Death Metal – Page 219 – Wonderbox Metal

Interview with Agiel

Not so long ago Agiel released their latest EP Dark Pantheons, which is an exciting and inspired merging of Death Metal and classical orchestration. We caught up with Agiel vocalist and founding member James Taylor to see what makes the band tick…

For those that are unfamiliar with your band – introduce yourself

Great to speak to you! We are AGIEL, a blackened-death metal four piece band from the US. Our music integrates the brutality of death metal, raw intensity of black metal and significant orchestral arrangements to produce an intensely unsettling yet enigmatic style.

The band name comes from western astrology and symbolizes the intelligence of Saturn; a planet that represents agelessness and occult power. In the European astrological system each planet has a baleful and baneful influence; a positive and negative aspect that is. Because of its role as the intelligence and wisdom that is gain from knowledge of the occult, AGIEL is generally seen as the constructive aspect of Saturn’s influence on mankind. The focal subject matter of our music explores many aspects of the occult, theosophy, mythology and the limits of our spiritual potential as human beings.

Give us a bit of background to AGIEL

Time passes so quickly and it’s hard to believe that I started AGIEL over 15 years ago. Our origins go back to about 1997. That’s when we started making serious strides towards the creation of our own sound and style. To be honest I wish that I was a better chronologist because I’ve lost troves of AGIEL material over the years. I’ve gotten better at it, my erratic nature tempered perhaps by maturity, but the broad strokes of our history are intact at least.

We released our first full length CD The Works of War in 1999. The title was a bit of a play on the Christian concept of the works of peace (clothe the naked, feed the hungry, etc). I think we were 18 or 19 years old when that album was written, so there’s more than a small dose of blasphemy in that material. We moved past all that kind of thing really quickly once we began to study the Occult in a more serious way. Our experiences with that are what inspired us to begin writing music and continues to provide a source of inspiration to this day.

In 2000 or 2001 we started working on a demo titled Hymnos ex Maledicus Gemini, which would later become the 2002 release Dark Pantheons Again Will Reign. That album began a kind of tradition for AGIEL in that we would try and break out of our musical comfort zones and reinvent ourselves with each new release. One of the aspects of this band that I love most is that desire to constantly change and evolve, to never stagnate or stay with what’s safe. Musically we moved from a black metal sound to something that was much more like brutal death metal.

From then until about 2007 we continued that evolution and experimented with many different permutations of death metal. Like I said earlier, I wish that I had kept better track of that period because we were quite prolific with the amount of material that was written. Some of it is still available and we’ve made an effort to preserve it. There was a 10 – 12 song album titled Kuthula which was a big technical achievement for us. The songs in that collection were very intricate and extremely challenging to perform. I’m glad to say that we still have those. Next was another full length which we called Aeon and I’m sad to say that all of that material has been lost to the ages. And finally, we published a shorter work called Vessatu of which only 3 songs remain in our collection.

In 2007, for a variety of reasons, we decided to let AGIEL rest and it wasn’t until December of 2012 that we picked up its mantel once again. An improbable, but perfect convergence of opportunities brought us back together to create music once again. That brings us to this year’s release of Dark Pantheons.

What are your influences?

We draw from pretty varied sources and I think that is a reflection of the diversity of interests between the guys in the band. Jesse, our guitarist, has a lot of influence from classic melodic metal bands like Iron Maiden. Kevin, AGIEL’s drummer, is into more black-end death metal types such as Flesh God Apocalypse. Rich is into a lot of brutal death metal. I’m into a lot of different musical styles, but my listening habits tend to lean towards black metal bands like Emperor and Dark Fortress. I’m also pretty obsessed with modern orchestral music from composers like Mahler. He’s one of my favourites.

Then of course there is the music that we grew up on which was the second wave of European black metal bands like Emperor, Satyricon, Cradle of Filth, Dissection, etc . In terms of literal musical style we might not share too much in common with these bands, but that black metal attitude is engrained in our consciousness.

Agiel 1 What are you listening to at the moment that you want to recommend?

My current listening obsession is Mahler’s sixth symphony. It’s a devastating, powerful and downright brutal composition. At over 80 minutes it is pretty lengthy in comparison to most of the music that I listen to, but totally worth the effort. We’re gearing up right now to write a new full length album and I throw this piece on whenever I need inspiration. I think a lot of people that are into death metal would really like this particular symphony.

There is so much great music out there today and it is so much more accessible than it has ever been. It can be overwhelming really. One of my favorite ways to unwind is to just throw YouTube up on my laptop and start into a random playlist. I do that a lot actually. There’s always something filling up the background while I work on various projects.

You blend Death Metal and cinematic orchestration in a seamless way that’s effective and sounds unforced. Is this really the case or was it a challenge getting the two genres to fuse together?

I’m glad that you’re into that aspect of our sound. I spent too many hours to keep track of on getting the orchestral compositions to work in concert with the songs. It was a unique challenge in that we wanted it to sound as if the orchestra was integrated into the band on a really deep level and not just a layer that goes on top of a metal song. We took our time to get the interplay between the classical and modern instrumentation to a point that we were happy with. I also tried to write arrangements for each of the different sections in the orchestra and not rely on layered sounds. So for each of the songs I wrote up to sixteen separate parts that got layered up to create the final sound.

What does the writing process involve for you?

For me, everything starts with what I call a seed idea. This could be almost anything; a short melody that came to me randomly, a particular word that resonated with an emotion, maybe one of two bars from a song heard in passing or maybe a piece of visual art that was particularly inspiring. From there I let that seed grow in my subconscious mind until ideas start breaking through to my conscious thoughts. At that point I’ll start writing things down as they occur to me. It annoys the hell out of people though. I’ll stop mid-sentence, frantically look for something to write on and then scribble down a line of lyric or a tonal progression. It doesn’t matter what’s going on. Everything stops for me until that ideas is down on paper.

In truth, a lot of my notes make absolutely no sense when I look at them later on, but a few will actually stick with me and those are the ones that make it into a song. I consider it a vetting process and don’t panic if I can’t remember something. If it is not memorable then it probably wasn’t that great of an idea anyways.

Give us some background on how the lyrics came about.

The overarching message in AGIEL’s lyrics is a call to throw off all constraint and to embrace absolute freedom for the mind, body and spirit. I firmly believe that ridding yourself of external influence until the genesis of all action comes from your own true will is crucial to reaching our potential as spiritual beings. The lyrics that I’ve written attempt to convey both my own struggle toward that potential and the multitude of ways in which that potential has incarnated itself throughout the historical human experience. My personal experience tends to be represented abstractly as the emotional context that the lyrical narrative plays out in. The broader human experience is usually represented through the mythology of many different cultures.

How do you feel you fit into the wider Death Metal scene, and is this important to you?

I suppose that this would depend on what you mean by that. If we are talking about style and influence then I’d honestly say that this isn’t something that we’re terribly concerned about. There are so many talented bands out right now that are doing some really amazing things. I’m really inspired by the level of talent that’s in the metal scene right now. I just think that it’s more important to us as a band to concentrate on contributing something unique to the genre.

In terms of our message, what we’re about, I’d like to think that we stand apart in this respect. AGIEL’s music can be a dark, unsettling and difficult experience, but that simply reflect the reality of most occult experiences. They can be troubling, even dangerous in some respects, but beyond the chasm of the abyss lies a liberating truth. We’re not just looking at the horrific violence that fills the world or how fucked up this or that aspect of our society is. I suppose that’s why I see ourselves as a beneficial influence on the world.

Are you happy with how the release came about? Would you do anything differently?

Overall we are extremely proud of this release. We went at this with an energy level bordering on frenzy and I hope that comes across in the recording. Sure there are lots of things that I’d do differently, but that’s all part of the artistic process. You have to see it through until the end in order to gain insight into the future. Now that we are on the other side of Dark Pantheons I can look back and see where we have opportunities to create an even more intense album.

What’s next for AGIEL?

Our primary focus right now is on writing new material for our next album which will be a full length release that we hope to have ready for early 2015. That’s turned into an all-consuming pursuit at this point! We are trying a lot of different methods to break out of old, tired thought patters so that we can offer something truly new and unique to the metal scene. It’s been a lot of fun to push the boundaries of our musical comfort and attempt something really ambitious. So in the upcoming year we’ll be working extremely hard on achieving that.

But in the short term we do have a couple of projects in the works that will bring new AGIEL material to light. This includes live performances of the Pantheons material as well as a few brand new tracks. That’s in production now and I hope to have everything wrapped up later this year. It’s an exciting time for the band and we feel intensely privileged to share our music with the world.

We look forward to it.

The Lustmord – Trapped in Purgatory (Review)

This is the latest EP from US Death Metal band The Lustmord.

The Lustmord have a nice line in rumbling, bouncy Death Metal with throat-shredding vocals. The singer rasps and growls his way through the tracks like his life depends on it, (maybe it does), while the rest of the band bring the Metal.

They’re billed as Blackened Death Metal, but in all honesty I don’t hear any Black Metal on this EP. Instead they play a mixed brand of Death Metal that incorporates everything from elements of Deathcore to the galloping riffs of Classic Metal.

There is bass! Believe it or not The Lustmord are a band that actually use their bass player in an audible and useful way. Bonus marks for that.

The band are quite proficient at adopting a few different styles from within the Death Metal pantheon and vary between brutality, mid-paced crunch and Melodic Death Metal with apparent ease. They mainly stay in the mid-to-a-bit-faster speed range for the most part and have plenty of riffs that make you want to jump up and down and smash things before speeding up the tempo with some faster drums and a bit of double-bass.

In addition to all of this they also toy with some interesting ideas on occasion; unexpected atmosphere appears in Zombie Disease with subtle effects playing in the background that enhance how catchy the song is and create a suitably spooky atmosphere. It sounds akin to something Six Feet Under might experiment with.

The final song In One-Hundred Years has a playful Incantation-Doom-esque feel in addition to some Classic Metal licks and even a bit of orchestration. It comes off a bit Godgory in practice and it’s nice to hear.

It’s good that The Lustmord feel free to experiment and this should only be encouraged.

A very interesting EP that sees the band playing it safe for the first three songs and then becoming increasingly bold and inventive as the EP progresses.

Recommended.

http://www.lustmord.us/

Interview with Skinfather

Skinfather have produced a powerhouse of a Swedish Death Metal album mixed with Crust and Hardcore influences with their début None Will Mourn. Attempting to find out more, questions were posed to the new pack leaders in town…

Tell us all about Skinfather and where you came from

We started playing in 2010. We’ve had some member changes since then, but I think Skinfather as it exists now is the band it was always meant to be.

What are your influences?

We built Skinfather on a foundation which takes a lot from the classic Swedish DM scene, but if you listen closely I think you’ll hear other influences. Bolt Thrower, Asphyx, and early Gorefest come to mind. We also come from punk/hardcore backgrounds so that influence finds its way in there as well.

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

As far as metal goes, the new Triptykon and Teitanblood LPs are insane. Also loving Stoic Violence “Chained”, The Flex LP and Forced Order’s demo and upcoming 7″.

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

We collectively listen to a wide range of music but I think one place where we find a lot of common ground is that style. For me, I love the guitar tone, the emphasis on groove and the pounding d-beat influence.

In my review I note that you have a bit of a Crust/Hardcore influence to your sound as well – would you agree with this?

Definitely. That wasn’t a conscious influence on our part but its there. We have all played in punk/hardcore bands and some of us are heavily involved in that scene, so its just natural for that to come out in the music. We’re not trying to be something that we’re not.

Do you have any goals for your album?

Our goal was just to release a mind numbingly heavy album, which would be something we’d like to listen to ourselves. We’re really proud of this record and I think we achieved that, so anything else that happens from here on out is just a nice bonus.

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

Anytime you’re engaged in any kind of creative process, you’re never going to be 100% satisfied. At least that’s how I am. That said, I’ve never been as satisfied with any musical output I’ve ever been a part of as I am with None Will Mourn. We’re very pleased with the result.

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

I’m going to let our singer Stephen handle that one:

“Most of the songs deal with storytelling that’s meant to display imagery of social issues that surround us. I like to read about history, and thus used it to create what I thought to be intriguing stories with underlying themes of oppression, adversity, corruption, etc. Ordeal by fire, Born of Despair, Hellish Grave, and Impaled are songs written in this manner. Drown in Black, Calloused, and Planes of Ruination are more personal songs that deal with psychological struggles. Dead Still is kind of a lone wolf as far as its theme goes. It’s a slightly fucked up twist off of an old English folk tale from the 12th century that I find fascinating.”

What’s your songwriting process?

Either Anthonie or myself (guitarists) or Taylor, our drummer, will have an idea for a song. If its Anthonie or myself, we’ll do a rough recording of the song at home with programmed drums and then bring it to the band. Most of None Will Mourn started off this way. We’ll usually learn this “first draft” as a band, jam it a few times and spend time making whatever changes need to be made. This might mean adding parts, fills, or rearranging the song. It has to sound like a Skinfather song, and not a Scott, Anthonie, or Taylor demo.

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

I think that the process will only become more collaborative. I think that you’ll be able to hear a Skinfather record and think “This sounds like Skinfather” rather than “Wow this sounds just like _________”

What does the future hold for Skinfather?

We’re trying to play as much as our personal lives allow us to. We’ve got a couple festival appearances coming up, and will continue playing local shows. We’ll be making our way up the West Coast very shortly with Nails, Iron Lung and Bone Sickness we’ll be on the East Coast this fall.

Thanks!

Contaminated – Pestilential Decay (Review)

Contaminated are a Death Metal band from Australia and this is their first release.

This is ugly, noisy Death Metal that lies somewhere between the Swedish Death Metal style and Incantation-worship. Like gathering Blackened clouds on an otherwise fresh and clear horizon, Contaminated come to ruin your day.

The vocals are so deep it’s almost painful. The vocalist has a powerful growl that seems to be all encompassing when he is doing it, like an endless maw opening up to swallow all life.

The music is brutal and heavy, but not without elements of atmosphere or the odd bit of melody. The tracks rumble along seemingly pushed by the depthless growls to their conclusion. The band can blast as good as any but it’s the more mid paced and Doomy Incantation-style parts that really hit the spot.

The sound is primitive and Crusty, as one might expect from the début demo of a band, but it doesn’t hinder them in their relentless march forwards.

Enjoyable Death Metal – let’s see what they do next.

Beneath – The Barren Throne (Review)

Beneath are from Iceland and this is their second album of Brutal/Technical Death Metal.

Uncompromising and vicious; Beneath play their Death Metal like it’s the end of the world. The devastation shown on their album cover is perfectly replicated by their music which takes no prisoners at all.

It’s unsubtle and crushing but the band do make room for a few nuanced riffs in amongst the chaos. They use darkened melodies to enhance the tracks and play some good solos/leads when they’re not hammering the Hell out of their instruments. Brutal it may be, but the odd flashes of melody and intrigue show that the band are willing to raise their game and be more than just brutal for brutal’s sake.

Inventive riffs create an atmosphere of technical turmoil and the band are in full control of the disarray they are sowing and the carnage they have unleashed. Beneath have an intuitive grasp of dynamics and the songs on this album have a good deal of variety, pace and ideas for an album of this genre. Just look at a song like Sky Burial – almost 8 minutes of pure class.

The sound is sharp and tight, as are the band themselves who all put in a stellar performance.

This is the type of deeply satisfying Death Metal that you can feel all the way down to your marrow. It connects in ways that other styles of music just don’t.

The Barren Throne awaits…

Inhuman Remnants – Inattentional Blindness (Review)

This is the second EP from Australian Death Metal band Inhuman Remnants.

The band play their Death Metal incredibly tight with the drumming sounding particularly inhuman. But just when you think it will be a one dimensional blastfest they slow down into modern USDM-style mid paced riffs or change to a more atmospheric section. They certainly have their songwriting heads on right.

As well as the thick rhythm guitars there are a lot of leads winding their way through the songs adding extra levels to the very brutal music. This enhances the sense of dynamics that the band already have from the rest of the instruments and the song structures.

The recording is muscular and lean, with all instruments very clear.

The vocals are done exceedingly well, ranging from the ultra low to the ultra high with no drop in quality at all.

Inattentional Blindness is that rarest of beasts; a release that combines brutality with songwriting skills and parts that gel together to create a greater musical whole rather than simply being a collection of riffs stuck together.

I can hear elements of a fair few bands in their sound, including Cannibal Corpse, Immolation, Dying Fetus, Kataklysm and Aborted. Such a wide variety of Death Metal should demonstrate that Inhuman Remnants are their own masters and are faithfully treading their own path.

I think we’re more than ready for a full album now, as this is just great.

Angist – Circle Of Suffering (Review)

Angist are from Iceland and play Death Metal.

This is Death Metal with mood and presence, as is instantly apparent from the first couple of minutes of the opening track Circle Of Suffering. Also apparent is the band’s Old-School song philosophy and an ear for a good riff.

Taking elements of Morbid Angel, Immolation and Obituary, the band steer a course through paths well trodden but still manage to offer something worthwhile to the discerning listener. They have a good line in some quite Doomy riffs as well; a real sense of melancholy flows when they want it too.

The songs impress with their melody as well as their dynamics and atmosphere. A collection of riffs is not enough for Angist, they demand flow and song structure to be present too, and rightly so.

The vocals are resolutely Old-School in the sense that they are extreme but not overly so and they have that vibe about them; that indefinable something that says “yes, this is the real deal”. They are legible in places and always work well with the music.

This EP is a few years old now, so I look forward to what Angist offer us in the future. Hopefully they will release a blinder of an album.

Give this band your support.

Super Massive Black Holes – Calculations of the Ancients (Review)

Canadian band Super Massive Black Holes play Experimental/Progressive Jazzy Death Metal, and this is their début album.

This is bright and shiny music that’s technical but also slightly whimsical in nature; there’s something of the Devin Townsend about it.

The band manage to mix disparate elements of Devin Townsend, Opeth, Ephel Duath, Gojira and Cephalic Carnage; schizoid jazzy breakdowns, atmospheric interludes, Stoner vibe rockathons, pseudo-Grind workouts and heavy melodic cyber Metal all collide on this album.

The songs are surprisingly cohesive for all this. Sometimes an idea or a section can feel a bit half-formed or unfinished, however, although from the sound of it this could very well be intentional; to keep the listener guessing or to stop them becoming complacent?

The vocals are mainly between a shout and a growl, with the vocalist reminding a little of the singer of Gorod, or even Gojira on occasion, only not quite as emotive.

I like this album, although it definitely needs time to reveal its charms and won’t be to all tastes. Give them a listen and see what you think.

Beyond Mortal Dreams – Lamia (Review)

Death Metal – this is the latest EP from Australia’s Beyond Mortal Dreams.

Having previously heard their very enjoyable Dreaming Death EP I stated at the time that I couldn’t wait to hear more from them. Well here we have it, albeit only a taster. Two tracks in just under 9 minutes.

The first song Lamia is a new one. It rolls out of the speakers like a steamroller and flattens everything. There’s a older-Nile vibe to this track; a sort of atmospheric brutality that sounds like it’s being filtered out through a black hole. Quality stuff. Hopefully this bodes well for the next album…

The second track Demonsword Infernal is new version of a song from their The Demon and the Tree of the Dead demo. I haven’t heard the original but this version is a top quality rhythmic pulser with dark melodies and swirling riffs.

Beyond Mortal Dreams have delivered the goods again. Only next time we want, nay, we demand, more!

Septekh – Plan For World Domination (Review)

Septekh are from Sweden and play Death/Thrash Metal with a Blackened edge.

Based on the album cover I was expecting something a bit calmer than this, but what bursts from the speakers when the first song Into the Void of My Mind starts is a frenetic and excitable beast covered in spikes and claws.

This reminds me of a mix of bands like Darkthrone, Audio Pain and Aura Noir, with the stylistic nature and playfulness of a band like Die Apokalyptischen Reiter.

The vocals are straight form the nails-down-a-blackboard school of throat shredding. They do the job well and manage to avoid the faceless nature of this kind of vocals by having a clear identity and personality behind the bark.

At an hour in length this is a long release with a lot of content to digest. This album works best over repeated spins though as it takes a while for the Blackened melodies and rhythmic patterns to imprint themselves on the psyche. But imprint they do as first and foremost these tracks are songs and as such have hooks and catchiness more than you would expect for a band of this ilk. Death/Thrash/Black they may be, but there’s a firm core of out and out Rock running through this album.

Satisfying and enjoyable, Septekh have produced a solid slab of Metal that will have you coming back for more, again and again. Perhaps world domination isn’t as unlikely as you first thought…?

https://www.facebook.com/septekh