: THEIR FIRST METAL HAMMER INTERVIEW REVISITED
1 OF 2
COLLECTABLE
COVERS

INSIDE THEIR MOST
UNDERRATED SONG
AC/DC, CRABCORE…
AND FISH & CHIPS
THE STREAM OF THE
YEAR REVIEWED
“WE’RE CREATING
A NEW EXTREME”

+

DVNE • FEAR FACTORY • MONSTER MAGNET
SATYRICON • HOLDING ABSENCE • BALA

AND THE TOUR THAT

CONQUERED
THE WORLD

ISSUE 349

EDITOR’S TT R

Future PLC, 1-10 Praed Mews, Paddington, London, W2 1QY
Web: www.metalhammer.com
Letters: metalhammer@futurenet.com

Editorial

Editor Merlin Alderslade
merlin.alderslade@futurenet.com
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Chief executive Zillah Byng-Thorne
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Tel +44 (0)1225 442 244

YUP. TEN
YEARS.
DON’T WORRY,THOUGH, you haven’t completely lost

the plot; it was in 2014 that Babymetal first fully
breached the UK’s consciousness with a certain video
about getting some chocolate, so it’s not quite been
a decade since we all first heard of them. But, when
we found out that the band were celebrating 10 years
of existence at a series of explosive shows at the
iconic Budokan in Tokyo, we knew we couldn’t pass
up the chance to celebrate too.
After all, has there been any other artist in recent
memory that has impacted metal in the way they
have? Not just in terms of attention, but in the
existential crisis they triggered in our community.
Even now, a post about Babymetal on our social
media will cause the most extreme reactions, from
fanatic adulation to (hilariously) pure outrage.
They’ve taken it all in their stride, of course, and so,
as they prepare to take a well-deserved break, we
thought we’d take a look back over a quite remarkable
10 years for one of metal’s most unique forces. Cut
yourself a slice of cake (or should that be chocolate?)
and come join us.

FOLLOW
US
METALHAMMER.COM
/METALHAMMER
@METALHAMMER
@METALHAMMERUK

MERLIN ALDERSLADE
EDITOR

MEET THE BAND
STEPHEN HILL

WRITER
For his biggest cover feature
to date, we thought we’d task
Steve with sifting through 10
whole years of Babymetal lore
and somehow turning it into
a coherent piece of writing!
Rumours abound that he’s now
signed up to the Babymetal
fan club… maybe.

@MERL_ALDERSLADE

RYOSUKE ARAKANE

WRITER
Based in Japan, Ryosuke has
been present for some of
Babymetal’s most careerdefining shows, including their
final appearance at the Budokan
for their 10th anniversary
celebrations. We got Ryo to
give us an on-the-ground
write up of what went down.

METALHAMMERTV

ALI COOPER

WRITER
Forever fearless to throw the
most ludicrous of fan questions
at the most outlandish
personalities, we got Ali to
helm this month’s People Vs.
Her opponent? The one and
only Dave Wyndorf from
Monster Magnet. Should be
a quiet one…

METALHAMMER.COM 3

Y 01

16 SATYR

30 CHOVU

36 BABYMETAL
FRONT ROW

8 Inside Coronation Street’s SOPHIE
LANCASTER-inspired storyline.
10 You face off against MONSTER
MAGNET’s Dave Wyndorf.
14 Lucas Woodland from HOLDING
ABSENCE shares his Slaylist.
16 SATYRICON mainman and elder
statesman Satyr delivers lessons
about nature and growing up.
20 We get in the studio with JINJER as
they invent a new genre.
22 The story behind IRON MAIDEN’s
Man On The Edge.
28 How Spanish duo BALA are tearing
up the rulebook.

60 CLASH OF THE TITANS
4 METALHAMMER.COM

86 FEAR FACTORY

FEATURES

T

36 When BABYMETAL formed
a decade ago, they confused the
world. Then they became
a phenomenon. Across 20 jampacked pages, we look back
at their incredible story so far.
60 Thirty years ago on the CLASH
OF THE TITANS tour, thrash
metal royalty ran riot.
68 We sit down with Beartooth
mastermind CALEB SHOMO for
The Metal Hammer Interview.
74 Following the shock news of
MUDVAYNE’s reunion, we revisit
their first interview with us.

Y 01

S

22 IRON MAIDEN

80 Progressive sci-fi metallers DVNE
have come to spin tall tales and
blow your mind.

95 RED FANG return with more
weight to their riffs.

86 Industrial metal legends FEAR
FACTORY patch over their cracks.
88 Metalcore veterans ATREYU gain
some star power.
90 Max Cavalera gets mad with GO
AHEAD AND DIE.
92 Svalbard’s Serena Cherry finds
a new role with NOCTULE.
94 Synthwave pioneer
PERTURBATOR investigates
the aftermath.

98 KORN elevate the art of
the livestream.
100 HEXVESSEL, STEVE VON
TILL and DAWN RAY’D
offer enlightenment at
ROADBURN REDUX.
102 PUSCIFER wrestle with
reality in LA.
103 INSOMNIUM return to
the shadows.
105 POPPY bridges the avant-pop/
metal divide.

ALBUM REVIEWS

68 CALEB SHOMO

SUBSCRIBE
NOW & SAVE
Head to p.34
for details

LIVE REVIEWS

105POPPY

74 MUDVAYNE
METALHAMMER.COM 5

THE BIG PICTURE

SILVER
SCREAMS

TAKEN FROM THE Rock

Photographers Collective, a website
dedicated to merchandise featuring
iconic shots from some of rock and
metal’s greatest names, this photo of
Motörhead chilling at a cinema almost
40 years ago recalls a simpler time,
when you could pop to the pictures
with your mates and not have to
remember pesky things like social
distancing and masks. Er, except in this
case, it turns out Lemmy et al weren’t
at the cinema at all.
“I took that in Leicester, at the De
Montfort Hall, April 8, 1982 on the Iron
Fist Tour,” explains photographer Andy
Phillips. “I asked them to imagine they
were at the cinema, staring in awe at
the big screen. I think Eddie got it, but
let’s face it, it was a crap idea anyway…”
It’s the thought that counts, right?

SPILLIHP YDNA )C(

THE HOT TOPIC

C ONA STREET
EXPLORES SOPHIE
LANCA -INSPI
ORYL E
The iconic British soap opera has introduced a storyline
where goth characters are attacked in a hate crime, which
was inspired by the tragic killing of Sophie Lancaster in 2007
WORDS: DAVE EVERLEY • PICTURES: ITV

THE HISTORY OF modern TV
is littered with bad goth and metal
characters. Shows sporadically roll out
lazy caricatures and walking clichés for
freak-of-the-week stories or wrongheaded comedy value. Which makes it
all the more remarkable that venerable
soap opera Coronation Street not only
features a believable goth character,
but has put her front and centre in
a devastating hate crime storyline.
In a recent episode of the
Manchester-based drama, teenage
goth Nina Lucas and her boyfriend Seb
Franklin were attacked by a gang of
drunken kids. The assault left Seb dead
and Nina dealing with the physical and
emotional aftermath – an incident
directly inspired by the real-life
murder of goth and metal fan Sophie
Lancaster in 2007.

“I don’t think this has been done
before in a TV drama,” says Coronation
Street scriptwriter Ian Kershaw, who
was involved in Nina and Seb’s story.
“We’ve seen people attacked onscreen
for their religion orrace, but we haven’t
seen someone be a target for hate
because of the way they were dressed.”

Seb and Nina’s
story has been
handled well

“WE’RE TRYING
TO GET PEOPLE
TO TAKE THIS
SERIOUSLY AS
A HATE CRIME”

8 METALHAMMER.COM

Life isn’t easy when
you don’t fit in

The seeds forthe hate crime storyline
were sown two years ago, with Nina
– played by actor Mollie Gallagher –
introduced specifically to build towards
it. Where other shows approach similar
characters with varying degrees of
ineptitude, Nina is perfectly pitched,
from her love of bands such as Cradle
Of Filth and Evil Scarecrow through to
her aesthetically accurate Victorian
Goth look.
“That actually came from Sylvia
Lancaster, Sophie’s mother,” says Ian.
“We were thinking of making her
a steampunk goth, but Sylvia said,
‘No, that’s not right.’”
The parallels with the story of
Sophie Lancaster, who died after being
attacked with her boyfriend Robert
Maltby in a park in her hometown of
Bacup, Lancashire, are deliberate.
While writing Nina’s storyline, the
Coronation Street team worked closely
The Sophie Lancaster Foundation,
the charitable foundation set up by
Sylvia Lancaster in the wake of her
daughter’s death.
Harry Visinoni, who played Seb until
his onscreen death, grew up listening
to metal bands such as Slipknot and
Korn, though he was still in infant
school when Sophie Lancaster was
murdered. “It wasn’t really something
I was aware of,” he says, “but we spent
a lot of time talking to Sylvia about it.

10 THINGS
WE LEARNED
THIS MONTH

What’s been blowing our
tiny brains
PEOPLE REALLY LOVE MUDVAYNE
BEING BACK
They’re evening headlining festivals in
the States! Fair fucking play, lads.

LEGO AREN’T MAKING THE
RAMMSTEIN
STAGE SET
Booo! Spoilsports. Has anyone got
Duplo’s number?

WILLOW
SMITH IS METAL AF
Look, reuniting Wicked Wisdom and

“IT’S ABOUT EDUCATING
PEOPLE ABOUT ACCEPTANCE
AND TOLERANCE”

EPPIRT ANAD/SSERP :HTIMS WOLLIW

Hearing her speak in detail about the
events that transpired and how it
affected her, that was really moving.
And having to play the character, the
reality of it hit me.”
The assault itself and the tragic
aftermath made for harrowing
viewing, but Nina’s story arc will
extend over the coming weeks and
months. It follows the character’s
recovery and the subsequent trial of
their assailants.
“We’re trying to get people to take
this seriously as a hate crime, and we
wanted to show the true horror of not
just the attack, but the after effects,”
says Ian Kershaw. “As happened with
Sophie, as well as people before and
people since, we want to look at how
people attempt to repair from
something like this. Plus the main
attacker is from a very privileged
background, and we want to throw
a little light on how the justice system
can work if you’ve got money.”
A high-profile hate crime storyline
such as this one is more pertinent than
ever right now. Post-Brexit, racial and
religious hate crimes have risen by
15-25% in England and Wales. Tellingly,
in Coronation Street, Nina’s antagonists
refer to her as “it” – a reflection of
the way members of the alternative
community are sometimes seen by
outsiders, but also a reference to the

provocative language sometimes used
by right wing politicians.
“You’ve seen it in the way people
like Nigel Farage and Donald Trump
talk about immigrants and refugees:
they’re ‘cockroaches’’,” says Ian. “And
the kids in the show behind the attack,
by appropriating that kind of language,
they were dehumanising Nina.”
While the storyline is centred around
a specific culture, for Harry Visinoni,
it goes beyond the fact that Seb and
Nina are goths. “For me, the storyline
transcends that,” he says. “It’s about
educating people about acceptance
and tolerance, and the importance of
allowing people to express themselves
how they want without fear of being
stared at or attacked or worse.”
“I remember standing with Sylvia
at a peace convention next to a huge
photograph of Sophie,” adds Ian. “This
woman came along and said, ‘She was
very beautiful. And she’d probably
have grown out of that.’ Sylvia, who is
such a wonderful human being, just
smiled and nodded. But it’s not fancy
dress – this is who these people are.
It’s the same with anything we identify
ourselves with – race, religion,
alternative culture. We hope that a story
like this makes people realise that.”

WWW.SOPHIELANCASTER
FOUNDATION.COM

rocking a Mastodon t-shirt makes her
alright with us.
Willow Smith:
one of us

WE NEED TO CROWN METAL’S
GREATEST
HEADBANGER
Corpsegrinder has thrown his name in
the hat. Who’s gonna step up?!

THE METAL SCENE IS IN DENIAL
ABOUT
RACISM
If you haven’t read Herman Li, Freddy
Lim and Mike Shinoda’s interviews
with Heavy Consequence about their
experiences, do yourself a favour and
seek them out.

COREY
SAYS LARS WAS RIGHT
About Napster at least. And to be fair,
in many ways, they both have a very
good point…

AOK,BABY
WAS NAMED KORN
it was by accident, but still.
BOIIIIIIING!

GLENN DANZIG THINKS “WOKE
BULLSHIT”
IS KILLING PUNK
He really went Full Boomer on us. God
damn it, Glenn.

MAKING
MUSIC KEEPS OZZY ALIVE
According to the man himself. New
album soon, then?

WTF IS HAPPENING WITH THIS
YEAR’S
FESTIVALS?!
Some are cancelling, some are holding
out… will we get to a field with a beer
in 2021?!

METALHAMMER.COM 9

HAT
WOULD
YOU L SE
Monster Magnet head honcho and stoner rock legend
Dave Wyndorf faces your questions
WORDS: ALI COOPER • PICTURES: JEREMY SAFFER

NO, YOU’RE NOT tripping – ahead

an old billiards table with microphones,
amongst the comic books, doing the
show. I don’t know how they get away
with doing it every week – how long
can you be funny for? I can be funny for
10 minutes and I’m done.”

of Monster Magnet’s impending covers
album, A Better Dystopia, we really
asked their chief wizard Dave Wyndorf
to answer your questions on rock’n’roll
hedonism, why the 1990s were the best
years to be riding the waves of the
music business, and exactly where he
gets those lyrics from.

To the nearest pound, how much
mind-altering pharmaceuticals have
you imbibed?

If you were President, what drug
would you legalise first?

Iain Blarno Roberts (Facebook)

“I don’t know. I haven’t done acid since
I was a kid, but I bet if I twisted my
body right and I squeezed hard, my
pancreas would probably exude enough
to get me off. Some residual LSD would
have me tripping in seconds.”

Toby Warren (email)

“Well, they already legalised pot, that’s
the obvious one. Heroin! Why not?
Maybe LSD because I think most
people are afraid of it anyway and it’s
not an addictive drug, there’s only a
couple of people jumping off buildings
every once in a while but fuck ’em if
they can’t have a good trip. Do they
make a funny drug? A designer acid
that makes you funny as shit and the
girls love you? That’s what the world
really needs now, so I’d legalise a new
synthetic drug of my creation that’d
enable people to gather actual talent.”

What’s your favourite post-90s
Monster Magnet album?
James Piecer (email)

“Did I make any records post-90s?
I don’t know, I’ve been squeezing my
Monster Magnet:
space lords

pancreas for about 10years trying to get
that residual LSD out! I’d say Last Patrol
[2013]. It was really fun and I started
writing whole records from my home
and friends’ homes. I’d finally taken
myself away from the notion that
someday I’d be back on the radio. The
only thing that bothered me about the
90s was that the only way you could
survive was to have a radio hit or you’d
get dropped; nobody will remember
your band even if you tour your ass off.
After that, it’s a pain in the ass because
you’re competition to bands you’ve had
nothing to do with; my band was never
designed to be in competition with
anyone except maybe Jimi Hendrix. In
my mind, the reason I started Monster
Magnet was to pretend it’s always 1972
and I’d always be 13 years old. If I go far
enough, I can pretend that Hendrix is
playing tonight somewhere down the
street and we can jam with him! It’s
a rock fantasy that was decidedly set
in a fantastic time that really existed
but probably existed more in my head.”

When are you going back on the Tell
’Em Steve-Dave Show?

If you had a real monster magnet,
which monster would you go out and
catch with it and why?

“That’s a good question, I’m gonna call
Walt [Flanagan, co-host of the comedy
podcast that Wyndorf appeared on]
now. It was really cool doing it at the
comic store [Secret Stash in New Jersey].
The place would close at 6pm and I only
live five blocks away so I’d just walk to
the store and they’d be sitting around

“I’d have to pick my favourite monster
from the movies, the Ymir. He was
from a 1957 movie called 20 Million Miles
To Earth who’s a badass monster and
not only that, he looks like he could
be friendly if you don’t get him mad.
Also King Kong because he’s nice…
you kids remember King Kong?”

@AllOutttaAngst

ERUTUF/NOXIN NIVEK :TESNI

10 METALHAMMER.COM

Jennie Roberts (email)

MONSTER MAG T
Dave Wyndorf: the gods
told him to relax, y’know

“I TRIED MY HARDEST TO BE
A WHITE TRASH ROCK’N’ROLL
JAMES BOND”
METALHAMMER.COM 11

NST R MAGNET

“I BET IF I TWISTED
MY BODY RIGHT,
MY PANCREAS
WOULD EXUDE
ENOUGH ACID
TO GET ME OFF”

When it comes to sex and
drugs, even Dave couldn’t
compete with da Crüe

What do you miss most aboutthe 90s?
Moly Emerald (email)

“The money. It was before digital file
sharing and you sold albums to people
who wanted to buy albums, you didn’t
have to hide behind somebody’s
paywall and share all your money with
everybody. Rock was bigger business
then and everything was allowed, it
was opening up all the different styles
of music and it looked like they were
being accepted by the mainstream.
It was a good time but it didn’t last that
long, the 90s we’re talking about was
only the first half before Napster.”
Would you do your own Beatlesthemed tribute White Album?
Joe King (Facebook)

“What the fuck kind of question is that?
Well Joe, goddamnit, you cut me to the
quick; that’sthe nextthingthat’s
coming out. You spoiled my surprise!
I think the question’s coming from
within me because I need to admit to
everyone that that’s what I want to do
next. From here on, the rest of my life
and career is all Beatles all the time.”
Is Walt Flanagan as funny in real life
as on the Tell ’Em Steve-Dave Show?
Rob Lake (Facebook)

“Yes, Walt is awesome and he’s the real
deal. I knew him before the show and
he’s the exact same guy. I used to hang
out at the store before they had the
show, and I stopped hanging out when
the show started because it got really
weird. They asked if I wanted to be part
of the reality show and I was like, ‘Get
the fuck out, a reality show is the death
of civilisation’, and I disappeared.”
12 METALHAMMER.COM

Is your gift writing lyrics that are
untethered to the idea that the
listener will take meaning from
the words?
@JoFleischer1

“I’d argue it is tethered to it, there are
meanings in all that stuff. I write in
a style of my own invention which is
nothing special, I write in metaphors
with sarcasm but I’m not opposed to
writing seriously and with humour
within two lines of each other. I don’t
spell out exactly what I mean in my
lyrics but it’s all there for people to
interpret if they’re inclined to do so.
If you’re not, listen to the words and
think of them as image evokers to
complement the music. I choose
my words from my own soul and
experience; I express that with the
vernacular of science-fiction, religion
and sarcasm and I try to use words that
evoke as many images as possible.
Even if something doesn’t make
complete sense to the person listening,
they’ll getsomething worthwhile out
of it. Growing up, my favourite lyricists
were Marc Bolan and David Bowie – you
hear their songs and you’re thinking,
‘What the fuck is this guy talking about?

I’ve never kissed a car before?’ I didn’t
think of it as nonsense, all I know is in
the act of me trying to figure it out, I’ve
never been disappointed. If I were to
iron out all my words and make them
perfectly legible, they wouldn’t be fun
to sing. It sounds cool for a punk rock
song to say, ‘I broke up with my girl’, but
I’d rather say, ‘The universe was ripped
asunder.’ Now that’s fucking dramatic!”
Who’s actually managed to out-party
Dave Wyndorf on the road?
Dave Shepherd (email)

“Plenty of people over a long time.
When I was at my best, I did it with
a certain psychotic style that would
be unsurpassed. There’s different ways
to party: there’s the sex, drugs and
rock’n’roll. You can emphasise one
of them that overshadows the others
and my emphasis was on the sex, so
I tried my hardest to be a white trash
rock’n’roll James Bond. I don’t know
if anybody beat me on that because
I was very slick, but Mötley Crüe beat
me with the sex and drugs.”

A BETTER DYSTOPIA IS OUT NOW
VIA NAPALM

Lucas’s love for
Loathe knows
no bounds

THE SLAYLIST

L AS
ODL ND

The Holding Absence frontman
guides us through his top tunes,
from metalcore anthems to
nostalgic throwbacks
WORDS: YASMINE SUMMAN

“SLIPKNOT WAS WHERE my love for metal began.

I remember seeing an advert for them during the All Hope Is
Gone-era back when I’d just started secondary school, and
got sucked in. It was back when the only way to show true
support to a band was to collect all their CDs and play them
until they scratched. Corey Taylor’s vocals were definitely
one of my biggest inspirations as a vocalist growing up: I just
loved how passionate and expressive he was on Disasterpiece.
“GALLOWS absolutely flipped my life trajectory growing
up. I was 11 years old, shredding on Guitar Hero, when In The
Belly Of A Shark appeared as a bonus track, and changed my
life forever. I don’t think Britain has seen a more ferocious
band since these guys. METALLICA’s Trapped Under Ice was
another Guitar Hero discovery. I loved the way the riff just
ripped through everything and how obnoxious it was to
have two or three solos in one song. One of my best friends
growing up was a diehard Metallica fan, and we went to
Sonisphere 2011 for our first festival to see them, which will
always be a special memory.
“AVENGED SEVENFOLD were just the coolest band to me
as I was hitting my teens. I truly view their self-titled to be
one of the best metal records of the 21st century. It’s so
varied and well-written. I always loved the strings on
Brompton Cocktail: it really showed me that metal, and music
in general, could be more than just a five-man line-up.
“Sassafras is the opening to one of my all-time favourite
albums, THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA’s With Roots Above And
Branches Below. For me, it’s the quintessential noughties
metalcore album. The whole thing flows like a river and
I just love Mike Hranica’s feral screams throughout.
“After Gallows, WHILE SHE SLEEPS were probably the
most special metal band I discovered in my youth. I couldn’t

14 METALHAMMER.COM

Slaylist, head to
tinyurl.com/
349Slaylist

THE GREATEST MISTAKE OF MY LIFE IS OUT NOW VIA
SHARPTONE RECORDS

SSERP

“LOATHE ARE THE
FUTURE OF METAL”

LISTEN
NOW
To listen to Lucas’s

believe how vicious and raw Be(lie)ve felt. I’ve watched them
countless times over the years at every festival ever, and was
even fortunate enough to be asked onstage with them at
2000 Trees a few years back.
“Deathcore is a bit far out for me as a listener, but there’s
something about THY ART IS MURDER’s Hate that I adore,
front to back. CJ’s vocals are just otherwordly, and though it’s
very clean and clinical in its delivery, the whole thing is just
a lesson in organised chaos. Album closer Doomed From Birth
always stuck with me as just a nasty way to finish a record.
“PANTERA’s I’m Broken passed me by growing up. I had no
idea who they were or how good they were! Having worked in
Fuel Rock Bar [in Cardiff] for the best part of the last decade,
I heard a lot of metal I didn’t know, and Pantera were always
the band that would play and blow me away.
“I absolutely love DEFTONES, because they truly transcend
genre and have so much to offer. Even though they may fall
into their own clichés from time to time, their range is
unreal and they can pull off pretty much anything without
ever sounding like another band. Their catalogue is very
consistent too, and I actually think they’re a fine example of
a band that matured with age. Rocket Skates, Diamond Eyes
and Koi No Yokan are joint first place for me.
“LOATHE are the future of metal and I’m so excited to
watch what becomes of them in the coming years. I found
them very early on and binged the hell out of their EP, but
when I first heard The Cold Sun and It’sYours, I knew these
guys were even more special than I could’ve hoped. They
effortlessly pull off so many different things with real
artistry and originality. Whether it’s shoegaze, metalcore
or black metal, they just do whatever the hell they want –
the sky’s really the limit with this band.”

A GOOD TEACHER CAN CHANGE
YOUR LIFE

“At the age of 12 I started taking classical guitar
lessons. I went to this private teacher once
a week and she was really good. She taught me
a lot about attitude and dedication. I would say
to her, ‘Oh there’s no way I can play that! Can’t
we focus on something that’s more suitable
for my level of experience, or rather complete
lack of any experience?’ She didn’t say that she
understood or try to justify her choices. She
just moved on, not in an arrogant way, but like,
‘OK, let’s just try it. Let’s just have a go at it.’ She
managed to ignore my objections somehow
and just moved on. She’d say, ‘One step at
a time…’ In a matter of weeks I was amazed by
how she taught me to play things that’d been
unimaginable, unthinkable. I couldn’t believe
it. That approach really worked well for me.”

start performing the way you want them to.
It just doesn’t happen that way. Trust your
intuition. If it feels wrong, it’s wrong.”

IN EXTREME VOCAL STYLES,
STAMINA REALLY MATTERS

“There is nothing worse than the sound of
a struggling metal drummer. Can you imagine
Reign In Blood with a really feeble drummer?
It wouldn’t have been Reign In Blood. You need
someone with the determination and
conviction of a Dave Lombardo, and it’s the

PERFECTION IN HEAVY METAL
IS OVERRATED

IF YOU WANT TO SUCCEED,
TRY HARDER

“I tried to get in better physical shape for
touring, after thinking, ‘What am I doing up
here [onstage]? I’ve filled the room with
people, but I’m up here struggling for breath
because I’m just a metal guy and
I’m out of shape…’ But I’m not just
a metal guy, I’m a professional.
People have paid to come and see
me. I can’t stand here, gasping for
breath, trying to hold onto my
song. So I needed to address my
physical shape. I found the right
guy, an old-school guy who
worked with Olympic athletes.
Whenever I said, ‘There’s no way
I can lift this weight!’ he’d just say,
‘No, come on, try harder.’ That
was a defining moment. I felt
I was already giving it everything,
but he said, ‘Try harder. You’re not
digging deep enough.’ Then in
frustration and anger, I did dig
deeper and I pulled the weight up and I was
amazed. He just casually said, ‘Yup, there
you go. That’s trying harder!’”

being on the inside of the lyrics, trying to feel
the message, so that when you sing it, you’re
not just playing it, you’relivingit. For me,vocals
are even more personal than playing the
guitar. I’m sure many guitarists will disagree,
but they’re wrong! Ha ha ha! With singing,
you have an even greater chance to be more
intimate and close to those things deep on the
inside. There is also a greater risk of screwing
up the whole thing by just performing it
instead of truly executing it. No one wants to
listen to your half-hearted effort, as you try
not to make any mistakes. They want to hear
what you do when you’re deeply committed.”

LIFE LESSONS

“Many of the greatest records of all time are
rough around the edges. It’s why so many of us
are so excited by Paul Baloff’s vocals on Bonded
By Blood [by Exodus]. Because he really sounds
like this front-row bully in the pit that wants
to mess people up! I really like things like the
song Riot Of Violence by Kreator, which I believe
has the drummer Ventor singing on it. That just
sounds ferocious and menacing. You have this
feeling: ‘Watch out for this guy!
He doesn’t take any prisoners!’
When you get that feeling, you
connect with it. To the best of my
ability, that’s what I try to get
right every night on tour. I try to
put myself spiritually into the
right environment for the song,
and make it resonate as itshould.”

The frontman of Norwegian black metal
legends Satyricon talks stamina,
dedication and getting close with nature

TRUSTING YOUR INTUITION IS
THE WAY FORWARD

“Intuition is not some magical or spiritual
thing that cannot be defined, some mystical
inner feeling. I realised that intuition is just
the accumulation of your own experience. It’s
your inner voice saying, ‘I’ve seen this before,
I’ve experienced this before’, and it either feels
good or it feels wrong. I was in a situation in
my wine business recently, with someone
who was part of a partnership, and they were
not really in line with what we’re trying to do,
and didn’t seem very dedicated or committed.
I suggested we should sever the relationship,
because I’ve learned that if someone seems
unmotivated and not really committed,
it’s going to take
a lot for that person
to suddenly
acknowledge that
they were wrong and

WORDS: DOM LAWSON • PICTURES: MARIUS VIKEN

same with vocals. You want that backpack of
extra energy that you can pull out. You don’t
want to be up there, feeling like you’re going
to pass out. Your biggest friend will be great
stamina. Before we tour I step it up, going from
working on general fitness to really intense
workouts for stamina. That could be rowing
or running or bike, but anything with high
intensity. That works really well. Then it’s just
the usual stuff, from a technical point of view.
Absolutely avoid alcohol before performing.
Avoid spicy food. Make sure you do a proper
warm-up routine and get enough sleep!”

ALWAYS SING IT LIKE YOU MEAN IT
“Let’s make it simple: if you’re about to sing
a line that says, ‘I hate you!’ just make sure that
the listener can really feel that you hate them.
Make it real. It’s not about going through the
motions and just remembering lyrics. It’s about

IT’S IMPORTANT TO
UNDERSTAND THE
HISTORY OF THE MUSIC
YOU LOVE

“A lot of kids on the internet
talk about black metal without
knowing anything about it or
where it comes from. I’m pretty
sure they’re not familiar with Celtic Frost’s To
Mega Therion or Morbid Tales at all. I don’t think
they’re familiar with early Mayhem. If they
are, they haven’t understood it. Fenriz once
said, and I understand his point, that people
should stop talking about music and being
geeks about it, and actually listen to music, to
understand it on a deeper level. I agree with
that, but I don’t agree that it’s senseless to talk
about music, if you’re trying to understand
why things are the way they are. I spent
years trying to make my band appreciate the
importance of why things are the way they
are. That’s always been my approach.”

A STRONG RELATIONSHIP
WITH NATURE IS ESSENTIAL
FOR WELLBEING

“You might enjoy a walk in the park or the
odd visit to the Grand Canyon or whatever it
is, but that’s sightseeing.
It’s not what I do. I’m out
there in nature, at the
very minimum, two or
three days a week, and

“I LIKE CAMPING, PREFERABLY
FAR AWAY FROM PEOPLE”

16 METALHAMMER.COM

SATYRICON
Your history lesson
is about to start!

METALHAMMER.COM 17

SATYRICON

“A LOT OF KIDS ON THE INTERNET
TALK ABOUT BLACK METAL WITHOUT
KNOWING ANYTHING ABOUT IT”
sometimes five or six days a week. Sometimes
it’s walking in the forest. Sometimes it’s
cross-country skiing into the woods, late at
night with just a headlamp. I don’t do a whole
lot of snowboarding anymore, but that’s
something I’ve also enjoyed. I like swimming
in the ocean. I like long bike rides. I like
camping, preferably far away from people, in
remote places where no one can hear me or
see me, and I can’t hear anything, not even
a plane in the sky. The problem is that most
people haven’t spent enough time in nature to
appreciate how good it can be for you. I need it
for creativity, but also for my sanity.”

RESPONSIBILITY COMES TO YOU
WITH AGE WHETHER YOU LIKE
IT OR NOT

“Leading a band isn’t about power, it’s about
responsibility. You don’t understand anything
about the psychology of leading a band when
you’re a kid, but as you grow older you realise
that just letting people talk about their
concerns is really helpful for getting things
the way you want them to be. If you don’t
listen to people, it turns bad. Everyone is
different. Some people appreciate that you
give them space and influence, and they treat
that respectfully. Other people think it’s some
sort of weakness that you’re displaying and
will try to exploit that. With those people you
have to be quite firm! When you are firm with
people like that, they’re always incredibly
offended. So you just call them a taxi.”

UNFORTUNATELY, YOUTH REALLY
IS WASTED ON THE YOUNG

“Yeah, I’m afraid it really is. For instance,
I wish I’d had a better understanding of
things when I did the front cover for The
Shadowthrone! We had this great idea, but it
didn’t turn out the way that I’d hoped for. The
designer worked on it and said, ‘This is the
best I can do…’ It didn’t feel great because it
wasn’t what I wanted. But I was 18, and at that
age you think, ‘I’ve spent all the money and
I’ve spent a lot of time on this, so what will
people say if I tell them we’ve got to do it all
again? They’ll be pissed off!’ So we went with
what we had. But knowing what I know now,
it would be the easiest decision in the world
to say, ‘This isn’t working and it’s not good
enough.’ I wouldn’t hesitate. If I could have
combined that understanding of how you
solve these problems, with the ferocious
energy of youth? Come on, we could have
been the Beatles!”

Nature boy

18 METALHAMMER.COM

THE REISSUES OF SATYRICON’S FIRST
TWO ALBUMS, DARK MEDIEVAL TIMES
AND THE SHADOWTHRONE, ARE OUT
MAY 28 VIA NAPALM

Jinjer are rewriting
the rules

IN THE STUDIO

JER

With their highly anticipated fourth
album, the Ukrainian metallers
are out to “create a new genre of
extreme music”. We’re intrigued
WORDS: RICH HOBSON • PICTURES: OLEG ROOZ

WITH MILLIONS OF views on
YouTube, sold-out tours around the
globe and the huge success of their
third album, Macro, in 2019, Jinjer were
blossoming into a metal sensation
before the pandemic hit. COVID might
have curtailed their touring plans, but
Jinjer’s quest for domination is far from
over. Hammer caught up with bassist
Eugene Abdukhanov, vocalist Tatiana
Shmaylyuk and long-time producer
Max Morton to see how the band’s next
record is pushing them to new peaks.
What did the success of Macro do
for Jinjer?
Eugene: “I don’t think Macro got all the
success it deserved, for obvious
reasons!”
Tatiana: “Yes, we had to cut the Macro
world tour short due to COVID…”
Eugene: “But also, there’s nothing to
reallycomplain about, as the album was
very well recognised and we definitely
had the push from media and fans to
get through the pandemic. We were
able to survive just through the sales
of Macro so I have to say thank you to
every single fan around the globe; they
helped make this recording happen.”
Tatiana:“Things haven’t changed
much, except maybe there
are more expectations and
we have moreopportunities
now. Our supporters seem
to be as involved with this
band as we are – which we
are grateful for!”
How has the recording
process been this time?
Eugene: “Well, with Macro
we were a lot less prepared!
20 METALHAMMER.COM

Generally we make things in a rush
because we’re often between tours.”
Max: “This is probably the first time
we’ve had time to get things perfect.
We’vebeen evolving Jinjer’s sound since
I started working with the band in 2013.
On this album we’re going even further
from generic elements, really letting
the players and instruments speak.”

THEALBUM:
FACTS
4

STUDIO:

Morton Studio,
Ukraine

PRODUCER:

Max Morton

EXPECT:

Mind-bending
prog metal
with soaring
melodies and
crushing, djentflavoured riffs

The last record spawned a lot of video
singles. Is there pressure to make sure
the follow-up continues in that vein?
Eugene: “We weren’t told by the label
to release singles – it’s our choice.
There is a pressure, but it’s the same as
with Macro because we’ve got 10 songs
for the new record; it’s hard to choose
which one will become a single! Maybe
we’ll do like we did with Macro and
make nearly all of them singles! Ha ha!”
You’ve worked with Max on almost
every Jinjer release. What do you
think he brings to your sound?
Max: “I bring them to their sound!
Sometimes sound engineers should
shut the fuck up, but you’ve
also got to be an extension of
the band’s mind and find out
what they want to say but
don’t necessarily know how
to technically achieve.”
Eugene: “In my opinion,
a good sound engineer –
and Max is very good – is
a kind of ferrymanwho takes
a band’s sound from one
bank of a river to another.”

Max:“That’s very romantic.”
Eugene: “Without thatsound engineer,
nothing happens. Max also adds a lot –
he might notice sometimes that there
is a note that doesn’t sound the way it
should, so he’ll suggest trying different
things to add more to the music.”
What’s inspired the new record?
Tatiana:“I’m still tracking vocals so it’s
a work in process... I’m rewriting and
finetuning. Topics so far range from
coping with depression and isolation to
how we as a band are perceived by the
outside world, especially here at home.
So it’s very personal, but you’ll have to
wait until it’s finished to ask me more!”
Max: “For those proto-metal geeks out
there, I think it’s going to sound how
Black Sabbathdid backin 1970 when that
came out.It sounds completely different
– I know every band says that, but with
this album I really dare to say it because
it’s composing at its finest. There’s
nothing there just for the sake of it –
I hear some riffs and a Bach piano part
in there. It’s not pretentious either,
though – it’s meant to be like that.”
Eugene: “Musically, we’re going into
the realms of progressive metal; it may
sound a little much, but we’re trying to
create a new genre of extreme music.
We’ve said it before: we want to take
metal to a new level.”

THE NEW ALBUM IS OUT THIS
YEAR VIA NAPALM RECORDS

MA
TBY IRON MAIDEN
DG
THE STORY BEHIND

When Bruce Dickinson left, the NWOBHM titans
entered their darkest days. Then Blaze Bayley gave
them their first light in the black
WORDS: MATT MILLS

ON AUGUST 28 1993, Iron Maiden

22 METALHAMMER.COM

THERELEASED:
FACTS
1995

ALBUM:

The X Factor

PERSONNEL:

Steve Harris
(bass), Blaze
Bayley (vocals),
Dave Murray
(guitar), Janick
Gers (guitar),
Nicko McBrain
(drums)

HIGHEST CHART
POSITION:
1 (Finland)

to just 12 auditions. From that dozen
emerged the controversial chosen one:
Blaze Bayley.
Blaze was the polar opposite to
Bruce. While his predecessor rose to
heroism by blaring lyrics about
Romantic poems and sci-fi epics, the
Brummy had been barking jocular
sleaze in cheeky chappies Wolfsbane.
His abrupt promotion to the biggest
metal band in Europe remains
contentious even today, yet was
precisely the redefinition his new
cohorts craved.
“A huge part of it was they wanted
a change,” Blaze remembers almost
30 years on. “They had had Bruce’s
voice for a long time, and mine is
nothing like his. Steve [Harris, bassist]
heard me warm up and, hearing my
lower register, he thought that was
so interesting.”
Despite the ferocious competition
around him, Blaze was always the
apple of Maiden’s eye. Helpfully, he’d
already met his eventual bandmates
long beforehand, when Wolfsbane
supported them in 1990. “At the end of
the tour, I gave everyone t-shirts and
CDs,” he continues. “So, when my
name came up to audition for Maiden,
Steve already had my voice on CD.”

With the Maiden machine complete
once more, composing for album
number 10 began. Blaze attended his
first songwriting session in April 1994,
making the two-and-a-half-hour
drive from Birmingham to guitarist
Janick Gers’ London home with lyrics
swirling in his head – paramount
among them was one simple chorus:
‘Falling down! Falling down! Falling
down!’ Paired with a speedy main riff
from Janick, the words became the
core of Man On The Edge, the future lead
single of Blaze’s first Maiden outing,
The X Factor.
“I’ve always written but, because
Wolfsbane had such a ‘good time’
image, people dismissed my lyrics on
many occasions,” he says. “So, when
Janick and I took the bones of the idea
to Steve and he thought it was good,
that was incredible! In my eyes, he’s
a giant – someone who’s written so
many important songs in pop culture
and heavy metal. Someone I admired
as a songwriter said, ‘That’s a good
idea.’ Wow!”
The lyrics to Man On The Edge were
blatantly inspired by the 1993 film
Falling Down: an anticapitalist
melodrama with a protagonist who
pretends to commute to work so that

YTTEG

killed Bruce Dickinson. It was the final
night of the Real Live Tour, and the
singer had grown bored. He’d fronted
The Beast for 12 years, through seven
albums and countless blockbuster
tours, but things had grown stagnant.
Routine. Ordinary.
The adventurous exuberance that
once spawned masterpieces like
Powerslaveand Seventh Son Of A Seventh
Son in the 1980s had dried up. In its
place, newest records No Prayer For The
Dying and Fear Of The Dark were shaky
retreats to the NWOBHM formula
initially abandoned after Killers.
Recording sessions in such far-flung
paradises as the Bahamas had been
replaced by regular returns to Steve
Harris’s home studio in Essex. Plus, on
the road, the venues weren’t getting
bigger anymore. So Bruce left – and he
left in dramatic fashion.
Filmed at Pinewood Studios, his
swan song concluded with the band
“murdering” him in – what else – an
iron maiden. It was bombastic and
morbid (the perfect Maiden goodbye),
but left behind a rudderless ship. The
band received more than 1,500 demos
from hopefuls yearning to fill the
vacant slot, which were whittled down

IRON MAID N

Iron Maiden (left to right): Nicko
McBrain, Steve Harris, Blaze
Bayley, Dave Murray, Janick Gers

he can avoid telling his family he’s been
made redundant. It was that central
idea that sparked Blaze’s imagination.
“What connected that film with me
is, when I was at school, it was common
to have a paper round. I signed up, but
I got fired after a few months. I was
scared of my stepfather at the time,
so I’d still get up at 6:30 and leave the
house. I’d wait for him to go to work
before I returned. It wasn’t a good
relationship between him and I – I’ll
leave the rest to your imagination.”
A thrashing anthem with grittier
vocals that elicit Paul Di’Anno-era

flashbacks, Man On The Edge was
a reinvigoration of the vintage Maiden
formula on an often meandering and
difficult record. Despite the
enthusiasm from new blood Blaze
and Janick (who himself had only
joined in 1989), The X Factor’s genesis
was plagued with low morale,
stemming from line-up shifts, Steve
Harris’s recent divorce and press that
was, at best, apathetic.
“It was a time of turmoil,” Blaze
admits. “In the UK, the writers at the
time had it in for Maiden, well before
Bruce left. It was, ‘Oh my God, haven’t

Having a bad day?
Falling Down, the
inspiration behind
Man On The Edge

“I SAID, ‘STEVE, FUCK ’EM.
YOU’RE IRON MAIDEN. DO WHAT
YOU FUCKING WANT!’”

BLAZE BAYLEY

Maiden died yet? Don’t you know,
grunge is here!’ I remember one time,
Steve asking, ‘Oh, what will they think
about this idea? Will they slag me off
because it’s something I always do?’
I said, ‘Steve, fuck ’em. You’re Iron
Maiden! Do what you fucking want!
It’s for the fans, not the journalists.’”
The aggression and catchiness of
Man On The Edge compared with the
rest of its parent album made it
a shoo-in when it came to picking
a single. The track made it to No.10 on
the UK Singles Chart, with The X Factor
itself reaching No.8 on the Official
Album Chart – Maiden’s lowest entry
since 1981. Reviews were largely
apprehensive and Bruce Dickinson
himself reacted, “It’s a bit of a shame
to see Maiden go down the tubes.”
Nonetheless, the commercial dents
were still deep enough to get the band
onto Top Of The Pops on two separate
occasions: firstly with a typical
in-studio performance and shortly
METALHAMMER.COM 23

IRON MAIDEN

Men on the edge (of the stage):
Steve, Blaze and Janick

afterwards with a music video recorded
atop the Masada fortress in Israel.
“We’d played Bethlehem the night
before, which was a rush in itself
because we did The Number Of The Beast
in Bethlehem!” says Blaze. “All our
gear had to go up the chair lift and then
we did the video in 100˚ heat with no
shade. They hired a helicopter for the
shoot and, at one point, it came over
so low that we all hit the deck. They
were army pilots that have seen
combat. I bet he was thinking, ‘I’ll get
these rock stars!’”
The clip had been filmed during the
second day of Maiden’s X Factour.
Blaze’s first trek with the band, it
lasted almost a year and stretched
from the Middle East to South Africa,
then Europe and both the Americas.
Although Man On The Edge was the
opening number throughout, the
tour proved prone to setbacks. The
London date was at a sold-out Brixton
Academy with 5,000 fans, despite
Maiden headlining the 12,500-capacity
Wembley Arena just three years prior.
The band were spat at in Chile, and

Blaze clearly struggled against the
scorching high notes of mainstays like
The Trooper.
However, the singer remained a part
of Iron Maiden for two more years
following the X Factour’s conclusion.
After returning home they promptly
began on 1998’s Virtual XI, which
peaked at No.16 on the UK Albums
Chart. Later, vocal issues midway
through the accompanying world tour
led to several US dates being cancelled.
Finally, on February 10, 1999, Blaze’s
five-year-long dream ride suddenly
crashed. It was announced that day
that both Bruce Dickinson and
ex-guitarist Adrian Smith had
returned to the fold. More than two
decades later, Blaze attributes his
ousting to simply business, with
Maiden needing “something bigger”
than just a new album or tour to
reignite their dwindling momentum.
“Black Sabbath had a reunion and
Deep Purple had a reunion, so, if we
wanted to get interest back in the band,
a new album wouldn’t have cut it,” he
explains. “Bruce came back and Maiden

BLAZE BAYLEY

24 METALHAMMER.COM

BLAZE BAYLEY’S NEW SOLO
ALBUM, WAR WITHIN ME,
IS OUT NOW

YTTEG

“WE GOT TO PLAY THE
NUMBER OF THE BEAST
IN BETHLEHEM”

was back on fire. It was a story fans
could talk about and labels could push.
“I was told in a meeting: ‘Sorry, Blaze,
this is what’s happening.’ And that was
it. Then Steve and I had a chat on our
own. He really thought I had a future
in music, and so did the management.
Everyone was very supportive.”
The reunion very quickly paid off.
Comeback Brave New World saw them
climb commercially for the first time
since ’92,while Brixton sell-outsturned
into Earl’s Court-level extravaganzas.
As for Blaze, he used the material
he’d intended for a third Maiden album
to launch a solo career, starting with
2000’s Silicon Messiah. “It got great
reviews,” he says, before admitting the
caveat: “It failed commercially, but
fans loved it.”
Now a prolific solo performer of
20 years, Blaze believes his biggest
takeaway from Maiden, and especially
Man On The Edge, is a skyrocketing of
self-confidence. “When I started
writing my solo albums, I could say,
‘I’ve had a Top 10 hit around the world.
I wrote the lyrics and melody, and no
one can take that away from me.’
“No matter what you do in life, if you
have confidence, it rubs off and you
can get through.”

YOUR SHOUT

I DON’T
GET
GOJIRA

And other alarming
opinions you opted
to share with us
this month
GO-GO-GOJIRA

About fucking time Gojira were
on a Metal Hammer cover again.
A modern band who deserve the
praise and attention so much
more than Babymetal, Ghost
and all those hyped ‘metal’
bands. More of this, please,
Metal Hammer.
James Van Emmis (Facebook)

We’re glad you dug our Gojira
cover! A quite wonderful band
who deserve to be the biggest
thing in metal, no doubt. You
might wanna look away from
this month’s cover, though…

NO-JIRA

Am I the only one who doesn’t
get the Gojira hype? They’re a
solid band, but I find them a bit
pedestrian live, to be honest.
All musicality and no emotion
for me. I would rather see more
Mastodon coverage in Hammer.
Guy Doyle (Facebook)

W….you think…wh…
but…no, we got nothing
for this one. Let’s just
move o-PEDESTRIAN
LIVE ARE YOU OUT
OF YOUR MIND,
GUY? OUT OF
Ozzy:
YOUR GOD
keeping
DAMN MIND?!
busy

FESTLEMANIA

26 METALHAMMER.COM

summer without festivals.
2000Trees cancelling was a real
kick in the gut. I’m excited for
next year but we need something
to keep us going!

We’re struggling to find a
reason to moan about watching
Iron Maiden at Donington, to
be honest. But hey, that’s The
Internet for ya.

We feel exactly the same, Helen.
This is a fucking awful time in
that regard. But we know that
the good times will return one
day. At time of press, Bloodstock
and Reading/Leeds were both
still on the cards, so fingers
crossed they can still happen,
but if not… just think how good
that first festival beer is gonna
taste when we finally get one.

OZ-ZZZZZZZ-Y

Helen Daly (Facebook)

FROWNLOAD

People bitching about the
Download 2022 line-up
are pathetic. We’ve
had no festivals for
ages and you’re
moaning? Just
sit at home
and watch
YouTube, then
– presumably
that’s been
enough for
you recently…
Deg (email)

I think someone might need to
tell Ozzy it’s OK for him to take
a break. He put out an album last
year and he’s already talking
about a new one. Go have a nice
nap or a cup of tea, mate, you
earned it!
Olivia Pone (Facebook)

Well, as the man himself told us
in our exclusive recent interview
online, working is keeping him
going through this pandemic
- that plus getting new Ozzy
music at the end of it means this
is absolutely alright with us!

SEVENTH HEAVEN

Really enjoyed the Avenged
Sevenfold piece looking at all
the highlights of their career.
Puts things into context and
makes you realise how many
great, different eras of the band
we’ve seen. Can we have one
for Slipknot?
Rod Wilson (email)

#TWEETS
You’re not a musician
until someone asks
“but what’s your
real job?”

Ol Drake (@old_rake)

I may not be the
most articulate
person in the world
but I’m extremely
passionate and
proudly use my
platform for positive
change that this
world so badly needs.
And just because I’m
an ambassador for
Sea Shepherd doesn’t
mean I won’t tell you
where to shove it.

Sam Carter
(@samarchitects)

Man, life is a weird
Mickey Fickey

Brian Posehn
(@thebrianposehn)
I eat them crispy
shrimp tales idgaf

Courtney LaPlante
(@corklezlaplante)

SSERP

I think I’m
going to lose my
mind if we have to
go through another

Gojiraaaaaaa: awesome.
End of discussion

TT RS

THE BIG DEBATE
In issue 346, Serena Cherry from
Svalbard gave us some hardhitting truths on representation
in the metal scene, and why it
needs to change.
SHE SAID

“Metal’s not a utopia; if your face doesn’t fit the mould
that’s already been made, it’s a lot harder to get the
attention of bookers and agencies.”

YOU SAY
Avenged Sevenfold: did you
catch the great feature in
the last issue of Hammer?

only Dino knows that.
Oh, and Digimortal rules.

We have some pretty cool
Slipknot plans in place
as is, actually, so you
may just want to keep
an eye out for those. But
yes, we’ll defo be giving
more bands the career
once-over in the coming
months too!

BOOK IT

Pete Grimsure (Facebook)

Luckily, the Dino/Burton era has
gone out with a bang with what is a
surprisingly coherent and brilliantly
put-together new album. As for
what the future holds? We guess

FEAR FACTORY

PERTURBATOR
Lustful Sacraments

It’s not really an issue with metal, it’s an issue with
corporate control of music and media. Corporations
are the enemies of anything good.

Destiny Arroyo (Facebook)

SNAPSTER

Corey Taylor sticking up for Lars
Ulrich in the whole Napster debate
reeks of rock star privilege. When
was the last time either of them had
to buy an album? Ridiculous.
Phillip Poutney (Facebook)

We’re pretty sure both of those guys
have spent their fair share on vinyl,
to be honest. Plus, it’s harder than
ever for bands to make a living, so
Lars was kinda… right?

HAMMER STEREO

Aggression Continuum

Don Miller (Facebook)

Craig R. Brittain (Facebook)
I finally finished the last
Metal Hammer Activity
Book. Can we have another Women have always been put down in the metal scene
one please?
and it’s less common for female-fronted bands to get
Finn Dunnelll (email)
the same attention and popularity as bands consisting
No. OK, maybe. Ahhhh go mostly/purely of men. This applies for many genres, not
on then, but you may have just metal, but it’s metal ‘fans’ like those in the comments
that enforce these ideas in the metal scene specifically.
to wait a little while.

TEAR FACTORY

I’m absolutely gutted to
see Fear Factory end like this. I know
Dino says the band will continue but
it’s just not the same without Burton.
As someone who saw them at Brixton
in the 90s, I’m an old-school fan
and I’ve loved just about everything
they’ve done - even Digimortal!

For what started as a rebellious and not traditional
movement of ideals, many in the metal community
are unaccepting of anyone who is not white, male or
heterosexual. They are really conservative posers who
think it’s cool to be assholish to other people.

Fronting and writing for multiple bands, swimming, Jiu
jitsu, roller coasters and a PhD? Serena, do you run on
a 40-hour day or something? That’s insane productivity!
Aidan Rufus (Facebook)

Metal needs to actually be the inclusive community we
all say it is.
Gemma Rutherford (Facebook)

JOIN THE BIG DEBATE AT FACEBOOK.COM/
METALHAMMERREADERS

What’s been blowing our office speakers

BLACK MOON
MOTHER

Aggression Continuum

FEAR FACTORY

JONATHAN SELZER

PRODUCTION EDITOR

FEAR FACTORY

Aggression Continuum

POWERWOLF

SOMNURI

Call Of The Wild

Nefarious Wave

DAVE EVERLEY

FREELANCE
NEWS EDITOR

“As far as clusterfucks “Synthwave has Illusions Under The Sun “Bloody marvellous. “What an album!
“Here, doggy!
“A fresh take
go, this is a hell
gone goth and
Well worth all
A great swansong More lycanthropic
on sludge from
entranced the
of a way to sign
I’m here for it” “Lustrous,
blood,
sweat
for
the
Burton
era”
lunacy
from
this killer
doom, like classic
off on one”
and tears”
power metal’s
Brooklyn trio”
ELEANOR GOODMAN rock broadcast from
LOUISE BROCK
pedigree
champs”
ART EDITOR
MERLIN ALDERSLADE DEPUTY EDITOR the Phantom Zone” VANESSA THORPE
HANNAH MAY KILROY
EDITOR

REVIEWS EDITOR

ONLINE EDITOR

METALHAMMER.COM 27

L

NEW NOISE

Spanish firebrands tear up the genre rulebooks
WORDS: ALEX DELLER • PICTURE: MATTIAS MONSTERKID

WHILE WE ALL love to hear stories
about bands slaving over their art and
driving themselves to the brink of
madness with endless,Chinese
Democracy-style meddling, there’s
a lot to be said for grabbing life by the
jugular and just getting on with it.
Spanish duo Bala – Violeta Mosquera
(vocals, drums) and Anxela Baltar
(vocals, guitar) – exemplify this
attitude, with their new album Maleza,
a superb slice of all-caps ROCK that
combines adrenaline-hit immediacy
with crashing riffs and huge, skullinvadinghooks.
“Generally when you’re in a band
there’s always something you feel you
need to rethink or work out, but with
Bala, that doesn’t exist,” says Violeta.
“Don’t get me wrong, it’s not less work,
but it doesn’t need overthinking.
I think all the songs we’ve written are
recorded and out there; we’re not one
of those bands that writes 20 songs
and picks eight for the album.”
While their most recent full-length
is a testament to their ferocious,
espresso-shot-to-the-brain urgency,
this energy is also matched by quality
songwriting smarts. Stoner, grunge
and riot grrrl influences tear through
music that sounds timeless and yet
startlingly fresh, and the band’s asskicking rage is offset by a scintillating
sense of joy.
“Lume, our last album, was an
angry one; we were pissed off, and
the songs reflect that,” says Violeta.
“With Maleza there’s a lot of hope:
they’re angry songs, but the message
got more positive.”
Bala formed six years ago, but
Violeta and Anxela were on each
other’s radars before then; both were
28 METALHAMMER.COM

INSOUNDS
SHORT
LIKE:
A thrilling
collision
of raucous
stoner crunch,
punked-up
energy and
grunge
melodies

FOR FANS OF:

Mantar, Nirvana,
Big Business

LISTEN TO:
Hoy No

active in the Galician music scene and
playing in bands that occasionally
gigged together. Discovering a mutual
love for Black Sabbath, L7 and The
Jesus Lizard made the decision to start
their own band a no-brainer, and,
tellingly, both women also shared
a make-it-happen approach when it
comes to playing music.
“From the moment I started playing
it was like,‘Oh, a girl drumming…’,” says
Violeta. “I started with the perspective
that I had to prove something, but then
I thought, ‘OK, I don’t give a fuck, I’m
just going to enjoy this.’”
Anxela, too, possessed this same
can-do attitude. “When I bought my
first electric guitar, I started a band the
same day,” she says. “I didn’t know how
to play, but I started a band anyway.”
The band’s journey from playing in
squats to gigs in Australia (“We played
in AC/DC Lane,” beams Violeta), Japan
and the California desert (at the
suggestion of former Kyuss drummer
Brant Bjork, no less) seems meteoric,
but Violeta suggests there’s plenty of
road yet to travel and that Bala are still
experimenting with their sound. The
language in which they sing, for
example, has switched from English
to Spanish for the most part because
the duo feel it gives them a deeper
connection to their audience, while one
of Maleza’s tracks is sung in Galician.
“Galician is kind of a dead language,”
explains Violeta. “Young people don’t
really speak it, and historically it has
been downtrodden because under
Franco it was a forbidden language. We
use it to value our history.”
One thing the band likely won’t be
experimenting with, however, is their
pared-down line-up. “We were always

Bala: the only way is up

clear this was going to be a two-piece
band,” says Violeta. “We never think
about adding more people. The only
con comes down to making decisions;
if I say ‘no’ and Anxela says ‘yes’, we
have a problem. That’s the biggest pain
in the ass.” Logistically, however, it’s
a dream and taps nicely into that
aforementioned sense of immediacy.
“If we need to travel it’s really easy,”
says Anxela. “To organise our schedule,
our practices, it’s easy. We don’t need
anyone else. It’s like, ‘You can? Me too.
Let’s do it!’”
Alongside punked-up energy and
a seemingly endless supply of
vertebrae-jangling riffs, Bala also
subtly deal with important themes,
ideas and experiences, with songs

A

dedicated to the flapper girls of the
Roaring Twenties, Joan Vollmer
(a woman at the heart of the Beat
generation who was killed by her
husband, William S. Burroughs), and
the W.I.T.C.H. feminist movement.
“We’re women in a men’s world and
we have a very feminist perspective,”
says Violeta. “We talk about the things
that bother us, or that we think should
be better. I like to be optimistic, and
I think things are changing. But there’s
a lot of work to do, because most of
the bands, festival organisers, sound
engineers and promoters are men.

But in the six years we’ve been
together I’ve seen a difference – girls
come up and tell us, ‘You made me
grab a guitar and start playing’, which
is super-motivating.”
And what final words of advice
would Bala give to this next generation
of women following in their footsteps?

“HATERS GONNA
HATE, AS TAYLOR
SWIFT WOULD SAY”

“The most important thing is keep
going and don’t give up,” says Anxela.
“Just believe in what you do. Of course
you need to have a bit of luck, but
I always say luck doesn’t come for free
– there’s a lot of hard work behind it.”
Her bandmate nods, before signing off
with one final thought that neatly
encapsulates what Bala is all about:
“My advice would be don’t give a fuck
about anything anyone tells you,”
smiles Violeta. “Haters gonna hate, as
Taylor Swift would say, and there’s
always gonna be people envying you
or trying to put you down so don’t give
a fuck. Do your thing and enjoy it,
because that’s what life’s about.”

MALEZA IS OUT NOW VIA
CENTURY MEDIA
METALHAMMER.COM 29

N

O SE ROUND-UP

NEW NOISE

C PTOSIS

Forward-thinking futuristic brutalists
explore a nightmare vision of tomorrow
WORDS: DOM LAWSON

ZE A

Shadowy goth London duo
deal in mystery, intrigue
and cassette tapes
WORDS: DAVE EVERLEY

ZETRA KNOW THE power of mystique. The duo –

IN SHORT

30 METALHAMMER.COM

IN SHORT

FROM WITHIN IS OUT ON JUNE 11

SSERP

WITH A SOUND that seems to
Mellotrons, swathes of alien dissonance
combine every conceivable strain of
and some of the most gleefully intricate
extreme metal while also sounding
and intense ensemble performances
strikingly original, Cryptosis may
anyone will hear this year, songs like
have just released the year’s most
tooth-ratting single Decypher and the
exciting debut. Formerly
dark and ominous Prospect Of
known as old-school
Immortality sound gloriously
thrashers Distillator, the
unique and forward-thinking.
SOUNDS LIKE:
Dutch trio have reinvented
Meanwhile, the album’s sci-fi
Genre-blurring,
themselves as futuristic
state-of-the-art themes have given Frank and
brutalists for Bionic Swarm:
his bandmates a limitless
metal with
a dystopian twist source of wild ideas.
an album that lives up to its
name on every level.
“We’re not Satanists and
FOR FANS OF:
“Bionic Swarm sums up the Revocation,
Black we don’t suffer from
whole album – the advanced,
depression or addiction, so
Fast, Stortregn
technical guitar playing,
we can’t really talk about
CHECK OUT:
advanced songwriting and
that kind of stuff,” notes the
Decypher
the futuristic theme of the
bassist. “As a thrash metal
lyrics, too,” says bassist Frank
band, you often write about
te Riet. “We’ve always been a band
political stuff, but in this band we
that’s about the details. Some people
always have three different opinions,
might say we’re hard to work with,
so it’s hard to write a song that works
especially in the Netherlands! Ha ha!
for everybody! We needed a way to
But we have our own vision and we
express our thoughts, and the sci-fi
won’t settle for less. This had to be
subjects are really something that we
the way we pictured it, or even better.
can explore. In the end, everything just
We’re very proud of it.”
fell into place.”
Despite their wholesale change of
direction, there is still plenty of thrash BIONIC SWARM IS OUT NOW ON
in Cryptosis’s sound. But with swirling CENTURY MEDIA

mononymous guitarist/vocalist Adam and keyboard player/
programmer Jordan – favour shadowy photographs and
indistinct artwork. “All the great bands have some kind of
mystique,” says Adam. “They build their own worlds and
inhabit them.”
Zetra’s drum machine-augmented music draws equally
on the turn-of-the-80s synth punk of Cabaret Voltaire and
Gary Numan, Type O Negative’s
monolithic goth-metal fuzz and
the dense sonic assault of shoegaze
SOUNDS LIKE:
visionaries My Bloody Valentine.
Sci-fi dungeon
“Strange bedfellows,” as Jordan puts it.
music wrapped
That maverick approach bleeds into
in enigma
and mystery
their choice of covers: they’ve given the
Zetra treatment to everything from
FOR FANS OF:
America’s early 70s soft rock classic
Type O Negative,
Horse With No Name to Cry Little Sister, the
Deadsy, Gary
Numan
theme from The Lost Boys.
Zetra only came into focus a couple
LISTEN TO:
of years ago, but the pair have been
Phaethon
productive. They dropped two and half
hours of music via Bandcamp in 2020 alone. Much of this
was released on cassette, their favoured format and one that
adds to their otherworldly enigma. “We record directly to
cassette tape, and it fills everything with a nervous energy,”
says Jordan. “It’s the perfect physical medium for us.
Their next EP, From Within, will be released in two parts
– one in June, one later in the year. It features songs written
before the very first lockdown that were parked when Zetra
released they were too close for comfort. “The lyrics are
about the plague – a non-historical and a historical one,”
says Adam. “About fear and leaving your loved ones. But now
it feels like we’re finally OK to put it out there.”

NEW NOISE RO N -UP

C VU

Kenyan extreme metallers uncover
the ancient arts of witchcraft
WORDS: HANNAH MAY KILROY

INSOUNDS
SHORT
LIKE:

A compelling
concoction of
harsh brutality
and expansive
melody

FOR FANS OF:

Satyricon, Grave
Lines, Cobalt

LISTEN TO:
Mwikali

CHOVU’S BAND NAME is derived
from ancient Swahili, meaning
‘something bad or evil’. Through their
captivating sounds that veer from
sweeping melody to searing black and
doom metal, they delve into African
mythology and their ancestry.
“In Chovu, all five members come
from different cultures – there are
seven tribes amongst us,” says vocalist
Preston Rot. “This diversity allows us
to explore individual backgrounds.”
Their debut EP, What Sorcery Is This?,
focuses on the Akamba myth of the
sorceress Mwikali, and her story of
love, witchcraft and tragedy is told
across the EP’s four tracks.
“The Kamba tribe is one of the few
that has held on to its witchcraft
practices,” guitarist Saibore explains.
“Most other tribes have abandoned

STS
OF MEN

their ancient cultural practices. To get
to know about ancient traditions, you
have to delve deep into native towns
far away from Nairobi and speak to the
old folk – preferably over some
hardcore homemade local brew!
“We wanted to pay homage to the
tribe that still knows the power of
witchcraft in the community,” Saibore
continues. “The story of Mwikali is
dark in a way that enticed all of us.”

What Sorcery Is This? was released on
Obsydian Media, but Chovu have since
parted ways with them and are looking
for a new label. They’re also working
on new music: “Our next album will be
a story based on another myth,” says
Saibore. “We will really explore our
native past on this one.”

WHAT SORCERY IS THIS? IS OUT
NOW VIA OBSYDIAN MEDIA

IN THE KNOW

What your favourite
bands are listening to

No bullshit, no
pretence, no
fucking about –
just massive
rock’n’roll riffs
WORDS: STEPHEN HILL

INSOUNDS
SHORT
LIKE:

A big, boisterous,
unpretentious
blast of massive
rock’n’roll thrills

FOR FANS OF:

Clutch, Eagles Of
Death Metal,
Therapy?

LISTEN TO:
Saviour

SSERP

“WE DON’T WANT people to come
to our shows and listen to us moaning,
or stand there stroking their chins,”
says Ghosts Of Men vocalist and
guitarist Clegg. “Our music is meant
to be a proper fist in the gut. Rock has
become so scared of just being dirty
and unrefined, but that’s all we want.”
There’s something brilliantly
unpretentious about Clegg and his
bandmate, drummer Adam, which is
evident in their second album, Exhale.
They take cues from Clutch’s bluesy
rock and Royal Blood’s hook-filled,
modern alternative sound, but end up
with a fresh take that’s all their own.
“People ask us whatmusic influences
us,” Clegg says, “but that’s a boring
conversation! Life influences us; how

we’re feeling that day influences us.
You feel pissed off or tired and you
wanna take itout on your guitar! That’s
what this music is meant to be, isn’t it?
An escape from the fucking boredom!”
Stripped down and straight ahead,
Clegg and Adam feel that being a duo
is one of their biggest strengths. “The
good thing about being a two-piece is
that we only have each other to rely
on,” Adam says. “If there’s something
that one of us doesn’t like, we know it
needs changing.”
“I like turning up to a festival and it’s
just us,” Clegg smiles. “That feeling of
just the pair of us taking on everyone.
It feels good to be the underdog!”

EXHALE IS OUT NOW

WE’RE WOLVES

“WE’RE WOLVES IS a metal
band coming up out
of Florida. They’re
bringing back the
golden era sound of
metalcore complete
with a twisted,
bloody edge.
Keep an eye
on these
boys!”

SPENCER CHARNAS, ICE NINE KILLS

METALHAMMER.COM 31

D

ALMI Y
Box sets, underground oddities and all the
essential merch you need this month

DAY
OF THE TED PLUSH
£29.99

If you ever wanted to recreate the opening
scene of Spectre with a teddy bear, your wildly
specific dreams have come true. This little
chum is 100% polyester and comes in
a transparent backpack/mobile tomb.
https://tinyurl.com/dead-toys

ALESTORM
CAPTAIN MORGAN FIGURINE
£34.50
Too cheap to splash out on Eddie? Prefer
maritime miniatures? Fear not – there’s
a cap’n for that. Alestorm’s cursed mascot,
Captain Morgan, is now 20cm tall, and made
from polystone. Argh.

BLACK SABBATH

https://tinyurl.com/alestorm-captain

SABOTAGE:
SUPER DELUXE EDITION
BMG
£90/£135/£210

MORE THAN ANY other album in the album in the Sabbath catalogue, 1975’s

Sabotage is most deserving of reappraisal. Cast in the shadow of both the five
classic albums that preceded it and the two that followed, which chronicled the
disintegration of the Ozzy era, its status hasn’t been boosted by half-cooked
artwork you won’t find gracing many t-shirts. Musically, Sabotage still never puts
a foot wrong,fuelled onvenom from their legal struggles at the time, experimenting
with choirs, and filtering glam stomps and boogie-woogie and yet still sounding
like a complete vision bound together with immaculate, timeless songwriting.
Now it’s getting its own CD and 180g vinyl box set treatment with a new remaster
alongside three extra discs cataloguing that year’s North American tour plus
a reproduction seven-inch with rare Japanese artwork. You’ll also find in-depth,
illustrated sleevenotes, replica Madison Square concert book and tour poster,
making this a treasure trove of rediscovery.

https://wickedworld.net/

32 METALHAMMER.COM

YEAR
OF NO LIGHT BOX SET
£163

Here’s something to give your postie a hernia:
a huge box set from France’s premier postmetallers. Splurging their epic discography
across 12 LPs, this ultra-limited collection is
a thing of true wallet-busting beauty.
https://tinyurl.com/nolight-box

HOARD A MI TY

POWERWOLF
CALL OF THE WILD T-SHIRT EARACHE
GRINDCORE COFFEE
£18.99-£20.99
£9.99

PARADISE
LOST GOTHIC CANDLE
£24

https://tinyurl.com/vuulff-tee

https://tinyurl.com/gothic-candle

You’re a Powerwolf fan – that should be
enough for people to know you’re a total
legend. But in case the message got
intercepted, just become a walking advert
for the power metal band’s eighth record.

You suffer in the mornings, so get some
resurrection with this killer Arabica coffee,
roasted over the Earache back catalogue.
With notes of chocolate, citrus, nuts and
treacle it’s the most wolverine of brews!

JUMANJI
REPLICA BOARD GAME
£130

PUSCIFER
PICTURE DISC
£28.99

MAC
SABBATH POP-UP BOOK
£43.15

https://tinyurl.com/jumanji-replica

https://tinyurl.com/puscifer-pic

https://tinyurl.com/mac-popup

Overdraft? Mortgage? Kids? Pfft. Who needs
to worry about that when you’ve got an actual
Jumanji board? Just be careful that man with
the weird moustache doesn’t show up,
though. Bit of a party pooper.

https://webstore.earache.com

Existential Rekoning was an unexpected
highlight from the arse-end of 2020. Its
cover art is as silly and subversive as its
sonic contents. Grab yourself this picture
disc and laugh along to the apocalypse.

If you want to know what sadness smells like,
it’s this. Vegan-friendly and crafted from soy
wax, these bourbon and leather-scented (sure)
candles celebrate 30 years of PL’s landmark
record, Gothic, in suitably sombre style.

Be sure to wash the burger grease from your
fingers before you delve into this lavish - and
surreal - pop-up book. Inked by Gris Grimy, it
brings Mac Sabbath’s hideous and hilarious
worldview to life.

DEATH
SS BOOK
£22.50

BAD
BRAINS THROBBLEHEAD
£25.15

PERTURBATOR
T-SHIRT
£17.25

https://tinyurl.com/deathss-tome

https://tinyurl.com/hr-throbble

https://tinyurl.com/lustful-tee

Offering a glimpse into legendary occult rock
act Death SS, this 224-page tome was penned
by Steve Sylvester himself. Expect magick,
witchcraft, amazing photos and naughty
goings on in sacred places!

How Low Can A Punk Get? Well, they could be
immortalised as a wobbly-headed seven-inch
plastic figurine. Still, at least legendary Bad
Brains frontman H.R. looks pretty cool, and if
you think you Don’t Need It, just go Sailin’ On!

James Kent’s latest LP sees him move from
neon-lit streets to menacing industrial
shadows, and this beautiful shirt reflects
the shift. Wear with sunglasses to look
moody, suave and artful in one deft swoop!
METALHAMMER.COM 33

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B YM TAL

ast month, Babymetal
played the last of 10
spectacular shows
at Tokyo’s iconic
Budokan venue. The gigs were
played in honour of the band’s
10th anniversary, and to
36 METALHAMMER.COM

celebrate, we’ve put together
the ultimate look inside
Babymetal’s rollercoaster
career, from their earliest days
as a J-pop teenie off-shoot
to their unprecedented rise
through the music industry.

As the girls look set to take
a brief hiatus, only the Fox
God knows what comes next,
but one thing’s for sure: it’s
been a wild ride so far. Here’s
the full story of a modern
metal phenomenon.

B YM T

Four years before Babymetal stunned the world with Gimme
Chocolate!!, the seeds of a legend were being sown
WORDS: STEPHEN HILL • TRANSLATOR/INTERPRETER: AYAKO UEDA

NOSTUH KCIM

etal is only getting
older and older.
I wanted to do
something new,
something no one
has ever done
before,” Babymetal mastermind Key
Kobayashi told us back in 2014. “The idea just
fell from the heavens.”
Whether inspired by angels or not, it’s fair to
say he succeeded in his goal of revolutionising
metal. A decade on from their inception,
Babymetal’s mix of hyperactive J-pop, brutal
riffs and heavy metal bombast has seen them
sell out arenas, stun major festivals, conquer
the mainstream, befriend legends of the
genre and make some members of Hammer’s
Facebook page throw proper toddler tantrums.
None of us saw it coming. So, how did it
happen? We’re told that ‘only the Fox God
knows’. Well Foxy, we’ve waited long enough –
it’s time to spill the beans. This is the story of
how Babymetal became heavy metal royalty.
The year is 2010. Japanese talent agency
Amuse Inc. have formed a school-themed
idol group named Sakura Gakuin. Its line-up
features 10-12 rolling members, all aged
between 10 and 15, with their own principal
and teacher. The bandmembers, or ‘students’,
are divided into a series of sub-units to
celebrate a series of extracurricular activities,
such as the ‘Cooking Club’, ‘Newspaper Club’
and something called the ‘Go Home Club’.
Which is, you know, not really that metal.
One of these sub-units, named ‘The Heavy
Music Club’, has been devised and produced
by the aforementioned Key Kobayashi, soon
to be known to you and I as Kobametal. It is
comprised of three members: Suzuka, Yui and
Moa, who will become known as Su-Metal,
Yuimetal and Moametal. It’s probably safe to
say this isn’t how bands like Anthrax formed.
“I thought this amalgam of J-pop and metal
would be a good way to represent Japanese
metal and Japanese music,” Kobametal told us.
Soon, The Heavy Music Club began to
perform songs at Sakura Gakuin concerts.
Journalist Yuka Okubo was the editor of

a magazine called CD Data, and was following
the idol scene intently at the time.
“I’d met the girls in Babymetal and had been
following them closely before they were in the
band,” she tells us. “I saw them in 2010 with
Sakura Gakuin and they came on at the end as
Babymetal. I honestly just thought that it was
really cute, and it was very different to the
usual Japanese idol groups, but I had no idea
it was going to become something this big.”
The rule of Sakura Gakuin is that, just as
with school, members have to graduate and
leave the band. At one of the final shows as
members of the idol act, Babymetal as we now
know them were presented to the world.
“They’d been doing this style with a backing
track,” remembers Yuka. “But I saw the band at
Shibuya O-East in 2012, and during the encore
they broughtthe full Kami Band on withthem.
It’s here where we realised, ‘Oh, they are
actually going to be going forward with this
style.’ It was clear they were serious about it.”
By then, Babymetal had released a handful
of songs. Doki Doki * Morning appeared on
Sakura Gakuin’s debut album, Sakura Gakuin
2010 Nendo: Message; they put out a split single
with death pop band Kiba Of Akiba; and their
first solo single was Headbanger!!. This earned
them a place on the bill of Japan’s prestigious
Summer Sonic Festival in Chiba and Osaka
that summer, alongside Green Day, Rihanna
and New Order. They were the youngest-ever
act in the festival’s history – but that didn’t
mean they were welcomed with open arms.
“At first everyone just recognised them as
this cute Japanese girl band,” Yuka says. “They
were always in that category, but they wanted
to get out. They couldn’t, because no one
admitted they were a real band. When they
started to play more rock and metal festivals,
things started to change, but they told me that
back then theyfelt like they weren’t accepted.”
As the year progressed, Babymetal began
to transition out of teen magazines and into
Japan’s rock press. They played Summer Sonic
again in 2013, as well as the Loud Park festival
in Saitama Super Arena, and released a video
promoting Metallica’s Through The Never

movie to be shown at a special event. Their
debut album was released on February 26,
2014, peaking at No.2 in the Japanese
Billboard charts, and in March they were
booked to play two nights at Tokyo’s legendary
Budokan, to a total of around 28,000 fans.
“That was the moment I knew they were
going to become really big,” says Yuka. “On one
of the nights, Yui actually fell off of the stage,
but she got up and carried on performing. The
other two really supported her through that as
well; you could see something had changed,
I could see the determination in them.”
Despite this, the Japanese metal fraternity
still viewed Babymetal with suspicion. But,
5,845 miles away, in the country that invented
heavy metal, something was stirring.
f there’s one thing that’s bound to attract
attention on the internet, it’s cat videos.
If there’s another thing that’s bound to
attract attentionon the internet, it’s uploading
something bizarre, confusing and unique.
At the start of 2014, Babymetal delivered
a true ‘WTF?’ moment to the metal world – the
video for Gimme Chocolate!!. It was the song,
the moment. Suddenly, everyone you spoke
to was asking you if you’d seen this… thing!
“I thought, ‘This is mad! What the fuck is
that?’”says Alan Day of promoter Kilimanjaro,
who went on to book the band’s first UK show.
“I saw the video and like most people
thought, ‘What the fuck is this?’. It seemed
like this crazy novelty song, but I’d really
never seen anything like it before,” veteran
music journalist Paul Brannigan tells us.
Tesseract guitarist James Monteith, who
would play Sonisphere’s main stage just
before Babymetal’s debut UK appearance in
2014, remembers: “Someone sent me the
video and I thought…”
Let us guess: “What the fuck?”
“…This is pretty fucking stupid, really.
I didn’t get what they were doing, but I was
weirdly fascinated by it.”
Well, two out three isn’t bad. But the point
still stands: here in the UK, Babymetal had
our attention.
METALHAMMER.COM 37

B YM TAL

Following the success of Gimme Chocolate!!, Babymetal finally
landed in the UK, and things were never the same again
WORDS: STEPHEN HILL

says Tesseract’s James Monteith. “They
imme Chocolate!! becoming
stood out like a sore thumb. These young
a legitimate phenomenon
girls dressed in these uniforms all next
in the UK didn’t escape
to a bunch of hairy old metalheads. Then
the girls.
“We’ve received so many I saw their guitarist [Mikio Fujioka], who
has sadly passed away now, in his
comments online from the
costume and facepaint, warming up. He
UK, we’re getting such a great response
was an incredible player. I just thought
and we never expected it,” Su-Metal told
us in 2014, when Metal Hammer first spoke ‘Well… you don’t see that every day.’”
By the time Babymetal took to the stage,
to the band. “It makes us feel like we’re
the field was packed with a mixture of
being accepted. It feels like a dream.”
“When the rumours began to circulate convertedzealots, curious cats and foldedarmed sceptics. “Most people just had
that they were being embraced by other
their jaws on the floor,” laughs Alan. “They
parts of the world, that’s when it really
couldn’t believe what they were seeing.”
changed in Japan,” Yuka Okubo recalls.
“I went to the front to find my family
“People really wanted to see just how the
and watched the show. My son loved it
UK fans were reacting to them.”
– he actually forgot his dad even played
Such was the interest surrounding
that day,” sighs an absolutely, definitely
Babymetal that the race was on to bring
them to the UK. On July5, 2014, Babymetal not bitter James.
Their performance was the weekend’s
played their first UK set at Sonisphere, on
biggest talking point – and it wasn’t just
the same bill as Iron Maiden, Deftones,
fans who were in the grip of Babymetal
Anthrax, Ghost and openers Tesseract.
fever. Pictures from the weekend of the
“Straight away I had to find out who
girls alongside the likes of Kirk Hammett,
their manager was,” promoter Alan Day
tells us. “We managed to get hold of them Chino Moreno and Kerry King showed just
how fascinated
and I booked
our genre had
them for
become with
Sonisphere and
the band.
a date at the
“Sonisphere
Kentish Town
was an amazing
Forum [in
experience,”
London] just
Su-Metal told
after the festival.
us two days later
Initially I had
at the Kentish
them playing
ALAN DAY, SONISPHERE
Town Forum.
the tent, but it
soon became clear that it’d be dangerously “It was the first time we had played in
front of such a huge audience.”
packed if we did that. So, we managed to
One member of the crowd that day was
free up a slot on the main stage, and it’s
earMUSIC MD Jonathan Green, who was
the biggest crowd I’ve ever seen for a set
suitably impressed by what he had seen.
at one o’clock in the afternoon.”
“I was packing down my gear after we’d “I looked around and thought there was
played and I saw them getting prepared,” definitely something going on here,” he

“IT WAS THE
BIGGEST CROWD
I’VE EVER SEEN
FOR A 1PM SET”

38 METALHAMMER.COM

B YM T
Babymetal: the UK
didn’t stand a chance!

EIRTRUMcM NHOJ

METALHAMMER.COM 39

B YM TAL

Channelling the power
of the Fox God

Reek Of Putrefaction by Carcass, she
didn’t even know they started as
a grindcore band! DA FUQ?! Yet this
frothy-mouthed outrage from
supposed defenders of the faith only
served to strengthen the girls’ bond
with their growing fanbase.
“The smart thing they did was
never position themselves as dyed-inthe-wool metal fans,” shrugs Hammer
writer Paul Brannigan. “They were
young girls who were taking their first
steps into the genre.”

remembers. “The reaction from the
crowd was pretty amazing. It felt like
a moment.”
EarMUSIC signed the band for the
UK and Europe and released Babymetal
on June 1, 2015. “We believed that it
could be a significant moment in
the progression of global metal,”
remembers Jonathan.

40 METALHAMMER.COM

“I HAD NO IDEA
WHAT METAL
MUSIC WAS”
YUIMETAL

“I would like more people to enjoy
metal,” Yuimetal told us in 2015. “To tell
you the truth, when I joined Babymetal
I had no idea what metal music was.
But now I know what’s great in metal,
I’ve learned a lot from it.”
While some were glad there was
potential for metal to find an entirely
new fanbase, some high-profile
members of the metal community
were starting to pull the drawbridge up
on Babymetal.
“I made a decision that I personally,
as the booker of the festival, don’t
believe they are right for the spirit of
what Download’s all about,” Andy
Copping told the That’s Not Metal
podcast in 2015.

SSERP

f Sonisphere and the Forum could
be written off as successes born
from people’s curiosity about this
new type of idol-metal band, what
came next proved they were no flash
in the pan. On November 8, 2014, they
played a sold-out, 5,000-capacity
Brixton Academy.
“Usually, you book bands from
different countries and people from
those countries turn up to see them,”
says Alan Day. “I went to the Forum
expecting to see a lot of Japanese music
fans, but it was all British metalheads.
That’s when I thought it was definitely
going to cross over – that’s when
I thought about getting them in for
Brixton. We kept it exclusive – the only
place you could see them was Brixton.
And as more people clicked on Gimme
Chocolate!! or heard Megitsune, the
more the demand shot up and up.”
But not everyone was convinced.
Some hardened metalheads burst blood
vessels over the thought that these
teenage girls, these manufactured pop
stars, were using metal as a gimmick.
They didn’t dress right! They smiled!
They danced! Yuimetal (a 16-year-old,
let’s not forget) not only hadn’t heard

But things started to turn when the
festival rolled around later that year.
Metal Hammer were with Babymetal all
weekend when power metal legends
Dragonforce, having already featured
on new Babymetal track Road Of
Resistance, and who are cheeky scamps
at the best of times, decided to invite
the band onstage during their Friday
afternoon set and have an impromptu
run through of Gimme Chocolate!!.
“Somehow word had got out that the
girls were onsite,” remembers Jonathan.
“Once the rumour spread that they
were going to be coming on with
Dragonforce, let me tell you, that tent
was packed. There were people outside
fighting to get in.”
“We knew they were coming over for
the Golden Gods so we just thought it
would be a fun thing to do,” chuckles
Herman Li. “I’ll never forget the
reaction to them walking out onstage.
It was mania!”
Three days later, at Metal Hammer’s
Golden God Awards in London,
Babymetal picked upthe Breakthrough
award, before playing a brief set that
brought every jaded, grizzled, veteran
metal musician in the house that night
from backstage to out front, to see
their performance.
Eighteen months after hearing
Gimme Chocolate!!, the UK was still
enraptured by the band, far longer
than the initial 15 minutes of fame
people thought it would inspire. There
was a growing suspicion that they
weren’t just one-hit wonders. But just
how big could Babymetal become?

B YM TAL
Herman Li: unashamed
Babymetal fanboy

Dragonforce’s shredder extraordinaire
explains how he became one of
Babymetal’s biggest champions and
even wrote a song with them

42 METALHAMMER.COM

RETEMED NAGROM/SSERP

SO WHEN WAS THE FIRST TIME YOU HEARD BABYMETAL?
Herman Li: “We were recording The Power Within album, so
we’re talking about 2011, and we hear the buzz about this band.
We decided to watch the music videos on the internet and
I thought it was a cool thing, a mix of rock and metal and J-pop
stuff. I’m very familiar with the Japanese culture, so it wasn’t
anything shocking to me. I know a lot of people were like,
‘Oh my god! What have they done?!’, but I thought it was
a cool combo, very original. And the songs are so catchy, very
melodic, so I was into it.”
WHY DO YOU THINK THERE WAS SUCH A BACKLASH
AGAINST THEM?
“Anything you do different, you’re gonna be hated. Doesn’t
matter if it’s good or bad, the internet is there for love and
hate! Let’s be honest, a lot of rock and metal fans are very
stubborn, they don’t like things done differently; you just gotta
roll with it and do what you do.”
HOW DID YOU END UP COLLABORATING WITH BABYMETAL
ON ROAD OF RESISTANCE?
“They contacted us before the first album even came out!
In the email back and forth they started trying to explain
who they were, and I was like, ‘I know EXACTLY who you are!’
I spoke to Sam [Totman, Dragonforce guitarist] and we were
both definitely up for it. We get asked a lot to guest on things
with other bands, but unless it’s fresh and original we say no.
But this time it was an instant yes.”
WHAT WAS THE PROCESS OF WRITING THE SONG LIKE
FOR YOU GUYS?
“We spoke to Kobametal and he just said to us, ‘I want you
to play exactly like you are playing for Dragonforce. We’ve got
this song written, do your thing!’ At the time it was no singing,
it was just a demo, and we just tried to be ourselves, but also
think about them and where they were coming from.”
WHAT WAS IT LIKE THE FIRST TIME YOU MET THE BAND?
“We played Japan and they came to see us. Su-metal was
there and the whole crew. It’s funny actually, we talked about
the song a bit and they actually wanted more extreme guitar
solos! OK, we’ll go crazy then! Ha ha ha! They were very polite
and respectful, they were real Dragonforce fans!”
TELL US ABOUT THE IMPROMPTU GIMME CHOCOLATE!!
PERFORMANCE AT DOWNLOAD IN 2015…
“We like things to be a bit weird, and there was that whole
thing about Babymetal never being able to play Download, so
we thought we’d get them up. We did the show before we’d
even rehearsed for the Golden Gods – the first time we’d ever
played together was that performance of Gimme Chocolate!!
I must have been nervous because I pressed the intro to them
on the computer three times! It kept stopping, so I was freaking
out, and I just looked over and Su was staring at me like, ‘What
are you doing?’ I gave her this panicked look and we both burst
out laughing! We hadn’t rehearsed and she could see me all
agitated, like, ‘Ooooohhh god whyyy?!’ We have a laugh with
them; they’re really fun, funny girls.”
AND THE PERFORMANCE OF ROAD OF RESISTANCE AT THE
GOLDEN GODS A FEW DAYS LATER IS THE ONE TIME YOU’VE
EVER PERFORMED THE SONG, RIGHT?
“Correct. We’ve only played that song once! So, if you were
there, it’s a little bit of history! Seeing the fans and Metal
Hammer take to Babymetal in that way was fantastic. We
did get to rehearse with them that time, and it was such
a memorable moment.”

BABYM TAL

Earlier this month we put out a message asking for
Babymetal’s biggest fans to send us their photos and stories.
You didn’t disappoint.

@YURIAYAMETAL (Twitter)

@MOMOKO_FUKEI (Twitter)
“These are all 302 official Babymetal t-shirts that I have in my collection. If I get one more t-shirt,
I’ll be ‘full complete’. (In other words, I have a collection of all the official t-shirts except one!)
The flag I’m holding is the one I always bring with me when I go to see Babymetal live.”
@FZJ80_METAL (Twitter)

“In May 2016, Babymetal played the Carolina Rebellion festival. My son, Harley (shown kneeling),
was a huge fan and he was a little frustrated that a group of fans from Japan had camped out at the
small stage Babymetal were to play, hours ahead of their slot. All went fine and Babymetal got
a huge reaction (David Draiman even watched from the sound booth). After, as the Japanese fans
were taking photos, I asked if we could get Harley in a photo too. They were super-nice!”

JO FLEISCHER

44 METALHAMMER.COM

EUGENE STEI

@K_METAL44 (Twitter)

B YM T
“I’ve been collecting for
four+ years, so I can’t fit
it all on camera, but here
are the best bits of my
Babymetal-ised room!
I live and breathe
Babymetal, so having
multiple shrines to them
is the least I can do
for them…”

@BABYMETAL_JPG
(Twitter)

@TAJ_DEBBIE02002 (Twitter)
@YUEMETAL (Twitter)

@YASUKEIMETAL (Twitter)

“I’ve been a fan for almost six years and
they’ve changed my life! Thank you, Metal
Hammer, for always supporting Babymetal.”
@CAMMETAL98 (Twitter)

@SHINEONETARO (Twitter)

@0222ONO (Twitter)

LOGAN PACHECO

@MARTINISHPKSDD (Twitter)

@MJMSSHIRo (Twitter)
METALHAMMER.COM 45

B YM TAL

From hitting America to sharing stages with metal legends,
the Babymetal hype train became a juggernaut
WORDS: STEPHEN HILL

2015’s Reading and Leeds festivals on the
embley Arena is
same day as Metallica – plus that little
one of the most
prestigious venues sprinkling of stardust – had created
a perfect storm for the band.
on the planet. Not
“It’s that old Kevin Costner thing,”
many metal bands
smiles earMUSIC’sJonathan Green. “If you
get the chance to
build it, they will come. We really believed
headline there and, when they do, it’s
in the band, and our belief was rewarded.”
usually after years of slogging away.
When recalling April 2, 2016, promoter
Iron Maiden first headlined it on their
Alan Day still struggles to comprehend it.
Seventh Tour Of A Seventh Tour in 1988,
“I turned up and I saw one of my merch
and two years later Metallica did the same
guys running off to print new T-shirts
while touring …And Justice For All. That’s
close to a decade a piece of hard work from because he’d run out,” he recalls with an
air of disbelief. “I’d never seen that before.
metal’s biggest bands. Babymetal sold it
Before the doors opened, they were
out on their third UK headline show.
running out of merch and having to go and
The day before their triumphant
print up new t-shirts… like… what? They
Wembley gig is a date that every
broke the all-time record for merch sold
Babymetal fan now has marked on their
at that venue
calendar: April 1,
in one night.
AKA Fox Day.
I walked around
Ever since 2016,
the stalls at the
it’s signalled
end and there
some kind of
was nothing…
celebration of
not a single item
the band. Back
anywhere. And it
then, they
was the biggest
released their
headline show
second album,
ALAN DAY
a Japanese artist
Metal Resistance.
Receiving glowing reviews from the likes had ever done in this country. Their third
of The Observer to the metal press, with our headline show… who does that?!”
own Dom Lawson calling it a ‘Ludicrous
but brilliantly executed delight’ in his 8/10
he praise wasn’t just coming from
review, it set the band up perfectly for
the UK either; the US was starting
a career-defining moment.
to cast a beady eye on the band.
“It still doesn’t feel real,” Su-Metal told Three days after Wembley, the band made
us when we caught up with the band in
their American television debut on
early 2016. “I know that Wembley Arena is prestigious talk show The Late Show With
a very legendary venue, so thinking about Stephen Colbert. “I’m not sure what I’m
us playing there is a little unnerving.”
about to see, but I’m pretty excited about
Moametal wondered: “I’m not sure
it,” the host smirked, before the band
whether anyone will come.”
ripped through Gimme Chocolate!!, much
She needn’t have worried. The success
to the confusion of middle America.
of their debut album, the notoriety raised
“Babymetal’s noise is Satanic!! This
by playing Sonisphere, Download and
is TERRIBLE!!” tweeted one particularly

“THEY BROKE
WEMBLEY’S
RECORD FOR
MERCH SALES”

46 METALHAMMER.COM

B YM T
Babymetal: satanic,
according to some deeply
religious Twitter twits

SSERP

METALHAMMER.COM 47

B YM TAL

48 METALHAMMER.COM

Metal God meets the Fox God:
Babymetal and Rob Halford
at the Alternative Press
Music Awards in 2016

“YUI TOLD ME SHE
HAD TO FOLLOW
HER OWN PATH”
YUKA OKUBO

o far Babymetal’s career had been
one success story after the next
– the epitome of a meteoric rise.
But what goes up eventually has to
come down, and 2018 represented
something of an annus horribilis for
the band.
On December 30, 2017, longtime
Kami Band guitarist Mikio Fujioka,
a graduate of the Musicians Institute
of Osaka, fell while visiting an
astronomical observation platform.
Tragically, he succumbed to his injuries
and passed away on January 5,
surrounded by his wife and daughters,
at the age of 36. The band tweeted the
news alongside lyrics from their song
The One, ‘We are the one, together, we’re
the only one, you are the one, forever.’
Shaken by the event, the band still
headed out on the road in May 2018 and
would later launch their own comic
book, Apocrypha: The Legend Of
Babymetal, an origin story of the band.
But something else was about to hit:

without any explanation, Yuimetal
dropped off the band’s US tour.
The band’s management declared
that “Yuimetal remains a member of
the band”, but she was still absent by
the time they hit Europe in June, and in
October it was announced that she had
left the band due to “health concerns”.
“Although I thought itover and over,”
began Yui’s own statement, “I decided
to leave Babymetal […] There was
a strong desire to stand onstage again,
but there is also a feeling that I am not
in perfect condition.”
“Yuimetal is like a family member
to this group,” Su-metal told us when
we caught up with the band in 2019.
“Although she has left, we’ll continue
to support her in the future.”
Even a longtime fan like Yuka Okubo
was a shocked by the news at first.
“I know the girls had known each
other since elementary school,” she
says. “So, I really believed that bond
was so strong that they would stay
together. But I spoke to Yui and she
explained to me that she had to go and
follow her own path and her dreams; it
wasn’t a negative thing. She’ll always
be part of Babymetal.”
After nothing but success to date,
this didn’t feel like it was part of the
Fox God’s plans…

YTTEG

angry viewer - an opinion echoed
by many irate, amoeba-brained
religious fanatics, seemingly just as
outraged as metal’s more elitist
quarters by a song about how much
three young girls enjoyed chocolate.
It mattered not; for all the toythrowing from their detractors, the
patronage of a certain Rob Halford was
of far more interest to most metal fans.
So, when Babymetal were invited to
play the 2016 Alternative Press Music
Awards, roping in the Metal God to
plough through Judas Priest classics
Breaking The Law and Painkiller was an
unbelievable coup.
“I’ve always been a big supporter of
something which I think is going to
get a lot of traction,” Rob tells us. “So
I was delighted to be asked. It was such
a hectic day that it was over in a flash,
but it was a blast.”
With the rest of the world catching
up quick, back in Japan things had
moved up yet another notch. The Metal
Resistance tour was due to end on
September 19, and the band were
booked for the massive 55,000-capacity
Tokyo Dome. Such was the demand
that a second show was added for the
following day.
“There’s this idea that metal is huge
in Japan,” Paul Brannigan says, “but
that’s actually a bit of a myth. Aside
from Maiden or Metallica, none of our
big bands could play the Tokyo Dome.
I’ve seen Avenged Sevenfold over
there, and they can’t play arenas in
Japan. So, for a band like Babymetal to
do two nights there is pretty much
unheard of.”
“They invited me out to see them at
the Tokyo Dome,” remembers Alan
Day. “I think it’s the biggest indoor
music venue in the world. Over here it
would be like the equivalent of going
to see U2 at Wembley Stadium. You
literally couldn’t get any bigger.”
It was a landmark for the band –
a dream that was almost unthinkable
a few years before.
“In Japan we have played many big
venues, like Budokan,” Su-Metal told
Kerrang! in the build-up to the shows.
“But Tokyo Dome was always a place
that I’ve been dreaming of performing
at. Even in Japan, not everyone gets
a chance to perform here!”
Another bucket list moment was
ticked off on January 11, 2017, at the
17,000-capacity Gocheok Sky Dome in
Seoul, South Korea, where Babymetal
were main support to the biggest metal
band in history. “Metallica are like
gods to us,” Su-metal said at the time.
“I had been admiring them for a long
time and dreamed to perform with
them, so I never thought it would come
true this fast!”

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B YM T
If Babymetal are good
enough for the Metal God,
they’re good enough for you!

The Metal God fell in love with Babymetal
when he heard them early on.
Then they got to play together

NNIHS SIVART

WHEN DID YOU FIRST HEAR BABYMETAL?
“Pretty much when they first started, I think. It was 2012 or
2010, but it wasn’t until the first album came along and I heard
songs like Doki Doki * Morning and they first started getting
traction, that I was really captivated by them. The Japanese
are very creative and experimental – they do things that you
would never see anywhere else, they’re fearless. The way they
looked got into my mind and the music was something I had
never experienced before.”
HOW WAS IT WHEN YOU FIRST GOT TO MEET THEM?
“Oh, it was wonderful! I think it was backstage at a festival,
I can’t remember where, and they just came over really quickly
for a photo. They were obviously big metal fans and very polite,
lovely people, it was great.”
HOW DID YOUR PERFORMANCE WITH THEM AT 2016’S
ALTERNATIVE PRESS MUSIC AWARDS COME ABOUT?
“Their management reached out to us, so I said yes. I was
in America at the time, so it was easy enough for me. They
suggested Painkiller and Breaking The Law and I thought that
was a lovely idea. We got a very quick rehearsal in and I loved
their efficiency, and I loved, not only the girls, who have such
classy voices, but the backup band as well. The guys in that
band are phenomenal, they tend to get a little overlooked,
which is unfair – Babymetal is everybody to me. It was a blast.
Once I knew I was going to do it, I thought about their outfits
and went to the vintage store and got a black and red pseudo
leather jacket, a black and red t-shirt from Amazon and
I bought some black and red sneakers as well. So, I actually
put together an outfit exclusively for Babymetal. It’s in my
closet still somewhere.”
AFTER DOING A PRIEST SONG WITH THEM, WOULD YOU
BE TEMPTED TO DO A BABYMETAL SONG?
“I would love to. It would be great to jump in on a Gimme
Chocolate!! or a Headbangeeeeerrrrr!!!!!. But, even more than
that, I would love to sing in Japanese, because I’ve never done
anything like that. It would be a thrill to sing a Babymetal
song, but, rather than one of their existing songs I’d like to
do something unique. We could make a one-off special, that
would be a dream. Maybe when Priest goes to Japan next,
we can stop in a studio and do an original song. Call it ‘Fox
God Metal God’!”
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THEIR IMAGE?
“Oh, I love it. It’s actually quite similar to what we’ve done in
the past with Priest, the characters of the Fox God and the
mythology surrounding it, it’s beautifully evocative of both
metal and Japanese cultures. They’re very gracious as well, in
saying that bands like Priest and other metal acts have been
an inspiration to them on their journey.”
THEY ACTUALLY REFERENCED PRIEST ON ONE OF THEIR
SHIRTS AS WELL!
“And that’s great. A lovely homage and a really nice gesture.
It shows that it’s something that has substance, and it’s quite
cyclical, because we did something on Unleashed In The East
with Japanese calligraphy. So that kind of played it back to us.”
WHY DO YOU THINK METAL FANS HAVE HAD SUCH A HARD
TIME ACCEPTING THE BAND?
“They broke the mould. Everything that gets hated is usually
successful, have you noticed that? I’ve never understood it
myself; metal is for everyone and it’s about acceptance, being
open-minded and checking things out. I welcome any kind of
expression, no matter what it might be. But if you can get past
the 10-year mark then you’re here for good!”
DO YOU HAVE A 10TH BIRTHDAY MESSAGE FOR THE BAND?
“Happy 10th metal anniversary. Horns up for a loud metal
future with the Fox God, from your Metal God!”

METALHAMMER.COM 51

B YM TAL

We tracked down some of the rarest Babymetal merch.
Good luck finding it, and may the Fox God be with you
 LIVE LEGEND
I, D, Z APOCALYPSE
BLU-RAY (2013)

 BABYMETAL
SUNGLASSES
(2015)

This Blu-ray package contains the
complete trilogy of Babymetal’s
live series, Legend I, D, Z, and
comes with a special cloak!
Wear it, add a ‘metal’ suffix to
your name, and pretend you’re
one of the Avengers.

The design of these
sunglasses was
inspired by the rap
song Iine! When you
put them on, you’ll
be tempted to say,
‘Atama yurase
megane hazuse!’

In 2014, Babymetal
played two shows at the
Budokan. This package comes in a ‘Budo Can’,
geddit? It’s octagonal in shape, just like the
venue, and contains a performance from the
first night and a live CD from the second. Plus,
you get a sick, limited-edition neck brace.
52 METALHAMMER.COM

)AWAKODAK( ”LATEMYBAB FO EUSSI LAICEPS AWAKODAK USTASSEB“ YB DETROPPUS

 LIVE AT
BUDOKAN ‘BUDO
CAN’: THE ONE
LIMITED BOX
RED/BLACK (2015)

B YM T
 BABYMETAL MICRO
LUGGAGE(2016)

Throw away your old, boring suitcases,
because this one has a kickboard! And
a built-in Bluetooth speaker! And if you
can’t travel anywhere right now, just
give it a spin at your local skatepark.

 MAGIC CIRCLE PYRAMID (2015)

As if Babymetal weren’t shrouded in enough mystery, they
released their own version of a Rubik’s cube. With only four
sides instead of six, it should be easier to solve. Right…?

 BABYMETAL DEATH
MASK (2015)

Babymetal were selling face masks
long before Covid-19. Now they’re
part of our everyday attire, why not
advertise your Babymetal fandom
on your face? Sadly, you won’t be
able to eat any chocolate!! while
your mouth’s covered.

 GALAXY ARK TABLE LAMP (2019)

Recreate the part from Babymetal’s Yokohama Arena
show in June 2019 where the girls travelled on an ark
through a galaxy of metal. All you need is this lamp
and some tiny heatproof figurines.

 MINI-ARROW
GUITAR (2016)

This axe of dreams, made in
collaboration with ESP, was sold
exclusively to members of fan club
The One. Babymetal played them
when they performed with the one
and only Metal God, Rob Halford.

 ROMPERS & BIB (2020)

You’re never too young to get into
Babymetal! Bring your little ones up
under the spell of the Fox God with
these bonetastic bibs and rad rompers.
You don’t want them to get cold
in the Metal Galaxy.

METALHAMMER.COM 53

B YM TAL

From Glastonbury to the Galaxy itself, with their third
album, it seemed nowhere was immune from Babymetal
WORDS: STEPHEN HILL

a plane to the UK and took another huge
hen you’ve
step into the mainstream, joining
conquered the
a Glastonbury bill featuring gargantuan
world, what do you
artists such as Stormzy, The Cure, Liam
do next? You
Gallagher and Kylie Minogue. With
conquer the
universe, obviously. a Sunday afternoon set on the Other
Stage, they made history by becoming
The challenges of 2018 led to the girls’
the first Japanese act to play on one of the
first extended period away from the
festival’s main stages.
spotlight. They punctured the silence on
The band were pitted against, of all
April 1, 2019 – Fox Day on the Babymetal
people, SirDavid Attenborough (yes, really)
calendar – by announcing they would be
releasing a third album later that year, and on the Pyramid Stage. And, as much as we
would be embarking on a series of headline love learning about the mating rituals of
the white-tailed wildebeest of Africa from
shows titled Babymetal Awakens – The
kindly ol’ uncle Dave, we love circle pits
Sun Also Rises and Babymetal Arises –
and riffs a fuckload more.
Beyond The Moon – Legend M.
Hammer Editor Merlin Alderslade was
On June 28, the day of the first concert
there to witness what he called in his
at Yokohama Arena, they unleashed
review “a curious, decent-sized crowd’s
bouncy, summery new single Pa Pa Ya!!
and revealed their record would be called bemusement melt into amusement,
before giving away to pure joy”.
Metal Galaxy. That night, a dancer took
“I know that Glastonbury is one of the
Yuimetal’s place onstage – one of three
world’s biggest festivals,” Su-Metal told
dubbed the Avengers, who would take
NME after their set. “I was really nervous
turns to sub in.
but after a few songs the audience had
Kobametal described it to us as “The
their hands in the air and were screaming.
beginning of a new Babymetal. On top of
Su-metal and Moametal, their supporting We’re looking forward to Billie Eilish!”
Avengers are the
chosen dancers
hey were
that the Fox God
steadily
summoned”
cranking
before adding
up the hype-othe typically
meter, but it
on-brand: “Who
ticked over into
will be chosen
the red when
is something
word got out
only the Fox
that Metal
ROB HALFORD
God knows.”
Galaxy featured
“I think the fans accept the Avengers,”
a number of high-profile guest spots from
a slightly more non-committal Yuka says. the likes of Arch Enemy’s Alissa White“Anyone that comes into the Babymetal
Gluz, on the song Distortion, and Sabaton
family is welcomed. But it’s always going frontman Joakim Brodén, on Oh! Majinai.
to be about the three original girls.”
Even metalheads who were previously
After a second Yokohama Arena show
snooty about the band had to admit that
the following day, Babymetal hopped on
sounded pretty fucking cool!

“IF YOU MAKE IT
TO 10 YEARS,
YOU’RE PART OF
THE FURNITURE”

54 METALHAMMER.COM

B YM T
Moametal and Su-Metal: no
longer baby-faced Babymetal

)M-SSERGORP(IKAWAYIM UMUSUS

METALHAMMER.COM 55

B YM TAL
“I was surprised they wanted me to
join them,” Joakim told us prior to the
album’s release. “But why the hell
not! They are good people and put on
a good show.”
“Arch Enemy have a strong
relationship with Japan,” Alissa added.
“They asked if I wanted to take part
and I said yes. They gave me really
detailed information about how they
were picturing it.”
Babymetal were, once again, the talk
of the metal scene. The waiting world
finally got to hear Metal Galaxy on
October 8, and it quickly proved itself
to be the grandest, most diverse and
challenging record of their career. Not
all reviewers outside metal circles got
it, although The Guardian called it “the
kawaii metal My Beautiful Dark Twisted
Fantasy” in reference to Kanye West’s
genre-defining and critically adored
2010 masterpiece. But in an 8/10 review
in the pages of this magazine, Dannii
Leivers said, “For a band whose
existence is one massive curveball,
the number of tangents on show here
suggest this band are capable of
growth we never imagined.”
The record hit the top 20 in the UK
Top 40 and the US Billboard Top 200,
becoming America’s highest-charting
Japanese language album ever, and the
first album by an Asian band to top the
US Top Rock Albums Chart. Babymetal
were on their debut headline tour of
the country, and the release date
coincided with their first arena
headliner at The Forum in Inglewood,
LA, in front of more than 17,000 fans.
To prove the newfound pull of global
metal, they brought Mongolian folk
metallers The Hu out with them for
shows in Portland and Seattle.
“Both of our bands have our own
original concepts,” says The Hu’s
multi-instrumentalist, Jaya. “We both
sing in our native languages, and one
could view our bands as heavy metal.
But the Japanese and Mongolian
sounds we bring to our music bring
a whole other dynamic.”
As for the shows themselves…
“We did get to hang out a little
backstage,” he remembers. “We felt
a lot of love and support each night –
Babymetal’s fans were very loud and
shouting ‘Hu! Hu! Hu!’. We also got to
watch parts of their show and they
were amazing. Their vocals and
choreography, plus the skill level of
their musicians, was very impressive.”

56 METALHAMMER.COM

“I WAS SURPRISED
THEY WANTED ME
TO JOIN THEM”
JOAKIM BRODÉN

traditional touring cycle. Their most
high-profile moment was the collab
track Kingslayer, on Bring Me The
Horizon’s Post Human: Survival Horror
EP, bringing together two of our
genres’ biggest contemporary hitters.
In December, they released a ‘best
of’ compilation album for their 10th
anniversary, and celebrated by
performing 10 shows at the Budokan
between January and April. At the
end of the final night, a cryptic
message from the Fox God was shown,
insinuating that another huge change
is coming.
“Despite the ongoing pandemic,
BABYMETAL once again gave a
powerful performanceand successfully
ended the series of 10 Budokan shows,”
a press release from the band’s
management read. “At the end of the
10th show, it was announced that
BABYMETAL departed from earth and
were to become a LIVING LEGEND.”
Quite what that means is anyone’s
guess, and there seems little point

in making predictions about the
phenomenon that is Babymetal. It’s
been a spectacular 10 years for a group
most people thought were just a curio,
a gimmick or a one-hit wonder. Far
from it – Babymetal are the success
story no one saw coming (well, there
was that one fox guy, but definitely
no one else.)
“Back when they started, there
wasn’t really this mainstream
fascination with Eastern culture and
J-pop,” says Paul Brannigan, “and it’s
hard for any metal band to cross over.
So, the idea that this was a calculated
thing, or that this was an easy way
to be successful… it’s really not.
It’s incredibly unlikely to have ever
happened, so the fact that it has is
nothing short of remarkable.”
“Where they are now was where
Priest were on British Steel,” Rob Halford
adds. “Just take that in for a second.
Ten years in this business, it’s very
difficult for any band, and if you make
it then you’re the real deal – you’re
part of the furniture.”
Here’s to the next decade.

BABYMETAL’S BEST-OF ALBUM,
10 BABYMETAL YEARS, IS OUT
NOW VIA EARMUSIC. SEE MORE
AT BABYMETALSTOREUK.COM
AND WWW.BABYMETAL.COM

YTTEG

abymetal welcomed in 2020 with
their first European headline
run – but not even the Fox God
could have foreseen the pandemic.
Like all their peers, they had to find
new ways to stay active beyond the

Moametal, Su-Metal and Avenger
Riho Sayashi on The Other Stage
at Glastonbury Festival, 2019

B YM T
Got… got… need… need…
got… got… got… need…

He’s the mastermind behind Babymetal’s NFT trading cards. So who better to explain what they’re all about?
WORDS: RICH HOBSON

LET’S START WITH
THE BASICS! WHAT
IS AN NFT? HOW
DOES IT WORK?
“An NFT is a digital
collectible that lives
on the blockchain
[a kind of digital
ledger]. It’s infinitely
transferable,
unalterable, and because it lives on this
global network, you’ll be able to track it
forever. What’s been super-interesting to
me is that it takes the inherent risk out.
I have collected bobbleheads, comics,
cards… incredible physical items that had
an element of care that’d make you think,
‘Can I read this graphic novel?’ ‘Can I open
this vinyl?’ that means you don’t always
get to enjoy what you’ve got unless you
don’t care for it as a collectible!”
WHY DID YOU PICK TRADING CARDS?
“Digital trading cards and collectibles sit
at the forefront of WAX (Worldwide Asset
eXchange), and complete sets are the
hardest and rarest to come by and usually
take the most work to compile. It’s too
early to say what the secondary market
will be, but as a collector myself, being
able to get a complete set right out the
gate is mega. Trading cards made so much
sense for Babymetal because there’s

a narrative and history to them that gives
a through-line to everything they do, that
from a creative perspective really allows
it to develop over time and gamify.”
BABYMETAL ARE ONE OF THE FIRST
METAL BANDS TO REALLY GO INTO IT…
“Definitely to this extent! The NFT space
and digital collectible space is evolving
in real-time, so the more artists like
Babymetal that can bend genres and sit
at the intersection of so much potential,
with the kind of story they’ve developed
and having this enormous fanbase that
is so diverse, is so exciting to see. It’s not
just an artist trying something new – it’s
them doing something in a space that is
still evolving in real time.”
WERE YOU A FAN OF BABYMETAL
BEFORE YOU WORKED WITH THEM?
“Absolutely! Doki Doki * Morning was my
intro and is still on repeat almost daily!
The band, the music – it ticks so many
boxes for us as creatives and so when
we could talk to them about doing this
project we were all about it. We’ve got
notebooks full of creative ideas –
hopefully it’s the beginning of a lot more!”
WHAT KINDS OF IDEAS?
“Tons! Between ourselves and their
management, there are so many

opportunities to be able to continue to
tell interesting and unique stories using
these cards as a mouthpiece.”
THERE ARE 10 CARDS, EACH
REPRESENTING A YEAR/EPISODE
OF THE METAL RESISTANCE. HOW
MUCH OF THE COMPLETE PICTURE
DO YOU HAVE OF THAT STORY?
“We know as much as anybody else who
has lived through those episodes of the
Metal Resistance, but let’s face it – only
the Fox God truly knows!”
WHAT CAN YOU DO IF YOU MISSED
OUT ON GETTING THESE CARDS
WHEN THEY CAME OUT?
“Well, that’s where the secondary market
comes in! Interestingly, I think there
will be a unique secondary-secondary
market for these things; we have the
vinyl, which will definitely be in people’s
collections, but we also have those
trading cards that are going to have
unique collectable value right from the
off. Even if you miss out, you can sign
up on Babymetal.cards for a newsletter
specific to the digital trading card space,
which will have more information and
even announce future releases and
other opportunities.”
SEE MORE AT BABYMETAL.CARDS

METALHAMMER.COM 57

B YM TAL

We sent Japanese correspondent Ryosuke Arakane to the final night of Babymetal’s
epic 10-gig stint at the legendary Budokan in Tokyo. Here’s what went down
WORDS: RYOSUKE ARAKANE

BABYMETAL KNOW HOW to

58 METALHAMMER.COM

The girls have enough
energy to power the
National Grid

“AN ECSTATIC
FEELING WASHES
OVER THE VENUE”
THE SET
Babymetal Death
Ijime, Dame,
Zettai
Gimme
Chocolate!!
Doki Doki H
Morning
GJ!
No Rain,
No Rainbow
Distortion
PA PA YA!!
Megitsune
Karate
Headbangeeeeerrrrr!!!!!
ENCORE:
The One
Road Of
Resistance

second tiers. A video message
announces that the show will be
‘A Story Of Destruction And Rebirth’,
before they launch into a rearranged
Babymetal Death.
Then Su-Metal, Moametal and
three support dancers appear onstage,
crucified. This kind of ritualistic
display is an essential element of
Babymetal’s performance. With
flames flying around, they launch into
Ijime, Dame, Zettai, the Kami Band’s
heavy guitars deafening the eardrums.
During the chorus, the song hits a peak
as the audience jump as one.
The words ‘GIVE ME’ appear on
the screen, before Gimme Chocolate!!
bursts into life. With countless laser
beams criss-crossing them, Babymetal
make the most of the 360˚ stage.
Then, everyone claps along to the
intro of their debut song, Doki Doki *
Morning. They dance wonderfully,
amazing the audience with an
explosive power of pop-metal that
will never get old.
Moametal performs GJ! with four
kid dancers in tow. As the crowd clap
along withthe three-three-seven
rhythm, she shouts, “It’s not enough!
You can do even more, right?!”, hyping
up the crowd. The atmosphere changes
when Su-Metal sings hersolo song,

No Rain, No Rainbow. Dry ice covers
the stage like a sea of clouds and,
surprisingly, Su-Metal plays piano
for the first time. It’s a huge highlight
of the entire show.
Distortion has the audience pumping
their fists in the air, followed by the
party song PA PA YA!!, with an ecstatic
feeling washing over the venue as pyro
burns brightly. The crowd wave their
souvenir towels over their heads in an
increasingly festive atmosphere that
makes everyone forget about the
COVID-19 crisis.
The groove-metal Karateexplodes
like a Pantera or Lamb Of God song,
as Su-Metal calls out, “Everybody
jump!” It’s a spectacular sight to see
the girls, the support dancers and the
audience bouncing at the same time.
During Headbangeeeeerrrrr!!!!! the
audience even bow to Babymetal.
For the encore, Babymetal appear
in capes to perform sacred song The
One, bringing every together with
their message of unity. Then the
screen announces the countdown
for the end of Metal Resistance,
bringing a 10-year period of activity
to an end, and the sound of the
soul-stirring conch echoes for closer
Road Of Resistance. As no one’s allowed
to shout along with the call-andresponse section, they play an
audience cheering sound to connect
the audience and Babymetal. In the
middle of the song, Su-Metal expresses
her gratitude: “Finally, we’ve reached
the final. Thank you so much to all
the fans around the world who have
continued to support our challenge
and to all the fans who gathered at
the Budokan!’” Needless to say, our
hearts are moved.
The show ends with a special
performance as Su-Metal hits 10
gongs in order to celebrate Babymetal’s
10th anniversary. In the closing video,
they announce that after building
a strong career over the past 10 years,
Babymetal’s next chapter is to exist
as a ‘Living Legend’.
Put plainly: this show was the
coolest. The girls deserve applause for
giving 120% of their power and
overcoming the COVID-19 crisis. We
can’t wait to see what they do next.

IIJUF UKAT

throw a party. To celebrate their 10th
anniversary last year, they announced
10 shows at Tokyo’s 14,000-capacity
Budokan venue, spread out across
January to April 2021, under the
banner ‘10 Babymetal Budokan’.
It’s a venue they have a history with;
in March 2014, they became the
youngest female artists in history
to perform there.
Tonight, they’re returning to the
sacred ground of Budokan for the
last of their 10 shows. Due to COVID-19,
the organisers have taken the
utmost care to prevent infection.
The venue has been disinfected and
divided into blocks, and there’s an
innovative system where you hold
your phone to a camera, and the
machine checks the electronic ticket
and your body temperature at the
same time. Each audience member
is given a special ‘Savior Mask’ with
Babymetal’s logo printed on it to
wear during the gig, and rather than
having merch stands, people can
shop online.
Throughout the Budokan dates,
they’ve been playing a well-balanced
selection of songs from across their
career, including some rarities. At
the third show, on February 16, they
played From Dusk Till Dawn – a unique,
beat-driven tune punctuated by
Su-Metal’s high-pitched vocals,
which appears on the international
version of Metal Resistance. It had
only ever been performed once, in
the US in 2017. Live, its mystical
atmosphere was amplified to an
impressively grand scale.
During their March 16 show, the
destructive power of B×M×C was
also tremendous, with Su-Metal’s
falsetto soaring over the chunky
rap metal. Their energetic dancing
matched the ups and downs of the
song, creating a dynamism that
fascinated the audience.
There are no deep cuts at tonight’s
final, sold-out concert, but we’re
treated to a brilliant greatest hits set.
A 360˚ octagonal stage occupies the
entire floor space of the arena, taking
advantage of the Budokan’s shape,
while the crowd sits on the first and

B YM T

IIJUF UKAT

Babymetal know how
to put on a spectacle

C AS F THE TITANS

WHEN
CON UERED

THE WORLD
Thirty years ago, thrash’s biggest
names set their egos aside for
Clash Of The Titans: an epic
package tour that would put
their scene on the world stage
like never before...
WORDS: RICH HOBSON

60 METALHAMMER.COM

CLASH OF THE TITANS

XIPCINOCI/OBMA ENEG

METALHAMMER.COM 61

C AS F THE TITANS
y the end of the 1980s, four
bands had emerged as
kings of the burgeoning
thrash metal scene:
Metallica, Slayer,
Megadeth and Anthrax.
Though not yet the ‘Big 4’, they’d each
released landmark albums and were
heralded as indicators of the genre’s
enormous potential. But Metallica
were quickly pulling ahead, as 1989’s
…And Justice For All had broken the Top
10 on the US Billboard 200.
“Metallica were in a league of their
own – they didn’t need anything from
anybody. They chose their own path;
I think it was like, ‘We’ve done all that
[thrash] stuff’, and so they aimed
higher,” says Slayer guitarist Kerry King.
Their peers weren’t about to miss
their own shot at the big time,however.
A plan was hatched: to bring Slayer and
Megadeth together fora tour that would
see them reach the arena-headlining
level of Metallica.
Package tours weren’t new. A decade
earlier, the Metal For Muthas tour –
Motörhead, Samson and Saxon each
playing on different dates, supported
by a range of young bands – had helped
popularise NWOBHM, thrash’s direct
progenitor. But Clash Of The Titans
was something different: a coalition of
greatswho could achieve more together
than alone. This is the story of how
Clash Of The Titans revolutionised
touring, took thrash into the big leagues
and cemented the concept of the Big 4.
t began in Europe. Co-headlined by
Slayer and Megadeth, the bill was
designed to cross the enormous gap
between the venues they had been
headlining (2-5,000 capacity) to full
arenas (average capacity: 16,000). There
were logistical challenges: getting two
of thrash’s biggest names together
came with the mammoth task of
ironing out every detail to ensure both
bands were equally represented on the
bill. The clash had begun…
John Jackson (Founder of K2 Agency):
“We already had a tour approved by
Slayer’s manager, Rick Sales. Megadeth
were also looking to tour around the
same time, so I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be
brilliant if we could put them together?’
On the face of it, it wasn’t necessarily
a slam dunk, but that was one of the
reasons we had pulled it together –
we felt together those bands could do
better than either would on their own.”

62 METALHAMMER.COM

Anthrax too – we figured we could
achieve the same level of success as
a band like Metallica. We’d already
worked together a few times by that
point anyway – Kerry was even in
Megadeth at the start.”
Kerry King (Slayer): “[Playing with
Megadeth] was killer! The only reason
I considered it is because I was such
a big Mustaine fan – I saw him play
with Metallica when they were still
a southern California band. It blew me
away that he’d be up there ripping on
guitar, not even looking at what he was
doing. I played the first five shows and
it was a good time; I was just honoured
that he wanted me to help him out.”
John Jackson:“We settled on the name
Clash Of The Titans because a) it’s
a great name, and b) it says exactly
what it is!”
David Ellefson: “It’d be a team effort
where we’d have to put our egos aside.

That was probably the biggest clash of
the titans – not with the outside world,
but internally! Who closes the show,
who gets the right set time… these
were discussions that turned into finer
negotiations behind the scenes. In
Europe, the line-up was fixed: Slayer
would close and Megadeth were in third
position, which I always maintain is the
best position as the fans still have loads
of energy and the beer’s still working!”
Kerry King: “I would always rather
close. I don’t care who plays before us,
we’re gonna smoke ’em.”
lash Of The Titans kicked off in
Belgium on September 22, 1990.
It soon became the hottest ticket
going, and city after city sold out as the
tour rampaged through Switzerland,
Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, France,
Germany, Sweden, Denmark and the
UK. The bill was rounded out by the

ETIHW KNARF

David Ellefson (Megadeth): “The
thinking was, if we could combine
forces, Megadeth and Slayer – later

Dave Mustaine: See, Kerry?
Ripping away and not even
looking at his fingers!

CLASH OF THE TITANS

Guitar gods (left to right): Dave Mustaine,
Scott Ian, Jeff Hanneman, Kerry King.
(Special mention must go to Jeff’s shorts)

addition of Bay Area contemporaries
Testament and Suicidal Tendencies –
the LA crossover thrashers who
represented a new breed of thrash.
This was the genre’s commercial and
critical peak, and each band had just
released – or were on the verge of
releasing – game-changing records.
David Ellefson:“Slayer were just about
to drop Seasons In The Abyss and we
were working up to Rust In Peace. The
tour took us into arenas, so it was big
news, you know? Testament had got
Souls Of Black coming around that time
too, so it was a really special time for
heavy metal.”
Kerry King: “That kind of thing never
happens for a two-band bill let alone
four. Bands with big albums just don’t
tour together and here we were with
four bands with huge albums. I mean,
Suicidal were coming off of Lights,
Camera… what a great album!”

YTTEG

Chuck Billy (Testament): “Clash Of
The Titans was a big opportunity – it
was a chance to play some real shows
in places we’d otherwise only visit for
festivals. We’d never even played

shows indoors at some of these places!
Soon we realised that shit, there was
a caveat that we needed a new record
out to get on the tour. Cool – let’s go to
the studio and drink some beers and
play some songs!”
David Ellefson: “Dave [Mustaine] and
I saw Megadeth as an arena band right
from the off – you have to remember it
was a conception before it was a reality.
I remember sitting in the apartment
in Sycamore Avenue [in Hollywood]
discussing everything, down to our
names – how do you have a band with
two Daves in it? It was all about the
vision of what we could be and the
band formed to fill that vision.”

“WE HAD TO PUT
OUR EGOS ASIDE”

DAVID ELLEFSON

Chuck Billy: “That tour launched us
as a headliner in Europe. We’d been
working hard on our music for four
years and really wanted to prove that
we belonged there. The other guys
were so cool and down to earth, so

we could all just go out and put on
a great performance.”
he tour wasn’t without hitches,
however. At the time, we asked
Suicidal Tendencies frontman
Mike Muir how it was going. “We
haven’t had any problems with Slayer,
they’re really cool. The same applies to
the crew,” he said. And Megadeth? “We
don’t see them and I’m very pleased
about that,” he replied. Additionally,
the Megadeth Daves were freshly on
the wagon after battling addictions.
Chuck Billy: “A couple years before,
we’d toured with Megadeth and Dave
[Mustaine] was smoking, drinking and
everything, which meant the guy we
toured with a couple years later was
a completely different person, telling
us not to smoke in the building! We
were young, like, ‘That’s your problem
not ours’, but it must’ve been tough
being on their own. We were too
immature to realise what was at stake.”
Kerry King: “It’s difficult sometimes
to sift through the years because me
METALHAMMER.COM 63

C AS F THE TITANS
and Dave [Mustaine] can be on edge for
decades at a time, but then completely
cool with each other for decades too.
Mustaine and I were on the rocks at that
point, but we made it work. It’s funny –
when we did The Big 4 shows together
later he took me aside and said, ‘You
know, you and me are the only guys
who have played in two of the Big 4!’
But back around Clash we were all
peaking, but we also had a chip on our
shoulders about proving ourselves and
that made every show special for fans.”
David Ellefson: “Because we were
clean, we couldn’t go hang out where
the parties were. Ron Laffitte was a
terrific manager for us in that regard.
His icon was Pat Riley of the Lakers, so
he was all about team and focusing on
how you could channel all this talent
so we’d be marching in the same
direction. He pulled us together, got us
sobered up and made sure we’d have
band meetings, sobriety meetings…
everything to keep going the right way
and harness the greatness that was
developing in the band at the time.”
Chuck Billy: “There was definitely
some butting of heads – between Kerry
and Dave Mustaine, myself and Dave
Mustaine… Dave Mustaine and Dave
Mustaine… ha ha! In the end we all
worked through it.”
nterpersonal conflict or no,
‘greatness’ was certainly attained.
Clash Of The Titans’ initial run ended
with an enormous show at Wembley
Arena on October 14, 1990 – Slayer
would use footage from it for their War
Ensemble video. The bands couldn’t rest
on their laurels though, and it wasn’t
long before a sequel took shape.
Anthrax were added as a third headliner
and the bands agreed to rotate positions
on the bill each night. The opening spot
was filled by a wild card: AliceIn Chains.
Scott Ian (Anthrax): “Our record had
just gone Gold in the States and we were
sat ina dressing roomplaying alongside
our heroes, Iron Maiden. But here was
an offer to come out and do those same
venues just a few months later. Our
reaction was, ‘Why do we need this?
We can do it ourselves’, so we initially
said no. By the time we got offstage
that night there was another fax and
this one was loooong, explaining all the
reasons it made sense for us to do it!”
David Ellefson: “God bless Alice In
Chains, they were definitely the odd
band out on the bill. [While touring
Europe in early 1991] we were at the
64 METALHAMMER.COM

Alice In Chains: a brave
addition to the bill

Volkshaus, Zürich to see The Almighty
and Marty [Friedman, guitarist] and
I saw Alice In Chains’ name on the day
schedule, like, ‘How goofy are these
guys?’ figuring they were some local
band. All four of us [in Megadeth]
decided to go up and see them play,
and we were blown away. We phoned
Ron and told him this was the band we
had to take out with us for the tour.”
Kerry King: “At first I fucking hated it!
They were the Man In The Box band and
I never needed to hear that song again.
It was all I knew because that’s all MTV
played. But we’d watch them, hang out
and watch the [other bands’] sets. Layne
[Staley] was probably the best singer of
our generation – a superstar with pipes
like nobody you’d ever seen before.”
David Ellefson: “If there’s one thing
we know about thrash metal fans it’s if
you’re not thrash, YOU’RE OUT! At the
same time, after Clash AIC went out to

play with Van Halen and became
superstars, so that’s their story!
I always commend them on their work
ethic, for jumping in the trenches and
taking their bullets but still going on.”
he US leg began in Dallas on May
16, 1991. On June 28, an MTV
Headbanger’sBall special was set
up to celebrate the arrival of metal’s
newest stars when they played New
York’s Madison Square Garden. It was a
watershed moment for thrash in the
US, laced with a sense of anarchy;
some of the crowd’s 19,000 fans got
unruly and began throwing things
towards the stage – as a pissed-off
Tom Araya would recount to MTV’s
cameras after the band’s set. It even
gave hometown heroes Anthrax pause,
as they worried about how the crowd
would react to a special surprise they
had planned for their headline set.

CLASH OF THE TITANS
Anthrax brought the
noise, big time

show. After that tour, all venues would
do festival seating for metal shows.”

Scott Ian: “We brought out Chuck D
and [Flavor] Flav [of Public Enemy] to do
Bring The Noise. It was so crazy, because
we had no idea how the crowd on that
tour was going to react. A fuckin’ Slayer
crowd! There was worry as to whether
people were going to dig it or scream,
‘Fuck you, don’t mix your rap with our
metal!’ But the moment Chuck and
Flavor stepped out onto that stage,
there was an energy I’d never felt until
that point; it was fucking insane!”

ETIHW KNARF

David Ellefson: “It was Anthrax’s
hometown and I felt very proud for
them as it was their day. Playing
Madison Square Garden is huge and
a lot of those amphitheatreswere great.
We did this thing with Riki Rachtman
of Headbanger’sBall. We were MTV
darlings, all because we were a thrash
band, not a hair metal band. By that
point hair metal was moving out, so
bands like Metallica and Queensrÿche
were holding the top spots. We could

“WE WERE TOO
IMMATURE TO
REALISE WHAT
WAS AT STAKE”

CHUCK BILLY

see Seattle coming up behind us. It was
a world in transition, for sure.”
Scott Ian: “Some of these places had
never done shows without seats on the
floor – Madison Square Garden was
a big one for that. Straight away I could
see that being a big problem, because
promoters and venues didn’t know
about mosh pits yet. About half the
venues didn’t want to remove their
seating. They had this attitude of,
‘We’ve been doing shows for 40 years,
don’t tell us how to do our job’, only to
see 10,000 seats get destroyed in one

uch of the interpersonal
drama that had popped up in
the press during the European
run had fizzled out, and the bands were
having a good time. They were young
and conquering arenas, in what David
Ellefson refers to as “the summer of
heavy metal love”.
David Ellefson: “There was actually
a little feud starting between Megadeth
and Slayer at the time, especially
because our lifestyles had become very
different. I think that’s how the food
fight started – a flick of bread suddenly
turned into a whole turkey flying across
the room. Fuckin’ Anthrax always had
the best catering. A full Thanksgiving
turkey spread, and we’re there asking
for raisins as a treat! Ha ha ha!”
Scott Ian: “We all had the same rider!
As for the food fight… I don’t think it’s
true! I think Tom [Araya] was fucking
around, but Charlie [Benante] didend up
with fish on his shoulder. I remember
something like Tom shouting
‘SWORDFISH AGAIN’ and flinging his
plate over his shoulder, and the fish
METALHAMMER.COM 65

C AS F THE TITANS
flew and landed squarely on Charlie’s
shoulder. Nobody was upset, though –
we laughed so hard.”

A very hirsute Kerry King:
no, we can’t get used to
him looking like this either

Kerry King: “[My favourite thing was]
probably getting the groups together
– it’s not easy co-ordinating with other
bands, especially ones with any kind
of fame or career. Being able to do that
any time is great – it felt great to all
come together and show everybody
that thrash is rad.”
David Ellefson: “It was the summer of
heavy metal love. There were people
throwing beer,chickspulling their
shirts up… all the rock’n’roll cliches
you’d never usually get at a thrash show.
I remember having agreatconversation
with [Slayer guitarist] Jeff Hanneman in
a hotel bar. He was there having a few
beers and we chatted for ages. That was
my real takeaway fond memory of Jeff;
despite these hellish songs he could
write, he was a kind, sweet guy and
I had great admiration for his integrity.
There he was, kicking back alone and
just making his own entertainment.”
Scott Ian: “Jeff and Kerry managed to
get paintball guns, so their crew guys
got paintball guns too. They thought it
was hilarious to shoot at us by bursting
out of a room as we were walking down
a hallway. We all went out to buy
paintball guns, and so it’d turn into
a daily war where we’d be blasting
each other. At a Hilton in Indiana,
somebody’s room opened up onto the
roof, so we made the adult decision to
go out and shoot the giant, giant Hilton
sign outside the hotel until it was
repainted in 40 different colours! There
was a $10,000 cleaning cost! Luckily,
we all pitched in to cover it.”
he Stateside dates of Clash Of
The Titans did more for Slayer,
Megadeth and Anthrax than
make them into rock stars. It was an
apotheosis that led to the idea of the
Big 4. When someone asks, ‘Why aren’t
‘x’ in the Big 4?’ the answer is simple:
who else has played a tourso important
to the metal landscape – a tour that
changed the model for bands and
made the mainstream take notice?

66 METALHAMMER.COM

KERRY KING

Kerry King: “Each of those tours was
just us moving forwards – even when
moving forwards wasn’t going to be
a thing for us anymore. But the end of
the 80s was thrash’s peak, because
afterwards grunge came in and kicked
the shit out of everything. Music
changed and we basically had to wait
before we could really become big
again around God Hates Us All.”
Scott Ian: “I don’t remember people
calling us the Big 4 at that point –
I don’t think it was used yet. Metallica
were a giant band in their own right,
so it makes sense that this term to

describe us would originate from this
giant, sold-out tour of the States.”
David Ellefson: “It’s kinda rumoured
that [music journalist and longtime
Hammer scribe] Malcolm Dome came
up with the idea of the Big 4. I don’t
know if even he knows for sure, but it
definitely started to be talked about
after the Clash Of The Titans. It’s
a pretty special thing that we started
it and lived to tell the tale.”

SLAYER’S REPENTLESS,
ANTHRAX’S FOR ALL KINGS
AND TESTAMENT’S TITANS
OF CREATION ARE OUT NOW
VIA NUCLEAR BLAST. DAVE
ELLEFSON’S NO COVER IS OUT
NOW VIA COMBAT RECORDS
AND A NEW MEGADETH ALBUM
IS EXPECTED SOON

ETIHW KNARF

John Jackson: “Clash Of The Titans
helped set us up for future package
tours too, not least the Unholy Alliance
runs Slayer did [first with Slipknot/
Mastodon/Hatebreed in 2004, then
Lamb Of God/Children Of Bodom/
Mastodon/Thine Eyes Bleed in 2006
and finally Trivium/Mastodon/Amon
Amarth in 2008].”

“I FUCKING HATED
ALICE IN CHAINS!”

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A B SHOMO

CALEB
SHOMO
THE HAMMER INTERVIEW

He was only a teenager when Attack Attack! hit the headlines
for their crabcore, and then he became Beartooth’s
mastermind. Caleb’s packed a hell of a lot into 28 years
WORDS: DANNII LEIVERS

SSERP

CAL

O

I

CA B SHOMO
n June 2008, Caleb Shomo’s
first band, Attack Attack!,
dropped their first music
video on the world. The track
was Stick Stickly, and it quickly
became one of metal’s first
memes. A low-budget vision of
sweeping fringes and dance moves
that looked like hell on the knees,
Stick Stickly spawned a strain of
‘crabcore’ metalcore which, despite
being derided by critics as one of the
worst videos of all time, was to be
surprisingly influential.
“We started playing shows with
bands that were literally
choreographing our music video
moves,” remembers Caleb today of
the song and video’s impact. “But
I don’t think we were ahead of our time.
I think we were perfectly on time.”
Caleb released two albums with
Attack Attack!. He started out as
keyboardist on 2008 debut Someday
Came Suddenly, graduating to covocalist on the band’s 2010 self-titled
follow-up. Since then though, he’s
better known as the singer and
mastermind behind Beartooth,
a passion project that he never
intended to make public. “It was just
a way for me to vent to my computer
and get stuff off my chest,” he admits
today. “The fact it is where it is now
is wild. I had zero intention truly of
it being a full-time band.”
Now, Beartooth are one ofthe hottest
bands in our world, while millions of
fans have found solace in Caleb’s lyrics,
which talk openly about depression
and mental illness. As Caleb prepares
to release Beartooth’s fourth album,
Below, we ask him to take a look back
over his life and career so far.
What were you like as a kid?
“I was very reserved, very curious and
very obsessive. I was very much so ADD
[attention deficit disorder]. If I didn’t
enjoy it there was no way I could focus
on it, but if my brain latched to it, then
that was all I could think about and
focus on. Music was the one.”
What is your most vivid childhood
memory?
“My earliest memories of life are lying
next to our little boom box listening to
cassette tapes, or my mom had a record
player and she’d play Toto and Yes all
the time and we’d dance around in the
basement to the records.”

At what point did you realise you
could sing?
“I learned how to sing out of necessity.
I had never sang ever in my life until
I was 16. In my first band, Attack
Attack!, I’d been taking over screaming,
which I didn’t know how to do either.
I’d blow my voice every single show.
I fucked myself up constantly, I was
honestly a god-awful vocalist, but
just kind of got through it. I’d already
been writing melodies but never
performed them. Then when our
singer left, we were like, ‘Well let’s
see if I can do it, let’s just try it.’
I went in the other room and started
recording something I’d written, and
it just worked. It wasn’t great, but
I had pitch.”
Growing up, your dad was a pastor.
What part has religion played in
your life?
“We went to church every week. My
dad was a pastor, my mom was in the

“I FUCKED MYSELF
UP... I WAS A GODAWFUL VOCALIST”

church band. I was involved in a lot of
that stuff then growing up. I saw a lot
of damage it did to people in my life,
certain situations and even my family.
I’m not trying to say that religion
itself was the issue. A lot of American
church society is fucked up, to be really
frank. I will always have a respect
and understanding of it because of
the big part it played in my life, but
that’s not what my world revolves
around anymore.”
On Beartooth’s first EP, Sick, on the
song Go Be The Voice, you ask, ‘God
where are you now?’ Did you become
disillusioned with religion?
“I had some wild situations with
religion. [Attack Attack!] is getting
rolling and we’re about to go on tour
and the people at [church] are telling
us, ‘You can’t go on tour because you
need to be here because that’s what
God has told us. You need to stay here.
This church is growing because you
guys are part of it. If you go on tour,
you’re completely disobeying the word
of God.’ I was like, ‘This is batshit.
I’m out of here and I’m going to go
play rock’n’roll.’ This is incredibly
repressive and fucked up.”

Was that pressure difficult for you all,
given you identified as a Christian
metal band?
“I came into the band when that was
alreadythe band’scup of tea. It honestly
was one of those things that didn’t last
long. To be honest, to a point, that was
the cool thing to do at the time. Bands
like Underoath and The Devil Wears
Prada, there were a lot of really big
Christian bands in the scene and I think
that had a bit of an influence on it.
A few of us are Christians, let’s make
it a Christian band and we’ll be in
that scene. Maybe to a point. I’m just
reflecting on this, I’ve never really
talked about this with anyone, I’m just
piecing it together as I go and trying to
figure it out for myself.”
You’ve talked about experiencing
depression since you were 11. Did you
recognise what it was at the time?
“Somewhat, because it’s something
that runs in the family. I know my
mom dealt with it a lot and also my
dad, being a pastor, dealt with it in
multiple ways, whether it be himself
or helping other people. I’d known
about it, but I didn’t realise it really
was what it was. I thought, ‘I’m just
a kid, that’s what happens.’”
Did you seek treatment for it at
the time?
“I tried things to deal with it. When
I was 18 or 19, I went to a therapist for
the first time and it just didn’t go well.
Whoever it was, no disrespect, they
just didn’t understand what I was
going through and how to help me
deal with it. It kind of burned me, I had
a really bad experience. I do therapy
once a week now. The person I’m
with now is fantastic and it’s a really
important part of my life and helping
me stay in control.”
You dropped out of school when you
were 15 to tour full-time with Attack
Attack!. How did that conversation
go with your parents?
“It was a lot of discussion and a lot
of discussion between management.
Rise Records signed us, and we got
a booking agent. We’d been playing
local shows and venturing a few hours
outside of Ohio every so often on
a weekend, but when we got signed,
they were like, ‘Hey you’re booked on
this tour.’ We started playing shows
when I was 14, but 15 is when we
started touring full time. According to
my dad, management told him and my
mom, ‘He can do online school and
they won’t be touring that much. It’ll
be a few weeks here and there.’ They
let me do it and we toured 44 weeks out
of the first year of touring.”

SSERP

What was the first metal band
you heard?
“August Burns Red. I was like, ‘What
the fuck is this?! This is insane!’ I’d
been playing guitar and drums, just
learning [aged] probably 10 or 11 years

old. It was the sheer talent, the speed,
how fast they’re playing the drum
parts, and hearing double bass
shattered my mind.”

CAL B SHOMO
What are your memories of filming
Attack Attack!’s Stick Stickly video?
“I remember being at this old-ass
house in the middle of nowhere and it
was really cold. I never wore jeans and
they made me wear jeans. I always just
wore basketball shorts and a t-shirt.
I never cared what I looked like back
then. I remember being like, ‘This is
serious, we have to wear jeans. Oh my
goodness.’ We had already kicked
Austin [Carlile, ex Of Mice & Men
vocalist] out of the band, he toured
with us for like a month before he got
kicked out, he did not last long but he
recorded the album. We had Nick
Barham fill in who looks completely
different and didn’t record the vocals,
but he’s just miming away. The crab
moves? That was all [guitarist] Andrew
Whiting. I have no idea where the
whole crab thing came from, he would
do it and that was his thing.”
A lot of people took the piss out
of you because of that video.
How did that feel?
“We thought it was funny.
I remember being on Warped
Tour and Fox News did a whole
piece making fun of us. They
sent us an apology because they
didn’t realise we were straight
up, fucking children. Some
ratty, 50-year-old dude was
making fun of us, it’s like,
‘Really that is national news?
This is all you got time for?’”
You left Attack Attack!
in 2012. What were your
last six months like in
the band?
“I was honestly fucking
miserable. I was not
dealing with a lot of my
own personal issues.
It went from being sad,
to trying to justify why
the world would be a better
place if you were gone, to
eating disorders to try and
please other people. Then that
turned into binge drinking and
binge eating and getting stoned all
the time, searching for some way
to feel I had control. That’s what
I Have A Problem, the first Beartooth
song, is about. It’s not about
alcoholism. It’s about the fact I was
fucking miserable in that band and
I was finding ways to escape, whether
it be alcohol, or getting high, or lying
in my bunk for 12 hours until we had
to play, then going back into my bunk.
I wrote that song and was like, ‘Yeah
I need to quit.’ I felt like I’d grown out
of that style of music and didn’t care
for it anymore.”

Caleb: “Just off
down the chippy.
Want anything?”

CA B SHOMO

Beartooth were never meant for our ears.
We’re glad Caleb changed his mind

Why did you stay in Ohio instead of
moving to LA where the business is?
“I thought about it. In the transition
into Beartooth, I was going to move to
LA. [Producer] John Feldmann is the
guy who signed Beartooth and he
wanted to work with me as a writer.
Then Beartooth got so busy I was like,
‘It doesn’t matter where I live, I’m gone
all the time.’”
What’s happening with your
electronic side-project, Class?
“Nothing ever happened with that.
I made an EP around the time of the
Beartooth EP. It did come out, but it’s
not even out anymore. I’ve thought
about doing some other stuff in that
scene, but Beartooth is so timeconsuming, it’s difficult to do anything
else. Hopefully at some point.”

72 METALHAMMER.COM

feel way better afterwards. At the
same time, that’s one thing our fans
appreciate. If I was writing songs for
anyone else, they wouldn’t be as
personal to people.”

Lyrically, all four Beartooth albums
deal with depression. Do you ever
worry it has defined the band?
“Not really because that’s what
Beartooth is. That was the whole point
of Beartooth, to be this personal
musical therapy session. If people get
it, they get it, if they don’t, whatever.
If people just like the music but don’t
care about the lyrics, that’s cool. If
people are obsessed with the lyrics but
they don’t like the music, totally cool.”
Your wife is English. Are you an
Anglophile at all?
“I love the basic, classic, stereotypical
British shit. I’m into it. I love a good
fish and chips. I love going and having
a pint and hanging out at the pub,
watching football games. I don’t love
the weather!”

Did you know there’s a petition on
Change.org asking you to release the
lost Attack Attack! album that you
recorded before you left in 2012?
“Really? I did not know that, that’s
fucking hilarious. I wonder if I could
find some of those songs, I know I have
one or two in my email. They’re not
even done. We probably recorded 16 or
17 songs and a ton of them never got
finished. It’d be a ton of work and to be
fair,Attack Attack! have reformed, they
are a whole different thing now. More
power to them, I’m going to let them do
their thing, and I’m going to do mine.”
What has been your career highlight?
“There’s been a few. Playing Download
Festival on the main stage at
Donington Park, because one of the
most important music DVDS in my life
was AC/DC Live At Donington, in 1991.
When got a call from our booking
agent saying Slipknot wanted to take
us out on tour… I think I cried that day.
We also got to support Architects at
Wembley. They’re one of my favourite
bands and to be a direct support slot to
them at Wembley was one of the most
surreal experiences I’ve ever had.”

BELOW IS OUT ON JUNE 25 VIA
RED BULL. BEARTOOTH TOUR
THE UK IN FEBRUARY 2022

SOTNAS MAIRYM/SSERP

When you wrote Sick and Beartooth’s
debut, Disgusting, were you worried
about putting such honest lyrics
out there?
“Still to this day that’s a tough thing
for me with this band. But it wasn’t
as hard for the first EP and the first
record because I didn’t plan on it being
a big thing. When I write now, I try to
get to the same mental state I was in
when I wrote the Sick EP; this is just for
you and you alone, just write and you’ll

“I LAY IN MY BUNK
FOR 12 HOURS UNTIL
WE HAD TO PLAY”

www.classicrockmagazine.com

“We’re from
another
fucking
Pl|An|Et!”

MUDVAYNE


FROMTHE
AR
CHIVE

Mudvayne are back! To celebrate, we dug out
their first Metal Hammer interview, from the
year 2000, when Hammer’s Daniel Lane jetted to
Atlanta to work out how four facepainted fiends
had become metal’s unlikeliest nu superstars

O

WORDS: DANIEL LANE • PICTURES: MICK HUTSON

n Thanksgiving
weekend in 2000,
photographer Mick
Hutson and I flew out
to Atlanta,Georgia to
interview Mudvayne
for the cover of Metal Hammer. The cover
shoot itself was going to be a composite
with fellowrising nu metal stars Disturbed.
The concept was for Kud (the stage name
Mudvayne vocalist Chad Gray was going
by at the time) to be electrocuting
Disturbed’s frontman, David Draiman.
Both bands were blowing up Stateside
and were already starting to resonate with
UK metal fans, thanks to heavy rotation
on MTV2 and XFM. So it seemed like
a no-brainer to pair them up, especially
given the wider music press at the time
were sceptical about this new brand of
heavy music from across the pond. While
the sheer spectacle of Slipknot, whose
debut album was unleashed the previous
summer, could not be ignored, at the time,
their peers couldn’t get arrested. Their loss
was Metal Hammer’s gain, and so began
a relationship that’slasted 20-odd years.
Mick had already shot David Draiman
grimacing in one of the Chicago band’s
then stage props a few weeks earlier in
Spain. This was in the days pre-digital
photography, and before Photoshop was
the norm. Mick was going to have to comp
the two singers together in his darkroom,
and he’d use actual sparklers to make the
shots more dynamic.

74 METALHAMMER.COM

Mick and I first met the band sans
make-up on their modestly sized tour bus.
I interviewed them in pairs: Chad and his
future Hellyeah bandmate, guitarist Greg
Tribbett (AKA Gurrg), were the more
grounded half of Mudvayne. Chad could
talk for America, and had star quality in
spades, while Greg was quieter, more
modest, but keenly aware that his band
were on the verge of something big.
Ryknow (bassist Ryan Martinie) and
drummer and Spag (drummer Matthew
McDonough), on the other hand, were
a lot more intense. Matt was incredibly
passionate about his band’s audio visual
art, while Ryan had the chops to back it up;
he was classically trained and had studied
jazz bass to a high level. Ryan spoke at
length how he’d already moved on from
the Devil persona he debuted from their
breakthrough video, Dig. For them,
Mudvayne was about living in the
moment, and not a vehicle to market
t-shirts and action figures to kids.
I think the concerns we all had at the
back of our minds was: did Mudvayne
have the substance to go with the style?
After talking to them and witnessing their
‘art’ live, absolutely.

M

udvayne are the genuine
article, the real deal and the
whole nine yards. They are
so real that you can reach out and
touch them, but don’t be surprised

if they turn round and tear off one of
your limbs!
“The person I walk on stage as is not
the person you’re talking to right now,”
states shaven-headed bassist Ryknow.
“At this moment in time I wouldn’t spit
at you, but if you were on my stage I’d
try to trip you up, or I’d try to kick you,
or be pissed off enough to try to push
you off the front of the stage.”
I am sitting with the band in the
relative luxury of their tour bus, which
is hauled up outside the Masquerade
club in dreary Atlanta. It’s been a hectic
year for Mudvayne. Not only have they
been on the road solidly for nine
months playing sweaty clubs, heaving
toilet venues and the massive Tattoo
The Earth festival, as well as touring
the UK with One Minute Silence; they
have also unleashed their phenomenal
debut album, L.D.50, on the world.
“It’s how toxicologists rate the
toxicity of a substance,” sticksman
Spag tells me. “‘LD-50’ stands for
Lethal Dosage 50, and the way it works
is that they administer a chemical to
a certain number of test subjects, and
after 50 die they say that’s a lethal
dosage. Basically how much it takes to
kill 50 out of 100 test subjects.”
In spite of being given the Slipknot
seal of approval, with Shawn ‘Clown’
Crahan as the executive producer on
L.D.50, Mudvayne have been dogged
by accusations that they are merely

MUDVAYN

MUDVAYNE
pretenders to the Slipknot throne. But
Mudvayne don’t wear masks. They do,
however, wear make-up.
Says Spag: “We’ve been wearing
make-up for almost three years. A year
and a half before Slipknot ‘came out’.
It’s coincidental that they wear masks
and we wear stage make-up. If you
want to associate us with Kiss, that’s
different. We can’t deny that, we grew
up with that in our conscious youth.”
While Slipknot have personas
associated with their masks, for
Mudvayne this use of theatrics is
merely a part of the disidentification
process, drawing the audience’s focus
away from the bandmembers, and
allowing them to focus on the music.
“It’s artistry,” explains frontman
Kud. “We’re bringing a visual element
to music. There’s flow in a painting,
there’s a flow in music. We’re bringing
art full circle. I like to bring visual
stimulation with our sonic arousal.”
“It morphs us into the culture of
being this alien clan, far removed
from people’s everyday frame of
reference,” continues Spag. “It’s an
unexplainable thing. It’s indefinable.
It gives an element of mystery and
something that you want to explore
and find out about. The make-up
doesn’t really have anything to do with
us specifically as human beings. Our
‘personas’ represent nothing – that’s
just an assumption people have.”
“We arrived at our current image
through a process of trial and error,”
continues Kud.“Ithink they’llcontinue
to evolve and steamroll right through
what we are now. This is basically
a precursor to things yet to come!”
And the first notable example of a
stage in their evolution lies with fourstringer Ryknow. “Look at me. Where
are the horns?” he asks. “Where’s the
goatee?We’ve already metamorphosed
within our own entity – Spag has
changed his colours, Kud changes his
smile, Gurrg changes the patterns on
his face, but for full change I’m the first
one in line. Obviously I’m not the same
person from day to day, and neither are
you. You’re not going to feel the same
from day to day, and you’re not going to
wear the same clothes day to day.
“I’m a changing person so therefore
am I meant to not change just because
our fans have a preconceived idea of
what I’m supposed to look like? I’m
gonna be real with me and real with
the guys in my band and I’m going to
step on that stage feeling real and not
that I’m made up for anyone but me.”
Still, it begs the question that if
Mudvayne are not characters, and their
make-up represents nothing, why have
they opted for bizarre names? Even
though Slipknot’s masks have altered
76 METALHAMMER.COM

KUD

Age: “I was born
in 2001.”
Marital status:
“As single as
a person can be
without being
married.”
From: “Peoria,
Illinois.”
Other than your
instrument, what
do you bring to
the band?
“I bring a lot of
the artistic ideas.”
What was the
first record
you bought?
“That was Too Fast
For Love by Mötley
Crüe. Mötley
Crüe, dude!”
What was the
first concert
you went to?
“It would have
been Journey, at
a free concert at
Daytona Beach
Boardwalk.”
What is your
idea of hell?
“A world without
music.”
What was your
first ever job?
“Washing the
dishes in
a restaurant.”
What is your
favourite film?
“2001: A Space
Odyssey.”
What is your
favourite comic?
“Preacher.”
When fame
becomes too
much for you and
you have to fake
your own death,
what will be the
elaborate story
that appears in
the papers?
“The only way to
ensure death is a
9mm shot straight
through the top
of the head…
And it’s not gonna
be a story!”

Kud has a winning (and
ever-changing) smile

egos, they retain that aloofness by
hiding behind a series of numbers.
“If the truth be known,” says Spag,
“we’ve got a Monty Pythonesque
approach to our band. We’re always
fucking around. Gurrg has probably got
13 different nicknames. They were
given to us by people around the band,
by each other, and like the make-up

“I BRING VISUAL
STIMULATION
WITH OUR SONIC
AROUSAL”

KUD

you can’t read too much into them. But
unlike the make-up, the names will
probably stay the same because they’re
so stupid! Also, if we’re gonna change
everything else we have to give the
audience something to identify with.”

M

udvayne are putting the
showmanship back into
rock’n’roll, the glamour and
the allure as extreme music embraces
performance art. They’re regular guys
who eat, sleep and shit, but you don’t
want to know about that. It doesn’t
play to the larger-than-life lifestyle
we expect people in bands to inhabit.
But does it get to a point where the
make-up overshadows the music?
“You can’t deny it,” sighs Kud. “And
we’re cool to talk about it, but we’re
doing something different musically
and all people wanna know about is
the make-up. It starts to get in the way
of the music when there are bands out
there that aren’t doing anything
different musically and they get to talk
about their own music and we don’t.”
“It depends from what perspective,”
says Spag. “From our point of view
absolutely not, but from your point of
view, or other people’s, most definitely.
But anyone who comes to a show or sits
down and pays some attention to the

MUDVAYN
RYKNOW

Ryknow: no jazz
hands for this band

DER.NOLAVA

album realises, make-up or not, we’re
a band and we can play!
“Initially the idea with the make-up
was to gauge an instant reaction. It’s
backfired to a certain extent, but maybe
we were being naïve.You go on message
boards and all they talk about is the
make-up. We had a write-up in a large
US music magazine and the whole piece
focused on the make-up, saying that
the lines on my face weren’t straight.
It was supposed to be a fucking album
review! It’s like an art critique!
“We’re a rising band and people feel
threatened, and they’re looking for an
angle to put us down. It’s easy to say we
picked up on a gimmick and maybe
there’s some truth there, but at the end
of the day, what is wrong with that?
“When we started doing it, it was way
the fuck out!” he continues. We played
hick-assed bars full of 40-year-olds
who’d never heard of us, who weren’t
there to see us, they were there to drink.
We got up onstage looking like this,
played our show, emptied the whole

fucking bar out and scared everyone
half to death! We got off on that!
“It’s also inevitable that a record
company isgoing to see it as an obvious
marketing tool, and 13- or 14-year-old
kids are gonna freak on that, and they
do and it’s great! We can play to the 30year-old market as we’re proficient
musicians and we’re thoughtful about
the music we’re doing; 13-year-olds are
gonna come to the shows and buy our
album because we’recartoon characters
– we’re from another fucking planet!
To me, as anartistic entity, I think that’s
really powerful and very positive.”
At the same time, doesn’t he think
people find it hard to identify with
them as people because Mudvayne, as
an entity, is not them as people?
“Not at all,” says Spag. “There’s a side
to our band that worships anonymity.
It’s unfortunate in modern metal that
everything has to mean something,
has to be explained, has to be lowest
common denominator, and there’s no
appreciation for intelligence! I think

Age: 25.
Marital status:
“Single but
happily in
a relationship.”
From: “Illinois,
surrounding the
town we eventually
ended up at.”
Other than your
instrument, what
do you bring to
the band?
“I bring a visual
aspect and I bring
them peace of
mind. I don’t know
exactly what
I bring, but I bring
it! Hopefully I bring
some heart.”
What was the
first record you
bought?
“I don’t remember
’cause my dad had
such a huge record
collection. The
Beatles, Hendrix,
The Mamas & The
Papas… To me,
that was the first
music I owned.”
What was the
first concert
you went to?
“Man, I went to
so many theatre
and community
productions when
I was growing up,
I couldn’t tell you.”
What is your
idea of hell?
“It’s like putting
‘not applicable’ on
a survey. I don’t
know ’cause it
doesn’t exist.”
What was your
first ever job?
“Probably
waiting tables.”
What is your
favourite film?
“I don’t have one,
but 2001: A Space
Odyssey would
be close. It’s
a beautiful vision
of how things
came to be and
how things will
come to be.”
What is your
favourite comic?
“The closest thing
I had to comic
reading when
I was growing up
was National
Geographic!”
When fame
becomes too
much for you and
you have to fake
your own death,
what will be the
elaborate story
that appears in
the papers?
“It’s my dream to
go hand-gliding.
Me, my wings and
my Discman. And
I’d make it look
like an accident.”

that some of the world’s greatest art,
whether it’s paintings, whether it’s
sculpture,doesn’t have to explain itself.
I think that some of the greatest work
that really gives something back to the
human experience doesn’t necessarily
have to define everything about it. It
gives the audience an opportunity to
interact with it and make the
experience something for themselves,
and there’s the identification.”
“We’re about relating to our audience
through our ownpersonal experiences,”
adds Ryknow. “With our music I believe
we reach people and see into their lives
through our songs. That’s definitely
a part of what we’re about.”
So will there ever be a point when
the make-up will come off?
“If the make-up comes off,” says Kud,
“then I don’t want to be a part of this
band. It’s what I’m about, it’s a way to
express myself. It stops me from being
just another singer on a stage.We’renot
18 years old, we’re not out there to do
a show, try and get inside some chick’s
pants and get back on the bus and drive
to the next town. We’re more mature.
We’re doing this because we’re artists;
if we weren’t there’s no way I’d be
doing this. I wear my art on my sleeve.”
“The make-up has been a portion of
where we are now,” says Ryknow, “but
it’s really the music that has brought us
through, and there are a lot of people
out there, fans or industry people, who
get off on the music, people who have
not seen what we look like, people who
just have a demo tape. This is not the
only genre of music I’m involved with,
and to say I’m gonna wear make-up to
perform all the time is not true. I’m
also a jazz singer, I love to sing and I’m
not gonna wear make-up all the time.
And that goes for Mudvayne. I don’t
want to wear make-up all the time and
if in the future you see me without
make-up then don’t be surprised.”
Kud adds another twist: “Then
again,” he says, “not wearing make-up
could be wearing make-up…”

O

n the flip-side of the facepaint
is the most important element
of the Mudvayne experience
– the music. All four individuals are
incredibly proficientmusicians and
their debut album showcases simple
yet brutal riffs over a complex rhythm
section with deep, deep lyrics, carefully
cemented together with electronic
interludes to create a continuous body
of work. An uncompromising,
all-encompassing wall of noise. A whole
experience from start to finish.
This is all well and good, but let’s not
forget we’reliving in aconsumer society
where everyone’s looking for a quick fix
and fast food and the three-minute
METALHAMMER.COM 77

MUDVAYNE
pop song reigns supreme. So do
Mudvayne feel that by being the
seven-course candlelit dinner to Limp
Bizkit’s ‘burger and shake to go, y’all!’
they are perhaps in some way
alienating potential fans by their
comparative inaccessibility?
Gurrg disagrees. “I think we’re
offering something new. A lot of people
have to put up with all this rap-metal
stuff as well as the likes of the
Backstreet Boys. People are looking for
something with meaning and I’d really
like to think we’re a part of that.”
“Also, our live shows draw a lot of
attention,” interjects Ryknow.“Take
Tattoo The Earth, for example: some
shows had 60,000 kids going wild, but
there were smaller shows that maybe
only sold 5,000 tickets. So if you do the
math with 10 or so bands, each with
around five members and only 5,000
kids, it’s gonna be pretty easy for people
to get out there and meet the bands.”
“We’re working on a grassroots level,”
agrees Spag. “That’s why we’re touring
like this. Our album’s only been out for
maybe three months, but we’ve been
touring for eight or nine. We’re building
up the kids that are gonna buy our next
three albums. They’re not just gonna
see a video on MTV and be listening to
the next big thing three months down
the line. That’s what touring is all about
– getting out there to actually see the
kids and interact with our audience!”
A highly commendable feat it is, too.
Getting back to the music, though, it’s
apparent that Mudvayne have a shared
appreciation of synthetic, pseudogothic 80s kitsch pop. This is perhaps
a concept that seems alien to metallers
on this side of the Atlantic, but it is
nevertheless embraced Stateside by
everyone from Nine Inch Nails to Orgy,
and Marilyn Manson to Fear Factory.
“It’s what I grew up with,” enthuses
Spag. “Joy Division, New Order… we’re
a new generation of music fans making
music. Music has definitely crossedover
between heavy metal and electronica
with the White Zombies of this world
and half the bands we tour with. It was
something that started to happen in
the 80s. Punk crossed over into metal
and you were getting speed metal,
through the 90s Ministry popped up,
and we’re one of those bands that have
grown up in that era before music like
that was acceptable. I’d listen to Ozzy
and Talking Heads back to back.”
But the question on everyone’s lips
is: why focus on such a small part of
music from that era? Why settle for the
new romantics? Surely as a metal band
looking back at the 80s, wouldn’t it
have been a more logical conclusion to
go down the avenue of thrash or maybe
even cock rock?
78 METALHAMMER.COM

GURRG
Age: 32

Marital status:
“Married, June 5
2000. My wife’s
been really
supportive
through this, and
she loves what
we do too.”
From: “Peoria,
Illinois, but I was
born in Pekin,
Illinois.”
Other than your
instrument, what
do you bring to
the band?
“I am the dictator!
Consistency.
Level-headedness,
and I probably
stop every fight
these guys
ever have.”
What was the
first record
you bought?
“I believe it was
the soundtrack
to Grease. Pretty
corny, I know!”
What was the
first concert
you went to?
“AC/DC and
Fastway, Peoria
Civic Center.”
What is your
idea of hell?
“I don’t have an
idea about hell
really. I don’t care
if it exists or if
it doesn’t.”
What was your
first ever job?
“It was a paper
round.”
What is your
favourite film?
“2001: A Space
Odyssey.”
What is your
favourite comic?
“Mudvayne – it’d
be pretty messed
up, though!”
When fame
becomes too
much for you and
you have to fake
your own death,
what will be the
elaborate story
that appears in
the papers?
“It would have to
be a plane crash.
I think I’d be found
dead when I crash
the Mudvayne
private jet!”

Gurrg: grease(paint) is the word

“Yes, but that wasn’t what was
going on, though,” grins Spag.“It was
the staple that was being rammed
down everybody’s throats. Sure, we
listened to cock rock and played it in
cover bands, but that’s not what was
inspiring me. I’d much rather have
sat down and listened to a Christian
Death record or a Bauhaus album.”
In the same way as people now see
80s cock rock like Mötley Crüe and
Poison as somewhat dated, are
people 10 years from now going to
see extreme music such as Slipknot
and Mudvayne as dated?
“It’s bound to happen,” says Gurrg.
We’ll have our own VH1 special!”
“When we talk about cock rock,
the first thing we think about is hair,
we don’t think about the music”
Spag points out. “I think that as
a contradiction to that, our music is
going to be remembered. Our music
actually says something. Also the
fact that our look, our images and the
visual aspects of our band are going to

“IF THE MAKE-UP
COMES OFF, I DON’T
WANT TO BE A PART
OF THIS BAND”

KUD

change means it’ll be hard to pin us
down to pink lipstick and backcombed
Aqua Net hairdos. In three albums’
time you’re gonna be interviewing a
different band. The music is still gonna
be Mudvayne. The image is still gonna
be Mudvayne, but what you’re hearing
and seeing content-wise are not gonna
be the same.”
And speaking of the future, how is
the entitywhich we know as Mudvayne
going to progress musically?
“One of the things that distances us
from Slipknot and is gonna define us in
the future is that they’ve set a precedent
for themselves that they’re crazier than
anybody else,” enthuses Spag. “They’re
more extreme or off the wall than
anybody else. My interpretation as
a listener is that they have to go more
extreme on the next record, whereas
with our next couple of records we’re
going to be able to become more
accessible, more commercial. We could
be mellower and not necessarily lose
our market. There’s a much higher
unpredictability ratio with us. On our
next album I’d like to pursue the use of
melody – more melodic vocals that are
hinted at on this album, but more so.
“One of the things that we’d like to
do with our music – and Kud and I have
talked about it – is bring more of the
human experience into our songs
emotionally instead of just being this
juvenile ‘I hate my parents ’cause they

MUDVAYN
Spag: determined
to be a sell-out

wouldn’t let me out tonight’ aggression.
Allowing heavy music to maintain its
intensity, but allowing it to express
that intensity about being happy, about
being sad, intensely lonely, the intensity
of depression and just being more
human. It’s about maintaining the
intensity that we want but not just being
angry. I’d like to see that on our next
album, bringing a bit of maturity to
heavy music. Our live show is a pretty
aggressive experience, and we’ve been
labelled as being this negative band,
but I don’t see it that way. I don’t
necessarily see us as being positive, but
I’d like to see us walking in-between.”

I
DER.NOLAVA

t has to be said that Mudvayne walk
that line with impeccable accuracy,
and depending on how the next 12
months shape up, they’ll undoubtedly
earn their place alongside Led Zeppelin,
Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden in
rock’n’roll infamy.
“What I see us doing, and people
like Slipknot doing, is creating a new
mythology like bands used to that just
doesn’t happen anymore,” says Spag.
“Iron Maiden for me was a mythology
when I was growing up. Judas Priest

was a mythology, Skinny Puppy was
a mythology. Bands don’t have that
anymore, but given a record label that’s
understanding, and working with good
people that want to see something like
this happen, this can happen. If you
look at our label, there’s only a few
bands in this genre that they’re
working with, and we’re the only ones
they’re putting time and effort into.”
Oh yes, that age-old record company
quandary. Unlike Slipknot, who are
signed to independent label Roadrunner
Records, Mudvayne inked a deal with
Epic, an offshoot of multinational
corporation Sony. Slipknot have had
time to develop their sound, build their
career and expand their fanbase, but
is this the case for Mudvayne? Surely
a weight of expectancy hangs over the
band to sell vast units of records?
Gurrg: “I’ve heard a lot of horror
stories from different bands, but I don’t
think we’re getting that from our label.
They’re very supportive with what we
wanna do. Of course, they want us to
sell albums, but they’re not in a rush to
do it. It’s a building process and they
know it, and they want to build our
career at a grassroots level like we do.”

SPAG

Age: “31, closing
on 32.”
Marital status:
“Happily divorced.”
From: Born in
Rockford, Illinois,
and I grew up in
Peoria, Illinois. I’m
actually homeless
at the moment!”
Other than your
instrument, what
do you bring to
the band?
“A general sense
of euphoria and
a sense of
claustrophobia
simultaneously.”
What was the
first record you
bought?
“Freeze Frame.
What do you mean
you’ve never
heard of them?
They were huge!
My first metal
album was
Screaming For
Vengeance by
Judas Priest.”
What was the
first concert
you went to?
“The Charlie
Daniels band, but
one of my first
major shows was
Prince on the
Purple Rain tour.”
What is your
idea of hell?
“Hell for me
would be a way to
describe a state
of unpleasantness,
and day-to-day
life can be that
way. Hell? Hell
is marriage?
What was your
first ever job?
“I worked in an ice
cream parlour.”
What is your
favourite film?
“2001: A Space
Odyssey.”
What is your
favourite comic?
“I was a big Faust
fan, and I like the
Dark Horse comics
such as Sin City.”
When fame
becomes too
much for you and
you have to fake
your own death,
what will be the
elaborate story
that appears in
the papers?
“This has been on
my mind lately,
maybe it’s all these
interviews about
our make-up! I’d
like to accidentally
die in a staged
magical act. I’d do
some big publicity
stunt where I bury
myself for 24
hours in front of
the White House
and die doing it.”

Indeed, and the difference between
Mudvayne and other new bands is that
they are not under any illusions and
were aware from the outset that they
are a marketable product, a commodity
to be bought and sold, and are using
this elevated platform to get their
artistry to as many people as possible.
“We’ve never had any reservations
about being on MTV or the radio,” grins
Spag. “Any medium that allows you to
communicate your work is positive.
You just have to be smart about it, you
have to play the game and bend it to
your angle. We’ve butted heads a couple
of times with the label, but to me that’s
the perfect opportunity to test out our
creative ability and remain consistent
with our vision and retain our integrity.
There’s no point saying the label is a
bunch of assholes, they gave me money
so they could make money. It’s stupid
to want this label for so long and when
they expect you to do something that’s
seen as selling out, to kick up a fuss.
What the fuck did you ever think? We’ve
had complete intentions of selling out.
We want to sell out our shows, we want
to sell a million albums. We want to get
this out to as many people as possible!”
“Outside the band,” interrupts
Ryknow, “each one of us wants to
make music. We all enjoy touching
people through music, whether any of
us is a real people person or not. We
want to give people something they
can’t get in school or something they
can’t get from their parents. Each one
of us will always be involved with other
projects that deal with different
musical aspects.I can’t see us not doing
it and we’d be very depressed about it
– personally, I’d die without it. We’re
gonna be doing what we’re doing for
a verylong time to come.It’s a Catch 22.
There’s a business behind everything,
but there’s an art to it. And our project
manager understands what we’re
about and what we’re trying to do on
a core level. But the make-up and the
glamour is something very exciting
and very intoxicating for an audience.”
So where do Mudvaynego fromhere?
“The only answer to that is that we’ll
run it as long as we can run it,” says
Kud. “We’ll run is as long as we can
deliver it real!”
So there you go. Mudvayne, thirdgeneration Slipknot clones or the
genuine article? Make up your own
minds, but if you know a good thing
when it hits you, you know what the
right answer will be!

MUDVAYNE PLAY AFTERSHOCK,
INKCARCERATION, LOUDER
THAN LIFE & WELCOME TO
ROCKVILLE FESTIVALS. SEE
DANNYWIMMERPRESENTS.COM
METALHAMMER.COM 79

DVNE

Scottish progressive
metallers Dvne ditched
their singer to pursue
their dream of writing
about...sci-fi?! What the
fuck is Etemen Aenka all
about, and why does it
sound so incredible?
WORDS: STEPHEN HILL • PICTURES: ALAN SWAN

DVNE

DV
n 2013, Scottish progressive
metallers Dune were about to
play a gig at Bannerman’s in
Edinburgh. There was only
one problem: their singer
hadn’t shown up. After some
deliberation, they went onstage and
played instrumentally. It was a
decision that’d shape their destiny.
“People were saying that it sounded
really vast and cinematic in that
science-fiction way,” grins Victor
Vicart, the band’s vocalist, guitarist
and keyboardist. “So we kicked our
singer out, changed the spelling of our
name, and decided to concentrate on
capturing that feeling from the books
and movies we loved. It felt like home.”
From Iron Maiden, to Fear Factory,
to Code Orange, heavy metal and
science-fiction have long been
comfortable bedfellows, the unholy
union of loud guitars and futuristic
ideas yielding some legendary albums.
But there aren’t many bands who have
dived as deeply into sci-fi lore as Dvne.
Their name comes from Frank
Herbert’s 1965 science-fiction novel,
Dune, one of the most critically
discussed and culturally important
pieces of work in modern history.
“Dune’s mix of fantasy and sciencefiction, this mythical and mysterious
vibe that it has, is something we really
resonated with,” Victor explains.
“People said the name wasn’t very
original, but we don’t care. I even love
the movie adaptation, if you can sit
through the whole thing. The universe
is very inspiring.”
That no-show was the best thing
that could have happened to Dvne.
The members had spent most of their
lives playing in underground doom
and grindcore bands and, with
a newfound sense of purpose and
identity, they released their debut
album, Asheran, in 2017. It hinted at
what they were capable of, creating
compelling progressive metal that
tells a story and creates its own world,
but its follow-up, Etemen Aenka, blows
it out of the water.
“We had a little bit of a buzz around
us with Asheran,” Victor says. “I think
that record was the best thing we
could have done at that time. But I’m
really proud of the work we put into
this record. We sat down and really
worked on the story, meticulously
working out what was going to happen,
before we even started on the music.
On Asheran, we were looking more at
the environment, so this time we
wanted to explore the topic of society.”
Victor has every right to be proud
of Etemen Aenka, which is inspired by
far more than just progressive metal
tropes or a nod to Blade Runner.
82 METALHAMMER.COM

Dvne have a melange of
influences and stories
in their music

“PEOPLE SAID WE SOUNDED
REALLY VAST AND CINEMATIC,
SO WE KICKED OUR SINGER OUT”

VICTOR VICART, VOCALIST

Clocking in at 10 tracks, over a 66minute runtime, it’s packed with
sonic deviations that recall the
post-metal of Cult Of Luna at their
most crushing and Deftones at their
most ethereal. Victor talks of drawing
on Portishead, the sound/artistic
style of Japanese anime producers
Studio Ghibli, and languages of
long-forgotten civilisations to help
tell a multi-perspective story, of
a world that worships a series of elite
individuals who have fought their way
into the upper echelons of society [see
‘Etemen AenkaFor Dummies’, right].
“This is why I really enjoy sciencefiction and concept albums, because
you can talk about big things,” Victor
enthuses. “This is about society and
its relationship to power: who has
the power? What you do when you

don’t have the power? It’s an allegory
for a time where the elite are these
celestial beings, almost gods, and
you’re told that if you work hard
enough then you can become one of
them. But then there are people who
are outsiders looking into this idea,
and thinking, ‘What is going on?
This is crazy!’ We needed to make an
album that really took you through
those transitions.”
f this sounds like another metal
band using a conceptual narrative
to spread their beliefs and wag
their finger at people, then Victor
is quick to dismiss the idea that
Etemen Aenka is a ‘political’ album.
He acknowledges that music is
inherently political, and that their
leanings are obvious, but would prefer

DV

Everything you need to know about the grand
concept behind Dvne’s new album
SO DVNE’S NEW
ALBUM HAS GOT
SOME PRETTY
HEAVY-DUTY
CONCEPT, RIGHT?
Indeed it has. It’s set
in the aftermath of
a big battle between
The Humanists and
The Augmentists. “The
Augmentists win and
take people away to
build a new civilisation;
they take mankind
towards their capital,”
Victor explains. “Then
they make them build
these towers for them
to live in.”
WELL… THAT’S A BIT
MUCH, ISN’T IT?
It is a bit, yes!
Annoyingly for all us
in The Humanist

camp, it gets worse.
“Over generations,
the society gets more
divided, and the
beings now known as
Celestials are living in
the clouds on top of
them,” Victor says.
“The towers represent
the rise and golden era
of this empire.”
THE PEOPLE
BUILDING THOSE
TOWERS CAN’T BE
HAPPY WITH THAT!
Ah au contraire, mon
ami! They start to
believe they are doing
the will of the gods
and worship those
above them. “They
are slaves but they
believe the myth,”
says Victor.

WHY WOULD THEY
THINK THAT?
Well, over time they
start to believe that
working on the towers
is a rite of passage
into the higher
echelons of society.
So they can transcend
to become Celestials.
AND EVERYONE IS
COOL WITH THIS,
ARE THEY?
Nah, not everyone!
There are a group of
people who are outside
of all of this, who are
more interested in
nature. We get to hear
their perspective on
the song Mleccha
(‘Remove oneself / from
synthetic light… into
forested freedom’).

HOW DOES IT ALL
END, THEN?
Well, little do those
down at the bottom of
the ladder realise, but
the towers have begun
to collapse and the
Celestials have actually
buggered off. They’ve
used the land, destroyed
it, and fucked off – the
nerve of them! There is
violence as everything
crumbles, and nature
reclaims the planet.
JESUS! SO, WHAT
DOES IT ALL MEAN?
We’ll let Victor answer
that: “Well, the Earth
goes in cycles, and it’s
about that really. It’s
really about a planet
reconfiguring itself in
a violent way.”

people to focus on the fiction aspect of
their science-fiction.
“We want people to dig deeply into
this cinematic story that we have told
and go, ‘I like this, let’s start looking at
the lyrics and the album title, and the
weird, cryptic symbols.’ I know our
fans like it when we start looking at
etymology and these stories of the
world. We use Sanskrit and Latin and
Greek and old French. We aren’t
talking about specific problems that
are happening now – we are talking
about mankind and human history.”
Much like Tool or Mastodon, who
Victor cites as huge inspirations, there
are clues, Easter eggs and layers all over
Etemen Aenka, which he describes as
‘essential’ to the make-up of the band.
There are also moments that break
metal’s genre confines, such as guest
vocalist Lissa Robertson’s beautifully
melodic wails on Omega Severer.
“That section is obviously a nod to
Pink Floyd’s The Great Gig In The Sky,”
Victor says. “We felt that we needed
that juxtaposition in sound to really
make the story hit home at that
moment. She came in and did itin about
half an hour. It was amazing; I was
working on the solo to accompany it
for about eight hours!”
In fact, such is the grand ambition of
Dvne that Victor barely even considers
them as a band, let alone a metal band.
They have changed some members
between albums, and have different
producers and contributors coming in
and out. In future, they might change
their sound entirely.
“We don’t want to keep that same
perspective in each release,” says
Victor. “We look at bands like
Mastodon or Gojira, who have made
some great music over the last decade,
but it is always those individuals and
their perspective. I would prefer to look
at Dvne like a collective group of artists
who come up with an idea and then
utilise the right people to make that
idea come to life. And if that means
not using heavy music or us not being
a metal band… so be it.”
The last thing we have to ask Victor is
about the mysterious ‘v’ in the band’s
name. So much thought has gone into
the band that surely there’s a reason
for it. Why Dvne and not Dune? What
does it stand for? What can it all mean?!
“Oh…” Victor pauses. “Honestly
man, it’s just a practical thing. No
one could find us, and it just made it
easier to Google us. And we thought it
looked cool.”
Well, that’s one of Dvne’s mysteries
solved. Now for the rest…

ETEMEN AENKA IS OUT NOW VIA
METAL BLADE
METALHAMMER.COM 83

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THE R

98

KORN

Nu metal pioneers unleash a high-altitude extravaganza

86

FEAR FACTORY

Burton C. Bell makes his last stand

86 ALBUM REVIEWS
88 ATREYU
92 NOCTULE
93 OUR HOLLOW,OUR HOME
94 PERTURBATOR
98 LIVE REVIEWS
100 ROADBURN REDUX
102 PUSCIFER
103 INSOMNIUM
105 POPPY
EDITED BY: JONATHAN SELZER • PICTURE: STEVE THRASHER

METALHAMMER.COM 85

U

VIEWS

Fear Factory: can they still
chime with the times?

AR

Aggressive
Continuum
NUCLEAR BLAST

TORY

LA’s industrial metal legends patch over their latest short-circuit

86 METALHAMMER.COM

average live shows and unfulfilled promises
have made them a frustrating band to be a fan
of in the last 15 years.
Predictably, Aggressive Continuum comes
with its own set of utterly non-music-related
problems, with Burton leaving the band at the
end of last year and leaving FF with an album
to promote featuring a vocalist who is no
longer part of the fold. It makes just how
good the majority of Aggressive Continuum is
a deeply frustrating conundrum. As good as
1995’s classic Demanufacture or even its followup, Obsolete, from the band’s golden era?

Probably not, but not by far. Opener Recode
has all the hallmarks of the band – Dino
Cazares’ samurai-sword riffs, Burton’s gruff,
shredded throat giving way to his melodic
croon on the turn of a dime, some Blade
Runner-esque futuristic soundscapes – but is
joined by a brass section at the song’s climax.
Fear Factory gone ska this is not, and despite
what surrounds it being fairly typical Fear
Factory fare, on paper it’s an idea that really
shouldn’t work. So it’s testament to the
continual tweaking and experimenting a band
of this vintage are willing to continue to do

SSERP/LARBAC EINAHPETS

AS MUCH AS you’d like to get excited about
the first Fear Factory album in six years, the
band themselves don’t make it easy for you.
Ever since vocalist Burton C. Bell departed the
band for the first time in 2002, Fear Factory
have been as much a soap opera as they’ve
been a great metal band. And, annoyingly,
they actually have been a great metal band
in that period as well, with 2010’s Mechanize
and 2012’s The Industrialist both being superb
examples of their own unique brand of
grinding, synth-heavy, industrial/death metal
mash-up. But line-up changes, false starts,

ALBU

ADAM

Sun

VENERATE INDUSTRIES
Greek stoner rockers only half-bake
their strudel

“FEAR FACTORY
HAVE BEEN AS MUCH
A SOAP OPERA AS
THEY’VE BEEN A
GREAT METAL BAND”
that it really is a very different sound to
anything they’ve done before.
After that, it’s clear that Fear Factory
know exactly what side their bread is
buttered on, and they smash through
another nine slabs of ferocious cybermetal. The groove of Disruptor and the
staccato riffing of Manufactured Hope in
particular hit the bullseye, and there’s
probably some kind of allegoric concept
about how your iPhone is your master,
your microwave controls you and your
electric blanket will overthrow humanity
and become your new overlord in here as
well. Basically, it’s exactly what longtime
fans would hope for. Even the opening
riff to the final track, End Of Line, is

almost identical to Zero Signal from
their 1995 classic, Demanufacture. But
when you are so good at doing this
incredibly unique and specific thing,
that’s not a problem at all. Thirty-two
years into their career and Fear Factory
remain superbly adept at crafting records
that serve to enhance their legacy as
a legendary band. It’s really what they
get up to away from the studio that is
their Achilles heel. If you can ignore that,
then Aggressive Continuum is enough to
keep you believing in them.
■■■■■■■■■■
FOR FANS OF: Strapping Young Lad,
Ministry, Static-X
STEPHEN HILL

Adam claim to “straddle
the worlds of grunge,
post-rock, alternative
metal, psychedelic and
stoner rock.” Their debut
partially lives up to that
promise. Opener…And Then
There Was Light is a postrock instrumental that
drops into pummelling
sludge guitarwork. Threepart finale Monolith
worships at the altar of
stoner rock’s breathy vocals
and bassline heft, while also
feeling cinematic in scope.
Sadly, the trio of tracks in
between are more by-thenumbers stoner grunge,
their verse–chorus–verse–
chorus layouts making
them rarely as adventurous
as the album’s bookends.
Sun suggests that Adam
could well fulfil their
ambitions of eclecticism in
the future – even if this first
attempt sees them embark
on uneven ground.
■■■■■■■■■■
FOR FANS OF: Alice In
Chains, Junius, Sleep
MATT MILLS

ALESTORM

Live In Tilburg

NAPALM
Pirate metallers play avast and
loose in the Netherlands

Alestorm are best enjoyed
visually, and this live DVD
brilliantly captures what
it’s like to be in one of their
sozzled, silly pirate pits.
The sight of the crowd
murdering a huge inflatable
duck, or floor-rowing to
Nancy The Tavern Wench is

VI WS

what their gigs are all about,
although the spectacle
does render the audio CD
pointless. Furthermore,
by the band’s joking
admission, the extras here
are “low budget”. There’s
a media book and vinyl
including a cover of viral
sea shanty, The Wellerman,
which needs to be included
in their live sets pronto.
But given the Tilburg gig
itself is available to view
on YouTube, this box set is
probably for the diehards
only to plunder.
■■■■■■■■■■
FOR FANS OF: Korpiklaani,
Sabaton, Eluveitie
DANNII LEIVERS

ALLUVIAL
Sarcoma

NUCLEAR BLAST
Atlanta’s former instrumental
metallers find their voice

Beginning as a two-man
instrumental project in
2016, Alluvial are now
a quartet with a vocalist
onboard. Ex-Suffocation
frontman Kevin Muller has
joined the ranks, helping to
raise the atmospheric death
metallers to the next level.
Although they’ve not
completely moved away
from their origins – Sugar
Paper is a rollercoaster of
riffs and drum fills without
a vocal line in sight –
Muller’s savage tones
have added serious clout
to what was already an
accomplished outfit,
highlighted on the likes
of Thy Underling and the
crushing power of closing
track, Anodyne. Given the
positive reception of debut
album, The Deep Longing
For Annihilation, it’s a bold
move by Alluvial to add
lyrics, but it’s paid off
handsomely.
■■■■■■■■■■
FOR FANS OF: Job For
A Cowboy, Allegaeon,
Fallujah
ELLIOT LEAVER

METALHAMMER.COM 87

A BU

VIEWS

AMORPHIS

Live At Helsinki Ice Hall

NUCLEAR BLAST
Finland’s metal masters rejuvenate
three decades’ worth of bangers

Atreyu dare anyone
to suggest they’ve lost
their rough edges

ATREYU
Baptize

SPINEFARM

Metalcore pioneers gain star power but lose their spark

ATREYU’S INFLUENCE ON

88 METALHAMMER.COM

while well-positioned barks and growls
from bassist Marc ‘Porter’ McKnight add
much-needed weight.
Yet for all its aim-for-arenas bravado,
much of Baptize lacks
conviction. For every
chorus that buries into
your head, such as the title
track and Underrated, there
are three tracks that pass
by without making as
much of a dent. Atreyu
have pulled in the big guns
to pack some punch, but
while Untouchable features
Jacoby Shaddix, and Travis
Barker pops up to batter out a marching
band-style drum break on Warrior, the
song’s impassioned proclamations of
self-belief feel hollow. It’s all executed
with polish and aplomb of course, but
while Matt Heafy puts in an impassioned
vocal from on the heartfelt Oblivion, it
doesn’t feel like there’s much else here to
scratch below the surface. Baptize is like
an adrenaline rush that wears off quickly.
■■■■■■■■■■
FOR FANS OF: Asking Alexandria, Bullet
For My Valentine, Papa Roach
DANNII LEIVERS

FOR FANS OF: Insomnium,
Turisas, Omnium Gatherum
MATT MILLS

AN AUTUMN FOR
CRIPPLED CHILDREN

As The Morning Dawns
We Close Our Eyes

PROSTHETIC
Prolific post-black metallers fail to
turn over a new leaf

Anyone familiar with this
anonymous Dutch trio
will already know what to
expect from their ninth
album in 11 years: abrasive
black metal and spacious
synths. In Your Light and

FOR FANS OF: Lantlôs,
Fen, Alcest
REMFRY DEDMAN

BRIDEAR

Bloody Bride

SETSUZOKU
Japan’s next idol metal breakout
band keep an eye on the classics

Bridear have been a big deal
in their native Japan for
some time now, but this is
their first international
release. Over time, the
band’s sound has become
more melodic and, as
a result, Bloody Bride lands
somewhere between
classic heavy metal and
Babymetal’s idol metal,
juxtaposing sugary hooks
and heart-racing solos
with glee. Clearly, there’s
a lot of Iron Maidenworship going on, but you
can also hear the influence
of Children Of Bodom on
Keshin and Glitter. Daybreak
is a majestic singalong,
while The Moment nods
to Killswitch Engage
and enough of Muse’s
penchant for galactic
instrumentation to keep
things from becoming too
one-note. For many, Bloody
Bride will serve as an
intriguing introduction.
■■■■■■■■■■
FOR FANS OF: Babymetal,
Lovebites, Iron Maiden
DANNII LEIVERS

SSERP/NANNERB YHTOMIT

metalcore’s 00s boom and beyond is
undeniable, but since the Cali veterans
returned from a three-year hiatus in
2014 their second chapter
has proved patchy. Since
then, they’ve released two
albums – 2015’s Long Live
and 2018’s In Our Wake –
that have been decent, but
hardly groundbreaking,
with attempts to
modernise their sound not
always hitting the mark.
The band’s eighth
album is their first
without founding member and vocalist
Alex Varkatzas, who left the band last
year. It’s left ex-drummer and clean
singer Brandon Saller to step forward
as frontman, and he’s steered the band
into a polished incarnation that’s more
reminiscent of his side-project, Hell Or
Highwater. Baptize is geared around the
kind of hard-rock anthemia Asking
Alexandria aimed for on their most
recent album, with huge choruses edging
out the grit. When it all aligns, it works.
Save Us is huge, with glistening melodies
jostling alongside heavy-handed riffs,

This double disc becomes
essential listening as soon
as a twiddling synthesiser
explodes into the main
riff of The Bee, exacerbated
by an earth-shaking growl
from Tomi Joutsen. The
opener is instantly more
dynamic and crushing
than its studio counterpart
– and the same can be said
of the 14 songs that follow.
Recorded on the cusp of
their 30thanniversary,
Amorphis celebrated by
revitalising a career’s
worth of genre-spanning
anthems in their home
town. Melodeath oldie
Black Winter Day is
skyrocketed by its infallible
new singer, while House
Of Sleep gets even more
arena-piercing thanks to
its extended power metal
chorus. Flaunting their
eclecticism and live
muscularity, this is
Amorphis in excelsis.
■■■■■■■■■■

Splendour Unnoticed evoke
The Cure as much as they
do Darkthrone, with
tortured screams interweaved through lush keys
and furious tremolo-picked
guitar. It’s a captivating
mix, albeit one that’s stuck
to rigidly throughout the
album. There are worse
crimes, but with a spate of
bands taking this formula
and running with it – Holy
Fawn, Møl, Respire – it’s
unlikely to appeal to
many beyond fanatical
aficionados of the
blackgaze scene.
■■■■■■■■■■

ALBU

BURNING WITCHES
The Witch Of The North

NUCLEAR BLAST
Switzerland’s classic metal
maniacs hit top gear

Burning Witches’ fourth
album makes good the
trad metal banshees’
promise, cementing
a distinct identity and
expanding their palette.
They are breathing the
same rarefied air as Primal
Fear and Hammerfall,
but with more youthful
exuberance, quirky
creativity and fiery
swagger. The Circle Of Five’s
infectious girl-gang
chanting, choppy riffs
and gonzo Halford-cumUdo-without-any-nuts-atall shrieking, punctuated
with tasteful moody
melodies is one example.
Subtle but eccentric
operatic harmonies mingle
supernaturally with the
leather lungs of Laura
Guldemond on emotive
doom ballad Lady Of The
Woods, the formidable
frontwoman bringing
spontaneous soul and
conversational intimacy
to its breathless verses.
The quality control and
thunderous momentum are
maintained for a full hour
of fat-free, heads-down
heavy metal classicism.
■■■■■■■■■■
FOR FANS OF: Judas Priest,
Iron Maiden, Sabaton
CHRIS CHANTLER

<CODE>

Flyblown Prince

DARK ESSENCE
Britain’s progressive-minded
voyagers return to their roots

After a trek in the post-rock
wilderness, <code> have

gone back to black… metal.
It would be easy to dismiss
their fifth record as
a nostalgic nod to when
their line-up comprised
members of Hexvessel,
Dødheimsgard and Ulver,
but Flyblown Prince is the
best album they’ve done
since 2009’s Resplendent
Grotesque. It’s not as feral,
yet it stands on its own
weird little legs. The
ground supporting those
stumps is, undoubtedly,
Wacian. A dextrous
screamer, sure, but when
he lets that Morrissey
falsetto fly, or he’s
whispering and wailing
atop ClemencyAnd Atrophy’s
greased-up Mayhem-isms,
you catch onto what he’s
doing – paying uncanny
debts to ex-vocalist Kvohst
while adding his own
idiosyncrasies, and it’s
a treat. Mancunian
whippersnappers Wode
may be dominating British
black metal discourse this
year so far, but <code> are
certainly elbowing them.
■■■■■■■■■■
FOR FANS OF: Arcturus,
Dødheimsgard, Mayhem
ALEC CHILLINGWORTH

THE EMBER, THE ASH
Fixation

PROSTHETIC
Enigmatic missives from the
black/metalcore borderlands

A new signing to Prosthetic
is often something to be
celebrated and The Ember,
The Ash are an enigmatic
and potentially lucrative
addition to the roster.
Ostensibly, the solo
endeavour of a musical
polymath who goes only
by the name , this is
a project shrouded in
mystery. The blueprint laid
down throughout Fixation’s
37 minutes is a curious
hybrid of symphonic
black metal and elegant
metalcore. Within, there’s
room for surprising detours

VI WS

such as the Spanish guitars
on A Growing Emptiness or
the black-metal-goesMuse approach that
provides an outro for The
Colossal Void. Some might
baulk at such a seemingly
preposterous proposition
on paper, but the sheer
exuberance of the music
makes it difficult not to be
swept up in its bombast.
■■■■■■■■■■
FOR FANS OF: Dimmu
Borgir, Underoath,
Unreqvited
REMFRY DEDMAN

Black Moon Mother
offer a close encounter

BLACK
MOON MOTHER
Illusions Under The Sun
PETRICHOR

Spectral, slow-burning splendour from the
Nashville nightlands

EPIPHANIC TRUTH

Dark Triad: Bitter Psalms
To A Sordid Species

CHURCH ROAD
Mysterious collective embark on
an extreme metal odyssey

Epiphanic Truth’s threetrack debut is an extreme
metal event horizon. No
other explanation checks
for how the band are able
to make 43 minutes fly
by so quickly as genre
boundaries warp,shrink
and expand to sound as
apocalyptic as watching
a star implode. As the songs
grow in length, so does the
scope extend for where
they can go next. Each
track is a tightly arranged
composition of movements
and segments that sees
them swing from style to
style without diminishing
the cohesiveness of the
overall record. Across
realms of blistering death
metal and implacable
post-metal all the way
through to EDM, posthardcore and fire-andbrimstone black metal,
Epiphanic Truth dare to
go right off the edge of the
map, crafting their own
kingdoms where each song
is a monument to the
concept of extremity.
■■■■■■■■■■
FOR FANS OF: Ulcerate,
Neurosis, Batushka
RICH HOBSON

NASHVILLE’S BLACK
MOON Mother must have

signed some sort of shady
Satanic deal after the release
of 2017’s Sea Of Dust EP,
because their powers have
grown exponentially. While
this is very much the same
band drawing from the same
dark pool of influences, the
band’s confidence and songcraft have grown to the
point where they’re capable of effortlessly invading your
senses. Doom, krautrock, shoegaze and psychedelia
cascade into each other like colours in a kaleidoscope,
and while the effect might have been distracting in
lesser hands, they’re deftly brought in check by carefully
manipulated threads of dark, beguiling pop.
Opener Lost In The Maze eases you gently into the
band’s world with a smoky sense of film noir sultriness,
but it’s not long before other, more intoxicating
elements begin to take hold. Around The Finger sounds
like the obliterative gloom of True Widow colliding with
choice cuts from The Crow soundtrack, while High Winds
turns blitzed-out Electric Wizardry into an array of
sweet, glittering trickles. Elsewhere, Slow Down offers
the kind of smudged thump that’s heavy as heck but
bizarrely comforting and Radiant Sun begins with
full-throttle motorik rock before exploding into some
sort of neuron-frying celestial lightshow.
Brianne O’Neill’s aching, impeccable vocals are the
album’s clear focal point, and the other players work to
complement them with a backdrop that’s supple and
subtle yet possessed of limber, sinewy strength. Guitar
solos fling sparks as they cascade and overlap, sprawling
ambitiously while refusing to quite compete with either
each other or Brianne’s voice. It’s this cult-like sense of
togetherness that raises Illusions Under The Sun on high
– as though the band are sharing a hallucinatory vision
of something distinct and strange, perhaps one of those
old, make-you-blink photographs that purport to have
captured ghosts, aliens or angels.
■■■■■■■■■■
FOR FANS OF: Dead Feathers, Gold, Chelsea Wolfe
ALEX DELLER

METALHAMMER.COM 89

A BU

VIEWS

FLYING CUPID

All Turns To Dust

SELF-RELEASED
Delhi’s multi-disciplinary prodigy
turns his talents to metalcore

GO
AHEAD
AND
DIE
Go Ahead And Die

Go Ahead And Die tap
into a wellspring of rage

NUCLEAR BLAST

Brutal metal’s premiere enthusiast goes back to his filthy roots

DOES MAX CAVALERA ever sleep?
It seems unlikely. The Brazilian icon
already has Soulfly and Cavalera
Conspiracy, not to mention the
somewhat overhyped Killer Be Killed,
and churns out albums
with the maniacal zeal of
a man possessed, still
visibly and audibly in love
with ugly, brutal music.
Clearly Max had another
itch that needed
scratching,however.
Because while Go Ahead
And Die are definitely not
going to surprise dedicated
fans of Max’s output over
the years, the trio’s debut album is
just about different enough from the
aforementioned bands to justify its
existence. That this album is also the
nastiest and most obnoxious thing he
has put his name to since Nailbomb’s
Point Blank in 1994 says a lot about where
his creative priorities lie.
Superficially, Go Ahead And Die tend
not to stray from the rudiments of their
leader’s trademark sound. Songs like the
enjoyably misnamed Truckload Full Of
90 METALHAMMER.COM

Bodies (it’s either a truck full of bodies or
a truckload of bodies, surely?) and Toxic
Freedom are built around plenty of gnarly
chugging and primitive discord. And
while the production is brilliantly gritty
and raw, we’re often not
a million miles away from
the more brutal direction
that, in particular, Soulfly
have taken recently.
Nonetheless, there’s much
more going on here, not
least a mad-eyed devotion
to crustpunk and filthy
grind, and Max, bassist
and son Igor Amadeus,
and drummer Zach
Coleman (also of Khemmis) sound utterly
psychotic and having the best time ever
on the fast and frenzied likes of I.C.E.
Cage and Worth Less Than Piss. It’s all
deeply honest and unpretentious stuff,
just as one might expect from Max
Cavalera, but it will cheerfully slice your
face off too. He’ll sleep when he’s dead
(or deaf), presumably.
■■■■■■■■■■
FOR FANS OF: Soulfly, Ringworm, Nails
DOM LAWSON

Abhiruk Patowary is
a 19-year-old guitarist,
multi-instrumentalist and
composer from the bands
Acid Pit and Gaia who, until
the pandemic struck, had
studied at Boston’s Berklee
School Of Music, where
the founding members of
Dream Theater first met.
Now in quarantine in Delhi,
Patowary pushes on with
his solo metalcore project.
As you’d expect of a guy
who also plays pop, hip hop
and jazz, the first thing that
slams home is the breathtaking quality of the guitar
parts. Bookended by
gutturalgrowls, melodious
hooks, fleet-fingered
picking and battering ram
rhythms, the excellent
Changes, which first
appeared on the Reflections
EP, also returns here.
■■■■■■■■■■
FOR FANS OF: Meshuggah,
Killswitch Engage, Periphery
DAVE LING

FYRNASK

VII – Kenoma

VÁN
Germany’s feral black metallers
assault the highest authority

Fyrnask began as the solo
black metal project of
Fyrnd before he fleshed
out the line-up in 2014.
Here, his fascination with
mythology continues,
exploring Musibatname –
a 13th-century text
exploring the contradiction
of a ‘benevolent’ God
and human suffering.
It manifests as resonant,

ritualistic power and feral
black metal. Hraevathefr’s
sonorous intro belies the
abject hell it and Sjodhandi
Blodh unleash, before
Nidhamyrkr slows to
a ritualistic pummel.
Helreginn’s 13 minutes are
a slow-burn death waltz
while Daudhvana alternates
hushed reverence with
dizzying variations of pace
and aggression, making
ethereal closer Blotgudh
a welcome salve. This is
high-concept, modern
black metal, executed with
a dedication that requires
a reciprocal response.
■■■■■■■■■■
FOR FANS OF: Svartidauði,
Dødsengel, Ash Borer
TOM O’BOYLE

GHOSTS OF MEN

Exhale

SELF-RELEASED
UK alt-rock comics find deeper
layers underneath the laughter

Don’t be fooled by Ghosts
Of Men’s shtick; beneath
the banter there’s a hardrocking duo who take their
craft seriously. After 150
festival appearances and
a European tour, Exhale
sees them embracing their
alternative rock sound with
splashes of Queens Of The
Stone Age and Clutch.
Laced with quiet humour
and introspective musings,
from the sombre opening
tones of Breathe In to the
rocking indie-jangle of
their closing BBC session,
Bullet, Exhale is never
overtly comedic, even if
Tell Me Why really is about
losing the TV remote, as
singer and guitarist Clegg
claims. For a two-piece,
GOM pack a punch – check
out the Red Fang-inclined
riffs on Crooked Back
– revelling in explosive
rock made for the stage.
■■■■■■■■■■
FOR FANS OF: Wolfmother,
Clutch, The Black Keys
HOLLY WRIGHT

ALBU

HACKTIVIST
Hyperdialect

UNFD
Grime metal activists keep add
more prongs to their attack

Hacktivist’s debut fulllength, Outside The Box,
established them as
a collective with a flagrant
disregard for genre
boundaries. Their seething,
multi-pronged attack
targetedpolitics, societal
injustices and the media.
Unsurprisingly, their
follow-up finds the quintet
with equally itchy feet.
Hyperdialect includes 2019
singles Dogs Of War and
Reprogram, which were
akin to battle cries, oozing
with acerbic filth and
serving as a warning of
what was to come from
these bloody-minded
insurrectionists. Quickfire
rapping remains an
inherent element with dual
vocalists Jot Maxi and
J Hurley spitting bars on
grime-inflected bangers
Lifeform and TurningTables.
There’s a nu metal bounce
to Kid Bookie-featured cut
Armoured Core, while the
infectious title track bursts
with urgency and flexes the
band’s genre-fluid muscle.
■■■■■■■■■■
FOR FANS OF: Body Count,
Heart Of A Coward, Rage
Against The Machine
SOPHIE MAUGHAN

HANGING GARDEN
Skeleton Lake

LIFEFORCE
Melodic Fins find a glimpse of
bliss amongst the gloom

Melodic death-doom septet
Hanging Garden’s seventh
album sees the band build
further upon the presence

of vocalist Riikka Hatakka,
wife of existing vocalist
Toni. Riikka joined the
band for 2019’s Into That
Good Night, allowing
them to expand in new
directions. Her impact’s
felt immediately in the
opening contrasts of Kuura,
its tremulous riff and
Toni’sharsh-throatedroars
offset by her gentler lilt.
It’s a stylistic counterpoint
used frequently, in the
punchy verse/chorus
riffathon of Nowhere Haven,
the sombre balladry of
Winter’sKiss and the
melodic peaks and valleys
of the epic Tunturi. Hanging
Garden’s newfound vocal
duet is twofold in impact
– adding new dimensions,
yet constraining their
sound to conform to the
new dynamic. Skeleton Lake
is built on melancholic
foundations, but this time
rays of sunlight glint across
frozen depths.
■■■■■■■■■■

Midlife Hollow’s curt postpunk/new wave combo
– the result borders on
transcendent innovation.
Unfortunately, there are far
too many spots – Everything
Is Vain’s sour post-doom and
frustrating ballad Jasmines
– where the band are
grasping at over-extended
straws. Antidote continues
Impure Wilhelmina’s battle
with themselves, where
imagination and vision
outstrip ability and
ultimately make for
a perpetual tease and lack
of satisfaction.
■■■■■■■■■■

TOM O’BOYLE

SEASON OF MIST
Bleak uprisings from the new kids
on the black metal bloc

FOR FANS OF: Katatonia,
Vaura, Mothlite

IMPURE WILHELMINA
Antidote

SEASON OF MIST
Swiss post-metallers still finding
a mountain to climb

Seven albums in, Geneva’s
Impure Wilhelmina
continue to suffer from
their musical output
lagging behind their
lofty conceptual goals.
Encouragingly, Antidote
continues the band’s
progressive forward motion,
pullingin influences from
across the sonic charcuterie
board, but the contents of
vocalist/guitarist/band
leader Michael Schindl’s
head still haven’t effectively
and consistently been
transposed via his fingers
and vocal cords, as it were.
When they lock into a lane
– such as the haunting
post-metal of Solitude and

FOR FANS OF: The Ocean,
Cult Of Luna, Kylesa
CONNIE GORDON

SMALL
MERCIES
Where EP is short for ‘Epic Potential’
THE DEVIL
WEARS PRADA

ZII EP

SOLID STATE

Nightfall is spirited, the
melodic weariness of
Forlorn is palpable, but for
all the atmospheric threads
and full-pelt vocals, this
five-track chapter is less
magically frenetic than the
2010 Zombie OG.
■■■■■■■■■■
NIK YOUNG

KHANDRA

All Occupied By Sole Death

This relatively unknown
entity – aside from their
frontman, who growled on
Relics Of Humanity’s killer
death metal debut back in
2014 – are from Minsk,
Belarus, and it shows. You
can’t help but instantly
visualise cold, austere and
grey abandoned buildings
hidden in the fog in some
deserted factory. Dissonant
All Occupied By Sole Death
may be, but besides its
massive production, it’s
the album’s ability to
move at different speeds
with sudden eruption of
blastbeats or syncopated
rhythms while firmly
staying focused that really
sets them apart. The most
intricate tracks such as With
The Blessing Of Starless Night,
have more in common
with, say, Ulcerate than
Darkthrone,with its weird
arpeggios, industrial vibes
and sprawling drums.
■■■■■■■■■■
FOR FANS OF: Mgła, Blaze
Of Perdition, Ulcerate
OLIVIER BADIN

VI WS

HIDEOUS DIVINITY

GTE

Til Nord EP

INDIE RECORDINGS

The celebrated Norwegian
folk rockers reimagine four
classic tracks as ancient
Norse hymns. Including
one new song, these
stripped-down versions
transport you to a warm
afternoon reclining at the
base of Yggdrasil.
■■■■■■■■■■
JOE DALY

KATAAN

LV-426

Kataan

While a mere taster at
three songs, the Italian
deathsters’ tribute to the
Alien mythology is savage
and scary enough to be
worthy of the original
two, before Predator,
CGI and Ridley’s return
ruined everything.
■■■■■■■■■■

Kataanare adystopian
death metal two-piece
featuring former and
current members of
Vattnet Viskar and
Astronoid. Their modernist
brutality across these four
tracks is abyssal in tone
and revelatory in depth.
■■■■■■■■■■

CENTURY MEDIA

ADAM REES

LOVEBITES

PROSTHETIC

TOM O’BOYLE

OF MICE & MEN

Glory, Glory, To The World

Bloom

Galloping drums. Demented
guitar wizardry. Piano
solos. Histrionics to rival
the biggest symphonic
bands. Lovebites’ latest EP,
now physically available
outside of Japan, is the
band’s most brilliantly
overblownstatement so far.
■■■■■■■■■■

On this second in a threepart EP collection for 2021,
the California rockers
offer up a trio of tracks
brimming with shoutalong hooks, expansive
melodies and a frankly
absurd number of
stomping riffs.
■■■■■■■■■■

JPU

DANNII LEIVERS

SHARPTONE

SOPHIE MAUGHAN

METALHAMMER.COM 91

A BU

VIEWS

Serena Cherry over-thinks
her next move in Skyrim

KING OF ASGARD

Svartrviðr

TROLLMUSIC
Swedish warriors drift into grim
and cold territory

NOCTULE
Wretched Abyss

CHURCH ROAD

Svalbard’s Serena Cherry slays a few more dragons

FANTASY EPICS AND black metal

92 METALHAMMER.COM

FOR FANS OF: Fen, Drudkh, Havukruunu
TOM O’BOYLE

FOR FANS OF: Einherjer,
Moonsorrow, Thyrfing
DOM LAWSON

MENTAL CRUELTY

A Hill To Die Upon

UNIQUE LEADER
German deathcore brutes create
a symphony of destruction

While 2019’s Inferis saw
synths used for added
atmosphere, A Hill To Die
Upon sees Mental Cruelty
embracing the full bells
and whistles symphonic
approach. Though the
cavalcade of vocals and
final descent of Death

FOR FANS OF: Carnifex,
Make Them Suffer, Osiah
ADAM REES

MOLYBARON

The Mutiny

SELF-RELEASED
International alt-metallers rustle
up a big box of tricks

This French/Irish quartet
have been described as
alt-metal, but it hardly feels
like it’s covering enough
bases to adequately capture
their sound. Over 10 riffdriven tracks the band do
recall the likes of Therapy?
or even Prong at their
heaviest, such as on the
speedy chug of The
Lighthouse, but there is
a bombast to The Mutiny
that feels almost power
metal-esque, with second
track Lucifer just pure heavy
metal thunder. There is
also a baroque, gothic edge
to vocalist and guitarist
Gary Kelly’s performance,
the frontman crooning
as if he is auditioning for
The Sisters Of Mercy on
Something For The Pain.
Diverse and satisfying,
The Mutiny is a banger.
■■■■■■■■■■
FOR FANS OF: Therapy?,
Helmet, Alter Bridge
STEPHEN HILL

SSERP/YBHSA NHOJ

continue their love affair with Noctule,
the solo project of Svalbard singer/
guitarist Serena Cherry. Made during
lockdown, the record is themed entirely
on Bethesda’s epic open
world role-playing
videogame, The Elder
Scrolls V: Skyrim. It marks
an escapist departure
from her day job.
Svalbard’s forthrightposthardcore with shoegaze
and black metal traits is
far from fantasy, wielding
its assault in direct attack
on social injustices. On
Wretched Abyss Cherry’s penchant for
black metal comes to the fore.
It’s a balefully heroic-sounding record
full of long songs, inspired by the deep
lore and frostbitten environs of the
mythic world of Skyrim and its
Tolkienesque tales of dragons, might and
magic. As the atonal, tremolo rumble of
Elven Sword gathers pace, Serena is
atypically raw-throated but less direct.
Instead, she haunts the track, letting
heraldic guitars and tumbling fills take
the fore. Labyrinthian follows, a song
about her favourite dungeon quest in the
game. Ancient ruins built by a dragon

cult are brought to life with a mournful,
mid-paced threnody, as rhythm and
lead guitars make compelling – and at
times cacophonous – counter-points,
coming into focus for the big melodic
hook. Winterhold tells the
tale of a once-great city
ravaged by cataclysm
with a proud, rousing
hook that prevails despite
being beset on all sides
by gnashing guitars and
insistent percussive
pummelling. Evenaar
switches the tempo up
a bit with a staccato riff,
yet still maintaining the
slow, over-arching grandiosity of the
record, while Deathbell Harvest evokes
the poisonous nature of its titular flower,
collected by players as an ingredient for
lethal potions.
As black metal, the songs can
occasionally suffer for their repetitive
nature, but for fans of The Elder Scrolls,
Wretched Abyss makes for an excellent
alternate soundtrack. It’s gleefully nerdy
fun that further proves Serena Cherry’s
unrelenting force as a songwriter.
■■■■■■■■■■

The best pagan and Viking
metal evokes a sense of
being assailed by the
elements, and King Of
Asgard’s fourth full-length
is as blustery as they come.
The Swedes’ melodic death
has become blacker and
less overtly tuneful over the
years, and their expertise at
conjuring that windswept
atmosphere has been
steadily refined too. As
a result, this is a much
more immersive album
than its predecessors,
with songs that explore
the full potential of single,
simple ideas, both at
a grandiloquent slug’s
pace and at full blistering
pelt. The finest thing here,
Kvikr(‘Alive’) is a defiant,
stormy travelogue, full of
bombastic old-school
metal moments but also
queasy, caustic melodies
wrenched from an icy
night sky.
■■■■■■■■■■

Worship show the Germans
can still slam with the best
of them, the more caustic,
blackened air that now
permeates their sound
gives them a far more
vibrant and thrilling
dynamic range. Abadon’s
lofty peaks and crushing
lows is a perfect example,
with the grandiosity of the
title track, and windswept
closer The Left Hand Path
revelling in Scandinavian
bombast. Though guest
virtuoso Yo Onityan steals
the show on opener proper
Ultima Hypocrtia, the regal
leads and melodies of
Marvin Kessler set a heroic
scope throughout.
■■■■■■■■■■

ALBU

THE MONOLITH
DEATHCULT

V3 – Vernedering: Connect
The Goddamn Dots

HUMAN DETONATOR
Kampen’s craziest death metal
brutes expand their sonic universe

Epic, brutal and never
knowingly sensible, The
Monolith Deathcultdon’t
so much make death metal
albums as audio-cinematic
monstrosities, rich with
multi-layered pomp and
liberallyinterspersed with
expert-level dicking about.
The third part in the Dutch
mavericks’ largely
incomprehensible trilogy
is underpinned by the
notion that they’re secretly
destroying the world via
some atrocious, possibly
digestion-related act of
chemical warfare. In
contrast, the music is no
joke. From Connect The
Goddamn Dots’ hyperblasting Ministryworship
and the murderous doom
of The White Silence to
rampaging death metal
futurism of They Drew First
Blood, this is another
irresistibly eccentric
masterclass in OTT bombast
and wild extremity. No one
else does DM quite like this.
■■■■■■■■■■
FOR FANS OF: Septicflesh,
Strapping Young Lad,
Ministry
DOM LAWSON

MONSTER MAGNET
A Better Dystopia

NAPALM
Psych rock veterans trip out to their
acid-fried inspirations

Now in their fourth decade,
Monster Magnet have
created a walloping cosmic
squall that draws deeply

from early proto-metal and
the psychedelic fringe of
the 60s and 70s. Their latest
is an all-covers collection
that shines a light on
some of the band’s most
important – and obscure –
influences. For many, only
Hawkwind’s Born To Go will
ring a bell, as they rev up
the classic into a surging,
psychoactive banger. The
Fuzztones’ Epitaph For
A Head and Dust’s Learning
To Die take on a scorching
vitality with a storm of
reverb-drenched riffs,
swirling polyrhythms and
Dave Wyndorf’s barbarous,
galactic howl. A druggedout paranoia permeated the
early acid rock movement
but here it’s pure pomp
and swagger. Eclectic and
enthralling, Monster
Magnet have served up
an ultra-heavy ode to the
originals while making
them entirely their own.
■■■■■■■■■■

FOR FANS OF: Amon Düül II,
Michael Yonkers Band,
Captain Beyond
JOE DALY

MOUTH FOR WAR
Life Cast In Glass

1126
Colorado’s metallic hardcore crew
take heart from tragedy

This Colorado five-piece
were formed by members
of Bruise and Remain and
their first full-length
suggests they have a lot
to offer the world.
Heartbreakingly, singer
Trae Roberts wrote this
album about his young
sister who was killed in
early 2020 and the first
single, Manifesting You, is
an accurate portrayal of the
sound and tone. Taking
metal and metalcore and
injecting old-school
hardcore and modern
tinges into the mix, this
album is packed with an
arsenal of fierce, engaging
tracks including Fear Is The

VI WS

Product, I Don’t Want To Feel
At All and Take My Place. The
breakdowns are brutal, the
gruff vocals are strong and
emotive, and they even add
a guest appearance from
the vocalist of Dying Wish.
All in all, it’s an effort to be
proud of.
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FOR FANS OF: Purgatory,
Lamb of God, Code Orange
NIK YOUNG

Our Hollow, Our Home
make a collective
show of catharsis

NADJA

Luminous Rot

SOUTHERN LORD
Canadian doom-gazers offer an
apocalyptic close encounter

On their latest, mightily
impressive pedal-hopping
orbit around the more
abrasive recesses of
shoegaze’s sonic cathedral,
Aidan Baker and Leah
Buckareff weigh in with an
aesthetic spin on the alien
‘first contact’ theory. Taking
their cues from Stanisław
Lem’s classic sci-fi novels,
Solaris and Fiasco, the pair
navigate purple surges of
galaxy-sized flange and
neo-psychedelic static as
a bludgeoning drum
machine counts away the
moments to potential
apocalypse. The distorted
communiques of wrathful
extra-terrestrials seem
to momentarily emerge
from the perpetual nimbus
churn pervading Starres, yet
more enduring revelations
surface during the title
track. A triumphant,
martial stomp veiled in
a mantle of peach fuzz, its
otherworldliness resides
in the powers of a sudden
chord change, rising up
from this album’s
absorbingly tyrannical
brand of woozy dreamsludge. It feels near
monumental and
downright euphoric.
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FOR FANS OF: Jesu, Sunn
O))), My Bloody Valentine
SPENCER GRADY

OUR
HOLLOW, OUR HOME
Burn In The Flood
HOLLOW MUSIC

Southampton’s metalcore champions share
their struggles

OUR HOLLOW, OUR

Home guitarist Tobias Young
channelled the pain of losing
his father to cancer directly
into 2018’s In Moment //
In Memory. Unafraid to
tackle grief in its entirety,
it remained unapologetic
in its lyrical subject matter.
Heart-wrenching poignancy
intermingled with technical precision as the record’s
conceptual segues and impassioned tracks depicted
a raw-yet-crushing wall of sound.
Three years on, OHOH are once again delving into
their emotional arsenal, but instead utilising everyone’s
personal struggles. Fuelled by blood, sweat and tears,
Burn In The Flood is representative of a band wearing
their hearts on their sleeves, from start to Seven Years
(Shine A Light On Me)’s hair-raising, fade-to-black finish.
Straight out of the blocks, the title track raids the senses
with a devastating combo of riffs offset by stirring
bursts of electronica, before searing cleans clash
enticingly with gut-punching roars; defiant cries of
‘So hand in hand we go, my friend, to burn in the flood!’
pushing it towards anthem status.
Covering similar ground, Failsafe and Nerv revel in
emotionally charged melodies and huge choruses.
These aren’t the most immediate songs on the album,
but only a few listens are required before they’re lodged
firmly in your cranium. Earnest confessional-of-sorts
Better Daze shows off OHOH’s razor-sharp melodic
streak, but when it comes to lung-bursting metalcore,
Remember Me (featuring a cameo from Crystal Lake’s
Ryo Kinoshita) is a synapse-shattering display of
fragility and ferocity that floods all the senses.
Although not as painfully raw as its grief-driven
predecessor, Burn In The Flood’s melodies are rich, its
guitars soar and the voices are carried with absolute
conviction. Our Hollow, Our Home are still guaranteed
to fill any room they walk into.
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FOR FANS OF: Polaris, Bury Tomorrow, While She Sleeps
SOPHIE MAUGHAN

METALHAMMER.COM 93

A BU

VIEWS

James Kent
uncovers the
bleak in the sleek

PROSPERINA
Flag

SELF-RELEASED
Eclectic Welsh progressives wring
glory from their gloom

PERTURBATOR
Lustful Sacraments
BLOOD MUSIC

France’s synthwave guru goes deeper into the
dark side

THE LASTTIME we heard
from James ‘Perturbator’
Kent in 2017, synthwave
had reached critical mass.
What began in the 2000s
as bedroom DJs uniting 80s
exuberance and vigorous
electro beats had exploded
into the mainstream,
cramming dancefloors and
soundtracking blockbusters. So, having helped
popularise the genre with the Metroidvania vibrancy
of 2012’s I Am The Night and 2014’s Dangerous Days, the
Frenchman had grown bored of it. 2016’s The Uncanny
Valley and especially 2017’s New Model EP proved darker,
heavier, grimier – less nostalgic club night and more
seedy underground orgy.
LustfulSacraments is another bleak-sounding take on
synthwave, albeit drawn more from post-punk gloom
than violent beats. Inspired equally by Siouxsie And The
Banshees and Las Vegas hedonism, it could soundtrack
the party you throw before the day you die: sinful,
energetic, plagued with nihilism.
Intermittently, this is a swaggering EDM bender.
Excess invigorates with its fast-paced beats, while
a melodic synth line twirls. ‘Excess! Excess! Excess!’
a laddish chorus chants, like your mates cheering you on
as you down one more drink, despite you saying you’d
had enough. The bouncing Death Of The Soul could cram
an Ibiza club, and Messalina, Messalina swaps between
hurrying drums and smooth guitars, staying essential
throughout. Then there’s Secret Devotion – an ominous
rocker with an Ian Curtis-channelling drawl courtesy of
True Body’s Isabella Moreno-Riaño. Subtle dread rings
out from the title track’s echoing strums and distant
spoken word; Dethroned Under A Funeral Haze is as slow
as a dirge, before God Says’ post-rock concludes
proceedings with a breathy, sobering comedown.
Finding the existential unease within the life and soul
of the party, LustfulSacraments is destined to be a diverse
classic in, ironically, the genre Perturbator’s sick of.
■■■■■■■■■■
FOR FANS OF: Clan Of Xymox, Tides From Nebula,
Dan Terminus
MATT MILLS

94 METALHAMMER.COM

Prosperina have never
been wedded to one genre,
unafraid of segueing from
an indie-inspiredchorus
to a knuckle-grazing
doom riff, or peppering
their arrangements with
stoner grooves. But rather
than rolling out a sonic
mess, this Welsh outfit
have sensitively blended
elements to create
something that is uniquely
them. Deep Never’s deep
bass and melancholy is
a throwback to 90s melodic
grunge but elsewhere
the band toy with doomy
tones and proggy passages
like Runner In The Maze –
an absorbing fix of
gratifying jams and
reverb-drenched vocals.
Flag takes a dim view of
society, felt most potently
on the dystopian stomp
of Boot – a distillation of
Prosperina’s melancholic
but confident ambition.
■■■■■■■■■■
FOR FANS OF: Kyuss, Alice
In Chains, Hard-Fi
HOLLY WRIGHT

RAKTA & DEAFKIDS
Live At Sesc Pompéia

RAPID EYE
Brazilian noisemongers join forces
for a mutual freakout

Live shows. Remember
them? In the Before Times,
São Paulo’s prime pairing
of experimental noisefiddlers – that being Rakta
and Deafkids – did one.
And it was… something.
Pick’n’mixing fragmented
back catalogues and

collaborative efforts, these
two bands work most
effectively as acollective
when reheating old gristle.
Deafkids’ seven-minute
tribal freakout, Espirais
Da Loucura, carves up an
extra slice of uneasiness
as Rakta’s Paula Rebellato
ululates against agarbled
sax sample. Likewise,
Rakta’s Flor Da Pele enjoys
(well, is forced to
accommodate) an overdose
of percussive intensity, by
virtue of Deafkids’ blunt
approach. The intensity
and the pull-and-release
groove create a thrill akin
to Swans, but with much
better haircuts.
■■■■■■■■■■
FOR FANS OF: Swans,
Lightning Bolt, Killing Joke
ALEC CHILLINGWORTH

WORLD
SERVICE
Heavy metal uprisings
from around the globe

AROGYA

Genesis

OUT OF LINE MUSIC

This Indian quintet
ponder the complexities
of mankind’s birth. The
subject matter may be
complex, but their
melodic hybrid of metal,
modern rock and synth
is anything but.
■■■■■■■■■■
DAVE LING

RISE AGAINST

Nowhere Generation

SPINEFARM
Chicago’s melodic punk veterans
hit another energy spike

As catchy as it recognisable,
this new 11-track offering
from Chicago’s punk rock
staples is packed with
hooks, chuggy riffs and
vocals that ache to be sung
along to. While the title
track houses the most
intoxicating stadium rock
chorus on here, Nowhere
Generation reinforces the
calibre of Rise Against’s
hyper-accessible songwriting talent, from the
early seductive melodies
of Sudden Urgethrough
the more urgent pace
and slippery guitar solos
in Broken Dreams, Inc. to
even the earnest stringenhanced ballad, Forfeit.
Over two decades and nine
albums deep and Rise
Against’s momentum and
spirit hasn’t dented an
inch. Good on ’em.
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FOR FANS OF: Boysetsfire,
Anti-Flag, Pennywise
NIK YOUNG

EXTERMINATED

The Genesis Of Genocide
BRUTE!

This Philippines duo
remain hung up on
Suffocation and Deeds
Of Flesh. But plagued by
the dreadful snare-thatgoes-bong and with little
substance, this is for is the
initiated only.
■■■■■■■■■■
OLIVIER BADIN

SPELLFORGER

Upholders Of Evil EP
PERSONAL RECORDS

Diving into the sandpit
where d-beat-driven punk,
speed and nascent black
metal once kicked up
a storm, these Indonesians
have captured the postapocalyptic-grebos-intanks spirit to a tee.
■■■■■■■■■■
JONATHAN SELZER

ALBU

SCAR OF THE SUN
Inertia

NAPALM
Progressive metal mastery from
the hard streets of Greece

These Greek prog
metallers’ third album
blends expansive melodies
with soaring choruses and
a layered narrative
combining social trials
and tribulations with
a plethora of scientific
terminology. The vast
soundscapes of I Am The
Circle and The Fallible
Experiment are enough to
draw you in on first listen,
while the trilogy of
Quantum Leap Zero tracks
will continue to divulge
layers in their lyrics no
matter how many times
they’re played. This
two-pronged attack of
sumptuous music and
challenging subject
matters takes great skill
to pull off successfully, yet
Scar Of The Sun have done
it with ease. For those
willing to give this record
the time to reveal its
secrets,the rewards are
rich and plentiful.
■■■■■■■■■■

FOR FANS OF: Opeth,
Tesseract, Devin Townsend
ELLIOT LEAVER

SEPUTUS

Phantom Indigo

WILLOWTIP
Pyrrhon members delve into the
hallucinogenic depths

SSERP/DAORXER SEMAJ

The music made by
Stephen Schwegler and
Doug Moore in their
Seputus guise doesn’t vary
greatly from their day jobs
in New York tech-death
confounders Pyrrhon.
Along with bassist Erik

Malave, they smear
Phantom Indigoin similar
excesses of mucus-thick
sludge, clogging up time
puzzles of their own
devising while Moore
hops between haunted,
obnoxious growls and
porcine squeals. But,
on the instrumental
piledriver The Forgetting
Curve and during the title
track’s contagious groove,
the inebriating murk
momentarily parts and
palpable refrains take
shape. It’s brief respites
such as these that
distinguish Seputus from
Pyrrhon. And yet, Phantom
Indigo’s confounding
eccentricities, while
getting theoretical ballast
from neurologist Oliver
Sacks’ Hallucinations book,
readily evoke passages of
Daniel Paul Schreber’s
Memoirs Of My Nervous
Illness – an account of
demonic possession
plucked from the depths
of spiralling madness.
■■■■■■■■■■
FOR FANS OF: Pyrrhon,
Artificial Brain, Gigan
SPENCER GRADY

SETH

La Morsure Du Christ

SEASON OF MIST
Bordeaux’s cult black metallers
replenish their roots

Although musically, Seth’s
1998 debut album, Les
Blessures De L’Âme is still
revered in their native
France, its epic, visceral
edge has been traded for
a more intricate approach
in the two decades since.
Until now. Yet to suggest
La Morsure Du Christ is
a simple nostalgia trip
would be reductive. They
might have switched back
to French lyrics, but it’s
in service to their current
frontman Saint Vincent’s
spiteful yet clear
enunciation. And while
Seth have seemingly

reverted to their early
style, they’re now infused
with a newfound sense
of melody and far less
simple arrangements.
Corsepainted and
blasphemous as it may be,
La Morsure… is a far more
complex, contemporary
and successful synthesis
of past and present than it
seems at first bite.
■■■■■■■■■■

VI WS

Red Fang: Portland’s
12th best quiz team

FOR FANS OF: Emperor,
Thorns, Vorkreist
OLIVIER BADIN

RED
FANG
Arrows
RELAPSE

SHEVILS

Miracles Of The Sun

SELF-RELEASED
Nordic hardcore punks get their
own erection

Hiding the sailor hat,
taking the rocket out of
your arse and hoping
nobody twigs you’re just
ripping offTurbonegro has
worked wonders for many
young Norwegian bands,
so it’s refreshing to hear
Shevils somewhat buck
that trend. Alright,
Monsters On TV and We
Failed This World’s yappy
choruses are straight-up
Hank Von Hell, but that’s
just a wee fragment of their
fourth full-length. Songs
like Ride The Flashes and
Idiot Task Force clumsily
two-step to the rhythm of
melodic US hardcore like
Have Heart more than,
say, the smörgåsbord of
Scandi stuff ranging from
Kvelertak to Wolfbrigade.
It’s a tempting table to
swipe from, so that
Shevils manage to sound
quintessentially Norske
without bottling it and
revealing their Turbojugend
Chapter is impressive.
Nothing on Miracles Of
The Sun will redefine your
idea of punk, but it’s
tremendous fun.
■■■■■■■■■■
FOR FANS OF: Have Heart,
Verse, Fugazi
ALEC CHILLINGWORTH

Portland’s stoner sultans adjust their sights

FOR MORE THAN

a decade we’ve come to
rely on Red Fang, always
knowing they’ll bring some
of the dirtiest yet catchiest
riffs around, while oozing
an enormous sense of fun
from every orifice. However,
the stoner quartet we find
in 2021 are a familiar yet
mutated being, with the spacey exploration that began to
seep through on 2016’s Only Ghosts seeminglyconsuming
the whole of this fifth effort. The full-throttle tracks are
still there, most notably in the form of the rollicking,
fuzzy twang of My Disaster and the short, sharp stomp of
Rabbits In Hives. But from the rumbling mire of opener
Take It Back onwards it’s clear that this is a darker, more
nefarious version of Red Fang, with subtle synths and
a procession of menacing moods throughout.
Having worked with superstar production duo Ross
Robinson and Joe Barresi last time around, Arrows
welds its more adventurous approach with traditional
boisterous heft thanks to returning producer Chris Fun.
His knob-twiddling makes use of the fur-covered tones
yet still delivers the grunt when it’s required. Anodyne’s
weird psychedelic verses give way to an avalanche of
a chorus, while the monolithic stomp of FonziScheme is
set off-balance by some extremely angular strings.
Even on the more melodic refrain of the title track the
vocals sound more monstrous than usual, while the
trippy slow-burn of Days Collide is given a jolt of life two
and a half minutes in to shake the beast from its
cavernous slumber.
Longtime fans needn’t worry, as there’s still plenty
of humour to be found buried just beneath the surface,
and Arrows will certainly deliver the ideal soundtrack for
43 minutes of raucous headbanging, beer swilling and
whatever extra-curricular activity is required. There’s
just a bit more to chew on afterwards.
■■■■■■■■■■
FOR FANS OF: Torche, High On Fire, The Melvins
ADAM REES

METALHAMMER.COM 95

A BU

VIEWS
Somnuri’s riffs stand at
the high end of low-end

SILVER LAKE BY
ESA HOLOPAINEN

Silver Lake By
Esa Holopainen

NUCLEAR BLAST
Amorphis guitarist embarks on
a sublime solo journey

SOMNURI
Nefarious Wave

BLUES FUNERAL RECORDINGS

Brooklyn riffmongers bring panache to their punch

THERE’S A DECEPTIVE elegance

96 METALHAMMER.COM

early 00s techcore on a stoner rock
bender with Botch-inspired staccato
pulsations and hammer-on/pull-off riffs
counteracted by major chord washes and
a soaring, humming vocal baritone. By
the time Nefarious Wave
reaches its third offering,
Desire Lines, a seamless
transition has been made
to the top of a particularly
hazy and gastrointestinal
tract-rumbling stoner/
sludge subsection that
juxtaposes Phil Arman’s
blower bass and Phil
SanGiacomo’s frenetic
drum fills with Sherrell’s
echo-drenched croon, before Beyond
YourLast Breath returns to steamroll with
furious class and violent panache.
There are a couple of moments during
the album’s back end where the band
appear to run out of gas. Parts of Watch
The Lights Go Out and In The Grey spend
a bit too much time highlighting
meandering flash instead of playing to
the actual song. But overall, Somnuri’s
second full-length exudes a deft balance
between dexterity and destruction.
■■■■■■■■■■
FOR FANS OF: Mastodon, Torche, Converge
CONNIE GORDON

FOR FANS OF: Amorphis,
Katatonia, Leprous
EDWIN MCFEE

UNGFELL

Es Grauet

EISENWALD
Mad, midnight hikes through the
snow-capped gates of Hell

Digging deep under the
Alpine snow to unearth
something nefarious and
vile, Ungfell have taken
a big step up for their third
album. Es Grauet is raw and

FOR FANS OF: Cultes Des
Ghoules Mork, Selvans
DOM LAWSON

VOLA

Witness

MASCOT
Danish prog metallers go makeor-break for the mainstream

Witness sits between being
a milestone release for
Vola or a millstone to their
creative ambitions. 2018’s
Applause Of A Distant Crowd
saw them strike a winning
balance between djent,
pop and prog, and Witness
largely continues that
happy marriage. Jacob
Hansen’s mixing embraces
the band’s natural
maximalist tendencies
whilst lending a familiar
mainstream metal sheen to
Straight Lines and Napalm.
But there’s also a sense that
parts of Vola’s sound have
been over-simplified and
neutered to get there.
Luckily, These Black Claws
turns out to be Witness’s ace
in the hole – a collaboration
with hip hop duo Shahmen
that sounds like nu metal
gone prog with thrilling
anthemic potential.
■■■■■■■■■■
FOR FANS OF: Pain Of
Salvation, Soen, Tesseract
RICH HOBSON

SSERP/EGDIRBLAET

to Somnuri’s brand of meaty metal. This
comes across as the power trio – led by
ex-Tower drummer Justin Sherrell, here
assuming the role of guitarist/vocalist
– possess a mysterious
adeptness at
simultaneously sounding
like gilded seraphs while
peeling off thick slabs of
syrupy slick sludge metal.
They’re the musical
equivalent of a cauliflowereared MMA fighter
tuxedo-ing up for a charity
ball; an executive chef
creating a gourmet meal
out of kitchen scraps; or the
manifestation of an angel on one
shoulder shouting at the devil on the
other. Somnuri are three impressively
hirsute headbangers with an uncanny
skill at crafting delicate sonic horizons
as incoming storms rumble, illuminate
and threaten in the near-distance. And
they do so despite employing a moniker
that belies the roughshod roots of their
Brooklyn HQ by sounding like the
starting goalie of Finland’s Olympic ice
hockey team.
Lead-off track Tied To Stone bursts
from the proverbial gate sounding like

Spurred on by record
producer Nino Laurenne
and the pandemic,
Amorphis songsmith Esa
Holopainen has assembled
his first solo project.
Featuring a frankly
eargasm-inducing array of
guest singers – including
Leprous’s Einar Solberg and
Katatonia’s Jonas Renkse
– the nine-track opus is
a genre-fluid, often
remarkable affair that
makes you wonder why the
guitarist didn’t strike out
alone decades ago. Tackling
topics such as mental
health and drawing
inspiration from Pink
Floyd, the waltzing,
grandiose and gorgeous
Sentiment is a standout, as
is The Division Bell-meetsMorricone-flavoured title
track. Best of all is the
hook-laden power ballad
Fading Moon, which should
bring the house down once
live shows return.
■■■■■■■■■■

ragged for much of its 40minute duration, but
there’s a fuller, heavier
sound that previous records
only hinted at. This Swiss
duo’s vision is broad, with
woozy woodland ambience
and disarming bursts of
plainsong and acoustic folk
filling the gaps between
explosive, macabre epics
like Tyfels Antlitz and Mord
Im Tobel. Replete with the
twinkly charm of clonking
cowbells, Es Grauet paints
a grim but darkly magical
view of life in the moonlit
mountains, where riffs
will scythe your head off
for all eternity.
■■■■■■■■■■

ALBU

WHITE MOTH
BLACK BUTTERFLY
The Cost Of Dreaming

KSCOPE
Tesseract polymath adds a sinister
edge to his alt-pop project

Less than six months
after releasing Ruins,
a reimagining of his 2019
solo album, Castles, Dan
Tompkins is back with
the third album from his
experimental pop sideproject. The Cost Of Dreaming
takes WMBB’s chamber
pop in a more electronic,
direction. Occasionally,
the effect is bright and
ethereal. On tracks like
Portals and Bloom, the
Tesseract singer’s strident
voice – the band’s selling
point for most metal fans
– takes centre stage aside
gossamer-light vocals from
bandmate Jordan Turner.
Elsewhere, a menacing
undertone pushes things
in a sinister direction. Take
Pray For Rain’s pulsing,
nightmarish synths
harbour a chorus, that
Depeche Mode would kill
for, and the unnerving
Use You tackles domestic
violence. This is a brave and
bold addition an already
impressive back catalogue.
■■■■■■■■■■
FOR FANS OF: Skyharbor,
Depeche Mode, Massive
Attack
DANNII LEIVERS

WORM SHEPHERD
In The Wake Ov Sòl

UNIQUE LEADER
US blackened deathcore mob still
seeking more strings to their bow

The opening moments of
this debut full-length
album promise much:
strummed acoustic chords,

a brief tinkling of the
ivories and an explosive
descent into characteristic
blackened deathcore. To
say Worm Shepherd stick
rigidly to the formula
would be a little harsh,
but deviations are fleeting
at best and contribute
relatively little to the album
as a whole. The peppered
symphonic elements at
least give the impression of
some sense of grandiosity
and ambition but at 50
minutes, it doesn’t take long
before In The Wake Ov Sòl
loses its oppressively brutal
power. If Worm Shepherd
concentrated and expanded
on some of their more
unorthodox ideas, such as
the Danny Elfman-meetsWhitechapel pomposity
of Wretchedness Upon The
Gates, they could bring
something new to the
scene rather than simply
mimic it.
■■■■■■■■■■
FOR FANS OF: Whitechapel,
Mire Lore, Chelsea Grin
REMFRY DEDMAN

WRISTMEETRAZOR

Replica Of A Strange Love

PROSTHETIC
Millennial metalcore revivalists get
nostalgic for savagery

Over the last few years, the
likes of .gif from god,
Seeyouspacecowboy and
Frail Body have been on a
quest to bring back the
early 00s metalcore and
post-hardcore boom of
Cave In, Thursday and
Botch, and Wristmeetrazor
wear those influences on
their sleeves more than
most. Before you even press
play the cover of Replica Of
A Strange Love looks like it
could have been released on
Trustkill in 2001. For those
who loved the sound of
early Eighteen Visions
a song like Sycophant will
feel like a gloriously
nostalgic comfort blanket,
while younger folk will

surely be shocked at just
how unrelenting and savage
metalcore can sound when
it hasn’t had all of its edges
shaved off. They never hit
the heights of their heroes,
but Wristmeetrazor’s
intentions are laudable.
■■■■■■■■■■

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RESURRECTIONS

Unearthing the latest metal reissues
Satyricon’s Satyr
Wongraven: the first
sighting of air accordion in
the wild

FOR FANS OF: Poison The
Well, Seeyouspacecowboy,
The Bled
STEPHEN HILL

YOO DOO RIGHT

Don’t Think You Can
Escape Your Purpose

MOTHLAND
Cosmic Canadians take a psych
rock trip across the ages

There’s something
impressive about a band
who can pull from half
a century’s worth of
experimental music and
make it all sound seamless.
Yoo Doo Right accomplish
this with their debut –
a seemingly effortless mix
of 60s psych, 70s krautrock
and 90s post-rock that
peeps in on labels like
Kranky, Quarterstick and
Dischord. The cracked
orchestral flourishes of
Godspeed You! Black
Emperor give way to
elasticated riffing and
deliciously blown-out
crunches, merging lightdappled prettiness and
hypnotic surges one
moment and looming,
oppressive drones the
next. While psychedelia
can often wibble off into
nothingness and post-rock
can frequently fail in its
fussy attempts to impress,
YDR avoid such pitfalls
thanks to muscular heave
and a vibrant sense of
purpose. The sound, scope
and palette are all huge,
and so, thankfully, is the
songwriting talent.
■■■■■■■■■■

FOR FANS OF: Mogwai, And
So I Watch You From Afar,
Flower Travellin’ Band
ALEX DELLER

SATYRICON’S FIRST TWO albums emerged in
1994, a pivotal time for Norwegian black metal. Dark
Medieval Times [7] still feels like the scene’s wide-eyed
little brother, all haphazard arrangements and weedy
guitars. Some atmospheric folk passages and Frost’s
drumming showed promise, but The Shadowthrone [8]
was more confident and assured – a textbook document
of its magical era, with Satyr’s eccentricities coming
to the fore on these Napalm reissues. Five years later
Birmingham got hold of black metal, and roughed it up
with a drum machine, frenzied soloing and psychotic
attitude. Result: ANAAL NATHRAKH’s demo
compilation Total Fucking Necro [8]. Their subsequent
debut, The Codex Necro [8] (both Metal Blade), edged
the duo’s vicious cacophony closer to industrial and
grindcore, for a perfect storm of anti-social sonic terror.
A profound influence on black metal was 80s German
thrash, and we can enjoy a deep dive into its darkest
corners with two demo collections: DESTRUCTION’s
Bestial Invasion Of Hell (1984) [8] and ASSASSIN’s Holy
Terror/Saga Of Nemesis (1986) [6] (both High Roller). The
former is more familiar, the frantic trio pulverising even
at this earliest stage, and a great job has been done to
bolster the creaky sound. Assassin’s demos, however,
sound irredeemably slapdash; there are killer moments,
but for 1986 it’s fairly undistinguished.
A profound influence on German thrash was the
NWOBHM, and two fine, reissued exemplars are
BLITZKRIEG’s Theatre Of The Damned (2007) [7]
(Mighty Music) and RITUAL’s Valley Of The Kings (1993)
[7] (High Roller). The former is a solid compendium of
mid-paced ripping yarns with Satan’s commanding
frontman Brian Ross in prime storyteller mode, the
latter a versatile, out-of-time curio of mystical hard
rock. Finally, High Roller have reissued Maryland doom
legends THE OBSESSED’s second LP, Lunar Womb (1991)
[9], a scorching classic of soulful, blue-collar stoner
groove that should have set Wino and co on the path to
fame and fortune, but didn’t.
CHRIS CHANTLER

METALHAMMER.COM 97

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LIVE REVIEWS

KORN

STRANGER THINGS: THE DRIVE INTO EXPERIENCE, LOS ANGELES, CA, USA

Bakersfield’s nu metal standard bearers reach new heights

98 METALHAMMER.COM

Fieldy shows how he
turned the metal
world Upside Down

THE
SET
Victimized

Cold
Insane
Falling Away
From Me
You’ll Never
Find Me
Thoughtless
Coming Undone
Throw Me Away
Justin
Black Is
The Soul
Freak On
A Leash
Alone I Break
Dirty
Can You
Hear Me
Ball Tongue
Narcissistic
Cannibal
Here To Stay

through 13 albums, ever refining,
expanding and pushing it into exciting
new forms. In this way, Korn have
managed to retain the feverish support
of their diehards while continuing to
attract new ones with each album.
In addition to the new material,
the 17-song performance pairs live
staples like Freak On A Leash, Falling
Away From Me and Coming Undone
with fan-titillating deep cuts like
Ball Tongue, Throw Me Away and
Thoughtless – a track from 2002’s
Untouchables, which the band haven’t
played live for more than a decade.
Behind the taut, churning squall of
downtuned riffs from guitarists James
‘Munky’ Shaffer and Brian ‘Head’
Welch, the set maintains a steady
ferocity. Along with bassist Fieldy,
the three breezily dart about and
occasionally step into the spotlight
for the odd solo. But Korn are very
much a collective unit. They entered
the scene in the 90s when the
exaggerated histrionics of 80s guitar
gods were viewed as passé and while
Jonathan delivers a compelling and
highly energised frontman
performance, Korn reach peak force
when they’re locked into that bouncy

synchronised grooving that underpins
their catalogue.
There is virtually zero between-song
banter, which isn’t all that unusual
given the lack of fans. And thanks to
the multiple camera angles zooming
in on the different musicians, as well
as some ace drone footage giving views
from above the rooftop, it’s not really
an issue. In fact, the first and only
juncture when the missing audience
feels apparent is the end of You’ll Never
Find Me, when its eerily repeating
refrain, ‘I’m not doing fine’, dissipates
into a hushed whisper and then silence.
In person, the final notes would melt
into the rousing assent of the crowd.
In the Monumental pre-show,
Jonathan indulges in some impressive
hyperbole, stating, “We wanted to
do something that was really grand
and different. It’s always been Korn’s
thing to always push the envelope
and… present things in a different
way [from] how usually people present
things. So we got our team together
and came up with this amazing
livestream. And it’s like nothing I’ve
ever seen for a stream… It’s more of
an experience than just sitting there
watching a band play on a screen.”
In fact, Monumental is very much the
experience of sitting there watching
a band play on a screen. That’s sort of
the definition of a livestream.
The performance closes with
Narcissistic Cannibal — a deep cut
bursting with minor keys and silvery
synths, followed by Here To Stay, which
erupts in a storm of slashing riffs and
the funked-out percussive wallop of
drummer Ray Luzier.
Monumental is a polished and
exceedingly well-produced show that
ranks among the better streaming
performances of the past year.
Looking forward, Korn fans can
revel in the news that the band have
recorded an entire new album in
quarantine, though details beyond
the announcement are thin.
Nonetheless, to see the band tonight,
hitting hard, sounding great and
having fun all the while certainly
bodes well for their next chapter.
JOE DALY

REHSARHT EVETS/SSERP

AN ANCIENT CHINESE proverb
reads, “When the winds of change
blow, some people build walls and
others build windmills.” When
touring went on ice with the onset
of COVID-19, bands turned to
livestreaming to stay connected to
fans and to bring some much-needed
revenue into the coffers. The early
wave of bands built the equivalent
of walls, basically selling tickets to
spiritless gigs in awkwardly empty
clubs or jam rooms. A second wave
of windmill builders soon followed,
with bands using livestream
technology as a tool for launching
immersive and highly polished
performances. Tonight, nu metal
pioneers Korn unveil their inaugural
livestream, titled Monumental,
broadcasting their set from the
rooftop of an LA skyscraper.
Like many of the recent concert
streams, this performance is not
live, but pre-recorded, from the roof
of Stranger Things: The Drive-Into
Experience. Filmed at night with
the LA skyline rising above Korn’s
massive video walls and dazzling
batteries of stage lights slashing
across the stage, the vibe is sleek
and futuristic. Opening with the
pummelling live debut of Victimized,
the production is top-notch; highdefinition video and masterful sound
mixing give this performance the
headbanging potency of a live Korn
show, which is no small feat
considering how cold it must have been
on that rooftop – a fact underscored
by the band’s bundled outfits.
Korn released The Nothing in 2019 but
the 2020 supporting tour with Faith
No More was cancelled. Consequently,
in addition to Victimized, the set
features the live debuts of You’ll Never
Find Me and an absolutely slamming
version of Cold, with Jonathan Davis
alternating between the soaring pitch
of the chorus and a caustic barrage of
fearsomely heavy death metal vocals.
The song showcases the extent to
which Korn have evolved from eclectic
nu metal upstarts to a mature and
innovative collective who have carried
their trademark sound forward

LIV

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Korn put on a Monumental
rooftop performance

XXXXXX

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ROADBURN REDUX

VARIOUS VENUES/O13, TILBURG

The Netherlands’ revered underground music fest transfers its spirit online
ROADBURN HAS ALWAYS been

100 METALHAMMER.COM

SSERP :SREHTO/NEGAHREV LUAP :DLOG/KCNIV SLEIN :TSEN/KCNIV SLEIN :NAINUTPEN/REDNARHCS ETTOL :SENNEVLOW

Mercy Machine swagger and clatter with rare
paint wide psychedelic soundscapes you
presence and loads of wonky riffs. Delivering
a singularly immersive experience, driven
simply get lost in.
one of the festival’s best-sounding sets, THE
by an exploratory spirit that’s made it more
Easily one of the heaviest bands around,
OCEAN’s immaculate reading of 2020’s
a cultural experience than a regular music
in every sense of the word, BODY VOID give
Phanerozoic II hammers home their status as
festival. That approach has been transferred
us a barbaric and deeply unsavoury rendition
prog-leaning, post-metal heavyweights.
to Roadburn Redux, a four-day livestream
of Fawn, from new album BuryMe Beneath
event that feels holistically bound
This Rotting Earth. WITCH MOUNTAIN
to unifying ideal in a way that no
have a sturdy catalogue from which to
other online festival has managed
draw, but their languorous cover of
yet. From the amount of care and
Soundgarden’s Limo Wreck is a wellcraft that’s gone into the pre-recorded
chosen curveball, sung with miraculous
and specially commissioned live
restraint and charisma by vocalist Kayla
sets and documentaries, even
Dixon. Few people on this earth have a
remotely it does what Roadburn’s
presence that fills the room, even when
always done: make you feel for
they’re not really there. STEVE VON
a while like nothing else exists.
TILL manages without trying. His set is
more meditation than concert; his
There could be no better kickoff
than KAIRON; IRSE!, their equally
husky voice towers atop gentle
heavy and psychedelic mix pulling
arrangements for piano, cello, synths,
your head right out of everyday life
French horn and guitar, wrapping your
and onto a higher plane. A blizzard
soul in warmth.
of state-of-the-art extreme metal,
Whether they’re performing their
Neptunian Maximalism go
AUTARKH’s playthrough of
ballistic with the mystic new album, Temple, or working as the
debut album Form In Motion is
backbone of the dark metal supergroup
THE NEST – featuring vocalists from
a magnificent shock to the system.
The Nest initiate
Twisted, esoteric and avowedly grim, their own rite club
Dool’s Ryanne van Dorst, Primoridal’s
it’s the sound of the future eating
Alan Averill and The Ruins Of Beverast
itself. There is no Redux performance
mainman Alexander von Meilenwald
as emotionally charged as GOLD’S
– WOLVENNEST are the force to be
commissioned piece This Shame
reckoned with this weekend. The
Belgians transform homes into temples
Should Not Be Mine, which deals with
singer Milena Eva’s experiences of
and screens into shrines as they worship
sexual violence. It’s a display of pain,
the dark and open the gates of hell with
rage, healing and being a survivor,
their psychedelic doom. NEPTUNIAN
wrapped in post-rock and harsh
MAXIMALISM make drone that sounds
synth sounds. Dávid Makó, aka
like a carnival at the end of the world.
THE DEVIL’S TRADE, looks like
Absurdly gripping and, yes, aimed
Tom Hardy’s Charles Bronson and
squarely at dedicated space cadets, Set
has a rapt, wracked voice that prises
Chaos To The Heart Of The Moon is exactly
the kind of mind-blowing sonic spectacle
open lost moments to find a host of
mineralsglistening within. Featuring
that Roadburn was designed for.
members of Oranssi Pazuzu and Dark Buddha Maybe INTER ARMA’s covers performance
Featuring Oranssi’s Jun-His and Hexvessel’s
doesn’t have the highest production value of
Rising, DUST MOUNTAIN are an airier if
Mat McNerney and all the neon lighting you
could wish for, HAUNTED PLASMA are the
no lass far-reaching affair than their day jobs, the weekend, but it has “most fun” written
all over it. The riff beasts pay tribute to
their Middle Eastern-tinged mystic musings
most mesmerising krautrock-infused
Cro-Mags, Venom, Minor Threat and… Tom
darkwave band you’ll ever hear. Explaining
like coming across expatriates jamming in a
Petty. In a COVID-free world, this would be
bar in Marakesh at 2am. REGARDE LES
the close-knit, cosmic nature of Finland’s
HOMMES TOMBER’s eerie and aggressive set the set for everyone to raise their fists/beers
Tampere scene, Mat explains that it comes
and jump into the moshpit.
makes you miss real shows. It’s a shame they
from the kinds of digressions you get while
DAWN RAY’D serve up two exclusive new
can’t premier their superb album Ascension in
sharing saunas,and there’s the same intimate,
tracks, cementing their growing reputation
a crowded, dark room with the sheer force
communal sense of ritual throughout
as the fieriest of firebrands. Wild Fire I andII
of the music assaulting your body.
HEXVESSEL’s spellbinding rendition of their
explore both extremes in the Brits’ sound,
POLYMOON look like young 70s renegades
debut, Dawnbearer. Shot in a barn amidst
from excoriating black metal to ornate and
but sonically span decades, taking pastoral
incense, fir sprigs and other items that
wintry chamber folk. If only BADA could live
prog-psych and shoegazy textures to states
wouldn’t look out of place in Midsommar, it’s
in all our attics! Shot in time-lapse between
of kaleidoscopic radiance, as if memories of
an act of devotion and gentle conjuring with a
dusty wooden beams and timid rays of light,
deep, emotional undercurrent that feels like
lysergic journeys are flooding back. If trippy
the group featuring organist powerhouse
meandering isn’t your thing, MAGGOT
it’s the most natural act in the word – the
Anna von Hausswolff, ghost in and out of
HEART’s turbocharged post-punk is the
Roadburn ethos incarnate.
DOM LAWSON/JONATHAN SELZER/CHRISTINA WENIG
perfect, spiky antidote. Songs from last year’s the frame as they summon their magic and

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Wolvennest tune into
a cosmic frequency

Gold’s Milena Eva:
a show of inner
strength

Steve von Till meditates on
life, the universe, healing
your wounded heart
Hexvessel: Mat McNerney
finds old habits die hard

METALHAMMER.COM 101

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102 METALHAMMER.COM

LIV

PUSCIFER

CRYPTOSIS
METROPOOL HERTOG JAN ZAAL, ENSCHEDE

When Dutch thrashers Distillator
rebrandedas Cryptosis in 2020 after seven
years and two albums, they marked out
a new epoch of ambitious songwriting.
The decision was more than justified; the
songs of the band’s debut, Bionic Swarm –
released just a month before – take on
a new physicality in the live setting thanks
to weeks of intensive rehearsals that have
seen the band essentially rebuild the
record from the ground up. Early thrashers
Decypher and Death Technology take off
like a jet engine, showing that the oldschool motor the band used as Distillator
hasn’t been entirely scrapped. But when
the band take their foot off the pedal
things really take off, with elements of
prog, symphonic and black metal
trickling in to augment their sound. The
MVP award surely goes to sound engineer
Olaf Skoreng for perfectly balancing the
band’s many disparate elements. Be it the
spooling bass and techno-prog approach
of Prospect Of Immortality that bears
shades of Voivod, the Dimmu Borgir-ish
grandiose symphonic black metal of
Mindscape or even the Tom Araya-esque
howl that brings it all home on Flux
Divergence, Cryptosis emerge from their
debut live performance as an exciting,
enthralling new force in cosmically
tinged progressive thrash.

MAYAN THEATER, LOS ANGELES

Maynard James Keenan’s alt-rock enigmas wrestle with their identity
IT SEEMS LIKE quite the Captain Obvious

thing to say, but those artists who have a strong
sense of visuals have definitely been the more
successful of the livestreaming wars. Stand still
in a t-shirt and jeans and play the hits in your
rehearsal room and you aren’t going to be
remembered much; put on a series of cinematic,
character-led explosions of psychedelic imagery,
colour and bizarre set pieces, as Puscifer have,
and you’re much more likely to stick in our brain
for the long haul.
In their second dip into the livestream market,
Maynard James Keenan’s oddball collective have
decided to play their 2015 album, Money $hot, in
its entirety. That in itself is enough to give this
particular evening a real sense of being
noteworthy, what with it being the most complete
record of their storied career. Still, a Pusicfer
show wouldn’t be a Puscifer show without some
dry tomfoolery from Keenan as his alter ego,
and we begin with a slurring Billy D. confronting
and offending some luchador wrestlers in a bar

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before we’re transported to a ring where the
band strike up the album.
Unlike the aforementioned plug-and-play
approach of, frankly, far too many metal bands
during similar streams, it’s magnificent to see
Puscifer create an entire world around Money $hot.
From the band themselves, looking resplendent
in suits and masks while the luchadors cause
chaos on the sidelines, to the ever-switching
locations we find ourselves in alongside them,
ending in something that bizarrely looks like the
Aztec Zone from The Crystal Maze, the Rocky
Horror Picture Show-meets-Ed Wood production
values gives this a real sense of value for money.
Of course, all this would count for nothing if
the songs were stinkers, but Money $hot’s hefty
title track, the country twang of Grand Canyon
and the unforgettable The Remedy with its trollbaiting chorus are all wonderfully satisfying
rock songs, brought to life by a band with a true
sense of theatre and imagination.
STEPHEN HILL

RICH HOBSON

INSOMNIUM
PRIVATE VENUE, JOENSUU

REHSARHT EVETS/SSERP

Seven years ago Insomnium released
Shadows Of The Dying Sun, a polished
chapter in their melancholic canon,
and the fans recently voted it as their
favourite album to hear live in full. So,
tonight, in the band’s hometown of
Joensuu, the melodeath Finns are happy
to oblige. Even the pandemic version of
Insomnium offers much of what we’ve
come to expect from these consummate
musicians; the stage is only a little smaller
than usual and there’s no dialling back on
sound quality, granting Markus Vanhala
the ideal arena to show off his Van
Halen-level soloing. “Boys, what is the
next song?” asks Niilo Sevänen, briefly
forgetting the order, but a quick reminder
leads them into a vehement version of
the frostbitten Black Heart Rebellion.
Tonight comes with a few rare tracks,
including the “weeping ballad” Lose To
Night but the highlight is seeing their
newish guitarist Jani Liimatainen come
into his own as a musician and a singer.
Closing the night, a despondent Niilo
expresses his disappointment at having
to debut their new song on a livestream
but they do The Conjurer and its climactic
heft justice, ending in a blaze of flashing
lights and synchronised headbanging.
HOLLY WRIGHT

METALHAMMER.COM 103

THE HOME OF

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POPPY
UNKNOWN VENUE, LOS ANGELES

Avant-pop/metal crossover queen
lights up a path to the dark side
MILLIONS WERE INTRODUCED

to Poppy through her surreal, borderline
disturbing YouTube videos. In front of
an opaque screen, in a robotic, childlike
voice, the singer filmed herself repeating
her own name, eating cotton candy and
talking to mannequins. It was all part of
a high-art dissection of celebrity and
politics that has won her a cult-like
following – so far 4.3 million people have
watched a video where she converses
with a “sentient” plant. Yet many metal
fans first became aware of Poppy in 2019,
when she played at WWE NXT in Orlando
Florida, soundtracking wrestler Io Shirai’s
entrance with her Fever 333-collab, Scary
Mask. Her self-described “post-genre”
2020 album, I Disagree, was the sonic
equivalent of a gremlin eating after
midnight: the cover art showed the
singer in superimposed corpsepaint,
while the music mutated from sugary
choruses into monstrous nu metal.
The effect is just as jarring tonight.
The futuristic pop on Poppy’s 2018 record,
Am I A Girl?, showed tentative signs of
heading in a heavier direction, but on
I Disagree, she committed to it with
aplomb. The first 40 seconds of tonight’s
livestream opener, Concrete, traverses
groaning NIN-style electronics, barbed
mathcore guitars and a Babymetal-style
chorus that descends into a nightmarish
lullaby. Surrounded by masked
musicians, Bloodmoney has her stomping
down a runway in clompy boots to
clanking Code Orange effects, before
screaming herself hoarse amid pink
flashing neon. Play Destroy andFill The
Crown veer manically between cutesy
choruses and industrial riffs. Meanwhile,
the online chat at the side of the stream
is moving almost too fast to read as rabid
fans idolise every lyric, wink and move.
With no banter between songs, the
tracks rattle by in a focused parade of
breathless tempo and sound changes that
cherry-pick from the alt-rock orchard.
Trans rights anthem Am I A Girl? nods to
Depeche Mode’s glittering darkness and
Sit/Stay references Combichrist, Garbage
and Grimes, in that order. By Bite Your
Teeth, she’s on her knees in a maelstrom
of ruined beats and militant drums,
before I Disagree’s pastel-coloured
nihilism brings things to an abrupt close.
This latest perspective on metal leaves
our heads spinning.

SSERP

DANNII LEIVERS

METALHAMMER.COM 105

What’s the worst thing about being
in a band?
“People with families always say the
same thing: being away from family
while on tour. But the worst thing
about being in this particular band is…
how much beer we haveto drink!”
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve
ever been given?
“I’ve never had anyone hand over
a nugget of truth like in the movies,
but there have been times where band
lead by example. When we toured with
Clutch and Mastodon – on different
tours, but with similar approaches
– we learned to always be courteous
and polite. Basically, don’t be dicks!”
When was the first time you felt like
a rock star?
“I’ll tell you if that happens! There are
moments where I feel lucky to be where
I am, but I think with ‘rock stars’ there
is a level of feeling responsibility for
being where you are that I don’t really
have – it’s all just lucky alignments!”
What’s been your worst experience
on drugs?
“The one and only time I did crystal
meth, I started band practice at
midnight and ended it by dropping our
bandmate at his community service
job… at a blood bank… where I gave
blood, because I thought that would
get the drugs out of my system!”
When was the last time you cried?
“I saw this college basketball player
who made the game-winning shot,
and gave this post-game interview and
started crying, so I started crying too.”
How have things changed in the past
five years for Red Fang?
“The biggest thing is that everything
seems more stable. For our first six or
seven years, everything was changing
and it wasn’t until Only Ghosts[2016] that
it felt like we hit a stride. Getting asked
to do things like chat-shows [the band
were on David Letterman in 2014] went

“I GAVE
BLOOD
BECAUSE
I THOUGHT
IT’D GET THE
METH OUT OF
MY SYSTEM!”

106 METALHAMMER.COM

from being, ‘What are you talking
about!?’ to, ‘That might happen…’”

AA

FIVE MINUTES WITH

RED FANG

The Red Fang vocalist/bassist
talks mindfulness, stability
and crystal meth
WORDS: RICH HOBSON • PICTURE: JAMES REXROAD

You’ve said this record is closer to
2011’s Murder The Mountains. How so?
“Our first record was mostly just
Bryan’s [Giles – guitar, vocals] songs
that got arranged together. Murder
The Mountains was the first fully
collaborative Red Fang record and was
the most successful expression of what
this band is capable of. This record is
getting back to that much more
collaborative process. It’sa bit crass, but
I remember the first royalty reporting
we got from Relapse Records, and I
messaged back because I thought there
had been a typo withtoo many zeroes!”
Sonically, it’s incredibly diverse –
from the Melvinsy sludge of the
first two tracks to a noise rock-ish
mid-section and straight-up stoner/
psych towards the end…
“If you’ve got three or four different
guys writing songs, the records will
sound diverse! It’s one of the things
I loved about Led Zeppelin or The
Kinks – their records aren’t consistent
from one to the next; each album has
a variety of sounds, styles and tones.
It makes everything more interesting.”
What’s inspired the new album?
“The lyrics – on my part at least – were
my dissatisfaction with the things
that were going on in the world at that
point. It’s very anti… the guy who was
president, right? He was infuriating to
me. To be fair there’s a lot of political
correctness on the left – and I consider
myself a progressive and a leftist –
that is counter-productive and helped
Trump gain traction, so that’s where
some of the inspiration came from too.”
Word has it the title track was
inspired by meditation?
“Sort of! About 2013, my ex-wife and
I started splitting up, and around that
time I got into meditation. I was all over
the place emotionally and mentally, so
meditation made it easier to tune some
stuff out. It’s not just sitting with your
eyes closed – it’sbeing inan experience;
not thinking, ‘What time is the Zoom
call’ when I’m brushing my teeth or
whatever, but focusing on what I’m
doing. The idea of ‘separating the
arrows’ from Arrows is about
getting hurt, but then starting to
dread the pain when it’s coming
and as it’s happening. But that
stuff is inevitable, so why bother
adding more pain? You don’t need
to be pierced by both arrows, right?”

ARROWS IS OUT JUNE 4 VIA
RELAPSE RECORDS

: THEIR FIRST METAL HAMMER INTERVIEW REVISITED
2 OF 2
COLLECTABLE
COVERS

INSIDE THEIR MOST
UNDERRATED SONG
AC/DC, CRABCORE…
AND FISH & CHIPS
AND THE TOUR THAT

CONQUERED
THE WORLD

THE STREAM OF THE
YEAR REVIEWED
“WE’RE CREATING
A NEW EXTREME”

+

DVNE • FEAR FACTORY • MONSTER MAGNET
SATYRICON • HOLDING ABSENCE • BALA

ISSUE 349