Interviews

Metal has a vast expanse of space that it calls its popularity continuum, and I, admittedly, have no idea where Finland’s Re-Armed would be located along this stretch of real estate. However, the band  recently returned from a three-week tour of China. We quiz vocalist Jouni Matilainen and bassist Juhana ‘Bobo’ Heinonen about their latest adventure.

The Decibel Hall Of Fame inductee (along with the rest of Agnostic Front for Cause For Alarm) talked to us earlier this year about the old New York and his new life thousands of miles away in Arizona.

Washington, D.C.’s Free Children of Earth singer/guitarist/lyricist Jason Yawn has a lot on his mind and we wanted to not only stream his band’s new album, Terminal Stasis this week on the blog, but also give Yawn a forum to deliver a track-by-track explanation and analysis which, despite your opinion and position on the matters at hand, make for some excellent and thoughtful reading.

Abrasive and prickly purveyors of violently noisy hardcore, Great Falls have a new album out entitled The Fever Shed. Hit the big orange arrow somewhere below and you can have it peel the paint off the walls of whatever asylum you’re presently rotting in.

For the past 28 years, Florida death metal stalwarts Malevolent Creation haven’t cowered to trends, changes in the wind (or forest), or any other pervasive force. They’ve stuck to their respective death metal guns, and, after all these years, have come out the other side as true representatives of Florida death metal. The kind of death metal that set the scene on fire in the early to mid-’90s. Well, Malevolent Creation are back with a new record, Dead Man’s Path, and a new label, Century Media Records. Sure, new records are one thing, but the fact that Dead Man’s Path smokes is quite another. Read on as we question main man Phil Fasciana about the bad (jail) and the good (death metal).

I’ve always been interested in the dynamic of bands with siblings in the line-up. How those who shared so much of their entire lives come together creatively, the bond they have, how they work together, how things are managed when non-relatives are brought into the picture and so on and so forth. KEN Mode, Valkyrie, Gojira, Skeletonwitch, Obituary, Sepultura, Oasis, Heart…the list goes on and on. Now, you can add Colorado black metal entity, Helleborus to the list.

This week, get a sneak peek (okay, a nine-minute stare) at one of the crushing hymns from Songs III, “Abandoned by the Light.”

Andrea Subissati is a Toronto-based sociologist, writer and co-host of The Faculty of Horror podcast. We talked to her ahead of All Hallows’ Eve to get her take on horror, metal and why the two are eternally intertwined.

Stream Cryptopsy’s new song and read a Q&A with the band. 

Nechochwen is a West Virginia-based duo that merges black metal with Native American instrumentation, artwork and lyrical themes. We spoke to their eponymous guitarist/vocalist/songwriter about his musical process, artistic philosophy and deep ties to Native American culture.

Metal bands have been using literature as inspiration for decades, but for whatever reason, the two worlds seldom intersect when it comes to actual production…writers tend to stay on one side of the room while musicians stare at them from the other. Shuffling around somewhere in the middle are people like Nathan Carson, drummer of Portland-based doom titans Witch Mountain and published author of short fiction.

Mine is a Black Mouth’s music is pure crunch ‘n’ snarl, a harrowing and inspired avalanche of bassy blasting that is well worth the 20-minute run time.

** For the better part of our lifetime, Swedish death metallers Grave have dominated the landscape. They released seminal album, Into the Grave, ushering a new wave of heaviness not found in their Stockholm peers. They released Soulless, an album that combined the brutality of death metal with an unheard of groove. When Grave went on hiatus in 1997, the world had thought they could leave death metal to the next generation. The world was wrong. The Swedes returned in 2002, with Back from the Grave and have since then pounded out death metal albums of the highest quality with the best old-school mentality. So, let’s respect Grave. And let’s cheer on the savagery that is new album Out of Respect for the Dead.

Where do old mathematicians go when they die? Fucked if I know, but according to brand spanking new British band, InTechnicolour, dudes who once (and in some cases, still do) ply their wares as part of that nation’s math/tech metal scene, will at some point find themselves taking a complete 180 degree creative turn when the fancy strikes.

In order to get you ready for the Halloween season here’s some of the UK’s best haunted and supernatural spots, as picked by Dani Filth. 

Deafheaven have been living in rarefied air for the past few years—a metal band doing metal things in a non-metal world. With the release of their third LP, New Bermuda, a mere two weeks away, we caught up with vocalist/lyricist George Clarke to break down the details of Deafheaven’s unlikely crossover appeal.

Humanity Defiled has been on our radar since 2013.  The music satisfied our need for death metal with doom inflections and an idiosyncratic style.  This summer saw the release of sophomore bruiser The Demise of the Sane, and it fulfills all the promises of the elder record.  In this month’s issue of the magazine, you can read more about Denayer and his dedication and musical direction.  He had more to say than we could fit onto the page, though, so here are a few more of his thoughts.

Take a walk through nature with Earthless offshoot Golden Void.

Wyndorf mother mother.

Staying true to this breakneck creative pace, Austin Lunn is mere weeks away from dropping Panopticon’s sixth LP, the enthralling and resonant Autumn Eternal. The album is a thematic companion to his two previous LPs, but musically, it eschews the “blackened bluegrass” approach in favor of emotionally charged, mournfully melodic black metal (think Winterfylleth meets early Katatonia). We talked to Lunn about creating Autumn Eternal, taking inspiration from nature and being a musician in the often-disheartening environment of the digital age.

 Chris Jericho is one of the most decorated professional wrestlers ever: a six-time world champion and the first-ever undisputed WWE champion. He is also one of the most vocal celebrity metal fans on the planet as well as a metal musician who has toured the world repeatedly with his band Fozzy. Jericho’s latest project, however, might be the only one that could earn the extreme moniker.

This morning, the Deciblog shines the unsigned band spotlight on Edmonton’s long-standing denizens of death metal, Display of Decay. 

Immortal Bird vocalist Rae Amitay talked to us about Eminem albums, music school and the difference between keeping the rhythm and fronting a band.

One of the best things about heavy metal is the sense of community it fosters: we’re all in this together because no one else fucking cares. So when an unexpected metalhead pops up in daily life, it’s always a cool feeling. Sometimes it’s that weird guy at work who never says a word to anyone but comes in one Friday wearing a Stargazer shirt…and sometimes it’s an MLB All-Star relief pitcher with more than 200 career strikeouts and a beard with its own zip code.

Two weeks ago, you had a chance to listen to Lychgate’s new album, An Antidote for the Glass Pill.  Now hear from the music’s creator about how philosophy and dystopian literature contributed to the organ-saturated black/doom album.

In the latest issue, Autopsy joins our revered two-time Hall Of Fame Club, which includes metal stalwarts like Celtic Frost, Carcass and At The Gates. To commemorate the Severed Survival HOF we’re printing our exclusive “Illustrated History” of Autopsy with Eric Cutler and Chris Reifert from late 2013.  

For the majority of you, the name Adolyne may not ring a bell, but in Western Canada, the Saskatoon noise-niks are on the tips of more than a few tongues

Hell’s Headbangers is regifting us with Cianide’s 1997 album Death, Doom and Destruction.  The album was already a threatening slab of primitive extremity, and the reissue has extended the dread by appending a set of five demos (Rage War) and a 7″ (The Truth) that includes a Master cover of the same name.

Since 1999, Miroslav “Curby” Urbanec has been putting on the Obscene Extreme Festival in Czech. Billed as a “freak friendly extreme music festival,” OE has faithfully and respectfully catered to the grind, crust, punk, hardcore and death metal hordes. We caught up with Curby to ask about trying to book obscenity and extremity for one part of the world from the other.

On August 1, blackQueen will release their new Billy Anderson-produced album The Directress, which features guest appearances by musicians including Uta Plotkin, Joy Von Spain of Eye Of Nix, and Wrest of Leviathan. Pete Jay talked to us about his love of horror soundtracks and the comeback of his passion project.