Monthly Archives: November 2017

Reviews, Various

(record review)A PALE DECEMBER-“The Shrine of Primal Fire”

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I am impressed, I can say frankly. Many todays black metal bands tend to be boring or too generic or repetitive, especially many bands consisting of one or two members.

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Fortunately this is not the case with A Pale December. This duo is hailing from mighty Italy, namely Milan. This is their debut album consisting of 7 songs. A Pale December play black metal that I would dare call symphonic melodic black metal. The structure of the songs is nothing new, but that mix of aggressive blast beat parts and atmospheric acoustic  parts backed with skillfull and nice synth parts suits me just fine as I am listening and writing this warm Autumn night. The vocals are harsh but not high pitched and you can actually understand a lot of the lyrics. The song lyrics themselves deal with nature, evil and some personal demons. The drums are programmed and you can actually hear while listening that the drummer is the machine but it is nicely done and I loved every single bit of this album. I did not hear a good symphonic black metal for a long time. I am happy I heard this band and hope that their next releases will be event better.

7,5/10

https://www.facebook.com/apaledecember/

https://apaledecember.bandcamp.com/

 

 

Interviews, Various

(interview)TRIGGER 13

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Trigger 13  mixes horrorpunk and melodic hardcore punk so good that it was really only a matter of time when I will talk to them for my zine. Here is the interview. Enjoy!

WHAT IS SO BEAUTIFUL IN HORRORPUNK? COULD YOU DESCRIBE HOW YOU CAME TO TOUCH WITH IT AND WITH UNDERGROUND SCENE IN GENERAL?

We like Horror movies, serial killers, and sci-fi movies so it seemed like a natural fit. Getting into the mind of a killer is just really interesting, seeing what makes them tick.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR BAND TO THE PEOPLE THAT ARE READING THIS AND NEVER HEARD OF YOU?

A rock-n-roll band with sci-fi undertones and horror overtones. Just a mash up of all the bands we grew up listening to.

A LOT OF PEOPLE THAT I KNOW SAY THAT REAL HORRORPUNK SCENE DONT EXIST, THAT EVERY BAND IS JUST A MISFITS RIPOFF! WHAT IS YOUR OPINION ON THAT? HOW COULD THEY BE PROVEN WRONG?

Well, look at us! Do we sound like The Misfits? I mean we sound pretty unique in the horrorpunk scene so there’s definitely some room for the scene to grow. You do run across a lot of bands who sound like The Misfits, but we try to stray away from that and make our own sound, and we think it shows.

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HAVE YOU EVER PLAYED IN EUROPE? WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE THE CULTURAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN EUROPEAN AND THE U.S.CROWDS?

Unfortunately, we haven’t had the chance to play in Europe yet. It would be incredible to come play there, the European crowds seems to be much more intense, and passionate, and that’s awesome.

HOW WERE YOU SATISFIED WITH THE FEEDBACK ON YOUR LAST ALBUM, WHEN YOU LOOK AND LISTEN TO IT NOW, WOULD YOU CHANGE SOMETHING?

The last album we made was 13 years ago, so obviously we were coming into our sound, but at the time it was made, it holds up pretty well. We’re going to record our new album in December and it’s gonna kick ass! So keep an eye out for that!

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LETS TALK HORROR. ANY PREFERENCES IN THE MANY SUBGENRES OF THE HORROR? MINE ARE SLASHER AND HAMMER HORROR BUT ALSO I AM A SUCKER FOR FOUND FOOTAGE!

Dayve prefers the old school Romero stuff, House of 1000 corpses, and things like that.

Alan and Kevin like Tom Savini and good old fashion zombie/slasher stuff with practical effects.

Ryan likes psychological horror, things that get in your head and makes you question reality and your own moral system. Like the premise behind SAW, but not awful.

HOW IS LIFE AND SCENE IN YOUR HOMETOWN? WHAT DO YOU DO FOR LIVING? ANY BANDS, VENUES, ZINES…?

The scene around here is unfortunately pretty dead in comparison to 10 years ago. Everyone wants to stay at home and not come out to shows anymore. Dayve is a stay at home dad, Ryan is going to college, Kevin is a handyman, and Alan does landscaping. And on Tuesdays we get together and make badass music!

WHAT IS BETTER IN YOUR OPINION-GREAT HORROR MOVIE OR NICELY WRITTEN HORROR BOOK? I MEAN IT IS REALLY HARD TO DECIDE ISNT IT?

Movies for sure. It takes a really special author to capture the tone of horror and movies just have more to offer.

WHAT IS THE FUTURE HOLDING IN STORE FOR TRIGGER 13?

We’re going into the studio this December to record our new album and we have a single that we just recorded called «Reasons (Haunted)» After our record comes out we’ll be looking to play as much as we can and promote our music everywhere that’ll listen.

https://trigger13.bandcamp.com/

 

Reviews

Some Stephen King and Neil Gaiman books I have read lately!

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October is the right month for reading some darker horror and fantasy books, so I have been reading some stuff from one of my favourite writers of all times, Stephen King.

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For starters, there is one short novel/story that I finished in one day, namely Dolans Cadillac. This is not a horror story, it is rather thriller with a classic theme or motive and it is revenge. The main characters wife sees a mafia boss murder someone and for that she gets blown up in her car. Her husband seeks out revenge, and plans to do it on a remote desert highway when mafia boss will travel to Las Vegas in his cadillac. Although short, this is a nice piece of tense thriller with psychological stuff thrown in for good measure. It was really nice to read and feel the main characters rage and anguish in his efforts to avenge his innocent wife. Whether he succeeded or not, read it yourselves!

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This was a short ride, so I decided to stay for a while with Stephen King, so I have read another one, namely Cycle of the Werewolf, upon which was made Silver Bullet, great werewolf themed horror flick. Little town is under siege by the horrible nameless beast. Every full moon the beast comes out and kills people untill it runs into a boy in a wheelchair who manages to guess the real identity of the beast. Who will win in this battle? A boy or the beast? Wow! This one was a great nostalgic return to my childhood years when I was at the same time fascinated and scared by the movie that I mentioned above. The movie follows the book almost to the letter, so if you saw the movie youll know what I am talking, in fact writing about.

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Untill American Gods, Neil Gaiman was practically a mystery to me. I have heard about his works and many of my friends spoke to me about his books, him being one of their favorite writers. So, I decided to read one of his books and it was okay. The epic story about ex con Shadow caught in the war between old and new deities was for me a combination between dark fantasy and road novel, Americana. Since I love heroic sword and sorcery fantasy along with my Star Wars this kind of dark fantasy took some time to work for me. This was an okay novel but for me nothing more. I will of course give Neil Gaiman a chance and read more of his works to get the real picture of him as an author.