Superjoint will be unleashing Caught Up In the Gears of Application to the masses on Friday via Housecore Records, and this record is a must have for any metal fan in 2016. Continue reading
Category Archives: Album Previews
Greg Kubacki Of Car Bomb Talks Meta, Touring, And More!
Car Bomb has finally released Meta to the world, and as I’ve said before, this is a must own record for 2016. Continue reading
Edsel Dope Discusses Reunion Tours And The Trouble With Success
In part II of our wide-ranging chat with Dope frontman Edsel Dope, we chatted about touring with the reunion of the Die Motherfucker lineup of the band. Reuniting with Acey Slade, Racci Shay, and Virus is no small deal to the fans, or to Edsel personally. He also shared some insights into his over twenty year career in the music industry, and what it takes for older veterans and brand new bands to make it.Continue reading
Kirk Windstein Of Crowbar On The Serpent Only Lies, Fans And Much More!
The almighty Crowbar will be releasing The Serpent Only Lies on October 28th via Entertainment One (eOne). As you’ve heard from the ‘Falling While Rising’ and ‘Plasmic and Pure’ singles, the NOLA legends are as heavy as ever, and Kirk Windstein continues to write riffs that truly shake the world. I recently had the honor of sitting down with the riff lord to discuss the writing of their new album, the return of Tommy Buckley, and much more.Continue reading
Chuck Billy Of Testament Talks Brotherhood Of The Snake
It’s the hottest day of the year so far in London and before you start imagining a lovely picture of a sundrenched European capital with happy citizens, joyfully going about their business, well, think again. The heat is cloying and claustrophobic; offices without air conditioning units become like bakers ovens. Everyone is sweaty and grumpy. Everyone it seems with the exception of Testament’s lead vocalist and driving force Chuck Billy. Continue reading
No Limits- Rich Williams Of Kansas
Kansas is one of the greatest bands of all-time, and certainly the best progressive rock band to ever come out of America. The band is best known for their slew of radio friendly cuts from the 70s, but always had strong rock albums musically, and were top-tier musicians, especially live. They are back this month with their first new album in over a decade and half, The Prelude Implicit, from InsideOut Music. Longtime guitarist, and band leader Rich Williams chatted with Keith Chachkes of Ghost Cult to discuss changes in the group, their bright new future.Continue reading
Ready For Blood: Edsel Dope Talks Blood Money
For nearly 20 years Edsel Dope has been a creative force and a bit of an eccentric personality, as the frontman of his band Dope. From hitting it big at the tail end of the nu-metal 90s, the band built a following, made albums consistently, and toured like crazy. Prepping for the release of their new album Blood Money: Part I (eOne), the band is on tour with Motograter and Flaw, getting fans hyped for what is to come. We chatted with Edsel recently about the new album, the ‘Blood Money’ video, his relationship with his record label, and being able to manage all the aspect of his career. Continue reading
Workaholic Rockers – Wolf Hoffmman of Accept
In Part 2 of Victoria Anderson’s interview with Wolf Hoffman of Accept, the legendary rocker discusses the bands first foray into making a live concert DVD, more details about the making of Blind Rage (Nuclear Blast), Wolf’s signature guitar, the challenges of touring and travel as a veteran band and detail about the next Accept album due n 2017. The band plays The Badlands Club, in Sioux Falls SD on March 3rd as part of their “Blind Rage World Tour”.
You are extremely busy because you have your very first live DVD and CD coming out. Why have you waited so long for Accept to put out a live DVD?
“When we first started we didn’t want to come out with one right away. We felt we didn’t have enough new material. We didn’t want to do something where we had five new songs on the DVD and the rest of it is old material. We wanted to wait until we had at least two new albums under out belts, so that’s kind of what we did. For Blind Rage there is a bonus edition with a complete live DVD available. So we actually did release a complete live show. It was filmed in Chile two or three years ago and that is part of the bonus, deluxe packaging of Blind Rage. So it is available, but we’ve never really had a stand alone DVD of just DVD concert footage. That is correct. And we have something in the can that might be released later on this year. We’re actually looking at the material right now and waiting for it to be edited. Then we’ll see whether or not we like it enough so that it is going to get released. But, in all likelihood, yeah, something is going to happen here.”
And then you have the documentary as well.
“Yeah, that’s been a long on-going project that still might be going for a few years. It’s really a, not so much documentary that’s going to be filmed, it’s more of a holding pen for everybody who has memorabilia, or any footage, or live tapes from whatever time. We’re just collecting that and one day we will release something; a history of Accept. I don’t know, something. It’s just because people always send us stuff and we never really knew what to do with it. Well all have a certain amount of stuff individually, but we wanted one central location where all this gets collected for all eternity.”
Speaking of eternity, your first album came out way back in that mythical time of 1979. How has recording and playing changed in thirty odd years?
“Well the technology has changed dramatically. The business, of course, has changed as we all know dramatically from the days of vinyl and cassettes and now it’s download and god knows what else next. But one thing really never has changed, the song writing aspect of it. It’s identical. A good song is still a good song. You can’t really ever change that with the technology. You can’t make that part any easier. The other part is the touring aspect is exactly like it was thirty years ago. You still have to go from A to B. You’re on a tour bus or on a plane. Set up your gear and play a show, just like you did back then. There are a few things that make life more easy but others get more difficult. Like traveling gets harder and harder. Air travel is not as much fun as it used to be.”
Really? Why is that?
“It’s a hassle with all the security checks. You can’t do this. You can’t do that. The room on the plane gets smaller and smaller. They don’t allow you to take your gear. Just ten, fifteen years ago you could take road cases or anything on a plane. Now a days you can’t. It was a lot easier to ship gear around the world and take your instruments and all your stuff. Now it’s harder and harder with all the security threats. Touring doesn’t get any easier. But the core principal is exactly as it was thirty years ago. You want to entertain people. You want to have fun on stage. You want to put on a good show.”
Part of a good Accept show is your guitar playing. I read you have a signature guitar through Framus. This guitar has a carbon fiber finish. What made you go with a carbon fiber finish?
“It’s just another cool idea that we worked on together. You know Framus is a German company. They not only make amazing instruments but they are really really good at finishing. The first one they made for me is reminiscent of a WWII bomber. It has an aluminum finish with rivets. It looks pretty authentic. They put one of those lady decals on there like the WWII bombers had. It’s mind blowing. It’s really really well done. This time around they just thought what else can we do. They came up with this idea to do a carbon fiber look. It looks amazing. You should see it up close. Way, way cool. So I’m very excited to work with Framus. They are the best guitar company I know.”
So when you aren’t doing music, and videos, and touring around the world, what do you do to occupy your time?
“I don’t really have any free time. As shitty as it sounds, it’s actually true. We work on this stuff pretty much nonstop. I either work on this classical stuff or work on Accept’s new songs. Now we’re writing songs for the new album everyday when we’re are not touring. I don’t have time for any hobbies or anything. I’m a photographer. If I had to name something, I still do quite a bit of photography. Even that I don’t have that much time for any more.”
CHECKOUT PART 1 OF OUR INTERVIEW HERE:
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The Master’s Voice – Neill Jameson of Krieg
Neill Jameson of Krieg is one of the more fascinating people you will ever come across. Outspoken, articulate, philosophical, funny, and mild-mannered could all describe the man based on meeting him say, if you bumped into him at the bookstore or record shop. However, anyone witnessing him perform or create music, has a very different image in their mind. As one of the most important figures in the USBM scene, he clearly is more about “the work” and not about the accolades. In an exclusive interview with Ghost Cult’s Hillarie Jason, Neill discusses some changes going on in his life, the next Krieg album due in 2016, his thoughts on coping with mental illness, and other topics.
Neill recently moved to Virginia from southern New Jersey, and we opened things up by discussing how that is affecting the creation of a next Krieg album.
“Virginia is a nice change from Jersey in a lot of ways but mostly it’s just been a much needed change in my life that I’m hoping continues to stay positive. Plus I’m fortunate to live in a city that has a good music scene so there’s always something to look forward to.”
“Having a different place to work through ideas always helps. I have a lot of different places I haven’t explored yet but I’m able to take long walks that ease my mind and let me think through the ideas I want to convey with this next record, both sonically and lyrically.”
The forthcoming new Krieg album, entitled Guilt is due in 2016. It promises the progression of Krieg’s growth from Transient (Candlelight), which was definitely a different animal sonically than Isolationist (also Candlelight) was. So should we assume that Guilt will be just as different? “Yeah, we’re going to get together to start putting it together after the new year. There’s been less time between the two so I imagine there’s going to be more similarities between those two than there was between Isolationist and Transient. But I’m more inspired this time around by hardcore and crust than even the last one so there’s probably going to be a strong emphasis on that, without the shitty tough guy posturing.”
Speaking of shitty tough guys, Neill has commentated on the foibles of such men in the metal scene in his occasional op-ed series for Decibel Magazine. He was equally praised and condemned by keyboard warriors regarding his past observations on bigotry, chauvinism, and elitism in metal. We asked how he dealt with the praise and backlash:
“I’m happy to have some kind of platform to speak out about stupidity in general, be it about stupid shit like horse masks and chicken costumes or the heavier stuff I’ve dealt with the last few columns. I’m also very used to people talking shit about me on the internet so this isn’t anything new nor will it be something that goes away. So I don’t particularly care one way or the other. I’m not interested in being a social justice warrior nor do I think censorship in case someone’s fucking feelings get hurt is a good idea. I’m all in favor of freedom of speech and expression but I’m also aware those come with consequences, an idea not a lot of these dry dicks hollering at me while their mothers are upstairs drinking away the memory of having a failure of a child can seem to grasp. But I’ve spent long enough being a shithead myself so now’s my chance to atone a bit I guess.”
Neill has been candid about his struggles with mental illness publicly and in past interviews. So much so that it may have paved the way for a public discussion in the music community on these topics, since a lot of heavy music imagery and lyrics focuses on madness. We asked what, if anything if the underground music community can do to break the stigmas attached to mental illness, bipolar disorder, etc.?
“Odd you bring that up right now. Yesterday I made the decision after five years off to go back on meds to treat my bi-polar depression and anxiety. I was going to try to use my writing to document the experience and try to follow in a lot of people’s footsteps and keep the dialogue about mental illness in music and art in general open and flowing. There’s less of a stigma to it now than ten years ago, but also everyone’s doctor has them on something for shit they probably don’t even need treatment for and that’s what kept me from being on them for so long, it had stopped making a difference and I felt the whole thing was a fucking sham, I still do for the most part, but I’m also at a place in my life where I know I need help otherwise I’m going to fucking ruin things for myself which I almost did when I did Blue Miasma and again after The Isolationist and I want to see if exploring this will somehow be beneficial to myself and maybe others through sharing the experience.”
Neil is well known for a slew of collaborative projects and split releases. We wondered if it’s easier to run your own band with no interference: “I don’t just have myself to think about anymore, that’s a big part of it. A lot of people who suffer from these conditions aren’t aware how it affects those close to them, I have been aware for a long time and that’s where the “guilt complex” comes in but it’s been recently that I’ve decided it’s not a cycle I want to keep reliving. It doesn’t add to my “creativity” or anything positive.”
“The collaborations I do have each been so entirely different that I focus on them more as a way to learn new methods and techniques from other artists and how to incorporate them into my own music. So they’re entirely different experiences to me so I can’t say if one is necessarily easier than the other.”
On working with working with Thurston Moore (in Twilight):
“One of the most valuable learning experiences I’ve ever had. Plus he’s such an open and excited collaborator that it made what we were doing all the more vivid and dynamic. I would love for the chance to work with him again on something.”
“As opposed to other previous Twilight members, two in particular, who just dialed it in and sat back to collect praise and whatever money was available.”
Krieg recently left Candlelight Records and signed with Profound Lore Records: “Jef Whitehead brought up that we were about to be released from our Candlelight contract to Chris Bruni and it went from there. I’ve had contact with Chris since he wrote for Metal Maniacs and I’m a big fan of some of the bands on his label, and also just how he has built an empire with his own two hands in the image of exactly how he wants it to go. I look forward to causing the label to lose a lot of money and respect worldwide with this next record.”
In general Neill has had a fairly prolific couple of years. What is his regular creative process like or does he prefer to work project to project?
“It’s sporadic. For most of this year I barely picked up a guitar or wrote any lyrics. Other times it’s like I can’t turn it off. I don’t know what causes this to happen, it’s like the seasons change. It’s always been like this.”
“I could sit and force it but you can tell when I do that. I’d rather just let it come naturally.”
Commenting further on the release date: “Sometime next year. Same with the split with Integrity.
The split’s been recorded for about a year and is the best song we’ve ever recorded and the general basis for the next record so they tie in nicely with each other.”
WORDS AND PHOTOS BY HILLARIE JASON
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Creating An Odyssey: Eric Wallace of Black Breath
Black Breath, photo credit- Invisible Hour
On their recent tour with Goatwhore, Black Breath (Southern Lord) guitarist, Eric Wallace had a quick chat with Ghost Cult prior to the Boston, MA show at Brighton Music Hall. With their latest release, Slaves Beyond Death (due out September 25), being announced, Eric expressed what could be expected from the upcoming record.
“Expectations… I don’t think I like that word. I like to approach other people’s stuff as open minded as I can and then be surprised. I realize it sounds like I’m setting the bar low but I mean there’s elements of stuff we’ve done in the past for sure and then there’s also kind of new takes on all of it. To me it’s more expansive in a way. Not like it’s going to be a prog record or anything! Sure the songs are all longer and stuff we haven’t done in the past that we’re trying out on this record and I think turned out pretty rad. I’m excited for it to come out because I think it’s cool and I want to start playing the songs more, live. I hesitate to say too much because I want to hear what others think of it. I mean what are you supposed to say? “It’s the heaviest record we’ve ever done! It’s gunna fucking blow your mind!” I mean it either is or it isn’t. It’s up to the listeners and how they receive it. We made a record that were excited about and I think I can leave it at that.”
Eric also spoke highly of the continued success of recording with Kurt Ballou at Godcity Studios in Salem, MA:
“At this point we’ve spent the better part of 2 months there now over 3 albums. Pretty damn easy to work with him especially where we’ve toured with his band and recorded with him in that space with generally the same setup before. Not much arguing there as we just do it and if it doesn’t sound good how can we make it better. It goes pretty fast which is why we were pretty excited to go back for this record with the amount of work we’ve done, just building on that makes more sense than starting fresh somewhere else. It’s killer. I think it works out great. We did get it mastered with our buddy Brad (Boatwright) in Portland at Audio Siege. He’s been doing a ton of mastering for a lot of different bands, first time we went to him and that sounds awesome as well. It all turned out nice.”
Eric Wallace of Black Breath, photo by Evil Robb Photography
Continuing on the topic of writing, and how it has evolved over Black Breath’s career: “With our EP we just threw what songs we had up there since we didn’t have a contract or anything. Basically let’s get this out there and see if it sticks. So we did that and got hooked up with Southern Lord. With Heavy Breathing we got together with Kurt since no one in the band had done that before and Greg from Southern Lord was really into the idea. Whatever songs we had after that EP through the touring up until the recording process, that turned into the album. The album itself was written well before we even got there really. Nothing specific up to this point really. With Sentenced to Life, I think we as a group consciously decided that we would sort of stream line everything a lot more as in trim the fat, shorten things up, get to the fucking point and then get out. And that was basically what we did with Sentenced. Make it to the point, shorten the songs, and get rid of the unnecessary stuff really. With this new album, since we already did the shortened approach to writing, we pretty much did the opposite approach on this one to expand and make way longer songs. Same style of riffs and song writing we had going, but how do we make this more of an odyssey? There’s a lot of tracks on the new album that has fast stuff and slow stuff but there’s a mix of both in almost every song so I don’t know what you would call that approach necessarily, but plenty of bands have done it.”
TIM LEDIN