New Noise Magazine Issue #39

NEW NOISE MAGAZINE | ISSUE 39

“A L L T H E M O N E Y I N T H E W O R L D C A N ' T B U Y A N E W O N E ”

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AMERICAN NIGHTMARE

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UP TEMPO, SAVAGE IN BOTH SOUND AND SPIRIT, MINDFUCKER IS THE REAL DEAL! 3/23 !

MONSTER MAGNET - Mindfucker

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Polka, Punk and Pirate-party!

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Hungarian PADDY AND THE RATS bringing the Irish pub glory straight to your merry home!

4/6

! PADDY AND THE RATS - Riot City Outlaws

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One of Metal´s most unique, influential and prestigious acts deliver a new monument!

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Shining a light on the joys and heartaches that lie at the intersection of the LGBTQIA community and the world of alternative music…

ON INFLUENCES

Kitten Forever. Liz Phair. Sleater-Kinney. Kim Deal.

ON COMMUNITY CARE

FEATURING ROYAL BRAT Royal Brat are deeply concerned for your well-being.

The Minneapolis-based queer femme punk quartet—featuring vocalist Alex Uhrich, guitarist Clara Salyer, bassist Shannon Boyer, and drummer Conor Burke—are dead set on lifting people up while simultaneously rattling their faces off with viciously fun hooks, crunchy tones, unruly beats, and stomping rhythms. The band harness a tough garage punk aesthetic, but when it’s hitched to their weighty, incisive lyrics, the whole affair becomes preternaturally warm. Royal Brat feel like a studded-leather-jacket-clad older sibling, wielding their songs to figuratively beat the shit out of everyone who has ever bullied you.

Following up their five-song debut EP, Negative Bone—released on cherry red cassette tape in late 2015—Royal Brat unleashed their first full-length, Eyesore, on Feb. 23 via Chicago’s Moniker Records. Recorded and mixed by The Funs, mastered by Mikey Young, and featuring eye-catching, minimalist cover art by Andrea Lukic, the new record boasts 13 tracks that chronicle struggles with gender dysphoria, sociopolitical inequality, and bad breakups, while boosting the signal of queer and femme liberation and empowering assault survivors to heal, prevail, and thrive.

Royal Brat deftly pack a lifetime of pain and triumph into Eyesore’s

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concise 26-minute runtime. Recalling riot grrrl progenitors such as The Breeders, Bratmobile, and Babes In Toyland—with whom Royal Brat share a member—the band meld a familiar ethos with their own modern vision to create an even more inclusive message. Through their roles as musicians, label operators, and activists, it’s clear that Royal Brat are genuinely invested in their community. They’ve got our back, they’re on the attack, and woe unto anyone who would harm us.

ON MUSIC

I get so much joy from playing music, because it was the first aspect of my life that I completely cultivated for myself. No one ever encouraged me to play music until I decided I wanted to do it—and I was my number one supporter. I have such emotional ties to music, and many of my favorite and most inspiring memories are related to music in some way or another.

I’m specifically interested in the ways that art and music intersect in projects, and I can see a lot of that happening with bands and artists from everywhere right now. It’s such a special fusion of two really delicate and yet largely impactful things that make it feel worth it to sift through the bullshit of living.

I am always looking for ways to empower people to lean into doing it themselves. I think it’s important to recognize your own individual strengths and ability to positively impact and influence people around you. Some of us teach younger folks how to play instruments, some of us teach people how to screen print or assemble their own tape, some of us book shows. I think it’s important for everybody to try to create happenings in which crosspollination and collaboration are possible. That kind of environment and community attracts all sorts of people, and truly magical stuff happens.

ON EASING THE STRUGGLE

Integrate alone time into your day as much as you can and learn to think of yourself as one of your best friends. I try to prioritize my relationship with myself in the same ways that I prioritize my friendships with other people. It took me a really long time to learn how to

be alone—even in completing the most mundane tasks, like going to Walgreens.

I take myself on dates all the time now: to the movies, out to eat, to the art museum. It’s the most special reflective time, and it helps to process everything.

Also, therapy is tight. There’s such an unfair stigma about therapy that keeps people from seeking that type of guidance—like admitting you need help is a sign of weakness. It really isn’t. It’s actually proof that you’re a badass who’s taking the initiative to nurture yourself so that you can foster meaningful relationships with the people you care about.

ON WHAT KEEPS THEM UP AT NIGHT

Balancing self-care and making a meaningful impact. Doing stuff that’s important to me but can still make a positive difference in other people’s lives.

ON SECRET PASSIONS

Pop punk jams in the van. Especially Shannon and Alex. 

SHIFTING THE FOCUS FROM THE INDIVIDUALS WHO CREATE THE BEST ALBUMS TO TAKE AN INSIDE LOOK AT THE BEHIND-THE-SCENES JOBS THAT KEEP THE INDUSTRY RUNNING. GO BEYOND THE MUSIC AND MEET THE PEOPLE WHO KEEP YOUR FAVORITE BANDS IN THE PUBLIC EYE…

a label, including distribution. McCarthy is proud of how they handle their releases.

“Deathwish does a lot of our own distribution in-house, but we also work with a number of other distributors. Many labels have exclusive distribution deals; they work with large distributors—mostly—exclusively, who sell to the larger stores and music chains: Amoeba, Newbury Comics, and the like. We work with ADA; they handle those larger chains who don’t want to work with a bunch of smaller labels and just get everything from a few big distributors. They also do our digital distribution [via] Apple Music, Spotify, etc. We definitely put a lot of focus on Deathwish Direct, especially as the larger music industry collapses all around us. We not only distribute our own releases but also work with a lot of other labels and handle their distribution for them, both physical and digital.”

A lot of Deathwish Inc. is built on community.

For bands looking to build a rep and get on an official label, McCarthy believes building or being part of a community is the best way.

“You need to build a local following and, then, use that local following to get on shows when the touring bands come through. And then, you have to be fucking good. Real fucking good. And you gotta hope that what you do catches someone’s attention, and then, that someone turns around to someone like me and says, ‘Hey, we played with this great band the other night. I think you should check them out.’ That person could be the singer of the touring band, it could be the person selling t-shirts—hell, it could be a friend of mine who went to the show. I go to a ton of shows, and I listen to a ton of new bands, scouring Bandcamp and Spotify, but if someone whose

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eathwish Inc. has built quite the reputation in its 18 years. Based out of Beverly, Massachusetts, the label was started by Tre McCarthy and Converge’s Jacob Bannon when the two needed to release a split.

In its time, the label has grown considerably and is a championed name in the community.

After releasing the aforementioned Hellchild and Converge split, the duo decided they wanted to see other bands get the attention they deserved, and what better way to facilitate that than by releasing their music?

Most already know about Bannon, Converge, and the artwork that goes into the label, but now, the light will shine on McCarthy. What

opinion I trust hits me up and tells me that I gotta check someone out, it carries a lot more weight.”

Deathwish have plenty of releases, but what are some of McCarthy’s favorite releases from his label?

“Like a parent is not allowed to have a favorite child, I love all of our releases the same. However, over the years, there have been a lot of records that, obviously, I have a stronger personal connection to than others.”

“Deafheaven’s Sunbather is [a] record that holds a special place in my heart. I remember stumbling across their demo on a blog and, after about two minutes of listening, thinking, ‘Who is this band? They’re great, and I want to work with them.’ Fast forward a couple years, and I am sitting on the couch in Jack Shirley’s Atomic Garden Studio, and Kerry [McCoy] is recording his guitars for the title track, and he gets to the part at about 3:58—it hit me right in the chest.”

“It’s those small moments and feelings where you can just say to yourself, ‘Yup, this is it.’ It’s that reason why I think a lot of us do this: to be able to have a hand in getting these special moments out into the world.”

What’s McCarthy’s advice for those wanting to start their own label?

“Start young. Plan to lose money and live frugally. Work with artists who truly speak to you. Trust your instincts and go with your heart. Realize early that the more you lose on records one, two, and three makes it that much harder to put out records four, five, and six—so plan accordingly.”

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does McCarthy do?

“I am the co-owner and cofounder of the independent record label Deathwish Inc. I have always said simply that at Deathwish, where Jake is the artist, I am the accountant. It sums it up simply and gives a sort of yin yang vibe.

In addition, I do a lot of the so-called A&R and maintain relationships with our artists while focusing on the bigger picture [and] long-term goals of Deathwish—but I’m also the person on hold with Comcast when the internet goes out, and I make sure that we have paper for the printer.”

There are a lot of factors that go into owning

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based in Chicago. She has collaborated with brands on logo and packaging designs, created an art installation from 27,000 bullet casings, and designed campaign buttons for Hillary for America. What most people know Blazevich for, however, is her beautiful hand lettering and the products she makes and sells. From a black t-shirt bearing the famous “Girls to the Front” mantra in gold foil to a hand-lettered “Not Nasty Enough” print to Vichcraft’s first product, a patch that reads “Tough Little Self-Employed Bitches”—inspired by Cincinnati band Tweens—it’s easy to see the echoes of the leather jacket in her current work.

F E AT U R I N G J E N N A B L A Z E V I C H O F V I C H C R A F T

“My background, when I trace back the earliest, is in clothing construction and fashion design,” Blazevich says. “There’s a pretty rich history of embroidery and clothing-making within the women of my family, a few generations back and to my mom. She taught me how to sew when I was younger, and [I] continued to develop more of an interest in pattern-making and figuring out how to make clothes for myself. It just led to this very seamless and obvious path into studying fashion design when I decided to go to college.”

Once at college, she took some introductory drawing and graphic design classes. Those, paired with an internship at Powerhouse Factories—a company known for their gig posters—solidified her decision to pursue graphic design. Blazevich transferred to The University of Illinois at Chicago and earned a Bachelor of Design in 2014, growing her portfolio through internships and freelance work along the way. After graduation, she was offered a job at an advertising company but instead started Vichcraft in January 2015.

Blazevich has a strong interest in social and environmental responsibility, which is prev-

alent in the products she designs and the clients she works with. It’s also the main reason she decided to start her business.

“Across all of my advertising and design agency jobs, the most problematic incidents specifically regarding sexism didn’t happen to me personally, but, of course, other things did,” she says. “There were enough experiences to cause a frustration great enough to decide that no dream workplace exists—i.e. one that prioritizes environmental and social responsibility with their client work, along with creating a safe and diverse workplace— and if I wanted to be in that kind of work environment, I would have to create it myself.”

The environment Blazevich created is accessible, unique, and completely hers. She works with brands that share her vision of social responsibility. Each item she sells is designed by her. She strives to source local goods. She hosts beginner calligraphy workshops at her Chicago studio. She created a “Nevertheless, She Persisted” t-shirt, and donates $10 to the National Women’s Political Caucus for each shirt sold. Blazevich began creating products as a side project, a way to keep her lettering fresh and to show clients a broader range of her work. But thanks to social media and old-fashioned word of mouth, her designs have become a much-needed antidote to today’s political climate. In a time when it’s difficult to hear another person’s point of view above the name-calling and shouting, Blazevich, through her work, is urging people to start important conversations.

“Something I’m passionate about is making feminism accessible,” she says. “I wasn’t able to find my own ‘entry point’ into identifying as a feminist until I was enrolled in a Gender and Women’s Studies class in college, and I want some of those prerequisites that I felt existed to change. I don’t think it’s fair or productive to have people feel like they need to meet certain requirements to be part of a conversation or movement.”

PHOTO: ANA ZAJAC If you find yourself strolling around the University of Cincinnati and the surrounding Clifton neighborhood and notice the artwork from Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible spray-painted somewhere it shouldn’t be, there’s a good chance you’re seeing Jenna Blazevich’s early work.

While she was a student at the University of Cincinnati in 2009, Blazevich, who was studying fashion design at the time, decided to make a motorcycle jacket for a course project. On the back of it, she screen-printed the cover art from Neon Bible, one of her favorite

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albums. Looking back, Blazevich says her design choice was “absolutely idiotic.”

“I was spray-painting it on things and defacing property, but also screen-printed it on a school project. My textiles teacher was like, ‘I saw that somewhere else. Did you do that?’

And I was like, ‘No…’” Blazevich says, her voice trailing off. She’s quick to laugh about this period of youthful rebellion, but that jacket is an important marker in her career.

Blazevich is the founder of Vichcraft, an independent multidisciplinary design studio

ALL PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHY: JENNA BLAZEVICH

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says. “I think what we were all trying to do in this record is make a hugely concerted effort to, as big of fans as we are, forget about Converge, forget about [The] Dillinger [Escape Plan], anything like that, and try to imagine, without looking at those things as reference points—just look at music that we grew up liking and pop music and, then, imagine that you never heard any of the real extreme stuff and try to imagine it yourself for the first time.

So, it’s kind of like an outsider hardcore album.”

YOU’RE TEARING HARDCORE APART!- THE ARMED INTERVIEW WITH DAN GREENE BY CALEB R. NEWTON

The musicians who are a part of the ever-evolving heavy project known as The Armed aren’t interested in leaving hardcore to rot in a back alley somewhere or be relegated to an overly commercialized endeavor. Plenty of heavy music fans are familiar with the “formula” of hardcore music, but this Detroit collective want to buck the conventions of what heavy mu-

sic can be. Rather than just incorporating commercial elements or components that are “supposed” to be in hardcore music, they seek to follow their singular creative inspiration to its end.

on their new record, ONLY LOVE. The Kurt Ballou-produced album is set for release on April 27 via the band’s own No Rest Until Ruin imprint and French label Throatruiner Records.

Dan Greene went from doing lighting for The Armed to writing for the band to, finally, performing various strings and keys

“I think the thing is that a lot of the sonic tentpoles for what sounds aggressive haven’t shifted for people in so long,” Greene

Philly’s crooning songstresses and company, Queen Of Jeans, are releasing their first fulllength, Dig Yourself, via Topshelf Records on March 30—a milestone in their blossoming career. Vocalist Miriam Devora describes the record as an introspective look at her life with a thin veil of vagueness. Once you lift the curtain, there is more behind these words sung so sweetly. “I don’t even know that I was completely aware during the [writing process] what I was trying to convey,” Devora says. “It’s sort of why writing sometimes can be so cool. The songs that you aren’t really trying for sometimes have these subliminal messages tucked inside them.”

“It’s hard for me to see good qualities in myself when I compare myself to other people or other artists or someone at a Wawa [convenience store],” Devora jokes. “I’m normally pretty shy and introverted; I have more trouble talking with people than singing and performing. [Performing] is when I’ve always felt comfortable. If [this record] helps one person, I’ll be happy.”

Invested in the newness of love and the “manic back-and-forth, tethering in the mind” that goes on in the vulnerable stages of a relationship, Dig Yourself conveys the shy yet gritty dynamic of Queen Of Jeans.

The group are not to be passed over. The band dub their music “crockpot pop,” and while the term is tongue-in-cheek, it blends perfectly with their sultry pop tracks like “U R My Guy,” “Clever Hands,” and the single “More To Love.”

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An homage to loving oneself, Dig Yourself is your inner monologue before you go to bed.

It’s the voice behind your ear telling you to believe in yourself when your head is down.

Full of melody, echoing harmonies, and beachy riffs, the album showcases Queen Of Jeans as attitude-heavy songbirds, full of light and on a path of redemption from the clutches of cynics. “[‘Space’] is about the madness in my head from all of the insecurities that I was having and resigning [myself] to the fact that this is how life is,” Devora says. “It’s recognizing that life is going to happen. It’s going to be fast, things are going to come at you, but if you have faith in yourself, you’ll make it through anything.”

Artists who have influenced Greene personally range from David Bowie and The Cure to St. Vincent. The musicians who are part of The Armed have also drawn inspiration from Tommy Wiseau, creator of the cult classic film “The Room.” Even in the face of unrelenting criticism, Wiseau was successful, as Greene describes it, in his aim to “impose his vision on the world.”

The band even got him to appear in the music video for “Role Models” from ONLY LOVE. Revitalizing the idea of hardcore music, Greene says The Armed have aimed to be meaningfully artistic outsiders like Wiseau. With ONLY LOVE, they’ve been quite successful in that aim, having constructed a sonic monument to everything heavy music can be.

CONFIDENCE-BOOSTING POP-QUEEN OF JEANS

PHOTO: EDEN KITTIVER

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST MIRIAM DEVORA BY BRIDJET MENDYUK

Vundabar are a fun band to watch. Not only is their self-described “sludgy jangly pop” music interesting both creatively and technically, but onstage, they offer playful banter and charisma that keeps everyone in the audience engaged. However, their new album reveals a serious side to the Boston trio. Lead vocalist and guitarist Brandon Hagen explains that Smell Smoke—released Feb. 23 via Gawk Records—is about his recent experience watching a friend suffer and, eventually, pass away. “It was a fouryear period of someone getting really, really sick,” he says, “and working through the day-to-day logistics of dealing with that—and then, also, the emotional experience.”

Smell Smoke is Hagen’s attempt to process and share these feelings. The catchy opener, “Acetone,” is a great example of the record’s underlying theme of honest vulnerability.

“For me, it was a point of fatigue, of putting it on for so long that it got to a point where I just wasn’t feeling healthy,” he says. “[I] resolved to adjust it in a way that was hopefully permanent, in the sense that it

would be a part of a record that would exist outside of myself.” Hagen explains that “Acetone” was “just a way to address those feelings in the sense that it is a record and a CD and is a form of physical existence that’s outside of yourself.”

PHOTO: CJ HARVEY

Hagen says he did try to write songs unrelated to his hardship of the past few years, but he just wasn’t proud of them. “We tried to write music that dodged it, and it just sucked. It was bad,” he asserts. “So, it made it hard until I was like, ‘Yeah, I need to address it.’”

Although writing about the experience was uncomfortable at times, Hagen felt it was what he needed to do to push through to the other side. The record that emerged not only gives fans something raw and sincere to latch onto, but also provided Hagen with some of the introspection he was looking for. “I like writing poetry—and words in general— because you kind of find things out that you didn’t know before,” he says. “It’s a form of self-discovery.”

RAW EXISTENTIAL SUFFERING-PROBLEM OF PAIN

INTERVIEW BY VOCALIST/DRUMMER JAKE BEAVER BY HUTCH Lifelong Michigander friends Garrett Finch and Jake Beaver had to eventually face the inevitable and began Problem Of Pain in early 2015. They had been writing music together in a prior band, but with Problem Of Pain, they are expressing their unique vision without additional members. Beaver—the band’s vocalist and

drummer—claims, “Our place in hardcore is very strange. Our initial direction for the band was heavy and dark, but through touring and growing as a band, we slowly wanted to change it up. Quite frankly, there are better bands doing the ‘as heavy as possible’ thing, so we went in a different direction.”

Sometimes, nightmares can bleed over into waking hours, coloring every thought and action with a veil of darkness, until the sleeper wonders if they ever really woke up.

tries to flush [out] whatever he thinks is inside of him, the Nightmarer. It could be a demon; it could just be himself. At the end, there is just no light at the end of the tunnel.”

No, this isn’t about the current political climate. We’re talking actual waking nightmares—or, at least, Nightmarer guitarist Simon Hawemann is. Inspired by a nightmare Hawemann suffered involving people falling out of the sky, the band’s forthcoming debut LP, Cacophony of Terror—out March 23 via Season Of Mist—is all about what haunts us subconsciously.

With members located in both Germany and the U.S., it’s no small feat that Nightmarer have managed to record such a musically complex and lyrically layered record. Cacophony of Terror was recorded separately and didn’t come together until the very end.

“Basically, the album is about a character who is trapped between either being stuck in a nightmare or not knowing if it is actually his reality,” Hawemann explains. “This person kind of becomes very paranoid and tries to cope with it and get out of this nightmare, but he can’t. At one point, he turns to self-destruction and

SLUDGY JANGLY POP ART THERAPY- VUNDABAR

“I wrote a lot in my home studio, and Paul [Seidel], our drummer, came over from Germany, and we kept writing together, so we already knew the whole process was going to take a while. We just wanted to get it right,” Hawemann shares. “So, everything was produced all over the place: I ended up recording the guitars here, Paul recorded drums in Germany, bass was recorded by a friend at home in Germany. It was just a big patchwork production. At the

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST BRANDON HAGEN BY JOHN SILVA

That direction yields a new EP, I Will Always Want To Let Go, released via Blood & Ink Records on Feb. 9. Five tracks of draining, confrontational metallic hardcore influenced by black metal, mathcore, and dark subject matter distill their vitriol into a bleak record. “While writing this EP, we took the approach of trying to make something artistically and emotionally tangible for the listener,” Beaver continues, “which, nowadays with heavy music, I think is something that is lacking. We wanted to create an atmosphere that evokes a powerful connection or emotion through the music or lyrics that lasts. We hope that it can open up our audience to a lot more groups of people and that they all enjoy it.”

Beaver delves into the lyrical landscape of I Will Always Want To Let Go, calling the EP “a self-examination on the inevitable and, also, the struggle of being human. Some

themes include guilt, disappointment, and remorse and how they can influence the way we value ourselves. The key theme, though—placed within the title—is the constant battle of wanting to remove oneself from commitment and how hard it is to be fully committed to a person or spiritual ideology.”

Michigan artist, Amber Muller—a friend of Beaver’s—created the album art, and Beaver touts her “immense talent.” He sees the bridge between the striking cover and his music. “This being bright, saturated, but still having a dark and mysterious blackened tone is exactly what we wanted,” he says. “I think that it very vividly represents the emotions and instrumentation within the EP: cold and empty but still full of life.”

AND PLAGUED BY WAKING TERROR- NIGHTMARER PHOTO: JUSTINA VILLANUEVA

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST SIMON HAWEMANN BY ADDISON HERRON-WHEELER end, we had it mixed in Switzerland, and that kind of brought it all together. So, we really didn’t have a good, coherent picture of the album before we got the real mixes together. Now, I feel really confident about how it came together. It came out the way we hoped it would.”

Despite the nightmarish landscape painted in the bleak lyrics and its “patchwork production,” Nightmarer are very excited to release Cacophony of Terror and, once more, get out on the road.

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“Whenever I’m asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks,” Flannery O’Connor wrote, “I say it is because we are still able to recognize one.” Just as O’Connor’s fictional landscape was populated by Southern grotesqueries, so too are the songs of Lincoln Durham.

Apostate preachers, prodigal sons, vengeful gun-slinging damsels, woebegone drunkards, and rambling devils comprise just a few of their macabre cast, and their array of sounds is equally eccentric: punk, rockabilly, blues, soul, and even gospel bubble all kinds of toils and troubles.

Durham’s fourth album And Into Heaven Came the Night—out March 30 via Droog Records—is the latest arcane element to emerge from the musician’s cauldron, following 2012’s The Shovel vs. the Howling Bones, 2013’s Exodus of the Deemed Unrighteous, and 2016’s Revelations From a Mind Unraveling.

“I always lean to this kind of heavier edge,” he explains. “So, rather than just sitting on a barstool, I wanted to get something […] under my feet to where I could give a bassyness, […] a boom.” Rather than forming a

band, Durham is the band, and his frenetic live performances see him handling vocals, guitar, bass, and percussion simultaneously.

His repertoire also includes—but is not limited to—fiddle, harmonica, banjo, and single-string cigar box guitars. “How do I do an hour’s worth of music and keep people on their toes?” Durham ponders. “It’s always with the fan in mind, to not get bored with what they’re seeing.”

Such a tangible grotesquerie of a musical instrument parallels the equally grotesque religious sentiments in Durham’s lyrics.

Reflecting on the influence of religion on his youth in rural Texas, he reveals, “The imagery that it evokes to me is—heavy.”

PHOTO: CHRISTIANO MARTINS

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST HENRIKE BALIÚ BY JOHN B. MOORE For 20 years, Brazil’s Blind Pigs were one of the most dependably solid punk bands to come out of South America.

When guitarist Fabiano Andrade passed away in 2015 after suffering a heart attack at 36, many assumed they had seen the last of the band. And they had—sort of.

Four of the five remaining members—

vocalist Henrike Baliú, bassist Mauro Tracco, guitarist Alexandre Galindo, and drummer Arnaldo Rogano—decided to carry on. They added guitarist Ricardo Galano to the lineup and rechristened themselves Armada. Pirates Press and Hearts Bleed Blue put out the band’s debut, Bandeira Negra, on Feb. 2.

From the ashes of one of San Francisco’s leanest black metal acts rises a new shadow stretching like Faust over the dewy city.

Ails—led by former Ludicra members, lead vocalist Laurie Shanaman and guitarist and vocalist Christy Cather—share the former act’s penchant for darkness but with a newly circular and widened impression. However, they still emphasize the grim horizons, a quick jaunt through Dante’s Inferno.

within the quintet’s inner-spirit, and one can hear the Bay Area’s sunrise on the edge of the madness. It’s about survival and togetherness—the light at the end of the tunnel. “I think I can speak for everyone by saying that, for the most part, we wanted to have fun playing some heavy music that we all enjoy together,” Cather says. “I’m so grateful that I get to play with all of the talented members of my band and very happy that we can write the music that we do together. I’m aware that I’m not going to make a living doing this. I work a nine-tofive to play music, and I’m stoked to write and perform with these guys. It makes the monotonous part of my life worth it.”

Whereas Ludicra strove for maximum tunnel vision and suffocation, Ails offer more of a mere glimpse into that harrowing descent. A strong hopefulness nestles

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PHOTO: REBECCA CRONAN

Durham personally makes many of the cigar box guitars employed in his live shows. “I wanted to find out how much noise I could make out of one string,” he says. On his current tour in support of And Into Heaven Came the Night, Durham’s latest singlestring axe is an actual axe! “It’s just this big, proper, old-school, wooden-handled axe that [Square Amps] found, like, in some old woodshed and put a string through it,” he divulges.

THE STREET PUNKS OF SÃO PAULO- ARMADA

“I was always drawn to any music that brought strong emotions of sadness,” Shanaman notes. “So, when I first heard black metal specifically, it really struck a nerve in me. I was never a huge metalhead, but the emotion, tremolo guitar-picking style, harsh vocals, and overall depressive nature of black metal has made it my favorite of the metal genres.”

THAT HEAVY SOUTHERN GOTHIC- LINCOLN DURHAM

Ails’ debut, The Unraveling—out April 20 via The Flenser—is a swirling haze of scorched earth blasts, gothic hues, and early universe shifting. It’s a record with a forgiving heart, but its rigid exterior is still clad in eternal darkness. It’s both nostalgic and fresh, an energy that is true and sincere: a propulsive crystal, holding on tight

INTERVIEW BY GRANT SKELTON

“Music is in our blood, leaving music never crossed our minds,” Baliú says. “Fabiano died of a heart attack at a very young age, so it caught us all off guard. He was the first true friend I lost. ‘Punk da Pedreira’ is about him. After Fabiano passed away, Gordo—who formed Blind Pigs with me back in 1993—left on some pretty bad terms. We decided to carry on without him, change the band name, expand our sound, bring in new influences, and try to have fun as a band again. I guess we accomplished that.”

A regular in the punk scene in Brazil, Galano had been playing guitar in the band Não Há Mais Volta. Baliú put out the band’s first CD a couple years ago on his own label. “Right before Armada was born, me and Ricardo wrote a song together called ‘Revolução’ for CPM 22, a very popular melodic punk rock band from here, and I then realized that he was the guy we needed to complete the Armada,” Baliú says. “He’s

a great tunesmith and a spectacular singer when it comes to backing vocals. It was the right decision.”

Singing in their native tongue of Portuguese, the band sound like an inspired mix of Rancid, Cock Sparrer, and the Stiff Little Fingers with a hint of Johnny Cash. On Bandeira Negra, Baliú says Armada made a conscious decision to expand their sound.

“From day one!” he says. “Lyrically too, we wanted the songs to be more personal. We want people to not know what to expect whenever we release a new record. We want to try new stuff musically but, at the same time, keep the punk rock spirit.”

Despite being around for two decades, Blind Pigs never toured America. Armada want to change that. “We’ll do it with Armada,” Baliú says. “We’re working on it!”

VIRGIL’S TOUR OF THE SUNSHINE STATE- AILS

I N T E R V I E W W I T H L A U R I E S H A N A M A N A N D C H R I ST Y C AT H E R BY C H R I S T O P H E R J . H A R R I N GTO N through the eternal storm. “I think a lot of inspiration comes from the madness around us,” Cather opines. “I travel to get away from the craziness.”

“I agree,” Shanaman adds. “These are the hardest of times for so many, and

I’m continuously inspired by the human resilience that we all somehow keep holding on to.”

Born out of the mind of New Jersey vocalist Miranda Taylor, Exmaid began as a solo effort but became so much more.

Before forming the band, Taylor was part of three other musical projects: Full Of Fancy, Hunchback, and Black Wine. While she had a number of creative outlets, the music Taylor would ultimately create for Exmaid came from a more deeply personal place that she felt didn’t quite fit with the bands she was already in. “I had written a couple of songs just for fun in 2014,” she says. “They weren’t really working—like, they didn’t really work with Black Wine—so I was just going to play with whoever. I couldn’t really find the right people, and I just decided to record [the songs].”

Taylor recorded the bulk of what would become Exmaid’s new music completely solo, but she still wanted a band to play with.

Ultimately, she reached out to Philadelphia-based trio Psychic Teens: vocalist and guitarist Larry Ragone, bassist Joe DeCarolis, and drummer Dave Cherasaro. “Psychic Teens had just put out Nerve, which is incredible, and I had sung on that record,” Taylor expresses. “I was like, ‘Oh, it’s them.

They should do it.’” Luckily, Psychic Teens

were fully onboard, filling out the members needed to create Exmaid.

The band have released one EP, 2016’s Neurotic Fantasies, via State Champion Records and are quickly approaching the release of their debut full-length, Fair Sex, on April 6 via SRA and Don Giovanni Records. Taylor is equally full of excitement and nerves, but she ultimately feels the music says exactly what she needed to say. “All these feelings I have about being a human female, it came out in these songs,” she explains. “I just want everyone to be like, ‘Whether or not I agree with this, it’s like a woman felt comfortable being like, “Here are all my weird thoughts.”’

I think that’s vital.”

With the release of Fair Sex growing closer, Exmaid’s future is looking quite hopeful.

Taylor’s goal for the band—and for herself— is pretty straightforward. “I want to make records until I can’t make records anymore, and I hope that [Psychic Teens] want to do it with me, because it was really fun making music with them,” she says. “I’m so happy with how well it turned out.”

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST MIRANDA TAYLOR BY ANNET TE HANSEN

FAMILIA- MICHAEL KANE & THE MORNING AFTERS PHOTO: ERIN MATHIEU

INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL KANE BY TIM ANDERL Michael Kane has always been a committed music fan—in particular, of the Worcester and Boston scene—but it wasn’t until tragedy struck his family that he realized it was time to turn his affinity into his newest musical undertaking. “A few years back, my cousin Jeff passed away,” Kane recalls. “My son, [guitarist

Ryan Kane], and cousin, [drummer] Kevin [Parkhurst], decided to record a few tunes. Jeff had always been a fixture in all of our bands, so it was very cathartic. It was something we needed to do.”

Exploding into a thousand shards of awesomeness at the unlikely nexus of heavy metal, post-punk, protest rock, and traditional rhythm and blues, Germany’s Black Salvation are not playing by conventional rules—especially considering the DIY way they recorded their new album, Uncertainty Is Bliss, out via Relapse Records on April 6.

space-outs. “When we started playing, the German underground scene was alive— and it still is,” Schlesier observes. “Where we live, it’s quite common to have music shows every day of the week, and people go and are always craving new bands. That’s probably the reason why we felt the urge to make music.”

“Most of the songs were written by me and bassist Birger Schwidop during the year before the recording, and when [drummer] Uno [Bruniusson] joined, we finalized them,” vocalist and guitarist Paul Schlesier says. “Afterwards, we borrowed a tape machine and recorded the basic tracks live in a rehearsal room and overdubbed vocals and extras. In the end, it turned out how we wanted it. It sounds rough and free.”

Formed by Schlesier in Leipzig, Saxony, in 2009, Black Salvation’s early years pivoted on jamming gritty dirges—à la Electric Wizard—and elongated, repetition-based

ANGER MAKES ME A MODERN GIRL- EXMAID

“Around the same time, I hired Franklin Siplas—my would-be guitar player—to

fix the neck on Jeff’s old [Gibson] SG,” he adds. “We started talking, he dug the tunes and mentioned that if I ever wanted to give it a go, to let him know. I decided to go all-in and pour everything I had into it. I hope people dig it and can relate to it.”

State Line Records released Michael Kane & The Morning Afters’ latest 7”, Laughing At the Shape I’m In, just before they hit the road with Jukebox Romantics.

Although the band project a devil-maycare, chip-on-the-shoulder, punk-infused rock vibe, the lyrics exhibit an everyman honesty that is relatable, authentic, and endearing. In particular, the record’s lead track, “Old Men Die in New Suits,” exhibits these qualities in spades. “It is [autobiographical],” Kane admits. “My dad passed away. Him and I never hit it off. I was always very intimidated by him.

It just never worked. When he suddenly got sick, I saw him as someone different.

He was fragile, he was scared—he raised a family and did the best he could. Then, he died after just two weeks after diagnosis.

We never smoothed anything over.”

Despite his tumultuous relationship with his father, Kane continues to find comrades and a familial spirit in the music community. For those who happen to purchase the 7” at a live date, there may be a surprise in store: Kane included thank you notes in each of the records. “I felt it was very important,” Kane confesses. “I wanted to thank every single person who paid their money and gave our record a chance. It really meant a lot to us. So, writing out a stack of notes seemed like a cool idea. I wanted to make it as personal as I could.”

RADICAL, ROUGH, AND FREE- BLACK SALVATION

PHOTO: BENEDIKT EIDEN

Their tumultuous, pensive, rebellious, noisy, and perfectly imprecise hard rock tunes are inspired by a lot of elements.

“Basically everything,” Schlesier laughs.

“We get inspiration from our everyday experiences and surely also from a lot of great music from all eras. Our music is definitely part of living in this society.”

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST PAUL SCHLESIER BY MARIKA ZORZI

Being a musician in Europe isn’t easy, though. “It takes a lot of passion and hard work, especially when you want to make a living out of it,” he admits. “Sometimes, we have felt judged. Some people with a mindset that’s different from ours try to measure the worth of a band’s work by the money you

make with it. For us, that’s not the point.”

For Black Salvation, the music they play together is a powerful tool. “The music scene is wide and uncontrollable, and it has all the ingredients it needs. It can even change the actual society—or, at least, people’s minds,” Schlesier continues.

“Maybe not in the same way it did in the ‘60s, but it can still totally shape our beings.

We want to be part of this change, playing as many shows as possible and releasing more of our music.”

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We often romanticize the past and what could have been and dwell on the negativity of change before acknowledging its merits.

Bogues sifts through this emotional terrain on his sophomore release, Life, Slowly, selfreleased on March 2.

In the last couple years, Nashville local AJ Gruenewald has used Bogues as an alter ego, using storytelling and evocative metaphors to bring life to the project. “Bogues came to be as a sort of entity separate from myself, like a concept work,” he says. “It also doubles as my drunk Northeastern alter ego.” In some ways, Gruenewald and Bogues work together to tell each other’s stories.

In 2016, Bogues released Mulligan, a brief introduction to his emotional, poetic writing style. His use of metaphor and imagery brought life to his storytelling. “I’ve always loved the way lyrics create this shared experience between the writer and the listener,” Gruenewald explains. “I almost feel like I can’t get to the center of [some]

songs without doing some digging, and that’s something I’d like people to do with my stuff if they’re interested enough.”

Life, Slowly, showcases Bogues’ musical growth. Every note and every line feels deliberate and calculated, lending itself to creating the bigger picture. Though Life, Slowly is a collection of personal feelings and experiences, Gruenewald makes sure the songs tell the story of Bogues. “It being its own story sort of allows me some detachment from the events so that I can write about some stuff that hits home for me without confronting it head-on,” he says.

Outside of his busy tour schedule, Gruenewald also works as a booking assistant with No Sleep Records, a booking agent with It’s All Good Booking, and a talent buyer for Nashville’s Fountainhead Booking. He is constantly working, balancing different levels of stress and anxiety, but he understands it’s just a part of the job. “They both have their drawbacks,” he explains. “I sacrifice time

DON’T FEAR THE CEPHALOPOD- THE OCTOPUS

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST J FREZZATO BY THOMAS PIZZOLA Detroit proto-metal marauders The Octopus play a wicked style of fuzzed-out riff rock that draws blood. Formed by guitarist J Frezzato and vocalist Masha Marjieh, the band honor the musical legacy of their hometown—think The Stooges and MC5—on their debut album, Supernatural

Alliance, which drops March 30 through Rise Above Records.

Strife and World Be Free guitarist and WAR Records boss Andrew Kline grabs the mic to vent some straight edge angst in his new Los Angeles hardcore project, Berthold City. Three tracks on their 2017 Moment of Truth demo quickly created a heated buzz, and on March 30, WAR Records will give fans the Moment of Truth EP, which includes the songs from the demo and three new tracks. This EP delivers a crushing sound and an energetic spirit. Loud riffs and tight playing push a live melee feel akin to Judge, Chain Of Strength, and Bold.

To record and mix the EP, Kline went to his friend Aaron Jamili at Wormhole Studios in Santa Clarita, California—but for this New York hardcore homage, there was only one true mecca. “We had the record mastered by the legendary Don Fury at his studio in upstate New York,” Kline says. “I always wanted to record with Don Fury, as he is responsible for recording some of the most classic hardcore records of all time.”

Kline had the vision and started Berthold City by utilizing songs he had written that weren’t Strife material. “[The songs] were more youth crew-inspired and a bit of a different style than either of my other bands,” he states. After knocking out the demo with drummer Adam Galindo, the duo quickly engaged guitarists Dennis McDonald and Devin Vale and bassist John Eightclip.

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The Octopus have an interesting story concerning how they got their band name. “I had a series of dreams about a group of former U.S. and Russian military

In the live arena, Berthold City were anxious to get kids moving and did so in stellar fashion. “Our first show was at Programme [Skate & Sound] in Fullerton, [California], with The Decline, Drug Control, and Dare,” Kline says. “Programme has done so much for the Southern California hardcore scene in the last few years, so I feel like it was a perfect place to play our first show.” Garnering respect from his 30 years of duty in L.A. hardcore, Berthold City also booked some sick tours to share their killer tunes. “We are playing United Blood Fest in Richmond, [Virginia], and

SONIC VESSEL FOR EMOTIONAL TRUTH - BOGUES PHOTO: NICK ZIMMER

INTERVIEW WITH AJ GRUENEWALD BY YONG LOS with important people in my life to tour, and I sacrifice my stability.”

At the end of the day, Gruenewald is determined to find a balance between music and the business. While it isn’t the easiest career path, it provides him with the freedom to be surrounded by people he admires and

operatives traveling the globe in a steel octopus, which was a submarine and a space ship,” Frezzato says. “It really troubled me.”

“Then, right around that time, I ran into this girl I hadn’t seen since high school,” he continues. “She told me this long dream she had, where her and I had gone into Susan Sarandon’s basement, because Susan Sarandon wanted to show us something. She took us into this cavernous basement room, and Susan Sarandon had a giant octopus hanging from these chains in her basement over a vast reservoir of water, like an underground lake.”

“Then, the next day I went to this bookstore, and there was a book on the shelf called ‘The Octopus,’ by Jim Keith,” Frezzato says. “I bought it, took it home, and read it, and it scared the hell out of me. I’ve got an octopus phobia, I should tell you. Meanwhile, I was putting this

work with a music scene to which he feels indebted. “These people have helped me grow as a musician and as a person,” he smiles. “The scene has given me something to work toward and helped reawaken direction and motivation in my life.”

band together with Masha, and she was like, ‘What do we call it?’ And I said, ‘How about Octopus?’ She went for it.”

Even though the band are from Detroit, they don’t make a big deal about it. “I remember when being from Detroit was a real death sentence for a band,” Frezzato says. “Then, it became a sales thing: ‘Hey, everybody! We’re from Detroit! We sound like the other bands from Detroit!’

And then it was a thing people wanted to counter-promote: ‘We’re from Detroit, but we don’t sound like any of the other Detroit bands!’ There’s just so many layers of jive going on, none of which has a goddamn thing to do with what a band sounds like or whether or not what they’re doing is powerful or has ideas behind it or is sonically appealing.”

“I’m a grumpy guy,” he notes. “I guess that’s a long way of saying, ‘I don’t really care.’”

POPULATION: L.A. HXC LEGENDS- BERTHOLD CITY PHOTO: DAN PATRICK

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST ANDREW KLINE BY HUTCH we are doing a short East Coast run with Kill Your Idols and Fireburn to support the release,” he says.

Striking while the iron is hot, Kline is charging forward. “We have already started recording some new material,” he re-

veals, “so, hopefully, we will have another release out by the end of the year. Aside from that, we just want to play as much as we can.”

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LIGHT THE TORCH “Having trouble leaving the replay button alone.”

“HoJo is a powerhouse... sounds killer.”

These are just a couple of the comments found below the YouTube video for “Die Alone” from Light The Torch. “Dia Alone” is the first track off of their upcoming album, Revival, set for release on March 30 via Nuclear Blast.

Formerly named Devil You Know, Light The Torch are a supergroup of metalcore musicians: former All Shall Perish guitarist Francesco Artusato, bassist Ryan Wombacher from Bleeding Through, and drummer Mike Sciulara of Extinction A.D., with powerhouse vocalist Howard Jones—formerly of Killswitch Engage and Blood Has Been Shed—at the helm.

Devil You Know doled out two albums before their name change—2014’s The Beauty of

Destruction and 2015’s They Bleed Red—but Light The Torch’s Revival is a work representing the band’s personal and musical trials, which began with several lineup changes in 2016. “This is all a pretty self-motivated album. We’ve been through a lot of stuff,” Jones reveals. “With Devil You Know, we were cranking out a lot of material. Then, with the member issues, we basically got stuck. We were in purgatory.”

These member issues were compounded by legal issues regarding the band’s use of their original name, as well as Jones’ personal struggle to cope with the loss of his eldest brother, but the band were determined to keep moving forward. The need to purge themselves of the past prompted them to pour it all into Revival’s 12 anthemic new songs—all before they even had a new name and without the knowledge of their management and label. “We had a lot happen, and a lot of work, effort, and emotion went into

ZEKE We search for wisdom and inspiration the world over, often looking in the wrong places or not noticing when the answers are right in front of our damn faces. For long-running legendary Seattle thrash punk hellions ZEKE, the road to their own personal revival—after a 14-year drought since their last full-length— was paved with lessons learned, new bridges built, and a little help from an unexpected critic.

Hellbender—out via Relapse Records on March 30—is vocalist and lead guitarist “Blind” Marky Felchtone’s love letter to classic rock, driving fast on the open road, and freedom. It’s the type of brash and bold punk ‘n’ roll that begs to be played loud and refuses to slow down.

It also nearly didn’t happen—while Felchtone spent 2016 helping to build the Seattle light rail, ZEKE’s lineup fell apart, forcing him to bring in a whole new crew for Hellbender— and it certainly wasn’t as classically ZEKE in its earliest incarnation. The record is filled to the brim with fist-pumping, adrenaline-laced anthems—but it wasn’t supposed to be. “It was actually supposed to be an album called Thunder in the Ozarks,” Felchtone explains.

“It was actually a really slow, heavy album.

One of the songs on the album was seven minutes long, if you can imagine a seven-minute ZEKE song,” he laughs.

However, something changed when the new band came together to make Thunder in the Ozarks. “When we got back to the studio to

16

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST HOWARD JONES BY TIFFANY MITCHELL the album,” Jones shares. “And now, here we are.”

“Work on the content, and everything else will fall into place,” he assures. “It’s just a name.”

Here they are: Light The Torch.

With the shadows of 2016’s misfortunes providing the fuel to rise above, Jones offers advice for others who may be wrestling with uncertainty over their own band’s identity.

From out of the dark and into the light, each track on Revival can stand alone. Heard in its entirety, a timeless creation becomes a tale of hard truths and heralding triumphs told by all hearts involved.

PHOTO: NACOLE COLFELT

record, I just realized, ‘I don’t want to do this; I just want to do a really fast, hardcore record,’” Felchtone recalls. “I played a couple of riffs, and one thing leads to another, and we wrote this entire album in two weeks. We went in and recorded half of it, went off and did a tour in Europe, and came back and recorded the second half of the album. We then went and toured the States.”

“When I say that we rewrote the album,” he elaborates, “we dropped every single song that was supposed to be on Thunder in the Ozarks. That’s why we named it Hellbender, because we just went in, shelved every single one of those riffs, and we just wrote a completely new album.”

Felchtone is quite appreciative that his new band members went along for the ride. “You can imagine that I had 11 ZEKE songs written,” he notes, “all of them extremely long for ZEKE songs. I went in and showed them to these guys, and then, I pulled the rug out from under them and said, ‘Nope, we’re gonna write 15 brand new songs. We have less than a month to do that before we go on tour, and we’ll finish the record after the tour.’

They were shocked. I just had the idea that was what we needed to do.”

Just what gave Felchtone the idea that going on a Hellbender was the right thing to do? In short, his 14-year-old daughter. “We were listening to some of the tracks that were going to be on Thunder of the Ozarks, and I asked

INTERVIEW WITH "BLIND" MARKY FELCHTONE BY NICHOLAS SENIOR her what she thought of them, because my kid listens to all kinds of stuff: Black Sabbath, AC/DC, and Judas Priest,” he shares. “So, we’re listening to it, and she said, ‘Oh, you know, dad, I really think that what you need to do is just write some really fast stuff for this record. Keep that, but do some fast stuff too.’ I was thinking in my head, ‘Why am I listening to a 14-year-old kid? What does she know? I’m the artist! I’ll do what I feel like doing!’” he laughs.

“When we were rehearsing, I just came to a point where I realized she was right,” Felchtone continues, “we should just do a really fast hardcore record. It did turn out to be the best idea, I think. That’s when the energy materialized and some real power was evident in what we were doing. I have her to thank for that, that’s for sure.”

Sometimes you need the wisdom of kids, right? He laughs, “I guess, man. I was so blown away that she talked to me that way about my band—but hey, you know what?

Sometimes, kids know better than anybody.

I’ve really found out that listening to kids is not a bad idea in many situations.”

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SPANISH LOVE SONGS When was the last time a song really meant something to you? A song that could make you cry while still dancing in your bedroom to it? The new record from Spanish Love Songs does just that and is sure to satisfy anyone constantly chasing lyric sheets and snatching after bands who have weight and meaning to their music. The songs are sad, lovely, and, more importantly, they’re honest.

Having recently expanded to a five-piece with the addition of keyboardist Meredith Van Woert, the Los Angeles band are set to release their second full-length, Schmaltz, March 30 on A-F Records, and it sounds fuller than anything they’ve done in the past. “I’m constantly writing songs and hearing where different instruments could fill out the sound,” vocalist and guitarist Dylan Slocum explains. “It has allowed us to drop in a bunch of fun layers without throwing a wall of guitars at people. I think it gave us the leeway to take some risks as well, such as the album opener, ‘Nuevo,’ which was originally written for guitar and, then, switched to an organ in the studio.”

Schmaltz is like the audio version of an actual heart breaking. “I was in a pretty bleak place when I wrote a lot of these songs,” Slocum reveals. “Writing them didn’t necessarily bring me out of it, but it did allow me to process some things that I might have otherwise avoided.” Moreover,

PHOTO: ALAN SNODGRASS

he says that he tends to compartmentalize things, which makes it much easier to make art about his feelings.

When asked about his experiences performing such sad songs live, Slocum admits that it was difficult at first. “Each time I played a song about my divorce or something, I would just get bummed out,” he says, “but I think we’ve been doing this long enough now that I’m able to detach a little.” Though he still gets caught in the moment, he says it’s hard to be upset when he’s getting to do what he loves.

Thus far, the reception for the new tracks has been a positive one—in particular, for “The Boy Considers His Haircut.” Slocum shares that “people seem to really dig that song and love shouting about Nazis stealing my hairstyle.”

Of late, Spanish Love Songs have been getting more and more comparisons to The Menzingers, and Slocum responds that he “thinks it’s accurate in that we’re pulling from the same musical pool [or] genre, writing about similar experiences, roughly the same age, and Greg [Barnett] and I apparently learned to sing by listening to the same people.” He goes on to say that every song he writes is another “attempt at figuring out how to be Bruce Springsteen,” but adds that the band’s “guiding force was to make something as cool and meaningful

I N T E R V I E W W I T H VO CA L I ST / G U I TA R I ST DY L A N S L O C U M BY K AY L A G R E E T to us as some of our favorite records—the National’s High Violet, for example—but with our own style of songs. I think we came close to accomplishing that.”

A recent song that struck a chord with Slocum is Jeff Rosenstock’s “Melba” from his recent LP release, POST-. Slocum says the song’s second verse “just got to me for some reason.” Moments like that are exactly why Spanish Love Songs just get to others on that same emotional level.

For example, “Otis/Carl” is about Slocum’s departed grandfather and his love for Otis Redding. “It felt right to connect the two,” he admits, “since the memories of geeking out over the music—or the fact that I named my ‘78 Les Paul ‘Otis’—those will be the ones that stick with me.”

NyQuil (Hold It Together),’ I would feel completely understood,” he jokes.

After the release of Schmaltz at the end of March, Spanish Love Songs will embark on a six-week tour through North America and Europe in April and May.

“Now—if someone cried during ‘Beer &

H I D E Loud, beating drums and vibrating elec-

ic sound and Gabel’s powerful and haunting

tronic melodies fill the air as “Fall Down,” the first song on HIDE’s debut full-length album, Castration Anxiety, plays.

vocals.

It’s no surprise that this album packs a punch that will give listeners goosebumps and make them beg for more, as this release has been long awaited by fans. The duo behind HIDE—visual artist Heather Gabel and percussionist Seth Sher—have teased songs from the album while on tour, but the March 23 DAIS Records release will contain everything they’ve performed and more.

“We are really excited for it to be out in the world after working on it for a couple years,” Gabel says. “We are, first and foremost, doing this for ourselves. It’s affirming and feels good when there’s an audience experiencing a connection with the work, but we aren’t really concerned with how it will be received.”

Castration Anxiety has a provocative tone that is sure to confuse yet expand the minds of listeners with its post-industrial electron-

18

“‘Fall Down’ made the most sense to us as an opening track for the album’s pacing, as well as in terms of a feeling,” Gabel shares. “This track is about recognizing that there is an endless amount of horrific realities to confront throughout one’s life [and] choosing to accept the way that makes you feel, letting it fuck you up, instead of trying to ignore or create distractions as coping mechanisms.”

HIDE plan to spend the rest of the year touring—first finishing their run with labelmates ADULT through late March, then performing in their home base of Chicago for their record release show on March 23, and finally, taking on a full U.S. tour beginning on April 4 in St. Louis, Missouri, and wrapping up on May 9 in Milwaukee. HIDE see this opportunity to showcase their music as a release from what’s going on in the world.

“Our work is a response to the various types of abuses of power we see around the world,”

INTERVIEW WITH HEATHER GABEL BY NATALEE COLOMAN Gabel admits. “We have a song on the album about the Earth destroying the human race via forces of nature. Another track is a revenge fantasy about stalking, luring, and, ultimately, killing a rapist in the woods.”

Gabel mentions that HIDE are working nonstop, planning more tours through Europe, Mexico, and Canada and writing and producing more material. She adds that the band have even made several short films and art and sound installations.

“I am using this project as a way to process

things I cannot accept,” she explains, “using the band as a conduit for channeling my grief, sorrow, anger into something I can physically exorcise.”

Although it has taken a few years for Castration Anxiety to finally make its debut, the album is beautifully pieced together, creating its own narrative through an almost impossible-to-categorize genre.

THE PENSKE FILE It’s quite comical for a band who clearly know what they’re doing to name themselves after a classic story from The Show About Nothing: “Seinfeld.”

Burlington, Ontario, natives The Penske File abso-damn-lutely nail their own personal crusade to become the next great folk punk band with their latest release, Salvation, out April 6 via Stomp Records. The band’s folk elements—love those harmonica solos!—give the record a rather punchy, timeless feel, like these 20-something Canadians are speaking poignant truths through their meaty pop punk ditties.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Salvation is also chock-full of energy, enthusiasm, and riffs. This is no sappy listening assignment.

It’s that rare record that gets your hips shaking, your head bobbing, and your heart feeling—without ever coming across as a collection of empty platitudes.

Lead vocalist, guitarist, and harmonica player Travis Miles notes that the group’s extra emphasis on the craft of songwriting helped the new album become “Penske material.” “Perhaps it’s a cliché,” he admits, “but I’d say we just wanted to make the best and most honest record we could possibly make. We had so many songs kicking around while writing the album—like, too many dang songs, which is perhaps a good thing.”

“I’ve always been very focused on songwriting

PHOTO: PAUL SILVER

as a craft, perhaps more than actually being a competent musician,” he laughs, “but this time, I think we really dug in as a collective to the actual songwriting more than ever before. Everyone was very present and very critical, and it was a ton of fun. At the end of the day, I think the main goal was to create a cohesive sonic and thematic collection of songs that sound good enough to provide the listener a sort of escape but also contain enough substance to encourage a thoughtful reflection on life, death, and the meaningless glory of it all.”

The Penske File label their brand “Canadiana punk rock”—which calls to mind a person in a Maple Leafs toque and overalls, with a case of Molson, sitting on the porch in their favorite chair—but the band’s form of salvation doesn’t involve religion, hockey, or beer— or, at least, it doesn’t have to. Salvation is gloriously adorned with songs that are about decisions and moments in time and place— people meeting, American basements, and the choice to continue on.

“To me, this record is a lot about letting go, holding on, and finding some personal and communal solace in these weird lives we lead as humans,” Miles explains. “I wanted to talk about uncertainties of life, as well as the certainty of death, and how those things interact with each other. I wanted to explore the thought of personal lives and their universal insignificance—looking at things through a lens that suggests you can spend

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST TRAVIS MILES BY NICHOLAS SENIOR your whole life working on some grandiose mural, but all you are really doing is spilling paint, so you may as well enjoy yourself and embrace the mess.”

to the journey toward personal freedom that we experience—often through the band and explored a lot in the lyrical concepts of the record—and use the image as the cover.”

Doing just that, Miles laughs and notes that happy accidents often occur, even if they’re as simple as having a friend inadvertently create the perfect album cover. “I came across a photo a friend of ours, Kyle Fisher, took,” he recalls, “and in the photo, there was a beaten up but vibrantly painted car in the desert that had the word ‘Salvation’ painted across the passenger-side door.”

“Seeing the word written in the context of how I perceived the photo, for whatever reason, clicked for me, and it seemed like the answer to our conundrum,” he shares.

“We could call the album Salvation, a nod

THY ANTICHRIST Five years in the making, the new record by THY ANTICHRIST, Wrath of the Beast— released Feb. 23 via Napalm Records—is just as much about letting loose and having fun as it is about keeping things satanic and grim.

That may seem like a funny sentiment coming from a band with a name like THY ANTICHRIST—or from a vocalist whose stage name is Antichrist 666—but for someone who has been working as long and hard as he has, Andrés Vargas thinks it’s about damn time to have some fun.

“We are more than black metallers, we are metalheads,” Vargas says proudly, “lovers of the old-school metal and the rock ‘n’ roll classic bands. I wanted to create an album that contains those influences—like a journey through different metal genres with tracks we can enjoy listening to. In this Wrath of the Beast album, you can find some heavy metal, thrash metal, death metal, and, of course, black metal riffs.”

THY ANTICHRIST originally formed in Medellín, Antioquia, Colombia, in 1998.

After the original lineup disbanded, Vargas relocated to Dallas, Texas, in 2011 and reformed the band with an all-new lineup but

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the same essential mission: to play heavy, aggressive black metal and have fun doing it.

“We spent around five years making this album,” he says of the new record. “We worked all this process with patience and no rush, because I wanted to make an album that can be unique for the band, an album that we can enjoy listening to over and over and giving this experience to the fans.

We also had several difficulties throughout that time, like replacing our drummer.”

“I’m very satisfied with this album,” he adds.

“It has all the musical elements I was looking for, also the sound quality, the lyrics, the artwork, and all the pieces that came together to finally make Wrath of the Beast.”

This release comes 14 years after the band’s first—and only other—full-length, Wicked Testimonies, and with a whole new lineup in place, there are bound to be a few changes in THY ANTICHRIST’s sound.

“The new record keeps the essence of my inspiration as a truly devoted metalhead and the essence of the band’s philosophy as well,” Vargas explains. “On Wrath of the Beast, you can find a more mature sound in all aspects.”

INTE R V IE W W ITH A NDR É S “A NTICHR IST 6 6 6 ” VA R GAS BY A DDISON HE R RON-WHEEL ER Vargas comes from a time when metal was different and from a region where access to music was limited. He appreciates the art form’s former heyday, but he also loves the fact that he now finds himself in a time and place that make it easier to share and find out about music. He is ready to use the new tools at his disposal to reboot the career of a band who started 20 years ago.

Be on the lookout for tour dates and new music now that THY ANTICHRIST are back in action.

CRAIG WEDREN Even in his earliest days fronting the conceptual D.C. post-punk outfit Shudder To Think, Craig Wedren fostered a love for both music and film—but bringing the two sides of his artistic persona together hasn’t always been easy.

“Shudder To Think was very frustrated in the ‘90s, because we were trying to expand into film scoring,” says Wedren, who since the band’s disbandment has built a career as an in-demand film score composer. “We wanted to do both, but at the time, it didn’t really make sense, because everything was so siloed. Our record company was like, ‘Well, what are you? Are you a band? Are you composers? What is this?’”

However, in today’s rapidly changing technological landscape, Wedren has found a way to indulge his love of music and film without compartmentalizing the two. With no bandmates or labels to make concessions to, his fourth solo record, Adult Desire, is a testament to that freedom. Released in December of 2017 via his own imprint, Tough Lover, and Dischord Records, the pop art project merges experimental songwriting and 360-degree panoramic video.

Wedren calls Adult Desire an act of rebellion against the deadlines and heavy scheduling that dictates his film scoring work, which has included music for such films as “School of Rock” and the summer camp sendup “Wet Hot American

Summer.” “I got so busy for a while that I realized I wasn’t privileging my own music as much as felt healthy,” he says. “I just started blocking out time to work on whatever I felt like working on.”

The record’s 14 songs include some that grew out of reworked ideas from previous film projects and others written specifically for the record. The end result is a record without walls, a sonic safe space where acoustic guitars, synthesizers, keyboards, and other playful effects all live together in strange, experimental harmony. “It was a total sonic sandbox,” Wedren says. “There were all these new synths and sounds and plugins that I just wanted to explore. In a way, it’s kind of like Bowie stuff, like, ‘What does this thing do?’”

so much visual assault that happens every day, I wanted to quietly but seductively bring people back to the music.”

But Adult Desire’s disregard for genre tags is only half the fun. The Adult Desire 360 mobile app—which is free to download— features randomized slice-of-life video clips shot on a 360-degree panoramic camera that accompany the record’s songs.

All shot by Wedren in and around his L.A. home, there are clips of his cactus garden, of his family sharing meals, and of his son brushing his teeth, among others. Fans also have the option to purchase a set of virtual reality goggles to further enhance the effect. “For me, it was about: ‘How do we get people to listen deeply to this music?’— because there’s so much music around us, so much noise and static,” he says. “There’s

Wedren has flirted with panoramic video in the past. He wrote a feature film around his last solo record, 2011’s WAND, but apart from a few music videos, the film never materialized. “There were only three people on the North American continent that even had the [360] gear,” he recalls.

But as 360 technology has become more normalized in the years since, Wedren saw the opportunity to give the idea another shot. He developed the Adult Desire app with the help of Battery drummer and composer Jacob Richards. “We really just bushwhacked our way through,” the vocalist says. “While it’s always been about music and image for me, it’s sometimes a

NEW HEART New Heart are a self-described Midwest youth crew band who formed in 2013 in Indianapolis, Indiana. They take their inspiration from the ‘80s and legacy bands like Ten Yard Fight and Youth Of Today.

The straight edge hardcore band recently added a new vocalist to their lineup, Hayden French. “I’ve been with the band for about six months now,” French says. So far, things are going great. “We’re playing Hardcore For Hardcore [Fest] in Tampa [on] April [27 and 28], and we have a summer tour coming up as well,” he shares.

The band are in the planning process for their summer run now.

Beyond touring, New Heart’s immediate plans include a new full-length, Feel the Change, set for release through Blood & Ink Records on May 4. “Right now, we’re just waiting for this record to come out,” French confirms. The album’s first single, “One Less Chain,” was released in November of 2017 to much critical acclaim.

However, it’s not only critics who are praising New Heart’s efforts. “We just did a short tour with Headrush from Ohio,” French says. The reception has been great, he adds, “specifically on the last tour. We

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PHOTO: JARET FERRATUSCO

I N T E R V I E W B Y R YA N B R AY bullseye and, other times, a little off mic, where it’s close but not quite it. So, Adult Desire and the app, for me right now, just feels like a bullseye.”

PHOTO: KYLE BERGFORS

played in Roanoke, Virginia, and the show was just awesome. There were tons of kids there, people knew our songs. It was awesome.”

Being a straight edge band is really important to New Heart. “It’s cool, because we’re getting to continue on a legacy that started way before we were even into hardcore,” French says. “It seems like there aren’t very many youth crew bands still doing stuff. It’s fun to kind of continue to push that.” Ever since Youth Of Today helped found the subculture in 1985, “bands have been trying to capture that same thing,” according to French.

“I love a lot of bands from the ‘80s,” he adds. “Specifically, New Heart, we really like Youth Of Today and Judge and Gorilla Biscuits—a lot of those classic bands, classic youth crew bands.” Of Gorilla Biscuits’ 1989 record, Start Today, French says, “Oh man, it’s really influential. That’s one of the first hardcore records I got to sit down and really listen to. I love that record so much.”

French is grateful to be in New Heart. In a statement released by Blood & Ink, the new vocalist said that “being a band focused on positivity, belief, and social change is a

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST HAYDEN FRENCH BY JOSHUA MARANHAS privilege. I’m grateful for the opportunity and ecstatic for what we have coming up in the future.”

In that same release, the rest of the band added, “Hayden has given us a renewed passion for what we do and why we do it.

We feel like he is the absolute best fit for this band, and we couldn’t be more excited for the new direction we’re headed.”

Check out New Heart’s single, “One Less Chain,” now, and make sure to grab Feel the Change from Blood & Ink Records on May 4.

HOUSEHOLD The choice to pivot musical styles is one of the scariest decisions a band can make. This is especially true for bands in hardcore, a genre that doesn’t always have the most forgiving fans. But in 2015, Household made that pivot—primarily out of necessity.

Just as they were starting to make a name for themselves in the Midwest hardcore scene and beyond, Household lead vocalist Joshua Gilbert discovered that he had vocal nodes in his throat. The health condition meant he could cause permanent damage to his vocal cords if he continued screaming, which forced the band to head in a completely different musical direction. “I think we would have always been a hardcore or metal band,” Gilbert says. “We definitely were excited about that. But only because of the vocal nodes did we have to change.”

The result of that change can now be heard on their second full-length album, Everything a River Should Be, released Feb. 23 on Equal Vision Records.

Though it ultimately resulted in something positive, change is never easy, especially when it is beyond one’s control. Gilbert admits that the shift away from hardcore and into a rock sound was challenging in the beginning. “It was really tough at first with the transition,” he says, “just having our sound, having our demographic, and

PHOTO: TREVOR SWEENEY

then, having to adjust it only because of a health issue.”

Household had already built up a fan base in the hardcore scene, having released their debut EP, With or Without, in 2014 and first full-length, Time Spent, the following year, both through Blood & Ink Records. It was uncomfortable to speculate whether or not the fans would be accepting of the more melodic direction. “I was so insecure,” Gilbert says, “worrying about how people who had listened to me scream these words and, now, try to sing them, what the perception would be. There was definitely a lot of anxiety with that.”

Not all of their fans rushed to embrace the new music. “Some people asked me if I was a different vocalist, ‘cause I cut my hair at the same time—which was maybe a bad idea—but there’s a lot of misunderstanding with fans, where they didn’t really get why we were doing that,” Gilbert says of the musical transition. “Even with the release today, I’ve gotten some comments about, ‘Why don’t you scream like you used to?’ I don’t think people understand that it was something we were forced out of. I literally can’t do what I used to do.”

On the other hand, rock has a bigger audience than aggressive music, and the change may have helped Household build a wider audience, even if they lost a few followers in the process. “Of course, there

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST JOSHUA GILBERT BY JOHN SILVA are some people who want to listen to a heavier version of us or are just still into hardcore, which is totally cool,” Gilbert says, “but I think we’ve also gained quite a few fans who are excited about the new sound.”

in the past, and this one feels very true to where we are as a band and where I’m at personally.”

Gilbert says Everything a River Should Be continues in the more melodic rock direction they’ve embraced over the past two years and that it is more lyrically proficient than their previous releases.

“It’s a rock record. It’s about some really personal relational issues that I’ve had with different friends and family,” he explains.

“I think it’s the most introspective and vulnerable that we’ve gone lyrically, and I’m excited for the evolution of where our lyrics have come to. We’ve definitely had different sounds and different positions

DROWSE From the sky drop waves of life, splashing your brow and mixing into pools of eternity. You will melt eventually—we all will.

Drowse—the mostly-solo project of Portland, Oregon-based musician and artist Kyle Bates—seems to shimmer in said waves. The music’s airy movements trickle down through you in shivers and flecks, a lo-fi tremor of brain dust.

Cold Air—released on March 9 via The Flenser—is Bates’ most intimate work yet: a look directly inside the soul of a temporary and feeling lifeform. “Cold Air is the most vulnerable project I have created because of one key condition,” Bates notes. “A majority of the album is written from the perspective of direct experience rather than a point of reflection.

The record is honest in addressing ongoing struggles and unanswered questions: self-medicating with alcohol in order to be open to other people, over-medicating with Klonopin to destroy ruminating death thoughts—‘What does it mean to be bipolar? Why is there so much fear inside of me? Can I lose myself in another person?’”

Bates’ new work is certainly laden with depth, but the honesty and intimacy of it break down the dark tunnels and allow one to experience it in real-time—a re-

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markable feat considering the chance he took to express his inner self. “Releasing it into the world fills me with anxiety,” he says. “It is equally scary talking about it here. However, it is personally meaningful to release this record. Hiding from fear doesn’t make it disappear, the fear only grows stronger.”

He’s right. And Cold Air has a steely light that is powerful and daring. The record swoons and breaks with experimentalism and free rock; sounds ping and blend with washes of bedroom noise, creating the exact space—physically and mentally— Bates performed in.

The artist has been open about his struggles with mental health. “Big stressful events happened in my life while I made Cold Air,” he explains, “and some of my old mental health symptoms reemerged.

I couldn’t sleep and would ruminate on negativity constantly. I stopped taking care of myself. Bottles upon bottles of wine were drunk while writing and recording. Mixes were done late at night under the influence of heavy drugs. I was fucked up physically and emotionally, and music was streaming out of me. It’s a messy record—an outpouring of sonic anxiety.”

Drowse’s new record feels like that trip.

INTERVIEW WITH KYLE BATES BY CHRISTOPHER J. HARRINGTON It’s a movement in time and a capsule filled with a soul, and there’s much hope in there. Throw it into the sky and watch it fly into the outer universe. The stars, sun, moon, and beyond: all life is one, all life is eternally recreating. Bates opened up with this record, and the results are moving.

“Cold Air is the closest I have come to glimpsing and representing my true self through music,” Bates concludes. “I have yet to work harder on a project in my life.

I still love the record; I’ve created something I would want to hear. It fills me with pride and meaning.”

HUB CITY STOMPERS Formed in 2002 and with six full-length albums to their credit, New Jersey’s Hub City Stompers have made a worldwide mark on the ska, Oi!, and hardcore scenes. As their legions of fans await the April 20 release of their seventh full-length, Haters Dozen, vocalist Reverend T. Sinister offers the scoop on the past, present, and future of this skankin’ fun band.

“We’re very excited about releasing Haters Dozen,” he says, “because we were able to maintain the distinct style and edge that Hub City Stompers is known for and still expand on the range and diversity of styles and influences so that there’s a broad range of sounds, ranging from hard two-tone stompers to more melodic [and] trad tunes to ska punk and ska-core jams and reggae. And it’s all peppered with that Hub City Stompers irony, sarcasm, and humor that our fans love. There’s also a few special guest friends and fam making appearances on the album.”

Of the music scene in which the band reside, Sinister admits, “It’s hard to say if there’s going to be another definitive ‘ska revival’ anytime in the near future. The typical cycles of U.S. underground music would certainly dictate [and] indicate that one is due, but who knows if there will be. Though, I don’t think there’s a point in labeling it as any particular number of ‘wave’: fourth, fifth, or whatever. Each ‘wave’ of ska has

incorporated different styles, integration, and evolution in music, and the ‘third wave,’ in particular, had such a diverse and broad range of influences and sounds that there’s really not much more that could come along to define a new ‘wave,’ per se.”

Revival or no, Hub City Stompers aren’t going anywhere soon. “Bands remain a force in their respective music scenes as long as they want to,” Sinister says. “Upon the impending demise or hiatus of my former band, Inspecter 7, I was hellbent on keeping the fire going and not stopping, and I still am. As long as I carry that motivation and have a crew [and] family of awesome musicians who have the same end in their hearts and minds, then Hub City Stompers will keep it alive.”

For the release of Haters Dozen, the sixpiece signed to Altercation Records. “Our history with Travis Myers and Altercation has typically been a band [and] promoter relationship,” Sinister explains, “but he’s always been helpful and supportive of—and fair with—Hub City Stompers. And we’ve always respected what he’s done venue, show, and label-wise in the punk and underground music scene. So, expanding that relationship with a record deal certainly seemed a natural and easy fit for us.”

Sinister acknowledges that the music indus-

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST REVEREND T. SINISTER BY KELLY MCGOWAN try has changed over the years, but Hub City Stompers remain dedicated to appealing to both old-school and new-school fans. “The digital age has, no doubt, changed the music industry and will just continue to evolve,” he says. “I’d say it more so affects mainstream music on a larger scale than underground music such as ska, punk, and hardcore, but it has clearly changed the game in the underground scene as well—and who wouldn’t take advantage of the conveniences that are offered these days? That being said, there are plenty of people in our scene who still want the physical album and the live show to make it a complete experience. Hub City Stompers is definitely more of a live band, for sure, but even with our live performance being so dynamic, we still have to document

all this crazy stuff we write and perform onstage, right?”

NIGHT VIPER With all the problems of 2018—the nuances, the political debates, the subgenres—sometimes, it’s refreshing just to rock extra hard.

That’s exactly what Night Viper do.

When asked about the Gothenburg, Sweden-based band’s most recent album, Exterminator—the second pressing of which recently dropped via Listenable Records— guitarist Tom Sutton cites that very reason as why he loves their new music.

“I love the songs,” he explains. “I love the production. I love our performances. Even after hearing it 8,000 times, I still get super pumped listening to it. It’s just all the excitement of heavy metal and the danceability of soul and hard rock in one. Even the artwork turned out special. If I wasn’t in the band, I’d be a big fan of the band and this album.”

It’s not just general positivity that makes Sutton love what he does so much. The album really does rip. Whether or not you are a huge fan of the classic, throwback sound, Exterminator rocks just as hard as actual classic bands and definitely grabs the listener’s attention.

Night Viper also aren’t afraid to tackle hard-hitting social issues, despite the lighthearted rock ‘n’ roll sound of their music.

“I love how [Metallica’s] Kill ‘em All and [Slayer’s] Show No Mercy were both fast and aggressive but also had that rock ‘n’ roll fresh-

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ness left,” Sutton says. “That’s kind of what we do. [Vocalist] Sofie Lee [Johansson] wrote more about personal stories on the [self-titled] first album, but on this new one, there are more comments on wider topics. Here in Sweden, there’s a spotlight being shone on what women face in the hard rock world, and just by coincidence, there are a couple of songs on our new album talking about the same thing, as well as other feminist issues.

It’s turned out to be pretty topical.”

The group naturally draw inspiration from bands with similar female energy, though they make it a point that they don’t intentionally seek out those influences just because of gendered similarities.

“Sofie Lee’s single biggest vocal inspiration is Jinx [Dawson] from Coven,” Sutton admits when asked about the band’s roots. “We love Acid and Heart too. I don’t think we’ve ever felt like having women in the band meant that we had to focus on bands with women as inspiration, but there are a few.”

When it comes to Exterminator, it’s all about the thrash. Not only did the band speed things up from their previous recordings, they have also definitely amped up the energy and pushed themselves musically.

“I guess the two biggest differences are the production and the speed,” Sutton says of the new record. “We had one faster song on the first album, but we have a lot more thrashy stuff on this one. And the production is just

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST TOM SUT TON BY ADDISON HERRON-WHEELER way better than on the first. We recorded the new one with [producer and engineer] Ola Ersfjord in his studio in Madrid. I think it sounds super organic but really punchy too.

Really raw but powerful and exciting.”

“It feels like we had a much clearer idea of what we wanted this time ‘round,” he adds.

“On the first, I remember we were asking for a combination of Entombed’s Uprising and early Judas Priest—which, of course, sound nothing alike. On this one, Ola suggested [Slayer’s] Seasons in the Abyss as a sound reference, and we all went, ‘Yeeeaaah!’”

Night Viper are looking forward to putting out a lot more music in the future and will be announcing tour dates soon. In the mean-

time, check out Exterminator, available now through Listenable Records.

RIVERS OF NIHIL “I think, on this record in particular, we really just cared about writing a chunk of music that could be listened to from front to back as a singular piece,” Rivers Of Nihil guitarist Brody Uttley shares. “At this point, we realize we are never going to be the fastest shredders, most technical band, or most ‘brutal’ sounding act.

However, songwriting has always been something that I feel we have focused on. I think writing a good song is way more important than just about any other thing.”

“Good songwriting transcends genre, time, and audience,” he adds. “A good tune is always going to resonate with people no matter what. That’s what we focus on, and I think we are getting better at it with each album.”

Indeed, Uttley and Rivers Of Nihil are proud of their third studio album, Where Owls Know My Name, out March 16 via Metal Blade Records. He explains, “The album title is referring to the idea of going to a solitary place away from everything and everyone, where the only real connection you have to anything is with the simpler things around you and within you: nature, time, self-reflection, nostalgia, etc.”

While the band offer an array of traditional death metal elements and plenty of devastating instrumentation, they’ve also incorporated numerous

instruments one would not immediately associate with their music. “We brought in a lot of odd stuff on this one, and I couldn’t be more pleased with the final product,” Uttley says. “Saxophones, trumpets, cellos, Mellotrons, Hammond organs, Leslie rotating speakers, Rhodes Mark I pianos, Moog boards, fuzz pedals—and probably a few others that I’m forgetting—were all brought in for the recording process.”

As a result, Where Owls Know My Name offers everything from pure brutal death metal to jazz to electronica to acoustic music. Rivers Of Nihil strive to innovate and evolve throughout their writing process. This approach also coincides with the theme of changing seasons the band use within all their albums. “The reason that we chose to use a seasonal concept on our records is because it makes it very easy to demonstrate the passage of time,” Uttley shares.

He adds that the teamwork involved in crafting the new record was tight and sincerely encouraged everyone to create their best work. “I wrote nine of the 10 songs at my home studio and, then, sent the completed tracks out to the rest of the band, where they would add their tweaks, lyrics, and give me their opinions on if something was lame or overdone,” Uttley explains.

For Uttley, change is a means to keep his

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST BRODY UTTLEY BY MICHAEL PEMENTEL work exciting and allows him to continue creating evocative art. He believes there’s one core concept bands need to strive for if they are to grow. “Risk, without a doubt,” he states. “Too many bands are afraid to make jumps into new territories, because they’re so comfortable with where they are. Any band that throws fear out the window whilst writing is a truly free band—in my opinion, anyway.”

Where Owls Know My Name is an outstanding record that takes the sounds death metal is known for and expands them into fascinating new territories.

Clearly, Uttley understands what it takes to truly innovate and create meaningful art. “Fearlessness,” he asserts, “and a certain sense of awareness that we are all going to be gone one day and any risk

THE SHELL CORPORATION “‘I don’t know, is that going to offend people?’

Uh, that’s the point!” Shell Corporation vocalist Jan “Quixote” Drees states regarding the title of their third LP, Fucked., released March 2 via La Escalera Records in the U.S. and Gunner Records in Europe.

The Shell Corporation have never been shy about expressing their dissatisfaction with the state of things. In the years since their 2011 debut release, Force Majeure, the SoCal quartet have only become louder and more pissed off, because—well, there’s a lot to be pissed off about right now.

They’ve also become exceedingly efficient at expressing these grievances, which have culminated in the form of their new record, Fucked. For those who still have Rock Against Bush Vol. 1 and 2 in their CD wallet and wonder aloud, “Wait. Where are all the bands like this now? We need them more than ever!” rest your weary souls, friends— Shell Corp’s got you.

Wasting no time, the record’s explosive opener, “Kumbaya,” features Drees sounding off as a satirical mouthpiece for news editorial mannequins and comment section warriors who throw around terms like “snowflake” and phrases like “all lives matter.” Without a breath in between, it’s immediately followed by the machine gun drum and guitar intro of “Make It Rain,” the LP’s first single. The track explores the consequences of climate change and the cruel indifference of those causing it,

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we didn’t take is a lost opportunity for something potentially great.”

PHOTO: PAUL SILVER

wrapped up in a nice little double entendre.

Only two songs deep, and yeah, things sound pretty Fucked.

“I mean, it’s not nice talking about depressing things, but these are things that need to get talked about,” Drees states.

“Peace, love, and happiness are things that we should strive for, but things are serious now. Maybe it’s time for something a little more proactive than Gaya making everything OK.” What sets Fucked. apart from The Shell Corporation’s previous records is a refocusing on instrumentation. Tracks like “Cold Reason” and “I Came For the Waters” are riddled with guitar hooks and background vocals straight out of an early 2000s Bad Religion record. But on most of the album, drummer Jake Margolis is the star of the show.

“We were like, ‘Jake is a way better musician than all of us. What if we just let him go as nuts as he wants, and we’ll just dial our shit back to fit him, rather than the other way around?’” guitarist and vocalist Curtiss Lopez explains. “There’s no guitar solos; it’s just vocals and drums going nuts, and the guitar and bass are just there to help along.”

As for the songs themselves, Drees decided to shake up the writing process for Fucked.

Instead of writing songs with Lopez and presenting them to the band, Drees wrote

INTERVIEW WITH JAN DREES AND CURTISS LOPEZ BY DEREK NIELSEN the songs on his own, in their entirety, in any genre he wanted.

“Down-tempo, ska, or reggae—whatever it took to get the lyrics and melody down,” he says. “I’d send it to the band, and they’d go into the rehearsal studio, and they’d turn them into Shell Corporation songs. So, a lot of these songs that I imagined as more down-tempo tunes ended up being some of the fastest songs on the record.”

The result is a record that is lean, efficient, and delivers said anger and frustration with surgical precision—everything one would expect from a punk record entitled Fucked.

“On the older records, we didn’t really know who we were,” Lopez reflects. “I feel like, on

this record, we finally figured out—for lack of a better word—our sound.”

OF FEATHER AND BONE From weaving lyrical landscapes about the journey to death to blasting through blistering, grind-y death metal anthems, Denver locals Of Feather And Bone have captured the hearts of the underground metal scene in 2018. Their forthcoming record, Bestial Hymns of Perversion—available March 23 on Profound Lore Records—is on everyone’s new-release radar.

“I love this record, and I think it’s the best thing we’ve ever done,” guitarist and vocalist Dave Grant says. “I know that’s a really cliché answer, but I think it encompasses everything we’ve actually wanted to do in an album. It was a long time coming for this record.”

Bestial Hymns of Perversion is Of Feather And Bone’s second full-length release to date, and their debut album—2015’s Embrace the Wretched Flesh—and EP, split, and demo releases have already been lauded by death metallers the world over. This is probably due to the genuine place a lot of their music comes from and the drive the band have to create.

The album tackles some pretty dark subject matter, and the process of writing such a heavy record—concept-wise, as well as music-wise—was cathartic.

“As far as lyrical content, before this record,

PHOTO: JACKI VITETTA

there were a lot of personal lyrics about life in general, taking the negative side of it and things you go through in general,” bassist and vocalist Alvino Salcedo explains. “This time, it was taking a different approach. That 2016 demo took a lot from my heritage—which is Aztec descent—what they saw as death and the journey of death, as opposed to in different cultures. It was the end-all, be-all in some cultures, and nothing else mattered, whereas a lot of indigenous cultures saw death as the next step.”

“When it came to this record, I still included a lot of that,” he continues, “but overall, I think my focus in writing this record was taking from the roots of indigenous people and how they are affected by certain religions and have lost a lot of their culture, land, and dignity, and really using that anger.”

Musically, Bestial Hymns of Perversion was written by building and riffing off of negative energy to create something heavy, unique, and well-crafted.

“The writing process is always super organic, because I don’t really have any preconceived notions about what I’m going to do,” says Grant, who writes most of Of Feather And Bone’s music with drummer Preston Weippert. “We always write like this, where we go in and write a riff, and he will play

INTE R V IE W W ITH DAV E GR A NT A ND A LV INO SA LCE DO BY A DDISON HE R RON- WHEEL ER drums, and we will kind of build from there.”

“I think this is the most challenging album we’ve written, as far as guitar goes,” he adds.

“There are definitely way more guitar riffs on it than I’ve ever written and some of the longest songs I’ve ever written. My brother passed away maybe a couple months after the other full-length came out, and it definitely fueled a lot of emotion in the music that I wrote—for this album, especially.”

“There is a lot of sadness and anger, atmosphere; that’s just my catharsis,” Grant concludes. “I don’t write lyrics, so I don’t have to write it through my riffs.”

PRIMORDIAL Primordial are a band who are extremely true. There are very few heavy metal bands out there who can reach the realness and tactility they can—only a handful, actually.

Their total form is one of dimensional circuitry, the Earth is their footing, the infinite sky their eternal space.

The band formed 27 years ago in the green dimensions of Ireland and will release their ninth full-length, Exile Amongst the Ruins, on March 30 via Metal Blade Records. The album is their best yet: a rising force of organic necessity.

For the grizzled quintet, some things never change. “The way of writing music is exactly the same,” vocalist Alan Averill—aka A.A. Nemtheanga—notes. “We still stand in a room together, argue—you know, having human contact is really important to us. But obviously, what’s different now is our lives are much more complicated. So, the ability to get the five of us in a room together can take a bit more work these days.”

Part of Primordial’s essence is this realistic approach. They were never a group who tried to go out and kill themselves to make it. What they created—and create—is part of the naturalness of their existence, and for this, their music is centered and real: sonic bursts that froth with roots and mud. “I think what it is, is that we, as a band, had no particular work ethic,” Averill laughs. “You know, in the sense that we never toured ourselves to death, never rehearsed when we

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didn’t need to or want to. We didn’t, as you say, live in each other’s pockets. So, there was always a nice distance between us and the band.”

Musically, the group’s members are all on the same wavelength: a tangent parallel to their essential nature. “You have to leave time for things to unfold,” Averill says.

“There’s no particular rush. That’s always been the case for Primordial. Too much modern heavy metal is at maxed [out] frequency range: very massive guitar tones, small triggered drums, and, you know, no bass tones. We don’t want to sound like that.”

Exile Amongst the Ruins is a study in that approach, a warm and cold record like ice in the mountains and quick sparks in the veins. All eight songs take anthemic bursts to their logical conclusions, heightening and lengthening like jetties in the storm. It’s a record with immense width, pulling you in with the band’s natural rhythm and turning you over with Averill’s mighty cogency. Like mini-novels read by lamplight in the bunks of the Pequod, the album holds a light that is both new and old. It’s timeless: a heavy metal classic made in an age of quick and empty payoffs.

“We’re living in a misanthropic world,” Averill opines, “and I think heavy metal has a special place within that, because the original blueprint of heavy metal is defined by outsider status. There’s an element of naïve

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST ALAN "A.A. NEMTHEANGA" AVERILL BY CHRISTOPHER J. HARRINGTON rebellion or very simple heroism. Something that I love about the old heavy metal is that it never second-guesses itself. It’s free of the ingrained cynicism of the modern age. If you listen to something like ‘I Want To Be Somebody’ by W.A.S.P—now there’s a band that wanted to take over the world, and it’s incredibly empowering. You listen to that, and it’s just a shot of absolute pure adrenaline. Contrast that to an age where we’re supposed to know more, and it sounds like a fundamentally positive burst of energy. And really, that’s the thing that defines old heavy metal in a way, and we’ve really lost that, with the exception of a few bands.”

Listening to Primordial is as good a way as any to feel your universe in real-time, to find that old-school immediacy, find that tapped power of raw gravel.

They’re a band who are as real as the heart that beats within your flesh and bones.

Beating—beating—beating against time.

PHOTO: GREG VELASQUEZ

“I really enjoy songwriting, so I write all the time,” Alice Bag says. “Some songs are specifically for my touring band and other songs just go into a little music binder, where they wait until it’s their turn to shine.”

‘stay at home mom.’ The band explored and redefined 1950s homemaker tropes. We wore aprons onstage, hung a clothesline pinned with baby clothes behind us, and sometimes, handed out cookies to the audience between songs.”

Bag is best known for her work with The Bags, one of the first punk bands to make waves in Los Angeles. The group cut one single, “Survive,” before breaking up in 1981. After the Bags single, she never made another recording until her 2016 solo album, Alice Bag, but the singer, author, educator, and feminist archivist remained musically active.

A few years later, Bag moved to Arizona. “My first few years there were all about finding ways to express my creativity without bandmates,” she explains. “While I was there, I learned to paint and wrote a good chunk of my memoir, ‘Violence Girl,’ published by Feral House [in] 2011.”

“I was in Cholita, Las Tres, and Goddess 13, a band I formed with Teresa Covarrubias,” Bag recounts. “After that, I took a bit of time off to have a baby.

Motherhood was a game-changer for me. I found it difficult to find time to play music. During that time, I realized that music was essential to my mental health and being mentally healthy makes for better parenting, so I started playing in a band called Stay At Home Bomb, which is a play on

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After moving back to L.A., Bag decided it was time to go into the studio and record some of the songs she’d been accumulating over the years. “I asked some friends if they would help me record my first record,” she says.

“I’ve been playing a long time, and I have pretty deep roots in the L.A. music scene, so I felt engulfed by a tidal wave of support. The first thing I did was crowdfund the money for the recording.”

Her solo debut was released in 2016 and won rave reviews. “I did

some touring, mostly small fiveor 10-day mini tours,” Bag says.

“My band is made up of people in graduate school and people with job commitments, so we try to be strategic about booking shows.”

“By the time I went into the studio to record Blueprint, I knew what had to happen,” Bag says of her second solo record, due out on Don Giovanni Records on March 23. “I knew which studio and which players I wanted. I got a little out of control writing parts for strings and horns and many layers of backup vocals. I love having multitrack recorders at my fingertips. I really enjoy having the ability to add texture to my songs, even though I know that they will be probably be stripped down for live shows.”

Like Alice Bag, Blueprint shows off the diversity of Bag’s singing and songwriting. The track “77” is a blistering feminist anthem, full of frenzied punk energy. “Shame Game” is a funky, ‘60s-flavored expression of female pride, while the self-explanatory “White Justice” combines lilting, acoustic piano-driven verses with a chorus of staccato electric guitar accents

that bring to mind The Clash.

“I tend to write angry songs, but with Trump in the White House, I sometimes feel overwhelmed with anger and negativity,” Bag shares.

“I intend to resist and fight against his racism and misogyny, but I think it’s important to find people, situations, and music that can lift your spirits and help you look beyond the current state of our government. We have to know that there’s something better at the end of our struggle in order to have our fight fueled by hope rather than blind rage. You can dance to some of the songs on this record, but you can also just listen—or sing along while you crochet a pink Pussy Hat.” Bag is a veteran of punk’s first wave and views her experience as an asset. “Old age has made me smarter and more confident,” she asserts. “I was full of energy in my youth, but it was wild and unfocused. My music and energy still have wild and untamed elements, especially during live performances, but I’m more focused now. I don’t just want to move the dancers in the pit, I want to move the world.” 

PHOTO: MARC GÄRTNER

P

unk rock is alive and well in Vienna, Austria. All over the world, in fact. DeeCRACKS have proven it.

Over 15 years, 800 shows, and 10 bass players, the band have toured Japan, China, Russia, Canada, and Mexico. Now, with their new album, Sonic Delusions, they’re back in the U.S. Well, sort of. It’s a long story.

The record, released Feb. 23 via Pirates Press Records—which boasts a roster including bands like Rancid, Cock Sparrer, and The Bouncing Souls—is the first on the trio’s new home label and a chance at getting back into the country that once turned them away at the border due to their visas.

“We can’t promote our record in the U.S. ourselves. We can’t go there and play,” vocalist and guitarist Matt DeeCRACK says of being on Pirates Press. “They’re really trying to promote the band. Who knows how it’s gonna turn out? Maybe someday, who

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knows? Maybe we can come there and play.”

Mike Dee Crackus adds. “That’s the one thing I cherish the most.”

The band once again took their plug-in-and-go attitude in to record their fourth full-length with producer and lifelong friend Marco Perdacher. “We come in, and he knows exactly what we want,” DeeCRACK says.

DeeCRACKS have no shortage of stories to tell. The band have slept on their fair share of floors.

“We’ve slept in the worst places with a smile on our faces,” DeeCRACK shares proudly.

Getting out of Austria was tough for the band at first—having to change their name from The Cretins in 2007 due to a lawsuit set them back—but once they got out into the world, they learned punk fans, whatever country they’re in, are more similar than different.

“You get to meet all these people everywhere, and they all have the same problems, and they all share the same passion for the music, and that’s a cool thing, I guess,” DeeCRACK says.

“That’s the best thing about touring, and that’s the best thing about making music, is making friends all over the world,” drummer

Dee Crackus feels the hard times on the road are worth it. “I feel very fortunate and very grateful for everything that this band has been able to do and for the life we’ve gotten to live. Nobody’s making any money here,” he says laughing, “but we get to pursue our dream.”

The connection the fans have to the band’s lyrics is not lost on DeeCRACKS’ vocalist. “It’s all very personal, and it’s not that I’m so special,” DeeCRACK notes, “but, certainly, I’m happy when we can reach people or [when] somebody tells me that this song touched them. I think that’s a real accomplishment as a songwriter.”

Through their undying love for and devotion to punk rock, DeeCRACKS—who formed as nothing more than a Ramones cover band for Dee Crackus’ 18th birthday party—prove you can’t kill a spirit.

“For us, as a band, we’ve always looked at it like, ‘Don’t let it become a job,’ you know?” DeeCRACK says. “Don’t let it become a nine-to-five thing like, ‘OK, I gotta get up and do the same showcase I did yesterday.’”

“On tour, it’s hard sometimes.

Everybody has their lows,” Dee Crackus admits, the friends of over 20 years finishing each other’s thoughts.

“At least we’re all there for the same purpose,” DeeCRACK adds.

Dee Crackus sums it all up, concluding, “The 45 minutes of heaven that is playing the show, it’s all worth it in the end.” 

PHOTO: JEN CRAY

A

fter releasing one of the most infectious and captivating heavy debuts in years—the 2016 self-titled Wrong—the Miami noise-rock alt-metal powerhouse are finally back, faster and more powerful than before.

filled desires, but then they can also apply to anybody else,” he says. “A lot of it is just the need to get frustrations out.

But then, at the same time, it’s fun to just play fast and heavy stuff for that same reason, because it makes you feel better and, hopefully, it makes other people feel better. It doesn’t Wrong’s new album, Feel matter what you’re mad about, Great, will be out via Re- you can always play music and lapse Records on April 13. All feel good.” grooves, riffs, tone, and grit, the band created 11 songs The title, Feel Great, is also that are heavier and angrier, a sort of contrast, containyet more melodic than their ing a double meaning. “We breakout debut. “We want- wanted to have that uplifted to push ourselves a little ing vibe on the surface,” more on this record,” vocalist Hernandez says. “It’s like and guitarist Eric Hernan- when you seem to feel OK dez admits. “The angry parts from the outside, but then, are angrier, and the melodic underneath, there’s that unparts are more melodic. We dercurrent and all the dark like having a good mix of things that people don’t moods. The moods are most- see—which is something ly pissed, just different levels that can work for anything of pissed.” around you, or it could be something you experience Those mixed feelings are re- yourself. We wanted to comflected in Hernandez’ words. municate that no matter “There are lyrics on the record what’s going on, you might that are very personal, so in a as well feel great, you might sense, I satisfy my own rage- as well think positively.”

There was also something deeper that inspired Wrong’s new release. “I was born and raised in Miami,” Hernandez shares. “Since I was a kid, I’d go to school with white, Black, gay, all kinds of people. Discrimination bewilders me.

That way of thinking doesn’t make sense to me. This aspect reflects the title of the new record too, because despite all this stuff, you just have to feel the best you can and help whoever you can, regardless of all the racism and discrimination.”

“Now, times are different,” he continues. “People are saying more instead of being afraid of it, which is a good thing.

It’s definitely interesting to be a part of this point in history and be able to do something with music at the same time.”

Feel Great is about everyday life, but it’s deeply introspective, commenting on what’s going on around us. “There were musicians in the ‘60s and the ‘70s and back in the ‘50s who were playing music,

and they were literally changing the society around them,” Hernandez explains. “People were connecting with the music, and that’s what would help them take their minds off the horrible things going on around them.”

“Aside from playing at a huge festival where you raise a bunch of money or something, that’s definitely one of the biggest way to physically help,” he continues. “There’s only so much you can do with any kind of action. What it is, really, is making your voice heard and getting as many people as possible to [share] that same voice. That’s always been what any musician has always hoped for: to change or to have an effect on the world. Other people’s music has changed my life in certain ways, and if I can change one person’s life with a song or a record, then it’s definitely all worth it.” 

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Leave it to a progressive powerhouse like TesseracT to name their album after an esoteric term that doesn’t have an actual dictionary definition.

The forthcoming fourth full-length from the British group, Sonder—out April 20 via Kscope and Snapper Music—captures all of TesseracT’s best attributes—massive riffs, bigger hooks, and expansive atmospheric sections—and channels them together into a bold and emotive new chapter. It also proves that the band are continually gaining momentum with original vocalist Daniel Tompkins back in the fold.

“Sonder” is a term coined by John Koenig in his online compendium The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. The author reimagines how we communicate by attempting to define our ineffable feelings, much like TesseracT aim to redefine progressive metal with a focus on sonic warmth and contemplative, evocative vocals. Koenig and TesseracT’s aims coalesce with the goal of bringing us all closer together.

PHOTO: STEVE BROWN

36

Tompkins’ discovery of the term—and the philosophical rabbit hole that followed—was by pure accident. “I actually stumbled on [Koenig] via a tweet,” he explains. “Someone posted the word and the meaning to it, and I had this immediate connection to it. I do know, with a lot of people who I talk with, they have this similar kind of sensation, where they have feelings that they can’t articulate.”

“There are different levels to [the term sonder],” he adds. “It’s a very interesting concept to consider that we can be walking down the middle of a very busy street and, suddenly, be struck with a sense of insignificance when you think that everyone around you is living a life that is equally if not more complex and vivid than your own life. People’s dreams, struggles, daily thoughts and aspirations—and then, you look at your own life, because we’re very selfish people, we live in our own heads, so we’re very self-focused. As soon as you take a step back from that and consider that there are billions of people living these complex lives, just like yourself.”

“For me,” Tompkins expounds, “initially, I always get stunned by this initial sense of insignificance. I suddenly feel very inferior to everyone and everything. The things that are important to me suddenly seem less important. Also, I feel like it’s a perspective, because I feel like, in

today’s society, all around the world, regardless of country and culture, this new modern age has twisted us. People have been singing about it for years, because they’ve seen it coming: this sense of disconnection, not just from ourselves but from each other. I find that the way that we communicate has changed drastically, that one-to-one conversation skill has been lost. This sense of sonder, this whole concept that humanity is missing.”

Tompkins notes that the record’s theme goes beyond a chance encounter with a neologism. His aim was to explore the need to live life with both eyes wide open and to examine our perspectives and those of everyone around us. So, while Sonder certainly ponders a big question, there’s more at play. “Throughout the whole album, there is an underpinning sense of hope—at, least I hope there is,” he laughs. “I’m very much about wanting to leave a stamp on life, to leave a bit of a light wherever I can. I feel like we all should be doing that: helping people and trying to draw out the best in each other.”

“Music is such a powerful tool,” he continues. “That’s a driving factor for me as an artist. I know that sounds a bit pretentious, but […] I’m like anybody else in the world. I think there’s a real separation between artists and fans. Most of the time, fans feel like you’re untouchable or like a

godlike creation.

It’s a bit dangerous territory to go down. I do not endorse idolizing people. I don’t want to be an idol for other people. That being said, I do appreciate that there is a lot of value being in the position I’m in. I’ve seen that the music that I’m a part of does make a difference to people, and I do feel like we’re all given talents. We’re all good at something, and I like to think I’m good at singing and writing about what I feel, so I try very hard to make the songs meaningful.”

All the effort was clearly worth it. As Sonder saunters into the world, TesseracT have proven uniquely able to carve a wealth of depth into their sonic exploration of the human condition. No matter your perspective on the band or their style—or the concept of sonder itself—TesseracT’s latest is a masterclass in emotive, evocative prog metal.



PHOTOS: JACKI VITETTA

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For a generation of hardcore kids, American Nightmare were more than just a band.

Formed in 1999, their blend of youth crew energy and devastating nihilism delivered a primal one-two punch, turning tracks like “AM/PM” from their 2001 debut, Background Music, into hard-hitting but still life-affirming anthems. While fellow Bostonians like The Hope Conspiracy and The Suicide File trod similar territory, American Nightmare’s combination of fast yet non-metallic riffs and dark poeticism stood out from the tough-guy status quo. Their music often went over critics’ heads, but it established the band as underground icons for countless outcasts.

When the band called it a day in 2004, they appeared to be done for good. They were exhausted from a legal battle over naming rights—which prompted the switch to Give Up The Ghost for their 2003 sophomore fulllength, We’re Down Til We’re Underground—making the idea of ever seeing another American Nightmare record seem unthinkable. However, when they noticed the copyright for the name was available in 2015, they successfully worked to win it back.

The band had been reunited on a live basis since 2011, but never under their iconic original moniker. This opportunity to return to their roots opened the door for one of 2018’s most improbable releases. “The band who used it

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previously no longer existed, and that only came to a closure a year and a half ago or so,” says vocalist Wes Eisold, who now splits his time with darkwave outfit Cold Cave. “So, we had loosely talked about doing an album. We didn’t have any songs, we had no idea what it would be like,” he admits, “but it wasn’t out of the question either. Getting the name back made it definitely more relevant and exciting to us to pursue the band.”

The result of that excitement is the band’s third album, the self-titled American Nightmare, released on Feb. 16 via Rise Records.

Eisold laughs off detractors’ accusations that the record is just a cynical cash grab. Rather, he says, it’s a chance to fully realize American Nightmare’s potential with their original lineup—which also features guitarist Brian Masek, bassist Josh Holden, and drummer Alex Garcia-Rivera—while giving back to those who have connected with their music for years, especially those struggling to find the will to live.

“I feel like I have this weird duty to keep pushing on, to keep going on, at whatever expense,” Eisold says. “I can sometimes see it in people’s faces, that they’re getting out of this more than what I’m getting out of it.

Out of respect for that connection and that process, it’s just worth doing it.”

For a record carrying that sort of weight in terms of both sonic and personal expectations, it’s minimalist presentation takes on new meaning. With no information on the cover beyond the band’s classic logo—an angel holding a heart and dagger—the intended message is loud and clear.

This is American Nightmare, the way they were always meant to be, without distraction.

Self-recorded direct to tape with Garcia-Rivera manning the boards at Mystic Valley Studio near Boston, the album is the band’s most collaborative work to date. It seamlessly incorporates influences ranging from SSD to Siouxsie And The Banshees, interspersing 20 minutes of stripped-down, blistering hardcore with newfound atmospheric tendencies.

Lyrically, Eisold responds to the existential dread he explored in the band’s early work. Born with one hand into a military family who moved frequently, he grew up suicidal but found a place in punk rock. Rather than run from his past, he concludes that the suspicions of alienated youth are often accurate. You might not fit in, but if the culture surrounding you is fraudulent anyway, discontent can serve as self-preservation.

“I’ve had a lot of struggle in my life based on physical and emotional issues that I have, and it’s not something that went away,”

Eisold says. “I also find that a lot of people who connect with the band have their own version of a life with physical and emotional abuse in ways.”

“There’s a weird satisfaction in knowing you were right about how miserable everything kind of is,” he reasons. “It’s comforting. You weren’t exerting useless emotions then. I think doing that kept me alive.”

That sentiment is exactly what has given American Nightmare their staying power. While many of their early peers motivated fans with clichéd positivity, Eisold and crew have always achieved that same end by embracing the darkness instead. Their upcoming tours and, potentially, more music yet to come will reopen opportunities for those on society’s fringes—whether due to external appearances, internal turmoil, or both—to find solace with one another.

“Not many people I knew from hardcore grew up to have amazing, incredible, well-adjusted lives,” Eisold says. “Everyone does what they can, you hope for the best, and you do your thing, but there’s usually a reason why you were attracted to that music and that scene and why we’ve met each other at some point in our lives. Nothing is random to me. Everything is connected in that way.” 

PHOTO: ELENA DE SOTO

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T

urnstile frontman Brendan Yates returns to the phrase “feeling good” to describe just about every aspect of his band. Whether it’s their approach to songwriting, their knack for playing shows to appreciative fans, or their existential purpose as a group, Yates and co. are simply doing what feels good to them and hoping to impart that positivity to others. This M.O. has never been more obvious than it was on their 2015 fulllength debut, Nonstop Feeling, an album that earned as many comparisons to Rage Against The Machine and 311 as it did to Bad Brains and Madball, making it one of the most polarizing hardcore albums of their generation.

Within what’s historically been a traditionalist genre, there are certain expectations for how a hardcore record should sound, what it should mean, and how it should be presented. However, Yates’ subtle choice to refer to Turnstile as “a band” and not as “a hardcore band” is just one of many ways Turnstile are simultaneously defying and expanding what hardcore music can be. “I think we enjoy the freedom of being able to do whatever we want,” he says. “I think that is exactly what feels good about being in a band.”

“I think in life,” he adds, “even outside of being in a band, limiting yourself is not very progressive.”

Although Nonstop Feeling features bundles of bouncy riffs, barrages of shout-back-inducing hooks, and stockpiles of two-step passages and mosh parts—as well as dips into surf rock and bubblegrunge—their new record, Time & Space feels truly limitless. The fast parts are faster, the slow parts are slower, the melodies are brighter, and the jazzy, hip hop-esque interludes and outros develop a sense of cohesion while also pushing the band’s sound further from its origins.

Yates says Turnstile’s approach on Time & Space—which was released Feb. 23 via Roadrunner Records—focused on “keeping what the band is, while also being able to broaden the definition

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of what someone might say the band is.”

“I feel like hardcore will always be an influence, because it’s the world we come from and the easiest thing to connect the band to,” he continues, “but I think everything on the spectrum of music [has] played the biggest influence.”

Yates namedrops Beach House, Sade, The Lemonheads, and DEVO as some of his greatest musical inspirations and is careful not to assign any single genre to the record. Many may consider this an unconventionally eclectic palette for a hardcore musician, but the idea of collective creativity is an important part of Turnstile’s identity, and Yates believes it would be reductive to describe his music as any one sound in particular. “I think, just naturally, what makes up our band is special individuals with different influences from all kinds of music,” he says. “What feels most natural is to create the platform to be able to switch it up.”

“The last thing I want from a band is to ever pigeonhole themselves,” he asserts, “or be like, ‘Well, this is exactly what we’re doing,’ and nail in this certain thing that we do and just always do that.”

Despite his hesitation to categorize their output, Yates is pleasantly accepting of any and all comparisons Turnstile elicit—an extension of his all-embracing philosophy on music and an often-atypical ethos for a hardcore dude. “Someone who hears our band and has never heard a lot of things may just say we sound like a ‘90s rock band,” he says.

“Everyone in the world just has a different frame of reference and digests things differently—and that’s just cool.”

“And it’s cool that someone might take our band is another makes someone hate he adds.

one thing away from thing that our band,”

For Yates, it is not their sonic identity, but Turnstile’s notoriously raucous shows that best define them. The live environment is arguably the ultimate determining factor of how good

a hardcore band is, as hardcore music is essentially designed to incite carnal movement in pits and pile-ups. At Turnstile gigs, it’s the unmatched energy, carefree exuberance, and uniquely animated, fun-but-not-threatening crowds—as well as Yates’ nonchalant demeanor, drummer Daniel Fang’s pink hair, and their overall lack of tough-guy bravado—that truly distinguish them from their contemporaries.

“The reality checks have been shows,” Yates confirms, referencing a date at the end of 2016 featuring Angel Du$t, Big Bite, Profile, and Culture Abuse. “The diverse things coming together—as far as bands that sound different, people from different places—were all in this one big room, and the energy was something that I wouldn’t be able to describe [in] an interview.”

PHOTO: OCTAVIO ORDUNO

Thematically, Time & Space finds Yates reflecting on his relationships and surroundings, both of which have been profoundly influenced by Turnstile’s heavy touring schedule and the environments associated with playing shows. “The record title itself is not as much about time on a clock and outer space as it is about personal time and relative space to the things I surround myself with,” he explains. “I think being in a band and traveling a lot and touring is not a natural process for the human body or mind. You’re always moving at 100 miles an hour, and then, when you’re not traveling, you’re really still.”

Time & Space effectively echoes that lifestyle. 

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Brannan’s foray into politics began in 2011 when he landed a job with Democratic Council Member Vincent Gentile. After a stint at the New York City Department of Education’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, Gentile hired him back as Chief of Staff. When Gentile retired last year, Brannan sought to fill his boss’s seat, enduring a brutal six-person primary, then a tight three-way race in the general election.

J

ustin Brannan is best known as the guitarist and founding member of Indecision, a straight edge band formed in Brooklyn in the early ‘90s who became a fixture in the hardcore scene—as did Brannan’s later band, Most Precious Blood.

Brannan faced the same problems as many underground musicians: rough tours, run-ins with the authorities, and finding work to pay the bills when he was home. However, those punk rock realities prepared him for the trials and tribulations of his first week in office as a New York City Council Member representing the 43rd District: a busted water main, a snowstorm, and a raging fire. “It’s very sobering,” he says. “You’re excited and grateful that you won, but now, I’m representing 150,000-some-odd folks in the neighborhood where I grew up.

It’s a humbling thing—you’re faced with the responsibility and the faith that’s been placed in you by voters.”

Brannon is a lifelong activist. He championed for AIDS patients, the

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environment, and animal rights. He worked for several nonprofits and studied Journalism at Fordham University. He worked at the radio station WNEW, where he got involved in labor union organizing.

In between tours, he found temp work at Bear Stearns, one of the “too big to fail” banks—that failed. As Most Precious Blood were winding down in the mid-2000s, he landed a fulltime job there and worked his way up to the Wealth Management Division.

“When I went in for the interview, I had a handlebar mustache, just to be a dick,” he shares. “I didn’t really want the job, so I didn’t even shave it—and they still hired me. Bear was interesting. I was there for the collapse of civilization, but it was the antithesis to that kind of Goldman Sachs, Ivy League, robotic culture. They didn’t care if you had an MBA, they wanted you to have a PSD: poor, smart, and the desire to succeed. You had a lot of misfits. At the time, the head of the firm was a guy who got his start selling scrap metal.”

As he raised his right hand at his swearing-in on January 21, inky hints of his tattoo sleeve were visible.

“Growing up, I wanted to be a member of the Ramones, not a member of Congress,” he explains. “I didn’t have JFK’s picture on my bedroom wall, I had a Smiths poster. I think, certainly, being in a hardcore band, meeting kids from all different walks of life, realizing how much we all have in common, and dealing with the types of insane situations that you have to deal with out there on your own prepares you for just about anything.”

“I was never a guy who believed that politics mattered,” he adds. “The pace of the typical political process was glacial. It just left me feeling disillusioned, disaffected. […] So, I certainly never thought I’d run for office one day, but I think I fell in love with local government. It’s where the rubber meets the road. It was a place where I was able to get results for real people in real-time. To take a page out of Saul Alinksy’s book, ‘Rules for Radicals,’ you cut your hair, put on a suit, and change the system from with-

in. Activists are the ones who move the needle, but I eventually decided that instead of standing outside and throwing rocks at the building, so to speak, I was going to try to find my way inside.”

Local politicking starts at the street level. Brannan began campaigning shortly after Trump was elected in 2017, expecting to talk to constituents about the white-hot issues dominating the national conversation. “I was knocking on doors to talk to people about things like immigration, things that are on everyone’s mind,” he says, “but the questions were like, ‘What high school did you go to?’ and ‘What are you going to do about the dog shit?’ It all reminded me of how beautifully parochial local politics can be,” he laughs.

Brannan is focused on working with the Department of Education to tackle the opioid epidemic, make his district the cleanest and safest in the city, and demystify how local government works. He wants to get people involved, especially those who have felt shut out of the democratic process.

He is also heartened by the number of people he meets who have roots in punk and hardcore. “You’d be surprised,” he notes. “Once or twice a week, I run into someone who says, ‘I was talking to my husband about you.

He loved Indecision, and he’s so glad you’re an elected official.” 

Simmons is putting out the band’s remastered catalog on his label, starting with Trial in May. “Initially, I just wanted it out,” he says. “You know, they were talking to Revelation, they were talking to different labels, and I didn’t care if I put it out or anybody put it out. I just wanted it to get out, not just because they were friends of mine, but I thought they had—they were one of the better bands of the mid to late ‘80s. They never did anything to really embarrass themselves.”

Why not start at the beginning and work to the end? Simmons answers, “We decided to do Trial first just because people are clamoring for it.”

They took the original tape and mailed it to Los Angeles to begin the process. “It was a scary prospect for me,” Simmons says. “We literally got the original 30-year-old tape and UPS-ed it out there. So stressed about it. It’s like history at this point.”

Verbal Assault are not rebranding, compromising, or selling out. The remastering of Trial is the start of something positive. They’re bringing back each album beautifully and with dignity. “We actually tried doing this 10 years ago,” Jones says, “and we actually got as far as getting in the studio. We did do some remastering. It came out so-so, and then, life kinda got in the way or whatever, so we’ve been meaning to get this going again. To Brian’s credit, he helped pull things together. He was the one who actually hooked us up with [audio engineer] Nick Townsend who did the remastering. It was really, really easy so far.

Actually, it was great. We just basically sent Nick the quarter-inch final mixes of Trial. He did work some magic, man. It came back really nice. Much brighter, much better than our first attempt at doing it.”

Between the hubs of Boston, New York, and Washington D.C., magic happened in the hardcore music scene out of Rhode Island.

Verbal Assault may be the band you haven’t heard enough, and it’s time to listen up.

Verbal Assault lit up clubs like The Living Room in Providence—which is gone now— with Circle Jerks in 1983. That’s before playing Boston, New York, D.C., and then touring Europe. In 1986, Ian MacKaye produced their EP Learn, and they toured with 7Seconds. Later, they toured with Agnostic Front in the winter of 1987 after recording arguably their most important record and sole full-length, Trial, in fall of the same year.

For eight years in the ‘80s and early ‘90s, it was all happening—and then, Verbal Assault were gone.

What never disappeared is their amazing catalog of smart hardcore punk rock. What remains are words, thoughts, chords, and punk rock history that play perfectly today.

Whenever Greater New Bedford became the South Coast of Massachusetts and Rhode Island became “Little Rhody,” Verbal Assault— and albums like Trial—were already off the mainstream path but still in the atlas, coming from Newport, Rhode Island. They set their legacy in marble like the Newport Mansions and stood the test of time.

“I think, in some ways, it speaks a lot to Newport and to Rhode Island, just in the sense that I always thought that we had a really cool underground music scene and a very eclectic one,” vocalist Chris Jones says. “That was one of the reasons that the bands that came from this area were really good. For instance, we’ll set the Wayback Machine to 1986 or whatever: all of us were going to Rogers High School

in Newport. The kids that didn’t kinda fit in— whether you were the punk kids, art rock, or whatever—because we all got beat up after high school together, we kind of, you know, formed a bond. Because the city wasn’t that big, everybody kind of ended up hanging out together.”

“The example I always use—and it’s a really important one for me—is Throwing Muses,” he continues. “We were always close friends with those guys, and I don’t think it was an accident that we ended up having a lot of the same members. You know, if you do the little band family tree or whatever, you start off with Verbal Assault, then the Muses, and then, later on, some of the Verbal Assault guys—like [guitarist] Tom [Gorman] and [drummer] Chris Gorman—end up working with Tanya [Donelly], and they form Belly. For a while, this guy Fred Abong was playing [bass] with Throwing Muses as well. He was in a bunch of other bands, more punk bands and stuff.

I think that just having everybody hanging around with different kinds of musicians made for better music all around. To me, that really kinda says, like, ‘All right, Newport was a pretty—it is a special place.’”

Verbal Assault always played true music, and 2018 looks to be the year they get back on the map. “2018 is the year of Verbal Assault,” Jones concurs.

Since 1983, Verbal Assault have steered clear of “being hokey,” according to Atomic Action!

Records’ Brian Simmons. “I was always so proud of them. They kind of, to me, connected the D.C. thing with the New York thing. They were heavy and strong and powerful, but the lyrics were incredibly intelligent, and there was so much integrity involved with what they did. Everything they did was well-thought-out and well-planned.”

“I was surprised,” Simmons adds, “Nick hit that stuff, and he hit the nail right on the head mastering it. Pete, the guitarist, Pete [Chramiec] was literally happy right away with it.

In my mind, I had kind of given it time for them to go back and forth and changes to be made and everything else. When I first heard it, it blew me away how much cleaner and how much better it sounded. So, I was really excited that Pete was really happy with it, like, right off the bat.”

In response to the praise, Townsend is humble. “It’s been a blast working on Trial,” he says. “I have been a fan of Verbal Assault since I was 17, and it’s been surreal to be entrusted to give this record new life.”

In addition to remastering the album, Townsend is a musician himself, currently playing drums in Fireburn with vocalist Israel Joseph I, guitarist Todd Jones, and bassist Todd Youth. It’s a lineup full of masters of the musical craft, and Townsend is an expert with a keen ear.

After giving the original recording of Trial a solid listen, Townsend went to work. “I guess the first thing that popped out at me was hearing all the tiny little details in the original quarter-inch tape masters,” he says. “After I listened to the raw masters a few times this way, I was able to take my rose-colored glasses off and get down to business. Ever since I first heard Trial, I had always wished there was more definition and space between instruments: the bass was always hard to hear, drums were always a little mushy, and the vocals sat in a weird place in the mix. So, that’s where I dug in on the remaster.”

“It’s like listening to a completely new album,” Townsend concludes. “Everyone involved loved the first pass I did, and now, I am just impatiently waiting to cut the lacquers for the vinyl pressing of this album.”

The team are cleaning up the album jacket presentation too. “That photograph [on the cover] is by Chris Gorman, who was our drummer for a while and was also a drummer in a band called Belly,” Jones says. “I ended up being their tour manager for a while. The person in the photo is Tom Gorman, who was the bass player, and then, he was the guitar player for Belly as well. Chris moved back to Rhode Island recently from New York, and when he was packing up his stuff to move, he found the original photo. So, that is awesome. He sent Brian some really nice scans of it. It looked really cool; there’s a lot less contrast in it and stuff. I’m really looking forward to doing a nice job with the layout. You know, it’ll be the same photo, but it will look that much clearer—almost in the same way the music will.”

Verbal Assault’s music is important in 2018, because—borrowing from the title of Trial’s fourth track, “Never Stop”—the band never stopped. The lyrics still ring true. “I’ve known these guys, for the most part, my whole life,” Simmons says. “Say, 1983 roughly, and they were around for eight years. It’s kind of hard to differentiate what I thought of them then versus what I think of them now. They’re still those same people, and they still—how they’ve lived their lives is very similar to how they did then. It’s cool that they set that pace and maintained it. The band is honestly who the people were and who they still are.”

Hardcore kids steal lyrics for their hearts, and those words become “More Than Music,” to borrow from another of Jones’ songs. The catalog Verbal Assault created—from their hearts to the world—is as true today as it was every minute they were a band and every minute of Chris Jones’ life.

“One of the things that I always say to people is, you know, the band was such a huge, huge influence on my life,” he says. “It changed the way I looked at everything. You know, just the traveling, stuff like that. It was a really important part of my life. It’s like, listening to this again, [and] I’m also starting to redo the website, so I’m going back through a lot of old photos, video, stuff like that. It’s bringing back memories—you know, happy memories—but also, again, just kind of that feeling of, ‘All right, this was good stuff. This was good stuff.’”

“I take it as a compliment Brian never thought we were ‘hokey’ and it’s worth putting out because people are still interested,” he adds. “I take that as a huge, huge compliment, ‘cause it is fucked up to think that we did this 30 years ago. That’s like when you’re talking about the first Exile on Main St. [by The Rolling Stones] or something, or Sgt. Pepper[’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles]. ‘Oh, well, 30 years ago…’ It’s like, ‘Hey, wait a second, that’s us,’ you know? So, it’s a nice feeling that it seems like it’s really stood up to the test of time. I’m really excited to have people hear it again.”

Look out for Trial on Atomic Action! this May and listen up: there’s sage experience in those newly-shined and brightened thoughts and chords, lyrics and music. This is fundamental hardcore punk rock. These are things you should hear.

“It definitely stands the test of time,” Jones concludes. “We’ve been meaning to do this for such a long time. People have been very politely pestering us for a long time or whatever, and getting to listen to the tracks again, it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, all right, cool. This is why people have been bugging us.’ It’s a damn good album, and it needs to come out again.” 

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PHOTO: JEN CRAY

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“I tend to put everything into the completion of these albums,” Frances Quinlan, vocalist and guitarist for the Philadelphia band Hop Along, comments about Bark Your Head Off, Dog. It is the third full-length from the group and their second on Saddle Creek Records, set for release on April 6. For Quinlan and company, every album is a defining piece for them, and Quinlan even admits that recording is a risky thing for her to take on. “It’s such a rewarding experience, but it is painful—I can fall apart in the studio,” the vocalist reveals.

It’s easy to see why. Hop Along’s blend of dark and personal lyrics are intertwined with tense compositions, often finding a place to resolve with driving drums, tender melodies, groovy bass lines, and sliding guitars. While Quinlan’s vocal prowess helps her quickly float between pitches and different vocal inflections, the music behind her is masterfully intricate. “We were playing together. We were really playing together,” Quinlan explains about the process of writing Bark Your Head Off, Dog. “We wanted to not worry about the live performance of these songs. We wanted to give them everything they needed, and because we approached the songs in general with more restraint, it allowed more room to come through.”

This approach to songwriting required extra focus, because of Hop Along’s desire to make a true studio album. With this came incredibly detailed orchestrations, like the solemn whistle that carries through “How You Got Your Limp.” Quinlan

trembles through the lyric, “I can’t heal / I can’t do anything.”

Plenty of violins help back the part, but the fluttering string arrangements in the closer, “Prior Things,” paints the room with immediacy, gently swaying with the listener through Quinlan’s highly personal imagery.

Hop Along songs center around topics that ground them, but Quinlan takes the songs in different directions as she writes. The lyrics on Bark Your Head Off, Dog discuss the thematic conception of relationships, memories the vocalist shares with her family, and the interesting power dynamics of humanity—again, the central idea of relationships. “The Fox In Motion” takes the listener through the eye of Quinlan as she magnificently dances through her vocal lines, shifting between different vocal patterns with ease.

The song is charged by her brother Mark Quinlan’s powerful drum lines. The steady march of the verses leads into a rolling chorus with plenty of intricate parts in which the kit is shocked to life by his playing.

Setting the tone for the new record is “How Simple,” a delicate and infectious opener that urges listeners to sing along to the sound of a simple heart, spilling out over a drink. This song is more straightforward, driven by the finale of vocals conveying the emotionally exhausted idea of separation for the greater good.

“I was trying to be as universal as possible,” Quinlan states. The bass of Tyler Long lends a surging vigor to the tune, keeping the lows together but burrowing through with a pulsing groove.

“Not Abel” is an eerie trudge of acoustic guitars and strings, blooming with plenty of background melodies and instrumentation. It’s this extra added care that takes Bark Your Head Off, Dog into another world for Hop Along. As the song comes to a grinding halt, guitarist Joe Reinhart and the rest of the band surge into a new tempo full of that unique Hop Along twang, with a swinging guitar solo and brilliant vocal shining above and beyond the wonder of the dark opening.

Quinlan’s willingness to touch on ugly subject matter brings certain songs more life. “Somewhere a Judge” feels ajar and perplexed.

“It’s a very conflicted song—I don’t know if I like the speaker personally,” the lyricist admits.

“I thought about time passing and this wasteful passing of time.

When we’re comfortable, we can easily waste time. I was thinking about being on the phone with a loved one and wasting their time talking about nothing.” The lyrical brevity punctuates a bunch of little moments, from working in the back of a retail shop in the dark to receiving an accidental phone call from someone in jail to witnessing a fire on the El train in Philly.

Musically, “Somewhere a Judge” moves with a jagged syncopation, wrapping the song in guitar leads.

by her own research into World War I. “There’s a part where some general was talking about ‘[of] course he is for peace,’” she recalls from her reading. “That’s the people who ruled world—I mean, men ruled the world. Thus, the lyrics, ‘Century turned, your old man stumbles in and says / “Of course I am for peace, the one that suits me.”’ It’s probably the most political song I have ever written.”

Quinlan also cites a discussion of the Cold War from the podcast “Hardcore History,” in which the host Dan Carlin likened people’s ability to ignore the constant fear to having “a gun to your head. You forget that it’s there, [but] that doesn’t mean that it is not there,” she explains.

While initially playing this track, Quinlan recalls going into a trance, because it was the first time she felt totally right doing something. “The thing that I always find daunting about recording is that feeling of being defined in a moment by your performance,” she says.

For someone so hyperaware of her performance as a mark of permanence, Bark Your Head Off, Dog was a revelation. Quinlan reflects, “To even come close to saying what I think we all meant to say—it’s quite a feeling.” 

The apex of Hop Along’s newest record is “The One That Suits Me.” The song is influenced by the Mother of All Bombs—the most powerful non-nuclear bomb in the U.S.’s arsenal—and includes the line, “The mother of them all, she is just about to fall / In the history of man, reality is softened.” Quinlan was inspired

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PHOTOS: SCOTT MURRY

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F

or the past 15 years, Jeff Rosenstock has been building a name for himself in the DIY scene, but only in the last couple years has he begun to break into the general market. After SideOneDummy Records put out Rosenstock’s third solo album, 2016’s WORRY., his name started appearing everywhere. USA Today named it the best record of the year, and his songs began showing up in places one wouldn’t expect to hear a DIY punk musician, from college radio stations to Starbucks lobbies.

True to his down-to-earth reputation, Rosenstock won’t gloat about his recent success. “For me, it’s always a fuckin’ accident, whatever I’m doing,” he says. “I’m just trying to get the shit in my head down on tape.”

Rosenstock’s rise to fame can at least partially be attributed to his honest lyrics, which many find relatable in the midst of current events. The 10 tracks on his latest album, POST-, out on vinyl March 23 via Polyvinyl Records, are no exception. For example, the record’s closer, “Let Them Win,” is a rallying cry for people who feel beaten down. “I was hanging out with a friend, and we were talking about something that just got me thinking about the idea of bullies, in general,” Rosenstock says, “and having been somewhat bullied in junior high, high school, that kind of stuff—like everybody is. And that is now just our kind of state as a nation: a lot of us feeling bullied. I was just thinking about the punk songs

that I liked when I was a kid that made me feel like I could stand up to bullies. I was trying to write one of those.”

Despite his ever-growing fan base, many of Rosenstock’s longtime fans are just as supportive as ever. Often, when punk bands or artists begin to attract mainstream attention, their devotees feel betrayed, but Rosenstock’s fans are a welcome exception. He confirms that there is something special about them. “They’re nice and really supportive in a great way,” he shares. “It seems like my music means a lot to them, and that encourages me to just keep trying to make really good stuff.”

Rosenstock thinks his fans didn’t hang him out to dry, in part, because he tries not to do

things that would upset him if he were in their shoes. While he doesn’t stand in the way of growth, he still makes an effort to stay true to his values. “I think that’s probably why fans don’t give us too much shit,” he affirms, “because I try to be really honest and upfront about everything that we’re doing.”

Rosenstock has certainly held onto many of the values he possessed in his Bomb The Music Industry! days. Most notably, he still insists on doing the thing he became notorious for in the 2000s: giving his music away for free. “If somebody wants to hear the record and not spend money—or doesn’t have money to spend—I wanna always be able to have a way to listen to it without any fuckin’ advertising, without anybody trying to force you to

spend money or anything like that,” he explains. “Art and stuff is there for everyone. It’s there to make people feel good, hopefully—or make people feel something. And I don’t think that’s something that should be blocked by a paywall in any way.”

Rosenstock refuses to work with record labels that are unwilling to accommodate this decision.

Luckily, SideOneDummy gave him the go-ahead to release 2015’s We Cool? and WORRY. as free downloads. Polyvinyl, who are handling the physical release for POST-, were also agreeable. Though they are issuing vinyl copies for purchase in March, they allowed Rosenstock to helm a surprise digital release of the record on Jan. 1 through his own label, Quote Unquote Records.

The element of surprise was Rosenstock’s idea as well. “I thought it would be cool to just put something out and not do a whole thing,” he says. “We had done that for the last two records, where we did the singles and the lead-up and the hype and all that stuff—and that’s fine, that’s cool, but I just wanted to put something out there.”

“I think it’s just my natural instinct to always do something that’ll maybe shoot me in the foot,” he concludes. 

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PHOTO: ALAN SNODGRASS

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C

an you imagine doing something—anything—for nearly 50 years? How would you maintain any sort of competitive edge, let alone aim to outdo what you were originally famous for decades in the past?

Ask Judas Priest.

This is not to say that the fabled British metal gods have topped their classic records with their 18th release, Firepower—out March 9 via Epic Records—but it’s a credit to their long-lasting success that few can agree on which is their best album. Now, the group’s latest chapter in the metal history books—books they helped to write—will further fan the flame of debate as only the best heavy metal can. There’s something special at play here: a classic emphasis on big riffs, bigger melodies, and some glorious Rob Halford vocal lines, all coming together to make Firepower feel like a vital period in the band’s legacy.

Halford credits a rather unique setup for the record’s success, one that feels more in line with the athletic arena than the recording studio. “I immediately jump into the world of production here, because there’s no doubt that [producer] Tom Allom and [co-producer] Andy Sneap and [engineer] Mike Exeter—you know, when you get a bunch of guys who have been around for a long time,” the vocalist quips, “and you’re doing your vocal take, and they go, ‘Do it again,” and you go, ‘I’ve just done it. What’s wrong with it?’

‘It’s not right. Do it again.’ It’s a bit like a coach. You know how a coach can get the best out of an athlete when the athlete doesn’t really know it’s there? I’m convinced that this is what’s happening here. I know the platform is the material, but it’s the actual performance that makes it really live, you know?”

“All of those nice things you said about the energy, the youthfulness, and the vitality, it’s all been drug out of us by Tom and Andy,” Halford laughs. “However, the intent and commitment were always there. It’s that they were able to get to the places that a

production team will get to. We’ll never be able to thank those guys enough, in that respect.”

“This balance, almost like oldschool [meets] new-school production, worked really well,” he adds. “I don’t know of any other band that’s done this. Maybe we’ll start a trend—we’ll see.” It’s safe to say Judas Priest know a little something about kick-starting trends.

One must wonder, with his wealth of experience and metal expertise, has Halford ever wanted to shout out, “I’m Rob fucking Halford, and it’s good enough for me” during a heated critique session?

“No, I could never do that,” he asserts. “In Britain, we say, ‘Once you get up your own ass, things can get really crazy.’ This whole thing about ego can be a very explosive set of circumstances. I think, because of our background and age, where we’re from, how we were raised, all those kinds of things have kept us very much in check when it comes to making those kinds of mistakes. Confidence in yourself is important, obviously, but again, if you’re not aware that there’re opportunities afforded you by people who are outside of the bubble, then you have problems.”

Perhaps this humility also stems, in part, from Halford’s understanding of music’s ability to lift people up—himself included. “We have a song on this record called ‘Rising From Ruins,’ and that can be anything in life,” he shares. “Personally, I’ve used music to get me through life’s difficulties. It creates strength, support, solace, and comfort. It’s empowering. Music will always do that for people. That’s how important music is to me in getting through life.”

“Then, really, it’s just about finding your own strength and power to get to the place you need to get to,” he continues. “It’s got to come from you, but there’s definitely support around you. Most of us don’t realize that, but there’s definitely support around you, and you should be grateful for that. I like that idea that there’s no end to the journey.”

“Didn’t I say that in a song once?

‘The journey never ends,’” he laughs. “Whatever value my words have, coming from living 66 years, it’s all embellished with wisdom and life’s ups and downs.”

The personal and sonic power synonymous with the band’s best work is still every bit as alive on Firepower. Songs like “Necromancer” and the title track feel like essential tomes in the Judas Priest canon. So, what were their goals for this, their 18th record?

“You’re just going from one song to the next,” Halford chuckles.

“That sounds very simple to say, doesn’t it? I think, really, it’s focus more than anything else. It’s working with this attitude of direction, of trying to make the most classic-sounding, heavy-sounding Priest album that we can make.

That kept us dialed in. This is a band that can be your turbo lover, and then, we can be the painkiller, so the discipline involved, again, is vital.”

It all comes back to that hunger, right? “Yes, you’ve got to be hungry. You’ve got to be,” Halford emphatically states. “I know all about resting on your laurels.

When we go out to tour, as we are now, Priest has always gone out to support new music. There’s no way we could still tour on [2014’s] Redeemer of Souls without any new songs under our belt. We’re a working heavy metal band, as I’ve said before.”

The act of embracing the grind is what makes Judas Priest so innovative and special. It all circles back to the athletic angle: the Olympics have nothing on the musician’s grind of writing, recording, and touring. It’s all preparation for the live spectacle.

It’s a cycle, but you have to put the work in. “You’re just nailing it each time. That’s exactly what it’s about,” Halford concurs. “It’s a heavy metal Olympics starring Judas Priest, and we’re always going for the fucking gold,” he laughs. “That attitude is absolutely right. If we’re all not pulling our weight, we’re going to fall off the crazy train. Thankfully, we are grateful to be where we are. You owe it to yourself and your fans to give it your best each time.” 

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S

hawna Potter has done many great things in the music industry: from playing in a Bikini Kill cover band as a fun side project to championing safer spaces and bystander intervention at shows to fronting Baltimore hardcore darlings War On Women.

STEM punk fuck-you song,” Potter says. “What’s cool about doing things like this today is she could record it at home on her own and email us the tracks. If we had to rely on being in the same room, we might not have had any guest vocals.”

War On Women’s previous record featured songs about street harassment, reproductive rights, critiques of the government, and many issues women and other opWar On Women are set to pressed peoples consistently release their sophomore al- face. Potter wanted to use bum, Capture the Flag, on April 13 via Bridge Nine Records. The album contains the same great in-your-face feminist punk style as their self-titled debut from 2015 but, this time, with more guest vocals from a diverse group of women.

However, Potter never thought she would get to work with one of her biggest influences.

One such guest vocalist is Burning Angel founder Joanna Angel, a friend of the band’s bassist Sue Werner.

Potter says the two have been friends since they were kids, and the band have all grown close to Angel throughout the years. Another supporting vocalist is guitarist Brooks Harlan’s 13-year-old daughter Eva, who assisted the band with some spirited yelling and screaming. the microphone as her platform to release her anger However, Potter is most ex- while also amplifying the imcited to share the microphone portance of these problems. with her childhood hero and fellow feminist punk icon “It just seemed like, at the Kathleen Hanna, who guests time, politically, there was so on the pre-released song much to be pissed off about,” “YDTMHTL” or “You Don’t she states. “I couldn’t unTell Me How to Live.” Potter derstand why more people says she met Hanna while weren’t fucking pissed about playing Riot Fest together cisgender men limiting the in 2016. The two have kept rights of people who have a in contact over the years via uterus. It just doesn’t make social media, so Potter decid- sense to me that they would ed to reach out to her to be a have a say in that at all. I felt part of Capture the Flag. “It’s like I was growing up and the such a perfect 14-year-old world didn’t revolve around

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me and there were all these issues that affected other people too, and it was just— at the time, I just needed, mentally, to get this stuff out, and it made sense to us to do it with music that was a bit heavy, because I think we are righteously angry about these things. We’ve just been keeping up that momentum.”

Potter and the band strive to make their shows a safer space for their fans, encouraging them to speak up if they are ever threatened. She says it is important for them

to know that War On Women will continue to believe them and fight to protect them.

The group also encourage others to create safer spaces within their communities and hope to play more shows on college campuses, allowing students to have Q&A sessions with the band after their performance.

Capture the Flag is the next level for War On Women, continuing to spread important messages for the feminist movement and addressing problems we continue to face

today. “I think it’s a natural progression from the last album; we aren’t repeating the same songs, whether it’s subject matter or musically,” Potter shares. “We keep pushing ourselves, and we keep trying to keep it interesting for people listening.

Unfortunately, my anger about this stuff has not subsided—they keep pissing me off, all these men in power.

They keep doing the exact wrong thing. They keep focusing and prioritizing the needs of rich people and corporations that are lining

their pockets, and they keep ignoring the people they represent.”

“There’s plenty to be pissed off about.”

PHOTO: NICK ZIMMER

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PHOTO: JEREMY SAFFER

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ave Wyndorf has steered the spaceship known as Monster Magnet through many ups and downs throughout their 10-album and nearly 30-year career. He’s guided the band through many lineup shake-ups and was the catalyst for the various changes in their musical direction. Through it all, he has always stayed to true his vision of delivering the most exciting rock imaginable through many different prisms.

When it came time write album number 11, he felt a need to get back to basics. “The last bunch of albums were full of esoteric weirdness, and man cannot live on esoteric weirdness alone,” he says. “I needed to rock.”

Monster Magnet’s new album, Mindfucker, which drops March 23 through Napalm Records, does exactly what Wyndorf set out to do. It rocks early and often, referencing all the great ‘70s hard rock bands, while adding a

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dose of early ‘70s Detroit punk attitude à la The Stooges and MC5.

Originally intended to be a “rock for rock’s sake” album, something happened during Mindfucker’s creation that made Wyndorf shift gears. That “something” was the election of Donald Trump. “You can’t deny the times,” he says. “I wasn’t going to write an introspective album—the music wasn’t leading me toward introspection. So, my sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll album was being ruined by what was going on in the world. I was in a weird position. I wasn’t going to write politics.

So, I had to write from my perspective. It’s the best I can do. I’m just a guy in a rock band. Basically, this is me in my kitchen screaming at the world.”

Mindfucker is a mix of these two approaches. There are songs such as “Rocket Freak,” “Want Some,” and the title track that fall in line with Wyndorf’s original intent. Then, there are

songs like “I’m God,” “Brainwashed,” and “When the Hammer Comes Down” that contain a bit of cynical social commentary, while still staying true to the music—which means, they rock.

In addition, the music on the new album is tailored to the strengths of the current iteration of Monster Magnet, which features Phil Caivano and Garrett Sweeny on guitar, Chris Kosnik on bass, and Bob Pantella on drums. “It’s in their wheelhouse. There are just certain tempos they lock onto,” Wyndorf says.

“We’re not playing to a click track.

We’re an old-school rock band. We could play the whole album live front-to-back if we had to. In addition, they’re great guys. Funny.

There is no major drama with these guys. Trust me, all the stuff you read about band drama is true—but not here. They’re happy to tour, meet people, party. We’re glad to be out there.”

Throughout their career, Monster Magnet have had to deal with people constantly questioning the changes and shifts in their music. Wyndorf takes the smack-talk in stride. For him, it’s part and parcel of being in a rock band. “The naysaying is always going to be a part of it,” he confirms.

“I knew this early on as a fan going to shows and reading the magazines.

You have to learn to live with it. For me, there is no reason to stop. It’s way better than working in a gas station.

You make the people who like you happy. That’s all you can do. You don’t freak out. Of course it’s not perfect.

Head down. Fuck ‘em all. Fuck ‘em if they can’t take a joke.”

Wyndorf is the true definition of a lifer, dedicated to his craft. “When I first started playing music, that’s all I wanted to do,” he says. “I can’t work in an office. That’s insane; I’ll end up like my father. It’s an adventure—like being in the circus.” 

was. We didn’t question what kind of music we were playing, we stuck to what we liked to hear.”

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ncient Egyptians believed death was just another step in the soul’s journey.

Mummifying the body was mostly done for comfort while in that transition. The crucial point was the changing of universes, the beginning anew, and the care of every element of energy contained within.

This aly’s craft cord, point

is the point where ItPsychedelic Witchland on their latest reSound of the Wind: the where all is possible.

“The ancient Egypt era was a huge turning point for humanity,” vocalist and founder Virginia Monti notes, “and Sound of the Wind has been a huge turning point for us. The album is about the journey of the soul.

It’s intended to be taken as an introspective journey which explores all the paths our soul has taken and still has to take.”

Sound of the Wind—released in the U.S. on Feb. 27 by Listenable Records—takes a more immediate and encompassing turn than its predecessor, the band’s 2016 debut full-length, The Vision. Every space is filled, like the mummy’s soul protected within its bandages. There is nothing wasted here, and the record hums like a motorcycle cruising the horizon of infancy.

Songs vary completely yet hold an underlining theme: something like the sky section of a soul’s path, the clear blue ice of eternal atmosphere.

“I have this vision in mind to basically make four albums dedicated to the four elements,” Monti explains. “The Vision was fire, while Sound of the Wind stands for air. It is the element that represents intelli-

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gence, introspection, and creativity. These traits have been majorly touched during the making of the album.”

“We took our time to think about how to make our songs really speak for us,” Monti continues.

“I took a deep look inside myself after living a difficult year full of experiences which, beautiful or not, changed me. This deep look served to find myself again.”

Psychedelic Witchcraft’s twisting spiral of ‘70s doom and biker rock screams out wild on the new record, as do the blues and soul and their dedication to immaculate songwriting. Each song is a complete package unto itself, with riffs maximum and melodies soaring like the wings of Eden. There’s a looseness to the music that is completely infectious.

“We’ve finally been able to properly record our live sound and the magic that flows between us when we play together,” Monti says.

“We played what we f e l t , whatever it

Sound of the Wind is a study of a band in their prime. There is so much to grasp here, and yet, it feels so easy and effortless—a giant space of clarity and precision. “Rising on the Edge” is one of the harder-edged numbers, with a hook like a blade through the mind. It sits, resting there and boiling, hot and powerful.

A cusp of gravity condenses its magnitude. It’s heavy.

“The last two years, I’ve been through a rough time,” Monti admits. “I was in a relationship that was changing me and didn’t allow me to be myself.

I felt like I had to change to fit something else, something that really wasn’t so true to myself.

I felt

trapped in a situation, and I didn’t see a way out. ‘Rising on the Edge’ comes with the desire of being free and the strength to set myself free again. It’s a story of mine; it’s what I lived turned into a song which speaks of freedom and free will in every note.” 

PHOTO: JACKI VITETTA

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cottsdale, Arizona’s blessthefall are a band in transition, but they’re happy with where they’re going.

With six albums and counting under their belt, they’ve got a ton of experience to draw from, and it shines through on their newest record, Hard Feelings.

Hard Feelings is the band’s first release on Rise Records—due out March 23— but the band have pushed through the turmoil associated with a label jump to be there for their fans. Frontman Beau Bokan is dedicated to pouring himself into the music he makes rather than shaping his music to fit some arbitrary standard. “I do actually feel pretty responsible for putting 100 percent into the art and into the music,” he comments.

“Music is in a weird place right now, especially rock. I do feel that rock music is super, super important, just because I know how much the fans who are there really care about the music and really care about the lyrics and, you know, just the soul and the heart that’s put into it.”

The personal aspect of blessthefall’s music is important to Bokan. Although he acknowledges that he has written from

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other people’s perspectives in the past, he’s most at home when putting his own life on paper. As he puts it, “I do feel like I have to add and take from personal experiences, because it’s hard to put myself in someone else’s shoes and write from another person’s perspective. Although I have done [that], I feel like the best, most personal work, I guess, does come from personal experiences and things that I’ve gone through.”

This dedication to making the personal facets of his work shine through is evident in Bokan’s lyrics. During the writing process for Hard Feelings, he worked to be open and not hold back, nudged along by the band’s producer, Tyler Smyth. “[Smyth] pushed me to really get specific and really get personal and put that time and effort into the lyrics—into every lyric, every line,” Bokan explains. “I really dug deep on this album, and there’s some dark places in there. I think that’s good, and I think that’s what people want to hear—that we’re human.”

The journey of crafting his art has been important for Bokan’s journey as

an individual, and he comments that writing music is like a “therapy session” for him. He explains further, “On this record, there was a lot of trying to find the fire inside again, trying to find an inspiration again, trying to reignite that flame, trying to reach back and find the reasons why we first started writing music in the first place.”

Besides getting personal, Bokan notes that while writing for Hard Feelings, he aimed to craft lyrics that had the quotable quality of songs by bands like Taking Back Sunday—a quality he says he’s long been impressed by.

He and his bandmates—guitarist Eric Lambert, bassist Jared Warth, drummer Matt Traynor, and guitarist Elliott Gruenberg—are also fans of artists like Architects and Thrice. Bokan feels that these musicians have influenced their art, though blessthefall’s message remains unique.

On top of the subtle influences combined to make the deeply candid work of art that is Hard Feelings, the record also features an appearance by Bokan’s daughter, who sings one of

the last lines on the album. Bokan says that this performance was facilitated by the band working out of an Airbnb, an all-around comfortable and relaxed environment that accommodated his daughter being there, which eventually led to her brief vocal feature. “For me, personally, obviously, that made the record so special and so memorable,” he says.

These many factors tied together to create a record with a sincerely memorable and personal touch for blessthefall’s fans, and Bokan is thankful for those who continue to stick by them.

His philosophy? “As long as they don’t quit, we won’t quit,” he assures. 

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hin Lizzy and “Dungeons & Dragons” might seem like strange bedfellows, but Gygax make the seemingly unusual combination work. The Ventura, California, quartet—named after “D&D” creator Gary Gygax—are set to release their second LP on March 16 via Creator-Destructor Records. The aptly titled 2nd Edition even takes its name from the beloved “Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition” from 1989.

Gygax founder, vocalist, and bassist—and the party’s Cleric—Eric Harris, formerly of Gypsyhawk, recalls the band’s origins. “It’s not that crazy, right?” he says. “Oh no, just kidding. It’s hard to elaborate on this, because it wasn’t some stroke of genius. My friend actually had the idea of naming a band Gygax. I think he was speaking about it in a passing manner, but after Gypsyhawk dissolved, it occurred to me just to run with it.”

“It seemed ridiculous at the time, but it’s all fun,” he adds. “This is, by far,

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the best thing I have ever been involved with musically.”

Harris says it wasn’t difficult to get other musicians to buy into his vision. “Not for Bryant [Throckmorton],” he says of the band’s guitarist and Fighter. “He stuck with me after Gypsyhawk, because we were so enamored with each other’s play style.

That guy is incredible all around.” “[Drummer and Warlock] Pete [Campbell] and I met a long time ago and have always wanted to play in a band together,” Harris continues. “After hearing our first album, he immediately wanted to do this. [Guitarist and Wizard] Jeff [Potts] is an intellectual by nature. Being that he came from a prog [and] fantasy upbringing, he was sold on the aesthetic. So, no, I guess it wasn’t [difficult].” In 2017, Gygax also added Ian Martyn—their resident Druid—on keys.

Musically, Thin Lizzy are clearly Gygax’ biggest influence. One minute into the first track on 2nd Edition, “Dice Throwers & Rock N’ Roll-

ers,” the twin lead guitars ring out and leave little doubt. On the slower “Pure Hearts,” Harris channels fellow singing bass player and late Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott at his most vulnerable. Even when the lyrics baffle, the music speaks a universal language.

The gregarious Harris speaks fondly of the recent resurgence and lasting appeal of Thin Lizzy. “You can’t keep true talent and soul down,” he says. “Thin Lizzy were one of a kind. Most popular music is always copy and pasted and requires no real talent or soul.”

One might think Harris would worry about running out of inspiration when writing about such narrow subject matter, but he has no fear.

“The [role-playing game] element is an infinite wellspring, my man,” he assures. “Infinite. We haven’t even come close to touching on the futuristic games either.”

An occasional downside of playing to such a passionate audience is the fans’ incredible attention to detail. Harris

admits to having taken his share of flak for slight technical inaccuracies.

“I don’t think that will ever stop being a thing, but I understand,” he explains. “No one wants to see their passions bastardized, so I try to progress with knowledge in every aspect I am writing about. There’s no room for exclusion in fantasy, though.”

Fantasy gamers have largely been a maligned subculture, but there are real-world lessons to be learned from them. Harris has some serious thoughts about overcoming obstacles and actively rising above the naysayers. “Hurt people hurt people, you know?” he says. “Violence and hatred are easy, but taking calm tactics to resolving issues is really an important thing, especially in fantasy and RPGs.” “I think that’s why I have always loved the game and community vibe,” he concludes. “It combats bigotry, and no matter how abstract an idea, it encourages understanding and patience. That’s the only way we’re going to survive as a race. Dig?” 

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he label “punk legends” gets bandied about quite loosely these days, but in this case, we can unequivocally use the term. The Damned were the first U.K. punk band to release a single, 1976’s New Rose; a full-length, the super-crazed Damned Damned Damned from 1977; and to tour the United States. Now, the incorrigible lot are back with their first album since 2008’s So, Who’s Paranoid?

Out April 13 on Search And Destroy and Spinefarm Records, Evil Spirits is quite a treat. The 10-track album features an array of songs that traverse many lyrical topics and hit a variety of musical notes.

Guitarist Captain Sensible mentions that, while on tour in the U.K. in February, The Damned played three new songs in their set. Proving just how formidable the record is, he says, “We could’ve chosen any three from the album, as every track is a strong tune.” He admits, “Maybe there was some rivalry [between] the band’s songwriters over who would get the singles, so it’s made for a strong collection of songs.”

The album’s first single, “Standing on the Edge of Tomorrow”—a powerful clarion call to change the present course we’re on—has been played on the radio “occasionally,” according to the guitarist. “The Damned have not always had a ton of media support; we’re very much an underground band,” he explains.

“We survive through support from what we like to think of as ‘a crowd of discerning music lovers.’”

“Sure, I’m a loose cannon and say what I think, but isn’t rock music supposed to ask questions and be antiestablishment?” Sensible muses. He says he often ponders, “Where in today’s climate would the next Hendrix, Lennon, or Strummer find a chance to emerge?

The current crop contains a lot of same-sounding posh twits—certainly in the U.K., anyway.”

Circling back to the new record, Sensible says, “We recorded the album oldschool style, all live in a room, staring at each other’s ugly mugs.” He refers to the recording pace as “relentless,” and says that “during the last few days, [key-

boardist] Monty [Oxymoron], [vocalist] Dave [Vanian], and myself were throwing dubs at the songs like anyone’s business. So, there’s a few rough edges in there.” Which, rightfully so, he likes.

“Perfection is overrated,” he asserts.

Of the record’s stylings, the guitarist explains, “Evil Spirits has some of the garage flavor we were going for on [1982’s] Strawberries; that’s been jollied along by having Paul back. Him, Dave, and myself are mad garage fans.”

Paul is, of course, Paul Gray, who lent his talents to the aforementioned Strawberries and that other massive classic, The Black Album, and who is now back in the band. Sensible declares him the “number one candidate for the band’s ‘best-ever ex-bassist.’” Of Gray’s prowess, he adds, “It’s like watching a masterclass in bass technique, and the Rickenbacker sound suits the material perfectly.” A perfect example of the “flavor” he’s alluding to is the album’s title track, a delectable garage-punk freak-out.

As a legitimate punk legend who’s produced so much memorable material over the last 40 years, what is Sensible’s approach to writing these days? “For me,” he says, “when I sit down to knock up a tune, anything could come out of it: fast, slow, moody, weird, psychedelic. It’s whatever happens at the time.”

Offering a great piece of advice that can be applied across many fields, he adds, “I know there’s no point in pushing it. If there’s nothing there, I just wait until inspiration reappears.” Sensible says that the penultimate track on the record is a perfect example of letting something simmer. “Dave is more wordy than I and produced a wonderful lyric for what became ‘The Daily Liar,’ which was a completed musical piece waiting for words for 10 years,” he recounts. “I know the riff has a Monkees feel, but who doesn’t love them?!” Kids out there, take note and learn...

As for Evil Spirits’ subject matter, there are a lot of lyrics touching on lies and truth. Sensible confirms that there are some things that do tie together.

“Trump’s in there, of course, and it says a lot that someone like that can gain more popular support than a ca-

reer politician with extensive government experience,” he says. “Of course, a Washington insider was the last thing voters wanted, so they voted accordingly. […] If Trump has done anything constructive, it is to start the debate on ‘fake news,’ which some would say is long overdue.”

In the end, Sensible says, “We’re not ramming any messages down people’s necks. The songs have to stand on their own. I like an element of playfulness and a dab of sarcasm in there too, rather than saying, ‘This is bad.’” It’s a skill The Damned have utilized and honed for years. 

PHOTO: ALAN SNODGRASS

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PHOTO: PAUL SILVER

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he wide-open twin guitar attack of Hot Snakes is impossible to resist. Guitarist John Reis—of Swami Records fame—vocalist and guitarist Rick Froberg, and drummer Jason Kourkounis have been playing in bands together—and separately—since they were all teenagers in San Diego, brought together by their love of extreme music. “Most of [the band] met at the beach as children,” Reis says. “I met Rick at a camp for gifted kids. Punk music changed our lives. We all decided to form different bands over the years, and we somehow came together in Hot Snakes.”

Froberg and Reis started honing their approach in 1986 with their post-hardcore band Pitchfork.

In 1990, they moved on to Drive Like Jehu, refining the radical, intertwining guitar approach that they’ve perfected in Hot Snakes.

Between Drive Like Jehu and Hot Snakes, Reis played with Rocket From The Crypt and Froberg moved to New York City to pursue a career as an artist and illustrator, but the geographical distance between them doesn’t affect their collaboration. “We use airplanes to fly and meet each other,” Reis quips.

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The last Hot Snakes album, Audit In Progress, was released 13 years ago, and their new opus, Jericho Sirens—due out via Sup Pop Records on March 16—is even louder and more sonically overpowering.

Its 10 tracks are a natural continuation of the intense, almost convoluted guitar sound the band have been developing over the years and the impressive result of the almost telepathic communication Froberg and Reis display when they’re jamming together.

Reis says the album was made by “a live band playing in a room.

Maybe later, we would add a sound here or there. On some songs, it’s just the two [of us], and on others, I double my guitar playing—it just depends on the song. Since the guitar sound was predominantly cleaner than how I remembered the guitars sounding on the earlier records, doubling my guitar can help with the sustain, but mostly, it’s just the two guitars.”

Hot Snakes’ aggressive, guitar-heavy sound is often overwhelming. You won’t hear many solos, though there are often brief breaks between verses that add

texture to the arrangements. Why did they hold back on the individual shredding? “We had lots of solos actually,” Reis explains.

“When we gave the rough mixes to Sub Pop, they thought perhaps it was too much. After listening to it more, we agreed they were right.”

“We have made 438 records collectively, so we know what we want,” Reis adds, noting that the band chose to produce the album themselves. “A producer would only tell us to turn down our guitars and turn up the vocals. Fuck that.”

The sounds on Jericho Sirens are dominated by the throbbing textures Froberg and Reis create with their guitars, supported

by Gar Wood’s thick, primordial bass and the inventive rhythmic textures supplied by drummers Kourkounis and Mario Rubalcaba. There are hints of punk, folk, surf music, spaghetti western soundtracks, and funk churning through the mix, a slightly more eclectic approach than on previous albums. “Have you ever gone grocery shopping when you are really hungry?” Reis asks. “You

end up buying way too much food and going overboard. I think that’s what happened. The biggest difference would probably be that we are at different places in our lives now.”

Before their recent reunion, Hot Snakes had only played together briefly during a world tour in 2011. They hadn’t been in the studio since they made Audit In Progress in 2004. “I’m very impatient,” Reis says. “I don’t feel like I was waiting to make a record.

Time goes by fast. It didn’t even feel like it was that long of a time.

So, yes, it was six years [since the tour], but there is always music happening, even when there is nothing to show for it. I can hear it in my head.”

Reis adds that the world will not have to wait another six years for the next big thing from Hot Snakes. “We have the next [record] finished, and we already have some songs for the one after that,” he says, “but we’re not sure when the next release date is.” 

I

t’s no secret that there are predators in our industry and scenes, people who use their positions of power to prey on fans and harass, gaslight, and abuse their fellow artists and industry folks. This is nothing new. There has always been a history of sexual violence and gendered discrimination in music, and it has fostered harmful attitudes and behaviors that persist today, reaching all the way down to the most micro local levels. It’s tempting to focus on the high-profile abusers, but it’s also crucial to address the ways we all consciously and subconsciously foster, justify, or ignore these dangerous dynamics.

Here, four such individuals offer their thoughts on the current state of the industry. It is essential not only to listen to the stories and critiques offered by those who are affected by discrimination and violence, but also to push ourselves—whether we fall into those categories or not—to listen and learn, to be accountable, and to proactively work toward creating a safer and more equitable music community.

Fortunately, more and more individuals are coming together to fight for topdown accountability, inclusion, and safety within our scenes.

KIM KELLY

ART BY EXHUMED VISIONS

There are two prevailing schools of thought at work here. Firstly, the “keep metal dangerous” crowd—the insipidity of which I don’t need to get into here—dovetailed with the “but he’s always been cool to me!” [or] “I personally haven’t dealt with sexism or assault, so clearly, it doesn’t exist!” apologists. Then, secondly, those who are actively interested in or involved in working to change the culture. In order to counter and deconstruct the former, those engaged in the latter have a significant struggle ahead—one that’s entirely necessary and worthwhile, of course, but it sure ain’t an easy task.

Metal is the best thing in the world and should be available to everyone. Every person should feel safe at a metal show or at a record store or anywhere else in the world. Making metal “safe” isn’t about sucking all the fun out of it or smoothing its rough edges; it’s about making sure a minority of shitheads don’t ruin something amazing for everyone else.

Kim Kelly is a writer, editor, and political organizer in New York City. She’s currently the heavy metal editor at Noisey, VICE’s music and culture vertical. For the past 15 years, she has covered heavy metal and the culture surrounding it for publications like Rolling Stone, Terrorizer, Decibel, Kerrang!, Metal Hammer, and many more. Her freelance writing on books, politics, and history can be found in The Guardian, Al Jazeera, The New Republic, Teen Vogue, Bitch, and others.

How much time have you got? Ha! Let’s take a look at how many bands or artists who have been accused—or convicted— of sexual harassment and/or assault are still on the road, still signed to labels, and still getting press coverage. How many rapists, abusers, serial harassers, or racists have been fawned over in the press or signed to cushy record deals? Let’s look at the genre’s endemic sexism, its misogyny, its homophobia, its transphobia, its racism—and how those who work to combat these evils are treated by other members of the community.

Let’s look at the reaction to the Deiphago incident. Let’s look at the reaction to the Decapitated case. Even when one takes into account the overwhelming number of wonderful, good-hearted, respectful metalhead men out there, overall, it’s not a pretty picture, is it?

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EI CEE

Ei Cee has been a musician for over 10 years—playing in various bands and music scenes in the Greater Toronto Area—and has been organizing and putting on events for the last five years. Currently, they play in the queer grindcore band Holy Grinder and have a solo noise project called Goth Girl. Both

projects are heavily influenced by Cee’s non-binary identity ing students end sexual violence in school. Through building and connection to the trans community. a network of young advocates, they help bring about policy change and provide information to students on consent.

Promoters and musicians need to be aware of what a safe space actually means, because I think there is a lack of understanding I think, through supporting survivors, whether it’s by donating when it comes to this term. If people in the music community— to organizations, bringing awareness to the issue, or simply lisand in any community, really—have an issue with a zero-toler- tening to their stories, we’re able to have a positive impact. We ance mentality on racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, can also help by creating our own networks within the music and sexual assault, then those people should not be welcomed scene that might encourage people to start having more conin said communities. No one should have to feel threatened or versations about consent and discuss other ways to support unsafe at events that are meant to be fun and an escape from survivors of abuse. the bullshit we all deal with day to day.

In the last three or four years, I’ve seen many of my peers put on blast for various things: I’ve seen bands break up over one person’s disgusting choices, I’ve seen bands stay together despite someone’s disgusting choices, and I’ve seen fans of bands verbally assault victims of sexual assault. People in the music community need to take a hard stance on this kind of misconduct. Then, and only then, will there be any kind of improvement. It is definitely better than it used to be, but there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to create safer spaces for everyone.

CARINA ZACHARY

Carina Zachary is the lead vocalist of the post-hardcore and alternative rock band Husbandry and a vocalist in the electronic collective Monsters On The Horizon. Hailing from the Bronx, she has been involved in several bands and projects throughout the New York City area.

I think the #MeToo movement—[which was] founded by Tarana Burke—has been instrumental in creating a conversation we desperately needed to be having. We need to keep in mind that abuse comes in many forms and does not conform to gender, race, social class, or age. That said, we must educate ourselves and aim to bring awareness to the oppressed and marginalized—women and LGBTQ people of color, for instance.

Organizations like The Anti-Violence Project based in New York work to support LGBTQ survivors and communities affected by HIV by providing counseling and advocacy. Donations are accepted and hotlines available for anyone who needs support. It’s also important to support the younger generation.

Know Your IX is a survivor- and youth-led [organization] help-

EBONY JEANETTE

Ebony Jeanette’s lifework is connecting people with the entertainment and brands they love by converting messages into meaningful, discoverable media experiences.

Based in both Los Angeles and Columbus, Ohio, when Jeanette isn’t headbanging at metal shows, she is handling publicity and marketing duties at her own PR company, Ebony Jeanette PR, and serving as the in-house publicist for extreme metal record label, Prosthetic Records.

shows; it’s more valuable to promote a culture of consent than it is to disassociate with perpetrators. At the end of the day, we’re all human beings, and we need to be more conscientious, more caring, and more educated about what consent means, what respect for women and men entails, and how it actually benefits the music industry rather than making calling out sexual assault the latest buzzworthy trend. Don’t get me wrong, when someone is committing sexual assault or harassment at your show or in your workplace, call them out, fire them, but don’t stop there. Use it as a teaching tool to show that we, as musicians and industry personnel, will no longer tolerate Bands [and] artists sexist culture and predatory behavior. can’t just stop at kicking the assault- For more insights from Ei Cee, Carina Zachaers off tours and out ry, and Ebony Jeanette—as well as Vile Creature of the band or stop drummer Vic Creature and Metal Injection’s Lauat “no girls allowed ryn Mercer—head over to newnoisemagazinecom! on the bus” after Within the music industry, the rampant culture of silence and dismissal in the name of “rock ‘n’ roll” or “that’s just how it is” around misogyny and sexual exploitation must be dispelled across all genres. Whistleblowing or just firing the person does not solve the problem.

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NEW NOISE BOOK NOOK PRESENTS... access to their personal archives.

The two LPs—one a greatest hits record and the other a collection of out-of-print singles—are designed to stand as a soundtrack to the book.

But the project wasn’t without its trials. The effort took on a whole new level of importance following drummer Andrew Loomis’ death in March 2016 and Fred Cole’s this past November. Dead Moon’s seminal garage punk was worthy of commemorating on its own, but the loss of two of their members added an unexpected element of timeliness that spurred the project forward. “For me, it became everything,” Isaacson says. “I was listening to it all day and all night, just indulging and working on the book constantly.

It was just full immersion, like, ‘Let’s just go through this.’”

INTERVIEW WITH MISSISSIPPI RECORDS COFOUNDER ERIC ISAACSON BY RYAN BRAY

D

id you know that Dead Moon used to time the length of their sets to a burning candle, which would extinguish at the exact moment the music drew to a close?

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Isaacson was also motivated by the response the project received on Kickstarter. For someone who infamously works off the grid—Mississippi Records maintains a relatively minimal online footprint—crowdfunding the project was an interesting bridge for Isaacson to cross. But the campaign was an overwhelming success, generating north of $78,800 and eclipsing the label’s $50,000 goal. “That was interesting to me, to see how people did weirdly need to be a part of this process in some way and that Kickstarter weirdly allowed them to do that,” Isaacson says. “I could see how it was genuine and how it feels really good to folks, and that’s really cool.”

Isaacson says there are plans for his label to reissue more Dead Moon material in the future. As for the book and LP set, those who didn’t preorder via Kickstarter can find them online at sites.google.com/site/mississippicsr.

panying double-LP—to fans who backed the project on Kickstarter.

For years, these were the kind of stories that caught Eric Isaacson’s ear and imagination. “It’s like, ‘What is the truth?’” asks Isaacson, cofounder and operator of Mississippi Records. “I don’t know. Who cares? I just started to think about getting all of these things down somehow on paper.”

A longtime fan himself, Isaacson’s relationship with Dead Moon began with a desire to rerelease their records, which had long been out of print. After Mississippi eventually reissued the band’s first three albums—1988’s In the Graveyard, 1989’s Unknown Passage, and 1990’s Defiance—in 2011, Isaacson became a regular visitor to the Cole household, which he found was overrun with various artifacts and keepsakes from the band’s career. “I started looking at it and thought, ‘Man, there needs to be an art book preserving all of this,’” he recalls. “They had boxes and boxes of stuff in their attic.”

After three years of working alongside the band’s members and those closest to them, Isaacson’s work is complete. In April, Mississippi Records will begin mailing copies of “Dead Moon: The Book”—along with an accom-

From these boxes, Isaacson culled fliers, photographs, lyrics, and “tons of weird ephemera,” which he says make up “95 percent” of the 300-plus page book.

Each band member also consented to interviews and allowed full

Did you hear the one about how vocalist and guitarist Fred Cole and bassist Toody Cole ran the Portland Marathon with cigarettes dangling from their mouths?

“And Toody being so strong and gung-ho was really inspirational,” he adds. “She just plowed through and was really strong for everyone. She encouraged everyone to keep on, and that was very much in spirit with the band.

Like, ‘Against all odds, you have to just sort of plow through shit.’”

PHOTO: ERIC GEEVERS

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EPs COMBUST: DEMO 7”: STRAIGHT & ALERT RECORDS

Combust—freshly formed from members of Vice and Impact—are on a specific mission: to play nofrills New York hardcore. Directly applying the tough bounce and grit of Killing Time, Outburst, and Cro-Mags, Combust explode on five demo tracks. Straight & Alert happily recruited this band to rep the N.Y. sound. Making it feel like it’s 1988 again, tracks like “Combust” and “Drowning” sound like lost ovuttakes from Killing Time’s Brightside—and that’s a good thing. Set to ship in March, the 7” comes in three versions: 100 with preorder cover on green wax; 100 with regular cover on green wax; and 300 with regular cover on black wax. –Hutch

REISSUES THE CASKET LOTTERY: CHOOSE BRONZE, MOVING MOUNTAINS, AND SURVIVAL IS FOR COWARDS: RUN FOR COVER RECORDS

For two decades now, Kansas City, Missouri-based The Casket Lottery have been churning out an inspired mix of post-hardcore, math rock, and emo music. Across four LPs, just as many EPs, and countless 7”s, the band have grown their fan base from a regional following to devotees in just about all reaches of the globe. But their first three efforts have long been out of print on vinyl, so in comes Run For Cover Records to fix that. The label is reissuing all three records—available individually or as a box set—on Record Store Day, April 21. –John B. Moore

CIRCLE JERKS: WÖNDERFUL: PORTERHOUSE RECORDS

Perhaps not Circle Jerks’ most well-known or well-loved release—their classic, crazed 1980 full-length debut, Group Sex, takes that title—Wönderful was first released in 1985 on Combat Core Records. This 13-song album was their fourth LP and features the long-running lineup of vocalist Keith Morris, guitarist Greg Hetson, bassist Zander Schloss, and drummer Keith Clark. Replete with their signature sarcastic, snotty quality, it features such classics as “Killing for Jesus,” the inimitable “I, I & I,” and the silly sendup, “American Heavy Metal Weekend” and is certainly deserving of the reissue and remaster treatment.

Released March 2, Porterhouse Records has done a great job of introducing this quintessential SoCal punk must-have to a younger generation—and reacquainting us old folks who may have forgotten its relevance and importance. –Janelle Jones

HYBORIAN: VOL. 1: SEASON OF MIST

From a land more associated with BBQ smoke than Mary Jane—Kansas City, Missouri— Hyborian are setting the stoner metal world ablaze. Their stupidly fun 2017 debut, Vol. 1, was recently reissued by Season Of Mist, so it’s as great a time as any to become acquainted with your new favorite progressive sludge group. Their sound takes the winningest attributes of the genre’s best—Mastodon, Red Fang, and Baroness—and slaps it on a time-traveling sci-fi concept record. What sets Hyborian apart is their laser-focus on agile riffing and dangerously addictive hooks. Vol. 1 can prog and get spacey with the best of them, but those are all just tasty seasoning for its meaty, heavy core. Released Feb. 23. –Nicholas Senior

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LAUGHING HYENAS: MERRY GO ROUND AND YOU CAN’T PRAY A LIE: THIRD MAN RECORDS / TOUCH AND GO RECORDS

The relatively short-lived but wildly influential blues punk band Laughing Hyenas called it a day in 1995, but thanks to a partnership between Third Man Records and Touch And Go Records, their entire discography is finally being reissued. The first two to get the special treatment are 1987’s Merry Go Round and 1989’s You Can’t Pray a Lie, released on black vinyl on Feb. 14. The Merry Go Round reissue—spread across two LPs—includes the five bonus tracks that were originally included on the 1995 Touch And Go CD reissue, while this iteration of You Can’t Pray a Lie is a straight copy of the 1989 release. –John B. Moore

NOI!SE: THE SCARS WE HIDE: PIRATES PRESS The Scars We Hide is only four years old, but Washington State’s Noi!se have remixed, remastered, and reissued this 2014 gem with the help of Pirates Press. Noi!se’s sincerity is palpable in each note. The lyrics boast vulnerability and honesty while the music engages and punches with pure punk fury. Strapped with Nate Leinfelder’s bass work—which propels and wanders for flair—Kenny Dirkes’ pounding rhythms, and the dual guitars of Matt Henson and Jesse O’Donnell, the strength of Noi!se is Henson’s voice, which is wrought with emotion and authenticity.

Noi!se know how to incorporate a catchy chorus and gang vocals, so seeing one of their rare appearances is a cathartic experience. You sweat and sing in a room roiling with camaraderie, expelling raw feeling to their anthems.

–Hutch

VOIVOD: WAR AND PAIN: METAL BLADE RECORDS

Prog-thrash sci-fi ice warriors Voivod have seen a fair amount of represses recently. Unfortunately, War and Pain only won itself a CD box set in 2004. Until now. This reissue of Voivod’s groundbreaking debut album, War and Pain, will bring you back to 1984 with its tension and paranoia. Tracks like “Live for Violence,” “Suck Your Bone,” “Nuclear War,” and, of course, the title track and the killer opener, “Voivod,” are resurrected with clarity and malice. The thrash classic’s frequencies were remastered by Patrick W. Engl and etched into vinyl as a “Metal Blade Originals” LP. Released on Feb. 14 on digipak CD or vinyl. –Hutch vb

REISSUES THE LAWRENCE ARMS: WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD: FAT WRECK CHORDS

The Lawrence Arms have dodged major labels. They’ve created music on their own terms, without hopping into the pop punk circle jerk of MTV’s “TRL” days. They don’t have “hits.” Yet, they are releasing their career retrospective, We Are the Champions of the World, on March 30. Herein lies the band’s secret: “When [vocalist and guitarist] Chris [McCaughan] brings in a song, I think, ‘Fffuck, I have to write songs this good now,’” vocalist and bassist Brendan Kelly says. “We are all cognizant of the fact that it’s real easy to become a bad band.” This collection has no bad tunes—just no hits. McCaughan puts it best: “Let’s be honest, man: I’m close to perfect. Those guys are essentially flawless. We are ultimately the perfect band. That’s why we put out this perfect record, and we’re gonna do some perfect tours alongside it.” –Scott Murry

MEAN JEANS: JINGLES COLLECTION: FAT WRECK CHORDS

The Who kind of half-assed it on their 1967 The Who Sell Out LP, but Portland’s Mean Jeans go full corporate whore with their brilliant and brilliantly funny Jingles Collection: 23 truly inspired jingles for real products—that, for the record, were never really requested by the companies who make them. The lovingly-prepared pop punk ditties include odes to Wendy’s Junior Bacon Cheeseburger, Coors Light, Pop Rocks, Sizzler, Hot Pockets, and many other food-related tracks, but thinking like real Madison Avenue jingle types, the band even tossed in some songs about Rain-X wiper blades and a paper shredding business. Released Feb. 16. –John B. Moore

ROTTING CHRIST: THEIR GREATEST SPELLS: THE BEST OF ROTTING CHRIST: SEASON OF MIST

Rarely does such an influential act continue to challenge themselves 30 years into their career, but Rotting Christ have proven to be a truly rare breed. To commemorate their third decade of existence, vocalist and guitarist Sakis Tolis helped curate this sprawling 33-song, two-disc collection of the dark metal group’s most compelling incantations. While anything labeled “best of” can be controversial for fans, Their Greatest Spells highlights Rotting Christ’s long-form evolution from forebears of the Greek black metal sound into a uniquely gothic blackened death behemoth. The album concludes with a new track, “I Will Not Serve,” which hints that there’s quite a bit of musical apostasy left in Rotting Christ’s tank. Out March 23. –Nicholas Senior

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LA TENE: TARDIVE/ISSIME: ASTRAL SPIRITS The Franco-Swiss trio La Tene create whispers of ancient zones with their hypnotic movements: a twirling sensitivity with light edges and blending equations. An avant-garde tour de force, the group’s North American debut is singular like Can, Neu!, and other Kraut rock, but more massive in expansion, with concentrations on tribal modes and sparse meditations. Like said Kraut bands, Le Tene utilize rhythms to transport one’s concentration, but do so with even greater minimalistic practice. The music is psychedelic, religious, and something like a walk in the clouds: you drift, you find peace, and you begin to wiggle free from Saṃsāra, emptying your baggage and memories. This is a nice tape to move your soul.

TROPICAL TRASH: A DENT IN THE FOREVER CAN: STONED TO DEATH I think I found my new favorite band.

Louisville, Kentucky’s Tropical Trash arrive at punk rock from the ground up, playing tunes that sound like the Earth and your life connected as one sidewalk. Think Minutemen, Germs, DNA, Circle Jerks, Liars, and then don’t think, because Tropical Trash will make you forget about everything, reminding you of the infinite pureness of making noise in your garage when there’s nothing else but you and your mates and your dad’s old amps and shitty guitars and large spliffs, cheap beer, and the whole never-ending universe in your hand. A Dent in the Forever Can is slacker avant-garde bass worship, tin can stomp rock. You can’t even make this stuff up, it’s so good.

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BRETT NAUCKE: MULTIPLE HALLUCINATIONS: HAUSU MOUNTAIN RECORDS Brett Naucke’s solo synth project arrives in full bloom with Multiple Hallucinations, a two-song, two-sided behemoth of varying dimensions.

Postmodernism collides with the dark underbelly of the club scene, then arranges itself as a poetic hymn of buttons and switches and codes of lines making lasers and brain patterns. Naucke is a prolific guy; he’s part of the punk band ONO and also tours with Tortoise. The Chicago native’s foray into the synth world is spiraling and deft. His new tape is multiplex: a signal that technology may yet have something to offer us. There are sections that transport your brain into the light sphere of white noise, with roses and silver sparkling in bursts. The best is when it gets dark: a complex amalgam of fear and jostle.

AMNUTSEBA: DEMO II: CALIGARI RECORDS French black metal outfit Amnutseba are something from the bottom. Their sound is of shadow and nightmare passages, to and fro, across the river of death. Their latest, the two-song, two-sided nugget of unearthly caverns, Demo II, is at times unnerving, with Mayhem-like mindfucks strewn about in a muddy and gargling pit of noise and barren landscape. The cassette is excellent in its ability to make the listener completely aware of the fact that the universe is being unflinchingly rearranged before one’s very ears, with shrapnel of pain and screams strewn across the eons of time. So much darkness seems like a recipe for sadness, yet Amnutseba find a way to cull the inspiration from your inner chi, caressing it with invisible hands made of the skeletal universe. You’ll float all the way to Hell.