Well, well what we have here? But of course one of the most unique cases of Technical Thrash metal mixed up with industrial in the Greek scene: Postraumatic. W...
After the in-depth interview given to us by their frontman Alex Bonias, time to say a few words about their first full-length album "Evoke The Pain" out on Secr...
Demon Prayers come from Lamia and are a proud part of the ever-moving Greek Thrash metal scene, giving as many shows as possible to support their material s...
David E. Gehlke of DeadRhetoric.com recently conducted an interview with WATAIN mainman Erik Danielsson. A few excerpts from the chat follow below.
DeadRhetoric.com: It seems like everything you've done of late has been on a bigger scale. I think a lot of us can remember you coming up with "Casus Luciferi" and "Sworn To The Dark", but leading up to "The Wild Hunt", things are of greater scale.
Erik Danielsson: It's the way it goes, I guess. We've been doing this for 15 years and people have come to understand that we're a force to be reckoned with and you have to let the fans do that, and business people, too. To be honest, things have changed very literally in the world in WATAIN. To us, it's very much the same thing, the same purpose in our lives. From where we stand, nothing has really changed, but at the same time, we have more and more people working, we have tour agencies and management and whatever that are taken care of this and this. So I suppose it's a reflection of how people relate to the band. It's rather something that matters more for other people than us.
DeadRhetoric.com: What's your take on people who think bands have to stay within certain parameters to be black metal?
Danielsson: I very much agree with them. To the extent of that to me, it's not a matter of staying true to a musical spine; that spine is one rather of atmosphere and ideology rather than a musical one. And that's what defines WATAIN. Black metal music is music that, in essence, is diabolical and has diabolical energies and that is where the definition lies to me. Incorporating elements like keyboards… it only takes away from the diabolical aspect of it, because we're talking about the wild, the untamed, ferocious, predatory aspect of it, the tribe within this music. You cannot really get into that permutation with those things if you have a sound that opposes those things.
DeadRhetoric.com: In North America, we have a lot of what is called "Cascadian" or post-black metal bands who don't look the part whatsoever. Have you caught wind of them?
Fan-filmed video footage of IN FLAMES' June 30 performance at the Graspop Metal Meeting in Dessel, Belgium can be seen below.
IN FLAMES guitarist Niclas Engelin is sitting out a few of the band's shows this summer. His temporary replacement for those gigs is Patrik Jensen from THE HAUNTED.
IN FLAMES' tenth album, "Sounds Of A Playground Fading" (Century Media), sold around 14,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 27 on The Billboard 200 chart.
IN FLAMES' previous CD, "A Sense of Purpose" (Koch) opened with 20,000 units to land at No. 28. This was slightly less than the opening tally of "Come Clarity" (Ferret), which shifted just under 24,000 copies in February 2006 to enter the chart at position No. 58.
"Sounds Of A Playground Fading" was the first IN FLAMES album to be recorded without founding guitarist Jesper Strömblad, who quit the band in February 2010 in order to continue receiving treatment for his alcohol addiction.
Reunited METAL CHURCH — Ronny Munroe on vocals, Kurdt Vanderhoof and Rick Van Zandt on guitars, Steve Unger on bass, and Jeff Plate on drums — has inked a deal with Rat Pak Records. The band's tenth studio album, "Generation Nothing", will be released in the early fall via Kurdt's label Body Of Work Recordings in conjunction with Rat Pak.
According to Vanderhoof, "Generation Nothing" — which was recorded at Kurdt's English Channel studio in Washingtion — marks a "return to [METAL CHURCH's] classic metal sound. It has elements of the first album and 'The Dark', but still embraces the new sound of the band without chasing the past."
Munroe said in a recent interview with Metal Assault that the new METAL CHURCH effort would contain material that is "very reminiscent of the old days with some stuff that's very 'now.'" He added: "There's a bit of… I'm not going to say 'prog' because it's not, but there's a couple of elements in there that are a little bit progressive. For the most part, out of this batch of songs, they really sound more reminiscent of the early days than anything we've done before with this lineup. This excites me very much, and I think the fans are really going to dig it."
Regarding the circumstances that led to METAL CHURCH's breakup in 2009, Ronny said: "Well, in a nutshell, without going into a huge and long story here, it was certain aspects of things that had continued to happen to the band throughout its career. Not having the proper management and the proper people in place that were handling us. You know, we ended up taking some shows we shouldn't have taken and that just
Reunited METAL CHURCH — Ronny Munroe on vocals, Kurdt Vanderhoof and Rick Van Zandt on guitars, Steve Unger on bass, andJeff Plate on drums — has set "Generation Nothing" as the title of its new album, due before the end of the year via Kurdt's label Body Of Work Recordings. The CD was recorded at Vanderhoof's English Channel studio in Washingtion. The band previously stated about the new effort: "This could be the best MC record of the METAL CHURCH MK3 era!! Woohooo!!"
Munroe said in a recent interview with Metal Assault that the newMETAL CHURCH CD would contain material that is "very reminiscent of the old days with some stuff that's very 'now.'" He added: "There's a bit of… I'm not going to say 'prog' because it's not, but there's a couple of elements in there that are a little bit progressive. For the most part, out of this batch of songs, they really sound more reminiscent of the early days than anything we've done before with this lineup. This excites me very much, and I think the fans are really going to dig it."
Regarding the circumstances that led to METAL CHURCH's breakup in 2009, Ronny said: "Well, in a nutshell, without going into a huge and long story here, it was certain aspects of things that had continued to happen to the band throughout its career. Not having the proper management and the proper people in place that were handling us
