November is Doom- Interview with Evoken's John Paradiso

This blog has given me the opprotunity to interview some of my favorite musicians I have gotten to speak with members of Killing Joke, Katatonia, Type O Negative, Cheksea Wolfe, Ministry, Voivod and Morbid Angel to name a few and I feel priveilaged to have gotten the chance to speak with Johan Paradiso of Evoken, and given the doom focus on this month it only feels right to share that podcast episode with you here,as we spoke about the funeral doom sub-genre and what went into making their new album which is one of the storngest metal albums of the year so do your self a favor and listen to the interview below

        

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Interview- Ken Sorceron of Abigail Williams

 

Originally written for my friends over at No Clean Singing, but for those of youwho don't venture over there ( you whould if you like death metal, as I do not havfe a chance to cover everything here) here is the words I exchanged with Abigail Williams mainman Ken Sorceron. 

Q: “A Void Within Existence” marks the 6th album for Abigail Williams. What lessons have you learned since the first album that helped shape this one?
A: The biggest lesson is to stop trying to please anyone but yourself. Early on, I was always half aware of how a record would be received, but now I don’t care. That kind of freedom opened the door to something more honest and more extreme. Over time, I’ve learned to fully trust my instinct. I don’t second-guess the darkness, the stillness, or the chaos. If something feels real, I follow it—even if it leads somewhere uncomfortable.

Q: How have the different geographic locations you’ve lived in, from Phoenix to Olympia, shaped your music?
A: Environments leave scars. Phoenix was desolate and exposed. There’s something violent and isolating about that landscape. Olympia had this dense, suffocating forest energy. You don’t feel watched—you feel absorbed. That shift added a more atmospheric, ritualistic layer to the music written while I was living there. Honestly, I moved from Olympia years ago, but I'm still in the Pacific Northwest, so I haven’t bothered updating our location. Each city kind of acts like an egregore, yeah—you tune into a different current depending on where you are, and that current bleeds into the sound.

Q: There’s a much bigger sound on this album. Is that due to the new drummer or changes in how you approached the guitars?
A: It’s both. Mike Heller is a monster. His drumming isn’t just technically impressive; it has this mechanical elegance that raises the tension in the music. That said, he also played on the last album, so he’s not exactly new. But I recorded the guitars differently this time with more layers, more texture, more low-end power, without losing clarity. I used an 8-string guitar for most of the album. I wanted everything to feel like it was breathing, not just stacked for the sake of being heavy. The biggest factor, though, would be Dave Otero’s mix. He pulled it all together.

Q: You use blast beats more selectively than most black metal bands. Was that influenced by other artists, or something that evolved naturally?
A: It evolved naturally. I love blast beats, but if you use them constantly, they lose their impact. I like tension and space. Let the blast be the blade, not the whole weapon. I’ve always been drawn to artists who understand dynamics, Ulver, Emperor, and even Neurosis. It’s about making the chaos hit harder by knowing when not to unleash it.

Q: The clean vocals on the final track stand out. What inspired that decision?
A: The album needed contrast. After all the dissonance and punishment, I wanted to pull the listener into something that felt almost beautiful but still broken. The sung vocals aren’t there to soothe. They make the weight of the harsh ones feel even heavier. That trade-off felt like a conversation between clarity and collapse. It was a risk, but it ended up being one of the most honest moments on the record.

Q: This album is darker and more atmospheric than ever. How important is sonic heaviness compared to traditional metal heaviness?
A: Sonic heaviness is everything. You can be the loudest band on Earth and still sound flat emotionally. Real heaviness comes from space, texture, repetition, and decay. I’m more interested in creating gravity than aggression. I want the sound to pull people under. not just hit them over the head.

Q: How do you think black metal has changed since Abigail Williams first emerged?
A: I haven’t thought about it much, and I’m not an authority on modern black metal. I stopped listening to most of it around ten years ago. That said, black metal has expanded and fractured in a good way. It’s not locked into a template anymore. People are taking risks, adding new emotions, and breaking rules. Some of it probably wouldn’t even be considered black metal anymore, and honestly, I don’t care. I don’t even really consider us black metal at this point. We use the tag for convenience. Of course, there’s still purism and nostalgia, but there’s also this open space now where black metal bleeds into ambient, industrial, doom, noise... That freedom keeps it alive. It keeps it dangerous.

Q: What do you do to recharge your creative energy?
A: Isolation. Nature. I tend to disappear when I’m not working on a record. I read, I walk—especially in dense forests where it’s quiet. I don’t listen to much music when I’m in that space. I try to let everything drain out so that when I come back to writing, it’s not from memory, it’s from instinct. I also like to drive a lot. Whether it’s my car or a motorcycle, I’m usually out cruising the back roads of the Pacific Northwest.

Q: Black metal often channels dark spirituality. How has that relationship evolved in your writing?
A: In the beginning, I thought about that a lot more, especially the darker side of it. Over time, I’ve lost interest in obsessively exploring that particular angle. It’ll always be there in some form because it’s been a part of me for so long, but now it’s more about disintegration, breaking down false versions of the self. I don’t write to glorify darkness. I write to understand it. To get closer to the truth that lives beneath all the noise. That’s a spiritual act, even if it’s not connected to any specific belief system.

Q: Any favorite black metal releases so far in 2025?
A: Honestly, I haven’t kept up. I haven’t checked out any new black metal albums this year. I tend not to listen to much black metal or extreme metal anymore. I focus more on making my own and listening to other styles of music. That said, there are always a few artists I’m curious to check out when the time’s right.

Q: Any touring plans for A Void Within Existence?
A: Yeah, there will be shows. We’re putting together something that reflects the atmosphere of the record. I don’t want it just to be a “setlist.” I want the performance to feel like stepping into the void we built with this album. More details soon.

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Interview Groovie Mann of My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult.

My Life Life With the Thrill Kill Kult are back and sounding better than ever , even taking the top spot on this year's goth/ industrial top 10. I caught up with Groovie Mann on their Atlanta stop of their current tour to hang out back stage and pick his brain on Thrill Kill's iconic past and vital present.

When  you first started out as a band what was your inspiration since at the time nothing was out that sounded like you guys ? 

Each other, our bands at the time were in a different head space. 1981 we wanted to break out from the stand band format and experiment.   Buzz was messing with crazy looped samples and electric bass. It began with 4AD, this was music that had previously been dubbed alternative before that term was commercialized. Electronic punk, with a great deal of freedom and more like art. We were really into Loud Reed and Alice Cooper. Punk like Iggy where there were no gimmicks.That attitude is what made it all come together. 

There is a very organic feel to the new album “House of Strange Affairs” what do you attribute that to waht was the process like in making it? 

I can speak for myself. I gather books and ideas I have written down go over to Buzz’s and present them. I will sing and record some we use to build other things out of. Lot of freedom there. It is sort of like putting a puzzle together.  There is a concept. With what if Sexplosion did not exist. This would have been the third album . So there is more weirdness yet it is similar to the other stuff 

There is a weird 70s lounge vibe to some of the songs

We drawn from even in our early days certain sounds from old songs From the 60s and 70s   

Always seemed weird that you guys got lumped in with industrial bands  when I tend to think of that as the bastard sons of Killing Joke. 

Like Test Dept. I never saw that we were more like the new experimental thing. Back in 79 bands there were bands like the Residents and Throbbing Gristle, , all new sounds , I was a dj spinning records records by Coil, Alien Sex Fiend, that was sort of pre Wax Tracks, which is what  industrial came out of you know. I kind of works as like A& R for them, but was more into experimental stuff liek the Legendary Pink Dots. Young Gods who were ahead of their time. 

Did the Labels very pressure you in the 90s to conform to that more? 

We did what we wanted

With the new album things have a more orgaqnic sound than electronic, what was the recording process like ?

Different soft I suppose that is more of Buzz’s thing. Low profile with technology , just what ever works for us. It is not something to be relied upon. Don’t be a lazy musician. It needs to reflect the soul. Now the market is flood with crap. I have never been into hip hop, it’s not my thing, though there is some good stuff out there that is more experimental, but alof pop and hip hop is too reliant on software.    

Interview Jay Gambit of Crowhurst

Earlier this year I reviewed the latest album from this experimental black metal project , which was the 3rd part in a trilogy. I recently managed to find the time to catch up with Jay Gambit the main man behind this project to discuss his creative process behind this album. 

There seems to be a theme of working with different personnel for each record you make. Is there a reason behind this?

I view lineups as more of an assembly of musicians I think will benefit the record. Andy was the backbone, no doubt about it - but there's a lot more musicians on III like Ethan from Primitive Man and other folk who's sonic signature was distinct and complementary to various recordings. What keeps this from being a solo project is that I feel every musician brings their own presence, and by playing around with different formulas each record - you can get some spectacular and unique result.

Overall this album has a more organic feel what percentage of the drums are live this time around ?

Less of the drums were live this time around. We did a lot of layering live drums over electronic drums.

Some of the darker elements of this album seem to draw influence from acts like Swans or Birthday Party  is the case ? And what is your relationship with post-punk?

The trilogy was kind of my expression of what a black metal record should be, with the first taking lots of influence from old school screamo and AmpRep style noise rock. The second drew more from industrial metal with clear nods to Marilyn Manson, Ministry and acts like Mamaleek that are doing their own thing. Being that this was the final entry, there was a lot of cramming - and 80's neofolk/post-punk is a genre we wanted to touch upon this time. I do have another project called Executioner's Mask which is very strictly post-punk though, so that's where those ideas go now.

The lyrics seem to be more personal this time around, what are the lyrical themes?   

The trilogy is roughly a kind of trip through hell, in the sense that it deals with addiction and mental health issues. A lot of it deals with suicide. I have been dealing with severe depression for all my life - my father committed suicide and I was raised by my mom who also deals with depression. There's a lot of songs about trying as hard as you can and still failing. Songs about being taken advantage of, and just the savage nature of people and life in general.

When you started this project did you have any goals? Have you met any of those goals?

I had a huge goal met when I played two sets at Roadburn this year. Same with Austin Terror Fest - those are two festivals that consistently serve as a showcase for the best and the brightest and it was an honor to be picked to play. Outside of that, I feel that I am a failure. My thoughts were that nobody even bought the album until I saw that the LP's had sold out and were unavailable from the Prophecy store - and even then they said it was just a computer glitch. I still hold ambitions for the project though - however silly. An example - as dorky as it seems, I have always wanted to have our albums covered by the places I discovered my favorite bands from in college like Pitchfork. For now though, I am kind of at the mercy of whatever Prophecy wants from and for me.  

In more extreme forms of music vocals can come across as an afterthought and just become a human layer of white noise, this is not the case on this album, when did they come into play in terms of songwriting ?

I write a lot over the years and at the end of the session I kind of slap down vocals however they see fit. I think we recorded vocals for III in 44 minutes, almost all single takes - almost all with choruses I formed from abstract notes while in front of the microphone. I hate to consider them an afterthought because they have a lot of thought put into them, but they are almost always only revisited as more than just words on paper after everything else is done.

Crowhurst was formed in 2011 when noise was still a fairly fringe genre for most listeners of metal and other more mainstream extreme music subcultures. In the past decade though, more and more noise acts are gaining more widespread popularity. What would you credit that to?

I think one act you can give a lot of credit to is The Body, who have not only toured RELENTLESSLY - but have taken a lot of people on tour who would have likely been considered a real "risk" by promoters. I still think it's hard to break through for noise acts - we still struggle to find a booking agent that understands us no matter how hard we try even though we don't play noise sets much anymore. Ultimately though, there are SO MANY fearless acts these days like Moor Mother, Dreamcrusher, Lingua Ignota and Pharmakon who bring the sounds of harsh noise to audiences who are just learning of the genre's existence.

Are their any albums released  this year you have heard that moved you? 

Lingua Ignota, False, Ramleh, Immortal Bird - a lot of really awesome interdisciplinary stuff. I think the current state of music is one of transitions. If you look at 2008-2009 there's a lot of similarities, a lot of barrier breaking and button pushing. That's what we need now - more music that will influence and less music that is influenced. 

Are their plans for live performances or touring to support this album ?

Our idea was to do various dates across the US/UK/EU instead of a full summer run. We did a lot of festivals and tried to capture them for YouTube - we should have recorded the one in Austin but I forgot to put SD cards in the cameras we set up. There's some stuff coming up in the fall as well, and we hope to get on the road as support for somebody else in 2020. Playing live rules. Just depends what's possible for us.

You often have multiple releases over the course of the year is there any anything else planned for release?

I wish we were allowed to release more. I have about 7 full, finished records that I am restricted from releasing. I'm being forced to just sit on this amazing collaboration with Crawl. There's a whole noise rock LP we recorded in the UK with Sam from Slabdragger who's one of my favorite UK producers and an incredible dude all around. I did a classical record with Gavin Bryars that is hopefully coming out soon. The label doesn't speak to me directly anymore, but I've heard that they want to release that one.

In the meantime someone assembled a bunch of Bandit remixes I did for a podcast and put them on YouTube which was really cool, as they were just done for fun and never meant as a record. The demos from a death metal album I'm working on ended up on 4Chan and Kingdom Leaks so we just uploaded it ourselves - that you can hear. Some other projects coming up. Working with other bands like Culted and Dragged Into Sunlight. There will always be something...

Interview :Steve Tucker of Morbid Angel

Originally did this interview for No Clean Singing, but figured this would give me another chance to edit it, and for those of you who don't read that blog, then here is your chance to catch it here. I reviewed the new Morbid Angel "Kingdoms Disdained" last week and it continues to grow on me, so I am glad I got to catch up with Steve Tucker and get some further insight on the album's creation. It went like this...

Not only does the album have big sound but it’s very dense, sonically closer to blessed are the sick , what did you guys do differently in the studio this time around ?


 We worked with Erik rutan. Erik just delivered a lot of very real sounds. It’s a bit old school but with high quality. The older stuff like “Blessed “ had that live feel, which is what we got here.


 Scott Fuller seems to have a more powerful style of playing than Tim’s what has it been like working with him what sets him apart from other drummers ?


 Scotty is great . He has years of playing of drums under his belt even though he is a young. As a drummer he is very well developed. We have a good dialogue talking about different kinds of beats. He understands what we need. The best thing is he is capable of anything, yet doesn’t insist on over playing. He serves the song can play in the pocket or flashy. It's a hard combination to find. Scotty is technically sound and knows when to back off.


 Was Dan involved in the making of the new album?


 Not so much. It was just the three of us . The way we did for formula and heretic.The line of communication was short so there was never any misunderstanding. I felt like anyone else it would have been undue work . It would be unnecessary stress in the equation.

 Vocally your best work, harsh vocals can take on uniform stereotypes but there is a lot of emotional nuance in this performance, what do you attribute that to ?


 I think it's working with Erik he is somebody who I trust when. If you have seen any of his behind the scenes videos then you know, when he feels the need to give his opinion he doesn't pull punches. It allows everyone to perform up. i think the topic is so deep and dark at the end of the wick passion was called for.


 Which leads right into my next question, the lyrical theme of the old gods awakening to find the world in it’s current state has a more confrontational feel and less of the escapism when this is given a more occult perspective, is this the mood meant to capture and how did this theme come about?


 That is absolutely what it felt like it was happening. This is something we have always talked about sumerian gods and mythology. To us it seemed like it has come to head. These prophecies being fulfilled. CivilizationS across the planet from different time frame come together now. What was once hypothetical is now more realistic, this idea of chaotic order . The whole earth is heaving with volcanoes and tidal waves. There is serendipity to the things we speak about . This sickens the gods.


Things like mass shooting becoming so frequent must fall into that 


 That would be one of the things. Bred off of an outsider mentality. Society builds the molds. It becomes a spiritual thing. It affects their souls and psyche’s ability to see right and wrong. How can people be shocked with all the negativity. Elections all across world shifted in the more conservative direction. For the government's Middle East this means muslims. In the United States it falls back to christianity. England the more conservative is Brexit wanting to break away from United Nations. When things are forced upon you, when you force change people snap. The song “Righteous Voice” is about how people never really see the truth. They see what is righteous. These people doing mass shootings have the righteous voice in their head. So all these individual rights are based on what is going on their life. So 8 billion individuals wanting this , it’s ridiculous. The Earth was never meant to sustain that many people. These people want rights and willing to die for what seems right. It affects the planet . Being more that disruptive more negative. The upheaval is there is getting to be more natural disasters coming with more force. The hurricane this fall was more violent. Some say it’s the greenhouse effect, it could be the overall hatred and selfishness of people. The average person that works in high rise would mock that. Well I mock what they do, the 9 to 5. Why live under someone's thumb like that ?

 In his marketing p/r of Kiss ,Gene Simmons said said Kiss was not anyone person but a bigger concept. On you new album you can hear the bigger concept of Morbid Angel, you can hear more of the classic Morbid Angel signatures was that part of the mission statement when you guys were in the writing process of these songs ? 

 Honestly the chemistry of Trey and Myself creates a pretty gluttonous monster of music. Morbid has had a few different entities. They had their own chemistry and vibe prior to when i came along. Then when I came on board we did some albums that were dark and mean. David came back with a different vibe. What I want to do musically, my drive and goal has not changed. It's not different from 15 or 10 years ago. It is not that I rely on the same ideas. I have grown , have been playing more playing guitar and becoming a better musician. What I want out of the music is nt different than when i was 17. I want people to head band, throw horns, yell and get out hatred and aggression. Trey and I might follow a similar spiritual path so that also creates a unity .


 What can fans expect going forward from you guys live ? 


 They can expect to see Morbid Angel and hear songs from all different times. We are changing the songs a lot , not playing the same exact set. Not sticking to the same songs. Trey said to me “Come on Dude, I love these songs, I don’t want to get bored playing them.” Some songs are coming back with a renewed excitement. Morbid Angel has some big songs, but we are going to play a lot more of the catalog. There are a few that haven't been played as much. We want to pull those out. We want you to be able to see us twice in the same year and not get the same set.


 How has the current state of tensions in the world affected you guys touring?


 Now everything is scrutinized. There was an issue with passports and it took six months to get things done cus of a mistake . Everything is scrutinized, there is a lot of shit going on. In Poland Behemoth got in trouble for representing the polish flag in some way. There have been a couple bands that have gone to Russia and been arrested. Extreme views clash with the uptight views. This tension is a good thing for us as people turn to metal for relief .

 “Yeah I mean death metal came about under George Bush senior “


 Every one felt oppressed , we have been at war for thirty years. theory testing young dude who are bad i respect them now a lot more diversity takes on metal didn't exist it feeds this people are looking for controlled aggression metal been an outlet for that.

 Funny you brought that up as my next question was going to be...How do you feel about where heavy metal as a whole is heading in 2017 ? 

 It’s great a lot of great diversity. One good thing internet has done is made a generation of musicians that are phenomenal. They are learning arpeggios online it’s amazing. I was listening to XM Radio Liquid Metal and hear this band Kyng. They kicks ass, good to hear a band that is just heavy metal and not much different than Dio. Then on the rawer side there are great bands like battle cross and goatwhore ,

 Haha well Goatwhore is the band that is duking it out with you guys on my iPod for death metal album of the year.

 Thanks , man it means a lot coming from you. When finally got a chance to sit down and listen to our new album I was like holy shit it takes you on a journey

 What are plans for 2018?

 Going back out, a lot of touring States in the early spring, and now that we got everything worked out rest of the world in the summer.

Interview : Mirai Kawashima of Sigh

I recently got to catch up and pick the brain of Sigh's main man Mirai Kawashima to discuss the new album "Graveward" and the ghosts of metal past present and future.



With "Scenes From Hell" you took a sharper turn into a more progressive sound, "Graveward"retains that but steps back into a more metal direction as well what inspired this?


Mirai : The biggest inspiration on this album is 70s / 80s Italian zombie flicks. At first I was planning to make it filled with old keyboards like Minimoog, Mellotron, Hammond, Fender Rhodes etc. as a dedication to those movies. The final result was pretty much different from the initial plan, but I think you still sense the atmosphere of zombie movies.

I'm not sure what you meant by "metal direction", but "Graveward" is filled with mid-paced to up-tempo songs, I mean they're slower than those on "Hangman's Hymn" or "Scenes from Hell". In that sense, "Graveward" is a very metal album. Other than that, the change of guitarist affected a lot on the sound. I'll talk about it later.

There are quite a few guest performers on "Graveward. Of all these guest musicians who has been in the back of your minds the longest as someone you've been waiting to work with?

 Mirai :  It would be great if we could work with Mika Patton or John Zorn.

In most genres aside from metal the guitar solo has almost become a lost art. The guitar playing on this has really stepped up to the next level, Was this influenced by having guys like Matt Heafy around?

Mirai :The reason is very simple. We hired the new guitarist who can play the guitar way better than the old one. Unfortunately we had to fire the guitarist during the recording of "Graveward" because it became obvious that he was losing his passion on music. He started chasing a preadolescent underground idol who has only 10 fans or so and now he spends all his money and time on that crap. It was a tough decision for us to fire somebody we had worked together for more than 20 years, but we had no other way. We were lucky enough to have been able to find the new guitarist, You Oshima. He released two albums as Kadenzza on Holy Records from France. He definitely brought us the higher level in the guitar playing.

I really love the darker direction "The Forlorn" goes in how does this song represent the exploration of beyond the grave horror the album seems to be taking ? There also seems to be less or the more polka or klezmer movements to this album was this done to create a more somber tone?

 Mirai : Well, I didn't think about polka or klezmer music when I wrote the songs for "Graveward". If you hear Klezmer in it, probably it comes from John Zorn. Dr. Mikannibal and I are a huge admirer of John Zorn works including Masada stuff, so there might be some subconscious influence from his Klezmer works.

There are some weird electronic elements to "the Molesters of My Soul" it almost has an industrial feel to it, are you fans of  industrial or darkwave? 

 Mirai :Yes, I mainly love old industrial / Darkwave stuff such as Laibach, Foetus, Big Black, Goethe's Erben, Das Ich, Dead Relatives, CCC CNC NCN, Coil, Nurse with Wound, Throbbing Gristle etc. But influences of the electronic elements on "The Molesters" rather come from more experimental stuff like Karheinz Stockhausen, Pansonic, Mouse on Mars etc.

Thrash metal is one of the more predominate colors you paint the album with. What thrash albums from the 80s and 90s have been most inspiring to you over the years?

 Mirai :The most inspiring album on Sigh's music must be "Into the Pandemonium" by Celtic Frost.
If I have to pick up the best thrash album, I'd say "Power and Pain" by Whiplash.
Are there any plans to tour in support of "Graveward"? 

 Mirai : We will play at Graspop Metal Meeting in Belgium and then headline for Metal Magic Festival in Denmark with Candlemass and Girlschool. And we will play a few shows here in Japan but that's all planned right now. Now Dr. Mikannibal has a baby so we need to slow down our activity a little bit

"A Messenger From Tomorrow" is a song that really stands out to me. Aside from the slower pace there places where vocals have some really lush textured layers with the more growled providing a counter point. What others roles do you see the harsher vocals taking in you music? 

 Mirai :Harsh vocals and singing ones are two totally different things. Harsh vocals can express something which singing ones cannot and vice versa. For example, if you want to express fear and pain, obviously you have to scream. Also I believe the harsh vocals are strictly connected to English, which is a very rhythmic language. I think music such as thrash metal or hip hop which does not have the clear melody line is a spawn of English.

Some people might not know You guys were at the forefront of the second wave of black metal that came out in the 90s along side bands like Darkthrone. At what point did you feel black metal was too confining for your growth as a musician? What are your thoughts on the current state of black metal? 

 Mirai :To be honest, we never thought like we started as a black metal and soon grew out of it. It's either we're always a black metal band or we never are. It's just a matter of definition of what black metal is. The Second Wave of Black Metal was born more or less as a resurrection of 80s evil thrash metal like Venom, Bathory and Hellhammer which was considered to be completely out of date in the beginning of 90s. In that sense, we had exactly the same intention. Also the word "black metal" does not its musical style any more. All the bands like Emperor, Beherit, Alcest, and Deafheaven are often labeled as black metal but probably people who know nothing about black metal will not be able to find the reason why they all are pigeonholed under the same category. So if we still need to pigeonhole our music style, I'd say it's black metal.
I must admit that I am not a black metal expert. I know EVERYTHING about 80s thrash metal, though. Honestly I have never kept up with black metal even from the early 90s, I'm not the right one to say something about it.

Thanks for allowing me to pick your brain.

Interview: Sannhet

I got the chance to sit down with the guys from Sannhet and we talked about various aspects of the varied sub-genres they are often attached to, along with other musings.Right off the batI hit it off with their drummer Chris who was wearing a Youth Code shirt and I was wearing a Swans shirt so we had one of those mutual admiration band shirt moments and from there we were just friends catching up

Wil -So what is it about the scene in  New York that enables the scene to pump out so much great metal?

Chris -Diversity, the space and room to be yourself, after living there for over a decade all the touristy elements fade, but it's a melting pot.

Wil -What is it that makes New York  the place where most US black metal is being pumped out? 

Chris - It can be depressing.

AJ-It's the chicken stock of the soup, you can taste it in there but there are a lot of other pieces thrown in.

John- There are not in bands that I would say are a hundred percent traditional.

Wil -the closest to that would be Mutilation Rites

John-We are friends with those guys and they don't even consider themselves black metal. There is genre bending, taking the influence. How can you be black metal in New York, you are not in Norway. Not out in Nature with  epic landscapes. There is not much else in common except we do get a lot of snow. I think Liturgy still self identifies as black metal.

Wil -I heard  Bone Thugs N Harmony was influence on their new album.

John- It's Hunter's take on rap metal and I would rather listen to his take on it than Limp Bizkit. To some extent saying your black metal raises suspicion because  then you are trying to ape your heroes. It's like the hardest question is what do you sounds like and most bands in New York just try to names a bunch of bands that they hope you have never heard before.

Wil- To bring up another genres, you guys often get called post- rock and while many post-rock bands have long sprawling songs, where you guys are much more concise and seem to place more of an emphasis on songwriting, so what is your song writing process like?

John- It's changed a lot since the first album. On the first album we were a two piece. Aj joined the band allowed us to build structures, where I used to do a lot of looping and did more of the typical post- rock thing where we would take one idea and build off of it.  Now there is more freedom.

AJ- Some times I wold just have a whole drop box of Chris just beat boxing. So now I might take an Idea and have Chris work around it.  Then we will put something else on top, the go back and edit the revised version.

John- I am more of a rock n roll, post-rock guy and Aj will alternate from writing bass lines that are hooky like post-punk, with more of a pop element, rather than my droning dirges.

AJ- So the songs take on this internal dialogue there are these different elements fighting to be heard.  On the next record we might take a different approach.

Wil -You mentioned post-punk would you say that bands like the Cure and Joy Division are an influence.

John-Yes we love Joy Division, we did a track coming out on Cvlt Nations Joy Divsion tribute comp. We got one of the lesser known songs which surprising for us is one of their more droning songs so ironically it sprawls out more than are normal songs. The more well known Joy Division songs are up beat.

 Chris- The Thing that we have in common with post- punk is there is some some beauty to it and some urgency.

Wil- In black metal aside from Darkthrone's more rock moments and say Emperor, the vocals tend to become a static layer of white noise, so the fact you are instrumental do you find that to more freeing?

John -Yeah, like you said the vocals can be a tonal. it frees up space and is less distracting without vocals. there are those types who just can't listen to anything without vocal, then there are others you get turned off to it if the screaming comes in. I think we try to fill up that space so you don't notice.

AJ- We recorded guitars for three months so if we had vocals when would have had to commit to that story . we have trouble with commitment.

John- With screaming you are pigeon holed as metal.  Then theres Deafheaven where there are people who don't normally listeN to metal that listen to them.

Wil- Do you feel your role in the band is to bring the aggression while John paints the background with more texture?

AJ -I feel like I do a lot of more poppier parts. It's  the sweet to the sour.

John - They are the architects I paint more in broad strokes , they are the scaffolding.

Chris pulls up a Youtube video of Bob Ross painting happy trees.

Wil- There's  the happy trees

AJ- Our trees tend to be more depressing.

Wil- So how do you get your bass tone?

Aj- That is one of my favorite questions ever ,  fender I need to take every thing apart and fuck with it. I got these customs pedals made by this guy Tony Balls who makes these pedals that combine the old rat pedal sound. The  full and throaty sound  comes from mesa zone , so there is that vintage bass sound with a modern eq, without which I would sound like Emmure.

John- Not sure we could ever sound like Emmure.

Wil - You would need more break downs .

John -and I don't know if could palm mute like that.

Wil - You also need to get basket ball jerseys.

 AJ- Sannhet basketball jerseys coming soon, they would  be black on black. Most bass players who want to sound better should just play with a better drummer. It's all me sticking tight to Chris.

Wil- So to bring us another genre you are often attached to...shoe gaze, how has that been an influence?

John- I was into guitar rock then shoe gaze should me what you can do. Rock is about the riffs. Shoe gaze is about the texture. In shoe gaze there is that contrast of light and dark

Chris- That's also in post-punk but with more energy.

John -Also with a band like My Bloody Valentine they can be very visceral  in terms of volume.

Wil-  I think of all the 90s trends shoe gaze deserves the come back much more than grunge. How do you feel about what bands like Nothing and Whirr are doing?

AJ- I love what Nothing does.

John- Deafheaven does it to but from a more avant garde angle. Some of these bands you can't tell if they are from 91 or 92. I like that people can hear that in use and can appreciate those references.

Wil - For me instrumental music has a cinematic feel, are movies and visual arts and influence on you?

John -It is for me.  I like movies that are moody and atmospheric. AJ brings the literal visual element to our shows. I connect to David Lynch be it the scores he does or something like the music from Twin Peaks.

Wil -On "Empty Harbor" there was a jazz like element that reminded me of Twin Peaks.

John- There is that Angelo Badalamenti tone.  Also into things like "Holy Mountain. Did you see "There Will Be Blood?" The soundtrack is like snippets of sirens and that movie is really just a character study. You just learn more about Daniel Day Lewis's character and nothing really happens.

AJ - 'Under the Skin" is another one like that. That is how we see the songs as more of a character study.

John- There is a theater in New York that once once has a night where they play a silent music and have a noise band play to it and they asked us to do one. But it would depend on if we can write something of that length to play for just one night, because we do not improv, that is just not what we do, no jamming, we have to tell a story.

Wil- What are your tour plans ?

John- We are going to do some festivals , hit out west, some short runs that make sense geographically.

AJ- We are playing NXNE, Hopscotch, the Empyrean. Glad Andy Stott asked us to play.

Wil- One thing about your label Flenser is it takes you back to the day when you could by any album by Metal Blade and you knew it would be good. I'm really into that new King Woman.

Chris- Yeah that one is good there is another one that flew under the radar last year Boduf Song's "Stench of Exist". Its dark singer songwriter.

Wil- Like King Dude?

AJ- Less Johnny Cash, more in a register normal people can sing in.

John- Yeah they are really having a great year this year.

Chris- I love Wreck & Reference.

John- But yeah it's like back in the day with Hydra Head

Wil- They put out those early Converge album that made me feel guilty and put down the bong when some one told me they were straight edge. It's like that band Mineral, I stopped listening to them when someone said they were Christian.

AJ- On some message board there was a rumor that we were christian because out name means the truth.

John- We don't have anything against religion.

AJ- I do I am against all organized religion.

John- I suppose if they were Christians then they assumed that since Jesus this their truth it must be ours. But Jesus is not our truth.

Black Metal History Month : Interview : Ritual Butcher of Arch Goat

Your new album The Apocalyptic Triumphator has really set the bar high for metal coming out in 2015. One of the most impressive things about Archgoat is the fact that despite being incredibly heavy, you guys pull this off and still write good songs instead of placing all the focus on the heavy element. What do you attribute this to?

Our whole composing process is guitar-riff orientated and everything builds around the guitar parts. If the guitar riff is good and in company of 4-5 equally good riffs, it is then easy to add tempos with the drums to keep things interesting, but if the guitar part is weak or mediocre the drumming or vocals will not help the situation. We have in the two last recordings really wanted to get a heavy and thick sound because it just works with our hymns. And the drop tuning we use adds even more beef to the whole barrage of sound.

How has the songwriting process changed for you guys over the years?

In the beginning we all participated equally in hymn writing, but I have been taking more and more responsibility than in previous years and now have alone composed all the music from Heavenly Vulva as for The Apocalyptic Triumphator. It is, though, irrelevant who of the members does what, as the band is a band, and not for personal glory but for the glorifying of Lucifer.

photo by Duffi-Graffie

From a production standpoint, each album takes another step toward a sound that is more pristine than the last. What changed in the recording process for The Apocalyptic Triumphator?

Every release is a frozen dissection of that one moment, and every moment differs from the others. We took our time with the sound engineering and mixing and steered the sound toward what we wanted, and the outcome was The Apocalyptic Triumphator as it is. Where we are with our next release I do not know, as the time will then tell us to steer the sound where it needs to be.

There is a death metal grit to your sound.  What death metal bands have been an inspiration to you over the years?

Among the main influences for Archgoat has been Carcass with Reek of Putrefaction, which in my opinion is harsher than most of the so-called cult releases. We really liked the doomy low-tuned sound and the tempo changes, and probably that gave us the idea of doing these tempo changes we are now known for. Also Celtic Frost with their mid-tempos had something going that influenced our way of composing. I think the list would be quite long, but these two would be the obvious biggest influences.

Sonically where do you feel death metal ends and black metal begins?

For me BLACK metal is about philosophy, and music comes second. If the music were more important than the philosophy, that would totally take all the seriousness away from this genre and make it one genre among others where music makes the difference, not your philosophy. BLACK metal is about Satanism and black METAL is about musical wankery. We play BLACK metal for Satan.

What are your thoughts on the current state of black metal?

I am really not too interested about what others do but concentrate on what we do. I killed Archgoatwith Angelslayer due to the scene being ass-raped by new bands with plastic ideology. Now I see things differently and do not even think of us as a band of the scene. We are a band of the scene that there was in 1989 to early ’90s.

How does the Finnish metal scene differ from that of other Northern European countries?

In Finland we have bands like Azazel, Barathrum, and Obscure Burial, who sound more crushing and less melodic than the bands of our fellow countries. It is more evil and pure in my opinion, and more philosophy-driven than musically driven.

Who are some of the occult authors you feel Archgoat’s philosophy resembles?

I would really think that again the list would be very long, but I would encourage you to study the works of Brother Myrmydon from the Cathedral of the Black Goat. He is very genuine and he’s written in way that does not exhaust the reader by being overly complex.

Are there any plans to do a US tour, and what challenges do you face playing the States?

We do not have any challenges about playing in the States other than we need to leave most of our stage stuff home. But then again a wise man settles these things with the promoters in advance, so you get what you need to get. I would just say that now it is too preliminary to say anything, but we are working with people with whom we have great experiences and let’s see if the plan happens or not.