Long seen as mostly barren wastes in the overall map of extreme music, both Portugal and Spain have been throwing up a hell of a scene in the past few years, especially when it comes to the whole doom, sludge or stoner stuff. Spain alone has given us Adrift, Moho, Orthodox, Viaje A 800, Monkeypriest or Aathma, to name but a few of the uglier ones, strictly musically speaking of course. Pick of the bunch so far, however, and ugliest by far too, are these strange named fellows.

Continue reading: JOSÉ’S BAND OF THE WEEK: LORDS OF BUKKAKE.

However, there was something to it, well hidden as it was. If you’re one of those obstinate types who won’t ever skip a song, even if it’s 50 minutes long and mostly uneventful like ‘I’ is, you’ll understand how I got to the last ten minutes of it where the good stuff was. After 40 minutes or so of slow-developing, post-rockish doom, female vocals show up, moods change, the drums surge forward like a crazed shaman and suddenly it’s like you’re dropped in a more tribal Wolves In The Throne Room moment.

With this glimmer of hope, I kept the name Encircling Sea in the “to follow” list I have in my head, which turned out to be a very good decision. Their first proper album ‘Écru’, released recently through An Out Recordings, takes those last ten minutes of ‘I’ and launches the Melbourne band into another dimension.

Stream a clip of ‘Écru’ below:

Continue reading:  JOSÉ’S BAND OF THE WEEK: ENCIRCLING SEA.

23 years since the last original material from the originators of harshly apocalyptic metallic punk and the promised new album draws ever closer, following pretty sharply on the rough-shod heels of Amebix‘s recent reunion shows and the limited re-recorded classics EP Redux. But, to inappropriately quote The Smiths, how soon is now?

“I would hope within the year,” replies Rob, “it doesn’t need that much more work on it – we’ve got artwork sorted out, we’re just waiting on Roy being available. He’s just a fucking great man basically, he’s an engineer, he’s brilliant at getting stuff down, he’s a great songwriter, he’s a multi-instrumentalist and he’s good at pretty much everything, if it wasn’t for him you could definitely say this wouldn’t be happening.”

Continue reading: THE LATEST WILL AND TESTAMENT: ROB MILLER TALKS NEW AMEBIX ALBUM.

By the time we started to come to the end of the project it really started to look more like a definitive history of the band, becoming involved in something as an insider it was good to have a bit of perspective and distance – twenty odd years – and see the whole story of the band for what it was, which was quite interesting in a lot of ways. There were a lot of different factors that shaped who we were and what we came out with and all the rest of it.”

“It started to go into the editing process and it was a really intriquing story,” he continues, “and your story has a beginning, a middle and an end, I was always really reluctant to do anything with the band – me and my brother Stig [guitars] had said that was never gonna happen, we kinda felt that we did what we did in the right time and that was it.

Roy Wallace who was finishing off the DVD said, ‘How do you feel about recording again, to finish off the project? So you’ve got three songs on the end which you’ve recorded using modern equipment’, and I’m saying ‘Well, it ain’t gonna happen, because for one, Stig and I said we’d never do it, and Spider, who was the drummer, has tinnitus, he basically developed that from us practicing in a room that was about twelve square feet and with everything full on all the time, so over the years he can’t a bloody thing’. I hadn’t picked up a bass in 22 years so all these things seemed very unlikely.”

Continue reading: TERRORIZER: AMEBIX ARISE: ROB MILLER TALKS REUNION AND RERECORDING.

Analyzing their finest release so far, 2008′s  The Die Is Cast, for example, it’s not really that complicated. Even the mixture of different elements isn't all that warped out to begin with. There’s the occasional bit of black metal, some harsh drone parts and some others more atmospheric, an overall industrial feel with some martial rhythms thrown in among the quasi-medieval folk ambiance and solemn, austere chanting.

Yeah, put like that, it doesn’t sound all that extraordinary. But it is, oh yes it is. The Die Is Cast was the culmination of three releases, the band’s first, all of them in 2008, signaling the end of a quick and astonishing metamorphosis, from the rather forgettable worm that was the In Vulva Infernum demo, to the more elaborate chrysalis that was the abrasive debut Cult Of Ruins, to that fully formed creepy butterfly.

Anyway, a discographic pause was much needed after that 2008 onslaught, but two years seemed quite enough already, and fortunately now we have a brand new album, Union Of Irreconcilables , out on Aurora Borealis, which seems so far as yet another daunting step into whatever fresh hell it is that the Canadian duo are taking us this time.

Continue reading TERRORIZER: JOSÉ’S BAND OF THE WEEK: MENACE RUINE.

Speaking hours after the announcement, founding guitarist / vocalist Aaron Turner reassures fans of noodling their way through the cosmos that this far from the end when it comes to the musicians behind this progressive behemoth.

“As far as a case-by-case basis goes,” starts Turner in measured tones, “[drummer] Aaron Harris: he has been doing more recording, he’s done a lot of stuff like demo recordings and also started doing some more polished recordings for other bands so I think he’d going to try and persue that end, and I know he’s got a couple of different musical ideas and collaborations in mind, but I don’t know if anything is firmed up at this point.

[Keyboardist] Bryant is obviously doing Red Sparowes, they just released a new album and went on tour in the US, starting in Europe in the Fall, and he’s also been doing – I guess you could call it a solo project – called Taiga. They did one record last year and I think he just completed another record.

[Bassist, also in Red Sparowes] Jeff did the Spylacopa EP almost two years ago and I think he's talking about continuing to make music, not necessariloy with Spylacopa, but with one of his collaborators from that project, John LaMacchia [of Candiria] and I think he’s gonna be doing some stuff on his own also.

[Guitarist] Mike is pretty heavily invested in [ambient side-project] MGR, he just did a soundtrack for a Belgian film by a director who did a movie called ‘Ex Drummer’ that Isis had a song on the soundtrack of a couple of years. I think aside from having done that music as a soundtrack, he’s also going to reformat it in some way for an album based around that. He’s definitely fully invested in that, so there’s no shortage of activies involved.”

Having released five albums, four Terrorizer Album Of The Year contenders and one Terrorizer Album Of The Year, across their thirteen years, including five live records and assorted splits, EPs and remixes, Isis have a body of work that would satisfy even the most demanding perfectionist to ever hover over an instrument.

Continue reading: Terrorizer: Aaron Turner speaks in the absence of Isis.

Louise Brown

Terrorizer: The first time I saw you was at Roadburn 2008 and I was totally blown away, then you returned in 2009 as a last minute booking, but that we heard that show meant you had to have a break from recording as your vocalist F damaged her voice? What happened?

SL: Yes, we did, we had to cancel a show and we also had to cancel a few recording days because we were actually in the middle of recording the album at that point, which, in retrospect, it might not have been a good idea to break the studio routine to play a concert, but of course, when Walter from Roadburn asks you, you comply, because he’s a really good friend of ours and I’ve known him for a really long time, and he has helped us out in spreading the word, so of course we wanted to do it. And I think we got away with it alright. I don’t think that it was one of our greatest concerts, but I do think that we were alright, and of course that we had to cancel that show was a let-down, but in the end it all worked out for the best I think.

Terrorizer: When you played in 2008 few people knew who you were, but the atmosphere in that room after you finished playing was one of shock and adulation, those few must have spread the word high and wide, I know I did, as the room at your 2009 performance was packed – did that make you nervous? There was a lot of expectation surrounding your set.

SL: I was actually supposed to feel that way, but what really happened was that we were a bit unprepared and I was too much in studio mode, and I wasn’t really able to really enjoy the moment as much as I would have liked to, but I do think that, for the band itself, it was a great moment because indeed we had the chance to show what progress we’d made in a year with a new line-up and a lot of people really got into it, and I’m very happy for that, but on a personal level I was a bit disappointed.

Terrorizer: Before you play the band performs a ritual to prepare yourselves for the upcoming ceremony, is this important?

SL: Most important. It’s the most important thing; not so much the way it looks, but how it feels. I really think that we are making music that is on a level that is some kind of power, that I would call the power of Satan, and that is the most important aspect of our music – to be able to be a spiritual conduit for the sinister urges, and that is one of the reasons that for me personally that the Roadburn show wasn’t a good one, because I wasn’t able to channel these emotions and felt blocked out in a way, and in a perfect situation, when we do have this pure spiritual release, then it’s absolutely more important than the music, in all these things the spiritual aspect is there to enhance the emotions that we’re trying to establish.

Continue reading: HELLFEST COUNTDOWN: IN CONVERSATION WITH THE DEVIL’S BLOOD.

Broadrick comments: “Long awaited, and now fleshed out to the MAX, Streetcleaner, THE most direct statement of intent we made as GODFLESH, finally presented as it should be…”

You can pre-order the album via the Earache web-store here, or here if you’re in North America – the album is due for release in June 2010.

Continue reading; Godflesh re-release | Errorizer.com (aka Terrorizer.com).

The Festibubble had already set in, I was miles from home, in another country, mentally preparing myself for 5 days of my favourite festival and we were getting word that the world was ending, that a volcano had erupted AND that Pete Steele had died (connection between the two not confirmed at time of writing). With no newspapers and no access to TV news, we stood, jaws on floor, taking in the craziness of the situation and then shrugged, settled in for a coffee at The Grass Co and planned what bands we would see over the 4 amazing days that Walter, Jurgen and the Roadburn crew had arranged for us.

Jarboe - Roadburn 2010 by Achrome Moments Photography

It was only when we recovened to the strip, Tilburg’s amazing row of bars, to sit in the sun and move onto something stronger that the impact of the Volcano started to dawn on us. I first got a call from Yvonne, Roadburn’s PR and my most awesome friend, to tell me she’d be late to meet me for lunch as she was stressing about how some of the stranded bands would make it.Wow, now this is serious. Who was here? Who was stuck?
This was the buzz around the bar, as we sat there with friends old and new from Greg and Steve from Sunn o))), Chris from Profound Lore, Enslaved. That’s the best thing about Roadburn. That you can settle in for a bevvy and be sat in the same bar as your musical heroes – no distinction between artists and fans. No backstage egos.

Continue reading:  True Cult Heavy Metal: ROADBURN 2010 DAY ONE: UNEARTHING THE MEMORIES.

Steve Von Till - Roadburn 2009

Juxtaposing the beautiful remote island landscape with the tormented psyche and tension of the plot, this soundtrack creates its own epic imagery in the mind of the listener. In 2005, critically acclaimed Italian director Alex Infascelli (‘Almost Blue’) was handed a Harvestman album while beginning his edit of his new film. Captivated by the pace, variety, rich soundscapes, and hypnotic nature, he contacted Steve Von Till to ask if he would be willing to score the film on short notice.

Continue reading:  NEUROSIS’ STEVE VON TILL SCORES ITALIAN HORROR FLICK | Terrorizer.com.
(Please click HERE for the audio stream of Steve Von Till / Harvestman – Roadburn 2009