Interviews – Page 30 – Wonderbox Metal

Interview with Our Last Enemy

Our Last Enemy have recently released their latest album Pariah, in all its Industrial Metal glory. I got to grill Matt Heywood and Oliver Fogwell from the band about the album and what makes them march to the pulsing, Industrial beat.

For those who are unfamiliar with you – introduce yourself!

We’re Our Last Enemy and we’re from Sydney, Australia. We play a type of Industrial Metal. We like the listener to decide what it is exactly.
We are:
Oli – Vocals
Bizz – Guitar
Jeff – Keys
Matt – Bass
Zot – Drums

How did you form?

The band was formed in late 2006 in Sydney, by Oli, Jeff and myself (Matt), and we were introduced by a mutual friend after our previous bands had disbanded.

Bizz joined the band in 2010 after leaving his previous band Genitorturers and re-locating to Sydney and was also introduced by mutual friends.

Zot joined the band in 2013 and had originally played in a band with Oli before Our Last Enemy. It’s all in the family here down under! There’s a lot of history and experience between the members having played in various bands for many years.

What are your influences?

We all have different a varied styles of music that we listen to individually, with the common thread being metal, electronic music and just plain weird shit!

In terms of what influences us, I guess we influence each other when someone brings in an idea for a song and what that idea makes the rest of us feel or think.

What are you listening to at the moment that you want to recommend?

Well I know all 5 of us love the new-ish ‘Bring Me The Horizon’ album, I know they’re very “scene” and popular at the moment – But that album is fucking brilliant! So we would recommend that album for people who can look past their “scenester” audience.

I’m also listening to Phil Anselmo’s new album – Walk Through Exits Only – Its great! It’s a no bullshit album that doesn’t pull any punches and doesn’t try to be one form of heavy music or fit into some sub-genre! Phil is still one of the best frontmen in the world!

Why did you decided to incorporate Industrial and atmospheric parts into your songs, rather than just sticking to the more “traditional” instruments?

That’s a good question – probably because anything traditional bores the living fuck out of us! All 5 of us would rather punch ourselves repeatedly in the testicles than listen to an entire album of like…U2 or Coldplay or something like that.

But I guess it’s because we all love different styles of music even some “traditional” style of rock music… some.

So there was never really a moment where we decided to incorporate industrial or atmospheric parts into our songs it’s just what we do.

Are you happy with how the album came out?

Yeah, very happy… Having Christian (Olde Wolbers – ex Fear Factory) on board as producer was great, it was a great learning curve for us and it was great to have his experience in the studio.

We tried to give the listener as much value as possible, choosing our favourite songs and also adding the remixes from Mortiis, Angel (Dope) and Travis (Divine Hersey) who we thought did a great job.

What can you tell us about the lyrics?

There is a central theme to the album on a character we call ‘Pariah’ who causes/follows/is a witness to anything devastating in our world, whether it’s the past, present or future. He doesn’t die, he doesn’t live. He’s is neither the devil nor god, he is just devastation. Or a very unlucky soul.
What is your aim with Our Last Enemy – what do you want to achieve?

Our answer would be the same as any honest band or artist, without getting into a particular agenda – we want to get our music out to as many people as possible, pushing our particular style of art as far as we can, which we hope will lead to a strong career so we can continue to make music.

What does the future hold for Our Last Enemy?

Well, our album drops on March 11th 2014 all over North America through Eclipse Records. We will be doing a North American tour soon, which we can’t elaborate on anymore at the moment and in the meantime we’re writing our second album. We like to stay busy.

Thanks!

Interview with Blowsight

Blowsight’s new album Life & Death is a breath of fresh air for the more commercial side of hard music, and as I said in the review of the album it makes me realise that perhaps all is not lost for for this brand of Rock. Let’s catch up with the band’s singer/guitarist Nick Red to see what he has to say…

For those that are unfamiliar with your band, introduce yourself!

We’re a four piece Stockholm based rock band, formed back in 2003. We’ve been touring all over the world, mainly Europe but some shows in the states have also been done. Done a handful of albums and had a good time along the way, to put it simply…!

How did the band form?

Me and [guitarist] Seb started jamming on our favourite songs from our favourite bands, Machine Head, Pantera, Metallica, Sepultura, that stuff, in a smokey basement in Stockholm. I had been writing songs for a couple of years, he heard them and liked them. So we teamed up with [drummer] Fabz and [ex member] Flavia Canel and started rocking the Swedish underground scene. Nowadays we’re boosted by the bass lines of Mao, who joined the band a couple of years ago.

What are your influences?

It depends. My rock influences are Metallica, and in particular James Hetfield. The reason why I picked up a guitar in the first place. Amazing stage appearance, amazing rhythm guitarist… that dude is a machine. A soul filled machine. I picked up the guitar and jammed along to their latest album “Death Magnetic” the other day, and there’s some quite challenging stuff going on there that I didn’t think of while just listening to the tracks. So definitely Metallica. Apart from that, I have to mention Refused, Sikth and Machine Head in the metal area.

What are you listening to at the moment that you want to recommend?

At home, I rarely listen to a lot of metal music. Sure, I’ll pop some Slayer albums every once in a while, but I preferably spin a lot of Björk, Radiohead, Sofia Somajo, Frou Frou, more electronic and no-guitars-to-be-found kind of music. But to recommend? Mao played me this band called I See Stars, in the car the other day, and that was pretty damn brutal. Heavy stuff. I’d recommend them, check ’em out. Also, Fit For A King kicks some major ass. I would love to mention We Butter The Bread With Butter, but I haven’t heard enough. Fuckin’ love the name though! *laughs* Also, this Swedish band called Durango Riot rocks my shirt off, very energetic and fiery stuff, and contains one of the wittiest, nicest singers I have ever met.

What did you want to achieve with your album?

Achieve? To produce some good, high quality music. Music with passion, music that speaks to you. Previous albums, I’ve been showing my darker, angrier side, but I’ve become more mature and on the latest album came to realize that it feels better to sing about hope, joy, you know. Focus on the good things in life. That’s why I love the band Hatebreed, their lyrics are very “think for/believe in yourself”, and I endorse that. I think the next album, planned to be released this fall, will show a lot more of that. Those themes inspire me.

Blowsight

How did you come up with the songs on your album?

I write about 95% of the music, in our Studio “Shed Evil” here in Stockholm. I record almost every day. Not always Blowsight material, but for other artists or just to keep the creative muscle busy. When my band brothers come by, I play the stuff for them and they add their own flavour to the songs, pitch in ideas and “maybe try this?” or “I hear this instrument in the background”, whatever. The main idea for Blowsight that we had since day one, is to record whatever we wanna play live. Doesn’t matter if it’s punky, metal sounding, poppy, electronic. A lot of genres fit under the Blowsight umbrella. Hell, on the new album I even convinced them to go a tad country!

How did the recording process go?

We actually just refreshed the demo versions I recorded. Added [drummer] Fabz drums, recorded the guitars and bass lines over and threw in more dubs, more synths etcetera. That’s the benefit of having your own studio – you can go in and add, change, twist, rearrange whenever you feel like it. I produce and mix every project. I guess you can call me a control freak. I know what I like.

Are you pleased with the end result? Would you do anything differently next time?

There’s always, ALWAYS things you want to change. Every musician feels that. I’m my own most evil critic, hands down. I’m the one thinking “damn, I should’ve tried this scale on that solo”, or “maybe if I would have sung it THIS way”. But that’s what keeps me ticking as an artist. Imagine recording the “perfect” album. That would be horrible. Where would you go from there? *laughs*. But I am very, very pleased with the result.

What’s next for Blowsight?

We’re releasing this song called “Winter Show Mercy” at the end of February, dedicated to the homeless people having an extra hard time during the winter season. It will be a charity song. I recorded it and got help from my brother Kristofer laying the bass tracks, due to Mao being out of town. He’s an amazing bass player, so I know he’d do the job done. And Seb’s ears are surreal, so I put him on the task to master the tune. Turned out great.

We’re gonna go play some Swedish shows this spring, and then we’ll try to head over to the US in the summer. More info about that will be posted on our Facebook page, as soon as we got… that…. info *laughs*. I also have this EP that I recorded for a person I loved about five years ago called “The Eli EP” that might, MIGHT be released. We’ll see. Stay tuned!

Cheers!

Interview with Dinner Music for the Gods

US group Dinner Music for the Gods release their first album Beautiful and Treacherous very soon. They play exotic and fanciful Instrumental Metal with a variety of influences and with a definite cinematic quality. I asked them some pertinent questions…

To those who are unfamiliar with your band – introduce yourself.

We’re based out of Las Vegas, Nevada, USA and consist of 4 longtime friends (two of us are brothers). We all share similar musical interests, and have a chemistry that we feel translates in our compositions.

Give us some background – how did you form?

Everyone in the band grew up in Las Vegas except for Andy. Jim, Matt, and Darrin started as kids playing Judas Priest, Scorpions, and Metallica covers. Eventually that morphed into writing original music. Andy joined the band in 1995. At this point everyone in the band started to broaden their musical horizons beyond metal and had discovered 70’s jazz/rock fusion bands like Al DiMeola and Mahavishnu Orchestra. This was an important element in Dinner Music for the Gods evolving into an instrumental band. We started out as a band that wanted the traditional metal lineup consisting of a drummer, guitarist (or two), bassist, and vocalist. The 70’s fusion bands gave us the blueprint to creating a sound that didn’t require a singer. Eventually our writing evolved as such that we felt that we didn’t need a singer.

What’s the mission of Dinner Music for the Gods? What are you looking to achieve?

The mission of DMFTG is to create music that satisfies us as artists. It would be nice if people connect with the music but the most important thing to us is creating something that is completely genuine without second guessing what others will think of it.

What is the meaning behind the band name?

One of the band’s influences is Al DiMeola, a Jazz/Fusion guitarist. He has a song called Dinner Music of the Gods, and we just thought it was a powerful and interesting name.

What are your influences?

Our influences consist of Kind Diamond, Iron Maiden, Van Halen, Al DiMeola and Mahavishnu Orchestra, to name just a few.

dinner music for the gods

What are you listening to at the moment that you want to recommend?

Mostly we are stuck in 80’s metal mode as far as what we are currently listening to. We were impressed by Bruno Mars’ performance at the Superbowl. It is refreshing to see a pop artist that can actually sing and play an instrument well that doesn’t need to be auto tuned to sound good. That guy is the real deal and deserves all the success that comes his way.

Your album conjures up, for me, images of high-society parties and James Bond-style spy shenanigans. Obviously it’s subjective, instrumental music especially so, but what kind of images did you plan on giving the listener?

That is awesome! The album was composed in Matt’s converted garage/studio/bar in Las Vegas – the antithesis of high-society partying. We never have a plan in mind for us or for the listener as to imagery or feel. All of our songwriting happens during rehearsal. Someone will play a riff and from there everyone jumps in and adds to it. If it is any good it just keeps growing until we feel it is a complete song. For us it is all about inspiration and not calculation of imagery.

Give us some information about the songs themselves and the meanings they have.

We think a good album and song should play like a great movie, from action to emotion, to suspense and intrigue. We feel each song is like its own little move and that it should take you on an adventure. Absent of vocals the songs may have even more meaning for the listener because everything isn’t so literal and spelled out. Dynamics are an important element of our sound – both live and recorded. Dynamics in volume, and speed, with diversity in musical styles are all present in our sound. Metal is the common denominator throughout all of the songs on “Beautiful and Treacherous” but Sofia has an obvious Latin vibe. Wind through the Trees is more of a ballad. Ghost Troopers has a Spaghetti Western feel. Being able to control volume, intensity and speed we feel are attributes that come with maturity. Whether it is in music, cinema, food, or whatever – dynamics make for a more rich and enjoyable experience.

Are you happy with how the album came out – is there anything you’d do differently next time? What’s next for Dinner Music for the Gods?

We are very happy with “Beautiful and Treacherous”. We know how to write songs and put on a good show but the studio is not especially natural for us. Frank Klepacki did an amazing job with the mix and production. Frank is an accomplished musician and knows how to bridge the gap between musicians and the recording console. We don’t know if “Beautiful and Treacherous” will sell 5 copies or if people will respond to it but we can take comfort in the fact that it is the best songwriting, musicianship, and production that we are capable of.

Our first show since the completion of Beautiful and Treacherous will be this month opening for Winger in Las Vegas, followed by several more local shows. We plan a small tour through the Western United States in the Spring and Summer and hopefully follow that up with a few shows in Europe late 2014.

Thanks!

Interview with Lay Down Rotten

In Deathspell Catharsis Lay Down Rotten have released a monster of a Death Metal album that does the genre proud. With the precision of veterans and the passion of youth it’s time they answered some questions about how this came about.

For those unfamiliar with your band, introduce yourself!

Hello guys. My name is Jost and I am the vocalist of the Death Metal band Lay Down Rotten that was founded 15 years ago. Deathspell Catharsis is our 7th album to date!

What are your influences?

We have our roots in the Death Metal of the early 90s. Influences and inspirations were and are bands such as Death, Edge Of Sanity, At The Gates. But we have developed a lot since we started out and now we got our own style and sound. We see ourselves as an unique autonomous Death Metal act rather than a copy of a plagiation or trendbands which are very common nowadays.

What are you listening to at the moment that you want to recommend?

I constantly listen to Danzig´s Lucifuge at the moment. But also Woods of Ypres is one of my favourites at the moment. I cannot get enough of this band. Woods 5: Grey Skies & Electric Light is a fantastic album and “Travelling Alone” is one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard. R.I.P. David Gold!!!!!!!

The songs on the album are longer than “standard”. Do you have any guidelines when writing songs?

Over the years we developed an instinct for laying down the right length of a song. We didn´t pay any attention to this aspect with the new record as everything suited us just fine. Even longer sounds do not sound boring. The dynamic and tempo changes make every song interesting and worthwhile listening to.

How did the lyrics come about?

Me and my brother Elmo (singer of the Pornrockband Kamikaze Kings) write the lyrics for Lay Down Rotten. We have been working for years together and wrote the lyrics for 5 albums so far. We wanted pure fucking Death Metal lyrics for this album as we love Death Metal… lyrics about zombies and human sacrifices included. The lyrics can be seen as a homage to our heroes and our view on some topics as well as an expression of our passion for Metal.

How did the recording progress? Any issues?

No problems at all. We worked with T-Low from the Desert Inn studios again because he knows who we are and what we need as he produced the last 6 albums. It is a perfect match and we are a dream team.

You’ve had many releases now, what keeps you motivated to keep playing Metal?

Music and first of all Metal of course. It´s the best thing in the world. What I love the most is being part of this band, to create music. The music that I love: Death Metal. We always look forward. We do not need motivation or anything. We do what we love and we never stop.

The album is very accomplished – are you happy with it or is there anything you’d change?

I feel like this album is a step further in the right direction. We accomplished a fine balance between brutality and melody. This is a fundamental we can count on.

I love the album cover. How important is the artwork to you?

Thanks! It represents the band and the content of a record to the outside world. The album cover is the first thing you notice even before you hear the first riff. Toshihiro Egawa did a great job again on doing this tremendous cover artwork for us. He and our guitarist Nils worked very hard to develop the concept and achieved outstanding results.

What’s next for Lay Down Rotten? What does 2014 bring?

We will support and promote the new record. We want to play as much open air’s, festivals and club shows as possible. We are planning right now and a tour with our heroes Massacre has been confirmed for May in Germany. Please check our Facebook page and website http://www.laydownrotten.com for further details.

Interview with Lethe

Lethe have been responsible for one of the best multi-textural dark-Rock albums of some time in their début album When Dreams Become Nightmares. I asked them some questions to see how it all came about…

Hi! For those who are unfamiliar with your band, introduce yourself!

Tor-Helge Skei (THS): Hi everybody! We are Lethe.. 🙂 We’re a Norwegian/Swiss band, or project, consisting of Anna Murphy (Eluveitie, solo, Fräkmundt, nucleus torn, and heaps of other bands/projects) and Tor-Helge Skei (Manes, Manii, Kkoagulaa, etc.).

As Lethe is comprised of members of other bands, how did this project come about?

THS: Mostly by chance, actually. I posted something on my blog a while ago, about me thinking abut doing an album of cover songs, and wondering where I could start looking for vocalists and contributors to that. Shortly after, I got an email from Anna, and we almost immediately started working on a few songs (among others, ‘Hutterite Mile’ by 16 Horsepower). It didn’t take long before we just knew we had to do more music together…and the idea about Lethe was born..

Anna Murphy (A): A journalist (singer of Three Days of Silence) contacted me because Tor-Helge was looking for musical collaborators. So we got in touch, started on some music, finished some cover songs and decided to do a real project.

Is it important to keep Lethe a fully separate entity from Manes/Eluveitie?

THS: The chemistry in the various bands and between the members are quite different, and that influences how we approach music and presentation and everything, so there’s not much real effort being done keeping them separate, really. It comes naturally.

A: Well with Eluveitie it’s pretty obvious that Lethe has nothing to do with it apart from some members maybe pitching in from time to time, but Lethe and Manes share a lot of the same collaborators so there’s more connection there. I can imagine doing shows together and combined things like that, but of course they’re still to be looked at as separate projects.

What were the influences you drew on for the sound of Lethe?

THS: Oh, the usual, I guess. Life, death, mental processes, nightmares. Everything that happen/s/ed in our lives.

A: Lyrically as well as musically we have no limits, that’s probably what influences us most, because then we can draw inspiration from everywhere 🙂

The songs are multi-textured and very well composed. How did the writing process work for this album?

THS: I can only speak for myself, but it’s quite similar to how the ‘writing’ is done in the other bands/projects I’m involved with…chaotic, unplanned, whimsical…the music kind of grows on its own, and we just follow along 🙂

A: All hail the internet. Most of it was done by exchanging files back and forth. Most of the initial sketches came from Tor-Helge and I built my parts on top of them. To finalize everything and also record some things together I went on a trip to Trondheim.

Do you feel you accomplished what you set out to with this release?

THS: Yeah, since we had no concrete plans for the final result. It was more like pushing it in a direction we would like to see it go.

A: Yes!

What would you do differently next time, if anything?

THS: Hmm.. Anna talks about some smaller mixing and audio issues she would like to do better on the next album, but I don’t hear much of that 🙂 She works in a studio, and is a lot more focused on sound quality and frequencies and stuff like that, while I’m obsessed with the general feeling and mood only. I guess we’ll do it quite similar to how we made this album, but with other songs and ideas, of course. Actually, we’re working on a set of songs for the next album already, even if the first one isn’t officially released yet 😀

A: Nothing except maybe the mixing. I’m not quite 100% happy with it and I’m learning more and more each day so I think the next one will sound better 🙂

How do you feel this album fits into the wider music scene?

THS: A little on ‘the outside’ of everything, I guess. Never been interested in being in the middle of any genres or milieus. For me, the exploration of new and unknown musical paths is massively satisfying and motivating, but I have no idea if the ‘general music listener’ thinks like that. Can’t start focusing on the potential reaction while making music! The only thing that would do, is putting breaks on the creative process. No way.

A: I have no idea if it fits anywhere, but I don’t really care either.

What are you listening to at the moment that you want to recommend?

THS: It’s been a lot of Lethe and Manes lately, of course, because of the new albums from both. Apart from that…varied stuff, mainly…Dälek, Shpongle, Blut Aus Nord, Jega, Ggfh, Billie Holiday, Buddy Rich,

A: Frostmoon Eclipse, they’re cool

What does the future hold for Lethe?

THS: New music, new albums, new personal horror stories.

A: No idea, let’s see! 🙂

Thanks!

Interview with Corpsessed

Corpsessed are soon to release their début album Abysmal Thresholds which is, quite simply, a stunner. We’ve barley scratched the surface of 2014 and already I’m pretty certain this will make it into my end of year list. It’s that good. And terrifying. Read on if you dare…

Hi! For people that are unfamiliar with Corpsessed, introduce yourself!

Quite simply, Corpsessed is a five piece death metal band from Southern Finland. We started the band in 2007, and so far have released 2 EPs and our first full-length album “Abysmal Thresholds” that came out in early 2014.

Give us a little background about the band.

The history of Corpsessed is rather brief, though most of us have been playing in different bands for quite many years before this. Niko (vocals), Jussi-Pekka (drums) and Matti (guitars) met in 2006 while playing for fun in another band. We wanted to start something more serious and death metal oriented and asked Jyri (guitars) to join in, and so Corpsessed was born in the beginning of 2007. Mikko (bass) joined us in 2009. This is probably also the point when the bands sound and direction got more defined and we started to concentrate on recording our first output “The Dagger & The Chalice” EP, originally meant as a demo, which got us signed to Dark Descent Records. In 2012 we released our second “Untitled” seven inch EP and tightened the band by playing a load of gigs. The year 2013 was dedicated fully in creating our first full-length album “Abysmal Thresholds”, which is now released in the beginning of 2014.

What are your main influences?

The influences are quite numerous ranging through death, black and doom metal. Mostly the stuff from early 90s, especially the Finnish death metal bands of that time. Movie soundtracks and dark ambient plays a somewhat significant role as well, mainly in the atmosphere part – the music is still pure death metal.

What are you listening to at the moment that you want to recommend?

Lot’s of stuff. Besides the old classics (that you always return to) some more current bands that we’ve been listening to at the moment include Tyrants Blood, Bölzer, Death Toll 80k, Nails, Anhedonist, Pseudogod, The Ruins of Beverast and Wodensthrone… and probably loads more, there’s 5 people in the band with a broad taste in music so the list could get long.

The sound of Abysmal Thresholds is absolutely horrifying – what made you decide to concentrate on creating such an atmosphere?

Thank you. It probably wasn’t a conscious decision in anyway to concentrate on certain kind of atmosphere. That’s just how the songs came naturally to us. Sure, we have preferences how we would like our own material to sound and we push it towards that direction, but it’s not really anything too planned out – the music just flows out that way, and we know what kind of riffs fit the concept of the band. The sound comes mostly from our love for atmospheres that evoke dread and horror and the low frequencies on guitar and bass, music that resonates your whole body and almost suffocates you. That’s how we sound live, and tried to capture that on the album.

The songs bleed malevolence and ooze evil. How did you come up with the songs?

Matti or Jyri usually write riffs on their own, sometimes even full song structures that they bring to the rehearsals. We then start working on them as a group making our own arrangements to the riffs and structures, adding details and playing around with the different moods and atmospheres. It all starts with the riffs and the drums usually set down the structure of the song. We know when the song is complete when it flows naturally (to us) and has a sense of wholeness to it.. Vocal arrangements come last. We always start with different kind of rhythm patterns for them that serve the riffs and then make the lyrics fit them. But in the end, creating the songs is not something you can pin point down to some details or patterns, you just feel it.

What’s next for Corpsessed? What does 2014 hold?

Well, we just completed the debut album which was actually quite an arduous experience so don’t expect a new album too soon. We don’t have any big plans yet. Let’s see how this album is received, do a few live gigs and slowly start composing new stuff at a natural pace when the ideas and inspiration flows for them. We’d probably like to do an EP or two before even thinking about a new full length album, as those are always huge projects that require a lot of time and work.

And finally; with such a completely nightmare sound you’ve created here, the obvious question is: how are you going to top this? Is it even possible to take this to the next level of Hellish experience for your next album to create an even more terrifying vision? I mean, without causing your listeners heart attacks of course.

There’s always room for improvement and aspirations for writing new (and hopefully better) songs, and taking things to a next level. Not perhaps in technicality, but trying to top yourself in song writing and capturing the atmosphere, trying out different recording methods. We’d like to for example experiment with recording something completely live to try and capture the live sound even more proficiently, as we feel that’s where the band is at their best.

The future is always open and obscure.

Thanks!

Interview with Gutslit

Gutslit are a brutal, slamming Death Metal from India who have recently released their début album Skewered in the Sewer. This is a top-quality release that I really enjoyed and even made it into the recent Wonderbox Metal Best of 2013 list, so I’m pleased to have had the chance to ask them a few questions.

Hi! How would you introduce your band for people that have never heard of you before?

Gutslit (Gurdip Narang): Let’s just say, imagine somebody feeding off your pain, torturing you, bleeding you to a level where you go numb and can only see the blood pouring out of your body while the chisel and saw used to amputate your limbs lie coated in blood and tissues. A faint smile on the face of the person who has done it to you. Pleasure and feeling of contentment showing on his horrific, calm yet evil face, already planning his next kill. That feeling there is what Gutslit is all about. The unstoppable force of butchery, torture and pain that will hit you with every riff, the punch in your groin with every drum beat, the haste and momentary pauses between the blows like the bass and the screams and grunts of the pain felt in every vocal note.

When we started out, there was not even a single band from our city that played Grind. Slam wasn’t known to many. Pig squeals were thought of as some processed noise worked out in a studio. Only a few people knew what it was to play with programmed drums on stage. Bands were asked to cover the famous thrash and a few death metal bands. We just picked up our favourite band, Dying Fetus and covered their track “Kill Your Mother Rape Your Dog”. Then there were songs from our EP with the French band, Pulmonary Fibrosis. Having a split with a foreign band was also the first for any Indian extreme metal band. We played an International show with Putrid Pile. That too was the first for any Indian extreme metal band. From then, to now with ‘Skewered in the Sewer’, we’ve just worked harder and harder.

What are your main influences?

Dying Fetus, Disgorge (USA), Brodequin, Inveracity, Coldworker, Defeated Sanity, Devourment, Vulvectomy, Beheaded, Immolation, Vader, Putrid Pile, Cephalotripsy, Condemned, Krisiun, Mumakil, Mindly Rotten and a lot more.

What are you listening to at the moment that you want to recommend?

The new albums by the veterans have blown us away this year. Defeated Sanity, Dying Fetus, Gorguts, Carcass. They all have justified why they deserve the respect through these years. Mindly Rotten, Infernal Revulsion are few bands that one must have in their list for future greats.

This is a great début album – how did you come up with the songs?

Gutslit Singer

All our songs were written by our former guitarist Dynell, drums and bass were worked out later by Aaron and Gurdip respectively and the songs were finalized with the addition of vocals by Aditya. All lyrics were written by Gurdip. Except for one song, “Circumcised with a Chainsaw”. Lyrics and Vocals on that track are done by Mallika Sundaramurthy from Abnormality and Parasitic Extirpation USA.

The songs you have written are not only brutal but really catchy. In my review I compared you to Gorerotted in some ways. Are you familiar with them and do you think it’s a fair comparison?

Yes we are aware of Gorerotted and have heard almost everything that they have released. We were really happy to be compared to them and were quite ecstatic about the same. We even mentioned the same on our social media pages.

Being from India do you feel this has influenced your sound at all?

There was never a relevant band to connect to in India. There were many in other sub genres of extreme metal. There are many that are coming out with good promising material and we are really glad to see professionalism in music.

What is the Indian Metal scene like? Do you feel much connection to it?

Indian Metal scene is as vague as the people. Almost every genre which is known and played abroad finds its place here. Many have even tried and merged Indian classical music with the metal and the results have been quite good.

Gutslit Drummer

What are your plans for the future?

We are working on a 4 way International Split with all the other bands being from Europe and the UK. This should be released before summer of 2014 and before we hit Europe for a few shows and the mighty Obscene Extreme Festival in Czech Republic.

And finally…Do you prefer Chris Barnes or George ‘Corpsegrinder’ Fisher?

As our vocalist Aditya Barve says,”I prefer Chris Barnes for the lyrical madness that he does, but Corpsegrinder is definitely a more powerful vocalist, live and on record!”

Thanks for your time!

Thank you very much brother for this interview!

Interview with Bones

Bones play a simple but very effective brand of no-nonsense Death Metal/Crust which can be heard on their recently released album Sons of Sleaze. I’ve enjoyed listening to this album and have loved their previous work in Usurper, so when the opportunity arose to ask them a few questions I dived in.

For people who are new to the band – introduce Bones!

Bones Band

Sure. Bones is a filthy metal band from Chicago. Our lineup is: Joe Warlord-Drums, Carcass Chris-Guitars/Vox and Jon Necromancer-Bass/Vox. We’re a newer band that formed in ‘09, but we’ve been around forever. All 3 of us have been in Usurper together back in the ‘90s-’00s. We play raw, unpolished metal. We’re not interested in sounding “perfect” or “clean”. We feel that Metal has lost its balls over the years. Now bands spend way too much money to make a studio perfect album that sounds stale, wimpy and terribly boring. Bones is the exact opposite of all that shit.

What are your main influences?

As a band we’re influenced by all the great metal and hard rock that mostly came out from the 70s-90s. I think it’s our individual influences that make Bones sound the way that we do. Joe is way into great drummers like Keith Moon, Dave Lombardo, Neil Peart, etc, while Chris is influenced by guitar greats like Eddie Van Halen, Uli Jon Roth, Kirk Hammett, and he’s a huge Carlos Cavazo fan. I’m way into Dee Dee Ramone, Cliff Burton, Martin Ain, and John Entwistle. Its the weird tension from combining all these influences that make us tick.

What are you listening to at the moment that you want to recommend?

Ptahil’s “Almighty Propagator of Doom and Despair” has been stuck in my stereo for awhile. Super weird metal from Indiana/Michigan. The shit is brilliant and needs be heard to be believed. They’re even better live. Also, Autopsy’s “Headless Ritual” is fucking killer. Love it when a veteran band like Autopsy can make it seem so effortless to continue making such mindfucking, influential metal. Both these bands make pure music not influenced by image or marketing.

Your songs have a savage feeling that’s mixed with a sheer enjoyment of all things Metal. How did you create the songs?

We work together on everything. Usually one person comes up with a couple riffs that go together or have a rough idea of a concept. We rehearse often, so we bring our ideas up while they’re fresh and then we start working the problem; coming up with the nuts and bolts of arrangement, whatever. We usually have 3 very different ideas and we argue them out over a couple of weeks until we got it nailed down. Same with lyrics. It’s easier when 1 person does everything and writes everything, but we think this way the end result sounds better. It takes longer but its worth it.

Your album has a very raw and nasty sound – how much of this was deliberate and how much was chance?

Well, its what we sound like. When the band formed we all wanted a break from the formula of signing with a “big” underground label and spending too much time or money in the studio. The last albums we did in Usurper were like that. We were signed to Earache who were giving us $10,000 budgets to go in the studio for weeks and create something that didn’t really represent us. By the time a band is done multitracking and quantizing and autotuning everything you’re not left with anything real. With Bones we decided right away that we never wanted to be in that situation again. We recorded the drums, guitars and bass live. We only took a couple of takes for each song. Both of our albums were done like this. We didn’t do any multitracking or doubling of parts. What you hear is what we sound like at a show or at a rehearsal.

The feeling of the album is very much one of “I don’t care, I’m playing my songs my way”, (as it should be). How do you feel you fit into the wider Metal scene?

We don’t care how we “fit” in the scene. We never did before, and at this advanced age we could really give two shits. “Scene” people are usually “lame” people.

On Sons of Sleaze you covered Fear of Napalm by Terrorizer – how did you decide to cover this particular band/song?

Bones Logo

We usually mess around at practice with cover songs. Its hilarious sometimes, but there are always a couple of songs that everyone intuitively knows how to play like “Black Magic” by Slayer or something. We were messing around with different songs as a joke, but we kept coming back to “Fear of Napalm”. We played it with a nice groove and we thought our version sounded enough like Bones, but still stayed true to the original. We thought we’d record it when we were in the studio for “Sons of Sleaze” and see if it would make the cut with the rest of the songs. We liked the way it came out so we included it on the album.

What are your plans for the future?

As soon as I send this out I’m walking to the liquor store and then picking up a pizza…..

Thanks!

Interview with Funeral Circle

Funeral Circle play Epic Doom Metal and have recently released their rather excellent début album Funeral Circle, the review of which you can read here. I’ve had the pleasure to ask the band a few questions, the results of which you can see below.

For people who haven’t encountered you before, how would you introduce your band?

Hello, Pilgrim here. Thanks for the interview.

To answer your question – We’re a bunch of guys from Canada playing Epic Doom Metal.

Your début album is incredibly well-developed for a first release – how did the writing of the songs come about?

Thank you, I’m glad you think so! As for the song writing itself… Some of the songs were written exclusively for the album, others were written when we first formed back in 2006 and refined over time. We write songs through different means, there’s no set formula. Either a band mate will have something partially or completely written and then we’ll go from there, or we’ll just build something together from scratch during rehearsal.

What are your main influences for the band?

Off the top of my head I would say quite a diverse range of classic sounding metal bands like Black Sabbath, Saint Vitus, Mercyful Fate Isole, Solitude Aeturnus, Candlemass, Pagan Altar, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Solstice. Those were the bands that really helped us go in the Epic Doom direction when we first started off back in high school. Since then we’ve incorporated influences from more great bands and traditional folk forms of music over the years.

What are you listening to now and would like to recommend?

I’m all over the map right now, always listening to the metal classics and lots of progressive rock. Too much to recommend!

However, quite a few albums and EPs from this year are in heavy rotation as of right now. Here’s what I’m digging as of the moment – highly recommended and great records!

Procession’s To Reap the Heavens Apart, Atlantean Kodex’s The White Goddess, Argus’ Beyond the Martyrs, Borrowed Time’s debut, Gatekeeper’s Prophecy and Judgement, Cromlech’s Ave Mortis, In Solitude’s Sister, Tribulation’s The Formulas of Death, Bolzer’s Aura, Grave Miasma’s Odori Sepulcrorum, Blood Ceremony’s The Eldritch Dark, Dread Sovereign’s Pray to the Devil in Man… I’m really straining myself here, there are so many more. An insane year for heavy metal music across all genres.

Do you pay much attention to what is happening in the rest of the Doom scene?

I really try to as well as the rest of the metal scene(s) as well, but not as much as I used to. Life is particularly busy right, and right now I seem to be spending a lot more time catching up with my responsibilities to boring stuff like work when I really want to be writing music or catching up on this huge pile of records that doesn’t seem to stop growing.

But! People need to pay attention to Canadian comrades Gatekeeper and Cromlech when it comes to epic heavy and doom metal! Outstanding bands.

What does the future hold for Funeral Circle?

New releases is for certain, but we also have some plans we are going to announce in the near future… follow us on our facebook page http://www.facebook.com/funeralcircle and we’ll divulge everything in the near future!

Finally….Ozzy Osbourne or Ronnie James Dio?

It’s very close, Heaven & Hell is one of my favorite albums of all time, but the first 6 Black Sabbath albums for me are just untouchable… I’ll need a few eons to think about this.

Thanks!

Cheers and thank you once again.