Sweden’s doom/progressive veterans Katatonia celebrated their 25th anniversary in 2016 with their 10th studio album ‘The Fall Of Hearts’ and a special one-off anniversary show at London’s Shepherds Bush Empire, but now the band have revealed that they will tour the UK and Ireland in May.

Guitarist Anders Nyström comments; “We’re really excited to be returning to the UK and Ireland for a proper full headline tour in support of our latest album ‘The Fall Of Hearts’. Last year, we only got as far as playing London where we focused on the 10th anniversary of ’The Great Cold Distance’ by playing the album in full, so this time we’ll be coming back for more! Join us in May and see us deliver the rest of the darkness!”

UK & Ireland Tour dates: 7th May – Brudenell Social Club, Leeds 8th May – Marble Factory, Bristol 9th May – Slade Rooms, Wolverhampton 10th May – Engine Rooms, Southampton 11th May – Sound Control, Manchester 12th May – Garage, Glasgow 13th May – Limelight 2, Belfast 14th May – Academy, Dublin

Tickets are on sale from January 27 at 10am – www.myticket.co.uk and www.seetickets.com 

Although having only formalised a line-up and commenced rehearsing in January 2013, Sheol have already made waves; their ‘Live Demo MMXIII’ and mini-album ‘Sepulchral Ruins Below The Temple’ proffering some particularly vicious and cavernous blasts of prime, unholy death metal or, as founding member A.B.S describes it, “sepulchral death metal rising from the primordial Abyss.”

With a healthy and growing reputation, wholehearted support from both Iron Bonhead and Invictus as well as a delivery aesthetic that follows in the footsteps of the Father Befouled and Encoffination school of deathliness, great things are expected of the British band. With such a gaping, hellish and bleak sound adding to the audial decimation of their forceful songwriting, Sheol sound keen to maintain their individuality. Kat ‘Shevil’ Gillham discovered more about these tyrants…

Hails A.B.S.! Please give Iron Fist a quick background history on the band. “She’ol was formed around 2012 by me and our former drummer, A.H.S. (Vorage). We both have a longer experience in black metal but She’ol began initially out of ideas which did not fit elsewhere, closer to death metal inspired by Incantation, Sadistic Intent, early Darkthrone, Autopsy and Absu – but so too was there a significant difference in vision. … Read More

With new album ‘Darkness Drips Forth’ out now on Relapse, we sent Kat Gillham to interview Hooded Menace mainman Lasse Pyykkö, also of Claws and Phlegethon. With Hooded Menace clearly his main band these days we asked the Finnish master of doom about letting other people in on his long-running death/doom project and when we can expect his twisted dark vision to hits the road again Your new album ‘Darkness Drips Forth’ was recently released on Relapse Records, please tell us a bit about it? “Well, I’d say ‘Darkness Drips Forth’ is our slowest and heaviest, but also the most melodic work to date. There’s stuff I can’t imagine being put on a record during the early days of the band. I wouldn’t have been ready for it. The new album goes from extreme to extreme, basically. Just don’t expect blastbeats, that’s not our thing, really. We don’t need extreme tempo shifts to be extreme. We play with smaller nuances than that, and as a songwriter, I find this more restrained approach a lot more interesting and challenging. Of course there’s also some stuff to bang our heads to, but compared to the previous albums, this one’s a crawler. And when it’s slow, the … Read More

Previously going under the moniker Chapel, a new relentless death metal duo by the name of Temisto have signed to Pulverised Records.

With the now-defunct Morbus Chron frontman Robert Andersson and Elias Scharmer (ex-Abduction, ex-Mutilate) at the producer/engineering helm, Temisto’s self-titled album has been mastered by Tore Stjerna at Necromorbus Studio (Watain, Desultory, Repugnant, etc) with artwork and layout by Obssessed By Cruelty (Wolfbrigade, Enforcer, Agent Steel, Sabbat).

Pulverised Records Calvin Chiang has said “The Temisto self-titled album is easily one of the most refreshing things we have heard this year and the one thing that caught our attention instantly was how accomplished they are as songwriters, coupled with that organic and honest slab of death metal that we rarely hear these days. The level of maturity displayed on the record is just unbelievable and it certainly transcends an aura of otherworldly obscurity that Temisto have managed to capture perfectly.”

The Temisto self-titled album comes out on 26th February 2016.

Black/thrash tyrants Ketzer (German for ‘Heretic’ in case you needed to know) will release their brand new album ‘Starless’ on January 29th through Metal Blade and have teased us with a brand new video. 

The band have said “It is just now that we are realising what we have done during this summer: we recorded an album which is very free from any boundaries and pre-conceived notions that you can find ever so often within the genre of heavy metal. From sounds of raging fury, to the echoes of calm and cleansing waves – ‘Starless’ is an album that will take you on a journey that is unexpected, yet familiar at the same time. ‘Starless’ is going to explore the crack between religion and reality. Is there a truth in between? Centuries ago, humankind looked up into the star filled night skies, questioning the universe and their lives within it. In order to find answers, mythology was born. But religion and myths cannot connect to the world we live in today. They have blinded the night skies – hence, we have become ‘starless’. Join us to sing songs of the universe and play tunes of the spheres!”

A lot of metal bands have an unconventional tale of how they began, but it’s fairly certain that Durham’s Winds of Genocide are the only group that can boast it being put into motion by a bang on a window. “We officially formed in early 2006, as a two-piece, but it took us until 2009 to find a drummer and begin actively rehearsing,” vocalist Kat Shevil tells us. “A Swedish guy called Linus, studying at the university here, drunkenly walked past my flat one night and saw the Skitsystem sticker on my bedroom window. He banged on my living room window and we ended up going to the local pub for a pint. We soon realised that we had not just a mutual love for crust punk but also for death and black metal; about four months later we were writing our first songs with him on drums!”

Linus has since departed the band, replaced by Ian Hunter and, in the last nine years, the four-piece have put out a demo and an EP, as well as two splits with Abigail and Firstblood, Diskelmä and Satellite. About to release their debut album ‘Usurping The Throne Of Disease’, Kat and co’s self-proclaimed … Read More

Pinpointing a certain sound to a geographical place has become almost impossible, mainly thanks to the internet and how it globally manipulates trends. So, it may be with some skepticism that people would meet WHIPSTRIKER, a Brazilian band. If someone told you that some of the most brutally honest metalpunk came from Rio, albeit tinged with the elixir of the metal gods, you’d probably tell them the next classic TNBM record would come from rural Ireland. However, living in Rio seems like living out a Discharge lyrics sheet, and Whipstriker mainman VICTOR took time out from his hectic recording schedule to talk about metal and life in Rio’s favelas. Historians can write what they like in their textbooks, but musicians (usually) tell the truth in their songs…                                                                                                                          

How did you get the name Whipstriker exactly? Victor Whipstriker: “I really don’t remember. I … Read More

Horror-obsessed and death metal maven VANESSA NOCERA has been on our radar these past few years, whether it’s been through her death/doom band WOODEN STAKE, trashing death ghouls HOWLING or simply through running the ghastly Razorback Records. Now with a new splatter platter from SKELETAL SPEKTRE on the loose KIM KELLY caught up with her to find out how she has the time for all these nightmares

When I was a tiny tyke, I remember singing along to my dad’s Hank Jr. tapes and pretending to interview Tina Turner with my little Fisher-Price radio. Not the most auspicious of beginnings for a budding metal journo (though do I remember throwing a few hardballs at my imaginary interview subjects) but then again, we weren’t all ripped from the womb clutching a Massacre album. Some of us, however… “I have audio tapes of me at age three singing made-up songs about monsters named ‘Shitbones’,” multi-instrumentalist and hellacious vocalist Vanessa Nocera laughs, thoroughly shutting down my nature versus nurture argument. “I’ve been singing since I was able to talk. According to my parents, I have always had a crazy imagination and I’ve always been vocal. I took inspiration from all kinds of musicians and … Read More

Fuck Conan and his hearing the lamentations of your women bullshit, true heavy metal warriors VOMITOR think there’s much more to life – metal, hanging out with friends and downing a few jars. ALASDAIR BULMER couldn’t agree more as he hangs with DEATHDEALER on the eve of their latest Aussie Assault.

 

Born of the Black Jackal’s womb in 1999 Australian alcoholocausters Vomitor have consistently flouted any inflated notions of trend and musical sensibilities, opting for beer-fuelled chaos and destruction via the “Death Metal or Die!” philosophy. Amassing a sizeable arsenal of splits and demos, they released their third full length ‘The Escalation’ through Invictus Productions last year. What’s more, with Europe anticipating the ‘Satan’s Escalation Vomitour’ in July, and the Yanks getting their due last December with a short Northeast stint, it’s all part of a burst of activity not least related to frontman and mastermind, Rob, aka Deathdealer, and his strategic relocation to Dublin.

A change of scenery, maybe, but a change of heart, never. Even with the most subtle hints of added complexity (‘The Escalation’ utilising two guitars no less) the aural clusterfuck that is Vomitor remains the same. “For me death and black metal should be raw, nasty, horrible, … Read More

Something wicked this way comes, billowing down from the decaying North on winds of plague…or of genocide, as the case may be. Visions of nuclear fallout and apocalyptic raids summon wrenching flashbacks for some, and provide lyrical fodder for others; Durham’s Winds Of Genocide have always fallen into the latter camp, but now, with death/doom project Uncoffined, two of its members have ventured further afield, beyond the outskirts of Chernobyl and down along the cemetery road.

 “The band formed officially in early 2011 after myself and Glynn [Alkohall, guitars] started jamming on doom riffs during breaks at Winds Of Genocide rehearsals, where I would jump behind the drumkit and we would start jamming on Vitus riffs,” Kat Shevil explains. “I personally have always loved the dark, evil, morbid vibe of a lot of the bands who blend such a mix of traditional doom and ancient death metal together, it has a certain atmosphere in it that other styles do not possess, plus the crushing heaviness of such music has always attracted me to it. We are definitely much more inspired by the old school doom metal stuff, old Black Sabbath etc, but there is some ancient death metal, death/doom, Hellhammer, old … Read More