ROTTING CHRIST's Sakis comments on The Golden Dawn and the difficulties of creating art amidst chaos

Excerpt from a recent interview I conducted with Sakis Tolis, guitarist & vocalist for Greek black metal institution Rotting Christ (edited slightly for clarity/grammar).

KK: Over the past two decades, the band has faced plenty of uproar from various Christian communities. How is the band received in Greece? Are people used to you by now, or do you still see trouble from time to time?

ST: We always had problems with Christians and generally with conservative ideas and close mind people.We never stepped back and we always keep on spreading our ideas and our music even though it was hard sometimes. I remember live cancellations, refusals to distribute our albums, “riots”, even threats, but this is METAL. Metal can not be compatible to the majority otherwise it will lose its meaning.
KK: On a side note, it’s been interesting following the controversy over Naer Mataron’s Giorgos Germenis’ election to the Greek Parliament. How do people within the metal scene view this event? Does the Golden Dawn have many supporters amongst Greek metalheads, or it it more of a fringe movement?


ST: 7% can not be a fringe movement! Something else  drove people to vote for this extreme right party and the reason is something that we suffer as society.The corruption of the political system so the people voted for a hand that can punch politics' face. I have lived in Greece all my life and believe me that there are not half million extreme right citizens. Greece is a “left" country that has nothing to do with such movements. You know when there is crisis somewhere and a whole nation is ready to collapse then this situation is  exploited from the extreme movements and Golden Dawn is one of them.

Now if there are supporters of Golden Dawn in Metal I guess mathematically there are but I see not  such movement in Greek Metal scene.

METAL in my opinion has nothing to do with politics.I am also a political sensitive person but I leave that miles aways from what I call Metal and this is in my opinion what all journalists should do.


KK: How have Greece’s recent financial issues affected the way bands and artists operate within the country? Has it had an effect on your ability to practice your craft, or just provided fuel for the fire?

ST: It is said that a crisis or war or something miserable helps art. Yes I do agree with that but my friend, what we have lived through as citizens the last two years is worst than a war. In a war you know your enemy.Here we have to face a digital  enemy ,an enemy with numbers that in reality does not exist, and this is worst than everything. And I am afraid that I will feedback positive to your question if that had effect the band or the musicians.When you wake up and you do not know if your country will collapse and if you see people with depression all around, if you see no jobs around, if you see people committing suicide, then I am afraid that this can affect your creation .I have get over my limits composing new songs all this year. First time that I ever worked so hard, as I had to pick up my mind from what is going on around and be focused to my point. I am glad that I finally came upo with new songs that I am currently recording but I have always my mind on what is going on down here that I am afraid…that is just the beginning!

First piece for Decibel Magazine

Two page live review of Roadburn 2012.

Back on the road.

May 17, 2012
Black Tusk tour.

 It's about eleven o'clock and we're in the van, driving down a lonesome highway in Alabama. Outside our rumbling, self-contained universe, the air presses down, hard and humid. Everything is black and grey. No light, no nothing, just brief flashes of garish light as billboards swim in and out of view. We're listening to a Townes van Zandt covers record that Scott Kelly, Steve Von Till, and Wino have put together. Weeping acoustics, scratchy throats whispering a dead man's thoughts, velvety strings shimmering underneath. It's haunting, subtle, dusky music, made for lonesome nights and quiet thoughts. Nights like these really underline how far I am from home, and how alright that is by me.

Tomorrow, we carry on into Louisiana to meet up with our friends Down and haarp for a string of shows through the South. We are staying in some no name hotel in Mobile tonight, all four of us curled up in one room like stray dogs. Road dogs - it's more apt of a description than a cursory reading will reveal. Roaming the earth like hungry wolves, sticking close to our pack, relying on the kindness of our far-flung tribe to get by. It's a life built on love, and muscle, and bullheaded determination. Many others know as well as I do how hard this can be, but, it is worth the sweat and bruises and aggravation to find a place that feels like home - even if that place is a creaky old Ford van stuffed with boots and wayward sunflower seeds.

 It's good to be home.

 : BLACK TUSK
 With Down and Haarp
 5/18: Broussard, LA @ The Station
 5/19: Huntsville, AL @ Crossroads
 5/21: Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel
 5/23: Little Rock, AR @ Juanita's Cantina Ballroom
 5/25: Memphis, TN @ New Daisy Theater *

*5/24-5/27 I will be in Baltimore for Maryland Death Fest, and will rejoin the tour 5/28**

 With Municipal Waste
 5/27: Wilmington, NC @ The Soapbox Laundrolounge
 5/28: Atlanta, GA @ 529 5/29: Orlando, FL @ The Social 
5/30: Pensacola, FL @ Vinyl Music Hall
 6/2: Denton, TX @ Rubber Gloves
 6/3: Oklahoma City, OK @ The Conservatory
 6/5: Tempe, AZ @ 910 Live

 With Municipal Waste and 3 Inches of Blood
 6/11: Anaheim, CA @ Chain Reaction
 6/12: Hollywood, CA @ The Key Club
 6/13: Oakland, CA @ Oakland Metro Operahouse
 6/15: Seattle, WA @ Neumos Crystal Ball Reading Room 
6/16: Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theater
 6/21: Chicago, IL @ Reggie's Rock Club
 6/22: Columbus, OH @ Screamin' Willies

 "Orion Music + More Festival" 6/23: Atlantic City, NJ @ Bader Field

 With Municipal Waste and 3 Inches of Blood
6/24: Albany, NY @ Bogies
 6/25: Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
 6/26: New York, NY @ Santos Party House

MDF X Playlist:

Here's a downloadable playlist of a few bands I'm really stoked to be seeing at this year's Maryland Death Fest X.

-I-

MORTUARY DRAPE - "Obsessed by Necromancy"

HORNA - "Vihan Tie"

NASUM - "The Engine of Death"

DRAGGED INTO SUNLIGHT - "Volcanic Birth"

ARCHGOAT - "Goddess of the Abyss of Graves"

DEVIATED INSTINCT - "Disciples of the Storm"

HELLBASTARD - "Massacre"

EYEHATEGOD - "Dixie Whiskey"

BLACK WITCHERY - "Apocalyptic Carnage"

DEMIGOD - "Tears of God"

MORBID ANGEL - "Chapel of Ghouls"

SARGEIST - "Black Fucking Murder"

SAINT VITUS - Look Behind You"

GHOUL - "Splatterthrash"

EXTERMINATION ANGEL- "Whirlwind Killing Spree"

INFERNAL STRONGHOLD - "Snorting the Ruins of Sodom"

http://www.sendspace.com/file/5sw1ti

-I-

Mutilation Rites

I fucking love these dudes. Doing a tiny piece on them for the next issue of Terrorizer; here's the full interview. Short and sweet.

 - Tell me about Empyrean. It's been getting sick reviews already, and is a marked progression from the band's earlier demos. You guys have really come into your own.

 Thanks. We're excited about the record. This album was much more of a group effort than any of the other recordings we've done. I think we've really fleshed out how to work with each other and put it all into Empyrean.

 - You guys stay away from the occult gobbledegook that so many black metal bands jock, show up on stage in whatever you wore that day, and generally give zero fucks about "image." It rules. Your lyrics and aesthetic seem to fall into that realm, too - there's definitely evil brewing, but it feels more genuine. Can you give me some insight into the philosophy and goals behind the band?

 Yeah I don't really understand why you would put on a bunch of fake blood or makeup when you're just some dude from the US. I understand aesthetics are important to an extent but you shouldn't pretend to be something you aren't. We're just dudes making music for us, we don't need to put on a bunch of costumes to prove how legit we are. We don't have a message for you. I'm not trying to preach eternal war, blasphemy blah blah. My lyrics are personal and the band just makes music that feels natural.

 - How sick are you of people asking you about Brooklyn by now? Who are a few bands from there that people should be paying attention to?

 Hahahaha I'm so sick of it! I think people assume all Brooklyn metal bands have weekly meetings or something. As far as local Brooklyn bands? Ruin Lust, Trenchgrinder, Syphilitic Lust, Mutant Supremacy all totally fucking rip and should get a lot more attention.

 - You guys are always, always on tour. What are your favorite places to play? Where do you get the best reaction, and what's the weirdest gig you've played recently?

 We love playing Chicago. Shaman records always gets us badass shows. Usually with crusty bands, which is a safe bet for a good time. Wisconsin is always good to us too. The Midwest in general seems to be where we get the best reception so far. Doing DIY shows all over, you tend to play a lot of basements, restaurants, warehouses. Nothing too out of the ordinary in that realm lately.

Interview with Horseback

I interviewed Horseback's Jenks Miller for a Terrorizer piece. Here's the full interview (spared the slicing and dicing of the editorial process).
_

So this is your first album of all-new material for Relapse! Are you excited to get it out there and see what kind of reaction pops up?

Yes, I certainly appreciate the opportunity to work with Relapse. They’ve released some of my favorite metal records over the years, including Transcendence into the Peripheral, Onward to Golgotha, and Repulsion’s Horrified.

I honestly have no idea what kind of reaction to expect -- I try not to think too much about that kind of thing, lest expectations unnecessarily influence my creative process.


You're highly prolific, and endlessly innovative. What's your creative process like? Are you constantly writing, recording, and resurrecting, or does inspiration come in bursts?

It’s largely the former. I try to make writing and recording a daily practice. It helps if I approach music with the same discipline I would a full-time job. Not every idea works, of course: a part of this daily practice involves discarding -- or at least temporarily shelving -- certain fragments until a burst of inspiration like you describe makes that material useful.

I’ve also found that listening to as much music as I can, and to different kinds of challenging music, is another essential habit. I’m drawn to music that doesn’t seem to make sense at first. This reaction suggests a potential area into which my own vocabulary could expand, as both a listener and an artist. Many of my favorite records today felt impenetrable when I first heard them.


There are so many layers and different sounds woven into your music, from black metal rasps to glorious ambient sunrises. It's a truly unique beast. It's a total cliche question, but - from whence do you draw your primary inspiration? Films, music, authors, places...

If I could, I’d write pages in response to this question! I’ll answer briefly, in the categories you’ve provided:

Films: Andrei Tarkovsky, Alejandro Jodorowsky, David Lynch, Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock. I’ve been fond of Jane Campion’s film The Piano since I was a kid. Something about the cinematography and Nyman’s score. There was a time in my teens when I would fall asleep every night with either The Piano soundtrack or Satyricon’s Nemesis Divina playing quietly on my CD player. I now realize that I was aiming for a hypnagogic dream-state. This sort of hallucinatory state seems to be one common thread connecting all my favorite films and records.

Music: Metal, noise, contemporary classical (Glass, Radigue, Tony Conrad), proto-punk (Funhouse is tops), krautrock, folk (including folk-rock like Neil Young and Fairport Convention), goth rock (Fields of the Nephilim, Joy Division, Bauhaus). Jazz (especially Don Cherry and late-era John and Alice Coltrane) and dub (King Tubby and Scratch) are always on around the house. Swans, Lungfish, Keiji Haino, Junior Kimbrough. Some electronica -- I’ve really enjoyed Gas ever since I came across the box set of his Mille Plateaux albums a couple years ago. Records from friends and acquaintances are always in rotation. I’m obsessed with sound, always reaching for more of it. Right now I’m listening to a box set of old Feedtime records Sub Pop just released.

Authors: Mostly nonfiction. Authors I was exposed to in college. I enjoy books on mythology, mysticism, music theory, art history. Alan Moore’s and Charles Burns’ graphic novels. The novel I read most recently was Don DeLillo’s White Noise.

Places: My home in central North Carolina remains my favorite place on earth. I live in the woods, far enough from town that I have time to myself, space to think and breathe. I love the Appalachian Mountains, a few hours west of here. I spent a lot of time there growing up.


How does 'Half Blood' fit into the rest of your discography?

This record is a synthesis of the various approaches explored on Horseback’s previous records. There are some songs with melodic structures derived from metal, blues and folk musics, along with abstract stuff that depends more on texture itself. Thematically, Half Blood is a meditation on hybridity and evolution, so I thought it would be appropriate to represent a number of different (conflicting? complimentary?) compositional approaches as parts of a greater whole.


Tell me a bit about "Inheritance (The Changeling)". From the outset, it's bathed in this eerie, unsettling glow - like Blood Ceremony covering the Suspiria soundtrack. What's the story behind this one?

I’m not familiar with Blood Ceremony, but I love Goblin and Suspiria. And you’re right -- I certainly intended this track to be eerie and unsettling. I imagined a number of different forms coming together in mutual influence and constant mutation. In the larger context of the record, this track represents a kind of asymmetrical axis around which things grow more abstract and undefined.


"Arjuna" has that same eldritch, almost cinematic quality to it - I could easily imagine it playing in the background as the Wicker Man burns (have you seen that film?). There's a lot of talk about rituals and occult such and suchs in metal lately, but your music does a wicked job of channeling that feeling without dipping into hyperbole or caricature - or feeling the need to call every basement gig a "live ritual".

Yes, I appreciate the original Wicker Man, and I think the comparison is a good one. The symbolic language on Half Blood is borrowed from ancient, polytheistic mythic traditions and mysticism (specifically Hermeticism). Specific symbols from the occult are very important to the record and to this project. However, invoking “the occult” in general is perhaps too easy; often, as you suggest, it becomes shtick, rather than informing a deeper understanding.

Ritual plays a huge role in my life. Years ago, I was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (I’ll address this in your next question), which diagnosis explained a great deal to me about why my mind has always favored cyclical systems over terminal ones. As I mentioned earlier, my creative process involves a daily practice. It is time in which I can train my mind into a meditative state. Channeling the natural tendencies of my mind in this way allows me to transform potentially destructive behaviors into focused creative work. It is ritual, in a very real way: I don’t feel a need to exaggerate these ideas because I live with them every day.


You've said that Horseback bagan as a sort of therapeutic outlet during a difficult time in your life. Assuming those times have passed, what purpose does the band now serve? What do you get out of it?

I first started recording the material on Impale Golden Horn as a self-prescribed therapy, yes. At that time, I hadn’t thought about releasing it. Obsessive-compulsive disorder demands a certain level of anxiety-ridden, repetitive mental exercise. It can also provide an uncanny level of focus. I found that by channeling these behaviors into making music, an activity I greatly enjoy, I was able to reduce my anxiety while maintaining my focus. The music on Impale, like most of Horseback’s music, exhibits a repetitive, hypnotic and ritualistic quality because that’s the environment in which it was born.

I’ve accepted the fact that I will always be dealing with OCD. It is a part of who I am. At the risk of romanticising a very serious condition, I can say that I’ve found a positive side to it, or at least a way to harness its mechanisms to my own ends. So this project is still, and will always be, a kind of therapy. As a rock band that produces records, it is also something more: it’s a source of energy and purpose, a creative vehicle, something shared, a means by which I can connect with other people.


What's next for Horseback? A bit of touring, perhaps,or more split releases? I could so imagine your trancelike Americana buzz sharing wax with Panopticon's black metal bluegrass, or Across Tundras' prairie psych...

We’ll play some shows here and there, but this band doesn’t perform very often. This is due both to financial constraints and to the fact that most of the time I can afford to leave my family is spent on the road with my other band, Mount Moriah. A 7” EP, On the Eclipse, was recently released on Brutal Panda Records. A couple other limited releases are in the works, and sometime soon I’d like to collect a bunch of Horseback’s rare and out-of-print material and make it more readily available. I’m working on a new record. There are always new sounds to explore.


The last words are yours!

Thank you, Kim!

_

I interviewed Hank Williams III!

I was really excited about this. You can read the full article here:

http://www.metalsucks.net/2012/03/14/hank-williams-iii-the-metalsucks-interview/#disqus_thread


In country music, the surname “Williams” has become almost a talisman — the mark of a dynasty, and a legacy unto itself. The father, the son, and now the grandson have all blazed their own trails through (and beyond) pure country, telling three very different stories but sharing a musical heritage (and in Hank I and Hank III’s case, an uncanny resemblance). It’s a blessing and a curse that the Williams clan’s youngest scion, one Shelton Hank Williams III, has labored under since the first day he drew breath. When your granddad’s regarded as one of the most important country artists of all time and your daddy’s a whiskey-bent and hellbound multiplatinum outlaw called Bocephus, it takes a lot of balls to pick up a guitar, say “fuck it,” and start writing something entirely different.

Luckily, if there’s one thing Hank III has got in abundance, it’s cojones, and if you’re wondering why you’re on a metal site reading references to the man who wrote “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” here’s your answer: we’re talking about his grandson, the man who single-handedly put the “dick” back in Dixie and does his damnedest to keep the raw, rebellious soul of outlaw country alive. Couple redneck royalty with a youth spent pounding the drums for handcore bands and an enduring penchant for thrash and doom, it’s no wonder that he has set up camp at the crossroads of country and heavy metal. These two seemingly disparate genres have quite a bit more in common that meets the eye, and Hank III’s eclectic repertoire is a product of the creative bent and fuck-you can-do attitude that personifies the best of both. He’s been doing things his way since the early nineties — collaborating with the Melvins and Willie Nelson, playing in Superjoint Ritual and Arson Anthem, recording his own tunes with Assjack and under his own name — and decades later, is showing no signs of slowing down.

With four (!) new albums to promote and an array of tour dates coming up quick, ol’ Hank’s got a lot on his mind, and he was more than happy to let me pick his brain.


“Well we’re losing all the outlaws
that had to stand their ground
and they’re being replaced by these kids
from a manufactured town
And they don’t have no idea
about sorrow and woe
‘Cause they’re all just too damn busy
kissin’ ass on Music Row
So I’m here to put the “dick” in Dixie
and the “cunt” back in country
‘Cause the kind of country I hear nowdays
is a bunch of fuckin’ shit to me…”
- “Dick in Dixie,” Hank III


... http://www.metalsucks.net/2012/03/14/hank-williams-iii-the-metalsucks-interview/#disqus_thread

AKSUMITE News:

Straight from CSR Headquarters...


Aksumite has successfully recorded their follow up full length and it was a truly amazing experience. The album was recorded live (bass and vocals overdubbed) totally analog to two-inch tape in one take. No edits, fakery, reverb, or computers were present. The sound you will hear is 100% raw, authentic tubes and tape. Totally analog, 100%. Aksumite is not opposed to digital recording, however they wanted to pay tribute to the rich history of analog recording with their second album. The result is nothing less than stunning. It has surpassed all expectations. An outside engineer was brought in to engineer the sessions (held in his studio). His input and recording expertise (as well as his amazing selection of vintage equipment) was incredibly well appreciated. The album was recorded in five hours and mixed by myself (DAMIANMASTER) and the recording engineer in three hours. Aksumite is currently looking into their mastering options. Look for this release to be available in the early summer. The artwork will be handled by WEEKS (designer and illustrator of the CSR logo). For now, we give you the title and track-listing:

AKSUMITE - PRIDELESS LIONS

1. Lioness of Gobedra
2, Angel Strike Animal
3. Priory of Aksum
4. Via India
5. Invoke the Spirit Jackal Cloak
6. For the Glory of All Afrika
7. Ezana's Right Hand
8. Ezana's Right Hand (outro)
9. Brazen Ape
10. Islamic Mauraduers
11. Come Alive by Fire
12. The Gilded Goat.

total running time: approx. 25 minutes.

"Yo, Lemme Get That In A Large," Or How To Buy Merch Without Driving Someone Crazy

I spend a lot of time on the road hustling merchandise for bands (from local heroes to decades-old legends), and am always delighted to have the chance to spend time with friends, soak in new and familiar music, meet new people, and visit cool new places/familiar haunts. I'm lucky to be able to do it, and wouldn't trade it for the world. That being said, there are a few aspects of the cotton tech's existence that I could very much do without. I'm generally not bothered by the hardships of touring - the constant exhaustion, discomfort, uncleanliness, strained situations back home, and being broke as a joke - but am driven up the goddamn wall during the act of selling merch by a particular set of behaviors exhibited by my dear customers. That's why I'm drawing up this tirade/how-to guide at 4am in the morning at a Motel 6 somewhere outside New Orleans - the ever-present combination of frustration, weariness, and the makings of a hangover. So, business as usual, pretty much. With that being said...





WHEN BUYING MERCH AT A METAL SHOW,


1. Don't touch things (ESPECIALLY me!)

Those items on that table are arranged that way for a reason. It's a display. Rifling through everything, unfolding and rearranging and throwing things around, will not endear you to me. I just spent time making that table look a certain way. If you MUST look with your hands instead of your eyes, at least make an effort to return said item to its rightful place.

Also, don't touch me. Handshakes are fine, high fives are rad, but unnecessary grabbing, hugging, or pulling at my hair (!) is NOT appreciated. If you get even more inappropriate, you WILL regret it. Remember those hairy, sweaty, tattooed dudes you just spent a half hour watching onstage? They're essentially my big brothers, and they will not be pleased to hear that their little sister is being messed with.

2. Read the signs before asking questions

See that sign over there? The one with all the items and their prices listed? I made that for you, to make both of our lives easier. Please, please, PLEASE read the sign. It'll save you having to repeatedly scream your queries at me while the band is playing, it'll save us both a good deal of time, and it'll save me a whole lot of hating you. The sign holds all the answers. Read the fucking sign.

3. Don't try to buy things while the band is playing unless you're good at nonverbal communication

Metal bands are loud, and I'm wearing earplugs because I see them every single night. I cannot understand your mumbling. I can't decipher your weird hand gestures. I'm definitely not going to understand your jokes. Just wait until we can speak like civilized beings - or get better at sign language. You want one XL shirt? Hold up one finger, then do an "x" and an "L" sign. Success!

4. Don't try to bargain

This is a sure-fire way to make me hate you. Crying "I'm so broke, I don't have any money...can you give it to me for ten?" while clutching a freshly purchased beer is not a good strategy for getting me to take pity on you. Getting agressive, belligerent, or bitchy is an even better way to get a solid "Fuck off" out of me. The customer is not always right.

If you come up and want a ten-dollar item and genuinely only have eight or nine bucks, and ask nicely, of course I'll cut you a deal. If you come up and try to convince me to cut you a massive discount, it ain't happening, unless the band authorizes it. Which brings us to...


5. Don't ask for free shit

The only way you're getting anything for free is if you're a friend of the band, and they give their okay. Period. If you're a nice person and treat me respectfully, I might toss you a couple stickers or cut you a small deal, but no, you can't have anything for free. Would you ask the cashier at Shake Shack for a free burger? No (and if you are, you're an idiot, because I know that you wasted all that time waiting in line for nothing).


6. Don't be offended if I don't remember you

Touring bands & crews meet a lot of people - a LOT. I talk to anything from a few dozen to a few thousand new people each night, and no, I don't always remember all of them. If we had a good conversation and talked for a bit, I might. If you're a giant dickhead, I'll try not to. If you're one of a million other nice, pudgy, bearded white guys in a black metal shirt, I probably won't. Sorry. Don't take it personally.

7. DON'T ask if we're "with" the band

Some merch people happen to be dating someone in the band they work with. Plenty of us are not. It's not up to you to make assumptions or judgements on a stranger's relationship status. Don't ask, or make knowing remarks, or smirk, and for fuck's sake, don't you dare call someone who is working twenty-four hours a day for shitty pay and can lift more guitar cabs than your pasty ass could ever dream of hoisting a goddamn "groupie." Would you ask the cashier at CVS whether or not she's fucking her manager? No, you wouldn't (unless you're a weirdo), because it's rude. Extend the same courtesy to us (and for the record, I've never toured with a boyfriend's band, and doubt I ever will; I've seen a lot of terrible tension and fighting between touring couples, and want no part of that nonsense!).

8. Be polite

This is very, very much appreciated, especially given the kinds of drunken idiots we deal with on a regular basis. "Please" and "thank you" really do go a long way, just like your mama told you they would.

9. Tip (if you'd like)

This is not mandatory, of course, but much like politeness and communication skills, is very much appreciated. It's like tipping a bartender; you'll get better service, with the added benefit of making a real impact upon whether someone eats once or three times the next day. Unless we're talking big stadium tour rockstar levels, merch people generally do not make much money, and those tips make a big difference. If you can spare a dollar or two, please do!

*Several people have commented on this post saying that they feel tipping merch people is unnecessary, and that even putting out a tip jar is presumptuous and rude. My only response to that is to emphasize that, as I stated above, tipping is not mandatory, or even expected - it is simply appreciated. No one is going to be a cunt to you if you don't tip (and if they are, they're not doing their job properly). Most of us live on a small per diem (daily allowance for food/expenses - and we're talking $5-10 generally) and any supplemental dosh is a welcome addition. There is a lot more to this job than "take money, grab t-shirt, hand to customer," but customers don't see all the work that goes on behind the scenes. If the sight of a tip jar offends you, ignore it; if not, carry on as you see fit!


10. Don't try to help load out

The sentiment is very sweet, and very much appreciated, but please, don't try to help. We have a system of packing up, loading out, and getting everything back in the van/trailer, and when someone we don't know is messing with our boxes, we get nervous, and the order gets disrupted. Things go missing, fragile things get broken or squashed...it's not a good scenario. We love that you want to help, but please resist the urge. Don't assume that I can't lift something "because I'm a girl" or some such nonsense; trust me, I can, and if I can't, someone else on the crew will. Knights in shining armour need not apply.

11. Watch your drink

Please don't put your drink on my table. If you must, put it someplace besides on the vinyl, or the t-shirts, or the paper item...remember, plastic cups and bottles come replete with condensation, which is water, which is what you're currently soaking my merchandise with. And, if you manage to spill the damn thing, you will be expected to clean up your mess, then pay for any merchandise you've ruined. Otherwise, I hate you.

12. Don't expect special treatment

Say you've been a model customer all night - polite, matter of fact, a good tipper. You're on my good side - nice work, dude! Unfortunately for you, this does not mean that I owe you anything. We're not friends. We are the retailer, you are a customer. It's not my job to hunt down the band and have them sign your sixteen LPs. It's not my problem if you wanted a photo with them but could only find one member. It's definitely not my job to try to bring you backstage (why do you even want to go back there anyway? Backstage is just a dingy room with a tub half-full of melting ice and domestic beer and a bunch of our backpacks strewn about). It's my job to sell you things. The fanboy routine gets real old, real fast when you've got a half dozen people in every city clamoring for you to "do me a favor, sweetheart." No. Figure it out on your own.

With that being said, if you are an actual friend of the band, or of mine, or are a little kid, or are just an exceptionally nice individual, and I've got some downtime, I will almost always help you out. I like making people smile, and the guys in the band love meeting their fans. Just follow this one last rule, and you'll be that much closer to your heroes...

13. Don't be a dick

Seriously. Treat others how you'd like to be treated, and keep in mind - we're a lot more tired, sick, sore, and hungry than you are. So fucking be nice, and so will we!


Love,
The merch girl.

Interview with Colloquial Sound Recordings

During the course of my most recent travels (across the US of A slinging merch for the mighty Corrosion of Comformity) I was fortunate enough to make the formal acquaintance of Colloquial Sound Recordings label head Damian. He sauntered up to my table during our Grand Rapids, Michicag gig, handed me a beautifully crafted cassette, and introduced himself. Given that said tape (Aksumite’s ‘The Gleam of Wetted Lips’) was one of my favorite releases of this past year, I was delighted, and wanted to delve a bit deeper into the story behind the label. Damian was gracious enough to submit to a couple questions about his young but prolific endeavor.

Where are you based, and when did you launch the label? What was CSR's first release?

CSR is based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. The label was launched in spring of 2011 and Aksumite - The Gleam of Wetted Lips is our first release.

What prompted you to start the CSR label in the first place? What is your goal?

I had been compiling material for years that I had wanted to release. It always seemed like getting someone else to be as passionate about the things you create is nearly impossible. It just seemed like a logical step to create CSR to release the music I felt most passionate about. I could have total control over everything 100%. I wouldn't have to compromise or pander to what someone else thought. The goal is simple: When I started buying underground music (1994) you would see an indie label's logo on the back of a release and you would know right at that moment that you would like the music on the record, even if you've never heard the band. The goal of the label is to create an aesthetic and experiment within that aesthetic.. If you like one CSR release, you'll probably like most, if not all the other releases. CSR is a there to develop a taste, a flavor. Granted that flavor is very specific and not everyone will like it, but the various shades of style exist under the same sonic umbrella. I have nothing against labels that are diverse, Profound Lore does and amazing job at this, but I also like when labels have an identifiable sound and aesthetic. Think Dischord, early Sub Pop, early SST, Amphetamine Reptile, early Touch & Go, Hospital Productions, Mego (Editions Mego), early Epitaph, Tragedy Records (hahah!).

Why cassettes, instead of CDs or digital releases? What other formats are you planning to work with down the line?

Cassettes are a perfect embodiment of the underground aesthetic. To the mainstream, they're useless, antiquated, and even laughable. But for the underground - they're a very powerful symbol. In the days before every man, woman and child knew how to download mp3s, people swapped tapes. They took time. This is how the underground flourished and bands were heard all across the world. I also like how there is something very temporary and fragile about them. They're a temperamental format, prone to all sorts of problems. It's an almost endearing trait. Also, due to the nature of CSR's music, there is a certain sort of "finishing touch" that happens when you place the music on a tape. The music of CSR is all relatively "lo-fi" and placing on a cassette compresses the sound in such a way that seems natural for the music. That being said, I'm certainly not opposed to the music being on CD or LP, but I have no plans for doing so at the moment. I have never and will never be interested in releasing something digitally exclusively. That's such a foreign concept to me. There should always be some sort of physical product available (or at least available at one time). But as a child of the 90s I'm enjoying the full-swing return of the cassette. Break out your No. 2 pencils!

Tell me a bit about Aksumite. The filthy raw punk'n'black feel of 'The Gleam of Wetted Lips" totally floored me, and you mentioned something about recording some new material?

I grew up being into punk and hardcore, I discovered metal around 1997 and started digging into really underground stuff in 1999. Aksumite is just the synthesis of styles I love. No regard for genre. It's unrepentant about what it is. We want to be like Hellhammer, loved by punks and metalheads alike. We will be recording our next album on March 17, live to 2" tape in a proper studio. Totally analog. Totally raw. Expect more thrash influence. It's going be a thrashing, d-beating, floor punching, black inspired dose of 100% blood cult metal punk. It will be titled Prideless Lions.

You told me a bit about the idea behind the band - the African Christian empire of Aksum, and its blasphemous implications for tr00 kvlt black metallers. Can you expound upon this? I think it's really interesting.

CSR is not, never claimed to be, and will never be a black metal label. We love black metal. We are certainly inspired totally by it, but it's not what we do. It's not who we are. I don't buy that a majority or even a large percentage of black metal playing Satanists actually are committed to any sort of theology or orthodoxy. The ones that are, and are religious about it, I actually admire completely. How can you not respect someone who believes something with conviction? Even if it differs from your own opinion. That being said, we borrow a lot from the musical heritage of Satanic bands, but are not Satanists, or grim or evil people. Quite the opposite. We're nice guys who actually do something with our lives to incite a change around us rather than bitching about how people "don't get us" like the scores of long-haired, army boot, camo-cutoffs wearing metalheads to busy swilling beer being burnouts to work hard and amount to anything. Or the laziness incarnate unwashed crust punks who scam their way through life spending what little money they've conned people out of on getting wasted and cool patches. Don't even get me started on their dogs... that shit makes makes me so angry. I say this as someone who has friends in both camps, the stereotypes are more often than not, sadly true. We respect all extreme genres and viewpoints no matter how they differ from our own. I thought it would be poignant to write about themes that hardline black metal people, supposedly the most extreme of all music fans, find so deplorable. Black and Semitics people and Christianity. So, why not start a band whose lyrical themes deal with the first Christian kingdom in Africa, Aksum (modern day Ethiopia). Furthermore, persons of this region claim to be the true chosen people of God, not the Jews. They are orthodox Christian keepers of the faith even still to this day. It's a fascinating country and story. They claim to own the Ark of the Covenant, and their claim is uncontested. So here we have all the things that the most extreme fringe black metal hates, rolled into one. I could not resist.

What other releases have you got coming up?

CSR just put out it's tenth release and will have upcoming releases from A Pregnant Light, This Station of Life, Aksumite, Obliti Devoravit and more.

Impiety - 'Ravage & Conquer' review

IMPIETY
Ravage & Conquer
PULVERISED

A clarion call heralds the return of Singapore's finest, the mighty Impiety, before "Revelaton Decimation" launches into eight minutes of seething black/death savagery. Fans of the band's earlier output will be well pleased with Ravage & Conquer; the band abandon the more experimental bent seen on their last LP, 2011's Worshippers of the Seventh Tyranny, and instead concentrate on mining the depths of death and black that have served them so well. Shyaithan's vocals have sunken into a gruff, ragged snarl (a la Master's Hammer or Abhorer), and the addition of new guitarist Nizam ups the intensity levels and melodic underpinnings while tormenting the whammy bar (listen to that bitch scream on title track!). Drummer Dizazter is all over the place in the best possible way, executing complex fills between the blasts and militant beats. For such a merciless act, Impiety have a firm grasp on the delicate science of dynamics, varying tempos and lapsing into thrashy or groovier territory within their infernal epics without sacrificing an iota of brutality. Their raw, pummeling cover of Bathory's "Sacrifice" is icing on the cake.

- Kim Kelly

Make 'Em Beg

Anticipation is a hell of a drug. Music consumers in the olden days (say, pre-Internet takeover) knew well that sensation of delicious agony following the announcement that your favorite band had hit the studio. Release dates meant something - they marked a date on a calendar and circled it in red, allowing excitement and dread to build and build until, finally, that day came. Whether you wheedled and begged your mom to drive you to the nearest Virgin last Tuesday or simply sat back and smugly awaited the mailman's approach before greedily tearing into your prize's cardboard prison, half the fun of listening to a new album was the waiting and wondering, the speculation and bold assertions that this one was going to rule - or, no, that one's totally going to blow dogs for quarters, man! Nowadays, we've become accustomed to a constant stream of content - new albums every year, an EP every six months, a tour-only 7" here, a digital compilation there, all stuffed down the feeding tube and shoehorned into our RSS feeds. As soon as an album leaves its creator's hands and lands in some blogger's inbox, the seal is broken, and it's only a matter of time before any Joe Blogspot can pirate the ever-loving shit out of it and render it nearly worthless. The wait is over; it never really had a chance to begin. Music has become less of a commodity and more of an expectation. When a band chooses to buck the system and follow their own goddamn pace thank you very much, their fans are given a taste of that old familiar ache, and unless we're talking a washed-up eighties buttrock reunion album or a flaccid slice of warmed-over nu metal, odds are it's going to taste that much sweeter once they're finally able to sink their fangs into Track 1.

There have been plenty of good records released in the past few years; hell, even the earliest stages of 2012 have already provided a glut of decent tunes, and we're barely past February. Out of all those good albums, though, only a few will ever be great. The cream rises to the top, and as time goes by, it's got more and more leagues of slop to slither its way through. Bands need to take a chill pill. Stop and smell the roses. Make that riff really sing.

Take yer time. Make it count. Some of us are willing to wait.

Let's talk about stoner doom.

So Terrorizer are working on a top-secret, soon to be announced special issue of the magazine, focused on a genre I hold very dear to my heart. I conducted a handful of Q&A-style mini-interviews with a few of stoner doom & sludge's finest to round out one of the pieces I contributed, and their answers were so rad that I figured it'd be a shame to allow them to languish within the confines of my inbox forever.

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ACID KING's Lori Joseph on stoner rock:

- What kind of effect, if any, do you think grunge had on the stoner rock sound andAcid King's in particular?

Speaking for myself grunge had influences on me. Soundgarden, Melvins and Mudhoney how could they not! I think it depends on when you started playing. I was in a band during the entire grunge period so I was already 70's influenced and then came this. I think for me it turned me on to lower tuning, more effects pedals and playing slowwwwwwwww.

- How did people react when bands like you first came into the picture in the mid-90's? Was heavier, riff-based, doomy music popular, or was it more of a struggle to get noticed and respected?

We were definitely ahead of our time. There were no labels or really many other bands like ours. We had a decent reaction but there was no one backing this music up so it was hard to get noticed. Doom music was more popular in Europe and any heavier music was based out of there or Frederick Maryland which is the capitol of Doom!


- The biker aesthetic has seeped into a lot of stoner rock culture; why do you think the two fit together so wel?

I really don't know anyone with a motorcycle but me in SF playing this music. . Old biker movies had psychedelic music in the background so I can see how this was an influence. I think in the most simplest of explanations, old bikes and biker movies are cool and make good record covers!

- What did you think when you first heard bands like Sleep and Kyuss?

I remember 1st hearing Kyuss in Chicago at this Bar called Crash Palace in the early 90's along with Monster Magnet. I was like HOLY SHIT who are these bands! Ran out and bought whatever I could find. I didn't hear about Sleep until after I moved to SF in 1992 and I was one of the lucky ones to see them play many shows and play with them back in the day. I was freaking blown away. They floored me. I saw them every time they played in SF. I only missed 1 show before they called it day back then.

- How big of an impact would you say that California and the West Coast in general has had upon stoner rock in general?

Hmmmmm, well with Kyuss, St. Vitus, Fu Manchu a lot! There are a bazillion sound a like bands still ripping these guys off!


- How would you define "stoner rock"?

Lori's definition: Stoner rock is term that was coined by the people who listen to the music not the musicians themselves. To generalize it is can be described as heavy distorted groove infused riffs that hypnotizes.

The End!

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CROWBAR/DOWN's Kirk Windstein on sludge (he likes capslock):

- How did people react when bands like you first came into the picture in the mid-90's? Was heavier, riff-based, punk-loving doomy music popular, or was it more of a struggle to get noticed and respected?
NOBODY KNEW WHAT IT WAS! IT WAS A BIG STRUGGLE...DEATH METAL WAS KING, AND WHAT WE WERE DOING WAS FROWNED UPON. WE MADE FANS 1 AT A TIME!

- New Orleans is the home of the sludge sound, no doubt; Crowbar, EyeHateGod, Acid Bath, and all the other amazing bands (even Down get way heavy!). The Southern roots show. Do you think it's strange when bands from very different areas (the UK, Japan, etc) try to recreate that Southern sludge sound?
YES, IT'S A LITTLE BIZARRE, BUT IT'S FLATTERING. ONE OF THE FUNNIEST THINGS I SAW WAS A PROMO SHOT OF A FRENCH BAND HANGING IN THEIR JAM ROOM WITH A REBEL FLAG, AND A BOTTLE OF JACK, BEARDS, SKYNRD SHIRTS, THE WHOLE NINE YARDS...BUT, IT'S STILL COOL WITH ME!!!

- What did you think when you first heard bands like Black Sabbath, and Black Flag?
BOTH BANDS WERE EQUALLY MIND BLOWING, BUT FROM OPPOSITE WORLDS.

- How would you define "sludge"?
CROWBAR!

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ORANGE GOBLIN's Ben Ward on stoner rock:

- What kind of effect, if any, do you think grunge had on the stoner rock sound and Orange Goblin's in particular?

I guess that grunge probably had a lot more of an impact on the US scene than in the UK when it came to ‘stoner’. I think the main connection obviously lies in the close relationship between Nirvana and The Melvins and I think that both movements were probably born out of a frustration with mundane, pop-rock garbage and hair metal that was dominating rock radio at the end of the 80’s / start of the 90’s. The early US stoner bands like Fu Manchu and Monster Magnet definitely came across as a kind of heavier and more freaked out Mudhoney! I suppose the common ground in it all is a mutual love of Black Sabbath which is the most prominent influence on all the UK bands from that period too. Orange Goblin didn’t really take a great deal from grunge, although we did cover an Alice In Chains song in the very, very early days!

- As Our Haunted Kingdom, you released a split with fellow stoner gods Electric Wizard before changing your nam and forging ahead. How did people react to bands like you two first came into the picture in the mid-90's? Was heavier, riff-based, doomy music popular, or was it more of a struggle to get noticed and respected?

Over here Cathedral were the first band to move into the realms of blatant Sabbath inspired, heavy doom and when bands like Electric Wizard, Acrimony, Mourn and ourselves started to get recognition we were all dubbed as Cathedral clones. I accept that as a compliment as we were all massive fans of Cathedral and they were definitely the godfathers of the whole movement here in the UK. It took a while for the UK press to start to take bands like us seriously as we were just branded as hippies and plagiarists. It was only when the US bands like Sleep, Kyuss, Monster Magnet, Clutch and Fu Manchu etc came over here that it started to take off and grow. I definitely think that had we been an American band we would have achieved far greater success back then. It was deemed a lot cooler to be able to sing about the desert, getting stoned at the beach, hot girls and surfing etc than it was to tell fantasy stories of druids, wizards and real life misery!

- What did you think when you first heard bands like Sleep and Kyuss?

The first time I heard Sleep must’ve been about 1992 when they released ‘Sleeps Holy Mountain’ and I honestly thought it was a lost Black Sabbath recording! I fell in love with it immediately and it was one of the reasons why we decided to change our name and direction. The first time I heard Kyuss was when I saw them live in London. It was like a wall of noise that blew everyone away and I went out the next day and bought ‘Blues For The Red Sun’. Again, they were a massive influence on what would become Orange Goblin. All of a sudden our little scene in the UK was being exposed to these new amazing US bands, as well as the likes of Saint Vitus, Trouble, The Obsessed etc and we started to notice that the press were sitting up and once again paying attention to Sabbath inspired, heavy rock.

- How big of an impact would you say the UK has had upon stoner rock in general? A helluva lot of important bands have come from Blighty!

I suppose you have to say that the biggest ‘stoner’ band in terms of their influence would have to be Black Sabbath so in that respect the UK can boast the biggest impact. I think we can be very proud here of all the great bands that this little island has produced, from The Beatles and Stones etc right through to ourselves and Electric Wizard and everything in between. I’ve always thought that the term ‘stoner’ kind of belongs more to the American side of things and the British (and Europeans) do more of the ‘doom’ thing, but that’s not to say that the US doesn’t have a wealth of amazing doom bands too!

- How would you define "stoner rock"?

I’m not sure that you really can. I suppose it should mean any form of rock music that you listen to when getting stoned, so that could be anything from The Grateful Dead and Pink Floyd, right through to Cannibal Corpse and Cephalic Carnage!!! Obviously it is attributed to bands like us and all those that I’ve mentioned previously here but I suppose it’s generally used for any band that has a slight resemblance to Black Sabbath in terms of riffs, tone and attitude. If I was asked to define stoner rock with just one album, I think it would have to be ‘Jerusalem’ by Sleep as that captures every element that you would associate with the scene and the phrase!

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IRON MONKEY's Justin Greaves on sludge:

How did people react when you first came into the picture in the mid-90's? Was heavier, riff-based, doomy music popular, or was it more of a struggle to get noticed and respected?

I think people didn't know what to make of us to be honest, at that time there weren't many bands around making such a racket. All the guys in the band came from a more Hardcore background, but at the same time we were into heavy bands too, so it made sense to us to try and play both styles. We'd all heard bands like Upsidedown Cross, It Is I, Integrity etc, mixing doom and hardcore from trading tapes and 7" vinyl, plus Jim and Doug had been playing in a doom style band called Ironside. The thing was that in our area that kind of music wasn't known very well, or it wasn't popular, so when we played our first show, people just didn't know what fuck was going on, i guess we might have taken heavy music and simply played it infront of an unsuspecting audience. We didn't have much respect and things were never easy for us, not that we were too concerned about being popular, i think we just wanted to be one of those kind of bands that we liked, the sort that nobody knows but blows you away when you find them...Actually, i think we must have formed the band to annoy ourselves.

- What did you think when you first heard bands like Black Flag, the Melvins and later, EyeHateGod?

I didn't like early Melvins at first, i heard them when i was working in a record shop, but then they grew on me and ended up being one of my favourite bands for years, but then i think all classic bands have that initial effect on people, probably because they're so different from what you're used to. But like all of those bands you mention, i did think it sounded different for their time and i reckon most of us were (and still are) into music that's different to some extent. Being involved in that kind music, underground bands etc, you come across a few revelations, a band like Grief for instance, they were showing that ultra-slow can be mind-adjusting, with a lot of bands it was like hearing something you wished had existed but didn't realise it did. Growing up with punk and heavy music almost always separated but being into both styles, it was like getting the best of both all mixed up, in the music, the artwork and the attitude. I think al of us in the band felt at home and it came very natural to us. But i reckon a lot of I.M. fans nowadays would be suprised at what we were listening to.

- How big of an impact would you say the UK has had upon the sludge sound in general? A helluva lot of important bands have come from Blighty, and the current scene is full of great bands!

I don't know, has it been a big impact? It certainly didn't feel like that at the time, it's probably hard to be objective about it for us. I still like hearing new bands that play slow/heavy hardcore/punk, but maybe there's too many to appreciate them on the same level. There some great bands though, like Undersmile, they're pretty gloomy and distressing but in an old-school Seatle way, with twin female vocals, dark angels dragging the corpse of doom-rock. Or there's Manatees, they're great, they push the boundries of what "sludge" is supposed to be, i like that. What i don't like is to hear tons of bands sounding exactly the same, it's really weird having been involved in that scene, at the time it was mostly shit, we got slagged off, ripped off and no support (apart from our friends around the country), so now when people look back on it and think it made a big difference, it's hard to see, we experienced something very different. Having said that, i'm pleased to hear it influences bands still, but then the UK underground scene has always been an influence on people, the bunch of bands before I.M. came out like Deviated Instinct, Axe Grinder..etc.. then the band before them like Amebix, Anit-sect etc... you could keep going backwards, it all counts, bands like us, Acrimony, Stalingrad, Kito, Manfat, we didn't come up with a new kind of music, we might just have adjusted it a bit to suit ourselves.

- How would you define "sludge"?

A chance to wind people up.

OBSCURE TERROR: FLESHTEMPLE, SATURNALIA TEMPLE, IMPURITY

New post for my NECROLUST column on Metalsucks. View the published post here:

http://www.metalsucks.net/2012/02/02/obscure-terror-fleshtemple-saturnalia-temple-impurity/

Text:

OBSCURE TERROR: FLESHTEMPLE, SATURNALIA TEMPLE, IMPURITY

So what have we got here? Three new favorites: two recently discovered and one that’s finally grown on me. Something new, something kind of new, and something really old. Two “temples” and some South American madness. Varying shades of blasphemy. Loud, ugly, and evil as fuck. Check ‘em out.

FLESHTEMPLE

Not to be confused with Fleshpress (which I totally did at first glance), New Jersey’s Fleshtemple are an bastardized punk band based in DIY stronghold New Brunswick, and they are tough as SHIT. Hardcore punk roots burst through the black, but there are plenty of full-on De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas moments on here, and when they slow it down to a doomier, more atmospheric crawl, the results are wickedly effective. The recordings are rough (duh) but the foggy, raw presentation adds to its charm. Fleshtemple formed in 2007 and includes members of Seasick, Bible Thumper, Suburban Scum, and “like ten other current bands,” according to guitarist Pete August. They’ve already got three releases out, but I’m really interested to check out the full length they’re working on (due out in April). For now, listen to their latest recording for free on Bandcamp.

SATURNALIA TEMPLE

Electric Wizard definitely get ripped off a lot nowadays (while they in turn gleefully ripped off plenty of Sleep and ‘Sabbath riffs – it’s a vicious circle, eh?) but at least one of the bands that continually get graced (or slammed) with the “Electric Wizard worship” tag doesn’t really deserve it. That band is Sweden’s Saturnalia Temple. Similarities exist of course, but this shadowy trio conjure up a different sort of vibe, an air of madness and menace. Less druglust, more ancient abattoir clouded with incense and the blood of ritual sacrifice. Saturnalia Temple are obsessed with the occult and the esoteric, black magic and ancient secrets, and manage to instill that unsettling otherness into their doomed creation. Heavy, heavy distortion cloaks their compositions, lazy, hazy stoner riffs slink and sway. It almost sounds as though the record’s skipping, the needle moved by unseen hands. Above all, the creepy, moaning vocals are the strangest component – stuttering, echoing, and unhinged to the point of distraction. An acquired taste worth acquiring. Formed in Stockholm in 2006, they’ve spent the last few years honing their craft, releasing quality albums (check out their Ur demo, they were solid right from the start!) and just recently offered up their first full-length, Aion of Drakon (via the AJNA Offensive).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmHX01hbogY

IMPURITY

Impurity just may be the best cover-turned-tribute band since the Carcass-baiting and ever so genteel The County Medical Examiners (or Eat My Fuk – have you heard that shit? Autopsy’s GG Allin worship project? Fantastically gross scum punk!). Originally formed under the Sexfago moniker in 1988 and dedicated to playing gloriously primitive versions of already bestial bands like Hellhammer, Blasphemy, Bathory, and, of fucking course, Sarcofago, Impurity eventually decided to switch gears and try their hands at writing their own material. Their first demo’s worth of original songs surfaced in 1989 (guess rehearsing all three minutes of “Satanic Lust” over and over lost its appeal pretty early in the game), and while their influences are glaringly obvious (SarcoBlaspheHammer!) Impurity are an excellent example of why “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” works so well in a black metal sense. Officially aligned with Brazil’s beyond legendary Cogumelo Records and with over twenty years of ritualized combat under their bulletbelts, these South American maniacs are still fucking killing it. Their last full-length, Necro Infamists of Tumulus Return, slays, and I can’t find their 2010 demo The Impurity Temple/Bonus 2008 anywhere, but I bet that fucking rules, too.

Their 1996 LP Into the Ritual Chamber is my favorite:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=piFtkt1u12Q


-KK

Immortal Rites: Florida Death Metal Reigns Eternal

Florida death metal was my first true metal love. Saltyeggs asked me to write a piece about it (shoutout to James Murphy!):

Check it out: http://saltyeggs.com/immortal-rites-florida-death-metal-reigns-eternal/

Canada Arts Connect interview

My friend Natalie has started doing a really wonderful column for Canada Arts Connect Magazine, and asked me to be her first interview subject.

Here's the final result: http://canadaartsconnect.com/magazine/2012/01/girls-dont-like-metal-interviews-grim-kim-kelly/

It's strange when people ask me to do interviews, 'cause I'm just a scribbler with a buncha records when it comes down to it, but it's always really fun. Thanks, Natalie!

AMERICAN AFTERMATH: Grim Kim Kelly’s Top 10 Demos Of 2011

Original post (with song streams/Youtube videos) - http://americanaftermath.net/2011/12/20/grim-kim-kellys-top-10-demos-of-2011/#more-8562




Hello, American Aftermath. My name is Kim Kelly (or Grim Kim, if you insist). I suppose I’m something of a guest writer (party-crasher, more like) as Ross asked me to contribute something to the site’s year-end roundup. After procrastinating mightily, I presented him with this haphazard list of my favorite 2011 demos (and almost demos). I had to turn off Demoncy to revisit a couple of these babies, so you’d better fucking appreciate it.

Get a load of Kim on Twitter and her personal blog (which you are currently on - Ed).

Lycus – Demo MMXI
This wondrous slab of atmospheric funeral doom is quite simply the best demo recording of the year, if not the best album outright. It’s unbelievable that this is an initial offering – the complexity, maturity, and crushing, heaving emotions encapsulated within these three compositions is nothing short of breathtaking. These forgotten sons of Samothrace, distant cousins of Anhedonist, purebred descendents of Asunder…trust me, you’ll be hearing a lot about Lycus in the coming months (especially after The Flenser entomb this masterpiece in wax come the new year).


Bell Witch – self-titled
Bell Witch move at the slow, measured pace of an elegant funeral party, trudging along beside the pallbearers’ shining black leather shoes and picking their way, carefully, through the weeds. Droning, despondent, deceptively simple, and steeped in desperate pathos, this recording transcends the world of mere doom. The two minds behind is have also spent time in Samothrace and Lethe, which should tell you something.


Niantiel – Cavern of the Skeletal Spirits
Surreal, dissonant black metal thrown up from the void. Though Negative Plane’s psyched-out mindfuckery may be a good reference point for this Virginian horde, the sound they’ve created on this three-track demo is truly unique. Ominous, chiming chords, howling vocals, unsettling atmosphere, the stains of occult ritual…


One Tail One Head – Tandava
This is technically an EP, but the recording quality is subterranean enough to land it a place amongst the demo-level masses. OTOH feature members of Celestial Bloodshed, Behexen, and Mare, but this is no mere “supergroup” – this is pure fucking holocaust. Primitive in execution, slavish in its devotion to the old ways, and gloriously raw, Tandava is a chaotic hellstorm of Norwegian black metal vengeance – and a damn enjoyable listen, if you have the stomach for it.

Pilgrim – Forsaken Man
Without contest, Pilgrim are one of the most exciting new true doom bands to emerge from North American shores in ages, and Jon Rossi’s voice is the closest thing to a national treasure to which American doom has lain claim since Wino first picked up a mic. In short, this band is a perfect example of epic, traditional doom metal (it’s no wonder Metal Blade have signed on for their debut LP), and their debut offering makes it all to clear that Pilgrim have only begun their slow, certain rise to the top.


House of Atreus – Demo I
Melodic death metal isn’t all Gothenburg trills or wimpy American metalcore leanings. “Melody” does not have to be a slur; rather, in the case of some, it is a deadly weapon. House of Atreus wield their harmonic tendencies like a scythe, slicing through the thick, galloping death metal riffs that make up the bulk of this release and leaving fresh, oozing scars. Arghoslent are an obvious reference point, but this Greek horde are clearly well-acquainted with their countrymen Varathron as well. This is fucking fantastic.
listen here.

Rhinocervs
It’s impossible to tell who created these recordings; Rhinocervs are a shadowy collective, affiliated with the Black Twilight Circle and responsible for releases by Glossolalia, Odz Manouk, etc. Their two 2011 demos are exercises in primal fury – lo-fi, raging slabs of total misanthropic hate in the guise of cold, driving black metal. Oh, and all their songs are untitled, because fuck you. Good luck Googling ‘em, nerds.

Trenchgrinder
So a cadre of Brooklyn’s crustiest death metal dudes got together and formed a band, and, big surprise, it RIPS! Trenchgrinder feature past and current members of hometown homies Attake and Mutant Supremacy with artist Owen Rundquist manning the mic with his savage, shrapnel-coated roar. Bolt Thrower-worshipping riffs, breakneck d-beat machinegun blasts, punk as fuck speed, devilishly murky tones – it doesn’t get much better than this.


Mutilation Rites
NYC’s hardest touring, hardest-hitting black metal band may have hit the bigger leagues (‘sup Prosthetic) but they truly fucking earned it, by playing hundreds of shows, self-releasing a string of solid releases & splits, and spitting out some of the meanest, truest extreme music this city has to offer. Inhumanely intense and ice fucking cold, Mutilation Rites channel Mayhem at their best and Enslaved at their blackest, drawing down the moon onto a craggy base of crusty punk fervor. Their latest demo is yet another triumph of evil.


Doomslaughter – Downfall Progenitor
Bestial Belorussian extremity. An unholy amalgamation of black, death, and thrash metal, leaning towards the cult of death but even throwing in a few moments of certain doom before bringing the hammer of antichrist down – Doomslaughter fucking rule, and Iron Bonehead are releasing their next effort, so you know it’s good. I can’t stop listening to this.


Bonus Round:
This band doesn’t actually have a demo recorded yet, but the handful of songs they’ve posted so far have captured my heart, and the world needs to take notice of this newest addition to the NZ hordes. Behold, SABBATIC GOAT:
listen here

METAL INJECTION: Grim Kim's Top Ten Releases of 2011 That You've Never Heard Of

Original post: http://www.metalinjection.net/lists/best-of-2011/grim-kims-top-ten-releases-of-2011-that-youve-never-heard-of




Every year, Rob asks me to contribute a year-end list to this fine establishment, and every year, I harsh everyone’s buzz by submitting the most putrid, willfully esoteric hodgepodge of sonic brutality I can conjure up. The following list spotlights some of the best underground releases of 2011; it’s been a good year for metal, and this is only a taste of what’s out there. There’s more to life than Mastodon (or even Leviathan). Come, my fanatics. Enter the eternal fire.

Ensorcelor – Crucifuge
(Media Tree Recordings) – This Quebecois horde’s first full-length album is one of the most perfectly-crafted releases of the past five years, and it’s a wretched shame that it has been allowed to fester in relative obscurity. A sinuous creation of ash and bone, dark and light, Crucifuge is a black metal record at heart, merged with a sludgy temperament and some of funeral doom’s more harrowing hallmarks – crawling pace, shivering tension between riffs and chords, coarse, cavernous vocals. However, Ensorcelor allow so much interplay between the spacious passages, the slow, resolute tempo, and the washes of ambiance, bathes them in cold, desolate atmosphere, and cloaks it all in a muted production effort, draped it across the recording like wispy strands of dying Spanish moss, that this monument of filth becomes something close to beauty.

Void Meditation Cult – Sulfurous Prayers
(Hell’s Headbangers) – Harrowing, hateful, and primitive, three songs of blasphemous black/death supremacy make up Void Meditation Cult’s virgin offering. Murderously slow and graced with some of the most bilious, guttural invocations this side of Wormphlegm, ‘Sulfurous Prayers’ was torn from the crypt and dragged straight down to hell. Highly, highly recommended.

Blasphemophagher – The III Command of Absolute Chaos
(Nuclear War Now!) – The third full-length from Italy’s finest apocalyptic war command is an unrelenting slab of bestial black/death, swathed in layers upon layers of distortion. Hellishly fast, lo-fi, and thick as blood, Blasphemophagher show no mercy, hammering out Blasphemy-baiting odes to nuclear hell and radioactive carnage in an orgy of violence. UGH!

Lycus – Demo 2011
(Graceless Recordings) Originally formed in 2008, lain to rest, and now, with this year’s demo, resurrected in despair, California’s Lycus are a welcome addition to the doomed pantheon. Mournful, weighty funeral doom in the vein of genre titans Skepticism and Worship and peers Loss; elegant in its despondency, achingly beautiful in its sorrow. Doomed forever, forever doomed.

Dolorvotre – Dolorvotre
(Crepusculo Negro) – The shadowy collective of musicians known as the Black Twilight Circle have unleashed a slew of demos and collaborations over the past few years, but few have stood out as brightly as Dolorvotre, who build upon the so-primitive-it’s-almost-punk black metal template lain down by brothers in arms Volahn, Ashdautas, Blue Hummingbird on the Left, et al, but dose their seemingly simplistic melodies with swirls of psychedelia and haunt their chainsaw riffs with hallucinogenic nightmares. Murky, claustrophobic, and bleeding raw, Dolorvotre are not meant for everyone – the sub-demo recording quality will cause many to shy away, but those who dare will not regret their foray into this subterranean cell.

Bestial Raids - Prime Evil Damnation
(Nuclear War Now!) – This album is fucking barbaric. Prime Evil Damnation is the second LP from this Polish cult, and sees them marching leaps and bounds ahead of their previous efforts. Submerged in filth and impenetrable darkness, constructed from an unholy meeting of black and death, and rife with Satanic hate, Prime Evil Damnation is intensity personified, a swirling void of chaos and menace augmented by vicious backing vocals from Vaz and Impurath of the immortal Black Witchery. Buy or die.

Oskoreien – Oskoreien
This one-man entity creates epic, nature-inspired atmospheric black metal in the vein of Altar of Plagues, Panopticon, Falls of Rauros, Agalloch, but still stands alone. Oskoreien immediately brings to mind the triumphant feel of Bathory’s Hammerheart, filtered through the sweet air and crystalline waters of the great Northwest and imbued with ancient wisdom. Gorgeous expanses of fragile post-rock mix gently with the harshness and purpose of the album’s more blackened passages, songs ebb and flow like waves at sunset, and it’s far too easy to lose yourself amongst the waves.

Ritual Necromancy – Oath of the Abyss
(Dark Descent) – Truly disgusting, stifling, churning, atonal death metal, torn from the pages of John McEntee’s songbook and flung into the cavernous depths that spat out like-minded Incantation-spawn Antediluvian, Cemetery Urn, Disma, Portal, et al. Ritual Necromancy practice ancient, occult death worship, smeared with black vomit and with tendons cut to slow them to a wretched crawl. They are not reinventing any wheels or breaking down barriers, but in this world, regression trumps progression. Hail infernal death.

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats – Blood Lust
All roads lead to Black Sabbath. Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats decided to take their pilgrimage early, trawling the paisley-clad, riff-worshipping, occult-laced , bluesy oozing confusion of seventies acid rock and late sixties witch rock on their way back to Birmingham. When Jinx Dawson dances with the Devil, Uncle Acid’s there running Ol’ Scratch’s fiddle through a Big Muff. When Iommi strummed his way through that inimitable Sabbath boogie, he was there again to filter it all through 666 layers of smoke and mirrors. When Electric Wizard climb up onto their dopethrones to sleep off the druglust, Uncle Acid is there to unplug their amps, mellow their buzz, and pack the bowl. Blood Lust is hazy, fuzzed-put, bad trip psychedelic doomed stoner rock from a trio of depraved acid casualties with Satan on their side. Tune in, tune down, drop out of life with bong in hand.

Botanist – I: The Suicide Tree/II: A Rose from the Dead
(tUMULt) – You have never heard anything like this before. Not simply because it’s a bit more on the obscure side, but because there is nothing on this dying planet that sounds like Botanist. The words “experimental” and “progressive” get thrown around willy-nilly by any band who’s ever owned a Yes record, but how many of them have composed a double-album suite played entirely on hammered dulcimer, accompanied by various percussion and one inhumanly twisted voice? That’s what I thought. The idea behind Botanist is rooted in ecological awareness and a deep love of the natural world; the Botanist himself professes a desire to see “ the day when humans will either die or kill each other off, which will allow plants to make the Earth green once again.” As for the music? It’s gloriously weird, saturated with otherwordly tones and startling transitions, both ambient and jarring, intriguing and alienating, harsh yet lush. Black metal’s misanthropic core and trademark nihilistic croak anchor it all in place, but that’s where the similarities between this and metal as we know it end abruptly. Enter the Verdant Realm – but don’t stray too far from the path, lest you never return.

Cha-ching.

Excuse the rant, but: unless it’s a favor for friends/allies or a publication I genuinely adore (or a guest column of some kind), I will not work for free. I am an internationally published writer with PLENTY of credentials who has been doing this for almost a decade. Would you ask a plumber to fix your drain pro bono, or a painter to simply give away his canvases? No? Then don’t expect the same from me.

It’s like booking a gig. If you want people to come out and have a good time, you book a decent band, offer them a guarantee, and give them some free drinks to keep them happy - they’ll put on a great performance, you’ll clean up at the bar, everyone wins. If you just want to fill in room space, book a shitty local band, have them play for free (and sell tickets, “for exposure”) and then act all puzzled when no one comes.

This is not to belittle or denigrate bloggers or journos who work for free, or to demonize non-paying publications, at all. Working for free and providing quality material are not mutually exclusive concepts - I’ve been doing both for years, and so many many, many others. Doing something for the pure love of it is a beautiful thing. Being compensated for hours of hard work and years of dues-paying is also a beautiful thing.

This is simply something I wanted to say.

Top Records of 2011: Metalsucks Edition

I'm doing a million versions of my supposed "year-end list" because 1. I hate narrowing things down, 2. I want to bring attention to as many of the releases I enjoyed this year as is within my power to do, and 3. people keep asking me. Already turned in my lists for the Terrorizer and Invisible Oranges polls, agreed to do listy lists for Metal Injection, Brooklyn Vegan, Cvlt Nation, and American Aftermath, and just had my Metalsucks one posted today. Here's that (and my goofy face) - also bear in mind, the order is purely arbitrary. I adore all of these releases equally, just had to skim 15 off the very top.




When I was first making this list, I had a hard time thinking of that many new albums I’d actually listened to in 2011. But once I actually got home and went through my iTunes/most recent pile of vinyl scores/the mid-year list I wrote, I realized that it’s actually been a damn good year. A few early favorites were supplanted by more recent discoveries and sneaky year-end releases (sorry, Aksumite; hello, Wrathprayer!). Two of my enduring picks came courtesy of the always-excellent Gilead Media, who could use a hand right now and richly deserve your support.

Most of the albums I really loved fall beneath the “black metal” umbrella (11/15), but there are a couple monuments of death and a few doomed souls thrown in there as well. Hell, I would have just written down Beherit’s Live at the Devil’s Studio 1990 fifteen times if I thought I could get away with it.

So, here’s my list! I decided to leave the descriptions a bit vague this year to pique curiosity and inspire further exploration. Spoiler alert: Opeth’s not on it, and I still think that Burzum re-recording was a terrible idea. No, I’m still not sold on the Sonne Adam record (Armed with Hammers was better, and the production on Transformation was far too clean), and if you’re going to leave pouty comments saying that “I’ve never heard of any of these bands, jeez!”, I recommend you direct your browser to Metal Archives and start typing.


15. Reveal, Nocturne of Eyes and Teeth (High Roller) – Eerie, horror-obsessed, lo-fi, classic ‘80s-styled black/thrash.

14. Corrupted, Garten der Unbewussthelt (Nostalgia Blackrain) – Enigmatic, atmospheric, slow-burning, beautiful doom.

13. Blasphemophagher, The III Command of the Absolute Chaos (Nuclear War Now! Productions) – Primitive, bestial, unrelenting black/death metal.

12. Absu, Abzu (Candlelight) – Complex, aggressive, thrashy, immensely satisfying mythological occult black metal.

11. Inquisition, Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm (Hell’s Headbangers) – Inimitable, memorable, savage, melodically-inclined old-school black metal.

10. Barghest, Barghest (Gilead Media/Big Mountain) – Cold, hateful, Second Wave-inspired black metal.

9. Wrathprayer, The Sun of Moloch: The Sublimation of Sulphur’s Essence Which Spawns Death and Life (Nuclear War Now! Productions) – Ritualized, chaotic, warmongering, bestial black/death.

8. Void Meditation Cult, Sulfurous Prayers demo (Hell’s Headbangers) – Menacing, sepulchral, esoteric, crawling black/death/doom metal.

7. Altar of Plagues, Mammal (Profound Lore/Candlelight) – Gorgeous, expansive, windswept, post-everything black metal.

6. Necros Christos, Doom ov the Occvlt (Sepulchral Voice/Van/AJNA Offensive) – Crushing, atmospheric, mid-paced, uber-occult 90’s-style death metal.

5. Wreck of the Hesperus, Light Rotting Out (Aesthetic Death) – Filthy, desperate, bludgeoning, funereal death/doom.

4. Negative Plane,Stained Glass Revelations (AJNA Offensive/Invictus Productions) – Warped, ingenious, experimental, otherwordly black metal.

3. 40 Watt Sun, The Inside Room (Cyclone Empire/Metal Blade) – Aching, fragile, emotionally heavy, Warning-esque doom.

2. Ash Borer, Ash Borer (Psychic Violence) – Entrancing, atmospheric, mercilessly aggressive Cascadian black metal.



1. Bosse de Nage, II (The Flenser) – Twisted, addictive, depraved, obscure black metal.

(Dis)honorable mentions (LPs):

False, False (Gilead Media) – Vicious, dynamic, innovative, schizophrenic black metal.
The Wounded Kings, In the Chapel of the Black Hand (I Hate)
Amebix, Sonic Mass (Easy Action)
The Atlas Moth, An Ache for the Distance (Profound Lore)
Wolvhammer, The Obsidian Plains (Profound Lore)
Antediluvian, Through the Cervix of Hawwah (Profound Lore)
Falls of Rauros, The Light that Dwells in Rotten Wood (Bindrune)

(Dis)honorable mentions (EPs/splits/demos):

Cruciamentum/Vasaeleth split 7”, Eroding Chaos Unto Ascendant Flesh
Batillus/Mutilation Rites split 7” (Shinebox)
Pilgrim, Forsaken Man demo (self-released)
Bell Witch, Bell Witch demo (self-released)
One Tail One Head, Tandava EP (Terratur Possessions)
Niantiel, Cavern of the Skeletal Spirits demo (self-released)