Interview with Aether from Poland

Hi there. Thanks for your time for this interview. So, Aether is a young and motivated folk metal band that debuted with "Tale of Fire" EP in 2016, isn't it? Could you tell us about the birth of the band and about the current members?

Michał : Hey, first of all thank you for having this interview with us.
As for the question itself, we don't consider ourselves a part of the folk metal subgenre. Our inspirations are mostly melodic death metal with orchestral & occasional folkish elements. We cannot deny that some of our songs ("Last Battle" & "Forest") drift towards the folk metal vibe but that's it.
Forming a band was an idea that we had in mind a long time before its actual birth. At some point we had just decided that the best time to act was now and thus Aether was born. Through all the years of the band's existence the lineup has remained mostly the same and is currently stable. However, our live show lineup shifts depending on life circumstances and availability of specific members.

The fantastic first full-length "In Embers" that you released in 2019 became 3 years old already. Time flies so quickly! Do you have any plans or ideas for a new album so far?

Michał : Thank you, time flies indeed!
We are in the lengthy process of producing new quality material. We have developed substantially since the release of "In Embers". I can assure you that both the musical ideas and their execution will be noticeably more mature in the future release. Since the ideas are constantly evolving we cannot say how the final product will sound. What I can tell you is that the style will surely differ from our debut album.

 

That's exciting! So, I guess nobody wants to hear about the pandemic anymore but I want to ask you how did it influence against the band? COVID-19, the current war... there're enough obstacles laying before active bands like yours but I recognized you guys have started playing live shows again these days, congrats. How do you feel about it?

Michał : The pandemic has wreaked havoc throughout the entire industry. We can only imagine how hard it was for all the industry professionals such as musicians, booking agents and venue owners.
For us it was undoubtedly a challenge. It has forced us to cancel numerous live shows (including an EU tour) & festival appearances. It has also caused the untimely end of many smaller festivals which was a huge blow for bands like ours. As for the current situation, we are doing our best to make up for the lost opportunities. We are happy that everything is slowly coming back to normal after these hard times.

 

I can feel you and am proud of you guys being brave through the catastrophic situation. Okay, let's get back to talking about "In Embers". The album was available in CD stores in Japan as well. Have you gotten many feedbacks from listeners all over the world?

Michał : First of all, thank you for making it possible for our music to be spread across Japan. We are eternally grateful for your help :)
The worldwide feedback has exceeded our expectations and it still continues until today!

"In Embers" has a mythological atmosphere through the album. It seems like individual songs are connected as one in a big picture and some tracks have strong bond each other. Each of the tracks are dramatic and fascinated anyway. What is your specific idea about those lyrics? How did you come up with the idea?

Michał : I cannot deny that the mythological influences were present while writing the lyrics for the album. I was introduced to various mythologies as a child (especially the Greek one) and fell in love with them as a whole. Despite the fact that the lyrics are not strictly related to any specific myths or legends I feel that there is a strong background to them. As for the ideas and the actual themes - they are mostly a lyrical depiction of certain emotions I have experienced until that point in my life. It would take a lot of writing to actually explain what each and every song is about and what their background is. But one day I may sit down and actually write it all down so it doesn't get lost in time. As for the connection between the songs - they are all loosely connected. However the songs "Wildfire Within", "Tale of Fire" & "Valhalla" tell one bigger story creating a sort of a lyrical trilogy.

 

That's impressive and what I wanted to hear from you about some insight of the album. Well, as a long time ÆTHER REALM fan, I'm curious about the relationship between your band and them with the fact that you got Jake (Vincent Jackson Jones) from ÆTHER REALM as a guest vocals for the album, right? How did you get to know one another?

Michał : ÆTHER REALM is one of our early inspirations actually!
They're an outstanding band and we're proud to share a part of our name with them - even though it's a total coincidence. Their frontman, Jake, is an extremely friendly human being (which also applies to all the other members). We started talking a few years ago - and I have no idea how it happened. Then at some point we figured it would be a great idea to have him join in for guest vocals in the song "Wildfire Within". Needless to say it turned out awesome :)
We're looking forward to possible further collaborations with him/them.

 

I agree with you that they are truly outstanding and Jake has a wonderful personality. It would be awesome if Aether have him or the whole band on stage in the future. 

So far, there are two official music videos from “In Embers”, by the way? One of them - “Insomnia” was filmed at two live shows and Aether looks a total live band! Could you tell us about your experiences from those shows?

Michał : Thank you!
It warms our hearts to see that our stage performance is enjoyable. We love playing live (of course!) and visiting new places. Speaking of which, we'd love to perform in Japan one day (wink wink)!
The video for Insomnia was captured during Rock'n'Iasi and Celtic Transilvania festivals in Romania a few years ago - Celtic being one of the biggest shows we've ever played. We had a blast playing these shows!

Great! Okay, this is the final question to you. What can we expect for your upcoming(immediate) activity?

Michał : As mentioned before we are currently writing new material which will see the light of day at some point in the future. Aside from that we're focusing on making up for the pandemic break and conquering new stages. One of the highlights of this summer was sharing the stage with one and only Within Temptation on the same day at WTF Rock Festival in Bistrita, Romania. It was a blast!
And if we have an opportunity we'd love to play a proper EU tour at some point.
On an ending note, you're doing a great job with your promotional activity, Kumi!
Thank you for having us!

 

Thank you so much again for your time and efforts for this interview. Hope everything will be back to normal very soon. And of course, we are really looking forward to hearing from you about the new album anytime soon. 

Aether is:

Michał Miluśki - guitars and vocals
Michał Górski - bass
Krzysztof Wiedeński - keyboards
Krzysztof Grochowski - guitars
Maksym Steć - drums

Check Aether page on kumi666com!

Short review for Trick Or Treat’s new album “Creepy Symphonies”

On this chaotic era, music seems more important for everyone than usual. In fact, many musicians keep putting their efforts for creating new songs during the hard time. Honestly, I'm thankful from the bottom of my heart to those wonderful artists for saving our mental health and for giving positive energies to our daily life.

2022 already became an amazing metal year. I have several huge favorite albums so far. Most of them are from death metal genre but I'd love to share my feeling about Trick Or Treat's fantastic new album Creepy Symphonies cos it's one of those huge favorites in 2022!

"Today is the scholar of yesterday."

It's just like once they came back to their source, refilled themselves with fresh spirits from their original home Evil Needs Candy Too, threw it into an evolution-pot together with up-to-date ingredients including experience, technique, wisdom, passion, love and fun, blended all the elements together and ta-da!

The album reminded me how I fell in love with their music at the time of Evil Needs Candy Too and also reminded me the reason why I kept following their path until today. I'm still a big fan of Rabbits' Hill albums especially pt.2 is one of the greatest metal albums in my whole life but finally Creepy Symphonies tightly grabbed my heart and made me moving forward to fall in love with their new music.

Every song in the album is absolutely enjoyable of course, especially the final track "The Power Of Grayskull" has a similar spirit with my most favorite TOT song "Showdown"(from Rabbits' Hill pt.2), it's just dramatic and pumped. As I always say, the only way that you can feel music is listening to it by your own ears, not from any reviews, never. So, if you felt something curious about the Trick Or Treat's new album Creepy Symphonies, check it out right away, pay for their music and support them. Let's get creepy. Let's get fun. Kawabunga!

Trick Or Treat is:
Alle Conti - vocals
Guido Benedetti - guitar
Luca Venturelli - guitar
Leone Villani Conti - bass
Luca Setti - drums

Trick Or Treat Official Website here!

 

 

 

... and, world peace!

"... the music will break through anyway. We defend our freedom. To live. To love. To sound." - Volodymyr Zelensky

Josh McMorran’s new project Forlorn World releases an album this year

During the quarantine, it's hard to gather as a band to make a new music and many bands must have the similar situation these months. So, I guess it's the right timing for Josh (McMorran) to work on his solo project Forlorn World. Yes, he's back with his exciting new music!

"Umbra" has a lots of elements that I always expect from death metal - the destructive powerful sound, blast beats, super edgy riffs, technical guitar solos, thrills, densities, charismatic growls and emotional melodies. Josh's new project Forlorn World music gives me goose-bumps 24/7 through the intensive songs from the first album "Umbra". I can say that the fans of Bloodshot Dawn must be total satisfied with the album for sure cos it has BSD's thick blood, Josh's blood, but there is a disparate point against BSD's music - clean vocals! Josh managed it by himself and together with his good cleans and fascinating melodies, the album fuels your emotional sense. He is an absolutely talented musician already but I suppose his clean singing would have more strength in the future than this time cos he is a perfectionist and passionate metal artist. Of course, he is roaring as hell as well and it sounds perfect! I highly recommend Forlorn World's exciting new album "Umbra" to every death metal fan! The current situation around the world with the merciless virus is totally harsh but there are many awesome metal releases this year already. We should be thankful from the bottom of our heart for those great musicians with their amazing music cos they have been bringing huge hope to our daily life. They are true heroes. Josh's new project Forlorn World's first album is going to be one of top albums of the year. It will be out on this October and the pre-order is available now via Bandcamp. Order the album, support his project and make yourself happy with the fantastic death metal!

Keep an eye on FORLORN WORLD!!!

FORLORN WORLD's page on kumi666.com

Track list of "Umbra"

 1. Moving Mountains
2. The Shadowmancer
3. Before the End
4. March into Void
5. Traveller
6. Pillars of Eternity
7. Umbra

Interview with Vincent “Jake” Jones from AETHER REALM – Insight of “Redneck Vikings from Hell”

First of all, I want to say congrats to you about the signing with Napalm Records! Did that drastically change your life as a musician?

Jake: Thank you Kumi! If we hadn’t had you in our corner we’d be way worse off.
Not really at all! At least, not yet. The main change has been the fact that we didn’t have to figure out how to pay to make this one - Napalm took that weight off our backs (and ya’lls back, if I’m never again in charge of shipping hundreds of packages across the world it’ll still be too soon, ha). But I still work my regular job to pay the rent (I’m a pharmacy technician). And the Napalm team is getting our music into many more ears than we would have been able to achieve on our own, that’s an exciting change. They do a whole lot of promotional stuff that - taken in isolation - might seem insignificant, but they do so much of it that it all adds together in a major way.

I was glad to know that your new album will be out within three years from the previous full-length “Tarot”. You had been struggling so much to finalize the second album and it took about five years after the first full-length “One Chosen by The Gods” then. Did your recording process and mix/mastering go smooth this time? Arrangements and the sound production through the album are killer anyway though.

Jake: I have yet to experience an album where it all goes “smooth” haha. Something about the way my brain is wired, Kile and I always seem to wind up with one huge final all night grind mixing session to bring it all together. I don’t think we put stuff off, it’s more like you can always do more work to a song, so you have to set a deadline to finish, and the closer the deadline the more frantic and unhinged the work becomes.

I’m already in love with the new album “Redneck Vikings from Hell” and feel it’s the strongest candidate for Album of The Year in 2020 so far. I think “Redneck Vikings from Hell” is not only the best album ever but also the most down-to-earth album among ÆTHER REALM’s releases. And the great fact is you’ve been showing us a lot of different colors album by album without losing anything. This time, there are a couple of songs that doesn’t sound like your typical melodeath / folk metal style. Is that your natural evolution or some sort of strategic approach for attracting more metal fans?

Jake: We’ve always just written the songs we want to write - and this time we wanted to try writing a bangers album. Shorter, denser songs that don’t attempt to maintain any overarching story or theme (Kalmah’s The Black Waltz and Children of Bodom’s Are You Dead Yet? are two of my favorite albums that seem to do this). I’m not blind to it when we write something like Goodbye or Guardian that is gonna be perceived by the metal community as sort of “oh no the label’s making them write pop metal to sell out”, but if that’s how the song comes out it’s like, do people expect us to re-write the song to try to make it less accessible? That seems bonkers!

Thankfully, we haven’t really gotten a ton of negative response toward trying new stuff - seems like most people that like our old stuff are on board. And it’s cool to get bigger but if I had to play or write songs that I didn’t believe in and enjoy to do that, I’d pass. We’re just writing what we want to write.

The title track “Redneck Vikings from Hell” sounds kinda your party-piece style but it’s disclosing your identity through the total unique lyrics, for example ‘We spell Valhalla the redneck way, C-A-R-O-L-I-N-A’ (that’s my fave line). It feels like I go back and forth between a legend and the reality all the time. I love it. I feel your strength and pride for you are who you are. How did you come up with the idea of the song?

Jake: Before we released tarot actually. It was first intended to be a secret track at the end of Tarot (it was an entirely different song then, but the title and core idea were there). It didn’t work back then, since that album was so long (72 minutes!). If we put any more up there the cd printer would have to do it as a double album, and we couldn’t afford that at the time.

But we thought a bit more about that joke, and how it’s actually the most like...honest idea for a song we’ve ever had. Like there’s something a little silly about 4 guys from Greenville, North Carolina singing songs about odin and questing for glorious battle, right? NC is right in the southern United States - a place not often associated with battle within the raging snows of the north. It’s associated with...well...bein redneck.

So it made us think a bit more  - stereotypically redneck culture is associated with several negative traits, chiefly racism and ignorance. And if we can’t stop someone from perceiving us as rednecks, why don’t we just decide what that means? For us that means lyrically embracing all the elements of redneck culture we like as a tall tale about the band’s own backstory. We party so hard that the towns we visit are left as a pile of smouldering ash. But simultaneously we get to declare that “it doesn’t matter where you were born or how you were raised, being a redneck viking is about one thing. Whether you know how to fuckin party”. It seems a bit silly to say out loud, but I’m serious about the sentiment - I want to continue building this fan community where anyone with any kind of background feels welcome and supported.

We tried to explore that dichotomy in the music too, mashing up sort of turisas “varangian guard” sounding big brass (Orchestrations done by Gloryhammer’s Ben Turk, by the way, he knocked it out of the park!) with elements of american folk music (banjo and slide guitar provided by Wayne Ingram from Wilderun, thanks Wayne!) I’m not quite sure who exactly is the target audience for this, but it sounds like you enjoyed it, so maybe we did something right! Ha!

Honestly, I was half worried and half curious about an outcome of your new album when I listened to the first single “Goodbye” for the first time via the music video. Of course, I felt good with the song, but it was the only source from the album at that time, you know what I mean. Anyway, I found the song is standing out in the album and I sensed a strong determination for what you do with your music. You can do anything you want to do with your band cos it’s your music. (I’m always thankful for your amazing music!) The guitar solos are emotional and fantastic. Could you tell us what’s on your mind about the song?

Jake: Ha! You aren’t alone. I think a lot of people may have had an expectation of Tarot 2, and were confused by this like...arena metal song. All I know to say is we wrote the album we wanted to make, and I reckon we sound our best at our most genuine, so I’m glad we didn’t phone it in or repeat ourselves.

I had just gone through a hard breakup that saw me move back to my hometown. I was sorta broke and Donny was nice enough to let me move in with him while I got my shit back together. While I was living with him, we started having nightly writing sessions - just sitting down and experimenting. That wound up turning into Goodbye. I was listening to a lot of Carpenter Brut and Perturbator, which led to some of the synth elements, and I was also really enjoying The Bee by Amorphis. My natural vocal range is pretty low, sorta like the dude from that band, so I thought maybe we could try to play into that by doing something that didn’t require any crazy power metal vocals.

And the quality of the music video looks awesome! Just look like a big rock band. How did you come up with the nostalgic atmosphere?

Jake: I had an incredible amount of help from the Banana The Lemon crew. Jaraad Nageer directed and produced, Ana Maria Hecho was the director of photography (so she was in charge of everything camera related). I told Jaraad I wanted it to feel sorta synthwave - a genre that borrows a lot of it’s aesthetic from sort of a romanticized 80s dystopia. He took that and assembled an unbelievable team (worth way more than we could afford - huge thanks to all of them for the favor). They took a vague idea from us and made it into an aesthetic reality.
@BNNXLMN

Jaraad Nageer
Ana Maria Manso
Ben Bowen
Lorillee Paras
Marcial Gonzalez
Reece Miller
Reese Elowe
Byron Rodriguez
Patrick Ottinger
On The Mark Media
Diamonds and Coal Jewelry

“Lean into the Wind” starts with solid orchestrations. It’s fast and aggressive total death metal tune and especially the drumming is killer! This is the only track themed ‘death’ in the album, right? Is it based on a personal feeling?

Jake: The phrase “lean into the wind” came into my head during one of the many times I’ve caught myself outside in the cold without any sleeves. I find that once I get over the initial shock, there’s something primal about taking the full force of a cold wind straight to the skin. It feels like a battle against nature. And I realized it’s a fair metaphor for the obstacles we all face in our journeys. For me, when I’m feeling sort of beaten, I can turn to a song like Guardian that makes me feel safe, or I can turn to Lean Into The Wind, a song that makes me feel defiant.

After listening through the album for a couple of times, the ear-catching chorus part of “Hunger” started swimming around my head over again. I love it! And some melodies from the track reminded me “The Magician” somehow. The vengeful words behind the metaphorical lyrics make it brutal anyway. Have you been feeling like exploited or so these past years?

Jake: I wouldn’t say I’ve felt exploited really - Hunger was written in 2016, while we were on our first big support slot for a tour, opening for Alestorm and Nekrogoblikon across the US. Before that tour I was exhausted - it was before Tarot had been released, and we worked for so long on that album without having anything to release or show for it that that project was feeling rather hopeless. I think if Chris and the gang hadn’t invited us to join them, we might have thrown in the towel before we were finished. While we were out with them we got a bit of a taste of what it feels like to be, well, a real band. That taste renewed a lot of the desire that had grown cool after a few seemingly stagnant years. The song was about feeling hungry for success again, whatever that means to you.

With your lower clean vocals and the lyrics, “Guardian” sounds sentimental and personal. Beautiful track. How do you feel for using clean vocals entirely through a song?

Jake: Thank you Kumi! I was terrified to be honest. I’ve been practicing a lot at home to try to be ready to nail the vocals when we finally do it live. We just barely manage to sneak one little scream in there just before the first big chorus - gotta stay a LITTLE bit metal. It seems like it’s gone over pretty well though, thanks to everyone that is down to experiment with us!

No doubt, “One Hollow Word” is one of my fave tracks in the album. The arrangement is huge. Did you dedicate the song to a specific person?

Jake: Yeah, Justin Shearer. Justin one of the most welcoming people when I first moved to Asheville, NC. He and his fiance Erin helped introduce me to all the good food and beer in Asheville, and also introduced me to a ton of metal I’d never listened to before (Shade Empire - Ruins, awesome song).

Justin died before he should have, in a motorcycle accident. I figured he would want his own song, so we made one for him. It’s about how the people we love, when they’re not longer with us, still accompany us in our memories.

You had Greg Burgess from Allegaeon as a guest guitar player for the song, right? What a gorgeous collaboration! How did it happen?

Jake: Greg was also a friend of Justin’s. It felt right. We asked him if he would contribute, and he wrote and recorded the acoustic outro of the song.

Actually, I was almost jumping up from my chair (of course with THE phrase!) when I started listening to “She’s Back” for the first time. I feel the song would be a gift for your long-time fans! Did you get conscious about it when you started writing the song?

Jake: Yeah, I think even in its earliest iterations, we knew this song was gonna be Swampwitch part 2. We even managed to get Eric W Brown to come back and do another round of guest vocals! I’ve always enjoyed a little bit of fanservice in my art - when other bands reference their own older material in their work it feels complete to me, and I was itching to work on a fast song.

I say it again, you guys are absolutely unique. I don’t think there is anyone who gets an idea of a song with lyrics like “Slave to The Riff” except you! Does it reflect your struggles for a song-writing process?

Jake: Thanks Kumi! We’re certainly not the first band to write about the struggles of striving to create good music (one of my favorite tracks that describes this is Blood by the band Anima!), but I think we did alright in our portrayal. You give up a lot of comfort to pursue meaningful art - it truly feels like you have no choice but to throw yourself again and again, as if guided by a will that is not your own, and the impossible task of perfecting a piece of music.

“Cycles” has bittersweet images on the beautiful melodies. As I mentioned above, I feel the album is the most down-to-earth one among your albums. It’s built on your struggles for a gap between your daily life and life as a musician, isn’t it?

Jake: Yeah, this one is sort of an attempt to recognize my own patterns in my mental health. When I get to the bottom of my cycle, it can be hard to remember what it feels like to be hopeful. Every time for me though, I’ve been able to weather it, and it can be nice to have a reminder that these ups and downs are normal. You can’t always control when you’re up or down, but you can always choose to try to help yourself. When that fails, you can still always try to bring happiness to others. Sometimes helping someone else is a good way to gain some perspective on your own problems.

“TMHC” has the thick blood from “The Chariot” plus some Bodom-Kalmah-like phrases. It would be the highlight of the album for your big fans! Is it a song about a bond between the band and your loyal street-team?

Jake: Absolutely! I feel like our fanbase is uniquely dedicated (we have people like you after all!) They definitely deserve their own song, and I have a not so secret hope to hear the audience yell “TMHC” and “TELL EM WHERE THE CREW’S AT” every night on tour.

Basically, each of the tracks in the album is shorter than your past releases. “Craft and the Creator” is the only long track in the album and it’s a great instrumental tune. Who did bring the idea to write the long instrumental track and place into the album as the closer?

Jake: Well, there’s a long tradition in folk metal of the like, “long epic song” at the end of the album - Equilibrium, Ensiferum, our last album...and on top of that, I love bringing back melodies from other songs for one final spin, and that only works if you’ve already heard the rest of the album, so it naturally goes last. The idea of the song was to try and write an instrumental interpretation of the different emotional states that you feel while you’re creating - the initial inspiration, feeling “stuck” and depressed, getting angry at the piece itself, having triumphant breakthroughs - I don’t know whether we captured that or not, but I think we did alright in making it slap.

Well, as everybody knows, the upcoming tour with “Redneck Vikings from Hell” has been postponed because of COVID-19. So, I’d prefer to ask you about your first experience for 70000 tons of metal as the band. How did you have fun on/off stage there?

Jake: Oh man it was sick - I racked up a pretty big bar tab by then end of it, so that was one big ol source of fun. I crowdsurfed during wintersun’s first set (I did it in sandals, and cut my toe up on the barrier! Bled all in my boots when we played our show a bit later). Found a little time to relax - spent the whole day the ship was in Mexico just sitting and reading a book on the deck.

Onstage, my favorite bit was we dressed up in bathing suits and towels and sunglasses and then went and played the star lounge (it’s the smallest and lowest stage) and acted confused the whole time that it wasn’t the pool deck.

So, are you excited to get feedbacks from a lot of people about the new album?

Jake: Oh yeah - we’ve been done for so long now, it’s odd to think the release is right around the corner. I hope it goes off!

Again, “Redneck Vikings from Hell” is the best album in 2020 for me so far. Hope everything goes well soon, and you can hit the road with the great new album! My fingers crossed for you guys!

Jake: Thank you Kumi. We love you! /m|

AETHER REALM :

Vincent "Jake" Jones – bass, vocals
Heinrich Arnold – guitar, vocals
Tyler Gresham – drums
Donny Burbage — guitar

Order "Redneck Vikings from Hell" CD / LP / Shirt bundle here!

Order "Redneck Vikings from Hell" digital copy here!

Check ÆTHER REALM page on kumi666.com here!

Top Albums in 2018 by Kumi666

It was a fabulous metal year again. Personally, there were lots of problems and struggles this year but metal saved my life over again. Thank you so much for every single genius metal musician who released amazing music this year. You guys really rule! Well, as I mentioned over again, I couldn't make up my mind for which album is appropriate for my number one this year cos several albums are almost equivalent as my most played album of the year. So, let me show you my most played 5 albums this year plus following 9, and if you got some interest about those bands, please check their sites, buy their music and support them!

MOST PLAYED 5 ALBUMS IN 2018!

(in random order)

Reanimation - Bloodshot Dawn

Dead And Alive - Parasite Inc.

Dawn Of The Five Suns - Kambrium

Aenigmata - Darkest Horizon

Of Origins Unearthed - Leviathan(Living Abyss)

NEXT 9 ALBUMS IN 2018

(in random order)

Revenant - Inferi

Into The Pitch Black - Mors Subita

Immersion - Irreversible Mechanism 

Malady X - Nothgard

Liberticidal - Burn Down Eden

Land Of The Ending Time - Suotana

Palo - Kalmah

Into Zero - Rise To Fall

Fck Vlk - Myra

THE MOST PLAYED SINGLE IN 2018

Destroy / Rebuild - Sunless Rise

Thanks a lot to metal bands and metal ppl! Have a great new year!

Trick Or Treat – “Rabbits’ Hill pt.II” – Insight of the concept

I’m an indie extreme metal supporter and my site stands just for it, but I’d love to write my feelings for the incredible concept album “Rabbits’ Hill pt.II” created by my favorite Italian power metal band Trick Or Treat.
It was more than a decade ago when I was totally into “Watership Down” by Richard Adams for the first time. I read it as Japanese edition “ウォータシップダウンのウサギたち” at that time. Time passed by, Trick Or Treat pulled the trigger of my passion for the epic adventure again with their two concept albums.
So I finally read the book as the original English edition lately. The story never gets old and blew me away over again! And I also found out once again, such a talented band Trick Or Treat is. The tunes and lyrics perfectly describe the Watership Down universe in their way, that’s just incredible!
If you are a fan of both of Watership Down and metal, I bet you’ll never be disappointed with the album, so why don't you try it?
Trick Or Treat drew the first half of Watership Down in Rabbits’ Hill pt.I (covers “The Journey” and “On Watership Down” in the book) about 4 years ago and finally the second half of the story: Rabbits’ Hill pt.II (covers “Efrafa” and “Hazel-rah” in the book) came out this summer with more sophisticated sounds.
Here’s my very personal review for Rabbits’ Hill pt.II about the great collaboration between “Watership Down” and metal. I rarely write album reviews for my site cos everybody has different feelings and tastes about music and you can get what you feel only by listening to it with your own ears, not from other people’s words, never. You even can start it with YouTube. And if you feel good with it, you can buy it wherever as long as it’s a regal way and can support metal. I never want to act like a judge for any music, so this review covers some insight of the concept with my love for the story and the album without rating. I hope you enjoy it.

Note: It could be spoilers for the story of Watership Down. So if you don't know the story so far and want to read the book, please remember the following review could show you some detail of the story especially second half of it.

 

Watership Down is an enormous adventure about “fight for freedom” through a bunch of brave wild rabbits and the book contents stories from two different rabbit’s worlds. One of them is the main story drew up a chronology of events as adventures of the wild rabbits, and the other one stands as “traditional story” a kind of rabbit’s bible told by the rabbits and it often gives them some bravery and hits for how to cope with their struggles for life with their enemies. So, Trick Or Treat dealt with both of them in the album and the opener Inlé(the black rabbit of death) is just about the most dreadful existence(the black rabbit of Inlé) in the rabbits’ myth. As an extreme metal lover, I’m happy to hear some growl part in the song honestly. The word “Inlé” comes from the rabbits’s original language Lapine and it means literally “moon”, and second meaning of it is “darkness”, “fear” and “death”. So, it could be some death metal song, *grin*. Anyway, the song is edgy and aggressive, and it’s just appropriate for the opener of the album. Great piece! It’s a contrasting pair with Prince with a 1000 enemies the opening track of Rabbits’ Hill pt.I pointed the rabbit folk hero(in their myth) El-ahrairah. It’s just like darkness and light. You can find them in both of cover arts.
I also should mention the fact that all those fabulous arts through Rabbits’ Hill pt.I & II are done by Alessandro Conti the amazing singer of the band.

Well, in the ending of the first half of the story, Hazel (the protagonist rabbit) shot down by a farmer at Nuthanger Farm right after the raid for hutch-rabbits there in the name of freedom. Together Again is the song about Hazel’s return from his chasm of death (related songs: I’ll come back for you and Bright eyes from pt.I) and the reunion with his buddies especially his youngest brother Fiver who didn't give up his existence. The short, calm and gentle song gives a new hope for the story.

Cloudrider is a song about Kehaar the sea gull saved by the rabbits, and it’s definitely one of my favorite songs from the album. Like Bigwig (Thlayli) says “You know, he made me feel I could fly too. That Big Water! I wish I could see it.”, Kehaar is wings of hope for the rabbits, and Trick Or Treat is my Kehaar setting me free (at heart) like a bird in the blue sky. Such a brilliant song with full of positivity they created!
The Hazel’s give-and-take idea through the rescue of Kehaar and a mouse reminds me the famous quote from Confucius ‘the good you do for others is good you do yourself’, by the way.

The epic adventure heads toward the merciless rabbits empire - Efrafa with the almost impossible mission organized by Team Hazel-rah. The intro of Efrafa shows you a creepy and cruel mood enough already. It’s a song about Blackavar imprisoned by Efrafan officers because he tried to run away from Efrafa once before. No matter he is imprisoned in a dark hole or not, Efrafa itself is just a big prison for him and many simple rabbits there. The song starts with Blackavar’s grief but it leads to a light in the dark brought by Bigwig. I’m always moved by Bigwig’s everlasting strength built on friendship, charity and justice. The chorus part shows you there’s some hope for escape from the hell.

Never Say Goodbye is another song of hope between Bigwig and Hyzenthlay. It’s a song about Hyzenthlay‘s longing for freedom and Bigwig’s conviction for escape. With a relationship built on trust, freedom’s not a dream anymore. The mission-impossible of Team Hazel-rah stands on the brighter future of Watership Down warren. They made through the crisis of their home warren at Sandleford (related songs: Spring in the warren,  Premonition  and Wrong Turn from pt.I) and the sham nation of Cowslip’s warren (related songs: False paradise and Between anger and tears from pt.I) and finally found their new promised land Watership Down (related song: Rabbits’ hill from pt.I), but without female rabbits like Hyzenthlay, there’s no hope for their future. I always love the story of “freedom call” or “freedom fighters”. Sara Squadrani did a great job as Hyzenthlay to express her long time eagerness for freedom. It’s just soulful and beautiful.

Trick Or Treat is often described as Happy Metal. The Great Escape is just a party piece in that way. The story of the escape from Efrafa stands extremely critical but the song itself has very positive tones and that’s why I’m into the song. The lyrics start from the courageous determination between Bigwig and Efrafan folk rabbits right before the escape from Efrafa into the storm and it covers along the way towards Watership Down warren including the breathtaking scene with the rabbit’s trick: using a men’s boat arranged by Hazel and Blackberry. With the exhilarating chorus part, the song is filled with an exciting mood and positive energies. That’s just brilliant!

Here comes General Woundwort the fierce Efrafan emperor. The regime of terror is the the only way to rule the world for him and he got frantically mad with the bunch of death-defying prison-breakers leading by Bigwig. So They Must Die is very aggressive metal piece with the edgy sound and Tim Owens’s charismatic vocals. It describes very well about General Woundwort’s extreme ferocity and such a twisted obsessiveness.

Well, The tale of Rowsby Woof is one of my favorite songs in pt.I with some Celtic folk song atmosphere. It’s taken from rabbits’ myths with an El-ahrirar’s trick. It’s told by Dandelion as usual before the following Efrafans’ attack. So, in order of the book, the song should be stood between Beware The Train (instrumental) and United but as long as the tale could sync with Nuthanger Farm’s watchdog, I think the band found a good position for the song. So, United shows you the determination for being brave under the flag of brotherhood and freedom, and the preparation for the upcoming final battle. The song has a good vibe and stands as a booster for the following highlight: The Showdown.

Team Hazel-rah has been saved over again by Fiver’s visions, Bigwig’s strength and Hazel’s wisdom inspired by El-ahrirah’s tricks. The Showdown is a song about their showdown literally via the final battle at Watership Down warren and it’s my biggest favorite song in the album. The tunes and lyrics are absolutely brilliant and I almost forget about the fact it has 10:47 as running time. I want to shout this out that my hat goes off to genius Guido Benedetti for the full deck of amazing songs! In the middle of the song, once the hope almost dies down with the Bigwig’s defeat through the epic fight with General Woundwort, but Lord Frith didn’t reprobate Bigwig, Hazel and his all buddies and gave them another trick for the demise of the battle. I have huge goose-bumps every time with the epic final lines: “We see the rising sun, we feel the rising sun, WE ARE THE RISING SUN.” Such a perfect song ever!

The grand finale of their adventure is filled with hope and brighter future, but every life has its ending. Last Breath is the most beautiful and emotional song I’ve ever listened to in my whole metal life. It’s just like touching to the softest part of my heart and I can’t resist tears every time listening to the song. I really love the epilogue of the story and this amazing song as well cos both of them are extremely pure and peaceful. Now Hazel is going to accept his final journey towards another paradise in bliss with his body left behind. Alle’s vocals are just overwhelming and beyond perfect to describe that sensitive moment. With his final shout: “Farewell my land”, I even have to catch back a sob every time. I have to say any words can’t be enough to describe how fantastic this song is. All you can do is to experience it with your own heart and ears.

Trick Or Treat’s “Rabbits’ Hill pt.II” got an epic victory with their incredible songwriting ability and technical play, plus endless positive energies and passion for what they do. The album is definitely one of the best releases of the year for me.

Last of all...
I love readings. It’s much better than movies and TV programs in many ways. But I just shout this out MUSIC IS A MIRACLE! I’d love to pay my endless respects for all genius metal musicians. I just want to say thanks a lot to them from the bottom of my heart.
My thankfulness goes to every single reader of my blog as well.

To metal brothers and sisters united under the metal flag,
Pay for music, support metal bands!

Trick Or Treat Official Website

Trick Or Treat Official Facebook

Trick Or Treat are:

Alessandro Conti (Voice)
Guido Benedetti (Guitar)
Luca Venturelli (Guitar)
Leone Villani Conti (Bass)
Luca Setti (Drums)

 

Rise To Fall Interview about the third album “END VS BEGINNING”

Finally I got a chance to have an interview with Rise To Fall the modern extreme metal force from Spain which released their third full-length “END VS BEGINNING” this year. As an early fan of them, I was curious about their thoughts for their music and Japan.

Hi there! It’s been a long time since Rise To Fall did a Japan tour with the debut album “Restore The Balance”. We miss you guys. I hope the result of the latest crowdfunding would make something forward for your return to Japan. How are you feeling about the result of the Indiegogo campaign? Do you think that was a great success?

Well, we´ve got half of the amount we were asking for, so we wouldn´t say it´s been a great success. Nevertheless, we are very happy and very very grateful with all the people who took part in it.

Do you still vividly remember your experiences in Japan though the tour in early 2011?

Of course, we will never forget that tour ! it was one of the best experiences in our lives. Japanese people were very kind and full of energy in the shows. Simply amazing.

Well, congratulations for the release of the fabulous new full-length “END VS BEGINNING”! How long did you spend your time and efforts for the new album?

It´s been quite a long process, much longer than we expected. Almost a year of composition, not fully dedicated to it, I mean we all have different jobs and it´s not always easy to meet because of the different timetables. On the other hand, we didn´t want to force the inspiration, no hurries, slowly but surely. The recording process it was pretty long too, it took us several months to record the album. We did a lot of pauses because of timetable incompatibilities and other issues,. We recorded some stuff in two weeks and then we stopped for a month and things like this. The mixing and mastering process wasn´t short either, so as you can see, we´ve been a long time focused on this project and we were really craving to see this album out. We hope the wait was worth it.

In my personal opinion, “Restore The Balance” has a big impact with strong and tight sounds and very impressive melodies. My impression of the second album “Defying The Gods” was more electric and modern than the first one. And the “End vs Beginning” you finally released this month has a strong case in its music based on your big confidence for what you do as band and it sounds hugest among those releases. What do you think is the main difference between “End vs Beginning” and the past albums?

First of all, we are glad to hear that this album sounds better than the others. Improving is always our aim, that is what we look for every time we face a new challenge. We tried to do better songs for this new album, with a better execution and a better sound. Although we have been faithful to our style, a combination of force and melody, we tried to do different and fresh songs, always searching for different atmospheres in order to transmit the audience a wide range of feelings. We feel this album is more mature

The new album has the fantastic sound production again. Could you introduce us your album producer?

Pedro Monge (Chromaticity studios, Bilbao) was the main producer. We couldn´t be happier with him. He helped us a lot and pushed us to the limit in order to get the best results. Then Jacob Hansen (Hansen Studios, Denmark) did his magic to take the best possible sound.

In general, many young bands struggle to get a first-class sound production and give it up but you kept winning it from the start. Do you have an obvious obsessiveness about it?

Is it so evident ? lol. Yes, as we told you before we always try to improve and achieve a powerful sound, it has always been one of our main objectives . besides, we never look for the same sound, we think each album should have its own personality.

The album art for “End vs Beginning” looks super brilliant and has a universal and spiritual felling like the arts from past albums. Who did manage it?

After seeing the final result of the Defying the Gods cover, I (Dalay) automatically visualized the cover of the 3rd album and at that moment I decided that I wanted to be part of it. I can reveal a secret now and tell you that I´m the “waterman” of the album cover. I shaved my head and my beard for the occasion and I went into a swimming pool for more than two hours until we had the right picture. Then Josu Torrealday, our photographer and graphic designer, used his magic wand and did what you can see now.

Artworks for all of your albums have oodles in common. Did you make it as series?

Yes, the three albums are very conceptual and they have a hidden story in common. It was back in 2009, before the release of “ Restore the Balance”, when I (Dalay) decided I wanted to do I kind of trilogy. I knew we would release three albums and I felt they had to be connected somehow. I made that prediction six years ago and today I can see that it has come true.

Let’s move into the story of the album “End vs Beginning”.An opener is the title track, and I had to be grinning when I found the words “restore the balance” in its lyrics :) Did you do it deliberately like homage for the first album?

Yes, of course I did it deliberately. There are more than one little homages like this along the album. In the song “Parasites” my last words are “defying all the gods” with reference to our second album, and in the same song I use the words “Fragments of degeneration”, in honor to our friends in Disarmonia Mundi. I wanted this album to be special in many ways, and this is one of them.

It seems “Rise Without Drama” (Track 6) is connected with “Rise From Drama” from the first album and “Fall To Drama” from the second album, isn’t it?

You are right, the three songs have a strong connection. Aimar (ex- No drama) performs the guest vocals in these three songs, he is a good friend of the band and an awesome singer, so we always want to have him in our albums. The lyrics of the three songs are linked too, and they talk about personal experiences we (Aimar and Dalay) have lived together.

Anyway, I always feel a lot of spiritual elements in your lyrical universe. No matter it’s about awakening, distress, inner fight or humanity, you are good at expressing it in the cosmic dimension. Do you basically get hints for those lyrics from your daily life?

Thank you for the compliment, I really appreciate it. Yes, I could say I find inspiration in what I see, in what I discover in my personal life and especially in what I found in the global life this world is living. Sometimes inspiration comes from tragic facts and sources. This world is far from been just or solidary, governments and big corporations give priority to profits rather than human rights, we use technology to destroy and contaminate, wars still kill thousands of people, we eat poisoned food, we wear clothes and use phones and computers made by slaves… the list is infinite…so I could be writing about all this things eternally. I´m obsessed with the human mind, with the human behavior. What does people act like this ?

The guitar works are one of the highlights in the album “End vs Beginning”. It stands more vivid and dramatic than past albums and I love it. Do you have your favorite guitar solo in the album, Hugo?

For this album I (Hugo) worked with Pedro J Monge as producer, he is an amazing guitarist and he helped me a lot. I think my favourite guitar solo is the one of The Threshold, but I have to say I like all the solos on the album.

Xabi’s intensive and tight drumming is brilliant as usual. Did you try anything experimental in the album, Xabi?

Yes, I always try to do different things in every album. I listened to many different music styles in order to bring something fresh to the new songs. I´ve made things I´ve never done before and I´m really happy with the final result.

Fifteen songs in an album seem a bit occupied, doesn’t it? I love every single song in it though, haha. How many songs did you write for the album actually?

We are very happy to hear you like all the songs. Actually we recorded 17 songs (15 with vocals), so somewhere in the way the idea of making a double album appeared…but then we decided that 12 songs was the perfect track number for an album. We tried to discard some songs but after some weeks of discussion, we realized that we couldn´t rule out any song, so finally we decided 15 would be the perfect number.

The latest music video from the new album is brilliant as well! Why did you choose “Threshold” for the first video of the album?

Well, to be honest that was a hard decision to make too. In the previous albums the first single was pretty clear since the very beginning, but this time each one had his favorite song and we could not agree. Finally, we felt that “The Threshold”, being a powerful and direct song, gathered all the elements we wanted to show.

Where did you film it?

It was recorded in Bilbao, in a cultural center.

By the way, how was the album release show in your local city Bilbao?

Simply awesome! It is hard to find the words to describe this moment. For us the release show is one of the most special moments. The venue was full of good and powerful energy, unforgettable.

Did your families and buddies from bands in your local town join the celebration?

Sure they did. That is one of the things that makes this night so exceptional. It is great to be able to share those outstanding moments with your relatives and friends. When we are touring we don´t have the chance to see them in our shows, so this is the time we can enjoy on stage seeing those who are closer to us.

Bilbao also has other wonderful metal bands like Nodrama and The Descent. Do you have your favorite band in your city?

Yesss, why not !! The Descent, Late to Scream (very young and talented boys)… Aimar (ex-Nodrama) has a new promising band called The Flying Scarecrow. There are a lot of good bands here.

What is your next goal so far?

Well, for the moment we have recorded a video clip (The threshold) and we´ve made a lot of new merchandise, but we would like to underline that our main goal is to tour as much as possible. We will announce some big news very soon.

Could you give some message to Rise To Fall fans in Japan?

Touring Japan was incredible, totally epic. We are really looking forward to go back there. Actually, we tried to arrange a tour with this new album, but unfortunately the final answer was no. We were told that after the tsunami in 2011, labels and promoters don´t invest in non-famous foreign bands. We were really sad to hear that. Anyway, we can assure our fans that we will keep on trying and we are pretty sure that we will come back one day!!

Check Rise To Fall Official Facebook

Visit Rise To Fall Online Store , buy their music / merch and support the band!

KADAVRIK Interview about their forth full-length “GRIMM I & II”

Germany has been bringing various amazing artists into the world and Grimm brothers were one of them. Even in Japan, they are well-known with “Grimm’s Fairy Tales”.

The black/melodic death metal band KADAVRIK from the country has released their new full-length after a little long interval from the previous album “N.O.A.H” and they made an epic challenge to choose the famous fairly tales for the concept of the album. I’m absolutely curious about it and decided to have an interview with them for the first time.

 Hi there. First of all, congratulations for the new album “GRIMM I & II”! How are you feeling that your another ‘blood, sweat and tears’ is finally out?

Niklas: Hi Kumi! Oh, it was a relief. We struggled hard to get this record out in the way it is out now. But we didn’t actually cry or bleed to finish it.

“GRIMM I & II” was created as conceptional album based on Grimm’s Fairy Tales, right? Why did you name it “GRIMM I & II”?

Niklas: You’re pointing at the “I & II”, right? It’s because it was planned as a double-EP in the beginning. And we liked the idea of continuing the separation on the full-length album. That’s basically it.

Frank: Yes, it’s two parts, two cover artworks, two concepts - and “I & II” sounds special, doesn’t it? While the first part is an emancipated interpretation of the tale “The Girl without Hands” the second rather reflects on the distance between childhood tale and adulthood and puts the tale theme to a sort of meta level.

Why did you choose the theme for the new album?

Frank: We wanted to work on something bigger and we like to tell stories.

Niklas: We always loved telling stories. Furthermore, fairytales have a long tradition in Europe. Any child knows the brothers Grimm, though most kids won’t know the tales we tell.

The sound of the new album made me surprised because your past albums have many lyrical melodies in blackened death-metal sounds but those lyricism replaced by eeriness and modernism in the new album. Why did you make your new music into the whole new level?

Niklas: Well, to me, the term “modern” is more associated with bands like Sonic Syndicate or all that Hardcore/Metal crossover stuff, super fat guitars, synthetic drums, Eurodance keys, all this crap. We did a pretty old school album this time. No triggers, no bullshit. Sounds from a real piano. Lots of weird guitar-sounds that might seem like keyboards, but are guitar pedals instead, which make it sound very organic. For the rhythm guitars, we chose an authentic guitar sound. So, all in all, in my opinion the record is less modern than anything we did before.

The cover-art looks very impressive and it gives me a lot of imaginations for the creepy stories of the album. Does it just represent stories of every single song in the album?

Niklas: The front cover is visualizing the “armless maiden”-story, the alternate cover in the booklet or gatefold is based on “father death”.

Who managed it?

Niklas: Talissa Mehringer from Berlin did it. She is a great artist and wonderful person.

When I opened the booklet of the album, I found the second half is placed to upside-down. Why did you do like that?

Frank: Because, as Niklas said, the whole project has been split in two from the very beginning. Both parts, Grimm I: The Armless Maiden and Grimm II: Thoughts of the Sore, have got their own cover, so they meet in the middle of the booklet. The artwork just another creative playground for us, as we always put much effort into every part of a release, including the booklet.

Did you spend enough time for song writing?

Niklas: Obviously yes. It is a fucking good record. There is nothing I would change.

How about the recording, mixing and mastering process?

Niklas: We have worked with Andreas Funke again, as we always do. He knows our sound and he knows what we want. It was hard work though, because we tried to make the record sound as natural as possible, without having it sound like crap.

The whole album sounds absolutely theatrical that the massive vocals lead us into the fantastical spooky realm as story teller. Did you try it consciously in the recordings?

Niklas: Yeah, for sure. Of course we spent time on planning how the vocals sound. It was not a happy accident. It’s just what we wanted it to be.

How did you manage the impressive orchestrations?

Frank: With a wand. And some buttons. Joking aside we spent much time in the studio with our producer Andi experimenting with the sound.

A couple of tunes from the album have less speed with hallucinatory guitars, for example: “Queen of Sylvan Lands”. How did you come up with the idea of the sound?

Frank: Cool that you mention that song. It’s somehow unnoticed in all the reviews. This song is very special because of the chilled guitar sound that later bursts into an almost cheesy heavy metal solo. And we have the triplet rhythm and bluesy piano. It’s kind of a metal swing.

Niklas: Well it came naturally. I love Blues Rock and it inspired me.

Could you give a short description for each of the songs?

   Wither Away 
Frank: Hey, isn’t describing the songs YOUR job? I always find it interesting when other people describe our music and use words that I would never have had associated with it. Well, Wither Away was the best way to start the album because it has this “story teller growl rap intro”, a furious start and parts, where the drums don’t really give a beat but a basis for the story teller. Here we get into the whole scenario.
  All The World But One
Niklas: My favorite live-song. Is especially love the monotony in the end.
  Ruins
Niklas: Blast beat Inferno.
  7 Years
Niklas: A Post-rock track. No vocals, but lovely guitar leads.
  Queen Of Sylvan Lands
Frank: For me by far the track with the greatest unique characteristic Niklas came along with. The lyrics are so incredibly corny. Niklas just wrote them down, we read them again and again and asked ourselves if we could put this kind of love story into a metal song. But it fits perfectly. Queen is the conclusion of Grimm I, it ends with a vision of romance, a promise of hope, a “Maybe they will live happily ever after”.
  Lords
Frank: Relating to the concept Lords docks on to Queen of Sylvan Lands: No, they are not living happily ever after. Lords is about death and how to live with it.
  Voids
Frank: Voids is the only song that doesn’t set to music a concrete tale. It’s about disillusion, a feeling that is very real. And it refers to a quote of poet Friedrich Schiller: “Deeper meaning resides in the fairy tales told to me in my childhood than in any truth that is taught in life.”
  Shuttered
Niklas: Blast beat Inferno part II
  Helix
Niklas: To me, this is the strangest song we ever recorded. Again, I love its monotony and the saxophone solo in the end.

Your latest music video is fabulous. Why did you choose “Wither Away” for the first music video from the album?

Niklas: ‘cuz it’s an awesome song. Music and atmosphere are almost cinematic, so it fits perfectly.

When and where did you do the video shooting?

Niklas: We shot in May or April in a forest near our hometown Wesel.

The video represent the brutal story of the song in an abstract way. That’s very impressive and actually I was a lil bit relieved there’s no dreadful scene obviously like the song tells but it’s creepy enough anyway. How did you come up the fabulous idea?

Niklas: We had an intense cooperation with our director, and together we developed the ideas. It was not easy to plan anything, because we were pretty broke after all the musical production.

You guys less appear in the video but it seems you needed huge efforts for getting such a complicated make-up. Which part did you act out in the video?

Niklas: No, it was easy. It’s mud and color. That’s it. We represent the spirit of nature, or the spirit of the forest. We look evil, but we do not actually harm her.

By the way, how was the album release show? Did you have a blast there?

Frank: Er, yeah, one or two. This show was madness. We had 40°, everybody was hanging out lazily and only die-hard fans came to the gig. It was so hot that we drank alcohol-free beer before the show – against our habits. It was by far too hot which turned the whole thing into a sweaty, exhausting trip. Really intense.

Which setlist did you play? I’m just curious about it because of the concept album, if you played the whole album in order or not.

Frank: We use to play songs from the Grimm I part in a row. The Grimm II-material like “Lords” can stand alone, so we combine it with tracks like our 2012-single “Open Wounds” or the concept part from N.O.A.H.

Well, I’d like you to introduce the current lineup to new fans, please?

Frank: The current lineup is the old lineup: We are Niklas, Chris, Oli, Hannes and Frank, hello. Some of us have been friends for a lifetime, we have been KadavriK since 2003 and we will be KadavriK as long as grass shall grow and water run. We are no rock stars and you don’t need to be our “fan”, but feel free to enjoy our music and buy a record if you want.

Who founded the band?

Niklas: We were like 16 years old and simply wanted to be in a band. We did not even have instruments back then. We first founded KadavriK, then bought equipment, and then learned to play.

Frank: I only remember there were these guys in my school class constantly asking me if I wanted to be their drummer. I guess it was just a joke, but I bought a drum set and got as a rehearsal room in a youth centre. We were really crappy, but we’ve developed into something as you can hear.

 Could you tell us about your career as KADAVRIK so far?

Frank: “Career” perhaps is the wrong term as we don’t make any money with the band. Hell, we lose a lot of it. KadavriK is a love story, including the recording of four studio albums, countless shows, flying high, falling deep and touring with Napalm Death, Graveworm and Gorgoroth. Here we are, broke, still underground, but freed from constraints and curious what the next period of creative work will bring.

So, do you have any plan for tours associated with GRIMM I&II?

Niklas: We keep our eyes open. We love touring, but we will not take any option there is. Without a good package of bands, without having a good slot in the billing, and without any financial support, touring is like burning money.

Check KADAVRIK Official Website and Official Facebook !

Get KADAVRIK merch on Skull Merch

Christian Bass from Heaven Shall Burn – Video Interview by Roland

Talking about my biggest idols - Heaven Shall Burn - makes me overloaded somehow, but I need to shout this out: Christian Bass (the drummer of HSB) is currently visiting our country Japan for helping our local band's recording. Lately, he did a video interview for Roland Corp. and the video has subtitles in 10 more languages!

• С субтитрами на русском языке (with russian subtitles)
• 한국어 자막 (with korean subtitles)
• 使用中文字幕 (with chinese subtitles)
• 日本語字幕付き (with japanese subtitles)
• Türkçe altyazılı (with turkish subtitles)
• Con subtítulos en español (with spanish subtitles)
• Subtitulos em Portugues (with portugese subtitles)
• Avec sous-titres français (with french subtitles)
• Magyar felirattal (with hungarian subtitles)
• Met Nederlandse ondertiteling (with dutch subtitles)
• with English subtitles

You can choose your familiar language via the setting icon. Try it and enjoy his interesting interview.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Gl89x1prUM

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Machine Fucking Head! – Special report at MFH meet & greet in Tokyo by Jacob

 

How many times have you experienced mind-blowing metal show in your whole life so far? I've been to many passionate fabulous concerts in my life, however, Machine Head is the best live act with their maximum energy injected performance, I feel so every time. That was the fourth time Machine Head show for me after the critical situation by the sudden postpone they announced the day before the Japan Tour because of the Robb's health issue. 

After finished my work, I was heading for the venue in Shibuya(Tokyo) as rapidly as possible to make it on time. My heart was beating super fast which is not only by my brisk walking through the humid city in Tokyo but by my super excitement for them live after a bit long interval. Needless to say, they destroyed everything as usual! Until the very last second of the final song "Halo", they didn't stop their relentless assault and blew us away entirely! I guess most of the readers of my blog have an experience of them live already, so I don't write nonsense about it.

Actually, one of my brilliant metal friends in Tokyo went to Meet & Greet before the show. His name is Jacob, he told me his great experience there, showed me wonderful photos and managed the following pretty impressive report for my blog. I send my massive thanks to the awesome metalhead Jacob for sharing it, you rock!

So, enjoy his awesome experience at the meet & greet!

Machine Fucking Head! by Jacob Mayer

We started out getting our laminates around 17 and then went up stairs to get in the mercy line. There they handed us a poster and flag, we then got the opportunity to purchase any mercy from the booth before anyone else. After that they brought us inside where they had 2 tables set up and after getting in line the tour manager explained that this is the biggest group they’ve had (35) and to please have everything ready for signature so we could move through everyone through quickly. All of the members were so incredibly pleased to meet each individual fan and you could tell that they were truly grateful to be there even though they had to postpone.

 

A guy behind me was wearing 3 laminates and when the drummer Dave asked why he explained that his friends could not make the rescheduled date due to work. After the initial signature line was through, Dave went on stage and grabbed 3 sticks for him and his two friends that couldn’t make it, AWESOME guy! When the signature, hand shake line was over they had everyone get together for a group photo with the band and then with the few minutes they had left broke up to take individual photos and talk with all the guests. Again they were extremely grateful to be back in Japan and that they were able to keep the show on and meet all the fans.

Once our time had run out they brought everyone back outside but made sure we were the first back in. Overall it was such an amazing experience and it is always so humbling to meet a world renowned group of artists and for them to be so down to earth and grateful to/for their fans. When I asked Rob if I could ask him a question for my amazing metal head friend’s blog he stated with question and amusement, “You want to interview me!?” He then stated that he’d have to see how much time they had and unfortunately it did not work out.

- Jake

Rise To Fall – “End Vs Beginning” details has been revealed!

Spanish modern extreme metal force RISE TO FALL revealed details about their upcoming 3rd full-length "End Vs Beginning" which will be released on June 9 via Coroner Records.

Here's the track-list of "End Vs Beginning" (mix & mastering by Jacob Hansen) :

1. End Vs Beginning
2. The Threshold
3. Plastic Scene
4. Burning Signs
5. Parasites
6. Rise Without Drama
7. Thunders Of Emotions Beating
8. Murk Empire
9. Against All Odds
10. Dark Clowns Leading Blinds
11. Emptiness
12. Welcome To...
13. ...The Refuge
14. Unspeakable Sins
15. Sustension

Check the album teaser and be prepared for their upcoming big announcement!

I'm really looking forward to having an interview with them about the album.

Deserted Fear – New album “Kingdom of Worms” Studio Diary

Mighty death metal force DESERTED FEAR posted their studio diary on their YouTube channel.

Fabian, Mahne and Simon talk about the upcoming second full-length "Kingdom of Worms" from their recording studio. Unfortunately, English subtitles are not available, but no worries for non-German-speakers like me, you can hear some tasty new riffs in the video.

Here's the latest statement from the band via facebook: "Our new album is 99,9 % done and spins the first rounds in our cd players. Just one word to say: FETT!!! We saved all the curious studio moments on video for you. So a huge studio story where you can hear the first death tunes is coming up next week! Watch out!!!" So, check it out.

Check more info on DESERTED FEAR facebook !!!

Official Homepage: www.desertedfear.de

Past interview on www.kumi666.com