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Immolation - GridLink - The accüsed Flenser Records - Saviours SCION A/V SCHEDULE SEPTEMBER

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STAFF Scion Metal Matinee at Reggie’s Rock Club in Chicago, IL (October 8) Scion Project Manager: Jeri Yoshizu, Sciontist Scion Metal Matinee at TBD in Los Angeles, CA (October 9) Editor: Eric Ducker Creative Direction: Scion Scion A/V Presents: Immolation Tour Art Director: malbon Wreck Room in , ONT (October 5) Contributing Editor: J. Bennett The Basement in Kingston, NY (October 7) Graphic Designers: Nicholas Acemoglu, Cameron Charles, Montage Music Hall in Rochester, NY (October 8) Gabriella Spartos Broadway Joe’s in Buffalo, NY (October 9) The Gramercy Theatre in New York, NY (October 10) Bogie’s in Albany, NY (October 11) Championship Bar and Grill in Trenton, NJ (October 12) CONTRIBUTORS Peabody’s in Cleveland, OH (October 13) Writers: Maud Deitch, Etan Rosenbloom, Adam Shore The Alrosa Villa in Columbus, OH (October 14) Photographers: Greg Bojorquez, Courtney Frystak, Scott Kinkade, Amelia Prime Blondie’s 2281 in Detroit, MI (October 15) Reggie’s Rock Club in Chicago, IL (October 16) Larimer Lounge in Denver, CO (October 19) The Complex in Salt Lake City, UT (October 20) CONTACT Cheyenne Saloon in Las Vegas, NV (October 21) For additional information on Scion, email, write or call. Chain Reaction in Anaheim, CA (October 22) Scion Customer Experience The Clubhouse in Tempe, AZ (October 23) 19001 S. Western Avenue Mail Stop WC12 Torrance, CA 90501 Backstage Live in San Antonio, TX (October 25) Phone: 866.70.SCION / Fax: 310.381.5932 Scout Bar in Houston, TX (October 26) Email: Email us through the Contact page located on scion.com Scion Presents: Use Me curated Yuri Psinakis at Installation LA Hours: M-F, 6am-5pm PST / Online Chat: M-F, 6am-6pm PST (October 15 to November 5) Scion Metal Zine is published by malbon. For more information about malbon, contact [email protected] NOVEMBER

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Hate Eternal, “Lake Ablaze” Immolation, “A Glorious Epoch” Cover: Image from “Mancoon...Turkey Warlock” video by Weedeater. Directed by David Brodsky. Weedeater, “Mancoon...Turkey Warlock” Exclusive interviews & performances from Midnight From Ashes Rise Saviours Ceremony Noisear

Plus free music downloads, event info, Scion Streaming Radio & much more scionav.com

Story:GAZA J. Bennett / Photography: Amelia Prime & Greg Bojorquez Even the most cursory of listens to either of Gaza’s two , 2006’s I Don’t Care Where I Go When I Die and 2009’s He Is Never Coming Back, reveal a band that straddles the increasingly blurry worlds of metal, hardcore, sludge and grind without lingering very long in any of them. Vocalist Jon Parkin says that’s because the Salt Lake City-based quartet stresses originality over rigid genre identification.

“A lot of what’s going on in metal right now is facebook.com/gazamusic parallel to what happened to in the 1980s and hardcore in the 1990s,” Parkin says. Watch an interview with Gaza and videos of their live “There’s a lot of fronting and posing going on. It performance at Scion’s Metal Matinee series at scionav.com/metal feels like a miniature Hollywood, where a disaster movie does well and suddenly you’ve got ten in a year coming out. That comes and goes. Original bands will last. We work real hard to take what’s come before us and make our own sound with it rather than mimic or perpetuate.”

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Gaza can deliver every last decibel of their dissonant, hyper- aggressive goods live. “Anyone who comes to see us will get a very loud, gimmick-free punk rock show,” Parkin promises. “It should be a place where you can find an outlet and a room full of people who might see the world similarly to you. We’ll play as well as we can and as loud as they’ll let us.” BurninG

LovEStory: J. Bennett Photography: Greg Bojorquez

It’s not often that a musician’s side project Burning Love’s full-length debut, Songs For ends up becoming his primary band, but that’s Burning Lovers, fuses propulsive stoner-rock what happened to vocalist Chris Colohan in grooves and turbo-charged punk riffage with 2008 when prominent Toronto hardcore outfit Colohan’s seemingly deep affinity for Henry Cursed broke up after they were robbed of their Rollins-era Black Flag. Lyrically, Burning Love is passports and all their earnings at the end of a far more positive than Cursed’s venomous tirades. European tour. Colohan had started Burning Love the previous year with Our Father members “There’s definitely a shift in approach, if not Easton Lannaman, Pat Marshall, Andrus Meret subject matter,” Colohan says. “The content isn’t and Dave O’Connor (who has since been replaced really all that different, but it has to fit the context by Alex “Hawk” Goodall), and suddenly found of the music it’s made for, which is still loud and himself with more time to devote to his new chaotic, but with a very different energy—more project after Cursed’s demise. fun than bleak. My comfort zone is one particular side of my mentality—the dark and nasty, “I had to take a few steps back from everything, let paranoid and apocalyptic point of view. And it’s alone music, after what happened,” he explains. genuine, but not a healthy place to live in full- “But within a couple months I wanted to step it time, you know?” up and get back to it. It’s what I love doing, so I’m going to be doing it regardless of the liabilities burninglove416.blogspot.com that come with the territory, or how many times I have to walk away from something that a bunch of Watch an interview with Burning Love and videos of us have put a lot of years and work into. Burning their live performance at Scion’s Metal Matinee series at Love was already there and ready for it.” scionav.com/metal Why did you start Flenser? I had heard this Ghast record, May the Curse Bind. I really wanted a vinyl version, and there wasn’t one available, so I contacted the band and asked them about that. It went from there. The purpose has kind of changed since then. I’m not into doing just the vinyl editions anymore, but that’s really why it started.

Early on, many of the bands you signed were from the Bay Area. What’s special about that region’s metal? There does seem to be a theme of good outsider metal here. You look at bands like Von or Weakling, which were both early, very necrite “sic transit gloria mundi” important black metal bands. I don’t know exactly why that is. San Francisco is a pretty nice place, there’s not a huge amount of social oppression here, but it does seem to result in outsider black metal that is unique here. That’s not necessarily the reason that I’ve signed San Francisco bands, it’s partly just a matter of access. But it also does seem like there’s a lot going on here.

What do you look for in a band you sign? I don’t have a specific aesthetic I look for in the bands. In general, I seem to be into bands that are just a little bit different than what’s going on in the genre. So with Panopticon, that’s not straight-up skagos/panopticon “split” black metal. There are crust influences, he’s an anarchist. I kind of like that that’s outside of the regular black metal world, although it has roots there. That’s true for most of the bands on the label.

Are there personal qualities, or a particular work ethic, that you look for in a band beyond the music they make? More recently that’s something I look for. If a band wants to tour and is really excited about that, that’s a plus. But that hasn’t been the thing that has drawn me to bands. It usually just feels right. It’s the whole package. I have to like the music and like the people and like whatever message they have. Or at least not completely hate it! pale chalice “afflicting the dichotomy of trepid creation” To what extent is Flenser a DIY label? I don’t think it really is a DIY label at this point. When it comes to releasing vinyl, I might press an insert and package it myself, but I’m not hand-screening anything. I’m not building the packages. I’m definitely getting things manufactured by people. I have people helping with artwork, but besides that, pretty much everything’s records me. So I don’t consider it a DIY label, but I definitely appreciate that aesthetic, and especially the ethics of a DIY label, in terms of trading and how you treat your artists. Interview: Etan Rosenbloom Which is the most important release in Flenser’s history? In just under two years of existence, San Francisco- And which best embodies what Flenser is about? Bosse-de-Nage “II” based label Flenser Records has curated a small but The label’s changing. The most recent release, by Seidr, is definitely respected roster of out-of-the-box metal acts. From the release I’ve pushed the most and felt like I’ve really hit a stride its inaugural release by one-man black metal project with. Probably my favorite release was the first Bosse-De-Nage self- titled record. A lot of people really didn’t like that record very much, Palace of Worms to the epic For Winter Fire by but I thought it was amazing. I used to listen to it all the time. But I Louisville doom bringers Seidr, Flenser is going its don’t know if there’s one specific release that sums up the label or own way. We caught up with label owner Jonathan is the most important release. It’s all part of a progression for me. Tuite for a look inside Flenser’s operations. theflenser.com

Seidr “For WInter Fire” DAVID BRODSKY Brooklyn-based director David “My So we combined this bizarre subject matter and Good Eye” Brodsky has shot Scion A/V turned it into a bizarre video. It’s styled as a silent film, and the simplest way to put it is that it’s kinda videos for the likes of Municipal Waste, like that fairytale about Goldilocks, the girl who Kylesa, Landmine Marathon and Hate wakes up in the house with the bears. In the video, Weedeater wakes up in the house of the Mancoon. Eternal. His most recent assignment For some reason, the Mancoon is living with this took him to Wilmington, North creepy guy who forces Weedeater to eat a huge turkey Carolina, to shoot a clip for “Mancoon” sandwich. Then they sneak out and get hunted down through the swamp, get caught and—not to spoil it for and “Turkey Warlock” by veteran you—are brought back for yet another delicious meal. sludge merchants Weedeater. Brodsky It’s hard to make sense of, but it makes complete sense to the band. I tend not to ask where these tells the tale of making the video: things come from, because sometimes it’s better to not know. It kind of takes the romance out of it. The house we shot in was where Weedeater started 14 years ago. It’s this old, beat-up house As told to J. Bennett in the North Carolina swamp. The person who is currently living there was kind enough to give us To see more of David Brodsky’s work, check out mgenyc.com access to it for the day. All the phone numbers the Watch David Brodsky’s videos for Scion A/V, including band had written on the walls were still there, and “Mancoon...Turkey Warlock,” at scionav.com/musicvideos there were Weedeater stickers all over the house.

The original idea was to shoot a day-in-the-life type of thing about Dixie Dave [Collins], the band’s singer/bass player, but it turned into a video for two put together. The first song is called “Mancoon,” which is apparently about a man who is also a raccoon. The second song is called “Turkey Warlock,” which is something that Dave made up. It’s basically a sloppy joe made out of turkey, but because Manwich is a brand name of a sloppy joe product and a warlock is a male witch, he decided to call it a “Turkey Warlock.” And then he wrote a song about it. Only two people have been with Seattle thrashcore pioneers The Accüsed since the beginning: guitarist Tom Niemeyer and zombie mascot Martha Splatterhead, the star of many Accüsed songs, covers and merch items. We asked Niemeyer to tell us everything he knows about Martha.

HER PURPOSE HER SIZE Martha’s main purpose has always been to We knew that people weren’t walking where rid the world of dirtbags and weasels. She’s they would see our flyers. It’s raining all the a superhero in a way, and she does suddenly time [in Seattle], so they’re gonna be in a car. appear in places you didn’t expect her to, to get That’s why the knife’s so big, the chest is so justice done. Pretty quick and brutal justice. big, and why the logo is hopefully big enough for them to see while they’re going 45 miles an HER ORIGIN hour through a rain-soaked window. We were all sitting around as a band in 1984, designing flyers for a couple shows we had HER LONGEVITY coming up, and we were reading so many If we’re ever like, “We gotta have another comics that Blaine [Cooke, former vocalist] song. What’re we gonna write?” there’s always had. One of them had this woman with a Martha. You can send Martha to the Harlem knife on the cover of it. Blaine said, “How Globetrotters, send her to space, you can do about something like this?” So I sketched out whatever you want. She’s not only consistent this crazy extreme version of what he was and cool, she’s also handy. showing us, added some big long fangs, some goofy rocker-guy hair, an outrageously large As told to Etan Rosenbloom bosom, and I think she had little tiny tiger skin underwear on. Blaine said, “We should call it splatterrock.com Martha Splatterhead. We used to have BB gun wars back in the day, and one of the guy’s name Watch an interview with The Accüsed was ‘Splatterhead.’” And Martha was obviously and videos of their live performance at Scion’s a woman’s name. And she was born. Metal Matinee series at scionav.com/metal I think that some of the appeal of Cancer What would you like the audience to get Bats is that there is a little something for out of a Cancer Bats show? everybody. Metal people get into it, punk Cormier: Sometimes we’ll have a crazy pit and kids, hardcore kids, etc. Do you think of it’ll be awesome. Other times it will be adults that the band as kind of like a melting pot? are standing there, just smiling and stoked, and Middleton: I think that it’s like a modern-day there’s one kid trying to start a pit and he is so crossover, like when people used to talk about bummed. But I’m just as stoked. It’s just different vibes. the punk/thrash/metal crossover back in like the early to mid-1980s. We all listen to so many cancerbats.com different kinds of music that influence us and we just play those kinds of music in our way, and Watch an interview with Cancer Bats and videos of it just comes together. No matter what we try, their live performance for Scion’s Metal Matinee series it always still sounds like us, even if we go on at scionav.com/metal something that is a bit of a departure.

Story: J. Bennett Photography: Greg Bojorquez

The music of Cancer Bats, Toronto’s mayors of death & roll, pulls from a deep resource of influences. Their albums burst with Entombed-style riff riots, thick New Orleans sludge-stomp and raucous gang-style backups. They also do a mean cover of ’ “Sabotage.” We caught up with vocalist and guitarist Scott Middleton just prior to the band’s Scion Metal Matinee performance at the Roxy in Hollywood.

Do you think that there is anything With this, you have to be on it and be the anchor. uniquely Canadian about Cancer Bats? Cormier: Obviously, when Scott and I started, it Liam Cormier: I think that there is something was fun. We wanted to do something that neither very Canadian about the type of metal that we of us had done in other bands before, like, “Lets play, in terms of [heavy] Canadian bands being have rock & roll, and let’s have hardcore and sludgy. There have always been bands from our punk.” But then it came to a point were it was like, area, or from all over Canada, that have this “OK, this is going to be serious,” so we needed heavier sound, like Kittens in Winnipeg and to find guys like [drummer] Mike [Peters] and Thrush Hermit. It’s that way even in the indie [] Jaye [Schwarzer], who are really serious. rock scene with bands that we grew up on, like As much fun as Scott and I were having with it, the Swarm and Cursed. we also wanted to be a full-time band and to tour. We had to get guys that were really cool and fun What do you get out of Cancer Bats that to tour with, and were good at headbanging. you didn’t get out of bands you were previously in? How would you describe Cancer Bats’ Scott Middleton: This is the first band where I was musical philosophy? Do you have one? the only guitar player and had the responsibility Cormier: Thinking back on when we started the of writing all the songs and the riffs. When we band, it was just to have fun and to play music started the band, I never had done anything like that we liked and to do something that we felt like that before, so it was a real challenge. It was cool other bands weren’t doing. We’re about to write because it really pushed my playing and made me our fourth record and we’re still thinking of it in a better musician. When you play in a two-guitar the same way. band, it is really easy to be lazy and sit in the back. Interview: J. Bennett Over the course of nearly a quarter-century and eight full-length albums, Immolation is amazing. It’s nice to see it blossom, even What a lot of people don’t understand is that the has created some of the most crushing known to mankind. With a lineup though it’s still underground on a lot of levels. It’s people who play this kind of music are really good currently composed of original members Ross Dolan (vocals/bass) and Bob Vigna not mainstream—it’ll never be mainstream—but musicians. I can attest to that because I’ve been (guitar) alongside drummer Steve Shalaty and second guitarist Bill Taylor, the band that’s kinda what keeps it unique for the fans. on tour with a lot of these guys. It’s just a shame released one of its most formidable and memorable albums, 2010’s Majesty and to see all these great musicians not getting the Decay, 22 years into their career. And yet so much has changed both within the band The overall theme of Majesty and Decay recognition they deserve. A lot of them are finally and the wider death metal landscape since Immolation got together in Yonkers, New is the abuse of power. Was that influenced getting it, though. Today, you can see a guy like York, back in 1988. Ross Dolan explains. by current events? Alex Webster from in Bass Player Absolutely. If you read a newspaper or go online magazine. You’d never see that in the old days. For the last several years, you’ve had two email it to us. So when we get together, we have and read some of the headlines, it affects you. But members in Yonkers, one in Ohio, and one a jump on everything. It’s not like it used to be. I never wanted to be a political band, so we try Does the band mean something different in Florida. How do you make it work? We were very bootleg in the past. I think this way to downplay that side of it. We write our lyrics to you today than it did in the ’80s? Yeah, we’re a bit spread out now. Thankfully, actually keeps us sharper because we have to in a way that’s not specific, but I think anyone Yeah, it means more to me now. It means today’s technology allows that. In the past, we work harder on our own. with common sense can kind of get where we’re everything to me. I couldn’t imagine my world all lived in Yonkers, and we’d get together on coming from. But that’s the cool thing about without it because it consumes so much of my a nightly basis to write and rehearse. But it’s Death metal has come a long way since you lyrics, I like to write them in such a way that life. I’m constantly thinking about what we’re actually much easier now, believe it or not. We’re started in the late 1980s. What’s your take everyone can get what they want out of them. It gonna do next. I mean, going out to Steve’s place all pretty much in tune with what needs to be on how the genre has developed since then, doesn’t have to be exactly what we mean. to rehearse is like a mini vacation for us. Touring done, nobody needs to babysit anybody. When it and Immolation’s development within that? isn’t work for us, either. It’s our time away from comes to doing shows, we put a set list together When we started back in 1988, if you’d told me Do you think of death metal differently our jobs to do what we really wanna do. I think and each rehearse on our own. If it’s a tour or that we’d still be doing this, I would’ve probably now, in terms of its limits and possibilities, that’s why we’ve always had positive attitudes something, we’ll get together at Steve’s house out laughed. I mean, honestly. We were all into metal than you did when you started the band? about what we do. It’s never been like a business. in Ohio, just because his drums are there and he’s since our early teens, and like most fans of this Well, we always believed in what we did. This It’s fun for us, so we’ve never taken it for granted. got the space. As far as writing goes, with the new type of music, we gradually got into heavier stuff music is honest, it’s primal and it’s edgy, and It’s easy to get caught up in the nine to five computer programs Bob can essentially write a because you’re always trying to find something that’s what I’ve always liked about it. We always routine, time just flies by. With this, you always whole song, program some mock drumbeats and more extreme. Music was definitely our drug knew the music had potential if it was just given have something to look forward to. of choice, and we got hooked early. But we were a chance and people could get past whatever “This music is honest, it’s realistic from the start—we realized we weren’t their hang-ups were. I think most people hear myspace.com/immolation gonna make a living off of death metal. So we the vocals and go, “What is that?” So that’s a primal and it’s edgy, and adjusted our lives to work around our passion. hard obstacle to get around. But today, more Watch the Scion A/V video for Immolation’s “A Glorious that’s what I’ve always liked We’ve always had full-time jobs, and always the popular bands have infused more mainstream- Epoch” at scionav.com/musicvideos about it.” kind of jobs, luckily, that allow us to go on tour type music with that vocal style, so it’s not that and do our recording. But to see the scene grow leftfield anymore. And that only helps our cause. and come this far and get this much recognition I think I got some of that from old arcade games like Ikaruga or Radiant Silvergun—these are what are called “bullet hell” games. The concept is that there’s a ship propelled across the screen and the background is scrolling by while thousands of bad guys are charging at you and bullets are filling the screen. You have to maneuver through these GRID intense waves of bullets and destroy everything you come across. I think those games have strangely deep messages in that the protagonists in the background narrative are people in turmoil who are trying to do the right thing even though Grindcore fanatics the world over know Jon they don’t necessarily know how to do it. And it Chang asLINK the former frontman for legendary (and always ends up somehow going wrong. There’s a sadly defunct) cult favorite Discordance Axis, lot of that on Orphan, actually, if you wanna relate as well as the current vocalist for both grind it back in a broad sense to GridLink—certainly the masters GridLink and speed-thrashers Hayaino idea of trying to follow the right course through Daisuki. What they might not know is that Chang life, making decisions, and having them just is also the president of and lead game designer backfire on you over and over again. for Echelon Software, where he is currently developing the online video game Black Powder, For me, it’s funny how Orphan and video games Red Earth. He told us about the connection in general coincide. Most of the games and between video games, anime and GridLink’s anime I enjoy are pretty dark and there are rarely dizzying new 13-minute album, Orphan. happy endings. They involve young people trying to become adults, and it’s easy to get destroyed Music and video games are both very cathartic, in that process, especially today. It’s difficult to especially the kind of games that I like to play, which tend to be shooter games with really “It’s difficult to find intense action. You get really emotionally involved in these games because they require deep where you can be in concentration. It’s the same thing with music—I get really involved in it. GridLink is certainly a very the world. Is there abrupt in-and-out experience, and people have any responsibility to complained because our new album is only 13 minutes long. To me, that’s exactly how long that do anything beyond album needed to be. Anything longer would’ve having a happy life been filler. Think of it as a short story if you want, but that’s the whole book, you know? for yourself?”

A lot of old anime and, surprisingly enough, old find where you can be in the world. Is there any video games, have themes about deciding what’s responsibility to do anything beyond having a the best course of action, what’s the right thing happy life for yourself? Can you even do that? It to do, what’s the way forward. Certainly when might sound silly, but that’s the bigger picture of I started off writing I didn’t understand that. I how these things interact with what I write. mean, I was 19. As I’ve grown older, more and more of that kind of message comes out in my As told to J. Bennett lyrics. When I started in Discordance Axis, we were not a very popular band. We’d play shows Watch an interview with GridLink and videos of their and three people would come. No one was really live performances at Scion’s Metal Matinee series at interested in what we were doing because the scionav.com/metal music was so extreme and the message was very intense emotionally, but it wasn’t delivered with clarity. For the most part, it was about the fact that life forces you to make hard choices and Photography: Scott Kinkade there are no easy answers. Story: J. Bennett

Invisible Oranges is an extreme music website owned and operated by Cosmo Lee, a Los Angeles-based metal journalist who also contributes to Decibel The site takes its name from the colloquial term used to describe the exaggerated magazine. clutching gesture that many extreme metal bands make in their promo photos. Squeezing the imaginary citrus is a sort of street-level Masonic handshake that, much like the site itself, speaks to obsessive power of heavy metal. On Invisible Oranges, you can read remarkably thoughtful interviews with musicians, chime in on salient journalistic queries like “Are Album Reviews Dead?” and peruse Lee’s ongoing analysis of every song on ’s first four albums.

Sadly, Lee recently announced that he would be leaving the popular community- driven site on September 24, 2011. His reason? “I want to make music,” he explains. “I’ve written about music for a while, but that’s not what I was meant to do. I don’t have enough hours in the day to make music, though, so something needs to go. And that something is Invisible Oranges.”

However, there is good news for the site’s dedicated followers. If all goes according to plan, Lee will pass his phantom fruit to a worthy successor. “I don’t think I’m so unique that when I leave the site its functioning will diminish. I think my thought processes can be duplicated, and right now I’m in the process of finding people I can school in my methods and principles so the site can continue doing what it does,” he says. “I haven’t had much time to figure out succession issues, but I really need to come up with a plan and people to carry out that plan. But it’ll happen. It needs to happen.” invisibleoranges.com oakland Scene Report

Since 2004, Saviours has been keeping Bay Area 1-2-3-4 Go! Records metal alive with its gigantic, doomy sound. On 1-2-3-4 Go! Records is really cool. It looks like their third and latest album, Accelerated Living, they’re going to be expanding soon and, from the band combines the breakneck riffage of what I hear, possibly become a venue. Most of the classic 1980s New Wave of British Heavy Metal warehouses and places besides Eli’s are all ages. with the infectious twin guitar leads of Thin 1-2-3-4 Go! is definitely my neighborhood store that Lizzy. We spoke with guitarist Sonny Reinhardt I go to all the time. I also find stuff at swap meets. about what’s keeping heavy music alive in his Oakland hometown. The Oakland Metro They’ve been doing a lot of really cool metal Eli’s Mile High Club shows. They’re a bigger spot with a bar that’s all- Right now there’s a bunch of warehouse spots ages. They just had Doom and Brainoil. They do and smaller venues going on, and Eli’s Mile High bigger metal gigs. Club. They’ve been doing quite a few punk and metal shows. They did a secret Sleep show that The Ruby Room was pretty crazy. There was no advertising or Me and a couple friends do a metal DJ night at the anything but it was pretty packed. Ruby Room on Tuesdays, and there’s a new metal DJ at Merchant’s on Wednesdays. Even if there isn’t Crossing the Bay Area Divide a show, you can hang out and listen to metal. The East Bay is definitely more punk oriented— grind punk and sludge and some thrash—but it’s As told to Maud Deitch pretty varied, and a lot of the different bands play with each other. People hang out a lot, it’s killforsaviours.blogspot.com not super segregated as far as scenes go. There’s a myspace.com/saviours666 fairly good crossover of stuff from San Francisco, and the San Francisco scene has good shows, and Watch an interview with Saviours and videos of their there are bands that will play both. Everybody live performance at Scion’s Metal Matinee series at tries to help each other out on both sides. scionav.com/metal BLOG ROLL

Interview: Maud Deitch

From and Slipknot to the latest fresh-faced thrashers, Metal Injection is a website dedicated to exposing every subgenre of metal to headbangers everywhere. With videos, interviews, live coverage and a weekly “Livecast” podcast that offers, according to editor Robert Pasbani, “a metalhead’s perspective on world events,” Metal Injection is a must- click spot for all things heavy. Below, Pasbani answers some questions about the history and the approach of the site.

How did Metal Injection start? We’ve been doing Metal Injection for seven years. It started when we were in college, and two of us were TV and Radio Production majors. We would get together and hang out and watch metal videos, and then one of our friends made us aware of this metal show on Brooklyn Public Access (BCAT). We watched it for a few weeks and we would always get so mad at how terrible the show was and would be like, We could do this so much better than she’s doing it. Finally we were like, Let’s do it. Later we realized that there was a much bigger audience online, so we took it there.

What was the initial objective of the online show and then the blog? The goal was always to expose all forms of metal. We cover the whole spectrum— mainstream metal bands like Slipknot and Lamb of God, but also really small bands, like Wormrot. The goal is to get some of the mainstream kids on the site and maybe hear some smaller bands and really get into the scene. The goal is to champion the metal cause.

What has worked and what hasn’t? I’ve definitely learned that there is not as much money in metal as there can be in other types of websites. But it’s not about money. It’s very hard to predict what is going to become popular in metal. You can sort of guess, but you’ll never know. I never would have predicted that deathcore would become as big as it has now. This has taught me that you should always be nice to everybody because you never know who’s going to make it. It’s really nice when we interview a band on their first record or first tour, and then we can go back four or five years later and interview them again.

metalinjection.net SCION STREAMING RADIO TOP PICKS:

Adam Shore, host of Radio Doom! on Scion Streaming Radio and booker of the Scion Rock Fest and the Scion Metal Matinee series, spotlights what’s currently interesting him in the world of metal.

Nightbringer amount of touring they are doing, and will continue Certainly not among the more popular black metal to do, night after night, getting deeper and deeper bands around, Nightbringer is a lost crew from into the zone. Colorado who have been burning the candles at both ends, conjuring up truly awesome spells of chaos for Lustmord 10 years over 10 releases. Firmly in the second wave, Brian Williams has been making terrifying music for their music consists of the usual noise layers, shifting 30 years now, first as part of the SPK/sound terrorism melodies, weird digressions and demonic vocals, yet crew and continuing through his massive collection there’s a overall mood, a power and density, and a very of solo records, some of which get pigeonholed as dedicated sense of mission that makes them among “.” But this is not some depressive sonic my favorite black metal bands. Their new album wallpaper, new age music for saddos. It’s precise, Hierophany of the Open Grave (Season of Mist) claustrophobic, constantly shifting and moving is a monster. Their last album 2010’s Apocalypse sound, and it sounds like no one else. Williams Sun (Anja Offensive) is even better, filled with an makes his living doing sound design in Hollywood— unfiltered, uncompromising intensity. Nightbringer you’ve heard his terrifying soundscapes, whether you doesn’t tour that often, so see them when you can. I realize it or not, in films, trailers and video games. He did once, at a weird hollowed-out Mexican restaurant talked about it at length recently in a rare interview in Compton in Los Angeles last year. There were more for Radio Doom!, right before his first New York City people onstage than in the audience, and the sound show since 1981. (Yes he made the stunning visuals was louder coming out of their monitors than through for the show too, go to YouTube now!). It’s easy to the rickety PA. But they were mesmerizing. highlight his releases with the and Tool camp, but instead get records like 1990’s Heresy Yob (Soleilmoon) and 2009’s The Dark Places of the Earth Doom is as much about the space around the notes as (Side Effects), put on headphones, turn off the lights the notes themselves. Normal song components like and enter into a completely new world. lyrics, melodies and hooks are much further down in the list of priorities. There needs to be suspense Playing Non-Stop and anticipation hanging off every chord, a feeling Alpinist, Lichtlærm (Southern Lord); Maruta, that that there’s something unimaginably heavy Forward Into Regression (Willowtip); Dark Castle, coming up next, soon, at the precise moment when Surrender To All Life Beyond Form (Profound it all it’s just too much. Then repeat. The best bands Lore); Deathspell Omega, Paracletus (Norma have a depth of maturity and a level of concentration Evangelium Diaboli); Thou, To the Chaos Wizard unimaginable for us mere mortals. That’s Yob. Yob Youth (Howling Mind); and yes, even Gallhammer, just crossed over from being a first-rate doom band The End (Peaceville). to being one of the best doom bands ever. That’s partially due to the excellent Atma record now out Listen to Radio Doom! at scionav.com/radio/channel8 on Profound Lore, but just as much because of the The Accüsed at Scion Metal Matinee in Los Angeles, CA

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Guests at the Pacific opening at Installation LA

All Pigs Must Die at Scion Metal Matinee

in Los Angeles, CA Burning Love at Scion Metal Matinee in Los Angeles, CA Check Morris at The Big Idea opening at Installation LA

Cruel Hand at Scion Metal Matinee in Los Angeles, CA

Gaza at Scion Metal Matinee in Los Angeles, CA

Burning Love at Scion Metal Matinee in Los Angeles, CA Guests at Scion Metal Matinee in Los Angeles, CA Scion’s commitment to artistic expression provides a platform for passionate artists to focus on developing their art and exploring the endless possibilities. To learn about current and past projects from Scion Audio/Visual (SA/V), please visit scionav.com.