AN NCS INTERVIEW: OLD FOREST

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Feb 252025
 

(James Fogarty is a man of many talents and musical incarnations, but clearly one of his favorites is in the guise of Kobold within the British black metal band Old Forest. That band, and their newest album Graveside (out now on Soulseller Records) is the focus of Comrade Aleks‘ interview with him that we present today, though the discussion turns to come of his many other projects and bands as well.)

Bands practicing any of the old school genres nowadays do not have to be original, they are not required to be. We approach such bands with a very specific request and expect to receive impressions conditioned by a clear code, a set of musical, lyrical and visual attributes common to the genre.

British black metal band Old Forest does not hide its intentions to express itself with the traditional features of the “second wave of black”. The name and logo itself, and the cover of the new album based on the 18th century painting ‘Moonlit Stoke Poges Cemetery’, exude a unique old-fashioned charm. Song titles such as “The Curse of the Vampire”, “Forgotten Graves”, “Spawn of the Witch” and so on categorically indicate the subject of their lyrics.

Although the label describes Old Forest’s approach to recording as “primitive and regressive”, this does not mean that Graveside will irritate your eardrums with its sound like the scraping of dead man’s claws on your window pane. Old Forest‘s eighth album is an honest and artful piece taken to the extreme level of verisimilitude. Their moderately angry, sincere, coffin-grim black metal comes straight from the ’90s, which is not surprising if you remember that the band has been active since 1998. With a deliberately simplified approach to writing music and a general tendency towards traditionally repetitive themes that build up the atmosphere, Old Forest catches you with memorable, sharp solos, rhythm changes, and even vocal melodies or the utterly vampiric harpsichord’s tunes.

Here’s the interview Kobold conducted with us soon after the Graveside release on Soulseller Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: PENTAGRAM

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Feb 242025
 

(At the end of January the US doom metal legends Pentagram, in collaboration with Heavy Psych Sounds, returned with their first new studio album in a decade. Not long before it was released, our Comrade Aleks reached out and then conducted the following very good interview with current Pentagram guitarist and sound producer Tony Reed, who also leads Mos Generator and Hot Spring Water. With thanks to Tony Reed, we present that interview today.)

The first incarnation of doom metal legend Pentagram was founded in 1971. Back then Bobby Liebling (vocals) gathered around himself a bunch of like-minded persons who dug heavy bluesy rock and wanted to do their own things. The band had a reputation of “street Black Sabbath”, and a lot of talented musicians went through its ranks.

Almost all of Pentagram‘s rises and falls were the result of Bobby’s actions, and it’s a miracle that after so many years the band is still alive. Nearly 40 musicians went through the band, and nowadays Bobby is accompanied by the guitarist and sound producer Tony Reed of Mos Generator, his colleague bass-player Scooter Haslip, and drummer Henry Vasquez from Saint Vitus, Legions of Doom, and more.

At the time of this interview Heavy Psych Sounds was scheduled to release the new Pentagram album Lightning in a Bottle on January 31st. It’s the tenth album in the band’s extended career (and the first one in this decade), and it’s an absolute killer, something I couldn’t ignore. Tony Reed was kind enough to find some free time in his busy schedule and helped with this interview. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: DEATHRITE

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Feb 212025
 

(Last fall, the German band Deathrite released their fifth album, and our Comrade Aleks got in touch with them to find out more about it. After some delays, we’re finally able to bring it to you today.)

Hell! The fifth album of Deathrite, Flames Licking Fever, was released in October 2024, and we managed to organize this interview with these guys from Dresden exclusively fast. But Ruinous Powers interfered at some point, and this fast interview arrived only in the winter of 2025.

A feverish and lunatic mix of deranged death metal and hardcore punk doesn’t need a long introduction. Dig or die. But read it before you choose any of these options. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: JORDAN WHITEMAN (AND “THE UNLIKELY STORY OF DUNGEON SYNTH”)

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Feb 122025
 


photo by Betsy Whiteman

(In this interview with writer Jordan Whiteman, Comrade Aleks delved deeply into the story behind Whiteman‘s recently published book about the history of dungeon synth, and the passion required to make the book a reality. Like the book, the discussion is essential reading for any fan of the subgenre, and for anyone interested in exploring it for the first time.)

Released in December 2024 by Cult Never Dies, the book The Unlikely Story of Dungeon Synth became a good extension of the publishing house’s black-metal-oriented catalogue. It’s not something you would expect probably, but this subgenre, as a development of majestic synth-driven soundscapes accompanying a lot of black metal albums, has its history, its ethos, and influence too.

This well-written and well-illustrated book brightened up this January, so I decided to take a look behind the curtain and discover more of Dungeon Synth and its origin with the book’s author, Jordan Whiteman. Continue reading »

An NCS INTERVIEW: ADE

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Feb 112025
 

(In mid-March Time To Kill Records will release a new album by the Roman death metal band Ade, and that drew our Comrade Aleks into a very interesting discussion with the band’s founder Fabius and its vocalist Diocletianus. The interview provides excellent insights into the band’s ambitions and techniques, and of course the new album as well.)

For seventeen years the Italian band Ade has performed their own Ancient Roman Death Metal. It may sound ambitious, but they truly do their best to pave their own way, choosing original themes for their albums and integrating folk instruments in their riffs and mountain-splitting melodies.

They already had album dedicated to the Punic Wars (Carthago Delenda Est, 2016), and there’s the album Spartacus (2013) dedicated to the riot of Spartacus himself, for example. But the new album’s title Supplicium could be translated as “suffering”, and the idea behind it is a bit difficult to interpret.

This interview with the Ade’s founder Fabius (guitars) and his bandmate Diocletianus (vocals) will shed some light on the band’s history and the story of Suffering as well. Time To Kill Records is going to release the album on March 14th, but we just needed to forewarn you as soon as possible! Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: REGICIDE

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Feb 102025
 

(This is Comrade Aleks‘ extensive interview with the very thoughtful and articulate Vitaly “Gravementor” Galkin, one of the two members of the band Regicide from Siberian Russia, whose debut album Eternal Siege was released last October.)

Formed as a quartet in June 2016 by guitarist/vocalist Vitaly “Gravementor” Galkin, bassist Pavel Mor, drummer Alexander Sunz, and guitarist Michael, Regicide was one of the very few (or maybe only) sludge’n’stoner bands in the Siberian city of Yekaterinburg. Their live album Live at Doomsday Haze Vol. 4 passed almost unnoticed back in 2021, and somehow the quartet turned into a duo, but Vitaly together with Stanislav Zhdanovsky (drums, cymbals, percussion) managed to focus and record the full-length album Eternal Siege.

And in spite of all my stereotypes regarding the genre’s primitivism, we had a very constructive conversation with Vitaly. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: PUTRED

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Feb 062025
 

(On January 20th a quartet of international labels released Megalit al Putrefacției, the highly anticipated second album by the Romanian death metal band Putred, and to follow up on that we now present Zoltar‘s interview of the band’s main man Uriel Aguillon, who as you’ll see has quite a history.)

Even from a European point of view, Romania remains one vast uncharted territory in terms of extreme metal, despite the fact that Metal Archives lists no fewer than 500 bands, with only the late Negurā Bunget having left a deep and still brooding mark (although the band ceased to exist over eight years ago). Yet somehow for those who know where to look in the deepest pits of the underground for the latest death metal sensation, a few low-key acts like Vorus, Reveler or Demoted kept coming back lately. Turns out all those bands/projects share more or less the same members, with guitar player, sometimes vocalist, engineer, and producer Uriel Aguillon at the very center of it.

Interestingly enough, Aguillon was born and raised in the US and was living in the country until a decade ago. Yet what is now, according to him, his main focus Putred might be one of the very first death metal bands to use Romanian for their lyrics. Not that it should stop you on your track, as song-titles like “Aura Macabra” or “Parasit In Purgatoriu” easily let you know what kind of murky swamps you’re about to enter.

Speaking of which, most of the music featured on the band’s just-released second album Megalit Al Putrefacției, after a whole bunch of demos and splits, is as fetid, lumping instead of running, while its decayed flesh reeks the kind of foul odor only downtuned and primitive old-school death metal manages to summon.

The fifty-year-old musician agreed to shed a light on his background, Putred‘s newest offering, how he ended up in Romania, and why playing death metal with your wife is far more entertaining than attending a couple’s night out at your local bingo club. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ZEIT DER DUNKELHEIT

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Feb 042025
 

(Comrade Aleks was intrigued by the unusual combination of features that have been presented in the music of the UK medieval black metal band Zeit der Dunkelheit, and so he reached out to its sole recording member Jim Kakes, and the following interview was the result.)

Zeit der Dunkelheit is a medieval black metal project from London, UK. Run by Jim Kakes alone, the project appeared suddenly in 2024: The EP Das Ende der Zeit was released first, then a series of digital singles followed, and as the culmination of this blitzkrieg the full-length debut Die letzten Tage was released.

Despite the album’s message (the Last days are upon us!) and its black metal core, the overall impression of the material is quite energetic due to its strong bias towards folk tunes. Although Die letzten Tage reflects the world plunging into darkness and ultimate death, the liberation of death is celebrated “in an optimistic tone”. And that’s kind of a controversial approach, so Jim himself may explain it better. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ATARAXIE

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Jan 312025
 


photo by Ben Redcatcity

(Last fall we had the privilege and pleasure of premiering and reviewing a full stream of Le Déclin, a new album by the veteran French band Ataraxie. Today it’s an equal pleasure to present an extremely interesting and topical interview by our Comrade Aleks with two founders and key members of the band.)

They’ve played extreme death-doom since 2000; they have three guitarists in the lineup; they are Ataraxie, and their fifth album Le Déclin was released in October 2024. The band demonstrate a high level of stability, as their new material consists of four tracks with a total duration around 80 minutes. It means that Ataraxie keep on holding to their old patterns and mix both slow and crushing funeral doom riffs with bloodthirsty death metal slaughter and merciless blast beasts. These elements help to make an emphasis on the band’s nihilistic manifest against the foulness of humanity corrupted to the core.

Honestly, it’s a familiar picture to Ataraxie’s fans, because its founders Jonathan Théry (bass, vocals), Pierre Sénécal (drums), and Frédéric Patte-Brasseur (guitars) are still here. And their companions Hugo Gaspar (guitars) and Julien Payan (guitars) aren’t rookies either; they’ve spread these bleak vibes of doom and damnation for the entire decade.

But these guys not only know how to perform such painful, agonizing music, but also how to represent it precisely in a verbal way. And in the end, this interview with Jonathan and Frédéric is something I’m proud of.

Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: SACRIFICE

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Jan 222025
 


photo by Kelly Clark Fotography

(On February 21st Cursed Blessings Records and High Roller Records will release Volume Six, a new album by the ’80s-era Canadian thrash metal band Sacrifice — their first one in 16 years and with their original lineup intact. Yesterday we published Wil Cifer’s review, and today we bring you Comrade Aleks‘ interview of Sacrifice vocalist/guitarist Rob Urbinati.)

It’s always cool to know that there are veterans of the metal scene who keeps its fire burning, who are able to give it hot and strong. Sacrifice is one such band.

They started in 1984 as one of the first Canadian thrash/speed bands and evolving at the same time as bands like Anvil, Exciter, and Razor did. Torment in Fire (1986), Forward to Termination (1987), Soldiers of Misfortune (1990), and Apocalypse Inside (1993) left their impact on the world’s scene, but Sacrifice disbanded in 1993 on the peak of their activity, as one may say.

The band returned in 2006 in its original lineup, and they keep on rocking until today. Scott Watts (bass), Joe Rico (guitars), Gus Pynn (drums), and Rob Urbinati (guitars, vocals) haven’t forgotten how to do aggressive, technical, and highly tense metal. Their new album Volume Six easily proves it, as well as this interview. Continue reading »

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