Ascent Interview

1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?

- You know what if you were born in Russia it's so complicated to create and promote something about heavy music. So we wasted so mush time trying but here we are. You actually can hear our music! It's awesome anyway. You gonna face brutality, you gonna face melodies, you gonna face the atmosphere. Try it out and let us know if we are different from bands you do listen to. It's really what we think and feel. And all lyrics are built on circumstances we face every day. So taste us ;)

2.So far you have recorded one album, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording?

- Ok. It.s simple. We had enough holy wars throughout the band to create an album that sounds not normal for nowadays listener. Not popular if you want. So it could be hard to understand but we want to sound as we want to sound no matter what.

3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?

- Well they are all metaphors about out life. We face it every day... Every second we exist. What about you again? Tell us if you actually found THE reflection of your life in there.

4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Ascent'?

- It's for us like... Give a dog a bad name and hang him. If you want to be higher then reality and create something more you must act like you've already done it. That's why we chose this name.

5.Originally the band started out as a solo project, what was the decision behind hiring a full time line up?

- We live in the middle of taiga. And who are you gonna empress with your music? Bears??? Ok, try it out and let luck be with you ))) But seriously if you don't have the formalized idea (especially musical idea) then you'll never do anything "and forever you will be stuck in eternity" (с) So Semyon created some material and then showed it to each of us. He wanted to create the band from the very beginning but he had no chance to find any member from the start. And that's why it was one-man project.

6.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?

- How would you play shows any level above very little in there? It was pure luck that Andrew worked as a sound engineer in one the clubs here and had free access for the band to play with some bands coming from another cities and countries. So we played with Relics of Humanity (BLR) and Katalepsy (RUS). So these were our best shows to support. There were Sadist (ITA) and Thy Disease (POL) on the road but shows were canceled as our promoters here suck so much. And of course we played in our city and close cities with friends a lot. And our performance nowadays is very standard. But we are not cool professionals and it's basically made to keep sound level high. But we work on that.

7.Do you have any touring or show plans once the album is released?

- We release album in 10 days as we answer these questions. And actually we want and wait for euro touring later this year. And probably something more then that but it's the question right now.

8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of death metal?

- Oh... It's our first one release and we are waiting for album to come out and some touring to get good amounts of feedback you know.

9.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?

- We never give up and sit on our ass. It's death to us in there. Come and taste it yourself if you want ) So we will give it all and go over anything to reach all the achievements we can. And trust us you will see us in your place ;)

10.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?

- Ok. We do listen to each and every type of music. And feed on it all as much as we can. But talking about metal these are Decapitated, Sepultura, Slayer, Cannibal Corpse, Arch Enemy, Soilwork, Slipknot, Gojira, Lamb Of God, In Flames and more and more and more... Old and new. Both of generations.

11.What are some of your non musical interests?

- Tattoo and vodka motherfffffff!!!! Oh! Bears... Balalaika... Taiga... )

12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?

- We spent so much time, money, emotions, creativity and such to make something that will be our reflection. To say something anyone could here and then share our ideas probably... So we hope you would. And if not... We will arrive to your place and show you! Show all the things we can and it will be Ascent!

Iraconji/Global Genocide/2016 Full Length Review

  Iraconji  are  a  band  from  Nashville,  Tennessee  that  plays a  mixture  of  death  and  thrash metal  and  this  is  a  review of  their  self  released  2016  album  "Global  Genocide".

    A  very  hard  and  heavy  sound  starts  off  the  album  along  with  some  high  pitched  screams  a  few  seconds  later  and  you  can  also  hear  all  of  the  musical  instruments  that  are  present  on  the  recording  and  they  also  bring  in  a  great  amount  of  death  metal  growls  and  thrash  elements  from  the  80's  and  also  mix  it  in  with  a  more  modern  style.

  A  decent  amount  of  melody  can  be  heard  in  the  guitar  riffing  and  the  songs  also  bring  in  a  great  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts  and  the  solos  and  leads  are  done  in  a  very  melodic  fashion  and  the  screams  are  done  in  a  German  thrash  style  and  some  of  the  fast  riffs  also  bring  in  a  small  amount  of  tremolo  picking  and  the  whole  album  also  remains  very  heavy  from  beginning  to  ending  of  the  recording.

  Iraconji  plays  a  music  style  that  takes  death  metal  and   mixes  it  with  both  old  school  and  modern  thrash  to  create  a  sound  of  their  own,  the  production  sounds  very  professional  for  being  a  self  released  recording  while  the  lyrics  cover  dark  and  violent  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Iraconji  are  a  very  great  sounding  mixture  of  death  and  thrash  metal  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  those  musical  genres,  you  should  check  out  this  band.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Global  Genocide"  "Pillage  The  Village"  "Psychotic  War  Machine"  and  "Death  To  Posers".  8  out  of  10.

Chugun/Virus/Sliptrick Records/2016 CD Review

  Chugun  are  a  band  from  Israel  that  plays  a  mixture  of  death  and  thrash  metal  with  some  touches  of  modern  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2016  album  "Virus"  which  will  be  released  on June  30th  by  Sliptrick  Records.

 A  very  heavy  and  aggressive  sound  starts  off  the  album  along  with  some  death  metal  growls  and  screams  a  few  seconds  later  and  the  faster  sections  of  the  songs  also  bring  in  a  great  amount  of  blast  beats  while  you  can  also  hear  all  of  the  musical  instruments  that  are  present  on  the  recording  and  the  riffs  can  also  be  very  melodic  at  times.

  A  great  amount  of  thrash  and  modern  metal  influences  can  be  heard  quite  a  bit  throughout  the  recording  and  some  80's  and  early  90's  influences  can  be  heard  in  the  bands  musical  style  and  there  is  only  a  brief  use  of  any  guitar  solos  and  leads  while  the  album  also  remains  heavy  and  aggressive  from  beginning  to  ending  of  the  recording.

  Chugun  plays  a  musical  style  that  takes  death  and  old  school  thrash  metal  and  mixes  it  in  with  elements  of  modern  metal  to  create  a  sound  of  their  own,  the  production  sounds  very  professional  while  the  lyrics  cover  dark  and  violent  themes.   

 In  my  opinion  Chugun  are  a  very  great  sounding  mixture  of  death,  thrash  and  modern  metal  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  those  musical  genres,  you  should  check  out  this  band.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Unholy  Warrior"  "Sadistic  Rites"  "Fall  Of  Mankind"  and "Evil  Whiskey".  8 out  of  10.

Age Of Agony Interview

 Balázs Kovács, the drummer:

1.Can you give us an update on what has been going on with the band since the recording and release of the name album?
First of all, thank you for the interview and greetings to the readers!
Death Metal Artillery was released on cassette and CD in the summer 2014. We had some live gigs in clubs, we played on some festivals too, so the band was active on the concert front.
Meanwhile we began to write material for our fifth album For The Forgotten, which we finished recording in january this year. It was released this spring, but there was a change regarding the label. It was released by the (also)Hungarian label Neverheard on CD and cassette because Terranis Records, the label behind D.M.A., finished releasing records.
After recording the new album there was a change in the lineup: guitarist Gábor Ferencz left the band because of his engagements in civil life(studies), he was replaced by Péter Kéméndi, who used to play in the Death Metal band Catalepsy. The lineup change went smoothly, the band is OK.

    2.Recently you have released a new album, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording and also how does it differ from the stuff you have released in the past?
You obviously can't say, that there is no difference between our new album and the old ones. For The Forgotten is a concept album, which means, that every song is about  a significant Hungarian event of WW1. Those with knowledge about this era know, that this war had catastrophic consequences for Hungary. Alongside the human losses, the treaty of Trianon dismembered our country, more than 60% of our territory was cut away and given to our enemies(with the assist of traitors).
So For The Forgotten is not a happy album. Not by far… Each song is based on real events and the bloody reality of war. War is not something funny or happy. That is why we made an album with more significant atmospheric elements in the music.
So our goals didn't change, we play old school Death Metal, but the central topic of the lyrics called for a music with more dismal and monumental elements.
An other significant change was, that for the first time in the band's history we worked with a sound engineer, who is specialized in Death Metal and you can definitely hear it!
Dávid Fehér from the Noise Labs Studio has done a great job, finally the band sounds as it always should have.


    3.What are some of the lyric topics and subjects the band explores with the newer music?
As I mentioned before the songs are bound together by the concept of World War I, from the perspective of Hungarian soldiers, from 1914 to 1921.
The lyrics tell about soldiers(hussars, stormtroopers, artillerymen, a flying ace etc.),
whose sacrifice and bravery were buried later by the catastrophy of the lost war(1918),
the communist terror(1919) and the consequences of the treaty of Trianon(1920).
There's no place for them in today's schoolbooks, so we thought, by telling their story, we give them the well-deserved respect and honor! A musical monument for the forgotten!


    4.Originally the band was known as 'Silent Agony' what was the decision behind the name change and also the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Age of Agony'?
Hey, just in time, it was almost 16 years ago… Hehehe
Nothing significant really. We started as Silent Agony, but after our second demo we heard, that there is a band in Austria with the same name, so we changed it. After years we learned that there is a band called Age Of Agony too, but we don't care, we won't change the name again. You can't come up with anything new nowadays anyway, can you? Hehe


    5.What are some of the best shows that the band has played over the years and also how would you describe your stage performance?
Agony is an active band on the „concert front”, we play regularly in Hungary and also abroad, but we don't want to overdo this. We have lots of other things going on beside the band and that would not allow us to be constantly on the road, but it never was our goal either. You know, only eat so much, your body can take…
On stage we are aggressive and serious, we all know what the songs we play are about, so no jokes on stage. The lyrical topics not allow us to be a band of idiotic, funny dressed clowns on stage. We leave that to other bands…
After 20 years of playing concerts it's not easy to pick the best ones. One of my favourites is definitely the gig we played with Nunslaughter(R.I.P. Jim Sadist!!!), but our tour in the Székely Land(Transsylvania) in 2011 and our gigs In Mlada Boleslav(Czech Republic) were also great!



    6.Do you have any touring or show plans for the new album?
Yes, surely because of the new album we have more live gigs this year.  End of  april we played in Vienna, after that, there was an outstanding event in Szeged, the Szegedeath Festival. We played two gigs in the Czech Republic and our next concert will be at the Total War Fest, which also is an awesome event. This year later we are going  back to the Czech Republic, but also play some concerts in the Hungarian Highlands(today Slovakia) and in Erdély(Transsylvania). In October we do a gig with Infernal War in Budapest and I could go on. 


    7.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of death metal?
The feedbacks, that reach us, are mainly positive but nowadays we can't have high hopes… We play Death Metal for a long time now, we are an old band, we are present in the scene since our demo phase, so there are people in every corner of the world, who know/like our music. We see in the concerts, that our fans take the band seriously and they acknowledge our persistence too. Being honest, we can't ask for more.





    8.Are any of the band members also involved with any other bands or musical projects these days?
I am the only member of the band, who plays in an other band too. I am the drummer of the Black Metal band Tymah, our new album will be released by Sinister Flames during the fall.
There was a project called Vulcanizer, which was actually Age Of Agony but we only played  covers of our favourite Death, Balck and Thrash Metal bands. We had only two live gigs, but now we don't really have the time for this project, so I don't know if there will be any more Vulcanizer concerts in the near future.



    9.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
As long as the band exists, we play Death Metal, there's no other way. Of course it's  always going to be the old school way, in this genre and this scene we always give our best to make the best songs and albums. It can't hurt to make some minor changes sometimes but nothing radical. A good example is our new album. It's a bit different, a bit more melodic, compared to our earlier albums, there are guitar solos, longer songs but you can tell from the first sounds that it's 100% Age Of Agony. And that's the most important thing: the own style within a genre...



    10.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
Our main influences are early Death Metal classics like Massacre, Death, Autopsy, Asphyx, Dismember, Grave, Entombed and so on. An other undeniable influence is the underground band Nunslaughter, but my drumming was influenced by some Black Metal albums like Mayhem's  De Mysteriis Dom Satanas or Marduk's Nightwing. Some other favourites are Vomitory, Gruesome, Infernal War, Grave, Miasma, Funebrarum, Voidhanger, Witchcraft, Deströyer 666, Dead Congregation, Mgla and Desaster.



    11.What are some of your non musical interests?
Music is our main hobby. You didn't think we can make a living playing music did you? Hehe…
Every member is a working family man, we rehearse every Sunday. That's our hobby, it's the best way to spend our free time.


    12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?

Thanks for the opportunity, I think your questions covered everything important.




 

Ascent/Don't Stop When you Walk through Hell/Sliptrick Records/2016 CD Review

   Ascent  are  a  band  from  Russia  that  plays  a  very  modern  form  of  death  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2016  album  "Don't  Stop  When  You  Walk  Through  The  Hell"  which  will  be  released  on  June  30th  by  Sliptrick  Records.

  A  very  hard  and  heavy  sound  starts  off  the  album  along  with  all  of  the  musical  instruments  sounding  very  powerful  and  you  can  also  hear  a  lot  of  modern  metal  elements  in t he  bands  musical  style  while  the  vocals a re  done  in  a  screaming  death  metal  fashion  along  with  some  growls  and  the  fast  sections  also  use  a  great  amount  of  blast  beats.

  When guitar  solos  and  leads  are  utilized  they  are  done  in  a  very  dark  yet  melodic  fashion  and  the  songs  also  bring  in  a  great  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts  and  some  songs  bring  in  back  up  vocals  while  the  riffs  can  also  be  melodic  at  times  while  also  mixing  in  influences  of  prog  metal  and  one  track  also  brings  in  a  brief  use  of  synths  which  also  gives  the  music  more  of  a  symphonic  feeling  while  a  couple  of  the  tracks  also  brings  in  a  brief  use  of  clean  playing.

  Ascent  plays  a style  of  death metal  that  is  in t he  more  modern  direction  of t he  genre  while  also  mixing  in  elements  of  prog  metal,  the  production  sounds  very  professional  while  the  lyrics  cover dark  and  violent  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Ascent  are  a  very  great  sounding  modern  death  metal  band  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  this  musical  genre,  you  should  check  out  this  recording.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Chaos  Bless"  "Lucifer"  and  "Useless".  8  out  of  10.

Ashcloud/Children of the Chainsaw/Xtreem Music/2016 CD Review

  Ashcloud  are  an  international  band  with  members  from  both  Sweden  and  the  United  Kingdom  that  plays  an  old  school  form  of  death  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2016  album  "Children  Of  The  Chainsaw"  which  was  released  by  Xtreem  Music.

  A  very  dark,  heavy  yet  melodic sound  starts  off  the  album  along  with  some  blast  beats  being  introduced  into  the  music  a  few  seconds  later  as  well  as  having  some  death  metal  growls  and screams  making  their  presence  known on  the  recording  and  the  guitar  solos  and  leads  also  use  a  great  amount  of  melody.

  Most  of  the  music  is  rooted  in  the  early  90's  style  while  having  a  more  modern  production  and  the  songs  also  bring  in  a  great  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts  and  all  of  the  musical  instruments  have  a  very  powerful  sound  to  them  while  a  couple  of  tracks  also  brings  in  a  brief  use  of  spoken  word  parts  and the  whole album  also  remains  very  heavy  from  beginning  to  ending  of  the  recording. 

  Ashcloud  plays  a  style  of  death  metal  that  is  very  old  school  and  rooted  in  the  early 90's  1tradition  and  also manages  to  keep  everything  heavy,  the  production  sounds  very  professional  while  the  lyrics  cover  post apocalyptic  horror,  death  and  darkness  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Ashcloud  are  a  very  great  sounding  old  school  death  metal  band  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  this  musical  genre,  you  should  check  out this  album.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Children  Of  The  Chainsaw"  "Inside  the  Shame  Of  Desire"  "The  Creeping  Unknown"  and  "Written  in  Flesh". 8  out  of  10.

Wired Anxiety/The Delirium Of Negation/Transcending Obscurity Distribution/2016 EP Review

  Wired  Anxiety  are  a  band  from  India  that  plays  a  very  brutal  form  of  death  metal and  this  is  a  review of  their  2016  ep  "The  Delirium  of  Negation"  which  will  be  released  in  August by  Transcending  Obscurity  Distribution.

  A  very  heavy  and  brutal  sound  starts  off  the  ep  along  with  some  death  metal  growls  and  blast  beats  and  you  can  also  hear  all  of  the  musical  instruments  that  are  present  on  the  recording  and  the  riffs  also  get  very  technical  at  times  and  the  music  also  brings  in  more  of  a  modern  style  of  the  genre.

  Throughout  the  recording  you  can  hear  a  great  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts  and  the  growls  can  also  get  very  guttural  at  times  while  the  solos  and  leads  remain  true  to  more  of  a  traditional  death  metal  style  and  some  songs  also  bring  in  a  small  amount  of  spoken word  samples  and  clean  playing  can  also  be  heard  on  the  last  track  and  it  mixes  in  with  the  heavier  side  of  the  music.

  Wired  Anxiety  plays  a style  of  death  metal  that  is  very  brutal  and  modern  while  also  having  its  technical  elements,  the  production  sounds  very  professional  while  the  lyrics  cover  politics  and  struggles  of  life  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Wired  Anxiety  are  a  very  great  sounding brutal  death  metal  band  and  if  you  are a  fan  of  this  musical  genre,  you  should  check out  this  ep.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Test  Subject  Human"  and  "Focus  22".  8  out  of  10.