Seasons in the Abyss

 

 

Well, another autumn seems to be abruptly coming to an end. Autumn always makes me feel reflective and a bit nostalgic, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. For some reason, during this autumn in particular, I happened to listen to a lot of albums and bands that remind me of specific times in my life. Most of the bands and albums I stumbled on to were not on purpose, though it seemed like an unconscious force was leading me towards them.

Listening to bands and albums for which I have such strong mnemonic associations lead me to think about how we are possibly (stick with me here) unconsciously drawn to music that we perceive to "fit" into a certain season while that season is occurring. Honestly, now that I write that out, it sounds like a complete pile of horseshit.

However, I think we can all agree, for example, that listening to "Blizzard Beasts" or "Transylvanian Hunger" in the snowy dead of winter makes a whole lot more goddamn sense than listening to them in the blistering heat of the summer.

So after some considerable deliberation, I thought I would list some Metal bands that I think "fit" into a certain season. Of course, you can listen to these bands and albums any goddamn time you want. But to harness their trve power, you have to play them during the right time of year.

Note: I tried to avoid some obvious choices, such as the aforementioned "Blizzard Beasts" for Winter.

The Triumph of Spring
 

In the spring I picture myself prancing upon fields of tulips and lilac, biking along rivers, and picnicking as the sun bathes me in it's nurturing warmth...so, uh...not exactly the most Metal of experiences.

It was for this very reason that spring was the most difficult season for which to think of examples. Normally we think of spring as a time of rebirth and new beginnings. This is a problem when it comes to matching this with appropriate Metal bands or albums, because - let's face it - about 90% of Metal lyrically deals with destruction, death, evil, and just about everything that is opposite of concepts of rebirth and new beginnings. So I had to think of happy, triumphant-sounding Metal - namely, Power and Progressive Metal.

Dragonforce

Nothing says "EPIC TRIUMPH OF SPRING FLOWERS!" like Dragonforce!

 

Stratovarious

Blind Guardian
 

Angra 
 

Dream Theater

Scale the Summit
 

Summer Slaughter of the Liver

When I think of summer, I picture myself at BBQs, the beach, and back patio and deck parties. I picture myself drinking outside, going on road trips, and...did I mention drinking outside? In short - carefree, good-times Metal.
 

Speedwolf

 

I thought Motorhead would have been too obvious of a choice for summer, so I chose Speedwolf who are heavily heavily heavily influenced by Lemmy and his merry band of drunken minstrels.
 

Municipal Waste

 

OK, maybe an obvious choice...but how could I forego listing the ultimate Metal party band of the post-millenium!
 

Torche

Dawnbringer
 

Manowar
 

Alestorm

Demon of the Fall

 

As I mentioned in the introduction, fall for me is a time of reflection and bittersweet nostalgia. For this reason, fall is also an ideal time for Graduation Day Metal (a term coined by Mark of the Beast, which is basically synonymous with Shoegaze Metal). For fall, I picture myself hiking (by myself, of course) with the colored leaves falling all around me thinking about...what...could...have...been.

 

For whatever reason, the French have metal for autumn down pat.
 

Isis
 

Agalloch 

Les Discrets
 

Alcest

Amesoeurs

 

 

Deafheaven

 

 

Black Winter Days

 

This was by far the easiest season to come up with examples for. I mean, c'mon...the most grim and kvlt season of them all!  I imagine myself trudging through the never-ending snow-laden tundra.  Or wandering aimlessly in the forest as snow falls around me.  That or just losing my mind while thrashing around in my bed, because I haven't seen the sun in four months and can't stop reading philosophy for whatever reason.  Really hard to narrow all the choices down, but I focused mostly on Doom and Black Metal.
 

Xasthur

How can it possibly get more grim or cold than Xasthur?!

Khanate

SO MUCH EXISTENTIAL DESPAIR

Dissection

 

Nowadays, people can't seem to stop cumming in their pants over "grim" and "kvlt" production values in Black Metal releases (the majority of which I can only assume were recorded exclusively using Yak Baks). But for me, there aren't many releases that are more "grimly cold" than the slick-sounding "Storm of the Light's Bane".

 

Velvet Cacoon

 

Mournful Congregation

 

 

(old) Katatonia

 

New Katatonia isn't quite as dread-inducing as their older material, so I included an old favorite of mine as the last entry.

Interview with Herr Morbid of Forgotten Tomb!!

E-mail interview conducted in May 2011.
http://www.myspace.com/darknessinstereo

WULF: Congratulations on completing your first full-length album in roughly four years! I believe this to be quite a strong album. How has the reception been for “Under Saturn Retrograde” on your end?

HM: Thanx. You know, there's always someone complaining for something on every new album we release... We can't make everyone happy. We need to be happy ourselves with what we have accomplished with a new album, in the first place. If the others like it, that's great, otherwise it means they are not ready to understand our evolution. We are getting used to be misunderstood and ahead of trends. Most of people start to like our albums 3 years after their actual release-date. It happened the same with the previous album, "Negative Megalomania"... But of course there is also a lot of people who like our newer releases and we're getting a good feedback from both press and fans for the new album. It's still early though to take conclusions, the album has just been released in the USA so we're waiting for responses from there too.

WULF: Normally I prefer to try and figure out reasons for song titles and album titles on my own, but unfortunately my digital promo copy didn’t come with lyrics and I can’t find lyrics anywhere on the internet. Would you care to explain a bit about the album’s mysterious title?

HM: There's some meaning behind the album title-track and lyrics. As you might know, according to astrology the influence of Saturn retrograde has basically a very negative effect on life and personal achievements, and it's partly responsible for failures, pessimism and other negative sides of everyday' life. It is especially negative when it is in your natal chart. I'm also a Capricorn and Saturn is my ruling planet. Basically I used "Saturn retrograde" as a metaphor. It is meant as something like "being born under a bad star". I don't really believe in astrology but I thought the meaning was fitting to represent the sense of oppression and constant bad luck that followed me over my lifetime. The rest of the songs deal with different topics but each one has negativity and hostility as the main themes.

WULF: The album cover is clearly somewhat dark and disturbing, but also quite beautiful. Who is the artist? Would you care to explain your thoughts on the album cover?

HM: The author of the cover is the artist Dani2Hell. I was looking for a suitable cover for the new record, and watching the graphic works she made at that time I was struck by one in particular, so I asked if I could use it and she agreed. I was lucky, because that work suits the emotions portrayed by the album music very well. I then examined several versions of the same design with Dani2Hell and in the end we eventually chose the version that everyone can see now (the one without logo and with darker colors). Also, Dani2Hell had already made the sketches included in the booklet of our "Vol 5: 1999/2009" album, with excellent results, therefore I could say that so far the cooperation has been very fruitful. From my point of view, the figure represented on the front cover is a sort of angel of evil and iniquity, it's the rational embodiment of an irrational wickedness, which is deeply rooted within the human soul. It's pure evilness, that's why that figure on the cover has no visible face... Evil has no face, it's within each of us.

WULF: According to recent interviews you’ve expressed your songwriting being increasingly influenced over the past few years by bands such as Alice in Chains, Down, Acid Bath, etc. Although your cover of The Stooges’ “I Wanna Be Your Dog” is quite well-done, I was surprised that you didn’t cover a band that was influential to you that was more “metallic” in style. Would you like to explain why you chose this particular song to cover? Also, since your cover was so well-executed, is there a chance that Forgotten Tomb will continue to cover more songs on future albums?

HM: We actually started this "bizarre covers" tradition on the "Vol 5: 1999/2009" double-album, with a couple of songs from Nirvana and Black Flag, as well as a Black Sabbath intro. They turned out great, so we decided to include another one on this new album. In the first place, I'm a Iggy/Stooges fan, and I like the nihilistic, self-destructive power oozing from that song. Originally I wanted to do something out of "Raw Power", since it's my favourite Iggy/Stooges album and one of my favourite albums of all time, though most of the material was not suitable with the rest of our songs. Also, we have chosen "I Wanna Be Your Dog" because it's more well-known and also because all the cover-versions we've heard from other bands really sucked (including the Slayer' one, yes). When Slayer did that cover they changed the lyrics to some macho-bullshit and I hated it. It was retarded. Iggy Pop hated it too. I think Iggy would like our version instead. I think we gave it an original Punk feeling, it sounds really nihilistic and violent. I even prefer it over the original! This would have been nearly impossible to do with the "Raw Power" songs, 'cause that album is fucking perfect as it is. Btw, we always choose to cover songs that are not strictly Metal 'cause we think it can be more interesting, both for us and for the audience. I mean, would you prefer another Darkthrone or Mayhem cover as all Black Metal bands do? I don't think so. Also, we listen to a lot of "non-Metal" stuff so we find more intriguing to cover songs like those and make 'em sound like one of our own songs.

WULF: Can we look forward to a Forgotten Tomb music video for a song off of “Under Saturn Retrograde”? Personally, I would choose “Reject Existence” because I feel that’s arguably the most catchy song (it’s seriously been stuck in my head for days now!) even though it has a quite negative message. Also, are there future plans for a DVD or anything like that?

HM: Actually there were plans to shoot the video for an edited version of that song. We'll see what happens. Time flies and there are lots of things to be taken care of, so we'll see if we can make it. A live DVD would be really cool too, but again, we'll see what happens before the end of this year. Maybe we'll record another full-lenght album before shooting a proper live DVD. It depends on the success of our new album.

WULF: I’ve noticed that your attitude and style in interviews over the years has changed considerably. I mean no disrespect, but it seems like you’ve become much more “mature”…what I mean by this is that eight years ago, you were strongly advocating suicide and embracing despair and negativity, whereas nowadays it seems like you’ve become somewhat more “laid-back” but still fixated on negativity. I also feel like this is directly reflected in your songwriting. While I haven’t heard earlier Forgotten Tomb albums, according to interviews and reviews it seems like your earlier material was more black metal-oriented…with “Under Saturn Retrograde”, while there is still a black metal influence, it is much more limited, and instead fits more comfortably in its own “depressive rock” style. Do you agree with this? Do you feel like Forgotten Tomb’s sound has matured with you these past few years?

HM: If you read all my lyrics and interviews since the beginning of the band you'll notice they changed and evolved. But of course I don't like a lot of things in life and society, and I'm basically a very negative and pessimistic person. The "leit-motiv" of my lyrics is more or less always the same. Obviously over the years people grow up and evolve, though I always believed in what I said over the years and I don't regret it. The glorification of negativity, death, hatred, pessimism, cynicism, homicide, suicide, abuse and in general of everything that is helpful to destroy human happiness and life is a recurring theme of our albums and imagery, now more than ever. Personal experiences had a role on some of my lyrics in the past but over the years I developed a more mature songwriting. I realized that I'm more useful as a tool to spread negative emotions. Of course there are always my personal thoughts and my vision of life portrayed in my lyrics, but the way of expressing them has changed. In the past some fans just used some of my lyrics as some sort of relief from their personal problems, but I never wanted this to happen. I've been totally misunderstood. I don't want to help people, my lyrics are not propedeuthic. I want to destroy people, I want them to increase their suffering and do harm to themselves and to others. That's why my lyrics have changed over the years. I don't wanna write for myself exclusively, I want the message to be loud and clear to all my listeners. You know, when you say these things and you're 20 years old people use to think you're a teenager trying to act evil, but when you're 30 years old and you still say the same things most probably it means you really mean it. I'll turn 31 this year so go figure... The musical evolution has nothing to do with our concept and attitude, we always listened to other kind of music even when we were more Black Metal-oriented.

WULF: By listening to this latest album, there’s no doubt in my mind that if you were to decide to tour North America you would be quite successful, as “Under Saturn Retrograde” seems like it has a much more accessible sound and wider appeal than many contemporary extreme metal bands. Are there any plans to come over here and wreak havoc?

HM: It's very difficult for bands like ours to play in the USA. We've been all around Europe several times and I'm pretty sure we'll play again quite a lot of gigs there this year, but I don't know about the rest of the world. If there are promoters interested in having us playing in the USA, we'll come of course. Our aim is to play live as much as possible, so I certainly hope to visit some countries where we haven't been before.

WULF: Thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview! Any final words you would like to say?

HM: We're going to release very soon a split 7" with italian band Whiskey Ritual. Both bands will cover 3 songs each by GG Allin. It's gonna be a cool release. Then we'll focus on live-shows/tours and in the meantime I'll start writing some new material for the next album. To all our readers: buy our new album and get fucked up! Follow us through our usual channels: official website, MySpace, Facebook and Reverbnation. Stay Negative!

Interview with Rev. James A. Rota II and Emily J. Burton of Fireball Ministry!!

FIREBALL MINISTRY OFFICIAL MYSPACE:
http://www.myspace.com/fireballministry

Phone interview conducted on April 8, 2010.

I made a huge mistake when preparing for this interview. For one, while I had listened to a lot of the album, either I was distracted or just not paying attention and mistakenly thought that the song "Sundown" was on Fireball Ministry's latest self-titled album. I thought this because the video for "Sundown" was posted on their Myspace page and I just assumed that it was a video for their first single off of their new album. When Reverend James called me on it I felt pretty stupid...while I'll admit that I was a bit rushed when preparing for this interview, I'll never make THAT mistake again!!

WULF: It's great to talk to you guys, I've been a fan for awhile now...I'm sure you guys hear that a lot! It's a pleasure to talk to you, thank you for taking the time to talk to me. Anyway, this new album is great, it's definitely perfect for this nice weather that we've been having, at least here in Kansas...I don't know about where you guys are. It's definitely music to listen to outside with friends, partying or whatever. I've definitely been enjoying it. How has the reception been so far on your end (for this new album)?

JAMES: After you've been a band as long as we have, people either get it or they don't. I think most people seem to like the record a lot. It seems to be really positive, wouldn't you say Emily?

EMILY: Yeah, totally!

WULF: Awesome!

JAMES: You're going to get your occasional naysayer...

EMILY: Well I think once everyone starts comparing (the new album to older ones), and it's like a different thing if you've only put out one record or it's your second record and there aren't as many expectations or what people think you sound like. This is our fourth record so we're definitely getting that it's more of a body of work when people are considering your past records when they're hearing this new one.

WULF: Right. It definitely sounds like Fireball Ministry, but it's a little evolved as well (compared to) the earlier stuff too. Anyway, I had a tough time choosing my favorite songs but I would say my two favorites are "In Their Own Right" and "Sundown," just because I'm also a sucker for singles and really catchy stuff.

JAMES: "Sundown" was from a different record, I don't know what's going on here because this is the second interview we've done today (where somebody's said that).

WULF: Oh, really?

JAMES: "Sundown" is from our record that came out in 2005.

WULF: Oh! Well that wasn't what I've been playing but I watched the video for it and so I thought it was still from the same album! I'm familiar with (this new album) as far as the songs I've been playing, but I went on your Myspace and I saw the video for "Sundown" so I assumed that was on the album at some point...sorry about that! What would you say is your favorite song on the album, or which song do you feel turned out the best?

EMILY: We just made a video for "Butcher, Faker, Policy Maker", so that should be done in a couple weeks...that's one that I'm excited about. I love 'em all, but I (really) love that one.

JAMES: Our songwriting process is definitely a communal effort. You kind of put your own little things into them and hope that they turn out great or whatever, and on this record I really think we concentrated on every song, not that we haven't in the past, but this time around we would write three or four songs and then record those songs so that we were just concentrating on those songs instead of trying to record 12 songs at a time.
(James said something else, but unfortunately when transcribing this interview I realized the phone cut out briefly and I can't retrieve what he said...)



WULF: What would you say then was the most difficult track (to record), or did you have any trouble recording at all?

JAMES: Not really.
(laughs)
I mean, by the time you go in to record you kind of have it mapped out and figured out.

WULF: Yeah, definitely. What was it like working with Andrew Alekel?

EMILY: He actually worked with us on (our second album) "The Second Great Awakening", he engineered the record. He's been a friend of the band for a long time so we were very comfortable with him.

WULF: That's awesome! I hadn't really heard of him before but I looked up him (on the internet), he's done a lot of stuff! That's really cool that you guys have been working with him. With this new music video that you've been talking about, what would you say is the basic premise behind it? What was it like working on it?

EMILY: It's a performance-based video. The same director, Brandon Trost, that did the "Sundown" video did this one, so (for this new video) we were just playing and rocking and doing what we do, basically.

JAMES: Brandon said he wanted to make a video that was reminiscent of the cinematography of (the movie) "Raging Bull". Most of us in the band are pretty bullish, I think it worked out well.

WULF: Awesome! I know that you guys are hosting the Golden God Awards, is that tonight? Is that right?

EMILY: Yeah, we're presenting tonight.

WULF: Oh, you're presenting! I see. Congratulations on that, that's really bad ass! What would you say are your plans then for the future, are you going to be going on tour anytime soon?

JAMES: We're trying to take our time, getting our stuff together, making sure that we have the right package and everything together for when we go out because (things aren't) so hot for the ol' music business. We're trying to base our decisions on what's going to be the most beneficial to us and the people that want to come out and see the band. One of our big things is that we're planning on getting started here at the end of the summer and we're just kind of waiting it out to see (what's going to happen), weighing out our options now before we commit to anything.



EMILY: I always enjoy playing in Lawrence, Kansas! It's one of my favorite places to play!

WULF: Oh, awesome!

EMILY: Really good chicken wings!
(laughs)

WULF: Yeah, we've got good wings and good barbecue, for sure! That's awesome.

JAMES: There was a band on Arista (Records) a long time ago called Stick that was from Lawrence, Kansas that was really good.

WULF: Oh, really? I haven't heard of them.

JAMES: I'm dating myself.
(laughs)

WULF: Yeah, I don't know. I've lived here all my life except I was gone a few years ago, I was going to another school. But yeah, Stick...I've never heard of them. But anyway, where would you say, besides Kansas City and Lawrence, of course, would you say is your favorite place to play, or who has the craziest Fireball Ministry fans in your experience?

JAMES: The UK.

WULF: Really?

JAMES: Albuquerque...anywhere in Arizona, like Phoenix. We've played some great shows in New York. Great shows in Chicago. You know, anybody who likes straightforward rock 'n' roll music usually likes Fireball Ministry. It's usually not hard to find a crowd.

WULF: I've noticed that a lot of people say Montreal...what about Europe? You guys have toured Europe, right?

JAMES: Uh-huh. Definitely the UK, I would think. It's just the crowd, the people... it just seems like they're super-duper into seeing live music and loving live music. We had a great time there.

WULF: Well, it is the home of Black Sabbath, after all.

JAMES: Not to mention a thousand others.



WULF: Yeah, Electric Wizard, (etc.). So in your experiences who would you say is the craziest band that you've ever toured with?

JAMES: You know, to be perfectly honest, the only band we've ever toured with that was crazy would have to be Andrew W.K.'s band. That's really the only band we've ever been on tour with where anybody got arrested and got fined and things like that.

WULF: Was it one of you guys that got arrested?

JAMES: (mishearing my question) It wasn't actually him, it was his band!

WULF: Oh, no, I meant was it somebody in Fireball Ministry?

JAMES: No. We don't talk about that.
(laughs)

WULF: I got ya. So you're taking your time to go out on tour, are there any plans for making a DVD soon or anything like that?

JAMES: No, I mean, we just had a new record that came out this month and we're kind of (inaudible), making sure everything is done properly and everything gets the dues it deserves...trying to do things very intelligently this time around.

WULF: Did you have bad experiences in the past or something with things?

JAMES: The record company experience wasn't that amazing. This time around when we put out the record we tried to do as much of it ourselves and we got distribution through a good friend of ours who runs the label called Restricted Release. We're trying to keep it as close to the belt as we can.

WULF: That was one thing I was kind of curious about because I know that in the past at least Fireball Ministry was signed to Nuclear Blast and so are you guys not signed to them anymore and now you're through Restricted Release, or is Restricted Release (just a distributor)?

JAMES: Yeah, we're not with Century Media or Nuclear Blast or any traditional record label anymore. All record companies do is make you frustrated and take your money so I don't see how that's good for anybody.

WULF: Right. And I guess with the internet now there's downloading which I'm sure is a double-edged sword because on the one hand you don't really need the record labels so much anymore, but on the other hand it kind of hurts sales and stuff too.

JAMES: If you sell 20,000 records and you're on a record label, the record label is probably going to take 75% of that and count 100% of that money in recuperable costs, whereas if you only sell 10,000 records but nobody's taking the money except for you, then you have enough money to sustain the band and keep making records. Cutting out the middle man has really made a difference.

WULF: Well that's awesome, it's good that you guys were able to get out of that and that you're in a position that you're really enjoying. Well anyway, that's all the questions I have, but I just (want to say) have a great time tonight at the awards, and that I wish you great luck in the future and hopefully we'll see you here in Lawrence, Kansas or maybe Kansas City. Thank you so much for talking to me!

JAMES & EMILY: Take care!