Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Ampmandens Dotre Interview


    1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?

Ampmandens Døtre is a sludgepunk trio from Oslo, Norway. Born late 2010 and has to this date released 2 LPs an 2 EPs + 4 tours abroad. All DIY.


    2.Recently you have released an album, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording?

Dirrty!


    3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?

Anders: Some of the lyrics are very political and placed on the far left side on the political spectrum. When you see the political scene in Europe with the uprise of the right and far right and higher inequality all over the world, it is not difficult to find inspiration. Unfortunately.

Lyrics can also be inspired by characters in novels and films, or mundane episodes that happen in our lives.


    4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Ampmandens Dotre'?

Cancer Bats said it best when we shared stage with them in 2012: Amplified Daughters!

Really a rewriting of the title of the Norwegian novel Amtmandens Døtre (1854) by Camilla Collett. Not to be confused with the 70s feminist folk group.

    

    5.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?

The best shows are always those that we have the lowest expectations for. Never fails.

We are loud, hard hitting and energetic. 


    6.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?

We did a few shows around the recent release of I Tre Volti Della Paura and have one festival gig coming up. Then we will see what the autumn brings.


    7.The album was released on 'Ampandens Records, is this label owned by the band?

Yes.


    8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of sludge and punk?

Thumbs up! Especially in Spain and Czech Republic where we have toured the most. Luckily, Norwegians seem to like sludgepunk as well...


    9.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?

Haven´t really started making new songs yet, but why change a winning team?


    10.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?

Ampmandens Døtre has always been about mixing elements of hardcore, punk, noiserock and stoner. The influences are many, but nowadays it is the new albums of High On Fire, KEN mode and Fight Amp that get the most rotations.


    11.What are some of your non musical interests?

I run. 


    12Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?

That one goes to you. Thanks for reviewing our record and doing this interview with us! Great job.

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Hexenjager Interview

1.Can you give us an update on what is going on with the band these days?
Hello ! First things first, thanks for the interview ! We are currently working on our first full length album. We're on it since the release of the demo. We're also working for a split with the Italian band Lizard Queen. We keep ourselves pretty busy lately.

2.In March you had released a demo, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording?
C : The two tracks on the demo are really old now, over two years for the title track. How do we describe it ? Is slow paced heavy shit an acceptable definition ?
F : What he said. The two songs are quite old, and it seemed to us that those were the best songs we had at that time. It's kinda hard to describe the sound, we want to play slow and heavy. I have to add that we recorded the demo ourselves in one day. We like the way it sounds, but we hope to have a better sound on the album.

3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?
We are total nerds. So basically, the lyrics covers anything that inspires us. It can be movies, novels, horror, fantasy, etc... Classical heavy metal stuff !

4.I know that the band name means witch hunter in German, how does this name fit in with the musical style that you play?
C : We just like the figure of the witch hunter, and in german it sounded cool. There's no hidden meaning behind that.
F : I think the name fits pretty well in the new doom « scene ». There's a lot of « witch » in band names nowadays, in some ways it can be pretty boring, on the other hand you can almost be sure that you will listen to a doom related band.

5.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?
The one we played with Stonebirds and Burn Society Burn (friends of us from our hometown). It was our best, first and only show so far. We're not really seasonned veterans yet, but we're looking for more ! Our stage performance was pretty straight forward I guess, we played and got drunk afterwards. No fancy stuff, candles or animal skulls..

6.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?
Nothing yet, but we will take any opportunity. We hope to hit the road after our recording sessions.

7.Currently you are unsigned, are you looking for a label or have received any interest?
Yeah, we're looking for a label. Our next record is the most ambitious thing we've made yet and we hope to find someone to release it. We have recieved a proposition to release something but we don't want to talk too much about it since nothing is done.

8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of sludge and doom metal?
The feedback has been good so far, essentially outside of France (it seems no one gives a fuck about what we're doing here). We're all very pleased with all the reviews so far !

9.When can we expect a full length album and a where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
We have a recording session planned this summer but we can't give no release date yet. If we find a label, we hope to release it before the end of the year.
You can expect more experimentations. But the tracks are still heavy. We're heading towards a more personal sound.

10.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
C :The big influences on the band's sound are the ones we have in common : Black Sabbath, St Vitus, Pentagram... Stuff like that. We all listen to a lot of different stuff and it influences us in one way or another.
F : We listen to a lot of different things, from blues to black metal, from rock 'n roll to drone... As long as it's good, I'm in ! Lately, I've been listening a lot of stuff, The Gates of Slumber, Seremonia, Stone Dagger, Townes Van Zandt, Sinister Haze... I'm pretty much always listening to music.


11.What are some of your non musical interests?
C : I'm big on horror. Movies, books, comics... And whiskey, of course !
F : Same thing here, as we said, we're nerds so... novels (Howard, Lovecraft, Wagner...) movies (mainly old horror), video games, etc...

12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?

Thanks for the interview,  ! 

Sunday, June 7, 2015

Lodo Interview


1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?

“Lodo” is the continuation of our previous band “Bazooka” formed by 4 people who come from different bands but with many common interests and born

in the “Vega Baja”(to the south of Alicante,Spain)


2.So far you have been a part of a split, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on your side of the recording

It is a close instrumental sludge doom bands like Cult of Luna, Pelican or Neurosis or something like that....


3.What are some of the concepts and images the band brings out with their musical style.

Slowness,dark but within a strong bond of friendship


4.So far all of the recorded music has been instrumental, are you planning on using vocals in the future?

No,but never close doors to anything


5.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Lodo'?

We wanted a name that would describe our music
Lodo means Mud in spanish so....
We believe that well defined with “Lodo”


6.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?

We have not debuted live ....


7.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?

We start playing next September and hope to do regularly in the future


8.In November you where a part of a split with 'Hela', what are your thoughts on the other band that had participated on the recording?

We like a lot and especially the combination of female vocals with more classic doom are also very good friends


9.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of sludge and doom metal?


There are people who like a lot but we still much work to reach more people and have a clearer feedback



10.When can we expect a full length album and also where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?


We have about 5 or 6 songs and we intend to record an album made this year so we hope to have the album by the end of 2015.

Our only goal in the future is to enjoy what we do


11.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?

We hear lots of different music but as influences can say bands like Mastodon, Isis,Pelican, Cave In, Neurosis and etc

As we say before we hear many different styles of music like Hardcore,Surf, Garage, Metal but the last thing I remember hearing is

Tame Impala and Cave-in's last album




12.What are some of your non musical interests?


Reading, movies, sport and especially being with family and friends


13.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?

We want to thank Julian (Marchalenta Records)

Dani (Discos Macarras)

Rob (Third and i RexRecords) for publishing the LP and CD

Thanks for your interest

Doom or Die!

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Akasava Interview

1.Can you give us an update on what has been going on with the band since the recording of the new ep?

First, thanks a lot for this interview! We are all doing good, we've been pretty busy rehearsing and working hard on new songs!

2.You have a new ep coming out in June, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording and also how does it differ from the stuff you have released in the past?

This is actually our debut release, we are a rather young band formed back in July 2014. We are presenting what we've been working on for the past few months. The EP was recorded live and it was important for us to capture that raw energy we have on stage. It's rather possessed, wicked, has its doomy ways, fuzzy moments and a certain kind of madness.

3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?

Lyrics are often influenced by those old movies I'm very fond of. It can be dreamy too, like weird visions of the moment that I need to put on paper. Sometimes I want to sing about long black haired vampires/witches, lovecraftian subjects and sometimes I'd rather sing about my feelings which results in some more or less chaotic sentences. I'm really into movies and books so I'm not afraid to say that I can be heavily influenced by the stuff I own. And it also comes to the way I dress, which is important to me once I'm on stage and outside as well. But globally speaking, the topics are always revolving around the unusual, the odd, the ancient arts, creatures & babes from the 60's/70's era, including the Hammer, Jean Rollin and Jess Franco movies. I also go for Argento and Italian Gialli movies, often accompanied by a delightful soundtrack...
"Sons Of Bastet", for example, is rather chaotic lyrically speaking as it brings up my passion for Egypt and also some kind of apocalyptic vision brought by those sons of Bastet, rising up to restore a certain order among the living and the dead - something like this.

4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Akasava'?

It comes from Jess Franco's 'The Devil Came From Akasava' with Soledad Miranda who was a really fascinating actress. It came all very naturally though it's not my favourite Franco movie, the name got stuck in my head. I think it's pretty effective too. And also the movie has a killer score by Manfred Hübler & Siegfried Schwab!

5.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?

We haven't played so many shows so far but the highlights were definitely playing with some great bands like Goatess, Barabbas and Witchthroat Serpent!
The stage performance is wild, raw energy, sweating like hell, open-heart surgery, all wrapped up with a ritualistic, theatrical approach.

6.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?

We have two gigs next month, on the 21st and 27th in our hometown. It's been a while since our last performance so we can't wait to be back on stage!
We'll be playing with Bathsheba for an unforgettable occult doom night later this year, in October!
We are hoping to play more shows of course... we'll see what future brings!

7.Currently you are unsigned, are you looking for a label or have received any interest?

Yes, it's all DIY so far, the EP is digitally released on Bandcamp and then, there will be a small run of CDs, available on Bandcamp as well.
As a record collector, I'd really love to have our EP straight out on vinyl format and so it does justice to Karmazid's amazing artwork that he did for us... Well, of course it would be amazing to know that a label is interested in releasing our music but in the meantime, we know where we are coming from so like I said before, we'll see what future brings! I also believe that hard work always pays off... Wait & see!

8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of occult rock and doom metal?

Pretty good actually so it's very encouraging and motivating! We are very pleased by the kind words and support we've received on the social networks!

9.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?

I think the next step will be to release a full-length LP, we are already working on new numbers, we will play some of them during our upcoming shows!

10.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?

My record collection which is made of 60's/70's psych/prog/heavyrock/folk albums is where I have all of my influences. I'm into record collecting for ten years now, it's a real passion! Roky Erickson is definitely on the top of everything, I love the Elevators, his solo albums, his horror rock. I'm still hoping to see him live one day!
I've been very much into two bands recently which are Three Man Army and Blodwyn Pig ("2" and "Ahead Rings Out" albums). If I had to chose one modern band I'm really fond of, I'd say Blood Ceremony. There are other bands I dig as well like Purson and Uncle Acid. If I had to pick one major influential artist I'd chose David Bowie for I feel like he was always "around" me since I'm a kid haha!

David: My biggest influences and what I never get bored listening to are : Johnny Cash and Motörhead for the rightheousness of their music and their sharp songwriting, Lemmy is probably the last True Rock'n'Roll singer alive on Earth, in fact I really started listening to music, thanks to them. Now these are the bands and all the different music genres that I'm listening to: Electric Wizard, Earth, Sunn O))), Kadavar, Sektemtum, Wheelfall, Bass Drum of Death, Sleep, Om, Cult of Luna, Graveyard, Orange Goblin, Valley of the Sun .... and so much more I forgot, I'm not focused on a particular type of music, I listen to all of them and try to pick the one that really sounds good to me. That's it.

Arnold: I have many different cultural influences, mostly touched by cult sci-fi movies, video games and epic, emotional compositions. This is how I've been in touch with music for the very first time.
I'd say that Matthew Bellamy is a great reference to me in terms of sounds and creativity as well as Jack White for his unique, uncompromising, brutal, fuzzy sounds, a fantastic composer for sure. And a third one to conclude would be Jimi Hendrix, for the man with the Strat' is a talented genius.
Lately, I'm absolutely amazed by the performances of Omar Rodriguez Lopez (At The Drive In, Mars Volta...) and my last discovery is Bosnian Rainbows which I really dig too.

Amélie: I'm influenced by bands like Tool and Porcupine Tree, in which there are powerful, complex bass lines. My sound is about loud, fuzzy and groovy bass lines, like in Kasabian, songs like "Vlad The Impaler".
These days I'm mostly listening to Ghost B.C., Ghost Brigade and Tesseract.

11.How would you describe your views on Occultism?

I'd say it derived mostly from the records, books and movies I own. I'm not like practising or anything, it's more of a visual, cultural impact to me, the Occult through the prism of 60's/70's movies and music. I do have some books dealing with Occult Science, Magick, Talismans, Symbols and their meanings. It offers a truly fascinating reading.
It's always through the prism of a cultural matter in the end. Lovecraft got me obsessed with the Cthulhu mythos and the Necronomicon. I read everything about it. I love how Lovecraft built his own cosmology and induced that fear that we, humans, are nothing but tiny little tools and that we should live in fear that something bigger, out of control is going to be unleashed one day!
The imagery of rituals, cemeteries at night, dusk or dawn, half-naked women holding knives or chandeliers, secret societies... I love it in Jean Rollin's movies, the poetic aspects too. I also love the erotic visions of Jess Franco in "The Female Vampire" and "Exorcism". It's the perfect alchemy to me, the combination of dark visions in late 60's/70's movies melting into a psychedelic kaleidoscope. A good compromise between a darkish nature and my love for psych actually. Vampires in bell-bottoms sounds awesome to me.

12.What are some of your non musical interests?

Music is a major part of my life but I do have a big interest in movies, like I said earlier, mostly stuff from the 60's/70's, horror and fantastic, gialli movies.
I don't like much the times we are living in so I try to find beauty in the little things. I do enjoy long walks, daydreaming and lately I found myself thinking a lot about a future video clip for the band. I've visited some places, I've got some ideas, another thing to work on! On Sundays, I like to wake up in the morning and go to some garage sales, picking up some records, dusty books and anything unusual my heart goes for.

I'm from a left-wing family, my grandpa told me about human values which I now really wear on my sleeves. I do have chills when people are gathering to fight for their rights or defend an ideal of living.
Staying with the family influences, my grandma on my father's side is very much into Astrology and readings, she has some pendulums and many books. I've got from her that interest in Astrology, when I was a child I became more and more curious about the signs and their meanings.
I also have a deep interest and knowledge about the Roman Empire's coins that I acquired during my teenager's years, so in case you need to have one coin checked, let me know about it haha!

13.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?

Thanks a lot for this interview, it was a real pleasure! We hope to meet you someday on the road somewhere! Doom on!


Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Raging Dead Interview

1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?

Sure, hi there! We’re Raging Dead, we’re an Italian Horror Punk Metal band born at the beginning of 2014 from an idea of Cloud Shade (Vocals/Guitar) along with Matt Void (Lead Guitar).
Cloud had in his mind this project by more than two years, but he never found the right conditions to start it until he knew Matt, and only one month after the band’s debut, Tracii Decadence (Drums) joined Raging Dead…… and finally the band found its stability and good understanding.
Our first year of activity was pretty intense, and so is now too, we played a good number of gigs….. so we did a good number of after-party too! We really LOVE to party.
In February a friend of Tracii (with whom he had another band), Simon Nightmare (Bass), joined the band completing our current line-up.

2.Recently you have released an ep, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording?

Yes, we released our first ep Born in Rage some weeks ago, it was recorded and produced at Atomic Stuff Recording Studio. We think Born in Rage has a very aggressive and raw sound, we usually pay attention to make a good impact in our sound, so sometimes we prefer discard a bit of technique to gain impact and power. We like the idea of an entertaining sound that doesn't let rest and doesn't bore the listener.
Anyway, we’re trying to not forget the melody too, it’s really important.

3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?

Cloud Shade: I’ve wrote all the lyrics till now, I usually describe the situations rather than thoughts, fill it with emotions and sometimes metaphors.
If we take for example Scratch Me and Redemption, these two songs talk about a person (and this person could be I, or could be anyone of you) who has lost his way, his reason to live and is falling down, but he’s trying to react accumulating all the bad things, turning them into a new power to overwhelm the world and restart a darker and better life…. In case of Scratch Me, the second chance is given by signing a pact with the devil. A classic . While in Redemption the situation is more personal, darker and brutal, a concentration of thoughts.
In a way, these songs are surely related to me and my “Shade” character, especially Redemption… and very connected to the title of “Born in Rage”.
Let’s talk about Nightstalker: I like it a lot, we can say this is Raging Dead’s love song. It talks about a psychopath lover that chase his “prey”, because he’s attracted by them. He’s obsessed with them. And his desire drives him crazy to the point to chase them, attack them and maybe murder them? Nighstalker is a mixture of love and madness, and it’s full of deep emotions that contrast each others.
Vengeance was the first lyric (and song) of Raging Dead, I think it’s a bit trivial, but somehow effective. It talks about Revenge, a topic I love. I wrote it thinking to “The Crow” movie.
And finally we talk about Anathema. I like it a lot, I wrote it without effort and in a very spontaneous way, it’s very flowing, involving and funny too, I think it’s the lyric closest to my idol Wednesday 13’s horror-satirical style, I’m very proud of it!


4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Raging Dead'?

We came up with the name right before our debut, the reason behind  "Dead" is pretty simple and clear; we like horror stuffs, specially the undead. It easily recalls we are an horror band.
While "Raging" was chosen because of our sound, we noticed it was aggressive and raw like we said before and we like it. It makes the pronunciation stronger and it's right for us.
We like the idea we are four undead coming back to overwhelm the world with a lot of Rage, "The Rage" is the key of our sound!

5.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?

In February we had the luck to be an official open act for Sister's (SWE) Tour here in Italy in two shows, in Turin and Milan, along with our friend Scream Baby Scream, we were a lot of bands, these shows were crazy! it was an unique experience, we had a lot of fun and satisfactions.
Cloud Shade: "memories take me back: I saw Sister play for the first time at the end of 2012, and I was having a chit chat with the singer Jamie Anderson....he said to me a circumstance sentence I think, it was "maybe sometimes we'll play together" ..... but hey, he had foreseen right! (*laughs*)"
Sister are a great band, we learned a lot from them in this experience together and they're part of our influences too, we admire them and we're looking forward to play together again!
Another crazy show indeed was a special horror event we held in our city: the name was Night of the Living Dead Stars. that was one hell of a night with a very good line up, there were our friends Superhorrorfuck too, so many people attends the show... We're lucky enough to have the Midian Pub in our city which shows off a full horror-gothic furniture: coffin-tables and tombstones on the walls..... and other stuffs like these! Everything was perfect as the ultimate horror night  and being the local band we had a lot of friends there, it was an epic night!
The last gig we really want to mention is the Zombie Walk Night event in Bologna, along with Scream Baby Scream. There were a lot of people with beautiful make-ups, much better than ours.... we were ashamed (laughs)


6.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?

Actually yes, we're planning an European tour near the end of June, along with Cream Pie, it's our first tour abroad.... we should play in Germany, Unghery, Czech Republic, Slovakia...
And we're not sure yet, but maybe there will be another suprise this summer that we can't tell you now.

7.Currently you are unsigned, are you looking for a label or have received any interest?

We are still unsigned but we received some pretty good offers, we can't talk about this for now

8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of metal and punk?

Whoa, maybe it's a bit early for this question, we really don't know.... we are a young band and  this year we played a good number of gigs here in Italy, having a good reply from audience; being a new entry we're pretty unknown, but we usually sense interest and surprise from people, we think we're doing good!
But in a worldwide scale we don't know, it's true that social networks help a lot, but we've never played abroad till now.
In the last month, however, Atomic Stuff Promotion began to spread the word a bit further in Europe, we have to thanks Stefano Gottardi, which works with some foreign webzines too.
We'll have a better answer after this summer.


9.When can we expect a full length and also where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?

We've just released our ep in which we put so much effort, we think it's a good work and we would do better in our full lenght, so there is no hurry. We already play in our shows some tracks you can't find in Born in Rage, but we must write more and improve ourselves, playing more live shows to gain experience, so we think we will not make a full length before one year and a half from now.

10.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?

Cloud Shade: Horror Metal, Sleaze, Punk, Rock n Roll and now I'm listenig to a lot of Italian underground bands as we all do. Wednesday 13 is my idol, he's a genius, and he gave me strenght and ideas to start this project.
Matt Void: Basically I can't define the music I listen to (*laugh*) . I listen to Heavy Metal, Sleaze Metal, Electronic music, Deathcore and now I'm getting into Crust because of Tracii's evil influence ahah
Tracii Decadence: I listen to Crust, Hardcore, 80's Hair Bands, Sleaze Metal and Dark Wave bands
Simon Nightmare: I grew up listening to a lot of bands of the NWOBHM

11.What are some of your non musical interests?

We all live for music and it's hard to define what non musical interests are... even when we go out together we have our minds into this music and this environment mostly. Don't think we have a "working relationship" only, we are all good friends and we feel like family, music is what we all love after all.... we always have a lot of fun together, in the reharsal room or not.
We all like horror stuffs, that's for sure! and that's important for our project.

12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?

This one could be the most difficult question of the interview (*laughs*) maybe we've already talk a lot, we just wanna say thanks to you for this interview, and say to the readers to search us on web and listen to our works.... and if there'll be a chance you came to our concert, don't bother to come and greet!!

Keep on Raging!!


Monday, June 1, 2015

Taken by The Sun Interview

(completed by Mark Cichra, guitarist)

1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?

First of all, thanks for taking the time to interview us. Always appreciate getting the chance to talk about our music. Anyway we’re from Chicago; we’ve been a band since about 2011 and released a demo EP two years ago. We’re all just big fans of all kinds of metal and want to mess around with sounds that we love and try to create new sounds.

2.Recently you have released an album, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording?

If I have to give a short simple label to our sound I’ll call it experimental metal. We’ve got a lot of the tones and textures of doom metal, some of the songwriting sensibilities of post metal, and some of the riff-writing of death and thrash metal. We throw it all together and try to have it all make sense. It’s definitely an experiment!

3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?

Like a lot of doom-inspired metal bands a lot of our lyrics present aggressive or threatening images and moods like war and violence and destruction. But some of our songs are more idiosyncratic; “Volatile,” for example, is a very personal song. “Fuse” is a reflection on images of astronomical events. So you can see we range from broad, abstract conceptual lyrics to personal, contemplative themes.

4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Taken By The Sun'?

On a high, more profound level we like the name because it can be an image of decay or rebirth. It can be an image of decay, with the sun burning and destroying and pulling time away from us, and then of rebirth, with the sun’s movement representing time passing so that decay ends, the day starts again, and there is a chance for renewal. On a much simpler level, the name is a nod to TV documentaries about ancient aliens, which we love. The image is of people who have disappeared and are believed to have been abducted by aliens from the sky, or “taken by the sun.” It’s a fun name because it works in many ways.

5.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?

One of our very first shows was opening for one of Wino’s bands, Premonition 13. It was an honor to be on the same bill as Wino, who has done so much for doom and stoner metal. We’ve also opened for Cancer Bats, whom we really like. I would say our shows are a bit more aggressive and frenetic than our album might suggest. I know that some of us wish we could be in a grind band, ha! We’re not quite at that level of aggressiveness, but we try to make the live show raw and intense while still staying true to the album arrangements.

6.Do you have nay touring or show plans for the future?

We’re trying to organize shows around the central US states for the summer and we’ll branch out from there.

7.Currently you are unsigned, are you looking for a label or have received any interest?

We’d love the chance to be on a label someday; we haven’t been approached by anyone, nor have we really tried to market ourselves to a label. At this stage in our development there’s a lot we can accomplish using our own resources; we’re looking to grow a bit before we approach labels so we have can a strong proposition for anyone interested in us.

8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of post metal?

Positive. It’s been great to see that audience in general understand what we’re trying to do: take the sensibilities and experimental attitude of post metal and add some of the raw aggression of other  types of metal. Of course  not everyone likes every experiment that we tried with the album, but in most of the conversations we’ve had and most of the reviews we’ve read people get what we’re about and appreciate it.

9.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?

We’ve talked about it and we’d like to be more deliberate about focusing on the more aggressive and intense side of our sound. There are a lot of post-metal bands that do slow, drawn-out, artful layering with tons of atmosphere and melody; where we have an edge is in taking that as a foundation but still hitting listeners hard with more of our death and thrash influences. Kris is a strong, violent singer; Justin’s drumming is thunderous, especially with Bill’s bass; Pat developed a guitar sound that really cuts through. We’ve got to use these elements with even more commitment on our next album and really flatten listeners while still providing intelligent, experimental elements in our sound.

10.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?

Post-metal bands like Neurosis and Cult of Luna are big influences; Chicago bands like Pelican, Russian Circles, and Minsk (whom we should mention especially because Sanford Parker engineered the album) are important to our sound. We all love the classic thrash bands like Metallica and Megadeth. Lots of us are big Faith No More fans. Pat the other guitarist loves 90’s Florida death metal. Today we listen to lots of our peers in the Chicago metal scene; we dig the guys in The Atlas Moth and some unsigned bands around here that people should check out like Pale Horseman, Snow Burial, and Scientist (in which Justin and Pat also play).

11.What are some of your non musical interests?

Kris our singer probably does the most interesting work outside of music: he restores vintage Cadillacs. Bill our bassist is a big sci-fi fan and has made his own high-end costumes and stuff like that. Aside from that now that I think about it most of our interests have something to do with music! Many of us play in other bands, Pat used to be an amplifier technician, Justin works at a music store, I build and modify guitars.

12.Before we wrap upthis interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?

Thanks again for talking to us, and thanks in advance to anyone who checks out the album. It represents a lot of hard work so it’s something that we’re very proud is finally out there and getting to metal listeners around the world.