Archive for the ‘Frontpage Feature’ Category

Peter Tägtgren is a man who is defined by his work, a body of music and ideas that is always morphing and pulling to and from the abyss. He has given life (and death) to fathomless classic albums and hardly needs an introduction, so one won’t be given here. The at one time one-man project Pain, and new album You Only Live Twice, is the man’s current focus, the details of which he divulges here. But fear not — the Hypocrisy mastermind also discusses that which put him on the metal map.

An interesting thing this nostalgia; it can make you blind. Take the case of Believer who in the late 80s/early 90s were recognized for their musically inventive, thought provoking style of thrash metal on albums like 1989’s Extraction from Mortality, 1990’s Sanity Obscure, and though apparently befuddling to some, 1993’s über-expansive Dimensions album. After 2009’s comeback album Gabriel and even more so on this year’s Transhuman (both on Metal Blade), many outside of the ironbound devotees were up in arms about the thrash part of the equation being pushed toward the background in the case of the former and all but eliminated on the latter in favor of a more melodic and song-based (though still progressive and full of great riffs) approach to metal. As it turns out, it was Transhuman that was my formal musical introduction to Believer, which allowed me to see things more clearly; that is, without the distorting effects of nostalgia. The fact of the matter is that Transhuman is a brilliantly composed, incredibly catchy and progressive album that still packs a punch with its meaty and inventive rhythms/riffs, as well as smart use of keyboards and beautiful atmospherics. Of course, the lyrical content about transhumanism and the ethical challenges arising from technological advances that are threatening to blur the lines between human and machine is absolutely fascinating. Of the hundreds of interviews I’ve conducted over the years, this one with vocalist/bassist/guitarist Kurt Bachman and keyboardist Jeff King is one of the most intellectually stimulating I’ve ever experienced. And by the way, you might want to reconsider the “Christian metal” tag that has been attached to Believer since the beginning, as it doesn’t really, nor has it ever, fit with the lyrical approach. Rather, that approach is one of intellectual discussion that touches on many areas, including the religious. Read, think, and form your own opinion. Don’t believe everything you read, except for the content of this interview of course.

Sweden’s Grand Magus occupies an elite place in the world of heavy metal. Every album is filled with the spirit of classic heavy metal and comes with those doomy shades that make the band somewhat of a unique entity. Bassist/backing vocalist Fox Skinner, guitarist/vocalist Janne “JB” Christoffersson, and drummer Sebastian “Seb” Sippola are ace players, the songwriting – great riffs, deep lyrics, catchy choruses – are built to last, and the albums are ones that are best heard as start-to-finish experiences. It was 2008’s Iron Will that knocked me off my feet, but the more I listen to Hammer of the North the more I think that it is at least on par with it, and when all said and done I may end up dubbing it the trio’s best work. Time will tell. But for now I thought it best to let JB tell the story of the album, including the track-by-track commentary that you’ll read below. By all means, proceed.

Taking over the metal and post-hardcore scene by storm with a consistently massive ever-growing fan base, Minnesota’s After the Burial is quickly rising pretty high in the ranks. It’s not too often you see a crowd go completely nuts over the opening acts rather than the headliners of a tour, but that was exactly the case when I had a chance to catch up with ATB bassist, Lee Foral on their latest tour with As I Lay Dying and Winds of Plague.

Pit-churning, melodic metal pioneers, UNEARTH, are currently readying to unveil Darkness In The Light, their fifth full-length in a discography that’s placed the band among the most prolific and plainly ravaging modern metal acts to come out of the U.S.. Set for North American release on July 5 via Metal Blade Records, the 11-track long […]

Vomitory has always been a quality Swedish death metal band (as in country of origin, not style) that never seems to get the amount of recognition so deserved of the unit. In the U.S. at least, some of that may have to do with the fact that they’ve played a grand total of one show on this side of the pond. Or maybe some folks just aren’t paying close enough attention. Still, many a devoted death metal fan is well aware of the quartet’s lethal approach. I’d like to think that Terrorizer Sodomize Brutalize brought the band a higher level of recognition, based in part on the level jump in songwriting and blazing lead guitar work of then new member Peter Östlund. Or maybe I just worship that album and any other thoughts are pure delusion. Following that bloody bastard was the dangerously ferocious Carnage Euphoria, which was released on Metal Blade in Europe, but saw no U.S. release (more on that below). But all is back in sync with Metal Blade now with the release of crushing new\effort Opus Mortis VIII, a carnivorous beast that in some respects blends Terrorize Brutalize Sodomize and Carnage Euphoria, albeit with a nasty disposition all its own. Let’s call it like it is, shall we? Vomitory was never about death metal reinvention, but they sure are consistent in making robust death metal albums that offer improvement and slight progression without any compromise when it comes to that skin-shredding, skull-crackin’ style of theirs. Just ask amiable drummer Tobias Gustafsson. He’s the man with the answers. Once you’ve finished reading, support quality death metal by purchasing a copy of Opus Mortis VIII; it’ll rip your arms off and then beat you mercilessly about the head and shoulders with them. It’s what you deserve.

It’s no real secret that I’m a huge fan of Between the Buried and Me. Since The Silent Circus, I’ve reviewed virtually everything they have released for this site or some other publication. I’ve interviewed and seen the band live three times and their album Alaska resides on my top 25 metal albums of all time — only one of a handful of albums released in the 2000s. And in what appears to be an annual occurrence, I happened to catch them in Lawrence, KS while touring with The Ocean and Job For a Cowboy. A tour, that’s promoting their jump from long time label Victory Records to Metal Blade and their current EP The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues — the first part of a planned two CD concept. So amidst Lawrence’s hordes of hipsters, tempting college lasses, apple chutney feta cheese burgers and drumming homeless dudes, I caught up with guitarist Paul Waggoner to find out more about the current release, the label switch and other guitar maestros…

Now this was a fun and interesting interview. Well, we think so anyway and hope that you’ll agree. Considering Scott Alisoglu and myself both found the music of Wooden Stake – particularly new full-length Dungeon Prayers & Tombyard Serenades – to be an intelligently constructed (lyrically and musically), compellingly horrific, and rather unique brand of doom metal, we thought it a smashing idea to conduct a joint interview with bassist/vocalist/lyricist Vanessa Nocera. Vanessa constitutes exactly one half of the prolific pair and also runs the mighty Razorback Records with husband Billy. Wooden Stake’s other equally important half is ubiquitous guitarist/drummer Wayne Sarantopoulos, about whom you may have heard because of his membership in a multitude of other acts, including Decrepitaph, Festered, Encoffination, and Beyond Hell. All that’s left to do now is unleash the hounds, open the gates, let the games begin, and get this party started. Do it!

In news that are bound to make a long lasting impact on the metal kingdom, Seattle’s progressive riffing engine NEVERMORE is facing undeniably hard times as shred-god Jeff Loomis and drummer Van Williams have quit the band. We repeat, Jeff Loomis and Van Williams have left Nevermore. The band’s latest (and last?) album, The Obsidian […]

Have you heard of Singapore’s Wormrot? If you consider yourself a grindcore fan and have not, then chances are you’ve either been in and out of rehab the last year or just haven’t gotten around to securing a connection to that new fangled thing they call the Internet. Debut album Abuse kicked a ridiculous amount of grindcore butt; rubbed raw, frothing at the mouth and dragging you through shortened, shocked, and sharpened speed blasts and crust crushes. Follow up album, which I incorrectly termed an EP, Dirge is even rawer, dirtier, frantic, and deleterious to the immune system. Guitarist Rasyid (and vocalist Arif where noted) checks in from somewhere on tour in these United States of America.

It’s not rocket science, folks. It goes something like this. A guy like Tomáš Halama readily admits that he enjoys old school Stockholm Death Metal and recognizes bands like Dismember and Entombed as the official representatives of said style. Then instead of pretending that it’s a bad thing to play anything based on an existing blueprint, he takes what he enjoys and does his damnedest to write it, record, and play it with the utmost passion and authenticity. That’s exactly what Brutally Deceased Dead Lover’s Guide (Lavadome Productions) sounds like: passionately played, well written, Stockholm style death that rumbles, gurgles, and stinks of rotting flesh. Who the hell is going to argue with that combination? Not I and certainly not Tomáš.

Looking for some straight forward, old school death metal with grooves and traditional song structures? If so, then stay as far away as possible from any of Ulcerate’s three full-length releases. The New Zealand trio is the quintessential forward-thinking Willowtip act, even more so than most other groups on the roster, not to mention modern death metal in general. Angular, shape-shifting rhythms, guitar work that is more about the painting of sonic pictures than popular notions of riffing, and a vibe in both lyrics and music that is suffocating in its bleakness. As such, The Destroyers of All is in fact all that and a bag of chips. Drummer/composer Jamie St. Merat, uh, opens that bag to reveal its contents…something like that anyway.

Burn from Denver’s Havok left a very positive impression on me and I considered it one of the better vintage-sounding 2009 albums of the thrash resurgence. Then a couple of years later Time is Up arrives and I’m thoroughly impressed with the band’s songwriting improvement and compositional twists, not to mention a thrash attack that is even more blistering and memorable. But the game-changer for me was watching Havok perform live at The Riot Room in Kansas City, MO as the second band on a bill that included Full Blown Chaos, The Absence, Malevolent Creation, and openers Beyond Terror Beyond Grace. On stage Havok kills with a conviction that I’ve rarely seen from such a young band. They play with the skill and chemistry of veterans and perform with the fiery passion of youth. I was absolutely stunned and would hate to be in any band that has to follow a Havok performance. So on to the Havok van we went to conduct the interview with vocalist/guitarist David Sanchez. Finishing off the evening with cheap tequila and 24 oz. cans of PBR didn’t leave me in the best of places, but at least I left with a vivid memory of the Havok assault.

What’s the single sickest, most perverted thought your mind has ever spewed out? Go ahead…reminisce. Now imagine that 100 times worse, covered in blood, oozing with sores, and accompanied by an accursed shrieking — and you’ve got the core of BELPHEGOR’s madness at hand. Austria’s supreme black/death masters unleashed Blood Magick Necromance unto the world recently, and head hellmouth Helmuth corresponded with Teeth of the Divine about its gooey inner workings

Fourteen Twentysix are not metal. Nor do they claim to be. Nor do I. Yet, for some reason, they fit Teeth of the Divine’s bill just fine. Last year I reviewed the band’s latest effort, Lighttown Closure, and while I thought it showed a lot of promise, it just didn’t quite reach the premise. This was one of the reasons why I got into a discussion with the band’s primus motor, Chris van der Linden. The other reason was, that on their upcoming new album, Antimatter’s Mick Moss will be making an appearance. Bang! Newsflash! Chris wasn’t the only one to take part in the party though, as Jelle Goossens and Tom van Nuenen from the band popped in and answered a few questions as well. Some even, related to metal.

Week number 11 starts with DYING FETUS as both Erik Thomas and Scott Alisoglu take a look at the Dying Fetus reissues released by Relapse Records (no surprise there). If you originally missed the albums, then it’s about time you read if you’ve missed out on something good…

Well, we haven’t had a giveaway for a while here at teethofthedivine.com, so we thought we’d reward your patience with a killer giveaway from an upcoming new label. Not just a CD, not just two CDs..oh no amigo! This is a full on 4 CD giveaway and a sick T-shirt will be thrown in for good measure.

A confusing battle over intellectual property rights and trademark has left the Finnish heavy metal scene in tearful turmoil. Hevisaurus―the gold- and platinum record selling heavy metal band―has fallen into a limbo after the negotiations between self-proclaimed originator Mirka Rantanen and the group’s original label, Sony Music came to a halt. Primal rage inducing legal battles are ongoing and no doubt, more are firing up as the band’s GWAR-meets-Barney outfits were confiscated, grinding the performers’ tour plans to a halt.

Her laugh is infectious, her spirit is addictive, and her stage presence is second to none. The person to whom I refer is Veronica Freeman, a heavy metal icon and an incredibly powerful singer that deserves far wider recognition than she’s gotten, as does her band, U.S. traditional metallers Benedictum. Witnessing Benedictum bring the house down at the 2007 edition of Chicago PowerFest in support of debut album Uncreation was by far the most pleasant surprise of that weekend and I’ve been a fan ever since.

NEXT CHAPTER IN AWARD-WINNING BAND’s STORIED CAREER SET TO UNFOLD Celebrated progressive rock / cutting-edge metal band BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME (also BTBAM) has inked a worldwide recording deal with Metal Blade Records. The award-winning North Carolina quintet will kick off the partnership with the April release of its new album The Parallax: Hypersleep […]

When I first read about Kauan, there was something strange about it. A young fellow from Chelyabinsk, Russia doing neo-folk/ambient/post-rock in Finnish. He was no doubt inspired by Tenhi. My prejudice was proved wrong as the band’s latest output, ‘Aava Tuulen Maa’, became THE album of 2009 for me. After spinning it more times than I or iTunes could count in 2010, I decided to check up on Anton Belov ― the primus motor behind the music ― to see if I could become any wiser about what lies behind Kauan and Belov. Aside from the fact that Kauan’s upcoming album ‘Kuu’ is coming out soon on Italy’s Avantgarde Music.

Melodic death metal tyrants AMON AMARTH are proud to announce their 2011 U.S. headlining tour. Simply dubbed “An Evening With AMON AMARTH,” this very special trek will find the band touring without support and instead performing two separate sets each night! One set will feature upcoming album Surtur Rising in its entirety. The Viking-inspired festivities […]

Guitar-legend Gary Moore was found dead in a Spanish hotel room on February 6th. He was 58 at the time of passing. With definitive signs of alcohol use in the hotel room, speculation soon arose that the Irish guitarist had chocked in his own vomit. Official sources have yet to confirm the cause of death. […]

Three albums in and Shaun LaCanne’s Putrid Pile is something along the lines of a household name; death metal households anyway. Along with Shawn Whitaker (Insidious Decrepancy, Viral Load) and Peter Hasslebrack (Bloodsoaked), LaCanne took the one-man-band concept and turned it into a legitimate death metal form that rivals most trios, quartets, and quintets. Album number three, House of Dementia (Sevared Records) is the most accomplished Putrid Pile release to date. Having seen Shaun performed at the 2008 and 2010 editions of Central Illinois Metalfest, I can personally attest to his chops as a stage performer as well. As it had been several years since I interviewed Shaun for Metal Maniacs (R.I.P.), I figured it would be a good time to catch up and discuss his impressive list of accomplishments since 2003’s Collection of Butchery was released.

Some of you may remember that one year ago my first interview with Vetis Monarch of Canada’s Weapon was published here. Following the release of Drakonian Paradigm (one of my favorite albums of 2009), it was intended to explore Monarch’s musical/lyrical world of the mystical, the occult, and the brilliantly black metal. Here we are again and Weapon has released another masterpiece in From the Devil’s Tomb, a longer, denser, and indisputably heavier affair that retains the exotic flourishes and black/thrash basis, whilst delivering the goods with an approach that bludgeons with death metal force. As such, a Weapon album will again be included in my year-end Top 10 list. Vetis Monarch offers an insider’s view of From the Devil’s Tomb.