01. Set Guitars To Kill 05:29 02. A Little Bit Of Solidarity Goes A Long Way 03:25 03. Clench Fists, Grit Teeth…Go! 06:19 04. Capture Castles 07:17 05. Start A Band 04:53 06. Tip Of The Hat, Punch In The Face 04:21 07. If It Ain’t Broke…Break It 06:21 08. These Riots Are Just The Beginning 4:48 09. Don’t Waste Time Doing Things You Hate 07:31 10. The Voiceless 6:27 11. Eat The City, Eat It Whole 07:35

Hey, you. Ever heard of a band from Northern Ireland called ‘And So I Watch You From Afar’? I suppose it might be unlikely, but they’ve been making something of a name for themselves with their early releases and various bombastic live performances. Kerrang! actually claimed that “they can do nothing wrong”, and a host of other publications from NME to Metal Hammer have lined up to sing their praises. Not bad, really, for a progressive instrumental outfit from Belfast…and frankly, all of the praise they’ve been attracting is entirely merited.

After recording two EPs, ’This Is Our Machine And Nothing Can Stop It’ and ’Tonight The City Burns’, their self-titled debut was released in April 2009 by Smalltown America Records, the independent label run by fellow Brit post-rock proggers Jetplane Landing. And yet, I’ve only just noticed it. My bad.
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October of last year saw the tragic, untimely demise of Evile bassist Mike Alexander. For such a young band said to be ‘carrying [thrash metal]’s revival on their shoulders’, it really was a shock to the community, and for a short time their future as a group was in doubt. Thankfully, fortune smiled upon them with the arrival of new bassist Joel Graham, and a UK tour to further promote new full-length ‘Infected Nations’ (and its Maidenesque cover art) and keep the metal flag flying high.

Israel’s The Fading do their best to work up tonight’s (notably young) crowd, with some textbook stage banter and melodeath frettery. The venue is more empty than half-full, and polite applause and a small, brief moshpit is just about the only response from the crowd, apart from the usual support band-piss-taking jeers from the lads at the bar. Compared to them, Calfornia’s Warbringer are the bomb. Some tasty Exodus-y noise is battered out by the fivesome, who have the long-haired, beer-drinking, pot-smoking, cop-bothering thrash image down to a tee; the kind of American headbangers you see in the likes of Wayne’s World or Bill & Ted. Vocalist John Kevill has something of an early Mike Patton about him, throwing shapes and pulling mad faces as ‘Living In A Whirlwind’ becomes a reality; the first of many circle pits has begun.
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Photos from the Evile headlining tour at Academy 2 in Newcastle on January 18th. Photos by Victoria Baker.

Photos from the Napalm Death show at Independent on January 15th. Photos by Victoria Baker.

01. Valley of the Damned 04:17 02. Hang Him High 04:35 03. Solar Empire 05:15 04. Weed Out the Weak 03:50 05. No Tomorrow 04:16 06. Global Domination 05:14 07. Taste the Extreme Divine 03:36 08. Alive 04:21 09. The Quest 05:31 10. Tamed (Filled With Fear) 04:39 11. Sky’s Falling Down 04:31

Peter Tägtgren is something of a legend in his own right, thanks to his impressive list of production credits; he’s produced albums by Children of Bodom, Amon Amarth, Dimmu Borgir, Sabaton and Celtic Frost. In fact, he even managed to poach drummer Horgh from black metal legends Immortal (yes, those guys from the forest - Youtube “Call of the Wintermoon” if you don’t know what I mean) for his own band, Hypocrisy.

Hypocrisy have been around on the death metal scene for 20 years, now. They’ve released ten albums since 1992, and now grace us with the eleventh, “A Taste of Extreme Divinity”. Their pedigree has never been in doubt - for example, Children of Bodom axe-master Alexi Laiho teamed up with them on the tour for latest album - but theirs is not a name which has been on the lips of the metal community of late. The hope was that this latest effort would see them returned to the forefront of the oh-so-convoluted Swedish death metal scene.
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In our readers poll Amon Amarth were our most requested metal band to be interviewed, so in Episode 46 we bring you our interview with Johan Soderberg.

We caught up with the Swedish Viking metallers in Newcastle on tour promoting their latest album ‘Twilight Of The Thunder God’ released in 2008. ‘Twilight’ is the seventh studio album and features a variety of guest musicians including L.G Petrov of Entombed, Roope Latvala of Children of Bodom and Perttu Kivilaakso of Finnish cello metal crossover band Apocalyptica.

Also in a slight change to our usual shows Richard and Ewan present this months podcast on location in Dundee.

As always this month’s metal podcast comes with the following tunes.

Switch Opens - The Electric Hour
Blind Image - Sepia Tone Sunrise
Mama Kin - Too Much
Bonafide - Fill your head with Rock
Spit Like This - Sweet Transvestite
Amon Amarth - Guardians of Asguard
Element of the Machine - Seas of blood
Von Benzo - Medicine
Burial - Fall of the holy

 

 Episode 46 - Johan Soderberg from Amon Amarth [62:24m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

01. World Painted Blood 05:53 02. Unit 731 02:39 03. Snuff 03:42 04. Beauty Through Order 04:36 05. Hate Worldwide 02:52 06. Public Display of Dismemberment 02:34 07. Human Strain 03:09 08. Americon 03:22 09. Psychopathy Red 02:26 10. Playing with Dolls 04:13 11. Not of this God 04:20

It can’t be easy, being Slayer. They were really too good in the 80s; releasing four classic albums in a row tends to build expectation for your subsequent work. Hence the 90s were a darker time for the thrash icons, as a string of questionable releases threatened to impinge upon their legacy. Reuniting the ‘classic’ lineup in 2001 with the return of Dave Lombardo on drums was a step in the right direction, but 2006’s “Christ Illusion” left many disappointed. So, even before its release, their 10th album “World Painted Blood” had quite a burden on its shoulders.

Kerry King has stated that this is Slayer’s most diverse album since 1990’s “Seasons in the Abyss”, and from the start, definite comparisons spring to mind. Titular opener ’World Painted Blood’ is, at almost 6 minutes in length, probably the longest Slayer song that springs to mind since ’Seasons’ itself, although for the most part it gallops along at an almost frightening pace. There are also a couple of other longer songs, ‘The Human Strain’ and ‘Playing With Dolls’, which attempt a slower tempo than the band’s usual 100-mile-an-hour thrash, and even flirt with melody - the latter actually standing out as one of the album’s strongest. ‘Beauty Through Order’ perfectly showcases how this slower, more melodic approach can coexist with classic thrash-Slayer, opening at an almost sedate pace before undergoing a lycanthropic transformation and finishing at breakneck pace.
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01. Passing 8:31 02. Phantom Pain 6:51 03. Dare You 6:45 04. Fate 4:38 05. He Will Kill Again 7:32 06. Not Even A Name 8:46 07. Tall Poppy Syndrome 8:28 08. White 11:32

Sometimes it’s better just not to mix things: chicken and ice cream; petrol and fire; The X Factor and recording contracts. This rule has been overlooked by Leprous. Don’t let the name fool you, they’re not a death metal band, or are they? While the Norwegian five-piece last seen as the backing band of Emperor mastermind Ihsahn are superbly technical, they cannot seem to settle on a particular sound, instead opting for a mish-mash of all things metal. The result is both stunning and disastrous.

The album opens with the theme of Dracula emerging from his coffin, before such gothic refrains fade into a quiet vocal section to his credit, frontman Einar Solberg has probably one of the most diverse voices in metal. Suddenly, his sombre crooning erupts into a frightening death metal screech, while the guitars and drums follow suit. A chorus of ‘No way of sharing the pain that I feel’ (awww) then soars above the riffery, before it all collapses back into the mellow part. Repeat this again, but add in a laid-back guitar solo, a George Fisher regurgitation and a Hansi Kursch scream, and that’s a wrap. And that’s just the first song, ‘Passing’.
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01. Intro 1:24 02. Empty Promises 5:05 03. Break The Trend 4:04 04. Thanks For Letting Me Know 4:31 05. Empty Promises (Video Edit) 4:08

Forever Never describe themselves as having ‘a sound that bridges the gap between “underground” and “mainstream” scenes; a sound that is both beautiful, and brutal.’ The cover of last year’s self-titled second album showed a peaceful waterfall in the midst of a green valley, with an grim industrial cityscape lurking in the water’s reflection. Trying to show your musical philosophy through an arty, symbolic CD cover, lads? I like it.

This juxtaposition that the Essex metallers pride themselves upon is true of ‘Empty Promises’, the first single from that pretentious (just kidding) album. A mysterious ambience and some splodgy sounds herald the arrival of the title track, opening with a sublime vocal harmony courtesy of superbly-toned vocalist Renny Carroll. Then kicks in a deliciously time change-laden riff which continues behind sorrowful yet soulful lyrics; ‘I’ve had enough of your empty promises / Don’t blame yourself, it was my mistake for listening.’ He’s been hurt. The mournful chuggery continues after the second chorus, sometimes sounding too bland and tuneless without vocals, but thankfully there are chiming notes and a palpable guitar solo to distract from where things are lacking.
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