offend; i.e 'Te voy a romper el hocico!' - meaning 'I will
beat you!' The name encloses a great capacity of aggression.
CoC: What does success mean to you? How do you know you have been
successful?
EA: Success for most people is like: girls, money and fame. Those
things are not important for us. Success is a very simple thing
for us. We just want to be able to create good, honest music with
a lot of quality, and then good things will come later on.
CoC: Is there a big difference, do you think, between Mexican
electro/industrial/metal outfits and those from around the
world? What makes Mexico's music different, do you think?
EA: Good music depends on the capacity of creation and this is not
representative of each homeland. What gives a special touch in
Mexican music is their musical tastes. I think that is important
and healthy for people to have many tastes when it comes to
music."
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/ _ \ | |\_ |__ __ __ _____
/ /_\ \| | | __ \| | \/ \
/ | \ |_| \_\ \ | / Y Y \
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\/ \/ \/
_____ .__
/ _ \ _________.__.| | __ __ _____
/ /_\ \ / ___< | || | | | \/ \
/ | \\___ \ \___ || |_| | / 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!
Archon Satani - _The Righteous Way to Completion_
by: Andrew Lewandowski (8 out of 10) (Cold Spring Records, 1997)
During its best moments, _TRWtC_ marks a fitting requiem for one of
the pioneering dark ambient artists. M. Stavostrand, Archon Satani's
sole composer on this release, finally achieves a successful
integration of the minimal and insinuating ambience of his previous
two full-lengths with the hellish melodies of the apocalyptic dirges
found on his debut, the seminal _Virgin Birth (Born Again)_. Fueled
by ethereal drones and enigmatic atmospheres, each of the four tracks
drift aimlessly through an inhuman universe of unspeakable horror.
Archon Satani's sprawling landscapes parallel the creations of H.P.
Lovecraft; both fabricate a dimension shockingly reminiscent to our
unpopulated natural world, yet still horribly disfigured. This
ambience is aided by thundering percussive passages, adding a sense
of absorbing, bass-heavy power to the otherwise nebulous sounds. Yet
the percussion can also detract from the album; its incongruous
mastering can overwhelm the subtleties of the music. Stavostrand also
builds the second track, "Another Great Moment in Paradise", around
the drums, leaving only the most sparse and repetitive of drones
occupying the background. Thus, a fourth of the album fails to
transcend desolation. Luckily, the rest of the album showcases
Stavostrand's ability to create a thriving soundscape beneath a
seemingly desolate aesthetic.
Autumn Tears - _LPfDC Act II: The Garden of Crystalline Dreams_
by: Pedro Azevedo (9 out of 10) (Dark Symphonies, June 1997)
"Melancholic beauty" is one of the descriptions used in Autumn Tears'
publicity, and it's a damn good one - this second act of _Love Poems
for Dying Children_ is something to be enjoyed and absorbed as well
as listened to. No metal instrumentation here, only keyboards and
vocals; if you're wondering why I rated this album and not Elend's
(CoC #19), it's because I had to start rating these albums as well...
Both this one and Elend's _Les Tenebres du Dehors_ deserve a 9 out of
10, a rating that is not meant to be compared with metal albums'
ratings. Autumn Tears presents a beautiful, gloomy, emotional
experience based on Ted's keyboards and Erika's voice. Ted manages to
create effective atmospheric effects and very good melodic bases for
Erika to lay her voice upon, and what a voice! Erika is indeed an
extraordinarily talented singer, performing from spoken vocals (which
Ted also performs) to remarkable melodic parts (I must mention
"Commiseration in Mourning"), and, get ready for this, a black metal
voice. Yes, Erika is, of course, a female, but the black vocals she
does are nothing short of great - sort of a whispered raspy voice,
spoken, never showing it's a female who's doing it. This is by no
means the so-called "background music," it's less ambient than
before, but highly atmospheric, and much better in what concerns
melody, arrangements, and general quality - in fact, it's easily
superior to their debut album. From the intro, to the great melodies
in every track, to the striking appearance of Deceit's voice in the
end of track 6, to the powerful finale, this is a highly interesting
and involving piece of music. Everything seems to have been well
taken care of, and the result is a very well done album worth being
listened to. I hope there's a third act being planned.
Born for Bliss - _Flowing with the Flue_
by: Adrian Bromley (7 out of 10) (DeathWish/NB, July 1997)
On Nuclear Blast's subsidiary label, Deathwish, comes Born for Bliss,
an exciting electronic/extreme/goth rock band. A unique mixture, to
say the least, but it does work for the most part. Images of Sisters
of Mercy and My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult were first to emerge
upon listening to their first few tracks on _Flowing with the Flue_,
but as BfB digs deeper into the extreme sounds and electronic aspects
of what they do, the farther the band moves away from such
comparisons and into their own realm of creation. The music here is
rather tranquil and easy flowing, and much more animated than most
goth/rock pieces, and I liked that. A good variety of song styles
also played a key role in this record keeping my attention. The thing
that I did not like about the band and the material they play (not
all the time, though) was the vocals. They had an irritating, whiny
quality at times, and that did bring down or alter the feel of the
music being played. Not a big deal, but something that at times left
a bad taste in my mouth. Fans of electronic and/or goth rock may want
to check this out.
Clockwork - _Search_ (Independent, 1997)
by: Brian Meloon (6.5 out of 10)
A Philadelphia-based band, these guys just put out this four- song EP
by themselves. They're trying to avoid the typical Dream
Theater-clone sound, and to a large extent, they've succeeded, due
mainly to their vocalist. Instead of the typical progmetal singer
style, he sounds more like Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull). His vocal
lines tend to stay in the lower registers, avoiding the high singing
style which is so common in progmetal today. While Clockwork do have
some musical similarities to Dream Theater, they aren't a clone band:
They have a moderately distinctive sound. The music is varied, with
nice changes in dynamics, some catchy melodies, and even some
robotic-like vocals (like a lower Cynic synth vocal). The production
is a little faded, but it is listenable, and their songs aren't too
dependent upon the production. The playing is good, with some
intricate parts in places, and no obvious flaws. Overall, while this
EP has some good parts to it, and falls outside of the traditional
progmetal mold, I hesitate to recommend it completely. Still, it's a
good release, and shows some potential.
Crematory - _Awake_ (Nuclear Blast, August 1997)
by: Adrian Bromley (7 out of 10)
Much like the works of other Nuclear Blast acts - EverEve (_Seasons_
LP) and Left Hand Solution (_Fevered_ LP) - German quintet Crematory
skillfully mesh together the darkness and eloquence of gothic music
and the sheer intensity of metal. The results are above average.
While following the basic guidelines of most goth/metal albums,
Crematory does manage to break away from the typical dreary ambience
and Dracula-like vocals and bring forth strong harmonies, crushing
riffs, and a truly strong keyboard sound. I personally found more
than 3/4 of this record original or at least fresh with new ideas of
this musical genre. The band's previous LP, _Illusions_, helped
solidify the band as one of the leaders of this genre, and hopefully
_Awake_ will continue to keep them at the forefront. This album
consists of ten songs that really deliver some memorable moments,
heard quite vividly on such tracks as "The Loss" and "Temple of
Love". Sure, goth metallers Type O Negative have the commercial
success, but Crematory have the goods to keep them around a lot
longer if they play their cards right.
Deathwitch - _Dawn of Armageddon_ (Necropolis Records, June 1997)
by: Steve Hoeltzel (6 out of 10)
Lace up those white high-tops and break out the sleeveless denim
vests - it's retro time yet again. This time, our blast from the past
comes to us in the form of the second full-length album from
Deathwitch - or maybe it's Deathwarlock now, given that Af Necrohell
and Lady Death have departed to form their own band, leaving only
Reaper (vocals) and Terror (everything else) to Praise the Old Gods
on this recording. The first Deathwitch CD was a better-than-average
hail to the 80s, and _Dawn of Armageddon_ has some cool moments as
well. Overall, though, it's too formulaic and repetitious to sustain
much listening interest, especially when compared to
retro-competitors like Usurper or Aura Noir. Tracks like "Wrath of
Sathanas" (great song) and "Eternal Fornication" go over well, thanks
to the crusty nastiness of their main riffs and the groovy simplicity
of their structures. But because all the album's songs are
constructed according to a more or less identical formula, the
feeling that you've heard it all before sets in quickly. Yet there is
some enjoyable material here, including some super-primitive demo
tracks featuring wacked vocals that provide welcome variation from
Reaper's standard shriek. The best songs here sound engaging and
authentic, but they're unfortunately surrounded by a lot of less
inspired material on this release.
Deceased - _Fearless Undead Machines_ (Relapse, July 1997)
by: Drew Schinzel (9 out of 10)
This is an -excellent- album. I've never heard any of Deceased's
previous work (besides the few songs at their show, see live review),
but this is just monumental, fantastic material! Combining the
heaviness of old school death metal with some awesome melodic riffs
reminiscent of some Swedes (at least to me), these four Virginians
have put together a concept album based around the concept of the
dead returning back to life and claiming innocent victims (I think
these are called zombies?). Of course, this concept was inspired by
B-movies such as "Dawn of the Dead", "City of the Living Dead", and
"Messiah of Evil", among others listed in the booklet. The brilliant
lyrics, although about an unoriginal topic, convey the terror and
uncertainty of the people portrayed perfectly, and the beautiful
music follows suit, ranging from the harsh death metal that Deceased
has always been known for to slow melodic passages with majestic
solos. All of this organized mayhem is interspersed with narration
courtesy of vocalist/drummer King Fowley, and what I assume are
excerpts from one or more of the above-mentioned movies and others.
At sixty-eight minutes, _Fearless Undead Machines_ is an epic album
full of epic music. The songs here go all over the place, and usually
have all kinds of diverse sections totally different from the rest of
the song. And so it is that, here in 1997, a band that is over ten
years old have released an album which is at once both totally
unexpected and totally awesome.
Demoniac - _Stormblade_ (Evil Omen Records, 1997)
by: Drew Schinzel (9 out of 10)
When looking back at Demoniac's previous album, _Prepare for War_,
you get an image of the trend at the time, namely corpsepaint, "evil"
song titles and music, etc. Fast forward to 1997, and again Demoniac
have hopped on the latest trend, retro-80s metal, of course. Decked
out in bandannas and sunglasses, Demoniac inform us that "Real
Metallers have tattoos and drink lots of piss! And get laid
everyday!!" In that case, I've got some catching up to do on all
three fronts. Demoniac have a strong sense of respect, however, as
they pay dues to "some fuckwit" who took the photos, and the "long-
haired idiot" that did backing vocals. But put aside the shameless
bandwagoning for a second, and just listen to the album, and what you
have is an amazingly strong second effort full of Iron Maiden-esque
riffs and solos, lyrics that are just plain stupid, and some songs
that, if I can just quote the liner notes here, "headbang harder than
anybody." With both a sound and a production reminiscent of decades
past, Demoniac pound out nine songs of somewhat thrashy 80s metal
with a clear and present 90s black metal influence, which is mostly
heard in the raspy vocals. Sometimes the vocals go into "tough guy"
clean mode but, thankfully, that is pretty rare. What's not rare,
however, is the abundance of killer riffs which are a clear indicator
that the band has been listening to _Number of the Beast_ a bit much
of late. These riffs, coupled with the huge amount of guitar solo
cheese and fills are what -really- make this album. If you're not a
fan of flashy solos, then stay away, stay far away. If you're into
that kind of thing, coupled with some totally crushing riffs and
unabashed 80s feel, then this album is sure to satisfy.
Embalmer - _There Was Blood Everywhere_ (Relapse, July 1997)
by: Adam Wasylyk (1 out of 10)
I reviewed the band's 7-inch of the same title awhile back and wasn't
at all impressed by the band's grinding death approach. I don't mind
brutal death metal, but it has to be played exceptionally well (a la
Dying Fetus and Incantation) but on _TWBE_, it just isn't. Basically,
this CD consists of the four 7-inch tracks along with the band's 1993
demo, _Rotting Remains_. If you're a fan of Relapse's Underground
Series, buy Blood Duster instead. Absolutely no interest here, except
for the cover art.
En Nihil - _Blood Dreams_ (Pure, 1997)
by: Andrew Lewandowski (8.5 out of 10)
Rarely have I witnessed such a drastic change from one album to the
next; despite a few moments when evil pervaded, _Death Keeps_,
released earlier this year on Red Stream, was quite soothing, and
almost a cerebral jaunt through a morning sky of fluffy white clouds
in comparison to this monstrosity. From the opening sequence of
_Blood Dreams_, a bellicose bass-heavy bombast blasts through the
speakers, transporting the mortified listener to the center of a
tumultuous storm. A nauseating typhoon of power electronics consumes
the masochistic spectator, oscillating his skull back and forth
through an interminable epoch of unadulterated misery. This time, the
fluffy clouds of tranquillity will inevitably elude you. And this is
only the final ten minutes of the third track! By now, I'm sure that
you, my reader, are pondering a thought or two that traverse these
lines: "Not another noise album! They all sound the same, and if I so
desired to experience repetitive agony, why would I not walk outside
and live instead of listening to music? At least living's free." That
may be true, yet _BD_ is not just another noise album. The subtle
nuances of this work should serve as an impetus to a few whispers of
'ambient,' yet the effrontery of the CD's mastering frequently
obscures such idiosyncrasies. Thus, the CD tends to have a somewhat
homogeneous sound, and never reaches the frenzied apex of the third
track. Even though En Nihil's obvious talent should be utilized in a
more conducive forum, the record label, Pure, makes this a must buy
release. As with all other titles in the Pure catalog, the minimal
packaging of this release (a plain black slip case) results in a
price of $8 for a brand new copy (and three Pure titles can be
purchased for a grand total of only $20!).
Exodus - _Another Lesson in Violence_ (Century Media, July 1997)
by: Adrian Bromley (7 out of 10)
Okay... so they are back and touring once again. With the original
line-up intact (add new bassist Jack Gibson), Bay Area legends Exodus
return to the metal world with a mediocre but still entertaining live
release entitled _Another Lesson in Violence_. The album, recorded in
March at a sold-out show in their hometown of San Francisco, is
comprised of all the material from the classic 1986 debut LP, _Bonded
by Blood_, and some other older material. And how is the recording?
It's okay, but nothing really stunning or earth shattering. It's
great to hear Exodus crank out all the early thrash metal and
actually hear where a lot of today's music spawned from. The original
sound and direction of the band has been preserved over the years,
and the music is still played with passion and played flawlessly.
Sure, this is 'old school' stuff, but a real treat for metal fans who
may not have been around when Exodus was big. Interest in this album
and touring throughout this year should help bring these veterans
back into the limelight. Hopefully 'cause it's been a while since
we've heard thrash metal this raw and this good. C'mon kids, let's
face it: Exodus are classic. That can't be denied.
Fracture - _Killernet_ (Pendragon Records/Mimicry, July 1997)
by: Adrian Bromley (7 out of 10)
Totally out of control techno/industrial-driven music here, lashing
out at us with hard and mesmerizing beats. We are taken through
numerous passages of soundscape ideas and instrumental numbers that
help form a rather addictive groove with each song. At times, the
music seems to be heading towards a NIN/Trent Reznor sound and feel
(it's in the vocals), but the brunt of the music manages to salvage a
good record with its intricate little sounds and tidbits interspersed
throughout the rockin' techno/industrial rhythms. A record that'll
grow on you with every listen, as well as providing you with a
different outlook each time out. My fave part of record? Track #2 at
the 3:20 mark where the woman asks, 'Do you think Jesus would have
used the Internet?' Classic soundbite.
Contact: Pendragon Records, P.O. Box 388, Yardley, PA, 19067, USA
mailto:pendragl@aol.com
The Gathering - _Nighttime Birds_ (Century Media, August 1997)
by: Adam Wasylyk (8 out of 10)
This was my first taste of The Gathering and I must say I was very
impressed with what I heard. Vocalist Anneke van Giersbergen
completely carries this record by enchanting the listener with her
soothing, ethereal vocals (reminding me of a better sounding Bjork).
And the band ain't no slouch either, as their musical backdrop
complements Anneke's vocals perfectly and makes listening to
_Nighttime Birds_ an experience unto itself. Tracks like "On Most
Surfaces" (which particularly reminds me of Bjork), "New Moon
Different Day", and "Kevin's Telescope" were favorites of mine, but
it was hard to pick songs of note since most of the tracks are
'compilation worthy.' With each passing listen, this comes closer to
reaching my top 10 of this year.
Hecate Enthroned - _The Slaughter of Innocence, A Requiem for the
Mighty_
by: Adam Wasylyk (7 out of 10) (Blackened/PHD, June 1997)
Sometimes referred to as a Cradle of Filth clone, I can see why as
the vocals are just too close for comfort. But since the band
contains ex-CoF members, their sound shouldn't be too shocking. With
this in mind, I gave _The Slaughter of Innocence..._ a fair listen
and discovered that it contains some good tunes, despite the
Cradle-ism's. Songs like "Beneath a December Twilight", "Aflame in
the Halls of Blasphemy", and "Christfire" show how close they sound
to Cradle, but also show how well the band can play. Mixing different
speeds with atmospheric keyboards, there's nothing really being added
to the genre but rather, HE play it by the book. Putting aside CoF
parallels, I like _The Slaughter of Innocence..._ as a black metal
record, period. And that's all that really matters.
Helheim - _Av Norron Aett_ (Solstitium Records, June 1997)
by: Adam Wasylyk (7 out of 10)
Not to be confused with the band on Necropolis with the same name,
Helheim construct their black metal into long, epic songs which
demonstrate that this band can write lengthy songs and keep the ideas
flowing. Male and female vocals are utilized along with some acoustic
guitar passages, while keyboards are not used to create atmosphere
but rather the band rely on their guitars to do the job. Bands that
come to mind while hearing _Av Norron Aett_ include a more
melodic/slower Immortal and perhaps Enslaved. Clocking in at just
under an hour, Helheim are a talented band who know how to write long
songs and make them sound good. Hat's off to them.
His Hero Is Gone - _Fifteen Counts of Arson_ (Prank, 1997)
by: Steve Hoeltzel (8 out of 10)
HHIG has been receiving all kinds of adulation from
hardcore/crust/grind enthusiasts. And I can see why, as this is very
powerful and fairly unconventional stuff - albeit not quite the
earth-shattering revelation which all the hype might lead you to
expect. The overall sound (vocal style, guitar amplification, and
production) is of the crushing and crusty metallic variety, while the
compositional style is much more rooted in hardcore and grind: 36
minutes, 24 songs. (Besides the 15 songs referenced in the title,
there are 9 more from, I believe, a self-titled 7-inch release.)
There's plenty of hard-hitting speed and lots of crushing slow
sections - but these fairly conventional elements are skillfully
positioned within unorthodox structures, among walls of mounting
feedback, hammering crescendos, snippets of eerie melody, and more.
Great sequencing, too: each track is brief, but the resulting
multifaceted whole is definitely greater than the sum of its parts.
(Personally, though, I'd dig this more if there were fewer slow parts
and more ripping breaks into fast hardcore riffing.) Think of Brutal
Truth with more engaging guitar stylings, much briefer songs, and a
bit more power-chord gusto, and you've got a pretty good idea of
HHIG. Better yet, imagine Corrosion of Conformity's titanic
_Animosity_ with more inventive songwriting. Incredible production,
too. Eclectic, articulate, and powerful music, all in all.
Iced Earth - _Days of Purgatory_ (Century Media, July 1997)
by: Drew Schinzel (9.5 out of 10)
Yeah! This is what I've been waiting for. Iced Earth have
consistently put out awesome speed metal albums (their last veered
away from that a bit, taking a tad slower approach), and the only
problem throughout the years is that they've changed vocalists with
every album except the last. Finally they found the right singer for
the job, and indeed Matthew Barlow's clean intonations and harsher
screams fit Iced Earth's varied music perfectly. So what better thing
to do than re-do a lot of the older material from the first two
albums with Barlow on vocals and add a few new guitar lines? And
while we're at it, why not add a couple of new songs that were
recorded in the band's early days under the moniker Purgatory? That
said, I can confidently say that what the band's first two releases,
_Iced Earth_ and _Night of the Stormrider_, respectively, lacked in
vocals and production, is quickly remedied on _Days of Purgatory_.
The production is amazingly strong and almost forces you to crank the
volume and bob your head, while the vocal offerings of Barlow are the
same as always: strong and right on the money. Epic tracks such as
"When the Night Falls" and "Travel in Stygian", with their complex
structures, jaw-dropping riffing, and dramatic choruses are better
than ever, and the new songs, "Nightmares" and "Winter Nights", keep
up the tradition. Iced Earth evidently weren't happy with a few of
the vocals and melodies of the original songs, either, as in a couple
of songs, the arrangement is a bit different. Basically, the only
thing keeping _Days of Purgatory_ from receiving a perfect score is
that it's not entirely new material, but as far as Iced Earth goes,
this has got to be as good as it gets because I am totally blown
away. Count me in as one of Iced Earth's biggest fans.
In Battle - _In Battle_ (Napalm Records, July 1997)
by: Steve Hoeltzel (9 out of 10)
These guys are being promoted as one of the fastest black metal acts
ever, and it's obvious from the opening seconds of their debut CD
that they definitely merit that description, and then some.
Comparisons to fellow Swedes Marduk and (especially) Dark Funeral
come to mind instantly, but such comparisons really don't do justice
to In Battle's punchier, more frenetic and technical compositional
style. In contrast to the fairly linear, non-complicated stylings of
their hell-paced peers, In Battle perform complex material loaded
with nearly-constant changes - yet without easing up on the throttle
for more than a few seconds at a time. Fast, fast, fast, and the
hyperactive song structures only heighten the feeling of break-neck
intensity. Imagine an even more frenzied (and better-produced)
version of the second Immortal album, and you begin to approximate In
Battle. Neither catchy nor easily accessible, it's defiantly
strenuous music, forged from an uneasy alliance of harsh black metal
war-mongering and the warped structural sensibilities usually
associated with technical death. Very cool stuff, totally straining
with intensity, but by no means easy listening! The drummer and lead
guitarist from Setherial are participants in this project, and it
shows in the vocals, guitar technique, and really fast, precise
percussion. While some of today's bigger black metal bands are
leaning in mainstream directions, these guys are trying to push the
limits of extremity - and totally succeeding at it. Crazy stuff.
Isvind - _Dark Waters Stir_ (Solstitium Records, 1996)
by: Steve Hoeltzel (9 out of 10)
Totally compelling and totally no-frills, this band easily earns
comparisons to the mighty Darkthrone and, especially, the latest
incarnation of Ulver. It's earnestly impassioned and steadfastly
harsh, with considerable clandestine craftiness and no conspicuous
polish or pageantry. Blindingly fast, technically adept drumming with
great cymbal work underpins an abrasive guitar sound - treble-charged
and highly distorted as usual, but with a bit more metallic ring and
a bit less wooden buzz than much Ulver and Darkthrone stuff. The
riffing technique is basic harsh/fast Norse black metal - no Celtic
Frost-isms, and no two-guitar-line stylings. Vocals are also in the
standard blackened style, and like everything else on this CD,
they're performed well. The mix is fairly rough, but has an overall
openness which contrasts nicely with the more cramped tones of many
rough-production bands. And as with much material of this harsh and
crusty nature, if you let your ears wade deep into the forest of
distortion, you'll encounter some pretty interesting sonic
wildlife... a consistently deadly interplay between intriguing sonic
twists and the insistent, hypnotic iteration of harsh, basic sounds.
Very highly recommended - but only for those willing to listen
closely for the shimmering sonic traces of something elusive,
unrepentant and untamed.
Left Hand Solution - _Fevered_ (Nuclear Blast, July 1997)
by: Adrian Bromley (3 out of 10)
I hate to start off a review like this, but here goes. Zzzzzz...
Okay, the snoring may be a bit too much, but after multiple listens
of the Swedish band's latest release, _Fevered_, I am not interested
in them. Sure, the music delivered by LHS is dark, tormented stylings
of gothic/metal, but it lacks something. The music just doesn't seem
to rise above a certain degree of intensity or keep the listener
interested. Sure, singer Mariana Holmberg has a haunting vocal style
when she sings, but it seems to not connect with the music of the
band. Maybe something within the band hasn't clicked yet (as Holmberg
replaced original singer Kicki Hoijertz), and the band needs one
album and possibly a tour to work it out? I'm being straight to the
point here: This album is missing something. An element of band
exploration and compatibility between singer and her band is almost
non-existent. Better luck next time.
Legenda - _Autumnal_ (Holy Records, 1997)
by: Drew Schinzel (8 out of 10)
As you've probably already heard, Legenda is the new band of Sir
Luttinen, ex of Impaled Nazarene. He and the other Imp Naz guys just
weren't on the same musical wavelength, and it's a good thing
Luttinen left, because it's hard to imagine Impaled Nazarene putting
out the kind of slow-to-mid-paced, synth-enhanced, doomy songs that
Legenda does. True, Impaled Nazarene had "Blood Is Thicker than
Water" on _Suomi Finland Perkele_, and the overall sound of
_Autumnal_ is just like that song, except not quite as
pop-structured, and with a more watery production. Clocking in at a
solid fifty minutes, _Autumnal_ has thirteen songs that are all of
the exact same ilk and all range between three and five minutes in
length (except one that's 5:02). The lyrics, for the most part, deal
with romantic topics such as the seasons (of course), moonlight,
nightfalls, winter nights, and other such things, however the lyrics
once or twice delve into juvenile language and pathetically forced
rhymes ("Bloodred stiletto was the one; I stabbed to her heart and
what for, huh?"). The music is a different story, almost all the
songs have that familiar mid-paced bass-snare rhythm, fused with some
fairly simple guitar riff, and completed by some synth complementing,
but not usually dominating, the other two elements. The vocals are
typically harsh and Luttinen-like, which, strangely enough, fits
quite nicely with the music, at least to this listener's ears. Since
Legenda is on Holy Records, a label with a diverse offering, people
into their other acts (regardless of who they are) will probably want
to take notice of the band, and I can even see some doom people going
for _Autumnal_. Either way, it's an album that deserves to be heard,
for sure.
Marduk - _Live in Germania_ (Osmose Productions, June 1997)
by: Steve Hoeltzel (8 out of 10)
The idea of black metal concert albums seems sort of weird to me,
given black metal's supposedly clandestine and anti-social spirit.
Thus, I was a little bit dubious about _Live in Germania_ before I
actually listened to it. But now, I must say, I'm highly impressed by
this. For one thing, the performances and production are both totally
solid. The band blasts and thunders skillfully through just under an
hour's worth of material, and the recording strikes a nice balance of
clarity, power, and tangible live electricity. The song selection
covers a good mix of new and old material, and it's especially cool
to hear great old songs like "Wolves" and "On Darkened Wings"
injected with extra on-stage intensity. ("Wolves" simply kills.) They
even perform "The Black Goat..." from their notorious demo. In
addition to these tracks, there are three songs from _Opus Nocturne_
and five from _Heaven Shall Burn_, while a cover of the Destruction
classic "Total Desaster" closes out the album with a blast of pure,
ass-kicking energy. The songs are nicely sequenced, too, with slower
numbers like "Materialized in Stone" and "Draculi Va Domni..."
providing contrast with the more hell-paced stuff. They may not be
one of the most innovative bands in the black metal scene, but as
this worthy recording demonstrates yet again, Marduk is definitely
one of the most unrelentingly intense. Impressive.
Red Tide - _Vicious Circle_ (Independent, 1997)
by: Brian Meloon (7 out of 10)
Since I received this advance cassette, their forthcoming CD has
undergone a name change (to _Themes of the Cosmic Consciousness_),
been delayed until September, 1997, and will be released
independently, due to problems with their label's management. The
track listing may change somewhat as well, but I'll go ahead and
review this anyway, since I'm only missing a track or two at most.
Their latest offering consists of three tracks off of _Hybrid_ (see
CoC #21), and some new tracks. Their sound hasn't changed radically
from their last demo, but the newer songs are heavier, more
aggressive, and more straightforward than their previous ones. That's
not totally unexpected, given the changes in their style from
_Expressions_ (see CoC #3) to _Hybrid_. Each of the new songs
contains a jazz break, a technique which they use frequently. The new
songs also show more typical hardcore vocal traits (including some
clean vocals that sound eerily like the guy from Life of Agony) as
well as some more typical metal traits, such as slow, plodding, heavy
death metal parts, and straightahead thrash riffs. Overall, I find
this release enjoyable, but my main complaint still focuses on the
guitar solos, which still seem to meander a bit too much. Fans of
their previous material should definitely pick this up.
Contact: Red Tide, P.O. Box 1434, Avon, CT, 06001, USA
mailto:RTideMGT@aol.com or mailto:jwu@uhavax.hartford.edu
Skinlab - _Bound, Gagged and Blindfolded_
by: Adrian Bromley (7 out of 10) (Century Media, July 1997)
What a fuckin' spitting image of fellow Bay Area band Machine Head.
Right from the mold. This is the same fuckin' band. Same style of
music and everything. The whole shebang! From opening number "When
Pain Comes to Surface" on through hard-hitters like "Down", "Race to
Hate", or "The Art of Suffering", Skinlab carry out all the same
maneuvers, sounds, and stylings of Machine Head. I kid you not. You'd
swear this was Robb Flynn and the MH boys cranking out the tunes. I
wouldn't call this a rip-off, but... well... maybe I would? But with
all this ranting and raving about copying Machine Head, I just admit
this is good. Solid songs, rounded out by aggressive overtones makes
_BG&G_ worth a loud listen - even if it sounds like... well... y'know
who.
Sundown - _Design 19_ (Century Media, July 1997)
by: Adrian Bromley (5 out of 10)
It would only seem fitting that after such a brilliant end to his
career with the now defunct Cemetary (both _Sundown_ and _Last
Confessions_ LPs) that singer/lyricist/guitarist Mathias Lodmalm
would have some creative energy still in the waiting. Well, with the
leap to another label (from Black Mark to Century Media) and a name
change (to Sundown), along the way the creativity seems to have been
dealt at half-throttle. It would seem that more attention in getting
a record out as fast as possible was more on the drawing board than
generating substance in the music. Not only is _Design 19_ a boring,
below standard record, there are but a few songs that I can honestly
say impressed me - the ones to note are: "19", "Voyager", and "Don't
Like to Live Today". I haven't written this band off yet, as Lodmalm
is a talented artist/musician who helped sculpt the sounds of
Cemetary over numerous releases. I've got mixed feelings about this
one, but waiting to deliver my final verdict on Sundown, come album
number two.
Swordmaster - _Postmortem Tales_ (Osmose Records, June 1997)
by: Adam Wasylyk (7 out of 10)
Another retro band to find itself onto Europe's biggest black metal
label, Swordmaster are the sort of retro band that I like: brash,
hard and uncompromising! Unlike labelmates Inferno or Bewitched who
cater to a more traditional heavy metal sound, Swordmaster's
thrash/speed metal conjure up moments of classic thrash bands long
forgotten. Tearing through songs like "Crush to Death", "Clans of
Death", and the title track, the production is impeccable due to the
skills of King Diamond's Andy La Rocque at the soundboard. What I
especially liked is that the music isn't totally retro, that there's
a very strong 90s presence intertwined with the more dated material.
A retro album worth looking for.
Symphony X - _The Divine Wings of Tragedy_ (Inside Out, 1997)
by: Brian Meloon (8 out of 10)
As a one-line description of this album, I'll offer: "Nevermore plays
Dream Theater with touches of Malmsteen." If that hasn't scared you
off yet, I'll elaborate: The general tone is standard progressive
metal, with some long compositions, some standard song structures,
and numerous neo-classical sections. The music is comparable in
heaviness to Nevermore, with medium-fast music and melodic singing.
The longer songs show some obvious Dream Theater influences, both in
style and arrangements, most notably the nearly 21-minute title
track. As with their previous album, _The Damnation Game_, there are
a number of obvious nods to Malmsteen's (entire) career, including a
vocal melody that was lifted from "Don't Let It End" (from _Marching
Out_). There are even a few choral parts, which are reminiscent of
Queen, yet work surprisingly well in their contexts. The production
is good: slightly raw, but clear and powerful. The musicianship is
good all around. The drums and bass are solid, the keyboards are
mostly non-intrusive and appropriate, and the guitar work is great.
There are also a lot of solos, both keyboard and guitar, often
trading off in true Rising Force style. Unfortunately, while Michael
Romeo is an excellent guitar player, he's only an average soloist,
and many of his solos don't blend in smoothly with the rest of the
song. The keyboard solos are usually impressive and appropriate,
though. The vocals are excellent: The singer has a solid voice, and
an excellent range, sounding at times like Dio (singing for Sabbath),
and at others softer and more typical progmetal-like. Overall, this
is a fine release, somewhat lacking in originality, but more than
adequate in diversity and technical ability.
Theory in Practice - _Third Eye Function_ (Pulverised, 1997)
by: Brian Meloon (7.5 out of 10)
While the phrase "Meshuggah clone" might seem a little bit harsh to
describe these guys, I think it's pretty close to the mark. While
their overall sound is modern thrash, the Meshuggah references are
often and blatant. They occasionally use keyboards, and acoustic
guitar under the distorted guitars in places, but their sound doesn't
vary a lot from their thrash roots. The music is often very
technical, perhaps even more so than Meshuggah, but the complexities
aren't usually flashy or based upon radical style shifts. Rather, the
technicality is buried in a coherent sound, so that you really have
to pay attention to the music in order to pick up on them. The
musicianship is great: The band is very tight, and stay together well
through the myriad of time changes the songs go through. The
production is powerful and clear. My only real complaint with this
album is its complete lack of originality. Even the guitar solos are
completely derivative, with the guitarist usually copping Malmsteen's
style (right down to his phrasing and bends), but also including a
very Thordendal-esque solo in one of the songs. This is a good effort
and is recommended for fans of technical metal (especially fans of
Meshuggah), but they really need to pursue a more original approach.
Therion - _A' Arab Zaraq Lucid Dreaming_ (Nuclear Blast, July 1997)
by: Adam Wasylyk (7 out of 10)
Last year, Therion created what would turn out to be one of my
favorite records of 1996: _Theli_. An amazing record, its symphonic
beauty and metal aggression melded beautifully and left quite an
impression on me. Just recently released, _A' Arab Zaraq Lucid
Dreaming_ celebrates Therion's 10th year in existence (quite a feat
in itself) with a mish-mash of musical material, from cover tunes to
unreleased material to a soundtrack that Christofer (Johnsson,
guitars/vocals) did for a Swedish movie. Therion pays tribute (with
mixed results) to the Scorpions ("Fly to the Rainbow"), Iron Maiden
("Children of the Damned"), Running Wild ("Under Jolly Roger") and
Judas Priest ("Here Come the Tears") while re-recording an older
track and putting out some previously unreleased material. Closing
out the album are seven tracks that Christofer recorded for the
Swedish movie, with Therion as a band playing four covers of those
seven tracks (by just adding drums, guitar, and bass). This release
also marks (celebrity?) appearances by Dan Swano (Edge of Sanity),
Tobbe Sidegard (Necrophobic), and Pete Tagtgren (of Hypocrisy, and
whom also produced the record). To sum it up: the band covers were
hit and miss, the Therion soundtrack covers were amazing while the
actual soundtrack music was pretty good as well. Overall, a fitting
tribute to a band worthy of one.
... The Soil Bleeds Black - _March of the Infidels_
by: Steve Hoeltzel (7 out of 10) (Draenor Productions, July 1997)
This is medieval-inspired, synthesizer-based folk-ambient constructed
with musical flair and good attention to the ambient details. Parts
of it might come across as slightly corny at first, but repeated
listens reveal lots of interesting goings-on - all in all, a very
successful conjuration of some quite intriguing atmospheres. Synth is
the focal instrument, employed to perform medieval-sounding themes,
fanfares, melodies, and so on, usually to the accompaniment of mildly
militant percussion, plus sampled dialogue and sound effects
(including some cool-sounding medieval battles, as in the excellent
"We Wave Our Flags in Triumph"). Imagine a more sprightly version of
Summoning's music - minus the guitars and plus a bit of Mortiis feel,
mixed with all manner of ambient elements. Vocals are featured on
some tracks, and while they don't do anything to hinder enjoyment of
the material, there is definite room for improvement in this area.
(The singing on "Our Flames Have Never Died" works well, though.)
Also, some of the bits of sampled dialogue have a kind of cheesy,
made-for-TV-movie feel to them. Still, on the whole, I find this
surprisingly engaging and enjoyable. Suggested listening for the
medievally-inclined.
U.P. - _Mindfailure_ (Amarok, 1997)
by: Brian Meloon (6.5 out of 10)
U.P. (formerly Unleashed Power) have returned with a new lineup, and
an updated style. While this album shares a lot of similarities with
their previous release, _Quintet of Spheres_, it also has some
differences. The most prominent is that their new vocalist,
unfortunately, sounds a lot like Phil Anselmo. That's too bad,
because while their songs are more intricate and involved than
anything Pantera has done, they now sound even more like Pantera.
However, their vocalist does show a good range, switching between
growls and a more melodic style as the music changes. The songs are
quite long, with several over the eight-minute mark, and yet remain
relatively consistent, withough many radical time or tempo changes.
This makes the songs seem a little too long for their own good to me.
The production is fine, and the playing is good on all counts, but
the guitar solos don't really impress me, especially the tone of the
"Nefarious" guitar solo. This is a solid release, but it really
doesn't have much (other than the song lengths) to distance it from a
lot of other stuff out there.
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/ \/ / _ \ \ /\ / / / \/ / _ \| / __|/ _ \
/ /\ / __/\ 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
Acrobats of Apocalypse - _Acrobats of Apocalypse_ (15-track demo)
by: Adrian Bromley (**---)
Probably the oddest assortment of numbers that the 'madman' Bill
Sannwald has taken upon himself to fit on one tape. As I have said
before, a lot of his material is fucked up and weird - this is the
weirdest it has been. Unbearable at times thanks in part to raunchy
and totally annoying fuzzo-distorted sound and samples, AoA hits the
nerves in all the right places to annoy. Some stuff here is
salvageable, but for the most part, it's all a wish-wash of numerous
artists and friends lending their talent (or is that just noise?) to
the project. Okay at times, but I'd stick with some of his other more
versatile and interesting projects, i.e. Thought Masticator or the
truly powerful and brilliant Amish Mafia demo. That rules hands down.
Contact: Bill Sannwald, 3538 Paseo Salamoner, La Mesa, CA, 91941, USA
mailto:satan666@ucsd.edu
As Night Fades/FHNE - _Sounds for Another Universe_
by: Adrian Bromley (****- / ***--) (9-track/1-track demo)
Ahhh... the ambient ways of Sannwald and his two projects, As Night
Fades and Family Harsh Noise Experimentation: both bands take us on
an experimental journey of the mind and psyche, pushing us to the
limit of where we can go with our mind. Two worlds exist here, on
this demo: a world of ambience, sensitivity, and uniqueness (ANF),
and a world of power, aggression, and the continuous exploration of
loudness (FHNE). This is the stuff that I like to hear from Sannwald.
Just creativity assembled into huge heapages of noise, both soft and
hard, for us to sift through. Sannwald's endeavours and hard work
with both of these projects seems to be heading into a more
controlled and more real feel to it. The noises and ambient sounds
here leap out at you and leave you riddled with holes in your
eardrums, too. Every listen leaves the listener with something new to
observe and hear. Gotta love Sannwald's efforts here, as both sides
of this split demo have a lot to offer for noise/ambient fans.
Contact: Bill Sannwald, 3538 Paseo Salamoner, La Mesa, CA, 91941, USA
mailto:satan666@ucsd.edu
Ledel - _The New Case_ (4-track demo)
by: Brian Meloon (*****)
While these guys may not be primarily a metal band, their music does
contain enough metal to admit their inclusion in these digitized
pages. This is an instrumental demo from a five-piece with two
guitarists, a bassist, a drummer, and a percussionist. They don't use
keyboards, but they do an excellent job of creating similar effects
via the use of guitar signal processors. The music is very diverse,
from dissonant heavy stuff (a la Voivod), to atmospheric sections, to
jazzy sections (a la Endaymynion, Candiria, Cynic), to quirky/goofy
riffs (a la Lethargy), to intricate, technical thrash. The songs are
in free-form structure, with some repeated parts, but mostly through
composed. Some of the transitions between sections are a little less
than smooth, but most of the time, they are excellent. The music is
often very dense, with technical, busy playing (especially the
interplay between their drummer and percussionist), and/or layered
rhythmic and melodic ideas. The playing is great from all involved,
and other than the funky 70s guitar tone in "Landscape", the tones
are fine. The production is great as well, with all of the
instruments coming through clearly and distinctly. This is an
impressive offering from a band with a unique vision of what they
want to sound like and the courage and knowledge to create it. I
highly recommand that fans of technical, and unique jazzy stuff check
this out.
Contact: Marco Gerardi, Via Fondamenta, 12, 30031 Dolo (VE), ITALY
mailto:puppet@dei.unipd.it (Luca Tiengo) or
mailto:slayer@dei.unipd.it (Maurizio Scavazzon)
Requiem - _Our Only Hope Is Death_ (15-track demo)
by: Adrian Bromley (*----)
Ugh! What is this booming from my CD player? Man, I was left with a
headache. Not at all interested or into the music of Requiem.
Supported heavily by lackluster song arrangements and styles (vocals
are boring too), this death/grind-ish trio lets loose some pretty
mediocre if not lower than standard music on this 15-track outing
(tracks 10-15 taken from their 1996 _A Brief Moment in Death_ EP). I
was really eager to turn this off, but like the trooper that I am, I
sat through the remainder of the material. Did I mention the
production is horrible, too? Well, it is. Okay, so the record has
some cool ambient/keyboard parts (as heard on "The New Covenant") but
other than that, there is little hope that I will ever put this on
again. I need an Advil.
Contact: REQUIEM, P.O. Box 560971, Miami, FL, 33256-0971, USA
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\ \ \L\ \/\ \L\ \/\ \/\ \/\ \__//\ __/\ \ \/ \ \ \_/\__, `\
\ \____/\ \____/\ \_\ \_\ \____\ \____\\ \_\ \ \__\/\____/
\/___/ \/___/ \/_/\/_/\/____/\/____/ \/_/ \/__/\/___/
P O R T O ' S O W N M E T A L F E S T ?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Scorpions, Megadeth, Moonspell, Cradle of Filth, and Anger
At the "Imperial Ao Vivo" Open Air Festival,
Porto, Portugal, July 4, 1997
by: Pedro Azevedo
Three nights of music in Porto, each one supposedly dedicated to a
different musical style. First night, Smashing Pumpkins, Beck, and a
few others. Second, Scorpions headlining, plus Megadeth, Moonspell,
Cradle of Filth, and Anger. Third and last, Prodigy's turn with
Fluke. I -literally- couldn't care less about days 1 and 3, so this
is all about the second day. The concert was supposed to start with
Anger at 20:00, in front of a crowd estimated around 10 000 people.
It's an open air show, just beside a river called Douro, really large
stage and all. Just as I arrived there, Anger started playing...
19:40. The crowd was baffled, of course, but hey, no delays this
time. The schedule was very tight, as the show had to be over
relatively early because it was being held in an urban area. Anger
are a debuting band from Aveiro, Portugal, and their style is easily
defined as strongly influenced by Pantera. Their sound was clean,
strong, and effective. They played well, but didn't really do
anything remarkable. Then, after a 30-minute break for equipment
changes and stuff... Cradle of Filth. Guess what, this time, they did
play! Dani even apologized for what happened before, blaming it on
the promoter again. They entered the stage amidst a smokescreen, all
six wearing corpsepaint and some of them blood, all dressed in black.
A rather strong presence. CoF turned out to be easily the best band
of the evening, due to the power of their live sound (okay, and three
great albums to back them up, too). Lots of CoF fans going totally
crazy, of course, as they teared into the start of "To Eve the Art of
Witchcraft". They followed with the classic "The Forest Whispers My
Name", then "Malice Through the Looking Glass", "Dusk and Her
Embrace", "Nocturnal Supremacy", "Ebony Dressed for Sunset", and (a
nice surprise for me) "The Black Goddess Rises". Like I mentioned,
their sound was very powerful, from the guitars, to the great
drumming, to Dani's voice. However, the keyboards (new keyboardist,
by the way) were mixed too low (they didn't even play the keyboard
intro to "The Forest Whispers My Name", what a shame) and the
guitarists were much more interested in shredding than in doing good
melodic work or keeping those riffs clear. Dani's vocal performance
was nothing short of great, from his most high-pitched screams to
awesome extremely deep grunts. However, I was heavily disappointed by
the absence of a female backing vocalist. They were supposed to be
using one, as far as I knew. Thus, they didn't play "Queen of Winter,
Throned" (dammit) and some of the other tracks had Dani doing some of
the female vox parts himself, sounding weird, of course (almost
ruined "The Black Goddess Rises"). They also played Slayer's "Hell
Awaits" as an encore. Overall, one brutally great unleashing of rage
and a brilliant concert, despite the melody problems. Moonspell were
supposed to be next, but they swapped with Scorpions (who tried to
quit the show, by the way), so I went to attend some personal matters
during their performance. There was a larger amount of people
enjoying their music than I expected. They played all their classics
(<yawn>), but like I said, I was nowhere near the stage at that time.
The only thing that actually caught my attention was their drummer,
who really shows off a -lot-, doing some circus-like stuff while
playing. The Scorpions played a long set (<yaaaaawn>), so the whole
thing was more than behind schedule already. Next up were Megadeth. I
hadn't heard their latest album yet, and even though they were one of
my first favourite metal bands, I hadn't listened to anything of
theirs for ages. They played very well, both older and newer songs,
and the crowd reacted quite remarkably. However there was something
about their sound. In one word, it was -bad-. In two words, -very
bad-. Too bad to be true, I'd say. The instruments were all much too
loud, and the guitars were unbelievably screechy, lots of noise, all
too high-pitched. The guitar solos were ruined. It was physically
painful. Some people actually had to step back and get far from the
stage because of this. Personally, I endured it, but almost didn't
enjoy it at all. Of what I could enjoy, "Sweating Bullets" from
_Countdown to Extinction_ was my favourite song. Megadeth had to rush
it, playing song after song almost non-stop, and they didn't even do
an encore due to the schedule trouble I mentioned before. After
another long break, late night already, Portuguese famous band
Moonspell entered the stage. Unfortunately, not all was good. They
opened with "Opium" and "Awaken", and the crowd loved it. Good stuff,
pretty well played. However, Moonspell have changed bassist, and
literally dropped a guitarist - they're a five piece band now, or at
least they were in the concert. What a bad move. As the show
proceeded, it became clear that the guitar sound was almost
impossible to hear at times; still, they switched to their brilliant
debut, _Wolfheart_, for "Midnight Ride", then back to _Irreligious_
for "Herr Spiegelmann". Then they played a new track... not much to
be said, seemed sort of average, no clear style changes visible in
that particular track. Next song was "Raven Claws" (sampled female
voice, always lots of samples), and then... a Depeche Mode cover.
Ack. Some of the crowd booed them. In my opinion, the song was
worthless for a band like Moonspell. On to "Ruin & Misery", and then
the big moment, their classic crowd-pleaser "Vampiria". Being a very
keyboard-based song, it turned out pretty well, even though the
harsher parts weren't so, er, harsh live. Most of the crowd joined in
the lyrics, as in some other parts before. They -had- to play an
encore, even though it was all way behind schedule, and vocalist
Fernando Ribeiro (very good performance of his) came back to the
stage with a Portuguese flag to sing Moonspell's tribute to Portugal,
"Alma Mater"... my favourite Moonspell song. I had to think, hey,
what a great way to finish this concert. Er, right. The problem is
that "Alma Mater" needs guitar sound, and it just wasn't there. I
mean, the guitar sound just wasn't there and the guitarist didn't
even seem to be trying it too hard. What could be heard of the melody
came from the keyboards. Fortunately, though, a big part of the
audience sang (screamed, growled, grunted, whatever) along,
especially to the chorus. The dust finally settled at 03:00. Seven
hours and twenty minutes total. One very big concert, some good
moments and some disappointing ones. I'll want to see who's coming
next year. Hopefully, this will become Porto's own metalfest.
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B E T T E R L A T E T H A N N E V E R
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Deceased with Black Army Jacket and DeathKids
At CBGB's in New York City, July 23, 1997
by Drew Schinzel
Driving up to New York City with my friend Marc, we both knew the bad
news: Hypocrisy, the headlining band, was not playing tonight. For
whatever reason, the Swedes were still in Florida with labelmates
Brutality, so they wouldn't be showing up for their date with the
CBGB crowd. We also knew that Deceased, the other big draw for the
night, had not left their hometown in Virginia until 4 PM that
afternoon, and would be lucky to even play at all. With this in mind,
when Marc and I got to the venue, we checked the playlist to see who
the promoters thought would show up, and lo and behold, Deceased were
listed in the 10:15 slot. No way. The trip from Virginia to New York
City is a long one, and the band weren't to arrive until quarter
after midnight. But more on that later. In the meantime, the sparse
crowd at CBGB's was "treated" to pre-pubescent novelty act,
DeathKids. For those not in the know, allow me to fill you in.
DeathKids is a trio, with DeathKid1 on drums, DeathKid2 on vocals,
and DeathFather (yes, their father) on bass. What the hell? Needless
to say, DeathKids need a DeathMusicLesson, because the talent they
possess on their instruments is so little as to be pathetic. Even
their dad can hardly play bass without missing notes. If the band had
shown some originality, a lack of skill at their age could be
forgiven, but forget it; the band is so derivative of virtually all
American death metal bands, it is not even funny, and their musical
feebleness is only downplayed by the fact that the kid vocalist can
actually do a decent death vocal. But, really, who -can't- scream
their guts out for a 20-minute set? OK, sure they can't play their
instruments worth a damned, and maybe they have no creativity
whatsoever, but they at least jumped around on stage a bit, right?
Forget it. Standing like statues, DeathKids and DeathDad played
through their set hardly moving an inch and showing no stage presence
at all. But who can blame them? I mean, when you're an eleven-year
old singing at a metal show full of older people, some of whom are
probably drunk, what are you going to say, "Don't beat me up?" Next
up was Black Army Jacket, a rather lame hardcore band whose only
claim to fame is that they have Dave Witte, ex-drummer of Human
Remains, and a spectacular skinsman. Other than that, BAJ are nothing
special. Never into hardcore, anyway, I took little interest in their
set, except to note that it was weird that a band whose music style I
wasn't into at all still thrashed all over DeathKids. Then the wait
began. Black Army Jacket finished their set at around ten o'clock,
and as mentioned, the promoters had Deceased scheduled for a 10:15
appearance, and there waking at the photos either, since now they've
rid themselves of that cumbersome corpsepaint and have an affinity
for showing the single-finger peace sign. Mind you, this isn't the "I
will rape your dog and desecrate your soul" middle finger we saw on
the MCD, it's more of a "Heavy Metal rules and we're pretty mean!"
salute this time around. The music, obviously, shows this change of
attitude as well. Songs like "Past Redemption", "Crush to Dust", and
the title track prove that the band has a great talent for writing
malicious cuts of blackened thrash that never pause for an acoustic
interlude or female vocals (though one or two of the cool explosions
from the MCD would've been kind of nice), and certainly show that the
band took much inspiration from 80s elders such as Slayer, Sodom, and
Kreator. All of this thrash riffing and song structure is nice, but
the songs tend to get a bit samey after awhile, and for the most part
all follow the same formula. This caveat can be overlooked, however,
because what the songs lack in diversity they make up for in sheer
attitude and conviction, in addition to the fact that the formula is
-good-. If modern 90s thrash if what you're after, look no further.
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T H E D I V I N E D R A G O N ' S D A R K F L A M E S
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Blood Divine, Dark Tranquillity, In Flames
At the "With A Dragon's Blaze" Open Air Festival,
Beveren-Leie, Belgium, July 11th & 12th, 1997
by: Kurt Demeulemeester
Third edition of the "With A Dragon's Blaze" Open Air Festival,
with excellent weather once again. The show was held at Beveren-Leie
(7 kilometers from where I live), in Belgium, and organized by
ex-Caducity guitarist Steven Suys ("With A Dragon's Blaze on Their
Banners" is the title of a Caducity song). It's a small underground
festival with a very relaxed, enjoyable atmosphere, and every band
who has played here really loved it.
Day 1 opened with Catafalque, a very promising Belgian death
band. Next, SwordMaster, who replaced Marduk (didn't show up), but I
can't say much about them (drinking beer at that time). Luciferion
were probably the best band on Friday. Despite their black-metal-ish
band name, they play ultra-fast, very heavy death metal with some
black influences. The crowd loved it and was very enthusiastic. For
me, this was my first acquaintance with the band and it was a
pleasant surprise. Afterwards, I had a long chat with
vocalist/guitarist Voitek who was surprised by the success of his
band because they hadn't practiced for almost a year. Voitek is
someone with his roots in old-school thrash metal and death, adoring
heroes like Benediction, Morbid Angel, and especially Manowar. Yet
Luciferion's music is different from those bands. The last two songs
of their live set featured the Behemoth vocalist (don't know his
name, though) who actually set the crowd on fire, but I must say I
prefer Voitek's death grunt instead. Some news from Voitek for the
Morbid Angel fans among us: the band is recording a new album
nowadays in Florida and it should be the fastest stuff we've ever
heard. Voitek: "This guy Pete Sandoval is really crazy, you know."
Finishing the first day, In Flames. This was their first appearance
in Belgium, and they enjoyed it so much, we'll certainly see them
back soon (I hope). The band played very tightly, and the atmosphere
on stage was great. Only one major drawback: they played only 9
songs, way too short for a band like this (bummer).
I didn't see Saturday's openers, The Undertakers, or the second
band, Iconoclasm; however, I did see Iconoclasm a few times before:
extreme black metal, but not very unique, unfortunately. Next were
In-Quest. How would I describe this band? Grindcore/death with some
hardcore influences, perhaps. A typical "love them or hate them"
band. The music's okay but lacks variation, in my opinion. Orange
Goblin showed up next. This English band was a surprise and a relief
at the same time after In-Quest's musical brutality. Orange Goblin
are a fine band that sound a bit like Cathedral, but with better
vocals; old-style, very exciting metal with some Black Sabbath and
Trouble covers. The perfect band for a sunny day in the grass!
Enthroned were next on stage, and although this band has become one
of Belgium's most popular black metal bands known abroad, for once
I'm ashamed of my country. Just like last year, Enthroned earned the
title of "worst band of the festival," because of the annoying vocals
and lack of originality. The fact that the band continued without any
hesitation after their drummer's suicide makes me believe they're
only there for the money or something (but many people will probably
disagree with me). Moving on to Electric Wizard: I thought this was
going to be an excellent doom band, but how wrong was I. Some songs
contain good doomy elements, but that's all I have to say. EW was a
disappointment. Caducity were next, and although still very
underground, this is one of the best Belgian metal bands according to
many people (including myself). The band plays very technical
death/thrash with ultra-heavy death grunts, and is certainly more
than original. Everyone knows their live performances are at least
twice as intense and heavy as their studio albums that need some
better production. A very underestimated band that should earn
worldwide recognition. Albums: _The Wellaion Wielder Quest_ and
_Whirler of Fate_. The Blood Divine turned out to be the best band of
the festival, in my opinion. As you probably know, the band has
recorded a new album called _Mystica_ [out September 29th, according
to Peaceville -- Pedro]. Before the show, I had a little chat with
drummer, Was, who explained that the new album will be more open and
"commercial" (his own words). Let me explain that: their new songs
have no doom feeling anymore, but they are quite fast and heavy,
though there might be a huge difference between the live set and the
CD, I don't know. Anyway, the band is still very down to earth, very
friendly guys, too (especially Darren), and they really enjoyed
playing here. At the end of the set, a huge crowd, including myself
jumped on stage for a final moshpit (what, at a TBD gig?), where I
could pick up the scrap of paper with the setlist: "Enhanced by Your
Touch", "So Serene", "I Believe", "Moonlight Adorns", "Aureole",
"Mystica", "As Rapture Fades", "Heart of Ebony", "Visions in Blue",
"The Lonely World", and a crazy encore. Last band, Dark Tranquillity:
During the first half hour, their sound was a bit lousy, so I had
trouble getting hooked. The crowd and the band were both very
enthusiastic, especially during their oldest and fastest songs, which
are the best, in my opinion. Unlike In Flames, Dark Tranquillity
played a very long set of almost two hours (including encores). Two
weird and very funny things happened during their show: First, in the
middle of some song, three guys jumped on stage, grabbing the
vocalist and starting something that looked like a fight at first.
The crowd suddenly was silent and we heard him scream "help, someone
is raping me! <laughs>" Apparently, it was a few In Flames members
who had wrapped him in adhesive tape like a sausage and threw the
poor guy in the moshpit below! After quite some crowdsurfing, he
managed to get on stage again where it took him three songs to get
rid of all that tape. And the other funny note: Ten minutes after the
final encore, while half of the audience was already on their way
home, suddenly we hear "Because Dark Tranquillity sucks, here's
something better!" through the speakers. It was In Flames again: They
borrowed DT's equipment and played another two songs! Obviously, IF
and DT get along extremely well (both are Swedish bands) and have
enjoyed themselves like hell that weekend; they even played football
[Soccer for the Americans -- Pedro] together in the afternoon.
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W H A T W E H A V E C R A N K E D ! ! !
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Top Ten Albums of Past Year Special Edition
Gino's Top 10
1. Inner Thought - _Perspectives_
2. Blood Duster - _Yeest_
3. Korn - _Life Is Peachy_
4. Filthboy - _Diverse Reality_
5. Fear Factory - _Remanufacture: Cloning Technology_
6. Proscriptor - _The Venus Bellona_
7. Exit-13 - _Smoking Songs_
8. Samael - _Passage_
9. Cradle of Filth - _Dusk and Her Embrace_
10. Napalm Death - _Inside the Torn Apart_
Adrian's Top 10
1. Hanzel Und Gretyl - _Transmissions From Uranus_
2. Strapping Young Lad - _City_
3. Stuck Mojo - _Pigwalk_
4. Geezer - _Black Science_
5. Slo Burn - _Amusing The Amazing_ EP
6. Vision of Disorder - _Vision of Disorder_
7. Pain - _Pain_
8. Acid Bath - _Paegan Terrorism Tactics_
9. Napalm Death - _Inside The Torn Apart_
10. Lake of Tears - _A Crimson Cosmos_
Brian's Top 10
1. Spastic Ink - _Ink Complete_
2. Lethargy - _It's Hard to Write With a Little Hand_
3. Abigor - _Opus IV_
4. Ledel - _The New Case_
5. Symphony X - _The Divine Wings of Tragedy_
6. Theory in Practice - _Third Eye Function_
7. Quo Vadis - _Forever..._
8. Enthroned _Gothic Disturbance_
9. Cradle of Filth _Dusk and Her Embrace_
10. Within _Bliss_
Alain's Top 10
1. Cryptopsy - _None So Vile_
2. Obliveon - _Cybervoid_
3. Korpse - _Revirgin_
4. Vader - _De Profundis_
5. Blood of Christ - _... a dream to remember_
6. Samael - _Passage_
7. Monstrosity - _Millennium_
8. Iced Earth - _The Dark Saga_
9. Moonspell - _Irreligious_
10. Quo Vadis - _Forever..._
Steve's Top 10
1. Absu - _The Third Storm of Cyhtraul_
2. Sort Vokter - _Folkloric Necro Metal_
3. Angel Corpse - _Hammer of Gods_
4. Morgul - _Lost in Shadows Grey_
5. Isvind - _Dark Waters Stir_
6. Summoning - _Dol Guldur_
7. Abigor - _Opus IV_
8. Darkthrone - Under a Funeral Moon_
9. Damnation - _Rebel Souls_
10. Old Man's Child - _Born of the Flickering_
Adam's Top 10
1. My Dying Bride - _Like Gods of the Sun_
2. Emperor - _Anthems to the Welken at Dusk_
3. Therion - _Theli_
4. Dimmu Borgir - _Enthrone Darkness Triumphant_
5. Avernus - _Of the Falling_
6. Proscriptor - _The Venus Bellona_
7. Samael -_ Passage_
8. Exit-13 - _Smoking Songs_
9. Incantation - _The Forsaken Mourning of Angelic Anguish_
10. Immortal - _Blizzard Beasts_
Drew's Top 10
1. HammerFall - _Glory to the Brave_
2. Dark Tranquillity - _The Mind's I_
3. Iced Earth - _Days of Purgatory_
4. Gates of Ishtar - _The Dawn of Flames_
5. In Flames - _The Jester Race_
6. Limbonic Art - _Moon in the Scorpio_
7. Kalisia - _Skies_
8. Demoniac - _Stormblade_
9. Swordmaster - _Postmortem Tales_
10. Deceased - _Fearless Undead Machines_
Pedro's Top 10
1. Dark Tranquillity - _The Mind's I_
2. The Blood Divine - _Awaken_
3. My Dying Bride - _Like Gods of the Sun_
4. Dimmu Borgir - _Enthrone Darkness Triumphant_
5. Opeth - _Morningrise_
6. Theatre of Tragedy - _Velvet Darkness They Fear_
7. Emperor - _Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk_
8. Cradle of Filth - _Dusk And Her Embrace_
9. Within Temptation - _Enter_
10. The Gathering - _Nighttime Birds_
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Check out our homepage: http://www.interlog.com/~ginof/coc.html
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CHRONICLES OF CHAOS
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Downsview Ont.
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FTP: ftp://ftp.etext.org/pub/Zines/ChroniclesOfChaos
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'
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End Chronicles of Chaos, Issue #23
All contents copyright 1997 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.