AN NCS INTERVIEW: ESOTERIC’S GREG CHANDLER

 Interviews  5 Responses »
Dec 032014
 

 

There are some bands for whom you need no long introduction. British extreme death/doom metal band Esoteric is one of those. In this interview, which was kindly offered to us by Evita Hofmane and Haralds Strapans of the Latvian P3lican e-zine, Esoteric’s guitarist and vocalist Greg Chandler speaks about life and music being two inseparable things.

 

In the beginning there was Word, and the Word was Esoteric. Your band has existed for more than 20 years now. Maybe let’s start with a short overview – what is Esoteric?

Esoteric formed in July 1992.  We released our first demo in the summer of 1993, which led to a recording deal with Aesthetic Death records.  Our first album was released in autumn 1994 and the band has remained active to this day.  Now in our 22nd year, we have released 6 albums (4 of which are double albums).  Our music has progressed and evolved over time, but the main essence and direction has remained the same.  To create, dark, unique music and soundscapes without any limitations in mind. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: BEN PAKARINEN (COPROLITH)

 Interviews  2 Responses »
Nov 282014
 

 

(We bring you KevinP’s interview of Ben Pakarinen, vocalist/guitarist for Finland’s Coprolith, whose second album Death March was released this past spring by Violent Journey Records.)

 

K:  So you’ve recently returned from a tour in China.  Is this your 3rd time playing there?

B:  Yes, we are back from China. It was Coprolith’s second time touring there. Last fall we toured with my other band, Antagonist Zero.

 

K:  Seems like you have a fairly big following to tour there twice.  Does China give you more “love” than Europe?

B:  Yeah the shows are awesome and the crowds are crazy indeed. And this time we also released our latest album, Death March, as a special edition with 3 bonus tracks. But we have also toured a lot in Europe, the Baltics, and Russia.  I think when it’s a good show and good crowd, it doesn’t  matter which country it is. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: THE MORNINGSIDE — “ECLECTICISM CRAWLED INTO ITS HOLE”

 Interviews  2 Responses »
Nov 242014
 

 

(In this post we present an interview of The Morningside from Moscow, Russia, conducted by A. Strunitzkij and introduced by our contributor Comrade Aleks. All photos are by Olga Goleva.)

We could discuss for a damned long time how much of Katatonia and Agalloch has left the works of The Morningside since they released their first album The Wind, The Trees And The Shadows of the Past in 2007. But the new album by this band from far Moscow, Letters From The Empty Towns, only pours oil onto the flames of this controversy. Highly energetic, fierce, and ghostly cold, this album returns us to the dark and melancholic world of The Morningside.

The whole band is here today. Let me introduce you to The Morningside with its most constant (and I hope – eternal) line-up. They are Igor Nikitin (vocals, guitars), Ilya Egorychev (bass), Sergey Chelyadinov (guitars), and Boris Sergeev (drums). I would like to thank my comrade-at-metal A.Strunitzkij for this interview. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: MONTENEGRO — “COSMIC JOURNEY OF ROCK GAUCHOS”

 Interviews  No Responses »
Nov 202014
 

 

(Comrade Aleks returns to NCS with an interview of Luciano Marchisio, bass player for the Argentinian band Montenegro.)

Montenegro is a psychedelic stoner band from Argentina who mix a bunch of unusual musical and conceptual elements in their songs. Their first full-length album Confusos Recuerdos Después Del Coma has shown the band’s best as of 2013, but a few months ago Montenegro took part in split-album with Russian psychedelic band The Grand Astoria that reaches new heights in their explorations.

Their new epic track “El Matadero” (“Slaughterhouse”) perfectly holds the main motive of this split-release, complementing the musical conception of their Russian mates and evolving their own ideas in new ways. Luciano Marchisio (bass) represents Montenegro today for our readers and tells us the story of four gauchos from Argentina.

********  Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: 10 BOMBS WITH ANDERS BIAZZI (JUST BEFORE DAWN)

 Interviews  3 Responses »
Nov 202014
 

 

EDITOR’S NOTE: The new album by Sweden’s Just Before Dawn is a killer. Its name is The Aftermath and I reviewed it here. It’s out now on Chaos Records and you can order it here. It’s also available on Bandcamp, and there’s a full stream of the whole tasty thing at the end of this post. But first, enjoy KevinP’s Q&A with Just Before Dawn’s main man Anders Biazzi.

 

1.  So, you’re back for round two.  Tell us what is different this time around?

This time the album is more well-written, I think.  There are more people working on it, around 24 guys laid down their shit for this album.  Otherwise there are no changes:  war and steamrolling devestation.

 

2. What was your favorite collaboration and why?

I think it would be “Lightning War”.  It’s a really powerful track with great vocals from Dave Ingram and great whammy leads from Rick Rozz.  A real steamrolling track, Bolt Thrower style! Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: INQUISITION (DAGON)

 Interviews  6 Responses »
Nov 172014
 

(In this post we welcome back metal interviewer Karina Noctum. In this post she talked with Dagon of the black metal band Inquisition during the Under the Black Sun festival in Germany this past summer.)

 

Inquisition is a pretty special band for me. I got my first Inquisition tape when I was a child, I was 13. It had a great impact on me on many levels. It was pretty surreal to finally get to talk to Dagon in the woods outside Berlin after so many years. We did this interview in Spanish, so have that in mind.

*****

Inquisition started in South America, how did that influence the band?

I was really young when I moved to Colombia. I was 11 years old at that time. I think the social environment had an impact on me. I was there in the 80’s when the drug-related violence was at its worst. That kind of violence is what Black and Thrash reflect.

There were some metal bands from that time that had an impact on me. Colombian bands like Parabellum, Reencarnacion, inspired me a lot. I took those influences and combined them with classics like Venom and Bathory. But more than anything it was the discipline. It is hard to believe, but Colombian musicians are very disciplined. Colombian culture is pretty strict, at school and everywhere, so it shaped my character. I also took Classic guitar lessons for 8 years with Ciceron Marmolejo, he is pretty renowned there. Through him I learned that there is a spiritual side when it comes to playing. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: MARKO PAVLOVIC (THE HOUSE OF CAPRICORN)

 Interviews  2 Responses »
Nov 042014
 

 

(About one week ago we premiered a song from an album by New Zealand’s House of Capricorn that has rapidly become one of my favorite records of this year, even though it might seem like an odd fit for a site with our name. Today, we’re lucky to have New Zealand-based metal writer and broadcaster Craig Hayes’ interview with the band’s impressive vocalist Marko Pavlovic.)

Over ten-thousand miles separate New Zealand’s harbingers of apocalyptic devilry, The House of Capricorn, from their new label, Finland-based Svart Records. Still, evil knows no boundaries, and the meeting of minds between Svart, one of the most captivating labels around, and The House of Capricorn, one of the most riveting entities in the ritualistic rock ‘n’ roll underground, makes for the perfect Mephistophelian pact.

On November 9th, Svart is releasing The House of Capricorn’s third full-length, Morning Star Rise. The album is one of the year’s best examples of profoundly wicked music wrapped in a black-hearted aesthetic. Drawing from the cauldron of gothic rock, black metal, and deathrock, the stench of hellfire and eternal damnation pervades all of Morning Star Rise. But it hasn’t always been that way for The House of Capricorn. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: BASTARD FEAST

 Interviews  No Responses »
Oct 282014
 

 

Portland, Oregon’s Bastard Feast (formerly Elitist) released one of my favorite records of 2014 — Osculum Infame, which Season of Mist put forth last July. The band are about to embark on a nationwide tour, and I decided to fire a few questions their way by e-mail, and received these answers (the tour dates can be found at the end of this post — and if you have a chance to catch one of these shows, DO IT!).

*******

I guess the uppermost thing in your minds at the moment is the tour you’re on the verge of starting. And you really didn’t fuck around with this schedule — by my count, 19 dates spanning six weeks and 14 states. Are you sure you’re ready for this? 🙂

Actually there’s ten more dates — we just didn’t have them all ready by the time we needed to start promoting the tour. And we’ve been here before touring as Elitist, so this isnt anything new for us at all. This one has come together a little tougher.

 

Do you have hopes of adding any more dates to the schedule (the last one I saw was in Season of Mist’s Oct 23 press release)?

As above, we have added more dates and more will probably roll in till we leave, not gonna name names but we let a booking agent work for us and he didn’t get it to come together so we had to jump in and salvage 2 weeks of tour with 2 weeks until we left. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ANCST

 Interviews  No Responses »
Oct 142014
 

 

(New Zealand-based metal writer and broadcaster Craig Hayes rejoins us with the following very thoughtful and interesting interview of members of Germany’s Ancst.)

German crust collective Ancst was born from hardcore and black metal colliding at 666mph. Biting socio-political commentary forms a big chunk of Ancst’s anarchic aesthetic, and like fellow metallic punks charged with the idea that society desperately needs to change its direction, the band channels its frustrations with the world at large through a sound that’s hot-tempered and savage.

Ancst recently released its In Turmoil compilation, which collected remastered EP, split, and demos tracks, and the band’s raw mix of caustic crust and fierce tremolo-screeds has resulted in Ancst’s profile steadily rising outside of Germany’s borders. Ancst vocalist Torsten and multi-instrumentalist Tom took some time out from gearing up for a German tour to answer a few questions for No Clean Singing. They talk about the band’s beginnings, their clear-cut and rabble-rousing political stance, and what’s in store for the future.

********

Let’s start right back at the beginning. Was there a moment in time that inspired you both to step from being fans of music to people driven to create?

Torsten: Listening to Michael Jackson’s “Beat It”, and then watching his epic “Thriller” video, when I was six years old. Years later, I was deeply moved by Adrenaline by the Deftones—and my love for that band is ongoing. For me, creating music is just another element I use to express myself, within a DIY context.

Tom: To be honest, I can’t really remember. Music has always played an important role in my family and I started playing in bands really early, but they weren’t heavy bands. I couldn’t find people to play extreme stuff with, and so I ended up in shitty alternative and indie bands at first. Years later, I met like-minded people when I moved to the city. But, if there is any band that opened up my eyes to the world of extreme music, it’s Napalm Death. Particularly their Inside the Torn Apart album. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ENRICO SCHETTINO (HIDEOUS DIVINITY)

 Interviews  4 Responses »
Oct 132014
 

 

(Our interviewer KevinP, a notoriously hard man to please, somehow convinced Enricho Schettino, guitarist for Italy’s Hideous Divinity, to speak with him. This is what followed.)

K:  The band was formed in 2007 when you left Hour of Penance and moved to Norway.  What caused you to move and would you have stayed in Hour of Penance if you hadn’t moved?

E:  I thought I was gonna drop death metal as soon as I’d start a new life in a foreign country… god I was wrong. About my moving reasons… a Norwegian friend of mine once told me that people move there either for love or to escape from a war conflict.  In my case it was the first one. Have no clue about how things would have been in the band if I stayed, I just remember that at the time for me it was really difficult to stand the company of many Hour of Penance members.

 

K:  Then you rejoined in 2009 for a short period of time?

E:  Yes. Got the proposal to re-join and I was extremely happy to play live again with them. I was not involved at all in their new album’s songwriting process but I thought it was fair.  I took it all extremely easy. Then we played in an Italian festival, apparently the sound was messy and I took all the blame. Asked if there was any problem, but everyone said “No no we’re fine 100%”… One week later, just before a fest in Switzerland, I got the call — with no face-to-face explanation to this date — saying, “We’re better off as 4 piece”. These are the facts, just want to stick to them, or at least I wanna try. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries