Chris Dick

What do you think separates One for Sorrow from Across the Dark?Niilo Sevänen: The core of the music is still the same, but we don’t want to repeat ourselves and make the same album again and again. I think we’ve always managed to evolve and bring some new twists to our music. This time the…

You know, with all the hoopla over Scion, an imprint of Toyota (gasp!), sponsoring music festivals, funding and pressing free CDs, and generally giving workaday bands (like Immolation, Wormrot, Enslaved) a chance to stick their head out of the boiling financial cauldron that is the music industry, it’s a wonder this commercial for Park Auto…

Veteran death metal guitarist James Murphy (Death, Obituary, Cancer, Disincarnate, Testament) has found that the brain tumor he defeated in 2001 has unexpectedly returned. Although the tumor is benign and is currently being treated pharmacologically — chemotherapy remains an option — Murphy needs our help. The medication Murphy has been prescribed has crippling side effects,…

Anal Cunt, otherwise known to jittery magazine editors and PC fucks the world over as AxCx, rarely failed to mash the fuck button like 5-year kids hopped up on donuts and Mt. Dew. Not solely because of the group’s name either. Fronted by Seth Putnam, the Massholes from Newton pushed every possible boundary and penetrated…

Is Woods of Desolation a one-man outfit? You enlisted Tim Yatras (Nazxul, Lord) for the drums and vocals on new album, Torn Beyond Reason.D.: Yes. Woods of Desolation (WoD) will probably always consist of just myself whilst utilizing session members for recordings. Tim only agreed to help out on the Torn Beyond Reason album. Unfortunately,…

So I’m a day late in writing this, I was supposed to yesterday but I felt like the walking dead after driving through a blizzard to Salt Lake City yesterday. So I passed out on a couch and slept ‘til about 10 minutes before the show. I feel much better now, time to write this…

People want to know the arrangement between Scion and Immolation. I’m sure you can attest to ‘underground’ metalheads being slightly skeptical of a car company’s involvement with a cult death metal act.Ross Dolan: I can see where some people may find it unusual that a company such as Scion would invest money into an underground…

I woke up at 5 a.m. this morning to drive to Iowa, all the way from Cleveland. Cant sleep any more so I guess it is time to recap the last week of tour… Ill pick up where I left off last time, in New York. I was kind of antsy about this show, as…

Earlier this month, we had the desolate delight in premiering Vallenfyre’s–featuring Paradise Lost’s Gregor Mackintosh on vocals/guitar, Paradise Lost drummer Adrian Erlandsson, My Dying Bride’s Hamish Glencross on guitar, and Doom bassist Scoot–new song “Desecrated“. To say it raised a few eyebrows would be an understatement. Who knew six string moper Mackintosh had the balls…

Nowadays, I manage a record store, it’s that simple. I went to the source. Not because, like a junkie moving to Nepal to grow poppies, I was cutting out the middle man, more because there is not much else I can do or have an inexhaustive knowledge of. I know things that are of absolutely…

Having formed before most of us — me, included — were born and having the dubious distinction of some of the worst cover art of all time (Narita, thank you very much), New York heavy metallers Riot are preparing to release their first album in five years. Titled Immortal Soul, the group’s new effort obviously…

Hello out there. Kevill here again, coming to you from some bar in Manhattan where I have found a place to actually sit down and write.

What makes Tom tick? You’ve been doing Evergrey for more than 15 years now.Tom S. Englund: I don’t know, man. Must be as simple as the love for creating music and music in general. That and, of course, travelling the world numerous times as a result of the chords I play and write of course…

When death and his plague exhaling horse come knocking on your front door, the last sound you’ll hear won’t be “…Baby One More Time”. It’ll be the dirge of doom expulsed by Texas/Georgia duo Encoffination. Not unlike the members’ grime-encrusted outfit Father Befouled, Encoffination’s brand of death is unpolished, guts hanging out, but ultimately dangerous….

Hey out there metal dudes! Week two of the tour blog now, we have been completely hauling ass across the south. In the week since I wrote the last blog in Anaheim, we are now clear on the other side of the country in Tampa, Florida. Been doing drives averaging 9 or 10 hours every…

By Oscar Ramirez (bass) To me these albums take me back to when I was in my high school days. Walking home with my headphones in, people looking at me weird because I’m trying to mimic the brutal vocals, just overall crushing in-your-face music. I got the privilege to see most of these bands, except…

Hello all! Kevill here, writing the first blog I’ve ever done for, well, anything. I’m not much of a blogger/record keeper kinda guy, I never take photos of anything or write in a journal, any of that. But here I get to report all the happenings on our first ever USA headlining tour with Lazarus…

There was a time when we divined the future out of tea leaves and coffee grounds (tasseomancy), a time when we ritualistically porked one another to achieve a greater sense of being (sex magick), a time when we stacked sticks and let them fall to try to find the right path (Rhabdomancy), and there was…

5. Praia Boa Viagem Praia da Boa Viagem is the beach located in the most fashionable district of Recife, capital of the state of Pernanbuco, situated in the Northeastern coast of Brazil. The beaches there are beautiful and the weather is always nice and warm, inviting swimmers and surfers to get in the water—but don’t…

Upstart British death metallers Vallenfyre will be new to most, but the group’s membership is as seasoned as they come. Featuring Paradise Lost’s Gregor Mackintosh on vocals/guitar, Paradise Lost drummer Adrian Erlandsson, My Dying Bride’s Hamish Glencross on guitar, and Doom bassist Scoot, Vallenfyre have only issued the Desecration / Iconoclast 7-inch to date. Limited…

I distinctly recall the first time I heard Ministry’s The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste.

To quote your bio: “SubRosa comprises the deep thrum that makes up the underlying plasma of our invisible surroundings.” What does that mean?Sarah Pendleton: We are attempting to be the sonic interpreters of that which is intangible. The name SubRosa implies mystery. Something hidden. Do you actively try to keep things a bit obscure? Rebecca…

There’s a quaint perception that grindcore is, in fact, two-dimensional. One (maybe two if you’re lucky) emotion — aggression — and the music follows accordingly. Of course, there are outliers to everything, but Ottawa, Canada-based Fuck The Facts proves that grindcore in 2011 doesn’t have to be like grindcore of 1986, 1987, or 1997. It…

Lifelover guitarist Jonas Bergqvist (aka ‘B’ and ‘Nattdal’) passed away on September 9th, 2011. Although Bergqvist’s death was unforeseen and unfortunate—rumors suggest he had a bad ticker—the members of Lifelover, who have now officially disbanded as a result and in honor of Bergqvist, vow to keep the band’s various Internet websites alive. Lifelover issued a…

I think a lot of people assumed Denial Fiend was the work of Kam Lee. Now that Blaine Cook is fronting that assumption is no longer. What was the transition like between Kam and Blaine?Terry Butler: Kam likes to lead people on that Denial Fiend was his band. Truth is Denial Fiend is Sam’s baby….

There’s little more annoying on this planet than the immoral majority telling you how essential, transcendent and (huh-huh) seminal a particular extreme album is, when you know that it’s overrated as fuck. Hence, our new Wednesday morning column, “Disposable Heroes,” in which one brave soul sails against the current to inform all you clones why…

5. SummerfestSummerfest: Biggest Outdoor Music Festival that is held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Fest brings in over 100,000 people in a day. It has many types of music playing every day, with over 100 stages. It brings in all the heavyweights from metal to country, even R&B and hip-hop. Summerfest has something for everyone to…

How important was it to separate your solo project, Thomas Giles, from Between The Buried And Me?Tommy Rogers: I think it was very important to separate the two. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people do solo projects that sound like their main band. I wanted to step outside of what I normally…

Known for its cheese, beer, and baseball team the Brewers, Milwaukee is also home (rather was home) to some of America’s finest death metal. Yeah, Tampa had its rightful place on the throne in the late ’80s/early ’90s, but the former French Canadian trading post had Dr. Shrinker, Phantasm, Accidental Suicide, and the mighty Morta…

Well-spoken, Morbid Angel’s David Vincent has labeled the group in 2011 as “spearheaders”, which is fine when you look at albums like Hall of Fame album Altars of Madness, Blessed Are the Sick, Covenant, Domination. etc. Morbid Angel were the creme de la creme. However, time marches on and it’s rarely kind. Certainly, Vincent is…