Category: Interviews

Posted on by

Interview with Heljarmadr of Dark Funeral and GRA/Concert Review

© Tomasz Podgorny

Dark Funeral are currently halfway through their extremely successful North American tour with extreme metal titans Cannibal Corpse, Immolation and relative newcomers, Black Anvil. The fans showed up in full force with this string of shows with many of the dates selling out and the rest with very few tickets remaining. 

The Cincinnati show which took place at Bogart’s, one of the city’s longest running music venues wasn’t sold out but it sure felt like it. People were packed and crammed into the tiny venue excited to witness a night of killer metal. Black Anvil started the evening off early and did an incredible job. I was both surprised and impressed. I had not heard any of their material before checking them out live and will definitely seek them out in the future. Immolation’s set was brutal as fuck as usual for an Immolation show. Headliners Cannibal Corpse proved that they are still one of the finest live Death Metal acts around even after all of these years.

Seeing Dark Funeral live for the first time was amazing. Immediately upon entering the stage, their presence and energy could be felt throughout the entire venue. From the first note of the opening song, “Unchain my Soul,” the crowd was totally captivated by their performance until the end of the set closing track, “Where Shadows Forever Reign.” It was crazy to think that another band had to follow this killer performance. (In fact, I was so worn out I left towards the end of Cannibal’s set)

Before the gig, I had a chance to sit down with Heljarmadr, Dark Funeral and GRA’s vocalist. Despite his extremely intimidating stage presence, he is a very thoughtful and accommodating person off stage. I don’t think I would have had the balls to speak with him in his stage gear! 

Trve Kvlt Coffee: Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with me before the show. Just to start things off, how has the tour been going so far?

Heljarmadr: So far so good I think. Turnout has been awesome. All the bands are performing excellent; it has been a pleasure to watch them all. I think it’s rolling strong. Very strong. There have been a lot of sold out shows.

TKC: That’s what I was going to say. There has been a few sold out shows

H: More sold out shows coming up too.

TKC: That’s awesome. I was at a Cannibal Corpse show earlier this year and a lot of their shows were selling out. I think that was in March. Everyone was so hungry to see shows again after COVID shut downs. How does it feel to be touring again?

H: After 2 years of silence, you can imagine. It’s like being constipated for 2 years and you finally get the shit out. It’s the only way I can describe it properly. You’re really, really hungry and you finally get that pizza. 

TKC: Just a big relief now?

H: Yeah. It’s a different world we are coming back to that’s for sure. I mean with inflation and everything. Everything is extremely expensive. Flights are insane but it is what it is. I mean we are back on that road and have to be very glad about that. 

TKC: When you are on the road, what do you do with some of your down time? I’ve seen some of your Instagram pictures, what do you look to do in the cities you are in when you have a chance?

H: Actually, I try to do as much as possible. Just before now we had a soundcheck and then I went for a quick run because it’s so warm out. I try to stay fit and see as much as we can. 

TKC: This area has changed so much, I wish I had some recommendations for things to check out but I don’t even know what’s around here anymore. 

H: It’s still one of those days where I have a lot of administration to do and don’t have much time to do stuff anyway. The first thing I do is, I Google what there is to do in the town. Recommendations, Atlas Obscura, do you know about it? It’s like a website with weird places. They have an app and website, in a new town that’s the coolest website to checkout because it’s weird shit. This town has the world’s biggest stamp and an abandoned railroad. That’s what we try to do as much as possible. Sitting on the bus is a waste of time. We are trying to get out, especially when the weather is as nice as this, it’s amazing to be out.

TKC: I’ve been listening to a lot of We are the Apocalypse. Which is fucking awesome! I wanted to ask about the song, “Let the Devil in,” We did some of the inspiration come from the lyrics? 

H: Inspiration comes from everything and it kind of mounds down into a song. It’s kind of an introvert song. I mean looking into yourself and taking control of yourself or letting go, you know? You can do either or. In life you always have choices. You can let the devil in or you can let the devil out. That’s kind of where I’m going with it. 

TKC: It was one of those songs where the lyrics just hit write as I was working at my computer today.

H: Yeah. He’s riding on the shadow of my soul, you know? This is how my eyes see the world. It’s like we all have our little angel and demon on our shoulders. They see things differently depending on what mood you are seeing things through. Which eyes you see it through.

TKC: Another song I really dig is “Nosferatu.” You have the song referring more to the original film. 

H: Oh yes! The 1922 film. I watched it during the Pandemic actually. I had this weird idea. So I have a lot of time and I’m going to watch Dracula themed movies from oldest to newest and there are lots of them. So I had to make a selection obviously. I started with the first one and nothing measured up after that. Everything became this romantic crap but the first one had a darkness. It’s out of this world, this feeling from that movie. Maybe it’s the fact it’s mute, maybe it’s the fact it’s black and white, everyone that’s in this movie has been dead for a long time, you know? It’s really like an old book but it’s a movie. It’s kind of cool that it’s 100 years old. 

TKC: It’s so hard to find a complete copy and find one with the correct original score. I recently heard they are once again going to be releasing a remake.

H: I saw that too with the Swedish guy. 

TKC: What do you think of that?

H: Why not? Actually the second best Dracula movie rendition was from a couple years back. It was a 3 episode series or something like that. (Note:This series is named Dracula and is currently streaming on Netflix) A different take for example is the classic movie from the 90’s, Bram’s Stoker’s Dracula, that one was not so good. I don’t think it aged so well. Too gothic for me. But this new one was quite interesting. Some interesting takes on it. 

TKC: Nice. I’m going to have to check that series out.  You’re working on a new album and when that’s coming out?

H: Well the album is done already. We are just waiting because post Pandemic the world has changed as you’ve said. So the vinyl pressing companies are slow as fuck. Or jammed as fuck. Sometimes it’s even hard to get a hold of material. We decided instead of gambling and getting the CD version and maybe people have to wait to get the vinyl, we decided to postpone and the album will be out in mid January. And that is for sure when the vinyl will be available. 

TKC: You also have your solo act as well. I was listening to that last night, which was great. I loved the video (watch below). You have a full album coming out?

H: Yes. It’s being planned to be recorded next year. We’ll see whenever it’s released. We are also negotiating some record deals for that album too. So it’s a work in progress. The drummer for that project will be Dennis Ekdahl from Thyrfing. So we are working together so this can come out next year.

TKC: Awesome! With all of that I have to ask, Do you ever sleep?

H: (laughs) I don’t know, I’m a very restless person. Sitting still is not my thing, you know? Maybe I’m like this shark that has to swim or otherwise I’d drown or something. I like to keep occupied and I like to keep active. I don’t know, I’m just that kind of person.

TKC: I totally feel it myself. I just finished my full time day job before coming here and I’m always grinding and looking for something to do. Again going back to your Instagram stories from the road, I love the picture with the Rocky statue in Philly. 

H: Oh yeah! I mean, why not? 

TKC: I would have done the same thing. Any spots in the US that you are looking forward to seeing?

H: Well the thing is when we came here we all flew into New York and we had a couple of days before the first show. So we rented a car together and just went sightseeing all the way down to Baltimore. We went to DC to check out the Lincoln statue, those things. That’s something I had really looked forward to seeing. I’ve never been to Washington before and it’s an iconic place that you’ve seen in movies since you were a kid. 

TKC: I haven’t been there myself yet.

H: It’s definitely worth seeing. I don’t know what to do there for more than 1 day. In 1 day you will be very overwhelmed and impressed. It’s an impressive thing to see, you get all of the Forrest Gump references. Aside from that I don’t know if there is anything on the radar. I try not to plan too much ahead because you never know what days are gonna be like. You have other things to do like administration or something is broken. I don’t want to be disappointed so I take it day by day. Of course I’m usually thinking a couple days ahead but I try to take it slow. 

TKC: You gotta be careful with shows right now. Someone gets sick and that cancels a few dates or the bus breaks down.

H: Someone gets sick, the bus breaks down and you’re stuck somewhere. It happened not the last time we were here but the time before when we were touring with Septicflesh. The bus broke down, so we went to the nearest airport, rented a car and a Uhaul. So we were touring and hitting hotels every night. So that was like an adventure. I’ll never forget that, I’m from a small Swedish town and I was driving my car in Chicago. I think that was kinda cool. 

TKC: Definitely different from driving in a small town.

H: I was also driving in DC, I’m not afraid of driving anymore. Nothing can scare me.

TKC: I think that’s all I had for you today. Anything that you would like to add?

H: Thanks to everyone for coming out to the shows, the turnout is awesome and thank you for this interview.

Well the concludes this interview. Be sure to check out Dark Funeral’s newest release “We Are The Apocalypse” and Grá’s newest music video(below) for “Flame of Hephaestus” from their upcoming 4th album “Lycaon”

Here’s some suggested content to check out that is relevant to Heljarmadr:

 

Posted on by

Bill Steer talks with Trve Kvlt Coffee about their latest release, Torn Arteries.

Here’s a treat for you this Samhain Season. A little over a year ago, I was able to chat with the mighty Bill Steer of Carcass. This interview was tied up for a bit and I am extremely excited share it with you now.

If you are already here, I don’t have to explain to you about how important his contributions to extreme Metal music have been over the years. Being a huge Carcass fan, I was pretty nervous to interview him but he quickly calmed that fear. Bill may be one of the most humble and genuine artists that I have interviewed over the years.

 

 

Trve Kvlt Coffee: Your new album, Torn Arteries was finally released in September which was pushed out for over a year. What was it like to have to sit on that album for so long?

 

Bill Steer: Well, in all truth, it’s probably closer to 2 years since we finished the thing. I can’t even remember the original release date. Even before Covid happened the release date was pushed back a couple of times for one reason or another. Around March last year the world changed and we knew we would have to sit on this a while longer. We certainly weren’t alone in that, it seemed like there were quite a few bands and artists in a similar position. You couldn’t really start feeling sorry for yourself. It was a minor inconvenience compared to what some people are going through. 

 

TKC: Looking on the bright side you did manage to release the Despicable EP last year in its place to sort of tide the fans over.

 

BS: Exactly. The original intention was for the Despicable EP to follow the album much in the same way as Surgical Steel had an EP come out a few months later. Then once the virus kicked in, Nuclear Blast decided to reverse everything and they wanted to wait for us to be ready to tour before they released the album. They decided to stick the EP out to keep a bit of interest in the band. Of course the strange thing now is that the album is out and we still won’t be quite ready to tour. I’m still glad though, it’s a tremendous relief to see this thing out there. 

 

TKC: Definitely! I love the new album, I’ve already listened to it a few times. One thing I loved with the Despicable release, there was a bundle that included a face mask. 

 

BS: Really? You know I had forgotten all about that. I’m always the last to know about some of these promotional ideas. 

 

TKC: I thought that if any band was going to have some sort of surgical style mask, it had to be Carcass. 

 

BS: They think of everything. I mean, I just recently heard about this dinner plate thing. I actually thought someone was winding me up on the phone. After we finished the interview,I checked it out online. That’s crazy.

 

TKC: I read that the album’s title, Torn Arteries, came from an early demo from (original drummer) Ken Owen. 

 

BS: This is going way back. We were teenagers in school together. Sometimes he would bring in sets of lyrics he had written, they were almost like poetry because we didn’t really have an active band at the time. I think we were around 15 or so. Some of those sets of lyrics worked their way into early Carcass stuff when we actually started the band up properly. I do remember him bringing in this tape. It was a very crude recording but it distorted so brutally it sounded a lot bigger and threatening than it really was. Essentially, it was a guy playing Spanish guitar in his bedroom and overdubbing some drums which were really books and then he was screaming over top of it. It was a pretty out there sound that he had recorded. I wish I still had the tape. It might be in the bottom of a box somewhere in my parent’s attic. Years later I mentioned this recording to Jeff (Walker). I think he was quite taken at the title and the whole story behind it. 

 

TKC: That’s really cool to hear. I think it’s great that you are still able to include Ken in some way.

 

BS: He’s always there in some form, he was in the band from the very start and he’s on that initial run of albums. What he brought to the band and his approach to music, there is always going to be an element of that. If you have so much time with somebody, as a friend or as a musician in a band, they are going to rub off on you and that influence stays.

 

TKC: Carcass has had some history of incredibly gory album covers. The cover for Torn Arteries is pretty unique. Where did the idea for this album cover come from?

 

BS: I genuinely have no idea. I didn’t realize Jeff was going to do this. I think he had been collaborating with an artist friend in Poland, a man whose name I still can’t pronounce properly unfortunately. Looking at the finished results, I’m guessing they spent a while working on this thing. That first that Dan Wilding and  myself knew about it was when Jeff presented the finished article. The one thing that we felt was that we didn’t want anything that felt too generic, Jeff worked really hard in that direction for something that was going to stand out. Off the back of that naturally you are going to polarize your audience. From what I gather there is a real mix of opinion, some people enjoy the fact that it is so different and there are other people who just think it looks terrible. It seems to have gotten people talking, which is probably what they were after

 

TKC: I remember first looking at it and thinking it was a little simple and then it struck me. That heart is made out of vegetables. I thought that was very clever.

 

BS: It seems that there are a few people saying, “Oh god. Now they are forcing a vegan message on us!” Which couldn’t be further from the truth as far as I’m concerned. I can’t speak for Jeff but I imagine he feels the same way. Whether it’s his lyrics or the kind of imagery he does for the band it seems he rather have people come to their own conclusions about it. It is there for people to interpret whatever they wish into it. Once you put something out into the public domain, you no longer have full control, people will take it into interesting directions, stuff you wouldn’t even think of.

 

TKC: I love some of the dark humor that Carcass has with some of your song titles such as,”Elenor Rigamortis,” 

 

BS: Yeah, I’d say it’s probably safe to say that there has been a subtle humor running though all of the Carcass items lyrically. It was very obvious to us as teenagers when we first started. The first 2 albums were the three of us (Bill, Jeff and Ken) all writing lyrics. On the third album Jeff had kind of made that his own and it’s been that way ever since. Dark humor is a big thing for him. 

 

TKC: Since your first album, your sound has always been evolving. On this new album, you have some incredible guitar work here. The intro to “The Scythe’s Remorseless Swing?” is fantastic.

 

BS: Thanks. It seemed to me we couldn’t justify making a new album unless it was genulily new music. There are some elements of our sound that are just corner stones and they will probably always be there but equally I think in order to move forward you have to bring in slightly new things and it doesn’t need to be anything radical. We are not the type of group to experiment but we also can’t face the idea of looking over our shoulders to plagiarize thighs we did in the past. It seems to me every record we’ve done is a few steps on from the previous one. 

 

TKC: How does it feel to remain possibly more popular than ever playing this type of extreme music?

 

BS: It’s remarkable. It’s something none of us would have expected going back to the late 80’s and early 90’s. It’s important not to take it for granted, we’ve been very fortunate. In the days when we were still playing festivals and club dates the front rows would tend to be people who were too young to have ever seen us in our original form. What you would naturally get of that is that the music has stood the test of time somewhat. It’s not just that, “you had to be there” music for people of a certain age. 

 

TKC: Since we are getting ready for the spooky season, I wanted to make sure I asked what some of your favorite horror films are.

 

BS: Crikey. I have not watched anything of that nature for so many years. What would even be considered horror now? Obviously, I’m at an age where films were broadly considered horror movies. I’m guessing for younger people a horror film has to have a lot of blood and guts right? The only films that stayed with me from my youth were The Omen and The Exorcist. They are sort of mainstream films but this is something extremely dark about them and they do stand up for repeated viewing. 

 

TKC: Are you looking forward to getting back on the road and playing shows again?

 

BS: Absolutely. In the present day things are looking decent here in Britain. It feels like we are on a very gradual slow return to normality. No idea on how long that might take. We do have one date for a festival in Yorkshire in November. We are not going to assume anything or get carried away with ourselves. Until we are told otherwise we are going to start rehershing again and try to shake off some of the rust

 

Posted on by

Into the Darkness Festival – Interview with Thomas Haywood

The Into the Darkness Festival is shaping up to be one one helluva can’t miss event. With some of the best bands in extreme metal attending this 2 day event in the coolest bowling alley outside Kingpin (no word yet if Bill Murrary will be in attendance) make sure to keep your calendar clear July 29-30th and start making your travel plans. This is one event you can’t afford to miss!

Festival organizer and founder of Redefining Darkness Records and Seeing Red Records and all around cool dude,Thomas Haywood,took a few moments to talk to us about this amazing show.

Trve Kvlt Coffee: You have 2 different record companies, Redefining Darkness Records and Seeing Red Records. How did you get started?

 

Thomas Haywood: My background is, I’m a musician first. I actually went to school for music in Los Angeles at the Musician’s Institute. Then I was trying to get gigs, I auditioned for tons of bands, then I ended up moving to Cleveland and one of my good friends had gotten a gig with Abigail Williams who were on tour with Dark Funeral and Enslaved at the time. After that tour the band broke up and my friend was continuing to play with the main songwriter Abigail Williams. They ended up doing something new and brought me into the fold into what would become Born of Fire. We got signed to Roadrunner records. The album never came out. They gave us an offer, “We can put out your album in 2 years or we’ll release you (from the contract) right now and give you this money.” We didn’t want to wait around so we took the money. We continued Abigail after that because they were still getting offers, so I toured with them for the next 2 years and did the album Shadow of a Thousand Suns. 

 

I gave up the touring life, I had already been married and we were having our first kid. I missed the first 3-4 months of my daughter’s life, so after that we decided I wouldn’t tour anymore. Then life changed, got divorced, had another kid, so I took a break from everything and focused on my life. Once things were settled in my life and things started getting good again, I had always had my foot in the door. I had done some writing with Aborted and started writing for a UK blog called All About the Rock doing some extreme metal reviews and started doing some more podcast based stuff. In doing so and reviewing all of these bands and all of the people that I have met on the road who were sharing their projects with me. I thought, man I kinda have all of this at my fingertips and the thing I had not done yet was being on the business side of music. I was like, Why don’t I try to release this stuff?

 

The other half of that was empowering artists, something I didn’t have when we were signed to  Roadrunner. I wanted to put power back into musicians’ hands, I believe all song writers should own their own music, their own publishing and that sort of thing. That was the main reason for starting the labels. I started them in 2015.

 

A lot of people ask me, “Why 2?” I ask myself that question a lot as well. At the time I was doing some research and one of the labels that was on the rise was Dark Descent. All of these niche labels were doing well, all these labels that catered to one style, the fan base was built in. If you like one band you’re almost guaranteed to like the next band. Dark Descent was kind of doing the same thing at the time, so I thought, “I love extreme and death metal,” So I’ll keep that on one side. I love so much music; post punk, goth, industrial, hard core that I still need an outlet for that stuff. If there is a band I believe in, a band I want to support, I still want to have an avenue for that. That’s where Seeing Red Records came from.

 

TK: Looking at the lineup for the Into the Darkness Fest, it looks incredible. I mean you have veterans like Macabre and Deceased. Then you have some relative up and comers like Imperial Triumphant and a ton of other bands. How long has this show been in the works?

 

TH: This past July was when I first got in touch with the venue. First I wanted to find a location. The venue is in Youngstown (Ohio). Youngstown is only known for a couple of things. It was Murderville, USA because it is the main artery that cuts through Pennsylvania to New York, it’s kind of the gateway from New York to Chicago. There was a lot of mob running, like a hub. There was a lot of bombings, people killing each other, that kind of thing. They have this great venue, Westside Bowl, I think it’s 30,000 square feet. It is enormous, it’s like a city block, tons of ample parking, tons of room for bands. The area has great park systems for people who want to hike and that sort of thing. It’s done by the same guys who developed Central Park in New York. There are great breweries that are popping up everywhere and Youngstown is no exception to that. There is Nobel Creature which is really close and we are tying into it and not far from there is Cloven Hoof, they are coming down and taking part. We are trying to get the community involved into it as well. 

 

I had finally come across Westside Bowl, someone had recommended them to me, so I gave the owner a call based on that recommendation and finally met him in October. We pretty much locked it in then. So it’s been going on for a while, not quite a year in advance but not quite far off. 

 

TK: It’s refreshing to hear that this is a show that was recently planned and not something that kept getting pushed and rescheduled due to Covid. 

 

TH: We didn’t really schedule anything, it was just more of a conversation. Some venues want you to rent the venue out, some want to participate and they were very great. Nathan, the owner and his wife, were super receptive. They want to do more, they want to be involved and more things and become a destination so that bands want to play Youngstown. It’s going to take them some time to build it but if we can help each other, that’s kind of the goal there.

 

TK: I was checking out the venue online and I already want to go! The bowling, pickle pizza, it definitely sounds like a cool and unique venue. I think when the word gets out about this venue, more people will come out to shows.

 

TH: I think they will be surprised. “This is a bowling alley?” Yes, it’s definitely a bowling alley. The intention of the owners is that they always wanted a venue first. The bowling alley actually saved them, especially when Covid hit. When all the other venues had to close, they still had the bowling alley. People were allowed to come in, bowl and mask up. They didn’t lose revenue because they couldn’t do shows. They were able to keep the lights on and keep people employed. So that was a saving grace for them but their goal was never to own a bowling alley. They happened upon a venue that combined these things. I think the pictures are great (online) but they really don’t do it justice. When you walk in you’re like, “Oh shit!” The stage is legit! It is enormous! I wasn’t sure how the sound would be in a bowling alley being that it is so open, but the way bowling alleys are designed is that they are super insulated with all sorts of sound proofing. If you look at the ceiling of a bowling alley it’s contoured kind of strange and the way the sound travels is that when the pins are hit, the sound hits the bowler. So it’s the same with the sound coming from the stage, they didn’t do anything to that ceiling so the sound kind of rolls in a way where it hits the listener in the chest. They had Aretha Franklin’s sound guy set up their system and it sounds amazing! Fuckin’ high quality sound!I was completely shocked the first time I saw a show there. Blown away.

 

TK: Sound is one of the most important parts of the show. Sometimes you’ll be at a venue that may have been repurposed and the sound is just terrible. 

 

TH: Not just the sound but they didn’t skimp on any part of the presentation, amazing lighting rigs as well. I think they can fit 1000 in the main room and I think a 250-300 cap in the other room. Plenty of room for merch and the crowd. The fact that they have 2 stages, they have arcade games, bowling, they have food in house, another bar if you want to get away from the music, they have a giant patio outside. There is just so much to do there. We are going to try to keep people there, keep them engaged so that no one is ever bored. 

 

TK: This sounds like such a killer event. So you are going to utilize the 2 stages?

 

TH: Yes. We are going to go back and forth, never on top of each other, we are going to literally go from one stage to the next. I was able to include more bands that way. I think it benefits the show to have both of those stages.

 

TK: I like hearing that there is no overlapping of bands. There is nothing worse than being at a festival and your favorite bands are playing at the same time and you are forced to make a difficult decision on who to see. 

 

TH: Exactly. Ironically, I just met Obituary for the first time on this last run they did in Cleveland. I went to hang out with a good friend of mine, Gus Rios from Gruesome. It just so happened their tech for that tour was Mike Hamilton, who also drums for Exhumed and Deeds of Flesh. He just has so much experience and has been doing this for so long not only in his own bands but teaching for some of these bigger bands. He actually lives up here now, 5 minutes from my house which I had no idea! We talked about it and he’s going to be home in July, so I hired him to be my stage manager! For this whole back and forth stage thing I have a super pro guy who will run it with hopefully no overlap.

 

TK: That’s incredible! Is this show something that you are possibly looking at putting on as an annual event? 

 

TH: That all depends on what happens this year, right? (laughs) The first time you never really know and I’ve never done anything like this before and I’m just getting into crunch time promotion. We just did a full page ad in Decibel and it’s in the issue before their Beer and Metal Festival, so it will be available there. The ad features all of our sponsors like Trve Kvlt Coffee, so thank you Trve Kvlt! That was kind of the first step into the major promotion push. Decibel will be doing a piece as well leading up to the show, we got Death Comes Lifting, then will probably do some Google Ad targeting. Anyone reading this, if they have some friends or may want some flyers, I can either send the file or send you money to print them or try to mail you some stuff to hand out at shows. We are trying to get people from all over anyway we can. We are keeping the price super cheap. It’s $30 for a 2 day pass, I don’t think you can get much cheaper than that. Just find a way to get here! We’ve also set up group rates with hotels. Go to Intothedarkness.com and scroll down to the ticket sales area. I think one link takes you to the group rate and the other one you have to call and ask for the group rate. I’m looking into a shuttle to go between the hotel and venues. People are buying merch or maybe they want to go back and rest, hopefully the shuttle will be on a half hour cycle. Just trying to make it as easy as possible for people when they get here. 

 

TK: I hope the show does well. We recently had news that it looks like the Maryland Deathfest may be finished after this year. I think someone needs to take on the reins. We’ll need a new destination kind of show and I think this one could do it. I’m just super excited about the venue!

 

TH: It’s gonna be awesome man! People are gonna be shocked by that place. It’s one of those places when you go, you’ll want to come back whether as a guest or a band. They are doing things right, those are the type of people I want to align myself with. 

 

TK: Last thing I wanted to ask and I’ll let you go; Which bands are you the most excited to see perform at this fest?

 

TH: It’s hard to choose because a lot of the bands on the fest are bands I work with. A lot of these bands I haven’t had the pleasure to see live. Some bands are coming way out like Oxygen Destroyer based out of Portland, that’s a big one for me, otherwise it may be hard to catch them. Sentient Horror is one of the bands I had on the label the longest who just released an album, I never saw them live so that would be really, really great to catch them. There are bands from Ohio like Mutilation that I’ve also worked with. I’ve seen them a bunch but they are incredible live! One of those bands you just can’t miss. But all of them man! Macabre, it’s been years since I’ve seen them. Deceased is always fun, Imperial Triumphant I‘ve actually never caught even though they’ve played my area a few times, I’ve always missed them. I know I’m going to get pulled into a lot of directions but I hope I get to see at least a little bit of everybody’s set. That’s my goal for the 2 days; I wanna see at least a piece of everybody. 

TK: Anything else that you would like to add?

TH: Don’t be afraid to get in the car and take the trip to Youngstown! 

 

Head over to Into the Darkness Fest and secure your tickets now!

 

Posted on by

Interview with Brian Fair of Hell Night and Shadows Fall

Hell Night’s album, “Unlimited Destruction,” is part of April’s subscription bundle. This is a brutal and killer record that we are excited to share with you. Lead singer Brian Fair, whom you may also recoconze from Shadows Fall, took a few moments out of his busy schedule to chat with us about Hell Night, Shadow Fall’s reunion shows and raising the next generation of Metalheads. 

 

Trve Kvlt Coffee: I understand you’ve been pretty busy lately, you were saying that you were moving offices?

Brian Fair: Yeah. We’ve been home for 2 years. It started because of the pandemic and then we had a giant flood from a water main, they just kept pushing it, pushing it and pushing it to the point I was like, “Man, I set some roots at home. I’m not ready to move. “(laughs) It was getting pretty comfortable working from home but we start full time Monday. 

TKC: I don’t think my wife ever wants to go back to the office. She’s been working at home since the pandemic. 

BF: I’m with her. I don’t wanna go back. I can get snacks out of my own refrigerator, and little things like running the laundry while I’m working. Where am I gonna find the time now?

TKC: Do you find yourself working longer when you work from home then you would at the office?

BF: I’ll pop in if I have to take care of something real quick, it’s great to have that access. Say something comes in after hours but I just wanna get it done, I would do that where there is no option at the office. Yeah I go in a little earlier, make some coffee and start working. 

TKC: You’ve been a part of several bands throughout the years and in our subscriptions this month we are featuring Hell Night. How did you land that gig? 

BF: It was kind of funny. When I first moved to St. Louis, where my wife is originally from, was right when Shadows Fall was still touring for the first couple of years I lived here but we were definitely winding down. I wasn’t really looking to do anything musically for at least a little while , ya know? Just after 20 years on the road with those guys. But then one of the first bands I saw was Hell Night with their original singer, Mike Craft who was a good friend of my wife. So I went and saw them and they were this mix of like Black Flag down tuned crazy sludginess with Melvins mixed and all of this shit happening. It’s not what I was expecting, I was blown away. These guys are amazing! Mike was talking to me, “I don’t have the time to commit to a band these days,” He just decided not to do it anymore. I was skateboarding with our guitar player Andy and he was like, “You wanna come down and jam?” I was like, “Dude I already know the first EP and a few other tunes, I’m in.” So we jammed and honestly started writing music right away. And that’s what really solidified it. It’s totally different from what I’ve been doing for a long time and we were already making material together that just felt right. 

TKC: Speaking of writing music, is your approach to writing music for Hell Night similar to Shadows Fall or something entirely different?

BF: Totally different. In Shadows Fall there was a lot of technicalities to the song writing as well as the riffs. Those guys would have a pretty solid riff map when they were putting songs together. They would tweak overtime with myself bringing in some vocal lines may change a thing here or there. There was a very long process of getting it all super tight, getting everything together. Hell Night we come up with some ideas in th practice space and we try to map out a song. I’m usually writing while we are jamming on it. It may take a practice or 2 to nail it down and then we try to record it super early. We do things the exact opposite where before the original inspiration is gone we get in the studio and just lay it down. We weren’t able to do as much pandemic wise but we were writing a crazy clip before that in almost every other practice we had a new tune. We are also at the point we play that live the new stuff is always going to be a part of the set list. That’s probably what excites us the most is getting together and writing new tunes, coming up with new ideas.

TKC: “Unlimited Destruction,” is a killer album, it hits just right. How has the response been so far?

BF:It’s been good. It’s a fairly limited release , we did it with a local label here. We weren’t really able to tour on it but locally the shows have always been killer whenever we play, real good support from the local music scene. Anyone who has gotten their hands on it or checked it out has been digging it. Sonically it not only falls in between a lot of genres and has a lot of angles that people get into, it doesn’t sound production wise like what happens in heavy music right now. I think it’s got kinda of a different sound. A lot of it is due to Andy’s guitar tone and Doom/Sludge thing that sounds more like a keyboard that is being attacked by a shark than a guitar. I think that really adds this weird element to it. We had a bunch of different EPs and songs here and to get them together on vinyl, I’m stoked to have that together in one spot finally. 

TKC: That’s awesome to hear. Personally, I love the cover to the album. Godzilla is my son’s hero. We’ve watched several Godzilla movies several times. Where did the album cover come from? 

BF: My son is currently obsessed with Godzilla and we have been on such a Godzilla kick over here. Really titans in general, he’s a big King Ghidorra fan, with some of the toys and we’ve been watching a lot of the movies. Artwork wise, we wanted something that captured that unrelenting force of destruction and there’s not many things better than Godzilla. So it’s a mix of a car crash, Godzilla and some other flaming things. The artist who did it created an original piece from scratch, which was important to us. It can be easy to photoshop a bunch of different images together but to have an original illustration made it a little cooler.

TKC: I feel with the title, “Unlimited Destruction,” you have to have Godzilla! Now that Covid restrictions have loosened, any Hell Night shows planned in the future?

BF: We are just getting back to practicing regularly again, once we get our sea legs back, we’ll book some shows around here. We haven’t been able to travel much, we really only play the St.Louis area but we’d love to go down the road do the long weekend stuff and hit maybe Chicago and places around here. Probably won’t be touring anytime soon unfortunately but hopefully we get some shows soon. For us, everyone has full time jobs, kids and stuff. It’s a little hectic to really travel. Honestly, I’ve done that for a couple decades between Overcast and Shadows Fall. I love being on the road but the longer you’ve been away, the harder it is to imagine doing it full time again, you know? The idea of getting into a bus or van for 8 weeks….I don’t know if I’m ready. (laughs) 

TKC: Researching for this interview I stumbled upon your recent cover of Pantera’s “By Demons, Be Driven,” which was fucking awesome! How were you approached to be a part of that?

BF: Thank you man, that was a blast! Frank, who does Metal Injection, who also played drums on the track, hit me up. It was pretty quick too. “Hey man, I’m sorry this is so last minute, I think you’d be perfect,” I was like, “When do you need it,” This was on a Friday, he goes, “Sunday.” I had to dust off the home studio, it had totally been broken down and make sure all my software still worked. So it took a day to get set up and I tracked it on Saturday and did the video kind of through the next day. For the strobe lights part of the video, I literally took all of my kid’s bike safety lights and went into my weird tiled in shower that’s in my basement and just did the strobe lights with a bunch of kids safety lights. (laughs) Total DIY production! It came together super fast which was also good. I didn’t want to obsess over the vocals and try to get crazy with it. It came out sick. I was pretty stoked.

TK: If there is one good thing that came out of the pandemic, it would be the zoom concerts. Especially in the days where it seemed there was no end in sight. Especially seeing people jam together, who you may have never seen perform together before.

BF: Or bringing guys who would always talk about on the road, “Hey we should jam together!” But you never get the chance to. To actually do it virtually and to have some cool weird combos you wouldn’t expect, that was super entertaining. Like you said, it at least brought in some fresh music and things like that. If you couldn’t go see it, you’d at least see something you’d never get a chance to have. Hell Night was part of one of the Metal Injection streaming things when they did a full day festival and that was really cool. It gave a lot of bands a chance to at least show what they are up to and connect in a different way and feel like you are doing something. You’re getting some music and there and you’re connecting in some way. I think a lot of other people got to hunker down in the studio, there are probably so many newer original ideas and music coming out because people are like, “Well, I have nothing else to do but fire up the Pro Tools and see what happens.” At least a little silver lining there.

TK: Yeah that’s one thing to look forward to; the music that may be coming out now that bands are able to tour again. I know a lot of bands have been sitting on things, where they don’t want to release it if they can’t support it.

BF: Totally. That stuff gets planned out so far ahead that if you were dropping a record that March or April, aww man I can’t even imagine. You’ve been building up to this whole thing then all of a sudden it’s like you are not going to be able to tour for almost 2 years. That’s such a momentum killer. For a lot of bands the only real revenue source you have now is touring and merchandise while you’re touring. It’s not like record sales are what they used to be although it did force people to get creative  with Twitch and covers and finding ways to generate revenue and connect in ways to keep the fires burning. I think that we bring out more ideas that will stick around.

TK: I also saw that you were part of the Headbanger’s Con a few years ago, what was that like?

BF: It was cool. Chris 51 who is a tattoo artist and a crazy Metalhead, he had done one of the early tattoo reality shows too, had the idea after doing all these tattoo conventions and was like, “There is no Heavy Metal one, there is a convention for everything else.” So he set it up similar to that. It was a blast man. Fans coming in getting to hang out, there was also some Q and A stuff and there were some shows that were played. The one thing I think if they would have been able to expand it, I think there would have been more jams, sort of all star bands. We just didn’t get a chance to pull that stuff off. Hopefully they can keep that going now that people can get back together in large groups again. 

TK: I hope something like that show happens again and seems like a very unique experience for both the fan and the artist.

BF: Exactly. It was cool to see someone thinking outside the box and a bunch of companies and labels supporting it too, finding new ways for people to get together and celebrate Metal. I really hope it is something that Chris can keep rolling. 

TK: At the end of last year you had your very successful Shadows Fall reunion show. How did that night go for you guys?

BF: It couldn’t have gone better. That venue (The Palladium in Worcester, Massachusetts) is our home away from home. The crew that put it on our people that have been in our circle for decades and decades, everyone has their families there, it was just a blast. The lineup was killer from top to bottom. It really couldn’t have gone any better. Now we have a couple festivals planned for September. That will probably be the way we do things, a couple festivals here and there each year if we can or maybe a long weekend type of thing. It’s just been a blast to just jam with those guys. There are even some ideas floating around maybe if we got some riffs. we’ll try and see if new music can happen naturally. It was just good to jam again. The fact that it all happened was crazy. We started the ball rolling before the pandemic and had to shelve everything and then when we finally got it together for December, all of a sudden Omicron was coming and things were getting shut down right before that. We didn’t think we were gonna make it to the finish line. Luckily we did. There was a little bit of Covid soup in there, I’m not gonna lie! Even at the time we were like, “Ehhhhh…..I don’t know if this is the best idea.” Luckily none of the band got sick, we didn’t hear anyone from the crowd of anything crazy happening, numbers spreading or anything like that. It was a nervous part there where we thought we were so in the clear for December at that point. The fact that it happened was the best part. I think it has been 6 years since we played.

TK: Glad to hear that all worked out. It is so easy to have a show canceled just like that. One crew member gets sick and that’s all it takes.

BF: Exactly and we were seeing that happen. By the end of December I had some tickets to some shows in New York City that I was going to fly in for around New Year’s and it all got shut down right before. Our show was the 18th, so it was barely right before it. It seems like touring is not totally getting back to normal but you’re seeing a lot less last minute cancellations at least. There have been a lot of shows coming to St.Louis lately and it;s been fun getting out and about. It does feel strange on the social aspect of it. I feel like Ricky Bobby. “What do I do with my hands?”

TK: I will tell you the fans are hungry for it. A lot of Metal shows in my area are selling out.

BF: It’s the same here. There was a 3 day run with Cannibal Corpse, The Circle Jerks and Dragonforce and this one venue and 2 shows sold out and one almost did and that was a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. It goes to show you we are ready to party; let’s do this.

TK: You were saying you are doing a few festivals with Shadows Fall in September?

BF: Blueridge Music Fest in Virginia, it 4 days and 6 stages. Every single band in the world is playing. It’s huge. The lineup is a never ending scroll of awesome bands. The next one after that is Furnace Fest in Birmingham, Alabama. So happy to play shows. When you only have 2 it makes it special, each one you can focus and let it all rip.

TK: Going back to the Shadows Fall show, were your kids able to attend?

BF: Totally. They were there. They are super into music, they’ve seen the Youtube videos and all of that but it’s not the same. I’m really glad they got to see a big headlining show and be like, “See? I told you dad was cool!” They were right on the side of the stage and came up for a second. It was a blast. They had a great time.

TK: What do they think of having a “Metal Dad” and see dad perform and do his thing?

BF: They love it man! But they think it’s pretty normal though. It’s more weird when they kinda realize I guess everyone’s dad’s hair isn’t 5 feet long or when Slayer comes to town doesn’t go backstage. We took some friends of theirs to Dragonforce and they were like, “This is different!” I’m just psyched because they have been jamming on their own tunes and they are only like 5 and 8. We’ve been writing tunes and jamming a little bit ourselves. We’ll see. Keep the next generation rolling.

TK: I think that’s all I had for you today. Anything else that you would like to add?

BF: We are stoked to be part of the subscription for Hell Night. We appreciate spreading the word. Keep an eye out for Hell Night tunes. You can always follow us on all the social media stuff. Shadows Fall is playing a few shows here and there, I’m sure there will be more.

 

 

Posted on by

An Interview with Midnight’s Athenar

We recently caught up with the amazing Athenar, the guitarist, bassist and drummer behind Cleveland’s sleaziest and trashiest one man band, Midnight. Athenar took some time from his morning routine to discuss his upcoming album, “Let there be Witchery”, record collecting and combining tofu and peanut butter.

Trve Kvlt Coffee: What are you up to this morning?

Athenar: This morning? Just the usual. Conducting brain surgery, doing a little bit of star gazing. The typical stuff I do in the morning. Besides that just making coffee and eating oatmeal.

TKC: I usually need a couple cups of coffee before I think of any type of brain surgery.

Athenar: (laughs) Not me man. I dove right into the brain surgery and worry about the coffee later.

TKC: I feel it gives me more of a steady hand.

Athenar: True

TKC: Now you do have an upcoming show on February 12th at Photo City Music Hall. That looks like a pretty cool venue.

Athenar: Yeah, I went there for the first time in October, I went to see Nuclear Assault and it was really cool. I know the guy that sets up the gigs and he asked if we wanted to play there and I said, “Hell Yeah!” They started right before Corona doing a winter bash in Rochester. This is, I think, the second one, “Rotting in Rochester.”

TKC: After that, you have an upcoming tour with Mayhem and Watain.

Athenar: Yup. That’ll be our first tour since Corona. We’ve played a little mishmash of gigs in ’21 but this’ll be our first tour since 2019.

TKC: That’s a pretty good lineup to be touring with too.

Athenar: Yeah. At this point I’ll tour with Cindy Lauper and Huey Lewis.

TKC: (Laughs) I would love to see Midnight open for Cindy Lauper! How does it feel to be hitting the road again?

Athenar: Like I said, we’re not there yet. I won’t believe it until we are actually in the van and in the venues because the rug has been pulled out from underneath us and everybody else before so we’ll see. Still a couple weeks (for possible) disappointment.

TKC: Let’s hope for some good news, I think things are looking a lot better than they did before. I’m in the Cincinnati area and we were hoping to see you play here as a part of Transplant Fest in in 2020. I was so excited for that show, that was my one gleaming hope for 2020 that a show might actually go on. I thought maybe it still has a chance, Cleveland isn’t too far…

Athenar: Womp Wahhhh. (Laughs) Cincinnati. Fucking Bengals, alright!

TKC:That’s all you see in Cincinnati right now. That’s all that’s going on.

Athenar: I’m sure.

TKC: Do you have an additional tours or festivals planned for this year?

Athenar: Well yeah, there’s a shit ton planned just like there was in 2020 when the last album came out. This one’s about to come out, the new album and there are US tours and European festivals, going to Mexico, that’ll be our first time going to Mexico. There is a fall tour, so there is definitely stuff planned but like I said, we’ll see what happens.

TKC: I hope it happens and I hope we get something in my area.

Athenar: Yeah, I’d love to come down there. I used to come down there all the time in Cincinnati. There’s a record seller guy there. We used to make trips all the time to buy records.

TKC: Oh, any certain record store?

Athenar: No it wasn’t a store. He just sold them out of his basement. He mainly sold NWOBHM singles and shit like that. I can remember that exact name of the town but it was just right outside of Cincinnati. Damn. I can’t remember.

TKC: It’ll hit you in the middle of the day and you’ll remember. I did actually catch you guys at Psycho Fest which was an awesome show!

Athenar: Yeah in Vegas. That was our first show back after Corona.

TKC: You guys were on fire!

Athenar: Yeah it was cool. It felt good and natural to get back out there and play tunes again. I did not expect to be playing in an arena, that’s for sure. That was a bit bizarre.

Photo by Maurice Nunez 

 

TKC: Definitely a cool festival. It was my first time and hopefully I’ll make it out again.

Athenar: Yeah that was good. Danzig was good, Repulsion was good.

TKC: I missed Repulsion because it was the last performance and (The House of Blues) was so crowded, I didn’t think I would make it. Your latest album, “Let there be Witchery”, comes out on March 4th and this is your second with Metal Blade. How does it feel to working with Metal Blade now that this is your sophomore release with them?

Athenar: It’s cool. It’s good they gave us another chance. The first one, we didn’t get a chance to really at all and promote that first one with Metal Blade so if everything goes good here it’s gonna be much mo’ better. They’ve been doing this kind of thing since most of the people that listen to the music have been alive. They know what they’re doing. They are not fly by nighters, they do a good job at what they do.

TKC: Almost everyone’s favorite metal bands have had some kind of brush with Metal Blade at some point in their careers it seems. I am enjoying the re-releases they are doing. I think that’s pretty cool to make them available for people, like myself, who may have discovered Midnight a little later and are having a hard time tracking down some of your earlier material.

Athenar: Yeah. That was part of the reason for them to get involved, so that they could keep the catalog in print and get it overseas more. Where as the previous label (Hell’s Headbangers) they got stuff overseas but it wasn’t as accessible. We are a band of the street and for the street. So we wanna get the music out there. I know it’s easy for people to download and to whatever, get it off the computer. I’m still of the mindset of having an actual record in your hand and playing the record. I would like to think that people can go to the store and buy a record.

TKC: Yeah I’m there with you. I usually go digital for the sake of space or if I can’t find it anywhere else. I’m excited you have stuff coming out on cassette. I’ve listened to the new album and I think it’s fantastic, everything you want with a Midnight record. “Szex Witchery”, “In Sinful Secrecy”, I love “Villainy Wretched Villainy”, which is a great title by the way. I can’t pinpoint a favorite yet, it’s tough. Which song are you particularly excited to unleash upon the world?

Photo by Maurice Nunez

 

Athenar: Oh man. I mean shit, this question my usual answer for it, they are all my babies. Some of them might have a bit of difficulty in life, some of them may excel in life but I can’t choose favorites. But to play live, we are going to start with “Szex Witchery” because it was the first releashed, so we’ll jam that one. I’m sure we’ll get the other ones, “Frothing Foulness”. The drummer seems to like “More Torment”, it’s got that nice plodding drum beat. So maybe we will do that one too.

TKC. Very cool. Speaking of live shows, much like KISS and Alice Cooper, you totally own that sleazy rock star look complete with a crazy and wild show like the one I saw in Vegas. I remember I was looking at some of my photos I took at the show to see if I could use for this interview but I was like, “No, no they are too blurry, they are running around too much.”

Athenar: (Laughs) It’s all the cocaine and blue meth that we do. We do a lotta blue meth.

TKC: Blue meth?

Athenar: Blue Meth. I just started watch Breaking Bad, they have blue meth in there. I’ll try it one of these days.

TKC: (Laughs) Was the look that you have planned from the get go when you decided you were going to start doing live shows?

Athenar: It wasn’t really intended to be a live band, it didn’t really start out that way but there was an intent to at least to take a picture and put it on a record or something like that. The masks were always there. That was the idea because it was so easy to have a look in exactly one second. There was no applying makeup, there was no getting into some sort of space person costume or whatever else. This was like an instant .99 cent look, ya know? Very Cleveland and just as you know, very Ohio in general.

TKC: Yup, the place I work at, we sell a bunch of those hoods.

Athenar: Well, there you go!

TKC: In many of your photos and promos, you are always holding something on fire. In your most recent promo photo, you have a pair of sai on fire.

Photo by Hannah Verbeuren

 

Athenar: Yeah! I found those at a garage sale for 3 bucks.

TKC: Oh wow! Really?

Athenar: Like I said man, that’s the Cleveland thing. You do with what you have. You find little things and you make do with ’em.

TKC: It’s looks cool as hell. Anything else that you plan on lighting up?

Athenar: I plan on lighting up the crowd man, that’s what we do. (laughs) Who knows? Fire and Heavy Metal go so well together. It’s kinda like tofu and peanut butter. It goes so well.

TKC: I don’t know about the tofu and peanut butter.

Athenar: But there’s always things to light on fire. Who knows? If I ever grow hair I might light my hair on fire like Michael Jackson.

TKC: There you go! That’ll be…something. Going back to records, I’ve seen a video on Youtube where you are going through your record collection. I love the tour of your house. If you are ever looking for a career change you should look into becoming a realtor because you are pretty good at demonstrating appliances.

Athenar: I love it, I look at realtor.com all the time.

TKC: How long have you been collecting music?

Athenar: Since I was a kid probably when I first  started getting into this stuff. Probably since I was 10 years old and I’m *cough* *cough* years old now. (laughs) I’m 48 now so about 38 years.

TKC: Do you have any grails or most prized pieces in your collection?

Athenar: There’s all kinds of things. There’s records that are rare and not that good musically. There’s dollar records that will crush you every day. The thing about it, it’s still about the music for me. It always has been, it’s not about finding, “Oh, that’s the rarest record ever, you’ll never see this copy.” But, I’m always looking for the ultimate risk somewhere, the ultimate tune. You never know where you’ll find that. I’m always looking.

TKC: Do you hit up shops when you are on the road?

Athenar: Oh yeah. All the time. When there’s downtime, which there usually is, me and my other buddy Rodney that go out, we’re scouring the place for records. It gets tougher nowadays but you still gotta look. You never know.

TKC: Any favorite shops that you have run across?

Athenar: Over the years some of the best I’ve always thought were…actually we always have fun looking in Rochester speaking of that. They had a place called Heavy Metal Records, Record Archive, House of Guitars. There is a lot of good stuff upstate/western New York. I don’t know why that is. Maybe because it’s a little on the outskirts of New York City. They had the distribution company, I think it was called Important. So there was always a lot of records going around that area. But shit man. That’s the thing about records. You can find a Tyrant 7″ behind the counter somewhere in Cincinnati. You never know, you just need to keep looking.

Photo by Maurice Nunez

 

TKC: That’s always part of my mission when I travel. Where’s the record store?

Athenar: Yeah, it’s always an adventure.

TKC: This interview is for Trve Kvlt Coffee, have you heard of it?

Athenar: Yeah! I have. I wanna say they made Midnight coffee mugs?

TKC: Yes indeed.

Athenar: Alright. I’m not crazy. Mark that off the list.

TKC: You gotta make sure to try some of the coffee sometime!

Athenar: Hell yeah, I’d love to. Send a bag of coffee and a bag of blue meth.

TKC: Well, I do live in Kentucky, I can probably get some next door, it’s like borrowing a cup of sugar. Anything else that you would like to add?

Athenar: I don’t think so. It was nice rapping with you in the morning while conducting brain surgery.

Let There be Witchery will be out on March 4th via Metal Blade Records

 

Preorder Midnight Coffee here!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted on by

Radioactive Metal Podcast Episode 546: Pounding Metal – Interview Matt Harvey

Veteran Metaller Matt Harvey is nothing, if not diverse. They’ve had Mr. Harvey on the show many times over the years, regaling us with everything to do with his numerous bands Exhumed, Gruesome, Expulsion a.o. Sonically, all these projects differed from one another. But his latest outfit, Pounder, really falls off the creative beaten path. Pounder is a more traditional, NWOBHM influenced sounding band. Their debut full length debut recently dropped courtesy of the fine folks at Hell’s Headbangers. Once again Radmetal has gotten Matt on the horn. He gave the why and wherefores of the new record, most notably his hooking up with Carcass axeman Tom Draper. As well, full Horns to Gruesome drummer Gus Rios for stepping up when needed! In the “News, Views, and Tunes”, we share our recent experience on the live front and all the goings on at Trve Kvlt Coffee! Musically, we crank the Pounder album, some Gruesome, Expulsion, Midnight, Wolfblood, Terminal Nation and introduce French crust punkers Vegan Fox in our “Indie Spotlight!” Horns!!


Follow Radioactive Metal on Twitter and Instagram.

Listen Live Thursday’s at 8pm eastern on Pure Rock Radio

radmetal666@gmail.com

Check out Pounder here!
*Bonus*
Here’s a fun, candid photo of Mr. Harvey at the Goatwhore concert we did in December 2018