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revrews:God Forbid, Heart of Sun, Judas Priest, Kreator, Saint, Sodom

for more reviews, interviews and links to hear these and other bands:

www. mys pace. com/th emeta I b u | | eti n

rnetal bands: get in touch for demo/album reviews and possible interviews

I like albums with a lot of songs, especially if it's fast stuff, like 21Lucifers' "ln the Name of...." There are some 17 tracks ofblasting deathlthrash/grind/whatever: fast, thrashing, blastingscreamgrowling. You'd be surprised how ditferent the songs canbe, though. One song will start with explosive rage screamingand blasting, then the next one will start with frenzied demolitionfurygrowling and faster blasting. But seriously, it's hard tobelieve that there is actually some hints of melody amid thechaos storm howling, including some guitar soloing. Truth betold, it's blasting attack after blasting attack throughout thewhole album. Some of the riffing can sound death or thrash orblack metal. Nice, pleasant joy of blasting, but distinctive. This isfar from being a blur, as the songs stand fine on their own.Definitely of interest, if you like blasting speed. Band memberLindh decided to get in touch with his more patient side andresponded thus.

ii. 'rrt*orf is a goat holding an open book and in thebackground there is war going on. When you look at the artwork,what does it say to you?The first thing the cover "says" to me personally is: This is not thecover I wanted, but at this stage I can't be bothered. The story behindthat statement is as follows. We had a complete lay-out when we wentin to the studio to record the album. Sleeve, booklet, CD the works. ltwas made from a P. Grsn, painting the same guy who did lots ofalbum art a few years ago. Some Hypocrisy albums and at least oneDimmu Borgir for example. And after being royally screwed by twolabels (that doesn't deserve to be mentioned in any form ofpublication) we signed with Pulverised Records. The big man himself,the boss of the label, liked the cover we brought to the table and weagreed to use it. But for some reason he all of a sudden changed hismind. The cover art wasn't good enough and he wanted to getsomebody else to redo the entire lay-out. After pondering a while overwhy a cover that one day was great, the next day turned in to crap, weagreed to his suggestion. So we checked out some new artists anddecided to go with the guys that, amongst others, made the album artfor Leng Tch'es "The process of elimination". And after a few weeksthe artist pitched an idea to us that we liked and then he startedworking on it.

Thanks to our luck with the previous labels we were signedto the album was at this stage over two years old and still unreleased.So after waiting almost another 6 months for the new cover it finallyarrived and had basically nothing to do with the idea the artist hadpitched. This was a completely different cover and in my personalopinion not very good. So we went from a cool P. Grsn cover to a coolidea involving a picture of an old religious family and some cheep toend up with a horned hamster reading in front of a shitty war-scenario.We have no lyrics touching on the subject of war, that's Bolt Throwersthing.

But now it had been about three years since the album wasrecorded and waiting another 6 months for a new cover didn't feel likean option. So that's why there's an evil rodent that likes to study onthe cover of our debut album.

What is your perspective on songs lilre "Kill or Blood" and"Kil l ing at Wil l"? What did you have in mind here?Kill or blood was one of the first songs written for the band that inthose days were called Gridlocked lt was written by our originaldrummer BJ and was meant to be nothing more than a grind-tuneclocking in under a minute. lt was originally called "Kill for blood" but

when we told another guy the title he didn't hear us and asked if it wascalled "Kill or blood". And from that day it was. lt didn't have any lyricsuntil we recorded it for the album. When we did it live and on thedemo we improvised. So there isn't that much meaning behind thosewords.

I have no idea who or what does the killing in "Killing at will"since I wrote the music, came up with the title but not the rest of thelyrics. Erik is utterly responsible for who or what's running aroundknocking people of in those lyrics. And according to him all lyrics onthe album are ment to be interpreted by the listener of course,but they are generally reflections of what people might do (and someare already doing) when thoughts, frustration and words about oursick world turns into action.

How do you know when a ritf is good for your band? Have youever come up with riffs that you like a lot, but that you cannotuse for this band?Personally it's just a feeling I get. Usually I write a riff and work on itfor a while, maybe l'll put it together with some other riff to see howthey work together. And when I feel that this might be something tocontinue working on l' l l make damn sure that l ' l l remember what I'vebeen doing. Too many song ideas have found them self in the drainjust because I've forgotten what the hell I was doing the last time Iwas working on that particular one. And just as many songs have metthe same fate because I've realized that the song I thought was amasterpiece one day, the next day suck worse than the entire Venomback catalog put together. And when you've got enough riff for a tuneyou play it about a million times until you get a feel for which partswork and which parts deserve to be taken out the back and shot,alternatively rearranged or rewritten. During that process of courseyou stumble on riffs that you like but are just not suited for Lucifersand that's why the devil invented side projects.

Would you say that "Hate Will Prevail," "Hope Fades," and"Despair" represent your state of mind or the opposite?It's neither a description of us nor is it the opposite. We are all more orless filled with despair and convinced that hate will prevail and thathope is just a feeling that you eventually realizes is a fading sensation.But I don't think we are any different ihan anybody else that has eyesto see with and a mind with average thinking capability. The world is ashitty place and it's not getting any better and our lyrics is just areflection of that fact. Also our music is of the angry sort so it's onlylogical that our lyrics are of the same nature. And since the hail Satan-stuffs not our bag we turn to the sunounding hatred for inspiration.

What were the first metal albums you got into when you wereyoung? Do you stil l l ike those albums? How did you get intometal, through a friend or a brother?Pretty standard stuff... I think the first metal album I bought wasMaidens "Powerslave" or maybe "Ride the lightning", can't remember.I do remember the first CD I bought and that was Slayers "Hellawaits". But before I bought the music I had everything I listened tocopied onto cassette from friends that bought the actual album,Nothing original on those tapes either, some Priest, Sabbath and soon, Before the metal days it was ZZ Top and Bruce Springsteen all theway. But in the mid eiqhties I moved to a new town and got into metalthank to a friend of mine

And of course I stil l l isten to the classics and I would say that almostevery album has aged gracefully except the Manowar ones. lt 'spainfully clear to me nowadays that those flatulent bastards alwayshave and stil l sucks. And of course not to mention Venom. ln my bookyou can't claim to be the most evil shit on the planet, take it all back by

claming it was just an image and then claiming the be the ultimate evilagain. I suspect it just happened to occur coincidently with the rapiddisappearing of zeros on the members bank accounts. Such anticscombined with the fact that their music is shit puts them on top of thelist of overrated bands in need of a swift mercy kill ing.

What is a metal band or a metal album that you like that peoplewould be surprised that you like?!Well let's open the closet and let the skeletons out. I don't think peopleare especially surprised over the fact that metal musicians listen tomore than just the extreme stuff. In my case I'm taking some heatover the fact that I l ike the first Avantasia-album. And maybe evenmore embarrassing, the first Rhapsody album. But nowadays I'm toold to care and try to uphold some image of being more metal than amutated steel mill. My hat's of to those who eat, breath and sleepmetal but I personally need some Beatles, Leonard Cohen or EddieMeduza once in a while. Good music is good music, then it's up to theindividual to deal with the classification.

What are your three favorite foods from where you live? Whatthese foods like? What kind of drinks go with them?Well if we are just talking Falun then it's pretty hard to name a favorite.And that's not because there' to much to chose from. On the contraryFaluns mark on the map of foods consists of our Falukorv, basicallyjust a sausage with not that much flavor. I don't think that we have somany dishes that is typical of Sweden. I like Gravlax which is thinlysliced, cold "gravad" (you season the fish with salt, black pepper, dill,sugar and very little water and you let it sit for a couple of days)salmon. Served with a cold sauce made of water, mustard, sugar,vinegar and more dill. Then I would say Pannbiff. A kind of thickhamburger made with mustard and finely chopped unions. And youeat it with a sick amount of fried, sliced unions and lingonberry jam,Then I'l l just have to go with the Swedish meatballs. And on thequestion of drinks the answer is always beer, sweet beer.

Any last comments?Thanx a lot for the interest in the Lucifers. At the moment I've no ideawhat we got planned since Tobbe currently is in the states for aboutthree months. And the rest of the members are scattered all over thisoblong country of ours.

I doubt that there will be a new album out in '08 since thisone was just released and if it isn't promoted at all (as looks to be thecase right now) | don't think we're interested in remaining on ourcurrent label. But who knows l'm no stranger to releasing a potentialnew album on the net for free downloading. lt 's not like we're makingany money anyway. Sowhy not let people download it and if they like it get their ass to a gigand maybe buy a t-shirt. Check us out on www.2llucifers.com ormyspace.coml2llucifers. lf anything of importance happens it' l l bementioned there. Have a good one, friends. Lindh - 2l Lucifers THE

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"The Essence" by The Cold Existence is a well-rounded releasecovering several fields: the thrash/death, blasting and gutturalgrowling territories is a major area emphasized, basically,providing the foundation of the band's memorable, song'friendly

sound; the other major elements of the sound is the traditional,Swedish, melodic riffs and solos. The results come in real fast: itdoesn't take long to see that the album gets better with eachlisten, practically embedding itself in the listeners' mind.

Peter (bass) explains a bit about the band in thisinterview. In addition, he says that this summer they will releasethe follow-up with some interesting new elements, includingmaking the band's sound "much more brutal, darker and faster."Since, in reality, the band is fast with their blastbeats, Peter adds,"Well, the music is already pretty fast, but we wanted to do themusic more technical, but st i l l keep some of the melodies in ourconcept, but the melodies we have now is not that "happy" as onthe older albums, they also have some Egyptic vibes, l i t t le in thedirection of death metal band Nile." www.coldexistence se

How has the album been received in your country?Hi Mauriciol The Essence have been received pretty good in Sweden,but could been better if the distribution in Europe had being better, inthe rest of Europe and USA the album get.s killer reviews.We have signed a new record deal with the US label Open GraveRecords for our next album "Sombre Gates" release date will be inJuly 2008. After that we have some plans for a Europetour.

You have a song called "The Cold Existence." Which came first:the band name or the song? Do you think that this is best songon the album to cal l i t the name of the band?Well, The Cold Existence is a DAMN old song..hehe! But the band iseven older. My personal favourite song on that album is the title track"The Essence" because on that track the band starts to create musicin the right direction, more harder, faster and less of thatGothenburgstyle melodies. Our new album will be much more darkand brutal

Your songs in general have some nice guitar solos and riffing."Cynical World" is just one example of the cool solos. Were anyof these solos composed in the studio?Haha, well we are not a band that like to have solos in our songs at allto be honest. In that case we try to build some nice melodies on theguitars instead. But sure, we have some solos in our songs and asoften we create the solos in our rehearsal room before recording. Andlive we try to play them as on the recording, sounds best that way

Your lyrics can give the impression that you think that life ismeaningless. How does playing metal fit into what you do withyour life? Do you think that long winters can create feelings ofdepression?The lyrics came out from the singers thoughts about life in general. Heis not kinda depressed guy, but the world today is kindadepressed..hehe. Of course the winter can make you depressed, hereover is almost dark and cold half the year outside. I think people intropical countries feel better

Has anybody mentioned that on "Shadows of the Past," the part" l feel this sorrow it 's bui lding up inside..." sounds a bit l ikeJames Hetfield?Oooh yeah! Was just a thing we did for fun, we wanted to try cleanvocals in that song, actually Shadows of the Past is the bands firstsong ever..haha! And we al l just said that while recording "Damn, this

sounds l ike the mighty James Hetf ield" Cool.. .Eeeeh?

When playing in front of an audience, it's pretty easy to feed otfthe energy of the crowd. But how do you get in the rightmentality to record in the studio?Well, recording in studio is another thing then playing live,TO get a good result you must stay alert. The most important is torehearsal the material over and over again before entering the studio.Because when you have been in the studio for some hours, and startto get dizzy in your head you also start to forget your songs..haha.lmportant to get a good nights sleep and eat proper.

ls "Observation" about extraterrestrials or is it about somethingelse? Either way, it 's pretty creepy, like a horror movie. Was itinspired by a movie?!Also Observation is DAMN old and the lyrics are bad in it if you askme. At that time back in 99 when we wrote that song we thought itwould be cool to write about aliens or something like that, i don't havea better answer on that lyric..hahahaha!

Do you think that the music you play has an age: do you thinkthat twenty years from now, like in 2028, your music will soundsilly to you? Does Slayer's "Show No Mercy" or Metallica's"Kill 'em All" sound immature to you nowadays?No, i think both Slayer and Metallica are cool bands. Inspiring manybands today. Old metal is often better then all this newgrindcore/hardcore newmetal shit .All genres have an age, but metal as Slayer and Metallica neverdisappear As our new album will be more inspired from old bands like

pretty much dormant and nothing much is going on, although I am stillactive in doing as much promotion as I can for 'Devils In RenewedBirth'. As of right now, we are just waiting for the 'Devils In RenewedBirth'cassette tape release from Canada's Total Death Records whichprobably should see the light of day anytime now. This release is alimited edition version and will be released in 150 hand-numberedcopies, which a brand new artwork by French artist K. and a newRaspatul logo by legendary logo master Christophe Szpajdel.

When Ayim passed away, it was a unanimous decision thatRaspatul will not find a replacement for a singer spot. Ayim was thesinger since the very first day and it was totally pointless for us to getanother singer, and which also explains why Raspatul is no longeractive as a live band, but rather a studio band as we speak.

"Devils in Renewed Birth" is the only cd I have heard. How manycds have you released and what are they called?We have released 2 other official CDs in our discography, namely'Menghitung Ajal' and 'The Perfect Realm Of Jharkyannarkh'. Butwhat you are hearing on 'Devils In Renewed Birth' is just a collectionof all the songs on 'Menghitung Ajal' and 'The Perfect Realm OfJharkyannarkh'. Two reasons why we have decided to compile all thesongs we have recorded into a CD; both our previous releases werereleased on CD-R format, due to the fact that we do not have thefinancial capabilities to release them in professional CD format and soI felt that we did not give them the justice they deserved. And theother reason was that since Ayim had left us in this way, we felt thatby releasing 'Devils In Renewed Birth' would be the perfect way toretain the Raspatul legacy as it was, and that would be to have it in aprofessional CD format.

The legendary James Murphy was brought in to handle themastering for 'Devils In Renewed Birth', who actually gave all oursongs a much fresher sound. James did an amazing job with themastering and we could not be much happier with the final outcome ofthe production.

What was Ayim like as a person? When did you meet him?Calvin Raspatul - Ayim was probably the person I was closest to inthe band. lknew Raspatu l back in 1999 when lwas p lay ing wi thanother band called Deviant, and so I am not one of the originalmembers in Raspatul. Ayim was really a quiet person by nature andunless he was with a group of good friends, or else he would be justby himself in the background. Ayim and I talk to each other a lot all thetime, and the times I had with him will definitely be the mostunforgettable times of my life. lf anyone knew Ayim in person, he waslike a clown and would often crack jokes. But at the same time, andlike anyone else I would say, he would have a weird attitude wheneverhe was in a bad mood. But sad to say, the last few months beforeAyim passed away, all of us were very busy with our own personallives and the only time where we could get together was during ourrehearsals. I didn't get to talk to Ayim so much like before andsometimes he would miss our rehearsal sessions because of his shiftwork hours.

Ayim is definitely one of the best Metal singers in our scenehere and anyone who had heard him sing live can attest to that. Heused to say that he is the least important person in the band but hewas so wrong. Not only was he a great singer, he also had a great earfor good riffs and a strong sense for song arrangements. Ayim is trulymissed as a fellow bandmate and most importantly, as a friend.

Obituary,

Last

Morbid angel and Slayer.

comments?Check out our new album "Sombre Gates" when it will be relased inJuly 2008. And hope to see you on tour in Europe later this year.CheerzPeter/The Cold Existence THE END

Calvin (guitarring) here explains the important info about theband Raspatul. "Devils in Renewed Birth" is the album Calvin istalking about. This album has a cool underground feel that takesits cue from classic thrash and death. The riffing is compact,instant-impact, tight stuff. The vocals are growled, scowled, witha sl ight touch of that vomit-feel ing. Fun! And the drummingsounds organic, hard hitting, and in-your-face, not clicky at all.The cd has a quote from Jeff Becerra from Possessed sayingthat Raspatul "have a unique sound that is all their own, but yetin the truest vein of underground metal".

There you go. Jeff knows. Now we do.Note: Raspatul's vocalist Ayim died in 2005 in a motorcycleaccident. Calvin gives an update on the band here.

What is the current situation with the band?Calvin Raspatul - Hi Mauricio, it 's a great pleasure doing thisinterview for Metal Bulletin! Well, the current situation of Raspatul is

How did you get into metal in your country? Did you have friendsinto metal or was it your parents?It's really strange because I got in Metal without anyone else'sinfluence and I just decided to explore this form of music by myself.Being in Singapore where it's a country that most people think thatMetal music does not exist; there really wasn't anyone around mycircle of friends into Metal at all. Back then, there wasn't CD formatyet, so I would go hunting for Metal cassette tapes at anywhereavailable and there were only a few shops that sold Extreme Metalstuff. The urge to buy Metal cassette tapes was definitely an addictionand back then, I just wanted to get hold of the most extreme or mostbrutal stuff available and sometimes by just looking at the coverartworks, I would just buy itl But it was a great lesson for me as I gotto understand the different genres of Metal very quickly.

My parents were absolutely the last people to support myform of music. In fact, when I was young, they were totally shockedand confused as to why I was listening to this form of music that theycould not understand and they even threatened to kick me out of thehouse, believe it or not. But now, they have entirely given up on it andthey know that Metal is not just a growing phase in my life. There arestill people who cannot understand why I am still so much into Metalat my age and all I can say is that Metal is not just about the music,but it 's also a lifestyle and it also changes my way of seeing a lot ofthings in perspective.

What are your plans for 2008 and 2009?2008 is pretty much a very busy year for me and now that we arealmost halfway through 2008, time really flies man. There had beenplans for Raspatul to record some new material and we spoke aboutthis during January 2008. Our label Obskure Sombre Records hadshowed interests in wanting us to record new material for probably avinyl or a CD release. There was no promise on our side, but this issomething that we would like to do, but the problem lies with theschedule around our lives. I am very much busy with PulverisedRecords (www.pulverised.net andwww.myspace.com/pulverisedrecords) and currently doing the labelfull-time. lt 's just insane sometimes that Pulverised Records is justbeing handle by just my partner Roy and me, and we have a lot ofbands under our roster, so you can imagine the amount of work thatneeds to be done.

Maybe 2009 would be a more realistic goal to get some newmaterial recorded I guess. Since Raspatul will stay as a studio band,so there are already plans right now and the singer spot will besomeone from another country instead. Also, there will be some bignames for sure either in the artwork and even the production side ofthings.

Do you have problems (with the government, etc,) in yourcountry because of the music you play?So far, there had been no issues about the music that we play and it'sprobably because we are too small to get noticed in such a way. InSingapore, even though we have a music scene here, we are prettymuch left alone. And to most people, loud music is just loud music; analternative band playing really loud is probably equivalent to a BlackMetal band playing, so I think the contrasts between different musicgenres could be blurred out, to people who do not understand oranalyse music so much. Only in the early 90's, there was a banimposed on slamdancing after the Buzzcocks and the Henry Rollins

Band came here to play in Singapore, But the fact is that no oneactually follows this ban, especially when most gigs are held indoors.

The closest and most serious encounter that we had wasfrom our neighboring country Malaysia. A few years ago, there was anissue with the Black Metal movement happening in Malaysia wherethere were reportedly a number of people from the Malaysian Metalscene defiling the lslamic holy book called the quran. There weren'tmany details on what really happened but because of this incident, theMalaysian government went on a raid to track down the people in theMetal scene and they had blacklisted a big amount of bands that wereconsidered anti-religious or were involved in the quran-defilingincident. For quite a while, the entire Malaysian Metal scene wasstagnant without much gigs happening in the country or they had toreally hold gigs in a very discreet manner. But now, things are sort ofback to normal again and I believe that incidents like this usually willtide down after a while. The government can't possibly do anythingmuch about it, or so much as to wipe out the entire Metal scene.

For "Breaking" Ayim says that he hates god. What about the restof the band?Like I have mentioned earlier in the previous question, most of thetopics that Ayim speaks about are usually anti-religious or the man-made theories behind everything organized religions. I am not toosure about how Hisham or Fadzlly feels about religion, but I personallyhave my own experiences with religions I was born into a so-calledchristian family and since my teenage years, I have realised thehypocrisy behind religion. I do believe that religions are just a form ofmental reliance when a person feels empty or unfulfil led in their lives,and thus they seek something spiritual and thinking that by praying forwhat you want or confessing your committed sins, it makes them feelbetter in a certain way. I have no interest in discussing about religionbecause I do not believe in another higher being that can save or healthem miraculously, much less pray for what they want. Everything thatwe want to achieve or have achieved is all from the hard work that wehave done. Do you think what Raspatul had achieved so far are allfrom praying? Not to think that we are even a big band or anything,but it 's just sheer hard work that counts.

Do Calvin, Hisham and Fadzlly have other bands?Both Hisham and Fadzlly play in some project bands from time totime, and I am not too sure which bands they are playing with rightnow. As for me, besides being really busy with Pulverised Records, Iam also currently finishing up my new band's album calledObliterhate. Obliterhate is basically an all-star band of some sorts,with guys like Dan Swano (Nightingale, ex-Edge Of Sanity, ex-Bloodbath) on vocals, James Murphy (ex-Testament, ex-Obituary),Erik Sayenga (ex-Dying Fetus) on drums, Mirai Kawashima (Sigh,Necrophagia) on keyboards and Derrick Ramirez (Dragonlord, ex-Testament) on bass. I myself will handle all the rhythm and leadguitars, with James Murphy also contributing a guest guitar solo andDan Swano doing a guitar solo as well . The new album is almost doneand it should be for a hopefully late 2008 or early 2009 release signedunder Pulverised Records. We only have a Myspace page and noofficial website yet, so check us out at: www.myspace.com/obliterhate

Any other comments?As always, thanks to Metal Bulletin for conducting this interview withRaspatul, I had a great time answering the questions and I hope you

readers will enjoy the interview as well. Do get in touch with me atraspatul@hotmail.com and I will definitely reply all sensible emails.Cheers and have a nice one! Raspatul Domain: www.raspatul.tkRaspatuloff icial Myspace.www.myspace.com/raspatul THEEND

The album by Vanmakt called "Vredskapta Md,rkersagor" is,basically, a blasting, blasting, blasting black metal exposition,mixed with some brief pauses, some stop.start, combat guitarshredding, as well the melodic bit for dynamics and variety,Some of the more distinguishing characteristiLs of the band areits ability to have that constant fireblastingspeedmode onthroughout and make it easy to get into, so that it is not one bigtrainwreckblur of hyperblasting. The guitar has a sharp, crispsound. The vocals are by far mostly blackmetal endlessscreaming, not screechy, with enough gutturalness to appeal toa broad variety of people into death and black metal,

Band member Gorgoth answered.

How has your album been received in your country? Have youbeen surprised by the response in other places? Are youmotivated to write another album?I actually was surprised about how good response we got in Sweden,you know, we got a lot of good Blackmetal bands in this country and Ithought the market was over fil led But we sold out 2 times and havebeen contacted for alot of gigs and so on. Unfortunately, we had tocancel a tour in Sweden this autumn due to that our drummer Graalhad an operation

Sure, it feels kinda weird when people from Thailand, SouthAmerica and so on writes and loves us. But at the same time we hada hunch since the demo was so popular

A new album is written and done, we have startedrehearsing the new songs and as it looks of things we will record thisalbum this summer and hopefully release it this Autumn/Winter.

What feeling do riffs have to have in order to be good for yourmusic?Well, I actually wrote 1B Songs to the "Vredskapta Morkersagor"album and then we decided which to use together. Sure, we changedsome riff in the recording process and so on. I think that it 's importantto have riffs that fits together and that is aggressive. But at the sametime I think it 's good to have a gloomy riff in the middle of a song andget it more dynamic. The feeling l'm looking for in my songwriting isAggresive, Hatefull music with an essence of Despair. I want themusic to reflect me as a person and my believes.

How did you get into metal, a friend or a brother, etc.?My dad has always listened to Hardrock like Black Sabbath, AC/DCand so on, so I have listened to that kind of music all my life. I guess Istarted to listen to Metal when I was like 10-12 years or something,and then it was Pantera, Sepultura and so on and that later on growedinto more aggressive and more brutal music like Entombed when "LeftHand Path" was released, DAMN that album is good.

What is some music that you like that people would be surprisedthat you like?!

Type O Negative & Katatonia, I love everything that they have everdone, I also enjoy Sigur Ros an lslandic depressive pop band. Greatmusic to drink wine to and just wander of in your thoughts.

What are your guitars tuned to?The guitars is tuned in C and its the same in all the songs. Deathmetalis more bassy and even more downtuned. I like a raw and cold sound,I cant say that we got that on the album, but that's what I like, I alsowant a sound where you as a listener can hear all the tones and whatwe play. I hate albums where I can't hear what they r playing.

When you listen to the cd, are you pleased with how fast it is? Doyou want to play faster on the next one?I like the songs, but l 'm not really pleased with the sound. But, itsounds great if you think about that I have recorded and mixed it bymyself and only with a usual Pro Tools LE and no other plug-ins ands0 0n.

Our next album will be much faster, and yes its importantwith speed since we love fast music and have a drummer that cantplay slow live. So we made the decision to make all the new songsfaster so that they wont sound wierd live cause he cant play slow. Wewill grind the asses of all other BM bands on our next record, thats apromisel

What is it that you do in your band that you thought other blackmetal bands were not doing?We have a lot of doomy and gloomy parts that other bands dont have,fuckin hell, we are Vanmakt, all other Blackmetal bands can kiss ourasses, cause we kick theirs. I mean, everyone is talking about being"true" but noone is, everyone has a strict line that they follow, butVanmakt dont give a crap, we do what we want to when we want to.No fuckin bullshit, just honest & Hellish music fil led with real Hatred!

ls your music on the radio in your country?Well, not really. We have been played on some local stations but youknow, we don't have any metal stations in Sweden. The radio overhere sucksl

Racism has often been associated with black metal, Do you seeyourselves as apolitical, more antireligious than anything? Whatis your opinion of bands that use black metal to promote racism?A real Satanist don't care about "race", A real Satanist don't promoteanything that is related to racism. Those bands that spread thisstupidity should be banned and ki l led.

Personally I don't care about politics and so on. Sure, I voteand try to find out what to vote for, but they never do what they saythat they will do anyway, so nowadays I don't give a fuck.

How do you view your lyr ics in relat ion to bands l ike Venom andMercyful Fate?I don't know, I don't like any of those bands so I have no idea, Theonly thing that I can say is that I mean every word that is written in ourlyr ics.

Last comments?Thanks for this interview and your interest in Vanmakt. I think thateveryone should check our myspace and website and buy our album.A new song has been uploaded on myspace from our new promo,

"Brethren Of Lucifer" check it out and see how the new shit soundslwww.myspace.com/Vanmakt and www.Vanmakt.com A new albumwill massacre you ears in late 20081 THE END

Suicidal Winds' thrash/death is played with such a genuine feeland i t comes across on their album "Chaos Rising" in a sol idway. The combination of German thrash and classic death metal,with variety and different moods results in a play-it-again album,Emil (guitar) took a break from playing guitar to answer somequestions about playing guitar.

How do Peter and Emil work together to write songs? Does Peterjust take care of guitar solos? Are the other members of the bandinvolved in writing songs?Me and Peter don't really work together writing. No one in the banddoes. Often we come to rehearsal with some riffs we've written on ourown and then put them together. By the way, I am the lead guitaristand Peter don't do solos. He's a rhythm player.

Who came up with the song title "Slowly We Frost"? Who's theObituary fan in the band?Fredrik came up with that title and me and Peter liked it right away.Mathias didn't care for it but he didn't come up with anything betters0... I really thought that intro sounded like a mix between OBITUARYand CELTIC FROST so that's why that title came up. We had a goodlaugh I can tell you. Just imagine the five of us frosting...About the lyrics, most of them are written in Swedish by Mathias andthen translated into English. He finds this to be a good way of writinglyrics since he can express himself a lot deeper in his native tongue. Iwrite sometimes, Fred writes sometimes and also Thomas. Peterdoesn't do anything anymore. He's got no writing on "Chaos Rising" ata l l . he he he

How much touring did you do in 2007 for "Chaos Rising"? Whatare your touring plans for 2008?We haven't done any touring for this album yet but we hopefully willsoon. We did play the track "Thanatophobia" in Germany last yearthough and they seemed to like it. We also played a couple of songsfrom it in Gothenburg last time we played there and I think they dowell live. We hope to do some mini tour this year on behalf of our labelPulverised. Roy said something about that.

Do you play in different bands besides Suicidal Winds? ls this afull-time band or a project?It's definitely no project, l don't know where you got that from but all ofus play in other bands except Thomas who is to be married now andwho also just got a son.I play in ILL NATURED which is on ice and also something verydifferent: a Nintendo 8-bit tribute band called NESTUNES. Similar tothe band MINIBOSSES from your country but a lot better. Fredrik,Peter and Mathias have AXIS POWERS. Me, Fredrik and Mathiasalso have a project called DOOMED ETERNAL which is reallydepressing and heavy.

You have written a "Ballade of Death." Do you think in the future

you would write a "Ballade of Love"iHahahahaha!!! ! No fucking way! No room for that crap in SW. Maybewe'll write a song about how we love to hate.

How does Thomas (drummering) contr ibute to Suicidal Winds?What does that bring to the sound of the band?He has written some lyrics lately and that is really a good thing! I alsothink that his playing st i le is total ly unique and I can't say any drummerwho smashes the skins like he do. He always got ideas when we puttogether songs and some of them are great! | also want you to listenand compare him on our latest album and on the mini lp "Crush uswith fire" from 2002. That's good progression!

ls your music played on the radio in your country? Tv?Nope, Only trendfuckers get played.

Who is Lena Goreguts? and Daniel Desecrator? Are they friendsof Suicidal Winds? | take it that Lena likes Goreguts and Daniellikes Desecrator?Hahaha, Lena is my girlfriend. She took the photos. Daniel is an artistfrom Chile. A very good one. He made the cover of BESTIALMOCKERYs latest album and so we wanted him to do ours as well.

The album has a hidden track at the end. Was this your idea oryour record company's? Why does one have to wait 7 minutes tohear it? What is the song itself?It was our demented idea altogether. lt is actually a bassline from anold Swedish 70s film called "The man who quit smoking" which wasmade by the late master genius Tage Danielsson. We like that grooveWe wanted you to wait for 7 minutes so that you would fall asleep andthen shit your pants when that thing just starts! That was the idea.

You guys love the classic gods like Venom, Sodom, MercyfulFate, Death etc.? Your music has a real down-n-dirtythrash/death feeling, too. Would you say that you want that samefeel ing in the songs?We love that oldschool feel to the music and honestly we can't writesongs in any other way. This is just the way the songs come out. Wedon't really try to be oldschool, we just are,

Sometimes it seems that the German metal listeners are crazyabout thrashing/death metal like yours that has that classicfeeling. How has it been the case for your band?My impression of Germans is that either they love our kind ofoldschool metal or they love that power metal crap that is popularnow. You know dragons and shit. And those boring guitar heroesplaying one million notes/second. Germans are fun...

Which ones were the first metal bands that you really got into,that you listened to a lot? Have you had a chance to hear the"new" Sodom re-recordings of "ln the Sign of Evil" and what doyou think?I grew up on KISS and ALICE COOPER and I st i l l love them'Especially the 70s era. And yes I have heard the re-recordings of "lnthe sign of evil" and it didn't do anything for me. Just as useless as theTWISTED SISTER re-recording of "Stay Hungry" and DIMMUBORGIRs "Stormblist" We on the other hand have a track, "WitchingMetal", on the tr ibute mini lp " ln the sign of Sodom" which is that

classic album re-recorded by us and five other bands doing one trackeach. lt will be out soon on Hell's Headbangers, Get that!

What is the name of the city or town you live in? ls there a goodmetal scene?We live on the west coast in a town called Uddevalla. There are a lotof bands hailing from here. But no real scene exists as far as gigs go.

What inspired the song lyrics to "Freddy Flesheater"? a movie?Your neighbor? Your bass player Fred? ls it human flesh or justchicken or cow flesh?Hahaha, Yes Fred is the necrophiliac that this song_is about. He wrotethat. He likes that disgusting kind of stuff. Of course, it 's human fleshthat he gri l ls.

Any last comments?Thanks for this interesting interview! Really a good one. By the waywe just got home from the studio today where we have been recordingtwo new tracks for an upcoming split 7" with THRONEUM fromPoland. lt will be released soon. The new tracks are in the "ChaosRising" vein and surely ki l ls! "Chaos Rising" wil l be released on vinylby the way in 500 copies. Greatl We are also trying to get the thirdfull-lenght "Wrath of God" released on vinyl. The Polish bastard Filipand his rip-off label Agonia destroyed that release you know. lt reallydeserves a good print. Well, thanx and cheers! Check our myspacefor updates on the band. www.myspace.com/suicidalwindsTHE END

Sti l lness' Blade is the name of the band and "The First DarkChapter" is the name of the game and the game is al l aboutkeeping it hyperfast and blasting and guttural. Thespeed/blasting has that trance-like quality, where good, repetitiveblasting can sound numbing. The l istener just has to be wil l ing tolet the blasting game play itself out because the blasting goodtimes do rol l out a lot on here. In addit ion, the band, just messingwith conventions' rules' regulations' norms, has these creepyinterludes of horror and violence, just in case musical frenzy wasnot interesting enough. This is brutal, blasting, guttural deathmetal, just fyi.

Max, guitarrring and grrrrrrwwwling, says it's time.

Have metallers in your country received the album well?We are so glad for the very good reviews in ltaly and in all the world.We've had high votes on magazines and webzines from manycountries. The metal listeners likes our music and they appreciatedthe dark meaning behind the album.

What motivates your crazy drummer, Antonio Donadeo, to playso furiously?! Does he practice every day?Yes, he does it almost every day. Fortunately he has a great passionfor his instrument, also with many other kinds of music. He's alwaystrying to do his best pushing us on high levels

What was the metal scene in your town when you formed theband? How is it different now?

We live in Lecce, in the south-east of ltaly, and everything here iscomplicated. There is not so much people which listen extreme metal,there are a few good bands, good musicians, but is hard to findserious and motivated people. Nothing is really changed from 2005,when we started this band,

What inspired the concept for the album? lt's a bit l ike a horrormovie, with a storyline!I liked the old horror movies, especially from the 80's and the firsts90's. But only the pain of mine has inspired this concept. "Stillness'Blade" is a concept on a series of murders, in which the victimsrepresent the baseness that belong to human mankind, and they areintegrating part of their murderer, who will descend into his deepestabyss, finding his il ls and executing them. At the end of executions"soulblighter" will be free from human imperfection that his victimspersonified His thoughts, before and after the murder, are the songs'lyrics. In each song there's an introduction supported by sonorouseffects, in this introduction it can be heard how the murder happens.In each execution a different weapon is used, the choice of eachweapon has a precise meaning. Every little detail has a precisemeaning. the steps, the victirns, the place where the executionshappen. The sonorous effects are combined with the riffs, This projectwill be developed in a precise number of parts, and it will end withexecutor's suicide.

Max Schito's vocals are brutal, like Suffocation, Incantation andlmmolation. Does your throat hurt to be making those sounds?!How does he do it for a long time, do you have vocal exercisesand techniques?I'm a guitar player first, I became a stnger with the Stillness Bladeproject. lt wasn't easy but with practice and breathing exercises,everything seems easier now. I prefer the "breathe in" growl. I l ike somuch the bands you named, they have amazing singersl

How did you get into metal in your town? Did you have friendsinto metal or was it your parents?We listen Metal from we were children, I discovered it by myself withbands like lron Maiden, Megadeth, Testament and many more. I wasbewitched by Heavy Metal with its sound impact and its wickedness.We listen a lot of bands, especially extreme metal, but we don'tdespise many other bands outside this kind.

Have you toured for the album?Yes, we did a few mini-tours in all our Country: Milan, Turin, Rome,Messina, Palermo, Lecce, Bari, Taranto..we also did many singleconcerts, like the main-stage of "Salento Summer Festival 2007" withSoulfly of Max Cavalera,

What are your plans for the rest of 2008 and 2009?We have many new songs, and actually we are writing even more.Hopefully, we will enter in studio to record the new album at the end of2008, or at the beginning of 2009. Also we want to organize othertours, in ltaly but even outside, because we are stil l doing promotionfor our debut album. We'l l seelLike I said before, we have many new songs and we hope to recordthe new album for the end of this year. lt 's time to assess everything,so we can produce the next one more professional as possible. lt willbe more technical and faster, but with the same influences and

atmospheres of the previous one. Obviously, the next album will bethe continuation of "The firs dark chapter (Misanthropic Elevation)".

How do you combine the speed with melody and variety?We like to be various, alternating brutal parts, glacial riffs, darkmelodies and morbid atmospheres. All perfectly combined, trying notto be monotonous.

Can people hear sample of your music on your website?Sure, they can listen two songs and watch some videos onwww. myspace.com/stillnessblade,

When was the album recorded?It was recorded between October and November of 2005, and it cameout only on November 2007 for the Canadian Label Obskure SombreRecords. We have wait so long because we were searching for agood contract. This label is professional, that's why we decided to signfor them, denying other offers.

Heard the new Judas Priest album yet? Do you like it?l 'm sorry.. .but ldidn't l isten their new album. Judas Priest is a historicband, we respect them, but to be honest I prefer other bands from theold school.

Last comments?We want to thank you so much for this space you gave us!Our official sites are: www.stillnessblade.net andwww.myspace.com/stillnessblade. Thanks to the people whichsupport us and our musicl See you on next massacre.THE END.-.. . . .

R E V I E W SHeart of Sun: Heart of Sun (Nightmare Records)This band plays a sort of keyboardy, midpaced prog rock/metal thatoften can give the sensation of listening to an instrumental album. Thevocals are sort of high, breathy singing, not aggressive at all, morel ike gentle, soft singing.

The lyrics have a "philosophical" feel to them, as they seemto be concerned with questions about the meaning of life and otherfunny/comical matters like that. The lyrics have an anti-scienceleaning and a sort of disguised believers' perspectives, fyi.

There are some spacey, techno, hippie moments. Thosemoments sound a bit like yoga music or elevator music.

This band does not "rock out" and they don't "jam." This isdefinitely for the more fanatic prog rock/metal. People wanting to hearmemorable, energetic metal, will not find that here and will mostly likebe bored, while the prog listeners, especially the total prog listeners,should have here more than enough to be content. www.heartofsun.it

www. N i g htmare- Records, com

Judas Priest: NostradamusWhen I learned the release date of the new Judas Priest album title"Nostradamus" it caught my attention. Not to mention that if you pre-ordered the cd it came with a special edition digi-pack plus a ticket tocatch them live on the "metal masters" tour. So, of course I was in. Ireceived the cd and the package was great the art, the layouteverything look great up to this point. lopened the cd and found aZcdset. My f irst thought was, "Hell . . .how long is this thing?"9

The intro "Dawn of the Creation" works well into the song"Phophecy " Needless to say, this is a good start classic Priest here,but, to my surprise, the cd stalls for much of the entirefirst cd until you get to "Persecution," which is the last song. As thesecond cd starts with "Solitude/Exile" you are reminded why Rob hasthe best pipes in the business, He carries this song by himself, themusic is slow but he excels. "Alone" is another midtempo song butblends well al l the elements, I would say that the highl ight of this cd isthe song "The Calm before the Storm/Nostradamus." lt shreds doublelead guitars with a touch of midtempo double bass drums almosttaking you back to Painki l ler l icks but not quite . ,

Overall, Nostradamus is slow, and too long. The music drags as thestory unfolds but the goods songs are few and far between. There isno shredding here, no headbanging moshpit anthems and i tdisappoints big time. lt will get little play for the simple reason that ittakes over a t hr and a half to listen to it.It could of been a good 11 song cd and perfect for the collection. I willsay I am looking forward to see them live with Heaven and Hell, butmost of all, I get to see the mighty TESTAMENT at the top of theirgamel [by

Saint: Crime Scene Earth (Armor Records)

Juanl

One song of this band is named is "Everlasting God" anddemonstrates what they are: "You are the everlasting God / You arethe one we bring our praise to / You are the everlasting God / You arethe one we sing our praise to i You created the oceans and rain / Youcreated the desert plain. . . "

In this traditional, BOs-like hard rock/metal, are youinterested in hearing music about rocking for a god? They sound like arock band, but they are rocking for a god. The music here sounds verytraditional, the rhythms are "comfortable" because the band gives theirlisteners what the band thinks that their listeners want: riffs and songssomewhere between classic rock, hard rock and some metalmoments,

By the way, in the above song, they do not present anyevidence of their mythological Christian view: they declare a godcreated the world and think that simply saying it makes it a factwww.saintsite,com

DVD revrews

God Forbid: Beneath the Scars of Glory and Proqression(Centurv Media)Through constant touring the band has developed into a prettyefficient thrashing unit, or certainly this is the case presented on thisdouble dvd. The concert dvd (13 songs) is a definite energized thrash,sounding thrilled to be doing things correct. The whole band is up tothe task, Visually, it 's fun to watch the crazy crowd get into it. The

camera work is done in such a way that it never gets boring, kind ofvery active, in a good way. The intimate setting for the show functionswell, putting the viewer right in the middle of the concert.

The songs themselves sound very much in the thrash bangthrash mode. Live, the main vocals (Byron Davis) sound borderlinegrowling, somewhat intelligible, whrle the two guitars (Dallas and DocCoyle) provide backing, as well as the clear, vocals. The tightness,energy and melody are combined harmoniously. The only possiblecomplaint is that show could have been longer. lt 's 70 minutes long.Or maybe two different shows would have been cool. Personally, Iprefer multiple shows in a dvd, instead of just one.

Dvd number two has a documentary about the band, Iusually don't like documentaries, I prefer lots of music and not somuch talk. This documentary is worthwhile to watch, however,because it has some things of interest about the band and theirtrajectory. In addition, these guys say some of the craziest, comical,great stuff. There are additional segments, like six music videos, etc.

An entertaining release that will be interesting to theirlisteners and one that, if you have not seen or heard the band, shouldat least be on your list of bands to investigate and give them achance, This is a wonderful place to start.

Kreator: At the Pulse of Kapitulation (SPV)I enjoy Kreator a lot. On here, Kreator is on fire. The audience here isthrash crazy and this makes the band even crazier, which makes theaudience get crazierer. This is from 1990. There are 14 songs here.They should have played 666 songs!! l t 's thrash, thrash, thrash unti lthe goats come marching home There is also a mini-movie conceptstory line for some videos from Coma of Souls, in case that interestsyou. In addition, there is a documentary about this concert from 1990in East Berlin talking about how hungry Kreator listeners were to seethis band Pretty cool. Plus, there is a cd version of the concert. Youshould try playing the dvd and the cd at the same time. Why?!Because you're just the kind of person to do that sort of thing.

OK, so, let's have the follow-up to "Enemy of God"t

Sodom: Lords of Depravitv, Part I (SPV)I know this is old, from 2005, but i t 's new to me because l just boughtit! Dvd t has a long, informative documentary on the band'sbeginnings and history. Dvd 2 is live stuff, Personally, I enjoytremendously Sodom's In the Sign of Evil, Persecution Mania, AgentOrange, Better Off Dead and Tapping the Vein and it's cool hear a bitof that material on here.

This has interviews with former members who explain whythey left or were kicked: Grave Violator, Frank Blackfire, etc. Prettyinteresting, in case you wanted to know, for example, why Frank leftSodom and joined Kreator, etc.

At any rate, this is good and it looks like rt was hard workputting it together. By the way, there is footage here from Sodom'sconcert in Sofia, Bulgaria and it's quite a sight to see the gigantic pitthey get going. These kids do want to rock, damn! Another by theway: the documentary is a good education on the beginnings of thrashin Germany and has interviews/comments with people from otherbands, like Kreator, Motorhead, Hypocrisy, Cannibal Corpse, etc., andthis all has a way of talking about the entire Motorhead/Venom-crazyearly days. This release covers to the 90s. lt looks like part 2 of thishistory is coming out this year and will document to the present.

l 0

Plavl ist, Julv 2-9 (not includinq reviews):Judas Priest: Angel of Retribution (2005) [ like ALL songs]Venom: Black Metal (1982) [ fun, fun album]Secrecy: Raging Romance (1990) [solid power/thrash/hm]Centinex: Diabolical Desolation (2002) [excellent death/thrash]Dark Tranquillity: Projector (1 999) [great stuff!]l .C.E.: Apocalyptic End in White (2004) [sol id, sol id bm]Skyclad: The Wayward Sons of Mother Earth (91) [thrashfolk!]Pestilence: Testimony of the Ancients (1991) [melodic dm]Dream Evil. Dragonslayer (2002) [fun, fun, fun power metal]Reign in Blood: End All Spiritual Lies! (2007) [fast, violent bm]Gardenian: Sindustries (2000) [awesome Gothenburg-style]Malice: License to Kill (1987) [catchy, fun heavy metal]Slumber. Fal lout (2005) [upbeat, yet doomy; good!]Judas Priest: Unleashed in the East ('1979) [all great songs!]Kamelot: The Fourth Legacy (2000) [catchy power metal]Extinction of Mankind: Ale to England (2007) [raw, crusty punk]Domain: Last Days of Utopia (2005) [good, melodic hm]Brutal Truth: Extreme Condit ions..,(1992)[solid grind/death]Gamma Ray: Majestic (2005)[good heavy/power metal]In Flames. Colony (1999) [good melodic metal]lron Maiden: Brave New World (2000) [wonderful]Arch Enemy: Wages of Sin (2002) [melodic, thrashy, shredding]

Bl ind Guardian: Nightfal l in Middle-Earth (1998) [good p/hm]Demonic Resurrection: A Darkness Descends ('05) [good!]Wuthering Heights: The Shadow Cabinet (07) [good prog]

Judas Priest: Electric Eye DVDArch Enemy: Live Apocalypse DVD

Cryptopsy: None So Vile (1996)U.D.O.: Mission X (2005)Nile: l thyphall ic (2007)Rage: The Missing Link (1993)

Edguy: Vainglory Opera (1998)Accept: Balls to the Wall (1983)

[so good!]

[so good!]

lyavll[good!][double yay!][catchy!]

Possessed: Beyond the Gates/Eyes of Horror (1986; 1987) [!]Katagory V: The Rising Anger (2006) [solid hm!]Motorhead: No Remorse (1984 compilation ) [very good!]Napalm Death. Fear, Emptiness, Despair (1996) [fun!]Queensryche: Operation Mindcrime (1988) [darn good!]Sepultura. Bestial Devastation/Morbid Visions (1 985/1980) [!]Napalm Death: Smear Campaign (2006) [goshl]Dio: Dream Evil (1987) lhappy horns upl lDarkthrone. Under a Funeral Moon (1993) [snappy!]Kreator: Extreme Aggression (1989) [sweet!]Motorhead: Overkil l (1 979) [classic]Rage: From the Cradle to the Stage (2005) [solid, l ive 2cd]Black Horizons. A Dream's Funeral (2007) [strong, blasting bm]Saxon: Lionheart (2005) [strong]

Music on ipod for exercise/qym from:Sodom: Agent Orange (1989) [tight trash]Callenish Circle: Flesh_Power-Dominion (2002) [fun, fun, fun]

[catchy hm/pm][very good hm]

Emperor: Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk (1997) [great bm]Rhapsody: Dawn of Victory (2000) [very good sympho pm]Napalm Death: Utopia Banished (1992)[awesome grind]

[inter/re/views by mauricio (except where noted otherwise).theoutcastzine@i u no. com]