Interview with Necrosis!

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Genre(s): Brutal Death Metal

Location: Bristol, UK

 

PSAB: How was the feedback for Catatonic Psychosis? Also, when can we expect new music?

Necrosis: Within 6 months of forming the band, we managed to record and self-release the five track EP, Catatonic Psychosis. The feedback we received was very positive, we were given several reviews of 9/10 and also managed to secure a spot in the Top 10 releases of 2013 by United Kingdom Extreme Metal. (http://ukem666.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/2013-highlights-top-10-releases.html)

 

We have written our first album and are currently at the recording stage. The artwork was completed last year and we expect to be releasing it this year. Expect more gore, brutality, slams, blastbeats and brutal vocals. Fans of our first EP should be pleased with our next offering of Brutal Death Metal.

 

PSAB: If you had the choice to have a musician featured on one of your tracks. Which musician would that be and why?

Necrosis: There are so many talented artists within the genre that it's a very difficult question to answer. If we were to have anyone featured on one of our tracks it would probably be another vocalist. I could list many vocalists who would be suit our style and we would love to work with but to answer the question I would say Frank Mullen (Suffocation) as he is one of the most influencial figures in death metal or even someone like Grimo (Cytotoxin) as his vocal style is very diverse we could benefit from some dynamic pig squealing.

 

PSAB: You're a newer band, only starting in 2013. What has been the biggest challenge of being a newcomer?

Necrosis: The biggest challenge has been to get our name out there and to build a fan base from nowhere. When we started the band we had few contacts within the scene but we soon began posting CD's and shirts to many different countries across the world. We received some good gig offers in our first year (Supporting Anaal Nathrakh, Unfathomable Ruination and playing Snuff Fest, a day festival with Kraanium headlining to name a few). We also managed to book our first tour with Italian Death Metallers, Logic of Denial and secured our first performance outside the UK at Gothenburg Deathfest in Sweden.

 

PSAB: Do you have any plans for this new year? Any goals you want to hit?

Necrosis: We are extremely excited for this year. We're supporting the legendary Desecration in our first gig of the year next week in Oxford. Jason has just been announced as Kraanium's new guitarist and will play his first shows with them when we tour the UK together in May. I think we are most looking forward to playing Brutality over Sanity Deathfest in London and Slam Fest in Bristol on this tour as both these line-ups are full of bands we love including Cerebral Effusion, Devangelic and Darkall Slaves. 

 

Before we tour with Kraanium, we have a short 3 day tour with Scordatura and Atonement. 2015 will be our first time playing in 3 new countries for us, Slovakia at Flesh Party Open Air Fest, Germany at Deathfeast Open Air and in Austria at Rape the Escape Festival. We are currently booking another 3 tours for this year and these will be announced as soon as all the dates have been booked. This year looks set to be our most productive yet with the release of our album, 5 tours and 3 festival appearances already being planned. We hope that some more opportunities will be available to us and we will be able to spread the brutality to new places we haven't played before.

 

PSAB: Any shout outs to give?

Necrosis: There are so many people we need to thank. This will be covered in depth in the album booklet. But for now we wish to shout out to Kraanium, the Gothenburg Deathfest crew, every UK promoter who has booked us for a show and everyone who's bought some merch from us or simply enjoys our music, oh and Danowar.

Interview with Armored From Beyond!

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Genre(s): Death Metal

Location: Esteli, Nicaragua

PSAB: Where does the band name "Armored From Beyond" come from?

AFB: Armored From Beyond  means in our language "Blindados Del Mas Alla". That phrase means that we are shielded against all the negative of this world, trying to change some minimal in this society through  our lyrics and messages. And an idea of the name comes from the founders of the band; we are armored against the critical of the society for our lifestyle.

PSAB: When can we expect new music from you?

AFB: Thats Right! Of Course, two weeks ago we stared recording our new album, contain 10 tracks or more, and we have two song recorded now, all brand new songs!

PSAB: If you had the choice to have a musician featured on one of your tracks. Which musician would that be and why?

AFB: Phil Bozeman of Whitechapel or Trevor Strnad of The Black Dahlia Murder, Both are Excelent vocalists and their bands are great influences of us, i dare to say they are the bost on their styles. And would be great a Guitarist like Michael Keene Of The Facelees a Guitar solo performance would be amazing he is a great musician!

PSAB: What is the metal scene like in Esteli, Nicaragua?

AFB: Growing up everyday, we have bands of a various genres, some with long career and other with short career, but the extreme metal is in emphasis now. And we are in! Try to be better and give the best of us to our scene.

PSAB: What are three bands that play the most influence on your music?

AFB: Death! They are Legends Specially Chuck Schuldiner, if he hadn't revolutionized the music maybe we would not be in our genre, The Black Dahlia Murder, A great influence for us, the sound of AFB is based in TBDM style and Sound, and finaly but not less important Whitechapel, they are the number one influence in Deathcore, our genre, we make covers of this band and when we do it we feel a great emotion and euphoria.

PSAB: Do you have any shout outs to give to your fans, and the readers out there?

AFB: Thanks for the special support to all our followers and fans, we would be nothing without all of you, thanks to all the media support and pages like Pig Squeals and Breakdowns for the interview and take time for the bands and their material, wait a couple moths for  the New Album of Armored From Beyond! New Songs, new sounds and new videos, Keep in the Mosh Pit!

Interview with Skeletonwitch!

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Genre(s): Symphonic/Blackened Death Metal

Location: Athens, OH

 

One of our live interviewers, Adrian, caught up with Skeletonwitch at one of their shows in his area. Check out the interview below!

 

PSAB: How did the name "SkeletonWitch" come about? 

SW: Well, I'm not an original member, but I believe Nate was the one who came up with it, and I think it was basically, "These two words sound cool together, let's use it".

 

PSAB: What type of inspiration is the band trying to achieve lyrically?

SW: A lot of our lyrics are based off of horror, and fantasy. Inspiration comes from a lot of film, and from the occult and mythology.

 

PSAB: How did everyone come together to form SkeletonWitch?

SW: Scotty and Nate were in college together, and started hanging out, as a result of being fellow metalheads. They started jamming on riffs, and eventually the Witch was born. The rest is history... 

 

PSAB: What is your favorite song you guys have wrote?

SW: For me, the second track off Serents Unleashed, "Beneath Dead Leaves", is one of my favorites. It really hits on every aspect of our sound. It's brutal, catchy, and epic all in one 2 and a half minute song. And it's a really fun one to play live.

 

PSAB: Influences and any shout outs you'd like to give?

SW: We have a very wide range if influences, as it reflects greatly on our song writing. Everything from traditional metal, to black and death metal. Our sound is really just one big mesh of all of our favorites bands, sub genres of metal. I could honestly list a thousand bands that have influenced us in one way or another.

As far as shout-outs, the fans. We have such a tight nit relationship with them, and for that we've been able to gain the success we've achieved. So a huge thank you to any and every person that's attended a show, bought a shirt or record, or just taken time out of your day to listen to the art that we've worked so diligently to create. You guys fucking rule!! And thank you, for this interview, and for helping me that one night, ha!

Interview with Heresy Denied!

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Genre(s): Death Metal

Location: Poznań

PSAB: Where does the band name "Heresy Denied' come from? 

HD: The idea of the band's name comes from our very first huge inspiration - Chuck Schuldiner. He is the guy who opened the gates for completely new type of playing in death metal and metal at all. I wouldn't exaggerate if I called him the true godfather of progressive death metal. His last music project called Control Denied left a huge emotional gap behind so we just wanted to pay tribute to our 'dad' by naming our band similarly. 

PSAB: How's the feedback been for your single "Deny Your Heresy?" 

HD: The feedback has been pretty cool recently. We have received plenty of flattering comments about it from huge polish bands like for instance Materia and a lot of pages who shared it like you. Well, it's our first song recorded in studio so we didn't expect that it would be spotted on a metal scene so it was a nice surprise that it got nice opinions. And some questions from people expecting when we're gonna release an album. 

PSAB: What are your plans for the new year? Tour? Record new music? Write? 

HD: We're going to release our first album this year. It's gonna to be a full length one. There are going to be 8 songs presenting different faces of our music but still keeping it brutal and intensive. We would love to tour across Poland but it's just a dream now haha. But who knows... 

 

PSAB: What's the local metal scene like in Poznań? 

HD: The local metal scene in Poznan is pretty usual. We're having a lot of cool bands paying tribute to oldschool metal like Bloodthirst, Bękart, Terror Tactics, Enslavement to name a few. We do also have some bands presenting face of modern metal, especially deathcore ones like Final Sacrifice, Blast Rites or Zeal. So yeah, metal music is doing pretty well here. 

 

PSAB: What are some of the bands that play an influence on your music? 

HD: The greatest inspiration for us nowadays are The Faceless, Veil of Maya, Fallujah, 100 Knives Inside and every band being progressive/technical/ experimental/fucked up and so on. But also some elder bands like Death, Cynic, Necrophagist had a huge impact on us.

 

PSAB: Any shout outs to give?

HD: We would like to thank producers from Aurora Studio Daniel Witczak and Adrian Kasprzak for helping us in mixing up our single and everyone who supported us so far. Keep cool guys and stay metal. Album is coming.

 

Interview with Athanatos!

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Genre(s): Progressive/Technical Death Metal

Location: New Braunfels, TX

 

PSAB: Where does the band name "Athanatos" come from exactly?

Athanatos: The word "Athanatos" is Greek for "Immortal" we thought it was a really cool/different sounding name that we felt fits our band and our music.

 

PSAB: You released your debut single "Genocide" back in November. How's the feedback for that single?

Athanatos: Our single "Genocide" has so far gotten a lot of positive feedback since we posted up a play through video on our YouTube channel back in November.

 

PSAB: You're currently working on your album Obsolescent Existence. When can we expect this album to drop?

Athanatos: Our album "Obsolescent Existence" is looking to be releasing around spring time, maybe on time for summer. We will have more details by February.

 

PSAB: How's the metal scene in New Braunfels, TX?

Athanatos: There's honestly not much of a metal scene here in our town. Only like 2 other bands that we know of, and they both play in the San Antonio area.

PSAB: If you had the choice to have a musician featured on one of your tracks. Which musician would that be and why?

Athanatos: Guest vocalist we would like to have would be: Nick Arthur of Molotov Solution, because of his unique sound and how great of a song writer he is. Colin Jeffs from Aversions Crown, because he's a mad "Australien", and Dickie Allen, because why not? Dude is the most gnarliest vocalist out there!

 

PSAB: Do you have any shout outs to the readers out there?

Athanatos: Shout outs to everyone of our friends and listeners who have been supporting us from the beginning! And to Pigsqueals and Breakdowns for sponsoring us and helping us get our name and music out there.

 

Check out our single "Genocide" and download it for free, also thanks to everyone for supporting us since we've started up!

Interview with Among Them In Trenches!

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Genre(s): Death Metal

Location: USA

PSAB: What does the band name "Among Them In Trenches" mean exactly?

ATIT: There's no real meaning behind it, but we all agreed it would fit our sound and had that death metal vibe. So really, it's just a name.

 

PSAB: What are your plans for the upcoming new year? New music? Tour?

ATIT: Well first off, our priority is replacing a lot of our old material with a more grind oriented style that shares a common theme. Additionally, we are planning to lay down some new material early March, while playing a few isolated show around the state. We have not done an official tour before, but that is something that we are seriously looking into for 2015.

 

PSAB: You released a demo back in August. How was the feedback for that, and how's the feedback now?

ATIT: Feedback has been great. The demo was a long time in the making, so we are just happy to have something out there.  The demo features one of our newest tracks --  "Crossing the Umbilicus", along with "Crop Duster" and "Deathworker" which are some of our oldest songs. Feedback from the demo is still great, but we feel it is not representative of our current writing style and musical direction. So, it is important to us to get back into the studio.

 

PSAB: If you could be signed to any record label, which label would that be?

ATIT: Relapse Records.

 

PSAB: What are three bands that play the most influence on your music?

ATIT: For the most part, we don't like to associate our music with any particular band. Primarily we listen to a lot of grind, punk, and metal; but not necessarily limited to those genres. Good music is good music.

 

PSAB: Any shout outs to give?

ATIT: Central Waters Brewing Company -- otherwise, not really.

Interview with Cryptodira!

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Genre(s): Prog Death Metal/Experimental
Location: Mount Sinai, NY

PSAB: Where does the band name "Cryptodira" come from exactly? 

Cryptodira: Cryptodira actually isn't the bands first name, we were originally called "No Judgment". We hated that name and decided to change it, so we turned to wikipedia. I don't know how but we wound up on a page called "Cryptodira" and it had something to do with turtles. We thought it was cool & it stuck. We love the name.  

PSAB: You haven't released new music since January of 2014. When can we expect new music from you? 

Cryptodira: We are putting a 7" split out with a band called East of the Wall in early January. Other than that, we have plans for a short "B-sides" tape release early in 2015. We'll have something bigger very soon, we're working on a lot of new music right now. I think we've got around 40 minutes of new music we are rehearsing right now & we're still writing more. We want our next big release to be perfect. We're really digging the way it's going right now.  

PSAB: What bands play the most influence on your music? 

Cryptodira: Tough question. We all grew up on Dream Theater, Opeth & Tool to just name a few. As we got older we started listening to a lot of Converge, The Dillinger Escape Plan & others and tried to combine that type of chaotic metal/hardcore with all the prog we grew up on. Everyone listens to different music though. Matt (drums) is actually very into pop music, Shane (bass/vocals) digs a lot of Post Metal/Post Rock. There's so much music & all of it influences the way we write in one way or another.  

PSAB: How's the metal scene in Mount Sinai, NY? 

Cryptodira: There's actually a surprisingly strong Progressive Metal/Prog scene on Long Island. Hardcore is big here. Brooklyn (about an hour from Mount Sinai) is a great place for weird types of Metal/Prog too. 

PSAB: If you could play any country in the world, which country would that be? 

Cryptodira: We want to play everywhere. Mike (guitar/vocals) wants to specifically play in Sweden so he can wear a Peter Forsberg jersey on stage. We are really excited to be playing in Canada in January with Trade Wind. I think Scott (guitar/vocals) plans on wearing a John Tavares jersey on stage in Toronto. We love hockey.  

PSAB: Do you have any shout outs to the readers out there? 

Cryptodira: There's too many shout outs to get into specifics. Shout out to everyone on Team Cryptodira, we are forever grateful & in debt to you. 

2014's Most Notable Album!

It's that time of the year again to present the most notable albums of the passing year. In 2013, I only did a top five, but as there were several other great albums that released that weren't mentioned. This time, I believe. a list of albums (not in any special order) showing which ones are most notable is the best way to go. Also, there are fan mentioned albums at the bottom as well! So, let's get started!

Most Notable Albums of 2014

Lorelei - Lore of Lies (Feb, 2014)

Carnifex - Die Without Hope (Mar, 2014)

Benighted - Carnivore Sublime (Feb, 2014)

I Declare War - We Are Violent People By Nature (Apr, 2014)

Inferi - The Path To Apotheosis (Jan, 2014)

The Kennedy Veil - Trinity of Falsehood (Jan, 2014)

Nexilva - Eschatologies (Apr, 2014)

Alterbeast - Immortal (Mar, 2014)

Cognitive - Cognitive (Apr, 2014)

Hour of Penance - Regicide (May, 2014)

Cage of Torment - Exceed (May, 2014)

Serpents - Pestilence (May, 2014)

The Room Colored Charlatan - Primitives (May, 2014)

Structures - Life Through A Window (May, 2014)

GhostxShip - Cold Water Army (July, 2014)

Volumes - No Sleep (July, 2014)

Septicflesh - Titan (June, 2014)

Aborted - The Necrotic Manifesto (Apr, 2014)

Delusions of Grandeur - Reclamation (July, 2014)

Swine Overlord - Parables of Umbral Transcendence (Aug, 2014)

Acrania - Totalitarian Dystopia (Aug, 2014)

Within The Ruins - Phenomena (July, 2014)

Secret Band - Secret Band (July, 2014)

The Contortionist - Language (Sept, 2014)

Fallujah - The Flesh Prevails (July, 2014)

Rings of Saturn - Lugal Ki En (Oct, 2014)

Flub - Advent (Oct, 2014)

Depths of Hatred - Hellborn (Oct, 2014)

The Dali Thundering Concept - Eyes Wide Opium (Oct, 2014)

Hideous Divinity - Cobra Verde (Oct, 2014)

The Ghost Inside - Dear Youth (Nov, 2014)

Aversions Crowns - Tyrants (Nov, 2014)

Circa Survive - Schema (Nov, 2014)

Starbomb - Player Select (Dec, 2014)

Acranius - Dishonor (Dec, 2014)

Pathology - Throne of Reign (Aug, 2014)

Walking Dead On Broadway - Aeshma (Oct, 2014)
Shemales From Outta Space Of Death - Das Virus Ist Der Fetisch (Oct, 2014)
Suffocate With Your Fame - Item(s) (June, 2014)
Job For A Cowboy - Sun Eater (Nov, 2014)
Villains - Freudian Slip (Nov, 2014)
Combaticus - The Worst of One World (July, 2014)
Aera Cura - Dead Ends (Aug, 2014)
Shokran - Supreme Truth (Feb, 2014)

Most Notable Albums of 2014 From The Fans

Animal As Leaders - The Joy of Motion (Mar, 2014)
Whitechapel - Our Endless War (Apr, 2014)
The Acacia Strain - Coma Witch (Oct, 2014)
Upon A Burning Body - The World Is My Enemy Now (Aug, 2014)
I Killed The Prom Queen - Beloved (Feb, 2014)
Motionless In White - Reincarnate (Sept, 2014)
Texas In July - Bloodwork (Sept, 2014)
Architects - Lost Forever // Lost Together (Mar, 2014)
Numbers - Three (Mar, 2014)

Now I know I am sure I missed several great albums, but I was unable to listen to every metal album put out during the year. So, these the ones I got the chance to check out and really enjoy. Make sure you check them out yourself, and the albums listed from the fans. Thanks for reading, and here's to 2015!

Interview with Arreat Summit!

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Genre(s): Death Metal
Location: Motala/Linköping/Gävle

PSAB: Where does the band name "Arreat Summit" come from? 

AS: It comes from a zone in the computer game "Diablo II, Lord of destruction". Most of us are into computer games and we just thought it had a nice ring to it. Barbarians rule! 

 

PSAB: You released a music video for your song "Horror Below" about a week ago. How was the experience making and filming the video? 

AS: So we drove out to some abandoned ruins by the side of the highway in subzero temperature. The environment, temperature and darkness gave it a creepy dark look. It was cold as a motherfucker but we all fought through it and finished recording after a few hours. We like the concept of DIY (do it yourself) so with the help of Katrin “Wanny” Berndt we managed to pull if off without any previous experience of music videos. We are stoked to record another video soon! 

 

PSAB: If you were given the chance to tour any country. Which country would that be? 

AS: We're all in love with the US. Regarding both culture and metal scene. Many of our favorite bands tour there each album cycle so it would be a dream to come with as an opening act. Another country that would be cool to tour is Germany, who seams to have the healthiest heavy metal scene in Europe and our music will probably fit right in. 

 

PSAB: If you were given unlimited funds to improve your local metal scene, how would you go about it? 

AS: First of we'd fund the local venues, so they can afford to pay the bands performing. The biggest problem being in a band and wanting to travel to a show is the gas/food/gage-price. Even if it's not much, it's difficult not ending up spending a lot of money for each show. The scene in Sweden is kind of weak at the moment, where bands compete against each other and people are not willing to go out to shows, even if they are for free. This might be because the metal (and music scene) in Sweden is oversaturated with good bands. Another idea that might work is to have a good website that can give some good publicity for all the gigs. You got some unlimited funds coming our way? Paypal us plz

 

PSAB: What are your hobbies, outside of music? 

AS: Computer- or console games including World of Warcraft, Dota2, Counterstrike, Hearthstone Gears Of War etc. Some of us try to go to the gym regularly in order to not suffer the consequences of our frequent visits to Burger King and other fast food restaurants. Sonny has another band called “Placing The Blame” and Matthias has “Deviant Breed”. 

 

PSAB: Do you have any shout outs to give to the readers out there? 

AS: Check out our different pages for music, shows, merch etc: and CD at
https://arreatsummit.bandcamp.com/
http://arreatsummit.bigcartel.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ArreatSummit
Big thanks to our label https://www.facebook.com/worldvscometh and
to Katrin Berndt for being our sixth member https://www.facebook.com/wannyofficial.
Check out our video and stay brutal!

Interview with Aboulia!

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Genre(s): Death Metal

Location: N/A

PSAB: Where does the band name "Aboulia" come from?

Aboulia: When "Aboulia" first started, we had the name "Nirriti" after about a month of having that name, we found a dubstep artist had the same name. So we had to change; but not to Aboulia, we changed to "Asterion" but the same thing happened. Another band had the same name, at this point we had no names in mind so we found some names of sicknesses & Aboulia just happened to stick out to us.

 

PSAB: We're expected to get your debut album in 2016. What are your plans for 2015?

Aboulia: For 2015 we plan on writing a demo EP, it would include a maximum of 5 tracks, and we possibly plan on playing some local shows as well, for sure after the EP's release. The EP is thought of to be a prologue to our upcoming full-length debut album; or a taste of what is to come.

 

PSAB: If you had the choice to have a musician featured on one of your tracks. Which musician would that be and why?

Aboulia: Personaly, I would have to say Davey Havok of AFI. He's where I come from, although his band may not be heavy anymore; It would be an amazing opportunity to have. 

 

Aboulia: I (Collin) would enjoy working with practically too many musicians, but to name a few: Tomasso Riccardi of Fleshgod Apocalypse, Oliver Aleron of Archspire, Fotis Benardo of Septicflesh, Francesco Paoli of Fleshgod Apocalypse, and Tomasz Pilasiewicz of Incessant Collapse. Francesco Paoli would shred on a guest star drum track, for sure.

 

PSAB: What is the metal scene like in your area?

Aboulia: The metal scene is very limited in Chase's (vocalist) area, not many people are knee on it. People in my area listen to bands like Pierce the Veil, Black Veil Brides, etc.. Which there's nothing wrong with that. It's just they're not "metal"
 

As for the drummer (Collin) I'd have to say that my area consists of an abundancy of thrash metal fans, so much like Chase's local area, it is very limited, and grants us few options for guitarists and such.

 

PSAB: What are three bands that play the most influence on your music?

Aboulia: For Aboulia as a band, it would have to be: Fleshgod Apocalypse, Suicide Silence, and AFI. Our drummer has a love for fine arts and (technical) death metal, and our vocalist loves hardcore (and music closely related to it). Despite that, both of us members are very flexible and versatile and we both enjoy each other's music, thus allowing for us to combine our musocal talents to create/compose our music.

 

PSAB: Do you have any shout outs to the readers out there?

Aboulia: Yeah, to our friend Alex Ives & his band(s) Sorrowspell & Beyond the Broken, as he performs guest star vocals in one select track on the album.

Interview with Ritual Kannabis!

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Genre(s): Death Metal

Location: Puerto Rico

 

PSAB: Why was the name "Ritual Kannabis" chosen for your band? Were there any other names you considered?

Wesley: the name came out of the band's begginings back in 2008 were the founding members Wesley, German, Frankie and Orlando got together in a local studio jammed and had a great time. There were some other names going around but none of them stuck with us as much as Ritual Kannabis did, the name represented our beliefs as well as our sense of humor about life 

 

PSAB: What are your plans for the upcoming year?

Enrique J: The plans for the upcoming year are to release our first full lenght album "The Truth" which is nearly done, play as many shows possible, we've also been working the past few months on new music so obviously that is gonna carry on in 2015. We've also been laying low due to the untimely death of our lead guitar player Christian this past October, so we have been dealing with that loss before we make any decisions on who will be playing with us

Wesley: We've been talking to people that are interested in playing guitar in Ritual Kannabis so by next year we'll have someone joining our ranks. We are also aiming to internationalize our music with our upcoming album.

 

PSAB: What's the local metal scene like in Puerto Rico?

Enrique J: I for one consider it to be very varied there's your black metal,death,thrash hardcore,punk,doom, heavy metal,power basically there's something for everyone. Lately there's been somewhat of a resurgence in our scene many new bands coming up and the local scene seems to be kinda growing actually and its obviously a good thing. This past week a documentary was released about the birth of the metal scene in Puerto Rico called The Distorted Island. Recently there has been more support from the clubs and venues to let  the bands promote their music and sell their merch which obviously helps greatly.

Wesley: In my opinion the local scene is now stronger and more united than it ever was in the past, there are always their discrepancies but it is really more united. And with the documentary The Distorted Island coming out this past week and the many bands that have come to the island these past years thanks to the efforts of the local promoters wich include Karl Music Group, Vengeance Music, PowerMusic Entertainment,The Shownet Group, Thrash corner Records, Bloodstained World Entertainment. This year a group effort from the local scene and its many bands headed by Rafael Bracero from Khaosmaster released a compilation that we were also a part of named Puerto Rico Metal Alliance in it is an exclusive track by our band.

PSAB: If you could have any musician featured on one of your songs, which musician would that be?

Wesley:Locally i really would like to make a featuring with Mickey from local band Protocols, it would be sick we both having very different vocal styles would make an interesting duo, internationally i would love a featuring with Eddie Hermida former All Shall Perish vocalist.

Enrique J: I would love to have Ramon Ortiz from Puya to lend his talent to one of our tracks but that's wishful thinking, in a more grounded choice i think Fernando who's from Attchment & Deranger would be insane he has a very distinct sound and has very trippy style that would make a really good contrast.

PSAB: If you could bring back any band, which band would you choose?

Enrique J: PANTERA bar none, they are a huge influence to me the heavyness of Dimebag's riffs, his grooves and his leads, the tightness between Rex and Vinnie Paul EPIC!!!!! Phil vocals spewing those lyrics with that intensity which all felt true and  I could actually relate to what he was saying and the message he tried to get across.  

 

Wesley:Death would be my only choice period, Chuck was a musician who was way ahead of his time who also died way too soon, he inspired me greatly and i think he had so much more to offer to metal, i would do anything to hear a new Death album.

PSAB: Do you have any shout outs to give?

RK: Shout outs go to!

Zafakon, Agyle, Tavu, Protocols, Los Brothers, Vessels For A Dream, Severe Mutilation, Organic, Dementium, Deranger, Outbreak Hate, Bajo Presion, Los Gallos, Attachment, The Mirage Theory, The Calm Before The Massacre, Convalesce, Humanist, Omnifariam, Cold Times, Pit Fight Demolition Machete, Dantesco, Alas Negras, Sin Verguenza, Las Cargas, Sepulchral, St. Vulturesoul all of these are local acts check them out! And of course all of those that have supported and helped us get to where we are!!!!!!

I Am The Fucking War EU/UK Tour 2015!

Bands: All Misery and Inhuman Rampage

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Interview with Cyhyraeth!

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Genre(s): Death Metal

Location: Dallas, TX

PSAB: What does the band name "Cyhyraeth" mean and come from?

Cyhyraeth: The name Cyhyraeth came from our old drummer Skyler Hardy who had this encyclopedia of mythological creatures. This was a few years before Jessica and Alex had moved to Dallas, Tx and were trying to form a project in their hometown of Albuquerque, NM. We had been trying to find the perfect name when Skyler recommended "Cyhyraeth" which we came to learn was the scream of a banshee usually before an epidemic or disaster. The name has stuck with us to this day since it fits us really well seeing as the name is really hard to pronounce and we are really hard to define musically.

PSAB: You have a new album coming out soon, Servant To The Fire. What can we expect from this album? Will be as good as your EP Disgraced?

Cyhyraeth: Our album "Servant To The Fire" is going to be something our current fans, and people who have heard of us wouldn't expect. Almost all of the songs from "Disgraced" are back, but all of them have evolved to the point that they feel like new songs. We have really heavy hard hitting tracks like "Suffocate" "Confliction" and "As The World Burns" but then we also have a lighter melodic side with "Aftermath" and "Awakening" as well as everything in between. For an overall sound our album is really hard to define since each track takes a different direction musically, which gives the album depth and makes it so no two tracks are anywhere near the same. We feel this album is much more powerful than our EP and so far our fans reactions to it have backed this up.

PSAB: If you could tour any country with any band; which country and what band would that be?

Cyhyraeth: Picking one country to tour is hard, obviously we're from the US so if we were to branch out it'd probably have to be Germany. And we'd love to tour with Trivium as they're probably our biggest influence through out the album.

PSAB: How's the metal scene in Dallas, TX?

Cyhyraeth: The metal scene here in Dallas has gotten a lot better in recent years. When we started really playing shows in 2012 there weren't too many venues open in the DFW area. Now one of the major music district's in Dallas known as Deep Ellum has really come back to life. It's kind of amazing to have seen this transformation and we really appreciate local metal promotion companies like Dallas Metal Scene and Torch Entertainment for helping keep the scene alive and well!

PSAB: What are your hobbies outside of the band and music?

Cyhyraeth: Our main hobby outside of the band and music is definitely video games. We're all constantly playing them whether it be handheld or console. In fact that is how most of the band past the time in New York while we were recording our album.

PSAB: Any shout outs to give?

Cyhyraeth: There really are just too many shout outs to give, but here are a few:
Anthony Lopardo, Stephen Murphy, Ray Marte, Torch Idell, Joesph Cabrera, Skyler Hardy, and all of our brothers in bands we constantly support and share the stage with!

Interview with Moker!

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Genre(s): Brutal Death Metal
Location: Niel

 

PSAB: What does the band name "Moker" mean exactly? 

Moker: Moker means "sledgehammer" in dutch, hard, brutal and pounding like a sledgehammer.
PSAB: You've been around since 2003. What has changed the most in the metal scene since then? 

Moker: The intensity people experience music. Internet and social media, have changed the music industry in sow many ways. People don't feel the need to come out to shows and hang out with their friends, because they allready told them everything on facebook. And offcourse the download industry is a big influence on the amount of cd's bands can sell. Internet really helped alot of bands over the years and in a certain perspective the scene also, but overall the underground scene has suffered a lot of blows. But as long as people turn up at underground shows and buy a cd from time to time, the underground will never die ! 

 

PSAB: How has the feedback been for your album Satan's Den? 

Moker: Really well sow far ! We've had a lot of possitive response to it, and we are really happy with that ! 

 

PSAB: If you could tour any country. Which country would that be? 

Moker: America off course, the amount of people you can reach over there, the different states, different people every day, that would be just amazing !!! On the road in America driving through all those different sceneries would be amazing !!! 

 

PSAB: What has played the most influence on your music? 

Moker: Mostly the bands we like ourselves Dying fetus, aborted, TBDM, Cannibal corpse, Misery Index.... And also a lot is negativity and aggression for wich we don't have an outlet in the real world. 

 

PSAB: Do you have any shout outs to give? 

Moker: Shout out to all the people that ever bought a cd, t-shirt, came out to a show, supported us in any way... we thank you very much !!!

Benighted Announces New Live CD/DVD 'Brutalive The Sick'!

Death metal/grind band out of France announced earlier today they will be releasing a CD/DVD titled Brutalive The Sick. The scenes will be taken from the Sylak Open Air 2014 show in France. The album will consist of 13 tracks performed live by the band. They announced this on Facebook,

"FIRST BENIGHTED LIVE ALBUM (CD+DVD)

Français : "Pour célébrer ses 15 ans de carrière, Benighted sortira début 2015 son premier album live 'Brutalive The Sick' (CD+DVD) chez Season of Mist. Treize titres de furie live déchaînée sur scène et dans le pit enregistrés au Sylak Open Air Festival en août 2014 pour fêter l’anniversaire des grands malades comme il se doit !

English : "We are happy to announce that for the celebration of our 15th anniversary our first live album 'Brutalive the Sick' will be out soon. The show was recorded at Sylak Open Air 2014 in France. These 13 tracks represent our unleashed fury on stage whipped up by an amazing crowd. We hope this makes for a suitably brutal and insane birthday gift for all of you!""

Check out the teaser below!

The Obelisk Release New Single "Subterfuge"

Progressive death metal band, The Obelisk, released their long awaited single "Subterfuge" earlier this morning. This song follows their demo release "Particle Dissemination" that dropped a few weeks ago. You can check out "Subterfuge" below, and purchase it on iTunes now!

Live Interview with Noisem!

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Genre(s): Death Metal/Grindcore

Location: Baltimore, MD

 

Our live interviewer, David, caught up with Noisem recently at one of their shows. Check out the interview below! Also, special thanks to Noisem for allowing David to interview you!

 

PSAB: What's it like touring with Carcass, Obituary, and Exhumed?

Noisem: An absolute dream come true. Watching all of these bands every night makes us try to better ourselves and attempt to at least make a dent in the interest of the crowd in comparison to these legends.

 

PSAB: Craziest story of the tour so far . .

Noisem: We met our guardian angel at a rest stop outside of El Paso. That day we had blown a tire, gone off the side of the highway and pretty much came 50 yards from either hitting a tree on the left side or plummeting off a cliff to the right. Luckily our MERCH dude Sam (also the guitarist of Jarhead Fertilizer) was driving and was able to safely stop us from either flipping or continuing going through to our deaths. But anyway. that night we were just at the rest stop and this dude comes up to us, so we begin talking. Then all of a sudden he goes into discussing the various music videos he has been in such as "In Too Deep" by Sum 41 and "Smooth Criminal" by Alien Ant Farm. 

 

To cut this short, the next day, we blew another tire on route to Tucson. He just so happened to be driving by, and was generous enough to drive us all to the tire shop while the van was being towed. That night he followed us to the show and he told us about how much he loved Soulfly, etc. But yeah, that was definitely my favorite moment.

 

PSAB: Best/worst place you played on this tour.

Noisem: Definitely Richmond. That night was great because a lot of our Baltimore homies came down and raged. Good time.

PSAB: I just listened to Agony defined. Very unrelenting thrash/grind/death, you guys didn't fuck around on this record. I
literally was sweating by the end of the third song from running around my house. What were you guys going for on this record?

Noisem: All of the material on Agony was written before I joined the band, but It was mostly just our take on old school death/thrash. It was what we wanted to hear from a band at that time and I think it turned out well judging upon how positive the response has been.

PSAB: Biggest influences?

Noisem: All of us will have a different answer, but for me personally it's definitely Repulsion, Terrorizer, Slayer, the classics. I also think for a lot of the newer stuff we've been taking more of an influence from stuff like Infest and Crossed Out, old school hardcore, etc. Lyrically I would definitely have to say my biggest influences are Robert Smith, Jacob Bannon. Stuff like that.

PSAB: How long have you been a band, how did it start?

Noisem: I guess the band "officially" started in 2008. Harley and Sebastian are brothers so they've always been playing together. But for the sound we have now we probably I would say we began in 2010/2011 when we were Necropsy. I joined the band in 2012 and we haven't really changed since.

PSAB: What is the Maryland scene like?

Noisem: Depends. I think the Baltimore punk scene is thriving and there are a lot of great bands. Check out Dopecopper, Putrisect, Barbelith.

PSAB: Anything we should keep an eye or ear out for in 2015?

Noisem: We're going to be making some announcements in the next few weeks regarding that. Stay tuned!

New Music From The Past Three Days!

Several new songs came out over the past three days, and before we Americans head into Thanksgiving tomorrow, you should check out these killer new songs now!

Sunday Releases

 

Two new songs dropped on Sunday. One from beatdown/deathcore act, Goliath with their song "Inside My Mind" that features Johnny Plague. Another from Kill The Lycan, a melodic deathcore band, with their song "Awoken."

Monday Releases

 

The only song that really caught attention on Monday was hardcore band Barrier's song "Preincarnate" taken from their album Eventide. You can pre-order that album here.

Tuesday Releases

 

Like Monday, only one song that released (as far as I know) on Tuesday. Which was death metal act Ophidian I's new song "Whence They Came."

Wednesday Releases

 

Two things were released today; one was The Lacy of Lucy's new song "A Diminished Transcendence" from their upcoming new EP Exalted Compositions. The second is The Black Dahlia Murder with their trailer for their upcoming new EP Grind 'Em All. You can pre-order that EP on 7'' here.

Interview with As Owls Sing To Crow!

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Genre(s): Blackened Death Metal/Groove

Location: Portland, OR

PSAB: Where did your band name come from, and what exactly does it mean?

AOSTC: As Owls Sing To Crows is essentially a metaphor. The owl, when viewed in witchcraft and mythology, is a villain. The crow is often viewed as a pest or vermin and, as we know, there is a big abundance of them. So, the villain sings to the masses. We try to follow a theme in our music, which  is the dark gloomy pacific northwest.  What better inspiration than to use things we see in Oregon?

 

PSAB: You released your album Paper Antler back in September. How's the feedback been for that?

AOSTC: Well, we had quite the organic welcoming lately. Due to Paper Antler being on a few blogs and free download sites from our fans, we have had quite a few reviews, and they are very positive and it's really encouraging that people really like us and support us which we feel really grateful for. Our album is also free now to anyone who would like to download it.

 

PSAB: You're a two-man band. Why did you choose this route over a traditional band setting?

AOSTC: Me and Justin chose to be a duo because we have became such good friends during the bands formation that we think for the moment it's just easier to canvas imagery and sound structure since we  have high similarities on how we want the music to be. However, we never ruled out the idea of other possible band mates in the future. But for now, who knows?

 

PSAB: How's the music scene in Portland, OR?

AOSTC: The music scene in Portland is really amazing and it certainly has its distinction in the city. Some of my favorite bands from here would be: The Odious, Agalloch, When They Invade, and many others! I recommend others to explore our scene! I think there's a little of everything for everyone.

 

PSAB: What plays the most influence on your music? This can be non-music related.

AOSTC: For influences, hmm... I would have to say for me, my favorite Musical influences would have to be Fair To Midland, The Human Abstract, The Contortionist, The Haunted, Agalloch, The Faceless, Wretched, Kagero, Gogol Bordello, In Mourning, and Isis.

My non-musical influences, for me, would be: Gardening, parks in the fall, my wife and son, abstract imagery discussions, poetry, and of course my bearded brother from another mother, Justin Wilson :)

And for Justin "Captain Chicken strip" Wilson, his musical influences are Bloodbath, Devil Driver, Opeth, Dark Funeral, Beneath The Massacre, and Ion Dissonance.

His non-musical influences include: The gloom of the northwest, my parents support of my music, the love of my life and my best guy and band band mate Taylor. What makes him tick is rain.

Job For A Cowboy Releases New Lyric Video To "Encircled By Mirrors"!

Death metal band, Job For A Cowboy, released this new lyric video for their song 'Encircled By Mirrors" recently. The song is taken from the band's most recent album Sun Eater, which you can buy here. While you're buying it, make sure to check out the new lyric video below!