Cult releaes on IRON PEGASUS!

IRON PEGASUS RECORDS have more cool releases besides SADISTIC INTENT new MLP.  A reissue of the  split LP "Dwellers of the Deep"/"The Madness From the Sea" featuring AFTER DEATH [feat. Mike Browning] and chilean UNAUSSPRECHLICHEN KULTEN. Originally released in 2012 this release comes in gatefold sleeve!

The other cool release out on September 1st is the re-releas of MEGIDDO´s  "The Heretic/ Hymns to the Apocalypse" LP Both Cult demos on LP. Cult releases indeed for a great label with good taste for Occult and Raw music!

SADISTIC INTENT - "Reawekening Horrid Thoughts" MLP

Cult Death Metal veterans SADISTINC INTENT strike again with a new release!.  "Reawakening Horrid Thoughts" will be released on September 1st throug Iron Pegasus Records, A MLP etched on one side, available on different version black vinyl, red  vynil [black etching], blue vinyl [black etching] and an extra limited x 100 dark green [white etching] vinyl. Full tracklisting reads like this: 
"Malignant Spirits"
"Horrid Thoughts"
"Fuck off and Die"

CULT METAL SONG!

POISON
"Slaves Of The Crucifix"
Into The Abyss
1993 Midian Creations

OBITUARY - "Visions in My Head" New Track!!!

"Visions In My Head" is the brand new song  unveiled by  OBITUARY  from their upcoming album "Inked In Blood",  to be released on Octover 28th via Relapse Records.  The complete tracklist reads like this: 

Centuries of Lies
Violent by Nature
Pain Inside
Visions in my Head
Back on Top
Violence
Inked in Blood
Deny You
Within a Dying Breed
Minds of the World
Out of Blood
Paralyzed With Fear

PUTRID EVOCATION - "Echoes of Death"

PUTRID EVOCATION from Chile has just finished the recordings of their debut album "Echoes of Death".  Release date is scheduled for November 1st via Xtreem Music.  Songs included on "Echoes of Death" are the following:

Intro [Horror From the Cemetery]
Echoes of Death
Revelation of Hell's Apocalypse
Vengeance From the Crypts
Morbid Sacrilegious
Unquenchable Flame
Horrible Disease
Total Death
Putrid Intercourse [Convulse]

POWER FROM HELL "Infernal Female Desire" [New Song]

 POWER FROM HELL unleashed a brand new track, "Infernal Female Desire"!!!

RIGOR MORTIS New track "Poltergeist"!

New and killer track from RIGOR MORTIS upcoming album "Slaves to the Grave"!,  "Poltergeist"!!!!!

PYRE "Human Hecatomb"

Chaos Records will release  in late September "Human Hecatomb", the debut full-lenght of Russian Death metal band PYRE. Here is the brand new track "Merciless Disease"

INTERVIEW with VULCANO

VULCANO is one of the most important and representative bands from the mighty and prolific Brazilian scene. They have been unleashing  aggressive metal since 1981. They have just released their 10^th full-length “Wholly Wicked” and two more releases will follow soon!  Founding member, guitarist Zhema kindly answered a few questions about the band´s past and recent activities. "Os portais do inferno se abrem, para vocês…"

Hi Zema, how are you? You have been playing gigs and working on the new album, celebrating 30 years of Vulcano, am I right?

We are finish a short tour through South América and preparing  for the fourth European tour that starts in October 03 in Sweden. By the other hand, the newest album "Wholly Wicked" just released and we have more two releasing for next months, a live album recorded in Stockholm and an EP titled "The Awakening of an Ancient and Wicked Soul"

Please tell me about the new album “Wholly Wicked”,  the concept, the artwork and lyrical  meaning.

“Wholly Wicked”, is a intense album and its themes is about all the evil that is behind the revealed religions. The god of those religions is very, very evil, he's always asking for your submission and launching curses, plagues and sponsoring coward wars, etc. The lyrics and the cover concept speak for themselves. Pay attention in  evil eyes of the priest.

The jews, speaks of three “books” that are opened on Rosh Hashanah: “one for the wholly righteous, one for the wholly wicked, and for the beynonim, the ‘in-between. The wholly righteous are at once inscribed and sealed in the book of life; the "Wholly Wicked" are at once inscribed and sealed in the book of death; and the beynonim, the ‘in-between,’ are held suspended from Rosh Hashanah until Yom Kippur.

In this context, our album puts everyone in the same book, 'cause god hate us all.

What is your favourite song of the album and why?

It's hard to choose 'cause each song in that album has its own properties mixed between music and lyrics, but like I need answer you I'll choose two, "Malevolent Mind" by its lyric and "Wholly Wicked" by both, music and lyric.

Would you say that “Wholly Wicked” keeps the style and sound of your previous album “The Man The Key The Beast?

I think so, 'cause between Those two albums does hasn't 12 months.  In some ways "Wholly Wicked" is a sequel of "The Man ...". It has the same path in the elementary, but the final result is different.

Regarding that album, please tell me about the  song “Blood and Champagne”…

This song talks about how idiots and ignorants are the manipulated.  Deals with the great wars and bloody battles are decided in the halls of the most luxurious hotels under toasts with champagne and Cuban cigars.

While radical, religious idiots and losers soldiers fight in the war ensemble, the powerful owner of the money toasting with champagne.

Hipocrisy!

Is it important  to Vulcano to keep away from “modern” sounds and keep the roots and spirit of your early days? Vulcano = Old-school metal?

VULCANO always will be old school metal, 'cause we are older guys and totally into the 80's. I have this kind of metal music running in my vein, so it's impossible for me to write a song different of that!

One of your next releases will be a live album, “Vulcano live II”, please tell me  which songs will include and why did you decide to recorded it in Stockholm.

"Live II" will featuring with 15 songs.  We didn't plan this album, it happened!

The promoter of the gig in Stockholm Fredrik Svensson recorded the entire show and some months after he sent me those stuff. When I listened, wow! It's great!!!

So, I decided to do an official album, believe me, you all will enjoy the gig like you were there!  The track list are: Side one "The Man, the Key, the Beast"-"Church at a Crossroads"-"Dominions of Death"-"Ready to Explode"-"The Signals"-"Awash in Blood"-"Devil’s Forces"-"Death Metal", Side two "Witches’ Sabbath"-"Bloody Vengeance"-"Gates of Iron"-"The evil Always Returns"-"Total Destruição"-"Guerreiros de Satã"-"Legiões Satánicas".  It’ll be released just in vinyl format limited 500 copies.

Almost  30 years difference between “Live II” and your live album debut, what are your memories concerning that show? How were the reactions back then? as it is quite unusual that a band release a live album as a first official recording.

I can remember clearly about that day in August of 1985.

In the Americana city, a town two hours from São Paulo the night was perfect. Around 1.000 people waiting for show. The band invited to open act called "Agnes" played "Black Sabbath" covers and when VULCANO appeared on stage, the fans screaming Vulcano, Vulcano... Angel improvised the most famous frase of VULCANO... "Os portais do inferno se abrem, para vocês, agora, Vulcano" from that moment on only crazy metalheads banging !!!

I resolved to do a live album 'cause Vulcano never get to play in the main scene in São Paulo, so it was necessary to show for São Paulo like Vulcano sounds live.

What were the bands that inspired your style back then? 

Black Sabbath and Motorhead were the bands that inspired our songs.

In the beginning we try to mix the occult and heavy atmosphere of Black Sabbath with the "rock"of Motorhead. Maybe we didn't get, but we tried!

What did you feel to share scene with bands like Sarcófago Sepultura Dorsal Atlantica, Mutilator, Mystifier Sexthrash…what were your feelings about the quality energy and darkness that all those bands showed to the world?

Those bands and others too, in its time formed the front line of the Brazilian Metal Scene. All had potential to be representing our country as equals in Europe and the rest of the world, but we were trapped inside our own country for some incomprehensible reason. Only many years later we get to out to do gigs outside of our country, and some bands broken without getting it! Shame! Just Sepultura, incomprehensible!

Bloody vengeance is seen by many as a cult album and a source of inspiration, what are your feelings towards the album nowadays?

I like very much of this album. It showed me like the simple songs with poor production can be strong and powerful, since you put your heart, fist, will, sweat and honesty.

I think like the fans, great album!

What are your memories from the rehearsal, did you have a special vibe while you were playing and rehearsing those songs?

Our rehearsal were a special party, we spent many hours rehearsing and talking about metal. We did it in my garage every night. The walls were covered with large sheets of white paper where we wrote the lyrics of the songs to do not forget them and the temperature inside the garage threshold of 40°C.

On the albums “anthropophagy” “Who are the true? and “Ratrace”  you decided to change your style, why did you follow that direction and why did the band split after Ratrace?

In fact, the band broke into "Who Are the True?"

Late 80s everything was very confused here and we decided to do this album to mock this scene. We did a few gigs in 1988 and so we stopped. In 1990 at the request of Metalcore we did the "Ratrace" but without any pretension.

About "Anthropophagy" the different style comes from the changing the line up.

What did you do in the meantime since VULCANO's Split?

We went to university and we take care of our families. Arthur "Von Barbarian" created his music school, Angel his tattoo studio, Fernando Levine graduated teacher and about me, engineer.

On the other hand we also continued in music, for example I was part of a band called "Talavera" which was a Heavy Metal in the style of "Black Sabbath"

Tales From The Black Book was the comeback album in 2004, was it difficult to be back on the “business” more than a decade later?

I do not think so, because VULCANO always ran parallel to the "staus quo" prevailing.

I decided to do a new and inedit album, I wrote the songs, went into the studio and recorded it. Months later released the album and we re-present us to the fans.

Why did Angel left the band?, are you still in touch with him?

He had other priorities in his life at that time and he could not stay with us, touring, doing gigs, etc. So he asked to leave. Certainly, we have close contact with him. He lives near from me and we always talk and I always see him in metal shows in our area.

In retrospect, how do you see your career being the only original member and keeping the band alive for so long?

I must to say that I'm not only member since the beginning 'cause Arthur "von barbarian" is with me since 1987 and recorded eight albums, so we are two original members.

I'm feel comfortable nowadays 'cause I'm able to do exactly what I want to do.

How is the current scene in Brazil?

Good scene, but a enormous range of style of metal music, thus I remain into the old style metal bands and this scene is running very well, great bands, many gigs!

What do you thing about the music of nowadays Sepultura and Cavalera Conspiracy?

I do not like this kind of music, in fact I never enjoyed since the days of Metallica and Testament. Sepultura and the Cavalera brothers are great people and musicians, but I don't like the style of their music.

Is there a special gig among all throughout your career, that you remember in a different way for one or other reason?

None special! I remember the good shows, whatever it is, and always the most recent shows are the best for me, for example I have just returned from Chile and were great gigs!

You will release an EP soon, can you unveil details about it?

"The Awakening of an Ancient and Wicked Soul" is something like a soundtrack to a book. Actually three interconnected texts by the same subject which were set to music according to their proposals. This EP has different arrangements exploring tritone intervals both chords as the voices of the instruments and keeping in the same vein as "Wholly Wicked" mixed with sounds that influenced me as a guitarist.

What´s the strangest place and the most shocking place you have been?

In Italy we played in a student center that is built in the middle of two roads and looks more like a watchtower than anything else and the gig needs to happen in two parts 'cause the place is just for 30 people in maximum. Strange!

Thanks for your time, please end this interview in a way you want…

Thanks for the opportunity to present VULCANO speaking about old topics and new ones, also grateful to readers for taking the time to read this interview!

Keep Banging !!!!
Stream "Wholy Wicked"  in its entirety at VULCANO´s official homepage!!!

http://www.vulcanometal.com/

https://www.facebook.com/VULCANOMETAL

ORACULUM - Sorcery of the Damned EP

Chilean Death Metallers ORACULUM will release their debut EP "Sorcery Of The Damned" on October 27th through Invictus Productions. Tracklisting : "The Vessel of Orichalcum", "Primeval Flame", "Passage I" and "Endarkenment".

AT THE GATES "At War With Reality"

AT THE GATES revealed cover artwork for the upcoming albun "At War With Reality". Vocalist Tomas Lindberg explained the album´s theme: "The concept of 'At War with Reality' is based on the literary genre called 'Magic Realism'. The main style within this genre is the notion that 'reality' is ever-changing, and needs to be constantly re-discovered and re-conquered..."

CONDOR/TÖXIK DEATH Split 7"

Norwegian Old-school Black Thrashers CONDOR will release a split 7" with TÖXIK DEATH next August. "Victims of Burning Death" is available for pre-order via Dying Victims Productions and you can listen to CONDOR´s "Chained Victims" at this location.

NECROPHAGIA - "WhiteWorm Cathedral" LP

NECROPHAGIA premiere the new song "Fear The Priest" from their upcoming album "WhiteWorm Cathedral" to be released via Season of Mist on October 28th. Listen to the brand new song at this location.

ATOMIC AGGRESSOR/UNHOLY WAR Split 7"

Chilean classic magazine GRINDER, will include with their new release a split 7" featuring ATOMIC AGGRESSOR and UNHOLY WAR. The 7"EP will feature exclusive tracks from each band. This special issue of the mag completely written in english will be printed and distributed by Doomentia Records outside Chile and should be available in late September/early October.

NECROHOLOCAUST "Holocaustic Goat Metal"

Vancouver´s NECROHOLOCAUST  will release their debut full-lenght "Holocaustic Goat Metal" through Iron Bonehad in late September.  Listen to the promotrack "Sadomasochrist" at  this location. 

INTERVIEW with DEATHRONATION

The questions for this interview were sent a few months ago but due to several reasons, the interview was delayed. The good thing is that  Stiff Old [guitars-vocals] and Muerte [bass] sent me updated info about DEATHRONATION and the imminent release of their debut full-length “Hallow the Dead”…

Hi!, how are you, are you enjoying this cold Winter?
Stiff Old: Ave ! All fine here, thanx! Unfortunately, there was no cold winter in Germany. I guess we had snow for one day, that’s it. Some people may still deny it, but without doubt, the weather changed a lot the last years…  
You have recently recorded your debut LP “Hallow the Dead”, the last news were that you were looking for a label and you were about to do the final mix/mastering of the album, can you please give an update about the current situation?
Well, the good thing with delayed answers is, that sometimes you can give more specific informations when finally answering them. So right now all work on “Hallow the Dead” is finished and we got a deal with Ván-Records. They will release the album on vinyl and cd about September/October 2014.

For all of us, those who are longing to hear your raw Old school metal, could you give us an advance of what is to come? Describe the sound, style and concept that embodies “Hallow the Dead”
“Hallow the Dead” features songs  from the very early period of the bands existence as also songs finally written when the recording-sessions already have begun. The music is about fast beats, doom-parts, melodic parts as well as brutal ones. It will be a bastard of dark and aggressive Death Metal the ancient way. We tried to bring the lyrics, the music and the visuals to one compact unit and I guess we succeded with that. The sound will be much more powerful than on the last releases, but nevertheless still rude. In my opinion the album has a lot of power which becomes – in the opposite of many releases - even more intense from the beginning to the end of the record.
You recorded two songs from the “Exochrism” demo and one from “A Soil Forsaken” demo, can´t wait to hear those killer songs with new sound. Are any of them new versions with new arrangements or just re-recorded versions?
“Realm of Shadows “ from the “A soil forsaken” is the second song we have ever written. We still like playing it live, so it was necessary for us to bring this song on the album. The same is for the two tracks from Exorchrism. The songs and arrangements are still the same like on the demos. But of course some details are different, like some solo-parts and stuff like this. So it’s mainly the sound which makes a difference.
I really like the cover artwork, who was responsible for the concept and drawing?  Which album covers would you choose as your all time faves?
Fortunately with Chris/Misantrophic Art we have a talented friend who did all the work on the layout and design. He painted and designed the layout for many months and we are totally satisified with the result. We gave him a description what we want to express with the artwork and talked a lot about details. Then he was able to transform these ideas into the drawing and enriched it with a lot of own input.
We all prefer covers which show that they are more done with passion than with Photoshopskills.
Muerte:  My all time faves are nearly all misanthropic art and iron maiden covers, south of heaven, seasons in the abyss, painkiller, rust in peace, blessed are the sick, arise, storm of the light’s bane, in the nightside eclipse, opus nocturne, just to name some and the last cover that really kicked ass was the cover of graveyard’s hisingen blues.
Old: coverartworks can impress me in different ways. By a great picture, a great Layout, a deeper Meaning or just because they are cool in some way. I think it’s important to take care for a fitting cover, as an album is a compact product. The cover is connected to the music. That’s the way I grew up and that’s the way I want to spread it.
Tiamat - Astral Sleep; Metallica – Master of Puppets; Slayer: Reign in Blood, South of Heaven, Seasons in the Abyss; Entombed – Left Hand Path; Morbid Angel – Blessed are the Sick; Cathedral – most of them; Running Wild – Death or Glory;

As far as I know you started as Eyesore, how was the beginning of the band? what motivated you to play this music and why did you decide to change the name to DEATHRONATION?
The motivation to start the band was simply to play that kind of music which could hardly be heard in that time: Death Metal the old-school way. The change to DEATHRONATION marks the decision to follow the path of the early 90’s deathmetalbands and to kick-off the non fitting musical influences. This meant to focus on a style which was already dead in that time. It should take some years before more and more people re-discovered the old style of deathmetal.
Are all the band members involved in writing the lyrics?, in what kind of lyrics/themes are you interested? Why do you think that the whole concept of Death is so appealing?
The lyrics are mainly written by me [Stiff Old]. Some parts have been taken over by Goathammer. The lyrics deal with different topics about history, spirituality, mythology, society and the with all related insanity. Always seen from the dark view of death.  I don't know why the topic of death is appealing for other people. For us it's surly perfectly fitting to our kind of music. But this kind of view means also a reduction of the lyrics just being a part of the music. In our case the lyrics give the whole bandconcept a deeper meaning. The lyrics are not just a part of the music. They deal with topics related to the old questions about birth and death: where do we come from? Where do we go to?     
On your first demo, A Soil Forsaken, you used an extract from the “Stigmata” movie as intro, do you like movies that deal with religion and demonic possessions?
Muerte: You mean the intro, right ? that’s actually a sample from “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” movie. Yes I like that kind of movies, but there were a lot of boring movies in the past about possessions and exorcism. Seemed that there were 2-3 new exorcism movies every month, so I started getting bored. My all time fave is of course “the exorcist”. No other movie about exorcism reached that feeling and when I think about, when I saw it first time with maybe 12/13 years… many sleepless nights ! beside “the exorcist”, “evil dead” and “hellraiser” are my faves !

On your old logo you used the head of one of the “Templars” from Amando de Ossorio´s movie Tombs of the Blind Dead, and you also have a nice design of t-shirts with them on it, absolutely killer and total old school! Did you watch all the films from the “blind dead” series? If so, which one do you like most?
Well, the Tombs of the Blind Dead are really cult movies for us. But this is related with the times first seeing them. We were teens, starting with metal music and all related stuff and then these movies appeared at late night in the private tv. The movies have mostly bad scripts, bad actors and are sometimes even boring. But nevertheless…the blind dead themselves look more evil than anything. Don’t listen to the dialogs…just love the atmosphere of these movies. I never forget the blind dead on dead horses riding along the beach. That was EVIL haha. Who the fuck is impressed by computertechnology Ring Ghosts when there are true analog blind dead lurking around haha?
Your second demo Exochrism was also released as digipack with A Soil Forsaken as bonus and it was also released as 12”Lp through Iron Bonehead. How did you get in contact with Iron Bonehead for the vinyl release? How many copies of Exochrism have you sold counting all editions?

If I remember right, we talked with Iron Bonehead at some concert. I don't remember exactly, but anyway we hold the contact via email and soon it was obvious that we will release the stuff at Iron Bonehead. I can't say how many copies of “Exorchrism” have been sold at all, the US/Canada edition digipack was limited to 200 copies. The first CD edition on Deadmasters's Beat Rec. /Godeater Rec. was done with 1000 copies. There are just a few left here. The vinyl edition is limited to 500 copies. The 500 copies of the following Split 7” is already sold out. 
Last year you released a Split 7” with Obscure Infinity through Whispers of Death Records and Iron Bonehead, who came up with the idea of this release? Did you know Obscure Infinity before the 7” release?
I think the idea was from Iron Bonehead. We were talking about doing a 7-Inch some day. Then it turned out to become a split 7". I never heard about Whispers of Death Records before the release and I still don't know who the man behind the label is. It's something else with Obscure Infinity. We already knew Obscure Infinity from a couple of great concerts we played with them before. So this idea was good for us to share a piece of vinyl with them.   
Last year also you did a tour with Obliteration and Degial, “The Sepulchral Rites Tour”, I Interviewed Sindre from Obliteration and I asked him about the tour, he said it was great and had many cool shows! What´s your impression about the tour? Is there one show that you enjoyed most or remember it as special?
Muerte: Yes I agree. Obliteration and Degial are great guys and it was a cool ride and our first european tour. We learned many things on that tour and we’re also looking forward to go on tour again in 2014. I really enjoyed the shows in Sweden. Gothenburg and Stockholm are awesome cities and the swedish people are really great. Unfortunately we had no time to check out the cities, but I’ve been there years ago and I’m always glad, when I visit scandinavia. Beside Sweden, we played nice shows in Belgium, the Netherlands again, Switzerland and Italy too. By the way check out “Presumed Dead” from there. They supported us there. Young and dedicated guys, excellent old school death metal in the veins of the 80’s, early 90’s.
I also asked him about Funny or crazy moments from the tour, now is your time to share some of those funny memories….
Well, maybe waking up in the morning and checking who has the worst hangover was funny. Realising that you’re getting old was less funny haha. The whole tour was really hard and doing a tour means a lot of stress. But we had numerous good moments and a good time at all. We’re crazy people talking a lot of crazy shit. So it’s not easy to pick out some single point.  A funny situation was for sure, when we were in Switzerland and had to switch from the venue to the hostel which was some kilometers away. We drank and smoked a lot that evening and noone was able to drive anymore. So we called a cab. When waiting in front of it for our drummer and our bassplayer, the driver asked where the missing guy is. We said he’s doing an important call. Then he was like: “Ah good, I thought it’s the guy puking next to my car.” Well, he was right…nevertheless he took us with him…

How would you describe a Deathronation gig? What a band has to offer to leave a good impression on the audience?
A Deathronation show is like a ritual for us. It’s serious, dark and 100% old skull death metal cult. We don’t try to be something that we aren’t. What you see on stage is Deathronation and no stupid actors. If it’s possible we use torches, blood and fog on stage. Some people would say these are more black metal elements and that’s of course right, but for us, it’s death metal how it was in the early 90’s. We’re trying to bring the spirit of the old days back and the resonances are most time really good.
Being from Germany I guess that you have somehow been influenced by the early cult works of Sodom, Kreator, Destruction…am I right? What do you think about the latest works from these bands?
Muerte: To be honest, I haven’t heard the last releases of all the bands you named. I guess my last Sodom album was Masquerade in blood, Kreator’s last album was renewal and I have the first 2-3 Destruction cds, but I never was a big Destruction fan. You’re right, the old Kreator and especially Sodom are really good inspirations and we already covered “Magic Dragon” from the “Agent Orange”-Album.. The last german thrash album I bought was the latest Protector album, awesome release and in my eyes an undervalued band. Support ‘em!
How is the current scene in Germany? What bands are you into right now?
Muerte: In the past years the metal underground scene became strong again and  a lot of bands released good stuff. It seems that people are into old school death metal again. There were years where less people listened and played that style of music and I can remember that it was hard to find musicians for a death metal band. German death metal bands I really like are: Wound, Graveyard Ghoul, Venenum, Incarceration, Savagery, Toderlebend and Chapel of Disease who released the best death metal album in the last past years. Beside the “new german death metal wave” we have great bands like Hellish Crossfire, Mechanix, Desaster and a lot of other bands from all metal genres.   
What is the strangest place and the most shocking one that you´ve been?
You mean as a band? Hmmm…many strange places… fucked up venues and stuff like that…but shocking so far… nothing special…In personal life…well, I actually have been to San Salvador these weeks. No easy going there for the gang-violence in the streets there. Before that I have been to different places of war and civil-war like in Syria or Lebanon. As I work as a historian I´m familiar with places like former concentrationcamps and stuff like this. Outstanding places for sure.  
What will be the next steps for the band?
 The official release of “Hallow the Dead” and playing more shows and a tour in autum 2014. And of course working on new material. 
Thanks for the interview, is there anything you would like to add?
Thanks a lot for the interview and the patience with our delay in answering! Keep the flame burning, check out “Hallow the Dead” and see you on tour some day!

http://www.deathronation.de/
https://www.facebook.com/deathronation

NUNSLAUGHTER/MOLOCH 7"

NUNSLAUGHTER will release a new Split 7" toghether with Ukraine´s MOLOCH. The 7" is limited to only 144 hand-numbered copies [first 56 copies on green vinyl, rest are on black vinyl]. Pre-orders available here:  thp.distro@gmail.com

SACROCURSE - "Unholier Master"

Hell´s Headbangers will release SACROCURSE´s debut full-lenght "Unholier Master" next August 9th. [European vinyl version through Iron Bonehead]  Below is the tracklist and the song "Sepulcharal Desolation"
"Sepulchral Desolation", "All Existence Perishes", "Command Demonic Prayers", "Rites Of Perverted Idolatry", "Oath For Eternal Damnation", "C.O.N.V.U.L.S.E.", "Unholier Master", "Ripping Death Solution", "Sulphur Blessing",  "End Of Mankind Universe".

WHIPSTRIKER - "The Return Of The Goat´s Mark"

WHIPSTRIKER will release "The Return Of The Goat´s Mark", 3 tracks recorded in memory of Quorthon.  The 7´´EP will be released by Dying Victims Productions from Germany.  The Tracks are already available as digital download at this location.

RIGOR MORTIS - "Slaves To The Grave"

RIGOR MORTIS returns with a new album, "Slaves To The Grave" will be released on October 7.  As the band previously announced "Slaves To The Grave" will be the last RIGOR MORTIS album and a "swan song” to guitarrist Mike Scaccia, who died on December 23, 2012.  Stream the song "Flesh For Flies"...

RIGOR MORTIS ‘SLAVES TO THE GRAVE’ Tracklist:
1.) Poltergeist
2.) Rain Of Ruin
3.) Flesh For Flies
4.) The Infected
5.) Blood Bath
6.) Ancient Horror
7.) Fragrance Of Corpse
8.) Curse Of The Draugr
9.) Sacramentum Gladiatorum (Scaccia Instrumental)
10.) Ludus Magnus (Guest Vocal appearance by Al Jourgensen)

INTERVIEW with INNER SANCTVM

2012 marked the return of Inner  Sanctvm since their classic debut album  Frozen Souls from 1994. With a renewed line-up including Pentagram Chile´s vocalist Anton Reisenegger “Christi Testamenta” shows the band fresh, with renewed power, but with the aggression, technic and intensity of their early days. Now the band is working on the third album soon to be released. I contacted founding member Heber W. Hammer [guitars] and Francisco [bass] to talk about past, present and future of the Uruguayan band. Enter the Inner Sanctvm... 

Hails Heber, hope you are doing well there!  The release of the second album took many people by surprise, when did you start working of this return of Inner Sanctvm? Were there any other attempts to get Inner Sanctvm back to life?

Heber:  Hello!  Well, I started to work on the second CD a few months before the CD was released, I tried to do something with Andy Viglioni (one of the first drummers of the band) and other musicians but things turned so complicated and stressful that I decided to try something different. To me Andy is one of the best Metal drummers in Uruguay, he also played in LEGEND, he’s very professional and responsible and a nice person to work with. Gustavo Dell from Angkor Vat was on the other guitar back then, he’s a nice guy too.

I tried at least with five singers and four bass players until one day I talked to Francisco and offered him the spot and he said that he would love to become the new bassist for the band (he has been related to Inner since almost the beginning) and then we asked Anton if he was interested and he also said yes. That’s basically the way that everything happened.

How did you contact Anton and rest of the line-up, if I’m not wrong none of them live in Uruguay? Was there any chance to work with Pablo V.L. again?

Heber: We were brainstorming about a possible new singer for the band and Álvaro and Francisco threw a few names to consider and all of them were good options, but one day I talked to Francisco and I asked him what about asking Anton to join? And he said that’s a great idea, then I talked to Álvaro and he shared the same opinion.

I remember that I wrote to Anton and he replied to me saying that he was interested and that he wanted to get a little bit of more information about our ideas and such. By that time Francisco was travelling on vacations to Germany (Hamburg) and as Anton was working for a few days on a city in the south of Germany (right now I can’t remember which one) I told him to give Francisco a call and after they talked everything moved smoothly on.

Francisco: Working with Pablo would have been great, but he’s nowhere to be found and although we tried to get hold of him we didn’t succeed.
Now about our locations, you are right, no one of us is living in South America at the moment, Álvaro is in Italy, Anton is in Spain, and myself (Francisco) I’m located in Sweden.
We see it as a good chance to get the band exposed in Europe, a good chance that we haven’t taken enough advantage yet (LOL).

How long did you work on the concept of Christi Testamenta? What can you tell us about the lyrics, do they meaning differ compared to the lyrics of Frozen Souls?

Heber: I wrote the songs and lyrics and recorded the tracks to show the concept to the rest of the members… that whole process took me about three weeks in total. I made the Frozen Souls music and lyrics when I was a teenager, that was more than two decades ago, I believe the band has a distinctive character now, more personality, it is probably the same but now there’s more technology available to record in a better way, now there are other problems, but this aspect in particular is much better than before.

How was the recording process like?

Francisco: At first I thought that it would be really complicated to approach, but Heber sent us very finished demo version of every song so at the end everything, although not easy, ended up being not as difficult as I thought it would be.
Heber then sent to Álvaro the click track and reference-guitar tracks for him to record the drums, then when the drums were done Álvaro sent the multitrack to Heber to start recording the guitars. After the guitars were ready I continued with the strings session recording the bass guitar tracks.
At the end when all the instruments were recorded Anton added the vocals and we sent the full multitrack to Cristian Rodríguez Lunecke in Chile to start with the mix and mastering process.
The result in my opinion was very good, and even better considering that we recorded every part at different locations and studios, but we managed to keep a very fresh feeling with the album and even if my comment may sound a bit crazy, I think that the album sounds very alive.

How did you get linked up with I Voidhanger Records for the release of Christi Testamenta?

Francisco: We had contacted several labels but we had not managed to sign any deal, mostly because the offers we received included re-releasing “Frozen Souls” first and after some moths to release our new album “Christi Testamenta”. At that time we weren’t interested on that and we really wanted to release our second CD first so we decided to keep searching but at the end we received kind of the same answer all the time.
We then made a deal with a label that I don’t want to say the name of (as Gene Simmons said, even bad publicity is good publicity), and that label gave us a release date and such but then they simply stopped replying us back and such, and obviously they didn’t release the album, so we got VERY disappointed and pissed and in some way we left the album in some sort of stand by for a few months.
At that time Digmetalworld offered us to release “Christi Testamenta” as download only via (Itunes, Amazon, etc) but as I see it now that wasn’t a good decision because the fans of this kind of music want to have some physical release and not only downloads, and also because right after we did this some labels started to tell us that they weren’t interested any longer because we had already released the album on the net, and that would heavily affect the sales.
If was during this time that Gabriele Strano of the Italy’s Aristocrazia webzine wrote me asking if we were still looking for a label to release “Christi Testamenta” because the guy from I, Voidhanger Records was interested to do it, so we closed a deal with him and we are very thankful of both of them.

As a resume and after this couple of years that has passed by, I think that we made many decisions guided by our hearts and not so much by our brains (LOL), so if you ask me now if being able to do things differently we would take a different approach, then the answer is most definitely YES!!!

Let’s take a glimpse to the past, Inner Sanctum arose from the ashes of your previous band Melkor Morgoth, what was Melkor Morogth like? Was the music similar to what Inner Sanctum plays?

Heber:  No, M.M. was very different, I made almost all the music except for a couple of songs, and the lyrics were written by the other member of the band. I wasn’t happy with the band back then, we had very different ideas and musical tastes, I wasn’t happy at all with a couple of lyrics, so I decided to move forward to create Inner Sanctvm and then for this new band (Inner) I wrote all the music and all the lyrics except for Deathless Prophet.

What do you still remember of the recordings of the demos Shadows in the Mirror and Deathless Prophet?

Heber: The “Shadows in the Mirror” demo was recorded mostly because we needed something to send to Chile to start promoting the band, and obviously not only to spread it in that country but everywhere, but at that time 99% of our contacts were located in Chile and we knew people that were already getting exposure in North America and Europe and they were willing to help us with our band.

“Shadows in the Mirror” was recorded almost live in the studio with not so many overdubs and with a very basic set up but it managed to get us some recognition, and if you think of the money we spent for that demo (almost nothing) compared to the good response we got from it the outcome we got is fantastic. 

What are your memories concerning the agreement with Toxic Records from Chile and the long wait until the album was released?

Heber: I left the band after this long wait, back then I was very frustrated with a lot of things in the business and inside the band so I started to move on a different direction musically and with a new band called LEGEND,

Legend was more into technical stuff with keyboards and a lot of complex arrangements, very different to Inner Sanctvm with influences of Shred, Neoclassical and Progressive, etc. 

What do you think of Frozen Souls, and the potential that the band had? Do you still remember many details concerning the recording of the album?

Heber: It was recorded basically as a rehearsal or “live” so, I can’t complain about the result. I was ok. Yeah I remember almost every detail about the recording.

Why did you use two different designs for the album cover, for the Chilean and Uruguayan releases?

Heber: I wasn’t feeling fine with a lot of things inside the business, the band, the manager, etc, so to be fair enough I left the band that I had created. They decided to release the CD in Uruguay with the new guitar player in the photos and credits instead of me and with a different artwork, the reasoning behind it I don´t know. 

After the recording of the album you added two new songs on your set list, and I was a lucky bastard who listened to “The Dagger” and “The Evil Beneath”, does there exist any recording of those great songs? Heber:  Ha!!!  Those songs were good songs, but we needed two tracks out of the CD. I didn’t want to put any song out of the album, but because of one reason or another, those two weren’t recorded for the CD. 

You were one of the few extreme bands from Uruguay that played abroad, what are your memories on those gigs, specially that one with Sarcófago in Chile?

Heber: The first time we travelled to Chile was something that came literally out of nowhere and that, by that time, when telling people that Inner would be playing in Chile everybody thought that we were stoned or drunken hahaha. The first show was great, the people in Chile received us extremely well and treated us like if we had been there for years.
The second show, the one with Sarcófago and Torturer was also very good but at that time we were mostly focused on the recording of our debut album, so it wasn’t the same than playing Chile for the first time.

Francisco: I remember that I arranged that date with Sarcófago because at that time I was very close friend to Mario Bustos of the Metal store Cruel Wretch, and when he told me that he would be producing that concert I asked him to add Inner because the band would be recording their debut album in Santiago (Chile’s capitol) by the same days of the show, so he accepted immediately.  I remember talking to the guys of Sarcófago and Wagner was a VERY educated guy, that was something that I didn’t expect, a very intelligent and friendly guy and extremely good on stage.

Heber, why did you decide to leave Inner Sanctum?

Heber: Because lots of things were moving on a direction that wasn’t what I wanted for the band or myself, so I thought that my option were to either disband Inner or leave, and as I saw that Álvaro and Pablo were very much into the band I decided that the best would be to leave, and so I did.

What did you think when Pablo left the band and no original members played still under the Inner Sanctvm name?

Heber: It was so weird, bizarre, strange, hahaha, I don’t know how to describe the feeling!!! I think that was a mistake, the band sound and lyrics, the voice, the arrangements, everything was completely different, I think they keep the name  for one reason or another, but was a completely different band with the same name.

After Inner Sanctvm you worked on different projects, one was Legend .

Heber: Only with LEGEND, we did a lot of shows, in different places with a great response from different audiences. We were invited to play in a lot of Metal Fests and venues, with bands like Symphony X, Hammerfall, etc. 

Back to present days, you covered “Heaven on their minds” from the "Jesus Christ Superstar". You previously recorded a version of "Somebody Super Like You" included on Frozen Souls [In my opinion, one of the best cover versions I´ve heard] from Brian De Palma's "Phantoms Of The Paradise" so, is there a special appealing to cover songs from movie soundtracks?

Heber: I dedicate a lot of my free time to watch classic movies, Rocky Horror Show, Phantom Of The Paradise, etc, I love watching movies. ”Phantom Of The Paradise” was one of my favorite movies, but the idea came from Álvaro, that was weird too, cause when we started to talk about doing a cover version, he proposed to play that song. Later on this second CD Álvaro came with the idea of “Heaven On Their Minds”  so we did it. 

You also recorded a Cover of Celtic Frost; you used to include Dethroned Emperor on your set list but never recorded it, why did you choose “Return to the Eve” instead?

Heber: These two were a couple of our favorite songs of Celtic Frost, It just happened.., we played since the 80’s these two and sometimes “Procreation Of The Wicked” but Sepultura did that song first,  we played a lot “Dethroned Emperor” live, so we just recorded “Return To The Eve”, that wasn’t anything that we deliberately decided.

What do you listen to nowadays, old-school classics?  Are there new bands that have caught your attention?

Heber: I haven’t listened yet any actual band out there that I like enough. The idea with “Christi Testamenta” was to record a CD which wasn’t in the stores for sale nowadays, is the kind of stuff I would buy without thinking two times about it.

How is the current scene in Uruguay? What do you miss about the scene you once shared with bands like Angkor Vat and Graf Spee?

Heber: The scene is very different now, I don’t miss anything, before there were a few musicians with great ideas and less technology, and now you have a lot of excellent musicians with less ideas and a bunch of technology, but of course there are always exceptions…

You have recently announced the reissue of Frozen Souls, has the release date been fixed yet?

Francisco: No, there’s no release date yet but we have re-mastered the “Frozen Souls” album and the new release will include the “Shadows in the Mirror” and two songs that were recorded before the album and that were never released.
As soon as we have settled a release date we’ll announce it at our sites.

What can you tell about your next album, do you have new material? Will you work with the same line up? Can you advance some details such as song titles and concept?

Francisco: Heber has already written our full third album and now he’s working on demos to send us to start getting used to the new stuff. I have already listened a couple of songs and those are great, I know every band says the same thing about their new stuff but I really think that what Heber wrote is awesome.
This new album will be more oriented in the style of early Inner, I mean “Christi Testamenta” is like a following of “Frozen Souls” mixed with lots of traditional Metal influences, so with this third effort the song writing, at least to me, is more back to the roots of the band.

What´s the strangest place and the most shocking place you have been?

Francisco: This is a difficult question, but perhaps the strangest place that I can remember of is a city in the south of Sweden called Kristianstad, a city that to me has a very weird environment, and we I say this I don’t mean it on the good sense of the word.
Shocking places I’ve been to several, but as this is a Metal interview (LOL) I’ll tell you that a very shocking and scary place I’ve been to are the dungeons of the Castle of Kronborg in the city of Helsingør, Denmark. Down there at the dungeons the mixture of cold temperatures, the wind blowing and the shadows that surround the place makes it a VERY scary place.

Heber: This planet is a valid answer??? (Laughs)

Thanks for your time, last words are yours…

Heber:  Thanks a lot for the support, cheers!

Francisco: Thanks for the interview, I hope that we can meet most of the people reading this when playing live!!!

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