Metal Bulletin: rnterviews & Revieratsluly06/#1: interviews; Pentacle. The Mutder Squad t,o. and Unde*hreat; reviews

P E N T A C L EBelow are vocurlisVbassist Wannes Gubbels'answers tosome questions, preceded by a quick overview of themost recent album, *Under the Black Cross" (on IronPegasus Records). It gives a general idea about thesound of this band from Holland:

Pentacle: Under the Black CrossThis self-denominated "ancient death metal" is acelebration of the original death metal spirit:Hellhammer/early Celtic Frost/early Death gruff,agonized and brutal growling of the best possiblequality with plenty of those of Tom-G.-Warrior-signature "ugh!!" The guitars have a serious,crunching, heavy, dark, mid-paced grinding feel.Excellent! Also, the production/sound is not primitive;it 's modern (in a good way!), not a basementrecording. It's a very full-sounding, in-your-facealbum. This is highly, highly recommended for deathmetal people. All Pentacle releases are great and their"Rides the Moonstorm" is a death masterpiece.www.pentacle.nlpentacle@pentacle.nl

www.rron-pegasus.com

What is the band doing for the rest of 2OO6?After our mini tour with Belgian act Thee Plague of

Gentlemen we were kind of burnt out. After recordingand promoting our last record "Under the Black Cross",we had done so many rehearsals, it wasnt any funanymore. We needed some time off. So, for somemonths we didn't rehearse at all. I went on a holidayto the island Malta and after having returned and seensome fabulous gigs by both Celtic Frost and KingDiamond, it was time to conjure up the Death Metalghosts again.

Right now we're rehearsing a live set withsome material we never played live before. Like *The

Beasts of the Apocalypse" cover we recorded for the"Seven Gates of Horror: a tribute to Possessed" album;or material of our last release, "Archaic Undead Fury".It should become an interesting set. We have somecool gigs coming up, so I'm looking forward to that.,.

What exactly is "ancient death metal"?Bands like Hellhammer, Possessed, Celtic Frost,Necrophagia, Slaughter (CAN), Mantas/Death,Deathstrike/Master, Massacre, Necrovore, Messiah,Samhain (DEN), Genocide/Repulsion, Obscurity,Slaughter Lord, Incubus (FL) and Pentagram (CH). Thisis real Ancient Death Metal to me: raw, unpolished,aggressive and unconforming Metal not suitable for thebig masses. It was the first wave of extreme

underground Metal, back in the 80's- These bands,together with other (more known) acts of the BO's likeVenom, Destruction, Bathory, Slayer, Inferndl M6jesty,Sacrifice, Sodom, Dark Angel, Sarcofago, Kreator,Sabbat (UK), Dream Death, Holy Terror and VoiVodmade us form Pentacle, back in 1989.

Related to Pentacle I always refer to 'Ancient

Death Metal" to describe our brand of Metal. When Iwould say old school Death Metal, people wouldconjure up acts like Obituary, Autopsy, Entombed,Pestilence, Asphyx, Dismember, Bolt Thrower, Grave,Morgoth or others to get an idea of our musicaldirection. That would be wrong, because the actualsecond wave of Death Metal (to which all these bandsbelong) was in fact the reason why we decided to forma band in the traditional vein. Don't get me wronghere. We love albums like "Consuming Impulse",'slowly We Rot", "severed Survival", oThe Rack" or*Left Hand Path", but at that moment so many peoplein Holland were claiming that the old bands hadbecome obsolete and soft compared to the new waveof Death Metal. We were really fed up with this kind ofthinking and as our love for the old Gods keptundiminished, we formed Pentacle. We took theinspiration of above-mentioned Ancient Death Metalbands to create our own kind of Metal.

Some bands make music to avoid a day iob. Howis your perspective different?It's a matter of being realistic. When we formed theband back in 1989, we were doing something notmany people could relate to, The second wave ofDeath Metal was conquering the world wide scene andalthough we enjoyed many of these records/bands aswell, in contrary to the trend we decided to form aband which would be musically in the vein of the firstwave of Death/Blackfl-hrash Metal. Already at thatmoment we knew we would perform music for aselected audience. Those old and new maniacs whoworshipped the real creators of extreme Metal wouldunderstand our cause. We would perform our music forourselves and for them. Not for the big masses whothought Death Metal was the next hip trend. I neverfelt comfortable with the thought of following themajority and as our music is a part of our own identity,we choose an individual path without fame or money. Idon't want to be financial dependable of the band. Themusic is being created as it comes from the soul andnot from the pocket.

Through the years, this hasn't really changed.We still perform for a selected audience and that's fine

with us. Those people are fully into our sound becausethey feel the same as we do. This of course results inrather small sales figures and this is not enough tosupport a band's living. I own a house and livetogether with my girlfriend. Without a proper job Icouldnt afford this. Hell, when I played in Asphyx aswell, I didn't have a job, so I wasn't even able to buynew strings for my guitar- I had to eat bread withoutanything on it. That was my meal for the whole week.That was a rich artistic period in my lifre, but financial itwas severe. As I like to eat decent, want to go out withmy girlfriend once a while and want to be able to buymy records/books (and not to forget to pay my bills), Ihad to get a regular job.

Does your band's apprcach bring something newto metal?When we formed the band back in 1989, it was neverour goal to create something new or original. As I toldyou in one of my previous answers, we created theband with the intention to get ahold of this particularvibe those old extreme bands had (aka 'The AncientFeelingJ. It was not the intention to be progressive,yet to let the BO's spirit live on in our music. That wasand still is our main goal.Through the years wedeveloped our own way of writing material. I wontclaim we're an original band, because we have oursources of inspiration as well, but our material has aspecial vibe I can't recognize in other bands, so maybewe have created something of our own after all. I havea decent knowledge of the extreme Metal scene andwe have many allies with the same codes of honour aswe have (Sadistic Intent, Desaster, Destrdyer 666,Legion of the Damned, Cianide, Mortem, Gospel of theHorns, Equinox, Usurper and others), but just like asall these bands have a sound of their own, we have itas well. One can easily recognize our mentors CelticFrost and Possessed in our sound, but it was never ourintention to rip them off. That just doesn't make senseat all as there's no yyay one can top albums as'ToMega Therion" or "Seven Churches". Surely not bystealing riffs from them!

Concerning the lyrics, I always tried to give thematerial my own touch, Although I enjoy the old B0'sMetal vibe with the Satanic lyrics quite a bit, it's neverbeen a case for Pentacle. The music is indeedinfluenced by the BO's, but its lyrics not. Well, Tom G.Warrio/s old poems on the early Frost albums hadquite an influence on me in a way of how to write witha ceftain twist, but what I wrote were personalthoughts and feelings, nothing like 'Necrophiliac",

"Satan's Curse" or oln Nomine Sathanas". I created myown world and that's something special. I do think Ihave created interesting and personal lyrics in thepast. The best are probably found on '...Rides theMoonstorm". The lyrical context for'Under the BlackCross" was a very interesting concept as well, but we'lldig into that later on.

Don't forget, from 'The Fifth Moon"'till now wealways had very interesting and original artwork. It'sthe same as with the lyrics. I have sympathy for the

Satanic approach many of our colleagues have, but forus it wouldnt work. Since Manuel Tinnemans (whoworked with us on "...Rides the Moonstorm" for the firsttime) has become "our" aftist, we have been able toupgrade the artwork to a new level of originality. Hedid the artwork for'...Rides the Moonstorm", *Ancient

Death", 'Under the Black Cross" and "Archaic UndeadFury". His work has its own atmosphere and it fits ourmusic very well. Manuel is very gifted and in allaspects a real artist. You can check his work atwww.somaworx.com. It's really worth taking a look.

How has your view of music changed from whenyou formed a band?Well, I have learned that the creative aspect of puttingan album together is not as easy as I thought it wouldbe. When I was a omereo fan and *just" bought thealbums to play at home, I never thought it would besuch a hard job to write the material and to create aninteresting layout. After 6 albums and numerous otherrecordings, I know one has to work very hard to beable to release a quality album, I'm much more carefulwhen expressing my personal thoughts about analbum, because I know how much work is beinginvested in a record before it can be released. I havemuch more respect for an album (well, most of thetimes...). The sacrifices one has to make are big. Butwithout input, there's no output. lust as with othermatters in life, right?

Ite learned about integrity toward one's ownart. We formed this band with special concept andafter almost L7 years, we're still very loyal to ourcause. No compromises, yet puriff in its truest sense.Combined with sheer determination, knowledge, skilland perseverance one is able to achieve his goals. Ithink Pentacle is the most profound proof of all theseelements. And Do, we didn't strive for worlddomination, but within our own realm, we acfrievedquite a bit and I am damn proud of it!

An important element is working with otherpeople within the small and restricted borders of anentity called a band. It can be quite demanding andI've learned I'm a person with an outspoken view ofhow matters can or must be handled to achieve theright results. I dont like to give away control, becausethen I don't know if the quality I demand is beingreached. When I know a certain person is more giftedwith certain skills than I am (computer/website, e.g.),there's little choice than to give this out of my hands,but still than I want to be involved to the max. Acontrol freak? Yes, sir!

There's a lot about the music business Idislike. When reason and emotions collide, you createturmoil and misunderstandings. Music is all aboutemotions, while the business is...business. These twodon't mix too well, at least not at ceftain levels. Iunderstand you need an industry to support you, butfrom what I've seen and heard, it's not my kind ofthing. I rather work with labels as Iron Pegasus,because they are 100o/o honest people (well, it's onlyone person) and are totally into our music and

concept; no hidden agenda, so to speak. This kind oflabels may be limited in their reach, but their honestyis much more important to me than the ability to reachthe latest Korn fan.

The lyrics/subiect matter on "Under the BlackGross" is different than your previous albums.Did you need to do someilfiing else besides theusual "metal" topics?Concerning the lyrics, I never held the usual Metal-scepter and wrote about Satan, gore, violence, social-critical topics, women, fantasy and more of thesethemes. As said before, I wrote about mattersconcerning my own personality, identity andsurroundings. Yes, it was of a dark nature as I don'tfeel comfoftable to let the light shine unto my lyricalwritings for Pentacle. Remember, we do play DeathMetal, right? So already from the beginning I walkedanother path than hundreds of other lyricists beforeand with me.

I felt it was time for a change as I started torepeat myself. When I started writing the first wordsfor the new musical pieces we had crafted, I felt therewas no progression in my words at all. It wasrehashing the past all over again and as I'm very keento avoid such traps, I decided to wait and pick up thepen later. But with no result. I noticed I started to usethe old metaphors again, while the subjectsthemselves were not 'hot" either, so to say. Not toforget, English is not my natural language. Ite learnedvery little new last years, so my stock of words didn'tincrease either, As I always strive for progrcssionwithin the band, the whole lyrical concept had tochange for the new album. I was not willing to satisffmyself by re-writing my old lyrics, so it was time for achange. So, I had to find another way of approachingPentacle's tyrical concept. This seemed hard, but thesolution was very simple and close at hand-

Already on our previous record, 'Ancient

Death", I noticed I had a hard time to come up withdecent lyrics. For that cd I already tried out someother material, l ike'Immolated in Flames" (related tomy favourite author, Sven Hassel) and 'Prophet ofPerdition." I already had some experience with mot€down-to-earth subjects on Asphyx's last record, 'On

the Wings of Inferno', Tracks like 'Summoning theStorm", 'Indulge in Frenzy" and 'Chaos in the Flesh"feature some of my favourite lyrics from that album,so bit by bit I was getting used to the vibe of mypersonal view of certain WWII subjects within therealm of Death Metal.

So when it became clear to me I had to usesomething else than the usual personal approach, thechoice was quite obvious. Being very much interestedin WWII from the day I was born and becameconscious of my own existence, it was totally naturalfor me to pick up a certain theme and to work this out.Through many years of interest I had developed aceftain fascination for more obscure operations, likeBritish commando raids, for example. OperationChariot was a prime example for getting my attention.

It featured all the elements of a daring and cunningoperation, which totally appealed to this young boywho was very eager to explore the dark and hideousyears of 1939-1945. Still to this day it is just amazingto read about the subject. The guB, the craftsmanship,the courage etc... OperaUon Chariot features all theseelements (if interested, feel free to visit this website:www. stnaza i resociety. org ).

When I made the decision to use OperationChariot as a theme for the new Pentacle record, I felt Ihad to create a concept album. Otherwise, it wasn'tpossible for me to pay full credits to the peopleinvolved, The whole story was too complex to put intoone song. I wanted to give an as much detailedaccount of the battle as I was capable to put into onerecord. I didnt want to settle for less. I only had 7songs to put my lyrics to and that was already hard,because I had collected quite a bit of information aboutthe subject and now I had to re-arange it into useablebits and pieces. Those became 'Under the BlackCross".

Alex (guitar), is guitarist Uife's younger brother'right? What was he doing before Pentacle?Yes, you're right. Alex is Mike's youngest brother. Mikehas 3 brothers and he infsted them all with the Metalplague, hehehe.., Well, one isn't into Metal anymore,but the other 2 are just as fanatic as can be. Alex isone of them. Mike gave them all a good education inMetal. All the releases Mike bought where consumedby his brothers as well, so they know all the classics.No doubt about this! Thanks to Mike, Alex got hookedon Merq;ftrl Fate and King Diamond quite heavy andthese are Alex's fravourite bands. Check out ourwebsite (www.pentacle.nl) where you can find a greatpicture of Alex with King Diamond himself. Quite anachievement as the King is hard to get during a tour,but Alex managed to do fine.

Pentacle is Alex's first band as he never playedin another band before. Before joining us he playedguitar at home while listing to our releases. And KingDiamond/Mercyful Fate, of course, hehehe" When hejoined the band, he had to learn how the infrastructureof a band works. How to behave on stage? What's it islike to work in a studio? How do you write songs? Asintelligent as he is, he pic*ed it up very fast. The firstsong he ever wrote, ended up'Under the Black Cross"being 'The tast Fight (ML's 306's Stand)". Both Alexand I worked on tracks as -A Devil's Shooting Gallery"and 'Awaiting the Blast of Death", which worked outvery fine. I am very pleased with his work. He'spleasant company to work with and always has amorbid grin on his f,ace.

When is new material coming out?That will take a while. After'Under the Black Cross"we released the 'Archaic Undead Fury' 10" on FromBeyond Productions with 2 new songs (.A HellishDescend" and 'Blast them from the Sky!"). It becamea very fine release with a very nice poster and a greatlayout. The sound is very heavy too.

We're working on new material, but nothingmajor. As said before, we had a long break, so weneed to get back in shape again for the upcoming gigs.As usual, it'll take a while before there'll be a newPentacle release on the market. Inspiration and timeare very important factors in creating new material.

We're still waiting for the Necrovore tribute tobe released on From Beyond Productions though. Werecorded "Divus de Mortuus" for this purpose and gavethe song the Pentacle mark. It's a bit slower than theoriginal, but real ly heavy and pounding. Some otherbands featured are Headhunter D.C., Thornspawn,Throneum and Abominator. It 's taking ages to get thisalbum released, but there's little we can do about it. Ihope it will be released soon.

To end: can one sample songs on your website?Of course! Just check out www.pentacle.nl and thereyou can find all kind of songs from our first "major"release "The Fifth Moon" back in 1996 up to our lastoffering, the "Archaic Undead Fury' L0o. Feel free totake a listen to our material and I hope you'll enjoy ourmaterial. www. pentacle. nl THE END

The MURDER SQUAD t.o.This band's latest is the split on Wounded Paw Recordsreviewed below, followed by some thoughts by Mike,the screamer for this Toronto-based pack:

The Murder Souad t.o. / Hlil luus: Risino CrustThis split's protagonists share a similitude of streetsocial punk protest focusing critique on the imperialistwar/presence in the Middle East and the politicalramifications thereof. In addition, both criticize apathy,greed, religiosity, nationalism and such mattersgermane to those issues. The music itself is rathernoisy, attractive punk metal fueled by a tendency forthe rambunctious. There are slight distinctions in theirinterpretations of heavy, speedy, near-thrash,rumbling punk with growled and screaming vocals, butboth are fun and enjoyable. www.woundedpaw.com

How do you view the concept of "crust"?Well, with our "Crust" sound we have a wider appeal todifferent audiences, such as Punk, Metal and Grindcorefans alike. Even people that aren't really into Crustappreciate what we're doing. We like to call our soundCrust/Grindcore and our influences come from early UKoutfits such as Doom, Sore Throat, Extreme NoiseTerror, Amebix, Bolthrower, Hellbastard, NapalmDeath and NY's Nausea. All of whom started the wholeCrust /Grindcore sound by taking their PoliticalHardcore Punk roots and mixing in the heavy guitarriffs of Thrash and Metal and taking it to the extreme!Napalm Death's Mick Harris actually started the "BlastBeat" that is now common place among Black, DeathMetal and modern Grindcore, although most of theearly "Grindcore" bands were a lot slower and more of

a "midpaced" tempo than today's standards.

What's happening with you guys now?Well, right now we're working in our new guitar player,Oscar. (ex-Freedom Denied) and we'll be playingMontreal mid August and the Blood Bucket Fest inOctober with Horde of Worms, Pilrdriver and manyothers and start booking for a f,all tour. Work on newmaterial.

How can people check you out?Go to www.woundedpaw.com to hear songs from usand all the other bands on the roster. There's a Radioplayer on the main screen or click on the MurderSquad t.o. logo and go to our page. Also our myspacepage: www. myspace. com/them u rdersq uadto

You have toured with Cripple Bastards, who havebeen accused of sexist views. How do you dealwith touring/playing with/to bands/fans thatare racists, like skin heads? Are there practicalproblems related to this that you face?

We've always toured with bands that arefriends of ours or that we know really well. We playeda show with Cripple Bastards (from Italy). That wasIncredible! They're such an amazing band and all the"Hype" about them being sexist is bull. Proceeds tosome of their albums actually go to women's abuseshelters. But because they mostly sing in Italian peoplejudge the book by its cover. You can check them out athttp://www.cripple-bastards.com/ As far as racistscoming to our shows, we don't really see too much ofthem. We're pretty blunt on our stand on that issue.We have anti-racist aft on our sites and have evenmade badges to give away and have played Anti Racistgigs. My old band Abalienation used to see a lot of NaziSkins at our shows. But that was an all out war withthem. The Nazi Skins in Toronto are pretty (lame)Tame. All they do is shoot their mouths off and runaway. We've invited them to our shows for free if theywear their colours, but they never show up. As far aspractical problems that come up in the scene, hmm...Iguess people not coming out to gigs, if they've neverheard of the band is one. Then there's the "No SchoolScene" But I won't get into that one....and theG.G.Allen worship...Give i t up! ok I 'm rantingnow.. .hahahaha!

What are things like for you in Toronto?We are located in Toronto, On, hence the "t.o." at theend of our name. Well, we play both Punk and Metalshows. But I think we have better appreciation now atthe Metal shows, Most of the kids have never reallyheard Crust or Grind core before and they're reallygetting into us. After the shows kids come up to meand ask what bands we're into so we're broadeningtheir horizons as well as creating a bigger fan base.Playing all Punk shows is like Preaching to theConverted. I think it's better to play to new peoplethan to the same people every gig. Then you get Metalheads checking out Punk and Punks checking out

Metal.

You cover societal topics in your lyrics, like war.Do you take up racism and sexism, too?Well, my old band Abalienation wrote about racism andsexism in the scene (BB Hate and Protest toRediculous) off of our "Fuck Borders" cd, a split withToronto's Dirty Bird. So it's hard to come up withfresh ideas on the same subjects without rehashing itall. As far as the Middle East situation all I can say is"What Mess."

What's next for you?We aren't writing new music to follow up the RisingCrust cd as of yet because we're still working in Oscar.But I think we have progressed from record to record.THE END

U N D E R T H R E A TOriginally from Colombia, but now based in Milwaukee,WI, bassist David Bermridez answered some questionsposed to him. Their album "Deathmosphere"(Barbarian Records) is the latest work, of which thefollowing is a review, followed by David's responses.

Underthreat: DeathmosohereUnderthreat is powered by the riff and the blast!! Theybring the jams, simple as that. There is a fast andblasting melodic death element going on here: eachsong goes from solid, compact, marching riff to riff.The riffs practically have written all over them: "youreally should bang your head or mosh or at least shakeyour head or do something." These guys probably likethe faster Dark Tranquillity stuff quite a bit, but theyemploy the blasting speed way more often. The guitarrhythms are actually quite good, recognizing that it 'sdifficult to be truly groundbreaking. The band usesmelody in every song, but it 's not supermelodic, justcatchy, thrashy, memorable. The vocals are growled(no clean vocals), though there are some higher pitchgrowlscreams. One thing that is important is that theband sounds motivated, excited, like they are out toprove something: that melodic death can blast and beaggressively catchy. www. underthreat.com

Will you tour the Midwest area this summer andfall? anywhere else?Currently the band is focused on promoting"Deathmosphere" as much as possible. We are playingshows all over the Midwest, we'll be playing Madpowerfest in Sept and we are preparing for South Americandates in late October and November. We've been alsoworking on new material that we are intending torecord next year.

What kind of reception does your music have inColombia? You're from Bogot5, the capital, right?Yes, our hometown is BogotS, Colombia and Milwaukeeis home for us in the States. About the reception wehave over there: what can I say?...you saw the video!

(on the album) hahaha is crazy every time we go backhome the response is and always has been incredible.They are always waiting for us to come back and whenure are away they want to know what we are doing.We love playing over there, but we also enjoyexpanding our fan base here,

How do you pereive your own work and albums?We released "Hipostasis" under an independent labelback in 99 in Colombia, "Behind Mankind Disguise"in2003 was our first American release and the only onewe did for Conquest music, and now 'Deathmosphere"

with Barbarian Records is our third full-length, thesecond American release. I think you could describeour music as a blend of melodic ultra fast death metalwith heavy thrash, blazing drums and high speedguitar solos mixed with a lot of other influences inmetal. We have definitely a strong progressiveinfluence and black metal traits as well.

Is anything different that you offer to listeners?I guess you would have to listen to it and be the judgeof that. I can say however that we always try to pushourselves a little more every time. In our lyrics theband deals with a lot of personal viewpoints abouthumanity and its contradictory nature. Musically, I l iketo think that we offer a fresh and heavier version ofmelodic death metal. We pay a lot of attention to thestructures of our songs and the way in which all theinstruments come together in every song. We take ourtime when working in new material and we are notafraid of trying different things. Our musicalbackground as well as our development as a band hasmade us unique.

What has been the learning process for you fromthe early days?When you first start or join a band there are certainthings you are looking for, or that you expect. It'sdifficult at first to slowly realize that maybe what yousigned up for, it's actually a total different thing. A lotof people think that being in a band is just gettingdrunk and getting laid in every show, but if you areserious about it you soon will realize that is not justfun all the time. It's a lot of work most of the time, alot effort and definitely a lot of money out of yourpocket. From keeping your band together as a group ofpeople to achieving gradual progress as a musical actrequires a high level of organization, from creating ariff to releasing and promoting an album with almostno support requires a lot of confidence in what you aredoing and an honest desire to grow and become betterat what you do. If there is something that you learnbeing in a metal band is that like everything else inlife, if you are committed and work hard for it, even ifnobody else helps you, great things will happen andwhen they do, there is not a better feeling in theworld, but if you are mediocre and just kind of hangthere and not really mean it, a lot of frustration liesahead for you.

Do you have songs on your website?Yes, we have a couple and four more plus the livevideo that we recorded in Bogotd and included on thecd in myspace www.myspace.com/underthreatmetal

What ane your goals with this band?To spawn the best metal that we can, to keep doing itfor as long as we can, to get the most people that wecan to hear it, and to do it by being truthful to what weare, never compromising our integrity.

What purpose do the lyrics have for you?My personal opinion is that lyrics should tell you aboutsomething that the composer is trying to get across,something that is somehow related to the music, eitheran opinion an experience an observation, or anything,for me it's important to give a particular song adifferent identity by linking it to a particular message,That's why I love Chuck Schuldiner's lyrics and BruceDickinson's lyrics. Ifs important to have something tosay. In our particular case we have a lot of materialcoming from the place we come from, nothing againsthorror movie tales, but our reality is far moreinteresting to me.

Finally, what direction is your new music taking?We are definitely taking a heavier direction. The newstuff is a little rawer, in essence more thrashy, but atthe same time more elaborate, more complexstructures but simpler riffs, tighter sound. The samespeed doses and crazy solos. Lyrics will be reflectingsomehow all the things that have happened to us andto the world in the last couple of years. THE END

BABYLON IIIYSTERY ORCHESTRA: THE 6REATAPOSTASYSubtitled 'A Conspiraqy of Satanic Christianity," is aconcept intelligently worked out and critiques religionas control. Says, "produced, written, arranged andpeformed by Sidney Allen Johnson" and is aninteresting release, especially since it is the work ofone person. The music is dark, in mood and in subjectmatter: an eerie midpaced, monastery-likeatmosphere. Whereas many bands criticize religiosityand its institutions with lyrics reduced to simplicity,Johnson has done some history research. Not reallygoth rock, not really dark metal, but has that generalfeel: the vocals are in a low, male tone. Guitars anddrums are midpaced, not too complex, driven more bymood than showmanship.www. ba bylon mysteryorchestra. com

BY BLOOD ALO-I{E: EIER|IIALLYJERICHO HILLS RECORDSIn this four-song, 22-minute release this goth rockband presents an interplay between two mainelements: metlow soft rock and upbeat rock. Thegroup, from Massachusetts, serves a debut that

references The Gathering, Lacuna Coil, etc. The soundquality is not "big time," but decent, like a good demo,People liking to find out about lesser-known goth rockare probably the most interested demographic.www.bybloodalone.com

GELESTIIAL: DESOI.A 7E AIORIHBINDRUNE RECORDINGSSome music gets slower and slower until it's adownright slow-motion-tuftle-sloth pace. The vocalsare guttural, but they are not aggressive. Instead theysound like they are far, far away in a cave in thedistant past in a land from prehistory, The percussion(drum machine?) plays slowly enough to allow time togo buy and cook a turkey, return and you won't havemissed a beat. This is an exaggeration, but onlyslightly. Imagine: the sound of the beach (theintermittent waves : odrums') accompanied by someoccasional distant guttural vocals. The songs: there arepauses in between the long periods ofcave/beach/forest death doom sounds, but it allbasically sounds very similar.hftp : / / crion icmi nd. org/bi ndnl ne

COI4YIUNI.C= WAVES OF WSUAL DECAYNUCLEAR B1-AST RECORDSThese seven compositions, adding up to almost anhour, seamlessly cover the broad points thatencompass traditional heaqy metal, polished thrashand progressive metal: the guitar work is, most of all,clear and crisp (not downtuned/chugging) withriff/shred moments abundant, as well as nicer, slowerwhen necessary. The singing is classy, but not *metal

cheesy" nor annoyingly high. It has a ceftain elegancethat makes it refreshing. Metal from Norway that istalented, progressive, complex, with longer songs,thrashy, a bit melodic (not'happy melodicJ and stil lheadbanging. Note: the dft, and especially thesinging, recall early Nevermore a lot.www.communic.com www. nuclearblastusa.com

CRONIAI{: IERRA (CENTURY }IEDIA RECORDS)Made up of two people, Oystein G. Brun andVintersorg, both from Borknagar ( Mr. V. is in, like,800 other bands), but this project does not sound like8., just to clariff. Guitars, bass, programmeddrumming and lots of "symphonics" result in a slow tomidpaced endeavor. Spacy at times, atmospheric oftenand with V's unique vocals, clean and growled, thematerial is pretty mellow. If you dont mind it slow andmoody, the release is explorable. But: no blastingspeed this time.www.centurymedia.com

www.cronian.com

DAGOBA= WHAT HELL IS ABOUTSEASON OF ]IIIST RECORDSFrom the first song, it's plain this bunch from Franceloves four bands: Pantera, Sepultura, Fear Factory andMachine Head. The guitar is chunky, chuggy and thevocafs definitely in the Chaos A.D. style. For thisreason, it has not yet evolved enough to find its own

swEvER

sound. There's some electronica in the background andclear vocals, making it pretty trendy and "aggressive."www. d a g o bao n I i n e. com www. seaso n -of- m ist. com

DAYLIGHT DIES= DIST{ANTLING DEVOTIONCANDLELIGHT RECThe focus of these eight compositions, lasting morethan 50 minutes in total, is general sombemess. Theserequiems, to their advantage, are not so slow, but runat a steady, middle course highlighting the band'svision of melancholy and despondency shrouded indark melodies. The tracks are carried by pleasantlygrdy, easy to recall notes; the drumming keeps activecompany to the guitar; the vocals, despite being"growled," though not wrathfully, are appropriate andfit the funereal aesthetic (occasional clean singingappears). This is probably the form of deathly doomwith the widest appeal due to midpaced and stillgloomily song-orientation. www.daylightdies.com

www. cand leli g htrecordsusa.com

EDGUY: ROCKET RIDE . (NUCLEAR FI,.AST REG}A division of moods of this 'midpaced-heavy-metal-

with-hard-rock-moments" is as follows. The midpacedbut rocking, terrific tracks: 'Sacrifice," oRocket Ride,'"The Asylum" and 'Out of Vogue." They will pleasethose enjoying albums before the German starsdistanced themselves from power metal with 'Hellfire

Club". The "big time rock": "Wasted Timer"'Save Meo(a ballad) and 'Superheroes" are updated versions ofWhitesnake, Def Leppard, etc. They are very poppy."Matrix" is midpaced hard rock, not really metal. Notbad, but ultimately suffers from boringness because itlacks energy. "Catch of the Century" is upbeat, poppy,rocking glam. The goory moments are: 'Trinidad'

which is silly rock, like Aerosmith, Van Halen, etc. Thelast number is the unfortunate 'Fucking with Fire,'more glam. www. nuclearblastusa.comwww.edguy.nu

VIARQONI W7.{EN WORLDS COLLIDECENTURY ]TIEDIA RECORDSOriented towards the concert experience withbreakdowns often, this hardcore outfit from Germanyprovides a considerable melodic thrash factor to theirexpertly performed, af not all too innovative, materialcharacterized by strong dose of double-bassdrumming, speedy guitars, shout-growled vocals. Inaddition, each song has the more melodic aspect,through solos or licks and some cleaner vocals, To topit all off, the breakdowns serye as transitions to achange of pace or are there with an eye towardscreating a mosh pit. The breakdowns are prettyformulaic, the songs memorable.www.maroonhate.com

www.centurymedia.com

OBLO]|OYz IilIGHTY _ ,COSFIIC _ DANCESDEEPSEND RECORDSThe most unique aspect here is the songs *Lost

between Emotions" and'Starsend" with its soothingsaxophone element in the middle of speedy/blasting

dark metal. These antagonists from the Czech Republicseriously believe they specialize in astronomy metal. Inreality, the ears are subjected to grim/blacl{gremlinvocals and tight, tight, often speedy, somewhattechnical thrash with some melodic passages.'Nostalgic ldealization," a blasting, thrashy affiair, hasa nice melodic solo, for example. The potential is herefor something wonderful in the future, if the solos keeppushing things forward and if the saxophone becomesmore than an occasional, sporadic factor, As it is, thisis competent and interesting, though not excellent.They should be less shy with the things that makethem d ifferent. www. oblo mov. czwww,deepsend.com

OHE , }IAN AR"TTIY AND THE UNDEAD OUARTET:27ST CENTURY 'sLLrNG 4TACHIHE NUCLEARBIAST RECEx-The Crown vocalist Johan Lindstrand returns withsimple midpaced thrash with growled vocals. Parts ofthe soloing is melodic, mildly interesting. Overall,however, this is just too plain, too basic with itsconstant midtempo, chugging rhythms. The drummingand riffis don't offer anything interesting. In short,disappointing and sounds like a project, They needsome energy, www. nuclearblastusa.comwww.onemanarmy.W

POLIDICKS: lfUTEilATTOrU fWOUNDED PAW REC)Nasty, fast punk rock with angry gremlin witch vocals:good attitude, but the music is sloppy and loose angrygarage rock. They need to rehearse more and gettighter, tighten up the drumming and guitar to makethis more frantic and raging.www. wou nd ed paw. com/pol id icks

SAWRICON : ilOW- DIABOIJCALCFNTURY lrr EDIA RECORDSSuch a concoction of simple, pounding heavy rockguitar, with basic, midpaced drumming, led byscowled, frowning, tongue-lashing vocals creates songsrepetitive, uncomplicated and effective songs, In allseriousness, this does sound more in line "EnterSandman" or oSad but True", from a darker, angrierangle. This black'n' roll is easy to remember becausethere is practically no blasting in the album proper andno complexity in the guitar. No solos, just straightahead riffs. It depends on the particular audience todecide whether the repetitive nature of the music is aproblem. The more adamant about older, proper blackmetaf, fike lhe Shadowthrone or Nemesis Divlna, willfind more difficulties assimilating this. The Volcano fanwi l l be fine.

www.centurymedia.comwww.satyricon. no

SCAR SYITITTIETRY: PffCH BHCI( PROGRESSNUCLEAR BLASTThey are sedulous about outdoing Soilwork's'NaturalBorn Chaos": the growling can get very low, gutturalat times, then screechy at others, though it does staygrutT in general; the clean singing sounds expeftly

done, even to the point of sounding poppy; plenty ofsolos and thrash and shredding; the drumming iscreative and varied, speedy and midpaced (but noblasting). The cynical will correctly notice a formula atwork; however, the strength is the genuine goodsongwriting abilities, the talent and how they bringtogether the components. This is their second one.Their previous Symmetric in Design was very, v€tYgood, too. www. nucleafi lastusa. com

www.scarsymmetry.com

SONATA ARCTICA: FOR TtlE SAKE OF REVEltlGENUCLEAR BLASTThis live cdldvd sounds like an honest recording of atraditional heaflpower metal formation from Finlandthat has been gaining a larger audience with eachrelease. The dvd is longer than the cd, which only hasa portion of the entire set of the dvd recorded inJapan. The dvd's "extras" has nothing interesting, justthe usual, discography, a boring *documentaryr" etc.The live performance is a professional one, while stillacting a bit silly on stage, during the keyboard/guitarsolos/tradeoffs, etc. The midtempo, slower songssound like hard rock with sweet melodies. The speedysongs are more metal, but still with a pop sensibility.The group does well their mix of rockers and midpacedsongs. No point in listing the tracks they play in thisearly 2005 show. They're all good. The dvd has somet7 songs, the cd l3.www.sonataarctica.info

www. nuclearblastusa.com

STRAPPING YOUND LAD: THE lllElfl .aHCKCENTURY MEqrA RECORDSThe psycho scream funny farm robot fry chickenmaster Devin Townsend delivers a lemon hot batteryacid salt loony bin barrage of strange and comicalmetafjazzspazzthrash. oU Suck" and'Wrong Side" arethe most intense and catchy. *Antiproduct" is a loungejazz metal number, sort of weird. oMonurnent" islayered with background studio sounds. oHope' isanother simple track backed up with more studiosymphonics. "Far beyond Metal" is gang-shoutedvocals, etc. He screams and sings, while the guitar ispretty simple, nothing complex and relies heavily onstudio technology to sound bigger. It's supposed to befun, funny, simple, mosh-friendly, etc. He can releasealbums like this every month, which he seems to doa nyway. www.strappingyounglad,com

www.centurymedia.com

TERROR 2OOO: TERROR FQR SAIE (NUC. BI-AST)Just a big ketchup fiesta of beer and speedy moronicthrash with lyrics about metal and Kerry King, KingKong, the Cookie Monster, barbecue and stupidity ingeneral. This project is fast, fast and tight, withscreaming, growled and wacky vocals. It's the oppositeof overproduced and serious: a joke with tequila onthe side; vodka for dessert. Soilwork's vocalist is thescreamer here, except here he's a numskull.www. te rro 12 k. cj b. netwww. n u cl ea rblastu sa. com

THREAT SIGNAL: UITIDER REPRISAI-NUCLEAR BLAST RECORDSThe younger audience in 2006, say, into Shadows Fall,will receive this material well because the overridingcharacteristic of this cast is the things that capture thesales, magazine covemge and airplay: (1) the mid 90sPantera/Fear Factory and hardcore influence (thechug), and (2) the scream/shouted vocals inconjunction with clean singing, popular with core, aswell as with In Flames. The sound of this metalcore isv€ry, very professional and booming, but it's formulaic.www.th reatsi g n a | . co m www. n u cl ea rb I a stu sa . co m

TwEr-FrH GltrE= THRESHOLD OF RE\IELATIONSEASON OF MISTPatience is necessary with this traditional metal high-pitched wailing, lots of time changes, guitars that twistand turn, drumming that is playing a song as much asit is showing off. The first listens can sound downrightannoying and headache-inducing. Talk about seriousmetal. Nevertheless, repeated listens reveal that, inhd, there is a real coherence, that the songs do flowand that the considerable talent is put to good use.Furthermore, more listens bring forth all sorts of thingsnot obvious earlier on, which only encourages morelistens. After a while it becomes apparent that there islots of thrashing going. Technical, progressive powerthrash like this goes over some people's heads the firstfew times they hear it, but the person that enjoysdedicated musicality will note this 4O-minutes-plusalbum gets better each time. www.twelfthgate.net

www. season -of- m ist. com

WOLVES IN THE IHRONE R(XIH: DIADEII OF 12STARS VENDLUSRemarkable work, set within raw black metal, whichdespite its deceptive categorical limits, opens up amusical dexterity and variety that is a wonderfulsurprise. The four long songs take up 60 minutes anddeliver, of course, lots of blasting and grim vocals,which interacts with twisted melodies, some cleansinging, low growling, serene moments that, within the13-minute-plus framework of the compositions,impress. It is true that with this type of songs there isno quick, immediate satisfaction. It's in the long termthat the songs begin to make more sense. If it's nottoo offensive or hackneyed to state it thus, they'recarrying out with black metal the spirit of what Opethrealized with deathwww. wolvesi ntheth roneroom. com

www.vendlus.com

metal.

linter / re/views : m a u ricio, theoutcastzi ne @j u no. co m l