Eight Bells Interview

from melynda,

1. Can you tell us a little bit about the project for those that have never heard of you before?

We are a rock trio. We fuse elements of progressive rock and experimental metal.

2. How would you describe your musical sound?

hmmm always a hard question. It is sincere and emotionally driven music. I am personally obsessed with fusing beauty and aggression.

3. What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?

powerlessness, vastness, oceans, ghosts.

4. What is the meaning and inspiration behind the bands name?

Eight Bells is a nautical term. Eight bells is the end of one shift or watch and the beginning of the next. That moment in between the two is where I want to exist. What I want to describe.

5. What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and how would you describe your stage performance?

Our stage performances are always very exciting to us. We get into a state that I like to think of as reflective- Pushing it out.. I think it might be the most honest anyone can ever see me be. We had a lot of fun doing shows with Agalloch, and also playing on the Fall Into Darkness festival here in Portland with SubRosa, Bell Witch, and Wolvserpent.

6. Do you have any touring plans for the future?

Yes we are actually working on a west coast tour right now for late April . Nothing is fully confirmed yet, but I expect we will make an announcement in the next few weeks.

7. On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to the new album by fans of underground music?

Hmm well I don't know yet. I expect that it will be a mixed bag though. I am well aware that we are not making music for the masses.

8. Currently you are signed to Seventh Rule, how did you get in contact with this label and how would you describe the support they have given you so far?

Seventh Rule Recordings Rules. They actually helped us a bit with the financing of the recording- and we have a really fun email and text joking relationship. Scott the label owner, actually got in touch with us- he had seen a live show, and contacted our booking agent about us. We met and thought he was a really good guy and a great place for The Captain's Daughter.

9. Are there any other musical projects besides this band or is this a full time line up?

This is it for now. And quite enough really.

10. What direction do you see your music heading into on future releases?

Hmmm I have always wanted to make something super beautiful and almost classical. We shall see.

11. What are some bands or musical styles that have influenced your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?

Lately I have been listening to the soundtrack for the movie 'The Road' , Hildur Gudnadottir , today I listened to some Death, and Necrophobic, Can't get enough Anima Morte , Enslaved ( who I love - and yes even the new one), and some Italian disco believe it or not.

12. Outside of music what are some of your interests?

I like to go hiking when I can find the time, love my dog, I go to shows. Lately alot of hibernation interspersed with sauna - as it is cold and wet in portland!

13. Any final words or thoughts before we wrap up this interview?

Thanks much for your interest in the band.

https://www.facebook.com/eightbellsband/

Totengefluster Interview

1. Can you tell us a little bit about the band for those that have never heard of you before?

Totengeflüster is a Bandproject, that is leaded by Totleben (Songwriting- Guitars, Bass & Orchestration + Artwork) and Narbengrund (Concept & Vocals).

We combine the coldness and anger of black metal with elements of classical music to get an aggressive - cinematic feeling for our music.

2. How would you describe your musical sound?

Totengeflüster plays Symphonic Black Metal. We also use a lot of Sounds and Samples to get a deeper atmosphere than „just“ with instruments. We try to create a „Cinematic – Symphonic Black Metal Atmosphere“.

3. What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?

Themes are desolation, sorrow, death & insanity. Narbengrund describes his art as a multi- layered lyrical statement that can be read as a “simple” ghost story as well as a diary of a mentally ill person or as a bridge to our surrounding world and our thoughts and feelings about the way of “living”.

4. What is the meaning and inspiration behind the bands name?

"Totengeflüster" is german for „Whisper Of The Dead“ so – Narbengrund an I  – Totleben wanted to have something special and to choose a german band name is something that no one does without thinking of it. I believe… If you hear our Music you can hear the whisper of the dead, so it’s the most fitting band name for us. If you try to hide especially bad feelings or emotions and ban those into a dark cellar room to declare them as dead… They may come back …more fearsome than before – they will whisper to your soul … whisper their vile whishes.

5. What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and how would you describe your stage performance?

we have never played live with Totengeflüster, but we plan to do as soon as possible.

6. Do you have any touring plans for the future?

no.

7. Currently you are unsigned, are you looking for a label and if so what kind of label do you feel that would be a perfect fit for the music?

for a newcomer it’s the best way to figure out how our band is going to be like instead of being a simple toy and to bleed out for bigger bands that have bigger standing in the metal scene and to feed the bigger ones. We are not here to sell our souls…

Totengeflüster for now is like cancer - it needs to grow…

8. On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of symphonic black metal?

well, we’ve just started – but we already got good feedback to our stuff. On the internet people like our work we’ve done so far – like the official videoclip or the artwork we‘ve shown on our homepage. In the last years a lot of the once so majestic Symphonic Black Metal Bands got lost. A lot of other very different Metal subgenres where hyped and sold out. Narbengund and Totleben grew up with this music, witch is now left for dead … We regret this development and want to inject new (of course frostbitten!) life to the dying Symphonic Black Metal Genre.

9. Are there any other musical projects besides this band or is this a full time line up?

Narbengrund has a kind of strange dark acoustic side project #++**… arrgh =)^^…?! fuck!!!.. and Schattendorn  plays drums in a German Heavy Metal Band

10. What direction do you see your music heading into on future releases?

nearly the whole composition and production of “Vom Seelensterben” was done  by Totleben - this was the starting point for Totengeflüster.

The first step is now done. We’re forcing to involve more ideas of all Bandmembers and try to add their talent to our Spirit. Narbengrund has a very great talent in writing deep emotional lyrics and performs them authentic and wants to combine more of these emotional feelings with the music to create a darker more desperate atmosphere. Schattendorn is technically talented on his drums - he is involved into the actual Metal scene. Which is giving us all a fresh breath to inhale.

11. What are some bands or musical styles that have influenced your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?

Each member of the Band has his own Taste of Music – we all love extreme Music and have a few bands in common.  Schattendorn likes fast and aggressive music like Dark Funeral, Watain and Behemoth. Totlebens favourites often are the Symphonic Metal Bands of the 90’s like old Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir, Therion, Bal-Sagoth, Ancient & Vesania. Narbengrund likes Bands like Naglfar, Lifelover, Dornenreich, Shining, Bethlehem, Moonspell .

12. Does Satanism or Occultism play any role in your music?

we are not religious at all – but we cannot deny that we have an interest in occultism.

13. Outside of music what are some of your interests?

Totleben likes nature photography, graphic design and psychology

Narbengrund enjoys good drinks, music and philosophical discussions

Schattendorn likes fast cars & woman.

14. Any final words or thoughts before we wrap up this interview?

Thanks to YOU for our FIRST!! Totengeflüster Interview – this will be legendary! so yeah, all who read that interview may note, that we will release our debut album “Vom Seelnsterben” on February 1st 2013. check our homepage for news & enjoy good art!

Totleben & Narbengrund of TOTENGEFLÜSTER

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Totengefluster/Vom Seelensterben/2012 CD Review

  Totengefluster  are  a  band  from  Germany  that  plays  a  very  symphonic  form  of  black  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  self  released  2013  album  "Vom  Seelensterben".

  Drums  range  from  slow,  mid  paced  to  fast  drumming  with  a  great  amount  of  blast  beats  being  thrown  into  the  music,  while  the  synths  bring  a  very  dark,  atmospheric  and  symphonic  sound  to t he  music,  as  for  the  bass  playing  it  has  a  very  dark  tone  with  riffs  that  follow  the  riffing  that  are  coming  out  of  the  guitars.

  Rhythm  guitars  range  from  slow,  mid  paced  to  fast  symphonic  metal  riffs  that  utilize  a  great  amount  of  dark  sounding  melodies  and  there  are  little  to  no  guitar  solos  or  leads  present  on  this  recording.

  Vocals  are  mostly  high  pitched  black  metal  screams  with  some  deep  growls  being  utilized  at  times  as  well  as  some  clean  singing  female  vocals,  while  the  lyrics  are  written  in  German  and  cover  dark  themes,  as  for  the  production  it  has  a  very  strong,  powerful,  heavy  and  professional  sound  for  being  a  self  released  recording  with  some  of  the  songs  being  long  and  epic  in  length.

  In  my  opinion  Totengefluster  are  a  very  great  sounding  symphonic  black  metal  band  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  this  musical  genre,  you  should  check  out  this  album.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Ein  Tramgespinst"  "Vom  Seelensterben"  and  "Ein  neuer  Pfad".  RECOMMENDED  BUY.

http://www.totengefluester.de/
http://www.youtube.com/user/TOTENGEFLUESTER
http://www.reverbnation.com/totengefluester
http://www.myspace.com/totengefluester

Sloth Herder/Abandon Pop Sensibility/2012 EP Review

  Sloth  Herder  are  a  band  from  Maryland  that  has  been  featured  before  in  this  zine  with  a  musical style  that  mixes  black  metal,  thrash,  grindcore  and  sludge  together  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  self  released  2012  ep  "Abandon  Pop  Sensibility".

  Drums range  from  slow,  mid  paced  to  fast  drumming  with  some  blast  beats  being  utilized  at  times,  while  the  bass  playing  has  a  very  strong  and  powerful  sound  with  heavy  riffing  that  dominates  throughout  the  recording.

  Rhythm  guitars  range  from  slow, mid  paced  to  fast  riffs  that  combine  black  metal,  grindcore,  thrash  and  sludge  together  to  create  a  sound  of  their  own  and  there  are  no  guitar  solos  or  leads  present  on  this  recording.

  Vocals  range  from  high  pitched  black  metal  screams  to  deep  grindcore  growls  and  shouts,  while  the  lyrics  cover  everyday  themes,  as  for  the  production  it  has  a  very  heavy,  raw  and  primitive  sound  while  you  can s till  hear  all  of  the  musical  instruments  that  are  present  on  this  recording.

  In  my  opinion  this  is  another  great  sounding  recording  from  Sloth  Herder  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  this  band,  you  should  check  out  this  e.p.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Cowards  Of  The  New  Age"  and  "Dug  Up".  RECOMMENDED  BUY.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Sloth-Herder/191788187515489  

Bandcamp: http://slothherdermd.bandcamp.com

Lastfm: http://www.last.fm/music/Sloth+Herder

Blog: http://www.slothherdermd.blogspot.com

Primitive Man/Scorn/Throatruiner/Mordgrimm Records/2013 CD Review

  Primitive  Man  are  a  band  from  Denver,  Colorado  that  plays  a  mixture  of  black  metal,  doom,  and  sludge  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2013  album  "Scorn"  which  was  released  as  a  joint  effort  between  Throatruiner  and  Mordgrimm  Records.

  Drums  are  all  slow  to  mid  paced  playing  with  no  fast  playing  or  blast  beats  being  present  on  this  recording,  while  the  bass  playing  has  a  very  strong  and  powerful  sound  with  heavy  riffing  that  dominates  throughout  the  recording.

  Rhythm  guitars  are  all  slow  to  mid  paced  riffs  that  combine  black  metal,  doom,, crust  and  sludge  together  to  create  a  sound  of  their  own  with  a  good  amount  of  heavy  distortion  behind  the  riffing  and  there  are  no  guitar  solos  or  leads  present  on  this  recording.

  Vocals  range from  deep  sludge/doom/death  metal  growls  to  high  pitched  black  metal screams,  while  the  lyrics  cover  dark  themes,  as  for  the  production  it has  a  very  dark,  heavy,  and  powerful  sound  to  it  where  you  can  hear  all  of  the  musical  instruments  that  are  present  on t his  recording  with  some  of    the  songs  being  long  and  epic  in  length.

  In  my  opinion  Primitive  Man  are  a  very  great  and  heavy  sounding  hybrid  of  black  metal,  crust,  doom  and  sludge  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  this  musical  genre,  you  should  check  out  this  band.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Scorn"  "Black  Storm"  and  "Astral  Sleep".  RECOMMENDED  BUY.

http://store.throatruinerrecords.com/bands/primitive-man

Eight Bells/The Captain's Daughter/Seventh Rule/2013 CD Review

  Eight  Bells  are  a  band  from  Texas  that  mixes  post  black  metal,  progressive  rock  and  experimental  music  together  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2013  album  "The  Captain's  Daughter"  which  was  released  by   Seventh  Rule.

  Drums  range  from  slow  to  mid  paced  drumming  with  no  fast  playing  or  blast  beats  being  present on  this  recording,  while  the  bass  playing  has  a  very  strong  and  powerful  sound  with  heavy  riffing  that  dominates  throughout  the  recording.

  Rhythm  guitars  range  from  slow  to  mid  paced  playing  that  combines  post  black  metal,  progressive  rock,  psychedelic  and  experimental  together  to  create  a  sound  of  their  own  as  well  as  some  soft  and  clean  playing,  while  the  lead  guitars  are  psychedelic  sounding  guitar  leads.

  Vocals  are  mostly  clean  singing  female  vocals  with  some  black  metal  screams  being  utilized  at  times,  while  the  lyrics  cover  dark  themes,  as  for  the  production  it  has  a  very  strong,  powerful,  heavy  and  professional  sound  where  you  can  hear  all  of the  musical  instruments  that  are  present  on t his  recording  with  the  songs  being  long  and  epic  in  length.

  In  my  opinion  Eight  Bells  are  a  very  great  sounding  hybrid  of  post  black  metal,  psychedelic,  progressive  rock and  experimental  music  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  this  musical  genre,  you should  check  out  this  band.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Fate  And  Technology"  and  "Yellowed  Daughter".  RECOMMENDED  BUY.

EIGHT BELLS on Facebook
http://www.eightbellsband.com

The Magik Way Interview

1. Can you tell us a little bit about the project for those that have never heard of you before?




Well, The Magik Way was born in the 1996 as the result of an idea: to create a form of music totally linked to esoterism and magik, where sounds are influenced by our studies and our personal vision of music, as a mix between theatrical moods, applied music and experimental music.

Even if we started the project playing an obscure kind of black metal, after a couple of years we began to consider the music with new parameters, abandoning every kind of cliché.

The Magik Way is not a simple musical band, is even an order. Members of The Magik Way order are involved in the practise of Magik and principally spiritism and necromancy. As an esoterical order lot of members are not involved in music; inside the order operate philosophers, photographers, painters, psycologists, mediums, mathematics.



2. How would you describe your musical sound?



A mix between dark sounds and theatrical attitude. A sort of expressionist music, inspired by composers like Nino Rota, John Cage, Nicola Piovani, Bernard Hermann and a vocal attitude near to some conceptions of artists like Demetrio Stratos, Marina Abramovic, Diamanda Galas, Ettore Petrolini.



3. What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?



With our lyrics we want to explore the Man and the Nature, two macro-subjects. The Alchemy is the instrument we use to observe it, as a propagation of necromancy and spiritism.

Our effort is to find questions and not answers, is our conviction that “questions” generates knowledge.



4. What is the meaning and inspiration behind the bands name?



La Via Magica Mistica (The Magik Way) is a term coined by Fulvio Rendhell, a great Italian spiritist, about a path divided in 4 phases (The Doubt, The Dizziness, The Sacrifice, The Knowledge).

The adept, is committed to overcoming and understanding of his condition, false before, wise after, through great suffering that will lead him to live different levels of emotion, annihilated first, then elated, until they reach a state of "Sacrifice" as renunciation of the Ego, to conquer a wider and dual vision of reality, dualism guaranteed by the presence, in the fourth phase, of the sign of Mercury which, as is known, is bipolar (Aurum et Argentum).



5. The music was recorded in the 90's why did you wait until 2013 to release the music?



The reason we came out with a retrospective CD is about the passion that Marco Cavallini of Sad Sun Music put on the project as a dream come true: to present to people what The Magik Way played in the ’90.

Marco told me he still remember when The Magik Way demo tape was considered a “top demo” in the ’96 and after 13 years he purpose me to realize a work as a testimony of those years.

What Marco did not know is that The Magik Way created some other materials, and after heard it, he decided to publish the CD and start a collaboration.



6. On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of metal and occult music?



This is the first time we have the opportunity to communicate to the World our music, with the exception of some fans we have since the ’90 years. Even if we are involved in this project since the 1996 and we played in a great and famous band like Mortuary Drape, we always prefered to stay in a limited scene, in our country, working inside the theatre scene or the video-installation world, so far from the so called “market” of the music.

Simply we concentrated our energies to create something good for us.



7. What is going on with Mortuary Drape these days?



I really don’t know, unfortunately I’m not in contact with the band.



8. Can we expect future material from this music or is this only a one time thing?



As I explained, we are surprised that people deserve so much attention to our project. What can I say is that for the future we continue to work with Marco Cavallini (Sad Sun Music) and Francesco Palumbo (My Kingdom Music) in order to think about the publication of other material of the past (there are several works we have made in these last 10 years) or suddenly to focus our attention to new music we have composed in the 2012.



9. What are some of the bands and musical styles that have influenced your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?



We listen to all music with an open minded attitude, it is impossible to know which kind of music influenced us. Considering the fact we started every project by the lyrics we could say that probably is the Magik our favorite starting point.

Personally I’m dedicating lot of time listening Claudio Monteverdi and the Serbian-Byzantine choral.



10. What are some of the forms of Occultism and Satanism that have the most interest to you?



We are totally unreleated to all forms of religions, or pseudo-religious cults, especially the Christian cults or anti-Christian cults. We consider the atheism as a primacy to defend, a fact of freedom.

We practise the contemporary Magik, we observe the Nature and his duality, the Man and his role in the aureal space.

Recently the order of The Magik Way is doing study around the Water.



11. Outside of music what are some of your interests?



There are a couple of great passion in my life: contemporary art and the good red wine of my country.



12. Any final words or thoughts before we wrap up this interview?



Well, I just want to thank you. We hope you’ll enjoy the CD.

Please follow us on FB in order to know all the news about The Magik Way.

We need your inspiration.



Nequam.

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The Magik Way/Materia Occulta (1997-1999)/Sad Sun Music/2013 CD Review

  The  Magik  Way  are  a  band  from  Italy  that  is  a  side  project  of  Mortuary  Drape  with  a  musical  style  I  would  describe  as  being  avant  garde  black  metal mixed  with  ritualistic  occult  music  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2013  album  "Materia  Occulta  (1997-1999)  which  will  be  released  by  Sad  Sun  Music.

  Drums  range  from  slow  to  mid  paced  drumming  with  not  much  in  the  way  of  fast  playing  or  blast  beats  being  present  on  this  recording  as  well  as  a  brief  use  of  tribal  sounding  percussion,  while  the  synths  bring  a  very  dark and  avant  garde  ritualistic  sound  to  the  music  with  some  touches  of  classical  and  they  are  the  only  musical  instrument  that  are  present  from  songs  5-17,  as  for  the  bass  playing  it  has  a  very  dark  tone  with  riffs  that  follow  the  riffing  that  is  coming  out  of  the  guitars.

  Rhythm  guitars  range  from  slow  to  mid  paced  riffing  that  combines  black  metal  with  avant  garde  music  with  some  dark  sounding  melodies  being  thrown  into  the  music  at  times  as  well  as  a  brief  use  of  clean  playing  and  they  are  mostly  present  on  the  first  4  songs  but  make  an  appearance  later  on,  while  the  lead  guitars which  are  only  utilized  briefly  are  very  dark  sounding  guitar  solos  and  leads.

Vocals  which  are  only  utilized  on  the  first  part  of  the  album  range from  high  pitched  black  metal  screams  to  ritualistic  spoken  word  parts  as  well  as  a  brief  use  of  clean  playing  male  and  female  vocals  which  are  used  on  the  non  metal  side  of  the  recording,  while  the  lyrics  cover  Necromantic,  Occultism  and  Left  Hand  Path  themes  with  the  songs  being  written  in  a  mixture  of  English  and Latin,  as  for  the  production  it  has  a  very  dark,  powerful  and  heavy  sound  to  it.

  In  my  opinion  The  Magik  Way  are  a  very  great  sounding  hybrid  of  avant  garde  black  metal  and  ritualistic  occult  music  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  this  musical  genre,  you  should  check  out  this  band.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "The  Dizziness  (La  Folgorazione)"  "The  Knowledge  (La  Conoscenza)"  "Gloria"  and  "La  Quiete".  RECOMMENDED  BUY.  

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6v7qvAiXc_Y