Mayhem live at Boston, MA's Royale
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Mayhem are on a tour that should not be. The sordid and well-documented tale of murder, arson and suicide that comprises the band’s early days is among the most astonishing in music history, and it comes as no surprise that its conclusion left the band dissolved well before De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas would see its release. Yet, 23 years later, a functional Mayhem lineup that’s about as true to the band’s early legacy as the circumstances of life and death dictate is bringing it on the road. “That’s the only album we released without touring on,” bassist Necrobutcher recently told Rolling Stone, of all places. Decades later, Mayhem are finally doing just that.
An unseasonably warm February evening saw a mass of the grim and corpse-painted faithful gathering at Boston’s Royale for one of the final dates of the band’s North American tour. Anticipation was palpable, though not initially for openers Black Anvil. The New York-based quartet’s progressive and melodic take on blackened thrash earned some audible scorn from a few vocal members of the crowd, but the band paid no mind and proceeded to deliver a tight, enthusiastic and fun first set of the night. Traditionalists they are not, but their adventurous sound and passionate presentation impressed.
Plus, anyone who felt slighted by a less traditional first opener had Inquisition on the bill next to make up for it. The long-running Seattle-based duo, no strangers to controversy of other sorts, played their black metal straight. Their set was a stone-faced, no-frills affair that conjured an impressive racket for a simple drums and guitar lineup. Inquisition do what they do well enough, but the set couldn’t help but feel a bit lacking in variety by its conclusion.
As the night’s main event finally drew near, the vibrantly-illuminated ambiance that the stage had maintained all night shifted toward something more sinister. Waves of thematically-appropriate fog billowed around a small altar bearing a skull and a pair of candles. Eventually, minimalistic backlights cast the hooded figures of band members as ghoulish silhouettes while the opening pummel of “Funeral Fog” rang out. This was genuine, immersive atmosphere, and it was effective.
For the next hour, Mayhem brought De Mysteriis back to life before our eyes, in all its glory. Though the original record is hardly as lo-fi as some contemporaneous black metal landmarks, the songs doubtless sounded more thunderous and dynamic with a five-piece lineup barreling through them in a club setting. The band’s current membership – featuring the longtime rhythm section of Hellhammer and Necrobutcher, De Mysteriis and 2004-onward vocalist Attila Csihar and a pair of relative newcomers on guitars – captured the full scope of the record. These renditions preserved the engrossing chaos of the songs and followed through on the payoff of moments like the climactic guitar solo on “Freezing Moon.” Csihar played ringleader to the whole production. His incomparably unhinged vocals and playfully demonic command of the stage were key elements of its success.
Hearing these songs presented this way reinforced how timeless and singular they still sound. De Mysteriis has remained a genre touchstone with good reason, and the band bringing the whole thing to the stage – and to a hugely receptive audience – after all these years sees them doing right by it.
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Black Anvil
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Inquisition
Lotus Thrones Ponder The End in the “Gore Orphanage” (Video Premiere)
Noise rock doesn’t get as much love in heavy metal spheres as it should, which is a shame seeing how much the two styles blend into each other. Philadelphia-based Lotus Thrones seek to remedy that transgression with the first single off of their upcoming album The Heretic Souvenir. “Gore Orphanage,” (itself a killer would-be metal title) showcases bandleader Heath Rave’s take on post-punk. He flirts with sludge metal as much as he does gothic rock, retaining the roots of his former group Wolvhammer while reassigning them to a tighter framework. The fuzzy guitars play well with the sterile production, never stepping outside their domain and instead isolating Rave’s cauterizing vocals. Altogether “Gore Orphanage” is a streamlined affair that focuses on calculated noise rather than blunt violence. The band comments:
This song is heavily inspired by jisei, the 'farewell poem to life.' They were death poems by Japanese zen monks and other individuals who could write at the time reflecting on leaving the world in the last moments of their life. Were you able to accept your beauty and your regret and let go?"Watch the video for “Gore Orphanage” below.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMQTqXOnoDo&ab_channel=disorderrecordings...
The Heretic Souvenir releases April 7th, 2023 via Disorder Recordings (with vinyl to come from Seeing Red Records, also).Ripped To Shreds Tears Into Death Metal’s Blind Spots on “劇變 (Jubian)” (Interview)
There’s something highly intriguing about ancient Asian history. Taiwanese/American multi-instrumentalist Andrew Lee, founder of death metal band Ripped To Shreds, has created an outlet to represent Asian Americans in extreme metal. On the band’s third full-length album, 劇變 (Jubian), Lee’s lyrical content, as well as the visual image, is based on Asian historical and mythical events such as Mazu (the Taiwanese sea goddess), the Korean War, and the Mukden Incident. Like a history lesson in grade school, Lee focuses on not political matters, but events that mean something to him. Formed in 2016 in San Jose, Ripped To Shreds’ plethora of sub genres and varied musical influences keeps things fresh within the band’s modern death metal framework. Its eight tracks are decorated with surging grindcore elements and blasts of Swedish-laden OSDM, completed by some ’80s-style metal guitar hero leads. During a recent phone interview, Lee talked about the origins of the band, its new album, about representing Asian Americans in extreme metal, possible tour dates and more.
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How does the album title 劇變 (Jubian), which translates to “upheaval,” tie in with the cover art and lyrics? It’s mainly a feeling of great change, destruction. Just kind of an unpredictability with what's going to happen with the world. You know something big is happening, right? And you know it's gonna change the world; probably not for the better. And I guess that kind of ties in with the art. I had a painter from Beijing, his name is Guang Yang, to paint the cover. He did the previous album for me as well. The instruction I gave him was, I want this big statue of Mazu, who is a Taiwanese sea goddess. She's worshiped in the southern parts of China and I just wanted this statue to be destroyed in some way. He took those super vague instructions and then turned into something really cool. What I'm going for is, you can kind of see Mazu as a symbol for Taiwan, or the southern parts of China. And I didn't think of it in such a way that I'm talking about that region, specifically. But I thought it was something that stood for someone I cared about. I wanted to show my pessimism or doubt about how things are going. There's a whole bunch of different temples dedicated to Mazu because she's a goddess for fishermen. And that's really important whenever you're in any of the port cities. I think it's cool that you explore these ancient and recent Chinese culture and historical themes. What is the importance of exposing these stories in history through your music and lyrics? For me, it’s because there's not a ton of representation for Asian Americans in metal. There's real slim pickings if you want to look for Asian representation in metal in the West. So, when I think about how I want to present Ripped to Shreds, I guess I'm kind of like looking at myself when I was a kid, and having things that I would have liked to have seen when I was first getting into metal. On a few tracks, you sing in your native tongue, is this just called for on certain instances? I find it important to have songs on each album to be in Mandarin. We need to put it that way. I don't think I consciously think this song or these lyrics are particularly suited to being sung in Chinese. I don't think about it in terms of the subject matter, it just seems like (certain tracks) are good to sing in Chinese, so let's do it that way. Most of the lyrics are based on historic events. For instance; “Violent Compulsion for Conquest” was inspired by the Mukden Incident. What compelled you to write about this subject? It's one of the biggest impetus for World War II in general. It's one of those flash points in history that kicked off the larger war in the region. If you ask what exactly inspired it, I think it's just an interesting, brutal story. Does the same go for “Reek of Burning Freedom”? Is that about the bombing campaign waged on North Korea during the Korean War? That one is more of an anti war song. Because America, in the name of so-called democracy, goes off and meddles in all sorts of other countries’ affairs. We’ve been doing that for a really long time now. I feel like Americans don't really think about what that actually means. I think we kind of got a view of it from Vietnam. But my impression is a lot of people think about Vietnam as the United States going over there and getting their butts kicked, rather than the United States invading another country. Musically, I love that whole Swedish death metal guitar sound in the vein of Entombed and Dismember. How did you come up with your guitar tone or settle on this sound for Ripped to Shreds? I just love Entombed. And Dismember was one of those bands that I got into super early when I was first getting into metal in general. They have a pretty melodic sound; they're really easy to latch onto even when you're not super acclimated to the more raw or brutal sounding stuff. I have a collection of four original HM-2 pedals and I've got two of the new Waza reissues. I've got maybe five or six different clones. I'm actually working with a dude from New Zealand right now and we're coming up with a kind of custom modded HM-2 (pedal). I just love that chainsaw sound. It sounds ridiculous and brutal. It is a little bit frustrating when people automatically assume that if you're using HM-2, you are playing Entombed riffs. There are a couple of songs on the new album where (I wanted) to make it sound like Entombed. But I think for the most part on the new album, it's a lot of Autopsy, a lot of Finnish death metal; It's a lot of grindcore. So for me, I love Entombed, but I don't often want to write a song that could have been written by Entombed. The track “In Solitude” is part 3 of the ongoing “Sun Moon Holy Cult” saga that appears on your first two albums. What’s the concept behind this three-part song? I’m a big Dream Theater fan; I love how they have these super long epic songs. I like how they bring back themes with different variations. So, I just wanted to do something kind of similar and challenge myself to come up with these crazy epic death metal songs. The main thing I notice about a lot of long death metal songs, they're super repetitive. I love Vital Remains, but they take maybe three or four riffs and then just repeat those for like 10 minutes. Or if you listen to Spectral Voice or Hooded Menace, they play super, super slow. So I kind of wanted to challenge myself to write really long, epic songs that weren't just super repetitive or super slow. The whole thing is kind of like just challenging myself to push my limits as a songwriter, and try to keep it interesting. The album was recorded and mixed by you in your home studio and mastered by Damian Herring at Subterranean Watchtower. What were you wanting to achieve sound wise with the overall mix? When I send stuff off to Damian to master, I trust him. I love the way that he makes things sound. I didn't have him mix the album because I have a very specific vision for the way I want certain elements to sound. So for example, every blast beat section has to be automated exactly the way I want it. I set all the snare levels and the reverb because I want my blast beats to sound a certain way. It’s kind of difficult and tedious to communicate all that stuff to another engineer. I love his work. I love the way that he approaches music, which is why I have him master so much of my stuff. Whenever I hand off something to Damian, I just tell him to make it sound good. And whenever he hands it back, it's usually fucking awesome. Did you record every instrument or did other members record their parts? This new album is a band effort. Everyone plays on it. The drums I've recorded here (at my home studio). My guitarist and bassist both play in another crossover band called Doomsday. Marco is the drummer and he's also an engineer. On the first day of drum recording, I had Marco come over and help me get everything set up and ready and make sure everything's sounding good. So he helped me co-engineer the drums. But for everything else, I was the engineer and producer for all the recordings here. What's the camaraderie and musical chemistry between bandmates Ryan, Brian and Michael? Have you guys played together live before? Yeah. I’ve been together with this lineup at the end of 2019. I was getting ready for the release of Luan and I wanted to actually play a couple shows to support it. The first band recording that we did was when we recorded “Bone Ritual” for the Metal Massacre compilation on Metal Blade. And these guys are great. I think it's partially because everyone has their main project that they focus on. I also have a lot of different avenues to express my creativity. There's not a lot of ego involved. I feel like it's really easy. I hope the other guys think it's really easy! (laughs) But at least they've never complained or brought anything up yet. You also play in different bands, how do you balance your schedule and how do you instinctively know what riffs are appropriate for each group you’re in? Scheduling is actually pretty easy, because Ripped to Shreds is the only live band. I'm trying to play Houkago Grind Time live, but I haven't really had a whole lot of time to put it together because I don't want to bring other people into that project. I'm just going to do it myself as a one man band. So I haven't had time to get everything ready for that. And I have a whole bunch of different kinds of ideas about how I want to present myself on stage for them. But because I really only have one live band, it's pretty simple for me to schedule stuff. When I write, I don't really write for the sake of writing. It's not like I come up with something and then decide what I want to use it for. It's more like if someone hits me up for a split as HGT or I want to make a vocal song, I’ll start writing for that. So I usually have an idea of what band I'm writing for before I even pick up the instrument. What's your plans for the rest of this year and into next year? Will there be any live shows coming up? I think we've got some kind of a live stream thing that we're supposed to be doing with Bandcamp at the end of the year. And next year we're going on tour in Europe, we're playing 10 days and ending at Bloodshed Fest in the Netherlands. And we're kind of talking with some of our friends about playing a couple of shows in the Pacific Northwest. That stuff's not set in stone yet, but I think next year is going to be pretty busy...
Jubian was released on October 14th, 2022 via Relapse Records. Pick up a copy on red vinyl. For more with Andrew Lee, listen to our 2020 podcast interview.Leper Colony Infects Old-School Death Metal With Manic Thrash (Interview)
Leper Colony is yet another band created by Swedish death metal journeyman Rogga Johansson (Paganizer, Revolting and about 1,000 other bands). To the untrained ear, it could be rather difficult to distinguish from one Johansson band to another. However, Leper Colony’s aggressive thrash metal style sets it apart from all of Johansson’s other bands. On its debut self-titled full-length album, Johansson & Co. — joined by vocalist Marc Grewe (ex-Morgoth, Insidious Disease) and drummer Jon Skäre (Consumption) — Leper Colony rips through nine thrashy, pulsating, old-school death metal tracks with a fervor of a band half their age. The band’s unique take on the style isn’t limiting in the least, allowing the band to create something aggressive and catchy at the same time. Through e-mail, Johansson discussed Leper Colony’s origins, the new album, lyrical inspirations and more.
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Another Rogga band! You’re in almost 1,000 bands (just kidding!). How do you balance your schedule and keep the music appropriate for each group you’re in? There have indeed been a lot many projects through the years. I have no idea why it went haywire some decades ago, it's just that I seem to write a lot of music. Lately I've actually had a year away from doing anything new, besides writing for my main band Paganizer. And to answer your question, basically I just pick a project and start writing for it. It mostly turns out like that, but of course sometimes I put a song aside as I think it'll fit better somewhere else. When coming up with riffs, do you just instinctively know what music should be for each band? Mostly yes. To other people maybe my music sounds just like a lot of the same, and I understand that. But I easily get the feeling where a riff should go, and where it wouldn't fit. Something I've heard a lot is that Ribspreader and Paganizer sound just the same. And then I think to myself, that the guy or girl just hasn't been really listening to it. How does Leper Colony’s music differ from some of your other bands? To my ears, it has more of a thrashier attack compared to Paganizer or Revolting. Indeed it has, it's not as downtuned and has some influences from Slayer and from Death here and there. The Death influence I didn't even think of until I heard Jon´s drums on some of my riffs, and then I was just in awe of his playing. His drums make some of my very mundane riffs just shine, and some of it suddenly reminded me of Death here and there. How did this collaboration come about? Did you know Marc and Jon beforehand? Yeah I've known them for a while and I just thought it could be cool for me and Marc to work on a full album together, he's done some guesting on my stuff before. And Jon is such a killer drummer, so it's just great fun every time he agrees to play on something of mine. Marc Grewe has a great voice for this type of metal, it’s certainly different from the deep guttural vocals of your other bands. What about his vocal inflection that fits so well with Leper Colony’s instrumentation? Yeah Marc is one of the great ones, his vocals are legendary. And he is a legend indeed, so I'm just happy he wanted to work on this with me. And as you say, his vocals differ from the usual grunting, he is very articulate and has a more thrashy voice and I love that for these songs. I deliberately tuned higher and wrote more open riffs so he could really get to work on the material in a fitting way here. “Rapture Addict” has a bit of a different vocal pattern (or is that a guest vocalist?), giving this track a different dynamic. How did this track come about? It's all Marc, as it is on the whole album. Maybe it's got a different feel indeed, but I think that might come from Jon's killer drumming on just this song. And Marc has some more non growl vocals on a part too. The song just came as all the songs, during a session of writing for the album. I think I wrote all the songs in a week or so as I usually work. You have a clever way with your song titles, what were some of the lyrical inspirations for the songs? Sometimes there needs to be some humor or word games in there. Just to make it a bit fun. Some stuff like “Rapture Addict” is critical against organized religion, it's a subject that goes on forever or at least it'll go on as long as it is on earth. And some stuff like “The Surgical Undeadvors” is just gore and zombie fun. It fits the music so why not use the subjects. You’re signed to Indian label Transcending Obscurity, what’s the experience been like being associated with them and owner Kunal Choksi? It's been very good indeed. Kunal is dedicated to his work and grows his label day by day, which is impressive indeed. Also he has a very wide range of merch done for his releases, which is not something usual in this day and age, I mean if you don't count the biggest few labels. You actually debuted the opening track “The Human Paradox” on the Transcending Obscurity label sampler in 2021. Was this track one of the first written for this album and what took so long from then to finally a 2023 full-length album release? The whole album was written and done in one go so to speak, so it's been laying waiting for quite a while. I don't know exactly why there's been so many delays, but it is what it is, and now the album is finally out and we are very happy about that. The album artwork by Alex Tartsus (De Profundis, Depravity) is fantastic. How did you choose him and what type of direction did you give him concerning the cover concept? Kunal came up with the idea to use him and then I did an idea for the art concept and then it was just a waiting game really. i think actually this is why the album took some time extra, the artwork had to be finished and it took some time. Your participation on Massacre’s new album Resurgence is outstanding. Have you had more talks with Kam Lee about the next Massacre full-length album or are there any other collaborations with other musicians in the works? Thank you, great to hear you like it. I think it turned out very good too indeed. Yeah me and Kam talk all the time, and I'm writing new material for them as we speak actually. More than that I can't really say at this time. What’s next for Leper Colony for the rest of 2022 and into next year? Do you have any plans to tour with this band? No gigs planned but me and Marc have talked and we both feel that it would be great to write and record a new album next year, so that's what we plan right now....
Leper Colony releases on January 13th, 2023 via Transcending Obscurity.…
Mayhem
Faithxtractor’s Remorseless Death Metal Eviscerates Cyclic Conformity: “Relative First Occurrence” (Early Track Stream)
Death metal is a genre where new music often seems to only exist in comparison to its prior works. Read through reviews of any up-and-coming death metal band and you'll see seasoned aficionados break each track down to the three or four bands that may have inspired its riffs, detecting notes of Immolation and hints of Morbid Angel like goddamn riff sommeliers. There's nothing explicitly wrong with this (except please, no more track-by-track reviews), but sometimes it's nice to listen to a chunky, mean riff and not subconsciously be able to lay out its pedigree. Faithxtractor are clearly aligned with me on this, as their new single "Relative First Occurrence" takes a growling look at humanity's sometimes frustrating propensity for imitation. And sure, any forensic death metal expert could probably lay out the Ohio band's genetic code too, but their new record Contempt for a Failed Dimension overall seems unconcerned with fitting one archetype or another. What matters here is the mood and the execution: the former grim, the latter superb. The album sets about creating portraits of nihilism, scorn, and failure through a combination of blazing momentum and bleak, plodding dirges–mostly leaning towards the former, but there's enough fragments of death-doom in here to convince listeners that the band knows how to pen some excellently dour melodies. This isn't so much skull-smashing death metal as it is soul-stealing, and I appreciate the change of pace. Contempt for a Failed Dimension is overtly sinister–a vile thing of enjoyably unclear origins. Stream "Relative First Occurrence" below and read a statement from the band.
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The band comments:This song is about humankind being on repeat, & how each new generation can pass off old ideas as new so long as timing is on their side. I’m not pretending to be reinventing the wheel over here, but the main goal of creativity should be innovation over emulation not repeat & steal.
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Contempt for a Failed Dimension releases January 20th, 2023.In Venom Inc.’s Future, “There’s Only Black” (Interview w/ Tony Dolan)
Legendary Newcastle upon Tyne metal band Venom has had a storied history that has endured as many accolades as they have hardships and have become one of the most influential metal bands to ever form. Formed in 1979, its original members — consisting of bassist/vocalist Conrad “Cronos” Lant, guitarist Jeff “Mantas” Dunn and drummer Anthony “Abaddon” Bray — single handedly created the black metal moniker with their 1982 titular album title. However, the iconic Venom band name has been split into two factions; Cronos tours and records under the original name Venom, while the classic 1989 Prime Evil album lineup of Mantas, vocalist/bassist Tony "Demolition Man" Dolan, and new drummer Jeramie 'Warmachine' Kling (Inhuman Condition, The Absence, ex-Massacre) — original drummer Abaddon has moved on — have played under the name of Venom Inc since 2015. On their newest album, There’s Only Black, the hellish trio have returned with a massive-sounding follow-up to their acclaimed 2017 debut, Avé. Dolan spoke with us during a recent Zoom chat about first joining Venom, the creation of Venom Inc, the band’s newest album, its future plans, and more.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB9Rk18Bnfo&ab_channel=NuclearBlastRecords...
Hailing from Newcastle, was it a close musical community between everyone in Venom? We all go way back. We’re obviously from Newcastle and the surrounding area; Conrad’s from North Shields and Jeff was from Walker, which was not far from me. And Tony “Abaddon” was from south of the river, the Jarrow area. It's kind of an isolated city, as you know. We kind of all go to the same places, the same pubs, the same clubs. And certainly at that point in time the music was just rock and metal, that was what the city lived and breathed. So we saw each other all the time. The place where I was from, Wallsend, there was two churches that had clubs there for younger people. And I actually saw Venom with Clive Archer and their first couple of shows in two of those church halls. We've always been around each other. Of course, we were both on Neat Records with my band Atomkraft. So we were all friends, and we were associates. I was around their recordings. Of course, I moved back to Canada and then came back, so there was a slight gap. But we've always been around each other. I loved what they were doing. I loved their music, of course. It spoke to me, and I loved it. Switching singers at any time in an established band is always a bone of contention amongst its fans. Describe your feelings of first stepping into Venom in 1989. When it came to the point of me finishing a tour with Atomkraft, Abaddon and the manager of Venom, Eric Cook, who's since died, they called me up and said, did I want to go to a pub for a pint of beer and a chat. So I went and I thought it was about my Atomkraft band because the guitarist had left and we can change the shape around. We had just done a very successful tour in ’88, and I thought it was going to be about that and what I want to do next. But it wasn’t, it was to inform me that they had been offered a record deal with Music For Nations, they finished Calm Before The Storm and Cronos had decided to take some time out and go and make it in America. And he didn't want to do the dark satanic stuff anymore. He wanted to do more of a Van Halen type of thing with the two guitarists he had. So they said, “We need to find a bassist/vocalist” and of course they knew me and said, “They only know one person who knows us well enough, is one of the biggest fans of the band, but knows where we went wrong and knows the music. So we thought you would be the person to ask.” But I misunderstood, I thought they were asking me if I could. I think of someone who could do the job for them. So we chatted for about an hour, and I had some ideas, some suggestions and they just kept laughing at me. And I asked why they kept laughing and they said they wanted me to do it because I could play the bass, sing all the songs, and I knew all this material and they couldn’t think of a better person to do it. How did you get Mantas to agree with the reformation, as he was pretty soured on the band at that point? I said okay, this is a great idea. But of course we need Mantas, because I couldn't envisage any kind of form of Venom with just one of them. I could see an Abaddon and a Cronos, a Cronos and a Mantas, a Mantas and Abaddon. But just an Abaddon? I told them I didn’t know how that's going to be Venom. So I said it would be key for me that Jeff came back. Of course, they had already approached Jeff and he said fuck off. So they said he's one of your best friends if not your best friend, so why don't you talk to him? So I did. Me and Jeff had a discussion; he wasn't interested. I told him that they'd offered me the position and he said, “If you say yes, then I'll do it.” And I said, “I’m gonna say yes on one condition that you say yes. If you don't say yes, I'm not doing it.” He said yes. I said, “Okay, let's do it.” And then that was it, we were off and running. And I already had prepped some songs for Prime Evil; “Parasite,” “Blackened Are the Priests,” “Carnivorous.” I was working on them just in case. Did you feel that you had to fill Cronos’ shoes or were you just bringing your own identity into the band? I didn't consider it until later when people said, “What was it like to fill another man's boots?” I said, “I didn't put anybody else's boots on.” I never fucking have, I put my own fucking boots on. So I took that into that situation. And as a friend, I got to play with my friends. I got to record a new album with them under the name of Venom. And then I would go out and play I would be able to play your tour with my friends record with my friends, play some new material but also play some classic material. I got to play “Witching Hour,” “Welcome to Hell” and “Black Metal.” I never honestly once stopped to consider I was replacing anybody. I just thought in my mind, the way I thought was a world without Venom was not a world I wanted to have. I wanted to keep the Venom in the world because I think we needed a Venom. We needed a Motörhead, we needed the Sex Pistols; these alternate bands who didn't buy into the commercial process who just screamed and shouted and kicked up noise and did their own thing. And I thought if I don't do this, we're not gonna have Venom anymore. So I was like, I don't want to not have Venom, and neither did the fans. So I took the position, and we made a success of it. That was how I went into it and I think I'd been out maybe five or six years before anybody doing an interview said, “What did you feel like replacing (Cronos)?” And I never actually thought of myself as replacing anybody. I just thought of joining was a great thing. So, it never crossed my mind to tell you the truth. In the late ’70s/early ’80s, the New Wave of British Heavy Metal explosion was happening in the UK. Were you following this scene or were you involved in it? Because Raven, Satan, and Tygers of Pan Tang were all from your area. I don't know if following was the right word because I emigrated to Canada. When I came back to the UK around ’77/’78, the punk scene had exploded. And I thought that the world had gone upside down. That freedom of expression, not arena polished, produced bands like Led Zeppelin and all of that, but this new culture just impacted me massively. So I wanted to be playing music and I started a punk band, and that was about ’78/’79. And that's how I formed Atomkraft. Because I was in the Northeast, one of my favorite bands was Raven. I loved Raven, the first album was killer. It seemed to be I could see a Lone Wolf or I could actually watch Satan. I could go and see these bands, and they were all just people like me. And so I don't suppose I was following the scene, I was in the scene very quickly. Because the guy you were drinking with on this side in a pub, he was in a band and the guy on this side was in a band, so everybody I knew at the clubs was doing bands. Bands like Tygers got signed to RCA and then Raven went to America and got signed with Atlantic and so there was a big thing moving, and Venom became the biggest thing on Neat Records. All of a sudden it was real. It had gone from guys you knew playing in bands to actually becoming very real, very quickly. It wasn't like watching it from the outside as a boy, I was actually very much in the scene as a musician and as a peer. Speaking of Prime Evil, I think you refined the band in a different way. What type of challenge was it to come up with the songs for that album? Did you discuss what direction you wanted to head in? No, I think for my part because I knew that they felt that At War With Satan wasn't as strong as the first two albums. I liked it, but they didn't feel it was as strong. They certainly felt that Possessed was weaker than the ones before. Of course Mantas left in that period. And then Calm Before The Storm, they really felt they made a mistake with. There was some cool material on there, but it wasn't like the previous albums. I think they felt they lost their way a little bit there. And so my remit basically was to go back to point one and try and recapture that aggression, that anger, that spirit of youth, and the glorious feeling that what was it about those first two albums in particular that felt good. So we approached it in that way. They were missing the punk attitude. So I had to try and think how do we get back to that? So it was kind of stripping things back and it worked. But it wasn’t contrived, it was all natural. And that was the key. And I think we managed to achieve that on Prime Evil. When you formed Venom In and released Avé, I think you found a new audience and then diehards began to accept it. Maybe some fans were skeptical at first, but were you concerned about winning them over or perhaps competing with Cronos’ Venom? Was there any kind of discussion about that? There was always a whole thing about we're trying to cash in on the Venom name and that we’re a cover band and all that bollocks. That's just political bullshit of course. People want to try and put people off you, but none of that was a consideration. In fact, I didn't want to do an album in the first place. We did five songs in a festival in Germany, tagged on to the end of an M:Pire of Evil set, which was what me and Mantas were doing. We were ready to do the third album of M:Pire of Evil. And the next day, it had gone viral, and we started getting offers for myself, Mantas and Abaddon to play shows. Cronos was out there doing the whole Venom thing, but they wanted to see us three during that period. So, we had a discussion and said we'll do it. And then very soon, I needed to construct the set. And basically I put it out to the fans. If we played, what would you like us to play and they made the setlist up. My intention was to give the music back to the fans. It wasn't our music anymore, it was their music. There was fans who never got to see Venom. I said to someone before, which side would you choose between Venom and Venom Inc? And I say in defense, there's no side to choose. All Venom is Venom. And that's what's brilliant about it. So to give fans every aspect of a band is amazing. And if you can't see the three original guys playing your songs, but you can go to two separate shows and see all the original guys playing those songs in different ways, what's wrong with that? Venom Inc has returned with There’s Only Black, it’s an awesome follow-up to first album Avé. How did you approach this new album compared to your debut? Comparatively, it's very different. It's still us, of course, but we have the addition of Jeramie Kling on drums now. Which is quite a different, younger approach, or more progressive approach; more frantic, more energy. Avé was a particular period where we began and that's where we were, and There’s Only Black is where we are now. I think periods in time changes what we feel. When we didAvé, it’s not what we were feeling when we did There’s Only Black. The whole emphasis is on what's happening around us right now. You're influenced by how you feel, by your age, by your opinion, by how you look at it. And even the title, originally, the title was Nine. And then Jeff sent me a track one day and said he had written the lyrics. He said, “When I had my heart attack and died, I didn't see any light. There was no tunnel, there was nobody holding hands… I just saw a vortex and there was only black.” So he called it “There's Only Black.” And the moment he said that, it just made sense for the whole thing. It's such a personal experience, and that's the difference between this album and the other one. Avé was a salute to the fans who have been fans of Venom from day one. And so that's why it's incorporated. It doesn't mean just Venom, it's everything we've done incorporated into one thing. We were thanking everybody and thanking the music that inspired us. But on this album, it's more of a personal experience. We want to connect with people. It's about your personal experience and about where we are in our lives right now. Speaking of Jeramie Kling on drums, I recently saw his other band Inhuman Condition live. I really think he's solidified Venom Inc’s rhythm section. How do you and him lock in as musicians? I love Jeremy's playing. It's just so natural. He plays from his soul, from his heart. And basically, when he got given these tracks, he wanted to know the approach. And I just said, “You play how you feel it, that's the key to this. You don't play how I want you to play a particular way. You feel it and just play it.” And that's what he did. Because it was so natural, and because we've done so many shows with Jeramie together, it was almost instinctive. I knew where he was going. He would accent me, I would accent him, and it was just such a pleasure. We really just locked in together on the stuff, much like we do live. It’s not forced. It's not something I have to concentrate on. We're in tandem with each other in a very natural way. So it was an absolute pleasure. And I think his energy level just pushed us even further. It made a 60 year old and a 50 year old both 20 year olds. That's how we felt. What's next for Venom Inc? I see the band going even further and please discuss upcoming touring plans and hopefully there's some US dates. We literally have just had to cancel part one of the US tour. To do the US, you have to follow a process and you have to get your visa and P1 application as a recognized alien. It can be very expensive and it takes several months up to six months. So we started the process early, we had all the dates for it lined up, but because Mantas now lives in Portugal, there's a process in Portugal if you're a citizen or resident, which he now is, that you was to attend an interview. For Mantas , they said there's a backlog because of COVID so he has to wait. So we waited, and eventually they said he couldn't have an interview until November/mid November, which was after the tour was supposed to be starting. So we were fucked. By the time of 2023, we'll have our visas then we'll just start on the West Coast like we planned and we'll do the east coast a bit later. And then we'll pop up into Canada. And in between that we'll do the EU. We’ll be playing as much of the new album and obvious encores will be classic Venom songs. The shows we've done of late have been crazy good. So, let's hope that we keep going. And I think what I'd like to say to everybody reading this is that you don't have to make a distinction. If you prefer Cronos’ voice on the Venom stuff, then you can listen to it. And if you prefer mine on certain stuff, then you can listen to that. But you don't have to pick one over the other, you can listen to it all if you want. So you can support everything. That's the whole point is supporting it all. You don't have to make any distinctions, and nobody's trying to get rid of anybody else. So just embrace as much as you want. It's totally up to you....
There’s Only Black was released on September 23rd via Nuclear Blast.Ploughshare’s Corrupted Industrial Noise Sows Dire Seeds In an “Ingested Burial Ground” (Early Album Stream)
When Australian black/death metal eccentrics Ploughshare started to feel mired in their current sound, they decided to take action, eschewing all thoughts of 'comfort zones' and genre traditions. No, they chose to get even weirder, resulting in the exceptionally abrasive new album Ingested Burial Ground. Avoiding traditional guitar-based instrumentation, the album stitches together dream-like textures with pure nightmare fuel: barraging blast beats and harsh atonal noise. Navigating between hypnotic weirdness and aural exfoliation, the band uses their new palette to create intense aural pressure and sculpt a broken, harrowing landscape. Stream the album here before it releases on Friday.
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At times feeling like dreamy, concrete-entombed post-punk and at others punishing drone, it's the uncanny balance between pleasant and uncomfortable sounds that defines Ingested Burial Ground. The ringing synth intro to "An Uneasy Dread Rose" could almost pass for an intriguing pad, but the song's evolution twists it into a mocking nightmare to herald the devastation soon to come. The record also comes with a set of remixes as a second half, offering listeners a second trip through the wastelands that's more jagged and jaw-dropping than before. The band comments:Ingested Burial Ground develops aspects of Ploughshare’s sound we’d only briefly explored in other releases. It draws on a wide array of influences and themes that we felt were best expressed through different instrumentation and composition. Above all else, we sought to force something new to happen by deliberately undoing our song writing and compositional habits. At the same time, the result had to be coherent and it had to advance and open new possibilities for us to pursue in the future. Pushing for new ways of working wasn’t done out of desperation, or a sense of stagnation with our regular configuration and guitar-based approach, but rather of out of a curiosity with what might be possible given a fundamentally different set of tools. In this pursuit, collaborating with friends and artists we admire was vital. We consider Ingested Burial Ground a continuation of previous efforts and a pathway to further explorations.
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Ingested Burial Ground releases December 8th via Brilliant Emperor Records.Fvnerals Enters a Chilling “Ashen Era” of Atmospheric Doom Metal (Early Track Stream + Interview)
Fvnerals welcomes you to embrace winter with their frigid new track “Ashen Era.” The UK-by-way-of-Germany atmospheric doom duo has been solemnly simmering over the past few years, slowly adding tangible metallic morsels to their patient yet punishing aesthetic. ”Ashen Era,” the second single from their upcoming third LP Let the Earth Be Silent, reveals Fvnerals’ new approach; a desecration of structure entirely. The track is a formless entity that oscillates between tension-building haze and bleak doom metal stretches. You can listen to it below and read an interview with the band in which members Tiffany Ström and Syd Scarlet discuss their relocation to Leipzig, Germany, their developments into their new album, and how little goths affect their music.
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https://youtu.be/gmFhaECRLxs...
You moved to Leipzig earlier this year as it was a long-time goal of yours. I’m interested in knowing what attracted you to the city and how the move affected your music? Scarlet: We first discovered the city when we were invited to play at Doom over Leipzig Festival in 2016 and we really liked the vibe, scenery, and identity of the city. I made friends there, volunteered at the same festival the following years, and also spent time in the summer. It quickly felt homely and it just made sense to follow that feeling I guess. I wouldn't say it has affected our music in any way yet because the album was written and recorded way before we moved here. Piggybacking off of my last question, Leipzig is a hot bed for gothic music. How do you think that reputation pairs with Fvnerals’ music? Scarlet: This is not actually a scene we pay attention to or feel connected with. We mostly gravitate around the punk and hardcore scenes ourselves, for which Leipzig has a good active DIY community and cool venues. Ström: Even though this is something we have let interfere in the past, the decision to move was not based on our band this time but more about being in a place where we like spending time and living. We do know the city hosts WGT once a year but that's probably the only time we are in contact with the gothic scene. You’ve said that Let The Earth Be Silent will be less optimistic compared to your earlier albums, which were already pretty bleak. How’d you modify your process to match that intention? Scarlet: I think it happened quite naturally. The process itself is still similar but the sound has continued to evolve to match our current feelings and our artistic vision. Fvnerals is a band I use to address my struggles with depression and I think that in a way the music we make will always follow my feelings at the time. When writing Let the Earth Be Silent, we evolved towards less song-like structures and allowed ourselves more intricate layering of melodies and instrumentation. Ström: We also coupled this with a more experimental vocal approach that complements the songs without necessarily having them as the central element. Fvnerals have gotten heavier with every release, specifically with the two singles from Let The Earth Be Silent. What’s pushed you to explore the heavier aspects more thoroughly? Ström: Syd and I actually also have a heavier music background. I was in punk bands as a teenager and Syd has been in multiple noisy and hardcore punk bands for years. When we first met he was playing in a sludgy hardcore band at the time and he and our then drummer started Fvnerals as a departure from that, with more tamed-down influences and a less aggressive sound. I think across the years that separation line has blurred a bit and we started incorporating harsher elements in our music. Seeing as how it’s been six years since your last album, how do you feel you’ve developed as musicians and songwriters since Wounds’ release? Scarlet: We had started to write the follow-up to Wounds around 2018-19 and had completed multiple songs but we eventually decided to disregard them all and to not release them as we thought they were too similar in sound and style and did not bring anything new. At the time, we had also just relocated from the UK and still had shows and tours planned. I started writing for another project with a very different vibe in mind and in the end it took a while until we decided to write new songs for Fvnerals again. It is very hard to evaluate ourselves on how the songwriting has evolved but I think the songs are less structure-based and less linear, we spent more time on non-guitar instrumentation and production and tried to not limit ourselves to our previous minimalist approach as much. What’s one aspect of Let The Earth Be Silent that you hope sticks out that may not be obvious upon first listen? Ström: Due to the sonic details we put in the album, we hope that each listen can reveal new layers, textures, or harmonies when you pay closer attention. In a similar way, the lyrical content, meanings, and themes we incorporated in the album can also add a dimension to the listening experience....
Let the Earth be Silent releases February 3rd, 2023 via Prophecy Productions.Seer of the Void Bows Down to the “Electric Father” (Early Track Stream + Video)
For Seer of the Void, less is more, as long as that 'less' is also loud as shit. The Greek doomsters only need a handful of riffs on new single "Electric Father" to craft a sinister, groovy jam, but each riff is dialed in for maximum impact and volume. Their upcoming album Mantra Monolith clearly lives up to its name in terms of stature, achieved here through soulfully-played heaviness. Check out the video for "Electric Father" below.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vp7GcxYesyQ&ab_channel=VenerateIndustries...
A brief blast of crackling flame is all that stands between listeners and the riffs here, and I have to say that the production and gear choices make all the difference in the band's near-minimalistic pursuit of fuzz supremacy. Overlapping guitar layers condense into a pleasingly thick sound with just enough sharpness to keep up with the tight rhythm section, and that snare drum crack is straight out of 1990s doom hall-of-fame territory. It's not a song that needs to go fast: just hearing each part of the mix ring out is satisfying throughout. The band comments:Electric Father is a song inspired by the dualities. By the fight between the light and the dark, between the good and the bad. Questioning every type of norm that guides the modern way of life and how this reflects to the subconscious of the human nature.
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Mantra Monolith releases January 27th, 2023 via Venerate Industries.Noise Pollution #27: Christmas Miracles
A little over a year ago I moved from, what was at the time, a pretty terrible neighborhood. I’d had two homicides on my block within a calendar year of each other, one of which I actually witnessed, plus it felt like I couldn’t look out my window without seeing a stranger’s dick as they were pissing on my trash cans. We only moved because our landlord sold the property to someone who stopped performing maintenance and told us they were going to demolish the building (a pre-Civil War house) to build condos. Twelve months later the neighborhood looks way different, there’s now a bunch of trendy bars, apartments, shops etc. Even the neighborhood crack house burned down. But my old house is still there, with our unit sitting abandoned while our neighbors, for whatever reason, still live in the apartment on the other side of it, stalling the multi-million dollar real estate venture in what I can only say warms my heart. Why do I bring this up? Because Paypal keeps switching my fucking address to my old building, generally when I’m buying shit on Bandcamp, so every so often I have to travel out there to see if anything was sent. It was especially rainy the last week or so, so of course something was sitting on the porch. You can tell the neighborhood is changing because it had been there for at least a week and I once had a pumpkin stolen off the porch within two hours of fucking putting it there. The fucking box squished it was so saturated. It just fell off the contents like a scene out of a burn ward. Inside this miserable morass of cardboard and sadness was my copy of Somme’s Prussian Blood, a record I had been waiting over a year to come out on vinyl, a record that I set an alarm to order since it’s from fucking England, and a record that, if it was ruined, would be impossible to get another copy without paying a flippers ransom or, frankly, blowing someone. And I don’t like feeling like a whore.
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https://youtu.be/9B82S0Jc8eQ...
It was pristine. Not even the corners showed any signs of wear. I’ve listened to the fucking thing at least 5 or 6 times since plucking it off the porch a week or so ago with no noticeable warping or whatever sound tragedy would occur being left in the rain for fuck knows how long. That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown. I’d already really enjoyed this record since the cassette version’s release in 2021 but now it occupies a special place in my collection, like the little engine that could. Now, if my copy of the most recent Circle of Ouroborus would stop being stuck in customs that would be a Christmas miracle. I spend a lot of time looking/listening to ambient ASMR scenes, especially at work since I can leave them on as background noise and no one can really strike up a conversation about music with me because of it. Did you know there’s a new Metallica song? The 65 year old at the front of the house thinks I might like it because of my tattoos. I’d rather be caught with Dagon’s hard drive than have those conversations at this point in my life. These types of videos, that generally show some kind of digitized calming scene with some animation and nature sounds/quiet music are really good for anxiety and decompressing as well. Just don’t check into the comments unless you want something innocent and pure to be ruined for you, like your significant other shitting into the bed on the first night of your honeymoon. I have a Christmas livestream going right now and just looked at the comments, which are all bible quotes and porn links, just in case I forgot this was America in 2022. There was also this:...
Jesus Christ, Lauren.
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My favorite of these channels is Calmed By Nature, who put a lot of effort into the animation and design of their work, especially during Halloween and Christmas. I used to think paying as much attention to these things meant that I’d given up some vital piece of my identity and youth but then I realized I’m almost 45 and maybe a few months away from being unfuckable (if I’m being optimistic) so I don’t care. The early part of December brings me back to 1995 when I first heard Desultory on "The Hours of Desolation" and ordered Bitterness, which was delivered that first week in December. As I wasn’t super intune with the underground history of Swedish death metal at the time I was mostly just familiar with Entombed, Dismember and Grave, so the introduction of Desultory to the fold was really welcome....
https://youtu.be/4SW9KbNRG-g...
Desultory occupy that weird space that exists in genres, where they’re a killer band who just never seemed to have the break that the more well known “classic” bands had. I don’t want to say it’s the silver medal position on the podium because that’s demeaning to the quality of those bands. Best example I can give would be Mudhoney to Soundgarden, Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Bitterness is a fucking banger of a record, one that’s aged beautifully over the last few decades and is miles ahead of the pack of uninteresting and inspired “OSDM” shit publicists like jamming down our throats. Melodic and catchy, it’s also got enough teeth to it to satisfy the need for aggressive HM2 death metal with honey smooth soloing....
https://youtu.be/W8cbn0Xdtsc...
For the holidays that year one of my friends picked up their first record for Metal Blade, Into Eternity, an equally stellar record, albeit with a little more bite and less polish than Bitterness. If you’re unfamiliar with either record and enjoy old school Swedish death metal with a bit of a melodic bent (without going into In Flames territory) then I recommend both records highly. The one that came after, Swallow the Snake, is dogshit on the face of it being a fellatio joke and just a terrible, terrible album. I know they’ve reformed and done a few records but I’ve never taken the time to check them out. Regardless, these two always remind me of the holidays which I’m sure is a sentiment that only I share....
https://youtu.be/GcNERmjJtmw...
I forgot to mention last time but I’ve now been doing this column for a solid year. I’ve gotten a nice amount of positive feedback from it and I wanted to say that I appreciate that people take the time to read whatever horseshit tickled my fancy that week. There’ll be plenty more to come. Next time we’ll talk about childhood, Christmas, and sound design. I’m sure you’re just as excited as I am.Hypomanic Daydream and Homeskin Join Forces on “Hypomanic Skin” (Full Split Album Debut)
Looking at this new split release from Garry Brents' Homeskin and Marie "Manic Dream Girl" McAuliffe's (Putrescine, Mesa) Hypomanic Daydream, we are presented with two unique and distinctly experimental takes on opposite ends of the extreme metal spectrum. On these two artists' new split Hypomanic Skin, Brents and McAuliffe's deconstruction of their home genres–black and death metal, respectively–demonstrates two distinct sets of creativity heretofore mashed together on what is a surprising and unique split. Opening this release is Hypomanic Daydream, whose singular take on death metal, one which uses electronic elements like vocaloid and possesses a poppy keyboard presence, is heavy both traditionally and in its own right. Echoing Japan's classic avant-metal scene, Hypomanic Daydream's carefully composed music comes off as reckless, but is actually brilliantly composed. Chugging through strange chord voicings and extended melodic phrases, Hypomanic Daydream's birth is an active statement against death metal's stagnation. Homeskin has been featured here at Invisible Oranges a few times now, and while this particular split still hangs onto the emoviolence and grindcore which defined the project's recent "early days," multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Garry Brents' more progressive and over black metal-isms take center stage here, resulting in longer and more sprawling songs. A more atmospheric counterpart to Hypomanic Daydream's progressive and avant- presence, Homeskin's nowhere near as disorienting approach this time around is a pleasant grounding. Listen to Hypomanic Skin in full below.
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The Hypomanic Skin split releases December 16th via Xenoglossy Productions.…
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