Alongside Bolt Thrower, Mythic and Nuclear Death, Derkéta are one of the longest-running and most well-respected female powers in extreme metal, and for good reason. The music created by these four women from Pittsburgh isn’t just dark, it’s downright oppressive: no light, no hope, no compromise. Their pummelling take on death/doom was restricted to a series of demos, an EP, a split and a compilation, but never came to fruition on a proper full-length album. That is, until now. They’ve just self-released their first-ever full-length, a massive slab of cavernous death/doom perfection titled ‘In Death We Meet’ and have already been plotting their next moves. The band parted ways in 1997, so to see them not only return, but to come out swinging, armed with one of the best death metal records of 2012 and a packed schedule of upcoming live gigs, is a wonderful sight indeed. Fifteen years is a hell of a long time to spend away from the metal world, though, so vocalist and guitarist Sharon Bascovsky filled in some gaps for us.

“Well, it’s a bit of a story, but this is the short version. Back in 1997, Don [Of The Dead, vocals/bass] from Nunslaughter had asked Terri … Read More

In fair Sweden is where we set our scene. Two cities, both alike in dignity… you know the story. You’re either Stockholm or you’re Gothenburg, and this isn’t an article about football. Sweden may have taken the crown (no Johan Lindstrand related puns please!) when it came to Europe’s burgeoning death metal scene but the line was drawn depending on if you preferred the melodic thrash of Dark Tranquillity and At The Gates (in the red corner… Gothenburg) or the buzzsaw, Sunlight sound creeping out of the darkness in Stockholm thanks to bands like Entombed, Dismember and Treblinka.

But 45 miles north from the Swedish capital lies a previously untapped pool of death metal nihilism. In a university town of 140,000, Uppsala is the religious capital of Sweden so it’s unsurprising that it gave us early progenitors of Swedeath in Sarcasm and black metal bastards Unpure and later Watain. But the spotlight has turned away from the old guards of the major cities and is glaring on this unassuming hub of metal mania. Invidious, Graveless and Degial have put Uppsala on the death metal map and it’s showing the big boys of Stockholm and Gothenburg that the sounds of the suburbs … Read More

Accurately labelling themselves “Old Metal”, that broad but effective term came when Natur overheard an old rocker trying to describe their sound to a friend. The New York via Rhode Island four-piece formed in the dark days of 2008 when only a valiant few were playing unapologetic straight ahead heavy metal in the US. On top of the band, two of the guys run a weekly classic metal radio show called the Metal Inquisition and you can safely predict that they will spend any spare cash on vinyl, you can certainly hear in the music that the band have a broad knowledge of heavy rocking history.

The band’s charmingly raw and heavy self-released CD demo stood out immediately from the increasingly genre specific metal world. Darkthrone’s Fenriz noticed and gave his seal of approval early, which led to a slot at London’s Live Evil Festival supporting Ghost and Angel Witch back in 2010. Featuring the highly entertaining Tooth Log on drums, main axe attack from Dino Destroyer and lead bass now coming from recent addition, Henry Yuan, aka Sound Mound, who replaced the brilliantly-named Damien The Mexicutioner. Singer/guitarist Ryan Weibust adds a natural, cool vibe and a fittingly underpowered NWOBHM-style vocal. The eponymous … Read More

What, wait, no Jessica? When news of a second Sabbath Assembly album dropped earlier this year you could count the minutes between the moment their fans were psyched and the disappointment when finding out that their vocalist was no where to be heard (or seen). The hot-blooded males among us lamented the therefore lack of further photos of her cavorting in a lake, while the more musical of us cried foul at the omission of her lush vocal divinity. After all, would we, the heavy metal community, have cared for an album of hymns from a long-dead religious cult if it were not for the doomy presence of Jex Thoth’s elfin princess? Maybe not, but we’re glad she got us hooked. 2012’s ‘Restored To One’ may have not been metal, per se, but we were transfixed. Now the cult are back with a new album in ‘Ye Are Gods’ and a new line-up including Throbbing Gristle pioneer Genesis P-orridge, Hammers Of Misfortune and Wolves In The Throne Room collaborator Jamie Myers, “death folk” guitarist Imaad Wasif and Sunn O’s violinist Eyvind Kang. You can’t argue with a line-up like that, chalk us up for another dose of Processian theory please…

For … Read More

It starts with a catchy riff that immediately brings to mind the opening section from ‘Hells Bells’. ‘Full Pull’ salutes those about to rock and before you know it ‘All Fired Up’ has you just that; fired up for the Växjö, Sweden quintet who are most definitely on their highway to hell.

To be fair, Bullet were heading to the top (every pun intended) back in 2004 when Hell Hofer (the evolutionary link between Bon Scott and Brian Johnson), Gustav Hjortsjö (drums) plus guitarists Hampus Klang and Erik Almström released their debut album. Their first album made the top 40 in the Swedish charts, saw them open for their Aussie idols and it’s been rumoured that the five Swedes (who at the time included bass player Lenny Blade) inspired a similarly-minded group of DC fanatics down under who formed a band called Airbourne.

But while Airbourne have been touring the world and touted by the likes of Lady Gaga as the greatest band out of Australia since Young, Young and co, Bullet have been quietly chugging along on the rock ‘n’ roll train. When Blade upped sticks and moved to Thailand, gun for hire Adam Hector was called in to man the … Read More

“I don’t know,” isn’t the most succinct of answers, but Sodom‘s Tom Angelripper is finding it all but impossible to describe how he sees his long-standing band within the wider context of heavy metal. One of the early (and certainly one of the most initially unrestrained and chaotic practitioners of thrash, he is in even more wonder at the fact that Sodom have clocked up 30 years as a living, breathing entity.

“I think Sodom is still a strong part of the metal scene,” he continues. “I’m surprised, you know, myself, after 30 years that the band is still alive. We’re still touring, still writing new songs, still writing and recording new albums; it’s amazing! The ‘30 Years’ box is a special gift for the fans. But yes, the band is still alive and we will keep on going; that is the most important thing.”

As mentioned, the reason we are putting Sodom down for the first in this series of articles that looks at the biggest game-changers in the heavy metal universe is that Sodom are celebrating their anniversary with the mammoth ’30 Years Sodomized’ box set. One of the two central components to the box is ‘30 Years’ War’; ostensibly … Read More

It’s time to delve into the mystic realm of the apocalypse, otherwise known as Hellwell’s debut album ‘Beyond The Boundaries Of Sin’. Simplistically catchy yet technically excellent, Manilla Road’s Mark ‘The Shark’ Shelton has created something heavier, more experimental and evil than any other album he has released during his long career. Although Hellwell has traits of the Road, the layered, pulsating keyboards and diverse chord progressions add to the records originality and mystique. The lyrical themes of terror, serial killers and world destruction mix with a classic evil production to invoke a horribly atmospheric masterpiece.

Joining Mr Shelton is old school friend and Manilla Road partner, EC Hellwell (guess where the name is from) on keyboards and bass, ex-Manilla Road member Mark Anderson (also on some bass tracks), Dead Orchestra Fame guitarist Miles Paeday and Johnny ‘Thumper’ Benson on drums. We’re talking super metal; brilliant metal; powerful metal; riff bending insanity and the calling of Valhalla.

“I have most of the Heavy Load LP’s in my collection,” states Mark on his influences. That’s all well and good for any fan of Northern Warriors fighting Polar Bears in the mountains, but here we’re talking about Manilla Road’s evil twin; Hellwell. Mark has already … Read More

Satanic gimmick and headline-grabbing controversy has allowed black metal to be perceived as the proverbial pantomime villain, but Sam McKavanagh argues that there are bands around that keep it close to its original rebellious strain. With a new album and a new source of power BEHEXEN are taking the power back.

For a genre that was meant to be a big fuck-you to the status quo, black metal is becoming somewhat conventional. Slap on some corpse paint; write lyrics about Satan or the occult, record everything so it sounds like it was conceived deep underground in a damp and dirty bunker and you’re almost there.

It is also said that to be a ‘proper’ black metal act you have to be from Norway. Sure, the second wave kicked off there with hordes of painted faces, standing topless in frost covered forests, holding inverting crosses, pledging their souls to Satan and burning down churches. It all made for quite the spectacle, making headline news stories of the corrupted youth. It put Norway on the musical map, but could the genre be facing a the problem in that the now-truest black metal bands are being overshadowed by poster-friendly acts like Dimmu Borgir, Satyricon and … Read More

Shining‘s Niklas Kvarforth does that half-smile, the one that makes you think he’s either toying with you or is, in fact, a complete fucking sociopath.

The question asked pertains to whether Niklas is, or is not, a misogynist. The smile also implies that I’m welcome to find out if I really want to. That’s what interviewing Niklas Kvarforth is like. Awkward, enlightening but not completely satisfying, as if you’re not getting completely under his skin. A bit like sex, then. It would be interesting to slip on the suit of a man to interview Niklas. Is the interview any different? Does he switch into serious mode when the questions are posed by someone he doesn’t want to fuck… then again his sexuality has always been ambiguous but also thrust, resolutely masculinely, into the limelight; his patter often dotted, or sometimes interrupted, by fantastical claims of sexual dexterity that would make the author of 50 Shades Of Grey run for the nearest nunnery.

“I know that for some reason, particularly young women, really really fancy me,” he sighs, as if bored by the revelation. “I don’t look particularly good.” His eyes twinkle as he tries to gage my reaction. “But I have this … Read More

While thrash and death metal from California, Florida and New York were pushing the boundaries of extremity in metal, in Kansas City, Missouri three kids were kicking up their own storm and created an album that would influence a new generation of underground game-changers. In the first of our series that looks back at the legacy of albums that changed the face of extreme metal JOHN MINCEMOYER returns to the birth of ‘STILLBIRTH MACHINE’ by ORDER FROM CHAOS.

Stories concerning the early days of the American extreme music scene generally revolve around the then exhilarating sounds originating from the respective coasts. Initially, the West Coast’s speed metal and thrash movement, centring upon the Bay Area, created waves only to be consumed by the uncompromising death metal being churned out on the East Coast.

The United States is a big county. It is roughly 2,900 miles from Tampa, Florida to San Francisco, California and 3,000 miles from New York City to San Francisco (as a counterpoint, it is only 250 miles from Stockholm to Gothenburg, Sweden). Yes, other scenes existed in the US, Texas and the upper Midwest being prime examples, but considering the sheer concentration of bands (and labels) that called the … Read More