TIGER TELEVISION

Hell Comes Home 7"EP subscription club: LAUNCH OFFER \\\ €10.- OFF /// VALID UNTIL MAY 31, 2011

2011-05-16T00:44:00.008+03:00

If you are a vinyl lover you should definitely consider subscribing to this 7"EP club! You can pay in one go or over three months. For more info: www.hellcomeshome.com

<<" March 2012 consecutively, each subscription will receive two new splits 7-inch vinyl with new and original artwork in the post every month... And because life is good the first package will include an exclusive t-shirt along with a special limited edition box to complete the set.

Volume 1 features: Akaname (AUS/NZ) • Black Sun (UK) • Burning Love (CAN) • Coffinworm (USA) • Dead Elephant (IT) • Dephosphorus (GR) • Dopefight (UK) • Dukatalon (ISR) • Fight Amp (USA) • Fistula (USA) • The Fucking Wrath (USA) • Great Falls (USA) • Kowloon Walled City (USA) • Lesbian (USA) • Mose Giganticus (USA) • Pyramido (SWE) • Rabbits (USA) • Suma (SWE) • The Swan King (USA) • Tellusian (SWE) • Thou (USA) • Throat (FIN) • Ultraphallus (BE) • Union Of Sleep (DE)

In short your subscription includes:

24 exclusive and unreleased songs from 24 bands
• 12 splits 7-inch vinyl in a special limited edition box
• Digital coupons of high quality mp3’s (320 kbps) with each vinyl
• An exclusive t-shirt
• Original artwork & design by Kuba Sokolski>>>

OUTLAND

2011-05-02T11:38:00.006+03:00

OUTLAND is a new exciting video game for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 available exclusively as a digital download for the moment.

I am a fan of old-school 2D action/platformers and this one got me really happy.

First of all it has top notch, high quality aesthetics and presentation, starting as a mystical trip into the jungle guided by a shaman.

Then the mechanics are precise and accurate. It is part of the new generation of action/platformers such as BRAID, LIMBO, SUPER MEATBOY, SHADOW COMPLEX, combining great story & characters with a meaty playground.

OUTLAND will please for sure fans of old METROID and CASTLEVANIA games. The areas to explore are huge and the learning curve is smooth.

The novelty here for this kind of game is a polarity system a la IKARUGA which combined with bullet hell-style obstacles add a totally interesting twist to the gameplay and the aesthetics.

For the moment I am still at the beginning so I cannot really go in depth, but what I can say for the moment is that this one is a jewel, as well as a slap in the face for the old men whining that "video games are not done anymore like they used to".

I bought it for Xbox 360 and 800 M$ points is a very reasonable amount.

CAVE STORY

2011-04-30T12:21:00.013+03:00

If you're into gaming you must have heard of CAVE STORY (DOUKUTSU MONOGATARI) by now. It's a great japanese platformer/RPG developped initially on the PC circa 2004 and distributed for free! It's in the veins of the early 2D installments of the Metroid, Ninja Gaiden, Mega Man, The Legend of Zelda, and Castlevania series. It is an important influence for other contemporary indie games, such as the wonderful Braid.

It was met with such public and critical acclaim that it's been ported since to most popular platforms: Mac OS X, AMIGA OS 4, Linux, PSP, GP2, original Xbox & even adapted for the Texas Instruments TI-83/84 Plus scientific calculators! All those versions as freeware.

The Wii (Wiiware) and Nintendo DS (DSiware) ports are commercial versions but most will agree that the author, Daisuke Amaya (aka Studio Pixel), deserves some cash at the end of the day...

The inconvenience of playing the Windows version is that is configured by default to be playable on the keyboard. When I was younger I actually played action games on the keyboard, but not anymore, it is pure masochism! If you want to play with a gamepad, you'll have to configure it by running DoConfig.exe. You must click on "Use Gamepad". Underneath you have a matrix which represents the button maps. You must basically try to figure out which action corresponds to which button or trigger on your controller by trial & error: extremely user unfriendly! Alternatively you can use one of those utilities who map the keyboard keys to your gamepad but I did not want to bother.

Anyway, ideally I wanted to play Cave Story with my gamer's pride: the X-arcade dual tankstick. No fuckin'way! The beast being programmable, I will try one day to map the keys but maybe not: alternatively I can upload the game to one of my two original Xboxes and play it with the tankstick after hooking it up using the Xbox adapter (I have the old, standalone version but nowadays you can purchase the 2in1: PS3 + Xbox adapter).

Since I'm not playing much on the PC, the other solution was a wired Xbox 360 controller. Luckily there is a comprehensive mapping guide in configuring it, actually posted on an excellent Linux blog, Helpful Linux Tidbits! Eventhough it's been written for the Linux version, the same mapping applies for the Windoze version. You will find it here, complete with pictures and everything.

If you manage to do the mapping for other controllers/gamepads, please let us know! Until then, if you're caught by gadget consumerism you should know that a 3D version of Cave Story is being prepped for the Nintendo 3DS and will be available on the 9th of August!

THE HOWLING WIND "Into The Cryosphere" review

2010-10-30T15:20:00.002+03:00

Me and some other devotees have been expecting this album since 2006, the year when has been released the swan song of Thralldom, “A Shaman Steering The Vessel Of Vastness”. After their break up, guru Ryan Lipynsky (Unearthly Trance, Villains) has formed The Howling Wind with a similar line-up, ie. him on guitars/bass/vocals/noises plus a drummer. In this particular case, another cult figure of the US underground has joined forces: Τim Call from Parasitic Records and Alderbaran. “Into The Cryosphere” is such a pleasant surprise because the band’s debut “Pestilence And Peril” was good but not exceptional.

The Howling Wind are playing the exact kind of music and of black metal that I want to hear, and with “Into The Cryosphere” they are imposing themselves amongst the very best of ALL TIME. Lipynsky has conceived this album as a primeval voyage in Antarctica, not from a banal Νational Geographic-like perspective, but from the mystic/symbolic side of things.

The result chills the soul as music has rarely achieved. I believe that quite a few of the older black metal fans have to be submerged in such a way since the era of the early Dark Throne albums. “Into The Cryosphere” has the frozen aura of the familiar/classic, a part of it being based upon the aforementionned norwegians, but also upon Bathory, some particular Swiss and Autopsy. Tracks like “Teeth Of Frost”, give us hints of early Unearthly Trance, which make us hope for their return back to the roots.

Familiar, yet alien. Scattered ambient/noise invocations constitute an important part of the arsenal. The atmosphere of the album is inhuman, introvert, minimal and majestic. Its listening cuts you down instantly. Your wounds will remind you of riffs such as the sublime grandeur of instrumental number “Impossible Eternity”, the awesome thrash-iness of “A Dead Galaxy Mirrored In An Ice Mirage”, and the guitar solos-curses of “Ice Cracking In The Abyss” and “Will Is The Only Fire Under An Avalanche”.

Like you must have understood by the songtitles alone, the album concept leads into deep waters – the lyrics will be studied thorougly by the more perseverant. The artwork is austere but fuctional, while the logo has been designed by the allies of the band, our very own visionaries Viral Graphics.

PFL, PO Box 12046, Mississauga, Ontario, L5C 4R7 Canada, www.profoundlorerecords.com

http://www.myspace.com/thehowlingwind

http://sincontinuum.blogspot.com/

· Review by Panos Agoros, originally published in greek language for the column “Underground Kommandoz” of Metal Hammer Greece issue#309 (September 2010), used with kind permission.

DEPHOSPHORUS

2010-09-24T18:22:00.000+03:00

Check out this sweet new outfit!

GREEK SCENE REPORT 2007 --- Burnt By The Sun: The new extreme Greek scene

2010-08-30T12:50:00.023+03:00

By Panos Agoros

DISCLAIMER

This report was commissioned by Terrorized magazine back in 2007. They did not publish it and I was not communicated the reasons why - except that somebody in their headquarters fucked up and assigned a part of this project (black metal to be exact) to somebody else. I think it's about time that it gets out of my drawer.

Some of its content is outdated, since it was written 3 years ago... All the bands mentionned are worth checking out even if some of them do no longer exist. I've put a lot of time, effort and all my heart into it. I love the Greek scene and I've tried hard to support and promote it ever since I started Chaotik Webzine - back in November 1995. If you take the time to read it please comment. If the response is positive then a 2010/2011 version might see the light of day.

Last but not least, you'll notice that I write about the bands/projects that I was involved with back at the time Straighthate, Paraside, Kommpound, Blast Beat Mailmurder/Prod). This self-promotion was supposed to be handled deontologically by a short bio of myself which would mention them as part of my activities. So, it's not that I would write about my bands in a sneaky way.

INTRO

The age of innocence is long gone for Greek hard/extreme music. After the glorious era of the late 80’s/early 90’s, when bands from Hellas such as Rotting Christ, Necromantia, Varathron, Nightfall, Septic Flesh have had quite an impact on the underground scene proposing a fresh and mystic sound, creative sterility and low standards have been pretty much all that most of the new bands who came after them had to offer. A new breed of Greek bands is here though - and they kill everything! Hopefully this article will make you want to dig under the sunny façade of ouzo and tzatziki – Hell-as is here!

BACKGROUND

Greece has had until now a timid contribution to the worldwide extreme and hard music scenes. The country being located in the crossroads of Europe and the Middle East, separated from central Europe (where things are happening for metal) by the Balkans. Evolution in music -and in general- has always arrived around here delayed and distorted. In the 80’s the metal shows from foreign bands were extremely rare. Quite naturally, most local bands didn’t have a clue and the newborn local metal scene was dominated by ultra-kitsch. When the country finally has entered the metal map with its share of influential second wave of black metal bands and later on with a bundle of noteworthy atmospheric doom/death acts, few bands have taken advantage of the momentum to pursue a durable career. Actually there has been only one: Rotting Christ.

The christian conservatism of Greek society, the mandatory military service, the ridiculously low salaries versus the cost of life, the obligatory Greek lyrics that any musician aspiring to a serious career must have, are some of the factors explaining why being a professional metal musician in Greece is a utopia. Under these terms, it’s not surprising that guys such as Nightrage, Firewind, Biomechanical’s John K. sought a better chance abroad...

BAND FEATURES

DEAD CONGREGATION

What is like to play death metal in Greece? A.V., the guitarist/vocalist of Dead Congregation, one of the finest Greek metal bands of today, declares: “Death Metal is something that springs from within and manifests esoterical powers; it’s the channel that links the worldly with uncanny dimensions. So it doesn’t matter if you play in Greece, in any other country or in your basement. That’s how we perceive it.” Their debut album will be soon released by Nuclear War Now!, what should we expect? ““Graves Of The Archangels” should be finally available by the end of this year. It is consisted of 9 odes to Blasphemy, Darkness and Death , artwork is done yet again by Timo Ketola, who has also contributed lyrics for two of the songs. MkM of Antaeus fame has also written one for us. Expect pure Death Metal Massacre. There are also plans for a split 7”EP with Hatespawn from Germany.”

SONICHAOS AEON

Sonichaos Aeon is possibly the most cult underground Greek band. Ninja-singer 9:Death Of The East:9 tells us that is all about: “Cool music. Mostly heavy. David Mack’s comic books.Sho Kosugi movies. Documentaries about Buddy Rich and the fine art of drum-kit desecration. We steal from the best!!!” The band has a certain exotic character, but the term being subjective, what does this mean to them? Is there a way to sort out the exotic from the kitsch bands? “We’re the kind of people who acknowledge that a surf-rocking riff can have parallel dynamics, or even common spiritual roots, with a loooong, uncut, railroady-track blackmetal riff. I don’t know if that’s exotic for you. To us, it’s crystal-clear. Separating the exotic from the kitsch is pretty much a matter of consumer subjectivity. My idea of kitsch is putting two inverted crosses on your band’s logo so it looks symmetrical -and claim to praise chaos!!! Mayhem excluded.”

What about local bands who don’t want to be known by locals and refuse contact with most of the scenesters here... Can he understand this? “Frankly, no. It kinda reminds me of the general up-tightness of German people about all things Nazi. Relax people! Every country had its share of trend-jumping, character-void bands in the past. Concealing identity and origin, changing your name from, say, Piotr Warzawzychklikz to Terry Suspenders is so ‘80s. A Guilt trip does not a scene improve.”

What comes next is “an album-length demo called “Trabuki:The Living Hell Of Sonichaos Aeon”. Thrash metal with cool chorus lines and a pinch of Commodore 64-SID sound. Thrash Metal with synths !”

RAVENCULT

Ravencult’s debut album “Temples Of Torment” (Karisma Records/Dark Essence Records) is one of the finest examples of modern Greek black metal. Ravencult, like Greek black metal in general, had to redefine themselves by taking a step back from the established Rotting Christ formula. Bass player S. confirms: “Things are possibly are like that, if you consider that the original incarnation of what has what been known as “Greek black metal” stopped to exist around 1995, twelve years ago. It took Ravencult five years and a few demos to establish their current style. This path has included in the beginning the passage from the Greek sound and as time was passing by, it faded away. It wasn’t done on purpose, but rather as a result of natural evolution and redefinition of our collective expression.”

Playing classic northern black metal, one can safely bet that killer riffs are more important to Ravencult that originality… “We don’t try to reinvent the wheel throughout our music but to play pure black metal, fanatically attached to the true roots and authentic feeling, adapted to contemporary reality.” The band is currently composing its second album, which most likely will be recorded next summer at Mølla studio with Knut Valle (Arcturus).

HIBERNATION

Greece has been widely known for a strong DIY punk/crust scene. Hibernation is the most notorious band continuing this tradition. Their music is soaked in melancholy, often accompanied by synths. How much is this related with the country? “It is indeed linked with the Greek reality but also with the worldwide situation”, guitarist/vocalist Alekos responds. “As a worker and a parent I live the humiliation and disgust of this country and the majority of its inhabitants. How can the youth survive with meaningless salaries, huge expensiveness, without social benefits, health system, education, justice? Modern Greeks stay apathetic towards the non-existing human relations, the loneliness, the alienation, the assault of televisual studpidity, the burned forests, the poisoned rivers… How not feel a sadness considering all this? And of course, it’s not happening only here but all over the world. We also express anger and a voice of resistance, as well as a message of unity and cooperation with those that fight…” Hibernation, like all bands of this scene sing in Greek, which obviously “allows a more direct connection with the local audience. On the other hand all of our records have been released by foreign labels, and to both of our European tours we realized that people like the fact that we sing in Greek.” The band is currently playing shows in Greece and has plans for tours in the US and in Europe, as well as for a 7”EP. [hibernation_hc@yahoo.com]

SUN OF NOTHING

Sun Of Nothing popped out of nowhere and changed the way everybody (including the locals) perceived Greek metal. With mentors stated by guitarist Yannis such as “Electric Wizard,Neurosis,Carl Michael Eide,Varg Vikernes,Shora,Cult Of Luna,Joy Division,The Melvins,Aldrahn's vocals,Breach,Stephen O'Malley,Cliff Burton,Peter Murphy,Roger Syd Barrett” and a singer “who makes Dani Filth sound like Pavarotti” (like a webzine so sharply remarked), they indulge into majestic yet crude sonic excess. What can somebody immediately point out is the cyclothymia of their compositions. Its origin can be traced “back when we were composing the songs of our debut "And Voices, Words, Faces Complete The Dream" we were actually starting to realise how the world around us works, and how the image of the world we had as kids or teenagers collapsed giving away the real thing, plus the realisation that a lot of our dreams were probably futile. We tried to describe this through music; since then we had various experiences as individuals and as a band, that enhanced the past realisations and feelings.” And how is it to be a young person in Greece anyway? “It sucks major ass”.

FAMILY BATTLE SNAKE

Greece might sound as an improbable destination for noise music in the first place, but the reality is rather different. UK-based act Family Battle Snake, are amongst the most active Greek noise acts. Bill Kouligas initiates us to the whereabouts of this scene: “Oldest and favorite label is by far Absurd. Nicolas Malevitsis is one of the first people who got into the scene. He started as a huge gore/grindcore fan and slowly turned towards experimental/noise . I should also mention Ilios/Antifrost (ed-also located abroad) , P.S.Stamps Back/Cities in Desolation/Croatan Ensemble/tiltrecordings.org, Nokalypse/Triple Bath, Mecha-Orga/Echo Music, Tasos Stamou, Red Needled Sea/Heavensore, nixilx.nijilx, Dead Traveler, Wand & The Princess and many more I must be forgetting.”

To what extent did the country itself influenced F.B.S.? Material such as the limited release "Larvae" has a majestic/dramatic overtone that can beam somehow the listener back to ancient Greece and beyond… “Nowadays urban surroundings don’t necessarily provide such a heavy influence: with the web, the location itself doesn’t matter so much. However there are inevitable influences from my environment over the years. "Larvae" is a mixture of different influences. The use of reed instruments is inspired by some traditional roots, not only Greek but also some other far out weird sounds from places like Cambodia, Java/Bali, Laos, etc) and the whole free form of jazz. One thing for sure is that the UK is fertile ground for creativity. There are more opportunities to be active and it is a lot easier to travel and play shows.” Furthermore, what are the duo’s ambitions and intents? “To keep being creative and to run naked in the wind.”

GENRE BREAKDOWN

BLACK METAL

Greek black metal is back! A new generation of black hearts found its own way, getting past the obligatory Rotting Christ syndrome. Some seriously dark vibes are in play here. This new breed sounds less exotic than the forefathers, but a lot more extreme and crude. Naer Mataron is a name that should be familiar to a lot of you. They are the best known band of this generation, very Norwegian sounding indeed - plus they got harsher over the years. Same thing applies to Ravencult, one of the finest exports for the genre. End have been on hiatus for the last couple of years, but they are responsible for some of the most chilling and grim black metal sounds that have ever been recorded in Hellas. Check out their self-titled mini-CD and the awesome debut album “II” (both out at Iso666)! Two of their members play now with Sun Of Nothing, and the latest news are they’re getting back together. Burial Hordes are amongst the most brutal in the bunch… Their debut “War Revenge and Total Annihilation” (Asphyxiate Recordings) is a punishing and unrelenting experience for fans of Carpathian Forest, Cadaver, Aura Noir, and (old) Mayhem. They will release their next album on Pulverised Records. Injekting Khaos are another great brutal outfit, but they are more influenced by the French scene - especially Antaeus and Arkhon Infaustus. Their first official release is the sweet self-released mini-CD “Salvation Through Violence ”. Acrimonious are a lot influenced by all things orthodox. They have a bunch of solid and consistent releases with fine majestic riffing and bombastic drums. Their debut full-length is scheduled on Ajna Offensive. This Is Past is a new one-man band, pretty much in the psychedelic veins of Ved Buens Ende, Virus. Their debut album is expected to display appropriately their intents. Wormspit is another new black metal act influenced by Dodheimsgard, Ved Buens Ende, Thorns, on top of the usual Norwegian classics. Goat Vomit excel in the art of chaotic chainsaw black metal in the likes of Blasphemy, Beherit, etc. A handful of ominous releases helped them get a reputation in the relevant underground circles. Dodsferd’s new album “Cursing Your Will To Live” out at Moribund Records, is a lot better than their previous efforts, with nice riffs and everything. Check them out if you can’t get enough of claustrophobic black metal…

DEATH METAL

It’s almost embarrassing to say but Greeks have never been good at playing pure death metal... There have been a few exceptions of corpse and old tape-traders still remember Death Courrier, Stigma, Septicemia, Sadictic Noise. With the new millennium a new era has dawned. Inveracity ‘s debut demo "Defeated Humans Raped" settled the score in the age 2000. This kind of brutal death metal onslaught was something unheard in the country. One cult split 10”EP/MCD with Swedes Insision and a fantastic debut CD ("Circle Of Perversion") helped them secure a deal with US’ Unique Leader Records. Their brand new offering, “Extermination Of Millions” confirms a band that stands out with a focus on killer riffs and frenetic beats. Many remarkable acts have followed the way that Inveracity paved. Vulnus convince with their American style and mentors such as Dying Fetus, Vile, Disgorge. Their debut release is a luxurious digi-book split-CD with Brazilian porno-grind combo I Shit On Your Face. Extreme Violence from Lamia, destroyed everything with the amazing debut album “Ecstasy In Pain” out at New York’s Sevared Records. Mass Infection are from Livadia and have developed a quite personal sound. Their debut CD “Atonement For Iniquity” has an unpolished and thrashy edge a la Malevolent Creation and Deicide. The fans of ultra-brutality will appreciate Atavism from Volos. They are big fans of Mortician and also have a touch of Brodequin. You can find at the appropriate distros several splits of them with other obscure gore bands. Blustery Caveat from Larissa play US-style brutal death metal a la Hateplow, Deeds Of Flesh, and these dudes blast just fine. A 7”EP is due out soon as well as their debut CD at Revenge Productions. Human Rejection will appeal to the fans of guttural death metal. Their debut CD “Torture Of Decimation” is out now.Cerebrum are another new band but more technical and Soulskinner are Thou Art Lord vocalist Gothmog’s death metal band. Necrovorous hate modernity, and worship instead everything related to Hellhammer and Autopsy. Sickening Horror was until recently the technical and jazzy local band for which Nile drummer’s John Kollias was drumming for...

NEW HELLENIC EXTREME SOUND: hardcore,grind,sludge,drone,noise

Partly because of the obsession of the local audience and distributors with classic metal, the modern heavy sounds of the 90’s, as well as metallic hardcore, remained largely underground in Greece. Around the end of the century, fans for whom hardcore and grind were points of reference, started out a new scene. Nowadays they blend a diverse spectrum of influences and these combinators do not hesitate to associate elements that initially appear hard to put together tastefully (like say, black metal with hardcore). Eerie soundscapes versus sheer brutality anyone? Please also notice, that recurrently the surrounding musical tradition (Mediterranean, black sea) often shines through…

Innermost are one of the bands that started the local metallic hardcore scene. Forged with healthy amounts of Kickback, Converge, Earth Crisis, Carharsis influences, they released a couple of inspiring demos, the second one of those, "Menschenkenntnis" is so good that it is a shame it never made it as a professional release. The band currently rehearses material which is more progressive and extreme. Straighthate is a unit in the heart of the modern Greek sound. Past and current members of numerous bands mentioned in these pages have served their dues amidst their ranks. After dramatic line-up changes, the band crafted a supersonic, relentless concoction of death/grind/hardcore with a touch of psychedelia. Definitely very Swedish sounding indeed, they’ve been described as the golden section between Nasum, Breach, and Napalm Death. 2007’s “Indigenous” debut CD is already praised as a local classic. Stagnate are also part of this generation. In their early days they were playing killer metalcore in the veins of Stampin’Ground or Unearth. They have gradually turned into a death metal act and the news are that they’re getting even more brutal. Konkave are another local hardcore band that has evolved a lot. Their mini-CD “Idiocy Mode” was all about tasteful aggression with black metal vokills a la Zao, Converge, Burnt By The Sun. A debut album will be out soon, displaying a wide array of soundscapes - from Anodyne to Enslaved and everything in between. Vodka Juniors have had a lot to do with the current shape of the Greek punk/hardcore scene. They are by all standards an excellent skatecore band and have many cool releases out. Slavebreed are one of the oldest grind bands in Greece, and they are only getting better! They have dual vokills and a thick sound. For those who like southern beatdowns assorted with a technical touch, there’s Tardive Dyskinesia, somewhere between Crowbar, Pantera, Meshuggah, and A Life Once Lost.

If we take the ride up north to Thessaloniki, Homo Iratus released two great albums and an EP that had a big impact on the local scene. Kvazar stand for Napalm Death-like grindcore brutality with a jazzy technical edge and one of the best vocalists in the country. In a different register, Erectus are purveyors of dense brutal death metal not unlike Origin, and Greet The Dead deliver solid crust/hardcore a la Tragedy/Wolfbrigade.

Now as far as the new kids go, Formikation is a killer grindcore combo and one of the biggest hopes of the local extreme scene. They combine the Swedish sound with some Discordance Axis tech madness. Devastation Of Life are a political grindcore outfit from Larissa which sounds totally raw and brutal. Lotus Circle in this year’s debut CD “Bottomless Vales And Boundless Floods” take the listener to an occult trip, with drone sounds and black metal vokills. Mahakala in their self-titled mini-CD (Parade Records) play very enjoyable sludge that sounds very british, like Iron Monkey and early Raging Speedhorn. Voidhead are an experimental instrumental drone duo influenced by Neurosis and Earth. They produce songs influenced by the local environments, immersing the listener to beautiful soundscapes. Their beautiful “Land” CD-R EP (Head to Avoid Recordings) is sold-out by now and is an evidence of one of the greatest new local bands. … Paraside propose pre-cataclysmic heathen rituals with sludge, black metal and rock’n’roll overtones. They’ve never played live but are one of the projects to keep an eye on.For more down-tempo and experimental atmospheres, there’s -amongst others- Universe 217, National Pornografik and Noiselust. Finally, the noise edge of this scene is expressed by projects such as Appes, Hellboy 106 (both of them based on guitars/effects) , noise/ambient field recordist Kommpound, hacker freak extraordinaire Pascal Cretain who turns security code and binaries into noise, etc.

EPILOGUE

The main purpose of this feature is to draw your attention towards an interesting but unknown European music scene. The list of the bands proposed here is by no means exclusive. There are also plenty of the old classic Greek bands who are still active and you might consider checking out, even though some of them are not as brutal or groundbreaking as they used to be. Except those already stated, there’s Thou Art Lord, Zemial/Agatus (both relocated in Australia), Horrified, Nordor, Elysian Fields, etc.

LABELS

Venerate Industries

Hyperblasted Recordings
Cryptia Productions

ISO666

Blast Beat Mailmurder/Productions

Head To Avoid Recordings

Cannonball 666 Records

Nuclear Winter Records

Kyrck Productions & Armor

GRAPHIC ARTISTS

Tolis Yovanitis

Daniel Goudelis

Viral Graphics

Seth Siro Anton

Remedy Art

WEBZINES

More Than Sounds

Metal Invader

Metal Eagle

Memories from the 90's & old comrades still shredding

2010-08-27T15:05:00.014+03:00

Hailz,

I am very happy getting in touch again with an old comrade, Edwin Heijmen. Known back at the time as Mr.HXC#1, he lent me a serious helping hand in Chaotik Webzine, and he also was a vocalist for the cool dutch hardcore band DISDAIN (R.I.P.).

Edwin still keeps the 90's hardcore spirit alive, which is where a big part of my musical roots are as well, through two projects that I invite you to check out:

One Path For Me Through Destiny, a connoisseur MP3 blog with rare stuff that most likely you won't find anywhere else.
xSTUCK IN THE PASTx, a 90's hardcore webzine in which he writes with some other folks.

Getting back in touch with Edwin, reminded me of an old friend and tape trader from the USA. His name was Aaron Mountain, I met him in the mid-90's at IRC EFNET#metal, a place where I made many friends of mine, some of whom I met also in real life (like Arto Lehtinen, David "Ophth" Markey). This was more than a chat channel, it was a community. Some of these people helped me out with Chaotik Webzine, some others' bands I reviewed and featured in the "Wintergrief" compilation tape...

The most persistent and talented comrade of the lot was John "Beergut" Gossard. He had this eerie sense of humor and most of the times that I was getting hold of him online he was drunk. John had send me a track of his band WEAKLING (R.I.P.) for Wintergrief. Little did I know that they would become one my favorite black metal bands ever (buy "Dead As Dreams" now!!!). John has played since in some pretty fucking outstanding bands since, including ASUNDER (R.I.P.). His latest band is DISPIRIT. I was damn lucky to watch the beast grow, listening to early rehearsals and encouraging the dude to stick with this awesome band name and not change it. They have a rehearsal tape out (yes, a tape, not a CD-R!) and a couple of elite record labels have shown vivid interest in them, so expect an official release soon.

But I have digressed. I started talking about Aaron. His nick name in #metal was "Mandalore". He played guitar in two bands back at the time. The first one was the hardcore band THENCEFORWARD. Their style was what we used to call "new-school", which basically meant in the veins of Earth Crisis, Snapcase, Strife, etc.

They had two EP's out in 1995 and 1996 and have participated in a handful of compilations. They were pretty good, especially in the "Winner" EP where Aaron was playing.

You can download both EP's here. The archive also includes scans of the covers and inserts. Congrats go to Mostly Blue Skies Above Us for this excellent initiative.

I was feeling so much connected to Aaron because we both liked hardcore and extreme metal at the same time. 15 years later this is normal, but back at the time we were very rare! This is one of the reasons I am so proud of the Chaotik Webzine legacy, getting both worlds closer together...

Aaron was playing in another band, PROCOSTIMUS. They were playing black/death and have had a demo tape out, titled "Synthesis Of Rebirth". I reviewed it back at the time and was very cool. I must have it somewhere and I have not found it anywhere online. Aaron, if you're reading these lines, drop me a word (bodybag666 [at] gmail.com), I hope you're doing fine!

I would like to take advantage of this post, to say hi to all my old friends from EFNET#metal... Maybe I will write more in the future about those days...

AOSOTH - Angeldust 616

2010-02-14T12:27:00.031+02:00

AOSOTH is the band where komrade mKm, a kvlt underground figure for his unholy crusades with suppreme black metal outfit ANTAEUS, is currently focusing on. Album#2, "Ashes Of Angels", is out now @ Agonia Records, and is a more lethal and inspiring assault than their debut. It was a fit occasion to have a brief conversation with Him, about his current musickal whereabouts and whatnot. www.myspace.com/aosoth616

What happened in the AOSOTH kamp since the debut album?

Well, considering the delay in the pressing of the first album & this new opus, a lot did happen. We mostly had to go through a lot of internal session changes, the band did perform live here & there in europa & we had to change all band members more than once. That somehow did limit us when it comes to composition but the actual line up is rather impressive & our two last gigs in trier & ghent were a blast we have the new album out, also a split ep with french Malkhebre out on art of propaganda, all is going fine FOR ONCE.

that's a change from antaeus huh?

ahah quite a change indeed, though we had all those problems with individuals not coping with what we had to go through or the way we are (bst & I) but in the end, I'm taking more decision now when something is starting to get wrong, I dont want to loose time anymore. this fucking tour with SECRETS OF THE MOON really did get me bitter & now, I'm just even less tolerant & more willing to have serious individuals. this fucking tour with SOTM really did get me bitter & now, I'm just even less tolerant & more willing to have serious individuals.

so is aosoth a real band now?
somehow, let's say that it has its core, BST for all music & myself for the propaganda & the whole aura. Our actual session member are very devoted to the act, they just dont compose, but one could tell they are REALLY giving their best & that's also why we do credit them on the album as "live crusaders", they went through hell & tons of issues with us & they did manage to do it with rage & passion. But in the studio, it's still us two so far.

so who's the other guys?
as of today Inrvi from VI, a band from our area, amazing guitar player & very devoted to all sickness Jens from Asphyxiate, a belgium guy on bass I had to meet through Antaeus, very skilled & also a die hard & Tom from Ritualization on drums, but he might not be available on the future gigs due to his numerous bands, he's currently in the usa as session for Merrimack.

what about antaeus?
Still on hold... yet we did met with Seth & we had some talk about doing something in the future. But he's still strict on the fact he doesnt want to perform live. Time shall tell. We wanted to do a special tshirt but it has to be finished, that would be the only release for the year to come

so your vokills sound a little bit different than on the first aosoth i can really define what it is though. can you help me pinpoint that?
well simple, on the previous album of aosoth, lyrics were really intended to be more "traditionnal" in the structure, & very Order Of The Nine Angles oriented, while the new recording has a closer process to "blood libels" lyrics wise, more self introspective & thus nearer to what was done in Antaeus than the earlier Aosoth. also getting older, I guess my voice is just being worn out & sicker.

isnt it lower on the mix too?
mmm dont think so, seems fine to me, but I guess the guitars are just more violent and "out there", that might be the reason why you find it lower in the mix. the instruments are definitly more sharp on this & less "black thrash" influences.

what about the drums?are they all programmed, or is it a mix of programmed and real ones, like in the debut LP?
mostly programmed this time, still has some real parts in it, but it's just a restriction budget wise in the end, since we do perform those tracks live, for those who do seek live performances on stage, they can see that all is done, it's nothing like "impossible", we just had to go for the solution that would allow us more time for the mixing & also vocals.

can you tell us a bit more about the lyrics? any old leitmotivs and new cuts?

with "blood libels" & the artwork, I did a mistake I wish I could erase or change now : enclosing the lyrics. Considering the number of individuals who ended up pissing me off with those, I am not willing to discuss an "expression" of mine. It's somehow like a recording of an happening where I let myself all exposed & burning in torment.

so the lyrics are not printed on the retail version?
the retail version is very sober, minimalist so to speak. The result is better on the lp version of course, all this black dominance on the print & this white vinyl, am very satisfied with the result.

music-wise i think it's less thrashy/oldschool and more strictly BM?
indeed, the first album was somehow written to be performed live, while the second one is more personal, more dissonant, yet having a very instinctive writting at first. I guess one could hear the evolution in between the first track & the last (before the anta cover) since they were written in this chronological order.

you told me privately why you did re-record inner war, but tell the story again for our readers.
to make it short & maybe more clear, the initial version is still something I wouldnt reject. But on a personal level, I always wanted to give it a proper recording & not the demo recording in a cave without having more than one take to do it. We were rushed & I also think that's why it has such chaos in the original version. Yet since this tracks means a lot to me & we do perform it with Aosoth, it was needed to get "inner war" a second version, the ten years after & still RAGING at least now, instruments are tuned & I do prefer my vocals on this one, and I seriously dont care about the "cyfaws was better & all the bullshit", I wanted it that way, we did it. that's all .

why was the original rushed?
as you could guess, no budget or not much, having the sound guy being very bored after hours of guitars & so on, willing to put an end to the recording & also the other antaeus guys not being interested one second in the vocals recording.

let's finish the interview getting back to the vokills it's for sure the rekording at which you sound the most relaxed you also end some vocal lines raising the pitch which is the kind of stuff i like. even if it sounds cliche, you must have been in a "dont give a fuck what they will say" sort of attitude, right?
indeed, for instance, it's the first time ever I would make some "note" last longer than usual, or just be in 3/3/3 for the structure, way more straight forward & without own limitations, in the end, some tracks will never be performed live, but for the others, I'm rather thrilled to get through such experience. One of my fave track is not on the album btw & shall be re recorded for a split with VI on eternity records, this track is the "angels falling down" demo version was on our myspace, since the demo, we did change the lyrics after performing it live & the new version will be INTENSE.

ok so thank you komrade, maybe a new year wish for our readers?
all hails to those who did support us over the years, they are also part of what is exposed. 616

Interrogation by Panos Agoros 2010 era vulgaris

Disclaimer: This interview has been originally conducted for Metal Hammer Greece. Most of it has appeared as a feature in the "Underground Kommandoz" column of issue#301 (01/2010). It is used with kind permission and blessings.

XCM Cross Battle Adapter

2010-02-03T11:58:00.002+02:00

Yet another cool gadget for the PS3 from XCM!

The XCM Cross battle Adapter allows to plug a wireless Xbox 360 controller into the PS3.

This is especially targeted to FPS/3rdPS fans who prefer the Xbox 360 controller for this genre. I'm part of those so I grabbed it! The Xbox's gamepad suits me better because of the placement of the left thumbstick. When I hold the PS3 gamepad, my left thumb is not in its natural position which is where the D-pad and the Xbox's left thumbstick are actually placed. This can be a serious handicap... Last but not least, with the Xbox 360 you fire with a real trigger and not with a bumper like the PS3's L1/R1!!!

The XCM Cross Battle Adapter also has a rapidfire function which can be enabled for any of the buttons/triggers. COD4 has been recently patched against modded controllers caping the R.O.F. (Rate Of Fire). Rapidfire can still be useful though not only with semi-automatic weapons like all the pistols, the G3, M14, M21 but also with the M16. At Killzone 2 its utility is lesser, it's just useful with the pistols... I don't know what will happen with the Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 though, since Infinity Ward has declared that they will treat modded controllers in a different way.

The "Plus" version also supports Rumble but honnestly it's less good than the Dualshock 3's rumble and the wired Xbox 360 controller's rumble is very weak compared to the wireless...

So far i tested it with COD4:MW and Killzone 2. It works reasonably well with both. I don't know if it my impression but it's possible but there is a latency added, so the response must be a few milliseconds slower than with the PS3, but the I wouldn't swear either.

The biggest issue of the XCM Cross Battle Adapter is that not all games have the option of reconfiguring the controllers, or offer a controller preset swapping L1/R1 with L2/R2 in order to be able to use the Xbox 360's controller triggers for aiming and shooting, and not the LB/RB bumpers. With COD4 you can do it, with Killzone 2 also, but Killzone 2's preset using R2 (or L2) for fire, doesn't have L2 (or R2) for aiming... I've just learned that this gets fixed in freshly released version 2.0, which features a new function for swapping the controller’s triggers and bumpers. This basically means I should have waited a bit longer before I bought the "Plus" version. Oh well...

All in all, the XCM Cross Battle Adapter is a great product for shooter fans. The only thing I don't like is having a lot of wire between me and the PS3 (the adapter's plus the wired gamepad's)...

Panos Agoros 2009

XCM e-setter for PS3

2010-02-03T11:37:00.003+02:00

Before the LG M2794DP I had in my office/gameroom a LG L1915S monitor - which was great btw. I could connect my Xbox 360 via a XCM VGA Box and play perfectly well, except for the obvious fact that it was weird switching from a widescreen to a standard one.

As soon as I bought my PS3 I tried the same thing but it wouldn't work. Nothing at all was displayed and it was as if there was a resolution mismatch between the console and the monitor.

The obvious google search revealed that the PS3 is not the best choice for mobility. If you want to carry your PS3 around your home (if you have multiple TV's/monitors), in holidays or at a business trip, you will most likely the XCM e-setter.

The XCM e-setter is an ingenious little gadget which resembles a pocket calculator. What you do is plug it to a USB port, then press the keys and define the output and resolution that you want. From what I understand, it sends to the PS3 the same commands that you would do if you actually had a display and configured the settings with your gamepad. Very simple, very effective and it is upgradeable. As a matter of fact, before you use it for the first time you must update it after visiting the product's homepage.

The ending of my story is that with the e-setter I was able to make my PS3 display correctly on my LG L1915S, but I though it wasn't worth the pain, since the image was not as good as for the Xbox 360.

Panos Agoros 2009

THOMSON TG585v7 modem vs. XBOX LIVE

2010-02-03T11:13:00.003+02:00

UPDATE: Thelink for the v7.4.4.7 being broken I have uploaded the firmware here. Enjoy!

The THOMSON/ALCATEL TG585v7 is a fairly popular modem. Thomson's Speedtouch series modems (TG585 is a Speedtouch, eventhough not mentionned anymore as such) have the reputation of being able to synchronize in conditions that others don't. The copper lines of the local telecommunications provider being crap, I chose it as a reasonable replacement to an apparently dead Speedtouch 530, who was going through an infinite restart loop...

When I first opened the box, it sure looked like a nice piece of kit... The web interface menu was pretty slick too. My trouble began as soon as I tried to play CALL OF DUTY 4: MODERN WARFARE on the XBOX LIVE. I couldn't join the lobbies created by most of my friends, getting the infamous "Unable to connect to host" error message. And you know what that means... That there's a NAT problem!

I stayed calm and started the troubleshooting. IT support is what I do for a living, anyway. I've been through the basic NAT checklist, check out what M$ has to say via article#908880.

UPnP was turned on but obviously didn't help. UPnP is made to automagically deal with such issues, especially gaming connectivity issues.
From the Toolbox's "Game & Application Sharing" page I assigned Xbox Live to my Xbox 360's wireless adapter MAC address.
Since none of the above has worked & after doing an extensive search on the internet, I found out that possibly the only hope for salvation was to put the Xbox 360's network interface in a DMZ (DeMilitarized Zone), by assigning the external IP address directly to it. Apparently the TG585v7 wouldn't handle correctly all things NAT.

Your internet provider assigns you an IP address, each time your modem powers on, it tries to obtain by DHCP (at least you explicitly asked for a static IP) a public address. This IP address is directly accessible/pingable from the intrenet. The devices in your home network don't have that address though. They get assigned private addresses and when they need to get to, or get accessed by, the internet, they are translated to the unique public address. This is what does the NAT protocol, which stands for Network Address Translation.

Ok, so this is what I did on the TG585. Under "Home Network", there is the option "Assign the public IP address of a connection to a device". That's when the modem started behaving in an eccentric way:

the Xbox would normally get the external IP, but upon reboot of the modem, the rest of the workstations don't have internet connectivity anymore!
upon shutdown of the Xbox, the external IP would mysteriously get assigned to my laptop or my desktop!

Something was going awfully wrong. At this moment I started having strong suspicions that the firmware was broken. A normal reaction would be to look on the web interface for an "Upgrade firmware" task or option. There is none. Thomson doesn't have a good reputation for providing firmware support for any of its modem routers. As a matter of fact, if you want to upgrade or downgrade it, you will have to search through the forums in order to locate the firmware that you need in some improbable location. And guess what? Since the web interface doesn't offer an Upgrade facility, you'll also need a wizard!

The modem was shipped with version 8.2.1.5. The days when I was investigating the problem, a new firmware version got unofficially distributed, v8.2.3.7. Eventhough most people in the forums were using 7.4.4.1 which had the reputation of being very stable, I decided to give the brand new version a try.

v8.2.3.7's origin was unidentified, and on the web interface's background there's was written "Demo Premium". Oh well, why not? The funny behaviour with the broken external IP handling is fixed in this one. My COD4 @ XBL problems were not! I still got the "Unable to connect to host" error message.

Two people from my XBL friend list had the same modem and they had no such issues, plus I could connect to them without problem, while I had trouble with most of the other players. They both had downgraded to version 7.4.4.1. One of them has even reported to me that his internet connection speed has peaked after the downgrade. Wow. As far as the XBL goes, one of them had to assign to the Xbox the public IP, the other had just to assign it to XBL through the "Game & Application Sharing" page.

I'm a COD4 addict and this situation was driving me crazy! As a last resort , I downgraded to version 7.4.4.1. In the beginning the wizard couldn't find the modem, but then I disabled my antivirus and it did. This version is specific to the UK, so some minor extra effort is required during initial configuration, but no big deal. I configured the Xbox through the "Game & Application Sharing" page, and then I tried inviting to a COD4 lobby a friend with which it was impossible to party up until then. It worked like a charm...

The TG585v7 is a good and stable modem router, but there are things broken between the old 7.* firmware releases and the new 8.* ones . Go figure! Thomson/Alcatel don't give a fuck about gamers? Totally! otherwise, the forums wouldn't be full of people trying to figure out what's wrong. In any case, firmware downgrade isn't something the average user would have to care about...

If you want to downgrade your TG585v7, grab the firmware and the wizard here: http://www.thomson.net/GlobalChinese/broadband-uk/Drivers-Firmwares/Pages/default.aspx . ADSL over ISDN and ADSL over PSTN flavours share the same firmware, so don't worry about bricking your modem by up/downgrading with the wrong one. I have the ADSL over ISDN version btw.

Ok, I hope that I may have helped a few desperate XBL gamers. If you happen to be a TG585v7 user, please share with us your positive or negative experience...

Panos Agoros 2009

KICKBACK "No Surrender"

2009-09-26T14:01:00.004+03:00

KICKBACK
"No Surrender"
(GSR)

Two bands had the biggest impact on me and my perception of underground music and aesthetics. ANTAEUS and KICKBACK. Both of them are parisian bands. I've seen both of them live and got to know some of their members during my studies in Paris from 1992 to 1997. Both of them have been controversial since the beginning, with outspoken frontmen that meant what they said. Rumors, facts and friction, violence, confrontation, loathing of the music business, exteme music at its finest... another day at the office!

It's been 10 years since KICKBACK's excellent "Les 150 Passions Meurtrieres" mini-CD. It left us begging for more with a more extreme, violent, fucked up approach than "Forever War" (one of my two all-time favorite albums together with SLAYER's "Seasons In The Abyss"). In the meantime we heard they split up... And then I went to see ARKHON INFAUSTUS the first time they played live in Athens (excellent performance, gay gig promoter). One of their guitar players, Damien told me that he was playing with KICKBACK and that the band was alive and rounding up new material. That was major fucking news.

A few months ago, the alarm rung again. KB would be ready to release a new album. A little bit later, 3 new tracks were streaming at www.myspace.com/kickback. Big fucking surprise! They were sounding more metal, even atmospheric at times, but yet it was still premium extreme hardcore material.

Now the album is here, the wait is over. Before listening to it, and eventhough the 3 samples were pretty damn promising, I acknowledged a reasonable possibility that I didn't like it *THAT* much. After all so many old favorite bands of mine disappointed me and became dull, boring and predictable as they grew old. Well, not those fuckers!

"Fuck hardcore, fuck your scene and fuck you". This motto is not some kind of empty promise. "No Surrender" marks the demise of modern hardcore and its rebirth. I am not saying they are the only ones, eventhough they are largely the band I prefer best.

The blackmetal riffs complete the negative nihilistik vision they already had in the past. Noisy, discordant bits make you feel unconfortable, creating tension and unholy dynamics. It is in general the more uptempo styuff they have written so far, possibly due to the new drummer. When things get too chaotik, fucking your brain, a monstrous beatdown, classic yet devastating will make you wanna kill somebody. Damien pushed the band into being more technical, and that is a good thing. Stephen's vokills have rotten with the years like a stinking corpse. He's on top of his business, putting to ridicule most of his peers (metal, hardcore and blackmetal alike).

If you didn't like that much KB until now, it is about time you give them another try. If you're into Converge, Most Precious Blood, Catharsis, Gehenna (US), Integrity, you'll be most pleasantly surprised.

Buy the motherfucker. "No Surrender" is one of the most intense and radical musical experiences on offer today. "No Surrender" is not an album to go to hell with, it is for those who are already there...

"This is for us, this is not for you"...

Panos Agoros 200999

"Noise vs. Subversive Computing" out now///Kinky Kong live poster

2009-06-04T03:04:00.005+03:00

"Noise vs. Subversive Computing" 1GB USB Stick out now @ Computationally Infeasible Records!

Kontakt: pascal.cretain@gmail.com

KOMMPOUND,NAΦΘALYN,LUNAR MIASMA live sabbath20jun200999

2009-05-30T17:26:00.002+03:00

NOISE/AMBIENT SPECIAL FORCES LIVE

sabbath20jun200999 @ KINKY KONG/Athens:

KOMMPOUND

NAΦΘALYN

(feat. Mantas: Voidhead, Dephosphorus)

LUNAR MIASMA

(ex-Red Needled Sea)

More details soon.

SUFFOCATION "Blood Oath" (Nuclear Blast)

2009-05-22T12:23:00.005+03:00

This is the 3rd record since SUFFOCATION have returned. It is the best of them and the one that the hardcore fans have been waiting for since the mid-90's. As a matter of fact, the level of intensity with which "Blood Oath" was crafted is such, that it sounds like merely one year has passed since the release of "Pierced From Within".

This does not mean that SUFFOCATION are one of those pathetic old bands who returned, tried out something new and then when they saw it didnt work as expected, rolled back to their older popular style... Yes, they play as intensely as in "Pierced From Within". Yes, this is better than "Souls To Deny" and "Suffocation". Yes, as Mike Smith admitted to a discussion we had together for a Metal Hammer feature, they've held back and kind of compromised in the previous two records. Now they are back in full force and they want nothing less than total domination and mass recognition. If things dont work out as they want, they will quit at their peak.

Right. What's the deal here? The foundation of "Blood Oath" is "Pierced From Within"-like complex brutality. Their playing is challenging and stimulating. You definitely should not expect from those guys to suck their own dick with some gratuitous musical onanism.

On top of that there's some novelties for the SUFFOCATION style, which are definitely welcome. There's melodies on the guitars, technical parts that could be labeled as "prog" by some and most important of all: atmosphere. I realize this might sound scary to some, but there's not any reason for that. SUFFOCATION are still one helluva brutal band. The only twist is that not only they are bestial but also cerebral. I definitely like that! Tracks like "Dismal Dream" and "Provoking The Disturbed" are instant underground hits. The re-recording of "Marital Decimation" (erroneously marked as "Martial Decimation" on the tracklistings) from "Breeding The Spawn", their record with the weakest production, is a charm.

The only thing I DON'T like is John Ziggs' cover artwork that is pretty much mediocre. This is the way things have to be: a classic SUFFOCATION album must have cover artwork designed by Dan Seagrave! Period. It's just like that: we, the fans, tend to associate bands with some excellent covers that wrapped some of their finest moments. Truth is that most of them don't look back. But we can still complain! You want some examples? All right.

- SUFFOCATION "Effigy Of The FOrgotten" and "Breeding The Spawn"
- BOLT THROWER "Realm Of Chaos" and "Warmaster"
- METALLICA "Ride The Lightning" and "Master Of Puppets"
- etc.. etc...

Whatever. Another thing for us fans is that "Blood Oath" sounding so good, we cannot but wonder how it would be like with Doug Cerrito back on the guitars. Maybe one day we will find out! Until then, grabbing this album is a no-brainer. The way SUFFOCATION are focused on rythm and atmosphere is irresistible.

Panos Agoros 200999

CALL OF DUTY 4: MODERN WARFARE ANTI-CHEATER PATCH TO BE RELEASED FOR THE XBOX 360

2009-04-29T13:29:00.006+03:00

According to a brief post by outspoken Infinity Ward PR kommander Robert Bowling at his blog, a new COD4 patch for the Xbox 360 is in process of certification by Microsoft in order to kill cheaters.

Since I am a COD4 trooper and haven't encountered any cheaters myself (well, except that one guy who wouldn't die on headquarters at shipment, who later told us that the program glitched for that single game and he hadn't done any mod at all), i did some research to find out what's the trouble about.

A quick visit at the game's official forums at http://forums.infinityward.com reveals that there's been an awful lot of complaining by community members during these last two weeks.

Apparently there's been quite a few cheaters ruining the show at ranked matches lately. There's a god mode when you can fly and are invincible, you can also run all around the map at light speed or in slow motion, etc.

It's been quite a surprise to learn about this, because until now online cheating and modding was largely reseved to PC users. Consoles were supposed to be immune. Oh, of course there's been the guys glitching on the maps and accessing areas outside the normal map, also those glitching and having their names first on the leaderboards with impossible scores. COD4 players with modded rapidfire controllers are rather common too. This allows them to fire semi-automatic weapons (typically the G3 assault riffle and the pistols) at full auto rate.

Here's a few examples of how cheating looks like:

Ok so how does work the mod which will be soon annihilated by the patch? The methodology which apparently applies to both CALL OF DUTY 4: MODERN WARFARE and CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR, consists of the following steps:

1-Transfer a gamesave to your PC from the Xbox 360 HDD using a transfer kit.

2-Edit the gamesave with a hex editor.

3-Do a search and locate the configuration commands. Change the values. There's a few dozen of parameters to play with (gravity, invincibility, ammo, speed of movement, etc).

4-Transfer back the gamesave on the Xbox 360 and you're good to go.

You can find detailed guides on the forums, like this one.

If we believe the interweb, the guy who found out first is known under the nickname of cheater912 and he's actually selling the mod through the webpage www.codtool.com for those who want to skip the hex editing part. If I got it right, you can download the modding program for free but in order to make it actually work you have to pay the guy $10 or $20. He's even selling mod tutorials for $100!!! Nice little business he got going huh?

The technical part is very interesting because consoles are still largely considered to be immovable boxes. It also demonstrates that hackers can take control and that we should expect far worst like stealing credit card details registered on XBOX LIVE or on PLAYSTATION NETWORK. So there's a lot to be done in terms of security and counter-hacker research.

As far as the actual gameplay alteration goes, well it sure looks like a lot of fun but for private matches only. It doesnt make sense to use it on ranked matches because except the moral part of ruining the party for the other players, there's the practical issue that you will be permanently banned from XBL since you'll be violating the terms of use.

What to do if you come across such an asshole on XBL? File a complaint with "cheating". If the guy plays a few matches he will get so many complaints on his ass that he will be banned soon enough.

Panos Agoros 200999

Noise vs. Subversive Computing out on 1st June 200999

2009-04-29T12:19:00.003+03:00

COMPUTATIONALLY INFEASIBLE RECORDS 001

“Noise vs. Subversive Computing”

This is the “Noise vs. Subversive Computing” Project: A Collaborative release split between Noise/Experimental Artists and Subversive Technologists/Computer Hackers. Ten representatives from each camp were asked to contribute a piece of work which could be anything at all: an audio track, a drawing, a written passage, software, video, combination of all that, or anything else that can be converted to binary. The Noisicians had “Subversive Computing” as their central theme, and the Technologists worked with “Noise”.

This is the outcome:

NOISE:

0. BBBlood (UK) - Bicep Venoms Gut Virus [AUDIO]
1. Config.sys (DE) - Bit Bucket [AUDIO]
2. Family Battle Snake (DE) – Black Hat [AUDIO]
3. Francisco Lopez (ES) – Untitled 223 [AUDIO]
4. GEN 26 (SI) - Untitled [AUDIO]
5. Hellboy106 (GR) - stgzknmhtrka [IMAGE+AUDIO]
6. ILIOS (GR) - 4000 ĉevaloj kriegas Mi ami Vi [AUDIO]
7. KOMMPOUND (GR) - Softmod Exploit [AUDIO+WORDS]
8. La Jacquerie (IT) – Re: If you're angry don’t [AUDIO]
9. Sarah's Charity (DK) - Colour of Clarity [AUDIO]

SUBVERSIVE COMPUTING:

0. Ach3n0r (GR) - Noise Steganography [SOFTWARE]
1. Ashrae tosh & KaOS (BE/DK) - Netglitch [AUDIO+WORDS]
2. E (US) - Sifting through the Noise [WORDS]
3. EK (UK) - Rainbow [AUDIO]
4. G0rg0g0l (GR) - Gorgogoogle: Web, Search, Noise [SOFTWARE]
5. Gorrrrgar (RO) - My kind of Shithole [PHOTOGRAPHY MATRIX+WORDS]
6. Jazra Khaleed (GR) - Noise [POEM]
7. Pascal Cretain (DK) - Information Pollution [VIDEO]
8. Rodrigo Marcos (UK) - MySQL Sounds [VIDEO+SOFTWARE]
9. Stelios Douskos (US) - LawyerFish [SOFTWARE]

The merger is truly fascinating; explosive to say the least. The radical thinkers at work in here have the momentum, the mindset and the technical skills to crash Adaptive Firewalls, defy traditional definitions of music, “hack” live performance semantics and bypass Intrusion Detection Systems.

Only this is not Cyberspace. We are subtly injecting polymorphic shellcode into your reality, brainwashing you with white noise and reverse engineering your obsolete modus operandi.

Alas; you can’t pull the plug.

“Noise vs. Subversive Computing” out 01.06.2009
Limited release of 256 Numbered Copies in 1GB USB Stick format
Contact Pascal Cretain for Ordering Information

GLENN DANZIG “Black Aria II”

2009-02-22T12:11:00.000+02:00

GLENN DANZIG
“Black Aria II”
(Evilive/Megaforce)

This was worth the wait. Glenn Danzig’s second part of Alternative History of Theology through dark ambient sounds is ready for your sinful eardrums. Sporting the unglodly sexy cover from Bill Senkiewicz (Wolverine, New Mutants etc) this is one ritual thingie filled with more voodoo like drums , tons of more eastern mysticism aura , and ,yes, agonizing fem vox . There’s also the appropriate Danzig-geek little present on that “Abbandonment/Recreation”,track. Don’t wanna spoil this for you but ,fuckitall, I will. Glenn takes the old “whooo-aap” backing vocal track from Samhain’s “Halloween II” and places it in the midst of ritual drums and phantom-like polyphonies,composing one of his most chill-you-shitless moments ever to haunt the stereo since “Misery Tomb”. The rest is mute and dominated by church organ synth.All in all this is another case of Glenn dropping off ghis guitar and mic , sitting on the piano and giving you one more real reason to realise the futility of existence. “Black Aria II” ain’t no party music guys, gals and ghouls!

Tsamashi ToYo

THE SENSATIONAL GUITARS OF DAN AND DALE “Batman And Robin”

2009-02-22T12:04:00.001+02:00

THE SENSATIONAL GUITARS OF DAN AND DALE
“Batman And Robin”
(Tifton/Universe Records)

Be it the 1939 Kane/Finger originals , the 70’s Englehart/Wein darker-shades, the 80’s Miller epics or the campy 60’s TV show with Adam West ,you just gotta loooove The Batman! I mean, what other millionare playboy-by-day would risk his non-superpowered ass for you by night in the grim and gritty streets of Gotham City? That’s right. None. This is a freejazz take on the original Neil Hefti music for the popular 1966 TV series. So hold on to your Bat-Shark-Repellents and take a joyride on the Batmobile with this jazz/funk trip down crime alley .And ,lo, check out who’s on the steering wheel: Sun Ra and his Arkestra! What’s that you say? Who’s “Dan And Dale?”? Well ,kids ,this ain’t no other than Sun Ra’s secret identity especially tagged for this release.There’s a lot of the occasional Link Wrayish garage-surf guitar rumble on this one for you to feast on, plus some pretty darn gospel like vocals by some (uncredited) gal somewhere. If any o’you were startled by Al Hirt’s “Green Hornet” craze being brought back on the “Kill Bill” compi-soundtrack , this is your one and only chance to do the Batusie just like your momma would back in the 60’s.Holy revivals ,Robin!

Tsamashi ToYo 2009

DIRECTOR'S GUT

2009-02-22T11:57:00.002+02:00

Hail!

Once upon a time (ie. approximately four years ago, on the year of our lord 2004) there was a bunch of friends. Some of us were bandmates, others co-editors at Metal Hammer Greece, all of us comrades. We have joined forces in order to produce a different kind of webzine. The idea was while keeping a focus on underground music to be open-minded, cover all sorts of art forms while maintaining social/technical/scientific/spiritual sensitivities. The project was appropriately baptized in blood TIGER TELEVISION by Tsamashi Toyo who also designed the logo. I was the self-assigned chief editor - to be honnest this is something I had missed since the CHAOTIK WEBZINE days… We started rounding up material and were quite excited about how things seemed to turn out. Eventually, for a variety of reasons the operation was aborted.

A month ago I was browsing across my hard disks and came across the material I had collected from the team. I thought it was a fucking pity to let it buried and forgotten. I discussed a little bit with Mantas and started posting some of this stuff at my blog. Yet it wasn’t enough. The idea of reviving the fucker was around the corner. The choice of the blogzine format was obvious in order to be fast & flexible, as well as in order to avoid the time overhead a proper website administration demands (and to be honest, we could think of nobody for the job). Initially we thought about going with the Wordpress format. While it is not rocket science I was familiar with blogspot and just wanted to start put things together asap. Plus I’m an old-school type of guy and like minimal, 90’s-like visuals. So here you go buddy!

Let me clarify that we are pretty much focused on quality rather than quanitity, value rather than volume. With the internet era access to information is no longer the issue, rather sorting out the mess. We want to propose select analysis and pointers to quality art, culture and aesthetics. We will do it at our own pace, without stress or deadlines whatsoever. Plus the whole thing is a goddamn time machine! You see some us, as I’ve already mentionned, are senior editors at Metal Hammer Greece. We all have at our bunkers source material for interview features that were published (or sometimes not) in greek language. We all felt it was a petty we couldn’t share this stuff with our friends outside the borders. TIGER TELEVISION is our way to get over with it. All hailz to the magazine’s direction for letting us use it. But please do not mistakenly consider TIGER TELEVISION as a sort of Metal-Hammer-leftovers kind of thing. A quick visit will convince you otherwise anyways… Please also notice, that most of us have musical projects. We will promote them here. If we don’t, who else will?
Last but not least, in exchange of our generous offer we just demand three things: a) pimp T.T.V. by linking to us, b) do not reproduce our material without quoting the source and providing a link, c) in this kind of business it is cruel to walk the way without feedback from the recipient, so please comment the posts or send us emails/whatever. Thanx!

OK, make yourself a home and do not hesitate to push the button if we can do something to make your stay more pleasant!

Panos Agoros, on behalf of the TIGER TELEVISION team.

SHORA live in Athens 18jan09

2009-01-28T14:01:00.007+02:00

SHORA + YNDI HADAL
18 JAN. 2009
GAGARIN 205
ATHENS, HELLAS-GREECE

I no longer feel gigs as I did a few years ago. I can watch a good gig, under good conditions & have a good time but it is very rare that it feels like the real thing, that I get mesmerized and carried away, that the music really touches me. This is why eventhough Shora are a proper excellent band on record, I didn’t show up with high expectations on this low profile Sunday evening in Athens.

For starters, I was pissed off with the high price of the ticket (35 euros at the entrance, 32 pre-sale) and with the fact that I had to pay more for a second band that I didn’t ask for. This is the kind of gig that we should pay normally no more than 20 euros. And let me tell you something, I was fucking right. The 2nd band on the bill, YNDI HADAL from the UK, is simply one of the worst bands I have ever seen live. “Pussy-ass post rock” is a description that does justice to the boring, pretentious, lifeless crap that they are playing. No riffs, no melodies, just some random notes played by cute young faces that the girls are supposed to fancy, and a … violin. I am not prejudiced with post-rock, it’s just that it’s fashion and there’s too many bands playing nothing. As a matter of fact I’ve already seen a post-rock act with a violin live, and it was very emotional and deep (that was THE EVPATORIA REPORT supporting RED SPARROWES @ Paris a couple of years back). The fact that they collected a lot of applause and that there were people actually familiar with their stuff, simply proves that the audience was crap too.

“What now? What comes next?”, I asked to myself like a modern day Raoul Duke with my wrists slit after YNDI HALLAL’s set finished. And then ze band started to play, everything shutted down and we took off immediately. A special moment, suspended in time. All our senses in alert, struggling to absorbe every millisecond of music, every gesture… SHORA transported us far away and beyond. I knew instantly that this was the gig I wanted to see for so many years. This precious special feeling that I forgot with the years, re-appearing majestically. Pure magic my friends, pure magic! A concrete proof that SHORA is a HUGE band, is that the tracks from “Malval” that they played, they played them in a very, very different way. Actually for most of the song you could barely recognize it as something familiar. A band that has the balls to fuck with original material that is certified gold, is my kind of band if you know that I mean. Comfortably happy in this heavy/psychedelic haze, shouting at my mates’ ears “Shitcool man!”, little did I know that these swiss knives had more surprises for us. What about the fact that unlike on record, these dudes actually played METAL for half of their set? And when I am talking about metal, I mean what we call around here “intelligent black metal” ( ®Tsamashi Toyo): Ved Buens Ende, Dodheimsgard, Thorns and company.

I can not tell for sure how much the audience actually appreciated this unique performance. I know that me and my friends were in heaven. My idea for an ideal SHORA audience composition would be 50% hardcore Pink Floyd fans and 50% intelligent black metal fans. Then we would have a good base for optimum interaction and maximum mayhem. I certainly hope to see those guys again soon enough, with a little bit of luck @ Roadburn/Tilburg in the good company of Mantas, Pascal Cretain and co. In any case, do not miss them for nothing in the world in they ever hit your town. If I was your lawyer I would even advice to bring over your women, friends, family and colleagues. Free post-show blowjobs guaranteed!

Raoul Argos 2009

SHORA (2006)

2009-01-24T20:38:00.009+02:00

SHORA

Entering Aquarius

Exactly one week ago we had the privilege to watch SHORA live: we can confirm that it is one of the most outstanding bands in the known universe and this memorable show was amidst the best we have ever attended. Vincent de Roguin (who is no longer part of the band btw) had answered our questions a couple of years back.

Hi, first of all congrats for your new release .It’s awesome as a whole and its hidden small details continue to surprise me .Since this is the first time we talk can you tell us a few things about how Shora was born and what does your name mean ?

Thanks for the nice words ! Shora began its aimless voyage in the 1999 when its initial pilots decided to unite their strengths to built a stronger startship and eventually loose themselves in the pursuit of the unknown. The moniker Shora was chosen for its visual and aural qualities.

Throughout your career all these years you changed a lot of faces musically .Did you feel/imagine from the start that this band would change that rapidly through time ?

No, because we’ve always been focused on the present and also because thinking in the long-term goes hand-in-hand with concepts like “ambition” and “career”, which is something that doesn’t suit well our individual and collective frame of mind. Also I wouldn’t say that we had a fast evolution, being in your mid-20s and having spent seven years playing music with the same people sure does feel like a long time.

How did you come up to the decision recording an (almost) instrumental record? Did you feel something like too much talking is cheap? That its all said?

Well, there are a lot more things to be said and sung about and we don’t have any issues with singing whatsoever. We love the sound of human voice and if we had found a singer that suited our music and vision, we would have definitely have incorporated her/him in the band. But there was no one in our immediate entourage that would have been the right person for the job so we went instrumental. There has been no decisive talk about the situation, it just happened naturally. But we soon realized that it gave us a space and a sense of musical freedom that eventually laid down the canvas on which we developed the ideas contained in Malval.

In addition to the previous question ; I saw your site ,shora.com, and it is as minimal as it could be .It gave me the impression that you don’t wanna expose yourselves that much through Shora .Agree and if yes how do you explain/justify this attitude of yours?

Agreed but I don’t think that we need to justify this anyhow. Well, it is good to keep some sort of distance between the people who do the music and the people who listen to it, to leave some space for the imagination. So we simply try to keep a little bit of mystery around what we do and not to give too much clues and keys. Although answering your questions might already be a blatant treatise to our ethic, haha.

Why did you name you record “Malval”?What is the story behind it?

See previous answer. Malval is a location in Geneva where we spent some great time while making our album and it speaks to us as a symbol associated to a specific period of our lives.

The artwork is great .Is there some kind of code in it?

No code per se. Again, it is up to the imagination. There might some meaning behind it but its not our role to us to give clues about it as we feel that it looks nice enough to stand on its own.

In my opinion the orchestration in “Malval” is for seminar.You must have worked too much time on it ,what were the intentions of yours while constructing the material?

I don’t know if we have worked “too much” on it but we certainly spent some long days trying to make the whole record sound as coherent as possible. The orchestration and arrangements were pretty much the last thing we worked on after the initial composition period but it is sometimes the details that make things stick together. Again, this record is not very intentional; we were the first ones surprised by what we had created.

Another thing that is truly amazing is the sound of the guitars .You seem to know each second what effect to use without harming the entity of the song .So can you tell us a few things about these great guitars ?

A few things about the guitars ? There is Travis Bean, a Fender Telesonic and an old Guild involved. Well, I can tell you about all the effects and the guitars we’ve used but I’m not sure that it would really help you. There was a lot of different amps and microphones involved as well. We simply made sure to obtain the sound we wanted. And that wasn’t always easy.

I noticed the carefully expressed dynamics in your play ,in all instruments .The hit of the snare for example goes in parallel with the slightest bend in the guitar and the whole music sounds as powerfull and sensitive as an ecosystem.Do you agree and how much important do you think it is for a musician to use dynamics ? Are the dynamics a nice tool to imitate nature?

Thanks again ! You know, we simply play the music we love, following our intuition and some sort of ideal of greatness. We try not to over-analyze what we do because most of the time it takes us out of the actual beauty and magic of playing, which is ultimately what matters. There’s also a huge chance factor in Shora; we’re not completely in charge of what we create, which is an entity in itself, living by its own rules. To get back to your question, you can’t separate dynamics from the music, each and every sound has its own dynamic and moves a certain way, even the most static. And you can definitely use some dynamics in music that recreate or imitate nature (be it storm, waves and wind). John Cage wrote some interesting things about this issue.

I am really curious ,do you have any specific expectations from “Malval” ?

We had “some” expectations as far as distribution and promotion but everything has been going so unbelievably well that anything happening now feels like a bonus.

Your country has some elegant bands , from Coroner to Knut .How do you see things going right now in the scene of Switzerland ?Any bands to recommend?

What always strikes me the most about Switzerland is the fact that its better bands have a very individual and unique sound. I’m thinking about The Young Gods, Voice Crack and Celtic Frost. Current bands that we enjoy are Honey For Petzi, Brazen, Monno…

Are there any touring plans?

Not in the near future, sorry, we’re working hard on a new album right now !

What would you prefer ; being invisible for a week or being able to fly for a month?

Being invisible ! I can always use airplanes to fly, whereas no machine invented by man could help me do what I would do if I was invisible. Can we touch and move things when being invisible ? My activities for the week would probably involve girls and banks.

Thanx for the interview and once again congratulations .You can close this interview however you like .Cheers!

Thanks for the interview. Ars Longa Vita Brevis.

www.myspace.com/shoraband

Interview by Qoupas 2006, originally conducted for a Metal Hammer Greece feature. Published with kind permission. Intro by Panos Agoros 2009.

INSISION “Revealed & Worshipped” / INVERACITY “Circle Of Perversion”

2009-01-24T20:31:00.000+02:00

INSISION “Revealed & Worshipped” (Earache)
INVERACITY “Circle Of Perversion” (Unmatched Brutality)

It makes sense to do a joint review of latest INSISION & INVERACITY records. Not only because the two bands shared a split release -initially as a 10”EP by cult DM label Nuclear Winter rec, later as a MCD out by Revenge Prod-, but also because they have a common passion of american brutal DM & despite their european origin they manage to sound as competitive as the overseas masters.

INSISION is the kind of band that built up its name in the underground circuit via some excellent early releases like the “Revelation Of The Sadogod” demotape which eventually ended in a split release with greek squadron INVERACITY. Their perseverence was rewarded with a contract offered by Wicked World/Earache.

This excellent new record proves that their potential is evolutive & goes beyond their much acclaimed debut album “Beneath The Folds Of Flesh”. Not resting on their laurels, the band improved as players. They play faster, with more precision. The structures are complex serving exclusively the interest of the compositions. Insision display certain songwriting skills knowing how to fit the pieces together. Their efficiency is the same when they pay tribute to all things old-school & thrashy (think Slayer, Malevolent Creation) in trax like “The Unrest”, or in the modern deathmetal forms they introduce – listen to “Imminent Vision” ‘s wicked midtempo riff. The way the blasts, the breakdowns & the thrashy parts alternate remind me the best rythmic moments of bands like Suffocation (=>“The Foul Smell Of Humans”!), Morbid Angel or even Cannibal Corpse. Birath’s vokills are definitely a highlight. I’ve already expressed my admiration about how he “spreads” his voice occupying a lot of space in the final mix, instead of trying to produce the most guttural growl possible.

All this is delivered in the best possible terms with a massive but unpolished production by Mieszko (NASUM) @ Soundlab studios. There is a fine balance between the crushing drums & the powerful guitars, which makes it really easy to absorb all this tremendous amount of brutality w/out any unpleasant 1st impression or adaptation time. It travels straight from your ears to your spinal column.

Everybody who knows something can tell you that it is 100x easier for a swedish DM band to get things goin’ rather than a greek band. This is not the reason why I fiercly praise INVERACITY. Any sympathy & patriotism left apart, their debut album is by all points a very strong release in the worldwide brutal DM actuality. The production, while not at the Soundlab levels, is more than satisfactory & totally fucking surprising if you think it has been made locally. They share with Insision the same songwriting gift which makes them write compositions who flow smoothly while they brutalize with force the known universe. The evident SUFFOCATION influences are not an handicap, since instead of copy/paste’ing they have managed to get inspired for a result of their own. Compared to INSISION they have more breakdowns & moshable/danceable mid-tempo parts - to which they’re really good. Having only one guitarist is not a big problem with the awesome bass sound they have. How many times you notice the bass lines during a whole DM record, anyway? The drums have a personal sound, the snare has a lot of impact & it doesn’t sound like a bell (like it did on their demo-CD & split, think about Dehumanized drum sound).

OK, I think you got it, if you’re into brutal DM then you have some shopping (or downloading) to do… Support both bands, they deserve it!

Panos Agoros 2004

KONKAVE “Idiocy Mode”

2009-01-24T20:28:00.000+02:00

KONKAVE
“Idiocy Mode”
(Damaged Productions)

I don’t know what kind of music you’ve been used to expect from Greece but this is the kind of release that will change your mind (greeks included). In this debut-MCD is evident the appreciation of KONKAVE members for modern acts in the likes of BURNT BY THE SUN, CONVERGE, COALESCE, ZAO, etc. The songs sound actually pretty good & catchy numbers such as “Chronic Plague” are instant pitfillers. There is a lot of rythmic diversity & the band has in general an uptempo mood. I heard this material originally a couple of years back when it was unmixed & without vocals (the band kicked out their previous vocalist before the recordings – thus the delay); KONKAVE sure did a lot of efforts to complete this release. Christos’ vocal style is screamy (actually Tolis compared them to Maniac’s – I dunno though) & together with guest vocals by Labros INNERMOST they add a lot of power to the music, since it is filling out space in the recording like an instrument. Nikos SUN OF NOTHING did his best for a good sound & did well despite the calamitous studio it was recorded at. The only complain I have really, is the guitar sound who could be heavier. The bass sound compensates for that though. It is huge & the basslines are excellent! This promising debut release is rounded up by intriguing & interesting lyrics/songtitles (ie. “Chocolate Bars”), and the astonishing artwork of the digipak. All in all this is a powerful release. Those who’ve seen the band live recently performing new material (more evolved & diverse in the veins of Knut, Anodyne, etc, etc) know there is a lot more to expect from them soon.

Panos Agoros 2004

27 “Let The Light In”

2009-01-24T20:26:00.001+02:00

27
“Let The Light In”
(Hydrahead)

I came across 27 randomly. Actually I tripped on a sticker of theirs with two colibris - which reoccur often. This led me to order their “Songs From The Edge Of The Wind” MLP & eventually I became a fan. Their post-rock is soothing, relaxing & atmospheric. Maria’s supernice & expressive vocals have a lot to do with 27’s charms. This EP introduces them as a 4-member act. It also demonstrates a slightly different mood: I would describe it as summer/love music in fact. It has very nice, uplifting vibes. Some called it hippyish but I think it doesn’t exactly make justice of a record which is at the same time deep & suprisingly rich sonically. The artwork has been by Aaron Turner (Hydrahead, Isis, etc). The colors are very happily chosen to reflect the atmosphere of the material. He also does some relevant backing vocals to “The Light”, a track that might sound like a lighter version of Isis.

Panos Agoros 2004

BEADY BELLE “Chewbeagappic”

2009-01-24T20:21:00.001+02:00

BEADY BELLE
“Chewbeagappic”
(Jazzland Records)

Still wondering how an initially underground phenomenon as nu jazz has swept over the whole modern music scene worldwide? Well Beate S. Lech and her orchestra of fine and inspired Norwegian players can easily explain the drill to you. Just press play. This is the second full effort of Bugge Wesseltoft’s “protégé” . This is really,really large. Never excessively academic and never too “clicky” , Beady Belle turn super catchy song craft into an internal journey towards the smoothness and class of jazz,funk,be bop…you name it! Sure, it’s easy listening music.But there’s lotsa gold to be discovered in here as far as sound input is concerned , combining the electronic with the acoustic ,groove against ambience, complexity versus easy steps , composition into improvisation. I really don’t know what you find best about nu jazz (or even jazz music in general) but this will positively hook people into Jan Garbarek’s “Places” AND dancing funkers who got into this deal listening to DJ Strangefruit fucking up Nils Peter Molvaer’s trumpet. Short and sweet ,this is music for thirsty ears.

Tsamashi Toyo 2004

BEADY BELLE “Chewbeagappic”

2009-01-24T20:21:00.000+02:00

THE MATTHEW HERBERT BIG BAND “Goodbye Swingtime”

2009-01-24T20:17:00.001+02:00

THE MATTHEW HERBERT BIG BAND
“Goodbye Swingtime”
(Accidental Records)

The title could easily be a speaker for itself. But hey, we’re still talking about the same guy who constructed deep house tunes using a ticking clock for a beatbox and a frappuccino machine as a soundsource , right? So how’s a day in the life of the artist some of you out there know as Doctor Rockit when he doesn’t make music for the inquiring mind but more for the passionate heart? Well the guy of course still uses sampled noises as a basis for most of what he does. What’s so different about this one-off project is that he gathers up an jazz orchestra of 19 people plus the compositional aid of Arto Lindsay (yep, That Lindsay) on a track. So what you get is an awkward symbiosis of swinging themes, feelgood jazzy tunes with a sophisticated and at times political (still hard to explain) aura on them, and of course a few pinches of feet taping housey moments. Playful as much as it is lazy ,“Goodbye Swingtime” calls up a need for a liveshow experience. Matthew Herbert has managed to pull this off live including all the musicians but that’s all I know, I haven’t actually seen any footage from it. As he himself would like it, a good list of optional extras for “Goodbye Swintime” would be :A cozy seat by the pool, a mild afternoon sunshine, a strict selection of people who go 100% next to the “comfortable” category and well, anything you consider as cool. Shit, this triple vinyl version was so expensive that I could’nt buy the new triple vinyl from Dani Sicciliano (known for vocal duties in Herbert’s “Around The House”) too. But I’ll make it up to me . I promise.

Tsamashi Toyo 2004

ULVER “Original Motion Picture Soundtrack: Svidd Neger”

2009-01-24T20:15:00.002+02:00

ULVER“Original Motion Picture Soundtrack: Svidd Neger”(Jester records)

Don’t just buy this.Apprehend this.

Tsamashi Toyo 2004

AS ONE “So Far (So Good)…Twelve Years Of Electronic Soul”

2009-01-24T20:12:00.002+02:00

AS ONE
“So Far (So Good)…Twelve Years Of Electronic Soul”
(Ubiguity)
It’s really no wonder why certain names pop up when the tags of “eclectic” or “jazzotronica” are being discussed. Kirk DeGiorgio’s As One or Matt Chicoine’s Recloose being two of them. Sure, the list is long. But then the excitement and this golden “love in the music” feel can’t easily be beaten when it comes to As One’s unique blend of quality techno and jazz/soul .Some said that DeGiorgio is the reverse edition of pioneer jazzist Herbie Hancock. Well why not ,when all this soul soothing , heart feeding music comes in classy style with moogs and 808’s kissing the fender Rhodes smoothness on some starry rooftop .Or the beat that comes alive by soulful vocals (by guest ,Jinandu).

Here comes a two CD pack of a lovely catch up with a so impact -flexible artist and an appreciation range that could extend from Basic Channel up to Leo Records. Club- friendly? Maybe . But still extremely classy to be tagged as “plastic”. American label Ubiguity packs a mouthful of expensive listening beginning from 1992’s “Art 1” and reachimg out to 2001’s “21st century soul” lp’s. This.You.Will.Love.

Tsamashi Toyo 2004

PLASTIKMAN “Closer”

2009-01-24T20:02:00.002+02:00

PLASTIKMAN
“Closer”
(Novamute)

If there are three things that Richie Hawtin’s listeners are used two then that would be minimalism , five-year gaps between the albums and ,well, Richie not being that much of a talker.

Yes , he is back. Larger . Even more “bassier “(with a cosy “bass frequencies have been eq’d for optimized sound over all listening systems” quote).Ok off with the technical shit. Let’s talk techno! Rumbling in the lightless corridors that 1998’s “Consumed” left him the Canadian musician takes off with his ambient bases and the minimalist dub/techno wrap-up,walks on through his “never-give-up-the -knob-twisting” family tradition of the 303 religion, and finally ends up subduing his graces to modern technology .As crafty as on his Detroit techno cut up extravaganza”DE9:Closer To The Edit”. Precision is the game here ,yes. Oh and ,mind you, a little bit of storytelling as tracks “Ask Yourself” and “Disconnect” bring up some…vocals! So he’s a talker after all . Yep, but not any o’ your usual stuff. Just Cold robotic phrase-dropping. If anybody out there still remember “Vokx” from 1993’s “Sheet One”, I guess you get the picture. ”Closer” is a perfectly good reason to still say you love real techno.

Tsamashi Toyo 2004

2009-01-21T19:34:00.023+02:00

GRIDLINK / BLACK POWDER|RED EARTH

A LINK TO THE PAST

It always feels good to interview one of your underground heros. It feels like home if you know what I mean... Fronting the assault of the formidable DISCORDANCE AXIS back at the time, we didnt hear anything revorded from vokiller Jon Chang until recently with fantastic GRIDLINK debut "Amber Gray" LP & HAYAINO DASUKI's "Headbanger's Karaoke Club Dangerous Fire" EP. We definitely grabbed the chance to borrow some time from the man and have a little chat, asking him also questions about the independent video-game BLACK POWDER|RED EARTH that he's currently developping with his team.

In “A.G.” you do high pitched vokills, while in the past w/D.A. you used to have some growls as well. How come?

As time went on in DA I shed a lot of the low vocal parts because they didn't have the same emotional intensity for me. In GridLink, Matsubara and myself discussed the ideas of different vocal styles other than pure highs but we decided to make the first release as pure emotionally as possible, thus we tabled several songs and ideas for future GridLink projects.

Why did D.A. split up back at the time, was that because of Rob Morton ear problem as we’ve heard?
Yes this was pretty much the reason, though considering how many times we had split in the past there was no guarantee we would've ever completed another project.

GRIDLINK is obviously a new band and not D.A. v2. Did you have to reinvent your vokill & lyrical approach, or it was sort of natural continuation?
Well I am a different person than I was 7 years ago so a lot of the lyrics, artwork and emotions tied up in producing them are very different. I think DA was very much the product of 3 intense and conflicting personalities, while GridLink has a similar dynamic, though now we have a bass player *gasp*!

Tell us a few things about the other GL members… Their background, how did you hook up.
I met Matsu while DA was doing it's final Japan tour in May 2001. His band Mortalized blew me away. Months later, I still remembered their presence, speed and style, so I contacted him via Hevi from Corrupted and we started talking via email. At the time myself, Dave Witte and Steve Procopio were discussing the idea of a new grind band called War Chalking so I wasn't looking for a grind band. However, Matsubara and I both shared a love for Japanese heavy metal and we decided to do a ultra fast thrashing heavy metal band with screaming vocals. GridLink came up about a year later when we shut down War Chalking. GridLink started as band with a all Japanese line-up plus me. We cycled through several drummers before I called upon Dave Witte to see if he was interested. Dave was over booked and connected me with Bryan Fajardo. As it turns out Bryan, was up to the task. Then our bass player, Okada, had to bow out and we brought Ted Patterson, who I'd known from Human Remains and Burnt by the Sun, aboard.

GL music eventhough it ressembles to D.A. is a bit more hardcore-sounding in my ears, as well as with more of thrash background plus a tiny bit of subtle melody (kinda like mutated heavy metal melody if you know what I mean). Do you think that description fits and how would you define the musical differences of the
two entities?
Hmmm, I think of DA as Rob Marton and GridLink as Takafumi Matsubara. Both are very gifted musicians who are pushing our art form to some place it hasn't been. The analogy we used to hear all the time was DA = Voivod playing grind and GL = Slayer playing grind LOL

You have Brian Fajardo on drums, who I admire for his playing with Uphill Battle & Phobia. As I said in the previous question, the GL material sounds to me a bit more hardcore than DA, and some parts made me think about U.B. in particular. Do you discuss what you want to play or does Matsubara come come to you with the songs complete?
Matsubara writes everything and we build around that.

I don’t have the lyrics so please give us the general framework. I was also wondering what “Crash Logs” talks about – the title intrigues me because I’m a UNIX systems engineer and deal a lot with those damn logs!
I believe my audience is smart enough to find their own meaning in what I create :) You can probably find the lyrics with a little google-fu or better yet, buy the record LOL

Do “Pattern Recognition” lyrics have anything to do with William Gibson’s excellent book of the same name?
Not at all. I actually stopped reading Gibson after Idoru. He lot his edge after Mona Lisa Overdrive IMHO.

Let me get one thing straight: the cover artwork is one of the best I’ve ever seen and my friends who’ve seen it agree that it is grand! It has the 8-bit video game edge, the japanese mask, the assault rifle… Did you have something particular in mind? Is this a precise character or you just came up with a combination of elements in order to represent the content’s atmosphere, aesthetics and soundscapes?
Being an artist the art always has significant meaning regarding the content. I came up with the idea for the "image" of GridLink while I was working on my current game/book Black Powder | Red Earth. I wanted to create a scene that conveyed endless conflict, so I teamed up with Michelle Bowlin of Assassin's Boutique to design a character which combined modern military armor and weapons and elements found in Shogun era Japanese warriors. We also wanted to show that the world that this figure was protecting has changed in ways the soldier could never understand, hence the scarred and damaged world in the background he watches over.

I totally believe that eventhough “A.G.” lasts only 12 minutes, it has the consistency of a full-length album in terms of musical density and the feeling of fulfillment it leaves you with after the listening is over. Still, why havent you eleased it as a EP?Is HH worried about the timing? Do you want to join the Guiness book of records? ☺
That was the complete work of Amber Gray. Thus it was released as a complete project.

What’s exactly the deal with Hayaino Daisuki? I have the “Headbangers…” CD and think it sounds cool. Is this a tribute to japanese metal right? Who are the other members?
Hayaino Daisuki was the first project I worked on with Matsubara. We wanted to take the Japanese heavy metal sound and push it to the limits of what could still be called metal. Many of the songs were actually written to be used in Scratch Trigger Era, an anime miniseries I worked on a few years ago. Despite the content of the songs(mostly original ghost stories) when it came time to name the band and record, we actually went with stuff that would capture the fun of being an gaming and metal otaku rather than using more traditional bleak imagery, hence the Headbangers Karaoke Club zine that came with the ep. We are working on issue 2 right now! Re the members, we are currently, Jon Chang - vocals, Takafumi Matsubara - guitars, Eric Schnee -Drums, Ted Patterson - bass, Michelle Bowlin - vocals and we've recently added Dorian Rainwater as our 2nd guitar.

In the H.D. CD booklet and packaging there’s quite a few references to video games, so are they one of the influences? What do you think about the video game tribute music scene?
I love video game music. I'm not as interested in the pure tribute music scene though.

In the cellophane wrapping the H.D. CD there’s a sticker mentionning that there’s Mortalized+D.A. members but “no its not Dave Witte”. I guess each time a Dave Witte’s release is out and “featuring Discordance Axis,etc members” is mentionned as part of the marketing blurb, people have been asking you if that’s
you? What do you think about Dave’s carreer after D.A. anyway?
I came up with the stickers for both the HD and GridLink releases as a "joke". Basically there is nothing you can put on a marketing sticker that does not sound totally contrived and stupid. It's sort of like band photos. As soon as you take a photo it's a fashion shoot meant for customers to identify with you. With my music I like to avoid that as much as possible. Re Dave's career, it's Dave's career. The man dips his toes in many pools :)

What’s exactly your relation with japanese culture? Are you of japanese descent/education?I love anime and I go to Japan and blow all my money whenever I can LOL

Let’s talk a little bit about your carreer as game developper. Which finished projects do you have in your CV, and is there any way to get hold of them?
Currently I run a game design shop in Astoria, NY where we are working on a Unreal Engine 3 based first person shooter and Facebook title based around our core property Black Powder | Red Earth. This has been a full-time gig for almost 2 years now and keeps me very, very busy haha. A lot of what we do is figure out how to boot strap gaming products so we can produce them with little/no outside investment and then control the content/quality ourselves. We have a small but hard core shop of passionate guys working on it every day.

In the past I designed a game called KETM which was ported to the Dreamcast many years ago. I've worked on maps for Return to Castle Wolfenstein, a few failed mods, a few canceled games, and had bit pieces of my work show up in other titles (I think there was a Punisher game that used a bunch of weapons I had modeled and textured).

I visited the website of Echelon Software and was very interested by the press release of the project you’re working with currect, “Black Powder, Red Earth”. First of all, this is supposed to be more than a multiplayer online FPS game. You mention that “BPRE uses framework already found on the Internet in social networking and e-commerce applications” such as Myspace, Face Book, iTunes & Amazon. What’s the use of this framework? When you mention a virtual currency, will players that want to upgrade their weapons/skills have to convert real currency into virtual in order to do it?
The idea behind our business is that PC is the premier platform for FPS gaming and it is a platform far more robust than any console. We are designing products that take advantage of lessons we've learned creating products for other people, that also cater to the needs of gamers such as ourselves. Since the product is not released yet, it is premature to discuss any details of implementation, but people can sign up for our newsletter on our website echelon-software.com and hopefully we will have more information for them soon.

Game(-ish) environments such as WoW, Second Life, etc have been know to be highly addictive & suck away many people from real life. Do you want/have to achieve something similar in order for “BPRE” to be succesful and commercially viable?
Not to tip our hand, but the core concept of our game is that we want the depth of RPG type games(Wow for example) without the overhead of time that has kept people like us from enjoying them. Essentially, we want character customization, item collection, item tuning, item trading, etc and we don't want to be locked into doing it when we are only in front of a set top box.

I am a Call Of Duty 4 trooper on Xbox Live. Eventhough it is a pretty complete and awesome multiplayer game, there are serious network connectivity issues. A lot of lagging, players have to be the host of the game, server disconnects are not handled properly, and at the end of the day, often the game is not fair depending with who you play and the line he and you have. For example when I play with my buddies from Greece against americans and they are hosting (most of the time they do), we have to score more hits than they in order to kill & they have advantage because for instance, when we turn around the corner they see us first. How will you handle the network part in order to avoid similar frustrating issues?
Honestly, compensating for lag around the world is an impossible problem with current hard lines. It takes time for the information to be sent around the world or even across a country. Many multiplayer games in the US break the players into Pacific, Mountain, Central and East coast servers. Within your region is whole different story. Unfortunately all I can say is, "We have top people working on it."

“BPRE” has a modern/sci-fi warfare concept. What me and some friends of mine find a little bit terrifying is that with such games kids or adolescents (or even young –immature- adults) maybe be led to consider war as something “cool”. Maybe not joining the army (eventhough “America’s Army” has been ordered by the US Army as a proper recruiting tool), but still getting it all wrong. Do you acknowledge this side effect and do you think game developpers have a responsibility towards the public, by presenting the real face of war/conflict/violence?
I think games about being a soldier are no more going to drive someone to join the military than movies or books. That said, people are influenced by positive experiences in their life, so who's to say that joining the military is a universally bad thing? At the end of the day, in a free world people are responsible for educating themselves and making their own decisions. How they go about that is there business. Personally I am more concerned about the treatment of children who are trained by their parents to believe in "god/gods". These poor children are raised to believe in some sort of omnipotent easter bunny that will take them to a better life one day if they recite passages about how great this being is until they die.

What do you think anyways about the war in Iraq?
I don't think there are enough pages in your magazine for me to provide anything more than a topical and meaningless answer to this question. LOL

When is “BPRE”’s release date? To which platforms will it be available?
Currently we are developing the title for PCs. A release date has yet to be established. How about the old faithful, "When it's done." ^o^

The video game industry is dominated by half-dozen huge companies. It must be really hard for independent developpers to breakthrough... I am happy though that independent developpers of a game like BRAID had some positive response, so there’s possibly a demand for fresh stuff. What do you count on in order to make it happen?
We have to do things differently the same way independent bands or movie makers approach the world. It drives innovation and creativity, but also allows us to embrace and pursue a lot of different ideas we would never have the luxury of exploring if we had signed on with a larger entity.

What’s your role exactly in the project? I guess there will be in the soundtrack references and aesthetics familiar to underground music fans – I mean maybe not blasts but some noise/ambient parts.
Actually I am the world designer and design lead. I don't have anything to do with sound
design or music in the game other than to make suggestions about the quality of the final sound I want to have ^_^;

Well thanks so much Jon for your time. Message of the day is yours…The message of the day is, "Read more books." And listen to Japanese speed metal hahahaha

www.myspace.com/gridlink
www.myspace.com/hayainodasuki
www.echelon-software.com

Interview conducted by Panos Agoros in late 2008 for a GRIDLINK feature that has been published in Metal Hammer Greece.

Live photos credit: Scott Kinkade.

FURY FEST 2004 REPORT+GALLERY

2009-01-21T16:39:00.045+02:00

FURY FEST 2004 REPORT

by Panos Agoros

We arrived on Saturday morning [I havent been able to get my day off on Friday], so obviously we will not be able to report anything about Friday.

Having missed for only 30' the french unstoppable grind monster MORGUE (fuck), the very 1st band we caught was PAINT THE TOWN RED (ger) on the main stage (=MS). They played a convincing set of their old-school/rocking HXC & they're good live. The audience didnt know them but the reactions were rather positive, especially with crowdpleaser SOIA cover "Scratch The Surface" which was the occasion for some singalong. I like them better on record...

After PTTR I tried to enter the Velvet stage (=VS) where DEFDUMP were playing - a band that i really wanted to check out not only because Mantas ensured me that they rock but also because I have visited 3 times my gf @ Luxemburg this year & I was curious to find out what kind of band could hail from this lifeless technocrat city. At this moment of time I realized how hard was to enter the V.S. when it was packed & actually this was one of the rare inconveniences of the fest. Fuck, I'll see them next time...

I missed CALIBAN (ger) in Athens last December, so we made sure w/Nikos we would be there on time on the MS. Eventhough I'm not that much into the more melodic direction they took with ::Shadow Hearts::, I must admit that they're ultra-efficient live igniting some serious hard dancing action in the pit & the biggest wall of death I've seen so far (which reminded some combat scene from Lord Of The RIngs or sthing!). Andy is very good on the vocal department & has proved to be a perfect frontman for this kind of modern deathcore assault. The band has a new album in the works from which they presented a new track, more or less in the ::Shadow Hearts:: vein.

CALIBAN having convinced everybody on the MS, everybody was waiting for DYING FETUS (us) who were next. In the meanwhile I took a walk to the VS where I DEFY (hol) were playing. If you're into old-school HXC, you should probably know them by now. This isnt the kind of music that I'm listening to these days but I have a couple of their CD's, which are nice - like their live performance. They put a lot of feeling into what they're doing & apparently they were happy to perform @ the Fury Fest. Another thing they're appreciative of is they support & exposure they get from Reflections rec., who the took advantage of the occasion in order to thank them.

DF @ the MS confirmed what kind of brutalization they're capable of both live + on record. The new line-up with a fulltime vocalist works well, the audience knows the songs, is amazed & begs for more. The HXC kids are out of the pit after CALIBAN but there's some metalhead moshing especially during the more destructive blastbeats. The tracklisting was focused on the two latest albums...

WALLS OF JERICHO (us) is one of my favorite HXC bands. I have already seen 2 or 3 videos of theirs but if you havent seen them live there's no way of explaining the intensity of their stage performance . Kandace (=goddess) is a focal point & one of the most impressive singers I've ever seen, she truly amazed me... She's the perfect combination of feminity+brutality. They played both their more metallik & their old-school trax, complete with the Pennywise-like choir of :: :: (which admittedly I found corny on record). A lot of people have seen them already & the VS being packed, there was little pit action - it's a shame they didnt play on the MS...

Maybe because I didnt know exactly what to expect from them live, or because their records never did it that much for me, SKINLESS (us) impressed me on the MS. To be honnest, I liked them even more than DF! They're four, which leaves a lot of space to superenergetic frontman to move all around & take kontrol of the audience. He speaks to them in french ("merci fucking beaucoup", etc), describes the Fury Fest as "an amazing experience", dedicates the last song to Dillinger & wears an EYEHATEGOD tshirt! It's already 17:30 & the lights are cool. The crowd response surprises me a little bit - apparently SKINLESS are a bigger name in the DM circles than what I thought they were. This is what explains the fact that they're playing old-tracks from ::Foreshadowng Our Demise::, ::Progression Towards Evil::, even from the demos, additionally to material from their latest, and more diverse, effort ::From Sacrifice To Survival:: (including the titletrack) which admittedly I didnt like that much. The drummer was incredible & in the 1st place I thought it was ORIGIN skinmaster who helped them out on FSTS, but having checked their website afterwards, I verified that it was their original drummer Bob "The Big Guns" Beaulac who's back in the band.

The formidable THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN is one of the reasons I took the ride to Fury Fest. They're an outstanding experience & w/ no doubt one of the best bands who play heavy music today. After the intro, mayhem is unleashed w/the band members are going berserk. It is scandalous how well they're playing & how hysterical their stage performance is. Newcomer Greg Puciato is super both as a frontman & a singer. Actually his voice sounds better than on the "Contamination" Relapse DVD. On the new trax from "Miss Machine", as well as on the two excerpts from the "Irony Is A Dead Scene" EP w/Mike Patton are displayed the full capabilities of his voice, eventhough he performs perfectly the "Calculating Infinity" cuts ("Sugar Coated Sour", "43% Burnt", etc). Fury Fest audience has been expecting them anxiously & is conquered from the very 1st track. This is victory...

Next were THROWDOWN (us) on the VS, KILLSWITCH ENGAGE (us) on the MS & ABORTED (bel) on the VS. We need some rest though & to be honnest next is SUFFOCATION playing so we couldnt care less.

Both Nikos & myself agree that SUFFOCATION were easily the best band of the fest. Their gig was pure bliss & deathmetal extasy, more devastating -as far as I'm concerned- by Cannibal Corpse, Malevolent Creation,Deicide & Morbid Angel allrolled into one. The band was apparently ultra-happy to be back & to play in France. They dissolved all kinds of fans' concerns about their return as well as about their latest album ::Souls To Deny:: which has been modestly received by the critics.
New trax like ::Deceit:: ("this is about ex-boyfriends/girlfriends: kill them & throw them to garbage") & ::Surgery Of Impalement:: kill live & prove the value/quality of ::STD:: on the long term.

The old classics like ::Infecting The Crypts::, ::Pierced From Within::, ::Effigy Of The Forgotten:: ("Back then, we were out of hi-school, taking a lot of drugs & wanting to play the more brutal shit possible"), :::Liege Of Inveracity::, drove the audience into madness. The brutality that the band delivers is inhuman. Mike Smith's beats too. This dude's playing is amazing & one of the highlights of SUFFOCATION live. Frank Mullen was in a great shape, pretty enthusiastic, moving & moshing around. Terrance aligned solo after solo, Josh Baron was pretty solid in his playing & headbanging all the time & last but not least new addition Guy Beauvais didnt make us forget DOug Cerrito but at least filled out very well his role.

I totally ignored E TOWN CONCRETE on the VS (who cares about shit like that after SUFFOCATION?) & showed up for CHIMAIRA on MS. I'm not very familiar with them, I have some friends who liked their 1st album though. They're not bad, but their "modern" (ie.with nu-metal hints) heavy/thrash quickly sounds generic. They sound to my ears like a less good LAMB OF GOD. The crowd likes them but I quit at the middle of their set in order to be at the VS on time for MALEVOLENT CREATION (written "MALEVOLANT" in the fest's program).

Last time I saw M.C. it was with their old singer. The new one (also part of HATEPLOW) does some pretty decent job & has a good stage performance & throat. They play some trax from their new album as well as some older ones. Not bad, not bad at all. The VS is only half filled though...

FURY FEST 2004 GALLERY

by Nikos Melissourgos

MORBID ANGEL

SKINLESS

THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN

SUFFOCATION

MESHUGGAH

FEAR FACTORY

NASUM

TERROR

BURST

DISCHARGE

AGNOSTIC FRONT

MISCELANEOUS

2009-01-20T19:52:00.025+02:00

Gonzo Neurotic Deathhead

A heretic capture of the Legendary Neurotic Deathfest
Tilburg, Netherlands May 30-31st 2008

by Pascal Cretain

Originally published at MOUNTZA #3 fanzine

I’m casually inspecting today’s schedule when a name from the past catches my eye: ‘Grind Inc.’. “Fuck yeah”, I think to myself, “here’s a band that I recognise”! Dave Lombardo on drums, that should be sweet. Still, something was not quite right. Why would they play at 16:45 in the Bat Cave? They should at least be given second billing at the main stage. Have they gone that out of date? I can’t quite figure out what the situation is, slowly making my way towards the Bat Cave nevertheless.

“Nice t-shirt!” says a voice, referring to my Gallhammer t-shirt. There’s a handful of us wearing non-black t-shirts within the thousands of the pilgrims that dwell in the purgatory-like place that is the 013 Venue in Tilburg, Netherlands. “In fact”, he goes, “more than nice t-shirt. How would you like to be featured in next month’s Terrorizer in the blah blah column, where three different metalheads each month get to have their say on one given question”. There seems to be some kind of ‘prize’ involved, as he explains, perhaps a free CD or something, but his words just pass me by at this stage.

“What do you think of myspace death metal bands?” is the question I’m called to comment upon. “I don’t know man; I don’t care much about what they have to say. The whole thing is a bit childish”. A half-decent answer, you might say. Not in my book. I could have given a zillion other far superior answers! I could have explained how the myspace generation is infected with a dangerous variant of Attention Deficit Disorder, and how they dismiss or glorify a band within 10 seconds after the first track kicks in. The whole world seems to shape up to this shrinking time trend; the music universe expands uncontrollably at the expense of the individual artist who needs to squeeze as much soul as possible into the ever-diminishing slots of pseudo-attention that are spared to him by greedy listeners. An absurd, frustrating battle. One that sadly seems to be favouring those who have learned to embrace their loneliness, rather than those whose soul is intact.

Or, I could have reversed the question. “The real question”, I could have said, “is can one hear frogs farting under-water?” That would have confused the Terrorizer bloke. Not sure if he‘d even publish this statement of mine. But if he did, then that would make a hell of a link between the distant worlds of Heavy Metal and Computer Hacking. The “real question” is stolen from Phenoelit.de’s website and it is a response to the question ‘Are you people a bunch of whitehats or blackhats?’ To explain the difference between whitehat hackers and blackhat hackers is “beyond the scope of this document” (sic), but, in case you were wondering one can actually hear frogs farting underwater if he has a parabolic microphone – then he can hear the bubbles bursting. Of course, this begs the question ‘but don’t frogs have watertight asses’?

I wonder what’s going on inside Barney’s head every time he sets up the stage for ‘Nazi Punks Fuck off’. It has become an inevitable destiny for Napalm Death to play this god damn cover song – albeit a great one - to hordes of Type II Metalheads, most of them – myself inclusive - having English as a second language.. “What have I become”, he must think to himself, Mark Greenway, as he spews out the very same words before closing yet another Napalm Death show: “This next song is an anti-fascist song, mmkay? Originally from a little-known band from California called the Dead Kennedys. If you know the words say it out loud my friends, say it proud…. Nazi Punks Fuck off”.

I get my camera out and capture the entire anti fascist hymn on video. I’m thinking I might upload it for the world to marvel. However….a youtube search on ‘napalm death nazi punks’ greets me with dozens of similarly entitled videos, from all over the planet. Colombia, Russia, London, New York, Philadelphia, Mexico, Kuala fucking Lumpur. Same words. Restless Spirits! A commitment that traverses the universe, and takes form and shape every time Barney announces the end of a show, using the exact same formula. Irresistable. Overpowering. A dark force that, reportedly, cast a spell over bouncers and security guards in ND’s show in AN Club, Athens January ’07, and got them stage diving with frenzy alongside punks and other troublemakers. A magic moment indeed.

Ah, Napalm Death. They started it all right there at the Mermaid Pub in Birmingham about 25 years back. I remember the first time I saw them in Athens, the Year of our Lord 2001. I remember how Barney moved around the stage, this skinny, goofy-like figure of his wearing black shorts and a sleeveless t-shirt. I remember the huge riot when the entire Villa Amalias squat just stormed in the venue. No fucking way would they pay to see Napalm Death. A fundamental mentality difference between the Southern and the Northern Metalheads: When a Napalm Death concert is announced, the former would ponder: ‘There’s no way we are getting in for free’, whereas the latter would think: ‘There’s no way we are paying’.

Strolling casually near the Extreme Noise Terror merch, I see a face I recognise. A big Dutch guy, whose name escapes me, browsing through the pile of Black T-shirts. He was staying at the same hotel in Trutnov, July 2005. That’s when we attended the Obscene Extreme Festival. A truly glorious festival. A celebration of DIY Grind Culture. Seeing Yacopsae live amidst a downpour. Forgardur Helvitis blasting away Pagan Style. And much more. That’s when I met the bloke from Aborted – who played a pretty tight set tonight and would definitely team up with Type II metalheads. He was sitting with us having pizzas and beer in the little shop next to the Hotel, in Trutnov’s central square. I bet that, like the Dutch Guy, he won’t remember me at all. Nobody does.

Coldworker is from Sweden and deliver a choked full of energy, contemporary Metallic Grind ala Nasum. I thoroughly enjoy their set and their modest attitude. On and off the stage. Right after their show, I notice the vocalist having a beer alone at the bar in the back. A shy, modest, talented Scandinavian musician. “I really enjoyed your set, you folks stood out from the rest”. “Thanks man, I really appreciate your words”. As I chat away with the Coldworker Bloke, a big American guy that’s somehow connected to Relapse show up. He’s wearing a Today is the Day t-shirt from the latest tour. “Hey”, I ask, “so what did you think of Today is the day’s show”. “I was actually playing that day”, he replies pompously, “so I asked somebody to pick up a t-shirt for me. But I’ve seen Today is the Day many times, man”. From the look in his face I can see that he’s in some sort of cool Relapse band, and they he expects people to recognise him. To this day, I still do not know who he was.

“I’m thinking of doing a Gonzo-type report of this Festival”, I say to the Coldworker, “using the Festival as a base of sorts to build up on a series of unrelated events surrounding my trip to Tilburg. Focusing on the wrong side of the stage”. “That sounds awesome man, do it”. “I think I will”, I say, “If I get to it, you’ll find out. You’ll be in it”. The Coldworker bursts out laughing.

There are precisely two types of metalhead. There are those who think that ‘smashing the state’ is cooler than ‘fisting the dead’. You can usually (but not always) infer that a metalhead who’s wearing skateboard shoes is a state smasher. I dread to think what would become of the world without the Type I metalhead. The way I see it, Type I provides a quintessential absorbing unit, balancing out some of the world’s strongest forces. Type I consumes frantically and passes on only urine. A real Type I knows all about his idols, not only concerning their music, but also their dentist appointments and romances, best friends, favorite foods, secret fears and hopes and dreams. When Black Sabbath played shows at the dawn of the 70s, millions of Type I metalheads were there to swallow the enormous quantities of energy and burp it out loud. Save the world from collapsing under its own gravity.

That’s when I meet David, the archetype metalhead. A big bearded bloke with an XXL Krabathor t-shirt on. With his broken English (Broken as in ‘broken hope’ NOT as in ‘bodies lay broken’) he explains to me that his favourite moment in the festival so far was SUFFOCATION, but he thoroughly enjoyed IMPALED and ASPHYX amongst others. A strange feeling of deja-vu comes down my spine. Miraculously, I know already everything that David has to say. I know that he didn’t like the latest Cryptopsy album, I know he’s seen Behemoth a few times in the past, no reason at all asking him if he liked Extreme Noise Terror. In fact, I don’t only know what’s on David’s mind, I pretty much know what’s on everybody’s mind.

Suddenly I feel like I’m an intruder in this metal festival of theirs. An outcast. A leper. Walking anti-clockwise around their fountain filled with blood and guts. Approaching that music of theirs in an unacceptable, emotional way. Criminally out of date. Not observing obvious facts that everybody else does. Severe Torture playing numbers only from the first two albums. Origin sounding a bit thin. Cryptopsy being all defensive and playing only older stuff. Extreme Noise Terror’s Singer being drunk. Hate Eternal playing a crappy set. All of them see, all of them observe. They know the songs, they recognise the faces, they evaluate, consume, move together in an amorphous black mass of beer and weed, washing out everything that sets foot on their path. Making up the great Heavy Metal Subculture. Wearing it proudly with their whole being.

I remember the Resistance Festival in March 2005, London. Cyberpunk, Techstep and Violent EBM is not my cup of tea, but I usually enjoy the atmosphere and occasionally the music, so I decided to pop down. The resistance fest attracts a diverse crowd of ‘alternative’ people; some of them just looking different through their odd stylistic approach, some others being different in their hearts. If nothing else, it is an entertaining experience to just sit back and observe the manifestation of the goth/cyberpunk/violent electro subcultures at their own personal fiesta.

I saw this guy, in his late 30s or so – dressed all in black, proper ‘goth’ style, holding several vinyls, all alone looking at the floor. He looked so sad, so depressed – it was all over his face and eyes. But this was different, it was not because his subculture dictated it – it was because he did not belong with us (them) anymore. Maybe he never did.

Overtaken by his desire to belong somewhere, to have an identity, he gave so much of himself to the subculture. Without even realising, he lost himself completely in the subculture. He became the subculture. And when, eventually he realised, he had nowhere else to go.

My friends and I, we have a bit more eclectic taste. The breakdown in Converge’s “Heaven in her Arms”. Sunn O))) & Boris’ ‘The Sinking Belle’. Hellnation’s ‘Road Rage’. A few numbers by Black Sabbath including ‘The Wizard’ and ‘War Pigs’. Kyuss’ ‘Gardenia’. Pre-Pucciato Dillinger Escape Plan. Carcass Grinder’s first demo. Rotting Christ’s ‘Αποκαθηλωσις’ 7’’ EP. Portishead’s ‘Undenied’. Στέρεο Νοβα - ‘το ταξίδι της φάλαινας’. The breakdown in Soilent Green’s ‘It was just an accident’. Eyehategod’s ‘Metaphmetamine’. Creations is Crucifixion’s ‘Emergence through the Cables’. All out War’s ‘Soaked in Torment’. Medulla Nocte’s ‘All our friends are dead’. Today is the day’s ‘Tempe of the Morning Star’. Fucking New Bomb Turks. And much more. Music that captures the essence of life and reflects it back to the unsuspected audience. Passionate, wild, untamted. Straight from the heart.

I sip at my beer lazily opposite Bones Brigade’s distro when I catch a glimpse of Cephalic Carnage’s vocalist. He’s been wearing a Hawaian shirt, hiding a Funky SCOPRIONS t-shirt under it, a combination that I find hilarious. Looking at him more in detail now, I start noticing a striking similarity to the porn legend Ron Jeremy.

Must have been 2004 when I saw Ron Jeremy waiting for the train at the South Kensington tube here in London, sat comfortably next to a gorgeous woman. I later read on the web that he was over here for some Adult Grammies. Another nomination. He had this superhuman aura surrounding him; everything was smooth. The world around him made perfect sense. I approached him and attempted to introduce myself. ‘Are you..?’, I think I might have said, but it’s equally likely that I didn’t say a word. Ron smiled to me and offered a handshake. An offer I couldn’t deny. There and then, on that rainy November evening in 2004, I shook God’s hand and let him board the next train. My world was forever changed.

The next chain of thoughts comes fast. I’ll have to organise a survey. Surely other metalheads must have noticed the blatant similarity! I’m monitoring the scene for volunteers. I’ll have to choose five metalheads – preferably split between types I and II – and ask them if they notice the similarity. Simple enough. But whom to start with? Everybody seems to be too drunk; too stoned; too preoccupied with something else. Too busy in their own bubbles. All firewalled Up. Not listening for incoming connections whatsoever. Maybe I’ll just speak to the Cephalic vocalist himself. “Say”, I could tell him, “has anyone told you you look like Ron Jeremy?” Or maybe “Surely you must have heard this before, you look like Ron Jeremy!”, or even “You must get this all the time….” But if what if he gets angry? What if he has linked Ron Jeremy to some freak accident that happened to his step-daughter? As these thoughts take over, I look up to realise that neither the Cephalic Vocalist, nor any of the metalhead candidates for the survey are around anymore. They have been substituted with a new breed of metalheads. Equally stoned. Equally drunk. Equally endorsed in their self-centred ways of interpreting reality.

Pointlessly as I don’t even own a turntable, I browse through the colourful pile of 7’’ Records over at Bones Brigades’ Stall, whilst struggling to figure out what the French conversation that I have tuned into is all about. Despite the fact that my French is even rustier than my driving skills, and I have come to the conclusion that only a cabbie-type job in a French-speaking country would wake up those hibernating parts of my brain, I manage to decipher some insignificant information. Everything is quite harmless and unmemorable until I see the Total Fucking Destruction / Agoraphobic Nosebleed Split 7’’. Glossy, Green, staring at me. Over-the-top devil-skateboarding action on both sides, courtesy of Florian ‘the same guy who does the Baroness artwork’ as the Bones Brigade girl tells me. Trembling with awe and anticipation, I lift the little piece of art and marvel at it. I have no choice: I’ll no doubt have to buy the 7’’ AND a turntable. In fact, I buy two copies of the 7’’. “It’s a gift for a friend”, I explain to the Bones Brigade girl. Later on the same day, I pick up a Nunslaugher / Unholy Grave Split 7’’.

Hate Eternal’s Set is about as yawnsome as Dark Funeral’s set in Inferno, Oslo 2007, only worse because Hate Eternal claim the precious present, whereas Dark Funeral is just a nasty memory. Still, there is something mild in the air. Without doubt, it is Saturday Night and this is Netherlands. A country where authority is about as transparent and tolerant as it can get, or at least that’s the image the country projects to visitors like myself. People around are stoned, drunk, oblivious, happy. Fists raised, hearts soothed.

The world outside might have blown itself to pieces and nobody would have noticed or given a shit.

KEELHAUL - INTERVIEW (2004)

2009-01-16T15:44:00.036+02:00

KEELHAUL – This Is Mental
By Panos Agoros 2004

Email interviews are often sterile. But when you deal with intelligent folks who feel like talking about their music, even if it takes to type in a shitty keyboard (when you cant even type fast) the answers for a couple of hours, it turns out good. In the KEELHAUL case, this is possibly the best (read: interesting, funny, sarcastic) email interview I’ve done so far. I simply love these guys. And by the way, they’re one of the best bands in the world! Check their latest offering “Subject To Change Without Notice” on Hydrahead (and if you are a vinyl junkie collect all four LP versions on Escape Artist!) & you’ll be convinced.
[NB: this interview was done in March’04. Parts of it (maybe 1/3) have been translated in greek & published as a 2-page feature in Metal Hammer GR.]

To start from the begin- ning, what is your name supposed to mean?
Chris: I must direct you to the dictionary for the literal translation: Keelhaul: To haul under the keel of a ship, by ropes attached to the yardarms on each side. It was formerly practiced as a punishment in the Dutch and English navies. I am assuming you understand that we do not celebrate the systematic torture of prisoners by the Dutch and English navies. But in relation to the band, the name seemed very logical in the sense that we were setting out to push the parameters of the type of music we were involved in. we knew that our cooking would not be to the taste of the masses, and that we were expecting to turn the ears and stomachs of quite a few. We were in a sense, out to torture people with music. Or more precisely, make people work toward understanding it. I have always had a taste for music that has greater qualities than a hamburger, french fries and a coca cola. Our touring experiences in the early days would prove our theories correct, we could empty a room in four songs.
Will: It’s in
the dictionary, dude. It’s a form of wacky old-school pirate torture.

A lot of people seem psyched about “Subject…”, did you expect that?
Chris: Kind of. I was hoping people would be looking forward to it, and not forgetting about us. Plus I wonder how long we will have the audience we have. Everything that is born must die. And in the case of a band, that life can be very short. I would hate to end up like a band that puts out a good album or two and then make the rest of your career a rampage of shitty records living off the nostalgia of a few good tunes. I am glad to see the press is paying a good deal of mind to this record. Although I am a skeptic and a proponent of anti-industry ideals. I hope that all the press this album is receiving is honest and not just a lot of bullshit hype propagated by secret handshakes and advertising agreements.
Will: I don’t know. Are they? Like who? The pope? George bush? I guess I’ve read some good reviews & stuff, but I’m not really in touch with how we’re ‘getting over’ on any sort of audience. I don’t think any of us are.

Do you think your music, because of its nature, will have more impact on the european or US audience?
Chris: Oh god yes. I have seen from the experience of our first tour there two years ago, that the europeans are much more open to music on a much more cerebral level. And as well from other touring experiences there in the past. It is just so much more comfortable for us in europe than in the states. I am assuming that some of that is because we are from overseas, but I think that things are just very different in europe than the states as far as culture art and music go. I mean lets face it, america is the land of the hamburger. I can’t get into playing hamburger music.
Will: we do far better in Europe. We’ve given up on the states for the most part. It seems to me that people in Europe tend to sesek out there music, and people in the states like to let clearchannel feed it to them. We’re not on clearchannel’s menu.

How do you like europe?
Chris: A whole goddamn lot! To lump it into one basket, it is awesome. I just feel so comfortable being there. It is so old and new at the same time. I mean there is so much history there. thousands of years of history. America is so young and so spoiled. Face it, if you wanted to learn about life, love, history, etc. you would talk to your grandparents before you would talk to your 12 year old brother. I am sure there are plenty of fucked up things over in europe too, but existing there as we do, in the capacity that we do, it is really a fresh and exciting departure from life as we know it.
Will: Love it, love it, love it. Great crowds,
great people, great hospitality. And a lot less knuckleheads.

The struc- tures of your songs are mostly instru- mental. What exactly matters the most for you guys, as far as a song is concerned? I mean what do you consider to be the highlight of your music & at the end of the day what makes you the most happy about a KEELHAUL song?
Chris: Getting through it. Hell, I don’t know. Probably just writing them. Some songs are better executed than others. Some are pain stakingly started and hastily finished. And some start off halfassed and then turn into really developed and critically tuned machines. I think the best part of it for me, is just the process that we go through writing the songs. But I think ultimately, the best part is being able to share something with other people.
Will: That’s hard to say. Never really thought about that one. It’s gotta sound like we want it to sound. We all get pretty bored with the standard song arrangements (4 of this, 4 of that, back to this for 4, then 4 more of that, then next for 4, 4 that’s, and out…..pretty predictable) so we try to break it up a bit. Musically speaking, I like surprises. But it’s all gotta make some ort of sense, too. Not just a bunch of riffs bolted together. So sometimes the trickiest part is transitions. Making stuff flow. It’s pretty jerky already. To me it sounds cool when you take a pretty riff & just hammer it out & make it heavy as hell. This answer is retarded. I mean what do you consider to be the highlight of your music & at the end of the day what makes you the most happy about a KEELHAUL song? When we’re done playing it and haven’t broken anything.

Do you feel you have special affinities with other bands, instrumental in their essence, like PELICAN, 5IVE (at least in the self-titled album), or even THE FUCKING CHAMPS?
Chris: Hhmmm....... We just played with Pelican last night, they were great, and very nice gentlemen to say the least. The song Tits of War, off the new album, is a blatant tip off the hat to THE FUCKING CHAMPS. I spent a short psychosis with their album IV. Hell, that song is practically a blatant rip off. As far as instrumental groups, it would be more in the vein of jazz and fusion that I feel drawn to. But as well some classical. Other bands, KING CRIMSON, THE MAGIC BAND, FZ, BOC, COC, RUN-DMC, LSD, PCP, GHB, GBH, THE DEFOLIANTS, THE DARVOCETES, PINK FLOYD, SPIRIT, THE ENGLISH DOGS, THE KNACK, really shitty AEROSMITH, any one who did a duet with TINA TURNER during the eighties, all bands that have guys in them that don’t play keyboards BUT do site thier number one influnce as EMERSON LAKE AND PALMER, any one who can name a song off of the self titled release of BILLY JOELS first band ATTILA, and anyone who sings along with his song “Pressure” when it plays on the juke box in an American themed sports bar in any mid-eatsern country. Any one who plays during half-time at the super bowl, street croner lunatics, bands that you can’t read their logos, bands that can’t read their own logos, bands that can’t tune thier guitars, bands that show up at gigs with no gear, bands that play home appliances. And last but not least, any band that has ever had a member in it that played bass in a FRANKIE GOES TO
HOLLYWOOD tribute band in the south eastern united states.
Will: We’re all too dumb to quit and none of us understand marketing.

the standards in the music scene, in terms of musicianship, have raised a lot these last years, from deathmetal to nu-metal & hardcore. Do you think that good musicianship is a good way to hide a lack of songwriting skills?
Chris: Oh hell yes. Some guys are just noodling away a thousand kilometers and hour, and they are impressing people. But listen closely, the are playing crap, total crap. The worse is when these metal guys start these jazz-fusion things. Some of them are just so wrong. Sure you are a great technical player, but the music is souless. Just some half-assed TWISTED SISTER drumbeat with a by the booked bassline farting along over top of it, and then some ego maniac ripping senseless guitar solos over and over again. See one thing that happens in music, especially in the more underground type genres it seems, is there are fads in the styles. Fads in the way that the music changes over the years. The change is not the problem so much, but the oversaturation with the new developements in styles is what bothers me. I have fallen victim to it in my musical past myself. Ten or fifteen years ago things were happening, like MURPHYS LAW played some reggae, well holy shit, that blew some minds. In less than a year it seemed like every fucking hardcore band had a reggae breakdown in at least one song. And the same thing went on with other scenes. Metal/Rap, Hardcore/Metal, Punk/Ska, Punk/Rap, Punk/Funk. etc, etc, etc. When the RED HOT CHILLI PEPPERS busted out on the scene, I thought, heck this is great, and produced by Goerge Clinton, hell that gives it some clout too. Then suddenly you are surrounded by hundreds of chilli peppers, overload!
Will: It seems to be working for us. But I certainly wouldn’t call what we do “good musicianship.”

“Subject…” ‘s music flows so smoothly that I really wonder what is your methodology of writing/rehearsing songs.
Chris: Practice practice practice, if it doesn’t fit, make it fit. It has to have some sort of commonality or point-counterpoint capability. A lot of times, it is like algebra with fractions, you gotta find the least common denominators, and those are the points at which you can create the fit, and maintain the flow.
Will: It depends. Sometimes one of us will come to practice with like 5 or 6 riffs and a basic idea of how to put them together, and then we kind of all hash it out together. It tends to be me and one of the other guys, usually, getting the barebones of it together, then we show it to everybody else & it gets totally rearranged. On the other hand, I’m the nerd with the tape deck. I keep it near my drums. Whenever someone starts playing a riff that sounds cool (to me, anyway) I hit record. So I have mountains of tapes with riff after riff after riff. About twice a year, I dig out these tapes & start going thru riffs trying to piece ideas together. That’s how we wind up with portions of retarded songs
like 360 or lakadasical Chinese tubesocks. I don’t know what to say about the flow of the record, but we do give a lot of thought to what song should go here or there, etc, based on which ones have vocals, how we can tie endings into beginnings, etc. we try to do a lot of that kind of segueing live as well. It works for us because if we have spaces in our songs at a show, one of us will have to get a beer, another one has to tune, or change a string, our drummer is always fucking with his rubic’s cube. Etc. we are retards.

Please give us all the back- ground of the album’s recording.
Chris: Well, most of it was written over the two years between the recording of “II” and this new one. But a few of the songs were written just weeks before we went to Boston to record. Thats kind of how it works for us alot, down to the wire. We are last minute about so much of the things we do. We are fueled by anxiety.As far as the recording itself, we needed to bring in some one from the outside. and after some thinking, we arrived at Andrew Schneiderm to come into the fold and produce. we originally wanted to bring him here to Cleveland and work with us at MARS RECORDING, where we had done both of our previous albums, but the logistics and finances proved to be too tight for us to pull that off. So the option was to go to Boston to do the record, as that was where Andrew was, and being we could work in his studio as well as studios that he was down with, it made it so much more affordable. Plus getting away from our daily lives was a very good thing to do, in enabled us to really think of nothing more than the neccesities; eating food, drinking beer and smoking pot. We also decided to leave the mixing up to Andrew as well, which proved to be one of the few really intelligent decisions we have ever made. So after about 80 hours in 7 days, we bid farewell to Andrew, leaving him with the tapes to do his mojo. And as a gift to me, he even let me play my own guitar on one song. He mixed that bastard down, and presto! there you have it.
Will: We wanted to use a producer on this one. We have been recording with our friend bill korecky for about 15 years, and decided we needed someone a little farther removed from the band to kick us in the booty. It was chris more than anyone who pushed for this, but I’m very glad that he did, because for once it doesn’t sound like there were 4 drunk fools all over the mixing board trying to bury each other. We did this one with Andrew Schneider in boston. He rules. We recorded most of the tracks at mad oak studios, then we went to new alliance for the finishing guitar work and the little bit of vocals. There’s a badass brazilian restaurant up the hill from mad oak and a good beer store down the street from new alliance. Then we went home and had andy mix the stuff by himself. One of the best things we ever did.

People who’have seen you live describe your gigs as a very special experience. What would you say & what should we expect about your forthcoming local gig in Athens in April (ed-the gig turned out plainly awesome)?
Chris: We may be dumb, we may be drunk, and we may be late. But we hope to pull off a great set for you guys. Hell, we may even have our shit together by the time we get there. We are really looking forward to playing Athens, it’s a shame we can only stay for the one day.
Will: If you like watching four drunk, sweaty, smelly old guys wheezing their way through a bunch of songs they can barely play, and breaking their instruments all the time, then I guess it’s special. I don’t know what these people are thinking. Expect us to be constantly on the lookout for a good corndog (a hot commodity in Europe). Expect us to have an excessive growth of facial hair. expect chris and dana to expect lots of weed. I’ve never been to Athens. I can’t wait. You guys have an elvis museum there, right?

I suppose a vinyl version of the CD is coming sooner or later. What about it (ed-it’s been out since Aug.’04, go buy it)?
Chris: It is planned for release on vinyl this spring, on ESCAPE ARTIST RECORDS.
Will: Escape artist is doing it at some point. We’re still haggling over the art. There’s also talk of doing a picture disc for the first record.

Are you vinyl fans yourself & if yes what are the favorite pieces of your collection?
Chris: Oh yes, I am a big fan of vinyl. Some of my favorite pieces in my collection are:
PERE UBU Final Solution/Cloud 149 7”
BLACK SABBATH Evil Woman/Wicked World 7”
BLACK SABBATH Sabotaged (live August 6 1975) 3 x 12” box
SPIKE IN VAIN Disease Is Relative LP
PUFFTUBE Boys Of Summer/Funtime Summertime 7”
HOT FOOT QUARTET Mongoloid/Lazinda Waltz 7”
JAMES BLOOD ULMER Freelancing LP
BOULDER Dirt Cheap/Sac 7”
PERSONALITY CRISIS Creatures For A While LP
MICRONOTZ Smash LP
HAMPTON GREASE BAND Music To Eat double LP
HERBIE HANCOCK Headhunters
AHMAD JAMAL Happy Moods LP
ZZ TOP Tejas LP
TED FRANKO Live Life Live/It’s Over Here 7”
HOUND DOG TAYLOR AND THE HOUSEROCKERS Beware Of The Dog 12”

to name a few.

Will: hell fucking yeah. (is my mom gonna see this?). My Italian version of “shut up & play yer guitar”. All my old sesame street records.My Italian version of “shut up & play yer guitar”. All my old sesame street records.

Will you work on a videoclip? If yes, do you any ideas in mind for its implementation?
Chris: We have entertained the idea of doing some video thingy, but have yet to really put a plan together let alone execute anything. There are some professionally shot video of us, done by a few people, but they are just seeming to flake out on us, or just have lost interest in us. The thing that sucks, is these fools haven’t even sent us copies of any of the shit. If they would, then we may put some sort of video together out of that. But as far as any real conceptual video piece, nothing yet or planned.
Will: If someone wants to pay for it, hell
yeah. But we’ll have to get someone else to perform in it. We’re pretty ugly. If yes, do you any ideas in mind for its implementation? We have tons of footage of all the wacky bands that we’ve played with over the years. So we want to take the most out-there ones and put them over one of our songs on a video. I think that would be a lot more fun to watch than us.

The audio-CD sales worldwide suffer from the rise of the DVD era & labels push their bands to release DVD’s as proper releases or as bonus to special editions or reissues. Do you think this will change the face of music industry & will Keelhaul will work on a DVD soon enough?
Chris: Good question. Hell if I know.
Will: Us? A dvd? Again, if someone wants to pay for it…. I don’t think that dvds are hurting cd sales. i think they’re suffering because the industry is putting out dogshit. It all sounds like itself. People are downloading stuff because they’re finally figuring out that paying 20$ for a cd is sodomy. Nobody wants to plunk down that kind of loot for something they haven’t heard yet, which will probably be mediocre at best. Also, it makes sense to try before you buy. The best thing that can happen to bands like us is people being able to download our stuff. The radio sure as fuck isn’t gonna play it, and we’ll never wind up on mtv. Shit, download all our stuff. Couldn’t give a fuck. Just make sure you come to the show & buy a shirt. Or a corndog. Fuck metallica, whining about napster. Do they have to work dayjobs? No. fuck ‘em. Shut the fuck up & let the little guys get heard. Back to Dvds…..they require total attention. In other words, if you put in a dvd that’s 2 hours long, you have to sit in front of your tv or puter or whatever to watch it. So it demands your total attention and time. And realistically, how many times are you gonna watch it? You can pop a cd in, and listen to it wh ile you do stuff. And listen to it over & over. Maybe I’m just old.

It seems that another trend that will sooner or later be a standard, is the 5:1 format. Have you already thought about a release in this format & do you think it will get mass recognition & change the way music is recorded/produced?
Chris: I don’t know what 5:1 format is, sorry.
Will: I’m old. I have no idea what that is.

I only have a promo-CD of the album, I don’t have the lyrics. How would you describe them?
Chris: The lyrics are of no poignant subject matter, and may be best left undescribed. They are the one element that is least serious with our band. They are about the equivalent of a tambourine or cowbell to me.
Will: Two guys yelling about stuff.

is the album title supposed to represent what Keelhaul & its members are all about?
Chris: I guess to some extent. We are here, but we don’t know how long. And we have no preconceived notions as to our purpose, longevity and direction. And neither should the listener.
Will: Pretty much. It’s kind of more about what happens to us on tour. Shit getting all fucked up all the time, the van breaking down at the most inopportune times. Getting to the club (hairy mary’s, Houston) and the club owner shrugs & says you’re supposed to play tomorrow, when your itinerary says today. Getting a call from peabody’s in Cleveland to open for MESHUGGAH. Getting another call from peabody’s saying meshuggah’s manager has to hear our stuff before we’re approved. Good god. Sending the stuff. Getting another call about the same thing. Sending more stuff. Jumping through hoops. Putting us on the bill. Getting a call 2 weeks before the show because meshuggah wants us to play last. What’s the point of that? Telling them to find somebody else. Subject to change without notice.

your photos in the hydrahead website starting page are funny. It’s really a pleasure when a band plays some seriously good music, while its members don’t take themselves too seriously. How would you describe yourselves as persons?
Will: Retards.
Chris: I think life is short, you should have a good time. You must be able to laugh at yourself in even the saddest of moments. I would leave the serious looking photos for all the Century Media bands. They need serious photos to make up for their hilarious music.

In the bio of one of your 1st releases I read that some you played in Integrity?
Will: Yes.
Chris: That would be I, Chris.

you hail from cleveland right. Has the clevo-scene influenced you? In what way?
Chris: I think that the influence I get from Cleveland is too retain as much of a sense of humor as possible, realize that you are living in a dirty working class town, deflate your ego every once in a while. The world will not be looking here for any new hip cultural phenomena. But the world might be looking here for overbearing meathead jock style burned out rehash pseudo straightedge hardcore.
Will: I don’t suppose one can help but be influenced by what he/she has crammed down his/her throat at clubs. You are what you eat. Cleveland has pumped out its share of good & great bands over the years. It’s a real sweat & blood/blue
collar type of town.

Please tell me what you think of the following cleveland bands: Integrity, In Cold Blood, One Life Crew, Run Devil Run, The Spudmonsters, Mushroomhead.
Will: Integrity: I cannot even entertain that question. I would have some truly brutal answers.
In Cold Blood: When some members of Integrity decided they wanted to have fun again.
One Life Crew: Racist, Sexist, Homophobic, Xenophobic.
The Spudmonsters: They were fun before the coup. Hey Joe, where you going with that mic in your hand?
Run Devil Run: Errr????Uuhh.
Mushroomhead: I have talked to some of them. They like confetti.
Chris: Boulder.

Are there any other musical (or artistic in general) projects of you we should be aware of?
Will: UNCLE SCRATCH’S GOSPEL REVIVAL
BOULDER
TEETH OF THE HYDRA
ABDULLAH
TERMINAL LOVERS
FISTULA
HALVA TOY BAND
KRUNKLE
SPEAKER/CRANKER
PUFFTUBE
TWISTED HAND CLAN
ZYKLUS II
GIL MANTERAS PARTY DREAM
Chris: Do you mean what else are we involved in? if so, dana
has a side project called COCOABUTTER. Aaron plays in ABDULLAH. Chris plays in the TERMINAL LOVERS. I play in CRAW and am about to record with some other guys from craw in a new project called BAT EATS PLASTIC.

I found track#11 funny, whats the deal with it & why did you put it at #11 & not #12?
Chris: That ball is in Will’s court.
Will: there is this religious zealot that lives in my neighborhood. His house is all painted with passages from the bible. And crazy prophecies, his I think. About 3 years ago he began making appearances at my house when I was fucking up my yard pretending to be productive. One day he was standing on a flower bed trying to talk us into trading him an old van of mine for some old boxes of kitty litter & ceramic tiles. I declined. I started running inside whenever I saw him coming. The resulting phone calls were pretty hilarious. I have more. it’s track 11 cuz that’s where it goes, man!

if you have something for closers, do it now, thank you.
Will: Thank you for the interview. It was nice to have spoken at you. Shall we raise a glass together in Athens? Ouzo? Jameson? Both!
Chris: Dana likes cheese. Lock up your corndogs.
EUROPEAN TOUR DIARY! (sort of) CRAW CRAW To:
willkeelhaul@hotmail.com

BURST - Interview (2004)

2009-01-16T14:08:00.014+02:00

BURST

Cadence Of Incandescence

Dynamics seem to get over the music scene for a long time now,but moreover bands and fans tend to notice them better.The focus on the dynamics and the intensity gave a prolific ground for the Swedes to create their latest opus,’Prey on Life’ on Relapse Records.Burst could even play soul,take a read...

• First of all congratulations for the new album!It’s awesome!Could you tell us if this is really the year of Burst and why did it take so long to be done?

B: Thank you for the heavy praise! It means a lot that this music actually speaks to someone other than ourselves. Every time we meet people who express the same sentiments about music that we have and that seem to understand what we are trying to do, it evokes a relieving feeling. Not everyone views our stuff the same way we intended, but when they do it is rewarding. To be understood is a fantastic feeling.
If this is the year of Burst or not I will leave for others to answer. I mean, sure, we´ve had great success with the response of the album and we´ve done some successful touring. But in the sense of becoming so fucking huge or having extreme commercial success, I couldn´t really give a shit. Success for us is more based in musical contentment. But going by that standard, this is definately the year for Burst. The music we´ve been making since Prey On Life surpasses every standard we´ve had before.

• Now that Jesper is a full time member and left from Nasum do you think that it’s time to take the power back as far as concerns the shows?

B: Umm, I´m not really sure what you mean by this, but if you mean that we will try to put a lot more effort into touring, yeah, that will be more prioritized from now on. We haven´t really cared so much about touring in the past, but since the release of Prey On Life we have tried to give our band and our music more the chance we think it deserves. Whereas the only thing that we really cared about before was creating meaningful music full of impact, the act of performance has become cathartic, cleansing and almost neccessary for us lately. Sometimes the energy when we perform is so vibrant it consumes us. During the spring and the summer we have played a lot of festivals across Europe and done some shorter tours, and in the fall we plan to do some extra weeks in Europe. Looking forward to that!

• Do you believe that Burst is a live band?Can you reflect all these emotions that exist in the album live?

B: Oh, I definately do. I mean, I wouldn´t say that we are a live band 100% and don´t really care about studio work, rather I think that 50% of what we are about is creating music and developing it in the studio environment. The thrill of seeing the albums come together and grow a life of their own is great. At the same time, a lot of the impact and energy that flows when we play live is hard to catch on tape, so in that respect I definately think we are a live band. Intensity is definitely better in a live setting. Hopefully you can judge for yourself when we come to Greece!

• Explain us how a Burst song is taking form.

B: It is a time-consuming process, let me tell you. It usually starts out with someone having a riff, cadence or a basic idea for a part. It is presented and we try to play it and just jam and improvise a bit over it. Then comes arguing, discussion and more debate, then someone might get a spontaneous idea for a continuation from the initial idea, and then we try to improvise it into a logical progression. Then we scrap it all and start again, because one of us didn´t like a part. The flow is important for us, and the arranging is always the hardest part. But then again, there´s no exact method for making music for us – it might take two days, it might take two years, and it can be done in a hundred different ways. Just to give an example of how hard it can be: it has now been two years since we recorded Prey On Life, but we haven´t been able to make more than five new songs! That will change though, since everybody is really itching to work on new material. As long as there are a lot of dynamics and different elements to our songs, we will get the albums done.

• The album is full of emotions and dynamics that hide a lot of inspirations.Can you name some of them?

B: I would go so far as to say that music overall is a metaphor for emotions or sensations. That sounds kind of lame, i know, but i mean that in the broadest sense of the word. Whether music is melodic, sad, aggressive, intense or just all out thrashy, that is just an extension of human expression. Our music isn´t any different. We might play music based in dynamic metal, but the inspirations are so much more than that. We want our music to be intense and powerful, but it is also important to incorporate other aspects of stuff that we appreciate. Broadmindedness is the key here, and if I was to say something in particular that inspires us, I would be talking about me personally only. We are five very different individuals, and although we agree on a lot of things, we disagree just as much. But as far as general inspirations…well, I guess we have a sort of common set of values and ideas about the world and what´s in it. Also, the climate up here in the north probably has some effect on us – when you have chill and darkness for half the year, it affects you.

• My favourites songs are ‘Crystal Asunder’ which has some Ved Buens Ende singing influence and ‘Monument’.What do you think of these 2 songs?

B: Crystal Asunder is the last song we made for Prey On Life, and I guess what sets that song apart from the rest of the regular songs is the clean singing. It was made kind of quickly, and we just felt we wanted to try something different on it. Funny how you compare it to Ved Buens Ende, I don´t think any of us has ever heard that band! I am a big fan of Ulver, Emperor, Arcturus and a lot of other Norwegian black metal etc, but i´ve never heard that band. Crystal is one of my favourite songs also, although tough to perform live.
Funny that you also like Monument, since it is a song that differs in style a lot from Crystal Asunder. Monument was a song that we wanted to be a bit more aggressive and crusty, and even though it has some cool harmonies, i´m not sure it is one of the better songs on the album. But blablabla. That´s cool that you like those songs, it shows that you grasp different aspects of music.

• Could you explain us the lyrics of the album as also the title ‘Prey on Life’?i think the lyrics are brilliant but they are too personal,is that true?

B: Thank you again. Being one of the two (Jonas is the other) who writes the lyrics, it is good knowing that someone appreciates them. Cause they mean a lot to me too, as most of us to an extent. However, I care not to explain the underlying meaning of my lyrics – it would spoil it for you and for me as well. If you derive something out of them, then they have meant something. I don´t want to spoil your understanding by laying shit out in front of you.

• Do you believe that a band at its first steps must pay attention to its sound?How effective is the aspect ‘sound’ for a band like Burst?

B: Developing a sound is as important as not having a sound I think. To try and create your own identity as a band is vital for it to sustain and become good, but it can also be regressive. Because when you start following rules too much – your own rules or those laid out by others – the music inevitably becomes stale and fucking boring. As far as Burst goes, well, sure we have a sound. We aren´t some holy band which does everything perfectly, we have our standards that we abide to. But there is always a will and a need to expand the sound in different ways, and we hope to do that. But Burst will always be Burst, and our band will always be surrounded by a certain mood and atmosphere, I don´t think we can change that without becoming another band.

• The artwork is done by Aaron Turner(ISIS,Old Man Gloom,Hydrahead) and it’s great.How this collaboration took shape?Maybe the fact Chrome Saint Magnus was a reason?

B: Nah, CSM didn´t have anything to do with it. We were in touch with Hydra Head at the time of In Coveting Ways about maybe working together. Aaron also expressed his interest in doing the artwork for that mcd, but for some reason that didn´t happen. When the time came for Prey On Life to be released somewhere, Hydra Head wanted to do it, but then we decided to go with Relapse instead. However , Aaron still wanted to contribute to our artwork, and so it went.

• ‘In Coveting Ways’ was released on Chrome Saint Magnus,a record company that promotes as far as i know the vinyl.How much does Burst promote the vinyl?

B: Well, we haven´t gotten around to releasing a vinyl version yet, even though we definitely plan to. We are going to talk to some labels and see if anybody wants to do it, sooner or later it´ll be out. I like vinyl versions of albums that we do, but i´m not too into vinyl myself – I was always on the CD side of the war between CD and vinyl. Throne Records in Spain will release the vinyl version of In Coveting Ways though.

• How many people that you meet everyday on live performances or anywhere do you believe that could be your friends or be useful to your life?Is friendship peculiar for Burst?

B: I don´t know, dubious question. On the one hand, I guess anybody who shows some sort of integrity and groundedness is a possible friend. But then again, you meet so many uninspiring, jaded, mindless people everywhere that it is sometimes unimaginable that you will have the strength to muster new people. But Burst are very open and welcoming to new people, we would be arrogant if we weren´t, but it isn´t always that you want people around, if you know what I mean.
If you´re wondering if friendship is “peculiar” to Burst, I am guessing that you wonder of we get along? Sure we do, but it isn´t always smooth. As I told you before, we are all different individuals in a lot of ways, and even if we are friends and agree on a lot of things, we also live in different worlds. There´s no denying that. But between you and me, I fucking love every single one of those guys, even if I want them dead a lot of the time.

• How can someone find and buy your previous releases except ‘Prey On Life’ and ‘In Coveting Ways’?

B: Well, you can get Conquest: Writhe from a bunch of mailorders and record stores, you can order them from like amazon.com and shit like that, you can check out the label www.prankrecords.com or www.mordam.com. I know it´s sold out of print a couple of times, but I think Prank are pressing it again. Oh, and www.putridfilth.com should have the LP version of C: W.
As far as the even earlier stuff goes, well, I don´t really know, and I don´t really see why you want to get your dirty hands on that crap. Check out the shitty label that we released them through, Birdnest Records. I think their mailorder (www.birdnestmailorder.se) still have Two-Faced and Shadowcaster (along with all other releases). Other than that, I think Lifeforce records still have some copies of the split 7” we did with Lash Out, and Ritual Records in Japan released a double-CD version of In Coveting Ways/Conquest: Writhe along with extra early tracks from the 7”. Phew. I haven´t listed anything as extensive like that in any interview!

• I know a show in Athens is confirmed with Sun Of Nothing in 25th of September.What do you know for this band and Greece?

B: Oh, thanks for telling me, I didn´t know what band was going to join us in Athens, and I must confess that I have never heard of Sun Of Nothing. But I checked out their web and they have an Amebix-like logo, and that´s always cool. Are they any good? Hope so, we are looking forward to the Athens gig, as well as getting a glimpse of your country. I am a closet history and architecture freak, as are some of the others, so it should be fucking cool to see some of the earliest structures in history. We´ll be spending some time checking out the city, that´s for sure. Also, having been to Greece years ago, I remember loving the vibe a lot. Very laidback. More importantly, I know from friends in other bands that greek people are fucking insane about heavy music, so playing there should be great.

• How do you feel now you are at Relapse a huge record company of our days with such great groups such as Neurosis(leaders),Mastodon,Unsane and so many others?

B: The “hugeness” of Relapse doesn´t really mean that much to us. We don´t care for big heads. The important thing for us is that they have a certain kind of musical integrity and do a decent job at promoting the records. Sometimes it can be a scurge to be with a bigger label, because the business side of it wrecks all the joy out of releasing a record. Even if Relapse has a big business apparatus, the people working there are mostly great, and they are all huge fans of the music they release.

As far as the bands who are connected to Relapse, I think that some of them are the most interesting in heavy music, for instance Mastodon and Neurosis, Nile, Unsane, etc. It is good to be with a label that doesn´t limit itself to only a specific genre or something.

• The last words are for you.Thank you for your time and your patience to my questions.Hope to see you soon.

B: Thank you too. Lux aeterna luceat eis.

Interaction by Thanos Mantas 2004

SWARM OF THE LOTUS - INTERVIEW (2004)

2009-01-16T13:49:00.007+02:00

SWARM OF THE LOTUS

His Majesty At The Swarm

Heaviness and intensity.These are the 2 words that suit for a new striking band,Swarm of the Lotus.With a production and a sound over the top the quartet from Baltimore managed to stretch the limits of heavy music a little further.Pete,their guitarist and singer,explains us how a new band can be an extremely killing machine.

• first of all congratulations for the great album!as this is the first time you
communicate with Greece tell us first how the whole thing started.
PETE: We have been a band since the Fall of 1998. We started recording "When
White Becomes Black" in February of 2002. It took until the Fall of 2003 to
release it. We are very proud of it and happy with the response it is getting.
We look forward to the future. Thank you for the kind words.

• the whole album is supported by an ultimate heavy sound and intensity.how did
you manage to create this astonishing sound?
PETE: Well, we owe the way it comes across on record to Jon Smulyan, our
recording engineer for this record. That was all him, he's the man. He has a
great ear and knows his shit. So, cheers to him.

• when white becomes black has an uncommon chemistry of sounds and
influences(you can hear from Botch to noise stuff mixed with an unexampled
way).can you name some of them.
PETE: There is a wide array of influences that we have. Botch would be one of
them for sure, I love them. I love all kinds of heavy music. Neurosis,
Mastodon, Converge, Burnt By The Sun, these are all some of my favorite heavy
bands and there are so many more too!!!!!!!!

• some songs reminded me a touch of Neurosis,Mastodon and even more sludge/doom paths such as Isis and Meatjack.do you believe that you are somewhere betweenall those or just Swarm Of The Lotus are trying to overstep the limits of heavy music?
PETE: Well, for sure we are trying our best to be doing our own thing. Trying
to be original as possible. But, you are always going to have influences. It's
just how you are inspired by those influences that makes a difference.

• i have to make a comment on the vocals and the drums.the vocals are totally
crazy and away from the classic Neurosis style(whole lotta screaming) and the
drums have a great production where someone can listen to the drum sounding likeslap!your comments?
PETE: Thank you very much. The vocals are a bit intense yes. For the next
one, I plan to do a alot of different things with them. Still as intense but
just different. The vocals on this album are just all about being raw, etc.
The drums have this larger than life sound. Jon Smulyan strikes again. I love
the drum sound he was able to come up with, but once again for the next record,
they too will be different.

• can you tell us about the lyrics?i think that SOTL lyrics are really emotional
and deep.
PETE: I try to leave the lyrics as open to personal interpretation as I can.
Try to have everybody read them and take away from them what they will. A lot
of the stuff speaks from a personal place and then a lot of it doesn't. In any
case, I try to have the lyrics really mean something, instead of just a bunch of
words thrown together.

• from the ultimate heavy music am i wrong to perdict that Swarm of the Lotus
are a live killing machine?how did the audience react when you play?
PETE: We love to kill people, hahahahahahahahahaha. We try to put on the best
show we can everytime we play but it really all depends on the crowd. Not even
the crowd size really, just the type of crowd. We totally feed off of the
energy created by the people watching us. We could go nuts for 2 people if
those 2 people were digging it, etc. Overall the reaction by all the crowds we
have played in front of has been very positive and consequently our performances
have on the whole, been pretty damn good.

• when you play live what interest you:to play heavy and loud striking the
chords clumsily or playing with great attention?
PETE: Depends. I like to do both actually. Sometimes, I concentrate super
hard on what I am playing to better articulate the song and sometimes I love
just losing my shit and have emotion take over and even if I'm not playing the
part right, it doesn't matter because the vibe is just so intense and
over-the-top.

• which is the impression of the Press for your debut?
PETE: All the press we have received has been amazing. I couldn't be happier.
I mean, some people criticize it in negative ways, but that is all well and good
and to be expected. But on the whole, most people have dug for one reason or
another and have said some really great things. I am totally blown away and
feel very fortunate. Cheers to all of you out there and thanks!!!!!!

• you have played with great bands bands such as Burnt By The Sun,Converge,Mastodon,Uphill Battle among others.do you believe that these bands as well as you are the leaders of a new international scene which is supportedby a lot of broad minded people and music that is just progressive and brutal?
PETE: I think the scene now is filled with a lot of people that are more open
to metal bands trying different things and such. Before, everybody used to be
so religious in what they would like. Like, "I can only listen to stuff that
sounds like this..." or whatever and that attitude just sucks because it limits
your tastes. You still have people like that but not as much, I really like a
lot of the heavy music that is coming out of the scene right now. Metal is
coming back in a big fucking way. Horns up baby!!

• your debut has in some songs some more post sounds that calm down the
intensity before it gets stronger.does that help your songs breathe and perform
one more cerebral air?
PETE: Yeah, we have a lot of parts like that, that break of the song, change
the dynamic a little bit, calm it down, speed it up, slow it down, whatever. We
are all about creating a "song" and not just parts thrown together or songs that
have to be 100% crushing the entire time. We like to throw a lot of different
emotion into a song and have it rise and fall, build and collapse, etc.

• explain us how a Swarm of the Lotus song is taking form.
PETE: Usually somebody will write a song and bring it to practice and we work
on the drums first then bring the other pieces of the band into the song one by
one. The vocals are always the last thing to come into play.

• i read these days at the internet that you are having extended tours andshows.how much do you believe that live can help you become bigger and stronger?
PETE: Live is where it's at baby. You can only get bigger and stronger by
playing out live as much as possible. And we have made that our goal. To tour
the world as much as possible. We just did a 6 week tour this past spring. We
are doing another 4 week tour this fall(Oct 1-Oct 30). After that we plan to
record the next album and then tour again. We plan on hitting Europe next year
in the Fall, so stay tuned and watch out fuckers!!!!!!!!!!! Here we
come!!!!!!!!!!

• is there an offering from a big label to release your next step?how are things
with at a loss records?
PETE: There are some negotiations going on right now with a different label.
I'm not at liberty to officially announce anything yet, but it's all very
exciting. Everything with At A Loss Records has been amazing, I love Josh, he
is a friend and a great supporter of music. He treats all his bands great and
works hard for them. I feel fortunate to be working with him.

• the last words are for you.we await to see you live so fucking soon!
PETE: Check out the website: www.swarmofthelotus.com for all news, live
dates, etc!!!!! and pick up our 7" Record featuring 3 exclusive tracks from
Reptilian Records, out now!!!!!! www.reptilianrecords.com!!!!! Stay
metal!!!!!!!!!!!!

www.myspace.com/swarmofthelotus

Interaction by Thanos Mantas 2004

THE END INTERVIEW (2004)

2009-01-16T13:37:00.001+02:00

THE END

The End Complete

Heavy musical aggression.Discordant rhythms and riffs.Emotions and passion from within.Unique technique and fast forward thinking.How can a band draw all these elements to the canvas of the heavy music?Andrew Hercules (Guitar) explains us the way...

• The new album is brilliant.How did it come so aggressive?
I think that’s just our style,in reference to our first album i think the arrangement style was harder hitting and you can feel it.We wanted a more together feel for this album and part of that was coming together with all instruments to really drive some of the finer intricacies in the music home.I think that focus directly translates into ‘in your face’ rock ‘n’ roll.

• Your previous effort was shocking.Although its little duration as an album one could see that this band had a lot to give.Your comments.
Excuse the cliche but it’s quality versus quantity ,a lot of bands put music on the album just for the sake of having another song or more playing time for the industry,we never think like that,we want everything on our albums to be well thought out and quality.If you want filler there’s a million other bands for music fans to listen to.

• How much did shows help The End from their start?Is The End a live band?
Shows are everything.The album is really just a 2-dimensional snapshot of what our band really is.I think you learn the most from bands when watching them live.That is our strongest element as a band,i believe that to be true for any really good band.

• How can you remember all these riffs and moderation changes?
A song is a song and either you know the way it goes or you don’t.It’s not hard to remember.For instance if your name was 30 letters long instead of 6 would you have any problem remembering it?I doubt it.Our songs are the same way.We’de be complete idiots if they weren’t.As for the writing process ,i’ll just say that it takes time and high standards and expectations.

• How difficult is for The End to record material?
Not any more difficult than any other band.There our songs and we know how to play’em so it’s not that difficult for us,but we work with talented producers as well and making sure the tones are captured as we want is the challenge.Playing the songs is the easy part of us,knowing the studio and being able to use it to its fullest in a very finite amount of time is quite difficult.

• Do you really write so distinct music or it’s just the fact that you are Canadians so it’s justified?(Just joking!)
Canada is certainly unique,just look at the map!!!We also have some of the finest acts in the brutal music business.We love being Canadian and we are products of enviroment like everyone else.It feels amazing to add to the reputation of the Canadian extreme.

• What happened to Tyler the previous singer?He was more close to the Minakakis school of voice but Aaron is also brilliant.
Tyler was one of those people that needs to do his own thing.The End is five people coming together to make a new whole.Tyler didn’t exactly fit in to that,so although we got along great and he was a talented singer it couldn’t last.He has a different musical project now.Aaron on the other hand completes the unit and the balance which is really important in a creative work enviroment:Balance.Figure it out.

• How much do you get ratty when the others compare you to the Dillinger Escape Plan?
When someone makes that comparison we think one of two things:Either Dillinger is either the only newer style heavy music band they have ever heard.Or that they haven’t really listened to us at all.Put the albums side by side and show me the similarities ,yes we both have guitar and drums and distortion,but the rhuthms and the riffs are totally different ,but to the untrained ear who knows what we sound like.

• Your inspirations start from King Crimson and end with Atheist and more progressive stuff.Do you agree with that version?
Definitely we have an infinite amount of respect for those bands that pushed themselves playing and writing and ultimately created something different and new something unique.It is that kind of passion that we definitely draw form in our band and in our lives.

• What happened to all these groups that play this schizophrenic jazzy hardcore?Is there a competition for who is playing faster and better or is it something that comes from within?
I think a lot of musicians are bored with the standard song.The verse chorus verse.The typical solo.For aspiring players there is a lot that can be done within that style.I don’t think most of the bands are trying to fit to the mould necessarily ,but they are discovering different aspects of their instruments and abilities call it jazzy hardcore.I call it aggressive musical passion.

• The packaging for ‘Within Dividia’ is superb.Which idea was all of this?
The Dividia lived and died,we only tried to recreate as much of their world as possible.All creative edit goes to the Dividia who perished in flames and relative obscurity for being misunderstood.

• Do lyrics mean a lot for you although more of thesemusic fans take notice to music first?Is there a pity for the band or do you care more for the music?
The music and lyrics are one in the same to us.And so we have the same standards for both good music good ideas.

• Do groups such as Deadguy,Kiss It Goodbye and Cynic reflect you as a group?
A ll the bands you have mentioned have left huge impressions on the heavy music underground and looking at the bands they have influenced it’s almost impossible to say that we don’t have elements of those bands encoded within our music ,but i think people look so often at the ‘obvious’ influences that they fail to see where bands like Nirvana,Godspeed You!Black Emperor,Shotmaker and whole lot of other bands need to be added to our personal list.

• Describe us the greatest The End incident so far.
Last night we were driving 16 hours home from Thunder Boy Ontario and we got pulled over for having almost no working lights and for speeding somehow we didn’t get a ticket for either.Then the cop told us to watch out for ‘moose and shit’ and to ‘crank the tunes’.That’s pretty great as far as i am concerned.

• Would you come to Greece for a show?
We are planning too in November so check the Relapse records site for tour updates and start training physically and mentally.

Interrogation by Thanos Mantas

Photo Credit: W.Gosselin

2004

INSISION - Odor Of Sanctity (2004)

2009-01-16T01:21:00.001+02:00

INSISION - Odor Of Sanctity

by Panos Agoros

I love 10”EP’s. The one between INSISION & INVERACITY on almighty Nuclear Winter Rek is one of my faves. The swedes hooked me up immediately (and you can read in the review sektion what I think about INVE). As a matter of fact I believe they’re one of the best things the modern brutal deathmetal scene has to offer. After the chaotik debut “Beneath The Folds Of Flesh”, “Revealed And Worshipped” hammers the nail even further and oh boy does this feel good. This interrogation with vokiller & satanik wordmaster Carl Birath has been initially conducted in Sept.’04 for a Metal Hammer GR feature. This is the uncut/untranslated version.

your new album is more technical than “beneath”. What motivated you to go to that direction?

Carl: first up the songs on R&W are made all together and are all songs made within the same time-span. BTFOF was partly older material mixed with new but main reason for getting more technical is the obvious fact of progression in a band. We found new ways of dealing with the music and this was the outcome.

in what other terms would you say that you have evolved since “Beneath”?

Carl: Well as ‘beneath…’ was mainly old material put together I can say that lyric-wise I have been able to work more with a red line running through the lyrics. We have also grown as persons all of us, been through some tough times but always seemed to walk through it flawless but with some scars to strengthen you.

Is there any lyrical concept for the new album? What is “Ideas Of Revolution” talking about?

Carl:
It’s from a vision I had.
It inspired me to write the pretexts and the lyrics.
Its mainly in the eye of the beholder man…
what do you think its about?

how come that track#4 has only spoken word & some ambient soundscapes? Don’t you think it breaks a little bit the pace of the record?

Carl:
It’s a breather…to catch your breath also it works as a ‘breaker’ and brakes of the album for a few minutes.
It was mainly an idea that came into my mind when recording the album; still I have had these kinds of ideas before. The Words in that track are a compilation of all the pree- texts on the album…. So its in symbioses with the whole feel of the album I guess.
When you read the lyrics of the whole album you will find out.

why has thomas daun left the band? is Marcus Jonsson your new permanent drummer? Who replaced Toob Brynedal on tour & is he doing better?

Carl: Thomas left the band because he lack of dedication to the band. Ha has been playing in some other band that plays some ‘pop-rock-glam’ music and decided to do that instead. For us it was more of a relief really as he had been holding us back for the last year making it hard to rehearse & create new songs etc. so his decision for leaving was very much a mutual decision indeed. I’m not back stabbing him in anyway, he was a good drummer and a cool friend and still is and we are not in any way enemies but insision did not fall just because of him leaving. He has been on his way from the band for a long time now and didn’t contribute much in the end. If your not part of the plan your just luggage so to speak.
Marcus is our new drummer for the moment, but as it looks right now he works very well in the band not only music wise but also on a personal level. Easy to work with, laidback and into this kind of music. Generally he is much Faster and more technical then Thomas, so in fact he is better, which is just splendid and he is also a fast learner. The first thing we are going to do when back home is to start rehearsing new songs that fits his kind of drumming. At this point we have to hold him back from getting all ‘speed-crazy’ on us. None replaced Toob, we just went with Roger instead and it worked out Ok I think, of course you are missing one guitar but its still insision allright.
toob is doing Allright but will not be coming back with us.
… after his drop out of the tour and his interest in the the other band that Thomas is in he had to go as well… We are at this very moment looking for a replacement. Had some hooks out and are at this point going trough which ones to take for a test round. We are in no worries at all…

how was the tour with suffocation? I saw them in the furyfest, they were incredible I guess they were as good in the rest of the shows? In which order did you play with the other support bands & did you like them?

Carl: We did it by Schedule , changing every night. I know from start Insision was supposed to be main Support I don’t know why it fell through but it worked out good anyway I mean everyone got a fair chance to play main support and we had a blast.
The other bands where Disgorge (usa) and Dementor (slovakia) And they where all great guys and we had no problem whatsoever We where riding the same bus as Disgorge and Dementor where having there own Van to travel in so of course we got closer To Disgorge but in the end all was good and we all enjoyed hanging out together.
Suffocation was awesome every night I promise you, bringing their own sound engineer they kicked ass every show on the whole tour. They are also very pleasant and cool to hang out with, all different characters for sure.
If we get a chance we’d be more then glad doing some more shows with them…

Why did you chose to produce the album w/ Mieszko Talarczyk @ Soundlab? What kind of experience was recording with him?

Carl: We decided to Do sound Lab because we head so much good about it and also that Mr Mieszko was a good producer, but also we where willing to try something new. The experience was awesome. Me , Roger and Toob where there all the time and ever worked the nightshift with parts of the solos and vocals Thomas only joined for the drums and Daniel stepped in to do the bass.

It worked very smoothly Mieszko is easy to work with and have lots of good ideas on how to put stuff down to make it good. All in all we had a very good experience and we are actually thinking of returning to Sound lab if possible in the future.

I saw in the studios session gallery a photo in front of an analogue mastering device. Was the mastering done analogically?

Carl: We had an idea of using the Analogue mastering device just to make it sound a bit thicker and less digital and I guess it worked. We transferred the digital down on the Analogue tape recorder and then turned everything around and did it the other way back from analogue to Digital. It compressed the sound a bit and cut of some of the higher peaks and flattened the sound. It was all Mieszkos idea and we liked the outcome of it. The Mastering was made all digital this Analogue thing was just a small part of the process.

how are you doing with wicked world/earache?

carl: We are doing Good. At this time we got full Promotion from them, which is great. I mean if you wanna make some thing out of a record you’d better let ppl know about it, right… !? And w/ this suffocation tour, new record, new Video and new T-shirts coming up we are a 100% promoted which is good. Lots of ppl get to get the insision-experience!

any other swedish deathmetal you’d recommend our readers to check out?

carl : well except for the regular ass kicking bunch, VISCERAL BLEEDING, GOD HATE, SPAWN OF POSSESSION, KAAMOS and IMMERSED IN BLOOD among others we got IMPERIOUS and also you got SEPTIC BREED as newcomers, well worth checking out! (youll find a bunch of cool links at www.insision.com)
Shit man I mean there are a hell of a lot of good brutal stuff coming out of brewing here in Sweden at this point I cant mention all…

did you had the chance to listen to Inveracity’s debut fulllength album & how did you like it?

Carl: Ahhh What the fuck?! I haven’t heard about this? I wanna get my self a copy… No I haven’t heard it so I can’t comment on it… is it any good?

what are your projects for the near future? Any US touring plans?

carl: At this point, now when back home in Sweden after the European tour with the mighty Suffocation we are about to do some smaller gigs and in between we are about to start work on new material… 2 years are a long time to not release something and we are sure not gonna waste any time this time around.
With Marcus behind the drums we can work with some more viscous and more brutal stuff and that is what we are planning at this point… To keep the train rolling. Death metal in absurdum.

words of the end?

Carl: Well, To all you crazy death heads out there and fans of this music and scene remember without you there is no fucking scene at all..
Keep the bloody flag of Death metal high.
Be sure to check out our latest album revealed and worshipped. Feel free to visit the web page http://www.insision.com for more stuff on insision.
Keep it brutal and twisted
Rex Mundi regare
Over and out
/Carl Birath / INSISION 2004