REVIEW SECOND COMING "DEATH FUCKING METAL" & "WILL NOT ENTER HEAVENS GATE"

During the preparation of the Mightiest story that is yet to come, I had the pleasure of a great promo package that also included two releases by the death metallers from Second Coming. Second Coming are the death metal counterpart to Mightiest due to personal overlaps, whereby the expression "Second Coming" denotes  a Christian belief that Jesus will return again after his ascension to heaven about two thousand years ago. But not only the title "Will not enter heavens gate" suggests that we are definitely not dealing with passionate Christians here, haha.

REVIEW BLASPHEMATORY "THE LOWER CATACOMBS"

Blasphematory from New Jersey, USA, honoured us a few months ago with their second album called "The lower catacombs" on Nuclear Winter Records. The album title really says it all, because musically the band descends into the deepest maws of hell to present their rancid, dirty death metal, which is always presented with the right groove at the right place. The band, which consists of veterans of the scene - among others, there are personnel overlaps with the also highly recommendable death metallers of Siege Column and the long-established black metal band Abazagorath - knows how to convince the listener during the almost 40 minutes with a brutal mixture of fast parts, gruff, dragged-out parts and a always wonderfully creaking bass. In addition, there are abysmal vocals, what else would fit to this kind of music? So whoever wants to listen to a extremely dark and dirty bastard, consisting of influences from compatriots like Incantation, Funebrarum, Autopsy, Rottrevore, Obituary but also from Finnish bands like Abhorrence, Depravity or Necropsy has to listen to this masterpiece. Highly recommended!

REVIEW PROTECTOR "EXCESSIVE OUTBURST OF DEPRAVITY" (DEUTSCH)

Mit "Excessive Outburst Of Depravity" veröffentlichen Protector, die deutsch-schwedische Band um Martin Missy, dem einzig verbliebenen Mitglied der Originalbesetzung, das vierte Album nach der Reunion im Jahr 2011, diesmal wieder über High Roller Records. Seit der Wiederbelebung der Band sind Protector nun erfreulicherweise einer größeren Anzahl und vor allem einer neuen Generation von Metal-Fans bekannt, dennoch gehören Protector leider zum Club der unterbewertetsten Metal-Bands aller Zeiten. In einer fairen Welt hätten Protector den Status einer Band wie Sodom, aber gut, das ist eine andere Geschichte...  

REVIEW PROTECTOR "EXCESSIVE OUTBURST OF DEPRAVITY"

With "Excessive Outburst Of Depravity" Protector, the German-Swedish band around Martin Missy, the only remaining member of the original line-up, releases the fourth album after the reunion in 2011, this time again via High Roller Records. Since the revival of the band, Protector are now fortunately known to a larger number and especially to a new generation of metal fans, yet Protector unfortunately belong to the club of the most underrated metal bands of all time. In a fair world Protector would have the status of a band like Sodom, but well, that's another story...  

INTERVIEW JOAKIM STERNER (NECROPHOBIC / UNHALLOW)

"In the summer of 1982, when I was at a summer camp, a guy there showed me Iron Maiden and I was hooked right away."

There was no specific reason for this interview, I had been carrying around the idea of doing a Necrophobic interview for a while. Since they say that the first experiences are among the most formative, it's also logical that "The nocturnal silence", Necrophobic's debut from 1993, made a lasting impression on me. Although it was by no means my first death metal album, it was one of the first that I got back then, along with bands like Unleashed, Obituary, Morbid Angel, Grave, Benediction, Bolt Thrower, Asphyx and Cannibal Corpse. Of course, it's difficult to filter out aspects like nostalgia, but when I listen to the album today with its outstanding songs, then one must definitely attest to the album being one of the strongest and most important albums in Swedish metal history, especially because it was already the anticipation of the fusion of death and black metal. And of course all albums of this band are exceptional, especially the last two captivate in a different, more refined way. Nevertheless, for this interview, I have concentrated on this debut album in particular. Drummer and founding member Joakim Sterner, who has another band called Unhallow at the start (more details in the interview), answered my questions.

REVIEW DEFECTED DECAY "TROOPS OF ABOMINATION"

Defected Decay from Hattingen in the southern Ruhr area were founded in the summer of 2019. After their debut album "Kingdom of Sin", "Troops of Abomination" is the second work of this duo, which is also active with Suffersystem. Before that, they were musically active with Resurrected, a permanent institution in the underground, and Dark Before Dawn. 

REVIEW MEFISTO "PHOSPHORUS"

The legendary Mefisto, founded in Stockholm in 1984, are at the start with a new work. The new album is called "Phosphorus" and contains ten tracks with a running time of 50 minutes. It will be released on 13 July via GMR Music Group.

After disappearing into oblivion for almost three decades after their foundation, Mefisto have released three albums since then. Especially the last album of 2019, "Octagram" (Bathory had an "Octagon" album, Mefisto and Bathory are, so to speak, the primeval soup of Swedish extreme metal) was appealing, as it was a very dark and heavy work.

INTERVIEW DEATHRITE

Deathrite from Leipzig have been a household name in the death metal scene at least since their killer album "Revelation of Chaos". With the stylistic changes of the successor "Nightmares Reign" they then pushed some people in front of the head, many others were thrilled. Now their new EP "Delirium" was released these days, a good reason to interview singer Tony.

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Hello first of all. How are you doing? You just released the new EP "Delirium". How are the reactions to it so far? And how was the release show with Vidargängr and Nocturnal Witch?

Hello Gerald. We are doing well, so far there are only positive reactions to the new material. Release show was great, full house. A meeting of many friends and acquaintances. 

REZENSION "MORGOTH UNCURSED-THE MORGOTH CHRONICLES"

Gut Ding will Weile haben - fast sieben Jahre nach Erscheinen dieser Morgoth -Bandbiographie habe ich mir diese nun auch zu Gemüte geführt. Der Autor Christian Krumm dürfte dem einen oder anderen schon aufgrund der Werke "Kumpels in Kutten -Heavy Metal im Ruhrgebiet" und "Century Media-Do it yourself: Die Geschichte eine Labels" bekannt sein.

Das knapp 270-seitige Werk ist flüssig geschrieben, ich habe es an einem Nachmittag durchgelesen. Der etwas außergewöhnliche Ausgangspunkt besteht darin, dass der Autor die damaligen aktuellen als auch ehemaligen Bandmitglieder und Personen aus dem Umfeld im Rahmen einer Grillparty im Hause eines Bandmitglieds in Dortmund trifft und letztendlich wohl fast alle relevanten Informationen, außer vorheriger Recherche natürlich, im Rahmen dieses Treffens erhält.

INTERVIEW VOMIT SPELL

The name Vomit Spell had been known to me for some time. In fact, I had listened to the demo some time ago, but then lost track of the band again. A mistake, as it now turns out, as the debut album released on FDA Records a few months ago offers great stuff for all fans of dark sounds who know what to do with a dark and intense mixture of death metal and grindcore (read the review of the album HERE) !

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Hey, first tell us something about the band. When was Vomit Spell founded? Did you all know each other before or did you at least partly get to know each other through the band? In which other bands did you play before?

Hi, Markus (guitar) and Jochen (drums) met in 2015 through an ad and first met in a friend's rehearsal room to see if it would fit. The first song was then written and rehearsed in Jochen's gazebo (!!!). Then we rented a room and recruited Philipp (vocals) and Sepp (bass), both buddies. Marco, our second guitarist, joined us shortly before the demo was written. Sepp has left us in the meantime and since then we have been desperately looking for a replacement on bass. Markus used to play in the grindcore band Nyctophobic and since a few years in the crust/metal band Hellknife. Jochen was active in Hafrm, a local hardcore band from Mainz, and the death metal band I am Havoc.

REVIEW VOMIT SPELL "VOMIT SPELL" (ENGLISH)

Vomit Spell from Mainz released their self-titled debut album on FDA Records in October last year, after a first demo was released in 2019. In 2020, this demo was also released officially on CD by FDA Records.

Vomit Spell play a great mixture of death metal and grindcore. I just throw names like Terrorizer, Repulsion, Napalm Death, Carcass or Autopsy into the round. But, to name a band that doesn't belong to this circle of old masters, you can bring the Danes of Undergang into play. So you see, this is not about technique and sophisticated aspects, but Vomit Spell dig deep in the dirt to create these ominous sounds. So on this release, atmosphere and authenticity take centre stage over the course of a good half hour!    

REVIEW VOMIT SPELL "VOMIT SPELL"

Vomit Spell aus Mainz veröffentlichten im Oktober letzten Jahres ihr selbstbetiteltes Debütalbum auf FDA Records, nachdem im Jahr 2019 schon ein erstes Demo veröffentlicht wurde. Dieses gelangte 2020 schlussendlich ebenfalls bei FDA Records nachträglich zu offiziellen Veröffentlichungsehren auf CD.

Vomit Spell spielen eine großartige Mischung aus Death Metal und Grindcore. Ich werfe hier einfach mal Namen wie Terrorizer, Repulsion, Napalm Death, Carcass oder Autopsy in die Runde. Aber, um eine Band zu benennen, die nicht diesem Kreis der alten Meister zugehörig ist, kann man die Dänen von Undergang ins Spiel bringen. Ihr seht also schon, hier geht es nicht um Technik und Schöngeisterei, sondern Vomit Spell wühlen tief im Dreck um diese unheilvollen Klänge zu erschaffen. Auf dieser Veröffentlichung stehen also Atmosphäre und Authentizität im Laufe der guten halben Stunde im Vordergrund!    

INTERVIEW VERHÄNGNIS (ENGLISH VERSION)

Good things take time  

In October 2020 I discovered more or less by coincident the Bandcamp profile of a band called Verhängnis (the german term for doom or fate), who offered two releases there, a demo and an album. Fascinating, gruff, dragging doomdeath with echoing vocals and expressionistic German lyrics had immediately caught my attention. Associatively, the legendary Australians of Disembowelment came directly to my mind. I wrote to the band to ask if they were interested in an interview and heard nothing for a long time. Then, at the beginning of 2022, I suddenly received a mail out of nowhere that my message must have been hidden deep in the spam folder. Well, almost one and a half years later this interview can take place after all, meanwhile the band also has a second album called "Irrlicht" in their repertoire, which was released in October 2021.

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Hello, please tell us something more about Verhängnis. When exactly and from what occasion followed the formation of Verhängnis?

Hi. First of all, thank you for the invitation to the interview. I'll have to elaborate a bit more. I've been playing in various bands for quite some time and have also been involved in recording technology and music production for a few years now. Together with one of my closest friends, I spontaneously went into the rehearsal room around 2015 and we recorded the demo for our then two-man project Kriegszittern without much prior knowledge, with simple means and a lot of experimentation. Over time, more and more equipment and experience came along and I started working with synthesizers, drum machines and MIDI. Sometime in 2018 I started to combine the two areas and recorded the songs that would later be called "Finsternis" and "Abgrund". I didn't have a fixed idea in which direction it should go and just tried it out. After I tinkered with the two songs every now and then over the next two years, but actually had enough other stuff to do, the pandemic came in 2020 and everything was put on hold for the time being.

INTERVIEW VERHÄNGNIS

Gut Ding will Weile haben  

Im Oktober 2020 entdeckte ich mehr oder weniger zufällig das Bandcamp-Profil einer Band namens Verhängnis, die zwei Veröffentlichungen, ein Demo und ein Album, dort anbot. Faszinierender, grufig-ranziger, schleppender Doomdeath mit hallenden Vocals und expressionistischen deutschen Texten hatte unverzüglich meine Neugier geweckt. Assoziativ kamen mir die legendären Australier von Disembowelment direkt in den Sinn. Ich schrieb die Band an, ob Interesse an einem Interview bestände und hörte erst einmal lange Zeit nichts mehr. Angang 2022 erhielt ich dann plötzlich aus dem Nichts eine Mail, dass meine Nachricht wohl ganz tief im Spamordner versteckt gewesen war. Nun gut, also fast anderthalb Jahre später kann dieses Interview doch noch stattfinden, mittlerweile hat die Band auch ein im Oktober 2021 veröffentlichtes zweites Album namens "Irrlicht" im Repertoire.

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Hallo! Erzähle doch mal bitte etwas mehr zu Verhängnis. Wann genau und aus welchem Anlass heraus folgte die Gründung von Verhängnis?

Hi. Erstmal Danke für die Einladung zum Interview. Da muss ich direkt ein bisschen weiter ausholen. Ich spiele seit längerer Zeit in diversen Bands und beschäftige mich seit einigen Jahren auch mit Aufnahmetechnik und Musikproduktion. Zusammen mit einem meiner engsten Freunde bin ich ungefähr 2015 spontan in den Proberaum gegangen und wir haben ohne große Vorkenntnisse, mit einfachen Mittel und viel Experimentierfreude die Demo für unser damaliges Zwei-Mann-Projekt Kriegszittern aufgenommen. Mit der Zeit kam immer mehr Equipment und Erfahrung dazu und ich hab angefangen mit Synthesizern, Drumcomputern und MIDI zu arbeiten. Irgendwann 2018 hab ich dann angefangen die beiden Bereiche zu verbinden und die Songs aufgenommen, die später einmal Finsternis und Abgrund heißen würden. Ich hatte keine feste Idee in welche Richtung die Sache gehen sollte und hab einfach ausprobiert. Nachdem ich in den nächsten zwei Jahren immer mal wieder an den beiden Songs rumgebastelt hab, aber eigentlich genug anderen Kram zu tun hatte, kam dann 2020 die Pandemie und alles war erstmal auf Eis gelegt.

INTERVIEW INCANTATION

"In death metal there are no rules, it's just about expressing your inner most dark feelings. We have our own vision and at times the masses didn’t always get it. But I think over the last few years more and more death metal fans understand what we are trying to express with our music. It’s like the scene caught up with us."  

Incantation, who have been around since the distant year of 1989, have been a constant gourmet treat for fans of dark, dirty death metal since their debut album "Onward to Golgotha" in 1992. Fortunately, according to the motto "what goes around comes around", the band's qualities seem to be getting around more and more, so that the latest album "Sect of Vile Divinities" can already be considered the biggest commercial success in the band's history.The author of this blog is a die-hard follower of the band, and so the opportunity had finally come to talk to band founder and scene veteran John Mc Entee, who plays guitar and is responsible for the vocals, about various things. The frontman turned out to be a very thoughtful and reflective guy.

Hey, how are you at the moment? I hope you and your families, relatives and friends are healthy! How is it corona-wise with you in Pennsylvania at the moment?

All is good here. I now live in Greensboro, North Carolina for the last few years and it’s totally amazing down here. For me, the lockdown has been ok. I’m kinda a loner so I don’t really like to be around other people unless it’s friends or horror or metal people. For the band, it has been great, we didn’t know what to expect releasing the “Sect of Vile Divinities” album a-mist the pandemic, but it ended up being a major success for us, which was super cool.

I know it’s been a difficult time for almost everyone over this pandemic and I have sadly even lost a few friends due to it. It's just my personality to want to make the best out of any situation. I’m also very fortunate to have an amazing home life and that really makes everything seem great.   

INTERVIEW TRIDENTIFER (ENGLISH)

"Tridentifer doesn't have to be out of the line, I don't want to reinvent death metal!"

Tridentifer from Kaiserslautern, or K-Town as some Americans say, play interesting old school death metal, which on the one hand owes its inspiration to the Swedish grandmasters of the subject like Entombed, Grave and Dismember, on the other hand has found its own little niche through the use of gloomy-scary synthesizer parts and doomy passages. The band has been around for almost ten years now and has released a few albums in that time. Guitarist Marco, who by the way used to be a member of the relatively well known Dark, answered all my questions.

First of all, tell me something about the band. When was the band founded? How did you know each other?

Hello Gerald, Hello Systematic Desensitization Zine! First of all thank you for the interest in our band! Then I'll start with the prehistory:

After my former band Redgrin (of which I was also a founding member and had spent many years) had been very slow, I decided to quit and go my own way.

Tridentifer was founded shortly before, on December 23, 2011 and was supposed to be a side project for my musical ideas, which I was always thwarted before. 

INTERVIEW TRIDENTIFER (DEUTSCH)

"Tridentifer muss nicht aus der Reihe fallen, ich möchte den Death Metal nicht neu erfinden!"

Tridentifer aus Kaiserslautern spielen interessanten Old School Death Metal, der seine Inspiration einerseits den schwedischen Großmeistern des Fachs wie Entombed, Grave und Dismember verdankt, andererseits durch den Einsatz von düster-schaurigen Synthesizer-Parts und doomigen Passagen seine eigene kleine Nische gefunden hat. Die Band gibt es nun auch schon fast zehn Jahre und sie hat es in dieser Zeit auf einige Veröffentlichungen gebracht. Gitarrist Marco, der früher übrigens mal bei den doch relativ bekannten Dark zugange war, stand mir ausführlich Rede und Antwort.

Erzähl doch erst einmal was zur Band. Wann wurde die Band gegründet? Woher kanntet Ihr Euch?

Hallo Gerald, Hallo Systematic Desensitization Zine! Erstmal Danke für das Interesse an unserer Band! Dann leg ich mal los, zur Vorgeschichte:

Nachdem es bei meiner damaligen Band Redgrin (bei der ich auch Gründungsmitglied war und viele Jahr verbracht hatte) doch schon sehr zäh voran ging, hatte ich mich dazu entschlossen auszusteigen und meinen eigenen Weg zu gehen.

Tridentifer wurde jedoch schon kurz davor, am 23.12.2011 gegründet und sollte eigentlich nur als Nebenprojekt für meine musikalischen Ideen dienen, bei denen ich zuvor irgendwie immer ausgebremst wurde.  

INTERVIEW ULCEROUS PHLEGM

"Even my parents still tell me today how nice they all were, and so polite at the breakfast table together at my house." 

I recently discovered on some sites an English version of this interview with Bernd from the legendary Bavarian grinders Ulcerous Phlegm, originally published in German (read here) in November 2017 via Systematic Desensitization Zine. Well, Ulcerous Phlegm were - as can be seen from the numerous cover versions of their most famous track "Consequences"- an internationally known and influential band. So an English version makes all the more sense, which I would not like to withhold from you at this point, of course.

Here is an interview with Bernd, who used to play bass and do vocals for the legendary Bavarian grinders Ulcerous Phlegm, who disbanded in 1993. I'll start the time machine...here you can see Bernd in action, wearing a chic Shelter shirt...

Hey Bernd, let's get started. First of all, I have to say by way of introduction that I - born in 1978 - never really got to know Ulcerous Phlegm during their active time. When you disbanded, I was 15 years old... I came across the name Ulcerous Phlegm from time to time over the decades, but I only really took notice of the band when the discography was released via Power It Up. Did you hear from several people who felt the same way or did the Discography CD/LP rather go to the people who already knew you anyway (although a slimmed down Discography CD had been released before or even two ??)?

Hi! Yes, you are definitely not the only one. Thanks to the discography on Power-It-Up I even got in touch with people who are now just 20 years old and interested in grindcore / death metal of the 80s and early 90s. But that was also a time that was style-defining. Nevertheless, I don't think you should only dig in the past. Musically, every decade has exciting developments to show. 

INTERVIEW SLAUGHTERDAY

Slaughterday, the creative duo from Leer in Lower Saxony, Germany, have been delivering high quality old school death metal since 2013. These days their third album called "Ancient Death Triumph" is released, a welcome occasion for a talk with vocalist and drummer Bernd.

Hey, first of all I hope you’re doing well during these unordinary times. Did you have to cancel some of the gigs and / or are some of them postponed to a later date ? Could you play some gigs since the outbreak of corona (or should I better say „outbreak of evil“ ).

Hey Gerald, we are doing well, although the corona situation is really fatiguing these times. Unfortunately, we had to cancel some shows at the end of the year and some festivals got postponed. It feels weird to release an album, knowing that you will not be able to promote it by playing live shows. The postponement of some festivals also put us on hold for the year after next. Until then we will not be the centre of attention anymore so maybe we have to wait for another album release again. Luckily we are not affected jobwise.  

INTERVIEW SOULBURN

Soulburn from the Netherlands released their fourth album called "Noa's D'ark" these days, which should definitely be heard by fans who like Asphyx, Celtic Frost, Pentacle and listeners who like Death / Doom and prefer high quality dark music in general. Apart from that, Soulburn have of course long been a brand in their own right and need no comparison with other bands. Furthermore, l would like to point out that the lyrical concept of the new album perfectly reflects the state of our times, which are characterised by climate catastrophes, pandemics and environmental destruction. But more about this in the interview. Guitarist Eric Daniels answered my questions. 

Hey, how are you doing? How are the reactions concerning the new album?

Hey there, we are doing very well, thank you. The reactions on our new album "Noa’s D’ark" are very overwhelming. People like the new album as much as we do, we see a lot of reponse and it makes us proud and happy to see our fans like our new album very much.