SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: MANTAR, SAVAGE LANDS, FRONTIERER, ASS TO MOUTH, ROTTEN SOUND, RITUAL FOG, SKAPHOS, THE SWORD, SOLIPSISM, PLAGUEFEVER

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Nov 162024
 


Mantar photo by Sonja Schuringa/Chantik Photography

I have my second miserable cold in two months, and how are you doing? I’ve been focusing on music that I thought would help blast the snot out of my head. I’ve included a lot of that below. I can’t tell that I’ve really come un-clogged, but it has made me feel better in other ways, including providing catharsis for being so pissed off that the virus has hit me again so quickly.

As you can see, I had time enough to do lots of listening and watching yesterday and this morning. As usual, the music from the 10 bands featured below isn’t all I heard and liked, but I had to draw the line somewhere. I moved some of my choices to tomorrow’s SHADES OF BLACK column, and others I hope I’ll get too somewhere down the road. Continue reading »

SAVAGE LANDS: AN INTERVIEW WITH DIRK VERBEUREN AND SYLVAIN DEMERCASTEL

 Interviews, Metal News  No Responses »
Nov 302023
 

About 10 days ago we were halted in our scurrying tracks by a video for a song called “The Last Howl” from Savage Lands, a metal charity project whose goal is to help preserve the forests of Costa Rica and the creatures that live there.

Savage Lands and that song have already gained a lot of attention, in part because of the people who participated in making it. The Savage Lands project was founded by drummer extraordinaire Dirk Verbeuren (Megadeth, Scarve, etc.) and musician-turned-activist Sylvain Demercastel (a current resident of Costa Rica). For “The Last Howl” they brought in guitarist Andres Kisser (Sepultura) and vocalist John Tardy (Obituary), as well as vocalist Poun and bassist Etienne Treton from the French band Black Bomb A.

The song was great, and so was the video (and we said so here), and so we jumpted at the opportunity to interview Dirk and Sylvain as a way of helping to spread the word about a very worthy cause, and very worthy music. That conversation follows, but you really should take in “The Last Howl” first: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: SAVAGE LANDS, LORD DYING, DEATH SCYTHE, MÊLÉE DES AURORES, VOLTUMNA, STUVEMARK, COMPRESSION, SLIIMO, VOODUS

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Nov 182023
 

LOTS of new metal to get to today, so this sentence is all the introduction I’ll provide.

SAVAGE LANDS (Int’l)

A charity project whose goal is to help preserve the forests of Costa Rica and the creatures that live there. Founded by drummer Dirk Verbeuren and musician-turned-activist Sylvain Demercastel (a current resident of Costa Rica). First song is about howler monkeys and features appearances by guitarist Andres Kisser (Sepultura) and vocalist John Tardy (Obituary). OK, I’ll bite. Continue reading »