Interviews

Germany’s celebrated extreme metal institution Mystic Circle, founded in 1992, has crafted a bewitching new album, Hexenbrand 1486. Mystic Circle represents the shared vision and passion of Beelzebub and A. Blackwar. "We listen to what we’ve done and talk about everything. It’s necessary to discuss the lyrics to get into the right mood. When you start a song, it’s like a sketch for a painting. We work until the songs have all the colors they need.”

INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL VAMPIRE “It’s been a roller coaster ride for sure. Starting in 2009, I was never supposed to be a dual vocalist to scream and sing. I was always a backup singer or backup screamer, so when I took over the helm to do both, it was a giant challenge, and it led me down a path to want to get better at both.“

“I’ve just always been around my scene in Arizona starting [with] the first band we were playing bowling alleys and backyard shows and stuff,” frontman Joe Cotela explains from the back of the DED tour bus. Whether able to be seen from outside the scene or not, DED has been around for the last four years, quietly stitching together the album RESENT.

The most beautiful art is always vulnerable. If there is any band that knows anything about this very concept, it is Louisville’s genre-defying quartet, Greyhaven. Coming into their fourth studio release, Keep It Quiet, opens the door to another level of emotional exploration. “I think we just kind of naturally want to push the sound of the band further and further with every record, you know,” responds vocalist Brent Mills.

The past handful of years has seen the Oxnard, CA quintet take to the road supporting Municipal Waste, Exodus, the Cavalera Conspiracy and Necrot, and Garcia reports nothing but good about the experiences. “I love playing guitar and being in a band is awesome,” he gushes.

“I wake up in the morning and I feel I need to buy canned goods, I think we’re officially under authoritarian rule,” says Chokecherry vocalist E Scarlett Levinson. Fortunately for Scarlett and co-singer Izzie Clark, they have a glorious debut album in ‘Ripe Fruit Rots and Falls’ to at least briefly distract them from the nation’s present scarily toxic state.

Verily, the gentlemen behind Carach Angren, Ardek and Seregor, are insanely gifted. Their talents are all too magnificently displayed on the EP The Cult of Kariba, which reaffirms Carach Angren’s continued originality. As Ardek states, “We do our own thing. I think it’s cool when a band does something different.”

Norway’s legendary extreme metal pioneers Cadaver, founded in 1988, have undertaken the noble task of presenting a sonically updated version of their debut album, Hallucinating Anxiety, 35 years later. In celebration of Listenable Records’ reissue, we discussed the effort with the massively influential Cadaver co-founder, driving force, and sole constant member, Mr. Anders Odden.

Sven Erik “Maniac” Fuzz-Kristiansen is a genius in the true sense of the word — an unsurpassed artist within the realm of black metal, which he helped pioneer, and beyond. Of course, we were absolutely thrilled to be kindly granted the rare opportunity to interview the living legend Maniac — a privilege we never thought we would have. Maniac’s eloquent and enlightening answers certainly prove why he is one of the very-very best.

“If you can believe my parents, they said that I sang before I spoke,” Rautiainen explains with a small, but reserved smile, “So, I’ve always enjoyed singing and performing.” Luna Kills’ Lotta Rautiainen’s singing sounds like it’s been wrapped in silk, a jazzy full-bodied tone that bellows and bewitches with precision and authority. It’s an interesting juxtaposition to the fury of nu-metal that envelops her sound.