Interview

Interview: The Great Sabatini

Posted on Monday, April 30th, 2012 at 11:01 pm.

Originally written for Exclaim.

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Hardworking Canadian underground group and stalwart Hessian warriors the Great Sabatini consistently push the limits of their skills and aesthetic, as well as their sheer capacity for labour. Currently in the midst of another ambitious North American tour, the band are simultaneously releasing a duelling pair of recordings: Matterhorn (on No List) and free digital companion EP The Royal We, which was recorded with Topon Das of Canadian grindcore heroes Fuck the Facts. The Great Sabatini are driven to create new music …

Girl Don’t Like Metal interviews Lisa Christiansen

Posted on Sunday, April 15th, 2012 at 4:04 pm.

Originally written for Canada Arts Connect.

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Lisa Christiansen is another brilliant woman who has dedicated her career to celebrating the music she loves. She serves as the host of the CBC Radio 3 show Appetite for Distraction, where she combines exciting independent music with plenty of chat, often veering into one of her favourite topics: heavy metal. She’s also the host of two innovative CBC Radio 3 podcasts: Extended Play, featuring in-depth discussions and interviews with Canadian musicians, and Full Metal Podcast, which focuses …

Girls Don’t Like Metal interviews Leticia Supple

Posted on Thursday, April 12th, 2012 at 2:09 pm.

Originally written for Canada Arts Connect.

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Leticia Supple is an outspoken and inexhaustible presence in the heavy metal scene. She has her fingers in all sorts of different pies, from music journalism and blogging to PR and promotion. Her blog,Biodagar, is an invaluable resource for musicians and writers alike, as she’s always willing to share advice gleaned from her many years writing about heavy metal. Leticia has even designed an online course for aspiring music writers to follow, and hosts a series …

Christian Mistress — Possession (interview + review)

Posted on Monday, March 26th, 2012 at 4:01 pm.

Originally written for Exclaim.

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Christian Mistress have garnered an immense amount of attention for Possession, and every ounce is well-deserved. Critics have attempted to pin genre monikers like “NWOBHM” and “traditional” to Christian Mistress, but the best way to pay homage to the purity of their sound is to call them simply heavy metal. Supple yet muscular, their tone is as lovely and deadly as a skilled swordsman ― perfect balance, grace and a very sharp blade. The production is warm and smooth, almost buttery in its analog perfection, with just the right …

Girls Don’t Like Metal Interviews Guro Juul Andersen

Posted on Thursday, March 22nd, 2012 at 4:06 pm.

Originally written for Canada Arts Connect.

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Guro Juul Andersen is the Editor-in-Chief of Metal Hammer Norway. Incredibly ambitious and deeply devoted to heavy metal, Guro has built her career from scratch. She learned all that she knows about the industry by diving in head first and learning on the job, and over the years has become a creative force to be reckoned with. Now at the helm of Metal Hammer Norway, she devotes her time and energy to inspiring and educating the next generation of critics …

Girls Don’t Like Metal Interviews Morgan Lander

Posted on Tuesday, March 20th, 2012 at 5:44 pm.

Originally written for Canada Arts Connect.

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Morgan Lander has been the lead singer and rhythm guitarist in landmark Canadian metal outfit Kittie since the band’s inception 15 years ago. Catapulted to superstardom while still in high school, Morgan Lander, her younger sister Mercedes and the other founding members found themselves contending with the realities of the music industry at an incredibly young age. Since that auspicious beginning, Kittie have remained a fixture in the Canadian music scene, as the members have matured from precocious teenagers to …

Girls Don’t Like Metal Interviews Lisa Coverdale

Posted on Tuesday, March 20th, 2012 at 5:08 pm.

Originally written for Canada Arts Connect.

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When I first began to reach out beyond the local heavy metal scene in Toronto and build social media connections with people writing and working and making music all over the world, Lisa Coverdale was one of the first people that I followed. I have been a loyal fan of her Twitter feed for years. As someone who works at both a PR firm and a record label, her insider knowledge of the industry is beyond compare. …

Girls Don’t Like Metal Interviews Laina Dawes

Posted on Tuesday, March 20th, 2012 at 4:45 pm.

Originally written for Canada Arts Connect.

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I have had the honour of working with Laina Dawes at Exclaim! and Hellbound, where both of us contribute as writers (the multi-talented Laina also contributes photography). I have always been impressed by her strength and intelligence, as well as her willingness to tackle difficult subjects head on. She is the sort of person who never shies away from speaking her mind and speaking it truthfully, and I admire that deeply. I was absolutely thrilled when she agreed to …

Review + Interview: Alcest — Les Voyages De L’Âme

Posted on Friday, March 9th, 2012 at 5:15 pm.

Read the original, written for Exclaim!, here and here.

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The third full-length album from French iconoclasts Alcest is a journey. Characterized by a strong forward movement and breathless, buoying optimism that was somewhat repressed by the melancholia of their previous efforts, this release sees the band reaching forward to expand their sound into new, more surreal landscapes. The record unfurls like a narrative, full of adventurous tones and tremulous, emotive melodies. From the opening of “Autre Temps,” Les Voyages De L’Âme ensnares the listener …

Daniel Erlandsson Of Arch Enemy Talks To ThisIsNotAScene

Posted on Wednesday, January 4th, 2012 at 12:35 am.

Originally published on This Is Not A Scene.

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Near the end of the North American Khaos Tour that took place during September and October of 2011, I had the chance to chat with Arch Enemy‘s talented drummer Daniel Erlandsson. They are still in the midst of a rigorous touring schedule to support their newest album, “Khaos Legions,” a high-energy record with a revolutionary theme that also features some of the best production value on an Arch Enemy album to date. Currently playing shows through Europe, the band plan …

Tags: Interview, Metal

Questionnaire: Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine

Posted on Wednesday, January 4th, 2012 at 12:27 am.

Talking to Dave Mustaine was one of the highlights of my year! This piece was done as an Exclaim! questionnaire.

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Dave Mustaine is one of the most iconic and universally recognized personalities in the realm of heavy metal. His music career has spanned 30 years and he is recognized as one of the most significant lead guitarists and metal vocalists of all time. His career began with a brief, but extremely influential early stint Metallica from 1981 to 1983. After that, Mustaine founded …

Tags: Dave Mustaine, Interview

Feature Interview/Review: Blut Aus Nord — 777 The Desanctification

Posted on Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012 at 7:24 pm.

Originally written for Exclaim!

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Calvados, France-based Blut Aus Nord‘s 777 The Desanctification is one of the most important avant-garde black metal albums of 2011. The album forms the second part of a proposed trilogy that began with 777 Sect(s), released in April of 2011. The third part of the series, Cosmosophy, is slated for release in the spring of 2012. Blut Aus Nord are the primary artistic outlet for black metal visionary Vindsval. 777 The Desanctification is a spiralling, sonorous record that’s as difficult to grasp as smoke …

The Bond of Fuck The Facts

Posted on Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012 at 12:33 am.

Originally written for Exclaim!

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“When things are down, I know that she is there, and because she’s there I knew we’re going to pull through,” says Fuck the Facts guitarist Topon Das on the relationship that drives the band and vice versa. “I don’t remember what it’s like without her.”

Canadian grindcore band Fuck The Facts create music as intelligent as it is aggressive, drawing on experimental noise and jazz. Die Miserable is their new full-length studio album alongside Misery, a self-recorded EP. Die Miserable is a hulking monster …

Tags: Interview, Love, Metal

Neil Daniels — The Hellbound Interview

Posted on Monday, January 2nd, 2012 at 2:54 pm.

Originally written for Hellbound.

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I recently reviewed Neil Daniels’ excellent books, All Pens Blazing: A Rock & Heavy Metal Writer’s Handbook Volumes 1 & 2, for Hellbound (which you can read here). Rather than the guidebooks that you may have expected from the title, these books actually contain a wealth of interviews with heavy metal writers, editors of rock magazines, and other members of the press. Essentially, these are interviews with the people who usually conduct the interviews. I found that after reading and analyzing these books, I had …

Tags: Interview, Metal

Interview with Unexpect

Posted on Saturday, December 17th, 2011 at 7:04 pm.

Originally written for Alternative Matter.

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…Syriak talked candidly about the band’s decision to release their latest record by their own means, its concept and the theatrics amongst other things..

Congrats on releasing such a strong effort as Fables Of The Sleepless Empire. It was quite a struggle to let it see the light of day. What happened?

In fact the album itself was nearly completed by the end of 2009. For sure the fact of getting back to a completely independent state made our task …

Tags: Interview

Sylvus: All For One

Posted on Thursday, May 26th, 2011 at 3:08 pm.

You can read the original version of this review here, on Hellbound.ca

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There are some bands that just fit. There’s a great deal of music I appreciate aesthetically, intellectually and from a slight distance. Then there’s some music — much less common but much more wonderful — that strikes a deeper chord, burrows in and stains my eardrums. It’s the difference between meeting someone and knowing they will be a friendly acquaintance, someone whose company you enjoy and who you look …

Tags: Interview, Metal

Barren Earth Interview: The Blessing And The Curse

Posted on Thursday, April 7th, 2011 at 10:44 am.

This interview was written for Metallus Maximus. You can read the original here.

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I recently had the opportunity to chat with Kasper Mårtenson, keyboardist for Finnish progressive death metallers Barren Earth. As part of the Finnish Metal Tour: Part Two, Barren Earth are currently wrapping up their first North American Tour. I chatted with Kaspar while the band were traveling to their final show in Raleigh, NC (March 4th, 2011) about the reception they received in …

Tags: Interview, Metal