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.