INTERVIEW THE TROOPS OF DOOM

The Troops of Doom are a new Brazilian band consisting of ex-Sepultura guitarist and bassist Jairo Guedz, who can be heard on the mangy Sepultura early works "Bestial Devastation" and "Morbid Visions". Besides Jairo, the band consists of other deserving scene veterans. The band's first official release, the EP "The rise of heresy", released on Blood Blast Distribution (a sub-label of Nuclear Blast) indulges in the good old raw thrash / death that characterised Sepultura in the early days of their career. Consequently, there are also two Sepultura covers on this EP, namely "Bestial Devastation " and "Troops of Doom". Read the interview with Jairo here.

Hello Jairo, how are you at the moment? What is the Corona pandemic doing in Brazil at the moment?

Hello Gerald, things are kinda crazy over here. People politized this pandemic shit too much and it is far from ok, but we are trying to do our best concerning new music, the band and our next steps. Hope you are fine in Germany.

INTERVIEW "ROTTING WAYS TO MISERY:THE HISTORY OF FINNISH DEATH METAL"

Towards the end of last year, the great book "Rotting Ways to Misery: the history of Finnish death metal" was published via Cult never dies. The book, named after a demo by Sentenced, impresses with well-researched facts and provides deep insights into Finnish death metal, which - in contrast to its Swedish equivalent - never became so popular. A good reason to talk to the two authors Markus Makkonen and Kim Strömsholm. Both have been members of the scene for many years and are known for bands like Hooded Menace, Sadistik Forest and Nerve Saw (Markus) and for their membership in Festerday, ...And Oceans, O or the black pop / electro formation Black Acid World (Kim). Have fun diving into the obscure depths where the rotten, slimy monstrosity of Finnish death metal originated back then and is still wreaking havoc today.  

Hey, first of all congratulations on this great and interesting book. The first thing I would ask you to do is introduce yourselves. Who of you had the idea for this book? Was there some kind of initial spark? Were you already acquainted or friends before or rather only casually acquainted ? And how long did it take from the first idea to the finished book ? 

Hi, my name is Markus Makkonen, co-author of Rotting Ways to Misery. It can be said that we both had the idea for this kind of a book. Both separately. I personally started planning the blueprint for this book around 2015 and collecting materials for it around 2016. Kim got in contact around 2017 and told he was planning a same type of a literary work himself. We quickly decided that instead of two similar books, we'd rather join forces and release a thorough work together. I knew Kim through his music. Went to see ...And Oceans play already in the 90's, but we really did not talk before we started our conversation about the book. Rotting Ways got started as there were so many stories that needed to be told and nobody was writing them down. It took about five years to plan, execute and finish it.   

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 AZARATH

Azarath from Poland have been playing great blackened death metal since 1998. Their latest, now seventh work "Saint Desecration", released by Agonia Records, combines the brutality of the earlier works with a subtle sinister atmosphere and technical finesse. A good reason for an interview, in which naturally the Polish conglomerate of church and government does not get off well. The questions were answered by Marcin "Skullripper", the question about Damnation, an awesome, unfortunately long since disbanded Polish death metal band, was answered by Bart.   

Hello, how are you? What is the situation regarding Corona in Poland ?

Hello. We have a completely incompetent government in Poland, no specific plans, just spontaneous actions. So besides Coronavirus we have a lot of bankruptcies, people are losing their jobs and are not provided with adequate assistance from the government. Restrictions are directed to everyone, but not to the church and priests. I am bored and pissed of by that, I don't even want to talk about that more. 

REVIEW IAN CUSHING-DIE TRÄNE DER ZAUERSCHEN

Von Ian Cushing stellte ich ja bereits vor geraumer Zeit "In Ewigkeit" vor, ein Werk, das mir sehr gefiel. (Besprechung hier). Auch nach dieser Veröffentlichung war der niedersächsische Autor nicht passiv, sondern schrieb mit "Die Träne der Zauberschen" nun seinen ersten Roman. Das sehr passende Artwork des Buchcovers stammt wie bereits bei der vorherigen Veröffentlichung von Karmazid.

"Die Träne der Zauberschen" lässt sich nicht einfach in ein bestimmtes Genre einordnen, vielmehr ist es eine Mischung aus Horror und Historienroman. Die Handlung des Romans verläuft auf zwei verschiedenen (Zeit-)Ebenen. Zum einen ein der Gegenwart des sehr ländlich gelegenen Dorfes Pfuhlenbeck, in dem drei mittlerweile in den besten Jahren angekommene Freunde (also Mitdreißiger) mit Ihren Familien ihr mehr oder weniger angenehmes Leben führen. Die andere Ebene deckt sieben Jahre in der Neuzeit, genauer die Jahre 1604 -1611 ab. Dort lebt die Bäckerin Barbara im Dorf Pfüeln ein anfänglich glückliches Leben mit Mann und Tochter, bis sie aufgrund Eifersucht und Neid einer Bekannten der Hexerei beschuldigt wird.  

INTERVIEW SCARABREED

Scarabreed is a relatively new band from Switzerland that plays really good death / black metal. That shouldn't be surprising, since there are old scene veterans here, who already played with earlier, well-known bands. These days the band released their debut album called "Throne of the dark ages", a good reason for an interview.

Hello, I hope you are well, especially in times of the Corona pandemic. Please introduce the band, when did you form, how did it happen, did you know each other before? What did you release before the debut album? In which bands were you active before ?

Scarabreed: Thank you for your interest in Scarabreed and this interview.

Phillip: I have played with Denial and Amputate so far.

Markus: We have all been active in bands before, with Riccardo and Phillip I played in Amputate.

Riccardo: Also Amputate and Denial.

Thomas: I had played with a few bands and also helped out live a lot. I played with Azrael, Sabaism together with Marco from Damnatory and Chris from Sickening Gore, later with Innocent F.F. and 2Black and now you can see where this has brought me.   

INTERVIEW ACCUSER

Accuser from Siegen, Germany (more about the origin later at the end of the interview) recently released another very strong album, once again on Metal Blade, which will make any old or new follower of the band happy again. A good reason to talk to guitarist and singer Frank Thoms. 

Hello Frank, how are you? Have you been spared from Corona ? How has the pandemic affected the band's situation regarding the release of the new album? Are you also afraid that such a release will be lost because you can't promote it live, or do you think that people will concentrate more on good music to listen to at home, because there's not much you can do at the moment anyway?

Hi Gerald, thanks for asking, we are doing well. We and our relatives have been spared so far. The pandemic had no impact in terms of the release, as we were in the studio until the end of February 2020 and it was clear from the start that the album would come out in November. It was a few days after we were in the studio that Corona started. It was a tight thing. No band can promote anything live at the moment. That's why I think that listening habits are changing again and that people are more likely to listen to a complete album at home again instead of individual mp3 files. With a few responses to our new album, I could notice that the listeners were intensively engaged with the material.