Get your Scandinavian leather ready, this weekend Desertfest tempt the Norse sexgods TURBONEGRO back to Camden, for their first London show in almost five years. We caught up with apocalyptic bass-dude, Happy Tom to find out what kept them so long, and what tuck shop treat he wants on his rider, and what the hell is he doing in Central America with Mayhem…

Hang on, what’s this? You made a documentary about Mayhem?

No, I mean I’m actually not that much of a documentary maker, I’m more of a talk show host. I have a panel show on national Norwegian television, called ‘The Welfare Office’, because in Norway there is a welfare office. It’s known to be the place where you come with your problems, but when you leave, you have even more. So that’s the concept of this debate show. It’s a pretty serious thing, but we have some funny stuff in there too. That’s been going on for 12 seasons now and we figured there’s so many panel shows, let’s start making documentaries. So we made a documentary about a woman in North London who, by accident, was sent to Auschwitz as a child, which was a fascinating story. And then, I’m an American … Read More

Snotty, brash, Entombed and Darkthrone worshipping metalpunks OKKULTOKRATI are about to lay waste to the UK next week with a short tour of London, Sheffield and Birmingham. With a new video for ‘Magic People’ from their blistering new album ‘Raspberry Dawn’ just released we caught up with the band to find out what songs will be on the van’s clapped out cassette player as they drive between the homes of Sabbath and Priest. Out now on Southern Lord, their label’s boss Greg Anderson described them best: “Fucked up in all the right places! Super original and I can say that I’ve definitely never heard anything like this! Visions of Bauhaus and Darkthrone listening to Joy Division albums by torchlight in the dark forests of Oslo.” Actually that’s something we can imagine Fenriz doing… enjoy the sounds of darkness

SIDE A

The Spits – ‘Tomorrow’s Children’ “This is our favourite band.”

Emperor – ‘Cosmic Keys to My Creations And Times’ “Imagine being 17 and writing songs like this…”

New Order – ‘Dreams Never End’ “We covered this song on all of our tours in 2014. I like to think we took something from that song, and New Order in general, with us into the new album.”

Alan Vega – ‘Ghost Rider’ “Obvious pick, … Read More

“Infant Death was formed by me and Knegge in October 2012. We both made songs and rehearsed them with me on drums and him on guitar, here in Trondheim, Norway. We got our bassist Udyr in spring last year, right after we had finished recording our debut ‘War’. He was the scariest guy we could think of and he plays a Rickenbacker. We rehearse nearly every day in a World War II-bunker.”

Whoa. A World War-II era bunker? Hellhammer/early Celtic Frost practiced in a bunker rehearsal room too. “Our basic influence is early stuff from old bands that play over ability: Venom, Exodus, Razor, etc,” Kim Kane muses. “An obscure influence might be Tina Turner. Chew on that.” What would Mrs Turner think of a moniker like Infant Death? “We needed something that we thought the common person would be disgusted by. None were though. It seems like people in general don’t know what Infant Death means here. An attitude with a naive madness is what it means to us.” This might explain Infant Death’s wonderfully antagonistic style that Kim describes as, “deadly thrash metal with black metal and grind influences. Right now we’re in the early stages of composing our third album. We will record … Read More

Halfway to the North Pole on the Norwegian coast, Trondheim seems to be the least likely place to shelter a band like High Priest Of Saturn. And indeed, stuck between a vivid pop/rock scene and a hardcore black metal movement, the power-trio, led by foxy vocalist Merethe, stick out. Openly inspired by stoner and doom, their 2011 two-track demo was a revelation, an epic trip drowned in echoes and menacing organ lines. Fast-forward a year and a small line-up switch later and the trio’s self-titled album picks up where things were left and goes totally berserk… or should we say cosmic? “Regarding the name, we wanted an aesthetic related to Saturn, both on an astronomical and mythological level. We do like the symbolism attached to it and believe it fits our music well. And, most importantly, we just think the name sounds cool,” Merethe laughs. “Musically, Acid King is one of our main influences, next to other classic stoner doom bands such as Sleep and Om, but also ’60s and ’70s bands like Pink Floyd, The Doors and of course Black Sabbath. We also used a keyboard player for the album and his organ paints the walls in psychedelic colours; the … Read More

Norway’s Black Magic are one of the best kept secrets in the metal underground. The exceptional three-piece was formed in 2006 after drummer Cato Stormoen (also of Deathhammer) approached singer/guitarist Jon Henriksen to form a new act (they later added Daniel Salsten on bass duty). Their first self-released demo ‘Raise The Dead’ showed they had a real talent for raw Hellhammer’ing but it was the 2010 ‘Reap Of Evil’ demo that caught many a tuned-in metaller’s ear. This three-track affair added more straight-ahead heavy metal elements into their evil attack, mixing a variety of styles into one of the best heavy metal tracks released in the last ten years. The key weapon in the bands arsenal is Jon’s fantastic vocals and incredible axe-work; the naturally charismatic Ralph Macchio-looking frontman has a mean set of warm heavy rock pipes and a loose way of both singing and playing guitar that is rare in the modern age. His natural charisma and ability results in that rare mix which comes along only so often, while the live show is highly entertaining, unpredictable and punctuated by fantastic covers of Rush, Uriah Heep and Quartz. The band have done no interviews and you shouldn’t expect … Read More

Norway’s Töxik Death was formed in 2003 by “two metalheads starting a band,” exclaims guitarist and founding member Anders. “It was nothing more original than that. Morbid thrash was our thing, and we wanted to create something ourselves.” Even with such enthusiasm, it took four years for the limited EP, ‘Happy Fukking Holocaust’ (Misantrof ANTIRecords), to appear. “I don’t know really,” replies Anders when asked why it took so long to release their debut. “Lack of everything I guess! I wanted to do something, but the rest of the band wasn’t that interested. The lack of a decent drummer in the area didn’t make things easier either.” Another five years would pass before ‘Demo 2012’ became a reality. “The same story started over again,” says Anders. “It didn’t turn out quite as good as hoped, and after the EP the vocalist and the bassist moved away so it was impossible to keep that line-up. Then in late 2011, I decided to start looking for new members. Bjarte was brought in as an additional guitarist and he was joined by new drummer, Robin, bassist, Robert, and Eirik on vocals. All the riffs for the demo were ready so we just started rehearsing and writing … Read More