AN NCS INTERVIEW: DAVID GEHLKE

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Dec 042025
 


photo by Shane Mayer

(We are thrilled to present Comrade Aleks’ interview of metal journalist David Gehlke —  because it’s such a great discussion with such an experienced, articulate, and humble documenter of metal history. The ultimate focus is his new fully authorized biography of Chuck Schuldiner published by Decibel Books, but the conversation delves into many of Gehlke’s other important works as well.)

David E. Gehlke has been researching the metal underground and its suburban vicinities since 2002, and if you’re old enough, then you may have read his publications in Throat Culture, Snaggletooth and Metal Maniacs. Nowadays he’s better known for his collaboration with Dead Rhetoric and Blabbermouth as well as being the author of a few books. The titles of Damn the Machine – The Story of Noise Records and The Scott Burns Sessions – A Life in Death Metal speak for themselves, and the biographies of Paradise Lost and Obituary were something that needed to be written.

David keeps a good creative pace, and this year he released the authorized biography of Death’s founder – Born Human: The Life and Music of Chuck Schuldiner. We have prepared an extensive interview with David, so without wasting any time, I invite you to join our conversation. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: DEAD AND DRIPPING

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Nov 272025
 

(New Jersey-based Dead and Dripping has created macabre musical intersections of sounds that are ghastly, putrid, bludgeoning, and malicious, but also machine-precise, head-spinning, and dazzling – in a very demented way. Their new album will be released tomorrow by Transcending Obscurity Records, and that provided the impetus for Zoltar to reach out for the following interview with D&D’s mainman Evan Daniele.)

There are fucked up death metal bands. And there are REALLY fucked up death metal bands. Dead And Dripping defo deserves to be on the latter top list. Initially ‘just’ a solo project by Sentient Horror’s Evan Daniele who’s never hidden his love of death metal the brutal way, one could have easily expected the result to be on the same basic-and-brOOtal wave-length as, say, Putrid Pile or Insidious Decrepancy, just to cite two early 00s prime examples of one-man-brutality.

But as soon as his debut – first digitally, then on CD format through France’s Percussive Spectre – Profane Verses Of Murderous Rhetoric dropped, we realized that as in Matrix, instead of choosing between the blue or the red pill, Daniele went for both and thus, opened a doorway to some psychedelic, twisted, and, well, truly fucked up parallel universe. And if you thought his first three albums sounded like Demilich or Timeghoul heavily tripping on acid through a brutal death metal vortex, wait until you hear the new one, Nefarious Scintillations.

Turn on, tune in, drop out, and get blasted. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: SECOND TO SUN

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Nov 202025
 

(Today we present Comrade Aleks’ wide-ranging interview of the very busy Russian musician and producer Vladimir Lehtinen, and we’ll let Aleks introduce it.)

Vladimir Lehtinen is a one-man army, as he has managed not only to rule one of the most prolific and exemplary Russian black metal bands, Second to Sun, but also stay as one of the organizers of an annual festival of extreme music known as T’ma Fest (Darkness Fest) and to keep on working as a sound engineer who has mixed and mastered dozens of metal albums.

Second to Sun remains Vladimir’s main outfit, and together with Theodor Borovski (drums) and the Sysoev brothers from cult bands Grima and Ultar, he manages to keep the balance between quality and the quantity of music he produces. The band’s most up-to-date release is the EP Thunderbolt, which you may have heard as it was out in February 2025; yet you need no special reason to make an interview with such a man, as Vladimir, being deeply involved in the underground, has a lot to tell. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: SLAUGHTERDAY

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Nov 182025
 

(The German death metal band Slaughterday signed with a new label, Testimony Records, and their first release for Testimony (which will be out on November 21st) turns out to be something different from what you might expect. We’ll let Zoltar explain, just before he dives into a discussion with Slaughterday bassist/guitarist Jens Finger.)

When former Obscenity guitar player Jens Finger caught up with his old friend Bernd Reiners to go see Autopsy play at the Party San Festival on August 13th 2010, the pair quickly realized that the song title “Slaughterday“ off the classic Mental Funeral album performed that night would make a great band name.

Since then, besides setting a live line-up to play shows around their native Germany, the two have laid out four great albums of doomish old school death metal in between 2013 and 2022. After over a decade on FDA Records, Slaughterday have just signed a brand-new contract with Testimony Records (Deserted Fear, Carnal Tomb, Leper Colony). Yet, as suggested by its cover artwork (a spoof of the mighty Horrified album), the very first result of this new alliance ain’t exactly what you would have expected from those guys.

Instead of their usual downtuned catchy style, Terrified turns out to be a four-tracks, nine minutes, in-your-face grindcore EP, but the kind of grindcore only metalheads raised in the ’80s on a severe diet of thrash metal and hardcore/crust could really muster. We caught up with Jens, who handles guitar and bass in the studio, to see if this was just a spur of the moment thing or an indication of a sudden change of heart… Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ACHATHRAS

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Nov 132025
 

(In September Cult Never Dies released the debut album by the mysterious black metal band Achathras. It impressed our Comrade Aleks (as it did others around here) and he sought an interview, which was granted. As you’ll discover below, it resulted in a very interesting and very articulate discussion.)

Although Cult Never Dies has earned a reputation in the book publishing industry, they couldn’t resist the temptation to support the scene as comprehensively as possible, occasionally releasing and reissuing interesting thematic releases. The debut album of anonymous project Achathras is surprisingly competent and exciting as it sticks to the canons of such iconic ’90s black metal bands as Abigor, Emperor, and Old Man’s Child. The trio consists of Eidolon Drakh, Malefic Orator, and Vorthol, whose identities are hidden.

Their debut A Darkness of the Ancient Past radiates uncompromising determination, controlled aggression, and it’s full of cold melodicism covered with mystic atmosphere. The high quality of this material is explained by the fact that its members are experienced musicians, and no, I didn’t aim to uncover their names, so this interview with Eidolon (probably) is focused mostly on Achathras’ music and spirit in wider sense.

Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: CZART

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Nov 062025
 

(Not long ago code666 released a concept album by the Polish band Czart that’s rooted in medieval Polish demonology. It attracted the attention of our Comrade Aleks, who succeeded in conducting the following extremely interesting (and undoubtedly controversial) interview with Czart founder Michał Chrościelewski.)

On October 17th code666 presented a debut album Czarty Polskie by the Polish project Czart. The project’s crew is Michał Chrościelewski (probably guitars and something else), Paweł Smarkusz (drums), and Monika (vocals/keyboards), but I’m not sure, as the album and all videos to its songs were made with the help of IA.

Yes, it’s one of Czart’s cornerstones, and it’s ironic as Czart (or “tchort”) means a minor demon in Slavic tradition, and the entire album is based on Czary i czarty polskie oraz wypisy czarnoksięskie (“Polish Witchcraft and Devils, with Sorcery Excerpts”), “a 1924 book by renowned Polish writer Julian Tuwim”. And besides that, Czart is an “audio-visual” project, and almost each track has its own video, and you need to see them first before you judge. Who would use cutting-edge technologies to transfer an atmosphere of ancient deviltry and folklore? Yet here we go.

You see, what a contradiction we meet in starting a talk about Czart? This interview (a damn worthwhile reading thing) shows a deep artistic philosophy behind Czarty Polskie, an album you will talk about even to your colleagues at work. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: GREEN CARNATION

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Oct 302025
 


Photos by Lars Gunnar Liestøl

(In September Season of Mist released a new album by the Norwegian progressive metal band Green Carnation, the first album in a three-album trilogy. Below you’ll find Comrade Aleks’ interview with the band’s vocalist Kjetil Nordhus, a discussion that delves into both the new album and the status of the ones to come.)

Initially, the name of the Norwegian band Green Carnation was firmly associated with its founder, Terje Vik Skye, better known as Tchort. He already had a reputation for his work with Emperor, and his new project, at the intersection of doom metal and prog rock, broke the mold. A series of successful albums in the 2000s earned Green Carnation a reputation as an artistic, emotional band with a keen eye for good melodies and well-developed ideas, so their departure from the scene in 2007 was not taken lightly.

However, Green Carnation returned ten years ago, and after a long hiatus, they released not just a new album, but the first part of a trilogy—the progressive and melancholic A Dark Poem Part I: The Shores of Melancholia. The band’s vocalist, Kjetil Nordhus, agreed to shed light on some details of this release, and the opportunity was unmissable. However, not everything is ideal in this world, and the interview could have appeared a few weeks earlier, but the situation was out of my hand. So here we go. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ONYX RECORD PRESS

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Oct 292025
 

(We’re living in an era of resurgent demand for vinyl records, but one now marked by pressing-plant delays and challenging costs. Friend of the site Jon Rosenthal provides a vivid glimpse inside the business and technology of pressing vinyl through the following interview of two people involved in starting up and operating the LA-based vinyl plant ONYX.)

Opening a record pressing plant takes loads of effort. The record pressing process itself is an intense mix of humanpower, expertise, and correct, necessary machinery – now, make a facility dedicated to that craft, staff it, and get all that machinery. Losing your patience yet? Luckily, the newer LA-based pressing plant ONYX has taken on this process as part of an emerging wave of new US pressing plants. In a new interview, two of ONYX’s proprietors – musicians Moe Espinosa and Surachai – answer questions about the record pressing process, as well as what drove them to open a plant of their own. You can learn more about ONYX at their website. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: NAEVUS

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Oct 232025
 

(No secret, our Comrade Aleks favors doom above all other metal, and he shows special warmth for the the long-lived German band Naevus in the interview we now present with their vocalist Uwe Groebel, occasioned by the band’s new album Back Home.)

Thanks to Naevus‘ album Sun Meditation (1998), the band is remembered and revered among the more zealous fans of the European and especially German doom scene, alongside bands like Dawn of Winter and Mirror of Deception. Cathedral frontman Lee Dorian once praised the traditional and surprisingly human Sun Meditation, so the album was released on his own label, Rise Above.

This didn’t prevent Naevus from breaking up, and they only returned to the fold in 2012. Their fresh release Back Home is only the band’s third album, but the foursome has lost neither their dexterity nor their inspiration, so even the nine-year hiatus between this release and its predecessor Heavy Burden hasn’t affected the quality of the material.

Naevus continue to impress with their traditional and melodic heavy doom, which most of all invites comparisons to Trouble as a whole and their vocalist Eric Wagner (may he rest in peace) separately as part of his solo project Blackfinger. But while the voice of Naevus vocalist Uwe Groebel’s truly evokes Wagner’s vulnerability, his humanity, the instrumental side of Back Home is their strong part as well. The album boasts plenty of catchy riffs, haunting vocal melodies, and elegant guitar passages, evenly spaced throughout each song.

Naevus managed to get through all obstacles and recorded the new songs with the same lineup which worked on Sun Meditation a quarter of a century ago: Sven Heimerdinger (bass, vocals), Mathias Strauf (drums), Oliver Grosshans (guitars), and Uwe Groebel (vocals, guitars). And you know what? We done an interview with Uwe recently. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: GRILO DO DEMO

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Oct 222025
 

(The eyes and ears of Moonsorrow fans should perk up today because of the following interview Comrade Aleks has brought us, the principal subject of which is a new book about the band based on extensive interviews of Moonsorrow’s members. Aleks will introduce the author.)

I hadn’t heard of Grilo do Demo, but Moonsorrow fans are likely familiar with his unofficial and, at the time, fairly detailed biography of the band, which he consistently posted online about fifteen years ago. An enthusiastic journalist, he wrote for a couple of webzines until he met Leo Aragon, who had the idea of ​​making a documentary about Moonsorrow, using that very biography as a basis.

The band was ready to meet him halfway, and the friends and a couple of like-minded individuals traveled to Finland, where they conducted extensive video interviews with the musicians and those involved on the spot. The film’s production stalled at some moment, and you’ll know why from this interview… However, such valuable material, of course, was unlikely to lose its relevance, and the movie’s crew didn’t want to waste the momentum, so over time, they agreed that the footage could supplement Grilo‘s biography. The rest, as they say, is history…

What do we have now? As Cult Never Dies, the publisher, states: Home of the Waves: Conversations with Moonsorrow is a substantial 388-page hardback, featuring a 24-page colour photo gallery and a total of 150 images, most of which have never been seen before. You can pre-order it, and if you’re really into this, here’s the interview with Grilo himself. Continue reading »

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