Earlier in the year Boddicker released their False Flag EP. It was like a kick to the face and really caught the attention of the authorities. I wanted to find out more so I contacted them via the underground and I’ve shared this communication below.
Since this EP they’ve released their début album Crime Upheaval, which is another short, sharp bout of violence that will surely raise their wanted status. Let’s find out what it’s all about…
Tell us a bit about the Boddicker concept – can you fly Bobby?
Clarence Boddicker is an uncompromising cold-blooded killer driven by profit and sadism. So are we.
What are your influences?
80’s UK grind and crust, old school death metal, New York, Scandinavian, and Japanese hardcore, Slap-a-ham era powerviolence, Eyehategod.
What are you listening to at the moment that you would like to recommend?
Nothing really new except for Water Torture, Teitanblood, and Vallenfyre. Right now the OCP office has been spinning 70’s Aerosmith, early At the Gates, Dark Angel, D-Clone, Machetazo, and God Macabre.
How do you feel the current Grind scene is holding up – healthy or not?
Hit or miss. There are a lot of great grind bands currently hustlin’ like Nak’ay, Archagathus, Water Torture, but at the end of the day we’d rather rob a liquor store while Repulsion’s ‘Horrified’ plays in my camaro.
You have an unusual Grind sound in that you also have a large Sludge influence. Is this something that’s intentional or did it just happen?
A little bit of both. Everyone has their own eclectic tastes, but one of the few bands we can all agree on is Eyehategod and Buzzov*en. It’s only natural that their influence made their way into our sound.
What did you want to achieve with False Flag?
We wanted to curate an intense, distinctive, aggressive and memorable release. Whether or not we did that is in the eye (or ear) of the beholder.
Are you happy with how it turned out?
Overall, yes. However, we’ll be a little generic and self-serving and say that we’re overall more satisfied with ‘Crime Upheaval’. Saying that, we all firmly believe that ‘False Flag’ is a ripper.
What are the lyrics all about then?
Crime, anarchy, and spitting in the face of all authority.
What’s the meaning of the EP title?
A false flag is a covert military operation designed to deceive in such a way that the operations appear as though they are being carried out by entities, groups or nations other than those who actually planned and executed them. Collectively, we’re all interested in operations perpetuated in this manner, and felt it was a fitting EP title.
How are your songs written?
Usually after a crack binge and getting down with our favourite Napalm Death, Celtic Frost, Carnivore, Cro-Mags and Black Flag records.
How do you see your sound/direction developing in the future?
Louder, faster, and more ignorant.
What can we expect from a future album?
Well, it’s technically already out since we took a ridiculously long time to answer these questions. Pretty much more of the same, but with more succinct sounds, and more comfortable and confident songwriting. You won’t get too many surprises from Boddicker. We’re very much one-track minded individuals.
What’s next for Boddicker?
More recording, more touring, more playing, more criminal activity, more crushing the false and weak, more money, more problems.
Sons of Crom have recently birthed their stunning début album Riddle of Steel. Once my jaw had picked itself back up off the floor I simply had to know more about this band that seemingly appeared from nowhere and produced such an unexpectedly epic album. Let’s delve right in…
For those who are unfamiliar with your band – introduce yourself!
Janne: We are Sons of Crom, and we play epic heavy metal. The band is composed of me, Janne Posti (vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards), and my cousin Iiro Sarkki (vocals, drums). We are both Finns, though I live in Sweden. Our vision is to create music that evokes the primordial feelings of pride, honour and strength through epic storytelling and a grandiose aura. Our music has many layers to it; we want our songs to be catchy yet atmospheric, and we use a wide dynamic spectrum. The basis of our sound lies in some kind of cineastic metal, but genre boundaries are something we cross several times in most of our songs, so we’re not bothered with limiting our expression to one dimension.
Give us a bit of history to Sons of Crom
Iiro: Well there are two answers to this. The history of us as cousins and the history of us as Sons of Crom. Of course they are somewhat intertwined but for obvious reasons the latter is a lot shorter – or is it? Though we have been making music under the Sons of Crom name for less than a year, the personal history between us goes back forever and in a way I think Sons of Crom have always been there, maturing, growing – only now we have revealed our intentions to the world.
Janne: In January, we were in the studio recording, and decided to improvise a song – a long, slow and epic song. We ended up composing “Victory” on the spot, and knew that something of significant value had just emerged. From there on the music just kept coming and coming…it seemed like nothing could stop the flow. We made song after song during the coming weeks/months and soon the album was finished. Debemur Morti Productions was interested in releasing it so it was a no-brainer to engage in co-operation with them. Now, “Riddle of Steel” is here, and Crom is smiling. Haha.
What are your influences?
Janne: Movies, literature and music on one hand, and philosophy, history, cultural heritage and spirituality on the other. The magniloquence of movies such as Conan the Barbarian, or the proud verses of the Poetic Edda, are big inspirations for us. The way of scripting a story and augmenting the saga to something wondrous and larger than life is something we try to incorporate in our own music, to further elevate the lyrical themes and messages. Musically, we are huge suckers for movie soundtracks and all kinds of metal, though both of us have very wide stylistic tastes in music. I can hear bits and pieces of just about everything in our music, from classical music (Bach, Rachmaninoff) to jazz (Brad Mehldau, Esbjörn Svensson) or 70’s hard rock (Uriah Heep, Deep Purple) to black metal (Marduk, Limbonic Art) and beyond. Of course, Bathory is an obvious band to namedrop, and certainly the mighty Quorthon has left a huge influence on us.
What are you listening to at the moment that you would like to recommend?
Iiro: As I write this I am actually listening to the new album by Freak Kitchen, which is not their best opus but I guess I would recommend giving it a spin at least. There are of course albums that I am always listening to that I could recommend. For example Cultes des Ghoules’ “Henbane” is a masterpiece of raw crushing power with occult imagery. Also a new finding for me was an artist called Megadrive. Megadrive makes this cyberpunk/80’s movie soundtrack -style instrumental music with retro sounds bordering on cheesy – but awesome nonetheless. They have catchy songs and nice atmosphere, if you like 80’s action flicks and their awesome music, you should have no trouble liking Megadrive.
Janne: I’ve been spinning a lot of 90’s Marduk lately, “Heaven Shall Burn…” and “Those of the Unlight” being my favourites. Harsh and brutal yet melodic and catchy, I simply can’t get enough of these black treats. Another recent re-discovery is old Gehenna, particularly “First Spell” and “Seen Through the Veils of Darkness”. It’s been years since I played these superb records, and I’m baffled at how little notice they get when people talk about Norwegian black metal. The keyboard-heavy atmosphere, passionate vocals and catchy riffs and melodies really give Gehenna a sound of their own, and they deserve more attention!
What did you set out to achieve with your new album?
Janne: We have no material or monetary objectives, the only thing we want is to reach as many as possible with our thoughts and message. Our goal is to tell a compelling story with philosophical overtones and provide an enticing soundtrack to match its different chapters. We want to reach out to the listener through our music and take him/her through an action-filled journey of war, blood and tragedy, and hopefully inspire him or her to seek answers to the questions older than time itself: “Who am I? What is my destiny? What is the meaning of life? How will I prevail in battle against overwhelming adversity? Where can I find the strength needed to be able to carry on when all is lost?” We hold no answers, though there are hints in the lyrics as to what our subjective thoughts on the matter are. Through our expression, the listener’s impression, interpretation, introspection and, finally, projection, the circle is complete.
Iiro: World domination – of course.
Are you happy with how it turned out?
Iiro: Extremely. Although I was 100% confident on our creation from the start, it still manages to surprise and inspire with each listen and each review I read. This has been one of the most rewarding things in my life.
Janne: The impressive artwork provided by Helgorth of Babalon Graphics really capped it off, and we are more than proud to call the Debemur Morti roster our home.
For a band who are just releasing their first album, how did you manage to write such a mature and complex record?
Janne: We have both composed lots of music during a couple of decades now, so it’s not like these are the first songs we ever wrote, haha. Practice makes perfect and, for my part, all those years of studying music theory, arranging and composing are paying off. Us being cousins helps the process as well; we have an uncanny, almost telepathic, connection sometimes, when our minds just seem to align and we think and create as one, finishing each other’s ideas and birthing new ones all at once. When we discovered this path of creation in January, we quickly realized that we had stumbled upon a gold mine of sorts – the music and lyrics just poured out, almost as if it had a mind of its own. Maybe Crom finally decided to lend a helping hand to his sons…haha! The complex arrangements and structures are a result of us simply not relenting until the songs were taken as far as possible in terms of epicness and magnification of the story. Hard work pays dividends.
Tell us a bit more about the vocals. They’re hugely impressive and multi-textured – how did you decide how they should sound in the different parts of the different songs?
Iiro: We just did what sounded best, basically. We both have our strengths regarding vocal styles and we utilize them in any way to reach the best possible outcome. We never (and probably never will) agree on specific “jobs” such as which one will be the lead singer or backup singer etc. Instead, we try it out and choose the option that fits a specific part the best. So, in a way, every song is sang as a duet.
What can you tell us about the lyrics?
Janne: The lyrics tell the tragic tale of a lone warrior’s quest for peace of mind, taking him through a violent path of death and destruction, supernatural horrors and other planes of existence, searching for the elusive spiritual rest of an ascended individual. As Dag Hammarskjöld wrote, “The longest journey is the journey inwards.” This is the main theme of “Riddle of Steel”. The different chapters of the story have their own treks and their own sets of metaphors, and they are all seminal to the whole of the album.
1Give us a bit of information on the songwriting process.
Iiro: It’s a rather naturally flowing process for us. There is no one way to explain it so I’ll give some examples. One thing we did (with ‘Victory’, as Janne mentioned earlier) is that first we just jammed some improvised drums and guitar and ended up recording the session. Afterwards we kept the drum track for the song and used most of the impro guitar riffs as well. Naturally the guitar riffs and melodies were re-recorded and maybe somewhat polished but in a way the song really almost made itself. On some occasions one has made a whole song as an individual and the other has just given some ideas for arrangement/lyrics/atmosphere. Sometimes we both have some nice sounding riffs and/or melodies and we just sew them together. What I want to emphasize though, is the actual role and importance of the process of songwriting – this is where the magic happens and we give it the time it deserves.
How do you see your songs/direction developing in the future?
Janne: We have already written some songs for the next album, and what I can reveal is that the stylistic leaps are probably even bigger than on “Riddle of Steel”. The primordial atmosphere and epic scope are of course intact, being important parts of our vision, but so is our principle of staying true to the story and not letting genre-specific constraints affect its possibilities, so expect the unexpected! The lyrical concept will be connected to “Riddle of Steel”, and you might even get to hear another language besides English…
What’s next for Sons of Crom?
Iiro: Well at the moment we are dealing with the aftermath of ‘Riddle of Steel’ and getting some merchandise out but after the dust settles, we concentrate on the next album and on the possibility of playing live in the future.
Janne: Promoting “Riddle of Steel” is the top priority for the time being, of course, and doing some gigs would certainly be awesome. Expect a very active future from Sons of Crom!
Deathronation’s début album Hallow the Dead is a quality slab of Old-School Death Metal infused with a few extra elements to give their graveyard tunes a special mouldy sheen. Questions were asked, and answers were given…
Tell us all about Deathronation and where you came from
Deathronation, based in Nuremberg, south Germany, is now existing since 10 years and so far we released two demos and a split 7-Inch and played a lot of live-shows in that time. “Hallow the Dead” is our debut full-length album. For several reasons it took long time to record the album but finally it’s unleashed. All members of the band are long time metalheads and have been active in several bands for the last 20 years.
What are your influences?
Our influences are the 80’s and 90’s death metal bands like Morbid Angel, Deicide, Morgoth, Immolation, Death and so on. We grew up with these bands when we were 13, 14 years and we’re still very inspired by the old glory days of death metal.
What are you listening to at the moment that you would like to recommend?
I bought the début album of Sweden’s Vampire a couple of days ago and that’s an awesome album I would recommend for fans of Repugnant and Degial. True masterpiece with a great sound and good songs. A good trip to Sweden pre-death metal past is “Splatter Punx on Acid” of Swedish act “Black Uniforms”.
How did you decide on the style of Death Metal that you wanted to play – what appeals about the Old-School Death Metal sound?
As I mentioned in the beginning, we were always inspired by the old days of death metal and we wanted to play that style with that sound. We don’t like the modern overproduced sound where each single note has been edited by a pc. Use as less technical help as possible, that’s the way!
In my review I note that you have some Black//Thrash/Doom influences to your sound as well – would you agree with this?
Yes, you got the point in your review! We are big fans of the 80’s and 90’s thrash, black and doom scene. We still listen to many, nearly all styles of metal, so it’s nothing surprising for us, that the songs are maybe not consisting 100% of death metal riffs. As long as it’s heavy it can not be too wrong!
Where do you think you fit in with the wider Death Metal scene?
Well, I guess our musical style shows, that our roots and our destination is the old school style of Death Metal. But because of the different influences we are not limited to this special corner. I think our sound is also attractive for people from other genres of metal.
Do you have any goals for your album?
“Hallow the Dead” album is a marker from old times to the new things which will come. Many things change now. But most important for us is, that the music spreads around and people enjoy it as I did when I listened to the old death metal classics.
Is there anything on the album you’re not satisfied with?
Well of course there are some parts we’re not 100% satisfied with, but this turned out as it is and we can deal with it. Sometimes the mistakes can even make an album more real. We are very satisfied with the result at all, so some parts which are not perfectly in the way that they were meant to be, even turn out to have a kind of charm on their own.
Do you want to discuss any of the lyrics on the album and any themes/hidden meanings/etc. that might be there?
All lyrics are dealing with the topic of death, caducity, religion and related questions. We have no answers or solutions, but maybe some of the lyrics can inspire people who might be interested in essential questions like: “where do we come from?”, “where do we go to?”, “what is existence all about?”. Some lyrics are based on real events, others are charged with own imaginations and thoughts. “Deathchant Assyria” is about the rise and fall of the Assyrian empire and the rich heritage of cuneiform writings. “Spiritual Relief” is about the everlasting fight between enlightened rationality and religious views. “Ghostwhipper” is a fictive story which is about the fact that you might unleash powers which get out of your control. All lyrics have a short introduction where is more or less explained what the shit is all about. Well, be it for the album-title itself or the printed lyrics, there can be found some some grammatical experiments and we like to invent new words some times ha ha.
What’s your songwriting process?
Well sometimes one of us has a completely new song and we just modify it here and there. At other times we work together with different ideas of riffs and parts and try to create something everyone is satisfied with. Usually we are slow in writing songs but sometimes it goes very fast and and within a short time. So there’s no basic schedule at all.
How do you see your songs/direction developing in the future?
Well it’s not easy to say anything about the future, as the present is too dominating right now. Of course we will try to make new songs, more heavy, more doom, more direct, more up-tempo… well you see…a bit of everything. Most important is to create an album which is coherent and lets no questions open…
Execration’s latest album Morbid Dimensions is an impressive, multi-faceted beast. After I’d picked myself back up off the floor, I scribbled down some hastily-scribed queries onto broken parchment and launched them into the ether. Somehow, somewhere, Cato Syversrud responded…
For those who are unfamiliar with your band – introduce yourself!
We’re four people from in and around Oslo, Norway playing metal of death. We focus on atmosphere and feeling over technical wankery, and share more in common with the bands of the eighties than most modern death metal bands. Still, we’re no retro-act, and we keep trying to take our music new places.
Give us a bit of history to Execration
Execration took its first steps in 2004. By 2006, we’d recorded our first EP, Language of the Dead. Immediately after that, Jonas joined on bass completing the band. After Jonas joined, we quickly wrote songs for our first album, Syndicate of Lethargy, which came out in 2008, over a year after it was recorded. In 2010 we did a split with fellow Oslo-area bands Lobotomized, Diskord, and Obliteration, called “Oslo We Rot”. In 2011, we released our celebrated second album, Odes of the Occult, and now we’re on the verge of releasing our latest album, Morbid Dimensions.
What are your influences?
Musically, I think we cover a lot of ground, as the four of us have our own tastes. I mean, we all share lots of bands in common that we all love, but each of us also have influences that the others don’t share. We all prefer things that sound “real”, things that have an edge and some dynamics to it, and that hasn’t been produced to a brickwalled piece of plastic. This means that we do enjoy quite a bit of vintage metal, but there’s also lots of cool new things coming out. Except for the metal stuff, there are of course bands in other genres as well, and I guess our tastes are less unified in this manner. Aside from other bands, we also find our influences in movies, and even to some degree other forms of art. These can inspire certain kinds of moods and atmospheres that we will try to incorporate into our music.
What are you listening to at the moment that you would like to recommend?
In the close future we will be sharing stage with Swedish Nifelheim at the Krater festival here in Oslo, so I’ve been playing their “Envoy of Lucifer” a lot recently. It’s really good stuff. Diskord’s newest EP has also gotten heavy rotation on all of our headsets, and I (Chris) have also spent some time with the latest Mastodon album. It’s not as great as they used to be, but it sure beat the previous one. Other than that bands like Bölzer, Twink, Circus 2000, Damian, Thorne, Old Razor, Sarcofago have been spinning a lot lately
What did you want to achieve with your new album?
We wanted the album to stand out in its own right, and to have an identity distinct from our other albums. This was a clear goal right from the beginning when we started writing the album, and to be honest, I think we’ve been pretty successful at this. We didn’t have in mind exactly how we would set this one apart, but we did have some ideas for moods and aspects of our music we felt we hadn’t explored fully on previous releases. As always, we also wanted the album to have a solid atmosphere, and not just be a riff-heavy metal album. On songs like Tribulation Shackles, this aspect has really been allowed to sit front and center, and on other tracks, it’s more subdued, integrated into otherwise intense and hectic songs.
Are you happy with how it turned out?
Quite so. Writing is a creative process, and the process itself has taken us places we couldn’t foresee upfront. It’s always exciting to be able to sit down and review the final product once it’s all over, and this time was no different. We’ve achieved our main goals, which was evolving our sound and evoking a deadly atmosphere.
What can you tell us about the lyrics?
We like to keep the lyrics on the obscure side. I will simply point you to the album title, the cover art and the overall feeling of the album, and let you make up the meaning of the songs for yourself.
Give us a bit of information on the songwriting process.
We always write as a group. Typically, people will show up at rehearsal with a riff or two, or maybe even a series of riffs stringed into a part. We will then work on what we have, and start looking to combine riffs into parts. In the early phases, we will even occasionally switch instruments when someone has an idea for something, and work like that to hash it out. Eventually these parts clump up into songs, and eventually the creativity shifts gears from writing new material to moulding the raw songs into more refined arrangements. This will include rearranging things, working with tempos and shifts, and the little details that separate OK songs from really great songs.
You have a very diverse and accomplished sound – how did you decide what you wanted to sound like in each part of the different songs?
We tend to think in songs more than in individual parts. So the individual parts exist to support the overall dynamics of the song. I don’t think there’s so much consideration of how we want to sound in this part and that part, it’s more how do we create good dynamics throughout the song. This plays into all the aspects of a song/part: tempo, keynote, mood, and so on.
How do you see your songs/direction developing in the future?
Well, that’s for the future to tell. All we know is that the next set of songs won’t sound like missing out-takes from Morbid Dimensions – that’s the drive of Execration, creating something new. On the new album, we made some drastic changes to the guitar sound by using a completely different tuning than the previous album. This may not be a permanent change. We’ll see where life takes us.
What’s next for Execration?
The album is about to come out, so first up is playing a few gigs to support them. Next year we hope to make it to more places further away. We also plan to write new material shortly, but what will come of it is impossible to say at this point. Rest assured, you have not heard the last of Execration.
Neverworld’s debut album Visions of Another World is a talented and energetic display of Metal prowess. I wanted to find out a bit more about them, so I quizzed lead guitarist/vocalist Ben Colton about their impressive début and the universe of Neverworld…
For those who are unfamiliar with your band – introduce yourself!
Hello! I’d describe us as an epic/traditional/progressive metal band. We try to take all the best elements of the old school styles and put a fresh twist on it. Come and check us out!
Give us a bit of history to Neverworld
Well we were born in late 2009 forming from the demise of a couple of bands. Basically I was trying to put my old band Sentinel back together but when I couldn’t get everyone on board, those of us that were formed Neverworld. It’s been a busy and brilliant 5 years. We’ve worked very hard behind the scenes and it’s slowly starting to pay off. We’ve been very lucky with gigs, reviews and our fantastic fanbase right from the start. In 2010 we released our début EP ‘Welcome To…’, hit the road for a couple of years and back in March finally released our début full length album ‘Visions Of Another World’!
Tell us about your band name – where did it come from?
Picking a band name in this day and age is incredibly hard! Everything’s been done before so choosing a suitable name was difficult. We wanted a name that reflected our vision. Something with huge scope for song writing ideas and imagery. Right from the off we’ve considered ourselves to be an audio visual band and Neverworld just fitted that perfectly. It’s the place where we all go to when we go to sleep. The dream world if you will, where anything can happen!
What are your influences?
Personally I have loads. My taste is generally metal but quite diverse. I just love great well played well written music. I really admire bands who do something different every album but retain their signature sound. Bands like Fates Warning and Winger deserve a special mention for that. I’m also a huge fan of Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, King Diamond, Manowar, Crimson Glory, Redemption, Mr Big, Thin Lizzy, Slaughter, Kings X right through to stuff like Alice In Chains, Dan Reed Network, Blue Oyster Cult etc. It’s a huge list and I could quite easily be here all night! I have a massive CD collection and I’ve probably been influenced by most of it at some point in my life!
What are you listening to at the moment that you would like to recommend?
I’m about to release an album with my side project All Seeing Eyes so that’s getting a lot of my attention atm! The new Winger and Fates Warning albums are great. I’ve also been listening to Dan Reed Network and The Mob quite a bit but in terms of new bands or music I’ve just been introduced to I’d have to say go and check out my buddies Avenging Benji, Elm Street, Neuronspoiler and Wardrum. Insanely talented musicians and song writers and there’s a fantastic prog band from Italy called Astra. Amazing stuff
What did you want to achieve with your new album?
As much as possible really. We aren’t silly and we aren’t on a major label. There’s only so much we can do but what’s important is reaction and the reaction has blown us away. We’ve been blessed with great fans and glowing reviews. Something I’m very proud of. Sales wise it’s done quite well too. All in all we are happy with what it’s done. It’s paid for itself and our CV looks a lot better now than it did before its release!
Are you happy with how it turned out?
Absolutely. Mainly because of what other people have said about it. I think there comes a point when you’ve heard it too many times and your own judgement becomes clouded. All you can do then is turn it over to the people that matter and cross your fingers which is exactly what we did. It was a very hard and long process making this album so in the end we were happy it was finally done!
What can you tell us about the lyrics and any themes/stories the songs have?
The themes of the album are quite diverse. We have a duet about a vampire and a girl falling in love. Sounds like Twilight right?! Not so, never even seen it. Very much influenced by Let The Right One In and Bram Stoker’s Dracula that one. We have a track about the movie They Live which is one of my favourites, there’s a song all about revenge, one about being haunted by spirits. There’s kinda something for everyone I think on the album. The track This Fire is all about having a desire so strong the flame will never go out. We’ll be experimenting more with themes on the next album and exploring Neverworld a bit more.
Give us a bit of information on the songwriting process
Well a lot of the first album was written a few years back. When we started out we needed 5 songs so we could go out and play live so I sat in my room and wrote some riffs quite quickly, took them to the studio where the others could have a say about it and laid them down. We were just a 4 piece then. Our original keyboard player left before we’d played a single show! So it was quite a straight forward process. Tracks like Ghosts and Eminent Reprisal came about a bit later and had more band involvement. We’ve started writing the second album already and it’s a completely different process now. Everyone’s involved. We are all sitting there in the studio laying stuff down, changing each others ideas slightly and stuff like that. The next album will very much be a complete team effort and I’m loving it. This band has some brilliant musicians and they all have their own influences so it’s going to be interesting to see what we come up with!
How did the duet with Christina Gajny come about?
I’m quite an impulsive fellow. I literally woke up one day and thought wouldn’t it be awesome if we did a male/female duet. I went on my laptop and started looking for a good lady singer. The first one I came across was the amazing Christina Gajny! I thought wow she’s the one. I messaged her but didn’t hear anything back for about a month! I figured she didn’t wanna know! Luckily she did reply and we wrote Blood And Romance. The rest is history! She’s a very talented young lady so I consider her involvement an honour. It was also a masterstroke because of her we had people actually turn up to see us when we started playing in London! Haha! She’s a great girl and if we do ever need a female vocalist again she will be it.
How do you see your songs/direction developing in the future?
As I said earlier the song writing process is already under way. We are trying to write the ‘perfect’ album. Visions got a lot of great reviews but we have to better it. It’ll be tough but a task we are all up for. As far as music goes I believe in progression. I think that’s a really important part of being a musician. No part of us wants to make the same album again. The next album will have a lot of depth and variety. There will be out and out rockers, a couple of epics and hopefully some more prog style tracks. It’s early days yet but we have 6 ideas on the go at the moment and all are sounding like they could make the album. I’m excited and I think Neverworld fans should be too! Like I said we are on a mission to better Visions and we won’t stop until we have!
What’s next for Neverworld?
We play our final show of the year on September the 20th in our local club. Looking forward to that one. We are playing with Desolation Angels, The Deep and Death Valley Knights. All great bands so should be an epic night. Then we are concentrating on the follow up album. With our début we were recording and playing shows all over at the same time which didn’t really work. The album got delayed massively because of that and we don’t want to do that again. So we plan to hit the studio in a big way and get about 15 tracks done. The best 10 will make the album. We will also be making a video soon for a track off the new album. Really hoping we can get this all recorded this year and then spend next year back on the road. That’s the plan anyway! Wish us luck?!
The début album by Sorxe – Surrounded by Shadows – is an absolute stunner of an album that will hopefully find Doom fans everywhere frothing at the mouth in anticipation of getting their grubby mitts on it. It really is that good.
I manage to catch up with Tanner Crace to find out what makes this band tick, and just how they created such a good début…
For those who are unfamiliar with your band – introduce yourself!
We are Sorxe from Phoenix AZ . Shane Ocell – Drums , Tanner Crace – Guitar , Vocals and Synths Christopher Jason Coons – Bass Roger Williams – Bass
Give us a bit of history to Sorxe. Also – why two bassists?
The band was formed in the summer of 2012 after Shane and Myself jammed out a few improvs. When looking for a bassist to complete the sound we each had a bass player in mind. Both Roger and Chris already knew each other so it was just natural to have both guys join and just roll with two bassist, it felt right and sounds HUGE!
What are your influences?
Its like what are we listening to now or what influenced us while we were making a particular song? Hard to say cause at any time there could be a number of different influences during the writing process.
Shane is big into Helmet and the Melvins, I have always been partial to Mike Patton for his range vocally and also his choice in melodies. Old Metallica, Soundgarden, Nirvana and Pink Floyd is a big one, all the cliché. I learned the most from two specific groups – Fantomas’ 1st album was a huge eye opener in that there are absolutely no rules in music that one must follow and then Neurosis for the use of space and textures, peaks and valleys in their music.
We all love so many bands and different kinds of music this list of influences could be a book.
What are you listening to at the moment that you would like to recommend?
T-Rex – the slider, Pallbearer’s new album – Foundations of Burden and Take Over and Destroy – vacant face.
The vocals on your album are especially impressive. Anything to reveal about them?
I try to add some variety to the vocal lines, and I also like to texture certain passages, the phrasing is the most important part, lyrics come 2nd. The vocal phrasing is written usually in the early stages, and most of the lyrics for this album were actually the last thing written – some times the lyrics don’t come till I’m actually about to lay down the vocal track – since we recorded the album on our own terms I had the time to experiment and write the lyrics while recording.
What did you want to achieve with your new album? Any specific goals?
We just wanted to put out a dynamic album packed with music that can best possibly portray where we are as a band right now. And also something that will leave a mark on the people who enjoy the tunes.
Are you happy with how it turned out?
Yes, we are proud of having done everything ourselves. But I will never do it like that again cause its a major time consuming bitch!
What can you tell us about the lyrics?
The lyrics are for the listener to interpret in their own way.
Your songs are richly textured and very well composed – give us a bit of information on the songwriting process.
Most of our songs come out of improvs, a lot of the riffs we jam out in practice and then I’ll have Shane lay down some beats and refine them later on back at my home studio. Then bring them back to the rest of the guys and work out all the kinks. We don’t really sit down by ourselves and write, that would defeat the purpose of this bands mission.
How do you see your songs/direction developing in the future?
We are just still learning how to write together so I feel that we will get a lot tighter, and more comfortable together in our jams which will lead to better songs. I already have an outline for the next album based on about 20 songs/riffs that are in the back catalog. Its going to be a lot deeper, darker at times and lighter at times.
Tell us about the Sorxe live show.
Loud, relaxed and crushing.
What’s next for Sorxe?
The 1st half of October we will be on our 1st tour with Godhunter, then Southwest Terror Fest opening for Neurosis in Tucson Oct 18th.
Having recently released their début album Storming Heaven, Fornicus are ready to make a mark on the Metal world with their bitingly aggressive take on Black Metal. Curious about the band, I asked their lead guitarist some questions…
For those who are unfamiliar with your band – introduce yourself!
I am Kelly McCoy lead guitarist. The rest of the band is Scott Briggs-vocals/guitar, Chris Carver-bass & David Snow- drums. We are black/death metal from the bowels of central Kentucky that tends to appeal to old school ears.
Give us a bit of history to Fornicus – what are your influences?
Scott and Chris formed the band having known each other from a previous band they played in years ago. Scott had recorded David’s previous band and knowing they were no more he was asked to join. I came last to the line-up. Scott and I play in a blasphemous gore grind band together where he is on drums and I found out that Fornicus was looking for lead player so I gave it shot and made the cut. I personally am influenced by Carcass, Slayer, Morbid Angel, Death, Dissection. … I know the other guys like many of the same as well as Emperor and I recall Chris saying Miley Cyrus.
What are you listening to at the moment that you would like to recommend?
Visceral Disgorge, Ghost B.C., Abominant, Fornicus, Gorgy, Nevermore, Nifelheim, Watain, Broken Hope, Carcass, Vulkodlak. Just a few off the top of my head staying regular in the playlist.
What did you want to achieve with your new album?
Not to come across as arrogant but just to make and be a part of music I like to hear. I am sure all our goals may differ in way but short of world domination just enjoying our own music is most important to me.
Are you happy with how it turned out?
Absolutely, Scott owns the studio we recorded at and mixed, mastered and made it perfect for us.
Where do you see yourself in relation to the larger Black Metal scene?
Not sure… black metal purist may like us just as much as new comers to the scene however we are more refined sound wise. I don’t think any of us concern ourselves with whether or not we fit in anywhere.
What can you tell us about the lyrics?
Blasphemy, disappointment, anger, sorrow, rage and war all reflect our lyrical content. We are disgusted with herd conformity and the dogmatic monotheistic bullshit fed to the masses.
Give us a bit of information on the songwriting process.
It’s rather simple really. We write riffs or become inspired by lyrics and put it all together in the jam room. No preconceived notions of what we should do.
Tell us about the Sepultura cover – why include a cover on your album, why Sepultura, and why that song in particular?
Antichrist was a great choice because we could make it more powerful than it was remembered. We are all Sepultura fans and it is paying homage to the metal we grew up enjoying.
How do you see your sound developing in the future?
Darker and more chaotic. As musicians we will always push ourselves but there is no formula for Fornicus just what naturally comes out. Evil spews forth from a deep well in our band.
What’s next for Fornicus?
Continuing to promote the first release with shows and writing new material. We are discussing a 4 way split to be released by our label Negative Earth Records. Other than that banging our heads and blaspheming.
This year Secret Cutter unleashed their début album Self Titled on an unsuspecting world. This was an avalanche of heaviness and naked hostility tempered down into a short shock of an album that was immediate enough to get the adrenaline flowing and featured enough depth to carry it for the long haul. If you haven’t already heard it I recommend tracking it down. Now.
I wanted to find out more so dived head first onto the cutting floor…
For those who are unfamiliar with your band – introduce yourself!
Jared: We’re Secret Cutter, a 3-piece Sludge/Grind/Doom band from Bethlehem PA and we play heavy music!
Evan: We don’t have a bass player.
Give us a bit of history to Secret Cutter
Jared: Ekim and I’s old band (Oktober Skyline) broke up and we were in between bands and heard Evan, who put out the OS record, wanted to play something heavy, so we decided to try it out and a few months jamming we recorded our 7 inch in Ekim’s basement.
Tell us about the band name
Evan: It’s about the trap of self hatred. None of us cut ourselves on purpose.
What are your influences?
Jared: Impermanence, edibles, the human experience, love, hate, anything can be an influence if you let it.
What are you listening to at the moment that you would like to recommend?
Jared: Nothing heavy really, Emil Amos from the Holy Suns is destroying me lately.
Evan: The “Off Your Parents ” Ep by The Yah Mos. It came out in 1994 one of the best 7 inch’s of the 90’s in my opinion.
How did you decide upon the sound that your band has? Was this a conscious decision to aim for this or was it a more organic, natural process of just finding out what fit and felt right?
Jared : Definitely wanted to do something heavy. I think in time as we grow we’re constantly trying to bend our definition of ‘heavy’. But not on purpose…it just happens with time, and that moment when we’re chuckling with the hairs standing on our necks, we know it’s right.
Where/how do you think you fit in with the wider Metal scene as a whole?
Jared: I’m not sure where we fit in really. I’d hope it would be enjoyed by any fans of heavy music but I feel like we don’t appeal to just one genre.
Do you have any specific goals you want to achieve with this album?
Jared : Just to get it out to as many ears as possible.
Are you happy with how it turned out?
Jared : Very happy at this point. The response has been overwhelmingly positive.
Evan: The response has really been great. One review basically said we make music for the end of the world. I really enjoyed that..
What can you tell us about the lyrics?
Ekim: The struggles of everyday life for everyone. Each song is it’s own meaning for me, but could be relate-able through other people’s interpretations. No love making lyrics here.
How do you write your songs?
Jared : Evan brings the riffs to the table like a manic scientist and I basically learn the song and try to syncopate the rhythm. Then over time the songs just grow. It takes a really long time for some songs to be fully incubated.
How do you see your songs/direction developing in the future?
Jared : If any more bleak than what we’ve been writing…I’ll want to swallow a bottle of Zoloft. And I’m OK with that.
What’s next for Secret Cutter?
Jared : All unknown! Except our next LP which is basically written. I’m very excited about playing out with this new material.
With their latest EP It’s Time to Paralyze The Von Deer Skulls have shown a willingness to experiment and test the waters of their burgeoning sound. Find out more below…
For those who are unfamiliar with your band – introduce yourself!
Peter: Hi, we’re The Von Deer Skulls a France based band. We’re a trio, but some other musicians play with us sometimes. We play something the press defined as Rock Doom Ambient, sometimes Indus or Post-Rock.
Give us a bit of history to The Von Deer Skulls.
Freke: The band started in the end of 2012, we have recruited Peter at the beginning to make the visual stuffs of our last band (The Dead Sound), but after talking a long with him we decided to make a new project.
Peter: Yeah at that time I worked on some songs that have become the basis of the project, then we wrote the song “B*tches Of The Wood” which is the one was entirely composed for the band like the interludes, intro and outro.
Hektor: Then we decided to make our biography like a history to serve the visual aspect of the band.
Where did your band name come from?
Hektor: The band name come from the artist pseudonym of Peter (Peter Skull), because like a leader to the band, and the “Von Deer” come from the semi-fictional biography of the band and because we have often antlers on our video-stage costumes.
Freke: It’s also to making us a family.
What are your influences?
Peter: Influences are from everywhere, each one listens to different things, I’m a big fan of Jazz, Tool, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, indus things. Hektor listens to a lot of Post-Rock, Electro, but also Radiohead, Kadavar and Freke listens to old Rock ’n’ Roll like Black Sabbath, and some loud things like Sunn O))) or Indus.
What are you listening to at the moment that you would like to recommend?
Freke: Right now I listen to a lot of Kadavar, go to listen this German band if you don’t know, otherwise some old Marilyn Manson & NIN period.
Peter: On my side, I listen some more soft things right now as The Decemberists, Miles, Coltrane and Goon Moon and Pelican a lot.
Hektor: I listen some Queens Of The Stone Age’s songs, Pelican too and the Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s discography.
What did you want to achieve with your new album?
Peter: We would like to record songs which are the beginning of the project, to know each other a little better as a band and to show the public who we are. But it is just the beginning, a presentation.
Are you happy with how it turned out?
Hektor: Yes, we think that’s a good beginning. We worked hard to develop the visual aspect as much the music, both are equally important in our universe.
Freke: We were actually surprised to have such good returns.
Give us a bit of information on the songwriting process.
Freke: Peter works on the structure, and we’re making all the atmosphere.
Peter: As for the songwriting process it changes according to the songs. Sometimes we want that song sound like that and sometimes they grow up alone.
How do you see your songs/direction developing in the future?
Freke: I think the next songs will be more loud, maybe more direct.
Peter: We’re working on it right now, some different songs, some heavy, some more ambient, but yeah maybe more direct for the moment.
Tell us a bit more about the visual aspect of your band.
Peter: As we say before the visual aspect is as much important than music. Because it opens so many possibilities. At first I’m a visual artist, I love painting, shooting videos… for this band, because we create our own mythology and histories with that, it’s like a tale what we are proposing to the people, with the costumes, the videos…
Freke: And it’s also a way to distance ourselves from what we’re doing. The important isn’t what we look like, important is the music, the tale.
What’s next for The Von Deer Skulls?
Peter: Next, we’re working on new songs right now like I said, we hope to record them at the end of this year or in the beginning of 2015. And we’re going to do new videos to go with it.
Hektor: Yeah, don’t forget to follow us, new costumes and visual stuffs are on the go!
Uburen’s début album Withered Roots is a fiery homage to the band’s Norwegian heritage done in a much more aggressive style than is the norm for most Viking/Pagan bands. I asked some questions to find a bit more about them…
Give us a bit of background to Uburen
Uburen is a 3 piece band formed after ending other music projects. All members had a common interest in Norse mythology and the old Norwegian culture and wanted to form a band that would deliver both musically and as a live preforming band with a stage show that will not be forgotten right away.
What are your influences?
Bands that influence us are many, but among some of the more known bands: Enslaved, King Of Asgard, Varg, Vreid a lot of the underground bands also offer a lot of inspiration for their music and their will to continue on self economy.
What are you listening to at the moment that you would like to recommend?
Nowadays we listen to a lot of various bands such as Woods Of Ypres, Wyrd, King Of Asgard, Solstafir, Khold.
What did you want to achieve with your new album?
We would like to spread our music and the message of a dying culture, meet new people have some drinks and play concerts.
Are you happy with how it turned out?
With a budget nearly none from our own pockets we ourselves think its pretty decent, but can’t really measure up to Amon Amarth or Enslaved.
Tell us about your sound – it’s a lot heavier and more extreme than a lot who play this Viking style
The sound on Withered Roots is heavily inspired by folk and black metal, but not “nice sing-along boy-scout-campfire” music or music is inspired by the frontline on the battlefield and we try to captivate the macabre, anguish, anger, fear, hate, despair and all the raw emotions.
Tell us about your lyrics
Our lyrics focus around the darker side of the Norse history and mythology from the tales of creatures such as “Nøkken” the disapearence of men lured in and suffocated in the cold lakes fact based stories of brutal executions such as the “Blood Eagle” songs that tells stories with underlying words from the old sagas for instance about never giving up fighting ’til you die. Not trying to avoid your fate, keep walking through every winter.
Give us a bit of information on the songwriting process and how you create your songs.
The song writing process varies from song to song, usually one of us has a riff or bits of lyrics then we sit together think it through, what feeling and what message we want to tell when the song is put together we play through couple times take a break for at least 1 week to reflect if its how we want it to be.
In my review I say “Imagine Enslaved if they were less Progressive and more aggressive, or maybe Amon Amarth if they used Black Metal as the basis for their sound rather than Death Metal”. What are your thoughts on this?
It’s and honour to be compared with such bands as Enslaved and Amon Amarth we are all fans of them since way back, but we have not intentionally tried to sound like anyone. Our sound has just formed itself from our own minds.
How do you see your position in the wider Black Metal musical framework/genre?
Can’t say that we have given much thought to playing within a certain genre like Black Metal or Folk Metal its just music inspired by old Norwegian history and folk lore and our past is grim so that we sound like Black Metal just happened.
How do you see your songs/direction developing in the future?
We have no planned direction for our music nor for our lyrics, it will continue to evolve with us. No compremise.
What does the future hold for Uburen?
At the moment we are looking into playing at festivals around where we are wanted. We have some booked, but those are secret for now we would also like to go into the studio again in the not to distant future whenever our pockets allow it. Maybe even another music video.
What did you want to achieve with False Flag?
What did you set out to achieve with your new album?
How do you see your songs/direction developing in the future?
What can you tell us about the lyrics?
For those who are unfamiliar with your band – introduce yourself!
What are you listening to at the moment that you would like to recommend?
Where/how do you think you fit in with the wider Metal scene as a whole?
How do you write your songs?
Are you happy with how it turned out?
Are you happy with how it turned out?
Wonderbox Metal 