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Interview with Archaios in respect of the Dominican Republic Metal scene.
University of Essex Metal Society
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Global Metal Apocalypse caught up with Berkshire Metal mob Malefice at the Colchester Arts Centre on the 2nd June, we interviewed Dale and Ben from the band and the interview can be heard below.
 < Lamb of God's Randy Blythe cracking a joke to his amusement. Other nominations: Five Finger Death Punch, Meshuggah, Nightwish, Opeth. Lamb of God can stand on top of the world with their achievement of being awarded the 'Best International Band' Golden God Award; the Groove Metalcore machine from the USA has powered their way through the think and thin of the Metal vaults and have wound up with this award of whom fellow countryment 5FDP were also nominated. Sweden's Meshuggah and Opeth and Finland's Nightwish were also contending for the award. Sadly Global Metal Apocalypse did not get a chance to interview the guys due to a mouthful of beer at the time.  < Masuimi Max collected Rammstein's award on their behalf, the German Neue Deutsche Harte / Industrial 'tanz' Metallers got awarded the 'Best Live Award' Golden God award but sadly were not here to collect their award. Other nominations included: Metallica (USA), Skindred (Wales), Watain (yes nominated in 2 categories), and Iron Maiden (England)  < Scott Ian pointed out the person who got his name wrong and scratched his Lexus. Anthrax were awarded the most sought-after funny-named award, the 'Metal as Fu*k' Golden God award, Scott even agreed that it is a funny sounding award. The other nominations included Hell, Zoltan Bathory, Sabaton and Nik-Kai. This was a tight award in terms of nominations, Nik-Kai is an 11-year old guitarist, but the thing about this guy is he is a prodigy, as his mum explained. So without further a do, below in order Global Metal Apocalypse spoke to: Scott Ian (Anthrax), Sabaton and Nik Kai.  < Sabaton could not resist some promotional behaviour for Hobgoblin since their full new line-up. Check out the interview with them below.  < Nik Kai is the new face of Metal music, a prodigy in the USA, he has his own band and is aged 11, he is already endorsed by worldwide brands and has been nominated for the 'Metal as Fu*k' award; this guy could become the next Alexi Laiho before we know it. Global Metal Apocalypse interviewed both him and his mum about this extraordinary moment and what it means for them, check the interviews below.  < Ghost had to be resurrected from their deep sleep to be awarded the 'Breakthrough Artist' Golden God award. Global Metal Apocalypse couldnt get hold of them to interview them, but we're pretty sure they were speechless. The other nominations were Motionless In White, Cancer Bats, While She Sleeps and Parkway Drive.  ^ Bill Bailey was pretty psyched out when he was awaeded the 'Spirit of Hammer' Golden God award. Catch his thoughts on his award below and also an interview before the award ceremony (first interview).  < Mastodon's twist on the infamous Skittles slogan 'taste the rainbow', now become 'taste the metal'. Mastodon went away heads held high with being awarded 'Best Album' Golden God award for 'The Hunter'. Global Metal Apocalypse managed to do a video interview with one of the members of Mastodon which can be viewed below.  < Vinnie Paul could not decide which was more impressive the 'Best Drummer' golden god award he has just been awarded with or his glass of beer. The former Pantera drummer is now part of a supergroup called Hellyeah. Check out the interview with Vinnie below.  < Dino Cazares could not believe how lightweight the award was. Fear Factory won the Golden Gods 'Icons' award. Sadly Global Metal Apocalypse could not get an interview with them at this time.  < Robb Flynn tried to point out Machine Head are playing Bloodstock this year. Both Robb Flynn and Phil Demmel of Machine Head were awarded the 'Riff Lord' Golden God award. Unfortunately we could not interview them at the time. The other winners that were not present that night were Joey DeMaio of Manowar, they were awarded the 'Golden God' award. Whereas Trivium won the 'Video of the Year' award for their sensational music video 'In Waves'.  < Adam & Jesse with Monte Conner (Senior VP and A&R of Roadrunner Records) - he is leaving August 1st. As you can hear from the video interview we did with him. Roadrunner Records got awarded the 'Inspiration' Golden God Award. Below is an interview with Killswitch Engage and also Monte Conner (Senior VP and A&R of Roadrunner Records)  < Bill Bailey and Ol Drake rocked out with the Global Metal Apocalypse Interview with Ol Drake of Evile can be heard below. Below that is an interview with Biohazard. 
BAND: CATTLE DECAPITATION
MUSICIAN: TRAVIS RYAN (VOCALS) COUNTRY: USA GENRE: DEATHGRIND How long has the band been going and who came up with the band name? The band was formed in late 1996 by a few guys, one of which was in the Locust and the other one was to be in the Locust a year or two later and is still in that band today. The other guy I replaced right before they got their copies of the 7" record they put out right after starting the band called "Ten Torments of the Damned". With the Locust being busy and all, they kinda just placed Cattle Decapitation in my lap and the rest is history. I connected with the guys because of a love of Carcass and I thought it was cool they were carrying the veggie torch that Carcass dropped years earlier. Describe your music genre without using clichés or genre-tagging. Its very frantic, energetic, blurry, bipolar... Brutal, intense, bizarre at times as far as note choice and structure. We constantly go against the grain, even if its to our disadvantage. How big are the California and the San Diego Metal scene? California as a whole is fucking awesome. There's a TON of communities... you could easily do a two week tour if you're worth a shit here. Just in California alone. Lots of kids going through phases though, that's the only downfall. SD has maintained a strong scene for years now. You have Mexico right there and there's alot of metalheads down there that like to come up for shows. You have just released your seventh album ‘monolith of inhumanity’, what do the lyrics primarily focus on and who is the sole lyricist? That would be me and they really are all over the place. The overall theme of the record is a warning and I feel the cover explains it well enough. I do this thing where the record will have a concept but not all the songs cater or fall in line to that concept. A song like "Forced Gender Reassignment" obviously has very little value in terms of any kind of environmental cause or anything that has to do with human interaction with life on Earth. So our records' lyrics tend to be all over the place honestly. If you had to change one thing about Heavy Metal in general, what would you change? Leather. Plain and simple. We don't need it. Keep the varying degrees of bad attitude, elitism, etc - that's fine. Just get rid of the bright shining brand new leather. Most of it looks, well... gay. I have no problems with people wearing recycled leather or reusing leather items from a second hand source. When you signed to Metal Blade records, what was your immediate reaction? "Seriously?" That was also my reaction when I was told not to sign an agreement with this other label that was courting us and to give them a chance. Boy, am I glad we did. We would have been doomed with that other contract, a real career-staller. It was an honor and a huge excitement I remember at the time. We smoked cigars like total idiots while we signed the contract. So stupid. You’re going to tour with Fear Factory, Voivod and many other bands, where are you touring and what are you hoping to achieve on the tour? We're doing the US and Canada with em. I just honestly hope I get into Canada. I've been told in the past that I could go to jail if I didn't get a pardon of if the 10 year anniversary of my "DUI" hadn't passed by the time I come up, which it has by now. I got charged with drunk driving in 2001 and it got reduced to a minor reckless driving conviction because I wasn't even drunk. It was stupid. But to Canada, I have a DUI. I don't understand that logic but then again they have less crime than we do here so they're doing something right. Can't fault em for that, just wish I didn't have this kind of trouble for something that I didn't really even do. What plans are there for the band in 2012 and beyond? Tons of touring but we're going to work on more international touring as well. We've hit the US so many times, we need to start going other places in the globe. Dying to hit Australia, South America, Southeast Asia, Japan, South Africa, etc. Gonna do another video with the same director as Kingdom of Tyrants. We're working on something very fucked up, revolting and something people probably just won't want to watch because its too much. At least, that's what the idea is like to us right now! Finally what advice have you got for bands who want to get known? Just don't suck. There's so many shitty bands out there right now and every idiot out there thinks they can be in a band. Maybe at least just keep your schooling going, don't drop out for music. NEVER do that. You gotta be damn good and on top of that be extremely lucky to do anything that will be anything from profitable to simply making you happy. Just have a plan B. Always have a plan B. That's this world's problem... there's no plan b.   < Eric Peterson (Testament) giving the award ceremony his approval. Testament are also playing this year at Bloodstock Festival, be sure to check them out. Global Metal Apocalypse will hopefully be there so if your there, come and and say hello!. Below is also an interview we with the man himself, so do check it out.  ^ Classic example of Metal brotherhood, with Benji Webbe (Skindred) being mobbed by Londoners The Defiled and in the back Andrew O'Neill (comedian) asking If we can hear him. This is when we got to the nitty-gritty of the awards being given out to the winners, the competition was tough, nominations were tighter than Cheryl Cole's arse in leather trousers. But waiting patiently, the announcements came out.  Reproduced by the kind permission of Dean Fardell. < Watain could not wait to rub the skull of one of their golden victims. Swedish Black Metal quartet Watain won the 'Best Underground Band' Golden God award from which the following were also nominated: Ancient Wisdom, Shining, In Solitude and Black Breath. Unfortunately Global Metal Apocalypse could not get a quote from the band on their achievement but we are adament that the lads are extremely pleased, if only they can now let England win tonight.  < The Defiled made light work of showing how to climb onto the top of an amp. London Groove/Thrash Metallers The Defiled won the 'Best New Band' Golden God Award from which the following were also nominated: Animals As Leaders, Primal Rock Rebellion, Kobra & The Lotus and Heights. Two interviews were conducted, one before the award was given and one after the award was given (in order) and so below are the two interviews, check them out and expect The Defiled to get more and more prolific.  < Devin Townsend, Canadian legend, stared at the person asking him if he should be a poltician. The other nominations for the award were:
Canadian guitarist legend Devin Townsend won the 'Dimebag Darrell Shredder' Golden God award and was very surprised to actually win it, the mastermind behing the sensational Strapping Young Lad and his now much-loved project The Devin Townsend Project came away victorious. We have an exclusive video interview with the legend himself below.  < Saxon performing the salute of the South Yorkshire regiment Someone compard Saxon getting the 'Best UK Band' Golden God Award to receiving the OBE, but we disagree because the two awards are two classes apart, let alone different fields. However for Barnsley quintet Saxon this was a moment coming true, a remarkable moment in the band's 36 year existence, they truly remain and will always be regarded as one of the major heavyweights alongside legends Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath, next stop: rock and roll hall of fame. You can catch their thoughts below, part 5 coming soon. 
An awards ceremony is nothing without four things: awards, winners, excitement and atmosphere, and all four were checked off on the ticklist at the Golden Gods without any doubts. Fresh from the glorious HMS Hammer were a number of sensational bands spanning across the UK to the USA, some of these bands striking in appearance but in the end are perhaps poised as the next face of Metal music, on all plains of Metal genres. But as they act as a prerequisite to the bigger names, someday they may reach that status too.  < Attica Rage soon made it clear who had the shortest hair around here. Attica Rage are what they say they are, a band full of rage, thrashin' rage. Formed in 1989 and hailing from Scotland, this quartet are responsible for blowing holes in the boat's roof. With their classic Heavy Thrash style the four Glaswegians immerse themselves as perhaps one of those bands with the oddest histories, releasing a demo in 1989 and then fourteen years later releasing an EP, but there again stranger things have happened, awards being mixed up... er-hem. But at least you can enjoy an interview with them below. https://www.facebook.com/AtticaRageOfficial  < Evil Scarecrow took a hefty twist on Wizard of Oz Evil Scarecrow are vastly becoming a recognised force in Metal, whilst their visual output resembles a cross between Bram Stoker's dracula and a horror-mix of the Saw franchise and Dr.Doom, but dont let the medical look fool you, they are beyong anything but horrific, in a good way. Listed as the second band to play on the metal ship HMS Hammer, this is the next breed of Metal. For the Heavy Metal mob from Nottingham, the only way is through the medical theatre and that is the way they will go. To get a taster of them, check out the interview below. https://www.facebook.com/Evil.Scarecrow  < L.A. rockers Butcher Babies felt the chop on the River Thames. You know when the Americans are in town when three guys and two hot chicks walk off a boat and upturn the area in emphatic style, this is of course Butcher Babies. Fresh from Los Angeles, this American band have everything going for them, not only did they also play on HMS Hammer, giving the almighty salute to the graceful capital of London, but they are 15,000 fans on Facebook and pretty much straight edge Metal, what more could you ask for? Except for a pint with them. Hear the Hollywood accent right below. https://www.facebook.com/ButcherBabiesMusic Part 4 coming soon
So coming down to the awards themselves, the competition was totally wide open on all sides, but there had to be winners and so below are the winners in full.
An additional award for Best Download Festival moment was also awarded to coincide with the festival who was also celebrating 10 years, through a thorough and extreme voting battle the eventual winner was Slipknot for their now legendary Saturday night headlining slot in 2009 for which was to sadly be (and GMA sends our deepest thoughts to Slipknot) Paul Gray's last ever UK gig; he will never be forgotten. To receive the award on the band's behalf was frontman Corey Taylor and the award was presented to them by Metal Hammer's very own Alexander Milas onstage at Download Festival 2012. Alexander Milas had this to say: "10 playing bands, 2 boats, 18 awards and nearly 2,000 fans, and completely Heavy Metal - there's just nothing like the Metal Hammer Golden God awards. This wasn't just the 10th anniversary of the event. It's also the 25th anniversary year for our magazine, and tonight we partied with the legends, the new blood, and most importantly the fans, without whom our world wouldn't exist. Here's to another 10 and another 25. Chin-chin". The Metal Hammer Golden God Awards are sponspored by: Orange Amplification, Hobgoblin, Alchemy Gothic, DW, Jackson, Kopparberg, Scuzz, Kraken Black Spiced Rum, World of Tanks, Roadrunner Records, Zippo Encore, Universal and UMC. Part 3 coming soon. Perhaps the most important date in the Heavy Metal calender, the 10th Golden God Awards came once again to the extraordinate setting of the Indig02 at the 02 Arena in London.
11th June 2012 saw the battle-lines drawn for what is considered a wide-open award ceremony, with all nationalities legible for nominations, this year saw representatives from England, the USA, Sweden, Canada, Germany, Wales, Australia, Finland and Norway amongst others. The awards itself had all forms of titans across the Metal genre from the bands to the musicians themselves, the fans giving support and the fabled HMS Hammer breaking waves down the River Thames with bands such as Attica Rage, Fozzy (feat. legendary WWF wrestler Chris Jericho), Butcher Babies, Evil Scarecrow amongst other sensational acts giving entertainment on the boat ride. Metal Hammer itself celebrates 25 years of mass mayhem this year, the monthly-produced magazine changed the course of Metal history indefinitely. Published by Future Publishing in London, the franchise is also marketed in other countries but by different publishers. The irony of it outselling rivals Kerrang! and NME is that it is viewed as the most underground of the three, but they don't have such an international presence as the Metal Hammer in Germany has led its market since 1984. Since that fabled beginning, Metal Hammer was first published at around 1 million issues and due to its vast multi-lingual editions published in 11 global languages, it spread to Israel, Japan, Serbia, Spain, The Netherlands, Italy, Poland, Hungary, France and the Sovient Union (now Russian Federation). Presented by Orange Amplification and in association with Hobgoblin, the Golden Gods are Metal's equivalent of the Ivor Novello Award and the Brit Award, but with more brutality and excitement. It places the fans right at the heart of awarding some of the world's greatest talents, who have excelled beyond mere recognition. With a handful of live bands, a sensational atmosphere to accompany the ceremony and a night of joyous jubilation at heralding one of music's finest genres and rock's 'genre that never died', the Golden God Awards are this year opened up by Watain, a Swedish Black Metal band who recently have surged forward and insanely became a huge hit, inbetween the awards given out, fellow countrymen Ghost, Sabaton and American's Biohazard provided entertainment for the live sets during the award ceremony, with American Thrashers Anthrax (one of the big four) closing up the night's tremendous reception and it's exceptional moment in history. Amongst the bands, media, fans and other personnel was comedian Bill Bailey and WWF star (and bandmember of Fozzy) Chris Jericho; the latter being the Award's hosts (last year was Alice Cooper) and with guest appearances from Killswitch Engage and guitarist legend Gus G. The awards were voted by you the fans and some categories by the good samaritans aka the Metal Hammer team; lovely chaps. Part 2 of the Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards will feature the winners, more background information on the event, its sponsors and hosts and of course, in the later parts: interviews and photos w  Global Metal Apocalypse caught up with the new face of Spanish Melodic Death Metal, namely quartet Morphing Into Primal, check out the interview below!
How long has the band been going and who came up with the band name, what does it mean? Jose D: Well, I think that I must respond to that question. Previously Chus, Luis M and I were members of another band called Incission, this band split up and we started over with a new band, new name, etc. I understand the words of “Morphing Into Primal” in the sense of turning back at the start. I was influenced by Whoracle’s song by In Flames and the situation we were passing through in that moment and my colleague approved the idea. Morphing Into Primal has been active since 2010. In Spain, do people prefer to be known as Spanish or by their regional nationality such as Catalan, Basque etc? Arturo: It depends, we consider ourselves a Spanish band, but some people prefer to be known by their regional nationality. Truely, it's not so important for us. Which bands are the most famous in the Spanish Metal scene? Arturo: There are a lot of great bands in Spain, in the death metal scene the most long-lived bands are maybe Avulsed, Haemorrhage and Machetazo. You sing in Spanish, to branch out into further fields such as continental Europe, would you be changing to sing in English or both languages? Arturo: We prefer to sing in Spanish because for us it's easy to express our feelings in our own language but we don´t discard English, in fact we have a song in the album called ``It´s time´´ written in English because it fits better with the music. In future, we will continue singing in Spanish but maybe with some other songs in English. What would you say is your band’s main topic regarding lyrics and for those who aren’t lingual in Spanish, could you give some song titles you have done and explain what they mean? Arturo: Ok, our lyrics talk about some different thoughts such as self-destruction in 'Rompiendo el tiempo', drugs in 'it´s Time', destruction of the Earth in 'Madre tierra' or anti-religion in 'Renuncio a la fe'. Who designed your album artwork for ‘Principios de Autodestrucción’ and is this your only album? Arturo:Yes, Principios de Autodestrucción is our first and only album. We worked with Moon Rising Design who creates designs for covers, inlays, etc. We saw their designs and thought it will fit great with our music and lyrics. The design was perfect for our cover idea. Jose D: Luis M. did a good job for the artwork too. He was responsible for personalizing the artwork with band pictures and symbols. How did you guys meet and when exactly did you realise you wanted to start a Metal band? Jose D: Luis M. and I are brothers and as i have said before, we met Chus in Incission. We wanted to continue playing together when Incission broke up and we formed 'Morphing Into Primal'. For a little time Morphing Into Primal was 3 members, Arturo was a friend of the band and we told him if he would like to be our second guitarist. Do you or have you played in any other bands and/or have any side projects? Jose D: All of us have been playing in other bands, for example Arturo played in a Black Metal band 'Byleth', Luis M. was a member in another band called 'Kondena', a Thrash / death metal band; Kondena recorded their last album in Sweden with Andy LaRocque before splitting-up. Chus has more experience playing with other bands like 'Haeresian', 'Halcon', 'Sinestesia', Chus and me used to play together in a Southern Metal band called 'Shot To Head'. I also played in 'Incission' with Chus and Luis M. and currently I am playing in 'N.A'. What advice do you have for musicians who want to sing in Death Metal style? Jose D: Death Metal style must be sung with the soul, in general, every metal style must be sung with the heart. Technically, the death metal genre is not noise like so many people think. Step to step, I have learned to equalize my voice, not force the throat and see and listen how to sing the famous vocals. If you refer to all instruments, I suppose It's a similar form, seeing and listening to the professional drummers, bassists and guitarists, but always with your own sign. It needs to make sense, have dedication and feeling but always must be fun to do. RHYS STEVENSON 
BAND: ALLEGAEON
MUSICIAN: RYAN GLISON (GUITARS) COUNTRY: USA GENRE: TECHNICAL / MELODIC DEATH METAL What does the band name mean and who came up with it? Unfortunately I have to take blame for the name. Originally it was Allegiance but after some time with that name we learned of like a thousand other bands out there that were using it and at the time those bands were bigger than us. So we decided to change it to something that was sort of similar but different, so from there you can probably draw that line. Without genre-tagging or using clichés, describe the band’s genre? Honestly I would just prefer to be called Metal, if im being honest. People say we are Melodic Death, or Tech, or Prog or sometimes all of those together and thats just alot to say and none really, in my opinion accurately describe us. So I like to just think of us as a metal band, that prevents the 5 minute long description of who Allegaeon is. You just released your second album ‘Formshifter’, what makes this album different from ‘Fragments of Form and Function’ and which song from the new album best defines the band’s sound? Well I think mostly its just a little more "fresh" than Fragments was. Fragments had really old songs and some new ones, Formshifter is mostly new'ish songs so in that regard id say a good majority is a good definition of our sound. I cant really pick out any that best hint towards our future though. I guess this question is not generally asked but how big is the Colorado Metal scene and what bands should the international scene watch out for? I think the scene has died a bit in recent years. When we first started out the scene in Fort Collins, where we are from, was amazing. A bunch of talented bands and a ton of kids that loved it. As usual, bands died off and kids moved on. So that being said, of the Colorado scene as a whole, id say its ok. I dont really pay as much attention as I used to to the younger bands, mostly because im too busy with all the crap we are doing. But ive heard a couple over the last year or so that surprised me. In your band’s four year existence, what would you say was the best and worst parts of it to date? Best, for me anyways, was probably this last month having Formshifter come out and hit 3 billboard charts and hit #2 on itunes Metal downloads. I didnt expect that at all, so it was an unexpected bonus. The worst???? hmmmm....Dont really have a worst I guess. Maybe kicking all the different people that have been a part of the band, out of the band. Regarding ‘Formshifter’, how long did it take to record, where did you record it and who was involved during the production of the album? We recorded with Daniel Castleman at Lambesis Studios in Southern California. It Took about 5 or so weeks to record and a couple more to mix and master. Really it was just the main core group of our band and Daniel that were involved. Picking some songs from ‘Formshifter’, could you perhaps give an insight to what they mean and why that topic was chosen? Twelve - basically criticizing the judicial system and how they handled a serial murder trial. Behold - How different religions preach very similar things yet throughout time people have killed in millions over the small un-important differences. From the stars death came - an asteroid natural disaster etc etc. Alot about science and history. If you had to give some advice to a musician who wants to form a band, what would you say to them? Be good at something besides music haha. But seriously, music is maybe the hardest industry to survive in because its one of the few areas in business where pay scale doesnt always reflect how good you or your business (band) is. What plans does Allegaeon have for 2012 and beyond? Just focus on expanding our fanbase really, do some good music videos, play some shows....the usual Finally who designed the artwork and what is it meant to purport? Colin Marks did the artwork, he also did Fragments as well. Its basically just our "A" symbol that we use. We just wanted something more basic than fragments, something clean but still metal looking, so we came up with the idea and Colin nailed it in like 2 days. RHYS STEVENSON |
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