Flashback "Heathen of Influence" - Album Review

Flashback
Heathen of Influence

There’s no dressing up a Heathen of Influence, so you might as well grab your best denim vest and join the festivities when Flashback throws down the proverbial metal-studded gauntlet.

A long, Sabbathy, drag off a perilously short cigarette, the Calgary-based outfit’s third LP burns from tip to filter with an arsenal of hemispheric headnodders.

Raised in the den of the Steppenwolf, the single “Widow’s Breath” is a sonic saga infused with a lust for life and liberty that would have Fonda and Hopper delivering drive-by high-fives from beyond the grave. Epic guitar swells and pounding percussion set the four-man warship a-heave as vocalist/guitarist Aidan Demarais’s commanding growl gouges through a sea of sludge.

The evil rip-chord chug of “Darkened Plague” recalls an outboard motor that runs on petrol and Pabst. There’s just enough time for a fat booty boogie guitar solo before all of the oxygen has been sucked from the room.

Forging a new mythos out of melody and madness, Flashback hurls venomous lightning bolts, navigates warp-speed tempo shifts and revels in dense mercurial meltdowns. From the harshly acidic “The Atomic Fog,” to the hair-toss gong-crash of “Fortune’s Guild,” and the Satriani honeybucket “Fortune’s Guild,” this old school hard rock outfit is clearly happy to flex its ample talent before stretching out for inspection like some fuzzy-lensed centerfold.

Best Track: “Widow’s Breath”

By Christine Leonard

HELLYEAH Wreck the Halls in Tribute to Heavy Metal Legend Vinnie Paul - INTERVIEW FEATURE

Auld Lang Syne of the Times

HELLYEAH Wreck the Halls in Tribute to Heavy Metal Legend Vinnie Paul 

As 2020 rolls around, we pause to mark the end of a decade and celebrate the arrival of a new one. Lest an old acquaintance "be forgot" in the melee of merry-making, hard rock icons Hellyeah will be hosting a series of seasonally apropos events with a dual purpose.

Not only is the supergroup sharing material from their latest album, Welcome Home, which was released this past September, but they are commemorating the passing of metal god Vinnie Paul, who died of natural causes including heart disease in June of 2018. 

“It’s been cathartic it’s definitely helped us get through everything but it’s also difficult cuz there’s a lot of emotions,” explains guitarist Christian Brady, who was one of the last people to see Vinnie alive, and is still processing the shock of his friend’s sudden death.

As founding members of Pantera, Texas’ claim to thrash metal fame, Vinnie and his brother “Dimebag” Darrell achieved the status of living legends. Dimebag’s notoriety for partying harder than any other player on the scene left a gaping hole that Vinnie dutifully filled following the tragedy of Dimebag’s on-stage assassination in December of 2004.

Similarly charged with the daunting task of carrying on after the loss of a band member and mentor they had in Vinnie, Brady and the remaining members of Hellyeah — vocalist Chad Gray, guitarist Tom Maxwell and bassist Kyle Sanders — agreed they had to complete Vinnie’s final masterpiece and share it with his followers around the globe.

“THE SUPPORT IS MASSIVE AND RIGHT NOW WE’RE FOCUSED ON ‘THE CELEBRATION’ AND HONOURING OUR BROTHER.”

 “I know for a fact, if Vinnie’s drum parts hadn’t already been finished it would have been a very different story for the future of Hellyeah, but because those tracks were done we felt an obligation to finish the record. It’s his last piece of work, you know. It’s the last piece of his legacy and he put so much effort and care into what he did on the record to that point and the fans deserved to hear it.”

Ready to wreck the halls, with the support of incoming drummer and longtime friend Roy Mayorga (Stone Sour), Hellyeah will be crisscrossing Canada and the U.S. on their “A Celebration of Life Celebrating Vinnie Paul” tour. According to Brady seeing Welcome Home’s musical theatrics performed live is the perfect pitchfork to pry your brain out of its mid-winter slumber. So, get off the couch, put on a black T-shirt and ‘respect walk’ yourself down to the nearest Hellyeah show to tip a few in honour of mosh pits past. 

“As far as the future of Hellyeah, we’re just taking it day by day. The support is massive and right now we’re focused on ‘The Celebration’ and honouring our brother. It’s so super important that we do that the right way and make sure it’s all about him. We want it to be done tastefully, we want it to be respectful and we want everybody to get a chance to show their love for Vinnie. He was a larger-than-life character and he loved to have a good time. He carried that flag after he lost his brother; he wanted everyone to have a great time. He valued all the fans so much and we knew we had to come out and celebrate, cuz that’s what he would want. So, that’s our mission. That’s all we're trying to do – make our brother proud.”

By Christine Leonard

Hellyeah perform Thursday, Dec. 5 at the Palace Theatre (Calgary, AB), Friday, Dec. 6 at Union Hall (Edmonton, AB) and Sunday, Dec. 8 at The Imperial (Vancouver, BC) // TIX

Proto-metalheads The Well - An In-depth Interview

The Well Are Laughing
into the Darkness

by Christine Leonard

Photo: Andy Ray Lemon

A broken romance left Ian Graham staring into the void ahead of Austin-based proto-metal band The Well’s third album, Death and Consolation. Searching for some meaning while butting up against existential considerations, Graham took a couple of unexpected hits to the ego.

But the seasoned frontman’s approach to dealing with adversity is one that rolls with the punches while delivering some mortal blows of his own.

“Things have changed a lot over the past two years and that’s just how life is. Death and then some consolation, wherever you can find it,” he says. “We have no relationship with death as a living thing. We have paths, or maps, or shit like that, but we’re all just trying to fight off our fear of the complete unknown.”

Shouting into the abyss, The Well’s new album marks a powerful progression in the band’s primal metal style. Created with bassist Lisa Alley and drummer Jason Sullivan, Graham’s new material arrives cloaked in smoke and blood, and a little existential dread.

“We are ghosts riding around in skeletons. We are the scary things that we’re worried about,” he explains. “There weren’t a lot of preconceptions going into the studio this time. I do things in a metaphorical way. I never reveal what’s actually happening in life.”

Gothic literature and ancient history provided ample inspiration for Death and Consolation’s eerie chapters. Graham spent hours scouring his library for tales of terror and wonder to flesh out his metaphors, writing oozing, bluesy songs as a means to escape the emotional quicksand in which he found himself and working with the idea of death as a rebirth, the inward-turned out.

“It had to do with the death of a relationship, but also because of my own actions. Stuff like that. There’s some longing in it, I guess, and maybe regret in dealing with things. And anger! There are some kind of murdery things going on there and that’s always fun to play with when you’re in a bad mood.”

Deceptively humourous, irreverent, melodic and groovy, the album’s doomy disposition shouldn’t be mistaken for pessimism or misanthropy. On the contrary, The Well’s stony exterior and larger-than-life stage presence is intended to be just that, a work of poetic fiction.

“I love dark music, I always have. Whether it’s Joy Division or Slayer, it always made me happy and it makes me happy to make these things too,” Graham humbly relates. “Everything’s posturing, everything’s persona. I see through all that bullshit. That’s what human beings do. I don’t buy it. It’s usually the most sensitive people who are hiding that.”

The Well perform Saturday, May 11 at Static Juniper (Vancouver), Sunday, May 12 at The Palomino (Calgary), Monday, May 13 at Temple (Edmonton) and Tuesday, May 14 The Windsor (Winnipeg).

01st, May 2019

in • Alberta, MUSIC

Rosetta styles metal for astronauts

Rosetta: Exploring the Violence Beneath the Silence

09 October 2017By Christine Leonard 

Amalgamated in 2003, Philadelphia’s dronecore specialists Rosetta spent a decade building the momentum required to achieve their ideal cruising altitude. The spacegazing band reached escape velocity in 2013 when they tore away from their record label to go it alone. About that same time the four sonic cosmonauts, guitarist Matt Weed, bassist Dave Grossman, vocalists/synth-player Mike Armine and drummer BJ McMurtrie welcomed guitarist Eric Jernigan to the Rosetta crew. 

“I actually joined the band late, but I had been friends with the band for ten years, so we had a rich history together,” Jernigan relates.

“I would say that my role in Rosetta has been to help distill some of the melodic ideas that Matt or Dave will bring to the table and find the hidden hook that’s lying in wait.” 

Rosetta’s stormy compositions vacillate between mindful contemplation and reckless abandon. The result is a volatile yet intriguing dark-matter meets doom-rock dynamic that is as attractive as it is indefinable.  

“A lot of the early Rosetta stuff was equal parts melody and aggression, but sometimes they would sort of feel like a wave washing over you and the catchiness of it would only reveal itself after maybe a dozen listens,” Jernigan admits. “When I came into the band I wanted to make the melodic movements more obvious and still do a good job of hiding them.” 

Designed as a quartered cycle of songs that stretches across hemispheres and genres, Rosetta’s sixth album, Utopiod, is perhaps the most thematically-driven milestone in the quintet’s discography. Components ranging from ambient synth to hardcore sludge converge to formulate Rosetta’s atmospheric anthems and stormy eulogies. Or, “metal for astronauts,” as they like to call it. 

Jernigan says, “These days the influences are across the board. I think for all of us, the older we get the more interested we are in avant-garde and non-traditional forays into a sort of exploration of emotion through sound rather than the typical rock band format.” 

By Jernigan’s estimation, the stress-energy tension Rosetta generates in the studio becomes exponentially magnified when presented in the flesh. Thrusting artifice aside in favour of exposing the raw nerves beneath the façade, Rosetta insists on letting moments unfold, and occasionally explode, according to their isotopic nature.  

“Same as any given year of our lives, we have moments of unbridled intensity and hopefully moments of calm reflection and the record does follow sort of a protagonist through the character’s life and we wanted to keep that in mind – that there’s a whole breadth of experience that we all go through and we made a conscious decision to really let some of those quiet, less aggressive moments speak for themselves on the record.”
 

ROSETTA performs October 16 at the Brixx (Edmonton) and October 17 at The Palomino Smokehouse & Bar (Calgary) .

D.R.I. But Wait - There's More

D.R.I. Beneath the Wheel
and Under the Sun

by Christine Leonard

15 April 2017

“I’m at the airport getting ready to get on a plane to Puerto Rico to do a show. I had to get up at 3:30 a.m. and I’m a little sleepy,” confesses D.R.I. (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles) vocalist Kurt Brecht.

“I’m excited because we only have one show, but we’re there for four days. I’ve been there once before in 2012, but didn’t get to go to the beach, we just got abandoned in some suburb. This time I want to go snorkeling or something; I’m all over that.”

And, yes, to answer your question, D.R.I. are those guys dressed in black T-shirts on the beach.

“All pasty and sickly looking. That’s us.”

Soaking up a little R ‘n’ R has taken on new significance for the legendary hardcore thrash punk outfit, who emerged from Houston, TX in 1982. First introduced to the world via the Dirty Rotten LP a year later, D.R.I.’s fanbase swelled thanks to a string of blistering releases including Dealing with It! (1985), Crossover (1987), 4 of a Kind (1988) and Thrash Zone (1989), with Definition and Full Speed Ahead following in the ’90s. A D.I.Y. punk pioneer, Brecht and founding guitarist Spike Cassidy scraped together a following of likeminded hardcore and metal lovers and, in the process, went on to become a genre-defining band.

“As kids growing up we didn’t know if there was an underground music scene. There wasn’t that type of music then. Only hard rock. We just went to rock concerts and stadium shows and stuff. And, I was into the harder, heavier bands. Then, once we discovered punk rock, it was all over. We were like ‘Yeah, this is way better. Way more aggressive!’ and we just kind of mixed the two together. Hardcore. Hardcore punk rock. That’s what we wanted.”

Akin to speed metal crossover acts such as Corrosion of Conformity and Suicidal Tendencies, D.R.I. is accustomed to being at the eye of a human hurricane that feeds off acerbic wails, high-velocity guitar work and breakneck percussion. The self-made quartet, including bassist Harald Oimoen and recent addition Walter “Monsta” Ryan on drums, harnesses the energy of the crowd to generate an frenetic energy that must been witness to be believed.

“I think it’s the music that’s full-throttle,” says Brecht. “Our performance is just us playing the songs, we don’t have a big stage show or anything. The audience is usually the show. I’ve seen some brutal stuff. I think if you’re at a thrash show you’d just better expect that you might get walked on or dove on to.  You can always try and stand in the back, or whatever, but good luck there too. Sometimes I just see it go wall to wall. No safe places to stand. Ah, well. Nothing you can do about something like that; can’t start writing rules. Then it’s just going to be lame.”

Still packing those venues and generating new material like 2016’s surprise EP But Wait…There’s More!, D.R.I. is enthusiastic about their Western and Eastern Canadian tours. According to Brecht, dividing the nation into two runs of performance dates in 2017 is the ideal scenario, as it allows him the flexibility to pursue his non-musical passions.

“It does give you more time for sure. I’m heavily into gardening. And, I travel a lot, too,” he says. “We’re super excited about Canada, because we never get to play there, and a now we get to do two tours of Canada! We’re getting special shirts made up! I’m usually out there selling the merchandise all the time, so I’m talking to everybody.”

D.R.I. are performing April 21 at the Park Theatre (Winnipeg), April 22 at the University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon), April 23 at Union Hall (Edmonton), April 24 at the Marquee Beer Market & Stage (Calgary), and April 26 at the Rickshaw Theatre (Vancouver).

Hammerdrone Reaps a Dark Harvest

Hammerdrone: Releasing the Seeds of Destruction

by Christine Leonard
20 March 2017

 It’s the kind of thing you’d read about in a spy novel, or at least that’s how Hammerdrone’s lead vocalist Graham Harris (Reverend Kill, Genepool, Rotschreck) first stumbled upon the clandestine tendrils of Operation Dark Harvest. Spurred on by the enigmatic trail, Harris would uncover a grassroots rebellion that had some serious dirt under its fingernails.
“I read a fair amount of crime fiction and Scottish author Ian Rankin makes a passing reference to the Dark Harvest Commandos (a proto-SNLA faction) in one of his novels. And I thought, ’Who the hell are they?’ I looked them up and came across an obscure and interesting piece of history that I’d never heard of,” says Harris of inspiration behind the title track of the melodic death metal group’s forthcoming LP.

Sources reveal that in 1981, a group of microbiologists from Scottish universities visited the condemned isle and removed 300 pounds of soil contaminated with anthrax spores. Infected by the British Government during World War II, the deadly toxification wrought upon Gruinard proved that Churchill could decimate a German city in the same fashion. The radical scientists threatened to distribute their dark harvest “at appropriate points that will ensure the rapid loss of indifference of the government and the equally rapid education of the general public,” according to letters the group sent to local newspapers.

Drawing its defiant name from that little-known act of civil disobedience, Dark Harvest is but the latest in a litany of hackle-raising releases from the Calgary-based Hammerdrone.
“When the guys wrote the music for Dark Harvest, it just came together really nicely and tied together a lot of the political themes on the album. ‘Join the Resistance!’ That’s our tag line for playing-up on the idea of ecologically minded terrorists. We wanted to make a political statement. I’m quite in favour of holding the government to account for its promises and actions, so I think there’s something to be said for that!”

Originally forged back in 2010, the intimidatingly intense outfit’s exploratory EPs A Demon Rising (2012) and Wraiths On the Horizon (2013) laid the groundwork for the Promethean ambition of their first full-length release, Clone of Europa, which materialized in 2014. Unfortunately, that victory was clouded by hardship, as the disruptive forces of the mass Calgary flood of 2013 besieged the band. Stepping away from the musical canvas, Harris was left to wonder if Hammerdrone would survive the turbulence that had heaved their world upside-down.

“My wife got transferred to Brisbane, Australia with her work in 2014 and I went too,” explains Harris, who welcomed a baby daughter while living abroad.
“It was kind of a two-year period of globetrotting for me and so from a band perspective, we didn’t know if we were going to continue to be. But we pretty much had the second album all written and we were determined that we were going to record it.”

Proving that long-distance relationships can yield tangible results, Harris found new ways to collaborate on the calamitous Dark Harvest with Hammerdrone bandmates, lead guitarist/songwriter Rick Cardellini, drummer Vinnie Cardellini (Reverend Kill) and guitarist/vocalist Curtis Beardy (Krepitus), while living overseas. Although frequently compared to the likes of Amon Amarth and Behemoth, Harris and company believe in clearing their own footpath when it comes to defining Hammerdrone’s apocalyptic tone and temperament.

“That’s the beautiful side of introducing technology into your music; you’re able to cross 12,500 miles and continue to record together,” Harris confirms.
The most recent addition to Hammerdrone’s arsenal, bassist Teran Wyer (Krepitus, Numenorean) was recruited to the fold for his winning persona and aptitude for anchoring the most aggressive of combos. According to Harris, Wyer’s weighty presence on Dark Harvest heaps another layer of anthemic heaviness upon Hammerdrone’s soylent machinations.

“After we recorded Clones of Europa we really need to find someone solid. Vinnie and I used to play with Teran in Reverend Kill, we knew his style, and what a great guy he is. Once we realized how much he was enjoying playing bass it was an easy choice to slot our good friend in.”

He confirms, “We have a very permanent line-up now.”

Hammerdrone release Dark Harvest on March 24th at Vern’s in Calgary with Votov, Concrete Funeral, and Widow’s Peak.

Gojira Interviewed by Christine Leonard-Cripps

Heavy Sounds, Heady Philosophy

~ French prog-metal outfit Gojira transcribes

 the Tibetan Book of the Dead ~

The well-worn Old Testament phrase “All flesh is grass” is a terrifyingly factual statement about the transitory nature of human existence. French prog-rock musician Joe Duplantier echoes the adage in the title of his band Gojira’s latest album, The Way of All Flesh, tapping into the universal themes of death and rebirth to develop his unique brand of highly technical yet deeply spiritual heavy metal. Together with his brother, percussionist Mario Duplantier, Joe (vocals and guitar) formed the band that would eventually become Gojira in 1996 in Bayonne, France. Assisted by the combined talents of bassist Jean-Michel Labadie and guitarist Christian Andeu, the Duplantier brothers conceived of the next logical stage in the evolution of heavy music.

“As time goes on, we definitely write music that is more personal to us,” Joe says. “I believe that the more honest you are in your intention, the more original the final product will [be]. The process of recording The Way of All Flesh was a bit of a departure for us, because it was solely composed by Mario and myself…. We shared the same strange mood. We held onto the energy from playing live and were still in that state of mind when we entered the studio. It’s true — once we started to express ourselves musically we didn’t need to talk.”

Intuitively integrating the aggressive rhythms of traditional heavy metal, the prosthetic magnitude of industrial metal and the fantastical reverie of the progressive rock genre, Gojira reaps the full benefit of the boundless horizons they’ve created. Traversing moods and time signatures with an uncanny facility, the energetic quartet alternates between grooving and thrashing until the two become indistinguishable. Duplantier’s vocals range from hellish growls to clean-cut hardcore shouts as he verbally navigates our mortal coil.

Though they’re accustomed to comparisons to tourmates such as Cannibal Corpse, Children of Bodom, Amon Amarth, Sanctity, Trivium, Behemoth, Machine Head and Lamb of God, Joe and company still manage to distinguish themselves from the rising tide of heavy hitters. Tapping into the wisdom of ancient religions, Buddhism in particular, Gojira draw the inspiration for their music and artwork from hallowed tomes like the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Weaving together the wisdom of the ancients with their own personal mythologies, these avant-garde headbangers effectively put the New Age into new metal.

“I’m very interested in all kinds of myths and religions,” Joe explains. “I have a very strong attraction to Tibetan culture, because they are naturally so spiritual. I don’t practise Buddhism, but I feel from my experiences that we hold certain truths in common. I think that death is the last societal taboo because we fear what might happen, probably because we don’t know. I don’t consider discussing the topic of death to be morbid, sad or scary — it’s just something we have to experience. I’m mainly concerned with the immortality of the soul. The Tibetan people talk about this all the time, it was a concept that was understood by the Mayans and the Egyptians, yet modern cultures seem to have lost this knowledge.”

Understanding our connection to nature is also important to Gojira. Exploring such heady topics might seem like career suicide in a genre defined by its intensity, but for Joe, it’s all part of the performance.

“Our music is a mix between increased consciousness and following your instincts,” he says. “It cannot be just one or the other. You cannot separate the human and the animal. Still, we all have some divine spark within us. I like to see what’s sacred; the deeper meaning that exists on several levels at once. When we perform for an audience, our goal is to really re-create that energy and communicate another dimension of experience.”

• In Flames performs with All That Remains, Gojira & 36 Crazyfists on November 14th.

by Christine Leonard

Originally published November 13, 2008 in FastForward Magazine.

Megadeth Interviewed by Christine Leonard-Cripps

Just don’t call him mundane Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine plays a dark duet with Lacuna Coil

Megadeth front man Dave Mustaine really has been to hell and back. Hailed as one of the greatest guitarists of all time this thrash metal icon with the nimble fingers and snarling voice has weathered the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune and lived to tell the tale. Purportedly a "born again" version of his former demonic incarnation, Mustaine still retains his onerous reputation as a fiery redhead who’s not to be meddled with. "Just don’t ask about Metallica," warned his PR rep moments before this interview. Close to 25 years after his forced expulsion from that band, the story still resonates through the hallowed halls of heavy metal. However, were it not for his legendary ego, volatile temper, creative impulses, intense personality and penchant for revenge, Dave Mustaine might never have led such an improbably long and successful career. Though monumental, the path he has carved out for himself is a treacherous one characterized by alcoholism, drug addiction and constant infighting with his fellow musicians and record labels. Having given birth to some of the most seminal albums in the annals of heavy metal including five consecutive platinum releases (who could forget Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying? or Killing is My Business and Business is Good?), Mustaine seemed untouchable – until recently. Years of hard living and, yes, old age have finally caught up with the man who brought us Youthanasia. Motorcycle crashes, kidney stones, relapses, radial neuropathy, Saturday Night Palsy, electric shock therapy and radial nerve damage to his priceless left arm have all taken their toll. "Megadeth was blackballed from early on," he explains. "There were bad connections internally and externally. People misunderstood our lyrics. They thought we were preaching suicide. MTV vetoed our videos because they were pissed at our director – and radio follows MTV. It caused a huge chasm between the credible and the questionable, and we had to adjust to survive. It drove us underground. But that sounds like complaining and I don‘t like to whine." Rehabilitating himself and remastering his craft, Dave Mustaine’s determination to move forward culminated in his championing of 2005’s Gigantour festival, an Ozzfest-like concert tour that, while gratifying, reminded Mustaine of why he prefers to focus on his own band instead of facilitating others. In fact, this self-professed control freak admits he has learned that he’s better off letting the suits run the show behind the scenes while he concentrates on the music. "I’m far better off if I keep my hands off of things they shouldn’t be on and on my guitar," Mustaine chuckles. "I have the greatest management team in California by far, and this is one of the most exciting periods for me in my entire career. I’m taking advantage of the fact that I can be completely confident in their abilities, and that’s allowing me to work on all the projects I have lined up including redesigning my webpage. I’d rather worry about what things sound like than justifying myself to MTV armchair quarterbacks." Megadeth’s freshly minted 2007 release United Abominations signals Mustaine’s return to doing what he does best – pulling devastating headlines from the news and setting them to fantastically intricate speed metal. He confirms the rumour that in preparation for this, his eleventh studio album, he had been hunting down none other than Lisa Marie Presley to accompany him on a remixed version of the single "A Tout Le Monde." Perhaps it’s for the best that The King’s daughter was unavailable so goth princess Cristina Scabia of Lacuna Coil was cast in the role of accompanying female vocalist for the track. "It was kind of cathartic revisiting that song," he says. "I usually prefer to do a thing once, make it brilliant and get it over with. The risk of going over a piece too much is that it can become seasonally out of fashion. Asking me to go back and reproduce an album is like asking me to go back to the birth of one of my children and saying ‘OK, what would you change about them?’ But, it was actually fun to go back and revisit this idea. I had originally hoped that Lisa Marie Presley would sing on the album, she is a talented singer with a legendary pedigree. Unfortunately, the timing didn’t work out. We had to make an educated guess and it seemed like Cristina had the most credible voice out there. Doing "A Tout Le Monde" as a duet was a no-brainer, the song is a fan favourite and the performance Cristina gives is fantastic. Evidently, Lisa Marie was really sorry she wasn’t able to do it." As jaded by his tumultuous past as he may seem, Mustaine proves that he still has a few tricks up his three-quarter-length sleeve. His victorious appearance on Music Jeopardy! alongside fellow contestants George "Funkadelic" Clinton and Moon Unit Zappa confirmed his intellectual prowess as well as his ability to laugh at others, if not himself. "Funnily enough, I watched a tape of that show when I was visiting a friend in England. I thought it was a narcissistic experience. After having gone over a performance once I like to improve and move on. It felt weird and self-consumed to watch myself again. I was just trying to be kind to poor Moon. She’s such a tent peg. Right before the show George Clinton told me he was going to nab my jacket and I thought ‘I’ve got to take this guy out!’" by Christine Leonard Originally published MAY 31, 2007 in FastForward Magazine.

Cannibal Corpse Interviewed by Christine Leonard-Cripps

Cannibal is forever!

Coming face to face with the corpse that refuses to die...

Birthed in Buffalo, New York in 1988, Cannibal Corpse is one of the goriest bands in the heavy metal pantheon. Serving up a blood-spattered assault in the classic death-meets-thrash metal style, the band became an international cult sensation revered (and reviled) for their slaughter-strewn album covers and gut-wrenching musical feeding frenzies. A quarter-century later, the Florida-based quintet continues to produce some the most unsettlingly grotesque and technically extreme music on the planet.

“We took a primitive element and followed it up with a good memorable riff; straightforward and in your face. I get a sense that we were a world away from what the Californian death and thrash bands were doing,” says drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz, who along with bassist Alex Webster is all that remains of the band’s original lineup.

“At the time it seemed as though the whole East Coast, Buffalo scene was growing with the band. We were aware of the San Francisco scene, but this was pre-Internet and the only way to obtain new music was to seek it out. Things weren’t so oversaturated and it allowed us to evolve in our own weird way. Twenty-five years later and thrash music is more prominent than ever and remains huge in this region of the country.”

To celebrate Cannibal Corpse’s monstrous accomplishments, record label Metal Blade will be churning out a picture disc a month commemorating the band’s visceral 12-album back catalogue.

“It’s unbelievable ­— this is a real milestone for Cannibal Corpse,” says Mazurkiewicz. “Who would have thought that we’d be around long enough to enter our box-set era? Visuals have always been a big part of the band’s identity, our artist Vincent (Locke) has been a part of the band since the beginning. It’s great to finally have these albums released the way they would have been back in the ’80s when people were buying records.”

Controversial yet explicitly apolitical, Cannibal Corpse has come to measure success by the number of fans they’ve accrued rather than collecting awards to polish. Selling millions of albums, the band that brought forth classics like Butchered at Birth (1991), Tomb of the Mutilated (1992) and more recently Torture (2012) has endured and prospered against all odds.

“We’re lucky to have been around for 25 years — a lot of the bands that started alongside Cannibal have faded away. It’s hard to explain why we’ve endured. I truly believe it’s because we try to write a memorable song. It’s gotta be brutal and evil and heavy, but we’re not about following a formula.”

Possessing a thick skin, and thicker skulls, may have allowed them to survive the past, but it’s their open eyes and fluid minds that will enable them to confront the future.

“Like any good band in any genre, we’re constantly striving to play beyond our abilities,” says Mazurkiewicz. “You can tell that the band’s in a really solid place mentally and that we’re running on all cylinders. I feel like we are stepping things up more than ever and that we can keep going in that direction for a long time.”

Cannibal Corpse with Napalm Death, Immolation & Beyond Creation
MacEwan Ballroom Wednesday, May 22

by Christine Leonard

Originally published May 16, 2013 in FastForward Magazine.

Calgary Metalfest 2013

Return of the Beast 

Calgary Metalfest enters its second summer

by Christine Leonard


Calgary Metalfest II featuring Skeletonwitch, Intronaut, Scale the Summit, Into Eternity, Anciients, Endast, Wake, Disciples of Power and many more
Dickens Pub June 6-8, 2013


Now in its sophomore year, Calgary Metalfest was originally conceived as a hell-raising party for local soundman/producer Nathan Renaud on the occasion of his 30th birthday. Far surpassing the traditional party benchmark of waking up the neighbours, the success of the premier installation was a pleasant surprise for Big Nate.

“I call myself the ‘sole proprietor’ of Calgary Metalfest,” says Renaud. “Mainly because I started last year’s festival as an excuse to see all my friends. The first year my selection process was entirely selfish and short-sighted.”

Despite its casual nature, the inaugural event was a success. “You can’t imagine the relief I felt when our venue reached 90 per cent capacity on that first night. The place only held 500 people and 460 showed up! I couldn’t have been happier; I was walking around handing out kegs and bonuses.”

Confident he could out-do his previous effort, Renaud spent the past 12 months contacting and booking over 80 bands from across the country to perform during Calgary Metalfest 2013’s four-day showcase. It hasn’t been easy deciding who will converge for the second edition of this extravaganza of extreme music; the enthusiasm displayed by Canadian metal bands seeking exposure for their brand of high-octane hardcore has precipitated a waiting list of would-be stand-ins.

“It was obvious that there was a demand for this festival, but the logistics were a bit of a nightmare at times,” says Renaud. “I have to give a big shout out to Tyson Cale Boyd of ConcertWorks in Edmonton for putting me in touch with many of the acts that were coming through; I was super-fortunate to be able to pick up Skeletonwitch from Athens, Ohio and Intronaut out of L.A. When it came to selecting from the demos and applications submitted by local bands, it seemed like we had received submissions from every damn one of them.”

Augmenting his role as producer and stage manager for Scarab Productions (purveyors of Calgary’s international metal festival, Noctis), Big Nate also plays bass for the local tech-death ensemble KYOKTYS. As a musician himself, he has come to appreciate a hands-on approach to mounting an unforgettable show. And although Big Nate has to remind himself to pause and enjoy the melodic chaos, he’s determined to make sure everyone involved leaves feeling like it’s their lucky day.

“It’s going to be crazy,” he says. “I’m sure the Breathe Knives, Witchstone show on Saturday is going to sell out, but Broken City has allowed me to open up their rooftop patio for an all-ages shaker. So, we’ll have all of those cross-over thrash bands like Oh, Shit! and Epidemic playing up there, just for fun. Hardcore standup comedian Jason Rouse from Hamilton will be performing and emceeing the festival. He’s hosted Monsters of Comedy and the Metal Hammer: Golden Gods Awards and he’s the crudest motherfucker I’ve ever heard.” Thankfully, attendees will be able to travel between venues with ease — they’ll have a shuttle running between them from 6 to 9 p.m. each night. And while it’s looking more like an official festival than last year’s event, Renaud still sees it as a celebration of his 31 years on earth, calling it “the best damn birthday party you’ll ever attend.”

KYUSS LIVES - Interview with John Garcia by Christine Leonard-Cripps

They are risen

Extended desert sessions with Kyuss Lives

Akin to a 1930s horror flick that has a demented physician yelling “It’s alive! It’s alive!,” the resurrection of one of the greatest rock bands of all time is nothing short of a modern heavy metal miracle. Evolving from an extraordinary 2010 tour that saw Kyuss alumnus John Garcia performing some of the band’s oeuvre backed by Dutch and Belgian musicians, the new manifestation of the stoner rock deity can only be described as epic.

Some 15 years after the group disbanded, vocalist Garcia was met with an unexpectedly intense demand for the sprawling desert rock anthems the Californian band made famous on seminal albums such as Blues for the Red Sun and Welcome to Sky Valley. If there’s one thing that Garcia has learned in his career as an entertainer it’s how to take his cues from the audience and, thus, a formal reunion with bassist Nick Oliveri and drummer Brant Bjork was announced shortly thereafter.

Working under the moniker Kyuss Lives!, with six-string rebel Bruno Fevery standing in for original guitarist Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal), this souped-up iteration is back to presenting their subgenre-founding soundscapes to audiences across the globe.

“Yeah, it’s great to be back on the road again,” Garcia says. “We’re really looking forward to coming through Canada. Canadian audiences have traditionally been really awesome to us. And, it always feels a little bit extra special performing north of the border because Canada’s the only place where you can catch us with a different lineup. Scott Reeder comes with us when we tour up there due to mixed legal issues. It’s a treat to perform with Scott on bass and switch thing up a bit; it has worked out really well for us in the past.”

Looking back on a year that veritably booked itself under the steam of popular appetite for the band’s masterful montages and cosmic mythology, a middle-aged Garcia and his cohorts have struck a balance between their domestic- and career-based responsibilities. Reasonable enough to (temporarily) forego side projects in favour of committing to the cause at hand, Garcia finally feels as though the momentum that began with his 1989 high school band Sons of Kyuss has finally come to bear fruit.

 Eager to head back into the studio to craft the first new Kyuss effort in over 15 years, Garcia anticipates a summer 2012 release for his reconstituted drone-rock entity.

“I’m so happy to do another record,” Garcia says. “All of our projects are taking the backseat because we’re having so much fun. It’s hard to believe that I’m able to walk into a studio and start writing Kyuss songs again. I wasn’t sure if we could actually go back to that feeling, but after a cocktail or two and a little puff here and there the songs will write themselves, or they won’t. Either way, we no longer wrestle with them.”

As for the sound of the new material, Garcia adds, “We want to maintain the Kyuss standard for certain. At the same time we’re excited and curious about the stuff we’re going to be putting down. We’ll be exploring new tangents and avenues, but I wouldn’t expect a polka album. I think it’s going to be a rock album. Good things happen when you put nice people in a burning room together.”

Family men with kids and wives of their own, the founding fathers of Kyuss have become respectable citizens long after they earned the esteem of their peer and patrons. Getting back into the business of making music at 42, Garcia definitely isn’t interested in letting anyone else hold the reins of his galloping livelihood.

“Ultimately, the higher powers have to let us make the big decisions,” Garcia says. “My level of personal responsibility has gone up 150 per cent. I’m taking things a lot more seriously and at the same time I’m a lot more appreciative to be able to do this for a living. There’s always an element of surprise when you don’t know how well you’ll be received, and so far things have been amazing. I still can’t believe we haven’t been swept to the curb.”

by Christine Leonard

Originally published November 24, 2011 in FFWD Magazine 

AMON AMARTH - Interview with Ted Lundström by Christine Leonard-Cripps

Twilight of the emo gods

Amon Amarth pushes the Valhallan threshold

 

Named for Mount Doom in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings saga, Amon Amarth is one of Sweden’s preeminent death metal bands. As melodic as it is brutal in their musical methods, berserker vocalist Johan Hegg, guitarists Olavi Mikkonen and Johan Söderberg, bassist Ted Lundström and drummer Fredrik Andersson have forged eight full-length releases since the forging of their frostbitten coalition in 1992.

Intermeshing dark funereal themes with lightning quick riffery and thundering percussion, the so-called Viking metal act has become synonymous with horned-helmets and vicious blade-work thanks to Ragnaröking albums such as With Oden on Our Side (2006) and Twilight of the Thunder Gods (2008). Echoing their ordained "loot-and-pillage" motif, Amon Amarth’s 2011 release on the infamous Metal Blade, Surtur Rising, features pagan-friendly cuts such as "War of the Gods," "The Last Stand of Frej” and "Wrath of the Norsemen," effectively capturing the visceral vehemence and quick-fingered prowess of this enigmatic and galvanizing entity.

Bassist and founding member Ted Lundstrom pauses mid-tour to reflect on Amon Amarth’s mythical past and the uncertainty of navigating the Middle-Earthean path laid out before them.

Interviewer Christine Leonard-Cripps: Casting back to your band’s formative years, how difficult was it to distinguish Amon Amarth from the other “metal” bands who were emerging from Sweden at that time?

Ted Lundstrom: Since we were from Stockholm playing something sounding more like a Gothenburg-style, we never really had to compete with the other bands from our area and at the same time we never sounded too much like the Gothenburg bands anyway...

But as a new band people and press like to label you sounding like this and that and it took a couple of years until people started to say we actually had our own style. I guess you have to reach a level before you stop getting compared to other bands and getting other bands compared to you.

CLC: Why do you think Sweden has become such a Mecca for heavy metal music? Is it something to do with the cultural climate, the physical geography or simply the ability of the individual citizen to pursue their “dream careers”?

 TL: Yes, yes and yes. I think there are as many reasons as there are interview victims. One of the reasons we are playing as a band is probably because it was very easy to start a band in our neighbourhood, we had a youth place where we could borrow instruments and get help from experienced people to get started. Later we also could get rehearsal room and studio time at a very reasonable cost. Where the quality comes from is harder to explain though.

CLC: How did you initially determine what your sound would be, what themes or ideas informed your artistic direction?



TL: We just took inspiration from all the music we listened to and tried to make something we enjoyed ourselves. Black metal was on the uprising at the moment but Satanism was not really our thing so we decided to go towards Vikings and battles instead, I think Johan’s big interest in Norse mythology and my interest in fantasy gave us a little kick in the right direction.” 


Of the eight studio albums in Amon Amarth’s impressive discography which stand(s) out as your personal favourite(s)?

“I like the last three albums best, they are a step up production wise and the songwriting is more mature and homogenic. I still love the old albums; they all have a special place in our hearts.

CLC: Is there a particular album or performance that you believed changed the future of the band?

TL: We’ve had a quite slow and steady growth as a band but I think Versus the World gave us a big push in Europe and in North America Fate of Norns was the album that started something bigger. We also had a north American tour together with Children of Bodom and Trivium in 2005 that was an important step for us.

CLC: How important is it to you to produce music that has meaning beyond the sheer physical enjoyment of listening to one of your songs? In other words, how do you balance intellectual substance with sheer emotional power?

TL: Our music is written as a concept in a way, of course the music is the most important part but we want everything to be a unit. We spend a lot of time to get music, lyrics and also album cover art to fit each other. I think this is something we have from the time we where young and listened to heavy metal vinyl albums. You could spend hours looking for cool details on the latest Iron maiden cover, reading every lyric over and over again, this is something that I miss with downloaded music and also CDs.”

CLC: Which comes first the lyrics or the music? Do you use any musical instruments or techniques that might be considered unusual for “heavy metal” bands?


TL: It could be either way, sometimes we start with some phrases written by Johan and start building the song and other times we might have a full song written and we try to get a feeling of what the lyrics should be about. I would love to say that we’re using old instruments made of reindeer hides but we’re just an old school rock’n’roll band playing guitars and drums.

CLC: How mindful are you of past accomplishments, releases, collaborations when you are penning new songs? Are you ever concerned with repeating yourself? What’s more important – breaking new ground to keep yourselves interested or representing the quintessential Amon Amarth sound and preserving its legacy?

TL: It’s tricky to keep everybody happy, no matter what you do some people will love it and some will hate it. After twenty years as a band we have fans of our older stuff and we have newer fans that prefer the last couple of albums, but in the end we as a band have to be happy with the songs otherwise it would never work.

CLC: What motivates you when you’re going on stage, on tour, or stepping in the studio? 


TL: At a live concert it is the energy you get from the audience that is the motivation, we love to play live. when it comes to the studio it is all about making something better than the last time, better production, better songs. You work hard in the studio for weeks or months and when everything falls into place and you can hear the final product it is a great reward.”

CLC: Any advice (including guidelines for looting and/or pillaging) for the up-and-comers who want to thunder like Amon Amarth?

TL: Just listen to your own heart and have fun along the way. We’ve played together for almost twenty years now and we have had up’s and down’s along the way but there is nothing I regret.

By Christine Leonard-Cripps
Originally published August 4, 2011 in Fast Forward Magazine

CRADLE OF FILTH - An interview with Paul Allender by Christine Leonard-Cripps

The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world

England’s biggest metal band likes it filthy

 Cradle of Filth  on tour with Satyricon & Septic Flesh

There’s a certain morbid allure to Cradle of Filth that no self-respecting 17-year-old metal fan can resist. The dual pleasures of simultaneously pissing off one’s parental units whilst basking in the funerary glory of the band’s gothic symphonies is a two-headed demon of mythic proportions, to be sure. Embracing the innocence of youth along with the trappings of liturgical symbolism older than history itself, Cradle of Filth evolved out of the primordial sludge that festered around their hometown of Suffolk, England in the early ’90s. Audiences were lured in by the band’s acute sense of timing, sophisticated melodies and forthright heavy metal sound, all overwritten by singer Dani Filth’s signature howls. Sharing a so-called singing Suffolk accent — marked by a wide pitch range and a high-rising intonation at the end of sentences — lead guitarist and veteran member Paul Allender speaks in a notably broad Midland rhythm that is perfect for a metal-head, right down to the Spinal Tap drawl. Although, what he says isn’t always all that metal.

“I have the notorious reputation for being able to sleep through anything,” says Allender. “That tends to be how I cope with things when we’re on the road. Everybody is off snowboarding, and I’m stuck on the bus because our insurance won’t cover me getting busted up on the ski slopes. They’re like ‘Those hands? No way!’ So, that means that I don’t get to see as much of the places we perform in as I might like, but to me it’s more important that I’m completely energized when I hit the stage every night. I mean, that’s what it’s really about, isn’t it?”

That drive has led Cradle to produce black metal albums of the highest calibre, despite being haunted by label conflicts (the band has had issues with both Sony and Cacophonous Records), financial ruin, legal woes and a seemingly never-ending war of attrition amongst bandmates. Cementing their status as gods of the heavy metal underworld with legendary releases such as The Principle of Evil Made Flesh, Cruelty and the Beast, Thornography and last year’s Godspeed on Devil’s Thunder, Filth and Allender have ironed out past differences into a battle-hardened friendship.

“The way we see it, it doesn’t matter what the label thinks,” says a defiant Allender. “We’ve always done what we wanted, contracts or no. We’d politely tell our label ‘It’s got fuck all to do with you,’ even when we were on Sony. We run the show ourselves. It’s always been about freedom, and I think that comes across in our music. Working without constraints allows for more flowing. We do it all by feel and without an agenda.”

Other developments have seen the elite metal group incorporate female vocals into their mix — most notably those of their new “satanic advisor,” Sarah Jezebel Deva, who replaced Andrea Meyer after her short run with the band. Content whether performing as a six or seven-piece, Cradle always digs deep to bring their living nightmare to the stage. Gathering their collective sense of creative inspiration from Gothic literature, classical mythology and horror films, the grim collective enjoys adding a dash of the dramatic to their performances — something their audiences have come to appreciate, admire and, in some cases, demand.

“We just did three shows in a row in Mexico where we played to a packed stadium of three-and-a-half thousand people every night,” Allender recalls. “They were singing our songs from the time they were standing in line, and even cheered our road crew through the whole set-up process. The amount of support they showed us was totally unbelievable. They were so appreciative and so into it that they refused to leave after our encore and still stayed around as the stage was dismantled. I think that when it comes to seeing live music, a lot of us are really spoiled for choice, but those kids are just so hungry for it. We’d go anywhere in the world to perform for people who love metal that much.”

by Christine Leonard

Originally published in Fast Forward Magazine January 29, 2009

3 Inches of Blood Interview by Christine Leonard-Cripps

Ankle-deep in a bloody good time with 

3 Inches of Blood

Fantasy-metal sextet 3 Inches of Blood prepare to Fire Up the Blades

~~~

Whether you’re waste-deep sluicing out a clogged floor drain in a slaughterhouse or applying tiny squares of tissue to a zit inadvertently decapitated during a morning shave, blood is blood, and the red stuff always gets a reaction. The same can be said of the formidable heavy metal ensemble known as Three Inches of Blood. Riding high on the success of their latest release, Fire Up the Blades, the fast-shredding sextet has captured headlines and hearty praise for the over-the-top duelling vocals of high-ranger Cam Pipes and doom-growler Jamie Hooper, backed by Alexei Rodriguez’s punishing percussion and the crunching black metal bass riffs of Nick Cates. Moving beyond novelty act niche, Three Inches of Blood has undergone some significant lineup changes in the interest of establishing themselves as a true metal superpower. Guitarists Shane Clark and Justin Hagberg joined the band shortly after the release of the group’s 2004 album, Advance and Vanquish. According to Clark, their new material is their most extreme to date.

“For me, as an individual musician, the process of recording the new album marked the end of being stifled creatively,” he says Shane Clark. “Justin and I joined at the same time and we have been touring on the last album for two and a half years. I loved the music, but I wasn’t involved in writing it. Being on the road has made us a lot tighter as musicians and personally, too. Working on this album was a very collaborative effort, we all shared our influences, and I’m happy with the fact it came together so well. It’s fast, heavy and rockin’; kind of like Deep Purple.”

Clark says the baker’s dozen tracks that rage within Fire Up the Blades reflect an evolution in the band’s taste for fantastical imagery. Giving new meaning to the words “heavy metal,” Three Inches of Blood have raided the Viking’s armoury in search of razor-sharp steel fit to slay the giants of Jormungrund. Leaving behind the evil-yet-bloody-amusing pirates and hobbits that inspired their music in the past, they still maintain their signature combination of Pipe’s lightning-hot shrieks, and twin guitars laying down thunderous power chords.

“There has always been an element of fantasy to our songs,” he says. “Mythological themes seep into the music, and our lyrics often talk about finding inner strength and overcoming the odds. It’s very escapist in nature. The last thing we want is for people to come home from a horrible day and then have to hear about ours. We wanted to explore serious fantasy that touches on what some may call the plague on the planet that is Christianity. Some of the songs deal with demons and things from the Crusades in a hypothetical way. ‘Trial of Champions’ is about gladiators as slaves who rise up and overthrow their masters. It’s about becoming free, but it’s done in an indirect way. We just put a new twist on an old idea.”

Rising to the challenge like the champions of mayhem they are, Three Inches of Blood recently completed a full tour with Ozzfest, in which they flexed their collective muscle and exposed their new and improved chops to a rapidly growing international fan base. Known for donning horny Viking helmets and hoisting medieval weaponry of every description, Three Inches of Blood’s adherents seem to take enormous pleasure in immersing themselves in the fantastical action. Security staff be warned — it may be harder to spot a homemade double-head battle axe in a pat-down than you’d think. Damn fur-lined underwear!

“We seem to be able to appeal to a broad spectrum of fans,” Clark explains. “There are so many subgenres of death and black metal, including stuff I’ve never heard of. We have been so fortunate to have toured with so many different types of acts within the death metal realm in so many cities. Of course, things are at their craziest when we perform for audiences in Western Canada. They’re always the most intense, patriotic and steadfast. I wouldn’t put it past them to show up with a lot of weapons. We take it as a compliment when people genuinely enjoy our stuff and really get into the lyrics, whether they show up in an actual full suit of armour or just something they made out of beer cases. We love that enthusiasm. There’s no political or religious agenda here, it’s just about having fun, burning off energy and letting out your aggression.”

By Christine Leonard

3 Inches of Blood perform with Verbal Deception & Gallows Eve
Royal Canadian Legion #1  Saturday, September 29

Originally published September 27, 2007 in FastForward Magazine

AUTOBODY : An interview with Graeme McInnis by Christine Leonard-Cripps

Heavy Metal Shop

Calgary's Autobody likes it fast and furious

Emerging Calgary hardcore-meets-heavy-metal artists Autobody have weathered highs and lows on the road to rock ’n’ roll glory, and they have the experience and the scars to prove it. Claiming a musical heritage that stretches back to a prog-rock ensemble known as theR.A.C.E., this unholy trio of tried and true friends have succeeded in blazing their own trail.    

 “In the beginning, we ran our own label and put out our own records,“ says guitarist Graeme McInnis. “We spent five to seven years working on the last record for our previous band theR.A.C.E. It was a very progressive concept album. We had a great vision that required a complex recording process to accompany the tremendous industrial nature of the performance. Ultimately, it was cheaper to buy a studio than to pay to record in one, and that’s how our label, Trace Records, got started. We recorded some projects for other bands to offset the expense, but it all comes down to percentages and our style is just not “mainstream.” It became apparent that we were leaning more towards art than commerce. I wouldn’t advise young musicians just starting out to try and start their own label; we’ve learned how difficult it can be when you’re trying to do everything yourself.”     

Eventually, the strain was too much, and, as McInnis puts it, things soon “self-imploded.” Still, the members of Autobody endured and eventually emerged from the ashes of their former incarnation. McInnis further cemented his collaboration with vocalist-bassist Jerrod Maxwell-Lyster and the two joined forces with drummer Rob Shawcross to form a powerful three-piece. The group has left behind the disappointment and dissolution to focus on the future.  

With the advent of their explosive full-length debut, The Mean Length of Daylight, released on the band’s own label, Autobody have dedicated themselves to creating shredding guitar riffs and pummelling percussion arrangements so tight there’s no room left for personality conflicts.     

“I don’t think we’ve taken a step back by going down to a three-piece,” McInnis explains. “I think we’re much more accessible. It’s a much simpler project in terms of merging egos, finances and commitments. We just try to keep it simple; we’ve learned over the years that too many members means too many issues. I think that our wide dynamic range sets us apart. As a trio we are strong enough musicians and songwriters that we can perform original compositions in any style within the genres of rock and metal. We’re a steamroller full of determination!”    

Making the most of their new, sleeker lineup, the lads in Autobody have been generating plenty of buzz on the local scene and beyond. They’ve been performing at metal festivals, appearing on globally broadcast radio program “Megawatt Mayhem” and, most recently, embarking on a whirlwind tour of their old stomping grounds in Southern California.     

“The reason we chose to return to the L.A. scene is that there is such a huge number of venues concentrated in an area the size of southern Alberta.” McInnis reasons. “We do all of our own booking and it’s way easier to hit a large segment of the population down there. It was definitely a learning experience, and we did our best to take advantage of it by playing with bands down there that were of interest to us. We had a great time. It’s a lot of hard work, though, and that’s part of the whole problem; as the band is getting to be more popular, all of the little tasks that we were doing ourselves are becoming full-time jobs. That’s when you know you need a professional team — when all of the ‘detail work’ gets to be too much to handle.”

~Christine Leonard

Originally published September 6, 2007 in Fast Forward Magazine 

Lamb of God takes it all in with Sacrament

Baaaaaad to the bone Lamb of God defines American death metal by Christine Leonard December 14, 2006 Metalcore comes in many shapes and sizes but when you’re talking about Virginia’s nihilistic quintet, Lamb of God (L.O.G.), things couldn’t be any less cute and fluffy. Building their own vicious empire, these malevolent thrashers arose from the putrefied ashes of the band known as Burn the Priest. Eschewing their all-too-obvious moniker in favour of the curlicued creature biblically associated with Jesus Christ, they have gone on to achieve far greater heights than even they could have imagined. Founding member Chris Adler took a break from the band’s demanding tour schedule to share his insights and experiences as chief percussionist for L.O.G. "Our bass player John Campbell and I are the ones who started the band back in the day," Adler fondly recalls. "My brother Will is our main guitar guy and he’s always bringing in new guitar riffs for me to try out. I then have the advantage of taking my time and thinking about the perfect drum beats to go with his melodies. We don’t want to sound like your average Joes, but then again we’re not reinventing the genre or anything. We just want to create something genuinely unique. My part is to decide where my body’s going to be in the piece – where I want my limbs to fall amongst the guitar and vocals." Stepping out of the ordinary and finding new vistas to conquer has given Lamb of God the freedom to further explore their sound and to flesh out their take on American death metal. Looking back at a discography that encompasses releases such as Ashes of the Wake, As the Palace Burns and New American Gospel, the band is thrilled by the reception given to their DVD debut Killadelphia (Live), that gave many fans their first glimpse of L.O.G. in action. Since then the Atkins brothers along with fellow band members – guitarist Mark Morton and acid-throated howler Randy Blythe – have returned to the studio to hammer out their latest album Sacrament with the help of producer Machine (King Crimson, White Zombie, Godflesh). "Sacrament is not as progressive as it could have been, but by the same token we’re not trying to perpetuate the notion that we’re a partying groove metal kind of affair," Adler explains of their meticulous approach to the recording process. "Our goal was to select songs that include a variety of styles and to showcase our potential in the best light possible. There was a lot of pressure to do something we haven’t done before. Our previous albums have typically been dark and depressing, creepy and strange. We’ve done our best to break away from the two-and-half-minute formula; every song has a different vibe to it."

FEAR FACTORY - Interview with Burton Bell by Christine Leonard-Cripps

Don’t fear the reaper

Fear Factory remanufactures death metal

Churning out alt-metal thrash for over a decade-and-a-half, Fear Factory has earned legendary status among the myriad of industrial bands that emerged in the early ’90s. Founding member and vocalist Burton C. Bell was fresh from his days with Hate Face when he crossed paths with percussionist Raymond Herrera in Los Angeles. The two formed the band’s earliest incarnation under the name Ulceration. They quickly joined the lineup of a compilation entitled L.A. Death Metal and soon thereafter found themselves signed to Roadrunner Records.

Inspired to broaden their horizons the newly formed (and appropriately renamed) Fear Factory began experimenting with remixing techniques and adding new instruments, producers and players to their roster on a regular basis. By 1998 they had released an impressive array of albums including Soul of a New Machine, Fear is the Mind Killer, Demanufacture, Remanufacture (Cloning Technology), and Obsolete, and had established themselves as a force to be reckoned with.

Pioneering a new industrial genre and taking the hardcore scene by storm, Fear Factory continued to push the envelope with a unique esthetic that layers techno-oriented augmentation on top of classic hardcore metal. Dabbling with elaborate remixes of everything from Gary Newman’s "Cars," U2’s "I Will Follow" and Nirvana’s "School," Fear Factory have proven that they are comfortable enough in their own skins to step outside the box and create musical arrangements that appeal to their senses on all levels.

"When people ask what our influences are, I just tell them to look at the songs we’ve covered over the years," explains Bell of the band’s eclectic musical tastes. "It doesn’t matter what genre a piece comes from, we just have fun with it while trying to keep it recognizable. Our music is directed towards people who like everything from hardcore to industrial to new wave to pop."

This past fall Roadrunner Records released a Best of Fear Factory CD that has rekindled interest in the band’s oeuvre and recruited new adherents across the metal scene. By tying together such diverse elements into one intellectually stimulating and physically exhilarating package, Burton and Herrera have seemingly struck upon an inexhaustible well of musical inspiration that has proven to be a veritable fountain of youth. Backed by guitarist Christian Olde Wolbers and Strapping Young Lad bassist Byron Stroud, the group is eager to reconnect with its fanbase and re-establish their presence on the world stage.

"It’s almost overwhelming playing in front of an audience again. We’re revisiting material we haven’t dragged out in 10 years, but people seem to be pretty happy with the results. We usually focus on picking our heavier material, including a couple of tunes we haven’t performed live since 1994. It’s a real trip back to the rack, so to speak," says Bell.

"With our more recent albums like Digimortal, Archetype, and our latest release Transgression, I think one can perceive how our sound has subtly evolved on its own over time – there was certainly nothing deliberate about it."

Accustomed to touring with massive, million dollar productions such as Ozzfest and the inaugural Gigantour, Bell confirms that he is very much looking forward to engaging audiences on a more intimate basis. Hitting the highways with the Machines of War tour along with fellow headbangers Decapitated, Hypocrisy and Suffocation, Fear Factory is more than ready to assume its rightful place as the headlining act in the company of highly capable and compatible peers.

"I think that there are up-and-coming bands out there who represent our genre, but industrial music is not really getting much notice these days," says Bell of the current state of things. "Bands like Ministry and KMFDM are still around, but they’re on the backburner. Young bands that have evolved from the Swans, Einsturzende, Skinny Puppy and Nine Inch Nails are so hard to search out, they’re pretty much invisible and nobody has really made a dent in the scene.

"Basically, I’d have to say that industrial music hasn’t moved forward yet. I think someone needs to step up and take it all the way back to what it was originally about – rhythm and discordant cacophony."


by Christine Leonard

Originally published in FFWD Magazine December, 2006