Matt Dillon joined engorge last year at the request of his close friend Jim Roe who had just returned from touring with the band. They were looking for someone to do session recording for the third album, ‘bereft of lordship’. Matt had been playing with Jim and Mike Makuch of Sacred Death in a side project of Mikes; http://www.myspace.com/durrdurrs. it was explained to him (Matt) that, Mitch Coken, who had been the touring bass player, was not interested in the position and had moved on to a different project. so Matt agreed. (Mitch played some live shows with Kult Ov Azazel recently. He is an exceedingly capable musician.) - Matt have not contributed to the writing of this material.
Archive for the ‘Interviews’ Category
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ENGORGE - Your dagger only fuel these guy’s hatred (Black Metal)
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Devastator - Summoning Destruction (Thrash Metal)
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Devastator is made up of five old-school, dedicated Metalheads who play Metal the way we would like to hear it played. Unfortunately, there are only a handful of Metal bands void of that plastic, mechanical sound so prominent in the today’s “Metal” scene. This is our only goal, to play Metal the way it should be played, the way it was played in the 80’s. -
PARAGON RECORDS - Label Interview
New York based and long time running Underground label, Paragon Records started in 2000 (?) and made it as far as 2009. Nine years doing an independent Underground Label is something not so common these days. Specially just these previous years where internet starts taking over. Not to mention a few new labels that is eclipsing everybody by spending time cashing in with known releases than presenting us a new band to discover. This interview focuses only to Paragon Records, since no one even tries to interview a label these days it seems! I got this very informative interview with one of the label’s founder, Mike. I forgot to ask a few more important questions but that’s alright… -
MASTER (Interview // Czech Republic)
THE EARLY YEARS (White Cross and War Cry) Paul Speckmann was born on September the 28th, 1963, in the North-West suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. From an early age, he dreamed of playing music, more specifically Rock ‘n’ Roll. Originally, he was inspired by the heavy sounds of Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin, among others. At age 16, Speckmann discoverd the sweet leaf a.k.a. cannabis, which he would reguarly smoke while listening to the aforementioned groups. One day, while walking the halls of Forest View High School (Arlington Heights, Illinois), Speckmann was approached by Ronald Cooke, as Cooke had heard him singing “All Good People” by prog-rock group, Yes. Ron Cooke was a guitarist in the band White Cross, and asked Speckmann to audition as singer. Speckmann agreed and, after a rather shaky audition, he soon joined the fledgling band. White Cross was mostly an all-covers band, performing songs by Sabbath, UFO, Ted Nugent and Thin Lizzy. Trying his best, Speckmann found encouragement as girls at school now looked at him in a new light. During the first year in White Cross, Speckmann began to take a serious interest in the bass guitar, something which had caught his attention since he was a child. Upon mentioning this to his band members in White Cross, and his friends, Speckmann was greeted with laughter and told that he would never be able to play. Determined to prove them wrong, Speckmann searched for a bass guitar. Around this time, he quit White Cross too, possibly because he realized they would never get anywhere just playing covers. (On a side note, after White Cross, guitarist Ron Cooke joined a band called Thrust, a heavy metal group in the Priest/Maiden-style, but they never achieved any major success, despite putting out one album and a split live LP with fellow Chicago act, Lazer). Eventually, Speckmann found a bass guitar, in the form of a cheap Epiphone, only costing around thirty dollars. (Funnily enough, future bass player for Trouble, Sean McCallister, had originally intended to buy the bass, and was upset that Speckmann got there first. McCallister would get his chance though.) One day, while walking home from his latest “female conquest”, Speckmann bumped into an old friend from grade school and Cub Scouts, Steve Ahlers. Steve revealed that he was learning to play guitar, and Speckmann mentioned his interest in the bass. The two began practicing on a regular basis, as they were both fans of the same heavy metal groups. Still in high school, Speckmann met Marty Fitzgerald, a guitar player, in addition to being a year older than Speckmann. Both being passionate fans of metal, they agreed to form a band, along with Speckmann’s friend Steve Ahlers. Such was their passion, that Fitzgerald dropped out of high school his senior year, and Speckmann followed suit, dropping out in his junior year. They both promised to start jamming together every day. Unfortunately, both their parents forced them to get jobs. Not phased by this, Fitzgerald and Speckmann began jamming a few nights a week (along with Ahlers). Read more about the history of MASTER on their website.
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Scent of Death (Interview // Spain)
Scent of Death started in September of 1998, when Jorge Taboada (ex-Suffer Age), and Carlos Carballo (ex-Osmosis), decided to hire a local where they improve their concept of Death Metal. December 1998, Bernardo Estévez and Nuno (ex-Osmosis) joined Scent of Death. With Jorge and Bernardo on guitars, Carlos on bass and Nuno on drums, Scent of Death was born. In the beginning, conception of the first themes and many hours of training it's all. On summer, 1999, David joined the band as vocalist. On March 2000, Scent of Death performed live concert at Anoeta, Vigo city together with Regnum Irae. Three months later, the band loss their vocalist, David, because of musical concept differences, what means several inconveniences on future concerts. It was in September 2001 when the band began to record at Taller de Música, Ourense, Spain. As a result, they released their first MCD, entitled "Entangled in Hate", which was produced and edited by the band. This MCD contains a total of 6 tracks, 4 brutal and fast Death Metal in the vein of Morbid Angel, Dying Fetus, Cannibal Corpse, and 2 pure instrumental tracks, 20 minutes of pure fucking Death Metal. Vocals were performed by Bernardo, assisted on high vocals by Jorge. -
Inhumate
In September 1990 Fred (bass player) was moving to a city in the North East of France called Strasbourg. Arriving there he wanted to put up a death metal band so he searched and found a vocalist : Olivier. This one called a friend of him David (guitar) and they fast found a drummer called Stephane.
INHUMATE was born.This line up stayed stable for about one year, after that Stephane and Olivier left the band and were replaced by Valentin and Sebastien. Those new members were totally dedicated to the grind core scene, INHUMATE became to play faster and from death metal jumped into the death grind scene. With this line up INHUMATE recorded in 1993 its first demo “Abstract Suffering” (4 tracks).
In 1994 drummer and vocalist left the band again and in October 1994 INHUMATE had its definitive and ultimate line up with the arrival of Christophe on vocals and Yannick on drums. This time INHUMATE jumped from the death grind scene to the grind death scene, playing faster and slowly understanding that sickness was law !!!
In May 1995 the second demo was recorded “Grind Your Soul” (7 tracks).
In September 1996 was recorded the first full length CD “Internal Life” (18 tracks), in November 1997 was recorded the second full length album “Ex-Pulsion” (13 + 1 tracks), in June 2000 was recorded the third full length album “Growth” (17 tracks).In February 2004 INHUMATE has unleashed its fourth album “Life”. During its life, INHUMATE played (in France, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Poland, Germany, Italy, Austria and Czech Republic) with bands like AGATHOCLES, CANNIBAL CORPSE, CRYPTOPSY, IMMOLATION, SEPULTURA, MALIGNANT TUMOUR, NILE, SIX FEET UNDER, UNHOLY GRAVE, VADER, etc…
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Impaled Nazarene
Impaled Nazarene was originally formed in November 1990 with the band soon starting to rehearse on their own material. In February 1991 they recorded their first rehearsal demo called "Shemhamforash" on a two-track deck with a resulting horrible sound. Antti Pihkala was at this time replaced by Harri Halonen on bass.
In April 1991 they played their first show as the opening act for Beherit in Kempele, Finland. In August same year they entered the well-known Tico Tico studio in Kemi to record their first official studio demo called "Taog Eht Fo Htao Eht". The band now started to become known in the underground scene and they also took part in the "Day Of Darkness" festival in Oulu with bands like Amorphis and Belial.
In October 1991 they recorded their "Goat Perversion" 7" EP for an Italian label. In the winter/spring time of 91/92 Holappa and Halonen both left the band due to lack of interest. The band performed some shows in Finland as a threesome. They now signed a deal with the French black/death metal label Osmose Productions.
In the summer of 1992 Taneli Jarva joined the band as a session bass player while Jarno Anttila replaced the leaving Pääkkö for the upcoming recording of their debut album. In October they started recording "Tol Cormpt Norz Norz Norz" and the 7" EP "Sadogoat" at Tico Tico. Anttila and Jarva now joined in as full time members. In the winter their debut album was released and went straight up to number 40 in the Finnish charts.
The band started writing new material quickly and in July 1993 they entered Tico Tico again to record their second album "Ugra-Karma" and the "Satanic Masowhore" 7" EP. They were both released in December with even better response than the first album. In January 1994 they went on their first European tour with Ancient Rites from Belgium.
In July 1994 they entered Tico Tico yet again to record opus number three which was at first meant to be called "Hail To Finland". The band decided to change the name in the last minute and the new and official title became "Suomi Finland Perkele". In December the album was released with mixed reactions from media and fans. In April 1995 they went on their second European tour with label mates Absu and Sadistik Exekution.
In August 1995 the band was supposed to record the MCD "Hamnasnas" at - guess where… - Tico Tico. However this was never achieved since Jarva and K. Luttinen ended up in a fight during the first night of work. The band went back home and K. Luttinen was replaced with Reima Kellokoski as the new drummer. In October it was time for a third tour through Europe with Krabathor and Ministry Of Terror. The band also got the chance to headline a Halloween fest at Astoria in London.
In February 1996 it was time to record again at Tico Tico with the cd "Latex Cult" and the mcd "Motörpenis" (where do they get these titles from…?) as the final result. After recording these two Taneli Jarva decided to leave the band and in came Jani Lehtosaari. In Marh they recorded two videos in London which resulted in the "1999: Karmageddon Warriors" video.
The two new recordings were released in April 1996 and were followed by the band's longest European tour so far. Bands like Grave, Krabathor, Rotting Christ, Immolation, Cannibal Corpse, Vader and Dark Tranquillity were some of the show companions. In October they recorded an exclusive track called "I Am The Killer Of Trolls" for the label sampler "World Domination II". In November they played two festival shows in France and in December it was time to hit the rest of Europe again with Angel Corpse and Gehennah.
In 1997 the band recorded two instrumental demo tapes to analyse their new material and played two Finnish rock festivals in the summer. In September the band and their label Osmose Productions were sued by a group of Hare-Krishna members because of the cover of "Ugra-Karma" and a long legal battle was born.
In January 1998 "Rapture" was recorded at Tico Tico with a release in April. In February they played four very successful shows in Mexico. In July they shot a promo video for "Penis and Circes" at the Tuska Festival. The band also played in Dublin, Philadelphia, New York, the Montreal Metal fest (as headliners) and the Milwaukee Metal Fest in the US. In September they went to St. Petersburg to play a show with fellow countrymen Children Of Bodom. The hotel party afterwards resulted in Alexi Laiho joining Impaled Nazarene on lead guitars.
In November and December 1998 they went out to haunt Europe again together with Ritual Carnage and Driller Killer. Laiho was however unable to join the rest of the band since he had to be with his other band Sinergy (with his girlfriend Kimberly Goss in charge). In January 1999 the legal battle with Hare Krishna was settled outside the court and Osmose released a new version with another cover.
In February the band returned to Mexico to play another four shows. This time Laiho could go with them and he did his first live appearances with Impaled Nazarene. They also played San Francisco and Los Angeles as a four piece outfit since Laiho had to go back to Finland. Again without Laiho they left for Japan in March to play four shows. In April they played the third No Mercy Festivals in Europe with Morbid Angel, Emperor, The Crown, Limbonic Art and Peccatum, again without Laiho.
In June the band settled down to write new material and played at the Nummirock Summer Solstice Rock Festival for the first time, again without Laiho. Without the absent one they also headed down to Australia and New Zealand to play some shows in July and August. A show in Wollongong, Australia, was however cancelled due to pressure from local press and parents.
In August 1999 the band entered Astia Studio in Lappeenranta (now there's a surprise!) to record the next album "Nihil" as well as two tracks for a split picture 7" EP with Driller Killer. "Nihil" was mastered in late September at Finnvox Studio. In October Fournier, the artist behind the new "Ugra-Karma" cover started working on the cover art.
In December 1999 the split EP with Driller Killer was released by Solardisk, the label of the band's bass player Lehtosaari. "Nihil" was released worldwide on February 14th, 2000 and in March they played some shows in Finland with Finntroll and Throne Of Chaos, this time actually with Laiho. After these they went to New Jersey for the March Metal Meltdown.
In April they went on a French tour named "Assault The Weak". This time Laiho was replaced by Tomi Ullgren (Thy Serpent, Shape Of Despair). Some problems did occur on this tour and the French secret police follows them all the way through the tour. In Montauban the band was forced to perform their songs without announcing any titles including the word Satan. The police also forbids them selling any merchandise because of its nature.
In May 2000 Impaled Nazarene joined Children Of Bodom on a trip to Greece for the first time and on these shows Laiho performed with both bands every night. In June the band played two festivals in Finland (Valhalla Metal Fest and Provinssi Rock Festival), again with Tomi Ullgren instead of Laiho. In July the band played at the Tuska Festival in Helsinki where Jani Lehtosaari informs his friends that he has decided to leave the band to concentrate on his label Solardisk.
In July 2000 they also played their first Swedish show at the Dist 2000 Festival, the last one with Jani on stage. Luttinen now moved back to Finland from his temporary home in Belgium. In August Luttinen re-entered Astia Studio to compile the ten year anniversary album "Decade Of Decadence" which was later mastered at Finnvox.
In the autumn of 2000 Impaled Nazarene found their new bass player Teemu Raimoranta of Finntroll. It also became clear that Laiho could not do any live appearances with the band in the future and he was therefore forced to leave the band. Teemu was then chosen to play lead guitars instead of bass and Mikael Arnkil (x-Antidote drummer) was chosen as the new bass player.
In November 2000 the anniversary album was released and in December they played their first sold out show in Finland at Nosturi, Helsinki. More than 900 fans had gathered to see the band. At this show Ullgren played since Arnkil hadn't had the time to learn the songs yet. In January and February 2001 they started rehearsing on new songs with the new line-up. In March they signed a new two album deal with Osmose Productions.
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Twisted Tower Dire
TWISTED TOWER DIRE formed in 1995 for the sole purpose of resurrecting True Heavy Metal. Influences were drawn from Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Candlemass, and others. After releasing two legendary demos, several split EPs and contributing to various sampler CD's to critical acclaim, the band began working with long time fan and Solstice guitarist Rich Walker. He had recently formed a new label called The Miskatonic Foundation and offered to support the recording and distribution of the first TWISTED TOWER DIRE album.
The band unleashed their self produced, full-length debut in 1999. Despite a modest budget, "The Curse of Twisted Tower" won over many dedicated fans that appreciated TWISTED TOWER DIRE's traditional yet unique sound. From 1999 to 2000, the band embarked on a relentless, self-financed world tour in support of "Curse". This tour included U.S. appearances at the Milwaukee Metal Fest (Wisconsin), March Metal Meltdown (New Jersey), The Powermad Fest (Maryland), Phantasmagoria Metal Fest (Maryland), and The North Carolina Metal Fest. A European stretch of the tour followed with fellow metal heathens Slough Feg and Solstice including several club dates and appearances at the Wacken Open Air Festival (Germany) and the Bradford Metal Inquisition (England).
In 2001 TWISTED TOWER DIRE released the critically acclaimed "Isle of Hydra" on The Miskatonic Foundation and Hellion Records. The album featured mature song writing abilities and improved production, but retained a certain underground grit. In support they played several shows in the Mid Atlantic Region and beyond, including an appearance at the Classic Metal Festival (Michigan) and a second appearance at the Milwaukee Metal Festival (Wisconsin). In July 2002 TWISTED TOWER DIRE returned to Deutschland to continue their relentless assault on small clubs and festivals abroad with a headlining appearance at The Headbanger's Open Air Festival.
In September of that year TWISTED TOWER DIRE signed to Germany's Remedy Records. Their third release "Crest Of The Martyrs" was unleashed upon the masses on May 26th, 2003. The song "Axes & Honour" was released as a limited vinyl single and picture vinyl single. The release of "Crest" was accompanied by a European tour including festival gigs at the Metal Bash Open Air Fest and the Wacken Open Air Fest.
TWISTED TOWER DIRE has gone through countless trials and changes through its 10 year history but the seminal vision has remained the same from early basement practices to today. The "Tower Brethren" continue to fight for the legacy of Classic Heavy Metal with their strongest line-up and forthcoming 4th album “Netherworlds” in 2006. The band appreciates the support of its dedicated fans and hopes to soon see you in the audience banging your head!
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Vomitory
Vomitory was formed in 1989 by original guitarist Urban Gustafsson and bass player Ronnie Olson. Under influence of the growing underground scene and bands such as Sodom, Napalm Death, Slayer and Venom, their sound developed quite soon into pure death metal. During the early '90's they spread their name in the worldwide underground scene by releasing some demos and a vinyl 7".
In the mid-'90's when the death metal scene began to stagnate, and while all "brutal" bands split up or changed their style drastically, Vomitory released their debut full-length death metal explosion, "Raped In Their Own Blood", in November 1996 on the Dutch indie label Fadeless records. It was greeted with great respect within the underground scene.
Album number two, "Redemption" (1999), showed a certain musical progress, but Vomitory also showed that they still stick to their brutal style of death metal and never follow any trends. In October 1999, Vomitory had been grinding death metal for a decade, and celebrated that by releasing a limited 10" picture mini-LP, featuring songs that represented different periods of the ten-year existence of the band.
After two albums on Fadeless records and some smaller European tours, contact between Vomitory and Metal Blade records were successfully established. Now the band was reduced to four members - bass player Erik Rundqvist started taking care of the vocal duties as well. A successful European tour as support to Cannibal Corpse and the No Mercy festivals in 2000 passed and in November the same year Vomitory released their third album, entitled "Revelation Nausea". The new four-piece line-up proved to be a good formula since the reviews were amazingly good!
Their fourth album, "Blood Rapture" (2002), was a step forward in the same direction of death metal Vomitory has always marched. Once again the brilliant production beared the mark of Henrik Larsson and Berno Studio. A full European tour was done together with label-mates Amon Amarth and Callenish Circle, and later on Vomitory played at Wacken Open Air for the first time.2003 was a pretty calm year for the band, which mostly focused on writing new material instead of playing live. So in December they entered Studio Kuling in Örebro/Sweden together with long-time companion Henrik Larsson to record their fifth (and most present) album, "Primal Massacre", which was released in April 2004. That same month the band embarked on the No Mercy festivals in Europe with bands such as Cannibal Corpse, Hypocrisy, Exhumed and Kataklysm.
In September 2005, guitarist Ulf Dalegren unfortunately decided to leave Vomitory after nearly 15 years in the band. Peter Östlund (also in The Law) was recently recruited as a new permanent guitarist.
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Varathron
Varathron was one of the first black metal bands from Greece and formed in the late 80's by Stephan Necroabyssious (vocals), John (guitars), Mutilator (bass) and Captain Death (drums). In 1989 they released their first demo tape but then Captain Death went to Belgium for work. The band has gone through lots of line-up changes in their long career with Stephan Necroabyssious as the only remaining member from the original four. They were said to record a new album called "Crowsreign" but it seems as if the band has broken up since then. The band leader Stephan Necroabyssious also played water polo and was a martial arts teacher. He also managed a couple of bands from his home town Ioannina, wrote for several metal magazines and had his own metal radio show. In late July 2004 it was announced that the band had returned and signed a contract with the Greek label Black Lotus Records for the release of a new studio album.