The Dillinger Escape Plan live at Boston, MA’s Paradise Rock Club

Bent Knee at Paradise Rock Club

Bent Knee at Paradise Rock Club

Bent Knee at Paradise Rock Club

Bent Knee at Paradise Rock Club

Bent Knee at Paradise Rock Club

---

Back in 2017 when I discovered A Stick and a Stone, a solo doom project steeped in minimalism and showcasing the haunting vocals of project mastermind Elliott Miskovicz, I was nothing short of captivated. In every way that Miskovicz's music felt like doom, it also felt strongly not-doom; in every way that A Stick and a Stone gently broke me apart, the music ended up rebuilding me. I mean to say this: there was a significant healing element buried deep within those songs, and now, a handful of years later, this project has blossomed into something even more profound. Yes, it's still steeped in doom and doom-adjacency, but Miskovicz has significantly extended their palette, vocal and otherwise, resulting in 11 new songs that effectively tear right into the core of my heart. Check out an exclusive full stream below before Friday's release.

...

We talk a lot about "sad beauty" in doom metal, and few artists nail that paradigm quite like A Stick and a Stone. While these songs are rooted in positivity (community, ecosystems, and relationships, as Miskovicz explains in a short statement below), it's the simultaneous fragility and strength of their voice that gives the project the oodles of character it thrives on. "Singer-songwriter doom" might make sense here, too, but let's not discount some sublime multi-instrumentation that coalesces into something that "feels" simple but decisively isn't. Flute, pump organ, classical guitar, and more are on show here -- a massive undertaking of various elements all metered to just the right degree. Stay well, and hope for a better 2021. I hope this music helps carry you forward.

...

From Miskovicz:

I started writing and recording these songs in 2013, and did not expect to be releasing this album in 2021, but in some ways I'm glad it took so long. These songs are woven together by common themes of community and ecosystems and relationships, and how they hold us together when everything else is falling apart. So it's interesting to me that now, due to the pandemic and other setbacks, it's being released almost a year deep into a time of unprecedented global loneliness and isolation. I'm hoping that as people listen from their quarantined corners of the world, these songs might help people emerge from that sense of isolation in some small way.

...

Versatile releases January 15th via Anima Recordings.

---

Support Invisible Oranges on Patreon and check out our merch.

---

In this series, Ivan Belcic invites sneaker-lovers from the metal world at large to share some favorites from their collections, pairing them with metal albums that fit just right.

...

“I never thought of myself as a sneakerhead. I eschew labels, for the most part. I'm not a metalhead, I'm not a punk, I'm not a DIY guy, I just pick and choose the best music and philosophies that help me create art and live a happy life.”

-Ross Sewage

There are two sneakers that characterize my childhood. One is the Converse Chuck Taylor All-Star high-top in black. Every spring as a kid, once the weather finally broke, I’d get a new pair of Chucks, always highs, always black, and those would be my go-to sneakers all summer long. I’d wear them out completely by the time the next spring came around — even if my feet weren’t growing, it’d still be time for another pair. Later in my tweens and teens, the second became the Adidas Samba, also in black, with white stripes. I played indoor soccer in the winter, and these were the indoor soccer shoe if you were to be taken at all seriously. During the season, I wasn’t allowed to wear them casually — these were strictly for use during practice and games. But once the season ended, they’d be on my feet daily. They were kind of a status symbol — indoor soccer was a tryout sport, and no one who wasn’t on the team would’ve had any business buying those sneakers. Plus, they’re just dope. Beyond the yearly ritual that was these two specific models, I didn’t really get into sneakers until college, and it was the Nike SB Dunk that tipped me over the edge into a brand new world of obsession. The stories behind the designs, the breadth of materials, the way the inspirations were interpreted in the final colorways — there was, and is, so much to explore. And they were comfortable, so that helped. Since then, they’ve by and large been my sneaker of choice, aside from a few other must-haves from time to time. They’ve never been harder to buy than lately, now that they’re the Hype Shoe of the Moment, but like all things both good and bad, that’ll pass. Longtime bassist Ross Sewage — Exhumed, Impaled, ex-Ludicra, reported to associate with a certain unnamed gaggle of hooded cannibals — is my type of sneaker collector. He’s fixated on one shoe, and that’s all he wears. Like childhood me, Sewage is devoted to the Chuck Taylor All-Stars high-tops. As classic as classic gets. When I asked Ross about doing this column, writing about his favorite sneakers, he quipped, “...about my 20+ pairs of Chuck Taylors?” At the time, I assumed he was speaking in hyperbole, but nope, he was dead serious. “If I am a sneakerhead, I would have to be described as a Platonist one,” begins Sewage. “Since I was a child, Chuck Taylors high-tops have always embodied the ideal of a sneaker to me. Simple cut, decent tread for all surfaces, breathe easy with a canvas body, and that little circle logo on the inside ankle has become an abstract symbol in art that easily identifies the object as ‘sneaker.’” And he’s right. More so than the swoosh, more so than the three stripes, it’s that circled star that’s an immediate go-to in the brain for not just “sneaker,” but countercultural rebelliousness at large—echoed in the shoe’s steadfast insistence on ignoring trends and staying the same for the vast majority of its existence. It remained essentially unchanged until recently for decades, charting a path from the NBA through The Ramones and Kurt Cobain to a universal cultural signifier. And a big part of that universality is in their accessibility. Unlike many other popular sneakers — Jordans, Yeezys, Air Maxes, even New Balances, forever a dad shoe in my book—Chucks are cheap. “They are the blue-collar sneaker,” says Sewage. “I mean, if you can get past the loss of quality since being bought by Nike, that is, and don't want them in basic colors.” Sewage has refined the buying process down to a science. “I look for screaming deals at Ross Dress For Less or Converse outlets and pick up weird variations on Taylors for cheap,” he explains. “I stockpile Chucks so I can switch out shoes and never be stressed about shopping for them. I haven't paid full price for a pair of Cons in 10 to 15 years.” Pragmatic and efficient. According to Sewage, there’s no need to switch up the pattern that’s worked so well for him for so many years. And as an avowed SB Dunk head, I completely understand where he’s coming from. If you want them to be, sneakers will become much more than the item that separates your feet from the ground. Like any item of clothing, whether you mean it to or not, the sneakers you choose reflect a part of you into the world. For some of us, there’s one sneaker in particular that hits us in a way no other does. “There's a scene in Cronenberg's remake of The Fly that’s always stuck with me,” says Sewage. “Seth Brundle, showing off his closet, describes his inspiration for always wearing the same suit as having come from the apocryphal story of Einstein doing the same, so as to save his brainpower. Well, I don't think my brain is all that great, but I've stuck with Converse Chuck Taylors for most of my life, and I have no plans to change.” Here’s Ross Sewage on five standout pairs of Chucks that define his journey with metal over the years, and five albums that you should crank while checking them out.

—Ivan Belcic

...

Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars: Camouflage I try to keep new kicks ready for tour so as to go out and trash the hell out of them. At least I look good when the tour starts. This pair of sweet camouflage Chucks was going to cover my dogs as Exhumed conquered the Pacific and Europe in the summer of 2020. I was going to get a photo with a koala bear and get to three countries I'd never been to. And everyone would think I was floating when I walked on grass! Alas, we all know how 2020 turned out, so none of that happened. My dreams of a koala photo disappeared like a pair of camouflage sneakers on the lawn. A large chunk of Exhumed's 2020 touring was to be with our friends Necrot. We spent an amazing six weeks with them in the United States in 2019. A particular highlight was having Thanksgiving together in a rented house in Washington. We were so excited to spend more time with Chad, Sonny, and Luca, but that's on hold, now. What wasn't on hold was the release of Necrot’s second record, Mortal. It's a blistering take on old-school death metal, nothing but head-banging riffs and no-frills rocking. I'll be breaking in these sneaks by moshing around my couch to that.

...

Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars: Dark Blue Suede These were the Chucks I saved for the Exhumed tour with Gatecreeper, Necrot, and Judiciary in the United States. Like most of my sneaks, these were found cheap at an outlet. I thought the pairing of dark blue suede with the simple cut of the Converse was hilarious. I'd go out on stage wearing my typical dirty and ink spattered Carhartt jeans, a filthy horror movie tee shirt, and be like, "HEY! Don't you step on my blue suede shoes." When I showed up at Exhumed HQ to head out on the road, not a single member failed to comment on these pigs wearing lipstick. They're basically destroyed now. They've been my go-to since that tour, and they have suffered. The heels are starting to blow out. The suede is ruined from getting wet. There's ink stains on the toe. But I keep wearing them because that was my last tour before COVID-19 upended all our lives, and it was so damn fun. So, these shoes remind me of our co-headliners and the swell guys in Gatecreeper. I'd suggest spinning their side of the Exhumed / Gatecreeper tour vinyl if you were lucky enough to pick it up. It's rare and limited, just like these "fancy" sneaks! (And if you don’t have it, try this)

...

Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars: Classic Black & White I almost never have a pair of classic looking Cons. They're never discounted and cost too much. We all know they're made in crappy factories now with less quality control. They fall apart faster. So, no way I'm paying full price. The reason I have this pair of classic black and white is they were a gift. They were given to the groomsmen at the wedding of my poly-bandmate, Leon del Muerte, to his wonderful bride, the shredder Elizabeth Schall. Definitely my jam: a wedding that desired comfort over fashion. Somehow, Leon picked me as the best man, and if ever there was a stretch on using the word "best," that was it. I've known Leon for something like 25 years. In that time, we've played in Exhumed and Impaled together in a dizzying array of different line-ups. He's also drifted in and out of so many bands, I've lost count. So, if these are Leon sneaks, which Leon band should I listen to? It can't be Nails, because I'll never be one of them, and apparently, neither can Leon. Can't be Exhumed or Impaled, because that's just self-promoting. So, I'm gonna go with Phobia and the album 22 Acts of Random Violence. Leon's 7/8 brain elevates what could be a brainless grindcore album to another level. His writing contributions make it my favorite Phobia release by a mile. Even at his simplest, like a black-and-white Chuck Taylor, Leon contains multitudes.

...

Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars: Bright Green For some reason, Chuck Taylor must've put out too many green sneakers in the early 2010s. I think this because I picked up an army's worth of pairs for super cheap at various discount stores around that time. I was bedecked with these lime charmers in 2011 as our gimmick/costume band headed out on our big-break tour with the Scumdogs of the Universe, GWAR. We made fast friends with the alien overlords and their human slaves. Dave Brockie stuck out. The man was a fountain of personality. When he opened his mouth, it was time to shut up because you were about to hear the most genius (or the most insane) thing ever. Sometime during the tour, Dave stopped me. He was awestruck by my bright green Chucks. He pointed out his green New Balance trainers and exclaimed, "I thought I was the only one who wore green shoes! Fuck yeah, shoe buddies!" It was so insanely dumb, but so sweet, that one of my heroes felt even the most superficial connection to me. I never had that heart to tell him they were just the shoes I got cheap. Well, from that day on, bright green Cons became the shoe choice of my character in the gimmick band. Man... I miss Dave. These Cons are blood-stained; so should the music be. Jam the GWAR album Bloody Pit of Horror while getting spew on your shoes. Particularly, jam hard on the song "A Gathering of Ghouls" for, uh, unspecified reasons. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mPfNGd36q3kMB0HiV3TXL1iSUExgVcgn0

...

Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars: Dark Grey / Riveted These were a pretty ugly pair of Cons. They were dark grey, almost black, and had these hideous rivets lining up each side. They were also under $30, so I had to have the beasts. I wore these on Ludicra's first U.S. tour in 2010. I happened to be in pretty good shape that year, having quit smoking and taken up jogging (neither lasted, it turns out... maybe someday). The band would party and drink most of the night after playing, I'd get a good night's sleep, get up for a jog, and roust their lazy asses back into the van to drive us to the next show. The band criticized my choice of sneaks for jogging. "You can't jog in Cons, you'll ruin your back / legs / knees!" I said phooey to that, and jogged and jogged until the day came I had planned all tour: I would jog Rocky Balboa's footsteps in Philadelphia to the top of the stairs at the art museum. And there it was... Rocky's footprints... and they were Cons. I ran up and down the stairs 3 more times. I went on a lot of adventures during that tour in those shoes. In Baltimore, we stayed at the apartment of one of the guys from Bloody Panda... Gerry, if I recall correctly. I got up early and walked on down in my fancy Chucks to Edgar Allen Poe's house. It is located in probably the worst, most seediest neighborhood I have ever experienced. Two guys crossed the street toward me, asked me why I looked like a girl, then showed me some crack they wanted to sell. I said, "No thanks," and was on my way. I got back to the apartment, told my little story, and Gerry said to me, "Ross, why are you walking around strange neighborhoods in Baltimore? Haven't you ever seen The Wire?" I hadn't. So, anyway, listen to Bloody Panda's Summon, because that record is crushing.

...

Exhumed’s latest album Horror released October 4, 2019 via Relapse Records.

...

Check out the prior installments of Metal Shoebox: Metal Shoebox #1: Chris Smith of of Narakah and Grey Aria Design Studio Metal Shoebox #2: Ash Gray of Venom Prison Metal Shoebox #3: Rick Owen of Video Nasties

...

Support Invisible Oranges on Patreon and check out our merch.

...

[caption id="attachment_72243" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Photo Credit: Noah Lucas (left) | Ben Stas (right)[/caption]

---

It's been a long time since we've hosted an "artist vs. artist" interview here at Invisible Oranges, and I wanted our first foray back into that world to be something interesting and special. Former death metal and hardcore frontman gone country artist Austin Lucas cherishes his musical background, having written about His Hero Is Gone for us in 2018. Nate Newton is, as many know, the legendary Converge's bassist and also exists among the ranks of bands the likes of Old Man Gloom, Doomriders, Split Cranium, and other metalpunk luminaries. Austin first had the idea to speak with Nate, with whom he had shared concert billings in the 1990s, in the summer of 2020, and it took a little wrangling to get just right (holidays, scheduling conflicts), but the result is an interesting, impassioned discussion about the old days of hardcore, social justice, memory, and inclusivity in martial arts.

—Jon Rosenthal

Nate and I have known of each other loosely since the 1990's. Or maybe it's more honest to say that I've known who he was and have been watching him and his bands evolve for many years. While he has been someone who I long admired from afar, he became an ally of mine entirely unexpectedly sometime in the 2000's. I want to talk about that, but first I want to set the stage for how I got to know who you were. In 1997, my band Twenty Third Chapter played a festival in Indianapolis, and a Virginia band called Canephora shared the bill, that band completely blew us away. And, serendipitously, both bands walked away from that festival with slated releases on Moo Cow Records. I think it's fairly safe to say that we had formed a mutual admiration for each other following both of our sets that day. I had no idea about that but this is totally blowing my mind! It's funny, right? Anyway, I'm not sure if I was excited to see them before the festival because they had members of Jesuit, or if I checked out Jesuit directly following because they had been so fucking killer, but from that point on, many records were bought and I feel like I watched as your musical trajectory just accelerated, at least from an outsider's perspective. Regardless of how it felt, you quickly became someone whose projects I paid attention to because I always knew they were going to be outstanding. Which was why in 2006, when Brent Eyestone of Magic Bullet records reached out to me about releasing an album and said that he'd discovered me somehow through you my mind was thoroughly blown. Yeah, I discovered you through our tour manager Tomaš Mladek. That's cool because he had just released the first Guided Cradle album. I love that album, by the way! Wow, thanks so much! It makes sense now, but it seemed so insane at the time that someone whose musical endeavors I'd been following for years -- but had no direct contact with -- would end up having a direct effect on my life. Well that's cool, I hope it was a positive effect. It absolutely was! I get what you mean though because I definitely have those moments where I'm like, wait, you know who I am? You've heard my band? Really??? I guess I've lived out in the suburbs for so long that I'm not really surrounded by people who know this world. So, when I do meet someone who is familiar with my bands, I'm always like, what? How do you know that? Because in my mind we're still the same band who played to 25 people. But with your stuff, from the first time I heard it I was like, this stuff is awesome and people need to hear it. So I was genuinely happy to help in any way that I could. It was really cool, because I remember the first time I saw the logo for Magic Bullet was on the back of This Screaming, This Crying… by Boysetsfire. I had seen them play in Dayton and bought that record, then followed both them and Magic Bullet Records for years. So having Brent Eyestone write me and also telling me that he had discovered me through you was this whole full circle that just made my mind explode. That's what's so cool about this little ecosystem we've created, people from our era are just genuinely interested in helping each other and making interesting things happen. That's the way I look at it at least and I hope that's how it is. I think that's true with people from that era of hardcore who grew up in the way that we did. I've encountered it multiple times and I always kind of see it when I begin talking to someone from that era, before it starts to sink in how much we have in common. I had a similar moment of recognition with Trever Keith from Face To Face when he invited me to come out and open up for them. That's awesome! I know, I was like... HOLY SHIT! Fucking Face To Face wants me to play shows with them!!! I've listened to them since I was in high school! But my point is that he and I were hanging out and he was like, wait, you were a hardcore kid in the 1990s?!?! And all of a sudden this whole world opened up and we started talking about our shared values and that was one of them, for sure! This desire to lift each other up is something that people from our DIY community from that era really do actually believe in. Yeah, for sure! It was just so small then and it's just so different now. Culture in general is just so different now. Things that made you a freak when we were kids is just so par for the course now and because of us growing up back then it just kind of ingrained itself into us. Like, the freaks gotta look out for the other freaks! You gotta find your tribe and help each other out. It's sorta the same with skateboarding and the way I've approached my entire life, I guess.

...

...

That's interesting, I think we can maybe transition into talking about what it is that you're doing right now. Because I know that you've been spending a lot of time at the skatepark, helping kids learn to skate and that's been something you are passionate about. Do you want to talk about that some? Yeah sure! I've been skateboarding since I was five years old, so it's just a part of my life as much as music is, although I've been a little more successful with music. I'm definitely not talented at skateboarding but I can get by and that's about it, but I've gotten to the point in my life where I can actually help make things happen. Like, in my town, where I've been 11 years now. There was no skate park and I've seen kids who were skateboarders grow up and become adults who had nowhere to go. So about 5 years ago I was introduced to the woman who runs the department of recreation here and I asked why isn't there a skate park, let's build a skate park. And she was all for it, she was like, I want to do it! And I was like, then we're gonna do it this time! So it was about 4 years of going back and forth with the town and doing all sorts of paperwork and fighting the good fight. Until we finally got the ok and also got a grant from the Essex county cultural foundation. Then pulled together a group of skaters who all worked in the trades and a bunch of them who actually build skateparks for a living now. We're really lucky in that respect where I am, because we've got a lot of people who do that and are good at it. So when I came to them with the idea, saying hey, I've got this spot to do this and the town is open to it, now we've got a grant and we just need help. Everyone came and worked for free and we got a bunch of materials donated and built a concrete skatepark. So to get to what you actually asked me, there really wasn't much of a culture here. When the park opened it was about 90% kids on scooters. There were a couple of older kids who skated and then a bunch of old farts like me who were coming out and skating but we kind of watched slowly how the kids who were on scooters started to be like, I wanna skateboard! Then they started showing up with boards and wanting to learn, so it's gone from mostly scooters to mostly skaters now. Which has been really cool because the kids are excited now and you can kinda see that light go off over their heads. For a little while they were just a kid with a skateboard and now that kid IS a skateboarder y'know, you can tell! So yeah, I just sorta fell into giving lessons because I was helping kids around the park, watching them do things wrong. I'd be like hey, push with your other foot, or the reason you're falling every time you try to drop in is because of this, and that kind of stuff. So parents started asking me if I'd give their kid a lesson too and at first I was like, I don't really do that, but sure. Then it just turned into everyday of the week when my daughter's in school, I'm giving lessons at the skatepark. It's been fun and I think it's a lot of the same thing we were talking about with punk and hardcore. It's just so cool to watch people realize that they can do something and to be able to help and cultivate a culture around here has been a really positive thing during COVID. With all the negative shit in the world, it would be really easy to just fall into a total depression, so I'm thankful that I've been able to do that. It's so powerful for me to hear you talk about that, because I don't know if you charge for skate lessons but I'm assuming that if you do, you probably started out doing it mostly for free. Dude, I tried to do it for free! Like, I was doing it for free and parents would ask me to teach a lesson and I'd just tell them to meet me in the park and I'd help them and they started just giving me money. I was like, I'd just do this for free anyway and they'd be like, you're helping our kid and we want to pay you, take the fucking money! And I was like, that's weird but... sure? That's like my Muay Thai journey as a martial artist, I've only been doing it seriously for a little over five years but because of my job, being a professional musician, I've always got time. I can make my own schedule and when I'm on tour I can seek out a gym and do a drop in, which is another crazy community building thing that I've been able to do as well. But I started coaching really early on because I noticed that there were young people who were intimidated at the gym. Not to mentioned women, BIPOC members of the community, anyone who was queer or trans. If they walked into the gym it was a naturally uninviting environment for them and I noticed immediately that if someone didn't foster some type of a relationship with them, they wouldn't stick around. So well before I probably should have been coaching anyone, I was already going over and offering to work with new students and show them things. When I went to Thailand to train, I went there because I wanted to be a better coach. Most people who go there are going because they want to be a great fighter or they have some aspiration that they are going to be a professional or whatever. But for me, I've had a couple of fights and might take a few more but I'm in my 40's and I'm not trying to go pro. I only want to be able to pass on competent knowledge to other people, I want to be good at that! So yeah, now I train people and they often try to pay me for it and I'm like, I just wanna hangout, of course I can help you but that's not what I'm trying to do. Whenever they're like, how much? I'm like, shut up, I don't want any money! It wasn't until parents started asking me to give their kids lessons that I started allowing it. Because I think parents feel that if you're spending time with their kid, you probably deserve to be paid for it. Haha, like it's some sort of thankless task that you need to get paid for. Which is funny because I legitimately get so much out of just helping people and enjoy watching them grow. But I think people are so used to this capitalist economy, where everyone expects to be paid for labor. Clearly I'm not saying that people don't deserve to be paid for their time and labor, not at all! What I am saying is that I do this thing for fun! I just like hanging out and teaching people how to kick and punch things and me... and other people. Haha, I get a lot out of consensual violence and I know a lot of other people might be able to gain something as well. Since it has given me so much confidence, allowed me to pretty much best my anxiety and depression disorders. So if I can give other people the tools to access what I've gotten, I'm just like dude, fucking take it! I totally get it, I can tell you as an outsider, watching that journey online from afar. I could just see it happening for you and I was like damn, I'm so fucking stoked for Austin. Really, it genuinely made me happy. Thank you, Nate! And what you're saying about going to Thailand to learn how to teach is fucking great! It's kind of the same for me, like I know I'm not going to be a pro skater but I can teach you the basics but then again it's not about me. People go to train in Thailand because it's about them, it's for them, they want to prove to themselves that they can be a fighter and can meet a goal. And that's fucking great but what I really love about what you just told me is that it wasn't about you, it was about your love for martial arts and wanting to share that. There are a lot of similar dynamics with women and trans people and BIPOC within skateboarding. There are these weird kinds of walls, where if you show up at a skatepark, even if you don't fall into any of those categories but just if you've never really stood on a skateboard before, it's intimidating. Especially when you see these people who are charging and just going for it. You see people who feel like they don't belong there and I'm always just like, you do belong, get in here, come on! I'm welcoming you because you have a skateboard and because of that, we're friends now. To bring it back to where we started, I really feel like that came from being a part of the DIY punk and hardcore scene. Because someone new would show up and you'd think, who's this person? Hey cool, new person... come hangout and meet all your new friends, we're here for you. So like everything in my life can be traced back to the first time I stepped on a skateboard. I never would have found hardcore, I never would have been interested in music... none of it! So skateboarding for me and sharing that with young people, I'm not just doing this because I want to see you get good at skateboarding. I'm doing this because I know all the different doors this can open in your life. Totally, yeah! And it's not for everybody but just showing how being into something or anything and all the doors it can open for a person is important. Well yeah, one thing is never going to be for everyone. Which is why different niches exist because everyone has different shit that they're into. That's what makes the world a panoply of awesome, there's no one size fits all. There are only many different things that you can get something out of and for me it's all about just being around and letting folks know that I'm available if they're interested in coming to learn. It's actually interesting because I've noticed that there are people who genuinely hate that I'm so open about sharing my knowledge. There are so many people who are like gatekeepers and their whole entire personality or business model is based upon acting like they are the only source for this thing. And you get serious contempt when you show up and are just willing to do something for the sheer joy of it and they see people start gravitating toward you. For example, I've seen gym owners become suspicious or intimidated by me because when I start training at their gym, with my attitude about being open, people start coalescing around me. And I sometimes have a hard time convincing them that I'm not there to steal their students. I'm here to make your gym better, I'm just another person who's hanging out and is willing to put in the time and foster relationships with people because I want to see everyone do better. Well that's like how just trying to be open and welcoming, rather than being a gatekeeper or something... I don't even know how to put it into words. Like, I know nothing about Muay Thai and have never set foot in a gym before but I imagine it's a lot like skateboarding. Where you show up at a spot and there're the heavy rippers over there and those dudes don't make eye contact, they don't talk to anybody and are like no, you aren't even on my level. And I'm like, fuck you! Yeah you are, everyone here is on the same fucking level, as long as you're being cool. If you're having fun, who gives a fuck! All I'm here to do, is show you that you're allowed to be here, you're welcome here and you can have fun! Have fucking fun! I mean, there are gatekeepers in music, there are gatekeepers everywhere and it's fucking stupid. Like I understand the capitalist side of it because we all are trapped in this bullshit and have to make a living too but y'know, you can at least make it positive for people. That's probably one of the things that I've had the most frustration with in music is that gatekeeper mentality. I'm sure you've seen this before, it's probably happened to you as well. But I've metaphorically speaking, given people the shirt off of my back on their way up in the music business and sort of watched them rise and been dedicated to figuring out the ways I could help them and who I might be able to connect them with or what I could do to help them along. And y'know, only to have them, like, slam the door in my face as I'm kind of like, following them along from behind. Which is always kind of like, what the fuck? I thought we were just hanging out and doing things together and being pals and now you're gatekeeping on me? It's so weird and just goes to show that not everyone gets the same thing out of it and I've kind of spent a lot of my time in this world just trying my best to associate with lifers instead of careerists. That specific wording is something I took from Brent Eyestone, actually. He verbalized it and I was like oh, that's exactly what I was trying to say. And there's just such a stark difference between people who are in it because that's just who they are and someone who is trying to get somewhere. You can see those people from a mile away and you can see them when they are playing the game. And I don't have any interest in playing the game. I'm here to make music with my friends and share it with people and hopefully create some joy for myself and share some joy with people and that's it. Yeah, we live in a capitalist society and hopefully we can make some money doing this but whatever, that's kind of it.

...

...

It's crazy because I honestly never gave a shit about my "career" until I moved to Nashville, being there for 3 years totally fucking corrupted my psychology and made me start to see it as a hustle. It was fucking weird, never in my life have I felt so worthless and so much like I needed to improve my station than I did in that time period. I went from being a person who didn't give a shit about the music industry at all, to being someone who was chomping at the bit to figure out how I could get in there and satisfy those fucking people. It was such a weird experience because it had a huge part of my becoming suicidally depressed and anxious beyond comprehension. It wasn't until I fucking bailed on Nashville and went back home to Bloomington that I slowly started returning to normal. It was like the Hulk coming back to Bruce Banner and I was like where the fuck am I, my clothes are all fucking ripped and I don't even know what happened. That makes sense man, because you come from a scene and a culture where that's never been the goal but then you go to a place like Nashville, which is a music factory. And it's filled with people who aren't necessarily there to follow their passion. They're there to make money and to work and that's fine but all the shit that goes along with that, it's just pointless in the world we come from. Like, I can see how you would succumb to that if you're in a place that's just steeped in it and people living with that mentality. How you might think that you were somehow fucking up. Then it takes some time to get away from it before you realize like, oh yeah, I don't need that. It's a weird thing and I'm grateful that none of my bands have been based in any industry cities. I mean, Boston has always had a music scene but you aren't in a "music city." We weren't in LA, we weren't in places where it was a business and we were just doing it for fun and got lucky that it sort of turned into something else but I think we've all worked really hard to avoid that whole world. I've had this conversation with people who are in that major label world and they're playing the game, doing all the stuff you're supposed to do and we just don't fucking care, why would you do that? I feel like the way to do it is to do your own thing, create something that can't be ignored and keep doing it your own way. So that world has to come to you and they have to do things the way that you want to do them. Or just keep doing what you're doing, your way and have fucking fun and survive that way. I don't know... it's all so fucking weird. Yeah, I think it's funny because you say you got lucky but I think you just put out quality art and people responded to it and they kept responding to it. And you just kept doing the rad thing that you were doing. At the end of the day, that's the only thing you can do unless you're some sort of smash hit sensation in the world of music that just has some sort of explosion. If you're making something that's on your own terms, you have to keep working on it and chipping away at it and continue making the art that you want to see in the world. I always try to tell young or newer artists who ask me about my career or songwriting that they just gotta create the thing that they want to hear or see. If you want to hear something and you aren't hearing enough of this particular type of music then that's what you should do. You shouldn't do the thing that you think will make you a bunch of money, you should just be whatever you're missing. It seems so simple. It seems like it and it is actually, in a lot of ways. But a lot of just people don't handle that and so they do things that they think they are supposed to do. Like oh, this is what people want and so this is what I'm going to do and sometimes that works, but I tell people basically the same thing as what you were saying. I tell people don't make any record they wouldn't buy themselves and enjoy what you're doing, because if people see you enjoying what you are doing, then they are going to believe in it and they're going to enjoy it too. Whereas if it just looks like you're going through the motions, nobody is going to fucking care. That's fucking right, man... so fucking true. It's the simplest advice, which is kind of the thing that I'm always trying to tell people about all sorts of shit. Like, it's a lot easier than you think it is, even though finding your way to seeing that is way more difficult than I'm making it sound. I just think that you get different types of people, some do the thing that the industry wants and some do whatever they really want to do. Sometimes they do that and then don't understand why people aren't responding to it the way that they would like them to. That's actually been a big problem for me over the years, releasing some albums and seeing that people aren't responding to it the way that I hoped that they would. Or shopping a record to different labels and just being told no, over and over again. Oh my god, that's the worst. Totally, coming to terms with the fact that not everyone is going to respond positively to something that I'm passionate about has been a long and difficult process for me. Getting comfortable with what a weirdo I am and also realizing that not everyone is going to like the weird shit that I'm putting into the world. Absolutely, but like, we sought it out when we were young. We wanted to be different, we wanted to find only a tiny little cluster of people that thought the same as us, so how can we expect large amounts of people to like this thing that we do, that we specifically created to turn people away. Haha, does that make sense? [Laughs] Oh my god, totally, everyone except the folks who are like us. Yep, and that's a hard thing for people to wrap their minds around, I mean it's hard for me to wrap my mind around. It's why I stopped reading reviews and it drew me to the conclusion that once you make art and you put it out into the world, it's not yours anymore. People are going to evaluate it or assign meaning to it that you never even would have thought of. They will think what they are going to think about it and you have no control over that, so all you can do is make sure that you said what you wanted to say and make sure that was clear. Beyond that, I don't fucking care what they do with it. I hope they like it but if they don't, it's not for them and that's fucking fine. Well at least it's safe to say that you have released a lot of records that were definitely for me, over the years. So have you, man! Thanks so much, Nate, I really appreciate that! It's been so much fun talking to you. Same here!

...

Austin Lucas released Alive in the Hot Zone on October 30th, 2020 via Cornelius Chapel Records. Converge released Beautiful Ruin on June 28th, 2018 via Epitaph and Deathwish. The picture of Nate in the header image is from show photography by Ben Stas in Boston, 2017.

---

Support Invisible Oranges on Patreon and check out our merch.

---

Wolf King's new album The Path of Wrath is assuredly a blackened offering -- that's made clear in the opening moments of their latest single "Wandering Soul" as a snakelike tremolo motif wraps itself around a blast beat. But there's much more than that ahead: hardcore, doom, and death metal soon pierce the shroud, expressed in a blend of nuanced riffs and sheer power. Nominally operating under the banner of blackened hardcore, the Bay Area band's sound has grown multi-tendrilled, stretching out and uniting a larger swath of the musical landscape in chilling shadow. These facets are locked together into a delicate balance: momentum built through speed is deposited into well-timed slowdowns, and melodic riffs are counterbalanced by crushing dissonance. "Wandering Soul" is a window into this fusion, seeming to engage your whole heavy metal brain as it sends it down a trail of darkened thoughts. We're premiering the music video for the track, suitably packed with fearful mystery.

...

https://youtu.be/BeOwhe3PsUw

...

Flickering visuals topped with a film grain and a black-and-white forest set the tone for the video, establishing a certain level of hopelessness right at the beginning. Intercut with psychedelic snapshots and hallucination-like visions of snakes and skulls, what appears to be a desperate flight turns into something more as a boundary is encountered -- a ritual, perhaps, or a transformation. Actually, as I re-watched it, those early visions started to seem like omens of the video's conclusion. Like any good music video, its storyline crosses over into the meaning behind the song, creating its own tale to enrich it. The band explains the song's concept:

"Wandering Soul" is a tale of passing from this existence, and how our souls will forever wander among the living. We seek the light to take us to our final resting place, but we can never grasp it.

...

The Path of Wrath releases March 5th via Prosthetic Records.

---

Support Invisible Oranges on Patreon and check out our merch.

---

By now, you've certainly heard the hype surrounding this record. Frozen Soul seemed to rocket out of nowhere, putting out one well-regarded demo through Maggot Stomp that was lapped up by the death metal underground only to immediately get snapped up by Century Media for an EP and a proper studio debut in Crypt of Ice. A lot of this attention fixates on the notion of the band in general and this record in specific as Bolt Thrower worship done right, a sentiment that, while certainly grounded in key elements of this record, does a disservice to the subtler nuances that make this the standout death metal statement of 2021 so far, only a week into its existence.

...

...

When people describe the album as Bolt Thrower worship, they're referring to the general mid-paced approach of many of the songs present, the riffs' particularly bludgeoning HM-2 approach as well as the drums' meaty, persistent downbeat, often shying away from more grandiloquent or head-twisting fills and beats you might see in more esoteric forms of death metal. I doubt the band would deny Bolt Thrower as an inspiration. To be fair, who in the world of death metal would? But this sentiment does a disservice to the subtle salts and fats that make their meat-and-potatoes approach to death metal on display here as rich and satisfying as they are. Take, for instance, the tremolo picked riffs that the band sprinkles judiciously throughout the record. They are often deployed after a simple and tonally-driven mid-paced riff, one which establishes a clear key center even for those not so worried about the finer details of music theory and its attendant issues. The tremolo picked riffs themselves, however, often deploy small and subtle accidental notes, dissonant leading tones, and land on notes that sound off in that quintessentially queasy death metal fashion, a fashion from which, notably, Bolt Thrower often shied away themselves. Likewise, there is a sense of heft to Frozen Soul's death metal breakdowns that often has more in common with the hardcore crossover death metal groups like Fuming Mouth, Xibalba and Harms Way (or, from another frame, the earliest death metal bands, themselves often emerging into thrash and death metal via hardcore punk). While Bolt Thrower are perhaps the greatest lords of the mosh riff in the context of early esteemed death metal bands, there is a particular neck-snapping, circle pit hardcore stomp to Frozen Soul's approach that makes their work feel substantially more located in the body. Crypt of Ice's production deserves commendation as well for threading the needle both through current trends in death metal as much as their valuable critiques. Frozen Soul shies away from drenching their guitars in reverb, keeping the distortion dry and sharp. Then, when those harmonies rear their heads, they have that glorious fruit-clenching effect we crave without sacrificing the concrete skin-scrape of the heavy chugs. The drums and vocals are given touches of reverb, making the former feel room-filling and enormous as mountain while making the latter feel like a retching beast spitting acid from the back of a rotten cave. A thick and warm bass presence errs away from the trebly and twangy tone we associate with tech death and the like but also doesn't disappear entirely behind the guitars either. The bass often acts as a space filler, a means of underlining and adding subconscious heaviness to riffs without stealing their limelight. This is a tricky thing to accomplish, be it in terms of arranging a song, performing it, or mixing the perfect tone into the track; too often, this approach leaves bass almost as a nonentity or, worse, something that turns a mix to ugly mud. It produces a gestalt that feels spacious and produces that necessary body-music sensation of hearing it bellow from the speakers and stage of a small noisy club, walls and exposed ceiling sending careening interference patterns as the soundwaves bounce and clash against each other, but with an uncanny clarity within it. These kinds of fine touches are often what make or break a record, and their attentiveness also speaks well to the minds behind an album in a way that mere songs don't always have the power to.

...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EKV1O7gJDU&ab_channel=CenturyMediaRecords

...

These kinds of streamlined and simplified meat-and-potatoes death metal song structures may seem on some level like a copout, especially in a modern landscape where we have bands like Blood Incantation, Gorephobia, Cryptic Shift and Slugdge raising the songwriting bar the way they have. But those tricksier and more complex song structures can be easier from a certain perspective to pull off precisely because you have given yourself more tools in the toolbox to solve the fundamental problem of art: engagement and expression. There are still problems to deal with in those more complex and florid songwriting spaces, to be fair: evading a sense of riff salad, creating an evocative sense of emotional logic linking one riff to the next, managing ear fatigue, et cetera. But knowing those struggles makes these simpler structures on Crypt of Ice shine bright: these are tightly focused songs, only a handful of riffs per song, where their value comes not from constant lysergic evolution or brain-smearing psychosis but instead pure execution. What matters here in these forms is the hook and the hook alone, be it melodic or rhythmic, making each second matter as a means unto itself rather than part of a broader and more elaborate puzzle. Depriving themselves of long winding progressive epics likewise makes the notion of album-length structure a trickier one, as songs of this stripe have the tendency to blur together after a while, something Frozen Soul likewise sidesteps with aplomb that feels shocking given that this is their debut. What this sums to is a record that seems to describe the circle of death metal at its platonic ideal. Crypt of Ice situates itself not at the fringes of death metal, its psychedelic and literary wilds, its caustic tomblike windy cliffs and craggy precipices, its satanic steeples and abyssal wailing pits of torment; Crypt of Ice lives in its center. It shares this trait with Necrot's tremendous debut Blood Offerings and the collective works of the mighty Cannibal Corpse. This is perhaps the most key notion of the group's work that they share with Bolt Thrower, a band that grew from grindcore originals to one of the defining death metal-without-adjectives bands of all-time. In this sense, their relation to Bolt Thrower is anything but a dismissive and reductive toss-off comment; it is high-praise, one well-earned with such a tremendous debut to start off a year that, so far, has managed to be a total nightmare. That this album dropped a mere two days after an attempted open fascist coup in the capital of the United States, a coup precipitated by years of fascist organizing exacerbated by the existing fascist structures of the American state and its culture, all feels tremendously timely for a record about braving and ultimately succumbing to the deadly atmospheres of the arctic. Art, after all, does not exist in a vacuum but emerges both from and into a world of people, the flesh and webwork of history. Some bands would have had their thunder stolen by such a monumental and frightening event. Frozen Soul do not. Their death metal—stern, vicious, militaristic, cold—feels necessary and even refreshing or empowering in the wake of such an act. They couldn't have anticipated such a historic event underscoring the primal necessity of music like this and, had their record been less superb, it may indeed have potentially spoiled their release. But their work has both the proper tenor and proper quality to seize up this moment as a defining rebuke of the terror of fascism. I fucking love death metal.

...

Crypt of Ice released January 8th via Century Media Records. Pick up the limited edition baby-blue vinyl variant available in our curated collection on BrooklynVegan's shop.

---

Music's capacity to evoke emotions in us and our enjoyment of it are tightly linked -- I've never found myself bored by songs that managed to tug at one heartstring or another, no matter how it happened. Knowing the theory, nailing the notes, and fine-tuning the production only go so far compared to having a story to tell or a feeling to express. This is where Florida's Pipe Dreamer shines, and why their debut full-length No Solace for the Soulless hooks its claws in so quickly: their doomy post-metal is sturdily tethered to the sentiments it was created from. Each song is shaped around poignant thoughts as if it were a living organism, its actions guided by an internal nervous system. To give you the full picture, we're premiering the album in full as well as a track-by-track rundown from guitarist/vocalist Zack.

...

...

One of the strongest tools Pipe Dreamer wields is their development of motifs, and that's what stands out to me the most on re-listens. Though the classic trope of "riff that starts quiet but comes back heavy" is applicable (and appreciated) here, most songs laterally sidestep that pattern and experiment with their key melodies through more than just amplification. What starts as a softly-hinted suggestion of a melody builds up through staggered escalation from the band, filling in missing notes, trying out higher registers, all leading to the realization of some huge riff or new development that, it turns out, was there all along, just veiled behind nuance and suggestion. Nothing ever feels disjointed or out of place, and each iteration makes perfect implicit sense. Blending together post-metal and doom metal can take a lot of forms, but on No Solace for the Soulless, it often means both taking place at once. On my favorite track "Go With Grace," doom riffs that could have easily stood on their own find themselves backing up laconic, reverb-drenched tremolo leads, adding rock-solid groove to the introspective top layer and enriching both parts. That same song also contains some of the fastest moments on the album, where the high-speed mayhem seems to waver on the edge of falling apart -- given the song's theme of accepting death, it's more than fitting. Every human-feeling touch on this album only reinforces the impact and the talent underneath it. Rough edges are often polished away in post-metal, or perhaps just avoided, but the imperfections here are raw reminders of the music's impetus -- dealing with an imperfect existence. To further illuminate No Solace for the Soulless, guitarist/vocalist Zack weighed in on each song -- here's his track-by-track walkthrough.

...

...

"Struggle and Strain" was the first song we wrote. Lyrically it's about my relationship with pursuing music. It's very meaningful for me to play music but it comes with its own set of challenges. For me, the juice is worth the squeeze. This is also the first time I've tried to do clean singing in a band. "Now or Never" was written with "Struggle and Strain" as one piece and that's how we play it live. A sort of continuation of the same theme, with more of an urgency. The years I spent unable to play music heavily affected me. As I've gotten older it's become more apparent that if you want something, you need to go for it. "Brothers I & II" is a piece of music we wrote together in 2012. Nate and I spent a few days a week, for almost a month, working on the guitar parts. At the time, it was the most ambitious music we'd ever written. Unfortunately, a couple days before our first show, I got swine flu and couldn't play. The band dissolves. We never get to play this music for anyone. Then in 2018 Nate joined Pipe Dreamer and we knew we had to revive it. Having it on this record feels like we've finally laid the spirit to rest, as weird as that is to say. Lyrically, it deals with the feeling of kinship we have for each other. My brothers mean the world to me. I wouldn't be here without them. In "Free From Fear of Failure," we tried to explore our use of space a bit more. Hoping that the different melodies would make each listen a little different. Thematically, it's something I think we all deal with. For me, sometimes that's feeling like I'm too old, sometimes it's feeling not good enough but the basis of all of it is fear. I long to feel uninhibited by the fear of failure. "Go with Grace" is a very personal song for me. I wrote this song after the last time I saw my Aunt Tam. She was dying of cancer and moving out of state, I knew I wouldn't see her again. She just smiled and said she'd see me later... completely unafraid. The music goes from being mournful to angry. It's a very emotional song for me to play. I wrote "An Anxiety Arises" as my expression of how an anxiety attack feels. The thoughts spiraling out of control, telling yourself that everything is alright repeatedly until you make it through and the almost shell-shocked kind of feeling after it's over. We thought it would be a nice comedown and closure to the album. Music has always been something I've latched on to in dark times. It's helped me through when I wasn't sure anything could. My most earnest desire is that this music can be there for someone else who needs it.

...

No Solace for the Soulless releases January 20th, 2021. Preorders available via Bandcamp. Merch available via the band's Bigcartel site.

---

Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for the week of January 17th, 2021 to January 23rd, 2021. Releases reflect proposed North American scheduling, if available. Expect to see most of these albums on shelves or distros on Fridays. See something we missed or have any thoughts? Let us know in the comments. Plus, as always, feel free to post your own shopping lists. Happy digging. Send us your promos (streaming links preferred) to: [email protected]. Do not send us promo material via social media.

---

Upcoming Releases

---

Wardruna — Kvitravn | Sony Music / Columbia Records | Folk + Ambient | Norway Not "metal" in sound, I guess, but Wardruna's stirring Nordic mythology-inspired folk draws from the same near-mystical wellsprings that makes similarly-styled black metal so appealing -- only here, it's non-amplified, instead using authentic (and weird) instruments and done in a swelling, cinematic fashion.

—Ted Nubel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhiUacGzIg8&ab_channel=wardruna

...

Asphyx — Necroceros | Century Media Records | Death + Doom Metal | Netherlands The years have dialed up the "death" side of Asphyx considerably, and the production no longer sounds like a rasping cheese grater on concrete, but it's still plenty of fun to listen to -- and Martin van Drunen's vocals are as plague-ridden as ever.

—Ted Nubel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grkuAMJYv0M&ab_channel=CenturyMediaRecords

...

Nervosa — Perpetual Chaos | Napalm Records | Thrash + Death Metal | Brazil Sturdy thrash/death that leans on razor-sharp grooves and chug-heavy riffs to keep "thrash" as the dominant genre in this nasty mashup. Extremely sharp-sounding, if that makes sense -- every part of the mix is heavy on attack, in-your-face without reverb muddying it up, keeping all those chuggy bits vicious and mosh-ready.

—Ted Nubel

...

Grima — Rotten Garden | Naturmacht Productions | Atmospheric Black Metal | Russia Atmospheric black metal with excellent melodic leads is something to cherish, and Grima gives us an incredibly solid dose of it here, excellently packaged with their own aesthetic touch.

—Ted Nubel

...

Dirty Pagans — The Family | Independent | Doom Metal + Stoner Rock | Australia Here's your weekly dose of wacky doom with killer riffs. Falsettos, epic vocals, and straight-up howls all add bizarre accompaniment to the band's punchy, up-tempo doom that -- again -- fuckin' riffs. The absurd wails that kick it off set the tone (though the embed starts with track #9, the whole thing is streaming now), and things get arguably more insane from there. This rocketed to the top of my mental rankings for January within the first couple of songs, but then again, I'm a sucker for weirdo doom.

—Ted Nubel

...

Pipe Dreamer — No Solace for the Soulless | Independent | Doom Metal + Post-Metal | United States (Florida) From Ted Nubel's full album premiere:

Knowing the theory, nailing the notes, and fine-tuning the production only go so far compared to having a story to tell or a feeling to express. This is where Florida's Pipe Dreamer shines, and why their debut full-length No Solace for the Soulless hooks its claws in so quickly: their doomy post-metal is sturdily tethered to the sentiments it was created from. Each song is shaped around poignant thoughts as if it were a living organism, its actions guided by an internal nervous system.

Make sure to check out the premiere for an excellent track-by-track walkthrough from the band as well.

...

Legba — The Demon Inside | Independent | Doom Metal | United States (South Carolina) Gloomy, retro doom metal pretty much drenched in sadness. Ironic, given the super-bright colors on the cover, but the contrasting approaches are a nice touch.

—Ted Nubel

...

Flood Peak — Fixed Ritual | Anima Recordings | Blackened Sludge + Post-Metal | United States (Portland) From Ted Nubel's track premiere of "Urnfield":

Flood Peak's strength lies in their emotionally-connected heaviness that doesn't latch on to any particular sound or pacing to deliver impact. These songs hurt (in the best way possible) because Flood Peak knows why they should, and they pass that knowledge onwards.

...

Conviction — Conviction | Argonauta Records | Doom Metal | France Grimy, epic doom. "Grimy" and "epic" might seem at odds with each other, but it's like a marble statue stained by years of neglect: grand, certainly, but marred and discolored all the same. The dour and methodical approach to exploring doom really pays off, and each song plunges to new depths of dismal melody.

—Ted Nubel

...

---

Support Invisible Oranges on Patreon and check out our merch.

---

If my decision-making process picking stuff to listen to from Spotify or Bandcamp is any indication, album art plays a big part in how most people decide what music to listen to. There's always the chance that something with bad art will actually be good, but you'd need some other indicator to override the obvious, red flag in front of you. As much as the music itself is important, so is the packaging. We like to talk about album art, especially picking out the best and the weirdest, so it made sense to get together and talk about it. And as far as Metallica goes—it was only a matter of time before we talked about them. They might not be the best, the heaviest, the most technical, or the most unique metal band out there, but they did set the bar by which most other bands are judged. Even at the low points, their whole discography is worth taking a look at (though in Lulu's case, maybe just to understand the "I AM THE TABLE" jokes).

—Ted Nubel

...

...

As a side note, we recorded this episode pretty early on—again, talking about Metallica was a question of "when" not "if"—and there's a few spots with rougher audio quality than some of our past episodes. We've been working out the kinks in our geographically disparate recording environments, so as we clear out our backlog of archived episodes, that should be less of an issue.

...

Listen and subscribe to Screaming Bloody Oranges: The Invisible Oranges Podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Podbean.

---

Black metal is a lot of things to a lot of people, but the idea of dungeon synth brings about a specific definition rather than a spectrum of ideas. What was once called "dark ambient side project" or "dark dungeon music" by its metal progenitor Mortiis, dungeon synth has and always will be atmospheric, dark, Medieval-and-folk-inspired music made on a stylistically-necessitated cheap keyboard (though there are the ambitious few like MalFet who go high-budget with great results). Ever the stubborn denier, Maurice "Mories" de Jong, though he has a dungeon synth project of his own (Vetus Sepulcrum), managed to find a way to be both black metal and dungeon synth simultaneously, while also being neither. Schemer Heer, de Jong's "filmic" project, is a unique project in both scenes simply due to its approach. Utilizing a synthesizer pedal with his guitar, Schemer Heer is a black metal band in a dungeon synth and film music disguise, or maybe vice versa. It's hard to tell what exactly is this project's center, but, in that, does de Jong stumble onto something more unique than he might have anticipated. Listen to an exclusive pre-release stream of The Dragon, his Angels and the Exaltation of Death and read an interview with de Jong below.

...

...

It is my understanding that the Schemer Heer project uses unique instrumentation. What led to you using a MEL 9 synth pedal with your guitar? I've had that pedal for quite some time now. I've used it a lot in a live setting with Seirom. I had actually never recorded with the pedal, but I was planning to do so for a long time. So I did some demoing with it and I really liked how it came out, one thing led to another and I had recorded material for a full length. It became Schemer Heer because I thought that the sound was too different to be released under the Vetus Sepulcrum moniker. Were there any challenges in adapting to this new texture in this context? Nope. It was actually easier than the MIDI and VSTs I use for Vetus Sepulcrum. I can do this all on guitar and I'm a much better guitar player than I am a keyboard player. You have a penchant for featuring instruments in atypical ways, be it the bass-forward Gnaw Their Tongues or Schemer Heer's synthesized guitar. Do you often find yourself playing instruments in ways which are divergent from the standard? I'm not sure. It probably has to do with the fact that I am an autodidact and I was never interested in copying other people's stuff. I have never, I swear, never played a cover of any kind EVE. That's just not me, so I have always really concentrated on doing my own thing. Plus I'm also very stubborn and always trying to reinvent the wheel, so to speak. It's a tiring way of doing things but you get 'unique' (can be bad or good hehe) results. Do you feel Schemer Heer is unique? Probably a bit? The chords and melodies are not unique, but the sound and context are, I think. What makes the context unique? Here I'm trying to do 'film music' on a guitar pedal in a very niche scene like dungeon synth, which I'm growing a bit tired of, to. I hope it gets picked up by other people, too, outside of that scene as I increasingly feel alienated. Why do you feel alienated from the dungeon synth scene? I don't really want to go into scene politics. Don't get me wrong, there's some great music out there, but sometimes it feels too much like a big circle jerk. There's no quality control. There's literally new projects coming out every 15 minutes. Ten tapes every day… like, try a bit harder to come up with something different and unique. There's also there's a lot of 'hey, what do you guys use to record with?', 'What do you recommend me to listen to?' No pioneering spirit. I mean: experiment, get some gear… do your own thing. The scene feels too small, if that makes sense? I also think there's very little that really stands out anymore. Do you see yourself as a pioneer in the dungeon synth community? Saying that about yourself makes you look like a douche, but I do think I've created my own sound with Schemer Heer. I'm not even sure if it could be called strictly dungeon synth, but I'm not really concerned about that. Schemer Heer is purely there for my love of horror soundtracks, film music in general and black metal. Right, I would definitely not specifically call Schemer Heer dungeon synth by any measure. What process did you take to discover this new sound? Was it something you had in your head already or was it a happy accident? I was just experimenting a bit with chords and melodies, just recording some ideas with the pedal and one thing led to another. I thought that 'filmic' sounds worked best. It was also really great to get into those kinds of chords and progressions because they are pretty different to the ones I normally use in the more traditional guitar based music I do. The whole learning process/discovering of new ways of composing was very exciting to me. Though we've heard about your black metal and ambient influences in the past, I'm curious as to your other influences for Schemer Heer. What are your favorite soundtracks which inspired this project? To name a few that come to my mind: "The Omen" soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith, the "Conan The Barbarian" soundtrack by Basil Poledouris, "The Devil Rides Out" by James Bernard (his stuff in general), "Ben Hur" by Miklós Rózsa, "Dracula" (1979) by John Williams, and, of course, the "Star Wars" and "Lord Of The Rings" soundtracks are classics, too.

...

The Dragon, his Angels and the Exaltation of Death releases January 22nd on Neuropa Records.

---

Retro heavy rockers Wytch Hazel have drawn quite a bit of attention these last few years with a consistent stream of excellent and always-improving albums—and for their unabashed love for their lord and saviour Jesus Christ. Last year, their third album III: Pentecost came out on Bad Omen Records to near-universal acclaim (aside from a bit of grumbling from metalheads who that are less interested in Christian lyrics). For the uninitiated, Wytch Hazel sound quite a bit like the glory days of early heavy metal just before Iron Maiden and Saxon took over the world; some good references are Ashbury, Wishbone Ash, and Pagan Altar, but Wytch Hazel’s sound is all their own, paying particular reference to medieval melodic structures and to uplifting hymns to the Lord. III: Pentecost is largely a continuation of the sound that they started years back, with a good mix of heavier and more doom-laden bits (“Dry Bones”), hard rocking and uplifting tunes like “Spirit and Fire,” and a handful of ballads. It’s possibly their finest album to date, which is saying something. On the heels of this excellent album it seemed like a good time to sit down and talk to the band’s guitarist and vocalist, Collin Hendra.

...

...

Your new album just came out a couple months ago; did you expect III: Pentecost to have such wide success in the year-end lists that have been going up the last month or so? How does it feel? Part of me knew that the people who liked the last two albums, would almost certainly like this one! However it looks like Pentecost has been received by a wider audience so I’m really happy as it’s our most successful album to date. It’s definitely a surprise when you see so many of those lists and we’re coming out, as so many of these people's Album of the Year! It feels good and honestly I feel very grateful that I get to do what I love and people are loving it too! There has been an increasing frequency of instruments not typically associated with metal (piano, violin, cello) in your music over the years, and nearly half of III: Pentecost featured cello. When and why did you initially decide to start incorporating those into your music? Do you write those sections yourself, or let the session musicians playing the instruments write their parts? I don’t think it was ever really ‘off the table’ but as you experiment with the music in general–varied instrumentation starts to become an interesting option. I write all the parts myself–I use virtual instruments at the ‘demo stage’ to get an idea of what it might sound like when recorded with real instruments. Our producer sometimes adds a few ideas, such as the 4 cello notes in the ‘I Am Redeemed’ chorus–simple yet effective! On this release, I played the piano and organ parts and my dad recorded all the cello and cello harmony/overdubs. A wide variety of influences go into your music, and you guys play both metal shows and unplugged acoustic sets. Do you consider Wytch Hazel to be a metal band, a rock band, or does it even matter? I think the goal from day one was to start a ‘heavy metal band’ in the traditional sense. Take a band like Saxon though, and they could equally be described as a ‘rock band’ and a ‘heavy metal band’. The acoustic arrangements felt quite natural, in a Led Zeppelin sort of way perhaps. Like you said though–does it even really matter!? In my own words I consider us to be a ‘rock band’ but I tend to use the term ‘hard rock’ when describing the band to a non-listener. Are there any influences in Wytch Hazel’s music that would surprise your fans? I think there are deliberate influences and influences that you didn’t intend. For example, with having kids, I watch a lot of Disney and Pixar films so, ‘film music’ and the ‘musicals’ genre almost certainly have a subconscious, influential space; by osmosis perhaps? I am unashamedly a big fan of Lady Gaga, maybe that will surprise fans, maybe not–she’s a great songwriter and fabulous singer. Most of the sentiment about Wytch Hazel that I’ve seen is that you guys are a rare band that has only improved over the years. Do you feel the same way? Is there any of your material that you’re less into these days, or that you wish you’d handled differently in hindsight? I think the first demo and EP should have been handled by someone who knew what they were doing!! I basically recorded those releases myself, and I genuinely didn’t have much of an idea of what I was doing! That said, I think the songs are good on those releases. I’m not sure how it comes across but I don’t think there are any Wytch Hazel songs that I dislike, I’m happy to play them all! How did you get in touch with Bad Omen Records, and what keeps you coming back to them? Will Wytch Hazel ever work with another label? Well, we were first contacted by Rise Above Records (by Will Palmer) but it was so early on and with a lineup change imminent, It didn’t feel like the right thing to do. We were also almost ready to sign with High Roller Records but it all sort of ‘fell through’ in the end! Will Palmer contacted us again around 2014 I think as he had a new record label, and at that time it just felt ‘right’. The thing with Bad Omen is that they just ‘get’ what we’re trying to do and we basically just listen to the same records – that counts for a lot. Bad Omen is also a rare label who actually gets involved and doesn't just throw money at bands with no advice or suggestions. I’m really happy to stay but I’d never say never to a different label, it’s hard to look into the future and make a judgment on it! How did the split with Borrowed Time come about? We were contacted directly by Borrowed Time actually; they pretty much had the offer with High Roller set up and we were the ‘Chosen Ones’ by them I think! I think it was just a cool thing to do, very NWOBHM so we jumped at the chance really. You played some drums on “The Crown” in addition to your normal instrumental roles, according to the album credits. What instruments do you play? How long have you been playing music? I’ve been playing music since the age of 6 starting with drums. Apparently, I’m ‘one of those annoying people’ because I play drums, guitar, piano and I sing, but there you go – it’s my main skill in life, I’m pretty bad at everything else! A few years ago you briefly played live with Angel Witch. How did that come about, and how do you feel about the experience? Oh yeah, what a great experience! I’ve been a big fan of Angel Witch for about 12 years now so it was pretty amazing to be asked to play guitar for them! Basically, Bad Omen Records is run by Will Palmer, who plays bass in Angel Witch. He rang me up and said, I’m going to need you to play with Angel Witch on this date and I said “Oh I’ll just ask the lads if they’re free,” because I thought he was asking Wytch Hazel to support. He was like “No, you! I want you to play this show, on guitar, in Angel Witch, we need someone to fill in.” So yeah it was a bit of a dream come true to be honest! I think they were looking for someone who got the old-school thing and the NWOBHM style so I was honored to be thought of.

...

...

Your religion is no secret and is a big part of your music. Aside from grumbling online, have you guys ever faced any difficulties in the scene because of it? Genuinely, I can’t think of a single instance! I’m sure there will be times in the future because I get why people might be critical of Christianity, I really do! We’ve pretty much always had an overwhelmingly positive response even with the blatant Christian lyrics, so I’m grateful for that—equally though, I don’t mind interesting or difficult conversations either, it comes with the territory. Long before the birth of Wytch Hazel there was a booming Christian metal scene in the ‘80s, with bands like Barren Cross, Scarlet Rayne, Saint, and about a million others dropping great (and usually completely unsuccessful) albums. Are you into that stuff, and is it an influence at all? If I’m completely honest–I haven’t even listened to Scarlet Rayne and I have listened to Barren Cross and Saint probably once or twice! Too busy listening to ‘obvious’ bands like Queen, I reckon! I like Stryper and all the cheesiness that comes with it and would say they were an influence. Are you into any other contemporary Christian bands, or is it a non-concern when it comes to music? To be honest I don’t listen to a lot of music labelled ‘Christian’! I listen to contemporary church music, due to being part of Church and I enjoy it, but I can’t even think of a modern ‘Christian band’ that I listen to! What are your first priorities for Wytch Hazel following the end of the pandemic that disrupted the world this last year? Well the first priority above all else is and probably always will be to keep writing more music to the highest standard possible. I’ve worked pretty much all through the many ‘lockdowns’ or ‘restrictions’ so it’s ‘business as usual’ for Wytch Hazel. We will work on new projects and gig as soon as possible (and is safe). Do you have anything else you’d like to talk about or promote? Yes! A few things: we released a new single, people can download (& donate please) here, also I now have a ‘Patreon’ style platform set up where people can support me as I work towards committing 1 day a week to all things Wytch Hazel (I work full time currently) the link is here. l also I have set up something called twytchhazel where I’m experimenting with livestreaming.

...

III: Pentecost released October 30th, 2020 via Bad Omen Records.

---

Check out Invisible Oranges' curated collection on the BrooklynVegan shop.

---

Closed Casket Activities are a hell of a label, releasing this new Gatecreeper EP as a functional followup to The Acacia Strain's It Comes In Waves the previous winter. An Unexpected Reality is also a formal experiment on the part of the participating band. But where The Acacia Strain expanded their previous experiments in lengthier progressive, sludge and death-doom material as a divergence from their deathcore center, here Gatecreeper find themselves skewing hard in the other direction, producing a blistering set of traditionally-minded grindcore. The longest song on side A is a mere 1:12, making that side's longest cut shorter than their shortest before. This kind of formal divergence offers exciting territory for the band—territory they explore fervently. These songs bark and snap like rabid animals, laying down an establishing riff or groove then a single verse and perhaps a chorus or two before moving on.

...

...

The sequencing of these seven tracks plays closer to Slayer's Reign In Blood than a traditional grindcore record like, say, any given Napalm Death record, flowing almost like a song-suite rather than separate contained thoughts. This is a traditionalist approach to grind that we don't see quite as much anymore, the boundaries of that most extreme form of punk/metal hybrid already having its boundaries pushed to unbearable extremity. There is perhaps a complaint to be made that, given all the years grind has been around and all the exciting flavors it has shown itself to be comorbid to, perhaps more could have been done on Gatecreeper's end. But that puts undue burden on songs that are clearly meant more as a compelling displaying of riffsmithing and ferocious death metal energies in grindcore form than a statement meant to rival the Fuck the Facts and Gridlinks of the world. Grindcore is a finicky and strange beast, being at times a genre of punk, others a genre of metal, and sometimes something in its own strange orbit closer to experimental music or free jazz than anything rock oriented. Gatecreeper chose to limit their scope to the more death metal-aligned sentiments of the genre, bringing varied and compelling vocals and throat-ripping riffs to the forefront and trim enough song forms that your attention stays rapt rather than drifting. The arc from their debut EP up to Deserted showed a band growing increasingly capable at writing death metal that internalized the melodicism and heroics of traditional heavy metal without coming across as trad, and borrowed subtle progressive swirls without marking itself as prog. This tasty sampler of grind-form death metal clarifies what made those subtle structures on their full-lengths work so well: the boys can write a hell of a riff. And then there's side B. Gatecreeper take advantage of the experimental lark that is a surprise non-LP release, inverting the formal extremity of side A's shortest-of-short songs with their longest song yet on side B, a hybrid of death/doom and epic doom twice as long as their previous meatiest cut. The song, "Emptiness," is built around the diptych of a soaring dirge-like harmonized guitar part not unlike Candlemass and a heavier, meatier portion that calls to mind groups like Esoteric or Mournful Congregation at their most direct. There are other colors and shapes that develop over its 11+ minute span of course, but these touchpoints offer the best insight not only as to the sonic space of the record but the drastic difference between it and the rest of the band's catalog. The most impressive aspect of the song is less that it is a well-accomplished piece of music, something we can expect fairly regularly from this band, but that its death-doom affectations reach as deep as they do within the sounds of contemporary and historical epic doom and funeral doom. It still feels like Gatecreeper in its specific melodic sensibility and sense of layering, but expands satisfactorily on the internally-oriented progressivisms found on Deserted. There was some slight concern following guitarist Nate Garrett's departure, given his presence in this band as well as his esteemed work in Spirit Adrift, that the sense of progressive and epic heavy metal he brought to the table might have been lost, seeing Gatecreeper retreat to more direct material with future releases. The first side of An Unexpected Reality seemed to confirm those suspicions, albeit producing quality material and offering exciting potential directions regardless. That the second side of the EP comes along and totally upends and disproves those concerns by producing the group's most exciting and robust piece of songwriting yet only amplifies the release's success. While ultimately this record may not meet the expectations we might have of a new studio statement from the group, they wisely released it as an EP and, with proper framing, present it as a brief experiment and appetite-whetter before a new studio record likely due out later this year. This presentation does both the release and the band great favors, allowing An Unexpected Reality to stand as a tantalizing set of brush strokes showing that this band has more in its bag of tricks than mere OSDM (as the more cynical critics of this wave of death metal bands have sometimes said) but instead can offer exciting and successful syntheses of styles. One hopes that their third studio album decides to leap forward from this release, incorporating more angles and approaches, rather than retreating back to familiar ground for the band; if this proves to be a one-off venture, it would retroactively remove some of the glamor and excitement from this release than if it were tentative stabs forward into exciting new ground.

...

An Unexpected Reality released January 13th, 2021 via Closed Casket Activities.

---

Check out Invisible Oranges' curated collection on the BrooklynVegan shop.

---

In honor of the two new exclusive vinyl variants in our store, Haken guitarist and keyboardist Richard Henshall listed his five favorite records of 2020 for us. It's an eclectic list with jazz, rock, rap, and other bands that -- like Haken -- fall under the prog umbrella. Check it out below. The vinyl we just added to store: a 2LP Silver variant gatefold (plus CD) of 2016's Affinity, and a 2LP gatefold on Sky Blue (plus CD) of 2013's The Mountain. Each is limited to 200 copies worldwide. Both are pictured below, and stay tuned for a deep dive into both albums coming from Langdon very soon. Meanwhile, you can also read Langdon's review of Haken's 2020 album Virus. -- RICHARD HENSHALL'S TOP 5 OF 2020 Tigran Hamasyan- The Call Within - I’m a huge fan of everything this polyrhythmic monster does! For me, this album lives snuggly somewhere between his masterpieces ‘Shadow Theater’ and ‘Mockroot’, and strikes a perfect balance between rich harmonies and ear splitting rhythms. Jacob Collier - Djesse Vol.3 - Collier really is a one of a kind musician who has such a strong affinity with music. In this 3rd offering of the Djesse saga, he really pushes the envelope in so many directions, which has arguably resulted in his most eclectic work to date. Everything Everything - Re-animator - I love the way these guys effortlessly mix pop-centric ideas with an subtle progressive elements to create an entirely original sound. In my opinion, the fusion of their various influences on has never been more pronounced as it is on Re-animator. Deftones - Ohms - Listening to Deftones conjures up a nostalgic feeling in me and takes me back to the care-free days of my teens. Ohms thrives on the tension between the raw riffage and the ethereal vocals and feels like a return to the dense, heaviness that I’ve always loved about them. Run The Jewels - RTJ4 - I first saw these guys at Glastonbury Festival around 6 years ago and have been following them ever since. There’s a rawness to this record which feels like a stark reflection of the turbulent year we all went through in 2020. -- That Run the Jewels record is also available -- on pink vinyl -- in our shop. The Haken records:

---