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CONTENTS
NOvEMBER 2010 Issue #211

42 DIMMU
BORGIR
“If you don’t gamble,
you can’t win”

JOHN MCMUR TR IE

CONTENTS
NOvEMBER 2010 Issue #211

16 arthemis
Crayzee Italians show there is a serious side to playing pop songs while dressed as women.

18 jurojin
Hammer goes to Poland with the British, ethnically inspired progressive metallers.

24 holy grail
LA quintet inject trad metal into their retro thrash for an awesome debut.

28 SONIC SY NDICATE

THE DARK LORD SPEAKS....

EvIL
MUSIC
WINS

T

hat’s right, even 40
years after the band
that would become
Black Sabbath
watched a Mario
Bava film and fused their love of the
AAA Candyfloss, dodgy burgers and street footy in Brighton with the London hardcore urchins.
macabre with a sound that would lay the
foundation of heavy metal, the darker
discs of doom Guitarist Kirk Windstein takes us through the albums that shaped him.
side of our world still serves to inspire
and titillate. But at what point does that
fascination go too far? To many, black
The Norwegian black metallers are back with a new album.They are the genre’s biggest
metal was the extreme expression of
mainstream success. Sell-outs? Like fuck.They’re as real as it gets.
that fascination – a fusion of extreme
ideas with even bleaker sounds and a
heavy dose of misanthropy. So
Life’s not all a beach for these Aussie metallers. We explore the dark side of Deep Blue.
what happens when a group
emblematic of that scene
decides to go big time – to
We visit Jaz Coleman at home in Geneva to get to the blackened heart of the post-punks.
swing the pendulum back
toward the mainstream?
Well, we’re witnessing it
They were the hottest hit of the UK’s summer festivals. So who the fuck are they?
p16
right now, because with
Abrahadabra Dimmu Borgir have
given a massive two-fingered salute to
Guitarist Mark Tremonti tells all about how he’s a metal kid at heart.
critics both within their world and outside of it with an album so bombastic
and grandiose so as to forever sever
Hammer gets trigger-happy with New England’s gun-toting unsung heroes of metalcore.
their underground credentials, and in
the wake of a near break-up no less.That
takes big balls of steel, so we salute
MY LIFE STORY The spacelord motherfucker returns from rehab and the
them this month with a cover befitting a
depths of depression to deliver an album to rival the classics.
true act of sonic defiance. Plus, they’re
wearing white now. I mean really, what
SPANISH INQUISITION The beatdown kings get a visit from our
the fuck? Read all about it in our truly
cardinals and have a lighthearted chat about popping guys’ eyes out of their heads.
demonic cover feature on page 42.
It’s not all about darkness, though.
From Aussie behemoths Parkway Drive
STORY BEHIND THE ALBUM Cowboys… was the album that kickstarted
hitting these shores with a sound
their career. Listening to it 20 years on, it still makes you feel like the hardest bastard in the world.
designed to level buildings, to TRC
causing mayhem in the streets, to Killing
Joke proving you can still find ways to
annoy the fuck out of the man in your
band’s fourth decade, to the 20th
anniversary of Pantera’s Cowboys
TATTS LIFE “So, Karin, you realise this photoshoot involves showing a bit of flesh, right?
A little more… just a bit more… now if you could just…” *smack*

36 TRC

40 dOWN

42 DIMMU BORGIR

50 parkway drive
54 killing joke
58 kvelertak

60 alter bridge

64 all that remains

From Hell and the
birth of a sound
that truly rattled
bones around the
world – this is a
thrilling month for
heavy music.And if you happened to
make it to Ozzfest last month to witness
the mayhem, then you’ll know that even
the Double-O himself would seem to
agree.The world he helped to create is
all within these pages, and it’s bigger
and blacker than ever. Hell yeah.
STAY METAL!

68 monster magnet
72 unearth
74 pantera

REvIEWS
UNDER THE HAMMER THIS MONTH!

TALES FROM THE DARK SIDE

The Meads of Asphodel
p96 Ozzy Osbourne rocks out The O2.

CRADLE OF FILTH

p78 Dani Filth’s latest
encounters trouble and strife.

SLIPKNOT

p84 10th anniversary Download
extravaganza comes to DVD.
PLUS! DIO / FIREWIND / HALFORD /
DIMMU BORGIR / HELL ON EARTH

32 HAMMER MERCH

p112 English crusaders get
star-crossed with Jesus Christ.

MELECHESH

p116 Holy Land exiles lay
down Sumerian justice.

TRIPTYKON

p130 Inside the unforgiving
world of Tom G Warrior.
PLUS! ATHEIST / SÓLSTAFIR /
WATAIN / THE WRETCHED END

EDITÖR

LOOK BAD-ASS AND BE THE ENVY OF ALL YOUR
MATES. YOU’LL HAVE MORE SEX TOO! PROMISE.

Warning! The sound card is not a toy. Do not dispose of batteries in a waste bin. Do not throw this card into a fire as it contains batteries. Supplied by Resource Gift Solutions, BA1 3AU. Please retain this information for future reference.

HOT
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*

IN
As the nom
in
ee
s
for the 20
Gods w
10
declared there announced, Evile Hammer Golden
jumping… at if he won anythin guitarist Ol Drake
Alexander in a cowboy outfit. H g, he’d go bungee
M
Evile would ilas agreed to join ammer Editor
h
walking aw n’t win shit. It didn’ im, ’cos obviously
t
to their woray with the Metal A work out that way,
s
near Lond d, the pair jumped Fuck award.True
on
of
memory of ’s Tower Bridge last f a 160 foot crane
raising mondeparted Evile bass month. Ol did it in
Alexander ey for the British Luist Mike Alexander,
d
Up And Sh id it for cancer scre ng foundation.
ou
Dio.Why th t in the name of th ening charity Stand
more info e costumes? Why th e late Ronnie James
on
donate, se the jump and the e fuck not? For
arch Faceb
ch
ook for JU arities, and to
MP4metal
ALEX

Ol Drake and Alexander
Milas: two Amigos

ANDE

R MIL
AS

Contender!
Ready!

Hopefully th
at Re
will give him d Bull
wings

“Slayeeeerrr

rr!”

JAMES SHAR R OCK

ddersfi eld
“I can see Hu
from here!”

MIGHT
AS WELL
JUMP!
OL DRAKE ON HIS LEAP OF FAITH.

HOW DID THE CHARITY BUNGEE JUMP COME ABOUT?
“We were nominated for an award at Metal Hammer’s
Golden Gods [this year].Considering the competition,
I knew we wouldn’t win, so I said something equally
unlikely: ‘I’ll bungee jump dressed as a cowboy if we win.’
But we did win! So I had to take the plunge. I’m clever.”
AND WHY THE COWBOY COSTUME?
“I honestly don’t know. I remember being on the phone
to our press officer and she needed a quote about the
awards [nomination]and what I’d said. I instantly
thought a cowboy costume would be very appropriate.
I don’t know why, though.”
BUT HANG ON, DON’T YOU SUFFER FROM VERTIGO?
“I have an incredible fear of heights, yes. I’ve been up the
Eiffel Tower, but I couldn’t jump off it or anything. I have
no idea how I did the jump, I just kind of accepted I had
to do it, and jumped.”
WHAT WAS YOUR FINAL THOUGHT BEFORE YOU JUMPED?
“It was strange: I didn’t have any thoughts before
jumping. It seemed like a split second, and my mind was
very calm. I wasn’t thinking anything… but I was very
soon after that!”
WHAT WAS THE EXPERIENCE LIKE? WEREN’T YOU
SCARED SHITLESS?
“It was unbelievable, I can’t even put it into words.
I would definitely do it again. I wasn’t scared after seeing
other people doing it, so it was all good, and for a very
good cause, so I concentrated on that.”
MIKE WOULD BE PROUD…
“Yeah, he’d be very proud, but at the same time laughing
at me because I’m doing it. He’d be joking about new
pairs of pants and diapers. But yes, I hope he’s proud
wherever he is.”

Evile’s Ol Drake: for those
who are hopefully not about
to go ‘splat’, we salute you

METALHAMMER.CO.UK | 9

yep, that’s
Kim Thayil: we
exactly howhim
remember

Chris Cornell: OK,
we’re ready to forgive
you for Scream

BACK IN
BUSINESS

JASON MER R ITT/GETTY

SOUNDGARDEN SPEAK TO HAMMER EXCLUSIVELY FOR THE
FIRST TIME ABOUT THEIR UNEXPECTED REUNION AFTER
“AN UNNECESSARY 12-YEAR BREAK”

OR

FROM RUMOURS OF A REUNION GREW A
REALITY. SO HAMMER STARTS THE FESTIVAL
RUMOUR MILL HOPING FOR THE SAME…

Hammer spoke to the promoters of the UK’s
biggest metal festivals,Alan Day of Kilimanjaro
(Sonisphere) and Andy Copping of Live Nation
(Download), to see if either of them have
bagged Soundgarden for 2011. Since April this
year they played their first set together in
Seattle, headlined Lollapalooza in August after
a warm-up in Chicago at the Vic Theater, and
played a low-key show in LA last month. Most
reunions are invited to the UK festivals – from
Limp Bizkit to Faith No More to Blink 182. So
can we expect Soundgarden to follow suit?
Andy – who is always very open about the
people he’s talking to for Download – admits
that: “There are no plans at the moment.” And
Alan adds: “As far as we know they are not
confirmed to play anywhere yet.”
“It’s all speculation regarding all UK
festivals,” continues Andy.“Shame, though,
as it would be very cool.”
Yes it would, as Alan concurs: “Of course
we are trying to get them for Sonisphere.
Badmotorfinger is a God-like classic!”
We’re keeping our fingers crossed!

I

t was a Tweet a
bleary world was
not expecting to
wake up to on New
Year’s Day. Chris
Cornell announcing
the unlikely reunion of the longdefunct Soundgarden… or was
he? Guitarist Kim Thayil and
bassist Ben Shepherd have
spoken exclusively to Hammer
about their legacy, their reunion,
and what’s coming up for the
mammoth band that helped
spearhead the Seattle sound.
“There were stories flying
around all over the place,” says
Kim. “My friends were calling me
up, my mother and father were
calling and saying, ‘Why didn’t
you tell us you were reuniting
the band? ’ And I was like, ‘We’re
not!’ And my mother’s saying,
‘I read it in a magazine, tell me
the truth!’ And I’m like, ‘I’m your
son, believe me!’ It was crazy.”
Stellar as the reformation
may be, the events leading up
to Soundgarden’s reformation
are less than Shakespearean.
It’s been 12 years since they
broke up, and 11 years had to
pass before they decided to
re-evaluate their catalogue and
think about what their legacy
might mean to a new generation
of music-lovers who knew the
name and not much more.
Someone called a meeting to
discuss their options, a meeting
that Ben remembers fondly.

“It was a sort of business
meeting with Chris [Cornell] to
see where we were at and we
talked about the catalogue
and stuff. I remember telling
everyone, ‘OK, we basically
have a dead hooker here.
We could either let her rot up
in a log cabin, or we could
dress her up and sell her in
midtown Manhattan.’”
The fan club – The Knights
Of The Soundtable – was
reborn as a way of bringing the
Soundgarden name back to life.
On New Year’s Day Chris
Tweeted to say as much and
then all hell broke loose. Kim
was semi-retired, Matt Cameron
was the drummer in Pearl Jam,
Ben co-owned a bar in Seattle
and had been playing with other
people including Mark Lanegan,
and Chris had left Audioslave to
be a solo artist again. It didn’t
matter, the internet put two and
two together and made five; the
band were obviously getting
back together. Then their
phones started ringing.
“We wanted to put our house
in order,” says Kim, “sort the
catalogue out and then the offers
started coming in, there was this
huge buzz and we didn’t know
how to stop it. I was relieved when
the band ended, but I always
thought we were unfinished,
that we had more to say.”
For his part, Ben thinks the
band should never have broken

“I am not a member of Avenged Sevenfold” DRUMMER MIKE PORTNOY AFTER LEAVING DREAM THEATER
10 | METALHAMMER.CO.UK

up. Taken some downtime
maybe, but break up? That
was just stupid. The label
suggested another collection
– Telephantasm – which Kim
oversaw and the band revisited
the Badmotorfinger sessions
and dug out a song called
Black Rain, which hadn’t
resonated with them at the
time. They reworked it, Chris
sang a new vocal, Kim played
some guitar, the whole band
jumped in.
“It was an outline, a sketch,”
says Kim of the song. “Maybe
with the perspective of time
we were able to give it some
sort of dynamic direction and
once we were done, we were
like, ‘Is that all it took? !’ It all
seemed so natural, it still
sounds like Soundgarden; we
wouldn’t disappear for 12 years

5

Number of cities on A Perfect Circle’s ‘comeback’ tour.
Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan’s ‘other band’
are back with a string of US dates. Number of people
happy about their return? 145million. Ish.

“i remember
telling
everyone: WE
HAVE A DEAD
HOOKER HERE.
WE COULD LET
HER ROT OR
DRESS HER UP
AND SELL HER”
ben shepherd

Soundgarden (clockwise
from left): Ben Shepherd,
Matt Cameron, Kim Thayil
and Chris Cornell

BU

ZZ
FRESHLY CUT
PIECES OF NEWS!

have
*endMetallica
celebrated the
of the Death

Magnetic touring
cycle by releasing
the Six Feet Down
Under EP in Oz and
via Metallica.com.
Metallica say:
“We came up with
what we thought
might be a fun
idea: some live
recordings from
each time we have
visited [Australia].
Then we realised
we didn’t start
making recordings
until 2004! But
the fans came to
our rescue with
some decent
bootlegs and we
trimmed those
down to two songs
from each tour in
1989, 1993, 1998,
and 2004. Digging
deeper, we had
tracks that had
never before been
released as ‘live
B-sides’ and that
added to the
adventure of
pulling it together.”

C*NT

OF THE
MONTH

and come back and sound like
Loverboy or Journey.”
They played three shows,
two intimate gigs, one at the
Showbox in Seattle (Ben
recalls the audience as being
too reverential to the band),
the Vic Theater in Chicago
(“a little bit rusty,” admits
Kim) and then they headlined
Lollapalooza in the same city.
“It was funny, it wasn’t odd
at all; it seemed so natural
going back up there,” recalls
Kim. “I had some anxiety prior
to walking up on stage, I think
we all did, the butterflies and
the nerves, and there were
more of them because it had
been so long and it was such
a big stage, but once we struck
the first few chords and I could
hear the amps and see the
crowd it was great, just great.”

Neither denies European
shows or a new album. Before
then Kim’s compiling a B-sides
album and expect a live
record culled from their last
US tour in 1996 at some point.
Ben even musters some
enthusiasm when the future
of the band is brought up.
“I would not be surprised if
we came back to Europe and
the UK at all. I think there’s
the possibility of a new record;
we’re all pretty jazzed on
playing together again and
working together. I care about
the legacy and how people
see us and perceive us, but
I want to play. That’s why we’re
here. We should have done this
a long time ago.”

TELEPHANTASM IS OUT NOW VIA
ISLAND RECORDS

100

Percentage of heavy metal songs in Arsenal midfielder
and Czech Republic captain Tomáš Rosický’s playlist
for homeless charity Centrepoint. You can purchase
the playlist from www.fairsharemusic.com and proceeds go to the charity.

STEVENTYLER

h, so
Aerosmith
are no more.”
“Why? ! That’s
bloody awful!”
“I know, right! It’s
because Steven Tyler
has become a judge
on American Idol.”
“That awful cynical
show where people
ridicule each other
and the winner gets
15 minutes of fame? ”
“Yep.”
“So what will
Aerosmith do? ”
“Audition on
American Idol
presumably…”

“O

The Pretty Reckless (left to right):
Mark Damon, Taylor Momsen, Ben
Phillips, Jamie Perkins

BLONDE
AMBITION
IGNORE THE CELEBRITY TIES AND CUTESY
LOOKS, THE PRETTY RECKLESS ROCK HARD!

T

he brainchild of 17year-old actress,
model and
musician Taylor
Momsen, The Pretty Reckless
have just released their debut
album, Light Me Up. Most will
know Taylor from US TV show
Gossip Girl, but don’t be fooled
by her red carpet smile; this
kitten’s got claws…
“Yes, I’ve had highs and lows,”
she says. “But nothing I’ll
discuss… If you wanna know
about my fucking life listen to
my fucking record!”
Wary of her background, it’s
no wonder Taylor is defensive
about the focus being on her,
not her music or the band.
“Either people know me from
Gossip Girl or they don’t,” she
states. “I just hope people will
listen to the music first before
making their minds up – that’s
what’s important. Yes, I’m an
actor, but that has nothing to
do with the music. I’m not just
trying to sell ‘me’.”
And this credibility shows in
the rawness of the record.
“I was raised on The Who,
Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd, Led
Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Rolling
Stones… I was raised on the
greats and that’s what comes
out in the record. My
management have been very

supportive and when I signed to
[Interscope] I was very clear
that I had no interest in making
a pop record – I wanted a real
band. It’s no fun on the road
when it’s just you.”
It all started in 2008 when
Taylor met guitarist Ben Phillips
and producer Khandwala. She
then fired her first band a year
later because they “didn’t fit
with [her] music style” and she
formed a new band with Ben,
bassist Mark Damon and
drummer Jamie Perkins.
Taylor is reluctant to explain
specific song meanings,
admitting that it’s all very
personal but with stories hidden
inside larger narratives.
“I like autobiographical
songs, but I want people to
have their own take. Some
sound literal but are actually
metaphorical. It took two years
to write the record so I don’t
want to just say what the song
means in a sentence.”
So read what you will into
songs from the album like Miss
Nothing and Nothing Left To
Lose and Blonde Rebellion and
make up your own mind when
The Pretty Reckless return to
the UK in the new year.

LIGHT ME UP IS OUT NOW VIA
INTERSCOPE RECORDS

“Slaaaayyeeeerrrr!!!” WHAT HAMMER EDITOR ALEXANDER MILAS SHOUTED AS HE DID HIS BUNGEE JUMP FOR CHARITY WITH EVILE’S OL DRAKE
METALHAMMER.CO.UK | 11

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0

Seconds of music in the first trailer for the
new My Chemical Romance album. Well done,
best way to promote an album: include no
music. Says a lot really, doesn’t it…

14

Years since the last album from Accept.And five
years since their hiatus was called.The German
metallers are back with new album Blood Of The
Nations, and live dates including Hammerfest.

Slayer (Dave Lombardo far
left): welcome to the jungle

FRESHLY CUT
PIECES OF NEWS!

Trivium’s Corey
Beaulieu has
*spoken
about how
their follow-up to
Shogun is shaping
up: “Compared to
the last couple
of records, the
intensity and the
energy has really
gone up a lot.
We’ve been
concentrating on
making catchier
songs. It doesn’t
sound like Shogun,
but it sounds like
Trivium. It’s a lot
more in your face
– a lot heavier and
a lot faster.”
Reznor
*thathasTrent
revealed
the longrumoured
television series
of Nine Inch Nails’
Year Zero album
is coming along
slowly.Trent told
the LA Times: “We
are working on a
mini-series.” There
are a lot of hurdles
before things
make it to TV.“It’s
very much alive
and incubating
at the moment.”

iamond David Lee
Roth has said that
a Van Halen reunion
is only six to eight
months off! Couple
that with talk from
Download organiser
Andy Copping about
the fact that he would
“definitely consider”
Van Halen and it looks
like the UK may
finally get its Van
Halen show!

DAVE TO
RAVE
DAVE LOMBARDO SIDE-PROJECT TO RELEASE DRUM’N’BASS-INSPIRED ALBUM.

I

n the early 90s, Slayer drummer Dave
Pendulum or Roni Size & Reprazent, the latter being
Lombardo discovered jungle/drum’n’bass a band that’s heavily inspired Philm’s sound.
in the UK, and put together a band called
“Back then I would go to Tower [Records] or
Philm inspired by his discoveries. Now
whatever and I would search for it,” he says of his hunt
we can finally hear the fruit of his labour
for the obscure music form back home in shops 5,400
of love in the form of a Volcom seven-inch miles away from its creative centre. “There would only
vinyl including a cover of Black Sabbath’s Symptom
be two little sections, but my first album was actually
Of The Universe as well
a mixtape. I will never
as live footage on
“I was fascinated forget, my son was just
YouTube and the odd gig.
born and he liked it!”
by the beats”
Hammer spoke to
But don’t worry, the
DAVE LOMBARDO
Dave about rave.
band is still a distance
“I first heard the music back in ’93 or ’95,” he says,
from the stadium rock’n’bass drum’n’core of
in a voice that’s a million miles from the surliness
Pendulum or Enter Shikari.
suggested in every shot of Slayer since 1983. “There
“It’s only an interpretation, we’re
was an uprising in the UK, and I caught wind of it. I was inspired by drum’n’bass, not actually
fascinated by the beats. I immediately absorbed it and drum’n’bass,” he adds. “We wanted to
incorporate our roots as well, which is
translated it in a… ‘Lombardo style’, ha ha ha! I like to
blues and funk.”
do that, take things and translate them… ‘How would
He adds that the B-side has a
I incorporate that in my style? ’”
percussion piece called Drum Friction
Drum’n’bass was often described as ‘impossible
which “I wrote and that will be on my
music’: funk and jazz drum samples played at
drum solo record, Rite Of Percussion.”
increasing speeds and diced and remixed into
The band features Civil Defiance
ever more elaborate shapes, grooves and loops.
guitarist Gerry Nestler and War
“As an acoustic drum player you can’t do all those
electronic sounds, unless you’re playing to a backing bassist Pancho Tomaselli and it
won’t take you long to find their
track – which we’ll do in Philm’s future – but it
music on YouTube for a taster.
wasn’t hard to interpret.”
Technology is already in a place where electronic
THE PHILM 7 ”VINYL COVER OF SYMPTOM
drumkits can play drum samples to further
OF THE UNIVERSE IS OUT NOW VIAVOLCOM
approximate the drum’n’bass of old – just ask

RAVE METAL

WHEN METAL AND DANCE
MUSIC COLLIDE.

NINE INCH NAILS

With disco beats and
synths,Trent Reznor took
industrial to the masses.

FEAR FACTORY
Second-generation
industrialists exploited
the ghosts in the machine.

PITCHSHIFTER
Fear Factory dabbled in
d’n’b; these Brits nailed it.

THE PRODIGY
Starting as a dodgy rave act,
the UK outfit have become
honorary metallers and
drive rock crowds mental.

PENDULUM
The Aussie drum’n’bass
crew are regulars at
Download and Sonisphere,
and loved by metallers
as much as ravers.

ENTER SHIKARI
Trance metallers Shikari
(left) combine
metalcore songs,
hardcore
energy and
dance’s
synths
and
beats.

“I was happy with it” LOSTPROPHETS FRONTMAN IAN WATKINS SUGGESTS THAT HE PHOTOSHOPPED THE PICTURE OF HIM APPARENTLY PERFORMING FELLATIO
METALHAMMER.CO.UK | 13

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42

3, 000

Dollars offered for the return of two of Robb
Flynn’s stolen guitars. On September 7 his
home was broken into and four guitars were stolen, amongst other things. One
of the guitars was used to record Machine Head’s first album, Burn My Eyes.
g
Bailey: sittin job
down on the

Number of seconds Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens stopped
the set for when someone threw a full pint of beer
at him in Norway last month. He demanded the
guy be thrown out. Brutal.

BU

ZZ

Josh hard
at work

FRESHLY CUT
PIECES OF NEWS!

s
That’s a lot of button
ok
just to surf Facebo

to www.
*co.ukHead
metalhammer.
to view the

ETA
jan

SY LOSIS

2011

THE 21ST CENTURY THRASHERS BRING THE HUMANITY AND HIGH CONCEPT FOR THEIR THIRD ALBUM.

R

eading’s Sylosis are just mixing down their
It appears that this very human edge is something that the
brand new – as yet untitled – album, and
band have been mindful of throughout the recording of the album,
frontman Josh Middleton tells Hammer
despite its drawn-out creation.
that it’s a concept album with a newfound
“The main concern for the whole mix has been to make it raw
‘human sound’. By the time the album
and intense. We thought the last album was pretty sterile. We
comes out in January 2011 it will have
wanted it to have production values more like High On Fire than
been nearly three years since the release of Conclusion Of An Age, many other modern metal bands. We wanted it gnarly and grimy.
an album that set the standard for all new British metal bands
It’s still pretty consistent but we didn’t want to trigger up the
who had their sights set on conquering the UK scene. In their
drums and make it sound like a bunch of robots playing.”
short life, Sylosis have become one of the biggest and best British
It seems that the influence has come from a developing love
bands of the last ten years with a solid grassroots fanbase,
of bands like Baroness and Neurosis, as well as progressive
critical acclaim and some world-beating festival performances.
nuances inspired by the likes of Cult Of Luna and even 70s
Hopefully the new album will further solidify their reputation as a
proggers Yes and Rush.
forward-thinking and relevant metal band
“The new album is a lot heavier than the
who never fail to deliver. And having taken
last one but we’ve tried to incorporate
over a year to make, you’d bloody hope so!
some interesting and new ambient sounds
“It’s been slow,” admits Josh. “We started
and textures, experimenting with interludes.”
a year ago with the drums but then we
And have you got a concept for the
had the Dragonforce tour. Then it was
record like the prog rock greats?
Christmas, then [producer] Scott Atkins
“Yeah, the record is all about time,” he
was recording someone else, then we did
says. “It’s about a guy who lives in complete
josh middleton
guitars and bass, then we toured again.
isolation for a lifetime. It talks about what
We came back again for solos and then finally vocals.”
being on your own for ages does to you. It’s got bookend tracks at
As if all that wasn’t enough to set an album back,
the beginning and end. The opening track sums up everything we
earlier in 2010, frontman Jamie Graham left the band do really: it’s heavy but quite progressive with some majestic
– another in a long list of people who have passed
melody in there. It’s one of my favourites on the album.”
through the ranks. Anyone who has seen Sylosis
Before the band release the album they are on tour with
since Jamie’s departure will know that guitarist
Turbowolf, Exit Ten and The Defiled as part of the Jä germeister
singer Josh more than makes up for the loss. But
Music Tour, which runs from November 9 – 13. And who knows,
what did this mean for the album?
we may even get to hear a new tune.
“I have a different vocal style. I’m more gritty,
like Crowbar or Soilent Green, more snarling.” THE AS-YET-UNTITLED ALBUM WILL BE OUT IN JANUARY VIA NUCLEAR BLAST

“The main
concern has
been to
make it raw
and intense”

SOUNDGARDEN
video trailer for
new track Black
Rain, if you haven’t
already! In fact,
LINKIN PARK are
streaming their
whole album, A
Thousand Suns,
at their MySpace
page. Now it’s not
just Devildriver!
Former members
of the Spookycore
nu-metal band
COAL CHAMBER
have formed a new
band called WE
ARE THE RIOT.
DEF LEPPARD
frontman and
all-round top bloke
Joe Elliot has
launched his own
beer named Down
’n’ Outz after his
side project of
Mott The Hoople
songs.The beer
has “a pilsner
style” that has
“a deep, rich
malt character,
with generous
hop bitterness”,
apparently.
ORBS is an
American
supergroup
consisting of
Dan Briggs of
BETWEEN THE
BURIED AND ME,
Adam Fisher and
Clayton Holyoak
of FEAR BEFORE
THE MARCH OF
FLAMES and
Ashley Ellyllon
formerly of
ABIGAIL
WILLIAMS and
now of
CRADLE OF
FILTH, and
they have
released their
awesome
debut, Asleep
Next. The band
began in the
spring of 2008
as an online
prog metaltinged project.

“We’ll never write another Down With The Sickness” DISTURBED’S BASSIST JOHN MOYER ON THE BAND’S DEVELOPMENT.
14 | METALHAMMER.CO.UK

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STONE SOUR
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COHEED AND CAMBRIA
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ORDER AT PLAY.COM/RR2010

PRICES CORRECT AT TIME OF GOING TO PRESS. SOME PRICES MAY VARY

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“If you
like metal,
and want
to hear it
in all
different
shapes,
this is your
chance to
do that”
ANDY MARTONGELLI

HOT
L
A
T
E
M
NEW RIFFS

, F R ES H

FORGE
FROM THE

W

ITALY’S ARTHEMIS HAVE RECORDED AN EP OF POP COVERS

! EXCLUSIVE TO METAL HAMMER JUST TO PROVE THAT SERIOUS

HEAVY METAL CAN STILL HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOUR.

hile getting completely
leathered in Ibiza after
their Hard Rock Hell Ibiza
Roadtrip show, Arthemis
brought out their iPod and
played us a song. The song
sounded familiar, but also strange and new. Frontman
Andrea ‘Andy’ Martongelli smiles as the realisation
writes itself across our face. “It’s a metal cover version
of Lady fucking Gaga!” we shout before joining in
drunkenly with the ‘p-p-poker face…’ chorus and
falling down an embankment.
For some time now Arthemis (completed by frontman
Fabio Dessi, bassist Damiano Perazzini and drummer
Corrado Rontani) have been quietly (and not so quietly)
making covers of pop songs (as well as their own metal
songs) their ‘finish him!’ moment. The Italian band have
– in one way or another – been around since 1994
working tirelessly at their own trad and power-infused
heavy metal.
June 2010 saw Arthemis release their sixth and
strongest album to date, Heroes, as they marched slowly
but surely towards the next level as career metalheads.
For a perfectly shrewd self-appraisal of Arthemis, Andy
says that the band are always inspired by “my favourite
bands of course – Metallica, Judas Priest, Black
Sabbath” but that their consistently progressing and
unfolding sound is due to the additional influence of
“newer heavy metal bands like Avenged Sevenfold”.
The iPod plays more of Arthemis’s amazing covers
and we want to cry with how great they are (that and
the 38 Jä ger bombs we’ve downed). How many of these
have you done, we ask?
16 | METALHAMMER.CO.UK

“We’ve done… a lot!” says Andy. “We’ve done Boom
Boom Pow by Black Eyed Peas – that was like Korn!
Tik Tok by Ke$
ha, Bad Romance by Lady GaGa and we
did Crazy In Love by… erm… er…”
Beyoncé
?
“Right, Beyoncé
! I can only ever remember her butt!”
We caught up with Andy in the studio more recently.
While Arthemis seem to eat, sleep, shit and laugh in the
studio, today Andy is here to record a special Arthemis
covers EP for Metal Hammer – which you can download
now from www.metalhammer.co.uk.
As proved in the Balearics, the band are no strangers
to – and also terrific at – covering pop songs in a metal
style. So how did all this madness start?
“I never played in a covers band because I was
determined to play my own music if I was going to be in
a band at all. But with Arthemis we’d often slip a cover into
our live show – Megadeth, Anthrax, Queen or something.
And if it’s not metal we make it metal to have fun on stage.
We’d often only play that song once, it was just a one-off,
something to make the show special for people.
“I’ve been working on covers for the Japanese market
for a while,” says the Italian, his voice brimming with
boisterous energy and schoolboy giggling. “There’s
a really big company in Japan called Avex. They make
CDs of covers of pop… but done in a metal way. And
that’s my job, ha ha! I go into the studio and they say,
‘Make this song more metal, make it rock’. Sometimes
we have to do three or four songs every day, but it’s easy
for me because I’m a guitarist who improvises a lot so
finding the riff takes five minutes. Then Fabio will sing on
them. Sometimes we do them for compilations or video
games or iPhone downloads, there’s lots of work.”

If you clos
headbutt e your eyes and
shake thisa wall you may ju
st
image ou
t
Arthemis (left to right):
Fabio Dessi, Andrea
Martongelli, Corrado
Rontani, Damiano Perazzini

Her
Arthemis EP
t
. Downloa dto your free
it no
www.meta lh
a mmer.co.uw from
k
Britney
Spea rs
La dy Ga ga – –Womanizer
Paparaz
Riha nna –D
on’t Stop Th zi
e Music
Destiny’s C
hild
Michea l Ja ck –Survivor
son –B
Ma donna – ad
Express You
rself

ALSO
TRY ...

POWERGLOVE

It seems a very savvy strategy: many
bands have enjoyed similar exposure from
which to launch their careers, from Him
(their cover of Chris Isaak’s Wicked
Game helped their rise in the UK) to
Apocalyptica and – ahem – Alien Ant
Farm. And of course the tradition of
covering your favourite music is a rock
music badge of honour with bands
from Metallica to Guns N’ Roses
releasing albums devoted to them.
“It’s really not a strategy!” he laughs.
“We never thought about the commercial
part, it just happened.”
And with the impending doom-shaped
future overcast by a gloomy recession,
even metalheads want something to
make them smile.
“Exactly! Why not? ! Why do you have to
be sad? If you like metal, if you really like it
and want to hear it in all different shapes,
this is your chance to do that.”
It’s hard enough to make it as a
successful metal band when you’re from
Los Angeles, New York or London with their
associated big-league reputation. So it
wouldn’t be unfair to say that Italy doesn’t
have the ‘coolest’ reputation in the world
of metal and that metal bands struggle
to get heard. Sure Lacuna Coil made it to
the world stage, but Rhapsody Of Fire
hardly have Dillinger Escape Plan’s cool
factor do they…?

WTF?

FROM
Verona, Italy.

THEY
SOUND
LIKE
Supercharged
Italian trad metal
with a power edge
and youthful energy,
a defi nite sense
of humour and
a cheeky way with
a pop tune or two.

FIND
OUT
MORE
arthemisweb.com

“Sometimes it’s pretty hard because some
people say you might as well be from Africa!”
he says, laughing heartily again. “We don’t
care. We carry on. You don’t have to follow
the rules to be good. And you don’t have
to be from a certain place to be credible.
We are a credible band. We live music
every day. I see it as a mission, you have
to bring your own shit. I really don’t
fucking care if people like it or not.
Honestly, I really don’t care. I mean,
we’re crazy! You know that! People
should remember that! Ha ha!”
You’re an Italian metal band who cover
00s pop songs, how could we forget…?
“We’re quite big in Italy, obviously. We’ve
done all the things a heavy metal band can
do in Italy. We’ve even done a TV spot for Fiat!
I guess we’re still very Italian, but not in the
fashion-obsessed way. We love food and wine
and wherever we go we want to meet people
and be in the crowd and create hell.”
The band have just signed a deal with
booking agent Factory Music and Andy hopes
the band get to create hell in many more
countries around the world.
“It really takes time to grow as a band,”
he says. “But now our hopes are high and
we’re working in whatever way we have to to
spread our music. Whatever it takes to get
our music heard, you’ll find us doing that!”

HEROES IS OUT NOW VIA HELVETE & HATE

Powerglove are an
instrumental American
power metal band who
play versions of classic
videogame themes. The
band is named after the
Power Glove, a Nintendo
controller accessory.
Anyway, these loonies
have a new album called
Saturday Morning
Apocalypse that will
feature 11 power metal
renditions of 80s cartoon
themes including X-Men,
Transformers, Inspector
Gadget and The
Simpsons. They’ve clearly
run out of videogame
theme tunes. Head to
YouTube to hear their
cover of Transformers.
Bassil Silver Hajo of the
Boston metallers says:
“No matter what we
write, we know all the
comments will be about
how bizarre we look, how
ridiculous this track list
is, and the fact that we
somehow got Tony Kakko
[Sonata Arctica] to sing
the Poké
mon theme for
us. We would tell you
how clown-rapingly
awesome it is, but you
can decide that for
yourself when the album
comes out in September.”
Their previous albums
include Total Pwnage
(2005 and Metal
Kombat (2007).
Head over to www.
myspace.com/powerglove
for more information.

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“i’
ve always had
an interest in
indian music”
nic rizzi

HOT L
META
R ES H
NEW RIFFS, F

FROM THE FO

Jurojin (left to right):
Francesco Lucidi, Nic Rizzi,
Simran Ghalley, James
Alper, Yves Fernandez

RGE!

JUROJIN
WTF?
O

LONDON UPSTARTS BRINGING AN ESOTERIC WORLD EDGE TO PROGRESSIVE METAL.

FROM
London, England.

THEY
SOUND
LIKE
The bastard love child
of MaynardJames
Keenan and Ravi
Shankar,with Mikael
Å kerfeldt for an uncle
andJaco Pastorius
trying to break into
the delivery room.

FIND
OUT
MORE
www.myspace.com/
jurojin
18 | METALHAMMER.CO.UK

ver the decades Hammer has found itself in
some pretty strange places after a night on the
tiles.Yet when the vodka-induced haze clears
to reveal that we are, in fact, deep within the
bowels of a Polish sports arena, discussing the merits of early
Opeth with a tabla player and a jazz bassist, questions have
to be asked. On this occasion though, the bassist and tabla
player in question happen to be two-fifths of London-based
progressive metallers Jurojin, and things start to make
a little more sense.
Having just played their biggest show to date, a slot on
the Korn-headlined Polish Metal Hammer Festival at the
Spodek Arena, located in the rather Soviet-looking city of
Katowice, it’s an exhausted yet justifiably beaming Jurojin that
emerge to further tuck into a mountain of free sausages and
beer as the strains of Katatonia shake an alarming amount of
dust from the ageing venue’s walls. And beaming they should
be, as while the UK has yet to fully embrace them, the Poles
have proved willing early converts to the Jurojin message.
“Y’know, our album was only released in the UK, Australia
and Poland,” explains guitarist Nic Rizzi,“and the Polish
people seem to really dig it; I’ve done way more interviews
and promo work for the Polish market than anywhere else, so
we’re really honoured to be asked to do a festival of this size,
so early in our career.”
“I’ll tell you what got me,” chips in vocalist James Alper.
“There were these two guys, right at the front of the crowd –
and bearing in mind that we’ve never played a gig in Poland
before – these two guys knew every single lyric to every
single song… Mental!”
And believe us, it gets far more brain-twisting. Having only
solidified their lineup two years ago, and with a daunting

modus operandi of aiming to meld the deceptively complex
groves of mid-era Tool with the progressive leanings of bands
like Opeth – also on today’s bill – all imbued with a love of
traditional Indian music and importantly tabla drums, Jurojin
have, willingly or otherwise, managed to create for themselves
a scene of one. So, c’mon, how the hell does a tabla player end
up in a metal band anyway?
“When I moved to London [from the US] I already had
a real interest in Indian music,” explains Nic.“So I wanted to
find Indian musicians to play with, and eventually I was
introduced to Simran [Ghalley, tabla] through a mutual friend;
we had a bit of a jam session, and I came away just thinking,
‘Wow! This guy’s on another level, if I need a tabla player,
I know who my man is!’”
And the jazz bassist? Simple, persistence.
“Nic just wouldn’t stop calling me,” tells bassist – and, as
it later emerges, recent Korn convert – Yves Fernandez.
As night becomes day and the group and a few new fans
decamp to a peculiar underground bar totally dedicated to
one Polish punk band, it begins to hit home that rather
paradoxically it is the total diversity of Jurojin that proves their
unifying factor. Some members may be new to metal, their
drummer might be an Italian Keith Moon (minus the animal
tranquilisers) and although maybe not quite the finished
article, Jurojin are belligerently pushing metal into territories
that few others even imagine.
“Ultimately, people are either going to ‘get’ our music, or
they’re not,” James sums up.“But the fact that we’re even
doing this interview… I mean, holy shit, we must be doing
something right!”

JUROJIN PLAY A CLUTCH OF UK DATES STARTING NOVEMBER 8

CHECK OUT!

BAND INFOS, MERCHANDISE AND MORE:

W W W. N U C L E A R B L A S T. D E

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Fuck With
Your Fans
Axl Rose

Yeah, way to go, ginger bollocks.
Having already made your fans
wait 15 years for a new album that
turned out to be 80 per cent
bumdribble, you now seem to think
it’s OK to arrive on stage hours
late, thus ensuring that everyone
is bored and angry by the
time your latest hired
hands plod through
GUILTY!
Welcome To The Jungle.
Refund, please!

The Misfits

Everyone seems to be reforming
these days. Everyone except the
sodding Misfits, that is. It’s been
27 years since Glenn Danzig and
Jerry Only last hit the stage as
part of the insanely cool horror
punk crew they formed back in
1977 and generations of punk,
rock and metal fans – not to
mention everyone from Metallica
to Volbeat – would chew their own
legs off for a chance to see them
in action. Stop lurking
around in graveyards and
GUILTY!
bury the hatchet, you
spooky bell-ends.

Marilyn
Manson

Dear Brian… what happened?
You used to be awesome and now
you’re rubbish. The last time you
played in the UK you were so
twatted you could barely
stand. At Download 2009,
you made Fred Durst look
graceful. How about a bit
more quality control and
respect for the punters
and a bit less of the
magical nosewonga next
time, yeah?
Cheers, Bri.

GUILTY!

K
C
A
B
K
C
A
IN BL
SALUTING METAL’S
RETURNING HEROES!

“What’
s the point
in sounding like
Edguy, Blind
Guardian or all
the rest?We are
Firewind”
GUS G

FIREWIND

THE GREEK POWER METALLERS PROVE THEIR STAYING POWER.

W

hen Gus G
relocated to the US
from Greece at
the end of the last
century, the 16year-old guitarist’s
love of tight jeans and long hair earned him the
nickname of ‘The 80s Guy’. How times change.
Having played with several bands including Arch
Enemy, Dream Evil and Mystic Prophecy, Gus
is the brains behind Firewind and a member of
Ozzy Osbourne’s band. We caught up with him:
AFTER SIX ALBUMS WITH FIREWIND, THE
STYLE OF MUSIC YOU WERE RIDICULED
FOR PLAYING AS A YOUNGER MAN IS
FINALLY IN VOGUE.
“I guess so. It’s good to stick to your guns.
Back in 1998, there was no heavy metal in the
US. The scene was full of Limp Bizkit and shit
like that, ha ha! I’m just being honest.”
SOME SUSPECTED THAT BEING HEADHUNTED BY OZZY WOULD SPELL THE END
OF FIREWIND. THAT WASN’T THE CASE…
“Our loyal fans did express a lot of concern at
the time, but there’s nothing to worry about.
Why would I abandon a band with almost 10
years of history? I’ve plenty of time to do both.”

FIREWIND’S NEW ALBUM, DAYS OF
DEFIANCE, FEATURES SOME POLITICALLY
AWARE SONGS INCLUDING THE ARK OF
LIES. WHAT WAS IT THAT COMPELLED YOU
TO WRITE THEM?
“Seeing so many bad things on the TV. There’s
no money, no jobs, the world’s ending and
everyone’s gonna die. Look at Greece: it went

bankrupt and all hell broke loose due to the
corruption. People don’t trust their leaders
anymore. I don’t really think of such things as
political, it’s more to do with everyday life.”
THE NEW ALBUM SOUNDS LESS FLASHY
THAN PREDECESSOR THE PREMONITION.
IS THAT WHY YOU STEPPED AWAY FROM
FORMER DREAM EVIL BANDMATE FREDRIK
NÖ RDSTROM, WHO PRODUCED IT?
“Fredrik is a fantastic producer, but this time
we wanted something much less compressed.
What’s the point in sounding like Edguy, Blind
Guardian or all the rest? We are Firewind.”
THE OZZY CONNECTION MUST OPEN
DOORS FOR YOU AND FIREWIND…
“Yes, it’s great there’s a lot more exposure”
SO WERE FIREWIND INVITED TO BE ON
THE BILL OF THE LONDON OZZFEST?
“I have no idea. It’s not really my position to
make demands like that. I’m not going to
complain because we didn’t get to play.”
BUT ZAKK WYLDE USED TO DO DOUBLE
DUTY WITH BLACK LABEL SOCIETY?
“Oh, listen. Ozzy is Ozzy and Firewind is
Firewind – they’re very different sounding and
I look at them as separate things.”
SO WHEN DO FIREWIND GO ON TOUR?
“There are some US shows in November and
we’ll be in Europe in January, also hopefully
again in the spring. There’s a lot of demand.”

DAYS OF DEFIANCE IS OUT OCTOBER 25
VIA CENTURY MEDIA

what?
Power metal with
strong melodies and
blistering guitar solos.

for
fans of
Symphony X, Sonata
Artica, Dream Evil.

musthave
classic
Forged By Fire
EMI, 2005

fi
nd
out
more
www.firewind.gr

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L THE WAYS TO GET HAMMERED THIS MONTH! BEHOLD, OUR EMPIRE…

The Metal
Hammer
Magazine Show
on Rock Radio
is hosted by
none other
than Metal
Hammer editor
Alexander Milas and goes out on
metal Monday from 8 to 11pm.The
show includes three hours of the
best in classic hard rock and heavy
metal music.The Dark Lord (that’s
what we callAlex in the office… well,
you would) will be airing exclusive
interviews with Dimmu Borgir and
Times Of Grace.Listen every
Monday on 96.3FM in Scotland,
106.1FM in Manchester or at www.
rockradio.com from 10pm-1am.

MHTV

Dyed-in-the-wool metalhead filmmaker Eric Braverman brings his
expertise and energy to MHTV’s The
Greatest Music Ever Created,And
How It Ruined Our Lives. Every week,
a new episode is aired and shows
have included the likes of Corey
Taylor,Chuck Billy and Dave
Lombardo.Each instalment is
brought to you from the arid desert
outpost of Phoenix,Arizona by Eric,
who’s teamed up with his Overseas
Production Executive and metal
author and journalist Mark Eglinton
to bring you a refreshingly new
series of shows from the very
coalface of heavy metal at
www.metalhammer.co.uk/mhtv.

Download the
weekly podcast
for free in
iTunes or direct
from the site
for an hour of
news,reviews and polemic about the
most controversial bands and the
most contentious views.Are GN’R
fucked? What’s next for Slipknot?
And should Portnoy join Avenged?
22 | METALHAMMER.CO.UK

Municipal Waste: in a rare
contemplative moment

Revoker: local boys

COME, SEE,
CONQUER!
HAMMERFEST III FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT: DATES, TIMES, BANDS AND A ROMAN THEME.

H

ammerfest III is taking place on
March 17-20 2011 and the first bands
to be announced are Biohazard,
Municipal Waste, Mutant, Revoker
and Attica Rage. As always, the event
takes place up at Pontins, Prestatyn,
North Wales and will feature 50 other bands over the weekend
– tickets are on sale now at www.hammerfest.co.uk.
The theme for Hammerfest III will be all things Roman!
As with the awesome Hammerfest II, there is an extra
night on Thursday to get the party started early. This comes
included in the VIP package and has proved very popular at
Hard Rock Hell festival where VIP packages sold out in five
days flat! VIP tickets for Hammerfest III are already over 65
per cent sold, however there is a Gold Plus option which
also caters for early hunters on the Thursday night, if you
haven’t purchased your Thursday night tickets yet.
Tickets are for two or three nights: VIP and Gold Plus
include the Thursday night, while all other packages are for
two nights with the option of adding an extra night for as
little as £
30, including accommodation. Early Bird tickets
are the same as 2010 prices and start from £
105 (based on
seven people sharing a seven-berth Silver chalet) which
includes accommodation, free car parking and entrance
into all arenas. For immediate reservations or further
information, ring 08700 110034 or book online at

www.hammerfest.co.uk. Last year’s Hammerfest sold out
two months in advance, so be sure to get your tickets as
soon as you can to avoid disappointment.
Heavy metal and hardcore punk legends Biohazard are
celebrating their 20th anniversary with a new album and
now a one-way ticket to blast the fuck out of the UK with
a rare appearance. Couple that with American nu-thrash
loons Municipal Waste and we’re off the blocks at speed
and heading to a crash called party. From the UK, fellow
thrashers Mutant will join Welsh metallers Revoker (who
have just signed to Roadrunner) and returning Hammerfest
heroes Attica Rage from Scotland, who are just about to
release their second album.
Keep your eyes peeled on
www.metalhammer.
co.uk, where all
Biohazard’s Evan
the latest bands
Seinfeld grabs his big
and other
imaginary head
announcements
will be revealed
as and when they
are confirmed.

HAMMERFEST III TAKES PLACE
MARCH 17 -20 2011 AT PONTINS,
PRESTATYN, NORTH WALES

OPINIONS FROM METAL’S FRONTLINE

TUNE IN, TURN
ON, ROCK OUT!
SCUZZ’S NEW AND UPDATED
METAL SHOWS ON TELLY!

T

he only music channel worth
its weight in metal – as we
all know – is Scuzz, and now
they’re bringing us a load of new and
updated shows to fill our ears and eyes.
Scuzz overlord Alex Herron says:
“We do a show called Metal Midnight
Mass. So if one more fucking idiot
emails in saying we don’t play metal
I’ll personally track them down and
punch them because not only do we
play the heavier stuff after 9pm but
this show will blow you away with
everyone’s requests and our favourite
brutal music. The show is on every
single night so come and get your
ears pummelled by the heaviest
bands on the planet.”
Alex says we can expect videos from
Obituary and Cannibal Corpse to

Whitechapel and Despised Icon. He also
explains that while new bands can find
it very hard to get their videos aired on
music channels, Scuzz is offering a
platform for bands to showcase their
talents to thousands of viewers on the
brand new show Scuzz Underground.
“Scuzz is sifting through tons of
videos, not just from the UK but pretty
much the whole world,” Alex explains.
“And we’re not just playing any old
crap! We’re looking for bands that have

something to shout about – we want
bands that we’re proud to associate
with Scuzz TV!”
Scuzz Underground launches in
November, so if you think you’re worthy
of being on TV, then send a link and a
short bio over to contact@scuzz.tv
And Alex reassures us: “I won’t really
punch anyone.”

HEAD TO SCUZZ.TV
FOR MORE INFO

GIGWATCH

Sonic Syndicate’s
Karin Axelsson:
hell’s belle

ALL THE BEST HAMMER-APPROVED TOURS AND DATES IN THE UK
from November 24 to December
10. HEIGHTS, FLOOD OF RED and
HOUSE VS HURRICANE tour from
November 4 to December 7.
ARCH ENEMY take GRAND
MAGUS, MALEFICE and
CHTHONIC around the UK for
four dates from November 23.
BLEED FROM WITHIN, CALIBAN
support ALL THAT REMAINS and
SOILWORK from November 28
to December 1.AS I LAY DYING,
SUICIDE SILENCE and HEAVEN
SHALL BURN tour the UK from
November 25 to 30. Middle

Eastern metallers ORPHANED
LAND return to the UK for three
dates in November. PARADISE
LOST, DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN,
ROLO TOMASSI and THE OCEAN
play Damnation Festival on
November 6, and the latter
three bands play dates from
October 27–30. WINDS OF
PLAGUE, STICK TO YOUR GUNS,
FOR TODAY and MONUMENTS
play six dates from November,
8–13.THE SWORD have
announced dates between
November 29 and December 12.

WHERE HAVE ALL THE HELLRAISERS GONE?AND WHERE
ARE THE NEW BREED OF
LEMMYS, OZZYS AND SIXXES?
The seasoned
punk veteran
takes a look at
Ministry’s
upcoming
documentary
– and in particular the band’s
colourful ringleader,Al Jourgensen
– and asks,where have all the
hellraisers gone? OK,some retire,
get clean or,as is too often the case
leave this mortal coil,but where are
the next generation of insatiable
rock fiends with a passion for
self-destruction and intoxication;
wine,women and the odd song?

NOTHING’S SHOCKING. WELL
NOT AN OLD MAN IN TIGHTS…

2010

S

Dom Lawson
ascertains
whether Bring
Me The Horizon
will ever earn
the love and
respect of‘tr00’metallers.Yes their
album is heavy,metal and awesome,
but is that enough for the bullet
belt massive when BMTH look like
trendy models and own clothing
companies? Is it more to do with
tribal divisions or age boundaries
than it is to do with headbanging?

Cannibal Corpse: devils
at a midnight mass

Sylosis bassist
Carl Parnell

YLOSIS, EXIT TEN and
THE DEFILED have
been announced for
the Hammer -sponsored
Jä germeister Music Tour. Dates
are: London Islington Academy
November 9 (with NEVER
MEANS MAYBE), Liverpool
Academy 2 10 (with CARCER
CITY), Newcastle Academy 2 11
(with LAVOTCHKIN), Glasgow
ABC 2 12 (with MADMAN IS
ABSOLUTE), Birmingham
Academy 2 13 (with GUNDOGS).
SONIC SYNDICATE are in the UK

WILL BRING ME THE HORIZON
EVER BE LOVED BY THE DENIM
AND LEATHER BRIGADE?

Welsh newcomers ANTERIOR
play Swansea on October 31.
ANNOTATIONS OF AN AUTOPSY,
JOB FOR A COWBOY,TRIGGER
THE BLOODSHED and
WHITECHAPEL are all on the
same tour round the UK from
November 4–10. COLISEUM,
BISON BC and KVELERTAK tour
from November 17–21. BULLET
FOR MY VALENTINE take BRING
ME THE HORIZON and ATREYU
on tour from December 6,
ending at London’s Wembley
Arena on December 12.

Rob Zombie is
finally coming
back to the UK
to play us
some songs.
As such,Mick
Wall asks what he and the likes of
Alice Cooper and Marilyn Manson
have to shock us with anymore? Yes
we still love ’em but is tearing a Bible
or being dismembered onstage
shocking or just a panto? Who is
really shocking in rock today? And
are they doing it onstage or is it the
backstage antics that labels and
managers are so keen to keep under
wraps the real shocker?

GET IT ALL AT
METALHAMMER.CO.UK
METALHAMMER.CO.UK | 23

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Holy Grail (left to right): Eli Santana,
Blake Mount, James-Paul Luna,
James Larue, Tyler Meahl

WHAT THE INDUSTRY’S
GOT ITS SIGHTS ON

THROATS
OLIVER MITCHELL
MANAGER
(EX-JOHNNY TRUANT)

HOT L
META
NEW RIFFS, F

R ES

FORGE!
H FROM THE

“We don’
t
want to be
pigeonholed
as part of this
throwback
retro world”

I’ve been following this band for some
time and its incredible how far they have
come. There is no bullshit with Throats.
They’re a totally real band playing honest
heavy fucking music. It’s depressing how
fashionable and boring the copycat
bands in England are these days. Throats
are one of the few bands pushing the
genre and doing it for the right reasons.
Get to one of their shows or fuck off.
WWW.MYSPACE.COM/THROATSOFGOLD

James-Paul Luna

HOLY GRAIL
P

ONLY A YEAR AFTER FORMING, THE FUTURE THRASHERS UNLEASH THEIR DEBUT.

WTF?

FROM
California, USA.

THEY
SOUND
LIKE
If 3 Inches Of Blood
liked Slayer and
Overkill a little
more than they do
earlyJudas Priest.

FIND
OUT
MORE
www.myspace.com/
holygrail

24 | METALHAMMER.CO.UK

asadena metallers Holy
Grail have been on our
radar since we heard their
stunning EP late last year,
and now they’re about to release their
debut, Crisis In Utopia, via Prosthetic.
We spoke to the guys when the EP,
Improper Burial, came out, and as the
quintet awaited the start of their Road To
Download tour with Rise To Remain and
Download festival itself. We catch up with
frontman James-Paul Luna only to find
that their revved-up thrash sound has
had an injection of modernism.
“The album is a step in a new
direction,” he says.“While at the same
time also taking us to the next level.”
James explains that the raw
breakneck sound of their EP has been
pushed forward: the songwriting is
more developed, making the musicality
of the songs denser, and the sound has
been modernised to make it as urgent
and relevant as any band reaching for
the future. James adds that a change
of guitarists in no small part helped
move the band up to the next level.
The band are currently looking for
replacements for guitarist James Larue
and bassist Blake Mount; the rest of
the band is completed by guitarist Eli
Santana and drummer Tyler Meahl.
“The solos are more complex, the
choruses bigger, the riffs more complex.
The lyrics are more developed too,
because I worked with Tyler on almost
every song. We planned out different
concepts and then pared them down to
our favourite ones.”

The band have a rich blend of
influences in evidence on the album, out
October 25. Balancing the light with the
dark is always important for an ambitious
band, but the most important factor for
Holy Grail was the future versus retro
balance – they had to strike it right or
risk being just another revivalist band
destined to become a part of the past
quicker than anything that inspired them.
“We were conscious of the balance
between old and new because we don’t
want to be pigeonholed as part of this
throwback retro movement – I don’t think
it has much of a future. We really want to
keep playing for as long as we can, 10–20
years down the road. Our guitarists and
drummer listen to lots of modern metal,
so that helps to balance it out with me
because I throw in the retro ideas.
“Each guy has their own inspirations,”
says James.“I’m the ‘retro guy’ so I’m
inspired by the greats like Dio, Rob Halford
and Paul Di’Anno but the others are into
stuff like Nevermore. There’s Lamb Of
God-style riffing, Marty Friedman-style
[ex-Megadeth] guitar solos and a lot of
Yngwie Malmsteen. Eli has death metal
influences: early Death, Carcass and
Cannibal Corpse so a lot of his riffs gave
a more tech edge than the EP.”
Holy Grail come from the roots of
heavy metal and thrash but have
updated it for the new generation who
need it fresh as well as the old guard who
know their history.

CRISIS IN UTOPIA IS OUT OCTOBER 25
VIA PROSTHETIC

TRACES

RUSS RUSSELL

PRODUCER (NAPALM DEATH,
THE WILDHEARTS)
I’ve been listening to some new demos
from these guys and I’ve gotta say
they’ve got massive potential: symphonic
blackened metal with a twist. Hopefully
I’ll get to do some work with these guys
next year.
WWW.MYSPACE.COM/TRACESMETAL

MAN
HANDS
STUART GILI-ROSS
GALLOWS BASSIST/
MANAGER (TRC, FEED THE RHINO)
I think everyone who likes really fast,
heavy-as-hell hardcore should check out
Man Hands from Kent. This is Gareth
from November Coming Fire and a
bunch of guys from some old notable
UK hardcore bands making a glorious
racket! For fans of Das Oath, Give Up
The Ghost and November Coming Fire.
WWW.MYSPACE.COM/MANSHANDS

NEW ROCK ANTHEMS FROM THE US LEGEND!
THE SPACE LORD IS BACK!
ALSO AVAILABLE AS A LIMITED EDITION DIGIBOOK INCLUDING

2 BONUS TRACKS!

SPECIAL EDITION DELUXE BOX SET INCL. USB STICK OF EXTENSIVE BONUS MATERIAL AND LIMITED
COLORED 2LP GATEFOLDEDITION INCL. ALBUM ON CD AVAILABLE AT WWW.NAPALMRECORDS.COM

RELEASE DATE: 01.11.2010
MONSTER MAGNET ON TOUR!

18.11.10 CARDIFF / MILLENIUM MUSIC HALL 20.11.10 SHEFFIELD / CORPORATION 21.11.10 READING / SUB 89
22.11.10 SOUTHAMPTON / UNIVERSITY 23.11.10 BIRMINGHAM / HMV INSTITUTE
25.11.10 MANCHESTER / MOHO LIVE 26.11.10 LONDON / ELECTRIC BALLROOM

KATRA - Out of the Ashes

FEJD - EIFUR

A Finnish gothic metal jewel!

Medieval folk for fans of genuine
Nordic sounds!

release date: 01.11.2010

release date: 01.11.2010
iTUNES

ORDER ONLINE TODAY AND RECEIVE A FREE 17-TRACK COMPILATION CD FEATURING
A PREVIEW OF THE LATEST FROM NAPALM RECORDS: WWW.NAPALMRECORDS.COM

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Spiritual
Beggars: Zero
tolerance

DEFENDER

FAITH
METALLERS WHO TURN
IT UP TO 11!

K
C
A
B
K
C
A
IN BL
SALUTING METAL’S
RETURNING HEROES!

Patricia Thomas

B

lack metal may be full of curious
characters, but few are more
so than British-born Patricia
Thomas.An elegantly attired lady of
advanced years, she may look like
she’s more suited to the opera, but
she’s actually the manager some of
the most infamous characters to
have emerged from the scene,
counting the likes of Shining’s
unpredictable livewire, Niklas
Kvarforth – a man known for onstage
bloodletting and the snogging of
bandmembers, and who once
disappeared amid rumours of suicide
for six months – and Skitliv vocalist
and former former Mayhem
frontman Maniac amongst her
charges. Having worked as a Rolling
Stones and Zeppelin-loving PA to an
Arab prince and as a city admin
professional, Patricia’s fi rst foray into
the world of black metal was her
discovery of Cradle Of Filth, but
deciding to explore further, she found
herself in contact with the owner of
a Norwegian black metal store owner
who introduced her to Maniac.After
offering a helping hand, she soon
became the genteel steer for large,
erratic swathes of the Scandinavian
underground.“Like Maniac says,
black metal has nothing to do with
age or gender,” Patricia explains,
regarding her incongruous place in
the scene.“It touched something
inside me that was more than just
music… I felt like I’d come home,
really.” As for her handling of diffi cult
individuals, her ability to play
mother is surely an
advantage: “Sometimes
it’s nailbiting.You wake
up some mornings and
think,‘Oh my God, how
am I going to cope
with this?’ But
there’s nothing
you can’t
handle.”
Black magic woman:
Patricia with Maniac

“I’
m just a
self-taught
player and
it’
s 100 per
cent feel”
MIke AMOTT

SPIRITUAL
BEGGARS

ARCH ENEMY/OPETH SIDE-PROJECT RETURNS WITH NEW ALBUM AND FIREWIND’S FRONTMAN.

I

t’s taken them five years, but Spiritual
Beggars are finally back with another
great record, Return To Zero.What
began as the indulgence project of Arch
Enemy supremo Mike Amott in 1993
has become one of the most revered hard rock/
trad metal bands around, and currently features
fellow Enemy Sharlee D’Angelo, drummer Ludwig
Witt, Opeth keysman Per Wiberg and – replacing
Grand Magus frontman JB – Apollo Papathanasio
of Firewind.We got the lowdown from Mike:
WE ASSUME THAT JB HAD TO LEAVE
BECAUSE OF COMMITMENTS TO GRAND
MAGUS NOW THAT THEIR CAREER HAS
KICKED UP A GEAR.
“Yes, and he was being sexually harassed,
ha ha! No, it was exactly that. He was always
positive about coming back, and I’ve stayed in
touch, but I think he felt the pressure. It’s sad
in some ways because he’s such a cool guy
but Grand Magus has a momentum and I don’t
want to interfere with that.”
HOW DO YOU SEPARATE ARCH ENEMY
RIFFS FROM SPIRITUAL BEGGARS RIFFS?
“Arch Enemy is more extreme and Beggars
is more trad metal, inspired more by Deep
Purple, Rainbow and Sabbath. I grew up with
punk and hardcore then Slayer and Metallica
and Megadeth, so it was only after that that
I went back to UFO, and so on. After grindcore,
there was a feeling of ‘I’m getting a bit sick of
this’. I wanted to see what was going on before
that and I discovered Thin Lizzy and Uriah
Heep and these great bands that then inspired
me to start Beggars in 1993. I’ll know quite
quickly if a riff is Beggars or Enemy – Beggars

is more blues-based, I guess. To me, I’m just
a self-taught player and it’s 100 per cent feel.”
WHO WRITES THE LYRICS?
“I wrote the lyrics before Apollo joined. As with
JB, he didn’t want to contribute too much; he
just enjoyed coming in and singing. I’ve written
a few lyrics over the past five years and put
it together for this album. There’s a theme
through some of the lyrics of moving on to
the next phase. When Ludwig and I were in the
studio, we had no management, no singer and
no label but we had some killer music so we
felt we were really starting from scratch again,
hence the title, Return To Zero.”
SO WHAT DID APOLLO BRING?
“Apollo had a lot of positive creative ideas. He
embellished them and took it to the next level.
It’s great that he’s local too, so he could come
and work on things more than JB. It was fun.”
WHAT’S IT LIKE HAVING YOUR
GIRLFRIEND, ANGELA GOSSOW,
MANAGE THE BAND?
“It’s great. She’s been doing Arch Enemy for
the last couple of years, it keeps it in the
family. It was really simple – I could take my
mind off worrying about negotiating new
deals. Trust is a big part of it as well. I know
that she has our best interests at heart.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT PEOPLE
WHO SAY SPIRITUAL BEGGARS ARE
BETTER THAN ARCH ENEMY?
“To be crass, it’s a win-win for me!”

RETURN TO ZERO IS OUT NOW VIA INSIDEOUT

what?
Hard rock/trad metal
side-project proves
bigger than the sum
of its parts.

for
fans of
Grand Magus, Clutch,
Fu Manchu.

musthave
classic

DEMONS
SPV, 2005.

fi
nd
out
more
www.myspace.com/
spiritualbeggars

The new album from

CRADLE OF FILTH

Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa
Available from November 1st
www.peaceville.com/cradleoffilth

SPECIAL OFFER: £2 OFF AT

Enter the promotional code DDVA2010 to buy
Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa for £6.95 at www.play.com*
*Subject to availability. Offer ends 08/11/2010 23:59:59.

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TATTS
LIFE
MORE INK FROM THE WORLD OF METAL

hich was your first tattoo?
It was the one I have on my
leg. It’s a treble clef in
the shape of a dragon
and a rose. Actually,
our singer Richard
designed it. I wanted
something that
symbolised music
and also I love roses,
so I thought his design
was really good. I got
it done when I was 20,
so I got my first one
pretty late.

SONIC
SY NDICATE
Karin Axelsson

T

ell us about the bass
headstock on your arm:
That one’s by a guy called
Marcus – he has a website called
www.funnyfarmtattoo.se. The
headstock is from the first
bass I bought myself, an ESP
S404. I told the guy I wanted to
have my bass and something
around it and to do whatever
he wanted. I didn’t actually
see the design until the day
I went in to get it done; I knew
that he was a good artist so
I trusted him. I said I’d sit for
as long as it took – and that
was five hours. It’s the tattoo
I’m most proud of.

W

hat came next?
Next I got the Aries symbol
at the base of my back. I’m not really
into horoscopes, but I’m quite
a typical Aries. I’m pretty fierce
and I get mood swings, I know
what I want and I’m stubborn
with it too. Afterwards, I got
the tribal bits around it
done by someone else

T

ell us about your
right flank:
That was all done in one
four-hour sitting by a Danish
guy at a Swedish studio
called Darkside Tattoo. I had
a picture of a tattoo that
I liked and he drew a version
straight onto me, free-hand.
I was in a lot of pain. He told
me to stop whining – just lie
down and shut up!

because
I wanted it
to look better, I don’t think the guy
did it very well. Just to prove it, when
the next tattooist did the tribal bits,
he said that he needed to fill in the
Aries sign again as well.

A

W

ny future ink plans?
I think I’m going to
have some more colour.
Everything is black apart from
my bass, so I’m thinking of
something to fill the roses in a bit.
Also something on my foot, flowers
of course. I thought I might also
get the Sonic Syndicate logo, but
I can’t decide where. I don’t want
to have a lot of tattoos
just for the sake of it.

hich is your favourite?
I love the bass headstock on
my arm. I also love the bass clefs on
my wrists. They’re the most recent.

A

nd why roses?
I love roses. I realise I have
quite a few tattoos with roses. I’m
not sure what it is about roses, I just
really, really love them for some
reason. I think it’s an art thing.
I have some on my side too.

F
AN TATTS
T he best of readers’ band ink

✯ Billi/ Metallica
28 | METALHAMMER.CO.UK

TATT-DOS AND
TATT-DON’TS
MICK HUTSON

✯ Danny/ Heaven & Hell/Dimebag ✯ Marksy / Slipknot

I think that people
should print out an image
of what they want and put it
on their wall and look at it for
six months to see if they still
want it after all that time.
You shouldn’t get something
quickly for the sake of it. I’m
very conscious about what
I do and worried, so that’s
what I did with mine.
I made sure I wasn’t going
to get bored of them.

DÅATH

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All-new 5-track / 28-minutes EP “Shatter”
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THE BIG
QUESTION
SHOULD DREAM THEATER CALL IT A DAY?

T

he easy answer, is, of
course, no, as the band
are already intent on
carrying on without Mike
Portnoy. Obviously the news has come
as a shock in prog circles, more because
of what Mike Portnoy stands for in the
progressive rock world. And while that
is unlikely to change, the absence of the
garrulous New Yorker from the Dream
Theater ranks might prove more
problematic, more for what he did
outside of drumming for the band, than
his musical input. It is perfectly feasible,
given the talent on offer from the likes of
John Petrucci et al, that they’ll come up
trumps with a new Dream Theater record.
How the fans react is a different matter
of course. There’s absolutely no reason
why Mike’s departure should affect
Dream Theater’s popularity. However,
Hammer’s recent online poll suggests
the metal fraternity have other ideas.
In prog-world there seems to have been
less of a knee-jerk reaction as fans seem
to have taken a step back to see how
Go online to order your FREE 180-page EMP catalogue,
packed with over 10, 000 items of wicked heavy stuff!

things pan out. This in itself is
unsurprising given the multitude of
prog-related endeavours Mike is involved
in, so there’s a ‘more the merrier’
attitude from the ever-eager prog
fans. And whilst there’s
a gut feeling at Prog Towers
that Mike Portnoy will
return to the Dream
Theater fold in time, one
can only wonder how
AX7 are feeling. For
although Mike has
clearly stated he’s not
joining the band fulltime, M Shadows is in
Classic Rock Presents
Prog this very month
extolling the virtues
of both Mike Portnoy
and Dream Theater.
Talk about timing!

Mike Portnoy:
Dream turned
nightmare?

JERRY EWING,
CLASSIC PROG
EDITOR

W W W. E M P- O N L I N E .C O.U K

HAMMER ANSWERS Y OUR WAR CRIES!

BOOKSSELL…

When my new Metal Hammer
came the other day, I had a look
through the Dave Mustaine
book, and saw that I could get
a signed copy of A Life In Metal
because I’m a Metal Hammer
reader. This pissed me the fuck
off, because I’d bought it the
day it went up for pre-order,
and after buying a ticket for
Korpiklaani (who were fucking
amazing at Bloodstock) I’ve no
money. I did get the awesome
Children Of Bodom to sign some
stuff at Bloodstock, though –
I guess some signed stuff is
better than none. Also, meeting
Alexander Milas and being
jizzed on by Hitler during GWAR
at Bloodstock was awesome!
Fucking love the mag!
BEN DONALDSON, EMAIL

We hope you enjoy the
Mustaine book, Ben. Maybe
you can get him to sign it
some day!

METALCASE

I have been buying Metal
Hammer for over two years and
it is single-handedly the best
metal resource on the planet.
I don’t think
metal music
would have such
a profound
following in the
UK if it wasn’t for
your magazine,
so thank you!

30 | METALHAMMER.CO.UK

GOODDAMNED

The two The Damned Things
demos on MySpace sound
awesome, combining all the
best bits of their other bands –
Anthrax, Fall Out Boy and Every
Time I Die. FOB
have three
talented members,
it’s just a certain
someone gives
them a bad name.
DAN TURNER, EMAIL

We just hope it
doesn’t take as
long to release as
the forthcoming
Anthrax album!

JAMES JEFFERIES

Thanks, James,
it’s responses
like this that

TEXTOFFENDER

make all the blood, sweat and
bubble jet ink spills worth it!
Thank you for your loyalty!

Dave Mustaine
invented Devin
Townsend.
JOE TURNER

People can bang on Ozzy all they
want. Truth is, he still owns and will
forever be The Prince Of Darkness!
TOM LESTAD BERRY

BRINGTHEHATE

I’m not a Bring Me The Horizon
fan, nor am I a ‘hater’. To be
honest, I really couldn’t care
less about them. But your
pathetic way of trying to make
them somehow credible by
getting people you perceive to
be ‘true metal’ to say they’re
good and hope a fan will
suddenly like them was
ridiculous. People can choose
whether they like them or not
and don’t need to have it
rammed down their throat.
Besides that, good magazine.

readers respect can hear that
it’s a) metal, and b) really
rather good.

IHAVEADREAM

I’ve been a Dream Theater
fan for a long time, and whilst
it’s Mike Portnoy’s ‘baby’,
John Petrucci was a huge
part of the writing process
as well. I think they should
just take a nice few years off
to really get the juices flowing
and return with a storming
album with Portnoy back
behind the kit.

TERRY, MANCHESTER

LEE MACBRIDE

We played it to people like
Obituary to prove that
people judge Bring Me The
Horizon by their appearance
and that people Hammer

Dream Theater have released
at least one album every
three years since 1989 –
we’re sure they wouldn’t
mind a break either!

Ozzfest was so fucking good! Loved getting
cummed on by Ozzy’s hose. Anyone else get
their boobs out for Steel Panther?
LAUREN GULWELL

KORNTOBEWILD

Ozzfest was epic! Skindred
were amazing and Steel
Panther were hilarious.
Murderdolls were brilliant but
Korn definitely stole the show.
Ozzy Osbourne himself was
legendary. For someone who
had injured his back he didn’t
show it. His intro video was
hilarious and made everyone
laugh. ‘Vampires are pussies,
I’m the prince of fucking
darkness’ lol. Loved how he
did Road To Nowhere in
tribute to Dio. DVD, please!
HAYDEN, EMAIL

What a great day it was:
great to see a return to
form for both Korn and
the Prince Of Darkness.

THICKANDTHIN

I’m probably one of the
biggest Avenged Sevenfold
fans and I want to say that
A7X are the strongest people
I’ve ever seen. They went
through hard times and I love
to say that they don’t give
a fuck about what people

Noli me vocare, ego te vocabo

respect
them. If
only Iron
Maiden and
Metallica
would drop
by. Hopefully
Ah Wee with Heaven
with all the
FREDERIQUE
Shall Burn’s Marcus
bands
BLAIS-POULIOT,
coming
EMAIL
over, more people will start
A7X deserve every ounce of listening to metal and maybe
praise for being a band who we could even have our own
metal radio station.
have not only taken heavy
music to the masses and
AH WEE, SINGAPORE
persevered through tragedy
but touched so many fans’
It’s great to know that even
lives in positive ways.
after 40 years, metal is still
spreading around the world!
think about ’em.
I’ve done many
things wrong, and
had dark thoughts
because of Jimmy’s
death, but they
saved my life.

FARBEAST

I live in Singapore and
recently there’s been an
influx of metal bands playing,
which is always good news for
the metalheads here. Slayer,
Linkin Park, Megadeth and
many others have all played
here. These bands all play to
bigger crowds in the US and
Europe yet they are willing to
stop by this little island nation
and play to hundreds of
people. For this, I really

ONENIL

I most certainly cannot claim
to be a fan of either Slipknot
or Avenged Sevenfold but
Philip Malone (p31, issue
210) is a complete fucking
troglodyte. “Slipknot are as
metal as a paper cup” – are
you fucking serious? You
fascistic, elitist snob. Frankly
it’s a fucking disgrace that
Malone calls himself a
metal fan because doing so

cheapens the very existence
of all those genuine metal
fans who understand the
meaning of ‘each to their own’
and ‘live and let live’. Malone,
stop chatting shit about
something you clearly have
no understanding of.
BAZINGA, DARTFORD

We have to say we
wondered if he’d sent
that letter to the wrong
magazine… pop-rock in
Hammer? Where?!

PHILROUND2

Phil fucking Malone! Saying
Metal Hammer isn’t metal?
What a load of shit. He is
your classic closed-minded
elitist. I buy Metal Hammer
because it’s the only
magazine that truly
represents a wide variety
of metal! Even stuff that
isn’t metal. It’s people like
this Phil Malone who give us
metalheads a bad name.
ADAM PIRMOHAMED, EMAIL

…7, 8, 9, 10 and he’s out!
Ding ding! Thanks, Adam.

Ask jurgen!
SEND DEATH THREATS TO WWW.MYSPACE.COM/JURGENTOKSVIG
bottle of Viking Marauder poppers, we
went out to have a look. I decided that
I could see the cover of Dawn Of The
Black Hearts on the path and while
getting on my hands and knees to point
this out, Nils leapt on top of me and
rode me up and down the path like a
bucking warhorse. My guttural and
necrotic ululating caused the fat man to
come to the door aghast. Nils put his
mind at rest by shouting: “I know! Who’s
going to come first –me or the police? ”
It was less amusing when he had to
repeat it in front of a local magistrate
five days later.

Dear Jurgen,
Why do metalheads get such a shit time
from people who listen to shite? Why do
we get called emo twats, for instance?
And what would you recommend for paving
the way over these cum-stain pricks?
MATTHEW LARGE, VIA MYSPACE
Jurgen says: Aiiieeeeeee! My neighbour,
a fat bald man who is always
complaining about the noise of
Darkthrone emanating from our flat,
awoke me and Nils from our slumber
with the sound of a jackhammer on
Saturday morning as he was having
crazy paving laid outside his house. That
night after three litres of Jä ger and a

What’s with the elitism? Unite
under the banner of heavy metal.
And kill MCR.
ALAN SHARIF

Dear Jurgen,
How did you and your unholy cohorts
celebrate the Pope’s visit to the UK?
CAUSTIC REIGN 666, VIA MYSPACE
Jurgen says: Listen hard, British weaselfucker. In fact, get on your knees, open
wide and take my giant Norwegian balls
of truth deep in your mouth while I beat
out a message of righteousness in
Braille on your forehead with my
throbbing spam wand. Nils and I
reformed our old band to cover the Dead
Kennedys and Napalm Death classic
Nazi Punks Fuck Off, but with the lyrics
changed to ‘Nazi Pope fuck off,’ in
honour of Pope Benedict XVI, a former
member of the Hitler Youth. Thinking
about it… I wonder if he likes Burzum…

For those who doubt
Slipknot, you all shall
be punished.
JAMES YOUNGBLOOD

Enough of Linkin Park, the real
disaster is Mike Portnoy
leaving Dream Theater.
DAVID PACHOLOK

Dear Jurgen,
On your MySpace profile it says you like
Cradle Of Filth and Children Of Bodom.
Isn’t it actually the case that you’re not
actually into black metal and it would be
more correct to say that you’re a fan of
rubbish pop music?
AGORAPHOBIC POPEBLEED, VIA MYSPACE
Jurgen says: Aiiieeeeeeeee! Listen to
me, you goat-rimming thundercunt.
Bodom shred hard and girl group Cradle
Of Filth all look so sexy and hot in their
cute little leather dresses. Mmmm, Dani
Minogue from Cradle… Aiiieeeeeee! Nils!
The squeegee, there’s a spillage!
Dear Jurgen,
I was looking through my sister’s fashion
mag recently, searching for a page suitable
for me to wipe my true metal arse on when
I came across a picture of some giggling
model buffoons in a London
photoshoot… wearing black
metal t-shirts. Why can’t these
fuckpigs leave our shit alone?
RAY, VIA MYSPACE
Jurgen says:
Well said, friend.
Nils concurs.
I don’t know what
the answer is.
Burn down
a church?

Explain, in detail, why Bring Me The
Horizon are not metal without
mentioning their image. You can’t.
WIL DARRAN JONES

METAL HAMMER, 2 BALCOMBE ST, LONDON, NW1 6NW
EMAIL chainmail@futurenet.co.uk FAX 020 7042 4619

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EDITOR ALEXANDER MILAS
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ONLINE EDITOR TERRY BEZER
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alex.burrows@futurenet.com
PUBLISHER CHRIS INGHAM

Art

ART EDITOR JAMES ISAACS

james.isaacs@futurenet.com

DEPUTY ART EDITOR LEWIS SOMERSCALES

lewis.somerscales@futurenet.com
Contributors: Ryan Bird, Toby Cook,
Malcolm Dome, John Doran, Jerry Ewing, Kat Halstead, Dom
Lawson, Dave Ling, Gillen McAllister, Joel McIver, Ken McIntyre,
Greg Moffitt, Mö rat, Dayal Patterson, Natasha Scharf, Mick Wall,
Philip Wilding, Nik Young.

cover: Steve Brown,John McMurtrie
PHOTOGRAPHERS: Joe Giron, Mick Hutson,
Tina Korhonen, John McMurtrie, Alonson Murillo, Naki, Sam
Scott-Hunter, Ester Segarra, James Sharrock, Neil Zlozower.
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NE

Some might suggest that the road might be a little busy,
especially after Mike catches one female pedestrian on
the arm, another car on the bumper and a guy who joins
in to great applause. Oh, and the police roll past to puffedout chests from the bands. Cocky? Definitely.

WS

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OM

ME

NT

*H

EA

VY

FU

CK

ING

ME

TA

Chris was still angry
about being forced to
do ‘the dancing game’

T

he prospect of ramshackle punk rock from
Lower Than Atlantis and a vicious assault of
British beatdown metal is clearly a combination
that people relish, and members of The King Blues,
Architects and Dead Swans have joined fans to watch.
“Some people have said it’s a strange pairing,” says
Chris.“We sound pretty different but we’re both from the
same place, our music shares the same roots.”
Lower Than Atlantis sidle self-consciously onto the
stage in signature fashion. As ever, Mike just can’t bring
himself to go through the cliché
d motions of saying ‘Hello
Brighton, how’re you doing? ’ introducing the band, asking
people to buy a t-shirt and so on. Instead they batter
through their brief set with short breaks in-between songs
as they retune. Bassist Dec looks white as a sheet and
sways as if on the verge of passing out. Just after treating
the crowd to a new song, guitarist Ben involuntarily
vomits on himself, his guitar and the floor. He looks as
surprised as we do. Meanwhile, Mike is in the crowd
and has headbutted someone in the front row.
ady
A Dead Swan heckles “Who does he think he is? ”
TRC: shters
charac
to which Mike retorts,“I will come over there and
punch you in the face, mate.”
Immediately after playing, Dec nips off for a quick
vomit too. Should have gone for the Maltesers…
Whereas a few people are still dubious about how
to take Lower Than Atlantis, everyone knows exactly
what to do when TRC hit the stage (and the floor –
the six-piece are spilling off the small stage). The pit
opens up and a handful of two-steppers lead the
charge on one of the most brutal and vicious sets
Hammer has ever seen. Chris owns the room like a
Greek hero: when he says ‘jump’, we say ‘how high? ’, he
and Ant bouncing and flipping in and out of couplets.
Onstage, TRC guitarist Charlie brings some heavy metal
flair with some perfectly scattered solos and fellow
guitarist Ben’s right hand becomes a blur of riffs. The
whole show is a whirling, charging, frenetic attack of
tourniquet-tight tunes and a cocksure swagger that
delivers with every guttural scream and ranted lyric. TRC
are a perfect explosion of hardcore violence with a British
metal musicality and Pantera-esque grooves. They don’t
look like the metalheads of yore. But that’s because
they’re not interested in the past, they’re pushing into the
future with a sound to match. They look like the guy in the
Audi TT who tried to chat up your girlfriend, despite the
fact you were right there. Cocky? Do you need to ask?
All too quickly it’s over and we’re outside assessing the
damage to our eardrums. The answer is ‘lots’ as the bands
pile back into their vans and, after a few more drinks, head
back home to London through the night. The rest of the
tour stretches out in front of them like the line of cats’ eyes
vanishing into the darkness of the unlit motorway.
Though quiet earlier, Charlie is alight with chatter now,
explaining how important ‘integrity’ is to TRC.
“A band’s nothing without integrity, is it? ” he says.
“There’s nothing fake about us, and there’s nothing fake
about our music. To be honest, it’s the only way we know
how to be, know what I mean? ”

It looked lik
could only e fun but
and hospitaend in tears
l

bout
s nothing fakeha
“There’
s not ing
’
us, and thereu
r music”
fake about o CHA
RLIE WILSON

TRC hinted
that they’d
like some
‘space’…

THE REVOLUTION CONTINUES EP IS OUT NOW VIA
THIRTY DAYS OF NIGHT RECORDS

ROCK BY NUMBERS

19

bottles of
Desperados drunk

38 | METALHAMMER.CO.UK

2

number
of people
who
vomited

3, 598, 982
miles per hour Ben’s
strumming hand is
apparently moving

TRC’
S AAA ANTICS
BLOW BY BLOW.

2 0%
fights
narrowly
avoided

chances
of Chris
getting
beaten
in a fight

L

Escalator Music, Future Noise, Triple G Music, Advance Promotions, AMG and Tidal Concerts
presents, in association with:

15th ANNIVERSARY UK TOUR

plus very, very special guests

Wednesday 15th December 2010 – Sound Control, Manchester
www.soundcontrolmanchester.co.uk - 0161 236 0340 / www.future-noise.co.uk

Thursday 16th December 2010 – Ivory Blacks, Glasgow
www.triplegmusic.com / www.ivoryblacks.co.uk - 0141 248 4114

Friday 17th December 2010 – The Asylum, Birmingham
www.theasylumvenue.co.uk - 0121 233 1109

Saturday 18th December 2010 – Talking Heads, Southampton
www.thetalkingheads.co.uk - 02380 678446

Sunday 19th December 2010 – O2 Academy, Islington, London*
www.o2academyislington.co.uk - 0207 288 4400

*with Obiat

www.orange-goblin.com

www.myspace.com/theorangegoblin

www.myspace.com/solacedoom

www.myspace.com/firebirdblues

www.metalhammer.co.uk

www.jagermeister.co.uk

NE

WS

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MM

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EA

YF

UC

K

M
ING

E TA

L.

“

LADY GAGA
IS LIKE A
BREATH
OF FRESH
AIR”

”

KIRK WINDSTEIN

WILL IR ELAND

40 | METALHAMMER.CO.UK

T H E G O DS O F

S THAT SHAPED THEI
METAL CHOOSE THS:ECAARELNBGUIBM
R LIVE
SO
WORD

N

S

KIRK WINDSTEIN

The fi
rst album
I had sex to is...

A kid asks me what
metal is. I’
d hand him
a copy of...

Van Halen

Judas Priest

WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST
Warner, 1980
“It happened to be on the turntable! I wasn’t going
to waste any time looking through my records! If I
could do it over I’d choose Kiss Alive!, but Van Halen
was fine. It could’ve been Peter, Paul and Mary for all
I cared! All I knew was I was finally getting some and
in the words of David Lee Roth, Everybody Wants
Some. It was 30 years ago. Jesus, I’m getting old!”

BRITISH STEEL Columbia, 1980
“From the album cover and imagery of the band to
the songs, guitar tones, Rob’s vocals etc, this album
sums up metal. As much as I love Maiden, to me
they’re almost a prog rock/metal band. Judas Priest
are simply put the quintessential heavy metal band.
In my opinion, British Steel was the first true heavy
metal album. I still jam on it quite often!”

The fi
rst album
I bought was...

The album I’
d want
played at my
funeral is...

Elton John

Thin Lizzy

GREATEST HITS DJM, 1974
“It’s not exactly the heaviest of albums, but it’s great
music. It did lead me to take piano lessons, which
I quit when they wouldn’t teach me Elton songs!
Who could have guessed where it would lead? !”

DEDICATION Vertigo, 1991
“It’s not really an album, it’s more of a best-of. This
is a great collection of some of Lizzy’s finest tunes.
I’ve never heard a lyricist tell a story the way that
Phil Lynott did. If you want to see a grown man cry,
put on some Lizzy. When I’m really focused in on it,
it’s hard for me not to shed a tear ! It’s some of the
most beautiful music these ears have ever heard!”

I break the speed
limit to...

Motö
rhead

No one will believe
I own a copy of...

OVERKILL Bronze, 1979
“Anything by Motö rhead or Saxon! I have hearing
damage, so I don’t normally listen to music really
loud, but if I’m playing Motö rhead or Saxon I can’t
help but turn the fucker up all the way! This leads
me to drive faster. Years ago I nearly totalled my
mom’s car listening to No Sleep ’Til Hammersmith.”

Lady Gaga
THE FAME Interscope, 20 0 8
“Sorry, but she’s got talent! In a pop world where
99 per cent of the artists can’t sing without a pitch
corrector and lip synch live, Lady Gaga writes all of
her own music and lyrics, and doesn’t lip synch. Yes,
I know the costumes are a bit much, but if I hear a
Gaga song I can’t get it out of my head! After seeing
an interview with her, she’s very down to earth and
in a world of talentless, bitchy divas, she’s a breath
of fresh air! I know I’ll hear about this one! Ha ha!”

The album that
should not be…

Britney Spears
BLACKOUT Jive, 20 0 7
“Anything by boy bands, Britney Spears etc. I just
cannot stand it when they take someone, write
songs for them, teach them how to dance and then
sit back and watch the teens buy it up like it’s the
greatest thing in the world! Why worship an average
karaoke singer who can remember dance steps? ”

The album I’
d want
to be remembered
for is...

DOWN
NOLA Elektra, 1995
“NOLA and/or [Crowbar’s] Odd Fellows Rest. I’m
very proud to have been a part of them. I have a
special place in my heart for everything I’ve ever
recorded but these two stand out. For God’s sake,
half of the Down set is off of NOLA and Planets
Collide is the best Crowbar song I’ve ever written.”

The best album
artwork is...
The album I wish I’
d
made is...

Queen
A NIGHT AT THE OPERA EMI, 1975
“The songwriting, diversity of song styles, harmony
vocals, production and overall musicianship make
this masterpiece still relevant. Brian May has the
most original – and best– guitar tone I’ve ever heard.
Freddie Mercury was an absolute genius and just an
amazing vocalist and writer. If Crowbar ever do
another cover song, it’d probably be I’m In Love With
My Car. Weird, but I know we could do it justice.”

Iron Maiden
KILLERS EMI, 1981
“Anything by Maiden, they’re all great! In the 80s,
you could not go to a metal show and not see a
shitload of Maiden shirts. Now they’ve made
such a huge comeback, I’m seeing
tons of Maiden shirts again!
I’d give anything to have a
BAND
cut of their merch sales!
DIARY OF A MOAWDVIA
Derek Riggs’ artwork
IS OUT N ECORDS
is awesome. I’m sure
DRUNNER R
A
O
R
Maiden have sold
millions of records off
of the artwork alone!”

DIMMU BORGIR rose from the blackest depths of
extreme metal to become one of the world’s biggest
metal bands. Fearless and pioneering, they’ve never
shied away from commercial sounds, but with
Abrahadabra, they’re going for broke.
WORDS: Jonathan Selzer PICS: Steve Brown LIVE PICS: Kevin Nixon
Words: xxxxx
his could well be the calm before the
storm. Bathed in an unexpected Indian
summer, the remaining nucleus of Norway’s
most successful black metal band – frontman
Shagrath and guitarists Silenoz and Galder –
are sitting outside London’s Holborn Studios,
temporarily intrigued by the barges lining
the canal next to them as they draw curious
looks from the barman, various passers-by
and a nearby Linda Robson of Birds Of A
Feather sitcom fame. Still sporting corpsepaint and
the striking new Arctic stage gear from Hammer’s
photoshoot, if Dimmu Borgir look like a fantastically
displaced anomaly amongst the tranquil setting, it
doesn’t concern them in the slightest as they sit
down to discuss an album whose turbulent
background is but a precursor to the bewilderment,
disbelief, debates and outright giddy wonder that’s
destined to greet its release.
The tempest has been long brewing.When Dimmu
announced, in August last year, that keyboard player
Mustis and bassist/clean vocalist ICS Vortex had been
dismissed from the band, many were quick to draft
obituaries, others to decamp to opposing sides of
divided loyalties, while speculation on what the next
album would sound like took on a momentum of its
own.And yet as outlandish as some of the theories
might have been, they are but vain stick-scrabbles in
the sand compared to the full-blown, imperious might
that is Abrahadabra. If Dimmu are still working from
a black metal template, their ninth studio album has
erected a veritable, heavens-challenging Tower Of
Babel on its foundations, its vaulting ambition taking
it to realms that would induce vertigo in even the
most fearless of power metal bands. Even on the
sweeping, battles-across-Europa opus that was
2003’s Death Cult Armageddon, with its
unforgettable, Hellboy-endorsed single, Progenies
Of The Great Apocalypse, it was easy to get the

L

42 | METALHAMMER.CO.UK

impression that Dimmu were taking liberties with
black metal that only they had been granted to
exploit. But now, employing the services of the
51-piece Norwegian Radio orchestra and the 38
voices that make up the Schola Cantorum choir
throughout, its near-50-minute, cinematic surge
across vast, snowbound plains, driven by a
cornucopia of hunting horns, billowing strings and
massed, demonically exultant chants has crossed
a new, peerless threshold of grandiosity that might
have been mistaken for overreaching folly if it wasn’t
shot through with the band’s customary, implacable
sense of purpose. If Abrahadabra doesn’t make
Dimmu Borgir one of the biggest bands on the planet,
it makes them sound like they are. But coming from
a genre already at war with itself between original
and progressive values, and whose self-appointed
gatekeepers believe that playing to the galleries and
beyond is tantamount to heresy, the band are well
aware that they’re about to fan the flames even
higher, not just amongst seasoned brickbat-throwers,
but amongst their own fanbase too. Spokesmen
Shagrath and Silenoz have the wry, sanguine air
of men for whom this is part of the job description.

F

OR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 1997 YOU’VE
DROPPED THE THREE-WORD CONVENTION
FOR THE NEW ALBUM TITLE. DID THAT
INDICATE A WIDER BREAK WITH THE PAST?
Shagrath:“Yeah, due to the changes we have been
going through, we thought it was a good idea to
break up some of the old patterns of doing things.
Not just using one-word titles but also choosing
different people to work with. For this record, due
to the changes with ex-members and all that, it was
time to do everything differently, from the title to
the clothing to the sound too. I think it was a really
necessary step to take at this point. I can see that
a lot of people have a big problem with that, but

METALHAMMER.CO.UK | 43

Shagrath:
warrior
pose #
354

Shagrath
I think the record also speaks for itself and people will
understand more of the whole thing – hopefully – or
maybe in two years’time. It’s like when Puritanical
Misanthropic Euphoria came out [in 2001].They were
like,‘What the fuck is this?’and two years later they
were saying‘This is my favourite album.’”
DIMMU HAVE A HABIT OF BEING SINGLED OUT IN
THAT WAY. DO YOU THINK IT’S THE NATURE OF THE
BLACK METAL SCENE YOU STARTED OFF IN?
Silenoz:“Yeah, I think so.A lot of fans – and metal fans
in general – are very conservative, which is good in one
way because they continue to buy our albums. But at
the same time they’re very reluctant and afraid of
change. But ours are natural changes, they’re not
forced. If it was forced, we would obviously be
something really bad.After three years you release
a new album and I wish every band would change
a little bit in that time. If you don’t change in
three years you don’t develop as a person either.
It’s a mirror to you as a person.”
Shagrath: “There really wouldn’t be any point to
doing the same albums all over again, especially
after changing musicians.”
Silenoz:“That would totally be selling out, because
then we would be laying back and resting on our
laurels and not taking any chances. If you don’t
gamble, you can’t win.”
BOTH MUSTIS AND VORTEX HAVE GONE,AND
IN THEIR STEAD,YOU’VE BROUGHT IN AN
ORCHESTRA AND A CHOIR. SOME MIGHT
CALL THIS ‘OVER-COMPENSATION’…
Silenoz:“It’s not like we‘exchanged’ them with
something else. If they had been in the band, this would
still have happened. Of course it’s frustrating to change
members all the time but that happens very frequently
with us. It’s when certain people change their opinion
about reality; and it’s sad that it happens but we have
to move on and we can’t let anyone else dictate to us.
We have to move forward, and if others don’t want to
follow us then it’s pretty obvious what we need to do.”
Shagrath:“There are a lot of misunderstood facts
about the band too, because it’s hard for people to see
what’s happening behind the curtains.The ones who
made most of the music in the band has always been us
anyway.You can hear that on this album, it’s still Dimmu.”
Silenoz:“With us, it’s kind of the same with Kiss,
because their music exceeds the members. It couldn’t
be Kiss without Gene or Paul, but it’s still Kiss without

Live in the still
of the white

Galder: “Call
me Tom”

Ace or Peter. It’s the same thing with Dimmu. Fans think
of us as really hard to work with, but it’s not really that.
If they knew the real deal, they should actually be angry
at Mustis and Vortex for not paying attention in class.
That’s really the situation here. Instead, they get too
much credit for something that people think they’ve
done.Which they haven’t.”
Shagrath: “They probably think that Mustis has made
all the keyboard sounds, which is not true. Outwardly it
looks like he does, because he plays live.”
Silenoz:“People think that Shagrath is only doing
vocals. It’s the wrong perception.””
Shagrath:“Or that Silenoz just plays guitar.We’re all
involved in different things, and we are still the ones
who made most of it. So for us it wasn’t a huge change
when they left. But now it’s just been better.The way of
working, there are less people involved and less bullshit.
We are more on the same wavelength when we create
music, and it just works so much better for us.”
HOW MUCH OF AN UNDERTAKING WAS ITTO WORK
WITH THE ORCHESTRA AND CHOIR?
Shagrath: “That was something we actually decided
on quite early.That’s also why we got Gaute Storaas
to help us arrange the orchestra. He was really involved
in the whole process.We had songs demoed with
keyboards and orchestration that we made, and he took
over planning for the real orchestra from there. It was
a very detailed process.That differs a lot from previous
albums that had orchestra on, because they would
come in later in the process, when most of the stuff
was done, but this time he was involved from the first
song’s birth.We were sending audio files to and fro;
there was a lot of communication and detail in this,
and I think the result is very pleasing.”
THERE WERE RUMOURS GOING AROUND THAT
YOU WERE ON THE VERGE OF SPLITTING UP.
HOW MUCH DID THESE RUMOURS INTRUDE
UPON THE RECORDING PROCESS?
Shagrath: “Well, there are all kinds of rumours about
all kinds of things: there aren’t going to be any clean
vocals, there aren’t going to be any keyboards on the
next album. People have so many opinions. In the 80s
people were more appreciative when an album came
out instead of just trying to pick it apart.They didn’t go
on the internet and Blabbermouth and all that bullshit.
We don’t pay attention to that stuff.We can’t please
everybody, first of all we have to please ourselves.
We will work harder now than we’ve done in the past.
To become successful is hard, but to stay successful
is even harder. I’m not talking only about record sales,
but you have to just work harder.”
Shagrath: “And if we continued the way we have
done in the last couple of years, then the band would
probably not exist today.You have to do a clean-up
to be able to proceed in the direction we want go.”

H

Bassist Cyrus
onstage

44 METALHAMMER.CO.UK

aving played with Korn in Amsterdam the night
before to, by all accounts, a thoroughly positive
reaction from fans perhaps less accustomed to
such heady fare, Dimmu headline at London’s Forum
the following night as part of their aptly titled Darkness
Reborn tour.That the upstairs for the 2,110-capacity
venue hasn’t been opened suggests that the Ozzfest bill
three days earlier has depleted potential pockets, while
many might still be waiting for the new album to hit
before committing. But it’s still a thronging, expectant

Dimmu Borgir (left
to right): Galder,
Shagrath, Silenoz

Dimmu liv
e and un

cut

“We have to move forward, and if
others don’t want to follow us then it’s
pretty obvious what we need to do”Silenoz

Silenoz:
all white on
the night

Galder:
shredding
fur sure

Shagrath: a tracksuit
just wouldn’t cut it

room that’s first hit with Abrahadabra’s jaw-droppingly
Imax-scale widescreen intro, Xibir, its lush, roving
symphonic and choral glides and counterpoints like an
Angel Of Death’s-eye view on an Ice Age-bound MiddleEarth, before the new-look band enter in their cracked
white, fur-lined trenchcoats. Spellbound (By The Devil)
asserts how much continuity still exists across the 13
years since that track was first released, while the new
tracks – the bounding gallop of Dimmu Borgir, the
snarling incantation and juddering chants of Gateways
with the spine-tingling, capricious vocals of Agnete
Kjø lsrude sadly pre-recorded, and Chess With The
Abyss’s progressive, punctuated march encircled with
the massed cries of various gods of war – all prove that
Dimmu’s capacity to stir and amaze has stepped up to
another level. It’s a demonstratively charismatic
Shagrath that shows genuine gratitude to the audience,
and it’s only later you realise that as distinctive and
integral as ICS Vortex’s vocals were, you were too
entranced to notice their absence throughout the entire
evening. Questions about whether Dimmu Borgir are
‘true’or not seem inconsequential when faced with
such a dramatic scope that provides an in-the-moment
authenticity all of its own. But Shagrath and Silenoz
clearly still have a point to prove.

Either they have to take the next step or they have
to stay where they are.”
Shagrath:“Some people won’t make that choice,
because they’re afraid of what people might think.
It’s a shame.We have taken it a step further.We come
from black metal, but we’re very much into BM today.
I’m very much into that genre, especially the 80s thing
where it started – Bathory,Venom, Celtic Frost – but
for Dimmu we don’t try to copy our favourite bands.”

WAS THERE ANY ELEMENT OF ‘FUCK YOU’ IN THE
FACTTHAT THE NEW COSTUMES ARE WHITE?
Silenoz:“You can see it that way… It’s a bold move.The
visuals have always been very important, and especially
now as this album is a huge revelation, we wanted to
have something to go along with it.”
Shagrath:“Why should we keep doing the same thing?
Everybody buys their spikes from the same shop in Oslo
and wears the same clothes.They totally do what they
preach against.”

YOU SAID ALBUMS MARK A POINT IN TIME.THIS ONE
SEEMS LIKE A POINT OF LIBERATION.
Silenoz: “Yeah, that too, very much so.You kind of free
yourself from that cage. It’s another statement of the
strength of the band because when you think about
all the things we’ve gone through, we still manage to
maintain focus.”
Shagrath: “Negativity gets turned into something
greater than what we had, and it made us want to push
it even further. Statements and the bullshit from people
just make us want to do it even more.”

BLACK METAL WAS NEVER JUST ABOUT THE MUSIC,
IT WAS MORE DEFINED BY THE PHILOSOPHY
BEHIND IT. BUT AT SOME POINT, IF YOU’RE GOING
TO PROGRESS, DO YOU HAVE TO DROP SOME
BAGGAGE THAT’S WEIGHING YOU DOWN?
Silenoz:“Sort of. It’s like when we got a lot of attention
around Enthroned Darkness Triumphant, we had two
choices: do we want to go for it, or do we want to stay
behind – and there’s no middle way.Yes, the mystique
around the band obviously gets compromised in the
process, but that’s reality. I can see that there are still
bands today who were in the same position we were.

YOU SEEM TO HAVE A FAIRLY PURIST IDEA OF BLACK
METAL YOURSELVES, BUT IT’S EXACTLY THAT
PERSPECTIVE YOU GET CRITICISED FROM.
Silenoz:“I think because I know that a band like Dimmu
and a lot of other Norwegian bands have opened up the
doors for people.They’ve gotten to know BM through
us, but they’ve gone on to listen to more brutal stuff, so
in a way, we have helped them to discover other bands.
But at the same time, we are getting shit for making
BM‘commercial’. It just doesn’t make sense to me. It’s
funny when kids go,‘Oh, you’re not Satanic’and if they
really think about it, we are one of the few bands left
that are really Satanic in the way that we’re thinking
forward and not standing behind and stagnating.
That’s not Satanic to me.”

DO YOU FEEL LIKE THIS IS A NEW STAGE FOR
THE BAND,AS IF YOU’RE STARTING AGAIN?
Silenoz:“That’s something we touched upon in the
lyrics on the album.Take the song Dimmu Borgir, which
is directly about the trials and tribulations of the band
and how we overcome every time something negative
happens to us.”
Shagrath:“Also the last song on the album, Endings &
Continuations, should say everything about Dimmu…”

ABRAHADABRA IS OUT NOW VIA NUCLEAR BLAST

DIMMUARE FAR FROMTHE FIRSTBANDTO
UNDERGOAMASSIVE SHIFTIN STYLE.HEREARE
FIVE OTHER BANDSWHO BROKETHE MOULD.

BRITISH STEEL (1980)
After helping to refine and define
heavy metal as a genre,Judas
Priest struck gold when they
stripped away the last of their
progressive urges and went
straight for the jugular with instant
anthems like Breaking The Law
and Rapid Fire.The hits, and the
glory, followed.

COWBOYS FROM HELL (1990)
After four albums of decidedly
lightweight, glam-tinged melodic
metal,Arlington’s finest embraced
groove, grit and brutality for their
major label debut. Cowboys… sold
millions, turned Pantera into
superstars and helped to keep the
metal fire burning during the
grunge era.

SEASONS IN THE ABYSS (1990)
It would be ridiculous to suggest
that Seasons… was anything other
than a balls-out Slayer album, but
by tempering their trademark
ferocity with the occasional dash
of brooding melody, most notably
on the epic title track, the thrash
masters cleverly expanded their
sound and their fanbase.

METALLICA (1991)
Die-hard fans may have baulked at
ballads like Nothing Else Matters
and The Unforgiven, but with its
colossal million-dollar production
job and pounding anthems like
Enter Sandman and Sad But True,
Metallica was the defining metal
album of the 90s and the world
swiftly fell at the band’s feet.

CITY OF EVIL (2005)
When frontman M Shadows lost
the ability to scream, metalcore’s
kings-in-waiting got smart and
allowed their adventurous sound to
blossom.The result was an album
exploding with ambition, melody
and a million bright ideas. Sod
metalcore… epic and audacious
rock’n’roll suited A7X perfectly.

HAMMER PROMOTION
Floor freakish foes to
Five Finger Death Punch!

Mash monsters to the
mighty Mastodon!

Lay waste while listening
to Lamb Of God!

Cleave ’em in two to
Cavalera Conspiracy!

48 | METALHAMMER.CO.UK

HAMMER PROMOTION

The 1988 arcade classic is back! It’s even gorier than ever and boasts asoundtrack
as heavy as askip full of corpses! Prepare to get medieval on hideous beasts!

S

tar of the classic, übergory Splatterhouse
series, Rick is back and
he’s armed with baseball
bats,cleavers,chainsaws
and more as the masked
madman gets medieval on freaky
beasts once again! Splatterhouse,
available to buy this autumn, is
the goriest game out there!
Playing as Rick, you are
granted superhuman
strength thanks to the
mysterious, sentient
mask that has fused

Mastodon offer the kind of twisted narrative
perfect for tearing blood-lusting creatures limb
from limb to. Municipal Waste specialise in
‘massive aggressive’, a bizarre carnival of postapocalyptic partying. Only one type of music will
cut it when you’re fighting for survival in a virtual
world of macabre creatures who are intent on
killing you! Metal: the perfect complement to
any entrail-splattering killing spree,whether your
weapon of choice is a plank or your bare hands.

R

ick’s Terror Mask has morphed from the
hockey mask-style of the earlier games
to a new and iconic vision of horror with
its twisted, skeletal feel. Rick is now a super-

T

he original Splatterhouse game was a sidescrolling beat ’em up that introduced Rick,
a parapsychology student who had been
resurrected by the Terror Mask. He is trapped
inside a terrifying world, searching for his
beloved Jennifer, who he has to save from a
grisly fate.The classic version saw Rick moving
left to right through the levels, fighting various
creatures sent to waylay (read: murder) him,
with none of the extra-dimensions, dynamism or
realism of the most recent version.
The new 18+ game for PS3 and Xbox 360
boasts awesome new additions and twists to
the original game plot, with Rick being the
student of the evil Dr West who sends the
armies of monsters,
The Corrupted, which
you will ultimately
disembowel in
gloriously macabre
fashion as you try
to rescue Jennifer.
The game setting of
old,West Mansion, has a new and more elegant
feel than the previous rundown setting…
which of course is an open invitation to make
a bloody mess. Literally. In a new twist, the
creatures are spawned by portals which Rick
has to travel through, finding himself in various
places from a corrupt carnival to a graveyard.
West Mansion remains the hubworld to which
he always returns.
So, with the most famous gory arcade
game updated and upgraded and boasting
a suitably brutal soundtrack, this really is the
ultimate metal game!

METAL: PERFECT FOR
ENTRAIL-SPLATTERING!
itself to your face. But
with this strength comes
an ever-growing thirst for blood, and you’ll run
amok trying to sate it, utilising an array of brutal
instruments of death.You can even batter your
enemies to death with their own arms. Niiiice.
As you destroy the monsters around you,
you’ll be accompanied by a stellar soundtrack
that features the likes of Metal Hammer Golden
God Awards winners Lamb Of God, Mastodon and
Five Finger Death Punch.Also for your listening
pleasure as you spray every surface with blood,
are tracks from Municipal Waste,The Haunted,
Cavalera Conspiracy andTerrorizer.Lamb Of God’s
unique and world-beating brand of heaviness is
utterly uncompromising, while Five Finger Death
Punch have those fist-in-the-air choruses and

sized muscular version of his old self and,
while he can now also be dismembered, his
limbs will actually grow back as he battles on!
The game will also come bundled with the
three original Splatterhouse games as
unlockables.The combat gameplay is some of
the most advanced and bloodthirsty ever
created: as well as the dismembering of
creatures with various tools of death (did we
mention bare hands?!), the mask will actively
speak to Rick as he mercilessly collects the
‘essence’of the dead creatures to unlock new
moves.As Rick, you’ll also be able to perform
special attacks, including the massive finishing
moves,‘splatter kills’, which promise to up the
gore factor even further.You can also link attacks
together into powerful combos.

SPLATTERHOUSE™ & © 1988 NAMCO
BANDAI GAMES INC. © 2010 NAMCO BANDAI
GAMES AMERICA INC.ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

METALHAMMER.CO.UK | 49

PArkwAy Drive

Parkway Drive (left to right): Ben
Gordon, Luke Kilpatrick, Winston
McCall, Jeff Ling, Jia O’Connor

PARKWAY DRIVE hail from an idyllic surf town on the beautiful Australian coast. Underneath
the surface lies ahideous underbelly that fuels the most brutal metalcore 2010 has to offer.
Words: Gill. Pics: Tony Mott.
50 | METALHAMMER.CO.UK

PArkwAy Drive
Drive all night

P

arkway Drive are not all that they
seem.Yes their latest album, Deep
Blue, is one of the best metal albums
of the year – an uncompromisingly
brutal album of hardcore-infused
shape-throwing metal anthemia – and
yes they look like Average Joe Aussie surf dudes. But
beneath the affable laughter and the bouncing riffs lies
a heart of genuine darkness – a misanthropic pessimism
that verges on nihilistic despondency.To an outsider,
Parkway’s hometown of Byron Bay appears to be a utopia:
a small surfing community of unrivalled natural beauty.
But just like the band it spawned, under the surface lies
a dark reality of corruption, violence and poverty.
And all of this unexpected and insightful new
information inadvertently comes tumbling out of
frontman Winston McCall as we question the musical
roots of the bandmembers and discuss what inspired
the concept behind their latest opus.
“The initial idea of the band was to write music for
people to just smash
each other to,”
explains Winston.
“But with this one
we wanted an album
that was a lot more
for the head than
the feet.We wanted
to write the music
around the concept
to give the whole thing a feel.The lyrics and themes
drove the music too; we didn’t just lay the lyrics over the
top of already-written songs.”
As we dig a little deeper,Winston reveals another
layer, a deeper, darker layer of meaning to Deep Blue and
what lies behind the smiles.
“The story is about a man who wakes up in a city and
realises that everything he’s worked for and everything
in his life is one big joke,” explains Winston as we follow
the rabbit down the hole marked‘dark conversation’.
“He tries to find the humanity inside himself and he
finds that in the bottom of the ocean.”

That’s all pretty dark dude, from meeting you over the
years we had you pegged as a more upbeat kinda guy…
“That’s…”he pauses as if he’s pondering whether
to quickly put the lid back on the can of worms he’s
just opened for us.“That’s the other part of my
personality.The Mr Hyde to my Dr Jekyll.The two parts
make the other able to exist. I definitely couldn’t be the
person you meet in real life if I couldn’t vent myself
artistically and physically through the music we make.
I can write these things down that impact on me so
much and I can act like a gorilla on stage and scream
to get it out. I’m a much more positive person since
joining this band – I was really lost before… my mind
was all over the place.”
Just look at the picture of them and maybe Google a
picture of Byron Bay if you are unaware of the idyllic
seaside destination, home to surfers and hippies alike.
Now wonder what the frontman of this fast-rising metal
band could possibly have to feel miserable about. Isn’t
Byron Bay paradise?

has been interesting to see all that; you see how power
works and what it does to people.And it’s all going on
here in paradise. It’s more like Babylon!
“We always have our mates come and stay with us
and they all say‘It’s amazing! We want to live here!’
But I don’t know where to start with describing this
town… I know it’s beautiful to look at, but you’ll never
get a job here. In five months you’ll be sleeping on my
couch because you can’t afford the rent or you’ll be
dead because you got in a pub brawl. It’s ridiculous.”

D

on’t think that Deep Blue is some local
navel-gazing operation.To assume that
travelling the world with your mates in a metal
band would make you happy might be the presumption
of superficial analysis. Knowing the misery of humanity
reminds you that ignorance is bliss.
“It’s strange when we’re taken away from this place
we think of as paradise to see the rest of the world from
inside the band.The more I travel the more I see
different
societies and
the more misery
I see. Humans
– mainly in
Western society
– live in a really
odd and incorrect
manner.The
human body and
the human mind isn’t used to the luxury it lives in now:
sitting in front of a box full of lights for two weeks, while
some people literally starve to death.
“Human existence has polarised: deep in human
history it seems that plagues or bad things happened
across peoples, but now it only happens to the poor or
the disadvantaged.There are the haves and the havenots, and it’s getting worse.And we have these political
systems in place designed to maintain the status quo,”
he laughs nervously as if the outburst was a little more
than he bargained for. Luckily he’s talking to Hammer,
and we’re happy to rant about the politics/religion/the

“I don’t hold humans in a very
positive light. Humanity is a virus”
Winston Mc Call

“It is and it isn’t,” he says.“It’s not hard to play the
role of hypocrite, because I write these songs but then
come back to Byron… and that bugs me. It is a beautiful
place, and more and more I see the ocean and the hills as
what makes it beautiful, but the town itself is a very
flawed community. It started off as a very redneck place,
just farmers, but it’s since been bought up by rich movie
stars and people from Sydney who can afford the real
estate because being‘the place to live’drove the prices
up.What you don’t hear about is that it has Australia’s
highest unemployment rate, the hundreds of homeless
people, the beatings and all the rapes. Growing up here

METALHAMMER.CO.UK | 51

PArkwAy Drive

Chill, Winston.
Or not

Luke: we’d tap that

Nihilation
Time

WHERE PaRKWaYDRiVE FitintHE
sliDinG sCalE oFPEssiMisM

Dave Grohl
Dave Lol: is he ever not smiling? !

Nicko McBrain
The cockney geezer is a
Duracell bunny gag-machine.

Zakk Wylde
The biker Viking is more Python
than pillage.

Corey Taylor
Natural-born raconteur when the
mask is off.

James Hetfield
Sometimes angry but mainly grinning.

Phil Anselmo
Hates 90 per cent of all humans.

Parkway
Drive
It’s the end of the world as
we know it.

Al Jourgensen

Jeff: snap your neck.
But not literally

He’s not paranoid, they are
after him.

Trent Reznor
The face the un-smiley
emoticon was based on.

Varg Vikernes
Killed Euronymous, mad
racist, served 16
years in
prison.
Awesome.

A large oompa loompa
crowdsurfing on a
bodyboard. Obviously

PArkwAy Drive
Jeff gets palmed off

View from the bar stage
Ready to rock.
Or surf

Parkway’s Quo move

impending downfall of humanity etc. But it’s not every
person Hammer interviews who can launch into an
erudite diatribe of astute observational misanthropy –
even in a scene that supposedly thrives on negativity.
“I could rant about this for days,” he says smiling
before barrelling on again.“The human aspect of
humanity is being conditioned out of humans by the
systems in place; we call it education and work, and
we’re told that money is the be all and end all – like it’s
all you need to be happy and survive.”

I

t’s reassuring that a band who don’t look out of
place in quicksilver board shorts share the bleak
outlook of our most beloved metal bands from
Sabbath to Metallica.
As Winston admits, thinking
about these things is enough
to drive a man to nihilism.The
rich should help the poor. Or
should they?What duty does
one man have to help another
if he’s thousands of miles
away?Does it make any
difference if they’re on your
doorstep?We’re always being
told to save the planet and look
after the earth and its
inhabitants… but what for?So that more humans can
exploit more animals and humans and land for selfish
gains?If the world is a better place for our children, so
what?If life is marginalised as suggested by dystopian
movies like 2012 or The Day After Tomorrow, then it
appears the rich and the greedy will get all the good
seats anyway – so why leave the world in good nick for
those fuckers?Whether we cause it or not the planet’s
temperature will probably fluctuate by a fraction and
we’ll be blown effortlessly out like a cheap birthday
candle. Humans will doubtless become another
miniscule footnote in the historical document of our
planet as an epilogue to a chapter on dinosaurs.
“It’s a very perplexing situation we’re in nowadays.
It makes my mind turn and I feel guilty for the way I live

in this world, there’s something in me that also says,
‘Is this how we should be living?’, but I still want to have
all the things I have. Is this the best way that humans
can live?We’re the only animal capable of genocide.
There are some great individuals but… I don’t hold
humans in a very positive light,” he says, laughing at the
irony of his incongruous good humour and misanthropy.
“It was The Matrix that said it best: humanity is a virus.
It rings so true, which is really… sad.”
There was a time when humans didn’t need iPods,
cool clothes or fast cars.And we didn’t destroy the
habitat we lived in to survive or acquire the few
pleasures we had to the extent that man does today.
Westerners particularly have harnessed the power
of technology but – it seems – only to keep other

but no one can change it.The people who stand up for
what’s right get assassinated; not mortally but by the
culture, they get marginalised or cast out.The systems
are self-sustaining and it’ll take something monumental
to change it, and I doubt I will see it in my lifetime.”
It is a dark place to be.Like the curse of Cassandra: you
can see the future but no one believes you. Once you’re
faced with knowing that you are powerless to change
anything even though you’d like to, how do you live?
“Exactly,” he says.“That’s what I write about.”
No wonder the album and live shows are so intense.

S

o humanity is going down the toilet and if your
kids have a planet to live on they’ll be the
slaves of corporate pirates, but hey, at least
we have Parkway Drive,
a band whose live show
is like a barbarian
invasion and whose
album is like a collision of
Lamb Of God, Hatebreed
and Mastodon.
And of course, Parkway
have reasons to be
cheerful: they’ve gone
from an obscure also-ran
metalcore band from a
backwater within a backwater, to national heroes
(playing to 5,000 people a night) and international
ambassadors (becoming favourites of Warped Tour)
within five years. So if you do plan on topping yourself,
we suggest you head to see Parkway Drive with Bleeding
Through, Emmure,Your Demise and We Came As
Romans on the Altamont Never Say Die! tour for a reason
to not only live, but bang your head, shake your fists
and throw shapes like life-loving loons. In dark times
like these, thank God for the life-affirming pessimism
of Parkway Drive.

“The idea used to be to write
music for people to just smash
each other to”
Winston Mc Call

humans passive while taking their money and power
and destroying their planet.”
Well done if you haven’t committed suicide yet but
sadly, this is real life and there is no Hollywood ending.
The elves don’t kill the orcs and get their homeland back.
We’re all still fucked…
“It’s so hard to change anything,” acquiesces Winston,
shaking his head.“It’s easy to change yourself, but when
you do change yourself you just realise how you can’t
change anything bigger than that.We’ve been involved in
community protests and other projects here and it’s done
very little.” He sighs in defeat.“Humans… the masses
can be controlled so easily by the few who have cash and
we’ve been on the receiving end of this our whole lives.
So many people can see that we’re being conditioned

DEEP BLUE IS OUT NOW VIA EPITAPH RECORDS.
PARKWAY DRIVE HEADLINE THE NEVER SAY DIE
TOUR FROM OCTOBER 31
METALHAMMER.CO.UK | 53

KILLING JOKE

KILLING JOKE’s legend was built on amelting pot
of explosive personalities which imploded in 1982.
After reconnecting at the funeral of fallen comrade
Raven, the original lineup are back in anew bid for glory.
Words: Dayal Patterson. Pics: John McMurtrie. Main Pic: Nathan Gallagher.

B

eing brought abruptly into consciousness at an
ungodly hour and then crammed into the sardine
can-like confines of a budget airline flight with
a bunch of moody suits is, all things considered,
not the best way to begin a day. Even with such
an inauspicious start however, it’s hard not to
be impressed by the obvious beauty of Geneva and the
turquoise waters and stunning mountains surrounding the
airport of Switzerland’s second most populated city. Better
still, less than half an hour after landing and we’re sitting
with our host Jaz Coleman, vocalist and co-founder of post
punk/goth/industrial/metal pioneers Killing Joke, and his
friend – and periodic landlord – John in a large, peaceful
garden adorned with thick green bamboo plants, ornamental
pond, myriad statues and a huge, friendly beast which
appears to be more bear than dog.This quiet and tranquil
space belongs to John and his wife’s large ivy-covered
farmhouse, a location that has served as home to
members of Killing Joke since 1983.
“This will take the edge off the flight,” Jaz says, flashing
one of his broad Cheshire cat grins, as John opens the
morning’s first bottle of vintage pink champagne.“Just the
‘American Champagne’for me,” explains Jaz as his glass is
refilled with Coca Cola.“I haven’t drunk for five years.At one
time it was two bottles of rum a day each and whatever else
on top of that… man, we were really going for it heavily with
the drinks and cigars. My doctor – who’s an alcoholic – called
me in, so I knew it was bad. He said,‘You’re only allowed two
drinks a day.’ I thought,‘Two drinks?! It’s not worth it!’I mean,
what’s the point in having two drinks?I’ve always finished
the bottle. So I gave up. Plus I was becoming a fat cunt.”

“Another cigar?
Why the hell not!”

Fonzy only got cooler with age

Ride the snake,
don’t drink it…

54 | METALHAMMER.CO.UK

T

oday, the constantly animated frontman cuts a notably
trimmer figure, no doubt thanks in part to the exercise
regime he’s adopted in preparation for the forthcoming
Killing Joke tour.Any impression of a new clean-living lifestyle
is balanced, however, by the constant smoke emanating from
his beloved Nicaraguan cigars and other, more exotic,
smokes.Jaz is, undoubtedly, a man who cherishes the finer
things in life, which may help explain his love of this city.
In fact, Geneva is only one of several locations he calls
home, having long ago adopted the transitional lifestyle of
a permanent traveller. He stays no more than 90 days in
one place – and often less than that – moving between this
city, an apartment in Prague, a farm he owns in New Zealand,
the Canary Islands and Marrakesh.
Nevertheless, he doesn’t hesitate
for a second in naming Geneva as
Killing Joke’s spiritual home, and
the house we are at today is where
the band wrote both the Fire
Dances and Night Time albums,
including the latter’s famous
single, Eighties.
“Quite funny when you think
Come As You Are was written in this

house, isn’t it?”laughs Jaz, giving a nod to Nirvana’s
unofficial homage, a song that would ultimately lead Dave
Grohl to perform for free on the band’s 2003 self-titled
album.“We first came here on tour and had such fun – in
inverted commas – that I asked if I could come back and do
some writing here.When we finished the tour I jumped on
a plane and came back to the house and found [bassist Paul]
Raven and [guitarist] Geordie had already done the same
thing! So we kind of moved here en masse in 1983.Apart
from Big Paul [Ferguson, drummer] we all got Swiss
girlfriends. In 1985 I got married and it transpired that
I didn’t come back to Switzerland for a four- or five-year
period, and when I did come back I met my eldest daughter
for the first time.You can’t have everything in life.At a certain
point you have to make a choice: you want to be a good dad,
you have to be in one place.You want to go for your career,
you have to be available like a soldier. But this has always
been a place that in-between tours, in-between marriages,
I always came back to.”

J

ust as significantly, it was the place that long time Killing
Joke member Paul Raven spent much time in, living in
the abode of the old city’s executioner, a building
coincidentally decorated with the image of the jester or fool,
Killing Joke’s mascot. It was Geneva that Raven came back to
shortly before his death three years ago and in honour of the
legendary bass player (who also contributed to Ministry and
Prong) Jaz takes us for a hearty dinner at the man’s favourite
restaurant before moving us onto his most beloved drinking
spot; an anarchist bar called Le Vespetro, where a picture of
Raven sits above the bar, opposite an anarchist flag.The bar
is part of a large squat-cum-cultural centre called L’Usine,
which also houses two venues, a record store and the
recording studio in which Raven passed away.
“He knew six months before that he was going to die,”
Jaz explains,“I can prove this, I’ve collected all the emails
and SMS messages he sent in that time where he’s
uncharacteristically sentimental. Basically he had this dream
where he saw all his ex-girlfriends at his funeral and then his
girlfriend’s sister had the same dream.The last 10 years he
couldn’t sleep flat on a bed, as he’d get terrible heart
palpitations. Raven’s actual funeral was done in two halves;
the half-hour crematorium gig – as I put it – and the second
part here, at Raven and Joe Strummer’s secret hangout.
He came to Geneva on a false
passport from America via South
America. But he made it. It was a
It’ll be alright
deep sense of comfort to me that
on the knight
he made it home.”
Significantly, Raven’s funeral
would act as something of a
catalyst within the Killing Joke
camp, reuniting the original
lineup of Jaz, Geordie,Youth
and Paul Ferguson for the first
time since 1982’s Revelations.

KILLING JOKE

Jaz Coleman: Lewis Carroll,
eat your heart out

ut no…

Close b

oh

Not so wild

in the stre

ets

“THE ORIGINAL LINEUP HAS A VERY DIFFERENT
ENERGY TO THE OTHER INCARNATIONS.
WHEN IT KICKS IN, IT’S A VERY SCARY FORCE”
JAZCOLEMAN

METALHAMMER.CO.UK | 55

KILLING JOKE

“GEORDIE SAID, ‘IF I CAN’T WATCH
THEN GET OUT!’ SO I SMASHED
A BOTTLE OVER HIS HEAD”

Jaz and the

JAZCOLEMAN

owner of Le

Vespetro

Another day in the office

THE CONCEPT OF THE FOOL,THE
JESTER AND MASQUERADE RUN
DEEP IN KILLING JOKE.
Since their early days, Killing Joke have
frequently used the image of the jester,
joker or fool in their artwork. Indeed, the
original title of Absolute Dissent was to
be‘Feast Of Fools’. Interestingly, a highly
acclaimed Batman graphic novel entitled
Killing Joke was created in 1988 by
renowned writer Alan Moore, and some
two decades later Jaz would find himself
crossing paths with the Dark Knight, or
rather his nemesis…
“The fool is an interesting archetype
and I’ve been consulted on this. Heath
Ledger – I wish I could have done more.
Jack Nicholson warned him about the
role,” Jaz explains.“Actually, I was
approached to play Joker in Batman.
I could do it because I know about putting
on the mask and taking it off, and what
that means, how to compartmentalise
it. I started using the facepaint as a way
of putting on the mask, and more
importantly taking it off.You live between
the worlds being a fool.
When Raven came to
Geneva he moved into the
old town, into the house
where the city’s
executioner used to live,
and on the wall of the
house there’s a jester
with a sword, because
the executioner would
dress as a jester.”
56 | METALHAMMER.CO.UK

“There was a line at Paul’s funeral which was a call to arms from
Nietzsche, and it was to the effect of;‘When a great man dies, men
put aside their differences and make solemn vows,’ and that was
the trigger word. Saying that, it wasn’t a surprise to any of us.
Paul [Ferguson] should have been on the [1994] Pandemonium
album but he wasn’t quite ready.As he says, he spent quarter of
a century going to a therapist to get over Killing Joke and now he’s
back,” Jaz gives one of his roaring laughs.“The original lineup has
a very different energy to the other incarnations, it’s a very explosive
energy.When it kicks in, it’s a very scary force.”
The results of this creative force have proved impressive, with
over 20 songs crafted in a short period of time through a process
of constant jamming, a sign that the chemistry that existed some
20 years ago is alive and well.Whittling these down to the 12 songs
and mixes that appear on the stunning new album Absolute
Dissent was no easy task however, and the process of debate and
elimination were, to quote the singer,‘traumatic’. Still, things appear
to be a good deal more civilised now than they were in the past…
“We haven’t had a fight for four years,” Jaz ponders.“With the
original lineup we always have blistering rows, but there’s been no
physical fights for many years. I remember one time I was seeing this
nurse temporarily and I said to Geordie,‘Is it alright if I crash round
your place for one night until I move into my flat?’and he said,‘Yeah
sure, come over’, and we were drinking a lot at that time and ended up
getting hammered and eventually me and her went to crash.We got
into bed and suddenly the door comes crashing open and Geordie
says,‘If I can’t fucking watch you then you can get out of my flat!’, and
I said,‘Ahhhhh fuck,’ picked up the vodka bottle and smashed it over
his head.An all-out fight started, there was blood everywhere. Luckily
this nurse was there and did the stitches herself.The next morning
Geordie says, [adopts a posh English accent]
‘Would anyone like a cup of tea?’”

W

e are soon joined by none
other than Franz Treichler
– the founder of
Switzerland’s hugely influential
industrial/experimental act The
Young Gods – and the two men
begin chatting with the recognisable
warmth of old friends, discussing
a forthcoming Paris show at which
both bands will perform.

“There are very few bands I like on the planet, but the one I really
respect is The Young Gods,” Jaz explains while his friend is out of
earshot.“Franz is fighting to keep places like this [squat] alive,
stopping them being knocked down.To me, this country should
knight him.”
Remarkably,Jaz will soon be in France for that very reason,
receiving decoration by the French government for his achievements
in classical music.The event stands as just one glimpse into the
often-surprising worlds that Jaz inhabits outside of Killing Joke.
“Personally I feel like I’ve cheated time,” he comments.“I’ve done
so many things and I started young: by the time I was 22 I decided
I wanted to do orchestra, by the time I was 30 I’d started with that
and by the time I was 40 I’d done 35 recordings with orchestra. I work
in Arabic music, Maori music in New Zealand working with 31 different
tonal instruments that I keep alive, I’m a researcher in earth sciences,
I lecture at universities sometimes, I even do motivational lectures
for IBM.And I don’t have a CSE or A level to my name.The travel is
beyond your imagination, 16 times round the world was my record in
a year, but it’s never less than 12. I’ve got a carbon footprint from
here to Pluto, mate!”
“He’s a man of connections,” smiles Franz, when Jaz starts
explaining his plan to hire a private jet for a charity cigar-smoking
tour of colonial bars around the world. It would appear to be
something of an understatement.
His recollections contain dealings with everyone from members
of government to members of organised crime, high-level bankers
to anarchist squatters, from those within the Masonic and other
esoteric traditions to the most high-profile musicians such as Sarah
Brightman or violinist Nigel Kennedy, both of whom he has worked
with. Like Geneva, a city of banking where anti-capitalist punks
reside in government-subsidised cultural centres,
he represents a clash of realities.
Jaz Coleman is on the one hand vocal in his
opposition to the darker underbelly of the world
and those who control it, and on the other hand
an apparent part of it.
“Life’s not black and white,” he smiles with his
piercing stare before chomping on another cigar.
“It can make strange bedfellows.And of course,
I live between the worlds, being a fool.”

ABSOLUTE DISSENT IS OUT NOW
VIA SPINEFARM
The eyes have it

KVELERTAK
Kvelertak (left to right):
Maciek Ofstad, Marvin
Nygaard, Erlend Hjelvik,
Bjarte Lund Rolland, Vidar
Landa, Kjetil Gjermundrø d

SONIC

ATTACK
KVELERTAK began 2010 as unknown Norwegian hardcore punk’n’rollers. Since Sonisphere and
Reading, however, they’re one of the biggest buzz bands in metal. But who the fuck are they?

B

ack in May, Norway’s Kvelertak
arrived like some unexpected
prophet.The Norwegian sextet
went from unheard-of to
metallic messiah status in what
felt like the blink of an eye: their
self-titled debut arrived in the Hammer office and made
instant devotees of everyone, they continued to convert more
and more people at every show as openers for Converge and
Kylesa in July and by the time Sonisphere rolled round in
August there were more Kvelertak t-shirts at Knebworth than
any other save Iron Maiden, and people were spilling out of
the tent trying to get a glimpse of the band.They were
subsequently paid one of the ultimate compliments and
found themselves as one of the very few metal bands invited
to play at Reading/Leeds festival.All of this is especially
impressive considering the innovative and unique nature
58 | METALHAMMER.CO.UK

Words: Gill.
of their music: a collage of punk, metal/black metal and rock
that somehow sounds amazingly cohesive. Oh, and all their
songs are sung in Norwegian.
“It’s cool to see more and more people coming to see us
at every show,” admits the modest frontman Erlend Hjelvik.
“The buzz just got bigger and spread wider and wider as
the tour unfolded.”
He’s not kidding: the buzz spread like glandular fever at
a school disco.
The band started in 2006 in the usual quite uninteresting
way that most bands do: some friends, an idea, some
jamming, a lineup change and so on…
“It took a while to get the lineup going, we were pretty
shitty at first,” Erlend admits. But once the band had their
ranks cemented the ball started rolling like a hyperactive
pinball machine: from the Norwegian equivalent of America’s
South By South West industry showcase where they instantly

found themselves on the lips of all who witnessed their
three-guitar assault of rock, punk and metal, they were
booked to play Roskilde in Denmark.
Ever modest, Erlend says that many people still seemed
unsure of the band:“until we released the album.Then it all
happened pretty quickly, especially when we got booked for
the Converge tour with Kylesa.
“People wrote to us saying they liked the album even
though they didn’t know what the hell we were singing about!
They said they’ve never heard anything like it before, which is
cool.After that it wasn’t just a Norwegian thing anymore.”
It certainly wasn’t. Online communities and social
networks were buzzing with reports of this amazing band
who were supporting Converge, smashing it every night.
“Every show got better and bigger as the tour went on.
It felt like the word was spreading that we were kicking ass,”
Erlend says.“We didn’t really have high expectations for the

KVELERTAK

“HALF OF US HAVE ADHD,
HALF ARE NORMAL. APART
FROM WHEN WE’
RE ON
STAGE…
THEN WE’
RE 100
PER CENT
ADHD!”
ERLEND HJELVIK
tour.We’re just glad that some people saw us. In Norway
people don’t usually show up to gigs until the main band are
on, so I’m glad people came out to see us.There were a lot
more people than we expected.”
Anyone who went to Sonisphere this year will have seen
the hysteria themselves – whether they knew it or not – in
the hundreds of Kvelertak t-shirts.The buzz had become
tangible, people wanted in.
“Sonisphere was the best UK show by far,” he says.“We
didn’t think it was going to be that good since we played so
early and we were on one of the smaller stages, but I could
see people standing outside the tent trying to get in. I could
also see people trying to sing along to the Norwegian – which
is always funny. People seemed really into it.”

B

ut who are they?Who are the people that make
up one of the most exciting new bands of recent
times?There are pictures of the guys playing
naked onstage and getting drunk, but offstage they invariably
exemplify the more demure demeanour of their fellow
Scandinavians. It is hard to associate this quiet measured
voice on the telephone with the bearded, barrel-chested half-

naked frontman we saw tearing up the set before Converge.
As Erlend admits, he used to need the beer to flick that
switch, now he can filck it himself.
“I stay quiet in the day and then go out at night and I’m
one of the guys who drinks the most. I used to need beer
to get me going, but now it just comes naturally.
“[Guitarist] Vidar Landa is the diplomat of the band,”
explains Erlend.“He’s usually the one who brings people
together whenever there’s an argument. [Guitarist] Bjarte
Lund Rolland is pretty quiet but he can get crazy when he
drinks.When we’re in the car we just sit in the back doing our
stuff, while the others are messing around. Bjarte is the one
who stays out the longest. [Guitarist] Maciek Ofstad is one
of the loudest people in the band, he talks the most. I think
he has ADHD. [Bassist] Marvin Nygaard actually does have
ADHD,” he laughs.“He’s the most entertaining, he likes to
flash his dick to cars on the motorway. He likes to moon
people. He’ll do that for hours. [Drummer] Kjetil
Gjermundrø d…”he giggles.“He’s an idiot but he’s a cool guy.
He’s the funniest guy, but not on purpose if you know what
I mean. So we’re half ADHD, half normal.Apart from when
we’re on stage… then we’re 100 per cent ADHD!”

So what makes Kvelertak work?A band whose every song
sounds different to the last…
“I think it’s a lot of coincidences,” says Erlend.“Being in
the right place at the right time. Obviously it wouldn’t be
happening if we weren’t actually a good band.And it helped
that the album turned out well working with Kurt Ballou from
Converge.We owe them a lot for this.”
And, it seems, that no one cares that the Norwegians’
songs are semantically impregnable, with all song titles (save
Sultans Of Satan) and lyrics being in Norwegian (unless you
got an A* in your Norwegian GCSE).
We push Erlend to translate some lyrics for us, but he
explains that they did have to translate them before the BBC
would play their music on air,“to make sure it wasn’t about…
whatever you’re not allowed to sing about on the radio!”
The band are touring Europe until Xmas, after which they
will be working on their second album. If it’s a fifth as good as
their debut, it’ll be an album worth selling your willy for.

KVELERTAK IS OUT NOW VIA INDIE RECORDINGS
AND THEY TOUR THE UK IN NOVEMBER WITH
COLISEUM AND BISON BC
METALHAMMER.CO.UK | 59

ALTER BRIDGE

THE

SECOND
COMING

ALTER BRIDGE are made up of three-quarters of Creed,
Christian rockers no right-thinking metal fan would touch.
Forget that shit, their new album will blow your tits off.

T

Words: Dom Lawson.

hey say that lightning never strikes twice,
but Mark Tremonti is well on the way to
confounding that particular theory.Already
one of the biggest rock stars on the planet,
having sold millions upon millions of albums
as guitarist and chief songwriter with
post-grunge arena rockers Creed, this disarmingly
humble and friendly 36-year-old has spent the last
seven years slaving away over a hot fretboard in order
to win over the world for a second time with his
current band.A heavier, darker and infinitely more
exciting prospect than the one that turned him into
a millionaire,Alter Bridge are something of a rarity
in today’s scene; a genuinely thrilling heavy rock
band that skilfully straddle the divide between
radio-friendly bombast and skull-flattening metallic
might. In London to spread the word about his band’s
third studio album, the simply titled AB III, Mark
greets Hammer with a firm handshake and a broad
grin.A self-proclaimed heavy metal geek, he is
obviously delighted to make our acquaintance…
“Metal is definitely where I come from, man,” he
smiles.“I grew up listening to Metallica because my
older brother, Dan, listened to it.They were the first
real heavy metal band that I got into.Then I’d hear
him playing Venom and I was like,‘Wow, that’s dark
and cool and creepy!’So I got into them too. My other
brother was into Kiss and the glam stuff, but I wasn’t
into that. I got into Celtic Frost and Sabbath and the
darkest stuff you could get into.That was my vibe for a
while, and I really developed my metal chops listening
to bands like Metallica,Testament, Slayer, Exodus and
Megadeth.As I grew older I became a very melodyoriented writer. I guess that came from being in my
mom’s car listening to Rod Stewart and Journey but
then I’d mix that with the metal I listened to at home!”

I

f you were one of the many thousands of excitable
Alter Bridge fans who crashed servers and nearly
broke the internet by downloading preview tracks
from AB III recently, you will already know that the
band’s new album is both remarkably heavy and
60 | METALHAMMER.CO.UK

absolutely saturated with massive hooks. It’s the kind
of album that mainstream rock bands seldom seem
to make anymore, full of instantly memorable
anthems performed with great intensity and verve.
It also boasts a very substantial portion of balls-out
thrash metal riffing which takes songs like insanely
catchy first single Isolation and the thunderous Still
Remains to a level of aggression and power that is
going to take a lot of people by surprise.A clear
progression from their previous two albums, the
decent One Day Remains and the excellent Blackbird,
AB III is also noticeably darker and more downbeat
than anything that Mark has been involved with
before, with self-evident themes of spiritual turmoil
and disillusionment pushing Alter Bridge into a lyrical
sphere that, as the guitarist puts it,“would definitely
not fly with Creed fans…”
“It’s about a man who’s lost faith in God and lost
his faith in everything,” he explains.“He has no belief
system whatsoever. He doesn’t believe in God or the
Devil or anything, and as far as he’s concerned he’s
just going to die and rot and that’s it. It’s about
someone who grew up believing in all these things and
had a nice, cushy life and then suddenly something
happens and he stops believing. Lyrically it’s pretty
dark, but there is some hope in there too.”
The one thing that everyone knows about Creed
– somewhat erroneously, in truth – is that they
were“a Christian rock band”, so this exercise in
soul-searching and doubt will certainly come as
something of a surprise to those who have followed
Mark’s career. But although he makes it plain that
the new album’s lyrics were largely penned by
frontman (and current Slash sidekick) Myles Kennedy,
it’s clear that the guitarist is more than comfortable
exploring such philosophically daunting territory
on songs like the menacing Slip To The Void and the
bleak All Hope Is Gone.
“I don’t believe in organised religion and I think
it’s bullshit that if you don’t believe in someone else’s
faith you’re gonna burn in hell,” he states.“Those
televangelists are a bunch of freaks too, but I do

ALTER BRIDGE
Alter Bridge (left to right):
Myles Kennedy, Brian Marshall,
Scott Phillips, Mark Tremonti

“WHENI WAS AKID,ISAWMYSELF AS
BEINGINABANDLIKEIRONMAIDEN,
PLAYINGTOAMETALCROWD”
MARKTREMONTI

METALHAMMER.CO.UK | 61

ALTER BRIDGE
Metal disciples

believe in something. Our lives do have meaning somehow,
but I understand where Myles is coming from too.Whenever
I write I get into these dark places and I try and come up with
these dark, brooding parts, and at one point I asked myself
‘Is this going to turn me into a dark person?’because I don’t
want to walk around all day being angry and depressed!
I just want people to feel some dark, moody sense when
they hear the songs or I want them to feel something
uplifting, and nothing in between.”

I

for us.We always knew this record was going to happen.
It was just a matter of trying to get it out before people
got angry! But I’m always writing and I knew it was gonna
be quick when we got to the studio.We’ve always made it
clear that Alter Bridge isn’t going anywhere. I’m not pointing
fingers at anybody, but there’s always some kind of stress
in bands and their chemistries.There’s always one guy
who’s a jackass! But in Alter Bridge everyone’s really
relaxed with one another. Everybody in the band’s on the

that than someone saying,‘I sure hate that Alter Bridge, but
I love Creed!’You know, Creed was a big part of my life back
in the day, but that was a younger version of us.We were
selling out arenas and playing in these huge amphitheatres
and it was great fun. It was a whole other experience, but
Alter Bridge is a lot more well-seasoned and we’ve learned
a lot more tricks along the way. I’m older now and I’ve
worked my whole life to get better, year after year, and Alter
Bridge is what I’m doing now.”
With the music industry
flailing helplessly around in
a state of panic, it seems
highly unlikely that the vast
commercial triumphs of
bands like Creed will be
replicated too often in the
future, but you would have
to be pretty brave to bet
against Alter Bridge
defying the odds and
becoming righteously massive over the next few years.Very
obviously the strongest and heaviest record of his career to
date, AB III suggests that Mark Tremonti is finally fulfilling all
his childhood metalhead dreams in a band that appears to
have the wind in its sails right now.
“When I was a kid, I saw myself as being in a band like Iron
Maiden, playing to a metal crowd,” he says.“I grew up playing
Slayer riffs and writing that kind of music, and then suddenly
people are calling Creed a Christian band and a Pearl Jam
rip-off and I’m wondering‘How did I get into this?’Ha ha ha!
So yeah, this is about getting back to my roots.”

“SELLINGOUTARENAS WITHCREEDWAS GREAT
FUN, BUTWITH ALTERBRIDGEWE’VELEARNED
ALOTMORETRICKS ALONG THEWAY”

n the years that have passed
since the last Alter Bridge
album, 2007’s Blackbird,
all four members of the band
have been extremely busy.
Myles Kennedy, of course, has
contributed to Slash’s recent
solo album and become his de
facto vocal muse while also
going through the extraordinary
experience of being rumoured to be a potential replacement
for Robert Plant in a hypothetically revived Led Zeppelin
lineup. Meanwhile, Mark, bassist Brian Marshall and
drummer Scott Phillips stepped back in time to reunite with
singer Scott Stapp to hit the road and make a new album as
Creed.As a result of all this extracurricular activity, many
Alter Bridge fans became concerned that their favourite
band might be heading for a premature burial, but as the
new album amply demonstrates, they have returned more
focused and enthusiastic than ever before.
“Myles is working with Slash, we’re working with Creed,
I might be doing a solo project, but we all understand and
it’s cool,” Mark explains.“We’re all grown adults and we
look out for each other and Alter Bridge is a huge priority

MARKTREMONTI

same page.We’re all good buddies and it works real well for
us and it’s getting better and better.”

O

ne of the most interesting things about the steady rise of
Alter Bridge, is that very few people seem to have been
put off by the association with Creed, a band that were
loved by millions but hated with swivel-eyed intensity by their
detractors. Mark Tremonti is clearly and understandably
proud of his achievements with his first band, but he is also
fully aware that AB III will be embraced by many rock and
metal fans that wouldn’t touch a Creed CD with a shitty stick.
“Oh man, I get that all the time!”he laughs.“I get people
coming up to me saying,‘I hope this doesn’t upset you, but
I never liked Creed but I love Alter Bridge!’I’d rather hear

TWICE AS HARD

a change.They have just released
their second album. It kicks arse.

STONE SOUR

MURDERDOLLS

CIRCLE

A dumb, viciously entertaining riot
of ghoulish cock rock and snotty
horror punk, Murderdolls
enabled Slipknot
drummer Joey Jordison
to strap on a guitar and
rock like a bastard at
the front of the stage for

Not content with fronting Tool,
easily one of the most revered
bands of the modern age,
Maynard Keenan proved
that he has the Midas
touch with the mellower
and more straightforward A Perfect

AB III IS OUT NOW VIA ROADRUNNER RECORDS.
ALTER BRIDGE ARE ON TOUR NOW

Circle, whose Mer De Noms debut
was an instant smash hit in 2000.

they shifted more than a few
albums along the way.

FIVE BANDSWHO FOUND SUCCESSASASIDE PROJECT.OK,FOUR… A PERFECT

AUDIOSLAVE

METHODS OF
MAYHEM

We suspected Corey Taylor could
sing the birds from the trees but
evidence was scarce until Slipknot’s
frontman revived his old band and
set about becoming hugely
successful with a slick but
undeniably potent mainstream rock sound.

The combination of exSoundgarden vocalist Chris
Cornell and three-quarters of Rage
Against The Machine
turned out to be
considerably less
than the sum of its
parts but, despite
being a bit dull,

Instigated by tireless boob-fan and
legendary Mötley Crüe drummer
Tommy Lee, MOM changed the face
of rock’n’roll forever, effortlessly
achieving world domination.
Except they didn’t really.
Diabolical nu-metal
twattery? Go on then…

“Depression is fucking
horrible. It’s an emotional
cancer. Worse than any
acid trip. It was my own
personal horror movie”
DAVE WYNDORF

| METALHAMMER.CO.UK

Dave Wyndorf

MONSTER MAGNET mainman Dave Wyndorf survived depression
to deliver their best album since Powertrip. Loving rock since he
was 14, the choice between death and rock’n’roll was obvious.
Words: Dom Lawson. Pics: Mark Weiss.

WHEN AND WHERE WERE
YOU BORN?
“I was born in Red Bank, New Jersey,
about two blocks away from where
I live right now, in 1956. So I’m 54.
Where’s all the time gone?”
ANY BROTHERS OR SISTERS?
“There were eight kids in the family.
I was a middle child, with five sisters
and two brothers. One brother was eight
years older than me, so there was no
competition there, and my other brother
is six years younger than me, so there
were no problems. I just beat the shit
out of him! Ha ha ha!”

XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE
YOUR CHILDHOOD?
“It was a pretty idyllic existence. We
were poor but we didn’t know it. We had
a lot of woods to go to, there was a river
nearby. Real Tom Sawyer shit. You go
out in the summertime at seven in the
morning and you don’t come back until
lunchtime, then you go out again and
don’t come back until dinnertime. I
loved it. I have no complaints.”
DID YOU HAVE A GOOD
RELATIONSHIP WITH
YOUR FAMILY?
“It was always really happy. My parents
were World War II veterans. They grew
up during The Great Depression, so
everything after that was just gravy.

They were like, ‘The birds are singin’
in the trees! It’s a great day!’ They just
didn’t complain. My mom was a fuckin’
Zen master, a really imaginative person.
My dad worked his ass off all the time,
but he never complained. My family was
always completely sarcastic and funny
as shit. And they still are.”
WERE YOU A REBEL AT SCHOOL?
“I was really shy at school. I was a ghost.
I lived inside my own head. My brain
was good at imagining things, so for
the longest time I didn’t really have to
go outside of that to keep myself happy.
It wasn’t until later, when I discovered
girls, that I realised it was time to clean
up my act and climb out of my head.
But I always did a lot of daydreaming.”
WHEN DID YOU FIRST GET
BLOWN AWAY BY MUSIC?
“Oh, really young. My mum loved
classical music and she used to play stuff
like Danse Macabre and all these classic
pieces, and they’d always have stories
behind them, like, ‘Here’s where the
skeletons rise up from the grave!’ and I’d
be like, ‘Woah! This is fuckin’ awesome!’
My brother had records too, like The
Beatles and The Stones. There was
music in every TV show and all the old
movies I watched, all these old monster
movies with bodacious soundtracks,
which fuckin’ rocked in their own way.
So music was everything.”

AT WHAT POINT DID YOU DECIDE
THAT YOU WANTED TO BE IN
A ROCK BAND?
“I went to concerts from the age of 14,
maybe two or three a week, and I saw
everything. I was a total rock maniac,
in a very quiet way. One day in high
school, these kids I’d met said, ‘You
wanna come over and practise? We’ve
got a band!’ I’d never been close to a real
band before. I couldn’t play anything.
I went over and I knew all the words
to the songs they were doing, like
Ramones songs and UFO and all that
stuff. The guy who was singing didn’t
know all the words, so I ended up
singing. The next thing you know,
I joined the band. We went from being
a covers band to being a punk rock band
called Shrapnel.”
SO WHEN DID MONSTER
MAGNET BEGIN?
“Eventually I bought my first guitar.
As soon as I plugged that thing in and
started playing around with a fuzzbox,
that was it. That was the sound I wanted.
Tim Cronin [bass] worked at Jack’s Music
Shop, I worked at Fantasy Zone comic
shop and John McBain [guitar] worked
at a used record store. It was three
nerdy retail guys, all lost in our own
obsessions. Those two guys had been
making tapes under the name Dog Of
Mystery, doing weird, experimental,
Butthole Surfers kind of stuff. I had my

own little thing going, called Love
Monster. They wanted to do a live
Dog Of Mystery thing and they
needed people to fill it out. I said I’d
play guitar, we started to play some
songs I’d written, and we eventually
became Monster Magnet.”

up in the 70s when everybody had
long hair and looked like hippies, but
they weren’t. They were mean!”
WERE YOU PLEASED WHEN
THE STONER ROCK SCENE
KICKED OFF IN THE 90S?
“It felt great. The world finally
understands! I was really a kindred
spirit with the Butthole Surfers and
even early White Zombie, Mudhoney,
Spacemen 3 and all those guys. I was
really psyched by that, but that stuff
was on its way out, so it made me
really happy to see that there were
other bands doing the same thing.
Kyuss were doing stuff that I would
never do, which was playing the
same riff forever. Your favourite
Sabbath riffs, over and over! It’s a
great soundtrack to being stoned
and it was really fucking cool.”

YOU HAD A LOT OF COOL
NAMES BEFORE YOU FINALLY
CHOSE THAT ONE…
“Oh yeah! Every three months we’d
change the name. For a while it was
Heroin Mule, then Nipple Tank, Acid
Reich, Madness Is The Mongoose,
Wrath Of The Bullgod, King Fuzz, and
then finally we got a gig in southern
Jersey with Jane’s Addiction. On the
way we were talking about old toys,
and someone mentioned a thing
called a monster magnet, and that
was it. ‘That’s the name of the
band for tonight!’ We played
a 25-minute version of Grand
Funk Railroad’s Paranoid
with every echo machine
on fuckin’ 11!”

“I loved the
idea of turning
peace and
love into
something
ugly”
DAVE WYNDORF

WHAT WAS
THE AUDIENCE
REACTION LIKE?
“It was total
bollocks, but if you
do that kind of stuff
with a serious
face, people think
it’s art. And they
did! People
were clapping
and cheering
and I just
thought, ‘Wow,
is it this easy?’
Ha ha ha! This old
dude came over
and said, ‘It’s the
return of drug rock!
Alright!’ and he gave me
the thumbs-up.”
WERE YOU ALL
GUZZLING DRUGS IN
THOSE DAYS?
“No, not really. The other guys were
smoking pot, but not me. I hadn’t
done drugs in years at that point, but
I was totally in love with psychedelia.
I loved the idea of the peace and love
movement being turned on its head
and being really, really ugly. That’s
what I saw when I was a kid. I grew

FAVOURITE SONG
“I listen to too much fuckin’shit!
My favourite song today was Amon
DüülII doing Eye-Shaking King,
which is fuckin’unbelievable. I think
it’s on the Tanz Der Lemmings
album.Talk about the Bigfoot of
prog! They were like a giant Yeti
stompin’around!”

Dave Wyndorf tells us
about his fave stuff.

FAVOURITE
BOOK
“It’s either To Kill A
Mockingbird or Fear And
Loathing In Las Vegas.

YOU WENT FROM BEING
UNDERGROUND HEROES
TO THE MAJOR LABEL WORLD.
WAS THE TRANSITION EASY?
“It was a challenge. The way
I thought about joining a major label
was like I was cutting off my left nut.
It was the worst thing I could do, but
at the same time I was old enough to
realise that it was the only thing to
do. You either jump in with your fists
flying and take everything on or you
don’t. So we did. No matter what we
did, it seemed to catch on to a certain
extent. Those were golden days.”
WAS IT THE PLAN FOR POWER
TRIP TO REALLY BREAK
MONSTER MAGNET?
“We achieved it naturally. There
wasn’t any grand plan. The weird
thing was, that album was laughing
at the whole rock’n’roll circus, but
a lot of our new fans thought it was
real. I was wearing leather pants
and people were loving it! But for
me it was just another chapter in
Monster Magnet World. I guess we
could’ve made ‘Power Trip Two’, but
that’s not how I do things.”
YOU RECENTLY MADE A
RECOVERY FROM A NASTY
BRUSH WITH PRESCRIPTION
DRUGS AND DEPRESSION.
WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED?
“I started taking these superpowerful anti-anxiety drugs to put

Two ends of the spectrum, but both
equally good. I try not to re-read
books, but I’ve learned that it’s not
the time-waste I thought it was.
Good books deserve maximum
attention, and I read faster now than
I ever did when I was a kid.”

FAVOURITE MOVIE
“I’ll go for His Girl Friday,
because I can watch that
a million times and it
never lets me down. It’s
got Cary Grant and
Rosalind Russell and

HOW DID YOU SHRUG OFF
THE DEPRESSION AND
THE ADDICTION?
“I can laugh about it now, but I don’t
think I’ve ever seen things that black.
Depression is fucking horrible. It’s an
emotional cancer. It was worse than
any acid trip. It was my own personal
horror movie. If I thought I knew
about insanity before, I just took a
fuckin’ graduate course. But now it’s
over and I’m feeling great! Ha ha!”

MASTERMIND IS YOUR BEST
ALBUM IN YEARS. IS THIS
A NEW CHAPTER FOR
MONSTER MAGNET?
“The last record was put together
from pieces I had lying around and
I wasn’t in the best of shape. For this
one, I was in the driving seat and it
turned out great. For me, each
record’s a new chapter, but there’s
nothing that draws a line in your life
like almost dying! It’s like, ‘Hey,
remember the time I blew my mind
on drugs and went to the nuthouse
and almost died?’ That’s a fuckin’ line
you can sink your teeth into!”
DO YOU SEE MONSTER
MAGNET AS SOMETHING
YOU’LL DO UNTIL YOU DROP?
“I’ll keep doing it until I drop dead on
stage or find something better to do!
I love making albums and playing
live. It’s a great feeling, getting out
there and fuckin’ slamming it out.
Those are the things that make it all
worthwhile because they remind me
why I liked rock’n’roll in the first
place. It never gets old for me.”

MASTERMIND IS OUT
NOW VIA NAPALM.
MONSTER MAGNET
TOUR IN NOVEMBER

it’s like the fastest comedy ever.
I love The Sweet Smell Of Success
too.There isn’t a wasted second in
either of those movies.”

FAVOURITE
CITY

“NewYork.You can be famous
or totally anonymous and it’s the
same good time! You can eat
FAVOURITE
anything, there’s tons to look
SUPERHERO
at,you can rent
“Spider-Man. He’s a nerd that made anything and do
good! When it was originally done, it anything,
was realistic because he was really any time
mercenary.The first thing he
of the
thought of when he got his
day!”
superpowers was that he’d be
a TV star! It didn’t work out.
So that’s just like me!”

R EX FEATUR ES

70 | METALHAMMER.CO.UK

me out like an animal for six
or seven hours a night. It was
time to sleep, so bam! But they
got me. If I was on tour, they
would’ve worked for two or
three years. Your body’s
completely sweating all the time,
so most of the residual drug effect
is gone, but as soon as you slow
down and you’re taking the same
pills, they get hold of you. That stuff
was the most dangerous drug I’ve
ever taken in my life, that’s for sure.”

UNEARTH like Diff’rent Strokes, smashing each other’s skulls in with instruments and the
odd Randy Blythe-cooked juicy steak. But Cardinal Selzer has something else cooking…

Helen DeMontefort, via email

Ken Susi [guitar] : “I already know the answer to this one.
Groupers. I don’t think there’s any real metal band that has
groupies in this day and age.”
Hammer: Is that because real metal bands are too ugly?
Trevor Phipps [vocals] : “Are you saying I’m ugly?”
Ken: “I have no problem getting my dick sucked. But there
are a lot of groupers because there are a lot of kids who
want to know what you play out of which amp, what string
gauge you use, way more of that.”
Buz McGrath [guitar] : “I don’t think girls are as into music
as aggressive as ours.”
Ken: “Plus girls don’t wanna get hate-banged, ha ha ha!
Unless you have a comb-over and some pop parts in your
songs girls really aren’t into it. If it’s part of a trend they
will come out.”
Buz: “It’s 99 per cent dudes.”

What’s your favourite mock porn title?
Anthony Barts, via email

Ken: “Oh, Weapons Of Ass Destruction, that’s the best.”
Buz: “Ram-Bone is good too.”
Ken: “I actually have a porn name, Dong Dellouise. Usually
it’s your cat’s name and your middle name or something…”
Buz: “Lawrence Of A Labia is awesome.”

Where were you
when Gary
Coleman died?
Eric Port-Short,
via email

Ken: “I dunno. He’s pretty
much an amazing actor. It’s
a bummer that his ex-wife
took pictures of herself
with him on his death bed.”
Buz: “She sold them to
a newspaper.”
Ken: “That fucking sucks.
He was one of the greatest
actors of our time. I used
to watch that fucking show
every week.”
Trevor: “I wouldn’t call him
versatile, but I love Diff’rent
Strokes.”
Hammer: If you were only
famous for one thing,
would you think,‘Well
at least I left that to the
world?’ Or would you want
people to drop it?
Ken: “He was probably
stoked that he did it, but at
the end, like,‘This sucks.’”

Del, via email

Would you push an
old lady down the
stairs for a million
dollars if you were
guaranteed to get
away with it?

Trevor: “The worst injury I sustained was from this douche
[points at Ken] in Pittsburgh in 2003. During a heavy part,
Ken was coming down chopping his guitar like an axe, I was
headbanging and the guitar hit me right on the soft part
of the head. I split my head and got knocked out. Luckily
it was the last song. I got carried off the stage with blood
pouring down my face.”
Buz: “I permanently disfi gured my knee cap on this tour
we did, where I smashed it on a monitor. Now my kneecap
is really pointy. The other one is all cool and round but
the left one is all pointy. I can still do stuff though, so
I guess it’s cool.”
Hammer: Have you ever seen any kids get injured?
Trevor: “I saw a kid at a show have a seizure while crowdsurfi ng. It was not cool.”

Ken: “Absolutely!”
Buz: “Oh yeah.”
Trevor: “Our old drummer
and guitar tech got
arrested in Las Vegas for
pushing a Latino lady down
the stairs. One pushed
the other into the old lady
and the tech got a night
in prison while the other
spent 10 minutes in the
paddy wagon.”
Ken: “It’s a million
fucking quid!”

What’s the worst injury you’ve ever
suffered on stage or seen in one of your
circle pits?

| METALHAMMER.CO.UK

Andy P, via email

Trevor: “Fuck her, I’m sure
she’s had a good life.”
Ken: “I’d rather hockey
crack her against the wall.
I’d like a dry hand job, too,
spit shine.”
Trevor: “How big are
the stairs?”
Ken: “Look, it doesn’t
matter, it’s basically killing
someone for a million
pounds. I’ve killed younger
for less.”

In the absence of
porn, what’s the
best women’s mag
to wank to?
Joe Jobbs, via email

Ken: “I can’t jerk off to
still life. I need to see full
penetration. Other than
that I will never climax.”

What’s the best
meal Lamb Of God’s
Randy Blythe has
ever cooked you?

Paul Ericcson, via email

Ken: “Steak.”
Trevor: “He is a great,
great cook.”
Ken: “Back in the day when
neither band was even
close to being as big as we
are now, we played Virginia
with them and he said,
‘Come to my restaurant.’
He came out with those
balloon chef pants on
and the hat and he gave
us fi let mignon, mashed
potato and lobster tails. On
Ozzfest a few years back
he came on tour with this
whole grill contraption.”
Trevor: “He’s a stand-up
guy. And we love him.”
Hammer: He and Ted
Nugent should have
a cook-off.

Ken: “Nugent would probably kill Randy, gut him and eat
him.‘Oh, hey Ted, this is delicious, what is this?’‘Oh, it’s
Randy Blythe.’ ‘Noooooo!’ Ha ha ha!”

What’s the dumbest thing you’ve done
while drunk?
James Tariq ,via email

Trevor: “There’s one thing that I did a few years back when
we stopped at a rest area. I was in blackout mode.And
I have a thing for jumping on cars so I started jumping on this
car. Our bassist was like,‘Get off the car!’So I jump off then
these two massive-looking dudes turn up, so if I hadn’t have
gotten off the car right then, things might have ended quite
differently. It wasn’t a nice area in New Jersey either.”
Buz: “I sprayed the whole band with a chemical fi re
extinguisher one time.”
Hammer: What’s it like partying with straightedge bands?
Ken: “A lot of straightedge bands party harder than drunk
dudes because they keep going.”

How does it feel knowing your circlepits
will always be better than your music?
Lester The Molester, via email

Ken: “I don’t care, as long as people pay to get in!”

August Burns Red are actually kings of the
breakdown. Discuss.
Ferris De Angelo, via email

All: “Ha ha!”
Buz: “I’m not going to disagree with that. They’re a cool
band I think they’re great… this year.”
Hammer: Ever been on tour with a really awful band?
Ken: “We’ve often been on tour with bands where we might
not be into their music, but when we hang out and they’re
super-cool dudes, you don’t wanna talk shit on them.”
Trevor: “Gwen Stacey. They’re shit. And they forced their
Christian views down people’s throats. I don’t care if you’re
Christian, just don’t force it on people.”

What’s the worst fight you ever got in?
Chris Needs, via email

Ken: “I got put in jail for busting some guy’s eyes out of
his head. I got thrown in a cell for a night and spent $5,000
on lawyers to get out of it. I then had to do community
service. When the ambulance came they were holding his
eyes into his head.”
Trevor: “But we’re not hot-heads or thugs.
I haven’t had a proper fi ght in years.”

THE MARCH IS OUT NOW VIA METAL
BLADE RECORDS

PIC:MICK HUTSON

T

here are two kinds of bands in
this world – ones that get
groupies and ones that get
groupers (15-year-old guys who
want to get backstage and talk
about bands). Which are you?

UNEARTH

“I GOT PUT IN JAIL FOR
BUSTING SOME GUY’S
EYES OUT OF HIS HEAD”
KEN SUSI

Unearth: Ken, Buz and
Trev always loved
hanging around bars.
Any bars would do

ushing old ladies over?Saying girls don’t like
P
aggressive music?Pointy knee caps?These nerks
clearly need some‘correction’. Can you hear the drums,
Fernando?Fetch the industrial thermometer,the Castrol
GTXand the bulldog clips, ràpidamente! Don’t wait up…
Music journalism: the finger painting of the literary world.Think
you can do better? Think you can do better? Check out who’s
coming up in Spanish Inquisition at www.metalhammer.co.uk
and send your questions to chainmail@futurenet.co.uk.

Tracnkg
listi
ELL’
FROM H TE
S
Y
O
B
‘COW AL CONCRE
‘PRIM EDGE’
SL
DAY’
O HOLI
H
C
Y
S
‘P
Y’
‘HERES GATES’
ERY
‘CEMET INATION’
M
‘DO
ERED’
‘SHATTH REALITY’
WIT
‘CLASH DICINE MAN’ ’
‘ME
LOOD
GE IN B P’
A
S
S
E
‘M
EE
‘THE SL HREDDING’
S
RT OF
‘THE A
S
VOCAL

MO:
ANSEL
UITAR
PHILIP DARRELL: G AR
D
IT
N
U
O
G
DIAM OWN: BASS
MS
REX BR IE PAUL: DRU D PANTERA
VINN RY DATE AN
R
D BY TE
E
C
U
D
PRO

74 | METALHAMMER.CO.UK

Pantera (left to right):
elmo,
Rex Brown, Philip Ans Paul
nie
Diamond Darrell, Vin

Cowboys From Hell
IT WAS 1990. Metal was under attack from grunge, alternative rock and
pop-punk. Metallica were on the verge of inconceivable hugeness, but thrash
was in its decline as major labels ditched metal bands and looked elsewhere
for their new rock stars. Meanwhile, somewhere in Texas, four men were
preparing to reinvent the steel and change heavy music forever.

F

or most metal fans,
the Pantera story
began with the
release of Cowboys
From Hell, but in fact
the band had been
active for a full
decade prior to that
album’s completion. Formed in Arlington,
Texas, in 1981 by teenage brothers Vinnie
Paul and ‘Diamond’ Darrell Abbott (later
to be known as Dimebag), the band began
life as a covers band, performing naïve
but impassioned versions of their
favourite songs by Van Halen, Judas Priest
and Def Leppard, just as the glam and hair
metal explosion was in full effect. Fronted
by original singer Terry Glaze, Pantera
dedicated themselves to playing live and
honing their craft from the very beginning
and soon earned a strong enough
reputation to begin releasing albums.
Their first three full-length efforts –
Metal Magic, Projects In The Jungle
and I Am The Night – were spirited but
unremarkable affairs, but it was with the
departure of Terry and the recruitment of
Louisiana-born vocalist Philip Anselmo
that the true Pantera began to emerge.
“Three albums into it, we wanted to
get heavier, but the singer we had at the
time didn’t want us to go in that
direction,” recalls Vinnie Paul.“Terry
always wanted to do more of a David Lee
Roth, poppy-type thing, but we were
falling in love with Metallica and Slayer
and stuff like that, so when we brought
Phil on board we went a little more
towards that stuff.After we finished the
next album, Power Metal, we realised
that we weren’t wearing the clothes we
wanted to wear and that we wanted to
strip it all down.The groove thing was
the most important element in everything
and that’s what really set us apart from
the thrash metal bands and the plain
old rock’n’roll bands. Our crowds were
becoming more intense too.”

Words: Dom Lawson.
a lot of confidence. We felt like a freight
train that couldn’t be stopped. We put out
our first record when I was 17 and Dime
was 15. As we kept growing we kept
getting better and kept pushing each
other to another level. When we started
writing songs for Cowboys From Hell, we
felt like the magic was there. We’d been
turned down by every record company in
the States, so we were angry and that all
came out in the music! We saw what our
new songs were doing to people, to our
crowd. It was driving people crazy.They
couldn’t wait to hear us play Cowboys
From Hell or anything off that record,
even before we recorded it, so we knew
we were onto something special…”

R

“Every record company
turned us down. We were
angry and it showed”
Vinnie Paul

A

s the 80s drew to a close, metal
was beginning to run out of
commercial steam, which in turn
led to dwindling creative returns, as the
grunge scene in Seattle began to draw
media attention away from traditional
heavy music. However, despite their clear
and proud adherence to old-school metal
values established in an earlier age,
Pantera defied the odds and secured
themselves a major label record deal.
Stranded in Texas due to freak weather
conditions, Atco Records man Mark Ross
saw the band perform and was so

impressed by the power and intensity of
their live show that he immediately set
the wheels in motion to add them to the
label’s roster. Having already been turned
down by countless American record
labels, Pantera were understandably
thrilled to be receiving some longoverdue recognition for all their hard
work, and put the resulting energy and
excitement into the creation of some
truly devastating new material.
“We had really honed our skills,” says
Vinnie.“We were a machine and we played
really, really tight together and we had

eady to make an immediate
impact, Pantera were eager to
improve on the demo versions
of future classics like Psycho Holiday,
Domination and Cowboys From Hell itself
and produce an album that would ensure
their translocation from relative obscurity
to international renown. With that in
mind, as a new decade approached, the
band headed to Pantego Sound Studio
in Arlington, Texas, which was owned by
Vinnie and Darrell’s father, to commence
work on their fifth album with renowned
producer Max Norman, who had
previously sprinkled magic over albums
by Ozzy Osbourne, Megadeth and
Savatage among many others. Lined up
to facilitate Pantera’s every sonic whim,
Max seemed the perfect choice, but
unfortunately the collaboration fell apart
before it had even begun.
“Two days before we started recording,
Max got a bigger and better offer from
Lynch Mob,” explains Vinnie Paul.“So he
bailed on us and went and did a record
with them instead, and so we were stuck
without a producer. Our A&R guy said,
‘How about this guy Terry Date?’
He’d done the Soundgarden record
(1989’s Louder Than Love), which

we were all really blown away with, and
he’d just done the new Overkill record, so
we said,‘OK, let’s bring him down!’ He was
a little shy and reserved at first, but after
we got to know each other and he could
see how hungry the band was, he really
went the extra mile to help us to get what
we were looking for out of the sound.”
With Terry installed as co-producer,
Cowboys From Hell began to take shape,
and the sheer ferocity of Pantera’s
ever-evolving sound began to become
apparent.Two decades later, the likes of
that brutally catchy title track, the epic
and haunting Cemetery Gates and the
lurching riff-riot of Clash With Reality still
sound ridiculously exciting. Back in 1990,
the impact of this fearless and ferocious
update of classic heavy metal was huge
as people were blown away by the
immense power and originality of songs
like the crushing Primal Concrete Sledge.
“That song was an accident, basically!”
chuckles Vinnie Paul.“We’d recorded the
10 or 11 songs we wanted to put on the
record. I was taking my drum set down
when I came up with that pattern
between the toms and the hi-hat, with
the kick drums running underneath it.
Dime heard it and he came running
round the corner saying,‘What the fuck
is that?’ I said,‘It’s just a new beat I came
up with’ and he said,‘Don’t take the
drums down! I got a riff, dude! That’s too
fucking badass! We can’t let that one
go…’Then Terry came round the corner
and said,‘Guys, we don’t have time for
this! I have to go to Connecticut in three
days to mix the record!’ but Dime said,
‘No, man, we have to do this!’That’s why
the song is only two minutes long,
because we didn’t have time to work on
it. It’s a short, powerhouse tune and it
gave the album a lot more muscle and
a lot more heaviness.”

U

nleashed in July 1990 as grunge
and so-called alternative rock
started to supplant metal as the
music industry’s bit of rough, Cowboys
From Hell was one of very few majorlabel metal records released that year.
Seemingly carrying the torch for the
entire scene, as even well-established
thrash metal acts like Metallica and
Megadeth began to simplify and soften
their sounds, Pantera were instantly
embraced by disenfranchised metalheads
who could hardly fail to relate to the
album’s cover shot which portrayed the
four members of the band rocking out in
an austere 19th-century saloon; diehard

Yes, these guys really
did reinvent metal

“Metal bands in the US came from LA
or New York. We were from a hillbill
country state and were out of place!y
”
Vinnie Paul
outsiders gatecrashing the most unlikely
of social occasions.
“At that time, every metal band in the
United States came from either LA or
New York and Seattle had just come on
the scene too, but we were this band from
this hillbilly country state that made
people think of ZZ Top and country
music,” says Vinnie Paul.“We were out of
place. Cowboys From Hell started off as
a t-shirt design that we had, and we loved
the title and everyone loved the shirt so
much that we decided to write the song.
We wanted the same vibe on the album
cover, so here we are, this heavy metal
band in this old saloon from 1846 with
these old cowboys around the bar, and
we’re totally out of place. When we did
the photoshoot, it was before they had
Photoshop and all that, so they had to cut
the photos out and actually glue them
onto that old picture, and if you look real
closely at it you can see where they
fucked up Dime’s headstock and had to
cheat! If you look with a magnifying glass,
you’ll see it! It’s pretty funny. Somehow
it turned out great, though!”
Refusing to take their collective foot
off the accelerator, Pantera tore into
a gruelling touring schedule like men
possessed, spreading the word about
their state-of-the-art sound far and wide
and proudly capitalising on the fact that,

SOMEWHERE IN TIME

as a new decade dawned, virtually no one
else was playing metal with such verve
and passion. Having fulfilled their
potential in the studio, the band were
doggedly proving to their major label
paymasters that the investment had been
worthwhile. What no one realised as
Cowboys From Hell picked up momentum
and started to sell, was how huge Pantera
would soon become.
“I don’t know if we knew that we were
going to be really successful,” muses
Vinnie Paul today.“But we knew that at
least we had an opportunity, our shot.
We knew that if we wanted to get to
where we wanted to be, we had to have
that big major label machine behind the
band, so we held out for the deal. Then
one day we got a phone call from the label
in LA and we were told that we’d sold over
100,000 units. It was a special time, no
doubt about it. I don’t think any of us
thought we’d made it just because we
had a record deal. We knew we had to
work really hard for it.”
With very few exceptions, metal bands
had a torrid time during the early 90s,
but thanks to Cowboys From Hell and the
men who made it, the genre was able to
keep moving forward, inspired by
Pantera’s groove-driven, mutant thrash
attack and their odds-defying conquering
of the mainstream.

Where Pantera stand in
the chain of inspiration.

their cues from the
PANTERA Taking
heaviness of thrash, the flash of
glam metal years and a gutterCowboys the
level realism that made them an
From Hell instant hit with metal fans all

VAN HALEN
Fair Warning

METALLICA
Master Of Puppets

With revolutionary fret-god
Eddie Van Halen leading the
charge,Van Halen inspired
thousands of guitarists to
embrace the shred. Dimebag
was surely one of them.

Arguably thrash’s most
important record, MOP
proved that Metallica had
already outgrown their
roots and become
something truly special.

76 | METALHAMMER.CO.UK

over the world, Pantera gave
metal a huge
shot in the
arm with this
tour-de-force of
riffs and hooks.
The perfect
bridge between
old and new
schools of heavy
goddamn metal.

MACHINE HEAD
Burn My Eyes
Huge grooves, riffs that
could level skyscrapers and
lyrics that oozed passion,
this flawless debut could
not have existed without
Pantera’s groundwork.

“It’s funny, because when we put
those records out you couldn’t hear
those songs on the radio, but now I’ll
go to a football game or a soccer game
and they’ll play Cowboys From Hell,
and you can hear Cemetery Gates on
the radio like it’s a brand new song!”
laughs Vinnie Paul.“They still sound
fresh and they sound good to this day.
It took the four individuals in the band
to make that record. Our crew at the
time were real important too, and always
believed in us and even worked for
nothing. Terry Date was a big part of it
too, and that’s why we kept him around
for so many years. It was a special time
and it took all those people to make
it happen.”

COWBOYS FROM Hell eXPanDeD
anD DeluXe eDiTiOnS aRe OuT
nOW.THe ulTiMaTe eDiTiOn
FOllOWS in nOVeMBeR,all Via
RHinO ReCORDS

THE NEXTCHAPTER...

“W

e felt were
close to
getting the
ultimate Pantera sound on
Cowboys…, but on Vulgar
Display Of Power we stepped
it up even further!”states
Vinnie Paul, and it’s hard to
fault his logic. Released in
1992, Vulgar Display Of
Power was again recorded at
Pantego Sound with Terry
Date at the controls, but this
was a heavier and more
destructive record than its
predecessor,with the last
remaining traces of the
Texans’hair metal roots
erased once and for all.
The album debuted at
Number 42 in the Billboard
album chart, kick-starting
Pantera’s rise to commercial
glory that peaked with
1996’s Far Beyond Driven,
their first Number One
album. More albums and

sold-out tours followed, but
the band’s internal chemistry
faltered as the 90s drew to a
close, before a media war of
words resulted in an untidy
and acrimonious split in
2003.The shocking murder
of founding guitarist
Dimebag Darrell while
performing onstage with he
and Vinnie’s follow-up project
Damage Plan in December
2004 put a brutal end to
hopes of a reconciliation.
Vinnie Paul now drums for
Hellyeah!,while Phil Anselmo
fronts Down.

SAVE
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V
E
R
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COWBOYS FROM HELL!
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just £22 every six months and we’ll
send you the Deluxe Edition of
Pantera’s Cowboys From Hell
Cowboys From Hell may have been Pantera’s fifth
album,but as their major label debut it signalled
a departure from the hair metal of their 80s guise,
a seminal work that redefined heavy metal.
This Deluxe Edition includes two bonus discs of
unreleased,live and demo material.Disc
two features seven unreleased live
tracks plus the Australia-only Alive
And Hostile EP.Disc three
features 11 unreleased demos and the
never-before-heard The Will To Survive.

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Al bu m s/ DV Ds

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82 Fi retariw
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CRADLE
OF FILTH

DARKLY, DARKLY,
VENUS AVERSA
PEACEVILLE/ABRA CADAVER

Dani Filth’s latest concept?
You wouldn’t Adam and Eve it…

Live s

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Ozzy, Kor
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BASED on an original tale about the
arrival of she-demon Lilith into the
contemporary world and her subsequent elevation to deity status, the
ninth full Cradle Of Filth studio opus
seems intended as some kind of
oestrogen-drenched companion
piece to the grimly priapic Godspeed

On The Devil’s Thunder, which told the
story of hero-cum-child-killer Gilles
De Rais. Never let it be said that COF
have run out of ideas or audacity.
Neither have they run out of musical
invention, as this is yet another
sumptuous and spectacular eruption
of gothic melodrama, perverted sonic
schlock and balls-out extreme metal
bombast. It is a testament to the
richness and totality of the musical
and lyrical world that the band have
constructed, armour-like, around
themselves over the last two decades
that Darkly, Darkly… sounds very
much like the next instalment in an
ongoing series of sonic novels, rather
than merely another batch of dark
metal songs glued together with bat
spittle and blood.
Of course, the pathetic shrieks of
BM purists continue to bounce feebly
off Dani Filth’s back, not least
because his band’s sound remains a
fiercely open-minded amalgam of all
the great heavy (and heavier) metal
of the 80s and 90s, rather than some
weak-minded one-track trickle of
noise. On this occasion, the influence
of King Diamond is writ large from
the start, not least in the whole

breaking news
albums
WWW.METALHAMMER.CO.UK Foron allallthethehottest

ALL
THAT REMAINS
FOR WE ARE MANY

ANOTHER
PERFECT DAY
THE GOTHENBURG POST SCRIPTUM

DESPITE selling vast
numbers of albums and
gaining a fanbase that
appears to be loyal
despite the waning
Metalcore
fortunes of metalcore,ATR
veterans hit
seem content to tread
a plateau
water with their fi fth
album. Sure, Adam Dutkiewicz’s production
is as glistening as ever, and the band play
like 12-fi ngered demons, but that just
illustrates the fact that you’ve heard many
of these songs before. Still, there’s the odd
glimmer of hope, specifi cally in thrashfests
like From The Outside and melodic mashups such as Dead Wrong, an unpredictable
meeting of ideas which sounds like Steve
Vai meeting Trivium. Next time around, ATR
will have to up their game and grab fi rmly
onto their more experimental side, or it
may just be goodbye from them. [6]

WHY anyone would name
their band after one of
Motörhead’s weaker
albums is beyond us,
but that curiosity aside,
Melo-death
Another Perfect Day’s
boffins put their debut is a thoroughly
heads together satisfying work, full of
sophisticated textures and unexpected
shifts in direction. Much of this can be
attributed to the fact that it’s a studioonly project based around one musician,
Kristian Kohlmannslehner, who runs the
Kohlekeller studio in Germany. Judging by
the scope of the music here, which ranges
from melodic death metal (The Matador)
to Opeth-style progressive folk (Until You
Bleed), Kristian has learned a lot from the
many bands that have passed through his
studio. The guest vocals from fellow studio
boffi n Dan Swanö add a dash of value. [8]

JOEL McIVER

JOEL McIVER

ALTER
BRIDGE
AB III

BAPTIZED
IN BLOOD
BAPTIZED IN BLOOD

JUST when it seemed
that Alter Bridge had
run their course, the
band have blasted back
with their best album
Crossing over yet. Now that Creed are
into the
back together, and
big time?
frontman Myles Kennedy
is heavily embroiled with Slash, can Alter
Bridge have any future? AB III suggests
they do. In the past, the band have
sounded like Creed with a different singer
and lesser songs, but now they’ve found
their own niche. The record is stuffed
with anthemic tunes, delivered with real
aggression. The style is very dark, the
band expressing self-doubts through the
lyrics. The fact that it sounds so
spontaneous – due to lack of studio time
– is also to the album’s advantage. Alter
Bridge now have real momentum. [8]

CANADA’S Baptized In
Blood have stumbled
upon a great mix of twinharmony party metal like
Trivium covering Bon Jovi
Canadians
and hardcore brutality.
prepare some The chords are uplifting
party classics majors jabbed at
breakneck speed and the while the main
riffs may not be particularly distinctive, the
80s-infused leads bring so much character
to the mix. To some it might seem a bit too
pastiche in the vein of Blessed By A Broken
Heart, but the band admit they started as
a fun side-project that became better
than their main projects. And with sleazy,
Crüe-inspired lyrics in songs like Up Shirts
Down Skirts, it’s no wonder they did. Like
Dragonforce meets Cancer Bats, Baptized…
will doubtless resonate with the more
open-minded mosher. [8]

MALCOLM DOME

GILL

AND HELL
FOLLOWED WITH

BIGELF
REISSUES

PROSTHETIC

ROADRUNNER

A DAZZLING AND
DASTARDLY DISPLAY OF
DESTRUCTIVE DEVILRY
storytelling aesthetic and amid the
initially toys with left-field notions
black twinkle of those intros, interof discord and groove, before
ludes and hazy ambience hidden
mutating into a rampant blend of
between the riffs.The percussive rush the sinister and the upbeat.
of Iron Maiden is an omnipresent
With all due respect (i.e. none
shadow across the album too, but
whatsoever) to the drooling foodhere it comes with ever-escalating
mashers of the internet whose
intensity and enough sinew-shredding unsolicited prescribing of the very
blastbeats to satisfy all but the most nature of metal itself continues to
snooty extremists. Opening stormpointlessly poison everyone else’s
blast The Curse Of Venus Aversa,
conversational oxygen, criticising
conceptual centrepiece Lilith
Cradle Of Filth for any other reason
Immaculate and the brilliantly titled
than a simple dislike of their music
The Nun With The Astral Habit are
is a complete waste of time. Both
as brutal and uncompromising as
in terms of success and creativity,
anything in the COF canon, while the
the Suffolk fiends have already
rampaging, scabby-knuckled
won 10 times over. And here they
traditionalism of Beyond Eleventh
are, 18 years after releasing their
Hour amounts to the
first demo, with yet
INFLUENCED BY
strongest album-closer
another dazzling and
IRON MAIDEN, KING
since Mother Of
dastardly display
DIAMOND, DANNY ELFMAN
Abominations from
of destructive
ALSO TRY
2004’s Nymphetamine.
devilry. This is
In terms of obvious
simply what they
THE VISION BLEAK
The Wolves Go Hunt Their Prey
crowd-pleasers, The
do, and so if you
PROPHECY, 2007
Persecution Song
don’t like it, other
KING DIAMOND
House Of God
offers a deviously
bands are available.
MASSACRE, 2000
If you do, it’s time
infectious guitar melody
SABBAT
to surrender to the
within its stirring
Dreamweaver
(Reflections Of Our Yesterdays)
dark once again. [8]
mid-paced battery,
NOISE, 1989
DOM LAWSON
while Deceiving Eyes







PROPRIOCEPTION

SUPREME CHAOS

ROADRUNNER

POWERAGE

CREDIT where it’s due –
this album can be quite
heavy in some sections.
Nick Holland’s vocal
range is impressive and
US deathcore Billy Noffsinger’s drums
crew hit
are staggering, but
the depths
technical profi ciency does
not always make for good songwriting.After
the endless breakdowns and absence of
a single original riff, adding up to rehashed
deathcore at its mind-numbing worst, you
feel like you’ve spent 45 minutes chasing
your tail. Every cliché d trick in the book is
repeated ad infi nitum, not least of which
are the utterly pointless samples. The end
of 2010 is nigh upon us and if this is the
best deathcore can throw out then all we
can say is goodbye and good riddance. [3]

WHEN you hear a band
for the fi rst time and
you’re not exactly sure
what decade they’re
from, it’s usually a
Vibrant
promising sign. LA
progsters step prog/psych rock quartet
back in time
Bigelf are one such band.
Despite oodles of talent, the mist-shrouded
machinations of the music industry have
somehow prevented their rise beyond cult
status. That needs to change. These timely
reissues of the band’s fi rst EP, 1996’s
Closer To Doom [7] , and fi rst two albums,
2000’s Money Machine [7] and 2003’s Hex
[8] , will hopefully fi nd their way into the
hands of the burgeoning new generation
of prog fans. Mixing Sabbath, Floyd, Queen
and The Beatles into one glorious fusion
of styles, this is one of the best bands
you’ve never heard.

ABHIJEET AHLUWALIA

GREG MOFFITT

EARACHE

‘Goat Of Mendes’ aka the Satanic symbol, the Baphomet, is
DID YOU KNOW? The
believed by Luciferians to be the result of Lillith and Lucifer mating.

METALHAMMER.CO.UK | 79

CATARACT
KILLING THE ETERNAL

DUB
WAR
THE DUB,THE BAD & THE UGLY

THIS Switzerland-based
metalcore crew have been
around over a decade now
and, in this time, they’ve
upgraded labels, traded
Metalcore
members and all but
crew learn to nudged out their remainget Down
ing hardcore influences in
favour of more diverse metallic subgenres.
But as with their last release, thrash is most
dominant here. Fedi’s deathcore vocals have
grown noticeably more Phil Anselmo-esque,
working brilliantly against the Swedishinspired fretwork and chugging riffs. But
despite Killing… showcasing a host of
enjoyable tracks, few are very memorable
in the long term. It’s actually closing track,
Allegory To A Dying World, that truly sparkles
and suggests just what these guys could
offer if they explored this unique, slightly
dirtier direction in future albums. [7]

EARACHE have collated
a great package of Dub
War recordings and
fi lmed live footage. The
CD is a collection of
Skindred
released and unreleased
frontman
material – the latter that
reveals his roots would have formed the
band’s fourth album before they disbanded
in 1998 (frontman Benji Webbe going on
to form Skindred). The music itself is
heavily dub-infused hard rock with Benji’s
inimitable vocal stylings always present.
Tracks like Respected just go to show that
while they were innovative, they were also
great songwriters. And what the recordings
lack in dense studio production values they
make up for in human grit that shouts from
every bouncing riff and spat lyric – as the
live DVD portion (shot at their LA2 London
show) corroborates. [7]

NIK YOUNG

GILL

CITY
OF FIRE
CITY OF FIRE

FALLEN
ANGEL
CRAWLING OUT OF HELL

WITH side-projects twoa-penny these days, no
one could reasonably
have expected the Fear
Factory spin-off City Of
Fear Factory
Fire to shake things up.
members give But now given a proper
double trouble UK release, it’s a keeper
from the word go, not because it’s
massively heavy or technical but because
it combines fully leaded choruses with
a hybrid rock/metal approach that sounds
completely evolved. The most obvious
example of this deft mix of styles is the
single, Rising, and the rest of City Of Fire
is equally gripping. All this is explained
by the presence of Fear Factory singer
Burton C Bell and bassist Byron Stroud,
whose day job is, of course, all about
balancing melodic vocal hooks with
crushing riffage. Thoroughly gripping. [8]

WITH a paper-thin
concept that appears to
have been conceived
simply in order to
promote the second and
Power metal as-yet-unreleased
with a
episode of the Crawling
novel concept Out Of Hell saga, Fallen
Angel are about as subtle as a brick. This
fi rst instalment sees our hero comatose
after a car crash that has him flitting
between two worlds, a bit like Life On Mars
but without flares or misogyny. To make
up for this, the album comes with an
overwrought novel and artwork that looks
like it won a drawing competition at a
secondary school. It’s not all bad, though –
flashes of Priest and Queensrÿche promise
much, though titling a musical segue
Respiration Desperation is never going to
win you any friends. [6]

JOEL McIVER

PHILIP WILDING

BONDED
BY BLOOD
EXILED TO EARTH

THE
CROWN
DOOMSDAY KING

FORBIDDEN
OMEGAWAVE

GRUMPY piss-flingers,
clutching their vinyl close
to their chests, bemoan
the neo-thrash fi xation on
one specifi c sound, the
Cali thrash
meaningless pop-culture
pack turn the referencing and the
lights low
historical re-enactment
fashion. Cali thrashers Bonded By Blood
helpfully exemplifi ed all of these things on
their debut, their name alone a testament
to their narrow spectrum of influences.
Now with a concept album, BBB may be
rattling on about an alien invasion and
touching all the usual 80s reference points,
but they’ve taken a turn for the darker.
Gone is the keg-tapping DayGlo
atmosphere, and in its place a pummelling,
prowling meaness and threat reminiscent
of Rust in Peace or Seasons In The Abyss.
Still a cartoon, but an adult one at least. [7]

YOU could always rely on
The Crown to push meloDM to the very limits of
brutality, and their
absence from the scene
Scando-brutes left a chasm that lesser
return with
bands had no hope of
fists flying
fi lling. Newly reunited with
God Macabre’s Jonas Stålhammar, now
spitting venom at the mic, the Swedes have
simply plugged in, cranked everything up to
the max and continued where they left off.
The razor-wire riffi ng of guitarists Marko
Tervonen and Marcus Sunesson remains
the key to these songs’ effectiveness, the
duo’s blend of catchiness and skull-coshing
bellicosity propelling everything along with
bracing urgency. Jonas acquits himself
brilliantly too, particularly on the opening
title track and the cheerfully wicked Soul
Slasher. An extremely welcome return. [7]

WHILE re-enactors and
prominent survivors try
to convince the world that
Bay Area thrash has a oneline dictionary defi nition
Thrash pioneers and a pic of Dave Mustaine
struggle to
giving the thumbs-up, the
catch up
return of the defi antly
diffi cult Forbidden is an eagerly awaited one.
In the 13 years since Forbidden’s last album,
Green, yesterday’s forward-thinking became
today’s common currency. But even though
90s groove-laden half-thrash of yore has
been updated slightly to echo Strapping
Young Lad’s space-age grandeur in places,
and Machine Head’s crowd-pleasing calls-toarms, Omega Wave is just fi lling in the gaps
when it should be setting the cosmic waypoints for the next decade. It’s fi st-pumping
fun, but Forbidden have fallen short of their
own dizzyingly high standard. [7]

JAMES HOARE

DOM LAWSON

JAMES HOARE

A great way to remember
the awesomeness of RJD

DIO

HOLY DIVER LIVE
EAGLE VISION

RONNIE James
as Stand Up And Shout and Man
On The Silver Mountain. Ronnie also
Dio’s music
paid tribute to his stint in Black
touched so
Sabbath with Heaven And Hell and
many people
that there’s still The Sign Of The Southern Cross
(the latter from the 1981 album Mob
a huge hole in
the heavy metal Rules), making this more or less a
perfect summary of his unique
The late, great
scene six
voice of rock
career. Although the Blu-Ray format
months after
re-enacts a classic
allows for bonus features such as
his death. One
picture-in-picture material, extras
way to remember him is via this
are sparse here, so don’t buy a hi-def
excellent live Blu-Ray, recorded at
player just for this. Still, we get a
London’s Astoria (also no longer
tasty backstage documentary in
with us) back in 2005, when Ronnie
which Ronnie and band (bassist
and his band were so full of energy
Rudy Sarzo, drummer Simon Wright
that they were practically emitting
and guitarist Doug Aldrich) are
sparks. Holy Diver Live was released
as a standard DVD
interviewed about the
INFLUENCED BY
Holy Diver album and
back in 2006, so pick
DEEP PURPLE, BLACK
their current state of
this up for the zinging
SABBATH, JUDAS PRIEST
mind. As a band, they
high defi nition and
ALSO TRY
seem completely
DTS audio. The show
QUEENSRŸ CHE
optimistic about the
features the band
Mindcrime At The Moore
future. Five years
bookending a
THOMPSON MUSIC OZ, 2007
down the line, Ronnie
run-through of the
GLENN HUGHES
Live In Australia
would be gone.
classic, eponymous
UNIVERSAL PICTURES VIDEO, 2009
Life is fucking cruel
album with eight other
HEAVEN AND HELL
Live From Radio City Music Hall
sometimes. [8]
songs, among them
RHINO/WEA, 2007
JOEL McIVER
career highlights such




ALBUMTHAT
CHANGED
MYLIFE

Barney Greenway Napalm Death

MOTÖRHEAD
ACE OF SPADES
BRONZE

“FOR me that’s the fi rst
extreme album; it’s fast and
it’s raw. There were bands at the
time that were defi nably
more metal – Saxon and
the like – but they
were nothing on
Mötorhead – they
seemed random,
spontaneous
and extreme.
That was the start
of my interest in
chaotic music.”




EARACHE

TRUE OR FALSE?

Ronnie James Dio never took any
singing lessons.

CANDLELIGHT

CENTURY MEDIA

EARACHE

FALLEN ANGEL

NUCLEAR BLAST

True. He claimed he learned his breathing
techniques from playing the French Horn.

METAL BLADE

GINGER
TEN
ROUND

A SHORT LOOK AT THIS MONTH’S OTHER OFFERINGS

COMPLETE FAILURE
HEAL NO EVIL
RELAPSE

PREVIOUSLY on Steve
Austin’s SuperNova label,
Pennsylvania’s Complete
Failure have more than
a hint of Today Is The Day in the doomy
breaks that pepper this noxious
gumbo, seasoned with the hoarse
misanthropy of His Hero Is Gone, the
riff-driven nihilism of Integrity and the
fi st-clenching bludgeon of Assück. [8]
JAMES HOARE

THE CONSTRUCT
TITAN

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/THECONSTRUCT_BAND

THE artier, Cult Of Lunainspired end of posthardcore has proved very
hard to fuck up, and
Manchester’s The Construct are another
band wading into rite-of-passage territory
with well-versed foreboding. Equally
driven by Burst riffs, you’ll be too entranced by where they’re heading to care
where the inspiration comes from. [7]
JONATHAN SELZER

HOSTILITY
SET IN STONE

HOSTILE LIFESTYLE MUSIC

SET In Stone recalls
Dry Kill Logic with the
now-obligatory nod to
Pantera. While it lacks
neither muscle nor crunch, it’s recording
anything memorable or original that
proving diffi cult for the Arizonians.
Fourteen years into their career, it’s
not quite good enough. [6]
TERRY BEZER

LOGAN
THE GREAT UNKNOWN
GUARDIAN ANGEL

WITH Keith Olsen’s
production, you’d be
mistaken for thinking
Logan had come strolling
out of the Midwest. Rich melodies, punch
ballads– it’s a familiar scenario, though
possibly not for a band from Glasgow. Deft
and polished it might be, but you’d think
heartbreak would have more edge. [6]
PHILIP WILDING

h
This mornyt…
in hBEiRs1t98o8
NOVEM

MANOALWKINAGRS
THE MIC ET
ATLANT

d,
ets with mea
FILL the gobl
is a killer.
m
bu
al
w
ne
nd,
Manowar’s
think of this ba
Whatever you is excellent.
s
The Metal King of integrity and
full
It’s an album
t a great
dignity. I’m no cord.
tremendous
is re
th
ve
lo
I
t
bu
Manowar fan
their
y me back to
They can carr
e. [4/5]
lik
ey
th
y time
longboats an
ER
VALERIE POTT

TEN is more a ‘best of’
than a ‘greatest hits’
set, on account of none
of the tunes actually
having been a hit, but
Solo overview every one of the 16
from Wildheart songs on offer, including
lynchpin
new tracks No Way Out
But Through and This Too Will Pass, are
cracking examples of brilliantly written
power pop. Boisterous, energetic and
hugely melodic, the likes of Sonic Shake
and Yeah Yeah Yeah deploy the same
incisive wit and drive Ginger brings to
The Wildhearts, whilst the lower key
Black Windows and I Knew You display
a more reflective side. Best of all, however,
is Girls Are Better Than Boys, a glam
rock stomper that stands alongside the
best that Sweet or Slade ever came up
with. Rocking! [8]
JERRY EWING

INFECTIOUS GROOVES/ THE KINGS OF
FROG ISLAND
CYCO MIKO
3

FUNK IT UP & PUNK IT UP:
LIVE IN FRANCE ’95

ELEKTROHASCH

SUICIDAL RECORDS

A RECORDING of the
French stop on a tour this
funky fi ve-piece played 15
years ago, this collection
shows off the real stage
Funk-metal
sound feed and original
colloboration stellar line-up lead by
lives again
Suicidal Tendencies’ Mike
Muir and Metallica’s Rob Trujillo. The two
sets are stuffed with heavy grooves, meaty
basslines and a healthy dose of Cyco Miko
and Infectious Grooves’ goofy humour. It’s
tough not wishing you’d been there to see
these guys tearing through the different
sets each night. The un-enhanced basslines
don’t come out the cleanest, but the result
is charmingly authentic and makes for one
seriously funky trip down memory lane. [8]
NIK YOUNG

STONER rock became
stale so quickly that by
the end of the 90s it was
like fi ngernails on a blackboard. A decade later, the
Out of
link between scruffy sods
psych, out
with guitars and bona fi de
of mind
psychedelia has been fully
restored, not least by this Midlands collective, who over three albums have displayed
a knack for pot-addled esoterica. Fans of
80s acid rockers Loop and Spacemen 3 will
fi nd plenty to swim in here, as swarming
analogue drones and crudely thumped
toms spiral upwards in a cyclone of grubby
grooves, while snappier pieces like Dark On
You sound like the kind of thing QOTSA
used to do before they disappeared up their
own idly chattering shitters. [7]
DOM LAWSON

GREY
WHONEEDSYOU

BASTARDIZED RECORDINGS

THESE days, when
forming a hardcore band,
there are essentially two
routes you can take. One
is to pool your various
Hamburg mob influences and genuinely
debut with
try to create something
a Botch job
crushing and unique.
The other is to just rip off Botch. It takes
a supreme level of arrogance to think that
you can get away with the latter, yet it
takes an unfathomable amount of skill to
do it anyway and not only get away with it
but almost make that sound your own –
which is exactly what Hamburg’s Grey
have done. Whilst lacking the headfucking
counter-rhythms of the Washington
legends, the fleeting moments of savagely
simple yet rewarding riffs and barely
controlled chaos prevail on a most
unpleasant yet cultured debut. [7]

TOBY COOK

IMPERIAL STATE
ELECTRIC
IMPERIAL STATE ELECTRIC
PSYCHOUT

THOSE still mourning The
Hellacopters’ demise
should buy this ASAP. To
all intents a solo album
from vocalist/guitarist
Hellacopters Nicke Andersson, it picks
man touches up where the ’Copters
down
left off – fun choruses,
punchy guitars and radio-friendly anthems
of wanton self-indulgence. We’ve all burned
the candle too much whilst away from home
and one can imagine Nicke’s grin as he sings
‘Need to recuperate/From recuperation’
during the opening track, Holiday From My
Vacation. If what you crave is well-played
garage rock with unselfconscious nods at
the psychedelia of the 60s (The Beatles)
and the following decade (The Who and
Small Faces), then look no further. [8]
DAVE LING

Down: Southern discomfort

DOWN

DIARY OF A MAD BAND
ROADRUNNER

FOCUSING on
NOLA sludge metal legends. It’s like
the 10-legged,
Anselmo and co. can hardly believe
headbanging,
their eyes at the power of their
hellraising,
own music and how much it means
weed-toking,
to people. Indeed, the London
whiskeyAstoria show that the two-disc
guzzling
audio CD comes from had one of
Mighty sludgers
supergroup’s
the most diehard, full-throated
on the road
first venture
audiences that the capital has seen
to maturity
overseas,
in the past five years. The only
Diary Of A Mad Band captures the
negative to this collection is that
igniting of the fire inside the bellies if you’ve seen Down since the
of the members of Down first hand.
release of III: Over The Under, you’ll
know the band have gotten much,
Primarily concentrating on the
much better as a live act since this
performances of their 2005
collection was recorded. Phil
summer tour, this collection was
Anselmo, in particular, is back to
recorded at a time when the band
his ‘stronger than all’
were totally inactive
INFLUENCED BY
best and it makes
without a label or any
SOILENT GREEN, BLACK
some of the shows
new material to
SABBATH, PANTERA
on here tamer in
promote. What’s
ALSO TRY
comparison. That
fascinating about the
CORROSION OF CONFORMITY said, Diary Of A Mad
DVD portion of the
Deliverance
Band is still an
package is to see the
SONY, 1994
essential purchase
passion from the
ORANGE GOBLIN
Healing Through Fire
for any fan of this
European crowds
SANCTUARY, 2008
band and, by proxy,
that greets the band
THE SWORD
Age Of Winters
this magazine. [8]
and how it breathed
KEMADO, 2006
TERRY BEZER
life back into these

DID YOU KNOW?

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Should you visit Metairie, LA, you could pop into
Anselmo’s, the restaurant owned by Phil Anselmo’s dad.

METALHAMMER.CO.UK | 81

METHODS
OF MAYHEM QUEENSRŸ
CHE
A PUBLIC DISSERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT
EMPIRE

They have the powerrrrrrr!

FIREWIND

THE DAYS OF DEFIANCE
CENTURY MEDIA

FEW would
There’s ample room for showboating
surely dispute
for sure, with keyboard player Bob
Gus G’s
Katsionis often matching the
deserved
flamboyance and speed of his guitar
elevation from
counterpart, but the likes of The Ark
Of Lies, Cold As Ice and the one-two
the driving
punch of The Departure/Heading For
force of a band
The Dawn are examples of melodic
Melody, muscle and that have been,
musicianship from
to use a football power metal at its best. Whilst in the
Ozzy guitarist
analogy, playoff past some have pinpointed the vocals
of Apollo Papathanasio as Firewind’s
regulars for the past several seasons
Achilles’ Heel, his performance here
into Ozzy Osbourne’s centre forward
is full of confi dence, hitting the
of choice. Whilst the 30-year-old
accepted standard levels with
Greek cannot hope to match the star
consummate ease. Having felt that
quality of his Ozzy predecessor, Zakk
their last album, 2008’s The
Wylde, The Days Of Defi ance
resonates with all the musicianly
Premonition, sounded a little too
glossy thanks to
flair of an artist whose
INFLUENCED BY
Fredrik Nordström’s
CV includes spells with
BLACK SABBATH,
production, this time
Arch Enemy, Dream
IRON MAIDEN, STEVE VAI
the band handled
Evil and Mystic
ALSO TRY
things their own
Prophecy. Gus G is a
DREAM EVIL
way. Coupled with
heck of a guitar player,
The Book Of Heavy Metal
the conspicuous
but Firewind’s sixth
CENTURY MEDIA, 2004
absence of cheesy
studio set doesn’t
ARCH ENEMY
Doomsday Machine
covers, the results
resort to merely
CENTURY MEDIA, 2005
are more satisfying
ramming those
DRAGONFORCE
UltraBeatdown
than ever. [8]
credentials down the
ROADRUNNER, 2008
DAVE LING
listener’s throat.

LAST
RECORD
IBOUGHT

ROBERT TRUJILLO METALLICA

BARONESS
THE BLUE RECORD
RELAPSE

“IT’S really heavy, but
there’s a real progressive
aspect too. I’m branching
out into bands like
Torche, and High On
Fire’s last album is
great too.
We’ve been
blessed
enough to
tour with a
lot of these
bands.”




EMI

REMEMBER when Sugar
Ray, OPM, Unkle Cracker
and Smash Mouth were
making sun-kissed
music that was sweeter
Tommy Lee
than downing a jar of
spends too long sugar-coated syrup?
in the sun
It was shit, wasn’t it?
Especially if you come from a country
where the weather predominantly ranges
from shit to really shit. Unfortunately,
nobody told Tommy Lee as Methods Of
Mayhem have switched from their nu metal
to just this. Music for people who make the
Ultimate Big Brother contestants look like a
meeting of MENSA minds, …Announcement
is almost essential listening because you
need to hear how ludicrously shit this
record is. Sadly, it’s an album more likely
to cause you to question the point in living
than ring your mates for a piss-up. [3]

BACK in 1990,
Queensrÿche faced
a dilemma: how to
follow the acclaimed,
complex concept album
US progressive Operation: Mindcrime?
metallers
In the end, they decided
strike back
not to try. Instead, they
wrote good songs and out came Empire.
The result is now possibly the best album
of the Seattle band’s career. Now there’s
a chance to reassess this record and to
realise that, 20 years on, if anything, it’s
even better. There’s a low-key stylishness
about songs like Jet City Woman, Silent
Lucidity and Best I Can are magnifi cent
examples of the ’Rÿche in their element.
No OTT performances, no histrionics. Just
majestic rock. You also get a bonus CD with
a live performance from that era, at the
Hammersmith Odeon. Unbeatable value. [9]

TERRY BEZER

MALCOLM DOME

NEGLIGENCE
COORDINATES OF CONFUSION

THE
RED SHORE
THE AVARICE OF MAN

DON’T get hung up on the
nationality angle;
Negligence aren’t just
worth a listen because of
the novelty factor of
Slovenia
being Slovenian. This is
goes metal
the band’s second album
thrashing mad and it’s appropriate that
this was recorded in New York because
there’s a lot of East Coast heritage about
the album, and Negligence prove this is
where their soul resides. The musicianship
rarely slackens, with guitarist Jey proving
particularly adept, while vocalist Alex
Skofljanec really can roar and soar. There’s
nothing new here, but Insane Asylum, Mind
Decay and Addicted To Aggression show
that Negligence have something going for
them on an international scale. And they
can also caress, as the acoustic The Way
To… amply proves. [7]

NEVER mind Sweden,
Australia is the place
to go if you want mindnumbingly violent death
metal. Melbourne’s The
Ear-damaging Red Shore bring the
DM from
aggro in abundance with
Down Under
an approach that doesn’t
sacrifi ce feel for technicality. The Avarice
Of Man lays on the sonic aggression with
no obvious compromise, with songs such
as Armies Of Damnation based on fi lthy,
full-throttle grind that devolves into slow
grooves. It’s not all about murderous
speed, though: on tracks such as The
Union…, air-raid sirens, discordant
ambience and industrial sounds give the
album a palpable atmosphere which will be
perfect if you’ve been stuck in a traffi c jam
for two hours. Albums like this make you
forget that Dannii Minogue ever existed. [7]

MALCOLM DOME

JOEL McIVER

METAL BLADE

LISTENABLE

INC.
PRETTY RECKLESS REDRUM
THE
MAN-EATING TREE THE
HEAVY DIVISION
LIGHT ME UP
VINE
CENTURY MEDIA

INTERSCOPE

FIREFIELD

EX-SENTENCED drummer
Vesa Ranta has fi nally
emerged from his
self-imposed exile with
a new band. With a lineup
Seasoned
including ex-Fall Of The
Finns play the Leafe vocalist Tuomas
crying game
Tuominen and
Poisonblack guitarist Janne Markus, Vesa
has assembled a squad of seasoned
veterans, and it shows. Given their similar
backgrounds and the fact that Markus
penned most of the music, it’s no surprise
that gothic metal is the main course.
Devotees of Katatonia, Type O Negative
minus the ‘humour’ and, of course,
latter-day Paradise Lost will fi nd a lot to
like here, even if it does get a bit samey
towards the end. Some good songs and
a solid grasp of that which makes teenage
metal chicks instantly weep. [7]

THE early signs were
discouraging. The Pretty
Reckless are fronted by
Taylor Momsen, a
17-year-old actress from
Teen actress
the popular but vacuous
in musical
TV show Gossip Girl.
talent shocker Along with the tabloid
revelations suggesting that their song,
Goin’ Down, is about an attempt to seduce
a priest, the exploitative fi shnets-clad
photos featured in its CD booklet hinted
that Light Me Up would be the tackiest of
prize turkeys. In fact, Taylor is the owner
of quite a voice and only the most
uncharitable of music fans could attempt
to deny the quality and likability of the NY
quartet’s unflinchingly honest mixture of
sleazy, Hole-like hard rock and Alanis
Morissette-esque confessional grunge-pop.
A bit of a guilty pleasure. [7]

IT’S taken these German
heavyweights 10 years
and four EPs to get around
to releasing their debut
album. Having toured
Slow-brewed, heavily with Crowbar in
melodic
the past – indeed this
sludge
album includes a cover of
All I Had (I Gave) and guest appearance from
mainman Kirk Windstein – it’s clear where
their influences lie. Musically one foot is in
New Orleans sludge, while the other taps
to a more melodic, Southern rock groove.
It’s an interesting stylistic blend that saves
Heavy Division from being a cliché of anger,
shouting and brutality for its own sake.
Sadly it’s topped with a monotonous cookie
monster-style vocal that makes you feel as
though you’re listening to the same song
repeatedly, leaving the whole thing
sounding disappointingly flat. [6]

GREG MOFFITT

DAVE LING

CAREN GIBSON

TRUE OR FALSE?

Gus G and Firewind have fought the forces of evil,
alongside God Forbid and Atreyu.

True. But it was in the pages of the Eternal Descent
comic series, featuring bands endorsed by ESP guitars.

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ROADRUNNER

SOUNDGARDEN
TELEPHANTASM

TORCHE
SONGS FOR SINGLES

A BIT like 1997’s A Sides
but with a better cover,
this represents a swift
tutorial in all matters
Soundgarden. There’s
Top drawer
even a new song, Black
grunge
Rain, which the reunited
recollections band originally recorded
for 1991’s Badmotorfi nger. Typically
downtuned and repetitive, there are better
Soundgarden songs… and most of them
are here – from the early bluster of Hands
All Over to some anthemic Badmotorfi nger
moments, the big hits from Superunknown
and a couple of tunes from the underrated
Down On The Upside. If you can fi nd it, get
the two-disc set with an extra DVD, which
really is the ultimate Soundgarden package.
This set, however, still conveys why most
metalheads thought Soundgarden were far
and away the best of the grunge bands. [8]

EVERYONE enjoys workplace distractions, and
one of our favourites is
our summer beach bash
where a dumptruck’s
A (short)
worth of sand is laid out
ray of
back and Florida’s Torche
sunshine
feature prominently.
Previous platter, Meanderthal, was a big hit
with the umbrella-in-drink crowd and their
latest is bound to have even Hammer’s
kvltist intern, Jurgen, shimmying his translucent flesh to the sun-kissed melodies of
U.F.O. and Cast Into Unknown. Since day one,
Torche have been called ‘thunder pop’ and
Songs For Singles has enough saccharine
in its grooves to rot a dentist’s teeth while
Face The Wall and Out Again simultaneously
test bowel muscle veracity, but remain
melodic enough to have the phrase ‘doom
without depression’ spring to mind. [8]

TRENT is no stranger to
curating movie soundtracks, and these fi ve
pieces were created for
The Social Network,
Nine Inch Nails which is about the birth
mainman gets of Facebook. It’s scarier
ambient
than it sounds. Within the
context of the fi lm, the ‘sounds’ work
perfectly to accentuate mood, and with
Trent at the helm we all know which mood.
Specialising in haunting ambience, the pair
have created 22 minutes reminiscent of the
interlude-esque tracks from The Fragile.
While cinematically the soundtrack fi ts in
with the visual stimuli and the multimedia
result is powerful, out of context the tracks
simply feel like Trent without ideas – audio
waffle, talking loud and saying nothing. [5]

JERRY EWING

CONNIE GORDON

GILL

A&M

A SHORT LOOK AT THIS MONTH’S OTHER OFFERINGS

LORD OF THE LOST
FEARS

OUT OF LINE

HORROR-FUELLED organ,
crunchy guitars and
schizophrenic vocals –
Lord Of The Lost certainly
know how to make an impact on their
debut. Some of the songs could be
stronger, but the German goth rockers’
blend of Manson, Zombie and Paradise
Lost still pushes the right buttons. [6]
NATASHA SCHARF

ONLY FUMES
AND CORPSES
WHO REALLY CARES,
WHAT REALLY LASTS
LOCKJAW RECORDS

WITH a doomy guitar
sound that shares as
much in common with
High On Fire as it does
the hardcore scene, Ireland’s Only Fumes
And Corpses serve up a pacy, passionate
serving of balls-to-the-wall punk rock
fury that shows bags of potential. [7]
TERRY BEZER

PANZERBASTARD
CENTURION
PATAC

OPENING with a
characteristic barrage of
furious crust riffs and
gear-gnashing barks, the
title track explores the band’s black
metal roots with an atmospheric crawl
and two Celtic Frost covers before another
change of gear ushers in some classic
rock posturing. All delivered with that
trademark blue collar grit, obviously. [6]
JAMES HOARE

SPELLCASTER
SPELLS OF SPEED
HEAVY ARTILLERY

ORIGINALLY a demo but
given a proper release to
appease collectors in the
year 2021, this combo of
studio and live retro speed metal tracks
joins the current vogue of looking to 80s
also-rans for authenticity-guaranteeing
inspiration. This Portland crew sound
like the real nearly-thing. [6]
JONATHAN SELZER

h
This mornyt…
in hBEiRs1t99o9
NOVEM

T DEEJAYR:
SLIPKNOD
OFF FO
“I JERKE STERN”
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quite scared

HYDRA HEAD

TRENT REZNOR &
ATTICUS ROSS
THE SOCIAL NETWORK
WWW.NULLCO.COM/TSN/

SPIRITUAL
BEGGARS
RETURN TO ZERO

Halford:
steel standing

INSIDE OUT

WE’VE waited fi ve long
years but at last it’s
time for Sweden’s
premier retro-merchants
to drop their seventh
Michael Amott album of 70s-worship.
returns to
Formed in 1993 as the pet
the retro
project of Arch Enemy/
Carcass axeman Michael Amott, the band
soon flowered into much more than that.
A shedload of shit-hot music later and
Michael continues to hone his skills,
refi ning the Beggars’ sound as he goes.
The result is a logical and worthy successor
to 2005’s Demons with the added twist
of a new frontman, Firewind’s Apollo
Papathanasio. His rich, resonant voice sits
snugly amid the alchemical mix of stoner,
doom and blues rock riffs. It’s not their
best album, but where Michael’s involved,
the best may be yet to come. [7]
GREG MOFFITT

TERROR
KEEPERS OFTHE FAITH
CENTURY MEDIA

FANS expecting yet
another album’s worth
of killer shoutouts and
hardcore anthems might
be disappointed by the
LA hardcore
latest effort from this LA
crew toy with quartet. Yes, it’s insistent,
the formula
scattered with tear-away
guitar solos and simmering with familiar
Scott Vogel rage, but it also draws on rather
more old-school hardcore and metal roots
than usual. It’s also noticeably more
experimental, and Stay Free and Shattered
come across as surprisingly moody when
compared to the classic sound of Dead
Wrong and the mightily crushing Hell And
Back. If you can ignore the repetitive
boredom of You’re Caught, this album has
a lot to offer. It won’t drag you straight into
the pit, but give it time and you’ll be airpunching and screaming once more. [7]

HALFORD
MADE OF METAL
METAL GOD

THE debut
subtle deviations, like a synthesised
albums from
dance club vocal that opens the title
Fight and the
track. Take away the metal sheen and
Thunder And Lighting is a 1986 hit
Halford band
for Bon Jovi. And when the band fully
were jolts
jumps off the beaten path, the
compared to
results are compelling, such as the
the preceding
Painkiller and
The Metal God
gunfi ghter desolation of Till The Day
treads familiar
Voyeurs from
I Die. Halford, the band, are best here
ground
Judas Priest
when Halford, the man, wails with
and the ill-fated Two respectively, but pained emotion. The piano fabric of
the fourth studio release from singer Twenty-Five Years and the pleading
Rob Halford’s solo band breaks much I Know We Stand A Chance are open
wounds that contrast noticeably with
less new ground. Made Of Metal is
mostly traditional metal with
the bravado and precision of the rest
galloping riffs and tight snare beats,
of the album. Made Of Metal might
not be an immediately
and Rob’s vocals are
INFLUENCED BY
recognisable classic,
big, almost choral in
BLACK SABBATH, DIO,
but further plays
some instances. It’s
JUDAS PRIEST
reveal appreciable
familiar territory,
ALSO TRY
nuances that will
including Like There’s
IRON MAIDEN
No Tomorrow that
embed it into your
Brave New World
EMI, 2000
could’ve been a track
consciousness, even
ICED EARTH
on any Iron Maiden
if it’s not destined
The Crucible of Man:
album since 2000.
to become the
Something Wicked Part 2
SPV, 2008
Although the album
brightest star in
HAMMERFALL
never strays too far
Halford’s glittering
Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken
from the expectations Chapter V:NUCLEAR
constellation. [7]
BLAST, 2005
ROGER LOTRING
of Priest fans, there are

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NIK YOUNG

DID YOU KNOW?

In 2002, PETA reputedly asked Judas Priest to change the METALHAMMER.CO.UK | 83
title of Hell Bent For Leather to Hell Bent For Pleather.

VAMPS
BEAST

WOLF
PEOPLE
STEEPLE

THE side-project of Hyde
from J-Rock superstars
L’Arc-en-Ciel, Vamps is
a straight-up rock riot
reminiscent of the
J-Rockers
Britrock scene of the
unleash
early 00s, with an
a monster
obligatory dose of
Japanese psychosis. Devil Side kicks off
with a rousing rumble and groove backed
with spacey synths, which add an almost
proggy air to the proceedings. Though
the lyrics drift between English and their
native tongue, the vocal lines and soaring
melodies on the likes of Get Up and
standout Revolution latch on with
immediate effect. The latter is bolstered by
a swinging brass section, while Piano Duet
hits another irresistible peak. Though on
the lighter side of the Hammer spectrum,
this is undeniably a shining effort. [7]

APPARENTLY recorded
in ‘a converted chicken
barn’, somewhere in the
English countryside, Wolf
People’s debut sounds
Brit trippers set like the work of a band
the haystacks who take their mystic
ablaze
musical powers seriously.
This is intelligent but wholly naturalistic
psych rock that touches upon similar
territory to The Heads, Diagonal and even
Circulus, flute-laced, pastoral whimsy
balancing out the nightmarish clangour of
a subtly murderous wall of guitars, but with
gigantic tunes providing a necessary core
around which everything else dances and
dazzles. Hitting a peak of heaviness on One
By One From Dorney Reach, Steeple has its
heart in the past but its head in clouds that
cast a defi ant shadow across notions of
temporal relevance. [7]

ADAM REES

DOM LAWSON

VEIL
OF MAYA
[Id]

ZODIAC MINDWARP
AND THE LOVE
REACTION

GAN-SHIN

Slipknot: nine lives

SLIPKNOT
(SIC)NESSES
ROADRUNNER

DOWNLOAD
Before I Forget and, in particular,
2009 will go
the intro to Duality are now etched
into Donington folklore forever. It’s
down in metal
backed with a bonus disc of on-tour
history for
footage, where Slipknot invite you
two reasons.
into their crazy world, but not too far.
One: it was a
Half the charm of the masks and
spectacular
An historic live show comeback after
suits is not just to look cool as fuck;
and moving picture of a disastrous
it creates an air of mystery – despite
the metal zeitgeist 2008. Two: it
their gradual unmasking over the
years there is only so much of the
was the year the (sic)est band in
Slipknot world that the band will ever
metal joined the likes of Metallica,
Iron Maiden and AC/DC as headlining expose. Also included are the videos
taken from All Hope Is Gone, but
elite. Slipknot celebrated the 10th
most interesting is the making of the
anniversary of their debut album in
Hitchcock-ian Snuff promo, a deeply
style with an incendiary set that was
all captured on video for your viewing personal song to singer Corey Taylor
but again never
pleasure. If you were
INFLUENCED BY
revealing the full
one of the 80,000 –
METALLICA,
story. Finally, in
a breathtaking sight
SLAYER, PANTERA
tribute to their late
from any angle – who
ALSO TRY
bandmate, bassist
were there, you’ll want
PANTERA
Paul Gray, is an
to see it again, if you
Three Vulgar Videos From Hell
interview with the
weren’t you will wish
WARNER VISION, 2000
man about what
you were. As iconic as
BLACK
LABEL SOCIETY
Boozed, Bruised And Broken Boned
Slipknot meant to
Maiden’s Donington
EAGLE VISION, 2005
him: a touching credit
appearance in
KORN
Live On The Other Side
to a lost brother. [8]
1992, the crowd
UNIVERSAL PICTURES, 2007
CAREN GIBSON
participation on

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UNSUN
CLINIC FOR DOLLS

STILL
ONTHE
STEREO

MYSTIC PRODUCTION

KILLING JOKE
ABSOLUTE DISSENT
SPINEFARM

RECONVENING their original line-up,
with Youth returning to replace
the late Paul Raven on bass,
Killing Joke managed to touch
upon various pressure points from
their long, incendiary past, and
still sound both utterly
of the moment and
galvanising in their
single-minded,
apocalyptic putsch.
Killing Joke have relit
the flames and fanned
them to a multi-hued,
mind-searing inferno.

SUMERIAN

JAGJAGUWAR

ON any long-haul flight
there’s always someone
who manages to sleep
through even the most
biblical levels of
Deathcore crew turbulence; no one knows
prepare for the how they do it. Sitting
long haul
through the relentlessly
average deathcore of [id] , the third LP from
Chicago’s Veil Of Maya, should, however,
give you some insight. Undeniably heavy,
and although infused with moments of
Botch-like guitar spasms and seemingly
pointless Casio keyboard plonking, a great
yawning nothingness prevails throughout.
Here everything is ‘just right’. Just enough
grunting, just enough chugging and ultrasonic drum assaults, and coupled with
flurries of production trickery, the
combined effect is devoid of the emotion
people like Whitechapel have in spades. [5]

FOR a wild bunch who
were the epitome of the
‘live in fame, die in
flames’ attitude of the
80s, Zodiac Mindwarp’s
Sex, drugs and periodic comebacks
rock’n’roll.
prove that living large
And Vikings
doesn’t have to end in
premature death, at least not yet.
Unusually for a band who’ve tended to
trawl the gutter in search of tales of sex,
drugs and rock’n’roll, We Are Volsung fi nds
Zed and co drawing inspiration from Norse
mythology, but only for the fi rst half, soon
returning to the sleaze that’ll have you
breaking out the Aviators and slicking
sump oil through your hair like it’s 1985. [7]

TOBY COOK

GREG MOFFITT

WAR FROM A
HARLOT’S MOUTH

ZÜOUTÜOFTIME
L

MMX

WE ARE VOLSUNG
SPV

PLANET METAL

BEING the brainchild of
Vader guitarist Mauser,
Unsun were never going
to be your typical ‘femalefronted gothic metal’
Death metaller band. Where their peers
breathes new rarely, if ever, put the
life into FFGM emphasis on the metal
part of the equation, the controlled, bristling
blasts that drive Clinic For Dolls’ accessible
yet entrancing knack for straying off the
path into lunar-gilded moments of reckoning
offers serious ballast.What really sets Unsun
apart is an uncontrived and evocative hint of
entirely fluff-free eeriness and magic that
feels like a by-product of Aya’s plaintively
ruffled,Arctic vocals.Their near-permanent
presence adds a dream-bordering, carousellike dimension that makes even ballad The
Last Tear a thing of wonder far, far away
from standard Eurometal territory. [7]

GERMANY’S metalcore
sluggers WFAHM haven’t
just delivered with their
third record, they’ve
kicked down the door,
Germans
given you the package
redefine
and ravaged your pets in
post-metalcore the process. Bands that
incorporate breakdowns often get a hard
time, often with good reason as they seem
jammed in with no purpose other than to
illicit cheap moshpit action, but on MMX,
WFAHM show that the stuttering chuggery
of a mid-chorus breakdown can be used
intelligently, and to spine-tingling effect.
At 32 minutes it doesn’t outstay its
welcome, remaining compulsive
throughout. There’s no reason they
couldn’t be massive. Wunderbar! [8]

PUTTING the ‘ill’ into
Illinois, Züül bring the
dirty, street-ready sound
of the NWOBHM to life
on a debut that’ll have
Youngsters
retro-metallers young
take on
and old punching the air.
NWOBHM
Channelling the punktinged energy of early 80s UK outfi ts such
as Tank and Jaguar, it’s a supercharged
ride promising no bullshit and no ballads,
just balls-out heavy metal all the way.
Sporting heroic monikers such as The
Baron Batteau, Hateful Jared and Lungoat,
they charge like so many chain-wielding
bikers through the simpering, latté -sipping
é lites, scattering iPads and eyeballs on
a ride to freedom and glory. And look at
that logo – few are they who dare to
double up on umlauts. A very fi ne opening
gambit indeed. [8]

JONATHAN SELZER

DANIEL CAIRNS

GREG MOFFITT

LIFEFORCE

REVIEWED NEXT MONTH... THE BIG FOUR/HOLY GRAIL/MOTÖRHEAD

Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding reckon the number of the beast, for it is the number of a decent album; and it is a review-score above six.

IN A SSOC IA TION W ITH

2010

LOCAL OPENING ACTS
•NEVER MEANS MAYBE (LONDON) •CARCER CITY (LIVERPOOL) • LAVOTCHKIN (NEWCASTLE)
•MADMAN IS ABSOLUTE (GLASGOW) •GUNDOGS (BIRMINGHAM)

NOVEMBER 9TH –LONDON O2 ACADEMY ISLIN
NOVEMBER 10TH –LIVERPOOL O2 ACADEM
NOVEMBER 11TH –NEWCASTLE O2 ACADE
NOVEMBER 12TH –GLASGOW O2 ABC2
NOVEMBER 13TH –BIRMINGHAM O2 ACADE
FREE TICKET COMPETITIONS FOR ALL DATES NOW RUNNING ON
WWW.JAGERMEISTER.CO.UK
ALL ENTRANTS MUST BE OVER 18 YEARS OF AGE

the fever tour

fuelled by

plus very special guests

+

december
mon 6
wed 8
thu 9
sat
11
sun 12

birmingham nia
manchester men arena
glasgow secc arena
cardiff cia arena
london wembley arena

0844 338 8000
0844 847 8000
0844 499 9990
0292 022 4488
0844 815 0815
buy online at livenation.co.uk / gigsinscotland.com
new album ‘fever’ out now
www.bulletformyvalentine.com www.myspace.com/bulletformyvalentine

a live nation, DF CONCERTS & the agency group presentation in association with

PLUS GUESTS

NOVEMBER
24 PORTSMOUTH WEDGEWOOD ROOMS
28 SHEFFIELD CORPORATION
29 NOTTINGHAM RESCUE ROOMS
DECEMBER
01 NORWICH WATERFRONT
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03 GLASGOW GARAGE
04 MANCHESTER ACADEMY 3
06 BRISTOL THEKLA
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08 BIRMINGHAM O2 ACADEMY2
09 LONDON ELECTRIC BALLROOM

BUY ONLINE AT LIVENATION.CO.UK

WWW.VOLBEAT.DK

NEW VOLBEAT ALBUM ‘BEYOND HELL / ABOVE HEAVEN’
OUT NOW ON SPINEFARM RECORDS UK
A LIVE NATION PRESENTATION IN ASSOCIATION WITH XRAY

PLUS
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023 9286 3911
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08713 100 000
01603 508 050
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08713 100 000
0844 477 2000
0844 477 2000
0207 485 9006

WEDNESDAY 30 MARCH 2011

LONDON O2 ACADEMY BRIXTON
please note Venue Change Due To Phenomenal Demand
ORIGINAL TICKETS REMAIN VALID

0844 477 2000
BUY ONLINE AT LIVENATION.CO.UK
www.within-temptation.com
A LIVE NATION PRESENTATION BY ARRANGEMENT WITH XRAY TOURING

FIRST TIME IN THE UK IN 12 YEARS!!!
FULL AMERICAN STAGE SHOW!!!

FEB 2011
WED
THU
FRI
SUN
MON
TUE

16
17
18
20
21
22

PLUS SPECIAL GUESTS

LONDON O2 ACADEMY BRIXTON
MANCHESTER ACADEMY
NEWCASTLE O2 ACADEMY
GLASGOW O2 ACADEMY
LEEDS O2 ACADEMY
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0844 477 2000
0844 477 2000
0844 477 2000
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BUY ONLINE AT LIVENATION.CO.UK
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NEW ALBUM ‘HELLBILLY DELUXE 2’ OUT NOW ON ROADRUNNER RECORDS.
A LIVE NATION, TRIPLE G & KILIMANJARO PRESENTATION BY ARRANGEMENT WITH XRAY

NOVEMBER
THU 04

MANCHESTER
MEN ARENA
0844 847 8000

FRI

05

NEWCASTLE
METRO RADIO ARENA
0844 493 6666

TUE

09

BIRMINGHAM
LG ARENA
0844 338 8000

WED 10
THU 11

LONDON
UT
SOLDOO ARENA
THE
2
SOLD OUT
LONDON
THE O2 ARENA
0844 856 0202

BUY ONLINE AT LIVENATION.CO.UK
NEW ALBUM ‘A THOUSAND SUNS’
OUT NOW

A THOUSAND SUNS

:

WORLD TOUR

PLUS SPECIAL GUESTS

WWW.LINKINPARK.COM
WWW.MUSICFORRELIEF.ORG

A LIVE NATION PRESENTATION IN ASSOCIATION WITH X-RAY
A LIVE NATION PRESENTATION IN ASSOCIATION WITH ITB

PLUS VERY SPECIAL GUESTS

NOVEMBER 2010
FRI
SAT

12
13

MON
WED
THU
FRI
SAT

15
17
18
19
20

SUN 14

GLASGOW O2 ACADEMY
LEEDS O2 ACADEMY
MANCHESTER O2 APOLLO
SOUTHAMPTON GUILDHALL
LONDON O2 ACADEMY BRIXTON
NORWICH UEA
NOTTINGHAM ROCK CITY
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0871 230 7131
0844 477 2000
0844 477 2000
023 8063 2601
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BUY ONLINE AT LIVENATION.CO.UK/TRIPLEGMUSIC.COM
THE NEW ALBUM ‘DIAMOND EYES’ OUT NOW
DEFTONES.COM

VELVETHAMMER.NET

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MUQQ PPU UMMM

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MUQQ UNR MUNR

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^ ifsb k^qflkI jbqolmlifp jrpf`
C ac `lk`boqp mobpbkq^qflk
_v ^oo^kdbjbkq tfqe `^^

PLUS SPECIAL GUESTS

DECEMBER
2 LONDON O2 ACADEMY BRIXTON
3 PRESTATYN HARD ROCK HELL
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PLUS SPECIAL GUESTS
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028 9033 4455
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THE ALBUM ‘NO GUTS, NO GLORY’ OUT NOW
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BY ARRANGEMENT WITH XRAY TOURING

NOVEMBER
26 LONDON KOKO (EARLY START/CURFEW – CHECK WWW.KOKO.UK.COM)
27 WOLVERHAMPTON WULFRUN HALL
28 MANCHESTER ACADEMY 2
29 GLASGOW GARAGE
BUY ONLINE AT LIVENATION.CO.UK
THE NEWALBUM ‘THE POWERLESS RISE’ OUT NOW

A LIVE NATION PRESENTATION IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE AGENCY GROUP

myspace.com/asilaydying

PLUS SPECIAL

GUESTS

00
0844 477 20
00

0844 477 20
R
EMY
0
NOVEMBECA
08444 999 99
STLE O2 ACAD
0
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ED
ES
LE
CH
00
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GOW THE AR
00
20
7
47
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0844
WUL
00
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0844 477 20
EMY
ERHAMPTON
05
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0844 847 24
UR
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61 832 1111
01
IS
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BR
RU
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ESTER ACAD
ILDRIVER
O.UK
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/3
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NCY GROUP
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AND THE AGE
EITIE.CH
WITH
TION
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ON IN ASSOCIA
PRESENTATI
A LIVE NATION

PLUS GUESTS

SLAVES TO GRAVITY

TUESDAY 16 NOVEMBER

LONDON RELENTLESS GARAGE
0844 847 1678

BUY ONLINE AT LIVENATION.CO.UK
THE ALBUM ‘BELOW THE BELT’ OUT NOW
DANKOJONES.COM

A LIVE NATION PRESENTATION IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE AGENCY GROUP

asilaydying.com

0844 847 2258
0870 320 7000
0161 832 1111
0844 4771000

The Underworld

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

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THU 21 OCT

AFTER THE BURIAL
&+ THEMAROON
EYES OF A TRAITOR & THE AGONIST
TICKETS £10 ADV / DOORS OPEN 19.00

SAT 23 OCT

LIVE
EVIL FESTIVAL 2010
WEEKEND TICKETS £30 ADV / DAY TICKETS £20 ADV
SUN 24 OCT

THU 11 NOV

THE VARUKERS

+ THE FIEND
TICKETS £10 ADV / DOORS OPEN 19.00

FRI 12 NOV

FREAK KITCHEN

+ JUROJIN & HAKEN
TICKETS £12 ADV / DOORS OPEN 18.30

SAT 13 NOV

THE PEACOCKS

LIVE
EVIL FESTIVAL 2010
WEEKEND TICKETS £30 ADV / DAY TICKETS £20 ADV

+ DEATH VALLEY SURFERS, THE RAZORBLADES & GINKINTA
TICKETS £10 ADV / DOORS OPEN 18.00

MON 25 OCT

SUN 14 NOV

TICKETS £15 ADV / DOORS OPEN 19.00

+ PRIMITAI, G-DSIZED & BELLIGERENCE
TICKETS £8 ADV / DOORS OPEN 19.00

SHINING
& ENTHRONED
+ SVART CROWN & THE ORDER OF APOLLYON
TUE 26 OCT

KIUAS
& METSATOLL
&TICKETSCELESTY
£10 ADV / DOORS OPEN 19.00
FRI 29 OCT

ANTI
NOWHERE LEAGUE
+ DRUNKEN BALORDI, COMPANY L & THE RESISTANTS
TICKETS £10 ADV / DOORS OPEN 18.00

SAT 30 OCT

BLITZKRIEG
TICKETS £10 ADV / DOORS OPEN 19.00
SUN 7 NOV

SCHELMISH
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WHITE WIZZARD

MON 15 NOV

BOMB THE MUSIC INDUSTRY

+ CYNICS
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TUE 16 NOV

PAIGE

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FRI 19 NOV

THE VIBRATORS

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MON 22 NOV

GRAVE & MISERY INDEX

+ ARSIS, THE LAST FELONY & THE ROTTED
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

T i c k e t s a v a i l a b l e f r o m T h e W o r l d ’s E n d p u b ( n e x t d o o r t o t h e U n d e r w o r l d ) o r b y c c :
STARGREEN 020 7734 8932 / www.stargreen.com TICKETWEB 08700 600 100 / www.ticketweb.co.uk

PRESENT
KILIMANJARO, METROPOLIS AND FRIENDS BY ARRANGEMENT WITH X-RAY PRESENT

+ SPECIAL GUESTS

NOVEMBER
18 CARDIFF
MILLENIUM MUSIC HALL
029 2023 0130

20 SHEFFIELD CORPORATION
0114 276 0262

21 READING SUB 89

WARP RIDERS TOUR

PLUS GUESTS
NOVEMBER
29 PORTSMOUTH WEDGEWOOD ROOMS
30 BRISTOL FLEECE & FIRKIN
DECEMBER
01 BIRMINGHAM O2 ACADEMY3
03 LEEDS COCKPIT
04 GLASGOW G2
05 NEWCASTLE O2 ACADEMY2
06 MANCHESTER ACADEMY 2
08 NOTTINGHAM RESCUE ROOMS
09 LONDON O2 ISLINGTON ACADEMY
10 BRIGHTON AUDIO

0870 264 3333

22 SOUTHAMPTON UNIVERSITY
023 8063 2801

23 BIRMINGHAM HMV INSTITUTE

02392 863 911
0844 811 0051

0844 811 0051
01132 443 446
0871 230 7131
0844 811 0051
0844 811 0051
0845 413 4444
0844 477 2000
01273 606 906
TICKETS AVAILABLE FROM 0 8 4 4 87 1 8 8 0 3
WWW.KILILIVE.COM • WWW.SEETICKETS.COM
New album Warp Riders out August 2010

0844 248 5037

25 MANCHESTER MOHO LIVE
0161 832 1111

26 LONDONELECTRICBALLROOM

0844 871 8803
Tickets also available from: kililive.com
artistticket.com | 0871 230 0333 & usual outlets
New album in stores Autumn 2010

monstermagnet.net | myspace.com/monstermagnet

A Kilimanjaro + friends presentation by arrangement with Primary Talent International

WWW.SWORDOFDOOM.COM

KILIMANJARO + FRIENDS BY ARRANGEMENT WITH X RAY PRESENT

PLUS GUESTS:
PLUS GUESTS

OCTOBER

22 MANCHESTER ROADHOUSE
0161 832 1111

23 GLASGOW THE ARCHES
0871 230 7131

24 LEEDS BRAINWASH FESTIVAL
0113 244 4600

25 BIRMINGHAM ASYLUM
0844 871 8803

26 NOTTINGHAM
ROCK CITY BASEMENT
0845 413 4444

27 SOUTHAMPTON
THE JOINERS
0844 871 8803

28 LONDON CAMDEN BARFLY
0844 871 8803

TICKETS AVAILABLE FROM: KILILIVE.COM

WWW.KELLERMENSCH.COM • THE SELF-TITLED DEBUT ALBUM OUT NOW

NOVEMBER

WED 10 PORTSMOUTH WEDGEWOOD ROOMS
02392 863 911
THU
11 MANCHESTER CLUB ACADEMY
0161 832 1111
SAT 13 NEWCASTLE LEGENDS
0844 477 2000
SUN 14 GLASGOW GARAGE
0871 230 7131
MON 15 SHEFFIELD CORPORATION
0114 276 0262
WED 17 NOTTINGHAM RESCUE ROOMS
0845 413 4444
THU
18 BRISTOL O2 ACADEMY2
0844 477 2000
FRI
19 BIRMINGHAM O2 ACADEMY2
0844 477 2000
SAT 20 LONDON ISLINGTON O2 ACADEMY
0844 477 2000
ALSO AVAILABLE FROM: KILILIVE.COM, 0844 871 8803 & USUAL OUTLETS
NEW ALBUM “ANNIHILATOR” OUT NOW ON EARACHE RECORDS

ANNIHILATORMETAL.COM

A KILIMANJARO, ACADEMY EVENTS & FRIENDS PRESENTATION BY ARRANGEMENT WITH X-RAY

Kilimanjaro by arrangement with The Agency Group present

DAYS OF DEFIANCE TOUR 2011
+ GUESTS
TUESDAY 07 JANUARY

SUNDAY 28 NOVEMBER

TUESDAY 30 NOVEMBER

GLASGOW GARAGE

LONDON
ELECTRIC BALLROOM

0844 477 1000

MONDAY 29 NOVEMBER

MANCHESTER
ACADEMY 2
0844 871 8803

LONDON RELENTLESS GARAGE
0844 871 8803

0844 871 8803

WEDNESDAY 01 DECEMBER

SHEFFIELD CORPORATION
0114 276 0262

Tickets also available from www.kililive.com
Kilimanjaro & friends by arrangement with Factory Music Management + Agency present

TICKETS ALSO AVAILABLE FROM WWW.KILILIVE.COM
THE ALBUM ‘DAYS OF DEFIANCE’ OUT 25 OCTOBER ON CENTURY MEDIA
WWW.FIREWIND.GR

| A KILIMANJARO PRESENTATION BY ARRANGEMENT WITH FACTORY MUSIC MANAGEMENT & AGENCY LTD
KILIMANJARO, TIDAL CONCERTS + FRIENDS BY ARRANGEMENT WITH POSITIVE NUISANCE PRESENT

THE
DECEMBER
TO DISMEMBER
TOUR
+

plus guests

+

NOVEMBER
Tue 23 MANCHESTER ACADEMY 2
0161 275 2930

Wed 24

GLASGOW GARAGE

Thu 25

WOLVERHAMPTON
WULFRUN HALL

0844 477 1000

0870 320 7000

Sat 27

LONDON HMV FORUM
0844 847 2405

Tickets: kililive.com • 0844 871 8803
The album “Root Of All Evil” out now
on Century Media www.archenemy.net

DECEMBER 2010
BELFAST SPRING & AIRBRAKE
DUBLIN WHELANS
MANCHESTER ACADEMY 3
BRISTOL FLEECE & FIRKIN
NOTTINGHAM RESCUE ROOMS
GLASGOW IVORY BLACKS
LONDON O2 ACADEMY ISLINGTON

03
04
05
13
14
15
17

0844 277 4455
1890 200 078
0161 832 1111
0844 871 8803
0845 413 4444
0871 230 7131

0844 477 2000
TICKETS AVAILABLE FROM: 0844 871 8803 | KILILIVE.COM & USUAL OUTLETS
W W W.MYSPACE.COM/ MUNICIPALWASTE
THE ALBUM “MASSIVE AGGRESSIVE” OUT NOW ON EARACHE RECORDS

T I C K E T S AVA I L A B L E AT K I L I L I V E . C O M

PRESENT
KILIMANJARO, DF CONCERTS + FRIENDS BY ARRANGEMENT WITH THE AGENCY PRESENT

PLUS SPECIAL GUESTS

DECEMBER 2010
06 BRISTOL FLEECE 0 8 4 4 8 7 1 8 8 0 3
07 NOTTINGHAM RESCUE ROOMS 0 8 7 1 3 1 0 0 0 0 0
08 GLASGOW GARAGE 0 8 4 4 4 9 9 9 9 9 0
09 SHEFFIELD CORPORATION 0 1 1 4 2 7 6 0 2 62
10 BIRMINGHAM HMV INSTITUTE THE LIBRARY 0 8 4 4 47 7 2 0 0 0
11 STOKE SUGARMILL 0 8 4 4 8 7 1 8 8 0 3
13 LEEDS COCKPIT 0 1 1 3 24 4 1 57 3
14 MANCHESTER CLUB ACADEMY 0 1 6 1 8 3 2 1 1 1 1
15 PORTSMOUTH WEDGEWOOD ROOMS 0 2 3 9 2 8 6 3 9 1 1
16 LONDON RELENTLESS GARAGE 0 8 4 4 8 7 1 8 8 0 3
TICKETS: KILILIVE.COM, GIGSINSCOTLAND.COM AND USUAL OUTLETS
HATEBREED SELF-TITLED ALBUM OUT NOW ON ROADRUNNER RECORDS
WWW.HATEBREED.COM
KILIMANJARO BY ARRANGEMENT WITH X-RAY PRESENT

WED
THU
SAT
SUN
MON

15
16
18
19
20

DECEMBER 2010
NOTTINGHAM ROCK CITY
GLASGOW QMU
MANCHESTER ACADEMY 2
LONDON HMV FORUM
BRISTOL O2 ACADEMY

0845 413 444
0844 499 9990
0161 832 1111
0844 847 2405
0844 477 2000

TICKETS ALSO AVAILABLE FROM: KILILIVE.COM
ALT-TICKETS.CO.UK | GIGSINSCOTLAND.COM | 0844 871 8803 & USUAL OUTLETS
FEAR FACTORY “MECHANIZE” OUT NOW ON AFM RECORDS
HIGH ON FIRE “SNAKES FOR THE DEVINE” OUT NOW ON CENTURY MEDIA
WWW.FEARFACTORYMUSIC.COM - WWW.MYSPACE.COM/HIGHONFIRE
A KILIMANJARO, DF CONCERTS & DHP PRESENTATION BY ARRANGEMENT WITH THE AGENCY GROUP

KILIMANJARO & FRIENDS
BY ARRANGEMENT WITH FIRST CONTACT AGENCY PRESENT

FRIDAY 19 NOVEMBER

LONDON HMV FORUM
0844 847 2405

FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY

PERFORMING TROUBLEGUM IN FULL
+

MORE WITH SPECIAL GUESTS TO BE ANNOUNCED
TICKETS ALSO AVAILABLE FROM WWW.KILILIVE.COM
0 8 4 4 8 7 1 8 8 0 3 + USUAL OUTLETS
WWW.THERAPYQUESTIONMARK.CO.UK

K I L I M A N J A R O B Y A R R A N G E M E N T W I T H X - R AY P R E S E N T

NOVEMBER
02

LONDON HMV FORUM
0844 847 2405

03

GLASGOW ABC
0844 499 9990

04

WOLVERHAMPTON WULFRUN HALL
0870 320 7000

TICKETS ALSO AVAILABLE FROM: KILILIVE.COM
0844 871 8803 & USUAL OUTLETS
WWW.APOCALYPTICA.COM
THE NEW ALBUM ‘7 TH SYMPHONY’ OUT NOW
ON SPINEFARM RECORDS UK

OCTOBER
023 8063 2601
Sun 31 SOUTHAMPTON THE JOINERS
NOVEMBER
Mon 01 WOLVERHAMPTON SLADE ROOMS
0870 320 7000
0114 276 0262
Tue 02 SHEFFIELD CORPORATION
Wed 03 NOTTINGHAM ROCK CITY BASEMENT 0845 413 4444
0844 871 8803
Thu 04 LONDON CAMDEN UNDERWORLD
01223 511 511
Fri 05 CAMBRIDGE HAYMAKER
0844 871 8803
Sun 07 NEWPORT SIX FEET UNDER
0870 264 3333
Mon 08 EXETER THE CAVERN
01792 654 226
Tue 09 SWANSEA MILKWOOD JAM
0117 907 4927
Thu 11 BRISTOL THE FLEECE
01733 571 616
Fri 12 PETERBOROUGH MET LOUNGE
01472 351 125
Sat 13 GRIMSBY YARDBIRDS
0844 477 1000
Sat 27 NEWCASTLE HYEM
0141 221 5279
Sun 28 GLASGOW KING TUTS
0161 832 1111
Mon 29 MANCHESTER MOHO LIVE
KILILIVE.COM • SEETICKETS.COM • 0844 871 8803 & USUAL OUTLETS

VOODOOSIX.COM • MYSPACE.COM/VOODOOSIX • THE ALBUM FLUKE? OUT

T I C K E T S AVA I L A B L E AT K I L I L I V E . C O M

18 OCTOBER 2010

Factory Music proudly presents

PLUS SUPPORT

&

Tuesday 9th Nov
GLASGOW Garage
Wednesday 10th Nov
MANCHESTER Academy 2
Thursday 11th Nov
LONDON O2 Academy Islington

FACTORY MUSIC
PR OU DLY PR ESE NT S

PLUS

(LONDON ONLY)

NOVEMBER
Thursday 18th : CENTRAL STATION Wrexham
Friday 19th : G2 Glasgow
Saturday 20th : THE VILLAGE Dublin
Sunday 21st : SPRING & AIRBREAK Belfast
Monday 22nd : RESCUE ROOMS Nottingham
Tuesday 23rd : O2 ACADEMY ISLINGTON London

Tidal, Brew, PCL and Capsule by Mammoth Booking proudly present

Factory Music proudly presents

Plus special guests PART CHIMP **

UK Tour - November 2010
22 LONDON
The Garage**
23 LEEDS
Brudenell Social Club**
24 GLASGOW
Stereo
25 BIRMINGHAM
Hare and Hounds**
26 BRIGHTON
Tbc
www.ticketweb.co.uk
www.seetickets.com
www.theticketsellers.co.uk

SUNDAY 5th DECEMBER

HMV Forum

9-17 Highgate Road, Kentish Town, London NW5
Info: 020 7428 4099 · Doors: 7pm · Tickets: £20 adv

TICKETWEB: 08444 771000 / www.ticketweb.co.uk
STARGREEN: 020 7734 8932 / www.stargreen.com

y…
o you b
t
t
h
g
u
bro
og
. via g
www

o . co

Murderdolls:
Joey Tem
Tribiani Jord pest
ison

. uk

Korn: Jonathan Davis singing
into the big metal stick lady

JÄGERMEISTER
STAGEshadow of the main

IN the towering
arena, like a sort of medieval shanty
town-cum-car park, and encroaching
on the Village Of The Dammed
(although upon inspection, Hamlet Of
The Mildly Unfortunate might be more s
apt), those bands appearing on Ozzfest’
second stage have an unenviable task.
Given the stage’s sponsor, the sleazy,
cock-rock stylings of JETTBLACK [6] is
just what you’d expect to be opening up
the Jäger’stage, but this particular stick
of rock tinder never truly ignites today.
Next up, Welsh hopefuls REVOKER [6]
fare a little better. New signings to
Roadrunner and no doubt due to make
more appearances on their own soon,
their drop-D fanfare seems to have
won a few new fans today. In a leap
forward in the intensity stakes, BLACK
SPIDERS [7], whose references to‘the
car park’suggests bemused displeasuree
considering they recently shared a stag t
with Ozzy at the Roundhouse, set abou

their task with wilful abandon and
refreshing arrogance. Thankfully their
Southern-fried and at times almost
stoner rock assault is of a quality more
than capable of backing that attitude
up – after all, as mainman Pete ‘Spider’
Spiby announces, Just Like A Woman is
“number one in Iceland”. Bringing the
stage to a close – and finding a large
and welcoming number of people
who have decided to give Korn a miss
– veteran melodic/goth/doomsters
PARADISE LOST [8] reward those
in attendance with arguably the
best-sounding set of the day. Pity The
Sadness and I Remain illustrate the
diversity of the band’s career, and
before numbers start to dwindle due to
Ozzy’s impending appearance there’s
still time for As I Die, and for Nick
Holmes to declare:“If you
know the words, sing.
If you don’t, then just
stand there like a cunt.”
Well, if you say so Nick.

her:
Steel Pant ain
hair ag

96 | METALHAMMER.CO.UK

MAIN STAGE

Ozzy Osbour
ne:
Got milk?

IT’S not easy to summon soul and an
intimate sense of fun in a venue as
coldly cavernous as the former
Millennium Dome, but if there’s one
tour that’s up to the challenge it’s
Ozzfest, and a legion of fans are already
swarming. There can surely be no better
band to get the party started than the
ever glorious SKINDRED [8], a band
who are still the grand masters of
positive vibes and uplifting noise.
Resplendent in their silver suits, their
joyous mash-up of metal and reggae
acts as an on switch for the audience,
and frontman Benji Webbe’s heartfelt
speech honouring live music is pure
serotonin for anyone who cares about
rock. STEEL PANTHER [7] are a
testament to metal fans’ ability to take
the piss out of the more ludicrous
aspects of the music they love. Early in
their brilliantly boneheaded set they
play Asian Hooker, a song so deeply
offensive on so many levels you’d be
outraged if it wasn’t so hilariously
authentic to the most obnoxious

KEVIN NIXON

O2 ARENA, LONDON
O2 ARENA, LONDON

WWW.METALHAMMER.CO.UK/GIGS

Murderdolls: Wednesday
13
is back in black

Ozzy Osbourne:
black eyes! Black eyes!

: he
Skindred’s Benjiagain
won’t get foiled

moments of 80s LA glam rock.
Pilfering riffs from Bon Jovi (Fuck
All Night And Party All Day bears
more than a passing resemblance
to Runaway) and Van Halen (The
Shocker) and scouring the gutter for
subject matter, they make mincing
idiocy into an artform.
MURDERDOLLS [7] look positively
horrific in comparison, despite the
bizarre dress/apron concoction
Wednesday 13 is wearing. But, backed
by relentless drums, their Misfitsmeets-Tim Burton Halloween metal
is powerful and tight, the band duce
windmilling furiously as they intro
new track Nowhere, which fits in with
old favourites like Twist My Sister likeSay
an old friend. The stomp of I Love To
Fuck (complete with ‘fuck’-branded
umbrella) may underestimate how
immune we Brits are to the shock
of swear words these days, but it’s
a spirited set nonetheless. By the
time KORN [8] are done with us,
leaving us breathless, dazed and
delirious, it takes a real effort to s.
remember they’re not the headliner ed,
Looking lean, together and determin
these old pros bring the noise

nding
Korn: outsta )
in his Field(y

magnificently. The cathartic intensity s
of Jonathan Davis is balanced by river
of pyrotechnics, and it makes for an
overwhelming hour.
And so we finish with the star of
the show, Mr OZZY OSBOURNE [7],
as game as ever in his introductory r
video that sees him channel his inne
Beyoncé in a spoof of Lady Gaga’s in
Telephone video. It is astonishing, all
every sense. What’s amazing after as
these years is how amped he looks
he storms on and demands we“go n!”,
fucking crazy, let the madness begi
pantomiming it up with his hand
behind his ear as his band plough G
meatily into Bark At The Moon. Gus
is utterly flawless whether playing
Sabbath or Ozzy classics. Bassist Blasko
is a shape-throwing dervish and Tomamy
Clufetos is simply Bruce Lee behind ,
kit. The whole set is a joyous singsong
Ozzy spraying the crowd (and a handful
of unimpressed photographers) with ,
foam like he’s hosting a kids’ TV show
War Pigs threatening to tear the roof
off.“I love you all!” he proclaims, and
the O2 wipes a tear from its collective
eye. Right back atcha.
TOBY COOK/EMMA JOHNSTON

For all the latest hammer-approved gigs and to buy tickets

u by…
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h
g
u
o
r
b
o
. via g
www

go.c

o . uk

Sahg wear th
discs of doomeir

r
i
g
r
o
B
u
m
m
i
D
Enslaved/Sahg
W

HILE it’s easy to be cynical
and view tonight’s openers
SAHG [8] as merely another
Norwegian supergroup (featuring
members of Ov Hell and Audrey Horne),
it’s certainly hard to maintain that stance
once you’ve seen them live, and their
rich tones, obvious 70s rock influence
and collection of ass-kicking songs
make this an unlikely but invigorating t
start to the night. One of Norway’s mos
acclaimed metal acts, ENSLAVED [8]
have steadily moved from their Viking
BM roots towards more expansive and
progressive territories, their evolution
matched by a steadily expanding fanbase. Slowly drawing fence-sitters to the
front tonight, the band debut material
from their new album, Axioma Ethica
Odini, while also rewarding veteran
fans by dipping into their extensive
back catalogue, including their vitriolic
debut EP. Sound-wise things are
occasionally patchy however, seemingly
an unavoidable situation when it comes
to extreme metal in this venue, the
backing vocals of keyboard player
Herbrand Larsen in particular sitting
somewhat uncomfortably on top of
the rest of the music.
It’s a concern that continues with
the appearance of the headliners, yet
for the most part DIMMU BORGIR
[9] manage to escape the venue’s
acoustic wrath, the proviso being that

98 | METALHAMMER.CO.UK

you stand up front and central –
further back and the experience
becomes hideously muddy. Of course ,
sound is only one concern for the band
returning as they are from a lineup split
that has seen them lose long-time
synth player Mustis and bassist and
backing vocalist Vortex. The latter in
particular is a void which has yet to be
filled, his spinechilling vocals on classics
such as The Insight And The Catharsis
– a song omitted from tonight’s set –
undoubtedly a hard asset to replace.
And yet, amazingly, it doesn’t actually
seem to matter. Appearing to have
used the crisis as an opportunity for
reinvention, the aesthetic change in
the band’s attire aptly reflects a further
move away from their black metal
past, the songs from new album
Abrahadabra showcasing a bigger,
more bombastic sound that further
accentuates the similarities to
latter-day Rammstein. Scepticism is
forgivable, but tonight Dimmu are
nothing less than a display of pure
power, surprisingly convincing and
undisputedly stimulating.
DAYAL PATTERSON

lder:
Dimmu’s Gacreep
negative

Enslaved’s Grutle: “I
remember
when this was all me
ad
halls and wenches”

DIMMU BOR GIR :KEV NIXON/HEIDENFEST &SKELETONWITCH:JAMES SHAR R OCK

FORUM, LONDON

Dimmu Borgir’s
Shagrath: “You should
see the other guy…”

WWW.METALHAMMER.CO.UK/GIGS

Heidenfest

Black
Country
Communion

ISLINGTON ACADEMY, LONDON

W

ITH a take on battle metal that is
overtly jaunty enough to make Turisas
look like Darkthrone, EQUILIBRIUM
ething of an acquired taste, though
som
are
[6]
their bouncy assault admittedly makes more
[8] have
sense live than on record. ENSIFERUM and
never
es
shor
e
thes
on
sight
lar
regu
a
become
ed
debt
en-in
Maid
their
of
gth
disappoint, the stren
folk metal material always impressing, withMetal
Spaghetti Western spectacular Stone Cold
be an
being particularly genius. While there may
first
the
ably
argu
ory,
Bath
een
betw
link
ous
obvi
ng
playi
s
band
the
and
,
band
l
Viking/folk meta
ent
support here tonight, it’s clear from the mom
here
yone
ever
one
not
s
it’
that
h
finis
Ensiferum
is necessarily interested in. In fact, half of nthe
gap.
crowd depart, highlighting the generatio
S
GOD
THE
OF
T
LIGH
TWI
since
It’s their loss
ory
[9] prove to be a stunning walk down mem
lane, their status as a covers band perhaps
actually
justified by the fact that Bathory never of
their
played any live shows after the release l on
ordia
Prim
of
Alan
uring
Feat
m.
first albu
ayhem
vocals, Nicholas Barker on drums, ex-MVikin
g
guitarist Blasphemer and members of the
,
erjer
Einh
and
fing
Thyr
llers
black meta
ssioned
performance is unsurprisingly both impa
ls.
voca
s
’
Alan
cular
parti
in
,
shed
mpli
acco
and
nder
remi
a
s
serve
ht
tonig
,
hing
More than anyt
to
of the huge debt today’s metal scene owes many
sadly
if
even
,
thon
Quor
man
main
Bathory
remain unaware of that fact.
DAYAL PATTERSON

JOHN HENRY’S, LONDON

IVEN that it took the intervention
G
of producer Kevin Shirley to solve
an argument that came close to

Alan Nemtheanga pays
tribute to the metal gods

SkAengletonwitch
elus Apatrida/Warbringe
r
THE UNDERWORLD, LONDON

B

Skeletonwitch:
harbinger of thrash

EING the best thrash band in Spain is a bit
like being the most famous person in
Dudley; not much of an achievement.
But it’s an achievement nonetheless, and despite
ANGELUS APATRIDA’s [7] rather unenviabl
distinction the large number of punters that e
have turned out early-doors is testament to
the underlying quality of their very obviously
NWOBHM-inspired trad thrash. Being a thras
gig, WARBRINGER’s [8] mid-bill appearanceh
is perfectly timed as most in attendance have
had just enough beer to be reaching the‘pissedenough-to-party’stage – an atmosphere helpe
by a brief appearance onstage by Evile’s Ol Draked
– and, despite the absurdly violent Bay Areastyle thrash peddled by the group, are intent on
partying the fuck out. Total War leaves many a
spilled pint and several bruised noggins, as does
the ensuing wall of death that leaves one elder
gent looking very confused. However you mighly
choose to categorise SKELETONWITCH [9], t
noise expectorated by them is never less thanthe
a white hot poker of nailed-on-coffin-lid-tigh
metal; Chance Garnette’s vocals sear your auralt
senses while the pummelling riffs maliciously
loosen your bowels and cause your head to
involuntarily detach from your spine. However,
by the time Beyond The Permafrost hits, most
are too shitfaced to care.
TOBY COOK

derailing the release of their debut
album, Black Country, it’s reassuring
to know that Black Country
Communion really do exist. Even so,
this debut live performance takes
place behind closed doors in a tiny
London rehearsal studio, witnessed
only by a hundred industry figures
and competition winners. With their
debut nestling comfortably at number
five in the midweek album chart, BCC
are clearly beginning to make waves.
Glenn Hughes and Jason Bonham are
the band’s public faces, though guitarist
Joe Bonamassa has already sold out
the Royal Albert Hall as a solo artist.
Bonham and the bass-playing Hughes
instantly register as a formidable
rhythm team via the album’s heavyhitting title song, the latter’s vocals
reminding us why he is nicknamed
The Voice Of Rock. But all four members
play their part in weaving a sound that,
whilst undeniably retro-based, has
sufficient energy and vibrancy to
connect with audiences of many
different ages. [9]
DAVE LING

Truckfighters
THE GAFF, LONDON
OLLOWAY Road is rapidly becoming
the UK’s Metal Mile with Bulleit
bourbon, eightball’n’Bud shacks
dispensing heavy rock to the twitchy
and tattooed, in a very Americanised
Route 666 manner. So The Gaff is the
ideal venue for Truckfighters to rock
out in, given that they too are Yankworshippers from Sweden. As a threepiece, playing live, everything that
made Gravity X stand out from the
crowd (Spanish guitars, funk, horn
sections) has been stripped away and
what remains is very, very Fu Manchu
indeed. It’s insane the extent to which
guitarist Drango has modelled himself
on Angus Young, with his shorts, mullet
and headbanging duck walk, but the
more he apes his AC/DC master, the
more you’re aware you’re not watching
the real thing. The set is heavy with
songs from Mania, and a heavily phased
guitar recreates the Doppler effect of
high-speed vehicles zooming past on
the freeway. There is a chaotic and
exciting encore that includes Loose but
ultimately Truckfighters are like trucker
speed, trucker porn or trucker food
– simple, stripped back and fucking
nasty; doing exactly what it says on the
tin and little else. And even though it’s
good to sink a few cold ones and bang
your head, they never step out from the
monolithic shadows cast by Kyuss and
AC/DC, even for a second. [6]
JOHN DORAN

H

For all the latest hammer-approved gigs and to buy tickets

Every Time I Die’s Keith
Buckley: a damned thing
h:
All Shall Perisack
none more bl

Hell On Earth
ISLINGTON ACADEMY, LONDON

her example of
UE to a mix-up with stage times, and tonight is yet anot
ted bands in
imita
t
mos
we’re crushed to have missed the that. One of the showcase everything
ETID
rock,
The
ern
of
mod
drive
chist
technical anar
that’s great and vital about punk,
Acacia Strain. To say we’re cheered up
iness
heav
hardcore and metal during a neon
end
lowg,
derin
by the thun
an
is
explosion of a set. From the opening
[8]
of ALL SHALL PERISH
groove-laden punch of No Son Of Mine
understatement. Uncompromisingly
us
through to the face-punch punk of
dero
thun
and
s
brutal blastbeat
level
a
Ebolarama and anthems like The New
beatdowns are delivered with
your
like
Black and Who Invented The Russian
feel
you
es
mak
that
ity
of feroc
gh
throu
Soldier?, these Buffalo revolutionaries
pe
esca
bowels are trying to
t
span the genres and raise hell during
your arse for the set’s duration. Wha
ivity,
one of the finest sets we’ve seen all
creat
in
lack
may
ers
these bruis
er.
pow
in
year. Keith Buckley has some of the best
for
they more than make up
stage moves in the business, Andy s
Thoroughly impressive stuff.
[8]
Williams and Jordan Buckley criss-cros
ROR
TER
arts
Hardcore stalw
all
he-w
the stage like a hyperactive King and
detonate no thrills, balls-to-t
Hannemann and the band as a whole
with
ered
deliv
core,
roots hard
gy
ener
are tighter than 99.9 per cent of the
the
all
and
unstoppable spirit
bands currently touring the Earth.
of a crack-fuelled nursery class.
nonEnding the set by having the power
and
stare
icy
the
by
Conducted
the
l,
Voge
pulled on them after roughly 100
t
Scot
stop goading of leader
people storm the stage for We’rewolf,
floor of the Islington Academy is like
They
t.
ETID still lead the world of modern
ghou
throu
icane
a fucking hurr
or
k
attac
hardcore, showing everyone how it’s
may not have the variety in
done. If you weren’t here, you were
the finesse of tonight’s headliners, but
core,
having a shit time.
hard
y
h-gu
in the field of toug
TERRY BEZER
Terror still throw elbows harder than
ion.
petit
com
most of the
We’re going to level with you: there
are very few bands as great in the live
environment as EVERY TIME I DIE [9]

Terror: 66…?

100 | METALHAMMER.CO.UK

HELL ON EAR TH &MAMMOTHFEST:JAMES SHAR R OCK /BLIND GUAR DIAN:ESTER SEGAR R A

D

WWW.METALHAMMER.CO.UK/GIGS

Blind Guardian:
Flying V for victory

Blind
GuSta
r
dian
eelwing
02 SHEPHERD’S BUSH EMPIRE, LON
DON

“T

HIS is the birthplace of heavy metal!”
exclaims STEELWING’s [6] frontman
Riley, grinning excitedly from the stage
of one of London’s larger music halls. The Swed
five-piece have only been around since last yearish
so already performing at such a prestigious venu
is really quite an achievement. Despite a slow e
start, things pick up by the Maiden-esque The
Illusion and these lads seriously ooze not only
the trademark sound and look of their NWOBHM
heroes. If England is the home of heavy meta
then Germany is certainly one of the key counltries
for power metal and tonight BLIND GUARDIA
[9] prove it. With no clichés and no set formula,N
the German pioneers treat fans to an hour-anda-half of explosive anthems. Tight, intense, epic
– BG tick all the boxes and there’s even the
breathtaking acoustic track In The Forest. The
melodic Nightfall from the Middle-Earth-in
d
album of the same name is also ripped throuspire
gh,
as is current single A Voice In The Dark, from the
new album At The Edge Of Time and the origin
Viking metal anthem, Valhalla. As the grand al
finale, Imaginations From The Other Side, draw
to a close, frontman Hansi Kürsch promises the s
audience they’ll be back on these shores again
soon. The frenzied response from the crowd just
about says it all.
NATASHA SCHARF

Mammothfest

o g o . c o . uk
www. via g

ORGET about the fact that the
F
sound quality here is generally
indistinct. Forget about the fact that,

at times, the Swedes sound a little
sloppy. This is all about an incredible
atmosphere, as Dark Tranquillity finally
come of age in the UK. Faced with
a sold-out crowd who greet them,
and each song, with huge roars of
celebration, the occasion almost
overwhelms the band, as vocalist
Mikael Stanne makes clear with
breathless gratitude at the start of this
lengthy set. The rapport between fans
and stage is so tight that you get the
feeling the Dark ones could have gotten
away with anything, but for the most
part, the performance is powerful and
focused. There are times when the
musicians let things slip, as they
become a little too loose, but that’s
probably because they’re a touch too
eager to please. But there’s no denying
the verve and vivacity. They even bring
along an oversized backdrop screen to
provide appropriate images – in a
venue this size that’s gloriously
foolhardy. Forced to live for so long in
the shadow of In Flames and Arch
Enemy, tonight Dark Tranquillity’s
intriguing twist of melodic death
metal finally pays rich dividends. [8]
MALCOLM DOME

GARAGE, LONDON

B

…
BROUGHT TO YOU BY

THE UNDERWORLD, LONDON

Reckless
Love

HOVE TOWN HALL, BRIGHTON & HOVE

RIGHTON’S metal scene has been crying out
for an annual knees-up, and despite last-of
minute lineup changes and a faint whiffas
is
chaos, Mammothfest fits the bill nicely. This
of
much about celebrating the UK’s currentes,glut
and
nam
big
in
ing
bring
t
abou
is
it
as
t
talen
HORN [7]
scorching sets from thrash brutes TERRAT
D [7] are
and Wylde-at-heart riff-wielders GODSIZEctive
colle
the
get
to
s
need
day
the
t
exactly wha
YON [8]
blood bubbling. The locals know that FUR
greeted
is
set
their
and
,
pect
pros
ss
d-cla
worl
a
are
TED
ity,
insan
r
shee
For
oria.
euph
with deserved
MAUL [8] still take some beating. With new
batshit
material that sounds even more fervently
have
to
y
read
d
soun
s
oner
than the old, the Lond
a well-lit
another stab. Somewhat awkward in such
to make
and sterile venue, ABGOTT [6] do their best
black
a
not
ly
plain
is
this
darkness descend, but
come
metal crowd. Instead, it’s MALEFICE [8]ewho
a
is
Ther
s.
liner
head
the
g
agin
closest to upst
neo-thrash
delicious simplicity to the Brits’lurching,and
it’s not
vals
festi
at
antly
brilli
s
work
that
ult
assa
this
like
ts
even
g
linin
head
hard to imagine them
it is left to
in the near future. As the booze kicks in,the
mighty
the ageless ORANGE GOBLIN [8] and less classics
time
few
a
out
n
ENTOMBED [8] to chur
and
and send everyone home with buzzing ears
.
2011
on
Roll
cles.
mus
bruised neck
DOM LAWSON

Dark
Tranquillity

been about 30 minutes and
IhasT’SReckless
Love vocalist Olli Herman
taken off his top three times. Not

Orange Goblin’s manmountain, Ben Ward

that he’s come on stage looking like
a man trying to smuggle jumpers out
of Primark, Olli’s sharper than that;
he struts on stage wearing a vintage
band top he probably bought on eBay,
peels it off and then goes off, puts on
another one and does it all over again.
Olli is prettier than most Miss World
contestants so the crowd appreciates
this very much. They also like the way
he kicks the air like David Lee Roth used
to; they even find it in their hearts to
applaud both the guitar and drum solo
too. If it weren’t for their shoddy songs
and sub-standard LA shtick, they’d be
an enigma. Sadly, ripping off Warrant’s
Cherry Pie (almost note for note) and
wearing vacuum-packed pants can only
take you so far. Olli’s braying insistence
to raise your hands in the air (he does it
more often than Jon Bon Jovi – it might
be some sort of record) wears thin after
a while and though he might look like
the bastard lovechild of Vince Neil
(before the rhinoplasty) and Mike
Tramp, Reckless Love are a case of
diminishing returns; truly all mouth
and (very tight) trousers. [6]
PHILIP WILDING

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ISCOVER ED, THE PANT-WETTINGLY BIZA
THE LOST, THE R ED
RRE

Tank (left to right): Doogie
White, Dave Cavill, Cliff Evans,
Mick Tucker, Chris Dale

TANK hit afalse start in the early 80s.They released fi ve albums and supported Metallica
and then disappeared. Now the NWOBHM rockers are back to make up for lost time.
Words: Dom Lawson.
he early 80s marked a very vibrant and
exciting time for British metal, as a new
generation of bands gave the genre a huge
kick up the arse. Although never truly part
of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal,
Tank fitted in perfectly, their ferocious
blend of metal aggression, rock’n’roll swagger and punk
energy immediately endearing them to fans of loud,
obnoxious music across the UK and Europe. Fronted by
singer and bassist Algy Ward, a former member of Brit
punk legends The Damned, they released their debut
album, Filth Hounds Of Hades, in 1982 and caught the
attention of a few aspiring musicians across the Atlantic,
resulting in the luckiest break imaginable for a young
metal band at that time.
“I joined the band and a couple of weeks later we were
out on the road with Metallica!” laughs guitarist Cliff
Evans, who has been a member of Tank since 1984.
“They were fans of Tank, so that was the greatest moment
for us. It was the Ride The Lightning tour and they were
pulling really big crowds. They asked for us to go on that
tour, which was amazing.”
Despite lacking the commercial clout of Iron Maiden or
Saxon,Tank clearly struck a chord with a generation of beer
drinkers and hellraisers, tapping into the same audience that
shoulder-barged Motörhead into the charts and having an
impact far beyond what their underdog status would suggest.

“A lot of bands that are around today were influenced by
Tank,” says Cliff.“We heard from Kurt Cobain that Nirvana
used to jam Tank songs! So yeah, Metallica loved us and
Nirvana loved us, so we can’t complain really! Ha ha!”
Despite releasing five well-received albums during
the 80s, Tank never toured enough to capitalise on their
notoriety, fading from prominence as the decade drew to
a close. They resurfaced in 1997, but the momentum had
long been lost, largely due to the erratic behaviour of Algy
Ward and his failure to write material for a rumoured
comeback album.
“We never really split up,” insists Cliff.“We just didn’t
do anything! In all the time I’ve been in Tank, we only did
about 25 gigs. I guess that’s why people want to see us
now, because they didn’t get a chance back in the old days!
Me and Mick [Tucker, guitarist] have always been fired up,
but we were held back because Algy kept disappearing!
Eventually we decided to reform the band without him.
Obviously Algy wasn’t too happy about it, but his health
is really bad and he doesn’t want to tour anymore, so we
discussed it and decided that we had to do it! The fans
want to see us, so we’ve got to get back out there.”
Now fronted by former Rainbow/Malmsteen singer
Doogie White, Tank are finally back in action and ready
to simultaneously honour their legacy and move forward
into a new era. An excellent new album, War Machine,
looks likely to win the band plenty of fresh converts,

while forthcoming live shows promise to please old and
new fans alike, with plenty of classic material in among
the new songs.
“At the end of the day, it’s all about the songs,” states
Cliff emphatically.“This is a new start for us. We don’t
want to dwell on the past. We thought the first show
without Algy might end with us being pelted with bottles,
but it went really well! The kids loved it and knew the words
to the songs. It felt really good and every other show we’ve
done has gone the same way. Now we can’t wait to hit
the road again.”

Tank’s entire discography can be found on the
handily compiled nine-disc box set The Filth Hounds
Of Hades/Dogs Of War 1981-2002. War Machine is
released on October 25 via
Metal Mind. Tank will be
playing at Hard Rock Hell IV
in Prestatyn, North Wales, this
coming December. Visit the
band’s official web presence
at www.tankofficial.com for
further info.

PRESENTS…

GOING UNDERGROUND

“WE HAVE CDME FOR YOUR MESSIAH!”

PLUS!

MELECHESH

ATHEIST
THE WRETCHED END
DRAGGED INTO SUNLIGHT

Strangers in astrange, holy land

TOM G R
WI hAavRe mRadeIpOlenty
“

More reviews, more new bands, new reports from
%
MORE
EVIL
666
the extreme cultural underground and beyond!

ies...”
of enem

Melechesh: the brave and the gold

WELCOME

TO HELL
H

eavy metal has always looked back to ancient times in search of
clues for who we are today, but for all its focus on pagan history,
mythology and glorious battle, there is one battleground that,
while much further away from our doorstep in geographical
terms, has proved much closer to home. It’s a battleground that has
defined our contemporary consciousness in ways that more noble,
possibly romantic causes have failed to do, and has shown no sign of
abating across the course of millennia. It is, of course, the Middle East,
both the birthplace of modern religion and the older, more mystically
inclined systems it usurped. In this month’s Subterranea we get to grips
with two very different bands – one closely bound to their English
homeland, one comprised of exiles from a city,Jerusalem, that never
recognised them in the first place – who are both determined to delve
back into the region’s hotly contested past and sift it for practical
answers.While kicking ass until it bursts into kaleidoscopic hues.We
joust with our ever-controversial cover stars,The Meads Of Asphodel, as
we discover their very English brand of eccentricity and their obsession
with how the rewriting of Jesus Christ’s religious background has worked
its way through history with devastating results.We also welcome back
ethnically astute black metallers Melechesh to discover the wonders of
Sumerian mythology and how to bring magic
down a to human scale. Samoth’s return to
action with The Wretched End also gets a
fulsome hail and we get inside the starkly lit
mind of Triptykon’s Tom G Warrior. He doesn’t
piss about, and when it comes to the revelatory
power of extreme metal, neither do we.

Subterranea
Editor

Soilent Green: beware sludge bands offering Brownies

INFERNO FEST
TAKES IT SLOW
I
Battling doom and sludge veterans added to extreme fest.

nferno, Oslo, Norway’s
Subterranea -sponsored
four-day extreme metal
festival, has announced two
more eye-watering acts for
2011’s bash.Joining the previously
announced homegrown bands,
Immortal and Aura Noir, will be two
giants of both the downtuned,
doom-laden riff and the heroic
instinct for survival against barely
conceivable odds – Virginian true
doom overlords Pentagram, who
will be celebrating their 40th
anniversary, and NOLA sludgegrind kings Soilent Green.With
histories that include drug
dependencies, hospitalisations,
incarcerations, numerous

breakups, murders and Katrinarelated deaths of bandmembers
and crippling car crashes, both
bands are powerful testament to
the human spirit, and are not to
be missed.
Inferno 2011 takes place yet
again at the Rockefeller/John Dee
in downtown Oslo, between April
20-23, with a‘club night’on the
first evening taking place in
various venues around the city,
offering a perfect excuse for
combining a love of extreme metal
with pub crawling and inebriated
map-reading.Accommodation
connoisseurs not planning on
simply passing out outside the
venue will be pleased to know that

the plush Clarion Hotel Royal
Christiania is once again the
official hotel, offering special rates,
along with‘black metal breakfasts’,
exhibitions, raucous, musicianfilled after-parties and more to
anyone booking before March 1.
Tickets for the festival are € 180
for all four nights, € 35 for the club
night and € 70 for each of the
regular nights. More band
announcement are to be made
over the coming weeks, and the
festival is also accepting demos
from bands hoping to play some of
the earlier spots at the John Dee
stage.To upload a demo, buy
tickets and get the latest news, go
to www.infernofestival.net.

GRIEF IN BRIEF
P

ENTAGRAM have also been confirmed for
the Hammer Of Doom festival in Würzburg,
Germany on April 16 where they’ll be joining
the likes of WHILE HEAVEN WEPT, and
British doomsters SOLSTICE and AGE OF
TAURUS. See www.myspace.
com/hammerofdoomfestival
for details.
If that’s not enough, the
Virginians will also be playing
Tilburg, Holland’s muchcelebrated Roadburn. Expect
some unique, one-off shows
from the monolithic, crushing

likes of SWANS (below) and GODFLESH, as well as
British‘heritage’metallers WINTERFYLLETH, and
one of the most mesmerising bands on the planet,
WOVENHAND, based around the fundamentalist
Christian muse of David Eugene Edwards, and
much beloved of various Satanic
black metallers including
Marduk founder Morgan.
France’s revered, occult
black metallers
DEATHSPELL OMEGA
release their new album,
Paracletus, on November 9
through Season Of Mist.

The Wretched End (left to right):
Cosmo, Samoth, Nils Fjellstrom

Samoth an

d Cosmo

chill out

THE WRETCHED END
“I
Emperor’s Samoth returns to the fray, with alayer of Scum.

wanted to rekindle the fire
of creativity once more,”
begins former Emperor
legend Samoth as he speaks
about his new death/
thrash project The Wretched
End.“Things had become
really stagnant with my previous band Zyklon.
The spark had faded and I decided to take
a break from the stress of it all and venture
somewhere else.”
And so, faced with the fact that there
was no life in the old dog, the Norwegian
guitarist chose to channel his frustration
into a new project and created Ominous
with a little help from an old friend.
“In 2007 it became obvious to me that
Zyklon was no more,” he offers.“I found it hard
to continue running the band and it was a
fucking hassle trying to get people to come to
rehearsals and things like that, so I decided it
was time for a change. In 2008 I began mapping
out the blueprint for The Wretched End’s death/
thrash sound and started working with my good
friend Cosmo, who I had previously worked with
on the Scum side-project.”
Happy to be reunited on a new venture,
the duo began making their unholy racket in

earnest and quickly started scanning the local
scene for a tub-thumper with the chops to flesh
out their extreme sound.
“I’ve been friends with Cosmo for a long
time and we live near each other so it was good
to have him in the band,” explains Samoth.
“I thought Scum turned out really well and I’m
happy I’m continuing the collaboration with
him.A short while later we found Nils

“The plan was always to fuse together death
and thrash metal.We wanted to have that
aggressive sound and see where that would
take us, but there are many different moods on
the record. Some of the tracks have that epic
feel in the vein of Metallica’s Ride The Lighting
and Master Of Puppets. I made sure to layer the
music and that’s something that I did for years
with Emperor too.”
Unleashed on October 25,TWE aim to
distribute the slab of wax via Samoth’s
own label Nocturnal Art Productions
(an imprint of Candlelight Records).
“This will be the first time I’ve released
something on my own label,” he explains.
With Samoth’s Emperor days now long
behind him and Zyklon and Scum put on ice,
the musician is looking ahead to an uncertain
yet exciting future and confirms that TWE
aren’t a one-album-only affair.
“It’s hard to predict the future but we’ll
definitely make another album for sure,” he
concludes.“In fact we’ve already got new tracks
written and ready to be recorded.These days
the album has a short lifespan so we’ll be
making another one soon and we want to strike
while the iron is hot.”

“Zyklon had become
really stagnant”

110 | METALHAMMER.CO.UK

SAMOTH

[Fjellstrom]. I’d had my eye on him for a while
and he’s a great drummer and nailed his parts
in the studio in four days.”
The recording of Ominous continued long
into the winter of 2009, but by the spring of the
following year the trio were ready to let their
12-track monster loose on society. Featuring
a cacophony of chaotic soundscapes, punkinfluenced buzzsaw riffs and atmospheric
suckerpunches,TWE’s debut sees Samoth once
again carve out another new niche for himself
within the realm of extreme music.

EDWIN McFEE

WhoThey are
LINE-UP: Samoth
(lead and rhythm guitar),
Cosmo (lead and rhythm
guitar, bass, vocals), Nils
Fjellstrom (drums).
SOUND LIKE: A hellacious
mix of thrash and death metal
served up with a side order
of black metal bravado.
CURRENT RELEASE: Ominous
(Nocturnal Art Productions/
Candlelight, 2010)
WEBSITE: www.myspace.
com/thewretchedend

DRaggED INTo suNlIgHT
Enimgatic Brits invite you into the shadows for akicking.

“o

ur atmosphere is an
exorcism of those
feelings people would
otherwise seek to repress –
depression, isolation and hatred
– and Dragged Into Sunlight has
always been a portrayal of how
we see extreme metal in 2010
and beyond,” begins the
multi-headed hydra and
super-secretive extreme noise
band, who speak as an
anonymous collective.“It has no
image or physical attributes, yet
carries an aura of negativity and
hideous strength.That’s our
identity and in a world of so
many, identity is all we have.”
Welcome to the mysterious
realm of Dragged Into Sunlight.
A band as filthy and nasty as a
rummage through Jodie Marsh’s
knicker drawer, their anti-image
coupled with a sound that blurs
the boundaries between sludge,
death and black metal has made
many tongues wag of late and
their debut album, Hatred For
Mankind, has helped establish
the Liverpool act as a truly
extreme prospect.
“In principle, extreme
music should be about the

THE aTRoCITy
ExHIbIT

Those lovely
Dragged boys
out playing

compositions themselves.
There appeared to be an overabundance of vogueish fashion,
ultimately affecting extreme
metal. Dragged Into Sunlight as
a construct is a totally blank
canvas.You see what you want
you to see and if you like what
you see, then so be it.”
And clearly a lot of people
are excited by what they’re
seeing from the band who cite
Godflesh,Weakling and Deicide
as influences, as they’re about

Who They are
to embark on a European tour
this November while making
tentative plans to release the
self-financed Widowmaker
project early next year.
“Widowmaker is a three-part
informal release,” they conclude.
“Each part consists of 40
minutes of music that’s slower,
louder and heavier than
anything we’ve done. It adds
another face. It sounds like
getting kicked to death.”

LINE-UP:
T (vocals),
A (guitar),
C (bass),
J (drums),A (samples).
SOUND LIKE: “We wanted
it to sound like smashing
a window into Hell.”
CURRENT RELEASE:
Hatred For Mankind
(Prosthetic, 2010).
WEBSITE: www.myspace.
com/draggedintosunlight

EDWIN McFEE

EasTERN FRoNT

Reporting back from the bloody frontlines of black metal.

I

rish and English black metal
seems to be experiencing
something of a breakthrough into the (relative)
mainstream at the moment,
with Candlelight in particular
picking up a swathe of bands,
namely Altar Of Plagues,
Winterfylleth,Wodensthrone
and Eastern Front. Of the four
bands it is undoubtedly the
latter who offer the most
traditional sound.The band
draw heavily on Scandinavia’s

Eatern Front: from
the frontline

second wave of black metal
with nods to the likes of
Gorgoroth and Marduk, and
yet the blueprint has been
enhanced by a distinctive level
of panache and attention to
detail that makes them more
than worthy of your attention..
“Eastern Front is a band that
plays traditional black metal
but experiments with other
genres like doom, death, folk
and classical in order to create
different atmospheres and

emotions in our songs,”
comments lead guitarist
Holocaust.“For our debut
album, Blood On Snow, we
aimed to have a strong
production to maximise the
dynamic range in our songs in
order to help the flow of the
different elements of the music.”
Keeping their eyes on the
past, the group look somewhat
further back in time when it
comes to lyrical themes,
focusing on World War II.

“The Eastern Front
campaign of WWII is regarded
as the war of extermination and
was the most brutal campaign
of that war, so therefore we felt
that Eastern Front was the
perfect name for a band writing
brutal and atmospheric black
metal,” explains rhythm
guitarist Krieg. Our lyrics are
written in memory of the
victims of war.”

The Atrocity Exhibit have been on the
scabby lips of people in certain circles for
a while now, and there’s a good reason for
that.They’re fucking brilliant.And new
album Damned And Blasted is conclusive
proof.Just what is it that makes these
Northampton grinders tick? Let’s ask
their drummer, the mercurial Danny:
“I guess our priority has always been to
be extreme, but to write actual songs.
There are far too many bands out there
obsessed with being the fastest and it
all blurs into a white noise.”
www.myspa ce.com/thea trocityexhibit

basTaRD PRIEsT
The 00s look set to be heralding the return
of filth, the precursor of Teitanblood’s
Seven Chalices belching forth the likes of
Obliteration, Grave Miasma and Horned
Almighty, all taking death metal back to
atmospherically coarse, occultic realms
that had become the sole preserve of BM.
Bastard Priest hail from the flashpoint of
Stockholm and their debut album, Under
The Hammer Of Destruction, is a
cavernous, crust-caked rampage that
puts old-school hardcore/punk
influences through a concrete mixer of
doom.“We wanted to play the hardest,
most powerful stuff we could ever come
up with,” says co-vocalist Matt.
www.myspa ce.com/
ba sta rdpriestsweden

DAYAL PATTERSON

Who They are
LINE-UP:
Nagant
(vocals),
Holocaust
(lead guitar), Krieg (rhythm
guitar), Destroyer (bass),
Destruction (drums).
SOUND LIKE: Aggressive
Nordic mid-90s black
metal with added
English dynamism.
CURRENT RELEASE:
Blood On Snow (Candlelight
Records, 2010)
WEBSITE: www.myspace.
com/easternfrontuk

lusTRE
What happens when you take
the metal out of BM? Lustre is stirring,
triumphant ambient music with a nod to
Burzum and Summoning Nachzeit.
Having also served time with the
depressive Hypothermia, it’s going for
something a touch more grandiose.The
concept for A Glimpse Of Glory? “These
short moments of glory when everything
just makes sense… I believe everyone
has this experience now and then.”
www.myspa ce.com/lustresweden
METALHAMMER.CO.UK | 111

The Meads Of
Asphodel: barking

lusive, eccentric and very, very English,
The Meads Of Asphodel have been
warping the boundaries of black metal
since their inception in 1998. Fusing
medieval and Eastern influences with
a wildly experimental edge, they’re not so
much rewriting the rulebook as burning it
and then burning the ashes.The result
has been a weird and wonderful odyssey
highlighted on a series of idiosyncratic
releases made all the more bizarre and baffling by the
band’s refusal to perform live or even to show their faces.
It’s unsurprising, then, that en route to a secret location
hidden deep within the Hertfordshire countryside to discuss
the Meads’latest album, The Murder Of Jesus The Jew,
nothing whatsoever is revealed in advance.Abandoning the
relative safety of the main road, we veer down narrow
country lanes, each smaller than the last, before finally
trundling through an unmarked entrance onto a pencil-thin,
potholed track that seemingly leads nowhere.
Emerging from the gloom of the forest, we find ourselves
in a clearing containing a cluster of rudimentary dwellings.
Amid the deathlike silence, large dogs lurk ominously in
doorways while recent evidence of bonfires dot patches of
open grassland. Still with no clue as to our whereabouts,
we’re instructed to enter a stone building at one end of the
compound. In the corner of the single, darkened room a tall
figure stands alone, backlit by an open fire. His face is
hidden beneath a leather bondage mask leaving only his
eyes and mouth partially visible.
112 | METALHAMMER.CO.UK

Luckily for Hammer, this isn’t The Hills Have Eyes or
some kind of Pulp Fiction-style rape scenario.The shadowy
shape is none other than Meads Of Asphodel frontman
Metatron, indulging his flair for melodrama whilst
maintaining the strict code of secrecy of his band.
“I do look silly in this mask but it does seem to be lucky,”
he explains, adjusting the mouthpiece to take a sip of
freshly brewed tea.“There’s always been a bit of mystery
about the band and I’m happy with that. Hopefully it will
remain so. I don’t have any ego driving me to say‘Hello
everybody! It’s me!’”
Image has always been an important part of the Meads
ethos, adding to their strange appeal.The only reason
Metatron is sporting an item of bondage paraphernalia
as opposed to his usual armour is that said armour weighs
around 70 pounds and after spending several hours in full
battle garb, his limbs have had enough.
“The image was always going to be paramount,” he
confirms.“We didn’t wanna be running around the forest in
corpsepaint.The music was centred on religious myth so
armour was the natural starting point. People could look at
us and go‘That’s the Meads’. Ten years on, it’s pretty much
the face of a lot of bands in the pagan genre but that was
always going to be our image and it always has been.”

T

hat the Meads revel in their Englishness is unusual
in itself, some would say almost un-English.The
English, after all, are notorious for not knowing what
Englishness actually is. Is it the pinstriped city gent with his
bowler hat, buck teeth and impeccable manners?Or is it

the warm beer and soggy chips of the flat-capped working
class?Maybe it’s cricket whites, croquet hoops and morris
dancing on the village green?Meads identify with none of
these, their sense of Englishness instead derived from the
tradition of the English eccentric, great British heavy metal
and the uncelebrated but unconsciously acknowledged fact
that this land is a place of vast cultural significance.
“We’re proud to be English but we’re not under the false
pretensions of a lot of bands,” says Metatron.“We’re quite
aware that what people see as English is German anyway,
’cause of the Saxons. But we do want a kind of English look.”
Musically, the Meads are part of a long line of quirky,
quintessentially English outfits including the likes of
Sabbat, Skyclad, Bal-Sagoth,Thus Defiled, Forefather and
Akercocke: some black metal, some not, but all sharing the
same indomitable bulldog spirit.
“We’re very conscious of the English scene being not
particularly numerous, but what we do is good,” Metatron
opines.“Sabbath,Venom, Cradle Of Filth and Bal-Sagoth…
We might not have many but what we do tend to produce
are fantastic. I think the English produce the best metal
bands on the planet, bar none.To be part of something with
all those bands we grew up with, I think we’ve achieved that
now as a reward for everything. It makes us very proud.”
The band, currently comprising Metatron alongside
James Tait (guitar) Urakbaramel (drums) and ex-Hawkwind
bassist Alan Davey, have certainly created an album to be
proud of. The Murder Of Jesus The Jew is an ambitious,
fearless and at times burlesque journey into biblical lore
which trumps all that has gone before it.

THE MEADS OF ASPHODEL

THE MEADS OF ASPHODEL are no strangers to controversy,
but now this most
eccentric of British black metal bands have upped the ante even further as
they delve into the entwined roots of Jesus Christ and anti-Semitism.
Words: GreG Moffitt. Pictures: ester seGarra.

“We have put our feet firmly in
certain places other bands
wouldn’t dream of going”
Metatron

METALHAMMER.CO.UK | 113

THE MEADS OF ASPHODEL
Metatron:
hidden talents

James Tait:
axe appeal

Who Made
The Meads?
METATRON OUTLINESTHE BAND’ S
INFLUENCESAND INSPIRATIONS.

Bathory

“That was a band that existed on the fringes and
which you never really saw. I know at the end
[Quorthon]appeared in his leather pants and did that
awful video [One Rode To Asa Bay],but Bathory are
our major influence.When Blood Fire Death came out,
it destroyed me.Then he came out with Hammerheart
and I’m thinking,‘You can’t do it to me twice!’”

VenomAt War With Satan

“The narrative of
influenced a lot of when I start speaking,
all my little rhymes. It’s a paramount part
of the band and the music’s written to
have those little gaps where I can spout
this or that.The way it gels with the
music is what makes it work.”

Martin Walkyier

“If you ask me personally what has influenced me
to do what I do, one is Martin Walkyier. He’s a master
lyricist who I’d one day very much like to be
mentioned in the same breath as. He’s brilliant.”

Hawkwind

“Hawkwind are an institution and they’ve
got a lot of fantastic albums.The 80s
Huw Lloyd-Langton years are fantastic.
His lead guitar is astonishing. He’s best
on The Friday Rock Show Sessions.”

Sigh

“Without Sigh there would be no
Meads Of Asphodel, it’s as simple as
that. Our main influence can still be
traced to Ghastly Funeral Theatre
and Infidel Art.They blew me away
and I remember thinking that they
were just fucking mad.”
114 | METALHAMMER.CO.UK

Urakbaramel:
sword of chaos

“We wanted to
show the historical
foundations of
Christianity and
the repercussions
of a man being
made God”

“James has put the last two years
destroyed the temple of Jerusalem
of his life into these songs,” says
in 70 AD.That was the centre of the
Metatron.“Some of our previous
Jewish religion and without it they
albums have been right off the wall but
were nothing.The Emperor Hadrian
we’ve tried to keep this to the concept
later evicted the Jews from their own
and just weave in and out of that.
land and they went all over the world.
We’ve put absolutely everything into it,
In Rome they were regarded as the
nothing’s been pulled back.We’ve tried
culprits for the death of Christ and
to make it the best Meads album ever.”
for the next 1,000-1,500 years they
Despite being fê ted pretty much
were forever blamed as God killers.
from day one, the Meads’big break
It’s so complex, it’s a touchy subject
has yet to materialise and they remain
and anti-Semitism is entwined in it.
forever on the cusp of wider success.
All the roads I’ve gone down lead to
Although a new deal with Candlelight
the Roman decimation and antiis by far their biggest yet, they remain
Semitism is a Catholic phenomenon.
Metatron
both realistic and relaxed about their
My tract explains all this. So if
immediate prospects.
someone wants to call me racist,
“We’ve always been tethered to the
read that and then call me it again.”
underground for various reasons,” Metatron explains,“which
The ‘tract’to which Metatron refers is a 60,000-word
is where we feel comfortable.We’re not under any illusions;
discourse on the real origins of Christianity which is set for
Candlelight obviously went on a signing spree, which labels do. publication after years of painstaking research.
With the digital age shafting them, they’ve got to. But it’s good
“The lyrics walk a fine line of political correctness and
to know that someone approached us and with their
I wanted to explain,” he says.“The same years went into the
distribution network it’ll do the band more good than harm.
lyrics as James put into the music and if you wanna delve
A lot more people will get to hear it.Whether they like it
into them you can. Some people may find it uncomfortable.
or not is another matter. It’s probably the most
We wanted to show the actual historical foundations of
controversial thing we’ve ever attempted. It’s a very
Christianity and the repercussions of what happens when
provocative album and we have put our feet firmly in
a man is made God, which was incredibly sad for the Jewish
certain places other bands wouldn’t dream of going.”
race as a whole. It’s a fact; there’s no way around it.After the
death of Jesus you had his brother with the Jewish strain
side from turning black metal on its head and
that the teachings of Jesus were for the Jews, not for anybody
injecting all manner of craziness into its basic
else.They carried on his teachings until Paul came along,
formula, the Meads have made their name tackling
took them to Rome and as time went on the Jewish strain
some of the most taboo subject matter of our times.World
was completely erased.The Roman church was born, grew
religions, genocide and their gore-drenched connection are
and the Jews were blamed for their God’s death. It’s a tragic
predominant themes. Even in an age when the world and his
story. It’s a heavy subject and this album’s all about that.
wife just can’t wait to be offended, it’s sensitive and potentially
“You talk to a normal Christian and they would not
explosive material. The Murder… is no different.
understand that it’s all basically Jewish.They’ve basically
“Candlelight said to us,‘Our exporters are gonna
adopted a Jewish Rabbi, deified him and suddenly he’s
have a heart attack when they see this!’”laughs
everywhere.Jesus was a Galilean Rabbi who spent most of
Metatron.“But they knew we were doing this prior
his life in Galilee, went to Jerusalem, caused a stir and got
and I said,‘These are the lyrics, we’re grateful
nailed up. Nothing was written about Jesus until 40 or 50
for you offering us a deal but I’m not going to
years after he died and a lot of shit was made up to fill in the
compromise.’ And I wouldn’t have.”
gaps.A religion is born.”
Song titles such as Jew Killer and use of the
With the Islamic fundamentalist box already ticked and
‘n’word within the lyrics will doubtless attract
a lingering desire to write a Holocaust-themed album, the
opprobrium from those who have not
question arises as to whether any arena is genuinely out of
and will not take the time to actually
bounds. Can anything deter them from speaking their minds?
discover their true message.
“I’ve got no interest in exploring Islam itself,” he offers after
“They just immediately jump on
a lengthy pause.“I think that would be a place that could be…
the holocaust,” Metatron concedes.
uncomfortable. But that’s the trouble.When you start to think
“We should never forget that
you shouldn’t be doing something, why are you thinking that?
moment in time for what it was but
Maybe fear’s creeping in. Maybe that’s exactly what you
should be doing.”
to trace it back you’ve got to go
back to Jesus, or Jeshua, call him
THE MURDER OFJESUS THE JEW IS OUT ON NOVEMBER 15
what you like.When he died and
VIA CANDLELIGHT.WWW.THEMEADSOFASPHODEL.COM
Christianity was born, the Romans

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MELECHESH were forced into exile from their native Jerusalem, but
the multi-faith four-piece have delved back into the history of their
region, to the Sumerian myths and the very beginnings of civilisation.
WordS: dayaL PattErSon.

ormed in 1993 in the holy location of Jerusalem
(or unholy, depending on your point of view),
Melechesh have been slowly perfecting their
unique‘Mesopotamian metal’sound – a blend of
black metal, thrash and Middle Eastern influences –
reaching a steadily increasing fanbase in the process.
It’s now four years since the release of their last
album, the successful Emissaries, and the band
have returned with The Epigenesis, an undeniable
powerhouse of an album released on their new label,
Nuclear Blast Records. It’s small wonder, then, that when
we meet founder and central protagonist Ashmedi in his
Camden hotel – where his now-labelmates Dimmu Borgir
are also present doing interviews – he’s in good spirits,
tucking into room service while playing moody Middle
Eastern music in his room.As it turns out, the latter
influence is more audible than ever in his own
compositions, with The Epigenesis containing numerous
Eastern touches in its songs, as well as two hugely
atmospheric non-metal instrumentals.
“This crossover of Indian and Persian music is very
little known,” he explains of the music emanating from
his laptop.“On our new album, the track When Halos Of
Candles Collide is a 12-string guitar improvisation àla
Indian and Persian scaling. Basically this is underground
stuff, nobody in India or Persia listens to this unless
they’re into Sufi meditation. It’s played within a spiritual
context – and there are certain sorts of music for the
morning and for the afternoon.
“I love the blend of classical Persian instruments
and Indian music,” he continues.“The sounds are very
dark, heavy and sombre, and to relate to the album we
carefully chose what Middle Eastern – or Near Eastern
– music to use.We consciously avoid the Disneyland
cliché of Eastern music, we adhere to those principles of
ragas, not that Aladdin keyboard stuff.We specifically
wanted certain instruments that sounded dark and
even in the Middle East a lot of people aren’t exposed
to this.You have to learn it through teachers of these
instruments. It’s just like here, if you’re listening to some
weird meditative Celtic music which has been played for
a couple of thousand years, no one will say,‘Oh yeah,
sure, I have this album!’”
At a time when ethnic sounds and traditional
influences are increasingly bolstering metal’s arsenal –
from the humppa of Finland’s folk metal bands to the
bagpipes, whistles and other exotic instrumentation
employed by many Eastern European black metal acts –
Ashmedi is keen to make clear that Melechesh is above
all a metal band, a point that won’t be argued by anyone
who has heard crushing new numbers such as Ghouls
Of Nineveh or Defeating The Giants.
“We recorded in Istanbul and of course there was
a lot of access to traditional instruments, but people
might be misled by me saying that.They might think
we’re a folk-experimental band which we are not, we’re
a metal-rock band.There is, of course, an ethnic
influence, but the main instruments are the guitars and
drums, and I always start songs by writing these at the

same time. However, almost every album has an
acoustic piece, which is pure self-indulgence.We
realised that a lot of Melechesh fans were liking this
kind of music, but didn’t know where to find it. So we
thought we’d always have that – who knows, maybe
one day we’ll do an album just of that kind of music.”
espite their undeniable metal credentials
and an apparent hard rock influence,
this use of traditional sounds has become
somthing of a trademark for the band
and they are ably complemented by Ashmedi’s
lyrics, which explore the Sumerian mythology of
Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilisation situated in
what is now known as Iraq. One of the few other metal
bands to explore the subject is US band Absu – and,
interestingly, mainman Proscriptor drummed for
Melechesh for many years, the two bands having made
contact thanks to a mutual appreciation for each
other’s work. Indeed, much like his friend Proscriptor,
Ashmedi is fascinated by the concepts of magick and
the occult, even if his perspective is arguably somewhat
more grounded than that of his notoriously eccentric
American cohort.
“I just see magick as‘undiscovered science’, as ways
of manipulating energy,” says Ashmedi with a smile.
“Sitting on an airplane would be considered magick
years ago, for example. I consider myself a learner.
Nothing is absolute, there is no absolute answer.
Sumerian mythology is very interesting but what lies
behind it is very philosophical and cosmic, there are
pseudo-scientific theories hinting that ancient deities
were not deities – obviously – but rather more advanced
people.Which kind of makes sense. If we now go
somewhere else where people are in the stone age, we
will be gods, we can do genetic engineering, heal them,
and we’ll be the ones in the statues. So from that
perspective it’s very interesting.”
Such interests in religion, philosophy and civilisation
are perhaps unsurprising given that both Melechesh
and Ashmedi himself grew up in the ancient and
religiously charged city of Jerusalem. Indeed, Melechesh
drew much attention in their early days thanks to their
unusual location. But while the setting was undoubtedly
an inspiring one for the band, it also caused its fair
share of difficulties, which resulted in the group
relocating to Holland. Not only had the police taken
an interest after a Jerusalem newspaper featured the
band in an article as a‘Satanic cult’, but as Ashmedi is
from an Armenian background and longtime guitarist
Moloch from a Palestinian background (a Christian
Palestinian background – his family once even

threatening him with an exorcism because of his metal
activities) the group also experienced more general
day-to-day difficulties with the discrimination against
non-Israelis within Israel’s society.
“Jerusalem is awesome.There’s great architecture
and if you’re a spiritual person you can feel that there
is spiritualism there. Israel itself is a liberal country but
our status is different to other bands there.We are
second-class citizens by law. If a thief comes to your
house the police won’t come. But you’ll still pay 100 per
cent taxes – actually, where we lived was the premium
area for tax, but they didn’t collect the garbage, and if
you don’t pay the tax they’ll come and arrest you and
take the furniture. Many like me manage to leave the
country and can’t go back there anymore.We can’t go
back, and we’re also stuck in the middle of a fight which
is not ours. I’m neither Palestinian or Israeli, but I’m
trying to be as objective as I can and I formed my own
opinion ’cos I saw the good and the bad.”
Coming from neither a Muslim or Jewish background
and initially rebelling against the Christianity present
in his immediate surroundings,Ashmedi now takes
a pragmatic view of the religions and the ancient
writings which have defined both the country he grew
up in, and, arguably, the world itself.
“I went to a Catholic school so I had the‘privilege’
to read the Bible, but I don’t limit myself, I read all
spiritual books. I like to know what’s there and maybe
sometimes you can see the connections.Those books
are interesting mythological books and they served
their purpose for the time,” he concludes.“You can’t
expect people 1,000 years from now to use a manual
for a JVC television, but it works for now, so it’s all just
outdated manuals really.”

THE EPIGENESIS IS OUT NOW VIA NUCLEAR BLAST

MELECHESH

aSHMEdi

Melechesh (left to right):
Moloch, Ashmedi, Xul, Rahm

METALHAMMER.CO.UK | 117

enjoyed much greater
THE
WRETCHED
END
exposure. However, with his
OMINOUS
new project, The Wretched
CANDLELIGHT

Samoth turns to the demotic

IT’S a miracle that Emperor,
the greatest BM band ever
to walk this cursed Earth,
kept it together as long as
they did. With the benefit of
hindsight, it’s obvious that
the two main protagonists,
Vegard ‘Ihsahn’Tveitan and
Tomas ‘Samoth’ Haugen,
were into completely
different music.While Ihsahn
has evolved into a kind of
avuncular professor of prog,
Samoth has spent the nine
years since Emperor first
called it a day playing sharpedged death metal with a
deeply misanthropic edge.
Both musicians are masters
of their craft, but Ihsahn has
118 | METALHAMMER.CO.UK

End, Samoth may embark
on his own route to postImperial acclaim.
The obvious antecedent to
TWE is Zyklon, the DM band
with which Samoth released
three albums before they

is the polar opposite of, say,
Steel Panther: sounds that
leave the listener frozen and
without hope. It’s interesting
that Ominous doesn’t reveal
its true nature immediately:
its first post-intro song,
Red Forest Alienation, is
a familiar, exuberant death/
thrash crossover tune. The

A RELENTLESS INDUSTRIAL
GRIND THAT DOESN’T NEED
TO ACCELERATE TO 250BPM
ceased trading this year.
The same razor-sharp riffs
anchor the songs on
Ominous; the same machinelike cold permeates the
album; and the same sense
of doom creeps into your
soul after a few listens. This

same goes for Last
Judgement, which devolves
to a Slayer-esque, stop-start
riff from the drawer marked
Divine Intervention.
However, Ominous isn’t
primarily about speed and
aggression, although those

elements are there. What
songs like Of Men And
Wolves, With Ravenous
Hunger and Numbered Days
focus on is a relentless,
almost industrial grind that
doesn’t need to accelerate
to 250bpm to work. These
songs crank themselves
forward at mid-tempo,
repeating until the message
is clear. It’s a tremendously
effective approach and one
which is as dark and hateful
as anything Samoth and his
collaborators, Mindgrinder
bassist Cosmo and Dark
Funeral drummer Nils
Fjellström, have ever done.
This time they’re not singing
about Satan or a modern
dystopia, either; songs such
as Human Corporation
(which begins with samples
of newsreel reports about

the financial crisis) make
it clear that The Wretched
End ’s targets are based
squarely in the here and
now. The title of Zoo Human
Syndrome will also resonate
with the average wage
slave, although it’s hard to
imagine anyone listening
to this album for pleasure
on the bus to the office.
Magnificently bleak. [7]
JOEL McIVER

INFLUENCED BY

SLAYER, CARCASS,
SUFFOCATION

ALSO TRY
THE HAUNTED
…Made Me Do It
EARACHE, 2000

ZYKLON

World Ov Worms

CANDLELIGHT, 2001

LOCK UP

Hate Breeds Suffering
NUCLEAR BLAST, 2002

ADAI
FELO DE SE

ANAL
CUNT
FUCKIN’A!

AUTOPSY
THE TOMB WITHIN

Caught by the fuzz

The fart [jokes] of the matter

Operation mindfuck

CAVITY

PATAC

PEACEVILLE

FELO De Se is dynamic Denver
duo Adai’s latest assault of the
eardrums and it is a fuzz-fuelled
stoner jazz odyssey that makes
you get down on your knees and
thank whatever deity you believe
in for the invention of the effects
pedal. Quite surprisingly though,
the fi ve-track EP doesn’t feature a
single bass-line, but that doesn’t
stop the band from delivering
their mostly instrumental songs
in a style reminiscent of dearly
departed desert heavies Kyuss
and Mondo Generator. Beginning
with a large dollop of toothrattling feedback, the spacey
Trigger and the grungy yet
grandiose Bodies are defi nite
highlights and our only real
criticism of the slab of wax is the
fact that its 20 minutes are over
far too soon. [7]

THE truth is, Anal Cunt’s song
titles are far better known than
any of the music. Thankfully
they’ve stopped calling things
‘gay’ but continue with humour
that runs from dumb (Kickin’
Your Ass And Fuckin’Your Bitch)
to just plain stupid (I’m Gonna
Give You AIDS ). As ever, Seth
Putnam churns out noisy
hardcore but instead of the short
frantic blasts, they seem to have
a newfound sense of maturity
(as if!) with one song clocking
in at a mammoth fi ve minutes.
All I Give A Fuck About Is Sex and
I Wish My Dealer Was Open may
suggest a slightly more
biographical take but don’t
expect any great revelations.
Fuckin’A is decent enough, it’s
just that the jokes wear thin
rather quickly. [6]

SINCE Autopsy initially gave up the
ghost in 1995, DM has changed an
awful lot. Is there a place for bloodgargling vocals, sick primitivism
and lo-fi barbarism amongst the
day-glo shirts, triggered precision
and synchronised windmilling of
modern death?Damn right, there
is! Imagine the most unpleasant
scenes from your favourite horror
and gore fi lms set to music –
The Tomb Within makes the
perfect soundtrack for all your
hacking, slashing, gouging and
disembowelling viewing. Truth
be told, the EP sounds just like
Autopsy always did: nasty! Death
with hints of Sabbath doom and
ripping crust punk. If modern
metal is surgical then Autopsy
are drunken medieval surgeons
hacking away using blunt rusty
knives and no anaesthetic. [8]

EDWIN McFEE

ALASTAIR RIDDELL

ALASTAIR RIDDELL

Atheist: you’d better believe
this album is a blinder

ATHEIST
JUPITER
SEASON OF MIST

Gods for the godless

ALTHOUGH ignored in recitals
of DM’s roll of honour,Atheist
played a huge part in the
genre’s evolution, particularly
in terms of technical dexterity
and the assimilation of jazz/
avant-garde elements. The
Floridians’ third album,

PRIEST
RSTÍÐIR LÍFSINS BASTARD
ADRIFT
FOR DAYS Á
UNDER THE HAMMER
JÖTUNHEIMA DOLGFERÐ
THE LUNAR MARIA
SELF-RELEASED

VAN

IF Earth’s Hex; Or Printing In The
Infernal Method were a fi lm, it
would be Once Upon A Time In
The West, it being a lengthy and
solipsistic meditation on man’s
nature and the landscape, given
that it contains as much beauty
as it does brutality. By the same
token, the amazing yet unsigned
Australian stoner doom quintet
Adrift For Days would be John
Hillcoat’s Antipodean frontier
movie, The Proposition. The epic
size of the dusty, reverberating
tracks within link the band to
their landscape in a truly
Wordsworthian manner, meaning
the giant desert is a constant
presence on the post-rock
structures of Messages Through
Sleep and the dark, narcotic
intensity of the band mirrors
their country’s interior. [8]

FORMED a mere two years ago,
Árstíðir lífsins (meaning ‘the
seasons of life’) already have a
strikingly mature sound in place,
as this 70-minute debut proves.
Overwhelmingly ambitious, it
contains contributions from no
fewer than 10 musicians and
paints a rich tapestry inspired by
the realities of Icelandic life and
history while avoiding Viking
cliché s. Drawing predominantly
from folk and BM, as well as from
ambient and doom, the record
avoids easy categorisation,
creating emotive and carefully
constructed epics overlaying an
array of textures and instruments
(including acoustic guitars, violin
and keys) upon a mid-paced
metal bedrock. The result is both
bewitching and inspiring and
bears considerable promise. [8]

DM comes in many forms, but
nothing can top the old-school’s
fi lthy, neck-wrecking insanity. Selfproclaimed servants of Autopsy,
Master and Death, Bastard Priest
keep it simple, savage and stupid,
hammering away at breakneck
pace, peeling off a seemingly
neverending stream of catchy but
supremely ugly riffs along the way.
Songs like Visions Of Doom, Total
Mutilation and the title track
delight in their own rawness, with
a faint air of Bathory-style sonic
recalcitrance adding an extra
dimension of lobotomised oomph.
Even at snail’s pace, as on the
cheekily Entombed-alike Chock,
the Priest keep the flames of rage
burning while taking a dump on
the altar of decency and modern
production values. Urgh! [8]

JOHN DORAN

DAYAL PATTERSON

DOM LAWSON

The blizzard of Oz

Icelandic folk black eruptions

OF DESTRUCTION
PULVERIZED

Dirty death from sunny Sweden

DID YOU KNOW? SAMOTH’S FATHER IS SPOONFUL OF BLUES BASS PLAYER JENS HAUGEN.

represents and how it should
sound, and so although
Jupiter is by no means a lazy
retread of past glories, it does
resonate with the febrile spirit
of the early 90s. There’s also
a sense that Kelly and Steve
have expanded their remit to
include influences that seldom emerged before. Second
To Sun reeks of Voivod, the
spectre of the Canadians’
brittle angularity and taste
for dissonance adding otherworldly fuel to their adherents’
blazing fretwork and maelstrom of interwoven rhythms.
There is too much to be
absorbed in one hit, but the
craft and class is more than
apparent. The schizophrenic,
spite-driven Faux King Christ
is another highlight, with its
jarring dynamics and bursts

ATHEIST MOULD THE CHAOS
INTO SMART, COHERENT
SONGS WITH HOOKS GALORE
Elements, was a significant
milestone in extreme music’s
mutation; a self-evident
antecedent for the fretboard
athleticism of DEP, The
Faceless and Necrophagist.
Atheist redefined what was
possible for metal musicians,
so it’s heartwarming to hear
that, 17 years on, this
reformed incarnation are still
attacking their instruments
with evangelical fervour,
cramming in as many notes,
tempo shifts and brainmelting time signatures as
they can, yet still moulding
the chaos into smart and
coherent songs with hooks
galore. The creative core of
vocalist/guitarist Kelly
Schaefer and drummer Steve
Flynn have an intuitive understanding of what Atheist

of hateful thrash, while Third
Person threatens to take
Atheist into melodic territory
before erupting into a more
typically deranged, densely
layered exercise in brutal
showboating. Atheist have
reconvened with great focus,
pride and determination,
reborn as a force to rival any
of DM’s foremost deities. [8]
DOM LAWSON

INFLUENCED BY
DEATH, VOIVOD,
SADUS

ALSO TRY
OBSCURA

Cosmogenesis
RELAPSE, 2009

DEATH

The Sound Of Perseverance
NUCLEAR BLAST, 1998

PESTILENCE
Spheres

ROADRUNNER, 1993

METALHAMMER.CO.UK | 119

Gnaw Their Tongues: no,
they went the other way!

GNAW THEIR
TONGUES

L’ARRIVEE DE LATERNE
MORTTRIOMPHANTE
CANDLELIGHT

Symphonies of sickness

THE combination of metal and
classical can conjure up the
spectre of such questionable
affairs as Metallica’s S& M or
Kiss’s Symphony: Alive IV.
These lamentable cash cows

ignore the creative (dis)
harmony that can be forged
between more traditional
musical ensembles and
extreme metal units, as
found in recent Sunn O)))
and Wardruna. But perhaps
this alliance is at its most
caustic, majestic and exciting
when realised by Gnaw Their
Tongues. On L’Arrivee de la
Terne Mort Triompante
(which roughly translates
to The Arrival Of Colourless
Triumphant Death), the
avant-classical maniac
behind GTT, Mories, applies
an attention to detail that is
autistic. His work could be
compared to Stravinski and
Ligeti but produces the
emotional turmoil of
Throbbing Gristle. [8]
JOHN DORAN

THE
BATALLION
HEAD UP HIGH

BLUTMOND
THIRTEEN URBAN WAYS 4

Thrashing through the ages

GROOVY BOHEMIAN DAYS

KARISMA/DARK ESSENCE

THE Batallion describe
themselves on their MySpace as
‘bad-ass 80s death thrash metal’,
and ‘bad-ass’ is defi nitely an apt
description. Head Up High, the
band’s second release, is a fun,
taut little record. It won’t change
the world and the cosmos won’t
shatter and mess up the
multiverse upon its release, but
it’s a groovy fucker that’s
refreshingly devoid of any
pretentious stodge or delusions
of grandeur. Along with all the
vintage thrash and death
influences there’s a smattering
of early punk in the mix here too,
and it results in a spiky, vigorous
40 minutes of pogoing, headbanging fun. Plus, any band with
a song called The Roaring
Grandfather deserves your
undivided attention. [7]

DANIEL CAIRNS

120 | METALHAMMER.CO.UK

GHOST
OPUS EPONYMOUS

AND DEATH

Denim, and Satan!

Urban BM thrown into a blender

SELF-styled ‘urban black metal’
Swiss fi ve-piece Blutmond
channel their inner mad scientist
for this intriguingly titled second
album, slicing up different
genres to buck as many scene
cliché s as possible. Thirteen…
is reminiscent of the equally
unhinged Devin Townsend and
the likes of Working Poor, Yuppie
Yeah! (A/a 3000) blend jazz
breakdowns with stoner
grooves and old-fashioned BM
headfuckery. Sampled sounds of
life are interspersed throughout
and you have to admire their
bravery when they opt to put
saxophones and 80s electrobeats into their musical broth.
Ultimately though, their inability
to conclusively fi nish an idea
leaves you a little unsatisfi ed. [6]

CANDLELIGHT

ADVERSUM

Black metal on the battlefield

WHILE Delirium Bound may be
a new name, the fact that they
feature Kim Sø lve of Trine og
Kim Design Studio (who have
designed covers for the likes of
Ulver, Enslaved, Darkthrone,
Mayhem) will surely give this
debut a bit more appeal in some
quarters. But even without this
knowledge, Delirium… is
recognisably Norwegian. Drawing
upon the furious blackened
thrash of Aura Noir as well as the
cold and dissonant late 90s BM
of Thorns and Satyricon – along
with a dash of Voivod – the record
draws upon the forward-thinking
metal of yesteryear. And so this
is both fresh and strangely
traditional as well as containing
enough charisma to make it
worthy of investigation. [8]

INSPIRED by Gunter K
Koschorreck’s book Blood Red
Snow: The Memoirs Of A German
Soldier On The Eastern Front,
Blood On Snow aims to evoke the
emotional experiences of battle
via the medium of heavy fucking
metal. And for the most part,
it works. Beginning with beastly
howls and ominous soundscapes,
the ‘war torn black metal’ band
also take in elements of doom,
folk and classical music for their
relentless debut and it’s a bit of
a Boy’s Own affair. At times the
military theme can get a little
laboured (At The Gates Of
Moscow ) and the bass sound just
isn’t meaty enough, but frontman
Nagant’s vocal gymnastics
coupled with the band’s
admirable musical bravery help
make up for the odd misfi re. [7]

Avant yet familiar Norsk metal

DAYAL PATTERSON

CODE 666

EDWIN McFEE

FRONT
DELIRIUM
BOUND EASTERN
BLOOD ON SNOW
DELIRIUM, DISSONANCE

EDWIN McFEE

RISE ABOVE

ON the back of a recommendation
by Darkthrone drummer and cult
metal afi cionado Fenriz, Sweden’s
Ghost have built up an impressive
underground buzz during the last
six months. The clutch of killer
tracks circulating on the internet
suggested that their debut album
would be a mouthwatering treat
for denim-and-leather devotees
everywhere. Satan be praised! It
does not disappoint. Appropriate,
then, that Rise Above should
facilitate the release of probably
the top true metal effort of 2010.
Invoking the musty atmosphere
of Angel Witch, Witchfi nder
General, Pagan Altar, Witchfynde
and early Mercyful Fate, this is
an arcane occult feast. If Hammer
Studios recruited an in-house
band, Ghost would undoubtedly
get the job. [9]

GREG MOFFITT

DRAGGED INTO
SUNLIGHT

OF BULLETS
FATHER
BEFOULED HAIL
ON DIVINE WINDS
MORBID DESTITUTION
OF COVENANT

CENTURY MEDIA

RELAPSE

Death metallers in the wars

PROSTHETIC

Deathly deeds designed to disgust

PROSTHETIC have signed this
deeply unpleasant UK four-piece
and have reissued their
Mordgrimm debut from last year,
Hatred For Mankind. As statements of sheer nihilism go, this is
close to (im)perfect. Dragged Into
Sunlight show total disdain for
their audience by playing in neardarkness while wearing sex case/
terrorist balaclavas. There is no
quarter given to artistry, delayed
gratifi cation or atmospherics
on Boiled Angel, just seething,
hateful, necrotic sludge at the
close-to-white-noise/crustpunk
end of the scale. Buried With
Leaches takes the misanthropy
even further with pigfuck vocals
that sound like the unfortunate
extras in Hostel II. [8]

IT’S the guitar tone that hits you
fi rst: a thick, viscous, writhing
aural fog sucking chaotic
percussion and guttural
exclamations into its maw. This is
death metal used as a battering
ram to smash down Hell’s gates
from the inside, with
unmistakable shades of both
Incantation’s peerless Onwards
To Golgotha and Immolation’s
recent missives from the abyss,
but also with its own ghastly,
hopeless charisma. With plenty
of variations in pace, Father
Befouled frequently stray into the
kind of desolate doom territory
beloved of Asphyx. Above all, FB
provide a stark reminder that
when stripped to its primal
essence, DM remains heavy
music’s true last word. [8]

HAVING dealt with the Eastern
Front on their magnifi cent debut
album, Of Frost And War,
Holland’s new masters of wartorn
brutality have turned their
attention to the Pacifi c Ocean
and the bloody mayhem that
ensued between the Japanese
army and American Marines
during WWII. Musically, this is
another exhilarating barrage of
marauding old-school DM that
boasts more than enough cuttingedge punch to dispel notions of
retro lethargy while pissing out
a seemingly never-ending stream
of vicious hooks, as the ageless
Martin Van Drunen gives his
leathery larynx yet another
gruelling workout. Hail Of Bullets
are deceptively versatile. The
horrors of war never rocked
so hard. [8]

HATRED FOR MANKIND
The joy of torture

JOHN DORAN

DOM LAWSON

DOM LAWSON

STILL ON THE STEREO: ENSLAVED AXIOMA ETHICA OUDINI (INDIE): “A STATE OF ABUNDANTLY HUED SPLENDOUR”

Sehnsucht:
a stop-start affair

HORNED
ALMIGHTY

NECRO SPIRITUALS
CANDLELIGHT

PROLIFIC UK noise/ambient/
industrial label Cold Spring
have been busy in recent
months with their latest
batch of darkly disturbing
new releases. The brainchild
of former Endvra man
Christopher Walton,
TENHORNEDBEAST is a oneman project – as
so many of these
things are –
whose third Cold
Spring album
Hunts & Wars
[8] deviates
somewhat from
his previous drone/doom
output with a largely dark
ambient soundscape. The
progression works well and
the artwork courtesy
of Kevin Yuen (Sunn
O))), Wolves In The
Throne Room)
complements it
beautifully. Another
solo effort, FIRE IN
THE HEAD, concludes
a six-year career with
a final full-length
album, Confessions
Of A Narcissist [6] .
Its harsh, cathartic
industrial/power
electronics offer
a relentlessly brutal
excursion to the dark
side via delightful
ditties such as I’m Not
Here To Coexist, I’m
Here to Win and Home
is Where the
Whore Is.
Interestingly,
it also features
guest
appearances
from Nick
Blinko of punk
veterans
Rudimentary
Peni and
122 | METALHAMMER.CO.UK

Agoraphobic Nosebleed’s
J Randall. German legends
VON THRONSTAHL weigh in
on behalf of the nation most
associated with industrial
music, presenting
Conscriptum [7] , a double
CD odds’n’sods collection
of rare tracks, alternative
versions and previously
unreleased material. From
neo-folk to self-styled
‘military-pop’, it’s a wideranging assortment of
sounds and styles and the
whole thing, as you might
expect, is very, very German.
Sticking with Deutschland
and the ambience of
MACHINEFABRIEK, whose
latest outing
Daas [7] brings
together material
previously only
available on a
series of obscure
self-released
CD-Rs. More
haunting and
reflective than
sinister, it’s
wallpaper music
where the
wallpaper is
faded, peeling
and composed
of a drab,
long-forgotten
palette of
colours.
Finally, fresh
from his
expectationconfounding exertions with
Skitliv, former Mayhem
frontman Maniac has formed
SEHNSUCHT, a side-project
featuring fiancé e Vivian
Slaughter of Gallhammer.
The result of their efforts,
Wüste [6] , is a tapestry of
noise/dark ambient moods.
GREG MOFFITT

MY
SILENT WAKE
IV ET LEX PERPETUA

US BM fails to impress

It’s grim up North. And down South.

PLANET METAL

DARK BALANCE

ALTHOUGH two of the most
disparate starting points on the
metal spectrum, a number of
artists are becoming increasingly
adept at melding elements of
hardcore and black metal into
a frightening new monster.
Whilst the miserable bastards
in France’s Celeste are ploughing
altogether more misanthropic
furrows, Denmark’s Horned
Almighty conjure up an aural
sensation somewhere close to
what Cursed would sound like if
they’d done a black metal album,
having never heard one. But HA
have, and despite their hardcore
leanings Necro… is littered with
passages that belie a knowledge
and devotion to a genre they’ve
successfully mongrel-ised. [8]

THE members of Chicago black
metallers Kommandant have
put in some serious time in
some great Illinois bands –
Nachtmystium and Cianide for
starters. That they are seasoned
pros is obvious from the start.
Kontact is a barrage of harsh,
abrasive black metal very much
in the modern Norwegian vein:
razor-sharp riffi ng as harsh as
a broken glass body scrub, throatripping nails-on-blackboard
vocals and the odd catchy
moment. However, whilst deftly
executed and boasting some
good songs on this 20-minute EP,
Kommandant are not quite in the
same league as their more
illustrious cousins. Kontact is
a fi ne slice of nastiness, it just
doesn’t leap out at you screaming
‘Pick me!’ [6]

DESPITE a name suggestive
of fringes and sulky teens, My
Silent Wake plough a much
nastier furrow. There are hints
of early Paradise Lost and a nod
towards My Dying Bride’s sense
of the grandiose but mixed in is
a hint of syrupy Sabbath-esque
groove. At times they could
almost be sludge with a guitar
sound, as much Southern US
nihilism as Northern UK
pessimism, although they never
lose their English identity.
Songs like Death Becomes Us
and Bleak Endless Winter are
perfect for those who love their
gloom and death/doom. Of
course, celebrating the misery
does not an instant hit make and
Iv Et Lex Perpetua needs a few
listens before really making its
presence felt. [7]

HUMILIATION
DAWN OF WARFARE

KORESH
CRIPPLEDRIVER

NOX
BLOOD, BONES AND

The case for heavy youth in Asia

Urban doomsters spew forth debut

RITUAL DEATH

Black metal to the ’core

Subterranea delves into the dark heart
of industrial with Cold Spring Records.

KOMMANDANT
KONTACT

TOBY COOK

NEBIULA

THERE is something immensely
appealing about a band that has
no Facebook, Twitter or MySpace
presence, particularly when they
are also based in a country that
frowns upon the very notion of
extreme music. Humiliation
play ‘Malaysian old skool death
metal’ and you would have to be
uniquely mean-spirited not to
applaud them, regardless of the
quality of their debut full-length.
Fortunately, this is both a hugely
likeable and undeniably spirited
fi rst effort, strongly redolent of
early Death, Massacre and Bolt
Thrower but stripped down even
further to a persistent but
lobotomised mid-tempo thud.
At times the band’s naivety
holds them back and but there
is potential here too and a vast
amount of passion. [6]

DOM LAWSON

ALASTAIR RIDDELL

WITHERED HAND

FEATURING current and former
members of Witchsorrow, Among
The Missing and Pombagira,
London’s vile sludge extremists
are every bit as English in their
depiction of the genre as Electric
Wizard. While theirs is the
parochial perversion of The
League Of Gentlemen, like the
late, great Iron Monkey, Koresh
channel the black humours of
urban blight: overcrowded council
housing, foul-smelling chicken
shops and the dried vomit crust
of the early hours into churning
ball of sonic negativity. Flecked
with Khanate’s rumbling
progressions, buzzing Poison Idea
guitars and vocals which reach to
claw hungrily black metal highs
like bloodied, broken nails on
concrete, Crippledriver is every
bit as malignant as its cover. [8]
JAMES HOARE

ALASTAIR RIDDELL

LISTENABLE

Dark masters of Dutch death

ABSENT without blast since their
short-lived tenure on Earache and
the resultant Ixaxaar album, Nox
remain a sure and unshakable
force for evil in death metal,
channelling the spirit of the old
Deicide and Morbid Angel albums
that clearly inspired them to
make music in the fi rst place.
Testing the water upon their
return, the Dutchmen have
delivered four chunks of frayed
and bloody malevolence, with
an admirably creepy intro and
grandiose outro thrown in to
heighten the overall sense of
Satanic oppression, and every
last second suggests that their
powers have grown during their
hiatus. Nox deliver the word of
the Old Gods with all faders in
the bloody red. [7]

DOM LAWSON

THIS MONTH IN HISTORY NOVEMBER 1982: VENOM’S BLACK METAL IS RELEASED,BOUGHT BY SOME NORWEGIANS.

OCTOBER
TIDE
ATHIN SHELL

TURBID
NORTH
OROGENY

WHITE
HILLS
STOLEN STARS LEFT

Gloomy crew return to mourn anew

Tales from the frozen north

FOR NO ONE

CANDLELIGHT

OVER a decade has passed since
October Tide’s last record, and
since then founder member (and
Katatonia vocalist) Jonas Renske
has relinquished his position in
the band, but Fred Norrman –
also a member of Katatonia until
2009 – remains, steering the
ship through its most alluring
waters yet. Still fi rmly entrenched
in the death/doom sphere, A Thin
Shell is strong on melody and
atmosphere, but it’s its heaviness
which may take fans by surprise.
Taking cues from Swallow The
Sun, a band that have more than
a little October Tide in their
sound, Fred and co have dared
to dream in more vivid shades
this time round, imbuing the
morose but motoring likes of The
Dividing Line with a scintillating
sense of drama. [8]

SELF-RELEASED

TURBID North originally hail from
a town actually called North Pole,
Alaska and they’re working as
lumberjacks to save enough
money to move to more fertile
musical climes. Fortunately, their
music is also worthy of mention.
While the production may be a
tad over-processed, the songs
themselves are Grade-A slabs of
vicious thrash/death as shades
of Heartwork-era Carcass spiral
around classic Metallica and
Slayer before nuzzling up against
the Southern likes of Mastodon
and Baroness. The vocal tradeoffs between Brian McCoy and
guitarist Nick Forkel provide
dizzying energy as Forkel and
Alex Rydlinski’s solos heave with
bluesy, classic rock inflections
and awesome fusion-inspired
fi nger-stretching. [8]

THRILL JOCKEY

Psych from the blanc generation

WHITE Hills are every inch the
cult heavy rock band. A threepiece consisting of Jon Spencer
lookalike Dave W on vocals and
Kyuss-strength guitars, Ego
Sensation, the PVC clad bassist
cut from the same cloth as the
young Lita Ford and various
amazing drummers, including
the astounding Kid Millions
from Oneida. Add to this a violent
aversion to plaid, a worship of
Orange amps and a bewildering
array of EPs, seven-inches, split
albums, CD-Rs, cassettes and
collaborations and you have the
real fucking deal. Recorded live
with no overdubs, tracks go from
smacked-out bliss metal grooves
to buzzing harmonics and
Hawkwind-esque space phase.
Top class psychedelia. [8]

DOM LAWSON

CONNIE GORDON

TRIPTYKON
SHATTER

WARLORD
UK
THE EVILWITHIN

WITHERED
DUALITAS

Legend merges past and present

Brummie thrashers return

Brewing up a storm

CENTURY MEDIA/PROWLING DEATH

SERVING as something of a
companion piece to last spring’s
Eparistera Daimones, former
Celtic Frost lynchpin Tom Gabriel
Warrior’s new band Triptykon
continue where they left off for
their new odd’n’sods EP, Shatter.
Comprising of three new studio
songs plus two live cuts, the
haunting title track is the pick of
the bunch and features a
bewitching brew of evocative
female vocals and sinister
whispers that pack more menace
than Archie Mitchell in his prime.
It’s not all killer though, as the
listless drone of Crucifi xus has
‘fi ller’ stamped all over it, but
the Frost covers recorded at the
Roadburn festival – Circle Of The
Tyrants and Dethroned Emperor
– help make the EP a worthy
addition to Warrior’s tale. [6]
EDWIN McFEE

124 | METALHAMMER.CO.UK

COPRO

PRESUMABLY forced to adopt the
rather awkward ‘UK’ part of their
name due to the American metal
band Warlord, this long-running
act began life in the early 90s,
releasing a lone album in 1996
before throwing in the towel a few
years later. Now over a decade
later, vocalist/bassist Mark White
is back with a new lineup and
half an hour of new music. The
intervening years clearly haven’t
inspired a massive desire for
progression, the music based
around a straightforward meat ’n’
potatoes thrash/death template
that indulges its aggressive
desires, without needing to head
into more technical, brutal or
forward-thinking territories. The
result is satisfying and immediate
but the linear nature of the music
suggests a limited shelf life. [6]
DAYAL PATTERSON

JOHN DORAN

PROSTHETIC

NOTHING beats the rush of
putting an album on, not knowing
what to expect and getting your
head blown so far off your
shoulders that you spill your tea.
Withered have just done that with
Dualitas. The record is equal parts
atonal blastbeat-laden violence,
sludgy groove and effects-laden
atmospherics, and it all
contributes to a hell of an album.
Any band that combines the
dense progressive attack of Cult
Of Luna with furious black metal
and doesn’t make a balls of it is
very much worth your time.
Withered’s strength lies in their
ability to snatch a semblance of
melody from the maelstrom of
bludgeoning guitars and
savagery. A compulsive, densely
packed listen that you should
investigate right bloody now. [8]

DANIEL CAIRNS

Amorphis: getting
the beards in

Subterranea looks back in anger
with the latest reissues.
SIMILAR to how bands from
across the popularity
spectrum are reuniting
regardless of public demand,
albums both near-impossible
to find and those littering cutout bins are being reissued
en masse. Here’s a small
glimpse into what’s being
shuffled back into the deck.
First up from our pals at
Relapse: two slices of
Sunshine State sludge.
-(16)-’s Curves That Kick [7]
and Drop Out [7] are both
sinewy and teeming with
hatred, drug abuse,
surrealist outsider art and
pill-poppin’, whiskeysoaked cynicism.
The preponderance
of punky/bouncy
rhythms on
Curves… is
surprising and
Drop Out’s Trigger
Happy will have
misanthropes
hollering the classic
‘Life sucks/Leave
me alone! ’ refrain
in perpetuity.
Reissue
specialists,
Metal Mind
offer up a
reconstituted
version of
SORROW’s Hatred &
Disgust/Forgotten Sunrise
EP [6] . Considered a hard-tofind gem by doomheads, this
remaster is simply a louder,
cleaner and clearer version
of Winter’s moroseness
meets Slayer’s whammy-bar
beatdowns. ACID BATH were

a band paid little attention
when they actually existed,
only to experience posthumous interest once the
world discovered New
Orleans’ extreme music
history. So, for all those
claiming to be down with the
Bath, here’s your chance to
actually own one of their
releases – the band’s second
album, Paegan Terrorism
Tactics [7] and its humid
thrash/death/sludge gumbo,
courtesy of Rotten Records.
From Hydra Head comes
Demasiado Tonto Para Los
Nino Listos [6] , the doubledisc discography from
mid-90s AmRep
obsessives, LA
GRITONA. The
dissonant and
acerbic style still
grates 15 years
later, but if you
can’t get enough
of conventionfuckers like
Melvins, and
The Jesus
Lizard, check
this out. Not a
reissue per se, but
present-day AMORPHIS
have re-recorded old
faves and classics for
Magic & Mayhem –
Tales From The Early
Years [8] . The result is rather
enjoyable, but treads
dangerous territory with
those fans/purists who will
simply never be pleased
when the old-school gets
toyed with or updated.

CONNIE GORDON

REVIEWED NEXT MONTH: ABOYRM/DEATHSPELL OMEGA/ELECTRIC WIZARD/THE MEADS OF ASPHODEL/STARGAZER/SVART CROWN

HOT SHIT
Gavin Baddeley licks his
lips as he samples the
booze from down below.

s
The bro-dawg g
from Brew Do

hen British cinema’s reigning
W
Prince Of Darkness, Christopher
Lee, won his Spirit Of Hammer Award
“Stop it! That well tickles!”

HEADPRESS BOOKS

Subterranea enters the murky realms of punk porn, Satanic swingers, Nazi
prison gangs and bukkake parties with the UK’s most fearless publishers.
Words: Gavin Baddeley.

T

he UK underground institution
Headpress issued the first
edition of their self-titled
irregular journal in 1992.The
publishers’roots gave a clear
indication of the taboo territory
they planned to explore, as Headpress
founder and head honcho
David Kerekes explains:
“I got to know the filmmaker Jörg Buttgereit
reasonably well at around
the time he was making
Nekromantik – which you
may know is the most
bootlegged movie in the
history of the world, as well
as an entirely reprehensible
work about a disillusioned
necrophiliac.” Nekromantik is
an infamous low-budget love story
about a German couple addicted to
sex with the dead. David and
compatriots secured the UK rights
to Jörg’s next film – a harrowing
meditation on death entitled Der
Todesking – and with the profits
launched Headpress.
“We refused to be pigeonholed and didn’t
take a political stance, but instead published
what we thought was interesting, be it stuff
about the‘dark

ak

fre
Two-legged

126 | METALHAMMER.CO.UK

side’, porn, music, true crime or
whatever,” says David.“A lot of
people didn’t get it, so some
supposedly more liberal-minded
outlets wouldn’t stock us, some
feminists considered us
misogynists and some occult
people didn’t think we were
occult enough.Actually,
no one liked us very
much at all. Printers
were more discerning
back then, too.We often
got turned down.The
first time was because of
a cartoon ad we ran for a
handbook called
Uncle Fester’s
Home Explosives.
That was back in issue one.”
Deviant sex looms large in
the Headpress catalogue, in
books like Flesh Trade in which
author Bruce Barnard takes us
behind the sweaty scenes of
the UK sex industry, peeling
back the sticky curtain on such
bizarre scenes as underground
bukkake parties and self-help groups for
‘porn addicts’. Discarded culture is a
recurring theme at Headpress, such as the
two Bad Mags books, in which intrepid
author Tom Brinkmann sifts through 40
years’worth of tabloid trash to document
the weirdest and worst magazines ever
published: UFO contactee monthlies to
occult swingers journals (including the
infamous issue of Jaybird in which Church Of
Satan founder Anton LaVey appeared nude).
Scott Stine’s Trashfiend does much the
same for horror fans, casting an affectionate
gaze over the neglected monster movies and
merchandise of yesteryear.

Metal also gets a lookin.“I maintain that one of the
most succinct
music books of all
time is our own Gigs
From Hell – bands
from around the world
tell of their worst gig
experience,” says
David.“Because it’s
compiled by [Hammer
scribe] Sleazegrinder it has a
natural leaning towards metal.”
Over the past couple of
decades, the Headpress roster
has become a rogue’s gallery of
the most offbeat subjects,
fucked-up imagery and bizarre
authors ever committed to print.
“Many of the people we publish come to us,
generally because they like what we do or
they feel I owe them a beer,” observes David.
That’s a good way to do business. Never
trust a man who doesn’t drink beer.”

FIND OUT MORE

The best way to explore the taboobusting world of Headpress is via their
website – www.worldheadpress.com.
You can read an online version of their
infamous magazine at www.
worldheadpress.com/ezine2. Upcoming
releases include Dark Stars Rising:
Conversations From The Outer Realm –
“A large book containing interviews with
many people at the forefront of
countercultural ideas”including the likes
of Crispin Glover and the mighty Sunn
O))) – and Blood In, Blood Out: The
Violent Empire Of The Aryan Brotherhood
–“A grim, first-hand account of the gangs
that dominate American penitentiaries
and run the methamphetamine cartels
from within them.”

at the Golden Gods this year, he
announced as he left that“I will be
leaving on my motorbike with a case of
Jä germeister and several copies of
Metal Hammer.” There’s no criticising
his choice of fuel, as Jä germeister not
only sponsored the Award, but has
entered metal lore as a classic libation,
alongside such liquid legends as
Newcastle Brown and Jack Daniels.
Come this Halloween, thirsty horror
fiends may be tempted by a new line
of traditional ales sanctioned by
Hammer, the British horror studio that
first made Lee
famous as Count
Dracula over
50 years back.
Coffin-Ale
is an‘awfully
pale ale’
te us
weighing in at
Our livers will ha
4.5 per cent,
Dracula’s Desire a
ruby ale‘to die for’(5 per cent), while
Curse Of Frankenstein is the monster of
the trio, an IPA boasting a formidable
strength of 7 per cent.
For fearsomely powerful, high-quality
British beer, however, you can’t beat
Brew Dog, an iconoclastic Scottish
brewery who boast of concocting
‘beer for punks’. They’ve won over
connoisseurs with potent but
dangerously drinkable brews like
Punk IPA (6 per cent) and Hardcore
IPA (9.2 per cent).
The release of Tactical
Nuclear Penguin caused
something of a stir,
as the world’s strongest
ever beer at an utterly
terrifying 31 per cent.
Undeterred by killjoys
and critics, Brew
Dog struck back
with Sink The
Bismarck, which,
Punk IPA
: strong
at 41 per cent, is
closer in potency to
whisky than it is to anything
we’d call beer,
let alone in character. Even the Count
himself would struggle to rise from
his coffin, after an encounter with
Sink The Bismarck…

Reviewed next month
tone:
Thundersh flair
Finnis

Kvelertak: so good it
hurts your eyes

cuppered last April by the
geological own-goal of Iceland’s
Eyjafallajökull volcano spewing
ash all over the place, the Hammercurated Nordic Expo, Ja Ja Ja, finally
makes it over to London, in the
salubrious yet lived-in surroundings
of Islington’s Lexington venue.
The red curtains and textured
wallpaper carry more than a hint
of Twin Peaks ’ Black Lodge to it –
the perfect setting, then, for former
black metallers SÓLSTAFIR’s [8]
through-the-looking-glass, scorchedsky trail songs. Looking like a leatherbound outlaw cowboy clan, their
guitarist’s strangely dainty method
of pickless strumming gives rise to
reactive, crackling expanses that
sound like their native volcano
starting to get overcome with
remorse. Frontman Aðalbjörn
Tryggvason’s forlorn, cracked howl,
rather than leading Pale Rider ’s
billowing, transformative rush,
comes on like an echo pulled along
by its massive, storm-lashed
slipstream. Sólstafir have a date with

128 | METALHAMMER.CO.UK

destiny and they draw everyone here
up into their nerve-enflaming thrall.
In a bill of otherwise idiosyncratic
boundary-breakers, Finland’s
THUNDERSTONE [6] are an
anomaly, their trad, 80s-based power
metal drawn to the weightier, less
fluff-filled end of the spectrum, but
trading it all away for ironic, onstage
playacting that blows a massive, fat
raspberry at any possible suspension
of disbelief. Not that the singer’s nods
and winks, and the guitarist’s jokey
habit of miming the lyrics, drawing
tears down his cheeks, are any
anathema to their hardcore following
down the front, but for all their
intimate connection with their fans
and authentic metal chops, it’s so
much inconsequential, ambitionlacking bluster that never enters the
full-blown, absurdly convincing
worlds of their peers.
Norway’s KVELERTAK [9] are one
of those rare bands who, through
sheer, chaos-coralling conviction,
have become a cause in their own
right, each gig they play creating

scores of new converts telling
wide-eyed tales of galvanising
sonic onslaught. And so it proves
again tonight, the six-strong
collective throwing themselves
about the stage as pulsating,
leash-straining rallying cries pull
in all manner of musical detritus
around their insatiably rocking
hardcore mass. Black metallic
stomps and momentumcharged melodies all become
fused together around
frontman Erland Hjelvik’s
scorched bark, gang chants
that exclude macho posturing for an
all-inclusive drive for enlightened
oblivion and massive, heartbursting-through-ribcage grooves.
The tightly packed crowd chant their
name like it was some kind of
talisman, and all for a band whose
eponymous debut album was
released only four months ago.
Kvelertak have that immediate
effect, and their fireball is about
to engulf the world of metal.
JONATHAN SELZER

Só lstafir: out of space

JA JA JA:NAKI/WAtAIN:EstEr sEgAr r A

THE LEXINGTON, LONDON

Subterranea haS a feSt-frenzy at SuperSonic and Live eviL!

Dyscarnate/
Hour Of Penance/
Ion Dissonance/
Psycroptic

Destroyer 666
CAMDEN

Watain: have you been
involved in an accident
or injured at work…?

UNDERWORLD, LONDON

Destroyer 666:
war metal

HERE is a certain rough-hewn charm that
marks out Australian bands, from AC/DC to
the myriad underground death and black
metal bands. They like a drink, they like to have
fun but are not averse to a fight too. In the case
of DESTROYER 666 [8], it seems like the fight
is top priority. Forget battle metal, this is all-ou
war – a barrage of punk-edged metal drawing t
on early Slayer, Maiden and Venom mixed in
blades, coshes and a size 11 boot to the head.with
But violent as they sound, this is not just
knuckle-dragging thuggery. There’s a strong
sense of melody hidden amongst the spikey
riffing and a good dash of classic metal
showmanship. Brains and bullet-belts.
WATAIN [9] also grasp the importance of
putting on a show but have taken it up a notch.
Not content to sound killer – which they do
and look the part – again, no one could quest–ion
that – they also smell evil. Against a backdrop
of candles, dead crows and incense they take
stage drenched in blood – blood that has beenthe
allowed to fester for a few days. In the confi
of a small club this is quite pungent. When nes
mainman Erik Danielsson decides to bless the
crowd with a chalice of this blood during Devil’s
Blood (the song, not the band), it becomes
almost unbearable. Those who are able to
overcome the nauseating stench are treated
an overpowering display of black metal fromtoone
of the finest live bands in the genre. Modern
classics Sworn To The Dark and Reaping Deathday
hit with all the force of a small hurricane and
stirring blast through Bathory’s Sacrifice suggaests
Watain are still a band at the top of their game
confident, fired up and downright nasty. Venom;
may have been taking the piss but it would
appear that Watain are deadly serious about
their love of the Devil and indeed the live show
has the feel of a Satanic ritual. A full-on sensory
experience not for delicate stomachs.
ALASTAIR RIDDELL

UNDERWORLD, LONDON
PENERS DYSCARNATE [7] might have
the appearance of a bunch of posh
boys with a gym addiction, yet any of the
sparse crowd expecting them to sound
as such have everything but their teeth
peeled clean off by the sheer neutronic
intensity of their death/grind onslaught.
Too tough an act to follow, it would
seem, for Italy’s HOUR OF PENENCE [5],
who, whilst providing some humorous
inter-song banter, forget to provide
anything else. Despite possessing the
kind of deep-worn grooves that even
neck spasms won’t help you keep time
to, the eight-stringed white noise of
ION DISSONANCE [7] is actually pretty
boring. On the other side of the coin, the
brutal simplicity of PSYCROPTIC’s [8]
Antipodean DM is, well, simply brutal.
After a nearly two decade career,
CEPHALIC CARNAGE [9] have been at all
times skin-peeling, humorous, complex
and crushingly simple and tonight fully
justifies their longevity and shows what
all those stoners listening to Bob fucking
Marley are really missing!
TOBY COOK

THE GAFF, LONDON
HOULD you feel so inclined, you can
pick from two seemingly contrary
conclusions about the state of teh
punx in the UK. Either the scene’s in
unexpectedly rude health given how
many assembled crusties, thrashers
and assorted dis-fits have turned out
for a band in danger of being outpaced
by their massed legion of imitators
(mostly Swedish), or it’s everything the
disillusioned claim it is (a toothless
fashion show). While a sizeable throng
jostle under the onstage d-beat barrage,
the street outside and snug annexe to
the back of the room seem to have drawn
an equal, if not greater, portion happy
to drink heavily and compare mohawk
sizes. Discharge’s post-reunion output
may have been sporadic and the results
sometimes confused, but having clawed
up the sorely missed anger of old on last
year’s Desensitized, these hoary veterans
have found their place in the world:
pretty much where they’re currently
standing, working metallic buzzsaw riffs
and caustic, gravel-throated extortions
in a barbarous flurry. With three decades
to draw from, the emphasis on the back
catalogue isn’t the nostalgia pandering
cop-out it could be – it’s a tightly wound
display of hardcore history at its most
raucously alive, offering up new cuts to
be devoured by the fist-aloft fanatics as
every inch the equal of those classics. [7]
JAMES HOARE
METALHAMMER.CO.UK | 129

Tom G Warrior Triptykon
Switzerland’s seminal extreme metal legend breaks
the ice as he discusses transcendental aliens, driving
ambitions and the non-Satanism of chickens.

W

hen you started,
did you ever think
your career would
last this long?
“I didn’t even imagine having a

standards, I don’t think I’m difficult
to work with, although I’m quite
sure there will be people who will
tell you otherwise.”

career. Everything spoke against it.
My beginnings were so modest and
the odds so much stacked against
me that I didn’t think I’d have a
career never mind one that’s
lasted almost 30 years.”

Have you ever made any
enemies along the way?

Do you believe in God or
the devil?
“I don’t believe in anything,
especially not those two. I don’t
believe – I either know or I don’t
know. It’s not part of my life.”

Is there apiece of art or fi lm
that’s important to you?
“Anything that HR Giger creates.
I know that might be too obvious
or a cliché but to me there is no
greater surrealist living. Some
of his work transcends almost
all other art on this planet. He is
a living genius”

What has been the high point
of your career?
“The high point is to even have
a career.To be part of the people
I idolised as a teenager. I used to
sit trying to escape from reality
listening to rock albums and it
took me to spheres I didn’t know
existed.To be granted by luck or
destiny to be among them is the
high point. It surpasses any other
single event.”

And the low point?
“They are uncountable but the
most severe by far was the
destruction of Celtic Frost.”

Are you adiffi cult person
to work with?
“I don’t think so. I have very high
demands of quality and
professionalism and I work
meticulously and in great detail.
If somebody also has high

130 | METALHAMMER.CO.UK

plays rather than songs and they
transcend the usual musical/
lyrical format.”

What are your ambitions?
“I have made plenty of enemies
and they let me know in no
uncertain terms almost every day
of my life. Sometimes it becomes
overpowering to the point I think
about stopping.”

What’s the hardest part of the
lifestyle you’ve chosen?
“The extreme financial instability
I’ve been dealing with for 28 years.
I’ve been asked by fans if I drive a
Rolls Royce. It’s ludicrous. We’re
not Bon Jovi. Like all extreme metal
bands we’re in a niche market. Even
in the 80s when there was still
a lot of money in music the record
company stole it from us. Now in

“At this point in my life, nothing.
I have fulfilled my ambitions.
Now I’m playing music merely
for enjoyment. I have plans for
Triptykon but to call them
ambitions would be too much.”

What’s the most important
lesson you’ve learned?
“To have stamina and be
persistent. If you don’t have those
you might as well not try to be
a musician.Talent alone won’t
get you anywhere.”

What albums would you take
to adesert island?
“The first Angel Witch album
[Angel Witch],Venom’s Welcome
To Hell,Vol 4 and Sabbath Bloody

“I HAVE MADE PLENTY
OF ENEMIES AND THEY
LET ME KNOW ALMOST
EVERY DAY OF MY LIFE”
TOM GWARRIOR

a band where we have full control
there’s no record sales any more.
That’s my life in a nutshell.”

Is there asong you’re most
proud of writing?
“Possibly Triumph Of Death by
Hellhammer.Then probably The
Prolonging by Triptykon. Both
these songs transport radical
emotions. Of course you attempt
to do that with every single song
you make but sometimes for some
reason or other it works perfectly.
They are both almost like albums
in themselves.They’re more like

Sabbath by Black Sabbath, Wish
You Were Here by Pink Floyd and
something by Dead Can Dance,
most likely Spleen And Ideal.”

What will you be doing
immediately after answering
these questions?
“Straight after this I will be eating
a chicken and salad wrap.That’s
probably not Satanic enough but
that’s what I’m gonna do.”
TRIPTYKON’S NEW EP, SHATTER,
IS OUT NOW VIA CENTURY MEDIA
WWW.TRIPTYKON.NET

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