Interviews

In the interest of full disclosure, my Annihilator fandom goes back to 1986 and the Phantasmagoria demo. Back in the day, the four track demo may have had the most ridiculous looking piece of headgear for its cover art, but it set my home and native land ablaze. Annihilator ended up being placed in a stead with Sacrifice, Razor, and Slaughter to often be referred to as The Big Four of Canadian Thrash…

The rise of Copenhagen quartet Konvent has been astronomical. When bassist Heidi Withington Brink got the idea to direct her lifelong love of music towards actually creating and playing it, she didn’t let her inexperience get in the way. Teaming up with a collection of fellow exuberant amateurs from the local scene, Konvent was born, and in four short years, the doom/death quartet—Heidi, guitarist Sara Helena Nørregaard, vocalist Rikke Emilie List, and drummer Julie Simonsen—has gone from nervous newcomers to Danish festival regulars, a band with European tours under its belt, and a deal with Napalm Records, who are issuing the band’s debut, Puritan Masochism.

Hindsight can be a funny thing. I’ll admit that, at the time, I didn’t quite hip myself to what Satyricon was doing with their fourth full-length LP, Rebel Extravaganza [1999]. Gone were the medieval trappings of The Shadowthrone and Nemesis Divina, and in its place were songs that were cold and aggressive, with a very noticeable mean streak. Oh sure, I eventually grew to dig the album pretty hard, based largely on the presence of undeniable jams like “Havoc Vulture” and “Filthgrinder,” but the actual sound of the album always felt like it could’ve used improvement.

If you’re a child of the 90s, meaning you were born in the mid to late 80s and grew up during that seminal period, you probably begged your parents to let you watch Nickelodeon for 24 hours straight on the regular. Amazing programming such as The Adventures of Pete & Pete and All That were comedy staples in every healthy American kid’s diet. Thankfully, Danny Tamberelli and Lori Beth Denberg, giants in kid comedy from both of these pivotal hits, are giving us another taste of personified nostalgia with...Nostalgia Personified

Outburn had the pleasure of speaking with Italian melodic rock star Cristina Scabbia of Lacuna Coil at the band’s Los Angeles show with All That Remains a few days before the release of the band’s new album, Black Anima. We dug deep into the inspiration behind Black Anima—Lacuna Coil’s ninth full-length studio album—and Cristina’s personal philosophy on the healing power of music.

The Hu is taking North America by storm, from the band’s headlining tour to their innovative style of “hunnu rock”—a captivating blend of modern heavy rock and Mongolian folk music sung in their native tongue and using traditional Eastern instruments. Gaining viral international success from their debut music videos, which are comparatively epic to a scene from Game of Thrones, The Hu was quickly scooped up by Eleven Seven Music and recently released their debut full-length album The Gereg.

Demons & Wizards, the power metal side-project featuring Iced Earth guitarist Jon Schaffer and Blind Guardian vocalist Hansi Kürsch, has returned after a lengthy hiatus. The band kicked off its A Magical Encounter with Demons & Wizards Tour—its first tour in nearly two decades—in Europe last summer in Saarbrücken, Germany, including a headlining show at Wacken Open Air, while their North American headline tour began in Los Angeles with Lizzy Borden and Tyr as support.

Ghost has been on the rise for nearly a decade, getting exponentially larger with each year, each album, and each tour. Ghost has had its best year yet, jumping from theaters to arenas, opening for Metallica, and finishing out their Prequelle tour cycle with US and European tours. We spoke with Ghost mastermind Tobias Forge at the end of the US The Ultimate Tour Named Death. With just one more run of dates before taking all of 2020 off from touring, we found out what we could expect in the next chapter of Ghost…a new album, the end of Cardinal Copia, and a new Papa?

Abigail Williams is one of the most diverse bands in modern metal. Their earlier material was the perfect combination of melodic and technical with plenty of black metal influences. But the band’s newest release, Walk Beyond the Dark, introduces a more evil atmosphere to Abigail Williams’ signature sound. We spoke with Sorceron about the writing behind Walk Beyond the Dark and the band’s tour with Ensiferum, Kalmah, and Aenimus.

Technical death metal band Nile has been churning out slabs of authentic Egyptian inspired metal since 1993. The band is on fire as of late with a renewed sense of brutality, which is on full display on its ninth full-length, Vile Nilotic Rites, its first album in four years. We spoke with Sanders about Vile Nilotic Rites, how he’s inspired by Egyptian history, and news on his future solo album.