        ___  _                   _       _                 ___
       |  _>| |_  _ _  ___ ._ _ <_> ___ | | ___  ___  ___ | | '
       | <__| . || '_>/ . \| ' || |/ | '| |/ ._><_-< / . \| |-
       `___/|_|_||_|  \___/|_|_||_|\_|_.|_|\___./__/ \___/|_|

                        ___  _
                       |  _>| |_  ___  ___  ___
                       | <__| . |<_> |/ . \<_-<
                       `___/|_|_|<___|\___//__/


         CHRONICLES OF CHAOS e-Zine, July 7, 1999, Issue #41
               http://www.interlog.com/~ginof/coc.html

Editor-in-Chief: Gino Filicetti <mailto:ginof@interlog.com>
Coordinator: Adrian Bromley <mailto:energizr@interlog.com>
Contributor/Copy Editor: Pedro Azevedo <mailto:ei94048@fe.up.pt>
Contributor/Asst. Copy Editor: Paul Schwarz <mailto:saul@cwcom.net>
Assistant Copy Editor: John Weathers <mailto:anguish@mindspring.com>
Contributor: Alain M. Gaudrault <mailto:alain@gaudrault.net>
Contributor: Brian Meloon <mailto:bmeloon@math.cornell.edu>
Contributor: Adam Wasylyk <mailto:macabre@interlog.com>
Contributor: Aaron McKay <mailto:aaronm@trxinc.com>
Contributor: David Rocher <mailto:el_rojo@dial.oleane.com>
Contributor: Gabriel Sanchez <mailto:mwnoise@yahoo.com>
Contributor: Alex Cantwell <mailto:alex@netmdc.com>

NOTE: For  more  Chronicles  of  Chaos  information,  check  out  the
      'Details' section at the end of this issue.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Issue #41 Contents, 7/7/99
--------------------------
* Loud Letters
* Deadly Dialogues
-- Hypocrisy: The Hypocrite's Arising Realm
-- Arch Enemy: Arched Bridges Beware
-- Testament: A Testament to Longevity
-- Immolation: Incinerating Yourself to Live
-- Extol: Anointed for Burial
-- Diabolic: Florida's Newest Blasphemy
-- Mordecai: With Summer's Entrance, Frost Is Banished
* Album Asylum
-- Agalloch - _Pale Folklore_
-- Amsvartner - _Dreams_
-- Anathema - _Judgement_
-- Arch Enemy - _Burning Bridges_
-- Carpe Tenebrum - _Mirrored Hate Painting_
-- Dark Tranquillity - _Projector_
-- Dawn of Relic - _One Night in Carcosa_
-- Various - _Death... Is Just the Beginning 5_
-- Dreams of Sanity - _Masquerade_
-- Enthroned - _The Apocalypse Manifesto_
-- Eternal Tears of Sorrow - _Vilda Mannu_
-- Forgive Me Not - _Tearfall_
-- God Dethroned - _Bloody Blasphemy_
-- Godflesh - _Us and Them_
-- Hypocrisy - _Hypocrisy_
-- Immolation - _Failures for Gods_
-- Internal Bleeding - _Driven to Conquer_
-- Killer Khan - _Kill Devil Hills_
-- Konkhra - _The Freakshow EP_
-- Lacuna Coil - _In a Reverie_
-- Merauder - _Five Deadly Venoms_
-- Mistigo Varggoth Darkestra - _The Key to the Gates of Apocalypses_
-- No Innocent Victim - _Flesh and Blood_
-- Obtained Enslavement - _Soulblight_
-- October Tide - _Grey Dawn_
-- Sadistik Exekution - _K.A.O.S._
-- Sinergy - _Beware the Heavens_
-- Six Feet Under - _Maximum Violence_
-- Slipknot - _Slipknot_
-- Solus - _Universal Bloodshed_
-- Spitfire - _The Dead Next Door_
-- Stormtroopers of Death - _Bigger Than the Devil_
-- Vesperian Sorrow - _Beyond the Cursed Eclipse_
-- Vinnie Moore - _The Maze_
* New Noise
-- Blind Slime - _Hating Again..._
-- G.F.P.M. - _Demo 1_
* What We Have Cranked
* Details

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

                 M""MMMMMMMM                         dP
                 M  MMMMMMMM                         88
                 M  MMMMMMMM .d8888b. dP    dP .d888b88
                 M  MMMMMMMM 88'  `88 88    88 88'  `88
                 M  MMMMMMMM 88.  .88 88.  .88 88.  .88
                 M         M `88888P' `88888P' `88888P8
                 MMMMMMMMMMM

     M""MMMMMMMM            dP     dP
     M  MMMMMMMM            88     88
     M  MMMMMMMM .d8888b. d8888P d8888P .d8888b. 88d888b. .d8888b.
     M  MMMMMMMM 88ooood8   88     88   88ooood8 88'  `88 Y8ooooo.
     M  MMMMMMMM 88.  ...   88     88   88.  ... 88             88
     M         M `88888P'   dP     dP   `88888P' dP       `88888P'
     MMMMMMMMMMM

This is the column where we print those lovely  letters  our  readers
decide so graciously to write us. Whether they be positive, negative,
ignorant or just plain spelled  wrong,  you  can  rest  assured  that
they'll be here in their original form. If you'd like to see your own
letter here,  e-mail  it  to  <mailto:ginof@interlog.com>  and  enter
'Attention Loud Letters' in the subject field. Hopefully all  letters
received will be featured in upcoming issues of Chronicles of Chaos.


Date: Fri, 11 Jun 1999
From: gutterBoy <we3kings@rtd.com>
Subject: Attention Loud Letters

First of, CoC is a great source of information and  is  intelligently
written. I always enjoy reading it and use it as a reference often.

The reason I am writing  is  to  comment  on  a  your  treatement  of
releases by bands who embrace Christianity. It seems  like  virtually
every one of them is reviewed by  Alex  Cantwell.  I  am  not  saying
anything about his writing style, it's fine. I am just wondering  why
he is the only one reviewing these bands. I wonder if  everyone  else
is scared of these bands or feels they would not give a  fair  review
based on their opinion of the beliefs of the bands. A second  concern
I have is in the realm of ethics. If Alex is perceived  as  having  a
bias FOR these bands, then the validity of  these  reviews  may  come
into question.

In the end it's your 'zine (obviously) and you can do what you  want.
CoC is still very good, and I am thankful for the reviews by Alex and
everyone else, that is just something I noticed.


chris


Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1999
From: Philip Hinkle <infernal@texas.net>
Subject: Attension Loud Letters

Everyone at COC,

I've been reading your e-zine for a few years now, and I have to  say
I have enjoyed it more times than not. I love the small,  underground
aspect of it. In fact, it has inspired me to start my own  web  site,
Burn the Sun, dedicated to nothing but Heavy Metal! It's  about  half
done, but is up and  running.  I  have  news,  reviews,  and  various
amounts of info. It's a one man show,  but  I  try  to  update  every
Sunday. I just want to invite all at COC and their  readers  to  come
and check out my site! The more places to  find  Heavy  Meta  on  the
netl, the better! Check me out at www.burnthesun.com

Burn the Sun--Black, Death, Extreme, and just plain Heavy Metal!

Of course feed back both positive and negative is welcome!

Thanks and keep up the good work!

Heavy Metal is the Law!
Phil Hinkle

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

       __ \                 | |
       |   |  _ \  _` |  _` | | |   |
       |   |  __/ (   | (   | | |   |
      ____/ \___|\__,_|\__,_|_|\__, |
                               ____/

                 __ \ _)       |
                 |   | |  _` | |  _ \   _` | |   |  _ \  __|
                 |   | | (   | | (   | (   | |   |  __/\__ \
                ____/ _|\__,_|_|\___/ \__, |\__,_|\___|____/
                                      |___/


      T H E   H Y P O C R I T E ' S   A R I S I N G   R E A L M
      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
              CoC chats with Hypocrisy's Peter Tagtgren
                           by: David Rocher

     For the release of their self-titled sixth  masterpiece,  I  was
lucky  enough  to  be  granted  a  chance  to  interview  Hypocrisy's
workaholic mastermind Peter Tagtgren. With their definitely exemplary
career never ceasing to unfold before  them,  this  three-piece  have
indeed attained a status which makes them one of the most influential
acts in  the  death  metal  world,  and  that  makes  the  definitely
enlightened and unbelievably modest Peter Tagtgren a figure  to  whom
the entire extreme scene can well and truly  afford  to  raise  their
ale-horns.

CoC: I think a lot has gone on with Hypocrisy since  the  release  of
     _The Final Chapter_... Can you enlighten me a bit as to this?

Peter Tagtgren: Yeah, it actually became chaos for a  while,  because
                we were supposed to quit, or at least I was  supposed
                to do my own thing for a while --  you  know,  no-one
                was helping out and so on... But  everything  changed
                for the better. A lot of fans reacted  very  strongly
                to the fact that I wanted to quit, and  it  was  very
                flattering  --  the  response  to   the   album   and
                everything was unbelievable!

CoC: Hypocrisy was indeed known for a while for being Peter  Tagtgren
     plus Lars Szoke and Michael  Hedlund;  on  _The  Final  Chapter_
     there were tracks written by Lars and Michael, so  I'd  like  to
     know how things are going now.

PT: It's very cool, we wrote like seven or eight songs each for  this
    album over a period of one year and a half, and then we just  sat
    down and chose the best ones. There were over  twenty  songs,  it
    was really cool to be able to do that, because usually  you  only
    write the songs that are going to be on the album and  you  don't
    choose, because if you choose, the album will be  too  short.  So
    this time we had like maybe two hours of music, and it felt  very
    good having that much -- because you can then choose the ten best
    songs out of them, you know?

CoC: Sure -- and what are you going to do with the other tracks?  Are
     you going to release the others, or work more on them  and  make
     them better?

PT: Maybe we'll work on a few of them and  rearrange  them  a  little
    bit, but right now I have no idea.

CoC:  Your  new   album   seems   to   venture   further   into   the
     extra-terrestrial life concept that begun with _Abducted_.  What
     brought Hypocrisy to this, initially?

PT: I don't know, just my imagination, I guess,  since  I  write  the
    lyrics and stuff... I've always been into it since I was a kid, I
    was always afraid of  it  when  I  was  a  child,  but  still  it
    fascinated me a lot, and I was thinking "Why not write about it?".

CoC: What does the cover art of _Hypocrisy_ represent?

PT: To be honest, I have no idea, because we just talked to this  guy
    who wanted to do the cover, and we told him "Just make  it  nice,
    we  want  a  good  quality  cover,  and  if  you  can  put   some
    science-fiction kind of feeling into it, that's cool"  --  and  I
    think he did it really well.

CoC: Do you think you're slowly edging towards  a  personal  kind  of
     science-fiction influenced death metal?

PT: Yeah, maybe; I don't know. We just write music,  and  if  we  can
    come up with some crazy ideas, that's cool, you know?

CoC: It seems this drive has completely replaced the Satanic attitude
     demonstrated on your early albums, and even on  some  tracks  of
     _Abducted_ -- how do you feel when you look back on your earlier
     lyrics?

PT: Well, I'm proud of them, sure.  That's  how  my  personality  was
    then, and this is how it is today, you  know;  I  don't  want  to
    change or regret anything that I ever wrote or said, I just  wish
    we could have played better and  had  better  production  on  the
    first albums, but I'm still very proud of them.

CoC: Actually, I'd like to have your opinion on your various albums...

PT: Well, the first one, _Penetralia_, I totally wrote by myself, and
    I was very influenced by Deicide, Morbid  Angel  and  stuff  like
    that. When I heard the first Deicide album, my  life  changed  --
    there aren't many albums that'll do that nowadays, albums that'll
    change your lifestyle and everything. The album was  pretty  much
    done in a short run after we got signed. For the second  one,  we
    started writing together a bit more, but it was still  a  lot  of
    me. We'd said that we wanted to do the most  brutal  album  ever,
    and _Osculum Obscenum_ was really brutal, I think. We tuned  down
    more, we played faster, it was just all into getting as brutal as
    possible. On _The Fourth Dimension_, it was more like "let's  try
    something new" -- well, on the other hand,  we  weren't  actually
    trying something new, but we were writing these songs,  and  they
    came out different from the past. It was a very cool thing to do,
    we went to a very big studio, because we were able to do  that...
    and I think the production on _The Fourth Dimension_ is the worst
    of any album. _Abducted_, we worked very hard on, we recorded  it
    once, we didn't think four songs were good enough,  so  we  threw
    them away, and wrote new songs, and we kept  on  doing  that  for
    half a year, between the various recording and all. In  the  end,
    there are maybe a couple of songs too  many,  but  I  think  that
    overall the album is good, and it has a very  nice  and  polished
    sound. And then, when we did _The Final Chapter_, we said  "Let's
    make it with a dirtier sound and make it more rock", but we still
    continued mixing music the way we did [before], fast with  slower
    and mid-tempo parts -- there are actually a lot of fast parts  on
    that album. What I wanted to do with that album was work  on  the
    vocals, try to put in some new kind of styles for me and get  the
    melodies out, and on the newest album we did  it  even  more,  we
    stretched our limits a bit more, I think.

CoC: I noticed  that  the  latest  album  contains  more  atmospheric
     tracks, mid-paced with keys and a lot of atmosphere --  is  this
     something we can expect from Hypocrisy in future?

PT: I don't know, it's hard to say. We don't know ourselves where  we
    are  going,  so  I  don't  want  to  say  anything.  We  are   so
    unpredictable to ourselves, it all depends on how we feel on that
    day...

CoC: Something that I noticed on _The Fourth Dimension_ is there were
     maybe less Satanic tracks and more tracks that talked about  the
     fear of death, and it had a very  claustrophobic  cover  --  was
     this a preoccupation of yours at the time?

PT: Yeah, I think it was the way I was feeling at the time,  kind  of
    claustrophobic, and I guess you can tell in certain songs...

CoC: Like the title track, "The Fourth Dimension",  which  is  really
     choking?

PT: Yeah, exactly. You never plan anything, though, the way you  feel
    just rubs off you.

CoC: I guess your musical influences have changed a bit in the  space
     of six  albums  --  you  mentioned  Deicide,  Morbid  Angel  and
     Malevolent Creation for _Penetralia_, so what are you into now?

PT: It's pretty much the same, but it feels like I already wrote  it,
    so now it's time to do something else, so it's a lot of different
    inputs -- so I have Depeche Mode's _Ultra_ album as  a  favourite
    right now, but I also have the first Deicide album,  so  I  mean,
    everything in between.

CoC: The track "Timewarp" on the latest album sounds pretty much like
     a track from the first Pain album... What's happening with Pain
     now?

PT: Right now, I'm working on the album and it looks like it's  going
    to come out on Polygram, so I have no idea about what's going  to
    happen, but it's looking real good, they really want to push  the
    album.

CoC: What's it going to sound like, anything like your first album?

PT: No, this  will  be  totally  different,  it  will  be  more  into
    industrial and techno, and sounds like that, it'll be  more  like
    Rammstein, Rob Zombie and  stuff  like  that,  clean  vocals  and
    screaming vocals...

CoC: What about your other side-projects? What's with The Abyss, War,
     etc.?

PT: War was just one mini-album to me [_Total War_, out on Necropolis
    -- David] and The  Abyss,  we  were  like  sitting  around  after
    _Summon the Beast_ and thinking "We can't do as brutal  an  album
    any more", so we  won't  do  it  --  it's  stupid  to  try  doing
    something when you know you can't do better.

CoC: You were drumming for Sorhin, too...

PT: That was a long time ago, their drummer just left two days before
    entering the studio, so...

CoC: <awed> You learned all the tracks in two days?!

PT: Yeah, I had to! <laughs> And I had a call last year  in  October,
    and it was Nick from Cradle of Filth  [now  in  Dimmu  Borgir  --
    David], and he was like, "Hey, do you want to  sing  on  the  new
    Terrorizer  album,  except  it's   not   going   to   be   called
    Terrorizer?!" I said "Sure!", you know, it's him, Shane and Jesse
    from Napalm Death...

CoC: Brilliant!

PT: Yeah, it's called Lockup, and they came  over  to  my  studio  in
    February, and I put the vocals on it, and it sounds really  cool,
    if you're into Terrorizer and old Napalm Death! So that one  will
    also be cool, but I only spent two days on it, they spent  a  lot
    of time writing and recording stuff. It  was  really  cool,  they
    wrote the lyrics and everything, so I just had to put the  vocals
    on...

CoC: Your studios are  getting  massive  praise,  you  recently  even
     converted Enslaved and Immortal, and Marduk  don't  want  to  go
     anywhere else than The Abyss. How did the sessions with Immortal
     and Enslaved go, since it was near to the first time  they  were
     venturing out of the Grieghallen?

PT: Yeah, I was very excited, and I didn't know what to  expect  from
    Immortal, because I'd never known them before. It just turned  up
    they were super cool guys, very easy to work with and all, and  I
    was very surprised, and I was very happy  with  final  mix.  It's
    very clean, nice and powerful.

CoC: And Enslaved?

PT: Well, I knew Ivar from going on tour with Marduk, he was  helping
    Mysticum out with the computers. They're also really cool to work
    with, we tried to do something a little  different,  and  it  was
    really great, for sure!

CoC: What are the next scheduled productions?

PT: Mayhem, and then I will do Borknagar, Old Man's Child,  and  then
    Immortal are coming back, and I  think  I'll  also  do  the  next
    Enslaved. It will be very nice to know all these bands are lining
    up!

CoC: It seems you're reaching the same  kind  of  "legendary"  status
     with your band, projects and studios as Dan Swano did -- how  do
     you feel about this?

PT: It feels great, it's a dream come true, to have  this  situation,
    it's really... <laughs>

CoC:  I  read  a  while  ago  that  you  had  another  studio   under
     construction....

PT: Yeah, I have three studios, and my brother  works  in  the  other
    one, and the third one is a smaller one in which I can go and lay
    down some ideas if I want.

CoC: What bands would you ultimately like to record one day?

PT: I think Rammstein would be super killer, for sure. It's different
    from what I've been doing, and you always need  different  things
    to make it interesting, and that'll give you  something  when  it
    comes to inspiration and things like that. If you do  five  black
    metal bands in a row, it will be very hard to be creative.

CoC: What are the tour prospects and  general  future  prospects  for
     Hypocrisy?

PT: We will do a lot of festivals this Summer, and a two-week tour in
    September, and then we're not going to rush anything --  I  guess
    we'll just take it easy, see if anything else comes up, and start
    thinking about the next album...

CoC: Last words?

PT: I just hope to see you when we eventually get over to France,  we
    haven't been there since '96, I think...

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

              A R C H E D   B R I D G E S   B E W A R E
              ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                CoC talks to Mike Amott of Arch Enemy
                           by: Paul Schwarz

     I have to be honest, after Arch Enemy's  debut,  _Black  Earth_,
was appraised so highly and near-universally by metal music  critics,
I was expecting it  to  light  my  fire  considerably  more  than  it
ultimately  did.  It  is  a  damn  good  record  and  its  focus   on
incorporating more melody into a _Heartwork_-era Carcass  type  sound
works well for it. When _Stigmata_  [CoC  #32],  the  band's  Century
Media debut, appeared around the middle of last  year,  I  was  again
gratified and disappointed at the same time.  Though  _Stigmata_  was
more progressive yet still heavy, it lacked some of the  vitriol  and
crispness of _Black Earth_ and ultimately wasn't  the  record  I  had
hoped for. Why am I so fiercely critical  of  Arch  Enemy?  I  am  so
fiercely critical of Arch Enemy because the band line-up consists  of
some of the most brilliant and respected  musicians  of  the  Swedish
death metal scene. Johan Liiva's incredible vocals graced such  works
of mastery as  Furbowl's  _Those  Shredded  Dreams_,  drummer  Daniel
Erlandson has  provided  the  pounding  rhythms  for  In  Flames  and
Eucharist recordings, Christopher Amott's skills are amply  displayed
on Arch Enemy's records and in his own Armageddon project,  and  Mike
Amott was the second guitarist  in  Carcass,  probably  my  favourite
death metal band, on their two best albums,  along  with  helping  to
create Carnage's _Dark Recollections_ and playing in Candlemass.  So,
to cut a long story shorter, my expectations of this  band  are  very
high, maybe unfairly high, but that's the way it is.
     Late last month I got _Burning Bridges_, the latest  Arch  Enemy
album (which features the talents of  Sharlee  D'Angelo  of  Mercyful
Fate / Witchery in addition to the above participators). It would  be
an understatement to merely say "they have not disappointed  me  with
their  third  offering".  Featuring  less  of  the  more  extravagant
progressive-styled adventures of _Stigmata_ and a little more of  the
pummelling riff-assault of _Black Earth_, Arch Enemy's second release
for Century Media cuts a line between the two sounds Arch Enemy  have
tried in the past and is their most satisfying  record  yet.  On  the
line from the band's studio in Sweden, Mike Amott tells me about  how
things around  _Burning  Bridges_  shaped  up,  and  in  general  his
attitude to Arch Enemy  and  his  other  project  Spiritual  Beggars.
Through dud phone connections and a temperamental dictaphone, this is
what transpired.

CoC: You've played in a couple of seminal death metal bands,  Carnage
     and Carcass; do you feel a duty to evolve the style in your work
     in Arch Enemy?

Mike Amott: Well, I don't feel... It's not my responsibility, really,
            I just play whatever I find interesting. I  think  it  is
            just natural that it kind of evolves, the sound. It's not
            something that I think about too much, like in Arch Enemy
            there's a lot of influences that aren't strictly death
            metal.

[At this point my phone cuts off and I have to call Mike again.]

CoC: You were saying you don't necessarily have to be death metal; do
     you consider Arch Enemy to be a death metal band, or any kind of
     band in particular, or do you see it  more  as  a  free  musical
     avenue?

MA: I just don't give it that much thought, you know. I think I  have
    developed my own writing style, and the stuff I come up with  is,
    uh, I don't know... 'Cause I've been playing this kind  of  music
    for a long time now, I don't really think about it too much, it's
    just like, the way, when I write, you know, more  extreme  metal,
    this is the way it sounds.

CoC: But you do have the two  different  bands,  you  have  Spiritual
     Beggars...

MA: Yeah, exactly, yeah, and that's why, you know... The  reason  for
    that is that I like things to be sort of...  I  like  to  do  the
    different things because they're both  sort  of  heavy,  sort  of
    guitar music, but, you know, there's a different approach to each
    band. They both can be... I think I can do  pretty  much  what  I
    want within these two bands, there's a lot of space to grow as  a
    musician, and I don't have to make Arch Enemy softer.  A  lot  of
    bands, they change, they want to become  more  rock,  some  death
    metal bands want to become more rocky or whatever, and I think  a
    lot of the times it doesn't work out that well.

CoC: I think that was the case with Carcass a bit.

MA: Yeah, definitely, after I left.

CoC: So, time-wise, do you find it's easy to fit Arch Enemy  in  with
     Spiritual Beggars?

MA: Well, virtually everybody I am playing with is basically in  both
    bands, and they've got their other stuff going  on  at  the  same
    time. It is pretty hard, you know, with our  time  schedules  and
    stuff, but now and again we sit down all together in a  room  and
    look through our calendars, try to fit it in, you know, "Maybe if
    you fly in this day or  that  day...".  It's  pretty  chaotic  at
    times, but we all enjoy doing Arch  Enemy  very  much.  Everybody
    that is a part of that band really wants to do  it,  so  we  just
    make it work sometimes.

CoC: Okay, what's the story behind  the  recruitment  of  Sharlee  on
     bass, how come he joined the band?

MA: Well, basically, after our last  tour  of  Japan,  November  last
    year, we kicked out our previous bass  player,  but  we  had  the
    studio booked  for  recording  [_Burning  Bridges_]  three  weeks
    later. So we were kinda like "Oh  shit,  who's  gonna  play".  We
    kicked the old guy out and then we sat down  and  thought  "Who's
    gonna play bass?" I wanted somebody really good that  could  work
    really well with our drummer and the best bass player that I knew
    was Sharlee. He's been a friend for a while, a few years,  and  I
    knew he was a great bass player, but I knew he was very busy, you
    know.

CoC: The man of a hundred bands...

MA: Yeah, he's done a lot of recording, but I didn't expect  anything
    of him. I just called him up and said "Do you wanna do it?",  but
    first he was complaining. We were just  talking  about  this  and
    that and he said "Oh, I'm doing so much stuff now, and I have  to
    stop doing..." this and that. Then I said "Well, y'know, I'm  not
    gonna tell you why I'm calling, then", and he said "Why? What  is
    it?". "Do you wanna play on our new album?" And  he's  like,  "Oh
    yeah, sure." <we both laugh> "Sounds like fun." He ended up doing
    that, but you know, I didn't expect him to do anything else  than
    the album, but he's really into it  now.  We  played  the  Dynamo
    festival and we played in South America, so far, with  him,  live
    and it's been working out really really well, and this is a great
    rhythm section with Daniel [Erlandson] on drums and  Sharlee.  It
    really makes a difference, even in death metal, to have  a  great
    rhythm section. It's like really swinging now, <laughs> it's kind
    of grooving a little bit, but it's got a pretty good feel  to  it
    and everybody's on the same level musically. Sharlee came  in  so
    late on this album that he wasn't at all involved in the  writing
    of the album. He added all his...  I  wanted  the  sort  of  bass
    playing that really felt more alive, so instead of just following
    the root notes, he's more a traditional, hard rock bass player in
    that he's got a lot of bass lines and stuff, works together  with
    the drums very well: I'm really happy.

CoC: So, has he improved your live performances as well?

MA: Yeah, I mean he's got a lot of routine from touring for years and
    years with Mercyful Fate, so he's great live, and his bass  sound
    is way heavier than what we've ever had before, so it's  made  us
    heavier and better. <laughs>

CoC: With _Burning Bridges_ I kind of  get  the  impression  slightly
     that it goes a bit back to the first album in terms of  being  a
     bit more riff-heavy. If you think about the position  the  album
     holds in comparison to your others, where does it stand?

MA: Well, I was really really happy with the first album that we did,
    _Black Earth_ [1996], it is one of my favourites out of  all  the
    albums I have done, out of all the  albums  that  I've  recorded.
    Then the  second  one,  for  me,  personally,  was  a  bit  of  a
    disappointment.

CoC: How the writing turned out...?

MA: Yeah, both the writing and the recording. It was just a bit of an
    overall disappointment for me compared to the first one, but now,
    I think this new one, like you said it's kind of a combination of
    the  two,  maybe,  'cause  I  think  we  went  overboard  on  the
    progressive, more technical stuff on the second album, and  we're
    not really out to prove anything now, we're just  kind  of  going
    with it. I wanted some of that  brutality  back  from  the  first
    album, with the return of Daniel... With Daniel back on the drums
    again it's like... He's really important for the  sound  of  Arch
    Enemy, I think. When I write, I have the riffs and a lot  of  the
    structures, but I bring that down with me to the rehearsal  room,
    and that's where it really happens. Everybody's an important part
    of the band.

CoC: That's where it all comes together?

MA: Yeah, exactly, we change the whole feel of the song  and  it  can
    turn into something else.

CoC: How do you feel about being called a death metal  supergroup  by
     your label?

[Dictaphone cut out for a few seconds.]

MA: <laughs> This band -is- full of legends.

CoC: Yeah, you've got Johan from Furbowl, you've  done  Carcass,  and
     Daniel's been in In Flames and Eucharist.

MA: Yeah, I don't know, it doesn't really count in the end, you know;
    if the music is good that's all that counts. For what we're doing
    now, if it's interesting to people -- people  find  it  exciting,
    good --, what we've done in the past is like... Labels always  do
    that, you know. I can  see  that  if  they  want  to  get  people
    interested, like "Ah, he's played with..." whoever, this and this
    band and they just want to get people to actually listen  to  it.
    If it makes somebody pick it up and go "Ah, I liked Carcass",  or
    whatever, "I'll give it a listen",  and  maybe  it  is  something
    that's up their street. But... it wasn't my idea.

CoC: With the title of the album, are you -burning- any bridges?

MA: <laughs> Musically?

CoC: Yeah, with respect to what you want to progress or  regress  to,
     or are you pretty open?

MA: We're really open musically, and we've already written a bunch of
    new songs. I think it [_BB_] is just a mixture of  everything.  I
    think it's going to be really cool.  I'm  in  a  really  sort  of
    creative period right now, doing a lot of writing  and  stuff.  I
    don't really put any limitations... What's fun with Arch Enemy is
    that everybody is really good on their instrument, the playing is
    very high quality, I think, in the band. We just  kind  of  do  a
    little bit of what we want, we do a  lot  of  stuff  that's  kind
    of... We're really  into  having  really  softer,  more  sort  of
    emotional parts or whatever. You  know,  lead  guitar  and  clean
    guitars: pretty sounding stuff. I like to have this sort of scope
    where there are two opposites: the total brutality  of  the  fast
    parts and the evil notes and stuff (and  then  the  soft  parts).
    Sometimes me and my brother sit and play and think "Maybe this is
    gonna sound too... soft", but  then  when  we  just  play  it  at
    rehearsal, with Johan's vocals on top and everything, and the way
    we play it, because we play... Even if we have  something  that's
    maybe more traditional, hard rock / heavy metal sort of idea, the
    delivery is just so brutal and aggressive or  whatever...  So  it
    just sounds good anyway, you know.  It  doesn't  sound  wimpy,  I
    think.

CoC:  I  think,  for  me  anyway,  listening  to  it,  I  felt   that
     "Silverwing" and maybe "Angelclaw" -were- almost going  to  far,
     and then listening to it more, it doesn't, it just captures  the
     dynamic, but it runs, for me anyway, pretty close to the edge.

[Dictaphone cuts out for a few seconds.]
[Someone needs a new dictaphone! -- Gino]

MA:  Yeah,  that's  cool.  We  were  kind  of  aware  of  stuff  like
    "Silverwing", you know, we thought "Maybe this is a bit close  to
    the edge". <laughs> Are people just going to say "What  the  hell
    is this?" Because that's like major chord  structures,  it's  not
    minor  [nearly  all  death  metal  is  written  in  minor   chord
    structures -- Paul] and we were kind of afraid that it was  going
    to sound too happy, but I don't think it sounds happy, it  sounds
    kind of... I don't know. I really  like  to  have  really  strong
    emotions in the music, you know, the melodies and  stuff.  That's
    really what we want to do, have the extreme emotions: really  sad
    and then really brutal. I think it's a pretty cool mix, you know,
    I don't think there's anybody out there who's mixing things, that
    sounds exactly like Arch Enemy.

CoC: I would agree with that.

MA: And maybe that's working for us or maybe will work for us in some
    respects, but I think in many ways it probably works against  us.
    It's been proven; it's  often  easier  to  sound  like  something
    that's a trend or whatever's going on. I mean,  we  do  fit  into
    this whole Swedish melodic death thing, but in other ways,  we're
    not only that. We don't really feel like we're a part of anything
    like that, we just want to play metal. <laughs>

CoC: [Dictaphone cut out most of my question, but at a guess:] Do you
     feel you have to be careful not to go overboard  with  what  you
     incorporate into Arch Enemy?

MA: I have a really  strong  belief  in  riffs,  riffs  are  like  my
    religion, you know. <we both laugh> I  really  believe  in  those
    things, like heavy guitars and guitar solos. That doesn't seem to
    be too much a part of a lot of those bands... I like those bands,
    I think some of them are really good, but I don't think  we  have
    the same... Especially now. All these bands are coming  out  with
    new albums and they all sound totally different from each  other.
    So, I think everybody in that scene is kind of coming into  their
    own now, or the bands that have  been  going  for  a  few  years,
    anyway.

CoC: Yeah, I think the new Dark Tranquillity and In Flames are a  bit
     different.

MA: Yeah, I mean you can't really compare  Dark  Tranquillity  to  In
    Flames anymore. I think Arch Enemy is...

CoC: A bit more Carcass-like?

MA: Yeah, I think so, I mean a lot  of  people  are  saying  now  "It
    really reminds  me  of  Carcass",  and  that's  not  so  hard  to
    understand. I mean I wrote maybe 40% of  the  _Heartwork_  album,
    musically, and obviously that's just what it sounds like. This is
    what I think that kind of music  should  be  like,  or  whatever.
    Obviously they influenced me a lot, shaped me. <laughs>

CoC: Do you ever think of working with Bill [Steer, Carcass guitarist
     and main songwriter]? He's not doing anything at the moment.

MA: He's doing something,  yeah,  he's  doing  demos,  I  think  he's
    recording an album this Summer. He's  working  with  the  drummer
    from Spiritual Beggars and the bass player  from  Cathedral,  Leo
    Smee.

CoC: Would you mind  talking  briefly  about  some  of  your  musical
     influences and music tastes?

MA: I listen to a wide  variety  of  stuff,  really,  and  that's  my
    parents' fault, I guess, because their record  collection  ranges
    from anything, from classical music through jazz  to  soul  music
    from the '60s and '70s. Then I like a lot of '70s  rock,  classic
    stuff: Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, obviously, the  beginnings  of
    heavy metal or whatever. But for Arch Enemy I suppose  the  whole
    twin guitar thing, that has a heavy emphasis with Arch  Enemy.  I
    guess that's from Judas Priest, Iron Maiden obviously, and  stuff
    like that, and then the more brutal aspects of  it  are  just  me
    growing up listening to underground death metal  and  stuff  from
    the '80s. That kind of ruined me, I guess. <I laugh> Listening to
    all those demos and tapes and stuff. So I've got  that  as  well,
    you know; a bunch of stuff. I listen to a lot of more progressive
    stuff, I'll listen to  anything,  really.  Pop,  rock,  anything.
    You'd be surprised to hear what actually influences us sometimes.
    But I'm not going to tell anybody. <laughs>

CoC: [Again, dictaphone cuts out  my  question,  something  about  it
     being good to have diverse influences.]

MA: I think bands that are only influenced by their own sort of genre
    are often really boring. You hear some  bands  and  they  are  so
    traditional and so... I don't know, but there's  a  fine  balance
    there, you know. And then I don't like bands who have  their  own
    mixture of everything; that can't seem to make up their  mind.  I
    thought -funk metal-, for an example, was a pretty bad marriage.

CoC: Yeah, I've never heard that work too well.

MA: No exactly, yeah. I mean I like funk, and I like metal.  I  think
    it is good to have a healthy  spectrum  of  influences;  a  broad
    spectrum of influences.

CoC: Yeah, I think what happened with a  lot  of  early  death  metal
     bands... <cut off again> [... is that after a while they want to
     be less all-out brutal and incorporate more groove or melody.]

MA: That's what kind of happened with Carcass, that we  kind  of  got
    into this whole "Let's mix in more of this traditional metal, you
    know, metal chord progressions, and let's put some  guitar  solos
    and the melodies and stuff in there", and you  just  have  to  do
    something with it, and that's what I've kind  of  continued  with
    Arch Enemy: along  those  lines.  But  some  bands  are  kind  of
    bringing in more influences from goth music into the death  metal
    stuff, and some people are going more electronic, and  it's  just
    people trying to do something with what you've got, you know.

CoC: And sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

MA: Yeah, exactly, and it's kind of... I don't think  there  are  any
    set rules  for  music,  music  is  just  a  huge,  vast  sort  of
    landscape, really, and just staying in one place  all  your  life
    must be pretty boring, because you're sort  of  "We  have  to  be
    extremely brutal and have blast beats and gruff  vocals  all  the
    way through, on every album, forever". And I do like  bands  like
    Deicide, because they are kind of reliable  <laughs>,  you  know?
    Buying an Arch Enemy album can be a risky affair, I don't know...
    <laughs>

CoC: Yeah, I'd agree and I think sometimes  I  like  the  traditional
     stuff, but for me Cynic and Nocturnus  are  among  my  favourite
     death metal bands, and they're also some of the most  innovative
     and different ones. And  they  made  and  sold  nothing  because
     no-one [OK, few people]  understood  them,  or  what  they  were
     doing, pretty much. But that's the risk  you  take:  underground
     popularity, for, even in the death metal scene, overground  lack
     of sales.

MA: Yeah, exactly.

CoC: But I don't know, I  think  Arch  Enemy,  to  me  anyway,  catch
     something a little bit... you definitely  don't  fall  into  the
     trap of some bands of just disappearing  up  your  own  arse.  I
     think there's a huge danger -- not that I have any problem  with
     progressive rock, I love Rush --, but I think you can so  easily
     just lose yourself.

MA: That is just a very, very dangerous path. <laughs> Yeah, but I am
    a fan of that stuff and I do respect a lot  of  the  musicianship
    and stuff, but we just  like  to  take  little  ingredients  from
    different fields of music and just mix it up. I mean I'm  talking
    about... Somebody who's going  to  go  and  buy  the  album,  the
    _Burning Bridges_ album, they're just going to  be...  it's  just
    like super-heavy, intense, in your face and brutal  vocals.  It's
    still brutal and heavy, it's just little nuances in music.

CoC: Okay, you've been saying a lot about  the  album  and  how  fans
     might receive it, but with you  guys  playing  live  'round  the
     world, what would you say to people who might come check out the
     shows?

MA: I'm just hoping that people are going to be into coming down  and
    checking us out, 'cause I think with this new line-up we have, it
    just felt so good in South America and at the Dynamo festival, so
    we're really eager to go out there and play more  and  that  will
    happen, so it should be fun and hopefully we'll see people on the
    road.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

           A   T E S T A M E N T   T O   L O N G E V I T Y
           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                CoC talks to thrash legends Testament
                          by: Adrian Bromley

     Testament -- know them?
     Of course you do. This is the band that stormed out of  the  San
Francisco's Bay Area in the late 1980s, kicking up  their  heels  and
giving it to us good with their monstrous array of thrashing numbers.
Much like the leaders of the pack at that time --  Exodus,  Metallica
and Slayer --, Testament was oriented around one sole  purpose:  play
metal. And that they did.
     From that era up to the present  it  has  been  a  glorious  but
turbulent ride for Testament.  Line-up  changes,  label  changes  and
anything else that could plague a band (including  a  short  break-up
scenario) has  been  thrown  into  the  face  of  Testament  and  its
bandmembers. But like a trooper they ride on, carrying  the  flag  of
metal and playing hard 'n' heavy. Testament, one of the  few  veteran
metal acts out there playing true to form and  not  selling  out,  is
poised to conquer the metal world as we lead into the millennium with
the brilliantly etched _The  Gathering_  record  [CoC  #39].  With  a
line-up that consists  of  Testament  founding  members  Chuck  Billy
(vocals) and guitarist Eric  Peterson,  guitar  slayer  James  Murphy
(ex-Death, ex-Obituary), Steve DiGorgio (Sadus and ex-Death) and drum
God Dave Lombardo (ex-Slayer, Grip Inc.), where could they go  wrong,
I ask you? Where?
     "It's been a long hard year for us, but finally the  new  record
is out", says guitarist Eric Peterson from his  home  in  California.
"We came off a long hard tour and our distribution of the last record
[_Demonic_] fell to shit. It's been a struggle with us for  a  while.
Atlantic Records dropped the ball with the _Low_ record a  few  years
back and so we put out _Demonic_ on our own label Burnt Offerings and
the distribution just fell right  through  on  us.  We  were  getting
really frustrated with all that was happening and pissed off at doing
this, but I knew we had a lot of good material in us  so  we  pressed
on. We started working on this record."
     "It was a really cool vibe for the making  of  this  record.  In
terms of getting to work with Dave Lombardo, we  were  touring  South
America and needed a drummer to go, but he was  busy,  as  expected",
explains Peterson. "He mentioned he wanted to jam one day, so when we
were working on the record he came up for a few sessions with us  and
we jammed out some numbers. I'd be ready with my riffs  and  we  made
sure it all worked out. The two songs that came  out  of  those  jams
were "Careful What You Wish For" and "Eyes of Wrath". It was  just  a
good vibe that both Chuck [Billy] and  I  we're  getting  from  Dave.
Getting James [Murphy] and Steve [DiGiorgio] into the band was pretty
much of the same. We knew them and they came into the  picture.  It's
all worked out, as you can tell by giving the record a listen."
     With Billy and Peterson  being  the  sole  founding  members  of
Testament left, it must be a strong bond  between  the  two  to  keep
things rolling and staying metal. Right? "Yeah... that's true. That's
exactly as it has been. We tried to keep the line-up that we had with
_Low_, but it didn't work out. I wish it would have, 'cause it was  a
strong line-up, but it didn't. After we  had  broken  up  for  a  few
weeks, we hooked up with Gene Hoglan [SYL, ex-Death] and it  got  the
juices flowing again and it was only for a short  time.  Things  went
certain ways and there were more line-up changes. It just never seems
to end... <laughs> It never ends with Testament. We just figure  each
time out we'll try to make a different record, a different  cycle  of
where Testament is at, and I think we have done that over  the  years
and because of the line-up changes, etc., it makes each record unique
in its own right."
     The evolution of Testament has never really strayed from being a
metal band and that is pleasing  to  many  die-hard  metal  fans  out
there. Why does Peterson think that is, that the band has not  geared
down and ventured off to other musical styles or even slowed down? "I
think after the split with the original line-up and all  the  changes
that we have endured we have managed  to  stay  heavy.  We've  butted
heads with many members to change things around  and  that  has  been
happening throughout the years, but it came to  a  point  where  both
Chuck and I decided we aren't going to compromise any more. Testament
has to be heavy. We're not changing one bit. We see it like this:  if
you feel the need to  branch  out  and  do  alternative  pop/rock  or
something like that, start an alter ego type band.  Testament  should
be what it's always been: a metal band. We have  to  keep  our  loyal
fans pleased with what we do and  if  we  go  off  and  do  something
different we may lose those fans. We're  metal  still  and  our  fans
respect that."
     About the meaning of the new record  to  him,  he  comments:  "I
think of this  record  as  just  another  Testament  record.  It's  a
gathering of the millennium and a gathering of some great  musicians.
It's a super group for metal music and I think  it's  a  really  good
metal record. It's true to form and we're not copying any other metal
acts. I think Testament is bringing metal back in  the  most  sincere
way."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

      I N C I N E R A T I N G   Y O U R S E L F   T O   L I V E
      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
               CoC chats with Ross Dolan of Immolation
                           by: Paul Schwarz

     I first encountered Immolation when I was given a tape of  their
1996 _Here in After_ [CoC #6] album, their second, and Dark Funeral's
_The Secrets of the Black Arts_. The latter succeeded  in  boring  me
very quickly, but the former I simply could not  stop  listening  to.
Immolation produce a warped, sometimes difficult to follow  style  of
death metal which definitely preserves roots  such  as  Autopsy,  and
even mirrors certain elements of fellow New  Jersey  death  metallers
Incantation, but essentially has its own, individual  character.  The
use of dissonance by guitarists Robert Vigna  and  Thomas  Wilkinson,
the vague melody superimposed on  Ross  Dolan's  incredible  low  and
brutal vocals, the eclectic drum style of Craig  Smilowski  (who  has
now been replaced by Alex Hernandez) and the powerful,  well  thought
out  lyrical  content  quickly  turned  Immolation  into  one  of  my
favourite death metal bands. Researching their history, I found  that
they were another band whose career had been viciously  held  up  for
years by the greed of the trend-orientated minds who  run  Roadrunner
Records. This also made my search for their 1991 _Dawn of Possession_
debut a long trawl through countless second hand record stores.
     Last year I looked forward  to  seeing  them  at  the  Milwaukee
Metalfest, but unfortunately the band were in the middle of finishing
their new album. I awaited _Failures for Gods_, as the title of their
second release for Metal Blade became, with  bated  breath,  but  '98
disappeared, five months of '99 went by, and still  no  _FfG_.  Then,
just after the Dynamo festival, it came, and damn was  it  worth  the
wait. The record is reviewed elsewhere, but let's just say here  that
it wasn't any kind of disappointment.
     Talking to vocalist/bassist Ross Dolan, who was at  Metal  Blade
Germany for interviews, I satisfied my  curiosity  about  all  things
_FfG_, and the situations surrounding it and the band.

CoC: How's it going?

Ross Dolan: Good. This is the first  day  of  interviews,  it's  been
            going pretty good, it's nice to be over here.

CoC: Are you guys touring at all at the moment...

RD: No, just doing interviews, I don't think we'll  be  touring  here
    [Europe] realistically until about fall, so  that's  good:  it'll
    give the album time to sink in.

CoC: And you're doing the Milwaukee Metalfest...

RD: Yeah, the Metalfest and a bunch of stuff leading up to that.

CoC: What do you think _FfG_ says about Immolation now, in 1999, with
     your past releases taken into account; what kind of statement do
     you think it makes to  the  death  metal  scene  and  people  in
     general?

RD: I think it is making a very strong  statement.  It's  definitely,
    without a doubt, our strongest album, on all accounts:  strongest
    musically, strongest lyrically, conceptually, and it is also  our
    best produced album. So I think when people hear this,  obviously
    fans of Immolation will definitely be impressed, because I  think
    it blows away the last two albums, and maybe  people  who  aren't
    fans of Immolation, but maybe fans of extreme  music,  will  also
    appreciate it too. I think it is definitely  making  a  statement
    that we are still here, and we're not going away, and  the  music
    is still here: that's the most important thing. We  get  asked  a
    lot "Well, what do you think of the death metal scene?",  or  the
    metal scene in general. And when asked  this  about  the  US  I'd
    definitely have to answer that metal in the US is basically dead.
    Hip-hop and Korn and Marilyn Manson are the big thing in  the  US
    right now, extreme music: death metal,  black  metal,  what  have
    you; the scene is definitely strong  in  the  US  but  it's  more
    underground than it has been, but that is  not  saying  it's  not
    strong, 'cause it is very strong. There's still very big turnouts
    at the shows, there's definitely  interested  people,  it's  just
    that a lot of the new kids aren't exposed to it as much,  they're
    exposed to bands like Korn and Marilyn Manson and  that  type  of
    stuff, and they don't know that this type of stuff  exists.  It's
    unfortunate.

CoC: Picking up on couple  of  your  points  about  the  album,  with
     regards to the lyrics and concept. I've listened  to  the  album
     about eleven times or so...

RD: Wow!

CoC: ... a few times reading along with the lyrics and what have you,
     I have the feeling that it has quite a strong concept which goes
     through the music and the  lyrics,  ending  with  the  last  two
     minutes of the last song, that has a very final sort of feel  to
     it. Is there like a story concept running through the  album  or
     has it got one -aim- as a concept?

RD: Ummm, well, I wouldn't say really a story concept. All the  songs
    basically deal with  our  personal  feelings  and  viewpoints  on
    religion, and we look at it from all different angles and we take
    it from different points of view, but they all come back  to  the
    same feelings. As a band we all feel the same way, which is good,
    it helps and it is something we can all relate to on  a  personal
    level, because, let's face it, religion, it's a  very  dominating
    thing, it's very controlling, it controls people on all different
    levels and we're surrounded  by  it.  We  grew  up  with  it.  It
    definitely had some kind of impact on our upbringings, and on our
    childhoods, to a certain extent, whether it be going to  Catholic
    school or being  raised  in  a  Catholic  household,  and  it  is
    something which does have an influence on your earlier years.  As
    you get older, you have two types of people: you have people  who
    are just going to continue on and  fall  in  with  the  herd  and
    follow, or people who are going to say "Well, let's question what
    we've been taught, is this really the way we actually feel in our
    hearts about things?", and  that's  not  how  -we-  felt  in  our
    hearts, and I think a lot  of  people  probably  agree  with  us,
    because it is something that most people just never give thought
    to.

CoC: Yeah, and I'm certainly one of the people who agree with you. On
     the subject of your upbringing, were most of you or some of  you
     brought up in particularly strict religious backgrounds?

RD: Umm, not -strict- strict, but it was  definitely  something  that
    was, I guess, relevant in our childhoods. I for  one  went  to  a
    Catholic high school and I drew a lot  inspiration  from  what  I
    learned and what I saw in those years, and actually  that  was  a
    period of my life where I  was  able  to  look  at  things  in  a
    different light and question  things  --  which  was  probably  a
    turning point for me, which was good and it's something I'm  able
    to elaborate on now, at this point in my life.

CoC: And I get the impression the song "Failures for Gods"  may  have
     been inspired by this  being,  as  I  think  it  is,  about  the
     leadership of religion and how that has led to religion to be an
     influence on society?

RD: Oh, you're absolutely right, and it's cool, I'm glad you actually
    read the lyrics and you're interested in that, that's  definitely
    cool.

CoC: Not to be preachy to  anyone,  but  I  think  the  best  way  of
     interviewing -is- to really get into a band and see  it  like  a
     fan, and not just as a product.

RD: Right, right, well, that's cool, man,  we  definitely  appreciate
    that. Yeah, so you're absolutely right, "Failures for Gods",  you
    hit it on the nose, that's basically what  the  song  is  dealing
    with. The title itself could be looked at in two different  ways:
    "Failures -for- Gods", meaning people  who  worship  gods  are  a
    failure, in a certain way, because  they  don't  have  the  inner
    strength or strength  in  general  to  see  these  things  as  so
    intangible and so unrealistic that they can't get on  with  their
    lives and they can't make decisions on their own  without  having
    this crutch; or you could look at it  in  the  sense  that  these
    gods, in turn, who are being  worshipped,  are  failures  in  the
    sense that they will never ever deliver  what  these  people  are
    expecting, realistically speaking. I look at things from  a  very
    realistic point of view and it's just  not  realistic,  it's  not
    tangible, it's really just... <laughs> It's a nice story to tell,
    and it's something cool to tell the kids, but to base  your  life
    on it is just not feasible.

CoC: <laughs> Yeah, I see what you're saying, so would you  say  with
     Immolation that you're anti-Christian, anti-religion, would  you
     call yourselves Satanic, for example? Because one of  the  icons
     that you mention a lot, across your albums, is Jesus, and God in
     the Christian sense.

RD: Right, right, and that's only because of how we were brought  up,
    as Catholics and as Christians. That was the icon;  Jesus  Christ
    was the icon and I think Christianity... it's very prevalent  all
    over the world. But I would say we're definitely -not- a  Satanic
    band, we're basically anti-religion, but we're just anti-control,
    really. We're not  into  that  whole  control  thing  and  that's
    basically what religion does, it controls and manipulates and  it
    just soaks up money. <laughs>  You  know  what  I'm  saying?  The
    church is so... unbelievable, <laughs> they have so much land and
    so many riches, they don't get taxed, it's a big scam, really.

CoC: And there's a whole history of that going back to the  beginning
     of the church...

RD: Oh right, that's not even getting back to the history, <I  laugh>
    to the millions of people who died in the name  of  religion  and
    Christ and God, it's just really  such  a  bizarre,  overwhelming
    thing when you think about it. But, if you're familiar  with  the
    last album [_Here in After_], we even say in  one  of  the  songs
    that it is not hate and it's really not a hatred thing for us, we
    don't -hate- Christians, we don't -hate-... it's  just  something
    we don't agree with and again we're not about... we're not trying
    to convince people, we're not trying to  change  anybody's  mind,
    it's just... if you agree with us  you  do,  if  you  don't,  you
    don't. But the music and the lyrics go hand in hand for us.

CoC: I was going to touch just briefly on the concept thing, I detect
     slightly the millennial, doomsday thing; a  few  songs  seem  to
     have a lot about it. "Stench of High Heaven" and  "The  Devil  I
     Know" seem to talk  about  a  new  coming  age  with  the  Devil
     replacing Christ...

RD: Right.

CoC: ... something of that description; is that at all related to the
     whole doomsday, millennium thing?

RD: No, no. Not really. You mentioned "The Devil I Know" and  "Stench
    of High Heaven"?

CoC: Yeah, "Stench of High Heaven".

RD: Yeah, well, basically, "Stench of High Heaven"... in a  nutshell,
    that song is about the absurdity of the whole concept of  Heaven,
    about the whole concept of "if you  live  a  certain  way  you're
    going to go to this really cool  place,  extreme  Nirvana,  where
    everything is all nice and beautiful" and this and that and blah,
    blah  blah  blah  blah.   Again,   it's   a   nice   story,   but
    realistically... honestly, nobody knows what happens when  you're
    dead, because obviously you're dead. And I would  like  to  think
    that we go on to maybe a higher form of existence where there  is
    no pain and there is no suffering and there is no  hardship  like
    we have here, but that's wishful thinking. <laughs>

CoC: Yes, I'd say that's definitely wishful  thinking  and  that's  a
     good hope, but also why is it certain people are going there and
     certain people aren't?  That's  the  other  illogicality  [well,
     actually only one of many of them --Paul] I can't understand.

RD: Right, it's a very hypocritical thing, because  for  example  I'm
    sure most of these people would look  upon  a  band  like  us  or
    people like us in a very dark  light  because  of  what  we  sing
    about, what we do... but as people they don't really know us and,
    you know, for this scene in general I've met so many cool  people
    over the past thirteen years, who would definitely be looked down
    upon by the Church in general because of their beliefs and  their
    views, but they're all good people,  man,  they're  hard  working
    people, a lot of the people we know are pretty straightedge, they
    don't drink, they don't smoke, they're respectful, and it is  all
    about how you treat people, and it is about upbringing and that's
    it. One of my philosophies is "What comes around goes around" and
    I firmly believe that and I see it  happening  <laughs>  all  the
    time, so I just like to treat people with respect and that's  the
    respect that I would desire from people.

CoC: The cover artworks [for your albums] seems to tell  a  story  of
     some description, in comic book form, but I was  going  to  ask,
     you say your lyrics are -actually- about control and things, but
     your artwork and the imagery you use is, not Satanic,  but  very
     much using the stories of religion and the stories which are not
     religious, but of Lovecraft or whatever; how does that  part  of
     it come in and why is [Immolation] not a very realistic seeming,
     political band, like, say, Rage Against the Machine or something?

RD: Well, I mean, politics for one  doesn't  interest  me,  it's  all
    bullshit. It just doesn't excite me. The artwork for  the  album,
    actually, if you read the lyrics for "Once  Ordained",  basically
    what's depicted in the artwork is what's going on in  the  lyrics
    of that song. The artwork obviously also conveys the  message  of
    "Failures for Gods", but what you're seeing there... and even  on
    the inside, if you notice we wrote the little chorus  or  refrain
    or whatever you call it, from ["Once  Ordained"],  and  basically
    it's people being... you see the people, the masses being blindly
    led by God or Christ or whoever you want it to  be;  we  depicted
    Christ on the inside cover. Basically,  on  the  outside  of  the
    front cover you see... obviously it's plain that it's the  Devil;
    it's a dark figure representing  evil  and  the  people  flocked,
    which symbolises people following the religion, and then  on  the
    inside you open it up and to their astonishment;  they're  amazed
    to see that... they see the face of Christ but  it's  really  the
    Devil.

CoC: You missed last year's Metalfest because you  were  mixing  your
     album?

RD: Yeah, we were right in  the  middle  of  recording  and  we  just
    couldn't leave. <laughs>

CoC: That being last July, why did it take so long to release _FfG_?

RD: Basically, when you get right down to it, it was the artwork.  We
    approached Andreas [Marschall, whose artwork has  graced  all  of
    Immolation's albums thus far --Paul] right after we  got  out  of
    the studio and he was unfortunately booked up until  the  end  of
    the year, and because we have the two completely separate  pieces
    of artwork and the little icons on the inside, it took  him  much
    longer to do. So that was the big delay, and you know  what?,  we
    decided it was much better to wait, and get a packaging that  was
    worth the wait, rather than to put out something that we  weren't
    going to be happy with.

CoC: Absolutely.

RD: And we're very happy with it, so it all worked out.

CoC: So, after this you -hope- to release  albums  in  slightly  more
     regular succession than has so far been the case?

RD: Yeah.

CoC: 'Cause you've been like five years, three years...

RD: Yeah, I know, man, I know. <laughs> We know, man, it sucks.  It's
    definitely never planned that way, but  unfortunately  it  always
    seems... the five years between the first two albums,  a  lot  of
    that -was- out of our control because of the  change  in  labels,
    and we were in limbo for a year or two there,  but  then  we  got
    back on track,  and  it's  not  that  it  takes  us  five  years,
    obviously,  to  write  eight  songs,   it's   just   that   other
    circumstances... and also as a band  we're  not  in  a  situation
    where we're able to write 24 hours a day. We all  work  full-time
    jobs, we're all very busy and Immolation consumes -all- our  free
    time, and it's not easy because of our schedules, but yes:  we're
    making  a  conscious  effort  now,  we  already  started  writing
    material for the fourth album and we do want to be in the  studio
    hopefully sometime mid-year next year. So yeah, we don't plan  to
    make people wait any longer than they have to.

CoC: How important do you think the music you play, the death  metal,
     is for delivering the message of the lyrics? Do you think  there
     is a symbiosis between the two or could you do  the  same  music
     with gore lyrics, or jazz with your lyrics?

RD: No, no, you're right, there is definitely a symbiosis between the
    two, they work hand-in-hand. The music is very dark, and in  turn
    the lyrics have to be very dark. I couldn't see us  writing...  I
    mean it's possible for us to write about something different,  as
    long as it's done in a certain way, in a dark way which is  going
    to complement the music, and also how the music  complements  the
    lyrics. But we have so much to draw from, we have almost a  whole
    album's worth of concepts and  ideas,  lyrically,  for  the  next
    album all in the same direction [as we have  been  going],  so  I
    don't think we're going to run out of ideas anytime soon.  You're
    right, though, they definitely do work hand in hand.

CoC: I find, particularly on _HiA_ but also on this album, the  music
     has this feeling of barely controlled  chaos,  and  I  think  it
     differs a lot  from  the  more  workman-like  death  metal  like
     Cannibal Corpse or Deicide, in that it has a  more  uncontrolled
     feel, the drums are a little more unusual; when you  guys  write
     are you particularly technical about this, do you kind  of  plan
     out this kind of things or is it just the way you happen to play?

RD: Umm, it's a combination of both. Musically, it's  about  feeling.
    When the music is written it's what feels right. We really  don't
    have any kind of theory or plan or anything in  mind.  It's  just
    what feels right and we're very fortunate  to  all  click  really
    well together in our minds,  so  we  work  well  together,  we're
    very... if one person doesn't see something, one of us will,  and
    it definitely helps when you  have  four  minds  working  on  one
    thing, you know. So musically there are no guidelines,  but  when
    it comes to incorporating the drums, the drums  are  to  a  point
    planned out, because drums could really change the whole mood and
    feeling of a particular riff, without a  doubt.  You  could  have
    something that sounds very dark, and if you put the wrong type of
    drums to it, the wrong type of beats  or  fills,  it's  going  to
    really sound too happy or to what not. <chuckles>

CoC: And the production is important to that, too.

RD: Oh, of course, of course. So the  drums  are  something  that  we
    spend probably a good majority of the time working out and  Alex,
    he's an excellent drummer and he really works well with our ideas
    and we all have input, again like I said, so it's not  like  it's
    all on his shoulders, we all have input  and  ideas.  So  it  all
    comes together in the end.

CoC: So there wasn't any particular difficulty switching  from  Craig
     to Alex?

RD: No, the only difficulty was Alex was used to playing a  different
    style, he was an extreme player, he played in a bunch of bands....

CoC: What, sort of grindcore type stuff?

RD: Grindcore, yeah, he played in a band  called  Fallen  Christ,  he
    played in a band called Disassociate,  he  was  in  a  couple  of
    hardcore bands. So he was a very straightforward kind of  player,
    and to play our stuff he had to get used  to  our  style,  'cause
    it's very different from what he was playing. We're  not  a  full
    out, I don't know if you call grind band  or  whatever,  but  you
    know we're not speed for speed's sake and we're  not  sludge  for
    sludge's sake. It's about feeling and moods  and  there's  a  lot
    going on in the songs and it took him...  I  would  say  a  year,
    honestly, before he actually got comfortable,  but  now  that  he
    is... I mean to me he did an amazing job on  the  new  album  and
    he's definitely that missing element that we've been lacking  the
    last ten years.

CoC: That's great. I was going to ask about the production, I noticed
     the producer was Paul Orofino and I don't know the name, and the
     only record I could find which had his production  was  Riot.  I
     was wondering what led you to choose him? He's  not,  you  know,
     Jim Morris or anybody traditional [to death metal].

RD: No, definitely not. We're not about using people because  they've
    been used. We've never been about following trends  or  following
    whatever. We have pretty much always done our own thing,  so  the
    choice to use Paul... he  was  actually  recommended  by  a  good
    friend of ours and he had never really  produced  a  death  metal
    band or any extreme music like us, he's mostly... he's been  used
    to working with rock 'n' roll bands,  stuff  like...  he  did  an
    album by Blue Oyster Cult, he worked with  Simon  Kirk  from  Bad
    Company, Riot, Dee Snider and his new band, Widowmaker,  so  he's
    done a lot of stuff like that, which is good, though,  'cause  he
    knows how to get those... the drum sounds and the heavy  type  of
    guitar stuff and it's good to have someone looking at it  from  a
    different perspective. The fact that he's been around for a  long
    time, you know, a good producer is a good  producer,  it  doesn't
    matter what you play. They know how to bring out the best in  the
    music and that's what we felt he did and we  definitely  plan  on
    using him for the next album.

CoC: I was curious to find out, because apart from Harris  Johns  who
     did a lot of thrash stuff [he did _Dawn of Possession_  and  had
     produced Voivod, Kreator and Sodom --Paul], I don't  know  Wayne
     Dorrel [_Here in After_ producer] from anything else.

RD: Yeah, Wayne was basically just out of  school  and  we  were  the
    first project he actually worked on on his own, so he was kind of
    new at it. He did a good job considering, but we felt there  were
    a lot of things on the  production  side  of  the  spectrum  that
    needed improvement with that album, without a doubt.

CoC: Do you always aim to progress in doing Immolation,  or  are  you
     sort of trying to create the archetype of classic death metal?

RD: Well, what we really want to do is continue in the vein  that  we
    started, just obviously with each album we want to  improve,  but
    we just want things to get darker, we want  things  to  get  more
    extreme, but, like you said, in a controlled sense. For us  there
    are no boundaries, we  just  want  to  improve  musically,  we're
    always into trying new things, but we're not into  trying  to  do
    things which are going to change the essence  of  the  band.  Our
    feeling as a band is that; we think we do  this  well  enough  to
    know that if we work hard enough at it we might get to the  point
    we're happy with. <laughs>  So  with  each  album  we  definitely
    improve to a certain extent and we're  happy  with  every  album.
    We're happy with all the albums. We're not ashamed  of  the  past
    albums. We think they're very strong albums and with each one  it
    just gets better. So, we look forward to creating an even  darker
    and heavier album next time around.

CoC: Yeah, I guess if you're not going to make a better album [or  at
     least think you have --Paul], then what's the point?

RD: Oh, of course, of course.

CoC: Finally, do you have anything to say to fans who've been waiting
     for this album, and just people in general who might pick it up?

RD: Again, I feel it's definitely our strongest album, I  think  fans
    of Immolation will definitely be impressed because it's our  best
    work and I think they'll see that right off the bat. I think that
    we're the type of band where in the first  few  seconds  of  each
    album you know it's us right away, it just has that vibe, I don't
    know how to explain it, but...

CoC: A trademark?

RD: Yeah,  we've  been  told  that  a  million  times  before  and  I
    definitely know what people are talking about, and I  agree  with
    that.  So,  people  can  expect  probably   the   most   intense,
    aggressive, and hateful Immolation album. With lots  of  mood,  I
    think it combines definitely the best elements of both  the  past
    albums; the feelings and the moods from _Dawn of Possession_, and
    the hatred and the intensity of _Here  in  After_.  And  it  just
    takes it all to the next level.

CoC: One last thing, I was wondering if you guys ever  thought  about
     doing any audio-visual stuff, not necessarily a video  but  some
     kind of visual thing. I know that's not necessarily  financially
     feasible, but in theory would you guys be  interested  in  doing
     that?

RD: Oh, of course, of course.  We've  always  thought  about  it.  We
    always  toss  around  the  idea  of  doing  something,  like  you
    mentioned, but, like you said, though, the financial aspect of it
    is not realistic for us, and we're not the  type  of  band  who's
    going to do something at 50%, we want to do it at 100%.  And  the
    ideas, you know, you could really just take the ball and run with
    our concepts and just go all out, and to do that you would need a
    lot of money. So rather than do it half-assed we just wouldn't do
    it at all. <laughs> But it is something we would love to  do.  We
    have so many good ideas and visually we could bring out  so  much
    more of what we're trying to convey, but who knows? Maybe one day.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

                A N O I N T E D   F O R   B U R I A L
                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                        CoC interviews Extol
                          by: Alex Cantwell

     On June 18th I had the extreme pleasure of witnessing  Norwegian
metal warriors Extol in a live setting. However, before  all  of  the
chaos ensued  on  the  stage,  while  hanging  out  with  these  fine
gentlemen, I took the opportunity to interview guitarist Ole Borud.
     About three years ago, I picked up a copy of  a  CD  of  a  band
called Schaliach, which was excellent doom with a distinct  Norwegian
flavour. I learned later, after perusing this CD, that Schaliach  was
not a band at all, but the music of one man  named  Ole  Borud.  Soon
after, I received a demo in the mail  of  new  material  from  Oslo's
Extol. Blown away was I to read that all  of  the  bass  tracks  were
performed by Ole. I thought to myself, if Ole joined this band Extol,
who are already quite good, they would certainly be the best band  in
the world! Imagine my absolute shock when I got a copy  of  _Burial_,
Extol's debut CD (on Endtime Records in Europe, Solidstate Records in
America, and now Avalon Records in Asia), and Ole was listed  as  one
of two guitarists! "I have found the band that will conquer  all",  I
announced to myself and many others. Imagine my  shock,  when  a  few
years after getting into this obscure band from  thousands  of  miles
away, they book a show where I live!  Anyway,  to  get  to  my  point
already, Extol is my favourite band and I  was  stoked  to  have  Ole
sitting in my car with me doing an interview. OK? You with  me?  Read
on, people...

CoC: What are the band's plans for the rest of the year?

Ole Borud: The rest of the year will probably see the  release  of  a
           mini-CD that will come probably in  September,  and  we're
           not quite sure, but we will definitely do a second  album.
           Hopefully we'll do it in the end of this  year,  otherwise
           it will be  in  the  beginning  of  the  next.  Otherwise,
           whatever concerts that come up, we'll do  them.  We  don't
           have tons of them close to Christmas, but we have some out
           in August and stuff like that, and maybe one in September.

CoC: Have you been able to tour in Europe yet?

OB: Actually not. I mean, we haven't been around with the  album  for
    ages and I guess it just takes time to establish yourselves as  a
    band in Europe, because it's all about credibility as a band, and
    what you are. You've got to prove that you're able to  show  what
    you're good for. Hopefully, we'll get the chance to do that  very
    soon. Actually, we're going to do a show in Germany in the end of
    July, so that will be our first thing down in Europe.

CoC: What kind of reaction have you had in Norway?

OB: It's basically been pretty cool...

CoC: Of the three songs that were on the  _Embraced_  demo,  "Burial"
     and "Embraced" were included on the _Burial_ album, but why  was
     "Prodigal Son" left off?

OB: Well, you know, the thing is basically because we thought that in
    the beginning we were like "We're at least going to have "Burial"
    on the album", and we thought to ourselves "Let's  do  "Embraced"
    too, because it's a cool song and people really like that  song",
    but then again we thought "Let's not overdo it, and  put  all  of
    the three songs from the demo  on  the  album",  because  we  had
    enough songs. It was basically just the fact that we didn't think
    that "Prodigal Son" was the best song on the demo. But still, the
    new version of "Prodigal Son" [which is included as a bonus track
    on the Asian  version  of  _Burial_  and  will  also  be  on  the
    forthcoming MCD _Mesmerized_ -- Alex] is pretty much different.

CoC: Oh really?

OB: Yeah, it's tuned much lower and is much heavier, and it's  got  a
    new part.

CoC: Your music is amazingly technical. What kind of musical training
     have you had?

OB: You know, we didn't go to classes or anything like that, we  just
    learned our instruments  by  ourselves,  more  or  less.  In  the
    beginning I started out with a couple  of  classes  or  something
    like that, but it just cost too much money at that  time.  That's
    the way it goes with all the other guys. We just developed... you
    get better. There's nothing more to say, really.

CoC: What kind of direction do you think the music of Extol will take
     in the future?

OB: We have quite a few songs for our next album, and it  will  still
    be the good ol' Extol when it comes to the  technical  parts  and
    the melodic parts. It'll still be what  we  do,  but  what  we've
    added with the new songs is just more  brutality,  actually.  So,
    for once we've tuned down our guitars and it sounds much heavier,
    and the total sound of the band is  darker.  It's  beefy  and  it
    sounds massive, I think. Maybe we have a couple more  hooks,  you
    know what I mean. Still, there are a lot of parts in every  song,
    so there's not going to be a boring song with two riffs.

CoC: I wanted to ask you some questions about some specific songs, if
     that's OK.

OB: Yeah.

CoC: "Jesus Kom Til Jorden For a Do" sounds like this big anthem. You
     could just see this big room of people swinging their arms.  How
     did that come about? Who wrote that?

OB: My dad wrote it, and he wrote it in 1976, so that's pretty wild.

CoC: The lyrics and music?

OB: Yeah, sure. I mean, he's been writing tons of  songs  for  years.
    See, the thing is, my family has been in the music  business  for
    years. I started singing when I was like five or six  years  old,
    and have been touring with my family for years. My dad  has  been
    involved with different things, different projects. At that  time
    he had sort of a band with other guys, like a '70s thing. Wait  a
    second, it's not the band. He had another band too, but this  one
    was  actually  himself  and  two  other  women.  They  just  sang
    together, and that song only had vocals,  which  is  really  cool
    because all of the harmonies are done vocally, and it sounds just
    great. It was just basically that we recorded this album where  I
    live, because I work in a music studio, and we just hung out  one
    night after recording stuff, and I think that for some reason  we
    put on that tape, because it was there, and the  guys  were  just
    like "Woah, that's cool". So, just right there  we  decided  "OK,
    let's do a cover of that one", and so we did.  That's  the  story
    behind that.

CoC: I've gotta say this: "Superior" sounds like a Schaliach song.

OB: You think so?

CoC: Yeah. Did you write it?

OB: Yeah, I did. Maybe you're right. Of course I  wouldn't  think  of
    anything else [besides] "it's me" if I'm the guy that  wrote  it,
    but nevertheless I think it sounds more Extol than Schaliach,  in
    my ears.

CoC: Is that a real sitar on "Reflections of a Broken Soul"?

OB: No.

CoC: Keyboards?

OB: Yeah, it's keyboard.

CoC: Who did all of the sound  effects  on  _Burial_?  The  different
     stuff in between the songs.

OB: Oh, that's just us. You know, we just did it. We had  some  sound
    CDs and some keyboard stuff that we mixed together.  We  kind  of
    fooled around with ideas on what to do.

CoC:  How  did  the  orchestral  part  come  together  on  "Tears  of
     Bitterness"?

OB: Oh, well, we just did it.

CoC: Was that keyboards?

OB: Yeah, the stuff in the back is keyboards, but there is one violin
    on top  of  it,  so  it  sounds  kind  of  "for  real".  Christer
    [Espevoll, guitar] is the one who wrote that song, so  he  wanted
    that part, and so we just went for it.

CoC: Has Eystein [Holm, bass] departed from the band?

OB: Yeah.

CoC: So what happened?

OB: It's basically just the fact that we felt, and he  felt  that  he
    wasn't as engaged and involved in the band as he  should  be.  He
    had been feeling the same way for a while, and so we kind of just
    talked  together.  There  was   absolutely   no   hard   feelings
    whatsoever, I mean totally cool, and he was  like  "This  is  the
    right thing to do", and it was a  good  feeling  afterwards,  and
    he's been totally cool about it. So we feel  peace  about  what's
    been happening. I mean, like when we  left  for  the  States,  he
    called us up and wished us good luck, you know, so nothing bad is
    happening. It's just that that was the right  thing  to  do,  and
    that's the way he felt, too.

CoC: So Tor Magne [guitarist for Norwegian black  metallers  Lengsel]
     is playing bass for you on  the  tour.  Are  you  going  to  get
     another bass player full time?

OB: Well, the thing was that as soon as things happened and we talked
    to Eystein, we knew that we had to do something in order  to  get
    things going, and we just hooked up with him as soon as possible.
    We knew that he was a good musician, and we had been hanging  out
    with him and his friends, and we knew that he was a good  guy,  I
    mean a guy that we definitely could work with,  and  so  we  just
    asked him "How do you feel about stepping in and working with  us
    for a while?", and he was cool about it. I mean,  he  needed  his
    time to think about  it,  but  he  was  very  cool.  He  does  an
    excellent job. He's cool. I'm not sure what is going to happen in
    the future, I mean if Tor Magne is going to be a bandmember.  For
    now, he's not, because that's just the way we've set it up.  He's
    aware of it, and we're aware of it -- he's got his  own  band.  I
    don't know, we will have to wait and see, basically.

CoC: I wanted to compliment you on the Extol website  that  you  guys
     have out. I don't know who's responsible for it, but it's really
     good.

OB: It's our guy from the record company.

CoC: Samuel [Durling, owner of  Endtime  Productions  and  member  of
     Mental Destruction]?

OB: Yeah. He is really good at what he does. Really good.

CoC: It has a lot of good information on there, as far as if you're a
     fan of the band, then you'll find  a  bunch  of  good  stuff  on
     there. It seems like you guys care about your  fans  as  far  as
     getting information out and stuff like that.

OB: That's cool. Nice to hear. He's just a great guy who's done  tons
    of work for us. He's got an eye for nice stuff, you know.

CoC: Yeah, the layout is awesome.

OB: I mean the website looks nice, it's cool. All that he's  done  --
    we're very satisfied with his work. Definitely.

CoC: Have you written any new  songs  that  you  would  use  for  new
     Schaliach music?

OB: Yes, I have a few that definitely would not work for Extol,  that
    would be good for Schaliach. Nobody is writing that kind of music
    right now, like good doom. I'm not talking like Paramaecium,  I'm
    talking like Anathema. British doom.

CoC: Any closing comments?

OB: Oh, okay. If anybody wants to check out what Extol is all  about,
    just go get hold of a copy of _Burial_, and check out  the  music
    and the lyrics and find out what we're all  about.  We're  always
    glad to get new listeners. Also, for anyone who  wants  to  check
    out our website, it's for everybody, and we wish all the best for
    everybody.

Contact: WWW: http://www.durling.com/extol/

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         F L O R I D A ' S   N E W E S T   B L A S P H E M Y
         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                       CoC interviews Diabolic
                           by: Adam Wasylyk

     Those who follow the underground are aware of  the  death  metal
exploits of Tampa, Florida's Diabolic. Making waves with their  _City
of the Dead_ demo, which received rave reviews from fans and  critics
alike, the death metal phenoms  have  just  recently  released  their
debut CD, _Supreme Evil_,  on  Conquest  Music.  Showing  growth  and
boasting  better  production,  _Supreme   Evil_   still   holds   the
characteristics that make Diabolic so  intense:  amazing  drum  work,
great guitar leads and the ability to  aurally  crush  the  listener.
Guitarist Brian Malone took his time getting  back  to  me  with  our
e-mail interview, giving me a great insight into the deadly  quartet.
Sit back, relax, and allow the decimation to take hold.

CoC: We'll start off with the ol' zine  standby;  the  band  history,
     present line-up, etc..

Brian Malone: Diabolic was formed  in  January  1997,  determined  to
              become a force in the worldwide death metal scene.  The
              line-up consists of: Paul Ouellette (vocals,  guitars),
              Aantar "Blastmaster" Coates (drums), Ed Webb (bass) and
              myself,  Brian  Malone  (guitars).  In  April  '97   we
              released the three song demo _City of the Dead_,  which
              has since been called "already classic" and  "the  best
              death metal demo ever released". We've pounded  Florida
              clubs and venues with our  furious  live  performances,
              toured the West Coast with L.A.  death-crushers  Infamy
              and headlined an East Coast tour. Festivals  victimized
              include Milwaukee '98, New York's  Demonfest,  and  the
              New England Death Metal Fest.

CoC: Diabolic doesn't come to death metal listeners as quite a shock,
     as you've had a very successful demo (_City of the  Dead_)  that
     really got your name around. How many copies did it sell?

BM: We've sold and traded  over  2000  copies  of  the  demo  to  the
    death-starved underground scene in 30 countries! Support has been
    incredible from the unholy legions of  zines,  radio,  bands  and
    fans/friends! Hail to the worldwide underground!!

CoC: How did the deal come about to sign with Conquest Music?

BM: We sent Conquest a promo pack containing the demo and a  copy  of
    the  rest  of  our  songs  pre-produced  on  [an]  8-track.  They
    witnessed the impact  we've  had  on  the  Tampa  scene  and  the
    worldwide underground and sent us the  contract.  It's  a  brutal
    label with Diabolic,  Vader,  and  Monstrosity!!  They've  scored
    major label distribution in Canada (PhD) and Europe (Sony / Metal
    Age) and are definitely supportive of Diabolic!!

CoC: You've just released a new album, _Supreme  Evil_.  Perhaps  you
     could talk a bit about it, what someone could expect to hear  on
     it. Favourite tracks?

BM: _Supreme Evil_ was recorded at AudioLab Studios and  mastered  at
    Morrisound  Studios.  Ten  tracks  of  dynamic  death  metal   at
    blasphemous speeds!! Aggressive and creative  song  arrangements,
    cut-throat  flesh-tearing  guitar  work,  single-foot  hyperblast
    drumming  with  scorching  double  kicks,  thundering  basslines,
    vocals ranging from demonic lows to soul-ripping  highs,  chaotic
    yet controlled leads, dark and powerful  lyrics,  and  production
    that delivers all of the desired intensity!!  Fans  have  written
    and told us their favourite tracks and they covered all of  them!
    "View With Abhorrence" and "Ancient Hatred" seem to get a lot  of
    notice!

CoC: How has the Florida death metal  scene  helped  shape  Diabolic?
     After all, you've grown around what's considered a  hot  bed  of
     death metal in the U.S. [or North America, for that matter].

BM: Definitely the scene in Tampa demands respect! With so many great
    veteran death metal bands here, the standards are high for  newer
    bands to meet. Diabolic definitely meets those standards and gets
    total respect from those bands and the entire scene!!  Our  shows
    are packed and the pits are violent!! It's killer to look out and
    see members  of  Morbid  Angel,  Monstrosity,  Deicide,  Cannibal
    Corpse, Obituary, Angelcorpse, Acheron, etc. in the crowd!!

CoC: Who would you list as your personal musical influences? Do  they
     differ from those who influence the band as a whole? I noticed a
     bit of Florida death metal influence, particularly Morbid  Angel
     in some the guitaring and to a smaller extent Obituary as well...

BM: The major influences are basically shared by the band as a whole:
    Black  Sabbath,  Slayer,  Mercyful  Fate,  old  Metallica,  Judas
    Priest, Maiden, Bathory, Venom, Sodom, Destruction, Coroner,  and
    Kreator. We still listen to Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Death,
    Deicide, Obituary, Malevolent  Creation  and  black  metal  bands
    Emperor, Darkthrone, Satanic Slaughter, Marduk, etc..

CoC:  I  must  admit  the  drumming  aspect  of  Diabolic  is   quite
     impressive, akin to something that would appear on  a  Cryptopsy
     album or even something parallel to Culross'  work  on  the  new
     Malevolent Creation album [speed-wise, anyhow].  Tell  me  about
     Aantar Coates' drumming style and how it helps Diabolic...

BM: Aantar's easily ranked among the world's  fastest  drummers,  but
    his  unique  style  and  creativity  definitely  should  not   be
    overlooked! He  plays  with  extreme  emotion  and  continues  to
    improve even more!! The Diabolic sound  is  the  combination  and
    chemistry between us with an elite level  of  excellence  at  all
    stations!

CoC: Any upcoming shows  or  tours  you  could  talk  about?  Perhaps
     another Milwaukee Metal Fest appearance?

BM: We're working on an European tour for the  fall  and  should  hit
    North America after that. No  Milwaukee  appearance  in  '99  for
    Diabolic.

CoC: I didn't get a copy of the lyrics of the new album,  so  perhaps
     you could go into some detail on what they're about.

BM: "Sacrament of Fiends" is basically the sacrament of Diabolic  and
    our plans to destroy  limited  narrow-minded  thinking.  "Ancient
    Hatred"  describes  the  hypocrisy  of  religious   warfare   and
    terrorism  in  the  name  of  an  imaginary   god.   "Treacherous
    Scriptures" is a double-edged sword -- to the fools  of  religion
    it is indeed treacherous doctrine, to the free-thinkers a warning
    to read deeper  into  history  and  reality!!!  "Grave  Warnings"
    foretells the danger of self-fulfilled prophecies of doom.  "Rack
    of Torment" delves into the mind of a  madman  and  his  sadistic
    compulsion to torture and maim. "View With Abhorrence" is blatant
    disgust  for  religious  dependence,  religious  pessimism,   and
    religious limitations. "Dwelling Spirits" is a tale crossing  the
    supernatural barrier. "Wicked Inclination" defines  the  instinct
    of survival through cannibalism. "Supreme Evil" goes  beyond  the
    duality of  eternal  battle  and  the  triumph  of  all  that  is
    Diabolic!!!

CoC: What are your views as far as the death  metal  scene  in  North
     America? Still thriving?

BM: The underground scene in North America is as strong  as  it  ever
    was. There are scenes in  all  major  cities  despite  mainstream
    restrictions and die-hard death metal speed demons  will  not  be
    deprived!!

CoC: And finally, Diabolic have really created a powerful death metal
     album with _Supreme Evil_. So where does the band go from  here?
     Is there room for growth?

BM:  Diabolic  will  continue  to  pulverize   the   listener   while
    progressing as musicians!! There's always  room  to  improve  and
    grow as a band. We are adding  new  facets  to  our  sound  while
    maintaining the straightforward demon-invoking death  metal  that
    pours from our dark souls!!!  Thanx  for  the  killer  interview,
    Adam!!!

Contact:

Diabolic, P.O. Box 9689, Tampa, FL, 33674-9689 USA
(t-shirts and merch list)
mailto:blastmasters@hotmail.com

Conquest Music, 4195 S. Tamiami Tr. #180, Venice, FL 34293-5112 USA
(CD orders)
WWW: http://www.conquestmusic.com

Metal Age Recordings, P.O. Box 1147, 73330 Gingen, Germany
(all European inquiries)

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

              WITH SUMMER'S ENTRANCE, FROST IS BANISHED
              ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                       CoC interviews Mordecai
                          by: Alex Cantwell

     Following the release of Mordecai's split EP with  fellow  Finns
Immortal Souls, their half being entitled _Through the Woods, Towards
the Dawn_ [CoC #39], I had the  privilege  of  conversing  with  lead
vocalist and guitarist Petri Erkkila.

CoC: When did the band get started?

Petri Erkkila: The band was formed with this line-up in '96.  We  did
               play before that with different line-ups, but '96  was
               the real "birth" year of Mordecai. And that  was  also
               the point where the musical style  started  to  become
               the way it is today.

CoC: Has any of the members of Mordecai been in any other bands?

PE: Our other guitarist, Mika Haara, was in another band which  split
    up, and then he joined Mordecai.  Currently,  I  play  the  other
    guitar in Immortal Souls for their live shows. Our time is  quite
    limited and we don't have too much time for any  other  projects,
    and we also like to put our full concentration and inspiration on
    Mordecai.

CoC: If you had the time  for  other  projects,  what  would  you  be
     interested in doing?

PE: I can only speak for myself about this subject. I would  like  to
    do some very dark darkwave/ambient, like Raison d'Etre  or  Caul.
    I'd  also  like  to  do  some  -real-  industrial   like   Mental
    Destruction.

CoC: Why the name "Mordecai"?

PE: The name Mordecai came up when a friend of ours just said it as a
    joke, because it sounded quite heavy, and it's a name of a man in
    the Old Testament. But after a while, we didn't come up with  any
    good name, so we thought that Mordecai sounded a bit original and
    we decided to take it.

CoC: Have you signed a deal with a label?

PE: Just this week, we signed a deal with  Little  Rose  Productions.
    They also released our split CD and the Finnish metal compilation
    _From Kaamos to Midnight Sun_ [CoC #36]. We will be  recording  a
    full length album at the end of this year or early next year.

CoC: How has the response been to the split CD with Immortal Souls?

PE: The response  has  been  really  good.  It's  been  getting  some
    airplay, too, and more reviews  are  coming  all  the  time.  And
    overall, the response has been better  than  we  expected,  since
    this is the first release from Mordecai.

CoC: What kind of airplay?

PE: It has been played in different  stations  in  the  US,  here  in
    Scandinavia and in Singapore. A friend of mine from the  US  once
    told me: "Know what? I just heard your song "Dawn Eternal" on the
    radio yesterday", and it was quite a surprise. It  was  also  the
    first time that I heard of our CD getting airplay.

CoC: How did you get started in metal?

PE: When we heard Vengeance Rising's _Human  Sacrifice_,  it  hit  us
    like a hammer. If we hadn't heard that album back then,  I  guess
    we would have never started listening to  death  metal  or  other
    extreme styles of music.

CoC: You're speaking for the whole band when you say this?

PE: Well, I can speak for the  original  forming  members,  including
    myself, Miika and Matti. Mika came to our  band  later,  so  this
    doesn't include him.

CoC: What are your musical influences?

PE: It's really hard to name  any  specific  musical  influences.  We
    listen to quite a lot of classical music, which has influenced us
    quite a lot.

CoC: What bands do you respect currently? Have you been  accepted  in
     the Finnish metal scene?

PE: Some bands that I have been listening to  lately  are  the  great
    Savior Machine, Antestor, Veni  Domine  and  Paramaecium.  Savior
    Machine is one band which I respect greatly. Of course there  are
    always some "true" metallers  who  think  that  we  shouldn't  be
    playing this kind of music. But there has been also a lot of good
    feedback also; people have enjoyed our music and live shows.

CoC: With whom have you played shows?

PE: We have played some shows with several bands,  such  as  Immortal
    Souls and Deuteronomium. This Summer we're also  playing  the  DP
    festival in Norway with Extol, Vaakevandring and others.

CoC: What is the immediate future for the band?

PE: We're now writing new material for our full length  album.  We're
    also playing some shows with Immortal Souls to promote our  split
    CD. The rest of this year will be spent with  writing  new  stuff
    and playing shows.

CoC: Tell me about the new material you are working on, new CD title,
     etc..

PE: Our new material is a good progression from our EP material. It's
    a  bit  more  technical,  and  of  course  it's   still   melodic
    black/death metal. It's more  brutal  than  the  previous  stuff.
    Clean vocals are used a lot better this time. The new material is
    turning out to be a great progression from our previous material.
    The new CD title will be announced later; sorry, it's  too  early
    to discuss that.

CoC: How has the rise of Sentenced, Amorphis and Stratovarius on  the
     Finnish charts  and  also  worldwide  recognition  affected  the
     growth of metal there?

PE: There has been more and more metal bands on the charts over  here
    in the last few years, and bigger metal bands are recognized more
    and more. There was this trend about four or five years ago  that
    people "turned" from extreme metal to  hardcore  or  even  techno
    stuff, but it seems that nowadays people are starting  to  listen
    to more metal again.

CoC: It seems like there are some extremely talented metal  musicians
     hiding away in Finland that gain instant popularity  the  minute
     they release  their  music,  such  as  Children  of  Bodom,  for
     instance. Do you think that the success of  the  bigger  Finnish
     metal bands has brought  fresh  inspiration  to  young,  hopeful
     musicians there?

PE: Yeah, I believe that when bigger metal bands succeed  in  Finland
    and outside Finland, it does encourage and inspire new  bands  to
    start and new people to start making music. Bands  like  Amorphis
    and Children of Bodom have done very  well  outside  Finland,  so
    they are showing that metal still has a chance.

CoC:  Would  you  consider  the  social  climate  in  Finland  to  be
     conservative or liberal, and in light  of  that,  how  is  metal
     viewed in the public eye?

PE: Well, lately metal has been viewed very  controversially  in  the
    public eye (in media, etc.), because a little  while  ago,  there
    was this Satanic ritual killing where four Satanists aged 16 to a
    bit over 20 killed a man, then they mutilated him, and  even  ate
    some of the corpse (plus a  lot  of  other  really,  really  sick
    stuff). They had been listening to black metal during the killing
    and the ritual, so metal music and especially black metal was  in
    the media for quite some time. Of course this has  affected  even
    innocent people. A lot of metal people, with black clothes,  etc.
    are often looked upon with a bad eye.

CoC: Final comments...

PE: Once again, thanks a lot for the interview! You also asked me  if
    I was familiar with CoC at all... well, I have read some  of  the
    past issues, but that's all. I really liked them, and I'm glad we
    got featured in it.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
                   _____  .__ ___.
                  /  _  \ |  |\_ |__  __ __  _____
                 /  /_\  \|  | | __ \|  |  \/     \
                /    |    \  |_| \_\ \  |  /  Y Y  \
                \____|__  /____/___  /____/|__|_|  /
                        \/         \/            \/
              _____                 .__
             /  _  \   _________.__.|  |  __ __  _____
            /  /_\  \ /  ___<   |  ||  | |  |  \/     \
           /    |    \\___ \ \___  ||  |_|  |  /  Y Y  \
           \____|__  /____  >/ ____||____/____/|__|_|  /
                   \/     \/ \/                      \/

Scoring:  10 out of 10 -- A masterpiece indeed
           9 out of 10 -- Highly recommended
           7 out of 10 -- Has some redeeming qualities
           5 out of 10 -- You are treading in dangerous waters
           3 out of 10 -- Nothing here worth looking into
           0 out of 10 -- An atrocious album, avoid at all costs!


Agalloch - _Pale Folklore_  (The End Records, May 1999)
by: Brian Meloon  (9 out of 10)

This is Agalloch's debut release. Their music  is  a  dark  brand  of
gothic rock mixed with metallic elements. The best comparison  I  can
make is to The Nefilim's _Zoon_. Agalloch are generally lighter,  but
are similar in atmosphere, their use of clean and distorted  guitars,
and especially the jangly, twangy clean  guitar  tone.  Most  of  the
music is slow and gloomy, but in a goth rock vein rather than a  doom
vein. However, the songs are generally quite long, and go  through  a
variety of tempo and style changes. The band does an excellent job of
building  and  maintaining  an   atmosphere.   Keyboards   are   used
tastefully, and aren't thrown in where they aren't needed. The vocals
are mainly male rasped/growled vocals, with  ethereal  female  vocals
and clean male choir vocals added in a few places. The production  is
very good, although some of the lead guitar tones are a  little  weak
at points, and this really hurts the effect that the  band  is  going
for. The playing is solid, though  there  isn't  much  here  that  is
technically demanding. The guitar leads are tasteful and appropriate,
focusing on melody instead of flash. Overall, this is  an  impressive
offering. It has a maturity and confidence that one  wouldn't  expect
from a debut album. This should please fans of  heavier  gothic  rock
and many metal fans as well.


Amsvartner - _Dreams_  (Blackened, May 1999)
by: Paul Schwarz  (8.5 out of 10)

Amsvartner have hit a vein of gold with  their  debut  album:  it  is
musically relatively original and the writing and playing is also  of
high quality. _Dreams_ is a challenge to adequately describe,  but  I
like a challenge and music which is interesting  to  listen  to  -is-
often challenging to describe. An influence which is distinct in this
material is the melody-infused riffing style which goes back to  such
bands as Iron Maiden and Judas Priest in heavy metal.  However,  this
is not some heavy metal rehash release (the fact  that  it  isn't  is
exactly what makes the above noted stylistic factors  so  endearing).
It is an album rooted in the more melodic death/black metal tradition
but is not one of the many derivative releases which emerge in  these
styles seemingly every minute. Amsvartner additionally  combine  some
funk-styled jazzy bass/rhythm section  work  which  is  blended  into
parts of _Dreams_ well, something  I  doubted  was  possible  if  you
weren't Cynic. The vocal delivery of Marcus Johansson is powerful and
distorted, but understandable and emotion-filled. With  a  number  of
different vocal  styles  used  throughout  the  album  and  sometimes
layered, it is not only the music which is worthy of note. I have not
described all  that  comprises  _Dreams_,  but  these  are  the  main
factors.  It  is  not  a  perfect  album  and  each  song  does   not
individually brand itself  in  your  head  from  the  first,  nor  is
everything Amsvartner do to my liking, but _Dreams_ is  an  excellent
debut record and absolutely worthy of your attention.


Anathema - _Judgement_  (Music for Nations, June 1999)
by: Pedro Azevedo  (9 out of 10)

"As ye sow, so shall ye weep" is the  inscription  upon  a  photo  by
former Anathema vocalist Darren  White  on  the  back  cover  of  the
_Judgement_ digipak. A promising sign for this lyrically rich  album,
as is more than usually the case with Anathema. With the departure of
influential bass player and part-time songwriter and lyricist  Duncan
Patterson (replaced by Dave Pybus) and the return of original drummer
John Douglas, Anathema seem to have entered  a  whole  new  stage  in
their career, having inclusively signed a four record deal with Music
for Nations (therefore leaving Peaceville  after  about  seven  years
with them). With all these changes, Anathema reappear with a new  and
even  more  remarkable  album  just  a  year  after  the  release  of
_Alternative 4_. However, ever since _The  Silent  Enigma_,  Anathema
have progressively been losing their once  great  ability  to  create
powerful crescendos that were carefully built and  then  exploded  in
rage and  anguish,  as  in  "The  Silent  Enigma",  "A  Dying  Wish",
"Restless Oblivion" and "Sunset of Age", and that is  the  one  thing
that _Judgement_ really lacks and practically the only reason why I'm
not giving it a 10 out of 10. Only one song comes anywhere  close  to
achieving this, although in a  different  way,  which  is  "Emotional
Winter" -- the guitar at the beginning of which reminded me of  _Love
Over Gold_-era  Dire  Straits.  Daniel  Cavanagh's  unique  sorrowful
guitar style also continues to drift away from the  old  _The  Silent
Enigma_ days, and some more of what he used to  do  back  then  would
have been welcome here (his  guitar  work  is  still  excellent,  but
different). The same can be  said  about  Vincent  Cavanagh's  voice:
though technically superior, his ability to create powerful contrasts
through the occasional use of a harsher style  has  been  practically
forsaken since _The Silent Enigma_ -- nowadays it would hardly fit in
the music  anyway  and  only  much  smaller  contrasts  are  created.
_Judgement_ is nevertheless overall superior to both _Alternative  4_
and _Eternity_ -- this hour-long, fourteen-track album (including the
"Transacoustic" digipak bonus track) contains a lot of material  that
might deserve a 10 out of 10 rating by itself; songs like "Parisienne
Moonlight",  "Emotional  Winter",  "Anyone,  Anywhere",   "One   Last
Goodbye",  "Forgotten   Hopes"   and   "Deep".   Vincent   Cavanagh's
ever-improving clean vocals  join  the  piano  and  the  increasingly
frequent acoustic guitars to weave a truly impressive  and  beautiful
album that shows Anathema maturing and perfecting this current  style
of theirs once again. To put it  simply,  this  is  soft,  remarkably
beautiful and heartfelt-sounding, doomy, -excellent- emotional music.


Arch Enemy - _Burning Bridges_  (Century Media, June 1999)
by: Paul Schwarz  (9.5 out of 10)

With this latest offering, Arch  Enemy  have  at  last  succeeded  in
creating the album I'd always hoped they would. _Black Earth_  stated
the band's  commitment  to  brutality  while  also  displaying  their
ability and desire to add melodic, emotional, and ultimately "softer"
elements to  their  visibly-but-not-derivatively  Carcass-influenced,
head-down-riffing style. On _Burning Bridges_ the potential  of  this
dynamic combination has finally  been  realised.  Where  last  effort
_Stigmata_ was a little  too  ponderous  and  got  lost  in  its  own
technicality at times, _BB_ finds the perfect balance  between  these
two opposing forces. What lets down  even  albums  by  great  melodic
death bands like In Flames is that they sound a little too  happy  to
top my list of favourites. Arch Enemy, though, have leads and  guitar
harmony parts which could put many of these bands to shame, but  they
retain that spark of sheer brutality  which  is  a  part  of  all  my
favourite death metal albums: the crushing  riffs,  the  lethal  drum
assault and thundering bass and the brutal vocals. _BB_ is dark  like
a death metal album should be, but the use of melody  in  the  guitar
work push it limitlessly far above the  level  of  a  standard  death
metal release like _Gallery of Suicide_ or _Serpents of  the  Light_.
Incredible blazing leads blister out of  songs  like  "Dead  Inside",
while  "Demonic  Science"  showcases  an  almost  prog-rock  sounding
breakdown and "Silverwing"'s chorus section is in major chords.  What
I love most, though, is the way  Arch  Enemy  slip  between  the  two
different feels. "Pilgrim" begins with a hugely melodic,  very  heavy
metal, lead/harmony part, but  when  Johan  Liiva's  crushing  vocals
enter, so does a heavy, percussive, death metal sounding verse  riff,
then, when the chorus  comes  in,  the  two  opposites  are  expertly
combined together. "Angelclaw" follows a similarly brilliant  dynamic
pattern. It took me a while to get into _BB_  and  realise  how  damn
brilliant it is, so give it a chance, because Arch  Enemy  have  gone
out on a limb here and managed to pool their considerable talents and
emerge with one of the year's best albums.


Carpe Tenebrum - _Mirrored Hate Painting_  (Hammerheart, June 1999)
by: Adam Wasylyk  (7 out of 10)

Containing Astennu (Dimmu Borgir) on guitars  with  Nagash  (ex-Dimmu
Borgir  /  Covenant)  doing  the  vocal  work  and   Peter   Tagtgren
(Hypocrisy) twiddling the knobs at his  Abyss  Studio,  the  elements
came together in  an  explosive  manner  resulting  in  a  masterful,
hateful piece of  work  called  _Mirrored  Hate  Painting_.  However,
there's a  problem  (I  think...);  more  on  that  later.  It's  not
difficult to describe the music Carpe Tenebrum plays; picture mid-era
Dimmu and a touch of Covenant and you pretty much  have  an  idea  of
where this band's coming from. The musical diversity is  appreciated,
from breakneck blast beats to soothing guitar solos.  The  production
is top notch, which allows everything to be heard. It's hard to  nail
down  specific  influences;  the  music  at  times  lends  itself  to
traditional black metal while  at  the  same  time  having  different
influences (ala Covenant) that work off that sound  beautifully.  And
the problem I was talking about?  During  track  four,  "Mirrored  in
Scarry Skies" it becomes painfully  apparent  that  there's  an  odd,
repeating sound behind the wall of sound Carpe Tenebrum produce. It's
hard to describe; the first three tracks sound flawless, but sometime
during the fourth track the sound pops in. I'm guessing  that  it  is
not meant to be there, meaning this CD could  very  well  be  flawed,
most likely in the post-Tagtgren period up until the CD found its way
into my mailbox. If this "sound" is meant to  be  there...  well,  it
detracts from the overall listen, downgrading this CD from an 8.5  to
a 7. So even though there's some great material here,  be  forewarned
that this CD may be flawed.


Dark Tranquillity - _Projector_  (Century Media, June 1999)
by: Paul Schwarz  (8.5 out of 10)

I usually find reviews of releases which I love  almost  beyond  life
itself, the hardest to write. _Projector_, however, I am  finding  it
difficult to make a judgement  on.  I  am  stuck  with  two  opposing
thoughts: 1) this is a good record and a diverse and  different  one;
2) I don't like this as much as _The Mind's I_ and it sounds somewhat
disjointed.  Reconciling  these  two  factors  is   difficult.   Dark
Tranquillity have changed considerably on  their  fourth  album.  The
greatest single difference is the reduction in speed: the band rarely
blaze through songs with the thrash/speed inspired style of old.  For
the most part, however, the tone of the album is closer to songs like
"Constant" from _The  Mind's  I_,  in  that  the  guitars  chop  with
calculation at a mid-paced or slow pace. On songs like "To  a  Bitter
Halt" the sound this  produces  reminds  strongly  of  material  from
_TMI_. However, the majority of the  songs  have  quite  a  different
feel. "FreeCard" begins and intersperses  itself  heavily  throughout
with piano, while "UnDo Control" is heavy on female vocals and has  a
chorus refrain which follows a sharp, percussive rhythm  very  unlike
previous Dark Tranquillity material. Keyboard  and  classic  elements
intersperse the album but the real shock comes with "Day to  End",  a
track which begins with programmed drums and is  sung  in  clean  and
almost crooning vocals by Mikael Stanne. It is a bold step,  but  not
one I enjoy very  much.  The  majority  of  the  changes  wrought  on
_Projector_ can be described by comparison to the last two  Sentenced
records. The guitar work has a similarly hard rock-styled  poise  and
the clean and crooning vocals definitely bear a  strong  resemblance.
Basically, I haven't grown with the band. "The Sun Fired Blanks"  and
"On Your Time" are among my favourite Dark Tranquillity songs,  being
akin to the old style, and the new elements in them are worked in  to
great effect. Songs like "FreeCard" or "ThereIn"  I  am  half-way  to
loving, and the remainder, culminating in "Day to End", I can respect
for being pretty well written and thought out, but I am not that into
them. I think it is  very  possible  a  lot  of  Dark  Tranquillity's
audience will appreciate the direction taken on _Projector_, but  for
myself I am not as enamoured with their new direction as I  was  with
their previous output.


Dawn of Relic - _One Night in Carcosa_
by: Paul Schwarz  (6 out of 10)  (Wicked World, June 1999)

My central problem with _One Night  in  Carcosa_  is  that  it  lacks
aggression. I don't mean because the music written is not aggressive,
that wouldn't necessarily be a problem, but that the way it is played
and produced lacks aggression, which would  improve  the  record,  at
least to my taste. What DoR play could roughly be described as  black
metal, but that -would- be a rough description. Apart  from  fleeting
moments where the influence of  Mayhem  or  Burzum  is  evident,  the
overall sound only borrows  from  the  black  metal  style  and  many
aspects (the drums, especially in their emphasis on double bass,  for
example) sway more towards death metal.  DoR  utilise  keyboards  and
some melodic progressions which are  common  to  the  atmospherically
inclined section of the black metal movement, but this said they  are
not even close to being in the league of such greats  as  Emperor  or
Satyricon. The guitar work on here is pretty average and its sound is
passable; the drum work can  be  pretty  good  with  some  impressive
breaks occasionally pulled off. The vocals lack  variation,  however,
and are somewhat faceless. Overall,  DoR  isn't  anything  I  have  a
passion for disliking, but then again it isn't something which  gives
me much pleasure to listen to either.


Various - _Death... Is Just the Beginning 5_
by: Adam Wasylyk  (7 out of 10)  (Nuclear Blast, June 1999)

One of metal's most popular compilation series, version 5.0 serves to
continue the legacy that prior volumes have established.  A  two-disk
set (as were the past two), it features  an  end  of  the  millennium
update on who's on Nuclear Blast. As with every compilation,  there's
the good and bad.  Disk  1  contains  Nuke  Blast's  more  aggressive
artists, which in  most  cases  are  either  death  or  black  metal.
Covenant, Dismember, Sinister, Hypocrisy, Gorgoroth, In Flames, Dimmu
Borgir, Satyricon and In Flames are but a few bands on disk one. Disk
2 offers the more subtle (and lesser known) bands on the  label,  and
at the same time is the weaker of the two disks.  Where  Therion  and
Dismal Euphony are cool, the  retro  metal  shit  like  Primal  Fear,
Hollow, HammerFall, Narnia, Sinner, Pegazus just  doesn't  fly.  It's
good to see a fair  amount  of  previously  unreleased/rare  material
here, as it's another reason to think about picking this up.  As  per
usual, if you're just getting into metal, this is  a  great  starting
point. If you're already engrossed in the  metal  scene,  there's  no
reason to pick this up unless you absolutely need to hear a couple of
unreleased tracks.


Dreams of Sanity - _Masquerade_  (Hall of Sermon, 1999)
by: Alex Cantwell  (2 out of 10)

The most important thing that you need to know about this CD is  that
Dreams of Sanity has a female singer. Of course, that is  not  a  bad
thing immediately, but this one in particular is in  a  very  chipper
mood and is singing away happily over mid-paced European metal / hard
rock with a lot of keyboards. The music would be enjoyable if not for
this happy little bird singing the happiest of melodies about  operas
and masquerades over it. Forget this, man. I am  open  to  a  lot  of
different music, but this I cannot take. She's like Doro  in  a  very
happy mood, except I imagine this woman to look like your mom  rather
than a metal princess like Doro. She's like Anneke from The Gathering
in a better mood than she is already  in,  but  without  the  running
shoes. One of the songs even has double bass, but even it  cannot  be
saved from the pit of gayness that this CD descends further into with
every track. Forget this! This one shall go into  the  circular  file
immediately. Oh, look at it fly!


Enthroned - _The Apocalypse Manifesto_  (Blackened, May 1999)
by: Paul Schwarz  (7 out of 10)

Enthroned's  style  of  black  metal  on  this  release  is   heavily
influenced by the styles of such frenetic and violent  performers  as
Mayhem and Immortal, although Enthroned are not  even  close  to  the
strata which these bands occupy. Previously, Enthroned were  somewhat
of a joke to  many  in  the  black  metal  scene,  but  now  I  could
justifiably see them being taken seriously, going on the strength  of
_The Apocalypse Manifesto_. Having been produced by  Peter  Tagtgren,
the band do have a clear  and  powerful  sound,  though  I  must  say
Tagtgren's productions are starting to sound a mite formulaic when so
many albums have  them.  Enthroned  blast  successfully  and  clearly
enough through fast sections and manage in some cases to use acoustic
or melodic interplay, particularly in less  speed-obsessed  sections,
to give _TAM_ a bit more depth  and  create  some  atmosphere.  "Post
Mortem Penetrations" is pretty successful in this respect, though  it
is no "Freezing Moon". Overall, a more than  adequate  third  release
for the band, but certainly nothing to worry Emperor, Dawn,  Immortal
et al; they are not threatened by Enthroned.


Eternal Tears of Sorrow - _Vilda Mannu_  (Spinefarm, December 1998)
by: David Rocher  (8 out of 10)

Now, this is a -damn-  good  surprise.  With  a  name  as  feeble  as
"Eternal Tears of Sorrow", I was more than readied to valiantly stand
before a deluge of gooey tearful sweetness, in the rather infuriating
ways of Theatre of Tragedy or MacBeth. It rapidly dawned upon me that
I had been truly misled; as soon, in fact, as the swift  introductory
riff and massive rhythmic section of "Northern  Doom"  kicked  in  --
EToS in fact play a form of melodic, heavy Scandinavian death  metal,
and they do it rather well.  Their  music's  sonorities  are  unusual
enough, sounding like a melodious  fusion  of  heavy  metal  and  old
traditional tunes, and definitely distant  enough  from  the  wearing
tones of scene leaders In Flames; and these Finns  also  unmistakably
know how to pick  a  catchy  and  memorable  hookline.  The  sporadic
insertion of keyboards succeeds in adding cold touches of atmosphere,
but EToS are smart enough not to  make  this  an  overwhelming  habit
which could in have spoiled the  goods.  _Vilda  Mannu_  demonstrates
cool musicianship, and can pride itself in very good, creative  metal
music. EToS do indulge in female vocals twice on the album, but  once
again in a rather characteristic way:  ethereal,  soothing  and  laid
back on one track, these chants almost sound scornful  and  cynically
cold on the other, proving that this trio know how to keep  clear  of
the faded paths taken  by  most  nauseatingly  bland  users  of  such
artefacts. With a nice, fat sound crafted by Ahti Kortelainen of  the
mythical Tico-Tico studios, EToS's second album  reveals  personality
in their approach to death metal, and that  is  definitely  the  vein
they want to delve deeper into -- I don't see that the  scene  really
needs another In Flames clone out there, and obviously nor do EToS.


Forgive Me Not - _Tearfall_  (Metal Age, December 1998)
by: Paul Schwarz  (6.5 out of 10)

It seems that Sentenced's _Down_  and  _Frozen_  albums  made  a  big
impact on the musical consciousness of this Russian band. However,  I
can forgive (no pun intended) Forgive Me Not for this  to  a  certain
degree, as they are evidently trying to find  their  feet  and,  this
being their debut, have not yet quite "discovered" their  own  style.
As Sentenced-esque stuff goes, though, I have to be honest:  this  is
mediocre. The vocalist needs to do a lot of work if he wants  to  get
himself to the level of Ville Laihala or any of -his- contemporaries.
Apart from that, the production is good for what looks like a  pretty
independent job and certain parts (like the attitude  infused  female
vocal tirade which begins "Heaven Island") are  at  least  worthy  of
note and could come in handy later. Overall, though, this  is  pretty
unremarkable and doesn't match up to such bands as Cumdeo (also  from
Russia), who have found their own style and are already well on their
way to greatness.


God Dethroned - _Bloody Blasphemy_  (Metal Blade, July 1999)
by: Adrian Bromley  (9 out of 10)

If you hate Jesus, religion, priests, churches,  the  Bible  and  all
things else related to Christianity, then you'll totally fall in love
with the work of Holland's powerful  black/death  metal  quartet  God
Dethroned. Fuck, if you like good fast-paced, well  executed  numbers
with a lot of speed and crunch to it, God  Dethroned  is  your  band.
From the  totally  powerful  opening  number  of  "Serpent  King"  to
"Boiling Blood", "Under the Golden Wings of Death"  and  finally  the
album closer (and title track) "Bloody  Blasphemy",  God  Dethroned's
crusade to shit on anything religious is loud  and  clear.  Riffs  of
breakneck speed and vocals  that'll  scare  the  willy  out  of  your
neighbours are abundant here and it's no wonder this band is  plagued
by religious groups and government agencies  in  their  hometown  and
other European cities. All in the name of God Dethroned, my  friends.
This album not only kicks Jesus' ass, but  our  asses  too.  May  God
Dethroned have mercy on your soul.


Godflesh - _Us and Them_  (Earache, May 1999)
by: Paul Schwarz  (8.5 out of 10)

Godflesh have consistently succeeded in creating albums with dark and
oppressive atmospheres. On 1996's _Songs of Love and Hate_  they  did
this primarily with a guitar-driven style where the  backing  rhythms
were rather sombre. This made the guitars the main instrument. By the
time the first 10 or 20 seconds of _Us and  Them_'s  opener  "I,  Me,
Mine" have gone by, any listener will realise that  Godflesh's  sixth
album is quite a different kettle of fish to _SoLaH_. Instead, it  is
more akin to _SoLaH_'s remix effort, _Love and Hate in Dub_, in that,
much of the time, it is driven percussively and by thumping drum  and
bass and hip-hop rhythms. "I, Me, Mine", "Defiled" and others do  not
even throw a riff in under these  drum  and  bass  rhythms  (as  many
amateur bands might feel the need to), but I find myself (not being a
listener to drum and bass and the  like)  quite  getting  into  them.
These tracks are catchy in their own way and, most importantly, don't
break with what Godflesh have always  done:  create  interesting  and
dark music. Tiny notes  of  guitar  jump  out  of  these  tracks  and
Broadrick's voice is given an  inhuman  quality  by  a  pitchshifting
distortion. There  are  also  more  "traditional"  sounding  Godflesh
tracks on display,  which,  with  huge,  slow  and  oppressive  riffs
repeating  and  percussion  building,  see   Godflesh   creating   an
oppressive and depressive  storm  of  sound  in  the  way  they  more
commonly do. At 64 minutes, _Us and  Them_  is  a  lot  to  take  in,
especially in one sitting, and I find it a little bit of  a  struggle
as an album, but it does have some great tracks and creates a blanket
of depressive, atmospheric industrial sound which is  hard  to  throw
off.


Hypocrisy - _Hypocrisy_  (Nuclear Blast, June 1999)
by: David Rocher  (10 out of 10)

Hypocrisy's sixth album is another fine stepping stone in this trio's
irresistible ascent, that testifies to the immense  talent  that  has
never ceased to ooze from this band  since  the  inception  of  their
unearthly  oppressing  _The  Fourth  Dimension_.   After   mastermind
Tagtgren had threatened to reduce this band to ash two years ago, due
to the lack of motivation demonstrated  by  partners  in  crime  Lars
Szoke and Mikael Hedlund, it seems this warning succeeded in  sending
boiling new blood  gushing  through  the  band's  veins,  unceasingly
driving them to reach new summits in heaviness, melody  and  dazzling
inspiration. With the use of synthetics now well and truly integrated
in their sound, one of Sweden's most crucial death metal  bands  have
composed an album destined to reign  among  the  finest  death  metal
releases this year, and  possibly  ever.  Akin  to  a  heavier,  more
atmospheric heir to the amazing _Abducted_, this  eponym  masterpiece
boasts fantastic canorous riffing and a pounding,  truly  devastating
rhythm section enriched with unexpected breaks  and  shifts.  Peter's
leads are better crafted than they ever were and his fantastic use of
changing vocal styles testifies to this band's irrepressible rise  to
the pantheon of metal legends. Obviously, a talented producer such as
Tagtgren could only craft the most flawless of  sounds  for  his  own
band, and what he has pretty much achieved for  this  masterpiece  is
simply a perfect blend of  crushing,  roaring  heaviness  and  finely
distorted melody, which is  awe-inspiring.  _Hypocrisy_,  people,  is
beyond all doubt one of 1999's major chapters, and basically  another
lesson in death metal dealt to the entire scene by  past  masters  in
the art of metal music extremism. Missing out on this release is good
enough a reason for vicious  alien  life  forms  to  abduct  you  and
abusively perform crippling proctology on your worthless mortal coil.


Immolation - _Failures for Gods_  (Metal Blade, June 1999)
by: Paul Schwarz  (9.5 out of 10)

Once again, Immolation have produced an album which  grabs  my  ears,
eyes and brain and drags me mercilessly  into  their  twisted  realm,
where brutal, dark death metal is eternally entwined with  engrossing
anti-religious sentiments.  The  music  -is-  the  initial  and  most
important part of Immolation, but they are so much more than a band I
merely listen to. Following the lyrics and engrossing yourself in the
themes enhances the listening experience of all  Immolation's  albums
and _Failures for Gods_ is no exception.  While  the  music  assaults
your senses and creates a hugely oppressive, dark atmosphere  all  by
itself, the lyrical themes enhance this at least twofold. _FfG_ is  a
progression  for  the  band  in  that  it  is  heavier  and   doesn't
incorporate quite as much of the despair-ridden melody which  was  so
resonantly part of tracks like "Burn With Jesus" or "Nailed to  Gold"
on _Here in After_. Songs such as "Failures for Gods" and "Your Angel
Died" still use this technique, but _FfG_ is far more centred  around
being downright heavy and brutal (which is also  accentuated  by  the
wider-ranging production), while capturing an atmosphere at least  as
powerful  and  affecting  as  _HiA_.  Build-ups  are  somewhat   more
important and the band are more  calculated  with  their  riffs.  The
poundingly simple riff which comes in at the  three  minute  mark  on
"Once Ordained" is punishing in itself, but is augmented incalculably
by the raging build-up which lays the foundations for  it.  Likewise,
the last two minutes  of  the  album,  the  almighty  riff,  and  its
accompanying melodies, which marks the end of "The Devil I Know",  is
atmospheric and affecting in the best senses of the word --  and  via
the best medium, basic instruments. I have nothing against  keyboards
as such, and they can be used by bands to  great  effect  (Nocturnus,
for example), but often I just want atmosphere the Autopsy way:  raw,
creepy and basic. Unless Morbid Angel release a new record this year,
I don't think any  death  metal  album  will  be  able  to  challenge
Immolation in the extremity or brilliance stakes. This  is  essential
listening.


Internal Bleeding - _Driven to Conquer_  (Pavement, June 1999)
by: Adrian Bromley  (4 out of 10)

By the time their third song comes around, I  was  already  tired  of
Internal Bleeding's brutally charged (at  times)  effort  _Driven  to
Conquer_. The reason? Too same sounding for the most part, and to  be
honest, the music just doesn't live up to what a lot of  other  death
metal bands are doing these days. While  the  vocals  of  singer  Ray
Lebron do hit a truly guttural stride at times, in the end  not  even
some serious guitar riffing and double-kicks  could  save  this  from
mediocrity.   Only   salvageable   tracks   are   "Conditioned"   and
"Slavesoul". Fans of the band, go ahead and check 'em out. Not a fan?
You're not missing much.


Killer Khan - _Kill Devil Hills_  (<Independent>, June 1999)
by: Adrian Bromley  (8 out of 10)

Holy Ozzy Osbourne?! Holy King Diamond!? What the fuck  is  going  on
here?! With a true nod to such masters of song writing and singing as
Ozzy Osbourne and King  Diamond  (his  solo  effort  stuff)  and  the
powerful works of such  metal  greats  as  Black  Sabbath  and  Judas
Priest, Killer Khan lead screamer/guitarist/songwriter  Killian  Khan
goes all out here with an impressive array of ideas that  spew  forth
from _Kill Devil Hills_. With a great sound (think a modern  take  on
'80s era Ozzy material for the most part) and impressive  pipes  from
the vocalist, Killer Khan rock the house and help rejuvenate  a  lost
form  of  metal  music  nowadays.  While  not   groundbreaking,   and
definitely not the best of this musical genre  (but  close!),  Killer
Khan's  nine-song  offering  is  worthy  of  cranking.  I'm   getting
flashbacks of sitting in my basement  apartment  listening  to  music
with headphones on and not a care in the  world.  Wow!  This  is  too
much, people. What a splendid surprise this is in this month's review
batch. Best cuts: title track "Kill  Devil  Hills",  "Evilution"  and
"Computer Icon". If you at all still care  about  metal  music  circa
1988 (but with a more updated sound quality),  then  Killer  Khan  is
your choice this month. Great effort.

Contact: P.O. Box 1466, Mooresville, North Carolina, USA, 28115
         mailto:KhanMetal@webtv.net
         WWW: http://www.Killerkhan.com


Konkhra - _The Freakshow EP_  (Diehard, June 1999)
by: Paul Schwarz  (4 out of 10)

If you bet your bottom dollar on the  new  Konkhra  album  being  the
be-all-and-end-all of the thrash/death fraternity this year, then God
damn did -you- back the wrong horse. Konkhra have got about as  close
to doing a "Metallica" as I think  they  could've  without  at  least
passing by a mirror, taking a good hard look, and realising what they
were doing. Okay, Anders' vocals  are  still  relatively  aggressive,
despite a slight tone change, but the  performances,  and  especially
production, of the guitar "attack" and accompanying drums  has  about
as much kick as Poison on a bad day. The songs are founded on  basic,
rocky groove-laced structures with Anders'  now  somewhat  indistinct
vocals over the top (he hasn't got enough Hetfield, Keenan,  or  what
have you, in him to stand out sufficiently over such bare music)  and
the drums, guitar and  bass  chugging  along  rather  uninterestingly
below. "This EP is pretty fucking  good...  If  you  don't  think  so
you're probably deaf or just plain stupid!", says the inlay. Well,  I
don't feel stupid, but maybe I am a bit deaf, 'cause I keep  spinning
this piece of plastic which says "Konkhra" on it, but all that  comes
out when I play  it  is  bad  B-side  songs  from  the  sessions  for
Corrosion of Conformity's _Deliverance_ where Pepper must have had  a
serious illness. In fact, I think something afflicted the whole band,
because they decided it would be a  great  idea  to  churn  out  bare
sounding and unconvincingly sung versions of Iron Maiden's  "Prowler"
and Motorhead's "Orgasmatron". Nope, I was right the first  time:  it
is the new Konkhra EP, but it isn't very good at all, that's all.


Lacuna Coil - _In a Reverie_  (Century Media, June 1999)
by: Adrian Bromley  (7.5 out of 10)

Some are saying that Lacuna Coil's latest effort is far  superior  to
what The Gathering did with  their  spacey,  lounge-like  atmospheric
release _How to Build a Planet?_. I can see (and hear)  that  in  the
band's full-length release for Century  Media,  as  their  sound  has
strengthened since last year's stunning six-song  self-titled  debut.
Led by frontgal Cristina Scabbia and male vocalist Andrea Ferro,  the
Italian quintet work well off one-another, with Cristina's  beautiful
vocal  arrangements  accompanying  the   skilled   musicianship   and
sometimes gothic sound of the band as it plays out.  _In  a  Reverie_
works for two reasons: 1) the band knows that they  have  a  talented
ensemble to work with; and 2) their ideas of beauty and serenity  are
carefully executed within each and every song  here.  It's  beautiful
work that is etched here and Lacuna Coil should be praised for  that.
On the downside, this does at times sound too much like The Gathering
or even the long gone (I haven't heard  a  release  from  them  in  a
while) Dreamside. But as sounds do sound  a  bit  similar  at  times,
Lacuna Coil do break away from that and  solidify  their  debut  with
numbers like "To Myself I Turned"  and  "Reverie".  This  is  a  good
release and, to tell you the truth, for those of you still skeptical,
Lacuna Coil deserve a listen.


Merauder - _Five Deadly Venoms_  (Century Media, 1999)
by: Matthias Noll  (3 out of 10)

In 1995 Merauder released their debut _Master  Killer_.  This  record
was far from being innovative or groundbreaking, but I still consider
_Master Killer_ one of the best hardcore/metal crossover releases  in
the last couple of years. Singer Jorge left the band after the debut,
got replaced, is now back in the band and besides these troubles  one
would expect four years to be sufficient for a band to unleash two or
even three albums -- wrong. Basically, _Five Deadly Venoms_ sounds as
if Merauder have released leftovers from the recording  sessions  for
_Master Killer_. I´m talking about leftovers in the true  meaning  of
the word here -- songs that just wouldn't have been  good  enough  to
make it onto the first record.  The  Merauder  trademarks  are  still
there -- slow to medium-paced songs with  riffing  that  is  somewhat
similar to Bolt Thrower (with a different  sound,  though),  crushing
hardcore/metal breaks, occasional Slayer-esque guitar  harmonies  and
Jorge's brutal, shouted vocals. Although all  these  ingredients  are
used again, Merauder just didn't manage to  utilize  them  and  forge
efficient songs. The incorporation of very slight changes,  a  couple
less metal and more hardcore tunes, some  acoustic  guitar  sections,
etc. doesn't improve the whole thing. In total they make this  record
appear even more pointless and uninspired. This is even worse if  you
consider that the CD is only 30 minutes long, including an intro  and
a Cro Mags cover version, and I can't help but feel not  only  highly
disappointed but ripped off too.


Mistigo Varggoth Darkestra - _The Keys to the Gates of Apocalypse_
by: Aaron McKay  (8 out of 10)  (The End Records 1999)

This is one BASTARD of a release! ONE song  --  seventy  two  minutes
long. I think to call this an "epic" disc is leading you  to  believe
the song/release has some type of ensuing finality. Couldn't prove it
by me. When you think about it, the prolongation of  _TKttGoA_  makes
Iron Butterfly's _In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida_ look like an Anal  Cunt  track!
Know what I mean? Now  seriously,  the  skinny  on  Mistigo  Varggoth
Darkestra is _TKttGoA_ is the much anticipated second release of  MVD
(a side-project of Kniaz Varggoth  of  Nokturnal  Mortum  notoriety).
Having given this some thought, by way of constructive advice,  don't
go into this release thinking "Killer! Another _Goat  Horns_  or  _To
the  Gates  of  Blasphemous  Fire_."  This  line  of  thinking   will
disappoint. Rather, consider MVD in its own right. To  illustrate  my
point, think of Kniaz Varggoth's two bands  as  you  might  think  of
Danny Lilker's involvement with Nuclear  Assault  and  Brutal  Truth.
Similar? Hell yea, but the same? Fuck no! _The Keys to the  Gates  of
Apocalypse_ is beautiful in -every- excavated, hollow  sense  of  the
word.  Black  metal  in  parts  pitted  harmoniously   against   icy,
wind-cracked minimalism. So obfuscous and thick is this release  that
it almost smothers the soul. In no way is _TKttGoA_ for the  weak  or
feeble and certainly not for the narrow-minded or mentally  bankrupt.
Absorb and digest this Mistigo  Varggoth  Darkestra  release  in  one
sitting or twelve, but -DO- give  _TKttGoA_  seventy-two  minutes  of
your day, year,  or  life,  for  all  I  care...  That  much,  it  is
definitely worthy.


No Innocent Victim - _Flesh and Blood_  (Victory, 1999)
by: Alex Cantwell  (9 out of 10)

In a simple explanation, this is straight up new skool hardcore  done
right. Victory has done a good thing in signing these guys who  began
their recording career with Rescue Records. No Innocent  Victim  take
the style that Sick of it All  pioneered  and  make  it  heavier  and
punchier. I suppose that the punchiness is due to the production  and
engineering of Little Rock, Arkansas' very capable Barry Poynter. The
heaviness is completely due to the  band,  though  --  after  several
tours and two previous albums, they are getting more experienced  and
mo' betta. The song structures are  completely  tight,  and  you  had
better believe that they pull it off live, as I have  witnessed  this
also. Many bands are succeeding at this  whole  new  school  hardcore
game, fusing metal with hardcore energy and ideologies, but  few  can
do it with the conviction that these guys can. _Flesh and  Blood_  is
twelve great songs of uncompromising fury and  rage  --  some  of  it
aimed confrontationally at themselves, and some of it  aimed  towards
those who would persecute them and their integrity.  Positive  energy
ensues with the touch of the play button -- are you going to  connect
to it?

Contact: Victory Records, PO Box 146546, Chicago, IL 60614 USA
         WWW: http://www.victoryrecords.com


Obtained Enslavement - _Soulblight_  (Napalm Records, 1999)
by: Pedro Azevedo  (9 out of 10)

_Soulblight_ is the second release of  this  gathering  of  Norwegian
black  metal  musicians,  following  1997's  _Witchcraft_   (released
through Wounded Love Records). Neither style nor sound  have  changed
significantly;  Obtained  Enslavement  are  still  dedicated  to  the
creation of fast, intense and  heavily  classically-influenced  black
metal.  Like   _Witchcraft_,   _Soulblight_   has   several   unusual
characteristics. Something that stands out is the rather unusual  use
of piano (handled by Aeternus' bass player  Morrigan)  on  "The  Dark
Night of Souls" and "Soulblight"; the result is very good. Complexity
is very high most of the time,  with  guitars,  keyboard,  drums  and
vocals all being very busy simultaneously at high speeds --  this  is
music that you need to really pay attention to in order to enjoy  it.
The rather rough Grieghallen production takes away some clarity,  but
helps make the band a bit more different from the rest -- which  they
certainly are. Complex and inspired songwriting  and  aggressive  and
technical playing make _Soulblight_ a superb album.


October Tide - _Grey Dawn_  (Avantgarde Records, May 1999)
by: Pedro Azevedo  (9 out of 10)

I expected  the  combination  of  Marten  Hanssen's  (formerly  of  A
Canorous Quintet) anguished vocals with October Tide's doom metal  to
produce remarkable results. However, it turns  out  that  during  the
slower parts of the album I tend to miss Jonas Renske's _Rain Without
End_ vocals; nevertheless, Hanssen's vox suit the rest of  the  album
very well. _Grey Dawn_ is actually overall somewhat faster than _Rain
Without End_, which  consequently  helps  Hanssen's  vocals.  October
Tide's music also tends to sound  a  bit  less  like  Katatonia  than
before, as some almost Swedish metal-like guitar work is  mixed  with
the sorrowful guitar lines and riffs. The guitar work  is  very  good
throughout the album; it is also helped by the  excellent  production
that gives the album a sombre, but yet remarkably clear,  sound.  The
digipak's artwork is equally sombre and well done. Two  tracks  stand
out from the rest: "Floating" and "Lost in the Dark". A  few  minutes
later, the album comes to an end with a cold acoustic  guitar  track.
In short,  Katatonia's  Renske  and  Norrman,  this  time  helped  by
Hanssen, have done it again with October Tide.


Sadistik Exekution - _K.A.O.S._  (Osmose, April 1999)
by: Paul Schwarz  (1 out of 10)

I don't get Sadistik Exekution at all. Chaotic music is good, I  like
chaotic music, but there's a limit to everything. I can't say I don't
admire the band's technical ability for recording something  as  fast
and, especially rhythmically,  complex  as  _K.A.O.S_,  live  in  the
studio, but being able to admire how fast a band can  play  does  not
mean I enjoy their music. Sadistik Execution play really fast  nearly
all the time and, to be honest, much as they create  a  whirlwind  of
noise, listening to their noise is less interesting than listening to
a recording of a whirlwind, I imagine. Rok's vocals are faceless  and
boring, the drums sound totally over-trebled and ridiculously  tinny,
the  guitars  scale  the  fretboard  with  uninteresting  chords  and
progressions, the bass  occasionally  gets  its  chance  to  do  some
"breaks", which are just wank, and the production,  well,  it's  like
someone wanted to design the perfect sound to bore people:  I  wonder
whether -good- music would be listenable with such a sound behind it.
There are five bonus tracks on this release, but they're all  on  the
album, just in different versions which sound better, even  though  I
think  some  of  them  are  originals   where   _K.A.O.S._   contains
re-recordings. I have found maybe half a dozen decent riffs  on  this
release which I have awarded the  band  their  "1"  for,  but,  quite
honestly, I find this pretty unlistenable, and because it's shit, not
"so fucking extreme" as I'm sure the band would claim.


Sinergy - _Beware the Heavens_  (Nuclear Blast, May 1999)
by: Paul Schwarz  (6 out of 10)

Kimberly Goss (former member of Dimmu Borgir,  Ancient  and  Avernus)
has formed this band with members of Children of Bodom and In Flames.
It is thus not that  big  a  surprise  that  the  music  on  here  is
virtuostically melodic heavy metal stuff  very  similar  to  some  of
Children of Bodom, and HammerFall particularly. The guitar  work  can
certainly be technically impressive, it's often catchy  and  some  of
the riffs are good, but "new" is not a  word  which  comes  within  a
million miles of my brain when I put on _Beware the  Heavens_.  Well,
the fact that Goss sings  could  be  considered  something  "new  and
different", but to be honest she might as well  be  any  power  metal
eunuch, just one with a bit more richness and femininity to her vocal
outpourings. It must be said that though her vocals  are  acceptable,
the lyrics lie somewhere between bog-standard and appalling  and  her
delivery of encouraging  crowd  invigorators,  like  "come  on!"  and
"huh!", actually has me cringing. Unoriginal and unnecessary,  though
not badly written as heavy metal rehashes go.


Six Feet Under - _Maximum Violence_  (Metal Blade, July 1999)
by: Adrian Bromley  (9 out of 10)

Taking a more violent approach this time out (hence the name _Maximum
Violence_), Chris Barnes and co. kick out some  serious  damage  here
with the impressive follow-up to the totally insane and mind-crushing
_Warpath_ (1997). With a new guitarist (Steve  Swanson,  ex-Massacre)
and a revamped crunch to their sound, Six Feet Under can do no  wrong
here. Blistering guitar riffs coated with  Barnes'  sick  'n'  brutal
vocals and lyrics make this recording drop  time  bombs  as  it  goes
along. Not only has Barnes managed to keep the band's momentum strong
here, but his vocals have never sounded  so  sick  and  heavy.  Three
records and one EP down, it seems Six  Feet  Under  have  no  worries
about being put to the wayside. With killer numbers like  "Victim  of
the Paranoid", "Mass  Murder  Rampage"  and  a  kickin'  death  metal
version of KISS' "War Machine" (the digipak of this release also  has
them doing Iron Maiden's "Wraithchild" and Thin Lizzy's "Jailbreak"),
you can't go wrong, death metal fans. A crushing release  that  can't
be ignored.


Slipknot - _Slipknot_  (Roadrunner, June 1999)
by: Adrian Bromley  (8 out of 10)

I  was  a  little  skeptical  about  this  masked  nine-piece   (yes!
nine-piece) noise/terrorist outfit from Des Moines, Iowa when I first
started getting word of them. I didn't think such a big outfit  could
pull it off. I mean, look at groups like Gwar and Bile, they're jokes
to me and it just seems so silly to have so many people  in  a  band.
But you know what? By the grace of God and some weird alignment  with
the Earth and the Sun or something fucked-up like that,  this  works.
Get drawn in by maniacal numbers like "Spit  it  Out",  "Purity"  and
opener "426100027". With producer Ross Robinson (Korn/Soulfly) at the
helm, the nine-piece of freaks sporting surrealistic self-made  masks
lash out at us with a bombastic meshing of  industrial,  death  metal
and hip-hop music, a concoction that leaves us  with  truly  horrific
sounds and images to digest. It's not  pretty,  but  when  was  music
supposed to be pretty? This is reality and no matter how far from  it
do members 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 (yes! they  go  by  numerical
digits as names) stray, it still kicks and screams all the  way  till
the bitter and gruesome end. Fans of Korn, Hanzel Und Gretyl and Bile
(yech!) will surely dig this. I heard this band's  live  shows  kicks
ass too. Check out their awesome website, too.

Contact: WWW: http://www.slipknot1.com


Solus - _Universal Bloodshed_  (Skinmask, April 1998)
by: Paul Schwarz  (9 out of 10)

Solus have really hit the jackpot on this second outing put out, once
again on their own label,  Skinmask.  Finding  "your"  sound  is  not
always an easy thing to do, but Solus have found it and have  already
jumped the next hurdle with _Universal  Bloodshed_:  knowing  how  to
manipulate it to your greatest advantage. _Slave of  Mind_  literally
pales in comparison; it had rage for sure, but _Universal  Bloodshed_
has poise, melancholy, melody and, most importantly, emotion. This is
not to say this is some touchy-feely goth-tinged album, it  is  about
as much the antithesis as anything else. No, the emotion here is like
the emotion of Rollins, early Metallica or Morbid Angel; it has fury.
The basis of  the  music  is  deathly  thrash  with  Korbut's  vocals
displaying a varied and vicious spectrum while also totally  crushing
many competitors. This foundation is rock-solid to the  extent  where
the band now feel able to build  onto  it  unusual  structures  which
massively enhance its ability to draw the listener  in,  and  satiate
them mercilessly. The soloing on a track like "Wormwood" is far  away
from the standard insane widdling of many brutal bands;  it  has  had
thought or emotion put into it and  the  result  is  something  which
really affects you, instead of just glazing over you. The bands  most
worked-in and important aspect, though, which I think  may  become  a
trademark of sorts, is what happens in certain sections of songs like
"Rivers of Red" and "Quilt of Shame". Working undercover  of  brutal,
heavy and powerful riff-lines, vague and  melancholic  melodies  give
the feel of the music a new dimension to play with, and get me  going
like nothing else in the process. There is even success in coming out
with an acoustic and clean sung track  which  doesn't  sound  out  of
place, a feat on such a brutal album. It is a pity that the excellent
"Magadan", from their taster  _Our  Frosted  Hell_  EP  [reviewed  as
_Solus_, CoC #32] is not here, backed by the production of Rob  Sanzo
(a far superior sound to that of the EP), but this is a  small  gripe
about what is a very good record and one I fully recommend  acquiring
as quickly as possible.


Spitfire - _The Dead Next Door_  (Solidstate, 1999)
by: Alex Cantwell  (6 out of 10)

After many listens to this CD, I simply cannot muster up better  than
a 6 out of 10 for it. Some of it I like, and some of it is  annoying,
but the biggest reason is that I can't tell if these guys are real or
not. It sounds like they have  been  touring  with  Zao  (which  they
have), but also listening to a lot of  indie  rock  (who  knows?).  I
didn't expect this direction from this band who  began  as  a  plain,
semi-talented hardcore band. Which is why I question their sincerity.
So they toured with Zao (Zao drummer Jesse Smith is also listed as an
"additional musician" on three songs) and got all influenced  to  try
the black metal screams and  the  over  the  top,  aggressive  guitar
parts. Will they move on to another style next year? These  questions
can only be answered with time, but I am just  skeptical  because  of
the drastic change in style from their former music. Spitfire  use  a
lot of harmonics in the songs here, but the most noticeable recurring
theme is the use of a "groove" that is not really a groove, but  more
of a drone. The music is  without  a  doubt  heavy,  but  not  always
enjoyable. Most of the vocals are of the angrily shouted variety, but
in a couple of songs they have a distinct indie rock edge. "A  Glance
at Quintessence" sounds  like  the  new  Sepultura  line-up  doing  a
hardcore song at half speed, except for the blast part in the middle,
which, come to think of it, I think every single  song  has  a  blast
part in it. Hmm. Anyway, "Good Cop, Bad Cop" is my favourite, because
it is very fast and very cool,  with  some  awesome  guitar  riffing,
especially towards the end. I believe that Spitfire is on  the  right
rack with this one. The album as a whole is not on the  right  track,
though. As I alluded to above, time will tell what this band  has  in
store for us.

Contact: Spitfire, c/o Chris Raines, 1527 S. Seabreeze Trail,
         Virginia Beach, VA 23452, USA
         mailto:spitmail@aol.com
         WWW: http://welcom.to/spitweb


Stormtroopers of Death - _Bigger Than the Devil_
by: Paul Schwarz  (8 out of 10)  (Nuclear Blast, June 1999)

Fourteen years ago, SoD's _Speak English or Die_ made a major pile up
of a dent on the thrash metal scene of the time, and  helped  to  lay
the foundations for the crossover style with hardcore. SoD  split  up
soon after with only a few live shows under  their  belt.  Three  odd
years ago SoD reformed to play live, but the  word  was  that  things
were soon to end again due to Billy Milano's  worsening  bone  marrow
condition. Then last year the word came that SoD were fully  back  on
the horse and that a new album and more live play  was  on  the  way.
Convincingly following up as spontaneous a classic as _Speak  English
or Die_ would have been near impossible three years  later;  fourteen
seems pretty much out of the realms of possibility. SoD have done  OK
considering. The production is perfect for the music, which is a very
good start, and the band thrash hard  and  endearingly  through  cool
tracks like "We All Bleed Red", "Moment of  Truth"  and  my  personal
favourite,   "Shenanigans".   Though   thrash   is   still   a   fair
classification for them, it must be said that SoD have a  whole  heap
o' punk and hardcore in here  too,  which  shows  through  when  they
aren't purposefully parodying another band's  style.  The  next  most
important factor for an SoD album, or maybe the most, is the  humour.
This shows itself in virtually all the lyrics and maybe a quarter  of
the music. _Bigger Than the Devil_  is  funny,  tracks  like  "Celtic
Frosted Flakes" (a kind of tribute to Celtic Frost) and "King at  the
King" (which alludes to the idea of King Diamond  ordering  a  Burger
King meal, while at the same time ranting satanically)  particularly,
but much of this humour  is  tantamount  to  rehashes  of  the  first
album's jokes ("Ballad of Michael H." and "... Phil H" vs. "Ballad of
Jimi Hendrix"?) and it isn't riotous that much of  the  time  in  any
case. _BTtD_ does feel a little pieced together, but it does  present
you with a good bunch of SoD quality songs  to  enjoy  and,  in  many
cases, be amused by. Ultimately, this  is  just  another  SoD  album,
though; it isn't breaking any barriers like _SEoD_ was, but it is  23
more songs in more or less the same style. It's up to you if you want
it, but if you don't have _SEoD_, I  suggest  you  get  that  classic
first, and then decide.


Vesperian Sorrow - _Beyond the Cursed Eclipse_
by: Adrian Bromley  (8.5 out of 10)  (June 1999)

Hmm... this is too unreal, my friends. With not even photos or a  bio
to accompany the CD, I was a little wary of doing a review, just  for
the sheer notion that I wanted to  know  something  about  this  band
before I got into what was on the disc. But then again,  as  long  as
the music was good, what would be  the  point  of  a  bio  or  photo?
Anyway, I had luckily received a single from the  band  at  Milwaukee
Metalfest one year, I believe  (I  think  it  was  them),  so  I  was
familiar with the name and the sound (to a certain degree). They  say
they're signed to a label? Which one  I  don't  know.  It's  still  a
mystery. Wrapped within a truly dynamic mixing of  atmospheric  black
metal and some serious speed metal  riffs,  the  music  of  Vesperian
Sorrow is  a  totally  blistering  package  of  metalness.  From  the
haunting keyboards and blasting drum  beats  to  the  archaic  guitar
overtones and the sinister snarls that stem from the vocal  cries  on
such numbers as "Twilight of  Azreal"  and  "Shadowlord",  this  band
really shines more and more as the record goes  on.  With  shades  of
Dimmu Borgir and even In Flames  at  times,  Vesperian  Sorrow  is  a
worthy young band that could have a positive and rewarding future  if
they keep it up. Good  luck,  boys,  and  please  send  us  bio/photo
material. We want to know more about your kick ass band. Stay heavy!


Vinnie Moore - _The Maze_  (Shrapnel, 1999)
by: Brian Meloon  (7 out of 10)

Although Vinnie Moore's last couple of albums have been standard hard
rock fare, this album is hailed as Vinnie's return  to  his  mid-'80s
neo-classical style. That assessment is not terribly accurate, but it
does contain a grain of truth. It would be more accurate to say  that
this album is his first in many years  to  contain  elements  of  his
neo-classical style. Certain parts of  this  album  share  a  lot  of
similarities with his 1988 offering, _Time Odyssey_. In fact, I heard
quite a few passages that sounded like they were taken directly  from
that album. His phrasing and some  of  the  melodic  styles  that  he
employs  are  quite  similar.  However,  this  album  contains   more
diversity in style. There are several places where the music takes  a
decidedly rockish turn, more in  the  style  of  his  1991  offering,
_Meltdown_. A section  of  the  title  track  sounds  more  like  the
jazz-rock fusion that David Chastain did on _Elegant Seduction_,  and
"In the Healing Garden" sounds a little like Dokken. Because of this,
_The Maze_ at times has a schizophrenic and disjointed feel. It falls
into the same trap that many  other  guitar-oriented  albums  do:  it
tries  to  do  too  many  styles  and  please  everyone,  instead  of
concentrating on one style and getting it right. The  playing  is  of
course top-notch. Although Vinnie takes most of  the  spotlight,  the
keyboards (played by Tony MacAlpine), bass, and drums all  get  their
chance at soloing  as  well.  For  the  most  part,  the  playing  is
restrained,  although  there  are  several  sections  of   ultra-fast
shredding. The production is excellent as well. Overall,  this  is  a
good album. In my opinion, it's not as good as  _Time  Odyssey_,  but
it's one of the better neo-classically influenced albums  I've  heard
from the last few years, and it's much better than his  previous  two
offerings.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
                 __                    __      _
              /\ \ \_____      __   /\ \ \___ (_)___  ___
             /  \/ / _ \ \ /\ / /  /  \/ / _ \| / __|/ _ \
            / /\  /  __/\ V  V /  / /\  / (_) | \__ \  __/
            \_\ \/ \___| \_/\_/   \_\ \/ \___/|_|___/\___|

If you have a band, don't forget to send us your demo with a  bio  if
you want to be reviewed;  our  address  is  included  in  the  zine's
header.

Scoring:   ***** -- A flawless demo
            **** -- Great piece of work
             *** -- Good effort
              ** -- A major overhaul is in order
               * -- A career change is advisable


Blind Slime - _Hating Again..._  (9-track demo)
by: Pedro Azevedo  (***--)

This Polish band tries to insert plenty of variety into its  standard
death metal sound and, at times, is  quite  successful  --  the  best
example is "Sweet Lies". Quality, however, varies  a  lot  throughout
this rather long demo. The sound quality is just about average,  like
most of the music itself. The  frequent  and  intense  variations  in
speed and style (some acoustics, varied vocals, some different  kinds
of guitar work) keep things reasonably interesting for a  significant
part of the  time,  enough  to  ensure  an  average  rating;  nothing
special, but not bad, either.

Contact: Ul. Zywiecka 246, 43-300 Bielsko-Biala, Poland
         mailto:blindsli@friko6.onet.pl


G.F.P.M. - _Demo 1_  (6-track demo)
by: Adrian Bromley  (**---)

If you're into that fucked up noise  carnage,  outta-control  rampage
stuff, then you might actually get something out of  the  music  from
Austrian outfit G.F.P.M.. If not, you might just run for  cover.  Not
only does the music sound  so  violently  irritating  at  times,  the
production stinks and it's got no real groove to it. I mean, look  at
veterans of noise assembly like  Brutal  Truth  or  Anal  Cunt.  It's
fucked to the hilt, but somehow there is a  groove  weaving  its  way
through each track. I don't know, I'm just not  impressed  with  what
this six-song demo offers. If noise is what you want to crank on your
boomboxes, then check it out, but I seriously think most people  will
not find the work here all that appealing.

Contact: G.F.P.M. c/o Moser Christian,
         Stampferau 41, A-5730 Mittersill, Austria

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            W H A T   W E   H A V E   C R A N K E D ! ! !
            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gino's Top 5

1. Hypocrisy - _Hypocrisy_
2. Sephiroth - _Cathedron_
3. Autechre - _Incunabula_
4. The Future Sound of London - _Dead Cities_
5. Absu - _The Sun of Tiphareth_

Adrian's Top 5

1. God Dethroned - _Bloody Blasphemy_
2. Six Feet Under - _Maximum Violence_
3. Slipknot - _Slipknot_
4. Cave-in - _Creative Eclipses_
5. Roadsaw - _Nationwide_

Brian's Top 5

1. Nagelfar - _Hunengrab im Herbst_
2. Agalloch - _Pale Folklore_
3. Cradle of Filth - _Cruelty and the Beast_
4. Mistigo Varggoth Darkestra - _The Keys to the Gates of Apocalypse_
5. Magnitude 9 - _Chaos to Control_

Alain's Top 5

1. Dimmu Borgir - _Spiritual Black Dimensions_
2. Human Remains - _Using Sickness as a Hero_
3. Incantation - _Tribute to the Goat_
4. Possessed - _Seven Churches_
5. Nevermore - _Dreaming Neon Black_

Adam's Top 5

1. Samael - _Ceremony of Opposites_
2. Brutal Truth - _Need to Control_
3. Hypocrisy - _Hypocrisy_
4. Dismal Euphony - _All Little Devils_
5. Rammstein - _Sehnsucht_

Pedro's Top 5

1. Evoken - _Embrace the Emptiness_
2. Anathema - _Judgement_
3. Obtained Enslavement - _Soulblight_
4. October Tide - _Grey Dawn_
5. Ashes You Leave - _The Passage Back to Life_

Paul's Top 5

1. Gordian Knot - _Gordian Knot_
2. Necrophagia - _Holocausto de la Morte_
3. Arch Enemy - _Burning Bridges_
4. Rush - _Moving Pictures_
5. Rollins Band - _Weight_

Aaron's Top 5

1. Violence - _Eternal Nightmare_
2. Mistigo Varggoth Darkestra - _The Keys to the Gates of Apocalypse_
3. Desire - _Infinity_ (Thanks again, Pedro!)
4. Disincarnate - Dreams of the Carrion Kind_
5. Jungle Rot - _Slaughter the Weak_

David's Top 5

1. Hypocrisy - _Hypocrisy_
2. Morbid Angel - _Covenant_
3. Nagelfar - _Srontgorrth_
4. Arch Enemy - _Burning Bridges_
5. Demoniac - _The Fire and the Wind_

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               |     \.-----.|  |_.---.-.|__|  |.-----.
               |  --  |  -__||   _|  _  ||  |  ||__ --|
               |_____/|_____||____|___._||__|__||_____|


Homepage: http://www.interlog.com/~ginof/coc.html
FTP Archive: ftp://ftp.etext.org/pub/Zines/ChroniclesOfChaos

--> Interested in being reviewed? Send us your demo and bio to:
 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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             Fax: (416) 693-5240   Voice: (416) 693-9517
                     e-mail: ginof@interlog.com
                                 ----
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DESCRIPTION
~~~~~~~~~~~
Chronicles of Chaos is a monthly magazine electronically  distributed
worldwide via the Internet. Chronicles of Chaos focuses on all  forms
of chaotic music including black, death and doom metal, dark/ambient,
industrial and electronic/noise as well as  classic  and  progressive
metal. Each issue will feature a plethora of  album  reviews  from  a
wide range  of  bands,  as  well  as  interviews  with  some  of  the
underground's best acts. Also included in each issue are demo reviews
and indie band interviews.

HOW TO SUBSCRIBE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You may subscribe to Chronicles of Chaos at any  time  by  sending  a
message with "coc subscribe <your_name_here>" in the SUBJECT of  your
message to <mailto:ginof@interlog.com>. Please note that this command
must NOT be sent to the list address <coc-ezine@lists.colorado.edu>.

AUTOMATIC FILESERVER
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All back issues and various other CoC related files are available for
automatic retrieval through our e-mail fileserver. All you have to do
is  send  a  message  to  us  at   <mailto:ginof@interlog.com>.   The
'Subject:' field of your message must read: "send file X"  where  'X'
is the name of the requested file (do not include the  quotes).  Back
issues are named 'coc-n', where  'n'  is  the  issue  number.  For  a
description of all files available through this  fileserver,  request
'list'. Remember to use lowercase letters for all file names.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
End Chronicles of Chaos, Issue #41

All contents copyright 1999 by individual creators of included work.
All opinions expressed herein are those of the individuals expressing
them, and do not necessarily reflect the views of anyone else.

