RMP Magazine 5

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Free, Monthly and downloadable PDF Magazine featuring rock, metal and punk bands.

Transcript of RMP Magazine 5

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Interviews

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EMP Review

Maudlin FidlarRemindersFuneral For A FriendSir Yes SirBlack VultureThe BronxSilverstein

3236

EMP Tour reviewInterview Hatebreed

Column

42 Asian rock

Cd Review

From page 50 till page 59

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Intro

“We just started the new year just started full of promises,goals and dreams. We had our first podcast on RMP On Air but we’re not the only music organization that spoils their audience.

Graspop and Groezrock revealed new names for their line-up this year and Fall Out Boy is going on tour again. The mysterious band Shone streamed his first release, and these reasons are enough for usto get very excited for the upcoming future!”

Kenny Leys

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Maudlin has a new record coming out on February 15th. You chose to work with a new label on this. Any particular reason for this change? Our previous records, “Solitary Echo” & “Ionesco,” both came out on Offerandum Records, which was mainly Maudlin running the label. It was a good run, but one can only achieve the efforts and money that you put in. It became difficult to combine Maudlin and our jobs and our family life and Offerandum. It was obvious that the label wasn’t our main purpose. If we put out our upcoming “A Sign of Time”

album on Offerandum again, we would have limited ourselves because we truly feel that this album deserves the best possible promotion and distribution, and i guess we found that in Con-souling Sounds (CD version) and Moment of Collapse Records (LP version). Not only do we feel good with them on the band level, but also on a personal level, which gives us a warm feeling.

The sound of Maudlin is hard to place and has influences ranging from sludge-doom to

psychedelic rock, as if Led Zeppelin decided to make a baby with Neurosis and named it Maudlin. How did you ever got the idea to play such music? Maudlin never got the idea of playing a certain kind of music. As our previous bands broke up and we enjoyed creating together,

The Belgian coast has always been a special place with a rich music history, even in 2013 there’s some raw talent hidden amidst the waves of the sea. We recently had a talk with Maudlin regarding their new release A Sign Of Time and found outall the details considering their sound, new album and departure of band members.

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Interview - Maudlin

we just started doing that, and what you hear is what comes out. The riffs we use in our songs arethe riffs that come out of jams or feelings. We have our own unique way of communication if it comes down to our music. None of us are familiar with the song titles; for example: we call our song “Goddess of the Flame” “Vulkoane,” which stands for “volcano” in our dialect. With this song, we stripped down how a volcano works and followed the same pattern in our song structure. For all our songs we have a story like this.

The previous album, “Ionesco,” was a concept album that told a certain story. Will the new album be a concept album as well, or have you decided to go for another approach this time?Oh, it is a concept as well. “Ionesco” ended with a suicide attempt of our character. There is one minute of silence and some nature sounds. This minute

symbolises the trip to the eternal white light. “A Sign of Time” is a time stretch of that minute, ‘cause when you experience those brief moments, it feels like hours. The songs are about all the memora-ble moments that made you who you were. All those moments are connected to a natural phenom-enom and leaves us dazed with emotions. Our mind makes us relive our life in a symbolic man-ner.

For instance, wood nymphs symbolize the ones

we truly love, firebirds represent our fears,

volcanos equal the ones that want your love, storms are everything that went

wrong, earth/dirt reflect the ones you hate.

What we tell you here is only the beginning; there are so many connections to discover in the story, and they go back to our

previous albums. I guess Maudlin will always come with a concept; we’ll see in the future.

The name Maudlin is defined in the dictionary as affectionate, sentimental, self-pitying and even as a sort of brothel when used as a noun, but what does the name mean to you guys?To us it means good memories, looking forward to the next rehearsal, hanging out with some of the best friends one can wish.That’s what it truly means to us, but when we came up with the name, we just needed a name fast because our first show was coming up.We learned it from the old English expression “maudlin eyes.” It described how Mary Magdalene’s eyes looked when she took Christ off his cross. None of us are believers, but we felt that this description

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fitted the atmosphere of our music; that’s the only reason why we stick with it.

Maudlin recently gained a new member. With a new release coming up, does this mean a change in sound, and if not, did your newest member have an influence on the new album? Thijs Goethals, our former bassplayer, left the band, and we got Yannick Dumarey instead. Some of you might know him from his previous bands Death Before Disco and Masters of Waha. It had no influence on our album because the whole album was created and recorded with Thijs. We’re still close; Thijs even came to rehearsal helping Yannick with some parts he couldn’t find himself. And it does not mean a change in the sound, as Yannick uses the sameamp.

Your music features some key-board parts to create the dark atmosphere that Maudlin is all about.Is the keyboard player an important part of the band? Tim Gyselbrecht took care of the keys, but unfortunately, Tim also left the band at the same time Thi-js did. The keys are as important as any other instrument in our music, and I hope all our instru-ments and voices help to create the atmosphere. Live, I combine the keys & samples with vocals.

You recently played some try-out shows for the new album as preparation for the release in February. How was this ex-perience, and how were the crowd reactions?We did two try-outs, and we were

surprised to see that both shows featured a full venue. First try-out was in our rehearsal room. The place was sold out. The reactions of the crowd were overwhelming. They felt the same way about the songs as we do; they thought they are the best Maudlin songs to date. We also learned some things; we tried two different stage settings, and now we know what is best. So we’re looking forward to this special show on February 15th. Together, with about 15 artists, we will have an

art exposition that illustrates and tells more about the concept of “A Sign of Time.”

In the past you worked togeth-er with Customs drummer Ace Zec to do the mixing of your

album. Like you guys, he has a background in Belgian coast punk and hardcore bands. Could you give us an insight into who you worked with this time and why?On “Ionesco,” we recorded everything ourselves. Ace did the mix and Magnus Lindberg mastered that album. For “A Sign of Time,” we took care of recordings ourselves at our rehearsal room. We could have gone for the same set up, but suddenly, we had the chance to work with Andrew Schneider. He

mixed albums for Cave In, Un-sane, and Shrinebuilder. It was an experience to hire his ears and mixing skills. For mastering our takes, we went to Dan Coutant. Some of the bands he has worked with are The Gaslight Anthem and Coliseum. He did some amazing stuff to finish things off.

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By David Marotefacebook.com/maudlinmusic

Interview - Maudlin

On “Ionesco,” you teamed up with designer Kristof Van Heeschvelde for all of the art-work, which was a central part of that release. Did he do the artwork for the new album as well, or was it someone else? Kristof did an amazing job on “Ionesco,” but we chose to work with pictures this time. It seemed that some of the nature pictures I took fitted the desolate, dreamy and surreal atmosphere. We have the idea that the layout tells a bit more about the concept, so for us it is a good layout.

The sludge-doom genre has been rising up these last few years, Amenra are one of Belgium’s most famous bands in the genre. How do you explain this sudden interest in this type of music? I don’t think there is a sudden interest in this type of music.

The interest in this music has been there since Black Sabbath and

Saint Vitus, but it’s a fact that bands like Isis, with

roots in the hardcore scene, opened up the genre

and made it accesable for hardcore kids.

In Belgium, we have the privelege to have Amenra, who are world class. Their AB show bleweverything away. Situations like that give smaller bands an op-portunity.

In the past you played shows with bands such as Channel Zero and Verse. Any up and coming tours or shows planned that you would like to promote to our readers?Actually, we look forward to every show; we live to do our thing on stage. But I’m going to pick out two shows. I mentioned our release show on February 15th; this one takes place in CC De Grote Post at Oostende. Another one we look forward to is March 9th at 4 AD in Diksmuide. In my opionion, this is one of the best clubs of Belgium, small, cozy and always an amazing sound.

Maudlin hails from the coast area of Belgium, a scene that is somewhat far away from other scenes and not so well-known to most punk and hardcore kids. Any bands over there you would like to give a shout out to?Strange that we speak in Belgium in terms of far away, isn’t it? Anyway, some bands that deserve everyone’s attention: Betonköpf from Oostende are more stoner then sludge, and they haul monster riffs. Sensual Noise from Knokke-Heist, they released an album on their own, it’s worth picking up. If I can mention one 70’s rock band, then I would say Soviet Grass is probably the most rocking band you can find in the Benelux.

If you had to define your band in one sentence, what would it be? Mastodon on rilatine, Pink Floyd on testosteron, Saint Vitus on speed.

Thank you for the interview, and good luck with the release of the new album. Thank you!

New release: “A Sign of Time”

On Consouling Sounds (CD),

Moment Of Collapse (LP)

15 February

15 February

Next Belgian shows:15/2 : CC De Grote Post (Oostende) 16/2 : Carpe Diem (Hasselt)17/2: Kiny Star (Gent)

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When did you guys get your start?FIDLAR started around the summer of 2010. I met Brandon at a house party at my brother’s place. He seemed like a super rad dude, and we hit it off right away. Then I got a job at a recording studio in LA, and that’s where I met Elvis. We started talking and realized that we liked the same bands. The studio wasn’t booked one day, so we just set up some gear and started jamming. We jammed for like three hours straight; it was fuckin’ epic. Then we split a pizza, listened to Queens Of The Stone Age on full blast and drank beers. We needed a drummer, so we recruited the most freckled-faced redhead we could find, Max, who is also Elvis’ brother.

You’re from L.A. We all know L.A. as a party city. Is it really

like that, or have we seen too many movies?LA does have a reputation of being a party city. We came out of the house party scene. There is a lot of stereotypes of LA. A lot of people like to associate LA with Hollywood, but we never hang out in Hollywood. The cool thing about LA is that it is so big, so there are these little pockets of scenes in every district.

How is growing up over there?Max and Elvis grew up in LA. Brandon grew up in San Diego. I grew up in Hawaii. We love sunshine.

How would you describe the music you play?Loud and fast, normal music fornormal people.

You’ve sold your albums at

shows. What have the reactions been so far?I think we’ve been getting a good response. We recorded it ourselves and worked really hard on it. We even built the studio we recorded in (our house).

The new album is self-titled. Why is that?We always wanted our first record to be self-titled. It’s our introduction to the world.

It must be great to have LA’s most iconic punk rocker Henry Rollins appear in your video clip and endorsing your band. How did he get involved?Me and Elvis saw him doing push-ups on Sunset Blvd. Elvis did an ollie over him, and Henry got super stoked on that. Later that day, we all went to the beach and surfed our brains out. He taught us that if

The LA four-piece FIDLAR (Fuck It Dog Life’s A Risk) releases their self-titled full-length debut this February, which they will proudly present all over Europe during the weeks to come. Besides playing their garagepunk at its loudest, these ‘dogs’ love skateboarding. RMP

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Interview - Fidlar

you ever get bummed out, do ten-push ups.

The album is a kind of a collection of all singles you’ve made so far.Yes, we record a lot, and it’s our collection from the first couple years.

Why did you choose to release it this way, rather than write a whole new album?Because we wanted to. We have so many songs recorded that haven’t been released, and we plan on releasing everything. It just takes time to do so.

With this release, you also put out a FIDLAR skateboard deck as merch. Is it actually a good quality deck or more of an “arty” one for the wall?Fuck yeah, it’s a good deck. Shit.

The great song, “West Coast,” is not on the album while it’s one of your most popular. Why didn’t you put it on your first full-length?Because we recorded that song after we recorded the album.

The cover art looks quite simple at first, but there’s more once you look closer. Who created it?That’s all my dude, Max Kuehn. He had a skateboard that he covered in FIDLAR stickers, did a couple kickflips and boardslides, then

took off the stickers and put them on over an Alice Cooper record. Fuck yeah.In your opinion, what’s the best song on the album? What does that song mean to you?“Cheap Beer” is my favorite. “Wait for the Man” is tight too. “Cheap Beer” is fuckin’ awesome because it was the first song we wrote. “Wait for the Man” is awesome because we had a lot of fun recording it. That might have been one of the funnest [sic] nights of my life. We got wasted and popped Adderall and road the sonic audio wave called life.

What do you think is more important: that a song sounds good or that it tells a story?Both! It needs to sound good, and it needs to tell a story. We try to capture the story and the feeling of the story and put it into a song. You wanna feel that shit. Chowmein?

You will be in Europe in February, mostly UK and a date in France, when will we be seeing you guys in Belgium?We’re going to be playing Trix in Antwerp on March 4th. Boom.

What does the concept of DIY mean to the band?Pretty much what it is. We “DIY’d” because we had to; no one else would do it for us. The awesome thing about DIY is you get to Do

It Yourself. The shitty thing about DIY is you have to Do It Yourself.

Do you think less bands would split up if they would do more things together, like doing interviews?I think less bands would split if they were just honest with each other, and didn’t have have huge egos. We share everything in the band an equal split of four ways. It’s necessary for our existence.

Being from LA, where there are numerous scenes to discover, any tips on bands, projects, labels to watch out for?Fuck the “pay to play” bullshit that is running the Hollywood scene.

How much do you want to be Bodhi from “Point Blank?”Every day of my life. I live to get radical.

By Jonas Hoflack

facebook.com/fidlarLA

Next album : “No Waves / No Ass 7”

13 March

Next Belgian show : 4/3 : TRIX (Antwerpen)

Photo - Owen Richards

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Interview - Reminders

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Interview - Reminders

facebook.com/remindersband

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Let’s start with the video that’s on your website, “Best Friends and Hospital Beds.” The lyrics read, “How many friends can I lose before it all makes sense?” This might be a serious question to start with, what’s the meaning behind this song?Oh, the song is about figuring out your mortality and how much time you get from when you’re born into this world and get away from it. It’s about experience and about

making sure that you have lived your life to the fullest, that you can live without regrets, a reflection of the time you’ve spent on this world. I wrote the song when I lost my grandfather a couple of years ago. It’s just a reflection; it’s looking at some-body that is facing the end and looking back on it, reflecting on themselves. But for me, it’s about making sure that I’ve lived my life to the fullest, enjoying every moment that I have.

How do you decide how the video should look? Do you contact directors? How does it work?Sometimes, more often than not, we send out the question to some directors we like, and then they’ll come back with a treatment or a story. Sometimes it won’t actually appeal to us, but sometimes we will find a little seed in there that we think is worth pursuing. We collaborate and work on it, so it is also a bit of our ideas.It helps

Funeral For A Friend exists for more than 10 years already. Singer Matt can make a living out of touring with his band and loves his profession to death! He’s open-hearted about how he joined the band and how excited he is for the upcoming future. He also admits that it’s hard to start your own record label as a musician and how sexism in the hardcore and punk scene makes him angry. “So many bands in the UK are coming through that are really pushing a new wave of emotional hardcore which are giving me hope. But there is also a lot of “bad ass hardcore”-thing where they disrespect girls.

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Interview - Funeral For a Friend

if you have friends like Ryan Mackfall who directed the video. We’ve known him for years. It’s very cool to work with someone who’s so open-minded, techni-cally and proficiently. We just sat down and worked out some ideas until we found something that worked. It didn’t have to neces-sarily reference the song because that would make it quite dark and depressing, and sometimes, quite morbid, so we wanted a bit more action, a bit more thrills, vis-ually more exciting, and I think we managed to pull that off. If you have three minutes to tell a story, it has to be really fascinating.

Some bands write albums about specific themes; like Gallows, their album “Grey Britain” tells how bad it is in the UK or how bad it was in the UK. Would you guys do some-thing like that?We tried. Our third album was an experiment in trying to write an album that was telling a story from start to finish. It was a challenge. The new record has got a lot of things on reflecting on what it is to be in the position to perform to complete strangers. In that situa-tion, where you are a band, where you can connect to such things as simple and powerful as music, it can bring people together. It’s the intensity of that, in terms of com-ing from the hardcore scene or the punk rock scene, where you find that community, that sort of family, that sense of bringing people together to share some-thing. It’s a love-letter to the unifying feeling of hardcore and punk rock music, how it can bring a community together.

I was wondering, if you perform in different continents, with varying cultural practices, do you notice differences when

you talk with people or perform?Yeah, definitely. We just came back from Japan. We’ve been a numerous times to Japan in the past. For us, they are very polite and respectful. Between every song, they are super quiet. No-body speaks; you can hear a pen drop. It’s a little strange; we’re used to getting a lot of energy from the audience.

They will be rocking during the song, there will

be circle-pits, wall of deaths, but when the music stops, everyone stops and starts

to be quiet.

It’s kind of strange. We’ve also been to Australia and Nigeria, but generally, culturally, the language is . . . I’m not going to say diffi-cult, but . . . fascinating. We have been to places like Brazil, and the audience is singing every word; it blows my mind. They know every word of songs that I wrote when I was 16 years old. It still surprises me that music can mean so much to people half a world away. It’s insane, but I presume that’s what makes music so special.

Can you tell me more about how you make deals with record labels? I’m always wondering, do you get offers or do you contact them?We are in a very unique situation because when we started, we went into a recording studio to record a demo, the studio had a record label, so as soon as they heard what we were doing, they asked if we wanted to release it through them. We were all a bit surprised. We didn’t really know what we were going to do. We all came out of the hardcore scene, so we had a big DIY men-

tality. When they asked us to put it out, it was a big deal for us; we were just very lucky. The music we wrote connected with people, and it went from there. They put our release out, and then we got requests from other labels, big-ger independent labels who came to shows; they came to talk to us and things. We signed to another independent label after that for our second release, and then they got bought by a major label, so we were all of a sudden on a ma-jor label. The whole process for us unusual; I don’t think this is the normal way. I think playing good shows is the most important thing. You perform so they can see your honesty and your passion and integrity. Labels usually catch wind of that. There are a million ways to get up on a record label. There are so many small, inde-pendent labels who are doing very well, but they want to control the band, and that’s not how it works. In that case, bands should really release it themselves.

Tell us about your own record label, Join Us.Atlantic asked us to change our sound; they asked us to be a dif-ferent band; they asked us to be something different than what we wanted, so we decided to leave. We started our own record label called “Join Us,” which, I think, would have worked if we had sim-ilar ideas about how to handle it, but everyone in the band wanted to approach it differently. It was a bit difficult, and in the end, we didn’t have enough time to do this because the constant discussions and arguments were counter-productive. It still exists, but at this moment, we’re just staying at another independent label (Dis-tiller Records) from the UK who are really interested in the band, so we ended up signing with

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them.Right now, the people in the band are all wanting the same, all pulling for the same thing, all similar ideas and agendas. We want to make this band work, and who knows, we may bring Join Us records back to life.

It must be hard to combine music and business.Yeah, it kinda is. I think our problem is that we all had strong opinions, so as soon as some-one tried to control it, tried to run the record label, it would be a lot easier. At this moment, it would all go a lot easier because we’re all in the same mindset, working for the same thing. I think it could work. We have some plans for this year, after the new record comes out, to do some stuff. So, who knows, Join Us records will be alive again.

Playing for more than ten years, with different band members, I was just wondering, how did you decided to join the band?Basically, the band was started to allow us to do things to get away from the usual nine-to-five crazi-ness of everyday life. None of us actually anticipated that it would be an actual job.

Being able to do your hobby full time is amazing. I joined because a friend of mine was in the band when it started, which sounded

a lot different than it does now.

It was kind of “Slayer meets Dillinger Escape Plan.” It was all screaming stuff. My friend, who was more into the aggressive music, asked me. At first, I was like, “I’m not sure what I would do

in the band because it’s insanely heavy” because I was more used to softer punk rock. But I tried out. Chris, who is the only band mem-ber in the band, right now, who has been in the band as long as I have, he wrote all the early stuff. He realized that everything that we had written was not going to work, so we scrapped everything and wrote new songs. The first song we wrote was “10:45 Amsterdam Conversations” for our very first EP, and the second song was “The Art of American Football,” and the third one was “Juneau.” It had a melodic side and was more structured. So I joined the band because it seemed like a fun thing to do on a Saturday. [Laughs] After ten years of hard work, we’re been able to make a living out of it, which is crazy. None of us thought we could. Before this, I ran a record store. I’ve always been a part of music.

What do you think about the evolution of punk rock/hardcore over the past ten years?I got into punk rock/hardcore when I was 16 years old. I started with bands like Gorilla Biscuits and stuff. My all time favorite band is Boy Sets Fire. I think the one thing I have an issue with is all those metalcore bands. One thing that disappoints me is the lack of intelligent songwriting. What I don’t like is the message in this thick/heavy music. Apparently, there is a need to call girls “bitches.” I come from a scene of music, from a time in hardcore where the feminine side was equal to the male side of music. Girls were represented equal to boys. I’ve been an ad-vocate for girls choosing to stand up for themselves and not feel-

ing like they have to conform to a stereotype. It’s kind of a weird thing that I noticed.I like Snap-case, Strife and Earth Crisis, not many bands are like that any-more. It saddens me a little bit. There are still intelligent bands like Title Fight and Make Do and Mend, so many bands in the UK are coming through that are really pushing a new wave of emotional hardcore/screamo, which is giving me hope. But there is also a lot of “bad ass hardcore,” where they disrespect girls. Shit like that is horrible.

Yeah, Same thing here. You sea Deez Nuts and see all the girls singing along with them.That’s the thing. I don’t under-stand why people would go along with that. What those bands are doing is just degrading. Hardcore has always been about equal-ity for me, unifying sexes. Those kinds of lyrics just reinforce that kind of stereotype, which is dis-gusting.

Something totally different: tell me a fun thing that happened while touring!The craziest thing that happened . . . I told you we literally just came back from Japan? Well, we went over there to play one show to get over there, and we landed, and it started to snow, literally out of the blue; no one expected it. In the space of 20 minutes, there was six or seven inches snow. Cars stopped in the middle of the motorway, people got out and just started walking, and we ended having to help our translator who was driving us to the hotel. We had to get out of the van, and we had to push the van for a long time, through very thick snow, in order to get to the hotel, which was the most fun we had

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in a while. That was the first snow we’ve seen this year in general.

What are your plans for the future?We got a new album out next week! Then we start to tour this Wednesday. We start here in the UK, and then we go to the main-land. We are touring with Silver-stein in April, and we’re going to Australia. Hopefully, we’re going to play more places that we haven’t done yet. Fingers crossed that we will be playing a lot more, so we can make our touring experience a bit more interesting. We’re going back to Russia again, which is very cool.

Do you have any advice for band that wants to make a

career out of music?Don’t start with thinking to make a big career out of it. Any band should just enjoy the music they make and do it for the fun they have while making music. We just are extremely lucky to have received the opportunities we have had over the past years. Play hard, work hard, play as much as you can. Believe in what you do. Do it for the right rea-sons, not for becoming successful because you have to give yourself 100%. If you do that, people will see it when you play, and they will believe it. You’ll get a reputa-tion for honesty and passion, and word will spread. Don’t try to chase the dream, the dream has to come to you. People’s expecta-tions of success are all different.

For me, I have already achieved every dream. So yeah. It should just be fun.

Is there anything else you would like to add?Thank you for the interview! Come to a show and say “hello.” We love to meet our fans in real life. Don’t be afraid to say something.

By Lisa Leysen

Interview - Funeral For a Friend

facebook.com/funeralforafriend

Next album : “Conduit”

Out now !

Next Belgian show : 6/04 : De klinker (Aarschot)21/07: Dour Festival (Dour)

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Since you’re a new band, can you please briefly introduce yourselves?Sir Yes Sir consists of Tijs Delbeke (vocals, guitar), Tom Veugen (guitar), Dries Laheye (bass), Alban Sarens (keys, tenor sax) and Dave Menkehorst (drums). We’re a rock band that is influenced by alternative music and music from the 90s, but our main influence comes from the band members themselves; they have the biggest effect on the music we make. For example: we made the saxophone, an instru-ment that isn’t often used in rock

music, a part of our music and integrated it in our general sound.

Your debut album, “We Should Talk,” will be released on a big label, EMI. How does that feel?Very good! We’re really pleased that we’re able to work with EMI, which is after all a big label with bands that reach the big crowd. We hope we can also achieve that with our music, but we feel confident we can. And we shall work hard to reach the big crowd anyway. Music is our main goal, and we’re all in.

How did you end up with them?While we were playing a gig in de Roma in Antwerp someone noticed us and was enthusiastic about our music. Ever since, we gained interest from a lot of differ-ent labels, so we got the chance to talk to all different parties and felt more at ease with EMI.

The track list offers a lot of variation. Did you purposely compose it that way?All of our band members have their own musical background, and that has a big influence on the music we make. That way, we

Belgium has a new alternative rock band; Sir Yes Sir is their name, and their debut album, “We Should Talk,” will be released on February 1st via EMI. Sound promising? Well, Sir Yes Sir will be touring through Belgium in February, March and April to support the new record.Interview with Tijs Delbeke and Alban Sarens.

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Interview - Sir Yes Sir

make some heavy songs as well as some slower songs, but we still have a uniform sound. People used to say that there are a lot of different sounds in our music, so we do make sure that, despite the many influences, we stick to our own sound. And that is what this album proves.

For this album, you worked with Jo Francken. How did that go?It was very fascinating and inspir-ing, and we learned a lot. Jo is a highly talented mentor who taught us a great deal of things. He kind of kept a mirror in front of us to make us aware about the music we want to make but also our goals as a band. While he fo-cused on the production process, we undressed all of our songs; we looked at their build-up and created a distance between us and our songs. That way, we were able to make decisions about our

music.

My personal favorite on the album is “Keep The Horseman Out.” What’s that song about?This particular song tells the tale of a civilization in which feelings of fear are constantly created, almost as if mankind needs an enemy. In this case, the enemy is a group of horseman who have just destroyed a peaceful and quiet village. While the town is still burning and all the inhabit-ants and animals are fleeing, my character stays in the village and takes on arms.

Lyrics are very important to you, but are they as important as the music?In my eyes, both belong together; one only reinforces the other. I did have to learn how to give lyrics more attention, since I couldn’t stand to write a good song with crappy lyrics or just lyrics I don’t

stand by. That would break down all qualities of the song.

“Tonight at Noon” is a bit of an outsider on the album, in my opinion. It sounds much simpler or smaller than the rest of the album.“Tonight at Noon” is a good illus-tration of the work by Jo Franck-en. This song had already ap-peared on a previous EP, where it sounded very big and almost bombastic. For this album, we’ve completely stripped the song to its basics, and it was already clear back then that we’d use this song to close this album. Not only does this song sound very good, it also describes a dream I used to have, which reinforces the song.

The first single that you re-leased is called “Longing = Good Taste.” What were the first reactions like?They were very promising. Radio

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1 has already played it, and it’s also in “De Afrekening” of StuBru, so it’s a song that seems to work. Probably because it shows a lot of strength, which was the reason we chose this particular song to be released first, a heavy song to show our band to the world. And we’re very pleased with the reac-tions.

The artwork was also released. Is it linked to the song “The Owl” from the album?Yes it does; we wanted to use “The Owl” as the title for our album for quite a while. It’s a song that we like to play as a band. Off course, we also like the other songs, but this one is special as it represents our band as well. An owl is a wise animal, so it’s always good to be linked to them. And we chose a baby owl, spe-cifically, since they are vulnerable and so are we: a young band that has just made its debut. This image, made by Gregory Frateur and Alban Sarens, really works for our band.

Very soon you’ll start touring through Belgium, and you’ll play in venues such as Ancienne Belgique and Trix. How does it feel to already be able to play in these kinds of concert halls?Very good. We’re looking forward to a very beautiful tour through the biggest cities of Belgium. Hopefully, people will show some interest, and our music will do her job. Performing or just playing our songs live is something we really like to do; it’s one of our main motivations.

There will also be a try-out show. Is that meant as a warm up or some kind of sound check?We’re going to use that show to see which intermissions we can use and to test our show itself. Of course, we will still be spon-taneous on the other shows, but we’d just like to know what works in advance. That way, we’re sure we can play every song the way it should be.

To close up: Tijs, apparently, you played with dEUS?Indeed, in 2009, dEUS needed a sixth man for Pukkelpop, and their try-out show through the Netherlands, and it was an in-credible and overwhelming experience for me. I had just de-cided to focus myself completely on music and to pause my doc-tor’s degree. And ever since I made that decision, things went really quickly for me. It was also around that time that Sir Yes Sir came to life.

By Jonas Hoflack

facebook.com/siryessirmusic

New release: “We should talk”

1 February

Next Belgian shows:6/2 : AB (Brussel) 22/3: De Warande (Turnhout)

Interview - Sir Yes Sir

Photo - Jens Mollenvanger

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Interview - Sir Yes Sir

facebook.com/RMP.ezine

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How did this formation get started?The talking about Black Vulture started when Kilian joined our previous hard rock band, Align. We were stuck in a rut and didn’t know what to do because the singer at that time did not want the band to evolve in a heavier direction. The moment Kilian joined us, we knew that we had so much more potential to go and do what we actually wanted to do: make heavy music the way we saw it. And that’s how Black Vulture started: several talks in the rehearsal rooms, the drive to finally write the music we want to write and a close knit bunch of friends.

Where does the name Black Vulture come from?The vulture, to us, is a nice anal-ogy of the “big brother” direction our society is going in, like the vulture that follows a weak prey, waiting for it’s chance to strike. Also, the black vulture is the only vulture without vocal chords, so it growls and hisses, unlike other big birds. That makes it one bad-ass bird!

Amidst your influences, we find Godsmack and Machine Head, though with “Aftermath,” the

first thing that comes to mind is “Primitive” by Soulfly. Did this slip in by accident?As a groove metal band, “Primi-tive” is one of those songs that is bound to influence something on your set list, and without a doubt, “Aftermath” is one of those songs. We’re big fans of the brutality Cavalera Conspiracy and Soulfly manage to express in their work, and that’s what we tried to capture in “Aftermath.”

How do you stand out in the Belgian music scene, where metal bands seem to pop up by the dozens every day? We have yet to see/hear a band that sounds exactly like us, and believe us, we’ve been search-ing for some time. Also, we try to steer away from a boxed genre and just do what feels right, while aspiring to be one of those bands that stands out when you go to a gig, and so far, we’ve man-aged to do that on every show.

What are the biggest pitfalls that you’ve encountered as a young band?We have a long list but we’ll share our top two: 1: Wanting to go too fast and forgetting that the road can be very, very long. The good thing

about Black Vulture is that we’re a bunch of very down to earth guys. If you’re good, prove yourself, but don’t think you’re the king of the world just because you played a great show. For example: we are very grateful for the feedback we get at gigs, so we can continue to get better, to keep on working and to keep impressing people. 2: A band is like a relationship; if you don’t talk, you’re doomed. Too many times we have seen great bands fall apart because they had different opinions, but they did not talk about it. If you’re going to sweat, work hard and give everything you’ve got next to somebody, it’d better be someone you trust.

Where does your interesting mix of slow, groovy sounds combined with James Hetfield-esque vocals come from?It’s the influence Kilian brings to the band. He’s a big “funker” behind the drums, and that does something special with the sound. He really tends to pick up all the accents we are putting in the gui-tars, bass and vocals. The good thing is that he’s a metal head as well, and that allows him to see the bigger picture. Hetfield (pre-“Load” era) has always been a big vocal influence to Yannick. It’s the right mix between clean and dis-torted singing that gives an extra edge to the music.

Do you have any finalized future plans, and how do you hope to achieve these?We don’t have a “this is where we have to stand in five to ten years” plan, but we have several aspirations: playing abroad; we’re convinced that there is such a big world with so many potential fans out there that is untapped. We also would love to play some big-ger festivals, such as Graspop or Wacken one day, even if we’re at

Black Vulture is a hard rocking band from the Mechelen area that is at the edge of releasing their first album in 2013. We at RMP Magazine had the chance to have a talk with the band considering their soon to appear album, their thoughts on being a young band and their opinion regarding author rights amidst others.

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Interview - Black Vulture

the bottom of the line up. We don’t care; we just want to play! Get-ting signed with a label or booking agency is also one of the things we aspire to achieve one of these years.

Through experience, I noticed that, in general, metal bands despise organizations such as Sabam and the whole “authors rights scene.” What’s your take on this?We think the way the music industry has changed is phenom-enal. Being able to share and discover music so easily makes it an exciting world where you find new treasures every day. Do we support author rights? Of course! But we think the model should be re-thought. It doesn’t make sense to use an outdated model on a business that keeps evolv-ing. Support your artists; buy their work if you like it, but don’t be afraid to share it with your friends and spread the word.

As previously mentioned, you guys have quite a unique sound. Where does the inspira-tion for your songs come from?The writing process is a very criti-cal one; it really has to feel right. Out of 20 songs we write, we usually keep seven or eight, and we keep on working until they feel

complete. Our biggest inspiration comes from what we hear and feel around us. A tough period in our lives might result in a few new songs. It’s a bit of therapy.

You are at the crossroad of re-leasing your new album, “After-math.” Did it take a lot of blood, sweat and tears to create this?It’s been quite a journey so far, but we love working hard. We have the luxury of working with Peter Iterbeke (former guitar player of Cowboys and Aliens) on this album; he really know what a good album sounds like. Fact is that he’s really teaching us how to be perfectionists when it comes to studio work. We can tell you that we’ve never spent this long searching for a sound before. There are still some awesome ideas to be worked out though. Expect it to emerge in Q4 of 2013. Overall, there will be one-and-a-half years of work put in the album.

Fans can already check out your account on Vi.be to get a taste of the upcoming album, but what about the booking details?Our manager, Tom Walschaerts, handles the bookings. He can be contacted through [email protected], or people can just

leave a message on our Black Vulture Facebook.

Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers?Every year, we organize our own little festival called Vulturefest. This year it’s on the 18th of May in the Kamikazeclub in Mechelen. It’ll be awesome, so be sure to block your schedules! Also, we’d like to say thanks to the people who’ve been supporting us for the last year and a half. We love our singing crowds and our sweating roadies. Thank you!

New release: “Aftermath”

By Issmael Bentoutouh

facebook.com/BlackVultureBand

Photo - jochen adriaensens

Next Belgian shows:No upcoming shows ...

Date unknow

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For starters, how did you guys ring in the New Year?I rang in the New Years at a house party in Los Angles. It was epic.

What was the first song you listened to in 2013?"New Years Day" by U2

Your band has sort of an alter ego, Mariachi El Bronx. What inspired you to release mariachi music?Mariachi el Bronx was born out of frustration. We felt ourselves becoming predictable, so we decided to step into darkness.

Last year, you helped record the theme song to the Adult Swim show "Aqua Something You Know Whatever." What was that experience like?“Aqua Teen” was a blast! Writing music with Schooly D was unreal. Anytime you get a chance to work with other artists you respect, it’s something special.

Is there a certain reasoning behind titling all your albums eponymously?Not really. Just like to let the album artwork speak for itself, and we’re lazy.

You're releasing a new album this year. What are a few things that stand out or make it different than the other albums you have released?“Bronx 4” is a lot less complicated of a record. We wanted to make a record that focused on the simplicity of a great song. I’m stoked on it because it’s a record that we've never made, but it still sounds exactly like the Bronx.

Are there any standout tracks that you think your fans will

really relate to?My favorite track on the record is "Too Many Devils". It deals with somebody who just can’t get it right. Every decision is a bad decision.

Is there a specific song on the album that you feel is going to translate well live?The entire record translates live. All the songs are a blast to play.

For those who may not like your previous stuff, do you think this album could appeal to them more?Sure. It’s not as abrasive as our first record; that’s for sure. So I guess people who have never heard us might find this nugget a little easier to digest.

What about your returning fans? Do you think they will be happy with the new music you're putting out?I think Bronx fans will love this record. It’s still us, same old Bronx, just a little better than we used to be.

Obviously, you don't want to ruin all the surprises for the new album, but is there anything you would like to share in order to get fans excited?This is a very well rounded record. I think its the best one yet, until we make another one.

Aside from your album release, you're also going on a UK tour soon. Are you excited for that?Always excited to play in England. It’s a great place for music and, our fans there are all insane.

Anything you're looking forward to experiencing overseas?We are playing

Athens, Greece for the first time after the UK. I’m really looking forward to that.

Are there any other big plans for 2013 that you're able to reveal?2013 is gonna be a crazy year. Touring all over the world and writing our next records in the meantime. Busy busy busy . . .

Food tip: What are the best Mexican dishes?You can never go wrong with tacos

Last, but not least: Any tips on how to get four different lovers like in your MEB song "48 Roses?”Have four different cell phones.

I had the honour to interview the taco-lovers from The Bronx. They reveil why they formed the side project ‘Mariachi El Bronx’ but they’re quite secre-tive about the future. A little tease about their new record: “This is a very well rounded record. I think its the best one yet... until we make another one.”

By Taylor RunnellsPhoto - Lisa Johnson

facebook.com/thebronx

New release: “Bronx (IV)”

4 February

Interview - The Bronx

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By Taylor RunnellsPhoto - Lisa Johnson

Interview - The Bronx

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Live at De VooruitPhoto - Sam Velghe

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The new year just started. How did you celebrate?I was in Las Vegas. My sister lives there, and I’m there pretty often around the holidays, hanging out with my sister’s family and stuff. And then New Year’s Eve, I ended up getting crazy in Las Vegas; it’s pretty insane there. It was quite the way to start the New Year. I wasn’t in

my best form, so I’m trying to stick to my New Year’s resolutions.

And what are those resolutions?It’s the same things I screw up every year. You know, eating more healthy and cutting back on drinking so much coffee, drinking so much liquor. But my New Year’s resolution last year

was to always wear my seatbelt, because I really hate wearing my seatbelt, and I’ve been doing that, so I stuck with that. Maybe I’ll stick with the whole being healthy thing this year.

You’re releasing a new record this year. How impressed will we be?It’s been amazing recording it,

On the fifth of February Silverstein will release its seventh studio album ‘This Is How The Wind Shifts’. While they put the last finishing touches to the album, we had a talk with singer Shane Told about his new year’s resolutions, the upcoming album and the influences of their new guitarist Paul Marc but also about making political statements and losing people close to you.

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Interview - Silverstein

and everybody that has heard it has been flipping out about it, and we’ve made enough records now to know when people are really blown away by it. And it was funny, because with this record, when we finished it, you know, I normally know where it fits and what people are going to think about it, and with this record, I really didn’t know. I was a little bit worried maybe because we took some chances, and we did things a little bit differently on this one. But really, everybody that has heard it has been so stoked about it, and that’s a really good sign. It also raised my confidence level about this record. It think everyone is going to really, really like it.

When you’re doing things differently, you’re always taking a chance. Are you afraid that people might not like the new sound?No, because it’s not a drastic change. When I say a change, it’s not like we’re playing a different kind of music. We’re just going with certain new sounds and ideas. We’re very understanding that we have great and loyal fans, and we don’t want to let them down because they’re the reason we get to do this. When people hear this record, they’re going to know it’s Silverstein, but there will be a fresh sound to it. Change for the sake of change is never good, but whenever you can breathe new life into your music, I think it’s something everyone can get excited about.

Is there something you changed in your writing or recording process?I would say, not that much. I mean, we brought a new guitar player in the mix, Paul Marc, and he really shined on this record. He brought some new ideas into

play, and he’s quite a bit younger than us, and he grew up in our area being a fan of our band, so to have a fan join our band was a really great insight. He kind of had a fan’s insight on the approach we should take, writing this record. But the recording process was largely the same; we worked with the same producer at the same studio.

Was it an obvious decision to call Marc after the other guitarist quit?Well, our other guitar player didn’t quit; we had to let him go. But after that it was a pretty natural decision to work with Paul. I think that our friends and our family, and even some fans, knew that Paul Marc was the obvious choice, just based on our friend-ship and our mutual respect for the music we’ve created. He’s just a perfect fit.

In November, you revealed the release date for the new album and immediately followed that information up with the release of your new single. Was there a reason for this?We were just really excited, you know; it’s the first track on the record. It’s kind of a good indi-cation of this record and where it’s going and stuff.

We just wanted to announce it and release the single and be like:

You know, with all the bands these days and social media, every step of the way it’s like, “Oh, we’re releasing a new re-cord,” “We’re in the studio doing this,” “We’re going out to eat at this burger place,” “Oh, now we’re eating tacos,” you know? And

there are all these steps, and as a fan you just want to hear a song! We just wanted to give the fans something and get them excited to buy the record. You know this one band, and I’m not shit-talking them, because I love them, but Underoath, a few records ago, instead of putting the song out, they just put up a new instrument every week, so it eventually took about five weeks for the fans to hear the complete song. And oh my god, like a fan of Underoath, I was like, “Come on, I just want to hear the song!”

So in the song “Stand Amid the Roar,” you talk about losing yourself and not know-ing where your place is in society. Is this something you’re familiar with?I think it’s something everybody can relate to. I think that at one point in your life you’re just not sure what direction to take. You’re trying to decide for yourself, “Do I like Star Wars or do I like Star Trek?” You know? [Laughs]. There’s always a point where you’re trying to decide where you belong in the world, what your calling is. And this album is sort of about that, about how one moment, however small it may seem, can change your life forever. This being track one, I thought that this was a good place to start.

Going off the theme of change, in 2005, you lost a good friend during the Never Sleep Again Tour (drummer John “Beatz” Holohan from Bayside). Last year, the scene lost Mitch Lucker from Suicide Silence. How do you deal with this kind of loss as a band?Well, I didn’t know Mitch very well; I just met him in passing once. And you know, with John Beatz, back in 2005, and also Casey

BOOM!

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from Hawthorn Heights, they were really good friends of mine that I lost. And my cousin passed away in 2006 as well, also in an accident. These things, they make you think about the value of life and why your safety is so im-portant. The other day, I lost another friend, Kent from Grade, and thinking about him and know-ing him, a guy who really had things put together, who so much fun to be around, he succumbed to his own problems, and it’s really sad. When these things happen, everybody just needs to take a very close look at his life and themselves and think of how important life is. With John and Mitch and my cousin all dying in accidents, it gets you think-ing about all the traveling we do, sometimes you’re riding in vehicles that aren’t all that safe. It is a bit scary.

On a brighter note, your last albums all did incredibly well. Does this put pressure on you at all?No, not anymore. There’s always some pressure when you’re making a record because you don’t want to let your fans down, and you don’t want to let yourself

down. You want to make a record that’s not a repeat of a previous record but also does something new. It does get harder as you go, but I think the most pressure I felt was when we made our second record because our first record did so well, and it was so unex-pected, and it was written over such a long period of time. At that time, we were just a garage band; we were literally playing in a garage.

But since then it has gotten a bit easier. We found ourselves, and we’ve realized

that our past records, they weren’t a fluke, they weren’t

a perfect storm.

We are a band that is capable of writing pretty good songs and creating pretty good music, and I think with this, we had the confidence in ourselves that we could do that again. I really can’t wait for everybody to hear it because I think that we’re making some of the best music we’ve made in our 13-year career.

Apart from your own albums, you’ve also contributed to the “Punk Goes Pop” colla-borations a few times. Is that something you would want to do again?Yeah, it’s cool; it’s fun to do that different stuff. It’s a little bit silly; the “Apologize” cover was a bit silly but very well received, and then the Kanye West cover was even weirder for us. But again, it was fun to do, and it’s nice that we’re allowed to do that. We’re a serious band; we have a serious fan base, and we make serious songs, but we’re happy that we get to do something that is a bit more happy and out of the box every now and then. So yeah, working with Fearless Records on those albums has been fun, and we’d absolutely be down to do another one of those again.

Many people out there would kill to do what you do. Was there ever a moment last year that you thought, “I’ve really made it?”It happens a lot. It’s weird, but when this all first happened, and we got signed to Victory Records, and we started touring the world, and they were getting

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our artwork tattooed on them, it was like crazy, but I never felt differently. I always thought to myself, “When is this going to hit me?” and it never really hit me. It has sort of been this long process of setting a small goal and achieving it along the way. This year, we went to some particular countries that we’ve never been to before. We went to Russia, which was crazy. When we started this band, I never thought we would play outside of Canada, let alone play in Russia. We also played in Hong Kong. We had a sold out show there, and people were practically hanging from the ceiling. When we go places that are so far away from home, and people are singing every word, it’s a really special feeling.

Is it hard to communicate with fans in all the foreign places you go?You know, you’d think it is, but it’s surprisingly easy. Everywhere we go, people know enough English to get by, and I feel like an idiot for only knowing one language. But when I go places it always amazes me how good people actually are at speaking English,

even in Hong Kong. Hong Kong was very easy; everyone seems to speak English over there. Russia was a little bit tougher, but there were still people that spoke great English. I’m always pleasantly surprised.

You talked about people getting your artwork tattooed on their bodies. Is that weird for you?I remember the first time I saw a guy with a tattoo of our first album cover with the robot. We were on tour, and it was our first time in California; we were playing in San Diego, and a guy came up, and he had the robot tattooed on his arm, and immediately I thought, “You know, I’ve ruined this guy’s life! Because of my stupid band, he’s got that on his arm forever. What have I done?” But it started happening more and more, and I started seeing a tattoo pretty much every day after that. And over time, I started to understand that our music legitimately does something to people, and in some cases, our music has saved people’s lives because some of our songs really do have that element of hope. If they can look at that and be reminded of the hope they feel when they listen to our songs, then I think that’s a beautiful thing.

You talk about your songs being about hope, but some of them are also politically tinted. Do you want to make young people politically aware?I don’t know. When we started as a band, I was 18 years old; I had no inclination of making any political statements with Silver-stein. I played in a punk band before that where we would make some political statements because punk rock was more about politics. The music Silver-

stein makes is not, and I’ve never really felt the need to make any of those statements. When we made our fourth album, “Shipwrecks in the Sand,” I was getting a bit older, and there were some prob-lems with the economy, not only in Canada, but also in the rest of the world. I saw my parents losing their lifesavings with this economy crash, and then I looked at the issues in politics, and I thought, “Well, this is something important to me, and it’s something I want to talk about.” So there are some political undertones in it, and I think that also carried on in some of our records after. But overall, we’re not a political band, and we’re not going to make these big political statements. We’re not going to go on any protest. Paul Marc joined the band, and he has some strong political views on some things, and he’s made me aware of some things too, but I don’t think it’s going to change what we do at all.

Any last words to all the fans that are impatiently waiting for your new album?Yeah! Thank you for all the support over the years. I think this new record will strike a chord with everybody, and I think this is probably our best record so far. I can’t wait for everybody to hear it when it comes out on February 5th!

By Rani Coppensfacebook.com/silversteinmusic

Interview - Silverstein

Next album : This is how the wind shifts

5 February

Next Belgian show : klinker (aarschot) on the 6th of april (tbc)

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This year, the EMP Persistence Tour was held in the massive Eurocam Mediacenter in Lint. Every year, a bunch of hardcore and metal bands line up and give us the best they have. This year, it was Hatebreed who carried the crown, and let us tell you something, if you made the choice not to go, you were dead wrong.

The Acacia Strain kicked off the tour. This four-piece deathcore machine from Massachusetts is a real brutal opener, which made the venue shake under the beating breakdowns. At the beginning of the show, it seemed like Vincent Bennet did not let his vocals reach the high pinched scream level that is custom. His deep growls, on the other hand, were tight and flawless. They rec-ently released a new album, which they presented by doing some new songs. If more people had shown up early, the place would have exploded. Unfortunately, they had to be satisfied with a lonesome wind miller.

Photo- Arne Desmedt

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This year, the EMP Persistence Tour was held in the massive Eurocam Mediacenter in Lint. Every year, a bunch of hardcore and metal bands line up and give us the best they have. This year, it was Hatebreed who carried the crown, and let us tell you something, if you made the choice not to go, you were dead wrong.

Review - EMP Persistence tour 2013

The Americans had to make way for the only European band on the tour. Neaera hails from Germany and plays metalcore/melodic death metal. Musically, the show was kind of disappointing. The energy was there, but it seemed like there were big issues with the drum micro-phones, which turned their sound into a mush. A drum tech was almost continuously present on stage to fix the problem. Aside from the problems, and the band playing early, the audience was responsive and lost their collec-tive minds over “Let the Tempest Come.” The band is also releasing a new album this March.

The Acacia Strain kicked off the tour. This four-piece deathcore machine from Massachusetts is a real brutal opener, which made the venue shake under the beating breakdowns. At the beginning of the show, it seemed like Vincent Bennet did not let his vocals reach the high pinched scream level that is custom. His deep growls, on the other hand, were tight and flawless. They rec-ently released a new album, which they presented by doing some new songs. If more people had shown up early, the place would have exploded. Unfortunately, they had to be satisfied with a lonesome wind miller.

Photo- Arne Desmedt

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It seemed like people came out of the cracks and holes for H2O, because by the then the venue was finally full and ready to rock. The old school NYHC band amused us with fun and fast riffs, big smiles and a great deal of sing-alongs. Songs like “What Happened” and “Faster Than the World” incited the audience to dance, pogo and party. It was cool to see the whole audience laughing and having fun, which is something you don’t see much lately. Near the end of the show, Vinnie Stigma (Agnostic Front guitarist) jumped on stage and did some guest vocals.

Photo- Daria Colaes

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Review - EMP Persistence tour 2013

The other NYHC legend of the night was Agnostic Front. The band is known for its groove and its real badass attitude. Live they are no different! The guys might not be as young as they used to be, but they sure act like they are. There was a lot of fun on stage, and songs like “For My Family,” “Crucified” and, of course, “Gotta Go” caused a lot of movement. Also, with all that energy, it got a little rough for one of the smallest mem-bers of the fan base. This problem was solved by get-ting the kid on stage and letting him rock with the band. It was heartwarming to see this child rocking on stage with those big, tattooed hardcore dudes. Small point of criticism: Roger Miret’s voice was overpowered by the rest of the instruments.

The mighty Hatebreed ended the evening. All hell broke loose from song number one: “To the Threshold.” What made this performance so special was that you could see that they were genuinely having fun on stage. The brutal faces during the set, the big smile on Jamey Jasta, his face during “As Diehard as They Come,” were all factors which made this show worth it. The audience feedback was very good on a normal scale, but rather poor on a Hatebreed one. In spite of this small hick up, the fans made things right by giving everything on songs like “Doomsayer,” “Proven” and “Destroy Everything.” It might not have been the best show Hatebreed has given in our small country, but this had more to do with the stiff audience than the band itself.

Photo - Jef Matthee

Photo- Daria ColaesBy Jesse Mouart

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36 RMP- Magazine December

Hatebreed is back on track and going with full force these days. They released a brand new album, “The Divinity of Purpose,” on January 25th, recorded a new music video and are currently touring through Europe and the USA to promote the new album. This lifestyle and being a part of this elite

group of bands are things most of us won’t experience, but this did not happen overnight. We had a lit-tle chat with guitarist Frank Novinec on the EMP Persistence Tour (January 11th) about such things.

It’s the second day of the Persistence Tour, and you guys were in Berlin last night. How was it?It was great! It’s good to be playing new material ‘cause it has been over three years since our last record. So to be able to come and have something new for everybody is great. Plus the Persistence Tour is a great tour to be part of, with a great line up like Stick To Your Guns, The Acacia Strain, Agnostic Front and H20.

Have you already played with any bands on this tour?Oh Yeah. We have friendships with all of these bands on this tour actually and it is really good to see everybody. We are catching up and having a good time.

You will be releasing your new album, “The Divinity of Purpose,” this month. Tell us something about it? What can we expect?“The Divinity of Purpose” will be

out January 25th and I think the feedback has been really good for us. It is a very straight-forward record, very meat and potatoes and what you’ll expect from a Hatebreed record. I think everybody is going to be very happy with it, and we’ve already released a video on one of the songs, “Put it to the Torch,” and recorded another video for “Honor Never Dies.” The setup has been really good and, we are really happy with it. It’s an exciting time for Hatebreed.

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RMP- Magazine December 37

Interview - Hatebreed

You were just talking about the “Put it to the Torch” music video. I saw it online a couple of days ago, and it seemed like there is some kind of storyline in the music video. Is this true?I only saw it myself a couple of times, so I don’t even really know, but we just wanted basically to make a video. As busy as we are with the limited time and how busy our touring schedule was, we just decided to make a video that we weren’t going to be in, so we didn’t have to go make one, obviously. Which is the same thing we did with the “Black Flag” video when we did the coverage record. This next video that we have coming out for “Honor Never Dies” actually has us playing in it and everything. But I don’t think that people should take the new video to seriously; it’s just for fun and to put the song out there.

The new album will be coming out on different formats such as pre-order on the website, a CD version and you also have a vinyl picture disc. You even have extras like brass knuckle USB sticks, which is a fun concept. How do you come up with such ideas?It’s the label and the band because at this point you’re look-ing to do whatever you can to try to get people to actually purchase the CD, you know what I mean. Because it is very hard nowadays, ‘cause it is not like ten years ago. People don’t just buy it when they can download it for free, and it is also cool for the fans, a little extra something special. I think it is way cool! Being a fan of music, I wish all my favorite bands would do something like this, but un-fortunately they don’t. We hope that everybody enjoys it ‘cause it’s a lot of creative thinking on our part and the label’s part.

Now that you are releasing this new album, we’d assume you’d be touring a lot throughout the world. How do you combine Hatebreed and the, so to speak, normal life?I just try to have fun no matter what I do. I’m having fun with Hatebreed still, and I have fun when I’m home. I actually live in Florida, which is very far from the rest of the guys, 20 hours by car. So I’m living by the beach and Disney world. I just like to relax in my home by the pool and things like that. But they are completely different lifestyles, obviously. One is like, I am on vacation whole the time down by the sunshine, and the other is in a different city every day, but in time I just try to be happy and have a good time with both of them.

Hatebreed grew really enormous over the last ten years. What were the biggest changes, good and bad? Since I’ve been in the band since 2006, Sean [Martin] has left the band. We’ve had Wayne [Lozinak] coming back into the band, who was the original guitar player, and replaced Sean. Wayne was actu-ally guitar tech-ing for the band at that time. He was in the band in the beginning, then quit. Then the band blew up and he started working for us, and now he’s back in the band. It is a cool circle. Obviously, we had a couple records come out since then and a DVD, which did very well, especially in the states. We’re just continuing to keep the ball rolling and make smart decisions and continue to be a success-ful band. I think that we’ve been going so strong now that we have to do something terrible to be not around anymore or to fall off. But I think that we can credit that to us for making the smart deci-

sions all the time about things. We have also no plans to stop; we are planning to go for a long time. The Rolling Stones are on their 50th anniversary; we are on our 20th, so we got thirty years to catch up to them. [Laughs]

Staying on that topic, have you seen any evolution in the touring process?Oh yeah, of course. Hatebreed tours in a bus rather than in a van. It’s all fun, I mean, I’ve been playing in bands a long time now. Before Hatebreed, there was Terror, and before that, there was Ringworm and Integrity. These are bands I started in high school! It’s funny you mentioned that, ‘cause the first time I came here was with Ringworm and Integrity playing and touring in both bands.

Belgium was like the spot or the place in Europe that liked our bands the most,

and I will never forget these shows.

We are from Cleveland, and we came all the way over here in Europe for the first time. When we came to Belgium, all the kids were wearing Cleveland Indians baseball stuff and knew all of our words. I’ll never forget that ever as long as I live. But going back to the question, the touring lifestyle is a little bit more comfort-able than it was with Terror, but I’m still really great friends with those guys. Scott [Vogel] has been one of my best friends in my life since 1999, and we have got a lot of history together. When we tour in the States, he jumps in our bus for a week and just rides and parties with us. Just a year ago, I jumped in the back of the van with

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them and rode for a week. I was sleeping on hotel floors, waking up with a headache. Obviously, with Hatebreed being a bigger band, things are a lot easier in my life for sure.You mentioned you’re from Cleveland, so you’re from the Clevo-scene. Do you think that scene has influenced Hatebreed? Did you bring something new to the band?Well no, just friendship, really, because I’ve been friends with them for a long time now. When they started Hatebreed, I was playing in Integrity, and they loved Integrity. They would call us and say, “Can we do shows with you guys in Cleveland?” and we ended up putting out a split 7”. Before they became popular, when they played in Cleveland, they used to sleep on my floor. They were just touring in a van and trying to become a successful band. But I think the music I wrote in those bands back then, in-fluenced them when they started out for sure. They would tell you that without a doubt.

Most of the bands in the hard-core/crossover scene have a message to spread. Does this apply to Hatebreed, or are you more concerned with making music and having a good time?Absolutely there is a message. We’ve got positivity! People that don’t know anything about the band, they hear Hatebreed and think, “Oh, it is negative, negative, negative,” but in reality, it is positive lyrics and a positive message. If people just want to take it as hard, heavy music that they enjoy and nothing past that, that’s fine. But Jamey [Jasta] definitely has something to say in his lyrics. Especially if you read the thing that he wrote in the “Supremacy” CD. The whole

letter that he wrote, the booklet, you know. So if you really dig deep into our lyrics, you’ll find that there is a positive message for sure. We have a lot of people, especially in the States, who are in the military and people that have gone through hard times in their lives. They come up to us and tell us that our lyrics are what got them through. This is really awesome and makes what we do much better. If we get the feed-back back from the people, and they let us know stuff like that, that’s really gratifying.

There was a certain debacle this summer, with CNN ac-cusing Hatebreed of being racist or white power. What was that all about?They just put out an article on somebody who went on a shoot-ing spree, a white supremacist guy, in America. The guy who wrote the article started digging deeper into his life about how he was influenced or something and our name came up on this list of all these white power bands.

Obviously, our fans, the management and

us went crazy on them, so we got the name removed and got an apology from them.

But it is unfortunate that someone didn’t do their homework and put our name up there like that. I personally don’t care, but for people who don’t know anything about Hatebreed, like I said before, they hear hate and think negative and are like, “It’s just bald guys with tattoos.” People that don’t know anything about our music scene are going to think things anyway, so this doesn’t help. Whatever, it got

straightened out, and I never liked CNN anyway so [Laughs]

At the moment, there is some-thing on the internet about the band For Today. Their guitarist made a rather homo-phobic statement. What is Hatebreed’s point of view on this? For Today doesn’t ring a bell, but we don’t get involved in political stuff like that. We certainly don’t discriminate against gay people; we are not racist or sexist or chauvinist in any way. We don’t condone that, but at the same time, we don’t go out of our way to speak about those things like that. But I think it is pretty dumb of him to do that [Laughs]. If you feel like that, it’s fine, but you don’t need to come out and say that ‘cause that is probably not good for your career [Laughs]

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RMP- Magazine December 39

Interview - Hatebreed

Back to Hatebreed: you’re a big name in the scene, and you’ve played huge metal fests like Ossfest, Wacken Open Air, our own Graspop and a bunch of other metal festivals. Have you attracted a new fans to hard-core, these being not primarily hardcore festivals?Absolutely! We crossed over big into the metal scene. This is the reason why Hatebreed has been a successful band since the “Per-severance” record. It was things like Ossfest, Wacken and Gras-pop that catapulted our career up and crossed [it] over into the metal scene. From the hardcore scene, no band has ever crossed over to the metal scene like we have. We have done it in a big level, and it is awesome that people can open up their minds and let us in. A lot of times, espe-cially in the metal scene, people are negative and only want metal,

metal, metal and that’s it.

The thing about it is when we grew up going to shows, we would see

The Exploited and Biohazard together.

You’d see death metal bands play with hardcore bands; that’s how it was

back then.

All we’re trying to do is continue to make that be a reality because it has died out. When we go on tour in the states, we have differ-ent packages with bands. We are taking Dying Fetus and Shadows Fall out; we’ve had Stick to Your Guns, Disturbed and Five Fin-ger Death Punch. It is all heavy music at the end of the day, and I think this is a great thing for us to be able to continue to grow. Un-

fortunately, a lot of the hardcore scene sees us breaking into the metal scene, and they don’t like that ‘cause Hatebreed is their own personal thing. This way you lose some people, but what can you do? The only thing we can do is continue to be Hatebreed. We are not changing anything about our music or who we are, so if some-body wants to stop liking us, we can’t do anything about it.

Do you think it is something in your music that makes this crossover so easy?Yeah I think so; we are fans of all the music. You will see us on stage wearing Slayer or Casual-ties and stuff like that. It is the image that we have. Hatebreed is a mentality; it is heavy; it is crossover. If you have any rhythm in your body, you can groove to it. Our music is just attractive into the metal scene. People argue about [whether] we are metal or hardcore. We are a crossover band; we are both. Frankly, it does not matter to us; we just continue to do what we do and hope that everybody enjoys it.

You offer a VIP package on your website. What does it contain?That is only in the States. After the end of the show, they all line up and come and hang out with us. On the last tour, we’ve played our new record over the PA. So they come, get to hear the new record; we give them posters; we give them guitar picks; we sign whatever they want us to sign. At the end, they come back through by themselves. We individually take pictures with them and have a beer and stuff. That’s when people come and tell us stories about the hard times [we] got them through or somebody just got back from the war. It is very

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40 RMP- Magazine December

intimate and personal to us. We enjoy it and look forward to it every night, and these are the diehard fans, obviously. If they want to spend $25, and have this special thing with us at the end of the night, it’s great. Aside from what we give them every time, we always try to do something special, like playing the new album. Next tour, we have to come up with something new, so I don’t know. Maybe I’ll wear a bear costume or something. [Laughs].

Hatebreed is also one of the only bands in hardcore ever to be nominated for one of the most prestigious awards for a musician ever: the Grammy. You were not with Hatebreed back then, but do you have any idea what kind of impact this had on the band?I tell you what, I was in Terror, and we were at tour with them the night that they found out. Of course we had a big party, but it is incredible. It is incredible that a band of our little hardcore scene could go on and have that kind of impact on the music industry. You can chalk that up there with all the other awesome things we have done, like selling over a million records, being on Ossfest, Wacken, headlining With Full Force and playing support for KISS on Graspop. But obviously, being nominated for a Grammy in 2004 is way up there on the list of awesome things that have been going on for the band. I know that they went to the award show with their wives and stuff. I just hope it happens again, so I get to go. [Laughs] It was way cool.Are you guys returning to Belgium in the near future?Oh yeah! We are doing festivals all summer long, maybe also some small shows in between. But we are planning to tour

Interview - Hatebreed

Europe a lot with this new record because it is probably our big-gest market, and we came here a lot after releasing the previous record. I mean, if it is not on Graspop this year, it will probably be next year. But as far as Belgium and club shows, oh yeah, for sure. For other European festivals, you should check the Hatebreed website.

Are there any upcoming bands we should keep an eye on?Rotting Out from California is good. There is a band called Sub-urban Scum from Jersey, which is good. Another band from Cali-fornia called Nomads; they are a little more punk but also very cool. Those are some good ones to look out for.

Any last words for our readers?We hope everybody enjoys our

new album, “The Divinity of Purpose,” coming out in January 25th, and we certainly love coming to Belgium. The fans have been nothing but great to us here, and we hope to see everybody real soon.

New release:“Divinity of Purpose ”

Out now !

Next Belgian shows:27/4 : Groezrock (Meerhout)

By Jesse Mouart

facebook.com/hatebreed

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RMP- Magazine December 41

Interview - Hatebreed

By Jesse Mouart

facebook.com/RMPonAir

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42 RMP- Magazine December

ColdrainGenre: Post-HardcoreCountry: Nagoya, JapanSince: 2007Releases: Final Destination (Full Length, 2009), Nothing Lasts Forever (EP, 2010), The Enemy Inside (Full Length, 2011), Through Clarity (EP, 2012)Top Tracks: “Six Feet Under,” “Die Tomorrow,” and “To Be Alive”

Much like last time’

s Crossfaith, Coldra

in is a prominent

name in the Japanese

underground rock sc

ene. Despite only

singing in English,

they managed to grab

their part in the

spotlight and have b

een doing so for the

past few years.

No less than a year

after their creation

, the band was

offered a major cont

ract and signed to V

AP. It resulted in

the release of their

first single, “Fict

ion,” which was late

r

added to their first

full length called

“Final Destination”

in 2009. Since the r

elease of their firs

t album, the band ha

s

been alternating bet

ween EP and album re

leases, with a new

and third full lengt

h to be released in

the first half of

this year.

Their sound started

off as a softer post

-hardcore, with the

instrumentals gettin

g heavier throughout

the years. Add

vocalist Masato’s so

lid vocals and screa

ms, catchy hooks and

choruses and Coldrai

n will without a dou

bt get stuck in your

head.

Tip! Fans of the Pro

Evolution Soccer se

ries might feel like

the name sounds fami

liar and they’re not

wrong. “Die Tomor-

row,” the lead track

for Coldrain’s “Not

hing Lasts Forever,”

was featured in the

2011 edition of the

game.

Page 43: RMP Magazine 5

RMP- Magazine December 43

Genre: Post-HardcoreCountry: Nagoya, JapanSince: 2007Releases: Final Destination (Full Length, 2009), Nothing Lasts Forever (EP, 2010), The Enemy Inside (Full Length, 2011), Through Clarity (EP, 2012)Top Tracks: “Six Feet Under,” “Die Tomorrow,” and “To Be Alive”

Much like last time’

s Crossfaith, Coldra

in is a prominent

name in the Japanese

underground rock sc

ene. Despite only

singing in English,

they managed to grab

their part in the

spotlight and have b

een doing so for the

past few years.

No less than a year

after their creation

, the band was

offered a major cont

ract and signed to V

AP. It resulted in

the release of their

first single, “Fict

ion,” which was late

r

added to their first

full length called

“Final Destination”

in 2009. Since the r

elease of their firs

t album, the band ha

s

been alternating bet

ween EP and album re

leases, with a new

and third full lengt

h to be released in

the first half of

this year.

Their sound started

off as a softer post

-hardcore, with the

instrumentals gettin

g heavier throughout

the years. Add

vocalist Masato’s so

lid vocals and screa

ms, catchy hooks and

choruses and Coldrai

n will without a dou

bt get stuck in your

head.

Tip! Fans of the Pro

Evolution Soccer se

ries might feel like

the name sounds fami

liar and they’re not

wrong. “Die Tomor-

row,” the lead track

for Coldrain’s “Not

hing Lasts Forever,”

was featured in the

2011 edition of the

game.

Column - Asian Rock

Typically for South Korea, most rock music nests itself in the Indie genre, focusing on a soft yet sometimes even eerie sound. While HLIN could easily be stacked upon the pile with a series of other indie bands in the country, they’ve set themselves apart with their emotional tracks and vocals.

The band has been around since 2007 but keeps taking a slow route. Their first release only came about two years after they first came together, and even after so many years, HLIN’s discography just holds a few digitally released singles and two mini albums. More recently they’ve been featured on the OST for the second and third seasons of a Korean series called “God’s Quiz,” resulting in them getting more attention from the big crowd.

Latest news about HLIN shows that they’re preparing for yet another concert series, and who knows, hopefully a new release later this year.

Genre: Indie, Soft RockCountry: KoreaSince: 2007Releases: 33060 (EP, 2010), Remanent (EP, 2010)Top Tracks: “I Draw You” and “Redd”

Hlin

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44 RMP- Magazine December

Flawed ElementGenre: Alternative RockCountry: SingaporeSince: 2002Releases: Words Of The Forsaken (Full Length, 2009), Breaking the Silence (Full Length, 2011)Top Tracks:“Scars”

Singapore is a small

country with just a

bout 5 million

inhabitants and ther

efore easily overloo

ked. But when openin

g

our eyes to its musi

c scene, quite a few

bands pop up. One

of them is Flawed El

ement.

Formed in 2002 by fr

ont man Joe Chahal,

the band had a few

line-up changes befo

re becoming the band

they are now. Ever

since solidifying th

eir line-up, they ha

ve been known for

their heavy drumming

, addictive melodies

and a casual mix of

hardcore elements ev

ery now and then.

When up for a new er

a, the band brought

in keyboardist

Jonathan and started

rewriting songs, wh

ich finally brought

them to a new releas

e in the form of “Br

eaking the Silence.”

Being the concept al

bum it is, the band

opted to spread news

about its release an

d existence through

every way possible,

including energetic

live shows as well a

s a an internet

presence.

Though it has been s

ilent in the Flawed

Element camp since

the release of their

last full length, i

t seems they’re

planning a variety

of things. While Dec

ember last year saw

the release of a new

single called “Over

come,” a new music

video will be reveal

ed later this year a

nd it might only be

the start of a new p

acked schedule for t

he Singaporean

rockers.

Page 45: RMP Magazine 5

RMP- Magazine December 45

Genre: Alternative RockCountry: SingaporeSince: 2002Releases: Words Of The Forsaken (Full Length, 2009), Breaking the Silence (Full Length, 2011)Top Tracks:“Scars”

Singapore is a small

country with just a

bout 5 million

inhabitants and ther

efore easily overloo

ked. But when openin

g

our eyes to its musi

c scene, quite a few

bands pop up. One

of them is Flawed El

ement.

Formed in 2002 by fr

ont man Joe Chahal,

the band had a few

line-up changes befo

re becoming the band

they are now. Ever

since solidifying th

eir line-up, they ha

ve been known for

their heavy drumming

, addictive melodies

and a casual mix of

hardcore elements ev

ery now and then.

When up for a new er

a, the band brought

in keyboardist

Jonathan and started

rewriting songs, wh

ich finally brought

them to a new releas

e in the form of “Br

eaking the Silence.”

Being the concept al

bum it is, the band

opted to spread news

about its release an

d existence through

every way possible,

including energetic

live shows as well a

s a an internet

presence.

Though it has been s

ilent in the Flawed

Element camp since

the release of their

last full length, i

t seems they’re

planning a variety

of things. While Dec

ember last year saw

the release of a new

single called “Over

come,” a new music

video will be reveal

ed later this year a

nd it might only be

the start of a new p

acked schedule for t

he Singaporean

rockers.

Column - Asian Rock

On to celebrate their 10th anniversary as a band this year, Girugamesh (taken from the ancient story of Gilgamesh) has been through lots of eras and genres in their career. Starting off in the well-known Visual Kei scene with a darker look made them stand out for people that weren’t all into colorful clothing and happy bubbly tracks.

Just as any other band though, this four piece evolved from Visual Kei to a more Alternative rock sound which was often said to be the fault of the band members’ influences such as Linkin Park and Korn. While they’ve never really been Nu Metal and have always kept their own sound, they created a type of Post-Hardcore which was clearly theirs. With the release of “Go” in 2011, the band went for a complete 180 turn as the full album was pop rock oriented rather than having the raw edge Girugamesh’s music normally had. While many fans complained, the band went on a series of seemingly never ending concerts for the rest of the year. Their two 2012 singles brought them back to a more familiar sound, though they seem to have dropped Visual Kei completely, and are just showing they’re having fun doing what they’re good at.

Tip! A band sounding exactly like on recording isn’t a given when going to gigs but Girugamesh shows it’s possible. While Shuu (bass) does his best to converse with the public in English, and Ryo (drums) and Nii (guitar) are the most energetic ever, vocalist Satoshi steals the show with his top vocals. Be sure to go and watch them on any of their European or American tours.

GirugameshGenre: Visual Kei (Early), Post-Hardcore, Alternative Rock, Pop Rock Country: Chiba, JapanSince: 2003Releases: Goku -Shohan Gata Enban- (EP, 2005), 13’s Reborn (Full Length, 2006),Girugamesh (Full Length, 2007), Music (Full Length, 2008),Now (Full Length, 2009),Go (Full Length, 2011)Top Tracks: “Zantetsuken,” “Patchwork,” “Gamble,” and “Break Down”

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46 RMP- Magazine December

Vassline

When listening to their music, expect the screaming vocals

of Shin mixed with fast and insane riffs and energetic drums.

Together with their live experience and history, Vassline is

without a doubt one of the leading metalcore bands in the

Korean underground rock scene.

The band has been together since 1996 and cites hardcore and

metal as two of its biggest influences . While they

originally just played covers from well-known metal and hard

rock bands, they found their own sound and released their

first EP as Vassline, titled “Bloodthirsty.” It was the first

of a series of records from which their 2004 release “Blood

of Immortality” left the biggest marks on the Korean music

industry,

winning the best rock prize at that year’s award show.

“Assassin of Death,” one of their most well-known tracks

internationally, comes from the critically acclaimed release

and just lures you in through its intro. Their latest

release, Permanence, dates back to 2007 and is guarded as one

of the best Korean metal releases by many.

Vassline started hinting to a new release last year and even

revealed its title. Till today, “Black Silence” still hasn’t

been released as the band seems to be finishing up things,

including collaborations with other Korean artists such as

Jambinai, an instrumental trio.

Column - Asian Rock

Genre: MetalcoreCountry: Seoul, South KoreaSince: 1996Releases: Bloodthirsty (EP, 2000), Missing Link

(Demo, 2001), The Portrait of Your Funeral (Full

Length, 2002), Blood of Immortality (Full Length,

2004), The Splitsphere (Split, 2006), Permanence

(Full Length, 2007)Top Tracks: “Assassin of Death” and

“New World Awaits”

By Kimberley De Somere

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RMP- Magazine December 47

Column - Asian Rock

5

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48 RMP- Magazine December

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RMP- Magazine December 49

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50 RMP- Magazine December

HatebreedThe Divinity Of Purpose

Writer: Antony Gallagher

Hatebreed needs no introduction. They are one of, if not the most, successful and well known hardcore bands in the world. They are in every sense of the word … legends. I recently got the chance to sit down and listen to their newest release titled The Divinity Of Purpose. The Divinity Of Purpose is 38 minutes of pure head splitting hardcore music. The familiar voice of Jamey Jasta heads the attack with lyrics about rising up and fighting the opposition.

This album is a refreshing journey down memory lane for old school Hatebreed fans. Anyone who is into hardcore and metal based music is going to have a blast with this album. Through a constant barrage of no bulls*** guitars and drums mixed with inspirational lyrics giving hope to the down and out, Hatebreed has successfully delivered a grade ‘’A’’ hardcore album that will provoke listeners to stand up and fight for what they believe in. PUT IT TO THE TORCH!

Score:93/100

And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead Lost Songs

Writer: Rani Coppens

The Trail Of Dead are already at their eighth record. After releasing Tao Of The Dead in 2011, the follow up came soon after, on October 22nd of 2012.

The instruments tend to overpower the vocals on this album. They have a very strong guitar sound and the cymbals on the drums really stand out. I would even dare say that I recognize a Foo Fighters-vibe in there sometimes. They have the same screamy vocals and outstanding guitar riffs, but also the buildup of the songs is similar to the FF sound. Enjoy this heavy rock album!

Score:70/100

Review

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RMP- Magazine December 51

Writer: Antony Gallagher

93/100

Writer: Rani Coppens

Bad BooksBad books II

Writer: Michael Vincent

Review

Though the efforts of both Kevin Devine and Manchester Orchestra deserve recognition in their own right, Bad Books is not simply a combination of the two. Bad Books is a band, a separate entity and it’s own animal. For better or worse since their inception as a band, Bad Books have understandably been compared to their other musical endeavors. What seems to be different in their case though is that they are not necessarily alienating fans on either side. Whether gaining new fans or brining out old ones, people are listening.

The opening track on their second album II immediately draws the listener in with the soothing tone of Andy Hull’s catchy open-string guitar melody (reminiscent of early Alkaline Trio, think “San Francisco” but cleaner). “It’s so good to be alone,” Hull croons in his signature whisper before evolving into a raucous and emotional shout “I hate to be alone…” Kevin Devine follows up with lead vocals on the second track, the Teenage Fanclub-esque “No Reward”. With well-harmonized ooooh’s and whoa-oh’s, this song’s lyrics contemplate the future and the potential reality that there may be no reasons or rewards for many of the things we face in life.

The official single from the album is immediately accessible yet perhaps also the most misleading track. “Forrest Whitaker” is a gem of a tune with robotic guitar lines and a well-timed whistle. This song rocks at a steady mid-tempo pace before slowing into a beautiful lament of a chorus. This track is undoubtedly a stand out but don’t expect an album packed full of similar tunes because such is not the case. Tracks like “It never stops” and “Friendly Advice” continue with the introspective lyrical content that both Andy Hull and Kevin Devine have been building their fan bases upon for years. The former is a slow build that eventually breaks into an Arcade Fire-like wall of emotion. The latter finds Hull acknowledging the expectation that with age comes acceptance “When you’re old, you’ll let it go.” With II, listeners will notice the true strengths of beautiful lyricists shining together.

We still get to hear each key songwriter shine as independents in some of the albums slower songs such as Hull’s “Pytor” and Devine’s “Ambivalent Peaks” but listen closely to the harmonies and you’ll hear two of today’s best talents accompanying each other in unison. Devine and Hull’s voices work extremely well together throughout many songs on II which helps make the overall album feel cohesive. “We made our projections,” they sing simultaneously on the closing line of the album. With a second tour planned in support of II it seems as though we just might continue to see more chapters of Bad Books in the future. Let’s hope so.

Score:80/100

Cattle Decapitation Monolith of Inhumanity

Writer: Eaven

The American band Cattle Decapitation comes out with their 8th full-length album trough Metal Blade Records, the band combines various grunt/screaming techniques with clean vocals, the instrumental parts are fast, loud and technical.

With tracks such as “Lifestalker” and “Your Disposal” the band doesn’t give us much time to rest, it’s a fast-paced and brutal death record with a lot of room for lyrics inspired by gore, suicidal tendencies and other gruesome and vile acts. Monolith of Inhumanity gives us a surprisingly different take on death metal, for all those who like death with a twist. I say: Enjoy!

Score:85/100

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Review

Voices & Vessels Those Who Deceive

Writer: Stefan Van Den Broek

2013 starts off with a great effort by the courtesy of an awesome band called Voices and Vessels, hailing fromPittsburgh, PA.A post hardcore/electro band which isn’t quite common in our regions, but whom has the strength to get in the league with the big ones in a while.Their newest effort Those Who Deceive is their debut EP on their new record label Fort Charter Records is a follow up to their previous efforts called Destroyer and Rebuilder.

Will Those Who Deceive live up their ranks, or will it be their first downfall?.We begin with some furious sounds of rainfall, a more often used sample used by hardcore/post hardcore bands, after the intro, you will get some fast beats, that give the feeling that this bands really want to grab you by all your senses, all this empowered by the guest appearance from Phil Druyor of I Am Abomination, an astounding band in the genre overall.

After the first song, we got A Cure To Come Back Home, which starts with some mixed scream and clean vocals, along with a melodious keyboard underscore, following the guitar driven parts of the song. And because of the easy to listen song structure, it all sounds very good for a band driven by a foremost DIY attitude. And as standard in the post-hardcore genre, you can expect a shedload of breakdowns, with the most tasty one on the the end of the song. Still, it’s a pity that the EP is just 3 songs, because you just want to hear more from this very talented band coming from the capital of Pennsylvania, and that maybe because of the sonic rage the last song shoots at you.A kind of the same structure as the other songs, but still good and divers enough to pack a punch towards your face and to love this band.

Score:91/100

Rok Ink Vita MMXII

Writer: Cameron Smith

FMSG welcomes a new addition to the South Yorkshire metal scene; Rok Ink. The band hails from the bustling town of Barkley, and have fashioned a powerful sound for the community with the release of their debut album Vita MMXII.

The metal quartet specialise in recreating that classical and authentic old-school sound synonymous with bands such as Iron Maiden and Metallica. Despite the influences, the album itself is beautifully individualistic and has done well to generate a unique metal style. Frontman Pete Brotherton’s suitable vocals and well-kept power chords remind us that the origin of metal very much alive and kicking.

Score:70/100

Review

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RMP- Magazine December 53

Writer: Stefan Van Den Broek

Writer: Cameron Smith

Review

COMING SOON! ALL NEW “GUESS THE BAND!” CARTOONS weekly on rock-metal-punk’s facebookpage cartoons by daykneeart / more on daykneeart.wordpress.com

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Masked Intruder Masked Intruder

Writer: Rani Coppens

The debut full length record by Masked Intruder kind of swept me of my feet. With their record ‘Masked Intruder’ they bring us a refreshing blend of punk and pop, reminding me of bands like Green Day and Blink 182 in their earlier days.

With songs like ‘Unrequited Love’ and ‘Hello Beautiful’ the singer wraps you in a blanket of cotton candy and unicorns with his sweet-young-boys-voice. But he also knows how to bring the spice to this record with the song ‘Stick ‘Em Up’. A constant throughout this record are the up tempo tunes, making this a real punk pop band. The lyrics are not what you’d call deep, but they’re honest. You don’t need to think twice to understand their message: love for that one special girl. And I’ve been waiting so long for a band that takes music seriously but keeps it simple and fun. If you’ve been looking for a band like that, then look no further please.

Next time they don’t need to tell me that M-A-S-K-E-D I-N-T-R-U-D-E-R stands for happy feel-good music for everyone. If you’re feeling down, just go to YouTube, Spotify or some other place where you might find your music, look these guys up and get a giant dose of happiness thrown in your face. Instant smiles guaranteed.

Score:80/100

Teenage Bottlerocket Freak Out

Writer: James Black

So, Teenage Bottlerocket outdid themselves again this year with the July 3rd release of their new LP titled “Freak Out”. The band’s second release on the Fat Wreck Chords label, the album shows that these guys from Laramie, Wyoming have stayed true to their roots, while exploring some new pop-punk flavours.

The album kicks off to a great start with the short eponymous track “Freak Out”. The next track, titled “Headbanger”, was a song previously recorded by Sack, a band which three of the members of TBR had been involved with. “Cruising for Chicks” is a heavy, grinding tune about the fun of, well, cruising for chicks. “Necrocomicon” is a funny take on the bands love of the geek/horror genre. With mentions of Captain Kirk, Yoda and allusions to San Diego’s Comicon, this track is one of the most entertaining on the record. Followed by “Maverick”, a Top Gun themed song, and “Done with Love” another great ‘out of love’ song.

There is some filler on the B side of the record, but the albums two released singles (“Mutilate Me” about bass player Miguel’s sexual desires and “Summertime” an ode to the warmer weather we are currently missing) are both located on that side, and are anything but. “Who Killed Sensei” stands out on this side for its speed and melody.

There are more tracks to explore on the disc, and these guys put on one hell of a live show, so make sure to check both out. The band is almost constantly touring in North America and is preparing for their first European tour.

Score:85/100

Review

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RMP- Magazine December 55

Writer: Rani Coppens

80/100

Writer: James Black

Length Of Time Let The World With The Sun Go Down

Writer: David Marote

Review

Length Of Time is back with their newest release after their break. But it was worth the wait when listening to Let The World With The Sun Go Down. A new start with GSR records and the return of vocalist Ross to Belgium has reunited these prophets of doom. Lyrically their message is once more a stream of misanthropy and disgust against humanity. With newcomer Jeremy Bezier (former Enthroned) on bass and behind the recording desk they spit their bile allover, although the production sounds a bit messy.

Their metalcore sound has evolved into an even more metallic sound. Title track Maleficious World invites to shout along. Six new tracks to summon the gates of hell. Available on CD or on picture disc vinyl featuring their demo-album on the B side and there’s even an ultra limited tape with outtakes and intro by Length Of Time mastermind Kirby.

Score:80/100

Black Veil Brides Wretched And Devine

Writer: Rani Coppens

After two amazingly successful albums, It was time for Black Veil Brides to release their third album. This new baby is called ‘Wretched and Devine, Story Of The Wild Ones’ and was released on the 8th of January under Lava Music / Universal Republic. Andy Biersack, the lead singer for the band, promised us an epic album and that’s exactly what we got.

This album is a concept album all the way, accompanied by a movie called ‘Legion Of The Black’, the story of a group of young men with abilities that lead an army of rebels to victory against everything bad in our society. But you really don’t need to watch the movie to see the story unfold before your eyes. The lyrics speak for themselves.Black Veil Brides have always been about the epic, about never giving in and believing in your dreams and they’re portraying that once again. From the first track we’re sucked into an epic story with charismatic interludes, choirs and epic guitar work. We also get to hear Jeremy ‘Jinxx’ Ferguson play the violin, while we normally only hear him play rhythm guitar. There’s a certain build up to this album. We’re at the beginning of a rebellion and ‘I Am Bulletproof’ asks everyone to stand up for what they believe in. In ‘We Don’t Belong’ we hear the troops gathering and in ‘Days Are Numbered’, a collaboration with Bert McCracken from The Used, it’s just full on war. ‘In The End’ is the victory song to close of this album.

Black Veil Brides has always gotten a lot of criticism because of their looks and because many believe that they don’t deserve their success. With this album they have proven everyone wrong. You know what they say: third time’s a charm? I believe that Black Veil Brides just proved this by taking it to a new level. The BVB Army can be proud of their heroes.

Score:89/100

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Review

Snuff 5,4,3,2,1 Perhaps

Writer: David Marote

5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Perhaps, the new Snuff album is a warm welcome after the years of silence surrounding this UK punk-rock combo. Perhaps Snuff might be one of the few bands that can blend screaming guitar, Hammond organs and trombones to create a diverse yet still rocking out record. Duncan and friends are always up for a poppy tune and that’s one of the elements on their new album, opener In The Sticks was released in november as a 7” teaser and has elements as handclaps and Hammond organ to take this punkrock song to new heights. Mumbo Jumbo is a track that blasts off and takes you back to ‘80’s hardcore punk which will make you want to circle pit your room.

When in the first tracks you wouldn’t even notice this band being British, then Rat Run will be a dead giveaway by the British accent that oozes through the vocals. But that’s part of the diversity of Snuff, with three vocalists in the band you can go many ways. Constantly switching between poppy punkrock and feriocious hardcore punk this album even ends with two acoustic versions of tracks on the album. Snuff is back, hopefully in a venue near you.

Score:78/100

Suffocation Pinnacle of Bedlam

Writer: Jeroen Schuyer

This seventh full length effort of Suffocation starts of sounding as a collection of riffs and blastbeats that seem to be arranged in no particular order. My first reaction: something’s not adding up here... But don’t worry, Pinnacle of Bedlam is very right!

Be patient and your perseverance will bring you an album which slowly but surely takes on epic proportions. Opener ‘Cycles of Suffering’ instantly blasts from your speakers with tightly arranged and fiercely layered violence. Halfway ‘Sullen Days’ offers your eardrums a short break, only to prepare you for the next salvo of brute and ever expanding riffing ready to strike it’s devastating blow.

Pinnacle of Bedlam offers a signature Suffocation album. The sound is well balanced, although a more gory sound would surely fit the songs more approriately. Drummer Dave Culross’ contribution is a huge step forward. Welcome back! Frank’s vocals could have been more brute and more inspiring. Biggest bonus is final song ‘Beginning of Sorrow’, originally released on ‘Breeding the Spawn’ in 1993. Remember? Yep, that album plagued with an awful and empty sound. Time for revenge they must have thought. Brutal! We want more...

Score:85/100

Review

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RMP- Magazine December 57

Writer: David Marote

78/100

Writer: Jeroen Schuyer

NOFXX-mas has been X’ed

Writer: Cameron Smith

Review

NOFX has released a charming EP for your post-holiday listening pleasure. The EP contains three songs, one of which is Xmas has been X’ed from their previous album Self Entitled. Xmas has been X’ed does not fail to please in terms of authentic punk rock drumming and old-school palm mutes. The lyrics take us to the depressing side of Christmas; when all the festivities are over and the only thing left to do is clean up, save up and wait another year.

New Year’s Resolution invites us to get up and dance about the stupidity and inevitability of a new year. The song is well written with deep lyrics and harmonies to go. Wore out the soles of my party boots is a great rock song we can all relate to – with a great solo to compliment it. The song tells the story of what happens when we party too hard; our shoes break along with our bodies. But who cares anyway because Xmas has been X’ed is just we need to remind us of the good times we experienced in the jolly season. Rock on, NOFX.

Score:75/100

Dropkick Murphys Signed And Sealed In Blood

Writer: Jonas Hoflack

The American celtic punkrockband Dropkick Murphys starts 2013 with a new album. The band from Boston re-leased their new album on january 8 2013 their new album called “Signed And Sealed In Blood”. The band played in Belgium on the stages of Groezrock, Rock Werchter and Vorst Nationaal. The new album sounds typical Dropkick Murphys. Punkrock with Irish folk music influences. The moments where everyone can sing along are also well integrated on the album.

My favorite song on the album is called “My Hero”. It’s a song where the melodic guitar sounds wonderful and i think it’s a song that will sound very good live. An other song that speaks to my mind is called “Rose Tattoo”. The band played this song already live on Rock Werchter this summer and was also the first single of this new album. It’s a slow song, in comparing with the other songs, but the chorus is one to sing along and to keep singing the rest of the day. Everything on this song is amazing and all instruments sounds so great together. “Jimmy Collins Wake” is an Irish song that in my opinion perfectly fits when you are sitting in your local Irish pub and when you are drinking a few pints of Guinness with your friends.

It’s a song that brings a lot of atmosphere. Very well done! A song that has disappointed me a little bit is called “Out On The Time”. I think the melody of the song isn’t my cup of tea. It sounds less good than the rest of the album. The song isn’t that bad but for me, it’s less than the rest of the album. It’s one i would skip if i’m listening to the album. But that’s the only song i dislike on the entire album, so i still think this is a wonderful album. One to check and one that will please all the fans!

Score:80/100

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Review

The Bronx IV

Writer: Holly Reijs

L.A hard-core power punk band The Bronx have released brand new material and have come up with an incredible new album ‘The Bronx lV’ after five years. A few years back, they formed a spin-off side project band, ‘Mariachi El Bronx’ which took fans by surprise. They were densely focused on this side of things as they released two albums from this Mexican-sounding project. But now they are back to normal with a fun, jumpy new album.

The opening track ‘The Unholy Hand’ leaves you astounded as it consists of some outstanding guitar solos and some distinguished lyrics “Are you the Antichrist or the Holy Ghost? Do you wanna die or just go real close?” It kicks off with pulse-quickening percussion and an addictive bass line that you just can’t get enough of. ‘Ribcage’ is a punchy, 3 minute track which takes a more melodic turn than what I expected, with vocalist Matt Caughthran singing in a different pitch than what we’ve come to hear from the punk band in their past work. This is personally my favourite song on the whole album. This track was the first track to be released and was up for download online.

Track 4 ‘Youth Wasted’ starts with a fun melody, the vocals are raspy and deep, a little different to what we are used to hearing from Matt Caughthran but it works well, it really does. Trailers to the video were released from the band which made the fan itching to hear the song and watch the impressive video. If you have been a fan of The Bronx from the beginning then this album will not let you down. It’s 40 minutes of enjoyment, memorable songs. Yes I agree the genre has changed a little but they are still punk Gods!

Score:80/100

Mallory Knox Signals

Writer: Holly Reijs

Formed in 2009, Mallory Knox from Cambridge have already been a huge hit around the world. Releasing songs and E.Ps like there’s no tomorrow. This album is one to put a smile on your face! Formed of eleven tracks, after each song that’s listened to the album just gets better and better throughout. ‘Beggars’ is the first song on this brand new album and it starts off to be really quiet at the beginning but then it really kicks in to an upbeat melody and you just know it’s going to be good when the first lyrics are ‘The devils been stuck in my brain, and it’s been living there 17 days.’ It just makes you want to carry on listening and find out why this Devil is there!

One of my favourite tracks on the album is ‘Hello.’ This song actually got released last year and got a huge response from fans everywhere. The lyrics are so catchy and I guarantee it’ll be stuck in your head all day long. ‘Hello, I am looking for her out there. Why hasn’t anybody seen her? And is there any kind of way to find her?’ Mallory Knox released a music video for the track ‘Wake Up’ which features Thomas Ian Nicolas from the film ‘American Pie.’ As soon as I saw the video my first thought was ‘How did they get him the feature in the video?’ Good on them for getting him though it has brought them a lot more fans since so I’ve heard. The lyrics that really stand out to me are in the last verse; ‘So break me into pieces until you see my bones, cause I’ve been feeling like this since I was thirteen years old.’ The melody in this section turns really calm and then straight after this it turns massive and stormy!

‘Signals’ is the title track from this album and it is just outstanding. Mikey Chapmans voice is raspy and punchy in this song and you can just hear every word sung by him, even though you can in every song but this song has really stuck out to me. The drums really stand out throughout the whole song. This is always good to hear in any song but this song particular they are really easy to listen to. With most of the songs being around four minutes long, you really get a lot for your money. Admirable vocals, loud effective drums, upbeat melodies and excellent lyrics. What more could you want in an album?! These guys just keep getting better and better. 2013 is the year for them!

Score:100/100

Review

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RMP- Magazine December 59

Writer: Holly Reijs

80/100

Writer: Holly Reijs

Shiva's Embrace Shiva’s Embrace

Writer: Emily Henderson

Review

Shiva’s Embrace is a band that started in November 2009. After years of trying to find their own sound, they found theirs in a mixture of progmetal, post-rock and progressive music. From a town called Knokke-Heist, Belgium, Shiva’s Embrace is an amazingly talented band.

I found my self getting lost in their music. For hours on end. Because they take a little time to start singing and do some killer guitar work for the intros to their songs. The lead singer has such a sweet voice to listen to. It is likeenticing you to want to listen to more. All their music is really well written you can tell they put a lot of time and energy into everyone of their songs. Shiva’s Embrace has got some songs out right now that I think is their best work yet. Like the song the forecaster, Chivas Encounters, and Denial of the Future are just some of their work that is out. Because they are just that talented, so it think people will love them just as easy as I did. They are a must see band when they start doing concerts again.

Score:85/100

Blade Armed With Abstinence

Writer: David Marote

Straight Edge, I don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t … as proclaimed by the originators Minor Threat. It’s a thin line between fun and fundamentalism. With their latest album Armed With Abstinence you can already guess what Blade’s music and lyrics are about regarding the album title. Six furious tracks of pure anger against the world and modern day society fill this disc and display the sound of Blade, a straight edge approach to hardcore like it was proclaimed back in the nineties.

Socially inspired lyrics that tackle today’s shortcomings with hatred and despise to all those that oppose it. Their sound is based on straight edge legends such as Morning Again, Earth Crisis and Congress . Belgium once had a reputation with their mighty H8000 crew as being some of the most talented and toughest band around in the straight edge scene. But i’m pretty sure that Blade will revive that tradition once more. XXX

Score:80/100

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Since the start of RMP our main target has remained the same; to support and promote well known and unknown bands through the means of CD-reviews, concert tips or –reviews, interviews, news messages...

Ever since the first RMP Magazine – that was released end of April – we’ve grown immense. To keep our visitors interested, we have some new projects in the pipeline, where our crew could us some extra hands on deck. This why we’re calling out for your help!

Currently we have following positions that are vacant, so feel free to contact us if this interests you.

1. Concert- and album reviews : daily we receive dozens of promo-cd’s and concert tips. Unfortunately our staff is too limited to dig out all the gems here, that’s why we could use some help : you like to discover new bands and you’re good with a pen? Drop us a line!

2. Photographers : with the introduction of our PDF-magazine we have a huge need for ‘Hi-Resolution’ – pictures. Also our faithful readers like to see a concert photo. Are you able to deliver quality pictures with fast results? Send us a message featuring some examples of your work.

3. Interviewers : with the release of our PDF-magazine, our interview capabilities have increased. Are you interested to ask bands some well thought questions? If you are not afraid to have a telephone conversation or e-mail conversation with musicians? Than you might be the person we’re looking for!

4. Graphic designers : Next to the cover of our magazine also our website or our social media deserve a small update. Creative people who love to design with Indesign or Photoshop are always welcome!

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RMP- Magazine December 61

5 . Programmers : We need update our website frequently with small adjustments. Are you interested to help take our website to the ‘next level’? Do you believe that RMP needs a IOS/Android-app and you might have the skills to help us out? Drop us a line!

6. To bring our different projects to the attention, we’re always in need of contributors that own some communication-skills/ marketing-skills. Send us a message if you can help out on this subject.

Although RMP can’t give a financial return, there may be other benefits that might interest you. To develop and increase your writing style, but also building up experience that might come in handy during a job interview. Next to an introduction to the music business, you also get the benefit of using press-passes and promo-cd’s we receive.

Interested ?Then contact us at :

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Directors

Kenny LeysCEO - @KennyLeys

Lander VanhoofDirector of Photography

David MaroteManaging Editor - @DavidMaroteBE

Design

Jolien Krijnen Chief designer

Bram Geurts@PsychoBram

Ray Slavenburg@rayslavenburg

Lena Stahl

Editors

Douglas Koziol @Manos15

Margot Smet

Suzanne Gielis

Writers

Jesse Mouart

Taylor Runnells

Michael Vincent

Antony Gallagher@BitTrauma

Cameron Smith@CamRuSmith

Rani Coppens

Holly Reijs@HollyReijs

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RMP- Magazine December 63

Editors

Douglas Koziol @Manos15

Margot Smet

Suzanne Gielis

Writers

Jesse Mouart

Taylor Runnells

Michael Vincent

Antony Gallagher@BitTrauma

Cameron Smith@CamRuSmith

Rani Coppens

Holly Reijs@HollyReijs

Eaven

Stefan Van Den Broek

James Black

Jeroen Schuyer

Jonas Hoflack

Emily Henderson@surfing93

photography

Arne Desmedt @ ArneDesmedt

Jef Matthée@FJMDesign

Daria Colaes@DariaColaes

Sam Velghe