AN NCS INTERVIEW: ATARAXIE

 Interviews  No Responses »
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

 Interviews  1 Response »
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 »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: CAPILLA ARDIENTE

 Interviews  No Responses »
Jan 142025
 

(Last October the Chilean doom band Capilla Ardiente released their newest album, and it led our Comrade Aleks to conduct an interview with one of the founding members, Claudio Botarro Neira, last fall. Due to our own delays while focusing on year-end traditions, we are late in publishing their very good discussion, but now we do.)

Chilean epic doom band Capilla Ardiente was founded in 2006, and since then its crew gained a proper reputation releasing rare yet remarkable albums. Each of the band’s members is occupied with different tasks and different bands, so each album of Capilla Ardiente is something you need to wait for.

Claudio Botarro Neira (bass), Felipe Plaza Kutzbach (vocals), Francisco Aguirre (drums), Julio Bуrquez (guitar), and Igor Leiva (guitar) know how to play any kind of metal, but the new Capilla Ardiente album Where Gods Live and Men Die released by High Roller Records in October 2024 is a four-song-long epic journey, or rather pilgrimage, to the peaks of doom metal. We got in touch with Claudio, and here’s the interview we conducted. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: BLACKDEATH

 Interviews  No Responses »
Jan 092025
 

(We like to think that we’ve never published a “bad” interview, but of course some are better than others. The one below that Comrade Aleks brought us from his discussion with Para Bellum from the Russian band Blackdeath is one of the best ever. You’ll see.)

If we take into account the pre-Blackdeath projects Draugwath and Black Draugwath, then it’s easy to count that the band will reach its 30th anniversary in 2025.

For almost three decades, brothers Para Bellum (vocals, bass) and Abysslooker (guitars) keep on producing their own black metal with absolute dedication and some tendency to experiment, remaining one of the oldest Russian bands in this genre. With Maya on drums since 2007, this time Blackdeath enlisted the support of the second guitarist Der Nukleare Herjann (better known as Arjan Peeks), who spread the heathen malice through the Netherlands bands Cultus, Heimdalls Wacht, Uuntar, and more.

Naturally, an enhanced lineup produced the recording of a different kind, and the band’s eleventh album Mortui incedere possunt proves its firm position in the black metal underground. Even though Blackdeath never dealt with Lovecraftian beliefs directly, the interview with Para Bellum turned out great. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: MONOLITHE

 Interviews  No Responses »
Jan 062025
 

(Last November Hammerheart Records released the fantastic tenth album by the ever-intriguing French band Monolithe, and that led our Comrade Aleks into an interview with the band’s new vocalist/guitarist Quentin Verdier — a very good one that you’ll find below.)

The Parisian long-running doom band Monolithe continues its mission to explore the boundaries of the genre and this time they’ve turned to the theme of futuristic noir. They have already recorded a series of albums loosely based on the work of Stanley Kubrick, the Soviet cosmic program, and their own fantasies. Now they approach the cultural and philosophical legacy of Blade Runner and The Matrix.

Monolithe’s lineup went through some changes shortly before the album’s recording, but the founding members Sylvain Begot (guitars, keyboards, programming) and Benoit Blin (guitar) are still at the helm. Their tenth full-length Black Hole District ​​consists of ten tracks: five instrumentals exactly one minute each interspersed with five ten-minute long compositions. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: THE GREAT OLD ONES

 Interviews  No Responses »
Dec 122024
 


Photos by ©Daphnea Doto / Solweig Wood

(We proudly present Comrade Aleks‘ excellent interview with Benjamin Guerry from the French band The Great Old Ones, whose new album is set for release in January by Season of Mist.)

As you noticed, there were almost zero interviews with Lovecraft-influenced bands in the previous two months. Hard times for those who follow the Cult, indeed! But the patient ones will be rewarded, as Season of Mist proclaimed that the fifth release of French black metal heroes The Great Old Ones, Kadath, will be released on January 24th!

Fifteen years of boiling activity, four full-length albums behind, a damn lot of live rituals served – the band has solid luggage and this entire experience was reworked and channeled through a concept album based on Lovercaft’s most psychedelic and bizarre Dream Cycle.

Benjamin Guerry (guitars, vocals) is the only founding member who stood at the dawn of The Great Old Ones and who remains its mastermind; it was sheer luck that we’ve caught him and got the interview done in the most operative way. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ACCU§ER

 Interviews  No Responses »
Nov 292024
 

(About one week ago MDD Records released a new album by the German thrash band Accu§er (or Accuser), whose roots extend back into the ’80s. In advance of the release Comrade Aleks reached out and conducted the following very good interview with the band’s founding (and still) vocalist and guitarist Frank Thoms.)

Teutonic thrash was a blast back in the ’80s; this entire movement inspired many metal bands around the world in a lot of ways. And this movement still rocks despite the passing of time, space, and whatever.

Accu§er joined the German thrash wave in 1986, and you see – they’re more than alive! The band’s 13th album Rebirthless came out on the 21st of November, and you’ll easily notice that this band has power in its veins and aggression in its fists.

So feel the wrath of Teutonic Titans! (and read the interview with one of the band’s founders, Frank Thoms) Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: DEATHWIND

 Interviews  No Responses »
Nov 272024
 

(In this new interview Comrade Aleks conversed with vocalist Elina from the Moscow-based death-doom metal band Deathwind, whose debut album was released last year — and who plan to record a new one in 2025.)

Deathwind is a collaborative product of five musicians from different Moscow-based metal bands. Andrey (drums) and Vladimir (guitars) came from the black/death outfit Anotherside; Elina (vocals) previously sang in the doom band Gbvrh; Lepeha (bass) does speed/black metal in Unholy Night; and David (guitars) is from Vendel, with whom we did the interview two months ago or so.

All of them are united now by their passion for Bolt Thrower, Sacrilege, and Candlemass, and Deathwind is a product of this love. The EP Fall of the Phaeton (2023) and the full-length Triumph of Fear (2023) demonstrate that they’re good at writing and performing quite catchy and tense doomed death metal with a lady on vocals. And here she is. This interview with Elina will reveal some facts about the local underground and its life. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: APEP

 Interviews  No Responses »
Nov 262024
 

(As you will see from the interview below, our Comrade Aleks had a quite extensive and very interesting discussion with vocalist Christopher Fleckeisen and guitarist Oliver Pikowski from the Egyptian-themed German death metal band APEP, whose newest album was released on September 13th by War Anthem Records.)

Each metalhead should know names like Apep, Jörmungandr, Python or Typhon. Each deity personified primordial forces of Chaos in some forms and have kept the ability to inspire men of art through years, so to say. These names sound good for extreme metal bands, so the German Apep chose the rare one, the right one, which is intuitively clear for those who can connect Egyptian mythology and death metal.

Apep’s first album The Invocation of the Deathless One (2020) helped the band put down a fundament for the band’s reputation, and they returned in September 2024 in full arms presenting the sophomore album Before Whom Evil Trembles (Goddess of Carnage).

You know, doing an interview isn’t a rewarding experience each time you do it, but a proper, in-depth conversation is always worthy of efforts. And we had a really good one with Oliver Pikowski (guitars) and Christopher Fleckeisen (vocals). In the name of Sekhmet!

Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: NEBELKRÄHE

 Interviews  No Responses »
Nov 222024
 


photos by Afra Gethoffer-Grutz

(On November 29th the Crawling Chaos label will release a re-recorded version of Entfremdet, the 2009 debut album by the distinctive German black metal band Nebelkrähe. What the production of that entailed, and how it came to be a reality, are among the subjects of the following interview by Comrade Aleks of Nebelkrähe‘s Morg.)

“Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret”. This quote from the Bible just popped up in my mind, when we finished the interview with Nebelkrähe’s guitarist Morg a few days ago and I learnt that NCS prepared a track premiere as well.

Actually, I interviewed Morg one year ago, because these German black metal intellectuals just released their third album Ephemer (2023) back then, and I was excited with it (although they didn’t have any song based on Lovecraft’s stories). This year the trio of Nebelkrähe’s founders re-recorded their first album Entfremdet (2009), and they had their reasons to do that.

As always, Morg proved himself to be an interesting and focused conversationalist.

Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries