English black metal band WINTERFYLLETH have returned with their third album in as many years, but determined to step away from the shadows that have followed them since their formation, CHRIS NAUGHTON tells Louise Brown how British metal is back in black.

“The idea of a ‘threnody’ is that of a deathly ode, poem or lament to those who you have lost and is a way of honouring their memory,” explains Chris Naughton of Northern England black metal collective Winterfylleth. New album ‘Threnody Of Triumph’ is, well, a triumph, continuing their uncompromising attack on Britain’s less than stellar black metal output, frontman and guitarist Chris and his colleagues, Nick Wallwork (bass), Mark Wood (guitars) and Simon Lucas (drums), have been driven to unleash three full-lengths in as many years, all more accomplished and ambitious than the last. Gaining critical acclaim, front cover status and live bookings galore (as well as the odd left-wing bashing, more on that later) Winterfylleth are a beacon of black metal Britannia.

“The album is based around the idea of how our forebears viewed spirituality in terms of how the soul and the body were linked and how the transitions through death worked,” Chris continues, explaining the themes … Read More

Erik Danielsson is tired. Very tired. And he sounds it, stating that after spending the last twenty four months completing the ‘Lawless Darkness’ cycle, he could do nothing but sleep for a year. Having just come off stage at Bloodstock, where they played as the sun set, his band Watain literally plunging the crowd into darkness, their ‘Lawless…’ period is now over. The next day, the festival site is buzzing with tales that grow more and more preposterous. Did they get arrested? Did they get thrown out of their hotel? Did they beat up Dio’s Disciples? Did Mayhem beat them up? Did they go to bed sensibly at 1am? No one will ever know, because while they consistently close ranks when facing controversy the cult of Watain is now bigger than the band; bigger than the Erik, Pelle [guitars] and Håkan [drums], who formed the band in 1998. Bigger than Set, Alvaro and the crew who make up the live core of the band. Bigger than their fourth full-length, ‘Lawless Darkness’, which was released in June 2010. They’ve been on the cover of every single respected metal magazine and recently had the honour of gracing the front page of the UK’s … 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

Bastard Sapling could easily be described as the best American black metal band you’ve never heard, but this would be selling them short, they’re the best black metal band from anywhere that you’ve never heard of. Formed in 2007 by ex-Cannabis Corpse guitarist Drew, who was in need of a new direction to channel his energy and aggression after being left without a band and living in squalor, He was joined by drummer Elway (ex-Celebrity Murders, ex-Murdock and ex-War Torn), guitarist Steven (Inter Arma), vocalist Mike (Inter Arma, ex-Dick Butkis) and bassist Peter (Battlemaster). The quintet plays brutal black metal in the truest of senses, stripping away all pretence, gimmicks and other nonsense that gets in the way. The raw beauty of Drudkh, Immortal and early Enslaved pulses through their veins, but these Yanks they have their own voice, and it’s fucking loud. They’ve spared no time in tearing the scene apart since they made their first unholy appearance at 2008’s Heart Of Winter festival in Richmond, Virginia. Here they made available a raw rehearsal demo and this exposure saw them head off on a nationwide tour, to conquer new turf and corrupt the minds of the innocent. They quickly followed … 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