Bloody Terror Interview

1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?

Mr.Styx: Bloody Terror is an international black/death metal band created in late 2010. The very first record was the cover of Kalmah's song named “Dance Of The Water”.
After this we started to compose the material for debut album. At the same time Dr.Trajan has joined the band as a bass player. During the 18 months the first album was in process.
Debut full-length album "Shadow Of Death" out 15/09/2012 on a various labels.
In early 2013 Dr.Trajan was replaced by Brutal Baphomet on bass/back vocals. With a new line-up we started to compose the very new material for the sophomore album that was finished in august 2014.
Fall of 2014 we signed a contract with Metal Scrap Records. Our second full-length album, "Diaboli Celeritate", was released on November 14, 2014 as a digital edition. On CD album planned to release in 2015.

2.How would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recordings?

Powersquad: Melodic and furious Black Metal with the little Death Metal touches, demonic lyrics and epic choirs!

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

PS: When we record our first album mainly I wrote all the lyrics.
Some of them were like joke, some of them sarcastic. But when Brutal Baphomet joined the band he brought dark atmosphere to our band from his occult ideas for lyrics and we have left from humorous lyrics to more serious occult topics.

4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Bloody Terror?

PS: Back in 2011 when we`ve started to record our debut album we simply searched for the name that has not yet been used by other bands but represents our style and atmosphere. Mr Styx suggest Bloody Terror, and it was exactly what we needed!

5.The band members are both from Ukraine and Russia, how does this work in the recording process?

MS: We collaborate through Internet - recording all stuff in our studios and sending it to each other.

6.Has the band done any live shows or is this studio project?

MS: We`re apart by the thousands of kilometers, perhaps, we`d like to perform a live but still we don`t have such chance yet. That`s the reason why this is a studio project for now.

PS: We have proposals from few festivals to play live. It's possible and very interesting, but we need time & money to meet each other while, as we are now busy with our main bands. Only time will tell .. ;)

7.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of black an death metal?

MS: Quite positive. The second album attracted great interest among the metalheads than debut record.

8.What is going on with some of the other bands or musical projects that some of the other band members are involved with?

MS: I have my own solo project named Metal Styx, symphonic folk metal. At late spring of 2014 the EP "Curuvar Firtalion" was out. Also Brutal Baphomet has his own band Evilgod,in whin I`m a bass-player.About a 2 months ago we had our the very first live. Perhaps, we`ll start to make the third album soon.

PS: I'm a guitarist of Ukrainian metal band Majesty Of Revival. Sometimes I playing with other bands as a session guitarist/drummer. Also I released few solo-albums under the name "PowerSquad".

9.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?

PS: We have a lot ideas for future records but now we cant say more about this, because our second album was out only few weeks ago as a digital edition, and planned to release on CD in early 2015. Also we hope that someday we will toured with this band.

10.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?

MS: My influence is Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir, Graveworm, Crematory.
Now I mostly listen to Iron Maiden, Eluveitie.

PS: I'm influenced by prog/power/heavy metal bands like Symphony X, Sonata Arctica, Time Requiem, Metallica, Annihilator, etc. Also I`m big fan of Crossover music (Waltari) and melodic death metal (Kalmah, The Wake, C.O.B.). Currently on my playlist is Silent Voices, Waltari and Bloody Terror :)

11.Does Occultism play any role in your music?

Brutal Baphomet: UNDOUBTEDLY OCCULTISM play a certain role. Without him we wouldn't have been a black metal band.

12.What are some of your non musical interests?

MS: fantasy books, videogames

PS: Programming, electronics, books

13.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?

Thanks for interesting questions. We hope that you like our new album. Thanks all fans around the world for great feedbacks and support. Metal is forever \m/

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Hegemone/Luminosity/2014 CD Review

  Hegemone  are  a  band  from  Poland  that  plays a  mixture  of  black  metal,  post  rock  and  sludge  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  self  released  2014  album  "Luminosity".

  Distorted  sounding  experimental  music  sounds  start  off  the  album  and  after  a  minute  the  music  goes  into  more  of  a  heavy  sludge  metal  direction  along  with  some  aggressive  vocals  that  also  bring  in  black  metal  screams  at  times  and  all  of  the  musical  instruments  have  a  very  powerful  sound  to  them.

  Most  of  the  tracks a re  very  long  and  epic  in  length  and  the  music  also  brings  in  a  great amount  of  post  metal  style  melodies  and  there  are  also  some  saxophones on  some  of  the  tracks  that  also  gives  the  music  more  of  an  avant  garde  feeling  while  some  of  the  other  songs  are  heavily  influenced  by  shoegaze.

  As  the  album  progresses  the  music  speeds  up  a  bit  in  certain  sections  of  the  recording  and  adds  in  blast  beats  and  tremolo  picking  which  also  displays  more  of  the  bands  black  metal  side  and  they  also  add  in  melodic  leads  and  solos  at  times  and  on  some  of  the  later  tracks  more  clean  playing  is  added  into  the  music  and  they  bring  a  progressive  feeling  to  the  album  along  with  some  clean  singing  vocals  that  bring  in  a  psychedelic  feeling  when  they  are  utilized.

  Hegemone  plays  a  very  original  style  of  music  that  combines  the  more  melodic  side  of  black  metal  with  the  heaviness  of  sludge  and  a  good  amount  of  progressive,  post  rock  and  shoegaze  elements  to  create  some  very  interesting  sounding  music,  the  production  sounds  very  dark  and  heavy  while  the  lyrics  cover  dark,  melancholic  and  philosophical  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Hegemone  are  a  very  great  sounding  mixture  of  black  metal,  post  rock  and  sludge  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  those  musical  genres,  you  should  check  out  this  band.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "The  Hunt  Within"  and  "Nightingale".  8  out  of  10.

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Havenless Interview

1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?
Hi, and thank you very much for this interview!
We are a progressive death metal band strongly influenced by bands as Opeth, Ihsahn, Enslaved. Founded in Toulouse at the beginning of 2012 by the Composer-Singer-Guitar player Fred Blanchard. A few months later, our first EP “Architecture of plague” came out, we played some gigs in the southwest of France while working on our first album.

2.Recently you have released your first full length, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording and also how does it differ from the ep you had released in 2012?
To us, this album is following the same line as our first EP recorded in 2012, even if songs are different, they are less experimental more intelligible for the audience. About the sound now, we have maintained a natural and human touch, but in a professional studio this time. We are all very satisfied of this!

3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?
The lyrics tell to the listener some mysterious and unnatural stories… even for us! ^^
Stories to be more specific could be considered like “Thrillers”, in wich victims and guilty are present. For example, the first four tracks in the album tell about two young boys who kill their mother because they are driven by a kind of supernatural ghost entity … but I’m not going to spoil anything, I prefer to let the curious read the booklet!


4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Havenless'?
As I said previously, in our stories, victims are present and their aggressors always achieve their goal . So these victims are helpless against this fantastic strength, without refuge… Havenless.
This is also a music title from a band I particularly appreciate: Enslaved

5.What are some of the best shows that the band has played over the years and also how would you describe your stage performance?
Our best souvenir: I would like first to mention a live in Albi to celebrate 10 years of “Une nuit en enfer” with Necrocult, Trashnasty and Oldskull , the ambiance was perfect! The show in Montpellier with “Negura Bunget” and finally our live in Montblanc, at the “Garrigue fest” with our friends “Orob”!
I think we have been improving and we can’t wait to play our full album on stage next year!

6.Do you have any touring or show plans for the new album?
We are now in the progress of organizing a tour in the north of France with “Orob” for February 2015. We will also participate in a maximum of concerts and competitions to promote best as possible our first new album!

7.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of progressive and extreme metal?
People liked our first EP, but we haven't really been able to export our music a lot ... that’s why we signed with the international label “Wormehole death”. Famous French webzines and magazines have supported us (such as Rock Hard, Metallian) but each reviews always ended with sentences like: “so excited to hear a complete album”!

8.What is going on with some of the other musical projects or bands these days that some of the band members are a part of?
Other projects of members in the band are not very active at the moment, exception for projects of our new bass player “Christine Lanusse” (Qantice, Hretghir, Brain Collapse)
Ben, our guitar player, plays with his cover band 70’s “Devik” on a regular basis & Fred (singer guitarist) project, Osuaire (old school death metal) is currently preparing an album.

9.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
We’ll just let the music evolve in our future songs certainly with more clean vocals. As it starts with our new songs of the future second album, the atmosphere is in the way to be more 70’s while remaining melodic death metal! And we are working to have our sound evolving also.

10.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
The main musical genres, which our composer is inspired by are Swedish metal, progressive rock, Doom/death metal, heavy metal of course and nice bands of non-traditional black metal.
To cite some band names : Opeth, Ihsahn, Katatonia, Hypocrisy, Emperor, Enslaved, Bathory, Ereb Altor, Isole (best doom/death band ever!), Porcupine tree, Steven Wilson project, etc… they are to many.

11.What are some of your non musical interests?
We don’t have a lot of non-musical interest…Just our drummer “Romain” wich is a Geek! Chris also likes photography.

12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
We wish to thank you once again for your interest in our band and interest for our first album! I have no doubt that progressive melodic metal lovers will like it !

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Bloody Terror/Diaboli Celeritate/Metal Scrap Records/2014 CD Review

  Bloody  Terror  are  an  international  band  with  members  from  both  Ukraine  and  Russia  that  plays  a  melodic  mixture  of  black  and  death  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2014  album  "Diaboli  Cereritate"  which  was  released  by  Metal  Scrap  Records.

  Acoustic  guitars  that  have  an  ethnic  feeling  to  them  start  off  the  album  along  with  some  heavy  riffing  and  an  atmospheric  sound  in  the  background  which  also  brings  symphonic  elements  to  the  bands  musical  style  and  when  solos  and  leads  are  added into  the  music  they  bring  in  even  more  of  a  melodic  edge  to  the  recording  and  there  is  also  a  good  amount  of  melody  in  the  riffing  as  well.

  Vocals  mix  high  pitched  black  metal  screams  and  deep  death  metal  growls  together  and  they  also  bring  in  a  brief  use  of  spoken  word  parts  and  whispers  at  times  along  with  all  of  the  musical  instruments  having  a  very  powerful  sound  to  them  and  on  some  of  the  tracks  melodic  clean  singing  can  be  heard  at  times  and  they  bring  in  a  more  operatic  atmosphere  to  the  symphonic  elements  of  the  bands  musical  style.

  Throughout  the  recording  you  can  hear  a  good  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts  along  with  blast  beats  being  added  into  certain  sections  of  the  recording  and  they  also  bring  in  operatic  female  vocals  at  times   and  as  the  album  progresses  you  can  hear  a  small  amount  of  progressive  rock  elements  and  folk  metal  being  added  into  the  synths.

  Bloody Terror  takes  a  90's  style  of  symphonic  black  metal  and  mixes  it  with  the  more  modern  melodic  death  metal  sound  to  update  this  genre  for  the  modern  day,  the  production  sounds  very  professional  while  the  lyrics  cover  darkness  and  occult  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Bloody  Terror  are  a  very  great  sounding  melodic  and  symphonic  mixture  of  black  and   death  metal  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  those  musical  genres,  you  should  check  out  this  band.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Devil's  Speed"  "Magic  Of  the  Moon"  and  "Eternal-Life  Vampirism".  8  out  of  10.

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Azathoth Circle/The Replacement/Metal Scrap Records/2014 EP Review

  Azathoth  Circle  are  a  band  from  Ukraine  that  plays  a  very  dark  and  progressive  form  of  post  metal  that  also  brings  in elements  of  black  metal,  stoner, and  doom  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2014  ep  "The  Replacement"  which  was  released  by  Metal  Scrap  Records.

  Clan  playing  and  acoustic  guitars  starts off  the  ep  giving  the  music  more  of  a  progressive  and  post  rock  edge  along  with  some  melodic  clean  singing  female  vocals  a  few  seconds  later  and  after  a  couple  of  minutes  the  music  goes  into  more  of  a  heavy  prog  metal  direction  along  with  a  good  mixture  of  black  metal  screams  and  death  metal  growls.

  When  solos  and  leads  are  added  into   the  music  they  give  the  ep  even  more  of  a  dark  and  melancholic  edge  and  the  drums  also  bring  in  a  few  seconds  of  blast  beats  and  the  songs  also  have  more  of  a  modern  metal  edge  to  them  and  on  the  second  track  you  can  hear  more  gothic,  doom  metal  and  Opeth  influences  being  added  into  the  bands  musical style  along  with  a  touch  of  mainstream  rock/metal  and  on  the  last  track  the  music  starts  bringing  in  more  of  a  stoner  metal  vibe.

  Azathoth  Circle  brings  in  a  variety  of  many  different  style  ranging  from  progressive  and  post  metal  and  adding  it  in  with  the  heaviness  of  stoner,  doom  and  black  metal  along  with  a  touch  of  mainstream  rock  to  create  their  own  style  of  dark  metal,  the  production  sounds  very  professional  while  the lyrics  cover  dark  and  occult  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Azathoth  Circle  are  a  very  great  sounding  mixture  of  progressive,  post  and  dark  metal  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  those  musical  genres,  you  should  check  out  this  band.  RECOMMENDED  TRACK  "Attack  Over  Again".  8  out  of  10.

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Thorr-Axe/Gates Of Winter/2014 CD Review

  Thorr-Axe  are  a  band  from  Indiana  that  plays  a  blackened  form  of  stoner/doom  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  self  released  2014  album  "Gates  Of  Winter".

  Winter  sounds  start  off  the  album  and  a  few  seconds  later  the  music  starts  to  get  more  heavy  and  you  can  hear  traces  of  black  metal  before  going  into  more  of  a  doom  metal  direction  while  they  also  keep  around  the  blackened  parts  and  all  of  the  musical  instruments  have  a  very  powerful  sound  to  them  and  a  couple  of  the  tracks  are  long  and  epic  in  length.

  After  the  first  track  the  music  starts  to  add  in  more  stoner  metal  influences  along  with  some  aggressive  screaming  vocals  and  after  awhile  element s of  punk  and  hardcore  can  be  heard  in  some  of  the  tracks  along  with  a  small  amount  of  death  metal  growls  and  all  of  the  musical  instruments  have  a  very  powerful  sound  to  them.

  At  times  you  can  hear  a  great  amount  of  sludge  in  the  bands  musical  style  and  most  of  the  tracks  stick  to  more  of  a  slow  or  mid  paced  direction  and  one  of  the  alter  tracks  also  brings  in  a  brief  use  of  melodic  guitar  solos  and  leads  which  also  leads  up  to  the  music  speeding  up  a  bit  and  bringing  in  a  few  seconds  of  blast  beats  on  a  few  songs  with  the  second  one  also adding  in  more  black  metal  elements  and  on  of  the  later  tracks  also  bring s in  a  small  amount  of  spoken  word  samples  and  psychedelic  sounds.  

  Thorr-Axe  plays  a  very  heavy  form  of  stoner/doom  metal  that  also  bring s in  a  heavy  amount  of  sludge  and  black  metal  influences  to  create  the  sound  that  is  presented  on  the  recording,  the  production  sound s very  professional  for  being  a  self  released  recording  while  the  lyrics  cover  Norse  Paganism  and  Fantasy  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Thorr-Axe  are  a  very  great  sounding  blackened  stoner/doom  metal  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  this  musical  genre,  you  should  check  out  this  album>  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "The  Seer's  Vision"  "The  Forging  Ritual"  and  "Awakening".  8  out  of  10.

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Unfathomed Of Abyss Interview

1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the musical project?

Unfathomed of Abyss is a studio project that utilizes extreme metal / black metal sounding musical phrases composed in a layered and constantly temporally evolving symphonic framework.


2.Recently you have released a new album, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording?

It's fucking awesome. But, I'm really not an unbiased source of information on this.


3.This musical project has been around since 2001 but so far this is the first release, can you tell us a little bit more about the delay?

I started writing in 2001, and finished in 2012. Though some of the parts I even wrote in 2000, I had used them to do a concept study in rhythmic ideas tied to tonality that evolved, or echoed with slight changes introduced to repeated elements over time, rather than mindless repeating of parts verbatim for the entire piece. That study that I did on 2001 ended up being the proof of concept for the entire album, which is the final section of “The Malevolence of Existence's Continuation”. I had to insert some parts that mindlessly repeated verbatim though because constantly evolving parts with no opposite can create it’s own type of monotony as well. But in estimating / tallying up the actual time spent working on writing the album, if I omit all the time spent not working on the parts that went into the album (time spent writing other stuff that did not make it on the album, writing other music as an exercise or concept studies, time spent studying classical theory amongst whatever other random things life throws one's way), the writing would have consisted of about a years worth of weekends and evenings, it was just spread out over almost the entire time-frame. Although, it took me a lot longer to write parts at first, than it does now. Recording didn't take forever once I was done writing. Then I spent literally a year re-mixing it with mostly decade's old software and hardware. Most of the time was spent waiting for the geezerly Dell I have to process audio, usually around 10 – 20 minutes per track, multiple times for each song. I had like 20 – 30 mix downs to go through for each song because loading everything up all at once would freeze the software for sure, and occasionally crash the computer and forever corrupt audio files.



4.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects that you explore with your music?

“To Unequal the Balance of the Cosmos” is about origins and evolution of life, and that life taking hold of the physics of it's own basis, and a cataclysm that follows when life manipulates it's basis.

“The figment Unadulated” is about the nonexistence, arbitraryness and invented bullshittery of things that exist only in the minds of people; religions, cultures, and really any group of people where the name of that group somehow lasts longer than the people that adopt those made up ways.

“Within The Glory of Other Lights” is about humanity and life in general's need to colonize areas away from Earth, as Earth will be consumed by the Sun eventually when it expands to be a red giant (it's circumference has been estimated by people a lot smarter than me to come to rest roughly along Earth's orbit in around 2 billion years or so, though in around 1 billion years, the increase [occurring right now] in the Sun's luminosity will heat Earth up to the point of being unfit for life). Mars is referred to in the lyrics, however the title suggests other stars besides the one that annoys us in the morning are a worthy goal as well.

“To Nothing” is about a life form that fails to overcome it's subordinance to existence, and then dissolves to existence itself, to molten rock, or vapor perhaps. It however maintains a chance at future evolution to self awareness again, as is true of any of the ingredients for life that may be wandering through the universe right now.

“Within the Void” is about the nonexistent dichotomy purveyed (to annoy people with any sense) by the fake fucks that inhabit Earth, those who pretend that ideas (actually, I'm just talking about traditions, cultural groups and religions) are somehow reality itself, and who purvey that anything observable, testable and otherwise physically real is somehow not real or not useful. So, it's about a habit of travesty that humanity perpetuates upon itself; a fleshy self destruct button.

The Malevolence of Existence's Continuation is about the transience of life, and it's subordinance to Earth.

The way the lyrics are written though, those meanings are hard to glean.

5.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Unfathomed Of Abyss'?

It's a sort of slight of hand way of saying “life”. At least, I wouldn't expect much of it to exist in a universe that largely consists of a relative majority of emptiness.

6.With this musical project you record everything by yourself, are you open to working with a full time band, or do you prefer to work solo?

I couldn't have written this as a collaboration with a band. Nor could I have learned to write this type of stuff if I was spending a lot of free-time practicing playing parts. I did work with two other people on this, and could not have finished it without their help. Kevin Talley did the drums, and Tom Kvålsvoll did the Mastering.

7.Currently you are unsigned, are you looking for a label or have received any interest?

There hasn't been any label interest. I may be wrong, but I assume there has to be some sort of touring capability to entice a lot of labels. These days they seem to serve more of a promotional function (it's very easy to self release digitally and physically) as far as I can tell, and opening for some band with a big following that also kicks ass in a live performance is likely a better form of promotion than putting those same band's name in a “sounds similar to...” section of a website. But I'm on the fence about labels anyway.

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

Pretty good actually. It varies wildly though. I have received feedback indicating that the music is just right to people's tastes, and even that it is the type of thing some people look for. I have gotten feedback that indicates some people really expect a more linear and “repeated verbatim” based approach to something labeled with the word “symphonic”, I guess the same people might be seeing the “black metal” in the descriptions I use, and ignoring the “symphonic” part. I use those terms merely because they are the closest descriptive terms that people use to search for any music online. I do not believe that somehow, magically or as in some other type of woo woo type way that my music itself inhabits some mystical state of being by being called this or that. So, it is not this, that, or some other thing. It is what it is. I would call it “fluffy cupcakes” if search terms could be replaced by sounds playing in a person's brain. It would be a lot easier if Amazon could hear those sounds when I search for music to buy, otherwise I have to figure out how people are describing music, which can be bullshit.

9.Where do you see yourself heading into as a musician in the future?

I'll be writing more brutally and varied, and more symphonically. There is some new material already written. I'm also interested in getting rid of the use of synthesized sounds as much as possible. So I've got a violin being shipped to me from halfway around the globe as I type this. It's not a far stretch, from guitar to violin. Assuming I can get to the point of being able to record what I write with it, then I'll have to find a viola, cello and double bass as well. All the synth parts were actually written with the real instruments in mind anyway.

10.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?

Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, old Metallica, Slayer, Mayhem, Arcturus, Emperor, Stravinskiy's The Rite of Spring, almost anything by Alan Hovhaness, Iannis Xenakis, and Vangelis. those are the best examples I can think of now. I prefer modern orchestral styles to classical / boroque, romantic etc eras, dissonant metal, or metal that uses multiple types of scales rather than music that solely relies on the typical overused, ripped of to the point of annoyance western scale. Nowadays I flip constantly between the nu-metal, hard rock, 90's hard / grunge rock, alternative and classical (not the opera one) channels on SiriusXm.

11.What are some of your non musical interests?

Architecture, stop-motion animation, computer generated visual effects software (Blender is the shit) surreal / fantasy / sci-fi visual artwork, designing things.

12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?

Just say no to trends.

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