United We Groove
The past Friday while most of the music lovers in the city we’re at the Bryan Adams, a faithful few were at United We Groove. The gig was at the new centre for independent music, Above the Habitat. BYOB makes it a good deal for the audience.
I managed to catch a couple of songs by the first couple of bands, Karwaan and Punkture and they weren’t by cup of tea. Although I did like Punkture‘s cover of Velvet Revolver ‘Slither’.
Grunge act Hook played songs from their recently released EP Blank Spaces and they sounded good. The surprise of their set was a cover of Split Holy Ghost Machine Gun.
The band I was really looking forward to was Primitiv. The band keep getting better each time I watch them live. Their set list mainly consisted of track from their album Immortal and Vile . A addition to their set is a unreleased track Squishy and Spongy (video below)* . The band are currently in the studio recording and I can’t wait to listen to their new material.
I didn’t stick around for the last band Systemhouse33 as it was late. Congratulations to the band on completing 15 years.
*Posting the video since I manage to get decent audio.
Warmarshal
Warmarshal are an upcoming death metal band from India. A year after forming, the band are set to put out their debut release, To Regain Lost Glory. The EP is 5 tracks of war themed death metal and will appeal to fans of Bolt Thrower and Hail of Bullets.
Find out more about the EP, old school death metal and their upcoming gigs in my interview with the band below
Read the interview on VM Underground
Stillbirth interview
The Gutted at Birth Asian tour is the most ambitious initiative by an Indian metal band. A quick look at the tour dates and I realized that Gutslit are playing a gig almost every day without any breaks, no easy task especially in a place like Asia. Accompanying the band on this tour are German death metal act Stillbirth. The band last month released their fifth album Annihilation of mankind via Unique Leader Records and it slams.
I spoke to Stillbirth vocalist Lukas Swiaczny ahead of the tour about traveling across Asia, Annihilation of Mankind and also the current state of brutal death metal.
You are weeks away from your Gutted At Birth South east Asian tour with Gutslit. How does it feel?
Hey Guys, thanks for the Interview. We had a stressful and busy time with many shows and the release of our Album “Annihilation of Mankind”, and also with getting Visa done, flights booked, shows booked for the asia tour. I didn’t realized that the tour is already starting in a couple of days, but the time is running fast and we are preparing our stuff every day for this tour. It’s the biggest DIY Asia Tour ever done by a Death Metal band and we are happy that we got our brothers of Gutslit with us. I am a little bit scared if our travels will work well, if we get any problems at the borders or with the police or something. We have to fly nearly every day, so this have to be a logistical masterpiece. But still, highly looking forward to start the tour. Actually we are playing the first show on the mighty NRW Deathfest in Wermelskirchen / Germany. After that we are heading to Frankfurt Airport and we will fly to Dubai. The first flight is already challenging, because we are landing at 7pm in Dubai, and the show starts at 8pm. I think, when this show is done, I will be a little bit more chilled.
You have toured across Europe with Gutslit last year. How did this South East Asian tour come about?
We toured already two times with Gutslit in Europe. In 2015 and in 2017. We wanted to do a south America tour, but we didn’t had enough contacts in this part of the world, so we decided to go to Asia. Gutslit was the right partner for this trip, because the music is sick and they had a lot of contacts to asia-promoter.
Asia is a hard market for touring bands, because the prices are pretty low. In the most of this countries, merchandise of bands costs like 6 Dollar a shirt or 5 Dollar a cap. Merchandise is not a real option to cover the costs. We had to cover the costs before and had to put money out of our pockets on top. At least we got costs of 12.000 Euro, which we have to pay by our self. But we are not doing this for the money. We are doing it for the experience and for conquering new parts of the world. And maybe we can generate new fans on this tour.
Your recently released album Annihilation of mankind sounds slamming. Do tell us more about it.
“Annihilation of Mankind” is a concept album about the initiation of a world war, that ends in a post apocalyptic nuclear utopia, as seen on the KILLER Artwork, done by Aghy Purakusuma from Indonesia. We are telling a fictional story, but maybe it’s more real than we think. Every song got its own drive, suitable for the lyric concept. We tried to create a perfect symbiosis between the lyrics and the riffs. The sound should be groovy and slamming but also technical and clean. On every new record we try to do it much better than on the last record. And personally I think, that we did a big step compared to our last Album “Global Error”. Hopefully the fans also can deal with this step.
What was the writing and recording process for the album? Did you try anything different this time around?
We were working on “Annihilation of Mankind” since the end of 2015. After “Global Error” was released we started with the songwriting of “Annihilation of Mankind” but we were slow in writing because we were on the road playing shows nearly every week. Most of the songs were written by me and our bass player Dominik “Pumpa” König. We changed a lot on this album compared to the last album. At first we focused on a better concept with better lyrics and more technical riffing. I am not a native English-speaker, so you can imagine how hard it is, to write lyrics which are more than just meaningless words. In the writing and recording time we were also struggling with member-changes, which made it even more challenging to write decent music.
We decided to kill the rap-parts on this record. Some liked them, some hated them. I did also nearly all the vocals on this album for the first time. Normally Pumpa was doing the high screams, but my voice was better in shape after all the touring, so I recorded also his parts.
Guest vocals are also a new addition on “Annihilation of Mankind”. All of our guest vocalists are great friends of the band and we are happy that they are on this killer.
Don Campan – Waking the Cadaver / Hate Diplomacy -> Track Hypnotized by Lies
Duncan Bentley – Vulvodynia, Xavleg -> Track Highest of Malice
Zdenek Simecek – Godless Truth / Ex-Psycroptic -> Track First Strike
Chris Butterworth – Crepitation / Kastrated -> Track Nuclear Stench
Andree Kress – AK420 / Ex-Placenta Powerfist / Ex-Stillbirth -> Track Annihilation of Mankind
The recording process took a long time. After our guitarist Philipp Schubert left the band, I had to learn the songs and than I recorded his guitar parts. We recorded all the songs at DPK-Studios in Hagen. That’s Pumpas own recording studio. That’s why we took the time that we needed. We recorded all our CD’s and since Pumpa is a professional Audio-Engineer now, the sound was getting better and better.
What are your thoughts on the current state of brutal death metal?
I think that brutal death metal gets more and more attention. With help of bands like “Vulvodynia”, “Ingested”, “Slaughter to Prevail” and “Within Destruction” the younger generation is jumping on the brutal death metal train. You can hate this “Fake-Slam” bands as much as you want, but they are doing a good job in getting people into brutal music. I have heard a lot of times “Vulvodynia got me into Slam and Deathcore, but soon I discovered the world of technical and brutal death metal”. We are also getting better and better response on our music, especially on live shows. Maybe there is a new age of brutal death metal coming, like in the early 2000s.
What’s currently on your playlist?
My playlist is pretty tight right now. Iam listening to Stillbirth, Placenta Powerfist and xavlegbmaofffassssitimiwoamndutroabcwapwaeiippohfffx right now, because these are my three projects and every band got a new Album out, or out in the near future. So I have to listen a million times to the songs and get them into my head, haha.
But besides that I got some new and old stuff in my playlist. Like Zubrowska (grind from France, RIP), Amputated Repugnance (slam from Belgium, RIP), Embrace your Punishment (hardcore/death metal from France), Without Remorse (hardcore/death metal from USA), Diaroe (death metal from Germany), Organectomy (technical slam from Australia), Waking the Cadaver (no words needed) and a lot of more.
The band completes 20 years next year. What has kept you going despite the line up changes?
Stillbirth is my baby. I don’t need kids, I got them in the band, haha. I am listening to death metal music since I was 12 years old (now 34) and you can’t just quit your passion. Music is a big part of my life, that’s why I am also doing the Deathfeast Open Air in Andernach, together with Mike Heinemann. And we are organizing a lot of shows with our promotion teams of “Brutal Grooves and Grinding Moves” and “Blast-A-Palooza”. I think I will do this for the next 20 years and I will be glad about this decision.
But yes, the most challenging things are Member-Changes. I am happy that at least Pumpa is a second stable member since 2005. Since our founding in 1999 we had more than 15 lineup-changes and it’s always the same. New job, new wife, new passion. The members are coming and going, but the music will stay forever. It took a long time to get a line up like I wanted it. But I think we got it now. Jan, our main guitarist, left the band right before the release of “Annihilation of Mankind” due to his hard working times. We catched Jens Strack from Obsolete Incarnation as a second guitaris. He is a great guy and we are friends for ages. All of the band members in Stillbirth are friends and great musicians. With Simon “Sims” Stürmlinger, Martin Grupe and Jens Strack we got motivated and very professional musicians in the band and I think this will be a stable line-up for many years now. Let’s hope that. But if not, than the band will still be alive and going on doing music.
Do you have anything special planned for the 20th anniversary of the band?
We are still thinking about a special. Hopefully we can go on another USA-Tour in this timeframe. But if we are staying in Europe, than you can bet your ass on it, that we will be doing a great party in our Hometown. Or at least a mini tour included Oberhausen (Germany), Osnabrück (Germany), Zug (Switzerland). Because these three places are our headquarters and the fans are more than just great!
We were already thinking about a gig, where we play all our five releases and maybe with some of the old members. We will see.
What can fans expect from the Gutted At Birth shows?
It will be heavy, unmerciful and I think these guys haven’t seen something like this before. Our goals are our life shows. Playing shows on another continent will push us even more to kill every stage we step onto. If you never saw a life performance from Stillbirth, check out our “Summer Breeze Teaser” and you can smell the brutality:
Do you have any more shows/tours planned for the rest of the year?
Before we are going on Asia Tour we will be playing in Linz (Austria) on the Linz Deathfest, after this we are playing on the NRW Deathfest in Wermelskirchen (Germany). After Asia we will hit the UK for a show in Birmingham and the Fall in the Brawl Vol. 3 Festival and the next one is one of the last shows of the Festival-Series “Monthly Assault”. And after that we will be on another Europe Tour with Ingested and Extermination Dismemberment, which will be released the next weeks. Our year is pretty packed and we are already booking the first shows and festivals for 2019.
Thanks for answering all our questions. Do you have any final words?
Thank you so much for doing this interview with me and for supporting the scene. Thanks to all the fans out there which support Death Metal, Grindcore, Goregrind, Slam, Deathcore and so on. Keep it brutal and don’t stop telling the people about the heaviest of the Heavy Metal. Thanks to all Stillbirth fans which are supporting us since years, and also thanks to the new fans we gain every year. You are all great people and we love you all.
And at least, thanks to Unique Leader Records for taking us into their rooster and giving us the opportunity to be on one of the best labels on this planet.
I manged to catch the Mumbai leg of the tour over the weekend. Stillbirth played one of the most intense and fun sets I have seen in a while. The Indian leg of their tour wrapped up last night and those in the cities on the upcoming dates should definitely catch the show.
Dagger
One of the best things about the internet for me is the ability to discover bands from around the world. The Asian music scene is a trove of metal and hardcore bands. I was recently listening to a split between Hong Kong hardcore act Dagger and Singapore sludge act HRVST. Dagger is a relatively new band, members have previously been a part of bands like King Ly Chee, Yau Dong and FightxClub. I spoke to the band about the split, the music scene in Hong Kong and Asia and also their upcoming shows.
Read the interview on The Metal Wanderlust
Irreversible Mechanism
Recently I have found the current lot of technical death metal bands sounding sterile. One band that has stood out for me is Irreversible Mechanism from Minsk, Belarus. On their recently released album, Immersion the band mix tight riffage with a post apocalyptic atmosphere. I’m going to be listening the album often in the coming weeks/months.
I spoke to guitarist Andrie Parmon about Immersion, Dan Presland performing drums on the album and also their future plans.
Read the interview on The Metal Wanderlust
Steve Dickson (Mammothfest)
A first on the blog, an interview with a festival organizer. Mammothfest is an annual metal festival in Brighton, UK. The 6th edition is less than a month away and features a few big acts. I spoke to the man behind Mammothfest, Steve Dickson about the origins of the festival, memorable moments and what attendees this year can expect.
Hi Steve, how are preparations going for the 6th edition of the Mammothfest?
Overall very well thank you. This year we decided to reign things in a little as 2017 was arguably the biggest extreme metal event Brighton has or will ever see and it took its toll both financially and emotionally on us all; so we wanted to scale back a touch to make things more manageable. This we have achieved so its been far easier to put together.
How and when did you decide to start Mammothfest?
Mammothfest came about as a result of my promoting metal events in Brighton under the name “tactical whore” promotions over 10 years ago. Having a considerable taste for promoting metal events, doing well at it and wanting to upscale I decided to create a Brighton metal festival. This was created with my business partner Rik Mosquera who very sadly passed away of a brain tumour a few years ago. He and I wanted to do our bit for metal locally and I have simply carried the flame forward partly in his honour.
The festival features heavyweights like Decapitated and more. How do you select the bands that will perform at the festival?
Decapitated are one of the bands I have been into since they started so to book them is quite frankly a true honour and dream come true. Their music continues to inspire millions around the world and with such a strong back catalogue it was only a matter of time before they were to headline our festival. It is our aim to bring all the biggest bands in the world to Brighton one day so as we grow as a brand and financially we look to step things up a notch and after their awful USA experience it felt right to reach out and be the first metal festival in the world to book them (as we were) and show our love and support for them, and here they are!
What has been the most memorable show you have organized so far?
Tough one as there have been so many incredible moments so rather than pin it on one I would like to mention a few.
When we interviewed Venom Inc back stage at Concorde 2 and the legend that is Abaddon sat on my leg for the whole interview and almost gave me “abaddonitis” nearly breaking my leg sitting on my leg for 20 minutes throughout the interview as you can see here
but of course most importantly the fact we have Venom perform at Mammothfest, this was one of the biggest moments of my career!
Welcoming to the stage Fleshgod apocalypse who to me are one of the best and pioneering bands in the world
Amenra were simply stunning live last year too
Onslaught were an honour to work with, in 2015 as the first large band we booked after our return
Rotting Christ were an honour to welcome to our stage also last year
But also its not just about the big bands, it’s about giving the emerging bands the opportunity to support these inspirational legends and create magic memories and moments that none of us will ever forget. This to me is where it is at because we can’t take money with us but we can sit back and smile at all these moments and be the wealthiest people in the world.
Do recommend 5 bands that the readers should check out.
Asides from the headliners of course…
1 Ascaris – 3 piece extreme metal band that are so intense you forget to breath. They have a new album coming out soon THE RAISED HAND which is utterly brutal and beautiful
2 Kill all the gentlemen have an incredible melodic death metal edge with a new album THE LOSS AND THE RAPTURE which is simply stunning
3) Rectal smegma are an absolute must… I wont even say why, just be there…Sat 6th.
4) King leviathan will perform for the last time ever in Brighton as headliners on Sun 7th Oct and this will be quite simply a very moving end to their career….
5) i’m going to be selfish and suggest people come and see my band MAGNA CARTA on the main stage Friday 5th… electro metal, slightly different, think prodigy but metal and you are there…
What should people expect at this year’s edition of Mammothfest?
More of the same in many respects, why change something that isn’t broken? Heavy metal all weekend with a diverse range of bands from emerging artists that are incredible live to some of the heaviest world renowned bands like INGESTED and more and most of the weekend it’s at the ARCH venue actually on Brighton beach. Metal on the beach… yes!
Do you have any more shows planned for this year?
Actually yes, we are proud to be working with Rob Holiday, The Prodigy / Marilyn Manson guitarist’s band SULPHER for a show at the HAUNT on Fri 21st Sept 2018 with my band MAGNA CARTA as main support. We are doing less shows but the ones we do come with a real spirit so we of course invite everyone to be there for that as it’s going to be a really special event.
Thanks for answering all my questions. Do you have anything else to add?
By the time of everyone reading this we will have sold out of weekend tickets but day tickets are still available for the Friday and Saturday so come down and support the bands, they are the ones keeping music alive and we merely offer a platform for them to continue their incredible work, after all imagine a world without music? … Fuck that
Thank you for your interest in Mammothfest, see you there we hope!
Steve
False Flag/Neck Deep in Filth
False Flag and Neck Deep in Filth are two of the most politically outspoken acts from the Indian subcontinent, hence it would make sense for them to team up and put out a split. I was quite excited when the split was announced and the singles released from it so far sound great.
Find out more about the split, the inspiration behind their tracks in the interview with Shaunak Phadnis (False Flag) and Vishal Rai (Neck Deep in Filth)
Read the interview on Unite Asia
