AN NCS INTERVIEW: SETH VAN DE LOO (CTHULUMINATI, VOODOO GODS, EXTREME COLD WINTER, CALIGARI, ex-SEVERE TORTURE)

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Jan 052021
 

 

(As part of her continuing interview series with metal drummers, Karina Noctum has brought us the following excellent discussion with Dutch drummer and vocalist Seth van de Loo, who was a member of Severe Torture for 20 years and is currently active in a diverse group of bands consisting of Cthuluminati, Voodoo Gods, Extreme Cold Winter, and Caligari.)

 

Many thanks for granting me the interview. I have been following the dramatic situation when it comes to the surgery you had. What happened? How are you feeling nowadays?

I feel great actually, thank you. Two years ago I had an accident when coming home from work on my bicycle. A guy was right in front of me on the wrong side of the track and we crashed at full speed. It was a head against head crash so I broke my skull and there were fragments of bone they had to peel off my brain. I got lucky ’cause normally these fragments puncture the brain and do lots of damage. I had two surgeries and they were 100% — well there are a few titanium plates in there but that’s it. I had and have no pain at all ’cause the nerve was cut in half. More luck for me there. It took a long time for the second operation so I had to struggle through a year with only about 30% of my energy. Things could have been a lot worse. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: DODENKROCHT

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Dec 182020
 

 

(Comrade Aleks has brought us another very good interview, but this time it’s a rare discussion for him — with the leader of a black metal band, Dodenkrocht, albeit a band who meld elements of doom and black metal. Their latest album The Dying All was released near the end of November by Auric Records and is well worth your time and careful attention.)

Black metal never was my cup of tea. Too fast for me; my metabolism is quite slow to digest it properly. But there are always some exceptions like Dodenkrocht from Netherlands. It was started as a solo project of T. in 2004, but then it turned into a trio on Malebolge Opens (2011) and it has worked as a five-piece act since the Misery Chords (2012) album.

Now, Auric Records has released Dodenkrocht’s fourth full-length work The Dying All, an album partly based on Cormac McCarthy’s devastating novel The Road. We had a nice chat with the band’s founder T. Black metal, covid, apocalypse, black metal…. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: TAAK

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Dec 142020
 

 

(With gratitude to Comrade Aleks, as always, we bring you today his interview of two members of the Estonian band Takk, whose new album Põgenemiskatse was released in April of this year.)

Taak is a late incarnation of the first Estonian doom band, Dawn Of Gehenna (1993 – late ’90s). They returned back to Tallinn’s underground in around 2005 with almost the same lineup, song lyrics written in Estonian, and driving an updated sound. Keeping these features untouched, the men developed their approach and learnt how to extract crushing doomy tunes from their instruments with maximum efficiency.

Here is a story behind Taak’s new release Põgenemiskatse (“Attempt to Escape”), told by Mart Kalvet (vocals) and Kristjan “Christ“ Virma (keyboards, guitars). Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: MAR DE GRISES

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Dec 072020
 

 

(Comrade Aleks brings us the following interview of Sergio Álvarez, guitarist for the sadly split-up Chilean band Mar de Grises, whose albums The Tatterdemalion Express and Draining The Waterheart have recently been released by the Spanish label The Vinyl Division on vinyl format with remastered audio.)

Mar de Grises was one of most promising doom-acts from Chile since the release of their debut The Tatterdemalion Express in 2004. They presented a melodic yet aggressive version of doom death, I would compare it with Daylight Dies and Katatonia of the Brave Murder Day period, with a proper amount of keyboards parts, but actually Mar de Grises never copied anyone and their influences are wider. Their style was always recognizable because of utter melodies, progressive dynamics, math-breaks and powerful extreme vocals.

The band split-up in 2013, and its members walked their own paths, but news of the vinyl reissue of their first two albums made me get in touch with Mar de Grises‘ ex-guitarist Sergio Álvarez and complete a short interview. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: BRETWALDAS OF HEATHEN DOOM

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Nov 262020
 

 

(Comrade Aleks returns to NCS with a new interview, and this time his conversation partner is Sceot Acwealde of the fascinating British band Bretwaldas Of Heathen Doom.)

Bretwaldas Of Heathen Doom (England) has acted as a duet since 2001. Dagfari Wartooth performs bass and vocals, and Sceot Acwealde does drums, guitars and vocals as well. Blackened war pagan doom metal with a straight-in-your-face delivery – once that would have summed up their legacy, though the band’s sound has varied from their first album Droner (2003) ’til Seven Bloodied Ramparts (2010).

Bretwaldas literally disappeared from the radars after that latter release, and only the compilation Bones In The Ground (2015) served as a reminder of their savage legacy. Some time ago I lost hope, stopped watching for the band, and naturally missed their EP Kingdom Of Killers released in May 2020. Well, all of us had a lot of things to care for in May 2020, right? But it’s time to put things right and we’re here to know everything that you wanted to learn about Bretwaldas Of Heathen Doom but were afraid to ask! Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: VÖLUR

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Nov 192020
 

 

(In this new interview Comrade Aleks speaks with Lucas Gadke, one of the vocalists and multi-instrumentalists in Toronto’s Völur, whose new album has just been released by Prophecy Productions.)

This trio from Ontario consists of Lucas Gadke (known as a member of psycho doom rock act Blood Ceremony), Laura Bates (of progressive folk band Iomair) and Jimmy P Lightning (from old jazzy post-rock crew Do Make Say Think). Their arsenal is quite wide as they take the bass – drums interaction and lay over it violin, viola, piano, double bass, percussion, and different sorts of vocals.

Previously Völur was usually mentioned as an “ambient folk / doom metal” band, but they seem to have entered new territories with their new EP Veiled City and the even newer LP Death Cult, which saw see the light of day on the 13th of November through Prophecy Productions. Together with Lucas we’ve made a good try to dissect this avant-garde work. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: NADER SADEK (WITH KARL SANDERS AND DEREK RODDY)

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Nov 172020
 

 

EDITOR’S NOTE: On November 20 the Egyptian metal artist Nader Sadek will release a remarkable EP named The Serapeum, which grew out of a collaboration in Egypt among Sadek, Karl Sanders (Nile), Derek Roddy (Serpents Rise), and Mahmud Gecekusu (Perversion).

The music on the EP also includes contributions by bassists Ben “Barby” Claus (Gorod) and Dominic “Forest” Lapointe (Augury) and vocalists Morean (Dark Fortress) and Shaun LaCanne (Putrid Pile), as well as Alex Zubair (Nephelium) creating eastern harmonies and drones, and Nancy Mounir adding theremin hauntings to the mix. Sadek himself recorded the vocals inside the inner chamber of Dahshur’s “Red Pyramid” (the pyramid of Snefru).

We will have the pleasure of premiering a full stream of the EP on November 19th. And today we’re presenting an interview about the EP that DJ Jet conducted with Nader Sadek, as well as a few questions she posed to Karl Sanders and Derek Roddy, and their answers. The circumstances in which the interview was conducted were unusual, and perhaps in time they will be revealed when and if it is safe to do so. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: MATALOBOS

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Nov 122020
 

 

(In this new interview Comrade Aleks spoke with Clemente Escalona, drummer for the Méxican melancholic death metal band Matalobos, who have a new album coming out soon.)

 

We had a conversation with Matalobos about three years ago (published here). Back then these guys from Guanajuato had released the EP Until Time Has Lost All Meaning, which was the follow-up to their debut full-length Arte Macabro (2016). And though there weren’t changes in the lineup, Matalobos took their time and meditated over new melodic doom death tunes for some time. Now they’re ready to reveal the result of their work to listeners, and the release date of their new album The Grand Splendour of Death is set for December 4th.

We’ve discussed the new album with the band’s drummer Clemente Escalona alongside a few other topics. Covid-quarantine is at the first place, as always. Continue reading »

AN INCS INTERVIEW: POEMA ARCANVS

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Nov 062020
 

 

(In this new interview our friend Comrade Aleks talks with guitarist Igor Leiva Benavides, one of the members of the Chilean band Poema Arcanvs, whose roots go back to the ’90s and who released their sixth album in August through Transcending Obscurity Records.)

Santiago-based doom-death band Poema Arcanvs was born back in early 90s. They played some raw ideas under the monikers Garbage and Garbage Breed beginning in 1992 and until 1997 when they changed the band’s name to the one we know nowadays. South America was always a dark corner for doom fans, and I can name you two-dozen bands or even more which were born in the same period and remained in the deepest underground for years. Poema Arcanvs is another thing. They aren’t hyper-productive, but they were always somewhere near recording and releasing new material.

Their sixth full-length album Stardust Solitude saw the light of day on the 28th of August, 2020, according to Transcending Obscurity Records’ schedule. They kept their mark of delivering excellent sorrowful and epic doom death with a few raw edges as always, and this time Enzo Toledo granted Poema Arcanvs really killer artwork!

As a Poema Arcanvs member since its first days, Igor Leiva Benavides (guitars) is the right person to ask about Stardust Solitude and things which happen around the band nowadays. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: PULCHRA MORTE (JARRETT PRITCHARD)

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Nov 042020
 


photo by Jeremy Miller

 

(Wil Cifer, who usually contributes reviews to our site, brought us this new interview with Jarrett Pritchard of the death/doom band Pulchra Morte, whose second full-length, Ex Rosa Ceremonia, will be released on November 6th by Transcending Records.)

I caught up with Jarrett Pritchard guitarist of Pulchra Morte (also in Eulogy, Brutality) to discuss the making of and inspiration behind their new album Ex Rosa Ceremonia and making music in these pre-apocalyptic times. The band’s line-up also includes Adam Clemans (Skeletonwitch, Wolvhammer), John Porada (Wolvhammer, Abigail Williams), Clayton Gore (Eulogy, Harkonin), and Jeffrey Breden (Leagues Below)

******

The new album drops in a few days, on the 6th. I know you have two new members for this album. Did this occur before or after the writing process for the album was under way?

After framed out. Jeff the other guitarist is our riff machine. He posts them on a server for Clay and I to structure. From there we throw it back and forth . So they came in with this canvas under way. We did not want talking heads, and wanted them to of course write their own parts to it. Continue reading »

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