______________ _____ ______ __ ____/__ /________________________(_)________ /____________ _ / __ __ \_ ___/ __ \_ __ \_ /_ ___/_ /_ _ \_ ___/ / /___ _ / / / / / /_/ / / / / / / /__ _ / / __/(__ ) \____/ /_/ /_//_/ \____//_/ /_//_/ \___/ /_/ \___//____/ ________ ______________ _________ __/ __ ____/__ /_______ ______________ _ __ \_ /_ _ / __ __ \ __ `/ __ \_ ___/ / /_/ / __/ / /___ _ / / / /_/ // /_/ /(__ ) \____//_/ \____/ /_/ /_/\__,_/ \____//____/ THE NEW YEAR'S EVIL EDITION III CHRONICLES OF CHAOS e-Zine, January 16, 1999, Issue #36 http://www.interlog.com/~ginof/coc.html Editor-in-Chief: Gino Filicetti Coordinator: Adrian Bromley Contributor/Copy Editor: Pedro Azevedo Contributor/Asst. Copy Editor: Paul Schwarz Assistant Copy Editor: John Weathers Contributor: Alain M. Gaudrault Contributor: Brian Meloon Contributor: Adam Wasylyk Contributor: Aaron McKay Contributor: David Rocher Contributor: Gabriel Sanchez Contributor: Alex Cantwell Mailing List provided by: The University of Colorado at Boulder NOTE: For more Chronicles of Chaos information, check out the 'Details' section at the end of this issue. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Issue #36 Contents, 1/16/99 --------------------------- * Editorial * Loud Letters * Deadly Dialogues -- Bolt Thrower: Mercenaries; Battling for Victory -- Enslaved: A Viking Vengeance, in Blood -- The Gathering: A Gathering in Perpetual Motion -- A Canorous Quintet: Liber Legis Metalli -- Tristania: Flowing Midwintertears -- Siebenburgen: Swedish Vampire Tales -- Dying Fetus: Nothing but Absolute Defiance -- Grip Inc.: Gripping With Style -- Crack Up: Keeping it Sane -- Children of Bodom: Wild Child -- Drown: Misfits of the Mainstream * Independent Interrogations -- Abigail: A Different Shade of Sonnet * Album Asylum -- Adramelech - _Seven_ -- Agathodaimon - _Blacken the Angel_ -- Anasarca - _Godmachine_ -- Benumb - _Soul of the Martyr_ -- Bethlehem - _Sardonischer Untergang in Zeichen irreligioser Darbietung_ -- Black Spiral - _Defeat_ -- Black Sabbath - _Reunion_ -- Borknagar - _The Archaic Course_ -- Bride of the Atom - _Web of Spider_ -- Burn it Down - _Eat Sleep Mate Defend_ -- Carnal Forge - _Who's Gonna Burn_ -- Conquest - _Rage_ -- Daemonarch - _Hermeticum_ -- Dargaard - _Eternity Rites_ -- Devin Townsend - _Infinity_ -- Diabolical Masquerade - _Nightwork_ -- Dio - _Inferno: Last in Live_ -- Dissecting Table - _Life_ -- Driller Killer - _Reality Bites_ -- Drown - _Product of a Two-Faced World_ -- Epoch of Unlight - _What Will Be Has Been_ -- Various - _Feuersturm Vol. II: The Ultimate Storm_ -- Frank's Enemy - _Illumination_ -- Various - _From Kaamos to Midnight Sun_ -- God Dethroned - _The Grand Grimoire_ -- Gore Beyond Necropsy - _Noise-A-Go Go!!!_ -- Gothic - _Prelude to Killing_ -- Grievance - _Grievance_ -- Hate Theory - _Your Dead Reflection_ -- Himminbjorg - _Where Ravens Fly_ -- Humectant Interruption / MO*TE - _Rest Stop Entrapment_ -- Impious - _Evilized_ -- Japanese Torture Comedy Hour / MSBR - _Split_ -- Judas Priest - _'98 Live Meltdown_ -- Jungle Rot - _Slaughter the Weak_ -- Limbonic Art - _Epitome of Illusions_ -- Macronympha - _Then And Now_ -- Magic Wave - _Magic Wave_ -- Master - _Faith Is in Season_ -- Merzbow - _Tauromachine_ -- Meshuggah - _Chaosphere_ -- M-Squad - _M-Squad_ -- Odhinn - _The North Brigade_ -- Ophthalamia - _Dominion_ -- Oxiplegatz - _Sidereal Journey_ -- Plan E - _Songs for a Rainy Day_ -- Riger - _Der Wanderer_ -- Ritual Carnage - _The Highest Law_ -- Various - _Roadkill_ -- Run Devil Run - _The Killing Civilization_ -- Runemagick - _The Supreme Force of Eternity_ -- Scepter - _I'm Going to Hell_ -- Scholomance - _A Treatise on Love_ -- Seth - _Les Blessures de l'Ame_ -- 16 - _Scott Case_ -- Skin Crime - _Collection_ -- Skinlab - _Eyesore_ -- Solstice - _New Dark Age_ -- Soulquake System - _A Firm Statement_ -- Stampin' Ground - _An Expression of Repressed Violence_ -- The Crown - _Hell Is Here_ -- The Gathering - _How to Measure a Planet?_ -- The Great Kat - _Bloody Vivaldi_ -- The Sins of thy Beloved - _Lake of Sorrow_ -- Urgehal - _Massive Terrestrial Strike_ -- Vader - _Live in Japan_ -- Visionaire - _Mystical Dominion_ -- Various - _Wardance_ -- Withered Earth - _Forgotten Sunrise_ -- World Against World - _When the Day Breaks and the Shadows Flee Away_ -- Yattering - _Human's Pain_ * New Noise -- Abjathar - _Nothing Undamaged_ -- Brutal Insanity - _Greatest Clubbing Anthems_ -- Detrimental - _Incomplete_ -- Grot - _Sweet Sick-Teen_ -- Infestation - _Curse of Creation_ -- Malintent - _Part 1_ -- Sanctificica - _In the Bleak Midwinter_ -- Undertakers - _Advance Tape 1998_ * Chaotic Concerts -- Facing the Slayers, Down in the Grave: Slayer, Sepultura and System of a Down -- Dying Under the Hammer: Death and HammerFall -- The Smell of Napalm in the Dark: Cradle of Filth, Napalm Death and Borknagar -- Evil to None: Firstborn Evil and Withering * What We Have Cranked, Top 10 of 1998 * Details =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= _____) / /) , , /) )__ _(/ _/_ _____ _ // / (_(__(_(__(_)/ (__(_(_(_(/_ (_____) by: Gino Filicetti Greeting loyal CoC readers. Without further ado I present to you CoC #36, our third New Year's Evil Edition. This issue is approximately 16 days late, I apologize for not being able to get it out on New Year's day as I've done in the past. As you can imagine, the circumstances were beyond the control of anyone. I know it's hard having to wait for new issues of CoC when they do not come out monthly, but I'm sure most of you understand when I say that we try out best to stick with our deadlines. Hopefully the sheer size and massiveness of this issue will offset any jonesing that you're experiencing right now. This mother lode of an issue is our biggest by far, weighing in at a hefty 294k, it beats our previous "big boy" (CoC #33) by 32k! We've got 12 interviews, 70 album reviews, 8 demo reviews and 4 concert reviews that are sure to keep you busy for many weeks to come. This issue also sees the promotion of four of our part-time CoC writers to full-time status. You've seen their writing in the past, and will see their writing for many issues to come; help me as I welcome Aaron, David, Alex and Gabriel to the CoC fold. That's about it from me, keep those Loud Letters coming and enjoy the issue; but do yourself a favour and spread out the reading over a few sittings, we wouldn't want your ass to get cramped! ;-) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Correction ~~~~~~~~~~ Last issue, in my Malevolent Creation story, I said System Shock was a division of Koch International; it is actually a division of Impact Records. Koch International in fact do distro for Impact. -- Paul Schwarz =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= M""MMMMMMMM dP M MMMMMMMM 88 M MMMMMMMM .d8888b. dP dP .d888b88 M MMMMMMMM 88' `88 88 88 88' `88 M MMMMMMMM 88. .88 88. .88 88. .88 M M `88888P' `88888P' `88888P8 MMMMMMMMMMM M""MMMMMMMM dP dP M MMMMMMMM 88 88 M MMMMMMMM .d8888b. d8888P d8888P .d8888b. 88d888b. .d8888b. M MMMMMMMM 88ooood8 88 88 88ooood8 88' `88 Y8ooooo. M MMMMMMMM 88. ... 88 88 88. ... 88 88 M M `88888P' dP dP `88888P' dP `88888P' MMMMMMMMMMM This is the column where we print those lovely letters our readers decide so graciously to write us. Whether they be positive, negative, ignorant or just plain spelled wrong, you can rest assured that they'll be here in their original form. If you'd like to see your own letter here, e-mail it to and enter 'Attention Loud Letters' in the subject field. Hopefully all letters received will be featured in upcoming issues of Chronicles of Chaos. Date: Sun, 18 Oct 1998 05:03:35 PDT From: marius Frunza Subject: i'm a black metal fan Hi there I'm one of your readers and I belive that you are doing a fucking good work specially in black 'nd death metal parts. My personal opinion is that the black metal scene is poluted by some bands of arse holes which play something like a deeper kind of shit. Their music is no sense 'cause there is no ideea, no philosophy only pure fucking noise (which sometimes is good). For example the Swedish bands like Marduk or Dark Funeral are the abhorence of stupidity. Marduk is the name of an ancient oriental god who represents the order in the univers and does not have any connection with satanism or the anti-christian war( see their first album "Fuck me Jesus"). Many titles of the tracks are in roumanian (same case for Dark Funeral) and this is a profanation for this language. In fact the Marduk lyrics are about Vlad Dracul and represents another aberation of those imbecils. There are other bands like Dimmu Borgir, Covenant or Cradle of Filfth which are playing an imitation of black metal and it doesn't sound like it should . This is black metal made for selling albums and doesn't represent the true spirit of this style. If you listen the first Dimmu Borgir releases and their last albums you will see a great difference; now their sound is more comercial, more shit like. The ideea of black metal played by Burzum, Darkthrone or Mayhem is dead. Contact me at m_frunza@hotmail.com Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1998 00:23:53 PST From: marius Frunza Subject: Attention loud letter! Hi, I'm one of the Coc readers and I'm very impressed by this paper. I listen a lot of black metal and I belive that the Coc team make a good propaganda for this kind of music. Thanks guys for writing good things about God, Interitus Dei, Gothic and other roumanian bands but I think you don't estimate very well that Ghotic stuff. If you will listen more carefully you'll give them 9 in stead of 6. Happy new year Coc! Date: Sun, 25 Oct 1998 11:31:09 -0800 From: Tate Bengtson Subject: Attention Loud Letters Hello CoC#34 was your best yet - Death, Sepultura, Bruce Dickinson - I read it from start to finish in one sitting. I especially like CoC's willingness to ignore genre boundaries and cover albums like Lycia's Estrella, which falls outside of the realm of metal, but is still a great release. While the focus still is (and always should be) metal, covering bands and albums from outside of that particular genre gives CoC a unique perspective that I very much enjoy. Anyways, I just wanted to let your readers know that I have created an ezine list for my zine, Chaotic Critiques. All of the text from the printed version of Chaotic Critiques will be released via email, beginning with the just-released tenth issue. The tenth issue features interviews with Suffocation, Index, Luxt, Kismet, label features on The End Records and Slipdisc Records, a black metal column, a prog rock / metal column, fanzine reviews, a label directory, an industrial / gothic feature, and tons of album reviews. To subscribe to the Chaotic Critiques ezine, go to: http://www.onelist.com/subscribe.cgi/ChaoticCritiques Thanks!!! Tate Bengtson, editor Chaotic Critiques zine (printed, www, ezine) http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Palms/6031/index.html Date: Fri, 30 Oct 1998 17:01:29 -0800 From: Darrin McDonel Subject: Kataklysm Gino, First of all, I would like to compliment you on the tremendous job you do with Chronicles Of Chaos. My only complaint with the last issue concerns the Kataklysm review. The reviewer, Paul Schwartz, is an admitted non-fan of the group, and therefore, should not have been given this task. I eagerly awaited this review to see whether or not I should purchase their latest effort, only to be denied the crucial information I needed. Schwartz inexplicably failed to mention the change of vocalists within the group. To me, the band revolved around the talents of Sylvain Houde and his unique lyrics and vocals. I don't know if you are in the habit of answering your readers personal inquiries, but if you would do me the favor of explaining how Maurizio's vocals fit in with the overall Kataklysm sound, I would very much appreciate it. Also, can you please tell me if Sylvain Houde has joined another group or if he has left the music scene entirely. Thank you for your time. Darrin McDonel dethmtld@rosenet.net =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= __ \ | | | | _ \ _` | _` | | | | | | __/ ( | ( | | | | ____/ \___|\__,_|\__,_|_|\__, | ____/ __ \ _) | | | | _` | | _ \ _` | | | _ \ __| | | | ( | | ( | ( | | | __/\__ \ ____/ _|\__,_|_|\___/ \__, |\__,_|\___|____/ |___/ M E R C E N A R I E S ; B A T T L I N G F O R V I C T O R Y ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CoC chats with Gavin Ward of Bolt Thrower by: Paul Schwarz Bolt Thrower can be compared to a tank both musically and in the way they approach their longterm career. The band roll straight over anything which might try to stand in their way or change them, be it labels, trends or line-up difficulties. They also launch high explosive shells at the ears of listeners worldwide in the form of their always bludgeoning albums. I have to be honest, their latest strike, and first in four years, in the form of _Mercenary_ (on Metal Blade) did not blow me away the way _Realm of Chaos_ or _... For Victory_ did, but it is still unmistakably Bolt Thrower and should certainly silence those who considered the band a confirmed kill. I dredged up the past, discussed the present and contemplated the future with guitarist Gavin Ward. Enter the realm of chaos, survey the conversational carnage that transpired. CoC: Do you see _Mercenary_ as the pinnacle of your career or as one more step on the ladder? Gavin Ward: One more step on the ladder. Pinnacle? Who knows? You could say _Warmaster_ was. Probably a lot of people have . I obviously do like it, but it is a new album and the material is newer to us, whereas some of the old songs we may have played six or seven hundred times. I don't really see it album to album, I see it in songs. CoC: I'd say there isn't a huge progression of Bolt Thrower... GW: Thank you. We take that as a complement. CoC: We (the fans) think of a new Bolt Thrower album coming out, nobody's gonna think the album will be the innovation of the year, but it could be a really great album. You've certainly changed your style to some degree since _Realm of Chaos_, though. The way you tune your strings and the manner in which you play. I'd say the approach on _Warmaster_ and _Mercenary_ particularly is slightly less fast, it's got a lot less blast beats, especially on this new album. GW: Yup yup. CoC: A lot more double bass drums. I am wondering whether that was intentional or just chance? GW: Just chance. There's no set format, and looking for it is stupid. We just go along with what sounds good to us. But we are also a live band. So it's the culmination of all the songs from the different albums. Some _Mercenary_ will be played with _... For Victory_, _The Fourth Crusade_ and everything else. CoC: An example though, if you take "Eternal War" from _Realms of Chaos_, you've got a lot more blastbeats and a lot more of the grindcore rhythm. _Warmaster_ onwards has far more normal song structures. Not that they're necessarily less extreme, but I think _RoC_ has a much more "grindcore" feel to it. I wonder whether you tried to move away from the "grindcore" tag? GW: We've had a lot of tags. "War metal", "death metal", "grindcore", "hardcore". From the start, it's been about heavy music. The label really didn't matter. Some label's going to push you down some track; Earache, for instance, as death metal 'cause that's the way they think we're coming in, with Morbid Angel and everything else. It's just a sort of product placement. CoC: You also used to have your "working relationship" with the Games Workshop (makers of tabletop battle games)? GW: We did, 'cause we used the artwork on the _RoC_ cover. CoC: There was this sort of massive association, though. 'Cause back in 1990/91, I was into miniature gaming, I wasn't even into metal, but your name (Bolt Thrower) kept coming up. GW: I think Games Workshop did a survey on who bought their products and it worked out as metal kids, 14 to 17 year olds. Originally they approached us to record and do everything. GW were going to start their own label, they wanted ours as the first album, they were going to do the artwork and everything. Then Earache approached them. So we got the combination and we thought we'd use all the imagery and graphics from GW, but obviously Earache as a record label. I'm sure Games Workshop, going in for the first time, would have gone under doing that. CoC: Would you go into a cooperative deal like that again? GW: No, people like that want a lot more control. If you look at them against Earache, Earache were a small label, GW were a multi-million dollar company. There was too much restriction on the artwork. You're paying every time for a license -- it cost us fuckin' shitloads, the _RoC_ cover, about seven grand in the end. I was happy to pay it 'cause I liked it, but it's still fuckin' seven grand. CoC: Your artwork's altered a bit. The first three covers are cartoonistic, battlehardened war pictures. Whereas on _The Fourth Crusade_ you used.... GW: A Delacroix painting. CoC: The entry of the Turks into Constantinople [fall of the Holy Roman empire, end of the Roman army]. Then _...FV_, has a photograph and now _Mercenary_ has a picture, though of a different sort. Why did you chose this cover for _Mercenary_ and, in general, do you have a particular idea for your artwork? GW: We've got a particular idea but it would be too expected to do _RoC_ again. Everyone sees that as the best cover that we ever had. So it would have been easy to have your gatefold, Games Workshop style and stuff like that. So on _...FV_ we made sure there was nothing like that. CoC: I personally like that cover, in some ways it is better to me because it is more reflective -- more clever. GW: True, true enough. For us it was sort of "art war", nice sunsets, it's something you wouldn't have as a cover. A lot of people didn't like it, but that doesn't really concern us. At the end of the day, when it goes in your CD player, the cover is a piece of paper. Looking for something is the killer. We commissioned four artists for the _Mercenary_ cover. One was a _RoC_ special . The next one, the artist was going down some path on his own. We gave him a load of ideas and he just changed 'em around, so we thought "fuck that". Then eventually we approached this artist who is an actual war artist. He'd done work for the military. The _Mercenary_ picture is what's called a photolithograph, it's like a painted photo. I quite liked the idea -- it's fuckin' rough, it's rough and bleak, and I like that. CoC: The cover and title of the album reflects the lyrics, it's a "Mercenary; Behind Enemy Lines" (both songs on _Mercenary_). Have you done any sort of concept on mercenaries with _Mercenary_? GW: Some bits are probably sort of linked together, but not all of it, they never usually are. Not full concept albums. You could say _RoC_ was meant to be, but it wasn't. We sort of gave GW lyrics that we were happy with, not that they wanted particularly. Games Workshop actually wrote some for us. We didn't use any of 'em, 'cause they were fuckin' totally ridiculous. CoC: The Carcass of war lyrics? GW: Exactly, exactly. CoC: Loads of crazy long words? GW: Exactly, that is spot on! CoC: Well yeah, 'cause that's exactly what the Games Workshop are like, if you read their rulebooks. GW: It was just like that, they were actually embarrassingly funny -- they rhymed. CoC: Oh wow. All poetry has to rhyme, of course. [Sarcasm.] GW: And in that sort of sense, I think they were going a bit past the line, they'd stepped over it a bit too much themselves. CoC: What is the song "Powder Burns" (on _Mercenary_) about? GW: Drug enhancement. It came from a story of the Congo, obviously the mercenaries out there were fighting against tribespeople called the Simbas. Well, they were still very tribal with witchdoctors and stuff. There was strain of Shiva they used to take, which means you can carry on killing even after you've been killed, for about two or three minutes. The story sort of came around that for "Powder Burns". CoC: The band's line-up changed over the last couple of years, which ended up with Karl Willets [long-time BT singer] back, and now he's left again. GW: Well, we brought Karl in to do the album, we talked about touring -- for us, what we've been looking to do for so many years, is to seal a line-up. We tried it with Martin [Van Drunen, ex-Asphyx vocalist] and it didn't work out. What we've been trying to do is stay as one line-up, but we just don't get the dedication out of the new players. They haven't done enough for Bolt Thrower and if they're a bit half arsed, you're lookin' at them like, "you cunt, I'm livin' for this and you're half arsed." It gets embarrassing when your fans are more dedicated than your band. That's an embarrassing situation to be in, so we usually have to purge. We don't really like the idea, 'cause we're not arseholes who do that kinda shit, but if someone is slackin', they're slackin'. It is important to stay pure and the people you get in probably aren't massive Bolt Thrower fans. CoC: But Karl, of course, has been in the band quite a while. GW: Yeah, and it wasn't forced, either. It was totally natural 'cause it just felt like old times. We had a good time in there, easy. CoC: Is your replacement Dave Ingram from Benediction? GW: Yes, of course. CoC: Is Dave staying with the band? GW: He's joined. CoC: Do you think Karl will go to Benediction and we'll have a Napalm Death / ENT for 1998? GW: No, I don't think so. Who knows, though? CoC: So, why Dave? GW: Well, we played a gig with Dave after we kicked Martin out and Dave fitted like a glove, personality-wise and on stage. He just seemed like he'd been in BT for years. It wasn't forced, that's what I liked about it, it was quite natural and he's obviously really up for it. We also rate his vocal style. We wanted to keep it, sort of extreme vocals, that's originally why we got Martin in. It would have been so simple for the band, after Karl left [originally], to put a singer in. Make no mistake, that would have been the obvious thing: put a singer in, still quite heavy music, try and go more commercial; but it is something we just didn't want. CoC: _Mercenary_ has a different producer [Ewan Davies]; Colin Richardson produced _Warmaster_, _... For Victory_... GW: And _The Fourth Crusade_ and _Realm of Chaos_. CoC: So, did you move away from him 'cause you weren't happy with his previous work or was the change for variety's sake? GW: We actually asked him, and I don't think he wanted to do it. Plus, then we heard what the price was gonna be, and he was fuckin' dreaming. CoC: 'Cause he's done all the Fear Factory, etc. albums now. GW: Unfortunately that's what he was looking for, he's got his own agent who was taking a percentage and his wife was managing him and he was looking for the high life. On _...FV_, though, we almost recorded without him. Basically, when we did _...FV_, at the end of the session I looked over to see his face and he was fuckin' relieved. Not happy, he was fuckin' relieved. In the past, even though he's produced, we count him as an adviser. He don't get no say, 'cause the band are sitting in there going "fuckin' no way". On _FC_ we tried him, we actually were interested in how he would produce us if we left him to do it. We left him with one song and when we came back we were fuckin' crying with laughter at how shit it was. This one, it worked out. He wanted 10,000 pounds (US$ 16,000). He ain't that good. CoC: I have no idea of production costs... GW: No, nor have I, but he ain't that good! He might be five thousand, he might be six, but he certainly is not ten. With this studio we went in, Lincoln, Ewan works with him. So we had an idea of what he did. But really, _Mercenary_, Bolt Thrower produced with Ewan advising and engineering. It is something we wanted to get more hands on. CoC: So in the future would you like to found your own studio and produce your albums yourself? GW: Nah, we have thought about it in the past just like we thought about our own record label, but because we do the merchandising, the tours and the management, just trying to join more in is going to turn it into a fuckin' nightmare and I think you're not gonna concentrate on the band as much because you're gonna be more a business part of it, and I don't like that idea. You still wanna be a band and play music, but unfortunately some of the other stuff just comes with it. CoC: What are your plans for touring? GW: January will be Europe, then probably America. We also wanna do some countries we haven't done before. CoC: When are you touring in the UK? GW: We're not. CoC: You're not? GW: Nah. CoC: Not again. GW: Yup. CoC: It's been a while... GW: About five and a half years. CoC: How come, is Metal Blade unhappy to put up the money? GW: No, and England isn't either. It's just we've played England and had really good gigs and we've played and not had really good gigs. It is weird, but what we usually do is use a UK gig as a warm-up show. It's shitter not playing at all. But you go where you're wanted, pretty simply. CoC: It's a pity for the fans, but if you can't get the numbers... GW: Well, it is not just the fans over here, the album, the distribution is so bad over in England. You can't even see it in the shops. There's more of that _Who Dares Wins_ [Earache "rarities" compilation from which Bolt Thrower get nothing]. Nothing to do with the band, you can bet on it, 'cause we don't like shit like that. Earache are just trying to make some cash. We thought it was going to be a greatest hits. You know you're finished then, you know it is over. CoC: You've never done a big light and pyrotechnics show live. With your war image, that surprises me. To have a band who are so into war, but live, don't have that effect. Except musically. GW: Yeah, it's true. We've never really had that, but we have had pretty decent light shows. We just use a lot of backdrops. CoC: Will you pretty much be staying the same from here onwards? GW: We think so. We look for perfection. That's what we're searching for. If we ever think that we can't release an album as good as the last one, we won't. Releasing a crap or watered down album means that it's gone for us, 'cause the music is gone. CoC: Would you say any of your albums inspired you to write a better album by being bad? GW: It is hard to say about disappointment, 'cause for us it is the memory of the time when it was done, so though it might not sound as good to you now, you just remember that time. So it is still positive. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= A V I K I N G V E N G E A N C E , I N B L O O D ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chronicles of Chaos chats with Grutle Kjellson of Enslaved by: Paul Schwarz After the death of the physically extreme Norwegian black metal scene of the early '90s (the days of the church burnings, the Inner Circle and, later, the murders), the bands who were part of the musical scene were forced, or given the chance, to stand solely on their own musical merits. Today, black metal bands are judged similarly to other bands: primarily on their music and public image. One could argue that the events of the early '90s were about image, but I believe real violence is beyond mere commercial image, or should be. Though some believe that the musically extreme scene died along with the physical extremity, I would disagree. Admittedly, the shift towards gothed-out commercial black metal, with such albums as _Dusk... and Her Embrace_ and _Enthrone Darkness Triumphant_, is a step away from the harsh, dark sounds which the scene originally emitted, but Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir are not the last word on where black metal is today. This is where Enslaved come in. They were never part of the violence, but they have been part of the music since, more or less, the beginning. They have shared split EPs with scene greats like Emperor and Satyricon and produced such noted albums as _Frost_ and, in more recent times, _Eld_. Now they return to the fray once again with _Blodhemn_ (translated as "A Vengeance in Blood"), a record on which they move away from the epic direction of _Eld_ and, to some degree, sway more towards the sound of 1994's _Frost_. Speaking to Grutle Kjellson, it became evident that his concern was his music and his band and not with fitting into any kind of scene, now or in times gone by. CoC: So, how are you doin'? Grutle Kjellson: Uhhm, a little bit of a hangover, but otherwise okay. CoC: How are things in the band? GK: Oh, things in the band are very good right now. Everything worked out perfect. CoC: How are plans for touring going? GK: We have some plans for doing a small promotion tour in the US and Mexico next year. CoC: Would that be your first trip out there? GK: On this album, yes. We've been in the States before, three years ago, but that was on the _Frost_ album. CoC: What do you think are the differences between _Blodhemn_ and _Eld_? GK: The differences are huge, actually, very much because we have two new members [guitarist Richard Kronheim and drummer Dirge Rep] and both of them are taking part in the songwriting, both lyrics and music. The drummer is very different from the one on the _Eld_ album. CoC: In style or the amount of skill? GK: The style, mostly the style, because the drummer on _Eld_, Horgh [Harald Helgeson, now with Immortal], is also very good. But it didn't fit that much into our music, so on this album we tried to get hold of a perfect drummer. Dirge Rep fits perfect into the band and the drumming has a lot to say in the music, it is very important. So that's very different, his playing is totally different from Horgh's. Also, our new guitarist used to be a rock 'n' roll guitarist and he took a lot of ideas from styles of music that we had never been into before. It's a more complete album than our other releases. CoC: So, apart from the addition of new members, do you think the change of studio and producer, moving from Pytten and Grieghallen, has made a big difference? GK: Oh yeah, a very big difference, because we have worked with Pytten in Grieghallen for three records and it is not very exciting anymore. CoC: You need a bit of variety? GK: Oh yeah, nothing wrong about Pytten, but we needed some change, some new challenges, new people to work with and the Abyss studio, the area around the studio was very nice and everything worked out perfect. CoC: Did Peter Tagtgren make any suggestions or say anything which changed your music, or did you just basically record with him? GK: He had some ideas, but basically he just recorded. He actually did some backing vocals on one track. He had some ideas here and there, just like a producer should have, without actually taking part in the making of an album. Many producers have a tendency to try to run the band. Tagtgren is a perfect producer to work with. CoC: On this album there are some techniques you haven't used before. Some songs have weird electronic parts in them and at the end of the album, after the outro is finished, there is a weird grinding sound, like grinding in a tunnel. Who were these introduced by and are any of them particularly significant? GK: The outro was something that just came up, I really don't want to tell what it is, because that should be a secret. But the other sounds were done by Ivar [Bjornson, guitars and electronics), he has always done the keyboard stuff and that was his idea from the very beginning when he made the songs. That's supposed to be there. But the outro was just a crazy idea we had. CoC: A private band thing? GK: Yeah, that's a private band thing. CoC: Okay, fair enough. So long as I don't read it anywhere else . GK: I don't think so, not from me anyway. CoC: Your previous album title, _Eld_, translated into English, meant "Fire". Now you have "Vengeance in Blood". What is the significance of this particular title? It has a much more violent feel to it... GK: Yeah. CoC: ... And it kind of fits with the faster, more violent musical path you've taken. I was wondering whether there is any connection between the title of the new album and its style? GK: Yeah, the title track has lyrics I wrote in quite an insane mood or whatever you want to say, quite angry, and I think the record is pretty much angry, aggressive and I think the title fits perfectly well. There are some kind of, not soft, but beautiful parts. CoC: But unlike on _Eld_, where there were bits of it peppered around the album, on this the most "beautiful" bits are at the beginning and the end; in between there is a huge wall of really brutal sound. It sounds good but it is a change, you don't have the thirteen minute epic that began _Eld_. GK: I see what you mean. CoC: Why do you chose to sing in Old Norse as opposed to English or Norwegian? GK: This is actually in Norwegian. We have two languages in Norway. The western part is a kind of language called, I suppose, new Norwegian. The Norwegian they speak in the Eastern part is very much like Danish. Very influenced by Danish writing, because Norway was in union with Denmark. The language _Blodhemn_ is written in is the language we speak and write in the western part of Norway. This is new Norwegian and that is something that came up from old dialects. There was an author called Ivan Allson who collected a lot of dialects throughout the western part of Norway. He made this new Norwegian writing language from the older dialects that had kind of survived from Old Norse. CoC: I am curious about the album cover. The last album was a photo. This time you've got a picture, and quite a simple picture. What is the significance of the shield, the mace and the battle-axe? GK: You are thinking of the promo cover. That's just a cover to get the promo CD out. CoC: What does the real cover look like? GK: It's a picture of us on a stony "beach", the sea and a Viking ship, swords and all. CoC: I'm a little confused; the reason I thought mine was the real cover is that it was in the Nuclear Blast catalog and all the adverts. GK: That was a mistake. I think the promotion cover looks like Donald Duck. CoC: I wasn't too big on it, that's why I was asking. GK: It wasn't supposed to be released that way at all, that's just the promotion cover, the actual cover is totally different. CoC: Musically, you basically fit into the black metal genre, to an extent... GK: Concerning the music, yes. I think the music is metal. The category all depends on the lyrics, from my point of view. As long as it is not dealing with satanism or such things. The lyrics describe the music, the music is metal, but our Viking lyrics can explain how we're not black metal, so we use the term "Viking metal". It is not really a category, the category is metal and the Viking stuff is just something with which we've put a label on the music many years ago. That has kind of become a category now. That's not our fault. CoC: A few bands from Norway choose not to play live, or don't do it very often. Burzum, Varg refused to play live... GK: Because it was a one man thing, pretty strange. CoC: Don't Darkthrone play live anymore? GK: Darkthrone is put on ice for many years. CoC: But you guys do go in for live playing and you seem to take it as quite a priority. When I saw you in London you dressed in stage garments and played with a lot of energy. I was wondering how important live performances are to you? GK: Live performance is of course very important for every band, I think. You have to prove that you can play live; everyone can do a record in the studio, but I don't look upon that as a band. To be a band, it means that you perform in front of some sort of audience. That's my definition of a band. Otherwise it is just a studio project. Don't you agree? CoC: I know what you mean, but it's something some bands don't agree with. GK: They, of course, have different points of view and I respect them for that, but this is my definition and our definition. CoC: What are your touring plans for Europe and when are we likely to see you? GK: We have been negotiating with the promotion agency. We haven't come up with anything yet, but we will definitely do a tour in Europe, probably March and April or something, 'cause we are going to the States at the end of February. CoC: Anything more you wish to say? GK: Most people who haven't recognized us yet, and if they are reading this interview, I'd like to say to them: come to our concerts and we will prove that we are one of the best metal bands of the ages. Come check us out. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= A G A T H E R I N G I N P E R P E T U A L M O T I O N ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CoC chats with Hans Rutten of The Gathering by: David Rocher With a musical career spanning over nearly a decade, The Gathering may definitely be granted the right to evolve in their craft. Starting out with what can be described as a "symphonic" doom album, _Always_, the band developed a strong underground following, so atmospheric, meaningful and very nearly mystical was their art, that was only to be tarnished by their rather unpopular second output, _Almost a Dance_. However, with the arrival of the enrapturing Anneke van Giersbergen on vocals, the band developed a new sensitivity on _Mandylion_, which rapidly grew to be predominant in their music, and explains the immense distance between the brooding melancholy of _Always_ and the psychedelic, dreamy, somewhat non-metallic feel of their latest work, _How to Measure a Planet?_. Justice must be done to The Gathering for firmly taking the perilous decision to evolve, rather than opting for the cheap behavior that may best be called "the Metallica syndrome". In the following interview, drummer Hans Rutten displays great conviction when talking about The Gathering's new offering; a talkative, sincere, and gentle musician, who shows no shame in tending to leave the metal world, and displays great pride in having left a timeless milestone in it. CoC: Firstly, what's gone on in the band since the recording of _Nighttime Birds_? Hans Rutten: Jelmer [Wiersma, guitars] parted ways with us, because he didn't feel like playing guitar anymore. It's very simple, he was fed up playing guitar, he couldn't write any songs anymore, so we talked to him -- and we're still very good friends. He wanted to do something else, he wanted to do more "electronic" music, and now he's working as an engineer, mixing bands in a venue, so he's happy, and we're happy. We didn't feel like searching for another guitar player, because Anneke [van Giersbergen, vocals] can play a little guitar, and one guitar is enough for us now. I guess you can hear it in the songs, [they're] less bombastic... We had a lot of possibilities all of a sudden, and I guess we used them. So, after _Nighttime Birds_, we toured a lot, especially with Lacuna Coil, and we came to write a lot of material. So, we recorded a double album this summer, in Amsterdam, because we were a bit fed up with recording in Germany, for many reasons. I personally think too many bands record at the Woodhouse studios nowadays, they all have the same sound, everybody's complaining about it at Century Media -- well, not at Century Media, but the bands are complaining; for Century Media of course, it's very easy [convenient?] to have a home studio. So we decided to do it in Amsterdam, with Attie Bauw as a producer, and it was very long, because it was a double album -- we spent two months in the studio, but this is it: it's finished, we've mastered it, and now, we're doing interviews for it! CoC: You were talking about the electronic music Jelmer is now into; what do you think of the way more and more metal bands are integrating electronic sounds and influences in their music? HR: I think it's good to develop, not to be conservative and always play the same kind of music. You can say if you like it, and that's a matter of tastes, but I think it's good; experimental music is always good, otherwise it's no music for me -- music has to be something exciting and something new, and I'm really fed up with bands who make the same record every time, with the same producer, and so on... So I think it's good, I like it. CoC: The way you're using keyboards in The Gathering is over time becoming less atmospheric and more experimental, and kind of psychedelic as well... HR: Correct. CoC: What's this due to? HR: Well, we already did this on _Mandylion_ and _Nighttime Birds_. Frank [Boeijen, keyboards] and our producer Attie had a lot of ideas to experiment, and we did it a lot... I think the keyboards are very atmospheric, but in another way; this album is different from _Nighttime Birds_, so we did something else. CoC: I guess the whole of your music is becoming more psychedelic, from what I've heard of _How to Measure a Planet?_... Somehow moving away from metal, towards a form of psychedelic... rock, maybe? HR: Yeah, maybe a sort of doomy, gloomy rock, yes, correct. I think it's very diverse; we have songs like "Liberty Bell" and "Rescue Me", which are typical [The] Gathering songs to me, and on the second CD [_How to Measure a Planet?_ has been released in a limited 2CD edition -- David], you've got songs like "Probably Built in the Fifties", which is very heavy, or "Illuminating", which is another typical [The] Gathering song; but the title song "How to Measure a Planet?" is also on CD #2, but that lasts for 28 minutes, it's a very long, epic soundscape, a kind of psychedelic trip. There's a lot of diversity on this album, I think you cannot say it's only psychedelic; some songs are very short, and, for example, "Frail", the opening song, is very "relaxed" -- we wanted to open this CD in a very relaxed way, because we've always opened in a very heavy way, and I guess we're a little fed up with only playing heavy guitars; for us, it's not exciting anymore -- yeah, that's why we made this diverse album, I guess. CoC: Do you still believe The Gathering rate as a metal band, or...? HR: I don't know... I still love metal, progressive metal acts like Prong, Voivod, bands who develop, which is in my opinion very, very good. But it's music, so it's only... categorizing, as always, I hate it! Some songs on _HtMaP?_ are metal, some songs are psychedelic, some songs are really melodic... CoC: I noticed you pay great attention to the visual appearance of your albums. When you look at your new release, are you satisfied with the layout and the cover? HR: Yeah, it turned out quite well, I guess we're very happy with it; especially the CD booklet itself, it's very nice. We've always had and still have discussions with record companies -- Century Media didn't think [the cover] was "fairytale" enough, but this album is not "fairytale". We already wrote two "fairytale" albums, and this is something else, which they didn't like that much, but hey, it's their problem, because I'm playing in the band, it's our thing. It's a very creative kind of layout, maybe a bit more modern, also. CoC: On the whole, are you satisfied with the way things are going with Century Media? HR: What do you want, the honest answer or...? CoC: Go ahead, give me the honest answer! HR: Of course, yeah! Century Media is only doing -metal-, and in quite a good way, I guess, but they're only pushing bands in a metal direction, and I really think Century Media have no -metal- acts anymore. I don't consider a team-up as a real metal band, or Moonspell, Samael or Lacuna Coil as metal acts -- I think Lacuna Coil are a pop-rock act, and I like them very much, but they're not really -metal- anymore, though they're more or less stuck in the "metal" field. CoC: There are still bands like Old Man's Child, Twin Obscenity... HR: They're black metal, and they don't sell that much, they're not the biggest acts. Of course, there's black metal, Century Media want to jump onto the bandwagon, it's stupid... Real black metal acts come from small labels, I guess -- it's underground music, but it's been booming, a lot of people have bought it, and Century Media wanted to make some money... CoC: It's dying out pretty fast now, actually. HR: It is going down now, and right now, it's something else -- heavy metal is coming back, acts like HammerFall... and Century Media have -no- acts like HammerFall [Nocturnal Rites? -- David]; Nuclear Blast have bands like HammerFall, they also have Manowar, and they're worth a lot of money. Nuclear Blast is a metal label, and they've signed metal acts, they have real heavy metal acts; I think Century Media have to make the crossover to another audience; metal is important, but [so are] the independent magazines and press, they need it... otherwise they'll drown. CoC: Considering the Dutch metal scene... Holland is known for The Gathering, but also more brutal acts such as Consolation, Altar, Gorefest... What do you think of these? HR: I only know a band like Gorefest. We're in the same business, we're colleagues, so we talk a lot, if we see each other, which is very difficult because they're touring, we do our own stuff, but it's always nice talks with Gorefest, and also with Within Temptation and Orphanage... We're not friends, but colleagues, we appreciate each other. But I don't think Holland has some -very- good acts. I think Scandinavia is quite good, but Holland... no. I don't think there's anything really good at the moment right now. It's a bit of a pity. CoC: _Always_ is considered as a cult album in the underground metal world... how do you feel about this? HR: Great! I have a new story about it: the record company Foundation 2000 are bankrupt, they're totally gone, and we have the rights back for our first two CDs; that means _Almost a Dance_, but especially _Always_. I know _Always_ is an underground classic, and I'm very, very proud of it, because it still has a very good atmosphere. Of course I'm doing something totally different right now, but I don't neglect it, it was a period with which I had a lot of fun, and you can hear it on the album. It was recorded in five days, and there are a lot of good songs on it, it's very atmospheric... We've started a little label to release it, and I'm also going to release the first two demos, which are very hard to get, especially with good quality -- I know the quality sucks anyway because they were recorded in a very poor situation, but a lot of people still ask for them. I'm very happy we've got the rights back, so I can do something big for the old fans; I know there are a lot of fans who don't like The Gathering anymore, but who still like _Always_, and I want to do something for them as well. I'm also very busy doing it on vinyl, [there will be] a very limited vinyl version. CoC: Looking back upon your previous albums, before _Mandylion_, would you ever consider re-recording them with your current style, with Anneke on vocals? HR: No, no, we did them at that time, it would be very stupid. We may do some live songs from that period with Anneke... CoC: As a band, you've been going for ten years, of which about four years with Anneke. What changes do you feel she's brought to the band? HR: She didn't change the music, I guess, because we all write the music; Anneke also wrote some music for the last album... She brought the band a beautiful voice, which fits in perfectly with our musical ideas, and of course we became a bigger act thanks to Anneke. CoC: The approach to your music seems different now; when you look back on the philosophies and expectations in The Gathering when you started out and what they are now, what has changed? HR: What can I say? We walk our own way, and I know we've got a lot of success, but we're not making music because of the success, otherwise we would never have made a double album: commercially, it's almost suicide. We love music, that's why we made this album, our heart lies in making music... CoC: What are the lyrical guidelines to _HtMaP?_? Anneke seems to have made the band move away from the sort of mysticism there was in the beginning towards a more dreamy, sensual approach... HR: Yeah, of course, she's a female, and females always sing about love, though there's not that much of that on this album anymore; there's a little kind of concept behind this album -- as a band we travel a lot, we see a lot of things, we get a lot of impressions which we turn into music, and that's closer to what this album is about. For example, the song "How to Measure a Planet?" is inspired by the movie "2001" -- the song could even be the soundtrack to the movie, it's so long... Some songs are more about a kind of inside traveling, for example, a song like "Liberty Bell" is about the excitement of going into a space shuttle or a rocket, and there's a lot of excitement in the song, musically. The song is really about an astronaut sitting in his chair, who feels the excitement! CoC: Did you ever consider that you had written sad songs on _Always_? HR: Yeah, but Bart [the band's first singer -- I think I got this right... -- David] was into a totally different kind of poetics; Anneke's style is more, in a way, girls' writing, very poetic and very "hidden". I guess Anneke is more direct in her writing, there are a lot of differences between them. CoC: Talking about Anneke's writing, what inspired the track "Fear the Sea"? HR: The song is about water in all its aspects, and water is the bringer and the giver of life -- when you're an embryo, you're in water --, life came out of water, and that's a little bit what the song is about. We don't understand the power of it, it's so common, people don't think about it anymore -- that's the sort of hidden message behind it. CoC: As a band, you seem to get a lot of inspiration from the majesty of nature and the elements... HR: Especially on _Nighttime Birds_. CoC: ... Can this be considered as a form of paganism? HR: Yes, we have a lot of admiration for nature. I think it's beautiful, I love to watch it on Discovery Channel -- see something, and think "that's the place where I want to go"... and you get back to the traveling aspect of this album, as we all like to travel and see things. There's not that much nature on _How to Measure a Planet?_. This is more the traveling aspect, to go into space but also into yourself, with or without drugs... It's a very introspective album, it's very introvert, it's not party music like Pantera -- put it on, drink beer, and have a party --; no, this is more difficult, something to put on before you go to sleep, to float away... CoC: Okay, the last words are yours, anything to add? HR: Yeah, it's a difficult album, it's not "poppy" as some people say, it's not cheap. You have to listen to it more carefully, there's still a lot of guitars -- some people disagree with me, but I still think there are a lot of heavy songs and heaviness, and intense songs don't have to be necessarily guitar-oriented for us, so you have to give it more time... CoC: Metal audiences are kind of narrow-minded... HR: It's a pity, there are a lot more flavors in the musical world than metal. I'm a metalhead, I always was a metalhead; as a kid, I'd always go see Iron Maiden, but when I see what Iron Maiden are becoming now... They don't have the guts to change, and I think that's the most stupid thing you can do -- you have to change, and this album is a big change, there's more space, more experimenting, but yeah, give it a chance. CoC: Thanks for your time, it was really nice talking to you... HR: Yeah, me too, thank you for the show, good interview! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= L I B E R L E G I S M E T A L L I ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CoC interviews Marten Hansen of A Canorous Quintet by: David Rocher A Canorous Quintet, though they are one of No Fashion's finest acts, are suffering from a totally unjustified lack of recognition that is not wholly dissimilar to the story of Swiss thrashers Coroner -- everybody digs, no-one buys. After two very melodic and emotional outputs, namely _As Tears_ and _Silence of the World Beyond_, the canorous gang have, anno 1998, released a mean, raging, brutal little swine, which drops the former brooding quietness and melody of ACQ in favor of a violent, battering, thrashing death metal assault, that is very relevant of their state of mind. Frontman and pure breed metalhead Marten Hansen eagerly responded to my e-mailed questions, and his outspoken answers more than speak for themselves... CoC: Please tell me about the band's history to this day, and what you are up to now. Marten Hansen: Well, the idea of ACQ took place in early 1991, when we formed a band called A Canorous Quartet. As things evolved, we changed members several times and in the end, parts of the band split up, to form ACQ in early 1993. Six months later we recorded our first demo, _The Time of Autumn_. It was only released in 100 copies, and isn't something that we think represents ourselves well, since there was a lot of drinking and unseriousness involved. Later on, we recorded a promo tape that we sent to a few labels; it didn't result in a record deal but at least we let the record companies know that we existed. In Autumn 1994 we entered the famous Unisound studio to record our second demo, _As Tears_; it was never released as a demo since No Fashion and Chaos Records wanted us on their label. _As Tears_ became available as an MCD in late 1995. A couple of months after this release, we entered the Abyss studio to record our first full length album, _Silence of the World Beyond_. In november 1997 we entered Sunlight and recorded our most brutal effort to date, _The Only Pure Hate_, and that's were we are right now. During all of these years we have done several live gigs and played with bands such as Katatonia, Dissection, Edge of Sanity and Hypocrisy, among others. CoC: For those who have not yet heard your new release, what evolution does _The Only Pure Hate_ feature when compared to _Silence of the World Beyond_? Musically speaking, _TOPH_ is definitely more intense, violent and thrashing than _SotWB_, what inspired this evolution ? MH: The greatest change from _SotWB_ is that the aggression always has been there, but this time we have let it flow free, no holds barred, if you know what I mean. This is how we feel about our music today, it's a statement of what we feel the world deserves and needs. We've been through a lot of shit lately, and that's also the reason for this evolution in musical terms. We also wanted a more "back to the roots" feel with this album, and we feel that it was a long time since an album like _TOPH_ was released. CoC: Compared to your somewhat "poetic" approach in titles such as _As Tears_ or _SotWB_, how did you come to the very warlike title _The Only Pure Hate_? Your lyrics have evolved the same way, I guess... What are your inspirations, at the time of _As Tears_ as well as today, in terms of lyric-writing? MH: The reason for this title is, as you say, an evolution along with our lyrics. With this album, we wanted more of an "in your face" attitude. At the time of _As Tears_, our inspirations were mainly the same as today: good music and the feelings we shared at that time; our music and lyrics are very emotional [personal?] to us. My main source of inspiration for lyrics, however, strongly depends on the mood I'm in, and I don't write lyrics when I'm in a good mood. It's all about letting the steam out, so there's a lot of aggression and frustration involved. CoC: You refer very little to religious matters, such as satanism or paganism, which have become but mere bandwagons. So what are the philosophies and expectations behind ACQ ? MH: As I formerly mentioned, it's all about emotions and how we think about many things. We want a more reality-based experience when you're listening to us, we want people to recognize some of their emotions in our lyrics, and through them, get a greater understanding of our musical concepts. There are a few exceptions from this philosophy, and that's in the three ending songs of _TOPH_. These are parts one to three of a story I wrote in '94, about magic and mysteries in a world of fantasy. CoC: What do you think of the way the metal scene is evolving nowadays, with all these wannabe evil bands playing the same music with keyboards, female vocals, etc.? Will A Canorous Quintet ever use such elements? Does the current wave of black metal bands hold any interest for you ? MH: I don't mind [the fact] that bands are using these elements, as long as [their use] doesn't become a purpose in itself. Many bands I've heard seem to use keyboards just for the sake of using them, and that sucks. We have also used keyboards on our earlier efforts, but that was just to enhance the effect of what we wanted to achieve. On _TOPH_, we haven't used any keyboards at all since we felt that the material already was so strong that we wouldn't improve it by using keyboards. Concerning the black metal wave, I consider it to already have gone out of hand; the labels seem to be signing anything as long as it's black metal, that really ruins the scene. But of course there are a few bands that still hold my interest. CoC: Your influences seem to be essentially heavy metal and thrash bands of the '80s, plus maybe a few death metal bands from the '90s... Which bands have been an influence for you? Have you noticed any really interesting bands lately? MH: As you say, it's mainly '80s bands and a couple of '90s bands that have inspired us. To mention a few, we have Slayer, At The Gates, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Kreator, Deicide. But then, overall, anything that sounds great and arouses emotions can be an inspiration. Lately there haven't been many interesting bands coming up, but The Haunted is really cool! CoC: What does the cover of _TOPH_ depict? _SotWB_ had a picture of a dead girl in a bodybag -- was this a -real- corpse? Do you believe there is beauty to be found in death ? MH: The cover of _TOPH_ is a picture of what lies beyond the silence of the world beyond, everyone is dead and many are [being] tortured; if there is an afterlife, this is not where you'd wanna be. The painting shows the essence and the result of the only pure hate, it's death and mayhem that is left and creatures that will eat up your remains. In the end there will be nothing left behind. The dead girl on _SotWB_ is a mystery, no-one really knows, but we certainly hope that they revived that little beauty. I do think you can find beauty in death, where else will you find true peace? However, I don't think you'll find this peace if you aren't meant to go, if you aren't ready! CoC: You have tested three recording studios in the space of three releases. Are you satisfied with the way each recording session went? Are you going to try recording your future material in another studio, such as Studio Mega or Fredman? Any particular likes or dislikes among these studios, so far? MH: At the time of each recording we have always been fairly satisfied with the result, but there are always things to improve, it's only the lack of time that limits us. As things have turned out, we have had more and more time for each recording, and have become more and more satisfied with each recording, but I don't think we have found the perfect studio yet, [though] Sunlight is fairly close [to that]. We really don't know which studio we will record further material in -- it might be Sunlight again, as well as any other studio. The only dislikes we've had with the studios we tried concern the distance from where we are living and the circumstances we've been forced to live through during the recordings. Sunlight's positioning is perfect for us, since it is located in Stockholm, where we live. CoC: Whereas black metal is literally becoming an industry, death metal has yet again gone underground, thus confining A Canorous Quintet (and most other death metal bands) mainly to the underground scene. How do you mind this prospect? MH: I don't mind us being in the underground, but on the other hand we have never been anything but an underground band. The only thing that's sad about this prospect is how many listeners will never get a chance to hear us; we wouldn't mind selling a few more albums. CoC: I am sadly led to believe that A Canorous Quintet are a grossly underestimated band -- I don't see many interviews or reviews of your work in zines or elsewhere. Am I wrong? How are things going for you? MH: No, sadly enough you are not wrong, I also consider ACQ to be greatly underestimated; here in Sweden we are considered to be a good band with good live performances, but, in other parts of the world, we practically don't exist. We hope that this will change in the future, because we are confident that we deserve better. CoC: How are the opportunities for touring and promotion going for the band? Are No Fashion taking care of you as they should? And what do you think of their roster of bands? MH: We have been offered tours, but No Fashion has declined them since they would cost them money. The promotion part hardly seems to exist, we've been [included] on two compilations as far as I know, and that's since '95, when we signed to them. It really bothers me that you practically haven't seen any reviews, because No Fashion claims to have sent out over 200 promotional copies of the album (not that it is that many, but it should result in 100 reviews at least). So, answering your second question, no, I really don't think No Fashion are taking care of us as they should, but be warned, we're not the only ones who are complaining. Concerning the current No Fashion roster, it doesn't impress me very much, but earlier on they had many of the best bands of the Swedish scene, like Dissection, Unanimated and Marduk. Nowadays I mainly appreciate The Moaning and Ablaze My Sorrow, but it seems like both these bands have more or less resigned from the scene; [as to] if it's No Fashions fault, you'll have to ask them personally. CoC: Are any members of A Canorous Quintet involved in other projects? Is the band currently working hard on new material? MH: Three of the members are involved in a project entitled Guidance of Sin, and it seems like two of our members will leave us to concentrate fully on this project, so I guess we'll have to find two new members, if that's the case. Due to this problem we haven't been writing much new material, but, as always, time shall tell. CoC: Tell me what film you would like your music to be the soundtrack to. MH: I think our music would fit as a soundtrack to the ultra-brutal psycho heavy movie "A Clockwork Orange". I can't answer for my other brothers in metal, but I think this movie best describes the essence of _TOPH_. CoC: Okay, Marten, that's it. The last words are yours, please conclude as you wish. MH: Thank you very much for your true dedication to A Canorous Quintet, and for the interview. And to you people out there, check out our albums and tell us what you think of them, and send a whole lotta mail to No Fashion inspiring them to promote us better and send us out on a tour, so that we can meet you all and show the world what Swedish death metal is all about! And always remember that metal is the law, stay true to metal. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= F L O W I N G M I D W I N T E R T E A R S ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CoC interviews Anders Hidle of Tristania by: Pedro Azevedo Norway may be the land of black metal, but it's also the land of female vocals in metal, or at least the country that produces the most bands in the genre. Tristania are one of those, but the symphonic metal with death growls and female vocals found on their 1997 self-titled debut MCD [CoC #27] and especially 1998's _Widow's Weeds_ [CoC #30] indicates that Tristania are not an average band. What follows is my e-mail interview with guitarist Anders Hidle regarding what Tristania have been doing and what they plan to do in the future. CoC: In the past few years, several bands have decided to add female vocals and symphonic arrangements to metal, like you have. How do Tristania intend to stand out from the rest? What would you say that you have which makes you special? Anders Hidle: The basic idea behind adding female vocals and symphonic arrangements to the traditional death metal is to create "brutal music" with melody. The thing that attracts me to these elements is the contrast that you get between the heavy/brutal ingredients and the calm/melodic parts. When a beautiful melancholic melody line is being set up in anticipation of a heavy part, this melody line becomes even more beautiful. It is also important for Tristania to be a metal band -- now and in the future. Morten [Veland]'s death vocals will always be the most important vocal parts in our music. When we recorded _Widow's Weeds_, it was very important for us to make a record which wasn't a "one-of-a-million" gothic album. We wanted our own special sound, and I think we managed to achieve it. One of the things that are special for Tristania's sound, compared to the bands you mentioned, is the violinist we used on the album. His name is Pete Johansen, and he plays in an Irish folk band [from Norway]. We are very satisfied with what he did on _WW_. One thing that Irish folk music and gothic music have in common is the gloomy and melancholic sound. This guy gets his own sound on the violin, and you can actually hear the Celtic sound on all the melodies he performs on this CD. CoC: From Norwegian bands such as Theatre of Tragedy and The 3rd and the Mortal to Dutch acts such as The Gathering and Within Temptation, how do you view the current scene of which you are now part? AH: I enjoy listening to all the bands you mentioned, especially Theatre of Tragedy, of whom I am a big fan. As I said in my first answer, Tristania want their own sound. Our band has often been compared to ToT, and probably not without reason -- of course these two bands have much in common, but the differences are also quite obvious, in my opinion. ToT has much more doom influences in their guitars. The vocals are also different: Liv Kristine from ToT and Vibeke [Stene] have very different ways of singing. Liv Kristine uses mainly a calm way of singing. Vibeke uses many different ways of singing, especially powerful opera vocals, which suit our music very well, I think. Besides, on Theatre of Tragedy's latest recording there are no growled male vocals. Raymond only uses the "clean vocals" now. So I guess the similarities are no longer so obvious. CoC: Your band name, Tristania, brings to mind sadness and doomy music; however, you aren't an extremely doomy band, or at least that doesn't seem to be your main concern. So how did that name come up? AH: It's true that the name "Tristania" refers to melancholy and sadness. It's not a real word in any language (as far as I know), but it is a result of the Norwegian word for sad (trist) and our own fantasy. We sort of added an ending to that word. We liked the sound of it, and there's also something that's very important: it's a bandname that has never been used before. I agree with you that we are not an extremely doomy band. But making our music as doomy/sad as possible has never been our goal (and never will be). Tristania's music has a melancholic and gloomy mood, but that is because we like to express this kind of mood in our songs. I think the music would have sounded quite stupid if we said to ourselves that it had to be sad and dark and all that when we were composing. I think it's very important that the music's mood is something natural. So we don't try to make the music as sad as possible, although we like a melancholic mood and feeling in the music. CoC: How was the passage from your self-titled EP to _Widow's Weeds_? Did everything always go well with Napalm? AH: Tristania has existed for over five years with different musical styles, line-ups, and different band names. Today's line-up came together as a band in the middle of 1996, and we work very well together. In May 1997 we recorded our four-song demo, which we titled _Tristania_. This was a self-financed album, and we aimed mainly at getting a record contract. But it was also released for sale, and 500 copies were printed. A couple of months later, Napalm Records contacted us and wanted to sign us. We made a deal, and we signed a contract for three full-length albums and a re-released version of the MCD. It was re-released with a new mix and a new cover. In December 1997 we recorded _Widow's Weeds_, and it was released in early 1998. Our cooperation with Max and Napalm has been great and we haven't had any problems. We are also quite satisfied with their promotional work. We have already been on one European tour with Haggard and Solefald, and also a couple of festivals and stuff. So we are very pleased with Napalm. CoC: Having re-recorded "Midwintertears" and "Pale Enchantress" from your self-titled EP for _Widow's Weeds_, why did you leave out "Cease to Exist"? AH: Personally, I think that both "Midwintertears" and "Pale Enchantress" are very good songs, and very typical Tristania songs. "Cease to Exist" is also a good song, but this was more like an experiment. "Cease to Exist" can be compared with "Angellore" on our new album. These are not typical Tristania songs, but music that we like very much. Personally, I enjoy many gothic bands which don't have anything to do with metal. I am sure, though, that Tristania will compose other songs of this kind in the future, but the main thing will always be the metal-related stuff. Besides, we were very disappointed with the sound quality on the two songs, and we thought that they deserved to be released with a better sound. I think that "Midwintertears" and "Pale Enchantress" are like two brand new songs on _Widow's Weeds_, compared to the MCD. CoC: In your opinion, what are the main improvements shown on _Widow's Weeds_? AH: The main improvement is, as I said, the sound quality. We were not comfortable with the sound we had on the MCD. On the new CD, the whole recording process was totally different. We went to a studio with much better equipment, and we had much more time (the MCD was recorded in three days, and we used over a month to make _WW_). Terje Refsnes at Sound Suite Studio is a great producer and he is quite experienced in this kind of music. He has worked with many Norwegian metal bands, such as Gehenna, Dismal Euphony, Twin Obscenity, Malignant Eternal and Carpathian Forest. I think he is one of the best [producers] in Norway in this kind of music. We were very satisfied with the sound quality on _WW_. We got what we wanted: a symphonic sound with punch and power. Another difference on _Widow's Weeds_ is the variety in the songs. The album contains all music from straight goth-rock, represented with "Angellore", to melodic black metal, in "Wasteland's Caress". This musical plurality is very important for us, and something which we will hold on to in the future. CoC: Having had a guest vocalist (for clean vocals), a guest violinist and a choir available for the recording of _Widow's Weeds_, did you have all the conditions you needed? AH: We were very lucky with the recording of _WW_, because we know many good musicians, and especially good singers. Osten, who performs clean vocals on "Angellore", is a good friend of ours. He has a magnificent voice which suits our dark-romantic music perfectly. He is the singer in a very good goth band, by the way. They're called Morendo, and come from the same part of Norway as ourselves. The band is unsigned, by the way, so here's a good advice for any label who wants to sign interesting goth rock bands: sign them! Besides Osten, myself, Kenneth [Olsson, drummer], Morten and Vibeke from the band, the choir consisted of three more girls. These are friends of Vibeke's from the school where she takes her musical education, and they are all really good. Pete Johansen also did a great job with the violin, as I mentioned earlier. We got many of the ingredients we wanted for this album, but if I am to mention some other things that we would like to add to Tristania's sound, it must be more strings and classical instruments. Both cello and flute are great instruments which we want to use on our next record. CoC: I know you've been doing some concerts lately, namely with Hagaard and Solefald. How has it been going? AH: Yes, we went on a sixteen days long European tour with Solefald and Haggard, and it was really cool. Great experience. We got a very good response from the audience, and it was nice for us to play for the people in Southern Europe. After all, it's them who appreciate our work and buy our records. Our sales in Norway are almost nothing compared to those in Germany, Austria and so on. So we had a hell of a great time! One of the gigs in Austria was filmed, and within a few months a live Tristania video will be released. Another good thing about the tour was that the people in Solefald and Haggard are great! We are already looking forward to the next tour. CoC: I heard that you are supposed to record a new album in February. What can you tell us about that? AH: Yes, we are working hard with the new material, and we will hit the studios in the first week of February. We have planned to use the same producer that we used for _Widow's Weeds_, and the recordings are planned to take six weeks. Most of the material is already finished, but we have a lot of work left, arranging and stuff. It looks like the next album will be killer! We are very positive... I think it won't disappoint those who liked _Widow's Weeds_, but the music has also developed since the last album. I think we have taken everything a step further. The musical plurality will be even more important in the future. I think the songs will be more different from each other than on _WW_, though they will still belong together in a way. It will still be sort of a gothic metal album, but, at the same time, so much more. We will use even more session musicians, especially classical instruments. So, everybody, keep your eyes open! CoC: Any final words for this interview? AH: Greetings to all the readers of the Chronicles of Chaos internet zine. A big hello and thanks to everybody that went to our shows on the European tour! We are looking forward to meet you again on the next tour. Prepare yourself for the next Tristania album. I promise we will not bore you! Contact: mailto:anhidle@online.no WWW: http://www.tristania.com =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= S W E D I S H V A M P I R E T A L E S ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CoC interviews Marcus Ehlin of Siebenburgen by: Pedro Azevedo _Loreia_ [CoC #22] was one of 1997's most surprising albums for some people, mainly because of the female vocals and folk influences included in Siebenburgen's mid-paced black metal. However, as you shall see in this e-mail interview, Siebenburgen's own Marcus Ehlin (vocals/guitar) doesn't find those components very important in their music, which may explain why they weren't really developed in their second album, and follow-up to _Loreia_, 1998's _Grimjaur_ [CoC #31]. Below lie some details about what Siebenburgen is about, their current situation and future plans. CoC: I know that Siebenburgen is supposed to be the ancient name of Transylvania, while several of your song titles relate to vampyrism. What is your connection to that subject and how important is it for your music? Marcus Ehlin: Yes, that's correct; Siebenburgen is the old European name for Transylvania. And yes, most of our lyrics deal with vampires and vampyrism. I am very interested in both vampires and vampyrism, and that's why most of our songs are related to this subject. CoC: What exactly is the story behind _Loreia_ and _Grimjaur_? I heard they are supposed to be based upon Swedish folklore, but what stories do they tell? ME: They are not based on Swedish folklore; most of them are about legends and myths from a fantasy world called Grimjaur, which my ex-girlfriend Mara has created. Until now, Mara has written almost all of our lyrics, but after our split I will take care of the lyrics. _Loreia_ is the name of a vampire queen in the land of Grimjaur, and the translation of Grimjaur is midnight. CoC: Why did the band choose to sing in Swedish? Will you continue to do so in future albums? I noticed that some of the new song titles are in English... ME: We started to sing in Swedish, and it just went along in that direction. After _Grimjaur_ I wrote some lyrics in English and I thought that they were too good to just throw away. Therefore, we decided to include them on our upcoming third album. CoC: How did the inclusion of vocalist/violinist Louisa Hallstedt in Siebenburgen happen? Was she part of the plan to create this precise kind of sound with Siebenburgen, or did things just happen by accident? Did you always intend to have a sort of black/folk sound? ME: Since the start of the band I had ideas about mixing female vocals with our music. When I met Louisa, she seemed to be the right person for this, but after a while the two of us didn't get along like we did in the beginning. Therefore I decided to end my work with her, and start searching for a new girl. We haven't found a replacement for her yet, but I have contact with some people that are interesting, whom I will meet very soon. Siebenburgen isn't a "black/folk" band. We play metal, that's it. CoC: How important would you say she, or any female vocalist in general, is for the band? ME: Not very important; it's not like we are building the music around female vocals, it's the other way around. CoC: I noticed that Louisa's participation in _Grimjaur_ wasn't as important, in a way, as in _Loreia_. I mean, she only participates in a few tracks, and, except for the last song, her participation isn't quite as striking as in _Loreia_. Do you agree? Why did this happen? ME: Yes, I agree. Louisa's parts on _Grimjaur_ are quite bad. That's one thing that made me end our work with her. She had lost her interest and she was only into making money. CoC: What are your main concerns as you plan another album? What would you like to see changed relative to your first two albums? ME: We don't "plan" songwriting or albums. When I write music, I never know what the final result is going to sound like. Everything changes all the time. The only thing we "plan" is the recording. So what I would like to see as a change from _Loreia_ and _Grimjaur_ is, first of all, a much better sound quality. And that will happen with the next album, since the guy we will work with is very professional and has bought tons of new equipment. But, of course, some problems will always occur. CoC: How have things been going in live concerts? Any plans? ME: We haven't played many live shows yet -- about sixteen. But I am pleased with them. We will go on tour again in May, but right now I don't know where or with whom we are going to play with. CoC: Napalm has a considerable number of black metal bands in their roster. How do you view that? Are you happy with Napalm? ME: Napalm Records is a very good label, they have always treated us very well and always supported us. And I don't think that Napalm has so many black metal bands under their wings. They had more a couple of years ago. Right now, they only have about four or something. CoC: How involved in the black metal genre would you say you are? Considering that you don't quite fit in "normal" black metal due to your folk influences, do you consider yourselves to be outside the black metal genre? ME: I am not involved in today's black metal scene -- if there is any scene left to talk about. There are hardly any great bands left, I think. And what goes for Siebenburgen is that I have never said that we are a black metal band. We play metal. I can't label Siebenburgen. CoC: What are your main wishes for the future of Siebenburgen? ME: That this time the recording of the new album will go on without any major problems. We usually have this "studio curse" that follows us... CoC: That's it. Any final comments you'd like to add? ME: Thank you for the interview, and STAY METAL!!!! Contact: mailto:marcus.ehlin@mbox301.swipnet.se WWW: http://welcome.to/grimjaur WWW: http://home6.swipnet.se/~w-68002 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= N O T H I N G B U T A B S O L U T E D E F I A N C E ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chronicles of Chaos chats with Jason Netherton of Dying Fetus by: Paul Schwarz Crushing, violent, unrelenting -- brilliant. All terms very much appropriate to Dying Fetus' most recent unleashing of sonic brutality, _Killing on Adrenaline_, which was released at the close of Summer this year by the band and Morbid Records, in the US and Europe respectively. The band followed up with a run of touring throughout the US and even some European dates. Additionally, they caused both musical and actual havoc at the Milwaukee Metalfest, a spectacle which I unfortunately missed. Dying Fetus have been a growing concern on the underground since they unleashed their first release, 1995's _Infatuation With Malevolence_ which collected two earlier demos onto a single compact disc. _Purification Through Violence_ followed and rose the band profile further, permitting them to tour the States more extensively. Now, with the strength of _Killing on Adrenaline_ behind them, Dying Fetus are in a position to move to a new level of recognition and popularity. At present, they are back in the grind of normal life for a while, recuperating from touring and dealing with other concerns. This interview was one of those concerns. CoC: _Killing on Adrenaline_ is basically your third album, you've been around for a little while now and you have an underground following. What is the significance of this record, compared to your others? Do you think it is significantly better, reaches a wider audience, etc.? Jason Netherton: It's definitely our best one, the best songwriting, the best production and all that stuff. So it is definitely a step forward for the band and as far as a wider audience goes, the record label, Morbid Records, helped that. They've taken care of a lot of the promotion and distribution; we did a lot of that ourselves in the past. Especially in Europe, they've done a lot more for us there. We still do a lot of the American work ourselves, we print the CDs ourselves here. CoC: In terms of press recognition, you guys got a recent write up and picture of the album cover in Metal Maniacs, you got quite a bit of notice for Milwaukee, the stage invasion. I hadn't caught on to you guys until just recently. JN: Yeah, a lot of people haven't. CoC: So do you think, with all that taken into account, you could go further with this record, that it will take you up to a new level? JN: Yeah, we definitely think the new album will take us to a new level. The tours help and we set up our longest tours in the States, 25 shows this time around. We book that all ourselves; the Milwaukee Metalfest we set up at the last minute. The European tour was set up by Morbid, they took care of all that. On the tour we met a lot of people and got the chance to hang out with a lot of people, too. CoC: _Killing on Adrenaline_ is pretty fuckin' brutal musically and you have quite an extreme, hard edged political stance too, with stuff like "Absolute Defiance". Is that the way you guys like to make music, with brutality in the music -and- the lyrics? JN: The lyrics are my department, whereas the music's mainly John's department, with the guitars, etc. I wrote one song on the album ["We Are Your Enemy"], he wrote the rest of them. We've always wanted to play this kind of music. We don't concentrate on writing brutal songs, we write songs which are catchy. We like it, that heavy soynd, and we're glad it comes out that way. As far as the lyrics go, I like to keep them interesting, too. Half of them are more kind of traditional death metal lyrics, I guess, along the lines of anger, frustration, pain. The other half are more politically oriented, that's because that's what I study at university, the international global economy. I like to take that kind of stuff and put it into lyrics and make it more accessible to play to a wider audience. To make them take the lyrics and bring them down to a more personal level, I guess. CoC: It kinda steps up the intelligence factor, stuff like "We Are Your Enemy": "No one left in peace, a policy of mandatory greed..." JN: That's something I feel very strongly about. CoC: The technical stuff is one of the things you are noted for. You've got the groove and the catchy riffs, but you've also got quite a lot of technicality in there, the twinges in it, the higher bits. Do you think that has become part of your "trademark" now, do you think you've developed more of your own style? JN: I think we always had that to a certain extent, and now as a band we've grown a little more and become even more critical with our songwriting. We always like to make sure that songs flow naturally, all the riffs go together, everything is in key, nothing is off with the time changes. We concentrate on that a lot. That includes keeping it interesting, to have technical parts, groove parts and maybe even like a hardcore style, we just wanna keep things interesting. We're lucky enough to have John, who's really talented and can do a lot of the more technical stuff. We've always had a little bit of technicality in there; not really as technical as it sounds, though. It sounds that way, but a lot of it is pretty basic. We've been playing for about ten years and John's been playing guitar for about fifteen and that is about where I guess a musician should be. We're not really that exceptional. The drummer is pretty good; I consider myself a pretty average bass player, 'cause I just follow a lot of the guitar stuff. I can handle all the bass, no problem, but as far as doing funk or slap I'm not what you'd call traditional. CoC: As a band, do you think you'd ever go one step further than catchy riffs and use keyboards or different vocals, or do you think you are going to just stick with these basic elements and twist them around a bit? JN: If we ever release an album by Dying Fetus, it will always be in this style; if it changes it all, it would have to be under another name. CoC: Like a side-project? JN: Well John has a side-project and he is doing that right now, full time as a matter of fact. We're not going to be writing new stuff 'till next year. CoC: What was the reason for doing the Integrity cover "Judgement Day"? JN: John listens to a lot of hardcore. He liked the song a lot and he thought if it was done again -- it was written around '91 and the guitar sound is a bit thin [on the original]. We thought if it was done in a heavier, death metal style it would come across a lot more powerful. Plus, we had seven songs and we decided to do another one and have an eight song album. CoC: It's interesting, 'cause a lot of death metal bands would do a thrash or death metal cover but not a hardcore or punk cover. I think a lot of people will be surprised to find out that the track is by Integrity. JN: That's 'cause John is a lot more into hardcore these days. He listens to more hardcore and goes to hardcore shows. He loves to play death metal, but he's not really getting satisfied with what is out there, so he's turned to hardcore. CoC: You've toured, you've put out the album; in terms of the band, how do you guys work, do you like to put out albums or do you like to go on tour? JN: We definitely love to tour, but we are really constrained by other priorities. Of the other guys in the band, John and Brian both play full time, they're in their late twenties now and they can't really afford to take off and travel around the world every Summer. We've been lucky enough in that we've managed to tour. We did a tour in 1996, three weeks in North America, and this Summer we were lucky 'cause we managed to put together back-to-back European and US tours. Right now, it is looking like we won't be able to tour until maybe 2000 and something. Certainly not for more than four or five weeks. CoC: So if you got offered, say, part of the Morbid Angel tour, you'd think about it? JN: Yeah, we couldn't do it now because we just did it. Maybe next Summer, we're thinking about going out on the west coast. CoC: The problem with playing a style of music which isn't so well sold is that you still have to work. JN: You do it for fun. CoC: It's almost not even a "professional" career. JN: It's a hobby for us. CoC: OK, say this album gave you quite a bit of popularity; if it got you a bit further, would you change your style a bit, make life easier, do you think that would be an option? JN: I don't think that, for us, a change in style would necessarily improve our sales. People like us for what we are, if we changed it all, it would have to be another band or something. We've always been this way, since 1992. CoC: There is a small following of bands trying to get death metal back now. JN: I'm really not too impressed with a lot of bands now. CoC: Any bands in particular which you do or don't like? JN: I like a lot of stuff, I like the new Cryptopsy a lot, we've always been friends with them. A lot of bands, I can't really think of any off the top of my head. CoC: What kind of stuff influenced you to do Dying Fetus originally, what did you listen to when you were growing up? JN: Well, we grew up in the '80s and we listened to a lot of metal. We were into Iron Maiden and stuff, Alice Cooper, and we just kept getting into heavier and heavier stuff. We had a thrash band in the late '80s early '90s and we left that to form Dying Fetus. Along the lines of Death, Dark Angel, Deicide, Terrorizer, we'd just heard Suffocation then. CoC: So do you hope that you inspire a whole new generation of bands? JN: Well, I think it's great [if we do that]. Definitely. We spend a lot of our free time putting energy into this music and when we do find out that people are really getting into it and really giving us respect for it, that's really special. We don't see it every day, we only hear it every now and then. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= G R I P P I N G W I T H S T Y L E ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CoC interviews Grip Inc. by: David Rocher It seems that three full years after the release of _Power of Inner Strength_, Grip Inc. are finally earning the recognition they so strongly deserve as a competent, determined four-piece band, and no longer as "Slayer's ex-drummer Dave Lombardo plus three unimportant guys who also play in this project of Slayer's ex-drummer Dave Lombardo". After _Nemesis_ managed to put great distance between Grip Inc. and the all-too-large ghost of Slayer's style, _Solidify_ ventures further into the orientation that _Nemesis_ announced, comforting the band's very personal touch. The following interview is composed of two parts. Firstly, a greatly talkative, very outspoken (and rather jolly) Gus Chambers answered my many interrogations relative to the band and their excellent latest output; then, the more introvert axeman Waldemar Sorychta -- who, if you recall, started out in the thrash metal outfit named Despair, alongside Century Media boss Rob Kampf -- phoned back to answer some questions relative to his very personal playing style and his career as a musician in Grip Inc., but also as the renowned sound engineer of the Woodhouse studio. CoC: How's the tour going? Gus Chambers: Very hectic. We've had like three days of heavy schedule, getting to bed at two or three and getting up at five, but that's okay -- we can do that. But a sad thing is that every time I come to Paris, I'm either very tired or very hung-over, and I can't enjoy it so much! I wish I could come here and relax for a couple of days, and have a good time, but ah -- you know, I'm sure I will one day... CoC: Hopefully! So, basically, what's gone on since the release of _Nemesis_? GC: Well, we toured for about six months on _Nemesis_. We wanted to tour more, but the business is what it is, and we were supposed to go on a big tour -- I don't want to say who it was, but we didn't get the tour. We were waiting and waiting to do Europe again, and it didn't come through, and then we were supposed to go to Australia, and that fell through too. So, at the end of '97, we said "forget it, we're gonna start working on the new album", and well, we started working on that in January, I think. We recorded it and it was all complete in September this year, and now we're ready to go out and kick some ass! CoC: Where and how did the recording of _Solidify_ take place? GC: Well, we recorded it in Hagen, Germany, again. You know, we've done our last three albums there, and we're quite happy with this place. Sometimes it's a lot to do with the budget too, and it makes good business sense to go there on the budget we get to record an album, and we get a good product from there, too -- we would go somewhere else if we had a bit more money, I think, but we like the Woodhouse, and the end result is good, and Waldemar works there a lot too, so he knows the board and he knows all the equipment, so we don't waste a lot of time. CoC: The Woodhouse are the home recording studios for Century Media... GC: Yeah, I think they go there a lot! CoC: You said you wanted to go and record somewhere else -- what studios were you thinking of? GC: Well, I was thinking about going to Miami, maybe -- I can't remember their names, but we looked into them... Sometimes, recording in the same studio, you fall into the trap of sounding a bit the same, but hopefully we haven't done that, because we worked hard on the sound and stuff like that. I think next time we will go somewhere maybe like Toronto, where Fear Factory did their last album -- somewhere out the way, though, because I know if we go to a place like L.A., we'll get interrupted a lot, we'll have people coming and "hey, let's have a beer!" and stuff, and we like to really get down to business when we're in there, so we sort of go off to where no-one knows us that well! But as far as the names of the studios are concerned, I really don't know any, I can't remember! CoC: What do the lyrics on the various songs of _Solidify_ deal with? GC: Well, they're a very personal side of me, I always write about stuff that happens to me personally, or something that makes me angry and I feel like I should approach it in a creative way, or something that pisses me off. I usually sing about the darker and more depressive side of life, but I find that in a way good for me as a singer, to express myself, a good therapy to get it away from me. And I think a lot of bands don't go that deep sometimes, and I'm not the type of singer to sing about cars and dragons and whatever, all the shallow things, I like to really get into the song, and that means I have to sort of relate to the lyrical content, so I get quite personal with it. And it's from a wide spectrum of life, a lot of experiences that are basically from life. CoC: You were talking about the darker side of things -- what do you think of all these bands that claim to be dark? GC: I don't find that dark, actually, I find that quite silly! I can't relate to that stuff, I'm not into that -- it's something I can't get into. I'm not dragging them down or slagging them off, or anything like that -- I mean, good luck to them --, but personally, I just don't understand that stuff. CoC: On _Nemesis_, the song "Scream at the Sky" was about UFO sightings and the way they're denied. Are you into this? GC: Yeah, I am, actually. When I went to America, I actually tried to get to Area 51, and I was turned away -- well, if there's nothing there, why the hell are [they] not letting people go there? That song really is more [about] frustration of certain governments or certain agencies that are obviously hiding something; obviously something's going on, but we don't know what it is, and for them to cover up something like that, then obviously something's there. But who knows what it is? CoC: The titles of your various albums seem interesting; the first one, _Power of Inner Strength_ is fairly straightforward, but _Nemesis_ is a word for "revenge" -- what was the idea behind this? GC: Well, that was a kind of stab at the sceptics, because there were always a lot of rumors about Grip Inc.; first of all, it's like "we're trying to be Slayer, we're trying to copy;" there was basically a lot of negativity directed towards us in certain areas, so with _Nemesis_ we wanted to show we didn't rely on just one formula, a thrash formula, and so we started going a bit more melodic, we started using a lot of ambient sounds and stuff like this to get more depth. Really, _Nemesis_ was like a "this is your Nemesis, eat it all, leave us alone." And _Solidify_, well, people say "did you call it _Solidify_ to show that the band is one unit and everybody's solid?", and this kind of stuff, but that's actually not what I was trying to get at. We all come from different backgrounds, different cultures, different countries, different musical backgrounds, different musical tastes, and what we do, as musicians, when we work together, is draw from each background a piece of us, what we get influenced by. And then, we put it together and solidify it, basically, to make the good sound. So, hopefully, it sounds a bit unique, in a way, because when we do our songs, we don't want to sound like a "the flavor of the month" type of thing, we don't want to jump on any trend or any bandwagon -- we basically do what we feel and what's coming from inside of us, instead of being trendy. CoC: It seems that since _Nemesis_ you've really found your own style, -the- Grip Inc. style, with which you're very comfortable; how would you define this style? GC: It was a natural progression, actually, it wasn't forced; over the years, you either sort of fall to pieces, and it doesn't work, or you actually draw tighter as musicians, and learn how each of them is going to play, and how he can approach a type of thing; because no-one in this band actually wags a finger and says "right, this is the way we're gonna do it, and if you don't like it..."; there's none of that. It's just four creative guys and everybody has ideas, everybody has the chance to do what [he feels], and if it sounds good and everybody's into it, then we use it. As I said before, we don't like to use the same formulas of music; on this one, we wanted Dave to play different beats and different tempos and stuff like this, actually for him to challenge himself too, because Dave's well known for his thrash style, you know, "the double-bass guy". We just wanted to make it more challenging and interesting, and hopefully people will like it! CoC: Well -- I think _Solidify_ is good, I'm actually really into it. GC: Okay, thank you very much, that's good news! CoC: What is the cover going to be -- is it the photo of you there is on the cardboard promo? GC: Yeah, it's going to be that, but it's going to be a digipak. We wanted to keep it kind of simple, we wanted to make it more organic and with a less computerized, cold feel; we did that on the _Nemesis_ album with the statues and stuff, and we wanted to make it more simple -- we've never been into it, but a lot of bands are into monsters and whatever... We wanted to keep it really simple, basic, and let the music do the talking. Someone said to me yesterday: "Hey, have you seen the new Metallica? It's near enough the same format!" -- it's got _Garage, Inc._ on top, with a picture! What a coincidence! I hope people don't think that we're trying to do what they did! CoC: What exactly was the meaning of the _Nemesis_ cover? GC: It's very deep, I think it went over a lot of people's heads. There are three statues that represent certain Greek gods, and I don't want to get too deep into it, but... erm, hmm -- I dunno, you'll have to ask the artist -- how about that?! I completely forgot! CoC: It seems Grip Inc. are now finally earning recognition as a band, and no longer as "Dave Lombardo plus three musicians". How do you feel about this? GC: You know, there are always a lot of rumors going around about Grip Inc., "Dave's doing this, Dave's doing that, [Grip Inc.] is a project"... but it's not! Me and Waldemar are basically the main songwriters, and always have been; Dave does contribute to the songwriting process with his drumming style, of course, but well -- Dave's had a lot more success and a lot more notoriety than us, and of course people will hook into him before us, but hopefully the band does merit a little bit of [recognition? -- I absolutely can't make out what Gus said here... -- David] -- there isn't just one guy drumming, I think the music speaks for itself, now. CoC: Sure. How is recognition globally going for the band? GC: Ah... Tough. Japan -- good! America -- forget it; it's such a hard scene, there... England, FORGET IT! Oh man, they hate us, because we're not a part of whatever's going on -- you know, it's all fashion over there. Heavy music, or real music as I call it, is sort of cast aside for trendy bands, whatever's "in" at the time... I'm an Englishman, but I don't really have that much to do with these guys -- I'm really disgusted with the music scene now, I think it's terrible; there are some great musicians who are not being given the chance to do anything, it's horrible. CoC: And in the rest of Europe? GC: In Europe actually, France, for some reason I don't know, is great, they really like Grip Inc.. It's a big territory for us, every time we play we have a great time, the fans are real, they're there for the right reason. Germany also, but I think France is the main place in Europe for us -- I love it! CoC: Last question: if you had the chance to write the soundtrack to a film, what film would you choose? GC: Oh God... That's a hard one, because I haven't been to the pictures for ages! Erm... well... I'll tell you what it would be -- you know the Tellytubbies from England? CoC: Erm... yeah? GC: If they made a film, I think we'd do the soundtrack for that, how about that?! CoC: Tellytubbies? Right... GC: Nah, I hate them! No, actually, I think it would be a horror film like "Hellraiser" or something like that, or something with a lot of suspense in it, maybe... Yeah, something like that -- I don't really know! That's a good question, because I've never been asked that before! I know Waldemar is really into soundtracks and making music like that -- I'm going to tell him to call you back! CoC: Last words? GC: To everybody that did buy the album, I just want to say thank you. We will be here, in some way, shape or form, and we really do appreciate the fans and we'll see you in the new year. Thank you very much! Keep rocking! [Shortly after, Waldemar Sorychta calls back.] CoC: So, you and Gus are the main songwriters in Grip Inc.... Waldemar Sorychta: Yeah, Gus writes all the lyrics... CoC: ... And you deal with the music, so what are your musical influences? WS: Actually from everywhere, I listen to a lot of different styles, and it is not just one style which gives me ideas; but I'm not a person who is picking from [music] -- if there's something I like, I absolutely don't try to do it the same way; it just gives me some impressions. I'll just tell you, for example, about the guitar style; I'm a guitar player who is known for playing this hard kind of music, but my biggest influences are actually in Spanish flamenco guitars, they are my biggest actual influences for guitar, because I think that flamenco guitar is the most aggressive and emotional, and also rhythmical guitar style of all different styles when you take rock, or blues, or jazz. Flamenco is the most aggressive and living guitar, I'm really into it; I don't have idols like other guitar players have in Ritchie Blackmoore or whoever in metal or hardrock guitar players. I like to listen to a lot of different things, but they don't actually give me that thing that flamenco guitar does. It's the same with songwriting -- it's not like "I listen to different styles, they influence me and I sit down to do the same thing"; it's just that everyday I go through different moods, everyday you're at least one day older, and you're constantly moving forward, at least that is the supposed to be the way you are, as a human being, moving forward, and not back -- and that gives me enough influences for my songs. When I'm really pissed off about something, I come with ideas that are very aggressive; when I'm sad about something, then songs like _Human?_ come out. CoC: When you play a solo, you're not backed up by a rhythm guitar, which I guess is the way you sound live. Have you ever considered having a second/rhythm guitar? WS: Actually, when the band started to exist, we had another guitar player, Bobby Gustafsson, who was an ex-Overkill [member]. I've all my life been used to play with two guitar players, and after the split with him, we started practicing with just three people, and I started getting used to it, it gives me a kind of freedom. Everyone is individual -- guitar, bass, drums, vocals -- and everyone is doing this very well, 100%. Sometimes, with two guitar players, you may have kind of conflicts in your band, about who is better, who writes better songs and stuff like that. So, that gives us freedom to do what we want, as a band -- we've got used to it, and it actually feels very good. CoC: Gus told me you're pretty much into soundtracks... WS: Yeah, I listen to soundtracks, and I'm a guy who is constantly making music; I've been playing the accordion and the piano since I was six years old, so it depends on the mood which I'm in, I don't come home and tell myself "OK, now I'll do a song for Grip Inc., which will be fast and aggressive." That way, it won't work; I come home, and get influence from what happened to me, and put my emotions into music. Depending on the day, I'll sit down and write a piano song or a song which is actually meant for an orchestra -- but I don't have an orchestra at home, so I get close to that by just using keyboard sounds. Sometimes, I'll just write a rock song using a clean acoustic guitar, and sometimes I'll be in the mood to grab my electric guitar and play some aggressive songs. CoC: You're as renowned for your participation in Grip Inc. as for your work in the Woodhouse studios; do you and Gus share the same opinion on the black metal question? On the whole, what do you think of the bands you produce? WS: The black metal acts I've produced so far are Samael and Alastis. I see big potential behind those people, although in the beginning, I didn't agree with this image they were giving themselves; but then I met them, and saw that they're very nice people -- because your personality is the most important point. I don't care what you believe in, as long as you don't hurt other people with your beliefs and respect others', so I don't care about what they believe in -- Satan, God, or whatever. The worst belief is what all the western countries are getting into, that's believing only in money, that's the worst belief you can have. CoC: That's all from me; the last words are yours... WS: Thank you very much! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= K E E P I N G I T S A N E ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CoC talks to Crack Up by: Adrian Bromley Most bands nowadays feel the need to go with the flow, follow trends, and/or make music that'll sell records. Bands gear themselves towards making music that is far from original. Their intent? To put money in their pockets, in the process ripping off the music buyer by giving them merely re-hashed or uninspired material. Those bands are very common in this industry, but there are many out there that do this "music thing" for the sheer love of it. Germany's Crack Up is a prime example of this. This band couldn't care less about making the big bucks; rather, they are into making music that'll keep them fascinated with creating music. Now, onto their third record, _Heads Will Roll_, (their second for Nuclear Blast and follow-up to 1997's ultra-cool _From the Ground_), Crack Up continue on with their death n' roll groove, but with a dash of detonating death metal tendencies. It's rough, it's ugly, but oh-so appealing to the ear. Your ears will bleed blood red as _Heads Will Roll_ keeps kicking you with its attitude in the shape of a thick-laced boot of metal. "This was a lot of fun to make," says bassist/singer/songwriter Tim about the truly fun, grooving vibe of _HWR_. "This record just seems to radiate our feelings and ideas that we brought into it. This is truly us. The songs fit more to our characters now and that allows us to really let things go with the music." And as for having a fresh sound as a relatively young, unknown band? Must be hard, right? "It is very difficult, especially in Germany and Europe. It's hard for other types of metal to exist anymore when all there is right now is heavy metal [i.e., retro] and black metal. It's a lot harder for a band like us to get anywhere 'cause of the music we play. We could easily do well, but that would mean we would have to jump on a trend, and we don't need to do that. Enough bands have done that already. We have chosen the way to do things and it is the -only- way we will do things. We try to showcase in our music and our attitudes that what we do is the best thing for us. No need to bend any certain way; Crack Up is Crack Up." "It's a lot of work and fun for us to make music. We try to really do things our way rather than take ideas from other bands and reproduce them within what we do. Why would we bring some other genre band's style into our music? It just doesn't seem right. A majority of the material you hear here came from us just jamming in our studio." And the cover songs that seem to come with every Crack Up release? The band had a killer cover of L.A. punk band Fang's classic "Money Will Roll Right In". The new LP features a cover of Viking's "Next Big Thing" and Turbonegro's "Bad Mongo". Why those songs? "'Cause they rule!!", says Tim enthusiastically. "Those two songs were chosen because: a) we like them; and b) we find covering songs helps in the development of our music. It moves [us] to make music as good as the songs we cover. It's funny 'cause "Bad Mongo" sounds like a Crack Up song, like something we would write. It fits right in. Crack Up enjoys doing cover songs, and who knows? Maybe there'll be an EP [of ours] with just cover songs on it. We'd like to do an Iggy Pop song. I hope we can do that." One thing that seems to run deep within the music of Crack Up is the band's lack of technicality. That's not a bad thing, either. The band has just decided to keep things on a simpler level for us metal fans to digest. Call it sloppy, call it rough death rock, but one thing is for sure: these guys like to keep things moving. No fluffy guitar solos here, kiddies. "I appreciate a lot of what these technical bands are doing nowadays, I just am not into it. I used to be really into bands like Cynic, and some Death, of course, but as the years go on and I am getting more into this business, and making music, I find that you can express a lot more within your music when it is simpler. It's also much more enjoyable for me to create and play this music. I couldn't imagine myself playing music on a very technical level. When Nirvana came out, they kind of changed things and showed bands that a little went a long way. They had songs with one riff and it worked. Many bands are out there playing simpler music and we're one of them. We enjoy our music to be played this way." As for his take on today's music scene, he comments: "I dunno. I am not too into what kind of music is surfacing nowadays. I hate all of the heavy metal crap that is coming out right now and being very popular. I like to listen to death metal, old death metal like Obituary, Malevolent Creation and Vader. I don't think there are many good death metal albums out right now, so I'm finding myself looking elsewhere, too. I like old Soundgarden and am really into newer hardcore bands like Hatebreed." The topic turns to the label, Nuclear Blast, and touring. About label support, Tim answers, "We are very satisfied with their work and it's amazing how successful they are becoming over there in Europe, seeing that they are a metal label. But being on a label like Nuclear Blast is hard, 'cause as they grow, their expectations of their bands do too. They look to keep bands that sell on their label, like Dimmu Borgir, HammerFall and Manowar, and that is hard to deal with at times. But on the other hand, we are grateful that they have given us the chance to be able to put out our records. They don't pressure us to be a certain way or anything. It's all us, and we appreciate it. We have full control. Every band wants the best from a label, but there are things that come along with this business and you have to wallow [through] them and move on." 1998 was a busy year for the band. With recording a priority for the band, they still found time to tour with a lot of respectable partners: Unleashed, Hypocrisy and Benediction. "It was a great experience for us," says Tim. "It was great to have a good tour with Unleashed when the last record came out. It opened us up to a lot of new fans. Other tours came and it was great. While _HWR_ is coming out soon over there [slated for January 1999], we have already done some tour dates with Dismember and Children of Bodom since the record came out in October. We also did some touring with Death here, too. We've been lucky. We are dying to come over to North America and play. If there is any chance, we will do so. We are ready to go." In closing, I ask Tim if it has all been worth it up to this point. He answers: "Yeah. I look back at the development of the band over the last few years, and I am proud of what we went through as a band to mold us into what we are currently. We're a bit bigger now than when we started off, but [we] still have some ideas to bring to the band in the future." =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= W I L D C H I L D ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CoC chats with Alexi Laiho of Children of Bodom by: Aaron McKay More than a month ago, I had the distinct pleasure of speaking with one of the two founding members of Finland's Children of Bodom, Alexi Laiho. An accomplished, dedicated, and appreciative Alexi answered question after question as I riddled him, one after another, in an attempt to surface the undercurrent of greatness-tinged mysticism that pervades Children of Bodom and their music. The band has a unique symphonic metal torrent, present alongside a neo-classical acuity [see CoC #32]. It is now my understanding that the forthcoming effort by the group is presently being recorded and has been promised a release date toward the end of February in Finland with Europe soon to follow. Please allow yourself the opportunity to experience Children of Bodom's splendor, if you have yet to do so, but preface it with Alexi's following thoughts to whet your appetite. CoC: Children of Bodom have hit #1 in Finnish sales. What a terrific accomplishment for the band. Alexi Laiho: Yes, that's true. It's pretty cool. Especially in Finland, we are becoming pretty popular. When we did the album, and after we finished, I was convinced that no one was going to buy this shitty album and no one was going to like it, because I thought it was too black metal for heavy metal fans and maybe too heavy metal for black metal fans. So we didn't expect something like this would happen. So, in Finland it is selling pretty well. We released the single ["Children of Bodom"] a couple of months ago and it went to number one in the single charts for two months. CoC: In a perfect world, would you have -picked- "Children of Bodom" to be the song that the band is known for? AL: I don't know. I think the best... Well, to be honest, I am pretty sick of the whole album. If I had to choose, it would be the first song, "Deadnight Warrior". CoC: That's a great song. AL: Thank you. It's always a compliment to hear stuff like that. CoC: I wanted to ask about the intricacies of the band's music. It is very heavy and extremely melodic. How do you work these two styles together so well? AL: I think that it is the musical influences. Maybe three or four years ago, I was a die-hard black metal and death metal fan. At that time, I liked only totally aggressive death and black metal material, but nowadays I am more into older heavy metal, like Manowar, Judas Priest and stuff like that. I don't listen to much black metal anymore, but it is kinda my roots, so that is why