DRAGONFORCE

TO INFINITY AND BEYOND

VOIVOD
THE STORY OF ‘DIMENSION HATRÖSS’
VALLENFYRE
IN CRUST WE TRUST

#282

GOD DETHRONED
A BLAZE OF GLORY

ROADBURN
RETURNING FROM THE RIFF MECCA

HARVESTMAN
STEVE VON TILL SPEAKS
ISSUE 282 JUNE 2017 £4.99
 EDITORIAL
#282 JUNE 2017

DARK ARTS LTD

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SS9 1LF, UNITED KINGDOM
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PUBLISHER / MANAGING EDITOR

Miranda Yardley miranda@darkartsltd.com

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Darren Sadler darren@darkartsltd.com

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Kez Whelan kez@darkartsltd.com

DESIGN
Steve Newman steve@darkartsltd.com

PA TO MY
Clare Shoesmith clare@darkartsltd.com

Cover Photo: scottkinkade

WRETCHED SPAWN VALLENFYRE
Rhiannon Yardley

I
WRECKING CREW t’s safe to say most of the writing team this
Olivier ‘Zoltar’ Badin, Ross Baker, Adrien Begrand, J. Bennett,
Steve Bidmead, Alex Boniwell, Dean Brown, Ed Chapman, Faye month are suffering post-Roadburn blues.
Coulman, Robyn Doreian, Jonathan Dick, Noel Gardner, Ian
Glasper, Benj Golanski, Rod Hunt, Steve Jones, Kim Kelly, Mike
It happens every year without a shadow of a
Kemp, Connor Kendall, Ronnie Kerswell-O'Hara, Jim Martin, Andy doubt. If you want to read up on all the fun you
McDonald, John Mincemoyer, Mörat, John Muskett, José Carlos
Santos, Rob Sayce, Joshua Sindell, Kevin Stewart-Panko, Guy either witnessed yourselves or sadly missed out
Strachan, Rich Taylor, Andy Walmsley
on, for whatever reason, please turn to the live
SNAPPERS
Dan Fellowes, Steve Gerrard, Dan Gray, Kane Hibberd, Rod Hunt, section of the magazine and bathe in some of WHAT TEAM TERRORIZER HAVE BEEN SCARING
Zen Inoya, Gobinder Jhitta, Marie Korner, Mark Latham,
Enda Madden, Al Overdrive, Al Pulford, Andre Purvis,
the highlights of this year’s event. We also have THE NEIGHBOURS WITH THIS MONTH…
Christian Ravel, Antony Roberts, Ester Segarra, Alex Solca, some killer features in this issue, and as always,
Emma Stone, Taya Uddin, Leigh van der Byl
it’s a battle to feature every band Team Terrorizer MIRANDA YARDLEY
SUBSCRIPTIONS (PUBLISHER)
www.Terrorizer.com/Subscriptions loves. The good news is, what’s inside is a broad ULVER
Telephone: +44 20 7729 7666 'THE ASSASSINATION OF JULIUS CAESAR’
spectrum of bands who have long-established HOUSE OF MYTHOLOGY
TO ADVERTISE IN TERRORZER
Contact miranda@darkartsltd.com / +44 (0) 20 7729 7666 relationships with the magazine and with you guys
WORLD DISTRIBUTION too. Dying Fetus grace the cover, which we are very DARREN SADLER
Marketforce (CONSULTANT EDITOR)
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3148 3333 honoured about, and elsewhere there’s some killer ‘68
PRINTING interviews with Oxbow, who have returned after a ‘TWO PARTS VIPER’
COOKING VINYL
Wyndeham Bicester
decade; horror rocker Wednesday 13, Schammasch
The views represented in this magazine are not necessarily those
of Dark Arts Ltd. Best endeavours have been taken in all cases to
talk about their new opus, VoiVod get nostalgic KEZ WHELAN
(PRODUCTION/REVIEWS EDITOR)
represent faithfully the views of all contributors and interviewees. with us and Vallenfyre have frankly blown the
The publisher accepts no responsibility for errors, omissions or the FULL OF HELL
consequences thereof.
roof down at Tezza Towers with their album of the ‘TRUMPETING ECSTASY’
PROFOUND LORE
year contender. So what are you waiting for – stop
©2017 DARK ARTS LTD.
Terrorizer is published every four weeks. No part of this magazine reading my notes and get to the real action! JOSÉ CARLOS SANTOS
may be reproduced without the prior consent of the publisher. The (SENIOR WRITER)
See you next month!
publisher cannot accept responsibility for the advertisements in HARVESTMAN
this publication. Adios 'MUSIC FOR MEGALITHS'
NEUROT
TERRORIZER, ISSN 135-0677, is published Monthly by Dark Arts Darren Sadler
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TERRORIZER #282 1
 CONTENTS
p74 COVEN
FEATURES
16. DYING FETUS
The death metal titans are back, and as focussed as ever

22. DISBELIEF
Returning after a seven year break, we talk life, death and
‘Game Of Thrones’ with Disbelief

24. COLTSBLOOD
With the world rapidly going to shit, Coltsblood argue doom
has never been more relevant

26. VALLENFYRE
Gregor Mackintosh on their raging new record and the
importance of checking out new bands

28. GOD DETHRONED

The Dutch death metallers on the spoils of war and, erm
luxury cruise ships

30. EMPLOYED TO SERVE

The UK post-hardcore crew on pursuing your dreams

32. IDES OF GEMINI

J. Bennett discusses the band’s recent line-up changes

p32 IDES OF GEMINI 34. WOLFBRIGADE

The Swedish D-beat legends on finding inspiration in
unexpected places

REGULARS
36. WEDNESDAY 13
The former Murderdolls frontman on teaming up with Nuclear
Blast

38. FULL OF HELL

4. FRONTLINE
Schammasch tell us about their new
EP
6. BAR RANT
Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens on his new band with
Megadeth’s Dave Ellefson and why appearing
on reality TV isn’t all it’s cracked up to be
The death/grind/noise outfit give not a single fuck on their
68. PANDEMONIC CULTUREBLAST crazy new album ‘Trumpeting Ecstasy’
New DVDs from Dimmu Borgir, Cult Of Luna and Fates
Warning come under scrutiny 40. OXBOW
Experimental rock legends on balancing chaos and order
70. DARK RECOLLECTIONS
Voivod cast their minds back to the recording of their 42. GOLD
classic ‘Dimension Hatröss’ Dutch oddballs on making your voice heard

8. STUDIO REPORT 72. HARD OF HEARING 44. DRAGONFORCE

Matt Harvey spills the beans on Exhumed’s We put The Dillinger Escape Plan through our rigorous Guitarist Herman Li explains why being a control freak can
latest platter of splatter musical identification exam be unhealthy

10. FEAR CANDY 74. STAGEFRIGHT 46. CUT UP

The low-down and the run-down on this Festival season kicks off as we report back from The Swedish death metal juggernaut prove there’s life after
month’s dose of Fear Candy Roadburn, Ritual and Lords Of The Land Vomitory

12. CHOICE CUTS 80. MIX TAPE 48. HARVESTMAN

We’ve got death metal from Succumb, Oceano’s Adam Warren shares his influences with us Steve Von Till talks us through his home-studio setup and
Omnipotent Hysteria and Repulsive, black being inspired by dub for his latest LP
metal from Abduction and Dakhma, doom
from Bereft, Prisa Mata and Brume and 50. FIRESPAWN
much more The death metal supergroup have refined their craft on
album number two
54. SELECTED & DISSECTED
We check out new albums from Full Of Hell, 52. WOE
The Bug VS Earth, Sólstafir, Oxbow, Skyclad THE DILLINGER Rising US black metal quartet explain the themes behind
and many more
p72 ESCAPE PLAN their powerful new record

2 TERRORIZER #282
 M E T A L M E E T I N G

16-17-18 JUNE 2017

DESSEL-BELGIUM

A DAY TO REMEMBER " W.A.S.P. " EPICA " OPETH " PRIMUS " MINISTRY " SUM 41
STEEL PANTHER " HATEBREED " AIRBOURNE " MONSTER MAGNET " BRIDES OF LUCIFER
HELMET " DANKO JONES " ARCHITECTS " ANATHEMA " GRAVEYARD " CLUTCH " TARJA
GOTTHARD " QUEENSRŸCHE " THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN " SEPULTURA " AMENRA
BLACK STAR RIDERS " COHEED AND CAMBRIA " AMORPHIS " KVELERTAK " COMEBACK KID
MAYHEM " RED FANG " DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT " RHAPSODY " BLUE ÖYSTER CULT
BARONESS " METAL CHURCH " SÓLSTAFIR " THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA " DEVILDRIVER " OF MICE & MEN
SUICIDAL TENDENCIES " ALCEST " AXEL RUDI PELL " THE DEAD DAISIES " HARDLINE " SUICIDE SILENCE
ALESTORM " BATTLE BEAST " PRONG " UGLY KID JOE " ROTTING CHRIST " THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER
SANCTUARY " PSYCHOTIC WALTZ " GRAVE DIGGER " KING’S X " MELECHESH " DECAPITATED
SVART CROWN " MOTIONLESS IN WHITE " WHILE SHE SLEEPS " NORTHLANE " THE RAVEN AGE " EVERY TIME I DIE
CHELSEA GRIN " HACKTIVIST " EVIL INVADERS " TRIBULATION " THE CHARM THE FURY " THE MONOLITH DEATHCULT
MEMORIAM " AVATAR "LIKE A STORM " CODE ORANGE " TOUCHÉ AMORÉ " CROWN THE EMPIRE " SUBROSA
SLYDIGS " NOTHING MORE " INGLORIOUS " AS LIONS " AS IT IS " SHVPES " SINISTRO " MESHIAAK

WWW.GRASPOP.BE ALL-IN TRAVEL PACKAGES: WWW.ARGONEVENTS.COM

 EZ WHELAN
EDITED BY K
BULLET POINTS
Melt Banana, Ghold, Oxbow Choir, Art
Of Burning Water, Zu and Nicholas Bullen,
(performing a special one-off set to celebrate
the anniversary of Napalm Death’s classic
‘Scum’ LP) have all been confirmed for this
year’s Supersonic Festival, which
takes place in Birmingham from June 16-18.
www.SupersonicFestival.com
Death metal legends Suffocation
have announced a string of UK dates
in August, beginning on August 27th in
Bristol before calling at Sheffield, Glasgow,
Newcastle and culminating in London on
August 31st. “We’re looking forward to
coming back to the UK and Europe, and
seeing all of our fans!” says guitarist
Terrance Hobbs. “We’re going to be bringing
you some new brutal tunes from our latest
release ‘…Of The Dark Light’. So prepare to
go ‘Beyond The Dark Light’ with us and see
you in the pit!”
www.Facebook.com/Suffocation
Belgian death-grinders Leng Tch’e
are gearing up to release their first new
material in seven years via Season Of Mist.
“We are very excited to announce our re-
signing with Season Of Mist, a true visionary
metal label with a focus on creative artists,”
say the band. “It has been a long wait since
our last album [2010’s] ‘Hypomanic’, but
you can rest assured, the new album will
blow you away in more ways than you can
imagine. Expect a mix of everything that we
have done in the past fifteen years, but taken
up a notch in speed, extremity, heaviness,
and sound.”
www.LengTche.net

SWISS AVANT-GARDE BLACK METAL CREW EMBARK ON A

SELECTION OF CONCEPTUAL RELEASES, BEGINNING WITH
NEW EP ‘THE MALDOROR CHANTS: HERMAPHRODITE’.
VOCALIST/GUITARIST C.S.R. TALKS TO TERRORIZER
AFTER A KILLER SET AT ROADBURN FEST

What inspired you to use a chapter Switzerland is not conducive to an artistic

from surrealist text ‘Les Chants De
Maldoror’?
“We used part of the book on [2014’s]
‘Contradiction’. We used quotes on the track
‘JHWH’ and there were a couple of parts on
[2016’s] ‘Triangle’ too. After ‘Triangle’ it was
hard to decide what to do next. We decided
to do some smaller releases to challenge
ourselves. When I first read the story it felt
very personal. I kept coming back to the
‘Hermaphrodite’ part of the book. I felt very
connected with the character and the theme
of alienation. This work of art is too precious
to limit it to one release, so we’ll release a
selection of records based on this text.”
What was it in particular about ‘Les
Chants De Maldoror’ that appealed
to you?
“There are so many negative aspects of
humanity and here all of their perversions
are laid bare. It’s described in a non-
judgemental way, as a natural part of the
nature of man. I fell in love with that
way of looking at the negative side of
humanity. The Hermaphrodite character
reaches out to people who can’t find
their place in modern society. I’m sure
in those days there were people who
felt that way and I can relate to that.
life. I identify with feeling lonely with no
fellow human beings to be close to you or
understand how you see the world.”
How did you change your approach to
songwriting from the way you wrote
‘Triangle’?
“I started to write this record when we were
producing ‘Triangle’. I had no idea if I’d use the
material or not but it came along quite nicely.
It made sense to use more spoken word; I think
it’s an element most metal bands don’t use.
It adds a different atmosphere. I added a few
lines of my own but it’s mainly the original
text. To use regular singing would have made it
impossible to tell this story. I was impressed with
the way Ulver told the story of William Blake’s
‘The Marriage Of Heaven And Hell’ [on 1998’s
‘Themes From William Blake’s The Marriage Of
Heaven And Hell’]. They took the whole book
and gave it their own interpretation. “
Will ‘The Maldoror Chants’ be a trilogy
like your first three records?
“I’m not sure. I already know what the
second story is going to be but there’s
no numerological link. Choosing the
‘Hermaphrodite’ story first came from a very
unconscious point, it was the one that touched
me the most. The only connection between the
new records is the book’s overall theme from the
book and the artwork. Musically the next album
won’t be connected to ‘Hermaphrodite’. I can’t
tell how many of these records there will be yet.
I’m trying to get away from big concept albums,
it gets too much for me. I want to create
something freer and less conceptual next.”
Musically, do you feel you’ll move further
away from black metal?
“Each time I write a new record I always say
there won’t be a black metal element, but I just
seem to write music that way. I won’t move
completely away from black metal but it will
be less important for us in the future. I’m more
interested in the ambient world when I listen to
music these days. I’m tired of the traditional rock
music set up. We’ll do more songs with a third
guitarist, it helps us recreate the music more
authentically. Our set at Roadburn taught us
we can use different elements on stage without
the distortion used in metal. It’s given us the
confidence to look at using more calm elements
in the live shows.”
‘The Maldoror Chants: Hermaphrodite’ is
out now on Prosthetic
www.Schammasch.com

“I won’t move completely away

from black metal but it will be less
important for us in the future”

For daily updates check www.Terrorizer.com TERRORIZER #282 5


BAR-BARIAN WRATH
TIM ‘RIPPER’ OWENS
Ahead of his massive UK tour, TERRORIZER had a few beers whilst
waxing lyrical with TIM
‘RIPPER’ OWENS about endorsements, side projects with Megade
th’s Dave Ellefson and
appearing on American reality TV shows…
BEING ON REALITY TV
Words: Ross Baker
“The thing about that ‘Bar Rescue’ show was, they called us. We didn’t call
them. 75% of what you see on that show isn’t real. They would make us walk
through a door four or five times just to get the right shot. They ripped on us
for the kitchen being dirty but they wouldn’t let us clean it the night before,
then they come in the next day and are like ‘look what this looks like’. People
should be smart enough to realise we never failed a health inspection. When
they come in and film the show, you don’t know what it will look like. They gear
the show to look a certain way. We weren’t losing like they made us say but
they made great changes to the place and made the stage better. The host Jon
Taffer was cool too, but it is not representative of how things were.”
CELEBRITY JAM SESSIONS
“We had a bunch of guys come and jam at the restaurant. The Dio’s Disciples
guys, John 5, Dave Ellefson. We had a couple of guys that were nearly sick
from the hot wings. We had A.J. Pero from Twisted Sister come down and play
a few tunes. That was the last time I saw him before he died. We had a band
called Tread with our friend Rudy Sarzo. We had five or six songs recorded.
He was an unbelievable drummer. It was great to hang out that night, John
Moyer from Disturbed was playing bass for us, it was awesome. I’m doing an
album with Chris Caffrey and Roy Z that’ll be coming out next year and I’m
writing music and doing vocals in a band called Killing Machine with Dave
Ellefson from Megadeth. We’re shopping the Killing Machine record to labels,
we have four or five songs with vocals and ten finished. We’ve jammed a lot
in the past but I’m writing two records at once so I’m gonna take my time with
it. The stuff with Chris Caffrey will have more of a Savatage and Judas Priest
influence.”
6 TERRORIZER #282
“75% OF
WHAT YOU
SEE ON THAT
SHOW ISN’T
REAL”
ENDORSEMENTS VS RECORD SALES
“I’m sponsored by Monster Energy who are a fantastic company. They make lots
of merch for me which has saved me a bunch of money. Working with them has
allowed me to lower my performance fee to venues when I am booked for solo
shows. It lets me do more without promoters getting screwed over. I think a lot of
bands will do this from now often. Jägermeister have done lots of marketing with
bands which has been so successful. Monster has their logo on UFC fighters and
in so many places. They don’t tell me what to do as an artist but it’s a great way
to save on merchandise. Some people don’t like it but I think it’s a great way for
bands to make money since you can’t count on record sales so much.”
JUDAS PRIEST
“We became such a family when I joined Priest. We still talk. Rob [Halford,
vocals] and I are friends and KK [Downing, guitar] came to my last solo show in
Manchester. Everyone is so busy. I talk to KK the most. I miss hanging out with
them. We had some great times, I will never forget. I got to play with those guys
but I also got to play with A.J. and play ‘Parasite’ with Ace Frehley from Kiss. I’ve
had a great career.”
Tim Ripper Owens plays the following UK dates:
May 27 – The Iron Road, Evesham, May 28 – Bierkeller, Bristol,
May 29 – Robin 2, Wolverhampton, May 30 – The Venue, Westcliff-On-Sea,
June 1 – Think Tank, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, June 2 – McLeans Pub, Deeside,
June 3 – Yardbirds, Grimsby, June 4 – The Underworld, London
TimRipperOwens.com
YOURS TO OWN. INCORRUPTIBLY.
Choose from the following formats.

LIMITED ARTBOOK (with CD, double 10“ vinyl, gold foil logo print and
extensive booklet with additional artwork and sketches and Jon Schaffer introduction)*

DELUXE DIGIPAK CD (Slipcase, extensive booklet and poster)

DELUXE DOUBLE LP (180g, etching, gatefold sleeve,
4-page lyric sheet, 12-page LP-booklet with artwork to each song)

Also as REGULAR CD & STREAM or DOWNLOAD.

*ORANGE COLOURED VINYL EXCLUSIVE TO THE UK.

Artist: Exhumed
Title: ‘Death Revenge’
Producer: Jarrett Pritchard
Release date: Halloween 2017
Label: Relapse
“I WANTED TO TRY AND DO
DONE
SOMETHING THAT WE HADN'T IS
G
BEFORE, WITHOUT COMPROM IN
THE EXHUMED SOUND””
In between Gruesome and your new
Words: Olivier ‘Zoltar’ Badin
heavy metal project, it kind of felt as if
Exhumed had been put on the backburner
lately… Is that true?
Matt Harvey [guitar & vocals]: “Not really… but
kind of. We did so much touring for [2011’s] ‘All
Guts, No Glory’ and [2013’s] ‘Necrocracy’ that we
all needed a break from the band and I think the
audience benefitted from it a bit as well. There
was a period in time where we were playing
certain cities four times in six months and we
were burning ourselves out physically, so we all
agreed that we needed to pull back from that.
For me, though, I’m pretty restless. I’m always
writing songs and coming up with ideas, it’s just
how my brain works. It just so happened that just
as Exhumed was winding down, Gruesome was
taking off, to a much greater extent than I had
anticipated, so that kept me busy.”
When you re-recorded ‘Gore Metal’ two
years ago, it allowed you to reconnect not
8 TERRORIZER #282
only with your past but also with some
former band members… How much did it
affect the songwriting on the new album?
Matt: “I think the main thing that came out of the
re-recording was getting Ross, who was with us
from 1994 to 1999, to re-join the band. That was
a HUGE thing for me. The dynamic of the band
back in the day was very much a team effort.
Whereas, as time went on after ‘Gore Metal’, it
sort of became more and more of just me taking
on all the conceptual and lyrical stuff, which was
kind of a bummer from my perspective. Ross is
an amazingly smart and talented guy who has
been an invaluable sounding board and I think his
input, even though he came in kind of late in the
writing process, will really add something to the
record.”
Ross Sewage [bass & vocals]: “Exhumed has
evolved a lot since my time playing with them in
the ’90s and I really enjoyed their material as it
matured from the ravings of lone necromaniac into
a full blown necrocracy. Now I get to have the fun
and challenge of jumping back into
the fray with some folks I’ve known
since we were teenagers to see if I
can keep up pace with their intense
vision of gore metal, especially since
Matt and company have welcomed
me back into the fold with open
minds, hearts and abscesses.”
You’ve hinted at writing your
own concept album this time
around – is that still the case?
Matt: “I had planned to do a Dekapitator concept
record years ago, but the band fizzled out so it
never came to fruition. It’s been something I’ve
considered for a long time, but I always shied
away from it because I thought it might be too
pretentious for Exhumed. But as I was researching
random stuff on Wikipedia, I stumbled upon the
story of the Burke and Hare anatomy murders
in Edinburgh. The more I read about them, the
more I thought that the story was perfect for
an Exhumed record. There was grave-robbery,
dissection, murder and drunkenness, pretty
much covering all of the bases there. I did take
the ‘each voice represents a different character’
approach to the song-writing from King Diamond,
but I listened to all sorts of concept albums
and musicals to see what would work and what
wouldn’t in the context of this record, from the
obvious stuff like Voivod and Ghoul, to stuff
like The Moody Blues, ‘Sweeney Todd’ and Jeff
Wayne’s ‘War Of The Worlds’ album. It was a
really fun project to write and a nice challenge. I
figure, this is our sixth album, so I wanted to try
and do something that we hadn't done before,
without compromising the Exhumed sound – there
still has to be dual vocals, blastbeats, obnoxious
guitar solos, etc. etc.”
Could you give us the lowdown on the
actual story? Maybe some song titles?
Matt: “Well, the album is called ‘Death
Revenge’, has ten songs and is based on a true
story. It’s a fictionalized account of the Burke
and Hare anatomy murders and deals with the
culture of the resurrectionists and anatomy
schools in England in the 1820s and ’30s. I did a
fair amount of reading and research when I was
writing the lyrics and pacing the story. ‘Death,
Dissection And The Destitute’ by Ruth Richardson
and ‘The Anatomy Murders’ by Lisa Rosner were
invaluable resources for getting the story straight
and putting it into perspective. I wasn’t able to
get as into the economic and social aspects of
death and grave robbery in that time period as
I wanted to, but that may have been a little too
tangential for the main story, which has all the
juicy bits like murder and exhumation.”
Exhumed.Bandcamp.com
 ONLINE SHOP, BAND INFOS AND MORE:

WWW.NUCLEARBLASTSTORE.CO.UK FOLLOW US ON TWITTER

@NUCLEARBLASTEU
WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/NUCLEARBLAST.UK

HERE ARE THE SEVENTEEN INGREDIENTS THAT MAKE
UP THIS MONTH’S SLICE OF FEAR CANDY...
TERRORIZERFEARCANDY.BANDCAMP.COM
1. khost
'Redacted Repressed Recalcitrant' from the Cold
Spring album 'Governance'
Birmingham experimental industrial metal band
Khost have toured the UK with Godflesh and
Conan and are, as this track shows, known for
sheer heaviness of their uncompromising sound.
Facebook.com/khostBand
2. TRIVERSE MASSACRE
'Styx' from the self-released EP 'Hades'
Carlisle-based Triverse Massacre’s new EP
Hades is released on 26 May. ‘Styx’ cranks up
the intensity levels and technicality with a
guttural vocal attack, framed by sledge-hammer
drumming and vicious guitar parts. This track is
guaranteed to start a moshpit in an empty room.
Facebook.com/TriverseMassacre
3. KOLLAPSE
'Gueules Cassées' from the 5FeetUnder Records
album 'Angst'
Kollapse is about communicating something
that is real, in a culture that is shallow and
dispensable. Isolation, being broken mentally
and socially and the distinct coldness of
Scandinavia, fuel the fires of angst. Finding
beauty in the harsh and the ugly, standing firmly
on the side of the outsider...
Facebook.com/KollapseBand
4. SILENCE EQUALS
DEATH
'No More Ashes' the Eulogy Recordings single
'No More Ashes'
Silence Equals Death is a New Jersey hardcore
SILENCE EQUALS DEATH
10 TERRORIZER #282
band that fuses powerful melodic hardcore with the
hard slamming breakdown infamous with the east
coast, The band will be capturing the attention of
fans worldwide with their powerful debut full-length
album released by Eulogy Recordings on 7 April.
www.SilenceEqualsDeath.net
5. OMNISPAWN
'Trevor' the self-released single 'Embers'
It's been eight years since the swedish death metal
band Omnispawn released 'Darkness Within' and
now they're back with the upcoming EP 'Embers'.
Facebook.com/Omnispawn
6. CONTORSION
'United Zombie Nations' from the self-released album
'United Zombie Nations'
Founded in 2004, the Swiss thrash metallers are
about to release their third album with speed, groove
and blistering solos to offer you a short sharp trip
through their unique thrash metal universe.
Facebook.com/OfficialContorsion
7. ARSANTIQVA
'Hellwhore' from the self-released album 'Scavengers'
This doomsday crew from Brooklyn, NY delivers a
taste of epic black 'n' roll. Its headbanging riffs and
punchy blast beats are brewed with dark symphonic
elements.
Facebook.com/Arsantiqva
8. LUNATIC HOOKER
'Fucks All' from the Black Bow Records album
'Embracing the Filth'
‘Embracing The Filth’ is a masterpiece of extremity,
fusing death metal, grindcore and sludge into
an album that’s both crushing and captivating.
Overflowing with fantastic, memorable riffs, wicked
hooks and searing lead work.
Facebook.com/LunaticHooker
9. CORRODED
'Fall Of A Nation' from the Despotz Records album
'Defcon Zero'
After five years away, Sweden’s Corroded return with
their new album ‘Defcon Zero’, out now on Despotz
Records. This first single ‘Fall of a Nation’
shows that none of the band’s firepower
has diminished and the band are
sounding stronger than ever.
Facebook.com/CorrodedSweden
CELL SECTION
10. CELL SECTION
'Dismembered Souls' from the self-
released album 'Hologram'
Cell Section creates impulsive extreme
music, shifting from dissonant riffing to
dense atmosphere combining technical,
industrial passages with breathing
spirals of dark touch and precise
breakdown and blast parts.
Facebook.com/CellSection
11. LIV SIN
'Killing Ourselves To Live' from the
Despotz Records album 'Follow Me'
Former Sister Sin front woman Liv Sin
returns with her powerful solo debut
album, ‘Follow Me’, released 28 April
on Despotz Records. This is in your
face, hard hitting metal co-produced by
Accept/UDO legend Stefan Kaufmann and
featuring Destruction’s Schmier.
Facebook.com/LivSinMusic
12. PIMEÄ METSÄ
'Einherjer' from the Wormhole Death
album 'No Blood, No Glory'
Inspired by viking and nordic mythology,
this Spanish band reaches a thicker
and mature sound in their new album,
performing a powerful combination of
melodic death metal with epic and folk
melodies.
Facebook.com/PimeaMetsaOfficial
Artwork: KEN COLEMAN (WWW.ARTOFKENCOLEMAN.COM)
13. RICH DAVIS
'Past Tense' from the self-released album 'The
Awakening'
Baltimore Maryland’s Rich Davis shares his latest
track ‘Past Tense’ taken from the new CD/DVD
‘The Awakening’ with seventeen tracks and five
videos from the new Rich Davis solo project.
Facebook.com/RichDavisMusic
14. WIND ROSE
'To Erebor' from the Inner Wound Recordings
album 'Stonehymn'
Having toured with bands like Wintersun,
Eluveitie and Ensiferum, and with two albums
under their belt, Wind Rose release their third
album Stonehymn, an album of epic, powerful
folk-inspired power metal.
Facebook.com/WindRoseOfficial
15. MUDFACE
'The Watchers' self-released single 'The Bane of
Existence'
The San Francisco Bay area Metal scene has
a long and storied history of spawning some
powerful and innovative acts. With the release
of the grinding single ‘The Watchers’ on 21 April,
Mudface carry on the Bay Area tradition...
www.MudfaceMetal.us
16. CASTLEWAY
'A Shivering Sea' from the self-released album
'The Hunt'
CastleWay is a bunch of ‘old’ Vikings, frosted
for nine centuries in a deep caves not far from
Aigle in Switzerland. Brought back to life in 2008
to tell you the true North stories, steal your ale,
burn your stages and make your head bang! New
album ‘The Hunt’ was recorded this spring and
will be released on 12 May.
TinyURL.com/CastleWay
17. KINGPIN
'The Vultures Circle' from the Survival Scroll
Records EP 'The Vultures Circle'
Having already shared stages up and down the
UK and Ireland with bands like Iron Reagan,
Sick Of It All and Power Trip, Kingpin’s crossover
chaos will wreck your neck with tenaciously fast
thrash riffage and then bash your brains in with
crushingly heavy hardcore breakdowns.
Facebook.com/KingpinGlasgow1

“A COMMON LOVE FOR CANADIAN/AUSTRALIAN WAR
METAL FUELLED US CREATIVELY”
S
an Francisco’s Succumb plumb the
depths of modern death metal with
primitive elegance, distinguishing
themselves from their peers with vocalist Cheri
Musrasrik’s cathartic howl. Their self-titled
debut’s juxtaposition of dissonant metal riffing
and propulsive drums with Musrasrik’s unique
voice and sophisticated lyrics make for a
particularly exhilarating listening experience.
“We formed in San Francisco in August of
2014 as Cloak. I met Kirk [Spaseff, bass] and our
old drummer Nicole through sharing a rehearsal
space when they sent me a message asking if
I wanted to form a band, citing Blasphemy,
Teitanblood, and Cultes Des Ghoules as the
foundation of the sound they were going for,”
explains guitarist Derek Webster. “The grind
project I was working on at the time had grown
stagnant, so I was eager to join them. Kirk
and Nicole later recruited Cheri from Pig DNA
out of Oakland, who are just a fucking ugly-
sounding band so her vocals definitely worked
for what we were going for. We got to work on
our demo, which was released in March of 2015
12 TERRORIZER #282
SUCCUMB
through Transylvanian Tapes. After a small west
coast tour, Nicole left the band. We met Harry
[Cantwell, drums] through sharing the stage with
Bosse-De-Nage, and since we were already great
friends it was a natural fit.”
Citing authors and poets like Yeats, Jean
Genet and Emile Zola as her primary lyrical
influences, Musrasrik tackles themes such as
human experimentation, autoerotic asphyxiation,
BDSM, prostitution, opium dens and dystopias
with a distinct literary flair.
“When we started, it was a common love for
Canadian/Australian war metal that fuelled us
creatively. However, we all come from relatively
unique musical backgrounds, so our other
influences tend to naturally creep in during the
creative process”, Webster says. “In addition,
when Harry joined the band we immediately
went to work on the album, so you could say
we were becoming acquainted with each other’s
styles as we were writing. In that regard, you
could say that where we’re at now was the result
of a natural evolution.”
Succumb’s compositions are forged from a
place of trust between band members; through
writing and playing together the quartet are able
to recognise each other’s individual strengths
and weaknesses and utilise them to get the most
out of each song writing and recording session
together.
“Kirk and Harry are great with moving the
process along composition-wise, as I tend to be
over analytical. Lyrics are left entirely up to Cheri,
which works out great because I love what she
does. I’ve written lyrics for previous projects and
they read like a thirteen-year-old who just heard
Assück for the first time so I’m definitely hands
off with the lyrics,” laughs Derek.
“I feel that we have only begun to explore
what we want to do sonically with Succumb. In
that respect, I’m excited to see how we fine tune
our sound and reach our full potential.”
Although it may feel like Succumb have
already broken plenty of new ground, it’s clear
this is just the beginning…
ANGELA DAVEY
‘Succumb’ is out now on The Flenser
www.Facebook.com/SuccumbSF

ABDUCTION
“BLACK METAL REPRESENTS AN OPPOSITION
– HOW YOU INTERPRET THAT OPPOSITION IS
AN ENTIRELY SELFISH MATTER”
“I
decided last year to play around
recording tracks at home and sort
of fell into a ritualistic routine of
recording late at night after lots of wine and
anything else I could get my hands on. I knew
PRISA MATA
T W
he word “sludge” is thrown about all too
readily these days, but London trio Prisa
Mata are one of those rare bands that fully
embody the term. “Jaz [bass] & I have an unhealthy
obsession with amps, gear, and massive groovy riffs,”
says guitarist/vocalist Mark. “Combined with that,
Raquel is a drum freak, she will push herself harder
than most you’ll ever meet to create perfect beats for
our riffery.” On their recent split with Fuckjar, Mark
claims “it was love first sight! We played a couple
of shows together really early on and knew we had
found kindred spirits. We wanted to get our first
tracks down, and decided a split would be a fun way
of doing it; cue some very intoxicated and excited
ramblings and eventually we got our collective arses
in gear to do a DIY self-release. We’ve been real lucky
to meet the Fuckjar fam, they are a real inspiration
both musically and in general tomfoolery.” [KW]
www.Facebook.com/PrisaMata
it would be a solo effort for certain from
then really,” recalls A|V, the man behind black
metal project Abduction. “There’s something
completely pure about plucking an idea from
nowhere and tracking it immediately – and most
ALL HELL
hile he admits that Doyle from the Misfts
and Tom G. Warrior are “two of my biggest
influences as a guitar player”, Jacob
Curwen feels that his band is “more on the metal
side of that spectrum. But we are also influenced by
first wave black metal bands that were themselves
heavily influenced by stuff like GBH or Discharge so
I’m sure some of that has rubbed off on us as well.”
They may like it crude musically speaking, but these
horror literature nuts (“from Stoker and the old Gothic
masters to Poe, Machen and Lovecraft”) have gone
as far as turning their third full-length ‘The Grave
Alchemist’ into a full blown concept album, following
the “exploits of the Alchemist who, after embracing the
art of necromancy, turns to vampirism in his pursuit of
eternal life” with the second half of the record taking
place 300 years later and how his descendants attempt
to “resurrect the Old Dragon”. [OZB]
www.Facebook.com/AllHellBand
of those ideas end up being the final takes. I
have an unwritten ‘three takes or less’ rule.”
That rule has granted debut album ‘To
Further Dreams Of Failure’ a raw, furious
energy, with A|V’s tortured shrieks and knack
for labyrinthine yet memorable songwriting
reeking of early Leviathan, with the odd
Darkthrone riff for good measure.
“It’s basically the document of the project’s
last year or so of existence,” he explains.
“It’s bleak and depressive black metal. It’s
just something I need to get out. Life can be
painful and I like to express that.”
Whilst remaining true to the genre’s roots,
A|V takes a refreshingly open-minded approach
to black metal.
“To me it’s about the atmosphere. We all
know it; that feeling when you listen to ‘In
The Nightside Eclipse’. It’s a mixture of loss,
sorrow, anger, all the negative emotions in one,
yet simultaneously none at all. That being said,
music will always evolve and it should. There
should be conflict and resolution, push and
pull. If you get too precious over something
you throttle the thing that made it good in the
first place. I think black metal represents an
opposition – how you interpret that opposition
is an entirely selfish matter. I think it’s best
when it successfully manages to juxtapose
beauty with horror.”
KEZ WHELAN
‘To Further Dreams Of Failure’ is out now
on Inferna Profundus
Abduction616.Bandcamp.com
BRUME
“L
ike if Portishead were in a metal band?”
Words: Olivier ‘Zoltar’ Badin, Angela Davey, Kez Whelan
says guitarist Jamie McCathie, describing
the sound of doom trio Brume. The
band were formed in San Francisco, following
Jamie’s departure from Gurt and move from the UK
to the US. They found each other through a mutual
love of all things slow and heavy. “Initially me and
Susie [McMullen, bass/vocals] had been listening to
Acid King, Windhand and Yob so wanted it to be
a doom band. The idea of crushingly heavy with
pretty vocals was something that came to mind as
soon as I heard Susie sing” he explains. Their debut
‘Rooster’ is out now and, for them, is their defining
moment, as it’s an experience that brought them
closer together. “We had so much fun, worked really
fucking hard and I am so happy with the results.”
Having just played this year’s Desertfest, expect big,
exciting things from Brume. [AD]
www.Facebook.com/BrumeBand
TERRORIZER #282 13
 OMNIPOTENT HYSTERIA
“IT WAS PROBABLY A WORLD FIRST FOR A DRUMMER
TO BE SACKED WHILST UNDER THE SEA”

“T
he band came about four years ago with
myself and the original guitarist growing
tired of the generic slam sound that
the death metal scene was churning out,” begins
Omnipotent Hysteria vocalist Jon Burr. “We had an
aim to throwback to what we feel was the peak of
brutal death metal in the early-mid ’00s when speed
and riffs still mattered, with just a smattering of ’90s
groove without resorting to binary breakdowns to
appease the masses.”  click to keep the live and organic feel. Guitars were
 With Jon’s lyrics draping a host of esoteric
subject matter in sci-fi references, he’s “made
a conscious effort to steer clear of the genre’s
standard gore and perversion topics. The band
name is about all-encompassing chaos and seems
to embody the band fairly sufficiently. It also seems
representative of the growing disorder across the
globe right now.”  metal playlist on shuffle.”   a Scot to the band could be a masterstroke or hinder
The quartet dropped an absolute banger of a
debut album last year in the form of ‘Abattoir Of
Slain Deities’, a guttural, blisteringly technical but
alarmingly catchy blast of finely crafted death metal
that has more in common with the likes of Origin or
Suffocation than it does your average Devourment
wannabes.
“The album seems to be a good summarisation
of the first three years of the band to that point
and marks the end of that chapter,” reflects vocalist
Jon Burr. “We recorded with Tom Dring (Corrupt
Moral Altar) in cloudy Southport, with little else to
do but rinse the local Lidl of its super strength
beer. The overall sound is very representative of
how we play live. It was all recorded without a
double tracked for all eight songs in as many hours
without even a chance for a piss break! No trickery
or behind-the-scenes wizardry involved. We went
in with the intention of having a beginning, middle
and end to the album – structuring it in the
way that our favourite records were, making sure
that it wasn’t just a jumble of songs like a death
Speaking of shuffles, Omnipotent Hysteria have
undergone a fairly drastic line-up change since the
album’s release.
“In late 2016 we had two departures with very
different circumstances. One member decided to
move on, leaving us on very good terms. The other
departure was sadly a little more acrimonious after a
full-blown scrap on the Eurotunnel – we were lucky
we didn’t get nicked! It was possibly the most Spinal
Tap moment we’ve had and probably a world first
for a drummer to be sacked whilst under the sea.”
Enter new drummer, Hamburg based Asgard
“Niels” Holub, and Laceration guitarist Hamish
Maguire, who complete the lineup alongside former
Neuroma and Crepitation bassist Matt Jones.
 “Our new drummer is a trained musician himself
and has helped us all buck our ideas up. Hamish is
enthusiastic and bringing new ideas and he’s had
a few debauched nights out with us to break him
in,” Jon smiles. “With the distance between us now
we’re having to get with the times and use some of
the modern-day technology available to record and
share ideas. Time will tell if recruiting a German and
us with the impending Brexit and a possible Scottish
independence vote!” 
KEZ WHELAN
‘Abattoir Of Slain Deities’ is out now on
New Standard Elite
OmnipotentHysteria.Bandcamp.com

14 TERRORIZER #282

DAKHMA
“IT CAN BE CATHARTIC TO BE GLOOMY”
M
ichigan based crust quartet
Dakhma are into “just straight
up atmospheric black metal”,
according to guitarist Derek. Despite the raw,
aggressive nature of their sound, the band
REPULSIVE
M F
ixed by Esoteric’s Greg Chandler, Repulsive’s
debut EP ‘The Flesh Domain’ has one of
the fattest, most disgusting HM2 sounds
we’ve heard in a while. “Greg did total justice to our
sound,” beams guitarist Vash. “I don’t think any money in
the world could have provided us a better sound than he
did.” With that dense Dismember-esque tone, old school
attitude (citing lyrical themes as “death, gore, horror,
evil”) and classic Swe-death sound, you’ll be surprised to
learn the quintet hail from Derby, not Stockholm. “Derby
doesn’t offer much for extreme metal,” Vash admits,
but says “there is a great scene in the UK, with standout
bands like Seprevation, Live Burial, Blasphemer, Sathamel,
Repulsive Vision who we enjoy gigging with. We’ve
had fun opening for Dead Congregation, Wombbath
and Hate, but our London debut was the most insane
experience, seeing a packed to the brink room with
people throwing themselves around.” [KW]
RepulsiveDeathMetal.Bandcamp.com
work melodies into their wall of noise, citing
the likes of Wolves In The Throne Room, Ash
Borer and Weakling as influences for recent EP
release ‘Suna Kulto’. Originally a trio, Dakhma
have since taken bassist Jimmy on board in
BEREFT
ormed five years ago, Wisconsin’s newest doom
outfit, Bereft, already have a demo and a full
length under their belts – however, with the
force of Prosthetic Records behind them, they’re
now ready to release second album ‘Lands’ upon the
world. Originally recorded with the band as a trio,
after recruiting a sequence of drummers, none of
whom seemed to quite work out, Bereft have now
drafted drummer Jerry McDougal into their ranks as a
permanent fixture and are honing their craft as a four
piece. While their sound is distinctively doom metal,
this wasn’t always the case. “When we first started,
Alex [Linden, guitar] and I were influenced by post-
metal, black metal and hints of heavier doom”, explains
guitarist/vocalist Zach Johnson, “As we’ve progressed
we’ve just become more of a doom band and we’ve all
just grown to love and cherish that genre in general, so
it just started to influence our writing.” [AD]
BereftWi.Bandcamp.com
order to expand upon their song writing. Dylan
admits that the decision to mature their sound
is definitely a conscious one.
“As we’ve progressed the sound has become
more developed and our songs are more
thought out – we put more time into them,”
he tells us, “We’re going through a different
dynamic now, adding a bass, where we’d
previously just been a three piece. Usually I’ll
have a bunch of guitar riffs not in any order
and me and Dylan (drums) will play through
them for a while until something feels natural.”
A band who are very much still finding their
way in the grand scheme of things, Dakhma
carry a ferocious determination which carries
over into their music. Vocalist Claire takes that
aggression and uses it to her advantage, in
order to enhance her performance.
“We really care about doing this and that
comes through in our music. It can be cathartic
to be a little bit gloomy,” she says. At the heart
of this four piece lies a strong DIY ethic that’s
apparent not just in their music and image but
everyday life too.
“Our van broke down on the side of the
highway in the mountains of North Carolina”,
drummer Dylan reveals, “Another band lent us
their van so we could finish the tour and it’s
just a reminder of what a dope DIY community
we’re a part of.”
ANGELA DAVEY
‘Suna Kulto’ is out now on Halo Of Flies
Dakhma.Bandcamp.com
FORMER WORLDS
“A
mplified metal in 2017 is kind of like
Words: Olivier ‘Zoltar’ Badin, Angela Davey, Kez Whelan
music from an alternate future based on
1980s technology, so it lends itself well to
speculative fiction themes,” says vocalist Boone Julius
on Former Worlds’ sci-fi inspired take on doom. The
Minnesotan’s first release, the epic-length ‘Photos
Of Eve IX-XVI’ blurs the line between EP and LP
according to Boone: “I don’t feel like differentiating
between LPs, EPs, and singles matters anymore. I
consider this the first Former Worlds album.” Latest
addition to the lineup Erin Severson adds that the
long format “brings you through a story in its entirety
instead of just delivering bits through vignettes.”
But what does this story sound like? “We strive to
overwhelm people with sound… to make music that
feels futuristic in an ominous way,” says drummer J.
J. Anselmi. “Our intent is to be felt, not just heard,”
bassist Mike Britson confirms. [JH]
FormerWorlds.Bandcamp.com
TERRORIZER #282 15
DYING FETUS

16 TERRORIZER #282
 PREPARING FOR THE RELEASE OF A NEW ALBUM, YOU MIGHT EXPECT DYING FETUS MEMBERS JOHN GALLAGHER AND
SEAN BEASLEY TO BE UBER CHATTY, BUT THE PAIR ARE AS STOICALLY ‘NO-NONSENSE’ AS EVER. TERRORIZER PERSEVERES
HOWEVER, AND GRILLS THE BAND ON MOVING ON FROM GUTS ’N’ GORE TO SOCIAL COMMENTARY, KEEPING THINGS TRUE
ON ‘WRONG ONE TO FUCK WITH’ AND THE FIVE YEAR GESTATION PERIOD THAT BIRTHED IT…
WORDS: KEVIN STEWART-PANKO PHOTOS: scott kinkade

“E
verybody has to still love what they do,”
opines Dying Fetus bassist/co-vocalist
Sean Beasley. “All of us still love the music
and what we’re doing.” And if you’ve been upfront
and manning stage right for a band called Dying
Fetus for sixteen of the band’s 26-year history and
are still forging forward with a brand of music
commonly referred to as death metal, you had
better be deeply in love with what you do. Saddle
yourself with a moniker like Dying Fetus and there
isn’t a lot of wiggle room left for interpretation,
projection, second impressions or explaining away
that first impression, especially if, as is the case
with this Baltimore area underground institution,
popularity and profile has ticked upward over
the years. No matter where you go, sensitivities
will be bristled, offense will be taken and anger
will be stoked as overprotective parents groups,
self-proclaimed media watchdogs and community
leaders, as well the members of the nanny state
“It’s all about the music,” adds guitarist/
co-vocalist/lone original member, John Gallagher.
“Just getting out there playing shows and bringing
quality music.” This, surprisingly, is about as deep
as the analysis gets from the man who’s been
there since the start. Despite the potential to
take advantage of controversy and capitalise on
notoriety, the band turns a 180-degree, counter
reactive blind eye to the tizzy that their just being
causes. They avert their gazes, ignore outside
stimuli and operate similarly to how they have
since the early days, albeit at a higher and more
time consuming level. As Sean and John describe
with an astonishing absence of complication, theirs
is a simple operation in which the music is the
main focus and “management handles everything
else”. They present as unconcerned about looking
at themselves in the mirror, in turn offering a
frustrating lack of insight or analysis – from a
journalist’s point of view, at least – about how
they’ve survived the past three decades. Maybe it’s
simply about not allowing any hubbub, positive
or negative, to get under their skin? Maybe their
low-key approach – as low-key as you can be
playing in a worldwide touring band called Dying
Fetus that has releases readily available via a major
independent record label – has provided karmic
opportunity such that if they don’t make a big
deal about themselves, then people, especially the
wrong people, won’t make a big deal about them?
“We haven’t encountered any problems
with the name of the band. We’ve been very
lucky,” Sean says with an understatement that’s
proportional to our level of shock. “Even when
we went over to China and it was a case where
we had to be invited by the government. The
first time we played there it went over fine and
when we went back we did a huge public festival

“
righteously poke at the band, praying to whatever
they pray to that any one of Dying Fetus’ eight
forays into the world of brutal death metal will WE COULD SIT HERE AND TRY TO MAKE MOUNTAINS
feature highly atop the proverbial smouldering
OUT OF MOLEHILLS ALL DAY, BUT IT JUST COMES TO

”
pile of banned books and records with parental
advisory warnings stamped on them. But none of
that has stopped them from doing what they do.
DOWN TO WHAT IT IS – DEATH METAL
TERRORIZER #282 17
DYING FETUS
and they treated us well and there was no
problem.”
The funny thing is Sean and John aren’t
ostriches with their heads in the sand, despite
being surprisingly cavalier and unconcerned
with their impact or place in the broader
scheme of things. This might be due to the
fact that the band – rounded out by drummer
Trey Williams – know exactly what it says
on the tin. They’ve probably been on the
receiving end of so much ire that they’re
immune to the braying of the religious right,
the politically correct left and anyone who
would whip out that old “won’t somebody
please think of the children?!” heart string
tugger. Wipe the enraged spittle of red-faced
protesters off their eyebrows and from out of
their beards and move on to the next level of
‘What, me worry?’ provocation.
“We’re still a relatively small band in the
you have to make some kind of
statement to stand out
18 TERRORIZER #282
big picture and way under the radar, to be
honest,” says John. “We don’t really have to
deal with much of that, but we’ll see what
happens with this next record.”
A
h, the next record. If there was any sense
that Dying Fetus were slowing down
on the rabid pace they’ve kept up since
forming in 1991 or taking the booted foot off
the throat of polite society’s norms, it’s not
to be found on the band’s latest album, the
charmingly titled ‘Wrong One To Fuck With’.
“Basically, we just made a long list of
names and that was the one that stuck out
the most,” relays John with a slow drawl that
eclipses the realms of the concerned. “And our
management, the label, the band and everybody
thought that was the one that made the most
impact. In this day and age I feel you have to
make some kind of statement to stand out.
“
In this day and age I feel
Death metal is nothing new and you have all
these bands, so you need something to make
people go, ‘Whoa!’ and they’ll pay attention
more. So, that’s about the long and short of it.
We wanted something brutal and, of course,
something memorable.”
“It just felt right and it also became one of
the songs,” adds Sean. “People will be coming
up to us and saying, ‘Does that mean that
Dying Fetus are the wrong ones to fuck with’?
It’s not a statement like that.”
“It’s basically just a brutal title inspired by
the approach we take towards metal,” John
picks up. “People can read into it whatever
[they’d like]. The bottom line is that’s what we
came up with and it’s doing what it’s supposed
to do because the first thing you’re asking is,
‘What’s up with the title?’ That proves that
point and I think it’s going to work well for us.”
“The cover art is a cool picture,” says Sean.
”
“The number one thing is to make it brutal. It
is one of the songs on the album, but there’s
no tie-in to it or story behind it.”
“Right. A cool, brutal image that coincides
with the music,” finishes John.
F
ormed in 1991 by Gallagher and ex-bassist/
vocalist Jason Netherton, who left ten years
later to form Misery Index, Dying Fetus
were seemingly designed to make a mark from
the beginning. Their moniker was deliberately
chosen to be an offensive, attention-grabber by
attention-seeking teenagers seeking to offend.
Their music expanded the width and breadth of
death metal with the inclusion of slam sections
that grooved in a way than has been compared
to strains of extra-cantankerous rap or even
nü-metal and blastbeats that ordinarily paid
referential homage to the then-burgeoning
grindcore sound and ethos, which inspired a
shift away from lyrics about gore and senseless
violence towards socio-political topics of
interest. Maintaining a solid touring schedule
has been a source of both pride and a method
of commanding attention. Early on, despite not
having a supportive label backing them, let alone
tour support, the band regularly took to the
road for long stints, eventually catching the eye
of Relapse for the release of their third album,
2000’s ‘Destroy The Opposition’. With Relapse in
its corner, the band has offered
up five more albums of brutal,
technical, thought-provoking
and influential death metal.
Through it all, there have been
various line-up permutations
and the ex-members list
has included prominent
and recognisable names like
drummer Kevin Talley, guitarist
Sparky Voyles and vocalist
Vince Matthews amongst
others. Their videos made it
into the late Headbanger’s
Ball rotation, songs turned up
in TV shows, there have been
Billboard chart appearances and
tons of touring that has taken the band from the
dingiest of dives to experiences with the higher
profile opening slots and a fan-petitioned spot on
the mainstage at 2014’s Download Festival.
“We’ve been to a lot of places that I never
expected we’d ever get to and that bucket list [of
countries] is getting shorter,” replies John when
asked about what’s struck him as most surprising
having spent more than half his life playing death
metal. “I guess it’s a surprise that we’re still doing
this after 25 years.”
Where we’re at now is ‘Wrong One To Fuck
With’, an album that fans old and new as well as
from both the old and new schools will find merit
in. The production, songs, themes and, of course,
the sentiment expressed in the title are everything
supporters have come to expect and find solace
in. There’s been little deliberate attempt at change
or progression, not that that’s something the
band concerns itself with.
“It’s always gotta be banging,” says Sean,
simply “and ‘Wrong One To Fuck With’ is
banging.”
“I think this record has a few more changes
where unexpected slam riffs come in,” replies
John when asked what makes the new one
stand out from their previous seven. “Then,
we’d purposely put in a tech part and pull some
switcheroos to keep the listener on their toes a
little bit. But it’s not all like that, with unexpected
twists and turns. There’s a little eight second
acoustic part I put in with one of the guitars in
an intro. We did a couple things like that to add
some more dimension, I guess. I don’t want to
scare people, though. It’s what you’d expect. The
guitar sound is a bit clearer and crunchier than
the past. We’re really happy with the production,
it’s really tight.”
“I know we were more practiced when we
went into record this time,” explains Sean. “We
got the riffs together and got to really go over
them so we weren’t confused about anything
in the studio and therefore unrushed. I’ve been
reflecting back on this one about how ready and
prepared we were and how smooth it was.”
I
t’s been almost five years since previous album,
‘Reign Supreme’, and in the time between
albums, Dying Fetus were mostly preoccupied
with hitting as many corners of the planet as
possible. From the aforementioned trek behind
the Great Wall of China and
the usual whirl around North
America’s established touring
routes and the European festival
circuit; from one-offs at fests in
Ontario, Canada and rural Illinois
to touching down in more exotic
locals like Malaysia and the
Philippines, touring has been the
front-and-centre thrust over the
last few years which contributed
to the perceived delay of the
release of ‘Wrong One To Fuck
With’.
“Our starting to work on the
new record came after a point
of a lot of touring,” says Sean.
“We did two-and-a-half to three years of solid
touring for the last release and it got to a point
where we needed time off. Then came the need to
start writing again and feeling like it was time to
release another one.”
“Our process is very tedious and slow,” John
explains. “It’s an inch-by-inch process. I guess by
the halfway point we figured we had something
more tangible and something we were able to
work with. There wasn’t really a point where we
said to ourselves, ‘Okay, we got this’ or anything
like that. Slow and steady wins the race with
Dying Fetus. It’s been a while since the last
release, so it’s basically us tweaking away, taking
our time and all of that is to ensure a quality
product. We were all about taking our time to
make this shit right, make it sing so that in ten
years from now people will look at it and be like,
‘Hey, that record was solid.’ No one will care ten
years from now that we missed a deadline and it
didn’t come out in a timely fashion. We wanted
the product to stand the test of time.”
A
nd if your nervous twitching still hasn’t
abated after hearing talk about acoustic
guitars being employed on ‘Wrong One
To Fuck With’, know that there haven’t been
any drastic steps toward left field. While they
may be mavericks of tech-death making use of
slam rhythms and flashy elements like fretboard
tapping, to them there’s nothing to ponder or
worry about, even when it comes to how to keep
one step ahead of an admittedly crowded scene.
“We all have things that we like, love and
hate about our older albums,” reveals Sean, “and
that’s a topic – what to improve – that comes up
every time. But the song writing is always pretty
natural.”
“[In terms of recording] we didn’t really do
anything differently,” says John in keeping with
the slow and steady wins the race motif. “I mean,
TERRORIZER #282 19
DYING FETUS
“
It’s always gotta be banging, and
‘Wrong One To Fuck With’ is banging
it’s death metal and death metal has pretty much
evolved into what it is; you have guitar, bass,
drums and vocals and you put a mic in front of
the drum kit and amps. There are people who try
to experiment with death metal and do different
or odd kinds of things, but we’re not that kind
of band. So basically, there’s only so much you
can do with it except for the standard procedure.
I wish there was a greater story to tell. We
could sit here and try to make mountains out of
molehills all day, but it just comes to down to
what it is – death metal.”
B
ut it would appear that moving in different
directions has something that’s been
considered by the Dying Fetus trio. However
briefly, and they always return to ol’ faithful –
what they’re familiar with and what works for
them.
“We do the traditional mic in front of the
cabinet,” John continues. “Amplifier replacement
technology, like Kempers, is great for the studio,
but I don’t think they work so well live because
you’re creating a tone that’s built and engineered
for a particular room and then people try and
bring that into another environment and the
acoustics may not react well with the pre-
recorded tone. As far as all that’s concerned,
we’re still a traditional band using the mic, the
cabinet and the head and stuff. But I think we’re
doing the same thing we’ve always done which is
probably the same thing the younger bands are
20 TERRORIZER #282
doing today; making demos on computers, using
the basic software everyone else is using to do pre-
production. The only thing that’s different now is
that we used to record our ideas on cassette with a
boombox. Now, the boombox is the computer and
the cassette is Cubase and whatever other software
there is. Nothing has really changed too much.”
As mentioned, Dying Fetus long ago moved
beyond the rote and customary topics covered
in the field of death metal. This move towards
singing – grunting and growling, rather – about
personal observation, social consciousness
and political criticism and making those the
overwhelming topics of lyrical discussion was
most pronounced on ‘Destroy The Opposition’.
The blatant, filmic imagery of the cover and lack
of subtlety lurking in the shadows of the new
album’s title hints at a devolution of sorts back
towards the blood ‘n’ guts splattered topics on
early albums, but that couldn’t be further from the
truth.
“There’s always plenty to talk about,” offers
Sean. “There’s always violence, politics and all that
crap. This new album, however, wasn’t following
the same sort of curve. There’s a song about
prescription drug addiction, ‘Die With Integrity’ is
a ‘going-out-with-a-bang’ mob story. This album
was taken on a song-by-song basis and is really all
over the place. The song topics are settled on in a
discussion and that happens pretty naturally. The
hard work comes with creating the patterns and
parts and figuring out who goes where.
”
“This album and the writing went farther
back than that,” Sean responds when asked if in
their political finger-pointing, America’s newly
elected president was a target or had them altering
anything in light of his unexpected victory, “and
we weren’t going to be very specific at all on
anything having to do with the election or any of
that crap. We didn’t want to abandon those types
of topics, and we didn’t, but we didn’t want to be
specific. Time-wise this album was written far back
enough that it didn’t affect anything.”
“In our defense, another reason it took so long
was because of the label’s release schedule,” says
John. “Obituary put out their record and we had
to wait until that was out so we could follow suit.
There was scheduling, the artwork took a while,
the music took a while and things like that. The
album has been recorded for over a year at this
point. We’re just sitting here waiting while it’s
in the industry’s hands and they want to build
anticipation and hype it up.
“Hopefully this album will reach a lot of people
and our fan base and allow us to continue to do
what we do,” he concludes. “We’re just going to
take things as they come. We do what we want to
do, that’s why the band was created, so we could
pave our own way in life and hopefully the next
record won’t take five years.”
‘Wrong One To Fuck With’ is out now on
Relapse
DyingFetus.Bandcamp.com
DISBELIEF

After Morgoth a few years ago, KARSTEN “JAGGER” JÄGER has been
joining
keeping busy, but has made enough time to put out a new album with his first
band, DISBELIEF, their first in seven years. TERRORIZER grills the frontman on
touring Mexico, label headaches and ‘Game Of Thrones’…
WORDS: Olivier ‘Zoltar’ Badin

W
hile Karsten “Jagger” Jäger’s grizzly look
suggests someone you don’t want to
mess around with, the copious amount
of grey in his long beard and hair and weary eyes
are here to remind you that, although he still is a
rather unknown figure to most of our UK readers,
he’s been around since the very early ’90s. Hell, prior
to this one, his main band Disbelief have released
no less than nine albums in between 1997 and 2010
yet they’ve rarely toured the UK – or if they did,
it was opening for whoever was ready to go then
and maybe not the best fit, such as Death Angel in
2003 or Hate Eternal two years later. But then, they
went awfully quiet to the point that when Jagger
was asked at the eleventh hour to join Morgoth
three years ago, questions were raised as to whether
Disbelief, who had last put out an album to very
little fanfare four years prior, were still alive or not…
“I’ve never ever even considered for a minute
putting the band down,” reflects Jagger, who also
happens to be the last founding member left since
2006, although bass player Jochen “Joe” Trunk has
been around since the third demo. “It was just the
combination of our previous line-up disintegrating
and all the struggles we faced finding new members,
especially for the drum stool. We have had various
guys helping us out but nothing serious. And we were
quite undermined by the lack of support we had to
deal with in our own country and our deteriorating
relationship with our previous label, especially after
we started raising the budget question for our next
album. When they offered not even a quarter of the
sum we had been offered for our previous full-length
[2010’s] ‘Heal!’, I knew right away our relationship
would soon be over.”
Then, as he and Joe had finally secured the line-up
they’ve been looking for, that’s when longtime friend,
Dew-Scented frontman and Morgoth manager Leif
Jensen called out of the blue.
“Straight up, he asked me if I had any big plans
for the next three weeks. When I answered no, he
spilled the beans on how Morgoth were basically in
the studio with a new album ready to go except for
the vocals, because they had just fired their original
Marc Grewe and if I would be up for it, even if I
didn’t even know the guys personally. Two days later, I
was locked up in the studio, being tested by their two
guitar players who also write all the lyrics, tracking
two songs to see if I’d be a good fit. And ever since,
it’s been an ever increasing roller-coaster with them.
We played for instance Latin America last November
and I played there maybe some of the most intense
shows of my career, especially in Mexico where we
performed in front of 500 maniacs who knew all the
words and wouldn’t let us get off stage. That was
incredible.”
Still, Disbelief “never left” his mind and he was
more eager than ever to carry on the third-chapter of
their now over two decade long career.
“Yeah, I agree that you can roughly split our
discography in three,” he muses. “There are the demos
and the first two albums where we were still learning

22 TERRORIZER #282
who we were besides being fans of Slayer and Death.
Then things kinda clicked with 2001’s ‘Worst Enemy’
whose opening song ‘Misery’ is still part of our setlist
to this day, until ‘Navigator’ six years later. I now
realized that after two attempts to maximize our
sound, this album was a step too far into a clean
sound that wasn’t meant for us. Since ‘Protected Hell’
in 2009, we’re back on the right track, the metal track
should I say, since we now make sure the guitars stay
right up there in the mix.”
M
etalheads and heroic fantasy fans alike will
pleased to learn that most of ‘The Symbol
Of Death’s lyrics were inspired by Jagger’s
passion for the ‘Game Of Thrones’ TV series, including
the album’s title itself.
“At first it was supposed to be called ‘Full Of
Terrors’ as the character of Melisandre, AKA the Red
Lady, famously said that ‘the night is dark and full
of terrors’. But then I saw the artwork Eliran Kantor
had created and I felt it fitted the title ‘The Symbol
Of Death’, another ‘Game Of Thrones’ reference, even
better. Then there’s the song ‘Into Glory Ride’, my own
take on the Wildlings who live behind the Wall and
their free spirit.”
Now with ten albums under their belt, one could
have expected Jagger to be quite demanding but he
realizes that there are many territories to conquer for
Disbelief. So he’s looking at “getting the right opening
spot for the right band tour wise. Even if this means
playing only 40 minutes a night with most of our set
dedicated to the new album and only a handful of ‘old’
songs, we don’t care, we just want to go out there.”
Even the forthcoming departure of their guitarist
Alexander Hagenauer who arrived in 2010, to focus
on his family life and his other band Soul Demise
(who are also about to release a new album this May)
doesn’t seem to cool down his enthusiasm.
“Well, Alex doesn’t have time anymore in between
his job, his three kids and Soul Demise but he’s
been cool enough to let us know in advance and
he has agreed to help us
out until we find
a replacement.
Besides, even if he tried several times to come up with
songs, he’s never really contributed to the songwriting.
Actually, it’s been Joe who’s been writing all of our
music since our debut so there’s no danger for the
continuity of our style.”
If a few years back, Jagger’s musical life seemed
at a halt, now in 2017 he’s fronting not one but two
high-profile acts and he remains confident that from
now on, both acts will coexist without friction.
“It’s quite symbolic that the very same day we
finished mastering the new Disbelief album, I received
by email the first sketch of a brand new Morgoth
song, hinting at a possible album within a year. So
yeah, I’m planning to remain quite busy this year!”
‘The Symbol Of Death’ is out now on
Listenable
www.Disbelief.de
TERRORIZER #282 23
COLTSBLOOD
Scouse doom crew COLTSBLOOD have upped the ante with new album
‘Ascending Into Shimmering Darkness’. Guitarist JEMMA MCNULTY tells
all to TERRORIZER
“I
t’s the sound of the stars, darkness, the
unknown, the wilderness, love, grief,
death and the beauty of all of these
things,” says Jemma McNulty of Liverpool-
based doom trio Coltsblood when asked to
define the sound of their sophomore effort
‘Ascending Into Shimmering Darkness’.
The five-track behemoth which plunges to
the pulsating, suffocating depths of doom and
then drags itself back into searing light, saw
the march of time change their approach to
the record. “Some of this album was written
much earlier, a time when we were just enjoying
jamming, beers and writing about cool stuff like
vikings and vampires,” says Jem. “Much of the
album also came later, from a very emotional
place, a time of grief. There was some solitary
writing, some of it was a way to get through
a difficult time. The album is inspired mostly
by death and we draw a lot of inspiration from
history, folklore, Celtic and Norse spirituality.”
It was back in the murky mists of 2014 that
Coltsblood released their debut full-length,
‘Into The Unfathomable Abyss’, a crushing and
remorseless endurance test of a record near
“AS HUMANITY CONTINUES TO DESTROY
EVERYTHING AND BECOMES MORE DEPRAVED
AND POISONED BY THE HOUR, DOOM IS ONE
OF THE FEW THINGS LEFT”
24 TERRORIZER #282
WORDS: Jay Hampshire
peerless in its cathartic bleakness. How much
would the band say ‘Ascending…’ sounds like its
forebear?
“It still sounds like us and has the same spirit
that we’ve always had, but we have evolved. This
album holds a great energy of its own because
we were more emotionally invested this time, the
recording session itself was more intense than
before. It’s also our first album with Jay [Austin,
also of Iron Witch] on drums which has changed
our sound. His style is incredibly versatile and
allowed us to achieve our original vision for
the band. When we first started working on
‘Abyss…’ there was a lot more uncertainty and
experimentation with our music, but now we’re
far more assertive and have stronger ideas.”
The production process has seen the band
come to work with some considerably high profile
names within the scene, not the least of which
is Eric Harrison, former bassist/vocalist for much
missed Boston based sludge pioneers Grief, who
provided the disconcertingly trippy cover for the
record.
“When we first started to consider artwork,
we quickly decided that we wanted to ask Eric,
having long been fans of his artwork and music
with Grief. We love his work; it’s dark, primitive,
demented, mesmerising, and it really resonates
with us. When I look into his work I can sense
a lot of the same emotions and ideas as we put
into our music, and the two just work perfectly
together.”
At a time where the world we live in seems to
change into an uglier, less certain and infinitely
more fucked version of itself day in day out,
Jem believes that extreme music acts as a fitting
soundtrack to what could well be the end times.
“As humanity continues to destroy everything
and becomes more depraved and poisoned by
the hour, doom is one of the few things left,”
she says. “Mass extinction is already happening,
to me it feels like the end is near, so I think that
doom will be more beautiful and relevant than
ever to those who turn to it.”
Hopefully the four horsemen won’t start their
world tour before Coltsblood can organise their
own though, as time on the road is definitely in
their future.
“We’re currently throwing around ideas for
bands we’d like to tour with and countries we’ve
yet to visit. We are discussing a tour of the UK
later in the year with some very mighty friends
indeed!”
‘Ascending Into Shimmering Darkness’ is
out now on Spinefarm/Universal
www.Facebook.com/Coltsblood
VALLENFYRE

Starting life as a cathartic exercise, VALLENFYRE are demonstrating

just how powerful a band can become on album number three. GREGOR
MACKINTOSH talks to TERRORIZER about the inspirations behind the frankly
killer ‘Fear Those Who Fear Him’
WORDS: José Carlos Santos

ho would have thought? What started as
a very personal, cathartic sort of project
for its main instigator, and as a curious
super-band of sorts where Gregor Mackintosh
from Paradise Lost shouted like a madman after
decades being quiet behind a mournful guitar, has
now become one of the country’s most reliable
and most genuinely incredible bands, a sort of
compendium of everything that was right about
the origins of several extreme genres – crust,
death metal, grindcore, even a bit of black metal,
you name it, it’s all here in its primordial form and
feel. All it took was seven years and three records,
and yes, we’re counting the new bomb that’s
about to be dropped, the massive ‘Fear Those
Who Fear Him’. And to think we still remember
Greg being unsure if the band would ever do
anything else after the ‘A Fragile King’ debut
came out in 2011.
“We just do things when we feel like. It’s good
having no pressure,” Greg mentions as a good
reason for the band to keep going and to keep
being interesting to him. “We don’t have anyone
on our backs telling us to record a new album, or

26 TERRORIZER #282

play here, or do this or that. We do it when we
feel like it and it’s kind of liberating. It also helps
you to create the record you want, I suppose – I
mean, we wouldn’t release a new album if we
didn’t think it was at least as good as the previous
one. I think that the band itself has managed to
keep things bullshit-free. The only time we’ve felt
pressure is maybe like when we did the American
tour, we needed a lot of tour support for that, but
just because it was a big step for a little unknown
band to go on tour over there. But as far as
expectations go, we don’t really care.”
In fact, as the frontman – as somewhat
strange as it still seems to call Greg a “frontman”
– puts it, funnily enough, in a statement on the
press release, whereas a lot of bands evolve and
refine things, Vallenfyre seem to be “devolving”,
getting rawer and angrier at every record. Our
ear bruises from repeated listens of ‘Fear Those…’
justly confirm this notion, by the way.
“Half of this ‘devolve’ thing has to do with
playing live, I guess,” Greg demystifies. “A lot of
the songs took on a more ferocious side when we
played them live, and we liked that untamed edge
so we tried to put a bit of that on the new record.
Also, it’s just delving further into our past, what
we listened to in the ’80s. This record is just like
the beginnings of crust and grindcore and death
metal all lumped together again.”
It’s sort of like the soundtrack to your youth,
right?
“It literally is,” he laughs. “I actually just had
to do a soundtrack of my life for a magazine,
and most of the records on that, you can tell
how they’ve influenced Vallenfyre. I first got into
hardcore punk because my older brother was
into that stuff in the late ’70s and early ’80s,
and he had a big record collection, so I used to
go through it and I eventually picked up on a
couple of bands, like Discharge, English Dogs
or Conflict. A lot of those bands evolved and
became a bit more metallic like Broken Bones,
Antisect, Sacrilege and stuff, and that’s how I got
into metal, really because these other bands were
getting into metal too. Then that became sort
of crust punk, and when that took on elements
of Celtic Frost/Hellhammer and stuff like that…
it’s a very honest transition that took place back
there in the ’80s. When it first started, I remember
being thirteen years old, I had a mohican and I
was on the punk side of things, metallers and
punks were complete enemies back then. We went
to the same pubs, but we’d stare at each other
across the room. It wasn’t until later, from ’86 to
’88 or thereabouts, that it started to join into the
same thing. But it was all good times… The only
band that straddled both genres from the word go
was Motörhead.”
For all those staredowns (and sometimes worse
things), it shouldn’t have taken the two camps
so long to realise that they had a world of stuff
in common, honestly. The feeling given by each
other’s music was, and is, essentially the same.
Greg agrees.
“In fact, the main thing when I’m doing this,
it’s about the feeling,” he explains. “It’s not even
so much about the song, it’s about what I felt
when I heard those bands for the first time, back
in the ’80s. It’s trying to sum up that feeling in
a song these days. Maybe it does work, maybe it
doesn’t, but I want to capture it and that’s really
all I’m trying to do. First time I heard the A-side
of ‘Scum’, or the first time I heard, I don’t know,
Candlemass’ ‘Epicus Doomicus Metallicus’, or
Celtic Frost’s ‘Morbid Tales’, it’s trying to capture
that feeling and putting it into a record. Of
course, songs and hooks and everything are really
important, but it should be most of all about
what that song makes you feel.”
s you might have noticed, there’s a song
called ‘Kill All Your Masters’ on the new
album. There’s also another one called
‘Dead World Breathes’. Someone’s been watching
the news…
“I can’t be the only person that sees that the
world seems a little crazier at the moment,” Greg
says, slightly exasperated. “I’m not making a huge
political statement or anything, but I am asking
what the fuck is going on. ‘Dead World Breathes’
is basically saying that ignorance leads to war, and
‘Kill All Your Masters’ is pretty self-explanatory as
well. I think most of it is bred out of confusion of
why people don’t learn from their mistakes. But
that’s not really what the album’s about, in any
case. There’s still some miserable stuff on there
– ‘Cursed From The Womb’ is about spiralling
depression, ‘An Apathetic Grace’ is about reaching
the end of your life and reflecting on it, ‘The
Merciless Tide’ is about time, which is a bit of an
abstract concept, but it’s about how you can’t
fight it. There’s quite a few that deal with religion
as well, because I can’t help myself. I detest it so
much that it makes me write about it. And it’s at
the basis of a lot of this current craziness, so it
just amplifies it. On all sides – whether you look
at ISIS or the far right in America, whatever, it’s
all insane. I don’t understand why after all these
years we haven’t realised we need to keep religion
out of politics altogether. Or out of anything! I
can’t believe it stills exists at all, actually. It’s like
a huge collective mental illness.”
good escape valve is to do what we do –
discover new bands, go to gigs and have
some noise run through our skulls. A lot
of experienced musicians seem to have given up
on new music, but not Greg, which might help
explain the continued relevance of his own music.
“I hear new stuff all the time, I go to a lot of
gigs still!” he says excitedly. “There’s a sort of new
venue in Leeds called Temple Of Boom, and they
bring over really cool bands. I went to see a band
called Black Tomb [at Ritual Dreadest], I just got
their album and I bought the t-shirt too, I like the
strange, oily, dirty feeling to it that it has. Implore
from Germany are also very good, they’ve just
asked me to sing a few guest vocals on the album
they’re about to record, so yeah, there’s a lot of
stuff out there that’s good and that I’m really
excited by, sometimes it feels like I’m turning into
this sixteen-year old fan again, and that’s great.
Right after the Black Tomb gig I actually went
up to the singer and told him I thought it was
fantastic and that I had just bought the t-shirt
and stuff like that. Then I saw a review of that
gig in Terrorizer and I was mentioned in it, that
was funny. It said the fact I was standing in the
crowd nodding spoke volumes,” he laughs. Of
course it does! Seal of quality and whatnot. But
yes, older musicians – take Greg as an example.
Don’t kill your inner sixteen-year old. You and
your art will be the better for it.
“I use magazines like Terrorizer and some cool
websites to find out about new stuff, I skip from
one Bandcamp to another to get records and
check stuff out, it’s something I’m very passionate
about. I hope I can do gigs with these new bands!
I always want to keep on top of stuff,” Greg
concludes. So when you see the big man nodding
at one of your shows, you know what to do.
‘Fear Those Who Fear Him’ is out now on
Century Media
www.Facebook.com/Vallenfyre
TERRORIZER #282 27
GOD DETHRONED

AFTER A LENGTHY HIATUS,

GOD DETHRONED RETURN
TO RECORDED ACTION WITH
A NEW STUDIO ALBUM
THAT SEES THE QUARTET
REFLECT ON PAST GLORIES
AND PUSH BACK THEIR OWN
BOUNDARIES TO DELIVER
MORE QUALITY GOODS.
AND IT’S ALL HAPPENED
THANKS TO A CRUISE SHIP,
ACCORDING TO FRONTMAN
HENRI SATTLER
WORDS: KEVIN STEWART-PANKO

W
e’re going to start off with a personal
thought; one that, even if you’ve never
considered it, you’re likely to share.
When this writer first discovered and became a fan
of Holland’s God Dethroned, never in my wildest
dreams would I have imagined that a luxury cruise
ship would play so significantly in the band’s
timeline and history. This is a band whose early
years are littered with an anti-Christian rhetoric
acknowledged as unsubtle and juvenile on the best
of days, a band whose first label [Shark Records]
refused to release their 1992 debut, ‘The Christhunt’
with the dissected rat cover art curated by guitarist/
vocalist/lone original member, Henri Sattler and a
band whose ‘Bloody Blasphemy’ album of 1999
was embraced by similar sympathetic satanists
as Marduk, Immortal and Deicide. Even when
progress saw their blackened thrashing death metal
incorporating more melody and as topical themes
shifted towards to the first World War on 2009’s
‘Passiondale’ and 2010’s ‘Under The Sign Of The
Iron Cross’, at no point did it seem likely that Royal
Caribbean’s fully pimped out Independence Of The
Seas would factor into any of this. But it has. Henri
swabs the deck and untangles the web…
“When the band first ended in 2012, we felt
lucky we could end on the 70,000 Tons Of Metal
cruise,” he begins, discussing God Dethroned’s
recent two-year hiatus. “The cruise was a new
thing and it seemed like a special place to end. I
knew I needed time for myself and a break and I
enjoyed it for a while. At some point, I got the news
that Michael Trengert, the head of Metal Blade
in Europe and the guy who originally signed us,
died of a brain tumour. I went to the funeral and
met up with the guys from Amon Amarth, people
from Metal Blade and Nuclear Blast and realised
how much I missed it. That day, I decided I wanted
to play again. I got a band together [drummer
Michiel van der Plicht, bassist Jeroen Pomper and
guitarist Mike Ferguson] and thought about how
cool it would be to start again where we ended. I
contacted the cruise people, they said we were more
than welcome and we played our first show there
in 2015.”
The original blueprint for God Dethroned’s
return to active duty didn’t include a new album.
But after a few rounds on the festival circuit, they
started to wear out their welcome and the initial
excitement that greeted them thinned. The band’s
booking agent pointed out that if they wanted to
keep going at the level they’d become accustomed,
a new album was required. With that in mind, Henri
approached Metal Blade to gauge interest.
“They were like, ‘Yeah, do a new album, but
here’s the deadline’,” he recalls with a chuckle. “Not
only did we have to hurry up, but we knew we
had to come up with something good. But when
the pressure was on, the ideas started to come
naturally.”
The result is the band’s tenth album and
conclusion to the WWI-themed trilogy (“I think I
said in an interview before we split that we were
doing a trilogy, so I decided to live up to that,”
he laughs). Despite the layoff, ‘The World Ablaze’
not only picks up where its predecessor left off,
but advances the combination of harsh blackened
thrash with epic, anthemic and martial melodies. In
analytical hindsight, it’s a progression Henri believes

28 TERRORIZER #282
comes with age and experience as well as having
the luxury of having been able to examine the past
against the present.
“When you take a three-year break, you can
recharge the batteries, reflect on older albums and
what could be done different or better. If you look
at ‘Under The Sign Of The Iron Cross,’ that album is
so fast and aggressive that people didn’t know what
to do with it when we played live. We wanted to
write songs that would fit better in a live situation.
We wanted the album to be more dynamic with
more mid-tempo parts where people could bang
their heads instead of playing blastbeats all the
time. This album is more diverse and more suitable
for playing live.”
T
he ‘war is hell’ theme is a prominent one
throughout the canon of heavy metal. From
the spectre of nuclear annihilation that
loomed during the Cold War ’80s to the perpetual
conflict in the Middle East to those who choose
to ‘never forget’ by focussing attention on various
aspects of the past’s bloodiest conflicts, singing
about war for interest’s sake, as a way to cope with
fear or because of personal-level impact, is nothing
new to our scene. ‘The World Ablaze’ explores
WWI out of curiosity. Henri researched a variety of
subject matter for the album’s songs and found
himself diving deep into areas that may be old hat
for history buffs, academics and documentarians,
but are interesting topics of discussion nonetheless.
“This album looks at various parts of the war.
For example, ‘The 11th Hour’ is about the end of
the war, the number eleven and how the peace
treaty was signed on November 11th at 11AM.
Officially, the war ended at 11AM, but the armistice
was actually signed at 5AM. So, because some of
the allied generals wanted to improve their battle
statistics and demonstrate that they advanced into
and conquered as much enemy territory as possible,
they sent troops into war on the final morning
when it wasn’t necessary. 20,000 soldiers were killed
on that final day for nothing but the generals’
statistics. There’s a song called ‘Escape Across The
Ice (The White Army)’ about the Russian Revolution.
Russia had its tsar [Nicolas II] who was killed when
Lenin and the communists came to power. Everyone
knows about The Red Army, but not so much about
The White Army which was still loyal to the tsar and
fought their own independence war in Russia. I also
came across a lot of propaganda which was really
surprising. This was the time of the colonies and the
United Kingdom’s Commonwealth, places like India,
Canada, the Caribbean islands and other places
all over the world. What they did was say to these
people, ‘we do so many great things for you, it’s
time for you to give back’. There were posters saying
‘join the army and you’ll be home before Christmas’.
They made it look like fun and that they’d be done
after a few weeks of fighting. People were taken
from tropical areas and put into the cold, muddy
trenches of Belgium and France to fight and they
would either get shot, freeze to death or contract
diseases they’d never seen. They were lured into war
and suffered not knowing what they were getting
into. I think that’s quite harsh.”
‘The World Ablaze’ is out now on Metal Blade
www.Facebook.com/GodDethronedOfficial
TERRORIZER #282 29
EMPLOYED TO SERVE

With ‘The Warmth Of A Dying Sun’, EMPLOYED TO SERVE have crafted their heaviest,
most dynamic and pulverizing opus to date. Vocalist JUSTINE JONES and guitarist
SAMMY URWIN tell TERRORIZER all about the hard graft that lead to its creation…
WORDS: Serena Cherry

W
ith their second album set to
surprise, now is the time for
Employed To Serve to burst out
of their mathcore shell. The Woking-based
quintet “threw a bit of a curve ball by dropping
the slowest tracks from our new record first,”
explains vocalist Justine Jones. “We wanted to
make a statement by doing that to show we are
a band that will expand our sound over time.
We never want to be pigeon-holed or spin our
wheels and write the same record twice.”
“It’s definitely more dynamic,” adds guitarist
Sammy Urwin. “We have a couple of slower
tracks on the record and have groovier riffs
throughout. I think it adds an extra element to
our sound, and makes the faster chaotic songs
on the record stand out more by comparison.”
“The album also feels a lot more confident
as a whole,” Justine sums up. “We went into
writing and recording with more experience
and it felt more natural recording in a studio,
especially since we’d already worked with Lewis
Johns (The Ranch) before. I felt more vocally
confident as I always struggled with recording
in the past.” don’t forget to keep it fun, because if you don’t
“THERE’S HONESTLY NO RUSH AS
GOOD AS PLAYING LIVE MUSIC, I’D
Not to dismiss their off-kilter beginnings
entirely, Sammy admits that the band “still
draw a lot of inspiration from bands like Botch,
Coalesce and Norma Jean. But we were listening
to a lot of Will Haven and Deftones for our
riffspiration this time,” he notes. When it comes
to lyrics however, Justine likes to keep it low key.
“We tend to draw most of our inspiration
from our own lives and people close to us,” she
reveals. “A theme that is quite present throughout
the album is the uncertainty one feels when
pursuing a passion and not knowing what the
outcome will be.”
Pursuit is the operative word for Employed To
Serve, who have worked hard since their inception
in 2013 to reach their busy touring status.
“It’s hard when you’re just starting out,”
reflects Justine. “Back in our early days no one
would book us as they had never heard of us! In
the end, I booked shows with bands I liked just
so I could put us on as openers and booked all
our tours. I remember going nuts when someone
asked us to play a show,” she laughs.
“You have to work hard,” agrees Sammy. “Just
then people will soon get jaded and quit. But
remember, you do have to put the time in and
make it happen yourself.”
For Employed To Serve however, touring is a
labour of love.
“There’s honestly no rush as good as playing
live music, I’d take it over drugs any day,”
proclaims Sammy. “There’s no buzz like it. I can’t
shout in peoples’ faces in everyday life so this is
the only outlet for that need.”
“My favourite thing is seeing people in the
crowd knowing the lyrics to your songs, it makes
you feel connected with the crowd despite never
meeting them,” says Justine. “Shows are the one
place you can be weird or just flail about, it’s
fun. I’m a big fan of hair windmills and circle
pits.”
For a heavy band, they adopt a stance which
is refreshingly un-elitist.
“What I don’t like is snobbery,” laments
Sammy. “When people get annoyed with moshing
at heavy shows, or say ‘I used to mosh when
I was eleven’ – I just think that attitude is so
boring and lame. I mean, if we could tour with
any band, I would love to tour with Slipknot.
They were the first band I was infatuated with
and still to this day inspire the music I make.”
‘The Warmth Of A Dying Sun’ is out now on
Holy Roar

TAKE IT OVER DRUGS ANY DAY” EmployedToServe.Bandcamp.com

30 TERRORIZER #282
Quarto Terrorizer_Layout 1 08/05/17 20:25 Pagina 1

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IDES OF GEMINI
IDES OF GEMINI’s third album ‘Women’ marks a number
of important changes for the LA-based quartet, as
guitarist J. BENNETT discusses with gusto
WORDS: KEVIN STEWART-PANKO
W
e’re not in any way trying to convince
you of a serious connection between
Ides Of Gemini and New Wave Of
British Heavy Metal masters Blitzkrieg and their
1985 album ‘A Time Of Changes’. Other than the
fact that guitarist and former Terrorizer hack Jason
Bennett is a fan of said album and everyone involved
is indebted to Metallica in one way or another,
the associations between the Leicester old-school
metallers and the Los Angeles-based post-punk/
goth/doom/no-new-wave outfit are tenuous at best.
However, if you scratch the surface a little and think
in terms of nomenclature, it becomes clear that in
just making ‘Women,’ their newest and third album,
a possibility was fraught with a veritable blitzkrieg
of incidents that has resulted in a remarkable wealth
32 TERRORIZER #282
of change.
“The band is like night and day now,” proclaims
Jason excitedly. “It was arduous to get here, but now
that we are, it’s awesome!”
The first item on the docket of transformation
came about after an injury sustained by former
drummer Kelly Johnston-Gibson which necessitated
her replacement by Saviours sticksman, Scott Batiste.
“Kelly still can’t play drums,” Jason laments
before offering details. “This all happened in May/
June 2015 when we were on tour with The Mountain
Goats. We got like four shows into the tour and
were playing Durham, North Carolina, which was
a hometown show for [Mountain Goats vocalist/
guitarist] John [Darnielle] and my sister was also
living there at the time. We got to the last song of
our set and Kelly totally fucked up. Now, she’d fuck
up in practice more than anyone, but never on stage,
so we knew something was up. Sure enough, she
kind of limped off the drum kit. My sister, who is
also a doctor, looked at her and we ended up taking
her to the hospital. It turned out she had a slipped
disc in her spine and we had to drop off the tour.
Slipped discs are kind of weird in that sometimes
they’ll right themselves without surgery and hers did,
but my theory is that whatever she was doing to
compensate for the pain created a problem with her
hip in shifting the weight so that she’d be able to
play drums. Two years later her spine is fine, but she
still has a hip problem. There was a long time where
we didn’t know what was happening. We had a west
coast tour that we asked Scott to fill in on and that
went great. Some point after that, Kelly stepped
down on her own and we offered the gig to Scott.”
Around the same time the band was dealing
with Kelly’s uncertain future, bassist/vocalist Sera
Timms was expressing a desire to unshackle herself,
and by default her vocals, from under the literal and
figurative weight of her instrument.

“After that Mountain Goats tour, Sera started
talking about how she didn’t want to play bass
anymore. I was convincing her to stick with it, at
least through this record. She said, ‘Do you really
want me to do something my heart’s not into?’
and I was like, ‘Well, when you put it that way…’”
he laughs. “We had a New Year’s Eve party going
into 2016 at our house and we just asked Adam
[Murray] from an excellent goth band here in town
called Deth Crux and it worked out. Honestly man, I
feel dumb for resisting her. It was the best thing we
could’ve done as neither Sera nor I anticipated how
much it freed her up to do so much more vocally.
Not only does she not have the responsibility of
coming up with lyrics, bass lines and vocal lines, she
wasn’t confined to what she could do while she was
playing bass.”
T
he new additions not only had their
impact on the quality and freshness of
Ides Of Gemini’s rhythm section, but it
has seen Jason, as lead composer (despite being a
comparative rookie when it comes to actual years
“The writing was on the wall
for a new era and we thought
it was important to recognise
and seize those moments”
of experience playing his respective instrument),
improve as an all-around musician. Combining his
work in Ides Of Gemini while absorbing experience
by playing bass in Mustard Gas And Roses, alongside
ex-members of Isis and Black Math Horseman, and
as a live member of Sera’s solo project, Black Mare
doesn’t hurt. The upgrades that have come at the
hand of necessity, experience and associating with
new blood are noticeable on ‘Women’.
“It’s been awesome for me because in addition to
getting better on my own from just playing, when
you’re playing with amazing people, it forces you to
get better. This record was written with the line-up
as it is. I would come up with the basic riffs and
structures and we’d take it from there, taking into
account what Sera wants to do vocally and Scott’s
strength at arranging which was something we’d
never had or done before and that’s why I think the
record sounds more dynamic.”
Ides Of Gemini’s time of change hasn’t just
been internal. After having their first two albums,
2012’s ‘Constantinople’ and 2014’s ‘Old World New
Wave,’ issued by Neurot, ‘Women’ will see the light
of day via Rise Above, a situation Jason, as a metal
fan, musician and journalist, still finds difficult to
fathom.
“Even though I’ve been way in it for a while,
I’m still amazed that these people who I grew up
listening to and have become friendly with by doing
this sort of interview stuff have been interested
enough and have had enough faith in what we’re
doing to want to put their stamp of approval on it.
It’s amazing, man! Rise Above approached us with a
great offer and we felt that with so many changes
going on – Kelly leaving the band, Scott coming in,
Sera stopping playing bass, Adam joining and even
down to something like all the new songs being in
a different tuning than the last record – it seemed
like the writing was on the wall for a new era and
we thought it was important to recognise and seize
those moments. And we’re thrilled! How many bands
would kill to be on Neurot or Rise Above? We’re
incredibly fortunate and lucky.”
‘Women’ is out now on Rise Above
www.IdesOfGemini.com
TERRORIZER #282 33
WOLFBRIGADE
Going strong on album number nine, ‘Run With The
Hunted’, Swedish D-beat marauders WOLFBRIGADE
caught up with TERRORIZER to discuss finding
inspiration in unexpected places…
WORDS: Serena Cherry
“W
e’ve always been popular with
metalheads,” muses Erik Norberg,
guitarist of Swedish lycanthro punks
Wolfbrigade. “In the beginning it was more the
punks who didn’t understand what we were
doing and had opinions about it. Our goal was to
mix D-beat and death metal, yet the first album
actually turned out to be more punk than we
wanted it to. But if you’re into old metal like
Venom, you probably like our raw and unrefined
version of it,” he laughs.
With ‘Run With The Hunted’, the bands ninth
studio album (or sixth if you don’t count the first
three albums released under the name Wolfpack
– but why wouldn’t you?), the Stockholm-based
quintet were “still inspired by metal from the
’80s, especially song structures. I try to mould
heavy metal into D-beat punk, but in that
process, pretty much anything can inspire me. I’ve
also heard songs by Sting or Genesis on the radio,
which are shit songs, but with a great break or
34 TERRORIZER #282
bridge that I steal. I can reveal that there are bits
and pieces from songs by both Europe and Gary
Moore on our previous album ‘Damned’.”
“There’s also some Kiss on this record,
which is probably very obvious,” bassist Johan
Erkenvag chimes, “but sounded so good that
we couldn’t leave it out!” Sharing an array of
musical influences between them, he admits “we
generally argue over arrangements, what direction
the song should take. Some of us push towards
more melodious metal influences, others prefer the
rawness and approach of pure hardcore punk.”
Being a heavy Swedish band, it seems a
no-brainer for these D-beat legends to record with
renowned melodeath producer Fredrik Nordstrom.
However, despite their pre-existing working
relationship, they “didn’t exactly record with him
this time,” grins Johan. “We were supposed to,
but when we arrived in Gothenburg we found out
that he had double-booked us with Martyrdöd. I
think he got our bands mixed up and thought we
“The goal of the record is to make
you wanna crack open a beer,
rather than slit your wrists”
were one and the same! So we worked with his
assistant Henrik Udd instead. We’ve recorded with
Fredrik several times before. He’s really talented but
he also has a passive-aggressive way of pushing
us by constantly being on our asses about every
little thing. It’s irritating, but at the same time very
effective,” he concludes.
Opening up about the lyrical themes on their
new album, Johan describes how “many of our
songs are about alienation and an innate desire
for freedom. It ties into the wolf theme that
we’ve always had. For us the wolf represents
nature at its wildest. The wolf is misunderstood
in many ways, people hunt and kill it because
they think it’s dangerous. So its pure existence is
a great metaphor for the conflict between man
and nature; puppet and outlaw.” The striking
album artwork also ties in with this theme as “the
illustration, made by the German artist Karmacid,
is a two-headed wolf-like creature, either chained
and dealing with it, or breaking free of the chains.
The goal of the record is to make you wanna crack
open a beer, rather than slit your wrists.”
Rightly so, as it’s a cause for celebration: nine
albums in and these relentless punks are still
smashing out mind blowing records. How do they
do it?
“Well, there is no alternative for me,” concludes
Erik. “Jocke and I have been playing music
together for 30 years, it’s my life’s work and I’ve
put so much energy into it. Sure, inspiration has
come and gone over the years, but we’ve found a
new focus. Before, we toured a lot and rushed out
some albums just to have something to tour with.
Nowadays, we put more energy into making better
records and have cut down on the live gigs. It’s
always been important for us to nurse the band to
keep it fun for everyone.””
‘Run With The Hunted’ is out now on
Southern Lord
www.Facebook.com/LycanthroPunks
WEDNESDAY 13
GROOVY GHOUL WEDNESDAY13 IS KNOWN FOR TONGUE-IN-
CHEEK HORROR PUNK, BUT NEW ALBUM ‘CONDOLENCES’
HAS TAKEN A MORE MACABRE TONE…
A
s frontman for horror punks
Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet
13 and Murderdolls, his collaboration
with then-Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison,
Wednesday 13 has been presented as a purveyor
of kitsch shock rock, associated with films and
TV shows like ‘The Munsters’ or ‘The Addams
Family’, but seventh solo record ‘Condolences’ is
anything but light entertainment.
“The album is written from the perspective
of killers, victims and those mourning the
dead,” Wednesday explains. “It’s the death
of relationships. I used to never write about
personal things in my songs but it’s become
therapeutic for me. There are no parodies or
jokes this time. The song ‘You Breathe, I Kill’ is
36 TERRORIZER #282
WORDS: Ross Baker
actually written from the point of view of the
serial killer Richard Ramirez. I watched a few
documentaries and read about his life. He saw
his cousin shoot his wife in the face and his
sister’s husband used to spy on women in the
night and encourage Richard to do the same. It’s
frightening to think what these things do to a
person’s mind. He claimed he killed in the name
of Satan, but he was just a screw up that turned
to murder. Real stories hold more interest for me
than comic books or stuff like that. This album is
more serious than I’ve ever been – everything on
this record is real.”
Composed in September of last year, 2016
was a year that saw many high profile celebrity
deaths covered by the world’s media. It’s a
theme that was clearly on Wednesday’s mind, in
particular the passing of his hero David Bowie.
It’s these events which lead to the conception of
the near seven-minute title track, an eerie and
sinister composition that’s a far cry from the
parody song titles and sleazy, tongue-in-cheek
rock Wednesday 13 is known for.
“It was on my mind 100%,” he confirms.
“2016 was the year a lot of my heroes died. Not
just Bowie, but actors I grew up with like Gene
Wilder from ‘Willy Wonka And The Chocolate
Factory’. I constantly was seeing people saying
‘condolences, sorry for your loss’. The song is
actually me writing as if I was watching my own
funeral. To me it’s a combination of ‘Welcome to
My Nightmare’ and ‘Black Sabbath’.”
O
utside of Murderdolls, Wednesday has
forged his career his own way, and it’s
fitting that the more metallic direction
‘Condolences’ has taken would mean a deal with
a more renowned metal label.
“The last few records I did independently and
did the crowdfunding thing, but when it came
to doing this album, I saw bigger things for us.
People have asked me if I decided to make a more
metal record because we signed to Nuclear Blast,
but the record was written before we had the
deal. It’s a natural evolution, the guys in my band
are into everything from death metal to rock ’n’
roll. I just turned 40 last year and I’ve been doing
this twenty years now. I want the future of this
band to be bigger and better and go to the next
level. If we ever do, now is the time. We’ve got to
go full throttle, all the way.”
Wednesday emphasises he “loves to entertain
and play the old songs live” but admits “the
horror punk thing is done,” citing evolution
and getting older as the reason for his desire
to try new things. Now the father of a teenage
daughter, Zoie, the man who once penned a track
entitled ‘I Take Drugs’ seems more focused on
family than career these days.
“I’m not sure,” he counters. “I don’t think
[Zoie] knows the level of where we’re at. She
hasn’t seen all the touring we do. We talked about
her getting into the music world but I’m not sure
she’s interested in that now. It’s a shame, I’d love
to be able to ‘kill’ my daughter onstage like Alice
Cooper does every night!”
‘Condolences’ sees Wednesday reunited with
Murderdolls producer Zeuss Harris. Harris may not
have written any of the material, but his influence
in arranging and production is all over the album.
“We got along great when we did the
Murderdolls record and kept in touch afterwards.
I knew when I wanted a bigger sounding record
that he was the right man for the job. We didn’t
even have the deal yet but he was happy to do it.
I’ve always produced all my solo records myself,
so handing over that control to someone else was
a big deal to me. It was great to have someone
else to discuss ideas with. He really helped trim
the fat from the record and made us sound so
much better. I’ve always produced my own stuff,
not because I’m an egomaniac but because I never
had the budget to do otherwise. It meant I didn’t
overthink things like I might have done in the
past.”
Death and dying remains the overriding theme
of ‘Condolences’ up until final track ‘Death
Infinity’, which sees Wednesday musing on the
concept of an afterlife. While not a religious man,
he is clearly product of his environment in that he
is a reaction against the boredom and intellectual
malaise of small town America, having grown up
in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“It’s something I think about. I’m not sure
about what happens. I grew up in the Bible belt in
North Carolina where there was a church on every
street corner. Lots of people thought I was a devil
worshiper as I had long black hair. My upbringing
shaped me, it’s such a weird little town. The only
cool thing from Charlotte was my wrestling hero
Ric Flair was from there. I’m just glad I got the
fuck out of there and managed to achieve what I
have.”
Wednesday 13 plays Download Festival on
Saturday, June 10th
‘Condolences’ is out now on Nuclear Blast
www.OfficialWednesday13.com
TERRORIZER #282 37
FULL OF HELL
THERE’S ALWAYS GOING TO BE THE WEAKENERS OUT THERE THAT TRY AND
BEMOAN A BAND FOR SOME REASON OR ANOTHER, BUT THANKFULLY FULL OF
HELL FRONTMAN DYLAN WALKER DOESN’T GIVE A FLYING FUCK WHAT YOU THINK.
“I
t doesn’t really bother me when
people try to pigeonhole us, it’s not
our business how each individual
chooses to think or feel,” states Full Of Hell
vocalist Dylan Walker. The so-called “harsh
grinding death” quartet have been causing
quite the stir in the metal scene for the past
six years, blurring the lines of genre definition
through marrying together death metal and
power electronics with elements of grindcore.
It has ruffled feathers to the point that some
websites such as Metal Archives refuse to even
list the band, but Dylan and co. could not
care less.
“On our tour with Immolation, they kept
calling us a powerviolence band and a couple
of weeks into it I did have to correct them,”
he laughs. “It gets so pretentious and stupid
trying to describe your own music, so we try
to avoid it.”
The band’s third full-length album under
their name alone, ‘Trumpeting Ecstasy’, has
recently been released and, in the four years
since previous opus ‘Rudiments Of Mutilation’,
their sound has evolved and transformed
into a beast that is almost unrecognisable to
where they first started. Full Of Hell have of
course collaborated with the likes of Merzbow
and The Body and it’s these partnerships
38 TERRORIZER #282
“It gets so pretentious and stupid
trying to describe your own music,
so we try to avoid it”
WORDS: Angela Davey
that Dylan considers responsible for the sound
they’re now producing.
“Merzbow taught us the value of
improvisation in a free jazz sort of sense and
that’s been applied to everything we’ve done
since live and on record,” he reveals. “The Body
are masters of creating brilliant pieces of work
in the studio, without any planning beforehand.
There’s a song on the record where the
drummer from The Body produced a beat for us
and we built a song in the studio based around
that – that’s something we would never have
done a couple of years ago, but now we have
these new toolsets thanks to their influence.”
The newest record features some extremely
high profile guest vocals from the likes of Aaron
Turner (Sumac, Old Man Gloom, ex-Isis), Nate
Newton (Converge), Andrew Nolan (The Endless
Blockade) and Canadian singer/songwriter
Nicole Dollanganger. While the likes of Aaron
and Nate make for understandable choices, it’s
difficult to see where Nicole would fit within
the turbulent sound of Full Of Hell. However,
for the band, she was an obvious choice.
“We found Nicole through Grimes; her voice
is totally sublime and angelic, I love her music
and we found out that she was a really big fan
of Full Of Hell and we thought that it was the
craziest thing that this pop artist from Ontario
was into this kind of music,” Dylan explains.
“We thought it would be cool to have a
melodic, female voice on the record and, again,
that is something that’s come from The Body,
because they always have these amazing guests
on their records with beautiful voices.”
“We started this band to go on tour and we
toured without even having a pressed release,
which was a stupid idea, but I feel like it shaped
us as people,” Dylan tells us, talking of the
band’s steady rise to notoriety. Despite only
existing since 2009, Full Of Hell have released
splits and worked with artists who are prolific in
the underground scene and have toured all over
the world. For Dylan, he feels it’s their plucky
attitude, stupidity and pure luck that have put
them where they are today.
“Touring DIY and doing things perhaps
before they should be done has had mixed
results,” he explains. “Going in blind, without
knowing how things worked and having
people shit on the records and losing money
has been a quick method of growing up. It’s
kept us humbled and grateful when things go
our way.”
‘Trumpeting Ecstasy’ is out now on
Profound Lore
FullOfHell.Bandcamp.com
OXBOW

Despite their constant activity in one form or another, the truth is that it took a
decade for OXBOW to come up with another full-length album to follow up 2007’s
‘The Narcotic Story’. It’s been worth the wait, as ‘Thin Black Duke’ is a major
kick in 2017’s head, a grandiose piece of music that defies just about everything –
expectations, categorisation, stagnancy, even the band itself…
WORDS: José Carlos Santos

40 TERRORIZER #282
A
t the beginning of our conversation, the
loquacious, opinionated and larger-than-life
figure that is frontman Eugene S. Robinson
tells us in detail how Oxbow records don’t stop
feeling like a dream sequence and become real to
him before a certain point in time, and reiterates
a lot of the work both the band and its members
have had in parallel over these last ten years.
Guitarist Niko Wenner then summarises the whole
speech with efficiency: “What he means is that
we’ve been working our asses off!” he exclaims
with a laugh, and right here in this exchange,
part of Oxbow’s essence is clearly visible. In the
red corner, fighter/writer/singer/serial undresser
Eugene, crooning, moaning, roaring and screaming
his tremendously deep and impactful lyrics, a sort
of chaotic, wild presence within the band. In the
blue corner, Niko, Dan and Greg, a super tight,
controlled three-headed machine of strength and
precision, providing an almost incomprehensible
level of musical richness in a way that hits
instantly and flows seamlessly.
“The short version is yes,” Niko says when we
ask if this duality is not only something deliberate,
but also nurtured in the way the
band writes and performs. “The
more interesting version is
two things – first, that we
have tried to change it, and
second, that in the end, we
didn’t. For this record, we
use a lot of push and take.
Everybody contributes to
it, and that friction is
really the point – I like to say Oxbow is a machine
that runs on friction. I think that in the end, when
you listen to what we do, what we end up with is
something that is greater than the whole. There is
a great melting pot feeling, with all the tensions
and all the differences, but despite that, what I
hear is something that works together. That’s why
it works, that’s why it’s interesting, and that’s the
most important thing to me.”
“I think that functionally, it becomes easy to
see this Apollonian and Dionysian divide, where
you’ve got order on one side and chaos on the
other, but we’re not really thinking of things like
that during the whole process,” Eugene offers.
“We’re answering not only the dictates of our
souls, but also kind of what the music is calling
out. In my view of my vocal contribution, I’m
not thinking of it in terms of chaos. I’m thinking
of it in terms of a one-to-one relationship with
an emotional truth. And I’m also listening to the
music, which dictates largely whether I’m doing it
better or worse, whether I’m aiding and abetting
or interfering… and at the same time, after giving
the lyrics to the rest of the band, we do make
adjustments in the traditional sense, like repeating
this part here twice, or something like that. We’re
all involved in making the best Oxbow that we can
make.”
“I’d just like to say, at the danger of pursuing
that polarisation question, I think it’s important that
we do think about the fact that the music on this
album was sometimes some of the most controlled
we’ve ever done,” Niko explains. “For example, we
did two and a half days of orchestral overdubs, and
those folks, these amazing players, they want to see
music on the page. You have to write it, you have
to use that printed language and communicate it,
and yet, still, within all that precision, there’s an
element of improvisation. So even with the element
of control, there’s always some improvisation, and
on the other hand, even with planned improvisation,
there’s always some control behind it.”
O
f course, most of you have surely
recognised the David Bowie reference in
the album’s title. So, why hark back to one
of the late great’s most creative (and intoxicated)
periods?
“I don’t know,” laughs Eugene. “Well, I do
know, but it was a complicated series of real
events and thematic events. Coming off ‘The
Narcotic Story’, these were some of the prevailing
lyrical ideas… initially we didn’t know if we’d get
[producer] Joe Chiccarelli to do it, and one of the
people we had met about it at the time was Tony
Visconti, David Bowie’s producer. It started to seem
like a weird harmonic convergence. He was great
and wonderfully self-effacing, I think his comment
to us was ‘you don’t need me! You’re doing fine!’
This was well before they started working on
‘Blackstar’ and had a kind of late career revival. He
was a wonderful guy, but we ended up getting Joe
“I’M NOT THINKING OF IT IN TERMS OF CHAOS. I’M
THINKING OF IT IN TERMS OF A ONE-TO-ONE RELATIONSHIP
WITH AN EMOTIONAL TRUTH”
instead after all. As a necessary bridge from ‘The
Narcotic Story’ to ‘Thin Black Duke’, it seemed
that the character from that previous record started
to have heft and dimension, it seemed to me like
a real person, and of course it was inspired and
driven by real people. Or person. Increasingly, there
seems to be an unforgiving kind of arithmetic that
drives personalities like that. So much so that you
have to wonder why are we here. I mean, you can
think about this largely when you think about
people in power. When I express confusion about
some of the actions of someone who’s wealthy;
‘guy’s got a hundred million dollars, why would
he do that?’ When I say something like that, Greg
[Davis, drummer] is fond of saying, ‘well, why do
you think? He wants more money!’, and I’m like,
‘but he’s got a hundred million dollars!’, and Greg
goes, ‘That’s not enough. It’s never enough.’ See,
it’s this spirit that embodies human activity, that it
seems quite comfortable with the notion that it’s
never enough. And if it’s never enough, it’s not
really about money. It’s about something else, and
it’s that something else that I feel increasingly is
guiding and controlling very clearly my life and
very possibly the lives of others, despite the fact
that people are routinely telling me that cash is
not everything. You’re right, but that doesn’t mean
we’re skipping through strawberry fields. It’s much
more ominous for me to hear somebody say that
cash isn’t everything. Cash would be a much more
comfortable explanation for people to do what
they do, but that ‘never enough’ that Greg talks
about, that’s what disturbs me, and that’s what I’m
focused on.”
In a way, the whole Oxbow body of work traces
the story of these vague characters.
“In my mind, you can take the records and
lay them one after another and lyrically it will
probably make as much sense as any single modern
novel,” Eugene suggests. “You can’t separate ‘Ecce
Homo’ from ‘The Snake And The Stick’, these
songs are connected in a lyrical landscape, with
the minor exception perhaps of moving between
first person and second person. The preoccupations
tend to circle around the same sorts of things, I
feel that the preoccupations that have kicked off
[1989 debut] ‘Fuckfest’ have concluded with ‘Thin
Black Duke’ insofar as the emotional tone given
by the record largely feels like the characters, or
the person, or the people, are in a different place.
Which I like – if you think about it, rock’n’roll
is predicated in a certain kind of hysteria. Chuck
Berry just died recently, and whether it’s the agita
of being an adolescent, which he kind of framed in
some of his earlier songs, to the twenties and the
unspecified disasters, love-related or not, these are
all different stages of life. At this point now, it ’s
the coldly, dispassionately existential concerns that
occupy my time and my days…”
‘Thin Black Duke’ is out now on Hydra Head
www.TheOxbow.net
TERRORIZER #282 41
 I WILL BE HEARD
GOLD

Dutch gang GOLD have upped their ante once more with ‘Optimist’, burrowing deeper
into their unconventional, post-everything path after ‘No Image’ had already sent them
into the wilderness – yet the continuity is obvious, with the personality of the band still
present. TERRORIZER asks guitarist THOMAS SCIARONE whether this shape shifting
nature was cultivated in a conscious manner…
WORDS: José Carlos Santos

“T
here is one thing that I’m very
pleased about in the way that you
introduced the question, which is
when you said that the personality of the band is
there,” says main songwriter and guitarist Thomas
Sciarone. “I think that’s somehow the key of it
all. ‘No Image’ was about a lot of things, but
the title was also like a middle finger to identity,
to all these bands that are so busy portraying
themselves and then put so little effort into
doing something original and worthwhile. A
lot of work on identity and very little work on
personality, and the goal should be personality.
It’s about being the best you can be, as a person,
as an artist, as a band, as a lover, as everything
you are. We’re very aware that it’s impossible to
not have an image – that’s an image too. That
was the irony.”
As for the lyrical approach, singer Milena Eva
tries to explain something which is often too
vague for words.
“I think that, with all our albums, the lyrical
concept is always something very personal,” she
says. “I am inspired by lots of things, I try to
listen to other people, the way they say things,
the words they choose… I like to read a lot too,
and the things I write are the reflection of my
life and the way I experience it. When the album
is done and I can listen to it in full, I get a lot
of perspective and that’s really when I find out
what it’s about, myself. When I write the lyrics
I’m not thinking about the themes of the songs,
that’s something that becomes clear afterwards.
I have to say I feel a lot more comfortable with
this process than when we started this band. I’m
not more comfortable with everything in life than
I was five or ten years ago, but with this means
of expression, I do. I’ve been writing songs pretty
much my whole life, and they have always been
very dark, but somehow things are getting a little
bit more clear now.”
What is also very clear is the band’s willingness
to have a very vocal opinion on current events and
worthy causes – both Thomas and Milena have
been strong advocates for feminism, social equality
and other crucial matters in several interviews and
statements. Does it still matter to try to reach
people when you’re in a band, in this day and
age? Milena instantly jumps to the reply…
“It’s the most important thing in the world! It’s
very important that at any time, at any moment,
you reflect, you think about what you think
about things,” she states. “Thomas and I gather
a lot of information about a lot of issues and we
like to have our own opinions and ideas about
everything, we’re very strongly opinionated and
we know what we’re talking about – because if
we don’t have any knowledge about a subject,
we don’t talk about it until we do. To me, it is
important that everyone has an opinion, but if you
have a stage, as small as it is, if you have people
listening to you, it’s even more important to
express yourself.”
“If you consider yourself an artist, you should
never let yourself be reduced to just being an
entertainer,” says Thomas, picking up the subject.
“If you have a stage, use it to confuse, to bewilder,
to inspire, to voice your opinion. We saw that
the other day at the women’s marches, and the
actresses and the singers were the most vocal
people out there. Not because they were saying
anything different to the other people, but because
they have a stage. Everyone knows who Madonna
is, for instance, so if she uses her stage to say
something political, she’s going to be heard. That’s
a powerful weapon. When a black metal band like
Krieg make all the Bandcamp profits from that day
go to planned parenthood, that’s a very important
message being sent out from a scene that’s often
perceived as narrow-minded and even conservative,
using that platform to say ‘this is what I think
is important’, as an artist. You don’t have to be
political as an artist, but if you have an opinion,
why not share it?”
‘Optimist’ is out now on Ván
www.TheBandGold.com

42 TERRORIZER #282
DRAGONFORCE
UK POWER METAL KINGS DRAGONFORCE FORGED THEIR OWN PATH WITH
BLISTERING SOLOS, BUT SHREDDER HERMAN LI EXPLAINS WHY NEW RELEASE
‘REACHING INTO INFINITY’ SEES THEM BREAKING OUT OF THEIR COMFORT ZONE.
WORDS: ROSS BAKER
S
even albums into their career, extreme power metal sextet
Dragonforce (comprised of guitarists Herman Li and Sam
Totman, keyboard player Vadim Pruzhanov, bassist Frédéric
Leclercq, singer Marc Hudson and drummer Gee Anzalone) take
umbrage with the idea that their music is just fantastical nonsense for
entertainment only. Polite and fairly mellow, Herman bristles at the
notion that his songs don’t discuss serious issues.
“People may think that the music sounds very happy, but there
are some sad songs on this record,” he begins. “We don’t write
nonsense – it’s actually harder to write nonsense than have a subject
to write about! Fred wrote the song ‘Silence’ about a friend of his who
committed suicide. It’s a deeply personal track that was very difficult for
him to compose. Subject matter gives you a direction and structure to
work to, every song means something.”
New album ‘Reaching Into Infinity’ saw Frédéric handle the majority
of songwriting, though Fred was quoted as saying that this was not
a straightforward record to make, with tempers flaring on more than
one occasion during the writing and recording processes. While his
bandmates may have been getting hot under the collar, Herman tries to
downplay any talk of dissent in the ranks.
“He might have been getting stressed, but I wasn’t,” Herman laughs.
“I used to get very stressed but I’ve tried to change how I approach
being in a band because it’s supposed to be fun. There’s no such
thing as an easy album. [2012’s] ‘The Power Within’ was the hardest
album we’ve ever made. The first album was difficult too, I think it was
because we were playing festivals in between recording sessions.”
Since their inception, songwriting in Dragonforce was largely
overseen by Herman and Sam. Herman admits to being “somewhat of
a control freak” in the past, but now sings the praises of his colleagues,
with the band more collaborative than ever before.
“In the beginning we had to have it our way, ‘you gotta play it
this way, you gotta sing it that way’, that kind of thing. We thought
that was the way to create our sound. The thing I’ve learnt is how to
work with people – we’re not like that anymore. I know people think
that Dragonforce are all about Herman and Sammy being annoying
and telling people what to do, but that’s not the case. When it came
to recording the album, Marc did all the vocals by himself. Our new
drummer Gee is really passionate with a fantastic work ethic, he ripped
it up. Even though it’s his first studio album with us, we demoed the
songs with a drum machine to guide him before he wrote all the drum
parts. You have to be comfortable to try things out and put your trust
in the abilities of others. We don’t even produce the albums anymore,
we learned that the way to extract better results from people was
letting them do their thing. This is a better way for Dragonforce to
improve and progress.”
W
hile Dragonforce has been Herman’s focus since 1999, the
guitarist has collaborated with a diverse collection of artists
from Tool to Babymetal and is extremely supportive of
Fred’s involvement in death metal supergroup Sinsaenum.
“All musicians need to learn from other musicians to improve and
get better. Any other projects we’re involved with are so different.
“IF YOU’RE GOING TO MAKE YOUR HOBBY INTO
YOUR CAREER THEN TRY NOT TO DESTROY
THE ENJOYMENT YOU GET FROM IT”
44 TERRORIZER #282
When Sam and I worked with Babymetal we learned a bunch of things
about live presentation. When I played with Tool a few years ago, I
was only onstage for one song in London, but I learned something.”
‘Reaching Into Infinity’ deals with man’s progression through
technology, something Herman is passionate about. While Dragonforce
have all the usual social media channels, the band members are
reluctant to have much of an online presence, preferring to keep
their private lives to themselves. To Herman, technology is a tool for
learning and the idea of voicing opinions or using social media to put
his views out there is something that is of little interest.
“I don’t really care, we’re not here to tell people what to think,”
he scoffs. “We’re pretty secretive and don’t post much on social
media. We don’t care about always having the final word on
Twitter. If I see someone write something incorrect online
I’m not going to bother correcting them. You can’t
give too much power to social media. I hate when I
see a sea of iPhones at a gig. Fans should watch live
musicians without a phone in front of their faces.
You’re missing the magic of the show if you’re too
busy taking photos. You’re left with a digital
memory that’s worse than the one in your
brain. I suggest people try it once and see
if they experience it better. It needs to be
said more. I’ve seen iPads too, it’s stupid.
I decided to spend my time learning how
to do new things with technology and
instead of sitting on my PC refreshing
Facebook or Twitter I read about how
to sound engineer. I do audio and video
editing and like to learn things to improve
my abilities. I’m a musician, I go on
tour all the time. I don’t need to use the
internet to enhance my social skills.”
Looking to the future, Herman is keen
to travel far and wide despite complaints
of being “screwed over by airlines” and
the long hours of travelling that come
with touring a record for the next two to
three years. Driven and ambitious, he’s keen
to set realistic goals for Dragonforce while
remaining optimistic about the band’s future.
“We’ve done this for so long, it never gets
easier,” he smiles. “We don’t concern ourselves
with how big our band is. If you’re going to
make your hobby into your career then try
not to destroy the enjoyment you get from it.
I’m glad that people still care about what we
do.”
‘Reaching Into Infinity’ Is Out Now On
earMUSIC
www.Dragonforce.com
TERRORIZER #282 45
CUT UP
Back with second album ‘Wherever They May Rot’, CUT UP’s ANDERS BERTILSSON
talks about how everything just got even more brutal
A
fter the dissolution of Swedish OGs
Vomitory in 2013, drummer Tobias
Gustafsson and bassist/vocalist Erik
Rundqvist figured that since the glorious gristle
of HM-2 death metal still coursed through their
veins, they were going to forge ahead even
it meant starting from scratch. By the time
early 2014 rolled around, the pair had quickly
recruited the guitar slinging tandem of Anders
Bertilsson [ex-Coldworker] and Andreas “Björte”
Björnson [Fetus Stench], christened themselves
Cut Up and created the caustic catchiness of
their debut, ‘Forensic Nightmares’.
“We had already all thought it would be fun
to do something together,” recalls Anders about
the band’s origins. “Then, I received a call from
them asking if I was interested. Of course, I said
yes and before we knew it, we were a four-piece
as we asked Björte to sing and play guitar and
he was onboard from that moment. Everything
went smoothly and we’ve been very productive
song writing-wise. We got the material for the
first album together really quickly, especially
when you look at how long we’d been around.
The first album was released in June 2015, but
it had been done for a long time as we had to
wait on Metal Blade’s release schedule.”
Sporadic festival appearances and one-
off gigs followed ‘Forensic Nightmares’, and
despite – or in spite of – a lack of sustained
touring, the band, bolstered by Björnson’s
46 TERRORIZER #282
WORDS: Kevin Stewart-Panko
prolific creativity, kept rehearsing and churning
out songs.
“Not touring led us to start writing album
number two and Andreas is like a machine gun
when he writes stuff,” praises Bertilsson. “He spits
out songs faster than anyone I’ve ever met, and
with a consistent quality.”
The result of this quick turnaround is
‘Wherever They May Rot’. Their sophomore
album is an amped up offering of the elements
showcased on their debut: the riffs and choruses,
especially in ‘From Ear To Ear’ and ‘Necrophagic
Madness’, are simultaneously more incisive and
playfully infectious; the lead work is fiery and
furious, yet masterfully phrased; the lyrical
topics are splattered with old time gore ‘n’ guts
(‘Cranium Crusher’, ‘Raped By The Blade’); and, if
there is in fact a “brutality” dial on the recording
console at Big Balls Studio in Karlstad, then it
was liberally turned to the right.
“We tried to take everything we thought we
did right on the first album and improve upon
it. Whenever you do a new album, there’s always
the excitement of doing something new and
fresh. We tried to incorporate more variety in the
songs and the fast stuff we wanted to do even
faster. Not for the sake of being fast, but for
the satisfaction of becoming better players and
using those skills. We love brutal music and we
love doing it in the way we feel is the right way.
Brutality, to me, is synonymous with aggression
“we wanted to be
more brutal, but
maybe perhaps
not in the way
that’s most easily
interpreted”
and we wanted the aggression to be obvious.
Brutality and aggression is the sum of it all; the
riffing, the singing, everything. In a way, we
wanted to be more brutal, but maybe perhaps
not in the way that’s most easily interpreted. We
wanted our brutality to carry some weight and
be… good, more or less,” he laughs.
Aside from the tricky balancing of schedules
and everyday responsibilities with the increasing
demands of a buzz-worthy band looking to
capitalise on that buzz and grow, an additional
issue confronting Cut Up is their emerging from
the shadow of Vomitory’s 24-year, eight album
career.
“Of course there are going to be similarities
with there being two members of Vomitory in Cut
Up. Also, myself and Andreas, we love Vomitory
as well [Bertilsson had actually filled in for
Vomitory live at various points], so perhaps there
will be hints in what we write. I guess it’s hard
to avoid certain similarities with two members
and the simple fact that we play death metal. If
you want to pick stuff apart and find similarities
here and there, it’s easy, but we all feel Cut Up
is its own thing and Andreas has written most of
the songs on both albums. To us, it’s clearly two
separate entities.”
‘Wherever They May Rot’ is out now on
Metal Blade
www.CutUpOfficial.com
HARVESTMAN

THE ONE AND ONLY STEVE VON TILL DISCUSSES HIS NEW HARVESTMAN
RECORD ‘MUSIC FOR MEGALITHS’ AND WHY BEING IN THE STUDIO IS LIKE
A RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE
WORDS: JOSÉ CARLOS SANTOS

48 TERRORIZER #282
W
e have to admit we were more excited than
usual with these things when we realised
Steve Von Till had put together a new
Harvestman record. Existing parallel to his activity
in Neurosis and his solo work under his own name,
Harvestman has always felt special and unique, in
the way that it combines all the aspects of Steve’s
artistic personality into a cohesive hole that is
profoundly evocative, thought-provoking and also
seemingly directly tied to nature, human thought
and history. Having laid mostly dormant, at least
to the public eye, since 2010, Harvestman rises
from the slumber of the ancient this time with
‘Music For Megaliths’, and it’s yet another journey
into mind, spirit and past.
“Since it’s a home studio project, with
Harvestman it’s always been about collecting,
revisiting, reapproaching and reimagining things,”
Steve starts, explaining the inner workings of the
project. “It’s not like sitting down and making
one record. Some of these ideas were probably
recorded the last time a Harvestman record came
out, a few of them, definitely right after that. It
happens when I’m in my studio experimenting, I’ll
put down little moments of inspiration and often
just walk away from them and put them aside for
a while. Then I’ll open up and revisit old things
some time later, with a fresh new perspective,
overdub some new idea on top and twist it into
something else, and then I’ll put it away again.
When there’s enough of these pieces that I feel
are good, when the reimaginations become kind
of cohesive and I feel that I have an album’s
“Nothing is sacred in the process. I’ll track all kinds of
things, then I’ll mutate it, destroy it, make it into something
else right up until the last moment”
worth of material, that’s when I’ll specifically sit
down and mix those pieces. So that’s what I did,
I narrowed the material down to the pieces that
seemed they were going somewhere, and then
it became a concerted effort. That still involves
a little subtraction or addition, but I think most
of all mixing it all in one go gives it a cohesive
nature as an album, as opposed to pieces over
different years, the last shaping all happens with
the same mindset, same equipment, in the same
time period. Nothing is sacred in the process. I’ll
track all kinds of things, then I’ll mutate it, destroy
it, make it into something else right up until the
last moment.”
And while the records might seem like deep
conceptual pieces when you’re engrossed in
them – which will happen quite easily, as few
other pieces of music exhale an atmosphere this
thick, and this prone to sweep you away – that
just speaks volumes about the evocative power of
the music, because there’s actually no underlying
specific concept.
“No, there’s actually no real concept with the
records, it’s more like a concept of the whole
project,” reasons Steve. “It’s kind of this illogical
combination of all the things that interest me that
don’t find expression in Neurosis or my solo work.
It’s just the love for home-recorded psychedelia,
folk music, ambient and electronics, the love
of ancient stone places and history, but not a
logical history, not what you read in the books
but an intuitive meditation upon earth and stone,
elements and our place in them. It’s more of a
primal, spiritual history.”
I
t’s interesting how Steve is able to extract such
a raw and honest portrait of nature using a lot
of instrumentation and methods that would
be completely off the radar for any other artist,
or dare we say it, any other folk artist. You don’t
usually hear folk people talking about electronics.
“Well, I’m not a traditional folk player,” Steve
laughs. “I don’t really feel like grabbing a fiddle
or a mandolin and trying to revisit things I’m not
an expert in. It’s more like a reimagining through
my own weird filters. It sounds crazy when I say
it and I hear my own words back at myself, but
for me it makes total sense to draw straight lines
through things like electronic music, krautrock,
Brian Eno’s ambient music, Tangerine Dream’s
synthesizer beds, Hawkwind’s psychedelic rock
in a Stonehenge free festival, going right back
through the British folk rock revival of the ’60s
and ’70s, back to the people who were collecting
folk recordings after the invention of recording
devices, all the way back to our primitive ancestor
that first discovered they like making sounds by
hitting sticks together. It’s all just the tools of
who we are at a given time, and it seems foolish
to not use all the tools we have available in our
current age to express it. I think all of it is a valid
way of using sound to trigger the imagination
and a meditative state. And electronics are
fantastic for that.”
Really, why limit ourselves with imaginary
boundaries? Everything is a tool, and just a sneak
peek at Steve’s “writing” process for Harvestman
proves that completely.
“Whatever happens first,” he says, when we
ask him what the initial spark to these songs
usually is. “It’s religious, almost, walking into my
home studio and turning on some equipment and
seeing what comes out. Sometimes I’ll have an
idea that I’ll chase in any given way, but usually
it’s mostly improvisation, I’ll just hook some
pieces of equipment together and start making a
sound. Most of the time I move on to something
else, occasionally something will resonate and I’ll
put it down, and I have no idea where it’s going
to go. Maybe it’s just a drone, maybe it starts
with just the electronics, the keys taped down
in one place to make a drone, and I’ll filter it
through different pedals. Or leaving the guitar on
the floor and letting it feedback through different
things and turning that into something else
before it gets to the recording device… it could
be anything.”
I
t seems to be a sort of freedom that even
Neurosis or Steve’s other solo work couldn’t
provide.
“There are definitely no rules,” he says
thoughtfully. “There’s also some parameters I’d
like it to exist in. For example, I don’t use… well,
I guess there’s no rule against it, but I’ve chosen,
and the music hasn’t demanded, for me to use
my voice, not the way I do with my solo material.
Although I can imagine those two things merging
a bit more than they do, but it never seems to
work out that way. I mean, it’s improvised – the
solo music is not improvised, Neurosis is most
definitely not improvised, it’s kind of forged in
their own ways. With the solo work I’m writing
songs that are concise and succinct and have
lyrical flow and patters, with Neurosis we have
our own strange, epic way of creating flow and
arrangement that once it’s set, it doesn’t vary,
but this is very improvisational. Actually, it’s
very inspired by dub. Not in the musical styles,
because I don’t play with those rhythms and
basslines, but with the idea of the great mixers,
like Adrian Sherwood or King Tubby or these
guys – it doesn’t matter what the band tracked,
that just becomes the paint. What matters is
what happens in the mixdown, in the dub mix
you’re totally manipulating instrument sounds
on the go and that becomes the performance,
and that’s definitely how I look at it too. That’s
what I meant by saying nothing is sacred – I will
filter, destroy, distort, delay, phase, flange, mutate
any of the original signals into something new
in the mixdown, so that it has kind of a life and
performance of its own, whereas the original
things that were tracked were just colours on the
way.”
Although they have points of contact, and
even if he plays shows where he mixes both
things, Steve Von Till and Harvestman records
keep existing as separate entities. Might we see
a Harvestman vs. Steve Von Till album at some
point? How would it feel doing a collaborative
split with yourself? Steve laughs at the idea, but
also realises it’s not just a joke.
“I don’t think the two things will merge in
that way, but who knows!” he says, still with a
booming laugh. “It’s such a free project, so maybe
they can, maybe they can’t. Who knows, time will
tell…”
‘Music For Megaliths’ is out now on Neurot
www.VonTill.org
TERRORIZER #282 49
FIRESPAWN
“We had a black canvas and
no expectation, apart from
pleasing ourselves”
suggests FIRESPAWN’s mainman VICTOR BRANDT about the band’s new
album ‘The Reprobate’. Victor talks about schedules, death metal and
the importance of a good drummer
A
h, the supergroup. Metal in general and
death metal in particular love them. The
problem is to sort the wheat from the chaff.
Some of these gatherings of (great) minds leave
behind a couple of albums that only begged
for more (Meathook Seed, Death Breath) while
others are condemned to remain a studio only
thing (Voodoo Cult, Comecon, Sinsaenum, most
of Rogga Johansson’s projects!). And then,
there’s the real deal; actual proper bands who
are here to build a career with albums, tours
and the whole nine yards. Following the recent
examples of Bloodbath and Memoriam, and
well aware that another quickly-put-together-
just-for-cash thing wouldn’t have taken them
very far, Firespawn’s main composer, and
Entombed/ Entombed AD bassist, Victor Brandt
knows damn well that by assembling around
him LG Petrov, Unleashed’s Fredrik Folkare,
Necrophobic’s Alex Friberg and former Dark
Funeral and Defleshed drummer extraordinaire
Matte Modin, he’s walking on eggshells.
“Of course, if we were a bunch of nobodies,
things wouldn’t have happened so fast,” he
reflects. “But the downsides of having us playing
in other bands is that we’re all super busy so
we have to schedule things ahead to make them
happen. But to answer your question, that’s
one thing we made very clear from day one
ever since we decided to put together what was
initially called Fireborn three years ago: this is a
50 TERRORIZER #282
WORDS: Olivier ‘Zoltar’ Badin
functioning and touring band, not some studio
thing we felt like doing after we realized we had
a two-week hole in our schedule. This involves
some serious planning; I mean, for this record,
Matte recorded the drums when the rest of us
were on tour with our respective main bands.
Then he left for Australia and we did our thing
before sending the whole thing to Lawrence
Mackrory from Darkane and F.K.Ü. for the mix
and the master. And while me and LG we were
touring the US with Entombed AD, we exchanged
internet files for weeks on end to fix all the little
details and voilà!”
With about twenty shows already under their
belt, booked Australian and Asian tours, plus
an appearance at Hellfest, Victor confirms they
felt they needed to strike while the iron was still
hot, even if it’s been only eighteen months since
their debut. Hence a new album which, like its
predecessor, sports a triptych-like painted cover
by Paolo Girardi, strongly suggesting it mainly
expands on what ‘Shadows Realms’ first launched
in late 2015.
“We had a black canvas and no expectation,
apart from pleasing ourselves. In between all
the experience we’ve accumulated between all
five of us, we knew exactly what we wanted. So
‘The Reprobate’ ain’t about changing, but more
a matter of sharpening our weapons, one could
say.”
Responsible for most of the ten songs, Victor
built his axis around two specific elements: his
love of classic US death metal such as Vital
Remains or Morbid Angel, and Matte’s extremely
fast yet super precise snare hit. While the former
could already be perceived in his short-lived mid-
’00s project Dominion (whose sole album, 2006’s
‘Born God And Aware’, can almost be regarded
as a blueprint for Firespawn), it was truly his
comrade’s drumming style that pushed him the
most.
“These days, a lot of young and upcoming
drummers can play fast. Very fast. But only a
handful are actually mature enough to go beyond
that ‘speed-for-the-sake-of-speed’ thing. Matte
always remains at the service of the song and
knows when to slow things down. When you have
somebody as diverse as him beating the drums,
there’s no limit to what you can do. And while LG
keeps his ear to the ground to make sure we’re
still relevant in the wake of the more recent death
metal acts and Alex helps me with the lyrics,
somebody like Fredrik makes sure we have the
right arrangements and choruses. All in all, it’s a
great team and as cliché as it may sound, we’re in
it for the love of death metal first and foremost.
And I already have two songs almost ready for the
next album so we ain’t going anywhere!”
‘The Reprobate’ is out now on Century
Media
www.Facebook.com/FirespawnOfficial
 c a p t u re the
a n ted to this
“W e w g i n
WOE

e of li v i n
ex p e r i e n c
a n d p ut it
ig ht now
wo r l d r
a n a l b um”
on

After a decade of existence, Us black metallers WOE have significantly increased

their profile with new album ‘Hope Attrition’. TERRORIZER spoke to mastermind
CHRIS GRIGG about soundtracking turbulent times…
WORDS: JOSÉ CARLOS SANTOS

I
t’s a shame we had this conversation with Woe’s
vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Chris Grigg
before the band went on their European tour,
during which they were on the receiving end of
a seemingly random ban from playing a show in
Germany (because they’ve played with Inquisition,
seemed to be the excuse this time) – we’re sure Chris
would have been extremely vocal about this issue.
Still, Woe’s statement published on their Facebook
really does speak by itself, as does the curiously
premonitive analysis Chris gave when asked about a
song that might represent their amazing new record,
‘Hope Attrition’, in the best way.
“I’m drawn to ‘No Blood Has Honor’,” he said
instantly, a song that whomever took the decision
of banning this band for whatever fictional political
reasons they might have dreamed up should be
forced to listen to over and over until their brains
melted. Chris continued, ironically enough not even
feeling the need to use it as a political statement
by this time: “Particularly live, when it’s boosted
a good 5-10 BPM and more unhinged. It was
written to embody the ‘Hope Attrition’ approach:
fury and despair, riffs introduced and reworked and
reintroduced, barely any time to breath until the
end. Lyrically, it’s about people, not politics, and it
makes the statement that I wanted it to make. The
world is a constant inspiration and I draw from it in
different ways. There’s an anxious, desperate quality
that I try to capture in Woe riffs. I think it represents
the chaotic spirit of modern life. The world feels so
fucked up right now and the human experience is
one of horror and despair at the same time, so that’s
what I’m drawing from.”
In any case, with that off our chests, Woe’s
tour continues at the time we’re writing this and
fortunately all other audiences apart from that one
show so far have had the wonderful chance to have
their faces ripped off by the Brooklyn quartet. They
have come a long way, and we don’t mean from
their original neighbouring New Jersey origin, but for
something that started quietly and undramatically
(pun intended, of course) as Chris’ solo thing, to
witness the whirlwind of impressive fury that Woe
has turned into is nothing short of breathtaking.
“Man, when I think about how it all started and
what I expected from it in the beginning, this is just
unreal,” Chris says, apparently still getting to grips

52 TERRORIZER #282
with the current dimension of the band himself. “It
was very much just an experiment, something I was
doing as both a fan of black metal and a songwriter
who wanted a bit more control over my work. I
didn’t think it would really take up much time, never
expected anything. In many ways, this is all so true
– I don’t expect anything, I don’t think we deserve
anything, and I am still 100% doing it because I am
a fan first. But the way it evolved, the places it’s
brought us… very surprising. We’re leaving for Europe
in one week. I still don’t quite understand it.”
I
n fact, the band are now old enough to have
even had a sort of reimagining in this latest
record, even going to the often maligned lengths
of changing their logo. Did that mean to signal
anything in particular?
“That is an excellent question!” he exults,
so apparently we hit upon something that was
important for Chris to explain. Let’s have it then.
“Originally, I had this idea for the logo to be slightly
reimagined for each release to match the themes
and tone. We moved away from the overt occult
imagery and instead focused on the passage of time,
introspection, and a subtle reminder of our anti-
Christian roots, but it still felt a bit too smooth and
serene to us. ‘Hope Attrition’ is a jagged, abrasive
album. It’s direct, straightforward. The logo needed
to match. Equitant did an amazing job capturing the
spirit of aggressive negativity that is the essence of
Woe and ‘Hope Attrition’.” There we go, from ‘new
logo’ to ‘perfect album description’, it wasn’t a big
leap.
We’re wondering, however, where this intensity
and this abrasiveness has come from. Is it just the
natural progression of the band or were any demons
tugging at Chris’ songwriting bones?
“When I wrote [2008 debut] ‘A Spell For The
Death Of Man’, I wanted a very particular, very black
metal sound in mind,” he reasons. “I knew what
the influences were, I knew how the whole thing
should feel, and since I had a completely clean slate,
I was free to just work on it until everything felt
right. With the subsequent albums, I still didn’t have
much in the way of obligations, but I did have this
self-imposed belief that I had to be careful to not
just rewrite the first album over and over again. As
a result, I wound up going some places sonically
that I didn’t expect. Since I didn’t enter into the
songwriting with as clear a vision, I’d follow the
song and let it go where it wanted to go, but this
meant there was less accountability, fewer rules.
Creatively, this is cool, and as a songwriter, I found
it very fulfilling. We got some songs out of it that
I’m very proud of and I hope everyone on those
records is, too. But with ‘Hope Attrition’, we reeled
it back in, narrowed focus again, and – much like
the first album – worked to ensure a particular
consistency of feeling, even if it meant a less diverse
album in comparison to the last two. It’s funny
to come across reviews that complain about this,
as if it wasn’t the goal! We wanted something
dark, unrelenting, and identifiably a Woe album.
We wanted to capture the experience of living
in this world right now and put it on an album.
The listener should come away from it feeling
exhausted. They should remember riffs if they’re
paying attention. They should think Lev [Weinstein,
drummer] is superhuman and recognize him as one
of the best drummers in extreme metal.”
Trust us, Chris, we do. We’ve heard Bloody
Panda, Krallice, Anicon and a whole bunch of other
bands he smashes his kit in for, so we know.
T
o wrap this up, we throw Chris the usual
“inspirations” question, and the reply is
refreshingly candid, so here we go.
“I’ve drawn a lot of influence from many bands
over the years. We’re built on a pretty typical
foundation, I think: old Emperor, old Ulver, Dawn,
Drudkh,” he lists. “I took more than a little Bolt
Thrower influence this time around, mostly their
attitude and focus, their willingness to stay the
course and keep pummelling you with a sound
that is distinctively theirs – that really sunk in. A
lot of the momentum and the decision to focus
on low vocals on this album can be traced back
to them. Outside of metal, I think you could hear
some different influences in my arranging. I’ve been
listening to a lot of Depeche Mode again lately and
realized just how much I draw from their approach
to building on themes and introducing subtle
variations to keep things moving but still familiar.
Prince has been on rotation almost constantly, too.”
All of them timeless artists, as Woe themselves
seem to have become. And will be for a long time,
too. “We are already thinking about what comes
next,” Chris concludes. “We will be talking shit for a
long time.”
‘Hope Attrition’ is out now on Vendetta
www.Facebook.com/WoeUnholy
TERRORIZER #282 53
 10 PURE GENIUS 4-5 PASS
8-9 POT OF GOLD 2-3 PISS POOR
6-7 PASSES THE TIME 1 PILE OF SHITE

ALBUM OF THE MONTH

TRUMPETS AT DAWN

FULL OF HELL
‘Trumpeting Ecstasy’
PROFOUND LORE

Y ou might think you like intense, loud, heavy music,

but you don’t really. Not, like, properly; of course,
that band you like are pretty heavy, probably. But they’ve
this album is the one to catch
up with if you’ve missed Full
Of Hell so far. On the one hand,
most convincing impressions
of Pig Destroyer/Agoraphobic
Nosebleed’s Scott Hull you’ve
got nothing on Full Of Hell. it’s far more straightforward ever heard. Full Of Hell could
This isn’t to say that Full Of Hell are louder, more than those collaborative albums sound like other bands if
de-tuned, deeper or have a crunchier guitar tone than all – this is, first and foremost, they wanted to, but they
those crappy death metal bands your weird mate likes. a grindcore album. However, don’t. Mention must be made
It’s something far more unsettling than that. There’s a saying it’s a grind album of the title track, featuring
genuine intensity to their music that isn’t found in any doesn’t really do this justice. deceptively calming – or
amount of roaring about praising a great demon who you Full Of Hell are one of the few creepy, depending on how
don’t really even believe in. The horror in Full Of Hell’s contemporary bands who’ve you look at it – singing from
world is something far deeper than gore or monsters: really captured the spirit of old-fashioned powerviolence, Canadian singer-songwriter Nicole Dollanganger, before
it’s the horror of self-hatred, genuine misanthropy, the in the sense that it all just feels kind of… wrong. There’s all hell breaks loose again. The track is one of the most
realisation of the way we’ve utterly failed the world and something unsettling about this album. It’s not just obvious places on the album to show the band’s penchant
each other. To set the tone: the album opens with a aggression and anger, but also something more deeply for power electronics, although noise is used throughout
distorted Werner Herzog telling us that even trees “are in troubling that motivates this album and band. in an interesting and subtle way.
misery.” Full Of Hell could easily do the things other bands This is a full-on blast of an album that shows how
While it’s hard to keep up with the band’s seemingly do, if they wanted. The screeching and bellowing vocals one-note a lot of other extreme bands are. Essentially, if
endless stream of split releases, EPs and collaborations – could go toe-to-toe with any number of death metal you want to feel uncomfortable in your own skin, this is
last year saw the release of ‘One Day You Will Ache Like I bands, and there’s riffs that prove that the band could just the ticket.
Ache’, produced along with The Body, while previous effort play hardcore punk or even black metal if they felt like it. [9] ED CHAPMAN
‘Full Of Hell & Merzbow’ does what it says on the tin – ‘Crawling Back To God’, meanwhile, features one of the

54 TERRORIZER #282

THE BUG VS EARTH
‘Concrete Desert’
NINJA TUNE
S prawling electronic soundscapes,
wrapped up in western guitar twang
– there was never going to be a title for
this record more appropriate than ‘Concrete
Desert’. This collaboration between industrial/
electronic artist Kevin Martin (AKA The Bug)
and Dylan Carlson of psychedelic drone band
Earth doesn’t feel so much like a “versus” as
it does a partnership, with each respective
act’s contributions complimenting each other
perfectly. The Bug lays down cold, bleak
ALFAHANNE
‘Det Nya Svarta’
INDIE
T his is the third effort
from Sweden’s black
’n’ rollers, Alfahanne. ‘Det
Nya Svarta’ (or ‘The New
Black’) is a high energy
romp through the side of black metal that
doesn’t take itself quite so seriously. Each
song is well produced and stupidly catchy,
however, with each album since the release
of debut ‘Alfapokalyps’ it feels as though
the band are less impactful. This isn’t to
say that this is by any means a bad record,
it just doesn’t grab you with the immediacy
that their first effort managed to. It’s clear
that, without the buzz of high profile guest
musicians such as Niklas Kvarforth and
Hoest propping up Alfahanne’s sound, they
struggle a little bit.
[6] ANGELA DAVEY
ALL HELL
‘The Grave Alchemist’
PROSTHETIC
W hat is immediately
evident upon first
hearing this latest album
by the North Carolina black
thrash trio is the amount
of hooks contained within the songs; All Hell
have them in abundance, and very sharp
they are too. There’s a strong punky edge to
their sound too, with raucous Frost-ian riffs
speeding along at an energetic pace, alongside
mercilessly thundering drums and barking,
blackened vocals. They know how to mix things
up effectively too, slowing the tempo down in
places and launching into mid paced sections
which bludgeon you like a sledgehammer. The
combined mix of influences and variation makes
this album an engrossing listen which keeps
your attention throughout.
[8] KAT GILLHAM
electronic beats as the foundation of each
track, leaving breathing space for Dylan
Carlson’s unmistakable guitar tone to work its
magic over the top. The two elements play off
of each other to create an atmosphere that
feels desolate and melancholic.There is the
occasional moment that will have your toe
tapping, however. The highlight of the album
is most definitely ‘Snakes VS Rats’ – it’s the
most up tempo of all the songs here, starting
with a static intro that leads into an almost
dubstep like dynamic, before strong and steady
chords ring out over the top. The beat writhes
ALNAMROOD
‘Enkar’
SHAYTAN
‘A narchy’ in Western
music these days has
pretty much devolved to just a
symbol affixed to pop-punkers’
denim jackets. In the Middle
East, however, where playing metal can literally
result in being stoned to death or beheaded
for apostasy, Saudi black-metallers AlNamrood
bring renewed legitimacy to the ideology. Now
six albums in, the three-piece continue to put
their lives at risk to create art. AlNamrood’s
black metal might be fairly rudimentary (they’re
primarily influenced by the punkish sting of first
wave bands), but there’s palpable passion to the
delivery, fitting exotic embellishments, and a truly
original vocal performance from Humbaba, who
maniacally jabbers and shouts like the Arabian
kin of Attila Csihar, Jello Biafra, or Juan Brujo.
[7.5] DEAN BROWN
ANCIENT ASCENDANT
‘Raise The Torch’
CANDLELIGHT
H ere’s some advice. If
you’re going to get
a dog, don’t get yourself
a so-called “pure breed”.
Get yourself a mongrel, a
proper mutt, as you’ll be getting a hardier,
healthier, and happier beast… words which
could also be used to describe Reading
riffmongers Ancient Ascendant on their
latest album, ‘Raise The Torch’, which cross-
breeds everything from death ’n’ roll and
blackened thrash to hook-infused stadium-
rock in a gloriously “give no fucks” fashion.
Granted, there’s still a little bit of room for
improvement, as the album takes a few
tracks to really find its feet, but once things
get going, the AA train really builds up some
steam. Get on board ASAP.
[7] ANDY WALMSLEY
like a serpent, dropping out at all the right
moments. Martin and Carlson are undoubtedly
figureheads of their corresponding genres, so
this is a meeting of minds that would obviously
yield impressive results, and yield impressive
results it has. ‘Concrete Desert’ is one of the
most creatively unique releases to grace the
alternative music scene this year and it makes
for an intriguingly addictive listen – there is
something new to discover with each and every
playthrough, making for a release that has
staying power.
[8.5] ANGELA DAVEY
AVATARIUM
‘Hurricanes And Halos’
NUCLEAR BLAST
A vatarium’s third album
continues to mine a
rich vein of modern doom
and traditional blues rock,
with the same sense of
creative exploration and song-writing flair which
made their previous releases praiseworthy.
Candlemass’s Leif Edling wrote six of the eight
songs and he brings a wealth of experience and
direction to the music, while Marcus Jidell’s
guitar playing across the board is both delicate
and impactful, just like the band’s jewel –
vocalist Jennie-Ann Smith. Smith’s jazz and blues
background gives the soulful singer the requisite
gravitas needed for keyboard-enhanced doom this
dynamic. And now that The Devil’s Blood are sadly
no more, Avatarium fill the void with aplomb
while still growing in stature with each release.  a crimson-tainted Kristian ‘Necrolord’ Wåhlin…
[8] DEAN BROWN
AZARATH
‘In Extremis’
AGONIA
T he idea of going “back
to basics” is a popular
one right now, with everyone
from DC Comics to Donald
Trump touting a return to
some mythical golden age when everything was
better/simpler. So how does the same approach
work out for Polish blastmeisters Azarath?
Honestly, it’s a slightly mixed bag. The sheer
ferocity of tracks like ‘Annihilation’ and ‘Parasu
Blade’ definitely gives your eardrums a solid
beating, and there’s no questioning the pure
percussive punishment doled out on the utterly
savage ‘Sign Of Apophis’, but the album as a
whole seems a little less than the sum of its
parts, making for one furiously intense, but
frustratingly predictable, listening experience
overall.
[6] ANDY WALMSLEY
WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE
THE BUG (AKA KEVIN
MARTIN) ON MEETING DYLAN
CARLSON AND HOW THE
ALBUM WAS BORN
“W e met via the guy who was eventually
responsible for the ‘Concrete Desert’
artwork, Simon Fowler. I mentioned to Simon, when
I began making my ‘Angels & Devils’ album, that
I would love to work with Dylan, and wanted to
approach him to appear on ‘A&D’. But once Dylan
and I worked together, I realised my collab with him
deserved its own space, and it would be better to
release the material separately. Those initial record-
ings would subsequently become our first single,
as The Bug Vs Earth, ‘Boa/Cold’ on Ninja Tune. The
reception had been pretty emphatic, and more to the
point for me, I felt that sound of the single was totally
FRESH, and could be a perfect foundation to build
upon. I liked the fact we had come from different
musical backgrounds but seemingly bonded via our
love of drone, dub, cinematic soundtracks and disori-
entating volume.”
BELOW
‘Upon A Pale Horse’
METAL BLADE
N arrowing Below to the
new heir to Candlemass’
throne circa ‘Chapter VI’
wouldn’t exactly hit the mark
and doesn’t do this or their
first album justice. Yes, there’s still plenty of
drama and dark overtones here but their far more
complex and epic structures recall another great
Swedish tradition from the first half of the ’90s,
as represented by Memento Mori, Hexenhaus or,
to a certain extent, Morgana Lefay. Yes, that very
peculiar mix of classic doom and power metal
with almost progressive arrangements can be
quite demanding, especially when rounded off by
a bombastic production and an operatic singer,
but it sounds beautifully alien in 2017. Too bad it
wasn’t released through Black Mark in 1993 with
[7] OLIVIER ‘ZOLTAR’ BADIN
BEREFT
‘Lands’
PROSTHETIC
R einforced by drummer
Michael Kadnar for this
recording (shame he was
only a session musician,
hopefully the new guy can
replicate this fantastic performance), Bereft
have stepped up their game immensely from
their 2014 debut. ‘Lands’ provides four songs
in 44 minutes, during which they rip shred after
shred off your soul with punishing, blackened
doom dirges that feel as desolate and barren
as the best funeral doom and as devastating
and headache-inducing as the best slow-paced
black metal, without actually being either of
those things. File next to Bell Witch or Loss and
let those longing guitar leads cut through your
heart as well as they cut through the enveloping
noise.
[8] JOSÉ CARLOS SANTOS
TERRORIZER #282 55

CRAVEN IDOL
‘The Shackles Of Mammon’
DARK DESCENT
“S ummon the
fucking flames!”
is not only a great way to
kick off a song but also a
decent estimation of Craven
Idol’s intentions with their second full length.
Drawing on early Teutonic thrash and black
metal, ‘The Shackles Of Mammon’ is built on
rock-solid black thrash foundations – complete
with Crosswrecker cover – but is nevertheless
full of surprises. Bumping head-banging
down the agenda, ritualistic choral chanting
and twisted lead work help signpost a highly
individual black magick that stamps its
authority all over the album’s eight tracks. Far
from short on ragers, head-banging is still very
much on the menu but in this context feels
more like repeated bowing to the Dark Lord.  listens. A band to watch.
[8] TIM HORROCKS
CRYPT ROT
‘Embryonic Devils’
SOUTHERN LORD
A n Ohio-dwelling five-piece
who feature one current
and two former members
of metallic hardcore sorts
Homewrecker, Crypt Rot have
wasted no time on demo tapes or other introductory
niceties, going straight into twenty-minute debut
‘Embryonic Devils’. Comprised of five proper
songs and five creepy interludes, the vibe here is
equal parts downtuned death metal and crusty
HC battery, not a thousand miles off Young And In
The Way, Nails or Homewrecker themselves. It’s not
always distinguished, but ‘Coffin Birth Post Mortal
Fetal Extrusion’ – not the wilfully foolish goregrind
its title suggests – zips from a momentarily
glorious melody into a passage of kickpedalled
ferocity, while ‘Pit Of Morbidity’s pristine doom intro
is both incongruous and impressive.
[6.5] NOEL GARDNER
GOD DETHRONED
‘The World Ablaze’
METAL BLADE
W ho ever truly believed God Dethroned’s
so-called short term ‘split’ five years
ago? For a start, Henri Sattler had long been
stirring the ship by himself with a rotating cast
of musicians, and secondly, when they released
‘Passiondale’ back in 2009, he repeatedly said
this was the first volume of a planned trilogy
dedicated to World War I, now finally complete
thanks to ‘The World Ablaze’. And yes, this is
for the best. Simply put, if you dug the third
part of their now 25-year existence from 2004’s
‘The Lair Of The White Worm’ onwards, where
they started injecting the right dose of melody
and thrash into their death bravado, you’re
in for a treat. While not much has changed
and the lyrical concept has that strong sense
of déjà vu, the freshness and tightness of
56 TERRORIZER #282
“AFTER MORE THAN
JUST RAGE”
CURSUS
‘Cursus’
ARTIFICIAL HEAD
S an Antonio duo
Cursus come flying
out of the blocks on this,
their debut album. CJ
Salem and drummer Sarah
Ann have fashioned something bleak and
funereal over six brooding and dark songs.
Neurosis, YOB and Ufomammut are clear
influences: some drone, fat slabs of riff and
much melancholy. But what sets this release
apart is second song ‘Waters Of Wrath’, a
huge rumbling beast of a doom tune with a
hook so large you could catch a shark with it.
Their cover of Pink Floyd’s ‘Set The Controls
For The Heart Of The Sun’ is unnecessary and
laborious, but that aside Cursus’s amplified
dirges and raging distortion bear repeat
[7] ANDREW FIELD
DØDSENGEL
‘Interequinox’
DEBEMUR MORTI
B lack metal is a funny
genre. It rewards both the
orthodox and the unorthodox
in different ways, and it’s
really only those who play it
safe, or who refuse to fully commit themselves,
who fail to prosper. Thankfully there’s nothing
safe or noncommittal about Dødsengel. Part
Mayhem, part Pink Floyd, part King Diamond,
and part King Crimson, their latest collection of
occult hymns is brimming with all the slithering
grooves, seductive melodies, and unsettling,
unconventional twists which you’d expect. And
while it’s perhaps a song too long, this is still
one hell of an album – visceral, moody, and
disturbingly catchy – that’s perfect for those
who like their black metal with a dose of eerie
eccentricity.
[8] ANDY WALMSLEY
his new brigade, with a special mention to
Detonation shredder Mike Ferguson, gives God
Dethroned a strong new lease of life that turns
their tenth full-length into a damn fine death
metal album.
[7] OLIVIER ‘ZOLTAR’ BADIN
EMPLOYED
TO SERVE
‘The Warmth Of A Dying Sun’
HOLY ROAR
F
ive years on from their first EP, Woking’s
Employed To Serve are still venomously
angry. Sophomore effort ‘The Warmth Of A
Dying Sun’ confronts with all the jagged, atonal
guitars, dizzying, shifting grooves and throat-
ripping screams you’ve come to expect. ‘Good For
Nothing’ leers with muscular chugging, evoking
Code Orange, and ‘Church Of Mirrors’ shifts
constantly through mathy noodling and tumbling
blastbeats, refusing to be pinned down. If the
band left it there, this would be a solid enough
modern metallic hardcore record, but when
‘Lethargy’ blooms into life with lush chords, slow
melodic builds and a soaring tremolo section
before crashing to earth with dagger-sharp riffs
and layered screams, it becomes clear that the
five piece are after more than just rage.
The title track runs from spoken word
straight into uplifting, cathartic drives before
unravelling into held chords and lashings of
unexploited negative space. ‘Half Life’ jars with
APATHY IN THE UK
VOCALIST JUSTINE JONES ON THE NEW ALBUM’S LYRICAL THEMES
“T he lyrics for ‘The Warmth Of A
Dying Sun’ are inspired by our
generation’s apathy for life and the bitter
sweet feeling of knowing that all good
things come to an end. We’re tired of
DREAM EVIL
‘Six’
CENTURY MEDIA
W hen it comes to heavy
metal, Dream Evil wrote
the book in 2004, and it was an
epic tale of borderline-parody
status. But the sequels are
never as good, are they? It’s been seven years since
Dream Evil have released an album, and ‘Six’ fails to
reach their previous cartoonish heights of balls-out
heavy metal. Opening with ‘Dream Evil’ – where the
chorus features Niklas Isfeldt repeatedly singing
the band’s name, perhaps to prevent listeners from
muddling this tediously straightforward album
with the latest Hammerfall release, which is easily
done when both records are equally uninspired and
simplified. Unfortunately, this brazen attempt to write
a no-nonsense album of headbanger anthems sees
Fredrik ‘melodeath master’ Nordstrom creating a brain-
dead monster that stomps around loudly, but aimlessly.
[3] SERENA CHERRY
atonal, frantic tremolo and punishing drums,
slowing into a majestic, uplifting locked-in
climb. ‘Apple Tree’ ends in a similar vein,
wandering, jangling guitar that slowly exhaust
their wistful melancholia with repeated looping.
It’s a nice enough climax, but perhaps ending
with the fist-skyward euphoria of ‘Half Life’
would have been a stronger finale. The only true
criticism here is that some tracks shine a little
less brightly than these more varied efforts, the
likes of ‘Never Falls Far’ a tad ‘safe’ in their
hardcore foundations. No matter, this is ETS
grabbing you by the throat, staring into your eyes
and compelling you to believe.
[8] JAY HAMPSHIRE
people griping about the inadequacy of their
lives and doing nothing to change it. Do
everything in your power to achieve what you
want in life before you become a withered
shell.”
EARTH ELECTRIC
‘Vol 1: Solar’
SEASON OF MIST
F rom the ever-morphing minds
of Carmen Simões and Rune
Eriksen (AKA Blasphemer of Aura
Noir and ex-Mayhem fame) comes
the Portuguese/Norse experi-metal
power couple’s latest move. Following the collapse of
Ava Inferi, the doom/goth sound and Skeletor costumes
have been shucked in favour of Yes, Deep Purple, flares
and Bill Ward’s ‘Sabotage’ get up. But it’s not all nerdy
prog rock/proto metal as there’s a definite psychedelic
leaning towards Simões’ soprano channelling Lucy’s
diamonds in the sky, and how Messenger keyboardist
Dan Knight stamps this debut with a dynamic organ
moan. However, it’s very clear that without session
player Knight’s contributions, Earth Electric is very
much a progressive metal band à la Madder Mortem
and post-‘Focus’ Cynic. It’ll be interesting to see what
direction this takes next.
[7] KEVIN STEWART-PANKO

ECSTATIC VISION
‘Raw Rock Fury’
RELAPSE
‘R aw Rock Fury’ is self-
descriptive – Ecstatic
Vision play heavy psychedelic
rock with grooves and rhythms
that are more energetic than
lackadaisical. The record is still very warm and
fuzzy, but slightly more focussed than your average
psych-rock outing. Ecstatic Vision’s secret weapon
is their saxophone, which essentially handles the
duties that a lead guitar would, but adds another
texture to the music. Album closer ‘Twinkling Eye
Pt. 3’ is the highlight, with feelgood vibes that
escalate to screaming psych madness. ‘Twinkling
Eye Pt. 1’ feels like an unnecessarily long interlude
of sorts, running at six minutes, a sizeable chunk
of the 37 minute runtime. ‘Raw Rock Fury’ might
not do anything particularly new, but it’s good at
what it does.
[6] TOM SAUNDERS
EXTINCTION OF MANKIND
‘Storm Of Resentment’
AGI-PUNK
I f you’re not really feeling
the new material from
Antisect but still crave that
rush of adrenalin you felt
when you first heard the
metallic crust punk they peddled so expertly
in the mid-’80s on releases such as ‘In
Darkness There Is No Choice’ and ‘Out From
The Void’, then look no further than this new
Extinction Of Mankind album, because these
guys continue to channel the spirit and sound
of that long-gone era better than anyone else.
‘Storm Of Resentment’ is literally just that;
a perfect storm of metal and punk, equal
parts early Slayer, Motörhead and Sacrilege,
that shreds asunder everything before it
in a blizzard of jagged thrashing riffs. An
awesome noise by anyone’s standards.
[8.5] IAN GLASPER
MONOLITHIAN
‘The Waning Moon’
ATOMSMASHER/BAD ROADER/
AUTONOMONSTER/CHARLIES BIG RAY GUN
‘T he Waning Moon’ finds Cornish doom duo
Monolithian expanding their sound whilst
retaining their glorious heaviness, with the
dreamy, delay drenched ‘Nyarlathotep’ recalling
Kyuss’ more intoxicated moments and ‘Ixodes’
utilising some seriously harsh, noisy screams.
Drummer Shannon Green provides more vocals
too, with her impassioned screech complementing
bassist Simon Walker’s lower, guttural bellow
perfectly on opener ‘Crone’, as thunderous, rolling
double-kick bursts give way to torturous sludge,
before an ice-cold black metal midsection blasts
out of nowhere and the duo trade call-and-
response vocals over a righteously punky outro.
On paper, that might sound a bit schizophrenic,
but Monolithian make these disparate elements
58 TERRORIZER #282
“THEIR MOST
EXPANSIVE AND
ALL-ENCOMPASSING
WORK YET”
EXTREMITY
‘Extremely Fucking Dead’
20 BUCK SPIN
E xtremity are about
as subtle as an axe
blow to the back of the
head, the crude title of
their debut offering giving
an indication of what this album contains
musically – DEATH METAL! And a very
deadly strain of the genre will infect your
senses from the onset, with its relentless
barrage of solid heavy riffage, bludgeoning
bass, low deep growls and powerful, potent
percussion. These six tracks are as old
school in both sound and style as you can
get, unapologetically savage and sadistic
in their intent with every instrument sharply
cutting through the mix. Extreme by name,
extreme by nature – this is pure death
metal.
[8] KAT GILLHAM
FARSOT
‘Fail·Lure’
PROPHECY
W
ith ‘Fail·Lure’
thematically part
inspired by Peter Greenaway’s
‘Drowning By Numbers’,
Farsot’s conceptually dense
darkness is always going to be considered
avant-garde music for the real thinkers out
there. Glistening guitar work adds atmospheric
light and it is the subtler shades within the
framework that draw into this illuminating world
rather than all-out burgeoning blackness. When
that hits and 10.XIXt’s vocals rear from clean
harmonies to guttural clamour, this makes it all
the more effective. Lushly augmented by a deep
and gorgeous V. Santura production, as with
Secrets Of The Moon, these Germans are really
taking their craft to another level; one just a
step away from pure genius.
[8] PETE WOODS
gel smoothly, without ever compromising
the colossal, earth-shaking groove that runs
throughout the record – we dare you to keep your
head stationary during the gargantuan bounce of
closer ‘Mantis Rider’. It’s impossible.
[8.5] KEZ WHELAN
OXBOW
‘Thin Black Duke’
HYDRA HEAD
T rying to adequately describe, quantify or
codify what Oxbow does in the limited
amount of space available in this magazine,
let alone on the entire planet, is virtually
impossible. The Bay Area outliers are arguably
the most singular and unique sounding band
in rock music, if not all of music. The past has
had desperate critics – including this one –
referring to them as ‘avant-garde gutter blues’
or something of the sort, which considering
the indescribability of every moment of the
band’s almost 30-year history, is as correct
and incorrect a descriptor as ‘experimental
noise rock’ or anything else you care to haul
out. It’s been a decade since ‘The Narcotic
Story’ and if you give Oxbow that amount of
time to tinker, it should be a given that ‘Thin
Black Duke’ is the band’s most expansive and
all-encompassing work yet, drafting in more
neo-classical layers, Prohibition-era horns
THE LAST GOOD TIME
GUITARIST NIKO WENNER ON HIS EVOLVING COMPOSITIONAL STRATEGY
“C ertainly we all became increasingly
aware that none of us are getting
younger. For this record I wanted to go even
further in the way we always make recordings,
as music that hangs together over an entire
album, ‘large scale coherence’ if you will. I
FIRESPAWN
‘The Reprobate’
CENTURY MEDIA
P ower is nothing without
control. And no matter
how brutal or how fast you
want to roar, you’ll never be
as good as your drummer.
That is, unless you have Matte Modin in your
team. Not to undermine the rest of Firespawn’s
effort: Entombed’s LG Petrov distinctly growls
in a more guttural and menacing way here and
Unleashed’s Fredrik Folkare’s tasteful soloing also
make a difference, but it’s really Modin’s uncanny
technique (enhanced by Darkane vocalist Lawrence
Mackary’s pristine production) that propels ‘The
Reprobate’ into the A-list. Yes, you’ve heard it
before, yes, the title-track owes some royalties to
Morbid Angel’s ‘Where The Slime Live’ but since
Vital Remains’ ‘Forever Underground’, you haven’t
heard maliciousness propelled at such pace.
[7.5] OLIVIER ‘ZOLTAR’ BADIN
and Niko Wenner’s strangled guitar for Eugene
Robinson to wreak havoc with his transfixing,
chameleonic vocals. At once, Oxbow’s seventh
album is the most conventional (the driving
rock of ‘A Gentleman’s Gentleman’), classiest
(the parlour smoothness of ‘Cold And Well-Lit
Place’), densest (‘The Finished Line’ which
teems with noise orchestration) and esoteric
(well, pretty much everything else) slice of art
scraped off the surface of their twisted minds.
This is a record that can’t be done justice in
a couple paragraphs, can’t be digested in a
few listens and it’s one we’ll be coming back
to repeatedly.
[8.5] KEVIN STEWART-PANKO
was inspired by pieces like Bach’s ‘Goldberg
Variations’ and the formal technique in
classical music where a small idea, a kernel, is
reiterated, morphed, expanded and truncated,
to make a piece of music permeated with the
potent perfume of that small element.”
GROG
‘Ablutionary Rituals’
MURDER
G rog’s fourth full-length
also signals the 25th
anniversary of this Portuguese
institution, and fortunately
maturity has also come along
with age. Quoting the band themselves, they’re
more interested in what lies beyond the wound now,
rather than just poking at it with dirty fingers, and
‘Ablutionary Rituals’ focuses much more on the
psychological dark side of (in)humanity rather than
just stomping on the usual severed limbs and guts.
The music follows suit – while Grog maintain the
dizzying technical heights they’ve spoiled us with
in the past and their blitzkrieg death/grind hasn’t
slowed down or mellowed out one iota, the depth of
the songwriting and the variety of ways in which a
listener’s brain can be pummelled have increased
tenfold. Dive in, if you dare.
[8] JOSÉ CARLOS SANTOS

GURT
‘Skullossus’
WHEN PLANETS COLLIDE
T here’s something leaner
and meaner about
London based sludge slingers
Gurt on second album,
‘Skullossus’. Their relentlessly
sarcastic approach lives on, made clear with
song titles like ‘Battlepants’, ‘The Crotch
Wobbler’ and ‘Meowing At The Fridge’. What’s
changed is the bands’ tone, which bristles
with new menace, and their approach to song
construction, seeing them throw elements of
something approaching hardcore into their
usual sludgy mix. The result is a more varied
and intimidating listen than their debut that’s
familiar enough to keep diehard fans happy
while dragging in new ones by the scruff. Still,
there’s a lingering sense that the best from
Gurt might be yet to come.
[7] JAY HAMPSHIRE
HARVESTMAN
‘Music For Megaliths’
NEUROT
S O
teve Von Till’s first release
as Harvestman for seven
years is a welcome return for
the Neurosis man’s psychedelic
folk sideline, yet ‘Music For
Megaliths’ manages to switch up styles. The
cloudy, drone-powered atmospheres of releases like
2005’s traditional-arrangement-peppered ‘Lashing
The Rye’ endures, but overall Von Till moves further
away from the kinda ‘folk’ you might hear in a real
ale pub. ‘Ring Of Sentinels’ and ‘Levitation’ are
aided by a puttering drum machine; ‘Cromlech’
traces delightful spacerock patterns, reminiscent of
acts like Flying Saucer Attack and Roy Montgomery.
The idyll is pricked by ‘Sundown’, which punctuates
its minor chord mooching with repetitive sheets
of abrasive white noise, but this remains a fine,
emotionally resonant release.
[7.5] NOEL GARDNER
SKYCLAD
‘Forward Into The Past’
LISTENABLE
D espite never having broken up at any point
since their 1990 formation, ‘Forward Into
The Past’ is the venerable folk metallers first
album since 2009. And while it’s an enjoyable
offering of a subgenre once thought of as
novelty, it’s still challenging to not pine for the
gravel of former vocalist, Martin Walkyier, even
if guitarist (and producer) Kevin Ridley has held
the position since 2001. What’s noticeable is how
Graeme English and Steve Ramsey’s involvement
in the rejuvenated Satan has spilled over into
‘Starstruck’s sinister tri-tone runs, the Metallica-
quality ballad of ‘Borderline’ and the rapid fire
‘Change Is Coming’. And considering the way of
the world, lyrical themes in ‘State Of The Union
Now’ hit closer to home, regardless of who’s
expressing the same complaints; doing it this
60 TERRORIZER #282
“SEAMLESS BLEND
OF ATMOSPHERES”
HATE
‘Tremedum’
NAPALM
A nytime a death metal
band can claim ten
albums under its bullet
belt, it’s an accomplishment
steeped in the amazing
and unbelievable. And while Hate may be
overshadowed by fellow Polish passport holders
Vader and Behemoth, they should always be part
of the conversation as it pertains to longevity and
quality. ‘Tremedum’ doesn’t offer much in the
area of surprises; it still sees the Warsaw warriors
trucking along in their grandiose, haunting,
moody manner. Listeners with limited exposure to
the band’s discography and/or the works of Septic
Flesh and Samael might find their chromatic
riffing style, up front vocal mix and colossal
guitar tone revelatory. Otherwise, ‘Tremedum’ is a
refining of what Hate knows and does best.
[6.5] KEVIN STEWART-PANKO
HEY COLOSSUS
‘The Guillotine’
ROCKET
nce a respectable volume
dealer, Hey Colossus
have gradually descended into
jangling mediocrity. Attempts
to build tension here often
amount to naught, lacking aggression, bite
or any sense of direction. ‘In A Collision’ tries
to assert itself but the aimless repetition and
lifeless vocals prevent it from adding a dash of
much needed excitement. The vocals are perhaps
the biggest let down of all, doing nothing to
elevate these tedious compositions. Seemingly
content to meander in self-indulgence, the
lack of variation in tempo and feel makes ‘The
Guillotine’ a ponderous exercise in mid-paced
drudgery which fails to retain attention. A dour
and frustrating release from an outfit capable
of far better.
[3] ROSS BAKER
many years on speaks more about society-at-large
than it does any lack of creativity. If, on the other
hand, you’re looking for old-timey metal to drink
and jig to, there’s ‘Queen Of The Moors’, but this
album’s more metallic moments are its brightest.
[7] KEVIN STEWART-PANKO
SÓLSTAFIR
‘Berdreyminn’
SEASON OF MIST
A lot has happened in camp Sólstafir since
the release of the critically acclaimed
‘Ótta’ in 2014. In 2015, the Icelandic band
had a very public, tumultuous parting with
their drummer of twenty years and have been
locked in an ongoing court battle with him
ever since. This hasn’t stopped them from
forging ahead to write album number six, their
first studio offering without Guðmundur Óli
Pálmason on drums. Sitting somewhere roughly
between the gorgeous soundscapes of Sigur Rós
and the transcendental heavy riffing of Isis,
‘Berdreyminn’ – like everything else Solstafir
have released– is very hard to define, and that’s
precisely what makes it such an exciting record.
In the stark opening track ‘Silfur-Refur’,
massive riffs combined with distinct, emotive
vocals perfectly showcase the bittersweet beauty
of their wintery brand of post-metal. But after
track one reaches its post-rock climax, ‘Ísafold’
follows with a completely different dynamic.
Stripped down and subtle, this spacious tune
THE CHASE IS BETTER THAN THE CATCH
VOCALIST AÐALBJÖRN TRYGGVASON ON SINGING LIKE “EMO-LEMMY”
‘Ó tta’ is a lot less screamy, and I sort
of missed putting some balls into it.
Not really screaming-screaming, but these
new songs aren’t soft all the time. Hell, I even
miss singing in English sometimes. Personally
I don’t like slow music, I like AC/DC and
ISIS
‘Live VII’
IPECAC
I t feels a little hard
to get excited after
Isis hyped up a new
release on social media
only for a live set from
seven years ago to be the end product.
‘Live VII’ captures one of the masters of
atmospheric sludge metal on their final
tour performing an entire set in Melbourne,
Australia. Whilst the performance is
solid, the setlists on Isis’ previous six live
albums are all superior, with only ‘Hall
Of The Dead’, ‘Wills Dissolve’, ‘Carry’ and
‘Celestial’ really igniting excitement this
time around. With brilliant acts such as
Sumac and Palms following in the wake of
Isis, it feels safe to put this group to bed
and move on now.
[6.5] CHRIS ‘FRENCHIE’ FRENCH
peels back their dense layers to reveal an
eclectic range of synth-based influences at play.
By the time the delicate delayed guitar of ‘Hula’
rings out, it becomes clear that ‘Berdreyminn’
is one of the most varied sonic journeys you will
take this year. From the reverberating space
rock melodies of ‘Hvít Sæng’, to the distorted
guitars wailing against descending piano
chords in ‘Dýrafjörður’, the seamless blend of
atmospheres on this record is like nothing else.
It’s mad to reflect on how Sólstafir have
flourished from the primitive roots of viking
black metal, to now create one of most unique
and engaging post-metal albums of recent
years.
[9] SERENA CHERRY
Motörhead, that’s what I listen to. When we play
the soft stuff, I’m like, more rock’n’roll! I wanted to
write more potent stuff. We were doing stuff like ‘She
Destroys’ on the last tours, and I missed singing like
that! It’s like an emotional Lemmy or something.
Emo-Lemmy! I like singing like Emo-Lemmy.”
JOHN FRUM
‘A Stirring In The Noos’
RELAPSE
N ame courtesy of the
cargo cult from ‘The
God Delusion’ and the Werner
Herzog volcano documentary
‘Into The Inferno’, John Frum
are an assemblage of elite musicians with their
minds set on disorienting, proggy tech-death.
‘Presage Of Emptiness’ offers a disarmingly
accessible way in, bouncing along like a lost Ted
Maul track, before shit gets peculiar, never entirely
alienating but far from moshable. ‘Memory Palace’
is insistently horrible, laden with menace and a
piercing guitar solo finale, ‘He Come’ is prime
ominous instrumental fodder, ‘Wasting Subtle
Body’ a suitably batshit last chapter. The vocals
are overly professional when surreal and unhinged
would have worked better, but that comes with the
genre territory and every band can’t be Pyrrhon.
[7.5] BENJ GOLANSKI

LIFE OF AGONY
‘A Place Where There's No
More Pain’
NAPALM
R ejoice, for after assuring
us there’d never be new
songs, the legendary Life Of
Agony are back with their
celebrated ‘River Runs Red’
(1993) line-up. It's been twelve years, but fifth
studio album ‘A Place Where There's No More
Pain’ was well worth the wait. The New Yorkers
deliver ten heavyweight sonic slabs of their
signature mid-tempo groove and classic Caputo
vocals. Mina (formerly Keith) Caputo wastes
no time stealing the show with her stunning
voice soaring over Joey Z’s bulldozing riffage.
For newcomers, imagine Alice In Chains if they
were from Brooklyn and raised on NYC hardcore.
Let’s just hope it’s not another dozen years till
the follow-up.
[8] RAY HARMONY
LIV SIN
‘Follow Me’
DESPOTZ
T he break-up of Sister Sin
in 2015 left frontwoman
Liv Sin without an artistic
outlet. But the veteran
Swedish singer didn’t waste
much time in starting afresh: she swiftly
formed a band under her own name, and her
new music has taken on a more aggressive
approach than before. While Liv’s lyrics are
still quite hackneyed and aimed to appeal
to those who drunkenly fist-pump in fields
at Wacken, the grit of her voice is generally
stirring and authoritative. The vocalist’s
backing band also do well to match her stance
with riffs and rhythms which take influence
from classic metal sources yet come with a
contemporary bite that, overall, might draw in
fans of Arch Enemy.
[6.5] DEAN BROWN
SUCCUMB
‘Succumb’
THE FLENSER
S an Francisco’s Succumb haven’t entirely sprang
from thin air: a 2015 demo tape recorded as
Cloak (and titled ‘Succumb’) is in circulation, and
freaks of the noisepunk underground might know
vocalist Cheri Musrasrik from her other band, Pig
DNA. This seven-song debut album, however, is a
demented blast of mathematical precision and few
nailed-on reference points. Echoes of grindcore,
death metal and black metal ring out in Succumb’s
music, but in each case it’s a technically dizzying
iteration – Discordance Axis, Portal and Krallice
meets the avowed hope that the band’s three
instrumentalists know to limber their wrists up
before playing. Sometimes the riffs are chunky
and moshable, in a quasi-Converge way (the latter
halves of ‘Bedchambers’ and ‘Seeding’), sometimes
Derek Webster’s guitar has that lovely olde tyme
62 TERRORIZER #282
“GLOSSY TWINKLY
SYNTHS”
LOSS
‘Horizonless’
PROFOUND LORE
T he speed with which
Nashville’s Loss roll out
albums truly befits the glacial
music they create; six years
since their debut, ‘Horizonless’
is the sound of a band happy to take their time
and do things their way. Opening track ‘The Joy
Of All Who Sorrow’ sets the tone for the record
– bleak, gloomy chords and guttural grunts of
anguish ring out over slovenly tempos. With
similarities to label-mates Bell Witch, the tracks
are epically grandiose, but this melodrama is
counterbalanced by atmospheric segues such
as ‘i.o.’ and ‘Moved Beyond Murder’. Elsewhere
the bombast gives way to sparse instrumental
sections which only serve to heighten the
melancholy. With no hope coming over the
horizon, this is an album to weep to.
[7.5] TOM MCKIBBIN
MALEVOLENCE
‘Self Supremacy’
BDHW
’S elf Supremacy’
comes out swinging
with its opening track,
a strong contender for
“hardcore gym anthem of
2017” (excuse the pun). Lyrics brimming
with self-affirmation, and riffs that sound
like Lamb Of God covering Hatebreed, it’s an
energising and exciting start to the record.
‘Trial By Fire’ has an irresistible bounce to
it too, but you can have too much of a good
thing; running at 50 minutes with little
variation in pace (save for some seriously
questionable sludgy bits, like the first verse
of ‘Slave To Satisfaction’), the album gets a
little exhausting. Being punched in the face
the first time really fucking hurts, but if they
keep punching, you’ll pass out eventually.
[6] TOM SAUNDERS
grindcore hog-squeal tone; often the arrangements
sound like they’re being played backwards. And
Musrasrik is a lethal weapon at the centre, her
rangy howls and growls rendered extra bizarre by
swathes of cavernous echo FX.
[8] NOEL GARDNER
ULVER
‘The Assassination Of Julius
Caesar’
HOUSE OF MYTHOLOGY
I f you were granted access to a time
machine which only had the ability to
go back to 1997, basically you’d have two
choices. You could advise Princess Dianna
and Dodi Fayed against getting in a car with
a pissed chauffeur and racing paparazzi
through Paris; or seek out fans of Norwegian
black metal icons Ulver, doubtless thrilling
to their blazingly raw third album ‘Nattens
Madrigal’, and inform them that in twenty
years’ time, Kristoffer Rygg and co will kick
off an LP with a song whose lyrics are an
allegory about the death of Princess Di. And
whose music is smooth adult synthpop, a bit
like Garbage meets George Michael.
It’s hardly breaking news that Ulver have
strayed far from their black metal roots,
of course, but ‘The Assassination Of Julius
Caesar’ is a giant stride into accessible
waters. It’s laden with glossy, twinkly synths,
harmonied vocals and pleasantly pulsing
programmed beats – ‘Southern Gothic’s
bombastic dance-pop is already your aunt’s
AGONY AND ECSTASY
VOCALIST KRISTOFFER RYGG ON HOW ‘TRANSVERBERATION’ TIES INTO THE ALBUM’S ARTWORK
“‘T
ransverberation’, the Ecstasy of
Saint Teresa, is a famous sculpture
by the Italian baroque artist Bernini. It’s
amazing, it’s like the marble is floating,
being pulled up towards the sky. The scene
MNHM
‘Of Empires Past’
CONSOULING SOUNDS
F ormerly known as
Mannheim but since
having done the vaguely
fashionable, vaguely naff thing
of removing the vowels from
their name, MNHM are a Dutch four-piece whose
take on post-rock is noisy and maximalist. You’ll
not have heard guitars with this much tinnitus-
inducing potential since the first two Mogwai
albums, or perhaps A Place To Bury Strangers;
added bully muscle comes from Otto Kokke,
saxophonist with exceptionally fierce jazz combo
Dead Neanderthals. Accordingly, on the evidence
of their second album MNHM don’t so much write
songs as rock out bombastically until a song’s
potential is exhausted. It’s energetic stuff, but
ill-served by a production which seems to be
trying to paint them as generic post-rockers.
[6.5] NOEL GARDNER
favoured Friday night going-out music. Drops
of blood do get added to the shark tank: the
later section of the eleven-minute ‘Rolling
Stone’ collapses into a spiral of frantic drum
machines and guest sax from Hawkwind’s
Nik Turner. The themes, too, tend towards
the dark, with a loose running concept of
(attempted) assassinations – Sharon Tate and
the Pope among those pored over by Rygg.
Naturally, this album is only given space here
because of its personnel and their history, but
anyone with a sweet tooth for cerebral avant-
pop should cheer Ulver’s evolutionary arc.
[8] NOEL GARDNER
itself is based on the Spanish saint’s mystical
writings, in which an angel pierces her heart with
the arrow of divine love. A detail from another of
Bernini’s sculptures (The Rape Of Proserpina) adorns
the front of the album, by the way.”
THE MONOLITH DEATHCULT
‘Versus 1’
HAMMERHEART
N ot taking themselves
very seriously has always
been The Monolith Deathcult’s
main advantage, allowing
them to be as over the top
as possible and attempting
stuff other bands of the same style wouldn’t
dare. While that hasn’t always been enough
to translate into amazing records, when the
balance between things is just right, it has
produced great, hard-hitting death metal with
disorienting atmospheric and electronic touches.
‘Versus 1’ features that same inconsistency
– not all of it is essential, but on songs like
‘Die Glocke’ or the unsettling closer ‘From The
Stalinic Perspective’ (the concept deals with
Nazi occultism), their industrialised death metal
flair is as bleak and impactful as it can come.
[7] JOSÉ CARLOS SANTOS
TERRORIZER_HalfPage.indd 1 5/6/17 4:34 PM

G R AV E T E M P L E A J AT TA R A TUSMØRKE
I M PA S S A B L E F E A R S LU PAU S HINSIDES
LP/CD/Digital May 26th CD/2LP/Digital May 12th LP/CD/Digital May 12th

Attila Csihar, Stephen O’Malley & Oren Ambarchi’s new free-metal opus! Ajattara’s comeback album is the best kind of satanic adult entertainment. Norwegian ambassadors of morbid romanticism explore death in all its
forms on fourth full length album.

FORESEEN SABBATH ASSEMBLY

G R AV E DA N G E R R I T E S O F PA S S AG E
LP/CD/Digital April 26th LP/CD/Digital May 12th
w w w. s v a r t r e c o r d s . c o m

Foreseen’s new old school crossover smash feels like being hit SA’s new album sees the American mysticists tread further down a
in the face inside a hurricane. doomier, more metallic path.
 SHORT & SAVAGE
EP ROUND-UP
L
et’s get the bad news out of the way first; Purson are no more, though vocalist, guitarist
and songwriter Rosalie Cunningham vows to return as a solo artist. She’s given us one last
MUTATION PERVERTED CEREMONY parting gift with Purson in the form of ‘Chocolate Money’ [6, Spinefarm], an upbeat,
‘III – Dark Black’ ‘Sabbat Of Behezaël’ Slade-esque jaunt with Comus’ Jon Seagroatt on sax and backing vocals from Vodun’s Chantal
ROUND NUCLEAR WAR NOW!
Brown. Squeezing a Jethro Tull style midsection (complete with squealing flute) into this three

M utating yet again,

Ginger Wildheart
gathers a host of
musicians with Devin
Townsend, Phil Campbell
and Cardiac’s Jon Poole belting out an
electronic melange of nuttiness here. It’s like
a speed jigsaw contest with all the pieces
rammed in willy-nilly. The short-sharp nature
is confounding, especially when “did I really
just hear that?” melodies invade such as
what sounds like the theme from ‘Phantasm’
on ‘Devolution’. The notable stamp of the
individual contributors pass in a blur of
BPM’s faster than a merry-go-round spinning
at 1000 miles an hour. Strap that lad down,
hang on to your britches and pray you make
it out the other side!
[7.5] PETE WOODS
NECROMUTILATOR
‘Ripping Blasphemy’
TERROR FROM HELL
T o describe Perverted
Ceremony’s debut full-length
as ‘unpolished’ would be a
catastrophic understatement.
Equipped with their trusty eight-
track recorder and, one assumes, a tattered copy of
Beherit’s ‘Drawing Down The Moon’, the Belgian duo
exist under a perpetual cloud of buzzing blackened
mirk. However, there’s more to this album than
its lo-fi aesthetics, with cuts like ‘Necrolactation
Unborn Goat’ and ‘Dark Necromancy’ featuring
some tasty mid-paced doom sections that offset the
Archgoat-esque battery that dominates elsewhere.
In addition, a satisfyingly punchy bass tone gives a
bit of low-end oomph to proceedings. Granted, these
are only minor variations on a well-worn theme,
but they serve to elevate Perverted Ceremony above
some of their basement dwelling peers.
[7] MIKE KEMP
POSSESSION
‘Exorkizein’
INVICTUS/IRON BONEHEAD
minute glam-a-thon, it’s a typically whimsical and progressive offering, but fairly underwhelming
as a swansong, lacking the flamboyant swagger of the ‘In The Meantime’ EP.
As one band ends, so another rises from the dead – well, kind of. Come To Grief is
original Grief guitarist Terry Savastano’s tribute to the sludge pioneers’ early work, and ‘The Worst
Of Times’ [8, self-release] does total justice to his idea. The queasy, swinging gloom of ‘No
Saviour’ and ‘Futility Of Humanity’ would feel right at home on one of Grief’s early EPs, whilst
‘Killed By Life’ exhibits the slightly faster, punkier side of the band with raging intent. Guitarist/
vocalist Jonathan Hebert does a good job of emulating Jeff Hayward’s iconic rasp, and with Grief
themselves having been out of action since 2009, it feels good to have these guys carrying the
torch.
Speaking of original bands that formed to pay tribute to a defunct band, Gruesome are
back with ‘Fragments Of Psyche’ [7, Relapse], a two-track seven-inch honouring Death’s
‘Human’ era, right down to the presence of that album’s drummer, Sean Reinert. The title
track is a great homage to that record, with its elastic basslines, skittering drums and heroic
guitar harmonies, whilst the B-side offers a version of Death’s ‘Choke On It’ performed in the
proggier style of ‘Human’ rather than the blunter, more barbaric ‘Leprosy’ original. Some may
cry blasphemy, but if you’re a fan of all Death’s stages of development, this is bags of fun. A
download code with some raucous demos from Gruesome’s ‘Savage Lands’ debut sweetens the
deal, too.
Cult death/doom legends Imindain return, a full decade after their highly revered debut
‘And The Living Shall Envy The Dead’, with new EP ‘The Enemy Of Fetters And The Dweller In The
Woods’ [8.5, Weird Truth], and their eerie, mournful atmosphere is more potent than ever. The twelve-minute
‘The Final Godhead’ offers up some truly vast funeral doom riffs (courtesy of Cruciamentum guitarist Dan Lowndes)
whilst vocalist Lee Bullock alternates between forlorn, sorrowful chants and utterly deranged, rabid barks. There’s

R abid, blasting and

blasphemous black/
death with hints of thrash
assaults you when this
album starts, there is no let
up in the aural attack from start to finish.
Raucous riffing collides with clattering
cymbals, thunderous toms, hellhammering
snare and bestial bass that rolls over your
senses like an out of control bulldozer, and
the chaotic carnage is completed by vocals
that sound like a man who is truly possessed
by evil. There is also a raw, punked up
energy to the songs and the production
values here are simple but effective, giving
the songs an authentic old vibe. The use of
‘necro’ in their chosen moniker is very apt
in this case.
[7] KAT GILLHAM
R ich in the nitrates of
decaying corpses, the
no-man’s-land between black
and death metal has proven
fertile pasture for bands wanting
to connect with heavy metal’s evil traditions, with
‘Exorkizein’ the latest album helping to assert the
Invictus label’s claim to this dark and dangerous
territory. Setting the scene with horror samples
recalling ‘The Exorcist’, ‘Exorkizein’ feels like it
was written recorded in Regan’s bedroom at peak
possession; cold as the grave yet burning with the
fires of hell, its sledgehammer grooves keeping
time with the to-and-fro of her misappropriated
crucifix. Marrying old-school heavy metal with
old-school religious practices, Possession have
created a fearsome record that will turn heads the
full three-sixty.
[8] TIM HORROCKS
a fantastic cover of diSEMBOWELMENT’s ‘Cerulean Transience Of All My Imagined Shores’ that manages to honour
the original whilst making it feel like an Imindain song, but even at a solid half-an-hour, this EP leaves you wanting
more. Here’s hoping we won’t have to wait another ten years for a second full-length…
Unique one-man/machine project Author & Punisher delves into dreamier, less noisy territory on
‘Pressure Mine’ [7, Relapse]. Well, for the most part; ‘Nazarene’ finds Tristan Shone delivering his best Trent
Reznor impression over a brash industrial stomp, but ‘Enter This’ finds a cleaner croon drifting in between gently
pulsating synths, whilst ‘Pressure Lover’ bounces histrionic Game Boy blips across a sparse, moody, Scorn-esque
beat. It’s an interesting and diverse set of songs, and though it may lack the visceral impact of his earlier works
(save for perhaps ‘Black Wands’ squelchy dubstep indebted bounce), it proves the versatility and inventiveness of
Tristan and his custom built machines.
If it’s noisy you want, then Berlin’s Cuntroaches are an essential listen, coming across like a noise-rock
band with a black metal atmosphere. Sounding even harsher than last year’s demo, their new self-titled EP [9,
self-release] is an absolute monster, combining cochlea-shredding feedback, bestial, untamed screeches
and brutal, primitive rhythms. ‘Fraud’ and ‘Short Fuse’ sound like Beherit and Brainbombs beating the shit out of
one another, whilst ‘Pig Woman’ slows down to a grinding, Godflesh-ian pulse, allowing all manner of fretboard
mutilating guitar fireworks to explode overhead. If you’ve heard a more intense EP this month, get in touch
immediately…
Words: Kez Whelan

THE NIGHT FLIGHT PYRIPHLEGETHON SARCASM SHIT FUCKING SHIT

ORCHESTRA ‘The Murky Black Of Eternal Night’ ‘Within The Sphere Of Ethereal Minds’ ‘Pluriorgasmic Alcoholic Nun’
‘Amber Galactic’ IRON BONEHEAD DARK DESCENT SELF-RELEASED
NUCLEAR BLAST

T he second album from

I t’s only natural that leeriness
G onna guess it’s pretty

S hredders by day, classic
rockers by night – NFO
features members of Soilwork and
Arch Enemy paying homage to
their ’70s rock roots. As the album
kicks off with ‘Midnight Flyer’, you can practically see
the aviators, flared jeans and Chevrolets race into your
mind. It’s one hell of a sonic time capsule. With their
pumping synths and clean-ish twin guitars, these
belting, catchy tunes may sound as though they were
written decades ago, but ‘Amber Galactic’ is simply
far too exciting to be dismissed as another ironic
misappropriation of classic rock. From the huge chorus
of ‘Sad State Of Affairs’ to the Scissor Sisters-esque
piano-led stomp of ‘Jennie’, this feel-good record is
as rocking as it is drenched in pop sensibilities. The
perfect soundtrack to wild summer road trips.
[8] SERENA CHERRY
Pyriphlegethon, a side
project of Mories de Jong
(best known as Gnaw Their
Tongues), also handling
all instrument and production duties here.
This project is an even truer love letter to
his black metal influences, largely leaving
out the electronics, noise and dark ambient
of his main project, although gothic synths
are used to great effect throughout. ‘Murky
Black…’ is just the right title, as de Jong
belts out a very doomy, haggard and ferocious
sound somewhat reminiscent of the solitude
of Xasthur and Leviathan, but with much
livelier drums and compositions. Though not
as unique as Gnaw Their Tongues, black metal
purists will find plenty to enjoy in this project.
[7] CHRIS 'FRENCHIE' FRENCH
surrounds the reconvening
of a band that has essentially
been dormant since 1994. The
years haven’t been kind to
these Uppsala originals, but after finally releasing
their ‘Burial Dimensions’ debut last year (22 years
after it was recorded!), it’s time to forge ahead.
Sarcasm’s second album colours their Dissection and
Sacramentum influences with bold strokes of Emperor
and Immortal. A sometimes-healthy, sometimes-
curious balance of atonality (‘In The Grip Of Awakening
Times’), heaving hard rock (‘Scars Of A Land
Forgotten’) and terrible acoustic intros are dominant
features, as is the tendency for timing deviations.
Ultimately though, we’re glad the band aren’t
completely resting on past laurels, instead choosing to
contribute to blackened death’s forward motion.
[6] KEVIN STEWART-PANKO
obvious what sort of
ride these Italians take the
listener on here. Though, if you
can look beyond the elements
that presume this trio to be bargain basement
pornogrind dwellers – basically everything outside
their actual music – you’ll find a band dipping
its tentacles into as much old school death metal
and Agathocles’ mincecore as grind and punk.
At times, they sound as lumbering and creepy as
a drooling stalker, other moments it’s like you’ve
unearthed an Autopsy pre-production demo or
discarded Raw Power song ideas. ‘Pluriorgasmic
Alcoholic Nun’ may not be riddled with shockers,
but that it doesn’t completely sound like
something called ‘Pluriorgasmic Alcoholic Nun’ is
the most relieving shock of all.
[6] KEVIN STEWART-PANKO

64 TERRORIZER #282
 the optimist 9 JUNE 2017
THE ALTERNATIVE ROCK VANGUARDS RETURN
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AVAILABLE ON BLU-RAY / CD+DVD / CD / HEAVYWEIGHT COLOURED 2LP / DELUXE 4CD BOOK SET / DIGITAL DOWNLOAD
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Features guest vocals from Spencer Sotelo (Periphery)

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 FROM THE DEPTHS:
DEATH METAL ROUNDUP

I
nitially, the whole idea behind Ectoplasma was to quench two Vultur
members’ endless thirst of for classic Floridian death metal, but whereas
SHORES OF NULL ULSECT their debut album last year felt more or less just like that – a cool but limited
‘Black Drapes For Tomorrow’ ‘Ulsect’ tribute – their brand new EP ‘Skeletal Lifeforms’ [7.5, Repulsive Echo]
CANDLELIGHT/SPINEFARM SEASON OF MIST/UNDERGROUND ACTIVISTS sees them both expanding their line-up and their musical horizon as well.

B ack in 2014 Italian

quintet Shores Of
Null released their debut
‘Quiescence’ to critical acclaim
in these pages. Three years on
and the self-styled blackened gothic metal titans
reappear with a fresh lick of paint and a signif-
icant upgrade under the hood. Everything is a
bit more widescreen, from Gabriele Giaccari and
Raffaele Colace’s riffing to the sheer power in
Davide Straccione’s vocals. There are still sturm
and drang moments but overall the band have
gone for a more polished and honed sound which
takes them a little closer to the mainstream.
There are several earworms among these eleven
songs, including the outstanding instrumental
‘Tributary Waters’. It’s very European, and all the
better for it.
[7] ANDREW FIELD
SYNAPTIK
‘Justify And Reason’
TRIBUNAL
T he post-Gorguts style of
death metal seems to be
all the rage these days, with
everyone from Ulcerate to Nero
Di Marte putting their own spin
on the Canadian’s triple-A (angular, atmospheric,
avant-garde) sound. Well, now you can add
Ulsect to that list, as every track on this album
is a tightly-packed, tightly-wound explosion of
calculated chaos and catharsis, mixing complex
layers of sonic texture and technicality with an
almost primal undercurrent of convulsive, com-
pulsive rage (characterised by the vein-busting,
hardcore-tinged howl of vocalist Dennis Maas).
From its lurching riffs, as dense and as heavy
as dark matter, to its mind-mangling drum work
and crushing, claustrophobic atmosphere, this is
one stunning debut, start to finish.
[8] ANDY WALMSLEY
UNEVEN STRUCTURE
‘La Partition’
LONG BRANCH
Rounded off by a pretty faithful yet cool Demigod cover (‘Towards The Shrouded
Infinity’), this five tracker testifies how much they’ve grown as musicians,
suggesting a next album (due next fall) destined to crush them all.
If you thought that a gang of former or current members of Morbo, Gravesite
and Undead Creep (originally signed on Razorback) would be just another
Repulsion/Impetigo cult worshipper, think again. Yep, Haemophagus still fit
the picture somehow with their short two-minute outbursts of death/grind, but
the Voivod-ian leanings of ‘Meteor Mind’ or the progressive (in a very deranged
way) closing instrumental ‘The Dark Trip’ just show how much more ‘Stream Of
Shadows’ [7, Selfmadegod] actually has to offer.
You think Skinless never sounded better than when they had Jason Keyser
(now fronting Origin) in their ranks and bounced on the dancefloor like mammoths
on steroids? Then do yourself a favor and check out Kalopsia. Despite the fact
they have a few old-schoolers in the house (members of Deteriorot, Ruinous), it’s
not how ‘Angelplague’ [7, Horror Pain Gore Death] manages to mix a
very European melodic sensibility with a typically American swag, but more about
how incredibly groovy and catchy it can be. They’re not John Travolta and haven’t
invented a whole new lifestyle but they sure as hell can boogie all night long and
score all the chicks on their way out…
Probably sensing that Gruesome had beaten them anyway at the ‘let’s see
who does the best Death personification here?’ and boosted by the renewal of half
of their line-up, LA’s Morfin get dirtier and thrashier on ‘Consumed By Evil’ [6,
FDA]. Their singer may still sound uncannily like a young Chuck Schuldiner, they
still love ‘Leprosy’ to death (excuse the pun), and a limited production (especially

T his is the second album

from the Norwich based
progressive-power metallers,
who’ve gained recognition for
their down to earth take on the
genre. Think mid-range vocals and tasteful solos,
as opposed to screeching virtuosity. As opener ‘The
Incredible Machine’ bursts into life with energetic
riffing, it promises all kinds of progressive, technical
excitement ahead. But while there are some decent
moments – juicy guitar leads, complex song struc-
tures and the unwavering hard rock tinged vocals of
John Knight – ‘Justify And Reason’ isn’t well-rounded
enough to warrant the listeners full attention.
Jumping from the shredding intro of ‘Conscience’ to
the off-kilter nu metal simplicity of ‘Esc Ctrl’, the
smorgasbord of musical ideas they present is disor-
ganized and delivered in a proficient yet bland way.
[5] SERENA CHERRY
A s with many tech-metal
bands, France’s Uneven
Structure were born as a
studio project. In 2008,
guitarist Igor Omodei and
bassist Benoit Friedrich started writing togeth-
er, later evolving into a full band with solid
debut ‘Februus’ (2011). The band have grown
immensely since their early days though, and
‘La Partition’ is the result. With nothing left to
prove, the new album explores far beyond their
original Meshuggah & co influences. Pushing
the extremes of songwriting as opposed to
technicality, ‘La Partition’ is a bold and brave
offering from a progressive band in their prime.
And yes, there are still jaw-dropping sections
of complexity, but only ever in a way that adds
value to the songs.
[7.5] RAY HARMONY
on the guitars) cuts some of their power, but their old-school trip back to the late
’80’s nastier gutters still is worth embarking on.
While we’re still waiting on a hypothetical successor to 2009’s ‘Awakening Of
The Gods’ from Séance (where a young Patrick Jensen learnt his chops before
moving on to The Haunted and Witchery), the long-awaited reissue of their sole demo ‘Levitised Spirit’
[6.5, Chaos Records] is a good reminder on how different they sounded from their Swedish
peers right from the get-go. While the lack of bonuses or even liner notes leaves us with a barebones
five-tracker (with four of them later rerecorded for their debut album), this proves that back in 1991,
Sweden wasn’t only about HM-2 pedals and D-beat.
Valgrind are a strange case of a band who have been around in one way or another since
1993, yet whose members had to get elsewhere (Voids Of Vomit, Blood Of Seklusion, Hateful) to
somehow get some recognition. Their new EP ‘Seal Of Phobos’ wears its creators’ classic background
and age on its sleeve with its barebone thrash/death and street punk guitar sound that link them
more to, say, Headhunter DC than Obituary, albeit without much fury or imagination. Only the solos,
totally out of control and high on whammy bar madness à la Trey Azagthoth, bring a sense of urgency
sadly lacking on this otherwise pretty standard gap-stopper.
WORDS: OLIVIER ‘ZOLTAR’ BADIN

TRIAL WARCRAB WINDSWEPT WOLFBRIGADE

‘Motherless’ ‘Scars Of Aeons’ ‘The Great Cold Steppe’ ‘Run With The Hunted’
METAL BLADE BLACK BOW/TRANSCENDING OBSCURITY SEASON OF MIST SOUTHERN LORD

T rial made their name

with ‘Vessel’ (2015) by
combining the NWOBHM’s
melodic forward rush with
the theatrics of King Diamond
and the extreme edge of Swedish melodeath.
‘Motherless’, their Metal Blade debut, zones in
on the aspects of their sound which would work
best in the context of the mainstream metal
exposure their new label affords. This might
sound like a contrived move, but it’s not – it’s
actually very smart. By pairing the arrange-
ments back and accentuating the consummate
playing of lead guitarist Andrew Ellström and
Linus Johansson’s booming high-register vocals,
Trial have evolved in a shrewd fashion and will
undoubtedly gain a greater following because of
their streamlined approach.
[7.5] DEAN BROWN
T his six-piece from
Plymouth feature no
less than three guitarists in
their line-up, but don’t go
expecting any galloping gran-
diosity à la Iron Maiden. No, Warcrab use the
extra sonic muscle to great effect, to thicken
their sludgy death metal to almost ridiculous
proportions (and this being one of those rare
sentences where ‘ridiculous’ has positive con-
notations). This takes all the best bits of Bolt
Thrower, Cancer and Crowbar and mashes them
into a swampy miasma of crushingly slow and
heavy riffage, occasionally tinged with a down-
beat mournful melody. There may only be five
songs on offer, but with a running time of well
over thirty minutes there’s plenty of measured
brutality for your buck.
[7] IAN GLASPER
W ith the amount
of projects that
Roman Sayenko already
has on the go (Drudkh, Old
Silver Key, Precambrian
and Rattenfänger), it’s a wonder he has time
for anything else; however, he has now put
forth his ninth musical project into the world.
Windswept is raw, aggressive black metal
that’s made distinctively Sayenko by the unmis-
takable throaty rasp of the vocals and Slavic
guitar tone. This could easily be written off as
another clone of the likes of Blood Of Kingu,
etc., however, what makes ‘The Great Cold
Steppe’ truly impressive is that it was written
and recorded in just three days, and manages
to sound better than most black metal albums
that take three months.
[7] ANGELA DAVEY
I t’s been five years since
their last album, 2012’s
‘Damned’, but Stockholm’s
Wolfbrigade haven’t forgot-
ten how to batter out savage
metallic D-beat in the interim. Nine albums in,
and you’d expect them to have perfected their
approach by now, so it’s no real surprise this
kicks massive amounts of arse, but they’ve dug
deep with this one; the guitars are raw as fuck,
and very prominent in the mix, totally in your
face, and there’s lots of dark melodies to coun-
terpart all the yelling and angst. ‘Kallocain’
even features a cheeky Anti-Cimex reprisal,
as well as a jiggy little guitar refrain which is
more Iron Maiden than Discharge – but that’s
the only time the brutality levels drop below
insanely violent.
[8] IAN GLASPER

66 TERRORIZER #282
 NEW ALBUM “BLIND FAITH”
Fourth full length album from Swedish heavy metal band MEAN STREAK, released by Rock Of Angels Records (Monument, Outloud, Phase Reverse, Sarissa etc.).
Recorded by Peter Andersson Andy LaGuerin and Thomas Johansson at The Panic Room.
Mixed by Max Norman (Ozzy Osbourne, Lynch Mob, Armored Saint, Lizzy Borden, Megadeth, Y&T).
Mastered by Thomas Johansson (Soilwork, Onslaught, Armageddon, Degradead, Dynazty) at The Panic Room Mastering

AVAILABLE ON:
CD / LTD. BLUE LP / LIMITED GOLD LP

www.roar.gr
www.music-megastore.gr
 DVD
DVD DVD
CULT OF LUNA THE BEASTER BUNNY
‘Years In A Day’ SECOND SIGHT
INDIE
P arodying 1971 animated

C ult Of Luna are one of this kids’ classic ‘Peter

musical generation’s stalwarts,
consistent in their delivery of earth
shatteringly heavy records and
moving live performances. Their
decision to keep touring to a bare
minimum is one that has deeply
saddened their fans, but to help
ease the torment, the band have released a live DVD ‘Years In A
Day’, featuring two hours of professionally shot footage from Paris
last year at their La Gaîté Lyrique show. The set list from this
particular date is eponymous of Cult Of Luna’s career, featuring
classics such as ‘Finland’ and ‘Owlwood’. Beautifully filmed, this
footage is a stunning sensory experience – the sound quality, light
show and camera angles are all truly breath taking. The whole
package includes a DVD of this two-hour spectacle, as well as
two live CDs from Roadburn 2013 and 2016, HD video and audio
download files and a twenty-page booklet. Limited to just 7000
copies, this will be the ultimate fan must-have; whether you have
seen Cult of Luna live before or not, this is an essential purchase
as it gets as close to the experience of watching them in person as
one can possibly get, allowing viewers to share in all of the goose
bump inducing moments.
A Cult Of Luna live show is a magnificent sight to behold, and
the fact that they are such a rarity these days makes ‘Years In A
DIMMU BORGIR
‘Forces Of The Northern Night’
Day’ priceless in its ability to help fans relive the experience an
infinite number of times.
[8] ANGELA DAVEY
Cottontail’, this rabid rabbit is
far from child-friendly and one
hot cross bunny. Reminiscent
of low-budget travesties
such as William F. Claxton’s
‘Night Of The Lepus’ & Nathan
Schiff’s ‘Weasels Rip My
Flesh’, directors the Snygg
Brothers somehow got together a miniscule budget,
some nice woodland locations, a few women prepared
to take their tops off and a giant animated moth-eaten
monster looking like it is suffering from myxomatosis.
As CGI gore is thrown with abandon at the screen and
bodies are liberally dismembered around a tale of a
corrupt mayor and group of nerdy dog-catchers, this
bottom of the barrel B-movie is somewhat reminiscent
of Trey Parker ineptly handling the worse Troma film
you have ever seen whilst Uwe Boll films second unit.
Of course, that might actually be good, but this is
absolutely hare-brained and will have you questioning
your bad movie viewing tolerance and counting down
the seconds till the end. If only a holy hand grenade
had been available to lob at this blasted buck we
might have avoided this mess. Beatrix Potter must be
turning in her grave!
NUCLEAR BLAST
[2] PETE WOODS
I f there were ever a band tailor-made
for the full pomp and circumstance of

DVD
performing with a live orchestra, Dimmu
DVD Borgir are it. And in May of 2011 they did
just that, bringing aboard the Norwegian

FATES WARNING
Radio Orchestra and Schola Cantorum Choir
for a spellbinding celebration of their near
REALM OF THE DAMNED
‘Awaken The Guardian Live’ twenty-year career.
‘Tenebris Deos’
WEREWOLF PRESS
METAL BLADE Although various issues, professional

E very band is reforming nowadays.

If the ’80s were poodle-rocking,
and logistical, prevented the band from
releasing this recording until now, thankfully the wait was well worth it, as the
D o you know what’s super
refreshing? Horror where
evil triumphs. This animated
the ’90’s were grunge, then this final package is a real triumph, showcasing a band on absolutely top form,
motion comic begins with
decade belongs mostly to former surrounded by nearly 100 other musicians all clearly relishing the strangeness of
every hero dying, thank God.
glory. However, bands who broke up the experience.
It’s nice and bleak, bloody and
yesterday reforming to sell out venues The sound quality is, of course, impeccable, but there’s also a certain
threatening from the get go.
twice the size is one (albeit, cynical) rawness to it – a sharper edge to the guitars and a thickness to the bass – which
The obvious selling point is the
thing. But Fates Warning assembling suggests that Silenoz and co. resisted the temptation to adulterate the DVD with
all-star metal cast, featuring
the line up from their 1986 classic ‘Awaken The Guardian’ to unnecessary and obtrusive overdubs, meaning what you see and hear really is
David Vincent, Dani Filth and
perform the album in its entirety is something completely different. what you get.
Jill Janus as voice actors. Couple these legendary
This is something truly special, which fans of the progressive The heavy focus on the band’s post-millennial material (a climactic ‘Mourning
appearances with one blisteringly heavy soundtrack
metal pioneers have been wanting a long time. Reunited with their Palace’ is the only pre-2000 cut on
and undoubtedly, this is the motion comic for metal
original vocalist John Arch, who left the band directly after they offer) might be a little off-putting
heads. But that’s not to say that it has limited appeal;
recorded the Billboard chart-topping album, this DVD captures to the more old-school fans, but
the intriguing original story by Alec Worley could draw
the only two shows that Fates Warning performed as the classic considering that you get both
in the most po-faced, straight laced Radio 1 listener.
line up. Firstly, we see them storming the stage to deliver a an informative (if slightly short)
David Vincent is deep and eloquent as Albrecht Van
note-perfect lesson in prog to Keep It True XIX in Germany; then documentary revealing just how
Helsing – one of the few maverick survivors in a world
we see them rouse the huge crowds of Prog Power USA in Atlanta much work went into the event
now dominated by vampire queen Athena Petrova
with a stirring rendition of ‘Guardian’ – often rated as one of the behind the scenes, plus an extra DVD
(voiced by Jill Janus). Dani Filth plays Balaur – an
best power metal ballads of all time. Clocking in at just under featuring their similarly impressive
all-powerful vampire madman with unquenchable
three hours running time, this live footage shows Fates Warning (if not quite as atmospheric) set
bloodlust and a penchant for shrieking, naturally.
nailing the complex riffs and tempo changes that excelled them from Wacken in 2012, alongside
Beautifully illustrated by Simon Parr with a restricted
into the top leagues of progressive metal. From the thrashy riffs of the extravagant main feature, we’d
palette of dark greys and red, this gory hour-long
‘Valley Of The Dolls’ to the beautiful acoustic interludes, the band hazard you’ll still get more than
bloodbath is part one of a four part series. Start
certainly know how to deliver a masterpiece in the live setting – enough blackened bang for your
watching and it will almost certainly leave you craving
their relatively simple set up and humble stage presence allows buck with this one.
more.
the music to do the talking. [8.5] ANDY WALMSLEY
[8] SERENA CHERRY
[7] SERENA CHERRY

68 TERRORIZER #282
174 CAMDEN HIGH STREET, CAMDEN TOWN, LONDON NW1 · 020 7482 1932 · WWW.THEUNDERWORLDCAMDEN.CO.UK

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 DARK RECOLLECTIONS

‘DIMENSION HATROSS’
VOIVOD’S CLASSIC ALBUMS ‘RRRÖÖÖAAARRR’, ‘KILLING TECHNOLOGY’, AND
‘DIMENSION HATRÖSS’ HAVE ALL BEEN EXPANSIVELY REISSUED. TERRORIZER
TALKS TO DRUMMER MICHEL ‘AWAY’ LANGEVIN ABOUT OUR FAVOURITE ONE
WORDS: Kevin Stewart-Panko

T
he story of Voivod keeps getting more
and more amazing. Briefly, theirs is the
unlikely tale of a (iron) gang of prog rock
and punk obsessed metal dudes from way the
fuck up in northern Québec who revolutionized
thrash metal both musically and conceptually.
They survived experiences with major labels,
sonic transformation and a slowly, sometimes
tragically, revolving membership door that had
former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted as a
member throughout most of the aughts and
their primary song writer, guitarist Denis ‘Piggy’
D’Amour succumbing to colon cancer in 2005. The
story of how their ‘Katorz’ album (released in 2006)
was written by Piggy without his band mates’
knowledge and given to the band by the guitarist
while on his deathbed borders on fantastical
Netflix-sponsored fiction. And with Daniel ‘Chewy’
Mongrain holding down the six-string position
since 2008, the band have been rejuvenated and
are producing material that holds pat against the
beloved old-school goods. However, as we corner
drummer Michel ‘Away’ Langevin to discuss the
upcoming reissues of the band’s second, third and
fourth albums (‘Rrröööaaarrr’ ‘Killing Technology’
and ‘Dimension Hatröss’ respectively), more
incidences of just how amazing the Voivod story
is keep coming to light. Take the circumstances
surrounding the creation and recording of 1987’s
‘Killing Technology’ and 1988’s ‘Dimension Hatröss’
in their Montréal homestead and at Musiclab
Studios in Berlin.
“It was a situation where, in 1985, we recorded

70 TERRORIZER #282
 THE DILLINGER
ESCAPE PLAN
with mat hcore legends THE
During their final UK tour, TERRORIZER caught up ringer…
l
them through the musica
DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN to putes Pics: Emma Stone
Words: Mark How

MALDOROR MAHAVISHNU Mahavishnu we got our friend Earl to come in and play
‘Butterfly Kiss’ FROM ‘She’ ORCHESTRA violin as well, to take it home, so, once we saw it was
(IPECAC, 1999) ‘Birds Of Fire’ FROM ‘Birds sounding that way we said ‘let’s do it all the way’.”

T
hrowing them in at the Of Fire’ Greg: “We’d talked about it sounding proggy, then
deep end with noise duo (COLUMBIA, 1973) with the violins and that John Frusciante

Maldoror, one of Mike Patton’s
most obscure releases alongside Masami Akita, AKA
Merzbow. TDEP have worked with Patton before, but
will they recognise this?
Greg [Puciato, vocals]: “Sounds like
Disney!”
Kevin [Antreassian, guitar]: “Mr Bungle?”
Close…
Liam [Wilson, bass]: “Mike Patton?”
Ben [Weinman, guitar]: “Oh, with John
Zorn?”
Nope.
Ben: “And it’s not a solo record?”
No, it’s Maldoror.
Ben: “Ahhh, sure”
Kevin: “Sounded like Looney Tunes…”
Ben: “This was probably around the time we did
‘Irony Is A Dead Scene’.
H
aving noticed a few musical flavour.”
references in their work, can The violin matches the solo note for note, right?
TDEP detect these jazz fusion legends? Ben: “Yeah, he came in and worked it out super quick
Greg: “Collective Soul?” and just went for it. I can’t understand
Kevin: “Three Doors Down.” that level of prodigy.”
Greg: “Alien Ant Farm.” Extra points if you can tell me what the time signature
Ben: “Is that an Oriental cymbal?” here is.
Liam: “[Just as the song kicks in] Oh, Mahavishnu Greg: “How should we know?”
Orchestra!” You’re The Dillinger Escape Plan, who better to ask?
Ben: “YES!” Billy [Rymer, drums]: “Hang on, one of those
Liam: “‘Birds Of Fire’?” measures was a six… 5/16?”
Yep! There’s a solo at the end of your song ‘Low Feels Liam: “[frantically tapping along] It’s not 5/16…
Blvd’ that sounds very Mahavishnu, was that a conscious 3,4,5,6, 1… Ah, I don’t know!”
thing?
Ben: “Well, the chord changes and stuff had been
predetermined, but the solo was improv and we liked
the vibe of it. We didn’t know what we were going
to do over it, but then the improv solo sounded so

72 TERRORIZER #282
 “I SAW A GIANT MASTODON TOOTH IN
THE MUSEUM YESTERDAY, SO I SENT
MASTODON A PHOTO.”
ULVER EPHEL DUATH Liam: “Is this
‘Lost In Moments’ FROM ‘The Passage (Pearl Grey)’ Tesseract?”
‘Perdition City’ FROM ‘The Painter’s Palette’ Greg: “Oh, we were just
(JESTER, 2000) (EARACHE, 2003) talking about these…”

F A
or a change of pace, let’s vant-garde jazz metalcore Ben: “Rolo Tomassi? Oh
see if they’re familiar with from Italy that never really wait, iwrestledabearonce? We
everyone’s favourire shape-shifting Norwegians’ ambient got the credit they deserved; one could be forgiven toured with them! But earlier
electronica phase… for assuming their paths would have crossed at some with
[Blank looks] point… the old singer, this must be new
It’s Ulver. Liam: “Is this Brain Temples?” stuff. All the guitarist likes to talk
Greg: “I would know other tracks of theirs but I didn’t A clue; they’re known as the Italian Dillinger Escape about is merch.”
know that one. Some of their stuff is Plan… Greg: “I think they’re in LA now.”
awesome.” Ben: “Oh it’s… Two words in their name, we played with Liam: “I remember they had a dog
Kevin: “Vulva?” them… I did something on their album…” on tour. That was awesome.”
Greg: “They used to be all black metal then turned into Kevin: “Ephel Duath?” Greg: “I remember that singer was really
this weird trippy thing.” Yes! talented and really nice.”
Ben: “He produced that Myrkur record too.” Kevin: “I got one? I GOT ONE!” Liam: “They were all super nice!”
Greg: “It’s hard to keep up with them, they put out like, Ben: “I should have known that, I worked with these Ben: “I think she left to have a baby. It might
six records a year, it’s too much.” guys. It was interesting, they had the old have been the bear’s, I don’t know.”
jazz guy on drums when we played with them.”
ATARI Greg: “He had everything charted out, it was cool to see TORCHE
TEENAGE RIOT that old jazz dude in the clubs play like that.” ‘Grenades’ FROM
‘Meanderthal’
‘Digital Hardcore’ FROM ‘60
Second Wipe Out’ THE ALGORITHM (HYDRA HEAD, 2008)

W
(DIGITAL HARDCORE, 1999) ‘Floating Point’ FROM ‘Brute e reckon at least

S
ince chaotic noise is a key Force’ Greg would know
element for Dillinger, we (FiXT, 2016) of this melodic stoner/ sludge outfit, considering

thought they might recognise these pioneers…
Ben: “[Immediately] Atari Teenage Riot! ‘Digital
Hardcore’! I love this shit!”
Correct! Did you ever play with these guys?
Ben: “No, but I wish we had. Love them.”
MASTODON
‘Seabeast’ FROM ‘Leviathan’
(RELAPSE, 2004)
F
rench guitarist Remi Gallego’s ex-guitarist Juan Montoya plays alongside him in
techno infused tech metal Killer Be Killed…
outfit – TDEP have dabbled with Greg: “This is… Torche!”
similar sounds throughout their career, but have they kept Ben: “This doesn’t sound like us! We used to
up with its current crop? hear Floor sounded like us and they sound
Greg: “Sikth?” exactly like Torche.”
Kevin: “Is it Textures or Tesseract?” Greg: “Well, it’s the same guy.
It’s The Algorithm. We played some festival in France
Ben: “Sounds mathy. It’s great!” with them, and there were all these

T
his should be a given due to obstacle courses and shit that were
the band’s shared history, IWRESTLED shut down, and me and these guys
not to mention Ben is in Giraffe ABEARONCE would climb the trees and go fuck
Tongue Orchestra with guitarist Brent Hinds… ‘Thunder Chunky’ FROM ‘Late around on the obstacles.”
Ben: “Mastodon, ‘Seabeast’. Too easy, what are we For Nothing’ Liam: “Torche are a great band!”
meant to say?” (CENTURY MEDIA, 2013) Ben: “I remember seeing them when

M
Kevin: “I thought it was ‘Don’t Fear The Reaper’.” ental Louisiana based Juan was in the band, they were awesome
Greg: “What else can we say? They’re good friends.” mathcore nutjobs have then.”
Ben: “They’re good friends, we came up on the same shared many a stage with TDEP, but will the presence of www.DillingerEscapePlan.org
label, we’ve known these guys forever.” new(ish) singer Courtney LaPlante throw them off?
Liam: “I saw a giant mastodon tooth in the museum
yesterday, so I sent them a photo.”

FINAL SCORE:got43%
‘43% Burnt’, in what was, to
We swear we didn’t rig this, but The Dillinger Escape Plan
be fair, a challenging contest…
DA RULES
s.
Fifteen minutes, no limits. One point for each artist and another for the song. No Argument

TERRORIZER #282 73
 EDITED BY KEZ WHELAN

COVEN

WARNING

are. Long may they reign!

Back on the Main Stage, Wolves In The Throne
Room deliver one of the best performances we’ve ever seen
from them, with the addition of Aldebaran guitarist Kody

ROADBURN
Keyworth and keyboardist William Hayes adding extra depth
and detail to their live sound, and Lycus drummer Trevor
Deschryver bringing a ferocious level of energy. Gnod begin
the first of their daily performances with some spaced-out,
ambient electronica, rendered all the more hypnotic by Het

FESTIVAL
Petronaat’s beautifully resonant interior, whilst Fórn unleash
their mournful doom with a surprising amount of vigour in
Extase, as vocalist Chris Pinto throws himself around the stage
with unhinged passion.
The iconoclastic Coven prove a big attraction. Jinx
Dawson is an enchanting figure, emerging from her coffin in
TILBURG, THE NETHERLANDS her sparkling mask to deliver sermons to the Dark Lord. The
band sound tight and well drilled but make no mistake, Jinx
THURSDAY as Lycus crush both our skulls and our souls with their is the centre of all; a High Priestess of Satan whose unearthly

W
retch get Roadburn 2017 off to a great start,
with ex-The Gates Of Slumber frontman Karl Simon
sounding rejuvenated, and clearly elated to be
welcoming us all in to this celebration of Thee Riff. Meanwhile,
the new Extase venue showcases its weighty sound system
PALLBEARER
dark funeral doom, occasionally lapsing into savage bursts
of black metal. It’s an astonishingly heavy set, one that our
withered psyches were perhaps not fully prepared for at three
in the afternoon, but such is the beauty of the Roadburn
experience. With little time to recover, it’s off to witness fellow
Oakland gloom-mongers Alaric jostle their way through a
set of hefty Killing Joke-indebted post-punk in the Green Room,
Rick Jacobus’s scuttling, cantankerous bass tone providing a
stirring tonic to Noothgrush guitarist Russ Kent’s doom-laden
riffs.
SubRosa’s first set of the weekend is utterly captivating,
as the band treat a rapt audience to all of last year’s ‘For This
We Fought The Battle Of Ages’ LP on the Main Stage, with the
booming yet crystal clear sound highlighting the subtleties
and restraint in their performance. Whilst it’s easy to get a
good spot at the Main Stage, you’ve got to be swift to get into
the Green Room sometimes, especially when Unearthly
Trance are raging through material both new and old with
such enthusiasm and ferocity, with the tightly packed crowd
treating them like returning heroes – which, in many ways, they
howl has not been mellowed by Father Time. They draw heavily
from 1969 debut ‘Witchcraft Destroys Minds & Reaps Souls’,
a captivating work that demonstrates just how important this
act are in the development of occult rock. The Het Petronaat’s
PA is pushed to its limits by Dälek, who kick out an earth-
shaking amount of low end whilst storming through cuts from
last year’s ‘Asphalt For Eden’. The vibe is electric, with the trio
getting more and more fired up by the cheering, bass hungry
crowd.
Despite the pair often being mentioned in the same breath,
watching Deafheaven so soon after WITTR, it’s apparent
just how different they are, with the former’s angular, jangly
chords owing far more to post-hardcore than the latter’s more
contemplative atmospheres. Not that that’s a bad thing; far
from it, as the Californian quintet sound refreshingly vicious
tonight regardless of what you wanna call them, and even
jaded music critics find themselves moved during a climactic
‘Dream House’. Bongzilla are the perfect band to draw the
first night to a close, as guitarist/vocalist Muleboy urges us
to smoke up before dropping riff after riff after riff, with the

74 TERRORIZER #282

MYSTICUM
band’s loose, squelchy groove and a bucket load of sludge
classics getting the whole room headbanging.
FRIDAY
T
he sweeping choral vocals and jazz rock adventure that
is Magma is bewildering and engaging. Christian
Vander’s percussive dexterity still defies belief while
his wife Stella is mesmerising upfront, holding the audience
with each soaring note and Kobaïan phrase. The enthusiastic
applause that greets the climax of their performance
demonstrates how wonderfully their appeal has transcended
the generation gap. Iceland’s Zhrine provide a cathartic
change of pace, with their blistering black metal blasting the
audience like a cold shower. Ævar Örn Sigurðsson wields his
double-bass with style, elegantly working its curious tone into
the band’s furious compositions.
Oathbreaker’s ascension from cult hardcore act to
genre-straddling, critically adored behemoths has been a
pleasure to witness, and it feels like the band have earned
every minute of their Main Stage slot today, with the emotive,
widescreen scope of songs from ‘Rheia’ translating very
smoothly to the bigger stage. Big Business are on fine
form in the Green Room, delivering all the chunky riffery you’d
expect but also daring to dip into quieter songs like the power
balled-esque ‘Send Help’, all of which is warmly received by
the grinning crowd. Back on the Main
Stage, Chelsea Wolfe conjures
up a completely enveloping wall of
sound, with songs like ‘Iron Moon’
and ‘Dragged Out’ sounding even
heavier than their studio counterparts.
Chelsea’s vocals are note-perfect,
and wrought with a heartfelt, visceral
passion that makes this one of the
day’s finest performances.
With a “subdued” set in Het
Petronaat, SubRosa prove that
their songs are powerful enough to
work even without huge amp stacks
and swathes of distortion, as a highly
respectful crowd ensure you can hear
a pin drop throughout. Local death
metallers Antropomorphia
struggle to really hit their stride in
Extase, plodding along with little in the
way of conviction or stage presence. Amenra, on the other
hand, are stunning, treating a jostling Main Stage crowd to
an hour of absolute sensory overload, tearing through bleak,
gigantic riffs with sickening force. After a day of maverick
experimentation however, who better than this year’s curator
John Dyer Baizley to deliver a set of soaring sing-a-long
anthems with Baroness. The surprise inclusion of seven
minute colossus ‘Tower Falls’ from their first EP is rapturously
received, with John delivering the harsh vocals with gusto.
For More Live Reviews Visit www.Terrorizer.com
MY DYING BRIDE
Tonight’s headlining performance is a masterful salute to old
and new fans alike, with John opting to dip into the vaults more
frequently than of late. Baroness’ music may have taken a
more sophisticated melodic route but the crowd laps up ‘Shock
Me’ and closer ‘Take My Bones Away’, raising their hands and
voices in unison to salute Savannah’s finest.
Telepathy may be a new name to many festival-goers,
but their fusion of shimmering post-metal atmospherics with
scathing black metal battery goes down a storm in the Cul
De Sac, with tracks from new album ‘Tempest’ gaining huge
cheers from the busy crowd. Het Petronaat is even busier for
Zeal And Ardor, with the audience going wild before
Manuel Gagneux and co. have even played a note. His live band
do a great job of bringing these songs to the stage, but Manuel
himself is of course the centre point, roaring out songs like
‘Blood In The River’ with fierce conviction. We’re treated to a
surprising amount of new material too, which seems to retain
the essence of Manuel’s vision whilst taking it into both weirder
and more accessible avenues, before disaster strikes and the
PA dies. That unquenchable Roadburn spirit saves the day
however, as Manuel calls out the refrain to ‘Devil Is Fine’ and
the whole room bellows the next part back at him, making the
most of a fantastic but abruptly finished set.
Back in the Cul De Sac, Dutch duo Folteraar careen
through their raw, ear-shreddingly harsh black metal with
a gloriously primitive, ‘no fucks
BARONESS given’ attitude, inspiring some
truly frenzied headbanging from
the crowd. Meanwhile, hardcore
legends Integrity are definitely
suited to smaller, more intimate
venues, but they still give it
their all on the Main Stage, with
frontman Dwid Hellion cutting
an imposing figure as he barks
out fist-pumping anthems like
‘Systems Overload’.
SATURDAY
U
trecht black metal trio
Laster have always been
an intense live band, but
new LP ‘Ons Vrije Fatum’ seems
to have taken them to an entirely
new level, as their ferocious,
progressive and fearlessly imaginative black metal provides
the perfect wake-up call for today. Over on the Main Stage, it
may seem a tad early for a performance of such magnitude,
but The Bug VS Earth provide an ideal way to dissolve
our hangovers. Whilst it feels as though the pair are both
perhaps holding back slightly to fuse their disparate styles,
this disciplined and meditative approach creates an absorbing
atmosphere that feels fresh and significantly different to
either’s back catalogure.
CHELSEA WOLFE
The seering intensity of Cobalt is a sight to behold,
with the deranged snarl of former Lord Mantis man Charlie
Fell riding high atop vicious blackened sludge. Erik Wunder
is a whirling dervish behind the kit, pouring with sweat. It’s
a heart stopping performance that makes you wish their live
outings weren’t so few and far between. At least they’re more
regular than Razors In The Night, a one-off performance
from John Baizley and his Baroness chums teaming up with
Neurosis’s Scott Kelly to race through punk classics from The
Stooges, Ramones and Misfits with such enthusiasm that we
wish they’d take this thing on tour.
At this point, it almost feels like we’re doing Oranssi
Pazuzu a disservice referring to them simply as “psychedelic
black metal”, such is the wild, untamed energy that powers
their increasingly hard-to-define music. Their Main Stage set
today emphasises what a tightly knit unit they have become,
thundering along with a free-wheeling, almost improvisational
quality that feels more like the vibrant collective approach of
Amon Düül II than anything in the black metal canon. Following
yesterday’s more standard ‘rock’ set, the Gnodyssey continues
in the Green Room as Gnod & Kuro ride taut motorik
rhythms to infinity, accompanied by violinist Agathe Max’s eerie
tones.
Reunited and beloved doom act Warning deliver
‘Watching From A Distance’ from start to finish to an
enraptured Main Stage crowd, as vocalist/guitarist Patrick
Walker continues to be one of the most expressive vocalists
in metal, his face flush with heartache during an incredibly
powerful ‘Footprints’. The band may not have performed live
in years, but they’re impeccably tight and the guitar tone is
perfect, raining thick, gloopy chords down from the PA with
soul-shaking force. Patrick is visibly humbled as the entire
room sings along to ‘Bridges’, and we’d wager this set will
go down as one of Roadburn’s most unforgettable moments.
After such a powerful, emotional experience, Casual Nun
somehow manage to lighten the mood whilst still being heavy
as fuck in Extase, as they engage in a joyous, sweaty bout of
riff worship not too dissimilar to early Gnod.
“Is that drugs? We’ll have that later,” Karl Willets jovially
quips as a fan hurls a bag of kush towards the stage as an
offering to his heroes. While Karl is justifiably in high spirits
considering the impact new album ‘For The Fallen’ has
made, there is nothing funny about the merciless onslaught
Memoriam wage upon the bloodthirsty hordes that greet
them. The quartet have honed a set of punishing death metal
that’s delivered with ruthless precision: a neck snapping show
TERRORIZER #282 75

MEMORIAM
of righteous fury which effortlessly picks up from where Bolt
Thrower left off. Afterwards, it’s off to the Green Room to see
yet another record played in full (Roadburn really is the gift
that keeps on giving, isn’t it?), as Ahab unleash classic
debut ‘The Call Of The Wretched Sea’. Any fears they wouldn’t
be able to pull it off given their lighter sound of recent years
are quashed as soon as ‘Below The Sun’ comes cascading
like a veritable flood, Daniel Droste’s guttural vocals sounding
especially deep and resonant. Performing breakthrough
sophomore release ‘Turn Loose The Swans’, My Dying
Bride are simply glorious. Aaron Stainthorpe is reminiscent
of a Shakespearian actor in his raw and unpretentious delivery,
accompanied by violinist Shaun Macgowan to perform the
lavish ‘Sear Me MCMXCIII’ before the rest of the band take the
stage for ‘Your River’. A venomous encore of ‘Your Shameful
Heaven’ sees Aaron clutching his limbs and thrashing around
like a man possessed, before the mournful glory of ‘The
Cry Of Mankind’ leaves the congregation dumbstruck. An
unforgettably miserable performance to revel in.
After all that doom ’n’ gloom, Disfear are a refreshing
jolt in the arm, their righteous D-beat anthems sounding more
vital than ever in Het Petronaat as Tomas Lindberg goads
the crowd into what is unquestionably the biggest moshpit
of the weekend. Meanwhile, that same sense of celebratory
camaraderie can be found in Extase as Serpent Venom’s
rousing, Trouble-esque doom is treated like manna from
heaven, the audience wailing along with Garry Ricketts’ soulful
howls.
Resplendent on a trifecta of podiums, Mysticum
deliver Roadburn’s most Spinal Tap moment to date, with a
level of titanic industrial mindfuckery which is disorientating
but decidedly myopic, all strobe lights and Satan with little
or no variation. Still, the band themselves sound lethal, with
Cerastes and Prime Evil trading snarls over barbed wire riffs
Words: Kez Whelan, Ross Baker Pics: Falk-Hagen Bernshausen
76 TERRORIZER #282
ROADBURN FESTIVAL continued
and pounding electronic blastbeats like a satanic acid trip.
SUNDAY
O
riginally meant as a gentle way to ease yourself back
into reality after Roadburn, Sunday’s Afterburner has
since grown into a fully-fledged fourth day in its own
right, as evidenced by today’s busy schedule. The final Gnod
performance comes in the form of Temple Ov BBV, as the
band team up with Radar Men From The Moon to provide some
thick, squelchy and severely intoxicating grooves to wake up
to. Author & Punisher’s clunky industrial is a fantastic
spectacle in the Green Room, as Tristan Shone operates a
hefty mechanical arm, pulsing his fist to create stark beats
whilst yelling into a bizarre voice-altering mouthpiece. It’s like
a scene from ‘Tetsuo: The Iron Man’ set to an early Ministry
soundtrack, and it’s a blast to behold.
Pallbearer initially seem a bit nervous on the Main
Stage, but any pre-show nerves soon evaporate as the band
throw themselves into songs like ‘Thorns’ and ‘Dancing In
Madness’ with palpable emotion. The inclusion of
non-album track ‘Fear And Fury’ is an unexpected but
DISFEAR
welcome addition, it’s chunky, palm-muted riffs getting
heads banging after the more soaring, delicate beauty
of their newer songs. There’s nothing delicate about
Sumac, as Aaron Turner’s new power trio threaten
to raze Het Petronaat to the ground with their hulking,
brutishly heavy riffery, sounding more like early Swans
than Isis. Though there’s obviously something missing
without the presence of sorely missed bandleader
Daevid Allen, it’s great to see psych-rock legends Gong
continue to carry the torch for far out, progressive
whimsy, and classics like ‘You Can’t Kill Me’ sound as
timeless as ever.
“Play some black metal!” someone yells at
For More Live Reviews Visit www.Terrorizer.com
RAZORS IN THE NIGHT
Ulver, to which Kristoffer Rygg deadpans “…no.” Yep, the
Norwegians are in full Depeche Mode, erm, mode this evening,
drawing solely from new album ‘The Assassination Of Julius
Caesar’; however, the propensity for live improvisation they
demonstrated on ‘ATGCLVLSSCAP’ is in full effect tonight too,
with many of these songs expanding into vast, Vaneglis-esque
jams. Emma Ruth Rundle manages to keep a packed,
spellbound Green Room in hushed reverie for the duration of
her acoustic set, with closer ‘Real Big Sky’ being a particular
highlight.
A huge cheer greets David Tibet on the Main Stage, before
his flamboyant roar of “Create Christ, saaaaaaaiiiilor boy!”
heralds the beginning of Hypnopazūzu’s sombre, elegiac
performance. It’s remarkably subtle and introspective for a
headline set, but testament to both the Roadburn crowd’s
varied tastes and the quality of Tibet and Youth’s unique
musical creation, it’s greeted with open arms. Come To
Grief are absolutely devastating in Het Petronaat, truly
capturing the original Grief vibe and airing classics like
‘Depression’, ‘World Of Hurt’ and ‘Fucked Upstairs’. The crowd
lose the minds, leading guitarist Terry Savastano to beam “this
is one of the best shows I’ve ever played,” and we don’t doubt
him for a second.
Having but a sole release under their belts does not
deter Pillorian from delivering an outstanding Main Stage
performance. Conjuring shimmering acoustic passages
from stygian gloom, the quintet exude calm confidence.
John Haughm has the aura of a man who knows he is onto
something, weaving glorious tapestries of folk noir punctuated
with raging black metal. The spirit of Agalloch may hang about
his neck but masterful performances like these show he is not
content to rest on his sizeable laurels. And neither, for that
matter, are the Roadburn organisers themselves, delivering
what has to be one of the strongest, most diverse and exciting
line-ups in the festival’s history.
 MAYHEM

AUTOPSY

and ‘Welcome To Hell’ result in rapturous applause, and

despite a problem with the guitar amp mid-set, the
band ensure it was inconsequential with their crowd
banter throughout. Celebrating the twentieth anniversary
of their album ‘Heaven Shall Burn… When We Are
Gathered’, Swedish black metallers Marduk play a
set comprised primarily of songs from said record. Their
sound is relentlessly pummeling with blasting drums,
cutting guitars and shrieking vocals. A real treat arrives
in their penultimate number ‘Accuser/Opposer’, when
Alan “Nemtheanga” Averill joins the band for a duet with
Marduk frontman Mortuus.
Following his previous performance, Alan Averill
storms back onstage with Primordial like he’s just

LORDS
been ripped from a vengeful grave. Fists are raised and
heads are nodding to fan favourites like ‘The Coffin
Ships’, and the cheers in between songs are wall to
wall. The performance is particularly dramatic with the

OF THE LAND
frontman’s stage actions making the band’s folk/black
metal sound especially engaging.
Mayhem performing ‘De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas’
in its entirety is a nostalgia trip for any black metal

FESTIVAL 2017
fan. The lights go out, smoke eats up the stage, cloaked
figures appear, and ‘Funeral Fog’ hits the eardrums. If a
note is out of place or a vocal out of time, as they often
seem to be, everyone is too drunk and ecstatic to care.
GLASGOW, BARROWLAND BALLROOM Death metal legends Autopsy close the festival
with an uncompromising aural assault and the hordes

T
rage throughout the set. The energy in the room is high
he line-up for Lords Of The Land 2017 offers paced death metal, with Karl Willets tearing about the
and clear enjoyment is had by all as they mosh to classic
nostalgia and only a dribble of fresh blood, but stage like a mad cross between Lucius Malfoy and Aerys
tunes like ‘In The Grip Of Winter’, and ‘Charred Remains’.
it has proven to be enough to tempt even the Targaryen. A confident, assertive band with seasoned
It’s been 27 years since Autopsy last played in Scotland
least stalwart of metal fans: eight bands of international members, the crowd laps every song up, cyclones of hair
and hopefully after Lords Of The Land, it won’t be long
acclaim, some legends from inception. in every row.
before they return.
Delays result in Finnish grindcore band Rotten The energy and crowd continue to grow for Yorkshire
Sound taking to the stage at the exact time they thrashers Acid Reign. There’s mosh pits and crowd-
were expected to finish. “Sorry for being late,” says surfers aplenty to classics like ‘Humanoia’, as well as
frontman Keijo the band’s new single ‘The Man Who Became Himself’.
PRIMORDIAL
Niinimaa, sporting a Frontman H even gets in on the action as he traverses
Dead Kennedys shirt and the length of the hall on the hands of the headbangers
an unapologetic grin. below.
As it passes midday, Dragged Into Sunlight are the band most
the sober crowd are anticipated to steal the show. And they certainly do
barely prepared for 30 so, in an incredibly abrasive performance that reeks of
minutes of face-melting intelligence and technical flair. The band provide a set
ferocity. Memoriam of insane visuals in the form of a black and white video
are saturated with montage, candles, and the craziest mic stand made of
obvious Bolt Thrower skulls and bones.
associations. They Playing a set of classics from the extreme metal
specialise in a pioneers, Venom Inc invoke the biggest mosh pits
particular brand of mid- and loudest cheers of the day. Songs like ‘Black Metal’ MARDUK

Words: Georgia Curran, Sean Merrigan Pics: David Hayes

TERRORIZER #282 77

IHSAHN
MISERY INDEX
RITUAL FESTIVAL
BELGRAVE MUSIC HALL/CANAL MILLS, LEEDS
FRIDAY fingers waggling from the off. The sound is unfortunately a
W
arming up for Saturday’s main event, Ritual offers up little off for The Infernal Sea, robbing sparser, more
some of the UK’s finest black metal at the Belgrave experimental numbers like ‘The Bearer’ of much of their
Music Hall tonight. Taking to the stage in full corpse potency, but undisputed bangers like ‘Plague Herald’ ring
paint, Yorkshire quintet Sathamel’s blackened death through nonetheless, generating a sea of headbangers as
onslaught is a perfect opener, getting heads nodding and vocalist Dean Lettice wretches up some delightfully macabre
Attila Csihar-esque croaks.
Thankfully, the sound seems fine for Fen, who deliver
CANVAS
an utterly hypnotic voyage deep into their heart of their
progressive, sumptuously atmospheric black metal, with cuts
from latest album ‘Winter’ sounding even more energetic and
engaging than on record. Finally, the mighty Akercocke
arrive to a huge roar from the crowd. Surprisingly, and
somewhat boldly for a headline set, their performance tonight
largely consists of unheard new material from their upcoming
album – not that anyone here is complaining, mind, as
though unfamiliar, these new songs are Akercocke through
and through, containing all the dramatic, intricate brutality
we’ve come to expect from them. Old favourites like ‘Son Of
The Morning’ have the whole room singing along, and ‘The
Dark Inside’ sees the crowd busting out some particularly
78 TERRORIZER #282
EDITED BY KEZ WHELAN
inebriated dance moves. Leaving the front rows in tatters
after closing with a totally savage ‘A Skin For Dancing In’,
there’s no doubt that Akercocke are back – and they mean
business…
SATURDAY
T
hose who manage to shake off last night’s hangover
and get down to Leeds’ spacious Canal Mills venue
for 2PM are treated to one of the heaviest sets of the
weekend, as local sludge trio Groak kick off the smaller
stage with a cacophony of tortured shrieks, bowel-jostling
bass tones, humongous grooves and frantic blasts of grinding
fury, like their blistering cover of Assück’s ‘Salt Mine’.
Opening the main stage, Rugby’s Conjurer are an
unstoppable force that grows with every performance.
With delicate eastern scales culminating in cacophonous
blackened sludge, the quartet deliver a passionate set full of
unshakeable conviction. New song ‘Hadal’ is huge with each
member pouring his heart into the performance. Guitarist
Brady Deeprose’s face turns scarlet with each anguished
scream and bass player Andy Price wields his instrument

ALL PIGS MUST DIE
like a man possessed. Back at the smaller stage, Sheffield
three-piece Kurokuma get heads banging with a set of
deliciously off-kilter doom, including a cover of Kraftwerk’s
‘Radioactivity’ and a djembe solo, of all things. The trio’s
imaginative and bizarre sound is nothing less than crushing,
however, leaving a big impression on all who witness it.
Lurching, lumbering doom with the odd gallop,
Serpent Venom recall Cathedral but are let down
by the mundane vocals of Garry Ricketts, leaving them
sounding decidedly second
rate. Corrupt Moral Altar
instigate the first moshpit of
the day with their feral grind/
sludge combo, as vocalist
Chris Reese whips the crowd
into a frenzy whilst roaring
and shrieking like an absolute
lunatic. With live performances
as raging as this one, it’s not
hard to see why grind elder
statesmen like Napalm Death
are big fans of these guys.
Back on the main
stage, the infernal blast
of Unfathomable
Ruination attempts to keep
the momentum going. There’s BOSSK
not much variation to their
brutal tech death but their savage heaviness and precise
rhythm section makes for set of neck snapping efficiency
nonetheless. Crepitation are an absolute riot over on
the small stage, with their fat, weighty slams hitting the
crowd with the force of… well, not so much a bull in a china
shop, more an elephant pushed out of a sixth storey window
directly onto a commemorative plate. New drummer Trippy
blasts away with fervent precision, whilst the gurgling,
raspberry-blowing dual vocal approach of Chris Butterworth
(Kastrated) and Mark Pearce (ex-Amputated) is supremely
entertaining, with the pair’s rhythmic grunts tightly in tune
with one another. There’s a knowingly ridiculous element to
their sound, that, when combined with their frankly massive
riffs and breakdowns, makes them one of the most fun
live acts in the UK’s brutal death metal scene – the crowd
responds in kind by turning the whole room into one big,
messy mosh pit.
And now for something completely different; with
ethereal melody giving way to colossal heaviness, Kent
mob Bossk are on form, trotting out a set culled largely
from last year’s excellent ‘Audio Noir’. Shifting effortlessly
between ambient soundscapes and crushing post-metal,
this is a hypnotic performance that holds all under its spell.
For More Live Reviews Visit www.Terrorizer.com
THE AFTERNOON GENTLEMEN
After that quick breather, the circle pits continue with The killer backbeat of Converge man Ben Koller the engine room
Afternoon Gentlemen’s light-speed grind assault on of this vicious assault. Vocalist Kevin Baker looks utterly
the smaller stage. The bands’ shows are usually high-octane deranged, barking like a feral dog whilst audience members
experiences, and even more so on their home turf, where the hurl themselves into each other at the front of the stage
quintet are granted a hero’s welcome and a sea of bodies with reckless abandon. That energy is maintained on the
and flailing limbs greets their boozy, powerviolence indebted second stage by US death metallers Misery Index, who
microsongs. tear through most of their latest album ‘The Killing Gods’
Due to an airline screw up, Brummie noise terrorists (plus a few old classics for good measure) with frightening
Anaal Nathrakh are without founder Mick Kenney. efficiency and lethal intent.
Reduced to playing with one guitarist Ihsahn experiences some technical issues that delay
means ‘Nathrakh are fighting a losing the beginning of tonight’s headline set, yet it’s nothing that
battle from the off, despite the best prevents the former Emperor mainman from delivering a
efforts of charismatic frontman Dave masterclass in progressive metal. A rare show outside the
Hunt. They fight valiantly but it’s a capital has many hotly anticipating tonight’s performance,
shambolic affair; ‘Depravity Favours and ‘Hiber’ provides a suitably grand entrance for this
The Bold’ sees the bass rig crash and auspicious occasion. Five records into his solo career, Ihsahn
Hunt threatens to play all night, killing has incorporated black metal, hard rock, acid jazz and
the vibe stone-dead by having a pop shimmering prog flourishes that see the Norwegian master
at the festival’s organisers onstage to expand his sonic pallet. 2016’s ‘Arktis.’ saw him rein in the
a round of boos and one very audible experimentation, delivering a set of more accessible material
“oh, fuck off!”. Anaal are a titan of which blends perfectly with his pioneering spirit. ‘Until I
extreme music but this was a day Too Dissolve’ has a chorus riff that Jake E. Lee would’ve
they’ll no doubt wish to forget in a killed for and the soaring ‘Frozen Lakes On Mars’ receives
hurry. a rapturous response. A softly spoken character, at odds
Thankfully, the mood is saved by with the visceral, demonic jazz metal epic ‘The Grave’ which
Canvas’ cathartic second stage set, concludes tonight’s set, Ihsahn is rare figure that possesses
as the reformed local post-hardcore the maverick spirit of a true artist who listens only to his
troupe burn through classic, intricately inner voice. An exhilarating end to a fantastic event.
composed tunes with passion to a crowd who scream every
word back at them. Sure, reunions are ten a penny these Words: Ross Baker, Kez Whelan
days, and whilst it’s hard to begrudge bands for reaping Pics: Kirsty Garland
the rewards they
missed first time
around, this feels
like something
more; rather than
a simple nostalgic
trip, Canvas feel
like a band in their
prime who can build
from this and go on
to create even more
vital, refreshing
and original new
material. We await it
with open ears…
All Pigs
Must Die trade
in pissed off,
take-no-prisoners
hardcore, with the ANAAL NATHRAKH
TERRORIZER #282 79
 COMEBACK
KID
‘Partners In Crime’
AHEAD OF THE FROM ‘Wake The
IR
RELEASE OF THE
Dead’
(VICTORY, 2005)
NEW ALBUM “As far as anthems go, this is the anthem of my last
CEANO
‘REVELATION’, O
days of college.”

VOCALIST ADAM THE ACACIA

S HIS
WARREN SHARE STRAIN
NCES
BIGGEST INFLUE
‘4X4’ FROM ‘The
Dead Walk’
WITH US (PROSTHETIC, 2006)
“The album this is taken from,
‘The Dead Walk’, was the catalyst in my decision to be
a part of a heavy band. This still remains the blueprint
for what a heavy, pissed off band is.”

“THE ALBUM BLEEDING

THROUGH
LF
OPENED UP MYSE ‘Revenge I Seek’

FREAKISHLY HEA E”
METAL EXPERIEN
GOD FORBID
‘Force-Fed’ FROM ‘Gone
Forever’
(CENTURY MEDIA, 2004)
“From ‘Gone Forever’, an
influential album, written by a
predominant crew of minority musicians that I looked
up to. Some great melodic riffs and some of the most
aggressive breakdowns ever written, when metalcore was
in its prime.”
INTO ANOTHER
FROM ‘This Is Love,
This Is Murderous’
VY,
(TRUSTKILL, 2003)
“A very influential song in the years leading towards
C
me becoming a vocalist. I really admire this band and
the album it’s taken from for being unapologetic in
their approach of blending heartfelt, emotional lyrics
and singing with metal and aggressive screaming.”
AVENGED
SEVENFOLD KILLSWITCH
‘We Come Out At Night’ ENGAGE
FROM ‘Sounding The ‘To The Sons Of Man’
Seventh Trumpet’ FROM ‘Alive Or Just
(GOOD LIFE/HOPELESS, 2001) Breathing’
“One of my favourite albums growing up was ‘Sounding (ROADRUNNER, 2002)
The Seventh Trumpet’. A very well put together album that “Heavy, melodic, and highly influential towards my
blended some of the best aspects of rock, heavy metal, transition into wanting to become a heavy metal
punk and hardcore all on one album, which this track vocalist.”
captures perfectly. Insane!”
ISSUES
THE BLACK ‘Coma’ FROM
DAHLIA ‘Headspace’
MURDER (RISE, 2016)
‘Thy Horror Cosmic’ “Taken from ‘Headspace’, a
FROM ‘Unhallowed’ genius album that blends two
(METAL BLADE, 2003) of my favourites, heavy and groove laden riffs with
‘The album ‘Unhallowed’ for me revitalized melodic death soulful R&B style singing!”
metal and opened up myself and a lot of my friends who
were more rooted in metalcore and hardcore into another ‘Revelation’ is out now on Sumerian
freakishly heavy, metal experience.” www.Facebook.com/OceanoMetal

80 TERRORIZER #282
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