Integrity Trap Them Magrudergrind Profound Lore

metal zine
scionav.com
Vol. 1
Integrity
Trap Them
Magrudergrind
Profound Lore
Ceremony
Black Breath
S C I O N
A / V
S C H E D U L E
Ja n ua ry
JAn. 8th
MetAL MAtinee, CHiCAgo
trap them, Black Breath and Mammoth grinder
JAn. 9th
MetAL MAtinee, Los AngeLes
trap them, Black Breath and Mammoth grinder
F E B rua ry
sCion A/V
Primate, Draw Back a stump eP
MarCH
MAR. 5th
sCion RoCk Fest 2011
Pomona, California
rsvp
C U r r E N t L y
A V A I L A b L E
free download
sCionAV.CoM
scion A/V: Magrudergrind, Crusher eP
check it out
MusiC ViDeos to wAtCH inCLuDe
kyLesA
“tired Climb”
Staff
SCION PROJECT MANAGER: Jeri Yoshizu, Sciontist
EDITOR: Eric Ducker
CREATIVE DIRECTION: Scion
ART DIRECTOR: Ryan Di Donato
PRODUCTION DIRECTOR: Anton Schlesinger
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: J. Bennett
ASSISTANT EDITOR: Maud Deitch
GRAPHIC DESIGNERS: Cameron Charles, Kate Merritt
Contributors
PHOTOGRAPHER: Greg Bojorquez
Contact
For additional information on Scion, email, write or call.
SCION CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
19001 S. Western Avenue Mail Stop WC12
Torrance, CA 90501
Phone: 866.70.SCION
Fax: 310.381.5932
Email: Email us through the contact page
located on scion.com
Hours: M-F 6am-5pm PST
Online Chat: M-F, 6am-6pm PST
Scion Metal Zine is published by malbon Brothers Farms. For more information about mBF, contact [email protected]
Company references, advertisements and/or websites listed in this publication are not affiliated with Scion, unless otherwise noted through disclosure.
Scion does not warrant these companies and is not liable for their preformances or the content on their advertisements and/or websites.
© 2010 Scion, a marque of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., Inc. All rights reserved. Scion and the Scion logo are trademarks of Toyota Motor Corporation. 00430-ZIN01-MT
MuniCiPAL wAste
“wolves of Chernobyl”
MeLVins
“electric Flower”
Ask Scion
Question: How do you choose the artists at scion Rock Fest?
AnsweR: each year at scion Rock Fest, the goal has been to feature the greatest bands in the key areas
of underground metal: death metal, black metal, thrash, grindcore and doom. the intention is to present an
exciting combination of absolute legends alongside younger bands who breathe new power into this music and
carry it into new directions. we also put a special spotlight on artists who have been doing incredible work for
many years, who are possibly unknown to some and who we feel do not receive the recognition they deserve.
this year in particular we are placing a greater focus on hardcore-leaning metal bands, as a counterpart to the
scion Metal Matinees we’ve been doing every month in Los Angeles. All in all, through scion’s many metal
initiatives, we are proud to work with about 150 bands a year, and we always have slots available for bands we
do multiple projects with—great artists and great people we love to work with.
—Adam shore, booker for scion Rock Fest
If you have a question, email us through the Contact page on scionav.com
Photography by greg Bojorquez
trap them is a band whose sound seesaws from grind to crust-punk to black-eyed hardcore. But perhaps
what really sets trap them apart is vocalist Ryan Mckenney’s epic lyrical concept, a multi-faceted story about
a small town that began on the band’s 2007 full-length debut, sleepwell Deconstructor, and has continued
through every song on their five subsequent releases, including their as-yet-unnamed album due out in March.
Mckenney recently took a break from cleaning out trap them’s tour van in Lubbock, texas, to explain.
Before we did the first record, i had an idea that was kind of similar to what i ended up doing on all our releases.
i thought about making every song an extension of one person who grew up and left a small-town and basically
turned into a complete abomination of every human spirit, who did everything he could do to ruin any faith in
humanity. But that seemed too small and condensed for what i felt i could work with over the time of the band’s
career. so i spread it out and theorized an entire town of desolate, depressed people, and what would happen
if something snapped in every person all in one day—who would stay there, who would leave and what would
happen to them. i decided to tell those stories secondhand, firsthand, from every aspect of small town life.
i grew up in Dover, new Hampshire, so i have a pretty firm grasp on the two sides of the story, of feeling
trapped in a small town and being this close to being like, F*** it. i’m gonna be a townie. i’m gonna work at
the gas station and listen to whatever comes on the radio and just be happy with day to day life. or being like,
i wanna get outta here. And i chose to get outta there. so what clicked in my head about doing something like
this storyline is that i definitely know what it’s like to question yourself, to decide whether you’re going to do
something you don’t wanna do for the rest of your life or if you’re gonna do something about it.
the songs about the people who left the town are about whether they left for negative or positive reasons, and
what they ended up doing. the stories about the people who stayed in the town end up being about whether
they appreciate what they do there or whether they’re so miserable about being trapped that it boils up and
over and they want to basically destroy the place that destroyed them.
i really do feel like it’s a novelistic approach. i take references and phrases from every song and incorporate
them into new songs, and i graduate the story into each new release by making sure i’m referencing a lot of
things from the previous one. i never really write a whole chunk of the story at once, though. Like with many
people who write, a certain idea or phrase will pop into my head and i’ll have to run to get a piece of paper
and get it down as quick as i can. it might just be a line or two, but i’ll build on it afterwards.
i realized on the first two records what i could do with this. i wrote those over maybe two months. nowadays, i
usually have the lyrics to a record done about a year before any music is written. i give them to [guitarist] Brian
[izzi] so he can get a feel for how he can work with that musically. once the music is done, i might have to rework
them a little bit to fit the music, but at this point, i’ve probably written enough for the next two full-lengths.
when i started writing this stuff, i really didn’t think much of it. Coming from a punk and hardcore background,
you notice that a lot of kids sing along at shows, but i don’t think the words necessarily sink in with them. But
then kids started coming up to the merch table to ask me questions about the lyrics and where the story was
going. i really didn’t think that was something that would get any attention. the major thing for me was that i
was so impressed with Brian’s songwriting ability that i felt it would be an insult to him if i were to go through
the motions and write words that weren’t given the time and respect that he gives to the music.
As told to J. Bennett
wecraftindarkness.com
to get information about trap them’s January shows in Los Angeles and Chicago
as part of the scion A/V Metal Matinee series, visit scionav.com/metal
trap them in Columbus, ohio
InTrODuCInG
C E r E M O N y
STORY : J. BENNETT
PHOTOGRAPHY: GREG BOJORquEz
SCION
ROCK FEST
SATURDAY, MARCH 5, 2011
POMONA, CA
Listening to Ceremony’s third and latest album, Rohnert Park, is like taking a
slingshot ride back to the early ’80s, the era when hardcore was first being forged
by Black Flag, Minor Threat and the Circle Jerks. Taking its name from the Northern
California town where the band is from, the album is a white hot blast of attitude that
follows hardcore’s long suburban tradition. It’s also arguably Ceremony’s mellowest
album to date. “On the first couple of records that we did, the music and lyrics were
a little bit more abrasive than they are now,” vocalist Ross Farrar explains. “When we
first started playing shows, we got a rep as a fast, aggressive band, and more people
started coming to the shows. It’s gotten a little less abrasive, maybe, but people still
go crazy—stage-diving, jumping off bars, throwing chairs.”
“It’s like recess for people in their early twenties,” adds bassist and sometimesguitarist Ryan Mattos.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT
WWW.SCION.COM/ROCK
Rohnert Park is clearly the sound of a band in transition. While 2006’s Violence
Violence and 2008’s Still Nothing Moves You bristle with youthful anger, Rohnert
Park reveals an subtler, more nuanced hardcore outfit. “Our goals for this band are
completely different than when we started,” explains guitarist Anthony Anzaldo. “I’m
more concerned with what I think is great music rather than just writing the fastest
20-second song I can come up with and losing my mind onstage as hard as I can.”
As Farrar points out, it’s just a matter of expanding one’s horizons. “It’s like when
you’re a little kid, you see a fire engine go by, it makes you really happy. When you’re
30, you don’t care about the fire engine anymore,” he says. “It’s kind of like that with
punk and hardcore. You’re pumped on it when you’re a kid but then other things
come along. You start going to the MoMA or learning about astronomy. But Minor
Threat will always be rad.”
ceremonyhc.com
To watch a longer interview with Ceremony and see videos and pictures from their
performance at Scion A/V’s Metal Matinee, visit scionav.com/metal
Named after the housing project where they used to practice, Washington, DC scour-trio
Magrudergrind are among the vanguard of modern grindcore. Founded in 2002, the band
has risen through the high-speed ranks on the strength of two mammoth full-lengths, a
pile of splits and a relentless touring schedule that has taken them all the way to Southeast
Asia. Their latest EP, Crusher, was released through Scion A/V and is a testament to their
craftsmanship and dedication to a musical form first created by the likes of Repulsion,
Napalm Death and Carcass in the 1980s. The title and cover art are also clever nods to
Earache’s infamous Grind Crusher compilations of the late ’80s and early ’90s. A recent
graduate of the University of Maryland’s Department of Economics program, vocalist Avi
Kulawy recalls a life in grind.
WAS ThERE A PARTICUlAR MoMENT WhEN yoU KNEW yoU WANTED To
BE IN A GRIND BAND?
I started out playing in hardcore punk bands, but my music taste kind of changed when I
was about 16 or 17 and went toward the more extreme elements of hardcore. Grind was just
so harsh and emotional in an aggressive way. It was very thoughtful and it felt real. I had a
lot of angst and anger built up, so I figured a grindcore band was the most appropriate style
of music to express myself.
Interview: J. Bennett
Photography: Greg Bojorquez
A loT oF yoUR lyRICS SEEM SPECIFIC To lIVING IN DC. Do yoU ThINK
MAGRUDERGRIND WoUlD BE A DIFFERENT BAND IF yoU WERE FRoM
SoMEWhERE ElSE?
yeah, absolutely. I think my lyrics are a product of the city I grew up in, and of the macro
factors of the punk community that I was involved in. The punk and hardcore community
in DC is a lot different than any other city, and a lot of that has to do with class and the
demographic makeup of the area. In DC, there are two tiers to the punk scene. There
are a lot of wealthier suburban kids that come into the hardcore scene, and they can be
very hypocritical sometimes because they hate on gentrification, yet they move into these
neighborhoods and spur gentrification. They hate on certain social aspects of the scene, yet
they participate in it. And a lot of that has to do with the demographic nature of the area.
BUT MAGRUDERGRIND ISN’T IN ThAT TIER.
Right. But I’m not gonna say that we’re poor kids or anything. We’re not uneducated or
anything like that. I guess it’s just that there’s a very far-left sentiment in the punk community
here, just like any other punk scene, but I feel like it’s taken to a different level here, and
that level is kind of hypocritical. you have these kids talking about social issues that they’re
not even experiencing. They don’t even have a clue. And that just doesn’t seem real.
Do yoU hAVE A SySTEM FoR WRITING lyRICS?
I procrastinate pretty hard, actually. There will be times where I’ll be scribbling down lyrics
the night before we have to record, so usually the things I talk about are very much up to
date with whatever is going on in my life. When I look back at the lyrics I’ve written over
the years, I can see how I’ve changed as an individual—my perception of the world, my
perception of issues, politics, social problems, everything.
IN ThE PAST, yoU’VE TAlKED ABoUT MAGRUDERGRIND GETTING “lESS FUNNy”
AS TIME GoES oN. IS ThAT JUST A MATTER oF MATURING AS A lyRICIST AND
CollECTIVEly AS A BAND, oR IS ThERE SoMEThING ElSE AT WoRK?
I think as we get older, our priorities change. For instance, a few years ago, I was in school
and every break that we had, I was all about hitting the road and doing the band thing. I
just finished school recently, and I’m starting to reevaluate things. I look at a lot of other
people who I grew up with and I think my personality and my life is just changing in weird
ways. I wouldn’t call myself a conventional hardcore or metal kid, because I don’t follow the
typical guidelines of whatever people expect.
Do yoU ThINK yoU’ll PURSUE A CAREER IN ECoNoMICS AT SoME PoINT?
Well, it absolutely interests me because it’s part of everyday life. It has to do with everything,
from the food we eat and the clothes we buy to political decisions that are made. It even
affects music, and I’d like to pursue the business side of music at some point. I work at a
digital advertising agency right now. It’s all right, but I find myself sitting there sometimes
thinking, Man, I wish I was on tour right now.
myspace.com/magrudergrind
listen to Magrudergrind’s Crusher EP at scionav.com/magrudergrind
Visit scionaV.com
for original videos of interviews & performances, exclusive & free
music downloads, live event photos, streaming music on
Scion Radio 17 & much more
Story: J. Bennett
In the past few years, the diverse roster of upstart Canadian record label Profound lore has ravaged
the metal underground. Founded by owner and operator Chris Bruni in 2004, the label’s recent
releases include acclaimed slabs from oregonian doom dealers yob (2009’s The Great Cessation), NyC
black metal wizards Krallice (2009’s Dimensional Bleedthrough) and Portland folk-metal magi Agalloch
(2010’s Marrow Of The Spirit, which was recently crowned Album of The year by Decibel magazine).
Bruni credits Profound lore’s excellent track record to nothing more complicated than following his
instincts. “It’s not like I went on some marketing campaign to build this brand,” he says. “There’s no
grand scheme. It’s just been about releasing music I like.”
In just six short years, Profound lore has gone from part-time hobby to full-time occupation. Bruni
has only been dedicating all his workdays to the label since August 2009, when he left his day job at
a packaging distribution company. “I guess you could say I was in the corrugated industry,” he says
with a laugh. “It was one of the most depressing things I’ve ever been involved in.”
Bruni cites Eater Of Birds, the 2007 album from Colorado war-metal maniacs Cobalt, and Works Will Come
Undone, the 2006 album from oakland funeral doomsters Asunder, as key turning points for the label.
“Cobalt was turned down by every other label, but that record just blew me away when I heard it,” he
says. “And now they have a real reputation that started when that album came out. As far as Asunder, the
overall aesthetic of that release signaled a new direction for the label because it was such a sprawling,
epic doom record. It made me even more focused on really dark, really heavy music.”
Today, Profound lore is essentially a one-man operation that Bruni runs out of his house in the ontario
countryside, about 90 minutes from Toronto. “I have a graphics guy who does some of my ads and puts
some of the CD designs together,” he explains. “But I basically do it all myself, even the grunt work.”
profoundlorerecords.com
twitter.com/profound_lore
SElECTIoNS FRoM
ThE PRoFoUND loRE CATAloG
ludicra, the tenant, 2010
agalloch, marrow of the spirit, 2010
asunder, works will come undone, 2006
man’s gin, smiling dogs, 2010
cobalt, eater of birds, 2007
slough feg, the animal spirits, 2010
The ARt Of FreNCh
Story: J. Bennett
The subheading of French’s blog says it all: “Drawing, Death Metal, Tea
Drinking.” Such are the activities that occupy much of the English artist’s
time. Born Richard Sayer, his first paid illustration work appeared in the
record review pages of UK skate mag Sidewalk, drawing the likenesses
of legendary metal bands Motörhead, Immortal and Slayer. “It didn’t pay
much, but it was a pretty good first job,” he says. “I was so stoked just to
be asked to draw anything.”
These days, French’s phantasmagoric designs—which often include
some appropriately metal combination of hair, horns and snakes—grace
T-shirts and decks from Vans, Zero Skateboards and Nitro Snowboards,
among others. He’s also created art for many of the flyers for Scion A/V
metal shows. Meanwhile, his highly detailed fine art paintings, done in the
style of classical wood carvings, have appeared in galleries on both sides
of the Atlantic (including two Scion Installation Art Tours).
As for recent inspiration, French says he’s turned to the guttural sounds
of renowned death dealers Angel Corpse, Immolation and Monstrosity.
“I first got into metal through my older brother,” he explains. “He and all
his friends were into bands like Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Saxon and
Judas Priest. From there, it just got heavier.”
Art by French
funeralfrench.com
To see some of the art French has done for Scion A/V metal projects,
visit scionav.com/metal
Art by French
Over the past 25 years, ChiCagO has prOduCed
sOme Of the mOst unique bands Of the ameriCan
metal COmmunity, inCluding yakuza, peliCan and
maCabre. nOt typiCally assOCiated with any One
Watch vIdeos froM the scIon a/v vIdeo serIes
sOund, the ChiCagO sCene is best knOwn fOr
at scIonav.coM/MusIc/scIonavvIdeo
the ChiCagO metal faCtOry, a listings website
its diversity. we spOke with rOdney pawlak Of
dediCated tO heavy musiC events in the ChiCagO
area, abOut what he thinks metal fans need tO
knOw abOut in the City.
reggie’s rOCk Club
Reggie’s was kind of in one of those up-and-coming
neighborhoods, but now it really is up-and-coming—the
housing projects across the street are no longer there,
the scary liquor store next door’s not there. When I was
a kid growing up in Chicago, you had to go into the
seedier neighborhoods to find this kind of music. Then
everything changed, and everyone was going to House of Blues and there wasn’t really a place for the
smaller shows. But Reggie’s and a couple of other DIY venues opened up and they can do all-ages
shows, so now there are other options.
exit
The Exit on North Avenue has just started doing metal shows. It has a metal night on Sunday that’s really
popular. It’s more of a punk rock bar that has metal shows as well. Whenever there’s a Sunday and there’s
a show in town, all the bands show up there, and smaller bands hang out there throughout the week.
the ChiCagO metal faCtOry
Thecmf.com lists pretty much every [metal] show going on. Unfortunately, some days there will be five
shows and some days there will be none, but that’s the metal scene here, I guess. It’s a resource that
a lot of people really love. I’m behind the site. I’m not trying to do something flashy or high tech, it’s just
a resource. It’s just this little site that tells what it is.
vOlume reCOrding/semaphOre reCOrding
Sanford Parker from Minsk, he gets the local bands to come and record and, of course, all of the
international bands as well [Parker has engineered records for Lair of the Minotaur, Yob, Nachtmystium,
Zoroaster and more]. His recordings are all really good, super booming, and he’s a really cool guy.
Everybody wants to go there. The studio is in Wicker Park, which is a hip neighborhood, but you get
made fun of for living there, too.
IncludIng
MunIcIpal Waste’s “Wolves of chernobyl”
sCOtt davidsOn, “rebel radiO”
Scott Davidson has been the biggest metal supporter over the years. He’s been keeping it alive. He’s been
doing it for so long, he books bands, is in bands, does everything. We don’t have a big corporate station
that supports metal in Chicago. “Rebel Radio” is small, but anyone who grew up metal as a kid would
tune in late at night to hear metal. He’s definitely shaped more people in the scene than anyone else.
kuma’s COrner
Kuma’s is the heavy metal burger place. Every burger is named after a heavy metal band. People
actually wait in line for like an hour and a half to get a table there. They play metal, but it’s not super
loud—more the droney stuff—and it’s awesome. You know, Lady Gaga had to make her appearance
there when she was in town for Lollapalooza.
thecmf.com
To find out what bands are coming to Chicago for Scion A/V’s
Metal Matinee series, visit scionav.com/metal
Story: J. Bennett
Black Breath guitarist Eric Wallace does not mince words. Ask him why his band plays at top speed
and ear-splitting volume and he’ll give it to you straight: “Because playing loud and fast is more fun
than quiet and slow.”
INTRODUCING…
And make no mistake, this Seattle-based metal outfit seems to be having nothing but fun. In fact,
Wallace responded to our questions from Vienna, Austria, where he and his bandmates—vocalist
Neil McAdams, bassist Elijah Nelson, drummer Jamie Byrum and guitarist F. Funds—were on their
first European tour. “Last night we played at a university in Stockholm, and the kids tore down the
barrier between the crowd and the stage,” Wallace reports. “We kept playing, stoked, figuring security
would come and intervene sooner or later, but they never did. Come to think of it, I don’t think there
was any security at all, just some theater nerd kids from the school looking real nervous!”
On their 2008 EP Razor To Oblivion and 2010’s full-length debut, Heavy Breathing, Black Breath lash
d-beat punk and thrash riffs to roaring Swedish death metal tones. Wallace cites classic black metal
and punk bands like Bathory, Discharge, Celtic Frost and Poison Idea as initial inspirations, but points
out that Black Breath’s songs have become progressively more complex since the band’s inception in
2006. “As time ticks by, we’ve definitely incorporated different influences and ways of playing that would
never have made it into earlier songs,” he says. “It’s quite safe to say at this point that more death metal
has crept into our stuff than before. Whether that’s good or not, who knows?”
As for the album title? “Heavy Breathing was just too good not to use,” Wallace explains. “Considering
the band name, it worked in a tongue-in-cheek way, in the vein of countless old metal records. Plus, it
had the word ‘heavy’ in it.”
blackbreath.com
To get information about Black Breath’s January shows in Los Angeles and Chicago as part of the
Scion A/V Metal Matinee series, visit scionav.com/metal
Interview: j. bENNEtt
Formed in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1988, hardcore legends
Integrity were never big on tradition. While many of
their contemporaries were content to bark lyrics
about straight edge or scene unification (or both)
over the same done-to-death chug runs and generic
breakdowns, Integrity helped inculcate the genre
with metal riffs, guitar solos and bizarre samples,
laying much of the groundwork for the metallic
hardcore explosion of the late 1990s. Meanwhile,
frontman and conceptual mastermind Dwid Hellion
was writing lyrics about psychological warfare,
terrorism and the various activities of government
agencies. today, Hellion lives in belgium while
the rest of his bandmates are scattered across the
United States. though he and multi-instrumentalist
robert Orr are constantly writing and recording
new Integrity material, they rarely play live or give
interviews. We had the chance to sit down with them
before their recent Scion A/V Metal Matinee show
in Los Angeles. An excerpt with Hellion follows:
Why did you start Integrity?
I feel like Integrity started as sort of a terrorist
reaction to society. I was born in the ’70s and became
a teenager in the ’80s. to like the kind of music I
liked back then was kind of like putting a target
on your head. It sounds crazy now, but back then if
you were to wear a Samhain shirt or a Misfits shirt,
that automatically meant that in school you were
fighting people everyday, just because of the bands
you liked. It made no sense. Nowadays, things like
punk rock and skateboarding are everywhere. but
back then, you had to fight for it. that’s the world I
come from, and Integrity’s music reflects that.
You don’t play live very often these days. As a
result, Integrity shows are big events. Are you
overwhelmed by the response you get?
Well, we don’t really think about the band in those
terms—as far as popularity or attendance. We
pretty much just do it for ourselves. We’re selfish
people. We’re entertaining ourselves by making the
music that we wanna hear, music that we don’t feel
is out there now. And because of that, we taught
ourselves how to record on our own, to mix on our
own, to master on our own and do all the artwork
ourselves. that’s where our interest is—not so much
the amount of audience, or lack of.
You made Integrity’s back catalog available for free
on the internet a few years ago. Why did you decide
to do that?
I had an allowance as a kid, and I would save up
my pennies to buy records. I would only be able
to afford one record a month, maybe two. I would
buy them pretty much solely based off the album
artwork, particularly if Pushead was drawing it. If
he did the cover, you pretty much knew it was safe.
but sometimes I’d buy records that I wasn’t into,
and I’d be stuck with them. this was before the
internet existed in a way that the citizens could use
it. So giving the music away to people now is a way
for them to hear the music without buying it. If
they don’t like it, they can delete it. I’d rather do it
that way than be part of a deception, where people
would buy it based on a lie or a misrepresentation
of what we’re about. Misrepresenting what we’re
about is something that’s been a constant with
this band. Even the band name is like that. based
on our name, you probably wouldn’t think our
music would sound the way that it sounds. It’s a
contradiction, I guess.
Does Integrity mean something different to you today
than it did back in 1988?
I don’t really know the reason why I make this
music. I don’t know what’s driving me now any
more than I know what was driving me back then,
other than I just wanted to create something to
entertain myself. I listen to a lot of music and I’m
interested in a lot of different things, and I often
feel unsatisfied with what is available to me. I want
to make something that’s more tailored to my own
interests. that’s something that rob shares with
me, and that’s why we do it. Ultimately, if no one
was listening to it, that would be just fine. there are
a lot of songs that we make that no one hears, that
we just make for ourselves. We have bands where
we don’t say that it’s us. but we don’t care. We do it
because we like it.
holyterror.com
To watch a video of an extended version of this interview
and to watch performance videos, visit scionav.com/metal
INTERNET PICKS
As Editor-in-Chief of Decibel magazine, it’s crucial that Albert Mudrian keeps up with every
level of metal bands. And while he still gets pitches from writers, publicists and labels, the
internet remains a crucial tool. Here, he discusses how he uses the internet and what sites
he visits to stay informed.
There are a lot of really good download blogs. I’m not going through trying to collect as much
of this music as possible. I’m going because it becomes a very easy screening process
where I can grab half a dozen records that somebody has uploaded and go through them
to determine if they make sense for coverage in the magazine. I have to approach things
differently because I’m constantly being inundated by record labels, publicists and other
writers pitching me new records before they come out. A lot of times I don’t end up going to
blogs to find out what bands they’re talking about, because chances are, someone’s been
whispering in my ear for a couple months prior.
There are some good metal blogs out there that are writing about bands and doing some
expository pieces. There’s a blog called Invisible Oranges that posts some sample tracks to
check out, but they also have interesting interviews and record reviews. They’re as close as
you’ll come to a print magazine in an online blog form.
There’s the site Metalsucks.net, which despite having an unfortunate URL is a good source
for general audience metal music. It isn’t just super underground stuff or the traditional
mainstream stuff, like Metallica or Slayer. They really span a very, very wide breadth of
things.
There are a lot of interesting message boards out there that talk about metal, and you can
definitely glean some interesting things by reading what über nerdy people are posting
about. There’s a general music message board called I Love Music that has a lot of metal
threads. Decibel’s message board gets a lot of traffic, and people there talk about a lot of
records that we will eventually end up covering, or may have just covered, so it’s interesting
to read what people’s take is on those. There’s a forum called Foreverdoomed.com that has
a lot of doom metal and black metal discussions. I honestly hear more about underground
bands from those sites than I do from magazines or blogs or publicists even.
I was lurking on a forum discussing old school style death metal. The discussion was about
new bands playing old death metal. When those death metal bands were first out I was
really into them, so I was taken with that idea. There was one band that people were talking
about called Deathevokation, and I had never heard of them, but I ended up checking them
out and was blown away. The record was a year old at the time, and I sent it around to some
writers and some friends. Last year, Decibel did a top records of the decade piece, and
Deathevokation actually made it in.
As told to Maud Deitch
decibelmagazine.com
presents
tO P P I C K S : A DA M S H O r E
Adam Shore, host of “Radio Doooom!” on Scion Radio 17 and booker of the Scion Rock Fest, spotlights what’s
currently interesting him in the world of metal.
Hole In the Sky Festival In Bergen, Norway. Ivar Bjørnson from Enslaved and Martin Kvam produce Hole In
the Sky, one of the great festivals in the world, which is now in its 11th year. A devastating extreme metal
overload, with a special focus on death and black metal, this year’s fest saw tremendous sets from Triptykon,
Ihsahn (from Emperor), Autopsy (with Brutal Truth’s Dan Linker on guitar) and so many more. But the true
highlights were Dead Congregation, the great old school-sounding death metal band from Greece that has yet
to play the US (but, thanks to Maryland Deathfest, will be here soon!); absolutely thrilling sets from Obituary
and Venom, two bands you would never believe would be so tight, so strong and so powerful 25 and 31 years
into their careers, respectively, and, of course, the mighty Watain, who’s full “ritual” show stands as one of
the greatest performances of 2010.
Bay Area Black Metal Something putrid is growing near the San Francisco Bay. While the northeast has seen
an upsurge in black metal activity—thanks to bands like Krallice, Liturgy and Woe—the Bay Area is about
to take over with releases from Necrite, Pale Chalice and Dispirit. Necrite and Pale Chalice both record for
the excellent Flesner Records label, and conjure up a wretched noise that owes more to the second wave of
Scandinavian BM than the east coast crews ever do. Necrite’s Sic Gloria Transit Mundi is one of the albums of
the year. Pale Chalice has yet to make a full-length, but from what we’ve heard so far, it will be spectacular.
Meanwhile, we wait with bated breath for Dispirit, the new BM project from John Gossard, late of one of the
most important USBM bands ever: Weakling. From the demos you can hear on dispirit.org, it looks like the
awesome power of Weakling’s music will surely rise again.
Integrity and Bastard Noise I am having the best time delving into these two bands’ impossibly exciting and
unending catalogs, having admittedly come a bit late to both of them. Integrity, led by Dwid and started in
1988, are the pillars of everything that was once and still is great in hardcore, and their latest album The
Blackest Curse, is unimaginably fierce, brutal and stirring hardcore filtered though a filthy, blackened lens.
Bastard Noise is the culmination of Eric Wood’s life work, which began in 1991 with Man Is The Bastard, in
which he virtually invented the genre of music called power violence. Built upon a challenging avalanche of
hardcore, grindcore and electronics (plus a seriously warped way of looking at the world), Bastard Noise is
something everyone needs to hear. That both Dwid and Eric Wood are into their third decade making such
startling, original music, with over 50 releases to each of their names, proves it’s time to recognize that these
two aren’t just cult geniuses. They are true giants in music, deserving of our admiration and respect for their
incredible dedication to making such powerful, original and pure music.
Albums “Radio Doooom!” Will Not Stop Playing: Necrite, Sic Gloria Transit Mundi (Flesner); Harvey Milk, A Small
Turn Of Human Kindness (Hydra Head); True Widow, As High As the Highest Heavens and From the Center to the
Circumference of the Earth (Mexican Summer); Swans, My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky (Young
God); Wold, Working Together For Our Privacy (Profound Lore); Nightbringer, Apocalypse Sun (Anja Offensive).
Listen to Radio Doooom! at scionav.com/music/radio17
(lambgoat.com)
Covering the collision of metal, hardcore and other types of
extreme music, lambgoat.com is a streamlined site offering
news, reviews and a message board for the faithful.
Metal assault
(metAlAssAult.com)
Founded and
run primarily by
Aniruddh “Andrew”
Bansal, metalassault.
com follows metal
from the mainstream
to the farthest
reaches of obscurity
through interviews,
show reviews, photos,
videos and audio
releases.
(metalinjection.net)
At metAlinjection.net
they pile on the content,
providing A deep resource of
videos, podcasts and show photos
for metAl fAns.
The crowd at Scion Metal Show featuring Doomriders and Skeletonwitch, LA
Death Angel at Scion Metal Show at The Roxy, LA
A b O U t tO W N
Ross Farrer of Ceremony at Scion Metal Matinee at The Roxy, LA
Artist Murdoch at the Close To A World Below exhibition at
Scion Installation LA
YOB at Scion Metal Show at The Roxy, LA
Doomriders at Scion Metal Show at The Roxy, LA
Trash Talk at Scion Metal Matinee at The Roxy, LA
Acid Tiger at Scion Metal Matinee at The Roxy, LA
Iron Age at Scion Metal Matinee at The Roxy, LA
Artist/Curator French, guest, Kill Pixie at the Close To A World Below exhibition at Scion
Installation LA
Artist Ashley Lande at the Close To A World Below
exhibition at Scion Installation LA
Skeletonwitch at Scion Metal Show at The Roxy, LA
Artist Marcus Oakley at the Close To A World Below exhibition
at Scion Installation LA
Scion’s commitment to artistic expression
provides a platform for passionate artists to focus
on developing their art and exploring the endless
possibilities. To learn about current and past projects
from Scion Audio/Visual (SA/V),
please visit scionav.com.