AN NCS INTERVIEW: ATARAXIE — “WHEN SARTRE MEETS DE SADE”

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Jun 302014
 

photo by Yoshima Photography

(Our Russian contributor Comrade Aleks brings us this interview he conducted with Jonathan Théry of the French band Ataraxie, whose most recent album was 2013’s L’Être et la Nausée, as well as the bands Funeralium and Void Paradigm.)

As you’ll be able to tell, it took a bit longer than usual to finish this interview with Jonathan Théry, vocalist and bass-player of Ataraxie, who released their new album L’Être et la Nausée in September 2013, but it was worth to wait. Here we have detailed insights into the world of a compelling funeral / death doom band, as well as Jonathan’s other projects.

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Hello Jonathan! I’m glad that you’re with us after these New Year holidays. How many days of vacation do you have in France during December – January?

Greetings Aleks. Actually it depends on your job. Fulltime workers have at least 25 days of holidays per year (that’s what is written in labour law) so that’s up to them to book these days off during the year. As far as I’m concerned, I booked 2 weeks in total ’cause my last holidays were in July and I needed a well-deserved break.

 

May I ask you – what were your best presents for Christmas and the New Year? : )

As a real metalhead, I was offered everything required to slay all hipsters and goths from my town: a new horse, armor, and obviously an axe! hahaha Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ZAUM — “PILGRIMAGE OF DOOM ORACLES”

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Jun 272014
 

(Our Russian contributor Comrade Aleks returns with another interview — and this time he talks with Kyle Alexander McDonald from the Canadian band Zaum, whose first album debuted earlier this month. We’ve got a stream of the album in here, too)

A caravan from distant Sweden comes into our city, as I Hate Records brings rich gifts, and among them I’ve found a rare one: Shining with colours of the sun, a disk with scriptures ancient, the 2014 debut CD of Zaum from Canada, with psychedelic heavy vibes. Enriched with the wisdom of Oracles, the melodies are spreading and full of Eastern mystic rituals that come and blind our feelings. Kyle, the master of the voice and heavy guitars, answers our questions and reveals secrets of the band and of long-gone tribes that make their stories come alive. So, welcome pilgrims of doom and praise the gods for rain.

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Salute Kyle! First of all let me ask a straightforward question: What does the band’s name mean? I know only an accordant word in the Russian language, but I wonder if you meant that when you give your band such a name.

For us, ZAUM defines the form of communication beyond that with which we are commonly familiar and have used as humans.  By harnessing ZAUM, one is able to communicate at a higher form without the boundaries of a modern spoken language.  ZAUM tells of a deeper meaning in the medium beyond the borders defined by the music, experienced as a deep mental elevation.  We indeed reference the invention of ZAUM by Russian Futurist poet Aleksei Kruchenykh – so I suppose in that regard we do have a Russian connection.  I’ve used the name as a label for my personal demos since 1993, and when the time came to name the band – it just made sense, as this is my first band in which I’m writing 100% of the music rather than in collaboration.  That said, Chris [Lewis] does have a hand in the song arrangements.  Hopefully we can play there soon.

 

You’ve been playing heavy tunes since the mid-90’s. What have been the most memorable periods in your artistic life?

Speaking for myself — I formed and played bass in a 3-pc stoner/noise band called COPSHADES and did a lot of touring with that band, which is now defunct, though it was very dear to me and my artistic journey.  Additionally, I fronted a 3-bassed psych/doom monstrosity called SHEVIL – a band which is currently on hiatus due to 2 of the 4 members relocating for jobs.  We recorded an EP and most recently a full-length which was just pressed to vinyl and is available to purchase from shevil.bandcamp.com — only 100 copies pressed so get one while you can! Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: MARK KLOEPPEL (MISERY INDEX)

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Jun 252014
 

(In this post we present BadWolf’s interview of Mark Kloeppel, frontman for Baltimore’s Misery Index, conducted live at Maryland Deathfest — with photos taken there by the talented Alyssa Lorenzon.)

One of the highlights of my trip to Maryland Deathfest was the opportunity to see Baltimore’s own Misery Index live twice in a single weekend. The No Clean Singing crew has a soft spot for relentless mixes of grindcore and death metal, and Misery Index are among the best bands in that vein at the moment—not only is their rhythmic attack, weighed down by bassist Jason Netherton (formerly of Dying Fetus) and drummer Adam Jarvis (also of Pig Destroyer), fierce in a way many of their peers are not, but their approach is also intellectual. The band has a strongly anarchist-liberal lyrical bent, which only adds to the vitriol and complexity of their music. It’s the kind of death metal that makes me want to revisit it over and over.

Mark Kloeppel joined the band in 2005, and plays guitar, as well as screams, on their finest run of albums. His vocals and melodic guitar lines dominate the band’s 2014 album, The Killing Gods, which made up much of their MDF set lists. It’s the most melodic album in the band’s discography, but Kloeppel himself seems less than harmonious. He sat down with me behind a tent in the blazing Baltimore sun to talk about the new album, parenting, and how, economically speaking, we all lose.

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It seems like there wasn’t a lot of activity on the Misery Index front for a couple years there. I remember Heirs to Thievery came out when? 2010? Four years ago?

Yeah. In 2010, the touring cycle started with us going out with Dying Fetus and then picking up our new lead guitar player. We did some other stuff… We toured with Grave. We did a whole bunch of stuff. It’s kind of hard to remember everywhere we went. I know we went to Indonesia, Japan, Australia, and a lot of places in South America like Brazil and Colombia. We did a tour with Cannibal Corpse in the States. That was the last thing I think we did in the States before this.

 

Why the recording gap? You guys were on a pretty steady two years per album clip for almost a decade.

Yeah, and that sucks! It’s like when you first start a band. When you first start a band, you spend a good five years crafting your very first songs. You go play shows, and it’s awesome because you’ve spent so much time crafting good songs and you grow and stuff like that. Being a seasoned musician and not being able to dedicate the proper amount of time to make a quality record, you feel like you’re being robbed. 

We stuck to the tight schedule that was imposed upon us by the label. It was kind of necessary to build the band for Discordia, Traitors, and Heirs to Thievery. After that, we were done with that schedule. We didn’t want Misery Index to do that anymore. We just spent the time you’re supposed to spend writing a record. 

 Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ELLIOTT’S KEEP — “TALES OF GRIEF IN DAYS OF HELL”

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Jun 242014
 

(Our doom-addicted Russian contributor Comrade Aleks returns with another interview — and this time he talks with guitarist Jonathan Bates from the critically praised Dallas band Elliott’s Keep. We’ve got music from the band in here, too)

Elliott’s Keep is a strange example of an original and professional band who have stayed in the shadows despite all of their merits. This Dallas-based trio have worked in their own way, composing a tight and both epic and sinister mix of thrash, progressive, and doom metal since 2006. Their third work Nascentes Morimur was released in November 2013, and since then I have been immersed in this record, listening to it time after time. In the end, I found myself thinking that I needed to spread the word about Elliott’s Keep further, and these thoughts disturbed me until I finished this interview with Jonathan, the man with the black distorted guitar.

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Hail Jonathan! The third Elliott’s Keep album Nascentes Morimur was released in November 2013.  What has happened in your lives since then?

Greetings again, Aleksey!  Things have settled down a bit after the busy times associated with the release of the new record.  We played locally and have been starting to work on new songs.

 

Nascentes Morimur shows the band’s strongest sides and it took three years to write, record, and release it. Can you tell us the story of this release?

After releasing Sine Qua Non, we dealt with various life issues, including a significant vocal paresis for Ken that sidelined him in that aspect for nearly six months.  We also took time to build our own practice studio, which is now a convenient and efficient asset.  As we composed and polished the songs for Nascentes Morimur, the months did turn into years and, before we knew it, three years had passed.  As with each of our albums, we recorded with J.T. Longoria at Nomad Studio in Dallas.  That was a four-month process, through tracking, mixing, and mastering.  Once that was finalized, Joel had the art ready and it was off to duplication and release. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: BELETH (NOCTEM)

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Jun 232014
 

photo credit: MUSIFOTO

(A couple months ago our man DGR gave a very positive review of Exilium, the new album by Spain’s Noctem, and today we bring you his e-mail interview of the band’s frontman, Beleth.)

 

Although most people reading this will already have some inkling of who you are, I figured I would get a quick introduction out of the way for people who may not do well with the rosters of most of the bands they listen to.  So let’s get a quick identification as to who you are, what role you play within the band, and how long you’ve been part of Noctem?

Beleth: Ok, I’m Beleth, vocalist of Noctem, founding member along with Exo and obviously I’ve been working in the band from the beginning in 2001. Although 2007 is what we call the real beginning of Noctem.

 

It seems like some bands will unintentionally release trilogies in terms of sound in their discographies, where they usually play with the same ideas for about three albums and then the fourth is a sudden shift or some crazy new idea for them. However, Noctem seem to have shifted toward a much more menacing, faster, and sleeker sound compared to the more bludgeoning works of something like Divinity — all over the span of three albums. Do you see this trend continuing?

Beleth: I think Noctem these past 6 years have followed an extreme line, that has served to find a more personal sound. Our style has not changed, but it is now more extreme and more mature than our beginnings with Divinity.

 

You guys have also pulled heavily from mythology for inspiration in your works. Much of Exilium has references to it, and Oblivion played with mythology and history from Guatemala. How does Noctem find its ideas?  Do you often find yourselves scouring the web for old texts to read and occasionally finding yourself going, “You know, there’s a concept for a disc here”?

Beleth: Actually yes, I spend hours and hours looking for the proper Thematic for each album, choosing topics and writing lyrics. It’s not easy, we never wanted to talk about well-worn topics such as anti-Christianism, Countess Bathory, etc, you know what I’m talking about. These are typical themes that many bands are always dealing with. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: YOURI RAYMOND (UNHUMAN)

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Jun 222014
 

(In this post we have Austin Weber’s interview of Youri Raymond, guitarist/vocalist of Montréal’s Unhuman, whose debut album Austin reviewed here.)

Except for a group of hard-core devotees and super-geeks like me, last year’s independently released self-titled Unhuman record came out of absolutely nowhere, catching the majority of the technical death metal scene by surprise. Yet that record was actually a very long time coming, with the majority of the songs originally dating back to 1999 and 2001.

I wanted to get the story behind what caused the album’s delay and all other things Unhuman related. While French is his principal native tongue, Unhuman’s main composer, guitarist, and vocalist Youri Raymond did a fine job deciphering the garbled language I speak and answering back in English. After the interview you can find links to some of the bands Youri mentioned in the interview.

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Continue reading »

KEYBOARD WARRIORS: KEITH SPILLETT (THE TYRANNY OF TRADITION)

 Interviews  7 Responses »
Jun 192014
 

EDITOR’S NOTE

In this post, Dane Prokofiev returns to NCS with the first new installment in his Keyboard Warriors series in more than a year. But what a comeback it is. Here, he interviews Keith Spillett — history teacher, basketball coach, father, and the man behind The Tyranny of Tradition, the best satirical metal site on the web and one of the best satire sites you could find regardless of focus. Not surprisingly, his responses to Dane’s questions are more literate and twisted than the average interview we post at this sinkhole.

 

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Interplanetary Manhunt for Devin Townsend Impersonator

Tyranny of Tradition founder Keith Spillett impersonates Earth’s operatic extreme metal musician Devin Townsend in an online acceptance speech.

 

By DANE PROKOFIEV

ZILTOIDIA 9 — For the first time ever, Earth’s FBI has issued an interplanetary manhunt for a keyboard warrior. Keith Spillett, founder of metal satire website The Tyranny of Tradition, is the intelligence agency’s target.

Spillett, 109, is wanted for impersonating operatic extreme metal vocalist extraordinaire Devin Townsend in an online acceptance speech after winning the Metal Hammer Golden Gods first-ever “King of the Internet” award.

FBI director Leonardo CiDaprio said, “Never before has a keyboard warrior been so bold. Whenever keyboard warriors impersonate metal musicians online, like whoever was posting as “Tim Lambesis” on MetalSucks.net, the FBI used to do a Nick Fury and let them off. But this is the first time one has actually dressed up as the one and only Devy, imitated Devy’s voice pitch-perfectly, and filmed himself giving an acceptance speech for some dumb award. It has taken cyber identity theft to a new level.”

Inhuman entities have also expressed anger at Spillett’s crime. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: HAMFERÐ’S JÓN ALDARÁ

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Jun 062014
 

(Our Russian contributor Comrade Aleks returns with another interview — and if you haven’t yet discovered the wonders of Hamferð, this is a good time to get on board.)

After Hamferð’s debut album Vilst er Síðsta Fet succeeded in attracting a lot of attention to the band, their first full-length work Evst aroused even more serious interest in this bunch of talented dudes from the Faroe Islands. In addition to the attraction of the band’s exotic location, Hamferð play strong and dramatic doom/death with a real artistic touch and lyrics written in their native language. So, this interview with Jón Aldará (vocals) is a good opportunity not only to refresh your geography knowledge but also to discover legends of the Faroe Islands and a bloody good doom band.

Thanks to Frodi Stenberg of Factory92 for helping organize this interview.

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Ahoy ship-mates! What is the latest news from the band?

Greetings from the wind-battered mountains of the Faroe Islands. We have just returned from a successful first gig in Norway at the Inferno Festival, and our next endeavor is an exclusive acoustic concert/poetry evening in my hometown of Klaksvík this weekend. It will be something special indeed. Continue reading »

WOMANOWAR: THE ARGUMENT FOR BALANCE & EQUALITY — AN INTERVIEW WITH HELMS ALEE DRUMMER AND VOCALIST HOZOJI MATHESON-MARGULLIS

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May 282014
 

(We welcome the return of guest writer Alain Mower and the fourth in his series of interviews of women in metal. In this edition, he talks with Hozoji Matheson-Margullis, the drummer/vocalist for Seattle’s Helms Alee, whose latest album Sleepwalking Sailors was released earlier this year and whose new split with Young Widows is coming next month.)

This series is dedicated to creating discussion and awareness by expressing the observations, thoughts, and opinions of current prolific metal musicians who, in their spare time, also happen to be women. This is in direct response to the few stragglers in the community who think that there is still a place for misogyny in metal.

If this results in you punching some loud-mouth, drunk sexist at the next show you go to or calling someone out when they question the attendance, attire, or musical capabilities of a woman at a show, then that’s all I could ever ask, and then some. Continue reading »

SLUG LORD — “A MIX BETWEEN IMPENDING DESPAIR AND ALLURING GROOVE”

 Interviews  4 Responses »
May 212014
 

(Our Russian contributor Comrade Aleks is back with yet another interview, this time with J.Luoto, the drummer of Finland’s Slug Lord.)

Let me introduce you to Slug Lord of Finland. This band have played bloody sinister sludge’n’stoner doom tunes since 2010, yet they had a long break after release of their self-titled album in 2011 because of some line-up changes. Anyway, their second full-length Transmutation was released literally a month ago and J.Luoto (Slug Lord’s drummer) found some time to discuss details about the new album.

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Terve J.! How are you man?

Thanks for asking! We’ve just received our latest album’s batch from press and are getting ready to send them to all the crazy folks who pre-ordered it.

 

Let us start with that old ’n’ good question about the band’s origin – what are the main milestones of Slug Lord?

We’ve known each other since childhood and played shit together for years. On the ruins of some less serious band projects we formed a doom band. During some intense listening and jamming songs of bands like Pentagram, Electric Wizard, Acid King, and Witch, we gave birth to Slug Lord. Within this genre we found the ways to express our musical ambitions as a unit and in the loudest and heaviest way we could. Then we recruited the singer Johanna Rutto, recorded the first self-titled album with her, and also made a few gigs. After her departure we’ve been more than happy with the original trio lineup and continued the path with a passion for playing live and making more records. Continue reading »

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