The Embraced has a new 7" out titled "Songs of Death". It was released on the 31st of January 2000, and features two long songs from the bands early days! Limited to 500 numbered copies, whereof the first 100 are signed by the band!
Non Serviam's new 7" EP is out! "Play God" is the title, which is a release featuring 2 brand new Non Serviam songs, and as a bonus 2 old demorecordings. This is Swedish Death Metal!
Nocturnal Winds' debut CD "Everlasting Fall" was released in August, and has received very, very good response from the media! Read the reviews, read the bands history, see pictures, and find out more of the band that will haunt your dreams in the years to come...
Non Serviam After 2 albums with the german label, Invasion Records, Non Serviam are aiming higher, and to prove to the world their real form of death metal, they are now back with a limited 7" called "Play God" on our label. We are very proud to give this band the opportunity to show what they stand for, and if you are into Swedish death metal, this limited 7" should be right for YOU! It was released on the 31st of January 2000, and are going fast, so make sure you get it before it's too late!
NEWS
JANUARY 2000: Azaghal's first fullength CD is finally out through Evil Horde Records in Brazil. "Nine Circles of Hell" is the title, and shows Azaghal maybe from a little more "clean sounding" side. Still raw and aggressive ofcourse.
JANUARY 2000: The band will in the near future also have out a split CD with the finish band Mustan Kuun Lapset on Nocturnal Music. We've heard the new material of Azaghal, which is their most recent recording, and we assure you it is not the same Azaghal as before! Be surprised...in a positive way! As well their "Mustamaa" LP will be rereleased on CD in not too long.
AUGUST 1999: The "Harmageddon" 7" is nearly sold out, after only a few months on the market. The only way to obtain this limited piece of music, is from now on directly from us, as we have some few copies in stock...
MAY 1999: Azaghal's first fullength LP is now released. It is titled "Mustamaa", and contains of 40 minutes of aggressive and raw black metal. This LP is only limited to 300 copies though, and are released by Melancholy Promotions in Greece
INTERVIEW
From what sources do you gather the inspiration for Azaghal?
- Lyrically from different books (Dante's "Inferno" has been a big inspiration for me, many lyrics have been born inspired by that book), end of the world/armageddon are also subjects which I like to write about (two of the EP's songs are about armageddon, "Harmagedon" and "kun Aurinko Kuoli" ("When the Sun Died")). And of course hate against christianity/Satanism is the main theme of Azaghal's lyrics as that is why this band was formed: To fight and christianity! -Musically we are inspired by very much the same things as lyrically: darkness and hate. Of course older bands of the genre are a big influence too, like to every other younger bm-band.
You seem to be a rather effective band, with new recordings just about always. How is it you are so effective with new material?
- We'll we rehearse regulary (about 2-3 times a week) so we play a lot and that's why new material comes up a lot too, which is of course great. Well actually the material on the EP and on the second demo is quite old, some of it even written before the first studio demo actually, but those songs didn't fit to the feeling of that demo so we saved them for later use then. At the moment we have 6 new songs ready already that we will record later this month like I said already.
Have you had any response so far on Azaghal?
- yes, we have had both very praising and very bad reviews. The bad reviews are mostly from people who's opinion is none important to us. We have had good response from the people that we respect and that's of course encouraging, altough we wouldn't change anything even if no one would like our stuff. We believe in the stuff we play, we aren't playing black metal for fun or to entertain people.
- Me and Kalma have a folk metal band called Hin Onde together with a guy called Wind. Hin Onde is very different to Azaghal but it's quite equally important with Azaghal, altough we rehearse much more with Azaghal. BTW I heard a rumour that a label called Aftermath might be releasing a 7" from Hin Onde too...(ED: allrighty then...) I also have medieval/fantasy based metal project called Valar, which has just released it's second cass.album "The Arrival of the Dragonlord", containing 40minutes of metal/medieval music in the vein of Summoning, the tape comes with fantastic looking colored pro covers for $5. Kalma also has a project in the same vein as Valar, called Druadan Forest. There have also been/is also some other projects but they are not that important. No, Azaghal is definetly not a side project as Azaghal goes much deeper than just the music.
What are your thoughts about the metal scene in Finland right now? I noticed in the news here that some teenagers were arrested for cannibalism not long ago. Is the scene turning brutal there, or is this just a gang of posers?
- I didn't know personally the ones involved in the muti(i)lation murder and cannibalism, altough they live in the same town as I do. They were some young kids, not really involved in the black metal scene. About Finland's current scene: Here a lot of new "black metal" bands that just try to sound like dimmu borgir and become rockstars. They are a plague to the black metal scene which they desprately try to be a part but can never be. There isn't many real black metal bands here in Finland that I respect.. The only one's are really Warloghe, Helwetti and perhaps Nightside. But speaking of the whole metal scene, here is a lot of good bands: Nocturnal Winds (excelent melodic death metal, a Hyvinkää based band too), ex-Evenfall (also melodic death/heavy metal, they are searching for a new name at the moment), Forever Winter (METAL!), Wind (ambient synth/classical music) and many other's more well known bands.
Any thoughts of the Norwegian metal scene now?
- Of the new/less known black metal bands I think that Keep of Kalessin is perhaps the best. Also Carpathian Forest is really good and so is Urgehal. Then there is of course the big black metal bands like Darkthrone (the best), Immortal, Dodheimsgard etc. that still rule. - When talking about other than black metal bands, my personal favorites are Borknagar, Ved Buens Ende, In The Woods..., Arcturus. Oh, and of course The Embraced hehee.(ED: For the nnnthh time I have to point out that they are NOT black metal!) I would say that norwegian black metal scene is perhaps not the best anymore, but generally speaking the norweigian scene still rules.
How does Azaghal feel about live performances? Has there even been any, or is this just a abstract reality for the band?
- There hasn't yet been any life performances, but we would really like to start performing live as I think our material would kill live! So if anyone wants to offer us a gig get in touch! (How about a Norwegian tour with The Embraced, eh Haavard?)(ED: If you come with the $$$!!)
==========MYRIADS===========
Norwegian Myriads have just been presented to the world by Napalm Records, and I suppose it is no surprise when I say the band is presenting gothic/death metal in the vein of certain other bands on the rooster. Well, the band is not too fond of this description, so maybe it's better to let frontman Alexander explain more about the past and future of Myriads. Take it away...
"In Spheres Without Time" is your debut album. What lies prior to "In Spheres Without Time", both regarding the previous work of the MYRIADS members and also the general story behind MYRIADS.
Rudi previously played in three bands: Zephyrus, which was a thrash metal-band, Exception, which was a pure heavy metal-band, and Dead Flowers, which was a hard-rock-band.
J.P. played in Malpractice, which also was a thrash metal-band. He played together with Frank Claussen, who plays in Theatre Of Tragedy and Dan Stokes, who plays in 122 Stab Wounds. Malpractice released one demo-tape.
Mikael previously played in the black metal-band Majestic and released several demos with this band. He also played in the viking metal-band Aurvandir. They didn't release any demo-tapes while he played in the band. He now plays in the black metal-band A Winter Within who will release a demo-CD soon.
I earlier played in the pop-/rock-band Overfloater, and participated in the recording of a demo-CD with this band. Together with Mona I also played in Twin Obscenity.
It is important for me to say that Myriads never has been a side-project. The band was formed in September 1997, and both Mona and I played in Myriads from the start. Actually I founded the band myself with the ambition to secure a recording contract, to record a CD on a record-label and to play/tour live. All my dreams have come true so far. We will have a Norwegian tour in week 17 together with Atrox.
In October 1997 I heard that Twin Obscenity needed a guitarist. I auditioned for them, and they mentioned that they also needed a female vocalist who could play keyboard. I told them about Mona, and Myriads, and Mona came to practise with Twin Obscenity. In December 1997 we signed, together with the rest of Twin Obscenity, a record deal with Century Media. In the spring of 1998 we participated on the recording of "For blood, honour and soil". In June 1998 Twin Obscenity played at the music-festival "Under the black sun" in Engelsdorf in Germany. After this festival Mona and I had no more interest of playing in Twin Obscenity. The reasons for this was that we did not have much in common with the rest of Twin Obscenity, neither musically or socially. We quit playing in the band in July 1998 to fully concentrate on Myriads.
We recorded our demo-CD, "In spheres without time", in July 1998 at Mansion Studio, produced by _yvind Grdem. The demo-CD was sold out. The 9th of April 1999 Myriads signed a record deal with Napalm Records. In June the same year we recorded our first full-length album, also entitled "In spheres without time", in Mansion Studio. The album was produced by Myriads and Oyvind Grodem, and mastered at Masterhuset. The CD was released all over the world the 22nd of November 1999.
* For those who happen to just hearing samples of the band, it is easy to claim you are another of those "Stavanger"-bands. What will you say is the main difference from MYRIADS and the other bands in this genre, as THEATRE OF TRAGEDY, TRISTANIA, THE SINS OF THY BELOVED etc. etc.
The main difference from Myriads and Theatre Of Tragedy, Tristania and The Sins of Thy Beloved is that our music contains more classical elements. I know people playing in all these bands you mentioned, and they all come from the Stavanger area. In their promotion for "In spheres without time" Napalm Records (which we so far are very satisfied with) call our musical style for atmospherical gothic metal. As I have understood this is the most popular kind of music in Europe right now, so this kind of promotion is fine by me and the rest of Myriads. We feel ourselves that our music defies categorizing. The closest you could get to explain our music is maybe a fusion between metal and classical music.
read more info on the label, magazine and their bands at: AFTERMATH music