MetalBulletln

lnteruiews & Reviews

J a n u a r y 2 0 , 2 O O 7

no.interviews :Thesyre, The Accursed, andShadow Demon

reviews : Aborted, Atrocity, Downlord, Ektomorf,Event Horizon, Raise Hell, Rhapsody of Fire, Therion

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check:

www. myspace. co m/th em etal bu | | eti nfor more reviews and interviews and links tohear these and other bands* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * { < * * * *

this zine is available at:California: Downey: Dark Realm Recordslll inois, Chicago: Metal Haven; Tinley Park: Threshold Music;

Roselle: lmpulse Music;I ndiana: I ndianapolis: Abyss RecordsPennsylvania: Philadelphia: Relapse StoreTexas: San Antonio: Hog Wild RecordsWisconsin: Madison: Ear Wax and other stores; Milwaukee: Ear

Wax

plus other places and metal shows

Thesyre

January 1,2007Thesyre is a complex musical entity and one that seems to beparticularly bold when you consider that their album is one long songthat's 32 minutes long. I didn't think I was going to like it because Ididn't know if it was going to be just a repetitive song that lasts over30 minutes, hence boring. The fact that it 's just one song usuallymakes people suspicious, I guess. Well, it 's certainly not repetitive!l

These Quebecois metallists have an aura of black metal(including the vocals) and thrash within the context of galloptng,banging metal and a good bit of the famous French Canadian love ofleft field energy/musical structures. The first 7:30 minutes of thealbum are, basically, blackened thrash or black thrash or thrashenedblack metal. After that, there is a change of feel to a more ambient,drums and bass, cosmic sounds until the 9tn minute, when thethrashy riffing and the harsh vocals return, At the 11th minute comesin a guitar solo thafs slightly dissonant, but memorable. a nice,memorable moment where the solo just keeps going and going,noodling, until 12'.44, more or less. Then another change of pace forsome suspenseful keyboards coming forth and creating ahorror/quiet feel until 17:00 when mournful, melancholic guitars takeover until the 18.00 when drums and dissonant guitars jump intoaction, then'19.37 the black metal vocals return, along with somestreet gang shouting-type of "hey, he/' or something like it. The songkeeps going, kids, because there are stil l more than 10 mtnutes left,but you get the picture: black metal and that certain Quebecois metalquality are the main ingredients to open up your horizons.

"Exist!" (www.osmoseproductions.com) is the album and itis a well done job and one that brings something creative to metal.

H*S*t#Jrom the band says about things. www.thesyre'com

Your music is very impressive. Your album is one long song. Doyou worry that your music is "too much" for the audience? lsyour music destined to be appreciated only by a small numberof the metal public?Thanks for the good comments. Our two previous albums(Thesyre/2003 and Duality/2005) were shott bursts of hard-hittingcatchy songs. We went a little more experimental with this third onejust to broaden our sound palette, really. We needed to expand a biton the sound we developed on the past albums and we just wenteven more ahead with the idea to have only one song on the newalbum. By its nature this album might appeal a little less to the usual,lazier audiences. lt requires repeated listens to be digested entirely

and properly and hopefully there will be some people being able tomake the effort.

Some people have written that Qu6bec has lots of metal bandsthat are more experimental. Do you have any thoughts on this?ls Voivod responsible for this?!!!Those people are right if they consider the number of bands comingout in proportion with the quality of its musical content. Being isolatedfrom the rest of Canada (mainly because we speak French here) butalso being isolated from each other (as most bands pop-up from therural, physically separated, areas), it 's probably easier to come upwith an original approach, or at least a sound of our own. We'rebenefiting from a great tradition of bands who dared to push theboundaries, with Rush and Voivod being great examples. Voivodacted as a model for a lot of us over here so this might also havehelped us to evolve outside of the traditional box most bands trapthemselves in musically

Why do you cal l your album "Exist!"? ls there a dif ferentbetween "exist ing" and "l iving"? Why not "Live!"Existing is manifesting yourself through life. Being alive is easy anddoes not require much effort The title of the able refers to thts primalenergy us humans can feel. We're not only acting as animalssurviving but as individuals evolving among other individuals, ingroups, gathering ourselves in an environment we have a certaincontrol over. We can think and reflect on our acts and therefore we'renot only living but existing.

Can people hear your music on your website or myspace?There are samples of all our releases, including our splits, on ourwebsite. lt is located at: www.thesvre.com

Did Osmose know that your album was going to be one song?Was it their idea to do an excerpt for radio use? How do you feelabout the excerpt? ls i t a muti lat ion of your music?They had no idea what we would come-up with when we went in thestudio. We had 100% art ist ic freedom and lappreciate that. Theexcerpt was my idea but if I could get back to it I would not include it.It was intended for radio play and I was told that some stations evendared to play the album as a whole so it makes the excerpt useless.The presence of the excerpt on the final album is was not intended,it's a mistake done bv the manufacturer.

I have read in interviews that some metal musiclans think that todo one long song is kind of lazy and i t means that people didnot want to write real songs. Can you please answer this pointof view? | wonder i f you can say a bit more about your thinkingabout this issue. Also, long songs sometimes get a badreputation! Why is this?I think that people making this comment are the first ones whocouldn't get away with writing one long, single song. lt 's anexperiment we did as I wanted to break away from the shorter songspattern we built over the last two albums. lt 's everything but lazinesson our part as it's a difficult process to try to fit different parts togetherand then repeat some of the leitmotivs, bring back harmonic ideasand work with themes building over some others A lot of peopleseem to pass over those details on our new album. Long songsrequire repeated listening and much more attention on a longer

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scale. Listeners, in general, are too lazy to try to digest a long pieceof music. This explains in a way why a lot of people cannot get intoOpera, for example. We are force fed with short songs, simple ideasand narrow musical landscaoes all the time so it's normal that somepeople cannot get over this when they are confronted to a biggerpiece requiring more attention. I am glad we did the experiment andI'd like to give it another try later, as the band evolve, and see wherewe can go with it.

Are you doing any touring in 2007?No touring at all so far. No plans for it either. We're not evenconcerned about it, honestly. We are not a traveling circus looking tomake a few bucks on tour and we're glad to record albumsexclusively; at least for the moment lf we ever come upon aninteresting occasion to perform live we will consider it.

Were you guys in other bands before this one? How did youcome with the idea of an album with one song?Some of the bands in which some of us performed, as foundingmembers, session members or touring musicians includes DecayedRemains, Frozen Shadows and The Black Dahlia Murder. I also havea side-project under the name UNLIFE, dealing with electronic/darkambienUindustrial music.

The idea for the 'one song' album came to me while writingnew material for this album. I felt l ike the music bits I was coming upwith were fitting well together and, after writing some of the lyrics toit, I felt it was much better to piece it al together as a single song thatto try to build single songs out of it. The whole album should beinterpreted as a musical journey, like life really is, with calmer andmore turbulent passages,

Your music has black metal, thrash metal, etc. Are therearguments in the band about musical direct ion? Some peopleuse the word "hardcore" when talking about you? Do you guyslisten to hardcore or metalcore? | don't hear much hardcorehere...There is no arguing as l've been responsible for the major part of thematerial since our beginning Our drummer contributed to half of themusic on our second album 'Duality' and he's well aware of what fitsor doesn't fit Thesyre's sound. I have no problems with people usinghardcore or black metal or thrash or whatever to describe us. Thoseare tags or labels people use for lack of better ways to define ourmusic. We're mixing in a wide range of sounds because we all l istento a wide range of music. lt rubs out in our own music eventually.

Does Thesyre have a posit ion on rel igion? ls this topicimportant for you or not?Thesyre has a position on religion : Out of the way! There should beno religious belief at all, as far as I am concerned. I cannotunderstand why people stil l believe in such nonsense in early 2007,whatever their creed or allegiance. There should be no place for anyreligious manifestation in public affairs, government, at work, inschools or anywhere else, lf people are this addicted to their'spiritualsafety nets', they should keep in the privacy of their homes

Final ly, do you support independence for Qu6bec?Yes, I do. I do because I would like my province to be principallyFrench-speaking, free of any religious link and able to govern itself

according to our people's needs and desires, something we cannotachieve if we remain linked to Canada, I think. We have all theresources and labor force to make it All we need is a little more self-confidence. Many Canadians wants us to stay, among other reasons,because they know they won't be able to benefit as easily as they doright now from all the resources we have here. We're becoming afree way for everyone stopping by, looking to suck a few bucks out ofour liberal system and I know that more and more people are fed-upwith that The typical open-mindedness of our people is slowlybecoming the very reason why we'll one day be only remembered inhistory books.

Can you please recommend books ( in defense of independence)for readers of the zine to check out?There is not much books written on the matter of indeoendence overhere. lt 's a fairly 'recent' topic historically so there's not muchcoverage of the phenomenon, so to speak. I would recommendpeople to watch Canadian news, especially the ones in French if theycan figure them out properly. You can also read news sites on theweb, as some of them often cover the issue. There is a movie titled'Octobre' which is linked to some of the conflictive events whichhappened in 70s here which could be of interest as well,THE END

The Accursed

Jan 4th, 2007The Accursed's "Seasons of the Scythe" is all about hooks andheadbanging. The songs have a charm to them that should get vourhead banging or moving in some way The borderline shouUgrowlvocals, the thrashy riffing and the soloing work well with their soft ofmodern thrash, making it fun. The band has absorbed BOs and 90smetal into the sound, meaning that you their love for metal in general,from traditional to the more aggressive forms. Just as impodant, they

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sound like they are having fun doing this stuff and it comes across inthe songs, which is always nice to hear. Not all bands cancommunicate their fun to the songs, but these guys certainly do Afterlistening to the album repeatedly, the songs stil l sound fun and that'sdefinitely a good sign They inject a certain old school metal feel intotheir sound, making it sound fresh, but also with a nod to the BOs.

Jonathan Helme, the vocalist answered some questions(including some about their moms because, well, someone shouldthink of asking about something else besides talking about Slayer)put to him about this bunch from Massachusetts.www.theaccursed. net

"Seasons of the Scythe" is heavy, pounding album, yet it hasplenty of hooks! There is a freshness and excitement to themusic that comes across pretty well in the recording. Why doyou think this is?First off I want to say thanks for the interuiew, and for the kind words.Seasons of the Scythe's feel comes from all of us. As five separatepeople living five completely different lives. When together our lovefor the music kicks in, it 's kind of like Voltron, without one of themembers you're fucked without a foot!

What are your plans tor 2007? Are you doing in live shows insupport of the album?2007 is going to be a fucking blast! We have a few local shows linedup as of now for January and February. Every fucking show we playis supporting the album. We are hoping to hit the road in the summerto tour in supporl of SOTS. But with all of us having families and fulltime jobs, it 's tough to get out as much as we would like.

ls the album available overseas? Have you receivedcommunication from the metal audience?For right now it's only available through the Screaming FerretWreckords website (U UU.s-c_rean_Lng_f_efql.-qgm) or through us at ashow lt should be hitting the shelves everywhere pretty fuckingsoon. We've gotten some really positive reviews from overseas zinesfrom our demos, so we have had some contact outside the US andhope to have more in the future. As far as reviews go we haven't hadmuch coming in, but the ones we have gotten have been pretty goodI would have to say some people dig it

Are you guys a young band or have you guys been in otherbands a lot? Are you guys under 25?Believe it or not we are all over 25. We are in no way old men , orwet behind the ears for that matter All of us have been in bands forabout 15 to 17 years. Some of us in other bands, some workingbehind the scenes booking shows, writing for zines etc And somedoing both.

By the way, "Fire of 1000 Cries" has a lot classic heavy metal init? Was that song written by a different person?That's funny that you'd say that, it was the first song we wrote withTimothy on guitar, He brought it with him when he joined and wewere all over it!

There is death and black metal in your music, as well as moremelodic metal. Do you think that metal has reached a pointwhere it's only natural to bring in all the different metals into it?

It comes natural to us because we have so many different influencescoming in from all different directions. I mean, we all have completelydifferent tastes with in the band including, Hair metal, black, death,grind, thrash, melodic and power metal Throw it all in and that's howwe come uo with us.

ls "The Black Thrash" an inside joke, a statement of purpose?The Black Thrash is actually one of the first sets of lyrics I had everwritten. lt 's not an inside joke by any means. lt 's about a strugglewithin, to overcome your worst fears. "The Black Thrash" is inside allof us.

Do you have music people can check out your website and/ormyspace?Hell yeah man, on Myspace (www.myspace.com/theaccursed) wehave a few songs from 'Seasons' and the demo. There are alsoreviews and a small bio.

Have your moms heard your music? Do they like it? Or do theyjust suppoft you because they love you?All of our moms have heard our music, some l ike i t . . .and some don't,The moms that do like it legitimately do like the music, not just forsupport and they come to some of the shows as well..

Some questions about lyrics. I see that your rhyme "fire" with"desire" and talk about gods, darkness and ki l l ing, etc. Do youfeel that are you saying something with these clich6s or is it justa matter of routine that metal bands talk about this stuff?Well, personally I don't think my lyrics are cliches at all; everything Iwrite has some kind of meaning to me. lts how I am feeling at thetime or what I am going through be it anger, depression, love, hate. Iwrite for me, and how I feel about some things.

Also, are the rules about metal topics al l bul lshit then? ls i t un-metal to try to say something not chi ldish and cl ich6d? In popmusic people rhyme "fire" with "desire" very, very often. So,metal lyrics then are just as empty as hip hop, country and poprock?

Does a band like you not have anything to say about otheremotions besides aggression? Or what about topics l ike the warin lraq, literature, sexism, racism? What about exploring deathfrom a different perspective, as the loss of a loved one, forexample?

As far as the "fire and desire" sometimes the best way toget something across is the simple way. For me there are no "metaltopics". lf the music written makes me feel aggressive I will writeaggressively. I have a song on the album about love. I have oneabout suicide; I have one about the fucking movie Dune, and aboutWilliam Wallace (which strikes a chord with me being that I amrelated to him). I don't think there should be any kind of wall to staywithin when writing lyrics.

I don't want to write about politics and lraq, mainlybecause, I don't think people really want to hear about that shit in thesongs they listen to, seeing that they have to live it and it's in theirface every fucking day. lf you try to write "metal" lyrics or "pop" lyrics,then those lyrics become empty. Writing what you feel is never

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empty Music (to me) has to be an escape from the world, somethingto get inside you and shake every cell in your body.

H'SHrr**rif ihr***rrrrrrr ffi ri*rrrir

Shadow Demon

January 11,2007Shadow Demon's album is called "Grimoire of Ruin" and it's a fineexamole of how this Seattle area band embodies modern metal:traditional heavy metal is side by side with thrash and otherelements, like flashes of black metal sounds. What makes ShadowDemon worthy of attention is how the play their metal: yes, they areheavy metal, but the dark, gritty vocals have much in common withmore aggressive forms of metal and the thrashy riffing gives the bandan aura of dark metal that makes them different. The songs arememorable and made for headbanging with fast riffing often and fastsolos, too. They combine this with a faster midpaced atmosphereand very memorable vocal lines.

Another thing that is interesting about the band is that theyreleased their own album. Instead of waiting around for something tohappen, they decided to find a way to release it themselves. JamesRinker (bass) answered some questions about the album and thephilosophy of the band As usual, you can find out here about how tohear the band if you are interested. lf you are tired of happy heavymetal and want darker, heavier heavy metal, then you just might endup enjoying this band a lot.

So, you guys have released "Grimoire of Ruin" on your ownlabel? What, you got tired of trying of dealing with all the labelsand their orientation to trends and metalcore?Yes, 'Grimoire of Ruin' was released on Darkhaven Records whichincludes some of us from the band along with a couple of friends.We're not going out of our way to avoid existing labels, but becausethere are so freaking many bands these days it's very difficult to getnoticed even when you have a good product. The big thing for uswas that we put a ton of blood, sweat and tears into writing andrecording the music that it almost seemed proper to release this one0ursetves.

So you guys are an example for other metal bands that don'tplay trendy stuff, right? How did you do it, what did you do torelease it yourselves?

lf you say so! <grin> | think it 's stil l possible to go the 'traditional'

method with a label for non-trendy bands but, as I said, it 's probablyharder than ever to actually get noticed What we did to get ourlabel going was read about other aftists that had self-released worksand got some legal advice and all that and then we simply formed abusiness and a publishing company and had our productmanufactured. We then got a press agent for the US and put ourstuff on Amazon, CD Baby and have it available ondarkhavenrecord.com. lt wasn't exactly easy but I think just aboutanyone could do it if they are driven.

When you play live in your local area, what places do you play?How are local people reacting to your album? ls Kenmore,Washington an exciting town? ls there an active metal publicthere?We all l ive around the Seattle area and Kenmore just happens to bewhere our PO Box is so really one could say that we're a Seattleband. The Seattle area is interesting. There are a ton of musiciansand wanna-be musicians as well as a pretty decent metal crowd.Mostly l 'd say there are a lot of people who play music for fun butdon't necessarily have any bigger ambitions. Unfortunately Seattledoes not seem to be a great place for traditional-oriented localMetal. What I mean is that people that are trying to find others toplay more traditional metal here tend to have a hard time findingother people who are interested and good. Crowd-wise, the peopletend to be a bit more laid-back or critical than l've noticed in othercities in the US. I guess that might have to do with the number ofpeople that consider themselves to be musicians! But seriously,except for international acts, l 've noticed that for some reason peoplearound here seem to have a harder time just letting themselves gofor.good* local metal,

Do you write your songs in rehearsal? ls there one person thatcomes up with the skeleton for songs?No, we don't usually write in rehearsal. For the songs on'Grimoire... ' there were original ly only three of us. Jeff, Blaine andme. Jeff and I wrote the bulk of the material and Blaine added insome cool parts here and there. Generally what we'd do is record abunch of seed ideas, generally riffs but sometimes a vocal melody orphrase, and then as something struck us as interesting we'd run withit until it was done. There are quite a few songs that Jeff might havea bunch of cool riffs loosely arranged in a song format without vocalsand l'd listen and hear a theme and write the vocal words andmelodies and maybe change the arrangement a tad and perhaps adda solo section or something. On the current album 'Drums of War,''A Dream of Dreams' and'. . .And the Meek'are al l examoles of thisand they are some of my personal favorite songs on the album.

You play fairly traditional metal. However, your vocalist is not! lsthis on purpose? | mean, do you feel that the traditional metalsinging is a turn-off with the siren, air raid vocals? ls that styleout of touch with the present?Hmm, ls Dio considered traditional Metal? <grin> OK, I know whatyou mean.

Yes, the way the vocals are done is completely intentional,of course. When we recorded the songs Jeff and I were pushingBlaine for more power, more 'grit', more aggression. lt 's completelywhat we wanted.

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For me personally there are some bands that have singerslike you describe that I can listen to all day long and some bands thatthe singer really gets on my nerves within ten seconds, so I don'tthink it 's the style itself that is a turn-off for me, just certain singersBut that's OK, there are other people who love those singers andprobably won't get our stuff. lt's just a matter of taste.

Can you please tel l us the story behind some of the songs?What is up with "Red" for example? What about ". . .And theMeek"?Thanks for asking. Let me first talk about the general theme for thealbum. While it 's not a concept album telling one continuous story,we wanted the album to be generally dark and have a pafticularmood that is reflected in the cover and the title. Once we had thatcore idea early on in the writing process, we tended to try to findtopics, riffs and melodies that fit that core mood. As an example, wehave a few riffs that we thought were probably 'too happy' for thisalbum. Does that mean that the next album will be happy? | doubti t . <grin>

'A Dream of Dreams' is the first of a few songs touching onour perception of reality. The story itself is about a person who hastragically and unexpectedly lost someone very close to them, All theplans and dreams of a future together have suddenly vanished andthe survivor becomes lost in the darkness of utter despair. Theybecome so hopelessly lost that they are driven to the brink of deathwhere they begin to 'see' the walls of reality break down. Voicesfrom some other place try to warn them to turn back but ultimatelytheir desire to know more drives them on. Ultimately they find outthat the answer is much more than what we think we know but theprice of going that far is death That may or may not be the end ofthat story as I have some additional ideas about where I want to takethe conceot.

'Drums of Wa/ is, on the surface, about the conquering ofthe Americas by the Europeans but more broadly is about loss ofidentity as a culture. There is a bit of a slanted perspective change inthe middle of the song but begins and ends from the point of view ofthe Native Americans.

'The Dark Citadel. .' is a story idea that Jeff created abouta person who is able to move between our reality and a sort of darknethenruorld where, among other things, different factions of demonslive. He uses this ability to get away from things here in this world(like robbing a bank and avoiding capture) butfinds that each time hemoves to the other world that he has a harder time coming back.Ultimately the person learns that there is a prophecy about astronghold called Darkhaven that the demons can only conqueror ifhe is killed. . As the title implies, Jeff plans on continuing the storylater.

'.. And the Meek'was a song that first appeared on a threesong EP that we put out a few years ago. lt 's basically a warningabout just living your life for empire building and a legacy for in theend we all die and, in the course of time, all these works becomenothing, Think Shell/s 'Ozymandias' meets the biblical 'Blessed arethe meek. '

'Brave Murder Day' was inspired by the cover of our EP.The artwork is from Travis Smith and he called that oiece 'Brave

Murder Day' so we decided to write a story to go with it. The song isin three distinct parts each with a very different flavor The opening isabout a person who has been cast out of his village for his crimes.

He feels slighted and seeks revenge through black magic sosummons a spirit-being known as the Harvester to do his dirty work.The Harvester appears in the second pad but, for some reason, isreluctant and regretful aboutwhat it 's being forced to do...there is ashort back-story about that which may or may not be fleshed out atsome point. The third act is the death of the townsfolk in theirdreaming and the reveling of the summoner who sees himself as agod of death as he burns the town. He only somewhat notices thatthe Harvester weeos for each victim.

'Waking Among the Dead' is about a person 'waking up'and realizing that there are many, many people who sleepwalkthrough life and simply contribute nothing but the continuing of a pop-culture life of emptiness They create nothing and will contributenothing until they actually die. Don't be a plastic zombie.

'Umbris Mortis' has to do with the war of beliefssurrounding the unknowns of life and death and how people andgroups of people use this conflict of ideas in a destructive way tofurther their own ambitions. I don't know why belief or non-beliefcauses such tremendous reactions in some people, but it does and,sadly, it can be used against those people. There's more ideas inthat song l' l l leave for people to discover but that's the core concept.I probably packed more ideas and emotions into this song than anyother l 've written for the album.

'Sea of Oblivion' is roughly based on the movie 'ldentity.'

l ' l l leave it at that as the movie has one very big twist that I don't wantto ruin for people. See the movie and then you'll probably be able tofigure out the song.

'Red' seems like a bit of a monster tale but is really aboutthe monster or beast within a normal person. The beast in this caseis the insanity of rage. lmagine a person who wakes up or walks inon the scene of a terrible, bloody murder. As they look at it, not onlyis there the horror of what they are seeing now but this naggingsense of more. The corpses stare at the person accusingly, butwhy? And somehow is horribly feels familiar...and they rememberthe screams.., Across the room is a mirror and, as if in a trance,they are drawn to it where they are confronted with the reality of what*they* had done in a fit of rage. In the end the truth of it drives themtnsane.

Your lyrics are like epic tales or movies. Lots of metal bandstalk about the same topics of darkness and death and they do itin the same manner. Are there unspoken metal rules aboutlyrics? ls metal in a crisis of lyrical ideas?First of all, thanks for the comment. l 'm very happy you took the timeto read and think about the words.

Interesting questions. Yes, I think there are unspokenrules but I think that happens with any large group of people (a sub-culture). As with any group of people, you are going to have thepeople who are leaders and innovators and those who are not. lt 'snot to say that the latter group is bad because, in my opinion, if theyare putting out quality material and people enjoy it, great. But after awhile it will probably get old for many people.

ls there a crisis as far as lyrics? No. Definitely not. Thereare stil l quality artists putting out quality material it just may be moredifficult to find these days just because there are so many bands outthere, People may have to wade through a lot of junk before findingsomething that appeals to them. I also wonder if people really payattention to the lyrics as much as they used to. I know we've had

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reviews that made it clear that the person was *not* payingattention ..of course those are the reviews that are easy to dismiss!

Do you have sample songs on your website or myspace?Yes! We have a few different samples available. A few full songscan be found on MySpace or on HardAxe as well as clips of all oursongs on CD Baby. Addresses are:http.//www. hardaxe. neVbands/1 4 1 /http: //mvspace. com/shadowdemonhttp: //cdbabv com/cd/shadowdemonWe also have a forum on Ultimate Metal as well as our main websiteand we love to hear comments from everyone:http: //sh adowdemon. us

How avai lable is your album around the world? Have you foundpeople who wil l distr ibute i t in Japan or Germany or Greece?We've had a few very small distributors from all the countries youmentioned contact us so far. So unless you're very lucky to find thesefolks, i t wi l l be dif f icult to f ind'Grimoire... 'without using mail-order,We've looked into a couple of larger distributors bit but it 's extremelydifficult for a relatively unknown artist to get better distribution withoutlabel help. lt also really helps to have demand and that meanspeople asking if shops have or can order our disc. lf enough peopleask, eventually the stores will find a way to get our discs eitherthrough their regular distributors or through us directly.

I will also mention that our songs are available on iTunes,Rhapsody and a number of other electronic distribution sites, A lot ofthem, actually. lf you subscribe to one of these seruices or buymusic electronically, look to see if we're in their catalog.

In Blabbermouth they said that the drums sound l ike a drummachine. For the record, don't you use a real drummer? And areyou pleased with the production on the album?Yeah, that was funny! Yes, we do have a real live drummer, JayDavidson, who played all the drum pads on an acoustic kit that wasrecorded in the traditional manner. We've had all kinds of strangethings said in reviews like that but we've learned to take it all instride. We just create the music in a way that makes us happy andthen let the public have it and people will think what they will.Honestly most comments like that don't phase us.

As for the production, it 's decent but there are definitelythings we could have done better. For those who haven't noticed, Idid the production with everyone in the band's input as well as someoutside advice in a few places (like the drums). The mastering wasdone by a local studio in the Seattle area. In the end everything iswhat it is and we're pretty happy overall. Not 100% satisfied, ofcourse, but happy. Next time l'm hoping we'll actually have anoutside engineer at least do the mixing as well but we'll see when thettme comes.

What is up for you tor 2007? Playing live? Plans for futurealbums? What can we expect in the future from you?Yes, playing live for sure. lf we can somehow make it to one of thefestivals in Europe this year we'd move hell and earlh to do that butwe'll just have to see. We're already gathering some seed ideas formore songs and I hope that the two newest guys, Ryan and Jay, willbrinq some cool ideas to the table as well. Other than that we'll iust

keep doing what we can as bestfew breaks along the wayT H E E N D

we can and hooe we can catch a

ReviewsAborted: Slauqhter & Apparatus: A Methodical OvertureWell, let me put it this way: the 2005 album "The Archaic Abattoii 'really, really impressed and surprised me and I couldn't believe that agore grind band had come so far into the realms of real quality metalmusic: not "very good gore grind", but "very good metal," period,regardless of the genre. Gore grind is so overcrowded with musicallycrappy bands that think that Carcass' "Reek of Putrefaction" is amasterpiece to be copied over and over again. I actually don't evenlike that album "Symphonies of Sickness" is when Carcass began toget really interesting, anyway,

Therefore, I was looking fonruard to hearing this group(Belgium), just to hear whether they could and would continue theirnew and very hotly improved ways. The answer is, hellz yeahz foshizzle, Here's the deal, Howie: uazy, blasting drumming with lots ofkicking out the jamz and the jamz upon the jamz section, the vocalsare deep, deep guttural, screamed, shouted and just plain crazyvocals, the guitars shred, thrash, grind, slash, twist, noodle andwoodle with riffs and more riffs, oh just in case you don't believe theyeven have seriously melodic, catchy soloing that's just plain sweet,sugary, chocolate ear candy to hook you in and keep you hooked,Yes, they blast, blast and blast, blah, blah, blah, so don't worry cuzthe grinding is in place and ain't no reason to panic. To put it plainly:Aborted are sensational! What? Yes, sensational! Fantastic! 40minutes of fun, fun and more blasting, shredding fun.www.goremageddon.be www.centurymedia.com

Atrocitv: Contaminated (Open Grave)Connecticut's Atrocity garnered some attention in the undergroundmainly due to their grind album "lnfected" in 1990. Today that album,which is raw death/grind with more emphasis on the crust side ofthings, shows that it has not stood too well the passage of time, thesame way that grind bands like Unseen Terrror and PhilthyChristians have shown themselves to be strictly b-rate stuff

The information I have says that Atrocity have reunited andare working on new material and that this band was formed in 1985in the town of Torrington, CT.

However, this release reviewed here is not the newmaterial. lnstead, what i t is an e.p. ( '10 songs in about 18 minutes)with recordings of alternate versions of songs of previously releasedmaterial. These songs were recorded in 1990 during the sessions fortheir album "lnfected." So, how do these songs from 1990 sound in2007? One important difference (to me) is that this e.p. has a bettersound than the sloppiness of "lnfected". Actually, the sound of thise.p. is a not a problem and has a charm of rawness (not sloppiness!)and crust. This is best for love-it-all, collector types, rather than thevery selective grind connoisseur.

Downlord: Random Dictionarv of the Damned (Open Grave)These guys call their music Old School Death Metal and AggravatingRhythm lt involves a bunch of guys like Dave Ingram and guys fromfrom Danish bands. Ingram was in Benediction and the other guyshave been in bands like Iniquity and other Danish bands that I have7

never heard and you probably have not heard, either. Maybe youhave, what do I know?

They blast often and Ingram sounds like himself meaningthat he has a deep, guttural growl, Despite the constant blasting, thisis not really grind or crust or anything like because the sound has adifferent vibe altogether. a rumbling, thundering, bass-heavy soundand a noodly guitar feel, giving the songs a marching-fonruardsensation. The production is raw, muddy and I get the feeling thatbass and drums actually are dripping mud! lt does sound sloppy, butl'm sure the band says that it is on purpose! lf it 's Old School DeathMetal, then it can't be nice and sweet, right? | feel that theseveterans could have delivered songs of higher quality, as they thesongs don't have the extra spark that makes one take notice.www.downlord.dk www.opengraverecords.com

Ektomorf: Outcast (Nuclear Blast)This band from Hungary displays a chunky, downtuned,screamed/growled heavy rock fits nicely within the rock that"Headbangers Ball" and other heavy rock video shows play. Inaddition, this fits pefectly into the format of what the hard rock radiostations around the country play as the newer generation of heavyrock. Whether it 's Disturbed, Chimaira or Shadows Fall or older stuffl ike Korn, this has that jumping moshing, chugging sound, l ike thesounds found at Ozzfest. The band is cedainly able at their craftThen again, they released their first album in 1996, so they got theexperience. On this album, they have added an Eastern influence totheir sound. Don't know what instrumentation and studio sampling itinvolves, but it adds some new layers to the sound. "Who Can ITrust" is a slower, mellower song with those harsh vocalsaccompanying what sounds like an Eastern string instrument, forexample.

This band has an obvious Max Cavalera influence, butthese guys are not insulted if people say that. Soulfly released theirf irst album in 1998, while EktomorJ did theirs in 1996, meaning theCavalera influence dates back to Sepultura's "Chaos A.D." and"Roots." The lyrics of this band are of the same style of Max Cavaleraand the vocals are reminiscent of him, too, but if you compare Soulflyand Ektomofi in 2007, they are going in different directions, but withoverlapping sounds

This music is not really metal, but more in the style of theheavy rock of bands like Korn and Soulfly, so don't expect thrash oranything like "Beneath the Remains." www.nuclearblastusa.com

www.ektomorf .com

Event Horizon: Naked on the Black Floor (Cruz del Sur)The singing on this album is gritty high vocals and it's on thescreaming side of things. I mean, this bunch from ltaly gotthemselves Mr Gianluigi Girardi who belts it out, yo! He's not beltingit out with every word, but he does it a lot. There's no growling or nicewhispering here, just remarkably old school mentality of giving it100To to the high vocals. Girardi has grit in his delivery, so it's nothappy metal vocals. lt makes you feel like this man is yelling rightinto your ear, yikes! Fun, yo! Seriously, go the website so you canhear it for yourself

The music is a chunky, heavy, dark prog metal of sorls, butfor sure, nothing too proggy, nothing too complex. They also got a bitof background spacey sounds, which add a bit of spice to the music.I would say that the prog listener who likes singers who just plain belt

it out will enjoy this the most, but because they are actually a prettysolid, decent band, the songs are memorable Should you spendmoney on this? Luckily, you can just go to website and hear this stuffand then see what you think, www.cruzdelsurmusic.com

Rhapsodv of Fire: Triumph or Aqonv (Maqic Circle/SPV)The great talent, epic talent is in full force. This is the real thing. So,once again, the band delivers high quality, skillfully crafted music. Asfar as quality goes, this is of the highest

Without a doubt, there is one very impodant element thatthe loyal Rhapsody listener needs to take into account here and it isnot a small matter: Rhapsody on here has made a big push towardabandoning the "metal" side of the "epic metal" equation. While thereare occasional bursts of metal energy, like the few minutes of "TheBlack Orded' segment of the 16 minute composition "The MysticProphecy of the Demonknight," the album goes at midpace andslower rhythm. lt is more correct to say that Rhapsody"s music hereis epic, operatic rock with the occasional rocking metal moments.Therefore, if you love the speedy side of this band and love "Dawn ofVictory'' and want more of that and not so much of the slow, mellowstuff, then you will be disappointed for sure, Now, whether you getused to the slow stuff, that's different, and if anybody can convinceyou it is the mighty Rhapsody So, put away your Star War lightweapons from Toys R Us and your Lord of the Ring customs,because you will want to sit down with a cup of tea on a comforlablechair for this one Tell your grandma to listen to it with you. She willl ike it, too. Make tea for two. You might fall asleep, too, just like youdo whenever you say, "That's it, This time l'm gonna do it! l 'm gonnawatch all three of the Lord of the Rings movies, one right afteranothe/'and you know that that never happens because you alwaysfall asleep in the middle of the second one.

Man, in all seriousness, I wish Rhapsody would just goahead and make the black metal album that they have promised todo! This would be a good time to do it. Hey, people, begin wnting toRhapsody and demand that they deliver on the long promised blackmetal album that they said they would do!www.rhapsodyoffire.com www.mightyrhapsody.com

www. magi cci rcl emusic. com

Raise Hell : Citv of the Damned (Black Lodge)Sweden's Raise Hell's music's is based largely on thrash, as themain riffing to the songs show, but this foundation is expanded uponwith the licks, hooks and melody from less harsh forms of metal, butwith raspy, gritty, a bit of that dry throat approach to the vocals(which just easi ly could be black metal). Thus, the band is a notstraight-up thrash, though there is lots of galloping, double-bass, fast,shredding going on here, but there is also a lot of groove to thesongs. They don't rely on sweet melodies to make their point, but onenergy, as "My Shadovr/' and "Like Clowns We Crawl" demonstratewith their pit-friendly riffing. One thing padicularly specific to RaiseHell is their tendency to want to make their thrash/heavy metal soundlike fun rock 'n roll. Don't get me wrong, they are a real metal band,but I mean that there is a certain slamming quality that goes forsimplicity in order to catch the ear and I think they do that pretty well.They know what they are doing because they have several releasesout and they definitely go for this sound every time. Not really tryingto be the most original or complex band, but more like trying to write

8

thrashy songs with a rocking vibewww.blacklodoe.se

www.raise-hell.net

Therion: Gothic Kabbalah (Nuclear Blast)Alright, then, so all the pompous symphonic gothic metal known asTherion greets 2007 with a double cd. Look, the musicianship is goodand all that, so there's not much to criticize in the way of that stuff,l 'm not saying they are geniuses because they are not, but theycedainly think big and have a huge perspective on things.

What do you need to know about this album then? Well,that's it has melodic metal with a definite Middle Easternvibe/influence. Have these guys been listening to Ophaned Land?l ltsounds like it, yo!! Therion once again sounds like they have a millionpeople in the band with the choir vocals and stuff This time aroundthe high, soprano vocals are used a lot in the songs, Thus, it 's aquestion of whether soprano singing is a turn-on or turn-off for you.The music is melodic, operatic, of course, not very rocking. This isnot headbanging metal. lt takes time to digest music like this and it'sa question of whether you like epic, adventurous, classically-influenced metal. I stil l have not absorbed it, but if I wait to absob inorder to do a review I might onlv be ready in about 7 years from now.Therion loyalists have every reason to rejoice once again. The otherpeople who keep hearing about Therion and who haven't givem thema chance, should at least investigate what all the fuss is about.wvw.megatherion.com www.nucleablastusa.com

[i nter/re/vi ews by mau ri ci o: theoutcastzi ne@i u no. com]