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CHRONICLES OF CHAOS e-Zine, September 14, 1997, Issue #24
http://www.interlog.com/~ginof/coc.html
Editor-in-Chief: Gino Filicetti <mailto:ginof@interlog.com>
Coordinator: Adrian Bromley <mailto:energizr@interlog.com>
Assistant Editor: Alain M. Gaudrault <mailto:alain@mks.com>
Contributor: Brian Meloon <mailto:bmeloon@math.cornell.edu>
Contributor: Steve Hoeltzel <mailto:hoeltzel@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu>
Contributor: Adam Wasylyk <mailto:macabre@interlog.com>
Contributor: Drew Schinzel <mailto:drew@magpage.com>
Contributor: Andrew Lewandowski <mailto:kmvb73c@prodigy.com>
Contributor: Pedro Azevedo <mailto:ei94048@tom.fe.up.pt>
Mailing List provided by: The University of Colorado at Boulder
NOTE: For more Chronicles of Chaos information, check out the
'Details' section at the end of this issue.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Issue #24 Contents, 9/14/97
---------------------------
- Loud Letters
- Deadly Dialogues
-- Absu: Across Ages Arcane
-- Extreme Noise Terrorists
-- Crematory: Burn Baby Burn
-- Deceased: Night Of The Deceased
-- Lord Belial: As Black As They Wanna Be
-- Orphanage: At The Mountains Of Madness
-- Abuse - _A Sunday Morning Killing Spree_
-- Summon - _Dark Descent of Fallen Souls_
-- Blackstar - _Barbed Wire Soul_
-- Civil Defiance - _The Fisher for Souls_
-- Crack Up - _From the Ground_
-- Crisis - _The Hollowing_
-- Decayed Remains - _Moonlight_
-- Dismember - _Death Metal_
-- Extreme Noise Terror - _Damage 381_
-- Flux - _Protoplasmic_
-- Gravitar - _Now the Road of Knives_
-- Konkhra - _Weed Out the Weak_
-- Life of Agony - _Soul Searching Sun_
-- Living Sacrifice - _Reborn_
-- Mainliner - _Mainliner Sonic_
-- Paradise Lost - _One Second_
-- Putrid - _Neck_
-- Satyricon - _Megiddo_
-- Scarve - _Six Tears of Sorrow_
-- Shallow, North Dakota - _This Apparatus Must Be Earthed_
-- Solarus - _Empty Nature_
-- Bishop of Hexen - _Archives of an Enchanted Philosophy_
-- Voivod - _Phobos_
-- Von - _Satanic Blood_
-- Death of Millions - _Frozen_
-- In Velvet Clouds - _The Frozen Immensity_
-- Soilent Green - _Painting Pretty Pictures with Dirty Words_
-- Vital Remains - Unplugged! At The Northwest Hall in Chicago, IL
-- Demonic Pigwalk: Testament with Stuck Mojo and Strapping Young Lad
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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: Wed, 13 Aug 1997
From: Dejan Lekic <leka@afrodita.rcub.bg.ac.yu>
Subject: Re: Chronicles of Chaos #23 (3/4)
Greeting's to all metallians arround the world!
When I read interview with Eric (Testament)... I coudn't wait and I
immediately wrote the letter for You... When someone say that Alex
Skolnick is bad guitarist or 'the latest two Testament LP's is
heaviest than other' I want to scream!
Look , when Alex Skolnic was in Testament they made the BEST! Low is
full of shit! I like only 'Low' and 'Hail mary'... Demonic is better
than 'Low'... But in comparison with 'Practice' or 'Souls of black'
or whatever You wish from first five LP's, last two LP's are NOTHING!
Old Testament, with Alex Skolnic RULES!
..........
I was very happy to see an interview with Therion! I haven't liked
their old LP's, but 'Teli' is something SPECIAL! I imemediately
bought 'real' CD! It is real metal!
Therion did the same as Believer...
Eastern Europe is full of Metallians! So don't think that You don't
have our support! :)) Metal fans here doesn't have enough money even
to buy 10 CD's! (Our month payment is arround 10 CD's!) :( But if it
is real metal LP we will give our LAST cent for IT! Remember that!
:))
And another thing... In my opinion GERMAN METAL RULES! There is few
GREAT bends out of German people, but German metal scene is the BEST!
Dejan Lekic (Leka) Greetings from Belgrade!
<LekaMan on IRC>
Omladinskih brigada 2/2
34300 Arandjelovac
Yugoslavia
[Dejan, you misunderstood my question. Not once in the question did I
say that Alex Skolnick was a bad guitarist. In fact, he's one of my
favorites, and I agree with you totally when you say that the last
two Testament albums haven't been up to the standard of the earlier
ones, primarily because Skolnick is now gone. -- Drew]
Date: Sun, 17 Aug 97
From: Richard Karsmakers <cronos@worldaccess.nl>
Subject: Chronicles of Chaos on Jerry Springer
Hi Gino,
I think what the guy meant was that Gwar was on, who have released a
CD called, as you may know, Carnival of Chaos. They were on Springer
in January, and the show has been rerun in the US a few times since.
Continue the good work!
/--------------------------------------------------------------\
| Richard Karsmakers cronos@worldaccess.nl |
\--------------------------------------------------------------/
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A C R O S S A G E S A R C A N E
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CoC manifests Absu's Proscriptor McGovern
by: Steve Hoeltzel
Melding heavy-metallic might with high-minded mysticism, the members
of Absu wield a white-hot hybrid of spellcraft and song. Lest you
suspect such an utterance to be mere and insincere hype, let it be
known that these guys are definitely one of my very favorite metal
bands, and have been since I first encountered the titanic thrash and
epic esoterica of _The Sun of Tiphareth_, their second full-length
release. (I like their debut album as well, but find _The Sun..._ to
be much more rapt and radiant.) This year's aptly-titled _Third Storm
of Cythraul_ continues and refines the Absu tradition, craftily
chanelling gusts of pure, otherworldly energy into blazing vessels of
darkened, ultra-electrified thrash. (For a full review see CoC #18,
and for lots of info on upcoming Absu material, read on.) I recently
spoke - much more nervously than usual, I must say - to
percussionist/lyricist Proscriptor McGovern hoping to learn more
about projects past and present, as well as the band's myriad
mystical motivations.
CoC: You take a very unique and individualistic approach to the
occult themes and imagery which pervade your work. For the
benefit of the un-initiated, could you say a bit to explain the
philosophy which informs Absu's sound?
PMcG: Absu is strictly, and by far, a mythological, magickal,
ancestrally-based cult/band. Our music and philosophies have
absolutely nothing to do with the structure of society today,
or with the human manifestation. Nothing. It has to do with the
roots of magick that we're interested in, with pride, and with
our ancestral roots. We are heavily into Mesopotamian and
Sumerian mythology, and at the same time we're heavily
influenced on our ancestral side by the Celtic traditions - as
in Irish, Gaelic, Scottish, Pictish, and whatnot. Our wish is
to make our listeners truly experience and feel out-of-body
observations, with ancestral customs, magick, and immortality.
This is what we're interested in, and what the band is all
about. Our goal is to actually put the listener in our shoes,
to travel back in time to when time wasn't even an important
factor. We want the listeners to trek back to when the sword
was the law, when killing was a way of life, but at the same
time you worship nothing but yourself... As you know, the band
chose the name Absu out of love and admiration toward the great
Book of the Dead by Azif - for the overall structure, the power
and fascination behind the ancient Sumerian and Assyrian
mythology.
CoC: What got you started on this particular path?
PMcG: It really started happening when the members were heavily
getting into finding the first traces of our ancestral roots,
way back in the 13th and 14th century in Ireland and Scotland.
Ever since then, we're still finding all these parallels
between the Ancient Ones from Sumeria and the Celts and the
Pagans - incredible similarities. Even now, Equitant and I -
our lyrics are making so many analogies between those races and
civilizations. So basically, this is what it's about: magick,
bloodlust, spellcraft, and ancestral pride.
CoC: You describe Absu as equally cult and band. Do you think of
performance as a kind of ritual?
PMcG: Yes. Yes, in a lot of respects.
CoC: What effects are you striving for?
PMcG: Well, just like any other band, we release a lot of hateful and
painful aggression through the instrumentation while we're
playing live. But I also feel, when I'm performing live, that
I'm having a lot of out-of-body experiences. When I'm behind
the kit, especially when I'm doing drums and singing - I don't
think of the human formation anymore. I feel like I'm a
serpent. My astrological sign is Gemini, which is also the
cadaceus, and it's very important to me. You know, I feel like
I'm the left side of the serpent, which is like Apzu... It's
hard to explain - it's metaphysical feelings that I feel on
stage...
CoC: I know that these things are hard to put into words. Though not
exactly in the Absu tradition, I'm kind of a mystic myself...
PMcG: Yeah, that's the best way that I know that I can treat of these
deathless, timeless, perpetual thoughts of non-human formation
that are just constantly going through my mind. And like I just
said: when I play live, it's a beautiful feeling - but at the
same time it's very painful, very warlike... a lot of
sensations of battlecraft that I get when we're up on stage.
And I think I can speak for the other members of Absu when
they're on stage, as well.
CoC: Of course, today's extreme metal scene is almost totally
permeated by Satanism - of one variety or another. How do you
think that Absu's approach relates to the issues, ideas, and so
on, that are important, at least to the more thoughtful members
of the Satanic contingent? Do you see important similarities,
important differences?
PMcG: Well, that's based upon the social issue... And, you know, I
honestly do not give a shit. I don't give a rat's ass about
what other bands say, what they think, what they do. You have
to follow your own pathway. If you're a Satanist, follow
Satanism, and be sure and praise it as freely as you want to
within the lyrical content of your songs. As for us, we're
pagans. In our hearts - in our liquid-glass-cased hearts, we're
pagans. There's no god but man; we worship ourselves. The Absu
cult is based upon magick, bloodlust, and pride. Those are the
three basic elements, and we take those three elements and try
to create a very innovative, very unambiguous, annihilating
force of occult rock'n'roll music. So I'm not trying to be
pessimistic on this question, but it's just gotten to the point
where I just don't give a shit about the Satanism and whatnot.
Of course, there are still so many bands that we share a
brotherhood with, throughout this whole globe that the human
manifestation classifies as 'earth.' For example, Enslaved.
Ourselves, we're not part of any Scandinavian or Norse
indulgence or ancestral customs - but they're very, very good
brothers of ours, although Absu is outside of the mythology
that they study. Or like Deicide. Absu is not classified as a
Satanic band: we are more weird, occult, magickal - but you
know, I like Deicide a lot. So it just depends.
CoC: Have you ever heard any criticism to the effect that Absu's
approach involves too much mixing of distinct occult and
historical traditions?
PMcG: Well, if you've seen as many comparisons as we have [between
Sumerian and Celtic traditions especially], then I think one
can relate to it. But a lot of people think that we're very
pretentious, because we're an American band. They think we
can't be "true" - that we're not true, because Absu is an
American band. A lot of people in Europe think of Absu, and
then they think, "Oh! Morrisound Studios in Tampa, Florida...
Oh! There are a lot of christian churches in America... Oh!"
You know, since I abide in Texas, I can't have pure Scottish
blood, obviously. But a lot of people in Europe think that
they're one hundred percent, that their ancestral customs are
strictly limited to themselves. It's bullshit. They're a mixed
breed. You know, it's universal. You will not find pure
ancestral blood, except maybe in the most rural farm areas,
where they're still speaking the old languages. There, I do
believe they're still carrying maybe eighty percent pure
ancestral blood. So, yeah, we get a lot of shit for it, but we
don't care. If people want to dog us, I don't really give a
shit. It doesn't bother us; it only makes us stronger.
CoC: Any other thoughts on these issues?
PMcG: I want people reading this to know that this is how I truly
feel. I'm not trying to put on an act. I'm just fascinated with
my immortality, and with communicating the many thoughts of
non-human formation that are always moving in and out of my
conscious and subconscious mind.
CoC: I take it that you see your solo project as a real extension of
that - a chance to explore all that from a different angle or a
different side? [_The Venus Bellona_ is Proscriptor's first solo
album, recorded for Cold Meat subsidiary Cruel Moon
International.]
PMcG: Yeah, basically the idea behind the Proscriptor project is to
let the audience know (quote) how I actually became (quote
again) Emperor Proscriptor Magikus McGovern. It's not only I,
but Equitant and Shaftiel: they have solo projects as well. And
basically what it's for us to let the audience know a little
bit more about who we are... But, you know, <laughs> a lot of
people are expecting _The Venus Bellona_ to be a metal project,
and when they hear it, it's a different concoction - it's a
novel about creation through the Venus Bellona.
CoC: And even those who simply look at the track listing probably get
a bit of a shock when they see the last song on there... [It's a
cover of "I Ran (So Far Away)" by eighties wave-rock ensemble A
Flock of Seagulls.]
PMcG: Yeah.
CoC: What led to your decision to do that?
PMcG: I'm so indulged and inspired by so many different types of
music besides death, black, thrash, and heavy metal in general.
I am a keyboardist, and I do a lot of programming. It's a big
interest that I've wanted to take up, and this is the perfect
time for me to pursue a solo career, because I have time to do
it. _The Venus Bellona_ is kind of a subsidiary offshoot of
what is studied in Absu: magick and ancestral behaviors based
on the Celtic side of the mythology. The Proscriptor project is
really pinpointing my Scottish roots, and also focuses on the
Dominion Folklore of Thoth. On a lot of the album, I'm heavily
influenced by the early eighties wave of pre- and post-wave
rock, like A Flock of Seagulls (naturally), Gary Numan,
Romeovoid, Bauhaus, and others. But at the same time, it's also
got a lot of influence from early to mid-seventies progressive
art rock as well... It's experimental music; I can play with
the ideology or the theme behind the lyrical content. It can be
post-wave rock; it can be art rock; it can be folklore,
ambient, experimental.
CoC: Will there be another Equimanthorn? [Equimanthorn is the
experimental ritual music project consisting of past and present
members of Absu, plus certain luminaries from the Greek black
metal scene.]
PMcG: That's up to Unisound Records - if they can properly negotiate
a deal with us. That's totally up in the air; it's a big
question mark right now, lingering in the stratosphere. But
right now, of course, Absu is the numero uno priority, and
Proscriptor falls second. Equimanthorn has got like four songs
recorded, but it depends on the labels that will approach us to
do another album. So it's just kind of wait and see.
CoC: Regarding Absu: what are you guys working on now? I hear you
just recorded an Iron Maiden song?
PMcG: Yeah, a couple of weeks before the Milwaukee Metal Fest, we
recorded "Transylvania", the instrumental track from the first
Maiden LP. It's coming out on Dwell Records, part of a CD of
Maiden covers. Also, we just did a song for the "Gummo" movie
soundtrack; the movie comes out on October 3rd, which is a
Friday... Right now, we're about to record the title track from
the canceled mini-CD on Osmose. We're going to re-record it -
it's called "Thrashstorms" - for a Necropolis compilation
called _Thrashing Holocaust_.
CoC: Another Eighties revival thing?
PMcG: <laughs> Yeah.
CoC: Who else is on this thing?
PMcG: It's going to have a demo track from the original Incubus from
Louisiana, Infernal Majesty, Inferno, Gehennah, Scepter,
Usurper, Sigh, Abigail, Guillotine, Aura Noir, Bewitched, Angel
Corpse, Nifelheim, Satanic Slaughter, and about two to four
other bands. I think it's a double-disc.
CoC: When is it coming out?
PMcG: I would guess October or November. After that, we're going to
do a five-song mini-CD for Osmose, all new material. The
working title right now is _For Ioldanach, With a Crown of
Gold_. Then hopefully we'll go back to Europe and support that.
And right now, I'm working on a mini-CD for my Proscriptor
project. So we're keeping busy at the moment.
CoC: So what happened to the _Thrashstorms_ mini-CD? Why was it
canceled?
PMcG: We recorded it and just decided not to release it. I mean, look
at all these bands doing Kreator, Sodom, and - naturally -
Frost, Bathory, and Venom covers.
CoC: Yeah, that's what I figured...
PMcG: We recorded "Flag of Hate" by Kreator, "Bestial Invasion" by
Destruction, "Torment in Fire" by Sacrifice -
CoC: <totally interrupting him>: Holy Shit!! [That song rules. --
Steve]
PMcG: - one by Necrovore, and then the title track. But we decided,
you know, if Absu ever releases a box set ten or fifteen years
down the road, we could feature those tracks. I just didn't
think it would be a good move right then.
CoC: Yeah, given the timing, it definitely would have looked like
bandwagoning.
PMcG: No doubt. It's just like, look at Impaled Nazarene, look at
Marduk, look at Bewitched [all of whom put out mini-CDs of
covers last year]...
CoC: Well, I'm bummed to hear that _Thrashstorms_ won't be coming
out, because those are cool choices for songs to cover.
PMcG: We've been playing them since well before Absu was formed.
There were bands before Absu like Karrion and Karnage - both
spelled with a 'K'... wonder why. <laughs> Like Kreator. We've
been playing the songs since '88; it's in our blood, which is
why we planned the mini-CD. But, on the other hand, I told
Herve the plan, but I never set any release date - then he puts
it in a newsletter for Osmose. Then I look in a Relapse
catalog, and they claim that they're carrying the
_Thrashstorms_ mini-CD. <laughs> It's never even initially been
pressed. So I called up Relapse and fucked with them: 'Yeah,
I'll take forty copies.' <laughs> These people fucking kill me.
CoC: As long as we're on the topic of eighties metal, what's your
opinion of the way in which that seems to be quite the trend
right now?
PMcG: Personally, I really do not want to see any more bands
deliberately - I hate to use this terminology, but - ripping
off the eighties style. I think that the [eighties-inspired]
bands that exist right now - Inferno, Usurper, Scepter, Aura
Noir, and others - the majority of them are really good. But I
hope it stops where it's at right now. You know, I really enjoy
the bands that are out now, but I don't really want to see any
more bands just do the very same thing... But you know, I am
glad to see a lot of the major thrash acts re-uniting, bringing
the old spirit back.
CoC: How was your recent trip to Mexico?
PMcG: Very successful - probably some of the best shows we've ever
played.
CoC: I heard you had a great reception.
PMcG: It was incredible: a lot of violence, big crowds. It was cool.
CoC: What did you think of Milwaukee this year?
PMcG: Yeah! It was the second time Absu played there. The first time
was in '95, and I have to say, the organization, and just
everything in general was at least 80 percent better this year
than what it was when we were there in '95.
CoC: Any definite plans for other recording, after the new mini-CD?
PMcG: Well, after we release that, we're going to tour, and anything
else that happens after that, we'll just have to wait and see.
But basically, I would say that two of the tracks that are
going to be on this new CD will present a sort of image of what
you'll hear on the fourth album. We just did a new negotiation
with Osmose for this mini-CD and the fourth and fifth albums.
We're extremely satisfied with the label.
CoC: One thing that I like about the band is that all three of your
full-lengths have had a fairly distinct sound. That makes me
wonder whether you'll go off in yet another (somewhat) different
direction on the fourth album.
PMcG: Our goal and objective ever since this band began was to have a
different style and structure and just overall different sound
from album to album. I guarantee the mini-CD will have a
different sound; the fourth album will have a different sound,
a little bit different style. That also goes for the fifth,
sixth, seventh, and eighth... That's just the goal for us: to
have a different production, and a little bit different style,
on every release. However, we want to still keep in the same
vein of our own style - the Absu style and structure. From
_Barathrum V.I.T.R.I.O.L._, to _The Sun of Tiphareth_, to _The
Third Storm of Cythraul_ - each album varies, each is a little
bit different, but I still feel that they all reinforce each
other.
CoC: Yeah, I'd definitely agree with that. Continuity through
variety. Are you happy with the production that you got on _The
Third Storm of Cythraul_?
PMcG: The overall production, yes. The drum and percussion
engineering portion of it, no, not at all. I've actually been
wanting to re-mix the album - not every song, but like half the
tracks. For example: "A Magician's Lapis-Lazuli" - the snare
drum's completely buried. I really wanted to experiment on this
recording, because I used four different snare drums on the
recording - a mistake on my part. I should've just kept the
snare drum that I wanted to use the most for all the tracks.
But the engineer that we used, I don't think that he'd done an
extreme, occult metal act before. Another thing is that we've
been selfish: ever since the band's career first started, we've
self-produced everything. But I think from now on, we're going
to need someone else's advice, and we're going to bring in a
producer for future recordings for Absu. We've seriously
discussed using Harris Johns, the chief engineer at Skylab
Studios in Berlin. He's recorded Kreator, Sodom, Voivod,
Tankard, Immolation's _Dawn of Possession_, Occult's _The Enemy
Within_, and others.
[Thanks and cheers to Proscriptor for a very interesting talk, and to
Roberta Evans for making it possible. -- Steve]
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
E X T R E M E N O I S E T E R R O R I S T S
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CoC interview Extreme Noise Terror
by: Adam Wasylyk
Extreme. Noise. Terror. These are three appropriate words to
describe ENT's latest release, _Damage 381_. It's 90s grindcore that
takes no prisoners when it comes to speed and outright brutality. The
lost art of this most extreme genre has now been resurrected and
hopefully, it's here to stay! The band have been making headlines
with their line-up troubles, swapping vocalists with Napalm Death but
later swapping vocalists yet again! After much speculation and rumor,
I had the opportunity to talk to vocalist Dean Jones and to find out
the real story about the situation along with asking him about ENT's
new record.
'Basically Napalm Death asked Phil (Vane, ENT vocalist) to join
about three or four months ago,' Jones begins about the tumultuous
line-up changes that were starting to occur. 'Phil accepted and they
sacked Barney (Greenway, ND vocalist). This was in the middle of us
recording _Damage 381_ so we were without a vocalist for our album,
so we thought the logical choice was to ask Barney. So we sent him a
tape of what we had done on the album, he really liked it so he came
down and did the vocals. Straight after Barney laid down the vocals,
I heard that Napalm Death were having trouble with Phil, getting the
vocals that they wanted out of him for their album. So then they
wanted Barney back! Barney agreed to go back to Napalm under certain
terms and Phil was out of a job and we were without a vocalist yet
again, so we asked Phil back so everything just went around in a
complete circle. Barney ended up singing on the new album and now
Phil's back in the band to tour with us. Napalm Death were basically
trying to do something different, and Phil was a bit of a guinea pig
and he was used and tossed aside. That's really what happened.'
Barney's short stay in ENT was a comfortable one, one that
reminded him of a time long gone. Jones relates the story to me as if
Barney had 'come home' so to speak. 'When he came down to record the
vocals, he told us he felt so at home, because the last couple of
records with Napalm were the complete opposite as they (the band)
were telling him 'Can you mellow your vocals down a bit, Barney?' and
'Can you sing a bit more like Machine Head?' and Barney told me he
didn't feel comfortable doing that and he really felt at home during
this album because it was back to _Utopia Banished_ for him, which he
felt comfortable with. He really enjoyed singing and recording the
album with us.'
I was surprised to hear that after Phil's departure for greener
pastures, no ill-will or bitter feelings by the band were directed
towards him. 'Phil had been with the band right from the beginning,
we were all really good friends, and he didn't leave on bitter terms
at all. We stayed in touch when he was with Napalm. We couldn't blame
him, they offered him quite a bit of money and Phil was really in
debt at the time, so we couldn't blame him for doing what he did.'
Our conversation swung to _Damage 381_, a 90s answer to
(coincidentally) Napalm Death's _Scum_. 'The plan was when we started
making the album, we felt that the last record, _Retro-bution_, and
the one before that, _Phonophobia_, didn't have the chaotic
extremities that we used to have like our _Peel Sessions_ album. We
basically listened to our older albums and thought 'Wow, if only we
could do something as good as what we did on the _Peel Sessions_
again.' We decided that we were going to put back in the scream-style
vocals which we hadn't done for two albums, and also the blast beats
which we hadn't had for a couple of albums, to really make it more
chaotic and more 'Extreme Noise Terror' again 'cause we weren't happy
with the last two albums before _Damage 381_ as they weren't extreme
enough in our eyes. It has a slightly more metal feel to it than it's
ever had before, it's total in-your-face grindcore. No one else is
doing it, and we felt there's a big hole in the market for it as lots
of kids want to hear extreme music. As far as I know, there hasn't
been an extreme grind album for probably three or four years now.
Kids are still walking around with Carcass _Symphonies of Sickness_
shirts, early Napalm shirts, and Brutal Truth shirts, and no one is
doing that music anymore, so we thought that's what we want to do.
It's the music we like, so we're going to do another grindcore
album.'
The name of ENT's new record actually has an amusing story
behind it. 'It came about because for track six (the title track), we
just laid down the music when we felt 'we're going to play as fast as
we can and keep it up for as long as possible.' We hadn't actually
laid the vocals down and I hadn't written any lyrics for it at that
point, but the guy in the studio with some computer said 'gee, it's
fast, I put [the song] through the computer and it came up '381''. I
don't know if the word 'damage' sort of appeared [on the computer],
like damaging to the ears, so then it suddenly clicked 'Oh, Damage
381! That has a ring to it!' So we decided to call the song "Damage
381", and after playing that track to Digby (head honcho at Earache),
he really loved the track and said we should call the album _Damage
381_ as well. That's how it came about, the song having 381
beats-per-minute at its highest peak.'
I wrapped up our talk by asking Jones if the band finally has
some stability with its present members, or could something similar
to what happened occur down the road? 'I think we're stable now.
Everyone is really pleased who's in the band with the album, no one
else has day jobs anymore, and no one else is in other bands, both of
which were problems in the past. I think we can now work on the next
album and we'll be touring soon as well. We're all committed now.'
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
B U R N B A B Y B U R N !
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CoC interviews Crematory
by: Adrian Bromley
"On our latest album, _Awake_, you can hear the development of
the band and where we came from since our last record, _Illusions_,"
begins rather talkative Crematory drummer, Markus, over the phone
from Germany. "With _Awake_, you find more melody and a stronger
sound. This is probably the best sound we have been able to achieve
with Crematory so far."
The quintet's latest release, and debut album for Nuclear Blast,
is a hard-stridin' dose of darkened gothic metal. Like many of the
older and newer goth/metal bands within Europe, e.g. Paradise Lost,
EverEve, and Left Hand Solution (the latter two are both on Nuclear
Blast, too), Crematory believes deeply in the art of emotions and
story-telling. The music of _Awake_ overflows with strong emotional
expression and creative story-telling. "This music we create is an
emotional dream world for us. It is not reality for us. It is just us
having fun and being creative."
About _Awake_, he says, "We are very happy with what we have
done this time around and I hope we still have a lot of creative
juices inside of us for future records and songs. Right now we are
the #1 gothic/metal band in Germany and we are trying hard to make
that happen for us around the world. We just want to be successful
and keep Crematory around for a long time." Even though it took the
band several months in the studio to record their latest effort and
achieve the sound they were looking for, according to Markus, making
_Awake_ was an experience. "We had a lot of fun making this record.
We also had a lot of time, almost two months in the studio, to work
on this record and experiment in the studio. We carefully etched out
what we wanted to do within the studio. We re-did vocals and added
keyboards and just experimented to create something strong and
interesting for people to hear." About their studio work ethics, he
says, "When we go into the studio we have about 80% of what we want
on the record already done. We let our imaginations run wild and
bring forth all these other ideas into the music to make it brighter.
Experimentation plays a key role in the studio work and with what the
end results are."
Though the band - which is rounded out by singer Felix,
keyboardist Katrin, bassist Harald, and guitarist Lotte - enjoys
studio work, Markus reveals that like most bands, Crematory finds
more enjoyment out on the road. "We are just the type of band that
likes to be out on the road performing. It gets so busy and tiring
when working on a record in a studio atmosphere, and so playing live
is definitely a form of release for us."
Seeing that the band garnered a lot of notoriety and respect
from the goth metal (and metal) community with their last effort,
_Illusions_, does Markus believe that success affected the way the
band created material and worked on the new record? He answers, "I
don't think the record's success affected the way we created material
for _Awake_. I think we are approaching this record in a different
way though in terms of marketing and publicity. _Illusions_ did very
well for us but right now with _Awake_, we are on Nuclear Blast and
we have really good distribution around the world. We are able to get
the record out to more people and what we are hoping to achieve is to
surpass what we did with _Illusions_ in terms of notoriety and album
sales. We'll see."
So what is success for Markus and Crematory? "It isn't the
money... not at all. We just want to be able to tour and play lots of
shows and festivals all over the world. Like I said before, we are in
this to create music and reaching as many people as we can. It's
important for us to be able to take what we have created in the
studio and take it out on the road. If that didn't happen what would
be the point of making new music for people to hear? It's hard to be
able to do this, go out and tour and all that stuff, but when you get
up on stage and there are people screaming and shouting while you
play, that is all you need to show you why you do this. Money can't
buy that experience."
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N I G H T O F T H E D E C E A S E D
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CoC interviews King Fowley of Deceased
by: Drew Schinzel
Way back in January of this year I was lucky enough to receive from a
friend an advance mix of the new Deceased album (thanks Jim!). The
moment I heard the awesome opening riff, I couldn't wait for it to
finally be released, and July finally brought that joyous occasion.
Once the CD began spinning there was no turning back, it was ten
times better than the tape, and confirmed that _Fearless Undead
Machines_ was almost definitely going to be in my top five albums for
1997. I was quite lucky to have the opportunity to talk to
vocalist/drummer King Fowley about all sorts of things, and among
others, I found out that he's one of the funniest and coolest guys in
metal I've ever talked to...
CoC: What's up?
KF: Man, sorry it took me so long, man, I was fuckin' dialing like...
I don't know -what- I was doing. I dialed like my own number like
six times man. It was insane. By the way, Jim says
"waaaazzzzzupp!!" So what's up?
CoC: What brought about such a change in your sound? I mean, you guys
used to be just like old school death metal, and now it's more
melodic heavy metal influenced type of stuff.
KF: I don't personally see that big of a change. I think what it is,
is the production, man. I think the production just makes it. I
was telling this guy a little while ago I think _Blueprints for
Madness_ had a lot of old school stuff on it, too. I don't think
people heard it because it was just a thundering fuckin' wall of
noise. <laughs> I guess it's a little more speed metal than just
blasting death, you know. But I don't know, man, I guess it's
just natural, it's just what we wrote.
CoC: What's your favorite element of the new album? The more deathy
parts, or the melodic sections?
KF: I like the melodicness of it. I'm a big melody fan, and I like
the harmonies, and I just like the pacing of the album. I think
the fast parts are fast enough where it's not so fast where it
sounds like Suffocation or something that I don't -want- to sound
like. I think that the slow parts sound heavy, and slow, and, you
know, good.
CoC: Were you influenced by bands like Dissection or Dark
Tranquillity at all? It sounds pretty Swedish with the melodies
at times, at least to me it does.
KF: Yeah, you know what, I guess so for a part, maybe with Mike
[Smith]'s guitar playing. I know Mark [Adams] doesn't follow that
at all. I know it, but I'm not that inspired by it. I think
they're good bands for what they do. But I think those bands, a
lot of their stuff is a little bit boring. It's like with Dark
Tranquillity, after you hear one album they all kind of start
sounding the same. [Well that's something I disagree with
totally, but that's okay. - Drew] I think ours has a little more
depth and a little more cleverness to it. I'm not knocking those
bands because they definitely can play. But I guess so, probably
definitely with Mike Smith's guitar playing.
CoC: Was the whole zombie thing something you always wanted to do?
KF: Oh yeah, it goes back to the second demo, _Birth by Radiation_,
in '88, man. It's like we started doing it then, and we did it on
the third demo. Then for _Luck of the Corpse_, it was like we
didn't have enough room to put it all on there, the whole
concept, so we abandoned it. We were like, now is the right time
to get back to it, and I wanted to write all new songs for it and
just do it now. Yeah I'm a big fuckin' horror freak.
CoC: Are you still happy to be on Relapse? It looks like they're kind
of moving towards all that ambient/noise stuff.
KF: As long as they don't tell us what to do, and accept us for what
we are, I have no problem. I get along with the guys great,
they're cool, and I support them one-hundred percent. They've
been behind us for the new record. I guess we'll be their 'metal
band,' and they can put out all that gay fuckin' ambient shit.
The guys are cool, but most of their roster, I just don't get it.
One of the only bands I think I like anymore on that label I
think is Morgion. I like Abscess. Mortician's fucking great.
Brutal Truth is cool. Other than that, I don't know, who's on
there anymore?
CoC: How about Amorphis? They changed a lot.
KF: I don't like them at all. I think they fucking blow. They're
trying to be progressive. I mean, I grew up on progressive rock
as much as metal, I used to listen to that shit all the time, and
that shit (Amorphis) is -not- progressive.
CoC: What about the old Amorphis?
KF: Yeah, I love the first two albums. It's just all these keyboards.
I mean, I don't mind keyboards at all, but they just don't play
them right or something. Everybody says they sound like Deep
Purple. They ain't sound like no fuckin' Deep Purple to me!
Sounds like fuckin' Deep Shit! <laughs>
CoC: [after regaining composure from laughing so hard] So what's next
for you guys, musically, after such a monumental album like
_Fearless Undead Machines_?
KF: I have no idea. Actually, we were talking about that last night,
me and Mark. We were sitting here after practice, because we've
been having a lot of problems with the practice room, the amps
have been sounding so bad. But we were talking about that, and
how we want to be and how we have to live up to this album
(_Fearless Undead Machines_) now, and make it not a fluke. But
the next thing we're planning is an EP called _Spirits_. It's
going to be really weird. I've already got the titles, it's got
five songs. We've got "The Premonition", "The Hanging Soldier",
"A Very Familiar Stranger", we've got one called "Mrs. Allerdice"
which is based on the movie "Burnt Offerings", then the closing
one is called "A Chilling Heartbeat", which is based on "The
Telltale Heart", you know, Edgar Allen Poe. You know, it's going
to be very morbid. I think it's still going to be very fast, very
aggressive, very melodic, very intense. We're going to go from
there just to try out some different production just to see how
it goes. Then that'll carry us over to the next full-length.
We're also planning on doing a live album, and an all-covers
album called _Live for Metal_. It's going to be all 80s stuff.
We're going to do, like, "Deathrider" from Anthrax, fuckin' crazy
shit, Razor, Whiplash, Metal Church, Nasty Savage covers, uhh...
I don't even know, Tyrants, who the hell knows.
CoC: Any Sodom in there?
KF: Nah, there won't be Sodom, but there will be thrash like
Whiplash, Razor, etc... Agent Steele <laughs>, if you want to
call them thrash, I guess they were speed metal. Yeah, as for
Sodom and stuff, it's just so done, you know? Everybody's done
Sodom covers, everybody's done Destruction, Slayer...
CoC: Yup, retro...
KF: Yeah, kind of cheesy, isn't it?
CoC: Yep, totally. It's like with Demoniac, they used to be black
metal.
KF: Is that the band on Osmose?
CoC: Yeah. (Evil Omen is a division of Osmose)
KF: Are they still on Osmose?
CoC: Yep.
KF: Jesus. -Now- they're old school?
CoC: Yep. They used to be all corpse-painted. Now they're wearing
sunglasses and bandannas... total change.
KF: Oh, Jesus. Sounds like Gehennah. But Gehennah seems real. They're
definitely cool. Bewitched is okay, Inferno I don't mind, of the
Osmose bands. But I don't know what's happening now. I'm turning
around every day and someone's play thrash now, and Sodom, Marduk
doing Piledriver covers, and I'm like "What the -fuck- happened,
man? Play your cheesy shit out dude, just because your fucking
day has come when no one likes you anymore, don't try and jump on
the next bandwagon." Most people see right through that, at least
the fuckin' smart people do. Not those who live in Robotic
Village. <laughs>
CoC: For the lyrics to the album, was it -just- a story, or are you
trying to convey some message with it?
KF: There's lots of little messages in there about telling the world
how fucked up it is. I don't know if you seen that.
CoC: Yeah, I noticed the one about religion.
KF: Oh yeah, It's just the whole world is so damned full of shit, you
know? And all we're doing is paving our fuckin' road to death. As
far as the lyrics, I wanted it to be traditional horror to a
point, but very tastefully done, and very disturbing, because
there's no happiness in my lyrics, there never will be. Nothing
has a good ending. There's always a fork in the road. In my
horror movies, everybody dies. There's no hero that's going to
climb out of the rocks going, "I survived!" In mine, he'd climb
out of the rocks, and then another rock would just smash his head
in. I just want to keep it real dreary, and I want to hear
people's interpretations of the story just to see if what I wrote
comes across to them as how I wanted it to. Because everybody can
take it however they want to, you know?
CoC: What was the hardest thing about writing _Fearless Undead
Machines_?
KF: The hardest thing for us was just getting a solid place where we
could just jam all the time. We were jumping from rehearsal space
to rehearsal space for _Blueprints..._, and finally we got
settled into my house, my basement, to start rehearsing. There
was no interference, we could sit there and talk about if we want
to change things. It wasn't like, we were at someone's house and
they were cooking dinner. We used to jam with Abominog, at their
house, and we'd be there practicing and their drummer would come
in and start tuning his drums, playing drum solos, that's kind of
kooky, you know? But now we're all settled in and we finally got
the chance to just the four of us go in this little room, and
fuckin' jam and talk about it, and change things. That's all it
really took, was just getting settled in. But it kind of came
naturally; some songs came together easier, some were instantly
written and done, some took a lot of changing, with new riffs,
and rewriting. But you know, I'm happy as shit with the album,
every song just came out how we wanted it to.
CoC: Yeah, well I must say, I think every song is excellent.
KF: I appreciate that, man. Any favorites?
CoC: Probably "The Psychic".
KF: Cool. If I can say this, honestly, that was actually written as
the single. I guess we knew that there weren't going to be any
real singles, so we just, like, jokingly said, like, well, you
know how in the 80s, Iron Maiden would put out _The Trooper_ and
have, like, the B-sides, you know? It's like, there's our 12-inch
single, you know? We just laughed at it. It just had that vibe,
it's very catchy. Relapse is digging "Fearless...", the song, and
"Graphic Repulsion" has been getting a lot of good things. Which
is kind of strange because when me and Mark wrote that, it was
probably my least favorite, but when it came out in the studio, I
was really happy with it. That one had a lot of problems. It was
-really- fast. At first, it was probably the closest thing we had
on the album to blast. I think the next album's going to be very
fast. I think it'll be more fast - the next album will be very,
very fast. But it'll be very melodic. But it won't be like Dark
Tranquillity - fast and melodic, because I don't think speed and
melody always work that good together. You have to just move your
dynamics around and let it hit at certain times.
CoC: What do you think about the Korn and Machine Head-type bands?
KF: I don't know how to spell this, but "fuuuyiiillllck." [the best I
could do - Drew] I hate that shit. I don't like the personality
that comes with it, I don't like the people that listen to it, I
don't like the macho fuckin' image it creates. I think it's
fuckin' silly. It's just so overrated. I mean, anyone could take
an open E, and just chug it, and just scream fuckin' vile shit
over it. I don't know, it just doesn't do anything for me. I've
never been a fan of that style. If I want to listen to some of
that open E stuff, I'll listen to early Annihilator or something.
You see, it's good when it sounds good... Van Halen was the
master of that. It's just silly, man, too macho for me.
CoC: What do you guys have lined up for the rest of this year?
KF: Hopefully we'll go on tour. Who knows if that's going to happen.
Write this new EP, try and do a live album, try and do this
covers thing, all that within the rest of this year. We're just
trying to get out and play, too, we really want to get out and
play. We're looking for the right tour, but, I don't know, I
don't honestly know what to tell you about that, it's just kind
of up in the air.
CoC: Well, you'll be playing a show with Exodus in New York City on
August 21st right?
KF: We'll definitely be there, we'll be there kickin' ass. I'm not
looking forward to Exodus, though, man. I don't know... I don't
like this reunion thing they're doing. They're like "Hey, look,
we did one good album and then we sucked for all these years. Now
we're back doing the good album again!" Am I supposed to applaud
them for wimping out, you know? Oh, it's a big money thing.
CoC: Yeah, they're kind of just riding the thrash retro uprising.
KF: Exactly, you know what time it is.
CoC: Well, that's it King. Anything you want to say to the readers?
KF: Just look out for the Deceased album, man. We're as honest a band
as we can be. We don't fuckin' bullshit nobody, we don't pull no
punches, we just do our thing. And you know just remember, metal
rules and it always has, and even when this retro thing is over,
it still will.
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A S B L A C K A S T H E Y W A N N A B E
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CoC interviews Vassago of Lord Belial
by: Drew Schinzel
After much delay, the sophomore effort of harsh-yet-melodic Swedish
black metallers Lord Belial, entitled _Enter the Moonlight Gate_, is
finally out. Reviewed in these pages months ago, the advance 4-song
tape under scrutiny then was only a mere half of the full-length
album, and the newer material does not disappoint at all. Swinging
back and forth from violent outbursts of pure speed and aggression,
to mid-paced walks through luscious fields of melody enveloped by
flute, _EtMG_ is definitely a high-quality release. Guitarist Vassago
took some time off to answer our questions.
CoC: Since your new album _Enter the Moonlight Gate_ was recently
released, what have you been doing in the meantime?
Vassago: We have been recording some demo tracks for our next album
and we have recorded "Come to the Sabbath" by Mercyful Fate.
This cover-version will be featured on a Mercyful
Fate-compilation released by Listenable Records. We recorded
it in Andy LaRocque's studio, and we are pleased with the
result. We will most probably record our next album with
Andy. He is great to work with.
CoC: Why was there such a delay between the recording of the album
(April '96) and its eventual release (July '97)?
V: No Fashion signed a lot of bands during a short period of time.
This resulted in a chaotic handling of their releases. That is why
it was delayed over and over again.
CoC: After releasing two albums on No Fashion Records, what is your
feeling towards the label? Are you satisfied with them?
V: Well, let me assure you; they have not bothered one bit about us
until this last month (July '97). The guy who handles us is not
involved in the scene at all, he is just a clerk who knows nothing
about metal. The staff at House of Kicks is the same staff that
runs a mail order company called Sound Pollution; and the
distribution of albums in Sweden/Scandinavia, plus No Fashion,
Chaos Records, and five or six more small record labels. In my
opinion, they should be five times as many people to be able to
handle the situation properly. But then they won't make as much
money as they are doing at the moment, so I suppose they have
decided to stomp on the bands instead. We are -not- satisfied with
them. They recently fucked up a tour with Emperor for us. They
neglected to answer on time because the clerk that is supposed to
run our business was ON VACATION!!! AAAAARRRGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!! There
are a few other labels that want to sign us, and they were so
fucking angry when they heard about this, they said "Ahhh, come
on, you MUST leave No Fashion now, we will pay the tour at ONCE if
you sign for us!"
CoC: In music, and especially it seems in metal, maintaining a steady
band lineup is sometimes difficult, yet the four members of Lord
Belial have been together since the beginning, in '92. Is the
band lineup as strong now as it was then?
V: Well, actually it is stronger. The bass player has never been
involved in metal, that is why he has such a unique style in bass
playing, but he has grown into his position completely. We have
never been as strong as we are now, and we are getting better and
stronger all the time!
CoC: It seems that although the new trend is to be retro and very
80s, Lord Belial has remained solidly in the realm of black
metal. What's your view of the retro uprising?
V: Ha, I suppose it's the kids that grew up with the flood of black
metal music that have thought "I wonder what these guys were
listening to when they started" and are now finding it cool to
plagiarize the "original" metal. I think Lord Belial have some
sounds from the 80s as well, though. My personal influences lie in
this era.
CoC: The band has a great talent for writing majestic melodies, for
both the guitar and flute, yet you place them right next to
violent, fast sections of the songs, structurally. Which do you
find more difficult to write, and which do you prefer, the
melodic or the violent?
V: Well, the melodies are mostly made by Dark, while I like it more
brutal, so my riffs tend to be less melodic. I like it raw and
straightforward, but the contrast makes it much better.
CoC: Lord Belial is unique in that you incorporate flutes into a
harsh black metal environment. Do you foresee use of the flute
in the future?
V: Oh, I am assured we will use flute on our next album as well,
along with a few other "different" instruments.
CoC: You placed some female vocals in Enter the Moonlight Gate as
well. Can you explain the decision to use them?
V: It was Dark's idea. His girlfriend is a singer in a choir, so he
came up with this idea to make the contrast between melody and
aggression even bigger.
CoC: Do you view the band, and music in general, as an emotional
attachment to you, or more as a form of self-expression, or
both?
V: Since Dark finds it difficult to use mine or Sin's lyrics, he
generally uses his own nowadays, so I can no longer say that I can
express anything in particular more than just feelings in the
music. Sometimes, I have a totally different vision in my head
than what Dark sings about, though. But mostly, it works very
good.
CoC: How satisfied are you with Lord Belial's two albums?
V: I do not listen so much to _Kiss the Goat_, maybe once every
second month. I don't think that this album is representative for
Lord Belial anymore. _Enter the Moonlight Gate_, however, is. I
was satisfied with _Kiss the Goat_ for one week, then we entered
the studio with Vassago to create some pure violent music. _Kiss
the Goat_ has its good sides, though. I am quite pleased with
_Enter..._, but I know that our next album will be the best we
have ever made!
CoC: What have you got planned for the next album? Will it continue
in the same vein as _Enter the Moonlight Gate_?
V: We have five freshly written songs and they sparkle with energy,
yet it is not the same drumming, it is much more varied.
Sometimes, it is MUCH faster, but it is more mixed with heaviness.
The people that have heard our new material think that it is in
the vein of _Enter..._, but better still.
CoC: What's planned for the rest of this year?
V: Rehearsals!!! And hopefully a tour. We are VERY eager to go on
tour. We have the album on digi-pack now, but it will also come
out on vinyl. We have t-shirts and long sleeves, and they look
excellent. Actually, they are the most beautiful shirts on the
market, and this is no bragging, it is stating of a fact.
<snickers> Personally, I will go on tour with Sacramentum later on
as well.
CoC: That's the end, Vassago, thanks a lot. Take this space to say
what you wish...
V: Buy our works of music and art. It is not just a piece of metal,
it is a new world that awaits to be explored! Thanks for the
interview. Die Hard!!!
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A T T H E M O U N T A I N S O F M A D N E S S
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CoC interviews Orphanage
by: Pedro Azevedo
Fresh originality is usually a good thing, and Orphanage have
struggled to achieve that since their debut, _Oblivion_, in 1995.
Mixing an unusual kind of melody (based mostly on choir singing and
keyboards) with an even more unusual rhythmic section was a daring
move, as these two might have clashed instead of actually fitting
together. But the fact remains that _By Time Alone_, in 1996, was a
clear improvement over their debut, while focusing on the same ideals
and similar techniques. Orphanage is based around George Oosthoek's
death grunts and occasional screams, Rosan van der Aa's female voice,
Lex Vogelaar's unusual guitar sound, Guus Eikens' keyboard, Eric
Hoogendoorn's bass, and Erwin Polderman's drums. Coming from Holland,
this DSFA Records band had a big performance at the Dynamo this year,
including a choir in their set; they are now ready to think about
their next album. Here is my e-mail interview with bass player Eric
Hoogendoorn.
CoC: How would you describe the differences between _Oblivion_ and
_By Time Alone_?
Eric Hoogendoorn: The most important difference between _Oblivion_
and _By Time Alone_ was the fact that we worked
with a steady lineup on _By Time Alone_. That's why
the album sounds more live and more Orphanage. We
made the songs with the whole band and we grew as a
band. In a way, we work the same way as on
_Oblivion_, but now we do it together, so we can
make better songs.
CoC: How well have the fans been reacting to your band's rather
unusual style?
EH: Well, in the beginning of Orphanage (when we made our first
demo), the people reacted a little strangely to our music, but at
the time we recorded _Oblivion_, more and more people liked our
style. In about a year, we had our own fans and that's still
going on. Each year that we play in clubs, there are more people
coming to see us and like us (magazines always say good things
about us, so that helped too). It's going very good for
Orphanage, we are very happy with that.
CoC: Why did you choose to mix the excellent melodies mainly provided
by Rosan and the keyboards with the puzzling (yet good) rhythmic
section?
EH: When we were thinking about the concept of Orphanage, we wanted
to put very heavy guitars, bass, drums, and melody together in a
way we had never heard before, so every part had to be original.
Lex came up with the polyrhythmic, and Guus came up with the
melody. We experimented a lot with that concept, and after some
time, we found Orphanage.
CoC: Does Rosan have any previous professional singing experience?
EH: No. She sang in a choir for a while, that was her experience.
CoC: How did you meet her, and why did she choose to join the band?
EH: Anthony [van den Berg, DSFA Records] met her and introduced her
to the band. She was just the one we were searching for and she
liked the band, so she joined us.
CoC: I gotta ask you this, about the choir you work(ed) with: what's
the story behind a name such as The dB's Monkey Spanking Choir?
EH: dB's is the place where we [Orphanage] practice. We have a lot of
friends there and we recorded our CD in Studio Moscow, which is
part of the dB's building. At the time we were working on
"Ancient Rhymes", we asked everyone to sing with us how was in
dB's. We called it the Monkey Spanking Choir because of Ren and
Stimpy.
CoC: What are the chances of further live shows with large choirs?
EH: We have done Dynamo Open Air and Best on the Rocks with a big
choir (and our CD presentation), but that was only for these
concerts. Now we don't do that anymore because we don't want to
do something for too long.
CoC: Did everything go well for you at the Dynamo this year?
EH: Yes. Dynamo was also, as last year, a great experience, but this
year we played on the main festival. You wouldn't believe how big
that is. When you see so many people there, something happens to
you. We played with a big choir and many musicians, and that was
a lot of work to practice, to do a concert with so many people,
but everything went okay for us and the people loved it, so it
was great.
CoC: Another DSFA band that played at the Dynamo was Within
Temptation. Would you like to tell us more about Orphanage's
role in their remarkable debut album, _Enter_?
EH: Within Temptation made all the songs themselves, so Orphanage had
nothing to do with that. Guus gave some advice about keyboard
sounds, Lex played on a song and did the production, and George
sung on a song. That's all Orphanage did on the album. I think
Within Temptation did a very good job on their album. They are
big in Holland already and I think the rest of Europe will
follow.
CoC: What's your personal opinion about that band after having worked
with them?
EH: I didn't work with them on their album but I recorded an album
with a new band of mine and Erwin's called Siliconhead. Sharon
den Adel [*excellent* singer -- Pedro] did a song on our album,
so that's the only experience I have with them. I can tell you we
had a lot of fun together (Sharon is a great singer).
CoC: What's your view on the current Dutch metal scene?
EH: There are a lot a good bands right now in Holland. Other
countries in Europe see that too, so there is a lot of interest
in Dutch bands on this moment. I hope it will stay this way.
CoC: Is a new album scheduled yet?
EH: We are going to record a new album in February 1998.
CoC: Any idea of what will change in your sound?
EH: I think not much will change, but the songs will be (also with
the last album) better than _By Time Alone_.
CoC: No more questions, time for a final message to the readers...
EH: Maybe I can express my feelings of what we are about in a live
situation, so I hope to see you all on tour, okay? Greetings to
all the readers of Chronicles of Chaos.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
_____ .__ ___.
/ _ \ | |\_ |__ __ __ _____
/ /_\ \| | | __ \| | \/ \
/ | \ |_| \_\ \ | / 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!
Abuse - _A Sunday Morning Killing Spree_ (Independent, 1997)
by: Alain M. Gaudrault (9 out of 10)
Another freebie I received at the Milwaukee MetalFest, I wasn't
expecting a whole lot when I was handed a copy of this full-length
CD. Much to my surprise, I found another slab of amazing sludgy
Louisiana metal, borrowing from death, doom, and speed, both in
musical and vocal approach. Production is great, clear and thick, yet
muddy enough where it needs to be. The vocals are well thought out,
always appropriately matched to the music, the different approaches
always executed with enough conviction so as to not sound contrived;
this guy can sing melodically, without over-emphasizing melody, and
can scream and growl effectively and potently. Guitars feature plenty
of well-executed speed and death riffs, with occasional trippy
psychedelic and acoustic tidbits. While there are two guitar players,
they don't stray too far off each other's lines, keeping the
interplay to a minimum; the songwriting strengths, though, lie in
their ability to keep the intensity and aggression level in the music
high throughout by changing the mood via different tempos, styles,
and textures. Complexity isn't key to their sound as much as sonic
variety within the metal framework. I would say that their sound and
even one of the vocal styles aren't entirely dissimilar to fellow
Louisianites (is that a word?) Exhorder's, yet more involved and
current, unlike Pantera who took the Exhorder sound and dumbed it
down for mass consumption. Biggest disappointment for me is the lack
of much of a bass presence, although drums come out loud and clear, a
good thing since their frenetic nature drives this album along;
always competent, well-defined, with superb fills and cymbal work,
and luckily, butt-kicking double bass. I think death metal fans with
a penchant for speed and/or melodic leanings will flip for Abuse;
this could probably even be enjoyed by fans of muscle metal (Pantera,
Machine Head, Biohazard), but it attempts to reach further than that,
and in many ways, it does; I would love to see fans of that genre
take to more thoughtfully written music. Unfortunately, lyrics aren't
included in the packaging, but the lyrics I'm able to determine tend
to be lucid, dark, and varied in subject matter; no rough and tough
machismo lurking around here. Basically, this band seems to function
perfectly as a unit, as they swoop and dive through the songs
effortlessly, instrumentation very tight, unwavering in their sonic
assault. The way in which the songs are put together, the flow of the
album from passage to passage, from song to song, is rather unique
and quite rewarding to the listener; thoroughly engaging material
well worth recommending. Seek this out.
Contact: ABUSE c/o Brian Strong, 3708 Stefano Street
Metairie, Louisiana USA 70002
Voice: 504-457-0105 (Brian Strong)
mailto:hbeast@acadiacom.net
http://www.acadiacom.net/hbeast/abuse/abuse.htm
Summon - _Dark Descent of Fallen Souls_
by: Steve Hoeltzel (8 out of 10) (Grinding Peace Records, 1996)
I was stoked to see these guys play at the Michigan International
Metal Fest, and they definitely didn't disappoint. Boasting
ex-members of Masochist, Summon play crafty black metal with
excellent, articulate vocals and a keen sense for song structure,
plus some sonic twists that distance the band from today's hordes of
wannabe-Scandinavian clones. Keyboards are used very sparingly, and
the tempos consistently vary within each song. There are no drawn-out
hyper-speed marathons, but there are still plenty of well-timed
bursts of sharp, skull-drilling snare blasts. Also, Xaphan's riffing
technique and guitar sound has more in common with the thrashy
morbidity of early Sodom (_Obsessed by Cruelty_ especially) than with
the tremolo-happy approach of the Scandinavian second wave. Still,
these guys are no mere retro band, and _Dark Descent..._ is NOT just
another bandwagon-jumping "black thrash" regurgitation of trademark
eighties styles. Songs like "Eve of Anti-Creation" and "Beyond the
Gates of Storm" display the strong, varied dynamics typical of some
of the great eighties bands, but still maintain a sharpened
contemporary edge. Very cool stuff, with a fairly unique sound.
Blackstar - _Barbed Wire Soul_ (Peaceville, September 1997)
by: Pedro Azevedo (7 out of 10)
I can understand that by using a new name, these guys might not want
to be compared with what they've done before, but really... three out
of four members are well known for their work in Carcass, they chose
their band's name out of the track listing of the last Carcass work,
_Swansong_, and even the music sounds slightly like that same album.
Sorry, but I can't avoid thinking of this as a follow-up to
_Swansong_, even though Carcass is officially 'dead.' Blackstar (who
signed with Peaceville) are composed of vocalist/bassist Jeff Walker,
guitarist Carlo Regadas, and drummer Ken Owen, all ex-Carcass, and
former Cathedral guitarist Mark Griffiths. _Barbed Wire Soul_ is
indeed the kind of follow-up I expected to _Swansong_: more rock
influences, Walker's vocals are a bit less raspy, and some
similarities to _Swansong_ are still, even though at times barely,
visible (by the way, check out the BIG surprise to be found in tracks
4 and 8...). So, if you're looking for a re-recording of, say, my
favourite Carcass album, _Necroticism..._, you'd better go look
somewhere else; however, this doesn't mean _BWS_ isn't good - it is
quite good. Rocking with a sharp aggressive edge most of the time,
the musical quality is there in every guitar twist and rhythm they
use, as _BWS_ is easy to get into and really catchy indeed. "Game
Over" and "Sound of Silence" are my choices for best tracks, however
several others just aren't so remarkable. Still, Carcass may be dead,
but their 'rot n' roll' lives on as Blackstar.
Civil Defiance - _The Fisher for Souls_ (Blood Orange, July 1997)
by: Adrian Bromley (4 out of 10)
I hate to use the words 'odd' and 'cheesy,' but those two words best
describe the work of Civil Defiance. Managing to cram progressive
rock, metal, 80s riffs and cheesy lyrics into 37 minutes (8 songs) is
pretty impressive. It really is, I just wish a lot of the material
had been straightforward prog rock/metal instead of spurting out all
of this weird, jazzy-riffed shenanigans, rock star vocals, and drum
solos on top of the rock/metal sounds. Talk about a smorgasbord of
ideas. Some of the songs and ideas I liked ("Death to the Clown" and
"Dreams Die Fast") but overall I'm left with a headache and not
knowing what just came blaring out of my boom box.
Contact: Civil Defense, P.O. Box 1305, Glendale, CA USA 91209
Crack Up - _From the Ground_ (Nuclear Blast, July 1997)
by: Adrian Bromley (7 out of 10)
While this may not be the best case of death metal music I have heard
in sometime, something about this German quartet's Nuclear Blast
debut album _From the Ground_ (their first full-length, _Blood Is
Life_, surfaced on We Bite/SPV) keeps me coming back for more. What
could it be? Well, to let you CoC readers in on the secret ingredient
of Crack Up: the crazy groove. The band just lets loose thick riffs
and catchy melodies coated with death-ish growls (similar to Gorefest
and Entombed's style at times), and those real cool vibes help make
up for the sometimes annoying and poor vocal styles of singer/bassist
Tim. While _FtG_ may not really be groundbreaking, what Crack Up does
deliver to us is aggressive music built around a solid groove that'll
spark some interest almost every listen. An overall decent release
and definitely a young band to look out for.
Crisis - _The Hollowing_ (Metal Blade, August 1997)
by: Adrian Bromley (6 out of 10)
When I talked to Crisis guitarist Afzaal Nasiruddeen way back in CoC
#8, we discussed the experimental tendencies of Crisis and the music
they create. He mentioned the band's love for bringing multiple
styles into their sound. The band's last release, _Deathshead
Extermination_, breathed of anarchy and harshness, with lead singer
Karyn Crisis detonating huge blasts of anguish and violence through
her banshee-like screams. The music itself blended a wide variety of
death metal riffs, trippy slow-paced interludes and lots of
intensity. The music worked for them. The record did well for the
band, too, putting them on tour throughout North America with Voivod
and Pro-Pain and helped develop them a pretty good sized following.
Now arrives their latest LP, _The Hollowing_, a record not much
different than _DE_ as it still caters to the Crisis sound.
Singer/screamer Karyn Crisis still growls as the music moves and
shapes itself into odd and eccentric entities. After multiple
listens, I found _TH_ a much more loose record, where the band has
gone off- track with their controlled experimentations and rather
than providing us with a very strong, yet versatile release have
offered us nothing more than a pot-pourri of sounds and scattered
ideas. The band has also lost a bit of their aggression, relying more
on a trippy, sedated feel on certain numbers rather than an all-out
bursts of mayhem. Don't get me wrong, there is aggression here, and
Karyn Crisis' demonic vocals rules, but there is something missing.
This album is mediocre in my books and it is as if the band has lost
something along the way between records. I hope they can find it come
the next recording.
Decayed Remains - _Moonlight_ (<independent>, July 1997)
by: Christopher Bruni (7 out of 10)
Decayed Remains have released this noteworthy CD, henceforth
expanding and altering the Canadian underground even more along with
such Canadian notables as Demence, Necronomicon, and Quo Vadis (all
from Quebec). _Moonlight_ is a concept CD based on lycanthropy, where
each song flows with a continuity of dark desires. Slightly straying
away from their death metal past, Decayed Remains incorporates it
all. _Moonlight_ treads forth on their death metal leanings,
incorporating metal/thrash influences (Voivod being prime example)
and this time adding some black metal and gothic influence. The CD
begins with a spoken prologue, ending with an epilogue, of course, as
the band tear through their eleven tracks of dark art in a
fashionable manner. Whether thrashing it up, breaking into full-blown
acoustics, or goth-ing it up with keyboards, originality does surface
at some moments as the band make quite an effort to execute their
unique and sometimes banal style of metal. All in all, another
Canadian hopeful to watch out for.
Contact: Radicart Productions c/o Decayed Remains, C.P. 834 St-Tite,
Quebec, Canada G0X 3H0
mailto:decayedremains@geocity.com
Dismember - _Death Metal_ (Nuclear Blast Records, August 1997)
by: Paul Schwarz (9 out of 10)
Bands do not have to progress to be good. Dismember's fourth outing
proves this quite conclusively, for they have gone back to where they
started, and produced what is probably their best album. This album
lives up to its unsubtle title very efficiently. it has the scent of
a classic death metal release. Does it sound dated? Well, yes, it
does, but the the word 'dated' denotes negativity that is not a
factor when considering _Death Metal_, because although no technique
is new, the songs are; in fact it's just like picking up a classic
death metal album you didn't have. The blend of song tempos means
that _Death Metal_ also doesn't become boring and repetitive. The
only flaw (and the reason for a 9 and not 10) is tracks 7-10,
although none of these are grossly inferior to the rest of the album,
the fact that they are all of similar (fast) tempos and arrangements,
means that the individual tracks don't stand out as well. Dismember
are death metal fans; Matti Karki said 'we want to play death metal
the brutal way.' Well, they've done it, and, like the bands they
love, they've done it well.
Extreme Noise Terror - _Damage 381_ (Earache, July 1997)
by: Adrian Bromley (9 out of 10)
This is probably one of the most anticipated releases this year due
to the fact that Napalm Death singer Barney Greenway provides a
majority of the vocals on _Damage 381_. Recorded with Greenway at the
helm after he and Napalm Death parted ways earlier this year to sing
for ENT (he eventually went back to ND but the vocals were still kept
when original ENT frontman Phil Vane didn't cut it) is a powerhouse
assault of grinding grooves and sheer power. The songs are short,
brutal, and utterly potent. Nothing seems to fall by the wayside here
as ENT has been able to condense all the intensity into one mad rush.
Throw in some vocal duties by Vane and new screamer Dean Jones and
you got a pretty varied assortment of songs and ideas. While I am a
big fan of the new ND release, _Inside the Torn Apart_, I'm finding
myself drawn more to _D381_ because it avoids the experimentation of
sounds and styles (something _ItTA_ hits upon) and goes right for the
throat. Slap this sucker on and run for cover.
Flux - _Protoplasmic_ (Release, 1997)
by: Andrew Lewandowski (8 out of 10)
While other bands alienate their established fan base by
revolutionizing their sound while retaining their name, thus
guaranteeing that old fanatics will purchase the album on the basis
of name recognition alone, James Plotkin provides ample warning that
times have altered the style of OLD, the previous moniker of Flux.
Surprisingly, _Protoplasmic_ does not drastically diverge from the
path of previous OLD albums. In fact, the album can be dubbed as an
"ambient pop" version of OLD's best moment, _The Musical Dimension of
Sleastak_; the density has been thinned out and slowly evolving
soundscapes have supplanted drastic alterations, yet both retain the
same emphasis on surreal and mechanistic melodies. The addition of
the stoic Ruth Collins on vocals only confirms this dehumanizing
aspect, as does the dub-like percussive programming of Scorn's Mick
Harris, who handles the production. While this serves to alienate the
listener, it also generates the psychedelic aura of each piece. The
sparse ambience only accentuates this unreality. Each melody slowly
melts into space, before Plotkin's sense of repetition replicates the
same melody, before once again disintegrating or supporting a
completely unexpected new texture. Also, not only does the prim
spoken word style (which states only the most absurd of lyrics, of
course) of Collins' vocalizations appear blissfully incongruous
amidst the playful melodies, Plotkin occasionally layers or repeats
her voice, furthering the nihilistic inhumanity of it all. Anyway,
_Protoplasm_ should satisfy most old OLD fans, while others should
approach with caution, for it gets a bit odd in here.
Gravitar - _Now the Road of Knives_ (Charnel Music, 1997)
by: Andrew Lewandowski (9 out of 10)
Ever wonder what would occur if, say, Joan Miro produced the next
album of everybody's favorite lugubrious sludgy noise metal trio? Of
course not, for the result would carry the abstract into almost
incomprehensible depths! Sheer sparsity and desolation, juxtaposed
with transient interludes into utter chaos, would reign! I pity the
sanity of a man willing to expose his mind to an entire hour of such
apocalyptic fervor! Well, tuck away little Bobby and pray that your
good wife is vacuuming! Gravitar has unleashed 70 minutes of studio
trickery set on deconstructing the mundane formula of rock music, and
in the process create one of the most disconcerting soundtracks for
suburban nightmares and urban traffic jams yet to originate from the
minds of a band which still uses guitars. Although, you will not
locate your typically linear guitar structure anywhere on this one.
Instead, everything is repulsively disfigured, as the post-
apocalyptic desolation of subtle dissonances alternate with virulent
waves of dynamic noise and textured ambience. Occasionally, a moment
or two can degenerate into sheer experimentation for
experimentation's sake, yet this is to be expected considering the
vast (and incoherent) array of sounds utilized throughout _NtRoK_.
For the most part, they conjure up stimulating and emotive
hallucinations, and one needs to look back to the last K.K. Null
album in order to hear something even remotely similar to this (and
true originality is never a bad thing).
Konkhra - _Weed Out the Weak_ (Diehard, August 1997)
by: Pedro Azevedo (8 out of 10)
Not all good Nordic metal comes from the Sweden / Norway / Finland
trio, as Konkhra's fourth full-length (that I know of) proves, even
though there's only two Danish members left in the band. Yes, from
Denmark they are, but after the _Facelift_ EP and _Spit or Swallow_
(the two albums with that blonde girl on the cover), only
vocalist/guitarist Anders Lundemark and bassist Thomas Christensen
remain as Danish members, as they chose to search outside Denmark for
a guitarist and a drummer. The chosen ones were famous guitarist
James Murphy (who also did most of the producing, mixing, and
engineering) and former Machine Head drummer, Chris Kontos, whose
drumming was recorded in California (together with the additional
guitars), while the rest was recorded (and all mixed) in Europe. I'm
not sure about the future, as this lineup most likely won't be
repeated, but at least they have done _Weed Out the Weak_ (notice the
subtle sly in "weed out" / "without"), and the result is worthy of
those involved in it. Slick, strong, dynamic, this pack of crushing
riffs, lead guitars courtesy of Murphy, and great drumming by Kontos
won't let you rest for one minute, my favourite track being "Misery",
closely followed by "Time Will Heal" and "Melting". It's a shame that
the vocals aren't just good old death grunts, as Lundemark's voice in
_WOtW_ ranges from a slightly harsher Rob Flynn to something near a
death grunt, and while they're good enough, they don't really add
anything extra to such a powerful instrumental sound (thanks to the
very well polished and strong production). _WOtW_ may not have that
"Northern Europe feel" to it at all, but it's still impressively well
done.
Life of Agony - _Soul Searching Sun_ (Roadrunner, September 1997)
by: Adrian Bromley (7 out of 10)
Whoa! What a different record than the band's previous LPs, their
1993 classic debut _River Runs Red_ and 1995's ill-received but still
hard-hitting _Ugly_. Over the last few releases, the band has lost
their hardcore roots and geared their music more towards a hard rock
outfit. But that doesn't make the band worse. Does it? No. In fact,
LoA have actually become really strong songwriters and musicians as
the years have gone along. I mean, coming from a brutally honest
debut LP like _RRR_ and the soul-searching opus of _Ugly_, the band
has needed to grow better to keep up to par with their past writing
accomplishments. The songs on _SSS_ are not only catchy and memorable
(i.e. "Heroin Dreams" and the wicked first single "Weeds") but
saturated in maturity. Some may write this band off as 'sellout' or
'posers,' but I say LoA still have what it takes, and just because
they have softened their blows doesn't mean they still can't do the
damage.
Living Sacrifice - _Reborn_ (Solid State/Tooth & Nail, July 1997)
by: Adrian Bromley (8 out of 10)
Totally heavy from the get go, _Reborn_ really gets the ball rolling
with a BANG! From opener of "Reborn Empowered" onto heavy numbers
like "No Longer" and "Spirit Fall", this hardcore/metal quartet
really deliver the goods with strength and conviction. Sounding more
like a runaway train than one of the thousands of generic sounding
hardcore/metal acts finding home in the music community, Living
Sacrifice have done a phenomenal job at keeping the music tight and
interesting. The vocals are deadly and the riffs hit you with true
blunt force. Not since the strength of Vision of Disorder's
Roadrunner Record's self-titled debut have I been enthralled by a
band of this music genre. While I'm not really into promoting
religion through music - seeing that Living Sacrifice base a lot of
their material on the 'man above' - I can honestly say that as long
as Living Sacrifice keep the music this heavy, I can keep it cranked.
Once it becomes a pulpit, Bible-reading seminar, I then will lose
interest. For now, this stuff kicks.
Mainliner - _Mainliner Sonic_ (Charnel Music, 1997)
by: Andrew Lewandowski (5 out of 10)
Here's another question for you: say you have one of the world's
better (defined herein as most frenetic) drummers in your band (in
this case, Yoshida Tatsuya of the Ruins), would you then jack up the
distortion on your guitars, burying the percussion in the bottom of
the mix? No? Alas, Mainliner did not heed your warnings. Even though
we now have to work a bit harder to discern the drums and thus
exploit this album's full potential as a headfuck, the effort is well
worth it. Although once you move beyond Tatsuya's efforts, the
potency of the rest of Mainliner tends to fluctuate. When Mainliner
is at their best, a complete sensory overload will pummel the
listener, as the intensity factor approaches the stratosphere once
the driving guitar solos and mincing production mesh with the
pulsating bass lines and free form percussion of the band's rhythm
section. Yet the horrid production results in a homogeneous feel
throughout the album's five tracks (which total only thirty minutes
of music), and the structure of the album's two title tracks cause
both to asphyxiate on a string composed of impotence raveled around
the listener's correlating sense of ennui.
Paradise Lost - _One Second_ (Music For Nations, August 1997)
by: Pedro Azevedo (6 out of 10)
Storming straight into #8 in the German top 10, this latest Paradise
Lost album will earn them many new (mainstream) fans... and make them
lose some of those who were their 'old' fans. This isn't really what
I expected after _Draconian Times_, as _One Second_ essentially shows
a highly commercial approach, full of pop beats, pop choruses, and
pop arrangements, based on a relatively doomy feeling. Most of the
time, this isn't metal, just lots of goth influences. "Take Me Down"
is a good example of all this, while songs like "Mercy" and "Blood of
Another" show the kind of boring pop choruses I mentioned, but what
really bothers me is that most tracks do have good moments - the
keyboard melodies are usually good throughout _OS_ (as in
"Disappear") and are responsible for a great part of their score.
"Say Just Words", the promotional single, "please-oh-please-buy-me"
as it is, still must get credit for its simple yet effective chorus.
Similar credit can go to most other songs, such as "Soul Courageous",
"Another Day", "This Cold Life", and "Sane". In my opinion, Paradise
Lost had been going downhill ever since _Gothic_ (-clearly- their
best work), but right now, I'm not even going to risk comparing _One
Second_ to _Draconian Times_. What I can say about _OS_ is that
overall, it's not bad, but certainly not as great as many say either.
Putrid - _Neck_ (Independent, 1997)
by: Alain M. Gaudrault (6 out of 10)
My first reaction was not a good one. Guitarist Martin's fuzzy,
overdriven guitars, applied to staccato hardcore-lovin' riffs, did
nothing to bolster the music's impact on a first-time listener. The
lack of punch in the delivery is unfortunate, as it only serves to
accentuate how the songs don't quite seem to go anywhere at times,
although some people are into that, I suspect. Upon repeated
listenings, though, I grew to mildly appreciate the combination of
heavy hardcore leanings throughout with metal tendencies and
alterna-rock familiarities. Putrid make use of several tempo/mood
changes in each of their songs, which explains the lengthy 4- and
5-minute tracks (by hardcore standards, that is). The stuff on this
CD is fairly original to my ears; then again, I'm not big into the
new breed of hardcore metallers, but this sounds rather varied and
experimental, both in the use of instruments and vocal arrangements.
The bellowed, hardcore-ish lead vocals (only mildly annoying most
times) are complemented by some guy's interjections, often sounding
like an ultra-melllowww Mike Muir. Vocalist Sylvain's tone, while
mostly gruff, seems to lack depth, and quickly starts being 'the
instrument you put up with.' With packaging devoid of lyrics and a
flat production, Putrid's themes can be tough to discern, but
hardcore-nudgin' titles like "Stateless", "Mousetrap", and "Worse,
Work, Wreck" pretty much give it away. Serge puts in an impressive
performance on drums, maintaining a solid beat without becoming
overly repetitive; lots of juicy, interesting fills and segues to be
found. Bass, on the other hand, is hardly audible, and seems mostly
to follow the guitar lines, but it's difficult to tell; at first, I
thought one of the fuzzy guitar sounds was actually a bass, which
would explain the presence of more than one guitar sound with only a
single guitarist in the band, but if I strain, I can hear the
occasional off-rhythm clean plunking of bass strings. In the end, I'm
left sort of lukewarm about this independent production. As a
puzzling aside, I must note that the last track, "Seasons", is
followed by a minute+ of silence: error, or fruity symbolism?
Satyricon - _Megiddo_ (Moonfog Productions, 1997)
by: Steve Hoeltzel (4 out of 10)
Slammin' global re-mix technology, Norwegian style! The first track
on this four-track, 20-minute oddity is "The Dawn of a New Age" -
re-mixed by Apoptygma Berzerk to get all those silly guitars out of
the way of the booty-bumpin', now beats. Actually, it's not as
totally horrid as my sarcasm probably makes it sound, but I still
don't like it. I just got done reading Vlad Tepes's awesome, lengthy
rant against the mainstreaming of black metal, and I can just imagine
what they'd have to say about this... Next up, "Night of Divine
Power", which is a re-recorded version of "The Dark Castle in the
Deep Forest" from the monumental _Dark Medieval Times_. I don't see
the point of this track. The sound is cleaned up a bit, even
polished, but much of the original's atmosphere is thereby wiped
away. Third song: a live recording of "Forhekset". The sound, though
muddy, is better than might be expected from what the liner notes
refer to as 'a shitty cassette deck.' Too bad the song itself is the
kind of bland and uninspired material which typifies the highly
overrated _Nemesis Divina_. Finally, a semi-industrial, sample-packed
cover of Motorhead's "Orgasmatron". And the Cold, Misty Forests of
Norway (tm) echo with the sounds of... sequencers. Bah! The
(formerly) extreme goes mainstream once again. I'm glad I didn't pay
for this. I bartered for it - like a Viking!
Scarve - _Six Tears of Sorrow_ (<independent>, 1996)
by: Brian Meloon (7 out of 10)
Apparently, these guys want to be called 'atmospheric progressive
death metal,' with perhaps the word 'technical' thrown around, but I
really don't find any of those terms (save 'metal') appropriate. What
this 30-minute CD contains is six songs of melodic thrash, mostly
played at mid-to-fast tempos. The vocals are split pretty evenly
between gruff death vocals, and more melodic vocals. The death vocals
are fine, but the melodic vocals could be better, as while the singer
isn't off-key, he has a slight whine to his voice. At times, he
sounds eerily like the singer for Damn the Machine. The production is
good: powerful and clean. The playing is tight, and the drumming is
very good at times, but there aren't a lot of technical parts to be
found. The songs aren't bad, but they're neither progressive nor
technical. The band is able to create a moderately unique sound, but
does so within the confines of the melodic thrash genre. The songs
mostly follow standard forms, and there isn't an overabundance of
radical style or tempo shifts, although there are a good variety of
moods in the six songs. This is a good disc, but it's not really
outstanding in any respect, and it isn't what I've seen it hyped as.
Shallow, North Dakota - _This Apparatus Must Be Earthed_
by: Adrian Bromley (7 out of 10) (Sonic Unyon, August 1997)
Hamilton, Ontario heavyweights SND return to the hard music scene of
Canada with a crushing release (the follow-up to 1995's superb _Auto
Body Crusher_). For those of you who do not know of SND, I suggest
you find out fast before I come to your house and bust your chops.
This album is great. With a very Fu Manchu/Kyuss dirge sound - a
sound full of heavy riffs, powerful vocals (supplied by
drummer/singer Tony), and a killer rhythm section to boot - SND is
all you need to get you through the day. Crank this shit and forget
about all your troubles. Check out the killer instrumental title
track, as it doesn't get any heavier than that. Powerhouse music
that'll pin ya to the floor.
Contact: Sonic Unyon, P.O. Box 57347, Jackson Station
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8P 4X2
mailto:jerks@sonicunyon.com
http://www.sonicunyon.com
Solarus - _Empty Nature_ (Release, 1997)
by: Andrew Lewandowski (3 out of 10)
One perk of owning your very own record company is that you can
release any mediocre album which features your participation. Bill
Yurkiewicz, head honcho of Relapse, has exercised his right to
release degenerate shit with the release of _Empty Nature_. While
good ambient drills beneath your skin and good psychedelia completely
alters your reality structure (see Gravitar or Flux), _EN_
accomplishes neither. Instead, Solarus replicate the art of
nothingness; vacuous swirls of ambience and a repetitive beat
inconspicuously fester for a few minutes before dissipating into the
void in which they hardly arose from in the first place. Even the
assistance of James Plotkin on guitars and production couldn't inject
life into this travesty.
Bishop of Hexen - _Archives of an Enchanted Philosophy_
by: Andrew Lewandowski (7 out of 10) (Hammerheart Prod., 1997)
With the possible exception of _The Filemnice Occultist_ by Master's
Hammer, no "concept album" has ever truly impressed me. _AoaEP_ is
almost the first exception. Throughout the album, Bishop of Hexen
closely align the path of their music with that of the story, an
original metaphorical tale concerning transcendence achieved through
Satanic transgression. While not the most revolutionary of concepts
for a black metal band, lead singer Balzamon wields a surprisingly
potent grasp of lyricism, although the band's Israeli origins
occasionally manifest within a few incongruous phrasings. Musically,
the band relies on the keyboard and synthesizer work of Dimrost to
provide the story with a background. Dimrost's work benefits from one
of the richest keyboard sounds on a metal album, yet this comes at
the expense of the guitars and drums. Since they're relegated to
inconsequential roles, they add almost nothing to the overall sound.
Thus, BoH would benefit from phasing them out completely, and
possibly adding some more diverse instrumentation to support the
melancholic synths and add further embellishment to the plot. More
importantly, I would not have to call BoH a black metal band, nor
would I have to waste time inventing a new classification under which
BoH can wallow along with every other former "black metal" band that
utilizes synthesizers and a clean production. As is, this is still a
relatively adventurous endeavor, and BoH undoubtedly succeeds in
relating their concept.
Voivod - _Phobos_ (Hypnotic, 1997)
by: Alain M. Gaudrault (9 out of 10)
While I somewhat enjoyed their previous release, _Negatron_, I found
it spotty and a bit too 'hard alternative' sounding, too simplified,
too unidimensional, particularly for Voivod. I'm glad to report that
_Phobos_ is clearly several steps beyond _Negatron_, compositionally.
This is a dense album full of complex songs with plenty of odd time
signatures and tempo changes. My first impression of _Phobos_ was
admittedly not a very good one. I found the songs sort of samey, the
overall sound not especially dynamic, but repeated listenings slowly
revealed the true nature of this beast. This is Voivod recapturing
the style of songwriting their long-time fans have been waiting to
hear for almost ten years, while successfully incorporating a fresher
sound and edgier attack which relies on mood and strangely memorable
passages rather than outright speed, though that's not entirely
surprising given their later releases with former frontman Snake. I'm
also happy to hear newcomer Eric Forrest's vocals presence
downplayed, taking on a more inhuman, mechanical style, yet
distinctly analogue nevertheless. Lots of well thought out vocal
effects give the right touches at the right times, conveying well the
surrounding music's aura. And of the music, Piggy's chops (pardon the
pun) are top notch; his undeniably unique way of stringing
almost-grating chords together is compelling and always delivered
with expert precision and timing. Drumming is excellent as always, if
not a bit subdued by the muddy production. Actually, the production
is quite decent in general, although I have a difficult time figuring
out whether Away's riding the cymbals a bit too much throughout, or
whether that's a knob-twiddling problem. From listening to the
advance cassette sans lyrics, _Phobos_ seemed to be a concept album,
mostly in the way the songs flow into one another; even though
difficult to determine without a lyrics sheet, the mood and style of
the album, as well as the song titles, sort of led me to believe
there was a common thread amongst at least some of the songs,
excluding the last two tracks, one co-written with Jason Newsted
(Metallica, Flotsam & Jetsam), the other a cover of King Crimson's
"21st Century Schizoid Man" (great cover, great song). According to
Away, whom I subsequently bumped into at a gig of theirs in Toronto,
it is in fact a concept album; while the lyrics don't seem to make
much conventional, lucid sense, they do transmit a matching grimness
to the accompanying music. All in all, _Phobos_ harkens back to
older, heavier days of the band, without sounding dated nor trendy. A
must for metal fans of all genres.
Von - _Satanic Blood_ (Hellspawn Records, 1997)
by: Steve Hoeltzel (7 out of 10)
I like this even more than the score might suggest, but in terms of
musical prowess, it's pretty low-grade stuff. Also, the sound quality
is occasionally spotty; this sounds like it was mastered from a
cassette. Still, Von scores big (with me) for its combination of
spooky conviction and odd uniqueness. If you've heard Dark Funeral's
cover of this cult US band's "Satanic Blood", then you've got the
formula for this entire eight-song, 20-minute recording: riffs,
beats, and song structures which all define the word 'simplistic,'
with an aura of malevolent sickness hanging over everything like an
unsettling rotten smell. Proto-black-metal riffs exude menace that
mounts through sheer repetition, while death-ish vocals proclaim
weird lyrics in a guttural chant. Very cool stuff, likely to be
enjoyed if you've got a hunger for the truly feral and raw. On the
other hand, if you're annoyed by musicianship of a
less-than-professional caliber, you'll have to look elsewhere for the
bitchin' chops and sweet licks which you crave.
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/ \/ / _ \ \ /\ / / / \/ / _ \| / __|/ _ \
/ /\ / __/\ V V / / /\ / (_) | \__ \ __/
\_\ \/ \___| \_/\_/ \_\ \/ \___/|_|___/\___|
If you have a band, don't forget to send us your demo with a bio if
you want to be reviewed; our address is included in the zine's
header.
Scoring: ***** -- A flawless demo
**** -- Great piece of work
*** -- Good effort
** -- A major overhaul is in order
* -- A career change is advisable
Death of Millions - _Frozen_ (10-track demo)
by: Adrian Bromley (****-)
This demo didn't arrive at CoC HQ like most of our demos do. Instead
I received a copy of _Frozen_ from Death of Millions (DoM) at this
year's Milwaukee MetalFest and I gladly told the band that I would
review it. Well guys... here we are: D-Day! The Texas quintet's
10-song tape is a roller-coaster ride through numerous sounds, styles
and speeds - everything from brutal death metal to straightforward
death metal to atmospheric metal. Quite a good mixture if you ask me.
While the grinding groove and death growls seem to take precedence
over slick riffs and brutal intensity, I found a lot of the band's
material to be very well orchestrated and planned. It seems as though
the band not only likes to deliver crushing blows to our cranium, but
also coat their music with interludes and one heavy atmosphere. I'm
totally digging this demo and hoping that the band keeps their music
this interesting from here on in - stay away from trends guys! Good
production also helps makes this onslaught of noise and heapage of
brutality a worthwhile listen every time you crank it up.
Contact: Death of Millions, 808 Chrisholm Valley Dr., Round Rocks,
Texas, USA 78681
Bookings: (512) 441-6065
http://www.io.com/~someguy/
In Velvet Clouds - _The Frozen Immensity_ (5-track demo)
by: Pedro Azevedo (***--)
When I saw this debuting Portuguese band live [CoC #21], I mentioned
the fact that they had two dedicated vocalists (a grunter and a
screamer) who provided an entertaining live performance. I also
described them as being "an aggressive mix of Cradle of Filth and
Brutal Truth." That's how they did sound live, but after listening to
their demo tape, I must say that there's no Brutal Truth to their
sound, and even the Cradle of Filth influences aren't so huge - still
easy to notice, though, namely on the keyboards; however, things are
usually slower than CoF. This 30-minute demo tape shows a better
balance of aggression and melody than their live set, and my overall
opinion about this band is better now, even though they did sound
much more powerful live. "... And I Wish to Die" (been listening to
early Anathema, guys?) shows what the band is all about: the two
vocalists, mid/fast-paced metal with some melodic parts provided by
the keyboards and guitar. "With Crows I Fly" is slower, doomier, with
a steady (yet a bit simple) keyboard melodic background and a poor
attempt at copying Cradle of Filth's female vocals; the lead guitar
shows up again, but much less effectively. "Glacier Winter" doesn't
add anything new, the bad news being that the quality is again lower
than before. However, "Drops of Life" shows In Velvet Clouds back in
top shape, as in the first track, and finisher "A Lilt in Your Dream"
keeps up the pace. What ends up subtracting one from the 4 out of 5
rating they deserved is the production, which is rather fuzzy, their
lack of originality, and a few minor details. Still, a good demo with
a few good highlights, clearly better than the average 3 out of 5.
Contact: Jose Ricardo, Rua Manuel Fernando Tomas n.17
4760 Vila Nova de Famalicao, Portugal
Soilent Green - _Painting Pretty Pictures with Dirty Words_
by: Alain M. Gaudrault (*****) (3-track demo)
Turns out this material isn't quite hot off the press, as the first
track, "Build Fear", previously appeared on a double seven-inch
compilation, while "Swallowhole" and "Gagged Whore" were on a split
ten-inch with Grief. Regardless, it's madly infectious grinding,
groovy Louisiana sludgecore. Sadly, I've not heard their full-length
release on Dwell Records, _Pussysoul_; needless to say, I'm on the
lookout. Able to fuse the grooviest, sludgiest riffs seamlessly with
grinding blasts of well-controlled ferocity and noggin-banging
mid-tempo churning, Soilent Green do not fail to deliver a solid,
consistently captivating assault. The variety of vocal styles - from
a slightly muted shrieking bark reminiscent of EyeHateGod and
Exhorder, to a low gurgle, to muffled spoken word - works remarkably
well with the ever-changing tempos and off-beat rhythms found
throughout. The guitars have this flowing, buzzsaw quality,
detracting from any bass sound, though; unless, of course, the bass
is in fact fuzzed out and plainly audible! Drumming is superb, never
tiresome, although the drummer may want to lay off the constant
cymbals. Yet, the beat is always fresh, and meshes perfectly with the
accompanying music, while standing its own ground in the overall
sound. My only wish is that the tape didn't end so soon. Kudos to Ben
for graciously parting with a copy upon our chance meeting at the
Milwaukee MetalFest.
Contact: SOILENT GREEN c/o Ben Falgoust, 1332 Apple Street
Metairie, Louisiana, USA 70001
Voice: 504-887-3911
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/\ _`\ /\ \ /\ \__ __
\ \ \/\_\\ \ \___ __ ___\ \ ,_\/\_\ ___
\ \ \/_/_\ \ _ `\ /'__`\ / __`\ \ \/\/\ \ /'___\
\ \ \L\ \\ \ \ \ \/\ \L\.\_/\ \L\ \ \ \_\ \ \/\ \__/
\ \____/ \ \_\ \_\ \__/.\_\ \____/\ \__\\ \_\ \____\
\/___/ \/_/\/_/\/__/\/_/\/___/ \/__/ \/_/\/____/
____ __
/\ _`\ /\ \__
\ \ \/\_\ ___ ___ ___ __ _ __\ \ ,_\ ____
\ \ \/_/_ / __`\ /' _ `\ /'___\ /'__`\/\`'__\ \ \/ /',__\
\ \ \L\ \/\ \L\ \/\ \/\ \/\ \__//\ __/\ \ \/ \ \ \_/\__, `\
\ \____/\ \____/\ \_\ \_\ \____\ \____\\ \_\ \ \__\/\____/
\/___/ \/___/ \/_/\/_/\/____/\/____/ \/_/ \/__/\/___/
V I T A L R E M A I N S - U N P L U G G E D !
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Vital Remains, Incantation, and Ember
Northwest Hall, Chicago, August 8, 1997
by: Steve Hoeltzel
The flyers for this show should have advertised "Vital Remains
Unplugged" - because that's exactly what we got to see, as the club's
pissed-off head honcho cut the power on the headlining band only four
songs into their set. I suppose this was kind of a letdown, but the
entire incident was just too funny to result in any real
disappointment. First, though, the rest of the story...
I managed to score myself a free "in" to this show by tagging
along with the Ember guys, who graciously offered me a place to crash
for the night in exchange for some help moving gear and whatnot. So,
not long after I completed the trek from Iowa City to the suburban
Chicago homestead of guitarist Ali and drummer Abbas, it was time to
load the band's equipment into Ali's bronco and bassist Allen's car,
and head into the city to the club. Joined by Chris, who is
temporarily filling in for Abbas on drums, our two-car convoy set out
on a little pre-show cruise through one of the, shall we say, less
charming sections of town. But despite the rush-hour traffic, and
except for the occasional little swerve to miss an obviously
crack-addled pedestrian, the ride itself was basically uneventful.
(Some street vendor called us "bitches" or something like that, but I
suppose that's pretty routine.) Just a few blocks from the club, we
stopped at the downtown apartment of vocalist Pete and guitarist
Nader, only to find an ambulance parked in front, blocking our way.
Classic!
It turned out that Pete and Nader had already left, so we piled
back in and drove to the hall, finding the two aforementioned
thrashers loitering around in front, greeting us with the Sign of the
Horns and swilling 22-ouncers of Old English 800 wrapped in paper
bags - true inner city style! The club itself was what you might call
'intimate,' with a maximum legal capacity of just over 200, and three
damn long flights of stairs to be mounted before gaining entry. And
so up those stairs we went, repeatedly, until all the gear was more
or less in place. The band then went about getting everything hooked
up and doing a bit of sound-checking, before kicking back for what
would turn out to be quite a long wait to play.
The monotony of this wait was broken up at one point by the
appearance of members of the Chicago PD, keeping the city safe from
evil by demanding that all of our many spikes, bullet belts, and so
on, be removed - not merely from our bodies, but from the premises.
According to the cops, these are weapons. Hmmm... funny how most
criminals these days prefer guns, when spiked arm bands are cheaper
and don't require maintenance or ammunition... Anyway, our unholy
little entourage had quite the pile of "weapons" which had to be
transferred to Allen's car. Then more waiting around.
Eventually, the doors opened and folks started filtering in, and
by the time about 50 or 60 people (minus their weapons) were in
attendance, Ember finally got to play. They performed an impressive
set of their thrashy, blackened material, especially during "These
Darkened Wings", "Dance of the Ancients" (my personal fave), and
"Divinity". They also played a newer song, "Sheading", as well as a
cover of the Misfits' "Earth AD" - a fitting choice, since the
Misfits were playing with Megadeth somewhere else in Chicago that
very night. (This probably explains why there weren't more than about
75 or 80 people at this show, total.) All in all, I really enjoyed
their set, and once they've acquired a bit more live experience and
stage presence, along with a bit more vocal endurance on Pete's part,
I think they'll be a very convincing live band. (For more description
of their sound, etc., see the reviews of their demos in CoC #22 and
CoC #17.)
After Ember came local black metallers Profanacion - but I
missed them, having decided to take a walk with Pete and Nader down
to the strangely aromatic liquor store. Our objective: more OE - once
again, enjoyed out of a paper bag, the True Underground Wino way. We
ended up loitering out on the street for quite a while, looking evil,
critiquing the band's performance, taking in the ambiance, and so on.
I spent a few minutes chatting with Joe Lewis of Vital Remains about
this and that, then helped the Ember guys move some more equipment,
then spent some more time curb-side, milling around and watching some
neighborhood kid yelling threats and insults at passing motorists.
Then it was back upstairs for - more waiting around! A rumor was
circulating to the effect that Incantation were waiting to get paid;
in any case, they weren't in any hurry to play.
Their set definitely proved to be worth the wait, though. They
played as a three-piece, with no bass - which greatly enhanced the
clarity of the drums and guitars, even if it did take some of the
weight out of their sound. (Guitarist John and drummer Kyle are
joined on this tour by Daniel, also of The Chasm, on guitar and
vocals.) I had been a bit disappointed by these guys in Milwaukee,
but on this night they more than delivered. In particular, Kyle's
drumming just blew me away! His amazing speed and wicked precision
powerfully propelled the band through the many nefarious time changes
that crowd their material. The quickened newer stuff like "Shadows
from the Ancient Empire" and "Forsaken Mourning of Angelic Anguish"
sounded just killer. (See CoC #22 for a review of their new MCD.)
Indeed, the whole set was pretty crushing, though closer
"Profanation" took a couple tries to get started properly.
Regardless, these guys just smoked.
Finally, the time came for Vital Remains. As in Milwaukee, I
thought that the first two songs of their set were a little bit flat
when compared to the incredible "I Am God" and "Battle Ground" which
follow them. ("Battle Ground" rules, and if you haven't checked out
_Forever Underground_ yet, you're missing out. CD review in CoC #20.)
Once again, cool riffs abounded, Joe Lewis roared out great vox, and
Joe Suzuki proved to be a true master of the blast beat. Indeed, his
blast-mastery was impossible to ignore when the power was cut to the
P.A., making the drums the only audible instrument!
Let me backtrack a bit here... The house lights had come up
during the band's second or third song, but this did nothing to deter
them from playing on. Realizing this, the guy in charge of the venue
took it upon himself to personally instruct the guys to quit - with
quite humorous results. See, this guy was all of about four foot
eight, and easily in his fifties, with a good-sized belly, wearing a
Hawaiian-print shirt and a very silly-looking eye shade / golf visor
thing. Just before the end of Vital Remains' third song, he walked up
next to the shirtless, spike-clad Joe Lewis at the mike stand, and as
the song ended he bellowed, "The Party's OVER!!!" - which had no
effect whatsoever on Joe. The band plowed into their next song,
thrashing away, and the poor guy had to just stand there, arms
folded, looking -extremely- pissed off at these disobedient
long-hairs. Meanwhile, the band just kept on ripping through the
song: an eight- or nine-minute piece, during which the guy only
seemed to get more and more annoyed. (By the way, I'm not dissing
this guy at all - just saying it was funny to see him up there
glaring daggers at the band. The dude was MAD.) Finally, after
sharing the spotlight with the musicians for five minutes or so, he
opted to walk offstage and literally pull the plug on the sound
system. The band, however, thrashed on, with Joe going mad on the
bass, guitarist Tony running through the crowd shaking hands and
slapping fives, and Suzuki finishing out the song perfectly on drums
- drawing laughter and roars of approval from the audience. A
-classic- ending!
[Thanks and cheers to all who helped to make my trip to this show not
only possible, but also tons of fun. -- Steve]
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D E M O N I C P I G W A L K
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Testament, Stuck Mojo, and Strapping Young Lad
Big Dog's, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, August 6, 1997
by: Steve Hoeltzel
For the sake of honesty, I should start by saying that I am not
a fan of any of these bands. So if this review comes across as a bit
lackluster, that's why. It's not that anyone played poorly; in fact,
all three bands really performed their material well. It's just that
I don't really get into said material: I prefer more extreme and
artistic metallic manifestations to all this comparatively
conventional, unchallenging, 'Headbanger's Ball'-ish stuff. But what
the heck - I wanted to see Gene Hoglan play the drums for SYL, and I
also figured that watching Testament could be fun in a memory-lane
sort of way. (However, don't expect me to lapse into any "those were
the good old days" schlock, because as far as I'm concerned, the last
five years or so have probably been extreme metal's best ever, at
least in terms of the quantity of energy going into the scene and the
quality of results coming out. But I digress.)
Despite its kind of hokey name, Big Dog's is a great place to
catch a show: it's smallish to medium in size, with a pretty big
stage and a consistently clear and powerful PA. Seeing Morbid Angel
there was awesome. On the other hand, seeing Gwar there sucked. But
then again, that's because Gwar sucks. Hmmm... digressing again;
sorry.
Strapping Young Lad played first. My lack of familiarity with
their material limits what I'm able to say about their performance,
but all in all, I felt that Gene Hoglan single-handedly - and solely
- made watching them worthwhile. Actually, I should say
'double-footedly,' because the guy's double-bass technique is just
unbelievable, and it's really cool to watch the crazy moves he pulls
off up top while machine-gunning the crap out of the pedals below.
Very impressive. I must say, though, this band's material didn't do
anything for me. Not that their delivery wasn't full-on and skillful.
It's just that the music itself struck me as too gimmicky, in a
'Beyond metal, this is cyber-charged hard music for the 21st
century!' kind of way. Not my cup of tea - nor my horn of ale, nor my
bucket of blood, if you catch my drift, heheheh...
Next up: Stuck Mojo. Based on my experience with other
rap-influenced 'metal' bands, I expected to find these guys either
totally laughable or highly annoying, and probably both. After seeing
them perform, however, I have to give them credit for being a good
live act, nowhere near as crappy or irritating as I had expected. The
reason: they put much more energy into sharp riffs and hammering
percussion than into rap-styled running on at the mouth. Picky
bastard that I am, I would hesitate to call them a -metal- band in
the purest sense of that term: their material is more grounded in the
simpler dynamics of rock, with a heightened emphasis on up-front
rhythm (owing to the strong rap influence), plus metal's highly
amplified guitar punch. But even if they're a far cry from extreme
metal's cutting artistic edge, they do possess the ability to Rock
the House; I'll give them that. Loads of energy from everybody on
stage, songs packed with hooks, and great drumming, too. Again, it's
really not my thing, but it wouldn't be fair to slag their live
performance just because I'm not a fan of their songwriting style.
Finally, Testament. At least, I think it was Testament - they
used such absurd amounts of fog that visual confirmation of their
identities was difficult. Anyway, whoever was up there played a good,
tight set which didn't skimp on Testament's earliest material, as
well as showcasing some of the latest, reputedly much heavier stuff.
Indeed, the newest songs were pretty weighty by Testament standards,
displaying some definite death metal influences - but, it must be
said, never approaching the compositional unorthodoxy or sheer
guttural fury of premiere death bands like Cryptopsy or Incantation.
No, the new Testament material is mosh metal all the way, even if the
vocals occasionally descend into death metal depths. By far, it was
the band's oldest stuff that went over the best, with "Over the Wall"
and "The New Order" proving especially thrash-able. Chuck Billy's
vocals held up superbly (even with all the fog, which I found pretty
amazing), and those great thrash guitar breaks rang out loud and
clear. And true to tradition, Chuck laid down some pretty wicked air
guitar on his cut-off mike stand all through Testament's set.
All in all, I'd have to say that all three bands did a solid job
of presenting their material - so any real fan of these groups would
no doubt have greatly enjoyed the evening. I can't count myself as a
member of that particular camp, before or after this show, but
hopefully this is still a fair-minded account of the proceedings.
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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. Proscriptor - _The Venus Bellona_
2. Absu - _The Sun of Tiphareth_
3. Brutal Truth - _Need To Control_
4. Prodigy - _The Fat of the Land_
5. Monster Magnet - _Spine of God_
Adrian's Top 5
1. Extreme Noise Terror - _Damage 381_
2. Life Of Agony - _Soul Searching Sun_
3. Blunt Force Trauma - _Bled Out_
4. Shallow, North Dakota - _This Apparatus Must Be Earthed_
5. Manowar - _Louder Than Hell_
Brian's Top 5
1. Dimmu Borgir - _Enthrone Darkness Triumphant_
2. Ved Buens Ende - _Written In Waters_
3. Ruins - _Graviyaunosch_
4. Gates of Ishtar - _The Dawn of Flames_
5. Dark Reality - _Blossom of Mourning_
Alain's Top 5
1. Abuse - _A Sunday Morning Killing Spree_
2. Strapping Young Lad - _City_
3. Soilent Green - _Painting Pretty Pictures with Dirty Words_ <demo>
4. Flotsam and Jetsam - _High_
5. Voivod - _Phobos_
Steve's Top 5
1. Asgaroth - _The Quest for Eldenhor_
2. Summon - _Dark Descent of Fallen Souls_
3. Adramelech - _Psychostasia_
4. Vlad Tepes / Belketre - split CD
5. Absu - _The Sun of Tiphareth_
Adam's Top 5
1. Absu - _The Third Storm of Cythraul_
2. Gehenna - _Seen Through the Veils of Darkness (The Second Spell)_
3. Morbid Angel - _Covenant_
4. Immortal - _Diabolical Full Moon Mysticism_
5. Extreme Noise Terror - _Damage 381_
Drew's Top 5
1. Obtained Enslavement - _Witchcraft_
2. Niden Div. 187 - _Impergium_
3. Algaion - _General Enmity_
4. Hypocrisy - _The Fourth Dimension_
5. Iced Earth - _Days of Purgatory_
Andrew's Top 5
1. Gravitar - _Now the Road of Knives_
2. Dissecting Table - _Human Breeding_
3. Aeturnus - _Beyond the Wandering Moon_
4. Loren Nerell - _lilin dewa_
5. Discordance Axis - _Necropolitan_
Pedro's Top 5
1. Dimmu Borgir - _Enthrone Darkness Triumphant_
2. Dark Tranquillity - _The Mind's I_
3. Katatonia - _Brave Murder Day_
4. Emperor - _Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk_
5. Autumn Tears - _LPfDC Act II: The Garden of Crystalline Dreams_
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Homepage: http://www.interlog.com/~ginof/coc.html
FTP Archive: ftp://ftp.etext.org/pub/Zines/ChroniclesOfChaos
--> Interested in being reviewed? Send us your demo and bio to:
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
CHRONICLES OF CHAOS
57 Lexfield Ave
Downsview Ont.
M3M-1M6, Canada
Fax: (416) 693-5240 Voice: (416) 693-9517
e-mail: ginof@interlog.com
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DESCRIPTION
~~~~~~~~~~~
Chronicles of Chaos is a monthly magazine electronically distributed
worldwide via the Internet. Chronicles of Chaos focuses on all forms
of chaotic music including black, death and doom metal, dark/ambient,
industrial and electronic/noise as well as classic and progressive
metal. Each issue will feature a plethora of album reviews from a
wide range of bands, as well as interviews with some of the
underground's best acts. Also included in each issue are demo reviews
and indie band interviews.
HOW TO SUBSCRIBE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You may subscribe to Chronicles of Chaos at any time by sending a
message with "coc subscribe <your_name_here>" in the SUBJECT of your
message to <mailto:ginof@interlog.com>. Please note that this command
must NOT be sent to the list address <coc-ezine@lists.colorado.edu>.
AUTOMATIC FILESERVER
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All back issues and various other CoC related files are available for
automatic retrieval through our e-mail fileserver. All you have to do
is send a message to us at <mailto:ginof@interlog.com>. The
'Subject:' field of your message must read: "send file X" where 'X'
is the name of the requested file (do not include the quotes). Back
issues are named 'coc-n', where 'n' is the issue number. For a
description of all files available through this fileserver, request
'list'. Remember to use lowercase letters for all file names.
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End Chronicles of Chaos, Issue #24
All contents copyright 1997 by individual creators of included work.
All opinions expressed herein are those of the individuals expressing
them, and do not necessarily reflect the views of anyone else.