Interview – Page 20 – Wonderbox Metal

Interview with Ashtar

Ashtar’s highly recommended début album Ilmasaari successfully treads the line between occult Doom and Blackened vitriol; a 46 minute ritual that will leave you begging and gasping for more. I decided to find out a bit more about the creative force behind the band…

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

Marko: We are a duo from Basel, Switzerland, playing some kind of blackened sludge doom. Before forming the band, Witch N. was the bassist of the female doom band shEver, I am the drummer of the space doom band Phased. We met for the first time when these bands played together four years ago.

Give us a bit of history to Ashtar

Marko: We started to rehearse in 2012. Witch N. played the guitar and I sat behind my drums. Like that we developed some first ideas but didn’t really know where the way would lead us. We knew we wanted to stay a duo though. After a while we had some songs together and recorded them between December 2013 and April 2014 in a studio in Greifensee, Switzerland. It was the studio of a guy called Mäthe Imboden who’s very much into the Zurich black metal scene and friend of bands like Bölzer. We played all the instruments on our own. That means: We started with the drums and rhythm guitar riffs as basics and recorded the bass, growls, clean vocals and lead guitars as overdubs. Later Greg Chandler of Esoteric, whom shEver had already worked with, mixed and mastered the album in his studio in Birmingham. And in January 2015 we played our first gig with two guest guitarists.

What are your influences?

Marko: We love the modern intellectual metal bands that mix black metal and doom. Many of them come from France or Finland.

Witch N.: Beside other sources of inspiration we like bands such as Glorior Belli, Oranssi Pazuzu, Wolvserpent, Blut aus Nord, Dark Buddha Rising and Eagle Twin.

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

Witch N.: I am constantly trying to discover new underground bands in the sphere of sludge, black and doom although I was a bit neglectful recently… I’d like to mention Laster, Atriarch, Portal, Altar Of Plagues, Sea Bastard, Inter Arma or Bastard Sapling. Besides I do listen to older bands like The Chameleons, The Jesus And Mary Chain or Samhain.

Marko: I also listen to a lot of music that doesn’t sound like Ashtar at all: 70’s prog, kraut, shoegaze, 80’s new wave, modern jazz. It’s difficult to recommend something particular at the moment – well, I always go for Pentagram.

What did you want to achieve with your new album?

Marko: Nothing particular, actually. We just wanted to play other parts in a band than we had before as bassist and drummer. We wanted to do a record with our own songs and play all the instruments on our own. We just felt the need to do our own thing finally.

Are you happy with how it turned out?

Marko: Yes, we are very happy with it. Most of all it wasn’t self-evident for us that the guitars would work that well because they’re not our main instrument. I mean, of course you could always do something better or different if you listen to a record afterwards, but at some point you just have to let loose and hope it still feels good later. And we think it does. It does have a dark atmosphere that spreads through the whole album.

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

Witch N.: I honestly like all of our six songs, but if I had to decide I would say «Des siècles qui éternellement séparent le corps mortel de mon âme». It’s the most personal song regarding the lyrics, and from the musical approach it starts as the most «black metal» song and then develops into the most representative song for the music of Ashtar. And last but not least: It’s great to scream and growl in French!

Marko: My favourite song is «Celestial» because of its many mood and rhythm changes and because I’m particularly happy with my guitar work in the second part of the song. But I think every song on «Ilmasaari» has it’s own character. So I really like all of them.

What can you tell us about the lyrics?

Witch N.: Generally I do not like to analyse my own words – the listener should be as free and unprejudiced as possible. For sure I don’t want to tell a story with my lyrics, I’d rather want them to be some sort of poems. I see them as an addition to the musical atmosphere, even though I write my lyrics without listening to the specific song. I try to create a special feeling, mood or vibe, to draw a certain picture.

Give us a bit of information on the songwriting process.

Witch N.: The songs on «Ilmasaari» emerged from one or two riffs and jams in the rehearsal room. We always knew quite quickly if a riff had the potential to become a song or not. When a song developed we defined the structures and recorded it as a basis with one guitar, drums and lead vocals. At home, we listened to the recording and tried to add some bass lines, more guitars and vocals. The songs were not completely finished when we entered the studio though – «Celestial» for example developed mostly in the studio. That it turned out to be one of the most intense songs of the album was the proof for us that spontaneous creativity worked very well!

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

Marko: We have no idea because we never plan where we’re going musically. We don’t say: Now we want to sound like Glorior Belli or whoever. We just play and see what happens next.

And what’s next for Ashtar?

Marko: After the release of the CD and tape version of «Ilmasaari» on June 8 we wait for the vinyl to come out in early autumn. And then we plan to tour in winter and spring.

Interview with Ichor

Ichor’s third album, Depths, is a thoroughly modern aggressor that drowns the listener in blast beats and hyper-aggressive brutality. I got to explore the darkened reaches of the sea with vocalist Eric…

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

Hi , we are a five piece extreme death metal bastard from Germany . We like the horror of the deep sea and live by the code of metal! Drinking beer and listening to metal all night!

Give us a bit of history to Ichor

Ichor started blasting in 2008 and shortly after in 2009 the début full length “the siege” was released via Bastardized Recordings. We started touring immediately, playing a lot of live shows all over Europe supporting bands like Aborted, The Black Dahlia Murder or Benighted. When we weren’t on the road we wrote songs for the next album Benthic Horizon which was released in 2010, again via Bastardized Recordings and re-released in the UK via Siege of Amida. Again we started touring relentlessly and worked on our latest record Depths which was released last year.

What are your influences?

I would say that our main influences are polish death metal bands like Behemoth, Hate or Decapitated and some old school american death metal like Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation and Morbid Angel. Everyone in Ichor has kind of a unique taste in music, not only metal but throughout all kinds of genres and everyone brings new ideas to rehearsals. But we don’t see music as our only source of inspiration. The deep sea for example has a huge impact on our work, the secrets that lure deep down in the unknown, its cataclysmic force which destroys everything in it’ way once it is unleashed.

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

Behemoth’s The Satanist, Watain’s Lawless Darkness, Whitechapel’s This is Exile, At the Gates’ At War with Reality and Vader’s Litany.

What’s your views on the current state of Death Metal in 2015?

The development is going crazy, more brutal, more faster, more tech. It is fucking amazing how many good bands are out there, I would love to buy every single CD, but my pockets are always empty har har! Sometimes I am loosing the focus out of all these bands, but there are many talented kids out there.

What did you want to achieve with your new album?

As I said, we are really big fans of the polish scene and we’ve recorded in the same studio as Behemoth and Vader. Our aim is just to play extreme death metal which we like most, just to live our metal way of life. Of course it’s not easy to be outstanding, we just wanted to play some great metal shows and blast some shit out to the crowd and drink some beer with good old friends.

As this is your third album, how do you feel you have progressed since your earlier work?

Yes, we have changed in some way. In the early days we’ve had more modern death core elements in our sound and nowadays we are blasting more than ever. No mosh just blast beats.

Are you happy with how Depths turned out?

Yeah, we’re satisfied with the outcome. We would never release anything which is unsatisfying for us. Of course in retrospect there are always things which we could have done better, but it’s no use to be pissed off about things like that. Sometimes when you hear the songs you think, ah damn, I could have done that differently, or play this harmonic or whatever. But that’s part of the process as an artist. It makes you wanna try harder on the next record, get to a new level and when you have reached that new level, technically or in terms of composing and songwriting, you produce and release a new record, be pissed off about that and so on and so on. That’s progress 😀

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

The Heretic King it shows the whole spectrum of the band.

What can you tell us about the lyrics?

Depths is about the end of the world as we know it. Most of the surface gets destroyed by an asteroid and humanity divides itself into people who stay on the surface, being heavily mutilated and those who were forced to find a new place to live in the depths of the sea. They form a new civilisation, hybrids of humans and underwater creatures. Depths describes the inevitable war between those two societies.

Give us a bit of information on the songwriting process.

Usually we just start jamming for a while. When we find any harmony, riff, rhythm or something else that we think could work in a new song we look into that and try to build it up, play variations of it. Most of the time we feel right on the spot whether it will work or not. But sometimes one of the members writes a song at home, records it and sends it to the others so that they can work with it at home and when we meet in rehearsal we can directly start playing. Both kinds of processes work for us.

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

I think we will try some new elements perhaps more heavier stuff like Desire of the Depth. Expect the unexpected is usually said hehe.

What’s next for Ichor?

We started writing songs for the next album. We will take our time to make it sound as good as possible, we’re definitely trying to reach a new stage, beyond Depths and everything we have done before. But until that, we are planning to play a lot of live shows and touring Europe. As much fun as writing and recording is, the best part of being a musician is playing live, seeing different cities and meeting all those crazy-ass metal people out there.

http://www.bastardizedrecordings.de/

Interview with Profanity

Profanity’s first release in over a decade has been their storming new EP Hatred Hell Within. Containing 20 minutes of absolutely top-notch Technical Death Metal, it put Profanity firmly on my radar and, if there was any justice in the world, should definitely find a place in every Extreme Metal fan’s collection. I traded words with guitarist/vocalist Tom to find out more about this supremely talented band…

Give us a bit of history to Profanity

Hello Nigel, so I will try to keep it short, but 23 years of being in Profanity makes it not easy to keep it short!

Profanity was founded by myself in the year 1993. With this first line-up we recorded two demos. But the music on both demos has not much to do with Profanity sounds today. It was a weird mixture different styles. The reason for this is simple, it was hard for me to find people which wanted also to play Death Metal in the style of Monstrosity or of course Death at this time. So everybody threw in what they liked. That was also the reason for me to change the line-up. I knew there was a crazy bass player out there named Martin who was also very into the Death Metal style I wanted to play. So after some meetings Martin joined Profanity, and it was just perfect. We also needed a drummer who also wanted to play fast and technical. The girlfriend of Martin at this time knew one, and his name was Armin. She managed to get a meeting with him and so he came into our practice room one day, made his drums ready and that was it. It was one of those great moments…Armin was fantastic.

So from that time on we worked together as a three piece and it worked very well. We all had the same motivation, to create something “different“, I mean we had the same vision of how our music should sound. Our first “try“ were the songs which we recorded for our first full-length “Shadows To Fall“. But a very sad thing was, before we did the recordings Martin had to quit with Profanity because of a very sad family situation in his life. There was no other opportunity for him, but we had the luck that we had found Daniel. Daniel had the same intention like us and was also the same Death Metal head like we are so Daniel practiced all the stuff for “Shadows To Fall“ and in 1997 we recorded it. It was released by ourselves.

From 1997 – 2000 we played a lot of great shows and we also got in contact with Cudgel Agency from Germany. Our first colaboration with them was the split 7″ which we did with Lividity from USA. The name of the seven inch was “Drowned in Dusk“. We had also new material written for our next release and so they released also our second full-length in 2000. On this record Martin was back in Profanity, so Martin recorded the bass guitar on this album. His family situation was now good again so he came back to Profanity. Daniel wanted to try something different and all was very cool so.

We played a lot of shows again and 2002 we got the great chance to go on a European tour with Cryptopsy, Haemorrhage and Spawn. So we did and for this reason we thought, it was a good idea to release something new. We made another 7″ called “Humade Me Flesh“. We recorded three songs, “Humade Me Flesh“, “Zombie Ritual“ from Death and “Fear of Napalm“ from Terrorizer. Then in 2004 it should be our last show for a longer time. We played in New York with Exhumed, Misery Index and Uphill Battle and a few days later on the great Maryland Deathfest. This was our last concert.

We always wanted to write new stuff but it’s not easy or almost not possible when you are working 40 hours per week and at weekend you are out on the road to your shows. So we decided to make a break from playing live. We fully concentrated on writing new stuff, and so we did. We wrote eight new songs whith a playing time of 60 minutes and the stuff is absolutely great. But sometimes things go an other way. The “normal“ life just took place. I got married in 2006 and now we have three girls. Martin got also married. We all went and studied further education and each of us started at a new job. So at these years there was not much time for Profanity.

But in 2011 the time was there again and the fire was still burning of course. We started to practice and also played a live show. Then we decided to start recording by ourselves the material we had written in the years from 2003 – 2006 and so we did. But another sad thing happened. Martin and his family decided to move from Germany to Australia. That was very sad for us. So we cancelled all confirmed shows and we also stopped the recordings. But maybe it’s destiny, Daniel got back again. We never thought of this! So the thing was we wanted to release something new as fast as possible so we decided to release an EP with the three songs we had recorded so far. Daniel practiced our live-set and so we were able to play live again in 2014 and our EP came out in December of 2014. So here we are now, 2015. All is perfect, we play live shows, we are working on our next full-length and we will see what the future will bring for us.

profanity

What are your influences?

I think all kinds of music we are all listening to are our influences of course. But when it comes to Death Metal, Suffocation, Cryptopsy, Hate Eternal, Dying Fetus, Necrophagist, Death, Morbid Angel, Deeds of Flesh…I think the list would be endless. This is stuff we all like in Profanity. But from the first days of the band we always had our own vision of extreme music. With every release of us I think we are getting closer to that vision. We don’t want to copy stuff, being creative feels so good and when, for example, all recording is done and you take a step back and listen to your own stuff, that feels great. We have many new ideas and we are very excited about how it will turn out. The journey of finding our final vision of extreme music will go on.

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

At the moment, ha…I am listen to Leprosy from Death. A classic album of course. I like also the new Cryptopsy stuff, very cool, new Sinister is great, too. New Dying Fetus “Reign Supreme“ is stuff that I like. Oh I don’t have to forget Aborted’s “Necrotic Manifesto“, awesome stuff, such a brilliant mixture of technique, straight-forward, blast stuff…it has everything you need! I like so many bands, and I am listening to so much stuff. Isn’t that a great thing?! Death Metal for me is just more then music, it’s definitely a part of my life. Every day when I am biking to work, I have my earphones and while cycling I am listening to crazy stuff like Suffocation – Pinnacle of Bedlam……

Are you happy with how your new EP turned out?

Yes, absolutely. Everything is the way we wanted it to be. We got mazing cover artwork, done by Federico Musetti from Italy. To work with him was just amazing. The Hatred Hell Within he created for us is just amazing. The same thing what concerns the studio. We recorded the three songs with a total playing time of 20 minutes by ourselves and mixing and mastering we did at the Iguana Studios, owned by Christoph Brandes. He is also responsible for the great albums of Necrophagist. So he is absolutely familiar with technical Death Metal. He has all the equipment and of course the know how, how to get the best result out of our music. We wanted to have of course a brutal sound but for us it was also very important that you can hear what every instrument is playing. We put so much time into the bass lines and it would be sad if you are not able to hear what the bass is playing. Christoph is the man, and I think with our next release we will go to him again. We also got the opportunity to release this EP on a label, so Rising Nemesis Records from Germany gave us this opportunity and we are very happy with that.

The songs on this EP are “I am your soul“, “Hatred Hell Within“ which were both written in 2004 and “Melting“, which is the newest one. I wrote that song in 2010 when there was a bit of time.

Give us a bit of information on the songwriting process.

Our songwriting has changed over the years and for myself as a musician this is very interesting. We had times, when the first parts of a song were created by, oh that drumbeat sounds good here and do here a splash and there a ride and so on and this way we went through a whole song. For us it worked very well. When we had the feeling, ok, the song is done I wrote all the guitar and bass parts fitting to what the drums are playing. It worked but now, the guitar parts come first, or sometimes the drum parts are first. But that is what makes it so interesting. For example “Hatred Hell Within“ I had in mind to write a song which is like a stream. I mean the song structure. When a stream or a river is flowing, the water will pass never the same place again. The waters flows around stones and here and there but the water wants to move on. So I decided to write a song in which part A will be only played one time and part B also only one time and so on, hard to explain. “I am your soul“ does not have such a complex song structure I think. The song is very hard to play, for every instrument but the song structure is not so complicated I think. The best thing, just listen to it. That would be the best I think. Just let the music do the talking ;-).

What’s you favourite song on the EP and why?

I don’t have any favourite song on this EP. All three songs are different, all songs are written from another perspective that concerns songwriting. Every song on this EP stands on its own. Every song is its own picture and all together, every song is a part of our vision of extreme music.

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

We have still some material of 40 minutes to record from the years of 2003 – 2006 and that stuff is amazing. It has just to be recoreded but this will for sure take us quite a while. Everything you want to be good needs time, the same of course with our music. I think the stuff we have for our next release “The Art Of Sickness“ is the sickest, the most brutal and of course the most technical stuff we have done so far. But for us the most important thing is the song itself. We don’t want to just be technical or brutal and stuff, we want to write good music. We see all things as tools and we have many of them I think and we will use them, just to create extreme music, our vision of extreme music.

What’s next for Profanity?

We already have started with the recordings because we also want to use the little break we have now from live playing efficiently. In April we played our last show and the next will be at the amazing Deathfest in September in Germany. The headliners are Nile, Suffocation and Asphyx so we are very excited about that. We have to find a good way, to get all things managed. I mean to keep in shape for our live shows, to have time for the recordings, doing all the “promo“ – stuff for Profanity and of course to stay healthy and have time for our families and our kids. That’s not always so easy.

But the thing is, once infected by a virus called Death Metal, there is no chance for healing. I hope that we all in Profanity will have a good time and we are very looking forward to create “The Art Of Sickness“. We will see when the time will be there to go into the studio and we will see how all things will turn out.

Nigel, thank you very much for doing this interview and many thanx of course for your great support of Profanity. We really appreciate this! Keep on blasting, Tom and Profanity.

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http://profanitydeathmetal.bigcartel.com/

https://profanitydeathmetal.bandcamp.com/

https://www.youtube.com/user/nothingremain

www.profanity.de

Interview with A Secret Revealed

A Secret Revealed have recently released their début album The Bleakness. Bleak it may be, but it’s also a Post-Metal tour de force. Join me, as we attempt to pierce the darkness…

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

Hi! And first of all: Thank you for the interview! We are A Secret Revealed, a five piece band from Würzburg/Germany. We play Post-Metal anchored in melody with equal measures of Black Metal and Hardcore influences and just released our first full length album “The Bleakness” via Bastardized Recordings.

Give us a bit of history to A Secret Revealed

The band was founded in 2012. After releasing our first EP “Lay My Memories To Rest“ we had several line-up changes and played shows with Bands like “Agrypnie“, “Der Weg Einer Freiheit“, “Ära-Kra” and many more. In 2014 we found our final line-up and recorded our début album in collaboration with Nikita Kamprad. We know each other for a long time from different bands in our hometown and so it was quite natural to form a band.

What are your influences?

All our band members have different musical backgrounds, so our musical influences are quite various and reach from Post-Rock to Black Metal or even Pop. Overall other Post-Metal Bands like Devil Sold His Soul, Cult of Luna or Pelican are the biggest influence for us.

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

At the moment I’m listening to a lot of bands. But these I’d like to highly recommend. If you don’t know them, you should give them a listen:

Fjørt – D’Accord
Der Weg Einer Freiheit – Stellar
Capsize – The Angst in My Veins
Red Apollo – Altruist
Polar – Shadowed by Vultures
Oathbreaker – Maelstrøm
Devil Sold His Soul – Blessed & Cursed

What did you want to achieve with your new album?

Of course we also wanted to reach more people with the album, but most of all it’s very important to us, that everyone who listens to “The Bleakness” can feel the atmosphere and empathize with the deep despair that we pack into our songs.

How do you write your songs?

Our guitarist Ralle and I usually compose all our songs at home and record a pre-production of them. After everyone in the band listened to it and approved it, we rehearse them and work on small changes if necessary. Once a song is instrumentally finished Lukas or our vocalist Paul add the lyrics to the song.

Your sound takes in a wide-range of different styles. How did you decide what you wanted to incorporate into the album?

To be honest it wasn’t a real decision which styles made it into the album, it all happened completely natural when we wrote the songs. Nevertheless the most important thing for us is that, whatever kind of idea someone comes up with, the idea/the riff should support the atmosphere and fit into the song.

Are you happy with the final result?

We are very pleased with the final outcome. For our recordings we collaborated with Nikita Kamprad (Der Weg Einer Freiheit) who is responsible for the powerful and differentiated sound we wanted to achieve. We are very satisfied how everything worked out in the end. Of course there are always some new ideas and stuff that came into our minds after finishing the record, but these ideas have to wait for the next songs.

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

This is a real hard one. Eventhough i like every song in its own way, I personally like “Drowning” the most. This song changes between fast blast beats and slow atmospheric clean parts and the guest vocals of Nikita make this one very unique.

What can you tell us about the lyrics and theme of the album?

We think the whole album is very good summed up by our title “The Bleakness”. All of our songs deal with a lot of personal struggles, disappointments and experiences. Even though every song stands on its own, they all create a melancholic and oppressive ambiance and make the album work in its entirety.

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

That’s hard to say, because we just released the album, but there are already some new ideas coming up. We think that our songs probably will be longer and a little bit more atmospheric.

What does the future hold for A Secret Revealed?

Near-future plans are definitely booking shows and promoting our first full length record. We don’t really know where this journey will take us and what we can expect to happen but we are highly motivated and can’t wait for the upcoming months.

facebook.com/asecretrevealed

asecretrevealed.bandcamp.com

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asecretrevealed@gmx.de

Interview with Third Ion

Third Ion have recently released their début album 13/8bit. Theirs is a brand of Progressive Metal that’s a little different form the norm and very enjoyable because of this. I downloaded the latest data on them…

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

Hey, I’m Justin Bender, guitarist/producer for Third Ion, a progressive metal band full of nutty space nerds.

Give us a bit of history to Third Ion

I’ve know our drummer Aaron for about 5 years, and we always talked about doing a project together. We live about 6 hour drive from each other, so it took a while for us to get our shit together and actually start a band. Now that we have though, it has been snowballing and we have a really good pace going on. I’ve known Mike for a few years too, and he was my bass player of choice, even before a single riff was recorded. I am still so thrilled he wanted to start a band with Aaron and I! Basically the band officially formed around this time last year, once we figured out who we were going to have sing, and Tyler has been a great fit!

What are your influences?

Mainly Dream Theater, Meshuggah, Alice In Chains, Tool, Opeth, Faith No More, Pantera, Saga, Toto, Satriani, Rush, Katatonia,

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

A band from my area, Sparky, just put out an album called #Humanimation and it is incredible. I love it, and I can’t stop listening to it. I’m not just saying it because they are my friends either! It is legitimately one of my favourite records right now.

What did you want to achieve with your album?

Our main goal was to write whatever came to mind, with a really “no rules” approach, and to incorporate musically, visually and lyrically whatever nerdy things interested us at the time. I didn’t have huge hopes of getting signed or anything, I just really wanted to make this music for the love of it. The fact we got a deal and it’s been getting a lot of attention is a total plus, though, and if people enjoy it that makes me very happy.

Are you happy with the end result?

Absolutely!! I am especially proud of the artwork, which was done by my best friend. We are almost done writing the second album as well, and a lot of it is recorded already too, so as happy as I am with the first album, I haven’t sat back and really enjoyed it as I dove right into album two.

How does your songwriting process work?

I’ll drive to Aaron’s studio for the week and we will record drums and guitars as we write the music. It’s a very cool and open way of working. Very expressive, I love it. Plus, he brings out all my best ideas. There’s just something about him that makes me come up with guitar parts I would never come up with on my own. He is the best writing partner I have ever had, bar none. Due to this process, there are a LOT of “first take” magic moments that ended up on the final mix. That seems to happen more and more as we write, as well.

On 13/8Bit we managed to write one song together (PDM) with Mike all in one room, but him being in Vancouver makes that much more difficult. For album two he has contributed a ton of great riffs, he emailed us a bunch of ideas, that we have used. So then after Aaron and I track in Winnipeg, we send Mike the stems of what we did and he does bass and keys and sends it back for me to mix. I write the lyrics and Tyler comes up with most of the melodies. I can just put words on paper and trust that he will come up with something I love. It’s a very easy operation, all in all.

How and why did you decided to incorporate a video games/chiptune influence in your music?

We all really love the 8bit and 16bit classics that we grew up playing. I think every one of us knows Megaman 2 like the backs of our hands. Metal bands sing about all kinds of things from dragons to demons to mutilation and horror, so really it feels like there are no rules. Which we dig, so we incorporated it simply because we felt like it.

What can you tell us about the lyrics?

That’s another one of those “nerdy thing because I just felt like it” kind of answers. As an artist, I’ve always felt more comfortable with my guitar than with words. I feel like I can say more with music than lyrics, and I never really aspired to be a lyricist. When I listen to music, I rarely even pay attention to the message, I get absorbed in the sound of it all. So, being like that, I just write what comes to me and what interests me. I covered black holes, sci fi particle weapons, video games and even some politics on the first record.

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

I think maybe Zero Mass because it’s the first song we wrote, and the main heavy tech riff with the little keyboard stings is just so fuckin’ cool. I’ll always be very proud of that one.

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

So far the next record has a lot more technical stuff, a lot more insane drum ideas. I plan to record more vocal harmonies, but maybe not, we’ll see how that plays out. We also want to do a concept record to cover the backstory of our mascot character “Dr. Zero” who is featured on the cover art. So, album three or four will be that album.

What’s next for Third Ion?

We have a few shows lined up for July but after that it’s just more work on album 2, and planning more shows for the end of the year, with hopes to tour more extensively in 2016.

Interview with Bloodscribe

Bloodscribe have a produced an extremely satisfying first album with Prologue to the Apocalypse. Spreading the word about his band and all things Bloodscribe is their vocalist Jasan…

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

We’re a 5 piece death metal band currently made up of Jasan (vocals), Joseph (Guitar), Michael (Guitar), Jesse (Drums), and Dennis (Bass).

Give us a bit of history to Bloodscribe

Bloodscribe was formed by Jesse and myself (Jasan) in 2004 strictly as a way for us to spend time and have fun with music, never did we imagine playing so many shows and getting as far as we have now. After a few member changes we seem to have reached a pretty solid line up that has giving the band the sound we have today.

Where does the name come from?

The name was actually completely made up by Jesse after skimming through and dictionary and seeing the word “describe” and simply added “blood” to it. There’s no real wow factor to the name and in no way is it related or influenced by Lamb of God.

What are your influences?

We all agree on 3 major influences, Dying Fetus, Disgorge, and The Black Dahlia Murder.

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

We all listen to different thing aside from metal if you’re open minded then definitely check out.

What did you want to achieve with your new album?

The goals for this album are endless and by no way have we set limits going in to this album but we definitely want to play some shows out of the country.

Are you happy with how it turned out?

We’re certainly happy with the end result but we have already raised the standards for the next album.

What can you tell us about the lyrics?

Well the lyrics are influenced by current events in society as well as ongoing ones, one big topic for us is religion and its weakening influence on its followers.

Give us a bit of information on the songwriting process.

We all tend to have our own unique ideas which we bring to practice to share and build on as a band. We usually pick one idea and grind it out till we’ve written something we all agree on.

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

We all really took a liking on “Enslaved by Deceptions” because it really portrays the sound we are going for thus making it an easy choice for our first single and video.

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

We’ve actually already started writing for the next album and feel we are headed towards a heavier and better plotted sound that will make an impact in the metal scene.

What’s next for Bloodscribe?

For now we plan on really pushing the album by promoting and touring as much as possible, while doing that we will continue to write and hopefully have some new material to go into the studio with in the near future.

Interview with Unhold

After releasing their fourth album – Towering – Unhold are in a great position with such a strong album under their collective belts. I wanted to find out a bit more information and background to this impressive album. Let’s delve in…

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

We’re four guys and one gal: Daniel on drums, Leo on bass, Miriam on piano/synths and vocals, Thomas on guitar and vocals, and Philipp also on guitar and vocals, I’ll try to answer your questions on behalf of the band.

Give us a bit of history to Unhold

Unhold was born from the heads & hearts of four teenagers, we decided to get instruments and give it a shot. That was around 1990, ages ago. At first we just jammed around, occasionally riffing after bands like Asphyx, Bolt Thrower, Entombed. We started making our own songs pretty quick, that was more leaning towards Death/Thrash Metal. After the first couple years and a bunch of shows we gave it a more serious thought, changed our name to «Unhold». Around 2000 our original drummer decided to quit, we were lucky to have Daniel join, he also was from our little community who listened to heavy music and visited shows out of town. We released «Walking Blackwards», our début. That already had elements of Noiserock and Stoner on it. Not the heaviest production, though. 2004 we released «Loess», I think the angriest of our albums. That as well as «Gold Cut» (2008) was recorded with Serge Morattel in Geneva. We toured with that album for a good two years, then got back to work on new material. In 2012 we celebrated our 20 year anniversary, had a lineup change and started working to finalize the fourth album.

What are your influences?

Sometimes it’s hard to distinct between bands that we just purely like to listen to and bands that actually influence the way we do our music. Definitely there’s bands like Neurosis, Unsane, Black Sabbath, Helmet, Clutch, Melvins, Kyuss that made an impact. Younger bands also of course don’t pass us without notice, we’re often referred to bands like Isis, Kylesa, Cult Of Luna and the like, but they’re more like a big cousin with the same ancestors, than an actual influence.

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

Let me think, what was played and discussed in our van… Royal Thunder, Chelsea Wolfe, Watter, Type O Negative. I’d personally recommend Ty Segall’s «Manipulator», Mojave Lords «Unfuckwithable», pretty much everything by Killing Joke…

What did you want to achieve with your new album?

I think the main focus was to implement the new members and the new elements into an existing skeleton framework of songs. To take Unhold and make the next natural/logical step.

Are you happy with how it turned out?

Yes! Very much so! We took a bit a different approach this time, recorded locally with Remo Häberli at Hidden Stash and mixed/mastered remotely with Latch Manghat from Gonga and Andy Henderson at Retrosonic Studios in Bristol. Perhaps with the new lineup we also instinctively took a step aside from a full on cutting edge metal production, more basically thinking about rock songs when editing and mixing.

What’s your favourite song on it and why?

That’s really hard to say. One song that excites me a lot is «Southern Grave», because it strikes a new chord in regards of songwriting and the use of vocals. Maybe we’ll see more stuff in that manner in the future, who knows.

What can you tell us about the lyrics?

Generally our lyrics are more focused on the inner realm of being a human in this day and age. For me personally «I Belong» is probably the track I have the strongest relation to because of the story it tells. When I tell people I’m a quarter native american they ask me if I can hear trees talk… good fun! Specifically it describes my attempt to relate to the past, although geographically dislocated I feel a strong connection and I try to find words to describe what goes through my head. Every human being has an urge wanting to belong, to be remembered, recognized, to leave a trace of some sort. The song also deals with the slow and quite silent passing of a rich culture and tradition.

Give us a bit of information on the songwriting process.

We have a pretty democratic way of working on songs, basic ideas come from individual members, yet we also have a jam-based method where we gather pieces and bits. The process can be time-consuming, but I think we gain a closer relation to the resulting song in the end, you know which piece belongs where and for what reason. We’ll see with the new members if that still suits best or if we find new ways to come up with material.

As you have multiple singers in the band, how do you decided who sings which part?

Basically who comes up with lyrics gets to vocalize the song. With «Southern Grave» we made an effort to actually explore our voice-range a bit, which was exciting and also a challenge, but I think we’ll try to investigate further what we can do as a «choir».

How do you see your songs/direction developing for your next release?

It’s a bit early to foresee what it’s going to sound like exactly. Our aim and hope is to make the new material even more dense and entangled. Having all instruments from the beginning contributing to the building of the song. Maybe also start with the voices for a change or maybe pursue a theme/concept for the whole album. The first song we made since finishing «Towering» came pretty natural and all in almost one evening, so I hope there’s more up the sleeve!

What are your thoughts on the current state of the wider Metal scene and your place within it?

All in all it’s good to see that the good and strong stuff survives. Younger kids dig the newer Metal a well as the old classics. As long as Metal allows a certain amount of innovation and renewal I think it will keep evolving and stay exciting. When you’re in it for such a long time it’s interesting to observe who and what survives. For the kind of «Metal» we make there seems more and more an established niche evolving with festivals and a loyal following. We’ve always been a bit between scenes, since we also don’t really have one back home it’s not such a big deal. Although I sometimes miss to have a couple brothers in arms, so to speak.

What will the future bring for Unhold?

We hope for a broader audience, good opportunities to play live and tour. For sure also a next release, we’re looking forward to have more exclusive time to write new stuff and experiment.

Thanks!

Interview with Epi-Demic

Epi-Demic’s recent split with Solanum – Passages to Lunacy – proves that there’s plenty of life left in underground Thrash Metal in 2015. Adam was kind enough to answer some questions about the band and what they’re up to…

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

Epi-Demic is a group of three guys from Calgary Alberta Canada playing a furious style of Crossover/Thrash Metal. Adam (that’s me), I play guitar and do the vocals, Kyle plays bass and Aaron plays the drums and does backup vocals. We have all been friends since high school when we started hanging out and playing music together. All of us were into Old school Hardcore Punk/Thrash Metal/Crossover and we wanted to start a band in that style. When we started jamming we wanted to create a sound that was heavy and aggressive but also unique and all our own. In the beginning learning how to play our instruments the music had a hardcore punk feel to it but as we got better as musicians it developed into a Crossover/Thrash style. The three of us have been playing music together for almost 10 years. We love what we do and hope to do it for a long time to come.

Give us a bit of history to Epi-Demic

Aaron and I started jamming when Aaron got a drum set and started practising. I had jammed with a few other people with no real results, but when me and Aaron started playing something clicked and we knew we had something that we could develop and put some work into that would be good. After a while we began looking for a bass player, we tried a few people out and kept writing material. Kyle had been playing with another group at this time, which eventually disbanded. In 2005 Aaron and I asked Kyle to jam with us and Epi-Demic was born. As we started to form a sound and an identity as a band we set our sights on getting a set together and playing some shows, eventually we landed a show at a local bar but there was a problem…I was still a minor! We managed to sneak around that roadblock for about a year with the help of a fake I.D. and a little luck, and we have kept going from there. Since then we have played many, many local shows, toured the west coast of Canada and the U.S., released a demo (The Plague Begins) and a full length (Madness) and have had a lot of fun doing it.

What are your influences

Like I said earlier we all started off listening to Hardcore/Crossover/Thrash music in High school when we started Epi-Demic so that was our main influence. Musically We’re into bands like: Cro-Mags, Warfare, Autopsy, No Mercy, English Dogs, Dr. Know, Ludichrist, Attitude Adjustment, Possessed, Demilich, Exodus, Overkill, Artillery, Excel, Beyond Possession and Asphyx just to name a few. My band members are an influence to me, they inspire me to play better and write better stuff all the time. Life in general is an influence for me for sure, the world around me both the good and bad definitely play a part in the music and lyrics I write.

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

Here are 10 albums I’m really into right now:

1. Anacrusis, “Suffering Hour”

2. Autopsy, “Acts Of The Unspeakable”

3. Corrosion Of Conformity, “Technocracy”

4. Fear, “More Beer”

5. Morbid Angel, “Gateways To Annihilation”

6. Sodom, “Mortal Way Of Live”

7. Demilich, “Nespithe”

8. Excel, “Split Image”

9. Broken Bones, “Trader In Death”

10. Pestilence, “Malleus Maleficarum”

What do you think about the current state of the Thrash Metal scene in 2015?

Overall it’s doing really well and is healthy in my opinion. I think the scene is the scene, It’s usually really good but it can suck at some times. Sometimes you go to a show and have a blast sometimes it’s populated by dick heads and that can be a drag. Bullshit aside, I think it’s a good thing that there are bands both new and established playing thrash in 2015 and there are venues for these bands to play and for people to go enjoy themselves. I think that there is good music coming out right now and some that’s not so good but that’s not a new thing. Sometimes it feels like there are bands that go for a style that is derivative of things that have been done to death already. I like bands that don’t go for the lowest common denominator and push the envelope, thankfully there are bands like this in the thrash scene today.

Epi-Demic Band How did your new split with Solanum come about?

The split with Solanum was sort of a spur of the moment kind of thing actually. Epi-Demic had not planned on recording a split at all, but a friend of ours showed us their demo and we really liked the music. We got in touch with them and they sent us a few copies of their album and we sent them a few copies of ours. After that they decided to do a short tour of the west side of Canada so we helped them out by hosting a gig for them in Calgary, a few months later we went out to Winnipeg where they are from and played a couple of shows. Along the way the idea for a split came up and we were all into it so we made it happen. It all came together very quickly and it was a lot of fun to do.

What did you want to achieve with this new release?

First of all we wanted to make an album that was heavy! The songs we chose for the split are songs that we have worked very hard on, and put a great deal of practise and thought into. Now that the album is pressed and available at http://www.horrorpaingoredeath.com/store/hpgd103.html we want to take it as far as we can and get it into as many ears as possible. The split has received some very positive reviews so far which is good to hear, hopefully it will get both bands more exposure on an international level as well as at home.

Are you happy with how it turned out?

Absolutely! It’s everything we wanted it to be. Both bands put down some killer material that speaks for itself when you hear it. The production is raw and gritty, which I think helps the album as far as the atmosphere goes. The cover art is something that really stands out to me and it could not have turned out better. It’s a haunting image that fits the title of the album “Passages To Lunacy” perfectly. The whole process from meeting the guys from Solanum, to recording the songs, getting the album together and finally releasing it has been a very smooth process. We had high expectations for the split and so far it has delivered on all fronts.

What can you tell us about the lyrics?

Epi-Demics lyrics deal primarily with the darker side of being human and the world around us. On the split in particular the lyrics are about suffering and pain. “Time Is Running Short (Dying On The Cross)” deals with the psychological pressure placed on people in this day and age, and how giving up in a tense situation is the worst thing that one can do for oneself. “Famine” is about starvation and hunger in all of its wicked forms. “Nuclear Dream” is about us as humans losing our way as a people and needing to make changes and start again. Finally “Stewing In Misery” is about depression and desperation, and wanting to break away from these negative feelings at any cost.

Give us a bit of information on the songwriting process.

We write all of the music together for the most part, when one of us has an idea we jam it out and see where it goes. As we get a feel for the song we add new parts and experiment with different ways of playing things until we get it the way we want it. Once we have the music written we practise it until it’s ready to play live. At this point I take the song and explore the overall feeling of it until I create a theme for the lyrics and figure out what I want to say. After the lyrics are completed once again we practise it over and over until it’s ready for performance. We don’t force anything that we feel isn’t working, we like to let the music come naturally.

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

I can see the music getting more textured and complex in the future, the foundation of the band will always remain the same, crossover is what we play and that will not change. I think as we progress as musicians the songs will get more intricate even if we didn’t want them to, maybe they will get longer maybe not. Bottom line is that we will always play fast, heavy, aggressive music. It’s hard to say exactly what Epi-Demic will be like in the future but you can rest assured that it will intense and unique in its brutality.

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

Good question. From Solanum’s side I would pick “Manipulated”. The song is sheer insanity and has some really cool riffs and grooves. Cam’s vocals on it are hard and unforgiving. If you like to bang your head make sure you check this song out. On the Epi-Demic side my favourite song is “Nuclear Dream”. From the opening riff to the last, this song is something that I’m very proud of. The duelling vocals between Aaron and I really worked well on this song, and every instrument comes through and plays its role well. This song took some time to write, so finally hearing it recorded was very satisfying to me. I also feel like the lyrics are some of the best ones I have ever written, and for that reason I would say it’s my favourite on the album.

What’s next for Epi-Demic?

Epi-Demic is going to have a busy year. It is our intention to record and release a new full length album before the end of summer 2015, the majority of the songs have been written already but we want to do a couple more to really fill the album up. In addition to the new album we hope to do a tour of the east side of Canada and the east coast of the United States this summer. Starting in Calgary and going all the way to the tri-state area will be a large undertaking but we are optimistic and excited to break new ground in cities that we have not played before. We’ve done most of our shows on the west side, so to go play uncharted territory is something we need to do. And as always we will keep the underground spirit strong, piss on fashion, and assault eardrums everywhere we go.

Album stream: https://hpgd.bandcamp.com/album/passages-to-lunacy-split

Order CD: http://www.horrorpaingoredeath.com/store/hpgd103.html

Epi-Demic facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theplaguebegins13

Interview with Cold Snap

Cold Snap’s latest album World War 3 has rekindled my interest in Nu-Metal in a way that I would have thought impossible in 2015. But here they are nonetheless, playing music that they believe in passionately and making a Hell of a racket in the process….

What’s your name and what do you do in Cold Snap?

My name is Jan and I am singer, lyrics writer, frontman, booking agent, video director and actor 🙂

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

I am a theatre, movie and TV actor in Croatia, and I have been singing for Cold Snap from the beginning, in 2003. I oversee the day-to-day management aspects of Cold Snap as well. Cold Snap is something I care about most in my life, and that`s why I want to give my best.

Give us a bit of history to Cold Snap

In 12 years we played more than 300 shows and 3 European tours. We have performed with Suicide Silence, Soulfly, Disturbed, Blind Guardian, Dead By April, Limp Bizkit, Pro-Pain, Ektomorf and many more on many festivals including Wacken Open Air in Germany. We have 3 LP albums and more than 10 high production videos. After 12 years we can finally say that we have a good label backing our band – Eclipse Records!

What are your influences?

Pantera, Machine Head, Korn, Rage Against The Machine, Tool, Slipknot and many more.

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

Maximum the Hormone from Japan, Hactivist from UK, and In This Moment from the USA!

What did you want to achieve with your new album?

We want to share our music with everybody, in essence we are a “live show” band, however it’s also important to get our studio album out to the public. We want to have a bigger fanbase, play bigger festivals, and we want to progress. However, we will play the music that we love, not something that is popular right now. That’s not music, that’s “licking someone’s ass”.

Cold Snap Band Are you happy with how it turned out?

Yes, we are sure that Eclipse Records is the right label for us and for World War 3. We believe if we continue to cooperate in this way with them, that soon we will have some big news to talk about.

What can you tell us about the lyrics?

My lyrics are about everything that I am living through, all I can think about, all that strikes me, and all that concerns me. All these (mostly negative emotions), I put on paper and together with the other band members, we turn it into music. Topics I enjoy writing about are social, family, political, about the rights of all living beings.

Give us a bit of information on the songwriting process.

We do most of the work together in our rehearsal room. Leo (the guitar player) is the most creative one, he does all the crazy riffs and he brings all of that to rehearsal so we can make it even better. We also share our ideas via e-mail between our rehearsals, inspiring or “provoking” each other so we can be creative when we see each other in person at rehearsal, in other words, practice continues for us even while we are not at practice.

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

We have 3 new songs that we can’t wait to play live. In our new songs we are putting some weird electro sounds and samples that Leo is working on. We have new and faster circle pit moments with breakdowns that will break your neck. Soon we will share some new stuff from our rehearsal room on our You Tube channel…

What’s next for Cold Snap?

This year we will play more than 30 shows in Europe, mostly festivals, we will film a new video for a song “Monster”, so in 2016, we hope that our fans will be able to see us on tour in the United States of America as well!

Website: http://www.ECLIPSERECORDS.com/cold-snap
Facebook: http://www.FACEBOOK.com/ColdSnapOfficial
Twitter: http://www.TWITTER.com/ColdSnap_hr

Silent Killer Music Video: http://youtu.be/kXNkutuOFd0
Buy iTunes: http://smarturl.it/clds-ww3
Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/4FsmpbbLO0pzSpmZBI9pLQ

Interview with Ctulu

Ctulu are re-releasing their 2011 album Sarkomand, and what an album it is. Arne Uekert and Mathias Junge answered some questions and filled in the blanks…

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

Arne: I am Arne Uekert, guitarist and vocalist in Ctulu.

Give us a bit of history to Ctulu

Arne: Ctulu was founded in 2004 in Northern Germany with the aim to create fast and dark, yet melodic extreme metal.

What are your influences?

Arne: I’d let the listener decide on this point.

Mathias: Most people would say, it’s black/death metal in old Swedish style of the 90s like Dissection or Naglfar, but during the time of making music we created our own style called ”Seastorming Extreme Metal”.

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

Arne: I am listening a lot to Totenmond – Tonbergurtod at the moment. You may miss the point of the lyrics when you’re not speaking German, but the music is one of the heaviest and most evil I’ve ever heard.

Mathias: At the moment, there’s is nothing I would like to recommend.

Sarkomand is a few years old now but is being reissued for your 10 year anniversary – tell us about this.

Arne: The CD version is practically sold out and we always wanted to go vinyl. It was just a logical consequence.

Mathias: ”Sarkomand” is predestinated for this cause. A 45 minute manifest of pure violence and horror in the vein of H.P. Lovecraft! Who knows his stories will like this release. The album was loved by the fans right after release and is sold out for a while! Now it’s back on 12” vinyl and a must have for every Extreme Metal lover.

Since the album was originally released, how do you feel about it now – is there anything you would change or do differently?

Arne: Most unexpectedly I’d say that I wouldn’t. Actually this desire is normal, but I think this album works perfectly this way. The length is good, there are no fillers and I think each track stands out on its own. For me, this is still our best album.

Mathias: No, there is nothing I would change, for me it has everything what a good Extreme Metal album needs.

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

Arne: Mondsucht, definitely. I think it’s a good track to end an album with and I like the atmosphere it creates a lot.

Mathias: Good question…it’s hard to say…if I have to choose I would say Blindes Chaos, because in this song all the components of Ctulu‘s Extreme Metal are combined.

How do you feel you fit into the wider Black Metal scene, and do you feel differently about this now than when Sarkomand originally came out?

Arne: For us, Sarkomand was the ultimate evidence that we’re actually NO black metal outfit. Some reviews even counted this album as death metal. Freie Geister (our début album) earned a lot of harsh criticism because it is so very “unblack”. We wanted to make a statement with Sarkomand. This is extreme metal, this goes beyond death/black/dark metal or whatever.

Mathias: Well, we actually never associated ourselves with the Black Metal scene, because from the beginning till now, we never got religious (Satanic) influences in our lyrics or use any symbols of that on stage or in our artworks. We got nothing to do with any religions, that‘s why we call our music ”Extreme Metal” and when Sarkomand came out in 2011, it wasn’t different.

What can you tell us about the lyrics? Would you change them now?

Arne: Sarkomand is kind of a concept album about the Dreamland cycle by H.P. Lovecraft. Reading the “Dreamquest of unknown Kadath” will help you a lot diving deeper beyond the surface of the lyrics on this album.

Mathias: The lyrics are about nightmares and other Lovecratian themes. If we would change something, we wouldn’t be Ctulu anymore.

Give us a bit of information on the songwriting process.

Arne: The songwriting was done by our lead guitarist Mathias Junge and our former drummer Jan Westermann (now active in the Greek outfits Released Anger and Diablery). I just added some second guitar tracks here and there. The lyrics were written by Mathias and me. About the songwriting itself, there’s actually nothing all too special to say. The tracks evolved very naturally and were finished very fast.

Mathias: The songwriting process is split between Arne and me. If we have new material, we work it out together with both guitars and then all the other instruments will follow.

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

Arne: We’ve started to work with tracks written by both Mathias and myself now. We work longer on the single tracks now and we’ve found a better way to record demos, so the songwriting has changed a lot since Sarkomand. I think this will help the music get to the point faster now than it did three years ago.

Mathias: I don’t want to make any predictions, we will see what happen in future!

What’s next for Ctulu?

Arne: We’re working intensely on our forthcoming album that we hope to record at the end of this year.

Mathias: We working on a new album and the first live shows for 2015 are confirmed!

Thanks for your time! (From both)