Metal Bulletin Zine #50 Washington state, U.S.

www.metalbulletin.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/pages/The-Metal-Bulletin-paper-zine www.twitter.com/MetalBulletinZn three bands from the state of Washington: Blood and Thunder Northern Bastard Sadistic HelSkag

Barbora Space Vacation Stigmhate

and: Hexe Eye, Wretch, Omnihility, Bloodtruth thrash Necrodeath, Shards of Humanity, Algebra, Game Over, NervoChaos, Foreseen HKI black/death Noctem, Empty, Inferion, Cainan Dawn, Sidious free metal music Strife, Gentry Lord, Skyforest, Avalon Steel, Shattering Ice www.fuglymaniacs.com (issues online, concert videos, interviews, reviews) history of Metal Bulletin Zine #1-20: (2006-2009): Wisconsin #21-26: (2009-2010): Texas #27(2010)-- now; Washington state

— -— metal on the radio/internet (Pacific Time) Metal Shop (Seattle, WA): Saturday 11pm-3am KISW 99.9fm www.kisw.com Sweet Nightmares (Houston, TX): Thursday night 9pm-12am KPFT 90.1 fm www.kpft.org Excuse All the Blood (Olympia, WA): Friday night 11pm-1am www.kaosradio.org — Blood and Thunder Blood and Thunder is a band from Everett/Seattle and they are “symphonic melodic death metal.” Their most recent album is “A Reality in Ruins” from 2013. They also have an EP from 2009, an album called “Dawning of the Ancients” from 2011 and another EP from 2012. Blood and Thunder forges shredding and keyboards with neoclassical metal, with growled vocals (black-ish shrieking) and speedy songs. The band’s music shows that they believe that metal guitar players should have ability and imagination so that each song has an identity. The band names Wintersun and Kalmah, amongst others, as influences, which means an emphasis on quality. www.facebook.com/bloodandthunderband www.reverbnation.com/bloodandthunder Northern Bastard After you hear the music, you’ll want to congratulate this Port Angeles, Washington band for such an appropriate name. Northern Bastard is death/thrash with a full, heavy, clear sound in which the bass is audible, the guitar shreds and the vocals are gruff, and the drummer plays fast, but that man does a lot of grooves, which is very, very unusual in fast metal bands. It’s one thing to play fast thrash or death, but the drummer insists on adding an extra effort to make you remember the songs. Northern Bastard has two songs on Bandcamp for you to hear. www.facebook.com/pages/Northern-Bastard/149054948456711

www.northernbastardmetal.bandcamp.com Sadistic HelSkag On ReverbNation there are several songs of this horrid black metal recorded in a cave somewhere in Friday Harbor in the state of Washington. The members are two humans who are anonymous as Entity 1 and Entity 2. Sadistic HelSkag: ugly music for ugly minds and ugly souls, made especially for you. www.facebook.com/pages/Sadistic-Helskag/312868918895735 www.reverbnation.com/Sadistichelskag Barbora (UK) Barbora’s “Tartarus” EP is prog metal in an Opethian sense. Barbora (the person) plays the guitars, and she also writes the lyrics and music. Barbora seems to be a project at the moment, with help from various friends. If you like to hear young metal with promise, and you are interested in prog influenced by Opeth, look into it at Bandcamp. www.barbora.bandcamp.com www.facebook.com/barborametal Space Vacation (U.S.): Cosmic Vanguard (Pure Steel Records) Traditional heavy metal band Space Vacation must have had it up to here with all the talk about “less is more.” Two-note guitar playing is not a virtue. More talent is better; better riffs is better; greater creativity is better; more talent is more; more is more. Space Vacation tells us something by naming the first song “More is more” in which they criticize the notion that “less is more.” Space Vacation is about singing, riffs, solos, hooks, melodies and catchy songs. Space Vacation wants to know whatever happened to rocking out like Judas Priest, Thin Lizzy, Iron Maiden and Scorpions? Remember when heavy metal was young and fun? Now bands seem more interested showing how “angry” they are. Does nobody want to rock out anymore? Space Vacation wants to know.

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If you like the idea of a band dedicating time to learning how to play guitar, to devoting time to solos and riffs, to a singer that wants to sing well and sound good, to having metal songs that you can remember after the music stops playing, then consider Space Vacation, for whom talent, skill, dedication, creativity and memorable songs are important things. www.facebook.com/spacevacationmusic www.puresteel-records.com Hexe Eye (Guatemala) This publication does not have much information about Hexe Eye, but what is for sure is that the music should be interesting for those that support up-and-coming metal bands, and in this case it is a death/thrash band from Guatemala.

The band has what appear to be demo recordings that you can hear on Facebook and YouTube. Anyway, it’s difficult to keep a metal band together, regardless of where you live. It’s not easy to keep together an extreme metal band, and it’s probably harder to do it in Guatemala. Maybe this is only the beginning of Hexe Eye? www.facebook.com/hexeband Wretch: Warriors (Pure Steel Records) Wretch embodies traditional heavy metal and represents what heavy metal lifers are about. Supporters of this style know that a band like Wretch will never be the darling of the metal media. Wretch does not wear attention-seeking gimmicky clothing; they don't wear

masks or makeup to impress the impressionable people and the sensationalist, gossip-driven mud-slinging metal publications.

Why do people listen to Wretch? The fundamental reason is because you like traditional heavy metal played by grownups. Maybe you’ve had enough of the nonsense and tomfoolery of the gossip in metal, of the fashion games, of the constant dirty-laundry self-prostitution and trend-jumping that metal bands do. Wretch plays music out of love for metal. Wretch is headbanging metal with hooks. Every song sounds like the band has worked on it to make it meet the album’s standards of quality. Maybe you like bands like Savatage and Armored Saint? Perhaps you’re into Jag Panzer and the latter-day Metal Church sounds? It could be that you follow traditional metal from Europe and other places where these sounds are more appreciated. Whatever it is, Wretch is a traditional heavy metal band from the state of Ohio, U.S. and this band plays its heart out on the album. Expect non-poppy/non-happy uptempo/midtempo grit/street heavy metal. www.facebook.com/WRETCHMETAL www.puresteel-records.com Omnihility (U.S.): Deathscapes of the Subconcious The state of Oregon, U.S. has been getting the reputation for lots of stoner and doom music, as well as bands that do much to sustain the reputation of weirdness by jacking up punk rock with grind with drone with space rock with whale lunar waves rock and many other

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things. Those bands certainly enjoy mixing genres and confusing everyone while entertaining their audiences.

Is there room in Oregon for Omnihility? Does high-speed blasting tech-metal that blinds with precision and dexterity, does that count as part of the Oregon weirdness? Back in 2010 Omnihility was just getting its name out there as a brand new entry into the world of Origin-style tech-metal. In 2012 the band had the album “Biogenesis” and in 2014 they have this new one “Deathscapes of the Subconscious.”

Omnihility is not so much tech-metal as it is music made for the future cyborgs that will rule the planet. The cyborgs will think of Omnihility as classic music when a few humans were starting to sharpen up the music to the level of speed and technicality that the machines consider “normal.” Most humans cannot keep up with these sounds because it sounds like a blur to them, but to the cyborg these songs are comprehensible: inhuman speed in drumming; wrist-breaking finger work on the guitar and monster vocals that no one can understand (when the vocalist forgets his/its lines, he/it just goes: “waarrghhhroarrrr” and it’s all good). Omnihility itself is a bunch of cyborg disguised as humans. Omnihility could be the ambassadors preparing the territory for the upcoming cyborg takeover. This is what you listen to when you are tired of human music and all of its nonsense: play melodies because the humans like

melodies; play slow because the humans are not too smart.

Well, you know what, humans? Your time is finished and the cyborgs don’t care about your low standards. Keep up with the blazing speed or make way for the future. You are not needed here. Omnihility has arrived. Get down with the future or get out of the present. www.uniqueleader.com www.facebook.com/omnihility Bloodtruth (Italy): Obedience Some people say ridiculous things like: “I don’t like bands that play tech-metal because those bands do not play with any feeling.” What is that supposed to mean, anyway? Is it an excuse for being a slowpoke that cannot keep up with inhuman speed and arthritis-causing musicianship? Everyone in Bloodtruth will end up with arthritis or tendonitis or carpel tunnel syndrome or something like it. “Obedience” is the 2014 debut by Bloodtruth, tech-metal freaks from Italy that started in 2009. What a debut it is! A thousand riffs packed into a few minutes, a growler that sounds like a crazed bear running down the street knocking down all the trashcans, and a drummer who will need some serious pain medication after playing these songs. Bloodtruth uses a bit of “monk chanting,” but they need to use it more as part of their songs because it gives them something that is a bit unique. Sometimes the band uses the chanting as an intro, but on a song like “Suppurating of Deception” they actually use it as part of the song, in the background, and this is when it works the best because it is an integral part of the sound, not just a side element. Bloodtruth has hit upon something a bit different within the realm of superhyperultra fast blasting tech-metal. Good work. www.uniqueleader.com www.facebook.com/pages/Bloodtruth/205949072801419

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thrash This little section is for those that find that there is no such thing as too much thrash. Necrodeath (Italy): The 7 Deadly Sins Necrodeath started in 1985 and these veterans have a long history in thrash. On this 2014 album the band balances the speed and simplicity of thrash, with a bit of melody and a bit of tempo changes, too.

Everyone in this band has lots of experience, so you don’t have to worry about professionalism and sound quality. The sound is mostly direct “old school thrash,” with a bit of the modern sound. In 2014 Necrodeath keeps thrashing, fast, with a bit of melody. www.facebook.com/necrodeath.official www.scarletrecords.it Shards of Humanity (U.S.): Fractured Frequencies Frequencies Shards of Humanity is thrash/death along the lines of Sepultura’s “Beneath the Remains,” but perhaps the pace of this band is tighter, faster. The vocals are semi-growled, not too death-ish. The drummer makes sure to keep it intense and fast, and the guitars are all about big riffs and shredding. Shards of Humanity is a more modern of form of thrash, you could say. Expect tight execution, a bit on the technical side of thrash. www.facebook.com/SHARDSOFHUMANITY www.unspeakableaxerecords.com

Algebra (Switzerland): Feed the Ego Algebra plays a technical form of thrash, with vocals reminiscent of early 90s Sepultura, perhaps the intensity/complexity of technical-thrash-era Coroner, and huge riffs to make thrashers feel the music. Algebra’s combination makes it a unique form of thrash, though: technical, uptempo and serious. This is not “party thrash.” This 2014 album sounds vibrant and detailed. A success. www.facebook.com/Algebrathrash www.unspeakableaxerecords.com Game Over (Italy): Burst into the Quiet; For Humanity Game Over’s “Burst into the Quiet” is the 2014 album and “For Humanity” is from 2012. Of course, the band’s name comes from the Nuclear Assault album and the band’s logo is in the style of Nuclear Assault. Game Over concentrates on classic-style riffs, speed, shredding and gangshouts. Nobody wants Game Over to slow down and the band aims to please. The 2012 album is no different, thrash and speed all the way. The glory days of thrash were not just the 80s if you listen to this band: this is now and this is classic-style thrash. www.facebook.com/GameOverThrashMetal www.scarletrecords.it NervoChaos (Brazil): The Art of Revenge NervoChaos is shamelessly mosh-inducing thrash/death. This is probably as perfect as an album can get for causing mass mosh pits. This riffing is practically made to make a thrash and death metal fanatic jump of out her or his seat and start a pit. NervoChaos makes songs to play metal live and instigate a physical reaction. In some ways you could say that they take the best of early 90s thrash in the guitar sound, that chunky, groove-laden sound somewhere around the neighborhood of Slayer/Sepultura/Pantera: direct-impact

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and to-the-point riffs. www.facebook.com/NervoChaos www.greyhazerecords.com Foreseen HKI (Finland): Helsinki Savagery You know how Finland has a reputation for melodic, symphonic and sad bands? Foreseen is here to change all that. These gutter punk hardcore thrashers make people in Helsinki run away in horror. Foreseen is rude, barbarian, angry, disgusting and violent by day, and smelly, sweaty, criminal and violent by night. They are up all day, and up all night; dirty punks playing a dirty form of thrash. Really, Foreseen barely knows how to play two chords, but they play fast and they are angry about Finland’s reputation or just angry because it’s frickin freezing in Finland, Mr. Bigglesworth. Recommended if you like thrash to be urban, street, angry and fast. www.facebook.com/Foreseen www.foreseen.bandcamp.com www.20buckspin.com

death/black Noctem (Spain): Exilium Noctem’s been around since 2001 and the 2014 album sees the band forge a path that followers of Belphegor, Negator and Behemoth would appreciate. Fast, blasting with a clinically perfect production that goes for fireworks, loudness and “brutality,” the kind of album that uses the template set by Behemoth’s “Demigod” and by Belphegor’s “Bondage Goat Zombie” that sounds like Deicide playing black metal.

Noctem wants perfection in studio technology and if you do, too, give them a listen. www.prostheticrecords.com www.facebook.com/noctemofficial Stigmhate (Italy): Zodacare Od Zodameranu Push “play” on this album by Stigmhate and hear it go nonstop blastattack Belphegor-style black/death for some 48 minutes. This band plans in a detailed way the black and death parts, the riffs alternate between the styles, and with this approach could play live with black metal bands or with death metal bands, as long as the audience is into fast, aggressive metal music. Stigmhate works with modern technology for a sound of perfection in speed and sound. Recommended for Belphegor devotees. www.facebook.com/stigmhate www.bakerteamrecords.com Empty (Spain): Etica Profana Negativa Empty’s black metal straddles the line between In-the-Nightside-Eclipse-era Emperor and depressive, alienating black metal. “What is it about Empty that sounds so unapproachably monolithic and even alienating?” It is elitist black metal in the sense that Empty constructs the songs designed to be no cheap melodies, no catchy this or catchy that. It is a mountain of dense fog. They do a wonderful job of sounding nihilistic and unfriendly to the ear. Come for the negativism and pessimism. Stay for the nihilism. This band has been active since 1995, with a

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total of four full-length albums, including this one. Expertly nihilistic and depressive professional album. www.facebook.com/pages/Empty/178245985566026 www.emptynegative.bandcamp.com www.osmoseproductions.com Inferion (U.S.): This Will Decay Inferion from Florida, U.S. has been around since 1995 and has three full-length albums, including this one, and some three EPs and some splits and demos, starting in 1998. This 2014 album has 14 songs in more than 55 minutes of “extreme metal” modern black/death guitar-centered riff attack. Equal parts “grim,” “brutal,” and “melodic.” Inferion is in-your-face-guitar “extreme metal” with the philosophy of not wasting time with overly long songs. It looks like for a long time Inferion has done recordings independently, but this one is on Horror Pain Gore Death Productions. Anyway, Inferion adds a bit of melody in the riffs, but overall the music, including the vocals, remain aggressive. Metal Archives says that Inferion main man Nick Reyes has been in lots of Miami bands, so it’s likely that in the Florida bar/club metal scene people know of this local band already. www.horrorpaingoredeath.com www.facebook.com/pages/Inferion/121467614565453 www.inferion.bandcamp.com Cainan Dawn (France): Thavmial Cainan Dawn’s “Thavmial” is from 2014 on Osmose Productions. “Thavmial” is black metal that avoids cheap/expected hooks, melody and memorable parts at all costs. It is made to alienate and keep a distance between the band and the listener with a sound that is unapproachable, making sure to keep away certain unwanted people. Cainan Dawn does not play black metal by the rules of connecting with the listener. They know 99%

of metal people won’t understand this sound. That’s fine. Look into this band only if you are in the small minority of people that searches abstruse black metal for the initiated: “cold,” “distant,” “unfriendly,” and “uncatchy” elitist black metal sounds. This band is not going to beg you to give them a like or thumbs up or whatever else garbage it is that some people want. This is what abstruse black metal is. www.facebook.com/cainandawn www.osmoseproductions.com Sidious (U.K.): Revealed in Profane Splendour Sidious has a simple plan: conquest of the “extreme metal” world. The winner takes it all and Sidious is out to be the winner of the competition. The benchmark that the band has set for itself seems to be the major successes of “extreme metal,” such as Dimmu Borgir’s “Death Cult Armageddon” (2003) and Behemoth’s “Demigod” (2004). You know, the albums that made waves. Perhaps more accurately, Sidious is “modern, glossy symphonic extreme metal,” with growled vocals and blasting speed, but balanced out with some melodic singing or slower, atmospheric moments. Sidious is meant to be fast and heavy, grandiose and “brutal,” but also memorable. This band wants the audience, especially the modern death metal and modern black metal public to get into the music. Sidious wants it all: the big production, the perfect sound, the heavy songs and the melodic parts, too; and they want you. Sidious is the definition of “extreme metal” today. They had an EP in 2013, and now they have arrived with the album, demonstrating that they are ready to take all the chips and to leave the losers with nothing. Recommended to followers of Behemoth, Dimmu Borgir, Cradle of Filth and similar sounds. www.kaotoxin.com www.facebook.com/sidiousofficial

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FREE METAL MUSIC Here are some free/name-your-price metal recordings. They are free, as of January 21, 2015, when last checked on Bandcamp. Let’s find out what there is. Strife (U.S) Strife is atmospheric, cave black metal from Wisconsin, U.S. The demonic gremlin vocals and lo-fi aesthetics characterize Strife as a gruesome landscape of nihilism. This one is for those into necrodepressive and atmospheric grim black metal. www.strifewisconsin.bandcamp.com/releases Gentry Lord (Finland) Gentry Lord is something like a crazier King Diamond/horror metal one-person project. Part circus animal party, part horror metal, part weirdo space alien heavy/speed/shred metal, Gentry Lord is for those that purposely look for strange metal sounds. It sounds like metal music for Halloween, but for Gentry Lord every day is Halloween. The vocals are crazy nuts, the playing is insane and this is all by one person. Do you know how to spell “dedication to space horror metal”? Spell it G-E-N-T-R-Y L-O-R-D. www.gentrylord.bandcamp.com www.facebook.com/officialgentrylord Skyforest (Russia) This album sounds a like quality and professional recording. Skyforest is atmospheric/symphonic metal with shrieked vocals, the majority of the time. Some people call it “post-black metal.” At any rate, there are some melodic singing segments, and the music would probably go over well with the listeners into “post-metal” like Agalloch and Falloch maybe. www.skyforest.bandcamp.com/releases www.facebook.com/Skyforest.Official

Avalon Steel (U.S.) Avalon Steel is traditional heavy metal from North Carolina, U.S. In short, if you want to hear heavy metal with zero or very little of core/growl/trends, then look into this band because their songs are an allegiance to heavy metal, and nothing else. www.avalonsteel.bandcamp.com www.facebook.com/pages/Avalon-Steel/235838804822?fref=ts Shatttering Ice (Denmark) Shattering Ice is lo-fi necrodepressive black metal exclusively for listeners into this very specialized form of black metal. This is a one-person project and the objective is “grimness,” general ugliness of the soul, and the sounds of angerfrustrationloneliness hatred. www.shatteringice.bandcamp.com www.facebook.com/ShatteringIce January 22, 2015