When it comes to new bands who stand head and shoulders above the metal warrior brigade, Finland’s Mausoleum Gate are one of the first names that comes to mind. Their 2014 eponymous debut album was a shock to the system and of the best albums of that year. Now the band is back with a brand new 7” single (‘Metal And The Might’) so we took the chance to have a catch up with Count L.F. (guitars), Wicked Ischanius (bass so far, keyboards from now and on) and Oscar Razanez (drums)…

Two years after your debut album, how do you reflect back to those days and is there is something you might have changed? Count: I am very satisfied with the response. Absolutely better than we could expect. Our way of doing things is so different that one must be amazed at this response. I am also glad that we didn’t have to please anyone.We had basically a freedom to do what we like. Ischanius: I am still very very satisfied with the end product. It’s testimony of what Mausoleum Gate had been so far! Like with every release, it’s a product of its time and all the factors surrounding it. I personally always have a feeling … Read More

“I may lose a lot of underground cred and some hipster points here, but I believe in being completely honest.” Jarvis Leatherby isn’t kidding about honesty. Corresponding with us by email from the three-piece’s 60-date headlining tour of the US, Night Demon‘s bassist and vocalist is big enough to admit that they played to 20 people in New Orleans. But fuck credibility: we’re just plain surprised they didn’t take their name from the classic cut ‘Night Of The Demon’.

“We didn’t even know about Demon until after we started this band,” he reveals. “We were Googling our own band name and found their stuff through that. They quickly became one of my new/old favourite bands. Especially the first three albums.”

Turns out that Night Demon just wanted a name that was also a song: ‘Night Demon’, featured on their much-touted debut EP, was the first song they wrote. “We were surprised that nobody had taken the name. It’s difficult to find cool band names that are out there for the taking, so we just ran with it.” Formed in 2011 in Southern California, the band’s debut full-length has just dropped – and ‘Curse Of The Damned’, released by SPV/Steamhammer earlier this year, is a stone-cold … Read More

“We got drunk with Satan, man! It was pretty cool.” You read Iron Fist, so the fact that Ryan Waste of trad metallers Volture is referring to the NWOBHM legends and not the dark overlord surely doesn’t make this story any less enticing. “Wings Of Metal in Montreal, that’s the festival I just came from,” he elaborates. “Me and Nick [Poulos, guitars], we flew up there as fans just to go hang out, see Satan and Manilla Road and a bunch of my friends’ bands like Midnight and Goat Horn. It was amazing.” Waste and Poulos are the partnership at the heart of Volture: a pretty amazing band with a pretty amazing story. That story kinda begins a long time ago, when Waste was in his early 20s, had just started out with Municipal Waste (they hadn’t blown up yet) and decided to try to fulfil a lifelong dream: playing in a traditional heavy metal band. “It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, but you know, I hadn’t found the guy with the ‘voice’. Brent had that amazing, falsetto voice. I was like: man, you need a band! I didn’t even know the guy, I just heard him sing. I was like: we need … Read More