,---.| o | ,---. | |---.,---.,---.,---..,---.| ,---.,---. ,---.|__. | | || | || ||| | |---'`---. | || `---'` '` `---'` '``---'`---'`---'`---' `---'` ,---.| | |---.,---.,---.,---. | | |,---|| |`---. `---'` '`---^`---'`---' CHRONICLES OF CHAOS e-Zine, December 9, 1999, Issue #44 http://www.interlog.com/~ginof/coc.html Editor-in-Chief: Gino Filicetti Coordinator: Adrian Bromley Contributor/Copy Editor: Pedro Azevedo Assistant Copy Editor: John Weathers Contributor: Alain M. Gaudrault Contributor: Brian Meloon Contributor: Adam Wasylyk Contributor: Paul Schwarz Contributor: Aaron McKay Contributor: David Rocher Contributor: Gabriel Sanchez Contributor: Alex Cantwell Contributor: Matthias Noll NOTE: For more Chronicles of Chaos information, check out the 'Details' section at the end of this issue. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Issue #44 Contents, 12/9/99 --------------------------- * Editorial * Loud Letters * Deadly Dialogues -- My Dying Bride: The Bride Returns to the Bleak Rainy Moors -- Satyricon: In a Moment of Clarity, the Rebels Return -- Mortiis: The Shadow's Soul Between Obscurity and Oblivion -- Hate Eternal: 'Til Death Do Us Hate -- Eternally -- The Kovenant: Changing the Face of Metal -- Vital Remains: A Vital Conversation -- Overkill: Classic Covers From Overkill -- The Atomic Bitchwax: Of Electrons and Bikini Lines * Album Asylum -- Various - _21st Century Media Blitz Vol. 2_ -- Amon Amarth - _The Avenger_ -- ...And Oceans - _The Symmetry of I, the Circle of O_ -- Angel Corpse - _The Inexorable_ -- Angel Dust - _Bleed_ -- Bal-Sagoth - _The Power Cosmic_ -- Bewitched - _At the Gates of Hell_ -- Brimstone - _Carving a Crimson Career_ -- Brutal Truth - _Goodbye Cruel World!_ -- Cannibal Corpse - _Bloodthirst_ -- Carcariass - _Sideral Torment_ -- Centurion - _Arise of the Empire_ -- Coalesce - _012: Revolution in Just Listening_ -- Cosmonks - _Out of the Ruins_ -- Damn 13 - _The Dynamite Gospel_ -- Danzig - _6:66 Satan's Child_ -- Deranged - _III_ -- Disarray - _A Lesson in Respect_ -- Engine - _Engine_ -- Entwine - _The Treasure Within Hearts_ -- Fireball Ministry - _Ou Est la Rock?_ -- Fiurach - _Chaospawner_ -- Forest of Impaled - _Demonvoid_ -- Genocide - _Breaking Point_ -- Konkhra - _Come Down Cold_ -- Mammoth Volume - _Mammoth Volume_ -- Mercyful Fate - _9_ -- Various - _Metal From Denmark... Reversing the Danish Underground 1999_ -- Metanoia - _Time to Die_ -- My Dying Bride - _The Light at the End of the World_ -- Various - _Never Give In: A Tribute to Bad Brains_ -- Nightstick - _Death to Music_ -- Old Grandad - _The Last Upper_ -- Opeth - _Still Life_ -- Overkill - _Coverkill_ -- Rammstein - _Live Aus Berlin_ -- Requiem Mass - _Shattered Destiny_ -- Sigh - _Scenario IV: Dread Dreams_ -- Stretch Arm Strong - _Rituals of Life_ -- Stuck Mojo - _HWY 1_ -- The Ember Tide - _The Ember Tide_ -- The Fallen - _Sector-7G_ -- The Kuntautcult - _From the Pits..._ -- Thunderhead - _Ugly Side_ -- Tiamat - _Skeleton Skeletron_ -- Type O Negative - _World Coming Down_ -- Vesperian Sorrow - _Beyond the Cursed Eclipse_ -- Warlord - _Rock the Foe Hammer_ -- Waste - _Therapy_ -- White Skull - _Tales From the North_ -- Zao - _Liberate Te Ex Inferis_ * New Noise -- Capharnaum - _Plague of Spirits_ -- Kraken - _Dreams of a Greater Empire_ -- Masque of Innocence - _Take 0_ -- Merde - _Merde_ -- Opera - _Promo 1998_ -- Torak - _I Cracked the World_ * Chaotic Concerts -- The Black Metal Opera Arriveth: Mortiis in Toronto -- Armageddon With la Vierge de Fer: Iron Maiden in France * What We Have Cranked * Details =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= _____) / /) , , /) )__ _(/ _/_ _____ _ // / (_(__(_(__(_)/ (__(_(_(_(/_ (_____) by: Gino Filicetti Hello loyal readers! I'll make this short and sweet, I wouldn't want to deprive you from this "over-overdue" issue. I just want to apologize for the delay in getting this issue out. This was originally supposed to be a November issue, but certain things stood in the way of me getting it out in November. The long and short of it is that first semester in fourth year Computer Engineering isn't the easiest of things to handle. I've been too busy to even look at this issue until now. I hope you all understand. Next month, we plan on bringing you what is sure to be the biggest and best Chronicles of Chaos ever. It will be our first issue of the new millenium and I promise it will blow your minds away. So enjoy this issue and prepare yourselves for an even bigger beast next month. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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: Tue, 12 Oct 1999 From: "Wayno -- (LINUX/NT/98)" Subject: Mortification Mortification - _Hammer of God_ (Metal Blade, August 1999) by: Paul Schwarz (2 out of 10) [See CoC #43] As a Christian, I am always interested in what secular mags have to say about Christian bands.. I've talked to a lot of kidz about this particular album ( Both Christian and NON-Christian) and this seems to be a pretty fair appraisal of this album...Not one of their best... I think Paul was very fair in his review of this album, and did a good job reviewing this - please pass that back to him - I did NOT see an email addy anywhere.. Thanks Wayno [All of our staff's email addresses appear in the header at the top of every issue. Paul's address is: saul@cwcom.net -- Gino] Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1999 From: Michel Buijsman Subject: Loud Letter: In Extremo, another review. In Extremo - _Weckt Die Toten_ (Metal Blade, 1999) by: Adrian Bromley (0 out of 10) [See CoC #43] Wow, what a truly objective piece of writing. Seriously now. Fuck off, Bromley. If you're going to trash a band, at least give some solid reasons why, instead of really helpful comments like "pure crap" and "drunken imbeciles" and other cheap shots that don't say anything about the band. What was it? Did the bagpipes get to you? This band is one of those typical LOVE it or HATE it bands. Either you like the bagpipes and other folk stuff, or you don't. I like them. Why? Because they're talented musicians who have better control of their musical instruments than a lot of other bands I've seen. Another reason? Because a live show with these guys is fucking fun! You can say all you want, but it's still one of the better shows I've seen. Sure, they're not brilliant. Stuff like this has been done before, and will be done again. So what? There's hardly any band today who's really truly original. There are no deep lyrics, as far as I know, (My German isn't that great) but hey, when has that ever stopped anyone before? Short version: Either you like bagpipes/folk stuff, or you don't. If you like that, there's a good chance you're going to like this. If you can't stand bagpipes and such, well, see Adrian's bit. I like it. It's fun. I give them 8 out of 10. PS. For those of you who want to make up their own minds instead of blindly trusting either Adrian or me, In Extremo have a homepage with a realaudio sample. http://www.snafu.de/~tinosowada/ It's in German. You're looking for the "Auf die Ohren" link. -- Michel Buijsman "Stop the Earth, I want to get off!" Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1999 From: Batis Subject: About your review to Necrodeath Necrodeath - _Into the Macabre_ (Scarlet, 1999) by: Pedro Azevedo (6 out of 10) [See CoC #43] I'm afraid that most data about this album in your review is wrong. For the historical truth (and an expectance to correct your error in the next issue of Chronicles Of Chaos), I am sending you info about this band and its releases, as it appears that the reviewer has no information about the band... Necrodeath don't play retro-thrash. Necrodeath were created in '84, and have been one of the most cult bands of Italy. Their music have influenced many of the modern bands of extreme Metal, including Cannibal Corpse, Immortal, Dimmu Borgir, At The Gates and many other bands that lead the extreme Metal scene of today. Due to the year they were created, they belong in the real Thrash Metal scene of the '80s and are not a modern Metal band. Necrodeath are by far original for their time. This album, "Into The Macabre" was created in '87 (limited LP of 500 copies) and another one created in '89. Both albums staid in history, and Mayhem were one of the first bands to recognise the talents of this band. Their Black/Thrash sound was very original for the year it was originally released. Though an underground band, it managed to become a legend of Italy (and influenced the bands mentioned above). After their second release, they split up (early '90s I think) and reunited again early this year. Scarlet decided to re-release their legendary debut (the copy which you reviewed), so as to promote the band, which will release a new album at the end of this year. I hope that you either re-publish the review, with corrected information, or at least post my letter, because I always thought of Chronicles of Chaos being one of the best e-zines out there and well informed. What Pedro Has to Say ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I wrote my review based on a promo CD (nothing else), which I didn't even receive directly from Scarlet, who have never sent me anything. It had a 1999 release date and no info about being a re-release. I had no personal duty or interest whatsoever in reviewing it, but I did it anyway because it might be of interest for any CoC readers who might want an opinion from one of us about the quality of the album. In any case, regardless of whether Necrodeath are considered as metal gods or a second rate band, my review is based on my opinion of what the CD is worth -- and not whether they are legends in Italy or wherever else. Hence, my opinion wouldn't change because of that, and the fact that the CD was recorded in 1987 doesn't change the fact that it is being re-released now and right now it sounds outdated and unoriginal to me -- although competently written and performed --, as I stated in my review. I wouldn't give it extra marks for having been recorded a decade ago because it is being re-released now and I'm reviewing it for today's potential buyers. Regardless of all this, thank you for correcting me and for showing interest in CoC. Pedro Azevedo Date: Tue, 02 Nov 1999 From: "Cream Of Anarchy Productions" Subject: Attention Loud Letters: Cameron Archer Hates MSN Instant Messenger Guy All right, let's get on with it: 1. 11777@email.msn.com said: "I don't know how you select who reviews what albums, but I believe it should be done randomly, provided you weed out ANY reviewers who admire the work of Korn, Marylin Manson, Rob Zombie and their ilk." Okay. I run a website called the ZD PornoWeb, right? I've reviewed Korn and White Zombie on my site. So, according to this guy, if I reviewed for CoC, I would be strung by my intestines and hung like the major-label dickhead I am. Do I really GIVE A FUCK? If I'm not to review any major-label crap on my website because of the Evil Empire stigma attached to it, you know what? I'd have to weed out bands like Entombed (Earache/Columbia), Godflesh (again, Earache/Columbia), anyone on Roadrunner, _all_ but pre-1986 Slayer, Morbid Angel (Ear...oh you get the idea), anyone presently on Metal Blade, and, of course, I'd have to miss out on the Melvins because they had this album called _Stoner Witch_ on Atlantic a few years ago. Look, buddy, I don't care if you haven't sold out, but maybe the guys at CoC get more free albums than you ever will. If _any_ reviewer likes Korn, who fucking cares? As long as they're not paid to write a review of Limp Dick-Shit by Fred Durst and his Flip label, CoC can review anything they damn well want. 2. Thanks for that wonderful piece of shit interview with Cannibal Corpse. Here's Alex Webster trying to explain "Bloodthirst": "We want to make a brutal death metal record all the time and we have done that. It all goes back to a band like Iron Maiden who knew how to keep a formula going, but change a little bit each time out, yet still keep the fans interested." Notice how he says he wants to make a brutal death metal record. If you REALLY wanted to make a brutal death metal record, maybe you should stop writing inane lyrics and playing your tiresome riff-riff-riff-harmonic formula and try to write something new. Akercocke is brutal, more brutal than you, and THEY dress up in "Reservoir Dogs" gear. To them, Satan, sex, and blast beats are their business, to paraphrase Megadeth. (Of course, not that I like Megadeth, but...) Nile, Cryptopsy, Nasum...the list goes on. I hate to say it, and fifteen million grind fans will want to kick my ass for this, but if CC were on a small label like Osmose, instead of playing with the big boys of Metal Blade, no one would give a shit about their music, 'cause they'd be too busy trying to get out of the underground to care about adhering to formula. Oh yeah, Iron Maiden, if you haven't noticed by now, Alex, has been sucking shit ever since the mid-80s, when their formula got tired. "I think a lot of death metal bands play it safe when it comes to their images, music, lyrics and even band names." Like Six Feet Under, you one-track minded fuckhead. (There I go paraphrasing EC8OR.) 3. "This is too cool. With the actual domestic release of this Iced Earth live release being two CDs worth of live material, I was blown away by what you got, but what got me really going was the European import, which was three CDs (!!!) of live material. Wow! So even with a copy of the new double-disc sent to me, I still opted to buy the three-CD release." Gosh, Adrian! I wish _I_ could get that kind of support from Century Media! Why does he have to brag about this? I solicit reviews from the same people, and the only people who send me anything are people not on big labels like Century Media, but still decent enough to give me some decent music. Oh, and Adrian? Iced Earth blows goat chunks. 4. Neurosis' "Times Of Grace" is a 1998 release, Bromley. 5. Finally, re Matthias Noll's review of Soilent Green's "Sewn Mouth Secrets": I respect why you couldn't get into this band, but at least Soilent Green are listenable. I find almost all alt-rock to be a painful and irritating experience to listen to, but that's probably just me. Anyway, I leave you with this thought: If snakes evolved, and became humanoid creatures who could think and talk and do anything that any human could do, would that come into conflict with God? Would that state that the serpents of the world are more Christian than the people? Or would that mark the turning point in the coming of the Apocalypse? Well, you think about that while I go listen to some Slayer. CAMERON ARCHER http://www.nettoilet.com/users/theepisodes/ http://www.nettoilet.com/users/theepisodes/enter.html (no frames) zdpornmail@coolmail.net PS: If any band or label is reading this right now and is interested in sending me some shit, you know where to reach me. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= __ \ | | | | _ \ _` | _` | | | | | | __/ ( | ( | | | | ____/ \___|\__,_|\__,_|_|\__, | ____/ __ \ _) | | | | _` | | _ \ _` | | | _ \ __| | | | ( | | ( | ( | | | __/\__ \ ____/ _|\__,_|_|\___/ \__, |\__,_|\___|____/ |___/ THE BRIDE RETURNS TO THE BLEAK RAINY MOORS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CoC chats with Andrew Craighan of My Dying Bride by: Pedro Azevedo I assume most of you have seen one (or, most likely, several) of your favourite bands more or less suddenly choosing a different path, walking away from the elements and characteristics that made them one of your favourite bands in the first place. Sometimes you can still relate to the band after those changes and enjoy their music as much as you did before; some other times you can't. Most of you must have gone through that before. What you probably have never experienced is seeing one such band starting to tread such a path away from what made them special and then coming back, returning to what they used to be and to what made them great in the first place. That's the case with My Dying Bride these days. They are returning. MDB have been plagued by line-up problems ever since drummer Rick Myah was the first to leave the band, and when keyboardist/violinist Martin Powell departed many thought MDB would break up shortly after. Well, they didn't. Despite the personal disappointment that was _34.788%... Complete_ [CoC #35], I was encouraged by the rumours that _The Light at the End of the World_ [reviewed in this issue] would be very different. But temporary drummer Bill Law left the band before the recording of _TLatEotW_, and so did one of the original guitarists, Calvin Robertshaw. Under such circumstances was _The Light at the End of the World_ written and recorded, and, in my opinion, it is MDB's best album since _The Angel and the Dark River_. The following is an in-depth interview with guitarist Andrew Craighan; lengthy as it is, I am nevertheless quite sure it will provide a very satisfying and rewarding read for those of you who have albums such as _As the Flower Withers_, _Turn Loose the Swans_ and _The Angel and the Dark River_ amongst your favourites -- essentially, for those of you who longed for the return of My Dying Bride. CoC: So, how has life been going lately? Andrew Craighan: Strange, to say the least. It's been a difficult time for MDB, but I think we're coming out of that and we're moving on. It's been bleak, to say the least. CoC: Because of Calvin's departure? AC: A lot of things, actually. Calvin's departure didn't help, especially coming so soon after -- I mean, it was a couple of years after Rick's [departure], but then, with Rick leaving, initially, and then Martin leaving, and then Calvin as well, it was like, can this band suffer any more? To be honest, we got close to sort of calling it a day, but some people around me said "No, no; keep going", and I think we've gotten over the worst of it and things are going to be alright again. CoC: Talking about line-up changes, you have Shaun Steels [who played on Anathema's _Alternative 4_ after leaving Solstice] as your new drummer now. Will he be staying on a full-time basis? Are you happy with his work? AC: Yes, well, the deal was that he was in a sort of trial basis, because of the upheavals with Bill and this kind of thing. I wanted to make sure, before putting My Dying Bride back together, that the people I was working with were the right people, and Shaun seems like he is going to be the full-time replacement -- I have no problems with him whatsoever, his drumming is fantastic and his spirit and attitude for this kind of music is second to none; he really understands what we're trying to do. He's perfect for it as well, because he drums like a My Dying Bride drummer. Bill, unfortunately, I thought he was too square on the drums, I would say; brilliant drummer nonetheless, but he wouldn't let things flow as much as I would like. Shaun is more in line with what My Dying Bride do, so I would have to say his chances of being kicked out are very, very slim indeed. CoC: Of course Calvin's departure must have made quite a difference within the band... AC: Instead of a few people -- normally all six of us wrote music, but still, it meant that I was doing everything by myself, because the other main songwriters weren't there -- which were obviously Martin and Calvin. Adrian [Jackson, bassist] gets involved as well, I suppose, but it was generally those three, with Martin doing a little bit less. So it was difficult at first, because to be perfectly honest I was unsure whether I could do it on my own, being so used to working with another guitar player. It was a challenge, a challenging time as well, but I think I've improved myself now, so it's not such a problem. CoC: What can you tell me about the reasons for Calvin's departure? AC: It became too difficult for him to continue. If you lose faith in what you're doing, which I think happened to him, and you see no point in continuing... He got to a stage in his life where he had different ideas about his life -- nothing to do with the band, to be honest --, about what he should be doing, and the band didn't really make that much sense to him anymore. So he left the band, and we said to him "OK, you take as much time out as you need" -- we just thought he needed a break, because on _34.788%_ [which Andrew simply calls "34" --Pedro], he was really put to the wall on that one, and it was hard work for him, because he did most of the recording. We wrote the LP together, but when it came to recording, he really carried the burden there. And I think it took its toll on him, and after that LP he never really had the fire to do another LP. It was difficult to convince him that no matter what's happening in your life, the band is an outlet, an escape; he couldn't see it. I think the fire just went out, basically, the passion to do this kind of music left him and there was nothing we could do. We're still very good friends, in fact I'm seeing him this evening. We still talk, discuss the band, I still treat him as the other guitar player in some respects. A lot of things I'm not in my place to discuss about his life and there's a lot of things I can't talk about, but from the band side that was it, really; he lost, not interest as such, but he had more pressing things to sort out. CoC: You mentioned you were unsure whether you could handle all the work on your own; how has the band been working now? How was the writing process for _TLatEotW_, now that for the first time you were the only guitarist? AC: It was strange, because normally you have an idea, get the drums on it, play around and then the other guitar player would play the same thing; we would work on a harmony or something along those lines. I don't like to use the four-track because it makes the sound stale, so I played it live and then worked out the harmonies without the other sound there. On some other stuff that I couldn't do simply on my own, I have a friend who used to be in a band called Septic Holocaust, a friend of mine called Phil, and I dragged him in here to do metal -- he doesn't like this kind of thing, but he did it because he's a good friend of mine. I asked him if he would play the guitar lines that I had written, and then I could write the other guitar line at the side of it. So he came down and helped me on this kind of thing, just playing things that I had already written so that I could write the other side of it. For some of it I waited until the studio; I had rough ideas of what I wanted to do, I sort of had the bones of the songs, and I waited until we got to the studio, and when I could hear it properly and think about what I wanted to do I put harmonies and other guitar lines alongside in the studio. Some of it was sort of written live in the studio. It's good that way, MDB have always had that element. I remember on _The Angel and the Dark River_, "The Cry of Mankind" was not finished until the studio; I didn't write my guitar line until then. CoC: I suppose you don't mean the [repetitive] background guitar line? AC: No, that was the main guitar, the guitar that starts that song, the arpeggio that Calvin does -- or used to do. That was what we had: we had the vocals, we had that guitar line, we had the drums and the bass. The other guitar line, the heavier guitar line, was non-existent. I had some ideas, but again we have great faith in Academy Studio, we know that there's a feeling when we get there that it's going to be OK, so there was no problem, we got there and we just wrote it there. CoC: Academy must be like home for you by now... AC: It is very much so, yeah... Considering the amount of time we spend there, it's more than my home. CoC: I heard you already have a new guitar player, who didn't participate in the recording of _The Light at the End of the World_. AC: It's the same kind of deal as with Shaun. His name is Hamish Glencross. He's a very good guitar player, excellent guitar player; he's been in a few bands in Bradford, I've known him for quite some time. The LP is going to be released soon -- November the eighth, I think --, next year we will be touring this LP -- Europe, mainly --, and he's been drafted in to do the tour. But we've been writing some new material already, to see how things go, and it sounds very much like My Dying Bride again, it's like a rejuvenated band. So the chances of him joining are very high indeed, but at the moment I want to go on tour with these people and see how they react on tour before I make any decisions. I can't afford it to go wrong again, if you know what I mean, so I'm being extra careful now. CoC: What kind of contribution, what kind of influence, direction and style do you think he will bring into the band? AC: I don't know; if it's different, it'll be good, because I'm not bothered about difference. CoC: But is his musical background similar to yours or something completely different? AC: No, no, he's from a doom background, predominantly, but he wants to play more epic-style music. [I didn't know this at the time, but Hamish was previously a member of Solstice, another British doom band (of which current MDB drummer Shaun Steels was once also a member). --Pedro] He's been a fan of the band for some time and he snapped at the chance of working with us. Like I said earlier, we started sort of playing around and it sounds very much like My Dying Bride straight away, because he is very much in the same frame of mind as us about how My Dying Bride should sound, so it should be good. CoC: Looking at _34.788%_ and _TLatEotW_, as far as music, lyrics and artwork are concerned, all three elements seem to have travelled in the same direction, back to a doomier style. Do you agree? What was it that made this happen? AC: I agree, absolutely. I personally like epic darkness, if that makes any sense. I like the idea of absolute misery and the idea of despair in music. I'm in a fortunate position where I can actually attempt to get these feelings into music, so I try, basically. I don't think I've quite come up with it yet, but I'm getting there. So I try to put this into music. With _34.788%_, I wasn't in complete control of the writing, because there was other people there, another guitar player, etc., and we were democratic. With this LP [_TLatEotW_], I was doing just about everything when it came to the music, and I basically said to the others "I'm going this way: I want it bleak, I want it dark, I want misery." I just asked Aaron [Stainthorpe, vocalist] to go back to the old style, go and look for the mystery that My Dying Bride once had, because I missed it, to be honest. I think that if I wasn't in this band, I would like this band a lot, so I just tried to recreate the ideas that made us put this band together in the beginning -- to create the most doomy, gloomy, the most epic misery on record ever, this is what we attempted to do. Now, through the course of time, record labels always put pressure on you, any band will tell you this; and we came to the point where they could not possibly put any more pressure on us, because we had nothing to lose, the band was either going to work or it wasn't -- so I just did what I wanted to do, and that was to write miserable music as best I knew how. CoC: I think it's very good, the new album, I like it a lot better than what you were doing, the style and kind of music you were doing on _34.788%_ -- personally, because I'm really into doom... AC: Yeah, this is just what I'm into, and I'm in a position now where I have a chance to do it and see what it could sound like, and I just did. So far, a lot of people are glad, in a way, because people had forgotten about this kind of music, all those bands that were doing it have moved on, and I decided that progression is OK, but I'm going to do -this-, fuck it. CoC: Yeah, I mean, you can still definitely progress within that style, you don't have to become softer or less doomy in order to progress. AC: No... it's definitely heavy, I like heavy also. CoC: I can actually see elements of every previous album of yours on _TLatEotW_, except basically _34.788%_ -- I mean, there's even some stuff that reminds me of your earliest music sometimes, and of course elements from your other albums abound, but _TLatEotW_, in my opinion, ends up reinforcing the idea that _34.788%_ was a bit of a one-off, almost non-MDB, kind of album; what are your thoughts on that? AC: In a sense... I can understand what you're saying, but _34.788%_ had to be done, and it had to be done in that way, because that's how the band was at that time. That's how the band sounded at that time, with Bill, the drummer, who, as I said earlier, squared everything off, and Calvin, the way he was mentally and physically, this kind of thing. The band was going through a really tough time as well; we were having trouble with the record label -- which all the bands go through, it's just something you have to live with -- and that reflected in the band, so morale was very low. You can see the transformation simply because on this LP all those people that needed to go went, and the people that were left were the people who wanted to play this kind of music -- basically it was me, Adrian and Aaron, reinforced by Shaun. And Shaun was a great help, simply on an enthusiasm level, because he understood what we were trying to do, and he understood that we were looking for bleak and... it's not something you can put into words, to be honest, it's an image in your mind, almost like the moors, the wind and the rain. [I entirely agree. Definitely. --Pedro] This imagery -- when I say this is what I want the band to look like, this is what I want the sounds to feel like, let's fucking do it, why not? It felt right again, so we went away and looked for this. I honestly think we've come pretty close; I know it's not 100% [It's certainly a -lot- more than 34.788% in my opinion, though. --Pedro], and I hope I'll never find it, because this way I can keep looking. CoC: When I talked to Aaron about a year ago [CoC #35], I asked him about something which I believe you mentioned a while ago, which is the essence of My Dying Bride, My Dying Bride as an entity, and I felt that with _34.788%_ you left that a bit behind... I mean, besides the music, even the artwork and lyrics... AC: Yeah... I know why I did the LP, I can understand why we did it, but I also understand entirely what you're saying, because that's what I think now, and we won't do that again, simply because it's not really true My Dying Bride. I mean, within My Dying Bride, the actual personnel can change, but the name and the imagery will always be the same, and the people who'll work under that umbrella should always strive for this. I think we got a little bit lost there, things became a little bit wayward; we couldn't really concentrate on what we were doing, to be honest, and it was a really difficult time -- I can't even go into what was happening behind the scenes, but it was a difficult time. The fact that we managed to make an LP at all stands testament to the strength of the people at that time, it really does. The people just see the LP, look at the album, hear the songs and think that's not fucking My Dying Bride, but if they could truly understand what was happening at the time, they might still not like the record -- that's fair enough --, but they would at least say that considering all that, it's not so bad. But now we can concentrate again on what My Dying Bride should be, and the result is vastly different, as you can hear. CoC: As you were saying, many fans frowned at the direction you were taking with _34.788%_. How much of an impact did that have within the band? AC: These are the people that make it worthwhile -- when you play the songs, if someone comes up to you and says "I think this LP is fucking brilliant", it's made all the hard work worthwhile. So to hear people say "I don't like this, I think it's shit, I don't like the style, I'm not going to bother with them if this is how they are", it doesn't hurt as much, but it's sad to hear. But again, I'm not stupid enough to think "Ah, fuck 'em", you know, I can understand perfectly why they may have disliked this LP, but they don't fully understand how it was made, why it was made. In all honesty, I think if that LP hadn't been done, there would be no My Dying Bride now. So for those who think that it's not so good, at least that LP formed the nucleus and gave us enough time and strength to carry on, because it was a really tough time, I can assure you. Well, they don't see everything, which is fair enough, because they shouldn't see everything. But the fact that we came through it and are carrying on in a more traditional and more positive way is a testament to this band. CoC: The lyrics have also changed, pretty much like the music itself did; I was wondering if you noticed whether Aaron had any trouble finding inspiration for the new album's lyrics, since he is known to have occasionally had such trouble in past albums. AC: I think that because we had the same goals with this LP, and because this is familiar ground for us, this kind of sound -- well, not necessarily the sound, I think the sound is better again, you know, the shape of the songs --, so it's not so difficult for him. I know he has struggled in the past, but this time we all had a set goal, we had an idea, the imagery; I sowed the seed of what My Dying Bride should be like, what we should be attempting to do. I said "Just step back, we don't need to keep pushing forward and trying new things, we've done that for years; it's OK, but let's just sit back and do what we know best, which is this kind of music. We don't do anything else as good as this, so why bother?" So I thought we should go back to the old style, not necessarily back into Latin and the straightforward Shakespearean sort of style -- as much as I do like it, it can be a little bit confusing for the reader, I mean something in there and thereabout. As far as I know, he had no trouble falling back into that mould, and once he got going, things really did flow. The lyrics, to be perfectly honest, were overwhelming, because he had so much that we had to chop most of them out. He was writing and writing... I think we found the vein again and he was really going for it. So it wasn't difficult at all this time, there is some very good stuff in there. I am, strangely enough, not a very big fan of Aaron's lyrics , but these do inspire me quite a bit. CoC: I was wondering about the concept of _TLatEotW_; I think that's quite a thought-provoking title. What does it mean to you? AC: That's a fucking good question. No, it's a love song, basically. How a man would condemn himself to internal loneliness for one more night with his lover. It's basically around that. It's a sad song, a very sad song about a man who is very much in love and his girl is away, but he's willing to risk everything for her. CoC: Something that really surprised me when I looked at the album cover was that you used your old logo again, something you hadn't done ever since _Turn Loose the Swans_. I can understand the decision, considering the way your music changed, but you really wanted to make a statement with that, didn't you? AC: Yeah, definitely. It was one of the first things -- when it came to be that I was going to be writing the music, I thought that I like old MDB, I like the way it looked, and the first thing was that the old logo would come back. Everybody said yes. I think people forgot about the band, to be honest, about this logo, and that logo -is- My Dying Bride to me, it's always been the logo, even though we've very rarely used it. And it is a statement to say that we're back, really, that we're back on track. CoC: Another thing that I found especially remarkable was the fact that you decided to do a third version of "Sear Me" , which, in my opinion, turned out brilliant, and I had already been blown away by the second version when I first listened to _Turn Loose the Swans_... AC: We intend to have a full LP of "Sear Me"s in the future. Well, if we carry on, I'm sure it's a possibility... CoC: Well, but seriously, what made you think of going back to such an old track and make a third version of it? AC: Again, it's a statement, because "Sear Me" is one of our favourite songs, still now. [The original "Sear Me" that Andrew is referring to is part of MDB's 1992 debut full-length _As the Flower Withers_. --Pedro] That song and "Turn Loose the Swans", that particular song [not _TLtS_, the album], those two, really, for most of this band, epitomise what My Dying Bride can do. When we do connect properly with what we're attempting to do, that's what we get. We've always toyed with the idea -- "Sear Me" is one of those songs which we may not do on the next LP, but we'll have a thought about it on the one after, etc. -- and I thought it's time. It's been out a long time... I basically just wanted to bring back My Dying Bride, the old My Dying Bride, because I like it. And "Sear Me" was part of that, so to do another one was a daunting prospect. We did actually toy with the idea, at one point, of doing a brand new "Forever People" [also from _As the Flower Withers_], but the LP was becoming so long that it wasn't working, so we had to leave that out. [_The Light at the End of the World_ is 71 minutes long, with basically no atmospheric interludes or anything of that ilk. --Pedro] CoC: Still, "The Fever Sea" [_TLatEotW_'s fifth track] reminded me of "The Forever People"... AC: It is, it's a modern day "Forever People". This was again deliberate. The song wrote itself, if that makes any sense. We were just jamming one night, Adrian came with this riff and then the guitar came in and we just blasted through it and thought "Well, that's very short and very fast -- we'll keep that!" The song came from nowhere and we decided to work on it and make it workable. Again, it's very much like old MDB, when we had the epic doom songs and then a quick burst of energy just to break things up, and then back on. And on "Sear Me III", incidentally -- this should be mentioned --, the left hand guitar is played by Calvin. The right hand side guitar is played by me, but Calvin Robertshaw came in, I asked him especially to come in, and played the left hand guitar. It's not been widely publicised, not for any real reason, but I'm sure it needs mentioning, just for the old fans, that Calvin is on this LP. CoC: Changing the subject now, what bands or musical styles have you been enjoying the most lately? AC: Opeth. My girlfriend's a big fan of theirs and she got me into them, and I think they're great, I have to admit. I've been listening to a bit of Paradise Lost as well, recently, which is something I thought I'd dig up and have a listen to, and they still sound great. What else? Bal Sagoth, their new one's fucking brilliant. I got a promo recently, and that is fucking insane, it's brilliant music. And Emperor, I'm a big fan of Emperor. _Panzer Division Marduk_ is fucking brilliant music as well, it's insane... It's just fucking mental, and the music is so well played it's got to be taken seriously, it's brilliant. CoC: What are your thoughts on the current state of the doom metal scene and the metal scene in general? AC: Well, I'm not sure if there is a doom metal scene as such, I think the only people into it are in bands... CoC: Not quite, I'm not in a band, so... AC: To be perfectly honest, the scene is saturated with a lot of crap bands now. I'm not trying to have a go at anybody -- I'm not having a go at anybody, in fact --, but it's difficult now, because there's so many bands, all with names that you cannot pronounce and you cannot read... It's good, in a way, because it means there's a lot of people there, but the scene itself is a little bit stagnated, and something new should happen. It's time for change again, I think. Death metal came and went, that was a fantastic time. Black metal is still very much here, but I think it's running its course, as all things do. The skin on our particular sort of metal needs to be shed again and something new needs to come from it. CoC: What do you think that might be? AC: If I could predict that, I'd be doing it now. I don't know, I'm not really bothered as long as it's played by people who are actually playing the music. It's impossible to predict, but I do feel that something's changing, and that's a good thing, because it's time again. CoC: Going back several months to the departure of Martin Powell, do you think that his violin and keyboard work might have been useful in this doomier _TLatEotW_? AC: No, I deliberately did not put any violin on this LP, and there was obviously none on the last LP, because he'd just left and we thought it was time for change. The violin, honestly, became more of a shackle, rather than a tool for expression. It was good that we left it, because at the end of the day it's just a sound, it's just a tool to create an emotion, and we can do that on the keyboards; we're not afraid to do that on the keyboards. I know a violin player who's ready to do it, but I think it's time for change; I'm not prepared to take violins on tour, it's something we can do without. Johnny Maudling from Bal Sagoth will be doing keyboards, because he played keyboards on _TLatEotW_, and he's more than willing to tour with us, so we don't need it anymore. It was good when we had it, but it's not something I'm going to repeat. CoC: Why have My Dying Bride never used a cello in their music? I think that could sound great. AC: I think we did use a cello on the first LP, on "The Return of the Beautiful". CoC: So why don't you use one now? AC: Well, while we were in the studio, Shaun was going "Cellos, cellos, let's have cellos", because they are, when played correctly, -misery-. Don't think we're not trying to use cellos, because we are. We did try, and they'd get lost, literally, because the sound is so thick on the guitars, it just sounds like a very bad cello. We'd take everything else out and just leave the cello -- which is a full, rich instrument --, but it unfortunately just doesn't work with the guitars that we want, because I like heaviness, a big sound, crunchy, and when you put a cello on top... We could do it, but it just didn't sound right, and if something's not 100% on straight away... We tried it, because we wanted them and Shaun was very much into having a cello on the LP -- as we were, but Shaun in particular --, but it just didn't sound right, it wasn't worth risking. CoC: Changing subject again, and although I know that this doesn't directly concern you, I'd like to know what you think of the latest developments in Anathema's career and especially their signing for Music For Nations, leaving Peaceville behind, as Anathema and MDB used to be really close to each other from the fans' point of view, even though that might not be the case in reality , because that's what I've been told by both bands, and now you're quite far apart musically and not even on the same label anymore. AC: We are friends, though, I can categorically say this. In fact, today I was talking to Vinny [Cavanagh, Anathema vocalist and guitarist] in a place in Bradford, so it's not like cats and dogs. It's a bit of fun, to be honest, we just like to have a go at each other. But it doesn't really affect me at all, what they have done. It makes no difference whatsoever to us at all. They obviously have their reasons for doing this; I'm not entirely sure what they are. But it's got to be good for them, and at the end of the day Music For Nations are officially the mother label [of Peaceville], so it's up to them. I wish them well, but it's not something we'll be doing in the near future. CoC: Did you like their latest album [_Judgement_]? AC: I don't listen to Anathema, they're not heavy enough for me anymore. CoC: Emotionally, their music is still pretty heavy... AC: Yeah, I saw them live in Bradford, and to be honest I did think they were excellent live, executed brilliantly. And it was good, I have to admit, I was quite surprised at what they were doing. But for me, I just like a little bit of punch. But the people that were there obviously didn't feel my sentiments, because they were well into it. CoC: Well, you already talked about Opeth, but I was going to ask you your opinion about Opeth and Katatonia, since they are the two newcomers to the Peaceville roster... AC: It's good; it's good for me on a financial level, because I can get their LPs for free now. So that's fantastic. Katatonia, I've always kept in touch with them. I remember when they were really doomy and they sounded more like Paradise Lost and MDB than Paradise Lost and MDB did, _Dance of December Souls_ and this kind of thing. [Andrew must be mistaken here, I think, since _Dance of December Souls_ really sounds nothing like Paradise Lost or MDB, in my opinion. --Pedro] I was quite surprised to hear _Brave Murder Day_, which was the real changing point. It was good, I enjoyed it very much, and right up until the latest one. To be honest with you, I've had so much new music I haven't listened to _Tonight's Decision_ [Katatonia's latest album, reviewed in CoC #42] all that much, but I'm sure that I'll like it. I have paid a little bit more attention to the Opeth one, though; of the two, they're my favourites. CoC: Do you think there is any chance you might tour with either of them, now that you're on the same label? AC: You never say no, but at the moment the person at the touring company that puts our gigs together is looking for the best deals he can get for My Dying Bride at this time. He doesn't really know Opeth any differently, doesn't know Katatonia, but I did mention to him that if he can put something together with Opeth and My Dying Bride, I would personally like that very much, because I like this band a lot. I think it would be a good package, but at the end of the day I would be thinking with my heart -- "I like this band, let's go with them" --, while he thinks from a more financial point of view, a little bit more business-like. Well, no, a -lot- more business-like. CoC: Well, My Dying Bride with Opeth would be a great concert for me... AC: You're not the only person who has said that. As it happens, I like the band anyway, but everybody seems to think it would be a winner. I've not given up and I'm still putting in a good word in there for them. But I don't know, we may even end up supporting ourselves, depending on how things go. You can never tell. Touring really is the strangest part of being in a band, because one minute everything is confirmed and the next nothing is happening after all. So it's an impossible beast to predict, it really is -- it's a nightmare. The gigs, as far as I'm concerned, aren't official until we finish them. CoC: I suppose you can't really answer me yet, but I still have to ask if there's any chance you'll be playing in Portugal anytime soon. AC: There is a big chance. In Europe, the metal scene was dominated by Germany for many years, and that's simply not the case now. It's spread out to places like Italy, Spain and Portugal, where, to be honest, bands like us a couple of years ago wouldn't normally go and now are more than happy to go, because the gigs are going to be worth playing, there's going to be quite a few people there and that's why we do it -- to go and play to people who want to see us. We played Portugal with Iron Maiden [back in the _The Angel and the Dark River_ days], but I don't think anyone was paying attention to us. I remember Portugal very well, it was a very good show and we liked the whole feel we got from it, so if Portugal is mentioned nobody will say "No, let's not go there", they'll say "Yes, that was a good show, let's get back there as soon as possible." CoC: And what about touring the USA? There's always a lot of talk about whether European bands will tour the USA or not; will you be doing that this time? AC: Probably not. The chances are very slim. This LP is not going to be released over there; there's no license out there at the moment, so this is part of the problem we're having. There's very little point and very little chance of doing it, because obviously the money has to come from somewhere and it's highly unlikely that the record label will want to pay for six to eight people to fly to America and tour it when the LP is not going to be released there. CoC: I didn't know that. Still, what can be expected of your next live shows as far as the selection of songs is concerned? Any idea yet? AC: Yes, I've got the vast majority of them decided. It's a lot of older stuff, just one song from _34.788%_ -- "Under Your Wings and Into Your Arms", the last one, the quick one, I like that song a lot and it sounds pretty good as well. We're doing a good selection of _The Light at the End of the World_, because we like this LP a lot. We're going to be doing off that "She Is the Dark", "The Light at the End of the World", "The Fever Sea", "Christliar" and "Sear Me III". "Christliar" is a particular favourite of mine, I think that's a fucking brilliant song. We're definitely doing "Turn Loose the Swans", we're definitely doing "The Cry of Mankind" [from _The Angel and the Dark River_], we're definitely doing "The Forever People" [from _As the Flower Withers_]... what else... CoC: Will you be using "The Forever People" as concert finisher? AC: It's still in the air, that one; it's near the end, but "The Fever Sea" is in there now, so we don't know yet. We've got plenty of time to pick and choose; I'm not entirely sure of the order just yet. There's a couple more that we're thinking of bringing back, possibly "The Snow in My Hand" [from _Turn Loose the Swans_], we haven't done that one in a long time. CoC: Excellent song. AC: Yeah, we've been rehearsing that one, and it sounds good. It's amazing, I forgot how good these songs were to play. CoC: I never saw you live, but I have the _For Darkest Eyes_ video tape with the Polish concert and it was a great concert -- the audience was really involved, I think you played brilliantly and the song selection was great for me. AC: Thanks a lot... CoC: Finally, I would just like to know some more details about your plans for the future of My Dying Bride. Do you think you can still evolve within this style, towards even darker, more miserable music? AC: Yes, there is space there to do it. We've been playing with some new ideas just a couple of nights ago and there -is- room; it's going to be darker, the next one. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= IN A MOMENT OF CLARITY, THE REBELS RETURN ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CoC talks to Satyr of Satyricon (again) by: Paul Schwarz Some of you may recall CoC featuring Satyricon back in #38. Then, _Rebel Extravaganza_ was but a speck on the musical horizon scheduled for completion and subsequent release when the heat of Summer would be fading into memory and the cold of Autumn approaching. It is somehow appropriate that _Rebel Extravaganza_ was unleashed as one season was at the point of turning into another, for it marks not only a new direction for the band but, I would certainly argue, a new era in black metal. A bold statement? Maybe, but certainly if such statements can ever be justified, then they can be justified in the case of Satyricon. You can decide for yourself whether you agree with me about _Rebel Extravaganza_, and in the meantime, if you are interested in the ideas behind it or just the life that the members of Satyricon lead, you can check out this interview. I hope it answers your questions, or at least questions your preconceived answers. CoC: How are you doing? Satyr: Well, it could have been better, because there has been a lot of stress. In order to save money, Nuclear Blast has sent us around Europe with some sort of travel agency, so we had to get up at five o'clock this morning to catch the plane, and everything was extremely delayed. And on top of that, they didn't manage to get Frost's luggage on the aircraft, so we don't know where that's at, and then we came here and it's an extremely nice office they've got. They showed us their new band room and that's really cool and then they put up the phones to do the interviews and just said, "You can't smoke here". And I said, "Are you serious this is a heavy metal label? And this is the band room and you can't smoke cigarettes in here?" And they said no. And I said I would anyway, but they said they were serious, so, it seems, I can't. CoC: When we talked before you mentioned that for _Rebel Extravaganza_ you'd be using a lot of other players for the album -- different contributors. I was wondering how well that worked out in the end in terms of the results. S: I was very happy with it. I mean, what I've always said about the contributions those people made is that none of them really did that much because they really just did the odd riff here and there, but the small things they did were very important for the totality of the album. I mean, Fenris only played tambourine on one riff, and we had SW from Thorns just doing some extra guitar in the odd place here and there, but it's often like that; all those small things. So I was really happy with that. CoC: The hidden "intro" at the beginning of the album, is that what Grotsky [Apotygma Bezerk (thanks again, Josh) --Paul] contributed? S: No. That's not really a hidden intro; what it is, is the song "Down South, Up North". The thing is when we did "Down South, Up North" -- which is like the ninth track on the album --, when I started listening to the songs and picking the order and all that, I just thought to myself that there was a sort of, how should I put it?, destruction. CoC: You mean by having "Down South, Up North" as the ninth track? S: Yeah. It was something that broke the continuous feeling that I wanted. And at the same time I didn't want to just put it away, because I was happy with the way it turned out; it just didn't fit in with my idea of the continuous feeling of the album. So what we did was just take that little part and make it some sort of, how do you call it?, interlude, or something like that, and we just put the song in front instead of after the songs, because putting it after the songs is so dull. CoC: So the ninth track is now a different intro? S: No, track number nine is just an excerpt from "DS,UN". It has just been taken out of the song, really, cut out and pasted into a new place. So it is exactly the same. CoC: Personally, I felt that there's quite an interesting raw and bare approach to _Rebel Extravaganza_. It is almost an industrial approach, I'd say, in terms of the structure of the album... S: Very primal. CoC: Yeah, but it is played in what I'd call a black metal style. I was wondering if this was a feel you were -intending- to get? S: Yeah. I mean, the fans and the press have been saying that we're becoming an industrial band. We always felt like we were a progressive black metal band and that part of being progressive is adding new elements to the music. This time around I felt that the next step should be something a bit more fresh and modern and one of the things we did was that we basically stopped using the old-fashioned keyboards and started working on this whole analogue sense instead. In the past, we usually, if we felt something was missing -- something which we couldn't put our finger on or something else --, we would try with a synthesiser, and this time we tried either with adding more guitar -- or with weird effects on the guitars and stuff like that -- or we tried working with samples or sound effects, whatever. Just another way of approaching things. So, to me, this is very, very black metal, but it's got that fresh and modern spice to it. And that was the intention from the start. It is also obviously very important to us to do something which is challenging for ourselves. It is really boring to do the same thing all over again. CoC: Unfortunately I only have a promo with no lyrics sheet, so could you tell me about the kind of lyrics you've written for the album, the themes you've concentrated on? Because one of the things I've noticed, and a couple of people I know have mentioned, is that you actually have swearing on _RE_, which you seem to have used pretty effectively, but that is a slight difference and I think the lyrical themes are a little bit more modern and maybe even slightly urban, though I'm not sure about that. S: The English have been saying that, actually. It's only English people who've mentioned both the swearing and the urban themes. There might be some truth to that; if you listen to Cypress Hill there's really no effect, because they're just saying "motherfucker" this and that all the time. So the swearing becomes desensitised. So the thing was basically about just like underlining the statement with swearing as you would do in normal life. That's a bit different from country to country. I know the Swedes, they just keep on going like, "Hello, Satyr, fucking good seeing you again". That's how they are, but that's not the thing in Norway: you use your swearing when you're pissed off -- you want to underline something, and you swear. That is what I did, and it felt natural, really. I've been trying to use quite direct language, as I felt that the music is quite direct and the same goes for vocal production. I tried to take off the reverb on vocals in order to get the vocals more up-front and closer [to the listener]. That's very important. If you have a lot of this chorus and reverb, the vocals get really distant, and for me it is not about level, having it loud enough, it's just like having it up-front, so then you need to go easy on the reverb. With the lyrics as well, it was all part of the process of being direct and the lyrics are very direct in the sense that there's no sophisticated language at all. I guess in a way you could call it some kind of futuristic street language or something. CoC: I completely agree that it is not as complex, but from the actual song titles I imagine the lyrics behind them seem to be a lot more metaphorical and a lot less literal on _RE_. _Dark Medieval Times_, _The Shadowthrone_ and _Nemesis Divina_ were a little more like storytelling, whereas this is more like you're expressing your feelings through some kind of metaphor, like "Havoc Vulture" and "Supersonic Journey". S: Yeah. Absolutely correct. I mean, the thing is I like working with metaphors a lot, you know, and it's always... I like, in a way, the middle way -- sometimes a tree is a tree, you know, and it shouldn't be called anything more than a tree. But, you know, other times you could go a little bit further and... there is an expression in Norwegian called , which means adding all that unnecessary stuff in order to make it sound bigger and more poetic and all that. Then like working a little bit in-between in that grey sound you have there, and that's maybe where those metaphors come in. The new lyrics are basically very much a reflection of whatever is going on in my mind at the time. I mean, there's a lot of people -- you haven't read all the lyrics, have you? CoC: I haven't been able to read any of them, I haven't got a lyrics sheet. S: OK. No, because there is a line which is not being sung, but in the lyrics of "Tied in Bronze Chains", it says: "Where have all the flowers gone in October 1997", and I don't sing "...in October 1997", but it says that in the booklet. [In fact, what is written in the booklet is actually "(So) where do all the flowers come from (in October 1997)", and that is what he sings (without the October part). --Pedro] The reason for that was that I was using a metaphor of a certain feeling that I had -in- October 1997. So, the reason for me saying that is just to make it even more clear that it's a reflection of whatever is going on in my mind at the time. As we were using a metaphor in that lyric about something very specific right then, you know. It was not a general state of mind. It was a state of mind in October 1997. CoC: Moving on to the choice of title. I think in some ways you've rebelled with this album, against certain trends in black metal, or just certain tendencies black metal bands have these days: you've gone less symphonic when it is becoming more popular to be more symphonic. So, does the title reflect that, that you're trying to -rebel- against that? S: It is, a bit. The title is reflecting a bit of the lyrical and the musical content of the album, and also the attitude behind the album. It also reflects a little bit what Satyricon is about, because Satyricon is a little bit extravagant and a little bit controversial. That's it, really. CoC: I was going to focus quickly on your use of the word "extravaganza". I pedantically looked it up in the dictionary and it was listed as being any "lavish or fanciful display in composition" [Collins English Dictionary --Paul]. I was curious, because I would say that, if anything, this album is less "lavish and fanciful" than any of your previous albums. I was wondering if you had a different understanding of the word or whether you disagreed that it's not "lavish and fanciful", or whether it is used ironically? S: No. Really, directly translated into Norwegian it means -- I'm trying to find the English word for it now -- it's called <'o'ther d'o'de> in Norwegian, which means like... I'll ask Frost. He's thinking now. "With great splendor", maybe? CoC: Ah, yeah, I can see what you're saying there. Okay. S: That's quite close, at least. CoC: You're saying it is more "monumental", maybe? S: Yeah, yeah. It's like taking it just one step further than anything else. Even though those photos and the -- dammit, there's some stupid kids in the warehouse staring at us all the time. CoC: What, across the street or something? S: No, there's a window between us so they're sitting there with the new Nuclear Blast catalogue and they're pointing at the front cover, which has a picture of us. Stupid. I think they even work here, that's the worst thing. But anyway, where were we? CoC: You were beginning to talk about the photos... S: Yeah, I was going to say -- even though the photos are in a way filthy and they've got this dirty feeling to them and all that, and the music is all very direct, in your face -- you have the extravagant feeling to it with this... do you only have a promo CD? CoC: I only have a card promo. S: Well, the presentation, the booklet, is monumental. With this extremely thick glossy paper, which is like twenty pages, and it is just like an orgy in extravagant photos and artwork. Also, the way the album opens, with this extremely heavy theme -- which starts "Tied in Bronze Chains" -- and then followed up by this total rape part which comes afterward [with "Filthgrinder"]. It reflects a little bit of everything with the use of the word extravagant. CoC: You've always done very good presentation, with _Nemesis Divina_ and _The Shadowthrone_. S: That's also just a reflection of what we're interested in, let's say in private life. You know, art and a general interest in aesthetics. CoC: Do you think the material on _RE_ will work better live because it relies less on the keyboards and the subtler melodic elements, because it is a little more "in your face"? S: Yeah, it could be both things, really. I think that's obviously a point, that it's more direct and that it's more aggressive and down-to-earth. It's more live in that way. Also to me it was very important to make it sound live on the album, in the way that I don't want something overproduced and I think it adds some primal raw feeling to it, and that's going to reflect in a good way live. The problem with it that I see is that there are a lot of extremely fast parts on the album and I always find -- whether it's us or it's Emperor or Morbid Angel, whatever --, I just find fast parts not to work live. CoC: Yeah, especially if the sound system isn't really up to it. S: Yeah. I have experience at gigs with those parts working as well, but usually it's the opposite, so I always have been wondering how Marduk is doing live. Well, that's it. I have every hope that Satyricon make it to a town near you, and especially near me, soon, and that they sound as good as Marduk -- as anyone who has seen them live will testify -- in fact do in the flesh. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= THE SHADOW'S SOUL BETWEEN OBSCURITY AND OBLIVION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CoC interviews Mortiis by: Aaron McKay Even if I live to be as old as the soul that Mortiis is portraying on stage, I will not understand why I am so enthralled with the music this enigmatic individual lavishes on his audience. Some say that Mortiis has a "cult" following, but this, I believe, is insufficient to describe Mortiis' fan base. An eclectic following of devotees might be closer to the truth. Mortiis' work passes unmolested through standard musical classifications and appeals to the most cerebral denominator among the metal citizenry. I was extremely taken with Mortiis' personality and demeanor. He shocked me with some responses and drove insight into the heart of my questions with others. I hope you will be pleased with the interview to follow, as I completely enjoyed capering through the mind of one of metal's most mystically cryptic talents. CoC: How is the tour progressing? Are you able to reach some fans that you might not be able to reach otherwise by touring the U.S. and Canada? Mortiis: Yeah, sure, technically -- it's been good, but the promotion is shit. I don't quite know who to blame yet. I think that basically no one is doing the job that they could have done or should have done. CoC: How many people are attending the shows? M: Man, like a hundred people. It is not like it is a lot of people, but the ones who do show up really seem to like it. CoC: Excellent! M: It's good. The thing is we are not actually headlining. We are actually supporting Christian Death. CoC: You are -supporting- Christian Death?! M: Yeah, we are. The thing is you pretty much never see our posters up on the wall and we have done close to twenty five shows so far. I think that I have seen a poster up some five times. CoC: Oh, my God, Mortiis! M: Yeah -- so the promotion is a joke. CoC: Well, I can't tell you -- that is kind of a blow. I actually, to be honest with you, thought you would be headlining. M: Well, I'm not. CoC: How much time are they giving you on stage? M: Originally, we got forty five minutes, which was good, I don't want more than that, but we decided to cut it down to about thirty six and still keep all the show. It makes it more intense and makes it all set off better. I'm pretty happy with the way that it is. That is about the amount of time that I prefer to be on stage right now anyway. It is like it is: short, but intense. CoC: Absolutely. Is everything working out as far as touring with Christian Death? I mean, do you appreciate being able to tour with them? M: Maybe... I guess. It works out. They are the headlining band and they make full use of that power they have. Some things aren't good and other things are okay. I'm not going to backstab them or anything. CoC: Do they [Christian Death] appear to be fans of yours? M: No. I wouldn't say that. I've got some compliments and I've given them compliments. They are all like, "I used to be into your music" and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah... It might be a bit superficial, but at least we are smiling at each other. CoC: I know that an intricate theatrical presence is important to you to complement your music. How is this tour living up to your standards and expectations? M: Most of the stages are really small, so we always compromise. We never have a full show. There is also the backline. Christian Death is backlined, which, a lot of times, takes up half the stage. We don't have a lot of leeway on stage, we basically can't run around and fuck around. But we still manage to pull it off pretty good. CoC: That's incredible. I'll just tell you straight off, _The Stargate_ is an incredible album and absolutely intense. I wouldn't hesitate to call it a masterpiece. M: Thanks a lot. CoC: No, seriously, I mean that. I understand that _The Stargate_ has a special meaning, kind of a link between this reality and your world. Would you say that there has been a lot of "gates" to your music as far as Mortiis coming off another label, the different song lengths that you have [on _The Stargate_, as compared to previous material like _Fodt till a Herske_], and more of a collaborative effort on this album than what you have done in recent past? M: You mean like things changed now? CoC: Yeah, exactly. M: Yeah, obviously it has. I'm working with more people now. We never did that before and I've changed labels -- for good and bad. CoC: How does it feel to be on Earache? M: I don't know... it's good. I know that it is good because they are bigger than Cold Meat. There are always things you don't like with all labels. That is never going to change. Like I feel they could have done more promotion for this tour. CoC: They [Earache] could have done a lot more for you? M: I think so. For this tour, they could have. That is not even "off the record". I totally feel they could have done better promotion for this tour. I mean the posters that they made came in about two days before we went on the tour. How are they supposed to get them out to the promoters on time? CoC: How are the venues supposed to get them [the posters] up in time?... M: But later on the tour I see them up more frequently, so I guess they [the venues] have had time now. Some places didn't even bother to put them up. You know, that is the business you're in. CoC: Kind of "the nature of the beast", I suppose. M: Kind of the nature of the business, actually. CoC: Right! I understand Vond and Fata Morgana are no longer. Is this true? M: That's true. I decided to shut them down so that I could spend more time with this. CoC: So that you could concentrate more on Mortiis? M: Yeah. It was the best thing to do. CoC: Is it something that you are comfortable with? M: Yeah. Feels good. CoC: Will Dark Dungeon Music still continue? M: No. I did the same thing with them. I found myself working on it some eight hours a day and then some of the music just deteriorated, basically, and with all the shit, I just decided to put an end to that too. CoC: Sure. I noticed in the CD inlay booklet that some of the lyrics for "Child of Curiosity & the Old Man of Knowledge", "World Essence" and "Towards the Gate of Stars" are in quotation marks and some of the other lyrics are not. Are there special meanings for those [in quotation marks]? M: Right. Because it is more like dialog things... it was something that was originally supposed to be spoken by an old man in the song. For some reason that didn't really happen -- it just fell through, but the lyrics still belong to the song. It was supposed to be spoken words on the song; it didn't happen, but it still belongs to the song. That is why they have the quotation marks. CoC: Oh, I see. That makes sense. M: It does, doesn't it? CoC: Absolutely. It gives a little bit of insight into what you were actually going for with those songs. M: I don't expect people to really understand it. It is the first question I get is about the quotation marks and so forth, so... CoC: _The Stargate_ is truly wonderful right down to the lyrics complementing the music and how it comes across to the audience. It all just fits together perfectly. It really does. M: That's good, 'cause I had a really hard time putting the whole thing together. It was a pretty confusing job for a while... I couldn't find the right pieces for a long time. CoC: I'll tell you, it didn't come across that way to the listener at all. It just feels like it flows from beginning to end. It's truly wonderful. M: Oh, thanks. CoC: Did you ever consider taking a lead vocal role in one of your pieces? M: I -may- try that out in the next album, but I don't know yet. If I try rehearsing and it sounds okay or it sounds like something that could be happening, I'll definitely look into it. If it sounds god-awful right away, it's like, okay, let's not do this. CoC: That makes sense -too-! You have a four album deal with Earache? M: Yeah, I guess technically it is, but they are re-issuing... The first one is _The Stargate_, the second one will be a re-issue of _Crypt of the Wizard_. CoC: Oh, really?! M: Then two new ones after that. It's not like I'm going to make four brand new albums for them. They get three new ones, then an old one. They wanted four in the beginning, but I said "No, I don't want to give you that. If I totally love the deal that you are giving me and it is really dandy in a couple of years after the last record, we'll do a new deal." And I didn't want to set myself up for too much. CoC: No, I certainly understand. You don't want to pigeonhole yourself into something you might want out of later. M: Exactly, then I'm totally stuck for some five years. I don't want that. CoC: I can't say that I blame you. Is there some place that you are looking at taking Mortiis with the next album? Something that you are striving to achieve with the next couple of releases? M: As far as possible, musically, sales-wise and everything. Up the ladder as far as I can take it. This is what I want to do with my life, so why not try and become as appreciated as possible? CoC: Well, you're off to a great start. You have a -great- track record and this new album can do nothing but help you. M: I hope so. CoC: It is really, like I said before, a masterpiece. M: I wouldn't say that myself, but it is a good compliment. CoC: Kind of finishing up here, Mortiis, is there any interesting tour related stories that you have? Anything that has happened that you want to share, good or bad? M: Well, in Kansas we got paid in counterfeit money. CoC: Really?! M: It was an accident. I mean, that whole place is very dodge-y, so we had to go to someone else just to get the money. Basically the person that -he- got the money from was a drug dealer or something like that... CoC: Oh, no... M: He gave them counterfeit money and he didn't know it, and he gave it to us. We didn't realize that until we pulled up at a gas station a couple of miles down the road and they saw that it was counterfeit money and we were like, "OOPS". That was in a really bad area, so we didn't want to call the cops. They didn't want the cops around there anyway. If that would have been down the highway at a 7-11 or whatever, we would have been in deep shit! So we just went back and got the real money at the end of the day, but you know... I just know, there is this one drug dealer in Kansas City that I wouldn't want to be right now. That guy was an ex-hitman. CoC: That is some bad stuff when stuff like that happens. I have to tell you, it was quite an honor for me to interview you, Mortiis. Could you wind-up the interview anyway you see fit? M: I don't know, check out the record... =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ' T I L D E A T H D O U S H A T E -- E T E R N A L L Y ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CoC chats with Eric Rutan of Hate Eternal by: Paul Schwarz Most people are content to make their fortune (or not) and express their creative interests through one full-time band. Many take on other "projects", but the tendency is for these "projects" to remain very much part-time, and sometimes as an offshoot rather half-hearted, and if they do go on to become more prominent it is usually accompanied by a decline in interest, input and effort in their original full-time band. Not so for our case in point, because though Eric Rutan puts a lot of his time and effort into playing as live guitarist for Morbid Angel and into creating the music for his currently demo-stage Alas endeavour, he also devotes effort, time and all the other pre-requisites required to make great music when talent is at your disposal, to Hate Eternal. For Hate Eternal's first full-length recording, Eric was assisted not only by the able talents of Jared Anderson and Tim Yeung (on bass and drums respectively), but also the gut-wrenching guitar grinding of Doug Cerrito (formerly of Suffocation, as you all should be aware). The result was _Conquering the Throne_, a brutal, speed and adrenaline driven death metal massacre which was released by Earache last month. Here's the low-down on its creation and the trials and tribulations of being, as Eric puts it, a maniac. CoC: How are you? Eric Rutan: Good, man, just keepin' busy bein' a maniac. Lots of interviews -- you know, I play with three bands now and I'm opening a studio, so it's pretty heavy. I definitely have a lot of stuff. CoC: But it's all going pretty well? ER: Oh yeah. The Hate Eternal press already has been incredible. It is so much more than I even envisioned. I got four out of five in Kerrang!, Terrorizer loved the record, I just did Hard 'n' Heavy out of France and they gave me five out of five. Metal Maniacs, they thought it was the most anticipated death metal record of the year. So, so far it's just been unbelievable, even beyond what I had expected, but so was the record. The way that the record came out was so much more than I even expected, so it's all been constant and it's been a lot of work, believe me. It took a lot of work to do the record. CoC: What impact do you think all the bands you've played for had on the writing of this record? ER: It definitely had a big impact on the writing. Ripping Corpse and Morbid Angel -- which are the two bands I've each spent the largest amounts of time, about six years each, with -- made an impact, but at the same time the songs I wrote with Hate Eternal is stuff that I would never have done in Ripping Corpse or Morbid Angel. Morbid Angel has a different approach sonically, but I added elements of what I wrote for Morbid Angel and elements of what I wrote for Ripping Corpse, but made it in a very, very extreme path, a very aggressive path, very straightforward but at the same time very advanced. My influences, well, I started playing guitar thirteen years ago and I heard [Morbid Angel's] _Thy Kingdom Come_ demo and that made a big impact. That goes without saying, Morbid Angel have made a major impact on my playing and that's how I ended up in the band. I loved Morbid Angel, so when I had the opportunity to join it was an honour for me. CoC: That's the best thing, obviously: to be able to join a band you love. ER: Ah yeah, they were my favourite band. It was just unbelievable. But the Hate Eternal stuff was stuff that I needed to incorporate in my own thing. The stuff I wrote for Morbid Angel during _Domination_ was stuff I wrote specifically to sound like Morbid Angel. Even though it was quite different from what had been done before, it was still Morbid Angel. With this stuff [HE], it isn't stuff which is Trey's vision [that's Trey Azagthoth, Morbid Angel guitarist, songwriter and lyric writer], it's a different vision and that's why I incorporated it into Hate Eternal. CoC: Also, how much influence was there from the other members, like Doug Cerrito [ex-Suffocation], Jared Anderson and Tim Yeung? ER: Well, he's an incredible drummer. As it says in the bio, he sounds like an eight-armed demon. Just his playing alone helped me incorporate all the rhythms I wanted to do, and the vision of this record. Jared came in very close to the record, actually, him and Doug. Doug came in and I literally dropped a couple of songs specifically so Doug could write on the record. There are eleven songs; I wrote eight songs, music and lyrics, and he wrote three, music and lyrics. CoC: Yeah, because I noticed some elements of his playing style. ER: Definitely! His style really creeps through. The two of us have been friends since even before they [Suffocation] put out _Effigy..._, their first record. When I heard Suffocation broke up, I had just signed the deal with Earache and I said, "Listen, man, I got a deal, I got a band going, I want you to be part of it, man. You're my friend." I've always held him in high regard as a guitarist. I got him in, made some space so that he could write some songs and Jared did a lot of the back-up vocals on the record, on top of playing bass he does back-ups, and on the next record he's going to write some music also. So, this record, the majority of it was definitely my vision, but on future records there's going to be more of a collaboration. CoC: Would you say then that Hate Eternal is your full-time project as it goes, in terms of fitting it in with all the other stuff you're doing? ER: It's definitely... I don't like that word "project", because it's a -band-. Same with Morbid Angel; anything I do is a band, it's not like a bunch of guys who just get together to do a record and don't care. I mean, I take Hate Eternal very personally and it's something I'm going to tour with, and I'm already working on the next record. So it's definitely something where I'm going to release a record a year, that's my goal and it's the same with Alas. I mean, I've been playing with Alas for quite some years, and it's a band. Even though I'm doing three things, they're all bands to me, they're not projects. CoC: And of course you're not writing for Morbid Angel at the moment. ER: No. CoC: So that's a little less heavy? ER: Yeah. CoC: But don't you think it will be hard for touring, though, with Morbid Angel's touring schedule? ER: Well yeah, but the thing is that I'm a maniac, you know. I live music. So, some how, some way. I don't know how, but like I just did all this touring for _Formulas..._ [Morbid Angel's most recent 1998 release] and still I was able to do an Alas demo and I also recorded the Hate Eternal album... which I actually engineered on, mixed and produced. CoC: Where was the record done? ER: Greenhouse Effects. It's a small studio down here. We did it on a one-inch [wide recording] tape. It wasn't a pro-studio, but I knew a friend of mine who worked at the studio, and I went to engineering school and I really wanted to do most of the engineering and I wanted to mix it myself. So he allowed me to do that. It was a tough record. I had to do it in-between the Morbid Angel tours, we were just over there [in Europe] in April. I started the record in March, so I had to go on tour, come back, do it, then do another tour, come back, and finish it. So, even though we spent about two weeks to do the record, it seemed like months, because I was busy touring with Morbid Angel. It was the hardest record of my career. I sang on the Hate Eternal, I played guitar, I wrote most of it and I also engineered and produced it. I think it shows, the hard work, in the record. I mean, the majority of those who've listened to it have realised, holy shit, the amount of effort it took -- one, to make it that tight, and two, just to incorporate it into a good production; it was a lot of work. CoC: Well, whatever anyone says about it otherwise, it's definitely one of the tightest records I've heard in a while. ER: Thanks, man! CoC: It's on par, for me, with stuff like Angel Corpse and things, that amount of total... tightness and cohesion. ER: Thanks. We didn't do it at Morrisound, either. We did it at a small studio and I specifically wanted to do a record that was done in another studio and make it sound... I wanted it to be very underground and I wanted it to be clear, but I also wanted it to be just very menacing sounding; it definitely has a dark overtone to the whole production, and it was done specifically that way. The whole record itself is very dark. I'm very proud of it and to me it's the best thing I've ever done and I'm so happy with the vocals. The fact that I was able to do vocals and for it to come out like that, to me was just amazing in itself. Because it took a lot of hard work for me to sing and, on top of singing, just singing and playing guitar. If I couldn't do it live, then what's the point? So it took me a lot of work to be able to play these rhythms and sing at the same time. CoC: Do you want to continue doing vocals? ER: Definitely, that was definitely the vision. When I started Hate Eternal I knew that I was going to sing, in the beginning that was part of the vision. Man, I always wanted to sing and there's not many guitarists who sing and play this kind of music. To play these rhythms and sing is a fuckin' challenge, man. It's taken me a lot of time and believe me, I practice all the time. It's taken a lot of time but it is definitely something I'm going to continue doing no matter what. CoC: You were talking a bit about how you feel _Conquering..._ is dark and suchlike; what ideas are reflected lyrically on this record? ER: Lyrically, my influences consist of different books that I read, different spiritual backgrounds that I've always been into. I've read a lot on faithism, on the Ancient Ones. I've read a lot about the Egyptians, the Aztecs and their ritualistic beliefs and visions. I read up on a lot of different things and a lot of my own visions I've incorporated into Hate Eternal as far as futuristic visions, personal visions of my life. I keep all the lyrics true to my visions, my thoughts, my feelings, just like I do with the music. It's very diverse, I keep my lyrical ideas on basically what I'm interested in, what I believe in, stuff like that. CoC: I noticed that it doesn't really reflect the sort of stuff that Trey would write [for Morbid Angel]. ER: No, no. It certainly doesn't have that approach. I wanted to expand in a different direction, obviously, because I love Trey's lyrics, definitely, but I didn't want to incorporate just a Morbid Angel clone. For me the majority of the stuff on Hate Eternal is stuff I would never have written for Morbid Angel because it's a different approach, and it's the same lyrically. I wanted anyone who liked what I did with Morbid Angel to buy Hate Eternal and say "Holy shit, that's awesome", but at the same time I wanted to make it, lyrically and sonically, musically, different from Morbid Angel. Because there's no point in trying to clone anything, but obviously the influence shows -- I have been part of Morbid Angel for half my career. Trey is one of my biggest inspirations, rhythmically. CoC: What made you choose Earache for the release of the full-length? Do you think you'll stay with them for future releases? ER: Definitely, yeah, we're going to stay with them for all the releases, I'm sure, just because they're like family. I've known them for a good many years, I've known Dig, Dan and all those guys there from Morbid Angel and it just made sense. Those guys, they stepped up to the plate, they heard the demo, they wanted to make it happen. Some other labels were interested, but Earache went the extra mile to make Hate Eternal special. We worked on the packaging together and it looks great. They're doing half page advertisements. I'm doing six interviews today, they're bustin' their ass for this record and it just made sense to keep with them, because we already have a great working relationship with them. My management, Gunter Ford, has a great working relationship with them because he manages Morbid Angel. He also manages Hate Eternal. It just made sense, it was the right thing to do and I'm very happy with everything. The way it's been going is just incredible. CoC: So what would you say, possibly, to bands like, well, definitely Napalm Death, Carcass and Entombed, and I think possibly even Morbid Angel, who have complained about Earache in terms of promotion or just general problems? [I recall "getting paid" to be a common one with, I think, Entombed. Anyone back me up here? --Paul] ER: Well, for me, everything with Hate Eternal has been going the best that I could have possibly imagined. Those guys have put in a lot of work into the Hate Eternal. Hate Eternal is actually the first death metal band that they've signed in quite a long time, if you think about it. CoC: It's definitely a step in the right direction. ER: I think so. And that's how they're looking at it. They're taking out half page advertisements, and they're doing the right thing for this record. I think that this record is going to help bring back Earache to the new fans. A majority of death metal and black metal fans now are people that -- ninety percent of them weren't even there when I was starting, and it's a new crowd. So, I think Hate Eternal is going to open up, to the new audience, what Earache's about, and I'm glad to be the record that they're really focusing on; they're very happy with the record, and I don't have any complaints. I'm very proud of what everyone's doing at Earache right now. They're doing so much more than I could've possibly imagined for the record, and I'm super-happy. I'm happiest with everything about this record. It's the happiest I've been as far as a record's concerned. Everything from the packaging, to the record itself, to the label and my manager. We're all working very hard to make this record have an impact. It's coming out over there [England] on October fourth, so I'm just anxiously anticipating what people will think. So far, all the magazines that have reviewed it, all thought it was one of the best death metal records that has ever been released, and that goes a real far way with me. I worked so hard on this record and I'm glad that people have been able to look into it and say "Man, you put in a lot of work", and I did. This was a make me or break me kind of record. It took a lot of proving to myself to be able to sing, and the guitars on the record itself were just challenging. I constantly challenge myself so that I can constantly get better. My playing is consistently getting better and it is going to keep continuing to get better, because I'm always constantly challenging myself, and challenging everyone involved. CoC: Does the title indicate that you have quite a high achievement goal, like the "throne of death metal"? ER: Definitely. Yeah. The whole purpose of Hate Eternal was to really make an all-out death metal record. Just a very promising, very dominating type of record. I purposely didn't put a bunch of intros or anything like that: I kept it very straightforward and very direct. I wanted to make something that was fresh and I do have high prospects for the record: I want to tour, and I wanted to do something that anyone that's into true death metal, the way that I see it, will like. I don't know how it's going to do, but I have great faith in it. Already for me it's a success because I've been able just to record it. The fact that I'm looking at the CD right now and that I've listened to it and I think, "My God". It's a success for me no matter what it does, because the fact that I've even accomplished it is an amazing feat in my life. It's definitely put me, as how I feel about myself and my musical career, on another level. The accomplishment has been very big for me. CoC: So you feel it challenges all the other death metal that's out there on the same level. What's is your opinion on most American death metal these days? ER: Oh, I love Diabolic and Angel Corpse. I'm actually recording Diabolic. I have a studio called Dimensional Sound and I'm recording their next record October seventh and Steve Tucker is assisting me; we've both got a studio together. I went to school for audio engineering, so this'll be the second record I've engineered and I'm very excited about that. I like Krisiun a lot, but they're not American -- but they're awesome! Definitely, the Hate Eternal is different from all those bands, but it's very similar as far as the direction. We're all friends, I know all the guys. I'd love to do a tour with all those bands, Diabolic, Krisiun and Angel Corpse. That would just be the bands of the new millennium, pretty much. These are all very new bands and they're all very promising. The Angel Corpse record is fucking great, so is the Diabolic and Krisiun. So I'm glad to be amongst those ranks, you know. CoC: If there are any last words you have for our readers, go for it now. ER: Well, I just want to say thanks for the interview, first of all, and I want to definitely thank all the fans that are reading this, that are interested in my playing, that have been following me for all these years -- this record is definitely dedicated to them. I hope that they can see the vision and the hard work that I've put into this record. I think the effort shows and I can't wait to get out on tour. Everybody that's heard it, it's made and impact on them. Everyone that's reviewed it has just been devastated by it. That's what I wanted to do: I wanted to make something that was totally devastating and I wanted them to want more, and it's done that. I am just so happy that all the people who've reviewed it so far have given me incredible reviews. This guy for Hard 'n' Heavy, he'd only given one other record in his whole career a five out of five. And that's a huge French magazine, it's like the biggest French magazine there is. I was just happy that people have seen the work I put into it. [Eric and I talk at length about what I did and didn't like about _CtT_, then Eric makes this point about taking journalistic criticism in your stride, with which I will close this interview. --Paul] ER: It took years for me to be able to take criticism: it's very difficult. I started Hate Eternal after a -decade- of playing death metal. So it's very personal to me, because I engineered, I mixed it, I sang, I played guitar: it's my baby. So of course it's very important that people like it, but at the same time I don't want people to tell me it's great and then not feel that way. I like to hear people's true opinions. I hate when people say something [and don't feel that way]. I want to hear the truth. If I wasn't ready to handle [someone's opinion], I wouldn't have asked. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= C H A N G I N G T H E F A C E O F M E T A L ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CoC interviews Lex Icon of The Kovenant by: Adrian Bromley Brace yourselves, metal fans; the band formerly known as Covenant, now called The Kovenant, is going through a little bit of a transition period. Call it reinvention, if you will. Call it out of this world. Call it just plain -weird-. Guitarist Lex Icon (formerly known as Nagash) explains the transitional mode that the Norwegian outfit -- which once had a prestigious line-up that included individual members of Dimmu Borgir, Cradle of Filth, Mayhem and Arcturus -- went through to get to their third disc, _Animatronic_. He begins: "I think getting where we are right now with the band, in terms of what our music sounds like on _Animatronic_, was an easy change for us. We have always been that way before, we like to do different things within the music of The Kovenant. If 10000 people say yes to a sound or style, we say no." "We also wanted to just make things happen for us", Lex Icon continues. "In a way, it is kind of a brand new start for us with what we have now. [The band is now a trio, rounded out by bassist/vocalist Psy Coma (formerly Blackheart) and Von Blomberg (formerly Hellhammer) on drums. --Adrian] We wanted to put back some magic into the extreme metal music scene because we feel that a lot of that has been lost within the scene, at least over here in Europe." With _Animatronic_, out goes guitarist Astennu and keyboardist Sverd (both from Dimmu Borgir) and in comes a wide range of variety and song styles, an abrasive slew of musical creations that brought about definite change. _Animatronic_ is far from the black metal roots of its two predecessors (1997's _In Times Before the Light_ and last year's _Nexus Polaris_), but still rampant in style and emotion. Be a little skeptical if you will of these changes (which also include a name change, as they were forced to change the spelling of their name due to the Swedish outfit of the same moniker), but take note: Lex Icon felt that they were necessary to help strengthen and shape The Kovenant's sonic attack. "All of these changes through the years are important for us, but playing what we play now is very important. We have molded our music. When we started off we were very young; we played black metal and we thought it was so cool. It was. The second record came along and we got signed on that particular sound from _In Times Before the Light_ and it was very difficult. We felt restrained a bit and not able to really take the music where we wanted to. We couldn't freak out in any way with the music because we felt pressure from the listeners and the label. But on this record we felt we had to show off a bit and that is exactly what we did. We are showing the metal community that we are supplying an edge to their music." And how have changes within the band affected things? There has been a good and bad point to all of this, right? "Yeah, things have happened. We fired all of the other members who weren't into the band, or who weren't dedicated enough or just didn't submit material to the band. With them gone it wasn't really like we lost anything important to what we were doing. The band has always been myself, Psy Coma and Von Blomberg. It was interesting to work on the music as a trio. I mean, Psy Coma and I have always written all the music, it just seemed a little strange this time out that it was just the three of us working hard to make this record come together." Within a listen or two, fans of the band will no doubt notice how much the music of The Kovenant has shifted. A lot more keyboards, samples and abstract industrial ideas wedge themselves between the veteran black metal ideas of the band. It's basically a new appearance, with almost the same kind of sound. Sort of. With songs like "New World Order", "Prophecies of Fire" and "Spaceman", you pretty much get the gist of what you're getting yourself into. Is Lex Icon proud of how the record turned out? "The record didn't really turn out as experimental as we wanted it to be", points out Lex Icon. "It turned out to be more metal in the end. Next time out we'll pretty much follow the same style of music, but the psycho parts will be more psycho and the metal parts more metal. With the other albums we felt we had to create a certain music style, but with the new one and our future work we are going to do what we want to do, rather than what people want or expect us to do. We have taken a lot of ideas from the odd stuff that we listen to, like Jamiroquai, jazz and fusion, except we've just dressed it up in metal music." I admit to Lex Icon that after a few listens I was a little uncertain of just what the band wanted to achieve with _Animatronic_, but within a week or so of it blasting from my stereo, the sounds and ideas of the new release have come into focus. This is shaping up to be one of the surprise albums released in 1999 in my books. It's brilliant; I've read people writing this and I'll say it too: you'll either get it or you won't. There is no in-between with _Animatronic_. Lex Icon agrees, too. "We've had a lot of flack from a lot of bands in Norway, Sweden and Germany because they want to pull us into what they are doing and we don't want to go that way. A lot of people are not really understanding us, I think. We may be going off course in terms of the music we used to play and what we play now, but we have always known and had a true grasp of what we do as a band. We don't do anything stupid and add something for the hell of it. Rather, we are very confident about what we do, and when we set out to do something or make a change to something in our music, we go full speed and don't look back." In more depth about the making of _Animatronic_, he says: "If you listen very carefully, you'll notice that this record isn't about being technical. It's more about things with power. The direction of what we do has always been clear." And his thoughts on the black metal and metal scene in general over the years? "I'm not very much into it right now. I'm not impressed with what bands are doing. I spit on the whole metal scene right now. The whole black and death metal scene, and even the extreme metal scene, have mutated into this Frankenstein monster; it's totally out of control and I don't think people really know just what is going on anymore. So we sort of wanted to get away from it all and start fresh. I think this new album is a whole new type of metal for a whole new generation. At least that's what I'm hoping. We're just playing "millennium metal" and having fun doing so." In closing, I ask him his thoughts on the recent suicide of Grimm (Borknagar/Immortal). He says: "I think people just saw it as a suicide, like "Oh, he's dead", and moved on. I really didn't get affected by his death, to tell you the truth. I met him a few times, but there are a lot of people who die from suicides all the time. People seem to get caught up in what they do, as was the case with Grimm, I think, and we don't want that to happen to us. We don't want to have the Frankenstein monster turn on us. That's why we ventured out and tried to do something different this time out." =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= A V I T A L C O N V E R S A T I O N ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CoC chats with Joe Lewis of Vital Remains by: Aaron McKay This month provided a bona fide treat for me. Through the course of e-mail and "snail mail", I was able to converse with a truly accomplished individual, Joe Lewis of the mighty Vital Remains. Having met Tony Lazaro, Vital Remains' guitarist, at this last year's Milwaukee Metalfest, the course of our discussion there yielded the conceptualization for the following interview, laid out for you below. I welcome you to continue on as I attempt to pry inside the mind of one of death metal's brutal taskmasters. CoC: I'm thrilled to have this opportunity to interview you, Joe, especially surrounding the circumstance of _Dawn of the Apocalypse_'s much anticipated release! First off, most people assume that Vital Remains is a somewhat newer band, but actually VR has been around for a long time. Could you recount some of the band's beginnings for the CoC readers, please? Joe Lewis: The band was formed in 1989, with the success of promoting two self-financed demos and one 7" vinyl. We quickly landed a record contract with Peaceville Records and released two full length CDs with them. We then signed with Osmose Productions in 1996 for two albums; the first was released in May 1997, _Forever Underground_, and the second will be released on October 25th, 1999, titled _Dawn of the Apocalypse_. CoC: I understand that Cryonics Records, from Holland, will be releasing Vital Remains' 1989 demo _Reduced to Ashes_ on disc. Is this a fact? JL: Yes, it's true, and it already has been released. Only 500 copies are available, so it will be a collector's item! It has some old photos enclosed in the CD booklet! Get it while you can. We thought it would be a cool idea to release it. Not too many Vital Remains fans ever heard this demo. CoC: On the topic of touring, my inaugural exposure to Vital Remains was in the pages of CoC in 1997 when you were in Chicago with Vader, Malevolent Creation, and Ember (I believe). In the fall of that same year VR was given the chance to tour overseas with Infernal Majesty. What was your take on that year on the road and your impressions of VR fans outside of the U.S.? JL: Yeah, we got to tour Europe in the fall of 1997 with Vader, Malevolent Creation and Infernal Majesty. The tour was absolutely fantastic! We visited 29 cities through 15 different countries overseas. The fans in Europe are great! They are for sure die-hard metal fans there! We're looking forward to once again touring Europe soon after the release of our new CD, _Dawn of the Apocalypse_, on October 25th (Europe) and October 30th (USA). CoC: In regards to _Forever Underground_ (a -killer- release, I might add), would you say that this 1997 release was a catalyst for VR -- making the band more or less a household name among the metal community? JL: Thanks. We just write our songs the way we feel we should. We definitely progressed over the years and we only get better as time goes on. We hope that everyone likes our music. If not, everyone is entitled to their own opinion and that's okay with me. We want to create the best possible death metal and top each album with the next! CoC: As far as the song "I Am God" is concerned, what a masterpiece! Coupled with the mighty "Battle Ground", did you, personally, find that these two tracks distinguished Vital Remains more from the horde of metal musicians, or did they draw more comparisons for VR to bands like Morbid Angel and their ilk? JL: Thanks again! Those are two great songs. Uh... I really don't hear any comparison between our music and anyone else's. We don't try and copy anyone's style. We started back in 1988 as a brutal death metal band with the intention of creating the most extreme music we possibly could, and, as I said, each release has been better than the previous. But if these songs are to be compared to Morbid Angel, I'll take that as a compliment! Morbid Angel is one of my favorite death metal bands. CoC: I am in awe of track four on _Forever Underground_, "Farewell to the Messiah". What was the inspiration for going a completely different direction with this brief minute and twenty nine second song? JL: "Farewell to the Messiah" was something Tony made up in the studio for extra space on one of the tape reels. I really don't have a clue what his inspiration was for including this piece, but it's there! You either like it or you don't like it! CoC: How did covering "The Trooper" for the first Iron Maiden tribute (and the best one of the two, in my opinion) come about? JL: At the time, this guy Raul was running Dwell Records and a friend of mine informed me that he was doing a tribute to Iron Maiden. So, immediately I contacted him and made a deal with him. He then sent me a contract and a budget to record the song. We had a very small budget to record "The Trooper". It could have been much better if we had more money to record with, but overall we're happy with what it came out to be considering how much money we had to work with. CoC: Osmose will, I think I remember reading, also be putting out a disc of Vital Remains covers, called _Horrors of Hell_, about the same time _Dawn of the Apocalypse_ hits the streets in October, featuring some very cool VR interpretations of bands like Mercyful Fate and Judas Priest. Is this right, Joe? JL: We plan on releasing _Horrors of Hell_ as a self-financed release after the millennium. Osmose will not release this. Osmose will help distribute the CD, but we will have all the rights to its release. We decided it would be a great idea to compile all the cover songs we've recorded throughout the years and put them on one CD. It will be something for our fans to enjoy as another addition to their Vital Remains collection! CoC: Please give some detail to the CoC readers concerning the new album, _Dawn of the Apocalypse_. JL: _Dawn of the Apocalypse_ is the best Vital Remains work to date. It tops _Forever Underground_. It's fast, it's brutal, it's definitely going to separate us from the trendy metal being released today. I really can't say too much yet. You'll just have to wait until it's released on October 30th in the USA and buy it! You won't be disappointed, I promise! CoC: Anything special on the horizon for touring _Dawn of the Apocalypse_? What's the situation concerning the tour with Krisiun and Usurper? JL: Tour plans are now under way. I can't really disclose any information at this time, but I assure you, we will tour very soon. The Krisiun/Usurper tour fell through the cracks. It was supposed to happen, but, unfortunately, there were too many problems involved and we decided not to go through with the tour. CoC: Speaking of the touring topic again, if it were solely up to you, who would you pick to go on the road with, either supporting or headlining? JL: I always wanted to tour as support for Morbid Angel. I think the best tour package would be Morbid Angel, Vital Remains, Krisiun and Angel Corpse. That would be the best fucking tour! CoC: Can you give me a couple of new "up-and-comers" in the industry that you are currently impressed by? Any black metal that has your ear? JL: The only band that I'm really impressed by nowadays is Krisiun. These guys are fucking brutal. I hope that I can tour with them soon. I really haven't discovered anything interesting lately. I really like the newest Immortal CD, though. There's also a band called Burning Inside from Florida. Look out for their new CD, coming out soon! It kills! CoC: Once again, I thank you very much for this interview and I would invite you to end this Q&A in any fashion you see fit. Thanks for your time, Joe. JL: Thank you very much for your interest and look out for our new CD out on October 30th, 1999: _Dawn of the Apocalypse_! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= C L A S S I C C O V E R S F R O M O V E R K I L L ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CoC interviews Bobby Ellsworth of Overkill by: Adrian Bromley Few bands have lasted in this crazy business that some of us refer to as the music industry. Many bands, over the years, have been exhausted, beaten to a pulp and left for dead. There are a few that have survived the wicked ways of the business, but few ever really recover from what they have been through. Then there is Overkill. Like a diamond in the rough, Overkill is a gem of a band. Honest, passionate, and, above all, sincere. They play metal music as it is meant to be played: hard, fast and without consideration for anyone. It's their music and no one can dictate otherwise. Fans love it. And most importantly, Overkill does too. Overkill has played their brand of speed/thrash metal for more than fifteen years. Lots of blood, sweat and tears have gone into this. And so has inspiration. With that in mind, Overkill has assembled an album of metal classics covered by them. Titled _Coverkill_, the twelve-track album contains numerous classics from hard rock / metal, including songs from greats like Motorhead ("Overkill"), Black Sabbath ("Cornucopia", "Never Say Die") and Judas Priest ("Tyrant"). So why the album? Why these particular classics? Singer Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth starts: "A lot of these songs were just laying around already done. Many of them had been done during several album recording sessions. We chose these songs because we wanted people to have a rounded feel of what we were doing. We did a lot of these songs when we were a cover band, when we started out. As we recorded Japanese B-sides and some tribute records, we started realising we just had these songs laying around. When we went into recording _Necroshine_ [their 1999 release] we realised that there were just a few songs to add to several cover tunes we had already recorded." "I think the music on this cover record is a good representation of where we were at the time of the recording with the band. We could have chosen the standard metal tunes. We could have done "Symptom of the Universe" by Black Sabbath, but we chose "Never Say Die" instead. I like what we did here and I think it is pretty obvious that it is Overkill playing these songs." Seeing that the band has had a long career, it must make them feel good about being able to put something out like _Coverkill_ without any worries. How has CMC (the label) been about the idea? "The longevity of the band hasn't jaded us, rather it has allowed us to do more and more of what we like to do. It is a great feeling. It's great when you can follow your own road map. [CMC] were very open to what we wanted to do. That label is built on bands with longevity or bands that have history. We presented cover songs that are historical from our historical perspective. This is history times history, which equals Tom Lipsky [Head of CMC] saying "Okay, we'll release this." He sees value in this and in Overkill. He knows we can follow our own road map and we never have him saying he wants a more radio friendly song like "Stone Cold Jesus". His approach is very simple and we both have been happy with the way it has turned out." Listening to such classic cuts as Jethro Tull's "Hymn 43" or The Ramones' "I'm Against It", the magic becomes apparent from the music of yesteryear. It shows that there was something special about the creativity of music back then, opposed to the commercially-driven music scene of today. His comments on that? "I think bands nowadays have lost the ability to write the riff. One thing that was concentrated on in the old days was the riff. That was the hook to bring you into the song. It was very important. In today's scene, the riff has been forgone for movement. In Overkill's situation, I think the evolution of the band has shown a sign of movement that many of today's bands seek out, but we have still maintained the ability to write the riff. I think it is very important for us to do this record because we have not forgotten where we have come from, but at the same time we have progressed." When bands that have shown their longevity in the scene put out a "Best Of..." record, a cover record or even a tribute, it is usually a sign that the band is coming to a slow halt. This is not the case with Overkill, whose past two records -- _From the Underground and Below_ and _Necroshine_ -- have been some of their best work this decade, maybe even in their entire career. "Someone told me -- I think it was Johhny Z from Megaforce -- that they were going to put out a "Best Of..." for us. I said, "Over my dead fucking body!" Talk about the kiss of death. I said to him, "There is no "Best Of..." with Overkill. It's just one long, ten-hour song. It just changes as we go along."" What keeps them going? "I think the proof is in the pudding. Whether you like or you hate this band, we still have value based on our own original releases. We didn't put out this cover record because our own material doesn't have value anymore. This is recorded material that is historical itself, because not only is Overkill covering the classics, but these are also different eras of Overkill recordings. I think that's kind of cool, to be able to hear the evolution of the band throughout the various recordings here." He finishes: "There are different guitar and drum sounds throughout those records. Even my vocals have changed. Hell, it sounds like I went through puberty. This record is very valuable to us. We're not trying to be the flavour of the day; we never have been. If people say we put this out to be trendy or whatever, I just have to say that they are reading too deep into this. I think they are taking their opinion way too seriously. We have never given a shit to begin with. It's quite obvious that if you don't give a shit you can't get hurt." "Our estimation is that somebody wants it out there, including the record company, so let's throw our hat into the ring one more time." =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= O F E L E C T R O N S A N D B I K I N I L I N E S ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CoC interviews Ed Mundell of The Atomic Bitchwax by: Aaron McKay Six o'clock central time rolls around on a rather crisp Thursday evening and the phone rings to present the very amiable and jovial guitarist Ed Mundell on the other end. "Oh, hey, Aaron? This is Ed Mundell from The Atomic Bitchwax. I think that I am supposed to call you, I think, now..." I knew instantly I liked this guy, personally, as much as I had come to appreciate and relish The Atomic Bitchwax's music. Fresh off a Monster Magnet (Ed's other band) show at a local New Jersey bar, Mr. Mundell explains that he has only been up for about an hour. I hope I sound as involved and competent as Ed does having been awake for less than sixty minutes! Involve yourself with this interview to follow; I severely doubt you will be disappointed for doing so... CoC: Let's start off by saying that I know that The Atomic Bitchwax has some huge support among the contributors of Chronicles of Chaos. I'll just let you know that I'm a fan, too! Ed Mundell: Really? Seriously? That's cool! Right on! Yeah, I've been playing this kind of stuff for years and years and years and now there is this kind of market for it, or people who actually like it. I remember playing these same songs in front of like -five- people, you know? Now, all of a sudden, we have packed houses and stuff. It's pretty weird. CoC: Have you noticed that with bands like Cathedral, Mindfunk and Sleep -- do you think that helped you guys at all to break into this style of music? Kind of paved the way, if you will? EM: You know, I never listen to any of those bands -- I listen to Sleep, but I don't know Mindfunk at all and I met Lee Dorrian once, but I never actually heard Cathedral. CoC: It seems like there is a bit of a niche, even though you guys are completely distinctive... EM: Oh, you mean the "stoner rock" thing. CoC: Yeah, a little bit, but Bitchwax has a different way of approaching it. At least that is the way I look at it. EM: You can still play heavy rock and not take every move from Sabbath. I listen to fuckin' Deep Purple, I listen to Zeppelin, I listen to Sabbath, I listen to Kyuss, I listen to everything, but there is no rule where you can't, say, throw a little Stones groove in there. You can be heavy rock and not be exactly like Sabbath. There is a -lot- of great musicians in old bands, bands like Free or Captain Beyond, who were totally great. They all have really great things about them and they are still heavy rock. Even King Crimson -- you can throw it all into the same kind of category. CoC: That is completely true, but you guys have done an incredible job of staying autonomous and found your own sound. EM: Thanks! We could have taken the easy way out and started writing songs that sounded like Monster Magnet. If anyone was going to make an album that sounded like Monster Magnet, I could have gotten away with it. I could have just whipped out something, but that is not what I play when I am not with Monster Magnet. We [The Atomic Bitchwax] write all the songs together. You know, Keith and Chris started out listening to Metallica [The old stuff, of course, not the new -shit-! --Aaron], whereas I started out listening to, like, Ted Nugent. Very different approaches. Then we might be on a ZZ Top kick, so then someone might bring in a ZZ Top kind of part. Something like that. Depends on what you're listening to. CoC: I know that you guys have been around since 1992. Was this just the right year for you to put out the album? EM: Between touring -- I was touring a lot with Magnet --, we would always play shows in between tours. Between _Dopes to Infinity_ [-Great- release! --Aaron] and touring for that record and actually making the _Powertrip_ record, there was about a year and a few months off for me. So I had to get the painting houses jobs and stuff. We just really had time to develop this band and to play more shows, not just one show here or there, two shows here, five shows next month, or something like that. We could play three or four shows a week and we played a lot just to keep busy and to keep playing. I don't want to sit around. When I'm not on tour, I get bored and get into trouble -- start drinking too much and the whole thing... I just want to keep playing all the time. Those guys are the same way. We had a lot of time to develop it. I had made _Powertrip_, then there was another eight months in between making it and leaving to go on tour, due to various problems with getting that record out. So we had a lot of time, and you know what, this guy at TeePee wants to pay for us to go into the studio -we- wanted to go into, which was Tracks East. That's where Keith can get his best drum sound. We want to go here and record and if we can do that, we'll do it. We did do it and we worked with the people we wanted. We actually did the record in about three days... CoC: You're kidding! EM: Nope! We played a Nebula show, then I played a Magnet show, then I split for a tour, so they [Bitchwax] mixed the record while I was gone last Summer. The Bitchwax record was finished during the last week of May 1998 and it didn't come out until June of 1999, because we couldn't get the album cover together and stupid stuff like that. CoC: Yeah, yeah. Well, the album cover is incredible. It has a unique slant to it, providing, artistically, exactly what you guys are trying to convey musically. It comes across really well. EM: That guy's artwork -- his name is Orion Landau --, for the lack of a better term he's like a Frank Kozik kind of guy, he does rock posters. Orion does really, really good quality work. I met him in San Francisco and told him some ideas and he was up for it. Orion was actually designing a Monster Magnet shirt that never came out, I don't know why. He did this really cool "sacred-heart bull-god" shit for us and I said, "Orion, I have this other band, we have an album done, but we don't have any artwork." He just said, "Wait a second!" He had the _Meteor City_ album, a compilation album which we did a song on, and he had a couple of live tapes of ours in his studio that he listened to and he didn't know it was -my- band. He would listen to this stuff while he was painting. He was like, "Man! I'd love to do an album for you!" So he did all the artwork and we had a photo taken and he touched that up. CoC: Kind of a small world, isn't it? EM: Yeah! And it's becoming even smaller, too. It's totally strange. CoC: The Atomic Bitchwax has a "supergroup" thing going on among the members. How did the three of you meet? EM: Years ago, I lived with a couple of friends in a house in Long Branch, New Jersey, and Keith and Chris lived around the corner. Keith was going out with this girl who was my sister's best friend. He would come over to the house with this girl, Erin, and I'd be hangin' out, smokin' pot and listening to music. He was like, "I smoke pot and listen to music and I play drums!" I had a basement and it turned out that he lived around the corner from me. I asked him, "Why don't you bring your drums and leave them in the basement?" We all smoked pot all the time and worked nights. They did sound at the local bars and I worked at a supermarket at night, so none of us went to work until 10 or 11 o'clock at night. We had all day to do nothing, so we would just jam all day. This was before I was in Monster Magnet and before Chris was in Godspeed. Then the music thing began taking off for me, and Chris and Keith got in some bands, but [the three of us] kept playing in between tours and finally threw a name on it. We were starting to write songs, so we might as well have a name -- so we came up with a name. We actually played our first show as Helium Head. Helium Head was my suggestion, because we couldn't come up with a name. Then I got overthrown, overruled... CoC: Out-voted! EM: Yeah. After the first show, they were like, "Helium Head is gay!" "What are you talkin' about? It's -great-!" CoC: As a three piece unit, how does the Atomic Bitchwax accomplish that "full" sound? It doesn't sound like there is a damn thing lacking in the songs. How do you pull that off? EM: Well, you know, Keith is like a spaz on drums. Other than maybe "Shitkicker", he never plays just a straight beat -- he's all over the place. That really fills it up. If you notice, whenever there is a guitar lead, there is usually a bass lead underneath as well, so we are pretty much just going for it all the time. When we actually started writing songs, everyone in our area was trying to sound like Pearl Jam. Stone Temple Pilots had just come out, Pearl Jam were huge and everybody was starting to sound like that. Dudes that we used to know for years that used to play in Sabbath cover bands were all selling their souls to sound like Pearl Jam so they could "make it". So, you know what, we were like, "That sucks! Why are you doin' that?" We wanted to play heavy rock, but completely different, with the rule that we weren't going to sound like anybody else, and if there was a guitar lead, there was going to be a bass lead at the same time. Just go for it all the time and don't sound like anyone else. CoC: Well, you guys pulled it off. Tell me a little bit about your relationship with MIA. It seems extremely solid and mutually beneficial, from what I am able to tell. EM: Actually, we are with TeePee and TeePee is with MIA. With Tony at TeePee it is pretty cool. We don't have a manager, so between me and Tony we get it all taken care of. We have this tour coming up with Core and Nebula and he is pretty much doing the role of manager. Tony is just into music and [TeePee] is just really into music. A lot of their bands don't sell a lot of records, so it is hard to make ends meet sometimes, but it is kind of cool that they just want to have good music out there. Have you heard the Core record yet? CoC: No, not yet. EM: Man! Wait 'till you hear that! It is -awesome-. I can't describe it. It is like equal parts Hendrix, Blue Cheer and Miles Davis. CoC: I'm told by TeePee that they are "an original groove explosion"... EM: They range from pretty trippy/psychedelic to super fuzzy Blue Cheer heavy. A really, -really- good band. It is hard to describe them, but you can tell their influences when you hear it. Really good. CoC: On The Atomic Bitchwax's self-titled release, I noticed a stark lack of lyrics. Was that a bold stroke to emphasize the uncommon sound you guys possess? EM: Kind of. We write a lot of instrumentals and live, you can tell we kind of expand on them and tone things down things down for the record. We can take the songs to other places live. Basically, Chris writes all the lyrics and if he comes up with some, that's fine; if he doesn't, that's fine too. I mean, I listen to instrumental music -- that is why I am surprised a lot of times that people like this record. They come up to me and say, "I have that record -- holy shit, man!" I say, "There is a lot of instrumentals on there. You like instrumental rock?" Apparently there are people who do! I thought I was the only one... I almost feel like I've done something wrong because I wanted to do something that we liked and we knew that everyone else didn't like, but we -loved- this stuff and everyone hated it. It is almost like we failed, because everyone seems to like it now. CoC: To Hell with 'em! You guys were on the front end of that curve. That's the way I look at it. I mean, you guys beat everyone to the punch and came straight off sounding like an original band. Now it can be other bands turning to copy Bitchwax. EM: Oh, wow! Thanks! There was a big move a few years ago, everyone was copying Fu Manchu -- the whole thing, the way Scott [Hill, guitar/vocals] sings and all that. Now there is a whole Kyuss revolution -- two years too late. CoC: Took bands -that- long to get the Kyuss sound copying off the ground! How does it affect you coming right off a Monster Magnet tour and being ushered right on to an Atomic Bitchwax one? EM: I've had about five weeks off and [Monster Magnet] are playing these two shows. I took two weeks off and didn't do anything -- didn't even look at a guitar. Magnet was on tour for the better part of fifteen months straight and that was long. We ended it all with shows in Japan and Australia. Coming home there were 25 hours worth of airplane flights and airports. So I didn't do anything for two weeks -- I had to learn to sleep again. I work it to where I keep [the two bands] completely separate. If I don't, I'll fry my head. I can't really overlap them. Right now they are kind of overlapping where I am doing Bitchwax rehearsals and Magnet rehearsals. It is a bit tiresome sometimes, so I try to work it out when I know there is going to be time off; I get the Bitchwax thing rolling again and practice, because we need a couple of days to get used to playing with each other again. The last three Fridays, we have played warm-up shows for this tour and we are going to rehearse all this weekend. We leave Tuesday for Cleveland, Ohio. CoC: Almost a complete reversal coming off one tour right on to another... EM: It is a completely different mind set. It is just something where I have to rearrange my brain a little bit. In Bitchwax, live, I can do anything I want. If I want to hold a note for twenty minutes, and just let it feedback for twenty minutes, I can. Those guys know when I am going to come back into the next part or that I will give them a cue that my lead is done or whatever. Or the next night, I could just, you know, go a different way and play four notes really fast. That's it. That's my lead. I can do whatever I want. Those guys can, too! Within the arrangements, there is a lot of room for us to move around so we don't get bored playing the same exact thing, playing the same exact way, every night. We used to do "Hope You Die" and throw "Hey Joe" at the end or start it with "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" into "Hope You Die" ending with "Hey Joe", depending on what we were listening to. If we were on a big Zeppelin kick, we'd go into some "When the Levy Breaks" part in the middle of a tune. It is pretty much open to whatever we want. We just started covering "Dirty Deeds" by AC/DC and an Atomic Rooster song; we cover them, too. We've been writing some weird shit. CoC: How do you think The Atomic Bitchwax fits into this whole music scene now, other than being a real breath of fresh air? EM: I don't know. We are not played on the radio, which is probably good. I never really thought about it. If people like it -- that's cool. I hope they come to the shows. I mean, the record is one thing, but the shows are kind of a different animal. We are still heavy rock, but it is just a different brand of heavy rock. CoC: Different flavor... EM: Yeah. CoC: Anyone that you are listening to these days? Anyone impressing you? EM: I still like Clutch a lot and I like this band Fireball Ministry [www.fireballministry.com --Aaron]. I don't know if you've heard them... CoC: No... EM: They are on Bongload. I actually just arranged for them to play on the five California dates, because I like their band. I saw them play at the Continental in New York three weeks ago. I thought they were great! It is a different kind of heavy. They do weird, almost like Skynard guitar, but in a weird Black Sabbath kind of context. And live -- the record I like, but live, I thought they were -awesome-, so I arranged for them to play five shows on this tour. They are from L.A., so... CoC: Are you responsible for setting these openers up? EM: We wanted to tour with Core and Nebula, and I got that all together, and in different places -- I mean, we have a booking agent and everything, but I think we are headlining most of these places. I really don't want to. I want to play, then go down, have a beer and watch Nebula play. We are pretty much headlining, so... In Cleveland we are playing with Red Giant, who are a really good band. We just request bands that we want to play with. Nebula had been playing forever, and with the Monster Magnet name recognition we don't really need a local opener, so we can bring along other bands to open for us and that totally rules. CoC: Wouldn't you say that The Atomic Bitchwax is more of the crowd draw, though? EM: We really haven't played other than in Baltimore, Philly, West Virginia and Boston -- we really haven't done a tour yet, so we'll find out. I hope people come and check it out and I hope they don't scream out Monster Magnet songs, because we aren't going to play them! This isn't Monster Magnet. It is heavy rock, but like you said, it is a different flavor of heavy rock. CoC: If it were solely up to -you-, and no one else had to be consulted, who would you put The Atomic Bitchwax on tour with? EM: Oh my goodness, I don't know... I'd want to tour with Aerosmith again because I did that with Magnet and it was so much fun... I'd watch them every night. I'd tour with them again so that I could watch them every night and watch the crowd as we played a twenty minute Hendrix instrumental or something... I can't really answer that -- it's an odd question. I do think it is all about the music and not about any type of competition or weirdness. I'd like to be in a position where I could bring bands on tour that I like, which is kind of what we are doing now. Core are awesome and they wouldn't have a chance to go on the road with anyone else, I think. They are still heavy, but they are kind of weird at times. But the people who go to these shows will get it, you know. I think that the right people will be at these shows and go "Wow, man -- I just got turned on to a new band! This is awesome!" Because I love to be turned on to stuff that I like, so if we can turn others on to a different band... Like having Fireball [Ministry] around at these shows, people will be like, "Holy shit, where did -this- come from?" That is a great feeling, to go out and get a record and turned on to something new. It opens your mind up to different things. CoC: Pretty much what it is all about, isn't it? I don't want to take up any more of your time, but I -do- want to wish you the utmost success with The Atomic Bitchwax and the tour; I appreciate all your valuable time, Ed. Thank you! EM: Are you coming to any shows? CoC: I'm sure as hell going to try! Due to the market where I live [Iowa], most bands don't play here, so Chicago is as close to me as you come, I believe. EM: That's next Friday, I think... My favorite guitar player is from Sioux City: Tommy Bolin. We cover "Crazed Fandango" on the record. His brother actually still lives there and plays drums. Tommy died in 1976 and Johnny plays drums in Black Oak, AK, and he is coming to our Minneapolis show and maybe, I think, the Denver show. So that'll be cool! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= _____ .__ ___. / _ \ | |\_ |__ __ __ _____ / /_\ \| | | __ \| | \/ \ / | \ |_| \_\ \ | / Y Y \ \____|__ /____/___ /____/|__|_| / \/ \/ \/ _____ .__ / _ \ _________.__.| | __ __ _____ / /_\ \ / ___< | || | | | \/ \ / | \\___ \ \___ || |_| | / Y Y \ \____|__ /____ >/ ____||____/____/|__|_| / \/ \/ \/ \/ Scoring: 10 out of 10 -- A masterpiece indeed 9 out of 10 -- Highly recommended 7 out of 10 -- Has some redeeming qualities 5 out of 10 -- You are treading in dangerous waters 3 out of 10 -- Nothing here worth looking into 0 out of 10 -- An atrocious album, avoid at all costs! Various - _21st Century Media Blitz Vol. 2_ by: Paul Schwarz (8 out of 10) (Century Media, September 1999) As compilations go, in terms of value and overall quality, it doesn't come much better than _21st Century Media Blitz_. Sure, it's not perfect, but to expect compilations, by their very definition a collection of various bands, to perfectly represent your own -personal- taste in music, is both unreasonable and misses the point. Compilations are not made to suit one person, they are made to give a random listener a variety of bands to check out and the opportunity to find something, or hopefully many things, that they like and were never previously exposed to. This two-disc set, which I believe is being marketed at a very reasonable mid-price, is cleverly split into two distinct sections. The first disc is a twenty track pick of the prime meat off Century Media's current bone, while the second is a twenty track pick of some of the finest of new UK talent from other labels and the realms of the unsigned. The first disc has personal favourites of mine like Arch Enemy and Cryptopsy along with the talented likes of Samael, Rotting Christ, Acrimony, Stampin' Ground, Turmoil and Iced Earth, among many others, of course. It certainly exemplifies why Century Media has respect amongst both the underground and the more popular oriented metalheads and provides a good range to sample, along with a few tracks which, at the time of release, have not had their respective long-players unleashed into the wide world. The second disc is a good part of the reason why this gets a good mark and respect from me, as it features the likes of Akercocke, Kill II This, Earthton9, Orange Goblin, Raging Speedhorn, Solstice (who are however represented by a track rather unrepresentative of their typical style, so to speak) and Medulla Nocte, who are all UK bands deserving the chance to be exposed to a wider audience. Despite a lack of unreleased material, and thus little incentive to pick this up for any but sampling purposes, _21stCMBV2_ is still a very worthy and highly listenable compilation which should offer the best value for money of any compilation out there right now. Amon Amarth - _The Avenger_ (Metal Blade, September 1999) by: Paul Schwarz (8 out of 10) _Once Sent From the Golden Hall_, Amon Amarth's last album, lacked definition and variation. It failed to hold my attention for its forty five minute duration. As all bands with potential and talent do, Amon Amarth have not rested on their laurels and the effort they have thus put into their music has paid off, resulting in the powerful creation of brutal melodic Swedish death metal that is _The Avenger_. Though forged of their trademark style, _The Avenger_ is less riff-cluttered and is further enhanced by an emphatic and sharply defined production (from Peter Tagtgren and his Abyss studio). Melody is threaded well into the heavy and percussive guitar and drum attack and the vocals have a gripping roar to them. The result is an album with character and punch which provides a rock-solid platform from which Amon Amarth can take their craft to the next, more difficult level of musical achievement. ...And Oceans - _The Symmetry of I, the Circle of O_ by: Aaron McKay (8 out of 10) (Season of Mist, 1999) I believe I love -everything- about this band from Finland, right down to the band's name. Bringing an unique black metal thrust to bear upon the listener's senses, ...And Oceans invokes mental imagery of greats like Summoning and Arcturus -- again, a couple of mammoth pluses in my book! Cerebral song titles emphasize intelligent music and complicated passages throughout the sum of _The Symmetry of I, the Circle of O_. I am, surprisingly, able to follow the transition/progression from ...And Oceans' first release, _The Dynamic Gallery of Thoughts_ (1997), to this new effort, but now I am more curious than ever to hear their split with Norway's Bloodthorn entitled _War Volume 1_ (1998). If it is anything remotely as grand as _The Symmetry of I, the Circle of O_, I'm impressed already. Angel Corpse - _The Inexorable_ (Osmose, September 1999) by: Pedro Azevedo (8 out of 10) Having recently had the chance of seeing Angel Corpse live [in a concert to be reviewed in CoC #45] makes me appreciate something about _The Inexorable_: it works really well live. Either storming out of digital media or delivering music of similar calibre live, Angel Corpse are one intensely aggressive band who are able to create a very strong sound and make something good with it. Angel Corpse don't sound like your typical American death metal band (even the vocals are more snarled than grunted), reminding me only of some of Morbid Angel's peculiar characteristics with a great deal of speed and brutality on top. During tracks such as "Stormgods Unbound" and "Begotten (Through Blood and Flame)", the band manages to reach remarkable intensity and fury while keeping the songs memorable. However, my main problem with _The Inexorable_ is that several other tracks have trouble standing out and actively adding something more to the record. Still, though not every song is remarkably memorable, quality is generally at least quite good and _The Inexorable_ is definitely very consistent and solid in its ruthless and well-delivered aggression. Angel Dust - _Bleed_ (Century Media, October 1999) by: Adrian Bromley (9 out of 10) With a definite nod to the music of such greats as Savatage, Dream Theater and Ronnie James Dio, German power metal act Angel Dust go the extra mile here will a truly stunning masterpiece. Bright, powerful wails of metal flow out of _Bleed_ and consume the listener. I'm just incredibly fascinated by the musicianship that Angel Dust have mastered on _Bleed_, having not really been a devout follower of the band since their early days. Listening to the record numerous times, it just goes to show that lots of hard time and hard work does pay off in the end -- and _Bleed_ is proof of that. Most metal bands from the '80s have managed to stay pretty dated with what they do, but Angel Dust have managed to avoid the cliche sounds plaguing other older acts. The key to their success with _Bleed_? Intricate guitar riffs, truly amazing melodic vocals and great atmosphere. Those three elements bring Angel Dust above the rest as we close out 1999, though the new Dream Theater (_Scenes From a Memory_) is excellent as well. What can I say? I'm smitten with their metal sound. Fans wishing to hear classic '80s metal rejuvenated for consumption (in the best way possible, of course) look no further, as Angel Dust is your best choice. Stunning. Bal-Sagoth - _The Power Cosmic_ (Nuclear Blast, October 1999) by: Paul Schwarz (6 out of 10) Hammy lyrics accompanied by pompous musical themes can only be tolerated to a certain extent before they become stupid, amusing and, at the least, mildly irritating. Bal-Sagoth have, debatably, always been either right on the line or merrily dancing on the wrong side of it -- that is if you, like me, don't listen to extreme metal to laugh -at- it. Now, if this was the end of the story, if Bal-Sagoth were merely one more musically unaccomplished symphonic, percussive and melodic black metal band, then it would be very easy to dismiss them as one more unappealing and perfectly ignorable prospect in a sea of many. However, Bal-Sagoth are far from talentless. Many of the riffs and keyboard segues which are present on _TPC_, though not stretching into the realms of brilliance or originality, are well-written and combined into a solid, consistent and cohesive whole. True, the major key progressions they are prone to using resonate no feeling of darkness or chilling mystery (their overall effect being closer to the emotion and atmosphere invoked by the credits to "Star-Trek"), but this should not to be a failure from the perspective that this seems not to have been Bal-Sagoth's aim. Ultimately, though, the pomposity present primarily in the lyrics and keyboards makes _TPC_ unappealing to my tastes. I find it impossible not to laugh at the tales of cosmic conquest expounded throughout the album, which from what I can garner hardly reach even the most amateur level of sci-fi/fantasy storytelling, and specific passages where the vocalist makes proclamatory statements like "From a time beyond time, we come. We, who once crested the waves, of the great astral sea. And who now, must strive again, for the domination, of the stars" are just cringeworthy and cheesy to an extent where what comes after it is dented by my resulting inability to take it seriously. Musically, Bal-Sagoth have created something which is consistent and worthy, but it neither gives me enjoyment to listen to on the same level as other black metal -- for its viciousness backed by a cold atmosphere -- or traditional, macho heavy metal (i.e., Manowar), for its brash lyrical invigorations and the accompanying listenable but muscular catchiness of the music behind it. Lyrically I prefer Rush, and musically I prefer Immortal or Emperor: Bal-Sagoth are an in-between point I find both unnecessary and unenjoyable, though if the style was my thing, I'd choose Bal-Sagoth to play it over certain others. Bewitched - _At the Gates of Hell_ (Osmose, September 1999) by: Paul Schwarz (6 out of 10) Bewitched are mildly difficult to judge. They -are- almost entirely unoriginal in their retro-melodic-thrash tirades and possess no godly songwriting talents. However, were one deprived of the likes of Venom, Slayer, Possessed, Manowar, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and "the rest", Bewitched -would- be a listenable and enjoyable reflection of these bands' talents, and they also do an amusing cover of Thor's "Let the Blood Run Red", with Thor himself on vocals. However, when all is said and done, Bewitched do their thing quite well, but plenty of other, better artists did it all long before, and many with considerably more style. Personally, I'd recommend listening to, or buying, if you haven't yet purchased them, "the classics" before giving up your cash for unoriginal contemporary attempts at playing long-existent styles of music. Brimstone - _Carving a Crimson Career_ (Nuclear Blast, October 1999) by: Paul Schwarz (6.5 out of 10) With their strongly melodic musical core which leans towards death and black metal (especially by virtue of its rasping vocals) but utilises heavily the conventions of traditional heavy metal, Brimstone have created a reasonably varied and nicely constructed debut in _Carving a Crimson Career_. Comparisons to Children of Bodom are easy to make and reasonably justifiable, although Brimstone don't concentrate on being quite so over the top with solos and melodic manipulation, and thus tap a different vein of enjoyment to that of CoB. Brimstone begin with the continually flowing attack of "Breaking the Waves" and mirror this approach on such songs as "Autumn", but thankfully alter tempo and structure to give us the likes of "Pagan Sons", which riff with the much more pronounced on/off character of vintage Celtic Frost. Brimstone do not sell themselves short by using melody only to place a simple, catchy and easily graspable theme throughout each song. They layer fills and keyboard parts effectively over each other to achieve a deeper musical scope and thus not fall into the trap of tedium that many of their retro generation do. _CaCC_ is a good crack at making melodic, catchy and enjoyable heavy metal which also combines the more harshly aggressive elements of recent death and black metal genres (the vocals are the most significant facet of this) and though Brimstone do embarrass themselves with the chunky but messy riff-o-rama of "Heavy Metal Kid", overall they do more on their debut than many, and as much as some of the better of the new crop. Brutal Truth - _Goodbye Cruel World!_ (Relapse, October 1999) by: Adam Wasylyk (8 out of 10) Death/grindcore legends Brutal Truth have called it a day. It's indeed a sad time for fans of the band and the genre alike. One of my first metal albums was _Extreme Conditions..._ so I especially found these news disheartening, as I had always associated the band with my first couple of years as a metal fan. At that time, blasting "Walking Corpse" or "Ill Neglect" was the perfect solution to any problem I had. Fortunately, Brutal Truth don't believe in anything half-hearted, including breaking up. What we have here is _Goodbye Cruel World!_, a double album containing a BT fan's dream of live recordings, rare/unreleased stuff and covers the band have played over the years. Each album being reflected on, amongst the 56 tracks one can find a huge variety of Brutal Truth favourites ("Choice of a New Generation", "Walking Corpse", "Ill Neglect", "Godplayer", "Denial of Existence", "Black Door Mine"), quite a few newer tracks (all but five tracks off _Sounds of the Animal Kingdom_) and plenty of covers as well (Celtic Frost's "Dethroned Emperor", Black Sabbath's "Cornucopia", The Melvins' "Zodiac"). A lot of time and care was put into the selection of tracks and the overall flow of each CD, and this shines through in spades. Brutal Truth will never be forgotten, and _Goodbye Cruel World!_ will serve as a testimony to the viciousness and savagery this band's music held and stood for. Woe is me. Check out the bonus track "Let's Go to War" only available at: http://www.brutaltruth.com/brutal_truth/letsgotowar.wav Cannibal Corpse - _Bloodthirst_ (Metal Blade, October 1999) by: Adrian Bromley (7.5 out of 10) I have come to the conclusion that this is one of the few veteran metal acts out there who get a very odd reaction from metal fans. Sure, in their beginning they were the shit, but now, almost ten years later and three records down with new singer George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher leading the bloodthirsty drive, fans either love 'em or hate 'em. No real in-between. I don't know; I liked their last record, _Gallery of Suicide_, and I'm pretty impressed with what we've got here on _Bloodthirst_, especially songs like "The Spine Splitter" and "Coffin Feeder". Sans the cheesy artwork (what gives guys?), the music on _Bloodthirst_ is a lot grittier and the most violently-charged material the band has done since "Corpsegrinder" took over vocal duties. Things seem to be pretty solid for this veteran death metal outfit and _Bloodthirst_ is a worthy trophy to showcase. Sure it's easy to say that this isn't classic material like what you'd find on _Tomb of the Mutilated_ or _Butchered at Birth_, but it's still solid and in fine form for the most part and that's good enough for me. Carcariass - _Sideral Torment_ (Impacts Records, 1999) by: Adrian Bromley (6 out of 10) With enough speed and death metal anger to keep things interesting for the most part, French act Carcariass aim to please with their technical angle on metal music. Slick guitar work helps muster their generic, yet brutal death metal sound. Along the lines of a more rhythmic Cannibal Corpse or Internal Bleeding, Carcariass need a bit more work before their metal approach is well rewarded. Points go out to the truly sincere technical approach of guitarist Pascal Lanquetin. We're talking John Petrucci (Dream Theater) playing death metal here. Certain songs work, allowing for a pleasurable listen, but in the end a bit more consistency is needed to make this band stand out above the rest of today's growing metal scene. Salut, Carcariass! Welcome to the metal ranks. Contact: 41 E Chemin De Valentin, 25000 Bescancon, France http://www.loria.fr/~couturie/carcariass Centurion - _Arise of the Empire_ (Scarlet, 1999) by: Aaron McKay (2 out of 10) The Italian metal crusaders Centurion thrust themselves upon the scene with this _Arise of the Empire_, their debut release. I say, some things are better left undone, kind of like this album. Have you listened to Judas Priest? Helloween, maybe? Well, now imagine Rob Halford or Michael Kiske crooning, in the finest testosterone-laden fashion, about the atmosphere surrounding the rise of the Roman Empire. Well, imagine that! You now have an -excellent- working knowledge of what Centurion is all about without having to endure this nine track, almost fifty-one minute, rehashing of Flotsam and Jetsam's _Doomsday for the Deceiver_ or Metal Church's _The Dark_. Look to the past for the originals, people, not this, albeit well-done, knock-off of much more enthralling groups of yesteryear! Coalesce - _012: Revolution in Just Listening_ by: Adrian Bromley (8 out of 10) (Relapse, October 1999) There seems to be a growing need for intense music to develop a new persona as it progresses. I'm talking about shape shifting sounds and ideas, adding a solid one-two punch of creativity and really going out on a limb with what you're going to give to the listeners. Seems as though hardcore/noisecore heavies Coalesce have been dabbling too much into the creative cookie-jar this time out as their new disc is a whopping smack to the head. It's like a demolition crew of sorts; who with solid grooves, heavy-as-fuck vocals and a chaotic frenzy fuelling the fire, might just bring your house down. One might wonder, "Who can handle all of this in one sitting?" I'm a survivor, folks, and let me tell you, the interesting trip through Coalesce's emotional roller coaster is an experience. A little out there at times, but on a whole, Coalesce's ambient-like hardcore/noisecore offering still does the damage. You'll leave this battered and bruised. Old metal fans with pacemakers and bad backs, stay at home. Cosmonks - _Out of the Ruins_ (Lucky Seven / Diehard, September 1999) by: Paul Schwarz (5 out of 10) Blending a vaguely punk (the term used here rather broadly) direction with catchy melodic hook lines and horn parts hardly makes Cosmonks original: this catchy, bounce laden style has been done far better by NOFX over their numerous albums. In comparison, _Out of the Ruins_ is more than a bit too sugar coated and contrived. Nonetheless, catchy it is and you will probably find yourself foot-tapping through it the first or second time through. However, upon repeated listens, it not only seems to become more and more annoyingly adolescent, but also starts to grate for the simple fact that its structures are gnawingly repetitive and that it's so long. The more ballady "Cradle Bomb" is a short respite, but there are few such blessings on this forty eight minute, twelve track, stagnant, though very professionally executed, catchy melodic "punk" album. Damn 13 - _The Dynamite Gospel_ (Sweettooth Recordings, October 1999) by: Adrian Bromley (8.5 out of 10) With ex-Monster Voodoo Machine frontman Adam Sewell at the helm, there was no need to worry about what was in store with the first few listens. No doubt it was going to be good. Having been an avid fan of MVM in the mid-'90s, I was stoked to hear new material. Their demise a few years back led to several spin-off bands and side projects. The music and ideas were there, but something was lacking. With Damn 13, all the right buttons are pushed. Damn 13 are set from the get go to make sure they come out on top no matter what, and if that means bashing our heads in with infectious grooves, then so be it. With the vibrant opener "Destroy a-Go-Go" and on through powerhouse track "Righteous Dynamite", Damn 13 showcase a solid hard rock vibe that'll rattle your head and leave you thirsty for more. Too bad it's only a four-song EP (13 minutes), because Damn 13 are great. Watch out for these guys. Danzig - _6:66 Satan's Child_ (E-Magine Records, November 1999) by: Adrian Bromley (8.5 out of 10) After a rather lacklustre dabble into industrial music the last time out with _blackacidevil_ (maybe he was brainwashed? Whatever...), the Prince of Darkness once again gathers up a slew of cronies to help him do his dirty work. And the work at hand? Not bad, not bad at all. With a definite experimental feel filling Danzig's darkened assault, it's still apparent that he still has enough know-how and aggression in him to fuel such strong numbers like "Unspeakable" and "Cult W/Out a Name". I was beginning to worry? Had the man behind such bands as Samhain and The Misfits, not to mention the legendary work of early Danzig, gone stale? What would his fans do had this been crap? Let's not think about that and just breathe a sigh of relief that this disc is rockin'. A much needed return when it seemed everyone was ready to pounce on him -- myself included -- and rip his new disc to shreds. Deranged - _III_ (Listenable Records, November 1999) by: David Rocher (8 out of 10) Powerful, murderously groovy, of mangling intensity and devastating violence: within a few seconds into "Ripped Raped Randomized", the Swedish goremasters' third killing spree will have overwhelmed listeners falling vanquished to their knees before its gut-churning, grinding riffing, blasting, unrelenting skin-pounding and throat-mangling grunts. With nearly 45 minutes of ruthlessly fast musical extremity mercilessly welding itself into your flesh with insane breakneck velocity and a hefty dose of distressing aggression, the most striking feature of _III_ is the literally beastly, mean death metal deity it embodies. However, far from the rather confused chaotic dirges of _Rated X_, this grating bastard doesn't even suffer from the lack of pinpoint precision that so many high-speed death metal releases display -- Deranged's musicianship is razor-sharp, and the thirteen furious metal blast sessions composing _III_ (minus the wittingly tasteless sample-ridden industrial interlude title track) click into place with, I assume, the same apparent neat cracking feel produced by snapping cervical vertebrae. The massive production fits this brute better than a pair of tailored baby-skin slippers would -- from the roaring rhythmic department to the hideously organic-sounding vocal grunts, right across to the amazing, bludgeoning metronome drum work and guttural guitars, all instruments are clearly audible, yet merge together to create a circumstantially suitably malformed monstrosity of sound that is guaranteed to leave your ears bleeding by the time the closing track "Razor (rection)" fades back into nothingness. Call yourself hard? _III_ will take sadistic pleasure in proving you just how wrong you are! Disarray - _A Lesson in Respect_ (Eclipse, July 1999) by: Brian Meloon (5 out of 10) Disarray's promo material boasts "On July 27, 1999, the underground will rear its ugly head... and the music industry will fall into complete Disarray". Aside from the fact that July 27th has come and gone with no ill effects on the music industry (except maybe that Hall & Oates re-release), this album never really had a chance of affecting even the underground music industry. Quite frankly, this record is just another "death metal meets hardcore" album; nothing more, nothing less. Its most unique feature is the band's interesting take on Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Freebird". Aside from that, this is your standard, sludgy mix of death metal and hardcore. The guitar work, guitar solos and drumming are competent but not challenging, the vocals are standard hardcore-style shouting, the production is decent (though the drums sound a little bit hollow), and the songs are boring. It's not that they're bad, but they're nothing you haven't heard before. They usually plow along at a slow-to-mid tempo, pummelling the listener into aural submission but providing few surprises. To Disarray's credit, I get the impression from their CD that they'd be a better live band than this album reflects. Perhaps they can build a following by playing live, but otherwise, they're going to have to do something to make their original music stand out from the myriad of bands out there doing the same style. Engine - _Engine_ (Metal Blade, 1999) by: Aaron McKay (4 out of 10) Here's a piece that I could have done without hearing. Ray Alder, of Fates Warning fame, along with Joey Vera (Armored Saint) on bass, combined their abilities with hardcore punk drummer Pete Parada and Bernie Versailles (ex-Agent Steel) to issue forth a self-titled CD that, quite frankly, is a watered-down version of the aforementioned bands. Yes, even less edgy than Fates Warning. Nothing against FW, I happen to be absolutely taken with _Spectre Within_ (1985), _Awaken the Guardian_ (1986) and even _Parallels_ (1998) had some great points, but I am suffering under the impression that Adler and Vera missed what they were toiling to achieve with Engine. Semi-chunky cuts with a near perfect riff here and there, this direct and pointed "heavy rock" approach has little hope of gathering much acclaim. The opening track, "Monster", comes at you with the type of force that I would be proud to see the rest of the disc maintain and improve upon, but instead "I Don't Need" and "You're Awake" are singular saving graces on this nine tack, forty-three minute let down. As a side note, Joey Vera produced this album and did an impressive job. Now if we could get him to offer up another song like "Havin' a Bad Day", I could be a bit more of a happy camper. Why are Engine on Metal Blade, anyway? They might be better off represented by Roadrunner. Poor expenditure of funds here, people. Entwine - _The Treasure Within Hearts_ (Spinefarm Records, 1999) by: Adrian Bromley (6.5 out of 10) With all too familiar sounds of passion, the gentle sprinkling of ivory keys and emotional vocal stylings flowing throughout the disc, I felt as if I was being subjected to a pretty bland attempt at trying to make music come across as special and unique. It fails. Instead, I was subjected to a pretty generic clone copy of such greats as My Dying Bride, Opeth and The Gathering. While not all that bad, the use of keyboards and female vocals does get a bit obnoxiously overdone and that paints a black spot on the rest of Entwine's material, although a good portion of the record is actually worth listening. Sparks of brilliance arise on tracks like "In the Frame of Wilderness" and "Enjoy the Silence", but it's not enough to save the record, I'm afraid. Be cautious of this release. Fireball Ministry - _Ou Est la Rock?_ (Bong Load, 1999) by: Aaron McKay (7.5 out of 10) Straightforward rock is exactly what Fireball Ministry serves up as their main entree to you, the CoC discriminating diner. As a matter of fact, readers, add a full point to my score if you find yourself massively beguiled with bands of this nature, keeping in mind this release is one of the delectable morsels on Ed Mundell's (of Monster Magnet / The Atomic Bitchwax [see the interview in this issue]) plate. Fireball Ministry combines a pure balls-to-the-wall rock segue into near-stoner indulgence. Clean vocals, pure guitar rhythms and a sweet pounding beat cook up easy groove material for audiences of this genre. Tom Rothrock and Rob Schinapf of Foo Fighters / Toadies / Fu Manchu fame lend their acumen to _Ou Est la Rock?_ along with Nick Menza (Megadeth) and Guy Pinhas (Obsessed). Eight songs totalling just over a half hour of pure groovin' satisfaction await you in Fireball Ministry's serving line. Grab a tray, scoop on the rock 'n' roll, and enjoy. Fireball Ministry certainly cooks up a wicked portion for your consumption! Fiurach - _Chaospawner_ (Scarlet, 1999) by: Brian Meloon (9 out of 10) Fiurach are an Italian band formerly known as Agarthi. While their EP _At the Burning Horizon_ (Red Stream, 1997) wasn't great, it had some interesting ideas. This album is a great improvement in just about all areas. The closest comparison I can make would be to an updated and expanded version of Sadist's _Into the Light_. They use keyboards and arrangements in the same general style, though Fiurach's compositions are much more advanced and varied. They also include elements of symphonic, power and progressive metal, with some sections reminding me of Helstar, Nocturnus, and even Malmsteen. They meld a variety of styles into a cohesive and natural sounding whole (somewhat like Extol do), and do so with a high degree of technical precision. The parts aren't overly technical, but the performances are solid and occasionally flashy. Generally, the keyboards are used for accompaniment and stay in the background. However, they occasionally take a more prominent role, taking the lead, and often have the sci-fi feel of Nocturnus. The vocals are rasped/shouted, similar to Sadist, but there are some "Viking metal" vocal parts as well. The production is a little faded, but acceptable. Overall, this is an excellent and unique album. It should appeal to all fans looking for new and original metal. Forest of Impaled - _Demonvoid_ (Red Stream, 1999) by: Aaron McKay (10 out of 10) I wish that I could simply state "OWN THIS" and all of you would know what exactly I meant and why I said it about this band. This method, however, would not allow me to communicate any of Forest of Impaled's brilliance to you, the CoC reader! Not a new band by any stretch of the imagination -- this Chicago band was established in the fall of 1992 in the essence of European metal. After three well received underground demos, Forest of Impaled released _Demonvoid_, which masterfully reticulated past musical growth from their demo material and expressed a commanding knowledge of dark times where mortal virtues were governed by the sword-blade. Fantastically articulated in carnal black metal fashion, FoI never, not for a minute, failed to impress me. I found them to incorporate only the vital essence of black metal into their, guess what?, -unique- sound. Yes! I said it, -unique-! Listen to _Demonvoid_, in particular "Metamorphosis (Birth of the Seventh)" about the fifty second mark -- riffing like I have longed to hear on an album such as this for quite some time. FoI bombards the listener with brutish metal onslaughts and then, all of a sudden, the band breaks into a slicing riff, as to make your skin crawl, while the rest of the band, it seems, -regroups- to attack from yet a third direction. Astounding! At just over half an hour in length, this nine-track work of art will spend a great deal of time spinning in my JVC player. Did you ever have one of those months where there was -too much- enticing metal to choose from? I'm having one, but for -you-, complicate your future personal CD choice with the addition of Forest of Impaled to your collection. I think you will thank me... Genocide - _Breaking Point_ (Musica Alternativa, 1999) by: Pedro Azevedo (7 out of 10) Intensive touring within Portugal, two demo tape releases (that I know of) and a 1994 self-titled debut album explain why Genocide are so well known in the Portuguese metal scene. Now, nine years after being formed, Genocide strike back with _Breaking Point_ -- and they haven't given up on their death/grind. Well played and produced, _Breaking Point_ is certainly quite a landmark in Genocide's long career, and the music it contains comes from a band who certainly seem to know what they're doing. On _Breaking Point_, Genocide actively seek to add elements that may be able to increase their music's variety, and they do achieve that to a certain degree, despite the relatively frequent Brutal Truth-isms. The fact is that at least most of the music here must have been waiting to be put on CD for a long time and Genocide's delivery is intense and ready to be unleashed live, something they do quite well. _Breaking Point_, while not exactly innovative, isn't a redundant album, either, featuring some rather interesting material and certainly sounding like it was carefully planned and executed. Contact: Musica Alternativa, Rua da Republica da Bolivia 75-B, 1500 Lisboa, Portugal mailto:malternativa@ip.pt http://www.malternativa.pt Konkhra - _Come Down Cold_ (Diehard, August 1999) by: Paul Schwarz (5 out of 10) Konkhra have become a toned down rock structured groove metal band. In simple terms, that's exactly what _Come Down Cold_ signifies and I will be the first to say that it is a sad loss for the death/thrash community to lose the band who brought us the storming powerhouse of _Spit or Swallow_ not five years ago to what one might call the "Metallica" bandwagon. Konkhra have gone in a direction which is hard to defend as natural. The meshing of groovy, horrifically unpunchily produced guitars and bass, with stifled vocals and flat drums is almost as disappointing as the lacklustre solos James Murphy has turned in. _Come Down Cold_ sounds uneasy, lacking in cohesion, and ultimately unconvincing. However, much as knowing and liking Konkhra's past I find _Come Down Cold_ unappealing and unconvincing, it must be said that for what it is -- a groove oriented metal album lodged somewhere between the fuzz of Corrosion of Conformity and Kyuss and the commercially oriented dirge Metallica currently brings us by the plateful --, _Come Down Cold_ is far from awful. Mammoth Volume - _Mammoth Volume_ (The Music Cartel, 1999) by: Aaron McKay (2 out of 10) Sleep. Electric Wizard. Orange Goblin. Have you heard of them? Well, so has Mammoth Volume, obviously. Unlike Engine, who -don't- really appear to be associated with the "right" label, Mammoth Volume -does-. All stoner, all the time! A lot can be said for maintaining some consistency, but more could be said for being divergent and unique. The latter, this Swedish '70s retro experimental group isn't. If you are going to share a common sound with a relatively crowded genre, change it up a little bit. I was even -that- smart in college when I "referenced" other people's work. Dirty, murky and sludgy best represent MV's sound. Can you hear a Kyuss influence on this release? Yes, but why would you want to demean John, Josh, Scott, and Alfredo? Anyway, with The Atomic Bitchwax available for your listening pleasure, why go with Mammoth Volume? Mercyful Fate - _9_ (Metal Blade, June 1999) by: Paul Schwarz (7.5 out of 10) There has been a lot said about _9_ and views of it have to a reasonable extent been quite highly polarised, with long-time fans both liking and hating it in varying quantities. I myself don't feel overwhelmingly positive or negative about Mercyful Fate's most recent full-length. Admittedly, it is far more in their classic vein, and thus for me more enjoyable, than the recent likes of _Dead Again_ and _Into the Unknown_, but it is still nothing to match the likes of _Don't Break the Oath_ or _Melissa_, as some seem to have suggested. The speed-driven guitar wreckage of "Last Rites", "House on the Hill" or "Insane" prove that Sherman and Diamond still have more than enough left in them to write powerful thrash songs with Mercyful Fate's distinctive signature, and when Diamond's vocals are dynamically highlighted by soft acoustic or melodic guitar on such tracks as "Church of Saint Anne" or "Buried Alive", it is also evident that this aspect of Mercyful Fate's distinctive style, which infused the likes of "Come to the Sabbath" with such power, has neither lost its importance nor effect. However, tracks like "Sold My Soul" or "The Grave" are nothing above lacklustre when compared to classic Mercyful Fate and, as with the closing title track, show their weakness through their repetitive and predictable structures. What it comes down to is that _9_ is but a pale reflection of classic Mercyful Fate, but a pale reflection of classic Mercyful Fate still makes for a listenable and varied album. For Mercyful Fate fans who crave more quantity, even if the quality is not up to previous standards. Various - _Metal From Denmark... Reversing the Danish Underground 1999_ by: Paul Schwarz (5 out of 10) (Sono Press / Diehard, 1999) Made to expose more of the talent Denmark has to offer metal-wise, this compilation is a good attempt at doing just that, but unfortunately it is considerably far from perfect. Firstly, it misses some of the best bands (such as the rockingly catchy Dominus) and includes a number of rather unexciting artists. Secondly, there are no unreleased tracks here and thus no reason for purchase other than for sampling purposes. However, there is a lot on offer to sample (nineteen bands is good for one CD in my books), and a decent number of quality artists, some known to me (Konkhra, Daemon) and some not (Saturnus, Withering Surface, Aurora), which means that _MFD_ is far from a waste of time, if also far from a brilliant example of how to make a compilation. Metanoia - _Time to Die_ (Diamante, 1999) by: Alex Cantwell (6.5 out of 10) _Time to Die_ is Metanoia's third full length, and let me state right away that it is a vast improvement over their previous effort, _Don't Walk Dead_. Vocalist Yowie is a supremely powerful growler, but the addition of black metal vocals to his repertoire, while trendy, makes Metanoia a better band with better songs. I felt that with their previous effort _DWD_ this band was just going too far to be heavy solely for the sake of being heavy, but with this new batch of songs I don't believe that to be the case, as there is a healthy amount of variety here. It seems that the songs on _TtD_ had more thought put into them, and after four listens I have begun to catch what Metanoia are doing, to understand them, and yes, to like them -- but it took repeated listens to reach that point, because on the surface this is just basic death metal. Lisa's bass lines are much more prominent and important to the songs than in past recordings, and her and drummer Ian work well together throughout the fourteen songs, but as was true with all past Metanoia music, these songs are built upon guitarist Steve's crushingly heavy riffs, and rightfully so. Hopefully this band will someday venture out of Australia and tour so that they may pound the willing masses into dust with their 10000 pounds of fury. My Dying Bride - _The Light at the End of the World_ by: Pedro Azevedo (9 out of 10) (Peaceville, November 1999) Although I had already heard rumours concerning what _The Light at the End of the World_ might be all about, I only started to really believe them when I saw _TLatEotW_'s suitably gloomy front cover -- more specifically, when I saw that the old MDB logo had been reinstated. I hadn't slept for about 36 hours or so when the CD arrived and I looked at its front cover, and I almost thought I was dreaming... but I wasn't. The heavy and slow guitar sound, Aaron's lyrics, the 71 minutes running time with practically no atmospheric interludes, the death grunts and _The Angel and the Dark River_-like anguished vocals, even the presence of a "The Forever People"-type track and "Sear Me III" -- I seemed to have already been subconsciously warned of all that by that little logo. You may be wondering what the hell is it that I find so special about that logo -- well, there's nothing special about the logo itself, visually, but any real fan of MDB will know what I mean when I say that it brings back a lot of feelings. Original guitarist Calvin Robertshaw and temporary drummer Bill Law have been replaced by Hamish Glencross (ex-Solstice, who didn't play on _TLatEotW_) and Shaun Steels (who had a brief stay with Anathema after leaving Solstice), respectively. So the three founding members that remained in MDB (guitarist Andrew, vocalist Aaron and bassist Adrian) decided it was time to go back to MDB's roots and try to perfect the style they're so good at, the style they helped to develop so much. Some may criticize them and say they chose the easy path; I disagree. I feel it takes a lot of courage to abandon the path they were treading with their previous album, in a way admitting it was not taking them where they wanted to go, return to what they -like- and try to perfect that style. They basically went back to playing doom metal, with death grunts and everything, while most other bands keep getting softer. How well are MDB doing it? Very well. _TLatEotW_ may not surpass _Turn Loose the Swans_, but it's a great album, sombre, bleak and very much My Dying Bride, with plenty to remind you of each of MDB's first three full-length albums. Practically every track is at least quite noteworthy (so it's hardly of any interest to highlight any of them), except perhaps the somewhat less inspired "The Night He Died" and some of "Edenbeast". Closing the album, "Sear Me III". As if the superb "Sear Me MCMXCIII" from _Turn Loose the Swans_ hadn't been enough, MDB have gone back to the original "Sear Me" (from their debut full-length _As the Flower Withers_) after all these years again, took a little bit of it and used it to make one of their best songs to date. MDB have recovered their ability to create both slow melancholic passages and harsher outbursts with Aaron's characteristic death vox, and use the contrast provided by the two. It may be that this still lacks a violin to really be MDB like it was before, but I don't find myself thinking about that very often when listening to the album, which is a good sign. Rather, my basic complaint about _TLatEotW_ concerns the fact that I feel that a few songs are actually longer than they should have been and tend to sound slightly more formulaic overall than, for example, _Turn Loose the Swans_ (which, in my opinion, remains as their finest hour). Nevertheless, if MDB continue to -progress- within this style that is truly their own for the next album -- as I hope they will --, I can only expect it to be an absolute classic, if the band is given more time and stability than they had for _TLatEotW_. Rejoice, sorrowful hearts. My Dying Bride is returning. Various - _Never Give In: A Tribute to Bad Brains_ by: Adrian Bromley (8.5 out of 10) (Century Media, October 1999) Finally a worthwhile tribute, with a kickass roster of bands paying tribute to the artist. A much needed tribute to Bad Brains, a band that no doubt influenced a slew of artists over the past two decades (many of them surfacing here). From the detonating ways of Vision of Disorder doing "Soulcraft" to the stompin' grooves bestowed on "Right Brigade" (done by 16) onto the stunning cover of "I Luv I Jah" by hardcore heavies Cave-In, this tribute reads like a fabulous book. Even Moby's dream-like state tribute opener of "Sailin' On" shows true respect for one of the most creative bands ever. Show respect and get this tribute, folks. Nightstick - _Death to Music_ (Relapse, October 1999) by: Adrian Bromley (8 out of 10) What is it about this band? Nothing seems to work, yet it does? Does that make sense? Am I coocoo for Cocoa Puffs? I don't know, man, there is just something so vivid and mind-bending about the music of offbeat, noise junkies Nightstick... With enough sadistic vocals, uneven drums and guitar riffs that fade in an out more than a coked up air traffic controller, _Death to Music_ is the perfect symbol of an all night bender gone way out of control. Think "rockbottom, lying in an alley way" kind of feeling and you get the feelings you end up with after a few listens. Rocking enough to draw you in, yet unpleasant enough to make you want to turn away, Nightstick somehow keep it busy -- and that is a good thing. Music intended for those who walk the earth fucked up 24 hours a day. Old Grandad - _The Last Upper_ (MIA Records, October 1999) by: Adrian Bromley (7 out of 10) The last I had heard of these Black Sabbath-esque, drug influenced madmen was on their wild indie disc titled _Vol. 666_ [back a few years in CoC, issue #28]. It was odd, abrasive, but it rocked. Same goes for their debut for MIA Records, a solid slab of death/thrash/stoner rockin' that'll leave you smiling more as you inhale the green goods. And while not much has changed since their indie days, you'll be hard to press any kind of negative reaction from me over that decision from the band to still be playing the same style. It just seems to have suited them. With a definitely stronger production, the oddball ideas and song structures seem to have more substance, as if they're spawning these wicked tentacles to grab hold of you until you turn blue. Weird is as weird does and Old Grandad do it oh so well. Choice cut, and a classic title if I might say so: "Your Guts on Rye". Why couldn't Cannibal Corpse think of that one? Opeth - _Still Life_ (Peaceville, November 1999) by: Pedro Azevedo (9 out of 10) Despite giving it a 9 out of 10, I have no qualms about saying that _Still Life_ isn't every bit as great as I hoped it would be. The fact is that its predecessor _My Arms, Your Hearse_ [CoC #32] set such high standards that it would be extremely difficult to reach such heights again -- difficult, yet not impossible, and I hoped Opeth would be able to do so with _Still Life_. Having said this, I nevertheless do consider _Still Life_ an excellent album -- hence my rating. The best way to explain my feelings about this album appears to be the following: I could replace any average song from _MA,YH_ with any song from _Still Life_ and I'd still give _MA,YH_ a 10 out of 10; but on the other hand, those same individual songs all put together, thus forming _Still Life_, just don't make it past a 9 out of 10. It is hard, however, to pinpoint exactly why this happens, as there is basically nothing wrong with _Still Life_ -- it is an excellent album, as I mentioned before. It may be overall somewhat less aggressive and more melancholic than _MA,YH_, but that's not necessarily the problem, since the more mellow sections and clean vocals that show up more often than before are as good as ever and the quality level is kept high. Perhaps the only problem here is simply that this is _MA,YH_'s successor. Regardless of that, the music is still great (especially opener "The Moor") and Mikael Akerfeldt's vocals and guitar playing are as superb as ever before. There are some differences in the musical style besides the fact that overall _Still Life_ isn't as aggressive as its predecessor, though: for example, while the songs on this hour-long album are still quite long and structurally challenging, Opeth have for the first time began to repeat certain passages within songs, although this seldom happens. The riffing style is often a bit different as well, but there haven't been any -major- changes in Opeth's sound. In fact, one of the great Opeth trademarks still remains: the album starts triumphantly, with Mikael's powerful vocals erupting from amidst another very well built crescendo. _Still Life_, great album that it is, just isn't as -special- as _MA,YH_. Nevertheless, I would rate every album Opeth released so far either 9 or 10 out of 10, and _Still Life_, their fourth album and first for Peaceville, is no exception. Despite the great difficulty of topping albums like _Orchid_, _Morningrise_ or _MA,YH_, the fact that _Still Life_ is no exception to the rule I just mentioned confirms once again the absolutely remarkable band that Opeth, in my opinion, has always been, thanks to Akerfeldt. Overkill - _Coverkill_ (CMC, October 1999) by: Adrian Bromley (6 out of 10) Most bands choose their covers wisely -- not to say Blitz and the boys didn't, but it just seems like a fair amount of "tough" songs to handle, especially with Overkill's very straightforward style of speed/thrash metal. While this disc has some good songs (Kiss' "Deuce", Black Sabbath's "Cornucopia" and Jethro Tull's "Hymn 43") and some bad songs (Manowar's "Death Tone" and a mediocre Motorhead number, "Overkill"), the overall feel of the record seems bloated with the band trying to show another side to their music abilities, when we, Overkill fans, know all along just what type of music they were meant to play. I'm disappointed. Rammstein - _Live Aus Berlin_ (Motor/Mercury, September 1999) by: Adam Wasylyk (10 out of 10) Having picked up their last album _Sehnsucht_ and seen them in concert on their Toronto stop last June, I've been on a Rammstein high these last few months. These industrial metallers can't do wrong; their wondrous live set combined with a lethal array of tracks make this band a must see. Capitalizing on their new-found popularity after supporting Korn and afterwards doing their own headlining tour, the band have released a live album that nearly solidifies the kinetic energy and passion they have on stage. Performing their best tracks ("Spiel Mit Mir", "Bestrafe Mich", "Sehnsuct," "Asche Zu Asche", "Du Hast", "Engel", "Bueck Dich"... there's so many!), only the visuals of a Rammstein set (bright lights, lasers, water-jet penises, etc.) prevent this album from being the perfect example of a Rammstein live show. Hearing the crowd sing with the band and cheer them on sends chills through the spine, you feel like you're right in the centre of it all. The sound is amazing (besides a couple of moments here and there), the selection of tunes is absolutely perfect... there's nothing of real substance to criticize. I'm in awe, which is a rarity these days. It's the best live album I've ever heard. Requiem Mass - _Shattered Destiny_ (, 1999) by: Alex Cantwell (8 out of 10) Well honk my hooter if this doesn't sound a lot like Sacrifice's _Soldier of Misfortune_, which, if you don't remember, was an early '90s thrash masterpiece. This debut full length from Requiem Mass brings back those same feelings I got when I first heard _SoM_, and it is really a treat to the ears. _Shattered Destiny_ is comprised of aggressive and somewhat technical thrash that is catchy and flows very well. These guys have even succeeded in making their album flow together well, as far as song sequence goes, which is something that Metallica, Anthrax and Overkill used to be good at, but has since become a forgotten art -- extra points for that alone. Intertwining mosh parts with sleek guitar lines and excellent lead work, and all held together by precise drumming, Requiem Mass have impressed me very much. What a surprise to discover a kick-butt thrash CD by a young band in 1999! They seem to be playing from the heart, and with conviction for their craft, but assuredly they will never get the credit they deserve because they are playing metal that is out of fashion. Contact: Requiem Mass, 14400 Oakwood PL, Albuquerque, NM 87123, USA Sigh - _Scenario IV: Dread Dreams_ (Cacophonous, September 1999) by: Paul Schwarz (9 out of 10) Cacophonous' past history of signing the likes of Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir before promptly losing them, and watching them become black metal superstars soon afterwards, would suggest that Sigh's best move, commercially speaking, would be to leave the label. However, Sigh are not only the exception by virtue of their long tenure with Cacophonous; they are also far more innovative than either of the more successful aforementioned bands -- and the vast majority of black metal bands, for that matter. Sigh take big helpings of Celtic Frost and stir in first the melodic leanings of traditional heavy metal, then the sweeping orchestration of soundtrack-styled classical compositions, and finally fleeting borrowings from unexpected genres like funk-styled jazz and twangy country and western. Sigh create a truly confusing mix which they somehow mould into a solid and convincing musical whole. The amount of courage, conviction and success Sigh have with innovation pushes them to the forefront of the black metal scene alongside the likes of Emperor and Satyricon. Let's hope that more people start taking note of the brave steps this band is taking. Stretch Arm Strong - _Rituals of Life_ (Independent, 1999) by: Alex Cantwell (8.5 out of 10) Despite their name (remember that toy?), Stretch Arm Strong are a "serious" hardcore band who have not abandoned the influence that punk had on hardcore, because the songs on _Rituals of Life_ are lively and bouncy, not dark like most modern hardcore bands. Due to this fact, the listener cannot help but to be drawn into these songs, and I am willing to bet that these guys are a very exciting live band. As I stated above, these songs are not dark or menacing, but that is not to say that they are lacking in rage, as heard in vocalist Chris McLane's ranting and yelling. The use of acoustic guitar, piano and clean vocals adds something special to _RoL_, and also showcases the talent of this band. This is the best hardcore band that I have ever heard of, and I will actively pursue all of their previous releases. Stuck Mojo - _HWY 1_ (Century Media, October 1999) by: Adrian Bromley (8 out of 10) First off, get some props out to singer Bonz and light up a fat joint. Get it? Got it? Good! Okay, now onto the recording. With a slew of other great bands putting out live records nowadays (Iced Earth, Brutal Truth, etc.), I was excited to hear that Atlanta's finest rap/metal act Stuck Mojo were putting one out too. I have seen this band live before and let me tell you something, metalheads: there is -nothing- like it. Intense with a capital "I". The band just takes the crowd on a roaring wave of sound and excitement, thrusting fast 'n' heavy riffs meshed with some of the most violent rap chants into our faces. Ouch! These guys don't fuck around. With seventeen tracks, an accumulation of tracks over three releases and two new studio tracks (the mediocre "Reborn" and supa-dupa, groove-heavy "My Will"), Stuck Mojo hit us hard 'n' heavy with some blistering guitar solos and total, out of control "Mojo groove". If you like the band, then this may be a welcome addition to your collection. The Ember Tide - _The Ember Tide_ (Warhead Records, 1999) by: Adrian Bromley (9 out of 10) With four songs, all under ten minutes, one might wonder just what the fuss is all about. Don't fret, metalheads, as all of these numbers fucking crush. With a real knack for writing short, well structured blasts of intensity, The Ember Tide are a dazzling work of art to just listen to. And even while the production isn't top notch, their wonderful styling of harsh speed metal (pumped up with a solid set of blackened, aggressive vocals and some groove) hits home in a big way. This all goes by too fast and that is a shame. I don't know what else to say, except check these sick metal fuckers out. They'll knock you to the ground. The intro film snippet from Rambo is awesome. Contact: 1B Smith St. Parammatta NSW 2150 mailto:warhead@ausmetal.net http://www.ausmetal.net/warhead The Fallen - _Sector-7G_ (, 1999) by: Adrian Bromley (4 out of 10) The Fallen's three-song disc is pretty much straightforward death metal, with a little twist here and there thrown in for variety. While rarely breaking away from their death metal meets Machine Head-like vocals, The Fallen seem content at just ripping deep and hard into us with their choppy riffs and brutal rhythmic assault. I'll admit I liked what I heard, but I was far from blown away. I don't know, the three songs here have power, just not enough variety to get them signed (or, in this case, noticed). And the production? Blah! Don't get me started. The best advice for this quartet is to take some time, focus on where they want to take their sound and go for it. Have some balls, boys! Maybe then the reaction next time might be a bit more positive. Contact: 26701 Quail Creek #190 Laguna Hills, CA 92656, USA http://thefallen.iuma.com The Kuntautcult - _From the Pits..._ (Displeased, 1999) by: Aaron McKay (8.5 out of 10) Originally operating under the epithet Bodybag, the membership of the Kuntautcult is still unchanged to this day. With the addition and subtraction of the very same member, bassist Vincent Schutter, this three-piece band from Holland are honestly intense and brutal, creating a mid to fast-paced death metal oasis in a sea of mediocrity. Initially, Kuntautcult was to put forth an MCD to be released by Displeased. Instead, two songs, "Use Your Dagger" and "Venus", were added and so _From the Pits..._ came into being. On this release, track four, "Use Your Dagger", although semi-trite in name, provides as heavy a musical creation as I have heard since Mortician's somewhat downsized song efforts on _Hacked Up for Barbecue_. Powerful and crushing, "From the Pits of Hell" is damn near guaranteed to please fans from a cross-section of metal genres, this fact harboring little doubt in my mind. Mixed in the melee, "Galaxy Legends" drives home the point of the next track, "120 Bar of Pressure Up Your Appendix". Metal acoustic parts run rampant and wild amongst both songs, creating a strange, but -highly- palatable, work of metal inventiveness. A very interesting work of sharpened and delineated death metal is in store for you if you are up to the challenge The Kuntautcult is issuing forth triumphantly with -your- name on it. Thunderhead - _Ugly Side_ (SPV/Steamhammer, November 1999) by: Paul Schwarz (5.5 out of 10) Thunderhead have definitely got a handle on the task of creating listenable, foot-tapping hard-rock/metal. There are distinct echoes of Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, but the thrashier feel, with the aggression more squarely originating from the crotch, which pervades _Ugly Side_ makes comparisons to these classic purveyors of melodic metal seem a little inaccurate. If Thunderhead were aiming to create a solid, unoriginal commercial hard-rock/metal record in an age when most bands shouldn't still be trying to repeat the past in such an unnecessary manner, then they have succeeded, and have done so more successfully than many of the new "reborn in true, heavy, metal" crop have. However, if Thunderhead were trying to give the metal/hard-rock listener of 1999 something he/she hadn't heard before and something he/she couldn't get with more quality from another band, then they have failed. Add the fact that the cover artwork is distinctly unimpressive and that some of the lyrics are rather bad and macho in the most ridiculous way (from the title track, "Yeah, so I'm walkin' down the street / Without a fuckin' care in the world / When this cop pulls up and says "Yoo boy, / What's that blood doin' on your hands?" / Yeah, Mr. Big Balls gotta question me / On a beautiful day about some blood on my hands / So of course my mouth says "Bring on the shit!"") and you're left with a rather unnecessary, though not awful, final product. Tiamat - _Skeleton Skeletron_ (Century Media, September 1999) by: Adrian Bromley (8.5 out of 10) I was a little skeptical as to where Tiamat would take their ethereal-like metal attack after the bizarre, yet somewhat stunning _A Deeper Kind of Slumber_ (1997), but after just a few listens, my concerns were put to rest. This is the strongest Tiamat to date, I believe, a beehive of activity as the band paints brilliant canvases of dream-like sequences that shine like a rising sun. With a mediocre cover of the Stones' classic "Sympathy For the Devil" planted in for simplicity, it's the drive of numbers like "Dust in Our Fare", "As Long as You Are Mine" and the cool Sisters of Mercy-like strike "Brighter Than the Sun" that truly make this album. I'm shocked at the depth and passion that riddles this latest release. Tiamat have sharpened their attack and opened a lot more doors with _Skeleton Skeletron_. Worth investigating, metal fans. Type O Negative - _World Coming Down_ (Roadrunner, October 1999) by: Adam Wasylyk (10 out of 10) Where _October Rust_ was overly commercial and left a sour taste in my mouth, _World Coming Down_ is nearly the bipolar opposite of its predecessor. It's vastly uncommercial, crushingly heavy and totally negative. It's almost as if the band have taken on a whole new meaning -- less woman/sex-oriented, more mournful and depression saturated. Tracks like "Everyone I Love Is Dead", "Who Will Save the Sane", "World Coming Down" and "Everything Dies" demonstrate that Type O haven't gone soft on us, providing us with plenty of brooding atmospheres and agonizingly painful moments to behold. Pete Steele's vocals are still among the best I've ever heard -- painful, soulful, depressive. Josh Silver's keyboards give the album nearly all of its emotional impact, whose multi-layered characteristic allows for a listener to take away different sounds from a song with each passing listen. _World Coming Down_ flows effortlessly, moving from track to track like a story that must be told, no matter what the outcome may be. Also included is "Day Tripper", a Beatles medley done in the ol' Type O tradition -- giving it a heavier edge and making it their own. An album that won't be ignored, it's my favourite album of 1999. Hands down. Vesperian Sorrow - _Beyond the Cursed Eclipse_ (Displeased, 1999) By: Aaron McKay (9 out of 10) Somewhat lead down the garden path by Vesperian Sorrow's track on _Smells Like Team Spirit III_ [CoC #40], _Beyond the Cursed Eclipse_ is still completely worthy of notable aggrandizement. Irreproachable black metal supervenes from VS's unblemished sound. Emanating from Absu's mastery of the dark art, Vesperian Sorrow materialized on the scene in 1998 with supremely orchestrated, bloodlusting atmosphere. Working through the secret, unobserved power witnessed unto VP alone, _BtCE_ penetrates deep within the listener's psyche to fan the black metal hunger inside, I believe, every one of us. This five-piece unit unleashes tight devilish intricacies from Texas that harbor a passion to succeed like -very- few bands before them. For each moment of _BtCE_'s fifty seven minutes, I found myself tied inexorably to the music brought forth on this magnificent release. Tracks like "Twilight of Azrael" and "Calgdon" shout the praises of Vesperian Sorrow from every level of subterranean Hell! My personal treasured pick manifests itself in the form of "Saga of the Second Sign", track eight. Pure ferocity! With open arms, Vesperian Sorrow pulls you tight to its ever blackened heart of depravity. Let yourself be taken in! Warlord - _Rock the Foe Hammer_ (SolidState, 1999) by: Alex Cantwell (7.5 out of 10) Warlord, a Canadian trio, went public with their debut self-titled EP two years back, and finally they have released their first full-length effort, strangely titled _Rock the Foe Hammer_. After digesting the EP, which in a nutshell was doom-influenced hardcore, I expected the same musical direction on any future albums, but my expectations were not proven to be correct. Warlord are still rooted in somewhat of a hardcore vein, but seem to have taken on a sort of freeform avantgardeness akin to their labelmates Roadside Monument and, to an extent, Frodus -- and while that -is- interesting, I was disappointed that they did not run with the doom meets hardcore thing, because I thoroughly enjoyed it and thought it to be original. _RtFH_ was produced by the increasingly popular Steve Austin (Today Is the Day), and he did a great job of bringing all of the nuances of Warlord's twiddling and "jamming" into the forefront of the mix. Yes, I said it -- they are "jamming" on many songs on the album, but they are a tight enough unit to hold it together and make it work. Although this band bears the heavy moniker of Warlord, they should appeal to not only fans of metal, but to those who appreciate indie rock and heavy alternative bar band music as well. Waste - _Therapy_ (, 1999) by: Adrian Bromley (7 out of 10) This Italian three-piece play solid Sacred Reich meets Prong metal. Very straightforward, fast at times, and definitely technical. As the six songs on the release play out, I can't help but wonder just how much work and effort the band has invested into their sound. Tight as a newly made bed at Motel 6, I tell you. While a tad repetitive at times, the grooves emitted from the music help spice things up. I also wish that with such tight musicianship the band would have aimed for a much better recording. That said, what you get here is some really cool music that'll easily entrance you and keep you coming back for more. Choice cuts: "Last Day of Pain" and "Waiting". The band's sincere metal approach is worthy of a listen. Contact: Waste, c/o Patrizio Pappalardo, C.P. 71, 95021 Acicastello (CT), Italy White Skull - _Tales From the North_ (Nuclear Blast, 1999) by: Aaron McKay (3 out of 10) I like Helloween. This is the reason for the majority of White Skull's three points given on this review. I suppose the remainder could be attributed to the cover art for _Tales From the North_ and, to a much lesser degree, for Nuclear Blast being their label. Very guitar-oriented and "true" metal muscle plowing WS's enterprise forward. Twelve tracks in all on _TFtN_, totalling about fifty-eight minutes of power in, as I mentioned, good ol' Helloween fashion. Minus WS's vocals, one can almost hear influences from old Iron Maiden, a la _Piece of Mind_, maybe. War, oceanic conquest and battle consume nearly all of White Skull's topical escapades. Nice transitions within certain songs are well utilized. For instance, "Gods of the Sea", track four, maintains a complicated musical progression while it seems to "pull back" and center around beautiful guitar work toward the conclusion of the song. The same is almost true with the very next piece, "Viking Tomb", at its beginning. The mighty, addictive and riffy "Kriemhild Story" and "The Killing Queen" provide this release's high-points for me. I can visualize a respected future for White Skull, but until that point, I'd hold off on _Tales From the North_. Zao - _Liberate Te Ex Inferis_ (SolidState, 1999) by: Alex Cantwell (9 out of 10) Drummer Jesse Smith and an everchanging line-up have concocted a swirling, chaotic bludgeoning of the senses with _Liberate Te Ex Inferis_, the fifth release from the entity called Zao. There is quite a bit going on, musically and lyrically, on this release, and I will attempt to elaborate upon it. Firstly, _LTEI_ is seemingly built upon a Dante's "Inferno" theme, at least according to the back cover and the layout inside the booklet. However, neither the song titles nor the lyrics reflect that theme, unless I am just too dumb to realize the correlation of the lyrics to that theme. In fact, I am at a total loss regarding the meaning of the lyrics, because they are of the poetic/abstract/artsy variety. The only song that even makes any sense at all is "Desire the End", which reads: "I desire the end, the touch of armageddon, this world encased in flames, bodies lie beneath fallen kingdoms... I desire the new beginning." It also happens to be one of the album's best tracks. On to the music... Zao seems to evolve greatly with each new release. Their debut album _All Else Failed_ was very militant and rigid hardcore. The follow-up, _The Splinter Shards the Birth of Separation_, saw them venture into the death metal realm a bit, while retaining traditional hardcore shouting for vocals. With their third release, _When Blood and Fire Bring Rest_ [CoC #34], they abandoned the hardcore vocals for those of the black metal variety, being the first hardcore band to do this (to the best extent of my knowledge), and the music went up several notches in creativity and intensity. Zao have achieved similar results with their latest release, and the listening experience makes me manic and jubilant at the same time. In the January 1999 issue of Metal Maniacs, Candiria bassist Micheal Macivor was quoted as stating: "I think nowadays the fusion between metal and hardcore has become so intertwined that there's really not that much definition anymore between the two, from a musical perspective", and I couldn't agree more, with bands like Zao, Training for Utopia, Coalesce and many more laying waste to any barriers that other hardcore bands had pressed up against. _LTEI_ is a piece of the present and the future at once -- a glorious achievement of modern metal extremity and a look into the future of what many young bands with a hardcore ethic and a thirst for brutality may try to attain. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= __ __ _ /\ \ \_____ __ /\ \ \___ (_)___ ___ / \/ / _ \ \ /\ / / / \/ / _ \| / __|/ _ \ / /\ / __/\ V V / / /\ / (_) | \__ \ __/ \_\ \/ \___| \_/\_/ \_\ \/ \___/|_|___/\___| 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: ***** -- A flawless demo **** -- Great piece of work *** -- Good effort ** -- A major overhaul is in order * -- A career change is advisable Capharnaum - _Plague of Spirits_ (4-track demo) by: Brian Meloon (****-) Capharnaum return with a new demo, a more potent sound and some new ideas. There are four tracks, two new songs: "Icon of Malice" (my personal favorite) and "Become the Enemy", a reworking of "Sightless" from their previous album, and a rough, unvocalized mix of "Plague of Spirits". My main complaint with _Reality Only Fantasized_ [CoC #31] was the organization of the riffs. I felt that the songs could have been arranged better, as there were a number of development sections which abruptly changed into seemingly unrelated riffs. This release fixes that problem for the most part. These songs flow a lot better, with the segues between parts sounding a lot more natural. Their sound has changed a little bit, moving more in the direction of the ultra-brutality of Suffocation (especially the guitar tone) and moving away from the sharper distorted guitar lines of their past. While most of the music is very brutal, the band does mix it up a little bit with some melodic and/or slower passages. The guitar solos also feature a good dose of melody and show a good sense of how melody can enhance an otherwise brutal song. There isn't much that's wrong with this demo. Capharnaum have nailed all of the technical elements of the music. Now the problem that faces them is standing out above the crowd of death metal bands that sound like them. Given time -- especially considering their ages -- they should find their own voice, and appear to have a bright future ahead of them. Contact: Capharnaum, c/o Tony Espinoza, 1204 Trout Brook Dr., West Hartford, CT 06119, USA mailto:Malice667@aol.com http://www.mp3.com/capharnaum/ Kraken - _Dreams of a Greater Empire_ (3-track promo) by: Paul Schwarz (****-) It is a pity when one hears very accomplished musical composition be stifled by a production which doesn't fully do it justice and which stems, in all likelihood, from a lack of resources on the part of the artist. That said, _Dreams of a Greater Empire_ is still very impressive for a demo-stage recording. Kraken, for at present the man -is- the band, has created an intoxicating mix of full-bodied, pounding black metal riffage (infused at points with the calculated beat of doom), classical stylings and melodic involvement. The mixture is as close to seamless as most artists ever get, sometimes building and sweeping to tug at the emotions while at others playing the dynamics of keyboards, guitars, vocals and drums off each other with gripping effect. The professionalism of composition on display is as admirable to contemplate as it is a joy to listen to, and with better production I think there is no doubt that Kraken could outdo many of the signed black/death/doom bands out there in the world today. I await his next move, whether accompanied by others or not. Contact: 115 Richmond Rd, Kingston, Surrey, KT2 5BX, UK mailto:Kraken@ukgateway.net Masque of Innocence - _Take 0_ (5-track demo) by: Pedro Azevedo (***--) Listening to this demo tape took me back a few years, back to the time when I listened to demo tapes from bands such as Heavenwood and Lacrima -- both of which Masque of Innocence tend to remind me of in some ways. Their slightly doomy music is made of competent slow to mid-paced guitar work, atmospheric keyboards and an average rhythmic section -- all generally laid back and not very complicated, with a few nice melodies here and there. The death vox are quite good and the occasional female vocals are also competent, but the _Shades of God_ era Paradise Lost kind of vocals that show up a couple of times are rather poor. Still, even though Masque of Innocence tend to be unable to really captivate the listener for now, quality is nevertheless quite acceptable throughout this decently produced demo, which flows rather well and does provide a pleasant listen. Contact: Apartado 6004, 2701-801 Amadora, Portugal mailto:a15862@iscte.pt Merde - _Merde_ (6-track demo) by: Paul Schwarz (*****) It is strangely ironic that much of the best death metal lives in the same place that much death does: underground. Our positively glistening example for this month is Merde, one of the best rising prospects from the death metal scene that I have heard this year. It is, however, perhaps unfair of me to give Merde the blanket classification of "death metal", since one of Merde's great merits is that they embrace no one style of metal so fixedly that their identity is instantly and correctly identifiable. Much as "Orgy at the Goatroast" comes thundering in from the hilariously effective sampled intro reeking of the involved fretboard antics of Gorgut's most recent and confusing outpouring, _Obscura_, the death metal leanings of this initial outburst are not followed by mere repetitions on one theme. The vocals -- though generally strangled in a similar way to Luke Lemay's (Gorguts) -- push themselves through differing expressions of aggression and levels of melody with precision. Guitar and bass work likewise move constantly through near-unfollowable patterns, playing off each other at random, while the drums provide a titanium skeleton of pulsing double bass, smashing cymbals and snares of constantly changing, often strangely synched, rhythms for the aforementioned flesh to mould itself to. Fourth song, "Shadow Under the Web", entangles its listener in a complex web of intertwining guitars which are at central points brought together into a single, memorable, creepy and dream-like acoustic theme, strongly reminiscent of Usurper's "Dead of Winter" and certain examples of the work of Autopsy. As this demo regularly indicates, Merde also combine elements of angst and groove originated by the apocalyptic likes of Neurosis and Today Is the Day. The catalogue of abilities is considerable, but it is the whole demo that Merde have created which impresses most, and bodes very well for their future. Pick up this twenty-eight minute demo and sample the work of this fine band, who, if there is any justice in the music business, will have a full-length out very soon, and be in the pages of many a 'zine soon. Contact: Avitchi Records, PO Box 8734, Portland OR 97207-8734, USA phone: 503 331 1879 Opera - _Promo 1998_ by: Brian Meloon (***--) Opera are an Italian progressive metal band, playing a style comparable to Dream Theater's _Images and Words_ sound, but a little heavier and not as cheesy. The music is generally good: it's usually pretty straightforward fare, but there are flashes of instrumental prowess and some nice changes here and there. All of the standard progmetal elements are right where you'd expect them to be. However, I find the songs a little too focused on standard-type structures, relying too much on repetition and catchiness and not enough on thematic development. In short, they're playing a predictable style, but doing a good job of it. The playing is generally good on all counts. The guitars are competent and do a very tasteful job of solos. I especially like the harmonized guitar-keyboard solo in "Life of Agony". The keyboards don't dominate the music, but are certainly not in the background. The drumming and bass work are unspectacular but solid. The production is okay: it certainly could be better, but all of the instruments are clearly audible. Unfortunately, the band's vocalist is their weak link. His vocals are consistently flat and weak. He reminds me of the vocalist from Black Jester in that respect, and he single-handedly ruins some sections of the music. As a demo, this offering performs its function. It's not a great piece of work, but the band has potential and will hopefully improve with their next offering. Contact: Opera Management, P.O. Box 33, 61015 Novafeltria, Italy mailto:ciccio@nf.infotel.it or mailto:ciccio33@hotmail.com http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/Wing/4006/ Torak - _I Cracked the World_ (3-track demo) by: Paul Schwarz (***--) Torak centrally make it their aim to produce pummelling death laden thrash metal with incomprehensible vocalisations, but ones which nonetheless have character and definition. Though basic black metal guitar work occasionally plays a part, as do minor key melodic vocals and melancholic guitar atmospheres, _ICtW_ is for the most part a product of the death metal scene. There are considerable stylistic comparisons between the work of Konkhra, up 'till recently, and what Torak create, while sound-wise Entombed and Dismember's early outpourings play their part, though it is not an overwhelming one. Overall, _ICtW_ is a good slab of metallic devastation with a convincing interplay of guitars and drums which avoids both stagnancy and originality by relatively wide margins. With better production and time there is no reason why Torak couldn't produce something of note. Contact: Black Crusade, 115 Richmond Rd, Kingston, Surrey, KT2 5BX, UK mailto:blackcrusade@lycosmail.com =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ____ __ __ /\ _`\ /\ \ /\ \__ __ \ \ \/\_\\ \ \___ __ ___\ \ ,_\/\_\ ___ \ \ \/_/_\ \ _ `\ /'__`\ / __`\ \ \/\/\ \ /'___\ \ \ \L\ \\ \ \ \ \/\ \L\.\_/\ \L\ \ \ \_\ \ \/\ \__/ \ \____/ \ \_\ \_\ \__/.\_\ \____/\ \__\\ \_\ \____\ \/___/ \/_/\/_/\/__/\/_/\/___/ \/__/ \/_/\/____/ ____ __ /\ _`\ /\ \__ \ \ \/\_\ ___ ___ ___ __ _ __\ \ ,_\ ____ \ \ \/_/_ / __`\ /' _ `\ /'___\ /'__`\/\`'__\ \ \/ /',__\ \ \ \L\ \/\ \L\ \/\ \/\ \/\ \__//\ __/\ \ \/ \ \ \_/\__, `\ \ \____/\ \____/\ \_\ \_\ \____\ \____\\ \_\ \ \__\/\____/ \/___/ \/___/ \/_/\/_/\/____/\/____/ \/_/ \/__/\/___/ T H E B L A C K M E T A L O P E R A A R R I V E T H ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mortiis with Christian Death, Godhead and Diet of Worms at the Reverb in Toronto on October 19, 1999 by: Gino Filicetii I can't express how excited I was when I first got wind of the news. Could it be that Mortiis had actually secured a North American tour and would be playing in Toronto? Well, that seemed to be the case, but I didn't hold my breath. I fully expected something to prevent the master from gracing our little village of two million. Needless to say, the show was a go, or be here I would not. So, come, my little droogs, and let me tell you the tale of Mortiis' visit. The line up this night was strange, to say the least. Anyone would've thought that Mortiis would have teamed up with some of his fellow countrymen playing the blackest of metal. However, that was not the case. Mortiis was instead playing in support of Christian Death, an industrial band with somewhat of a cult following, even here in Toronto. A major consequence of this fact was that Mortiis barely got a quarter of the already tiny stage. But as we'll see, this wouldn't deter him from serving up quite a show. The first band to perform were Diet of Worms. This band reminded me a lot of Marilyn Manson in the early days. Four guys, unforgettably dressed and made up, playing a brand of industrial rock that could get you snapping your fingers if you didn't watch out. The venue was almost empty for their entire set and I thought to myself, hmmm... I've never seen the floor of the Reverb before... how interesting. Next was Godhead, an industrial band from The Windy City. I'll admit, I thought it was a bonus when I heard Godhead would be performing with Mortiis. I had heard two of their albums and was quite impressed with their music. The singer was tall and bulky and without a stitch of hair on his head. He looked a lot like Billy Corgan from the Smashing Pumpkins, or, more accurately, like Billy Corgan in his coffin after having snuffed it. Godhead played a few tunes I recognized, and managed to get a few people out of their seats and onto the floor. Their sound was tight and the light show left me epileptic, so I can't really complain. They closed the night off with their cover of The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby", one of my favorite Beatles songs, and an excellent cover to boot. Although I enjoyed Godhead, I couldn't wait for Mortiis to make his entrance. After all this time, the moment was at hand. I had brought a friend to this show, although he was a complete stranger to the black metal scene and had never heard of Mortiis before. But the hype and expectation was so high that even he felt the anticipation waiting for Mortiis' set to start. Watching the roadies set up the stage for Mortiis was a show unto itself. The props on stage were psychotic concoctions of art and the macabre. There was a cross made out of bones and vertebrae with a skull to top it off. The bones even had a yellowish brown tinge, perhaps they were -real- human bones? There was a sadist's rack of torturing weapons: a battle axe, a leather submission strap and a baby doll hung up by a chain on one leg and covered in blood. There was also a wooden "X" set up which had leather straps attached to it. It was some kind of crucifix; I was very interested to see how it'd be used. The instruments set up were only three percussion stations having a mixture of real and electronic drums. I was shocked to see no synthesizer in sight. What came next was more of a shock to me. Mortiis' "band" appeared: two guys took up their places at the percussion stations, and an extremely fat blonde chick, showing way too much cleavage, took her spot at a microphone. But what was all this about a band?? I guess my information was a little out dated, but last I'd heard, Mortiis' shows in Europe involved only him and his props, none of this conventional, rock show stuff. But these thoughts quickly left my mind as the music started and everyone turned their heads towards the back of the venue.... And there he was, Mortiis -- in all his glory -- leading a small, subdued, female "gimp" by a chain shackled around her neck. As he walked through the crowd and passed me I couldn't help wondering, wow, Mortiis isn't very tall! As they took the stage, Mortiis tied the gimp's chain to his "rack o' sadism" and took his spot front stage center. The songs they played were very heavily influenced by percussive sounds. There was some recorded synthesizer played as well, but a lot of it was drowned out by the incessant drumming. It sounded very gloomy and dungeon-like, but the Mortiis I remember had a lot more synth, and sadly, it was missing from this night's show. The second song they played had the opera singer providing some vocals. They were quite impressive, I must admit, but then again, she definitely had the lungs for it. After the first two songs, the band paused while Mortiis performed the preparation of his "virgin". He squeezed the baby doll, which spat blood all over the frightened girl, anointing her in blood, as it were. Next was one of Mortiis' epic songs which always seem to last an eternity whilst keeping you enthralled with fear and delight. After this, there was another pause while Mortiis untied the virgin and lead her to the crucifix. Here, he tied her up and held a huge bucket up to her. Into this bucket he dipped his fingers and smeared the blood contained within onto the virgin's neck and face. Then, holding the bucket up to the heavens, Mortiis emptied its contents -- about five gallons of blood -- onto his head!! Believe me people, to behold Mortiis in his make up is definitely a sight to see; but to see him drenched from head to toe in red gore was completely unreal. After this spectacle, another couple of songs were played. This time, Mortiis joined his vocals to those of his hefty friend. Then came another pause in the music, time for more hyjinx I thought. This time, Mortiis went off to the side of the stage and grabbed a bottle made out of horse's hoof. From this, he took a swig of the contents and was handed a flaming torch. He brought this torch to the center of the stage and start twirling it around, bringing it close to his virgin; this time anointing her in fire. After that he blew fire out into the crowd, it being kerosene that he drank from the horse's foot. And with the flame started the next song. It was full of intense drumming and high pitched singing, truly one of the best songs played that night. Then, my friends, after one more song came the grand finale. From his rack, Mortiis retrieved a pair of what can only be described as "medieval garden shears". He brought these over to the virgin affixed to the crucifix and began the final anointment: the anointment of the blade. Starting at her midsection, Mortiis cut into his sacrifice with the shears. Blood poured out of her torso in great gushes and dripped from her mouth as first she wreathed and then fell limp. At this point, Mortiis unties her from the crucifix and slings her over his shoulder. He jumps into the shocked crowd and carries his victim to the back of the venue from whence he came. As he leaves sight, the band starts another song without Mortiis. This song continues for awhile, but the entire crowd is staring at the back of the venue away from the stage, just waiting for Mortiis to return. And return he does after the song was over. He calmly resumes his spot and the band performs its last song of the night. Needless to say, I was impressed by the show put on by Mortiis. I've always been a fan of bands who can put on a good stage show, so I thought the night's festivities were great. There were some who thought it was all a load of cheese, and there were others still -- the uninitiated masses of industrial fans -- who were shocked by the proceedings. And that was all she wrote for me, my friends. Realizing that anything that came after Mortiis would be anticlimatic, I left without seeing Christian Death, knowing that I would have to come out of retirement to tell my readers about this one. A R M A G E D D O N W I T H L A V I E R G E D E F E R ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CoC attends Megadeth and Iron Maiden at the Palais Omnisports de Paris Bercy, France, Thursday 9th September, 1999 by: David Rocher This major event, in the guise of a heavy metal concert, did seem like a nice way to spend my last evening on earth -- I was at last going to witness what I beheld as the ultimate Iron Maiden line-up live, and on the very day of the Apocalypse (9-9-99) too. After having twice faced the vocal (terrible) uncertainty of Blaze Bailey live, the prospect of this reformation with Bruce Dickinson and riffmaster supreme Adrian Smith was more than mouth-watering -- as hairy pilgrims gathered in their thousands on the steps leading to the temple of Paris Bercy, this outing literally had the somewhat ethereal taste of a religious celebration to honour the gods of Metal. Before the much-anticipated event of Iron Maiden appearing on stage, though, I gritted my teeth as I psychologically readied myself for an onslaught of some of the most tedious "musical" lameness I could possibly be served that night, and namely Megadeth. Justifiably, I was this anxious, as the four-hour drive to Paris had provided me with the opportunity to hear their infamous last output -- very fittingly named _Risk_ --, which rang to my ears like nothing more than sub-standard, laughably sell-out AOR rock. And this bitter foretaste indeed proved to be more than premonitory... The lights went out, the 17000 people or so gathered in the POPB roared, and Minideth straight away caught their feet in the rug by dishing out rather unappetising starters in the form of a grey tedious mass of ruminant-friendly sonic sludge, pompously named "Prince of Darkness". With my coldest fears of having to put up with _Risk_ material twice in the same day all coming true, I nevertheless stood my ground, and was soon to be comforted, as the last notes of "Prince of Darkness" faded into nothingness, to be replaced by the biting riffage of Megadeth's high-speed classic "Holy Wars", which they interpreted flawlessly. Mustaine's gang even actually succeeded in having me on my toes as they then carried on with a great rendition of "In My Darkest Hour" -- damn, that felt -good- if anything ever did. And it also quite simply proved that if people remember this great song some thirteen years after it was written, the chances that mere mortals will have fond memories of tracks from _Youthanasia_, _Cryptic Writings_ or _Risk_ in the year 2014 or so are far slighter. Sadly enough, though, I don't quite recall what happened for the twenty or so minutes after "In My Darkest Hour", as Dave & co. mercilessly and methodically proceeded to bore me out of my failing mind with various "hits" from their last three full-length albums, with a peak of absolute feebleness being reached on a track called "Crush 'Em" -- wow, I hadn't heard anything this gay since The Village People's "San Francisco". To make matters worse, anyway, just as I finally sleepwalked through the thick crowd out towards the merchandising stand, Megaydeth were suddenly submerged by the recollection that they indeed -had- released albums before 1994, and launched themselves into the killer hymn "Peace Sells", which they followed up with the closing "Symphony of Destruction". This all seemed like a lukewarm attempt to get older fans to forgive them, and after this, they saluted and finally cleared off... aaaah, relief. Well, at least sort of. The tension that was rapidly building up in the air as the numerous roadies prepared the stage for Iron Maiden was incredible, pretty much like a massive thunderstorm builds up on a hot night -- the air was -literally- electric, something I had never witnessed before at any concert, and which definitely didn't occur when "la vierge de fer" were to appear on scene fronted by Blaze Bailey. As a matter of a fact, the atmosphere just got that little bit too electric. I hadn't either ever witnessed such a violent, brainless audience as I beheld at that gig -- the people gathered in the pit started (and for no reason I can possibly fathom) shoving into each other in ways typical of a horde of distressed spongiform bovines a whole fifteen minutes before the lights even went out -- great fun, lads. Anyway, Bercy was suddenly plunged into blackness as a video was played on three large screens, with the aim successfully demonstrating just how (totally un-)interesting the official Iron Maiden game "Ed Hunter" looked and played; it rapidly mutated into a cover version of "Churchill's Speech" spoken by mascot Eddie, as images of Spitfires and Messerschmidts in tight aerial battle on a background of blackened clouds filled the screen. Bang! -- the stage lights went on as the mighty Britons instantly kicked into a very fast interpretation of their 1983 vintage classic "Aces High". The whole of Iron Maiden's set then unfolded, as I had anticipated, in totally elating ways, although Steve and Bruce definitely fooled no-one about their obviously antagonistic, rancour-ridden relationship. They nevertheless ensured a flawless show that night, as they soared through a selection of fine hymns such as "Wrathchild", "The Trooper" and "2 Minutes to Midnight". Dickinson's incredible vocal exactness rapidly became as incredibly apparent as Bailey's lack of precision was, as he faithfully rendered the decent _X Factor_ opener "Man on the Edge", or as he literally transcended the tribute paid to the legendary figure William Wallace, namely "The Clansman"; graced with Bruce's incredible singing, this was altogether a different track than the one featured on _Virtual XI_, and as Monsieur Dickinson solemnly announced (in French) that Iron Maiden were preparing to record an album next year with their current line-up, I couldn't help but spontaneously salivating all over myself -- definitely a highlight of the forthcoming millennium! The sextet then pursued their set with "Wasted Years" -- which was sadly the only track off _Somewhere in Time_ that night --, "Powerslave", "Killers", "Fear of the Dark" -- whose intro was chorused by 17000 people, creating one of these awesome spine-tingling moments of atmosphere that metal can craft so well --, before treating the marvelled crowds to the legendary "Phantom of the Opera", followed by "Iron Maiden". All this time, Bruce mathematically proved that, regardless of what talented replacement Iron Maiden could have produced after his solo escapade, walking in his footsteps as a singer and frontman is a task as near to impossible as it gets. In addition to his incredible vocal performance, he continually ran back and forth across the large stage, demonstrating the impressive control he exerted over 17000 fans at the same time -- he merely needed to raise his arms and say the mythical words "Scream for me, Paris!" for the whole room to raise their arms in return and indeed scream for him all they could... this, people, is -power-. Iron Maiden then saluted briefly, and left the stage as the now rather worn-out "encore" gimmick was faithfully played by the attendance... Very unsurprisingly, the six lads reappeared after the crowd had duly chanted their name for two-three minutes or so, and played the inevitable classic "The Number of the Beast", followed by the awesome seven-minute hymn "Hallowed Be thy Name"; they then definitely concluded the show with "Run to the Hills" before leaving the stage. All in all, with the great musicianship (-very- professionally practised by some legendary figures I had long hoped to see), capped off by the supreme sound quality and cool visual paraphernalia articulated around the various songs, Iron Maiden's very mercantile "no, we're not reforming, no way" appearance in Paris was more than simply good. And in passing, I really had a thought that night for US death-metallers Immolation (despite the fact that I am a proven non-fan of theirs, as Paul Schwarz will willingly testify to!), who were also scheduled to play in Paris that night, and whose attendance, from what I heard, was so low that the gig was called off. Mortals are no competition for gods, I'm afraid... =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= W H A T W E H A V E C R A N K E D ! ! ! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Gino's Top 5 1. Doors - _The Best of the Doors_ 2. Mortiis - _Crypt of the Wizard_ 3. Bob Marley - _Legend_ 4. Absu - _The Third Storm of Cythraul_ 5. Metallica - _Master of Puppets_ Adrian's Top 5 1. The Kovenant - _Animatronic_ 2. Angel Dust - _Bleed_ 3. Dillinger Escape Plan - _Calculating Infinity_ 4. Will Haven - _WHVN_ 5. Vision of Disorder - _For the Bleeders_ Brian's Top 5 1. Ron Jarzombek - _Phhhp!_ 2. ...And Oceans - _The Dynamic Gallery of Thoughts_ 3. Monstrosity - _Millennium_ 4. Thorns Vs. Emperor 5. Zero Hour - _Zero Hour_ Adam's Top 5 1. Type O Negative - _World Coming Down_ 2. Darkthrone - _Ravishing Grimness_ 3. Satyricon - _Rebel Extravaganza_ 4. Setherial - _Hell Eternal_ 5. Sigh - _Scenario IV: Dread Dreams_ Pedro's Top 5 1. My Dying Bride - _The Light at the End of the World_ 2. Opeth - _Still Life_ 3. Opeth - _Morningrise_ 4. Malevolent Creation - _The Fine Art of Murder_ 5. Angel Corpse - _The Inexorable_ Paul's Top 5 1. Vital Remains - _Dawn of the Apocalypse_ 2. Today Is the Day - _In the Eyes of God_ 3. Celtic Frost - _Vanity/Nemesis_ 4. Death - _Leprosy_ 5. Merde - _Merde_ (demo) Aaron's Top 5 1. Mortiis - _The Stargate_ 2. Forest of Impaled - _Demonvoid_ 3. Nocturnus - _Ethereal Tomb_ (THANKS, Paul!) 4. Testament - _Demonic_ 5. Dawn - _Slaughtersun (Crown of the Triarchy)_ (THANKS again, Paul!) David's Top 5 1. Darkane - _Rusted Angel_ 2. Theory in Practice - _The Armageddon Theories_ 3. Morbid Angel - _Covenant_ 4. Amorbital - _Invidia_ 5. Soilwork - _The Chainheart Machine_ Alex's Top 5 1. Zao - _Liberate Te Ex Inferis_ 2. Amorphis - _Tuonela_ 3. Warlord - _Rock the Foe Hammer_ 4. Stretch Arm Strong - _Rituals of Life_ 5. Type O Negative - _October Rust_ =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= _____ __ __ __ | \.-----.| |_.---.-.|__| |.-----. | -- | -__|| _| _ || | ||__ --| |_____/|_____||____|___._||__|__||_____| Homepage: http://www.interlog.com/~ginof/coc.html FTP Archive: ftp://ftp.etext.org/pub/Zines/ChroniclesOfChaos --> 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@interlog.com ---- Our European Office can be reached at: CHRONICLES OF CHAOS (Europe) Urb. Souto n.20 Anta 4500 Espinho, PORTUGAL e-mail: ei94048@fe.up.pt -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= DESCRIPTION ~~~~~~~~~~~ Chronicles of Chaos is a monthly magazine electronically distributed worldwide via the Internet. Chronicles of Chaos focuses on all forms of chaotic music including black, death and doom metal, dark/ambient, industrial and electronic/noise as well as classic and progressive metal. Each issue will feature a plethora of album reviews from a wide range of bands, as well as interviews with some of the underground's best acts. Also included in each issue are demo reviews and indie band interviews. 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 . 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 (do not include the quotes). 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. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= End Chronicles of Chaos, Issue #44 All contents copyright 1999 by individual creators of included work. All opinions expressed herein are those of the individuals expressing them, and do not necessarily reflect the views of anyone else.