Hey all,

Here's Maelstrom, issue #5. In it you'll find interviews with cult black metal one man project Leviathan, Spanish power metal group Dark Moor and Swedish black metal band Thy Primordial. We're also very pleased to present to you an exclusive discussion with former Forbidden front man, Russ Anderson.

Also in this issue is a bevy of live reports. We have two each from Wacken Open Air 2001 and Milwaukee Metalfest XV.

All this plus lots of album reviews. Enjoy!

From: louda@email.cz

HI ROBERTO...
My name is Louda and I am editor of czech underground magazine Payo (Czech Republic is small republic in Europe.......).
First I must say that I am shocked what made in your country motherfucked terrist..it is horrible and barbarian act......Kill every fuckin terrorist....we are in NATO as you and USA are our partners and we are on your side........Horrible, horrible barbarian act....shit....

Now about music..I have found your excellent interview with CRYPTOPSY on their web-site...EXCELLENT and BRILLIANT!!!!.. In 2 days I will visit gigs of VADER, DYING FETUS, KATAKLYSM, CRYPTOPSY in PRAGUE and we will make interview with VADER, DYING FETUS and CRYPTOPSY too....(this gig managed my friend - Martin from SHINDY PRODUCTION - who cooperate with our magazine - you can see www.shindy.cz)...and I have this idea...could we use in our magazine (next issue Nr.13) your translated interview (our magazine is in not in English but only in Czech - the intie will be translate from my colleague - he is excellent in English..not so horrible as I...haha...) which we will renew with actuals answers?........we are the best czech underground magazine, full colored cover, pro-printed, big circulation etc.etc...we will introduce that original intie is placed on your web-site, that it is your interview,we will send you our new issue and we will take you annonce in our magazine!!!!!!!.....what do you think about it?...are you interested in this form cooperation?........... please contact it..it will be honour for us publish your interview with CRYPTOPSY!!!!!!

Have a nice day/night (here is 7:34 p.m.)...

Louïa
Payo magazine
Czech Republic

Thank you for the kind words, Louïa, we try our best to bring quality interviews to our readers. We will be happy to help you out with our Cryptopsy interview. We hope that you will spread the word of about Maelstrom in the Czech Republic. We look forward to seeing the 13th edition of your zine soon! - Roberto Martinelli

interview by: Hasad Freitag foreword and transcription by: Roberto Martinelli

Forbidden has the unfortunate distinction of being an excellent band that influenced bands to come, but never really made it. As Russ Anderson, Forbidden's singer, puts it in this interview, it may have been a case of bad timing, coming into the Bay Area thrash scene in the late 80s, when things were starting to die down. Regardless of the band's fortune, Forbidden provided the metal world with two excellent albums, the full length debut Forbidden Evil and the essential Twisted into Form, the latter of which is largely considered the band's best work, before greatly changing directions (negatively) and releasing two more albums (Distortion and Green) before calling it quits in 1996. Hasad Freitag caught up with Russ Anderson after a show with his new band, Parking Lot Prophets, to talk to the man about what it was like being involved in Forbidden. Anderson's story has its sad side, as he explains the frustrations he went through being in a metal band, and the conflicts that posed with what he feels is his true artistic calling. This candid look into Anderson's metal past provides a sobering look at the nostalgic thrash 80s, but also is a testament to sticking with one's dream and achieving it.

Maelstrom: How did you learn to sing like you do?

Russ Anderson: I learned from putting records on, and I made a studio in my back room when I was 14 years old. I listened to Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, even some glam bands. Really good singers, like Dio. I was trying to copy them. And learned to do that, and then I started doing my own thing. It was weird, though: The thrash movement was happening, and I came up here to do the thrash thing. I wasn't a glam guy, so I couldn't fit into the glam thing. And I'm glad, cause that shit ended right away. Not that I wanted to do it in the first place; I liked more heavy music, hard music: like what Black Sabbath was doing with Dio.

Maelstrom: Did it take along time to learn to copy your favorite singers?

Russ Anderson: A couple years. I felt like I had it down. My friends would go: "Fuck, dude, you're dead on!" Ozzy was one of my favorite guys.

Maelstrom: Did you have good pitch when you started?

Russ Anderson: Yeah…a natural singer is what I am.

Maelstrom: I figured that.

Russ Anderson: No one ever told me what to do. I just learned on my own. I had a real passion for it. To hear people go: "It's really cool what you've done." We were doing records. Even more than that: We were starting to do shows…

Maelstrom: You mean with Forbidden?

Russ Anderson: Yeah. That was when I found myself.

Maelstrom: Was that your first band?

Russ Anderson: Forbidden was my first band; My first real band. I jammed with people before, but it wasn't the kind of band I wanted. I grew up in L.A. and I moved to San Francisco in 1984. "That's my scene, right there!" My first show, it was at Ruthie's Inn, it was with Exodus and Possessed. At all the shows in L.A., I was missin' the whole fuckin' thing. I had no idea. It was like Poison and a bunch of crap like that. It was like: "These guys are fucking fags! These guys are fags." You know? That's not me. When I was at Ruthie's Inn with Exodus and Possessed, that was the most brutal show. "That's where it is!" That's when Forbidden Evil started.

Maelstrom: But you were a singer, and those guys (in Exodus and Possessed) were yellers and screamers.

Russ Anderson: Yeah. But, they had their own right. They were better at what they did than what I did. I was just finding myself at that time.

Maelstrom: How did you wind up in Forbidden?

Russ Anderson: I put an ad out in music stores when I first came down here. I didn't know anybody. Rob Flynn called me and said: "Hey, man, I wanna check out your singing talents." I went down there, and he was like: "Wow, cool!" And we started Forbidden Evil at that point.

Maelstrom: You told me you wrote all your own melodies and collaborated on the lyrics.

Russ Anderson: As far as I can remember. Forbidden was a real flash in my brain. It happened so quick, and we were throwin' out so fast, it was hard to remember. As far as I know, I wrote all my own melodies. Me an' Craig collaborated on lyrics here and there.

Maelstrom: How did you decide which voice to use with which part? Cause you were always changing!

Russ Anderson: The thing is, I always listen to what the music tells me. That's what I do with all my music. Now, with Parking Lot Prophets, I'm getting more into writing melodies as I go along. Back then, they came up with the riffs, and I'd basically follow them in my brain - the way my brain works. (laugh) That's why you have a lot of back and forth stuff. I always tried to sing, because I always liked good singers. I tried to nail Rob Halford, and tried to nail Dio… Those are my two favorite singers, actually.

Maelstrom: I knew Halford was in there.

Russ Anderson: Halford was really good 'cause he hit the high notes, which Dio never did, but Dio had the real (gravelly vocal impression)

Maelstrom: More gravelly, aggressive?

Russ Anderson: Yeah. I wouldn't say more monotone, but it wasn't jumping…

Maelstrom: Dynamic?

Russ Anderson: Yeah, it wasn't so dynamic, and it wasn't jumping around as much. I loved Rob Halford, so I'd always do those. I even did Motley Crüe screams.

Maelstrom: Like the intro to "Chalice of Blood" (from Forbidden's first album, Forbidden Evil)?

Russ Anderson: You know, that album was put in the right hands, and was done by the right producer. Not to put anything against John Cuniberti, I mean he was a great guy, and everything else - everyone says I hate the guy. He'd done a lot of Satriani's music on Relativity [Records], and they put us with him. You know, there was a real bad thing that happened. I was on the road, I was real tired. People would come up to me and say this or that about him, and he got really mad about a couple of interviews. I thought he was really great. It was more like, [with] the budget: "Ok, now, you gotta get it done." We were thrown into doing house parties by Relativity. They should of took a little more time, but they thought it should be done right away. We weren't one of the last bands to be signed of the thrash movement, but more towards the end, and that always followed us and haunted us a little bit, you know?

Maelstrom: I agree.

Russ Anderson: Craig said it best in a couple interviews. He said he felt like we were from the other side of the tracks [from other thrash bands in San Francisco], but we were from the same fuckin' town.

Maelstrom: That's how I felt about Forbidden. I felt that Forbidden was the best band that got the least recognition.

Russ Anderson: No hard feelings against anybody. Everyone was just trying to get their own thing done. So we just jumped on and had fun.

Maelstrom: Were you ever asked to join any other bands?

Russ Anderson: No.

Maelstrom: Really? No one ever approached you and wanted you to be in their band?

Russ Anderson: Never. Never.

Maelstrom: Rob Flynn was an original member.

Russ Anderson: Rob was a great guy, He had a lot of his own ideas, but they were different from mine. I'm glad he did what he did. He had the right idea at the right time when he came out with Machine Head. Actually, he had mentioned to name the band "Machine Head" when it was Forbidden Evil.

Maelstrom: That's a Deep Purple album…

Russ Anderson: Yeah, I actually have a jacket where it says "Machine Head" on the back. He wrote it on there. Waayy back when.

Maelstrom: He co-wrote "Chalice of Blood." Any other ones on the albums?

Russ Anderson: He wrote it, but we changed it.

Maelstrom: So those aren't his riffs we're listening to?

Russ Anderson: Um….you'd probably have to talk to him about that.

Maelstrom: We'll say he co-wrote it, though.

Russ Anderson: Yeah, he definitely did. I remember him singing "Chalice of Blood!" with (does chords). That was the only part I used. Hahahaha! (Russ has an explosive, infectious laugh) He had a long list of things, but the melodies and everything were totally different.

Maelstrom: I always thought Forbidden was by far the best band around: the best vocalist, some of the best guitar players, best melodies, best sense of melody… And to see bands - well, even Vio-lence - that were chromatic, not in key, just a lot of fast stuff.

Russ Anderson: Now looking back on it, I think that a lot of the movement - I didn't even realize we were in a movement when it happened - was kind of stage stuff. That's probably why I'm doing what I'm doing now. They always told me to yell and scream. I just wanted to do my own thing: singing music; I've been waiting to do this for a long time. You know, it was me, but, eh…they were kinda pullin' in another direction at the same time.

Maelstrom: That's probably what I was alluding to. Why do you think that Forbidden, to me and many of my friends being the best band of that whole genre, with the most talent, considered to be nowhere near the most popular?

Russ Anderson: I can sit back and look right now and say that everyone who was in Forbidden is doin' something killer right now. What are these [other] guys doin'? I don't know. I think because we felt like we were aside from thrash - and we really felt that way - it really was a hard time for us; a lot of the time. I think that's what made the [former members] do what they're doing now. Bringing new music to the table instead of being caught in something. We weren't quite caught in it, and I don't know if we wanted to or not. It was very strange, because we felt we were aside from a lot of people. Testament took us on their tour. Exodus took us on a tour… We never felt like we were quite doing our job as a thrash, thrash band.

Maelstrom: Do you think you guys were like thrash/power metal or melodic metal? Kind of a hybrid of the two? Because there was a lot more melody and vocal talent and musicianship.

Russ Anderson: Well, like I said, I really don't know about that. I really went along with the flow, and did my own thing.

Maelstrom: How much did Glen Alvelais contribute to the songwriting?

Russ Anderson: I don't think Glen really contributed a lot to the songwriting. I mean, I love Glen. Glen's a great guy. I might start working with him again. Craig didn't think that Glen was cuttin' it as being an original guitar player. It was actually not too cool at the time.

Maelstrom: My interpretation is that on the Forbidden Evil album, there was kind of like the thrash songs: "March into Fire," "As Good as Dead," "Off the Edge." Then there were the more melodic metal songs: "Through Eyes of Glass," "Forbidden Evil." And there's quite a difference between the two styles.

Russ Anderson: It comes down to my style. That's what it really comes down to. And I'm doing the same thing right now. In my new band I'm doing harder music, I'm doing real light music… I think it all comes down to where I personally as a singer listen to the music. When the music comes out and I listen to it and I go: "Ok, that's good enough to use." That's saying something to me. And I portray that. No matter what it is. And that's where that diversity comes from.

Maelstrom: I see you're still doing everything from the high, melodic stuff to the heavier, lower stuff, which I'm really happy to see. That's what Russ Anderson fans, at least from the metal side, want to hear. We want to hear your voice and all the different ranges you can do.

Russ Anderson: That's what great about my new band. I'm actually singing now in my band, and producers are liking it. And I don't get the hassles, because I got hassled doing metal. "Dude, you gotta sing heavier there," or something like that. I think what I'm doing now is what I should be doing. Even Craig and all the other people in Forbidden knew that for a very long time, that I was a little bit out of my element. That's probably where that all comes from. I have the talent to where I can actually do (does Chewbacca grunt), but why should I do that when I can sing beautiful melodies.

Maelstrom: That's how I feel.

Russ Anderson: That's why I'm doing what I'm doing now.

Maelstrom: Glen said he left because he wanted to do more of a guitar hero-style thing. Like Yngwie, Satriani, Steve Vai…and that was part of the problem.

Russ Anderson: Glen was really into doing something like that from the very start. Relativity was doing the guitar hero stuff. That could have been part of why that happened, too. From my point of view, what happened was he wasn't happy. That could be very, very true. When we were on tour in Europe - our first tour, they sent us to Europe - we did six to nine weeks. Glen, at the very end, seemed very unhappy with a lot of it. He stayed to himself; separated himself. He might have been thinking that. That's probably why Craig felt distant from him, you know? It's time to do a second album, it's time to kick ass, and he's not there for him.

Maelstrom: Then Tim Clavert came in and auditioned. Was his style more acceptable to Craig?

Russ Anderson: Tim is a team player. Tim just kinda went along with the flow. He found gratification in the whole thing. His lead style was more like Alex from Legacy.

Maelstrom: Alex Skolnick.

Russ Anderson: Yeah, [from] Testament, but I always call them Legacy because I'm from the Bay. Legacy was one of the baddest bands I'd ever seen. Actually more like the style that Parking Lot Prophets are doing now. Tim was more of that kind of a guy. He was hired, for one thing. He wasn't part of the band. A hired guy has less tendency to put his input in; He got to the point where he did that, too, but he was always the guy that stayed to himself and did killer guitar riffs.

Maelstrom: Did he contribute to the writing of Twisted into Form?

Russ Anderson: You'd have to ask Craig about that. Like I said they'd bring those songs to me. I really wasn't there when they were writing. I always felt a little separated.

Maelstrom: I went to see you guys before Twisted into Form came out. You played two songs, "Step by Step" and "One Foot in Hell." "Step by Step" seemed much more commercial sounding.

Russ Anderson: Yeah. It wasn't done on purpose. It was something that just came out. That was the [song] that the label fucking jumped on. It wasn't the songs I wanted to do. It was "step by step by step"; I had no idea that New Kids on the Block were doin' the same fuckin' thing, cause I never listened to that shit! It was a weird fucking coincidence. It got to be a joke after a while.

Maelstrom: What songs did you want to promote?

Russ Anderson: I really liked "Twisted into Form."

Maelstrom: There's a part in the middle of "Twisted into Form" where you sing (building to a high and coming down) "eyes stare, with empty but evil glances." You know the part, right? That voice is very different from any of your other ones. When that part comes on I go, "holy shit." I mean, that's beautiful singing. Like, "where did that come from?" There's a lot of different stuff on there.

Russ Anderson: That was where this whole thing with my new band is coming from. All the producers and everyone I've ever seen, people in the audience, when we were doin' shit like that, when I went into these parts, they fucking glared. That's what I want to hear from you. I wasn't a Bayloff. I found myself at the end of Forbidden sayin "fuck, man, I could do really good singing music. Set me free. Don't fucking tell me what to do. Set me free, and let me just sing. Sing." Maybe that's where it all came from where we felt like we were aside. That wasn't what we [were] in our hearts.

Maelstrom: Why was there so much emphasis on having to yell and scream? I like the clear and melodic voices.

Russ Anderson: The heavier you get the more you're gonna sell to a heavy audience. That's where I think we dropped the ball.

Maelstrom: What about bands like Queensryche, Vicious Rumors?

Russ Anderson: They were never like that. They were never part of the thrash, heavy…

Maelstrom: But you could've gone in more of that direction.

Russ Anderson: …we were always put with hardcore bands, we were never put with someone like Queensryche. A couple times we played with Sanctuary, but, you know, that wasn't what I wanted to do either. Really. Toward the last three years that we were playing, things going way downhill…Everyone else quit. We were doing it [for] two years afterwards. I was going: "I need to sing. I really need to sing." It got harder and harder and harder for me to go out and go "ruh ruh ruh ruh" and do anything like that. I just wanna sing. In the last part of Forbidden, I think I started going: "this isn't right for me." I'd walk out on stage, and I'd listen to the bands before us, and think that spiritually, this is really harmful. It would get to the point where I'd go: "wow! What the fuck is going on around here?" That's why I like good singers, 'cause they bring something out spiritually; more touching, that feels good. Something that doesn't feel bad.

Maelstrom: And the whole mood of the scene in general?

Russ Anderson: The whole mood. You'd go out there, and you'd be out there every day. You gotta be pretty fuckin' ready to go: "I love this thing." How could you love something that is so…unloving? But, that has a part in people's lives. If you wanna hear it, you wanna hear it. If you wanna have something to pick you up. To me, to hear Satan lyrics, it's so negative. And I heard a lot of that. That's why I got to the point where I said: "hey, man, I quit." I quit Forbidden. The band broke up because I quit.

Maelstrom: So, you're more of a peaceful type.

Russ Anderson: Yeah.

Maelstrom: Who was responsible for you not singing high anymore? On Distortion you quit singing high, except for the first song.

Russ Anderson: Part of it was everyone looking to find that niche that we never got. I did it myself. I said: "Ok, I'm gonna sing really heavy." I felt myself falling away from what I really wanted to do.

Maelstrom: Listening to Distortion and Green, I like the albums (no, you don't! - Roberto) but I want to hear the high singing like you used to do.

Russ Anderson: Even in this band, I'm doing some of the stuff I used to do in Forbidden. It's probably from my roots.

Maelstrom: I noticed that. The song "Tossed Away" was also a little bit different.

Russ Anderson: We thought "Tossed Away" was one of the greatest songs. It was very commercial. What it came down to was the labels didn't have the push, no one had the money, shit was going downhill. At the time when we started getting really good, experimenting with doing different things - it wasn't commercial music but it was more…you could hear it on the radio.

Maelstrom: You mean stuff from Twisted into Form?

Russ Anderson: No, more like…

Maelstrom: Distortion?

Russ Anderson: It started on Twisted into Form. That was the wrong time for it. That was when people wanted to hear the heavy music.

Maelstrom: In metal circles now, that's regarded as your best album.

Russ Anderson: I think what it is: we started a little late; hung around too long afterward (laugh).

Maelstrom: Since I hear a lot of Halford influence I'd like to ask you about the Priest covers you used to do. Your "Victim of Changes" cover is amazing.

Russ Anderson: "Victims of Changes"? (laugh)

Maelstrom: Is that what it is?

Russ Anderson: I definitely was off the hook.

Maelstrom: You got those vocal parts done so well. That's a hard song to cover.

Russ Anderson: I told you, I sang to that for a couple years, so I know all his little tricks. I could do that if I wanted to. Led Zeppelin is another one. I'm using it right now in my feeling in some of the songs. With screaming, there are high notes.

Maelstrom: And you're not doing falsetto. That's your voice.

Russ Anderson: Yeah. To a lot of people it would be very hard [to do].

Maelstrom: It's very hard. I know.

Russ Anderson: But to me, it's what I always shoulda been doin'. From the fuckin' start.

Maelstrom: That's what I thought. There's a new Priest tribute out called Delivering the Goods.

Russ Anderson: Hahahaha!

Maelstrom: You're on there, doing "Dissident Aggressor"!

Russ Anderson: Oh, really…

Maelstrom: You didn't know about this? It's on Century Media.

Russ Anderson: No. No. Oh my god…HAHAHA!

Maelstrom: You kinda took a different vocal approach. You toned the melodic part down a bit and you sang heavier.

Russ Anderson: It was probably Forbidden trying to get into the heavier vein. Forbidden got heavier a little too late. I thought Green was the best thing we ever did (what is he saying? - Ed.). It just was the wrong time. If we had come out with something like Green when we first came out, it woulda been so good for us.

Maelstrom: You didn't miss doing the highs, then, with Green? The first song has 'em.

Russ Anderson: It has 'em in there. It's not a high like a falsetto high. Those highs [on Green] are actually harder to do, because they're really gritty. When you have grit in the high it makes them harder to do.

Maelstrom: That's true, yes. Since you're a big Priest fan and Rob Halford fan, how do you feel about Rob Halford coming out of the closet?

Russ Anderson: Well, I really don't care, to tell you the truth. Everyone joked about it, and I heard stories about them on the road. It was actually kind of funny, because I never thought about it when I was singing to their records. It never crossed my mind. Part of it was me trying to get music down instead of listening to what it was. You know what I mean? (laugh)

Maelstrom: I notice on "Victim of Changes" he says: "Plug me," you changed it to "suck me."

Russ Anderson: HAHAHA! I really don't remember.

Maelstrom: I found that interesting.

Russ Anderson: You heard me tonight. Shows like this, things are not very serious. I can get really unserious. I'm almost like a comedian. I just want people to have a fun time and not take things so seriously. But if it's a real big show and there's something on the line, I'm gonna go out there and do my shit and it's gonna be real serious. I find myself a little light-hearted a lot. Hahahahaha!

Maelstrom: Whereas in metal, you can't be that, or they try to discourage it. The only kind of emotions are hard ones.

Russ Anderson: Yeah. Yeah.

Maelstrom: Distortion. What's your take on that album? Metal had died almost by that point. You guys continued.

Russ Anderson: Of course, man. It was kind of a joke after a while. Craig said "we beat that horse down until he was more than dead." HAHAHAHA! You know? At that point it was really weird because we really didn't need to work.

Maelstrom: You didn't have to work? You were making money off the band?

Russ Anderson: No, I wasn't making money off the bands. We had girlfriends taking care of us. We kinda stretched it out a little bit. Hahaha! It was kinda fun, in a way. Hahahaha!

Maelstrom: Why five years in-between albums from Twisted into Form to Distortion?

Russ Anderson: I could never comprehend that. I have no idea. I know we found ourselves fired from Combat [records] and we had to get another record label. We wrote the whole time. You said five years; to me it was more like two or three years.

Maelstrom: What would you say your top ten favorite albums of all time are?

Russ Anderson: Kansas The Point of No Return is probably the baddest album I've heard in my life. Hahahahaha!

Maelstrom: Really.

Russ Anderson: I think so, yeah. That was one of my favorite albums. I would always listen to it. I would never do anything like that. That's probably why: it was so different than anything I would do. Some of those 70s bands were so fucking bad. Styx, stuff like that. Sick. It's phenomenal how they'd keep coming out with these badass songs. They're not heavy or anything like that; they're good songs, the kind of shit that appeals to everybody and touches something in your soul. I think that's part of what I like about Thin Lizzy.

Maelstrom: I read an interview with Gorefest. They said "Forbidden came on tour with us, and they got booed off the stage on almost every show, and we don't like Forbidden."

Russ Anderson: Hey, there you go. The Gorefest fans, they don't wanna see us! They don't wanna see a singer. It was very discouraging. We didn't get booed off the stage all the time. That's bullshit. Those guys [in Gorefest] were really cool. I really liked touring with them. I can't believe…

Maelstrom: It was one member.

Russ Anderson: I would say the rest of the members of the band would probably disagree. Well, it was the same tour, and they weren't drawing any more people than we were. So we were all fucked. At that point people started pointing fingers at everybody else. And I loved Gorefest, but as far as singing goes it was nothing for me. One of the things I wanna tell you is: when I was on tour, hearing these [death metal vocalists], as far as a singer, I had nothing to learn from these people. I'm not saying they were beneath me; I'm saying that they were totally different than what I have in my brain. Totally. For me, I could have done [death vocals] all day long and it wouldn't have done anything for me. Spiritually, nothing at all. Maybe I was the one who pulled Forbidden down.

Maelstrom: Did you ever listen to other melodic bands like Crimson Glory, Lethal, Queensryche or Fates Warning?

Russ Anderson: I listened to Queensryche and I really liked it. That's probably the only band I really listened to.

Maelstrom: Fates Warning? No?

Russ Anderson: I listened to Fates Warning.

Maelstrom: So you never listened to any of those other bands?

Russ Anderson: No. One thing I do is to purposely not listen to bands when I'm writing. I learned from singing to records. That killed it all for me. I only want to do my own thing. And for me to listen to anybody else, it's more of an influence, so I don't want to listen to anything.

Maelstrom: What do you listen to currently?

Russ Anderson: ……

Maelstrom: Or, you're not listening?

Russ Anderson: Like I said, I try not to, 'cause I can be more creative without listening to other music. I'm a very influenceable person.

Maelstrom: So what happened was: you guys came on the scene a tad too late, then Combat died, the Record Vault closed, the metal scene was dropping out, and the only kind of metal that was acceptable was death metal.

Russ Anderson: Yep. Exactly.

Maelstrom: And then after that grunge and alternative killed everything. So what do you think of bands like Limp Bizkit and Korn and Deftones calling themselves metal?

Russ Anderson: I like Limp Bizkit somewhat. I don't like Deftones at all. I think Limp Bizkit's pretty cool, actually.

Maelstrom: Do you think that style's metal?

Russ Anderson: Definitely. Definitely metal. It's definitely a metal band. They took a twist.

Maelstrom: Have you heard the new Halford album?

Russ Anderson: No.

Maelstrom: Did you hear his industrial project?

Russ Anderson: Hahaha…yeah, I heard that.

Maelstrom: What did you think of that?

Russ Anderson: I didn't like it very much. That's all. The old Halford stuff is the greatest. The guy was just phenomenal: the clarity, the notes that he was hitting was something I wanted to strive for. Now I feel that I can kind of pull that thing off in my own thing.

Maelstrom: Those Priest covers are fuckin' great. The one song you played tonight, the Forbidden song that never made it on Green…

Russ Anderson: I had some old lyrics, and I went through them. It was something we didn't use. I changed some of the lyrics and threw it into a song that we're using now.

Maelstrom: Ok, but it still kinda sounds like that "arrh, arrh…"

Russ Anderson: Craig was a little harder to work with lyric wise. He kinda had an idea that he could write better lyrics than me, I think. It was more like that. I don't quite like to say it like that, but maybe to make better sense of it. He probably wanted more control of what was going on. We'd band heads on lyrics.

Maelstrom: How do you feel about the resurgence of traditional and melodic metal that's going on right now? It's all over the internet, it's in Europe, Yngwie Malmsteen is back touring in the U.S….

Russ Anderson: All I know is the labels, I won't say who they are, the big labels are looking at us a lot more seriously than they're looking at something like that. I'm just doing what I feel is right.

Maelstrom: You're happy doing what you're doing, and if metal is doing that, then that's fine for them.

Russ Anderson: I think I've found what I need to do right now.

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review by: Roberto Martinelli

This album has been getting mixed reviews amongst reliable contacts of Maelstrom's. Maelstrom's ~Vargscarr~ and Leviathan's Wrest both don't think much of it, but I think it's excellent.

Satanized is very much a continuation of what the band lay down on its previous album, Channeling the Quintessence of Satan; it's a tough listen in the way it alienates you with its mixture of blistering speed and cold, mathematical riffs. Satanized also reminds me a good deal of a lesser version of that Abigor side project Heidenreich. Like the latter, the music on this album is bizarre and angular. The listening experience is made even more jagged by the strange time in which the vocals are delivered.

The guitars pierce and bite as they play undecipherable riffs. It's true that many of these riffs start to sound the same in the album, but the sheer technicality of them make them enjoyable. The songs get more distinct on the second half of the disk.

Perhaps Abigor feels it's time to discontinue the black metal imagery of dark, primordial forests. Instead, Satanized's material has a certain cyber feel to it, without being techno in the least. The alien aspects of the music reflect the sidereal Satan imagery used throughout the album, which contains song titles such as "Battlestar Abigor," "Galaxies and Aeons Decline" and my personal favorite, "Nocturnal Stardust." Like it or not, Abigor is exploring something a little different while remaining black metal.

review by: Roberto Martinelli

Absu display their strongest effort on this, their fifth album. All across the board, from the musicianship to the production, and most importantly of all, the focus, Tara is a top-notch effort.

My encounters with previous Absu recordings (The Sun of Tiphareth, In the Eyes of Ioldanach) presented a band whose music hovered and lacked direction, but that is far from the case here. Eleven tracks of blackened thrash filled with razor-sharp, technical riffs and mind-blowing drumming are sandwiched between two spellbinding bagpipe pieces. As much as both the metal and bagpipe elements of the album are fantastic, a case could be made that they clash with each other on the same disk. This may be the only thing even resembling a weak point on Tara.

While the three-piece pulls off the dizzying technicality flawlessly, the standout is doubtlessly Proscriptor, the band's drummer. Proscriptor brings his own flavor and approach to the kit, and his talent is complemented by the excellent production as it separates each of the pieces of his kit clearly. The intricate rhythms and subtleties have raised the bar of extreme metal drumming.

The album is packaged with a thick booklet detailing the mythical beliefs and philosophies of the band, kind of doing for ancient Celtic-based myth what Nile's Black Seeds of Vengeance did for the Egyptian equivalent.

review by: ~Vargscarr~

“A decent English Black/ Death Metal band? Pfffffft...right, and my left nut can predict the coming of the apocalypse, ” would have been my response to anyone trying to tell me about Akercocke before I’d heard them, before I descended into paroxisms of laughter.

After all, what has England given us in either of these genres? Venom are Thrash. Napalm Death and Carcass true enough, but they both lean towards a crustier, punkier, more Grindcore style of Death (yes, even Napalm’s later stuff). Truly evil English bands of the 90s? Most can only think of Hecate Enthroned and Cradle of Filth; perhaps also Reign of Erebus. (how can you forget Bolt Thrower?! - Roberto) And these bands are about as evil as a paramedic who goes through accident victim’s wallets; about as Metal as a fat child’s sock. Extremity is not theirs to flaunt in bars to impress the chicks. They suck a dead dog’s cock, musically speaking.

Naturally one assumes that therefore England is all Metalled out as far as modern, extreme Black and Death goes. But not so! Akercocke are a band I’m proud to call my countrymen. This, their second album, has evil Black Metal, brutal Death Metal, excellent clean vocals comparable to early Ulver and Emperor; astounding technical and musical proficiency tempered with intricate songwriting that still retains its catchiness...This album has everything, even managing to cram in a few masturbating nuns and retaining its credibility.

Solid, consistent, exuding evil from every riff; this band seamlessly blends Black Metal and Death Metal together, truly sounding like either or both rather than one with a touch of the other. Black Metal layered riffs suddenly slip into a crunching Death rhythm with a flailing solo poured on top of the whole; raw-throated screeching giving way to guttural roaring (pausing for a nun break) before suddenly calming into an atmospheric acoustic/synth breather with some well-arranged clean vox and finally breaking into a compulsively head-bang inducing chug, whipping up to a climactic conclusion. That is the formula upon which most tracks are based in a nutshell; but the band maintains a fresh, varied take on their own sound with every song. There is not a bad track on this album, and there are so many moments that link the listener’s mind with bands from Nile to Emperor. Essential for fans of brutal and evil Metal, whether your preference sways towards Black or Death.

review by: Roberto Martinelli

You might think this record would be a violin-laden doom affair, what with the name and cover artwork. What Adagio turned out to be was phenomenal classical/progressive power metal that's anything but slow.

The outstanding aspects of Sanctus Ignis are in the way classical scales and compositions are interwoven into the music. While all the musicians in Adagio are virtuoso-level, it is the work of the keyboardist (who also plays keys for Majestic) that stands out the most. The classical elements are made even stronger by a varied keyboard sound that ranges from harpsichord, piano, and organ, to tones more common to prog metal.

Blazing keyboard solos pour out of the speakers, complemented by impressive guitar leads, bass lines, and drum work. Is the music masturbatory? Absolutely. Do the tracks on Sanctus Ignis qualify as songs? Well, not exactly. Sure, there are lyrics, but the music on this album is more of a showcase of incredible talent rather than crafted songwriting.

The vocals are well done, while not being as high a level as the instrument playing. The singer stays in a comparatively un-showy mid-range for most of the album, going for some decent highs in the second half. Aside from the emphasis on instrumental wizardry before song appeal, which may or not be a problem for you, the only strike against Adagio is it's all too often tinges of Dream Theater influence. While Dream Theater is doing a perfectly fine job at doing what they do, it's becoming tiresome to hear musical signatures of theirs in what must be EVERY prog metal album that comes out. Enough already. This point aside, I highly recommend this album to fans of progressive metal, or people like me who love classical scales in their music.

review by: Roberto Martinelli

Of Stone, Wind, and Pillor is a five-track album of pagan black metal. The songs on this album are much shorter and simpler than the ones on Agalloch's previous work, Pale Folklore, and I don't remember liking that one as much as this new one.

The material ranges from a slow and heavy pagan black metal to soothingly somber atmospheric stuff that really isn't metal at all. The only really negative part of the album comes on track three, a cover of Sol Invictus' "Kneel to the Cross," which includes a clean vocal repetition of the line: "Summer is a coming, arise, arise." This gets annoying. The clean vocals resurface later on this track, where the nasal singer unfortunately makes me think of Oasis in his delivery. The good news is that it works in spite of itself, thanks to the urgency of the lyrics and music and the way that a staggered low rasp is subtly added under the clean vocals.

The overall feeling of the album effectively mirrors the Gustave Doré (the same artist whose work adorns every page in this zine) artwork of the packaging in its lush, earthy, sylvan imagery, making Of Stone, Wind, and Pillor not only an album that will lead to repeated listens, but consecutive ones.

review by: Matt Smith

Ah, Swedish metal. I don't know if Amon Amarth is one of the country's most outstanding bands, but they do pretty well. They've got some really heavy guitar stuff and equally heavy drumming in parts (especially at the beginning of "Masters of War").

They put on a good show at the Metalfest, but the CD sounds better. But that could be because of the infamously bad sound at Metalfest, at least in part.

The vocalist isn't very versatile and some of the guitar work ends up sounding the same, but I appreciate their drummer. He doesn't always follow the "faster is better" school of thought, but proves over and over that he CAN go fast if he wants to. Accented beats and intricate rhythms don't get lost when it's slowed down a little. His rhythms stay interesting and make a lot of songs more outstanding than they would be with your run-of-the-mill metal drummer. Overall, an enjoyable album

review by: ~Vargscarr~

I first heard this all-female band back in ‘98. They played keyboard-laden False Black Metal in the style of bands like Ancient and Abyssos. I wrote them off. Now, in 2001, their new album falls onto my review list.

So what has three years done to Astarte’s music? Well, the production is noticeably cleaner, giving the drums more presence in the mix and therefore making the overall sound a good bit heavier than it was in the past; and the vocalist has obviously been listening to Opera IX since she now attempts to vocalise like Cadaveria does in her harsher moments.

But Opera IX this band is not. Oh no. If you’re an Opera IX fan, please don’t cock an ear and wonder if Astarte might be worth checking out for a band playing in a similar vein, because Astarte are not worthy to plug in Opera IX’s instruments.

Astarte play slow, tedious Gothic Metal; and you will have heard their like many times before, spun on the CD players of Cradle of Filth fanatics everywhere; who think the best band out of Norway was Old Man’s Child .

Slow to mid-paced throughout, the riffs are attempts at melancholy that might work in a more minimalistic setting; but in this music simply sound stark and ineffective. Drums pound away with little variation, occasionally coming to life to accompany the odd Black Metal inspired guitar part where we can detect that dirge caused by the familiar BM picking style; but these sections are swamped by keyboards that are turned up far louder than they should be, and are in any case short lived.

Not even majestic, intricate keyboards that would make the odd synth-only instrumental track worth listening to - these keys sound almost written with the express purpose of recreating the banal tedium that haunts every other False BM band you’ll have heard. In a sentence, Rise from Within is Opera IX, but bad.

review by: Roberto Martinelli

I had high hopes for this one, partly because I've been on a power metal kick of late, but also because of the fairly impressive list of well-known metal singers who take part on this recording. Of most note (to me, anyway) is André Matos, now of ex-Angra fame.

The whole idea for this project comes from Tobias Sammet, whose regular band is Edguy (what the hell kind of name for a band is that? Does anyone know?). If you're at all familiar with that band, you'll know that its material is made up of wanky virtuoso fruitiness. I guess I should have heeded my own warning.

After the consummate throwaway intro all too common to power metal (can't anyone get a clue?), the album opens up with the song "Reach Out for the Light," which is quite a good Euro power metal tune, with excellent vocals, fantastic guitar work, and interesting structure. The second song is also quite good, but whose chorus really has just got to go. From there is a sharp ride downhill, folks.

There aren't too many pieces on the album that could properly be defined as songs, per se. Rather, the album wallows in atrocious would-be musical drama that one can only expect from a power metal band from Europe. What this means is a whole bunch of obnoxious lyrics and narrative about "fulfilling the prophecy"; the final goofy line, "Oh, how could the stranger steal the seal away?" is delivered in a way that only a German power metal mind - one who's high on talent but low on taste - could. Alright, this is mean, but taking a look at the pictures provided of a pouty, somewhat glammy Sammet should give you an idea of the kind of stuff that's in store. Poofy, fantasy metal crap. Banished from Maelstrom land.

review by: Steppenvvolf

Avulsed is supposed to be a gore grind metal band, which you of course would never guess. If you couldn't tell from the babes on the cover - soaked in blood and gore - and the titles of their songs: "Blessed by Gore," "Skinless" and (inevitably always used by ANY metalband in the course of their histories) "Sweet Lobotomy". (By the way: If you ever wondered what a lobotomy really is, go to http://www.scc.net/~lkcmn/lobotomy/lobo/brief.html for a brief history of it...)

The music alone offers nothing surprising, but if you're into bands like Cannibal Corpse, Carcass or Cryptopsy, Stabwound Orgasm might match your expectations.

The vocals sound as unhumanly deep and distorted as possible. Even after a couple of listens, none of the riffs really grasped me so deeply as to give me the feeling that I'd have to hear this or that song again, maybe except for "Compulsive Hater" and "Homeless Necrophile," which gave me an idea of what kind of music Amorphis would come out with were they ridden into a blood frenzy.

It's a pity that Avulsed have chosen to become an almost 100% copy of the cited bands instead of breaking new grounds and further developing their Amorphis bloodfrenzy style songs. I am looking forward to their next release in hope that they have left their masters to win their own spurs.

review by: Steppenvvolf

A thunder from a distance....horse clopping....drizzling rain...an acoustic guitar sets in.... No, we are not in the "From the Vault" section reviewing some good ol' 80s metal band (which reminds me I should make an review of some old Attack album one day..) No, we are listening to Bloodstained Dusk's Dirge of Death's Silence intro. The delusion remains for a minute until the caterwauling vocals herald "The Moon behind the Clouds" in finest black metal manner.

A sustaining, spheric keyboard background with ridiculously fast drum lines support the singer in releasing his misanthropic shouts. If you know Emperor's material you'll already be pretty close to getting an idea of Bloodstained Dusk's style. Probably a bit more pushing and at times more courageous by inserting interludes like in "Vastlands of the Empire", which gave me the image of stemming the flow of music just to release it into an intense deluge shortly after.

Small signs only indeed and not yet present in all of their songs, but since this is their supposed debut release, some more audible pieces of this Emperor spawn are to be expected. It should be added that here we have to deal with a reissue of their demo. Let's hope they're not going to emulate Nokturnal Mortum and promote White Pride Metal.

review by: Steppenvvolf

Listening the first seconds to Centinex new album, Hellbrigade, reminded me immediately of The Haunted. Why so? It's probably their straightforward pace, hectic, brutal - but Death metal. In exchange, they renounce on too many breathtaking solo parts - and speaking for the songs on this album they definitely made the right choice in emphasizing the rhythm lines, filled with simple, but catchy riffs, instead of going the trodden path and spicing up boring melody lines with solos.

The fifth song on the CD, "Last Redemption", gives the drummer a breather just in time to let the keyboard-supported refrain develop an intense dark atmosphere. Had Burzum's Varg ever advanced his voice, this song what might have stood at the end of the evolution.

With "Bloodconquerer," Centinex' frontman shows his capabilities apart from Deathmetal growls from deep below. It's amazing how Centinex managed to wrap so many style attributes and themes into one song and still retain a harmonic whole. This is their fifth album and I wonder how I could have missed them for that long? Give this CD a try, Hellbrigade is worth it.

review by: Roberto Martinelli

I had been waiting for a year for this one. One of the many reasons I love Aeturnus is for the band's medieval, acoustic breaks and intros, so when band leader Ares told me he was going to release an album with his friend Kristian Nordeide (who plays bagpipes on the outro to Shadows of Old, the harp outro on Beyond the Wandering Moon, helped mix the traditional tracks on And So the Night Became…, and designed the Aeturnus logo) made up entirely of acoustic folk stuff, I was ecstatic.

After almost a two-year delay, here it is, and I can't help but feel disappointed. However, this is probably due to my expectation of what it would sound like. I blame Ares (here going by his real name, Ronny Hevlund) for telling me it sounds like Aeturnus' stuff. It doesn't really. The material is quite good; a good deal of it is taken from various traditional folk pieces from France and England.

Sure, the bagpipe material makes me think a bit of Aeturnus, but it's the difference in string instruments that stands out the most. Aeturnus' acoustic passages are dark and lovely. I'm thinking of the massive, reverberating acoustic bass intro to Beyond the Wandering Moon's "Winter Tale," or the sublime feel of the acoustic guitar intro to And So the Night Became...'s "Warrior of the Crescent Moon" and "Ild Dans." Most remarkably on the first five (French) tracks, the guitar is replaced by a traditional, but nonetheless weedy sounding instrument that I assume is a lyre. Where Aeturnus' acoustic pieces embody the primordial beauty of a dark forest, the pieces on Corona Borealis are more medieval pleasure faire stuff, albeit tastefully done, unlike that tripe that Richie Blackmoor puts out.

The last track, which is the most Hevlund intensive, is the super happy and bouncy one, which is ironic considering how much Ares loves dark stuff.

The best aspects of this album are the richness of the instrumentation (12 instruments are used here, including wine glasses and something called a "hurdy-gurdy"), the fact that all the instruments are real and not synthesized, and the charm of knowing that many of these tracks are many hundred years old.

Since this kind of album isn't that common in the metal world, one's first inclination may be to compare it to Ulver's Kvelssanger, but that may not be fair either, as Corona Borealis' voice and intent is different in that it is not an acoustic representation of a facet of black metal (nor does it have vocals, unlike Kvelssanger). This is a good album, if lacking in urgency. I'm curious to see how it will fit in on a metal label and how it will be received.

review by: Steppenvvolf

Crest of Darkness makes it hard to write a review that does justice to the true content of its latest album. Not fitting any of the known genres, frontman Ingar Amlien's own statement is likely to express closest what they really are: "Personally, I'd categorize Crest of Darkness as a satanic metal band with lot of inspiration from various metal styles."

The amount of various styles is truly abundant, some guitar solos could have originated from some somber power metal, others encompass bass lines with successive, low tuned guitar riffs in tradition with Type O Negative's style ("A Place With No Memories"). In this song (among others) Kristin Fjellseth's gives her debut as singer and gives a rest from the rather hissing voice of Ingar.

All of the songs are permeated by Techno sounds, sometimes mixed in very unexpectedly and detuned, which comes out very confusing for the listener ("Soulhunter"). From time to time songs are interrupted by riffs that in my opinion simply cut the flow of music and should have been better used in other parts of their songs.

The last track, "Electronic Art (Computerized Part II)," is a extremely techno-packed piece. All in all, their work seems very scatty to me. There are many music elements embodied i really liked, but I'd have liked them to mature each for itself into longer sequences instead of stuffing them into one cluttered song. Definitely worth listening into, but probably not worth buying - a delicate album for fans of eccentric black metal.

review by: Roberto Martinelli

This compilation of old Darkthrone material features songs from three different sources. All the stuff on Evil Past predates the time when Darkthrone found the voice that made them the seminal band that they are with albums like Transilvanian Hunger or A Blaze in the Northern Sky.

The first of the three sources is the Thulcandra Demo, which until now was most easily found on the Darkthrone/Mayhem Split. If you haven't heard that yet, it features three of the songs found on Darkthrone's first (and only death metal) album, Soulside Journey, but more raw and dirty. If you haven't heard that yet, imagine simple, Celtic Frost inspired death metal with some lulling breaks. This was when Fenriz did more than just the necro blast beat.

The next five tracks come off of the Land of Frost Demo, recorded in 1988. The pleasantly satisfying raw drum sound is replaced by what sounds like someone beating the hell out of a cardboard box and a tambourine. These tracks are a grab bag of various experiments (mostly failed) that Darkthrone played with. You'll hear some rather alarming vocals, like on "Land of Frost," where it sounds like the singer is doing that face flapping thing that cartoon characters do when they shake themselves off after being blown up.

On "Forests of Darkness," the band unsuccessfully runs the vocals and some of the music through something that gives things a wheezing electronic echo-like quality.

A few times the riffs on the Land of Frost Demo sound like Metallica. It's especially curious how a track on "Land of Frost" sounds like a rip off of "Unforgiven," but this demo pre-dates the black album!

The experimentation takes a rest on track seven, which is the most dark and evil on the five-song demo, and features a lulling break. Then Darkthrone is all over the map again with "Death of the Dead," which features more wacky cartoon vocals, and material that shifts from Metallica riffs to punk, another lull, and then doom.

The final track is an unreleased one called "Snowfall." It is superior to the Land of Frost Demo. The "Snowfall" on Evil Past is not the same "Snowfall" on Preparing for War, by the way. The latter is an essential instrumental epic, while the former is another track of dirty Darkthrone death. Evil Past's allure no doubt comes from the fact that it'd old Darkthrone stuff, and therefore should really only be bought by fans of the band who also like the band's pre-black metal manifestation.

review by: Roberto Martinelli

The reality hits you after a few minutes of listening to The Lake. This is one of those bad concept albums. You know what I'm talking about. The songs just seem to hover as the band sacrifices good music for storytelling. The real kick in the pants, if you're like me, is that you don't buy music albums to hear a good story. If you've heard Savatage's Poets and Madmen, or even Virgin Steele's The House of Atreus Pt. II, you know what kind of feel the tracks have on The Lake, except the two aforementioned albums kill this one, if such a thought is even conceivable.

To get a good idea of what the music sounds like, imagine something between semi-prog rock and metal. None of the tracks go anywhere, although there could be a few good things here and there. Unfortunately, all hopes of The Lake growing on you are immediately dashed by the atrocious singer, who, considering how utterly crap he is, plays a preposterously big role in the music.

As if it couldn't get any worse, there are some insultingly bad narrations that are supposed to seem like a dramatic eyewitness account between a radio reporter and a news anchor. These are so shockingly poor that you'll back up just to hear them again.

Luckily for those who won't be fortunate enough to read this warning, Pavement has packaged this album by GB Arts (I propose a contest to think up of an even less appealing name. The winner gets my copy of The Lake) in a way that guarantees no one will want to buy it.

review by: Roberto Martinelli

Every now and then an album comes along that is able to overpower my resolve to present a fair review by listening through the entire thing at least once. If I could give an anti-award this issue, it would certainly go to this German quartet that plays hard rock.

The members of Gun Barrel may be look like rockin' WWII fighter pilots, but they sound like they're doing their damnedest to be country rockers. The obvious German-ness of the band (from that distinctive cheesy flavor) clashed hard with the exaggerated blues-based music and songs with lyrics about being born on the railroad tracks, or something equally obnoxious. Avoid.

review by: Roberto Martinelli

Boy, these guys sure do sound a lot like Morbid Angel. I had to check a couple of times to make sure I wasn't listening to "Dominate" by accident. I like Hate, but they're not particularly original. Generic, mediocre guitar riffs (and instrumentation in general) make this album fun, but not too interesting. Even the intros to their songs don't set Hate apart from any other band of the genre. Several songs begins with either the sound of fire or a dark-sounding orchestrated war hymn or something. It's fast, it's brutal, and it's pretty typical.

review by: ~Vargscarr~

Hmm. Thrash Metal, very 80s; hints of Power Metal, by which I mean American, Annihilator-style Power Metal; not the modern Euro Metal which has inherited that title in the latter half of the 90s.

If you're a fan of US 80s Thrash, you'll likely love this - it could easily have been recorded at the end of that decade. Personally I want more bite from this music. More crunch to the guitars, more scream to the solos; more extremity. More Testament's The Gathering. If I hear a recently produced Thrash album, that is what I want to hear; for it is the album by which all modern Thrash is measured, just as Reign in Blood is the album by which all 80s/early 90s Thrash is measured.

The riffing is excellent: galloping in all the right places, sliding and rising before sending the listener back into a mid-paced 80s headbanger as the drums kick in with another double-pedal/snare rhythm. The solos are used effectively, though they don't stun the listener with exceptional proficiency as the best solos should.

Whilst there are elements of Exodus and Sacred Reich in here too, Annihilator is really the band that comes to mind most often as the album progresses. Even those cliché 80s lyrics are in there: "The Gates of Hell - what's going on? The price of fame..." There's even a line that sounds just like "Slipping into the goth's nightmare."

All in all, solid Thrash, but lacking that spark to make me love it. This will be huge in Germany, so that should give you a clue as to whether it'll be your thing or not. There's no good reason for me not to like this, but I'm rarely in the mood for any non-Slayer 80s Thrash; so while I can accept this as a fine album this kind of thing is not going to be something I'll want to listen to all that often. When I am in the mood for it, chances are it'll be one of the aforementioned bands will hit my stereo as opposed to these guys.

review by: Roberto Martinelli

Mechanized Warfare is an improvement on Jag Panzer's last album, Thane to the Throne, which was a pretty fine album too. This time around, Jag Panzer has improved on the immediate likeability of its riffs, vocal patterns and melodies. While the last album seemed to suffer a lot from the sort of uncommitted, uncatchy vocal melodies described in the Reign of Terror review in this issue, Jag Panzer has greatly improved their vocal arrangements so that it now seems like the vocals being sung fit well over the music being played.

One of the album's strengths lies in the diversity and individuality of the songs. In this sense, Jag Panzer is in stark contrast to a European power metal band like Stratovarius (which I've been listening to a lot lately) whose songs (and albums, basically) are repetitive and interchangeable. While the result may not be as fun or as catchy as bands like Stratovarius, Jag Panzer's compositions and arrangements appeal more on an analytical level. As the songs are all distinct from one another, this means that Mechanized Warfare won't rock from beginning to end. Rather, Jag Panzer put the brakes on quite a bit to present a technical section; the band only cuts loose in a power metal sense a few times on the album.

Harry Conklin continues to wail away in that distinctly theatrical American power metal fashion over odd-time riffs galore. The guitarist combination of Mark Briody and Chris Broderick present a fine mix of blazing guitar leads and catchy melody. Despite their obvious talent, the guitarists present their craft in a manner that isn't showy or self-serving, like you'll find on Yngwie Malmsteen albums, for example. Rather, noodly leads will be used tastefully along with melodic melody lines ala Iron Maiden. Jag Panzer have employed a large cast of supporting musicians on the album, the coolest being a Gregorian chant group, which makes its appearance on the song "Unworthy." Gregorian chant rules. This album isn't a ripper, but it's a well thought out piece of work who's thinking man's approach isn't very well reflected by its poor choice of album cover.

review by: ~Vargscarr~

This album makes me think of dinosaurs. I want to call this Dinosaur Metal. The tracks plod and hop along; taking the listener back...back...back to a world before man, when the world was ruled by giant lizards plodding through the undergrowth in corpse-paint, trampling everything in their path beneath their feet; useless forelimbs clutching guitars and picking heavy, bassy rhythms to accompany their progress through existence as they bang their massive heads in time to each thundering step. Dammit Beavis, even the faster bits of this album sound reminiscent of those leaping Gallamimuses from Jurassic Park.

Musically this really isn't bad, although *unless* you want to hear the aural equivalent of the life and times of the Terrible Lizards (which I hope to the chunky Xtian god is what "Khold" actually translates to) this album won't offer that much to you. The songs are samey, so if you like one you'll like them all; but they're not as atmospheric as the band want us to feel they are. They simply fail to captivate the listener in the way others do.

Khold - if you're reading this - please stop what you're doing and think about the dinosaur thing. Literally every track on this album works with this image; you'd just need some GWAR-like costumes and a change of lyrical direction (Hell, I don't understand the lyrics anyway - I've already translated them in my mind to things like "stomp-ing through the jung-le...eat-ing lots of leeeeaves...fight-ing a tyrannosaur" etc etc - if you listen to the vocal arrangements you'll see what I mean)...You could go so far with this.

In short, if you like slow, bassy, Blackish Metal then pick this up; it's fun and it's not really bad. I'll listen to it now and again, now that I have it. Background music. Music to listen to for a change to make your other CDs sound better. Buy it because you're a dinosaur fan (and who isn't?) and you won't be disappointed at all - museums badly need this CD.

review by: Roberto Martinelli

In case you're a new reader of Maelstrom and haven't yet seen our archived third issue, Leviathan is the black metal home project of San Francisco's Wrest, who records all the material on his own on a four track. Wrest is going through a creative period that makes other artists envious: he just keeps cranking out the material. This release is entitled Seven because it is the seventh full album's worth of material that Wrest has recorded in what is only a couple of years, I think.

The Slaveship material is the inclusion of the song "In this Slaveship," a cut from what Wrest deems as his "failed" eighth album (please see the interview with Wrest in this issue). As you will soon see by merely reading on past this review, there seems to be no end in sight to the development and volume of what Leviathan will produce.

Seven is to me the best work Wrest has done to date. For one, much has been improved on the minor problems experienced on his previous tape-based albums for which you needed to play your stereo fairly loud to hear properly. The material continues in the evil vision in Wrest's mind of midpaced and heavy black metal that was especially showcased on his Shadow of No Light album, mixed in with the kind of pockets of speed on the Misanthropic Necro Blasphemy album. Seven sees Wrest perfecting his vocal style, featuring the unnerving, bodiless cryptvox ala Burzum Filosofem that he introduced on Shadow of No Light, but mixing it up tastefully and interestingly with his chilling low croaks and with vocals that are as close to singing as Wrest should attempt to get without getting ridiculous. As always, the vocals are run though a processor, giving the voice a chilling black metal industrial effect.

As the production is clearer, the drums reveal themselves as being triggers for the first time, but the ear becomes accustomed to this. Wrest introduces some new elements to the fold such as a folky interlude with tambourine on the song "Shed this Skin," before wrapping the song up with the most beautiful riff of the album, a sort of catharsis to the rest of the grimness found on Seven - this riff provides the only time for sunlight to pierce the brooding stormclouds to stream in shafts over a black sea.

Despite its 74-minute length, Seven is a piece of work best listened to all in one sitting. Although I couldn't seem to want to get past the opener, "Black Fire Serenity," with its alternating pseudo-singing delivery and chilling, godly Burzum industrial rasp, heavy metal riffing and thundering mid-paced plod, I found that the mood that the album had to offer wasn't truly revealed until I heard it from beginning to end. Although this may seem daunting, it's not. Rather than seeming like overload, the songs on Seven + Slaveship meld together to make one massive dirge, really allowing the very last of the depraved depression to seep out and pollute the air around you. Here indeed is where Leviathan's greatest strength lies. It won't clunk you over the head by trying to be faster than the rest, but you'll be hard pressed to find a record that better embodies the essence of black metal evil and sadness than Seven.

review by: Roberto Martinelli

What the fuck was I thinking? I was so wrapped up in Leviathan's Seven that I actually thought Inclement Derision wasn't as good. I suppose this is because Inclement Derision isn't as overtly gloomy and ominously depressing. As Leviathan's Wrest states in the interview in this issue, he's continuing to progress past the mid-paced style that he has proved time and again to have mastered, and is challenging himself by incorporating elements of math rock and some Swans-type material into the fold (not to mention the windchimes that Wrest talks about in the interview). The result is outstanding; waver it does not from the Leviathan objective: to make sordid black metal.

While the musical compositions may technically be less black metal than before, the vibe is still 100% there, and now there's more for your musical ear to listen to.

Leviathan is going through major creative growth, as Wrest breathes new life into his riffs and structures. "Now Hallow," the final track, has a death metal sound and features a killer bass/drums/vocals breakdown. As a result, instead of the album standing as a sort of a whole body of a ride into infinite grimness, the tracks stand out. "Now Hallow" contains the only moment that one could call touching in all of Leviathan's discography, as a lull in the music is opened, and a coherent "I would have given you anything" is heard. According to Wrest, most of the songs on Inclement Derision are about women. Holy shit.

Track four, "Whole of Deceit," sees the albums most concentrated use of odd times. This is followed by my personal favorite on the album, "Parasite," which features one of those godly cathartic riffs that Wrest seems to incorporate into each of his releases.

The production is at its best, as Wrest tightens what little bolts on his Roland V-Drum kit that gave the drum sound away as being triggered on Seven. I think I initially wasn't as taken with Inclement Derision as the use of my favorite Burzum Filosofem vocals is used sparingly, and I missed them. They do make an appearance on the final track, but Wrest lowers the pitch of the vox, still running them through his guitar pod, but making them more earthy. The filthy croaking style is still in full effect. Fuck yeah, that shit rules! While this latest album is "only" 51 minutes long, Inclement Derision stands as yet another milestone in Leviathan's development. You must get your hands on Leviathan material. You heard it here first.

review by: Matt Smith

This is the best album ever. It's absolutely hilarious, entertaining, and good in every way possible. I got this CD at Metalfest (though I didn't get to see Macabre there, unfortunately), and I've listened to it countless times already.

Macabre is a Chicago band that has written a lot of songs about serial killers (including an album called Unabomber), and this is their first concept album. It follows the life of one of Wisconsin's most notorious serial killers, Jeffery Dahmer, from the time of his childhood until after his death.

The first song, "Dog Guts," tells us of Jeffery's habit of playing with roadkill when he was a boy. It goes on and on, each song revealing a new thing about his life (although I don't know if it's all true, most of it is). The vocals are like nothing I've ever heard, but they fit the mood of the album perfectly. They sound sort of like the Cryptkeeper sucking on helium with growling undertones. Everyone has a morbid fascination with murderers (especially really messed up ones), and Dahmer should fulfill any of those "urges" we all get. Musically, it is also a very solid album. There are a few takes on "traditional" tunes, but with a Macabre twist. "In the Army Now," "Grandmother's House," and the "Oompa-loompa Song" all make an appearance, and all are appropriate in their respective contexts.

The drummer is probably the most accurate I've ever herad, laying technical rhythms EXACTLY where they should be. Every note lands where it should, without a hint of sloppiness. The guitars also change up and stay interesting the entire time, each song sounding completely unique. (I have a great appreciation for any band that can make each of its songs sound different during these "cookie-cutter" times) To wrap up, do anything you must, but listen to this album somehow and you won't be sorry.

review by: Roberto Martinelli

Nokturne is the latest band in the exploding American black metal scene. There are enough US bands now that one can begin to talk about said band having an "American sound," which this group definitely has.

Nokturne reminds me of fellow American black metallers Summon on their Baptized by Fire album (reviewed in issue #3), but much tighter and with a "better" production. Indeed the sound on Embracer of Dark Ages is fuller and more hard hitting technically, but it isn't as cult as Summon's. However, the kind of riffs and drum work the two bands use is very similar, with Nokturne doing it faster.

The album starts off with its weakest song, "Exterminan," which experiments with a slow variation of the blast beat, but ending up sounding really much as I do when I sit down at my kit and try to figure out how the masters do it. It isn't til track four, "Nothing," with its ferocious speed and determination, that Embracer of Dark Ages starts to show some promise.

Pretty much throughout, Nokturne delivers the formula of anger and then more anger without adding too many more dimensions - a negative characteristic of much of the US scene's bands. The vocals are much in this way, and don't provide much more than a pissed off guy doing his black metal rasp.

There is a clean guitar interlude provided on track six, "The Hated." Although giving the listener a rest was a good idea by including this track, the material is so weak that a minute of dripping water would have had as much of the desired effect. The penultimate track sees inclusion of a Scandinavian-influenced black metal melody.

Nokturne are unquestionably doing their damnedest to be as ferocious and brutal as they possibly can. In a sense, they have recorded a bestial album, but at the same time Embracer of Dark Ages lacks impact. This is probably due to the band's placing their resources into being as hard and fast as possible, without effectively exploring the atmospheric and ethereal side that made albums that are as blisteringly monstrous as Embracer of Dark Ages (like Immortal's Pure Holocaust or Keep of Kalessin's Through Times of War), but also had much more to offer.

review by: Roberto Martinelli

Have mercy on us. From the lunatic mind of a man named Nikolo Kotzev comes a two CD rock opera concept album about the life of Nostradamus.

At least three yellow flags have already gone up.But wait, maybe we were too quick to judge. The acoustic, 35-piece orchestral opening track is fantastic. This might be a great album after all.

As if such a thing could be possible. For the rest of the way, Nostradamus will subject you to an endless, mind-numbing barrage of rock atrocity. It begins with Glenn Hughes vomit-inducing, breathy, Michael Bolton meets cheesy R&B singing. It transcends the imaginable how vocals like this could be permitted on an album even remotely connected to metal.

The performance of the rest of the cast, which is made up of well-known names such as Joe Lynn Turner and Alannah "Black Velvet" Myles, isn't as bad in relation, but the addition of Turner's occasional attempts at sounding like Brian Adams is too much for any good metal fan to handle.

We must try hard to contain ourselves, as we would like nothing more than to put on our biggest boots and stomp, Warner Brothers-style, on all involved in this project. Nostradamus is guaranteed to piss you off, so don't let yourself be fooled by positive reviews in magazines like Terrorizer. We would hope that just one look at the third-rate computer game album cover would be enough to prevent anyone from spending any money on this.

review by: Roberto Martinelli

As much as I like classical music (or, perhaps, think I like classical music), a lot of times I'll sit down to something I expect I'll like and feel unfulfilled. The music is no doubt technically fantastic, but it just sits there. Peccatum's second full-length album gave me in many ways the same feeling.

The music is broken up not so much into songs as rather into classical musical pieces. The best moments on the disk are in the odd instances when actual acoustic string instruments are used instead of electric guitars and keyboards. Acoustic instruments will always beat synthesized ones, especially when it comes to keys.

Ihsahn's vocals are quite recognizeable, although less extreme than on Emperor. The clean, often operatic vocals of Isahn's wife/bandmate, Ihriel, are quite good, and at some points sound like Kate Bush. The vocal trio is once again rounded out by Lord PZ, who is also somehow related to Mr. and Mrs. Emperor.

You'll hear a good deal of the same kind of signatures that are present on Equilibrium IX, but the brutality is greatly turned down. Amor Fati, despite its depth of carefully crafted song structures, is lacking in whatever it is to make it a compelling album. With that said, it's a grower, and I like it more now that I've listened to it three times. However, I don't expect it to grow on me to the point where I feel I'll have to write a revision of this album in the next issue.

review by: Roberto Martinelli

This excellent power metal album from the United States mixes classical scales with a thrash delivery. While the marriage of a stripped-down thrash guitar tone with a Paganini piece may seem incongruous at first, you'll find that it works after your ear adjusts to it.

The material on Sacred Ground shifts in presentation from thrash to a more contemporary powel metal approach in which the band employs some backing keyboard parts. The songs on this album are well played and arranged, and the musicianship of the band shines.

Michael Vescera, who used to sing for Yngwie Malmsteen, does vocals. He's talented and proficient, but there's something about this style of American power metal vocals that is lacking. The singing seems to have a weak melodic commitment, rather sounding like Vescera is adding power metal dramatics to what is supposed to be a narrative. The phrasing sounds random, and it appears that a multitude of alternate phrasings could be applied to the music and it would still fit fine. Basically, imagine vocals like Helstar's, but with talent. Perhaps I want my melodic singing to be more catchy and memorable, like is more often the case with European power metal. Speaking of which, metal fans who abhor the happy vibe and major scales of Euro power metal can pick up Sacred Ground with confidence that it will deliver a quality piece of work.

review by: Matt Smith

These guys are really good. Thy Infernal is one of the best American black metal bands I've ever heard... It is very listenable compared to some of the more chaotic black metal out there. The vocals are enhanced in parts and sound like pure evil. The beginning of "Armageddon" sounds like they sampled the voice of a demon or something. The lyrics are about what one would expect (from what I can understand, at least). Hell, Satan, the number of the beast, and all that are well covered throughout the CD. But nothing else would do, especially for a band called "Thy Infernal." The drums sort of stay in the background, but are very technical. Time is well kept, and guitar riffs are good, despite there not being many solos of any length. I would definitely suggest giving this album a listen. Or many, many listens.

review by: ~Vargscarr~

It has been an excellent couple of months for new Black Metal discoveries for me. First Tsjuder, then Nargaroth, and now Unlord.

Gladiator is the Dutch band's second album, and is a collection of uber-heavy, lightning fast Black Metal songs that will appeal to fans of Marduk, Dark Funeral and their like. What separates Unlord from other bands playing this type of music is their penchant for variation in their songs - from track to track they experiment with more than just the straight Black Metal guitar dirge and blastbeats; which is both a blessing and a curse. Some tracks simply don't cut it, especially in comparison with the best material this album offers. There are also some interesting rhythmic vocal arrangements, a technique often used in Death Metal by bands like Cannibal Corpse, but rarely seen in Black Metal. This is fortunate, as the vocals occasionally suffer from that "pleaing retard" style that plagues most vocalists of the Hardcore genre - urgent cries of the mentally disabled trapped in a closet, or if you will, large cardboard box.

Be that as it may, the vocals are not annoying overall despite being less evil than one would desire for this kind of music. The band also uses keyboards from time to time, which though far from ineffective are not quite as impressive as they might be, sounding reminiscent of video game background music on track four. I'm really nit-picking however, since this is overall a very strong album of a brutality that's rare in most new BM releases, which tend to either belong to the False over-synthed, over gothed sub-genre, or are poor attempts at Burzum/ Darkthrone/ Nargaroth style mid-paced claustrophobic evil.

Though not as atmospheric as the best Black Metal, Unlord still retains the brutality of the style and so despite lacking that certain feel that makes a band classic, they are musically a fine example of the genre. Though the Satanic lyrics in these songs feel more cheesy than rank with evil; you'll still find yourself with "Evil! Evilspawn! Evil!" and "Heeeeeeell's gaaaaaates are oooo-pen!" shrieking through your skull several hours after playing this disc. There's also a very cool Blackened Thrash Metal song (track nine) which has to be the high point of the album for me. It's a mixed bag, but none of it is bad; and much of it is excellent. Not as good as Tsjuder though.

review by: Matt Smith

Walken sounds like a very much punk-influenced metal band, especially in the way of vocal stylings (teenager screaming into mic), some of the guitar patterns and melodies, and the use of a lot of snare. These few songs have a very raw, chaotic feel. It's kind of refreshing to hear something unpolished, but I can get this sort of thing at most local shows. Although they are undeniably talented, I'd give them some time to work on stylistics and technique before I flew out to San Francisco to see them or anything.

review by: Roberto Martinelli

Wizard's power metal stylings alternate between Manowar and Sacred Steel. The production is very strong, and a few of the songs are good fun, in a mindless, galloping, fist-pumping true metal way. Other times, like on the Manowar anthem-like track "Defenders of Metal," things get embarrassing.

Wizard are trying their damnedest to be as true metal as possible, and sing about such worthy (clichéd) topics as: 1) drinking magic potions, 2) how the philosophy of metal will prevail, 3) defending metal, 4) Riding to victory, and 5) evil wizards.

On the final, anthemic track, "True Metal," the lyrics go like this: "We play more metal than most people can take(…) We play metal for all true metal heads, and not for rotten poser rats!" It's funnier to hear it for yourself, although there is no reason to get your wallet out to pay for the full price of admission.

review by: Roberto Martinelli

This Dutch quintet is the latest in a long, looong line of brutal death metal bands. In Mangled's case, the sound that is borrowed is that of Cannibal Corpse, but far less complex. Throughout the uneventful album's 10 tracks, the band lay down very average death metal fare, with a couple tepid hooks surfacing here and there, like on tracks 3 ("Evil Terrestrial") and 9 ("Scream and Bleed"). The production is well done and befitting to death metal. Unfortunately, the lack of urgency of the material makes Most Painful Ways a bore to all but devoted death metal collectors.

review by: Liam Deely

More akin to the Amazing Spiderman than the Incredible Hulk, Cadaver's sound is sinewy, agile, and raw. The tight-wound band rarely slow down -- as evidenced by the drummer's frantic snare drum sprints -- and executes blast beats as well as Emperor or Angel Corpse. Owing more to European-style death or black metal, this recording subtracts the beefed-up low end present on albums by bands such as Suffocation or Dying Fetus, bestowing "Discipline" with grating precision rather than plodding heaviness. Musicianship-wise Cadaver perform as well as any, though their arrangements, with the exception of the first track, lack the sort of simplistic catchiness bands like Vader are known for. Formed from the ashes of the 1990s "Cadaver" (which featured an upright bass as found in symphonic orchestras - a strange gimmick), the new-and-improved Cadaver, Inc. deserves a listen and some positive recognition.

review by: Bon Farolan

On first listen, Circle’s Pori captures our attention with its anthology of haunting chamber pieces. At the outset, Perustamisasiakiria 8.3.1558, the album’s first track, thrusts simple, linear monotones dredged in an eerie, ghostly atmosphere that make this Finnish prog band’s fifth album an appropriate soundtrack for an occult film. While the low level, Gregorian-type chanting that is interspersed with several synthesizers’ tremolo in Back to Pori evokes images of cloaked, supernatural Vikings treading the bleak, frigid zones of Nordic yore, Kartano’s clashing cymbals and electronic busy signals conjure a sinister ambiance that is not too far removed from paranormal mystique.

But, before we are put out by the tedious monotony that pervades most of Circle’s pieces, we can rest assured that there is some enjoyment to be had in listening to the Pori collection. What Circle lacks in musical energy, the so-called perpetual motion beat that typifies progressive rock (or jazz) music, it more than makes up by way of its interesting, experimental strings that occasionally jolt the listener’s senses while entranced in any of its extraordinarily lengthy riffs (a single loop sequence repeats 18 times in Back to Pori). Listening to Circle is not a comfortable listen. Its appeal lies not in what it has, but in what it does not have –- the pretense and put on demeanor that is fairly commonplace in a lot of prog music, or for that matter, any type of music that aims to break out of a certain known musical genre to explore different shapes and sounds.

review by: Bon Farolan

Spellbound ennui, if any such turn of phrase existed, would most likely suggest a kind of boredom that ran so deep it could muster enough hypnotic power to stay focused. That is exactly what Circle’s Andexelt album seems to want to convey. In this Finnish band’s experimental approach to capturing new melodies, it focuses on repetitive rhythms and grooves before stretching their limits into what could possibly be construed as progressive rock, underground avant-garde, or mellow fusion jazz.

review by: Liam Deely

Warning: Listening to Isis causes hallucinations and severe mood swings. One moment you feel like an irate Godzilla, rampaging through concrete and steel. A few minutes later you may feel like a drooling mental patient, head down, kneeling in a corner. Somewhere in between you may have envisioned some Dark Age death cult dancing around a boiling cauldron. Isis’s music is rooted in pain, and they do a great job presenting variations on the theme. The drums come across as large and bludgeoning, with guitar, bass, and minimalist vocals equally robust, nailing Isis’s heavy, tribal-doom vibe. The active ingredient is the keyboards, which convey an avant-garde, almost gothic quality, evoking emotions of melancholy and longing. SGNL>05 has only five tracks, but will live on in your head well after the music fades.

review by: Liam Deely

No one can fault Threshold for bad musicianship. The English progressive metallers sound as though they’ve been classically trained, and their ear for light, flowing melodies is first-rate. But if there were such a thing as "Cliff Notes" for an album, I’d consult the condensed black and yellow version of Hypothetical rather than listening to every vibrato vocal arrangement and keyboard arpeggio. The open and airy hook of the second track, for me, was the highlight of the album, which no doubt climaxes earlier rather than later. The third track is also a respectable mixture of driving mid-tempo drums, crystalline guitar, and rich vocal harmonies. I recommend Hypothetical for anyone who likes Dream Theater or Queensryche’s Operation: Mind Crime.

review by - ~Vargscarr~:

Festival Review - WACKEN OPEN AIR 2001 - 3/4 August - Wacken (Hamburg, Germany) Wacken Open Air 2001: some bands in a field with a shitload of Germans. Metal.

FRIDAY

I was feeling pretty chewed up when we arrived at the festival site, having spent the previous night taking in the sights and smells of Hamburg's weapons/porn/terrifying sex paraphernalia shopping district; being sure to be polite to the hookers and dissuading my friend and fellow festival-goer Jez from trying to get his picture taken with them ("I'm serious, their pimps will take your ears...") so after checking in at the wristband hut I promptly went straight to the interview tent for a nap. After all, Deceased didn't sound particularly captivating - at least to my ears that had spent a solid day on a coach and had only lain in the tender embrace of sleep for a couple of hours on the way to the site that morning.

A tired spectator

Just because we're metal doesn't mean we can't be friends

I woke up refreshed and ready for Metal, so Carnal Forge were the first band on my list. Solid Death; with a hint of Thrash, but not so much that they could be called a true crossover. Unoriginal perhaps; but deeply satisfying - great sound and consistently good material. This year's crowd (throughout the entire festival it seemed) was very, very boring; and it was no challenge to fight my way into the small mosh pit where a handful of the faithful were slamming away - about the same number as you'd see if the band were playing a small club, which is very odd considering the size of the Wacken crowd. No matter, the band filled their 45 minutes without letting up; and left me thinking I should check them out on CD. So far, so good.

I should mention at this point the deeply shitty layout of the festival ground as compared to last year. Last year we had four stages - two vast main stages (pictured at left) and two smaller stages off on their left. The smaller stages featured, aptly, smaller bands; the Party Stage hosting old favourites who hadn't maintained their popularity so well as those still drawing the huge crowds; and the Wet stage which theoretically hosts 'new and up-coming bands giving them their first chance to play to a festival sized crowd'. This year, only the party stage was actually in the festival grounds alongside the duel main stages. To access the Wet stage, we actually had to leave the festival site and enter a pathetic little tent on the camp site; half of which was taken up by a bar. This effectively killed any chance of someone wandering in to see a band they hadn't heard of, since getting in and out of the festival site was a lengthy process involving a large security guard molesting you (the female security guards were saved for the female festival goers. This was frustrating.) After a queue/crush that lasted up to ten minutes. Fine if the bands playing in the shitty sounding Wet stage tent were unknowns who I wasn't going to give much thought to; but Arch Enemy (yes, Arch Enemy who have had four albums released to date were being counted as newcomers), Behemoth and Lost Horizon were all bands I wanted to see. Point is: if I was seeing a Wet stage band, it was going to be because I wanted to see them - no chance of any happy accidental discoveries this year.

I deliberately missed Lacuna Coil because I don't like them; wandering back to the main stage in time for Holy Moses; a band I'd never heard or heard of and who didn't impress me: Death Metal with a female vocalist making masculine noises and nothing much else. Unfortunately I wandered off before Doro appeared to perform guest vocals on a cover of 'Too Drunk To Fuck'; but I managed to catch up with her in the interview tent after she spoke with Rhapsody and played a track from their new EP for the first time in public (which incidentally was killer); so I wasn't bitter for long.

Napalm Death are one of the tiny handful of decent British Extreme Metal bands in existence; and they predictably ate their crowd alive - denim and leather and all. They may be a bunch of left-wing hippie-bitches; they may be a little too crusty for me on CD: a little too Punk and not enough Death especially on their early material; but live they slay pure and simple. Intense and brutal; no sound problems and their crowd was into it. In fact, with the exception of In Flames, I'd say Napalm got the biggest crowd reaction of the festival. Huge pit, elbows and hair flying every which way - and I was mightily impressed by a guy actually slam dancing whilst wearing chain mail for the entire set. That is the very essence of Metal (aside from the music obviously). I'm not well versed in Napalm's back catalogue, but they played a good selection of tracks from throughout their career; even fitting in two of the small handful of ND songs I know well and can admit to loving: 'Suffer The Children' and 'Breed to Breathe.'

Although I'd originally planned on seeing Behemoth in the Wet stage tent at this point; another English guy we met up with had recommended Sonata Arctica to Jez and me, and we decided to check them out after he mistook a Lost Horizon track being played in the interview tent for one of Sonata Arctica's songs. We were both glad we'd heeded his advice, since Sonata have to take the award for 'greatest discovery' of WOA 2001. I'd never so much as heard of them before; but they play outstanding Power Metal, and live can indeed be compared to those newly emerged greats of the genre Lost Horizon (I've yet to hear if they compare to Lost Horizon on CD. Maelstrom's Roberto says no, Jez says yes...). A disappointing sound suffered by the vast majority of bands on the Party stage meant they had to fight to put on a good show; but they triumphed over adversity with beautiful leaping solos, galloping rhythms; soaring vocals...everything good Power Metal needs; and obviously sound nothing new when expressed in print. Just trust me, they were killer. A Power Metal band has to be special to grab my interest; and having just been introduced to Lost Horizon a couple of months ago, it's a joy to hear another great relatively new POWER METAL band so soon.

At this point I want to point out the CD stalls had Nargaroth's Black Metal ist Kreig and Tsjuder's Kill For Satan. Both these albums are essential True Black Metal, and since the only bands WOA 2001 booked who even came close to approximating Black Metal were Dimmu Borgir, Dark Tranquillity and Behemoth (and I suppose Naglfar, who are worse than ugly people who sit opposite you on trains and try to engage you in conversation) I feel it important to endorse these albums. The connection to a WOA review may be dodgy at best and feeble at worst; but Kanwulf might sulk if I didn't show my allegiance at this most subtle of opportunities. For the sake of all that's painful and flayed to within an inch of its crawling existence, hear these bands.

I chose Mortician over Therion, which may have been a mistake, since the former played a brand of Horror Death Metal which was, though decent enough, deeply repetitive and often composed of songs clocking in at under a minute. Songs that are less then a minute long are a waste of my time, and are more detestable than those little spiral worms that live in dog shit and make you blind if you ingest them. The band would have been great if they'd just strung some tracks together into a three or four minute composition; but no. Just *Barked introduction - thrashthrashthrash - stop*. Infuriating. But they did have a better sound than a lot of Party stage bands - a much less tinny sounding guitar for one thing, although that could have been to do with my position in relation to the stage.

Helloween are far from being my favourite band in the Power Metal genre; but for their fans they delivered a powerful set. I have to admit that despite standing there for 75 minutes watching them I cannot recall anything other than my vague feeling of 'good if you're into it'; but this may be because of the hypnotic way the vocalist (left) moved on stage. Imagine watching fish in a tank - that satisfying, relaxing feeling was exactly what I got from watching the dude's head swish from one side to another. Like this blonde blur swimming across the stage in a sea occasionally punctuated by the first pyro of the evening (that I saw). Pyro's always fun. So to sum up, good swimming fishness and good pyro; and some music or whatever.

I hate Saxon. Saxon are the very essence of old man cheese Metal; NWOBHM Pop that should have died with the other 80s band-wagon jumpers. I have nothing good to say about them, but obviously the Germans lapped them up. At least they have guitars and real drums.

Dimmu Borgir were about the most disappointing band playing the festival. Killed by an appalling sound, especially for a headlining act, we could barely hear the vocals or guitars for the first four songs. Not that I was bothered, since I only really took a liking to the newest material; and after playing four old tracks at the start of the set that may as well have been a warm up; every song which followed was from the new album. I would have loathed this if I were a long time Borgir fan ("No Stormblast?"). Even when we could hear the guitar and vocals it was only at a tolerable level; and the crowd let the band down big time failing to sing the chorus of their Dee Snyder cover 'Burn In Hell'; one of the best tracks on Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia.. Ah well. Nicholas Barker was impressive as ever on the drums despite fucking up a couple of times; as did their keyboard player which had us shaking our heads in shame for a band who are supposed to be considerably more professional a live act than this. Every band has it's off-days; it's just a pity one of Dimmu Borgir's had to fall on a festival headlining gig.

SATURDAY

Up bright and early for Cryptopsy (right), whom everyone seems to be deeply enamoured with. I was expecting great things since so many have mentioned them in the same breath as Nile; but Nile they are not. Despite being presented as a Death Metal band, to my ear they are more Hardcore - perhaps Hardcore/Death crossover - but too Punky for me at any rate. I like my Death more evil, or more Thrashy than this I guess. Where Nalpam's Death/Grind I can get into when it's presented live, Cryptopsy's Death/Hardcore I cannot. However, credit where its due - they got the crowd going despite being on stage at 11am; and what they played they played proficiently.

Krisiun was a band I'd been looking forward to seeing. For my money, the best Death Metal act on the bill; these Brazilians were pure technical proficiency from start to finish. This is how I like my Death - no politics, no Punk, just brutal, crushing Metal. Stuck on the Party stage, they were fortunately able to make the best of things and delivered their set without too many problems; though there were some aggravating mike problems for the vocalist at the start of the set. Perhaps their songs are a tad samey on CD; but live I really didn't care - when 'Conquerors of Armageddon' hit the speakers Death Metal was Krisiun.

Annoyingly I had to miss Annihilator since their timeslot was shifted, meaning they clashed with Lost Horizon. No way was I missing this band. Despite the appalling sound in the Wet stage tent, and the annoying delay at the start of the set (during which the manic frontman leapt about in an agitated state; occasionally grasping the mike and crying "Let me hear you say thun-der! Thun-der!" several times) Lost Horizon pulled off a staggering set, and had to be the best band I saw play at this year's WOA. Lost Horizon is Power Metal, pure and simple - perfectly crafted songs perfectly executed by this perfect exemplification of all that is Power Metal. I was surprised, having seen no photos of the band, to note the singer is not only bald, but the spitting image of the angry TV producer (who gets stink-palmed) in Kevin Smith's 'Mallrats.' I'm not exaggerating - the two men are identical; and to be honest it took me a while to become wholly comfortable with a small bald man in a cape issuing forth vocals that clearly belonged to a guy with considerably more hair. So much energy was inherent in this band as they ripped through the best of the handful of songs that make up their debut album - hopefully only the first of many.

The crowd at Wacken

Where were Arch Enemy? Due to the re-shuffling of bands (possibly because Annihilator were late, possibly just so Crematory could be added to the bill; who I wish I'd paid more attention to) their set had been shifted; and I believe having asked around afterwards possibly cancelled altogether. A great pity, as they were one of the bands I'd particularly wanted to see especially as they now have a good vocalist and a bunch of new songs from their newest album who's release date seems to have been greatly delayed. Ah well.

A huge response goes up over the festival site as In Flames take to the stage. I can't get into this band - I just don't like the songwriting - but I cannot deny the effect they had on the crowd. Two thirds of the spectators were jumping in unison at the frontman's command (that's it - the songs are too jumpy. I hate that.) and more sang along when they were supposed to than for any of the other bands; including Motorhead and Hammerfall. Good, clear sound and a great set-list for a fan, or so I gathered from fans afterward.

Nightwish played last year, and I thus knew to avoid them - Power Metal with female Operatic vocals. Very popular band, but as far as I'm concerned she uses simply too much vibrato to be tolerable. However, we did crack up when we heard this lilting voice call "Wacken, let's see you fucking mosh!" rather politely to the crowd at the close of a song.

A lot of Power Metal fans detest Hammerfall apparently. I've always liked them; especially their second CD, Legacy of Kings. It has that Thrashy bombast that makes me like Children Of Bodom so much - great riffs; excellent drums. The band are pretty intense when they want to be (for a band playing this kind of Metal anyway) and it was for their faster, bouncier tracks that I sadly missed Opeth for in favour of seeing their live show. And what a live show. One of the best sounding bands for a start, the drums were crisp and the guitars and vox clear as a bell (though far more Metal, obviously); great set list with all the best tracks from the band's previous two albums included - I wasn't so enamoured with the new one, but then I wasn't in a very Power Metal mood when I borrowed it; so perhaps worth another listen. Regardless the newer songs seemed less punchy than the older ones, though at the same time less tedious than I remembered them being on CD. Hammerfall also had the most elaborate stage set of any band on the bill (unless you count Saxon and Motorhead with their big ol' lighting rigs alone), having erected a drawbridge in front of the drum kit for them to emerge from behind as the show started; crumbling ruinous castle pillars and backdrop; and run-ins from the Hammerfall knight of the CD cover art who looked like a cross between Eddie and Darth Vader; clad as he was in black foam-rubber and weilding a vast hammer with which he pounded the stage in an eruption of pyrotechnic flames. Excellent live act if you're into their music - if not you'd be entertained just laughing at them...

Motorhead are not my favourite band. But they are the loudest band I've ever seen. Jesus Brown Christ they are loud. Sadly that is all they are, since Motorhead essentially play the same song again and again; and only get away with it by being really, really loud. They mix the two-hour set up with a few covers, and a guest appearence from Chrissy Hinde (that her name? The chick from the Pretenders, I think. Don't ask me what she was doing there...) but they're still just playing music that is loud and nothing else. The crowd are truely pathetic; Lemmy utterly failing to gain any kind of response from them at all; even before the encore when the bomber lighting rig descends to dazzle and delight for a couple of minutes before it gets boring. Not that Lemmy is the greatest front-man. He mumbles away with his old man's face, voice cranked to a skull-shattering volume; but he remains just an old man mumbling obscenely loudly. Extreme in their day, but not anymore. Unlike Ozzy and Black Sabbath (now there is the quintessential front-man), or Judas Priest, Motorhead simply haven't stood the test of time. Pity Sodom weren't on in their slot as I missed them; and they would have been considerably more entertaining.

All in all I'd say WOA 2001 wasn't as great as it could have been; though I suppose topping last year's festival would have been nigh on impossible for me. Marduk, Immortal, Doro, Venom and Rhapsody are a tough line up to beat as far as my music taste goes; but I think one decent Black Metal band on the bill this year wouldn't have been too much to ask. However regardless of the bands, its hard to fault Wacken as a festival. It's well organised for the main part and despite the vast crowd to be pleased and placated everyone has a great time. You can almost feel the Metal Unity if you're one of those people who says things like that; and the great thing about European Metalheads is, as Mortician's singer said, the fact that the fans don't limit themselves to single sub-genres as they do in the US. Guys in Nightwish shirts are in the pit for Napalm Death; guys in Graveland shirts cheering for Hammerfall. No fights, no problems. Wacken does a great job at catering for all-comers, and since the apparent demise of Dynamo it's about the biggest and longest running European Metal festival in existence. Let's hope it stays that way. Back to top

review by Steppenvvolf:

THURSDAY

It's Thursday, 2nd of August at 7am when I hit the road. The weather forecast on the radio says it's going to be up to 37° in Southern Germany today. No one could have persuaded me to get up so early for driving to Wacken, but my car doesn't have an air conditioner. Seven hours and 700km of driving in the heat and it's only another 40 km to Wacken, but, as last year, I end up stuck in a heavy traffic jam just after Hamburg. Some hours later I will be well reminded of this traffic jam again... 1.5 hours of queuing for my press pass adds to my driving dizziness, but having put up the tent (at right) and opening the first beer I am reconciled with those odds and head over to the festival ground.

The body-wash booths

The opening band, Knight Errant, a Turkish Metal band had left stage by then and Finntroll's set was also almost through unfortunately. While fuddling around with the tent, their Folk-inspired Deathmetal could be heard from the distance. At least I caught sight of their charismatic front in a frenetic dance with an oversized hand drum tattoing to the whipped up audience. Shame on me. Next time they'll be on my must-see list.

Part of why I chose to devote Thursday to the Fest as well was Crematory's performance. First it was announced that they'd show up later, then it was postponed to Saturday, because they were stuck in a traffic jam - guess where? So I had to make do with The Impotent Seasnakes, who were termed as a Sexrock band, and, for their stage acting well worth a look. As for the music, well it was rock... WASP made the background music for me poking about the Metal market with its numerous shops offering everything from shirts to CDs to book specialties and amulets that some Black metal disciples might have eagerly sought. Leather and chains? Here you find it. But forget the concept that Metal is purely non-commercial...

FRIDAY

It's Friday morning, my body reluctantly leaves the sleeping bag for the chilled morning air. The northern latitude compared to Stuttgart and the vicinity to the North Sea shows its impact. I put some tea water to boil on my new petrol stove and have my musli while browsing the running order for today's line up: Deceased, Nightfall, Carnal Forge...go a few minutes earlier to head over to Soilwork... Ok. Here we go.

My shocker of the day was Deceased. How, you wonder, considering that Helloween, The Haunted and others would fill the late hours? It's simply for one song: they covered Kreator's "Tormentor," which in its aggressiveness is still unchallenged by alleged "tougher" bands of nowadays I find. The bare refrain of the song and anticipating a caterwauling "Toorrrmentoor!" followed by the thundering rhythm guitar pattern is still infectious. So it was to others, too, moments after Deceased started playing this song I was c-c-c-c-caught in a mosh ;-), a true tormentor! (crowdsurfing at left).

Lacuna Coil's stage work was probably diminished in effect by the fact they were playing at daytime. Yet, Andy and Cristina's stage play of accusing and spurning each other to the rhythm of their lyrics wore off rapidly and her statement "Probably you don't know it, but you give us energy!" sounded more like an outcry of a band back from a joint holiday in a treatment centre for addicts. Don't misunderstand me, I like to listen to Lacuna's songs; "Falling" or "When a dead man walks" do move me, but on stage I had expected more of a group that encorporates so many emotional elements into their songs.

Next was Blackshine on the Party stage. Even those who'd swear they have not heard anything about them so far be only reminded of "My Pain Is Your Pleasure." It's unlikely you did not hear this song at least once in a metal hang-out since it was released about four years ago. It was only after they played this song that the crowd caught fire on them, but to be fair, many were still at the other stage to see Lacuna to the end. Therefore, they had to play with very shallow response at the beginning. All in all, the vocals were a bit weak I found and somehow they didn't manage to transform their good repertoire into an entirely satisfying performance.

Ever since ten years ago, when Walls of Jericho was mandatory for all of our get-togethers, be it a lively barbecue in the forest with classmates or the parents-feared parties in hobby-rooms, I have always dreamt of seeing Helloween live. But somehow I never got to see them, be it for lack of money or a frightening sudden change of their style (Pink Bubbles Go Ape...uaarggghh!!). So, this Wacken was to make up for my year-long craving.

Helloween's guitarist's stage-acting reminded me of a gnome bitten by a bee, hopping around and posing with his guitar while having his chuckles doing that (the pics of him should prove how difficult he was to exclude on a photo). Later, after leaving the pit, I was queuing in quite some distance in the huge crowd that had gathered to attend Helloween. But instead of swaying to the sound and rising my air guitar just as the guitarist did, I fell into a rather nodding movement and memories of teenage years, when we danced to "Ride the Sky" in the living-room of a friend and inadvertently broke one of those several-thousand-dollar-designer-loudspeakers...

Firebreathing

Female fans

A fan

In contrast to them, I was really looking forward to what Opeth would have to offer. They entered stage and singer Mike Akerfeldt calmly announced "Hello. We are Opeth...from Stockholm." And set off with their first song. To my surprise they didn't play any of the old ones and if you know how they changed their style with their recent album, you know about how disappointed I was. Yet, the audience enjoyed their performance.

After Metalium, Crematory was finally set to play; not as first planned on their "night to remember," since they were stuck in the same traffic jam as I was.

As you know, Crematory will break up this year for various reasons: tired of press reactions, health problems of some band members, the feeling, that it would be better to stop at the peak of success, and the necessity to find their bearings apart from metal (see also their site www.crematory.de for a thorough statement). All this very closely describes the mood with which the band gave their last big performance: tired, but also relieved, accompanied by harsh words to the press and gratitude to their fans. They played a compilation of their best songs. An extra was given by their guitarist Matthias, who sang unaccompanied the final song.

Lost Horizon was one of my must-sees at Wacken, especially after Roberto kept on talking about them in hymns of praise and infiltrating me with CDs. In fact, their power metal has found its way straight to my personal favourites. The W.E.T. Stage was intended for newcomer bands, to give them the opportunity to play for a broader audience. Placed in a rather small tent, the sound tended to be very mushy and so most of Lost horizon's catchy riffs ended up being hopelessly distorted. Had I not known of the quality of their songs from CD, I'd have brushed them aside for an average power metal band. Not their fault though.

Listening to In Flames' material before my coming to Wacken didn't give me the impression I'd miss so much by not attending them, but that would have been one unforgivable mistake as it turned out later. Was it because they made known publicly that they'd be recording this concert for their video? I guess not. With the sun setting, they had the perfect scenery for their shots. A show that carried away the masses, which melted together into a banging and jumping hair carpet, with people being washed on stage above it. Add some fireworks on the stage and you have an idea of the unforgettable atmosphere, that blended in so well to Saturday's dusk.

Almost the same can be said about Dark Tranquility, who had played on Friday. I'd list both as the top bands of this year's Wacken. Next year for sure, I will be there again!

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- review by Roberto

FRIDAY August 10.

This was my first Metalfest. However, it was my second Jack Koshick Presents event experience, having attended the travesty that was the 2000 inaugural November to Dismember in San Bernadino, Cal. In order to reduce the painful memories to a minimum, I'll sum up by saying that the big problem with that one was how bleeding ridiculously overbooked that fest was with shitty bands. Each band fell a little behind schedule, so by the time the bands that everyone came to see hit the stage, they had to cut their set to 20 minutes in some cases, or in other cases, like Vader's, they couldn't play at all.

And so it seemed that Metalfest 2001 would be a repetition of the November to Dismember fiasco. One hundred and thirty four bands were booked on four stages over only two days. At least 90 of these bands I'd never even heard of, so the prospectus of having to sit through hours of shit that would frankly make me think hard whether I'd continue to like metal made me pessimistic about the fest. It was cool though: I'd get to see Maelstrom contributor Matt Smith, who I hadn't seen in nigh on three years, and there'd at least be some cool CDs and zines to be picked up.

As it turned out, we ended up having a pretty damned good time. Our strategy was simple: show up around 8 p.m. for each day. That way, we'd circumvent the majority of the atrocious bands. I think that in total I ended up seeing about 20 bands. This plan did backfire on a minor scale in that we did miss a few groups we kinda wanted to see, and of course we negated all chances of discovering any diamonds in the rough, but considering the alternative, I think we did the right thing. This logic was compounded by the bordering-on-fascist rules that the Milwaukee Auditorium had: No outside food or drink allowed. Not even water in plastic bottles; the same shit they sold in the auditorium. What was this, a goddamn movie theater? I think ins and outs were also not permitted.

The lineup was split between four stages, the best of which were the auditorium Digital Metal Stage and the second-floor Relapse stage. The other two stages (Snakepit and Nightfall) were both rather lacking in their verical dimensions, atmosphere, and acoustics.

We got to the Auditorium on Friday at the planned 8 p.m. arrival time. The first band whose set I made a point of seeing was Helstar. Helstar's album Nosferatu features some of the best music ever by a power metal band, but unfortunately features a singer who effectively ruins the whole thing. In case you don't know who the singer is, he's also the singer of Destiny's End. Helstar's brand of power metal is of the early 90s variety. This style is firmly rooted in thrash, and so sounds remarkably different from today's fast, happy Euro style or even the heavier, technical music that American bands like Jag Panzer play.

Despite my dislike for the singer, who actually sounded better live than I remember him on disc, Helstar played a wonderful set. The highlights were the solid rhythm section, which got the audience on the same energetic page as the band thrashed through song after song. The lead guitarist also put on quite a technical show with his soloing. It appears that Helstar are getting back together, which would be a really welcome thing, as long as they remember to make more albums like Nosferatu and resist the temptation to go down the road that bands like Nevermore have been taking.

Matt and I were keen on checking out Soilent Green's set. However, the band unfortunately had to cancel as the bass player got some evil viral infection, according to Soilent Green's vocalist, Ben (pictured at right with Roberto).

However, we did get to see Ben in action nonetheless when we went upstairs to the Relapse stage to see Isis perform. Isis' show of brutally heavy, screming psychadelic rock was both Matt's and my pick for band of the day. Isis' sound was so thick, it burrowed into your very core, enveloping you in a massive, hypnotic blanket. Isis' lineup consisted of a drummer, a keyboardist, two guitarists, and two bass players (one of which did vocals), to really make shit heavy. Things went fully nuts when Soilent Green's Ben came out in his Keroppi shirt and pummeled the willing audience with his balls-out screams. Whoa.

I spent a whole lot of time at the market area, which was behind a flimsy series of curtains in front of the Digital Metal Stage, the largest of the four in the Milwaukee Auditorium. As expected, the usual series of folding tables were set up, displaying t-shirts and albums on sale. The selection was pretty good, although I seemed to have out obscured everybody when I asked each vendor for Necrofrost and was met with a blank stare. Most of the major labels with offices in the US were there. Century Media continued to have the best overall price/selection. If you haven't checked out Century Media's website, please do so at www.centurymedia.com, as their mail order prices are outstanding. A close second as far as major labels went was Relapse, whose prices were also quite good (much lower than their normal mail order prices), and who featured a lot of the dirtier bands we love that they tend to specialize in.

Cadaver Inc.'s album Discipline may have the fastest blast beat I've ever heard. So naturally I wasn't going to miss their set. I had to see if Carl-Michael, the drummer (also of Ved Buens Ende) could pull his stuff off live. He didn't disappoint.

The vocalist was impressive, looking a great deal like an adult version of Chucky, the evil doll from the Child's Play horror movie series, except this guy was metal. Even after the set was over, he walked by me with the same psychotic intent in his eyes that he had on stage, taking furious drags on a miserable cigarette between vocal atrocities. As cool as it was to see Cadaver Inc., my curiosity was satiated within three songs. It's true that there isn't a whole lot of variety in what this band plays, and that was compounded by the terrible sound in the room in which they played.

Even though I have my issue with their album World ov Worms, I had to see Zyklon, if only to be swept up by the hype. Z(S)amoth was definitely there, but the drummer didn't look like Trym. What was even more noteworthy was that the drums didn't sound triggered in that particular way as they have been on albums that feature Trym on drums for the past few years. The biggest eye-catcher was the vocalist, who was described by Mark of Chicago's Metal Haven as looking like "Sebastian Bach on steroids." However, the sound was pretty bad, and since Zyklon's songs aren't exactly catchy, nor do they stand out from each other very well even on the album, I moved on.

I have to say I foolishly wasn't watching the time and managed to miss all but 20 seconds of Steel Prophet's set. I really wanted to hear Mark Mythiasin's vocals, and if he could do the same stuff live as he does on CD. Damn.

I killed time until Anathema, whom I had to see. I've never had any interest in this band, that is, until I heard their latest album, Judgement. The four-piece band from England put on a great show. They were indeed the best possible way the organizers of metalfest could've ended the night, as Anathema are quite the opposite of the evil/testosterone driven bands that made up the majority of the festival's lineup. The singer, who looks a good deal like a younger Dave Mustaine, charmed the crowd from the get go with his story of how the band had gotten to Milwaukee. Anathema's energy was gripping despite its mellowness. Indeed there isn't a whole lot of what can really be called metal left in Anathema's sound, but they can unquestionably be categorized as a doom band. Even I was sometimes overcome by the real-life depressive vibe of their music, which dealt with topics such as alcoholism and the death of the guitarist/singer and bassist brother combination's mother. It was all very sad, but you could truly feel the joy that the audience shared with the performers in participating in the set. I don't know if I would be up to the kind of doom vibe on a daily basis that Anathema puts out, but the live show was something I wouldn't have missed. For a few moments I dashed over to see what was going on in Gorgoroth's room, but was appalled by the slop I heard and fled back to the warm melancholy of Anathema and the irresistible charm of their frontman.

Matt and I agreed that everything Gorgoroth was doing sounded exactly the same as what they had just done. I also thought it was very curious how the sound engineer was sliding one of the sound dials up and down frantically. It was entirely dubious, but fitting to the kind of performance Gorgoroth was putting on.

It was 2 a.m. By the time we got back to Matt's, somehow, at 4 a.m. we were wiped out. The sweet clutches of slumber awaited us…

SATURDAY, August 11th.

We mistimed our arrival and thus missed Phobia's set at 5:25, but we did get to see Pig Destroyer perform on the Relapse stage. Their sound was great and the playing was tight. I never thought a band consisting of one drummer, a guitarist and a vocalist could be this entertaining. It was fun grindcore.

Stupidly, I stayed put to see Mastodon. Not that Mastodon was bad. In fact, their music, which I would describe as some sort of screaming heavy music, was quite good. However, seeing Mastodon (good band name) meant that I was missing Jag Panzer's set on the Snakepit Stage. After I realized what was going on, I made it downstairs just in time to hear the end of a song and "thank you, see you again on tour!" Doh.

What to do… I tore myself away from a table that was selling four CDs for $20 (which I was deliberating over for WAY too long) to check out Einherjer (which I understand is pronounced "einyar"). I turned right back to the tables after seeing what this band had to offer for two minutes. It would be a compliment to Einherjer to say that they are the poor man's Enslaved. From what I could tell despite the atrocious sound was that they played some sort of Viking rock. Suffice to say nothing happened in their music, and there didn't seem to be much energy in the crowd. Case in point: I met this Russian guy at the CD table where I was who had an Einherjer shirt on. When I left the store area to go to the stage ten minutes into Einherjer's set, he was still there, chatting away in Russian with a vendor. (at right: Coach of Iowa hardcore band Armored Unit H7. Coach said with a snicker he's working on a new hardcore project that's all about Dungeons and Dragons. The band will be called Roll for Initiative and will feature such songs as "My +1 Battlestick." Can't wait to hear this one.)

Soilwork hit the Snakepit stage as I was browsing through the wares on the tables for the umpteenth time. As I heard later, Soilwork had some major problems with their sound initially; something like the main guitarist wasn't plugged in. Luckily, I joined the crowd a couple songs into the set, and thus was treated to a spirited show of melodic Swedish death. The frontman engaged the crowd well and encouraged the enthusiasm. The guitarists put on good shows with their soloing, and the drummer was super solid, not to mention having the nicest looking kit of the fest. The only guy I kinda felt bad for was the keyboard player, whose job was to pretty much sit there. It must be hard to get into it when you play keys. At one point the short haired guitarist tripped over the wire plugging the keyboard into the amp, yanking it out. It didn't make any difference sound-wise and the keyboardist played on as if he was actually making any music.

I needed to kill time, so I wandered in to see Deceased. I've never been a fan of this band. Sure, the music on albums like Supernatural Addiction is killer, but the raspy, out of key vocals just don't fit on top of the traditional heavy metal tunes. My bias aside, Deceased put on an excellent show. First off, I am totally impressed by anyone who can play drums and do vocals at the same time. Not only did King Fowley, Deceased's main man, play drums like a maniac, he also managed to do so while giving a passionate vocal performance, and I didn't mind his vocals in a live setting. Fowley and his band were exemplary: they projected true dedication and love for metal. Their passionate honesty really connected with the crowd, and I couldn't help but be swept up with it.

Now things were going to get really good, as three bands I was keen on seeing were going to play back-to-back-to-back. I'm talking about Krisiun/Dying Fetus/Kataklysm. Before Krisiun was Immolation. Their technique and performance was great, but unfortunately I've never been a big fan of their material.

Seeing all that I needed to, I couldn't resist the temptation to see Primal Fear, my favorite anti-band. I knew chances were really slim, but I was hoping they'd play their most hilariously shit metal song, "Formula 1," whose chorus is, I swear, "Formula 1, the class of kings on highest level, Formula 1, come and watch me win." Hahaha. I will never get enough enjoyment laughing at that song and this band. As fortune would have it, during my five or so minutes of hearing them, they didn't play my song, but I did get to meet one of my journalistic heroes, Marty Rytkonen, who puts out Wormgear, the finest underground music zine in North America (at least.) Cheers to him and his crew for being honest and calling a spade a spade, giving thoughtful reviews and stimulating interviews. Meanwhile, Primal Fear's singer Ralf Scheepers addressed the crowd. "You know, we usually have our eagle when we play," he said, pointeing to the back of the stage where their shitty metal bird poster should have been, "but we couldn't bring it over." (Like anyone fucking cares.) "But, this next song is about the eye of that eagle." (start generic song.) I have to at least give credit to Scheepers for singing well on the Primal Fear albums, but he was trying to beat the overpowering speaker system, and did more yelling than singing.

And then, Krisiun. I had been totally let down by listening to this band on CD. It was so constantly and uniformly fast, things got boring in a hurry. I had heard from both fans and not fans of this band alike that you had to see Krisiun to fully appreciate them. One person likened what the guitarist does to a feat of strength. If any of you who told me this is reading, I now understand what you were talking about. This set was so good, it bordered on a religious experience. As fitting to the best act of Metalfest 2001, the crowd was rabid, as every member of the audience made the sign of the horns in unison after every song and people dove off the stage in their joy. As advertised, the guitar solos were an exhilarating sight to behold as Moyses Kolesne's fingers moved more deftly than anyone's eyes could follow. After one such song, I turned to Matt, who looked at me with the same wide eyes I looked at him with. Matt was for the most part pretty placid during the shows, but even he couldn't resist the tide of energy that swept through the room.

Unfortunately, Krisiun had to wrap up and leave. The bright side was that Dying Fetus was next. If you saw my review of them in issue 3, you'll know that one of the greatest death metal shows I've been lucky to enjoy was when Dying Fetus played the Pound in San Francisco. Drummer Kevin Talley is one of my heroes, so the chance to see him again was one of the big reasons I came up to Milwaukee. Their latest album, Destroy the Opposition, is a death metal triumph. I had read about how Dying Fetus was having rifts between members. When I saw them is SF they had already lost their bass player who played on Destroy.... Now there was turmoil between bandleader John Gallagher (right) and Talley. I heard Dying Fetus had broken up because of it, but here they were. Except… Kevin Talley wasn't the drummer anymore. Apparently he was kicked out, along with the second guitarist, meaning that the only member left from the Destroy… lineup was Gallagher. Although Fetus played very well, I couldn't help but feel gipped. Nor could I help but feel resentful to Gallagher. The new drummer was fine, but had nowhere near the style or panache that Talley does. What a shame. Good luck, Kevin. Here's to hoping you resurface soon.

Before Cryptopsy made it big, there was Kataklysm. I appreciate the Kataklysm album Temple of Knowledge, it's a technical beast that really challenges your ear. The vocalist on the album may be terrible, but at least somehow artsy in how bad he is. Since that album, vocalist and driving force Sylvain Houde left the band and Kataklysm fell from grace, releasing an album that I've read is so awful I literally fear it. Apparently Kataklysm got a clue and they're back to playing what they did best, except my cursory listen to their latest, The Prophecy, seemed a far cry from what made The Temple… special. Seeing this band would at least provide me with an orgy of drum speed and technicality. Except not. It's not wrong to say Kataklysm had an abysmal set. To be fair, the main problem was that their drum triggers were dodgy. Where the drummers legs were pumping up and down rapidly only a sputtering was heard. Amazingly, it took three songs for the burly vocalist to ask the sound engineer to try to fix the triggers. They eventually turned them off, but that didn't help much at all, as the drummer seemed totally lost, the sound coming from his kit not seeming to correspond with what he was doing. The drums were crap, so to me anyway, so were Kataklysm.

There wasn't a whole lot left I wanted to see. Not unless you count Limbonic (f)Art. I didn't. Nor did the idea of sticking around to hear an act called Dick Delicious appeal to either of us. So to wrap it up, I met up with Matt to Amon Amarth (left). I'm not too impressed by their latest album, The Crusher, but I was very pleased to hear them play my favorite song of theirs, the second track (excuse me if I don't know what it's called) from their The Avenger album. Thus we hit the road back to Janesville, having had quite a positive Metalfest experience despite our expectations to the contrary.

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- review by Matt

The Milwaukee Metalfest is perhaps the most infamous metal show in all the world, and for good reason. In 15 years, they've booked all kinds of talent to play there, and have featured the best (and allowed some of the worst) underground bands. I enjoyed myself immensely, despite this year's festival only being two days instead of the usual three. There were quite a few bands whose sets I enjoyed, but here are a few I particularly liked:

Soilwork - They put on a really good show. The vocalist had great stage presence, and they had one solid song after another. Their image was polished, but their sound was raw (in a good way). They impressed me enough to buy Steelbath Suicide, which did not disappoint. They were better live, though.

Krisiun (right)- Oh, Jesus. I never knew three guys could sound like that. I don't know if I'd enjoy an album of theirs, but their live performance was the best I saw all weekend. They were technical, accurate, and bad-ass. The guitar solos and drumwork was some of the best I've seen.

Phobia - This was actually one of the few bands I saw at the Relapse stage. Most of the stuff I was interested in was at the Snakenet Radio stage in the main room. At any rate, I liked them quite a bit. They had a really rough-sounding set, but not as rough as...

Pig Destroyer - Grindcore at its harshest. Their vocalist rolled and jumped around while screaming into the mic, which he held, I think, in his mouth (at least part of the time).

Amon Amarth - These guys were the last to play at the Snakenet stage on Saturday night (or Sunday morning - whatever). I think I would have enjoyed them more had I not been so tired, but I liked them nonetheless. Their CD sounds better than Metalfest's sound system, but they put on a good show.

These were the highlights for me, and I'm probably leaving some important ones out. My only regret is not seeing Macabre, who I hadn't heard of before the festival. My friend Jim said that they were his favorite of the first day, and I really like Dahmer.

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review by: Roberto Martinelli

Being new to the Chicago area, it was my first time visiting the famous House of Blues. It was odd to see a metal show at a place such as this. I guess this was because of how I had been conditioned to not only expect a divey and intimate venue for a metal show, but to feel strange if the locale were any different. Well, the air conditioning was a welcome difference, but it felt a little odd at first being in a large room whose layout and décor looked like a gaudy version of a night at the opera meets Shakespeare's The Globe theater. Looking over the large ground floor was a balcony that was open to regular ticket holders. Flanking this balcony were VIP boxes, the exclusive kind that you see at the ballet filled with tuxedoed men and poofy Renaissance dress wearing women using those obnoxious binocular-on-a-stick devices.

Another important difference was the show start time. Whereas metal shows at bars generally start at least 45 minutes later than billed in order for the bar to sell more drinks, this show started on the button at 6:30. This meant that by the time we got there, Bon and I had missed all but one minute of God Forbid's set. This was a shame, as I was liked God Forbid's latest album, Determination, and was looking forward to see them. What I did hear of their set sounded great.

The heavy crimson curtains closed (yes, curtains at a metal show!), giving us some time to scope the place out and determine where we could best see Nile. Being a show headlined by Cradle of Filth, it wasn't surprising to see the numbers of attractive, teenage, somewhat-goth girls in attendance. Although Nile were cheered, Cradle of Filth were undoubtedly who the majority of the crowd came to see.

The testing of the triggered drums signaled that Nile was about to begin their set, but not before the playing of a canned message saying something to the effect of how moshing, stagediving and crowdsurfing weren't permitted and anybody doing so would be kicked out. The message was repeated in Spanish, and the crowd snickered.

The curtain opened and Nile began their punishing set. If you didn't know, Nile has lost half of its original members. Nile's superb drummer has been replaced by the godly Tony Laureano (saluting the crowd, right), who plays on Angel Corpse's final album, The Inexorable. Original bassist/vocalist Chief Spires is also gone, being replaced by a short, powerful guy whom I didn't recognize. Someone later said he was from a band called Dark Moon, or something. The show was a very tame one as no mosh pits formed. Stage diving was practically impossible as access to the high stage was well guarded by burly security guys. Although cameras were off-limits, I managed to snap some shots off before I was told to stop.

What could you expect from Nile? They delivered an excellent show of light speed death metal off of their two full-length albums. Songs such as "Ramses, Bringer of War" and "The Howling of the Jinn" (from the first album) and newer songs like "Black Seeds of Vengeance" and "Chapter for Transforming into a Snake" were unmistakable. I would have like to have heard "Masturbating the War God," which is my favorite track off of the band's latest album, Black Seeds of Vengeance. Laureano moved from tom to tom and back to the snare faster than my eye could follow, and even a death metal virgin such as Bon was impressed by the two guitarists' wizardry (Dallas Toler-Wade pictured at left). Even though I didn't care for the blatant bass trigger sound, it was cool to hear the band using the same crypt thing-like effects on some of their vocals.

When Nile left the stage, I knew the evening's entertainment was basically over. Still, I decided to give Cradle of Filth a chance. The canned warning was again played, and the curtains opened. The emergence of frontman Dani Filth got a big rise out of the audience, and Cradle began its awful set of false black metal. The show was boring, and the poor sound didn't help one bit. Although being the star, Dani's vocals were buried below the bass and drums, and all that was properly audible were his obnoxious eagle shrieks. As Dani must do these high vocals with two hands on the mic at a foot's distance from his face, it was sort of humorous to watch him alternate between the lower, mic-held-closely one hand vocals and the wanky, two-handed ones in a part where the verses alternated between the two styles. Near the back of stage right was a fat, costume ball mask-wearing opera chick whose job seemed to primarily consist of being wallpaper that occasionally emitted a generic operatic "ahhh." While Cradle ran through its simple-minded songs, a dancer flopped about, doing her best to move to the eminently non-danceable sounds of the band. I suppose that under the circumstances she did the most appropriate dance, namely the would-be seductive spider temptress routine with occasional leg kick. A fucking dancer, fer Chrissakes. At a set that bills itself as black metal.

Staying any longer would have hurt the fragile, lingering glow of my Nile experience. Bon thought Cradle of Filth sucked, too, so we hastily retreated from this den of abhorrent black metal falseness, leaving Cradle to the loving, googly-eyed kids doing their best to seem evil and extreme. In retrospect, playing at House of Blues may have been odd for Nile, but it was a perfect venue for the gaudy Cradle of Filth.

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Dateline: San Francisco, CA, USA
Date: 2001, August 11
Venue: Maritime Hall
Review by Mobius Metallicus

Thrash of the Titans held the promise of being a special event. The benefit concert for cancer stricken Chuck Billy of Testament and Chuck Schuldiner of Death had been sold out for weeks. (That's 1800 tix at $50 a pop for those keeping score at home) Bands reformed for the first time since their original incarnation (Death Angel), flew in from far away (Anthrax), and there was hope for rekindling a few good moments since lost to time. However, all I needed to know about the night happened before I even entered Maritime Hall.

Given a finite tolerance for drunken metalheads at this stage of life, I tried to arrive late enough to miss at least two, hopefully three bands. The show started at 4pm. At 5:40pm I walked uphill to the corner of Harrison and First streets. There was Gary Holt of Exodus and another guy. Gary was wearing long, baggy, black shorts with white double stitching, and wrap around sunglasses. The chain to his trucker wallet swung freely with each stride. He wore a Stuck Mojo bowling shirt and his scalp was still a bit red from what looked like a very recent cherry/black dye job. To his credit Gary has taken care of himself. He doesn't look at all like an almost 40-year old. In fact, he looks like someone who has a life outside of metal. This observation would keep me firmly anchored in 2001 throughout the night.

When I entered, Billy Milano was on stage emceeing in true New York style, saying "fuck, fucken, fucker," etc… every fifth word or so. Then he introduced the third band of the night, Sadus. "D'oh!" I still got there too early, but late enough for a bathroom sink to already be splattered in blood. By the end of the night the restroom floor was an inch deep with dark, brackish water. It reminded me of the bathrooms at a Raider playoff game I went to last year. For a professional sporting event, that was a lot like being at Ruthie's Inn... but I digress.

I went up to the balcony to sit, write, and rest for presumably bigger things to come. During this time I found out that I'd missed Flotsam and Jetsam as well as Heathen. The guy who told me this said "duuude, you missed Flots?" I had no idea they were worth seeing. They were unspecial when I saw them in 1990 with Prong so they weren't high on my "came to see" list.

I don't know who played in Heathen, but I do know that lead guitarist, Doug Piercy, stayed in Germany, so there was no Guitarmony to be had. Later that night I was talking to a 20-year old kid who flew all the way from Boston to see Heathen. "The rest is just gravy..." he said. I couldn't hide my shock. I asked why he liked Heathen so much. His answer sounded like garden variety fan adulation, but the lingering puzzle remains… Why would a bright, fresh faced, short haired kid that's an Applied Mathematics major at MIT fly 3000 miles to see Heathen?!!!! (at best, a competent thrash band in their day) "Someone get the me the President on line one, we have a Code Red emergency… Who's an idiot? Oh, I see... in that case, skip the President, get me the National Security Advisor..."

Meanwhile, Sadus charged through their set of death tinged thrash as a 3-piece. I will say Steve DiGiorgio is still amazing. A few times he went fully ambidextrous, playing keyboard with the right hand while plucking the bass strings with the left. That said, no fewer than three people were asleep at the same time within five feet of me in the balcony chairs during their set.

Forbidden Evil (aka Forbidden) were always a good, not great Bay Area thrash band. Sufficiently complex songs, 80's metal vocals, but a frontman with the stage presence of a keyboardist. He stood there, hit his notes, but rarely modulated his physical presence or energy. The bands chops were a just bit soft too, understandable given the one time nature of the show. Paul Bostaph (now of Slayer, then of Forbidden) joined them on drums for the second half of the set. It didn't make a discernible difference.

Death Angel was the most curious crossover between then and now. Half of the members are in a current band, Swarm, so there was still long hair -- dreads to be exact -- and a very confident stage presence. They played decent renderings of "Thrashers" and "Kill as One," but unfortunately, the set was most memorable for Mark Osegueda's prolonged interludes of "we're so cool for being here" banter. He showed no desire to shut up and play the music. He may one day challenge Lars Ulrich for the "Muzzle Me, please!!!" award. I really liked Death Angel in 1984-85. It was good to hear those tunes live again, but the sea of well worn faces, receding hairlines and beer fed paunches still made it clear that this was not 1985.

Further proof of that came next when Exodus played the sloppiest set I've ever seen them perform. The band gaffed several time changes and Bayloff missed or crossed up entire lyrical stanzas. To be fair, I was numb and saturated by the noise at this time so maybe it was just me. Even if they were great, I might not have noticed. "Piranha" still got me moving, but I was puzzled by the exclusion of "Strike of the Beast." I surmise that number was being saved for the encore that never happened. Where the March of '97 show at the Trocadero was dead on -- Exodus as good as they ever were -- this show was Exodus dead on arrival.

NOTE: If this review is beginning to seem a little long, just imagine being there. This was the show that "went to eleven" -- as in 11 continuous hours of drunken headbangers and vintage thrash music regurgitated from the Reagan era. I almost wanted to hear "We Are the World" just for comic relief.

Speaking of such, Billy Milano did his thing between every band's set and he's actually pretty good with the shtick. Not at all PC, but funny often enough to get way with it. His abundant references to aging, geritol, the metal "family" coming together, etc… were wholly forgivable under the circumstances.

Milano also fronts S.O.D., whom I'd never seen before, but was quite impressed by after witnessing their tight, energetic and genuinely funny performance. Their recent album and tour activity no doubt helped in this cause. My favorite moment was Milano's parody of guitarist Scott Ian interviewing rock stars on VH1: "So Henry, I have to tell you, this new one is my favorite Rollins Band record, ever..."

Anthrax played a good set with seasoned frontman John Bush. "I'm the Man," "Bring the Noise," "Indians" and just for 1983's sake, "Metal Thrashing Mad" were among the songs played… I never loved Anthrax back in the day, but liked them well enough. Seeing them for the first time in many years was kind of like running into someone from the past that I *almost* got into a relationship with, but decided not to pursue. Despite possessing many of the traits I like, all the things that marginalized Anthrax for me then are still present.

During Anthrax's set I took a walk and encountered several dozen people who were collapsed in the stairwells from chemical and physical exhaustion. While out there I talked to a 32 year old computer science PhD who works for one of the big technology companies in the Bay Area. He used to love the Bay Area metal scene, but his IQ was showing… he seemed bored.

Vio-lence was a big surprise as they were as tight as when I'd seen them at the Omni many moons ago. They played a 1-hour set that went over extremely well. Sean Killian, et al. delivered with the intensity of youth and the confidence of mature adults. I smell a comeback for these guys. They sounded too good, too well rehearsed for this to be a one off gig. Time will tell.

It was after 2am when Legacy came on stage and opened with "Disciples of the Watch." Vocalist Steve Souza still sounds like Bon Scott. Fine for AC/DC, but always seemed wrong in the context of thrash. Once an aspiring guitar god, Alex Skolnick now sported a fresh buzz cut. He asynchronously churned rather than banged his head to the rhythm and played like a guy that's been giving guitar lessons to children for a few years, though he's still better than most guys ever live to be. After their second song, "Alone in the Dark," the cumulative sonic saturation had conquered my endurance and I sped off with Quintana to start Rampage Radio at KUSF -- we were already late when we departed. Word was Chuck Billy came out and did a few Testament songs after we left. No other cameos of note were reported and the cabaret segment of the show wrapped up around 3:00am.

People flew in from Japan, Europe, and all over the United States for this show. I wonder if they were as underwhelmed as I was by the marathon? Though mostly enjoyable, the sum was not equal to the parts. When Quintana and I left at 2:15am, about a third of the crowd had already dispersed. The meaning of the term metal fatigue had been renewed in a way that neither my friends who are materials scientists nor Alan Holdsworth had ever quite conveyed.

After an hour of spinning Bay Area Thrash oldies and other obscura I finally went home. It's 2001 AD, I'm halfway to 70, and though I still have all -- and I mean ALL-- of my metal records and memorabilia from back in the day, it's no longer the focus of my life. The ideals of those early days *do* live on though: individuality, independence, a healthy disrespect for authority figures, and the quest for relevance and meaning in a culture that emphasizes fickle fads and indiscriminate obedience to media hype. Onwards, forwards, to the future and all that remains.

Mobius Metallicus is a washed up tech worker who was there the first time these bands thrashed around Bay Area clubs.

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review by: Roberto Martinelli

This show was a curious one in that the bands seemed to get worse as the night went on. Maybe that didn't come out quite right. What I meant to say is that Fireball Ministry ruled. This four-piece from Hollywood, Cal. (as the male singer/guitarist kept reminding the crowd) featured two women: an attractive blonde on guitar and Hammers of Misfortune's own Janis Tanaka on bass. Hang on… Hammers of Misfortune are a Bay Area band. Tanaka must do quite a bit of flying from San Francisco to L.A.

The whole night featured bands that had different takes on the stoner/ 70s thing. Fireball Ministry (pictured at left) were the heaviest and doomiest, and I daresay the most metal. The grooves were infectious and satisfying, and it was great to see the band really get into it as they headbanged in unison to the thick and deliberate doom parts. Tanaka was a show in of herself, contorting her body with the rhythms, holding on to a bass guitar that at some points looked as big as she. Her energy and enthusiasm played a big part in carrying the band. The drummer kicked ass, delivering the hard-hitting shit necessary to drive home the bluesy, evil grooves. The highlight of Fireball Ministry's set was undoubtedly the last song, which was the slowest and most doom metal. One of my classmates who had come along to the show, Matt Furber, thought the last song was the best too. I wish I could have caught the name of it.

Altamont came on. They were a three-piece, and featured some pretty dodgy headgear. The drummer had on something that would be best described as "the hat the Skipper from 'Gilligan's Island' wore"; the bass player's hat wasn't much better. The band kinda looked like some dudes up there on stage.

Altamont (right) took a little time to get used to. At first they struck me as annoying somehow. It might have been because they were much less hypnotic and warm than the doomy Fireball Ministry, instead being more noisy. About halfway through the set, though, I started to like them better. By the second to last song, they had grown on me. Better late than never.

Then it was Spirit Caravan (left), featuring the legendary doom metal figure Wino Weinrich. This band was definitely the most rock band of the night. Matt totally loved them, if only evidenced by how many damn pictures he took of Wino. By the time I noticed and took the camera away from him, he had snapped nine shots. I thought they were the least interesting band of the show. Weinreich's solos all seemed to be the same, and the drumming was uninspiring. The guy did have a far-out design on his drumhead, though. The music seemed too light and not metal enough. It somehow struck me as being the hippy version of doom. Maybe it was a combination of these elements plus the one of me being physically tired, or maybe I had reached my saturation point for stoner rock. We left about 2/3rds of the way through Spirit Caravan, feeling satisfied and happy to have checked out this enjoyable show.

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