#42 Washington state, U.S. www.metalbulletin.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/pages/The-Metal-Bulletin-paper-zine in this issue: reviews, reports, news, interviews on:

One Machine Eldritch (Italy)

TrenchRot (U.S.) Lost Insen (Tunisia) Gamma Ray (Germany)

legionnaires of death: Acheron (U.S), Alterbeast (U.S), Arterial Mist (U.S.), Cannabis Corpse (U.S.), Enthrallment (Bulgaria), Mass Infection (Greece), Morfin (U.S.), Ribspreader (Sweden), Thunderwar (Poland), Twitch of the Death Nerve (U.K./Germany), www.fuglymaniacs.com (issues online, concert videos, interviews, reviews) history of Metal Bulletin Zine:#1-20: (2006-2009): Wisconsin; #21-26: (2009-2010): Texas; #27 (2010) -- now; Washington state

Metal Bullletin Zine (MBZ) is a homemade publication, and not a business enterprise in any way. MBZ is not business partners with any band, record/management/publicity company, club/bar, or any kind of for-profit organizations/individuals. MBZ is not paid money and does not sell any product to anyone for money/profit. -- metal on the radio/internet (Pacific Time) Metal Shop (Seattle, WA): Saturday 11pm-3am KISW 99.9fm www.kisw.com FOUR ridiculous hours of the heavy stuff! Sweet Nightmares (Houston, TX): Thursday night 9pm-midnight KPFT 90.1 fm www.kpft.org Bill The Master and his pirates take over Texas! —

One Machine One Machine: "The Distortion of Lies and the Overdriven Truth” (Scarlet Records) One Machine is Nevermore music—downtuned thrash/groove with traditional singing. It makes sense, after all, One Machine is the idea of Steve Myth, a Nevermore alumnus. The singer is Mikkel Sandager (ex-Mercenary) and on here he sings melodically, also sings in aggro style and does lots of ear-piercing yelling. (Warning: he really does scream yell a lot in an old-style metal way; expect high vocals).

More specifically the music sounds like this: chunky chugging groove with thrashy parts, lots of virtuoso-like soloing, Pantera-style aggro drumming/rhythms, and Mr. Sandager doing all sorts of vocal acrobatics, sometimes appearing jarring to the ears on a first listen.

To me, one main segment of the audience for One Machine would have to be the Nevermore listeners. The album sounds very professional, skilled and as modern as modern metal gets. It’s melodic, but in that heavy thrash groove way that you would expect from Steve Smyth/Nevermore. www.facebook.com/OneMachineOfficial --

Eldritch (Italy) Eldritch: "Tasting the Tears” (Scarlet Records) “I don’t always listen to prog metal, but when I do, I listen to Eldritch.” The beginnings of Eldritch date back to 1990,

and the new album “Tasting the Tears” marks the band’s ninth album. Usually categorized as prog metal, Eldritch 2014 finds the band working at peak efficiency in songwriting. Dedicated progsters have already heard the band before and certainly in Italy and Europe in general, it is likely that progsters are at least familiar with a bit of the band’s music. A testament to that is that Eldritch is alive and well in 2014. They must be doing something right.

These prog metal veterans apparently have

decided to come out of their shell big time and write a “greatest hits” type of album. You could say that this is “light prog” because it’s so catchy. It’s also “adult contemporary metal,” so if you want to mosh, thrash around and jump up and break stuff, then this is most definitely not one of those albums. This album is more for drinking hot chocolate and chilling, or for when you want something intellectual/emotional, and talented. In truth, the band has probably made its most accessible, ear-friendly, mature and hit-oriented album. It just so happens that it is a wonderful album from beginning to end, too. www.facebook.com/Eldritchband --

TrenchRot (U.S.) Philadelphia’s TrenchRot’s “Necronomic Warfare” is the most metal, headbanging album that I have heard in 2014 so far. If you love death metal, with intense-expressive growling, big riffs and real drumming and direct songwriting, and you appreciate bands from today that play classic-style death metal, then read on. Brooks (guitars) tolerated my questions about music and the movie Rocky. -- What is up with TrenchRot in 2014?! TrenchRot is laying low for much of 2014, slowly working on new material and focusing on our other projects, of which we have quite a few. What are your impressions of how people have responded to your new album? We are stoked with the positive response. We figured fans of the early death metal style would be into it, and so far the reaction has been really awesome. Still, TrenchRot are not a live band at the moment. We've

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come to the conclusion that we'll play fests and stuff like that, something where we can put together a good performance. The DIY touring circuit is not one of our priorities and since we haven't been asked to play any fests yet, we haven't played live at all. I find "Necronomic Warfare" to be the most fun, headbanging album in 2014. It has a warm sound. What can you reveal about the sound? We recorded click tracks, and then recorded everything to those, all the drums were done in single takes, most guitars and bass were done in single takes as well. Of course we overdubbed the solos and stuff. There isn't much to reveal about mixing other than we tried to get the best sound we could within the limitations of using a few microphones hooked up to a computer in a dingy basement. There isn't so much "studio magic" really, but we did use some modern death metal techniques. This would be a good spot to plug Richard Scott, who recorded us with his mobile studio. There is no "computer programming" of the drums, but I think we did work on them quite a bit to get them sounding just right. We didn't make fake blast beats or anything, every drum beat was real.

To clarify, there are four guitar tracks going on at most points in the mix. Each rhythm guitar is tracked twice, mostly done in single takes. TrenchRot's sound is very experienced and specific. Have you been in other death metal bands? We are all experienced musicians, and though none of us have played in any "death metal" bands specifically, we knew very much what TrenchRot was going to sound like before the first note of music was written. I notice that you all seem to have other bands. Steve and I (Brooks) are in Crypt Sermon, a traditional epic doom and heavy metal band. We are currently writing our debut full-length due out on Dark Descent Records. Grass dissolved a few years ago, and from that we started TrenchRot and Crypt Sermon, effectively allowing us to focus better on the sound of the bands. When did your vocalist discover that he sounds like classic Martin van Drunnen? I think it was a very deliberate choice to enunciate the way he does, and we make no secret of worshiping at the altar of Asphyx. You know what's surprising about the album? Some of the melodic guitar solos in the context of doom segments. Sometimes I think you really love the song "The Left Hand Path" by Entombed and the doom

segment and guitar solo in that song. Sure, it comes from Entombed, Asphyx, Dark Millennium, and all the rest of that old school stuff. It's what we get down with. I think some of our other influences tend to creep into the mix, of course, and being big fans of traditional heavy metal and doom metal certainly colors our sound a bit. Brooks Wilson and Steve Jansson are in three bands? We've been playing music together for six or seven years, I think. Sometimes you just find someone you work well with, who shares your musical tastes and you just want to crank out the tunes. We are currently involved in two bands, and maybe another will happen... There are some plans in the works. Here are some Philadelphia questions. What is your favorite "typical" Philadelphia food? Are any of you particular about certain Philly foods? Our band has a very unusual mix of eating habits, so if I had to speak for anyone overall I'd say we can all get down on some Dock St Pizza in West Philly even though I'm not sure [the drummer] Justin's ever eaten there. Have any of you ever run up the steps of the building in the Rocky movie, like he did?! I have walked up the Rocky steps, and Justin is very familiar with the Art Museum. www.trenchrotdeathmetal.bandcamp.com www.facebook.com/Trenchrotdeathmetal THE END. --

Lost Insen (Tunisia) Prog metallers Lost Insen, in addition to having the solid album “Here After” with serious talent, have posted the full album on Bandcamp as a free pay-what-you-want download. Given that the album is surprisingly good, I thought it would be interesting to interview the band. Readers who support metal in tangible ways should double down on Lost Insen, as the band really deserves it. The guitarist Karim answered the questions. -- How are things for Lost Insen in 2014 in Tunisia? Did you record in Tunisia? Things for Lost Insen are pretty good, we released our first album and it seems that people like it. [We live in Tunisia] except Oscar our singer, who is Spanish and lives in Sweden. All the instruments were recorded in Tunisia, Oscar did the vocals in Sweden. We recorded in our band’s local, we have our own equipment and [producer]Julien has brought everything we needed to make the best sound we can for the album. In the past few years Tunisia has experienced some political changes. How has that affected your music and the conditions in which you make music?

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Some of the songs in the album, are inspired by the ‘Revolution’ Tunisia experienced; in fact, the last epic song ‘Freedom, it’s all about…’ is an expression of that feeling when people stand up against oppression and decide to make a change. So we can say that all those things affected our music in some way; it was difficult to rehearse in that period, but we made it through and opened for Symphony X and Amaranthe on March 26th, 2011. Can you tell us who is in the band at this moment? Karim Bouazra-Guitars Mahdi Braham-Drums Oscar Zubelzu-Vocals Yessine Belghith-Bass Fadhel Bouazra-Keyboards Are you all friends from school or work? Karim and Mahdi have known each other from friends in common when they were in high school, they played just together for sometimes as jam buddies; Fadhel joined them and formed ‘Introspection’ with Zaher Zorgatti (Myrath’s actual singer) they were inspired by Evergrey, Vanden Plas, Opeth.

On his side Yessine, played with Xtazy (the band that became Myrath) and after a while he left the band to form ‘Brainstorming’ and play Dream Theater songs. Lost Insen started in 2005 as a tribute to Dream Theater? In 2005, the band’s singer was Amine Hassine and he did great covering James Labrie’s melodies. But after 4 years playing together we parted ways for personal reasons. After that we played with many singers, but didn’t find the one who commits himself to music as we all do. Julien helped us and contacted Oscar to record the album. We can say that he did an awesome job, he was a big help with the lyrics and we felt that he put his soul in the songs. We can’t thank him enough for doing what he did. Has Dream Theater ever played in Tunisia? Dream Theater never played in Tunisia. Yessine went to France in 2007 to see them live when they were on their Chaos In Motion tour. "Here After" sounds like a professional recording. Who is Julien Fabre? How long have you known him?

After the Symphony X concert, we had 6 or 7 songs written; we decided to make demos and keep on writing music so we could improve ourselves as composers. A friend of ours helped to have contact with Julien and via e-mails and social networks we exchanged the demos, organized everything. He came in Tunisia in August 2012 and we spent 2 weeks recording the music. Karim Bouazra is a talented guitar player and I like the melodies he plays. How long has been playing guitar? Karim: I started playing guitars when I was 15, I think; now it’s been 13 years that I am in love with my instrument. My first guitar hero is without a doubt the great Dimebag Darrell; his playing and sound affected me so much; he’s the best riffer in the world. After that, like many ones, I started listening to the prog icons like Dream Theater of course and John Petrucci was a huge influence. He is the complete guitar player, he has musicality and his technique is so perfect, I really like the way he explores the instrument. Finally, the one and only Jason Becker; the first time I heard Altitudes I decided that guitar will be my life: At 18, he sounded better than anyone else and his sense of melody and his virtuosity, for me, there is no one guitar player who plays like him. Is Fadhel Bouazra the brother of Karim? Yeah, they are brothers. How did Mehdi Braham’s parents tolerate his playing the drums in the house and what do they think now?! It was difficult at first, but they accepted it and he spent, like 2 or 3 hours per day to play in late afternoon. They are not into metal music, but they like the melodies, and they really appreciate the efforts that we put to make things happen. On the other hand, Karim and Fadhel’s parents are big fans, they share the music and try to listen to more metal bands, it’s really cool. How long has Yessine Belghith been playing bass? He writes lyrics, too? What bands does he like? When he was 14 he started playing guitar, but 2 years later he switched to bass guitar and since these times he’s been playing the bass for around 12 years. Cliff Burton and John Myung are his biggest influences. Oh yes, everyone in the band puts efforts musically and lyrically, we work as a team; so for example, Yessine wrote the original themes of ‘Freedom, it’s all about…’ [He likes] Dream Theater, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Pantera. How easy is it for Lost Insen to play shows in countries nearby, like Algeria, Morocco and Egypt?

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It’s not easy, in fact, organizers and concert promoters are so rare these days; there was a time when local bands played 2 shows per month; the community was very active, but now it decreased mainly the last 2 years, we think the principal cause is that the bands didn’t have the support they needed to keep on, it’s really difficult to make sacrifices for music, mostly when there’s no support from the authorities; and now in Tunisia, we can say it’s the rap era. So to answer the question, when it’s difficult to put things on at the local stage it’s harder to play shows in other countries nearby; it would be so cool to organize something like that, but we don’t expect support so we have to make it ourselves. How is the situation for finding jobs in Tunisia nowadays? Fadhel and Karim are music teachers. Mahdi plays with a cover band in bars and is a freelance infographist. Yessine owns a shop of Manga/Anime merchandise and accessories. But in general, it’s not really easy, a lot of graduated students are unemployed, it’s a system fail but Tunisians are survivors. Do you feel like there is more freedom now? Does your band have more freedom now compared to before? It’s a better feeling of course, mainly with the newest government, they seem to be working for a better Tunisia. As things going better, we have more freedom as individuals, but the band has always took care of itself. Even if there was a better period for metal (between 2004 and 2011) we hope that the community takes chances to get bigger, so the metal scene activity returns to that point and increases even more. Are there women into metal music in Tunisia? There are many girls/women into metal music in Tunisia; some bands have female members like ‘Persona’ (an alternative metal band) for example. Thanks for posting the album on Bandcamp!! Thank you to give us the chance to talk about our band, we’re very glad. Greetings from Tunisia and Stay Metal \m/ www.lostinsen.bandcamp.com www.facebook.com/LOSTINSEN THE END --

Gamma Ray (Germany) "Empire of the Undead” (Armoury Records) To listen to Gamma Ray is to celebrate the history of traditional heavy metal and power metal: big, huge choruses, shredding leads, melodic hooks and a charm that metalheads instantly recognize and welcome. As usual, Kai Hansen and company honor their musical past by referencing early heavy metal, (as always)

Judas Priest, the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, Kai’s old band Helloween, previous Gamma Ray albums, even 80s pop, and the 70s metal and rock of Kai’s youth. For instance, certain segments, sometimes a phrase, maybe a chorus, perhaps a hook, or it may be a Halfordian scream that will recall metal’s history. Kai has been making music since the 1970s, mind you. Thus, to listen to Gamma Ray is to indulge; it’s no secret. On occasion, when I read Gamma Ray reviews I find that certain listeners have complained that 2001’s “No World Order!” or that 2010’s “To the Metal!” was just too much referencing the past. If that’s the case for some people, then they will be sadly disappointed again, while the Gamma Ray faithful will be thrilled once more with a catchy, rocking, headbanging solid album to add to their library. A word about details: I don’t remember Gamma Ray cursing too much to appear “tough” or “angry” before (maybe I’m misremembering?), but they certainly do that this time. www.gammaray.org www.facebook.com/gammarayofficial -- DEATH METAL love-it-alls, completists and obsessives “BLAST/SLAM” Twitch of the Death Nerve: “A New Code of Morality” (Comatose Music). Despite some previous recordings, it appears that this is the Twitch’s first album; and what an album it is.

This one is full of constant animal grunts, pig squeals, gremlin screams, low guttural sounds, gurgling and the like. As if that weren’t genius enough, the drummer on here is none other than Defeated Sanity’s monster of a drummer, Lille Gruber, whose work by itself is a pleasure to hear. Essentially, the Twitch is serving notice that they are making a run for the title of “the heaviest blast/slam death metal album of 2014.” It is a sick, sicko, sicko album that sounds way more disgusting that any review

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could ever describe. Blasting, chugging, slamming, pinch harmonics, with a variety wild animal noises, and other goodies await. Quick, here’s a bucket, you will need it! www.facebook.com/twitchofthedeathnerve “OLD SCHOOL” Acheron: “Kult des Hasses” (Listenable Records). With a demo from 1989 and a 1992 debut, Acheron is a name death metallers know. The album exudes professionalism in the production and in songwriting. Blasting parts are interspersed with uptempo passages, all within an overall vibe of veteran/old-style songs. You might be surprised to learn that Acheron incorporates a sensible amount of melodic soloing and catchy riffing, but of course Acheron maintains firmly the structure of old death metal that is easy to get into for headbanging and moshing. Another good one by the band. www.facebook.com/pages/Acheron/128581467223407 Arterial Mist: “Draining Your Life.” For Arterial Mist, trends come and go, but death metal remains; disgusting, ugly death metal. With this EP, they are calling out the creeps to come out of the woodwork and join the pit. Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation, …you get the picture. Gory lyrics, gory drawings on the cover, gory band logo. Arterial Mist is not pretending that they are the greatest thing since sliced bread. They like death metal and that’s what they play. Word. www.facebook.com/ArterialMist www.arterialmist.bandcamp.com Cannabis Corpse: “Splatterhash” (Tankcrime Records). While the faithful may want an album, CC wants to wait a bit longer. In the meantime, here are two songs of their usual 90s-style death metal. In these songs you will hear the patterns, phrasings, vibes and songwriting that will recall Suffocation, Deicide, and of course Cannibal Corpse, amongst others. The sound quality should be mentioned because this music sounds awesome: your ears will definitely like the clarity of sound. For instance, you can hear the bass guitar very well. CC knows that it is just death metal, but they like it. www.facebook.com/pages/Cannabis-Corpse-Official/104903899597371 Enthrallment: “The Voice of Human Perversity” (Rebirth the Metal Prod.). The first demo is from 1999, and this is the fourth album. Enthrallment appeals to “Pierced from Within”-era Suffocation in sense of heavy, blasting dm peppered with a bit of melody and memorable riffing/songwriting.

They sound like experienced pros and have an air of veteran knowledge. Enthrallment loves the classic dm and it shows: shades of Suffocation, Deicide and Cannibal Corpse are clearly heard. Enthrallment plays blasting speeds a lot, but the experience at coming up with hooks and segments that you can remember is what distinguishes their chaos. The sound quality on the album is refreshing, too. The clarity of the bass guitar and guitar riffs make the album instantly likable. The warm tones are easy on the ear, which is a very good thing, as it allows you to hear the blasting, technicality and melody clearly. www.enthrallment.eu www.facebook.com/Enthrallment Morfin: “Inoculation.” (FDA Rekotz). As a sibling to the album “Leprosy” by Death, this work proudly and shamelessly exhibits songwriting inspired and lifted from said classic. They do the long-hold, painful, drawn-out growling style; the midtempo/uptempo simple drumming; the midpaced, headbangable guitar riffing/phrasing/tone all point to that specific heritage. With only tiny differences (the very, very brief use of blasting in some places; if you blink you’ll miss it), Morfin doubles down on the “Leprosy” zealotry by covering the song itself “Leprosy.” You see, that’s their story and they are

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sticking to it. For listeners into: late 80s Death, Massacre, early Morgoth, early Gorguts, and back-to-the-future death metal in general. www.facebook/com/morfindeathmetal Ribspreader: “Meathymns” (Vic Records). Rogga Johansson is a riff-making machine of old-style death metal. Rogga appears to have about 567 bands and I’m not sure, but it looks like most of them are old-style death metal with grooves. This is the fifth album (I think) by Ribspreader and it sounds like Autopsy and early Entombed jamming. It’s simple, direct and for headbanging, with a musical mentality akin to Overkill, Motorhead, Slayer, Destruction, Sodom, Master: give the listener what the listener wants. Rogga supporters expect him to make groovy old death metal and he’s glad to oblige. Wham, bam, another one by Rogga’s assembly line factory of death metal. www.facebook.com/pages/Ribspreader/148182408532846 Thunderwar: “The Birth of Thunder”. My impression from this four-song EP is death metal that is neither “brutal” nor “technical” per se, while perhaps using a bit of the modern aesthetics for the band’s strength: a classic dm-influenced style. Perhaps sounding like a “baby Malevolent Creation” at this point, this is only the band’s debut and it’s a solid one. I was surprised how good this sounds. Nice soloing, too. Listeners who are death-metal-forever should look into Thunderwar. www.facebook.com/thunderwarofficial www.thunderwar1.bandcamp.com TECHNICAL, BLASTING Alterbeast: “Immortal” (Unique Leader Records). Clinically squeaky clean perfectly aligned technical, blasting death metal with the objective of showing zero mistakes. This would make Robocop and The Terminator proud. The drums go at a kazillion hours a second and the guitar players have bionic fingers and it’s mind-bending mechanics and frenzy. It’s meant to make you I-fell-down-and-I-can’t-get-up dizzy. Flawlessly compressed and robotized like nobody’s business. The vocals sounds like a bunch of bears and gremlins are having a bar fight in The Matrix; and the growling and shrieking is constant throughout because Alterbeast does not take it easy on you, but rather ups the intensity on everything: speed, blasting, guitar wizardry, vocal ragings, Attention lunatics for Cryptopsy, Psycroptic, Origin, Necrophagist, Deeds of Flesh and the like, here’s Alterbeast with its debut and it’s tailored to your exact specifications. www.facebook.com/ALTERBEASTfofficial Mass Infection: “For I Am Genocide” (Comatose

Music). Those who can’t get enough unrelenting technical death metal a la Origin should check out these Greeks. Despite the dizzying speeds, Mass Infection is easy to understand because the guitar work gives the listener lots to consider and enjoy. This is not lazy-generic riffing of the chugging kind, but rather the finger-twisting pain-causing type. I do hear an Origin influence, but I say it as a compliment, of course. It’s headbangable dm and you won’t need many listens to feel the overwhelming speed, technicality, blasting and intensity, which is the business of Mass Infection. Mass Infection seeks to run with the big dogs of blazing dm. Solid, solid album, lots of fun. Recommended. www.facebook.com/pages/Mass-Infection/129646357120635 April 10, 2014