RMP Magazine 21

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THANKS TO

Executive Staff

Writers

Kenny Leys // CEO

Cameron Smith // Copywriter liaison

David Marote // Managing Editor

Jesse Mouart

James Cross // Photo coordinator

Holly Reijs Renske gommers Lazlo Cootmans

Design Jolien Krijnen // Chief designer

Editor Frederik Geuvens // Editor in chief Suzanne Gielis

Photography Daria Colaes Carl Battams Juriaan Hodzelmans Jenny McCord

www.rock-metal-punk.org 2

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CONTENT

CONTENT

Inter view//Iron Reagan

Inter view//Good Riddance

6 Inter view//Satanic Surfers

14 Inter view//Atreyu

24 Inter view//The Dwarves

32 I n t e r v i e w / / The Smith Street Band

42 I n t e r v i e w / / Te e n a g e B o t t e l r o c k e t

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50 Inter view//American Nightmare

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Album r eviews

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THE EDITOR

A W

O

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FROM THE EDITOR

Hello again! Meerhout has returned to its quit normal self again. But early May, the small rural town, was flooded with music lovers from all over Europe and abroad. Two days of punk and hardcore madness happened at Europe's finest punk fest, Groezrock. We at RMP Magazine were manning the barricades again to bring you all the best from this magnificent festival. Our team of photographers has tried to cover as many as possible bands playing on one of the five stages, an impossible task given the wide variety of bands playing and the many stages. But I believe they succeeded in bringing you a fine selection of what the atmosphere of Groezrock is all about. What a great two days of fun it was. When not watching one of the many amazing shows happening, we even found some participating artists who were eager to share their thoughts with us. So this edition of RMP Magazine can easily be called the Groezrock edition, since it's filled with tons of pictures and interviews taken during the festival. A big shootout to the good people of Groezrock for setting up the festival year after year. Kudos to Hans and his team for getting all those different people from all over the world together for two days of fun, making sure that we get a top selection of bands, a perfect experience and given the size and variation between its visitors, from crusted punks pissing in the field to the hardcore to the bone fan, no quarrels, no trouble at all. Just tons and tons of people getting together to enjoy the music and respecting and helping each other out in the pit. It was quite a unique atmosphere that always leaves me with a hangover when finished, adjusting to the 'real' world again and wishing every weekend could be like that. But no worries, the countdown to Groezrock 2016 has begun. Hope to meet you there!

David Marote

Managing editor RMP magazine

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YOU MAY WANT TO LIS


STEN TO... W ie gedood – De Doden Hebben Het Goed Belgian black metal, it always remained sort of a blur to me as I always tied it up with corpse paint and childish portraying of Satanism. But recently I found myself lending over to black metal inspired sounds and bands. One of those dark revelations I stumbled upon lately was the new Belgian trio Wiegedood. After seeing them live at a local black metal show they had already convinced me of their feral energy. Given the background of the members, all hailing from Church Of Ra related bands, such as Oathbreaker, Rise And Fall, Hessian, a full on sonic assault of blastbeats and heavy riffs grasping the listener into the iconic artwork. From the darkness to the light and back. The other three tracks “Kwaad Bloed”, “De Doden Hebben Het Goed” and “Ondergaan” are composed of the same ingredients. 100 mph raging intertwined with slower, melodic parts causing chaos in your eardrums and taking you to another dimension. The choice for the controversial Dutch bandname ‘Wiegedood’ and the Dutch titles may be one that some may discuss but in the end it's 2015 and who cares anyway? This EP is one to that will enjoy many late night spins at my place, Wiegedood is one of those bands I’ve embraced as the future of black metal. Almost as good as that other revelation I recently heard, Mastery from San Francisco. I've you're into Wiegedood then check them out too.

Inser t Coin

– The Story Of Hills And Sidewalks

Insert Coin are one of Germany best kept melodic punkrock secrets. They have been paving the road since 2007 with their catchy tunes filled to the rim with sing-a-longs and already have two releases under their belt. Maybe some of you Germans reading this may have witnessed Insert Coin destroying a stage near them when they opened up for legendary punkbands such as Pennywise, NOFX or Bad Religion. Good company indeed. So time for all you non-Germans to keep your eyes peeled for this band coming to a town near you. Now the time has come for release number three, “The Story Of Hills And Sidewalks”, their new opus magnum. No thrills, no frills, just straightforward melodic punkrock as it ought to be. The classic ingredients of guitar, bass, drums, vocals and tons of choruses are more than sufficient to turn this album into a diverse and enjoyable piece of music. Who needs another hip band trying to reinvent the wheel when it has been rolling perfect all along? That's exactly what Insert Coin stands for: pure melodic punkrock brought to you with heart and soul. Just check title track “The Ballad Of Hills And Sidewalks” and judge for yourself.

We Ar e T he Union – Keep It Down Summer is coming! Time to get your skank on at your local tiki party. And what music fits better than We Are The Union and their new release “Keep It Down”, released through Paper+Plastick records. We Are The Union play ska-punk blended perfectly with catchy pop-punk, just add a refreshing Mai Tai and we're all set for a summer vibe party. Maybe the moving of their vocalist from Detroit to LA might even have increased the level of sunrays bursting through this release. “The Keep It Down” EP features six songs that will have you shaking your butt to their eerie vibes. I for one am looking forward to a sunshiny day, a ripping skateboard session followed by a delicious BBQ and We Are The Union sonically joining the party. Good times ahead.

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Writer // David Marote

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I

ron Reagan from Richmond, Virginia have been thrashing stages all over the world for some years now. Consisting from members from influential bands such as Municipal Waste and Cannabis Corpse the members of Iron Reagan know how to destroy stages worldwide. So when Iron Reagan played Groezrock, RMP Magazine took the liberty to have a chat with guitar player Landphil Hall about their latest release “The Tyranny Of Will� and much more.

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INTERVIEW // IRON REAGAN

Welcome to Groezrock, first time here? It's fun to come out here and do these European festivals, because you get to see a lot of bands that you normally wouldn't see other times. The whole experience is fun, you get to hang with buddies and drink some beer outside. It can be very hectic but it's completely different atmosphere than a normal club show. You released a new album some time ago, “The Tyranny Of Will”. How has been the response? We've been touring pretty relentlessly since we've put out “Tyranny Of Will”. We've put on tours with Voivod, Gwar, Eyehategod and many others. We've probably played about 200 shows and maybe

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the year before that as well. We've been out there playing and really trying to promote it and get in the ears of people out there. So far, so good. We're enjoying being on the road with each other. We haven't started to hate each other yet. Which is a good thing, because a lot of these bands out here, they can barely even talk with each other. That's something we have going for us. We're having fun. I feel like the response has been good. We've put out a music video called “Miserable Failure” and people seem to really like that video. It was done by this guy who worked for Jackass, he did videos for Red Fang. The response to that video helped people notice our record and check us out.

You just mentioned making a flash mosh video for the track “Miserable Failure”. Did the idea come from you guys or the guy who worked for Jackass? It was like 50/50, we've pitched a little something, than he pitched something back. I like what he did, it really worked out. He did a great job. We did a three-day shoot. We had a lot of extras coming out and they were willing to wait all day. I want to thank all those people that are in the video. They really put the effort in there. Some of those shots are really great. You managed to get 24 songs on the record. Not many bands can beat that. It helps when your songs are like a minute


long. You can get a lot of songs on there. We just like the spontaneity of our music and we want it to feel really straightforward. I feel that comes out in the music, we don't overcook it. We just go with the raw feel, the sound and the vibe. That way it doesn't seem overthought.That would ruin it. You recently released a split 7� with Belgian thrashers Toxic Shock. How did you end up with Toxic Shock? Tony Forresta, the singer of Iron Reagan, keeps up with bands in the scene. He noticed that they were doing something really great and he reached out to them. I really like that split, it's pretty good.

" We just go with

the raw

feel, the

sound and

the vibe."

The band is considered a crossover band,

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INTERVIEW // IRON REAGAN

but if you were to name your top three influences of the band what would they be? For me, my biggest influence is: I really like Accuses and DRI. I wouldn't say these are the main influences. We spread it out along a lot of things. I listen to like bands like Infest, Spaz and then I'll listen to like Slayer. Aggressive music with fast riffs, there's a punk vibe. I really liked that Slayer album where they did all those covers. It's like aggressive and catchy, fun to listen too. It just makes you feel energised. How different a band is Iron Reagan compared to Municipal Waste and Cannabis Corpse? Different members in the band, different cooks in the kitchen. Different styles, Cannabis Corpse is a death metal band,

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Municipal Waste tips more on the metal side where Iron Reagan tips more on the hardcore side. I can't speak for lyrics because that's Tony who writes them. You recently put up some haikus on the Iron Reagan Facebook. One that got my attention was “Beware Of Barney Farts”. Please explain. Oh, we have a sense of humour and we have been hanging out with Napalm Death. Barney is a really great guy, we like to joke around with him a bit.

is going to start writing some new material soon. So stay tuned for that. I'm also putting out a record on Metal Blade called “Crypt Of The Devil” with the band Six Feet Under. It's coming out on May 4th. New album : "Tyranny Of Will"

Out now!

facebook.com/IRONREAGAN

Anything you want to share of future plans? Thanks anyone who has come out to Groezrock to check us out. Check out the album “Tyranny Of Will”, it's on Relapse records. And also check out Cannabis Corpse’s new album and Municpal Waste

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Groezrock Meerhout 2015, Belgium Photographer /Jurriaan Hodzelmans

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k to the 2012 the band came bac ood Riddance is back. In And now 7. 200 in up ak bre r their scene playing shows afte through d ase rele ace In Our Time� was 2015 their new album “Pe the Groezrock ced gra ce dan Rid d en Goo Fat Wreck Chords. So wh n with vocalist took some time to sit dow main stage we at RMP influences that the and um alb st late their Russ Rankin to discuss album. led to creating the new

G

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Writer //David Marote RMP Magazine #21

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INTERVIEW // GOOD RIDDANCE

Congratulations with the new album “Peace In Our Time”. You recently played the first shows with the new album in the States, how were those? They were good. We played Hollywood, San Diego, Santa Barbara. Those are all really good spots for us. They are not far from home. We expected them to be good. They were technically record release shows although the record was not released yet. We played some new songs and they went down well. Your previous release “My Republic” almost dates nine years back. The band took a hiatus from 2007-2012 and now a new album. How does it feel to go on tour with new material? It feels great. In 2012

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we started playing shows again and it was exciting to revisit our songs. See our fans again and get a chance to play. After a little bit of that we felt the urge to create something new. So we started throwing around some new ideas and that is how the new record came about. In previous records you often used quotes and

samples as an intro. The new album doesn't contain any of these. A deliberate choice or coincidence? We didn't use any on “My Repbulic”. We sort of felt that we were guilty of overdoing it in the past. We wanted to get away from it on this album, because I'm the always the one that comes up with those. On this album, the guys asked about a week

"When we lose the ability to adapt we lose our way as a country."


before the record was mixed to come up with them. I said to them that I would be happy to search for things if I had more time. It was last-minute. “My Republic�, I think, was more by design. We wanted to try to get away from them. In the past you used quotes from Noam Chomsky for one. If you were to quote some influential contemporary influences right now, who would you name? The advantage of Chomsky is the stuff he writes, there are instances of him speaking live that you can have access too. A lot of people that might have things to say that I may have read somewhere. I don't know if it would be so easy to find them recorded, maybe on 'YouTube'

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INTERVIEW // GOOD RIDDANCE

or so. Using Chomsky would be great or people like that; people that are speaking politically and socially for me. From a part of our society that is not routinely heard from in the States. Good Riddance has always been affiliated with certain organisations. From Sea Shepherds to PETA to more political subjects. Any recent organisation that has gained your attention and deserves some promotion? Planned Parenthood in the US. We're living in a country right now where State rights. It's the bigger problem I think. We have 50 States and each one is different and the population is different and these socio-economic needs are different in every state. It's impossible for the US government to say “This

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is how it's going to be everywhere.” It's not realistic. In the same time people on the right or libertarians are taking States rights to this other ex-

treme where they’re being able to actually block out the greater majority of legislation. In our state that means denying women access to


health care, denying women access to save legal abortions, denying gay people the right to vote, all kind of crazy things. Planned Parenthood, they are certain part of our country where they are physically under attack, being

bombed, being vandalised. They are being defunded. Women have to go further and further away from where they live. It's not just about abortion, it's about health care. It's about the right and access to

adequate healthcare. To live in a country that's so regressive. There could be so much progress and so much regression at the same time that it is confusing to me. I think Planned Parenthood is a champion for progressive healthcare especially geared towards women and reproductive choice. I think there's someone who should be aided. That's my opinion. How do you stand on population growth and its related problems? I agree. That's another thing about Planned Parenthood. It's more of a concept. Just because people are naturally fertile doesn't mean they need to procreate. It's interesting in the areas of our country where Planned Parenthood exists, where there's more progressive sex edu-

cation in the schools, rates of unwanted pregnancies are lower. Where there's really regressive Christian based right wing slant towards the education system, unwanted pregnancies are up. I think there's a direct correlation. I think education and getting people the education and choices to be able to figure that stuff out. There's a lot of craziness that goes on. There are lots of parts of the world where we can't do anything about it as Americans. But we can do something where we live. The first thing we have to do is remove all of this fundamentalist Christian propaganda from our schools and education systems. I don't ever want to tell you or anyone else, don't believe this, don't believe that. I believe people should have the ability to

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INTERVIEW // GOOD RIDDANCE

worship whatever they want, even when it doesn't make sense to me. But in this country there is a group that believes that their way is the only way but if I make a different choice then I'm attacking them. Like with same sex marriage. People are terrified that if gay people get married, that someday these people are going to wake up one day gay. It's this really defensive knee jerk reaction. I'm for moving forward. Things evolve, things change. When we lose the ability to adapt we lose our way as a country. Pretty much all of your albums have been on Fat Wreck Chords, what makes Fat so special to stick with them? Fat Wreck was the first label that gave us a chance and has sup-

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ported us from day one. It has never given us a reason to be dissatisfied and look elsewhere. It's like a family to us. Our band was never that popular. We never had major labels coming around, they left us alone. Either they know we wouldn't sign or we were never popular enough to bother. It's easy for us, it's always been Fat Wreck Chords. In one of the new songs, “Take It To Hear”, there's a line: ‘Something more than fashion before we burn it all away.’ What is this line about? That song is about animal rights. Sometimes in punk it's trendy to sort of support animal rights even if they don't really. I had to be careful writing it, it don't ever want to come across like some sort of fascist. You have to be

"It's cool to wea cool to have a car but it's really


ar a t-shirt, it's sticker on your s even cooler to y live that way."

this way or else... That song is all about pursuing an animal cruelty free lifestyle. It's cool to wear a t-shirt, it's cool to have a sticker on your car but it's even cooler to really live that way. It's more than fashion, it's a lifestyle. In my home state of California we're having the worst drought ever right now. So people are like don't wash your car, don't water your lawn. Okay, that makes sense but the biggest use of water in our state is to raise alfalfa and hay so animals can eat it so we can kill them. It doesn't make any sense to me. This is naive, it will never happen but if everybody switched to a plant-based diet there would be no drought, there would be no hunger. We're screaming and yelling about this drought and the answer is right in front

of us. That song is 100% about that. I don't want to come across as a hardliner. Like have you seen that TV show ‘Mad Men’. Everyone in every scene is smoking. When I was a little kid you could smoke on airplanes. A lot less people smoke now. That's what my hope is, that eating meat becomes like that. That people just realise and just stop. I want it to become like smoking. Where people are still free to do it, they ought to be free to do what they want. But they are able to think about and make these choices. New album : "Peace in Our Time "

Out now !

facebook.com/goodriddance

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Groezrock Meerhout 2015, Belgium Photographer // Jenny McCord

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S

atanic Surfers were one of Sweden’s top export products back in the '90's. Part of the infamous MalmÜ skate punk scene and supported by epic record label Burning Heart Records, they earned their spot in skate punk history. But at their apex they decided they call it quits. Now almost nine years later the surfing and skateboarding devil has resurrected and Groezrock was one of their first stops on their small comeback tour. Time for RMP Magazine to sit down with guitar player Magnus and bass player Andy for a quick chat on Sweden, side projects and Satan.

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Writer // David Marote Photographer // Jurriaan Hodzelmans

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INTERVIEW // SATANIC SURFERS

Hello, welcome to Belgium. May we consider this a reunion tour for Satanic Surfers? Andy : Yeah Magnus : Yeah, it is. Yesterday you did the first show in your home town of Malmö, Sweden. How was it? Magnus : Great, like 400 people. Everybody went nuts, it was really nice. Andy : It was so nice. It was in a club and we kind of curated ourselves. Our tour manager did it. It was a really warm welcoming feeling. A lot of old faces and super nice. And what can we expect today at Groezrock? Andy : I'm hoping more than 400 people tonight [laughs]. Next up there are some 'big' shows ahead, from Spain's Resurrection fest to Canada's Amnesia Fest and Punk Rock

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Holiday in Slovenia to finish the tour. A small world tour? Andy : It's fun that the names of these festivals describe a very old person. Ressurection, Amnesia, I'm not sure what the message is. Magnus : We're doing just weekends now. Just playing and fly back home. The band took a hiatus of seven years. Most members were involved in other bands in the meantime like Revenge, Atlas Losing Grip. Any other projects you are currently involved in? Andy : Plenty.... Magnus : Andy has a lot of bands Andy : After we broke up I've been in four or five bands. Rodrigo has also been in four bands, he always has some projects in his head. We have Revenge. Fredrik has Connect, together with Tomek the old bass player.

Magnus : And Stephan who plays drums in Satanic, they're playing together in Connect and plays in Revenge too. Andy : I was actually in Belgium two weeks ago with my other band Terrible Feelings, that was really nice. Kortrijk or something. At De Kreun, very nice people. They cooked the food in front of us at the backstage. It was a very familiar feeling. Since the first releases “Skate To Hell” and “Keep Out” the band has progressed musically and lyrically. You even mention that in the song “Aim To Please”. The line 'Hero Of Our Time was a funny song back then' How do you feel about your first songs and do you consider playing them again? Magnus : I think we came to terms with them. It's been a long time. For the band, it


"...and we were like: "Ah fuck it." "If that means I’m lame then I'm proud to be lame."

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INTERVIEW // SATANIC SURFERS

was Rodrigo, he wrote all the lyrics. He wanted to progress and going from the skateboard stuff and fun stuff and doing something that probably meant more to him at the time. Now we just look back and it was progress for the band. We were young then, we're playing songs from all the albums now. Andy : Eleven years ago we didn't play “Hero Of Our Time”, because it's such a typical Satanic Surfers thing. We are not going to play that song. It's so typical. And then one year later when we toured to support the “Taste The Poison” record, I think in the rehearsal space we said “Ah, we don't we play that song. It's a good song and everybody likes to hear it.” Then we thought about that quote from that song and we were like “Ah fuck it.” If that means I’m lame then I'm proud to be lame.

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Magnus : “Hero Of Our Time” was like seven years between that song and “Aim To Please”. Now it's thirteen years later and we changed our minds again. Satanic Surfers was one of the pole bearers of the Swedish scene surrounding Malmö. Burning Heart records put that on the map as the record label at the time. Seems like they are back from a hiatus too? Andy : That's what I heard too, they're doing Bombshell Rocks. They released their new record. They have some other secret plans so far. I don't think it's going to be as explosive as it was back then but they definitely miss what they did back then. Magnus : With all the reunions, it's a twenty year cycle…

Sweden has always had a vibrant scene, being it punk rock or metal. What do you think causes that attraction to 'extreme' music? Andy : There's also a lot of music that is not extreme. Magnus : All genres, all these house, dance music is coming from Sweden. Andy : I guess the extremes set the tone. That's what you see. That's why punk and metal became more visible. And who should we look out for today from Swedish bands? Andy : Tons of them. Right now there's a huge wave of female soul singers and rappers. They have a very current tone. It's very political; it's almost like a new wave of feminism. Magnus : That's part of what is the cultural debate in Sweden now. There's a lot of debate


"They have some other secret plans so far. I don't think it's going to be as explosive as ..."

about female artists being booked at festivals. It's mostly guys playing. This genre of music is like that. But some festivals try to keep it 50/50. Any plans on new tours or even recording new material with Satanic Surfers? Andy : There's some tour plans but it isn't confirmed yet. Let's not make anyone disappointed yet. There's definitely some places we want to go, new and old.

Satanic Surfers always had the connection with surfing and skateboarding. But how satanic is the band? Andy : Rodrigo is more into that. He always wears that upside down cross and he listens to a lot of black metal and stuff. The rest of us are just agnostic.

Andy : The last show we did was in Belgium, September 26th, 2006 was Toprock. facebook.com/satanic. surfers.official

Any last words or plans you want to share? Andy : Listen to The Kids, the Belgian band. Magnus : Great to be back in Belgium.

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CEREMONY Groezrock Meerhout 2015, Belgium Photographer // Jenny McCord

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I

t has been very quiet around Californian metal band Atreyu in the past couple of years. So we at RMP were over the moon when we heard the news that they were touring once again and releasing a new album! We, of course, like to share with you the resurrection of Atreyu and sat down at Groezrock to have a chat with guitar player Dan about their hiatus, the Never Ending Story and their many influences.

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Writers // Jolien Krijnen & Frederik Geuvens Photographer // Jenny McCord RMP Magazine #21

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INTERVIEW // ATREYU

“WE NEEDED TO TAKE A STEP BACK, RECHARGE ESSENTIALLY.”

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Hi Dan, and welcome to Belgium. This year you and the guys are playing mostly big festivals like Pukkelpop, Reading festival and Rock Fest all over the world. Are you looking forward to this tour? It's nice, we don't want to tour as heavily as we used to. We still want to be very active as far as performing but not just aggressively touring all the time. We’d like to cover a lot more ground by hitting the festivals, just to get to a lot more people faster. Today you'll play Groezrock festival. Is this your first time at Groezrock and how do you feel about the festival ? It's awesome; it looks like there are tons of people here. Everyone seems to be having a really good time, it's so early in the day and people are having so much fun already. And the sun is out, I feel like I'm in California.

In 2011 you decided to take a break. If we may ask, why did you take a break for a while ? We were just a little bit burned out. We’ve just been touring for too long, too much. The fun was kind of coming out of it. We weren't that inspired any more. All the essential elements needed to be there to really be the best musician, best band, best songwriter that we could be weren't there anymore. We needed to take a step back, recharge essentially. We needed to plug ourselves back in the end of the wall for like four or five years and once were fully charged to jump back in the game again. After more than four years the band is back together. Is it different now than before the break ? A little bit, we're a little bit older and wiser. We have a different perspective now of how

we look at everything and do everything. We just try to be a bit smarter about how we handle our business. Like before it was “Who cares?Jjust go crazy and be rock stars” Now we try to be a bit more careful with what shows we play and where we play and how often we play; everything from merch to the presentation of our overall product that is Atreyu. I feel a little bit more confident now because we are a bit more knowledgeable. Atreyu returned to the stage on September 14, 2014 at the Afershock festival in Sacramento, California. How did it feel to be back up on stage as Atreyu after all this time? It feels good, especially since it's been that long. I was a little nervous. Can I still play? Do people going to still care? The first show you come back and it had sold out in like thirty

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INTERVIEW // CANCER BATS

seconds which is the fastest we ever sold out a show. That's a nice start. We'll take that. Feels like home to be back on stage. You’re band name comes from the main character Atreyu, from the movie "the Never Ending story". Why the choice for this character ? Initially we were another band called Retribution. Alex, Brandon and myself, we wanted to change our name as our music style was progressing. Something that was fresh and new to go along with that. A lot of the bands we were into were getting their names from sci-fi movies, fantasy, horror, movie character names or comic book titles, stuff like that. So we were looking into and the Never Ending Story came up and the lead character Atreyu was the one that fit the most.

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The band made a great cover for the song “You Give Love A Bad Name” by Bon Jovi. Why did you choose this song in particular ? I personally am a big fan of the classic 7080's style rock. Everything was over the top with that. I feel there's a lot of that element mixed in with Atreyu. So I feel covering a song like that and doing it in Atreyu style just felt really appropriate. It's a fun song and everyone knows it so when we play it it's a fun time. The song “Her Portrait In Black” was the soundtrack of the movie “Underworld: Evolutions”. How was it to be a part of the soundtrack for this movie? Just one of those things our label hit us up with. “Hey, these guys are interested in doing something with you.” We were like “Cool!” The song was actually to be on our third

record, ‘A Death Grip On Yesterday’. We ended it up taking it off the record so it could be exclusively on this soundtrack. Which was cool but I really wish we could have put it on the album, it's such a rad song. The screaming guitar parts are a recognisable part of Atreyu. What bands influenced you on the guitar parts ? I'm a big fan of all the 80's stuff, like Van Halen, Def Leppard, stuff like that. Scorpions, Queen even, I just love how over the top their playing was and how melodic it is. There's so much talent, just very inspiring to watch. Not being the lead singer but being worshipped like they are. For me that was always something I wanted to pursue, I wanted to be like a guitar hero. I don't just want to be the guitar player in the band.


I heard you have a nickname, “Big Dan”. Is this correct ? And why “Big Dan” ? It's kind of an ironic nickname I got when I was fourteen years old. I was one of the smallest dudes out of my group of friends but I got a big personality. So I feel my presentation of myself is larger and maybe for even more adult reasons. It just stuck. On record store day you released a 7” with the old song “So Others May live” and a brand new song “When The Day Is Done”. Why did you decide to release the new song in this way? “So Others May Live” we wrote within the last year. So it's still pretty new. We put it out, just kind of give people a taste. We did a video for it and then “When The Day Is Done” is another song we recorded at the same time but

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INTERVIEW // CANCER BATS

hadn't had the chance to release yet. We never done a 7” record before, I have tons of 7”s at home. So we felt it was really appropriate. Especially for a band like us that grew up going to record stores. That was a big part of our lives. That's how you discovered new music. If you wanted a new style or didn't know what to get you could go to the guy of the record store and he was like the human box of Pandora. You just take the gamble and buy it. So how do you feel on the internet and how music is everywhere now? It's really good and really bad at the same time. It's really good in the sense that it's so much easier to access new band’s music but in the same time because it's so accessible I feel a lot of people get lost in the mix. It's really hard to stand out. Before there

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weren’t many people on the internet so it was easier to get noticed. We were one of the first bands to get noticed through the internet in the early 2000's. I'm a fan of it because I wouldn't be here without it. You lose that kind of nostalgic feeling of going to the record store, read through the booklet, read all the lyrics, look at the artwork. Now you just go click a button and in a download you get that instant gratification that makes you not appreciate the music as you would have as it was harder to get. At the moment the band is working on a new album named “Long Live” that will be released in September of this year. What can we aspect from this album and what do you hope? It's just the new Atreyu. It sounds like everything we've done in

“... THAT MA NOT APPRE AS YOU WO HARDER TO


AKES YOU ECIATE THE MUSIC ULD HAVE AS IT WAS O GET.”

the past but it's a more updated version of it. It's a lot more aggressive than our last two records. I won't say too much, I want people to form their own opinion. If you like Atreyu you’re going to love this record. Any last words for our readers? No, just good to be back. Especially here in Belgium, we always loved coming here. Good beer, good people. Just glad to be back.

New 7" : “So Others May Live”

Out now!

facebook.com/Atreyu

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Groezrock Meerhout 2015, Belgium Photographer /Jurriaan Hodzelmans

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ock legends The Dwarves have always been one of those bands that should be playing at Groezrock but never made it. Up until this year’s edition where gentleman Blag Dahlia and his merry band finally made it to Groezrock to show the kids some real punkrock. So we at RMP Magazine grasped this opportunity to have a chat with the rock legends that are The Dwarves and what a chat it was. Chaotic and fun, just like the band and its members. Find out more about The Dwarves below!

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INTERVIEW // THE DWARVES

Welcome to Belgium, first time at Groezrock. Blag : Very first time at Groez... Marc : We've been to Belgium Blag : Pukkelpop, wasn't that Belgium too? Marc : Oh yeah. And Graspop Metal Meeting, that was a good one. Blag : We hold hands with Belgium Marc : You got fucking cool waffles, you don't eat them with syrup? Today you played the main stage, a big stage with barriers and so. How do you feel on that? Blag : I wounded up jumping into the crowd while Rex Everything was singing. So I got a little crowd interaction. I like it when the crowd is more close-on. I don't like the barrier. I just like to get out there. So then I can grab a titty or an ass, you know.

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Marc : So you're a groper? Blag : I'm a groper! Today's performance is part of a European tour featuring the Russian undercover KGB spies The Svetlanas. Marc : Svetlanas are awesome, they are from mother Russia Blag : She busted her leg last night, very tough. Marc : Last night she dislocated her knee, still played the show. They’re fantastic. The Dwarves are all about primal drives. Sex, drugs and rock 'n’ roll. You almost stand out as the last bastion of feral punk energy. Blag : What do you mean almost. We are the last real punk band. Nick Oliveri's penis is larger than all of the other punk bands combined.

" THE BA L I K E TO G E


" I D O N'T L I K E A R R I E R. I J U S T T O U T T H E R E."

When did punk rock become so safe? Blag : They didn't ask me, everyone is like chicken shit now. What happened Marc, you remember punk? Marc : When we were young, you went to shows, you learned how to play, you wrote a fucking good song. Nowadays it's like “Hey that guy has got cool tattoos and big earlobe things, let's just form a band!” I don't want to be a dick but there are bands like that. It just used to be, you learned how to play and wrote a song went on the road for years, now it's like “I found four other guys with tattoos and earlobes stretched” and you got a band. Blag : Even so, even with your earlobes stretched. They have to want to fuck and get loaded. I don't care if they are just fashion fags and they suck.

That's fine, I understand that. But if they are not searching for vagina or penis, equal opportunity, fag bands are good by us, we go both ways. Musically. Marc : Nick said he played a good vegan festival, pretty rock 'n’ roll, shitty food. Nick : Food wasn't that good . Food that tastes like Styrofoam. Not so good... Another thing that seems to be missing in punk and music in general today is humour. What is your opinion on this? Marc : Punk rock is just fashion, you've got a lot of cool tattoos and your ears are stretched. And now you've got the big fucking beard. Blag : The emo beard, those are kind of funny. Because people get food stuck in them so that's kind of humorous.

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" W E'R E L I K E T H E C H A R L I E H E B D O O F RO C K."

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But it's unintentional. Nick : I hear this band is changing their name to The Hewhocannotbenamedes... (pointing at Masked Intruder) Blag : Masked Intruder are biting our Hewhocannotbenamed style. Can you believe that? I love those guys. I didn't see Hewhocannotbenamed on stage today. Blag : He's here actually, I just saw him. He's very unpredictable; you never know what he is going to do. He transcends life and death. Your website was hacked recently by Jihadi associates. How weird was that, a rock band getting hacked as a sort of political act? Blag : We can't make this shit up. Our website got hacked by Tunisian fundamentalists, the little fucks. I think the problem is we have

lot of tits and ass on our site and that made them upset. Because Islamic jihadists don't have genitals, they are born without genitals... Marc : I'm working on a new magazine it's called Burka babes. It's going to be a hot girl wearing a burka just showing the ankle. But we're going to show more ankle than anybody. Look for it, Burka Babes. Nick : Ankles and eyes baby! Burka Babes! Blag : We're like the Charlie Hebdo of rock. Every city that has a kebab shop we're worried they will be cutting our heads off. Marc : It's a religion of peace, if you don't believe me I'll cut your head off. You once wrote a song for George Bush’s campaign. If you were to do so today, who would it be addressed to?

Blag : Rex Everything wrote the song “River City Rapist” for Bush, it was at the Texas time. Nick : It's actually Jorge Bush! A different Bush for a different time... Marc : Now we have a new Bush coming on, it's happening all again. Blag : We could write a Hillary Clinton song called “There Better Be Women”. You had to cancel the Hannover show, but played the Netherlands instead? What happened? Blag : At the last minute those Speedfest guys said we'll give you a bunch of drugs and money and you can fuck our Netherland women. Or you can drive all the way to Hannover. We don't care about people so we played the Netherlands show. We took the money and vagina. I do want to say this to

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INTERVIEW // THE DWARVES

the people of Hannover, We love you and we shall return. We beg your forgiveness. That club Bei Chez Heinz, very cool guys, they were great and we'll going to go back. If they'll have us, if they won't, then fuck them. We did it for the money, we're The Dwarves. We like money and vagina. You also released an EP on Fat Wreck Chords

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and two weeks ago another EP for Records Store Day. How did this come by? Blag : That record was on Burger, a cool garage label from Orange County. Those guys are great and they do all our reissues on CD and shit like that. They did the single “Sluts Of The U.S.A.”, “Fun To Try”, great kind of poppy garage single. And on Fat Wreck Chords we did like a hardcore single with pop punk. Kind of Rex Everything's song stuck in the void. That

one has my dick on it, butt naked. If you like to look at penis as well as vagina you got everything on that single on Fat Wreck Chords. Any last words or plans you'd like to share? Marc :We love Belgium, we like Groezrock. Blag : The Dwarves are rock legends, the greatest rock 'n’ roll band of all time! facebook.com/pages/TheDwarves


Groezrock Meerhout 2015, Belgium Photographer // Jenny McCord

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ustralia, home of the kangaroo and the boomerang. But these last years it seems that their main export product has been kick ass bands. The Smith Street Band are one of those bands that have been touring relentlessly and becoming the best ambassadors the ex-convict colony could wish for. During their stop at Groezrock we took the liberty to sit down with frontman Wil Wagner and discuss their latest album “Throw Me In The River� and much more.

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INTERVIEW // THE SMITH STREET BAND

Hey, end of last year you released your latest album “Throw Me In The River”. How has the response been so far? It's been amazing; almost surprising. We've put it out and then we toured in Australia a lot of the back of it. We've pretty much been on tour since it came out. People know the words to my songs. It's been amazing. The amazing Jeff Rosenstock produced “Throw Me In The River”. What led you onto the path of Jeff? I find him amazing too. We toured with Jeff when he was Bomb The Music Industry, just him and his iPod in Australia. I like him and John K Samson pretty much, and Bruce Springsteen. When I was like fifteen or sixteen, I started listening to Bomb The Music Industry. They taught me so much

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about being in a band. Just like “Fuck it, you want to start a band, start a band.” He's so passionate, we did that tour and then we toured with Bomb The Music Industry full band in Australia and just became good friends with him. We basically got him to produce the album but none of us knew what a producer was. We basically just wanted to hang out with Jeff for a few months. He came down and he is so positive and his brain is so amazing. You're playing and he goes “That would go good with a flute.” He pulls out his computer and puts on a flute. Plays it back, oh my god, I never thought of a flute sound on a Smith Street song. Working with him was amazing. I can't believe I'm friends with him. You also embarked


" W E P U T O N A S H OW T H AT G E N E RAT E D L I K E 20,000 D O L LA R T H AT W E D O N AT E D F O R T H E R E F U G E E C H A R I TY "

on a US tour with Jeff Rosenstock, Andrew Jackson Jihad and Chumped some time ago. How was it playing a full-on tour in the States for an Australian band? It was awesome. We've done a few tours in the States. I love Andrew Jackson Jihad as well. I've never seen them. We've played with them once here in Antwerp. And then Chumped as well, the whole tour, every person was so nice. All the Jihad guys are so nice. All the shows were no

ages and no barriers, making it a crowdfriendly experience. Doing that tour we learned a lot. Andrew Jackson Jihad, I love them and now they're like an important band. I tell people to get “Christmas Island�. His lyrics are so weird, so dark but so hopeful as well. I adore that band. I got to get a tattoo of that band now. I've already got a Jeff tattoo. Maybe one of Sean's (AJJ singer) drawings? I really want to, he was drawing, he's just a

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INTERVIEW // THE SMITH STREET BAND

genius. He'd be sitting backstage doing watercolours and then he'd be out skateboarding and be better than anyone else. He's just one of those guys, what can't you do. The band has been going for five crazy years, three albums out and numerous tours. Did you ever expect this when starting out? I remember when we started we sold out a venue of like 200 people. I was like “That's fucked”. Anything that happens from here is just a bonus. I feel like we're tricking everyone, soon everyone is going to clue on and realise we're just some idiots from Australia. This is so unexpected. We've been on tour since January and we're so tired and I miss my girlfriend and my cats. And now we're waking up and playing Groezrock

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again, I try to remind myself to be excited about it. None of us takes this for granted. Whenever people show up we're like “This is so good”. The band’s name is based on a legendary street in Melbourne. Given your status today as international band and in line with The Beatles Abbey Road street sign antics, has there been an increase in theft of Smith Street signs in Melbourne? Yes, people steal the Smith Street sign. I've got one at home. The first is hanging in our lounge room. A lot of people steal them and bring them to sign them. Parkway Drive are from Australia as well and Parkway Drive is a street in Byron Bay and we drove down there. And the street sign is like as high as those lights. You need

to put a ladder up there because it's so high so no kids can steal it. When we drove by people were trying to steal it. You recently put up a new video for the song “Arrogance Of A Drunk Pedestrian”, a track of the new album. I noticed a Weed culture sticker on the guitar headstock and you also have songs like “Get High”, “See No One”. How do you stand on drug use in general? Oh my god. I'm very pro weed obviously.


" . I F E E L L I K E W E'R E T R I C K I N G E V E RYO N E, S O O N E V E RYO N E I S G O I N G TO C L U E O N A N D R E A L I S E W E'R E J U S T S O M E I D I OT S F RO M A U S T RA L I A."

Whatever people want to do, they can do, is my opinion. If people are like dominating other people, I don't like that. I've done most of the drugs that you can do in my life, they all have their benefits and their downsides. Marihuana should be legal, it's insane that it's not. We've toured all of America and then you go to Denver and it's beautiful and clean. That's because of weed. It's great. I think that marihuana should be legal. That weed culture sticker, I saw it on a

window and just stole it and stuck on my guitar. You recently recorded a 7� for a similar cause. Can you tell us some more on what motivated you to do so? That was amazing. We've put out a 7�. The Australian government has a very backwards policy towards refugees. It's basically not letting anyone in. A lot of people live like in detention centres for like five, six, seven or eight years. For really long periods of time, it's almost barbaric. I

wrote a song because I was angry about it and it must have been a slow news day in Australia. Because the main newspapers of Australia are like calling us for interviews and a big photo of us in the newspaper on page six. We've donated like 85,000 dollars just from the 7� and then we put on a show that generated like 20,000 dollar that we donated for the refugee charity. We've got a lot of like angry racist people yelling at us. I can talk about it in every interview

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INTERVIEW // THE SMITH STREET BAND

that I do. But that's good; you don't want these people to like your band. I've got lots of friends who do volunteer work and stuff but we can't do that since we're away. So it was the best way to give something back. That's my favourite thing we did as a band. When listening to The Smith Street Band, there's no hiding that you hail from Australia. Is it a conscious decision to sing with an Australian accent? Yeah, unfortunately that's how I talk. For me you have to sing like you talk. The Australian accent is just so horrible. If you get singing lessons you get taught to sing in an American accent, because that's like the technically correct way to sing. A lot of Australian bands go out on stage and they're like “ G'day...”

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then they start singing and they sound very American. For me, I try to make everything very personal and very honest. Your lyrics and your singing should just be an extension of who you are. I always try to sing with my voice. You've encountered some strange things during your career. Like the ‘ampgate scandal’ when your amp was stolen at a show. Any other memorable facts that we need to know about? Oh, the ampgate, that was really fun. I felt like a detective for a day. We've had many silly incidents. It all just adds to the hilarity of touring. You need things like that to keep it interesting. Every few days something bizarre happens that you could never expect. It's the good thing about being around the world.

You have crazy experiences. Ampgate was fun, especially for me. I have things stolen before that I didn't get back and this one was great since I got my amp back. Personal victory for me. The Smith Street Band has gained a loyal army of fans over the years, worldwide. When you're playing it seems that everyone present knows the words and shouts along. How does it feel when you see the crowd respond so well? It's the best feeling in the world. You can't even describe it. None of us has any money, we live in shitty houses. We're always fighting with our girlfriends because we're on tour the


whole time. I dropped out of university and all that just to do this band. We sleep on the floor and drive all day. When you like get on stage and I sing about how I'm like a sad, weird idiot and people like clap and sing along. It just makes you feel so much better. Probably because I write

about depression and anxiety, singing about that stuff and having other people get into it, makes me believe that I'm not crazy. It's the best therapy or drug or anything that there is. That's why we tour so much. There's nothing like it, it's the best feeling in the world.

New EP : “Wipe That Shit​ -​Eating Grin Off Your Punchable Face” Out now!

facebook.com/thesmith streetband

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THE LOVED ONES Groezrock Meerhout 2015, Belgium Photographer /Jurriaan Hodzelmans

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Writer // David Marote

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he night before Groezrock kicked off its annual punk party, a selection of some of the pop punk bands playing were playing another great small fest in Munchen, Germany. The Uncle M Fest featured bands like Masked Intruder, Make Do And Mend and Teenage Bottlerocket. We from RMP were present and took some time to talk to Teenage Bottlerocket’s frontman Ray Carlisle about their latest release “Tales From Wyoming” and much more at Skaters palace, Munchen

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INTERVIEW // TEENAGE BOTTLEROCKET

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Today you're playing Uncle M Fest in Germany. Will you play “Ich Bin Auslander...”? Yes, we will. It was a song that I learned in high school. I took German in high school. And it was sung to a different melody but I changed the melody and made it a pop punk song. We also did the Tony Sly song “Via Munich”, which was a coincidence, for the EP “American Deutsch Bag”. The other songs didn't have anything to do with Germany though.

What came first, skateboarding or punk rock? Kind of the same time. I got into skateboarding and my older brother had the DK logo on his grip tape and he had Black Flag’s “My War” on cassette. He was like ‘Here's the Bones Brigade, here's Powel Peralta, here's G&S,...’ It all was intertwined with like I said Black Flag, Sex Pistols, Dead Kennedys. More so skateboarding was the forefront of my life before punk rock. Punk rock became more after Green Day.

“Skate Or Die” is an obvious ode to skateboarding. Today we're in Munster, Skaters palace. Did you find time to hit the deck? I didn't bring my skateboard to Europe, usually I have my skateboard on tour. I skated the day before I got here. But I left my skateboard at home.

Saturday you're playing Groezock in Belgium. Any special songs for Belgium or what may we expect? We’ll just try to play as best as we can, stay sober. It will be our second time, it's an honour to be playing there. We don't take it for granted so we keep that in mind when hitting the stage.

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“Tales From Wyoming”, your most recent album has been out for a couple of weeks now. How has the response been? It's been great, it's cool to hear everyone singing along to the new songs. It seems that everyone is getting into the record. The response has been phenomenal. You also have some exclusive watches coming out from Vannen watches. It's like an eyeball of some monster. How did this come by? The guys just really love our band. They asked us if we wanted to do a watch and we said yes. It's almost as simple as that. They came to our show at the Warped tour in Ventura. I'm standing behind their product, I'm wearing a watch by them right now. We were involved a little bit in the design. The first design we


weren't 100%happy with so they changed it. So they listened to us a little bit. One of the new tracks, “Found The One”, is a straight up love song. Congratulations, the follow up to “She's Not The One”. How important is love to you? That's a coincidence. I think that we try to write songs about things other than girls. So we have our songs like “Haunted House”, “Too Much La Collina”. You get to switch it up. We'll always write love songs and sometimes it's about girls that are cool and sometimes it's about girls who are shitty.

“Nothing Else Matters” holds some Metallica references. A big influence to Teenage Bottle Rocket? I think Metallica was an influence to us for sure.

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INTERVIEW // TEENAGE BOTTLEROCKET

"Before punk rock had really taken over our lives, Metallica did." Growing up, watching Headbanger’s Ball. Before punk rock had really taken over our lives, Metallica did. Teenage Bottle Rocket always has great videos. You've got the Mincecraft-themed video for “They Call Me Steve”. Or the headbanging video for “Headbanger”. How important is a video to the band? I think it's really cool. It's part of the way the internet is now. We did a lyric video for “Nothing Else Matters”. Putting together the “They Call Me Steve”-video was funny, because

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we just did a YouTube search for people who did Minecraft videos. We found this kid in Vancouver, I'm pretty sure he lived with his parents and sent him ‘Hey man, can you like make a video for us.’ And he said ‘Yeah man. I'll do it.’ He kind of quoted a small amount of money. ‘Okay, we'll give you that.’ And the video turned out great. We kind of had to walk him through every single step of the way. He had us strumming our guitars up and down, and we had him switch to like all down strokes. In the end we're really happy with how

it turned out. For the “Haunted House” video we filmed in Fort Collins in the street near where our drummer lives. It was a house that literally looked haunted and it was abandoned. So we just broke into the house for a day and recorded this video. Hopefully we can do a couple more videos for this album before it's on to the next record. Any plans in the nearby future or tours? Tons of touring, we're going to be back in Europe in August. Between then and now we'll be on the road all the time. New album : “Tales From Wyoming”

Out now!

facebook.com/teenagebottle rocketofficial


Groezrock Meerhout 2015, Belgium Photographer // Jenny McCord

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merican Nightmare had a short but famed career during their short lifespan. Influencing many with their negative hardcore the bubble abruptly burst mid 2000's. 2011 saw the comeback of the band surrounding enigmatic vocalist Wesley Eisold with a few shows here and there. This year Groezrock succeeded in getting American Nightmare to their festival after numerous demands. So we at RMP Magazine had a very quick conversation with singer Wes Eisold about their performance at Groezrock and the band's career.

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INTERVIEW // AMERCIAN NIGHTMARE

Welcome to Belgium, Groezrock today. How has it been? We've been here before in 2003 I believe which I didn't realise until last week. It's been great so far. We just got here a couple of hours ago. I didn't see anything yet, I just checked in and started doing interviews. We didn't get to Belgium ‘till last night. Today you are playing as American Nightmare, a sort of haunted name considering your experience with the lawsuit by the other AN. What happened that you could perform as American Nightmare again instead of Giving Up The Ghost? It's over it. The band who owned the name never really owned it. They're gone and we can use it now. The band had a short, influential career

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between ’98 and ‘04. In 2011 you started playing a couple of one-off shows here and there. How different is playing now compared to the early touring days? Kind of when we feel like it. It's so much better. You just kind of have a purpose and you concentrate on this single show. I think it's just different when your life is only music and touring. And that is not everyone's life any more. It's just easy, you get away for a few days and do something you like doing. We suffered enough already, we suffered for like five years. No one cared really and the shows were pretty shitty usually. You were in a van that sucked. Now you can do something without being miserable. American Nightmare always went its own path and was a bit of an

"If we r w

outsider in the hardcore scene back then. What do you think set you most apart from the others? We sounded different at the time and we talked about different things. We weren't really concerned with


recorded something we didn't like no one would ever know." what other people were doing and we're still not concerned with what other people are doing. We still feel like outsiders. American Nightmare went through some lows and highs. I'm

guessing that today's show was worth the trip to Belgium. How does it feel to be in this position right now? We kind of wanted to play this festival, the have been asking us for three years now. We had just scheduled things that wouldn't allow it to happen. We just wanted to play it. We were looking forward to coming back. Wes, most of the songs are in a way about love, good or bad. Growing older has your vision on life and your song writing changed and in what way? Yeah, but still retains sort of the same. It's kind of a variation on the same theme I think. I don't feel exactly the same as I did then but I still have a lot of those feelings. Whether it being in the present or the past, I'm able to relate to the songs and

I even write songs that are in tune to those in the past. For the moment you only do a couple of shows this year. Any plans on more shows or even recording new material? Probably not full tours, we do not really enjoy that, but perhaps maybe recording, maybe not. It would be something that we did if we liked it and we could choose to release it. And if we recorded something we didn't like no one would ever know. facebook.com/american nightmare

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Groezrock Meerhout 2015, Belgium Photographer // Jenny McCord

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GROEZROCK 2015 Photo special Photographer // Jurriaan Hodzelmans

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PHOTO SPECIAL // GROEZROCK 2015

Jurriaan Hodzelmans 1. Broilers 5. Turbowolf

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Jenny McCord 3. Make Do & Mend 4. Bane 5. Stick To Your Guns

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Jurriaan Hodzelmans 6. Feed The Rhino 7. Lagwagon 8. Psycho 44

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Jenny McCord 9. While She Sleeps 10. Carnifex

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TOP THREE EVENTS

Three of the biggest events taking place over the next couple of months Do all those concerts and festivals make you feel dizzy? Don’t you really know where to start or do you just want to try something new? No worries, we’ve put out some of the top upcoming events that you sure as hell don’t want to miss.

MARK THE DATE! VOL. 12

Photographer // Carl Battams Writer // Jesse Mouart

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TOP THREE EVENTS

VANS WARPED TOUR 2015 (USA) // USA, 17th of June till 8th of August 2015

This festival is one of the biggest and most anticipated events during the summer in the United States. This well-known festival started out as a punk rock festival that combined music and skating. Today the festival is one of the biggest touring festivals in the world. The popularity of this festival helped a lot of bands to get noticed and became a launching pad to international success for many of them. Today the music offer has grown and besides the metalcore and punk rock bands, you can also go see some pop and hip hop acts. Here you will find some of the bands which we are interested in. In the last decade the subgenre of metalcore became very big in the world of heavy music. Using a lot of elements of the punk and hardcore scene, it seems only normal that this genre is really taking of the festival. This year we can welcome bands such as Atilla, I Killed The Prom Queen, August Burns Red and Miss May I to the stage. These are only a few of the metalcore acts this year. A band that is growing globally is the Japanese Crossfaith. This band is literally popping up on every poster, all over the world. They’ve managed to create a new sound that very well suites the metalcore and post-hardcore that we have today. Obviously there is also a wide range of punk music ready to entertain you. Some of the bands that we’d like to mention are Knuckle Puck, Silverstein, Pup and The Wonder Years. A very young band, but one that is really booming, is the British band Neck Deep. With their pop punk music they’ve manage to win over the British crowds and are now ready to take on the rest of the world. Maybe the Warped Tour magic is just what these guys need to make it big. What would a festival be without some punching hardcore sounds. Representing the hardcore scene we have Hundredth, Beartooth and Trophy Eyes. One of the bands that keeps the hardcore spirit alive is the New York hardcore band H20. Who would have thought that some kids from New York City would grow that big? Best part is that they’ve never forgotten their roots and culture, which makes them one of the most honourable hardcore bands today.

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TOP THREE EVENTS

WITH FULL FORCE FESTIVAL 2015 (DE) //Löbnitz, 3th till 5th of July 2015

This festival is a very popular festival located in the German countryside near the city of Leipzig. Each year this eastern German festival scrapes together with an even more impressive line-up than the year before, filled with metal and hardcore. If you like some real moshpit action, this is the place to be. Fun fact, it is located on an old military airport. One of the coolest parts of this festival is that you will get to see one of Germany’s finest metal bands, right next to other international bands. One of these bands is the amazing Heaven Shall Burn. Being also from eastern Germany, this band has a close relationship with this festival and has headlined it several times. Other than that we have the metalcore band Any Given Day, beatdown band Nasty, the electronic metalcore band Eskimo Callboy and the thrash giants of Kreator. A band with loads of groove is Texas band Upon A Burning Body. They’ve got some slamming beatdowns that will keep thundering in your core. You can get some more deathcore action from the very well-known Suicide Silence, which are fully back on track and touring the heck out of themselves. In the same subgenre we also have Betraying The Martyrs and Chelsea Grin. Of course the festival has some really cool hardcore names on their festival bill: the biggest name on are the New York Hardcore legends Sick Of It All and Agnostic Front. They’ve both made the hardcore scene what it is today. Also representing the hardcore family are Terror, Born From Pain and Pro Pain. We can’t have a heavy music festival without some real badass metal bands. This year’s edition has got the industrial metal band Fear Factory, death metal band Obituary and last but not least the female fronted Arch Enemy. The departure of Arch Enemy’s front woman Angela Gossow came in like a wrecking hammer. Fortunately the band didn’t cease to exist and went on with a new lady singer Alissa White-Gluz (former-The Agonist), a mix that certainly works!

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RMP Magazine #21


TOP THREE EVENTS

METAL DAYS FESTIVAL 2015 (SVN)

// Tolmin (Slovenia), starting 19th till 25th of July 2015 One of the most epic metal festivals out there must be the Slovenian Metal Days. This sixday festival (the former Metalcamp) has it all. Two stages, a unique camp side in the woods and several beaches near the two rivers that pass the festival. All this combined with an awesome metal line-up makes this festival a must on your checklist. Here you will find a small summary of the bands that will be playing during this edition. It all started with heavy metal, so it would be shameful not to have any of it on this festival poster. This year you’ll get to see Accept, Black Label Society and Saxon. The last one is really an established value into the British heavy metal, which makes them a true headliner act. As for the death metal scene we are also in for a treat. The legendary Cannibal Corpse will be throwing some serious gore onto us. If you are up for more, you can always go check out Carcass, Kataklysm, Arch Enemy or Carnifex. If you like it more extreme, you can also get to see Rotting Christ, Arch Goat or Cattle Decapitation. Another band which can be seen as extreme is the Polish band Behemoth. We are very glad that their lead singer is back on track after his fight with leukaemia and that they are now coming back harder as ever. Fast and loud is a signature for the thrash scene. The Californian Death Angel is representing their scene together with bands such as the amazing Anvil and Sepultura. Being one of the old farts, Anvil was and still is a great inspiration to several of the biggest metal bands known in the world. Some years ago they’ve released a documentary film, which resulted in some fresh life in the popularity of the dinosaur. Other bands we would like to mention are Fear Factory, Hatebreed, Moonspell, Dream Theater and the “slut metal” band Butcher Babies. If you’re wondering why you’ve never heard of the Butcher Babies before, well just go see them. We assure you, they will haunt your memories forever.

RMP Magazine #21

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ALBUM REVIEWS

Dead Giveaway We Come In Pieces In my ears, Dead Giveaway sounds like a modern day, more up-to-date Face To Face. And yes, that is a good thing. Starting off with an exorcism scene picked directly from cult classic "The Exorcist", you could say that expectations for this album get an instant upgrade from the get go. Expectations that get filled in almost instantly with “Breach”, one of the better tracks on this eleven songs long feast of up-tempo riffs and singalong choruses. The band –clearly composed of some veteran Dutch punk rockers– nails a sound that fits like a glove with bands like Face To Face, The Descendents and even –if I may be so bold– The Foo Fighters. To me, closing track “Your Own Broadway” is the best track of the record. But all in all, this album has something for all punk rock fans to enjoy. Definitely one of the better works from the Lowlands these recent years.

By Lazlo Cootmans

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RMP Magazine #21

Destine Forevermore

Paperfriend Memories

This is definitely a catchy, feel good album and I don’t think fans will be disappointed. However, for me there is still something missing. And probably that’s originality. Because there isn’t one song on this album that doesn’t sound like something I’ve heard before.

Paperfriend are a bunch of mates from Kent who formed their rocking band last year. Not just friends on paper anymore the band names after a Biffy Clyro track and has been playing shows and rehearsing.

Every song just flows into the next and all the subjects and lyrics seem alike. Still I can’t deny that some choruses really stuck in my head and that it’s a nice variety to all the deep and depressing rock you hear nowadays. So all in all I think “Forevermore” is decent enough, but somehow I think these guys could do even better.

By Renske Gommer

With a Kickstarter project they gathered the necessary budget and recorded their first EP “Memories”. The result of those sessions are five tracks that take influence from the aforementioned Biffy Clyro, You Me At Six and even Muse! Bringing their own breed of indie rock and alternative they play a diverse selection on their first EP. Straight up rocker “Credit Card Lifestyle” is a nice display of the potential these lads hold in store. To be continued.

By David Marote


ALBUM REVIEWS

The Flatliners Resuscitation of the Year

Blind Mice Sunday Songs

Raw. Fast. Loud. The punk rock of The Flatliners certainly lives by those three words and you certainly can say that again for the most recent single the Canadian band released, now over a month ago.

Alternative rock band Blind Mice has released their brand new six-track EP and oh my it’s a cracker. It’s unique and fresh and sounds good in your ears. “Nervous” is the first song that breaks through your speakers. It is full of energy, and it definitely gets your blood pumping. You find your feet tapping whilst listening to the first minute of this track. It makes you have to listen to the rest of the album.

The first song on the 7” is a familiar one for those who ever listened to the band’s last full album. “Resuscitation of the Year” is also the opening track of “Dead Language”. Don't worry, after two years, the song still kicks some serious ass. It starts off quite mellow and easy-going, only to shift towards the sixth gear and force some very moshable, up-tempo riffs and beats towards your eardrum. Even more interesting on this 7” though, is the never before heard B-side “Fangs” that shows us a slightly louder, more aggressive Flatliners than we are used to. The vocals of Chris are louder than ever and the riffs in between the chorus lack a certain structure that we are used in other tracks of the band, making the track sound more like a hardcore song. Definitely a sound for the band that is bound to ruffle some feathers with the original fans, but something that I secretly hope to hear more often in the coming LP from this group.

By Lazlo Cootmans

There is no waiting after each track, they flow perfectly. “Home Movies”, the second track, is a beautiful song. The vocals are superb and really clear to hear every word vocalist Ross Nunes sings. It is a very tight-sounding track and reflects on previous life experiences. The EP drops down a pace with the fifth song “Barbara’s Bar”. However, passionate shouts throughout this song make you want to shout along with the band. It’s loud and in your face. It is definitely going to be stuck in your head all day long. The whole EP is catchy and as soon as it ends you just have to listen to it over and over again. They may sound similar to punk band Polar Bear Club, but that’s what makes this album sound even better, greater music to put on your iPod.

By Holly Reijs

RMP Magazine #21

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