Interviews

Stick To Your Guns is a band that has always been confident about the anthemic themes within their music to tell the stories of truths that exist in our lives. Those truths extend beyond the self and into the world around us. “We are the universe experiencing itself,” vocalist Jesse Barnett examines.

For the band and the man who put a name to the sound, it’s been a long, hard road for death metal O.G.’s Possessed, in which near insurmountable hurdles have been traversed. They may have been done with all the grace of a herd of meth-ed up elephants, but what’s important is that those obstacles have been leapt over at all, and the result is Revelations of Oblivion…

Of Mice & Men, one of the most individual and prolific bands in metalcore, continues to expand artistically and stay honest in its songwriting. Although most bands would attribute this to the hard work over the years, Of Mice & Men claims it’s more about pursuing the excitement of the moment.

Metalcore mainstays Killswitch Engage was born in 1999 out of the ashes of two prominent Massachusetts metalcore bands—bassist Mike D’Antonio from Overcast (which also included future Shadows Fall vocalist Brian Fair) and guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz (who switched to drums) and guitarist Joel Stroetzel from Aftershock, as well as vocalist Jesse Leach from Nothing Stays Gold.

Formed in 2017, the Canadian modern metal band Living Dead Girl is independently releasing its long-awaited debut full-length album, Exorcism. Four years in the making, Living Dead Girl’s founder/vocalist Molly Rennick’s long journey has taken many twists and turns to get to this point in her music career.

There are few bands as varied in sound and audience as Astronoid. Having spent the better part of the last two years opening for unholy metal champions Ghost and Zeal & Ardor, as well as prog heroes Periphery and Tesseract, the Lowell, Massachusetts quartet is gearing up to hit the road with Between the Buried and Me.

We caught up with the always astute, eloquent, and hilarious guitarist Matt Fox to discuss coming back from the grave, releasing a record no one wants or cares about, and why zombies are lame.

Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism is another crowning achievement from the one band that continues to defy the notion that with age inevitably comes mellowing and that the best stuff is the early stuff. We caught up with vocalist Mark “Barney” Greenway after his morning bike ride along the seaside to discuss relentless un-relentlessness, treating fellow human beings as human beings, and “doing the Swans.”

“We’ve never pandered to what people want, trends, or fashion. We write songs with the same principle we had before we even had any fans—we please ourselves first. If we like something, then there’s a possibility other like-minded people will.” These are the words Paradise Lost frontman Nick Holmes…

It takes a group of seasoned musicians to bring about the tenacious yet aggressive sound that Bark brings with each release. With three albums under their belt, guitarist Martin Furia claims that their distinct sound is inspired by everyday life.