Real Talk With Nick Woj.

By Ed

http://coldworldband.bandcamp.com/album/how-the-gods-chill

http://consolation-prize.bandcamp.com

https://malcontenthc.bandcamp.com/releases

https://soundcloud.com/nickwojmixes

Conversation With Death : Jacob Henderson – Bitter End

By Tieuma

 

Climate Of Fear by BITTER END might be one of my key records. Despite it’s one of the few tough-souding records that doesn’t sound that tough, it has also a lot to say, in an really smart way. I think I went through it a lot of times and I still enjoy it a lot. For a while, I didn’t heard much news of the bands, playing shows here and there and posting a picture from time to time. At some point I even thought it was over.

 

And then they announced they were hitting studio to record some new songs, and damn I couldn’t wait for this record to see the light. At the same time, I was a bit worried, because I loved their previous work so much I was expecting a lot out of this new release. Well, I got to say I wasn’t disapointed. It might not be on the same level as Climate Of Fear, it’s one of my favorite record of this year, and without hesitation.

 

For me it was an opportunity that they released this new records, so it gave me a good reason to interview them, since I wanted to do it for a while but wasn’t very inspired to be honest. But now this problem is solved and I made the step forward to do it. I just want to raise a point though, that suprised me frankly, is when I tried to get in touch with them, someone from Deathwish.Inc answered to me (Stephanie Marlow, shout out to you if you scroll through this). I’m not a journalist or so and dealing with a third party for an interview is kind of unusual to me, in fact I never experienced it, and I don’t know what to think about it but at least I can say I did it the “pro way”.

Aside Stephanie, Jacob, one of the band’s guitarist, is the one who answered the proper interview. Enjoy and if you haven’t yet, listen to this record because it’s a damn blast, period.

Human Furnace: Ringworm

By Ed

Something a bit diffrent interview wise form me but I’m a very big fan of Ringworm.

So not much to say, but heres an interview I did with Human Furnace a couple of weeks ago.

Photography by

 ROC PHOTOGRAPHY 

&

Ms. Shella Photography

DR: First up introduce yourself, and tell us who’s in the current line up of RW?

HF- vocals Matt / Sorg- Guitar / Ed Stephens- Bass / Danny Zink- Drums

DR: Can you give us a bit of RW backstory?

HF: RINGWORM started in 1989, first demo in 1990. First full length “The Promise” was released in 1993. Since then we’ve released 5 full length albums and countless 7 inch records and splits and comps.

DR: You have been playing a few shows I’ve noticed recently- how’s that been? And who have been some of the other bands on the bills?

HF: Shows have been amazing. The response to the new record has been nothing short of incredible. We’ve been able to tour with some excellent bands. Eyehategod, Enabler, Death Before Dishonor, Killswitch Engage, and many more. Over the years we have played with so many acts I can’t even name them all. Including Hatebreed, Kreator, Accept, All Out War, Converge, Entombed…..

DR: I’ve Always been a fan of different sounding HC or Metal. how would you describe RW’s Sound/Style? And has it changed much over the years?

HF: I have always thought of us a “cross-over” band, as we have always integrated all types of different influences into our sound. From early thrash, early death metal, punk rock and early hardcore. I think its a perfect blend of many things.

DR: Are you working on or have any new material out at present?

HF: Our new record HAMMER OF THE WITCH just dropped a couple a couple months ago on RELAPSE RECORDS. We’ll probably start messing around with new material in a few months.

DR: you released 4 Records on Victory and now you are on relapse. You also put some stuff out on Deathwish right? How do they differ to work with?

HF: We never really felt at home at Victory Records. They seemed to have a different agenda witht he type of bands they were putting out and we never really fit in. Where as Relapse is a much more fitting label for us and their audience is a much more metal. And thats the type of people that need to start hearing our music. We think they would find many things in common with what we do. The term “hardcore” band doesn’t necessarily totally apply to us. Deathwish and A-389 over the years have been really awesome to work with as well. Although both labels are predominately “hardcore” they have a good idea the type of areas to really push our music to.

DR: What bands do you guys like to play with or have kind of bounded with over the years?

HF: Lately we have been out with a lot of traditional metal bands, which has been excellent for us, as we are basically a new band for many that come to the shows. People are discovering us for the first time. We always seem to have a great time with bands that really have the same mindset, and attitude about being in a band as we do, regardless of their style of music. We like to have fun, we’re older dudes so its always nice tone out with guys/girls who get what we’re into.

DR: you have some pretty cool and unique artwork on your records etc, tell us a little bit about who’s behind some of it and where the ideas stem from?

HF: The last record HAMMER OF THE WITCH was drawn by me. We’ve always used a lot of occult imagery in all of our bands artwork. I have a big interest in the occult. Most of our lyrics are engulfed in the occult, sometimes subtle sometimes blatant.

DR: Who were some of RW’s early influences?

Well, we came up at a time when everything was young and we wanted to incorporate all the things we loved into what we did. Slayer, Crumbsuckers, COC, DRI, AF, Cro-Mags, Kreator, Exploited, Terrorizer, Morbid Angel, Early skate rock, etc.

DR: Do any of you have any other side projects or main bands?

HF: Yes. Myself and Ed have rock band called GLUTTONS. We are almost finished with our first full length. It’s very Motothead-ish, Hellacopters,… Heavy rock and roll vibe. I also have another band called HOLYGHOST which is more on the early neurosis, voivod, godflesh vibe. Expect a new record from that band this year or early next year. I also have another band that is mostly acoustic, very soft sounding called The Night Drive.

DR: What bands are you guys personally listening to right now?

HF: Right now, I’ve been listening to the new Beastmilk record, Gravenhurst, Foo Fighters and of course Godflesh, Voivod, and Trouble

DR: What do your tour plans look like in 2014?

HF: By the end of 2014 we will have been around the US 2-3 times, Europe, Australia, NZ and everywhere else as time will allow us. It’s a very busy year for the Worm

DR: Anything you would like to add?

HF: Just want people to check out the new record HAMMER OF THE WITCH and definitely come out to see us play live. We’re a band that delivers. Thanks for the interview!

Cold World @ Aladdin Jnr 5/29/12

By: Ed

I recently did an interview with Andrew Kline and he hooked me up with some awesome pictures by Dan Rawe.

I later contacted Dan who basically said I could use whatever pictures I wanted for future posts.

So instead of using lots of random pictures, I picked a band, Cold World, from their set at the Aladdin JNR 5/29/12.

http://danrawephotography.blogspot.com

The pictures focus on Dan (Vocals) and Arthur (Guitar)

Jay Pepito: Reign Supreme

By: Ed

Did an interview with Jay from Reign Sup recently.

After we did the mini bio on his new band (Vengeance) with Donny Mutt, he said he hadn’t done a Reign Sup interview for ages- so here’s some new stuff with Jay.

DR: First up introduce yourself and tells us a bit about what you do in Reign Sup and how did the band come about?

 

JP: My name is Jay Pepito, I serve as the vocalist for Reign Supreme.  Our band started some years ago, purely as a sort of fun project among a group of friends.  We just wanted to write heavy hardcore, and I guess enough people dug us early on that we got to do some really cool things.

DR: where are you guys all from?

JP: We are all from the Jersey/Philly area except for Randall, who is from Plymouth, MA.  We all live in the Philadelphia metro region.

DR: Who’s in the current line up?

JP: Currently, it’s me on vocals, Klint on bass, Mikey on guitar, and Randall on drums.

DR: Do you write a lot of the music or does everyone get involved?

JP: Sort of both, I’m like the main song-writer, but everyone kind of adds and subtracts parts and we have a pretty organic creative process.  It used to be more me just writing everything, but we’ve evolved since then, and now the song-writing process is more about collaboration.

DR: What’s new for Reign Sup?

Are you working on anything at the moment? Who are you currently signed too?

JP: Nothing new actually, in fact we are about to go on hiatus for a few years.  Mediaskare put out our last record, an EP called “Sky Burial”.

DR: What usual topics do you focus on in Reign Sup songs?

 

JP: Usually they’re pretty personal.  Songs like “Failure” and “It Feels like a Thousand Years” are about my frustrations with myself and the way I’ve spent my life.  Songs like “Heartsick” or “Apostle” are more about critically viewing society and my place in that, and about re-imaging our priorities.

DR: Who are some of the influences behind Reign Sup?

JP: Sepultura, Ringworm, Hatebreed, Converge, Cursed, Baroness, 100 Demons, Mastodon, Disfear, and Integrity are really big influences on the later-era of our writing, and stuff like Madball, Figure Four, and Earth Crisis were big influences on our early stuff.

DR: When was your last tour and with who?

JP: We did a US tour with the Ghost Inside, Xibalba, Beartooth, and Relentless from Australia.  It was probably the funnest tour we’ve ever done, except maybe when we did a US tour with Madball a few years back.  Or Europe two summers ago, that was insane.

DR: What’s a Standard Reign Sup show crowd like?

JP: Tough question.  I guess pretty much just regular kids who are into heavy riffs or something.  It used to be more hardcore kids who were trying to get down with the “next big thing” but once they realized it wasn’t us, those kids try to pretend they don’t know us anymore.

DR: Are many or any of you Edge men?

JP: Klint and Mikey are, and I’m not even sure about Mikey at this point.  We all were at some point or another, but just don’t feel passionate about it anymore and kind of don’t really care.

DR: What’s the full Reign Sup library now? How much stuff do you have out?

JP: I’ll probably miss something but here goes:  Demo, which got released on Rock Vegas Records as a 7” called “Fuck the Weak”, “Defiant” 12” single on Dead by 23 Records, “American Violence” demo, “American Violence” EP on Malfunction Records, “Testing the Limits of Infinite” on Deathwish, Inc, cover of “Too Deep Until Now” on a Chain of Strength tribute comp, “Sky Burial” EP on Mediaskare. We are/were writing another LP, but I think we’re going to shelve it for time being, and come back to it when we are ready to dedicate more of ourselves to it.

DR: You’re into Traveling, right?

Where are some of your personal favorite places and Experiences?

JP: I love the West Coast of the US, LA, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle are some of my favorite cities, and I think I’ll live out there eventually.  Hawaii is awesome, and I’m planning on going there again with my wife this year to do some surfing and snorkeling, as well as eating ignorant amounts of seafood.  Love Montreal, Quebec, and Toronoto, always fun traveling there.  Really enjoy Japan, Tokyo Tower and seeing Mt Fuji were unbelievable experiences, and really every city there is cool.  I love London, always a great day of buying bullshit and eating junk food whenever we are there.  Definitely can never get enough of the Scandinavian countries.  I had a great time in Copenhagen last time we were there, and I think Stockholm is one of the greatest cities in the world.  Probably my favorite city recently was Zurich, I loved swimming in that river so much.  I also have some family and business in the Philippines so I’m there often, and we always do cool stuff.  I think next time, I’ll travel to Bohol and go swimming with whale sharks, which is probably the coolest thing ever.

DR: You’re also heavily tattooed- who do you Regularly get tattooed by and who do you want to have work done by?

JP: I have work by BJ Betts, Norm, Mike Schweigert, Zeke Owen, Kevin Leblanc, Steve Tiberi, Josh Hoffman, Eli Quinters, Joey Knuckles, and probably a few others.  I’m running out of space, so all I have left to do is finish my leg which Kevin Leblanc is doing, and probably have my buddy Damien Rodriguez fill in this unfinished Hanya tattoo I have.

DR: what do you and the other guys do for work outside the band?

JP: I have a lot going on, I do personal training and strength and conditioning work with athletes, but my real passion is social enterprise and I started a nonprofit called Lift-Up, Inc that organizes exercise competitions for homeless outreach.  I’ll be studying for a master’s at the University of Pennsylvania as well.  Mikey works for Ibanez as a guitar god.  Klint is one of the most gifted and passionate high school teachers to ever walk this earth, and he’s doing graduate research at University of Pennsylvania, I think with robots or some crazy shit.  Randall works in a restaurant, and is a barista at one of the best coffee places in the US, Elixr in Philadelphia.

DR: Any big Tour plans for 2014?

JP: None.  We will play Southeast Beast in Jacksonville, FL and the New England Metal and Hardcore Fest, and then we are taking some time off.  I REALLY want to go to Europe, so maybe next year.

DR: Thanks for your time Jay anything you wanna add?

JP: Not at this time, but I encourage all of you to check out my website, becomeimmortal.net, and check out my nonprofit, weliftup.org, although the site is still being built.  Thanks!