Archive for the ‘Frontpage Feature’ Category

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.

God Dethroned is one of those death metal bands that define reliability, consistency, and excellence, almost to the point where I think they are sometimes taken for granted and perhaps not afforded the level of recognition they deserve. Some will point to albums like 1992’s The Christhunt, 1997’s The Grand Grimoire, or perhaps 2001’s Ravenous as the classics, in many cases due to nostalgia associated with remembering that first album that sucked you in for good.

It’s that time of the year again, when it’s time to take a look back at the previous year and figure out what the end score was. And as it is with things over here at Teeth of the Divine, this thing is legen-waitforit-dary…but none the less open to debate. So take part in the fun and post your top 2010 lists too! Without further a due, 12 pages of all things 2010 (and more or less, metal). Enjoy!

Love it or hate it (which seems to be the general feeling around here) deathcore is here and here with a vengeance. A sure sign that the genre isn’t going anywhere? A band like Oceano is nestled neatly on Earache Records, one of the oldest and most respected labels and purveyors of “true’ metal. After releasing their debut, Depths in 2009, the band quickly rose to the top of the deathcore heap and with their latest release, Contagion dropping earlier this fall, they look to stay there despite a large line up shuffle. I caught up vocalist Adam Warren to delve deeper into Oceano….

Lots going on. Iceland and Ireland in economic ruin. Haiti in rubble. Israel’s right-wing regime kicking around a new World War. And nearly half the U.S. digging an anti-queer Barbie doll and would-be president who shoots animal snuff films.

Put in context, anything going on in metal may seem like small beans. But still, we have our subculture, and the big story—what I’m calling The Great Metal Fashion War of 2010 because I can—is no less lacking in cultural hysteria. It isn’t a war-war, of course, more a metaphor thing. Except when it kind of isn’t.

An odd spelling for the band name, a digital-only label that offers its releases to the masses for free download, and an approach to death metal that is traditional, song-centric, and just damn heavy… In the case of Contaigeon’s Death as the Gates of Delirium on UK label Works of Ein, the combination is a winning one.

You think you know the underground? You don’t know shit! Sorry, got a little carried away there; just exaggerating for effect, no offense. But seriously, folks, Serbia’s NadimaČ is about as underground as it gets these days, at least as far as exposure outside of the Slavic region and a staunch DIY work ethic are concerned. With a slew of releases (full-lengths, splits, comps, vinyl, DVDs, etc) on labels like China’s (yeah, China) Area Death Productions, and singing in their native tongue exclusively, NadimaČ is one band that truly puts the music first and money/fame a distant…ah hell, who are we kidding? It’s not a consideration.

‘Tis the season and all that. And in the spirit of all things festive and or Capitalistic, teethofthedivine is teaming up with Rotting Corpse Records to give 3 lucky winners, three of Rotting Corpse Records’ latest releases.

After almost twenty years, Enslaved continues to push onwards into uncharted waters. This time, they’re promoting their new, critically-acclaimed album Axioma Ethica Odini on what’s possibly their biggest US tour yet (with countrymates Dimmu Borgir). Frontman Grutle Kjellson took some time to talk with me before the show in Denver. It was just above freezing where we spoke outside, but not surprisingly, the cold didn’t seem to affect him at all.

A one-word album title. Two band members gone, and in their place, the addition of three guest vocalists, booming choirs and a massive orchestra. And then of course, those white leather and fur costumes. Yeah, it’s been an exciting and unpredictable time for Dimmu Borgir. I sat down with Galder sat down before their show in Denver (with countrymates Enslaved) to talk about the creation of their new epic Abrahadabra, the changes in the band’s sound and how to kill time on the road.

You mean The Dead consists of three Australian musicians of the extreme whose neural pathways were warped in some internal fire of the mind, resulting in a sludgified, space truckin’ and head trippin’ terror march through death metal inhabited worm holes…or some shit like that? How absolutely shocking.

In metal more than any other genre it seems that the domain of the small/underground record label is more often than not run by those with a genuine appreciation and love of the music over anything remotely resembling profit motivation. That is certainly the case with Iordan K, owner, operator, and overload of Stormspell Records. The music offered is, in the most fundamental of terms, Heavy Metal. If it furthers your understanding of the Stormspell mission, then you may also wish to consider descriptors like “old school,” “traditional,” or “classic” heavy metal, as well as “thrash.” Iordan prides himself on offering the complete package to consumers and eschews MP3 sales. He also scours the planet in a quest to find the true gems of the genre, whether old, new, obscure, or geographically isolated. Iordan’s story is an interesting one, to say the least, and Stormspell Records is one of the coolest labels on this planet we call Earth. Read on, learn, and support metal! Labels like Stormspell and guys like Iordan deserve it.

Discontent with the waves of false metal plaguing our great nation, the members of Gravehill joined forces to school all in the realm of true death metal, and they’ve done exactly that since their inception. Ringleader Mike Abominator chatted with Teeth about Gravehill’s role in the takeover of the metal world, the band’s plans to dominate at Maryland Deathfest next year, and various other topics involving leather, steel, blood and carnage.

Tom Gabriel Warrior has much to celebrate. It’s been a busy and productive few years since the return of Celtic Frost ended in a storm of animosity and a lack of shared vision. But Warrior has before seen one band dissolve only to give way to something greater, and as he graciously gave a good, long block of his time from the road (after I’d been lucky enough to see Triptykon’s New York debut), he spoke—as he often has—about the dissolution of Frost… but he also made it clear, both in stated terms and in the tone of satisfaction he’s experiencing at the moment, that Triptykon, while rooted in his past, is a band of the here and now—and of the future.

Keep it coming, baby! I’m talking about the gurgling, coughing, crackling, and crushing sounds of old school Swedish death metal! The good stuff; not the weak imitations. There has been a resurgence of the filth these last couple of years in terms of new bands forming, old bands reuniting (or simply coming off long hiatuses), and an increased level of recognition for the forefathers. Sweden’s Interment is one of those “old” (circa 1988) Swedish death spine snappers that saw fit to reunite years later, releasing a gnarly split with the lordly Funebrarum in 2006 and knocking one out of the park with this year’s Pulverised Records’ release Into the Crypts of Blasphemy. Here is what guitarist/vocalist Johan Jansson (ex-Centinex, Demonical) had to say about it.

After reviewing and enjoying the debut album from Jaldaboath, I thought it might be entertaining to conduct an interview with Sir Jaldabaoth, the Grand Guitarist Inspector and Grand Sovereign Songwriter General of the self-proclaimed Hammering Heraldic Metal act (aka James Fogarty). Feeling that such issues as his split with The Meads of Asphodel, fellow British metal acts, cross cultural comedic boundaries and their current album Rise of the Heraldic Beasts warranted serious investigative journalism. Of course I should have expected that a knight responsible for crafting such songs as “Bash the Bishop” and “Axe Weilding Nuns” would not turn out to be a typical journalistic foray, and quickly descended into an uninformative but amusing episode of Black Adder…

After a critically acclaimed debut (2008’s …Of Frost and War), Dutch supergroup (members of Gorefest, Asphyx, Thanatos and Houwitser) left fans wanting after a strange digital only EP last year, but have now fully satiated fans with a full-length follow-up that continues the quality of the debut. Though still a war themed album, On Divine […]

In the overly pissed-in kiddie pool that is today’s heavy metal music, it’s nice to see a mean, smirking heavyweight like Chicago’s Cardiac Arrest land a cannonball right in the center and, with a sonic blastwave, send so many thumb-sucking weaklings flying. I mean, it really warms the heart. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, three of four members of said band were recently able to communicate with Teeth of the Divine about everything just short of My Little Pony and brain surgery. Read on for the gory details.

DEATH ANGEL are back with their new opus ‘Relentless Retribution’. The two previous albums ‘The Art of Dying’ (2004) and ‘Killing Season’ (2008) seemed to divide the crowd quite a bit. How does the new album fare? Inspired? Uninspired? Total Thrash Domination? Read our review!