Interviews Archives - Page 70 of 107

AN NCS INTERVIEW: DRAGONAUTA (LUCIEN KURGAN)

Sep 022016

all photos by Gimena Cuenca

(Comrade Aleks has been interviewing again, and brings us this new conversation with Argentina’s devilish Dragonauta.)

Dragonauta is a satanic extravaganza band from the edge of the world – Buenos Aires to be precise. They’ve been doing their evil deals since 1999 but after four full-length occult works only one founding member is left – the guitarist Daniel Libedinsky. He’s the author of most of their sinister riffs.

Three years have passed since Dragonauta released the Omega Pentagram album, a collection of savage and satanic stoner doom tracks. Today Daniel with renewed and a strengthened lineup continues to do his work finishing the fifth album, and Lucien Kurgan (vocals, bass) brings the news about it. He promises further mutations of Dragonauta’s sound, so let’s hear some details of it. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: THEORY IN PRACTICE

Interviews 6 Responses »

Aug 312016

(We present Austin Weber’s interview of the Swedish band Theory In Practice, with news about a new release, among other things.)

Some of you all may recall that legendary Swedish progressive death metal band Theory In Practice became active again last year and put out a – comeback, Evolving Transhumanism, which I covered here at NCS. As an über-Theory In Practice fan/geek, I had planned to follow up that post by interviewing the band about their unexpected return, but that got delayed due to my dumb brain forgetting to make it happen. But finally our brief interview was conducted, and here’s your chance to catch up on all things Theory In Practice related!

*Questions 1-6 were answered by Andreas Lyngmo (vocals) and Question 7 was answered by Peter Lake (Guitar/Bass),, with both joining in the answer to No. 3. Continue reading »

INTERVIEW: ANDREAS VINGBÄCK (GRÁ, DARK FUNERAL)

Interviews 4 Responses »

Aug 292016

Photo by David Kareketo

(John Sleepwalker of Avopolis returns to NCS as we share his interview of Andreas “Heljarmadr” Vingbäck, mainman of the Swedish black metal villains known as Grá.)

Sweden’s Grá is a notorious black metal outfit that makes no compromises in aesthetic, despite a subtle evolution unfolding one step at a time. They form the kind of entity that’s hopelessly marked for Death, but Death is only a part of their evolution, according to a rather interesting interview with their mainman Andreas “Heljarmadr” Vingbäck.

It is now obvious that their latest opus, Ending, simply marks the final part of their Charon suite, as well as a crossroad towards new, unexplored territories. The band is already looking forward to hitting the road to promote their latest album, by scheduling a short European tour consisted of seven dates in total. Here is the schedule, followed by the interview: Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: HAUNTED

Interviews 3 Responses »

Aug 252016

(Comrade Aleks returns to NCS with another interesting interview. This time he talks with the Italian band Haunted.)

Haunted appeared in Italian Catania recently, and Twin Earth Records has already released their self-titled debut album. I was lucky enough to get it beforehand, and I must tell you – it’s something! Take Windhand stoner doom and crop their endless monotonous riffs, retaining those hypnotic female vocals and overall compositional frame; then add some charms and… and whatever else Haunted puts into their songs?… Yes, I had to find out their secret ingredients and I welcome you to share the pleasure of digging deeper in the Haunted territories. The whole band is here to tell about their brand new work. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: SOLSTICE (PAUL KEARNS)

Interviews 3 Responses »

Aug 092016

(Our Russian interviewing fiend Comrade Aleks is back, this time presenting a conversation with Paul Kearns, vocalist of the British band Solstice.)

Solstice is a kind of unique phenomenon of the British doom scene. Being raised in 1990, the band built their reputation with two excellent professional albums, Lamentations (1994) and New Dark Ages (1998), and also with the extreme slowness with which Solstice write new songs. You’ll easily understand the situation if you remember that the band’s only original member today is the guitarist Richard M. Walker, who’s an incorrigible perfectionist. However, since 1998 the band have released a pair of splits and a bunch of compilations, though there were also demos and one EP recorded in 2013 (Death’s Crown Is Victory) with Paul Kearns on vocals.

As the band slowly strides toward their next full-length album, or maybe just to their next song, we got in contact with Paul and had a pretty cool and informative conversation, though it took some time, as does everything connected with Solstice. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ARGUS

Exceptions to the Rule, Interviews 2 Responses »

Aug 022016

(Comrade Aleks returns to NCS with this interview of Butch Balich, vocalist of the Pennsylvania heavy doom band Argus.)

Despite the Lovecraftian monstrous form of giant Argus who dwells on every artwork of this band, the Argus outfit doesn’t exactly resemble such a brutal creature. Since the year 2005 they have played a solemn and stoical blend of doom and heavy metal, bringing down on listeners stories of endurance and damnation.

The band regularly play live shows, and usually Argus do not make their listeners wait for too long before giving them some new music periodically, but three years have gone by since the release of their third full-length Beyond the Martyrs, and it’s time to ask the obvious question about new material the band has to offer. This question is well-timed, as Argus’ voice Butch Balich has some important news for you. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE (AND AN INTERVIEW): NIRNAETH — “NIHIL IN ME”

Interviews, Premieres 2 Responses »

Jul 222016

Earlier this month we reviewed an impressive new split by two experienced French bands from the black metal underground — Nirnaeth and Azziard. The split, which includes one exclusive song from each band, will be released on August 12 on 7″ vinyl by Kaotoxin Records — the first 7″ ever released by the label. Now we’re following that review with the premiere of a video for Nirnaeth’s powerful track, along with an interview of the band’s guitarist Mutill.

Nirnaeth, who took their name from the word for “Tears” in the elvish language of Sindarin from the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, began their existence roughly 15 years ago. Prior to this split, they released two albums, Thrown Athwart the Darkness in 2006 and Splendour of the Abyss in 2009. Their contribution to the split is a track called “Nihil in Me”, and it was was recorded during the pre-production process for a forthcoming third album. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: WITCHHELM (SEAN DETH)

Interviews 1 Response »

Jul 182016

(Comrade Aleks presents this interview of Sean Deth from Ohio’s Witchhelm, whose new album Dead Nights of the Moon Fear will be released on January 1, 2017 — or possibly sooner.)

Witchhelm is the gloomy and pagan doom outfit started by Sean Deth, a multi-instrumentalist who previously played in a few extreme metal bands. Sean wrote the first tunes for the project in 2012, but officially it was shown to the world in 2015. He had been in a lot of different metal bands before that, so all of his influences took form in this twisted sinister doom metal.

Two albums, one solid EP Jötunn, and a pair of singles in just two years – not bad, right? But Sean and his companions have already finished their third full-length record! Let’s go through Witchhelm’s story with Sean and find out about the rites of Conjuring and Invocations through Dead Nights of the Moon Fear!! Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: WITCHTHROAT SERPENT (NIKO LASS)

Interviews No Responses »

Jul 082016

(We present another interview by our comrade, Comrade Aleks, and this time he had a great conversation with Niko Lass of the French band Witchthroat Serpent.)

Who would introduce the band better than themselves? Nobody! And as we want to do things right, let’s start with the official press-release I got from Witchthroat Serpent: about their new album Sang-Dragon:

“Sanguis draconis is a thick, blood-red resin extracted from exotic trees. Since the dawn of time, it has uses in medicine, crafts, and of course. magic. And so is Witchthroat Serpent’s music: dark and heady as blood, weird as it would come from another world, and ridden with that old powerful magic men both used to practice and fear.

“Witchthroat Serpent was created in November 2011 in Toulouse, France, by Fredrik Bolzann (guitar/vox), Niko Lass (drums), and Lo Klav (bass), with the aim to spread occult and powerful doom metal. The self-titled first album was released on CD in 2014 by Deadlight Entertainment, soon followed by a tape version through Zanjeer Zani and on LP by US label Emetic Records the year after.”

Witchthroat Serpent is not a clone. It has its own spells, and sure knows how to use them to enthrall the listener. Morbid groove and psychedelic tunes to seduce you to your perdition. And so too is their new album Sang-Dragon (enthralling), recorded in one day at Drudenhaus studio in September 2015. First released on CD by Deadlight Ent., it will be spread on noble black wax by Svart Records on August 26th. Before that, after just returning from a successful Spanish-French tour in May, the trio appeared on stage at Crumble Fest on June 4th and will play at Motocultor Fest on August 19th.

We had a nice conversation with Niko — informative, productive and honest. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: THE SCIMITAR (DARRYL SHEPARD)

Interviews No Responses »

Jul 072016

(Comrade Aleks brings us this interview with Darryl Shepard of the bi-coastal band The Scimitar from Massachusetts.)

A scimitar is a backsword or sabre with a curved blade, originating in the Middle East. The curved sword or “scimitar” was widespread throughout the Middle East from at least the Ottoman period, with early examples dating to the Abbasid-era (9th century) Khurasan. Also, The Scimitar is a severe and dark stoner doom band from Massachusetts. It was started by Darryl Shepard (guitars, vocals) and Dave Gein (bass) when they were on hiatus from Black Pyramid. They invited Brian Banfield to play drums later as The Scimitar turned out to be their main doom project.

Crushing, sharp, and heavy, The Scimitar is a merciless weapon, but the band have been silent since their first album Doomsayer was released two years ago. I posed a few questions to Darryl to clarify the band’s current status and to go deeper into the history of The Scimitar. Continue reading »

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