When it comes to heavy metal teaming witchcraft with Lovecraft (Arkham is a place in his books in case you were wondering) is a winning combination, but having a good name is only a small piece of the puzzle – you’ve still got to put together some killer tunes. However, Arkham Witch vocalist Simon Iff? knows that his troupe have a lot of heritage to contest with. “This music has a history, a heart and a substance that has, and will, stand the test of time. It may fade in and out of fashion in the mainstream, but it will always be the backbone of innovation and integrity in any guitar based musical form.”

A legacy like that is hard to live up to, no matter how awesome your band name. Hailing from Yorkshire, a county of doom and gloom so naturally a hotbed for doom bands (there must be something in the water, or is it mead?) Arkham Witch are influenced by a mix of the greats Saint Vitus, Pentagram, Cirith Ungol and of course the mighty Witchfinder General, a splattering of Hammer horror films and HP Lovecraft novels and through it all runs a thick undercurrent of sardonic humour.

With … Read More

When a band decides to avoid the Heavy Metal Mad Libs school of thought (i.e. Black, Dark or Death + any other word = instant band name!) and instead throws a curveball like Biipiigwan, it’s safe to assume that there’s a story behind it. “A biipiigwan is a type of flute that Anishinaabe people used as signalling devices in battles a long time ago. The etymology of the word relates to a general term for songbirds and though I didn’t know that at the time. I’m glad I learned that because I got tired of the name a few months after starting,” chuckles Musqwaunquot Rice, who handles guitars and vocals for the Canadian quartet. Rice’s First Nations heritage may have informed Biipiigwan’s christening, but their sound is a furious geographical mélange of Unsane, Black Cobra, Buzzoven and Neurosis, laced with enough acerbic grindcore to land them on stages with Canuck pals Fuck The Facts. Rice’s approximation of their sound keeps it simple.
“Loud, sludgy, a bit abrasive and kind of dark. People tend to hear different styles and influences in our music and most of the time it’s bands and even genres I’ve never heard of. I’m really not that metal, man.” Their … Read More

Italian death merchants Into Darkness are a very young band, teetering on the cusp of releasing their very first demo tape via Unholy Domain Records (which Iron Bonehead will then commit to 12” vinyl) but their sound is rooted firmly in the darkest, dankest corners of the past. Vocalist and axe-slinger Giulia Doomed Warrior asserts, “Into Darkness is for fans of death/doom in the late ’80s/early ’90s vein, like Asphyx, my favourite band, Bolt Thrower, Cianide, Coffins, Thorr’s Hammer, Disembowelment, Paradise Lost, Goatlord, Crypt of Kerberos…” and the list continues, as her passion for the most pestilential of death metal’s doomed offerings is made all too apparent. She’s got the chops to back it up, as well, as Into Darkness’ eponymous demo shows with its merciless onslaught of dirty, sewer-dwelling riffs, ragged howls, and searing solos.

“To be honest my first idea was to have a 100 percent female band in the vein of Derketa, Mythic and November Grief, but to find a skilled female drummer was impossible, and we are absolutely satisfied with Anguicious, both as musician and as person,” she explains. “We started to rehearse some riffs in late 2011, but it wasn’t until Anguicious (Mefitic’s drummer) joined us … Read More

“Doomed to death, damned in hell.” Few have summed it all up quite as succinctly as Japanese burial advocates Coffins, but our own Indesinence have surely taken that tenet to heart on their latest album and Profound Lore debut, ‘Vessels Of Light And Decay’. The album is a desolate affair, downtuned towards the serpent’s lair, littered with pummelling riffs and sepulchral howls, and masterfully executed by homegrown talent. Are Indesinence England’s Great Doomed Hope? You’d be hard-pressed to convince us otherwise.

“Each of us are here to shine, for some length of time, as bright as we are able or as circumstances allow; then we must reach an end to make way for new beginnings, yet still struggle to secure some tiny shot at immortality through our work and deeds. And so do these songs. Much like our previous work, we view the album as an individual take on what are admittedly typically “doom”-centric themes: the passage of time, and the sometimes overwhelming inevitability of the certainties this entails. It could be broadly described as the rude awakening following [2006 debut] ‘Noctambulism’s hazier, dreamlike horrors, to face something more ‘real’ but no less intense,” muses their guitarist and vocalist, Ilia Rodriguez, … Read More

Let’s let Oslo’s grind youngers Gouge have the first words. “We are Gouge, we play music. We listened to Repulsion a lot and formed Gouge because we felt we had to. So Repulsion is a big influence and Dr Shrinker, Autopsy, Nihilist and the Funeral demo.” Gouge arrived on the scene recently with a cast-iron demo that is arguably one of the best ‘grind’ debuts released since the old days. Herman plays drums and Christoffer plays guitars and sings. Their first gig was actually on the mid-September day in 2012 that Iron Fist and Gouge had a chat. The two core members employed Jonas Bye of Mabuse for bass duties for the live show and they don’t plan to play many gigs but a full length album is halfway finished and likely to see the light of day in 2013. Until then they, “will just keep on working, drinking beer and playing music.” They’re a great example of the new generation bringing unshakable energy into the extreme music scene. They naturally employ a fresh approach, which is entirely unprejudiced by modern versions of our music. They only know the greats and use a similar sound to the classics to play new … Read More

Based on their moniker alone, Lord Fist, who formed in 2011 in Mekkali, Finland, were bound to appear in these pages, right? But our main source of motivation to shine the light on them remains their extremely promising old school, NWOBHM-inspired four-track demo ‘Spark For The Night’, released both on CDr and tape and whose logo alone (designed by Possessor who already worked with Armour and Axegressor) will take you back to 1982!

“Lord Fist got started with a friendly jam session,” reveals drummer, Eetu Orbinski. “We were just jamming some riffs and suddenly we had this ‘Chains Of Steel’ tune put together. After all those years of playing extreme metal styles, it just sounded and felt heavier than anything we had done before. When playing this kind of music we enter a whole other level of existence and we’re seriously addicted to it. People have different ways to reach these kind of feelings and for us it’s heavy metal. We actually think that this very song still holds the very finest essence of what Lord Fist is about.”

Like fellow retro-obsessed bands Speedtrap or Evil-Lÿn, Eetu doesn’t deny their eyes are set on the golden era of the genre but according … Read More

When ‘Infernal Blasphemies’, the three track demo (on tape format, obviously), was released in early 2010 on the now defunct Detest Records imprint, it seemed like an elusive project for Michel Jonker, former drummer with Absorbed and Massive Assault, the d-beat war machine from Groningen, Holland. Still, even if he had left his previous band because he was “too busy with other things”, this veteran musician kept on playing music at home “just for fun”. He eventually ended up writing and performing this first raw recording by himself telling Iron Fist; “this was the music I wanted to play. It’s raw, furious, has simple songs structures and an old school vibe. As simple as that!”

But two years later, Entrapment has grown into something much bigger than a simple hobby. So besides gathering a line-up, including members from Massive Assault and God Dethroned, for live duties, Michel has put out ‘Irreligious Abominations’, a compilation of all three demos plus a bunch of live tracks through Godeater Records. He also found time to record Entrapment’s first proper full-length, ‘The Obscurity Within’, on Soulseller, assisted by live member Jeroen Vrielink who played bass and lead guitar on the album. After denying trying to … Read More

Sweden’s latest offering of death comes from the mysterious Vampire, a three-piece that recently released its debut self-titled demo tape via Ljudkassett (which sold out in a matter of days). For a band that had no presence prior to the month of September, vocalist/drummer Hand of Doom sheds some light.

“[Guitarist] Black String and I started making music around 2009 with no idea of what we wanted to achieve. After a year or two downing beers and switching instruments, [bassist] Command came along.

“We pre-loaded for the Slayer/Metallica gig at my place and listened to Necrophagia’s impossibly ugly ‘Young Burial’ off New Renaissance’s sampler, ‘Thrash Metal Attack’, which made us agree: this is it. We soon wrote the songs on the demo, which were recorded in April, and hooked up with Ljudkassett during the beginning of summer.”

On their first assault, you will find Possessed-like riffing and Celtic Frost-y grooves, but don’t discredit this three-track tape as a mere tribute.

“Death metal is another form of metal that must be aware of its origin and not strive too far away in order to keep its appeal,” explains the frontman. “However, there’s a difference between influence and inspiration.”

“During the sessions, I was heavily into this … Read More

“Sometimes melodies arrive while I’m sleeping so when I wake I’m really stressed trying to remember the melody. Some of the ideas come from dreams and nightmares, or in that time just before I fall asleep,” says Posthum‘s Jon (guitar/bass/vocals). Hailing from Akershus, Norway, an area tipped by many as the new Bergen (“Akershus is both the old and new Bergen!” say the band), Posthum, rounded out by Morten (drums) and Martin (guitar/bass) are set to smash through the black metal glass ceiling with their sophomore full-length ‘Lights Out’. Signed to Indie Recordings, ‘Lights Out’ builds on the foundations of 2009’s ‘.Posthum’ and their 2005 demo, showcasing a tighter, scalpel-sharp approach. So what have the trio been doing with themselves in the interim? “After finishing touring with Dark Fortress, Shining and Satyricon in 2009 we began to think about a second album,” remembers Jon. “The process has been long and darker than before. The album has really got into our heads and has been exhausting at times. It’s been a time of many experiences and different feelings towards life, love and existence in general.”

He’s understating just how dark of a record ‘Lights Out’ truly is. Bleaker than infant death, ‘Lights … Read More

“After my old grindcore band split in 2006 (which featured our bassist Necroskull on guitar), I soon tired of not making music and decided in late 2010 to redress the balance with my own take on thrashy, song-based black metal.” Rob Belial of UK-based decrepit black thrash purveyors Cultfinder, who feature two members of British doomers Witchsorrow, has recently followed up his cassette demo onslaught with a CD-release, the EP ‘Black Thrashing Terror’ on Eldritch Lunar Miasma. One of the most exciting EPs to hail from these shores of late, Cultfinder slot right in with the current network of nasty blackened death and thrash in Southern England (Grave Miasma, Craven Idol, Salute etc). Rob says of the growing scene, “It’s definitely got its own momentum, and slowly but surely, it’s own infrastructure and support network in terms of labels. Pretty soon we’ll once again be completely self-sufficient in totally vicious heavy metal, which is nice for those of us too young to remember the last time! I was barely born when Bathory’s debut came out, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise!”