This issue has been a long time coming! Various life circumstances have changed since the last edition but needless to say writing, editing and filling a magazine is no easy task with four children and a full time job. Regardless, here we are once again. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I do creating Out of Step. Until next time! D. Gilmore Out of Step UK
The Salt Pale Collective are the best progressive metal band that you probably haven't heard. The bands debut EP came out last year too great reviews across the board. What the collective offer is a musical journey. One that is drenched in more raw emotions than your mum at her Friday night bukkake shoot. The Salt Pale Collective will do some great things, mark my words. How would you describe the music The Salt Pale Collective creates? Dan: I’m not sure I’d even try to describe it, we are all influenced by and interested in so many different types of creative expression and I think that really comes across. Alex: It’s hard to put a finger on the sound. We all love quite an abundance of different genres. But it’s definitely rooted in doom. Dave: I definitely think we’re influenced by low and slow, that has been the core of what we’ve started with and it really has taken on a life of it’s own but we’re always trying to go weirder when we can! If I wanted to be more specific I would probably say that we are more interested in creating an atmosphere and mood, It’s kind of clichéd to say so but It’s really true, Dan and Alex especially are huge fans of visual Art and we’re all fans of film so cinematic width really rubs off on how we construct our sounds.
What was the inspiration behind forming the band in the first place? Did you know each other before? Alex: was in a band called The Sun Explodes with Dave for near enough a decade. Dave had toyed around with the idea of doing a heavier solo project and asked me to guest, given I could do harsh vocals. And it’s kind of morphed into its own entity pretty naturally Dave: As Alex said, we played together for years, during lockdown I had been chatting to Dan who I knew from social media, he used to share videos of his growing synth collection, he would make these bizarre and often disturbing vignettes of noise and drone soundscapes, I suggested he should send me some stuff to see what we could do collaboratively, and the first thing he sent me ended up becoming Abyssal Star which is the 1st track on our ‘The Salt Pale Collective’ EP, it was wild, it was like the songs just wrote themselves. I laid the clean vocals down but knew it needed some dirt. Alex has the best lows of anyone I’ve ever worked with and I knew we had to get him involved, and that’s how it began!
Is there any significance to the bands name? Who came up with it? Alex: It’s all Dave’s concept. But I’m pretty sure it’s rooted in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. The project was originally just “The Salt Pale”. The collective was added due to wanting to experiment the band with other musicians/artists Dave: pretty much what Alex said, I have always been inspired by the old testament as it is just so relentlessly miserable, cruel and oppressive and the name just stuck.
Your latest single “The Crimson Queen has no Tongue” is a twenty minute, ambient soundscape until the eighteen minute mark. Will the band be leaning more towards this style on future releases? Dan: I’d like to think we could release anything that we interested us, even if that were 2 and half hours of a light hissing sound. I suspect Alex and Dave may feel quite differently... Alex: That was all the audible mashing’s created by Dan. I did some adlib vocal expressions over a small part. But I love it as a companion piece! I would definitely love to hear more of Dan’s work within TSPC as a forefront Dave: Dan is definitely the most Avant Garde and experimental natured of the band, this is why I think we work so well together, he pushes me out of my comfort zone and encourages me to just go with what’s happening rather than think too much about what would ‘fit’ It keeps us on our toes as we genuinely have no idea how he makes these soundscapes, so yes I think we’ll likely explore that a little more, plus Dan has a solo project aptly named ...has no tongue which I recommend checking out if you were interested In truly experimental music.
You released you latest LP “A Body that could pass through Stones and Trees” earlier this year, what was the inspiration behind the LP, is there a running theme throughout?
I understand that this is a purely studio based project at the moment, are there any plans to play any live shows in the near future?
Dan: It’s actually our debut lp, despite it only being marginally longer than the first ep! It’s heavily inspired by an alternative reading of the great work of alchemy, namely a desire to re-join knowledge and the body to reach the ultimate state of humanity, namely Adam pre the Fall when there were no binaries.
Alex: I think from 10 years of touring, we’re all a little burnt by the experience. However, if the right offer was given. Never say never
Alex: Again, the ideas just rolled into one larger thing in the end. It’s a combination of alchemy/mysticism/Buddhism/duality and Monarchy.... Because we’re pseudo smart like that.
Dave: The only reason we haven’t yet is because we’ve been so busy writing and recording, mixing, filming and photography, we’re tight knit and almost totally DIY so it’s time consuming and you have to choose where to place your focus, we all work full time and Dan lives a three hour train ride away from Alex and I. But it is something that we are seriously considering in the new year.
Do you want to read something interesting? Shadow boxing puppets drive through the night to torture hamsters. Do you want to read something that’s interesting and coherent? Our prime minister absorbed his twin in the womb. Do you want to read something interesting , coherent and true? Gillian Carter are fucking brilliant. If like me you miss the unpredictable chaos of bands like The Chariot or Dillinger then look no further. Step up into the light, Gillian Carter ...... What was the inspiration behind forming the band in the first place?
How would you describe the music Gillian Carter creates? I would have to just say Progressive. Progressive what? I’m not entirely sure anymore. You could say Progressive Screamo. You can always go with my favourite “Progressive Yelling Music or PYM” as it’s known. There are a lot of elements in our music & I feel like that’s what sets us apart from a lot of bands in our genre. We started as a Screamo band with Ambient roots & have progressed with every album being different than the one before but still retaining the essence that makes Gillian Carter who we are.
Back In 2003 I saw a local band called Beneath Low Flying Planes & that changed everything. Opened the doors for wanting to find more bands that sounded like them. Definitely made me want to play guitar a lot more & start writing more differently than I had before. Then when I discovered the band Neil Perry it was game over from there. When the band was first formed was there much of a scene of bands like yourselves at home in Orlando? We’re actually originally from Palm Bay, Florida & when we started there was barely a screamo scene anymore. Most of the Screamo bands all broke up 2 years prior & all of the bands around the area were all just Christian straight edge hardcore bands, so it was super tough to play with bands like us. I tried to get people in the band for a solid year & when you mentioned you were starting a screamo band people would just say “I’m Good”. Every now & then we would come across other screams bands in different parts of Florida & it
I love the art you used on your latest record (2022 Salvation Through Misery) how do you go about choosing one image to represent an album? Do you feel it is an important part of the process? I had been following the artist George Martin who had done that piece for quite some time & when I saw that piece I knew right then & there that was the album cover. For me Salvation Through Misery is an open wound & I wanted an album cover that represented that. I’m sure that piece means something completely different to George but that’s what it means to me. That also happened with the album before as well. It’s a very very important part of the process because the artwork & the music go hand in hand & when you find the right artwork it completes everything.
Given that the band is well into your career at this point, how has your approach to recording changed since the early days? I would say that almost every single Gillian Carter record has some with some sort of difficulty in terms of recording. Now a days we either go to a studio or track everything ourselves then get it mixed & mastered. Right now we’re in the process of writing for a new record & we’re narrowing down studios we want to go to.
Where does the name “Gillian Carter” come from? The name actually comes from me thinking I heard that as a lyric from an Orlando band called Allegory of the Cave. When we played with their later outfit “Cheer Up!” in 2007 on tour, they asked me where I got the name from & I told them “from one of their old songs” & they immediately said, “We never said that in any of those songs”. So, at that point it was too late to change the myspace url so we just kept with it. Honestly if I had known that this band would have been around longer than a year I would have called the band something else or at least spelled it with a “J” instead of a “G” because still to this day people mispronounce the name. I thought I was being cool spelling Gillian with a G, like Gillian Anderson from XFiles but people like to pronounce the name with a hard G like Gilligan’s Island a lot of the times. It is kind of funny though.
It’s now 16 years since the benchmark release of your debut “The Flood that came after the Storm”. What are the memories of that time that stand out to you looking back? Do you have any favourite moments on the record? When I look back on recording “The Flood that came after the Storm” I remember us recording everything ourselves in the back room at my parent’s place. The album was originally supposed to be a 5 song EP until we thought it would be cool to record the rest of the songs we had written the year prior. I remember being nervous tracking vocals. I remember driving around my neighbourhood listening to different mixes we made. I remember when the album was done we went to Kinkos & stay up till 2 am putting the cds together. We finished the album weeks before we left for our first ever tour which was 30 days spanning over 2 months. I had just graduated high school too. The record wasn’t even mastered until 2017 because we simply just didn’t know what mastering a record was. No one told us. We just recorded a record, & went on tour.
Speaking of debuts, the band is scheduled to appear at this years Damnation Festival which will be a first in the UK. What do you enjoy about performing at festivals? Is there any pressure to win over the crowd? I honestly just love playing. I love festival crowds because there’s all walks of live there. Especially when it’s peoples first time seeing us. I feel like we’re a live band. Our shows are different than the record. When you go to see us it’s an experience. Sometimes there’s slight pressure but I love putting on a show. We go out there & do what we do & it speaks for itself.
Manchester’s Damnation is becoming well known for artists performing full album sets. If you were to do such a set which of your records would you like to perform? I actually didn’t know that about Damnation. If I had to pick an album to play life at Damnation it would have to be “Salvation Through Misery”. That would be fun.
LlNN perform and record like a force of nature. Their latest output, a split EP with Sugar Horse sees the group departing somewhat from their signature sound and amping up the atmosphere and sci fi horror themes. I sat down with drummer Rasmus to find out more.
What was the inspiration behind forming the band? Did you know each other before? Christian (former vocalist and guitarist in LLNN) and I used to play in a sludge, post-hardcore band called The Psyke Project. This band ended in 2014 and we decided to keep playing together and formed LLNN. Ketil (my brother) joined on synth and samples the same year. With LLNN we wanted to create a heavy, posthardcore band based on a cinematic approach. For instance by recording our own samples and sound-design and integrate them into the music. To create “post-apocalyptic sci-fi metal” that was inspired by some of our all time favourite movies such as Alien, Bladerunner and Terminator. And videogames such as Dead Space, Silent Hill and Halo. To start with we did not want to be a live band, we only wanted to be a studio recording band. So for the first year or so we did not have a bass player. That’s why there’s no recorded bass on our first album recording “Marks” – recorded in 2014 and picked up by Pelagic Records and released in 2017.
When the band was first formed was there much of a scene of bands like yourselves at home? Not like LLNN and we also got some jokes about adding a keyboard to heavy hardcore ha ha. The hardcore scene we have in Copenhagen / Denmark is really strong and supportive. The bands play gigs together, tour together help each other with artwork, videos and knowledge. For me personally, I’ve been part of this scene since the late 90s and I’ve never been more proud of all the awesome music that come out of it these years. So many great acts, vibes and energy. What is the any significance to the bands name? Who came up with it? Christian and I did a lot of brainstorming and one idea let to the other. And finally LLNN was born. And from there we started to write super heavy, dark sci-fi metal. What LLNN means is a long story. An epic tale about hidden HTML codes in the DOOM beta found on a floppy disc back in 1991 puzzled with easter egg connections to Flash Gordon and his ventures to the mountains of Planet Mongo.
Given that the band is four albums into your career at this point, how has your approach to recording changed since the early days? Do you write much on the road? Nothing has changed and we never write music on the road. Our approach has pretty much been the same on all our albums: We write the music together, mostly done in our rehearsal space. We record the music live in the studio (no clicks etc since we want the organic live-feel on our albums to boost the heaviness etc). Afterwards vocals are added to the mix. And from there all sound-design, samples are added to the mix. When we have the final master, I listen to the album for a few days time and hopefully get inspired to do the artworkphotography. When the photographs are done we hook up with a lay-outer that helps us to wrap everything together. When the product is finalized, we send the master and artwork to our label.
The band is scheduled to appear at this year’s Arctangent Festival after an awesome set this year. What do you enjoy about performing at festivals? Is there any pressure to win over the crowd? Playing festivals are fun and huge. And we get to meet a lot of awesome people and other bands. We love it no doubt about it and do not feel any pressure “to win over the crowd” to be honest. It feels natural to us in many ways. That said I really love playing the smaller and more intimate venue shows also. To have that special experience to be close to my bandmates on stage and to connect with the audience in front of us. It’s the best feeling!
At times, the bands music reminds me of something that would appear in an old sci-fi film like Alien or The Thing. Are you particularly inspired by any media Like that? Yes, very much indeed. Most of the music we write are created by working with visual mood boards taken from movies and video games. Basically we look at these mood boards to get spark our imagination and get inspired on a sonic level.
CARNIFEX – NECROMANTEUM Like a infant a few months into life, I've always had a soft spot for deathcore veterans Carnifex. Some eighteen years into their career the band, much like a constipated music journalist have created solid effort after solid effort. Each of their previous records has been a consistent belter from start to finish. This leads us to the bands ninth record, Nercomanteum.
This album is the first to feature former Devildriver guitarist Neal Tiemann. The axe man's fingerprints are all over this record. Tiemanns guitar work does much to elevate the songs and his solos are very much an integral part of the music. Over their career Carnifex have amassed a sizeable graveyard filled with former lead guitarists so hopefully Tiemann stays out of the ground for awhile at least.
Elsewhere the rest of the band perform their parts with the skill and precision you would expect from scene stalwarts. Vocalist Scott Lewis also does some of his most expensive work yet on tracks like album closer "Heaven and Hell All At Once". Overall Necromanteum is pretty much what you would expect from Carnifex and will undoubtedly get played to death on the office stereo as have all its predecessors. In times like these consistently is rare and Carnifex are one band that you can always rely on to make an awesome, thunderous and headbanging record. This album delivers on each front.
REN – SICK BOI Forcing his way into public view via his low key (largely) acoustic songs and minimalistic videos on YouTube Ren has become something of an underground sensation. Most people know him from his bleak tales of isolation and tragedy and his latest album "Sick Boi" builds on what has come before and expands upon the foundation of street poetry and emotion fans are used too. Each track on "Sick Boi" is a story about one of Rens characters each more heartfelt and rending than the last. This is never more evident than on "Money Game Pt3." A bleak tale of greed and consumerism. Elsewhere Ren takes on fan culture (Lost all Faith), Mental illness (Suicide) and even old school boom bap (What you Want).
Musically Ren's has expanded his sonic template resulting in a very modern sounding record which is produced immaculately. Despite this production polish there isn't a song on this record that I couldn't see performed on Ren's trademark classical guitar. During its runtime Ren goes from spoken word passages (in a variety of voices) to impressively fast raps and traditional singing. Fans will not be surprised by this incredibly fluid and wide vocal range but to those unaware this lads vocals are truly unique and have to be heard to understand. In short this record seems like the culmination of everything Ren has been building towards for the last few years and listening to the album you can almost feel the exhale of breathe when it's all over. Essential listening. This young man has a lot more to show and I can't wait to hear it.
ATREYU- A Torch in the Dark Metalcore also-rans Atreyu have been at it for over two decades now and at their best bring chorus' written to fill stadiums and riffs like a sledge hammer to the sensitive regions. At their worst they have been simply OK or as the kids would say strikingly "mid". The bands latest record "A Torch in the Dark" falls somewhere in between. It would perhaps be unfair of me to compare this record with the classics of decades past but being the nostalgia filled goblin I am, it's hard not too. In doing so "A Torch...." finds it hard to shine and on tracks like " I don't wanna die" ironically makes me want to dig a big hole to hide from the cringe of it all. That being said lead single "Drowning" pulls off its sentiment in classic Atreyu style and sits well in the bands repertoire. Overall not classic nor a dud but an album that will leave sit stubbornly in the middle of the road even with traffic rolling over it.
OVERPOWER – Becoming the Tyrant Clearly 2023 was a year of growth for Overpower. The crossover thrash group have matured a lot since a their 2022 debut EP. This time around the band are leaning more into their hardcore influences whilst still paying homage to bands like Throwdown, Pantera and Powertrip to name a few. The band completely nail the groove on each track and had me eagerly head banging along more than once. Overpower are a young band with alot to prove but “Becoming the Tyrant” is one massive leap in the right direction.
HEALTH – RAT WARS With the release of Rat Wars Health have created the record that they have been hinting at since 2015 Death Magic. Each record the band puts out is another wonderful piece of their sonic puzzle. It is on This latest effort that the jigsaw seems to finally be complete. Health have always been an open book when commenting on personal struggles and societal shortcomings yet they never portray helplessness or even weakness when delving deep into some very personal issues. A fact I very much admire as many of their peers and even fathers of the industrial genre can't seem to manage. (Nine inch Nails I'm looking at you). On Rat Wars Health are painting with some shades that will surprise even long term fans. The opening guitar riff of "Children of Sorrow" could have come from the fingers of Lamb of God's Mark Morton or Willie Adler. Elsewhere "Future of Hell" channels early 90s Trent Reznor and "Crack Metal" is equal parts Ministry and Godflesh. The later making the perfect match on the thunderous "Sicko". Finally the band have translated the feeling of being in the front row at one of their shows into a recording. Throughout the records run time we are pommelled and assaulted both emotionally and physically in the best way possible. Rat Wars is an album that demands your attention and thoroughly deserves it. This record is as perfect an album as the band have ever created and I cant wait to hear the new tracks live. Oh and always remember, YOU WILL LOVE EACH OTHER.
It's that time of year when we, as a species push onward into another year. What better way to forge a path into the future than walk backwards arse first into the best albums of 2023. It's been a another great year for metal and music in general producing great albums from seasoned veterans and newcomers alike. As always this is a list of my personal favourite albums so please don't @ me. That being said on we go......
HEALTH RAT WARS HEALTH have always been a great band but with Rat Wars the group have finally created an album the translates their live assault into a recorded battery of angst and Sorrow.
CATTLE DECAPITATION TERRISITE There are three things that are certain in life, Death, taxes and Cattle Decapitation make incredible records. Terrisite is up there with the best of the genre and will continue to be for a long time to come.
GUNSHIP UNICORN Sounding like the soundtrack to a 80s sci fi film, Gunship have created a masterpiece of modern sythwave with more hooks than an overstocked tackle shop.
Signs of the Swarm Amongst the low and Empty The first time I heard this record I was driving home from work and legitimately had to pull the car over because I was head banging so much. I think that says it all really.
Frozen Soul Glacial Domination The second record from the Boltrower disciples is another slab of riff heavy death metal infused with the bleak atmosphere of a Norwegian winter. Perfect music for post Christmas weather.
Hellripper Grim Warlocks And Weathered Hags Powering forward like week old Iron Bru through an unsuspecting digestive system Scotland's Hellripper have always been a musical force of nature but turned everything up to eleven with this record.
Godflesh - Purge As dependable as your phone braking the second your contract is paid off Godflesh have created another masterpiece of industrial angst. This record even has Justin channelling his innermost Jazz Coleman on the later half of this record. Arguably the best record the band have made since 1992 "Pure".
Unprosessed .....and Everything In-between One of the most uniquely talented bands loosely covered under the tarp of "Djent", Unprocessed have seemingly come out of the ether and produced one of the most inspiring records of 2023. Always a dependable group in the past but the band have truly outdone themselves on this record. Beartooth The Surface At its best music has the ability to make us laugh, cry, scream and shout. This record made me smile. Whatever mystical potion Beartooth have Conjured up on "The Surface" I’d love to have the recipe.
DAMNATION FESTIVAL 2023 BOWLERS EXHIBITION CENTRE MANCHESTER We arrived at Bowlers just in time to witness the spectacle this are Nordic Giants. The band play a set that could easily be considered a headline event anywhere else. It's hard to explain just how imaginative and unique their time with us is. Both men are masters of their craft, playing some of the most beautiful music ever committed to memory and, backed by their short films on the big screen Nordic Giants are clearly more than just a band. It's hard not to be moved by it all. As Michael Palin once said "...and now for something completely different" Crepidation could not be further away from what we just witnessed. The catharsis they provide is wholly different but just as important. Throughout their set the smile did not leave my face as the bands fantastically ridiculous songs and banter kept the laughs coming. Even with their tongues firmly planted in their cheeks the bands superb musicianship backs up the humour and one would be forgiven for forgetting what brilliant musicians they are as well. Over by the main stage Sigh are conducting a rare signing session at the Cult Never Dies merch table which provides time for a pint or two of the fantastic Damnation IPA's and a small sampling of solids for the day. After this my nostalgia ridden bones are worked into overtime with Unearth performing their classic "The Oncoming Storm" in full. The crowd are very much here for it and to near constant pits are evidence of just how much this band mean to people. Their Old school metalcore is a welcome contrast to the festivals line up that I hope will be repeated down the line.
Bringing their take on blackened doom
metal Strigoi make quite an impression over on the Holy Goat stage. Vocalist Greg Mcintosh's stage presence is something to see as he takes on the form of his bands namesake growling and slithering through their set.
Now I know for a fact that I am in the minority here. To me Julie Christmas' set reminded me of that episode of the IT crowd when Jen joins a band. I'm man enough to know when something is beyond me and unfortunately she definitely is. To my undoubtedly uncultured ears it was as though someone was trying to force a cat through a metal collider to a backdrop of ethereal bollocks. Like I said I know I'm probably on my own here and those watching seemed captivated by her performance and I wish them all the best. Over on the Eyesore Merch stage Downfall of Gaia play a note perfect set sounding somehow bigger live than on record. The bands stage presence could use some crowd interaction but overall a powerful and atmosphere set. Soon afterwards what was probably the weekends biggest crowd forms to witness Sigh perform their second set of the weekend. The band whom played one the the best sets of the festival last night scream, riff and bludgeon their way through a wonderful set full of the theatrics and showmanship that leave everyone in the crowd happy, throwing a cover of Venoms "Black Metal" doesn't hurt either.
Across the corridor Katatonia are already working their way through a carefully prepared set of classics after the previous nights headline performance. The band are as crisp and melodic as ever and cement themselves as one of the best groups to come out of their native Sweden.
At this point many in attendance are visibility lagging, myself included. Rotten Sound are just what the Dr ordered. Each track is a brutal and brilliant grindcore beat down but with a great sense of groove to it. A welcome wake up for many ay of us. Elsewhere in the venue Enslaved are ploughing through their debut record "Vikingligr Veildi" with the energy of their younger selves.
Headlining the Holy Goat Brewing stage are the one and only Anaal Nathrakh. Quite how good this band are live has to be seen to be believed. Dave Hunt and company are on fire tonight with the band sounding tighter than a badgers arse and just as gnarly. Damnations own Gav McInally can be seen crowd surfing to the massive "Submission is for the Weak" and the live debut of "Th age of Starlight Ends” is simply phenomenal. However during the final one-two punch of “Forward!” and “Endarkenment" its hard to keep the smile from my face as one of the best bands to ever do it close the stage with the passion and emotion that remind us all why we are fans of this music and this amazing festival to begin with. See you all next year. I can't bloody wait!