wonderboxmetal

Interview with Sons of Crom

Sons of Crom have recently birthed their stunning début album Riddle of Steel. Once my jaw had picked itself back up off the floor I simply had to know more about this band that seemingly appeared from nowhere and produced such an unexpectedly epic album. Let’s delve right in…

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

Janne: We are Sons of Crom, and we play epic heavy metal. The band is composed of me, Janne Posti (vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards), and my cousin Iiro Sarkki (vocals, drums). We are both Finns, though I live in Sweden. Our vision is to create music that evokes the primordial feelings of pride, honour and strength through epic storytelling and a grandiose aura. Our music has many layers to it; we want our songs to be catchy yet atmospheric, and we use a wide dynamic spectrum. The basis of our sound lies in some kind of cineastic metal, but genre boundaries are something we cross several times in most of our songs, so we’re not bothered with limiting our expression to one dimension.

Give us a bit of history to Sons of Crom

Iiro: Well there are two answers to this. The history of us as cousins and the history of us as Sons of Crom. Of course they are somewhat intertwined but for obvious reasons the latter is a lot shorter – or is it? Though we have been making music under the Sons of Crom name for less than a year, the personal history between us goes back forever and in a way I think Sons of Crom have always been there, maturing, growing – only now we have revealed our intentions to the world.

Janne: In January, we were in the studio recording, and decided to improvise a song – a long, slow and epic song. We ended up composing “Victory” on the spot, and knew that something of significant value had just emerged. From there on the music just kept coming and coming…it seemed like nothing could stop the flow. We made song after song during the coming weeks/months and soon the album was finished. Debemur Morti Productions was interested in releasing it so it was a no-brainer to engage in co-operation with them. Now, “Riddle of Steel” is here, and Crom is smiling. Haha.

What are your influences?

Janne: Movies, literature and music on one hand, and philosophy, history, cultural heritage and spirituality on the other. The magniloquence of movies such as Conan the Barbarian, or the proud verses of the Poetic Edda, are big inspirations for us. The way of scripting a story and augmenting the saga to something wondrous and larger than life is something we try to incorporate in our own music, to further elevate the lyrical themes and messages. Musically, we are huge suckers for movie soundtracks and all kinds of metal, though both of us have very wide stylistic tastes in music. I can hear bits and pieces of just about everything in our music, from classical music (Bach, Rachmaninoff) to jazz (Brad Mehldau, Esbjörn Svensson) or 70’s hard rock (Uriah Heep, Deep Purple) to black metal (Marduk, Limbonic Art) and beyond. Of course, Bathory is an obvious band to namedrop, and certainly the mighty Quorthon has left a huge influence on us.

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

Iiro: As I write this I am actually listening to the new album by Freak Kitchen, which is not their best opus but I guess I would recommend giving it a spin at least. There are of course albums that I am always listening to that I could recommend. For example Cultes des Ghoules’ “Henbane” is a masterpiece of raw crushing power with occult imagery. Also a new finding for me was an artist called Megadrive. Megadrive makes this cyberpunk/80’s movie soundtrack -style instrumental music with retro sounds bordering on cheesy – but awesome nonetheless. They have catchy songs and nice atmosphere, if you like 80’s action flicks and their awesome music, you should have no trouble liking Megadrive.

Janne: I’ve been spinning a lot of 90’s Marduk lately, “Heaven Shall Burn…” and “Those of the Unlight” being my favourites. Harsh and brutal yet melodic and catchy, I simply can’t get enough of these black treats. Another recent re-discovery is old Gehenna, particularly “First Spell” and “Seen Through the Veils of Darkness”. It’s been years since I played these superb records, and I’m baffled at how little notice they get when people talk about Norwegian black metal. The keyboard-heavy atmosphere, passionate vocals and catchy riffs and melodies really give Gehenna a sound of their own, and they deserve more attention!

Sons of Crom Band What did you set out to achieve with your new album?

Janne: We have no material or monetary objectives, the only thing we want is to reach as many as possible with our thoughts and message. Our goal is to tell a compelling story with philosophical overtones and provide an enticing soundtrack to match its different chapters. We want to reach out to the listener through our music and take him/her through an action-filled journey of war, blood and tragedy, and hopefully inspire him or her to seek answers to the questions older than time itself: “Who am I? What is my destiny? What is the meaning of life? How will I prevail in battle against overwhelming adversity? Where can I find the strength needed to be able to carry on when all is lost?” We hold no answers, though there are hints in the lyrics as to what our subjective thoughts on the matter are. Through our expression, the listener’s impression, interpretation, introspection and, finally, projection, the circle is complete.

Iiro: World domination – of course.

Are you happy with how it turned out?

Iiro: Extremely. Although I was 100% confident on our creation from the start, it still manages to surprise and inspire with each listen and each review I read. This has been one of the most rewarding things in my life.

Janne: The impressive artwork provided by Helgorth of Babalon Graphics really capped it off, and we are more than proud to call the Debemur Morti roster our home.

For a band who are just releasing their first album, how did you manage to write such a mature and complex record?

Janne: We have both composed lots of music during a couple of decades now, so it’s not like these are the first songs we ever wrote, haha. Practice makes perfect and, for my part, all those years of studying music theory, arranging and composing are paying off. Us being cousins helps the process as well; we have an uncanny, almost telepathic, connection sometimes, when our minds just seem to align and we think and create as one, finishing each other’s ideas and birthing new ones all at once. When we discovered this path of creation in January, we quickly realized that we had stumbled upon a gold mine of sorts – the music and lyrics just poured out, almost as if it had a mind of its own. Maybe Crom finally decided to lend a helping hand to his sons…haha! The complex arrangements and structures are a result of us simply not relenting until the songs were taken as far as possible in terms of epicness and magnification of the story. Hard work pays dividends.

Tell us a bit more about the vocals. They’re hugely impressive and multi-textured – how did you decide how they should sound in the different parts of the different songs?

Iiro: We just did what sounded best, basically. We both have our strengths regarding vocal styles and we utilize them in any way to reach the best possible outcome. We never (and probably never will) agree on specific “jobs” such as which one will be the lead singer or backup singer etc. Instead, we try it out and choose the option that fits a specific part the best. So, in a way, every song is sang as a duet.

What can you tell us about the lyrics?

Janne: The lyrics tell the tragic tale of a lone warrior’s quest for peace of mind, taking him through a violent path of death and destruction, supernatural horrors and other planes of existence, searching for the elusive spiritual rest of an ascended individual. As Dag Hammarskjöld wrote, “The longest journey is the journey inwards.” This is the main theme of “Riddle of Steel”. The different chapters of the story have their own treks and their own sets of metaphors, and they are all seminal to the whole of the album.

1Give us a bit of information on the songwriting process.

Iiro: It’s a rather naturally flowing process for us. There is no one way to explain it so I’ll give some examples. One thing we did (with ‘Victory’, as Janne mentioned earlier) is that first we just jammed some improvised drums and guitar and ended up recording the session. Afterwards we kept the drum track for the song and used most of the impro guitar riffs as well. Naturally the guitar riffs and melodies were re-recorded and maybe somewhat polished but in a way the song really almost made itself. On some occasions one has made a whole song as an individual and the other has just given some ideas for arrangement/lyrics/atmosphere. Sometimes we both have some nice sounding riffs and/or melodies and we just sew them together. What I want to emphasize though, is the actual role and importance of the process of songwriting – this is where the magic happens and we give it the time it deserves.

How do you see your songs/direction developing in the future?

Janne: We have already written some songs for the next album, and what I can reveal is that the stylistic leaps are probably even bigger than on “Riddle of Steel”. The primordial atmosphere and epic scope are of course intact, being important parts of our vision, but so is our principle of staying true to the story and not letting genre-specific constraints affect its possibilities, so expect the unexpected! The lyrical concept will be connected to “Riddle of Steel”, and you might even get to hear another language besides English…

What’s next for Sons of Crom?

Iiro: Well at the moment we are dealing with the aftermath of ‘Riddle of Steel’ and getting some merchandise out but after the dust settles, we concentrate on the next album and on the possibility of playing live in the future.

Janne: Promoting “Riddle of Steel” is the top priority for the time being, of course, and doing some gigs would certainly be awesome. Expect a very active future from Sons of Crom!

Orbseven – .ismos. (Review)

Orbseven is a solo project from the US and this is the third album of Experimental Black Metal that the project has unleashed.

This is a combination of electric Black Metal, sleek Post-Black Metal and ambient/avant-garde darkness. It’s an interesting combination and the resulting album is an exploration of state-of-the-art Blackness and atmospheric expression.

Darkened sounds and interesting effects enhance the tracks in a way that’s subtle enough to not steal any thunder from the main driving force of the guitars but has enough impact to be noticeable.

The songs are propelled by Blackened melodies and experimental sound structures, but there’s also enough Post-Black Metal wanderings to allow the room for shades of both light and dark. They’re well written, have great dynamics and are potent affairs.

.ismos. fosters an atmosphere that’s vaguely mechanistic but overtly malevolent and mysterious. Everything about this album from the music itself to the album cover deals in these mysteries and although there are no answers forthcoming the search for them is what’s important.

The vocals are a curious and varied affair. Multiple styles collide as spoken/distorted words, barely audible pseudo-ethereal sounds and subtle cleans all appear at various times during the tracks.

If you think along the lines of Dødheimsgard, Aborym, Red Harvest and Arcturus then you’ll have a good idea of the basic building blocks of the Orbseven sound. There’s even a couple of riffs here and there that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Mastodon album.

Orbseven is a creative and novel approach to what Black Metal should sound like in 2014. Taking the basic Black Metal template and building/distorting it is common enough, but the always interesting thing is where the band ends up once they have done this. In the case of Orbseven we end up with Experimental/Post-Black Metal that rolls smoothly out of the speakers.

A great effort – show your support.

Cara Neir/Venowl – Split

Cara Neir and Venowl are both from the US and they’ve teamed up for this tasty split. Cara Neir play Black Metal with a Crust/Punk influence, whilst Venowl are the embodiment of dirty Doom evil.

Cara Neir are up first with three tracks lasting just under 12 minutes. Theirs is a direct assault that strips the flesh from bone and mutilates with extreme savagery.

Brutal riffs and Blackened melodies are powered by a Crusty assault that leaves the listener battered.

Sharp vocals eat away like acid as the singer attempts to claw his way through your ears and into the meaty goodness within.

They’re no one-trick pony however, as Cara Neir have shown throughout their prolific back catalogue. Even here on their short contribution to this split they show a good amount of variety.

Aeonian Temple is anger personified, Nights… is Shoegaze/Post-Metal in the style of Sun Devoured Earth and Pitiful Human Bindings, which is also the longest song, comes off like lo-fi Black Metal with a corrupted aura and a rabid bite.

Venowl have not long released their début album Patterns of Failure and with that success in mind we turn to them. They contribute only one track to this split. It’s called Scour (Parts I and II), it’s almost 22 minutes long and it is an ode to gradually inflicted and long, drawn-out pain. At least, that’s what it sounds like to me.

Venowl play slow. Except when they play even slower. It’s filthy, unhealthy, dangerous and barbed. It’s everything you love about unhinged, caustic Doom.

The track largely defies description except to possibly detail the descending layers of Hell and the accumulated millennia of torment and suffering that has accreted there.

Here we have two very different bands that manage to complement each other perfectly. I think you should do yourself a favour and get hold of this split. Darkness and misery never sounded so underground or so good.

Aeonsgate – Pentalpha (Review)

Aeonsgate are from Sweden and this is their début album.

This is a very ambitious release – one track, almost an hour in length, documenting the last few minutes of someone’s life.

This is a supergroup of sorts, with various musical contributions coming from people who have played in bands such as Candlemass, Therion, Ephel Duath and Necrophagist.

Doom Metal/Funeral Doom lends itself well to a release of this nature. The fact that the vocals are handled by Mats Leven, (Candlemass), means that it instantly has a very authoritative sheen to it. His vocals are on top form as always, and he seems to enjoy himself in the vaguely theatrical Doom atmospheres that are evoked here.

The song goes through many permutations/phases and takes in 70’s-style Doom, Funeral Doom, Doom Metal, synth/keyboard highlights and Progressive Rock elements. While a song of this length by its very nature won’t be for everyone it works well and slowly builds and grows throughout the playing time.

The winding, repetitive nature of the song is hypnotic and slowly develops the theme and narrative of the piece.

This is not without its flaws of course; any hour-long song would have to be pretty perfect to be flawless, but for the most part this is an involving and enjoyable Doom-opera that’s worth the time that needs to be invested in it.

Emblazoned – Eucharistiae Sacramentum (Review)

Emblazoned are from the US and this is their début album. They play Blackened Death Metal.

This is music with an evil feel created by minions of some Dark Lord or other who worship and defile their way through 8 tracks of daemonic Death Metal.

The deep growls and high screams call out hymns to darkness whilst the crushing production allows the music to be both heavy and precise.

All of the instruments are clear and played with surgical steel. The drums have an especially crisp sound to them, the bass is audible and worthwhile and the guitars have a crunchy, crushing edge.

The riffs have a Blackened feel to a lot of the melodies which adds a touch of the underworld to the songs; they already have a malevolent feel to them as it is and as the band are mainly interested in creating a brutally evil atmosphere it’s only to be expected that a Black Metal influence should make its way onto the album.

The songs are very enjoyable and make the most of their relatively short playing time by effortlessly blending the brutality of streamlined Death Metal with the dark feeling of Black Metal.

Emblazoned combine parts of bands like Deicide, The Black Dahlia Murder, Satyricon, Behemoth, Arsis and Lvcifyre into their merciless sound and the result is a very strong album indeed.

It’s time for you to check out Emblazoned and join them in their war against the forces of light.

Snailking – Storm (Review)

This is the new album from Swedish Doom band Snailking.

Having enjoyed Snailking’s previous work this album held much promise for me and upon listening to it I’m pleased to say they haven’t let me down.

If you’re unfamiliar with Snailking they play Doom Metal with an easy slowness and epic-length songs. Think Electric Wizard with a bit more of a Stoner edge added to the Sludgy Doom.

The band have a raw, earthy sound that has honest appeal to it and a good gritty tone to the guitars. It’s heavy and dirty with a carefree vibe.

The vocals are lazily melodic with a roughened melodic edge. They add deeper growls and other vocalisations when needed but these are not over-used. The singer is relatively low in the mix and his voice seems to fuse with the music at the cellular level.

Riffs the size of mountains regularly tumble out of the speakers and the band effortlessly ply their Sludge-tinged Doom with simple effectiveness. There is a drone-like hypnotic component to their sound that carries you along on a sea of distortion and the promise of Doom.

These are well crafted songs that may sound jammed out but nonetheless display good structure and songwriting skills.

Storm is 53 minutes of expertly played Doom Metal. Highly recommended.

Undermine the Supremacy – Ashes (Review)

Undermine the Supremacy are from Australia and this is their début EP. They play Metalcore.

After an atmospheric, expectation-building intro the first track, (and title track), starts and it’s actually heavier than I was expecting. It’s almost Deathcore in places. Almost, but not quite.

It’s groove-based and relies on heavy riffs and melodic interludes to propel the songs forward, as is common in Metalcore, but it’s more extreme than a lot of the more commercial-edged bands that populate this scene. It’s less Killswitch Engage and more Lamb of God; less concerned with anthemic choruses and more concerned with flattening everything with heavy rage.

The vocalist is quite the beast, with his voice being much more extreme than the norm for this style. It adds a layer of real bite to the tracks.

The constant level of aggression on display here is good to see and the band are clearly into what they’re doing. Also pleasing is their avoidance, (mostly), of some of the more obvious riffs that usually make up Metalcore. Okay they’re never going to be described as innovative but they don’t fall into the trap of being generic either, which is no mean feat for a genre such as this.

Fans of Lamb of God, Chimaira, Hatebreed, etc. take note.

Check them out and see if they can reduce you to ashes.

Kattah – Lapis Lazuli (Review)

Kattah are a Power Metal band from Brazil and this is their second album.

This is Power/Heavy Metal with varied and exotic world influences and an Iron Maiden flavour. Mix in a bit of Kamelot and Queensrÿche and you have a good idea of the area Kattah inhabit.

The singer does his best Bruce Dickinson/Geoff Tate impression and for the most part pulls it off admirably. It allows him to have an instantly recognisable charisma without sounding like a clone.

Kattah have an ear for a good chorus, with plenty of the songs having decent hooks and catchy melodies. The band obviously have well-developed songwriting skills and they put these to good use.

The songs are able demonstrations of the Power Metal style with the Heavy Metal influence reining in the more extravagant tendencies that Power Metal seems to have. The songs are not devoid of ostentation, however, and the musicians are definitely a capable lot.

There are lots of good riffs and more than enough leads and solos to appeal. I’m very partial to some good shredding and this album features enough to satiate.

Another strength of this release is that it’s certainly no one-dimensional affair; it may stick within the Heavy/Power Metal template but it’s a much more varied release than most offerings from similar bands.

At 56 minutes in length there is a lot of material here and the band obviously have both ambition and talent. Given the right exposure Kattah have the potential to make quite a mark on the Metal scene, as they have both extravagance and accessibility in their favour.

Overall it’s a good collection of songs and Lapis Lazuli is a strong album.

Have a listen and see what you think.

Interview with Deathronation

Deathronation’s début album Hallow the Dead is a quality slab of Old-School Death Metal infused with a few extra elements to give their graveyard tunes a special mouldy sheen. Questions were asked, and answers were given…

Tell us all about Deathronation and where you came from

Deathronation, based in Nuremberg, south Germany, is now existing since 10 years and so far we released two demos and a split 7-Inch and played a lot of live-shows in that time. “Hallow the Dead” is our debut full-length album. For several reasons it took long time to record the album but finally it’s unleashed. All members of the band are long time metalheads and have been active in several bands for the last 20 years.

What are your influences?

Our influences are the 80’s and 90’s death metal bands like Morbid Angel, Deicide, Morgoth, Immolation, Death and so on. We grew up with these bands when we were 13, 14 years and we’re still very inspired by the old glory days of death metal.

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

I bought the début album of Sweden’s Vampire a couple of days ago and that’s an awesome album I would recommend for fans of Repugnant and Degial. True masterpiece with a great sound and good songs. A good trip to Sweden pre-death metal past is “Splatter Punx on Acid” of Swedish act “Black Uniforms”.

How did you decide on the style of Death Metal that you wanted to play – what appeals about the Old-School Death Metal sound?

As I mentioned in the beginning, we were always inspired by the old days of death metal and we wanted to play that style with that sound. We don’t like the modern overproduced sound where each single note has been edited by a pc. Use as less technical help as possible, that’s the way!

In my review I note that you have some Black//Thrash/Doom influences to your sound as well – would you agree with this?

Yes, you got the point in your review! We are big fans of the 80’s and 90’s thrash, black and doom scene. We still listen to many, nearly all styles of metal, so it’s nothing surprising for us, that the songs are maybe not consisting 100% of death metal riffs. As long as it’s heavy it can not be too wrong!

Where do you think you fit in with the wider Death Metal scene?

Well, I guess our musical style shows, that our roots and our destination is the old school style of Death Metal. But because of the different influences we are not limited to this special corner. I think our sound is also attractive for people from other genres of metal.

Do you have any goals for your album?

“Hallow the Dead” album is a marker from old times to the new things which will come. Many things change now. But most important for us is, that the music spreads around and people enjoy it as I did when I listened to the old death metal classics.

Is there anything on the album you’re not satisfied with?

Well of course there are some parts we’re not 100% satisfied with, but this turned out as it is and we can deal with it. Sometimes the mistakes can even make an album more real. We are very satisfied with the result at all, so some parts which are not perfectly in the way that they were meant to be, even turn out to have a kind of charm on their own.

Do you want to discuss any of the lyrics on the album and any themes/hidden meanings/etc. that might be there?

All lyrics are dealing with the topic of death, caducity, religion and related questions. We have no answers or solutions, but maybe some of the lyrics can inspire people who might be interested in essential questions like: “where do we come from?”, “where do we go to?”, “what is existence all about?”. Some lyrics are based on real events, others are charged with own imaginations and thoughts. “Deathchant Assyria” is about the rise and fall of the Assyrian empire and the rich heritage of cuneiform writings. “Spiritual Relief” is about the everlasting fight between enlightened rationality and religious views. “Ghostwhipper” is a fictive story which is about the fact that you might unleash powers which get out of your control. All lyrics have a short introduction where is more or less explained what the shit is all about. Well, be it for the album-title itself or the printed lyrics, there can be found some some grammatical experiments and we like to invent new words some times ha ha.

What’s your songwriting process?

Well sometimes one of us has a completely new song and we just modify it here and there. At other times we work together with different ideas of riffs and parts and try to create something everyone is satisfied with. Usually we are slow in writing songs but sometimes it goes very fast and and within a short time. So there’s no basic schedule at all.

How do you see your songs/direction developing in the future?

Well it’s not easy to say anything about the future, as the present is too dominating right now. Of course we will try to make new songs, more heavy, more doom, more direct, more up-tempo… well you see…a bit of everything. Most important is to create an album which is coherent and lets no questions open…

What does the future hold for Deathronation?

Nobody knows…

ART 238 – Atavism (Review)

ART 238 are from France and play Industrial Extreme Metal. This is their latest EP.

Here we have three tracks lasting almost 22 minutes in total that showcase the band’s harsh blend of Industrial sounds and Death/Black Metal know-how.

Usually when bands attempt to merge these two genres the result is some half-hearted Death Metal with keyboards on top. ART 238 don’t fall into this trap, as the Extreme Metal they play is actually extreme, and the Industrial influences seem coded into the band’s make-up at the genetic level and then hybridised with cybernetics to create this fascinating beast.

ART 238 manage to merge ultra-brutal blast beats with more atmospheric Industrial workouts in a way that recalls Aborym if they had gone the Death Metal route rather than the Black Metal one.

Another thing I really like about this EP is that the songs take the time to explore their surroundings, like they’re genuinely trying to find the best fit for their various component parts. In a feat of ingenuity the band manage to work with both sides of their sound expertly and incorporate them into an Industrial Extreme Metal whole.

It’s a musical framework that not many bands try, as most that do usually sound weak, incoherent or like some 80’s synth parody. ART 238 sidestep all of this by going straight for the jugular with their creative brand of urban Metal.

For fans of and mixing influences from – Aborym, Mithras, Red Harvest, Axis of Perdition, Blut Aus Nord, Ministry, Dødheimsgard, Kekal, Invertia, etc.

Highly enjoyable and highly recommended. This is the sound of a mechanised apocalypse.