Interviews Archives - Page 78 of 104

AN NCS INTERVIEW: AYE-AYE

Jul 212015

(We have Comrade Aleks to thank for yet another interesting interview, this time with the vocalist/bassist for Scotland’s Aye-aye.)

Cool name, cool art-work, and a bunch of cool songs – what else do you need? Aye-aye are a band from Glasgow, Scotland. I like Scotland, I like animals, I like good doom, so that’s another exciting prize with which I was rewarded after another session of researches in Metal-Archives.

How many bands do you know who have the same name as a weird-looking lemur from Madagaskar?! I bet that this one is first of this kind for most of us! Prepare to get your foot tapping or your head nodding, Iain “Spawn” (vocals, bass) is here right after his nightshift. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: GRIFTEGÅRD

Interviews 3 Responses »

Jul 172015

(A day late because of my own screw-up, here’s the second of three interviews we have this week from Comrade Aleks — and today he talks with Ola Blomkvist of Sweden’s Griftegård.)

“G” is for Graveyard in English. “G” is for Griftegård in Swedish, and it means the same thing, I swear! So Griftegård is a universal name for any really heavy band. This one was born in 2004 in the Swedish city of Norrköping, “Swedish Manchester”, as it’s said.

The band’s main features were crushing and depressive doom metal and lyrics dealing with Christian images and their interpretation. Well, it’s a strong combination and it works well if you have no prejudice. But what kind of prejudice can we talk about, considering the world of professional heavy music?

Griftegård had only one weak point – for ten years of the band’s existence they had only one full-length album, Solemn Sacred Severe, but good news came in April 2015, as I discovered that Ván Records is going to release something new from these men. What kind of news are they ready to share? Ola Blomkvist, the band’s mastermind, is here to tell us. Continue reading »

AN INTERVIEW WITH MOREAN — PART 3: ALKALOID

Interviews 3 Responses »

Jul 162015

Photos accompanying this interview by Christian Martin Weiss

(Andy Synn had the chance to interview the Dutch artist Morean about the three bands in which he is currently involved — Dark Fortress, Noneuclid, and Alkaloid. We’ve divided the interview into three parts, which will appear on three successive days. Today’s focus is Alkaloid. Check out Part 1 here and Part 2 here.)

All jokes aside, all three of the bands discussed in this interview have a certain “Progressive” edge to them (though I’m trying not to over-use that word if at all possible) – Dark Fortress are a Black Metal band, and Noneuclid tend (at least in my mind) towards the Thrash-y end of the Metal spectrum. However your latest band, Alkaloid, is probably the most Progressive AND the most Death Metal focussed group of the lot. Was this something you were always aiming for?

M: You put your finger right on it. Not everyone in Dark Fortress and Noneuclid is equally into Death Metal and shred orgies. And despite all the artistic freedom we take in those bands, there were quite some things Alkaloid wanted to do that would never have fit with the other bands, and I think the same is true for Obscura. So we wanted to give it one last shot to start something fresh from the beginning, where we have complete freedom to do what we want without having to fit our ideas into 10 or 20 year old band concepts – even if they’re our own. In my own artistic development, I feel that with Alkaloid many things that have been growing in the other bands finally are falling into place. And the personnel in Alkaloid [Linus Klausenitzer, Danny Tunker, Hannes Grossmann, Christian Münzner] are very inspiring, there are very few limits to how far the composers in the band can go. It’ll be exciting to see where this band will end up going in the future. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: POHJOINEN

Interviews 3 Responses »

Jul 152015

(Our Russian friend Comrade Aleks has been a busy man, and we’ve got a string of new interviews from him that we’re posting from now to the end of this week — beginning with this conversation with Finland’s Pohjoinen.)

Pohjoinen means “North”, but this Finnish band doesn’t play black or death metal, as they follow the path of authentic doom. Pohjoinen are Kimmo (bass, vocals), R (drums), and Tumppi (guitars, vocals); this power-trio chooses an old school approach, preferring a groovy and heavy sound with melodic vocals and Finnish lyrics. I like bands who keep their national identity, so I was really glad to find Pohjoinen, and this telepathic interview with the band’s collective mind is a result of this discovery.

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Hail mates! How are you there? First, Pohjoinen’s self-titled LP was released two months ago. How did you come to it? What was your road to this record?

Hail you, hail to all! We have been together for 2 years with this line-up, and the record has been slowly manifesting itself through that time. Our bass player Kimmo recorded it at our rehearsal place in the spring of last year, and he also did the mixing/mastering. Some songs were older than that — from a previous incarnation of the band. Continue reading »

AN INTERVIEW WITH MOREAN — PART 2: NONEUCLID

Interviews 4 Responses »

Jul 152015

(Andy Synn had the chance to interview the Dutch artist Morean about the three bands in which he is currently involved — Dark Fortress, Noneuclid, and Alkaloid. We’ve divided the interview into three parts, which will appear on three successive days. Today’s focus is Noneuclid. Check out Part 1 here and Part 3 here.)

Moving on to talk about your work in Noneuclid, which also includes your Dark Fortress band-mates Seraph and V. Santura, along with Linus from Obscura/Alkaloid, and recently departed vocalist Bruce. For those unfamiliar with the band, can you give us some background on the group?

M: We started as a group of friends playing covers together once a year. I had just graduated from the conservatory and was looking for an outlet for my metal-related ideas, and we had way too much fun playing together, so after a while we decided to make Noneuclid a more permanent outfit. That was back in 2004. I set out to write the first album with just the wish in mind to have a few songs to play; little did we suspect they’d be perceived as being this unusual. To us, it was just metal to begin with, but then things went off on a pretty wild tangent with everything that ensued in the years after. Continue reading »

AN INTERVIEW WITH MOREAN — PART 1: DARK FORTRESS

Interviews 8 Responses »

Jul 142015

(Andy Synn had the chance to interview the Dutch artist Morean about the three bands in which he is currently involved — Dark Fortress, Noneuclid, and Alkaloid. We’ve divided the interview into three parts, which will appear on three successive days. Today’s focus is Dark Fortress. Check out the next two parts here and here.)

So, first of all, I just want to say thank you for agreeing to answer these questions for me/us. Both Venereal Dawn and Metatheosis were amongst my favourite albums from last year, and it’s looking very likely that The Malkuth Grimoire will end up in my top ten at the end of 2015 too.

Now, obviously I’m a big fan of all the bands you’re involved in, so this is probably going to be a pretty long and in-depth interview, but let’s start with a simple question… how the hell do you find the time for all of this?

Morean: Thanks for the compliments! How do I find time? Well – I don’t. I have to steal whatever time I put into one band, commission, or project from all the other bands and projects. It’s a problem almost everyone in all these bands has, and it’s getting worse. It’s also the reason why it takes years sometimes before a band is able to get into the studio or back on the road. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: RUNAR PETTERSEN (INFERNO FESTIVAL)

Interviews 1 Response »

Jul 132015

(Andy Synn interviews Runar Pettersen, press manager of the long-running Inferno Festival, which has been staged in Oslo, Norway, since 2001.)

To start with, I wonder if you’d be able to give our readers a bit of a condensed history and background to the festival, as I don’t always like to assume everyone who comes to our site necessarily knows the ins and outs of the festival scene, particularly in Europe. So when/why did the festival start, who was involved, what were the early years like?

It started out as a two day festival in 2001. The festival boss, Jan-Martin, used to run a small club called Mars here in Oslo, and used to book bands there. He wanted to book Borknagar for a gig (after he ran into guitarist Jens F. Ryland one day), and when they were looking into dates for the show, there happened to be an open spot on Easter at Rockefeller. So from this Borknagar gig came the idea to turn it into a two-day festival. There weren’t any similar festivals back then, only much smaller or much larger outdoor festivals, so it was very unique. Only Norwegian bands played the first year and, when it turned out to be a success, it was all set to continue on the next year. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ORPHANS OF DUSK

Interviews 2 Responses »

Jul 082015

(Comrade Aleks brings us this interview with multi-instrumentalist James Quested and vocalist Chris G of Orphans of Dusk from New Zealand and Australia.)

Orphans of Dusk is a gothic doom metal project from the part of the world where all is upside down! So if you are scarred by the term “gothic” itself, maybe this time you will find something more attractive in this genre.

There are no female tears and violins on the first Orphans of Dusk EP Revenant, which was released by Hypnotic Dirge Records and Solitude Productions on the 4th of May. Revenant is a brief but highly replete album: Monolithic riffs, growls, and deep clean vocal lines along with airy keyboards help to support an intense, somber, and solemn atmosphere all along these four songs.

Welcome our friends from Australia and adopt the sorrow and grief they’ve composed for Revenant. James Quested (guitars, synths, bass) and Chris G (vocals) clarify some aspects of Orphans of Dusk’s life in this interview. Continue reading »

GODLESS ANGEL INTERVIEWS VICTORY RECORDS STAGE ARTISTS FROM THE ROCKSTAR ENERGY DRINK MAYHEM FESTIVAL

Interviews 3 Responses »

Jul 072015

(Our friend Derek “Godless Angel” Neibarger brings us this series of interviews with four bands who will be performing on the Victory Records Stage at this year’s edition of the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival.)

Unless you’ve been living under a rock you’re almost certainly aware that the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival has once again returned this summer. This year’s edition features thirteen bands and the knockout punch of dual headliners Slayer and King Diamond. The festival has twenty-six stops between June 26th and August 2nd, and if you’re lucky enough to score tickets to one of those shows I am insanely envious.

My son and I attended our first, and so far only, Mayhem festival several years ago when Slayer also headlined along with Slipknot. It was an amazing experience that included three stages for an all-day-long barrage of metal, a glorious overabundance of merch booths, food, and meet-and-greets. We got to meet Shawn Crahan of Slipknot, grabbed some killer t-shirts, and banged our heads to the point of exhaustion. It was also an amazing social experience, as we were met with friendly smiles and lively conversation from excited metalheads throughout the entire day. We left the festival swearing we would be regular attendees from that day forward, but sadly the tour has skipped the Kansas City area ever since.

That hasn’t stopped me from following the news of every Mayhem tour. I eagerly await the line-up announcement each year and I eat up every fan footage video to hit YouTube as the festival carves a path of destruction from coast to coast. For 2015 the second stage has been dubbed the Victory Records Stage and features nine artists from the Victory roster. I was offered the opportunity to send a few questions to a handful of Victory artists as they prepared to hit the road. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ALTARS OF GRIEF (EVAN PAULSON)

Interviews 4 Responses »

Jul 062015

(Comrade Aleks brings us this interview with Evan Paulson of Saskatchewan’s Altars of Grief, whose fantastic new song from their split with Nachtterror we premiered here not long ago.)

The official press-release of Canadian label Hypnotic Dirge Records announces with justified enthusiasm: “This summer, Altars of Grief and Nachtterror — two Saskatchewan-based Blackened Doom bands — will collaborate on a new split vinyl with new material from each band. The vinyl split, entitled Of Ash and Dying Light is set to be released worldwide in a limited edition 10″ vinyl, as well as digital, on Hypnotic Dirge Records in early August!”

Well, I have not too much to add – you already heard a song from this split as Islander shared it with NCS readers a few days ago through “An NCS premiere” section, so I’ll just give a floor to Evan Paulson, Altars of Grief’s guitarist. Continue reading »

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