Fist in Fetus’ 2007 EP release was one of the most inspired – and inspiring – discoveries I’ve heard all year (credit goes to intrepid TOTD bloodhound Cynicgods for finding it). You’ve heard symphonic elements woven into metal dozens of times by now, but they’ve rarely been this modern or unconventional. And it’s never taken the form of soaring power metal crossbred with screaming, spastic grind. Or delivered by an unlikely team of musicians – classically trained Perttu Vänskä and new Stratovarius guitarist (and Finnish Guitar Idol 2008) Matias Kupiainen.

Logging in well over 20 years, and innumerable miles, in Thrash Metal, California’s Hirax is no stranger to fans of the underground. Led by its tenacious and ferocious lead singer Katon W. DePena, Hirax continues to release great music and trek across the planet delivering its own intense, aggressive brand of cult Thrash Metal. I managed to corner guitarists Glenn Rogers and Lance Harrison for a little Q & A session.

The UK’s My Silent Wake just released its third album of Folk-infused Doom Metal entitled A Garland Of Tears. Boasting a mature yet melancholic sound, the band has been making its presence known in the Metal underground over the last few years. I spoke with vocalist/guitarist/founder Ian Arkley (a fixture in the UK Metal scene since the late 1980’s) recently about the new album, here’s what he had to say.

A scant two years after forming, Vancouver Canada’s BISON B.C. released its second album (first for Metal Blade) entitled Quiet Earth on September 30. Two years…two albums…not to mention the countless shows all over Canada & the USA. To say these guys are “busy” just doesn’t cut it. This constant motion has paid off, as it turns out, because Quiet Earth is one of the best albums I’ve heard all year. I was able to track down guitarist/vocalist/anti-hipster Dan And to answer a few questions for me.

As I stated in my review of All Thats Remains’ latest album Overcome, I was a little nervous talking to vocalist Phil Labonte, considering my lukewarm feelings toward the album. However, after meeting Phil in the tour bus before All That Remains headlining show with Trivium, The Human Abstract and 36 Crazyfists in Columbia , MO, all fears were set aside as we had a lengthy interview and Phil proved to be the consummate professional…

With their second album, the aptly titled This Grand Show, Grayceon have once again delivered a stunning, sumptous opus of cello flocked, introspective and progressive music that defies categorization. And having communicated with cello player and vocalist Jackie Perez Gratz in the past, and found her to an absolutely delightful individual, I thought I’d ask a few question via email about the new album, her other projects and other more amorous endeavors…

Nevermore have been going through a good momentum after their highly acclaimed (and rightfully so) album This Godless Endeavor. While waiting for a follow-up, the fans of the band, appreciators of good music and quality musicianship, have been graced with two solo efforts coming out from the Nevermore camp. We took the opportunity to talk with the shredder extraordinaire, Mr. Jeff Loomis and ask him a few things about his new album Zero Order Phase and of course, check up on Nevermore.

Germany’s best kept musical secret, DIE APOKALYPTISCHEN REITER, are back with their latest album Licht. Currently preparing for a long tour, we had the pleasure of throwing a few questions at the band’s low volume mechanist, bass player Volk-Man and ask him a bit about the latest album, what’s been going on in the Reiter camp and take a look at what makes the band… them. But without further a due, let’s step into the divine light and see what unfolds…

When I first started this reviewing gig, one of the first albums from an ‘unknown’ act I fell in love with was the 2002 debut Revealing Damnation from Council of The Fallen, released on Martyr Music Group. After staying in touch with founding member Kevin Quiron, and reviewing the follow up, 2004’s equally impressive Dechipering […]

To this day, one of my very favorite metal songs is “The Calm Before the Storm”, the sort of title track from Hollenthon’s second album, 2001’s With Vilest of Worms to Dwell, an album that truly opened my eyes to how death metal, symphonic, classical overtures and ethnic instrumentation could go hand in. The album […]

A few months ago, I reviewed the excellent debut full length album from Kansas City’s black metal act Lo-Ruhamah, entitled The Glory of God. The review was well received by the band and subsequently I have stayed in touch with the band and eventually an interview with another publication was set up. However, understandably, the […]

Finland’s Rapture has been described as a mix of Katatonia and Opeth. Fair enough. Scratch the surface, however, and there’s far more Finnish in Rapture than a knee-jerk comparison to Swedes a sea and culture away. In fact, across three albums (Silent Stage came out in 2005), the members of Rapture sought not to emulate […]

When was the last time you heard of a band from Slovenia? Devil Doll doesn’t count. So, maybe never. I mean, it’s a little country. Smashed between Italy, Croatia, Hungary, and Austria, with a slice bordering the Adriatic Sea, Slovenia is like, say, Estonia (Hello, Loits) or any of the other Baltic countries. There’s a […]

Hangin’ tough at the crossroads can be interesting. You either make a deal with the devil, move on, and rock the F out or you go home with the same crappy guitar and poor playin’ aptitude. For Arsis, it seems they’ve finally made a deal with the devil. No, not Nuclear Blast. The devil gave […]

Since inception (from the ashes of Catacomb), Italy’s Novembre has defied convention and categorization. While the majority of its work can be filed under atmospheric death, the band, helmed by brothers Carmelo and Giuseppe Orlando, is much more than that. In fact, as early as 1997’s Arte Novecento Novembre ventured so far as to employ […]

Lately, Italy has been a stronghold for quality doom metal. The Foreshadowing, formed out of members of avant-garde metallers Klimt 1918 and Spiritual Front, is one of the country’s newest acts to bridge the gap between Candlemass, My Dying Bride, and Anathema. And there’s a touch of Type O Negative, too. The sextet’s latest offering, […]

As recently discussed here, I recently attended a Protest the Hero concert, and thought what better way to open the interview section of this new internet endeavor than to interview one of the most polarizing bands in metal today. And find out a little more about these Canadian kids (literally, they are all just 22-years […]

Amon Amarth has been a favorite of mine for ten years so when the opportunity presented itself to conduct an interview I jumped at it. In the middle of a North American tour, Johan graciously offered some of his time to sit down and answer some questions.

My top album of 2005 was the sophomore effort, Alaska from North Carolina’s Between the Buried and Me. Formed by members of short lived metalcore legends Prayer for Cleansing Tommy Rogers and Paul Waggoner and joined on Alaska by Glass Casket members Dusty Waring and Blake Richardson, gives Between the Buried and Me an arguably all star line up and it showed. The album defies categorization and oozes brilliance from every jagged riff, clean segue and introspective jam. So when given the chance to see the band along with The Red Chord and A Life Once lost on an Ozzfest off date at a local dive bar, Mojo’s in Columbia, MO, I jumped at the chance, and at the chance to visit with vocalist Tommy Rogers….

Sadness prevails in my musical taste. I marvel in the beauty of despair. Even as a musician, I find my compositions to be filled with gloom. Nevertheless, I have always found it difficult to explain to people why I hold this type of art close to my heart. That is until I met with North Carolina’s kings of gloom, Daylight Dies. On April fool’s day 2006, I ventured down to R.F.Ds of Washington D.C. for Daylight Dies CD release party of Dismantling Devotion. Hanging with the band is always a good thing, especially if you want to get drunk, and lead vocalist Nathan Ellis took care of me on that end by supplying me with beers from Belgium and Germany that I couldn’t pronounce. Weinstephaner was definitely the favorite of the night. Talking throughout the evening with the band and their many fans I heard tale of Daylight Dies own brand of beer. That is something I would love to try one day. Proceeding to get drunker and discussing our metal tastes, the party went on until the early hours of the morning. Somewhere in the mist of all of this I got a chance to sit down with drummer Jesse Haff and discuss the happenings with Daylight Dies thus far.

In the late ‘80s, the death-metal genre was first forged in the heat ‘n’ humidity of Tampa, Florida. After three of metal’s most durable records’including their 1989 debut Slowly We Rot and 1990 follow-up Cause of Death’the venerable Obituary seemingly peaked with 1994’s World Demise. After managing to squeeze out the tired Back from the Dead three years later, they went into permanent hibernation, and fans thought it was indeed the end complete. Excitement started to build in early 2004, however, when the band reconvened for a one-off hometown show, and the following year brought more gigs plus a new studio album, Frozen in Time, and Obituary sound like they haven’t aged a day. At the Hartford, Connecticut stop on their autumn East coast tour, frontman John Tardy was happy to talk about the band’s colorful history, his collaboration with rap artist Necro, and what the guys have been doing for the past seven years between albums.

I don’t go to many shows being that I live in rural Central Missouri. So when the mighty Origin somehow got booked to play 30 minutes from my hometown in Columbia, Missouri I had to go. Not only for this interview but to witness arguably the most intense band around in a live setting. I was curious to see how the technical maelstrom of Origin translated live. Needless to say, even with a pain faced, triggerless James King, limited space and a relatively small (surprisingly female heavy) crowd, watching the eclectic racial mix of Origin perform live is a sight to behold. Particularly noteworthy are diminutive but always grinning bassist Mike Flores and guitarist Paul Ryan who literally mesmerized me with their fingers. After metalcore openers River Runs Red and local death metal act Omichron, I caught up with Paul Ryan to dig deeper into Origin…..

So far this year one of my very favorite albums has been the debut album from Ligeia, Your Ghost as a Gift. And while most roll their eyes at the very mention of metalcore, the Ken Susi produced effort does everything right. So when given a chance to see the Massachuset’s youngsters on their current tour with From A Second Story Window, Dead to Fall and Ed Gein, I made the trip to the Creepy Crawl in downtown St. Louis to brave my first ‘metalcore’ show and interview with the bright eyed and youthful group of kids in their tour bus…

Swedish death metal, the old school kind, exists in our CD collection (Carnage, Entombed, Unleashed, Dismember) and in our memories, for most of us in this for the long are still actively searching for bands that remind of the days when American death metal just didn’t cut it anymore. That sentiment still holds true, for the most part. Bands such as God Macabre, Utumno, Hetsheads and the cult line-up on the Projections of a Stained Mind all were direct descendants of Nihilist and Carnage, and to that end shared a similar sound. For Gorement, another lost gem in the sands of time, the above statement plays a part in their sound, but unlike most of the pure death metal acts, these five guys were also heavily influenced by the likes of early Paradise Lost and Benediction. Really, Gorement’s only full-length album, the masterful The Ending Quest (circa 1994), played well on this diverse foundation, and materialized as an album that still speaks volumes not only of the timeframe in which it was released, but also about how the songcraft of death metal a decade later is slowly diminishing into involved but substance-less drivel. While searching for a full copy of The Ending Quest, I ran across a band called Genuflection to Limbo and found out that Gorement guitarist Patrik Fernlund is still involved in music. While I thought Fernlund would see Gorement’s chapter as long closed, the axeman agreed to talk about a band he put to rest over eight years ago. And hopefully this chat will spur more interest in Gorement and the band’s impressive but scant catalog – if anything The Ending Quest is due for re-release like yesterday, but legal issues could shelve the project for at least another two years.

Norway’s Enslaved is clearly out to redefine itself on its newest album, ISA. With a new line-up, a new label and a powerful, striking new record, Enslaved returns to the spotlight, using musical prowess, adventurous spirit and damned fine songwriting skills to direct much deserved attention. Long exploring the byways of Extreme Metal psychedelia across three albums (Mardraum through Below the Lights), the core of Enslaved, Ivar Bjornson and Grutle Kjellson, revisits the past (Vikingligr Veldi and Frost) while having a keen eye on the future. ISA is a monumental album, one which is carved in modern Thrash Metal chops, Black Metal ethos and experimental songcraft. Read on as guitarist and songwriter Ivar Bj�rnson gives insight into the new Enslaved.