The Lurking Fear – Out Of The Voiceless Grave


From the cover art of their Winged Death (Century Media) 7” EP released back in May, to its 1970s style typeface and the name of the band itself, you don’t have to be a genius to work out that Swedish act The Lurking Fear are about all things old school Death Metal, and Lovecraftian themed horror. Continue reading


Roadburn Festival Kicks Off Today, John Baizley Of Baroness Curates The Weekend


 

The Roadburn Festival, the world première event for all things heavy, diverse, avant-garde, and underground begins today in Tilburg, NL at various venues, under the watchful eye of founder Walter Hoeijmakers. John Dyer Baizley of Baroness curates this years’ fest and performs with his band as well. The fest is nearly a sellout with some limited tickets available for Sunday. Full details below. Continue reading


Roadburn Adds Whores, Integrity, Bongnzilla, Oathbreaker, Cobalt, Disfear, Trans AM And More


Whores, by Photography

Whores, by Jonathan Arevalo Photography

This year’s Roadburn Festival just gets better and better. The fest has now added twenty new bands such as Whores, Integrity, Cobalt, Bongnzilla, Disfear, Big Business, Trans AM and more. More details below: Continue reading


At War With World Domination – Martin Larsson of At The Gates


 

At The Gates. Photo credit: Ester Segarra

At The Gates. Photo credit: Ester Segarra

Swedish extreme metallers At The Gates have been keeping themselves busy on the road, and venturing into new areas on each stop. Their venture took them to Knotfest in Devore, CA where they played to a packed second stage area on the Saturday of the two day event.

It has been over a year since they released At War With Reality, their first new album since 1994’s Slaughter of the Soul. Being away from the music scene under this moniker since the band stopped, guitarist Martin Larsson spoke about how different their writing approaches were, versus prior to their abrupt stop years ago.

The actual writing [is] not much difference, but the collaboration is so much easier. Now we’re so spread out. In the 90s we were all in Gothenberg…um I wasn’t so nevermind…basically Gothenburg.

But now the drummer’s [Adrian Erlandsson] in London in the UK and three of us are in Gothenberg, and the bass player [Jonas Bjorler] is about three to four hours away in Sweden. With the internet and email and files to Dropbox and what have you, usually what happened on this album is Anders [Bjorler] made a demo and then once he’s satisfied, in a second we can all listen to it wherever we are and comment on it. Ideas bounce back and forth over the internet.

I think we spent the better part of a year just sending ideas back and forth and doing demos. We had such a full idea of the album already when we went into the studio. I think that’s the big difference – the whole collaboration is so much easier.

Photo Credit: Hillarie Jason

During the time away from the band, the various members were at various times involved in a number of other bands and projects. Frontman Tomas “Tompa’ Lindberg was involved in The Crown, Disfear, Skitsystem, Nightrage and Lock Up; guitarist Anders Bjorler was with The Haunted and now his solo project; bassist Bjorler is with the Haunted; and Erlandsson with Nehain, as well as his stints in Cradle of Filth and Paradise Lost. Larsson himself is currently playing with Agrimonia when At The Gates has down time.

Have doing other projects re-energized the members of At The Gates towards adding a new spark into the band? “Maybe in a way yeah. I guess doing other stuff always gets you excited to do At The Gates, I suppose. A lot of outside influences and ideas or whatever, so I guess so,” he said.

Photo Credit: Hillarie Jason

Photo Credit: Hillarie Jason

When it comes to the touring side, Larsson explained how they balance out who will be touring with what band and aligning schedules to make it work in the long run.

With the other bands it’s first come first serve, so it’s an easy rule to follow. Whatever band gets the booking first has the privilege. All of us do regular stuff on the side or At The Gates is on the side. Mostly Tomas and Jonas have regular proper jobs. They work part-time during the week. We mostly play weekends. We’ve done that for this year since the album came out. We’ve done a couple of tours. We did a US tour for three weeks in March. Right after this we have a week in Australia and a couple of dates in Japan. It’s mostly weekends.

There’s a lot of travelling just doing weekends. I feel like I’ve been jet lagged constantly for about a year, but playing is such a pleasure. You don’t mind it at all. We’re privileged that we get to do this and that people still want to see us.

Photo Credit: Hillarie Jason

Photo Credit: Hillarie Jason

Since the band has reformed, At The Gates has found themselves touring new territories they were unable to visit the first time around. Larsson spoke about some of their target areas they wish to hit.

I’m a bit of an explorer myself. I always like going to places I haven’t been before. We’re going to South Africa in March. I’m stoked to do that. I’d like to play more in Eastern Europe and Asian countries. We’ll take it gradually.

He spoke about their visit to China, one of the newest frontiers for many artists in recent years.

We played China twice. Things haven’t really happened in China metal wise, but they’re starting to. First time we were there we played to 100 people, and the second time 200 people. There’s a progression. Things are happening. It’s exciting. It’s like when we started 25 years ago.

2016_ANNOUNCE_ATTHEGATES_SITE

Aside from their upcoming US tour with The Haunted and Decpaitated, he also unveiled another upcoming tour stop on a cruise. “The cruise in the Carribbean – 70,000 Tons of Metal. We’re playing that. This is the first time under that name. We did the Barge to Hell ones, which is kind of the same. That one had even more focus on the extreme metal. I guess this one is all around metal. It’s going to be great.

Lastly, he talked about the possibilities of a new At The Gates record and whether it was realistic to talk about one yet. “No. I’m not saying we’re not gonna but we don’t know. The only plan we have at the moment is not quitting. So we’re going to take it as it comes. We’re already booked until August. Once this goes down we’ll just sit down and see.

We’re not going to push it. If there’s more music – fine. That’s good. I’d like it there to be more music but we’ll find out.

By Rei Nishimoto


Maruta Releasing Remain Dystopian June 2nd, Streaming “Stand In Defeat”


maruta

Miami deathgrinders Maruta is streaming “Stand In Defeat,” off of their Relapse Records debut Remain Dystopian, out June 2nd in North America, preceded by May 29th in Germany, Benelux and Finland, and June 1st in the UK and the rest of the planet, below.

Recorded in various studios including drums with Pig Destroyer‘s Scott Hull and vocals with Torche‘s Jonathan Nuñez, Remain Dystopian is a vicious, seventeen-song blast of relentless and infectious deathgrind mayhem. Featuring guest vocals from the legendary Tomas Lindberg (At The Gates, Disfear) and Pig Destroyer‘s J.R. Hayes, plus layers of noise from Agoraphobic Nosebleed‘s Jay Randall, Remain Dystopian raises the bar for what 21st Century grind can accomplish! Seekers of top-tier extreme metal punishment in the tradition of Napalm Death, Nasum, Pig Destroyer, Misery Index, Nails, Discordance Axis and the like should keep Remain Dystopian on their radar as tracks from the record and more are released onto the masses. While you suffer in anticipation for more, Relapse has issued the full info for the album including the cover artwork by Alex Eckman-Lawn, the track listing, preorders, along with the track, “Stand In Defeat.”

Remain Dystopian Track Listing:
01: Genocide Interval
02: Hope Smasher
03: The Void Within
04: Minimal Progress
05: Protocol For Self Immolation
06: Absolutist
07: Stride Endlessly Through Scorched Earth
08: Submergence aka Barren Oceans Of Infinity
09: Erode
10: Stand In Defeat
11: Remnants Of Failed Utopia
12: I, Usurper
13: Durandal
14: Psalm For The Withered
15: Return To Zero
16: Slaying Jehova
17: Immune

MARUTA:
Mitchell Luna – vocals
Eduardo Borja – guitar
Mauro Cordoba – guitar
Danny Morris – drums

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