WATAIN front man Erik Danielsson sat down with Metal Army America on their tour bus at the next to last show of the just completed Decibel Magazine Tour as direct support for BEHEMOTH. Erik is on of the most focused, intense and articulate musicians we have ever met and we chatted about many different topics. We touched on conservative attitudes towards the band in the US and abroad, the bands’ career up to now, controversy, the notoriety that comes with critical acclaim, their next album and their new DVD, Opus Diaboli.
Everyone’s favorite Swedish phantoms of Satanic rock, GHOST, are finally doing a headlining tour in the US. The band will be playing “13 Dates of Doom” with BLOOD CEREMONY and ANCIENT VVISDOM providing some doomy goodness as support.
Mysterious frontman “Papa Emeritus” tells us: “It is with an evil haunting chuckle that we are announcing that we are finally coming to North America. In the name of Satan, we will conduct thirteen rituals in thirteen different cities throughout the United States and Canada and now we are summoning all of our devotees to partake in these blasphemous eves of black magic.”
So gather your goats, don your best pentagram, and get your blasphemous ass to one of the following dates:
Jan. 18 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
Jan. 19 – Washington, DC @ Rock N Roll Hotel
Jan. 20 – Boston, MA @ Middle East (downstairs)
Jan. 21 – Montreal, QC @ Corona Theatre
Jan. 22 – Toronto, ON @ The Mod Club
Jan. 24 – Chicago, IL @ Bottom Lounge
Jan. 25 – Saint Paul, MN @ Station 4
Jan. 27 – Denver, CO @ Marquis Theatre
Jan. 28 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Vertigo (The Complex)
Jan. 30 – Seattle, WA @ El Corazon
Jan. 31 – Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theater
Feb. 01 – San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill
Feb. 02 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Roxy
Most people know Jeremy Wagner as the guitarist and song writer for Chicago-based death metal bands like BROKEN HOPE and LUPARA. Wagner is also an accomplished writer and released his second novel, The Armageddon Chord in September. We caught up with Jeremy for a wide ranging interview covering many aspects of his horror fiction masterpiece and other topics. What follows is an excerpt of our lengthy chat.
MAA: What inspired you to become a writer and create The Armageddon Chord?
JW: My back story is I have been writing my whole life. Specific to The Armageddon Chord, I did some non-fiction features and interviews of metal bands for Terrorizer and RIP Magazine which is now gone and not on the newsstand anymore. But I had this period of time when I was in BROKEN HOPE, where I wanted to get out there more and get some stuff published and I always dreamed I’d get fiction published first, but in the 1990′s it ended up being non-fiction pieces. And I interviewed bands like MACHINE HEAD and MORBID ANGEL as well as show reviews and stuff. Everyone knows when I was in BROKEN HOPE I was my chief lyricist and love writing horror and disturbing over the top lyrics. And from there I wrote short stories and stuff based off those lyrics, just continued working on the craft. Now right before I wrote anything for the Armageddon Chord I did another novel that was my starter novel, which is kind of like the equivalent of a bands demo tape. Which was sort of a mess, not quite polished and it definitely had a lot of mistakes. I wasn’t a fully former writer by any means or a novelist, but it was great exercise. It was a long piece of fiction outside of short stories and really making an attempt at it. So when that book was done it basically went on a shelf, I didn’t shop it around or anything or looking for an agent. I was still doing Broken hope 100%. I got this idea when we were writing one of the last BROKEN HOPE albums, I think it have been around Grotesque Blessings. I was always trying to write the heaviest riff possible, each BROKEN HOPE album got more technical in terms of musicianship and skills and stuff. But also we always strived to be more and more extreme or brutal. We wanted to have the heaviest riffs known to man. (laughs) We always tried to come up with super Heavy hooks just push ourselves to always delivery albums that were always chocked full of massive riffs that would make you wanna smash your face through a cinder block. I got to this point where I was writing new material and with any story there’s that “what if” scenario. “What if” is the seed where a story germinates from. I was writing riffs and was like ‘what if this guitar guy wrote this diabolic heavy riff that was so sonically gigantic massive that it caused sonic destruction. if someone played this riff live in concert like at the Download Festival or Sonisphere. All these people heard it a giant PA, heard it world wide, live for that matter. What if it caused skyscrapers to come crashing down or fault lines to crack?’ That’s where the idea started. So I had this idea for this story and I already had the title the Armageddon Chord in my head. I kept tossing it around, tossing it around and Finally sometime in say in 2001,2002? I started playing around writing the 1st draft. From there it went from what if some dude just p;lays this heavy riff that knocks down sky scrappers to ok lets really dig deep and make a real story here that goes beyond writing a riff that blows peoples heads off. But where did this riff come from? How is this possible to make it happen? What I ended up coming up with for what we all know is The Armageddon Chord is a story that’s four thousand years in the making. It starts out in Egypt with Satan. Satan is called by a different name and Satan being the trickster that the Devil is in countless stories, there’s always some kind of underhanded trick being played on mortal man. One of these tricks was using a song as a key to unlocking the abyss and unleashing what we know in modern times as the biblical apocalypse. When I did dig deep to really bring to the table a high stakes story that encompasses thousands of years and multiple characters. I got this Egyptian story woven into biblical history, woven into World War II (there’s a specific character that came out of that). Then my main character, my protagonist who is Steve Vai times ten who is basically duped in to transcribing this song and playing it for the world to hear and delivering that ultra brutal power chord. That was the basic foundation I started with when I came up with the “what if” idea. The idea for the story started when I was in BROKEN HOPE working on a new album and working on heavier and heavier riffs.
MAA: Obviously you have your career in metal to draw upon for the musical references. What kind of research did you do for the rest of the characters and the plot points?
JW: I’ve been waiting to get asked that! I love talking about my characters and I think they’re great. I’ll give you the top three. Each one really did involve not only research, but fact finding to really build the characters. If you start with Helmut Hartkopff: he’s one of the two bad guys. He is the worlds leading Egyptologist. If Kurt is the “God of Guitar”, Helmet is a rockstar as far as Egyptology goes. He’s the foremost expert in Egyptian antiquities. He can read old hieroglyphics, even the most cryptic ones that might not make sense to most Eygyptalogists. He’s really a talented person. Unfortunately, he is really evil. His back story comes out of World War II. His father was in the Panzer army under Rommel and young Helmet was put in the Hitler Youth and aspired to be a Nazi solider like his father. He’s kinda like The Omen, through his father and the ideology of the Nazis at that time. That’s kinda where he started from. Next is Helmut’s partner in crime, Festus Baustone III. When I first thought about him he’s like Bill Gates meets Donald Trump meets whatever corporate giant there is. First I wanted to build upon how he gets his fortune. He owns a media empire of satellites beaming down programming to his cable networks. I checked the list of top 100 wealthiest men in the world. The last guy on the list was worth 325 Million dollars and lower down on the list were guys like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and others. So then I investigated each guy and learned about how they built their fortunes. The research is actually part of the passion for me. I had a lot of fun researching these corporate power guys and how they live. Through their actions you see how they are as people. Lastly there is the hero Kurt Vaisto. As I have mentioned before I have my own personal experiences that I put into Kurt. I was in a death metal band. I think I played arenas a few times, but mostly I played in clubs. I’ve never sold millions of records. I think BROKEN HOPE might have had tin foil status! (laughs). At one point STEVE VAI had uploaded all of his tour diaries on his website and it was a lot of fun to read. This is stuff from DAVID LEE ROTH, WHITESNAKE and solo. Everybody knows Steve Vai as a guitar god, but he is also a really great person, like from out of this world. Music is really his religion. Steve shared all of his experiences in these journals so I used this stuff to build the main character up. Kurt was a young guy who just excelled at guitar. At a young age he went into the music business. He went from Brooklyn, NY to Hollywood and sold millions of records. He didn’t get caught up with sex, drugs and rock n roll: he was just caught up with sex and rock n roll. He is not a perfect, virtuous or straight edge guy either. He never got married, never got tied down and he loved guitar most of all. Music was his religion. He is a good guy. He’s a very talented guy and he unfortunately gets tricked into a situation that not only threatens his life, but everybody on the Earth.
Jeremy with BROKEN HOPE.
MAA: Who are your favorite authors?
JW: Off the top of my head starting from when I was a little kid until now I’ll say Stephen King, Peter Benchley, I remember reading A Ghost Story by Peter Straub, Thomas Harris is huge for me from Black Sunday to the last book that is Hannibal Rising, I love that guy. Peter Blauner is one of my favorites. Colin Harrison, Mario Puzo and Micheal Crichton. Nic Pizzolato wrote a book called Galveston that came out this past year. He’s a newer writer, love that guy. Another guy, Justin Cronin put out a book called the passage. Dan Simmons is a phenomenal writer. As far as horror I’ve got other favorites, Jack Ketchum, I suggest reading anything by him. In the acknowledgments of The Armageddon Chord there is a list of writers I thanked for having a profound effect on me. Some I just mentioned, but if anyone cares to take a peak, you can see some more of my favorites.
Jeremy the author in 2011.
MAA: Please tell us about the companion piece of music to the book you have worked on?
JW: I think the agent or the publisher, last year when I signed my book deal, one of them said something like ‘wow it’d be cool if you wrote an Armageddon Chord album that all the chapter titles were songs’. I was like ‘yeah that’s cool’. I never really thought about it. But then some time went by and the first reality of doing any type of music related to the book actually came when the book trailer was being made. I actually scored the entire trailer at my house. And what you have an entire 30 second piece of music that I turned over to the director of the trailer. He just used a piece from it on a loop. But if you go on The Armageddon Chord website it hits you with the full 30 second score on a continuous loop and that’s one there. That’s the first piece of music I wrote for The Armageddon Chord. There’s also a secondary piece of music and its an instrumental that my band, LUPARA wrote that we call “The Armageddon Chord”. That was actually written when Adrenaline PR, my publicity firm got me this great opportunity with www.Ultimate-guitar.com for a contest. They came up with this great idea to premiere the book trailer, right before the book was coming out. In conjunction with that they asked Adrenaline to ask me to write an “Armageddon Chord” song. So I went back to my band and said lets do it as an instrumental piece. Then www.Ultimate-guitar.com asked me for a TAB and a lesson on how to play it. I rarely say no to an opportunity. Scott and Tom from LUPARA and I tabbed out the song, recorded it and did the video. It was very cool.
(Special Thanks to Jeremy Wagner, kNight Romance Publishing and Adrenaline PR.)
Through a confluence of sinister events the “God of Guitar”, a shredding guitar hero for the ages is giving a concert in Egypt at the unveiling of a newly discovered pyramid. The concert will be watched by the entire world via streaming Internet, radio and television. The shredder in question is playing an ancient song never heard before that he transcribed, but unbeknownst to the masses watching the show hearing the song might bring about the biblical apocalypse.
That is the premise of The Armageddon Chord by writer Jeremy Wagner. In addition to having written many books and short stories Wagner is the guitarist and songwriter for bands like BROKEN HOPE and LUPARA. He has pioneered the genre known as “heavy metal horror fiction” with this work, combining aspects of modern heavy metal added to a new take on the horror novel genre. Wagner has crafted an excellent, original story that no one has really ever tackled before. With his over twenty year career in death metal and his love of the macabre he has written a terrific story that will delight fans of metal and horror.
BROKEN HOPE with Wagner in the middle, broke up in 2002.
Located in Egypt in the Valley of the Kings where the majority of tombs and pyramids in that part of the world are located, a new discovery is made. An archaeological team led by the disfigured, aging former Hitler-youth member and expert Egyptologist Helmut Hartkopff has made the find. Hartkopff’s life’s work has been to find the tomb of anchient cult leader Aknaseth. In the tomb was Aknaseth’s mummy (in the form of a demon) was a magic headpiece of the cultist called a ureaus and a text in hieroglyphics that spelled out an ancient song. Once this song is played Hartkopff thinks it will make him the leader of the armies of hell during the apocalypse when Sethis (or Satan) is freed from his prison, near the tomb. Hartkopff’s boss the multi-billionare Festus Baustone III has his own ideas what to do with this find. Baustone rules his vast media empire (think Rupert Murdoch) with an iron fist, but illness and age are catching up to him. He is fixated on finding the key to immortality and thus this drives him to even new levels of despicable actions. The one problem is once the ancient song is transcribed, who will be able play it? Enter Kirk Vaisto, the “God of Guitar”. Vaisto (molded after a Chris Broderick, Jeff Loomis or Kirk Hammett type figure) made his name as an instrumental shredder before joining the multi-platinum album selling glam band Cardinal Slynn, where he got his nickname. Vaisto is critical to the equation since he is also the fastest shredder in the world. After his shady agent literally makes a deal with the devil, Vaisto helps transcribe the ancient song and upon performing if for the first time ever, it nearly kills him and everyone around him. Vaisto understands all too well the purpose of the song, but is coerced to perform it by the unscrupulous businessman. Forced to finish his work on the song and perform it at the massive show while playing an instrument Hartkopff designed especially for this occasion (think of Karl Sanders’ guitars in NILE) painted with real human blood. Complicating matters for Vaisto is his recent budding romantic tryst with Baustone’s daughter Mona, who forms a potent bond with the the guitar hero. Will Vaisto play the song and bring about the end of the world by striking The Armageddon Chord, unleashing hell on earth? Read it and find out.
To Wagner’s credit, this book is well written with even the ancillary characters fleshed out and giving exacting details. His experience writing horror gives him the breadth and depth to create a book that is very suspenseful, expertly detailed, well paced and exciting. Metal fans will find the many nods and references to the real music business (particularly the seedy side), the world of heavy metal music and guitars pleasing while big horror fans will love the well crafted, unmitigated evil and gore elements. The cultural and historical facts were painstakingly researched, lending an air of authenticity to the book that rivals others in the genre. I’ll be excited to see what Wagner comes up with in his next attempt at this style. You can buy this book and hear some of the music Wagner composed to accompany the book at his website.
Jeremy Wagner the author has swapped deadly riffs for deadly words.
Recently Metal Army caught up with Chris Gamble of GOREAPHOBIA who recently released their new opus Apocalyptic Necromancy. Chris spoke candidly with us about a great many topics. What follows is an excerpt of our chat.
MAA: Take us through the making of Apocalyptic Necromancy.
CG: Well, making the album was a natural process. We were running really good on a lot of high focused energy. Mortal Repulsion became a second lifeline for the band. Alex (Bouks) and I reformed the band and when we started playing GOREAOPHOBIA out again, it was 2004. When your band gets to about the twenty year mark, you start to see things. You see through the crap, all the trial and error things and stuff like that. The things that you learn along the way start to help you, you hope those things you learned, the experience you’ve got sticks with you for the better. Alex and I, in our minds we like to do our music. Our music has never changed, our music never went anywhere. For so many years we just had so many wrong people with us. Members that didn’t really belong, into their own personal gain and own personal demons really. All selfish people, people dealing with their own demons and on the business side we never had any help, it was all us. From 1988 to 1992 it was just chaos. Nothing was focused or set in stone and every thing was for the now, every man for himself. We learned a lot from those years and when we put out Mortal Repulsion, we got that out and we got back out there. When we toured the states with MASTER we got a lot of great feedback from old fans, and made new fans. A lot of old fans came out from the days when you had to write letters to bands, before email. It showed us a lot doing those tours and Mortal Repulsion really showed that when we had all this new focus and energy. It felt like 1988 again. And we added our new guitar player VJS and I just started writing songs like crazy. We started jamming, putting things together and writing a new album. Drummer Jim Roe has all the recording gear in his own studio so as we wrote, we recorded the songs. Everything with this album has been relaxed and now we have four song writers in the band. Alex has been predominantly the songwriter. Eighty-Five percent of Mortal Repulsion was songs Alex had for years on the shelf. But now all of us have been coming in with songs. Jim and VJS had a lot of ideas. So after the last album we had a much sharper and more refined focus on it this time.
MAA: Where do you draw inspiration from musically and lyrically?
CG: Lyrically for me, between these two albums I’m not really a social butterfly on the internet. I am a social butterfly face to face. I’m an in person guy. I like to be in the present. So what I did was go on a bit of a hiatus. And I went back into doing things I normally do which is going back into a retrograde, back into the occult sciences. Everything I learned the last twenty years, looking through my personal life and going through a whole new process again. Breaking myself down and building myself up again. Reevaluating my feelings, thoughts and emotions. All of those aspects and theories helped me write the lyrics, which is how you do it really. And the overview of it was really a benefit because the songs really came together really quickly, one after another. I hope people get the album and with me, everything is important. The songs, the lyrics, song titles and the artwork. Everything comes into play and compliments everything else. I am a fan too and I always liked albums by bands like VOIVOD and CELTIC FROST. There is something you can remember from all of those albums. The artwork and the lyrics, certain parts people just gravitate to. Everybody is wired different and something initially pulls someones interest. When you put that attention to everything equally you give people more to get in to. I love THE WHO’s Quadrophenia and Tommy. I love RUSH and MOTORHEAD albums the same way. The details always stick out to me and what I learned, I try to apply it and give something back to the fans.
MAA: What has new guitarist VJS brought to the band?
CG: Personally I’ve known him for a little while. I knew him before Jim and Alex did I still do BLOODSTORM, but its on the shelf right now. In 2005 we did a tour when he was out on tour with KULT UV AZAZEL. We had some mutual friends like Tom King, the drummer of BLOODSTORM and they had the same friends and and I know the same people it’s like people say “Hey! I know a guy, a pretty good guy”. The thing I like about having VJS in the band is he is an occultist too. I feed off of that because he is darker natured and occult orientated like me. VJS wrote “Rust Worms” and it’s one of my favorite tracks off the album. Actually it is a very rare occasion when I write lyrics to someone else’s music. Normally I just write lyrics and try to match it to music later. But when he wrote “Rust Worms” and I heard it, I immediately wrote the lyrics based on that song and I’ve only done that a few times in my existence making metal music. And he has good live energy. I don’t like to stand in one spot, you gotta move! Like the VENOM video for “Witching Hour”. I saw that as a kid and thought that’s great and you gotta do that! VJS came into the band and he has more of that and that’s what I like. It works.
MAA: How has death metal changed from when you started to now. Is the genre better or worse today?
CG: My opinion has never changed as far as my standard goes. I still see things they way that I saw them in 1988. But the world changes and so people changed too. Sometimes you have to change with it. That’s life. I try to adapt to and somethings I refuse to adapt to. Everything these days is about time, time, time. It’s parasitic and it takes away. Everyone is so focused on getting their album out on time and keep to a schedule, tour and do this and that all. It’s all about business and I’m not a business guy. I’ll probably be damned for saying this but I’m more likely to give away our fucking merchandise than sell it. It’s the sharing of it that is more important to me. To pass those things on. Only a few few people can make enough money from their band to live off of it. For the bands that used to sell records and think they were going to make a nice living off of that, that boat sailed off the island about fifteen years ago. And the last survivors from that boat left in 1995 when the internet started to take off. The last year I went to a Milwaukee Metalfest was 2000, when people still had cool records to sell. Now everybody is in a pissing contest. Out of every four people you meet, five have a band. And of those four, one might come out to a show. But I need to roll with what I know. I’m not saying they’re wrong, but those things aren’t for me. I’m not an internet guy, but if not for the internet there might be a lot less bands or no metal. It seems like a lot of people are trying to swim to a ship that has sailed. It’s not everybody but when you go to shows a lot of people are standing there with their arms crossed, looking like their too cool for the music. It’s not everybody, but I see it.
Classic.
MAA: What are the immediate touring plans for the band?
CG: The soonest thing we have is a festival out in California with AUTOPSY. Whatever happens after that, we’ll see. I’m looking forward to another release and hoping that this albums’ energy compliments what went on with Mortal Repulsion and before that. I hope it opens up peoples interest and that leads to a third album.
We caught up recently with Therese Lance of MARES OF THRACE before their latest tour. We talked about a great many subjects and we laughed the entire time because she is hysterically funny!
A poster from their current tour. Designed by Cate Francis. www.k8bit.com
MAA: You and Stefani (MacKichan) are about to hit the road again. What should fans expect to hear?
TL: Severe irreversible hearing damage! I just upgraded to a 200 watt rig so I can already anticipate the universal cry in unison of sound guys going “Uh, can you please turn down? You are killing the room and you’re not in the mix yet!” It’s a burden I’ve shouldered all my life.
MAA: Please describe the writing process for The Moulting and how the new recording will be different?
TL: The writing process for The Moulting was that Stef and I were in a punk band for five years. Essentially we started MARES was because the bass player for the punk band was actually my sister who decided to semi-retire because she wanted to get married and have a baby. We didn’t want to replace her since she’s my sister and I lover her to pieces. So we were like ‘let’s just be a two piece.’ And we were talking about doing a slow heavy project since the early 2000s. We were hanging in our practice space and I told Stef to play some sort of off-time, sludgey, NEUROSIS-y weird beat and she did and that became “Venison” off of The Moulting and that was the first thing we ever did as a band. It’s like tourettes syndrome, it just kind of happens. That’s our writing style. (laughs)
One of 2010's best albums.
MAA: What are some of your personal influences as a musician?
TL: Musical influences? Because I’m a a big proponent of non-musical influences in music.
MAA: What ever you feel comfortable talking about.
TL: Basically I’m just trying to rewrite the album Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (laughs). I like all kinds of heavy music, but I find most all of the innovation in modern heavy music has gone to the slow and low sort of feel. The stoner-y, sludgy, doom-y style, I find is where the art has migrated to, but also all of the genuine menace. We’re all so jaded at this point. I know back in the 1970s we all thought Gene Simmons was Satan’s personal valet and now we’re all totally jaded on that shit. But I think it is in this genre that I find bands that make me go “Holy fuck! I’m terrified for my life right now.” I think that is what metal is supposed to be about.
MAA: Right. The “General Sherman” video disturbed the shit out of me! Please take me through the process of making it.
TL: See? There you go! That’s what we’re trying to do. That is what we wanted to do. See Stef and I are at a disadvantage because we are both 5-4, skinny and cute. So we have to do a bit more leg work to truly strike terror into peoples hearts when you have a battle just being born in that format. But if you found the “General Sherman” video unnerving then I know I did my job well and I can rest easy knowing I did a good job with my time on Earth. I also have a funny story about the video too. That video was done super, super D.I.Y. It was done by a buddy of ours who is a total pro, but it was all DIY and all the make up, all the costumes was stuff we had laying around. So I found that 1940′s vintage, Wednesday Addams dress which I was wearing when I was playing Stef’s demonic, Jekyll and Hyde half. And I put on my corpse paint and put my some pig tails on. And I needed to pick up a saw, some hedge trimmers and a hatchet which you will see in the video because I used it on Josh. I knew my parents had some hedge clippers so I showed up at my mom and dad’s house in that dress and corpse paint and said “Hey mom! Can I borrow a hatchet and some hedge clippers.” Of course my mom didn’t didn’t bat an eye! She was completely unfazed and at this point there is nothing I can do to weird them out anymore. (laughs) I did bring the stuff back when I was done.
Jammage Incorporated!
MAA: Do you feel MARES have an uphill battle a) as women in heavy music and b) playing an avant-garde style of metal to begin with?
TL: I consider it very much a double-edged sword. I think for every person that goes “Oh, hey cool a girl in a metal band” there will be another person that will go “Eww, girls in a metal band.” But I swear to Jesus, our lord and saviour that if we sounded exactly the way we sound, but we were four fat dudes with long beards and beer guts, there would be some people who would be into us that are not into us now. But you know, whatever. If I set out to do something that would be universally enjoyed I would’ve baked cookies and not play metal. (laughs)
MAA: How did the Revolver photo shoot happen?
TL: Let me put it this way: I knew what I was getting into. I am a totally a bitchy, humorless second-wave femenist. (laughs) I definitely debated it and soul-searched whether to do that shoot or not. A bunch of women I deeply, deeply admire have done it and also a bunch of women I deeply admire have turned it down for much of the same reasons I was uncomfortable with it. What actually made me do it was something my mom said once, when I was a teen which was “The only way you can change any system is from the inside.” So I did the shoot. I was completely clothed except for my wrists, I wore my ugliest pair of glasses and talked mostly about video games in the interview. (laughs) I’d like to think I tried to take it back. Whether or not that message came across or not, I don’t know. My buddy who writes for Decibel called me when he saw it and said to me he saw what I was doing there and he knew I did it on my own terms. And then a feminist friend of mine accused me of being un-feminist so you can’t make everyone happy.
MAA: I saw you this past spring on the road with KEN MODE. I thought your style fit perfectly with theirs. What was that experience like and are you going to work with them in the future?
TL: It’s hard to say. MARES is my baby where as KEN MODE is Jesse’s baby. My main concern is that KEN MODE has been my favorite Canadian heavy band since 2006. I feel like they have been through a number of bass players and I what they really need is someone who can put them first 100% of the time. They deserve no less than that. And that’s not really me since MARES is my number one. It was an amazing experience and if circumstances lined up, I would totally do it again.
MAA: What is the time frame for the next MARES record?
TL: We are almost done writing and hoping to record in the winter. We’re gonna get Sanford Parker to produce out next record. He is the sweetest, most wonderful person person and he digs us. And we dig his work a lot. Hopefully our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ willing, we’ll have a new record out in the spring and we will be touring next summer.
GOREAPHOBIA is back with their highly anticipated second post-hiatus record and it is a killer. Long time Killadelphia underground stalwarts, the band pillaged and rampaged the entire east coast on the strength of some tape trades and demos for years back in the late 1980′s and 90s. An old junior college friend of mine had the Omen of Masochism cassette single back in the day and I recall being just mind-jobbed by hearing it. My ears were a little too unsophisticated back then for true death music and the band broke up and went in to exile for fifteen long years. Coming back strong a few years ago with Mortal Repulsion (Ibex moon), I thought their debut full-length was solid and it was cool that they received the notoriety they long deserved. Now they have more than upped the ante on Apocalyptic Necromancy and I have to say the growth is noticeable. They are ready to unleash some sonic hell on people and I’m not even sure the old-school heads will be ready for what they are about to hear.
Raw and uncompromising right out of the starting blocks, this record is going to be a treat for fans and converts alike. The title track is first with its veritable tornado of riffs and drums. Alternating classic death styles shift and tug at the soul with ghastly vocal screams. There is a level of technical excellence heard under the din and the sound quality is produced, but definitely not too modern or overdone. There are great overtones of gloom and doom in the song created by some super textural guitar parts, tempo changes and hellish guitar solos. “Xurroth Reeth N’ves Helm” lifts off like a death metal IRON MAIDEN, complete with galloping riffs and thunderous drumming. If Satan was a WWE wrestler, this would be his entrance music! Bassist/front man Chris Gamble (BLOODSTORM/ABSU) sounds amazing on vocals with his gnarly, sneering scream. The entire band sounds really hot on the track with thrashy guitars and punishing bass lines too. The amazing ending guitar solo just got me right in the gut it was so good. Back to the grinding funeral march beats for “The Attractor” the band veers back and forth all record long from the true sound of gory days gone by while still tipping their cap to other types of metal. Another slick solo also marks this track as a can’t miss. The guitar team of mainstay Alex Bouks (INCANTATION/MASTER) and the more recent (like a few years ago) addition of VJS (KULT UV AZAZEL/NIGHTBRINGER) have made this the best lineup of the band ever. Another top track is “Void of the Larva Queen” which is a bit more technical and sounds like SUFFOCATION, MALEVOLENT CREATION or the slower stuff by OBITUARY. Drummer Jim Roe (INCANTATION) is just a beast here with his amazing poly-rhythmic style and fabulous footwork. “Void….” is perhaps the best and most gruesome cut on the entire album. “Shroud of Hyena” has a real doom feel to it with Gamble’s distorted bass lines and sick vocals adding a lot of character. The mid-song breakdown has a bit of kult black metal feeling to it too for good measure. Back up to light-speed, “Footpaths in the Vortex of Doom” is a masterpiece of evil music with complex progressions and rhythms. Other top tracks are “Darkstar Dementia”, “Igigi Reactor”, “Sigil on Death’s Hand” and the near atmospheric goth (death goth?) epic “White Wind Spectre”. This is a deep album from top to bottom of quality songs and great performances from all.
"Why yes! I'd love to meet your parents! And then kill them in the name of Satan"
New York City was invaded this month by hordes of metal heads of all kinds when CHILDREN OF BODOM brought their headline tour to town. The long running act has their own legion of fans and I have admired their devotion for the kings of Finnish thrash and trash; particularly the hero worship for front man/shredmeister general Alexi Lailho. A fairly diverse bill was a welcome surprise even though all the bands share some common musical bonds too. The venue, with its corporate shill namesake belies that coldness as one of the best places I have been to see a concert. Great stage, comfy amenities and great people make that place hum and shows usually go off without a hitch. I did write usually, didn’t I? More on that later.
OBSCURA was up first tonight. They have been traversing the globe and separating heads from bodies musically with their unique take on progressive tech death. I talked to front man Steffan Kummerer before the show and he told me how excited he was that people really love “Omnivium” so much. They opened with the lead track from that album “Seputaignt” and it was amazing. The entire band was flawless in their performance as you would expect. Kummerer and his evil twin on guitar, Christian Muezner make for an impressive team with many sweet axe skills at their disposal. They even split a dueling solo that took the track to next level status. “Anticosmic Overload” was next and it was another death and prog workout. Steffan’s vocals, which are killer on record are even more impressive in a live setting. In addition to more fine axe work, the song features some amazing bass lines performed by Linus Klausenitzer who has been their touring bassist of late. Drummer Hannes Grossman is also a standout player who seems like he can throw down on any style of music. Thrash, death metal, rock and jazz forms all come into play with the bands compositions. All of their songs are memorable while maintaining tremendous instrumental virtuosity, which is no easy feat these days. Other tracks like “Ocean Gateways”, and “Centric Flow” were also excellent to hear live as well.
SEPTIC FLESH and evil death metal=good. Overdoing the smoke machines=really bad.
Coming up next was SEPTIC FLESH and I was excited since I had never seen them before, but been a fan for while. Thick, ominous smoke filled the stage as the lights went down and the bands’ intro music played. They opened with the crushing “The Vampire from Nazareth” off of their recent opus The Great Mass (Season of Mist). The blend of tribal war drums, blast beats, classical orchestrations and black metal fury are intoxicating. However, the band is not all fire and brimstone. Their music has dynamic moments of subtlety that will stun you as they did me. Melodic guitar solos harmonize in time with piped in cellos and other strings. Front man/satanic shaman/bassist Seth Siro Anton is an amazing stage performer and charismatic at being the center of the chaos too. His vocals are even more brutal in person than on his records too. The entire band was very strong in fact as they were killing it and had a heavy fan presence in the house hanging on every note and beat. Then after beginning a new song, “Pyramid God” something weird happened about halfway through. Suddenly all the power to the stage was cut, the building fire alarms started to go off as confusion filled the club. It seems the thick smoke effects the band were using triggered the fire alarms, killed the power and effectively ended their set a few songs early. When the power did come back on the techs started to break down their gear and set up for the next band. Guitarist Sotiris Vayenas took to the microphone to apologize and thank the fans for their support. Bummer.
As the thick smoke dissipated and the set was changed over for DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT to take the stage you could feel a current of excitement fill the room again. Devin Townsend’s near cult following and status as a legend of heavy music notwithstanding, he has reinvented and re-branded himself for what seems to be the umpteenth time in his long career. His band took the stage one at a time and played a generous set for an opener mostly from his recent material. I fully expected a lot of songs from the twin releases Ghost and Deconstruction (InsideOutMusic), but they opened up with “By Your Command”. The place immediately went nuts and Devin was classy and sharp looking in his suit. A masterful guitarist and singer on a level that goes beyond mere rock and metal, Devin was the focal point of attention. His powerful voice and theatrical personality shine through in the music. Naturally there is very little he can’t do on the guitar and he makes it look so easy it’s not even fair to compare other musicians to him. The song almost has a feel to it like classical music with all of its movements and changes. Heavy and beautiful, the song was a truly epic start to things. “Truth” was next and was equally killer. The members of the band Ryan Poederooyen (drums), Brian Wadell (bass) and Mark Cimino (guitar) were excellent the entire night, but it was impossible to take my eyes off of Devin for the most part. The bookend “Om” followed in succession as usual and it was magical sounding. Devin’s little between song asides and commentary was almost equal the quality of the song lyrics. “Supercrush” came next and was also amazing to hear live again. As truly one of the most expansive and hard songs he has ever written, it is one of the musical hallmarks of this era. Not too mention Devin embodies the characters in his music like no one else I know, adding even more depth to the performance. Like many artists who have carved out a unique and singular path and then move on from that time, you always attract a few oddball fans at shows. There was a kid right near me at the rail the entire night who kept yelling out STRAPPING YOUNG LAD song titles, as if Devin would hear him and cater to this one fans wishes. I loved that music too, but this is where he is in his life now and although the music is surely a different vibe, it is still excellent and worthy of full respect. Featuring another one of his most accomplished songs, “Kingdom” from his Physicist album is truly a masterpiece. Wrapping things up with “Stand” and “Juular” from Deconstruction he ended a breathtaking set of songs that had no weak links at all. I can’t wait to catch the DTP full headline tour this fall!
DEVIN TOWNSEND is a performer with almost no equal.
Set List:
By Your Command
Truth
OM
Supercrush!
Kingdom
Stand
Juular
At last it was time for CHILDREN OF BODOM to hit the stage. Having seen them many times over the years as an opening act I had been a little worn out on the heart of the CoB set list they had been playing. I definitely saw them three times in one year play almost an identical set list. However, on this night I was excited to hear them get into a deeper, better selection of songs and the fans I think sensed it too. CoB have a ravenous following of metal fans, guitar enthusiasts and lots of chicks which made it a fun atmosphere in the club. The stage set up was interesting with tattered sheets hanging from the rafters as a nod to the bands artwork off of Relentless Reckless Forever.
Ladies love cool Alexi!
Peeling the lid off with the energetic “Not My Funeral” the band was in fine form right out of the gate. Naturally Alexi Laiho has running all over the place, soloing his little fingers off, screaming like a madman and generally causing a ruckus. The entire band always puts on a fun performance and tonight was no exception. It was fun to see them play for their own crowd for a change and everybody was singing along, head banding and moshing like crazy. Of course when the solo part came, “The Wildchild” did his thing with his trademark ESP Flying V’s held upright so he can get at all of the higher frets. The second song of the set “Bodom Beach Terror” was the first of many throwbacks on this night with tracks that represented their entire career. Thrash and death metal influenced anthems like “Needled 24/7” and “Shovel Knockout” displayed the high talents of the band. Perhaps the equal of Alexi on guitar is Roope Latvala who took several impressive solo flights himself throughout the evening. Keyboard player Jaane Wirman also plays an integral part in the BODOM sound and occasionally will play a solo too. Songs like “In Your Face”, “Living Dead Beat” and the classic band theme song from which their name came from went over big with the crowd and were among the highlights of the night. Alexi, with his lithe form often looks like a strong wind could knock him out, but he is a helluva player and watching him up close you really appreciate his skill as a tasteful shredder. At one point he complained that their light show, which was going to be very elaborate was knocked out by the earlier fiasco with the smoke and he apologized. It didn’t matter much and I thought the simplicity of the stage show actually made the music easier to enjoy. Other more popular songs like “Blooddrunk” and the semi-metal ballad “Angels Don’t Kill” provided a little breather in the set for the hessian in the pit. Although he was solid the entire night, I did feel that drummer Jaska Raatikainen had a little trouble keeping up with the tempos on the faster parts of some songs. Still, the band continues to produce catchy, yet complex music and performs it very well. Going off stage after a rousing rendition of “Downfall” they took an extended few minutes break leaving us in the dark and the crowd chanting their name. They came back out and did a surprising three song encore much to the fans delight. “Was It Worth It?”, “Are You Dead Yet?” and the question mark-less “Hate Crew Deathroll” brought the long night to a satisfying end.
Janne Wirman shows off his new keyboard stand made of bras and thongs.
Sure, it looks ridiculous on paper: a cast which features William Shatner, Eddie Alpert, Tom Skerrit, a young John Travolta (his first film role) and, most astonishingly, Ernest Borgnine as The Devil.
Truth be told, The Devil’s Rain IS ridiculous…but it’s the best, most uproarious kind of ridiculous fun one fan have at the movies. Released in 1975 and directed by Abominable Dr. Phibes director Robert Fuest, The Devil’s Rain is an over-the-top Satanic horror film, in the vein of Rosemary’s Baby, The Omen, The Exorcist yet with an enjoyably hokey and kitschy vibe akin to a Witchfinder General or Blood On Satan’s Claw.
In the film, the Preston Family wages a holy war against Satanic priest John Corbis (Borgnine) over an occult book, hidden away in the family home. Enter tons of kick-ass special effects, Shatner’s hilarious over-acting and Ernest Borgnine spouting ram horns within the confines of a Satanic church, populated by soulless, eyeless acolytes.
The end results, while nothing less than a complete hoot, are actually quite atmospheric for the day, and don’t really deserve the derision they receive from so many critics and fans. Sure, the whole affair is completely ridiculous, yet The Devil’s Rain is delivered with such unerring seriousness, that one becomes sucked right into the plot. The opening titles alone-complete with Hieronymus Bosch artwork, Al de Lory’s creepy music and tortured moaning-are enough to set the mood perfectly, while Fuest makes sure the film is a quick moving affair, with no space or time wasted on needless exposition. The director and company even made sure to enlist to services of The Church of Satan’s Anton LaVey as ‘technical advisor,’ even giving LaVey a small role in the film!
No, The Devil’s Rain simply delivers the goods where it counts: lots of screaming, tons of pentagram and copious gooey, melty effects. Soundly blasted by critics upon its initial release, the film has since developed a cult following, and deservedly so: The Devil’s Rain is a solid, atmospheric ride with mood to spare
Blatantly over the top with their cheeky Satanic lyrics and blunt humor, Seattle’s Coven nevertheless managed to crank out a trilogy of minor thrash gems during the metal-friendly eighties.
Kicking things off was the so-dumb-it’s-brilliant debut Blessed Is the Black, featuring such notable Coven ‘classics’ as “6669,” “Rock This Church” and “Iron Dick,” this is an album which is a product of its time: an unabashedly heavy metal effort which gleefully spits in the face of censors, good taste and the PMRC alike.
Musically, Coven were never quite superstars, but instead managed to master the art of lowest common denominator songwriting; crafting tunes which were mercilessly catchy and infinitely memorable, both musically and lyrically.
“Pulsating steel, protrudes from my thighs/She who spreads is she who dies/Long as my arm/Five times as thick/You’ll die at the end of my iron dick”
Indeed, it was such lovely couplets for which Coven quickly became known, despite the relative unassuming nature of their appearance and stage show. Nope, this was a bare bones thrash act, carved from the Metallica mode, who simply wore cut off tees and jeans for their obscure live performances, yet who proudly flew the flag for Father Satan at every chance.
“Six-six-sixty-nine/Copulation with a corpse/Demons rape her rotting hole/Fucked and left to die”
Despite Coven’s brash attitude and ballsy songwriting, Blessed is the Black is notable for featuring a duo of surprisingly melodic ballads, “Out of the Grave” and “Another Life,” both of which served as nice respites from the band’s otherwise high-octane thrash metal. This balance of melody and aggression placed Coven straight in between the simplicity of Accept and the rising Bay Area technical scene.
Of course, the band simply had to balance these niceties out with what is probably one of Coven’s best known tracks, the sublime, praise-worthy idiocy of “McDonaldland Massacre.” Based upon headlining real events, the track bursts out with the now-classic opening line of “McDEATH!” before laying waste to listeners with the following, legendary line:
“Quarter-Pounder, Big Mac, Filet-o-Fish and fries/It doesn’t matter what you order/Everybody dies!”
I mean, you can’t make this stuff up, people.
Blessed Is the Black remains a highly listenable piece of 80s thrash; something which was repeated once again-although in admittedly lesser display-on 1989′s Death Walks Behind You, a comparatively more ‘serious’ affair which amped up Coven’s collective demonic persona, perhaps due to the oncoming death metal onslaught of the time. Regardless, such as tracks as “Succubus,” Ted Bundy,” “Too Late to Pray,” and “Silent Night (Violent Night)” were solid sophomore tracks.
As if realizing which side their bread was buttered on, 1993′s super-heavy Boneless Christian piled high the humor, although the album was still littered with anti-religious references. Still, by this point the joke had worn a bit thin, and such songs as “Christsycle,” “The Master’s Tool” and “Just Add Violence” seemed penned from a band who were grasping out at stylistic straws, perhaps also seeking to corner a bit of Exodus’ market at the same time. Only “Satanic As Hell” and “Fuckin’ a Nun” really held up to prior Coven benchmarks, and this was really only due to the, once again, completely ridiculous lyrics and delivery of singer Jay Clark.
That was all she wrote from Coven. The quintet disappeared into obscurity after this third record, presumably to lead normal lives and start their own (Satanic) families. Nothing has been heard from the members since, with only unassuming archive You Tube footage serving as a reminder that this strange thrash band even existed.
It’s sort of a shame, really, because Jay Clark in particular possessed (pun intended) a uniquely powerful shout; an crazed, appealing presence which lent his Satanic-As-Hell bandmates in Coven just the right magic to rise above the legions of forgotten thrash also-rans. Rest in pieces, boys.
“Blessed are the wicked/Cursed are the weak/Atheian rising/Tormenting the meek/Our numbers on a constant rise/We turn to the attack/We prey upon the old and weak/Blessed is the black”
