AN NCS INTERVIEW: DERKÉTA (SHARON BASCOVSKY)

 Interviews  6 Responses »
Jul 172018
 


photo by Shani

 

(We are delighted to present Comrade Aleks‘ extensive interview of Sharon Bascovsky, founder and mainstay of the ground-breaking Pittsburgh death/doom band Derkéta.)

Derkéta was formed in Pittsburgh in 1988 by Sharon Bascovsky (vocals, guitars) and Terri Heggen (drums). Influenced by bands like Sepultura, Death, Massacre, and Bathory on the one hand, and by bands like Black Sabbath and Candlemass on the other, they worked out their own low-tuned and a bit slowed-down death metal, which later transformed into something that was labeled as death/doom metal. Two demos and one EP (1990’s Premature Burial) was all the band recorded before they split up in 1991.

Sharon tried to resurrect Derkéta in 1997, then in 1999… It’s a long story, but finally, the full-length album In Death We Meet was recorded in 2012. Sharon played a few shows with a new lineup, then came a single, Darkness Fades Life in 2014, and then… Actually it wasn’t even clear if Derkéta were still an active band until I wrote Sharon and asked her all the questions I had accumulated through a few years. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2014’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 20

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2014  5 Responses »
Jan 162015
 

Welcome to Part 20 in the continuing rollout of our list of 2014′s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the introductory post via this link. For the other songs we’ve previously named to the list, go here.

Since we’ve reached a nice round number with Part 20 of this list, do you think it’s a good time to stop, especially since we’re more than two weeks into January? Nah, I don’t think so either. Here are two more skull-clubbing songs.

VALLENFYRE

This first song that I’m adding to the list today was a really tough call. Not because we weren’t going to have a Vallenfyre song on the list — that was a foregone conclusion — but because the band’s 2014 album Splinters was loaded with potential selections. I’m partial to the song from the album we premiered (“Odious Bliss”) and for a long time I just sort of assumed that the album’s opening track “Scabs” would be the pick. But as I got closer to writing this post I changed my mind. Continue reading »