August 2015 – Page 4 – Wonderbox Metal

Interview with De Profundis

Paul Nazarkardeh, (guitarist), was kind enough to answer a few questions about the latest De Profundis stormer Kingdom of the Blind. This is the second interview I’ve done with this exceptional band, the first occurring shortly after their Frequencies EP was released; I think it’s important to support good music wherever and whenever you can, and De Profundis are one of the best Death Metal bands in the UK at the moment. A bold claim? Not if you’ve heard Kingdom of the Blind…

For those who are unfamiliar with your band – introduce yourself

As the interview title probably suggests – we are De Profundis. We hail from the United Kingdom and play an intricate, mercurial form of death metal, free of gimmickry and bullshit. In truth, the best possible introduction to De Profundis can be found in the first song of our upcoming album Kingdom Of The Blind – Kult of the Orthodox. It introduces us better than I possibly could here.

Give us a bit of background to De Profundis

De Profundis has existed for 10 years, and have evolved and transformed much in that time. Kingdom Of The Blind will be the band’s 4th LP, following on from last year’s Frequencies EP. The band have played in 24 different countries alongside names some familiar names such as Immolation, Marduk, Rotting Christ, Malevolent Creation in 2009 supporting the legendary Iron Maiden in India. Needless to say, the band has kept busy.

De Profundis 4 Where did the band name come from? For me it will always remind me of a Vader album!

Haha – some would say Vader, some might say Abruptum, some might even think of Oscar Wilde. The term translates from the original Latin as ‘From the Depths’.

What are your influences?

Since De Profundis hasn’t always been the same collection of 5 individuals (hell, since I joined on guitars in 2013 in the grand scheme of things I’m pretty new) the collection of influences in our music don’t remain constant. The name Death is often mentioned in reviews, which is pretty justified. Chuck Schuldiner’s work has had a massive influence on me, as it should on any extreme metal artist with a functional pair of ears. Other than that it varies. Personally, when we wrote Kingdom of the Blind I was listening to bands like Carcass, Akercocke and Atheist as well as copious amounts of King Diamond/Mercyful Fate. I’m sure the other members of the band would give very different answers.

What are you listening to at the moment that you would like to recommend?

Well, as I’m writing this I’m listening to Ulver’s Bergtatt. I’m not sure why I find myself listening to so much black metal in the summer months – testament to the farce that is the British summertime I suppose. As far as new releases by bands, that becomes a lot harder. The new Paradise Lost is a great return to form, and I’ve high hopes for the new My Dying Bride. What I’d prefer is for some new music to be recommended to me!

There’s a lot of involved, intricate playing on Kingdom of the Blind, including some quality bass-work. How do you go about writing and arranging your songs?

The beginnings of a song usually come from me or Shoi. We’ll bring some guitar riffs we’ve been playing about with along to rehearsal and start bouncing those ideas off each other. As you can hear, Arran is by no means a typical bass player. Rather than us prearranging lines for him, he works alongside us to come up with bass lines that compliment our playing. Our frontman Craig then handles quality control, which he’s rather good at as he certainly isn’t afraid to tell us if an idea that we’ve been working on sounds like shit – which keeps us instrumentalist musos in place.

De Profundis 3 Do you ever see yourselves writing ever longer and longer songs in the future? I can imagine, potentially, you becoming more and more Progressive in the future.

Way ahead of you – De Profundis have a whole discography worth of longer more drawn out songs. With this album we’ve sought to do quite the opposite – trim the fat and leave only muscle. Earlier De Profundis material is full of longer, slower songs, but that isn’t what this current incarnation of the band represents. Kingdom of The Blind is the first De Profundis album that I feature on, and I can say both as a member of the band and a fan for many years that this streamlining in favour of the acute over the obtuse is part of the reason why Kingdom of the Blind is undisputedly the best De Profundis album to date.

Progressive is an interesting adjective. Although I agree with you, I think it’s a word that is horrendously abused in metal, especially in this day and age. It seems that every ten minutes I hear another flavour of the month band regurgitate the same hackneyed and insipid clichés under the supposed buzz word of “progressive” music, when anyone not sucked in to the paper thin marketing can clearly hear that the far more fitting term would be “regressive”! On the contrary, I think that De Profundis has been a band that have been progressive for the majority of it’s existence and I think that on Kingdom of the Blind this is rather evident, as it also is in the bands previous record The Emptiness Within. That being said, no two De Profundis records are the same – which is an ideal any truly progressive band has. No-one calls the early Morbid Angel records progressive, but at that time there were very few bands who would have the nerve to write anything as unorthodox as God Of Emptiness, and that’s what I consider to be a progressive mindset.

What’s your favourite song on the album and why?

I have a few. I’ve a special fondness for Illumination, as it was the first full song I was part of the creative process for. I can’t possibly neglect to mention the sheer ferocity of Kult of the Orthodox or the morbidity of All Consuming, but another favourite of mine is Thrown To The Wolves, with it’s juxtaposition of left-field guitar work with straight up old school death metal aggression.

What does the future hold for De Profundis?

Kingdom Of The Blind is finally set for a release on September the 28th of this year under our new label Wickerman Records. Though we’re looking forward to the release, we don’t like to sit idly by waiting around either. We’re already well into the creative process of album number 5. De Profundis will also be hitting the road shortly after the release of the album with two of death metal’s biggest names, where we intend to help as many people unfortunate enough to not know of us as possible by exposing them to the Kingdom of the Blind.

Haemophagus/Subjugation – Split (Review)

Haemophagus are from Italy and Subjugation are from Turkey. They’ve teamed up for this short and brutal split.

I was very impressed with Haemophagus’ début album Atrocious, and on this split they continue to impress with two tracks of quality Grindcore-infused Death Metal.

Hibernated World is an Old-School Death Metal revenant that stumbles and crawls its way out of the crypt. Savagely jagged riffs and evil, underground melodies combine with a cocky swagger to create a song that is confident and assured.

The vocals are dark growls that seem like they’re spewing acid and vile warnings. This feeling continues on into the second song Monsters in the Park, where the vocals are a little deeper but no less caustic.

This second track is faster with the rotting horror of the first replaced by a two minute grinder that still can’t resist a good groove in the last part of the song. Both are very good tracks but I favour this latter one very slightly.

Subjugation are a new band for me. They offer us three tracks in total and their Deathgrind has a Swedish Death Metal edge to the guitars, mixed with the taste of an older, less-polished Rotten Sound.

The vocals are ultra-deep and rough around the edges; they’re both uncompromising and satisfying.

Monuments to Greed is their first song and it’s a decent calling card for the band. Fast but not overly so; there’s some Swedish groove here too and it hits the spot.

Trembling on Broken Glass continues the theme only with a faster approach. The Swedish feel is still here in the sound of the guitars and it lends the band an immediacy to their already in-your-face style.

The final song Under the Whip is the longest at just under 3 minutes in length and is probably the most brutal of the three. The blasting eventually changes to a mid-paced chugging assault to see out the song, and, like Haemophagus, Subjugation’s final track is probably my favourite.

This short hit of Death Metal/Grindcore is just what the mad doctor ordered and is definitely worth a few spins.

Recommended.

Israthoum – Antru Kald (Review)

Israthoum are a Black Metal band from the Netherlands and this is their latest EP.

Having enjoyed their 2012 album Black Poison and Shared Wounds, this EP is a welcome snapshot of what’s happening with the band in 2015.

A short release at just under 14 minutes in length, it nonetheless showcases the core of what Israthoum are all about and makes a lasting impression.

The riffs on this release sound serrated and it’s good to hear that their Black Metal is just as sharp and as dangerous as ever.

The vocals are still scathing and unhinged. The singer’s inhuman screams seem infused with passionate vitriol and dark vision. As the EP progresses it appears that his fragile grip on this reality becomes ever more tenuous, with his performance becoming increasingly deranged.

I’m pleased to say that the band’s songwriting skills have not diminished either. Each of these songs displays Israthoum’s mastery of the genre that they clearly love so much. Dark riffs, Blackened melodies and blasting hatred combine with a sense of dynamics and ritualistic flair to create compositions that tug at the mind, enticing and promising untold rewards, if only you’d just take one step closer to their world…

Antru Kald is a short but compelling release, with subsequent spins simply reinforcing the impression of a band who really know what they’re doing when it comes to creating Black Metal art.

Memorable and addictive, Antru Kald is worthy of praise and your attention. Get on it.

Manzer – Pictavian Chronicles – Volume 1 (Review)

Manzer are a Black Metal band from France and this is a compilation of earlier releases and rare tracks.

Manzer play Thrashy Black Metal with a real underground feel and lots of savagery. Fast and furious, Manzer carve their way through an impressive 78 minutes of music on this collection. It’s a lot to sit through if you’re not completely in the mood for their Thrashed-up Blackened assault, but it’s definitely worth the effort as there are some real gems on this release.

The singer has a raspy voice that lets you know in no uncertain terms that this is not a band to be messed with. These occasionally descend into demented howling and early-Slayer-esque screams, bringing out the Thrash influence in the singer’s charismatic voice.

I like that these songs, for the most part, have a really good mix of Black and Thrash Metal in the right amounts. Old-School Thrash with lots of flair and character is dragged down into the filth and given a blasting, dirty, Blackened skullfuck until it knows its place and does its master’s bidding. First-wave Black Metal and Old-School Thrash collide, fight it out and result in Manzer.

It’s a very satisfying listen and gets straight to the point of the matter. Blackened Thrash can be a bit tiresome sometimes, but I find that, despite the length, I still enjoy this release a great deal more than similar releases from other bands that might have less than half the running time.

In addition to the original songs there are some live tracks and also covers of Venom, Abigail, Motörhead and Mercyful Fate.

A very enjoyable collection of volatile, raw Blackened Thrash. Recommended.

IIVII – Colony (Review)

IIVII is a solo Ambient project from the US. This is his début album.

This is an album of expressive, minimalist soundscapes; Electronica fused with a cinematic, Sci-Fi quality that seeps from the tracks like a foreboding aura.

Stylistically this is the moody spiritual sibling of Celestite by Wolves in the Throne Room. The feeling is that with Celestite you’re gazing up at the heavens, marvelling at the vastness of the universe, while with Colony you’re surrounded by space in the cold, empty embrace of the cosmos.

You really do feel like you’re on a derelict space station orbiting Saturn, with the crushing enormousness of the galaxy weighing down on you. You’re watching, waiting, feeling.

Colony is oddly moving, with each song acting as its own narrative while still remaining part of a larger story-arc. The music shapes the listener’s emotions as it progresses, drawing you in, ever closer, until you feel like you’re right in the midst of the darkness. With pretty much everything designed to give the impression of cosmic wonder and isolation, Colony succeeds on every level.

The cover art is somewhat of a perfect visual representation of the music in many ways. In fact, IIVII is crying out for a visual aspect to accompany the music. It’s not that the music isn’t enough on its own, (it is), it’s more that it has an entire other level to offer the listener; a visual medium to enhance the soundtrack.

This is expertly judged, with each track really giving the impression of a far-flung, lonely colony, adrift in the endless night. It’s the perfect soundtrack for its science fiction-theme.

Perfect for lonely, dark nights.

Corpse Garden – Entheogen (Review)

This is the second album from Costa Rican Death Metallers Corpse Garden.

Dark and brutal, Corpse Garden deliver 62 minutes of blistering and intelligent Death Metal on Entheogen. This is intricate Death Metal with a good dollop of the Technical and Progressive sub-styles incorporated into their sound.

Guttural vocals are growled out from the shadows and all manner of other vocalisations accompany them, although the deep grunts are the main focus.

The music is complex and savage, with all of the instruments having a major part to play, even the oft-forgotten bass. I love it when the bass is used intelligently and as its own instrument, rather than just for the sake of having a bassist, as most band seem to do. On Entheogen, it adds a lot to the music.

The longer-than-normal length of the songs allows the band to really spread their wings and include some good ideas in the music. The tracks feature a mix of simple riffs and melodies alongside much more complex playing; this combination of both gives the songs great power as there are moments when straightforward chugging guitars are the best choice, moments when complicated Death-esque Progressive/Technical sections are the order of the day, and yet other moments when the band go all atmospheric with added synths and other sounds.

For all of this creativity though they still remember the importance of a good song. The tracks on this album all revolve around this, preventing the Technical Death Metal elements from becoming too overpowering or detrimental to their cause.

Corpse Garden are clearly an ambitious band, as Entheogen is not your standard, run-of-the-mill brutal blaster. There’s a lot more going on here than the average Death Metal band attempt and this is entirely to Corpse Garden’s credit.

This is a garden that I heartily recommend spending some time visiting.

Interview with To the Pain

US Classic Metal/Thrash band To the Pain’s latest album 7 is a feast of delicious Metal delights, albeit one that’s over far too quickly for my liking! The very amiable Steve kindly answered my questions about the band…

For those who are unfamiliar with your band – introduce yourself!

Hi those unfamiliar with our band…where have you been? We are To The Pain!!! We are a METAL band from Long Island, New York. We formed in 2012, and just released our 2nd album, “7”. The band is Johnny Intagliata- Vocals, Jimmy Klimatas- Drums, Craig Piano- Rhythm Guitar, Jeremy Lustig- Bass Guitar, and me, Steve Shaver- Lead Guitars. Check us out on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ToThePainNY or Twitter at https://twitter.com/ToThePainNY

Give us a bit of background to To the Pain

To The Pain formed in 2012, as a band. Originally it was a recording project of Johnny and Steve. We were just re-recording a few old songs we had written in the 80’s and a few new ones. We decided that we really should get a band together and play some gigs. So we recruited Jimmy and Jeremy, and our original rhythm guitar player Mark Trojanoski. Mark eventually decided to leave the band to follow Janick Gers around the globe to learn the fine art of marching in place, and we got Craig Piano to replace him. Here we are now, making lots of loud noises! (Sometimes even in key!)

Where did the band name come from?

The band name is from the movie The Princess Bride. There is a duel scene in the movie, and instead of battling to the death, they battle To The Pain! Mark thought of the name, and we all thought it was slightly better than any other name we could think of, so we kept it!

What are your influences?

The bands influences are definitely the Big 4 of American Thrash Metal, Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax, and some other band who’s name escapes me. Also Iron Maiden, King Diamond, Judas Priest, Racer X, and of course Mariah Carey. (Just kidding)

What are you listening to at the moment that you would like to recommend?

Not sure what the other guys are listening to, but I cannot stop listening to the new Lamb of God album. Its brutal, heavy, and I think one of their best. Also the new Symphony X album. They have been playing nonstop in my car. Both great albums, and vastly different.

What’s your favourite song on 7 and why?

Tough question. My fav is probably either “Seven”, or “Is It My Turn To Die”. I was real happy with the solo in “Seven”, and the crazy tapping part in the outro of “Die”. Oh yeah, and there is some decent song in there too. LOL. If you made me choose, I would pick “Seven”. I just like the groove of it, and I like the anger in Johnny’s voice. Although some dope on Deadspin called it the worst song he ever heard because he didn’t like the lyrics. So to that guy, suck it! Actually I feel if people love your stuff, some people are going to hate it too…nobody ever 100% approved of any idea or song.

How do you feel you have progressed between releases?

Well the first album as I said was really just going to be a recording project, so I wasn’t really that concerned with who else was playing on it, or their style of playing, or anything like that. A lot of what Jimmy played on the drums were parts I played on the demos. This album, is way more of a polished band playing the songs. Johnny shook off the rust from his vocal cords, and the rest of the guys in the band really brought it on the second album. I also think we found our groove as far as the style of music we play. On the first album we tinkered with some new school metal ideas and on this album I kind of threw them out the window. We all like the classic stuff, we are good at playing that, so we stuck to it. Not to say there aren’t any newer types of influences, but you can really hear the classic style in our album. I also have always looked at the band song-wise as trying to write like early Van Halen. What I mean by that is Van Halen played all kinds of tunes. There was variety in their music. They just didn’t play 10 versions of “I’m The One”. You had “Ice Cream Man” and “Running With The Devil” along with “On Fire”, etc. We tried to have a vast array of styles, but with that classic feel. There is some Priest inspired playing, but also some Slayer and Anthrax inspired playing. Definitely a lot of Maiden inspiration throughout the guitars on this.

So far both of your releases have been quite short – what’s the deal? MORE THRASH!

LOL. I would love to write a full length album and release it. But the truth is, we just don’t have the time to sit down and write and record the full album. This album has 6 songs, plus an orchestrated intro that I wrote. It very easily could have been 4 songs, as I made the call to add “Is It My Turn To Die” and “Don’t Eat The Eyes” in the 11th hour when Jimmy was doing his drum tracks. Its funny, people say we are a thrash band, but I consider us to just be a metal band. Sure we play some thrash, Heavens Carnage is certainly thrash. But we also play Dio/Maiden inspired metal like Don’t Eat The Eyes. If I had to say what we are, we are a metal band. But if someone wants to call us thrash, or speed, or retroclassicmetalrockwhatevergenreIjustmadeup, that is fine too. Getting back to not recording a full length, because we do all of this ourselves, and I am mixing and recording everything in my house, and not in a studio, its tough to find time to add more songs. But we will try on our next one! I promise!

What does the future hold for To the Pain?

Hopefully the future includes some shows with some established artists…and some bigger and better venues. We do pretty well for a local band drawing folks to shows, and we have some awesome fans that just go bananas at our shows. So we are hoping to grow that fanbase, and move on to bigger and better things…Oh and write longer albums with more songs for you!!!! Thanks for taking the time to interview us, and check out our album! We really do appreciate all the opportunities and the reviews, both good and bad that you folks in the press give us.

Unbreakable Hatred – Ruins (Review)

Unbreakable Hatred are a Death Metal band from Canada and this is their second album.

This is Technical Death Metal that’s as ferocious and brutal as the best of the genre while still having the technical flourishes that mean so much to fans of Tech Death’s dizzying heights. Even more impressive though is how Unbreakable Hatred have managed to retain a semblance of songs on these tracks so that they don’t disappear too far into their own world.

The band have a very clean and polished sound that allows the listener to hear everything that they do. As such, it’s easy to hear how proficient they are at their craft and it’s very easy to enjoy the carnage that they unleash.

The vocalist has a savage voice that’s crisp and neat, if such terms can be applied to aggressively barked growls. I find he manages to compress a lot of personality and feeling into these clipped outbursts and the band have a definite asset in his delivery.

While the songs are no doubt on the technical side of things, I also like the inclusion of simpler riffs and sections that help the songs to retain a catchier, more enjoyable edge.

Pounding drums, heavy riffs, frenzied vocals, lightning leads and solos…Unbreakable Hatred don’t mess around and they spend these short 30 minutes showing a finely balanced blend of professionalism and base aggression.

Listening to this it brings to mind Cryptopsy’s None So Vile; Ruins evokes similar feelings to that album and shares similarities to it in some ways. It’s not quite up to those lofty standards, of course, as None So Vile is pretty much The Ultimate Death Metal Album™, but it’s damn good company to keep at any rate.

This is definitely one of the elite. I think we can safely move Unbreakable Hatred to the top of the recent Technical Death Metal pile. All hail our new overlords!

Nightfell – Darkness Evermore (Review)

This is the second album from Nightfall, a US Death/Doom Metal band.

This is the follow up to their 2014 début album The Living Ever Mourn, which was a very enjoyable album of Death/Doom. Darkness Evermore continues their brand of Old-School Death Metal that has a large Doom influence, this time resulting in songs that are longer and more mournful than their first release.

The darkened atmosphere from their début has been expanded upon and fleshed out with more ambition in Darkness Evermore. The essential style of the band is the same, but the melodies are bolder, the emotions heightened, the Doom deeper and the darkness more palpable. This is The Living Ever Mourn 2.0, in the sense that they have improved upon and refined their original formula, which was already pretty damn good to begin with.

The riffs are highly emotive and continue to draw on the wellspring of fertile inspiration that bands such as Dismember, Sentenced, Paradise Lost, Amon Amarth, My Dying Bride, etc. have all drawn from for their powerful guitars and melodies.

These tracks are involving and paint a heady picture of a strange, underworld landscape for the listener to become entranced with.

The Death Metal base is complemented extremely well by the Doom influence, reminding me of the amazing début by Temple of Void; both bands know how to create emotive Metal atmospheres without losing their Death Metal core.

It’s not all slow dirges either, as there’s enough upbeat material here to provide good variety. These parts are still done in a gloomy way though, and they even have a Blackened feel on occasion; there’s a noticeably larger Black Metal influence in general on Darkness Evermore in fact.

Nightfell have successfully followed up their strong début album with an ever stronger second one. Check this out.

Diabolus Arcanium – Path of Ascension (Review)

This is the début album by Indian Black Metal band Diabolus Arcanium.

This is Symphonic Black Metal that has a strong orchestral component and Classical influences. It has a cinematic feel to it in places and the band do everything they can to foster a real sense of immersion in the soundscapes that they create.

It’s easy to throw words such as majesty, grandeur and epic at Diabolus Arcanium, and all of those words are indeed fitting descriptors for their take on Black Metal. This is larger-than-life music that won’t be to everyone’s taste for that reason alone.

Symphonic Black Metal always takes me back to the mid/late 90s, it just can’t be helped. A lot of people seem to turn their noses up at the more orchestral/symphonic side of things that some Black Metal bands embrace, and to me this is a real shame. Also, with everyone seemingly concentrating on being as evil, cvlt and grim as possible these days, it’s actually relatively rare to find a band who play this style, especially when they play it well like on Path of Ascension.

The singer’s Black Metal shriek is akin to a snarling beast and he takes a traditional approach to his performance, once again reminding me of 90s Black Metal.

The orchestral sounds are varied and clever enough to never become boring, unnecessary or too overbearing. They’re written with just the right balance in mind and enhance the core of the songs while at the same time being essential to their existence. Some keyboard-enhanced bands sound like the Symphonic aspect of their music is simply tacked on as an afterthought, whereas on Path of Ascension it sounds integral and complete.

One of the main reasons it sounds so good, apart from the writing and arrangement, is it actually sounds like a full orchestra playing, rather than just some guy with a keyboard. The fact that it actually is just a guy with a keyboard is quite shocking, that’s how well-done this is.

Ultimately, this is still Black Metal, so there’s a darkened, Blackened core to the band and they keep an aggressive bite to things, even with the omnipresent orchestration. The songs walk a fine line between Blackened barbarity and Classical magnificence.

Diabolus Arcanium have produced an impressive album that’s an engaging and enjoyable listen. The songs hold the attention and ultimately they make you just want to bounce along to them, blast beats or not. And who can say fairer than that?