Chicago-based instrumental quartet Pelican faced a major setback early last year when founding guitarist Laurent Schroeder-Lebec decided to leave the band, just when they were about to start the writing sessions for a new album. However, this was not enough to discourage the remaining elements, guitarist Trevor Shelley de Brauw, bassist Bryan Herweg and drummer Larry Herweg, who promptly found a replacement in Dallas Thomas (also of The Swan King) and finally recorded the long awaited sucessor of “What We All Come to Need”.
Titled “Forever Becoming, this new effort was recently released by Southern Lord, so we fired a few questions over to guitarist and founding member Trevor de Brauw to know a bit more about it.

You’ve just released you first album in four years entitled ‘Forever Becoming’, which it’s also the first record you’ve written without guitarist and founding member Laurent Schroeder-Lebec who left the band in 2012. You mentioned in a recent interview that this was a complicated record for the band. Could you elaborate on that a little?

"Following the touring for our last album we took a step back and reconfigured our lives. We knew that we no longer wanted to tour four or five months out of the year as we had been, but it meant finding jobs and figuring out a way to integrate the band into a more regimented, normal home life. Along the way Laurent realized that his passion to pursue music had dwindled, but he urged us to continue as he didn't want to hold back our creative energies. It was a big change since the band has always been the four of us and Laurent has always been a very active writer, but the challenges implied by this shift gave us a challenge to rise to, which I think was a positive thing."

Following Laurent’s departure you’ve enlisted the services of guitarist Dallas Thomas of Chicago-based rockers The Swan King. Did this change the songwriting dynamic at all?

"The song writing dynamic was affected more by the departure of Laurent than the addition of Dallas in this case. For the majority of the writing process we approached the record as a three piece, with Bryan and I writing both guitar parts and the bass lines between the two of us. He and I would develop several song ideas, then Larry would come to town and we'd edit them down. Once structures were set in stone Larry would record drum tracks for Bryan and I to build fully realized demos on top of. We wrote 6 or 7 songs this way, then finished The Cliff and The Tundra after Dallas had joined the band."

And is there a difference in the way you guys personally approach the writing of a record these days, I believe you still live in different cities right?

"Yeah, the three of us are in Chicago and Larry is in LA. I alluded to the process a bit in the previous question, but the working method definitely involved a lot of file trading. We try to make the most of our time by recording pretty fleshed out song ideas that we can share with Larry, so he has time to work on them and think about them in advance of trips to Chicago. He came to town three or four times during the writing of the album and we'd do epic marathon days of practicing and editing the songs down."

What was the recording process like for ‘Forever Becoming’? You’ve recorded this new effort with Chris Common, who’ve also recorded your previous record ‘What We All Come to Need’.

"It was great. Chris makes for an excellent engineer because he has a great sense of what it is we're going for, how to achieve it, and how to keep us comfortable along the way. A recording studio can be a very tense atmosphere, because it's a process of putting your music under a microscope and amplifying every minute detail that maybe hadn't been noticeable in the practice space- he's good about communicating with us in such a way that we relax and get good performances."

What will be your strongest memory of the recording sessions for this new effort?

"When we were tracking the guitars and basses in Electrical Audio's upstairs studio, Nirvana were on the lower level remixing In Utero for the anniversary edition of the album. We never crossed paths, but there was one day where a local news site posted a photo of Albini out with those guys for pizza and people must have put two and two together because there were a bunch of kids hanging out outside the studio the next day waiting for a glimpse. It was pretty weird."

‘Forever Becoming’ seems like a darker and heavier record than your previous effort. What was the intention behind this change? What were the inspirations for this record?

"As with all of our records the inspirations behind the record were simply the life experiences we had between one album and the next. We all had our fair share of dark times, which manifested in the vast majority of the album having a darker, melancholy vibe. But there was also a wellspring of positivity, which I think comes across in the later tracks on the record."

Can you explain the title for me please?

"The album is about the acceptance of one's mortality and the important place that death holds in the cycle of life. Death and decomposition are just steps in the world regenerating itself as dead matter provides fodder for the living - we are all in a constant state of change."

What is on tap for Pelican for the rest of 2013?

"We have a few tour dates coming up in the US in the Fall, then we'll go into hibernation for the winter."

More info at: https://pelicansong.bandpage.com
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Next month, California's raging four-piece Nails are hitting the UK with their abrasive and powerful cocktail of d-beat, hardcore and metal, headlining a small tour with British crew Blind to Faith as support.
This is the band's first UK shows in three years so we caught up with vocalist and guitarist Todd Jones to find out more about this tour and their future plans, including a brand new album planned for 2014.

You're hitting the UK with Blind to Faith very soon, are you looking forward to these headlining shows? 

“Yes, possibly more than any dates we've done this year so far. The reaction we got from our fans when we announced we were coming has been immense. Can't wait to get over there and play for all the UK maniacs.”

Prior to these headlining shows, you have toured the US along with Early Graves and Xibalba and just recently you have played at This Is Hardcore Festival. How did that go?

“Incredibly well. Good enthusiastic crowds every night. Couldn't have had better shows.”

Are you happy with how your new songs from “Abandon all Life” translate live?

“Absolutely. Our crowd goes wild when we play the new shit, as expected because it's much more maniacal than anything else we've ever done. Pure aggression.”

Speaking of the new album, there has been an immense amount of praise to “Abandon all Life”, especially in the British and North American press. How satisfying is it to have your music appreciated in such a positive matter?

“Extremely satisfying. I had no idea people would appreciate our new album as much as they have. It's an honor.”

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"If your favorite Nails material is Unsilent Death, you may not like our new songs. If your favorite Nails material is Abandon All Life, it'll be right up your alley."

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After this small tour, Nails will be heading to Japan for a few dates. What's on the agenda?

“The agenda is the play shows with our friends in Twitching Tongues and Palm and Inferval Reluvision, eat as much mochi ice cream as I can, and buy as many records as I can. The record stores in Japan are not like anywhere else on the planet. I'm going to be broke.”

I recently read that you already have a bunch of new songs lined up for new album. Are you playing any of these new songs on this tour? 

“No, we won't be playing any. We need to play all the songs from Abandon All Life and Unsilent Death as we haven't been to the UK in 3 years. I probably shouldn't have said we have new songs because now people want to hear them, but we won't be playing those live for at least another year or so.”

From the songs that you already have, what can expect from the third album of Nails?

“More brutal and unsettling than Abandon All Life. It's more antisocial sounding and less catchy. If your favorite Nails material is Unsilent Death, you may not like our new songs. If your favorite Nails material is Abandon All Life, it'll be right up your alley.”



The UK tour dates is as follows:
Wed 13 Nov – Glasgow, Classic Grand
Thu 14 Nov – Manchester, Star & Garter (with Esoteric Youth)
Fri 15 Nov – Bristol, The Exchange (with War Wolf)
Sat 16 Nov – London, Underworld (With Hang The Bastard)

More info at: www.facebook.com/NAILSoxnard
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Armageddon, or the end of the world, is a theme that has been explored countless times in literature, films and in music. Various civilizations have predicted the end of the world or as some call it the final judgment. It might not be provoked by any apocalyptic event like an asteroid striking the earth as Hollywood so often recreates in movies, but one thing is certain it’s coming and scientists strongly belief that the way things are going, life as we know it on Earth will inevitably cease to exist. A Storm of Light’s upcoming new album ‘Nations to Flames’ is centered around the possible collapse of mankind and the irreversible damage we’re provoking on the planet. Scratch the Surface had the opportunity to ask guitarist and vocalist Josh Graham a few questions about this stunning and intriguing new effort.

'Nations to Flames' comprise some of the most aggressive and fastest music the band has ever made. What inspired that change?

"Over the course of the bands lifetime, we've slowly been pushing into this direction. We all love slow and pummeling music, but we just needed to change things up and expand our sound. Each record has been a bit faster than the one before. That said, when we played with Slayer at ATP last year that kind of refreshed my personal interest in faster music. We watched most of the soundcheck (until we were booted out of the room) and we were all energized. For a long time I felt that slower music had more punishing power but I'm not sure that is always the case. This record is definitely much darker and heavier than anything we've done."

It’s also a very diverse album, not easily pigeonholed. Is it important to you to create a sound that is new or different from what you have done in the past?

"We like that every record has its own identity, and that the group is continually evolving. After we finish a record and let it sink in, I start to think of where we can go next, and how we can improve. For me, that is the first step to creating something new the next time around. Diversity on an album is also very important, especially to me as a listener. Having those peaks and valleys make the listening more of an experience, and make the record more of a journey, rather than 50 minutes of blast beats."

Was the working process for this new record the same as on 'As The Valley Of Death Becomes Us, Our Silver Memories Fade', which showed a more song-oriented and broad direction?

"I'd say the overall process was similar but this time around we had a lot more back and forth among us. The songs were edited and re-edited until we had a good outline for the record. The pummeling songs were done, which gave us some more freedom to write songs that would round the album out. Writing in that order helped us make the concept of this record hold together without relying on track order. Our first two records suffered a bit because we wanted to the songs to tell a linear story from one track to the next, in sequence."

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"People realized too late, that the importance of their government, their nationalism, and their religions meant nothing in relation to the damage we are inflicting on our planet."

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In the press material, there’s a quote from the band that says “…on this record, we have finally found ourselves". Do you feel like you have finally found the sound you have always idealized for the band?

"To clarify that statement more… I feel like we've found our strengths as individuals and also as a band. We've finally figured out how to focus on those strengths and write better and more affective music. We'll definitely continue to evolve but with this newfound clarity it will hopefully just continue to get better from here."

How did the recording process differ with Nations To Flames? The album was recorded by Travis Kammeyer (OCOAI, Generation Of Vipers) and mixed by Matt Bayles (Isis, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Botch, Mastodon) right?

"The biggest difference on this record was that we wrote it from the start with Billy. Nations marks the 2nd record with the same lineup, a first for the band. The previous releases all had different drummers, and most of the music was written without drums. The drummer would basically come in add drums to the songs. This record was completely different in that regard, and that was a crucial part of our evolution. We also went into the studio with complete demos of every single song, which helped enormously. We weren't writing in the studio, as we had done in the past."

Something that stuck out for me with 'Nations to Flames' was the influence of Killing Joke, especially in the way your voice is captured which recalls the more visceral side of Jaz Coleman vocals. What provoked that?

"We played Fall and Disintegrate live on our last tour with Converge and I found myself singing more aggressively on those songs than anything previous with Storm. In the past (old bands), I used to sing much more throaty but wanted to do something more clean for this band, until that tour. I realized that what we needed was more aggression and somewhat more atonal vocals (part of "finding ourselves"). For me the actual vocal sound feels more akin to Motorhead than Killing Joke, but hey…both of those bands are amazing."

As ever, there’s a number of guest performances on the album, Nerissa Campbell and Will Lindsay are almost regulars and Kim Thayil from Soundgarden appeared on 'As The Valley Of Death Becomes Us, Our Silver Memories Fade'. I take it the chemistry between the band and Thayl was so good that you had to work with him again right?

"Actually Nerissa is not on this record, but is still part of our revolving touring lineup. Will is definitely a regular and Kim is looking like he'll be a regular too, which is awesome. They both add a "color" to the record which I can't do on my own. I can layer guitars almost infinitely but it all has my imprint. It was definitely important to me to get some guitar work on the record that is obviously not my particular aesthetic."

What's the meaning behind the album title and the song titles? Is there a theme or a concept behind the record?

"The album tells one possible future of human failure, the collapse of society due to over population and pollution. The idea of revolution or change began too late into the cycle of damage. People realized too late, that the importance of their government, their nationalism, and their religions meant nothing in relation to the damage we are inflicting on our planet. We all live here together."

"This planet is not terra firma. It is a delicate flower and it must be cared for. It's lonely. It's small. It's isolated, and there is no resupply. And we are mistreating it. Clearly, the highest loyalty we should have is not to our own country or our own religion or our hometown or even to ourselves. It should be to, number two, the family of man, and number one, the planet at large. This is our home, and this is all we've got."
— Scott Carpenter, Mercury 7 astronaut, speech at Millersville University, Pennsylvania. 15 October 1992

The cover image is rather striking and you can almost tell there’s an intriguing story behind it? Does it relate with the whole concept behind the album?

"Thanks. The images are an extension beyond the lyrical content, happening after the society's demise, after the records end. A small surviving group of revolutionaries are biding time until their own demise. The body and the flag represent humanity, and are being ironically sacrificed to the earth…more fire, more smoke, more pollution. They know now that their revolution/realization happened too late, and that the earth will soon be on its own."

'Nations To Flames' will be released via Southern Lord Recordings on September 17, 2013. 
More info at: http://astormoflight.com
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Hardcore bands sure like to walk the walk and talk the talk, but when it comes to all out war, in many instances, sheer intensity is missing from the music. Enter the real deal, All Pigs Must Die, with their searing second salvo titled, ‘Nothing Violates This Nature’. The Massachusetts based band featuring alumni from such hardcore luminaries Converge (drummer Ben Koller) and The Hope Conspiracy (vocalist Kevin Baker) avoid all the negative connotations that come from such a loaded word as “supergroup”, as this band is completely without contrivance. Like their 2011 debut ‘God Is War, ‘Nothing Violates This Nature’ has also been produced by Kurt Ballou (Nails, The Secret) of God City Studios and released by Southern Lord, and it is another pitch black pressure cooker of grindin’ metallic hardcore.

The diversity of the music on display, dictated by Koller’s superhuman drumming, is what separates All Pigs Must Die from the rest of the Entombed-fanatics playing catch up. Opener ‘Chaos Arise’ races out the gates like Trap Them at their unbridled best, and ‘Silencer’ swiftly follows suit with all the hostility associated with grindcore and power-violence. It is a direct continuation of where the band left off with their debut only with added attention paid to the pacing of the album, as each song has been positioned for maximum force. Instead of keeping to breakneck speed and eventually losing power through repetition, All Pigs Must Die have the wherewithal to drop tempos during the ferociously groove-focused ‘Primitive Fear’ and the deathly ‘Bloodlines’. While the slow, sinister and methodical ‘Of Suffering’ takes this approach one on step darker with its doom-laden beginnings, simple eerie guitar leads, anguished screams, and pummelling end beat-down which rides out on a hail of feedback.

As mentioned, Koller is on fiery form (nobody would expect anything less from him) and his playing really give the caustic music its uncontrollable verve. He detonates the grind of ‘Aqim Siege’; takes ‘Holy Plague’ from bucking noise-rock through the mouth of punk, grindcore and thrash with his fluid tempo changes and powerhouse blasts; and, as with his contributions to Converge’s music, he shows how impactful he can be even at slower speeds (Faith Eater). The real highpoint of his playing, however, is found at the album’s end. “Articles of Human Weakness” is a flaying finish to an album that is as sonically harrowing as you are likely to hear. Koller’s cyclonic fills cause a sandstorm when matched with the ragged riffs and screams, and the song has a lot in common with the title track from Converge’s last album, ‘All We Love We Leave Behind’, in that, the band drain out every ounce of intensity and emotion remaining after the preceding 9 songs. Just when you thought it was safe, Southern Lord have let loose another bile-filled, high speed and high impact hardcore album; this time from one of the gnarliest bands to ever spill out of Massachusetts.

Dean Brown

Band info: www.facebook.com/apmdband
Label info: www.southernlord.com

Dean Brown is a metal scribe based in Ireland. He is currently a contributing editor to the North American cultural magazine Popmatters and he regularly throws words for a number of other reputable loud noise publications such as About.com/heavy metal, Soundshock.com, MetalIreland.com, MoltenMagazine.com, amongst others. He has a strong affinity for music that shakes souls and leaves debilitating tinnitus in its wake and such obsession has left him financially and medically crippled, but he wouldn’t have it any other way. Follow Dean on twitter @reus85

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New York based post-metallers A Storm of Light has premiered a new song titled, “Fall”, today at Revolver Magazine. The track is the opening tune of the band’s forthcoming new studio offering, ‘Nations To Flames’, which is set for release on September 17 via Southern Lord Recordings.
The new album was recorded with Travis Kammeyer (OCOAI, Generation Of Vipers) at Fahrenheit Studios in Johnson City, Tennessee, mixed with Matt Bayles (Isis, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Botch, Mastodon) at Red Room Recording in Seattle, Washington and mastered by Brad Boatright (Sleep, From Ashes Rise, Nails) at Audiosiege in Portland, Oregon.

More info at: http://astormoflight.com

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It's been a little over six months since The Secret’s fourth album “Agnus Dei” was highly praised in these pages for its chaotic, noisy and abrasive concoction of punk-crust fury and black metal nihilism. Now the Italian four-piece have released a new video for “May God Damn All Of Us” from that record, which was directed/edited by Rasmus G. Sejersen. Check it out below.


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Since the release of their acclaimed debut album "All Hail the Void" in 2012, Milwaukee’s four-piece Enabler have been constantly on and off the road, bringing their powerful and filthy crust-metal sound across two continents and who knows how many countries.
Guitarist and vocalist, Jeffrey Lohrber, recently took a moment out of his busy schedule to share with Scratch the Surface some of his road stories and the band’s future recording plans. Here’s what he had to say.

First things first, how are things in the Enabler camp at the moment? You have been playing shows with Early Graves and Weekend Nachos lately and before that you had an extensive European tour with Rotten Sound and Martyrdod. How did that go?

"The shows have been great for the most part. I've been playing in bands now for about 13-14 years, since I was a little kid, and touring for about 10-11 years. A good chunk of that time was spent playing or touring with bands that I did not personally enjoy. Don't get me wrong, there are some great people in some of these bands, but the music just sucks in my opinion. I love that with Enabler we play with primarily bands that I enjoy personally and musically. Rotten Sound and Martyrdod are both just killer bands, we've actually toured with Martyrdod twice now and they are like family. Weekend Nachos and Early Graves are both also just awesome bands and great people. We also just played a few shows with Dead in the Dirt who are fucking awesome. Just sharing the stage with people that you have mutual respect for makes all the difference in the world when it comes to touring."

Ever since the band has released their debut album "All Hail the Void" in 2012, you have been constantly on tour, driving across the U.S. and playing everywhere. Where are you going to get the energy to keep this relentless pace?

"Honestly, I don't think we've been as busy as you think. We all have jobs and have a home life that we have to maintain. We're not the band who is on tour 10 months out of the year. We're playing about 80 - 100 shows a year, and we try to make the shows we play count. We try to make sure that we're playing shows that we would want to pay to go to. I've had friends that have gone through the 250 shows a year lifestyle, and for the most part it got them nowhere. They weren't able to maintain their bands due to such heavy touring and they exhausted their fans by coming through every city in the states 6 times a year."

What's the weirdest thing that's happened to you on tour that wouldn't be incriminating to share?

"Our former bassist once was blacked out drunk and started jerking off while laying next to me and yelling his girlfriends name, this was after he passed out on the phone with her. I ran to the other side of the room. He then pissed himself and woke up in the van the next morning with no pants on. Maybe there's a reason he's out of the band and Amanda joined..."

What are your favourite and least favourite parts of touring, and being in stuck in a van with other guys for days in a row?

"Sitting in a van with your best friends to play shows every night all around the world is just straight up fun. I love live performance more than anything else in life. So I guess you could say I was born for this lifestyle. My least favorite thing is how exhausting the lifestyle can get, and how hard it is to recover when you get home. We're usually straight back at work the day we come home from tour, and our bosses all think we're on fucking vacation or something!"

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"I personally love live performance more than anything else in life."

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I noticed there’s an Australian tour schedule for July, are you looking forward to this particular trek? I believe it’s your first time playing there.

"Absolutely. Being able to travel the world doing what I love most is an absolute honor."

As mentioned above, you released your debut full-length, "All Hail the Void" a year ago and recently you have issued a new EP called “Shift of Redemption”. Why release an EP now, did you want to get some older material out before writing another record?

"The recording session for AHTV took about 18 days of tracking, and the producer / guitarist at the time Greg Thomas took about 3 months to edit and mix this record. I was very impatient, and also although AHTV is a record that I am 100% proud of, it came out a little more "produced" than I would have liked. The 4 songs for the Shift EP were written in the time that I was just waiting to hear AHTV, I was very frustrated at not hearing any kind of finalized product and basically having all the work tracking I had just done taken out of my hands. The idea was to put out some short and fast that sounded like a band playing in your living room where as AHTV is just a little to clean for my taste."

Regarding new material, I read that you recently recorded a bunch of new songs, are those destined for the next album? If so, what can we expect from this upcoming new work?

"We just demoed out 3 new songs with our friend Cole from the band The Crinn. The idea was to just get in the studio with our new drummer and lay down some new tracks to see how everything was sounding. We're very happy with everything and these songs will be released on various upcoming splits 7". I am knee deep in the dead with new songs right now. I really love all of the new songs, the AC/DC and Amebix influences are at an all time high, but it's hidden in there and the songs are very pissed and very melodic. I think if AHTV was Enabler's stamp in the heavy music world, this next record will make sure you won't forget that stamp. The plan right now is to track in November. Stay tuned..."

More info at: http://enablerband.com
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An ear-catching clarion call at the start of ‘Talion’ signals the return of Sweden’s Agrimonia three years on from their last LP ‘Host of the Winged’. Now signed to Southern Lord for this their third full-length, ‘Rites of Separation’, Agrimonia—consisting of members of At the Gates, Martyrdöd and Skitsystem—have produced their best album right at the time that the band’s exposure is at its highest.
‘Talion’ is a fine indication of what the rest of this multi-limbed record has in store: expansive post metal split wide open and trounced by rampaging crust-punk with the raw screams of vocalist Christina Blom riding side-saddle. But to leave the description there would do the music a grave injustice. Agrimonia are not that easily defined. Sure the gnarled riffs during the faster passages have the stench of Martyrdöd’s grizzly classic rock, but there is an expressive side to the music that is just as intriguing. The piano-led intro to 'Hunted' is nicely composed and displays a broader musical palette than most. ‘White Life Lies’ is also dripping with rich dynamism, from the subterranean bass-lines and synths at the beginning to the fiery discharges that are soothed by an acoustic segue-way only to ignite again. ‘Awaiting’ even lashes strident black metal across the band’s wide musical spectrum, which bleeds into a clotted mix of the eerie synths, sparse drums and guitars, before taking a number of turns through the blackness and finding a final resting place in the arms of acoustic guitars.
To craft such diverse movements and make them sound seamless is quite the sleight-of-hand, but to do so while crossing genres and retaining the same abyss-perching aura, regardless of velocity and venom, is a massive accomplishment. Agrimonia’s ability to escalate and alleviate, to roar down vitriol one minute and descend into quiet dusk the next, is what makes these five, lengthy compositions so fascinating. If you are sick of post metal bands that kneel at the altar of Neurosis only to fall into pit of lethargy, Agrimonia’s ‘Rites of Separation’ is a welcome breath of fetid air.

Dean Brown

Band info: www.agrimonia.info
Label info: www.southernlord.com

 

Dean Brown is a metal scribe based in Ireland. He is currently a contributing editor to the North American cultural magazine Popmatters and he regularly throws words for a number of other reputable loud noise publications such as About.com/heavy metal, Soundshock.com, MetalIreland.com, MoltenMagazine.com, amongst others. He has a strong affinity for music that shakes souls and leaves debilitating tinnitus in its wake and such obsession has left him financially and medically crippled, but he wouldn’t have it any other way. Follow Dean on twitter @reus85

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With “Bushcraft”, Vancouver metal/hardcore crew Baptists solidified themselves as a furious crusty-hardcore force. The Kurt Ballou produced platter earned critical praise for its relentless and in-your-face attitude and catapulted their status to the level of killer acts such as Nails and All Pigs Must Die. 
Guitarist Danny Marshall took some time out to share his thoughts on the new album and why he doesn’t feel compelled to write a trillion riffs per song anymore.

First things first, how are things in the Baptists camp at the moment? You’ve just got back from SXSW 2013, how did that go?

“Things are good. We're back to writing, have a few cool shows coming up - same old stuff. SXSW was awesome. We actually almost didn't go - it was well over 7000km round trip, and we really didn't have many shows lined up. Haha. We decided we'd go regardless... punk vacation. The Thrasher Death Match was awesome - Black Breath, Mammoth Grinder and Hatred Surge were highlights of the trip - and we played a Brooklyn Vegan/Invisible Oranges day show, which ruled also.
On our way down we played a few shows with our friends in Griever, who are an absolutely outstanding band, and a couple with Loma Prieta, as well. Those guys are super skilled, too. Both of those bands made us feel like shit. Haha.”

Baptists’ debut full-length record “Bushcraft” was produced by Converge’s Kurt Ballou at Godcity Studios and is getting strong accolades from the press and fans. I guess you’re pretty pleased with the results?

“Well, the album wasn't really produced by Kurt - there wasn't really time for us to re-arrange things or for him to really make many suggestions beyond sounds and such. That would have been great, but we had five days to track and mix.
We're really pleased with the end results, yeah. There's not really another person that captures this particular type of music better than Kurt, so we felt very fortunate to have had the chance to record with him. The response has been surprisingly positive, which is nice.”

This new effort follows up a self-titled 7-inch released on 2011, which our former writer Ross Gnarly described as a “…full force attack of metallic hardcore fury,” and is just chaotic and intense as its predecessor. From your point of view, how did the writing and recording of this new record differ from “Baptists”?

"Well, the 7" wasn't really meant to be anything. We'd been playing together for a month or two when that was recorded, so we were just all fired up. Ha. There were exactly two years between the two releases, so we had forever to write Bushcraft. Too long.
The recording/mixing processes were both really quick - the 7" in a night, or maybe two, and Bushcraft in five days. We had to fly to Boston, but other than that..."

I read that you guys used to be in more technical bands in the past like Textbook Tragedy, but Baptists definitely seems focused on a more strip-down and violent approach. How much of a challenge it is to not have a riff change every two seconds these days?

"Absolutely not a challenge in the least! I don't think any of us are compelled to make anything "tech" anymore. I personally can't really write anything like that anyway. Put what needs to be in a song in a song - if it ends up being 45 seconds or a minute long, who cares. Once a song starts to lose steam, let it end!"

As I mentioned before, “Bushcraft” is pretty intense and angry, what was the band’s mindset while working on it?

"Fucking charge! Haha - I don't know. Bottle up your feelings and blast them into some songs."

I’ve also read that this new effort is about your own frustrations with the city and the whole urban life. Care to explain a little about that theme and tell me if the lyrics on “Bushcraft” are real stories or made up?

"That's a question for our singer, but yeah - it's about all kinds of escape. Most of the songs are based on real things in Andrew's life, though."

What lies next for Baptists? 

"We're heading to the Power Of The Riff festival in LA in August and playing some shows around there, and just writing a lot. We're a good chunk of the way through writing for the next album, so that's cool."

More info at: https://www.facebook.com/baptists
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Sometimes you look at a band and you just know they’re going to hit you hard and fast, and California’s Nails are exactly one of those bands. Their second album “Unsilent Death” released two years ago, offered us a violent concoction of grind, crust, hardcore and metal in just fourteen minutes. This one doesn’t mess around either. Clocking at a mere eighteen minutes, “Abandon All Life” gets in, beats you hard, and gets out just before you know what hit you.
Nails waste no time and get straight to the point with opener "In Exodus", which displays blindingly fast, crusty guitars and throat-shredding vocals. I’m actually a bit worried about vocalist Todd Jones, because anyone who thrashes their voice like he does would need a lifetime supply of throat syrups or in the worst case surgery. Most of the songs fly fast with the explosive power of a high-caliber bullet, only “Wide Open Wound” and final track “Suum Cuide” show the band ease off on the gas pedal and slow down a bit to churn some crushing, mid-tempo riffs.
This is one of the nastiest and heaviest slabs of extreme music you are likely to hear this year. But then, I guess you weren’t expecting any subtleties with an album title like that, were you? 

Band info: www.unsilentdeath.com
Label info: www.southernlord.com

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They call themselves Baptists, but don’t go thinking that these Canadians preach the word of Jesus. Their doctrine is a whole different one and deals with nothing but the most ruthless and don’t-give-a-fuck crust-influenced hardcore.
Employing the same fusion of abrasive crust and frantic hardcore that recall bands like Cursed and Nails, coupled with the metallic riffs that nods to All Pigs Must Die latest work, “Bushcraft” is mercilessly brutal and furious from start to finish. It’s not an original combination, granted, but these guys play their instruments with such vigour and intensity that the fact that you heard it all before doesn’t really matter.
Although every track on “Bushcraft” is great, tracks like “Think Tank Breed”, “Bullet” and “Mortar Head” best demonstrates the piercing intensity with which Baptists assault our senses. Killer stuff from a young group with lots of potential! 

Band info: www.facebook/baptists
Label info: www.shouthernlord.com

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Hailing from Wisconsin, Warton are another bet from Southern Lord Records that once again confirms the label’s recent shift towards more punk and hardcore sounds following a few years in which the focal point was mostly doom, sludge and drone artists.

Just like its name suggests, don’t expect anything sweet or pleasant from this crust brigade ‘cause subtlety is definitely not in the Wartorn lexicon. These guys sound utterly pissed off and have only one goal, to fucking destroy, plain and simple. As a result, “Iconic Nightmare” offers nine songs worth of punishing, filthy and angry crust/punk delivered with a metallic fervour. Witness all the sonic havoc these guys can muster on tracks such as “Permanent Blackout”, “No Sanctuary No Salvation” and “Knee Deep in Blood”, where frenzied d-beat rhythms are crossed with fierce, grinding riffs and some metallic, razor-sharp leads.

The production work shown on this new work is clearly superior to their previous album “Tainting Tomorrow With the Blood of Yesterday”, and is at the same level of what Wolfbrigade have pulled out on their latest effort “Damned”. It’s furiously intense and violent, but it’s also accessible and rather enjoyable.

All in all, “Iconic Nightmare” is a punishing and menacingly hostile album that crust punks and extreme metallers can enjoy equally.

Band info: www.facebook.com/Wartorn
Label info: www.southernlord.com

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The press release states that crust-punkers Krömosom motto is: noisier, nastier and rawer. 
And indeed it will be rather hard to find a filthier and rawer record out there than “Live Forever”. But damn, that is so rude and abrasive that it reminds me of a band that I had in my teens, whose main goal was to simply annoy the neighbors with the noisiest, loudest and most corrosive shit that we could make. Some of these songs will make your ears bleed, as if someone was sticking rusty nails in your eardrums.
“Live Forever” is actually a compilation of songs already available in several splits and 12” LPs and it’s perfectly clear that this was from more than one session. While some songs exhibit some decent production work, at least for d-beat/punk standards, others sound as if they had been recorded in most disgusting toilet on Australia, where this bunch comes from. 
If you dig your punk/crust harsh and raw as Anti-Cimex and Discharge circa 81, then snatch “Live Forever” ´cause Krömosom are exactly for you. If you don’t, you probably stopped reading after the first paragraph. (6.8)

Band info: www.facebook.com/kromosom

Label info: www.southernlord.com

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It’s no secret that we’re huge admirers of Italy’s most raging and vile musical export The Secret, their third full-length and Southern Lord debut “Solve et Coagula” was highly praised in these pages two years back when it was released.
Now, the hardcore-infused, nihilistic black metallers return with another shattering album that is even more chaotic, noisy and ferocious than its predecessor.
“Agnus Dei” is nothing if not abrasive and filthy in every way, with The Secret delivering frantic tempos, ripping riffs and piercing screams. These guys are pissed-off and the songs are simply relentless.
The band can go from some storming black-metal ("Darkness I Became" and "Post Mortem Nihil Est" for example) to some filthy, crusty sludge (“Heretic Temple” and “Vermin of Dust”) without ever loosing intensity or its sense of repugnance.
Bands like The Secret show no respect for the physical and mental health of their listeners, they simply force you take notice and remind you what extreme, hostile music is all about. (8) 

Band info: www.facebook.com/thesecret
Label info: www.southernlord.com
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After the stunning “Songs for Burning Lovers” on Deranged Records, former Cursed vocalist Chris Colohan retakes the offensive once more with Burning Love and offer us their second full-length, “Rotten Thing To Say”, a potent blend of punk roughness, rock n roll sleaziness and hardcore aggression.

While Burning Love are not as incendiary or raucous as Cursed were, these songs still pack some furious punch as their share the same fascination for a piss n’ vinegar, boisterous attitude as songs like “Tremors” and “Pigs City 1” clearly illustrate.

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