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CHRONICLES OF CHAOS e-Zine, February 5, 1998, Issue #28
http://www.interlog.com/~ginof/coc.html
Editor-in-Chief: Gino Filicetti <mailto:ginof@interlog.com>
Coordinator: Adrian Bromley <mailto:energizr@interlog.com>
Cont./Editor: Steve Hoeltzel <mailto:hoeltzel@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu>
Contributor/Editor: Andrew Lewandowski <mailto:kmvb73c@prodigy.com>
Contributor/Editor: Pedro Azevedo <mailto:ei94048@tom.fe.up.pt>
Contributor: Alain M. Gaudrault <mailto:alain@mks.com>
Contributor: Brian Meloon <mailto:bmeloon@math.cornell.edu>
Contributor: Adam Wasylyk <mailto:macabre@interlog.com>
Contributor: Drew Schinzel <mailto:drew@magpage.com>
Contributor: Paul Schwarz <mailto:tom.s@mcmail.com>
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 #28 Contents, 2/5/97
--------------------------
- Editorial
- Loud Letters
- Deadly Dialogues
-- Konkhra: Konkhring The Weak
-- Today Is The Day: Today Is A Good Day To Die
-- Dismal Euphony: Dismal Thoughts
-- Old Grandad: Never Underestimate Grand-Paps
-- Razor: Retrospective And Recent Realities
- Independent Interrogations
-- Imperium: Rise Of The Imperium
-- Ancient - _Mad Grandiose Bloodfiends_
-- Ancient Wisdom - _The Calling_
-- Borknagar - _The Olden Domain_
-- Carpe Tenebrum - _Majestic Nothingness_
-- Various - _The Absolute Supper_
-- Depresion - _Depresion_
-- Disinterment - _Endless_
-- Dream Into Dust - _Dream Into Dust_
-- Empty Tremor - _Apocolokyntosys_
-- Falkenbach - _...magni blandinn ok megintiri..._
-- Various - _Frozen Dawn III_
-- George Bellas - _Turn of the Millenium_
-- Combined Review: Gorgoroth - _Under the Sign of Hell_
Osculum Infame - _Dor-Nu-Fauglith_
-- Katatonia - _Sounds of Decay_
-- Limbonic Art - _In Abhorrence Dimentia_
-- Manowar - _Hell On Wheels Live_
-- Morbid Angel - _Formulas Fatal To The Flesh_
-- Napalm Death - _Breed To Breathe_
-- Ouija - _Riding Into the Funeral Paths_
-- Razor - _Decibels_
-- Riot - _Inishmore_
-- Rotting Head - _Backwardness_
-- Setherial - _Lords of the Nightrealm_
-- Skepticism - _ethere_
-- Sorhin - _I Det Glimrande Morkrets Djup_
-- Zaraza - _Slavic Blashemy_
-- Airged Lamh - _A Vertigo Edda Arised_
-- Below - _Below_
-- Imperium - _<untitled>_
-- Necrosis - _Disconnected 1997_
-- Pandemia - _Dance In Vicious Circle_
-- Sounds From The Embassy: Brutal Truth with Dirge in London, Ont.
-- We Must Dominate, We Will Dominate: Osmose Festival in London, UK.
- What We Have Cranked
- Details
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/ (_(__(_(__(_)/ (__(_(_(_(/_
(_____)
by: Gino Filicetti
Hello everyone! It's been a long time since I've had something
important to say, but thankfully, this month I'm back to let you in
on a new little secret.
Seeing as I had some free time on my hands over the holidays, I
decided to get something useful done so I decided to revamp our
website and give it some semblance of decency. You'll see what I'm
talking about if you point your web browsers to
http://www.interlog.com/~ginof/coc.html.
Besides updating our bios, I didn't add much of anything new to
the website. But I've fixed the previously severely lacking layout
and format of the page. I've also gone through and deleted all the
stale links from our page, so go ahead and check it out again. And
finally, I just had to redesign our logo and background, but as
you'll see, our background hasn't changed its theme :).
Enjoy people, and thanks for all the support. Metal Forever....
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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: Thu, 8 Jan 1998
From: m.spagnuolo@utoronto.ca
Subject: Re: Hallo
No diatribes other than one for the 1-HAND WONDER who cups his
thesaurus into a masturbation aid. This returning and perverse image
coupled with this person's ridiculously inappropriate poetic
ramblings, makes it impossible for me to read past the album title
and his long name without laughing at him. Slay thyself, Andrew. The
time is ripe. Keep on PULLING through guys. Great e-mag. Wotan sends
his blessings.
Looking forward to seeing you 1-handed in hell, sincerely,
Marco.
Date: Sat, 20 Dec 1997
From: zachkamp <zachkamp@onramp.net>
Subject: 'Attention Loud Letters'
I have to say something about the letter Anand Shah
<ashah@ic.sunysb.edu> sent you issue #26. You explain in your
response that you do not have Faith No More in your magazine because
they are already well-know in "mainstream-metal" magazines (IE: Metal
Maniacs) and then you go on to say that you want to devote your space
in the mag to more obscure metal bands that need the exposure bad.
Now I am not a fan of Faith No More and this statement is all fine
and well, but in your issues I've seen you devote time to bands such
as Megadeth, Biohazard, Danzig, pantera, Korn, KMFDM, and even
friggin Metallica!!! these bands are just as mainstream as FNM if not
more. So to sum it up, "What the fuck's up with that shit?!" I think
it's a great idea to have a zine devoted to the bands that need the
exposure, so perhaps you should keep it that way! Trash all the stuff
like the above bands mentioned, cuz they already got enough exposure,
correct? And put in more stuff like Hemdale, Crucifixion, and Fear
Spawned Religion. Then thy zine shall be really greAt. Well besides
from that, yer zines cool, keep up the good work! -Zach
Date: Sat, 17 Jan 1998 21:43:45 -0500
From: slicer@oncomdis.on.ca (Aragorn Son of Arathorn)
Subject: klunky reading
I was looking at the current issue of chronecles of chaos and i was a
bit dissapointed to say that it is rather klunky reading. Just being
text file is a bit of a nuscicnce and lacks atraction. The metalfest
pix did prove interesting though
Keep Working and do something on cryptopsy.
Tim den Broeder
Art Editor
DRB Magazine.
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K O N K H R I N G T H E W E A K
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CoC interviews Anders Lundemark of Konkhra
by: Paul Schwarz
The story of Konkhra was, until about a year ago, a familiar tale:
Scandinavian band grows in popularity (and in this case also in live
reputation) and becomes 'known'. However, in Konkhra's case things
took a strange turn in late '96 / early '97. With the departure of
all of the players on _Spit or Swallow_, Anders Lundemark was left
without a band to speak of. This was not a particularly strange
occurrence in itself, but replacements in the form of Chris Kontos
(ex Machine Head) on drums and James Murphy (ex take your pick:
Testament, Death, <add bands here>) on guitar, along with new bassist
T. Christensen, were anything but run of the mill. With this
impressive lineup, the band recorded and released _Weed Out the Weak_
to mixed reviews. With a remixed version of _WOtW_ soon to be
released worldwide, the original only seeing the light in Europe and
excluding Germany (one of the biggest buyers of heavy metal on this
side of the Atlantic) and a tour necessarily imminent, I talked to
vocalist / guitarist, chief songwriter and sole original member
Anders Lundemark about the past present and future. Enjoy.
CoC: Since you're the only member of Konkhra remaining since the last
album, do you feel that Konkhra has become more of a personal
project than a band? Do you still feel you have the band ethic?
Anders Lundemark: I think there is more of a band ethic today than
there was with the past lineup. I am very
determined to keep people involved and not make it
a one person thing and I am very determined to go
out on the road and play. It [Konkhra] is run like
a band for sure and the reason why there have been
a lot of lineup changes in the band is that in
Denmark there are maybe 50 people that are
seriously working with stuff like I am and most of
them have their own bands and their own ideas and
the other half are maybe a little too unserious
about the thing, so to me it was very difficult to
find a new lineup or run the band with people from
here because they don't look at stuff the same way
I do.
CoC: How do you feel _WOtW_ differs from previous releases? In what
way is it different?
AL: I think it's much better and I think that one of the reasons is
that now finally we are professional enough to acheive what we
want and the people that are now involved in the band, especially
Chris; he's got a very high level of professionalism with his
instrument and the whole recording process and everything -- we
just had to make it work this time. So we were very determined to
get a better output and a better result and I think especially
with the production we have acheived something that was better.
We've just remixed the album and we had Vinny Washnu and Michael
Rosen to remix the album for release in the States and for
reissue in Europe and, when that was done, the things that they
said to us and stuff that was there on the raw tapes just gave me
a lot of confidence and a lot of belief in the future.
CoC: So what would you say to people who think that _WOtW_ is not as
good as the previous Konkhra albums? I've heard varied
responses: a lot of people have said that it's amazing; you got
great reviews in Kerrang! and Terrorizer, but some people have
expressed concern that it's not as good as either your previous
work, or Kontos' work, or Murphy's work. What would you say to
these people?
AL: I think the new mix will offer much more comfort to people that
have that opinion because one of the things that is wrong with
the mix that we released in Europe was that the levels set on it
were a bit confusing and the riff guitar was low in some places
and even muted out, because the people we worked with on the
first mix were not professional enough and Murphy's solos are
very loud on the first mix -- and honestly I don't think that
they should be that loud, I think they should be more like at the
same level as the rhythm guitar, just to mix in. And I can tell
you a little secret about the drums: the people that made the
first mix for Europe told us that there was so much of a high-hat
lead in the snare drum that we had to trigger the snare in order
to get the right levels on the drums, but that was a lie, because
Michael and Vinny have just mixed the album and spent 2 minutes
doing the eq on the high-hat and I promise you the new mix is
blowing the old mix away 10 times. I hope that people will be
able to check out the new mix and for sure that will show much
more about what was going on with the rehersals and with the
whole process of making this record.
CoC: Do you continue to write most of the music (most of the songs on
_WOtW_ are written by you individually and some with other band
members)? Do you think in the next album there will be more band
writing?
AL: Yes, I hope so, because every time Konkhra have released an album
people [in the band] either wanted to do something else with
their life or just stopped writing stuff. I had to write
everything, pretty much, for _Spit or Swallow_ and everything,
pretty much, for this album and to tell you the truth that is not
my goal at all. I don't want to turn out as some kind of tyrant
that is writing everything. I have been talking both to the label
and, of course, to Chris, and I think we are going to take as
much as 3 months to write next time. This time we wrote
everything in 3 weeks to a month before we went into the studio.
That's pretty quick, everyone else takes like a year and they
even write stuff on the road and we couldn't do that this time,
since I started collaborating with Chris in November last year
[1996] and we only had February. We had correspondence going on
with tapes and stuff in December and January, but we only had all
of February to rehearse the entire album. It's needless to say
that when we went into the studio people weren't 100% confident
with what they were doing. Next time we will surely take a much
longer time and also integrate people's ideas much more. All the
songs that were written have bits and sequences from drums like a
drum machine and we followed that pretty much this time around,
because we didn't have that much time. That's the thing when you
play music: you're always 6 months ahead of everyone else,
because the album gets out 6 months after you started working on
it. We finished this process in March and now it's getting out in
the States in January or February, so it's almost a year old for
us when it gets out. I think next time everything will be set
better and we'll have a global release date and try to work
everything on a better schedule.
CoC: Do you think working with Nicke Andersson [(now ex) Entombed] on
the Daemon project has changed your outlook on Konkhra's music
(I heard you're a big Entombed fan and you try hard not to rip
them off), so did doing that project help you get out all your
Entombed riffs?
AL: I think Entombed is the greatest band, but I am very concerned
not to do stuff that's similar to Entombed. But let me put it
this way -- Nicke has a really good way of saying this:
everything has been written, the only thing that is left is
ripping off people. The thing with Entombed and Nicke's whole
concept of playing music is that he's ripping stuff off that
everybody else forgot because he is totally into the 70's scene
and stuff like that and you have to be very careful not to take
stuff that is contemporary; creating something which is
contemporary out of something which is old is maybe a good way of
perceiving music these days. I wouldn't say Daemon changed my
outlook on Konkhra's music, but it pretty much changed my outlook
on how people should be collaborating in bands. When I was in
Sweden hanging out with those guys, I saw that they have a very
close relationship, like a friendship-based thing, going on in
the band. That is much more than you could say about Konkhra at
that time, and at the time it made me sad because I was hoping
some day I would be in a situation similar to that. Now it turns
out that I got really good friends with Chris, Thomas and Murphy
as well -- he's just a guest, though, the nucleus of the band is
really friendship-based and we spend a lot of time doing
everything else.
CoC: Do you think with Nicke leaving Entombed this is like the end of
an era for Entombed?
AL: I don't know, it's not something I should comment on, because I
am totally just a fan. I don't want to, in a Konkhra interview,
comment on stuff that's going on in Entombed. I will always have
100% respect for the band and if that's what they want to do... I
can imagine that Nicke may want to build his career on
Hellacopters now and if he wants to do that... it's more about
the music and feeling good about what you are doing than anything
else.
CoC: How much emphasis does Konkhra place on touring and playing
live?
AL: 300%, because we are totally dying, we are pissing our pants to
get on tour now. The release [of the album] has been a little bit
difficult this time, because they [Diehard] had a change of
distribution in some of the most important territories, like
Germany. Now they are finally getting distribution for Germany
and as soon as that's done that'll be the spine of the tour in
Europe -- and we can't wait. That's the goal right now, to go out
[on tour]. We just have to figure out how. We are signing a new
deal with an agency on Friday this week and I have very high
hopes about what they can do for the band and what we want to do.
I think we will try to go out by ourselves and just hit smaller
clubs and do a headlining thing instead of spending a lot of
money going out with somebody else, where we get only 25 minutes
for a set and half the people aren't there yet. So I think this
time we'll try it by ourselves. So, for sure I think we place a
lot of emphasis on that and I think we are going to spend at
least four or five months of the year on the road because these
days that's the only thing you can do as a metal band, if you're
not hip or trendy. We'll slit our wrists, but we'll go.
CoC: Do you prefer to be on the road or to be writing albums?
AL: I like everything, pretty much, I always look forward to the next
part of what I'm doing and that is maybe the curse of it. I like
it but when we're on the road I'm like "let's go back and write",
'cause the band gets so tight after a couple of days on the road
and that creates a lot of ideas for new stuff and how tight new
stuff can become. It's just a big circle that just moves on and
it's been a while now since I have been touring, so I think it's
about time we got out and this time I think we are going to
increase the luxury budget a little bit. We toured Europe in a
van and Chris did some tours in Europe and the States in vans
when he was with Verbal Abuse, but, with the tours he did with
Machine Head, his levels have moved up a little, so we're going
to try to match that a little bit and have a better bus, etc.
CoC: What do you think of the music scene in Denmark?
AL: I think it's stupid, I think it's very energetic and it's pretty
good. There are a lot of bands, but people don't have enough
confidence, they always lean towards something else, and in
Denmark there is a national thing called yentilob and that means
you can never think anything of yourself, you always have to be
more than modest or else people will slap your face. That's
pretty much on the agenda for Danish behaviour even in really
successful companies. In the States people are like "why don't
those guys like themselves?", because Danish people are always
holding back on achievements and holding back on what they can
do, and I think that hurts the scene a bit, because a lot of
people really have a lot of skills and a lot of good ideas -- but
it never really amounts to much, because people are just standing
in bars and telling their friends "well, I think I can do..."
this or that and they'll go "uh huh, watch me", and that's just
weird, you know, that creates a stall for bands.
CoC: Apart from Entombed, what sort of music do you listen to, what
music influences you, or what music influenced you to start
Konkhra and to get your music out there?
AL: Originally, I think like many people of my age, Metallica and
Slayer pretty much set the ball rolling. Then my mom gave me a
guitar for my sixteenth birthday and that was the start of what I
have been doing for the past 7 or 8 years. That's pretty much
what got it on the road but, aside from that, these days I listen
to a lot of different stuff than I did a couple of years back,
maybe because everything is having a peak moment and every scene
or every brand of music has a peak moment to it and I look for
that in everything. I pretty much listen to anything.
CoC: Any particular bands or scenes you're particularly impressed
with or into right now?
AL: I just recently discovered Transport League. That's something I
listen to a lot. It's like a rocky... do you know the band?
CoC: Transport League? No, I don't know them.
AL: It's released on Mascot Records, I think. They have a very rock
n' roll type of sound but the singer is still putting a little
bit of terror into it. It's got a very hard edge even though it's
still a rock n' roll band and I think that's very cool. I've
really got into a couple of those records recently. Right now, I
am listening to the new Metallica. I think I must be on my
fourtieth listen, but I still don't get it.
CoC: I haven't got it, I wasn't really into _Load_ myself. It's one
of the first bands I got into when I first started listening to
metal and now I have got so much other shit to listen to it's
kind of like "If I get time..."
AL: Yeah, I think it's a good record -- if you have to drive for 60
minutes, you can just put the record on and get on the road. It's
not a record like _The Black Album_. When I first heard that
album, I was very disappointed with the first song, "Enter
Sandman". I heard that on a subway train here in Copenhagen and I
couldn't believe that was supposed to be the new Metallica, but
after listening to it a couple of times you could tell that this
was going to be something major. I still think that they haven't
written better tracks since songs like "The Unforgiven" and
"Nothing Else Matters".
CoC: Yeah, they really sharpened up their songwriting on that album.
AL: Yeah, I think it's really good songwriting.
CoC: Anything particular you want to talk about?
AL: The only thing that's pretty much on my mind right now is that
people give the new mix a chance because, to me, the album is
just a million times better now and it sounds like it's supposed
to. There were a lot of things I had to swallow in the first mix.
It wasn't so bad that I was totally pissed off about it, I just
had a couple of really really bad things that I had to swallow
and this time everything is really set straight and really sounds
good, so I hope people will give this mix a chance.
CoC: What is you inspiration for Konkhra's lyrics?
AL: This time a couple of songs were written because some bad things
happened and it is really easy to write lyrics when you're pissed
off and it's really easy to write pissed off lyrics, but I think
next time I'll put a lot of emphasis on other stuff. Maybe have
more of a positive angle because I'm realy getting tired of
people who complain all the time and I'm tired of the general
"I'll fuck you up!" agenda in metal, "I'll beat you up" and "I'm
a hard guy", shit like that. I am totally fed up with that and I
also think that on _Weed Out the Weak_ there are lyrics which
have more of a positive outlook and more of a 'believe in
yourself' structure to it. I think, without preaching, there are
a couple of messages in that, that I think are important to
deliver, since I have the chance to do that.
CoC: The song "Time Will Heal" displays positive way of thinking.
AL: For sure, even though the song is about being fucked over by
somebody, fucked over by a friend, and, even though that happens,
you can always move on and just learn from that. I put a lot of
emphasis on lyrics and I think it's about time that people write
about stuff that is a little deeper than "I'll beat you up", and
stuff like that.
CoC: Anything to say to the readers of CoC?
AL: Not much, actually, except thanks for taking your time and
talking to us. I hope we meet very soon and maybe we can come to
England. Where are you from in England?
CoC: London.
AL: We played there once, but there weren't many people there.
CoC: How long ago was that?
AL: That was in '95. We played in the Cameden Underworld. Hopefully
we'll come back and maybe we can share a beer or something.
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T O D A Y I S A G O O D D A Y T O D I E
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CoC chats with Steve Austin of Today Is the Day
by: Adrian Bromley
I like to think of singer/guitarist/sampler/mastermind Steve
Austin of Today Is The Day as the "Arch Duke of Madness." His music
-- the voluptuous, yet horrific noise assemblages that blast from the
LPs his band creates -- is so demonic and out of this world that one
might wonder where his head is at. Where do the images and
illustrations of mankind come from on the band's fourth, and debut
for Relapse Records, record, _Temple of the Morning Star_? Are they
just figments of his imagination or his real insight and views of the
society and the structure of mankind? His words and music, much like
a picture, speak a thousand words. His music is intense and so is his
vision for the band.
Unmatched by any musical outfit out there right now, TItD seem
to live in the midst of sanctioned ideals and irreverent means of
expressing themselves. The trip is a bumpy ride, but the ride of this
LP is worth it. Austin speaks to Chronicles of Chaos about the new LP
and the ways within the confines of his world.
"The good thing about what we do musically is that we are able
to create music that inspires us to go on and keep creating. We tour
the music, and if I didn't get off on the music I wouldn't do this,"
says Austin over the phone while on tour with the band.
Since a whole snowball effect of sounds and images come forth
from the record with every listen, I ask Austin what fans who come to
the shows get out of it. "The whole live show of TItD is about living
it, feeling it, and doing it. We try to make our live shows be a real
experience and not just a contrived show. We try to make each show
mean something. We get all hardcore and into every show and show
people that we are really into this. I usually just let myself go and
just come back to myself after it is over with."
On the topic of _Temple Of the Morning Star_ he says, "It is
really never easy to write material for an LP. You can't just force
it. It has to come out from you and that is when you work with it. I
don't force things, 'cause it just don't happen then. I wait to see
what I have and other musical ideas to add to it and then I go with
it. Most of the lyrics and other ideas of the songs come from life.
Just living life and taking note of what is going on with me. What I
usually do is sit down with the music I have created and take a pen
and write down lyrics as they come to me to fit the music. I get
better ideas then with what I want to say and how I will express
myself."
"This record is the most perfect thing that we could have put
out," continues Austin about the new LP, "I am very happy with
_Temple Of The Morning Star_. I have a lot of respect for what we
did. We had a lot of good ideas and the momentum is there. I hope we
can carry on with this creative process. This is one of the few
records other than our first self-titled LP (the others being
_Supernova_ and _Willpower_; all on Amphetamine Records) that I have
been pleased with."
"This record is a virtual reality roller coaster of your own
life," states Austin on how people should interpret the music found
within the LP. "This LP is where you get on the ride and get thrown
around and tossed off, whereas most bands have you already know what
to expect. The ride is smooth and planned. We're unexpected power
raging within."
Creativity and complexity seem to radiate from the character of
Austin. His music showcases a wide range of personas, but in reality
Austin just sees himself as an average Joe like you and I. "I am just
an average person. My life is broken down to basics like: girlfriend,
mom, dog, and best friend. But when it comes down to what I have been
subject to in the past and the way I think is a whole other story. I
think I have problems with communication and people sometimes. I'll
think one thing and say that one thing, but it will be interpreted as
something else and different. It blows my mind. I can't just say it
any clearer than that, and then I get to thinking that it is just the
way I am. Maybe people have a hard time following with what I am
doing? I dunno. I feel free to do and express in my music how I feel.
I do it and it comes out the way I want it to be. People can see my
music and lyrics how they want. Bottom line: they are my visions and
beliefs."
The real power of the band -- rounded out by Mike Hyde (drums,
percussion) and Chris Reeser (bass, electronics) -- is that there
never seems to be a pause in the music or direction of the band. What
they do is indescribable and fucked up. Something is always going on.
Austin agrees and likes to keep things that way. "We have just always
never wanted to be like anyone else. I don't want to be like that
band or that band. It's not cool to be that way when you are trying
to survive in this business. We have always wanted to do our own
thing. When I sit down and write a riff, I make sure that I have
never heard that part before that I am playing. You have to
consciously be a critic of what you do and do your best to do what
you want to do and maybe what others have not yet done."
"A lot of what we do is improvisational too," notes Austin. "I
mean here we are in the studio and making things up on the spot. That
is a good thing. I like that. Songs on the new LP like "I See You"
and "Satan Is Alive" were made up on the spot and it worked out okay.
They seem to mesh well with the other material. This record has a lot
of guitar tracks and overdubs to make it fucked up, far from what we
have done in the past. I purposely tried to make the music seem to
not work, when in fact it does. It's funny... I'll be in the studio
working on something, say vocals, and I will do something totally
fucked up and think it really sucks but then I'll go back and hear it
again and just leave it in. Some of it is accidental but it sounds
cool... so I leave it in. It's about keeping it in the same range of
what you want to do, rather than go out and follow trends or styles.
That is not us. Today Is The Day is about exploring the outer reaches
of music and having fun doing it."
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D I S M A L T H O U G H T S
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CoC interviews Kristoffer Vold Austrheim and Frode Clausen
of Dismal Euphony
by: Pedro Azevedo
Times are changing for Dismal Euphony, who have recently gone through
a label change (they left Napalm Records and signed with Nuclear
Blast) as well as several line-up changes. Dismal Euphony's current
line-up consists of the two talented females who have been in the
band since their debut, vocalist Keltziva and keyboardist Elin
Overskott, plus Kristoffer Vold Austrheim on drums, Ole Helgesen on
vocals and rhythm guitar, and Frode Clausen on lead guitar.
Keltziva's brother, Dag, is now out of Dismal Euphony, possibly
because he's in jail by the time this interview is being done (due to
beating up a man who threatened Keltziva). More details on this and
news about Theatre of Tragedy can be found in my interview with
Imperium in Independent Interrogations. Back to Dismal Euphony: this
Norwegian melodic and somewhat symphonic black metal band had quite a
storming debut with _Soria Moria Slott_, especially if we consider
the limited version re-release [see CoC #13, #15, #25, and #27 for
reviews], and after _Autumn Leaves_, an album that has both brilliant
and disappointing moments, Dismal Euphony are now ready to start
working for Nuclear Blast. This is an e-mail interview with K.
Austrheim and F. Clausen, who did not have to type their answers
themselves (in case you're wondering about their brevity). Here's
what I could gather from Dismal Euphony.
CoC: What do you think Dismal Euphony achieved with _Autumn Leaves_?
Dismal Euphony: Not much.
CoC: Your sound seems to be more varied now, but the tracks are also
shorter. Did you want it to be this way, or did it just happen?
DE: It did just happen.
CoC: There were quite a few other changes towards different melodic
approaches and less black metal influences; what caused this?
DE: We did it ourselves.
CoC: Why did you turn _Autumn Leaves_ into a 30 minute full-length,
and, therefore, full-price, album by inserting a 15 minute long
experimental track?
DE: Originally, there was another track which was ready for
recording, but we got an extremely murderous kick and made and
recorded "Splendid Horror".
CoC: Do you believe no fan of yours will be disappointed by that?
DE: Of course the different style and experimental stuff will fuck up
the conservative fans, but we will surely gain new ones. [Now,
where have I heard this before? Still, my question concerned the
fact that the album is so short. -- PA]
CoC: What will change in Dismal Euphony, now that you're signed to
Nuclear Blast?
DE: Nothing musically, though we will surely be active in what
concerns live performances.
CoC: What are your feelings about _Soria Moria Slott_ now?
DE: I still enjoy the limited version (rawer and more guitar-oriented
mix).
CoC: And what were your feelings about _Soria Moria Slott_ when you
finished recording it?
DE: We were very satisfied with it, although the main version
suffered from a fucked-up production.
CoC: The limited version has a couple of errors in the second
track... what happened?
DE: Those were caused by our all beloved postal service.
CoC: Why did you choose to have Keltziva posing for the new _Soria
Moria Slott_ cover?
DE: We didn't choose it ourselves. Max [from Napalm Records] is the
man; we were supposed to have a painting of Vibeke Tveiten, but
Riedler wouldn't...
CoC: What about the your new Imperium project? How important will it
be for those of you who are involved in it?
DE: Frode is the only one in Dismal Euphony playing in Imperium, it's
only of secondary priority. [Dag, the other member of Imperium
who was in Dismal Euphony, is now out of DE. See the Imperium
interview in Independent Interrogations. -- PA]
CoC: How do you view the career of bands such as your new labelmates
Dimmu Borgir?
DE: I don't give a fuck about Dimmu Borgir.
CoC: What do you expect to do in what concerns live shows now?
DE: We expect to start touring in the Autumn of 1998.
CoC: Any final messages?
DE: No. [Damn, what a shocking surprise. -- Pedro]
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N E V E R U N D E R E S T I M A T E G R A N D - P A P S
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chronicles of Chaos chats with Old Grandad
by: Adrian Bromley
It would be a lie if I said San Francisco trio Old Grandad
didn't take their music seriously. I would also be lying to you --
big time -- if I said the band lacked humor and creativity in what
they do. Old Grandad is a heavy slab of Satan loving, pot smoking,
free for all thrash/rock/metal that radiates an electric feel of
heaviness with each listen. Heaps of gritty guitar work and demonic
vocals fuse together monstrous waves of psychedelic dirge-driven
tunage reminiscent of great bands like Fu Manchu, Monster Magnet and
the real metal masters -- Black Sabbath.
Led by bassist/vocalist Max Barnett, Old Grandad -- rounded out
by drummer Will Carroll (who had a short, fill-in stint with Machine
Head) and guitarist Erik Moggridge -- have the goods to take them
far. Their latest effort and follow-up to last year's _Vol. 666_ is
called _OGD Ep / _San Fran666co Bootleg_, and like their previous
outing, Old Grandad play strong metal music with a real knack at
fucking things up. Whether it be Lucifer having his way with the band
and/or lots of pot/drugs (I'm voting on the latter excuse), Old
Grandad let loose a frenzied assault of demented ideas that stick to
you like glue. Each song makes you want to pump your fist and just
head bang all the freakin' day. I love this shit.
By e-mail, the zany metallic frontman Max Barnett responded to
several questions that CoC had forwarded him. His answers, a little
weird (drugs, I say!) at times, but an insightful and interesting
look into the band. Hail Satan, smoke dope and read on.
CoC: In terms of musical style, how would you describe the music of
Old Grandad? What were the influences and are you affected by
outside music nowadays?
Max Barnett: In terms of style, we describe ourselves as "the new
sophistication." A perfect mix of sequined skirts and
sleeveless sweaters, rhinestone-studded bikinis (it's
all about hipbones), armies of Sicilian seamstresses and
innovative knitters, golden goassamer threads, the
pretentious eccentricity of it all, blouson jackets, a
devoutly rich mix of fabrics, in a nutshell: effortless
glamour. We are the silk wedding dress at Satan's
wedding! Our primary musical goal is to convince
listeners that we are promoting, and developing, the use
of brass polishing cream in the process of brewing beer.
Although we stumbled upon the discovery by accident, we
feel that it is important to inform others of what we
have learned. Man, what a buzz! As for our musical
influences: death, suffering, the slaughtering of cute
fury animals, um, death -- oh yeah, I already said that
one -- blasphemy, lots of blasphemy, cannibalism,
violence, heavy drug and alcohol consumption, comedians
inspired by all of the above, especially violent
comedians inspired by all of the above, way too many
bands to mention (Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath, Black
Sabbath, Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath, to name a few,
not to mention Pink Floyd, AC/DC, Voivod, Black Sabbath,
Korpse, Black Sabbath, GWAR, Black Sabbath, Judas
Priest, Entombed, Metallica, Van Halen, ... ).
CoC: There seems to be a lot of humor and fun permeating throughout
the music of Old Grandad -- aside from the metal and satanic
images/sounds -- why is that? Do you think that sets your band
apart from others?
MB: Well, we definitely take our Satanism seriously. And Satan takes
good care of us. Humans, however, are a consistent and invaluable
source of humor.
CoC: How often do you guys play out or write material? Do you tour
much? Are tour plans in the work?
MB: Often. No. Yes.
CoC: Working from a small independent label, other than their work,
how do you get the name of the band out? Do you have an active
hand in spreading the word or just let label/PR person do the
work?
MB: Besides watching daytime TV game shows, wandering the streets
aimlessly, predicting the apocalypse and bothering tourists, I
spend all of my free time promoting Old Grandad. College radio
promotion, in-store appearances, media attention, multimedia
events, Internet on-line publicity are all potential methods of
promoting Old Grandad, none of which I have ever really tried.
CoC: Tell me about the San Francisco music scene. At one time it used
to be a huge metal market (Testament, Metallica, Machine Head)
-- is it still bubbling with metal enthusiasm? How do you view
today's music scene?
MB: Bubbling sounds can still be heard. But, as far as anyone with
the ability of speech can say, San Francisco's music scene is an
undeniable reflection of the increasingly complex diversification
of modern society. Whereas in the good ol' days there was simply,
"Joe-Blow's Record Store", now you find "Fred Head's Industrial
Plumbing Supply and Record Store" (where, in addition to 9,000
miles of two-inch PVC pipe, you can also purchase Fred's latest
release, _Sounds of the Sewer, High-Fidelity Recordings of
America's Worst Plumbing Disasters_), "Humberto's Taqueria and
Disc" (Humberto has three CD's out, all of which are featured on
_Sounds of the Sewer_), "Martha's Colorful Hair Salon and Albums
Cut by Musicians with Colorfully Cut Hair at Martha's Colorful
Hair Salon" (currently on sale here are releases from the
following bands: High From The Hairspray, The Barbershop and
Clinically Trained Hair Highlighting Quartet, You Gonna Bitch
While I Have This Sharp Object in my Hand?, and, I Said An Inch
Off the Back Not a Foot). Indeed, the Bay Area music scene ain't
what it used to be.
CoC: How did the band get together? Does the band still have the same
ideas and standards since the inception? If not, what has
changed in terms of what you are doing with the band?
MB: Hell yes, we have the same ideas and standards that we had when
we first formed. One of our first ideas was that the theory of
gravity was nothing but a myth propagated by shoe and tire
salesmen. To this day we still adhere to this belief; not because
we are particularly dogmatic, but more because we've put the
theory of gravity to the test, and, with enormous quantities of
banned drugs, we've found that gravity doesn't actually exist. As
for "standards", you can stand on a lot of things, but, to this
day I've never heard of anything to stand on called an "ard". No
one has ever said to me, "Hey, would you mind standing on that
ARD and grabbing that other ARD up there?" So, what do standards
really mean if you can neither make sense of "stand" nor "ard"? I
guess what I'm trying to say is that, although you can use the
word "stand" in a completely grammatically correct sentence, the
word "ard" simply does not make a bit of sense. We met each other
the same way most band members meet each other: drunken
debauchery. We'd been hanging out together for a while and we
were all in other bands at the time. Erik and Will had known each
other from being native to the Bay Area metal scene. I think I
first met Erik shortly after leaving a party while I had nothing
but a T-shirt on in the blistering cold. I asked him if I could
buy an Epidemic shirt and borrow a flannel so that I wouldn't
freeze. He let me buy an Epidemic shirt, but insisted that I rent
his flannel for a quart of whiskey a day. I was young, I was
freezing; I agreed. Since that moment, I have never rented
another piece of clothing. Before Old Grandad was formed, all
three of us first met when, if I remember correctly, at least one
of us, or, maybe all three of us, were puking off of one of our
porches. Old Grandad's inception musically came about when Erik
Moggridge and I were living together and decided that we needed
to pool our creativity in some extremely blasphemous way. We came
up with a couple of songs and brought them to our drummer, Will
Carroll. All of us gave up our previous projects and have since
been working at promoting our two albums; Old Grandad's debut CD,
_Vol. 666_, and, our brand new Hectic Records release, _OGD EP /
San Fran666co Bootleg_. Well, "working" might be a bit of an
exaggeration.
CoC: Since you cater quite a bit to the world of 'Satanism' in the
lyrics and in your music, what is your take on those ideals of
Satanism? Is it just playing on images or are you really into
practicing it?
MB: First of all, Satanists have the ideals of a box of hair. Second,
we couldn't possibly be bothered by practicing anything, let
alone Satanism. That's like saying, "OK children, I've got
something here for you to practice really hard at after school.
Now, when you go home, I want you to practice, for three hours
every night, hedonism and anarchy, and then I want you to have
sex constantly. Understand?" I speak from experience here. I
played both baritone and bass flutes for my high school's band,
The Blood Red Moon of Our Dark Lord Lucifer's Unholy Marching
Band. But, for the life of me, I didn't see why I needed
additional practice at the arts of hedonism, anarchy, and sex.
Nor did I understand the difference at the time. Nor did I
successfully convince anybody that what I was playing in the
marching band was either the baritone or bass flute.
CoC: What gets you to play music? Does it move you? Is it the
creativity of making music that keeps you interested? What?
MB: Does playing music move us? Well, I think "drooling" is the
appropriate description. The drugs are all fun and nice, but,
man, a good bass riff, with guitars going "chang-allee-chang,
wwwoooeeoweeeeee," while a drummer pounds on a snare like it was
the IRS? Yeah, I'd say that we're slaves to metal.
CoC: You have played quite a few shows with some pretty big metal and
hard rock bands (looking at your show list) -- what has been the
most memorable moment with any one of those bands? Any bad
situations/shows?
MB: Clearly explained in our best-seller, Old Grandad's
Scientifically Mathematical Book of Knowledge, good shows do not
necessarily result in good memory. Some of our favorite bands
that we've had the privilege of sharing stages with include
Voivod, Obituary, Skinlab, Fu Manchu, Grave; locals, Lost Goat,
Fifty-Lashes (now Flush), Acid King and Altamont, Thunderchimp
(now Terror Bat UK). But, to be honest, we don't remember much of
what transpired at any of these shows.
MB: If the readers of Chronicles of Chaos had any ability to absorb,
process and/or remember information, what would it be? Contact us
and we can help you with your condition.
Contact: OLD GRANDAD, c/o Hectic Productions
PO Box 401122, San Francisco, CA, 94140-1122, USA
mailto:hechtic@hectic.com
WWW: http://www.hectic.com
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R E T R O S P E C T I V E A N D R E C E N T R E A L I T I E S
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CoC chats with Canada's Razor
by: Alain M. Gaudrault
A word of warning: the following article runs roughly 700 lines,
attempting to catch up on several years of inactivity from an
underground speed metal favourite, Canada's Razor. I'd been toying
with the idea to seek out guitarist/songwriter/bandleader Dave Carlo
to see if he'd agree to an interview to fill us in on what he'd been
up to since the band's first official breakup in 1992, whether there
were any plans to resurrect Razor, or even if there was another
musical project brewing. I knew the band was originally from the
neighboring city of Guelph, so I picked up the phone book and found a
"D. Carlo". Couldn't believe my luck when he answered the phone. We
spoke briefly, during which point he indicated there was indeed more
Razor material in the works; he agreed to an interview, and we set a
date. Turns out things had been in the works for some time; an
album-full of songs had been written, recorded, and was in the
process of final mixing and mastering; label interest (Canada's
Hypnotic Records) had been secured, and an European and Far East
release was forthcoming. So much for my insider knowledge.
Admittedly, I've been a long-time fan, ever since the release of
_Evil Invaders_ in 1985, so the thought of a one-on-one conversation
with Carlo, coupled with the excitement of a new Razor record,
_Decibels_ (review in this issue), had my mind racing. I figured the
band, after a dozen years of dedication to the crafting of fine
metal, deserved a bit of room here for a brief history of where
they've been, what they've done, and where they're at now. For a more
detailed account of their career span, check out their bio (yeah,
yeah, I wrote it) on the band's official web site,
http://www.caiw.nl/~craey/razor/. Should you decide to skip this chat
with Razor's leading man, Dave Carlo, do read the _Decibels_ album
review in this issue and consider seeking out a copy of this
breathtaking piece. You'll even find an (albeit low-quality) excerpt
in the "Sounds" page of their web site, though it doesn't begin to
reveal what more is in store for those lucky enough to be graced with
the full album, in all its glory. Enough, already; here's what he had
to say.
CoC: What was the southern Ontario music scene like when you were
first starting out in the early-to-mid-eighties?
Dave Carlo: It was pretty healthy in the sense that there wasn't a
real explosion of bands at the time that we came out. We
seemed to just be about a year ahead of that. We came out
about mid-'84: that's when we started doing shows. Video
wasn't really full-blown at that point. It had been
around for about four years in a really serious way; it
wasn't really necessary to make a dent in the music
scene. You could still sell LPs and cassettes by issuing
something, putting a decent cover on it, and having cool
pictures on the back, that kind of thing. People used to
go into record stores and look at the records, buying
based on whether they liked the look of it or not. That
kind of thing used to happen, but I don't think it
happens much anymore, but that used to be how it worked
back then. From our end, we were lucky in the sense that
we were able to put out an independent recording and get
attention just by sticking it in certain stores and going
to university radio stations and getting them to play it
for us. Overall, it was pretty good.
CoC: How have things progressed since then in your eyes?
DC: That goes back a long ways. Through the eighties, you had a lot
of emphasis on video, which really started to kick in as an
almost critical element if you wanted to really try and get a
global audience, especially if you were looking at North America,
so that's something that really changed. In about 1985, there was
an explosion of speed, and thrash, and all those types of bands.
About a year after we were on the scene, a ton of them started to
come out. There was a lot more competition, if you want to call
it that. Some of it was really good, but I'd say most of the
music that came out from that period of time wasn't too bad, but
with the glut of bands that started to come out, I don't think
the quality of the music was being maintained all the way
through. It got a lot more competitive, a lot more people were
into it, and I don't think there was as many quality bands, it
was tougher to find the good bands, I think, towards the end of
the eighties. On through the nineties, well, the last five years,
obviously, the flavour of the month has been more the alternative
kind of thing, the Seattle thing, and I don't know where that is
right now in terms of overall popularity. I haven't really
followed the scene that much the last five years. I've just sort
of been doing what I enjoy. If I hear something I like, I might
pick up the CD, but I haven't gone out of my way to discover any
bands. I like a lot of the bands that have been out in last five
or six years, too, but I have a large cross-section of styles
that I listen to, now.
CoC: _Evil Invaders_ (1985) was your most successful release, at
least in terms of commercial sales. To what do you attribute its
popularity?
DC: A couple of things: one was, the video [for "Evil Invaders"] was
the first video done for a thrash metal song. We even preceded
Slayer, or Metallica, or Anthrax, or any of the bands that were
popular at that time that were playing fairly heavy. They didn't
put a video out, and we actually did, and we got a little bit of
advance publicity for that in different parts of the world, in
the U.S., even, as well. We sold quite a few more copies of _Evil
Invaders_ in the States than we did the other releases, simply
because we got some airplay on quite a few local video shows. MTV
ran it once or twice, but it really got played on a lot of
local-type shows, and that seemed to be what helped it a lot.
CoC: Why do you think _Malicious Intent_ was your last album on Viper
(division of Attic Music Group, a major Canadian label)?
DC: I know why that was. We asked to be released from our recording
contract at that time. I'll give you some straight information
that we didn't really, at the time, make a point of telling
people. We didn't really want it published at the time. Now, we
don't care anymore. Around the time _Malicious Intent_ came out,
the album was not as good as _Evil Invaders_, the drumming wasn't
very good. Our drummer at the time, M-Bro, he's a great guy, he's
still a friend of mine, but physically, he just wasn't up to the
challenge anymore. He had some drug problems and some other
problems. He wasn't able to, and I know he wouldn't be thrilled
to hear me say this now, but he wasn't able to physically
continue to play the kind of music that we were trying to play --
fast. He was just burning out, and his drumming style changed,
and he didn't put in a good performance, and that hurt the
record, and I think that was the number one thing that hurt the
record more than anything else. _Malicious Intent_ only sold
about twenty-five or twenty-six thousand copies, versus the fifty
[thousand] of _Evil Invaders_, which was a disappointment for
everybody, but Attic wanted to continue to deal with us simply
because we recorded on a very tight budget for Attic. It didn't
cost them very much to do Razor albums, so, if we sold ten
thousand [copies of an album], they made a lot of money. So when
we were selling fifty thousand and twenty thousand, they were
making a lot of money. Attic had no reason to drop us, and didn't
want to. We basically saw what was going on, the album didn't
sell as well [as _Evil Invaders_], I was thinking at that time
that I was going to have to make some changes in the lineup, but
I didn't talk about that to anybody, including the members of the
band, with whom I did another album, same lineup, but
nonetheless, I sort of thought the thing was gonna wind down on
us, that maybe we'd peaked and it wasn't gonna go where I wanted
it to. So my next concern at that time became "Well, then, I want
to make some money with this. If that's how it's gonna be, then
let's get some money out of this thing." 'Cause we hadn't seen
any money from Attic. They weren't ripping us off, it was a fair
deal, on the up and up, it's just that in the record industry,
unless you sell really big, you don't make a lot of money
because, of course, these record companies are in business to
make money, which they have a right to do, but nonetheless, you
really have to sell some big numbers before you see any money as
an artist. The artist is the toughest job in the music business,
in term of making money, no question about it. Attic wasn't
ripping us off or screwing us or anything, but the bottom line
was that we weren't making any money and I thought if I cut an
independent album and I license it myself, I can make money on
this, I know I can, 'cause I'd just get a calculator out and
figure, if I sell twenty-five thousand, and I can get this much
per album, I can put this much in my pocket; you know, I did the
math. So we did an album which was very experimental. My head
wasn't really in the band at the time. To be quite honest with
you, I was thinking about the money and not much more. I didn't
even get involved in the production or anything else on that
album. I wasn't happy with the recording at all, but nonetheless,
it got put out, and I made more money on it than I had on any
other album we'd ever done, without a question, but it was our
worst album, _Custom Killing_. We released that independently,
made a whole bunch of money on it, which I was happy about, but
the record itself, you know, people were ringing the death knell
for the band. That album followed our release from Attic, after
I'd asked for our release from the label. I went to Attic and
they said they wanted to do the next album, and the president of
Attic made a very astute observation before I even did _Custom
Killing_. He said "You know, Dave, if you ever want to put this
band on the right course again, you're going to have to change
the people in the band, because some of your members just can't
do it anymore." And he was right, but I didn't discuss it with
him. Anyway, to make a long story short, he was a good guy, he
let me out of my contract. He didn't have to. He could have just
said "Well, Dave, I make money with your records, I want to do
the next one." He had a six-album deal, so he could have kept me
under contract until 1990, and I couldn't have done a thing about
it. But, he understood where my head was at, and he said "I know
what you want to do. Good luck.", and he cut me loose. To this
day, I have a lot of respect for Al Mair, that's the president of
Attic. He certainly didn't do anything to hurt me.
CoC: _Custom Killing_, the follow-up to _Malicious Intent_, featured
much longer, drawn out songs, less speed, and a flatter sound in
vocal and guitar dynamics. Why the sudden change in sound?
DC: I don't want to be too negative because there are some things
about that album I'm proud of, and I think it was kinda neat that
a band like that could even hold 11-minute songs together. We
just couldn't identify at the time what the problem was, why we
didn't sell as many records of _Malicious Intent_ as we did with
_Evil Invaders_, you know? The drumming thing wasn't that clear
to us at that time, we were brain dead on that. The drumming
wasn't that good, he (former drummer, Mike Embro aka M-Bro)
wasn't playing as good as he did in the past, but we didn't
identify that as the key cause to why the album didn't sell that
well, and I think that was it. I don't know that everybody who
did or didn't like that album would tell you that was the reason,
but they would probably tell you that it was just something not
as intense about _Malicious Intent_ as there was about _Evil
Invaders_. And what it was, was the drumming. That's my opinion,
and I think that's what's different between those two albums, the
drumming is a lot different. As a result, the same thing on
_Custom Killing_. What happened was, we decided to take a
different direction with the music thinking that maybe that would
be something that might pick up some fans. That was the thought
behind it. So, instead of saying, "We need to get back to the
_Evil Invaders_ kind of sound", we were sort of sitting around
watching Metallica, and watching... and Metallica at one time,
hard to believe, were like neck and neck with us, at a time when
we were mentioned in the same sentence as them, and you see where
they are, now. We toured with Slayer, we shared cockroach-ridden
hotel rooms with Slayer on some tours, so it isn't like we
couldn't have been there, we felt we could have, but nonetheless,
it didn't happen for us. We tried a different musical direction
there and it didn't work out, but that was the reasoning behind
it. We thought it might help sales, we thought it might at least
get people talking about the band.
CoC: After the recording of _Custom Killing_, did Mike Campagnolo
(bass) and Mike Embro (drums) leave the band or were they let
go?
DC: It was a little bit of both. It was more like I had a little bit
of a plan in mind as to what I was gonna do with the band, and I
knew they wouldn't like it. They were good friends of mine, I
grew up with those guys, went to high school with them and
everything else. What I did was, I basically presented to them
what my plans were for the future, and I knew, us being friends,
I knew where they were coming from, I knew they wouldn't like
what I wanted to do, so I sort of forced their hand. I never
really officially said "You guys are gone", I said this is what
I'm gonna do, and this is how I'm gonna do it, and these are my
plans, and this is what I think the band needs to do, and I knew
it was stuff they couldn't handle, basically, the more intense
music. You know what the next album (_Violent Restitution_) was
like, so you know that M-Bro wasn't gonna be able to handle it. I
proposed that to him, I said this is where I'm going with this,
and this is the kind of drumming I expect, and I when I said that
to him, he knew he couldn't do it and I let him think about it
for a week or two. Mike Campagnolo was getting involved with a
woman who's now his wife, he's got a couple of kids and wife and
everything now, but this was the woman he was with, he met her in
'87, he was spending all kinds of time with her and his head was
not really in the band anymore, he was thinking was he was going
to do with his life. I knew the two of those guys would move on.
It was a mutual thing. I gave them a little bit of a push, but
they made the decisions to go themselves.
CoC: I recall being told long ago that Stace McLaren had convinced
the band to go on after the poorly received _Custom Killing_.
DC: He did, he convinced me to go on. I was ready to just say forget
it, I'm going to do something else, and Stace talked me into
continuing.
CoC: The move resulted in one of your strongest efforts at the time,
_Violent Restitution_.
DC: Yeah, and it still stands up, too. He didn't want me to quit, and
I was gonna quit. I figured, there's half the band gone, I'll do
something else. I wasn't really going to give up the music
business at the time. I was still gonna do music, but I was gonna
put something new together, and Stace said let's work as Razor,
and if we don't make a million dollars, who cares?
CoC: But when you made the change of plans, knowing that the other
two members would leave, did you not also consider that you
would be putting out more material if they did end up leaving
the group?
DC: I knew that I would put out more material, but I didn't know that
I would put out more Razor material. I did not write _Violent
Restitution_ until after Stace convinced me to keep going. I
wasn't even sure in what direction I was going to proceed in,
although the type of music I do on _Violent Restitution_ is the
type I like best, but I didn't know if I was going to move in
that direction or not, because you have to remember, the scene at
that time, the bands were making money at it -- and I mean,
money's not the only thing to think about -- but you look at some
other bands and you want to achieve the same. I was looking at
Slayer, and they were doing stuff like _South of Heaven_ and --
what was the name of the one after that? -- two lightweight
albums that really don't sound like Slayer at all to me, but
that's what they were doing, and they were doing pretty well with
those albums. And it's like nobody likes fast music anymore. What
the Hell? I might as well think about maybe doing something else
if people aren't into the speed thing even though I was into it.
I wasn't sure what direction I was going to after _Custom
Killing_, but Stace was telling me "No, let's do Razor. If we're
gonna go down, let's go down with a good album, let's not go down
with something we're not happy with." Although I have to be
honest with you, Stace thought _Violent Restitution_ was too
heavy, I had to force it on him. You'll notice when you look on
the record who wrote all the music and lyrics. I pretty much
wrote most of it, Stace wrote one tune.
CoC: Is that why he decided to leave the band after the recording of
_Violent Restitution_?
DC: No, he was replaced. Stace, I got rid of. We're still friends,
that's one thing. The one thing about Razor that's really quite
funny is that I haven't made a single enemy in all the years I
did it. I'm friends with everybody to some degree, I have no
resentment or animosity towards anybody. Stace had to go because
he got to a point where he wasn't putting the effort into doing
the music. He was on stage, forgetting lyrics, getting on stage
drunk and not able to perform properly. He just wasn't taking it
seriously anymore. In the early days, in '84 and '85 when we were
starting out and starting to get successful, he was a great
frontman and he was always taking things seriously, putting a
hundred percent into the show, and making sure that were doing
everything in a professional way. He was excellent. He went from
that to being a guy who was just doing it because the chicks
liked him, the guys thought he was cool, and he made some money.
That's what he was in it for, towards the end. So the main reason
he talked me into staying wasn't some noble cause that he wanted
to do an amazing album, it was simply because the chicks liked
him and he was making money and the guys thought he was cool.
That's what he was into. He figured if Dave disbands Razor, I
don't have that anymore. When we got on stage for _Violent
Restitution_, he wasn't a believer in that album, it was a little
too heavy for him. We got on stage when we started touring for
that album and man, the band was amazing behind him, best band
I've ever played with, my brother [Adam, bass] and Rob [Mills,
drums], just an amazing band. We were so tight, and everything
was so powerful, the old stuff came to life even better with
those guys, so I had the band I'd always wanted. We had this
incredible band, with this terrible frontman, he was just messing
up. I couldn't handle it. Me and Adam and Rob, we were working to
make the band amazing, and Stace would come in and act like he
could care less, and the fans noticed. The fans noticed, and
that's what really set it off. We had some shows where he was so
bad, people would come to us after the show and go "What's he
doing? You guys are amazing but what's going on with the vocals?"
I can't have that. I gave him an ultimatum, wise up or you're
gone. And the funny thing was, I gave him that ultimatum right on
stage, not in front of people, I whispered it in his ear while I
was doing the lead solo at one show. I told him "Tonight, you're
fucking up terrible on. Stace, you'd better sing good the rest of
the evening or this is your last show." I said that to him on
stage in Toronto. And then after the song was over, he comes over
and says I'm gonna get it right, don't worry. We gave him a
couple of months, he did tour with me for a couple more months,
and he did get his act together the last couple of months, but by
then, I was sour on him. He'd blown it. I was looking for his
replacement, so I had my eye on Bob Reid six months before I got
rid of Stace. I had Bob pretty much lined up.
CoC: How did you picture Bob's vocals fitting in, seeing as they were
quite different to McLaren's?
DC: Yeah, they are! Well, I looked at Bob's voice -- he had SFH, his
other band, he'd done demos -- he sent me his demos, and in fact,
he opened for Razor for a bunch of shows. In fact, the show that
I'd told you I'd told Stace he was gonna be gone after the show?
Bob Reid's band opened for us at that show. Thing was, I knew
from Bob's vocal style that this guy resembled more where I
wanted to take the band. I figured if I had this guy singing, I
could heavy the band up a bit, and make it even more intense,
possibly as intense as people are ever going to hear a band play.
You'll notice, with _Shotgun Justice_, the music was written for
Bob. It wasn't a case of me writing songs and he was just the
singer. This was an album that I wrote for this man to sing, and
everything we've done with Bob was written for Bob.
CoC: Interesting that you should say that, as that was to be my next
question, whether or not you'd changed your approach to suit his
style, or whether you wrote the music and let him fend for
himself.
DC: The truth is, I did change my musical approach to suit Bob, but I
changed it the way I wanted it to be anyway. At the time, that's
what I wanted to do, and when you hear the new album, you're
going to be really surprised at what a great singer Bob is
because Bob never really got a chance to demonstrate that on
_Shotgun Justice_. I mean, he just came in as intense as he could
be and as fast as he could, but having worked with Bob, who's had
a longer association with me musically than Stace or any of those
other guys, now. Bob and I have been working together on and off
for ten years, and even though Razor's done nothing for four or
five, Bob and I have gotten together over those four or five
years and worked together on stuff. Bob and I know each other
really well and I can assure everybody that when they hear the
new recording, they'll be very impressed and very surprised at
what Bob's capable of.
CoC: Purely out of curiosity, on the _Open Hostility_ album, is that
Rob Mills playing drums, or is that a drum machine?
DC: That's a drum machine. You'll notice on the back of _Open
Hostility_, there's no credits. Well, that's part of the reason.
Not everybody picks up that it's a drum machine. A lot of people
have asked me if there were drum samples that Rob plays, because
you can do that, too. I could take a drum kit, and I can trigger
samples in the studio that sound just like that, and you'll get
that electronic sound, but I might not have had a sequencer, but
no, I programmed the drums to play all that, and I programmed it
to play a lot like Rob. There's a couple of moments that are
almost insane, and probably couldn't have been achieved by Rob.
CoC: This begs the question, then: why wasn't Mills playing on _Open
Hostility_?
DC: Couple of reasons. One was Rob couldn't play that way. He
couldn't play that way at that time because, Rob was a great
drummer, but in 1990, just before we did _Shotgun Justice_, Rob
had an accident where he got one of his knees, I think it was his
right knee, sandwiched between two cars, a terrible accident, and
he had a leg brace on for eight weeks, and he couldn't walk for
about four weeks after he got the brace off. So he had three or
four months where he couldn't do anything. That's when I started
messing around with drum machines, because I had all this time.
That's when I started messing around with it. Rob never played
the same again. Rob's legs used to be great, and his arms were
incredible, and I still think he's got the best arms of any
drummer I've ever seen, but his legs suffered after that
accident, so he never got it back. He didn't play the type of
drums I wanted, songs like "Road Gunner", "In Protest", and other
ones on [_Open Hostility_] that had some pretty good double bass
drumming, he just couldn't do them, not for the length of time
that was required. He couldn't handle "Road Gunner", although I
thought no other drummer could do "Road Gunner", but you know
what? Some drummers since then that I've jammed with played "Road
Gunner" for me. I can't believe it. There's this one guy I played
with in Toronto, he was a young guy, about twenty years old, he
had these big, heavy boots on, steel-toed boots that weigh like a
hundred pounds each, he was playing "Road Gunner" wearing those
boots! I couldn't believe it! Some drummers are just
unbelievable. These days, I think the talent level just goes up
and up and up. You've got guys now that can do stuff that ten
years ago, they'd've been heroes. I the time I recorded _Open
Hostility_ and I programmed the machine to play like that, I
thought nobody could do this, except maybe Dave Lombardo and
Charlie Benante. I was all impressed that I could record
something with that kind of drumming, and I have to admit, I
didn't know as much about using those types of drum things at
that time than I do now. I wanted to make it sound almost like it
might be a machine. I wasn't really concerned with people knowing
whether it was or wasn't a machine. Because there are places
where it's a dead giveaway if you know anything about recorded
music, you know that if it's not a machine, then it's samples,
it's not a real drum kit. But you know what, when we played live,
Rob did all those tunes. When we played live on that tour, we
didn't do "Road Gunner". In Rob's defense, Rob did play "In
Protest", so it wasn't like he couldn't do that one on the tour.
He did it, but he struggled with it and he hated doing it, he
hated me putting it in the set. If you take a song like "The
Pugilist" off _Shotgun Justice_, we had to do that one quite a
few times in the studio to get Rob to play it right because that
was a tough one for his feet as well, and it was a challenge for
him because of the accident. It was a problem and he never
overcame it.
CoC: There were noticeably few songs from _Malicious Intent_ and
_Custom Killing_ on the _Exhumed_ compilation, and a heavy
penchant for tracks from the last three albums. Was this your
decision?
DC: Yeah, it was, for right or for wrong. I've gotten letters from
people who wish they had more of the early stuff, and that's the
stuff that they can't find on the CDs. When Ben Hoffman, the
president of Fringe [Product, major indie Canadian label and
distro] asked me to select the tunes, he said Dave, I want a
cross section of the band's history. I'm the most proud of the
last three albums I did, I think they're the best. I think
they're the best, and I know there are a lot of sentimental
people who are my age, in their early thirties, they remember '85
and '84, going to our shows and all that kind of stuff. They wish
that I had more of the _Evil Invaders_ and _Executioner's Song_
stuff on there, but my best work is my last three CDs, and those
are the three that I think ten years from now, I can still listen
to and really get off on. I have to be honest with you, I can't
listen to my old stuff as much as I can the last three. The last
three I can listen to anytime. _Violent Restitution_ is over ten
years old now as a release, and yet here I am, I can still listen
to it. But when I listen to _Evil Invaders_, I always have this
feeling in my head that I play so much better now than I did back
then, we play so much better. I can't believe that was acceptable
to me. You do those things just because... it's like anything...
if you think of something you did fifteen years ago and you go
and see it now... Even if you look at your handwriting, you'll
see even your handwriting was sloppier fifteen years ago than it
is today, you do everything better. So I listen to my record and
I'm not really comfortable listening to that really early stuff.
I can hear exactly how limited everybody was, how limited we are
as musicians, and a lot of people may not realize that if they
don't play instruments, they don't realize the technical
difference between the kind of playing that on _Open Hostility_
versus what's on _Evil Invaders_. There may be a lot of people
that like _Evil Invaders_ better, but the amount of effort and
thought and creativeness that went into the records, I mean _Open
Hostility_ took a lot more effort to put together than _Evil
Invaders_ did.
CoC: I thought the guitar work on "End of the War" (last song from
their last studio album, _Open Hostility_) was particularly
interesting, and a bit of a departure from the straight-ahead
power chord attack, more of a harmony to it, a sound I'm hoping
to see developed further.
DC: Oh yeah, you're going to see it developed further. Wait'll you
hear the new stuff. You're going to be hearing a lot more of that
kind of stuff. There's some really interesting, I think very
original, you're-not-gonna-hear-it-from-anybody-except-
-from-Razor kind of stuff here, because that kind of stuff where
you're hearing this melodic, but this real pounding going on
behind it, there's probably already four or five songs like that
on this album. And they're smoking, they're heavy, and yet there
isn't a person alive who's gonna say they're not melodic, because
they are. And this is what I'm talking about with Bob's vocals
and everything. You're just gonna see a serious maturity there,
yet none of the intensity is being compromised.
CoC: Getting to the subject of the upcoming album, how did this
project come about?
DC: Most of the material has been written over a three- or four-year
period. Not that we needed that much time, because we didn't. The
basis of the tunes was written in about six to eight months a
couple of years back. Then Bob and I spent the last couple of
years just refining it, getting together and saying we like this,
we don't like this, we want this, and then Bob started improving
what he could do with the vocals, and all this kind of stuff. It
evolved over a few years, although to be honest with you, to do a
subsequent album wouldn't take anywhere near as long. It came
together because... I really hadn't planned to record it, I sort
of had in the back of my mind that one day, I'd probably lay this
stuff down, but it's not urgent. I didn't feel it was urgent, but
Bob said, 'You know Dave, if I can get record company interest
from somebody decent, do you want to release it?' And I said it
has to be something decent, and I'm not knocking Fringe or
anything, but Fringe didn't do anything for me, so I don't want
to do another album with Fringe. I have another career outside of
this, too, that I make good money at, so I don't need money, it
has nothing to do with money. I don't want to put it out in a
cheap, cheesy cover, and having it in one out of every
seventy-five record stores. I didn't want to do that kind of
thing, I just didn't feel like it. I'd rather make a good demo
and listen to it for my own personal pleasure, and make a few
copies for my friends. So that's how I wanted to do it, but Bob
lined up this thing with Tom Tremeuth. We actually got three
offers to do this record and that was cool. Bob did all the work.
I just said find somebody and I'll do it, and he found three
people, two of which were no good right off the bat because there
wasn't enough money involved, and when I say money, you would
have had to have offered me one of two things: either money or
distribution. So what we got was... we didn't get money, we got a
very good deal in terms of the people we're dealing with. They're
reputable, they've got connections, we're gonna get good
distribution, we're gonna get all the kinds of things that we
never really had with Razor before. And that's why we're doing it
now. This thing could actually sell, not just because it's a good
album, but because there are a lot of people who are gonna get a
chance to be exposed to it because of the people we're dealing
with. Well, not in North America, unfortunately. The album's not
coming out in North America. It's only coming out in Europe and
in the Far East.
CoC: When is it to be released?
DC: We're in mixing right now, and mixing is supposed to be done in
the middle of May, but we've been working on it since February.
The album's just about done. Everything's coming together right
now, so I would say that this thing will probably be released
mid-summer. [The album has subsequently been delayed until August
30th in Europe, with a September release in Japan.]
CoC: Is the musical direction of _Decibels_ still speed, still
guitar-centric?
DC: We don't categorize the music anymore in terms of calling it
speed metal or thrash metal or metal or anything, not because
we're trying to sound like Metallica, who always go "we're just
Metallica, that's all we are." That's what they always say
whenever you ask them any questions, you know? Not that I like
them, 'cause I don't, that's another thing altogether. We just
call the music Razor music anyway, because the truth is it's
unique as far as we're concerned. Is it fast? Yes. Is all of it
fast? No. Is most of it fast? Yes. Seventy-five percent of this
album is fast. When I say fast, it's not quite as fast as the
stuff on _Open Hostility_ was. It's close to being as fast as
that, but it's a little bit less fast. Are you familiar with
Slayer?
CoC: Yes.
DC: The earlier Slayer recordings, there's this album called _Hell
Awaits_ and there's another album called _Reign in Blood_. It's
somewhere in between those two in terms of the speed. It's a nice
pace, it's a really heavy, fast pace, there's no question. That's
where most of it is as far as the overall flavour of it. There's
some different types of tunes in there, too, that people aren't
used to hearing from Razor that are there, too, but nothing
cheesy, there's no such thing as anything like a ballad. There's
nothing like that, it's all butt-kickin' heavy.
CoC: Keyboards?
DC: There are some keyboards in places, but none during the song.
There are some keyboard fills that are very cool, and just a
couple of things.
CoC: Lyrical direction?
DC: Bob wrote all the lyrics. This was the deal: it was a fifty-fifty
deal, partnership between Bob and me. I wrote all the music, Bob
wrote all the lyrics. As far as the lyrics and the lyrical
direction, the political thing is pretty much gone, that was my
trip. This new album, the titles of the songs, there's songs like
"Decibels", "Life Sentence", one's called "Liar", one's called
"Great White Lie", it's about cocaine abuse. There's a song
called "Open Hostility", which is actually quite funny, "Jimi the
Fly", which is a Mafia song. See, he writes about stuff like
this. "Violence... Gun Control" is about the ability to control a
gun, <laughs> a song called "Goof Soup", which is a revenge-type
song. Gee, what a surprise, eh? I think Bob sings a lot about raw
deals and getting screwed around and that kind of stuff. It's all
done in a... there's not a real seriousness about the thing we're
doing here. You can tell when you listen to this that we're
having a good time, we enjoyed making this and that it's fun,
it's a lot of fun, there's not a lot of pressure on us to make
this record. That's one thing about it, it didn't sound like it's
a forced record, it's done exactly the way we wanted, to our
taste. This is the first time I can really say that with complete
conviction.
CoC: So who else is in the band besides Bob Reid and yourself?
DC: Basically, it's just SFH (Bob Reid's other act). Do you know SFH?
CoC: Yes.
DC: It's basically Jon Armstrong and Rich Oosterbosch from SFH
hooking up with us. The band didn't continue over the years, just
me and Bob writing, did. When the time came to do this, Bob just
said "Dave, I have a band for you", 'cause I said we need a band.
He says "I'll just give you a band. Just use my band." Those guys
are always off and on, and they wanted to work with me anyway.
Jon was the [bassist] on _Open Hostility_. Jon didn't get credit
on _Open Hostility_. Jon joined up and toured with us for _Open
Hostility_. He was in Razor in 1991, he toured across Canada with
me and Rob Mills. Adam was in another band, Adam was doing some
other projects. So Rich is the only guy left, the only former
member of SFH who's never worked with Razor, and so now he's
working with Razor, too!
CoC: Is SFH on hold?
DC: It isn't on hold, really, they're just doing both. I told him, if
we go on tour, what we'll do is, you can open up the show, and
then I'll just join you on the guitar and do Razor! <laughs> And
Rich says, "That's good, I'll just need to eat twenty pounds of
food before the show!"
CoC: Did the other members help in the songwriting process?
DC: It's just me and Bob. These are great guys, and the reason
they're great guys is because they just want to play with Bob and
I, that's it. Bob and I need that, we're those kind of guys. Bob
and I are both leaders, it's not a matter of me being a leader,
and Bob not being one. Bob is totally a leader type of guy, and
between the two of us, Bob has his side and I have my side, and
we made a deal. Bob says I really respect your music and
everything else, and I said I really respect your vocals and your
lyric writing and everything else, you do that, and I'll do this
and we'll work together. And the other two guys just want to work
with us. They leave us to do everything and when the time comes,
they just say "What do we do?"
CoC: You indicated in _Exhumed_ that you felt you had achieved
everything you could through Razor. How did you come to using
the old moniker?
DC: We did think that and I still do. I achieved as much as I was
going to. I have to qualify that by saying I have achieved
everything I can with Razor at this time and part of the reason
why I say that is because we only had limited record company
interest. The only types of record company that wanted to deal
with us weren't going to be able to do more for us than Fringe,
so I didn't think there was going to be a chance to do any more.
The second thing is that Razor needed to go away for awhile for
it to be as interesting to so many people when it's coming back.
One thing I've noticed, I've got a lot of people calling me and
sending me stuff in the mail, they're talking to me about this
new recording. The interest is really there because the band was
gone for five years. At the time I wrote the note for _Exhumed_,
we needed to be away for a long time. We needed to be
disappearing for a long while. And really, to be honest with you,
for North America, we still are gone, we're gone for life in
North America, because North America has never really gotten into
us like the people in Europe and in the Far East have. That's
always been the case, we've always done better in Europe by far,
and the Far East, we only did one release there, which is _Open
Hostility_, and it did very well over there. From that, Tom
Tremeuth gathered, "I don't want to do you guys in North America,
I think it's a waste of time." We decided to release is as Razor
because Tom wanted it that way. We would have done it as Razor
anyway, but Tom Tremeuth was interested and enthusiastic about
this recording and he wanted it to be Razor. He said that the
name Razor means something in the Far East, and it means
something in Europe, but it doesn't mean anything here. He had a
lot more doors open for him if it was Razor, so that's why it's
Razor. And [the music] is, anyway, it is Razor.
CoC: Where was _Decibels_ recorded, and who produced it?
DC: It was recorded in Hamilton, Ontario, in a studio called The
Tube, which is a studio that's owned by Tom Tremeuth; it's a nice
studio. Producers are myself and Bob Reid, with Tom being the
executive producer, which basically means he can come in and say
I spent all this money on this and "I am..." or "I'm not happy
with it." That's basically what executive producers are, the guys
with the money. That's what he is, and he's been in it a few
times. He's very happy with the recording, he's listening to it.
Do you know Tom's track record, what he's done?
CoC: I recall a lot of Canadian bands, Brighton Rock, Honeymoon
Suite...
DC: He's got a lot of gold records on his wall; Honeymoon Suite; the
most successful Helix albums; he's worked with Platinum Blonde;
he's got a track record. We didn't want to deal with a Mickey
Mouse guy. We wanted to deal with somebody who, at the very
least, had contacts within Canada and outside Canada.
CoC: Any touring plans?
DC: Not so much. Like I've said, I've got my own career. Believe it
or not, I work as an automotive engineer, which is kind of a
strange twist, and I make very good money at it. I haven't been
interested in worrying about how much of my personal time has to
be invested in this. I will do something if Tom has already said,
"If I can get you guys over to Japan or Europe, I need you to be
able to go, can you go or not?" He almost asked us that before we
signed the deal, and I told him "Tom, I can do that, but it has
to be done in such a way that everything's coordinated in like a
month and half, it's all done at once. I can't drop it and leave,
I'm not going to bail out on a career that makes me some serious
money just to dabble in this and then two years down the road
I've got nothing else." So, touring plans, well, will you see us
in Canada or the USA? I wouldn't hold my breath.
CoC: What about album availability?
DC: It will be available [in North America] as an import, and I would
suggest strongly that people buy the Japanese version if they can
because the Japanese version includes two old Razor songs
re-recorded. "Instant Death" and "Rebel Onslaught" are re-done
for the Japanese version, [but] they won't be on the European
version. The Japanese always want something extra, that's just
the way they work. Part of their record industry is they always
want to offer the people in Japan something more than what the
rest of the world gets. That's just how it works, so when we
signed the arrangement, it's with Panasonic over there, they
basically said, "We need some bonus tunes."
CoC: What other labels are involved?
DC: In Europe, it's EMI. It's a good arrangement, and that's why we
decided to do it.
CoC: Finally, where have you drawn inspiration for the new songs?
DC: What it came to was that over the last couple of years, I
realized one day -- I don't know if it was one day or not -- hey,
I'm a way better guitar player than I used to be. And I don't
mean just because I can do an Eddie Van Halen solo, because
that's not what I mean: I can't do an Eddie Van Halen solo, I
still can't. It's not like that. I'm a way better guitar player
in terms of knowing the instrument better; I know more about
melody, I know more about different types of chords, I know more
about music theory. I know all kinds of stuff, and I want to put
it in the music. So that's how you get stuff like "End of the
War" (from _Open Hostility_). It has more to do with
understanding the instrument better and being able to write songs
you couldn't have written ten years ago 'cause you didn't have
the musical knowledge to do it, and that's really where this has
come from. I'm taking what I know now and putting it into my
music, which isn't something that we did in the past as much. In
the past, I had one focus, and it was be intense, be heavy, be
heavier than everybody else, and that was it. Now my focus is
just make the best music you can and do whatever you got to do to
make it that way, and that's where this sound is coming from.
[I'd like to thank Dave Carlo for his time and his music. -- Alain]
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|- -| | _| -_| _| _| . | . | .'| _| | . | |_ -|
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T H E R I S E O F I M P E R I U M
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CoC interviews Tommy Lindal of Imperium
by: Pedro Azevedo
If you thought of a band consisting of Tommy Lindal (formerly in
Theatre of Tragedy) on guitars, Dag (formerly in Dismal Euphony) on
vocals and bass, Frode Clausen (from Dismal Euphony) on guitars, and
Trym (of Emperor and Enslaved) on drums, you would probably believe
something very interesting may come out of it. And Imperium's demo
tape (see my review in this issue) shows you that this combination
works. Despite the problems involving Dag (who left Dismal Euphony
and is currently in jail for beating up a man who threatened
Keltziva, Dag's sister and Dismal Euphony vocalist), their demo tape
has now been finally released and they are working on a deal with
Nuclear Blast. Having had the chance to chat with Tommy Lindal, I
also asked about his former band, Theatre of Tragedy. A recent
official press release stated that both Tommy and ToT's great
vocalist, Liv Kristine Espenaes, were out of the band; however, Liv
seems to have recently returned to the band. So, read on for news
about Theatre of Tragedy and a band you may very well be hearing of
in the future: Imperium.
CoC: Would you like to give us some details on your departure from
Theatre of Tragedy?
Tommy Lindal: Theatre of Tragedy told me that, for professional
reasons, I had to leave the band. My recovery was slow,
and they had no time to wait for me. So I had no
choice...
CoC: And Liv Kristine? I heard her departure from Theatre of Tragedy
was canceled: what happened?
TL: Theatre of Tragedy weren't comfortable with her living so far
away [ToT is in Norway while Liv is in Germany -- PA], and that
she had so much control over our label [Massacre Records]
(someone in the band disliked that), so they decided to kick her
out of the band. A month later, she and our label had a meeting
with the band in Norway and forced them to continue with Liv on
their next three CDs, or else Massacre Records would sue them...
CoC: What do you think will be the future of Theatre of Tragedy now?
TL: The future, as far as I know, is that they will try and record
three CDs (no matter what they will sound like) next year to
finish the contract with Massacre Records, then break up to start
from the beginning again. But I think that the band will die out.
CoC: Why was Imperium formed?
TL: Imperium was formed late '95. We (a couple of friends) rehearsed
some songs, and liked it very much. We had always been talking
'bout starting a band together. I felt something was lacking for
me in Theatre of Tragedy, 'cuz I wanted to blow out some brutal
steam, so we started Imperium.
CoC: Will Imperium be a full-time band, as in playing live and all?
TL: Imperium is a full-time band for all of us. We want to do it all
the way.
CoC: Is your Nuclear Blast deal finished yet?
TL: No, we still have some small problems. The Dismal Euphony guys
aren't allowed to play in two bands yet, but we will fix that
problem soon. Right now, our singer/bassist is in jail, 'cuz he
beat up another guy. He will be released in two months, so we
have to wait for him.
CoC: Why did the demo take so long to come out?
TL: We recorded it between the end of '95 and the beginning of '96.
Then in June, I had to go to Germany to record _Velvet Darkness
They Fear_ with Theatre of Tragedy. As you all know by now, I
suffered a little brain bleeding at the end of the recording
(August '96), so I was hospitalized for two months. That is the
reason why it was delayed, but now it is out, at last.
CoC: Will you have a full-time keyboard player in the future?
TL: Nah, I don't think so. We will only use a keyboard in the studio
and when we play live. That is the plan so far... We don't want
to have too many people involved, 'cuz then it's easier to make a
mess of things. The keyboards aren't taking a long time to
practice, so we won't practice with a keyboard player.
CoC: When will the recording of a CD start?
TL: I really hope it will begin in March / April, but it depends on
what happens with the Nuclear Blast thingie.
CoC: Would you like to describe your sound, since your band isn't
well-known yet?
TL: It's hard, I don't know what to say... You (the listeners) are
the right people to ask.
CoC: What will change in your sound, relatively to the demo?
TL: Nothing, I hope. I'm quite satisfied with the sound so far. Maybe
the sound will be a little bit cleaner.
CoC: What are your personal hopes for the future of Imperium?
TL: That I will continue to play as my feelings tell me to, and that
you all will like it.
CoC: What are your current views on the Black Metal scene?
TL: I think that all the Norwegian Black Metal scene has become fake.
It's just considered very cool to dye your hair black and go out
with inverted crosses, so almost everybody does it. So the whole
scene is just fake. I don't like it.
CoC: Any final messages?
TL: Please visit my pages at: http://130.89.225.172/~ruud/tommy.html
for some more info.
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/ _ \ | |\_ |__ __ __ _____
/ /_\ \| | | __ \| | \/ \
/ | \ |_| \_\ \ | / Y Y \
\____|__ /____/___ /____/|__|_| /
\/ \/ \/
_____ .__
/ _ \ _________.__.| | __ __ _____
/ /_\ \ / ___< | || | | | \/ \
/ | \\___ \ \___ || |_| | / Y Y \
\____|__ /____ >/ ____||____/____/|__|_| /
\/ \/ \/ \/
Scoring: 10 out of 10 -- A masterpiece indeed
9 out of 10 -- Highly recommended
7 out of 10 -- Has some redeeming qualities
5 out of 10 -- You are treading in dangerous waters
3 out of 10 -- Nothing here worth looking into
0 out of 10 -- An atrocious album, avoid at all costs!
Ancient - _Mad Grandiose Bloodfiends_ (Metal Blade, 1997)
by: Drew Schinzel (0 out of 10)
I think we all knew that the popularity of Cradle of Filth would
create a few copycats and clones in the already poseur-congested
domain of black metal, but who would've thought that Norwegian black
metal stalwarts Ancient would jump on the vampire bandwagon in the
most disgusting, distasteful, shameless, pathetic way possible? After
_The Cainian Chronicle_, an album thankfully barren of any references
to vampires or dark eroticism, comes _Mad Grandiose Bloodfiends_, a
repugnant, flat-out disrespectful and vile attack on any degree of
integrity or honesty that might've been remaining in black metal.
_MGB_ is a complete and total slap in the face to all metal
listeners, insulting their intelligence with CoF-ripoff tracks like
"Hecate, My Love and Lust", "Willothewisp", "The Draining" and indeed
the entire rest of the album. In fact, when considering its
accompaniment, the placement of the Norwegian pride-stroking "Her
Northern Majesty" should be considered an affront to Norway, with its
nationalistic messages veiled under the guise of shallow musical
facsimile. I've never been the biggest backer of Cradle of Filth, but
even the questionable image-mongering and merchandising efforts of
Supreme Vampiric Ad Campaign look downright cherubic and heartfelt in
comparison to the despicable transformation of Ancient. This, fellow
music lovers, is the sort of insipid, false -bullshit- that acts only
to harm the scene from which it was spawned.
Ancient Wisdom - _The Calling_ (AvantGarde, 1997)
by: Alvin Wee (8 out of 10)
Released some time back in '97, this impressive opus of melancholic
black metal has never received the attention it deserves. As far as
hybrids of doom and black metal go, this one-man black mass must
surely rank among the elite. Contrasting impassioned melodies with
searing vocals, Marcus E. Norman weaves blindingly beautiful
tapestries of majestic darkness and evil. The combination of
excellent keyboards and foreboding guitars creates an almost tangible
darkness, and the result is an immensely engaging piece of majesty --
images of subterranean caverns vying continually with outlines of
blackened thrones. Indeed, the luscious harmony on _The Calling_
belies the lyrical emphasis on darkness, evil, and the occult. Almost
Bethlehem-esque in atmosphere, AW manages to create a more sprawling
and less morbid slab of doom-enshrouded black metal than their German
counterparts. Lovers of dark romanticism take heed: this may be one
of the best in the genre, and credit goes to Marcus for managing such
a complex piece of work without the benefit of other members. If you
get bored easily though, you'd be better off sticking to the faster
bands.
Borknagar - _The Olden Domain_ (Century Media, 1997)
by: Alvin Wee (8.5 out of 10)
What's with black metal these days? The bloody Viking raids of old
seem to have metamorphosed into nice little boat trips "for the
little Erik, dear." While this supergroup's latest offering would
still have sent Edvard Grieg scurrying for cover, their material
seems pretty mild compared to their first album. Granted, the
musicianship and songwriting are beyond reproach, but somehow there's
that lack of kick to it -- like a censored movie, perhaps. Boasting
immediately memorable choruses "a la Viking" and strongly
folk-inspired riffs, the songs are actually jewels in themselves,
like the fascinatingly well-crafted "To Mount And Rode" (whatever
that means). For those who can't get enough of Garm's misty-eyed
throat-warblings, look elsewhere; here, the clear singing resembles
more of a soundtrack to some Hollywood movie than an authentic piece
of Norway. Century Media has certainly worked in their influence by
making this more marketable than past material, and traditional
self-mutilators will find more solace in their earlier Viking
viciousness. However, _The Olden Domain_ is by all means an excellent
piece of art and makes up for what it lacks in punch with more than
ample craftsmanship.
Carpe Tenebrum - _Majestic Nothingness_
by: Pedro Azevedo (7 out of 10) (Head Not Found, October 1997)
Here's an album that'll probably be noticed mostly by Nagash's (Dimmu
Borgir's bass player) participation, which, as it turns out, is
rather unfair. Nagash only seems to have provided the vocals for
Carpe Tenebrum (translated as "seize the darkness", as you probably
know); besides that and the interesting lyrics and concept by Ariadne
Donnelaith, this is almost a one-man project, since Astennu wrote and
performed all the music (at least according to the credits). Having
been recorded in Australia in late 1995 and only recently released
through Head Not Found, an initial description might suggest
similarities to Dimmu Borgir; after all, this essentially is
relatively melodic black metal with keyboards. However, Dimmu Borgir
don't use a drum machine, whereas in this album one is quite
competently used (I risk being wrong here, but it does sound like
one). Also, neither does _Majestic Nothingness_ have the kind of
guitar work found in Dimmu Borgir, nor do the keyboards play the kind
of role that they do in Nagash's band. Unfortunately, Carpe
Tenebrum's usually good keyboard lines only show up once in a while,
while the riffs that take up the rest of the time tend to be somewhat
unremarkable (the fuzzy guitar sound doesn't help much), even though
there are some rather interesting ones. A few tracks stand out in
_Majestic Nothingness_ due to being different from the norm, namely
"Drain the Labyrinth" for its grim chants and "Blood Dance" for its
unusual melodies. Both of these tracks are very good, and "Temptress
Luna" is perhaps even better. The rest of the album also has its good
moments, but doesn't really stand out too much; considering the
recent growth of the black metal scene, the delay of this album's
release didn't help at all.
Various - _The Absolute Supper_ (Cold Meat Industry, 1998)
by: Adrian Bromley (8 out of 10)
It's time to go to a place where brilliance and beauty meet. A place
where one can hear the angelic-like sounds of music wrapped within
the dreamscape visions of a storyteller. A place of warmth where no
one can dictate how you are to experience life. This is the kind of
mood and feeling _The Absolute Supper_, the latest compilation by
Sweden's ambient/atmospheric label Cold Meat Industry, provides the
listener with. The compilation -- two CDs with over 2 hours of music
(22 songs) -- is well worth the investment for any music fan that
loves to experience the kind of picture I just painted. This
compilation is quite a soothing and interesting experience, as many
of the top-notch acts on this label (i.e. Sanctum, Raison D'Etre,
Puissance and Arcana) showcase some memorable moments. All of the
twenty two songs found here on _TAS_ are either previously unreleased
material from the bands (both current and past roster bands) or new
numbers. Complemented by nice packaging, linear notes and a CMI
catalog booklet, I'd have to say this is one of the nicest digi-pak
compilations I have received in some time. Getting back to the music,
the offerings by newcomers Sanctum ("{~}") and The Protagonist with
"Imitation" and "Zoroaster" are excellent, but the real treat of
_TAS_ has to be the weird spoken/musical number "Child Of Curiosity &
The Old Man Of Knowledge" by everyone's favorite pointed nose
creature Mortiis. It's creepy but quite enjoyable. Another few bands
and their great contributions include Deutsch Nepal's wickedly savvy
"Logo", Desideraii Marginis' offering "Chaos Undivided" and Brighter
Death Now's noise-infested "I Wish I Was A Little Girl". Thumbs up to
the good people at CMI for putting out a good package of material
showcasing the talent they've worked with, continue to work with and
whom they will be working with well into the year 2000.
Depresion - _Depresion_ (Morbid, January 1997)
by: Paul Schwarz (8 out of 10)
Those of you who believe CoC or the band have misspelt "depression"
can rest easy, we got it right and the band do spell it with only one
"s" as it is spelled this way in German. Depresion mix the style of
bands like Malevolent Creation and Kreator to whip up a storm of
brutal bludgeoning death. Sounds boring? Well, it would be if it
wasn't done with a reasonable amount of skill. Death metal is a very
easy genre to produce mediocre albums in but I am glad to say
_Depresion_ is not one of them. It is no _De Profundis_ or
_Clandestine_, or even _Left Hand Path_, but it is a very pleasant
and quite brutal chunk of meat off the death metal bone. All band
duties are handled well by their respective players, the vocals being
notably powerful (often a downfall). In approach but not sound it
would be fair to compare Depresion to Bolt Thrower, the similarity
being that the majority of an album by both bands is made of pounding
kickdrums, very bassy guitars and low growling vocals: very heavy in
other words. What pushes the album up is the catchy riff that comes
in half way through or the less bludgeoning, almost haunting chords
used in the middle of a verse or chorus. This way, Depresion squeeze
themselves in next to their peers in the niche that someone carved
out a long time ago, but which holds a lot of good bands -- and I
imagine a few more will squeeze in before the end of the millenium. A
good debut -- we could see good things from Depresion in the future.
Contact: Morbid Records, Postfach 3, 03114 Drebkau, GERMANY
mailto: death@mathis.vol.at
Disinterment - _Endless_ (Sevared, 1997)
by: Brian Meloon (7 out of 10)
Disinterment are a death metal band from the USA; upstate NY to be
exact. They sound pretty much like a death metal version of In
Flames. The songs feature a mix of Iron Maiden-like melodies,
Dissection-like black/death metal and more typical American death
metal, complete with blast beats. The band also incorporate their own
novel ideas. The playing is tight, but not really exceptional in any
way. The production is not so good. It's generally a heavy, thick
sound as with most American death metal. The instruments are
distinct, but the album seems to be mixed a little too hot, as it
clips in a few places, and the guitars sound over-distorted. These
guys have a somewhat distinctive sound, which is refreshing amid the
onslaught of In Flames and Dissection clones (e.g. Night In Gales,
Sacramentum). In any case, this is a good album, and a worthy debut.
Dream Into Dust - _Dream Into Dust_ (Chthonic Streams, 1997)
by: Adrian Bromley (3 out of 10)
What kind of boring electronic rock/metal music dribble is this?
Taking on a total "drown in the pain I am suffering" feel to it,
Dream Into Dust puts into their music all the cliche sounds and
styles that helped bands like Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson soar
to success. "Feel my pain!" -- bullshit! And while the attitude and
direction is totally concocted to follow the forerunners of the
genre/style, the music as well seems to run second fiddle against the
'biggies' of this music genre. No real identity is resolved with
their hard work and song writing to match those accomplishments by
their heroes. They left nothing to credit their own ability to be
their own band. No identity and no real good music can be found here
on the self-titled debut. Ignore the copycats and stick with the real
innovators of the genre -- if that is what you are into.
Contact: P.O. Box 7003 New York, NY 10116-7003 USA
Empty Tremor - _Apocolokyntosys_ (Rising Sun, 1997)
by: Brian Meloon (7 out of 10)
Empty Tremor are an Italian progmetal band. They are professional,
and good at what they do. The only problem is that what they do has
been done before. In 1992, by Dream Theater, to be exact. There are
places on this CD where they blatantly rip off Dream Theater. In
fact, the whole album lacks originality. And yet, it's still a decent
album. It avoids much of the cheesiness of DT, but does have it's
share of light parts. The keyboards, guitars, and bass and drums are
all good: occasionally flashy, but always solid. The songs are
reasonably intricate, but not reaching the acrobatic DT/Altura style.
There are usually multiple sections to each song, and they flow well.
The production is clean and strong. The only weak link are the
vocals, which sound a little flat at times. On the other hand, he
does have a good, strong voice. So it might be the fault of the vocal
lines, which don't fit the music very well. This is a good album, but
needs some originality to stand above the crowd. DT fans should eat
it up, especially if they were unhappy with _Awake_ and _FIF_.
Falkenbach - _...magni blandinn ok megintiri..._ (Napalm, 1997)
by: Drew Schinzel (8 out of 10)
Everyone's favorite merchant of Viking-rock is back, as Falkenbach
have released another album, this time on new label Napalm Records.
Not much has changed since the last time around, as German all-star
Vratyas Vakyas once again handles all the instrumentation, producing
a walking-paced, musically elementary sound mixing elements of black
metal and northern European folk music. Adorned by a strong keyboard
presence and occasional use of flute, _mbom_ (don't even ask what the
name of the album means) rocks along with a little less influence
from the black metal side of things this time around, with Vakyas'
unwavering, almost monotone clean vocals taking the leading role, and
with the raspy offerings being a little more polished and a bit
sharper, definitely not as hollow and reverbed as the debut.
Mid-paced, simplistic, keyboard folk metal is the name of the game on
this album, a welcome change indeed from the sizeable portions of
black metal mediocrity we've been subjected to lately. As mentioned,
Vakyas is the main man in Falkenbach, and as such is responsible for
the handling of all the instruments, resulting in a watered down
presentation of each. But for this type of music, musical virtuosity
is not a prerequisite anyway, and Vakyas shows that he is perfectly
adept at everything, proving once again that creativity and
composition are where it's at. Of course, Vakyas is no compositional
genius either, as evidenced in the fact that most of the songs on the
album are just downright repetitive as hell; most consist of a basic
"a" and "b" section, repeated ad infinitum, without much in the way
of variation. Unfortunate as this is, _mbom_ is still an impressive
album, providing a rocking folk alternative to the majority of
musical drudgery flooding the scene nowadays.
Various - _Frozen Dawn III_ (Frozen Dawn Records, 1997)
by: Adrian Bromley (5 out of 10)
The downfall of this compilation is not the inexperience or lack of
originality in the music of the seven indie bands that have taken
part, it is the totally lame-ass production of the CD itself. Jesus
Christ! I had not heard this kind of horrendous production in a long
time. Ya think they would have been able to keep a standard, at least
respectable, sound throughout? Maybe the bands are at fault -- with
the possibility of numerous DATs or recordings being submitted for
entry onto the compilation -- but still?! Shit. Now... onto the
music. The GOOD bands: Violent Fury, Exceed and Drogheda. The OKAY
bands: Goliath and Vials Of Wrath. The BAD bands: Seminal Death and
Shredded Corpse. With most of the bands found on this comp falling
into the grind core, blast beat driven death metal sound, it pretty
much sounds all the same from the get-go. The bands that wound up in
the GOOD area exposed a real feel of intensity and pure mayhem in
their musical deliverance. High-caliber action that detonates each
song with a rush. The other bands either were just average or just
unoriginal and plain pathetic. Not even worth a mention. Take a
chance, some good stuff here, but it may be suitable and worth more
to search out each individual band rather than wade through the shit,
if ya know what I mean, eh?
Contact: Frozen Dawn Records c/o David Sroczynski
809 Towering Oaks, Jacksonville, AR 72076 USA
Voice: (501) 982-6073
mailto:frozendawn@aristotle.net
George Bellas - _Turn of the Millenium_ (Shrapnel, 1997)
by: Brian Meloon (7 out of 10)
In a few years, it might seem more likely that this album was
released in 1987 than in 1997. It's definitely a throwback to the
days when neo-classical shredding was in vogue. Stylistically, this
is something like a cross between Joey Tafolla's _Out of the Sun_
(1987) and Jason Becker's _Perpetual Burn_ (1988). Bellas is a
top-tier guitarist, with impressive chops. The songs are all
instrumental, and have a mix of darker melodies (as JT) and happier
ones. The album also has significant progmetal leanings, including
some elements of Dream Theater's style. The keyboard work is good:
reminiscent of MacAlpine, and not overused. The songs were all
written by Bellas, and feature multiple sections, with definite but
varied structures. The tones and instruments used also display a good
deal of variety. The album features three different drummers,
including session god Deen Castronovo. The production is good, though
two of the tracks have worse production, due to the way the drums
were recorded. Unfortunately, Bellas doesn't really fix any of the
problems that caused the end of the neo-classical genre many years
ago. The songs are often vehicles for his soloing, which wears thin
after awhile. This is a good album, but by no means revolutionary.
Gorgoroth - _Under the Sign of Hell_ (Malicious Records, 1997)
(8.5 out of 10)
Osculum Infame - _Dor-Nu-Fauglith_ (Mordgrimm, 1997)
(9 out of 10)
by: Steve Hoeltzel (Combined review)
Cranky old-timer that I am, I must say I'm beginning to get weary of
constantly having to come up with new ways of saying "Here we have
yet another black metal album which offers nothing especially new or
different -- but which still manages to be pretty gosh darn enjoyable
when you're in the mood, as I often am, to savor the musical output
of scowling young minstrels decked out in face paint and brandishing
swords." Believe it or not, here we have two more releases which fit
quite nicely into that ever-more-crowded category. Norway's Gorgoroth
have always produced cool music, and their latest is no exception:
stripped-down, totally unpretentious black metal with a killer garage
vibe, enhanced by a loud, no-nonsense production that keeps
everything sounding brash and abrasive, as this style most certainly
should. Truth be told, I don't think this release quite matches up to
the musical excellence of _Antichrist_ or the "We Are Totally Insane"
vibes of their great debut, _Pentagram_. Still, it's got that
unmistakable Gorgoroth feel, with the band's most in-your-face
production yet, and it's hard to go wrong with a combination like
that. Over on the more atmospheric end of the spectrum, you might
also want to keep an eye peeled for Osculum Infame, who have put out
what may end up being my favorite black metal release of 1997. This
is not rude, crusty basement blasting in the Gorgoroth style; rather,
it's "epic", long-winded black metal with varied pacing, outstanding
keyboard work, lots of emotion and atmosphere, and a very somber,
wintry feel. Pardon me if I refrain from trying to whip up a blizzard
of additional descriptors; suffice it to say that the band's sound is
fairly standard, all in all, while their skill in songwriting exceeds
that of most of their "true unholy" peers. Rumor has it that the band
has tried to keep this release way underground by refusing to let the
bigger distributors stock it. In any case, I'd say this is definitely
worth tracking down if you're in search of some authentic, moody,
fairly traditional black metal composed and performed with real
skill.
Katatonia - _Sounds of Decay_ (Century Media, October 1997)
by: Pedro Azevedo (10 out of 10)
Very few albums had such an immediately powerful effect upon me as
the first full-length from Katatonia, the immortal _Dance of December
Souls_. And extremely few bands manage to vividly portray extreme
sorrow through their music as well as Katatonia. _Dance of December
Souls_ is indeed a piece of superb musical and emotional quality that
was engraved in the minds of those who listened and understood it,
and whose view of music was never to be the same again thereafter.
_For Funerals to Come..._, an EP with a meaning of its own (as
opposed to today's numerous hollow, money-making EPs), and _Brave
Murder Day_, which featured the presence of Opeth's extraordinary
vocalist Mikael Akerfeldt for the first time in addition to
outstanding artwork, continued Katatonia's history of expectable
quality. Now arrives the _Sounds of Decay_ EP, which features the
same line-up from _BMD_ as Akerfeldt still does guest vocals (for the
last time, unfortunately, as it seems). Three new songs, all above
the six minute mark and similar in style to _Brave Murder Day_.
Whether they're even better or not, I can't tell, but they're indeed
excellent. One difference that stands out right away is that the drum
sound is better than on _BMD_. As ever before, Katatonia have kept
the quality level extremely high throughout the EP, which proves to
be no disappointment for any Katatonia fan. Enthralling.
Limbonic Art - _In Abhorrence Dimentia_ (Nocturnal Art, 1997)
by: Drew Schinzel (9 out of 10)
Finally, another high quality black metal album. Following up on
their stellar 1996 debut _Moon in the Scorpio_, Limbonic Art strike
again with another fantastic hour-long opus of monumental,
atmospheric, at times majestic black metal. Picking up where _MitS_
left off, Norwegian tandem Daemon and Morfeus once again pour on the
imposing keyboard melodies, this time more varied in approach,
arrangement, and sound, showing a definite progression. Whether
striking a dissonant, 20th century sounding chord, showcasing a
little synth-flute embellishment, or utilizing a cosmic, spaced out
timbre, Limbonic Art undoubtedly know how to manipulate the keys to
their (and the listener's) liking. Something that was missing from
the previous album, a strong guitar presence, has at least been
partly added to the mix on _IAD_, as the guitars, while rarely the
backbone of the pieces, do play an enlarged role over last time.
Probably the biggest improvement over _MitS_, however, is the
increase in musical themes, and subsequent decrease in repetition;
whereas the songs on _MitS_ were, despite their epic playing time,
relatively easy to follow mainly stemming from their sheer repetitive
(dis)qualities, the song arrangements and progression from beginning
to end seem more complex and diverse. Basically, Limbonic Art have
condensed the material and songs into less drawn-out, better
developed works, essentially allowing themselves to write more music
in the same amount of time. Once again present are some pretty
obviously synthetic drums, but rather than let that hurt them,
Limbonic Art take it to their advantage, creating some insanely,
constantly fast drum lines I doubt many humans could play. Plus, the
addition of some short, industrial-inspired drum patterns only
enhance the album's depth. Not the best black metal album of 1997,
that honor is bestowed upon Obtained Enslavement's _Witchcraft_, but
easily within the top five.
Manowar - _Hell On Wheels Live_ (Universal, December 1997)
by: Adrian Bromley (8 out of 10)
Many metal fans call Manowar cheesy, but, then again, those are
non-fans of the band. Fans who worship this band are the real metal
heads. They, like Manowar, believe in sticking to your guns, avoiding
trends and cranking the music loud. Fuck the mainstream and do what
you wanna do. Striving forth with pure metal intensity for almost two
decades and proudly waving the 'metal' flag, Manowar finally delivers
their first ever live recording. The live record (two Cds) follows
the band on their Hell On Wheels world tour (1996-1997), with all the
material here recorded from their many tour dates in Europe. What? No
good North American / South American dates to find way on the
double-LP? So... how does the loud Manowar sound on record? Pretty
good, I must say, and there really are some captivating moments here.
Real power and a real 'metal' attitude storms out of every song. Sure
singer Eric Adams' voice cracks a few times, and the music seems to
flutter in and out at times, but what do you expect? This album was
recorded from the board with problems intact. No touchups or cleaning
up the sound in the studio. This is just Manowar live, as you would
experience it. Hell, even the band in the linear notes say they
wanted the double-LP to have the listeners feel like they were at the
concert. Mission accomplished. A good helping of material from all of
the quartet's albums from over the years, which my personal faves
being live renditions of "Return of the Warlord", "Manowar" and
"Blood Of My Enemies". Metal -- live and in-yer-face. Enjoy, metal
heads.
Morbid Angel - _Formulas Fatal To The Flesh_ (Earache, January 1998)
by: Adam Wasylyk (10 out of 10)
The first month of 1997 saw the release of my favorite album of that
year, My Dying Bride's _Like Gods of the Sun_. It now appears that
the first month of 1998 may have a similar result, for Morbid Angel's
_Formulas Fatal to the Flesh_ is devastatingly harsh and heavy with
brutality unparalleled to any of the band's past material.
Apparently, ex-vocalist/bassist David Vincent's departure (to play in
his wife's band The Genitorturers) has in absolutely no way affected
Morbid Angel; actually, the band have improved since the somewhat
stale _Domination_ (which suffered from over-production). The opening
30 seconds will leave the listener in awe of Azagthoth's guitar
attack, new vocalist Steve Tucker's raging growls, and Pete's blazing
drumming, which haven't seen this speed since his days in Terrorizer.
With Vincent gone, Azagthoth has now become the main composer and
focal point of Morbid Angel, and he has in turn changed the focus of
the band: now, the band sings in praise of the Ancient Gods.
Azagthoth has said he didn't care for Vincent's lyrical style
(particularly on _Domination_), so the guitarist has dedicated both
the music and lyrics to the Ancient Beings, which he has partially
built his lifestyle around. You can't help but hear the _Altars of
Madness_ influence in the music as there's almost a back to the roots
feel to it. Of the 14 songs (five of which are instrumentals), tracks
like "Heaving Earth", "Nothing is Not", "Hellspawn: the Birth", and
"Covenant of Death" will leave those convinced that Morbid Angel is
still one of the best death metal bands in the metal world today, and
_Formulas Fatal to the Flesh_ should most certainly be a contender
for best record of 1998.
Napalm Death - _Breed To Breathe_ (Earache Records, January 1998)
by: Adrian Bromley (8 out of 10)
The band's last effort, _Inside the Torn Apart_, where the single
"Breed To Breathe" is from, was one of my favorite records of the
year. The band was back with singer/growler Mark 'Barney' Greenway at
the helm once again (after a brief stint in Extreme Noise Terror) and
ND was back in action. The band's sound was strong, full of ferocity
and moving towards a rather controlled state of experimentation, but
still having a hearty and heavy death metal sound. But changes were
happening and ND was losing much of its grind characteristics in the
process. But, regardless of changes, the music on _ItTA_ was good and
it looked as if the band, who many thought were losing momentum, had
gained it back. I'm happy to say that this EP (which also includes a
CD-ROM portion that has the banned video "Breed To Breathe")
showcases ND's forward momentum as we head into 1998. Besides the
CD-ROM and single "Breed To Breathe", this EP also has new material
-- "All Intense Purposes", "Stranger Now", "Bled Dry" and "Time Will
Come" -- as well as the the cover version of "Greed Killing" (from
1996's _Diatribes_) covered by demo cover version contest winners
Impending Doom, from Pennsylvania. The new material sounds good, full
of chunky riffs and powerful growls that echo rage and anguish. The
music here, much like on the last effort, continues to show the
metamorphosis that ND are going through as a band. And, from my
observations, this band has regained interest in their music and the
notion of sticking around for a few more LPs. I hope they don't go
away any time soon 'cause this shit rules.
Ouija - _Riding Into the Funeral Paths_ (Repulse, 1997)
by: Brian Meloon (8 out of 10)
This is a good debut album of well-played black metal. Their style
sounds similar to Dawn: a death metal band playing black metal. The
music is precise, solid, and never too fast. In addition, the guitars
and drums are usually strongly coupled and give the music a dense
sound. This is a very good album, but it's not really exceptional in
any regard. There aren't any songs which stand out as being
especially good or bad; they are of uniformly high quality. The
singing is standard black metal rasping. The drums, guitars, and bass
are all very solid. The production is fine. The song writing is
varied; the songs don't get boring, and yet they all have a similar
sound to them. This is definitely recommended for fans of well-played
black metal.
Razor - _Decibels_ (Hypnotic Records, December 1997)
by: Alain M. Gaudrault (8.5 out of 10)
First off, I have to come clean and confess that I've been a huge fan
of this band for the last dozen years or so (the massive interview
appearing in this issue cementing that), which makes an objective
review rather difficult, but I've made a conscious effort to listen
to the disc both as a fan and as a reviewer. What it boils down to is
this: I listen to this album *a lot*, because it's got some of the
absolute coolest riffs around. Dave Carlo is easily in my top 5
riffmeisters of all time, right up there with Tony Iommi, Chuck
Schuldiner, Michael Bruce (original Alice Cooper band; yeah, yeah,
yeah) and James Hetfield. But there are a few elements (and songs) on
this album that don't sit well with me, tainting the experience, if
you will. The pace of the album is somewhat slower overall, though
without much dampening of the impact delivered. Carlo indicates that
he was really impressed with the job Bob Reid did with the vocals,
and after having heard the record, I can see what he means: Reid's
vocal work is cool and varied, but those damned high-pitched chanting
backup vocals that pop up in certain songs kinda bug me, but not
enough to put me off the record (okay, it cost them a half mark).
Reid also wrote all of the lyrics, and here's more love/hate. In
songs like "The Game" (Reid's love of hockey seeping in) and "Jimi
the Fly", a picture is effectively painted not only by well-chosen
words, but the delivery so suited to the music, truly coming together
as one. The brilliance often exhibited is sorely lacking in other
tunes, such as "Life Sentence", awkward in its lyrics, melody, and
music, and simply lame topics such as "Great White Lie"
(cocaine-is-evil blather) and the mildly pretentious "Violence... Gun
Control", a song from the band that brought us _Shotgun Justice_!
Razor also manages to deliver tracks of pure, unadultered intensity,
songs written with the sole purpose of pumping as much adrenaline
into your system as possible; "Open Hostility" (not to be confused
with the album of the same name) and the title track do the job --
with overtime. Where the riffs are concerned, Dave does not
disappoint, and has surpassed himself by light years. The record
challenges the ear at times, making heavy use of complex chords and
harmonic picking, a welcome trend forming in the last few releases.
Unfortunately, the bass is often inaudible (which is nothing new for
Razor albums, though) and the drums are mostly unidimensional, though
very tight and perhaps purposely simplistic in nature to accentuate
the galloping pace. The last ten years have seen four original studio
releases, each phenomenal, each improving on the last. And in many
ways, _Decibels_ is a superior album to 1991's _Open Hostility_, but
it most definitely lacks in the anger (not to be confused with angst)
level, which was to me an integral part of all of my favourite
recordings of theirs. That real genuine pissed-off-and-want-revenge
attitude that oozed through past songs is fading, which Carlo
acknowledges due to the motives behind the album's recording (do
yourself a favour and read the interview), so the experience isn't
quite the same anymore. Longtime fans will be interested to know that
the CD is currently being pressed with a bonus (unmarked) track, a
remake of "Instant Death" off 1985's _Evil Invaders_. I highly
encourage fans of well-crafted speed metal, interested in an updated
sound, to pick up this album. While many new bands are looking to the
eighties for inspiration, Razor is taking their eighties crunch and
dragging it kicking and screaming into the current metal scene. After
programming two tracks out, this album absolutely rules.
Riot - _Inishmore_ (Metal Blade, 1998)
by: Drew Schinzel (7 out of 10)
Apparently, New York metal quintet Riot has been around, albeit with
some lineup changes, since 1976, but I'll be damned if I've ever
heard of them. Nevertheless, _Inishmore_ was welcomed with kind ears
and an open mind as I hoped for the best but expected the worst. That
said, the album is neither spectacular nor abysmal, rather it exists
as a pretty straight-forward heavy metal release with plenty of
influence from the realms of power metal and Irish melody, probably
owing much to their development throughout the '80s, as well as a
strong dose of Irish background. Commencing with a fantastic two
minute intro, _Inishmore_ goes through eleven tracks of classic metal
with few real surprises; nothing here will make you drop your jaw in
awe (that's best left to the likes of HammerFall), but none of the
material is outright bad, either. Well, maybe one thing: the vocals,
while definitely not unlistenable, remind me very much of a heavy
metal version of Richard Marx. For some that may be a plus, since I
can't judge your personal vocal preference, but for this listener
it's certainly a detractor. Riot's _Inishmore_ is destined to be just
another average metal album, plain and simple.
Rotting Head - _Backwardness_ (Shock Wave Records, December 1997)
by: Adrian Bromley (7 out of 10)
Sick and ruthless grind core in the vein of mid-career Napalm Death.
The quality of this material is good, considering that this band has
only really released one demo before setting out to record a
full-length LP. Tuned-down guitars and heavy drums lace Rotting
Head's 12-song effort with some real jabs of adrenaline. The
combination of intense blast beats and grind core rhythms seem to
escalate the groove of the band to a point where you are beckoning
for the onslaught to stop. I really dig this, but there are a few
setbacks. While they have the intensity down pat, their music seems
to radiate a simplistic quality. It's memorable to some degree, but
nothing sticks out or shows diversity. Good production and
deliverance can be found on _Backwardness_, but the music seems to be
sitting in stagnant waters. Adding more of a varied guitar sound
might just help this band go from 'standard' grind core / death metal
to a contender in the fast-paced, eat 'em up world of metal music. A
band to look out for.
Setherial - _Lords of the Nightrealm_ (Napalm, December 1997)
by: Steve Hoeltzel (8.5 out of 10)
Formerly, this gaggle of corpse-painted prodigies were proud
purveyors of ambitious, atmospheric, outdoorsy black metal in the
style of Emperor: just check out _Nord_, the band's truly excellent
debut. Now, after some lineup changes, Setherial offer up 47 minutes
of no-nonsense, harrowing black aggression ala Marduk or Dark
Funeral. Discerning metallians may well infer from this comparison
that _Lords_ is not exactly teeming with musical variety -- and it's
not, in addition to being barren of any real originality. Still, it
contains plenty of simple-but-effective riffs and oodles of
overdriven speed, along with just enough variation and flow to make
this, in my opinion, the strongest album yet to emerge from the
Marduk-Abyss-DF-Immortal school of straight-out hyper-blast. Unlike
Marduk, this record doesn't degenerate into musical tedium once the
novelty of its incredible intensity wears off, and, unlike Dark
Funeral, Setherial isn't lame. Rather than blast-beating themselves
into a repetitive rut, these guys blend ferocity with structural
fluidity, and they do it with the help of some great riffs: stark,
pained, sometimes haunting, eerily draped over incessant drum
detonation and strident flame-thrower vox. Needless to say, the
drumming is incredible; good production, too. All in all, this is too
formulaic to really knock my socks off, but as the saying goes, it
most certainly does "kick ass" -- the offending boot, in this case,
being of the flamingrimspeedexplosionmetal variety currently sported
by many a sword-wielding Swede.
Skepticism - _ethere_ (Red Stream, 1997)
by: Drew Schinzel (8 out of 10)
Purveyors of funereal, minimalist doom, Skepticism's _ethere_ is a
three song MCD prelude to their upcoming full-length, _Load and
Aethere_. Twenty-seven minutes of purely primitive doom metal, _e_
evidences Skepticism's proclivity towards epic-length, drawn-out,
scarce song arrangements, consisting for the most part of simple,
repetitive, almost trance-like drums, long, widely spread, rumbling
keyboard notes, and below guttural, nearly unintelligible vocal work.
Of course, _ethere_ is not really the sort of disc that can be
listened to and enjoyed by all, it's the kind of thing you either
love or hate; listeners who aren't careful may dismiss it as
unstructured, unskilled noise, whereas those who know what to listen
for will be pleasantly surprised at the amount of depth present.
_Ethere_ is undoubtedly a high quality release, all it requires of
you is a pair of cognizant ears to recognize the fact.
Sorhin - _I Det Glimrande Morkrets Djup_ (Near Dark Prod., 1997)
by: Alvin Wee (9 out of 10)
Having thoroughly enjoyed Sorhin's earlier material, it was without
hesitation that I picked up a copy of their latest offering. I have
to admit to feeling a little disappointed when the first strains of
"Godhetens Fall" first assaulted my eardrums. Gone was the raw
evilness that pervaded the promo tape (I missed the MCD), which was
replaced instead by well-produced and polished music. Don't jump to
conclusions here; I was brought humbly to my senses soon enough and
realized that this is one slab of top-quality darkness. Bearing
unmistakable marks of Swedish technicality and melody, Sorhin fuses
ultramodern black metal aggression with occasional sprinklings of
folk-tinged hooks. While the music, for the most part, lacks
innovation, they amply make up for it by interpolating highly
engaging twists into each track -- just as you're about to fall into
an abyss of reverie, that snappy tempo-change or razor-sharp hook
just sinks its claws into you. Obsessed with death, darkness and
depression, Sorhin belt out chunk after chunk of immensely enjoyable
guitar-based black metal which makes for a highly recommended piece
of structured mayhem. For me, Sorhin will always be one of the
leading Swedish acts, and by no means should fans of the Swedish
style miss this.
Zaraza - _Slavic Blashemy_ (Cacophonous, 1997)
by: Adrian Bromley (7 out of 10)
A powerful display of molding together experimental metal, death
metal and noise. And it works. In a fist of fury, Zaraza lash out at
the listener a truly dynamic outlook on heavy, aggressive music with
a touch of ingenuity and electronic mayhem. I was thoroughly
impressed with the way the band weaves technology into their pure
aggressive nature of heavy rhythms and pounding beats. What also
seems to help make things a bit more diverse and interesting is the
inclusion of sinister death growls, that not only heighten the
creativity of what they are doing but also seems to place a real
unsafe experience into their music. It's creepy and that makes it all
the more enjoyable. Other outfits on this label (Phycus in
particular) have been known to throw a bit of eerieness/creepiness
into what they do musically and it seems to have carried over into
this project as well. For those wanting to experience something a bit
different, but still containing familiar sounds/styles of the metal
genre, then give this a go. A good band from a label that shows a
promising future in band development.
Contact: Musicus Phycus, P.O. Box 55083, 240 Sparks Street
Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA, K1P-1A1
mailto:phycus@cyberus.ca
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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
Airged Lamh - _A Vertigo Edda Arised_ (7-track demo)
by: Alvin Wee (****-)
Formed in 1987 and having written music and played live together in
Greece for the past 10 years, Airged Lamh could be considered
veterans. Playing a mix of power, epic and folk metal, AL have
emerged with their first(!) demo. Boasting 30 minutes and an
unbelievably well-printed booklet, it's hard to see AL remaining
independent for much longer. With influences ranging from Blind
Guardian and Iced Earth to viking-era Bathory as well as pure folk
("Wedding Song"), every song is a piece of engaging power metal.
While rip-offs are inevitable (Iced Earth riff in "The Vision
Revealed" and Bathory styling in "Ragnarok"), no one's complaining
when it's done so well. The only gripe I have is with the vocalist.
Despite valient efforts, John Georgopoulos just can't pull off the
higher and more powerful parts, and debts to Hansi Kursch (Blind
Guardian) and Quorthorn are too obvious. Still, you can't fault the
man for trying, and with a little improvement, his somewhat
ineffective pronunciation could be overlooked. If you like your metal
the way BG or Gamma Ray serve it, then this one should be your mug of
ale. The production alone is worth the $7.
Contact: Mickael Perantinos, Karneadoy 39, Ilioypoli 163 41
Athens, GREECE
Below - _Below_ (4-track demo)
by: Brian Meloon (***--)
Below is a one man project from Pennsylvania, playing complex thrash.
The first song isn't very impressive, but from there, the demo picks
up considerably. The music is usually fast and heavy, but there are a
few slow, clean sections which are usually pretty good. The riffs
range from generic to intricate, but all have a somewhat dated
late-80's feel to them. The songs feature a hodge-podge of riffs,
strung together in unpredictable ways, which gives the album a
disjointed feel in places. The drum programming is pretty good,
usually following the guitar lines, but the playing isn't as tight as
it could be. There are a number of places where the guitar and bass
and/or drums aren't in perfect syncopation (and other screwups, like
the ringing strings in "Mistere"), and these give the demo a
generally sloppy feeling. Given the level of technicality, this is
understandable at times, but he seems to have troubles with some of
the simpler riffs as well. Of course, given a limited budget, I can
understand if he was rushed in the studio. The vocals are talked,
slightly distorted, and are very low in the mix. This is quite
distracting, since you can't really ignore them, but you can't really
pay attention to them either. The production is average: somewhat
murky, but everything is audible. This is a promising demo, and I
look for good things from Below in the future.
Contact: BELOW, 739 Grant St., Reynoldsville, PA 15851, USA
mailto:evandia@penn.com (Ashley Cook)
WWW: http://users.penn.com/~evandia/
Imperium - _<untitled>_ (4-track demo)
by: Pedro Azevedo (*****)
Composed of guitarist Tommy Lindal (formerly in Theatre of Tragedy),
vocalist/bassist Dag (formerly in Dismal Euphony), guitarist Frode
Clausen (Dismal Euphony) and drummer Trym (well known for his work in
Emperor and Enslaved), Imperium may be one of the next high cards to
be played by German label Nuclear Blast (see my interview with
Imperium in this issue's Independent Interrogations). This demo tape
has been in the cold since the Winter of 1995 and has finally been
released near the end of 1997. Still, according to guitarist Tommy
Lindal, this is a good example of what Imperium is about: and I like
it! This is quality black metal with few embellishments and played
fast and viciously most of the time. "Eternal Pain", the opening
track, is my favorite. It shows just how well Imperium managed to
blend great high-speed riffs and Trym's superb drumming, which are
completed by Dag's bass and vocals. Very fast, yet frequently
changing, and full of highlights, this is a track that shows that
Imperium are by no means your ordinary demo-stage band. "Awaiting the
Decay" manages to keep up the quality, and then the few
embellishments I mentioned show up in the second half of the demo.
Still, guest keyboardist Lorentz Aspen (from Theatre of Tragedy), has
little, yet worthy, work. The doomier "Trollmannens Vrede" has a
couple of keyboard passages, and only "The Ravens" actually depends
on a very effective keyboard melody towards the end. This untitled
demo is a damn fine piece of black metal from start to finish. I'll
be waiting for their debut CD.
Contact: Tommy Lindal, Statfjordtunet 15, 4028 Stavanger, NORWAY
mailto:tlindal@online.no
Necrosis - _Disconnected 1997_ (3-track demo)
by: Adrian Bromley (***--)
This European act believes highly in bringing out many styles in
their music. In just the three tracks found on this demo, the band
has managed to showcase hardcore (Earth Crisis), speed metal
(Slayer), and death metal (Dismember) tendencies without taking a
breather. I'm impressed. Even a small bit of doom metal styles are
evident as the band cruises through some solid song writing and
elaborate song structures. While my favorite track is the
hardcore-edged "Disconnected", the root of the band's strength lies
within the last two tracks ("Cosmic Sicko" and "Spiders Like To
Hide") as they both show where the band may be headed. I reckon that
with some really good studio time, this young band will be able to
show the metal masses that they have what it takes to get far. They
play good material that can only get better with the right care.
Necrosis avoids following trends and plays diverse music with
integrity.
Contact: Jacob Brendahl, Banegardsgaed 1, 1.nr. 11
8000 Aarhus C, DENMARK
Pandemia - _Dance In Vicious Circle_ (6-track demo)
by: Paul Schwarz (***--)
Pandemia have produced quite a decent demo. The music is mostly
unpretentious death metal with a pretty standard "brooding" intro --
however, Pandemia close the demo with an interesting song, mixing
acoustic guitar with death metal drums. With production there are two
things which can go wrong with brutal death metal demos: it is too
muddy and almost indistinguishable (not Pandemia's problem) or the
instruments have not been meshed together enough and the overall
sound is weak (Pandemia's problem). Pandemia have taken a good shot
at producing good brutal death metal, but on _Dance In Vicious
Circle_ they have missed the mark. With time and practice, some of
Pandemia's interesting twinges (the use of acoustics and decipherable
basslines, for example) could give them the edge they need to make a
name for themselves, but until then they will remain where they are.
Contact: Jaroslav Friedrich, Palackeho 5, 350 02 Cheb, CZECH REPUBLIC
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S O U N D S F R O M T H E E M B A S S Y
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Brutal Truth at The Embassy in London, Ontario, December 15, 1997
with Blood of Christ and Dirge
by: Alain M. Gaudrault
Seems like this will be my last show of the year, and while not the
most memorable, it certainly had its own personality. I walked in,
well expecting to have missed the two opening acts, having been
delayed by work and weather, and to my horror, I could hear live
music being played. Luckily, my fears of having missed BT were
allayed upon finding out that the show had recently started, with
Dirge currently on stage. I have to admit that I was still little
phased out after the hour-long drive, racing against time (in
retrospect, needlessly) in treacherous conditions with most of my
thoughts on other matters of varying degrees of importance, and
didn't give the band the attention they deserved. I was not turned
off by what seemed to me at the time to be a death rock variant, but
my perceptions were admittedly skewed. They claimed they would be
opening for Entombed in Toronto around January or February, so I'll
make an effort to listen more closely next time. By the time Blood of
Christ came on, I'd relaxed and was most anxious to see this set, as
it would be the first time I'd seen them live since having started to
truly appreciate their first full-length CD, _... a dream to
remember_. They did not fail to disappoint, and the inclusion of
their new second guitar was an added bonus. Their renditions were
quite faithful to their spectacular recorded material of blackened
death which successfully avoids a Scandinavian sound and etches out
virgin territory (okay, maybe a few off-road vehicles have come
tearing through on occasion). They played a few new songs which
sounded every bit as impressive, although there are unfortunately no
immediate plans to lay any of it down I am told by guitarist Jeff
Longo. Danny Lilker, everyone's favourite hemp-head, could be seen
checking out the show, his reaction quite positive to BoC. Lilker and
I get to talking, and before you know it, the sacred herb is being
burned in the band's hotel room. They indicate that touring is going
well, the new album, _Sounds of the Animal Kingdom_, is being
well-received, and overall, they're having loads of fun. Lilker and
drummer Rich Hoak are truly pot fiends, taking a last few draws in
the club itself just before hitting the stage to a modest crowd. The
set list favoured the latest album, but BT's catalogue isn't huge, so
a lot of favourites were heard, although with fewer off _Extreme
Conditions Demand Extreme Responses_. They certainly didn't chintz
out in terms of content, but oddly enough, I lost track of time
(which is a good sign, I suppose) so have no idea just how long
they'd been on. Mind you, there were visibly fewer people when the
set was over, but the Monday evening show could be a definite cause.
Sound could have been far better, and for what BT are doing, my
opinion is that for it to come through faithfully, you really need a
crisp, tight mix. BT certainly don't disappoint, so fans and curious
alike, make an effort to see these guys play.
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W E M U S T D O M I N A T E , W E W I L L D O M I N A T E
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dark Tranquility, Enslaved, Bewitched,
Swordmaster, Demoniac and Dellamorte (Osmose tour package)
At the London Astoria 2
London, England, December 4, 1997
by: Paul Schwarz
A six band bill for only 7.50 pounds -- now that is pretty damn
fine value for your money. Of course if all six are bad it isn't so
good, but in tonight's case that was not the case. First band on were
Dellamorte, apparently a mixture of the sound of old and new Entombed
material. However, I missed their whole set, as I arrived later than
expected, so who knows? I came in just as Demoniac were beginning
their set. The sound was of average quality, the usual sort during
support acts' sets, and the band didn't look raring to go. From what
I have heard, and what I heard this evening, Demoniac are a
retro-thrash band trying to relive the glory days of the 1980s.
Visually, the drummer and bassist provided some enthusiasm and the
guitarist was obviously drunk and generated some amusement through
leaping around the stage before lying on his back on the ground
gratuitously soloing. The singer, however, was abysmal. His style was
an average raspy scream and his stage presence was non-existent he
stood with the mike held in front of his face without moving and
nervously stepped back and forth about 3 inches. Demoniac failed to
impress me on any level and I doubt there would be any derision from
the rest of the LA2 on this fact. Swordmaster are not best placed
going on after Demoniac, a band whose interest in the 80s they share,
but they provided a far better visual and musical experiance than
Demoniac. Swordmster had no qualms about moving around the stage,
showing their aggression and posing in classic 80s mannerisms. The
music was similarly thrashy and low end chord driven but marginally
better and Swordmaster made it seem less dreary by putting some
spirit into it. Bewitched now became the -third- retro, 80s band to
appear on stage this evening, and you'd think this would naturally
give them the least impact; well, you'd think that, wouldn't you?
Bewitched upped the stakes, and assured me that my money would not be
wasted even if the last two bands had to cancel. The sound was not
hugely improved for their set, but the energy and songs were there
and by the middle of their set there was a good mosh and a good
number of tapping feet. I have heard good things about their new
_Pentagram Prayer_ album and, judging by their performance this
evening, these reports were not exaggerated. Bewitched show what good
can be done with retroism, but these three similar bands do make me
wonder whether Osmose should have signed quite so many bands in this
vein and whether they should have put three of them in succession on
one bill.
After so much retroism this evening, Enslaved's viking-like
apearance on stage was refreshing and also very daring. Enslaved
looked out of context, like rejects from an Errol Flynn film, but
that was just the point; they didn't care. Enslaved play, look and do
just as they want and they deserve respect for it. Their music was
similarly idiosyncratic. Although not controverting the black metal
norm, Enslaved do two very important things with it: play and write
it very well and break the rules every now and again. A band to watch
and whose most recent album _Eld_ sounds like a very worthy purchase,
if this performance is anything to go by. So, here we are and it is
time for Dark Tranquility to take the stage now. Other bands of their
ilk having taken the stage this evening, Dark Tranquility don't even
have to try that hard to draw the crowd into their excellent blend of
melody and death metal. Material from most recent album _The Mind's
I_ was extensively covered (including "Zodijackyl Light" and
"Constant", among others), with material from _The Gallery_ making up
most of the rest of the set along with "Of Chaos and Eternal Night"
and a storming Kreator cover for an encore. So, although the first
three bands were somewhat disappointing (or unheard in the case of
Dellamorte), the last three all made the 7.50 pounds I spent well
worth it. If the World Domination tour is heading your way, don't
miss out.
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W H A T W E H A V E C R A N K E D ! ! !
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gino's Top 5
1. Entombed - _Clandestine_
2. Entombed - _Left Hand Path_
3. Brutal Truth - _Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses_
4. Life of Agony - _River Runs Red_
5. Soma - _The Inner Cinema_
Adrian's Top 5
1. Deftones -_Around The Fur_
2. Entombed - _To Ride, Shoot Straight And Speak The Truth!_
3. V/A - _The Absolute Supper_ (Cold Meat Industry 2-CD compilation)
4. In Flames - _Whoracle_
5. Defecation - _Purity Dilution_
Brian's Top 5
1. Old Man's Child - _The Pagan Prosperity_
2. Ouija - _Riding into the Funeral Paths_
3. Disinterment - _Endless_
4. George Bellas - _Turn of the Millenium_
5. Johansson, Johansson, and Holdsworth - _Heavy Machinery_
Alain's Top 5
1. Razor - _Decibels_
2. Pitchshifter - _Infotainment?_
3. Necrotic Mutation - _The Realm of Human Illusions_
4. Entombed - _To Ride, Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth_
5. Pist*On - _Number One_
Steve's Top 5
1. Sex Pistols - _Some Product / Carri On_
2. Controlled Bleeding - _The Poisoner_
3. Osculum Infame - _Dor-Nu-Fauglith_
4. His Hero Is Gone - _Monuments to Thieves_
5. Autechre - _Envane_
Adam's Top 5
1. My Dying Bride - _Like Gods of the Sun_
2. Spazz - _Sweatin' to the Oldies_
3. Immortal - _Pure Holocaust_
4. Fiona Apple - _Tidal_
5. Excruciationg Terror - _Expression of Pain_
Drew's Top 5
1. Rush - _Permanent Waves_
2. Rush - _Grace Under Pressure_
3. Katatonia - _Sounds of Decay_
4. Absu - _The Sun of Tiphareth_
5. Rush - _2112_
Andrew's Top 5
1. Autechre - _Chiastic Slide_
2. Nurse With Wound - _Who Can I Turn To Stereo_
3. Old - _Lo Flux Tube_
4. Dissecting Table - _Dead Zone_
5. Morbid Angel - _Altars of Madness_
Pedro's Top 5
1. Katatonia - _Sounds of Decay_
2. Evereve - _Seasons_
3. Abigor - _Nachthymen (From the Twilight Kingdom)_
4. Arcturus - _Aspera Hiems Symfonia_
5. Bloodthorn - _In the Shadow of Your Black Wings_
Paul's Top 5
1. Manowar - _Kings of Metal_
2. Black Sabbath - _Vol.4_
3. Unnatural - _Throne of Anguish_
4. Depresion - _Depresion_
5. Cannibal Corpse - _Vile_
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DESCRIPTION
~~~~~~~~~~~
Chronicles of Chaos is a monthly magazine electronically distributed
worldwide via the Internet. Chronicles of Chaos focuses on all forms
of chaotic music including black, death and doom metal, dark/ambient,
industrial and electronic/noise as well as classic and progressive
metal. Each issue will feature a plethora of album reviews from a
wide range of bands, as well as interviews with some of the
underground's best acts. Also included in each issue are demo reviews
and indie band interviews.
HOW TO SUBSCRIBE
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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
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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 #28
All contents copyright 1998 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.