REVIEW DEATHMACE "COFFIN' MAGGOTS"

Almost exactly two years ago I reviewed Deathmace's debut album named "Bleeding Frenzy" (look here for the review) which convinced me very much with its powerful mixture between death and thrash metal.

REVIEW HYEMS "ANATOMIE DES SCHEITERNS"

German black metal outfit Hyems released their new album called "Anatomie des Scheiterns" (which means "anatomy of failure") on May 1st via MDD Records. I really was looking forward to the new record, because the predecessor "Devianz-dem Menschen ein Wolf" (which means "deviance-man is a wolf to man" aka homo homini lupus-you see, these German guys prefer using their native language for their lyrics, but more on that later), released in 2015, is a really great record which received too little attention. The band exists since 2000 and released after some demos three full-lengths and two EPs in all, including the new record.  

INTERVIEW CENTRATE

Some weeks ago I found more or less by chance this band called Centrate in the depths of the world wide web. Their logo reminded me of Slayer, so the musical direction wasn't difficult to guess. 

Hey, first of all please introduce the band to the readers of Systematic Desensitization Zine. Who are you, when did you found the band and so on…

Hey, we are an underground Thrash Metal band from Dillenburg (Hessen), Germany and we founded the band in 2010.

We are: Niki – Vocals, Marcel – Bass, Tobi – Guitar, Jonas - Guitar and me, Manu –Drums. Jonas left the band a few weeks ago, but he will join us for the next few live shows.  

INTERVIEW YOTH IRIA

The release of YOTH IRIA's first release (review here) was the perfect reason to talk to one of the legends of the world wide metal scene, namely Jim Mutilator, mostly known for his work with the mighty Rotting Christ and Varathron. By the way, allow me to note that I remember reading my first Rotting Christ-interview in Italian extreme metal Magazine Grind Zone (which published a German edition for a short period) back in 1995. So, 25 years later I myself conduct an interview with Jim, so circles are closing once more.   

First of all I hope you are doing well in this unordinary times. How‘s the situation in Greece concerning the corona-virus ? How does it affect peoples daily life ? What about today's economical situation after the beginning of the financial crisis in 2010 ? Is there a lot of fear, that Corona will throw the Greek economy back to earlier state again ?

At the moment I'm back at my village sided in the Pindos mountains and I keep myself as isolated as I really can. At least the situation in Greece is quite under control compared to other European countries. Very few people have died and all of them were aged over 70, but of course all the people have the right to live the longest. Of course the daily life has been totally different as there are limits on all activities and you can go out only for specific reasons like buying foods, medicines, gas....
The economical situation is still bad and I think after this unexpected pandemic the economy will go even worse. 

REVIEW HOR "EXITIUM"

After the great return of some legendary Greek black metal musicians with YOTH IRIA, this review is about another Greek black metal band called HOR. To be honest, I haven't heard the name of this band before Vangelis, the label manager from Sanit Mils Records contacted me and introduced this band to me. If this hadn't happened, this really astonishing band would have passed me and maybe I would never have taken notice of their masterpiece called "Exitium". HOR was founded in 2017 by two musicians which use the pseudonyms Ophion and Throne and "Exitium" is their first official release. 

REVIEW YOTH IRIA "UNDER HIS SWAY"

I don't remember exactly where I read it first, but when I took notice from a new black metal "supergroup" consisting of members from legendary bands such as Rotting Christ,Varathron, Necromantia, Thou Art Lord, Diabolos Rising and Ravencult for example, I was very excited how the final tracks would sound. Could the band fulfill the high expectations me and a lot of people have because of the prominent bandmembers and their glorious past ? To become concrete YOTH IRIA is Jim Mutilator (ex-Rotting Christ, ex- Varathron etc.), the Magus (Necromantia, Thou Art Lord, ex-Rotting Christ, ex-Diabolos Rising etc.), George Emmanuel (Lucifer's Child, ex-Rotting Christ) and J.V. Maelstrom (Ravencult etc).  

INTERVIEW PENTACLE

"All the lyrics of the album point to one direction: death !"

Pentacle released the new album "Spectre of the Eight Ropes" on Iron Pegasus Records some months ago. It's certainly no exaggeration to say that a lot of people in the underground scene, wherever they may live, could hardly wait until its release. A really good cause to do an interview with Wannes Gubbels, vocalist, bass player and lyricist of this battleship of dutch death metal. If you didn't know yet, you will realize in the course of this interview that Wannes is an real old-school maniac and has a lot of interesting things to say.

Hey Wannes, first of all congratulations for the great new album! Can you tell us something about the creative process concerning the creation of the new album? How were the reactions concerning „Spectre of the Eight Ropes“ in general ?

Thank you very much! Glad to hear you enjoy the album. I haven’t read that many reviews (yet), but those which caught my eye, are very much favourable for the band. It’s great to see people like the album. For sure, we create the music for ourselves first, but there’s no need to deny it’s satisfying when “Spectre…” receives positive reactions. We worked very hard to make this album happen. For a long time it wasn’t even sure if we would record a full length ever, but we made it happen and that’s something I feel very proud of. It’s truly a creation of dedication and hard work, not to forget inspiration. The road of creating “Spectre…” is very long one. In the beginning, it was uncertain what path to walk. After the “Five Candles burning red” MCD we weren’t sure what the next step would be. For sure we wanted to compose a new album. I always feel disappointed we weren’t able to create more full length albums for Pentacle, but I know the reasons why it didn’t happen and there’s little use to ponder too much about it. We decided to start writing new material and see how this would develop. A new Pentacle release could have been everything something in between an official rehearsal tape and a new full length album. After a long time rehearsing (I think it was a couple of years) we had written three new songs and at that point I decided to alter course. I was tired of little direction we followed and decided the next release would become a full length album and nothing else. This is what I wanted achieve and it turned into our focus point. I booked the studio with the knowledge I had to write five additional songs and all the lyrics. Not only that, we had to rehearse them as well to be able to record the material. This was a very big challenge for me personally as I am no fast songwriter. It can take ages to come up with decent stuff and now I had a deadline to catch. And a heavy one is was! So, I put on a very tight working schedule for myself. I wanted to create a new song every month: two weeks to come up with the riffs and arrangements and two weeks to rehearse it as a band. Then forward to the next one. And next one. And next one etc.  

INTERVIEW NOCTURNUS AD

"It either resonates with you or it doesn't !"

While listening to the new excellent Nocturnus AD-album "Paradox" I came to the conclusion that I should do an interview with the band. Nocturnus is a well-known and respected name in the history of extreme metal, also due to the fact that the band had some kind of pioneer role in integrating synthesizers in death metal. So I spoke with mastermind Mike Browning about the new album, his other (previous) bands and projects such as After Death, Acheron, Voodoo Gods and Morbid Angel, occultism and the death of ex-Morbid Angel guitarist Richard Brunelle (R.I.P.), who sadly passed away in the course of this interview.

The new Nocturnus AD-album "Paradox" was released some months ago, how are your thoughts and feelings concerning it afterwards ? Where would you place it in relation to the previous Nocturnus-albums "The key" and "Thresholds"?

The reviews and sales have been way past my expectations! I knew that we would have people that liked it and I was hoping that a few people would say that it is a worthy successor to "The Key", but I never expected for everything the record company made has sold out and in a second pressing already and the reviews are not just good, you can tell by reading the reviews that people are going in great details about the songs, lyrics and how it makes them feel when they listen to it and that it is the perfect followup to "The Key". It's really blowing my mind, but it is hard to judge your own songs because you never know how people will receive it, especially on the internet. 

To me it is the direct continuation of "The Key" lyrically and maybe even musically. "Thresholds" has always been a weird bittersweet album to me because I knew it was the beginning of the end of what I wanted Nocturnus to be when I started the band. I wanted "Thresholds" to be the followup to "The Key"- story and there is not one thing on "Thresholds" that continues from "The Key". It was a good album by itself on its own, but it was nowhere near what I wanted it to convey, so that is why "Paradox" is a real paradox!  

INTERVIEW MANGLED TORSOS

Some months ago I re-discovered both Mangled Torsos-albums in my collection and while listening to them I noticed again how good (and unfortunately underrated) this band from the southern part of Germany has been. So I found an "unofficial" Mangled Torsos-facebook page and got in contact via this page with ex-member Frank, who played bass for Mangled Torsos. So, to be honest, this page is maybe "semi-official", haha. And because I am this kind of nostalgic person, I like to do interviews with bands who ceased to exist long times ago very much, maybe because it reminds me to my own youth, and I think most people will agree, that youth is a very specific time in life that can't be repeated. Musicwise it has been the most intense and exciting times in my life,  discovering all this new and great stuff via tapetrading and so on. So enjoy this conversation about times where death metal began to start and thereafter to explode in Germany. A time where a label such as Nuclear Blast sent copied order lists in black and white via postal mail. Besides Frank, Patrick who played drums, answered my questions. Here we go...

Please tell the readers of Systematic Desensitization Zine who you are and some facts about Mangled Torsos: when did you start the band, what were the main reasons and inspiration for starting an own band and did you know each other or did you get in contact because of searching for musicians to start a band ?

Frank: Hi and first of all many thanks for your interest! I'm Frank and I didn't start the band but played bass in Mangled Torsos.

We all knew us before the band was founded, Patrick visited the same school like me, and as we were obviously metal fans, we got into contact pretty soon. We started hanging around after school and Oli was a good friend of Patrick so I also get to know him. We listened to everything we could get and were evolving our taste more and more from thrash metal (Slayer/Kreator/Sodom/Destruction... ) to death metal- and grindcore- bands like Entombed, Autopsy, Death, Carcass, Napalm Death, Obituary, Morbid Angel, Bolt Thrower... 

INTERVIEW CARNAL GHOUL

Dieses Interview von mir mit CARNAL GHOUL wurde vor ca. sechs Jahren im Legacy Magazin veröffentlicht. Die Band scheint es leider nicht mehr zu geben, auch wenn es wohl nie eine offizielle Auflösungserklärung gab. Personell hat sich auch einiges geändert, Drummer Tormentor spielt nun nicht mehr bei Desaster, dafür aber mittlerweile bei der deutschen Thrash-Institution Sodom. Das im Interview angekündigte Debüt-Album hat nie das Licht der Welt erblickt, so bleibt die starke EP "The Grotesque Vault" wohl die einzige Veröffentlichung der Band. Seit 2015 gibt es jedoch die ziemlich guten Demonbreed (Debüt-Album namens " Where gods come to die"), in deren Reihen drei ehemalige Carnal Ghoul-Mitglieder tätig sind.

 Alles kann, nichts muss.

„Die Idee, CARNAL GHOUL zu gründen, besteht schon seit einigen Jahren. Als ich noch bei Lay Down Rotten spielte, haben wir zusammen mit Desaster ein Festival absolviert, ich glaube, es war das Party San, und ich habe mich mit Tormentor darüber unterhalten, mal ein gemeinsames Projekt zu starten. Da Tormentor gerne mal was aus der Death Metal-Ecke probieren wollte, und dies sowieso meine absolute Leidenschaft ist, nahmen wir CARNAL GHOUL in Angriff. Jedoch schlief das Ganze dann irgendwie ein, bis wir Anfang dieses Jahres endlich mal Zeit fanden das Ganze in die Tat umzusetzen und Songs zu schreiben. Mit Fernando, Ritsch und Johannes, der übrigens auch Gründungsmitglied von Lay Down Rotten ist, hatte ich schnell fähige Leute an der Hand, die Lust hatten, sich an der Band zu beteiligen. Ritsch ist übrigens mein Guitartech bei Milking The Goatmachine und Fernando spielt dort Schlagzeug und singt“, so Daniel Jakobi zur Entstehungsgeschichte der Band.   

INTERVIEW AYNSOPHAR

In the vastness of the world wide web I found more or less randomly AYNSOPHAR, an one-woman-band, that plays excellent progressive death metal. Read, what Barbara has to tell about music, life and spiritual development.

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Hey, please tell us something about the person behind Aynsophar. Who are you, where do you live, what are your musical influences and when did you start Aynsophar ? And what is the meaning of the word „Aynsophar“ ? I think Death are a huge influence, am I right (you mentioned something about your record as the sound of your own perseverance…)?

At first I'm sending my greetings to the readers and thank you for this interview opportunity! Presently I'm living in England, I moved here a year ago. Great place and home of pioneer bands.
I listen to a wide variety of music and I try to get inspiration from different places. I try not to limit my interest, this way I'm hoping to create something „ear-catching“. Lately I got inspired by Carlo Regadas (Monstrance, ex-Carcass / Blackstar) a lot ,he is a brilliant player and I'm always amazed by his skills (even if he doesn't know or doesn't believe haha), he is responsible for my musical growth (haha) but it's obvious that Death had / has a huge influence on me. Actually I think 90% of death metal bands are inspired by Death at some level, haha. I think it's amazing. It's amazing to reach such a high stage musicially where you inspire such a big number of people with your work. Brilliant.Lately I'm inspired by such fantastic players as Yngwie or Becker. Obviously I don't even dare to dream a bout being able to play like them but inspiration is not only about abilities.  

REZENSION "IN EWIGKEIT" VON IAN CUSHING

Vor längerer Zeit entdeckte ich mehr oder weniger zufällig die Facebook-Seite des Berliner Autors Ian Cushing, damals hatte er gerade sein Debütwerk "Fünf Minuten" veröffentlicht. Einige Monate später sandte mir der Autor sein mittlerweile neuestes Werk namens "In Ewigkeit" zu. Dieses enthält zusätzlich das Debüt, hier allerdings unter dem Namen "In Ewigkeit -Zweiter Teil". Ihr ahnt es also schon - die beiden Werke bauen aufeinander auf. Teil II ist der Nummerierung nach logischerwise im hinteren Teil des Buches platziert, so dass man im Sinne des Aufbaus von hinten nach vorne lesen sollte. Die schlichte, aber dennoch (oder gerade deswegen) äußerst gelungene Coverillustration stammt übrigens von Karmazid, dem oder der einen oder anderen eventuell bekannt von Arbeiten für  Bands wie Urfaust oder Demonical. Auch ansonsten tauchen im Verlauf der Handlung immer wieder Querverweise und Reminiszenzen an Bands aus dem extremeren Bereich auf, dazu aber später noch mehr.  

REVIEW BLOODY INVASION "ZOMBIE SOCIETY"

If you are searching for a yet undetected death metal band, then maybe you should check out Bloody Invasion from Brandenburg, Germany. The band exists since 2012 and these days they released their first full-length album called "Zombie Society". 

INTERVIEW RECKLESS MANSLAUGHTER

Hier nun ein weiteres, schon vor Jahren geführtes und in einer anderen Publikation veröffentlichtes Interview mit Leimy, dem Sänger von Reckless Manslaughter. Demnächst, am 01.12.2018 feiert die Band auch ihr zehnjähriges Jubiläum im AJZ Wermelskirchen, zusammen mit Obscenity, Suffocate Bastard und Scalpture. Vielleicht ja für den ein oder anderen ein Grund, mal wieder in das beschauliche Wermelskirchen zu fahren.

Hallo Leimy, erzähle doch erst mal das Übliche, um den Lesern die Band näher zu bringen, sprich wo kommt Ihr her, wann habt ihr Euch gegründet und habt Ihr vorher noch in anderen Bands gespielt ?

Mahlzeit! Wir haben uns Ende 2008 gegründet als Drummer Micha und ich nach einem Konzert mal darüber geredet haben, dass wir doch beide mal Bock hätten 'ne Death Metal-Band zu gründen. Und so fragten wir in unserem Freundeskreis nach, wer noch Bock hätte und so kam es dann, dass wir noch unsere guten Freunde Sebi und Chris hinzuholten und los ging's mit den ersten Proben im Keller von Michas Oma. Nachdem wir endlich einen richtigen Proberaum gefunden hatten, haben wir erst einmal langsam begonnen uns aufeinander einzuspielen und einen eigenen Stil zu finden. Das hat natürlich seine Zeit gedauert, vor allem weil wir alle Full-time-Jobs haben und die anderen auch alle familiär ziemlich eng eingespannt sind. Aber irgendwie hat dennoch alles geklappt und seit August 2010 bestreiten wir regelmäßig Konzerte und haben dann im Dezember 2010 unser Debüt-Album aufgenommen, was wir ja dann bekanntlich von Dan Swanö haben mixen und mastern lassen.

Wir kommen alle aus dem Ruhrgebiet wobei Chris, Sebi und ich in kleinen Käffern aus dem südöstlichen Ruhrgebiet kommen und Micha aus dem westlichen Pott. Demzufolge mussten wir schauen, dass wir einen Proberaum in der Mitte finden, was uns letztes Jahr dann auch endlich in Herne gelungen ist. Micha hat auch früher schon in einer Death/Grind-Combo namens Manstractor Erfahrungen als Drummer sammeln können, während Chris neben Reckless Manslaughter auch noch bei der der Melodic Metal-Band „The Mystery“ spielt. Sebi und meine Wenigkeit haben bislang immer nur ein paar Spaß-Projekte am Laufen gehabt aber nie richtig ernsthaft in 'ner Metal-Band gespielt und haben uns umso mehr gefreut mit Reckless Manslaughter endlich mal so richtig die Sau rauslassen zu können!  

INTERVIEW CHAPEL OF DISEASE

Hier nun noch ein altes Interview mit den Kölnern von Chapel of Disease, die demnächst ein vielversprechendes drittes Album über VAN-Records veröffentlichen werden. Das Interview wurde im Jahr 2012 nach der Veröffentlichung des Demo-Tapes, aber noch vor der Veröffentlichung des ersten Albums geführt. FDA Records hiessen damals noch FDA Rekotz, und die leider vor kurzem eingestellte Kölner "Rhein in Blood"-Konzertreihe war damals noch frisch am Start. Das Interview führte ich damals mit Laurent (Gitarre und Vocals).

Hi Laurent, stell doch mal die Band vor. Seit wann gibt es Euch, wer macht was ? Einer von Euch spielt doch auch bei Infernäl Death, oder ?

Hey Gerald! CHAPEL OF DISEASE gibt es nun bereits seit 2008. Ich kam damals im Februar nach Köln, während mein Bruder Cedric, unser Gitarrist, schon einige Jahre zuvor hierhin gezogen ist und bereits zusammen mit David, unseren Drummer, Musik mit Infernäl Death machte. Relativ schnell kam ich auf die Idee meinen Bruder zu fragen, ob er nicht Lust auf eine Old School- Death Metal Band hätte. Nachdem er sofort dabei war haben wir David auch an Land gezogen. Die Bandkonstellation war also zunächst: Ich an der Gitarre und den Vocals, Ced damals am Bass und David an den Drums. Ein paar Monate später haben wir jedoch eingesehen dass für das, was wir im Kopf hatten, zwei Gitarren angebracht wären und haben somit Christian als perfekten Basser für uns gefunden. Wenn man sich fragt wieso wir tatsächlich vier Jahre gebraucht haben um eine Demo aufzunehmen, hat dies zum einen damit zu tun, dass drei von uns- Ced, David und später auch Ich- in Infernäl Death tätig sind. Zum anderen müssen wir jedoch auch einfach zugeben, dass wir eine ziemlich lange Zeit unsere Ärsche nicht aufgerafft bekommen haben um uns wirklich mal intensiver mit der Band zu beschäftigen. Eigentlich wurde die Band wieder erst zu einer kontinuierlichen Sache im letzten Jahr. Aber besser spät als nie, oder ?
Die Aufgaben in der Band sind eigentlich ganz gut aufgeteilt, wir tragen alle irgendwie zu dem ganzen bei, einen Art „Leader“ haben wir eigentlich nicht. Das Songwriting teilen mein Bruder und ich uns, wobei ich dafür ein wenig mehr die Musik schreibe, dafür jedoch Ced die Texte im Griff hat. David kümmert sich zum einen um das ganze Organisatorische, was mehr als gut ist, denn da ist der Rest von uns zu vergesslich für. Zum anderen würde sich unsere Musik ohne ihn jedoch nicht halb so gut anhören, da die Chemie mit ihm als Drummer einfach perfekt ist. Hat einer von uns einen Riff, dauert es nicht länger als 3, 4 Takes bis David darauf den perfekten Beat findet. Christian kümmert sich viel um unsere Werbung, leitet unsere Webseiten und ist viel in Foren vertreten. Viel cooler an ihm ist jedoch, dass wir ihn nie irgendein Riff zeigen müssen. Meistens tauschen Ced und ich uns aus, Chris steht daneben und findet schon selbst die Noten raus. Das erleichtert natürlich den Songwritingprozess um einiges. Bis jetzt kann ich wirklich nur sagen, dass bei uns auch zwischenmenschlich wirklich alles ziemlich flüssig läuft.  

INTERVIEW NIGHTBEARER

NIGHTBEARER are a new star in the death metal firmament. Enjoy this conversation with vocalist Michael about death metal (of course), fantasy literature and misspelled band logos. 

Hey, what exactly were the reasons for the founding of NIGHTBEARER ? Please tell us who’s in the band responsible for what? And what about Schlachtung!, does the band still exist, will you maybe return with new recordings and some more live appearances in the future?

NIGHTBEARER started basically as a two-piece side project of Dome and myself besides our other bands --Despised, Schlachtung!, Bloodwork, speaking for myself, and Despised, Hate Force One & Legion, speaking for Dome – without any bigger ambitions to play live or record more than one EP or so. After knowing each other quite a time and after doing the songwriting for Despised together, we realized that both of us had some old school death metal riffs and ideas in the closet and that it would be a shame not to use/record them. So we decided that we would finish the songs together, Dome would record the instruments and do mixing and I would take care of the lyrics, the vocals, the concept, promo, social media etc. To go full speed on stage we recruited fellow musicians from Hate Force One (Manuel, Florian) and Despised (Christian).   

INTERVIEW APOKALYPTIC RAIDS

APOKALYPTIC RAIDS from Brazil is a band that gained cult status in some parts of the scene. Now they released their new album called „The Pentagram“. Reason enough to do an interview with vocalist and guitarrist Leon Manssur.

This year APOKALYPTIC RAIDS celebrate the 20th birthday of the band‘s existence. When you look back, what has been the best experiences that happened during this this time, an what has been the worst ? Do you prefer todays scene or the earlier days ? And please introduce the current band members and their side-projects.

Man, 20 years are really transforming. Best experiences were certainly travelling around the world and meeting and playing to new people. Worst experiences might be about a shit part of the „music business“. Hopefully I can stay away more and more from that shit.

I have no nostalgia of the old days. It was great then, it is great now. I make it. Great is where I am now, I will make it great whenever. Of course it is different with regards to technology. Things are much faster now. But the things that are human, like greed, passion, so on, these never change.

Current line-up is stable with me, Leon Manssur on the guitar and vocals, Vinicius Canabarro on the bass, since 2003, and Pedro Rocha in the drums from 2001-2007 and 2013-now. Vinicius is also singer in Atomic Roar, a band already on their third album now. Pedro is from Farscape and Whipstriker. He is a professional drummer/teacher and has a lot of bands and projects aside of metal.  

INTERVIEW JASON NETHERTON / "SEND BACK MY STAMPS"-FANZINE ARCHIVE / MISERY INDEX

Hey Jason, first of all, how are you doing ? Some months ago I found your fanzine archive (look here), which is really great ! So I think you are a very busy man, playing with Misery Index and running this fanzine archive, furthermore you published this book about death metal history called „Extremity retained-notes from the death metal underground“-so are you somekind of workaholic ?

Haha, no its just a labor of love; I’ve been dedicated to metal since I was a kid, and extreme metal since I was a teenager, so although it takes up most of my spare time, its never a burden. In fact all of my projects (band related and fanzine archive) are kind of like part-time projects now. Aside from real work, I do what I can when I can. Lately the fanzine archive has slowed down a bit, but I have not forgotten it. Once things settle down I will get back into it more actively. Right now I try to add one zine a month, and I already have a few hundred in there, so its growing slow and steady (but probably not as fast as some people would like, I know).  

REVIEW ELÄNDE "DÖDENS RIKE"

ELÄNDE is a Swedish three-piece black metal band from Gothenburg which exists since 2010. Before the release of their current album named "Dödens rike" they released a demo and an EP.
Most prominent member of this band is for sure Trish, who plays drums in ELÄNDE, I think some people know her through a lot of bands and projects such as DödsÄngel, Djevelkult or Skitliv. Besides ELÄNDE, she actually plays for example in Urarv, an avantgarde black metal band in which Aldrahn, well known through Dodheimsgard /DHG, does vocals and guitars. But enough of that namedropping, I only mentioned this to point out that ELÄNDE consists of well-experienced scenesters and musicians.

ROMANIAN SCENE REPORT

To be honest, I don't know much about the (extreme) metal scene of Romania. Like most people involved in extreme metal I have listened to Negura Bunget and Dordeduh and of course I know (very metal related) the story of Dracula (Vlad III Draculea), that lyrically inspired countless metal bands. But after that I have reached the end of my knowledge concerning Romanian metal. Mihai ”Coro” Caraveţeanu of Axa Valahă Productions wrote a really interesting scene report and I can't express how grateful I am for these deep insights !

ROMANIAN SCENE REPORT

A dark letter from the land of Dracula

Hi! First of all I’d like to say I’m honored that someone invited me over to write about the Romanian metal scene, I did that several times before in this life, but my last attempt happened more than a decade ago, when I thought there was still hope that something will change here for good. As most of you most probably know already, Romania is a country in the Eastern Europe, with a tragic past, including more than fifty years of different totalitarian regimes, the longest being the harshest communist regime behind the Iron Curtain, a dictatorship built on fear and a spiral of silence that affected and still affects the nation as a whole even three decades after it was supposedly finished. It happened in the final days of 1989 when the dictatorship was over, the dictator executed, with his execution broadcasted on the national television and with more than 1000 collateral victims of the single bloody revolution from all the social and political movements which happened in the East around the same time.  

REVIEW EKPYROSIS "DEATHTRIPS"

At the Magoth-gig last saturday I met the guy behind The Crawling Chaos Records who sold some stuff on his distro table. We talked about black metal in general and Ildjarn in particular and he advised me a band named EKPYROSIS, whose latest release is published by his label. To be honest, until then only knew the Italian death metal band of the same Name ( I found out that there are some other bands called EKPYROSIS). On their newest release named "Deathtrips", that is only available on tape (limited to 150 handnumbered copies and as digital download here), you can hear six tracks with a duration of 18 minutes. EKPYROSIS are labeled as avant-garde black metal, and I don't totally disagree, but hearing the term avant-garde within a black metal context I think to bands such as newer Dodheimsgard / DHG, Arcturus, Fleurety or Ved Buens Ende, and all these examples sound totally different, much more progressive, more complex and technical.

REVIEW ATROCITY "OKKULT II"

Since "Okkult" and the following EP "Masters of Darkness" Germany's ATROCITY are back on the path of creating more extreme sounds. In my review for the EP (here-review written in German) I looked back at the entire discography, and believe me, I am far away from being an uncritical listener, and yes, there has been some releases by ATROCITY I really didn't like.

INTERVIEW RUNEMAGICK

Fans had to wait eleven years for the new Album (release date July 20, 2018) of Swedens death /doom underground cult act RUNEMAGICK. But let me say first, the new album was worth the wait. Guitarrist and vocalist Nicklas Rudolfsson answered my questions.

First of all I have to say that the new album is really great, but I didn’t expect anything else.What can you tell us about the process of creating  this album and writing the songs ? When did you start with writing new songs and why did it take 11 years for the new album ? How would you describe the new album in your own words , maybe in relation to the prior Runemagick releases as well ?

Always nice to hear that there are people who like our music. Especially now that it was many years ago we released something new. Most of the material, both riff arrangements and lyrics, are written in 2017 and early 2018. Possibly there is some older riff here and there too.

If I describe the material from my point of view, I can probably say that it is quite straightforward arrangements and songs. As for tempo, it is often heavy mid-tempo riffing and drumming the “Runemagick style” mixed with some heavier doom parts and some more up-tempo stuff.

I do not know for sure, but I imagine that if you like any of our previous albums, you should recognize the new material as well. It may not be so obscure material as on "Envenom" rather more about "Enter The Realm Of Death" and "Darkness Death Doom" I suppose.

11 years… time flies. Yes we decided to start up again in 2017. Before that we can say we had a long break. However, no quiet break, it has been full of other bands, projects and other activities in life. Then it has probably also been that inspiration from our side during that period has been partly gone so to speak. Then you can say that there was some lack of inspiration too. 

REVIEW DEATHMACE "BLEEDING FRENZY"

Last week I got the debut album called "Bleeding Frenzy" from DEATHMACE. I haven't heard from this band before, but I guess this was a mistake. DEATHMACE from York, England exist since 2009 and play a really great mixture between death and thrash metal.

INTERVIEW NORDLYS

"Of course the glory old days are great to remember, it was a really magic time when the whole Black Metal thing started in the early nineties, musically and spiritually. " (A. /Nordlys)

When I heard about the fact about the re-creation of an gig which took place 20 years ago including NORDLYS, LUNAR AURORA, NAGELFAR and MIGHTIEST I decided that I had to visit this, even if I and my attendance had to travel to Freiburg / Black Forest, Southern Germany. For the first time I visited the "Crash"-Club, the dark vault cellar is predestined for black metal gigs. LUNAR AURORA and NAGELFAR  ceased to exist, so the line up was completed by KERMANIA and a project band called WELTENGÄNGER (named after LUNAR AURORAs debut album). The concert itself was a great experience (here you can see some pictures published by the local news portal), so some months after I decided to do an interview with A. from NORDLYS.

First of all: how did you experience The „Past is alive“ concert at the Crash in Freiburg with MIGHTIEST, KERMANIA and WELTENGÄNGER ? In my opinion (and my attencance felt the same) NORDLYS was the „strongest“ band on this evening. And how exactly did the idea of took shape, who had the inital idea ?

It was a great event and experience, we really appreciated the effort the guys from Mightiest, especially Oliver, put into making this possible and as enjoyable as possible, not only the gig itself but also everything around it. The initial idea came from Mightiest to re-create an event that I had organized 20 years ago in Bad Wörishofen with Lunar Aurora, Nagelfar, Mightiest and us. First plans were simply to meet up after all this years but the whole thing turned out a bit bigger. Great to hear you enjoyed the performance, it went surprisingly well in regard of us meeting up for rehearsing only a couple of times before the gig.  

INTERVIEW GRAFVITNIR

GRAFVITNIR from Sweden released their fitfth album named "Keys to the Mysteries Beyond", which is a a really outstanding black metal release. So I decided to to an interview with Niantiel- we spoke about black metal, occultism and their aversion to public relation - hope you like it.

First of all, how were the reactions towards the new album ? I think most of the listeners like it a lot, right ? In my opinion  “Keys to the Mysteries Beyond“ is one of the best black metal albums within the last years and I hope in some years it will be regarded as a classic! It can be described as fast tradtional Swedish black metal in perfection, I can hear similarities to Sacramentum, Svartsyn, Sorhin, Dissection and (old) Watain. Do you agree ?

Thank you very much for your words of appreciation. The reactions have been mostly positive, but what is most important is that we ourselves are satisfied with our creation, the rest is only a bonus. 
I would say that I personally can hear the similarities with Sacramentum, Dissection and of course early Watain (which at that time was hugely inspired by Dissection). The reason for this is probably because music usually is derived from the soul and music created by swedes tend to have noticeable characteristics that are audible and well documented. 

The cover artwork from Daniele Valeriani is a really outstanding piece of art as well, how did you get in contact with him? I have seen that this artwork also was published in an art book together with other cover artworks from other artists.

In fact, our good friend Daniele contacted us and offered us cooperation. When I later saw the first sketch of what was to become the cover art for "Keys to the Mysteries Beyond" I instantly knew that this was going to be what we were looking for. Our cooperation runs smoothly and we are extremely happy to work with such a magnificent talent that he is.  

INTERVIEW DEATHSTORM

"Without Slayer nothing would exist." 

Deathstorm from Austria are a really cool band and a must-listen for maniacs who are into brutal thrash metal and worship bands such as Slayer, Kreator, Sodom, Destruction, (old) Sepultura and  the mighty Sarcofago for example. In the following weeks (May25th ) they will release their great Deathstorm third full-length record called "Reaping what is left" via german high-quality record label High Roller Records. So read what vocalist and bassplayer Marco Stebich has to tell us!

First of all, please introduce Deathstorm to the readers of Systematic Desensitization Zine. Who’s in the band and how did you find together ? Some other interesting aspects about the band? 

Hey and thanks a lot for doing this! We are Deathstorm and we deliver deadly deathrashing violence since 2010. We actually formed under the banner of Damage in 2007 and released two demos before turning into Deathstorm. We actually have known each other since at least 2001 due to school and stuff. In our early teenage years we picked up instruments and started playing music together due to the fact that the kinda music we were into was simply not available anywhere when it comes to the local musicscene. There was a lot of total crap going on and we simply got frustrated with it which led to the formation of Damage. Fast forward a few years and after releasing our debut record "As death awakes" we added Markus (Steindl) to the line up since we wanted to sound bigger when playing gigs. However a few weeks ago we decided to part ways with him which means Deathstorm is nowadays again operating as a three piece consisting of Ferdinand Reinbacher on guitars, Manuel Röxeis on drums and me (Marco Stebich) on bass and vocals. This is actually the first time we mention this officially besides telling the audience at the Raging Death Date-festival a few weeks back. 

REVIEW ORTUS "WHERE SHADOWS GATHER"

There are some rare moments in life where you find a really outstanding piece of art, although you didn't expect something great....This case happened to me with the band ORTUS from Mainz (not to be confused with a Black Metal band named ORKUS from the Rhineland area, which split  up some years ago ).

ORTUS exist since 2013 and this EP named "Where shadows gather" is their first official release released by Worship Tapes. It contains of four relatively long tracks with a duration of ca. 29 minutes and is limited to 102 tapes.  

INTERVIEW KAT "SHEVIL" GILLHAM

"Seeing demo day era Cradle Of Filth and Solstice supporting At The Gates on their first ever tour in England in summer 1993 or pre-album Cradle of Filth supporting pre-album Emperor also in summer 1993 was very cool and special although at that time I didn't realise the significance of what I was witnessing, no one did...none of us realised what a worldwide impact a lot of those bands would later have!"

This time I conducted an interview with an prominent example of the UK underground community named Kat "Shevil" Gillham!

First of all, please introduce yourself to the readers of Systematic Desensitization Zine…

Hell-O. My name is Kat "Shevil" Gillham, I'm a 41 year old vocalist and drummer from North East England and I play in a few bands that play various heavy styles namely Winds of Genocide, Uncoffined, Lucifer's Chalice, Enshroudment and Thronehammer which you can read about in this interview. I have also been writing for a couple of well known music magazines over here in England for a while (Terrorizer Magazine and Iron Fist Magazine)as well as in the past year contributing reviews and interviews to the legendary german Voices from the darkside Zine website.  

INTERVIEW DORNENREICH

"Dabei scheint Kunst generell immer wieder zu großen Teilen aus einer inneren Mangelerfahrung geboren und irgendwann, wenn die Bewusstwerdung voranschreitet, wird es möglich, dass sie aus innerer Fülle geboren wird." (Eviga/ Dornenreich)

Es gibt Interviews, die dazu führen, dass wenn man das Endresultat in den Händen hält (konkreter gesagt vor allem die Antworten), man direkt wieder spürt, warum man das Ganze unentgeltlich in seiner Freizeit macht. Dieses nun vorliegende Interview ist solch ein Beispiel, aber ehrlich gesagt hatte ich im Falle von Dornenreich auch nichts anderes erwartet, hatte ich von Bandkopf Eviga schon in der Vergangenheit einige interessante, tiefgründige und zum Denken anregende Sichtweisen wahrgenommen. Vielen Dank nochmals an Eviga, der dieses Interview trotz der momentanen Tour sehr ausführlich beantwortete. 

Was passiert momentan im Dornenreich-Lager? Ihr spielt ja momentan eine Tour, die auch in einigen Kirchen Halt macht. Hättet Ihr Euch das zu Euren Black Metal-Zeiten mal träumen lassen, auch wenn ihr schon damals nie die Black Metal - Klischees erfüllt habt? Und das nächste Album ist ja auch schon im Entstehungsprozess, was könnt Ihr zum jetzigen Zeitpunkt dazu sagen?

Bis April steht im Moment alles im Zeichen der laufenden Mystic-Places-Tour, die uns an nahezu jedem Wochenende in europäische Metropolen führt. Und unsere bisherigen Erfahrungen waren atemberaubende. Für uns sind Kirchen schlicht und ergreifend – und letzten Endes überkonfessionell gedacht – Orte tiefer Spiritualität. Und der Klangcharakter solcher Räumlichkeiten verbindet sich natürlich sehr, sehr gut mit unserem Ausdruck, der im Kern intensiv, mystisch und zeitlos ist.

Dass wir je in Kirchen spielen würden, hätten wir uns – sagen wir – zu unseren Demo-Zeiten gewiss nicht vorstellen können, ich denke aber, dass wir schon damals erfreut gewesen wären, wäre uns diese Möglichkeit geboten worden, denn wir waren, - wie du es ja bereits trefflich angedeutet hast -, nie eine Band, die sich im Rahmen irgendwelcher Genreklischees bewegte.