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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Our interview with Mark Jansen from Dutch symphonic metallers Epica features as possibly our last interview of 2009!

Epica recently released their new album ‘Design Your Universe’ in October of this year. It includes a guest appearance from Sonata Arctica’s Tony Kakko and is the first album to feature their new guitarist Issac Delahaye.

Mark talks to Rich about what its like touring in the UK and how such complex musical compositions are created during Epica’s writing process.

As usual we have some great metal tunes to accompany the show. We hope that your looking forward to the festive season and have a very brutal Christmas!

Warpath - Damnation
Mean Streak - Battle Within
Napalm Death - Scum
Construcdead - My Haven
Unsun - Whispers
Epica - Unleashed
Spheric Universe Experience - Lakeside Park
White Wizzard - High Speed GTO
Thaurorod - Warrior’s Heart

 

 Episode 45 - Mark Jansen from Epica [81:15m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The poster on the wall inside the Glasgow Auditorium on this rainy November evening reads ‘They keep killing him… and he keeps coming back!’. Which is very true; Alice Cooper has been performing for over four decades now (!), being - amongst other gruesome acts - hung, electrocuted, maimed, decapitated and strangled in his legendary live show, but is still going strongly, shocking and grossing-out adults and bores everywhere he goes. Even ex-Home Secretary David Blunkett called him ‘obscene’. What’s that? Oh, yeah, that is the same Mr. Blunkett who got caught shagging his married secretary and breaking ministerial laws for personal gain. But I digress.

First up are Man Raze, who can count Def Leppard’s Phil Collen and The Sex Pistols’ Paul Cook in their ranks. They’ve also got Simon Laffy from Girl on bass (I’d never heard of him either). They fare well tonight on their first Scottish show, with a nice hard rock sound and covers of The Stooges’ ‘Search And Destroy’ and The Jam’s ‘That’s Enterainment’. One very satisfied punter in the front row gives them a standing ovation after every song. Not the greatest of bands, but an enjoyable little act and a nice wee side project for the members nonetheless.
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01. Whom the Gods Love Die Young 04:47 02. Battle Within 03:34 03. Eyes of a Stranger 04:01 04. The Seventh Sign 05:02 05. Raise Your Hands 04:37 06. Rock City 03:58 07. Sin City Lights 04:51 08: Carved in Stone 04:43 09. Metal Slave 04:20 10. Sinners and Saints 03:42

Welcome to the world of Mean Streak, the latest crusaders in the battle to defend the faith of heavy metal. The kind of largely imaginary battle which involves leather armour and large axes, obviously. They were formed in Sweden (where else?) in 2006 entirely as a studio project by Peter Andersson, apparently in order “to make music straight from the heart”…and “the early/mid ’80s”. Andersson started out alone, recording all of the guitar and bass parts and even programming the drum lines before he had recruited another band member. He added singer Andy LaGuerin and drummer Jonas Kallsback to fill out parts in the studio before the idea of getting a record deal or even playing live even occurred; guitarists David Andersson and Patrik Gardberg were only recruited when a local club heard their demos and requested a live performance. This led to interest from a local record label, and all of a sudden Mean Streak had walked into a recording contract.

The first fruit of this deal is the album “Metal Slave”; the name tells you quite a lot of what you need to know about Mean Streak. They are Slaves to Metal. Indeed, they are so dedicated to their particular craft (their Myspace defines it as “Metal/Metal/Metal”) that every song is a microcosm of the greater whole; essentially, you always know what you’re going to get. Right from opening track ‘Whom the Gods Love Die Young’, there are no surprises here; every song comprises a selection of thundering riffs, double-bass drumming, wailing solos, and soaring vocal melodies. We’re firmly in the Manowar/Grand Magus/hooray-for-epic-metal vein here.
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01. White Willow 06:28 02. Down Memory Lane 03:58 03. Lakeside Park 05:36 04. 3rd Type 07:23 05. Near Death Experience 01:46 06. Lost Ghost 06:16 07. Dragged 06:04 08. O.B.E 03:59 09. Tomorrow 08:07

I’m going to have to make clear that right from the start I have something of a bone to pick with Spheric Universe Experience; any astrophysicist worth his salt knows the universe is saddle-shaped. Not spherical. If Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein are down with that, sorry, I’m not letting a French prog band sway me.

Anyway, if we can somehow pretend that wound isn’t fatal, we could move on to the music…”Unreal” is the third album from the Nice-based five-piece, and is every bit as slick, assured and polished as you’d expect from a band who have been honing their craft for a decade. Despite recruiting a new drummer, Christope Briande, since the recording of 2007’s ‘Anima’, they appear as tight and confident as ever.
The band list their greatest influences and Dream Theater and Symphony X, and this is immediately apparent on opening track ‘White Willow’, as guitarist Vince Benaim doing his best to channel John Petrucci and a range of weird keyboard effects are the order of the day. That said, the giants of prog-metal are by no means bad role models, and subsequent tracks show the band breaking out and doing more of their own thing, and doing it well.
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01. Twisted Coil 11:43 02. Leland Street 08:03 03. Green and Cream 10:32 04. Season of Denial 10:22 05. Over 06:11 06. Perfection 10:46

“it won’t be Ayreon, that’s for sure.” - Arjen Lucassen

The above quote was given during our interview with Arjen Lucassen in April 2008 when work had just begun on Guilt Machine. Arjen has proven true to his word.

If you are expecting another Ayreon epic telling the sprawling tale of knights and wizards, space travel and aliens then this album is not for you. This album is a journey through sorrow, despair and guilt; a vast thematic and musical departure from the Ayreon project. This is not to say that if you enjoyed Arjen’s previous works you will not enjoy Guilt Machine, but there will no doubt be a few disappointed Ayreon fans out there.
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Photos from the Amon Amarth show at Northumbria University on October 29th. Last two photos are of Entombed who supported the Amon UK tour. Photos by Victoria Baker.