interview by: Roberto
Martinelli
The musical genre known as "drone" can often times
be difficult for one to entirely make sense of. Reactions ranging from
"that's it?!" to "creepy" to "sounds like an
orchestra tuning up" are common. However, in the case of House of
Low Culture, drone has been presented in such a way by incorporating melody
and musical structure to make the album Submarine Immersion Techniques
Vol.1 an engaging listen. This project is one of the babies of the
prolific Aaron Turner, who aside from House of Low Culture, plays in Isis
and Old Man Gloom. Turner is also the founder of Hydrahead Records, which
has been growing quite a lot in the underground heavy music scene. Turner's
musical background is from jazz, metal and hardcore, and has a great deal
of interesting perspectives of how those genres stand in relation to more
generally accepted music.
Maelstrom: I read your interview in Wormgear about the meaning
behind your project's name. Could you please explain that here for the
benefit of our readers?
Aaron Turner: I have a hard time about being concise about
definitions a lot of the time, especially when it comes to try to define
something on that large a scale, I guess. [The name] is sarcastic in a
sense. It's not necessarily an attack, but a response to the pristine
tower of intellectualism that the avant-garde community pretends to have.
I appreciate a lot of bands and labels, but I also think it's elitist
to a certain extent, which I guess any scene is. I think especially including
the elements of metal...I don't know. Let me think of how to explain
it.
Maelstrom: Take your time. I mean, I'm on vacation.
Aaron Turner: Yeah, yeah...When I did that Wormgear interview,
I typed it out, so I had time to meditate on the thoughts. I always have
a hard time when I'm put on the spot.
Maelstrom: From what I remember, you said something about
you being involved in the hardcore scene; that's where you grew up in.
You've been involved in that a lot. And like you just said, House of Low
Culture is a cynical counter to the perception of the hardcore scene,
or metal scene being "a bunch of fucking morons..."
Aaron Turner: Yeah, knuckle dragging metal idiots. I think
that that idea extends beyond House of Low Culture into what I'm doing
with Isis and Old Man Gloom and the label. Basically, we're trying to
open up people's eyes a little bit to the fact that there is a lot to
those two genres, and many genres in general share with each other. The
fact that people sort of have their tastes guarded by what they're told
is good and what is not good. [The name] is sort of an attack on that,
as well as the way mainstream society in general views metal and views
underground music as being sort of hobbyist in a sense. I don't think
of it in that way at all. The same goes for a lot of the things that influence
me. Comic books, film, other music... On a broader scale, that stuff
tends to be looked at as sort of trivial. I don't know, I want to sort
of reverse that idea in a way. I guess it's sort of a grand scheme for
a name, and I don't want to sound pretentious, or like I have some ideas
that it's gonna change the world in any sense, you know? It's just a sarcastic
play on words. The meaning is sort of layered.
Maelstrom: I was drawn to that at first. Like, "what's
this all about?"
Aaron Turner: It's sort of about perceptions, too. A lot
of people could view what we do on the outside as being lowbrow in a certain
way. Where what we do, and what anybody else does - especially metal in
general has such a stigma around it. Certainly it's not without good reason
to some extent.
Maelstrom: Absolutely. As much as people say that metal has
interesting musicality to it, or philosophy, all it takes is a band who
are a bunch of dorks, like Manowar, or something; whatever you build up
to counter the thing that metal is stupid is thrown down by a stupid metal
band.
Aaron Turner: Yeah, definitely. I think that metal, more
so than any other genre, has been crippled in that way, because there
are a lot of bands now that are doing something really creative within
that context, and it's just ignored by the public in general because it
is coming from the metal background, or the metal underground.
Maelstrom: Who do you think of?
Aaron Turner: I can see any number of bands. The Dillinger
Escape Plan, Neurosis, shit like that. Those bands have sort of gone beyond
the metal genre and are starting to capture people's attention. But with
what I'm doing, and a group like...have you heard Sunn?
Maelstrom: Yes.
Aaron Turner: There's another band that's a good example.
They're coming from a metal, doom background, but they're incorporating
elements of minimalist music: the drone. I really appreciate what they're
doing.
Maelstrom: You talked a little bit about elitist culture.
Are you talking about your peers? Like, record labels?
Aaron Turner: Not really. Despite the fact that it's one
of my favorite magazines, The Wire has this tendency a lot of times to
ignore things that they perceive to be outside the realm of the avant-garde,
or whatever. Especially heavy metal music, and even a lot of experimental
stuff is ignored by them because of whatever reason. It's not conceptually
based enough, or it's too dark and the metal overtones bring it down to
a sub-level beyond their recognition, I guess.
Maelstrom: It's kind of curious to find that these types
of magazines will like Soilent Green, for some reason, but they won't
really cover any thing else. Like, how did Soilent Green get noticed?
Aaron Turner: Or whoever, yeah. It's totally random. It
seems like sometimes whatever they're told is hip is what they believe.
The name of the band is important, but in a way it was intended to be
playful, also. It's self-defacing in a way, too, because I'm labeling
what I'm doing as base and cultureless in a way. But at the same time,
there are elements of that. Some if it is totally mindless: it's all part
of the creative process and I get lost in it and I'm thinking of context
or placement within the market, or how people are going to read it.
Maelstrom: How hard or easy is it to conceive of an album
like Submarine Immersion Techniques Vol.1?
Aaron Turner: I didn't really conceive of it at the beginning.
It started out as me doing things at home without any sort of cohesive
project in mind. As time went on, I sort of began to realize that there
were some themes that began re-occurring both musically and conceptually.
All that stuff is recorded over the period of a year or two. I had the
opportunity to pick through a bunch of stuff and find out what worked
best together. The creation of the tracks was obviously a thoughtful process,
but also the selection and editing, and arrangement of all the tracks
was a big part of defining the personality of the record, I guess.
Maelstrom: Is it just you on the record?
Aaron Turner: Mostly me, but on a couple tracks there are
other people contributing. That's the way the next album is too. I did
most of the basic stuff and completed some of the tracks. And then, I
had people helping me out in the actual tracking process and editing.
I like it to be something I do on my own, but I also like it to be an
open forum for me to work with other people that I enjoy working with.
Maelstrom: On the track "(Study for) In the Streamline",
you incorporate America on Line sounds with anguish vocals amongst the
ambient droning. This track is sort of a blip in the context of the album
as a whole. Please talk about the conception of this track.
Aaron Turner: Basically it was born out of frustration at
my work. Heh-heh. I like to incorporate a lot of the personal elements
of what I'm thinking about into House of Low Culture. AOL is a source
of frustration for me in a lot of ways. Partially because of how the program
is designed, partially because of the annoying sound bites, and the relentless
advertising. I guess that's true of almost any service provider, but AOL
seems particularly bad. Everything about it seems like a commercial or
billboard.
Maelstrom: (laugh) So you weren't worried that people would
listen to it and go, "oh...God, this is annoying," and turn
it off?
Aaron Turner: Mm... It's supposed to be frustrating,
in a way.
Maelstrom: Is that the vocals are about in the background?
Aaron Turner: Yeah, and partially, as I said before, House
of Low Culture, as a name, is supposed to be sort of playful, and I definitely
don't want to lost than element within the music. I mean, it's largely
serious, but at the same time I like it to have some element of humor,
whether it's subtle, or dark, or whatever. The vocals are anguished sounding,
but the context in which they were created was pretty silly. The background
tracks on House of Low Culture albums are environmental sounds from my
household. At that point there was a lot of people in the house, and people
were yelling. That's another personal experience that's buried within
layers.
Maelstrom: I'd also like to ask you about the conception
of the track after the one with the AOL track, the one that begins and
ends with a sample of 1930s jazz played on a scratchy turntable. I like
it. You have the scratchiness, and it fades into a "chung-chung-chung-chung"
drone, and it fades back out into the scratchiness again. What's that
music from?
Aaron Turner: It's from a jazz clarinetist named Bix Biederbeck.
My dad turned me on to him. My dad was one of my earlier musical influences
in that I grew up listening to tons and tons of jazz, which I rejected
at first, because it was my dad's music. Later, I came to realize it was
a part of me just because I had heard it so much and had actually really
enjoyed it. But anyway, this guy Bix Biederbeck was an interesting musician,
but it was sort of arbitrary that I happened to pick one of his records.
It was just something that I was listening to at the time. As I sort of
explained before, I like the idea of contrasting ideas in House of Low
Culture. Ideas that maybe are even sort of confrontational in a way. I
try to pick something that was totally the opposite of what I was doing,
though it thematically sort of fit in, just because of the sound. I liked
that it sounded decayed and dilapidated and tiny.
Maelstrom: You didn't add any (artificial) scratchiness?
Aaron Turner: No, no. I did the straight up track. It was
a really old 78 rpm record.
Maelstrom: I know they have these effects now that can re-create
vinyl scratchiness.
Aaron Turner: When I try to re-create an actual sound,
I try to get something that is a pure as possible, without diluting it
too much. With that said, there have been a fair number of things that
have gotten churned up in the process. For that particular sound, I had
something in mind. For me it was sort of comforting and haunting at the
same time. It reminds me of musical lineage; it reminds me of home. The
sound quality and deterioration gives it a very ghostly effect. I like
the idea of sort of old, archaic sounds meshing with the monolithic guitar
sound, which is obviously something more modern. Even from a musical perspective,
the notes used in that song are from the basic penantonic scale, which
is the basis of early jazz and blues. The two things were related in that
way, and I liked that idea as well.
Maelstrom: One of the things I like so much about House of
Low Culture is the appealing use of melody. Do you think these sort of
melodies are uncommon in the genre?
Aaron Turner: I guess so. But then again, it's hard to say
what sort of genre it really is. It's got elements of noise, of dark ambient,
and it's also got some bluesy guitar overtones. Loosely filed under the
experimental section, I guess... There is probably a vast number of
guitar-based experimental albums, and an equally vast number of experimental
ambient albums, but often the two aren't mixed, or at least not to great
effect. For me, the guitar is my instrument of comfort. It's what I started
playing when I started playing music and it is my main instrument. I use
that as a springboard initially to help me get into creating some different
textural environments. In that process, I came to the point where I was
juxtaposing the two. I found that it really worked for me and I liked
the idea of the duality of the melodic and the abrasive.
Maelstrom: The recording of drone or so-called experimental
records always interests me. In particular, what is the atmosphere like
in the recording process?
Aaron Turner: A large number of experimental records are
recorded at home. There definitely is an atmosphere a lot of times. It's
colored by whatever is going on in my house. A lot of those things were
born out of moments of isolation or frustration or loneliness. I don't
like to sound dramatic; I don't want to seem like some tortured artist
- because I'm not. I think a lot of people try to play up that image to
a certain extent. But I think, with that said, a lot of this kind of music
is born out of that. It's cathartic in a way because it helps you deal
with those things. I've always been drawn to darker music - not necessarily
evil - but darker. Whether it's Tom Waits, or fucking...Emperor. It's
just the atmosphere and what's going on in my life has a lot to do ultimately
with what's going on in the recordings. Again, going back to the name
(House of Low Culture), it has much to do with the place it was recorded:
that being my house and the environment thereof. I really like the way
my house sounds. It's got a lot of ambience and interesting sounds that
occur on its own. We have an amazing heating system that's so old and
makes these fucked up sounds. The sound changes in each room in the house.
I like to try to capture a little bit of that natural room sound in the
realistic environment and incorporate that with what's going on internally
in terms of emotional and musical ideas.
Maelstrom: When do you know when to stop playing? Do you
go in like: "Ok, on this track I'm going to do this, and then I'm
going to throw this pitch in for this long..." How does that work?
Aaron Turner: With some of them it's definitely more structured.
I have ideas about how long each part should go. Especially with some
of the more song-oriented ones, i.e. the ones with repeated guitar lines,
the structures are worked out beforehand. But with other stuff, sometimes
I'll just start with a sound and sort of have a dialog with the music.
It suggests things by itself: you listen to it, and you're like "ok,
this is good; it needs to go longer," or, "this is building
into something and it's suggesting another sounds that comes after it."
So, the compositional process always varies, I think.
Maelstrom: So is any of it ever improvised?
Aaron Turner: A lot of it is improvised. I mean, even the
things that are structured come out of basic improvisations. A lot of
times I'll just plug in and start playing, and if I hit on something I
like, I'll lay it down and listen back to it and try to pull some more
cohesive ideas out of it. But I'd say 90 percent of it is born out of
improvisation.
Maelstrom: What did you record on, Aaron?
Aaron Turner: Initially I recorded onto Roland digital 8-track,
and since upgraded to the 18-track version of the same machine.
Maelstrom: The Submarine Immersion Techniques is on
8-track, and the new one is going to be on 18-track?
Aaron Turner: Yeah. Although there's some recordings on
that that date back to the beginning of the time that I started recording.
Maelstrom: You know, I've heard that more tracks doesn't
necessarily mean better. In fact, I've heard that there's a certain point,
after a certain amount of tracks, it just sounds crap.
Aaron Turner: It depends on what format you're using. With
digital, which is what I use, it's different in that you can record as
many tracks as you want and hardly lose any clarity. I mean, obviously
if you have all these tracks playing at once, it's going to sound muddled.
As far as each individual sound is concerned, they all remain pretty pristine,
no matter else you record. With the basic 4-track cassette recorder, which
was basically what most people were using, up until computers made recording
technology more affordable and more professional, the 4-track method,
definitely, the more you record, the more sound quality you use.
Maelstrom: What do you think of the whole fanaticism about
analog? Have you heard of those stereos that use vacuum tubes, and they're
huge? What do you think of this craze?
Aaron Turner: Unless you're one of those people that spent
their whole life studying audio, and who have one of these 10 to 100 thousand
stereo systems, it's really hard to tell the difference between analog
and digital. In fact, I think if you asked the majority of people, most
wouldn't be able to tell the difference. To me, I can tell the difference,
especially when doing more straightforward recordings of bass drums, guitar,
band sort of things. But, realistically, digital has much more clarity
than analog. Recording at home digital is the way to go. If I had the
option, I would record to analog two-inch tape every time. To me, the
sound difference is negligible, and considering the stereos that most
people have, being able to tell the difference is pretty difficult. Yes,
I prefer analog, but no, I don't really care when it comes down to it.
Maelstrom: How about your song titles, do you think of them
before or after recording the songs?
Aaron Turner: Almost always after. I like the titles to
illustrate something about the song and relate to the music, but to me
it's always secondary. Initially it's about the music. I may have an idea
in mind, or a mood I'm going after, and that will suggest the song title.
Maelstrom: "Submarine Immersion Techniques" just
brought up an image to you? You liked the sound of it?
Aaron Turner: Yeah, I've been fascinated by submarines for
a long time. I like the idea of being submerged in water, or submerged
in sound, as it were.
Maelstrom: You ever been in a submarine?
Aaron Turner: No, I would love to, though.
Maelstrom: Oh, man they're crazy. They're so tight. I can't
imagine how anyone can live in those things. Especially the older ones.
They're so compact.
Aaron Turner: I find them fascinating and terrifying. In
the sense of the title, it was more about trying to create an image of
the sound and the intent. I'm fascinated and terrified by water; something
that can be submerged and maintain life is pretty interesting to me.
Maelstrom: We spoke a little bit about turntable before.
What do you think about the fad of turntablism?
Aaron Turner: You mean, like beats?
Maelstrom: It seems that everyone and their brother is a
DJ now.
Aaron Turner: I feel the same way about a lot of the electronic
music. It's just made it easier and more affordable for anybody to take
up music, which I think is great in a lot of ways. I think it's really
important for people to have creative outlets. But at the same time, I
think it's made it easy for non-musicians to turn out some sort of musical
process based on the legwork that some programmer has done, or, you know,
that some drummer has recorded. I do like a lot of turntablist stuff and
I am enthusiastic about a lot of that kind of stuff, but, like anything
else, there's so many people doing it that a lot of it ends up being crap.
There's so many people doing it that have no musical background previous
to that in terms of playing an instrument, that often it ends up being
totally musicless in terms of being listenable. I don't think something
has to have an element of recognizable guitars or vocals or anything,
but the basic ideas of composition and dynamics are important.
Maelstrom: Have you ever heard a drone record that was a
failure?
Aaron Turner: Um-hm, I've heard plenty.
Maelstrom: What was it about the record that failed? It seems
to me that, on a surface level, it would be pretty easy to do a drone
record: You just play a few notes, and sustain them, and make it thick...
Aaron Turner: Yeah. That's true. I think that things that
are easily made can sometimes be enjoyable to listen to. A big criterion
for me is that the drone has to be interesting sounding, and that's not
something that's necessarily hard to do, but a lot of people are just
tasteless when it comes to that, or just have bad tones, or mix bad drones
together. I'm not really one to say what's good and what's bad in that
category; I just know what appeals to me. Often I do find more appeal
in drones that are musically structured, i.e. they have some dynamic within
the song. It's not just a motionless drone, whether it's something very
subtle and just at the edge of your perception. That can be interesting.
The drone is sort of like a foundation and anything that's laid on top
of it becomes like a little detail - something that you notice every once
in a while. I guess that's something I look for in a drone piece. A detail
that makes it interesting and has depth: chords that sound interesting
together, or a field recording that's been layered over top of it. I do
like a lot of dissonant stuff, but I really like melodic drones.
Maelstrom: The things that I'm most familiar with are Earth
and Sunn. It's kind of odd, both have this droning thing that doesn't
really go anywhere - it sort of floats, and I can't tell the difference
between the tracks - but at the same time, I prefer Earth over Sunn, and
I don't why.
Aaron Turner: Earth 2 especially had a huge influence
on me musically. From a guitarist's perspective, the drone has been around
forever...
Maelstrom: What started it?
Aaron Turner: Oh, God, it's found in really, really old
classical pieces and Indian ragas and stuff like that. It's a basic element
of music that's existed forever. More recently, in the '60s, it became
something that a lot of experimental musicians were drawn to. They were
drawn to the ideas of the physical impact of the drone, how it can affect
your sleep pattern or your physical feeling. It manipulates the idea of
time. Especially with something like Sunn or Earth, when the riffs are
extended and repeated endlessly, you sort of lose track of yourself. It
sort of becomes more of an environmental thing rather than a musical listening
experience. I like the idea of how it alters the perception of the way
you hear things and of your environment in general. It's also sort of
meditative and ritualistic, which I appreciate as well. I think there's
something about being exposed to and/or playing extended drones: it affects
you mentally. With Sunn, something I really appreciate about them is the
riffs. I don't think a riff has to be complicated to be interesting. Take
the example of Godflesh, or The Melvins, or Swans or Low. All those bands
use really simplistic riffs. I think that's often more effective than
a really complex riff. It's a matter of choosing a few really selective,
potent notes and putting them together.
Maelstrom: Before I got into experimental music, and even
now, when I think about it, I wonder how much of experimental music is
worthwhile because it's new and never been done before, and not so much
because it's good. Sort of like, "well, no one's ever played piano
with a dildo on their head and mittens on, so I wanna do that." How
much of that goes into experimental music, and how much of it is actually
long lasting?
Aaron Turner: The conceptual end of it is a big part of
it. Experimental music has 80 billion different sub-genres, just like
anything else. It's not as new as a lot of people think. I agree with
you, at some point some stuff is so ridiculous on the conceptual side
and there's nothing musical about it to make it interesting. I think at
the same time that's one of the things that's more interesting to me about
it in that since it's largely instrumental, and more often than not pretty...different
from listening to a rock record: it makes you think about the content
more, and it makes you think about the process of the creation - what
the person was thinking or what they were feeling, or what they were trying
to convey - rather than it being literally spelled out. I think there
are some things that were really conceptually based and much less about
the music that hasn't lasted. At the same time, I think a lot of people
have come up with good ideas and really changed music for the better by
trying to do things differently.
Maelstrom: You mentioned jazz, what else really influenced
you? You mentioned Lull in that Worm Gear interview.
Aaron Turner: Jazz was definitely one of the early things.
I'd have to say classic rock, which I got from my brother. Specifically
Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix. Obviously two very guitar oriented groups;
two groups that stretched the limitations of rock by incorporating a lot
of other elements. Hendrix was big, big, big on feedback manipulation.
I think that was one of the ideas that I realized more consciously early
on, that he was doing something with the guitar other than the purely
solo or rhythm level; incorporating other elements of sounds and a sort
of uncontrollable force that wasn't entirely musical. Through every stage
of my life, I've been influenced by different things; metal is obviously
been a huge influence on me.
Maelstrom: Do you listen to all different kinds of metal?
Aaron Turner: I don't anymore really, to tell you the truth.
I have gotten fed up with a lot of it: the makeup and the fuckin' stupid
lyrics and ridiculous cover art...heh. It didn't do it for me after
a certain point. But of course there are still some bands that I really
like who do play metal. Then there's the classics that I grew up with
such as Anthrax and Slayer and Megadeth...Metallica, of course. I don't
actively buy that much new metal at all. I think around when I was 14
or 15 was when I started getting into a lot of punk rock stuff, and that
led me into more experimental shit. Through every phase of my life, I've
discovered something that was really influencial. Jazz, classic rock,
metal, punk, hip-hop, experimental music, a little bit of everything.
Maelstrom: Do you find interesting musicianship in hip-hop?
Aaron Turner: Yes, I do. Again, it's something else that's
a relatively new art form, so there's a lot of people that do it and aren't
necessarily coming from a musical background. I guess there are some people
that don't come from a musical background and definitely produce things
that are really, really worthwhile. The Residents, for instance. They
were all untrained musicians and they were all really poor players, essentially,
but they created something that was really new and innovative. Anyway,
with hip-hop, more often that not I like the instrumental stuff better,
just because I have the same problem with hip-hop that I have with metal:
a lot of the ridiculous posturing, and all that.
Maelstrom: Tell us a bit about Hydrahead Records. I like
your website. It's minimalist, but it's cool.
Aaron Turner: That's actually only a temporary site. Our
fully expanded, less minimal version is in the incubatory stages right
now.
Maelstrom: When did you start? It's been about six years,
hasn't it?
Aaron Turner: Yup. That's actually our second website, which
is a temporary transition to the new one we're going to have.
Maelstrom: When you say "we," how many people are
there?
Aaron Turner: There's two full time people, Mark and I.
There's another almost full-time guy, which is our web designer and miscellaneous
graphics guy, Jay Helman.
Maelstrom: I imagine you having some sort of office and being
spread out somewhat professionally.
Aaron Turner: It wasn't professional at all in the beginning,
and I hesitate to say it's professional now, although we do operate on
a much more professional level than we used to. We have an office.
Maelstrom: It's your full-time job, is it?
Aaron Turner: Yeah.
Maelstrom: That's great! How much do you like or dislike
that?
Aaron Turner: I like it a lot!...Oh, Jesus Christ! In
fact, my label partner is showing me his balls right now, which you know
is perhaps not professional.
Maelstrom: Hahahaha!
Aaron Turner: (to the guy in the background) Yeah, I'm doing
an interview. (back to us) It's all over now, you're not gonna get any
more serious answers.
Maelstrom: Hahahah!
Aaron Turner: (a man's voice is heard in the background)
Mark knows there's something happening, so he's gotta get attention now.
Maelstrom: You're involved in all these different bands on
different labels. House of Low Culture is on Crowd Control, Old Man Gloom
is on Tortuga, and Isis is on...Neurot, is it?
Aaron Turner: We did one release on Neurot, yes, but we're
not technically on the label, so to speak.
Maelstrom: When I call on the phone, it seems that Tortuga
and Hydrahead are linked, or that one is a subsidiary of the other one.
Aaron Turner: They are linked, but one is not a subsidiary
of the other one. Tortuga is the label that Mark, my partner, was running
before he started to work for me. As time has gone on, our relationship
has gotten closer and closer. I do all his art work; he's sort of like
the businessman for Hydrahead. The two are definitely pretty closely connected
at this point.
Maelstrom: How old are you?
Aaron Turner: I'm 24. I had to think about that one for
a second.
Maelstrom: How much of a dream is it to have this all set
up? Was it scary at first?
Aaron Turner: Not really. It was on such a small level.
It wasn't like I tried to start a business that I was immediately going
to try to turn into my living. I was going to school when I started it,
and it just grew and grew to the point when I finally did get out of school,
it became my full-time job almost instantaneously. In fact, even when
I was in school, I was spending a lot of time on Hydrahead stuff.
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Kanwulf: I feel myself out of place here on earth. I do not know if it's the wrong century or something else. But I feel a big longing for the universe. This longing is based on two aspects; on the one, I know something about the physics into space. About planets, stars, black holes, gas clouds into space and so on. This knowledge together with some more philosophic themes creates a dream world of fulfilled wishes. I wanted to go with the stars, to see the most beautiful things out there. I am a maniac for space photos taken from the Hubble telescope for example. This longing together with the personifying of the stars created a world into me, where I had to leave my human being to be worthy to go with the stars. This I expressed in the lyrics of the first part of the above mentioned song called "Escape through the gates to the stars." Of course the stars are not people or thinking beings, or someone who could judge me. But together with wishes and dreams and literally art it becomes a real part of my life. And this path to the stars I expressed with that song.
Kanwulf: The next one is called Rasluka (cover at left). It's Russian language and means farewell. I try to work through the suicide of the only person I ever called and treated as a friend until now. This release is split into three parts. The Rasluka series presents the attempt to interpret one of the most difficult experiences in my life, namely the passing of the only person whom to this day I could call a friend. It can and will only be an attempt as judged by the moment of writing of these lines; the material brought to sound still isn't in its completed form and I cannot expect a successful spiritual relief of the deceased as my experiences with the deceased cannot be related to any already-released Nargaroth works. In addition, the series contains thoughts from my perspective about the life and death of one of the last real rebels, one who played an important roll from my youth to today with no loss of intensity. Rasluka is the phonetic morphology for the Russian expression of "parting ways". The released works under this name should be rightfully understood in content as such.
Peter
K. (left): I agree, Satanized is some kind of mixture, new elements
and the typical elements we used before Channeling. Anyways,
the production of Satanized is ok but could have been much better.
However, on Satanized I tried to reduce the songs to effective
riffs and runs instead of an overflow of riff after riff so the entire
structure sounds more compact and sonorous, which is a thing of Satanized
I really like, but a thing that I won't do again in the future...
Peter
K.: We never had any real concept how an album will sound when we enter
the studio. I mean, I know my visions on the album, the material, the
guitars, but the keyboards and effects are elements we add during the
recording session, that totally depends on our daily moods and satisfaction
on the material, so it might be possible that Warmachine will be an
ultra orchestral album, or "just" pure Black-Metal without
any Synths and FX, I don't know yet, the same as on all previous records...(Thurisaz
at right) 
Maelstrom:
In terms of the so-called second wave of black metal bands, Abigor has
been around since close to the beginning. However, on of your band's
distinction is that it comes from from Austria. I'm curious to know
if your geographic removal from Scandinavia has affected your career
as a band. Is this distinction something that Abigor has enjoyed? (drummer
Moritz at right)
Tom
Angelripper (middle): Ummm, yes, but I have to say this is not especially
about the Vietnam War. We just used some fragments about the Vietnam
War, because most of the people know Vietnam movies, and all this stuff,
you know? There is a message in the lyrics "stop the war."
It just describes how bad war can be. 
Tom
Angelripper: Yeah, that was no problem. That was really amazing: there
were 400 people in the Bangkok rock pub. They got really crazy; they
knew all the songs, all the lyrics. They get stuff from the internet
and bootlegs, but you cannot buy the official Sodom album there. That
was a great experience. You cannot make a lot of money there, but I
never mind. They pay for the flight tickets, the hotel, the food and
the drinks, so it's enough. Sodom always wants to be the first band
to play in these countries, and we were the first thrash band to play
there. Most bands go to Japan, but Asia for me is not just Japan. The
next year, we want to make an Asian tour in Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Cambodia,
you know...We want to try, because there are metal fans, but just
in the underground.
Tom
Angelripper: I now have five albums out in Germany, just for the German
market. We support the German beer drinking culture with this music.
When I started with Onkel Tom, it was my idea to make metal music for
everybody, because the metal scene is splitting in too much different
styles, but everyone likes to drink beer! Onkel Tom is really something
special for everybody. I always play in Wacken (Open Air Festival).
[We're] the last band, we make a big party. Onkel Tom is the only band
worldwide that all the people can go on the stage, singing with me.
They get a beer for free, and everything. It's really amazing. It's
not a serious rock concept, you know? It's just a big party. At the
time, I don't have a deal. I just signed with SPV for the new Sodom
album. I want to make a new [Onkel Tom] album in the next year, and
I will definitely find a deal. That won't be a problem.
Tom
Angelripper: When I look back to the '80s, the metal scene was like
a family. That was the best time for the metal. Now, I told already,
everything is getting commercial. The whole metal scene, everyone wants
to make money; hundreds of new bands coming out; too much different
styles... I don't like it, you know. Metal is getting big, but a
lot of the new bands coming out, they sound like pop music. That's not
really metal, you know. It's my opinion that metal music has to get
more aggressive.
In 1987, my interest started to grow for unknown bands, and I went deeper in that domain by checking out rather obscure bands like for example Necrovore, Torture, Deadly Blessing, Blood Feast, Sadistic Intent, Morbid Angel, Nocturnus, Autopsy, Immolation...to mention US bands, Obscurity, Mefisto, Nihilist (now Entombed), Merciless, Dismember, Morbid...to mention Swedish bands, Mayhem, DarkThrone to mention Norse bands, Black Shepherd, Cyclone, Warhead, Acid, Ancient Rites, Morbid Death... to mention some of my landmates and of course South American bands like Masacre from Colombia, Sarcofago (cult band!!!), Mutilator, Necromancer, Insulter/Sextrash, Tharithimas, Genocidio, MX, Explicit Hate...to mention bands from one of the countries that procreated one of the wildest scene...Brazil! You would never think about it but it is the truth, just listen to the inheritors like Krisiun, Rebaelliun, Ancestral Malediction, Abhorrence, Ophiolatry...the Brazilian scene is one of the most fascinating to me. The East European scene is also fantastic and some bands from there like Vader, Imperator, Hate, Lux Occulta, Behemoth, Kat, Pandemonium...from Poland or Krabathor, Pandemia, Sanatorium, Dementor, Root, Törr, from Czechoslovakia, Regredior from Lithuania, Deathvomit from Russia...you can see all these bands contribute to strengthen my fanatism to support the underground.
Christophe Szpajdel: I think the logo of Emperor, the logo of Enthroned (at right), and the logo of a Dutch band with Asphyx member called Soulburn. 
Christophe Szpajdel: I think Emperor (at left).
Christophe Szpajdel: You know, I'm not paid. I'm not a businessman. But I think there is a kind of agreement I do, and it's very seldom respected. If I do a logo for a band, my request is to get 10, maybe more, copies of the CD when it's out. It's a simple reason: to promote the band and make some money. I mean some additional money. I have various jobs, like the job with Metal Lycée, which is an organization in Belgium. My main job is in forestry. This is my main passion: to keep drawing the logos, to keep publishing the newsletters the very few times I'm home. Very often I'm on the road, and I like this way of life.
Christophe Szpajdel: Azores is in Portugal. It's a group of nine islands. I've been there for practice to be a forestry engineer on the few islands of the central group: Terceira, Pico, Faial, São Jorge, and Graciosa. I also went to São Miguel, because it's the main island. The greatest moment I had was on the ascension of Pico. It's a mountain not higher than the Fujiyama, in Japan. It has the same mood. It was a very interesting trip; I did an ascension of the volcano. It was very intense because I had a view I could never have had before, walking through the fog, through the clouds. I spent the evening there, and I saw the sunset. It was absolutely the most impressive moment I've had in my life. These islands, they're in the middle of the sea. You see the neighboring islands; you can see very, very far. (Nargaroth logo at left)
Mike
V: Coming more from the writing perspective, I think the band also
finally found what shines through best, musically speaking. Certain
patches and ranges on the keyboard (as opposed to volume) or certain
guitar tones or picking styles. This music is very difficult to record
because of all of that, and having just the right bit of each is crucial.
Fortunately Pro Tools and having a seasoned engineer helped the overall
picture, so we weren't too worried. (Mike pictured at right and Donni
at left)
Donni:
I feel that the new album is a continuation of our first one, just
more seasoned and mature. We never really plan an approach to writing,
we just get together as friends and musicians and jam around and whatever
comes out from inside of us is how it works for us. If we like a riff,
we go off on it and make it the best it can be. If it isn't inspiring
to us after a while, then we shit-can it, and move on to something
else. We were looking to make this album more interesting and diverse,
and keep it heavy as hell the whole way through. We always like to
put the slower breaks in there from time to time, and I think the
reason is to accentuate the heavy stuff even more. One structure I
was after was to take the vocals and make them flow together, as to
tell a story from the mind of a mad man, who has several deranged
personalities. I kinda put myself into a character type situation
and just went nuts. (Donni at left)
Mike
V: I think it's due to many different factors. The recording is a
definite plus, in that it let every instrument be heard clearly. Like
we mentioned before, that really helped with detail in some of our
more brutal, maniacally fast paced material. The drums and guitar
really shine because of that. A good example is the title track. I
also figured out how to best write parts on the keyboard so as to
not muddy-up the sound. That's something that you may not hear right
away, but that's exactly what I was going for. Sometimes what sounds
good by itself on keyboard sounds terrible when you add the other
instruments. Close harmonies in the lower frequencies are a prime
example, just listen to the last album. Another factor that is probably
most true, is the fact that we all come from virtuosic backgrounds
on our individual instruments---even vocals. The music is just the
maturing of those abilities, and with such a period of time between
Psychotic and Beyond we just raised the bar of what
we consider Vesperian Sorrow. One can only wonder what might happen
on the next album! 
Alex
Wank: Well, they're all important. I think images must be strong, and
there must be a concept somehow. A band without a face is not a finished
band. So it's always very important with us, from the artwork, the whole
content, the images, the photos, the lyrics, everything. It just got better
and better, and I think this band have succeeded very much. I don't know
what you have [seen], maybe you just have the promo?
Diabolic
(left) took the stage with little fanfare. There were a good couple
dozen people on hand paying attention to the set. The four-piece from
Florida sure likes its leather. The band was pretty tight, and the drummer
could blast like crazy, obliging the audience further between songs after
one fan screamed "blast faster!" The triggered drum sound and
blandness of the material didn't make Diabolic's set one that could be
enjoyed musically per se, but being able to stand right in front of the
stage and watch the drummer go while allowing the battering rhythms pulse
through you was a good enough time.
However,
anyone expecting Sabbathy doom metal would have been very disappointed.
Debris (left and below) opened up with several hard rockin' tunes with
a very pronounced punk vibe. It was clear that Debris were having fun
up there, and the now packed area in front of the stage was happy about
that. At one point, Debris played the same simple, short song twice in
a row. Not that anyone cared. I certainly didn't. The song kicked ass
both times. Later in the set, it became clear that the drummer behind
the kit was in fact not Debris', and that the actual drummer had been
delayed as he was playing in nearby for Novembers Doom, which was opening
for Moonspell and Lacuna Coil. (Like anyone would go see that instead
of Enslaved.) The fill in drummer was the guy from Crowbar.
So
what we had was basically a jam session, as the Crowbar guy didn't know
any of the actual songs. But it was great time. The singer/guitarist's
between song banter about him being an old hippie was funny and likeable.
At one point, he announced that he was going to do something he had always
wanted to do. He took off his guitar and only did vocals on one song as
one of the bartenders came on stage to play guitar. This allowed the singer
to really let loose, as he charged around the stage with the mic cord
in his mouth, teeth bared. 
This
was my second time seeing Electric Wizard, the first being the
show at the Covered Wagon (
Well,
the preceding bands were all nice and all, but now it was time to get
down to serious business, because Enslaved (left) had taken the
stage. After their awesome set at the otherwise dismal 2000 November to
Dismember fest, a set that was cut short and lasted maybe 25 minutes,
I was ready to jump out of my skin with in my anticipation of seeing this
band again, especially considering how sublime their new album, Monumension,
is.
Enslaved
opened up with "Entrance - Escape" from Mardraum. The
sound was excellent, as the guitars formed into a scrumptious mix and
the bass was warm. The drums were clear and Grutle Kjellson's vocals were
perhaps even more strong and raw than they are on the albums. The band
was so on, like when they played "Ormgard," which set me into
a headbanging, fist pumping fury. (guitarist Ivar Bjornson at left) 
Enslaved
played the first three songs off of Monumension, each great choices
for a live set. It was at this point that Reggie tapped me on the shoulder
to ask if I had looked behind me. In all of my enthusiasm and raging to
Enslaved, I hadn't noticed how much of the crowd had left. If there were
200 people for Debris and Electric Wizard, there may now have been 40.
I can't express strongly enough how ridiculous that is. Style preferences
aside, Enslaved as musicians blow all those three bands put together off
the face of the planet. To all the people who left, you all suck. How
could you leave before the headlining band, which had come all the way
from Norway? Well, perhaps it being a Thursday night should temper some
of my irritation. Still, I couldn't help but feel bad for the band, but
they didn't seem to mind at all, as they raged on unabated.
Guitarist
Roy Kronheim in particular was feeling it, making goofy but great snarly
faces and saluting the audience with the sign of the horns whenever possible
(left). "Loke" from Frost was in the set, but no material
from either Eld or Blodhemn was played, despite Chris Maycock's
crystal clear request to "play something off Eld!" If I have
one dissatisfaction about the set, it was that the opener to Mardraum,
"Storre Enntid - Tyngre Enn Natt" didn't make it, as that is
the perfect opener. 
Enslaved
seemed to get better and better during the hour or so that it played.
Alas, the final song was to be played. Grutle Kjellson (left) had a little
fun with the fans, announcing the song as being "Yummy, Yummy, Yummy,
I've got Love in my Tummy" and coming from the band's first album,
Vikingligr Veldi, before launching into "Lifandi Liv Undir
Hamri" for a final dose of Viking metal genius. There was no encore.
You couldn't really blame them. 
First up were melodic black/goth metallers April Ethereal. Not at all bad, it has to be said. Well, considering the absence of both bassist and drummer (replaced by a pre-recorded backing track), they were somewhat impressive. The Trillians crowd didn't show that much enthusiasm (aside from the polite applause), but since so few of them were familiar with the material, this was to be expected during a warm-up set. Some nice tunes to be heard, and more than a few glasses were raised to the Opeth cover that rounded off the first act.
Next on the bill were Behemoth, a band so unbelievably metal that just being there became very special all of a sudden. The look was there, as was the sound (the corpsepaint remains). A wonderful mix of material, both old and new. The tracks from Satanica and latest release Thelema.6 worked especially well. A tidal wave of black metal excellence filled the air (absolutely fucking incredible drumming from Havoc). Wonderful crowd response, with some headbanging down at the front at long last. The Polish underground may have uttered many a disparaging remark against these fine individuals, but from what I hear tonight, their success is well deserved.
Around 10pm, the bar clears, as the opening strains of the Black Seeds of Vengeance album flow from the P.A. We had all come to worship the death metal titans who had so generously favoured us with their presence (a fucking miracle, I call it). The title track then rips through air, eardrums and lungs, as Messrs Vesano (at left), Sanders, Toler-Wade, and Laureno make themselves known to the metallers of the North-East. Rarely have I seen a band here that displays such pure enthusiasm and dedication to duty as Nile. The last time I'd seen the band live, despite the ever-present excellence of musicianship, the set was dogged with one sound flaw and technical hitch after another. Tonight, however, they seem to be pulling out all the stops. The sound is perfect in every way, and every song executed with breathtaking precision. All the space in front of them taken up by a seething mass of hair flying every which way, the band deliver most of the new album, with "Masturbating The War God" standing out as one of the evening's finest moments. 
"Howling Of The Jinn" is another live track that will not be forgotten in a hurry, especially notable for the backing sound samples that are reproduced exactly as the are on the album, crystal clear in the mix. Vocalist Jon Sevano is quite clearly having the time of his life, urging the crowd on for all they're worth. And this crowd is firing on all cylinders, saluting purveyors of the most intense death metal the planet has ever seen. The adrenaline rush is so strong, you can almost see it swirling through the Trillians air in a fury.
As I arrived with ~Eternus~ and my lady love, Arkhon Infaustus (left) were already blazing away in deliciously evil style. Now touring their Hell Injection album, the French death metal scene seemed to be in good hands. A very tight live act, with some nice moments of blasphemous brutality in the sound. However, despite the music's intensity, polite applause and a few cheers were all they got in return.
Carnal Forge (left) were a different story altogether. Despite the lovely bursts of thrash and death metal, the overwhelming presence of hardcore/punk (especially in the vocal style) were really pissing me off. The sight of skaters having seizures in time to the music didn't help matters, and while I appreciate the effort made by the band (whose musicianship couldn't be faulted), I firmly believed that this was not a band that belonged on this bill.
What came next was supposed to be Yattering, but instead was a band who shall, for the moment, remain anonymous, as I didn't quite catch the name (anyone present who did, please let me know). An atmospheric brand of black/death metal was most welcome, and the material was greatly appreciated by the Trillians crowd. Towards the back, heads were nodding. Towards the front, hair was flying. A slightly unusual occurrence was an apology to the black and death metal fans that "Hymn to the Chosen One" might sound 'a bit too commercial.' If by that, they were referring to the vaguely Iron Maiden style guitar melodies and the more sedate pace, in comparison to the rest of the set, then they had little to fear. Like I said, it's a real pleasure to see a band like that in this neck of the woods.
As a live act, the band were devastatingly heavy. As they ripped and ground their way through choice cuts from Hacked up for Barbecue, Chainsaw Dismemberment, and their most recent offering, Domain of Death, among others, you could almost smell the stench of nastiness in the air. Plus, there were a good number enthusiastic fans at the front, lapping up the grizzly, gore-fuelled metal as fast as New Yorkers onstage could serve it up. But you really have to be in the mood for this stuff, and as entertaining as the band were, the music just wasn't doing much for me. Oh how I wish I could have enjoyed it more, but such is life. For those die hard Mortician fans present, I can't imagine there being much disappointment. For myself, it was far from a wasted evening. 