Heavy Metal – Page 32 – Wonderbox Metal

Interview with Electric Hellride

Electric Hellride have finished their new EP Come Darkness, Come Light. As a band who are very talented relatively individualistic this hopefully promises a bright future and good things to come for them. Time to get a bit more information on this band. Enter Casper…

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

Well, we are Electric Hellride, a metal band from Copenhagen, Denmark. We had our first rehearsal back in the summer of 2008 and had some years getting our act together but with our EP “Charged” from November 2010 things began to roll for us. A solid sound of metal with a groovy twist, a lot of fine reviews giving us more shows, all developing our live skills. This led to us winning the Danish leg of the W:O:A Metal Battle in Denmark and thus playing at Wacken Open Air in 2012 (the show can be viewed here: http://youtu.be/xbDEWUs8KdA).

After that we signed with Mighty Music and released “Hate.Control.Manipulate” in late 2012. Since that we played our first tour (in Denmark) in 2013 and developed a little different approach to our songwriting and this is where we are now: presenting some of our new material on an EP called “Come Darkness, Come Light” which will be released the 5th of May.

Give us a bit of history to Electric Hellride

We have known each other for several years. Some of us even went to the same public school and later to the same high school. We actually had a no-name band back in the years 1996-1998. When we decided to play together again in 2008 it was not to reform that old band of ours but to make something new as we knew that we would get along in a very fine way – being friends already.

What are your influences?

We all started listening to metal a few years before the teen years. This means that we are of course to some degree raised on Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and such. But since that we have all developed our taste in metal into something wider, so it’s not easy to narrow our influences down to just a band or two.

Maybe Brian (drums) has a distinct taste for groove through his early fondness of Pantera, Anders (lead guitars) brings us something more “classic metal”, Nicklas (rhythm guitar) puts in something dirty rocking via his interest in acts such as Down and Black Label Society. And me (Casper, bass/vocals), I’m very much into good old Swedish death metal, which might be heard to some point in our music – but I don’t really growl – except for a few words here and there.

But we all like a lot of different metal so it’s really a bit too simple to just put it down as I just did. Oh well, I tried anyway, haha!

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

We actually made a list of what we listened to most in 2013, it’s here: http://www.electrichellride.dk/?p=1279

But on a more recent plan, I believe at least 75 % of the band enjoys the new Behemoth. And I personally really enjoy the new Triptykon.
Tell us about your EP

We were on a good path towards the second full length but we wanted to put out a teaser – or maybe a test – to see how our followers would like our new material as we felt we had changed our sound a bit. So on one hand we wanted to present some new stuff to get some feedback before we would write the last songs for the next full length. On the other hand we felt it was time to show the world that we are still alive and well and writing killer music.

This will of course require for us to write even more songs for the next album, but it is really worth it, as the feedback regarding the EP already is great and some great concert opportunities are being offered to us now.

It’s a four track EP, and as I mentioned earlier: it’s called “Come Darkness, Come Light”.

Are you happy with how it turned out?

Absolutely! We have worked with Jacob Bredahl earlier, but decided to try something that also was more local to us so we wouldn’t have to travel. So we picked Emil Sauer to produce, mix and master. He has worked with Helhorse and Cerekloth among others and the recording session to place in his Grizzly Sauer Studio in Copenhagen.

The sound is not as dirty on the bass this time but it has given more room for guitars to really breathe. It sounds “more metal” but still very organic and clearly played by human beings and not edited to death in ProTools.

Electric Hellride Band What can you tell us about the lyrics?

“Higher Profanity” is about the clash between religion and science. I tried to make it open for interpretation but I think it’s obvious that I’m into the science part. What can you do – I’m a civil engineer, I’m educated to believe in science!

“Grey Mass Depression” is about living in a sad, boring, depressing environment of concrete buildings that really need refurbishment and how it in some places slow down the mind to something zombie-like.

Evil lives in us all. That it basically the conclusion of “Phosphorus”. Phosphorus relates to Venus which relates to Lucifer. And phosphorus also relates to DNA. So we can’t avoid the evil one. It’s in our DNA, simple as that. No need to try to be good, haha.

“Master Inferno” is about power. Power used to control others who are being (way too) submissive.
Give us a bit of information on the songwriting process.

As already stated we are working hard on the song writing for the next album and it is going really well and it will be more in the style of the EP than our first album. Usually one of us comes with a riff or two and we work around that and we are all taking part of the songwriting and thus we are all very important for how a song will turn out.

You have quite an individual sound – was this intentional or a more natural development?

I think it’s natural. We don’t aim to land within a specific genre such as jumping on the retro thrash metal wave. We just like metal, but we are very critical to ourselves in the rehearsal room regarding what we feel works and what we don’t feel will make the cut. And over the years we have learned a lot about what we do well and which elements we should leave to others to pursue. It has taken some time to get here, but we do agree that we actually have found something a bit of our own now.

Working with producer Emil Sauer this time also has a lot to say. We really listened to his views on our music and together with him we landed on the sound that can be heard on the EP.

In my review I say that you’re almost a kind of Stoner/Thrash hybrid, almost as if someone has appropriated the singer of a more contemporary band, (Clutch?/Godhunter?), and forced him to front Kreator. What are your thoughts on this?

That is just how I sing, haha! I like the way you tried to describe to vocals as a mixture of two different genres, as my singing is something that really is hard for a lot people to describe. As the producer said during the recordings “You don’t really sound like anyone else. Well, I remember one from Belgium but he doesn’t sing anymore. So…”.

But honestly, back in the day – long before Electric Hellride – I tried to sing clean, but although I wasn’t singing out of tune it did sound a bit flat and boring, so eventually I tried to yell instead. I like growls but the music I’ve played never really fit to that so to “yell” was the right way to go. It’s been a long walk but since our EP “Charged” I’ve been more or less satisfied with my vocals, and luckily my vocal skills are still getting better and better. Some part is better technique, something is just the natural ageing of the voice (well, I’m 35 – is that old?!). And a lot is the gained experience and just all of us in the band being critical towards the vocals.

Electric Hellride Band

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

At the moment we feel that “Come Darkness, Come Light” is our sound of the future. It is a bit different to our earlier material and the clues to what makes it different is variation: we try vary the tempos of the songs more to each other, making heavier and slower songs as well as making faster and more aggressive songs. And we are also challenging ourselves to make riffs that doesn’t sound as it was picked from our usual “comfort zone”.

And then we are a solid live act and this will get even better in the future as we are getting a lot of interesting gigs at the moment.

What’s next for Electric Hellride?

We really want to play more outside Denmark. So that is a focus point – we are trying to land a tour in Europe in the fall of 2014. We hope it works out!

Best of luck!

Countess – Ancient Lies And Battle Cries (Review)

Hailing form the Netherlands, this is the new album by Countess, their 14th in fact, I believe.

This is the follow up to last year’s Sermons of the Infidel, where I was introduced to their individualistic, dare I say it, chirpy, brand of Black Metal. I have been looking forward to seeing what they serve up this time.

Within a few scant seconds of pressing play Countess confirm that they haven’t changed and they are, in fact, just as unique and special as they’ve always been. Hurrah!

The same distinctive vocals layer the music, and the same NWOBHM-influenced Black Metal underpins everything nicely.

There are two main differences between this and Sermons of the Infidel. The first is that Ancient Lies and Battle Cries has a few longer songs on it, and these have a bit of a nice Progressive feel to them in addition to the NWOBHM feeling. The second is the sound the band have on this recording – they sound absolutely huge! A really massive production rounds off the release and the songs sound positively buzzing due to it.

The songs remain absurdly catchy and the tracks have an astounding amount of depth and longevity in them for relatively simple compositions. This is the joy and the gift of Metal in the hands of masters.

I don’t have any of the older Countess material, sadly, but they have made a life-long fan of me nonetheless just with these last two releases alone. I won’t even pretend to be objective about this – Countess are just brilliant.

Wicked Inquisition – Silence Thereafter (Review)

Wicked Inquisition are from the US and play Traditional Heavy Metal.

Here we have some good old-fashioned worship of all things 70’s style Doom, with Black Sabbath, Trouble and Saint Vitus all being good reference points.

This is a short EP, with 4 songs in just under 16 minutes, one of which is an interlude-style track.

This kind of music is instantly familiar as soon as you press play; within the first couple of seconds they’ve already established what they’re all about and what you should expect.

The songs are good and the production warm. The singer fits with the vibe of the band and everything gels nicely into place.

They do what they do well and make for a perfectly enjoyable 16 minutes. You know what to expect with this style, and Wicked Inquisition do it as well as any.

Electric Hellride – Come Darkness, Come Light (Review)

This is the latest EP from Danish Metallers Electric Hellride.

The EP boasts a strong, crisp sound that gives the band the space and presence to make their mark.

Electric Hellride play a combination of older Thrash and Modern Metal; sort of a modern Thrash Metal but without being infected with the American template of Metalcore/breakdowns/At The Gates-isms/etc.

Instead this treads its own path; paying fealty to the Thrash Metal pantheon with some catchy choruses, (no clean vocals), while stamping their own identity on the more modern aspects of their sound.

The vocals are very interesting. Initally seemingly buried under the Thrash onslaught of the first song Master Inferno, it’s on second track Higher Profanity that they come into their own. They’re almost a kind of Stoner/Thrash hybrid, almost as if someone has appropriated the singer of a more contemporary band, (Clutch?/Godhunter?), and forced him to front Kreator. This is merely an extension of the music however, where you have elements of older and newer bands rubbing shoulders, without any form of detriment to either.

This melding of styles into a seamless whole lends a timeless element to the whole thing. I could imagine listening to this if it had come out in the 90s or the 00’s, never mind 2014.

Come Darkness, Come Light is an exceptional EP from a very talented and relatively individualistic band. I suggest listening to this and giving them your wholehearted support.

Gamma Ray – Empire of the Undead (Review)

Germany’s Gamma Ray are somewhat of a Power Metal institution. This is the band’s 11th album and I must confess I’ve been looking forward to it.

As soon as I noticed that the first track Avalon was the rather epic length of 9:22 I was excited, and the song is exactly what I was hoping it would be. Epic, stirring and memorable in all of the right ways.

After more than two decades of creating quality Metal, it’s great to see that Gamma Ray are not wanting for ideas or passion. They still have the hunger and devotion to Metal that is not commonly present in bands who have been around for half this amount of time.

So what do we get then? State-of-the-art sound? Yes. Rousing anthems? Yes. Guitar wizardry and fretmanship? Yes. Catchy and memorable hooks and melodies? Yes. Sing-along choruses? Yes. Riffs to pound chests to? Yes. Keyboards that enhance but don’t overpower? Yes.

The band spend time emphasising their Speed Metal aspect on some of the tracks, with Hellbent in particular showing a Judas Priest influence. The next song Pale Rider has an almost AC/DC feel to it, albeit heavier and with a distinctly non-AC/DC chorus. Time for Deliverance is more in the power ballad territory, with even somewhat of a revival feeling to it in places.

These are good demonstrations of the fact that Gamma Ray may have a distinct style but within this they vary things and keep things interesting so that they’re not simply playing what is effectively the same song over and over again.

The best songs are the bookends of the album – Avalon and I Will Return. This doesn’t invalidate anything in the middle of course, as taken holistically this is a thoroughly enjoyable slab of Heavy Metal.

How many other bands are on their 11th album and still capable of shredding with the best of them? Not many.

Gamma Ray still have a lot to offer the world. Empire of the Undead is the latest, and a top listen at that.

Interview with Dead Earth Politics

Dead Earth Politics have recently released their extremely sexy EP The Queen of Steel. They’re rightly receiving rave reviews about this collection of tracks, so it seemed like a good idea to dig in deep and get some more information on this red hot little band…

Introduce yourself!

Horns and Hails! This is Ven – lead vocals for Dead Earth politics!

How did the band form?

Will and Mason have actually known each other for years. They met our former guitarist Ernie in the earlier part of this century. They jammed in various roles under the monikers “Grunt” and “Dirtbox”. I joined up in 2005 and shortly thereafter we became “Dead Earth Politics”!

What are your influences?

Huuuuuuge range. Mine personally are Matt Barlow, Peter Steel, Elton John (1970’s preferably), David Vincent, Brian Howe, Bruce Dickinson and just too many others really to name. It would be a boring read.

What are you listening to right now that you want to recommend?

I have been jamming The Animals, Huntress, Loreena McKennitt, Nekrogoblikon and Kobra and the Lotus as of late. I recommend them all – more than that, I recommend listening to anything you can wrap your ears around. Pay attention to locals! In my player now there are local (Austin) favorites like Death Will Tremble, Headcrusher and Critical Assembly.

Give us some background to your latest EP.

Having inducted Tim Driscoll into this thing we do we finally began amassing a decent amount of new tunes. We are, however, meticulous and picky. Rather than waiting four MORE years for a third release we decided to hammer out the three tracks that we felt best defined our direction. Whether these define a “Dead Earth Politics” sound or just the sound of this EP, we aren’t sure. Now that we also have Aaron Canady on second axe, his influence, I expect, will be quite heavy in the writing process as well.

Talk to us about the artwork.

I thought of the concept as a means to visually transition our audience into where we are. I love “The Weight of Poseidon” and will always. However, I think our take on our art has matured and grown more intricate. Having “The Queen” straddling Poseidon and skewering him with his own trident seemed to be the least subtle way we could get idea across that things were changing. Subtlety is our enemy.

What’s your writing process for the songs?

Usually, someone will bring in a song and show us the pieces. We then hack that composition into a thousand, unrecognizable pieces and use spit and glue to put them together in a seemingly random order. Then, we argue about it. Then we record. Then we argue more. And forever.

Are you pleased with how the EP turned out?

I AM TOTALLY STOKED ABOUT THIS FRIGGIN EP. Way beyond my expectations.

On your Bandcamp page you’re offering this EP as a Buy Now Pay What You Want download – why did you decide to go this route instead of charging a minimum price?

We kind of feel like we, in some ways, are hitting a ‘reset’ button. We want people interested in our tunes to have unimpeded access to the album. If someone digs us enough and is hellbent on not paying they will download the album anyways – might as well be able to track the downloads so we can monitor our numbers and keep in touch with ’em!

Your combination of modern Metal with classic Metal influences works really well for these three songs. How are you going to develop this for your next release?

We aren’t going to develop that specifically. I think this came to be in the first place because we don’t discriminate riffs. Meaning, in previous bands I or someone else might bring in a kick ass tune. Everyone else could be like, “That kicks ass, but it doesn’t sound like us.” We don’t do that. If it rocks, it rocks. If that mode lends the continued Maiden/Lamb of God-type sound for future release then cool. My thoughts are that it will likely change in some aspects.

What’s next for Dead Earth Politics? What does the future hold?

We have a show at the Dirty Dog with Anvil on April 14 and May 24 with Down at Emo’s East – Both in Austin! We also have a show at The Rail May 16 in Fort Worth. As for the grander scale, we are furiously writing and we hope to be recording yet another EP before or by the year’s end!

Thanks!

Chain of Dogs – Burning Bridges in a World of Death – De Ep’s en nog get mieë (Review)

Chain of Dogs come from the Netherlands and play a mix of Folk and Thrash Metal. This is a compilation release combining their earlier EP’s Bridgeburners and Deathworld, with extra tracks added.

This is excitable music full of varied instrumentation and Folk-inspired melodies. Mandolin, violins, whistles and acoustic guitars all make regular appearances, each doing their bit to enhance the songs.

Each song appears to be a veritable powerhouse of Folk Metal and each one brings something a bit different to the mix; each one an extra idea for the band to get their teeth into.

Vocals are mainly half-sung, half-shouted combined with rougher-cleans that are characterful and work really well. There is a wealth of vocal variety on offer though.

The songs are very enjoyable and have a high catchiness value. These are infectious songs and it’s easy to find yourself getting carried away with them without realising.

Enjoyable.

Noble Beast – Noble Beast (Review)

US Power Metal band Noble Beast are about to unleash this self-titled album on an unsuspecting, unworthy world.

Straight from the off they make a mark with their brand of epic Power Metal, full of sweeping harmonies, electric riffs and boundless feelings of Metal and enthusiasm for epic adventures.

The band remind powerfully of European Power Metal, especially Freedom Call. As such, this is proper Power Metal and certainly not for the average person. It’s refreshing to hear this kind of music done well, and not descend into parody or just plain worthlessness.

With this in mind the singer is slightly unusual in that a lot of the time his voice is deeper than the norm for this kind of music. It may not be as high as one might expect, but this is, of course, no bad thing. He has a great set of pipes and is more than capable of belting out a ripping tune; his vocals are professionally delivered and he puts in an excellent performance. Higher vocals accentuate his deeper ones and overall the effect is gripping and rousing.

The songs are epic, stirring and make you want to stand on mountain tops, sword in hand, defying the Gods. That’s right.

The album features well written songs with good musicianship and a quality recording. The songs are catchy, have plenty of hooks and are smothered in leads and solos.

This is a quality release of pure, unadulterated Power Metal with a heart of molten heroism. If you’re looking for adventure and high thrills you’ve found it.

Along with the recent Burning Shadows, this has firmly reinforced my love of Power Metal.

Interview with Burning Shadows

Gather, Darkness! is the second album from Burning Shadows, and is quite frankly one of the most enjoyable Power Metal albums I’ve heard in a while. Everything, from the album cover to the lyrics, to the sound production to the songs themselves; it all screams top quality at the top of its voice. It’s such a good listen I had to quiz them about it…

How did you form?

Tim Regan, rhythm guitar: Way back in 2000, I met Greg at a Cannibal Corpse show, which is odd because I was never much into Cannibal Corpse. The next day, I saw Greg again at a guitar store. When it turned out we were both guitarists and liked Iced Earth and Dream Theater and so on, it was pretty much a done deal to start a band. After years on working on Burning Shadows on and off with different lineups and playing the local music scene, we eventually found David Spencer (drums), Aaron El-Zeftawy (bass), and Tom Davy (vocals).

What are your influences?

Tom Davy, vocals: We draw a lot from the power, traditional, and thrash scenes. While our music definitely has a unique quality, if you listen close and enjoy any of those genres, our influences are pretty obvious.

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

Tom Davy: Right now I’ve got the new Omnium Gatherum in the playlist. A new find for me! Highly recommended!
Tim Regan: Plagues of Babylon by Iced Earth. And the new Primal Fear album.

What was your writing process like for the songs of your album?

Greg Jones, lead guitar: Writing “Gather, Darkness!” started like a lot of my writing does: with one or two riffs I had lying around and hadn’t yet used for anything. But other than that, it was pretty different from previous material I’d written in that the music and lyrics were almost always simultaneously in development. Before, it was more common for me to complete the music first, then add lyrics later. But this time it seemed natural to be constantly working on both, possibly because it was one of the few instances in which I more or less knew what I wanted out of the lyrical content before anything had been completed. Many of the cadences, vocal melodies, rough drafts of the riffs and fragments of the lyrics were worked out in my head often weeks before any of it was ever written down.

Tim Regan: Typically, either of us will come to the band with a song mostly done. Then as we all learn the song, we will tweak things here and there as needed to improve the songs. With “Gather, Darkness!” we changed very little from what Greg originally presented to us.

What can you tell us about the lyrics and the general concept of it?

Greg Jones: A quick summary of the novel “Gather, Darkness!” is based on: the story is set in a post-apocalyptic dystopia in the future, where society is thrown back to the dark ages and most knowledge has only been retained by the elite ruling class. The novel itself tells about the main character, named Jarles, rising through the ranks to expose the fraudulent ways of the rulers and throw himself “headlong into the middle of the greatest holy war the world has ever seen.” I can’t exactly verify that claim; that’s just what the description on the back of the book tells me.

Anyhow, the three parts [following the Overture] are primarily distinguished by their lyrical content. The first, “A Thousand Lies,” is essentially the protagonist’s call to arms for the masses to rise up against their leaders. The second, “To Ruin & Divide,” touches on the different mechanisms by which the “holy war” takes place. The third part, “Breaking the Sanctuary,” is mainly a reflection on the struggle as seen by the main character and about what’s to be learned from it.

In my review I praise the vocals in particular, saying that I was pleased that they were not what I was expecting. How much thought went into the vocal style, or was it just something that came naturally?

Tom Davy: Much of the vocal melodies for “Gather, Darkness!” were in place before I joined Burning Shadows in 2009 so vocally the band had a pretty good idea of what the album should sound like. However, the were generous enough to give me a ton of room to experiment and change melodies, lyrics, and even points of harmony. The only criteria being it must sound good. I readily agreed \m/

The process was very simple, try what came naturally, then work with what we liked and throw out that which failed to melt the requisite number of posers. We all reviewed and offered input every step of the way.

Speaking just for me, I came into Burning Shadows loving the sound and potential of “Gather, Darkness!” so the big focus was “does this suit the album? Is this what’s being called for?” With that in mind we marched on.

Are you happy with how the album came out?

Tim Regan: I’m thrilled with how “Gather, Darkness!” came out. Our debut CD “Into the Primordial” was done almost entirely in-house since we had practically no budget. In terms of production, there was definite room for improvement. So when we set out to do “Gather, Darkness!” we upgraded the hardware we use in our studio and completely changed the way we recorded the drums, guitars, and vocals. Then we brought in Kyle Paradis to do the mixing and we were blown away by what he could do with what we gave him. Then when we had Bill Wolf master the album, we could almost see the piles of crushed posers all around us. As the album was developing, it was clear we would need to bring in a great artist to do artwork that can match the album’s grand sound and scope, so we tapped JP Fournier, who has done work for Immortal, Avantasia, and many more. When I first held the final product in my hand, it was almost surreal.

What does the future hold for Burning Shadows?

Tom Davy: Fame, glory, women. Hopefully all at once.

Tim Regan: The two biggest things in the works are another album which we are currently in the midst of recording and an appearance at the Warriors of Metal Fest in June. The latest updates can be found at http://www.burningshadows.com.

Piles of crushed posers indeed.

Blacksnake – Lucifer’s Bride (Review)

This is the second release from Polish Stoner Metal band Blacksnake.

The songs positively ooze out of the speakers, all confidence and charm. The singer has a good set of lungs and brings a classic Metal/Thrash style to the proceedings.

The band manage to combine Stoner riffs with a Heavy Metal feel and vibe. The songs rock out in all of the right ways and the band even inject some interesting ideas into the proceedings; different vocals and effects are all experimented with on top of their Stoner Metal core.

The Metal/Thrash influences that the band have incorporated into their repertoire elevate them above a simple Stoner Metal band and the natural-sounding combination of the two is a real pleasure to listen to, especially when the organ kicks in.

The band have a talent for writing catchy songs and this is an album I can quite happily listen to over and over again. It has the longevity of Thrash with the soul of desert Rock.

Crammed full of enjoyable songs and an honest, no-nonsense delivery this is an album that deserves a wider audience than it’s probably going to get. Be one of the lucky ones and get this now.