****** ** ** ** **////**/** // /** ** // /** ****** ****** ******* ** ***** /** ***** ****** /** /****** //**//* **////**//**///**/** **///** /** **///** **//// /** /**///** /** / /** /** /** /**/**/** // /**/*******//***** //** **/** /** /** /** /** /** /**/**/** ** /**/**//// /////** //****** /** /**/*** //****** *** /**/**//***** ***//****** ****** ////// // // /// ////// /// // // ///// /// ////// ////// **** ****** ** /**/ **////**/** ****** ****** ** // /** ****** ****** ****** **////**///**/ /** /****** //////** **////** **//// /** /** /** /** /**///** ******* /** /**//***** /** /** /** //** **/** /** **////** /** /** /////** //****** /** //****** /** /**//********//****** ****** ////// // ////// // // //////// ////// ////// Special Anniversary MEGA-issue CHRONICLES OF CHAOS E-zine, August 12, 1996, Issue #13 Editor-in-Chief: Gino Filicetti <_DeaTH_ on #metal> Coordinator: Adrian Bromley Assistant Editor: Alain M. Gaudrault Web Page Manager: Brian Meloon Contributor: Steve Hoeltzel Contributor: Adam Wasylyk Mailing List provided by: The University of Colorado at Boulder --> Interested in being reviewed? Send us your demo and bio to: -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= CHRONICLES OF CHAOS 57 Lexfield Ave Downsview Ont. M3M-1M6, Canada Fax: (416) 693-5240 Voice: (416) 693-9517 e-mail: ginof@io.org -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= DESCRIPTION ~~~~~~~~~~~ Chronicles of Chaos is a monthly magazine electronically distributed worldwide via the Internet. Chronicles of Chaos focuses on all forms of brutal music; from thrash to death to black metal, we have it all. Each issue will feature interviews with your favorite bands, written from the perspective of a true fan. Each issue will also include record reviews and previews, concert reviews and tour dates, as well as various happenings in the metal scene worldwide. We here at Chronicles of Chaos also believe in reader participation, so we encourage you to submit any material you may have to Gino Filicetti . HOW TO SUBSCRIBE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You may subscribe to Chronicles of Chaos at any time by sending a message with "coc subscribe " in the SUBJECT of your message to . Please note that this command must NOT be sent to the list address . WORLD WIDE WEB SITE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We are currently in the process of constructing a website for Chronicles of Chaos. You can check it out by pointing your web browser to http://www.io.org/~ginof/coc.html. If you have any comments or suggestions, please e-mail Brian Meloon . AUTOMATIC FILESERVER ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ All back issues and various other CoC related files are available for automatic retrieval through our e-mail fileserver. All you have to do is send a message to us at . The 'Subject:' field of your message must read: "send file X" where 'X' is the name of the requested file. Back issues are named 'coc-n', where 'n' is the issue number. For a description of all files available through this fileserver, request 'list'. Remember to use lowercase letters for all file names. If you experience any problems or are having difficulty, feel free to e-mail us the usual way at . >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Issue #13 Contents, 8/12/96 --------------------------- * Editorial * Loud Letters * Ferocious Features -- Monster Voodoo Machine: Mutiny On The Machine -- Fu Manchu: Fu Fighting With Fu Manchu -- Iced Earth: Spawn-ing New Territory * Chaotic Chat Sessions -- Grave: Digging Graves And Hating It -- Ancient: Aphazel's Almighty Ancient -- The Almighty: The Classic Comeback * Independent Interrogations -- Spastic Ink: Indelibly Inked -- Solus: Toronto's Takeover * Record Revelations -- Ninefinger - _Torque/Bad Wheel_ 7" -- Aceldama - _Blood_ -- Amestigon/Angizia (Split CD) -- Ancient Rites - _Blasphemia Eternal_ -- Arcana - _Dark Age of Reason_ -- Various - _Black Mark Attack_ -- Blood Duster - _Yeest_ -- Brutal Truth - _Machine Parts +4_ 7" -- The Chasm - _From the Lost Years_ -- Burnt Colonels - _Malice Afterthought_ -- Darkthrone - _Total Death_ -- Death Con 1 - _Refuse to Lose_ -- Desultory - _Swallow The Snake_ -- Diabolical Masquerade - _Ravendusk in My Heart_ -- Dimmu Borgir - _Stormblast_ -- Dismal Euphony - _Dismal Euphony_ -- Dark Funeral - _Secrets of the Black Arts_ -- Gorgoroth - _Antichrist_ -- Old Grandad - _Vol. 666_ -- g/z/r - _Cycle of Sixty/x13_ -- Iced Earth - _Dark Saga_ -- Intrinsic - _Closure_ -- Kataklysm - _Temple Of Knowledge (Kataklysm Part III)_ -- King Diamond - _The Graveyard_ -- Kvist - _For Kunsten Maa Vi Evig Vike_ -- Madball - _Demonstrating My Style_ -- Mercyful Fate - _Into The Unknown_ -- Monster Voodoo Machine - _Pirate Satellite_ -- Mortification - _Envision EvAngelene_ -- Psychotica - _Psychotica_ -- Rotting Christ - _Triarchy Of The Lost Lovers_ -- Satyricon - _Nemesis Divina: The Conquering_ -- Soulquake System - _Angry By Nature, Ugly By Choice_ -- The Mist - _Gottverlassen_ -- Turmoil - _From Bleeding Hands_ -- Vader - _Sothis_ -- Vertex - _Vertex_ -- Visceral Evisceration - _Incessant Desire for Palatable Flesh_ -- Various - _...And Even Wolves Hid Their Teeth_ -- Y & T - _Musically Incorrect_ * Reviews Revisited * New Noise -- Absonant Cadence - _Emergence_ -- Body Bag - _Hate Crimes_ -- Chamber Seven - _Chamber Seven_ -- Disarray - _Widespread Human Disaster_ -- Embrace - _Coven The Eternal_ -- Endaymynion - _Thy Art_ -- Filthboy - _Not Again..._ -- Jesus Skin - _Jesus Skin_ -- Noctophilia - _Noctophilia_ -- Nun Slaughter - _Face of Evil_ -- Pychus - _Brainmower_ -- Iron Rainbow - _Never Settle for Less than Metal_ -- Solus - _Slave Of Mind_ -- Strangers - _End of the Rainbow_ -- Sulkus - _Promo '96_ -- Sunride - _Sunride_ -- Torquemada - _Promo 1996_ -- Towpath - _Towpath_ * Chaotic Concerts -- Milwaukee's Metal Monster: The Tenth Annual Milwaukee Metalfest -- The London Let-Down: The London Death Fest -- Slayer Slaughters The Sacred Shoe: Slayer with Unsane -- Clutching Onto The Last Orange: Clutch with Orange 9mm/Fu Manchu * Writer's Wrath (sneak preview) * Tours of Torture * What We Have Cranked -- Special TOP TEN Year-in-Review Edition * The Final Word =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= E D I T O R I A L ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ by: Gino Filicetti Today is a very special day indeed. It was on this day, exactly one year ago that Chronicles of Chaos #1 was unleashed on an unsuspecting 80 readers. Looking back at our first issue, I feel a strange sense of nostalgia. It seems weird to me that CoC #1 only had two stories, eight reviews and two demo reviews. Now let's fast forward one year and see what we have in this MONSTER anniversary issue, CoC #13: three stories, three chats, two indie stories, forty reviews, eighteen demo reviews, three concert reviews and two brand new columns. Also as an added bonus, we've decided to use the original logo font for the Chronicles of Chaos title, through twelve issues we've managed to use a different font each time, therefore I thought it was fitting to revert back to where we started. All this information is set to be unleashed upon 750+ email subscribers. I think the figures speak for themselves, I on the other hand, am speechless. All of us here at CoC have worked very very hard to get this issue out to everyone as jam packed as we could. It was hard but we've managed to do it despite the absense of one very important member of our staff. Alain took a well deserved vacation in Scotland this month and unfortunately has not been able to contribute much to this issue. His absense was greatly felt and his proofreading skills were dearly missed as well. One section of this issue which is somewhat lacking compared to previous issues is our Loud Letters section. We only got one letter this month and I was quite disappointed. Hopefully this issue will generate more than a few letters for next issue. As you all know, September is fast approaching and with it comes a new year of school. For me, it's my first year of Engineering at U of T. I know from my brother's previous experience that this program leaves little time for much extra-curricular activities. Therefore, I will be playing a somewhat lesser role in the issues to come. To pick up the slack in writing, we want to recruit a few more writers to join the CoC Clan. We want an individual who has an aptitude for writing as well as a few contacts in the music biz or a good standing with indie bands. If you think you are qualified, contact me at and we'll talk and see how you can best help Chronicles of Chaos. New this issue are two more columns: Reviews Revisited and Writer's Wrath. The first, Reviews Revisited, is a special annual feature in which our writers are given a chance to set right any wrong done in reviews over the past year. Check it out after Record Revelations and see what the rest of us think of some of these reviews. Also new is Writer's Wrath. The idea for Writer's Wrath was first proposed by Adam Wasylyk who suggested that CoC start a new column where us writers can rant and rave about certain happenings in the music scene today. The Writer's Wrath moniker was generously supplied by my new alliteration protege, Steve Hoeltzel. The first Writer's Wrath column however, could be finished in time for inclusion in this issue, look for the debut Writer's Wrath in CoC #14. Also new this issue is our What We Have Cranked section which we have expanded to a Top Ten Year In Review for each writer. Look here for what we think were the ten best albums previously reviewed in CoC. Just this past weekend, we had somewhat of a CoC reunion. Steve Hoeltzel decided to head up to Toronto to spend a little time here at CoC central. Adrian, Adam and I graciously showed our colleague around town, brought him to the coolest head shops and record stores to spend all his life savings, showed him the night-life in Toronto with special emphasis on the gothic/industrial/freak clubs we have to offer. On Saturday night, fate was on our side and local Toronto black metal kings, Burning Moon played at the Generator doning their corpse paint, swords and daggers along with their capes and bullet belts. A great time was had by all, especially Steve who I'm sure will never forget eating the best Italian food this world has to offer, care of my mom! Alright people, that about wraps things up for this year. I'm glad you are all still with us and growing stronger by the minute. Let's get those Loud Letters rolling and we'll see you all soon as we keep cranking out these Chronicles of Chaos issues. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= To commemorate the first anniversary of Chronicles of Chaos, we are teaming up with Attic/Roadrunner Records to present one lucky winner a heart stopping SEPULTURA giveaway. The prize pack will include: CD's, autographed posters, pictures, stickers and much, much more. All you have to do is answer the three questions below via e-mail to by September 6, 1996. ONE winner will be drawn at random from all CORRECT entries. So put your thinking cap on kiddies and lets get this show on the road! Q U E S T I O N S ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. Which song did ex-Dead Kennedy's frontman Jello Biafra co-write on 1993's _Chaos A.D._? 2. Producer of _Roots_, Ross Robinson, has also done work with many other bands, most notably one band in particular; a five-piece outfit from Bakersfield, CA whose self-titled debut album has sold well and built up a very strong fanbase. Which band is it? HINT: The bands spells their name incorrectly and has a thing for clowns and bagpipes. 3. Name Max Cavalera's now defunct, but successful side-project with Alex Newport (ex-Fudge Tunnel)? NOTE: There will also be two runner ups who will get various CDs, stickers and posters from several labels and some cool unsigned acts just for entering the contest. Good luck! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= M""MMMMMMMM dP M MMMMMMMM 88 M MMMMMMMM .d8888b. dP dP .d888b88 M MMMMMMMM 88' `88 88 88 88' `88 M MMMMMMMM 88. .88 88. .88 88. .88 M M `88888P' `88888P' `88888P8 MMMMMMMMMMM M""MMMMMMMM dP dP M MMMMMMMM 88 88 M MMMMMMMM .d8888b. d8888P d8888P .d8888b. 88d888b. .d8888b. M MMMMMMMM 88ooood8 88 88 88ooood8 88' `88 Y8ooooo. M MMMMMMMM 88. ... 88 88 88. ... 88 88 M M `88888P' dP dP `88888P' dP `88888P' MMMMMMMMMMM This is the column where we print those lovely letters our readers decide so graciously to write us. Whether they be positive, negative, ignorant or just plain spelled wrong, you can rest assured that they'll be here in their original form. If you'd like to see your own letter here, e-mail it to and enter 'Attention Loud Letters' in the subject field. Hopefully all letters received will be featured in upcoming issues of Chronicles of Chaos. Date: Wed, 17 Jul 1996 From: Chuck Marshall Subject: Re: Chronicles of Chaos #9 (1/3) Hello Gino and everyone at Chronicles, Excellent magazine. I was look forward to checking it out. Especially the reviews, which give a real nice overview of the music without alot of "this sucks", "this jams" kinda shit. Anyway, I'm seeking some help... Based on reviews I read (in Chronicles of Chaos), I'm searching for releases by In Flames, Dark Tranquility, and Obliveon's NEMISIS album. No luck locally, or with Wild Rags (they did have Obliveon's NEMISIS album awhile back, but not anymore) Can you give me some address for either the record labels or good (ie. trustworthy) mail-order shops that might have these discs? Thanks very much in advance and thanks again for the great zine. ***************************************************************** Chuck Marshall cmarshal@umich.edu University of Michigan Ph. (313) 647-5262 MCIT Business Information Systems FAX (313) 647-5272 Building 2/Floor 3, Suite 300, Box 2785, 4251 Plymouth Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48105 - I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy every minute of it. - ***************************************************************** =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ___________ .__ \_ _____/__________ ____ ____ |__| ____ __ __ ______ | __)/ __ \_ __ \/ _ \_/ ___\| |/ _ \| | \/ ___/ | \\ ___/| | \( <_> ) \___| ( <_> ) | /\___ \ \___ / \___ >__| \____/ \___ >__|\____/|____//____ > \/ \/ \/ \/ ___________ __ \_ _____/___ _____ _/ |_ __ _________ ____ ______ | __)/ __ \\__ \\ __\ | \_ __ \_/ __ \ / ___/ | \\ ___/ / __ \| | | | /| | \/\ ___/ \___ \ \___ / \___ >____ /__| |____/ |__| \___ >____ > \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ The meat of the matter lies here. Read on for the juiciest morsels on bands ranging from the reknowned to the obscure. No fat, no gristle, just blood-soaked slabs served hot and ready. Dig in, readers. M U T I N Y O N T H E M A C H I N E ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ An Interview with Toronto's Monster Voodoo Machine by: Adrian Bromley Mutiny. The word brings up images of a rebellion or some form of revolt. Seems fitting for Toronto sextet Monster Voodoo Machine who in the last year, since the completion of their year and a half long tour in support of _Suffersystem_, have bailed from their major label RCA/BMG, had to deal with internal band conflicts which lead to the departure of some members and the everyday hassles of dealing with the opening up the creative floodgates for new material. Despite all the setbacks and obstacles, almost 20 months to the date of the release of their debut album, emerges the next step in the evolution of Monster Voodoo Machine's musical prowess: _Pirate Satellite_. The five-song EP on independent label 45 Revolutions Productions (only 1,000 copies of _PS_ will be pressed) is by far a ways away from the award winning grind hardcore-metallic stomp dose of music that embodied their 1995 Juno Award winning LP, _Suffersystem_, let alone the swelling techno/industrial/hardcore tinged offerings of past EP's: _Burn_ (1992) and _State Voodoo/State Control_ (1994) Led by singer/songwriter/founder Adam Sewell (the band is comprised of guitarists Jason Cuddy and Darren Quinn, drummer Dean Bentley and newcomers keyboardist Nick Sagias and bassist Chris Harris - both good friends of the band and ex-Soulstorm members) Monster Voodoo Machine has once again shapeshifted itself, lessening the need for guitars and the harsh grittiness to their sound and adding more feeling to the material and lyrics by incorporating ample amounts of samples and vocal stylings to balance out the diversity of the record. While different in some aspects, the album itself still has the feel and markings of MVM. No doubt about it. On the new album _PS_, Sewell begins, "Even though we will only have 1,000 copies of the record out, those that will hear it or have it will be able to see what the new stuff is about. That is all that it is about. I have no intention of keeping up the indie label and putting records out on it." About the EP's material serving any real purpose or showing off the growth of the band, Sewell answers, "I don't know about that. I think this material is the material that in the spring of 1996 Monster Voodoo Machine recorded and put out. We have about an album's worth of material right now and plan to record that in September sometime. Everything is ready to go for us." "This wasn't a conscious effort to make an impression on anybody," remarks Sewell on the direction of the new material, "The only thing that I was conscious of was to make the production of the record more along the lines of what I wanted to hear. I think people will finally understand that we had nothing to do with industrial music or be in a industrial band. To be able to take what is in my head and clearly portray it musically and I think I am finally capable of doing that. I think people will understand that we are more Big Audio Dynamite than Skinny Puppy." "This is the first time I have ever made a record and made it because it was fun," he says, "Because it was the right thing to do and it was enjoyable doing it. MVM have never made a record under those conditions before." Sewell is obviously happy with the production of the EP and his work with Biron Wong (from Toronto band, My Brilliant Beast). Sewell states, "Over the last year since we took off time, I had to educate myself. With Biron he really educated me and taught me how to get the things in my head on tape. He spent a lot of time with me and was patient too. I spent time educating myself and also with the fact that the band wanted to push themselves to approach their instruments. It was a collective desire for a step forward and that has really helped everybody. Music is more enjoyable for me now because I am working with people that I want to work with and I think if you look at what the songs have lyrically or mood-wise, I wanted to create a record that was a good time. For example, the song 'Ghetto Blaster' isn't quite exactly a serious song. I think that is an indication of what is going on with the band and it's music." While the band had done their time with a major label and now on their own, it doesn't go to say MVM isn't scouting around for another major to call home - or worse - that the band is up a creek without a paddle. The band has been approached by several record labels since their departure from RCA/BMG. "That was a fortunate thing that once we walked out of the RCA deal we walked into a situation where other labels were interested in what was going on or how they could be involved, which was cool for us." Another thing that the band has seen grow and feed off of is their experience within the music industry. Calling their own shots is a big deal for them. On touring: "I definitely think we are not as naive anymore about having to play anywhere and anytime. I definitely want to play with other types of bands other than the types we played with in the past. A few of us in the band have families and I am sure we don't want to stay on the road as long this time around. Maybe a few weeks here and there and then some time off. For the first four years of the band it was just continuous work to make things happen and everything we did, all the energy, went into making things happen and not the music. Now there is a relaxed atmosphere within the band and now it is the music first and then we work on the other things we have to deal with. Everything seems to be going good right now because of that. I'm not dying to get out on the road. I have no points to prove to anybody except musically and that is why I am choosing this way of doing things this time around." =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= F U F I G H T I N G W I T H F U M A N C H U ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ by: Adrian Bromley Orange County, California quartet Fu Manchu are on a mission to write the heaviest slabs of rock ever and mold them together with enough distorted sludge, fuzz and feedback that it would be difficult to decipher their music from that of a freight train moving along its tracks. Their debut album for Mammoth/Attic, _In Search Of..._, sounds like the 5:10 from Orange Country just came in. "The way I like to listen to our music is by driving around in the car," explains lead singer/guitarist Scott Hill about how he selects their material for release. "I'll listen to our 4-tracks and if it sounds good I'll say, 'We'll work on that, it sounds heavy.' I don't care how anyone listens to our music - stoned, drunk or straight. There isn't one way to listen to it. I'd like people listening to the record to get something different out of it with each listen." The band - also including guitarist Eddie Glass, drummer Ruben Romano and bassist Brad Davis - manage on _In Search Of..._ to carry on with the stylistic noise brought to our attention via their two previous releases on BongLoad Records, _Daredevil_ (1994) and _No One Rides For Free_ (1995). Their latest effort, recorded in just 11 days, is a travelling time-trip through Sabbath-like riffs not unlike the route followed recently by Kyuss and Monster Magnet, but with a distinct Fu Manchu attitude and tone. Gritty and loose, _In Search Of..._ veers off into sonic proportions at times, but stays true to its original ideal of 'heavy.' States Hill, "We never come up with a plan to write a song. The songs for this record are from riffs we had lying around and songs we were working on over an eight month period. The twelve songs are the ones that we all liked that had been tested from early 8-track and 4-track demos. When we went into the studio we wanted to make a record to match how we are live, you know, to get that raw sound." As opposed to their earlier releases, Fu Manchu opted for a more varied approach to making this effort. Acknowledges Hill, "We set up the album with songs with a faster sound and then mixed it to go into a slower, more back and forth groove sound. It was on purpose because we didn't want the record to follow one pattern and bore the listener. This way the music keeps the listener going." As for the name of the record, "It's based on that show from the 70's, In Search Of...," notes Hill, "There's a lot of the material and lyrics dealing with U.F.O.'s, Big Foot stuff, and where we come from." And just what are they 'in search of'? "I couldn't tell ya," laughs Hill. In their quest for fame, Fu Manchu is pursuing success through the more traditional means of touring and playing live, as opposed to making videos or a writing a potential hit single. Says Hill, "I see us following in the same pattern as bands like Kyuss who do what they do without looking for a hit single and look at this industry as just being part of what they do. I don't listen to a lot of newer stuff. If they had a hit single then so be it, but they didn't go out of the way to write one or release one." He may want to reconsider, though, as Palm Desert sludge rock quartet Kyuss are now defunct. Since their formation in 1994, Fu Manchu has, in a short period of time, made quite a cult-followed name for themselves, and by hooking up with Mammoth Records, have now come a bit closer to imminent mass success. "Moving to a bigger label has been a lot better for us," reveals Hill. "Things have been good for us. The label is treating us real well, getting us on tours, doing promotion, getting our record in stores. The move has been beneficial for us." =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= S P A W N - I N G N E W T E R R I T O R Y ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ An Interview with Iced Earth by: Adrian Bromley Iced Earth guitarist Jon Schaffer loves his new album. He likes the music, the lyrics and most importantly the artwork of the album. The cover artwork (and inner artwork) of the band's latest effort, _Dark Saga_, as well as the whole album's concept theme, is based on the immensely popular Spawn comic series drawn by acclaimed artist Todd McFarlane, a comic series Shaffer has followed faithfully since it's beginning a few years back. Schaffer accounts the steps taken to be able to successfully use both the rights to the artwork and the story for the album. "It all started with us approaching the Spawn people/McFarlane camp about doing some soundtrack music for the HBO animation series or the live action movie which is coming up (both out in 1997). So one thing led to another and we became really good friends with some of the people working with Todd McFarlane. So I asked Todd to do an album cover for us and he looked at us as if he was saying, 'Are you crazy? I am busy with all this stuff to do anything.' We asked to use some of his existing art but he wasn't to keen about that, but what he was willing to do was let us use some artwork for Spawn #50 which just recently came out. So that is good for us seeing that they came out about the same time. It is really good timing how everything happened at the same time almost. I have been a big fan of the series and it has been an inspiration for me to write and make music too." "I see this album as a dark love story," says Schaffer describing _DS_, "It is what Spawn is. It is very much a tragedy: life and death, heaven and hell, opposites and just a dark fantasy." Schaffer is also pleased that with McFarlane helping them out with artwork, he will also be able to help make Spawn a bigger phenomenon then it already is - if that is possible. "When we knew we were going to get some artwork I was going to help spread the word of Spawn to the places that we are popular around the world and he can help us over here in the States. It is a really cool crossover thing for us and I am really excited about it." Since the self-titled debut album of this Tampa, Florida quintet - rounded out by singer Matthew Barlow, guitarist Randy Shawver, drummer Brent Smedley and bassist Keith Menser - surfaced in 1991, Iced Earth had been considered one of the bands to watch out for, with their melodic and versatile approach of delivering their take on speed metal. The band continued on with their style and sound and produced two more well-received records, _Night Of The Stormrider_ in 1992 and 1995's _Burnt Offerings_ that helped keep the band going and keep their fanbase growing. Musically the band was not to happy with what they were doing. Sure they were given the opportunity to create and record music but there was something missing and after spending some time planning, Schaffer had the perfect idea. "This album is done more with a positive feeling about the writing because I felt good for a change while writing, something I haven't felt in a while. Between _NotS_ and _BO_ I was really pissed off at the music industry and the way things were. And when you are young you have these preconceived notions of the way things should be and they don't go that way. The negative writing that took place in _BO_ was good and a lot of people liked it but it wasn't the direction musically that I wanted to take the band. This music made me feel better about being a musician because it is more positive but still dark. I was very keen on vocals and melody and I see it as a more mature piece of work. You change with every record but you can still tell that this is us and what we do." The writing for this album was derived from the series, with Schaffer taking ideas and characters from the series and molding them into songs. "I took characters from the comic series and used them in my songs. Some songs are written about them but there was also a good size amount of my own ideas that went into the record too. There are a lot of different ideas with my imagination. Both were able to come together and create this album." NOTE: Al Simmons, the man who the series is based on, even had his hand in helping write one of the album's songs, "Depths Of Hell." Not only is the new album being distributed in record stores, but _DS_ will also be sold in comic book stores too. On top of that, the band has already done and will continue to make appearances at several comic conventions throughout the year to push the album and the comic series. "We have been doing some promotional stuff at conventions and sold lots of CDs already. We got a good thing going here for us." The album has 'spawned' other forms of the album too, with special limited edition digi-paks, picture discs, gatefold vinyl, normal vinyl being distributed as well as a special vinyl just for comic stores where the album folds out into a poster. It is really cool shit. We are really taking this seriously. People see this as a gimmick and it is. No one is helping us except some cool underground zines and that is it. We aren't going to get support from radio or MTV. Century Media doesn't have enough money to make this band an overnight success. You have to do what you have to do and fans of heavy metal music have to understand that this shit is dying. There are not many bands left playing now. We are doing this and if we can reach young kids who read comics then so be it. A lot of these kids haven't been brainwashed by MTV yet. "I am really disgusted by the whole music scene here and this is a great thing for us because they [McFarlane and co.] have been really good with us and supportive and maybe with that help we can stir something up and bring this music back. We'll see." Getting back to the support of label Century Media, Schaffer says, "They are doing a great job with the band because they know they have something to market the band with now. We have never been able to use anything to market us except for our music, which is the way it should be, but in this day and age it not easily accepted. There are a lot of people sick of the music scene with all the alternative music and grunge shit happening and the trends. I think a lot of people, both adults and kids, are into this comic series and heavy music. The two go hand in hand." So, if this is even somewhat successful, will Schaffer and his band attempt another concept album? "I would like to use another artist to do our cover because there are a lot of great artists out there, but I don't know... we'll see. This is such a unique and special thing for me and I don't know if I want to milk it like that. I also wouldn't want to look like we were out to be hooked up with Spawn and have no identity. I think and see this as a good partnership. Me and Al Simmons have become good friends. I have no idea what will be on the next record and we still have lots of life experiences to have before we settle on doing another record." =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= _______ __ _ _______ __ / ___/ / ___ ____ / /_(_)___ / ___/ / ___ _/ /_ / /__/ _ \/ _ `/ _ \/ __/ / __/ / /__/ _ \/ _ `/ __/ \___/_//_/\_,_/\___/\__/_/\__/ \___/_//_/\_,_/\__/ ____ _ / __/__ ___ ___ (_)__ ___ ___ _\ \/ -_|_-<(_-. Well, because Jorgen used to do all the lyrics, getting the lyrics together this time was one of the hardest things to do. For the new record, Jensa did two songs and I did seven. But even a month before we went in to record the record, we only had like one or two lyrics written. CoC: How much time did you spend recording _Hating Life_? OL: Three weeks total, but we did it on and off. We took it really easy, with no stress. We didn't have a time limit so some days we'd work during the day, and then we'd take some days off and work nights, just so that we didn't do the same thing for a solid two weeks of recording or something. It worked out really good. CoC: Why are you playing music? What does it do for you? OL: Well, music is a really big part of my life now. I started listening to the early thrash bands in the early eighties, in like 1984 and 85 with Celtic Frost and Destruction and Kreator. And I started playing guitar when I was twelve. So it was just what I've always wanted to do basically. We did demo tapes and established ourselves in the underground and it was really fun to get that kind of recognition. Then we got the record deal and everything else is history. It's all I know how to do basically, so I guess I better stick with it. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= A P H A Z E L ' S A L M I G H T Y A N C I E N T ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chronicles of Chaos chats with Norway's Ancient by: Gino Filicetti Life for Ancient, started in beginning, as all lifeforms on this great green (or should I say, frozen white) earth do, alone. In the beginning (or 1992 to be exact), there was Aphazel, and Aphazel alone. Ancient was a solo project who's mastermind, Aphazel, has brought to the fore front of the black metal scene. CoC spoke with Ancient's guitarist during on of his many lay overs in the United States. CoC: How has Ancient changed since it was a solo project? Aphazel: Well, I had a drummer named Grimm join the band in 1993. He also sang and wrote lyrics. The band consisted of two members until 1995 when Grimm basically retired from music altogether. Then I got a vocalist from the band Grand Belials Key named Lord Kaiaphas, he's now playing drums as well as singing and we got a female vocalist from Avernus named Kimberly Goss, she also plays keyboards. We also have another drummer from Norway named Kjetil, he plays five songs on the new album. CoC: What has Lord Kaiaphas brought to Ancient? A: Well, he writes all the lyrics and he sings and plays the drums on four songs. But he didn't really have any creative input into the music as I wrote all the songs on _The Cainian Chronicle_. Later on he'll become more involved with the making of the music. He was pretty much a new member when we recorded the album. The way it is now, me and Kaiaphas are the main members of Ancient. CoC: How is the relationship between yourself and Kaiaphas? A: We get along great. I stay with him whenever I'm in the United States. I met him in June of last year when he was still in Grand Belials Key. I was in Virginia and I met him down there. Then when Grand Belials Key split up, it was the same time Grimm left Ancient, so Kaiaphas was the perfect guy to take Grimm's place. It's been working out really good. CoC: I think the lyrics on this CD are the best I've read from ANY black metal band, where does Kaiaphas get his inspiration? A: He reads a lot of books on magick and that kind of stuff. _The Cainian Chronicle_ is based on the book of Nod which is like a vampire story. He's really into the stuff he reads, and the lyrics for Grand Belials Key were really good too. CoC: Has anyone ever questioned you or your band's true-ness? Have you ever been seen as imposters because you have Americans in the band? A: Not really. But I myself don't think we are a pure black metal band. Basically you can say its black metal, but we have a lot of influences from different types of metal and we keep the music very atmospheric. Sort of cross breeding black metal with all kinds of different styles. CoC: What is your opinion of the whole black metal scene in Norway? A: There are a lot of good bands, but recently there have been too many new trendy bands that have come out. But I think it's a very good scene. The country itself only has four and a half million people and there are just so many good bands I think it's something to be proud of. In Norway though, there are a lot of people that play black metal, but there aren't too many non-musician fans of the music. CoC: Do you think band's like Cradle of Filth and their story in Terrorizer show that black metal bands aren't really as "true" as they claim to be? A: I never really read that story, but I looked at it briefly. In a way it's kind of funny but it's stupid too I think. I don't think we'd do anything like that. But I don't really care too much what other bands do, it's just entertainment for me basically. CoC: Did you know Euronymous? What was he like in YOUR opinion? A: No, I didn't know him. I met him once briefly in Oslo in 1991. He seemed to be pretty much like every other normal guy. He seemed like a cool guy, I just didn't get to know him. CoC: Where does Ancient get its musical inspiration? A: Well, a lot of the music I'm listening to is music that came out in the early eighties. I also listen to a lot of gothic music like Dead Can Dance and a little bit of Fields of Nifilem. I also get a lot of inspiration from myself and just playing my instruments, I don't spend a lot of time listening to music. CoC: Do you make music alone to give yourself time to think and concentrate on it? A: That's pretty much what I've always done in the past. When Grimm was in the band he helped out a little bit, but I'm the only guy who does the guitars and keyboards. For _The Cainian Chronicle_ I made ALL the music, it's totally just my creation. But in the future the members are going to work together more, and it's going to be more of a band thing. CoC: Why did you decide to record with Dan Swano at Unisound? I think it was a wise choice because the production of this CD is superb. A: Well, he's really experienced and he doesn't charge a hell of a lot of money. It's like half the price of recording in other studios. He works really fast too, we recorded the album in 85 hours. He works really well and he helped out with the female vocals and keyboards especially. He's better than other producers we worked with who didn't care too much about the music, they just cared about their job and getting things done. Plus he's an excellent musician himself, so he gives us a lot of advice and helped us out a lot. CoC: Have you done any work for your next record yet? A: No not really. I haven't started on anything yet. Right now it's about getting inspiration and talking about different ideas and things like that. We plan to record the next album in the summer of next year and hopefully release it by December 1997. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= T H E C L A S S I C C O M E B A C K ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ An Interview with The Almighty by: Adrian Bromley "Rock n' roll has been around for like forty-five years and everything has been tried and done before and you can't really show off to people anymore. For me, playing music has always been about 50% originality and 50% ripping off your heroes. That is the truth." -- Ricky Warwick, singer of The Almighty U.K. four-piece (started in Scotland circa 1988) The Almighty have just released there most diverse and last - you heard me - last record _Just Add Life_ (produced by Chris Sheldon - Therapy?) via Castle Records in the United States. The band, fronted by singer/guitarist Ricky Warwick, guitarist Pete Freisen, drummer Stumpy Monroe and bassist Floyd London, have decided to call it quits following the release of their fifth album _JAL_. This being their most diverse record, singer Warwick decided it would be beneficial to talk to the fans one more time about the demise of The Almighty, the changes the band went through musically and the amicable split the band decided to take from one another. Not utterly saddened by the demise of the band, Warwick, as well as the other three members, are presently working on other projects. Here is what he had to say: CoC: Let us start off about the record _Just Add Life_. What are your thoughts about the record and what fans can get out of it? Ricky Warwick: I think the record shows the melodic side of the band. We used to be seen as just a hard band and I think it will be suprising to see how much melody is in there. Hopefully people will also pick up on the diversity of the songs as well. CoC: Do you think that a lot of people that were into the band from the start will be lost with the changes that the band has taken with _JAL_? RW: I think we will. There will be those people that will have not grown with us and want us to continue making music like the first two records and I am sure that we will gain new fans too due to the music on this record. CoC: How do you feel about the image and sound of a band? Did you make the calls on what you do about marketing or did the record companies that you have dealt with make the decisions? RW: In the beginning we probably listened to people because we were looking for good advice but then as things go along you only should be listening to yourselves. In the past four or five years we haven't be pressured into doing anything that we didn't want to do. People have told us what to do but we don't listen. CoC: Any regrets from the days of The Almighty? Something you did that you wish you could have corrected? RW: When I look back at it now I wish we would have used different producers for the first two records. Another thing is that we were never really able to tour a lot in the United States, something I would have liked to have done. CoC: Where does the album title name come from? RW: It is like when you buy soup and read the directions and it says 'Just Add Water.' People always buy stuff to make them feel better like cars or clothes. And what I am saying is that you need not do that to make yourself happy. Just start to feel good about yourself and that is a start." CoC: Are you comfortable playing this sort of hard pop/punk music? RW: Completely. I am really happy playing this stuff. It reminds me of the type of music that I grew up on like The Clash and stuff from that era. CoC: How did you hook up with Castle Records? RW: Well, the day we came out with the record we went in and told EMI that was it and they decided that they didn't want to spend money promoting the album so we took the album over to Castle Records for release. It has worked out for us. They put the record out and that is all that matters. CoC: Over the years and all the stuff you had done with The Almighty, did you learn anything or become a better musician? RW: Yeah, you learn more when you learn about the people you work with and playing all those gigs. You learn from everything that comes with being a musician and you can either learn or get stuck in one style. We learned and grew with our music. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ::::::| :| :| :| ::| :::\ :':| :~~/ :::\ :~~/ :::\ :':| :~~/ :::\ :::| ::::::|:|:| :::| :::, :::/ :::, :|:| :::| :::, :|:| :| :| ::::::| :| :| ++ ::| :::\ :::| :~~/ :::| :::| ,::\ .::\ /::| :::| :| ,::\ :::\ <::< ::::::|:|:| :| :::, :| :| `::/ `::| \::| :| :| `::/ :|:| >::> ,.:/ Here is where CoC gets the inside story on up-and-coming bands. Check out this column for a variety of fresh, brutal groups. Should you be an aspiring band on your way to super-stardom, send us your demo and bio; our address is included in the zine's header. I N D E L I B L Y I N K E D ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CoC Interrogates Spastic Ink by: Brian Meloon Spastic Ink is the current project of WatchTower guitarist Ron Jarzombek. The band's lineup is rounded out by his brother Bobby on drums and bassist Pete Perez, both formerly of Riot. The band plays an all-instrumental brand of progressive metal (see review in CoC #10), featuring technical playing from all three members, and complex compositions. They are possibly the most technical metal band currently in existence. Their sound is very similar to an instrumental version WatchTower's _Control and Resistence_, or perhaps can be described by the phrase "Meshuggah minus Pantera". That is, if you could purge all the Pantera influence from Meshuggah, leaving only the technicality of the music and the tonalities of the guitar solos, you'd have something that sounds like Spastic Ink. According to Ron, the future of WatchTower is "Not good. We had this kind of a hope of getting back together. Jason [McMaster, the original WatchTower vocalist] was in the picture. Jason was into it, I was into it, but it seemed like it just really wasn't the thing to do. Rick [Colaluca, drums] and Doug [Keyser, bass] just weren't motivated to get it going. We all talked and stuff, but it seemed like nobody did anything about it. I mean there was always the excuse of us splitting up because we didn't have a singer, but Jason fits in pretty damn good. But me, Rick and Doug wrote about over an hour's worth of material, and it's just kinda sitting around right now." Currently, the band members have gone their separate ways, and are pursuing other interests. _C&R_ vocalist Alan Tecchio is doing session work, having recorded with among others, Power (with Dan Dalley). Rick and Doug were playing together in a funk/punk/metal/rap hybrid band called Retarted Elf, who recently broke up. Jason is currently on tour with Dangerous Toys (who he's been with since he left WatchTower in 1989). Original guitarist Billy White now fronts the Billy White Trio, who just finished up a US tour. Spastic Ink formed originally as a side project of Ron's, while preparing material for the next WatchTower record. "I had a lot of hand problems after the WatchTower tour," Ron begins, "I just messed up my tendons real bad. I had four surgeries over the course of about two and a half years, and I was even going to Austin, and writing the newer [Watchtower] stuff and playing all of it with two fingers, and I had a splint on my other hand. The Ink thing started when my hand was getting better, and I was writing some more complicated stuff, because I could use my four fingers again, and it was kind of a cool thing to be playing again after about two and a half or three years. The new WatchTower stuff wasn't as crazy as it originally was, so all the wilder stuff got thrown into the Spastic Ink stuff. When you have two projects going on, you write something and it has to fit in with one thing, and it seemed like almost everything that I was doing was going toward Spastic Ink, and if there was a tune that would've worked for both bands, it was played more accurately, or sounded better when it was with Bobby and Pete." The band started working long distance, writing their first song, the 8+ minute long "Mosquito Brain Surgery" (my personal favorite, as well as one of Ron's), without ever being in the same room. Ron explains that Bobby "would put something on tape, and I would bump his tape onto my four-track, and I would put parts to it, and give that back to him, maybe with some other stuff on it, and he would just go off on that. We would just piece it together, and see where the story was going, and it just came out out to be a really cool tune." Eventualy, the band got together and recorded four songs, including "The Thumper Impersonation", a six-section song written to be incidental music for the movie _Bambi_ (yes, the one about the deer). Although as Ron says, "it wasn't really a demo, it was just so people could see what we were doing", these songs made their way to the underground, and garnered the band an offer to release the songs on CD. The band instead decided to wait until more songs were finished to put their work out. The result of this wait is the 11-song _Ink Complete_ project. It was finished in 1994, but the band had enormous difficulty attracting label interest. Ron explains, "We had been shopping the thing and I don't know how many tapes got sent out, but from what I understand, Chris (their manager) sent probably close to 50 or 100 tapes, along with a glossy and some bio and some other stuff that he did. But we got very few responses. The response that we got was 'Call me when you get a singer.' I mean, it's hard to do anything right now, with the way the whole music market is. I even tried to send Spastic Ink stuff to labels that were jazz and instrumental oriented, and they said the only thing they were taking in was hip-hop and alternative rock. I mean, GRP told me that, Relativity told me, 'If you're not doing what's in, forget it.'" With that in mind, Ron is preparing to release the project independently, commenting, "Right now, I'm transferring all the stuff onto an ADAT, so I'm adding other parts that I couldn't add before because it was done on a four-track. And we need to get a better mix, and just clean it up, so we're going to mix it in a real studio. It should be out in 3 or 4 months if everything goes smooth." At last word, the band was negotiating with Dream Circle records in Germany for a possible release. Though many describe their particular brand of progressive metal as "jazzy", Ron objects, citing that their music, "Doesn't have any flat-5, sharp-11 chords or anything like that. It's organized, it's complicated and stuff, but it's not really jazz, it's progressive 'jazz' you get more of that music where there's no power in it, and it's real free-form. I like to think of whatever I'm doing as more organized and you know, I've always liked aggression and power. It depends on what you want to label 'jazz' as. 'Jazz' can be Chick Corea, it can be Ella Fitzgerald. It's like saying 'rock n' roll'. Ozzy always calls his music rock n' roll, but I say rock n' roll is Chuck Berry. 'Jazz' is just too broad of a word." As for his personal influences, he states "I don't really have any influences that are jazz guitar players. I mean I like people like Larry Carlton, and Al DiMeola, but the main influences have been not really 'guitar player' guitar players, but like Rush, you know Lifeson, and Trevor Rabin or Steve Howe from Yes, and even bands like UK, who had Allan Holdsworth, but on the second album, they didn't even have a guitar player. So, it's not really guitar like the guitar hero shit that was going on a couple years ago, it's more the band oriented, the whole kind of picture, instead of just one guy." The future for Spastic Ink is a little uncertain. Worried about the trouble instrumental artists are having at the moment, Ron is currently preparing vocal-oriented material. He says "I would just like to get something that I could have my name on that's crazy and stuff that does have vocals on it, so that they can't say 'where's your singer?'" Ron is writing the material for now on his computer, since he's not sure who will be playing it with him. He guesses that Bobby will end up playing on it, and Jason is the obvious choice for vocalist, as Ron notes "Jason was into the WatchTower thing, he's not really tied down to anything." Currently, the members of Spastic Ink are pursuing other interests, as Ron mentions "Pete did some tour with Riot in Europe, and Bobby's gigging around town, and I'm just doing the teaching thing." But the band members haven't tied themselves down to these other projects, with Ron claiming "We could do it right now, if we sat down." Ron's view of the future of music is pessimistic, as he explains "I hope the whole Dream Theater craze catches on, but I don't know how long that's going to last. Most of the audience today is pretty stupid. There's just no music really out there now, or I'm not exposed to any of it. I guess I wish I was in Europe, so I could see what was going on, but over here I don't know what road it would have to take for it to turn in any kind of positive direction, because right now, it's just a bunch of shit." Regardless of current trends, Spastic Ink will continue to play their technical, complex style of progressive metal to whoever will listen. Contact: SPASTIC INK, c/o Ayres Rock Management 6655 Wilkinson Ave. #103, North Hollywood, CA, 91606, USA =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= T O R O N T O ' S T A K E O V E R ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CoC Interviews Solus by: Adrian Bromley While Toronto's Solus are relative newcomers to the death metal scene, and may have a ways to go before they sign to a major label, the band is knowledgeable of the way things work in this industry and like many acts of this musical genre Solus believe first and foremost that music is to be used as tool of expression. Solus - consisting of singer Will Korbut, guitarist Derek Harnanansingh, drummer Darrell Dumas and bassist Doug Regan - have recently released their debut LP, the 9-song _Slave Of Mind_, a collection of accelerated riffs, brash vocals and a groove that'll rip your head off. The album's material is extremely aggressive, a definite outlet for the bands emotions. With the help of producer Rob Sanzo (Mundane, Poledo) at Signal To Noise Studio, he helped the band enhance those emotions with some killer knob-twiddling. "I don't think our music changed at all," explains Harnanansingh about the material of the band going from paper and demos tape into recording the material in a studio. "When we went to Rob we went in and discussed how we wanted to do things. We wanted to keep the record as raw sounding and as aggressive as we could get it. With that in mind, Rob did a great job and not much was changed." On studio work and the pressure of assembling a record there, singer Korbut says, "The pressure makes the recording process fly even faster. We had a lot of pressure. We had a real tight budget. The pressure was really tight and that is why the CD came out the way it did I guess." "This music is a bloodletting of aggression. A pouring out of aggression. Everyone in the band has something to be aggressive about whether it be today's society or society twelve hundred years ago," says Korbut analyzing the band's material. "I think our music is going to get more aggressive and heavier on a wider spectrum. Playing this music is something we are now going to continue doing. It is like a mad dog tasting blood - we just tasted the blood and now we are still going for it more." As young blood of this musical genre, Solus has seen the ways of the music industry shift from one style to another. Metal or even hard rock has not been in the last little while what it was say ten years ago. Many hard and heavy bands or metal bands have not gotten the exposure that they would have once gotten and now many are forced to go back into the underground until the time comes (if it will) where this type of music is accepted again - meaning that a larger public accepts it rather than just underground or hard core fans of this musical style. "I don't think it has changed much. This kind of music always goes above and below ground. I haven't changed my likings to bands since I got into music," says Harnanansingh disagreeing with the question somewhat. Korbut juts in, "There are a lot of bands that don't get anywhere because there is this huge cloud of corporatism shrouding any kind of marketing they do and that it is hard to tell when the heavy bands are performing. I think music is getting heavier. This alternative thing has spread itself so thin that it has no where to go and all these metal bands are going to be sitting in the limelight when it goes away." Musically the band's makeup revolves around the intensity and stamina of a tight thrash band but the towering presence and charisma of a death metal band, as seen on such songs as "Caustic," "Souls Of Empty" and "Deciever." The combination of these two characteristics in the sound is quite evident, but starting out explains Harnanansingh, the band never really tried to play like any one of their influences. "The influences come from a large range. Everything from jazz to hard core and metal. It is not something as myself as a guitar player really considers. I just listen to my influences and what comes out comes out. I think our music has gotten a lot more aggressive and I don't know why that is. But it works and that is the way it is meant to be for us." On the material for songs he notes, "We don't have a preconceived notion of what we are going to do. We have a lot of aggression to get out and a lot of things to say and so far we haven't run out of ideas we will continue to use that as our sound board." "Whatever comes out in the music just comes out," says Korbut, "Our music is just aggressive for some reason or another. I guess as long as everyone had a shitty childhood then we are set and will stay aggressive." He smiles and laughs. Seeing that the band is independent it takes a lot of effort to get recognition or least some exposure around the world. The band has worked hard over the last little while to help get things going: taking out ads in magazines around the world, mailing out over 300 CDs and bios to magazines and labels worldwide. What is important to an indie band? What is important for them? "For us it is a bit of both: playing out and press. There is nothing like seeing this live show. The energy is intense and the press factor is vital because you need to let people know you are out there or you won't get anywhere," states Korbut. "At this point in time we are just happy to have the record out and people liking it. We have been getting great responses since it has been out." Perhaps you think that most indie bands would want to taste success as soon as they could, Solus are the complete opposite. "We are not trying to attract anyone except for people that will listen to our music. Whether it be A&R people, label reps or kids just freaking out in their bedroom over it. There is no real focus in particular and that surprises people. We are not shopping our CD, just trying to get it out there and have kids or anyone for that matter just hear and see how heavy this CD is," says Korbut. "And the good thing about us being independent is that we call our own shots. We don't owe anyone anything as we did everything for the CD ourselves." Harnanansingh, who did the artwork for the CD, comments: "We kept the artwork simple and easy in some way to not let the artwork take away from the aggressiveness and pounding of the record. We didn't want to glamorize our product. We'll just let the music keep everyone interested. That is the way it should be." =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ______ __ | __ \.-----.----.-----.----.--| | | <| -__| __| _ | _| _ | |___|__||_____|____|_____|__| |_____| ______ __ __ __ | __ \.-----.--.--.-----.| |.---.-.| |_|__|.-----.-----.-----. | <| -__| | | -__|| || _ || _| || _ | |__ --| |___|__||_____|\___/|_____||__||___._||____|__||_____|__|__|_____| This is where we rant, rave, and rip apart albums. Check this column every month for the scoop on the latest in heavy hand-outs. Scoring: 10 out of 10 -- If there was ever a perfect CD, this is it! 8 out of 10 -- A great piece of metallic mayhem 6 out of 10 -- Not too bad of an album 4 out of 10 -- You are treading in dangerous waters 2 out of 10 -- If you like this, you are fucked! 0 out of 10 -- My shit can put out better music than this! Ninefinger - _Torque/Bad Wheel_ 7" (Deaf American Rec., 1995) by: Gino Filicetti (6 out of 10) After years of being thought lost forever, the first Ninefinger 7" has been re-released to the public through Deaf American Records. Originally released through Compulsiv Music, this album consists of two songs of the utmost slowness and heaviness. The band consisted of Corrosion of Conformity's Mike Dean on bass and vox, Brutal Truth's Rich Hoak on drums and Paul Maiello on guitar. The music here is comparable to some EYEHATEGOD mixed with a good dose of heavily distorted and lazy vocals. Not the best recording I've ever heard, but cool nonetheless. Aceldama - _Blood_ (Mother Noise Records, June 1996) by: Ryan Hair (6 out of 10) I first saw the flyer for this band at a local music store. I was interested because it was a local metal band. The flyer said they were influenced by King Diamond, Slayer, and Sepultura. I have not heard any Slayer or Selputura so I was skeptical. I have a Mercyful Fate album that I thought was rather good. At first I thought they were descent but they later create a brutal yet beautiful atmosphere. The vocals range from low grunting to James Hetfield barking to King Diamond high screeches. They have fairly good production, clean lows and highs. They also put in some keyboards that create the mystical atmosphere. The only bad thing I have to say about the album would be the lack of interesting beats by the drummer. If I could say something to the band it would be to the drummer, "Learn a new beat bud!" It's very monotonous, even more than "generic" death metal. Overall it's a good album for $10. Amestigon/Angizia (Napalm Records split CD, June 1996) by: Steve Hoeltzel Amestigon: (6 out of 10) This band plays predominantly mid-paced black metal, with the standard high-pitched guitar, raspy vocals, and occasional touches of 'atmosphere' in the form of choral arrangements, keyboard flourishes, and so on. Think of slower Abigor material, and you've pretty much got it. You've also pretty much heard it all before, even if not by this particular band. "Samhain" is an enjoyable track with solid momentum and cool vocal phrasings, and "Mysterious Realms" speeds along quite compellingly. Still, nowhere on this four-track offering does Amestigon establish any sonic identity of their own. For the most part, they just sound like _Orkblut_-era Abigor, minus the experimentation. Solid black metal, yeah, but pretty monotonous sounding too. Angizia: (4 out of 10) Having just ripped Amestigon for their lack of originality, I hate to come down so hard on Angizia, who are obviously aiming to do something new and different. But this stuff is just corny. Take mid-paced black metal with an incredibly thin guitar sound, mix the guitar way lower than what sounds like a child's toy piano, have both play some out-and-out hokey melodies - over and over and over - and you've got the basic Angizia sound. To make it complete, sing a duet on top of that - one black metal rasp, one dreamy female voice, singing the same lines simultaneously. Seriously, I applaud this band's attempt to do something original, but I just can't get into the results at all. It's different, yeah, but it's cheesey, and it's got no real metallic power at all. Ancient Rites - _Blasphemia Eternal_ (Mascot Records, 1996) by: Steve Hoeltzel (6 out of 10) Although Ancient Rites are generally tagged as a black metal band, it's kind of hard to see why. Maybe it's just their makeup, because on _BE_ (their second full-length), they favor a style much more akin to that of great 80's thrash bands like Sodom and (especially) Kreator - right down to the quiet-strings-meets-crunchy-riffing opening of their CD. More than anything else, they remind me of Kreator circa that band's first two albums, but with a somewhat less ferocious overall sound. _BE_ definitely contains some solid, thrashy material, delivered with competence and conviction - for proof, check out "Garden of Delights." Thrash metal lives or dies with the killer riff, though, and a lot of the riffs on this album are neither complex, nor catchy, nor all that energetic, which makes a lot of the songs hard to really get into. The vocals are mid-ranged and rather subdued (for an underground act), and the band cruises through most of their material at a pretty restrained speed. So as extreme metal goes, this is fairly tame stuff. Yeah, it has that 'old school' metal feel to it, but the real giants of the old school could just blow this stuff away in terms of energy and invention. Arcana - _Dark Age of Reason_ (Cold Meat Industry, June 1996) by: Gino Filicetti (5 out of 10) Hailing from the majestic Northern land of Sweden come Peter Pettersson and Ida Bengtsson, the heart and soul of Arcana. Although this is the couple's first release, Arcana is widely known in the Scandanavian folk music scene. The music on this CD can be very majestic and awe-inspiring at times, but also very dark and tragic. There are ten songs on this recording, fortunately though, most are not of epic length. The entire CD was finished in 35 minutes, something I found weird about a band that plays this kind of music (take for example our buddy Mortiis, who loves pumping out the twenty minute soundscapes!). Some tracks I found particularily inspiring were "Source of Light," a faster paced piece with beautiful pianos that exploits both male and female vocals. Also the title track was excellent, a very dark and brooding song that is sans vox. "The Song of Mourning" also appears on the Cold Meat Industry compliation _...And Even Wolves Hid Their Teeth_. Altogether an OK album, but not something I found all that interesting. Various - _Black Mark Attack_ (Black Mark, July 1996) by: Adam Wasylyk (7 out of 10) A 10 track/band compilation put out by Black Mark, this album very similar to the Black Mark comp. put out by the zine S.O.D a couple of years back. It starts off with Bathory's "The Sword", off my favorite album of 1996 so far, _Blood on Ice_. A great song and definitely a great way to start off a comp. Next is NECROPHOBIC's "Spawned By Evil", which will be on their upcoming CD, _Darkside_. Musically it's good but vocally it left much to be desired, sounding like a bad black metal screech. Next is EDGE OF SANITY's "Murder Divided", a track that could be found only on the Jap version of E.o.S's latest album _Crimson_. Much like the material on _Crimson_, aggressive with plenty of tempo change and also some good singing. Next is the relatively new band YOSH with "Destiny Eternity". Their brand of power/thrash isn't too bad, the song had a nice intro. but then went downhill from there leaving just an average track. Next up is MOMENTO MORI's "Endlessly" which introduces a new singer and drummer, the vocalist sounding similar (I'm sure to the delight of their fans) to Messiah Marcolin. Musically it's a very good song, one of the best on the CD. Sweden's DIVINE SIN follow up with "Memories" off their debut album. Thrash/power metal with plenty of vocal diversity (from singing to almost growling) makes this track a good one. CEMETARY demonstrate their brand of gothic metal with "Sundown", a nice sounding track again. From their album _Paradigma_, TAD MOROSE contribute the track "Another Paradigm", a nicely orchestrated track which kept my interest for it's little over five minutes. France's AGRESSOR follow with "The Word of Dog", without a doubt the most aggressive track on the comp. Not too bad, although it did carry on a little too long. Ending it off is LAKE OF TEARS with "Twilight". Musically it was well done, but I didn't like the vocal affects they used as I felt they were irritating and took away from the song as a whole. Overall an impressive compilation, the good far out numbering the bad. Blood Duster - _Yeest_ (Relapse, June 1996) by: Gino Filicetti (9 out of 10) Heavy has been redefined my friends, thanks to our Aussie friends from Blood Duster. All it takes is the first few seconds of this CD to realize that Blood Duster's sound is not only original, but some of the most killer grind to ever grace these ears. Citing their influences as early Carcass and early Napalm, all the way to Johnny Cash and Lynyrd Skynyrd! There are 32 tracks on this CD, 13 of which you can consider real songs complete with lyrics et al. The themes described in these lyrics are of the utmost obscenity and offensiveness, such as necrophilia in "Vulgar Taste (Of Rotten Cunt)" and "Mortician," schizophrenic American serial killers in "Kill, Kill, Kill," brutal sadism in "Sadomasifuck" and the horrors of defecation in "Anal Feast." Hailing from Austrailia, Blood Duster gained notoriety in their homeland after opening on Carcass' Austrailian tour and playing with Brutal Truth the next year. This CD is actually a compliation of their two, Austrailia only releases, _Fisting The Dead_ and _Yeest_. Check this one out people, because the band truly lives up to its classification as Psychorockmenstrualgrindporn. Brutal Truth - _Machine Parts +4_ 7" (Deaf American Rec., Nov. 1995) by: Gino Filicetti (7 out of 10) The infamous Brutal Truth have returned, but only to tease their fans with this 7" of material recorded at Smoke, Grind & Sleep Studios (aka their rehearsal space). The production of this vinyl is very raw because it was done with their own 8 track recorder, but the rawness seems somewhat fitting when mixed with the music of Brutal Truth. There are four tracks on this record, and one live track, "Collateral Damage," with five different 10 second versions of it. The songs include "Spare Change," a very short and fast number, "Machine Parts," one of the best tracks here with a very slow pace to begin with, and vocals comparable to some black metal bands. Next is "Fucktoy," another short and fast song, and finally "Kill, Trend, Suicide" which is by far the best track here. It is a totally break-neck blastbeat-o-rama in the truest form of Brutal Truth. Only 1000 copies of this 7" were pressed (mine being the 959th), so get yours soon. Send $3 in the US and $5 anywhere else for a copy of this 7". Contact: BRUTAL TRUTH, c/o Rich Hoak, 3 Bethel Church Road Dillsburg, PA, 17019, USA email: rich666@voicenet.com The Chasm - _From the Lost Years_ (The Art/Reborn Records, 1996) by: Adam Wasylyk (8 out of 10) From Mexico come a three piece called The Chasm, whose fresh sound is truly music to my ears! A black metal band at the core, along with some nice bass and keyboard parts, their sound also includes acoustic guitar (as much as the rhythm guitar in some parts). Few and far between are speedy parts, but the band definitely prefers a slower pace, but not so slow as to get boring or too repetitious. Songs like "The Gravelands", "Deathcult for Eternity", "Ascension of Majestic Ruins", "An Arcanum Faded" and "Torn" are really a treat to listen to. Production is well done too. It did (for me) take a few listens to really get into it, but there definitely is a lot of talent here. I can see major label attention for THE CHASM in the future. Contact: THE CHASM, c/o Daniel Corchado, Apdo. Postal #M-2730 C.P. 06002, Mexico 1, D.F. Mexico Burnt Colonels - _Malice Afterthought_ (Chameleon Dream, Spring 1996) by: Adrian Bromley (6 out of 10) This is release number two for hard-grooved/metallic Toronto outfit Burnt Colonels (following their 1993 EP) and as the tracks played on _Malice Afterthought_ it wasn't hard to get bored with the music on this full-length release. A concoction of riffs, speed and aggression feeds the direction and sound of the band on _Malice Afterthought_, which by any standards those elements are ingredients of a 'typical' recipe for a harder edged band to follow. Heavily influenced (at least through the music) by White Zombie, Pantera, Biohazard and Korn, Burnt Colonels are more groove oriented than by the sheer might and intensity of their music and at times that seems to bring about some life to this release. And another thing, not sure if many of you are familiar with the New York trash band Overkill but singer Dave 'Thurston Craven" Clark's vocals are almost identical to those provided by Overkill screamer Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth. Just another thing I discovered listening to this release. Notable picks to hear on this mediocre record would be "Bone Machine," "Wounded" and "Plague." Darkthrone - _Total Death_ (Moonfog Productions, June 1996) by: Steve Hoeltzel (6 out of 10) One thing I definitely respect about Darkthrone is that no two consecutive releases from them sound quite the same, though anything with the band's name on it is guaranteed to be heavy, harsh, and grim. On _TD_, the band departs a bit from the spitting rage and all-out speed of _Transylvanian Hunger_, and from the blatant Celtic Frost-isms of their subsequent release. Here, they favor a kind of hybrid blackened style which is fairly reminiscent of 80's pioneers like Frost and Sodom one moment (as on "Blasphemer") and pure, simplistic Norse black metal the next (see "Blackwinged"). Also, the production on this album is a step up, though that's not really saying much. Still, on the whole the band seems a bit subdued here compared to their previous couple of outings: although undeniably grim, _TD_ does not quite seethe with the same vitriolic fury that drips in buckets from older Darkthrone stuff. The speedy material is not as fast, nor quite as anguished in tone, and the more mid-tempo tracks seem pretty reserved when compared to the vicious pummelings which this band has been known to deal out in the past. All in all, this is more or less standard stuff, from a band who have previously proven themselves capable of having much more harrowing sonic impact. Not bad, but nothing special, either, and definitely nothing new. Death Con 1 - _Refuse to Lose_ (Vampire Records, 1996) by: Adam Wasylyk (3 out of 10) This 10-tracker did little for me the first time I heard it, and on additional listens, well, my opinion didn't change. To describe the musical direction of the band I would say it's slow paced death metal, with goth and rock influences. The opening riff I swear reminded me of I MOTHER EARTH's "Rain will Fall" Anyway, DEATH CON 1 are musically competent, however most of the songs did little to stir me or keep me interested. The last three tracks ("Suppuku", "Hell is Home" and "Another Day") are all great tracks. I was surprised after hearing the first side of the tape that anything that remained would be better than average. I especially liked "Another Day" in its sad and dreary sounding way. If DEATH CON 1 could produce another demo in the same vein as the aforementioned three songs then they may have something. If you buy it, buy it for the second side of the tape. Contact: VAMPIRE PRODUCTIONS, P.O. Box 653 Maroa, Illinois, 61756, U.S.A Desultory - _Swallow The Snake_ (Metal Blade, July 1996) by: Adrian Bromley (7 out of 10) Swedish three-piece return to the music scene with a blistering assortment of loud aggressive numbers flowing with the intensity of a moving freight train. Brutally captivating, the thrash/death metal sounds of the band are clear and intense, rarely slowing down or letting loose their grips on our throats. Take the thrash-styled, Sacrifice/Sacred Reich-ish music for instance: you got the riffs, the speed and the vocals doing some damage, whereas with the death metal flavor to the music you got the depth of anger and hatred brewing within the music too. This combination is deadly as you will hear on such cuts as "Mushroom Smile," "Swallow The Snake," "Zone Traveller" and "Nothing Dies." With this their third album, the band has managed to come out of Sunlight Studios (with Tomas Skogsberg and Fred Estby producing) with a mixed bag of thrash/death metal cuts that are capable of adding a fresh dimension to today's music scene. Not that they are discovering new paths to explore with metal music, just that their maneuverability to gel both thrash and death metal deserves to spark some interest. Diabolical Masquerade - _Ravendusk in My Heart_ (Adipocere, 1996) by: Brian Meloon (7 out of 10) This is a side project of Blackheim from Katatonia (a band I can't stand), but unlike the doomy stylings of Katatonia, this is mostly a black metal project. Being a one-man project, he handles all the instruments, and does all the vocals, save the horrible "heavy metal" vocals in track #5 (courtesy of Dan Swano). His name also appears in half of the song titles. Although the drums are handled by a drum machine, they actually sound good, and do a decent job of remaining varied. At times, they are a little monotonous, but no worse than a human drummer is. In fact, I'd say that if the production were worse, you probably couldn't tell that they were from a drum machine. That aside, the guitar and keyboard work is good. Some of the sections are very good, specifically when he goes for a high-speed black metal sound, as he's able to keep things precise without losing the aggression. Track #4 really stands out for it's heavy use of dissonance and overall weirdness. It's too bad that he can't keep up these sections for the duration of the album, and instead has to inject sections of the old-school style, which really detracts from my enjoyment of this album. Nevertheless, this is a good effort, and once again I've found a side project about which I can say: "Blackheim, quit your day job." Dimmu Borgir - _Stormblast_ (Cacophonous Records, May 1996) by: Steve Hoeltzel (8 out of 10) It's a shame that the black metal scene isn't home to more bands like Dimmu Borgir - not bands who simply copy their sound, but bands, like this one, who take the traditional black metal formula and make it the basis for something comparatively unique. Dimmu Borgir are definitely a black metal band (and definitely one of my favorites), but their music is marked by a kind of quiet, majestic sadness which seems to be way beyond the emotional range of most other outfits in the genre. On tracks like "Nar Sjelen Hentes Til Helvete," they flex plenty of black metal muscle, yet balance their brawn with a unique feeling of sadness and solitude built up through the crafty use of synthesizers to introduce melody and ambience. The slow and haunting "Broderskappets Ring" shows them in top form, forging a genuinely somber mood out of ringing guitars, morose narration, and stirring keys. At their best, Dimmu Borgir conjure up a distinct melancholic feeling much more genuine than the cornier efforts of most other bands. Of course, they're not at their best through all ten tracks of this, their second full-length release. The very best songs appear early on the CD, which doesn't quite succeed in maintaining the same level of depth and originality all the way through. Still, there are some great moments to be heard among the later tracks, and this album (along with their debut, _For All TId_) comes highly recommended to those looking for a very solid black metal band that is willing and able to add some real feeling and creativity to the standard sound. Dismal Euphony - _Dismal Euphony_ (Napalm Records, May 1996) by: Steve Hoeltzel (7 out of 10) Closely allied to the black metal scene are a number of 'avant-garde' acts who take the basic elements of the blackened style - usually the standard guitar sound, vocal technique, and emphasis on atmosphere - and use these as a foundation upon which to build something more or less unique. Some of these bands end up putting out music that's basically just pretentious and corny (see my jabs at Angizia in this issue, for instance). Others, however (the excellent Accursed, for one), succeed in creating a sound that's refreshingly different, yet still anchored solidly enough in the traditional style to retain an authentic metallic vibe. Dismal Euphony definitely belong in this latter category, and this 18-minute mini-CD has me really looking forward to their upcoming full-length. The three tracks offered here are moody and melodic mini-epics, each featuring a really cool, spacey-sounding guitar tone which gets nicely fleshed out by ambient keyboards, synth, and the eerie tones of female vocalist Kelzina. The excellent final track, "The Mournful Silence," opens with a great doomy/acoustic intro which, at the sound of a clap of thunder, gives way to a haunting riff iced down by creepy black metal vocals, and then continues on through a number of interesting changes. "Spellbound," too, proves interesting and enjoyable. For a while now the black metal scene has been totally overflowing with creativity-impared hacks slapping on makeup and jumping on the trend, but this band is creating some genuine, substantial stuff. I'd have upped their score a bit if they incorporated a bit more metallic power and speed, but this one still comes highly recommended. Dark Funeral - _Secrets of the Black Arts_ (No Fashion Records, 1996) by: Steve Hoeltzel (5 out of 10) This Swedish band boasts some pretty impressive qualifications. On bass and vocals, we have "The Master of Diabolical Possession & Black Magick." On drums, it's "Commander of The Infernal Demon Legions." And on guitar, we have both "The Lord of The Shadows & Master of The Black Arts" and (get this one) "The Lord of Destruction, Evil, Darkness, and Death." Given all the nasty and scary deeds which these four supreme dignitaries of ultimate evilness must have to perform, it seems remarkable that they were also able to find the time to get together and whip up a whole CD of hyper-fast black metal. But they did. And judging by the results, I'd say that becoming Lord of The Shadows (and so on) or Lord of Destruction (and so on) must tend to get in the way of coming up with any very interesting riffs - though tracks like "The Dawn No More Rises" and "Shadows Over Transylvania" do feature some decent guitar-shredding. Being Commander of Demon Legions, on the other hand, might actually enhance one's ability to blast out some truly -amazing- percussion, as amply demonstrated on every track. Finally, operating as Master of Possession (and so on) seems to have no real effect either way, since the vocal and bass on this album are standard black metal fare: raspy and inaudible, respectively. How about the songs? Well, let's just say that this infernal outfit falls far short of the standard set by Lord Mysteriis and company (Setherial), or by Sabathan and crew (Enthroned). Both of the latter bands rip out light-speed black metal, but both also incorporate frequent tempo changes, moody interludes, and really wild guitar parts. By contrast, Dark Funeral write awfully monotonous stuff: the vast majority of their material sounds totally interchangeable, and the few songs that do stand out are enjoyable, but nothing terribly interesting. Hmmm... maybe if these guys put as much work into crafting something original as they obviously put into their evil imagery, they could really kick ass next time. Just a thought from the reviewer - that's me, Count Sarcastic. Gorgoroth - _Antichrist_ (Malicious Records, June 1996) by: Steve Hoeltzel (9 out of 10) The Satanic mumbo-jumbo that's all over this album is damn stale stuff by now. Look: there's nothing particularly courageous or rebellious about copping the -exact- same image and attitude as five hundred other, similar-sounding bands. And if by chance Gorgoroth (or whatever band) actually believes all this stuff - well, good for them, but I've got no use for medieval religion. This is 1996, not 1346. Why am I teeing off on Gorgoroth in particular here? Because the music on this mini-CD (the band's second) is simply some of the best extreme metal I've ever heard - but in terms of lyrics and imagery it's bogged way down in all these tired old cliches. Speaking exclusively of the music, though, these guys have definitely earned their 9 points out of 10. (If Satanism is one of your turn-ons, then, you just might think that this is the greatest release of all time.) After a very weird intro, "Bergtrollets Hevn" breaks forth in a grim gallop, only to explode after a couple of verses into a full-on black metal charge, desperate riffing propelled by hyper-fast drums. "Gorgoroth" begins at blazing speed, a melodic bass line woven into the 'surf' riff, then slows down for a bit of metallic ambience before ripping into another fast and frenzied attack. "Possessed" goes for a more prmitive, pounding feel, while closer "Sorg" incorporates a variety of cool (slower) tempos and effects. In terms of both production and (especially) music, this is quite an improvement upon their earlier, and very solid _Pentagram_ release. Old Grandad - _Vol. 666_ (Independent, 1996) by: Adam Wasylyk (6 out of 10) Featuring guitarist Erik Moggridge (ex-Epidemic), drummer Will Carroll (ex-Machine Head) and Max Barnett on bass/vocals (actually, all three members contribute vocals), OLD GRANDAD's sound could be described as crossing Black Sabbath and thrash with some death metal and rock influences. Songs like "Blantant Drug Song" and "Don't Call me a Deadhead" show their humor while "Feeling Fine" and "No Hell to Fear" hit you hard with their heaviness and groove. For only $8 US for a 14-song CD it's worth the money. You can also check them out on the internet, their web site is http://www.inreach.com/grandad/ Contact: OLD GRANDAD, 1827 Haight St., Box 95 San Francisco, CA, 94117, U.S.A. g/z/r - _Cycle of Sixty/x13_ (TVT Records, Spring 1996) by: Gino Filicetti (7 out of 10) This five song EP comes to us as a follow up to g/z/r's amazing debut record _Plastic Planet_. If you don't already know, g/z/r is made up of Fear Factory's rasper Burton C. Bell and Black Sabbath's legendary bassist Geezer Butler along with other less notable musicians. This EP consists of five tracks, two of which are brand spankin' new remixes of "Cycle of Sixty" and "x13" (makes for an original album title, doesn't it?), the remaining three are live cuts. The first song starts off really soft with acoustic guitars and very quiet, almost whispered vocals. All through the song I was waiting for a heavy grind to brake up the melody, but my wishes were not fulfilled. The second song, "x13," however is the complete opposite. It starts with a heavy groove and sports some weird distorted vocals. It's intensity never wanes, it only gets stronger, even through the surprise solo that appears amongst its tunage. The live songs covered here are "Drive Boy Shooting," "Detective 27" and "House of Clouds." Although I never had the good fortune of actually hearing _Plastic Planet_, I thought these live renditions were expertly executed. g/z/r are definitely one of those side projects that DON'T suck, now all I have to do is snatch myself a copy of their debut. Iced Earth - _Dark Saga_ (Century Media, July 1996) by: Adrian Bromley (7 out of 10) From the depths of hell and the gutters of the big city comes the tales of comic book hero/anti-hero Spawn as told by melodic thrash metal outfit Iced Earth. Tampa Bay, Florida's well-known progressive thrashers return with a cool concept album that deals with the story-lines, characters and life of the Spawn comic series (a comic that sells more than half a million copies every issue). A dark tragedy, the album pursues the rather dark and vile side of Spawn for the most part, but there are glimpses of life, love and understanding with somewhat of a dark overtone in the lyrics and music. Following in the footsteps of progressive metallers Queensryche and Savatage, Iced Earth's latest can be easily seen as a carbon copy of the works of those two bands, but with heavier riffs, screams and determination to maintain a heaviness for the majority of the album, Iced Earth steps away from the aforementioned band's set musical styles - though _DS_ is not as heavy as their past efforts, _Night Of The Stormrider_ and _Burnt Offerings_. Some great ideas and visions flow from such cuts as "Violate," "The Last Laugh," "Scarred" and the opening number/title track. A cool concept record that manages to keep the listener going from start to finish. Intrinsic - _Closure_ (Teichiku/Metal Mania Records, 1995) by: Adrian Bromley (6 out of 10) While Phoenix, Arizona-based quintet Intrinsic may be heading backwards (to some degree - much like other Arizona outfit Wardogs) with their 80's-ish thrash metal sound, the introduction of hard rock/metal tones scattered throughout the record allow the songs to breathe some form of excitement. Singer Lee Dehmer has this sort of cocky, brashness to his vocal styling and when backed by some serious guitar shredding by guitarists Garrett Craddock and Michael Mellinger and a pretty solid rhythm section the music sounds large and in charge. Though the band dips and radiates some variety in _Closure_, the remainder of the record is just solid clumps of thrash metal. Standouts? "Falling In," "The Wheel," "Visceral" and "Brutally Frank." Kataklysm - _Temple Of Knowledge (Kataklysm Part III)_ by: Adrian Bromley (9 out of 10) (Nuclear Blast/Eastwest, June 1996) Following in the footsteps of two highly-acclaimed releases (1993's mini-album _The Mystical Gate Of Reincarnation_ and their full-length debut _Sorcery_), comes _Temple Of Knowledge_, the latest sonic assault by Canadian heavies Kataklysm. From the get-go ('The Unholy Signature') this hyberblast/death metal quartet rip, slash, tear, mame and crush everything in their path with some of the most explosive and riveting (not to mention loud) work I have heard in years. Look under the word "destruction" in Webster's Dictionary and _ToK_ will be listed right next to it. Loud and unforgiving comes the deliverance of nine mammoth-like songs that detail both extensive songwriting and playing as well as imagination. The nine songs take shape into three sections on _ToK_: The Transenflamed Memories, Through The Core Of The Damed and Era Of The Aquarius. Numbers that will make your ears bleed are "Enhanced By The Lore," "Beckoning Of The Xul," "The Awakener" and "Exode Of Evils". Glad to see that one of Canada's loudest bands just got LOUDER with _ToK_. And yes, my ears are still ringing. King Diamond - _The Graveyard_ (Metal Blade, July 1996) by: Gino Filicetti (8 out of 10) He's baaaaaaaaack! That's right boys and girls, say your prayers and sleep tight for the King is here tonight. This album marks King Diamond's second effort since _The Spider's Lullaby_ hailed his return to the solo fold. First thing I asked myself when I received this promo copy of _The Graveyard_ was, "How the fuck am I supposed to review a King Diamond album without the lyrics?!" Well, sometimes the impossible must be done, so here I am. According to the bio, this conceptual album is about incest and child molestation and the trial of this monster by a man driven insane. The music on this album is much more fresh and modern sounding than the current Mercyful Fate album (reviewed elsewhere in this issue) could ever be. Andy LaRocque shows off some of his hottest licks in some of the most killer solos I've heard in a long time. Some of the best songs include the slow ballad-like, "Heads On The Wall," the fast paced solo-fest, "Meet Me At Midnight" and "Sleep Tight Little Baby." As always, the King utilizes multi-track recording for his vocals which are in as great shape as ever. This album blows the new Mercyful Fate out of the water by a long shot and proves to the world that metal's greatest storyteller has NOT gone stale. Kvist - _For Kunsten Maa Vi Evig Vike_ (Avantgarde, 1996) by: Brian Meloon (7 out of 10) This is the debut album from yet another Norwegian black metal band. These guys have a typical sound, sounding in places (especially in the opening cut "Ars Manifestia") very similar to Emperor (see CoC #1). The production here is decent, as everything is audible, including bass and bass drums (unlike Emperor). However, the vocals are a bit low, and the whole thing sounds a little "fuzzy". The vocals are standard fare, but a little monotonous, sounding at times half-spoken and half-whispered. There are only 6 songs, and the album lasts for about 37 minutes, so the compositions are fairly long and involved. However, the songwriting could be improved, as the song structures don't always make complete sense to me, or really go anywhere. The playing is solid and at times pretty interesting. They throw in enough good ideas to make up for their lack of originality, and that makes this worthwhile. They use keyboards, though low in the mix, and have a variety of tones, including strings and a pipe organ tone, similar in effect to Gehenna's _First Spell_. The packaging is very sparse, with no band information, and no lyrics (which are sung in Norwegian). A worthy offering worth getting, but not essential. Madball - _Demonstrating My Style_ (Roadrunner/Attic, July 1996) by: Adrian Bromley (8 out of 10) From the ashes of New York hardcore legends Agnostic Front (following the demise of the band in 1992) comes Madball, a band that plays bombastic heapages of reality and aggression spewed from the mouth of singer Freddy Cricien and backed by the groove and determination of the remaining three members. Though the band has released two EPs (_Ball Of Destruction_ in 1989 and _Droppin Many Suckas_ in 1992) it wasn't until the release of their debut album on Roadrunner, _Set It Off_, that the band edged towards a solid feel to their music and acquiring a strong fanbase, which led the band to become one of the most exciting and promising New York hardcore acts. Now in 1996, following major touring, the band has regrouped and recorded fourteen outstanding and true-to-the-heart tales of life and the hardships one must face, juiced up by singer Cricien's real life stories. Sure this may be a running theme for most hardcore bands, but there is something exciting and volatile about the lyrics and messages conveyed within numbers like "Pride (Times Are Changing)", "Addict" and "Unity" on _DMS_. For those that witnessed the combative and beligerent attitude of Madball's last outing, most won't be disappointed as Madball turns up the 'hardcore' element on _DMS_ up a notch. Mercyful Fate - _Into The Unknown_ (Metal Blade, July 1996) by: Gino Filicetti (5 out of 10) After an eight year absence that, to most Mercyful Fate fans, felt like an eternity, the King and his boyz are back, kicking out their fourth album since their reunion in 1993. Pretty impressive eh? Well, unfortunately, I can't say the same thing about this here album. To tell you the truth, most of the music contained here bored the shit out of me, at times it seemed nothing more than bad 80s riffs rehashed again and again. Needless to say I was "just a little" pissed that this promo didn't include lyrics, which as we all know, are the best part of King Diamond's creations, and the reason he's been worshiped for so long. The first track, "Lucifer", starts this album with some scary synth music and the King chanting a bastardized Our Father in praise of the Dark One. Other notable tracks include, "Ghost of Change" which the bio states is a true story about an encounter the King had with a poltergeist. My personal fave track here was "Fifteen Men" it starts with a cool bass intro, and has a special groove thoughout. Definitely one of the only memorable songs on this record. I really found it hard to give a work of the King such a low score, but this record just didn't cut the cake for me, but by all means give it a whirl and see if it might not be your slice of cheese. Monster Voodoo Machine - _Pirate Satellite_ by: Gino Filicetti (7 out of 10) (45 Revolutions, June 1996) Toronto, Ontario, Canada's own Monster Voodoo Machine are back with their newest EP, a follow up to the mega-successful 1994 album _Suffersystem_ (their major label debut). Well, this time, the band has undergone a lot of changes; they are no longer with RCA/BMG, they have axed two members and replaced them, and their sound has been dramatically transformed. No longer with the band are bassist Terry Landry or "noise man" Stacy Hoskin. They have been replaced by two members of the late Toronto outfit Soulstorm; Nick S. has taken up keyboard duties while Chris Harris takes up the bass. Only 1000 copies of this EP have been pressed (mine being the 214th), this has probably been done to make the songs on this record that much more rare and "collectable" but I think this album should be viewed as an essential release in lieu of another record deal. As for the music, gone are the hard-edged guitar chords and pounding off beat drumming, gone is any resemblance to either heavy metal or hardcore, something I believe singer/mastermind Adam Sewell has been trying his best to accomplish. The music here is a weird mix of techno, industrial and hip hop. Guitars have not been completely banished, but toned down drastically. Of the five songs here, only the first one, "Water To Wine," really grabbed me like most of the _Suffersystem_ album did. It has a very catchy and dancable beat, plus some amazing vox and a memorable chorus to sing-a-long to. This EP wasn't the great techno revolution I thought it was going to be, but it also didn't have the staying power of their previous record. Mortification - _Envision EvAngelene_ (Nuclear Blast, July 1996) by: Adrian Bromley (3 out of 10) Not that I have anything against bands spreading their visions and views in their music, but with Mortification and their rather firm stance on Christianity in their music, it just seems TOO overbearing at times. Singer/bassist/lyricist Steve Rowe is constantly ramming down our throats and into our minds every single excerpt from the Bible or reference to Christianity he can (even in the packaging) with every line in every song - too much I say. And if that isn't enough to turn me away from the band and the music they create, the music on the band's latest album, _Envision EvAngelene_ is nothing spectacular either. This record is much more cluttered with references and preachings than their last record _Primitive Rhythm Machine_. Death metal buried beneath a HUGE Bible would best describe this effort. The riffs seem stagnant and the vocals are hoarse and uninspiring as the record goes on, though the 18+ minute epic title track is pretty cool. Maybe I like music more with a message and a thunderous walllop rather than just a enormous message and no dominating noise factor. Psychotica - _Psychotica_ (American/Ventrue/Warner, July 1996) by: Adrian Bromley (9 out of 10) Knee deep in the mentality of the Rocky Horror Picture Show and supporting numerous theatrical musical numbers reminiscent of David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust era rock n' roll on their self-titled debut album, comes the raunchy yet seductive sounds of New York shock rock crew Psychotica. Led by the offwall and mindfucked (in other words insane) frontman Patrick Biggs, the motley crue he leads with this campaign of musical expression prove to be the biggest asset of the band as they continuously help keep the music slightly off balance but still centered with Biggs strong vocals and expressive singing style. In other words, Biggs manages to create a 'psychotic' world where his music grows and breathes and only he can control it from reaching utter anarchy. [hmmm...sounds like Marilyn Manson? -- Gino] Anarchy is almost reached with numbers like "Starfucker Love," "Stop" and "Flesh And Bone" and there are numerous other numbers on the 18-track LP that stir up some kinda poison for us to swallow. For those that like Wayne/Jayne County, Ziggy Stardust and Marilyn Manson (watch the stampede!) then Psychotica are for you. With a generous heapage of hype surrounding them, not to mention the opening slot on this year's Lollapalooza tour, New York's filthy crew of saints and sinners may become America's new sweethearts. We'll see. Rotting Christ - _Triarchy Of The Lost Lovers_ by: Adrian Bromley (8 out of 10) (Century Media, July 1996) Rotting Christ, Greece's epidemy of black metal return in 1996 with _Triarchy Of The Lost Lovers_, a stunning blend of brutality and passion that rips and tears through nine epic-like songs, rarely losing the listener's interest. _TotLL_ (their debut for Century Media) is the much anticipated follow-up to their triumphant and powerful 1995 Osmose Records release _Non-Serviam_ and much like _NS_, _TotLL_ showcases the deep rooted growls and crashing riffs that embedded the black metal stylings of Rotting Christ as fresh and innovative when they first attained critical claim with their 1991 EP _Passage To Arcturo_. With each album the band has managed to bring forth more creativity and depth to both song structure and the lyrics of each song, allowing the band to not only stay affixed with their black metal tendencies with, "Snowing Still," "Shadows Follow" or "King Of A Stellar War" but also finding them breaking in new musical directions and sounds with songs like "One With The Forest" and "Diastric Alchemy" - songs that are leaning towards more groove and feel to them. One way of looking at _TotLL_ is seeing it as a stepping stone for the band and its growth, as I am sure that with future releases from the band we will see the continuing need for the band to explore other musical boundaries, yet retain the mighty and aggressive sounds they are known for. Bottom line: Rotting Christ delivers strong with _TotLL_ and I highly reccomend this release. Satyricon - _Nemesis Divina: The Conquering_ by: Steve Hoeltzel (5 out of 10) (Moonfog Productions, June 1996) The first track on this, Satyricon's third full-length release, explodes with enough venom, aggression, ans speed to competely eclipse the band's earlier efforts in terms of sheer ferocity. Indeed, it seems like ferocity is the name of the game on _ND_, and more so than on previous releases, which displayed a bit more variety in terms of tempo and overall feel. Not that Satyricon have turned into Immortal or anything - there are still quite a few 'atmospheric' sections thrown in to break up the frenzy. I'm not sure, though, if the end result is quite as interesting or enjoyable as either of the band's first two albums. Yeah, this CD contains some excellent riffs, stamped with that weird, Eastern-ish Satyricon feel; and yeah, it incorporates the occasional 'epic' moment along with lots of speed. But on the whole, it's quite a bit more monotonous than either _The Shadowthrone_ (an excellent release) or _Dark Medieval Times_. Unlike those two recordings, _ND_ contains very little modulation in musical mood or feel, and there's a conspicuous absence of -catchy- riffs. (Still, check out opener "Dawn of a New Age," along with the title track.) And the production ("Bass on zero, treble on ten!") leaves a lot to be desired as well. This isn't a terrible album by any means, but it doesn't offer anything new - or even more than a couple of engaging songs. As a fan of the band's earlier material, I found _ND_ to be a pretty disappointing release. Soulquake System - _Angry By Nature, Ugly By Choice_ by: Gino Filicetti (7 out of 10) (Black Mark, August 1996) With a name like this one, I didn't know what to expect from Sweden's Soulquake System. Upon listening to the first few seconds of the opening track, "Strength To Strength," I was pleased to learn that SQS aren't just another metal band. The history of the band doesn't stretch all that far seeing how this is their first full length release. In 1995, SQS released the _Disbelief_ demo that was heralded by many as the 'best demo of 1995.' (According to their bio of course). The music on this CD is really catchy and full of groove. The vocals are definitely of hardcore origin, and the many five person, anthem-like chants are reminiscent of a lot of today's hardcore. Unfortunately, as the CD drew on, the music seemed to drag and wade knee deep in repetition, yet another similarity to today's hardcore. All in all, this music should please most, I found it quite good even though my boredom of all things hardcore is more than evident. The Mist - _Gottverlassen_ (Cogumelo Records, 1996) by: Gino Filicetti (7 out of 10) This release marks the fourth in The Mist's seven year long career. Having formed in Sao Paulo in 1989, The Mist have been plugging away in the Brazilian underground ever since. In 1991 they picked up ex-Sepultura guitarist Jairo Guedz to record their second album _The Hangman Tree_. It has now been a year since the recording of _Gottverlassen_ but the band is still touring the countryside. This album begun with a very Sepultura-esque feel, which I believe a lot bands from Brazil possess. However, the truth must be known because Sepultura did NOT invent this sound, instead it originated from the scene as a whole including other Brazilian bands like Overdose, Sarcofago and The Mist (originally named Mayhem). The packaging of this album is superb, it includes a fold-out bio, lyrics and a five page liner. As for the music, I think it definitely got better as I got used to the Cassiano's voice (which sounds a lot like Max Cavalera) and the rest of the instrumentation. My favorite song was "Switch Off The Body Suckers" which has a heavy industrial feel to it. Another more unusual song was "Untie Me" which was very slow and dark but had an intense chorus to complement the rest of the song. Altogether this CD was pretty decent, but a mastering of the English language is definitely in order. The Mist's bio has horrific grammatical errors and could actually hurt the band's chances of getting ahead. Hey guys, if you need a proofreader, just give me a shout! Turmoil - _From Bleeding Hands_ (Century Media, June 1996) by: Adrian Bromley (6 out of 10) Heavy hardcore music from this Pennsylvania quintet on this 10-song outing, as the majority of the music on Turmoil's _From Bleeding Hands_ lies buried under a powerful onslaught of gritty vocals and a treacherous stomp of beats. Having shared stages with the likes of Madball, Earth Crisis and Snapcase over the last little while since their inception in 1992 and release of their Europe only EP _Who Says Time Heals All Wounds_ in 1994, I guess it is fair to say that since their debut album the band has strengthened their sound and delivery. With the death-ish/hardcore vocal styling of singer John Gula leading the assault of noise on numbers like 'New Media,' 'Choke,' 'Evolution Of Lies' and 'These Bridges,' the music on _FBH_ is quite satisfactory but as time goes on (as is the case with most hardcore records) the music becomes monotonous and leaves the listener (i.e. myself) looking for something else to throw on. Got to give credit to Turmoil for flowing with fury and aggression on most tracks, a saviour factor from a less positive review. Vader - _Sothis_ (Repulse Records, June 1996) by: Gino Filicetti (4 out of 10) This being the first Vader CD ever in my possession, I was more that anxious to finally listen to this band, and hear what all the hype was about. And I can now safely say, after listening to it through and through a few times, what the fuck is the big deal? This album starts off with a spoken word chant entitled _Hymn To The Ancient Ones_ which consists of a praising of all the gods of old. Then starts the "onslaught" of boring death metal riffage, and sub-standard non-growled vox. Such was the title track and it really made me wonder how this band could have inspired such frenzied acclaimation on the USENET. Hailing from Poland, Vader should be given the benefit of the doubt, as they are the best band I've heard emerging from said country, that is, however, no excuse for the music contained herein. The last track on this CD is a cover of the all time classic masterpiece to end all masterpieces, Black Sabbath's own, "Black Sabbath." Much of this song is covered as an exact copy of the original until we hit the last verse of the song which is transformed in a cheesy, poseurish rip off of some kind of hardcore/rap hybrid. A definite abomination of such a metal classic. I'm not sorry to admit it, but I wasn't impressed one bit with this record. Vertex - _Vertex_ (Blue Dolphin/Caroline, July 1996) by: Adrian Bromley (3 out of 10) Anyone remember Ratt from the 1980's? Anyone here like them? Didn't think so. Well how the times have changed and how members of bands move from style to style as they grow as musicians (or as trends become popular). Whatever the case may be, Stephen Pearcy, lead singer for the ultra-cool (for the 80's) Ratt and that awful other band Arcade, has jumped on board a techno/industrial/metal band by the name of Vertex. That's right, a three-piece with samples, loud guitars and keyboards - Vertex has it all. Now the problem with this record - and there are lots of them - is that the music seems cheesy ("Is Justice Your Peace" or "Fight") and just thrown together. Sounding a lot more like a weak NIN meets an unpolished Megadeth (Mustaine-style snarls are everywhere) rather than Skinny Puppy or any other successful techo/industrial band, Vertex's debut is full of holes with poor songwriting and mismatched musical styles. One can just hear the lyrics and see that numbers like "Ain't Gonna Be" "Time And Time" or "One Like A Son" are bland concoctions of noise, samples and riffs. Interested in seeing how musicians fight to stay afloat in this industry? Check this one out. Otherwise, leave this one alone. Visceral Evisceration - _Incessant Desire for Palatable Flesh_ by: Adam Wasylyk (8 out of 10) (Napalm Records America) From Austria come Visceral Evisceration with their debut album, which combines death and doom with opera-like female vocals. Reading much like old-Carcass as their lyrics deal with gory/medical textbook subjects, musically their sound is truly unique. During songs like "At the Epicurean Gynecologist", "Muse Perverse", "Chewing Female Genital Parts" and "Chewing Flesh... On the Bier" there are some orchestrated parts and musical intro's. Vocally it's more doomy than death, as the vocalist in some parts could sing quite emotionally. A lot of emphasis has been put on song structure (on this 7 track CD the average song is over 7 minutes). I really hope that doesn't scare anyone off, as there is a lot of quality (and I guess you could say quantity too) on this album, check it out. Various - _...And Even Wolves Hid Their Teeth_ by: Gino Filicetti (9/10) (Cold Meat Industry, 1995) This compliation has blown me away every time I've listened to it since day one. If you are one of the ignorant (as I was before getting this CD) and do not know about Cold Meat Industry and their nine year history, then you are probably not a hardcore ambient freak. Cold Meat has been around since 1987 releasing, "dark, morbid, Scandinavian, beautiful, industrial-ambient music." The only artist I recognized on this CD is Mortiis from which an exerpt of "En Mork Horisont" appears, a rather repetitive piece, but stunning nonetheless. Some of the most notable tracks on this CD are MZ.412 with "God of Fifty Names" which is my favorite track. It contains very strange/alien sounds and if you listen closely, you can hear super faint voices in the background. Ordo Equilibrio also have an amazing track on this compilation entitled, "Reaping The Future... The First Harvest." It is a very dark and chilling tune, the best part being the cruelly cold sounding female voice who speaks without emotion. Other artists worth mention include Aghast, Ildfrost, Desiderii Marginis and Arcana. Check this one out people, I find this kind of music fascinating and refreshing. Contact: COLD MEAT INDUSTRY, c/o Roger Karmanik PO Box 1881, 581 17 Linkoping, SWEDEN Voice/Fax: 011-46-13-10-39-06 Y & T - _Musically Incorrect_ (Fuel Records, 1996) by: Brian Meloon (0 out of 10) While it might be a slight exaggeration to say that "My shit can put out better music than this!", it's not too far from the truth. This record contains what you'd expect from Y & T: traditional, generic, party-style rock n' roll, featuring incredibly bad and cheesy lyrics (i.e. "Starlight, star so bright, first star that I see tonight... I wish I may, I wish I might, be the one to hold you tight.") and banal, bluesy, pointless guitar solos, occasionally wah-wah soaked. If that was all this album was, it would be bad, but this album is even worse. I will give them credit for naming the album correctly, for it's certainly musically incorrect to plagarize as many other artists as they do. In fact, if the music weren't so terribly generic, it might be an amusing exercise to count the number of bands they've ripped off. I found ripoffs of Jane's Addiction, the Beatles, AC/DC (does the intro to "Pretty Prison" sound familiar?), Alice in Chains, and any one of the faceless "alternative" bands before I couldn't stand listening to it anymore. The best parts of this album have a middle-Eastern sound to them, such as "Kashmir" or "Orphaned Land", but even then, the melodies are so cliched and so generic that I wouldn't classify them as any better than "listenable". Of course, the only question that remains is: If you think you might like these guys, what are you doing reading this zine? (And no, I did NOT buy this album) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= __ _ /__\ _____ _(_) _____ _____ / \/// _ \ \ / / |/ _ \ \ /\ / / __| / _ \ __/\ V /| | __/\ V V /\__ \ \/ \_/\___| \_/ |_|\___| \_/\_/ |___/ __ _ _ _ _ /__\ _____ _(_)___(_) |_ ___ __| | / \/// _ \ \ / / / __| | __/ _ \/ _` | / _ \ __/\ V /| \__ \ | || __/ (_| | \/ \_/\___| \_/ |_|___/_|\__\___|\__,_| Finally, the moment of truth has arrived. This being our anniversary issue, we thought it would be fitting to give our writers a forum to express THEIR thoughts about certain albums reviewed during the past year. Whether it'd be praising an album even more, or bringing trashed albums out of the gutter, you'll read it here, in this special anniversary column. Gino's Rebuttals ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dark Tranquility - _The Gallery_ 7/10 orig. in CoC #7 (3/10) --- I think the angry emails I got about this review speak for themselves. "Carcass/Brutal Truth rip off" and "uninspired" ?? I think not. Therion - _Lepaca Kliffoth_ 8/10 orig. in CoC #2 (10/10) --- Ok, so I was a _little_ overzealous about this album. BIG DEAL! Dissection - _Storm Of The Light's Bane_ 8/10 orig. in CoC #4 (6/10) --- "A cross between Carcass and Iron Maiden" ?!? WTF? Is this the same Dissection *I* know? Ultraviolence - _Psychodrama_ 9/10 orig. in CoC #6 (8/10) --- Now an even MORE amazing album, like I said originally, who said the only kind heavy music is metal? Pan-Thy-Monium - _Khaooohs and Kon-Fus-Ion_ 10/10 orig. in CoC #9 (8/10) --- I put my two cents into the review, and I'll do it again here. This is still the best album I've heard this year. Magnificent and brilliant are among some of the weaker adjectives that could be used to describe THIS album. A.C. (Anal Cunt) - _40 More Reasons to Hate Us_ 7/10 orig. in CoC #10 (3/10) --- Seth Putnam is really something else. This album deserves it's points just for the fact that 42 tracks could fit in 30 minutes. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Adrian's Rebuttals ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Nailbomb - _Proud To Commit Commercial Suicide_ 8/10 orig. in CoC #5 (6/10) --- Power live record to say the least. Raw, loud and utterly mindblowing. Nailbomb's exit from the music world deserves an encore. GWAR - _Ragnarok_ 1/10 orig. in CoC #5 (4/10) --- Can you say "passing fad"? Just like the Rubik's Cube and New Coke, it won't be long till Gwar fall off the planet they tried so hard to take control of over the last few years. Mortician - _House By The Cemetary_ 2/10 orig. in CoC #7 (5/10) --- Stagnant chugs of noise binded with irritating vocals... cool samples. Other than that: Hated it! Neurosis - _Through Silver in Blood_ 8/10 orig. in CoC #9 (6/10) --- Managing to blend the elements of hardcore, metal and industrial music, Neurosis' latest is an onslaught of visions that shapes itself into one of the strongest releases this year. Vinnie Moore - _Out of Nowhere_ *no rating* (disbelief) orig. in CoC #10 (3/10) --- What the hell is Vinnie Moore doing in CoC anyways?!?! How the hell did this get past our crack research team???? :) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Brian's Rebuttals ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dark Tranquility - _The Gallery_ 8/10 orig. in CoC #7 (3/10) --- A Carcass/Brutal Truth clone? No way... Melodic death/folk metal, perhaps not as good as their previous offerings and definately not as memorable as In Flames, but still very good. Moonspell - _Wolfheart_ 5/10 orig. in CoC #5 (8/10) --- Sort of a mix between black metal, gothic, folk, and old Danzig. There are some really cool parts, but too many really bad parts, such as the Danzig-meets-Axl Rose vocal part: "Midnight Ri-ee-ide". Ack. A.C. (Anal Cunt) - _40 More Reasons To Hate Us_ 5/10 orig. in CoC #10 (3/10) --- This album achieves its purpose of being entertaining. For that, it deserves a 5, but don't expect much in the way of music. Best song: "Bill Scott's Dumb". Cradle of Filth - _Vempire or Dark FaeryTales in Phallustein_ 9/10 orig. in CoC #11 (8/10) --- This just keeps getting better and better. "Queen of Winter, Throned" is amazing. Currently my favorite album from 1996. Accursed - _Meditations Among the Tombs_ 5/10 orig. in CoC #11 (8/10) --- A sloppy, under-produced, and cheap-sounding debut album from a band that sound like they want to be Cradle of Filth. They show some potential, but never really put it together. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Steve's Rebuttals ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Pan-Thy-Monium - _Khaooohs and Kon-Fus-Ion_ 10/10 orig. in CoC #9 (8/10) --- I hated to give a 10/10 to this, the first CD I ever reviewed for CoC, but I should have. P-T-M III is the greatest fusion of pure metallic power and astounding creativity that I have ever heard. Abigor - _Nachthymnen_ 7/10 orig. in CoC #9 (6/10) --- I think this one's a bit weak in the guitar department, but overall it's still way more inventive than most black metal releases. Cradle of Filth - _Vempire or Dark FaeryTales in Phallustein_ 6/10 orig. in CoC #10 (8/10) --- Musically this isn't bad, but in places it just gets incredibly hokey, florid, and overwrought. The 'Shock Theater' style speech about werewolves is stupefyingly corny, and all the shrieking gets old fast. Bathory - _Octagon_ 5/10 orig. in CoC #3 (8/10) --- This isn't a total piece of crap - unless, that is, you compare it to _Blood Fire Death_, or _The Return_. Those classic older releases just -totally- shred this one in terms of unbridled power and speed. Profane Grace - _Divination of Souls_ 4/10 orig. in CoC #9 (7/10) --- This dark-ritual-ambient CD has its moments, but it's super monotonous. And it's totally eclipsed by the amazing ritual music of Equimanthorn (members of Absu and Necromantia, among others). =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Adam's Rebuttals ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dark Tranquillity - _The Gallery_ 7/10 orig. in CoC #7 (3/10) --- It is DEFINITELY not this bad. Carcass/Brutal Truth rip-off band?? Um, no. It's not the greatest album I've heard, but musically and vocally it's pretty good. Mortician - _House By The Cemetary_ 1/10 orig. in CoC #7 (5/10) --- Gino, you MUST have been in a good mood!! Lousy production, shitty drum machine (you were right when you said the blast beats were a joke!!) and ZERO originality. Makes for a great coaster!!! Fleshcrawl - _Bloodsoul_ 3/10 orig. in CoC #10 (7/10) --- I couldn't find one song on this that I liked. It all sounded the same, especially the drumming. A total and complete mess...... Impaled Nazarene - _Latex Cult_ 6/10 orig in Coc #10 (9/10) --- Actually I was disappointed by this. I really liked _Suomi Finland Perkele_, and I thought this was a step backwards. Other than being a little repetitive, it was pretty good, but not great. Porno - _Give Me a Pistol_ (****-) orig. in CoC #10 (**---) --- I thought it had a very fresh sound, combining alternative & death. Even the alternative songs I thought were good, this from someone who doesn't like the genre!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= __ __ _ /\ \ \_____ __ /\ \ \___ (_)___ ___ / \/ / _ \ \ /\ / / / \/ / _ \| / __|/ _ \ / /\ / __/\ V V / / /\ / (_) | \__ \ __/ \_\ \/ \___| \_/\_/ \_\ \/ \___/|_|___/\___| Your best source of information on the newest of the new, and the deepest of the underground, New Noise is the place to read about all the coolest shit you never thought existed! And if you have a band, don't forget to send us your demo with a bio if you want to be reviewed; our address is included in the zine's header. Scoring: ***** -- I see a record deal in the future **** -- Great piece of work *** -- Good effort ** -- A major overhaul is in order * -- A career change is advisable Absonant Cadence - _Emergence_ (7 track demo) by: Adam Wasylyk (*****) It seems as though the powerful Quebec metal scene has rubbed off onto Absonant Cadence, who with this seven song demo have truly impressed me (check my top five from last issue, and my top ten in this issue). Playing their style of death metal, there is a good balance of blast beats and slower, more melodic parts. Starting off with the powerful title track, it doesn't let up from there. I can't quite think of a band that they sound like, as their sound is very much unique. Vocally they are like the average death metal band, but musically their sound compares to none. The occasional sung part is also present in some of the songs. "Genocide" is by far my favorite track, it has everything! Both death grunting and singing, good guitaring and the bass and keyboards are simply amazing!. "Nocturnal Cycle" is great too (especially drumming-wise), going from slow to blast beat to slow and so on. A little more than half an hour, you get a lot of quality death metal. Great stuff. Contact: ABSONANT CADENCE, c/o Dominic Simard, 2183, Rue Vimy Chicoutimi, Quebec, G7G-3X3, CANADA Body Bag - _Hate Crimes_ (9 track demo) by: Adam Wasylyk (***--) Out with their independant album _Hate Crimes_, BODY BAG play some interesting death metal but at times it becames hard to distinguish songs from each other. A five piece, it includes former MASTER/ABOMINATION (remember them???) drummer Aaron Nickeas, and at one point included ABOMINATION guitarist Dean Chioles until he was diagnosed with Lou Gherig's Disease and therefore had to leave the band. Starting off with the memorable "Premeditated" and going on to play other songs well like "Anger as a Gift", "Rape the Casket (Bleed)" and "Ghastly Slayings" but most of the other songs sounded the same. Production could be a bit better too. An average release. Contact: BODY BAG, c/o Chris Kaiser, 336 W. Lake St. #1 Barrington, Illinois, 60010, U.S.A. Chamber Seven - _Chamber Seven_ (4 track demo) by: Gino Filicetti (*----) Just when you thought we were far enough into the nineties for new bands to forget about the ways of old, comes along a band like Chamber Seven. From opening intro to closing riff this demo stank of mediocre eighties thrash, comparable to old _Fistful of Metal_ Anthrax in sound and structure. This band hails from Sunnyvale California and that's about all I know about them except that their singer has recently departed because of a heavy college workload. Good thing for the band because the vocals are the worst part of this demo. The singer and bass player about both female, I can't say much about the bass lines because they sounded top notch to me, but the vocals reeked of shit the whole way through, sounding like a bad DRI impersonation. Personally, I hate carving up an indie band like this, but in this case, maybe that's what Chamber Seven needs, a good wake up call, because I can't see a record deal EVER being in the works with a demo like this. Disarray - _Widespread Human Disaster_ (5 track demo) by: Adrian Bromley (****-) Wow!!! The flyer accompanying the demo tape said "...the heaviest music you'll hear from Tennessee..." and I can vouch for them being "the heaviest thing" that I have probably ever heard from that U.S. state, and well, probably the only band I have heard from there. Starting out with the brutal opener of "Holocaust" this Tennessee quartet rips through five ferocious songs that send out messages of anger, frustration and intensity. With their Pantera meets Testament sound and direction, the band never seems to loose the momentum they began with in the opening number. Rough and tumble numbers like "Death Plague Jesus" and "Powered By hate" add more depth to the existence of hate and anger on this outing and another bonus is that this demo tape also sounds great. Even on maximum volume it still sounds killer. I'd like to see what the band can do with their sound if it ever makes the CD format. Great demo and I'm looking forward to what these four guys can do in the future. Contact: DISARRAY, P.O. Box 975, Dickson, Tennesse, 37055, USA Voice: (615) 446-1998 Embrace - _Coven The Eternal_ (9 track demo) by: Adrian Bromley (*****) For most music critics the growth of a band that "we" usually see is from their debut album onward. We don't get to see the early days of the band, early lineup changes or different styles experimented with. We are usually provided a sound and image and either we love or hate it having rarely any knowledge of a band other than a bio. Can't be said with Kitchener gothic/death metal quartet Embrace as this music critic has seen this band blossom from a quite inventive band into one of Ontario's (if not Canada's) most impressive young acts of this musical genre. _Coven The Eternal_, their debut full-length CD, releases haunting vocals, eerie guitars and an atmospheric tranquillity that will transport listeners into another frame of mind. At 71-minutes plus, the nine songs found on _CTE_ are an electrifying bombardment of musical growth and understanding that has shaped itself into one monstrous wall of complexity and intrigue led by sinister riffs and thought-provoking poetry/lyrics. Songs like the 14-minute epic "Twilight Soul," "Obscured" or the stride of "Fall Of Farewell" follow in the footsteps of such goth/metal bands as My Dying Bride or multi-visioned bands like Therion and Edge Of Sanity with their opera-like, almost soliloquy approach of delivering harmonies and melody, but still managing to control the crunch of a band eager to feed its violent but beautiful wrath upon us. As well,_CTE_ showcases Embrace's material as both well-crafted and mighty at the same time. The band, having molded their sound through two demos (1995's self-titled and 1996's 4-song Promo/Demo), have worked hard to strengthen earlier material like "The Living End," "Descendence," and "Solitude" into well-executed epics that leave lasting and memorable impressions. _CTE_ is by far of the strongest independent records I have heard in sometime. A magnificent release. Contact: EMBRACE, 470 Driftwood Dr. Kitchener, Ontario, N2N-1S6, CANADA Voice: (519) 744-6404 or (519) 744-5204 Fax: (519) 741-9082 Endaymynion - _Thy Art_ (9 track demo) by: Brian Meloon (****-) These guys (and a girl) are from Italy. Although there are nine tracks on the demo, five of them are very short, leaving only four real tracks, of which one is an instrumental. Their sound is very diverse, ranging from heavy speed metal sections to light sections with piano and flutes, and everywhere in between. It reminds me of a cross between Cynic's _Focus_ and Thought Industry's _Songs For Insects_. Since these are two of my favorite records, I am biased toward their style. However, this effort isn't as good as either of those two albums, mainly because of their execution. The production is decent, but a little muddy, making it difficult to hear exactly what's going on at times. Their chaotic style adds to this, since there are often a few melodic ideas going on at the same time, and parts seem to appear out of nowhere and then vanish. This certainly makes for a challenging listen. The playing is a little sloppy at points too, with a generally loose feel, and some obvious timing mistakes. Overall it's good though, with good drumming, and some interesting and varied keyboard work. Unfortunately, at times, they sound out of tune, which really hurts their overall effect. Some of the guitar lines suffer from this, but the worst culprit is vocalist Jessica, whose voice is not only whiny, but often flat. Her vocals are the main vocals, but there are a few sections of raspy vocals, which are rather weak, and mixed too low. Still, this effort has a lot of good ideas and an original sound to it, so I'd recommend it, but there's room for improvement. Contact: ENDAYMYNION, c/o Giuliano Marzola, via Altina 124/g, 30030 Favaro Veneto (VE), ITALY email: teskio@spiro.fisica.unipd.it Filthboy - _Not Again..._ (9 track demo) by: Gino Filicetti (****-) Once again, our ears are blessed with the sound of Pittsburgh's coolest bunch of fuckers, Filthboy. This time around Kevin and Buzzy are no longer a duet, with the addition of drummer Lee Fisher and bassist Dan Ford, Filthboy has come to fulfill the prophecies and become a band in the truest sense of the word. Many of you may remember their name from way back in CoC #2 when I heard their first demo and shit my pants. Well my friends, the Filthy ones have come a long way with _Not Again..._ showing us that there truly are no boundaries but the ones we make for ourselves. Of the nine tracks contained herein, one is from the earliest days of this project's life; "Penetration" was written by Kevin back before the Filthboy tag was stapled to this here band. Even though it's old, I really like this song, it has a lot of synth and techno elements to it (including a superb imitation of old Atari 2600 sound effects!) and the vocals are a spoken word suicide speech. Other newer masterpieces include, "Righteousness" a heavy techno-type song, "Power Of" a break-neck blast-beat-fest and "Alone" a slow song with a very gothic feel to it, dark interludes supplemented with growls make this song a jewel. The only drawback to this demo is that the Filthboys are still recording on a four-track and therefore are forced to continue using a drum machine. I'm scared to think of what this band would sound like if the full drumming force of Lee could be exploited on their recordings. I guess only time and a record deal will tell. Jesus Skin - _Jesus Skin_ (4 track demo) by: Adam Wasylyk (*----) A two piece, Jesus Skin release this self titled demo which I feel STILL needs alot of work. The opening song "Feast" is average as a song by itself, but the vocals are a complete mess!! They're so low that they are completely laughable. Following is "TV Scream" which consists of samples and sound bytes, but has little appeal. The other two songs sound more like the song "Feast", average (at best) music and vocals that need a complete overhaul. Better production and vocals may have saved this. Last I heard the guitarist/vocalist had moved away from Ohio, but the band is still alive and continue to work (although I'm wondering as to how). Send $3 for a copy of _Jesus Skin_ Contact: JESUS SKIN, PO Box 3249 Scottsdale, AZ, 85271, U.S.A. email: RV2Wasted@aol.com or Beast983@aol.com Noctophilia - _Noctophilia_ (10 track demo) by: Ryan Hair (**---) Another local band from around were I live. The lead singer lives a few miles from my house. My first impression was, "What the hell? Sounds like they recorded this through the lead singer's mic!" The production sucks shit! Though they do play descent death metal. Most of the vocals are growling to barking. The drums and singer seem for the most part to stand out, because they are clear compared to the guitars. I can almost swear there isn't any bass guitar at all. They create some good technical death metal, while staying melodic. A local band worth following and supporting. Contact: NOCTOPHILIA, c/o Tom Gibbs 106 Fourth St. (VCL), Jackson, MI, 49203, USA Nun Slaughter - _Face of Evil_ (7 track demo) by: Adam Wasylyk (**---) A four piece death metal outfit, Nun Slaughter on this seven song demo play some interesting and not-so interesting music. The opening track "Power of Darkness" is interesting in it's dueling vocal exchanges. On the rest of the demo the rare blast beat can be heard (but not too clearly or powerfully), the guitars are weak while the vocals are not bad. Shitty production that really affects the sound and the power the band are trying to show/have. Contact: NUN SLAUGHTER, 132 Old Village Lane Bethel Park, PA, 15102, U.S.A. Pychus - _Brainmower_ (14 track demo) by: Adrian Bromley (****-) Montreal noise enthusiasts and destruction aficionados Psychus have finally taken the time to assemble a full-length release (since forming in 1988 and releasing dozens of cassettes/demos) of both old and newer material. The results? A pretty fucked up assortment of industrial/techno/goth ditties - i.e. "Endorphinate," "This Is The Burn" and "Tottering Structures" - that shine with that "destructive feel" to it. Imagine if you will the blending of some of the darker qualities of bands like Ministry, NIN, Skinny Puppy and Sisters Of Mercy and add the maniacal mindset and volume of this four-piece. Scary eh? The noises and samples, let alone the pure awkwardness of this LP, makes it stand out from what other bands of this variety across Canada are doing. Truly in their own league, Pychus (in some way or another) scared the hell out of me with _Brainmower_. I think I need a night light now. Iron Rainbow - _Never Settle for Less than Metal_ (3 track demo) by: Adam Wasylyk (***--) Heavy metal!! That is indeed what IRON RAINBOW play on this three song demo. "Magic Lord of Darkness", "The Castle" and "Enter the Green Dome" are all very addicting and played well, especially "The Castle" with it's catchy chorus. In all three songs the bass plays a big part, which really gave the songs alot of their power. Their sound reminds me a lot of FU MANCHU and BLACK SABBATH. Production is pretty good, the mix allows all the instruments to be well heard. A fine release and what heavy metal should really sound like. Contact: IRON RAINBOW, P.O Box 932 Middle Island, N.Y., 11953, USA Solus - _Slave Of Mind_ (9 track demo) by: Adrian Bromley (****-) For those that know not of Canada's Solus, may I recommend contacting the below address for a copy of this, their full-length debut CD _Slave Of Mind_ - it shreds! Heaviness and aggression prevails throughout this 9-song offering of some of the most exciting death metal to come out of Canada in a while. Touted as "one of Canada's heaviest underground bands" Solus live up to that assessment with the mind-blowing flow of pure death qualities from song to song. Be ripped apart by "Faultless," "Seven Sisters" and "Souls Of Empty" or just mesmerized by the professional intensity and demeanor of songs like "Deceiver" or "Caustic." The key to Solus' success with this debut CD is the fact that the band recruited amazing producer Rob Sanzo (Signal To Noise Studios in Toronto) to help capture the strength of the band, as well as a solid live feel to the record. This record sweats with gargantuan riffs and vocals that'll leave any death metal fan in a state of confusion. Contact: SOLUS, Skinmask Productions #271 Station B Toronto, Ont., Canada, M5T-2W1 Voice: (416) 536-8319 Strangers - _End of the Rainbow_ (12 track demo) by: Brian Meloon (**---) These guys are from Texas, and are good enough at what they do. The only problem is that what they do isn't very interesting. It's basically cliche'd "progressive/power metal" (a commonly used misnomer, as the music is neither progressive nor powerful), with a large rock n' roll and mid-80s influence. At times, they remind me vaguely of Crimson Glory; perhaps "a rock n' roll version of Crimson Glory" would be an accurate description of their sound. The production is decent for a demo, but isn't great. The playing is solid, but they don't really attempt any complex stuff, and most of the guitar solos are pointless and bluesy. The lyrics are very bad at times, such as the chorus to "You're Gonna Get It": "You're gonna get it... you don't want it... you're gonna get it now. You're gonna get it... you don't want it... so get the hell outta town." They do show some balls occasionally, and a few parts caught my attention, but for the most part, this is tame stuff. I guess I'd describe these guys as a decent "party rock/metal" band, but not much more. Contact: STRANGERS, Voice: (214) 414-6862 or (214) 437-2833 Email: wworth@intex.net (Courtney Whitworth) Sulkus - _Promo '96_ (3 track demo) by: Adam Wasylyk (***--) Sulkus are a four piece death metal outfit from Australia who describe their musical style as "Death-Groove", which is an accurate enough description for what can be found on their "Promo '96" demo. Combining elements of death metal and traditional metal, the 3 songs here are played well and include enough tempo changes to keep it from becoming repetitive or boring. Good production also helps out their sound. My only complaint is it's only 3 songs, just when I was getting into it was over. For $2 and postage you really can't go wrong. Contact: SULKUS, P.O. Box 346 Jannali 2226, NSW AUSTRALIA Sunride - _Sunride_ (5 track demo) by: Gino Filicetti (*****) Amazing, excellent, great, fucking awesome. What more can I say about this Finnish band that has just blown me away? From the first second of the lead-off track, "Down," to the final riffs of the last song simply entitled, "Untitled," my toes never stopped tapping. Sunride came into existance in January of 1993 as a quartet and later added a bassist to the fold. This is the band's first studio demo tape, prior to this Sunride had only released rehearsal tapes recorded from home. The music here just grabs you, and makes you want to groove with the fuzz of the highly distorted guitars. Similarities to Kyuss come to mind when listening to this tape, but the heaviness present here could never be achieved by the aforementioned band. The vocals are what sets Sunride apart however, they have the harsh, raspy qualities of death vox, but not the growling or gurgling aspects. Finland has once again produced an excellent band that I am sure we will be hearing big things about, in a very short while. Be sure and grab this tape, you can thank me after you've heard for yourself. NOTE: I first heard about this band from the guitarist Wille, who I am sure I met on IRC. Wille, if you are reading this, please email me at because I've lost your email address, thanks! Contact: SUNRIDE, c/o Wille Naukkarimen, Kaakonpyrsto 4 D 34 40340 Jyvaskyla, FINLAND Send $5 US or 20 Fim for a copy of _Sunride_ Torquemada - _Promo 1996_ (3 track demo) by: Adrian Bromley (**---) With just three songs included on this demo tape, it is rather hard to see what this Italian thrash/death metal band is trying to accomplish. With apparent interest in the past with their successful demo tapes (_Prelude_ and _In My Eyes, Darkly_) from the European metal community and since signing with Monument Records (in 1995) for release of their second demo, the band has done some studio time and come up with these three songs that supposedly carry on with their need to write brutal music, though providing meaningful lyrics of great depth as they head into 1996. Sounding like a cross between Obituary and Sepultura (more of the latter), Torquemada's sound is rather common in this day and age. Nothing seems to be too different or interesting and with some stagnant riffs and uninspired screams of anger thrown throughout the record, one can only look upon this demo tape as something that'll either escalate into more promising metal music or a sign of creativity slowly diminishing. Towpath - _Towpath_ (8 track demo) by: Adam Wasylyk (***--) What the hell is this???? Towpath combine many musical styles into their sound like funk, death, thrash and noise and also use a wide variety of vocal styles like chanting, death/black vocals, screaming and even what sounds like choir boy singing. Lyrically, on the first song, "The 5 Gates of Riverside" it deals with the physical, emotional and sexual abuse they witnessed growing up in their hometown. But on the second song they sing about force feeding bags of rotting meat?? They go on to sing about, well, let me see, a "Skrotum Without Testes", necrophilia while "Desecrating the Grave of Carol Hathy", and a "Mouthful of Bag" (must I say what the bag is??). However, musically it's A LOT better. Most of the songs are pretty catchy in their own way, but the lyrics are pretty fucking stupid. Are these guys in high school or something??? These guys need a girlfriend, and fast!!! Not for the easily offended. Contact: TOWPATH, P.O. Box 638 Kenmore, N.Y., 14217, U.S.A. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ____ __ __ /\ _`\ /\ \ /\ \__ __ \ \ \/\_\\ \ \___ __ ___\ \ ,_\/\_\ ___ \ \ \/_/_\ \ _ `\ /'__`\ / __`\ \ \/\/\ \ /'___\ \ \ \L\ \\ \ \ \ \/\ \L\.\_/\ \L\ \ \ \_\ \ \/\ \__/ \ \____/ \ \_\ \_\ \__/.\_\ \____/\ \__\\ \_\ \____\ \/___/ \/_/\/_/\/__/\/_/\/___/ \/__/ \/_/\/____/ ____ __ /\ _`\ /\ \__ \ \ \/\_\ ___ ___ ___ __ _ __\ \ ,_\ ____ \ \ \/_/_ / __`\ /' _ `\ /'___\ /'__`\/\`'__\ \ \/ /',__\ \ \ \L\ \/\ \L\ \/\ \/\ \/\ \__//\ __/\ \ \/ \ \ \_/\__, `\ \ \____/\ \____/\ \_\ \_\ \____\ \____\\ \_\ \ \__\/\____/ \/___/ \/___/ \/_/\/_/\/____/\/____/ \/_/ \/__/\/___/ Here is where Chronicles of Chaos gives you the lowdown on the latest shows coming your way. Check out Chaotic Concerts every month for the scoop on the bands brutalizing the masses with their own form of terror. M I L W A U K E E ' S M E T A L M O N S T E R ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chronicles of Chaos covers the Tenth Anniversary of the Metalfest At the Eagle's Auditorium in Milwaukee, Wisconsin July 26 & 27, 1996, Attendance: 3,000 (approx.) Over the last few years the Milwaukee Metalfest has had its share of bad times with disorganization, last minute band cancellations and a "pay-to-play" policy. But for this year's 10th anniversary, the surprise, aside from the many great acts showcasing their wares, was organization. A definite plus seeing that I had spent 10 hours in a car en route from Toronto, Canada to Milwaukee to catch the two-day showcase. Arriving in Milwaukee on the night before the Fest, for dinner I ate at one of America's finest Burger King's. Afterwards checking in to our hotel for a much needed night's sleep in preparation for the first day's festivities. The show was slated to start at 5pm, so with some time to burn I went on a tour of the Miller Brewery....... but that's another story. When I arrived at Eagles Auditorium, it was pretty much the way I had expected it to look like. I went in and found the band lists for the Rave and Ballroom stages already up, but with only one list it was pretty crowded, even to just take a peek. After copying the list down I noticed that the bigger bands wouldn't be playing for awhile so I headed to the Rave stage to check out some of the unsigned death metal acts. I walked in and heard the band SARCOPHAGY in the middle of their set. From Indiana, brutal death metal was their calling card, entertaining to watch but not too memorable music-wise. Following were EUPHORIC EVISCERATION, who played more death metal and fared better at it. After them played Illinois's RITUAL, a metal band with some death influence who played a more interesting set: something different than just death metal. I then headed upstairs to the Ballroom to watch MORBID SYMPHONY. From Liverpool, England they also played metal with some death influences, with some singing too. The crowd was still scarce, but it was still early. I headed back downstairs to see another unsigned death band called BRICK. I learned after their set that the singer was a replacement, and the previous singer quit that day. The guitarist, seeing the lack of enthusiasm from the crowd proceeded to tell them off. Well, that's one way to ensure you won't sell any demo's! Anyway, a not-so-bad set taking the vocalist into consideration. I then headed back upstairs to the Ballroom to see the one of the Metalfest headliners: CANNIBAL CORPSE. Starting their set with a track off their new album _Vile_, this was the first time I had seen them live (my punishment for living in a town where the metal scene sucks). George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher seemed to fit right in, tearing into each number. Some songs to follow were "Stripped, Raped and Strangled", "Fucked with a Knife", "Maggots", "Devoured by Vermin" (with video play on the show LOUD on Much Music in Canada) and finished off with "Hammer Smashed Face". A well played set, and a good crowd on-hand too I then headed back downstairs (whew!!, these stairs are tiring!!) to catch JUNGLE ROT. Playing an impressive set of death metal, the Rave room became a haven for death fans as LIFE OF AGONY were playing upstairs. Noticing that the bands on both stages were worth missing, it was the perfect opportunity to check out the vendors!! This year, representatives from Napalm Records, Mosh Pit Records (who of course put out Pit Magazine) and those from the Sounds of Death 'zine were present. After buying a couple of CD's I headed back to the Rave stage where the bigger and more established death bands were almost ready to start. I entered and awaited the music of BRUTALITY. To tell the truth I wasn't all too impressed with their sound. The PA, which has been notorious in prior years for its lousy sound was to blame, as at times it sounded like a wall of noise. Starting with (well, the first song title I could actually hear) was "When the Sky Turns Black", and went on to play BLACK SABBATH's "Electric Funeral" and some tunes off their up-coming album. Next were INTERNAL BLEEDING, just off their tour with SIX FEET UNDER and this being their third Metalfest in a row. They've developed quite a fan base here as you could tell from the crowd, whose response was one of the biggest for any of the death metal bands on the bill. The band also got very much involved with the crowd, the singer Frank Rini many times stage diving and surfing on the crowd while singing, while guitarist Chris Perveus playing guitar on the barricade that separated the fans from the stage. Playing some songs off their up-coming album _Extinction of Benevolence_ (expected in early '97), they also played some songs off _Voracious Contempt_ like "Humanicide", "God of Subservience" and "Reflection of Ignorance". A good set, and a real crowd pleaser too. MONSTROSITY had a tough act to follow, playing both old and tracks off their upcoming album _Millennium_, which is due to be released anytime now. Songs like "Ceremonial Void", "Imperial Doom" and "Final Cremation" were played well, with new vocalist Jason Avery (ex-Eulogy) fitting right in. Unfortunately they suffered the same fate as BRUTALITY, the music lost its power and sounded at times just like noise, nothing like their recorded material. Really too bad, but it was good to see that the absence of George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher hadn't affected them at all. Seeing the first minute of the next band, I decided to head back upstairs and end up catch the end of ANTHRAX's set. The majority of Metalfest fans already enjoying their set, I watched while they played "Bring the Noise" and wasn't too impressed. Since the Rave stage was all but done I really had no other choice but to stay. The curtains open, and the MISFITS rip into one of their many songs on the night. Not being a fan I didn't know many of songs that were being played, other than "Last Caress", which I'm sure I knew from when I was a fan of METALLICA. I was impressed by their punk sound, but I left a little early to avoid the crowds, and to get back to the hotel as I was tired, and Saturday would be a full day, from 12pm to 2am. It would be a very long day. Waking up a little late and after eating lunch we headed to Eagles Auditorium for another day of music. I arrived at around 12:30 and entered the Rave room to see COPHALIC CARNAGE starting into their set. I remembered the singer having a resemblance to Kevin Sharp, they played another set of generic death metal (with many more to come). After their set someone stepped up to the mike and said a band called CYANOSIS, a death metal band were going to play upstairs. Getting there early, I leaned against the barricade so that I'd have a good spot to watch and hear the band. CYANOSIS finished their sound check and went into another set of mediocre death metal. With them being on the Ballroom stage, I was actually expecting more but I got less. The band was from Milwaukee, so that explained the good crowd on hand for their set. Next up were CORPSICLE, who were much more competent and talented than CYANOSIS, playing an entertaining set of death metal. I left early to head back downstairs to see FLESHGRIND. All I had heard from FLESHGRIND was but a single track off a compilation, so I didn't quite know what to expect. Expecting to hear another death/grind band, they were good at playing fast and great to watch. A good set, but all of these death/grind bands were getting me confused as to which band played what. The following band I saw was also one of the best. AVERNUS played what I call "tribal metal". With two bongo drum players, a keyboardist, a drummer, three guitarists and a female singer there was a lot to watch on-stage. The band played about 3 or 4 fairly lengthy songs and I was truly wanting more!! A worthy break from the death/grind bands. I found it most puzzling when I found out later that these guys were actually unsigned! I was starting to think to myself "Where are the black metal bands??". Well, my question was soon answered when corpse painted CURSE from Connecticut took the stage. The three piece played an average set, the PA was really starting to hurt my ears. Standing beside a girder really helped cut out some of the high end noise. Los Angeles black/death band SADISTIC INTENT came on in their studded leather and played a rather good set, but I remember them going about 15 minutes over their designated time. This of course made the Rave stage fall behind the Ballroom, but eventually it did catch up. BLOODSTORM, another corpse-painted black metal band then played, definitely playing a better set than CURSE. By this time I was in the balcony, not wanting to screw up my ears like I did the previous night. Looking at my band list, I saw it was time to head back upstairs to see FU MANCHU. I had seen them the previous week on their Toronto tour stop with ORANGE 9MM and CLUTCH. So seeing them gave me the opportunity to directly compare the two sets sound-wise. The sound was a lot worse here. The PA really didn't do them justice. Having a strong bass sound in Toronto, I really couldn't here it at all from where I was standing. Playing songs off of _In Search Of..._ like "Regal Begal" and "Missing Link", it was a good set, but only average after what the PA did to it. OPPRESSOR were next and played a great set of death metal, playing new and old tunes, their sophomore album _Agony_ expected sometime next month. I stuck around for some of MORDA SKULD's set which I found to be mediocre and not too exciting. Downstairs I went to catch some of KRABATHOR's set. KRABATHOR from the Czech Republic put on a solid death metal set, but not all too memorable. I should have stayed for MORDA SKULD. Coming up soon on the Rave stage were three of the bigger death/black bands, but with SUFFOCATION to play soon upstairs some of it would have to be missed. ACHERON took the stage with an "Acheron" banner behind the drummer (every band should have had a banner, then I wouldn't have had to keep asking someone "Which band is this?"). With both guitarists bald, at least that was memorable. Their black/death set was pretty good, the on-stage expression of their belief in Satanism was strong. Next were VITAL REMAINS. Smoke filled the Rave stage and most of the room. A banner of the baphomet was illuminated. One of the more memorable sets of the Fest, they went into their set playing some newer and older songs, such as the older "War of Paradise", off _Let Us Pray_. During the last minutes of VITAL REMAINS I left early to make sure I caught SUFFOCATION. Sure enough I was there with plenty of time. Starting off ferociously with one of my favorite songs, "Infecting the Crypts," they went on to play a variety of songs off most of their albums. Very heavy and at times very fast!!! What surprised me was the length of the set. After about six songs, that was it! I, along with a lot of the crowd were disappointed, wanting to hear more. I then ran back downstairs to catch INCANTATION. Surprisingly alot of the crowd didn't follow me for some reason. Playing some of their more popular songs like "Emaciated Holy Figure", the vocals were particularly low, so low I sometimes couldn't hear him over the guitars. Getting an INCANTATION newsletter earlier, I was interested to read that they are breaking away from Relapse Records and are working on two Mini CD's for Repulse Records, one CD being from a live show and the other having some new songs and a couple of covers. At this point, it was over for me. I had seen every band that I wanted to see. If things somehow screwed up from here on in, it wouldn't matter as I had seen all that I desired to see. However, things would not screw up, and there was still plenty of bands to see and plenty of music to hear. After seeing the last band I wanted to see on the Rave stage, I would spend the rest of the Metalfest preferably sitting somewhere in the Ballroom. I walked in on Canadian boys VOIVOD who were well into their set. Playing their speed/thrash in support of their latest (released some time ago) album _Negatron_, the crowd seemed pretty much into them, as was I. Next were CLUTCH, who as I said earlier I had seen in Toronto. Playing an competent set, it had me wondering "When are they going to play 'A Shotgun Named Marcus'??". Anyway the band played on for the good part of an hour, much to the delight of the crowd, which consisted of almost all the fans in the building. To close out the Metalfest was GWAR. Being the first time I had seen them, I didn't quite know what to expect. When the curtains opened, GWAR went into their set of mediocre punk rock. What impressed me were the theatrics of the band, it was quite entertaining to watch. The band's juvenile stage humor had me in hysterics. Songs I liked (and recognized) were "Sick of You" and one of their encore's "Ham on the Bone". A good band to finish off the Fest and clean the palate. Now, my afterthoughts on the Fest. First off, I'm awfully glad I picked this year to go, as the organization was just fantastic. The Rave stage did fall back by about a half hour but it did catch up. Most of the bands scheduled to play did so, so there weren't any last-minute cancellations or no-shows. Which brings me to one of the controversies of this years show. I had learned about a month before the show that the promoters were advertising bands on the bill without even asking them to play. IMMORTAL and ABSU were put on the bill early, but later were announced they weren't playing. One of the biggest black metal bands right now, MAYHEM, were hyped to play the Metalfest but in actuality were never contacted to play in the first place. Manheim, the former drummer of MAYHEM refuted the show rumors on the internet by posting a message saying that "Necro (butcher, bass player) is not happy about this false advertising, when I told him about it this weekend. So to all you fans out there : The True Mayhem are NOT doing any conserts (sic) in US this summer". This comment is echoed in this year's Metal Fest Magazine, stating that "Mayhem were never slated to play this years show, but were advertised as such". Michael Hunt Publishing also stated that it will no longer be affiliated with Milwaukee Metal Mania, due to the MAYHEM incident, the continuation of pay to play, and the absence of an apology to the bands and labels for last year's show. On the topic of Michael Hunt Publishing, it seems that they still haven't learned from their mistakes. Those who remember on last year's compilation CD there was a RaHoWa (which stands for RAcial HOly WAr) track called "The Snow Fell". Well, guess what was on CD #3, track #4??? You guessed it!! RaHoWa's "Might is Right". And thumbing threw the Metal Fest Magazine, I stumbled onto a RaHoWa CD review and in one of the articles some racist language that I won't bother to repeat. Notable bands that were no-shows were MALEVOLENT CREATION (not sure if they were ever scheduled to play) and V.O.D. (or Voice of Destruction) from South Africa, who I heard were unable to come up with the money to get from the UK, where they were presently to get to Milwaukee. Overall it was a great show. There were alot of great bands that played, almost every one of them I would never have got the chance to see. Meeting some of the bands and fans was also a great experience in itself. I'm definitely thinking about going back again next year, I'm just hoping they can get it this well organized for next year too. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= T H E L O N D O N L E T - D O W N ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The London Death Fest at the Embassy in London, Ontario by: Adam Wasylyk After enduring a 4 hour ride (absolutely nothing compared to my Milwaukee Metalfest car ride) I finally arrived at this year's London Death Fest venue, The Embassy. Housing fairly recent Deicide and Suffocation shows, and me hearing that the London metal scene was very strong, I was expecting a good turnout. Shopping at a local record store before the show, I return in time and took a seat. Disappointed at the size of the crowd that had shown up so far, the first band on the bill were a band called JOE DUMPSTER. Playing their brand of pop/punk, I was at the least taken by surprise. Hardly a band to be on this bill, but played an average set and to my delight were off the stage relatively quickly. Next were BURNING MOON, who had travelled from Toronto for the show. Playing a great set of black metal and playing a good selection of songs from their demo (see issue #10 for my demo review) and also playing CELTIC FROST and DEATH covers, both of which were done well. With a woman dancing seductively on-stage during their set, it was she, not the band, that had most of the audience watching. Following (and also lastly) were local act PORNO. Seeing them at the Toronto Death Fest, their sound was less intense as I remembered it, with obvious reasons. The female singer/dancer was not present and the old drummer was gone. The lack of their presence was definitely felt. The guitarist now filled the drumming role, he did an adequate, but not a better job at it. With all three members contributing vocals, PORNO played a good set of mostly death metal with not too much else (also see issue #10 for Alain's demo review, an unfair one but a demo review anyway :-). After the show, I was disappointed on a number of levels. First, the small number of bands that played. With other great London acts like SUMMERTIME DAISIES and BLOOD OF CHRIST not in attendance, PORNO were the only London act to play. Second, the number of fans. There must have been maybe 60 at the most, hell there were more fans at the Toronto Death Fest!!! Perhaps a lack of advertising is to blame. I really hope so, as it wasn't worth going all the way to London to see two bands that I could see play in Toronto. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= S L A Y E R S L A U G H T E R S T H E S A C R E D S H O E ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Slayer with Unsane at The Trocadero Philadelphia, PA, August 10, 1996 by: Drew Schinzel I am not a huge Slayer fan, owning only two of their albums prior to the show, but since metal concerts are so rare in this area I decided it would definitely be worth it to make the hour or so trip to Philadelphia to see one of metal's most influential bands. The doors opened at 7pm, and I arrived around 7:30. Seeing as how the line was stretching for a few blocks down the street from the door, I was glad I'd bought my ticket before hand. The line wasn't for the box office though, it was because everyone (I mean everyone) had to be patted down and checked for knives, etc. [and camera/recording equipment especially -- Gino] before entering the place, which held around 1000 people. Once I got inside I quickly met up with my friends from #metal on IRC one of whom introduced me to death metal a long time ago, and for that I owe him everything. There was already some kind of local band playing, but they weren't even worth listening to so I decided to go check out the T-shirts. They had three different ones, but one of them anyone could make at home with a bottle of gray spraypaint so I only got two; at $20 apiece these things were a little overpriced. Next on stage was the official opening act, Unsane. Let me just say that these guys sucked. They were indistinguishable from any other band of their genre (that whole kind of metal/hardcore thing), and the crowd let them know it. Any time they stopped even for a second, the entire crowd would yell out "SLAYER!!" Unsane must've been expecting this and probably received this kind of warm reception before because after a while they kind of played along. Of course the vocalist for Unsane didn't help things either when before they started playing he yelled out, "Ok, before SLAAYYYEERRR!!! We are Unsane." Or something to that effect. Anyway, they ended their set after maybe 40 minutes and left the stage. After about 20 more minutes, everyone finally got what they were waiting for. The lights slowly dimmed, and Slayer began playing South of Heaven. This was definitely the most exciting part of the show. By far the best part of the show was during this song when the entire crowd sang along with Tom, "Before you see the light.. YOU MUST DIE!!" They followed this up with War Ensemble, the second best performance of the night. Before the show I had heard that they played two different sets, you either got the hour and a half set full of old songs, or the 10 song set with a lot of new stuff. We must've lucked out because they played neither, they instead chose *21* songs, more old than new, and must've played for about and hour and 45 minutes. Here is the full set list (with a lot of help from Marc aka AtTheGate): South of Heaven War Ensemble Abolish Government Hell Awaits Captor of Sin Gemini (punk song) Killing Fields Anti-Christ (punk song) Ditto Head I Hate You Richard Hung Himself Necrophiliac Dead Skin Mask Chemical Warfare Sex, Murder, Art Seasons in the Abyss Raining Blood Mandatory Suicide Angel of death Neither of us having gotten Undisputed Attitude yet, we didn't know the names of a couple of the punk songs. Luckily they didn't play a whole lot of them. Probably the only thing that marred this night was the event that happened about halfway through the set. Someone (accidentally I'm sure) hit Tom in the hand with a thrown shoe, which caused him to stop playing. When he resumed he said, "You guys are fucked up." That wasn't the end though; he seemed to take being hit with the shoe as a sign of disrespect because throughout the rest of the set he insulted the crowd and did various other things. Here's a couple: "I want to dedicate this next song to this place, it's called I HATE YOU." And: "Why don't you guys fucking shut up." Also: "Normally at this point in the show I have a few words of kindness, but not for you guys." I thought all of this was a little unnecessary. I mean it was probably just an accident, and even if it wasn't, there was no reason to take it out on the rest of the fans. Overall, Slayer put on a great show. Never been to a Slayer show before, so I can't compare it to any other, but another friend who was there (hey Allison) said it was one of the best shows she'd ever been to, by ANYONE. They were full of intensity, didn't mess up at all, and basically kicked ass. I hope Tom Araya's final words were true: "Ok, we're going to go home, work on our new shit, and come back sometime next year, alright?" There are only a couple of dates left on this short tour, so if you have a chance, by all means go. Just be sure to arrive after Unsane is done. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= C L U T C H I N G O N T O T H E L A S T O R A N G E ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Clutch with Orange 9mm and Fu Manchu At Lee's Palace in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, July 20, 1996 For the first time ever both Gino and I met up with our writer Adam Wasylyk (who lives somewhere in bum-fuck/West End Toronto) for this concert. We had known Adam for several months over the net as he originally just submitted concert reviews, but as time went on we realized that Adam would be a good asset for the 'zine and offered him the chance to write for us: doing reviews and interviews. He accepted and eventually Adam became part of the Chronicles of Chaos fold: 1/5 of the mag. And the rest is history. That night we met up for a pretty solid triple bill at one of the better venues in Toronto: Lee's Palace. The sparse crowd at the beginning of the night (during Fu Manchu's set) eventually turned into a sweaty and congested assemblage of concert-goer's when Maryland noise-guys Clutch took the stage. Opening the show was the always cool Fu Manchu, with their Black Sabbath-esque guitar riffs, drug influenced lyrics and feedback. Loud and proud, Fu Manchu delivered heavy song after heavy song as they stormed through 40-minutes of material, mostly off their latest album _In Search Of..._. Singer Scott Hill coated the songs with some trippy vocals and charisma, much like the ways of Monster Magnet frontman Dave Wyndorf. Standouts included: "Regal Begal," "Asphalt Risin," "Cyclone Launch" and "Solid Hex." Next up was New York's Orange 9mm, a four-piece hardcore band led by the explosive frontman Chaka. The band's 50-minute set was pure adrenalin, showcasing some great songs (can't remember the names - grooves were all that counted) that just kept churning up strong riffs and hard-core grooves. The band had a good response from happy moshing fans up front and overall had Clutch's work cut out for them. Having seen this band last year on The Warped Tour and now in a smaller venue, I can strongly say that they are one of the better hardcore acts playing out right now. Intensity and might guided by a focused message. As Clutch took the stage, Maryland flag adorning the wall behind them, the crowd grew more intense. In town for the third time with their 1995 self-titled record (the band was here with Marilyn Manson twice in October 1995) this seemed to be the least motivated or energetic show that the band has performed. Can you say road fatigue? With a new album surfacing soon, the band played some new material which kept the pit going, but nothing was more exhilarating to hear then their classic song (and Beavis And Butthead approved) "Shogun Named Marcus." Following that song, the remainder of the band's set was just a blur of noise and heavy riffs with no real peak of interest. Needless to say, the band fell flat and only once in a while surfaced with something interesting to keep the fans captivated. Despite the somewhat dismal effort of Clutch, both opening acts worked hard and in the end proved to be the better choices for bands this night. Fu Manchu rocks - be sure to check this band out if you ever get the chance. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= @@@ @@@ @@@ @@@@@@@ @@@ @@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@ @@ @@@@@@ @@! @@! @@! @@! @@@ @@! @@! @@! @@! @@@ !@ !@@ @!! !!@ @!@ @!@!!@! !!@ @!! @!!!:! @!@!!@! !@@!! !: !!: !! !!: :!! !!: !!: !!: !!: :!! !:! ::.: ::: : : : : : : :: ::: : : : ::.: : @@@ @@@ @@@ @@@@@@@ @@@@@@ @@@@@@@ @@@ @@@ @@! @@! @@! @@! @@@ @@! @@@ @@! @@! @@@ @!! !!@ @!@ @!@!!@! @!@!@!@! @!! @!@!@!@! !: !!: !! !!: :!! !!: !!! !!: !!: !!! ::.: ::: : : : : : : : : : : Here is where things get ugly. Writer's Wrath gives our writers a chance to voice their own opinions about certain hot topics in the scene today. Check out this semi-monthly column for the most obscene and contraversial ramblings this side of the Enquirer. Chronicles of Chaos' first Writer's Wrath column will appear in the next issue of CoC. We are sorry that we couldn't deliver the debut article this month due to an extremely heavy workload. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ________ ________ ___ __/_________ ________________ _________ __/ __ / _ __ \ / / /_ ___/_ ___/ _ __ \_ /_ _ / / /_/ / /_/ /_ / _(__ ) / /_/ / __/ /_/ \____/\__,_/ /_/ /____/ \____//_/ ________ _____ ___ __/______________ /____ _____________ __ / _ __ \_ ___/ __/ / / /_ ___/ _ \ _ / / /_/ / / / /_ / /_/ /_ / / __/ /_/ \____//_/ \__/ \__,_/ /_/ \___/ Welcome to Chronicles of Chaos' tour listing column. Check out Tours of Torture every month for the scoop on who's coming to town and where to catch your favorite bands. If you have any information about upcoming tours, we'd be more than happy to hear about it. Contact us at . Grave ~~~~~ Sept 20 - Berkeley Square, Berkeley CA Sept 21 - Showcase Theatre, Corona CA Sept 22 - Latin Village, Pico Riviera CA Sept 23 - World Beat Center, San Diego CA Sept 24 - Mason Jar, Phoenix AZ Sept 25 - Skate & Play, Clovis NM Sept 26 - Showcase, San Antonio TX Sept 27 - The Abyss, Houston TX Sept 29 - Rockefeller's, Columbia SC Oct 1 - Jaxx, Springfield VA Oct 3 - Sea-Sea's, Moosic PA Oct 4 - El-N-Gee, New London CT Oct 5 - Saratoga Winners, Cohoes NY Oct 6 - CBGB's, New York NY Oct 7 - Sports Palace, New Britian CT Oct 8 - Bar Spectacle, Quebec City QUE Oct 9 - Foufounes Electrique, Montreal QUE Oct 10 - The Rat, Boston MA Oct 11 - The Chance, Poughkeepsie NY Iced Earth/Nevermore/PsycoDrama ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Aug 23 - Glasshouse, Furth GERMANY Aug 24 - Open Air, Offenbach GER Aug 25 - Zeche, Bochum GER Aug 26 - Markthalle, Hamburg GER Aug 27 - Aladin, Bremen GER Aug 28 - Rockclub Pur, Munich GER Aug 29 - Rockhaus, Vienna AUSTRIA Aug 31 - Markthalle, Saraganz SWITZERLAND Sept 1 - Z 7, Pratteln SWIT Sept 5 - Rohre, Stuttgart GER Sept 6 - Garage, Saarbrucken GER Sept 7 - Open Air, Saarbrucken GER Sept 8 - JUZ, Andernach GER Sept 12 - Mau, Rostock GER Sept 13 - Halford, Berlin GER Sept 14 - East Club, Bischofswerda GER Sept 15 - Werra Rohn Halle, Merkers GER Sept 17 - Alter Schlachthof, Lingen GER =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= W H A T W E H A V E C R A N K E D ! ! ! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Special TOP TEN Year-in-Review Edition Gino's Top 10 1. Pan-Thy-Monium - _Khaooohs & Kon-Fus-ion_ (CoC #9) 2. Pitch Shifter - _Infotainment?_ (CoC #10) 3. Cradle of Filth - _Vempire_ (CoC #11) 4. Skrew - _Shadow Of Doubt_ (CoC #8) 5. Impaled Nazarene - _Latex Cult_ (CoC 10) 6. Various - _...And Even Wolves Hid Their Teeth_ (CoC #13) 7. Ultraviolence - _Psychodrama_ (CoC #6) 8. Hypocrisy - _Abducted_ (CoC #7) 9. DHI - _Pressures Collide_ (CoC #6) 10. g/z/r - _Plastic Planet_ (CoC #4) Adrian's Top 10 1. Pitch Shifter - _Infotainment?_ (CoC #8) 2. Only Living Witness - _Innocents_ (not reviewed) 3. My Dying Bride - _The Angel And The Dark River_ (CoC #8) 4. Pantera - _The Great Sothern Trendkill_ (CoC #11) 5. Mindrot - _Dawning_ (CoC #4) 6. Sepultura - _Roots_ (not reviewed) 7. Neurosis - _Through Silver In Blood_ (CoC #9) 8. Rotting Christ - _Triarchy Of The Lost Lovers_ (CoC #13) 9. Embrace - _Coven The Eternal_ (CoC #13) 10. Solus - _Slave Of Mind_ (CoC #10) Brian's Top 10 1. Spastic Ink - _Ink Complete_ (CoC #10) 2. Arcturus - _Aspera Hiems Symfonia_ (CoC #12) 3. Cradle of Filth - _Vempire_ (CoC #11) 4. Spiral Architect - _demo_ (CoC #9) 5. In Flames - _Subterranean_ (CoC #8) 6. Sadist - _Tribe_ (CoC #12) 7. Dawn - _Naer Solen Gar Niber For Evogher_ (CoC #8) 8. Lethargy - _Humor Me, You Funny Little Man_ (CoC #4) 9. At the Gates - _Terminal Spirit Disease_ (CoC #1) 10. Aeon - _Demo #2_ (CoC #2) Steve's Top 10 1. Pan-Thy-Monium - _Khaoohs and Kon-Fus-Ion_ (CoC #9) 2. Impaled Nazarene - _Latex Cult_ (CoC #10) 3. Setherial - _Nord_ (CoC #12) 4. Equinox - _Return to Mystery_ (CoC #12) 5. Gorgoroth - _Antichrist_ (CoC #13) 6. Malevolent Creation - _Eternal_ (CoC #1) 7. Edge of Sanity - _Crimson_ (CoC #9) 8. Diaboli - _Mesmerized by Darkness_ (CoC #12) 9. Dimmu Borgir - _Stormblast_ (CoC #13) 10. Cannibal Corpse - _Vile_ (CoC #8) Adam's Top 10 1. Bathory - _Blood on Ice_ (CoC #11) 2. Amorphis - _Elegy_ (CoC #10) 3. Pan-Thy-Monium - _Khaooohs & Kon-fus-ion_ (CoC #9) 4. Necromantia - _Scarlet Evil, Witching Black_ (CoC #10) 5. Avernus - _A Farewell to Eden_ (not reviewed) 6. Edge Of Sanity - _Crimson_ (CoC #9) 7. Golgotha - _Melancholy_ (not reviewed) 8. Blood of Christ - _The Lonely Flowers of Autumn_ (CoC #11) 9. Absonant Cadence - _Emergence_ (CoC #13) 10. Burning Moon - _Eternal Darkness_ (CoC #10) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= T H E F I N A L W O R D ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Well people, that about wraps it up for our first year. Looking back, it's been a lot of work but in the end, it is all worth it. I want to thank everyone who's supported us throughout the year and helped make this 'zine as great as can be. For next month, we are going to take a well deserved vacation, and set the release of CoC #14 to the first week of October. I hope everyone will be able to live with out us for a month! See you all soon, and remember those Loud Letters. -- Gino Filicetti =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Here now are some words from the OTHER CoC founder, Adrian Bromley: Thanks go to all our friends in the music industry (labels and bands), subscribers and just NET-cruisers for reading Chronicles of Chaos over the last year. Even though at times it was difficult to get the mag together on time, the whole CoC staff, Gino, Alain, Brian, Steve, Adam and I have had fun doing it. We hope we've done a good job and will continue to do so in the future. Thanks for being there for us - Stay Heavy! -- Adrian "Energizer" Bromley =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= End Chronicles of Chaos, Issue #13