INTERVIEW CHRONICLES

In the vastness of the internet I came across ChronicleS from Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, who play absolutely great, dark and sinister death metal, as can be heard particularly well on their very strong, recently released debut album "Spirits of the Mortified". A good reason to talk to the band.

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Hello, please introduce ChronicleS to the readers of Systematic Desensitization Zine. Who are you, how did you find each other? According to Metal Archives, the band has existed since 2015, but it wasn't until 2019 that there was a first sign of musical life in the form of the "WarMachine" EP. Did this take a relatively long time because it was difficult to find suitable band members?

REVIEW SUFFERSYSTEM "DISINTEGRATION OF THE INDIVIDUAL"

Suffersystem from the beautiful half-timbered town of Hattingen in the Ruhr area will release their sixth album "Disintegration of the Individual" in mid-March, like its predecessor from 2021, once again via Black Blood Records. The two band members Dirk and Daniel, who are active in other bands such as Defected Decay (read a detailed interview in English here, in German here), False Mutation (who are also releasing a new album in March this year) and - relatively recently - Seeds of Torment, have added a new, fantastic chapter to the history of Suffersystem. The music on the ten tracks, which have a total playing time of 45 minutes, always moves between death and thrash metal, with a clear edge towards death metal.

REVIEW SPECTRAL VOICE "SPARAGMOS"

Spectral Voice, the doom death band from Denver, Colorado, has now released their second album "Spragmos" via Dark Descent Records. Three quarters of the band's line-up also play in the much better-known Blood Incantation, who musically serve the opposite spectrum of death metal to Spectral Voice.The underground attitude is also clear from the fact that Spectral Voice doesn't yet have an official facebook presence, and other websites are also mercilessly out of date. So the music should speak for itself here, and the album booklet only shows vague outlines of the musicians, if at all. Very beneficial in the age of internet narcissism!

INTERVIEW UGRA KARMA

"Nepalese regard their mountains as sacred and have a high regard for everything the mountains provide: annual monsoons, fertile rivers and breathtaking beauty."

We in Europe, or more specifically here in Germany, are mostly confronted with bands from Northern or Central Europe, the USA or Australia, even Southern European bands are less on the radar, and South America is also less present. Now I am pleased to present Ugra Karma, a band from Nepal, based at the capital Kathmandu. Read for yourself what vocalist and bassist Sunil, who founded the band in 1999, has to say about death metal, the difficult early days of the band, mountaineering in the Himalayas, the caste system in Nepal and the serial killer Charles Sobhraj.

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INTERVIEW MASTER

The release of the strong new Master album "Saints Dispelled" provided a good opportunity to talk to Paul Speckmann about the new release as well as other topics.

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Hello Paul, how are you doing with the new record, is it a kind of relief when a work sees the light of day, people can buy it and you see the reactions? Or are you already totally experienced after all these years, so that it’s just routine? 

Sure it’s a relief when it’s finally released, considering the album was recorded nearly a year ago! Nothing is routine in the world of recording, it’s by far one of the best things in the world! We always have a blast recording! It’s killer to get your thoughts and ideas out on the market! It gives people a chance to read your thoughts on what’s happening in the crazy world around us at this moment. I use this platform to share my thoughts and ideas with the world, obviously not everyone is going to agree with all of them, but at least with a recording contract, it gives you a chance to put things out there!  

REVIEW MASTER "SAINTS DISPELLED"

Master have also honored us with a new album via Hmmerheart Records.The strong predecessor "Vincictive Miscreant" is already six years old, so it's high time for new Master material. Mr. Speckmann and his bandmates once again offer an insanely good mix of death and thrash metal, as only Master can. Even though Master's music is of course not innovative these days, which is not the band's aim at all, you can still recognize the band among legions of death metal bands, and that's pretty much the highest compliment you can pay an extreme metal band, which on a spontaneous consideration on my part only applies to a maximum of two dozen bands. 

REVIEW DROWNED "PROCUL HIS"

Berlin-based Drowned, who have been up to mischief in the underground since 1992 but didn´t release their debut album "Idola Specus" until 2014 after a few great demos and a 7" single, have now released their second album "Procul His".  Like its predecessor, this happens via Sepulchral Voice Records. This label, known for sinister, extreme, authentic and primal underground metal, seems to fit perfect for the band. Drowned don't do anything special per se, but this they do in a perfect manner: they play ancient death metal that sometimes playfully changes tempo or repeats melodies longer than the average metal song.