VIBRATIONS OF DOOM
ISSUE #30


30 Issues! Took us roughly 12 years to get here, but here we are! As many of you may know by now, and due to popular demand, we have encoded ALL the sound files for our review CD's in RealAudio 5.0. Plus, for those in the media, we are working on an alphabetized list of every band that we have either reviewed or interviewed, so you'll know right where to go when you need tear sheets and press kits for your bands.

Vibrations of Doom Magazine
c/o Steven Cannon
P.O. Box 1258
Suwanee, GA 30024-0963 USA

We've got lots of changes in store, so hopefully we can keep things interesting around here.

RECORD REVIEWS

BEHEMOTH "Thelema 6" (Olympic) SCORE: 86/100

"Satanica," the last Behemoth record I was able to hear, absolutely blew me out of the water. I have recently gone back to listen to it again, and it still manages to amaze me. This time around, the Polish obliteration crew have gotten a bit more, shall I say, technical. Not always a good thing for a band this brutal, but the intricacies of the higher end guitar work comes out in many tracks, though they don't always sound great. However, be that as it may, the first four songs start this CD off with a bang, picking right up where they left off on the last album. 'Antichristian Phenomenon' shows us all, as track 1, what Behemoth is made of. Vicious screams, guitar work that's fast and furious as hell, and lyrics that are very insightful and rather philosophical. Nergal gives full lyrics this time and explains the meaning behind each song. 'The Act Of Rebellion' is easily one of my favorites, such a whirlwind of destruction can only come from Behemoth! 'Pan Satyros' shows Behemoth in a new light, namely that their viciousness is just as devastating SLOW, yes that's right, they slow down the instrumentation here. From track 5 on, though, many of the similar speedier structures are repeated, though as I said, on a tune like 'In The Garden Of Dispersion' they can slow things down and still achieve the desired effect. I was quite surprised to even hear a short acoustic passage midway through 'Natural Born Philospopher!' There are 4 bonus tracks for the U.S. release, and the best one here is their Sarcofago cover (which, incidentally, is misnamed on the back CD cover). Those lower effected vocals are truly evil to behold! (More info on that in the accompanying interview). The Bowie cover 'Hello Spaceboy' was very weak though, and I did find the choruses on 'Christians To The Lions' and 'Inaguration Of Scorpio Dome' a bit weak, but overall this should definitely satisfy any rabid Behemoth fan. Wouldn't you rather see Behemoth on the Marduk tour in the States than Diabolic anyway?
Contact: Olympic Records.

BENEDICTION "Organized Chaos" (Nuclear Blast) SCORE: 95/100

One of the last few CD's I got from Nuclear Blast that weren't chopped to bits, this band's latest release really impressed the hell outta me. This time around I think they have finally shaken off the Napalm Death comparisons which they have been unfortunately plagued with their whole career. Their choice of vocalist this time around displays a rather angry hardcore style, however he does prove he can dip into some low end death metal vocals (witness this on 'Charon,' unfortunately he doesn't utilize this too often!) but overall this has a thrashy, death metal meets hardcore flavor that really kicks ass! Only one track didn't work very well, it was 'Easy Way To Die,' starts out with some acoustic guitars and is a very slow track. It never goes anywhere and the vocal delivery doesn't work here. The guitar work is quite thrashy and there are plenty of rapid fire, choppy riffs at times, not unlike Obituary's faster playing. In fact, I coulda sworn that 'Don't Look In The Mirror' was actually Obituary's 'Slowly We Rot.' Some of their slower moments get extremely heavy, like on 'I Am The Disease,' where he does some really guttural vocal effects. I think they're electronically enhanced, and they work great. Such an evil aura throughout this 6 minute song! Some of their tracks do exceed the 5 minute length, but this is really no problem. Just check out 'Nothing On The Inside' and their shorter numbers (little over 2 minutes) like 'The Temple Of Set' and 'Charon,' and 'Diary Of A Killer' has some interesting lyrics. All in all I was very impressed with a band I haven't paid much attention to before, even though I have "Grind Bastards" around here somewhere.
Contact: Nuclear Blast America.

BOLT THROWER "Honour-Valor-Pride" (Metal Blade) SCORE: 98/100

I was very excited when it was announced that Bolt Thrower was signing with Metal Blade. This is simply a fantastic album, and proves that there is no such thing as a bad Bolt Thrower album. When I first listened to it I was caught off guard by the vocals, they picked up longtime Benediction front man Gavin Ward, and I must say that his vocal style really fits. Bolt Thrower does it well both fast and slow, and never gets too chaotic or out of control. Very tight and technical death metal, oozing with class and some vicious guitar work. And yes, metal babe Jo Bench is still in the band! 'Contact-Wait Out' starts things off with a bang, and there's some really heavy guitar work in here. The lead solos are what impressed me the most, as they are exceptionally well done, and not typical 5,000 notes a second, show off like Yngwie would do. I didn't really dig some of the faster guitar riffs on 'Valour,' but it's really a minor point or two off. There's some viciously evil slow riffs going on the track 'Suspect Hostile,' and it all flows together really well, is tremendously varied from song to song, and there's not much more you really need to know.
Contact: Metal Blade Records.

BRAINDANCE "Redemption" (Progressive Darkwave) SCORE: 71/100

This band has one of the most exhaustive campaigning trails I have ever seen. It seems like I got a new email every other week from this band, and they seem to have had every magazine known to man on their email list. Though this disc suffers from some mediocrity, it's not hard to see what all the buzz was about. This band comes off like a more electronic form of Danzig meets Type O Negative type of metal, being much more effective in the industrial department than old 'Zig ever could. The first 4 tunes are indicative of the creative genius of this band. 'Refraction' starts this off and asks the question: Is it gothic? gothic metal? electro-gothic-metal? Whatever. The vocal work definitely stands out; though this guy can dip quite low, he never ends up sounding like a clone of Type O's Steel, and whether his vocals are electronically enhanced or not, one cannot say. And yes, there are guitars here too. Electronics play a rather large part in track 2 'Resurrection.' They definitely know how to combine catchy melody with sonic "metal" heaviness. After track 4, things start to slide downhill a bit. 'Relentless' has some catchy choruses, but they do the silly opening train noises and the lyrical framework was not as good as the concepts they portray on the other tracks. Then there is a three minute track of nothing but movie and T.V. samples thrown together in an interesting way, but I don't think you'll want to hear it more than a few times. And why did they think we wanted to hear a remix of 'Relentless?' It's not really a true remix anyway, they just threw some extra samples in the song, it still has the same lyrics and vocal patterns. Track nine is an instrumental that seems to go nowhere, and 'Reflexion' had nice horror movie styled organs and good heavy guitar work, but the songs was just slightly above average. However, the finest feather in this band's cap is 'Redemption' which would have been the BEST track on Type O's "October Rust" album had THEY recorded it instead. Great moods, fantastic vocal work and amazing instrumentation, words cannot do this song justice and you KNOW it's been digitized for ya. Though there aren't very many "terrible" songs, this CD falls just short of the potential that blazes through little over half this disc. I'm probably being just a bit too generous by the 71 score, considering that anything 75 and up is a keeper. Regardless, I will spin this CD for the few great tracks it contains...
Contact: Progressive Darkwave, 215 Thompson St. Suite 11, NYC, NY 10012
Web site: http://progressivedarkwave.com

CARNAL FORGE "Please...Die!" (Century Media) SCORE: 64/100

I was so blown away by their "Firedemon" album, it was the definition of precise sonic obliteration. By comparison, the newest cuts off of "Please... Die!" are so speed oriented it seems to me to have lost a lot of focus. It was a bit pretentious of them to start right off the bat just speeding away, and it made for a rather sloppy start. However, a new twist on this record is the very low death growling that is such an ominous force, it gave new life to tracks like 'Fuel For Fire' and 'A World All Soaked In Blood.' The speedier elements are presented in such force that it does take away the impact that they delivered on "Firedemon," after all, it's what made songs like 'Covered With Fire' and the title track 'Firedemon' just cave my skull in repeatedly. Something got lost in the translation here. There are still incredible cuts to be found here, 'Becoming Dust' most notable among them, with those choppy, rapid fire guitar riffs that were all over "Firedemon" and more recently heard in Invocator's "Weave The Apocalypse" album. I hear lots of previous album influences, but not enough, and I guess it's hard to continue this style of music without changing something to keep things fresh. Not every song is a speed fest, though, the title track "Please...Die' starts things off at a slower pace, and of course Jonas' vicious screams and vocal work can't be ignored. They even had the balls to include some melodic riffs, though I think the term they would use would be "harmony," on tunes like 'Hand Of Doom' and 'Becoming Dust.' I'm a bit more disappointed than the score would show considering I ate the Century Media debut for breakfast on a daily basis.
Contact: Century Media Records.

CEVIN KEY "The Ghost Of Each Room" (Metropolis) SCORE: 23/100

The core members of Skinny Puppy always seemed a bit over the edge, and if you have ever seen their live performances, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. Nothing could have prepared me for this jumbled up, horrid mess that I still don't know exactly what genre it encompasses. I'll give points, albeit a very few, where they are due, he does manage to pull a few decent ambient synthscapes out, like on tracks 'cccc4' and 'Frozen Sky,' the latter is really the only decent "song" (and I use that term VERY loosely) on this album. The beat structures are among some of the wierdest I have ever heard, and I don't know that that's always a good thing. 'bObs Shadow' starts this off with some wierd ghost noises and a possible club piece, though it's nothing I'd want to listen to again. Guitars of the distorted variety pop up on 'Frozen Sky,' but overall this is just such a wierd composition that I can't find myself wanting to pick it up again for any reason. '15th Shade' seems to be Cevin's attempt at making some japanese noisecore make sense, thank god the instrumentation soon bottoms out but the spoken vocals and guitar work does nothing for me here. I think Cevin may have experienced creativity lapses, for this is such a mess.
Contact: Metropolis Records.
Web site: http://www.metropolis-records.com

DEW SCENTED "Inwards" (Nuclear Blast) SCORE: 85/100

For those of you looking for the follow up to Slayer's "Reign In Blood," you may need look no further. A pretty consistent release through and through, you'll find yourself picking parts of the thrashy guitar riffs apart and naming songs for sure. The vocals around here border on hardcore and death metal, which makes for an interesting combination. 'Bitter Conflict' starts this out and it never stops from there. My favorite tracks are 'Life Ending Path' and 'Locked In Motion,' those two songs have some of the best riffs and I just love it when a band uses those start-stop-start riff patterns that are seemingly seldom heard anymore. By the CD's end, though, you're wondering if you can sit through ten tracks of this, as I said it really never lets up. The band definitely takes a one dimensional approach and I think had I heard this a few years after "Reign In Blood" came out I would have appreciated it even more, however I think these days bands like Dark Tranquility, Soilwork and even Opeth have done a better job of keeping the heavier side of things more interesting with the myriad of elements thrown into the mix. Still, you can't deny that it's not all a speed fest, when tracks like 'Feeling Not' and 'Reprisal' manage to slow things down a tad. Still, 'Terminal Mindstrip' is an example of a song that was run just a little bit too long, at over 5 minutes, with all that speed, it seems like much longer than 5 minutes. A damn solid effort though, and proving once again that Europe seems to be the innovator of hard and heavy music.
Contact: Nuclear Blast Records.

DIABOLICAL MASQUERADE "Death's Design" (Olympic) SCORE: 95/100

I've listened to this CD so much, I can do this review in my sleep. A licensing deal from Avantgarde Music, this is produced by none other than Dan Swano. For many of you who are familiar with Dan's work, I may have said all I need to say to get you to run out and buy this thing. For the not so nearly convinced (and you would have assuredly convinced ME that you haven't heard Dan's other projects, like Panthymonium, Nightingale, Edge Of Sanity, and the hundreds of other albums he's produced) this is a somewhat vicious black metal soundtrack for who knows what kind of film. It's all Blakkheim's project, but Dan does a few guitar parts, and I swear on 'The Inverted Dream' that that is Dan Swano doing singing vocals! This is a massive 61 track CD, divided into 20 movements. Lemme just run down the highlights: The 8th Movement, featuring 'Old People's Voodoo Seance,' and 'Possession of The Voodoo Party,' features some wild percussion, voodoo/New Orleans sounding guitar riffs, and Swano himself playing excellent guitar. 'Spinning Back The Clocks' features some excellent guitar work and sounds like, well, a clock ticking. Mostly black vocals are featured here, but just as you're likely to hear singing vocals, don't be surprised to find rich synthesized orchestration and the occasional electronica influence. This is, after all, a soundtrack. The 16th Movement is most notable for the Egyptian theme running amok, and the only bad part of the CD is the 7th Movement, where the instrumentation is a little on the slow and dragging on side. All in all, quite a diverse piece of work for black metal, and one that not only kicks ass, but has the balls to change tempo, atmosphere, AND melody with the song title. Can't wait to see what movie THIS is attached to. NOTE: Digitizing for this CD occurs in movements, there may be 3 or 4 songs per movement, but each song seldom dips over the 2 minute mark, many "songs" indeed last no more than a minute.
Contact: Olympic Recordings.
Web site: http://www.olympicrecordings.com

DISINTER "Demonic Portraiture" (Morbid) SCORE: 61/100

Hailing from Chicago of all places, this death metal band pretty much relies on speed to get them through the night. Blasting speed at that, almost at a grindcore pace. They do have some interesting riff structures present when they decide they don't always have to play at 100 miles per hour, making for quite a few good tracks. 'Strength And Honour' is a good showcase for this, and they don't mind bringing in the occasional acoustic riff either. There are some dual vocals in place on many tracks, which was a key highlight, the throat work wasn't problematic, like the instrumentation was. On tunes like 'Woven With Pestilence And War,' 'An Eternity Of Pain,' and 'Whirling Spectral Voices' it pretty much blurs together. There are some good tracks but their insistence on speed is just something I can't handle. They are indeed a tight unit, able to keep the instrumentation in check and very controlled, but even on a song like 'What Once Was, Again Shall Be,' which proceeds at a much slower pace, I found that the material just didn't strike me, but they do have potential. Some of the higher end guitar work did strike me pretty hard, and they do a nice job covering At The Gates' 'Blinded By Fear.' Just not into it but this is better quality than most of the stuff I've received by Morbid so far.
Contact: Morbid Records, Postfach 3, 03114 Drebkau, GERMANY
Web site: http://www.morbidrecords.de

FAITH AND THE MUSE "Vera Causa" (Metropolis) SCORE: 92/100

Sad to say, this score actually undermines, in a way, just how great this band is. Any clubgoers will instantly recognize 'All Lovers Lost' and 'Cantus' as big club hits. And a few weeks after I was praising the newest Mission CD as the best gothic release this year, this one is a definite close second. This is a wonderful 2 CD set that appeals to diehard fans as well as those who have never listened to the music of this amazing band. Though it is gothic, there are celtic overtones, romantic and Medieval instrumentation, and even the flutes, mandolins, string quartets and synthesizers tell you that they can craft moods heavy and light. The score in and of itself is good, however were it not for the remixes that grace CD 2 this would score much higher. CD 1 is covers, compilation appearances, and demo versions, and I must say that some of this stuff is amazing and is a great comfort to know it's finally being released. This will be a long review so if you're not interested by now please move on. 'Frater Ave Atque Vale' starts off CD 1 and is stunning. Multi vocals from both male and female performers is all you hear, NO instrumentation whatsoever. 'In Dreams Of Mine' shows Monica's vocals at their most seductive and sensuous, her range and delivery are what really adds a spark to this band. The instrumentation is nothing to sneeze at either, Mr. Faith being ever so adept at many different moods. The only time you hear male vocals are on 'Soul In Isolation,' which was good but dragged a bit long. And 'Hollow Hills' was not a good cover choice, Monica just doesn't do the haunting, creepy style that is more akin to The Bauhaus (who originally did the song). I've never been much of a fan of Bauhaus anyway. Of the 2nd CD, there are 7 remixes, and only 2 are worthy of mention, 'Elyria' by The Trace and 'Shattered In Aspect' by L'ame Immortelle, who REALLY knows how to complement the vocals with the music. The problem with the other remixes is you have industrial bands trying to "heavy up" the sound of a band who isn't portrayed that way, and by the time the hip hop beats of 'Scars Flown Proud' by the Cassandra Complex, I was on my way out the door. The live tracks on CD 2 are much heavier than those on CD 1, and a great addition to those who have been looking for a good live album. They only do 7 live tracks, so if you're not into live albums, it won't ruin the rest of the CD for you. This 2 CD set they did just right, and if it's being sold as a single CD set it gets a much higher score. Also noteworthy is their amazing cover of Kate Bush's 'Running Up That Hill,' and the original demo for 'Heal,' which was done on a boombox and actually sounds like an old vinyl recording from the early 1900's. Definitely stalwarts of the scene, this 2 CD set is very valuable to both fans and newcomers alike, combining many elements to make this a refreshing and welcome addition to the goth genre.
Contact: Metropolis Records.

GAMMA RAY "No World Order!" (Noise) SCORE: 94/100

When I first listened to it, I must admit it's the atypical power metal heard nearly everywhere these days, most notably in Freedom Call, a band who I still listen to quite frequently, when magazine work doesn't take over. One listen to the multi vocal chorus lines from 'Dethrone Tyranny' and 'Damn The Machine' and you can hear the similarities. However, they manage to craft catchy material throughout, and still keep things heavy. Most notable is 'The Heart Of The Unicorn,' which starts out with some heavy "Painkiller" era Priest guitar work, then we all instantly know why Kai Hansen was considered as a replacement for the mighty Rob Halford. Those hell bent screaming vocals, sadly, are hardly found save in a few songs. No matter, for though higher pitched singing vocals Kai does in spades, he's also able to dip lower as well, making tunes like 'New World Order' have more depth and dimension to them. As I said, they can construct catchy choruses, and some of the heavier guitar work really catches your ear. The few tracks I didn't care for were ender 'Lake Of Tears' and 'Fire Below,' the latter sounded a bit, well, campy lyric wise, and the former track is more ballad like and not really in line with the rest of the CD. Sure, harp all you want about how this has been done, but all in all it's a damn fine slab of metal and one definitely can hear the older heavy Priest guitar riffs creep in more often than not. Not a crappy song to be found. Kai's been doing this a long time, ya know...
Contact: Noise Records.

GREEN CARNATION "Light Of Day, Day Of Darkness" (The End) SCORE: 98/100

Holy moses! I have to admit, I wasn't very impressed with Green Carnation's "The Light At The End Of The World," so I didn't pay much attention to the fact that The End Records was putting this out, nor did it pique my interest any more when I found out this was going to be one long song. 60 minutes long, and what an album! The long length does nothing to detract from the amazing ambience going on here, there's female vocals, saxophones, children's voices, synth, sitar and a few other instruments. Dark metal to the highest degree. This is where my reviewing skills were immediately put to the test. VERY enjoyable CD, except for about 4 minutes of solos saxophones and a rather bad female wailing vocal style, so a few points HAD to be taken off. Otherwise, it's a rather daring effort, kudos to a man who can make a 60 minute song and hold my attention for all but 4 minutes of it. I would have liked to have seen it split up at least into a few pieces, but I can't complain very much at all. Beautiful, heavy, and the Candlemass style of doom comes through in the guitar work. Damnit if The End hasn't done it yet again. First Agalloch and now Green Carnation! By the way, instead of breaking the track up into 5 segments, we just strung 13 minutes of the track for you, so you can hear the continuity.
Contact: The End Records, 556 S. Fair Oaks Ave. #101-111, Pasadena, CA 91105
Web site: http://www.theendrecords.com

GURKKHAS "A Life Of Suffering" (Morbid) SCORE: 56/100

I'm such a sucker for brutal, sick vocals, especially of the death metal variety, though lately I've been growing increasingly more disenchanted by the genre. When I first started listening to this album, I was pretty taken with it, however repeated listens soon revealed the limitations of this band. A French trio that has assumed the military style gear takes a similarly simplistic style to their music. Once track 1 abdicated the throne, it soon became clear to me that there was not much variety to the song structures. Many of the songs had the same rhythmic pattern repeated throughout, making tracks like 'A Life Of Suffering' and 'Legacy' sound very limiting. They seem to favor the speedier approach, though they do manage to throw in some good riffing ideas, just listen to some opening notes in 'Born On A Day Of War' and you'll realize that had this been planned out better, this would have made for a more interesting album. I did dig the Cannibal Corpse styled lead riffs which I'm sure pop up in more than one band's repertoire. I'm not asking a band to make the most original death metal album around, but I do expect to hear more than a few ideas repeated ad nauseum.'Kukri' had the most interesting musical patterns of all, the eerie war intro helped things along, as did the slower vocal delivery which made the speedy guitar work sound like it was being slowed down as well. Good thing I take more than two or three complete spins of an album, after all, when you pay 15 bucks or so for a CD, I'm sure you want to make sure you don't miss anything. A little maturity to their musical approach may make Gurkkhas put France on the map of underground death metal.
Contact: Morbid Records.

IN THY DREAMS "Highest Beauty" (Century Media) SCORE: 82/100

Right off the bat I can smell the limitations of this release. I'm such a sucker for sick, twisted vocals (geez, didn't I mention that in the Gurkkhas review?) and this album has plenty of them. It's rather a gothenberg based style, though it touches on black metal and also has plenty of low growled death metal vocals, which give things a nice twist. And damnit, I really enjoy this stuff; though quite a few songs, most notably when you play 'The Highest Beauty' and 'Spirits Forge' back to back, have melodies and riffs and even vocal structures that run along the same lines. The death and screaming, or black, vocals work quite well when they're presented together, but some songs like 'Hatred' and 'Control' show that the death metal vocals by themselves don't work well at all, especially in the context of two songs that are presented at a slower pace than the rest of the album. Slower is not necessarily a bad thing either, those riffs on 'Hatred' are absolutely nasty! Stick to the Gothenberg based instrumentation and things run quite smoothly. If you're not quite tired of this style of music yet, then In Thy Dreams keeps things on a definitely heavy level, and some guitar melodies even stick out. I quite enjoyed it despite it's obvious limitations. Licensed from WAR music overseas, it fits right in with the rest of Century Media's roster.
Contact: Century Media Records.

LOUISA JOHN-KROL "Ariel" (Prikosnovenie) SCORE: 99/100

Absolutely fabulous. Words cannot possibly convey just how amazing this release is. Prikosnovenie has put out some very unusual releases but this has to be the most moving, emotional, beautiful and powerful CD I have ever heard. I am almost ashamed to put a mere numerical rating to such an intense work of art. Louisa John-Krol radiates passion, beauty, etherialness and strength from every note that comes from her sensuous and seductive voice, and she plays a MEAN mandolin as well. This was such a highlight I cannot possibly figure out where to begin. 'Blackbird' starts the CD off in fantastic form, with some of the most beautiful and richest string and synth work I have ever heard. Her voice will melt even the hardest heart to liquid, all the while you're basking in such a mellow atmosphere it has to be heard to be believed. Easily one of the best CD's I have heard this year. 'Red Balloon' could easily be a club hit, with percussion that borders on tribal, with amazingly mellow ambient synth layers in the background, and is a bit more energetic and upbeat than some of her other works. 'Anemone Falling' has some of the best ambient synth work I have ever heard, I wish more ambient music like this would fall upon my desk. And if that wasn't enough, she breaks out with some beautiful flute music, on the track 'Tale Of A Thorn,' that nearly brought a tear to my eye. How could you classify this? It's not quite folk, or even pop oriented, though it radiates a power and class all it's own. There were a few distractions, though, like track 4 'Nobelius Garden' where she does a few quirky vocal shrieks, but it's still a rather mellow tune. I didn't quite dig the opening violin solo on 'Numb The Wren Tear' but I could have been unfairly picky. I am so enchanted by this CD that I feel any more words I convey will cause one to loose the feeling you'd get from simply listening to this. SIX tracks will be digitized, please go and listen to this amazing artist who has touched the deepest corners of my soul. Great relaxing stoner's music as well as those wanting to get away from the chaos and frantic pace this world sets. Best listened to in a meadow or forest (though not the forests of Norway or Sweden!)
Contact: Prikosnovenie Records.
Web site: http://www.multimania.com/prikos

MEN OF PORN "Experiments In Feedback" (Small Stone) SCORE: 12/100

If you're not into Japanese noisecore, bands like Namanax, Merzbow, and their ilk, then you will have more than enough reason to skip this CD, and review, entirely. Let's try and keep it short, there's other bands that deserve more space. Men Of Porn have, to my knowledge, written ONE good song, and that was 'Pony Ride' off of the "Judge Not" compilation CD. Anyway, they seem to have decided to do something different, so for starters we get a 12 minute version of a Pink Floyd "song" I wasn't crazy about to begin with, 'One Of These Days,' of course this version is minus any vocals. They do a Motorhead cover 'Sister.' THREE TIMES! That's right, they decided to include three versions of this, and the best one is the instrumental version surprisingly, and the feedback loops that make this sound spacey are actually utilized well. Check out 'Loop,' yes, all 13 boring minutes of the same small loop, what a waste of CD space! 'Capp Street' had funny lyrics, and was one of very few saving graces for this album. I really don't wanna say more, except to note 'Feedback II,' 'Feedback IV,' and 'Feedback VII.' Have I said enough?
Contact: Small Stone Records, P.O. Box 02007 Detroit, MI 48202 USA
Web site: http://www.smallstone.com

MORS SYPHILITICA "Feather And Fate" (Projekt) SCORE: 61/100

I'm a little surprised by this. Coming across as a rather gothic styled project, the vocals of Lisa Hammer are quite beautiful, but there's something amiss in most of the song writing. True to their credit, the husband and wife duo of Lisa and Eric craft some rather unusual ideas within the gothic slash darkwave format. There's a strikingly Arabic flair on the track 'Between Feather And Fate,' as well as 'A Fever Dream,' though 'A Fever Dream' definitely was the better of the two, showcasing some dynamic vocal range. Many of the songs really failed to catch me, I can't say they were terrible for the most part but they just didn't find a home in my brain. 'Glorious Breath' was a tad on the mellow side, as was 'Fountain Of Tears,' but the latter tune was definitely lacking in the instrumentation department. 'Nostalgia's Sea' was quite a nice mellow tune, one that I enjoyed, as well as their best moment 'Only A Whirlwind.' 'The Chains Of Reason' was probably the worst song on here, where the darker instrumentation and her vocals really clash. Overall there are some nice moments but I think the experimentation phase left the ideas running a little bland.
Contact: Projekt Records.
Web site: http://www.projekt.com

PENTAGRAM "Sub-Basement" (Black Widow) SCORE: 95/100

"If ''Review Your Choices'' made you sick, then ''Sub-Basement'' will take you to the tomb!" This is a self titled statement from the newest of Virginia's doom metal gods, and it fits. This is the HEAVIEST, doomiest Pentagram album I have ever heard, and I absolutely loved "Review Your Choices." This also marks the first album that has all new material, rather than releases of older songs, at least as far as I'm led to believe. Check out the title track, this has some of the most vicious and punishing doom riffs I've yet to hear on a Pentagram album, and it blows away most other songs the heaviest of doomsters can come up with. The closest this album comes to a ballad is in 'Out Of Luck,' though the riffs are a little bit more uptempo, you'll hear an acoustic riff or two. The first two songs really blaze by you, as they are no longer than 2 minutes each (reason why we digitized 6 songs instead of the usual 5), and the first tune 'Bloodlust' comes in rocking and 'Buzzsaw' has some very doomy, eerie vocal lines. You even hear Bobby's classic Ozzy imitation on a few words of 'Bloodlust.' 'Drive Me To The Grave' was very cool, some of the most wicked vocal intonations you'll ever hear from Mr. Liebling, and 'Tidal Wave' is the classic Titanic tale told with brutal conviction from some thrashy guitar work. Yes my friends, the guitar work is about the heaviest on the planet, and the vocal work is nothing short of creepy and dark. Check the lyrics on the title track too, they're quite fitting comparing our "underground" genre to an "underground" living arrangement. The only track I really had a problem with was 'Go In Circles,' the lyrical arrangements bothered me and it is an ultra slow track. Those whammied guitar pieces sound really spooky though. And while on the subject, the last track got a bit carried away with the lenghty fast instrumentation that you might hear closing a concert, but overall this is a tremendously enjoyable album, one that shows Pentagram in it's heaviest light. Setting the standard for mind crushingly heavy doom metal for years to come.
Contact: Black Widow Records.
Web site: http://www.blackwidow.it

PROSCRIPTOR "The Serpentine Has Risen" (Dark Age Productions) SCORE: 41/100

I remember this side project from Absu member Proscriptor from awhile back, via their "The Venus Belladonna" CD, which I have to admit I wasn't very impressed with. This time around, things have picked up just a tad, though it's still not a CD I would care to listen to again. The CD starts out with 'Tin Formulae,' and it sounds very much like Hawkwind, with the spacey synthesizers and clean sung vocals, though I can't say I'd stick around to hear it more than a few times. Then out of nowhere comes 'Dauntless Pride,' which showcases some nice acoustic guitar riffs and medieval synths that Mortiis would be proud of. The acoustic riffs and keys mix very well together, and he does another nice piece featuring melodic synths on track 5, 'First Point.' Why he couldn't have done the rest of the CD like this is beyond me, for his "experimentation" pieces are really hard to listen to. 'Witch Wife' is a prime example, he's trying to do the industrial thing it seems complete with electronically enhanced vocals, which just sounds silly. (And keep in mind, I still enjoy industrial music!) The 'Devil Woman' cover was interesting, but not nearly enough to hold my interest. 'Ossian's Cave' was the worst of all, sounding like some bizarre noise piece that is mainly just annoying sounds thrown together, I guess he was going for a ritualistic effect. Then to top it all off, there is another version of 'Tin Formulae' but without vocals. Either way, not very much I could get into.
Contact: Dark Age Productions, P.O. Box 743307, Dallas, TX 75374-3307 USA

SAXON "Killing Ground" (SPV/Steamhammer) SCORE: 77/100

I think Saxon's been releasing too many albums too fast! Hell, it was just issue #25 when "Metalhead" came out and "Unleash The Beast" must have been a year before that! This CD is more of a mix of styles, you have some slower numbers, some tunes that just out and out rock, and a few throwaway pieces. This disc still has some good tunes on it, but it's not nearly a favorite of mine, though I only own three Saxon releases, all reviewed within these pages. There's the usual intro that Saxon feels the need to put on every CD, then we jump straight into 'Killing Ground,' which is a heavy tune in the vein of the last two discs. 'Court Of The Crimson King' is a BEAUTIFULLY done cover, they even added extra depth to it by utilizing some great multi vocal work. 'Coming Home' was one of the throwaway tracks, I think lyrically they could have done better as also with 'Running For The Border,' another tune I didn't care for. 'Dragon's Lair' was very unusual, it shows the English crew flirting with speedier power metal the Italians are famous for. Nice choruses and fast guitar work, but I'd really like to see them develop this style a little more. 'Shadows On The Wall' was one of the worst tracks here, don't get me wrong the acoustic style and melodic singing was nice, but the heavier parts of the song really bugged me, he tries to put some electronic effects on his voice it seems and the choruses were weak. However, 'Hell Freezes Over' was one of my other favorites, with choruses that stick in your head and great lead guitar work. 'Rock Is Our Life' closes this out in true headbanger's anthemic form, and though there's quite a few tracks that really didn't work for me, a Saxon album these days is still a good thing to have in the collection. A bit weaker than the past two, but still has its moments.
Contact: SPV/Steamhammer, P.O. Box 721147, 30531 Hannover, GERMANY
Web site: http://www.spv.de

SHAPE OF DESPAIR "Angels Of Distress" (Spinefarm) SCORE: 95/100

Some might say I gave this a higher score just to be able to digitize all 5 songs for ya. Yes, a 5 song album just like the previous effort. Actually, I play "Shades Of..." a lot more these days, and I think maybe THAT album should have received a 95 instead of a 93 was it? Anyway, things have seemingly gotten a lot more dynamic, the death metal vocals on the first few tracks are a LOT more in your face, and the female vocals are featured a lot more than before. One thing that upset me was the absence of the flutes!! They did add violins though which was a tremendously effective new feature; as the melancholic effects are drawn out more than the more serene atmospheres which graced the first album. They do a great instrumental on the last tune 'Night's Dew,' and it features great piano notations. 'To Live For My Death' features not only the female vocals but marks the debut of actual male singing vocals! My few complaints dealt with the death vocals on the title track: I mentioned how they are quite dominant, but here they are a bit too overbearing on pieces of the song, taking away from the instrumentation, but the passage in this song that features some downright evil synth (horror movie styled organs) mixed with the death vocals makes for one of the most brutal passages Shape Of Despair has ever written. The death vocals get toned back a bit more from track 3 on, and brings us back to the memories of the first album. Like with album number one, this album features two to three fantastic songs, and the rest are good. The difference here is that the "good" songs are a tad more enjoyable than the ones on "Shades Of..." though it's such a close call that both albums could very easily rate the same score. What a job these Finnish musicians have done, and it's an extreme honor to bring you the interview we've been hunting for like forever now! If Century Media has any sense, they'll be licensing this for the U.S. market SOON! P.S. There are NO bad songs on a Shape Of Despair album. Commit that statement to memory.
Contact: Spinefarm Records.

SIX FEET UNDER "True Carnage" (Metal Blade) SCORE: 18/100

God damn, do I have to review this? *sigh* The things I have to do for my craft. Okay, well since we last reviewed and interview them, this Cannibal Corpse slowed down style has really gotten worse. I mean, REALLY. First off, Chris Barnes seems to be trying his best to keep people from understanding what he's saying in his songs. And that new feature of his, the screech? Jesus, the first time I heard that I was laughing hysterically, cause I mean it almost sounds like Beavis (from Beavis and Butthead fame, remember them? No? Well, fear not cause if there's any justice in the world, Six Feet Under will soon join them in obscurity). And I mean a horrible Beavis too. The video clip for 'The Day The Dead Walked' actually gives you a visual picture of just how funny that is. There are only a few highlights on this CD. One is the vicious death metal screams of Karyn from the band Crisis, and sadly even that gets old after a few lines. The other was hearing those wacked out Cannibal Corpse style riffs on 'Impulse To Disembowel' you remember those whammied riffs that sounded like no other? Ice-T does guest rap vocals on 'One Bullet Left.' I said rap, so that probably tells you more than you want to know about this song. And by the way, WHY does every other line puked up by Ice-T have to include the word fuck in it? He says that wonderful "F" word more times on one song than EVERY metal band on the planet! Geez! They do the slow instrumentation thing, though every now and then they'll peak my interest just a tad with some faster instrumentation. Check 'It Never Dies,' which had some nice opening lead work. Overall the presentation is poor. PISS poor. And I still can't believe these guys were picked to headline the metallenium festival, though it's probably more a blessing than a curse that the better bands like Witchery and The Haunted didn't show up.
Contact: Metal Blade.

SLEEPLESS "Winds Blow Higher" (The End) SCORE: 94/100

What is up with this label? Their dark metal seems to be raging these days, Agalloch, Green Carnation, and Sleepless! This band sounds much like Tiamat on their "Deeper Kind Of Slumber,' but much darker. They utilize melodic vocals but usually on a darker scale, no growling or anything, but sometimes whispered and sometimes low toned. The more melodically sung vocals tend to give me a few fits at times, but they aren't too much of a detraction. And of course the static filled radio sounds coupled with some BAD operetta style female vocals really detracted from the song 'Change,' though it was just a small part of the middle of this song. There are some nice ambient synths all the way through this CD, and some catchy vocal work on 'Lying In Wait' and the title track really helps to drive the point home. There's an instrumental as well, 'Rain,' but I didn't think it was as good as the instrumentation of EVERY other song, though it does pick up a little bit towards the end. There isn't really a whole lot to complain about, though, but as I said it's mostly dark melodies, and can get haunting at times like on 'Moments.' The End Records may not put out 30 or 40 releases a year, but you know the few records they DO promote are generally of good quality.
Contact: The End Records.

SODOM "M-16" (SPV/Steamhammer) SCORE: 84/100

"Angelripper" and company have never left us. They take a trek down to the jungles of Vietnam (see the accompanying interview) for a rather interesting ride through the eyes of Full Metal Jacket and Apocalypse Now followers. The speed/thrash metal that Sodom has never strayed from has taken true to form on this 11 track CD. There's a few wierd moments on this CD, like first the use of the word 'Wierdcong' in 'Among The Wierdcong.' The best tracks though are found near the end of the CD, especially the title track, which has catchy choruses and some really evil riffs. 'Marines' is a great track as well, though it seems like a tribute song to those warriors in camouflage, but has killer, catchy choruses to boot. 'Lead Injection' makes nice use of start-stop riffs, and I gotta say that especially on this CD more than any other, Angelripper sounds exactly like Tom Araya from Slayer when he's yelling at the top of his lungs. It's a real treat for the senses when Sodom pulls off some great movie samples, and in Full Metal Jacket tradition he does a skullcrushing cover of 'Surfin' Bird,' a song that I didn't like in the movie but absolutely dig here. Many of you will get a few laughs over his conversion before you realize that THIS is the version that should have been in the movie. They do show us some maturity and variety when they take 'Napalm In The Morning' for an acoustic run at the start, though this tune could have been a bit better. 'I Am The War' tended to suffer from some bad arrangements where the vocals on the prechorus were concerned. 'Little Boy' was a bit strange as well, but overall you can't ask for a better album from Sodom, unless you're still hung up on the old days, though Sodom will not deny their past and will play many "Obsessed By Cruelty/In The Sign Of Evil" tracks live to this day.
Contact: SPV/Steamhammer Records.

SOLARIZED "Driven" (Meteor City) SCORE: 48/100

I must say this is quite a surprise. Meteor City releases I have always looked forward to, but this band really sounds more like Southern Rock meets stoner than anything else. The guitar work is mainly what brings this down, that plus songs that really fail to catch my attention. The twangy "suvvun" guitar style is most notable on the instrumental 'Southbound,' but creeps into other tracks like 'Angel' via the cowbell sounds, and the rather annoying 'Box Full Of Dirt.' This CD starts out with a bang though, after you skip the intro, 'Dig The Ride' rocks hard and fast, and reminds you of a good driving anthem. Then the best song on this whole CD is 'Born Of Fire,' with some MEAN guitar work and killer low ended vocals that accentuate the heaviest and most dominant track on here. Even 'Chrome Shop' was a faster rockin' tune, one that I definitely enjoyed the choruses on especially. From track 6 on, it all goes downhill. The faster number 'Stab Your Back' was just mainly those three words repeated over and over, and though some of the other songs weren't terrible, they just failed to grab me. They try to do the heavier style throughout, but the life and spark went out of this record after track 5.
Contact: Meteor City, P.O. Box 40322, Albuquerque, NM 87196 USA
Web site: http://www.meteorcity.com

THE FLESHPEDDLERS "Falling Into A Dream" (Wrecktus) SCORE: 4/100

Man oh man is this ever horrible! Even the most syrupy of synthpop bands would be a welcome breath of fresh air after this mess! Track 1, 'Disco Song,' starts this off with some of the most horrible vocals, cheesy as all hell lyrics, and crappy casio keyboard tunes I've ever heard! There is not ONE song on here I could even possibly listen to for any length of time. The 4 points comes from the heavy chorus lines on 'The Crusher,' the closest thing to a real song, which is very obviously Nine Inch Nails inspired. Horrible vocal work brings down MANY songs, most notably 'Angie-Girl' and 'Kitty's Corner.' Check out the bad xylophone sounds they used on 'It's Perfect.' They definitely love the techno effects, and if matters weren't already worse at hand, they do this techno country sounding thing on 'Inflatable Dreams.' The lyrics are unusually bad, I get the feeling that the lyrics had to be approved by the band's parents before being released, as they are REALLY sappy and REALLY bad. Please, no more. I can't possibly endure writing any more, the first two listens were near ear wrecking enough as it is. However, like the late great "poet" Frank Zappa would say "Great googly moogly! I'd rather eat the yellow snow than listen to this mess!"
Contact: Wrecktus Records.
Web site: http://www.fleshpeddlersmusic.com

THE MISSION "Aura" (Playground Recordings) SCORE: 93/100

Most of what I've heard from the Mission U.K., as they used to be called, was via import compilation CD's. The first time I heard anything Mission related was the tribute CD that Re-Constriction Records released a few years back. And that, coupled with a few tracks played in local goth/industrial clubs in Savannah peaked my interest enough to cause me to pursue what was termed their comeback album. And what an album! The two compilation CD's I have had some good tracks but there were some bad ones as well. As far as the gothic tag goes, throw that right now out the window. Yes, it is gothic based, but it has so much more to it than that. Their heaviest track here is 'Slave To Lust,' and it has an amazingly heavy yet otherworldy atmosphere, especially since they added rather Arabic sounding guitar riffs. All their choruses are catchy as hell, and D.J.'s would be hard pressed to find an album that has no less than SEVEN club hits. 'Evangeline' is probably their hit single type, though it has rather dynamic and explosive atmosphere and it rocks! This is not the sappy gothic of old on many tracks, hell on 'Slave To Lust' he actually carries out the sexual anthem of frustrated males everywhere when he says that not only does he want to fuck, but he's tired of playing with himself! Wayne's vocals are definitely in top form, whether he's trying to seduce you one minute, or show off his more melodic side in tunes like 'Dragonfly' and 'Cocoon.' There were some rough spots on the CD though, for starters 'Happy' sounded a bit too sappy and pop oriented, the lyrics really didn't help much. 'Burlesque' sounds like it's trying to achieve the whole strip club feel, and trying to play on the raunchier side that gothic music never deals with though this time it's a big disappointment. They can and have wrote catchier material than this. 'The Light That Pours From You' was another awesome tune, and you can tell that The Mission have great songwriting capabilities. Formed from the ashes of Sisters Of Mercy, I strongly suggest those of you into this style of music seek this out, even though right now a U.S. licensing deal is still pending. Great music for open minded people, and I must say this is THE best gothic styled album releases this year, after such disappointments from many of the scene's long standing hopefuls.
Contact: Playground Recordings.
Web site: http://www.themissionuk.com

THE SATELLITE CIRCLE "The Satellite Circle" (Rage Of Achilles) SCORE: 91/100

How happy I was when this showed up in the mail! Along with Abdullah, this was one of the most surprising releases for me last year, and though this doesn't get a full on 100, it's still full of the cool 70's retro rock sounds done heavy. For those of you that dig the EP with the long title they put up, lemme say that this surprises on many fronts. Their heavier tunes have definitely gotten heavier, and there are several examples of this. 'You Were Never The King' has the fuzzed out, trippy distorted riffs that Black Sabbath would be envious of, but they soon crank the heaviness out by leaps and bounds. You'll hear some vicious shouted vocal work which is a staple of Satellite Circle material. 'Remedy' continues on in much the same fashion, and they'll even pull out a stoner's jam for ya on this one. Gotta love the echoed vocal effects which pop up from time to time too. Then track three 'Black Mountainside' REALLY struck me as odd. This is their first pseudo-ballad, though the acoustic notations are very haunting and not at all mellow in a ballad sense, added with the haunting singing effects of Jonas and I wasn't sure whether I would like this at first, but soon it grew on me, or should I say creeped on me. Very unusual and dark, though in a good way! Too bad I couldn't say the same for the other "ballad" in 'The Beginning Of The End Of The World Part 1." The acoustic riffs were echoed but didn't do much for me, and the singing vocals didn't help the mood any at all, methinks that Jonas's vocals aren't quite suited to the more melodic side of things. And his vocal work got the better of him on 'The Thin White Line Between Happiness And Sanity.' He just didn't carry over well here, though the instrumentation was quite adequate. However, the skullcrushingly HEAVIEST song they have written to date is 'The Beginning Of The End Of The World Part 2,' with a slow, almost sludgy feel, and there's only one lyric line but you don't care, it's delivered with a sonically devastating death blow. I've rambled on at length about this band now, but the goods were delivered and they were delivered with force. A second interview will most DEFINITELY be in the works. COUNT ON IT.
Contact: Rage Of Achilles, P.O. Box 20508, London NW8 8 WT, UK
Web site: http://www.rageofachilles.clara.net

WITCHERY "Symphony For The Devil" (Necropolis) SCORE: 95/100

How the hell they do it is simply beyond me. First off they are spearheaded by the biggest campaign that Necropolis has ever done, then they actually get a U.S. tour with Borknagar and Emperor, not to mention their first album got a 100 rating, and on top of all that they have to share Jensen with The Haunted AND wait for Sharlee D'Angelo to quit gigging around with Mercyful Fate or King Diamond, whichever Mr. Diamond decides he wants to do at the moment. All of four albums in less than two years? And have their writing skills diminished over all this time and overextension? Hell no! Admittedly, the "Restless And Dead" album didn't quite live up to the crushing heaviness of the first album, but this is yet another masterpiece in the gallery of all things Witchery. And this album starts off with a bang, enter some storm sounds and vicious lead riffs to mark 'The Storm.' 'Unholy Wars' proves that Witchery is capable of writing catchy tunes and kick ass ones to boot. By 'Inquisition' and 'Omens,' they have slowed things down a bit but added such an otherworldly, eerie dimension that you just knew they had much more creativity in them than most people give them credit for. They did manage to do one too many instrumentals, but for a kick go listen to the instrumental 'Bone Mill.' There you can hear Metal Church's 'Merciless Onslaught' (which was an instrumental song too: mere coincidence?) and Faith Or Fear's 'Time Bomb.' Kick ass instrumental guys, but please don't try and claim this all for your own. The other instrumental I wasn't too crazy about, and the only other tune I would probably pass on is 'Called For By Death,' and this isn't a bad tune but doesn't have the spark that other tracks have. There are two bonus tracks here, 'Enshrined' and 'The One Within,' so it's 12 Witching hour tunes that a true metalhead would surely love. We'll be doing the "W" for a long time to come...
Contact: Necropolis Records.

WITHERED EARTH "Into The Deepest Wounds" (Olympic) SCORE: 82/100

Sometimes a band can be just so over the top with brutality that they forget about catchiness and diversity. The last time, and actually the first time, I saw Withered Earth they opened up for Marduk, and immediately I was impressed by their performance. Their guitar work varies greatly from song to song, and they definitely speed things up and slow them down in nearly the same breath. 'Remnants Of Unfruitful Existence' starts the CD off in a big way, and the crushing lead riffs are what hits you first. They have some dual vocal work going on with 'False, Emotion, Strain,' and the use of acoustic vocals mixed with the death growls on 'I Am Despair' was a nice touch. Still, they are a faster paced death metal band and with that in mind there were some things that got out of hand. The opening riffs on 'I Am' were a bit too chaotic for my taste, but once the track slowed WAAAY down it was one of the heaviest moments on the CD. Some of the tunes that kept a fast pace throughout, most notably 'Colossus Nebula,' tended to lose their focus, but they still are a relatively young outfit with plenty of potential. As long as they can keep things interesting, I don't see why they can't be a player in the seemingly small and overcrowded death metal realm.
Contact: Olympic Records.

INTERVIEWS

BEHEMOTH. Interview with Nergal on Christmas day!


• I must say that your latest album "Thelema 6" had lots of personal notes from you, telling what each song was about. I have been doing a lot of research on the Thelemic culture and Aleister Crowley in particular (see the Maudlin Of The Well interview for more details - Ed.) and have been fascinated by some of his teachings.
  
  To be honest I'm not some kind of expert or something in this matter. Crowley as an individual is a kind of inspiration for me. He has brought some special ideas to my life. It's mainly my friend, the guy who wrote most of the lyrics for this album, he's totally into occult stuff and he helped me with the lyrics and topics. His name is Kristofer and we spent a few days together talking about life and different philosophies and history, and from this I got so many different ideas and topics for songs. Crowley's ideas about will and strength, the individual just fits perfectly to the nature of myself and the nature of this band. I think some of these influences will go on the next record as well. I know that there are limitations to what you can do oftentimes with death and black metal, but one of the things Crowley used to say was that limitation was one of the worst things that man can do. I like different things in life, and Crowley never limited himself to one religion or mythology. He mixed everything up you know, and that's how I am in life. I never limit myself to one type of food, or music, or even one type of girl. I take everything that attracts me and that is what Crowley did in essence for his philosophical system.
  
  
• Have you any concrete plans for the next record already?
  
  Yes, we will try and record it in mid 2002, maybe in May or June. The album will be called "Zos Kiacultus." This is just a working title though, and I'm not sure if it's going to be the final title. It's going to be more aggressive but on the other hand it will be more massive, more heavy. We will slow down the slower parts, but the blasting parts will get even faster, and you can say that there will be more variations within the structures of the songs. We're not like Dark Funeral or Marduk, we'll do either fast songs or slow songs, we try to mix things, do different ideas and make the music intense but still interesting and catchy somehow. I don't mean catchy like in a pop song though.
  
  
• The U.S. version has 4 extra tracks on it, and I'm wondering, since I know you are signed to Avantgarde Music, if the European version had those tracks on there as well.
  
  Those tracks were done just for the U.S. version.
  
  
• There was one song that struck me as odd, it was 'Hello Space Boy,' and I was told that that tune was your taking a stab at this internet user that was spreading a bunch of lies and garbage about you.
  
  No, that was a David Bowie cover song. We just care about music. We signed the U.S. deal a few months after the European release of "Thelema 6." We just wanted to make the U.S. version more special for fans over there in case they wanted to get the European edition. We recorded so many different songs, we actually have more tracks like Slayer's 'Black Magic,' a King Diamond song, even though some of them aren't completed. For me some of these songs are okay, I guess big Behemoth fans will get into it. It's not that easy to play a good cover song, and I think we're just average at doing this. When I mentioned the idea to our drummer he wasn't into it at all, he's like "We can't do that kind of song, we're a metal band, we can't do that crap!" He's pretty much into old school black metal bands,but I did promise him that if it didn't work out we would never do it again, and people have been digging it actually. They were even more astonished to learn who the original song was done by. I just wanted to keep it special. It's originally a very dark song. It comes off a David Bowie album called "Outside" I think it was. A member of Lux Occulta brought the song to my attention, and I wanted to see us challenge ourselves. We did a Morbid Angel song and a Sarcofago song additionally as covers.
  
  
• The song Sarcofago is by the band of the same name?
  
  No, it's a mistake. The song is called 'Satanas' from Sarcofago's first album "I.N.R.I." Somewhere along the way I don't know what happened.
  
  
• That was such a vicious track, I especially loved how low and guttural those vocals were, I'm assuming there was some kind of effects used?
  
  It's called a pitch shifter. It just tunes down your vocals as much as you want it to, and of course you can change the pitch and tone of your vocals. It's a cool utility, it kept the barbarity and the nature of the song, because Sarcofago was one of those favorite bands of ours. I grew up listening to Sarcofago and they are very direct and brutal, they blew me away. They use that sort of growling on their album as well. I just didn't want to put my original voice on the cover.
  
  
• Now I wanted to mention the "Live Eschaton" video I recently saw you guys in, I am assuming it's official though it's not available here in the U.S. That was a really kick ass show you guys did.
  
  We were doing some strange deal with a Polish label called Metal Mind Productions. In our whole career there might be no other occasion to record and release a professional video, so of course we agreed for almost getting no money or no profits, as you may know it cost a lot of money to record such a professional tape. The show had very few people there, because it was some kind of festival where there were Theater Of Tragedy, Sins Of Thy Beloved and some other gothic bullshit recording there as well on the same day, but there were some other bands like Yattering from Poland, and all these bands were there. It's kind of a surprise, hardly any other bands around have their own professional video, but it seems to be quite the thing to do nowadays. To be honest with you it's not a true representation of how we really are onstage, I mean you can't see the sweat, the blood that we usually put into a performance.
  
  
• It's still a vicious show though.
  
  Yeah, thanks, that's cool but you should see us live, in a club where there's about four or five hundred people. We are much tighter when we play live, when you have in your mind that someone is recording a show, then you can't give a hundred percent. You're trying to control everything and when you control yourself you can't be your best. On that video we focused on playing correctly and our technique.
  
  
• Well, I'd love to see you play over here, I think Vader is the only Polish band I have seen live. It's always tough to get overseas bands to play live in the States.
  
  This is something that annoys me so much. I'm sorry but people just don't seem to give a fuck about us, but we have received lots of offers, Australia, Milwaulkee, and New Jersey we were offered to join Marduk in January and it all failed because there was no one to take care of our business arrangements.
  
  
• Why didn't you talk to Marty at Olympic Records, I'm sure he could have hooked something up?
  
  Yeah, but those procedures take too long. When I work with my label Avantgarde, when I email them, I get an answer the same day. If I don't get an answer, I call them on my mobile phone. With the American label, it's much more difficult to get in touch. I don't know why, maybe they have so much work that they don't give a fuck about one Polish band, you know, because maybe they have like 50 other bands. I'd love to be in the States, I have so many friends there and I am really curious to be there. I'm sure we could do really well over there, the States have potential and Americans seem to love the death/black metal crossover. It's a kind of new thing for people over there. I think people would love our album, I know we have good distribution over there and we have been getting good press finally.
  
  
• Well, when I talked to Marty, he's really wanting to push the overseas labels, he signed Diabolical Masquerade too, and he's very supportive of these bands; at least that's the impression I get when talking to him over the phone. Usually the biggest drawback to getting overseas bands to tour here is money, especially for a foreign band that isn't the headliner.
  
  We'll do our best. I hope with the next album, it will be our sixth album, that we can tour in the States. If there is no U.S. tour for this next album I will seriously consider quitting this band. It's useless, because Europe has seen us way too much, we have done 85 shows JUST in Europe this year! We've played Greece, Portugal, and we are going to Norway in March, we've played Russia, Poland, everywhere! And we're tired of the same clubs all the time. You can't always tour because people will get bored you know? We have to play all the time, especially live, in order to get better.
  
  
• Back to the "Thelema 6" album, I really like the song '23, The Youth Manifesto,' it really spoke to me because the song seems to sum up the fact that life is a constant struggle, and it's hard, yet there is still so much to see and do in the world.
  
  That's true. I'm just 24 now but I never give in, I try to do my best all the time, and that's what the song is saying: basically not to care about the past that much, just care about your friends but care for yourself in the first place and carry on no matter what. It's a really simple message. I found out later on that many people really related to the song and liked the message that was in there. It's a very personal song to me and I wasn't sure if people would like it or not. It's a different type of song for Behemoth, but people actually loved it. As I said, on every album we make we want to do something different, something new whether it be in the way of atmospherics or different emotions, or a different style. It's a tradition for Behemoth now.
  
  
• There's a lot of words in the album that seem to be in another language, and I assumed it was Latin but I guess it was Thelemic language or something.
  
  No, it's not Latin. It's Crowley's words and these words are based on numerology. I studied Latin for a year or so. It comes from Christopher, my friend, who translated it for me. I just told him, "This song is about this and that," and I gave him lyrics, which he translated into that language for me. We'll do more stuff with that in the future, kinda like Nile does on their records.
  
  
• I'm a big fan of Nile, mainly because I have been into Egyptian culture and mythology for a long time.
  
  The guys in Nile are really great, I have to consider them one of the best death metal bands, and we became great friends. They're very sympathetic, even in big festivals, the Christmas festival we did in Holland, Karl invited me on stage to sing one of their songs and it was really special for me.
  
  
  
  CARNAL FORGE. Interview... Jari the guitarist.
  
  
• I gotta admit I was pretty blown away by "Firedemon" and I know the press is all hyping this up and saying that it's for fans of old school thrash metal, but it seems to go quite a bit deeper than that.
  
  It's a mix of thrash, death metal and hardcore. It's not akways thrash metal.
  
  
• Now I know that one of the members is involved with the band Centinex, how is that project progressing?
  
  It's our vocalist who plays guitars in Centinex.I think they are recording a new album sometime next year.
  
  
• Is he full time in Carnal Forge or full time in Centinex?
  
  It's not really a fulltime gig for either, it's because he plays a total different role. Playing the guitar in Centinex doesn't present a problem for Carnal Forge, because he does write music in Centinex, however if he wrote the music for Carnal Forge as well as doing vocals then both bands might end up sounding the same.
  
  
• It's just so odd to see him play guitars in one project and singing in another. Now I know that Centinex has already done a bunch of shows, so I'm curious as to how that would work out for both bands if they want to tour.
  
  He's a great guitar player, and we actually have done some gigs together with the two bands on the same night. We did that in Sweden and he said that they can do that sometimes but not for a whole tour!
  
  
• We just saw that kind of thing happen here, where The Haunted and Witchery played together. There's Jensen on stage playing guitar for Witchery and then he does the same thing for The Haunted. And he did this for a whole tour!
  
  I don't know how he managed to do that because when I'm done with a gig I don't want to do anything except sit down and relax for half an hour and not talk to anyone because I give 100 percent when I'm onstage so I have nothing left afterwards.
  
  
• Are you planning on any U.S. tours for the near future?
  
  We have discussed this with Century Media, and if everything goes as planned, maybe we can come to the U.S. sometime next year. Nothing is confirmed yet but they said they will try to get us on some tour or some festival.
  
  
• The bio mentions that you work in a mental institution?
  
  I work there, my brother works there, and also the drummer. It's a pretty crazy job I will say. It's not like every day is the same, it's always different when you come there.
  
  
• Is it a source for any of the new material?
  
  I thought it would be when I first started working there, but the people that I take care of are so mentally ill, you have to try to make life as easy as possible for them when you are at work. It's also frustrating for me myself, so I try to leave the job at the work on my days off.
  
  
• I'm sure they have restrictions on how you have to conduct yourself when you're there.
  
  Yeah, you basically have to help them with stuff like making their food, and sometimes they get really violent. All the doors to the kitchens are locked, the knives of course are locked. The whole hospital is basically locked down so they cannot go out without our permission or unless we are with them. It's pretty tough.
  
  
• It makes you wonder just what actually drives a person to these certain conditions.
  
  Most of the patients are long time users of drugs and stuff, too much alcohol, too much amphetamines. They just drugged themselves when they were younger, and their mind state is, how do I say... Like if you let them out, for say 30 minutes or so, the first thing they do is go out and buy some drugs or some alcohol and then they're back to square one all over again.
  
  
• The whole image I'm getting from Carnal Forge, especially with the lyrics, is that they are the bad asses on the block that nobody can touch.
  
  Yeah, but we're pretty mellow guys. This is the way we want the music to sound, and we put all our aggression into the music.
  
  
• I noticed on the new record "Please...Die" there was a reference to the New World Order, and I know you don't write the lyrics but do you know anything about the background for this song?
  
  Yeah, it's basically about how easily people can follow a leader if the leader has the right charisma and knows what to say. People tend to listen blindly to what he says and follow him and that's what 'Totalitarian Torture' is about.
  
  
• I have both your newest releases, but I never got to hear "Who's Gonna Burn," how would you compare the three albums?
  
  I would say our first record reminds me of the newest album "Please...Die" than "Firedemon" does. When we did "Firedemon," we had a lot of problems with our former label War Music, and everything took a really long time. Nothing happened because on the release day for "Who's Gonna Burn," the album got great response from media and stuff, but the company never followed it up, so we waited and waited and got really pissed about everything. The "Firedemon" album is a good record but it could have been a lot better if we had focused more on doing the music and not being so angry at the label.
  
  
• To be honest, I think it's the anger that made it such a great record! (evokes laughter from both of us). And I have to say I like "Firedemon" a lot better, it's one of my favorite records. The new album seems like the focus is on speed too much, whereas "Firedemon" seems to have songs that are developed a lot more. That's just what I see anyway.
  
  I don't agree with you on that point, of course many of the songs on "Please... Die" are really fast, and that's the way we were into having the songs when we did them. Also, one of the things we did more of were the melodies and also a little bit more midtempo parts in the middle of the songs, because we thought that the songs on "Firedemon" were pretty much similar to each other, We wanted to have the newer songs have more personality. It's more a matter of taste how you like it.
  
  
• One of the strong points for the new album was there was some death metal vocals, pure death metal vocals as opposed to that insane screaming that he does. This guy just goes nuts, and that's what made "Firedemon" so appealing to me. I'm like, "Yeah, that's what it's all about."
  
  Ha ha! When we did the songs we started to record and we said to our vocalist you can take two weeks off from the studio, he has his own studio that he works at. We told him he has two weeks and he can do whatever he wants with his vocals, and then you have to bring it back and we'll say whether we like it or not. This is the way it turned out and we liked it so much that we said we would not change anything. He did a great job and this got him more relaxed and that's why he tried all this different stuff that he would never try when we are all in the studio together. He does all the vocals in one or two days, and this time he really made an effort on getting the vocals really great. I think the vocals on "Please...Die" are the best he has ever done. We will keep on working that way, just giving him the tapes and letting him do what he thinks is best.
  
  
• With the bio stating you to be "the new generals of thrash metal," I'm curious as to what bands from the 80's you were into.
  
  We listened to bands like Kreator and Sodom and what not, but the greatest influence for me were bands like Testament and Slayer. I listened to those bands when I was ten years old and from there I said I'm going to be doing this someday.
  
  
• It's funny because I recently acquired some really rare vinyl from a guy overseas, in Germany, and he specializes in 80's metal. He said that the American people that he runs into are always raving about the German thrash bands and the European people are always talking about how great the American bands are. I think the thing is, for the people over in Germany, they never got to see a lot of American bands and the reverse would be true for us, like I would have loved to have seen Iron Angel, even Sodom once or twice.
  
  I saw Testament like once here in Sweden. I never got to see Forbidden, who I listened to a lot. Maybe that's it.
  
  
• I look at this festival sheet all the time and I see all these great bands like Blind Guardian, Mercyful Fate and what not that do festivals nearly all the time, these bands have never played here! I think we were lucky to get Witchery here with The Haunted.
  
  We have done a lot of these festivals and tours, but we have yet to play the U.S.
  
  
  
  DUNGEON. Interview with Buddy Hughes via email.
  
  In our ever expanding quest to bring you interviews with many of the 80's most talented metal bands, there are literally hundreds that escaped notice of all but a few diehards. Dungeon is just one such band, that only released ONE album, self produced and very limited edition; this "Fortress Of Rock" album is a very difficult one to pin down. We recently spoke to Buddy about all things metal, of course, and being from the 80's he of course had much to say about the state of music back then and now.
  
  
• I hate to start an interview this way, but it is almost absolutely necessary, since many of my readers know of you only through listening to the album "Fortress Of Rock" through the classic albums section. Can you please give us a brief history of the band and how you came to be?
  
  Jon and Dave Story hail from Minnetonka, Minnesota and now are currently living in Rochester. Dave played drums and Jon did guitars. John Lockner was our bass player and was from Fairbault, now living in New Hope. I of course did vocals, being brought up in Maple Grove and now residing in Crystal. Jon and Dave formed Dungeon in the 80's and had a different singer and bass player when formed. In fact there is a thank you to Ranch Suade as he was named on the album. Dungeon did a lot of covers starting out, blending in originals to play the club circuit in Minneapolis. We did a LOT of Ozzy, Dio and Black Sabbath tunes, even some Riot songs. We cut a demo which prompted a pre-production of the album in a 16 track studio named Danger Studio. Dave and Jon's parents funded the album and we recorded it in 1985 at Control Sound in Minneapolis with a friend of mine doing the engineer work (Jeff Bjork). Now after the record came out on our own Medieval label, which was Dave's brain child, Dave and Jon's mom and dad managed the band and took all the gig proceeds for payback. John Lockner and myself never saw a penny. I paid for a thousand copies and they sat at Dave and Jon's parents house and I don't know to this day what they did with them all. I never saw any revenue from that either. We gigged to support the record and got a lot of recognition from Europe but bad management from the parents never got us across the Atlantic. Never let parents manage a rock band! Later on, Jon Story started a head trip and wanted to be the singer, bassist and guitar player and Lockner never got on the recording and exited the band. I left shortly thereafter. Jon somehow has the masters to that and as you can see on the album he takes all the credit. Dave and Jon are now devout Christians. I am now in a band called Hatecrime, and John Lockner is in a band called Gemini.
  
  
• You mentioned that this is the only album you ever released, but were there plans to record a second album, or any other material?
  
  We started working on a second album, which I funded, and we cut four songs. We did the 4 songs until Jon's ego took over. We did have some label interest in Europe but bad management sealed that fate. My band Hatecrime is looking at doing some Dungeon shows and remaking some of the Dungeon tunes to lower tuning. Hatecrime is also working on new material to shop.
  
  
• Did you see a lot of press worked for "Fortress Of Rock?"
  
  We got a lot of good press out in Europe, and from Hit Parader as well.
  
  
• Are there any plans to re-release the first record, maybe remaster it on CD?
  
  I thought about the re-release. Dave and Jon have the masters and being Christian or not, they would probably want all the revenue and John Lockner and myself would get the shaft again. If I could I would do it. Our current drummer for Hatecrime is a Dungeon fan from way back and totally into doing the project. The guitar player's style is very similar to Jons and we have the recordings on CD and are currently working on it.
  
  
• So I guess it seems unlikely that two of your former members would even be considered on your end for a reformation of the original Dungeon?
  
  Dave and Jon would write lyrics for Dungeon based on their Christian beliefs and that's not what Dungeon was about. John and I tried that about a year ago and that was the response we got from them.
  
  
• What was the scene like for you when you were playing live? Also I'm curious as to what other bands were playing in and around your area at the time.
  
  Bands like Impaler, who are still around doing albums and Regime... We had a hell of a good time. There were a lot of hair bands as well. We always had a great time gigging. It was different back then, you didn't have the dreadful disease and the drugs were really good. Not that I indulged in that sort of thing, but I was known to tip a few pints. We played some kick ass outdoor festivals that I will never forget. I really connect to old Sabbath and singers like Ozzy, the guy from Riot and stuff like that in the old days. I did really dig a lot of underground bands as well.
  
  
• I'm curious about lyrical input for this album, anything you can tell me about the songs, especially a song like 'Screen Queen' which seemed a bit out of place (from the song title's aspect) with other titles like 'Infernal Regions' and 'Eternal Contract.'
  
  Jon wrote 'Screen Queen' about an experience in a movie theater. 'Smash Palace' is a party song about the Hell House where we partied and practiced. We got a bunch of our friends down to the studio and partied and recorded the background tracks. Jon takes the writing credit on 'From Under A Rock' whereas I was developing my vocal style here and there and the end result is what you hear on the record.
  
  
• I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but "Fortress Of Rock" is seen as a highly collectible and desirable piece of vinyl to obtain! Did you know that a collector in Italy of all places was the one responsible for bringing this gem to me on CDR format? There's also a German web site that has a review of your album and the cover artwork and collector's price!
  
  Me and the current bass player for Hatecrime go to a lot of clubs and people always recognize us from Dungeon and tell me how much they loved the band and ask if we were ever going to do a reunion. I brought this fact up to Paul, and he went to search on the web for a CD format of the record just for the hell of it and bang! There is a bunch of sites with the album. I was amazed! We have some interest from Metal Blade Records. Our drummer Paul knows the Vice President of the company and he really dug the demo and they want to hear more. Paul also knows Tracy G. who was with Dio for most of the 90's and did some drum tracks for his current demo.
  
  
• Care to add anything to the years' long debate about unplayed vinyl versus CD recordings? With all the enhancements in audio technology, programs are able to clean up and restore old vinyl, even eliminate the scratches and pops from records. I spent quite awhile with many records getting them to their best and most restored condition.
  
  As long as it sounds good and kicks my ass, it doesn't matter. Just let it rock!
  
  
• When you look back on the 80's era of metal, compared to what's coming out today, how do you parallel the two scenes?
  
  Personally, I feel that some of the metal from the 80's has gotten much heavier over the years and evolved to a certain degree, but metal bands nowadays definitely want to pay homage to the greatest era that heavy metal has ever known.
  
  
• I couldn't agree with you more on that statement. Anything else you want to say before we wrap this up?
  
  I'd like to say thanks for reminding me of Dungeon and what a great band and time it was. Check the current website at www.hatecrimesite.com and let me know what you think of the current band. You can download MP3's on the site and pop me an email. As for Dave and Jon Story, there are no hard feelings. I hope their beliefs eliminated the greed and ego from their life that inevitably broke this once flourishing band up. And to the parents for sweeping the careers of their sons and Dungeon members under the table just to break even. I think there was a lot more music that could have come from the band and if the proper people were behind us at that time you would have heard a lot more from us. By the way, where are my one thousand fucking albums I printed Mr. and Mrs. Story!! I hope they got them to the fans out there and they are not collecting dust in Rochester, Minnesota! Rock on!
  
  
  
  MAUDLIN OF THE WELL. Interview with Toby.
  
  
• You guys must have had a LOT of material floating around to release not just one but TWO CD's!
  
  We did. The reason we did two albums, we had a bunch of reasons actually, but one of the reasons was to clear out all the old stuff that we had.
  
  
• I didn't realize that this was older material...
  
  It's a collection of everything that we've ever done. Our first album was stuff that was done in late 96 or 97, and these two were everything after that up to the time of their release.
  
  
• Your record label obviously took a very big chance letting you release two albums simultaneously.
  
  Our label is really cool, it's great that they have faith in us to be able to pull this off. It's not like our last record sold great in the market, but they just like our band and they were pleased and really supportive. You know that Opeth is doing a double album release next year.
  
  
• Damn, I didn't know that.
  
  There was this recent press release that Opeth decided to do that. I guess Music For Nations has some question about whether that would be a good idea or not, but maybe they look at the fact that if Dark Symphonies can do it, and we can do it and nobody knows us, and few people know of Dark Symphonies, basically if an indie label can do it then a label as big as Music For Nations, with Century Media behind it, can make it happen.
  
  
• Of course, the way you write and compose your songs, the first thing people will be doing is comparing you to Opeth anyway.
  
  I've heard some comments like that, but I don't see that as accurate. I guess the biggest comparison is that both of us write long songs, and switching between heavy and clean vocals, but I consider Opeth like a guitar player band, you know what I mean, like the focus is really on the guitar, and our band is not so guitar oriented.
  
  
• It seems to me that more of the focus on your band is dealing with free form jazz oriented passages, not that you're doing it improv of course but sometimes it has that feeling to it.
  
  And what do you mean by jazz exactly?
  
  
• Well, like any other style of music, jazz is really difficult to pin down and categorize. I guess the way some of the instrumentation is done.
  
  People say that a lot and I tend to disagree just because I don't listen to it. I don't like it. I also think that a lot of times people will just immediately say jazz when they hear horns and drums together. Obviously before jazz, though, horns were used in classical music and then when you add horns and drums together you get swing, big band and jazz. I really believe it's a specific form of music, it's a culture thing as well as a sonic thing. We definitely don't have any of the jazz culture, and I think that people who love jazz, play jazz and are jazz fanatics might be insulted if we said we used jazz in our music.
  
  
• I'd say it's really up to interpretation, as you can borrow elements from different genres of music. Maybe classical is closer to what you are doing, especially with the string sounds.
  
  I don't think you can segregate the genres in our music when you listen to it. It's like over 23 years of listening to music and subconsciously collecting what I like and dispersing it into what I make. It'll never be like 'here comes a classical section, here comes a jazz section.' The influences are more subconscious than anything else.
  
  
• I listened to "Leaving Your Body Map" for the first time last night, previously I had been working on the "Bath" album since I'll review that first, and of course there are differences but they are structured in similar fashion. There were some songs when I thought clean vocals should have been used instead of death styled vocals, but I guess it depends on the mood of the song.
  
  So which song was that?
  
  
• I think it was 'Garden Song.' I guess it was because the instrumentation progresses, for me it's not so much what the lyrics are saying, but how the instrumentation goes. I'm wondering how people who are really into death metal are going to take this.
  
  The metal scene is really split between people who are close minded and are only going to listen to death metal, and people who are open minded towards just about everything. I think metal is fortunately one of the genres of music that is accepting of lots of different types of experimentation because metal is extreme, and anything you can do that's extreme or rebellious even within the scene is the very essence of metal. Like in some of the meathead magazines we have been called gay because we have mellow and emotional stuff.
  
  
• Lemme guess, in Grimoire Of The Exalted Deeds? (Laughter comes from both sides of the board)
  
  No we didn't get reviewed in the U.S. publication, but the Czech version of The Grimoire really were into us. Actually, Bill Zebub from the U.S. Grimoire set up a show for us in Jersey which was really cool. You never know what people are going to like!
  
  
• It's just funny because they called Ayreon gay, but I guess they said that because Ayreon doesn't have any death metal vocals in their music, so it's automatically gay.
  
  I talked with Chris Barnes (from Six Feet Under - Ed.) and you'd expect him to really be hating this stuff, but he actually compared us to really mellow bands like Red House Painters, who are this awesome trip hop indie rock band, and I'm like wow, Chris Barnes is into this stuff? When we played the Milwaulkee Metalfest, some people put up their middle finger and walked out of the show, but one comment that journalists make is that we're a breath of fresh air in the stagnating scene. And I think that's interesting, because if every journalist is saying that the scene is stagnant, and every fan KNOWS the scene is stagnant, then why isn't something being done about it?
  
  
• Well, you're talking to someone who has no problems putting on a gothic, industrial or even a techno album, but still enjoys the harshest death and black metal there is. But you'd think that there would be more open mindedness in the scene, especially with the internet, concerts and magazines, after all, metal is a lifestyle for many, and it offers it's own breath of fresh air to the corporate MTV meets radio world that offers nothing for intelligent, like minded individuals. I mean even a large publication like Metal Maniacs is still underground, and there's plenty of good, openminded "death" metal bands that can still be considered underground.
  
  Conversely, the way that backfires, is that the extreme underground scene offers these people who are outsiders a place to belong and a sense of belonging. Once they belong, they kind of stay really tight in that scene and they want to be secure in their belonging, so they don't really venture outside of it once they're there.
  
  
• One thing I wanted to talk about is something I've been researching lately, especially with Behemoth's new album it's something I will be mentioning when I do their interview. It's strange to me that Behemoth named their album "Thelema 6" after the religious, well, I guess you could say philosophy that actually started with Aleister Crowley. I opened up your booklet to the "Bath" album and I actually noticed a quote from a Crowley book "Diary Of A Drug Fiend," which I haven't read yet. I have always stated in interviews that were it not for the "opening of doors" so to speak that so called "recreational" drugs like marijuanna and LSD provide, we would not have heard the world's greatest music by bands like The Beatles and Pink Floyd.
  
  One thing I want to say about that, the purpose of that quote is not really to make a point of the substances that could be used as focal points, but the focus is on the other state of being. We call our music Astral music, and the whole idea behind that is that art, music and lyrics, any kind of art exists somewhere outside of you. It's not so much that you've created the art but you are finding it. There's a theory that all artists visit this kind of astral plane, this place where all this art is and they bring it back with them. It doesn't matter how Coleridge got to this other place mentioned in the book, where he dreamed of Kublai Khan, but he's experiencing this thing that already existed, and when he awakes he doesn't remember all of it because he was startled out of this other place. It's basically your job to communicate what you've found in this other world to the physical world you inhabit.
  
  
• Do you believe in any of Crowley's works, or was this just a quote that you thought was insightful?
  
  I don't practice his magic or anything like that, though Byron does. What I do agree with Crowley is the whole Age of Horus thing, where we are in an age in which you are supposed to follow your will, basically what Thelema is. Your whole point of life is to discover what your will is and fulfill your will. "To Do Thy Will..." That's what a Thelemite is, they just basically do what they are supposed to do. I like to believe that as a musician I am doing what I am supposed to do. I feel kind of like a Thelemite myself.
  
  
• I did a lot of research on the Thelema culture online, I know they have a church in California. I read over some of their readings, their thesis, and it's unusual because a lot of their writings are extremely long, and there's a lot of names thrown about, especially from Egyptian mythology.
  
  Everything I know about it I learned from Byron, who actually studies it, and he reads everything to me. I haven't read much of their works, I don't know the specifics of it, but their basic practices appeal to me, as I stated.
  
  
• Your album covers kinda threw me, the "Bath" cover shows a roadmap to the planets, whereas "Leaving Your Body Map" has a bathtub on the front! Seems in a way that the covers were switched.
  
  They're not switched, the word bath does not necessraily mean bathtub. There were two points with that, the first point was simple and obvious, we wanted to show that the albums are connected to each other. The more complicated point was to break down associations that your brain automatically or subconsciously make, like bath = bathtub. Like in music, it's seen as major chord equals happy, and minor chord equals sad. And as an avant garde band, music can have another purpose than to just entertain. It is supposed to kind of teach and progress and be a springboard for ideas. At one point it's just us trying to break free from associations. There was an artist who did this kind of thing, he would paint a series of images and then put a word under them, and the word would be totally different from what the image actually was. Like he'd paint a pipe and the picture under it would say "this is not a pipe," so it's really NOT a pipe, it's a painting OF a pipe, but immediately your brain sees the painting and goes "oh, that's a pipe." It's just a vehicle to help you figure out how your mind works, to get people to think more and help you be in control of your mind. One Crowley exercise that Byron is doing now is realizing little idiosyncrasies and habits that you have throughout the day, for example if you shake your toothbrush off everytime you use it. You notice stuff like that and you train your mind NOT to do it and become very very aware of what you are doing throughout the day. Once you're aware of EVERYTHING that you do, you're in absolute control.
  
  
• Your music definitely does a LOT of that kind of thing, where I'm saying he should have used clean and you're using death metal vocals instead. I guess this also paralells into life as well, for instance when I was a kid I was raised Catholic though I never had the insight to think that there was anything wrong with that. Later on, after I saw the corruption in the church, that incidentally had been going on for hundreds of years, I stepped away from that, but not everyone has the ability to see beyond the scope of the visions in front of them. Most people accept what they have because they were born with it, or it's been in their family for centuries or even generations. You can't really blame them, if that's all they've ever known, and sometimes it takes another person to point out things to them they can't otherwise see.
  
  It's the same thing in music, but also with the people over in Afghanistan. Any issue over there, they believe one thing and they don't know anything else. Music may be trivial compared to what's going on in Afghanistan, but you can make that associationn with just about anything in life. Everyone has these things that they have been ingrained with about music that aren't true. Like I noticed how you said, "oh, I was listening to that and felt like you SHOULD have used different vocals." You never SHOULD be, you just do. Like if there were rules, then it wouldn't be art.
  
  
• And our genre really isn't meant to follow rules anyway. 'The Ferryman' was an interesting song, I've always been into Greek and Roman myths, but I am a HUGE Egyptology buff. I noticed Crowley borrowed a LOT especially from the Egyptians, in the Thelemic theses, many different gods and goddesses from Egyptian culture were used.
  
  Crowley borrowed from everywhere though, not just Egypt.
  
  
• In your lyrics, though, you've borrowed quite a bit from classic literature, names like Shelley and William Wordsworth, which people know by heart. It's great to see such diversity in your lyrics, I mean in death metal how many times can you write death and gore lyrics without getting bored? Nile fascinated me with songs based on Egyptian culture, but one has to wonder if that subject will ever run its course, where you have tons of classic literature at your disposal.
  
  Byron's influence as far as lyrics go are definitely focused on the Romantics. All the lyrics we have on our records are original, well, except for 'The Ferryman' of course. The quote you saw from Crowley, quotes are put their for a reason. First off, one thing you'll notice is that we also quote video games along with the Romantic novels. The point of that is to say WHO is to say that one form of art is more valid than another, why is literature more valid than a video game. Aside from that, remember when I mentioned that art already exists in another place? The quotes from particular people we added because we feel that they tapped into the same places that we feel we tapped into. They are good examples of people who are in touch with this other dimension.
  
  
• So you have my curiosity raised, what video games did you quote?
  
  We quoted Swordquest: Fireworld from the Atari video game system, and we also quoted Final Fantasy 1 from the original Nintendo. That stuff was a great influence on us as far as our creativity. Video games were a big part of our childhood and the way we developed.
  
  
• Finally, I'm curious as to how you hooked up with Dark Symphonies, they have't been around all that long, I think this is their 13th release?
  
  They somehow found us, I don't know how that happened. One day I got an email out of the blue and this guy was like, "hey, I heard your stuff can you send me a tape of a whole bunch of your stuff." We had some old, OLD realaudio samples on one of our old websites, we didn't plan on doing anything with the music at all. I sent him a tape and was like 'Whatever, screw this guy.' He wrote me back and said he wanted to sign us, and I was still like 'Whatever,' and finally he called me! So finally I agreed, and I thought about it. I said "Why not?" I wasn't planning on doing anything with this anyway. The really early Maudlin Of The Well stuff was just me and Byron and I never thought I was going to have a band, and before we know it we're asked to play Milwaulkee! And I was like damn, I gotta get a band together!
  
  
  
  PENTAGRAM. Interview by phone with Bobby Liebling.
  
  Hacienda. Snog. Pentagram. What do these three bands have in common? They are of a select few, though distanced by genre of music, that have appeared in interviews in this magazine more than once. The last Pentagram interview we did was through email, though the way I constructed it I have been told that it had to be a phoner. Well, this is an extreme honor, and in the next few weeks and months, if the words of the U.S.'s TRUE originators of doom metal ring true, you will be hearing a buzz in nearly every underground and popular metal based magazine. And it's about damn time too, having roots as far back as 1970. Our second feature interview, enjoy.
  
  
• The new album "Sub-Basement" is a great record, and it actually is kind of a milestone because it's the first Pentagram album that actually has all new material.
  
  Well, believe it or not, it's not all new material again. It's the same as all other albums, it's half and half.
  
  
• Damn! After I already wrote the review that way! It says in the liner notes all songs were written in 2001.
  
  No, no, it wasn't WRITTEN in 2001, it was all published in 2001 though. If you look on "Review Your Choices" it says all the stuff was published in 1999, but that's not new stuff either.
  
  
• So what stuff is new and what's old?
  
  All the stuff that I wrote myself was all written between 1971 and 1974.
  
  
• Damn, that goes back quite a ways!
  
  Ha ha ha! It's just like on "Review Your Choices," same deal.
  
  
• I think it's a tough call between "Review..." and "Sub-Basement." I like both records, but "Sub-Basement" is so damn heavy.
  
  I think "Sub-Basement" is the first real album we've ever done. That's my true honest heartfelt opinion, the first real Pentagram album ever. I never wanted to brag about an album before, but the production is so superb, and I have to say that "Review Your Choices" is so muddy and dirty, but we wanted to get that older sound. We have that style on this record but we have the production clarity from "Be Forewarned." I dunno, to me it sounds like a 100,000 dollar budget. Plus, all the material is so crushing I absolutely LOVE it. I'm so in love with this album I can't say enough about it. It took a lot of work to do this one, and there's a lot of overdubs in it.
  
  
• The guitar work is so amazing, man, especially on the title track. Joe just goes off on those guitar solos.
  
  Joe's been playing guitar for about 20 years. I don't know how long you've been following Pentagram...
  
  
• Well, I have to be honest with you, I wasn't crazy about the album "Be Forewarned" when I first got it, and that was the first Pentagram Record I heard. Maybe it was the timeframe in which I listened to it, because I was heavily into speed/death and thrash metal at the time.
  
  "Be Forewarned" had one thing that messed it up, and first of all, did you get the LP or the CD?
  
  
• I got the CD version. It was on Mayhem/Fierce I think.
  
  Yeah, they were nobody when they started, and now they're a giant owned by Sony. They folded and resurfaced and now they're like a major label. We were the first band on that label.
  
  
• One thing that really upsets me is the fact that I have to get the CD's from Italy, and you'd think there'd be a good distribution base here in the U.S. I don't really see them pushing this album like they should be.
  
  Oh, they're really starting to, believe me. It's also the first Pentagram album that has massive U.S. distribution. I can find it here in every store, I called 30 record stores and 20 of them told me they had it in stock, 5 of them told me they were expecting it in and 5 more can order it. You see, Southern Lord is distributed by Caroline, and that's the number one independent distributor in the U.S.
  
  
• I'll have to check in the record stores to see how it's doing. I'm assuming it has been out for awhile.
  
  See that's the thing, you're looking at a pretty new product. The album didn't get put into record stores until December 11th. It's just starting to get circulated. The vinyl version hasn't even come out yet. The vinyl is going to be REALLY limited this time.
  
  
• What's the vinyl version going to be like?
  
  It will be very limited, and they will be numbered this time. There will be 700 copies on black, and 300 copies on red vinyl. The red vinyl will probably, depending on the cost, have... you know all the bricks on the wall on the cover? They will be embossed on the record itself. It's gonna be a hellfire expense and the vinyl will be hard to get as there will be NO reissue. I'm only allowed to get 10 black and 5 red copies permanently.
  
  
• I'm assuming those 5 red are already gone. I'd love to get one of those, what label is doing that?
  
  It's import ONLY, Black Widow will be doing it.
  
  
• I'll have to talk to Massino, hopefully he can give me one.
  
  Massino will hook you up, if you talk to him, apparently you already are. You see, today I finally gave him the okay to give all magazines my phone number. I am going on an all out binge. First of all we have an incredible amount of promotion for this album done already, which we've never had. The first pressing of the new album sold out worldwide in ONE WEEK. We of course were limited and we're a cult band, so we don't press a lot of copies. But I will say this, it's close to ten thousand, and they're already pressing over 25,000 more.
  
  
• It's funny because there was a post on the internet, the topic was "which albums are you looking forward to hearing in 2002?" and I said that come January 13th, not only will you be able to read a review, you'll be able to hear six songs from that album.
  
  Wow, that's way cool! Which six songs are you doing? Tell me.
  
  
• We did 'Bloodlust,' 'Buzzsaw,' 'Drive Me To The Grave,' 'Mad Dog,' 'Sub-Basement' and 'Tidal Wave.' Those are the ones I thought were the best, and I had a very hard time picking out the best. Usually for CD's that score a 95 and above, I digitize 5 tracks, but I said fuck it, this is my 30th issue, so I will do six.
  
  This is your 30th issue? Wow, this is our 30th year anniversary! This year in fact.
  
  
• And you're gonna come to Atlanta right?
  
  I hope so. We're trying to get things off the ground and do some touring.
  
  
• You guys have always done some very limited shows, and I wanted to ask about the Stoner Hands Of Doom festival you did recently...
  
  Oh god, I don't wanna talk about it.
  
  
• Damn, was it that bad? Because I saw the live photos in the booklet and I thought maybe that's where those came from.
  
  No, we didn't play, first of all, did you mean the one in Texas?
  
  
• I'm not sure where it was.
  
  We played at a place in Maryland but it didn't come off, and it's the first gig I missed in 38 years. I got lost FIVE times on the way there, and showed up for one song. I have NEVER had that happen in my whole career and I've been playing for 38 professional years. Of course, everyone said it's the drugs, Bobby's all messed up, you know the usual Bobby Liebling rumors. What actually happened was I really got lost. We kept not finding the Harbor tunnel, and everytime we did find the tunnel, we thought "well, we're at the tunnel we must have went too far." Little did we know that it was on the other side of the tunnel, and I've lived here my whole life. We were actually supposed to go through the tunnel and end up on the other side. I got there for one song, and that was 'Gorgon's Slave.'
  
  
• SO what is your touring lineup like?
  
  Before the last few records, it was Marty Sweeney on bass, Victor on guitar, Joe on drums and I was singing. Until Joe said on "Review Your Choices," "just let me play everything, that way we don't have to mess with anyone else and I can get it all done the way you want it." And I said that sounds good. I don't know if you know but we are finally signed with the first U.S. label we've ever been with. We signed with Relapse Records, and we will be doing "First Days Here," which is the first legitimate, properly mixed and mastered, authorized compilation album. Not the Hard And Heavy Rockville Music bullshit of Marshall's.
  
  
• I was just about to mention him because a lot of people have had BIG problems with him. Church Of Misery was especially upset about one of their albums that wasn't supposed to be released that Marshall put out without asking the band.
  
  He's in for the shock of his life, because I'm filing a class action, million dollar lawsuit against him. Literally for a million dollars, because he's been bootlegging Pentagram stuff for ten solid years.
  
  
• He's been bootlegging a LOT of bands' stuff.
  
  He's bootlegged over 60 products on CD AND on vinyl. he has a contract for absolutely NOTHING. You've seen how long his list is. He has no permission to release anything on there whatsoever, ever, in any way shape or form.
  
  
• I'm just curious as to how he got away with this for so long!
  
  Because we've let him slide. I sold him a copy for his enjoyment, to listen to, and then he goes and sells it. I used to be all messed up, doing drugs, and I'd sell him a copy of a tape, and he'd think that if you sold him a copy he'd have the right to release it. Which is a moron, but I guess I was even more stupid for selling it, but you can't blame that. It was an unfortunate situation. Internal Void, The Obsessed/Spirit Caravan, and us, we want to go after him lock, stock and barrel.
  
  
• This is an unusual position here now, because when I did an interview recently with Scott Wino (from Spirit Caravan/The Obsessed) he didn't really have anything bad to say about him, he did say however, and I quote: "He's one motherfucker of a business man." Whatever that really means, but I do think he credited him for giving his band their start. Not exactly sure on that.
  
  Well, yeah, Marshall did help out The Obsessed, years ago. But Marshall thinks if he's putting out something by you then he's helping you by promoting you.
  
  
• Well, not if you're not getting any money.
  
  He's never given me five cents. 60 products, I've never seen one cent, not a penny. And this is pathetic to me, I don't care who puts it in print and I love when I see in print to boycott the guy. Because it's not slander. The products are all illegal. I'd like it stressed that Marshall has NO PERMISSION to sell, reproduce, sell or have any commercial gain from any Pentagram or Pentagram related products. I'd just assume to see the guy's whole company go six feet under. As far as I know from our lawyers; we finally have attorneys and Relapse is helping us with that greatly thank god. Black Widow is joining in with them and we're going to take him to the cleaners. I want EVERY copy of everything he's ever pressed or burned by us. That's a LOT of stuff. I'll settle out of court for half a million dollars NO LESS. I think a million is fair because I know he's had to have made that much JUST off of our stuff alone. That's if he ONLY made 1,000 copies of each thing. His prices are exorbitant, his pressings all stink, and his covers are even worse. He's a pirate and a bootlegger. I'm not trying to be a millionaire or anything, I don't expect to become famous tomorrow. I've been in this business too long, but goddamn I gotta pay my rent, I gotta eat. Every cent I've ever made is in his pocket just about. So I'm like just give me my money!
  
  
• I want to talk a bit about the new record, especially the title track "Sub-Basement." I'm sure you have heard of martin Popoff, writes for Brave Words And Bloody Knuckles.
  
  I'm familiar with him, yeah.
  
  
• I'm not a big fan of his though, mainly because of his reviews. But the point to this was there was a review of a Hawkwind CD he did, and I'm a big fan of Hawkwind...
  
  You know that Hawkwind has some stuff coming out on Black Widow right?
  
  
• No, I didn't know that! I was under the assumption that Hawkwind broke up. The last album I got from them had this Captain Rizz guy and it sounded to me like Hawkwind was trying to go hip-hop oriented or something. I thought they were gone after that.
  
  Their new album was just issued on Black Widow. They also have a Simon House solo album as well as reissuing the High Tide album, which is hard to get. High Tide is Simon House and Tony Hill, actually it's four people. They have a violin, guitar, bass and drums. Also, there was an album in 1968 called Sea Shanties. That's been reissued through Black Widow as well. They found all the missing tracks and reissued it as a double album. High Tide are like Black Sabbath on violin.
  
  
• Yeah, I actually got that from Black Widow. But the thing that intrigued about the title track, Martin Popoff made statements about Hawkwind, basically saying to Hawkwind fans that hopefully they'd go back to the basement where they crawled out from. And I noticed that a lot of the underground metal scenes are somewhat lurking in the basement so to speak.
  
  That song is my autobiography, that's what it was written for. You know, "Ever since I started out I been slinking in the pit." Saying I'm out of step and out of time. I say screw 'em all though.
  
  
• Well, you have been credited with being the very first doom metal band that was based in the U.S., and I think that is something that I don't think anyone should have a NEED to dispute.
  
  I appreciate you saying that, and a lot of people do say we invented it in the U.S. I have been playing the same kind of music without changing or compromising at all since 1971.
  
  
• About the same time Black Sabbath came out, incidentally.
  
  Exactly. I've always loved what I'm doing. It's like "They call me a dinosaur relic, stuck in the twilight zone. Sticking in the sub-basement keeps me lit to the bone." I live by those words, I really do. I'm a big little kid man, I don't wanna grow up.
  
  
• I don't blame ya one bit.
  
  If I grow up then I might get old.
  
  
• The world's harsh enough as it is anyway without having to fight through it. I really loved the Ozzy imitation vocals you did on this record and in the past. It was quite amazing. Your voice is like a damn chameleon!!
  
  You hit the nail on the head my friend. Thank you so damn much. NOW you have become famous in my book. I really, really started to stretch it and just go for it on "Review Your Choices" and "Sub-Basement." On "Review Your Choices" I would say there are five singers on that album.
  
  
• That's the impression I get, though that's too modest a figure. Ha ha!
  
  In "Sub-Basement" there's three, probably four. I really let loose because I finally let my blues voice come out, especially on tracks like 'I Am Vengeance' and 'Megalania' from "Review Your Choices." 'Downhill Slope' too.
  
  
• 'Out Of Luck' kinda sounds that way too (from the new album). 'Downhill Slope' was a beautiful song, it was wild because out of all this doomy, heavy stuff, here's this awesome ballad type song.
  
  It's a heavy ballad. I have a solo album I'm going to start on in February, my first solo album. It's going to be entitled "I Call The Shots." Gotta get a little egomania going there. (laughter erupts from both of us). I don't know who is going to do it, Relapse or Black Widow. I'm hoping Relapse will be able to afford to pick it up and do it, because Relapse has fantastic distribution.
  
  
• And I have yet to get ahold of ANYTHING from Relapse, much less speak to anyone at the label.
  
  My main man who just picked me up and signed me just got promoted to the head of retail. His name is Pellet, you should talk to him.
  
  
• Back to the compilation album coming out on Relapse, what's going to be on it?
  
  A lot of stuff you've heard on bootlegs and what not...
  
  
• Well, the only "bootleg" I have is the Death Row vinyl album that came out on Game Two Records.
  
  That's a bad recording but goddamn it's heavy! The whole recording was done with one ghettoblaster and one microphone. If you're familiar with the album, it's got the original versions of some of the songs. That was very limited, there were only 1,000 of those. I have two copies of that, and two test pressings for sale. If anyone's interested. they're blank label pressings but I will autograph those. There were only 30 test pressings made.
  
  
• I'm just curious as to why some of these songs took so long to release, these songs go so far back.
  
  We didn't have a recording contract. We didn't have the space to put this stuff anywhere and nobody seemed to have any faith in the band. With all the old stuff, I wrote everything; music, lyrics, everything. Now I just write lyrics, and I'm really proud of the lyrics I've written for the last two albums. Joe does all the music now. All the cowritten stuff of course was written in the last year and all the stuff that's just me was done about 30 years ago. And they all blend together smoothly.
  
  
• One last thing, my tape's running out here, but I recently read in Metal Maniacs where they were talking about the gig you did with Blue Oyster Cult, and I'm just curious to think if we could go back in time and change history, if the band Pentagram would today be a household word like Judas Priest is, since they were the ones that got signed to CBS/Columbia instead of you guys.
  
  They got signed instead of us. Our stuff was shelved, because we were picked up by CBS/Columbia and Pearlman of Blue Oyster Fame. We did do our demos in New York for CBS, and like I said that stuff has been shelved.
  
  
• It was that particular show that you were supposed to play with B.O.C. that the record label executives were supposed to be at, signing Judas Priest instead.
  
  I would think we would have been big, and that whole thing was over a dispute in the studio. Pearlman was crazy about us, and Murray didn't give a damn. Pearlman couldn't show up to the session so Murray, the staff producer for Columbia, did our production. He really didn't give a damn, he produced it crappy, and did a lousy job. He didn't pay any attention to the band and eventually, since I have a hot temper, I blew my cookies. It's a shame, but there's nothing you can do about it. I don't care because we have since turned down every major label three times. EVERY one.
  
  
• I look at the whole Columbia deal with Scott Wino and it makes you not want to sign with a major label. However, it's the major labels that can make your band a household word, but they're so damn tricky to work with.
  
  It's a catch-22 thing, it is, and Scottie knows he got the raw end of the deal on that. He did get a lot of money, and he screwed a lot of it up. He's a good buddy of mine and a good dude, but he used the money like I have so many times for no-no ville like I call it. He took the check for the whole thing ya know? I won't let anyone write me a check for over $3600. It might be 20 checks, but it has to be $3600 and under a check.
  
  
  
  SAMAIN. Interview with Ralph Veety.
  
  From the very beginning of the existence of this magazine, SAMAIN is a band that I have been into for quite a LONG time, despite their release of only one album. I couldn't think of a more appropriate time for the band to be interviewed, here in our 30th issue, since after all we took our magazine name from the title of their album. LONG overdue, we present you with a classic interview...
  
  
• Except for being able to hear your album on my web site, I'm sure that many readers are unfamiliar with your band history, so maybe you can give us a little info?
  
  Samain was formed on December 17th, 1982, two days after Bernie Eams had left Bronx (which featured Brand - guitar, Eams - bass/vocals, Gombik - drums, and myself on guitar) and about a month after the split of Laissez Faire (Henning - drums, Ancaster - vocals, Herod - guitar and Manietta - guitars), and after Bertram, playing guitars, left bored by the Nobi Koehnke Band. The name of the band was inspired by a scene out of the Halloween II movie. So those are the "facts" of the birth of Samain. The story was more complicated because of the personal and musical situation in Hagen and Germany. Some years ago the New Wave of British Heavy Metal had begun to sweep over Germany with bands like Saxon and Iron Maiden, but they had to fight against "Neue Deutsche Welle" (New German Waves) which was very strong those days. Nearly everyone had said that Samain won't have any chance to get known with hard rock. The Rockpalace in Hagen was the main meeting point for metal fans of the area, and so Samain soon had lots of fans. When Samain moved into the "dungeons" of the Rockpalace to do their rehearsals I joined the band in November 1983. To that date Samain had done some gigs which weren't very successful but Eams, Ancaster and I wanted to change that. The last concert with the old lineup (Ancaster, Bertram, Eams, Newman (since Henning had left in October), Herod) was as supporting act for German band Trance which were quite popular in Germany. Ancaster once said: "Eams & Veety reuinted to create a new sound." In fact, Eams as main composer wrote the songs for my style of playing. In the summer of 1983, everyone of the band could hear what Eams played because of a project, called "H.M." (Heavy Metal), which should be an opener act for Samain, but with musicians Eams, Gombik, and myself it was to show Hennig and Herod HOW to play the songs. The only H.M. song to survive was 'Malodorous & Lonely,' which was included on the Samain shows. Peter and I had contacts to lots of people like Karl-Heinz Osche (manager of Trance), Gordon Biel (A & R manager of Roadrunner Records), and lots more, so we took our chance. In March 1984 we recorded the first studio demo "Thunderbolt Giants" which was completely different to the live tape "What The Seers Ordered" (with our old lineup). It had lots of airplay on several stations, and Gordon Biel gave it to British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) and to Cees Wessels (chief of Roadrunner). At that point "the train left the station."
  
  
• I know lots of independent bands were signed to Roadrunner back in the 80's, and they must have been a huge force to be able to sign so many bands from all over the world. Of course you had Mausoleum too, who has signed just as many.
  
  Roadrunner Records chief Cees Wessels came from Phonogram Records and he wanted to enforce the metal movement which began to be successful after Iron Maiden's chart breaker 'Run To The Hills.' So he tried to get as many metal bands as he could get. Germany had been awakened from the NDW nightmare. Most bands did thrash, speed and early forms of black metal but Mad Max (from Muenster, the lead singer Vossie sings in the background of our album on several tracks) and Samain preferred melodical metal. Mausoleum Records preferred thrash and stuff, Roadrunner wanted more bandwidth, so Mad Max and Samain signed with Roadrunner.
  
  
• The story of Samain takes several twists and turns over the course of ten years or so. What is curious to me is why there was only one Samain album recorded, when your lyric book I have seen has lyrics for so many other songs? Were there other demos recorded before the "Vibrations Of Doom" album, and did they have the same songs as the one and only album?
  
  The story of the "official" Samain started in 1982 and ended 1986, less than five years of an active band. When Eams, Newman and I founded Take Care in 1985 (Eams left Samain in February 1985, Newman and I in July '85) we started recording with four Samain songs from which only one is left on my tape but it wasn't Samain style anymore but following the new wave adult oriented rock. After the split of Samain Peter tried with several former members to reform the band but it didn't work. He ended up living in Los Angeles in 1987, then he went to Japan and the Philippines. He returned to Germany in 1991, and he still wrote lyrics and a book on Samain. Exactly nine years after we first founded Samain, Peter and I met on December 17th, 1991 and we both knew that Samain was still alive, both in us and the fans, and since 1994 we have tried to do an anniversary gig because lots of former and new fans want to see us on stage once more. The first try of a real reunion failed, though Peter and I recorded some songs throughout the years since 1991. Some friends helped us. In 1992 and 1993, Ancaster, Eams, Newman and I recorded a number of songs in Eams' studio but we couldn't get together for real, and unfortunately the tapes are lost. That's the reason for the lyrics in the song book which aren't included on any tape, record and video. On "Vibrations Of Doom," only one song is missing: 'Engine's Working Hard.' It didn't fit into the VOD-revelation and time was running short. The pre production tapes were done in only two days and so it's only those songs that are on the album. There are lots of rehearsal outtakes, and most of the songs of the song book are on them. Other songs are only on rough takes and only for recordings for the future. I will probably work on some of these to put on the Samain web page.
  
  
• So where is everyone located, and are you still playing together these days? I know you recently talked about doing another album as well as the reunion show.
  
  Our one and only album was recorded by Ancaster, Eams, Herod, Newman and myself and the first gig after the recordings were with lineup Ancaster, Eams, McKinnell, Newman, and Veety, like you see on the back cover of the album. Ancaster lives in Hagen, is a master and teacher of martial arts, a writer of cooks, and he sings. Eams lives in Iserlohn (25km from Hagen) and stopped his musical activities since 1997. He doesn't even use his studio equipment since then. Herod lives in Iserlohn as well, he married in 1986 or 1987 and sold his equipment. Newman lives in Iserlohn too and has a design studio. He does design work for CD's and stuff. He also plays in a blues band called "D.C. And The Cruisers." McKinnell is our last Iserlohn resident, he works in a music equipment store and plays in a cover band, and I live in Hagen, still playing guitar and working too much for b2b online shops and systems.
  
  There is no real Samain band but actually Peter and I are working on a new concept. As second guitarist we have Mike Brand who wrote the first version of 'The Metal Breaks My Senses' back in 1982 with Bronx. We intended to get Andy J. Deborra for the job but we can't find him anymore. For some reasons McKinnell won't play, same goes for Herod, Dicky Hank and Fred Bertram. We do hope Bertram changes his mind for an anniversary gig to play HIS song 'The Seal Of Jidda.' on drums there is Newman for official gigs; recordings will and have been done by several drummers. Eams will play bass on an anniversary gig, other projects will be done with other players, and for recordings it's Mike & me playing bass. When Peter and I decided to relive Samain just to record and fulfill our's and oru fan's dreams we rehearsed some with Mike and it went GREAT, but because of mine and Peter's jobs we can't do a "real" band, but recordings and an anniversary gig will happen. The new recording I have been talking about will be real in 2002 or 2003. It won't be with a label contract but we intend to sell it, perhaps with a well known German distributor.
  
  
• I hope to be getting soon that CDRom disc with your concert on it! Any details about that show you might remember?
  
  After it was decided that we wouldn't be recording our second album in Canada, as well as having to pass on a tour of Canada with tours with Lee Aaron and possibly Rush, Eams left the band. Had the tour happened, Eams might have stayed on but this made it official. And that had consequences, as we had to cancel the follow up tour through the south and north of France, and also a three month tour through Scandinavia. The gig on May 3rd, 1985 could not be cancelled, so the hard rock festival with Tyburn, Brainstorm, Mad Max and Samain happened. Peter and I planned the festival but the hall owner broke the contract and so we had some very uncomfortable days. Half of the road crew was ill at home, and we had new roadies who did an absolutely bad job (you can notice me on the video working on amps... they plugged in the wrong amps and speakers). And there were other problems. Anyway, after being stressed since early morning Samain could take the stage at 10 PM. Peter and I didn't want to play anymore that day; our moods were bad and so it is amazing to view and listen to the video. Not too good but not too bad anyway. We had a couple of copies but they were goen one day and we thought we would never get it back again. Similar thing happened to the tape and video which were taken on May 27th, 1985 in Ludwigsburg. One year ago Peter gave me a little box as a "special birthday gift." When I opened it I had a video in my hands. May 3rd, 1985. It was only 6 songs long but I was absolutely thrilled, I couldn't believe he had found it at last. A week later he phoned me and said he had ANOTHER surprise. So I went to him and we visited a former Samain roadie. He had the nearly complete gig as 2 huge .mpg's.
  
  
• DO you have any other memories from other shows or tours you did?
  
  We mostly played as a main act with bands from the regions as supporting acts. Other bands were Trance, Saints Anger, Steeler, Mad Max, Meanstreak, and the mighty Destruction. Of course this is a short list. I have not too many memories of stories behind tours, etc. This should be Peter's area. Besides being on stage or coordinating or arranging dates with the press and magazines, I preferred to walk through the cities we went to. Oh, and I noticed you had the band Saints Anger digitized in your pages. The guys in Saints Anger were good friends of us in Samain back in the 80's. When we were in contact with Karl Heinz Osche, manager of Trance, we did several gigs together. Roadrunner had no interest in them but they could sign at Mausoleum. We both waited for our releases to come out, and Saints Anger won. Their album came out a few weeks before ours. The band came from Speyer, an old town in Germany's county Rheinland-Pfalz. And man! They really could party! When we were at a party of theirs for a festival (e.g. with Saints Anger, us, and Steeler) or just for fun in their rehearsal room, it was absolutely "liquid," loud and very funny. I can't remember another band we had so much fun with!
  
  
• I'm especially curious about the lyrical influences running through the songs. I know with tracks like 'Thor' and 'Seal Of Jidda,' it seems like there is a recurring Norse mythology theme running through several songs. Also, I'm wondering about the tune 'Thank The Aerosmith,' I'm sure that's not a song about the band Aerosmith...
  
  It has nothing to do with the band Aerosmith, though Peter and I like them very much. Peter had a time when he started to write myth lyrics. It wasn't his only topic but in the 80's everyone seemed to remember myth topics only. When you take a look at the lyrics page of course you will see other topics. Peter however is the best one to answer that question. Eams didn't talk much about how he got his ideas for the songs he wrote, but there are exceptions. 'Seven Tears' is influenced by a Judas Priest song 'The Hellion,' as he once said to Peter. I don't know how Eams came to write 'Gonna Swing My Chariot,' as he wasn't big into rock-a-rolla. But I can imagine that it was influenced a bit by Thin Lizzy. Eams loved the band and so do I; they had some riffs with hidden rock and roll styles.
  
  
• The style of metal you played was unusually melodic in a world of heavier speed and thrash metal going on at the time, and was quite refreshing. When you look back at that one album, how do you rate it compared to what was being released at the time and what is being put out today?
  
  I didn't hear the album for years, but then I got a Canadian version and found that the sound was much better than on the German or Dutch version. None of us liked black, death or speed metal. I guess the "fastest" most up beat we heard was by Iron Maiden. We all liked to hear a melody and so we wrote that mostly. When I listen to the album today it sounds a bit antique but not bad. And still I can't just sit there but have to nod with the beat. I wouldn't say "Vibrations Of Doom" is an album you HAVE to own but I heard lots of recordings of those days which are very boring. A clue: pitch your record player so it's faster...you will hear different songs. But seriously, we played the songs a lot faster as you recognize on the video. When I read your album reviews I don't know the bands in most cases. Our radio stations here don't support metal or it's too late on the air. Kinda funny but a friend of my son give me CD's from time to time and so I get to know newer releases. It's time to go to gigs again, there has to be real good bands and I'd like to know them.
  
  
• One of the saddest things to me was that the album never got released here in the U.S., and I'm wondering to this day why? The closest we got of course was Canada. Do you remember much about the deal with Attic Records?
  
  Roadrunner didn't believe in Samain selling albums in the U.S. but the number of sold copies in Canada was very high, nearly impossible that it was just Canada. We received some 3 to 5 letters of American distributors who wanted to distribute the record in the U.S. So we asked Roadrunner and they replied that the album was sold in the U.S. in license of Attic. There are lots of second hand copies in the U.S. and I asked some how they got the vinyl. All except one replied they bought it in a U.S. record store.
  
  
• The web site you created is quite nice and very extensive. Has it put you in touch with people from your area who remember the band, and have they shared any special memories with you?
  
  Thanks, and I hope I have the time to translate it all into English. The first to react on the page was some American guy named Steven Cannon, who definitely doesn't live in my area. Seriously, yes, some people emailed, wrote, phoned me or Peter afer they found the pages on the net. Probably I think I wouldn't have the video if there wasn't the page. Carsten Mueller was a former Samain roadie and he came to the site. That made him remember of old times. He phoned Peter after that, and so his "return" to Samain started. But there were more like former fans or bands we played with.
  
  
• So what else is in store for Samain in the future? I for one would love to hear all those unreleased songs that never made it to any album.
  
  As long as Peter and I are that involved in our jobs, we won't have time to relive a real active band. But surely there will be at least one gig. Those things need too much time that we can't spend right now. Another story are recordings. From time to time we record a song or fragments at studios or home studios. Until today it's only rough takes and I won't put them as outtakes on the site. But you and all who are interested in Samain will have the chance to listen to more songs in the future. There will be MP3's and/or RealAudio files of quite a number of studio and live recordings of Samain songs. Some have not high quality and some are not played to well, but anyway it will be a kind of thank you to all fans and curious people. The first ten songs will be online probably by end of January. taken from 'Today You're A Lion' (studio) and 'From Now Till Doomsday' (live); most of them aren't on the V.O.D. album, so you can listen to "new" material of those days. You will notice that Samain changed its style from 1984-1985. More songs will follow.
  
  
• Anything else you would like to add before we wrap this up?
  
  At first let me say I find it great you still like Samain though the album's release was back in 1984. You will be the first to know when things happen with the band and maybe, if there's an anniversary gig one day, you can have the chance to come to Hagen for that. When I read the lines above it always sounds as if nothing would happen with Samain, but that's not true. Mike does rehearsals of Samain material so we don't lose time when complete rehearsals for a gig will start. In February there will be talks with several concert organizers for realizing a Samain gig in 2002 or 2003. Peter and I haven't got the time to do it on our own as we did in the past, so it will be the job of others. Thanks for your support.
  
  
  
  SHAPE OF DESPAIR. Interview with J.S.
  
  The most original doom/death band I've heard in quite awhile can be compared to, some may say, bands like Winter and Disembowelment, but what sets them apart from ANY of these is their use of female vocals, flutes, and most recently violins. Their only two releases are of extremely high quality, and we are fortunate enough to talk with the founder, who goes by the initials J.S., who enlightens us a bit more on the activities of Shape Of Despair.
  
  
• Talking a bit about your first release "Shades Of..." we were under the impression that this was pressed from an unreleased demo and that the band was no longer around, according to the bio, so naturally I was a bit surprised to see a new recording from you.
  
  We never made a decision to end composing music for Shape Of Despair. We kept a little pause after we made those songs back in 1995 for a few reasons like lack of rehearsal spaces and so on. I don't remember anything else, maybe we just didn't want to rush anything so we just looked and wandered around. The first thing in 1998 was to release a demo tape for ourselves, just to hear how it would sound after a few years. Then after we got a deal with Spikefarm we decided to record it again with a lot of better sounds and with a female singer. I had prepared some songs before that in 1997 (which you can hear on the "Angels Of Distress" album) which I wanted to record for a full length album. And after that year I have made songs all the time, slow and carefully. I've had to hurry to record anything and of course songs grow better from time to time.
  
  
• I noticed that all of the songs, as mentioned before, were written well before the CD's were released. In the case of "Angels..." these songs were written between '97 and '99, whereas the "Shades Of..." CD I was unsure about.
  
  "Shades Of..." songs were written in 1995, as I mentioned above, and we used to rehearse those songs with only guitar, bass, and drums as those were originally written for guitar. We were pretty unsure how it would sound when adding all the synth lines and female vocals. We never tested the growlings before we entered Hellhole studio to record "Shades..." so I guess it was a pretty intense experience for us.
  
  
• Speaking of the recording process, I know that for "Angels Of Distress" it took nearly 4 months to complete compared to your first release which took only 2. Was there a set schedule you used for the recording, or was it just harder to book enough studio time? Also, was money a factor in the timetable of recording the CD's?
  
  We had a planned budget for this album as for our previous album so we knew how much studio time to spend and so on. As for Hellhole studio, the guys who run it have their own jobs which takes a lot of their time. I guess they get more money from their real jobs so maybe it is because of money... We had to schedule the recording time in the way that every one of us could appear and it usually was after working hours and usually on weekends we spent more time there. And some days some of us called and cancelled a few recording days, so it was a long shooting schedule with a lot of patience demanding. But this is just what we wanted after all, to take this all slowly and carefully so we could rehearse between recordings and so on. And after all Hellhole studio was meant just for themselves basically since they have their old doom band called C.O.D. and they planned to create a little studio to record their own stuff in there. Never for publicity. For now I think there's a few bands who recorded their albums with them, Babylon Whores to name one.
  
  
• The new CD definitely sounds more dynamic than the last one, though I loved "Shades Of..." One thing I am upset about is that the flutes are gone from the new disc! Why were they omitted, are there plans to bring them back? Also, what changed the decision to make the death styled vocals more dramatic?
  
  I just thought that the flutes wouldn't work for this album's soundworld as for example the violin, which does drive this depressive and really melancholy touch which we try to express, and I've always loved the sound of a violin. I guess we won't record flutes anymore in further days since all the new material which I've now done (or undone) doesn't really need it anymore. I think it's better to attach some new sounds to music. And to say about the growlings, I guess it's just Pasi's own natural deep voice which shines through this music. We didn't have so many choices after Toni's departure to find a replacement for him, so Spikefarm just made a call to Pasi to see if he was interested in this. I've always liked Pasi's voice and this was the time to get it all out of him. I think next time we will have a better result on this, with more time to rehearse, etc.
  
  
• With this album and the last one, there was really no information about band members, not their names, faces or anything like that! Why just the use of initials?
  
  We just didn't want that! There's nothing to hide, really, and there's nothing to reveal. Perhaps later we can have admiration for our beautiful faces and names... :>
  
  
• It was brought to my attention that certain members of Shape Of Despair are currently, or have been in, other bands. Would you care to tell us more?
  
  Tomi Ullgren plays in Thy Serpent and sacrifices most of his time in Rapture. Samu Ruotsalainen plays in Finntroll and in many other bands as well, though I don't remember those names at all. And Pasi Koskinen is well known in Amorphis. Pasi has recorded now his "child's" (Ajattara) first full length album on Spikefarm also. I myself assist Rapture and have a few other bands which sooner or later will record something small, perhaps later an album would be great. Those bands aren't so close to the doom style so it's a bit relaxing to play something else for awhile.
  
  
• Since you write all the lyrics AND the music, how do you go about the vocalist's performance? Are you particular about how each line and sentence is sung, especially since I noticed there are clean sung male vocals this time?
  
  No, I give free hands to Natalia and Pasi as to how they'll perform themselves in this. It's a bit typical when I have some songs ready, I hand those to Natalia and she will prepare herself before we record those. We'll discuss these vocal lines more in the studio and I'll give my own opinions and try to guide her to a right direction to make us all satisfied for the result. But all the vocals which are sung goes directly through me so I'm the "filter" in there so to speak. Of course when I've done all the music and so on, I think it needs someone to direct what to do, and this time it's me.
  
  
• The death metal vocals are a little easier to pick out this time around, but with this new record there's no lyric sheet like the last one had.
  
  We wanted the whole package to look very simple so we dropped the lyrics out. If someone wants those, they are available in the web site. We wanted these covers just to reflect the music with some pictures, not too much words to spoil it.
  
  
• Seems to me like you only write 5 songs an album! I have told people it's much easier to write 4 or 5 good songs than to be under contract to have to do 9 or 10 for a full length album. You also seem to spend a lot of time recording and mastering these songs too.
  
  Well, for now it's been a bit of a coincidence to have just 5 songs in both albums, I guess it doesn't have anything to do with my "lucky" number which is 5 also! Ha ha. Anyway, I think that on our next album we will have more than 5 songs, unless we make a tradition of this for ourselves. I guess it's up to a person whether it's hard or not to make more than 5 good songs. There's a lot of bands who succeed in that. When it comes to recording and mastering, we do not spend a lot of time with it. It would take about two weeks with all the recording and mixing if we would have the chance for it, so it's pretty standard time after all.
  
  
• The songs on "Angels..." don't seem to be as long as the ones on your first record, which believe it or not doesn't bother me at all. I can always enjoy really long songs especially if they can hold my interest, I love the way in the first album some of the most intense passages, especially with the first two songs, are repeated so I can enjoy them at length. The first recorded instance I can remember of this is with The Beatles' 'I Want You (She's So Heavy)' where they play the heavy guitar riff at length until the song suddenly ends.
  
  Don't remember that song. Didn't some old band record this once also, for some compilation? Well, when we recorded our demo for those "Shades..." songs, we didn't write down any changing parts. We just played along with it and changed the riffing when we felt like it. I guess it should be done all the time in the same way since I myself at least am very satisfied with that result. It's just how you wanted that to be. I like also if someone really repeats some lines but there's not so many of those bands around. I guess though it would be pretty boring listening to like fast grind stuff when they would repeat one riff like 4 minutes straight ahead. Sometimes it might work though.
  
  
• Do you have to be in a certain mood to write this style? I know sometimes with music like this it's a depression type of mood, especially with some of the lyrics I read on the first album. The music helped in times of my own depression, and I was wondering if you might suffer some forms of depression, I myself suffer from chronic depression at times and sometimes this can be an interesting way to carry out lyrics.
  
  Yes, at the time when I wrote "Angels Of Distress" I could say that I was a bit depressed by everything that surrounded this life. It was a big relief to express your feelings through music, I guess it also helped a bit to leave your thoughts somewhere else than inside your mind to circle around, though I think this music does it for you. But these of course are quite personal things so it's quite interesting to find how this kind of music affects "positive" people. It depends a lot on what mood you are in when composing music. These songs wouldn't be finished without some "negative" emotions. I can't say yet what kind of songs our new ones are going to be, but there's some changes since I'm not all the time wrapped around depression.
  
  
• There aren't too many doom/death metal bands that employ strings and female vocals, violins, and flutes. It seems that your music goes for a doomy effect but also throws in beautiful and mellow passages in there as well. Disembowelment and Winter come close to a description of what you are doing but even those bands don't come close to your actual sound. Some of the doomy elements of Candlemass I hear too, but more in slight.
  
  We haven't thought of ourselves as being doomy as the others compared, at least I haven't made these songs to fit into some category. It's safe to say Shape Of Despair doesn't settle yet into some category and it's nice to always explore something new for yourself. I've heard Winter a few years ago and didn't like it too much, but maybe I should have listened to it with more interest than just as background music for a few seconds. It also plays a big difference in where you are and what mood you're in when listening to something new for yourself. I haven't heard Disembowelment yet. I've heard Candlemass a few times and I think I should check them out again.
  
  
• I was especially glad to see a website for your band, especially since before your new album there was almost no band info available anywhere!
  
  Our web and cover designer from Demonlovers' society were working on this web site at the time we released our new album but we didn't manage to have the information for our covers on time. Maybe that's why people thought we wouldn't continue this anymore... Not correct. It's always been that the music is on the frontline for us, not ourselves. Always let the music speak for itself.
  
  
• What can we expect to see on future albums? Is there another album in the works, and if so can you please bring the flutes back? :>
  
  Ha! Okay, if you want I can bring the flutes back. Well, perhaps not after all. We'll just have to see what kind of music we're going to release. There's a possibility that we won't add flutes or violins at all, but I don't really know right now. I've done a few songs already but these are pretty much unfinished. There's some shorter songs and some songs which reminds a little of the songs on "Angels Of Distress." And then there's a few non-metal emotional pieces also, not sure yet if they'll fit together, but we'll see. Overall, though, that familiar atmosphere still stays within these songs.
  
  
• Are you familiar with the deal Century Media has inked here in the U.S. with Spinefarm? They have already distributed Kalmah, Naglfar, Sonata Arctica and a few other releases Stateside. Hopefully they will pick up your new album as well. What sort of deal do you have with Spinefarm and how did you come to pick them as your label?
  
  That choice was pretty quickly done. I wasn't sure if Spikefarm would drop us after the first release because we aren't a real popular band with big sales around the world, but they don't seem to be bothered by this at all. Instead, they are pushing us all the time to continue this what we are doing right now. And as Spikefarm is a Finnish label we can easily stay in face-contact and solve all the problems quickly if there are any. Right now we made another deal with 'em which consists of two more albums.
  
  
• Do you care to mention anything about the themes behind specific songs? One of the most striking lines comes from the track 'In The Mist' from "Shades Of..." where the singer says "They raped my soul." Intense stuff!
  
  It would be much better for our previous singer to tell about these lyrics since he made these. But it's impossible right now since I have heard nothing from him in a year now. All in all those lyrics deal with melancholy, misanthropy, fantasy and of course death. There's implications of a bleaker nature within these texts as it was a strong inspiration source for us at that time of composing. Those lyrics do reflect some images and visions we had back then... and some perverted mind states. After all those texts reflect something for myself as they probably do for some others in their own ways...
  
  
• Anything else you want to talk about as we wrap this up?
  
  I think this is enough for myself also. This was a long interview so I guess I will just prepare myself for a smoke... or two and leave you to advertise our website and stuff...
  
  
  
  SODOM. Interview with Tom "Angelripper"
  
  Any words I say about Sodom wuld probably be a waste, since anyone who knows anything about German metal knows that Sodom, along with Destruction and Kreator, are one of the biggest and best thrash metal bands in existence. Their newest album "M-16" proves that in spades, and we caught up with Tom, the original founding member, to see where Sodom is at today and to reflect a bit on the glorious days of 80's metal.
  
  
• The Sodom tradition of war themes hasn't died down, though lyrically things changed quite a bit after the debut album "Obsessed By Cruelty."
  
  We changed the lyrics after "Obsessed By Cruelty," in the beginning I was really obsessed by Aleister Crowley, occult themes, and black magic. But afterwards this gained me nothing, so I changed the lyrics, and wanted to write about things that really happened in the world. "M-16" was an album that allowed me to describe how bad the war (in Vietnam) was.
  
  
• I was intrigued by the movie samples,I recognized a few myself.
  
  Yeah, there were some from Full Metal Jacket and one from Apocalypse Now.
  
  
• Speaking of Full Metal Jacket, there is a cover you have on "M-16" of 'Surfin Bird,' it's a song that I always thought was somewhat out of place in the movie, but you guys did a kick ass job making it shred!
  
  I like the original song. It's from '65, and to me it brings out the spirit of the sound during the Vietnam War. It's a very old band, a rockabilly band called The Trashmen. We styled it in our way when we covered it, I wanted to do it originally the same way it was done, with acoustic guitars and contrabass, but the producer kept saying, "come on, you have to do it your way with metal guitars." This song was recorded after the official sessions, live in the studio, and the sound is really amazing. We've played this song live before, and people really dig it, I think it's going to be a live classic.
  
  
• I read that you actually went to Vietnam and toured a war museum, which I thought was rather unusual for a country to display such a horrific war encased in display exhibits.
  
  It's really funny, but the Vietnam people want to make support through tourism because lots of people actually go over there. It's quite interesting, you can see the guns, the traps, all the weapons, and it was set up kinda like a park. The most interesting for me was the park for the people, we visited a special hospital for Vietnam veterans, but we got little information from the people there, they don't want to talk about, they say the war is over. One guy said something about 400 American soldiers got killed, but he didn't want to talk about it. He said they were just looking forward to the future. We wanted to play a concert over there but we didn't get a chance to because of the political system in place there, they've never allowed any European or American bands to make music there. Also, there is a metal scene but it is still in the deep underground. They don't know much though, they don't know bands like Motorhead or AC/DC, and it is forbidden to have long hair and hear the music. We did play in Bangkok, that was no problem. It was one of the best shows we played, we had fans coming from Malaysia, from Indonesia, and they know all the songs and all the lyrics. They get them from bootlegs and the Internet. After our European tour we want to make a small Asian tour and we will try to play Vietnam again.
  
  
• Well, how do you feel about that, because I know that a lot of people have gotten ahold of your album before it's hit the stores.
  
  I saw at Ebay a lot of people had the promotional copy of "M-16" for sale. And before it was released, you could download songs off of WinMX and other sites. I think the real Sodom fan is going to buy the album, to get the original cover and lyrics. If you download an MP3 file it sounds really bad. I know bigger bands like Metallica really hate it, but I don't see why because these bands are millionaires practically. I like stuff like Napster, for example, I was looking for the original song 'Surfin Bird,' you can't buy their album anymore. I never download the complete albums anyway.
  
  
• It's really funny, because the bigger bands who are really popular and selling a lot of records anyway don't really need to worry about stuff like Napster. And it's the smaller bands who really benefit from services like this. The smaller bands figure, or should figure, if one guy who has never heard of the band gets ahold of a song of theirs and likes it, then that's one more fan the band will have that they might not have gotten anywhere else.
  
  It's basically another kind of promotion. I think the problem why bands don't sell enough records is because the the records are too expensive. In Germany the new Sodom album is about 30 marks, which is too expensive. I think things like Napster and WinMX is just good promotion. For some users in other countries, like the ones in Malaysia and what not, they cannot get the albums anyway, they aren't released in their country. I talk to the fans and they say that they get the stuff on the internet. If they cannot buy it legally then what can they do?
  
  
• Back to the Vietnam trip you took, I remembered reading that you actually got to see the underground tunnels that were built by the Viet Cong?
  
  This is just designed for the tourists. The tunnels were rebuilt a little bit higher, so that it's easier to go through. It's almost like a park, it's getting really commercial. You can also visit the battlefields and see the tanks that are still standing in the fields. We also talked to U.S. Vietnam Veterans and they want to go back and see the places where they fought.
  
  
• Now I know with your album "Code Red," you were actually on Pavement Records, and of course now you are with Steamhammer exclusively here in the U.S. Were you aware of the U.S. distribution deal?
  
  In Germany we were with Drakkar Records, and they never released it worldwide. They tried to get other companies in different countries and for the U.S. they gave it to Pavement.
  
  
• It was a shame too because Pavement never did anything with the record, I tried to get interviews set up and they never happened.
  
  I talked to them when I visited the U.S., I was with the band Desperados and we actually went out there. I went to the company to talk to them and I told them I wanted help to get better promotion, for a U.S tour, but they have done nothing. With SPV, the albums are released worldwide.
  
  
• With the album "Code Red," I read that the title track was based on an American military punishment code, and I didn't really understand the concept for that as it was explained to me.
  
  The album wasn't really a concept album about this, but it comes from a lot of Vietnam war movies. It happened in other cultures as well, even Germany. Americans call it Code Red, and Germany has no special name for it. When I was in the military in 1984 and 85 it went on all the time. It's basically, well, it's hard for me to explain, but it's like if a soldier doesn't give 100 percent in the service, or he is a liar in his troop, he gets punished from his other comrades, and the General will say nothing, okay they can do what they want. It happens also in German military service.
  
  
• How was your stint in the military? I know the one thing I always found odd was that over here in the States, you didn't have to serve in the military if you didn't want to, whereas overseas you were pretty much forced to serve in the military. I think some countries might have changed this since then though.
  
  Well, here in Germany I had a choice, to either serve 12 months in the military and if I didn't want to I could have taken a civilian job, but the civilian job I would have had to do for 2 years. So I chose the service. It wasn't bad, but the worst thing was I only got about 200 marks a month.
  
  
• What's that in American dollars?
  
  About 100 dollars. But you get your bed for free, your food for free, what do you really need much money for? I met a lot of good friends, we drank a lot of beer, and the months went really fast, it was really crazy. The bad thing was I had to cut my hair, it was a real problem. If you remember the "In The Sign Of Evil" album you saw pictures of me with short hair, that was the time I was in the service. I had really long hair before they cut it.
  
  
• You haven't done any touring here in the States in quite a long time. I'm not sure if you've ever done a full length U.S. tour in your history.
  
  Never a tour, we did a show for Milwaulkee Metalfest though, and it was really bad. That guy Jack Koshick he does nothing. We just played half an hour, and we were told we couldn't bring our guitars because he had no papers, no work licenses and stuff. We were given really bad guitars and a really bad bass, and a really small drumkit. Just to play half an hour he only gave us $500 for a show. When we go to America we need someone who is really serious, who wants to support the band and wants to do better promotion. When we go onstage, I need stuff, I need pyrotechnics if possible.
  
  
• I could have sworn I heard that you played here back in the 80's when the "Obsessed By Cruelty" album came out.
  
  Never. We played in Mexico and South America, but never in the U.S. I don't know why because even the first records afterwards, like "Persecution Mania" and "Agent Orange," were really successful here. Also, a band like Kreator has played the States like three times. I'm sitting at home and my main interest is to play and make music. If nobody's interested then what can I do you know?
  
  
• Now going back to the first few albums, I must say that you speak pretty good English, but looking at the lyrics to "Obsessed By Cruelty," it seems like you had a little trouble grasping English concepts, especially on songs like 'Volcanic Slut' and 'Witchhammer.' 'Volcanic Slut' was especially funny.
  
  Yeah, that one was really funny. Ha ha! I don't stand 100 percent behind that album's lyrics. This was another time and all the lyrics came from my sick brain. I just wrote it in German and someone helped me to translate, but not really, you know what I mean? I think "Obsessed By Cruelty" is really funny, but it seems to me that a lot of new bands these days seem to get inspired from it.
  
  
• A lot of black metal bands I know really dig "Obsessed..." and also the "In The Sign Of Evil" EP. The vocal style sounds a bit like black metal anyway, so maybe along with Bathory you can be credited with the vocal style that goes hand in hand with black metal these days.
  
  Lots of popular black metal bands say that those are the best two Sodom albums ever. What can I say? Okay, well we changed after "Obsessed..." and we got a new guitar player Frank Blackfire, and the album "Persecution Mania" to me is a really great record. On "Obsessed..." we couldn't really play, though I still like it and we still play songs from it and "In The Sign Of Evil" live today.
  
  
• Yeah, I started to ask you if you still played any of those songs live. What songs from those two do you do live?
  
  We still play them of course. Why not, it's a big part of our past. We play 'Witching Metal,' 'Blasphemer,' and we made a medley from the "Obsessed" album, there was 'Deathlike Silence,' 'Witchhammer' and the title track in it, plus 'Pretenders To The Throne.' We cannot play every song from that album because when I listen to it I sometimes cannot realize what I've played this time. I got a new guitar player and a new drummer, and when they listen to "Obsessed" they hear nothing. The guitar player was like "What have you played there, it's really, really heavy."
  
  
• I know you mentioned Aleister Crowley as an influence in your lyric writing for "Obsessed By Cruelty," but I am curious to lyrical input for songs like 'Witchhammer,' 'Equinox' and the like.
  
  It was all mostly inspired by Crowley. I read Aleister Crowley's book "The Beast 666," there's another book called "Equinox," which was really strange. It's difficult to explain how I got the lyrics down from this. In the end though, like I said, I got nothing from most of this. Crowley had a rather sick brain, he was somewhat of a psychopath.
  
  
• Well, he did have some radical ideas for his time, but there are bands out there that find lots of relevance in his words in today's day and age. For an example (which also occurs this issue I might add) are you familiar with Maudlin Of The Well?
  
  Yes, I have heard of them.
  
  
• They actually quoted Crowley's "Diary Of A Drug Fiend" book, and there is one big thing Crowley said that I agree with, he talked about how a person under the influence of certain drugs could free his consciousness and tap into a level he might not be able to tap into otherwise. When I do a lot of writing, I do it under the influence of marijuana and I have looked back on stuff I have written and wondered just how I came up with these ideas.
  
  But if you read lyrics from these new black metal bands, like Dimmu Borgir or Cradle Of Filth, the lyrics have gotten really cliched. They're writing about nothing, it's just fantasy, even true metal bands like Manowar, Saxon, or Judas Priest are writing lyrics that are nothing. For me it's really important to write the best lyrics as I can, as much as my English will allow. The lyrics are about 50 percent of the package. A lot of Sodom fans don't read the lyrics though they know the lyrics to the German sung songs like 'Bombenhagel' and 'Ausgebombt.' Most people don't even care about the lyrics.
  
  
• I always thought that the music was more important than the lyrics. There are bands that I like that I don't really care for the lyrical stances, but let's face it: No one cares what the bands are saying if they don't like their music. If a band has good lyrics then to me that's just a plus.
  
  Well, with this new album, people are saying "Aw, come on this is a war album" but it's actually an anti-war album. And nothing else you know. I describe the war, and I write the lines that are based on historical fact but in a lyrical way. I am really interested in history but I cannot write lyrics about World War II or about Hitler.
  
  
• I wonder why that is?
  
  Because I will get a lot of misunderstanding about Germany, and from Germany. Some people would never understand it. We get a lot of problems with 'Bombenhagel' and the German initials in a song. People say "Why would you play this," and I say why not because I'm German! Germans have a big problem with this as well.
  
  

EDITORIAL NOTATIONS

Just a quick note to say thanks to everyone who helped me out with the classic albums section. I got so many contributions from people the world over, Italy and Brazil in particular, that it will be a daunting task to get it all up online. We have to watch our bandwidth though, as we have come dangerously close to exceeding it recently. Hopefully Spaceports will implement a plan soon to increase bandwidth for the site at an affordable rate. Vibrationsofdoom.com of course is a paid site and is doing very well.

Recently I have enjoyed being a dad, it's been an overwhelming experience. It's also a tiring one as well, as he has seemingly limitless amounts of energy. However, there's nothing like it in the world, and it also is a scary experience as well. Think about the world your son or daughter might enter, it's enough to make me want to barricade the doors and forbid anyone to go outside!

I hope the soundfiles are a little better customized to each and every individual's tastes. Please note that even the '*' songs doesn't mean that those songs are the absolute worst on the CD. I just figured if you liked my best tracks and hated my worst, then you'll be able to figure out better just how my tastes and yours are similar or different. 4 songs is quite a lot, but it's still no comparison to hearing the entire album.

Lastly, I want to thank some people personally in this space. A very warm and personal hello to Treva, who seemingly is one of my biggest supporters. And before it sounds too godlike, let me say I am a big fan of hers as well. :> Hello to Chris Miller, the black metal commercial we're working on will hopefully come to completion soon for the world to see. Special thanks above and beyond to Ralph Veety from Samain, and to Hacienda for letting me be on their next record. Thanks to Massino at Black Widow for the thanks and greets, though you could have put my magazine's name in the credits. And finally, to the many people too numerous to mention here who sent me CDR's with timeless and extremely rare metal recordings. Oh, and thanks be the readers, who keep thing thing flying over 10 years now.

Oh, and parents: Ask me sometime about the black metal lullaby you can sing for your kids. It's actually better than the corny ones used by the masses.

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