Even more remarkable, however, is that after all that time, the debut album, when it finally comes, should sound like just another demo.

In fact, when one considers the improvements in demo recordings over the last ten years, often it sounds more like a rehearsal. To call the production basic would be overstating the case, and one can’t help but wonder whether the promo CDs feature an unmixed version of the album or whether this is actually the final product.

‘Under A Torn Sky’ is such a frustrating listen that it’s hard to be positive. It’s difficult to focus, for example, on some of the nice leads strewn throughout the eight tracks (such as towards the end of ‘The Burning Midnight’) or the nice initial build up to ‘Of What May Become’.

Some of the arrangements are reminiscent of the brilliant While Heaven Wept, and some nice meaty riffs call to mind some of the great English doom bands, like Solstice, Warning and other less well known acts such as Mourn and Ashen Mortality.

The album’s redeeming features – and there are some – are simply overwhelmed by the awful sound, and further buried by James Kilmurray’s penetrating, grating vocals (his doleful lamenting might not even be so bad, if it wasn’t as prominent in the (un)mix).

Quite what Unsilence and their label PsycheDOOMelic were thinking in releasing ‘Under A Torn Sky’ remains a mystery. Maybe after 17 years all involved decided it was time to release an album no matter what.

But, having persevered this long, surely it would have been wiser to wait that bit longer and finish the album before putting it out there, and just maybe make the most of the potential that is buried in the music.

1.7 / 5 - DBM ::: 11/03/10

New vocalist Brian Langley in particular is to be admired for adding to the ferocity of it all by really dragging out the screams past the point where you’d expect them to finish; it’s almost as if he decided during recording that this already brutal album wasn’t vocally aggressive enough, and it really adds to the level of care you can feel that the band took in making this.

The guitars practically trip over themselves in the sheer haste and fury on display. Solos are short and used sparingly; there’s simply no time for guitar wankery; the rest of the band intend to utterly pummel the listener’s ears, and they’re not waiting around for any member.

No song symbolizes this more than album highlight ‘Deceiver’ which genuinely feels like being battered inside your head by total aggression. No review hyperbole here either, listening to that track you’d be better off sitting down. It’ll hammer you.

The whole album sounds chaotic as hell, but in such a tightly controlled fashion; dirty as muck but impeccably timed. This music is filthy as fuck, and begs repeat listens. It’s then an odd choice why they chose such cover art – a deep, quiet, mystical cosmos doesn’t really reflect the fact that listening to this feels like getting booted in the head.

The use of samples too has to be seriously commended. Tyrant’s Blood have managed to pick the perfect samples for the two tracks that have them, they’re not too long, don’t sound stupid, and suit the aggression of the songs down to the ground. Honestly, no band I’ve ever heard has done it as aptly as these guys, it just works so well, particularly in ‘Empire Of Acheron.’

This is just a really enjoyable listen, enhanced by the spot on production. There’s no threat of digital cleanliness here, it sounds analogue and metal as fuck. It’s perfectly paced for a single listening session in that it lasts for just the right length of time for black thrash, it’s aggressive as hell, and it’s well worth a pickup.

4.1 / 5 - Dónal McBrien ::: 11/03/10

He was unerringly accurate, and a longer review would have been superfluous. What followed next in the Misfits catalogue was an exercise in stalling, with only a single EP of two 1997 demos in 2006.

Now, ten years after the incredible “Famous Monsters”, and the lamented departure of Michale Graves, Jerry has finally realised that’s it’s time to put some new and original material out there and realise that Misfits vocalists have always done all the writing. How does he get on now that he’s the singer and the onus is on him?

Well, it’s a two song record, which speaks volumes by itself. It was released in a strictly limited ultra collectable edition of 1000 red vinyl only. Then it was shamelessly repressed in green vinyl, again limited, after the original 1000 had been sold, again pushing the perception of Misfits stuff being extremely desirable and must-haves for a limited number of superfans.

A cynic would feel that this is meant to deflect attention away from the music, and hide the fact that this is the first material Jerry Only has composed on his own without the powerful songwriting talents of Graves or Danzig to latch on to. And it shows really who the brains were behind the Misfits of old - it’s plain that Jerry can neither write a good song nor sing a good song.

Both songs here are standard monster movie fare, without the sci-fi menace of the Danzig era nor the introspective human evil style of the Graves stuff. But they are so unbelievably catchy, you’ll be singing them in your head for the foreseeable future.

However, considering the decade-long wait on new material, the fact that both songs aren’t absolutely killer is a major detraction from the overall enjoyment. ‘Twilight Of The Dead’ in particular is just a derivative of ‘Mars Attacks’ mixed with ‘Bruiser’.

That’s not to say it’s not catchy – it’s catchy as hell, but it’s just so damned two dimensional. There’s just nothing to drag this B-movie music out of B-side territory. Title track ‘Land Of The Dead’ is similar fare, but apocalyptically short, and cuts out just as it’s getting good. In fact, the entire record is 4:59 long. For a 2 track 12” ten years in the making, that was pretty expensive to buy, it just seems like very little value for money.

This reeks of Misfits by numbers really. Horror movie lyrics, simplistic metalpunk music, loads of woah-oh-ohs, fast paced and catchy as hell. But it just doesn’t feel like a Misfits record. There’s no heart or soul here, and the fact that both songs have the word “Dead” in the title speaks volumes for where most fans perceive the band to be these days.

However, there’s simply no escaping that the songs, despite their second rate status, are hook-laden and really good at sticking in your head. They’re fun to listen to. If Michale Graves was singing and writing on this release, it’d be killer. As such, because Jerry Only can’t sing, it gets a relatively low, but above average mark. Still milking the cash cow, but perhaps not quite ready to go out to pasture yet.

3.3 / 5 - Dónal McBrien ::: 04/03/10

This is the band, after all, that went from ‘Soulside Journey’ to ‘A Blaze In The Northern Sky’ - and it’s also a band that retained, even through the heyday of their black metal, a independently minded and sardonic sense of humour about the whole enterprise. The folly was ours for not seeing it.

What they’re doing now has been largely satisfying, but certainly hit and miss. Each album of their newly crusty, rough metal outings has had definite winners (’Canadian Metal’), but has been sullied slightly by a sense of Must Try Harder. Which is ironic, given that’s exactly what they’re trying not to do.

The reason people feel that way though is because under the sloppy delivery and faux dont-care performances, you know - indeed you can feel - that the band desperately love this stuff. You can hear it in their renewed enthusiasm and wry, funny lyrics.

It takes a few spins, but ‘Circle The Wagons’ is full of superb songs. They’ve taken this deadly seriously, and it’s resulted in several excellent tracks - alongside some new, can-crushing standards.

They’ve started trying. They’ve left the sloppiness behind and started writing genuine, and even reasonably serious, old metal songs.

There’s a huge Voivod influence. Just check ‘Stylized Corpse’, which creeps along in a dark fug of its own foul mist. It’s one of the album’s standout tracks, and shows the underlying singwriting talent that Darkthrone never lost for a moment.

They’ve gotten a lot more determined, and you can hear it in here. ‘Running For Borders’ is a lot more serious in feel, more considered, and a fine example of vintage metal.

Elsewhere, tracks like ‘Those Treasures Will Never Befall You’, ‘Circle The Wagons’ and ‘Black Mountain Totem’ show how determined they are to simply kick out classic 80’s metal in shameless obeisance to the format.

It’s in this regard that the lo fi production really works; it recalls the productions of old albums where bands simply played tight and together in rooms. It’s all the more powerful for it.

That humour is always present though. If there’s a new beer drinking anthem, and this is now the band that excells at them, it’s ‘I Am The Working Class’. Once again Fenriz has outdone himself with a slap in the face to daft black metal elitism, cocking a snook to the legions who took their cues from Darkthrone in the first place.

I’d call ‘Circle The Wagons’ a pretty mandatory purchase. The arch sarcasm of the whole thing disguises their determination and dedication to proper old metal. They want you to like this, as much as they’d never admit it. They wouldnt have written songs this honest, catchy or brilliant otherwise.

Buy it, both for the car and for the hearth.

4.2 / 5 - Ciaran Tracey ::: 02/03/10

DUG OUT - Classics from the Depths no.1

The blogging section of the site has proceeded in a start-stop manner now for the best part of a year, and it’s fair to say that it’s yielded mixed results.

Personally, I thought Fiacra’s epic account of a trip to see the mighty Manilla Road in Belgium wins hands down in terms of just being a great read, with Donal’s passionate declaration of love towards In Solitude’s debut album being close behind it.

I haven’t been writing a great deal in blog form mainly because the forum always has the edge in terms of quickly disseminating news about bands, gigs and releases, and me repeating that sort of stuff in blog form seems kind of pointless.

However, as metal fans, one thing we can uniformly agree on is the satisfaction that pulling out a neglected old classic from the music collection can bring. In this series of blog posts, I’ll do my best to give an outlook on what I deem to be albums that are not only excellent musically, but have had a particular personal value attached to them.

That is to say they’re releases that have a special aura about them and remind you of a particular time and place. Seeing as this is the first ‘Dug Out’ post, I’ll kick things off with two releases, one of which is a quite recent and by a group still relatively swathed in obscurity, and the other being a bone fide classic of the mid 90’s.

In The Woods… ‘Omnio’

I pulled this gem out of the CD stack about a month ago, ripped it onto the mp3 player and promptly forgot about it. But it got a listen about a week ago and has been on heavy duty rotation ever since.

Someone on the forum once described the Norwegians on this album as trying to shove so many ideas and progressions into a what’s still essentially a Metal album that it’s almost bursting at the seams, but still works so well.

I was still pretty young when ‘Omnio’ was released, and will continuously hate the fact that I missed their legendary gig with Katatonia in Dublin all those years ago.

However, that doesn’t diminish one iota how indulgently sublime it is as a record, as well as how off-the-wall and genuinely adventurous it sounds despite our now distant viewpoint.

The opener, ‘’299,796 KM/S’’ is undeniably a sprawling mess of a song. This should most definitely not put you off though, as the richness of what the band present to the listener is made abundantly clear after just a few minutes.

The fact that vocalist Transeth comes floating into the song with what is essentially a yodel at the two minute mark, instantly presenting a passionate, raw duet with “Soprana” Larson’s lilting tones before a break of tremolo aggression comes pounding through gives a good indication of how untamed their expression is going to be on this record.

It’s effect has not dulled over a decade and a half since it was recorded, still tugging at the listener’s heartstrings in all the right ways.

It’s probably true to say that the majority of the Metal fraternity probably prefer In the Woods…’s first album, ‘Heart of the Ages’, to this sophomore effort. A similarly impressive album, it married the atavistic roar of early Burzum with an expansive sound that simply didn’t exist up until that point.

But more than that, that album presented the band as a complete aesthetic package, coming complete with naturalist mission statement and earnest photos of the band gathered around nocturnal bonfires. Many people have accused Wolves in the Throne Room of pilfering the band’s early image, and no without good reason.

The crucial difference is that ‘Omnio’ showed that In the Woods had the ability to shift from their sylvan cradle of “forests so cold” to the broad world beyond and diversify their sounds accordingly.

It’s not hard to hear the tinges of ‘70s progressive rock and psychedelia at the fringes of this album, a theme that the group were soon to fully recognise with inclusion of a cover of ‘White Rabbit’ in their live set and a set of involved musicians that were almost a collective in their numbers.

In many ways, the only way to properly enjoy ‘Omnio’ is to just get lost in it. I’ve had reason to take many late night bus journeys in the past weeks for various reasons (often with a few scoops taken), and this just works perfectly as a soundtrack as the lights of Dublin Airport stream by in the night.

It is the sort of record that demands attention, and sitting down to listen to just a single track is somewhat pointless, rather like watching a single scene in a long and distended movie.

In fact the lack of normal chorus and verse sections often makes the record feel like it’s a lot longer than it’s hour length suggests, as movement after movement lilts by.

The space-rock elements of ‘Omnio – Bardo’, the second of the trilogy of songs that close the album is just one of the many moments of heedless expression. It’s obvious after a single listen that the band were content to do things their own way and forget all and any objections.

Sometimes you catch yourself thinking that they’re taking it a bit too far and should really rein it in a bit, but that’s to miss the spirit of the record.

There’s real freedom way that Transeth stalks his way across the tracks, caught in mental torment of while female backing vocals and guitar effects lament in the background. Call it what you might, but it’s got certainly got buckets of heart.

So what about the highlights? It’s hard to choose in an album of so many differing musical peaks.

The transition in ‘I Am Your Flesh’ from the opening snarl of distorted aggression to the emotive line of “How Can I Feel Love / When Love was Something I Never Had?” is a personal favorite, and in a way that transition encapsulates the nature of that strange group of bands that In The Woods was part of in Norway.

Taking the raw fury of their native brand of Black Metal and injecting emotions and sounds that would seem completely alien to the forebears of that genre was seemingly the name of the game in the mid ‘90s.

It’s easy to see the similarities between this particular record and others by their countrymen who populated the Misanthropy Records roster, such as the deeply melancholic ‘Pity Love’ by Beyond Dawn and the willful oddness of Ved Buens Ende’s ‘Written in Waters’.

Often forgotten under the shock factor of the Black Metal events of Norway in the early nineties, the fact that the same country spawned this brilliant brand of avant-garde weirdness deserves similar focus and appreciation.

‘Omnio’ certainly sounds of the era it was made in. But beneath the new-age 90’s stylings of the cover art and the bands frumpy appearance at the time, they knew how to write powerful and epic songs that defy the listener’s expectations.

As such, they deserve to be cherished as much today as ever. Over six tracks and a wide gamlet of textures and soaring melodies, the record remains a lasting monument to the levels of musical ecstacy a bunch of frumpy teenagers from Kristiansand could reach when they put their minds to it.

Check out a raw but great rendition of the opening track here, complete with Transith at his extravagant best.

The Ruins of Beverast - ‘Foulest Semen of a Sheltered Elite’

This one certainly hasn’t stood the test of time yet to be viewed as a classic, but it is one that got a lot of spins in 2009 and was dug out for the first time in a while last week as the foulest weather of a shitty climate returned to Dublin. I’m glad I did give it another run through, as it’s as rewarding a listen as I’ve heard in a long time.

Ruins of Beverast have been on the go now for some time, being the one man project of Alexander von Meilenwald and having released two previous albums that were quite highly praised. Of those, ‘Unlock the Shrine’ in the one which I can vouch for, being a relatively orthodox Black Metal record blessed with a dark and unwholesome atmosphere.

Special attention given to slow, twisted melody over speed particularlly marks it out as being well worth investigating. The thing about ‘Foulest Semen…’ is that is departs from this template to a significant degree, positioning Mellenwald in a strange area of overlapping styles that really is quite unique.

The opening track, ‘I Raised This Stone as a Ghastly Memorial’ is the undoubtedly the showboat of the album, and its doleful opening and choral vocals proceed to set the tone. The vocals employed here are seriously striking, being a mix of monkish chanting that veers close to an almost ‘80’s Goth style of croon.

It’s an odd one to be sure, but mixed with necrotic pronunciations and hypnotic guitar passages, it builds up to an absorbing climax, slowly striking gold all the way.

The album is a long one, but in a similar way to ‘Omnio’, it packs a different punch at every turn. Things run the gauntlet from ripping inferno on ‘God’s Ensanguined Bestiaries’ to what is essentially a clutch of very effective melodic numbers towards the end of the album that are nonetheless dolefully nihilistic in their tone.

None of the tracks proper fall under eight minutes, so attention is required but rewarded throughout, as the skeletal intonations of Mellenwald arch over a landscape of twisting riffs and elusive melodies.

It’s the difficultly one can experience with this album in pinning it down that makes coming back to it so compulsive. There are outright great songs on it, but even after plenty of listens, it’s hard to come to terms with it as a contained album, as the songs bleed into each other in a very unconventional manner. It seems clear that the music’s architect has managed to tap into a very expansive well of eldtricht sound.

Those clean choruses of blasting noise seem wrapped up somewhat in the velvety smooth production that wash over the listener, with the insistence of a sample at the start of the final track that ‘’Your Body is Losing All Sensation…’’ seeming to hit the mark with eerie accuracy.

It is an atmospheric listen, but one that’s in constant shift. The change in cover art from the previous albums of usual BM style to the almost absurdly cartoonish yet somehow disquieting art on this one seems well timed. The vinyl edition itself comes with a bonus track of ‘Where the Serpents Ever Dwell’ by Tiamat, a band whose early spirit is alluded to here in subtle but unmistakable ways.

A varied yet engrossing listen, the sheer scale and richness of this one makes coming back to it an easy thing to do. A definite one that you need to be in the mood for, but if you fancy something interesting to chew on, then look no further.

Sixteen years later, Fear Factory have finally produced an album worthy to be called its sequel.

The first thing that strikes you about ‘Mechanize’ is its heightened aggression. The second thing that strikes you is that for the most part, the unassailable Gene Holgan is responsible for it.

His drums across this great album are the perfect next step from Strapping Young Lad. He’s as clipped and tight as Raymond Hererra, but a thousand times more inventive. His talents have let Fear Factory get harder and more concentrated, and - in fact - more metal.

I’ll admit to not having heard anything Fear Factory have put out in years. The risible ‘Remanufacture’ was reason enough to lose faith in them, and you’d be right not to give ‘Digimortal’ onward the steam of your piss. It was awful.

This however is different.

Tracks like ‘Industrial Discipline’ show why. The futuristic keyboard swathes immediately recall their classic record, while the soaring vocal has returned to effect. Great facets. All the more so because they come after riffing as sharp as a scalpel and as cold as ice.

Some have already complained that this album is just too similar to ‘Demanufacture’, not varied enough, and generally stuck in the past. Ironic, given that this is precisely what’s demanded of most bands. So which is it to be?

As far as Fear Factory are concerned, I’m not really bothered if it lacks integrity to rehash earlier records. For a start, they’re clearly better. Secondly, they tried the alternative and it was manifestly balls.

All of this means that, dull tracks like ‘Oxidiser’ notwisthstanding, this is a pleasurably aggressive album recalling the sounds and atmospheres of Fear Factory’s highest moment. Back that up with a drumming powerhouse, powerful and atmospheric tracks like ‘Controlled Demolition’, a newfound sense of Metal, and you’ve got a pretty good spin.

If you ever held ‘Demanufacture’ in high esteem, pick this up. It’s a decently augmented trip down memory lane. If you’ve been put off by their deacade and a half in the wilderness, do so as well. It pays to remember that so many bands - including Meshuggah - drew much inspiration from Fear Factory. They’re one of metal’s real originals, and in that capacity at least, this reaffirmation of their sound deserves to be given a chance.

3.7 / 5 - Ciaran Tracey ::: 21/02/10

This latest tape improves upon it substantially. Like last time, the opening track is far from the best on here. ‘Bitter Dusk Of Futures Past’, as it’s entitled, does nothing more than tee up the ear for the type of sound the demo has going on - crap, but at least well balanced. Perhaps in that regard it’s well placed.

After that however, it’s all an upward curve. At least two tracks on this tape are something that could genuinely be described as a worthy constribution to now growing Irish BM canon. Of these two standouts, ‘Monuments To Ruin’ is the pick. It shows a genuinely fierceness, fantastic dark melody, and a thickness of tone that belies its cassette recording. I’d say it’s really got to be heard - a full band would make it a striking experience, I’m quite sure.

Following immediately on, ‘Fuilchoille’ has a more Burzum feel. It’s more clanging, jarring and discordant, but satsifyingly so. It’s a worthy effort, and sounds like the real thing. That’s something that sticks out about FNS - it’s apparent at all points that this isnt done for kudos, but that the author has a genuine musical agenda.

And that’s about the height of it. Four solid tracks, two disposable but two that definitely punch high above their weight. If FNS could write an EP’s worth of ‘Monuments To Ruin’, get it well recorded then out onto the live circuit, they’d be attacking with the same force that Sol Axis did so briefly.

It’s a while off, and it is indeed a big ‘if’. Nonetheless, tracks like this hint at above average quality at an early stage.

-Ciaran Tracey ::: 21/02/10

With the faint sounds of main support band Anaal Nathrakh bulldozing the downstairs crowd filtering through the air, Metal Ireland catches up for a few words with Marduk guitarist, founder and general mainman Morgan Håkansson backstage in Dublin.

The group are in the midst of a swift UK and Ireland jaunt, and tonight they’re blazing a trail through the same Dublin venue in which they played a much celebrated gig a few years ago.

Relaxed, with gin and tonic in hand and band mates busy gearing up for their blitz of a set in the next room, the Swede is quick to point out that the group have been busy living up to their reputation as a touring machine in recent months.

***

MI - So the first and obvious question, have you been enjoying the tour so far?

Morgan - Yeah, of course, but it depends on how far back you mean because we’ve been on the road for some time. Even before the last album (’Wormwood’) came out we were touring. We were on the road by August and the album came out in October. We actually did fifteen dates in Poland, starting on the day that it came out. That was like 600-1200 people per show.

MI - Pretty hefty.

Morgan - Yeah, it was great, honestly it’s one of the best countries to tour as a Metal band.

MI. - You seem to enjoy a great reception in Poland, you even did your last live album, ‘Warschau’ there.

Morgan - We’ve always had an extremely dedicated fan base in Poland. It’s a pleasure to play there. After that run of dates, we went home to Sweden, and then went out and did 30 dates around Europe. After that, we came home again for about nine days and then flew over to the U.S. for about a month. And then again after that, we went home for a week and we’re out now doing another twenty nine shows in a row.

MI. - How did you find the US? A lot of groups find the treks out there a little daunting.

Morgan - I know what you mean, but honestly it was a great experience. We had our headlining tour, covering 26 States and get through a lot of the country. Thankfully we were playing in the right places, in the major cities, and we were getting really good turnouts. We really enjoyed being back after something like eight years since the last time we were there and we’re looking forward to getting back there this year.

M.I. - Can people tonight expect you to mix a lot of ‘Wormwood’ material into the current set you’re playing?

Morgan - You know it depends on the amount of stage time we have, but if we’re playing for something like an hour, we try to get at least four songs off it in there. And then later on, we’d switch things around and maybe do a different set of songs from the album. Tonight we’ll probably do three or four new ones. I don’t have any particular favorites amongst them, as they’re really written to be played live. I honestly enjoy playing all the songs off it equally.

We don’t really think too about playing them live while writing. We are a band with those basic elements of guitar, drums, vocals and bass, so it all works out nicely when they are they’re played live regardless.

M.I. - ‘Wormwood’ certainly sounds different from the previous albums, maybe even diversifying even more from ROM 5:12.

Morgan - I can imagine people thinking so, but it’s really nothing intentional. As a band, we don’t ever sit down and say ”Let’s do a diverse sounding album”. We work with music and lyrics and try to create a strong force. If it turns out heavy and fast, great, but what’s important for me is that the lyrics are reflected in the music itself, and the other way round too. If the end result happens to be fast, slow, more mid-tempo or whatever, it doesn’t really matter. I don’t feel any great difference when I play a Plague Angel song or a Wormwood song or whatever.

M.I. - You’re on the road with Anaal Nathrakh for this tour of the UK and Ireland. Do you think your two bands have much in common?

Morgan - I still think we are two bands that do something completely different, but I like that band, ever since their first album actually. For me, it’s great to tour with them, because they’re one of my favorite bands from the UK. I do enjoy them onstage, they’re very harsh and have a great attack to their style. I think touring the UK and Ireland and Scotland, they’re probably one of the best bands from the UK that we could be out with. Maybe not quite up there with old Saxon and Iron Maiden, but they’re still pretty damn good.

M.I. – Right, but you’d obviously jump at the offer if Bruce and Iron Maiden got on the phone and said they wanted you to open for their next tour, right?

Morgan - Of course, but I don’t think it’s very reasonable that would ever happen! I wouldn’t mind doing it. You know, back in the day, more extreme bands like Morbid Angel got offers for bigger tours, and there were accusations of selling out, which I don’t think at all was a concern. As long as you get up there and do what you do, deliver your message, that’s what matters. It’s great if you get bigger exposure for doing that. But of course we like to tour by ourselves too.

M.I. - Do you think the old division of Black and Death metal bands not mixing and touring together isn’t the case? It just doesn’t matter at all any more?

Morgan - There’s no serious division between the two genres for me. I consider the best Death Metal bands to be satanic, and the best Black Metal bands to be death worshipping. I believe that we are a combination like that in some way as well.

M.I. - You’re out on the road so much, do you get time to check out many new bands? Is there anyone you’ve been listening to a lot lately.

Morgan - Well, I don’t really want to name-drop too much, but I do listen to a lot of different music and check out new things. One band that I’m really enjoying at the moment is Infernal War, a band from Poland, they’re a band that I really like. But you know, I’m into everything from classic rock to industrial.

M.I. - Would you take much influence from industrial? I’m thinking of a particular track from Plague Angel here, ‘Death March’, when you collaborated with Arditi.

Morgan - Yeah, to be honest industrial music is one of those few music styles that still really inspires me. I think when you hear something completely different like that, it inspires me to write music myself, moreso than when you listen to a lot of other metal bands. Industrial music would often serve as our intro music, even back in like ‘92, and I think industrial music and Black Metal is a really great combination.

In the future, I would really love to go on tour with some industrial bands. For example, I would like to take out that Swedish group we collaborated with, Arditi. There’s another one, MZ 412, who I would also like to play live with.

M.I. - Even though Arditi have yet to appear on the live stage?

Morgan - That’s right, so far anyway. Sure, I would love to convince them to, and I’ve talked to them over the years, but it can always be difficult to make something like that a reality. That being said, we always encourage them to do it. We’ll have to see.

M.I. - Speaking of collaborations, an obvious point of interest in Ireland is the collaboration you did with Primordial’s singer, Alan ‘Nemtheanga’ Averill, for the track ‘Accuser Opposer’ on ‘ROM 5:12’ (Note: later to be perfectly recreated onstage and effortlessly winning the song of the night award). Do you have a relationship stretching back very far?

Morgan - We wouldn’t have been friends from the early days, but we’d always have known of each other. But then we joined up for a tour, and we would be hanging out for like 20 days, and at the end we said ‘Oh next time we go into the studio, maybe then we can do something’. Of course, that was talk when you’re out drinking on the road, but we didn’t forget the idea. When we were back home, we were writing this one song and “This is perfect for Alan”. So we flew him over and that was that. What I like about his voice is that it’s powerful and clear but still has that sort of rough side to it. He’s a genuine personality.

M.I. - Would you have any favorites from their discography?

Morgan - I think that, not their latest, but the one before it (’The Gathering Wilderness’) is one of my favourite albums ever. Somewhere near my Top 5 Albums ever, as in any case I never get tired of it. It’s something really special that I always have in my car with me when I’m driving.

M.I. - Regarding singers, Mortuus has been with Marduk now for three albums and can hardly be considered the ‘new’ member in any way anymore. How do you feel when the inevitable comparisons with his project, Funeral Mist, is made?

Morgan - Well of course I feel it’s bound to happen. I think when you’re working with someone who is the main guy in another band, and you’re working together musically so much, it tends to paint a little bit of the project, if I might say so anyway. It’s only natural that people think that.

M.I. - One specific similarity I noticed was the use of the preacher sample in ‘Whorecrown’, which is somewhat similar to one used on the last Funeral Mist album.

Morgan - I know the one you mean, but they are not the same. People sometimes have said that, but it’s a different recording and it’s a different preacher. That’s just the way it is sometimes, people see similarities like that between things, but I don’t get it myself.

You understand that we’re not a band that really sits down and reflects and thinks about our direction to a great degree. We certainly don’t think, oh, we should do this and that, we just constantly march and do what we want to do musically. We feel inspired, we’re just four individuals who have the same commitment to this music.

Some bands have to sit down for a year after they write an album and decide what they’re going to do. Not us, we know what we do. We’re fueled up like a King Tiger and we just want go get out there. I have no interest in sitting down for a year to think about what I want to do. I work with music and lyrics and I like what it is I do.

MI - So when you step out onstage in about a half an hour’s time, is that where you feel most at home?

Morgan - Yeah, I’m definitely a live guy. Even when we rehearse, I’m so much more into that than being in a studio, because you get everything at once and you can face the full power of it all. Even if the sound is bad or someone fucks up, you get the energy from everybody at once. It’s a magical little thing.

MI - ‘Wormwood’ has been out now for a few months. Do you have any idea of the direction of the next release or is it something that purely comes together when you sit down to work on it?

Morgan - I do have ideas because we’ve already been working on it. Of course we’ve no full songs done, but I’ve been recording a lot of riffs and lyric ideas lately, and so have the other guys. What we do is we all work on our own with whatever we come up with, and then when we get back together it all falls into place.

M.I. - You’ll be touring futher afield than the U.S. in the coming year, and going into Latin America. People say that the crowds there are really nuts and dedicated, would you find that as the case?

Morgan - Well, you know fans can be really crazy everywhere, but we’ve played in El Salvador to 2,500 people and but that really was crazy. I do think that the fact that the area is so Catholic has something to do with it, and you can find the level of enthusiasm is so different to Europe. Over here, you’ve been having shows for twenty years, but over there, they’re understandably hunger. There’s a fanaticism over there for the experience.

M.I. – And finally, it’s a somewhat clichéd question, but do you notice anything different about the Irish crowds when you do play here?

Morgan - Well, one thing thing I honestly do remember is that when we do tours like this, London and whatever Irish gigs there are are always really good and the crowds are energetic. We usually play places like Bradford too, but even if we play the smaller cities and the turnout isn’t quite so good, it’s still fine because it means we have been here and we have been marching across this territory. And that’s what matters, to be out there and to deliver, whether we’re playing to a hundred people in some club in Leicester or two thousand in Honduras.

Words by Lorcan Archer ::: 09/02/10
Photography by Arkadi Borissov.

The order of the day is for pacey, metal-infected crunchiness and the band set about it with audible enthusiasm. Opener ‘The Light is Retreating’ sets the template for the group, with rasped vocals and a crunchy guitar tone riding that relentless beat the forms the core of every band that’s worshipped at the altar of Discharge since the mid 80’s.

Thankfully though, they’ve paid plenty of attention to the mix, which is powerful and strident enough to produce shades of early Bolt Thrower, with those guitars really crashing along, track after track.

Some bands decide to work off the basis of tried and trusted styles to produce something a bit more varied or expansive. This is not on Bulletridden’s agenda. The band sound content and completely at ease lashing through a rapid progression of hefty crust, and the diversions, including conspicious melodies, are at a bare minimum.

If they do anything though, it’s play to their strengths. The atavistic roar of frontman Martin Ridden is an asset worth it’s weight in studded jackets, and an ear for the occasional gang chorus to punctuate the satisfying racket is evident, and most effectively employed during the kick-ass ‘Monorchid’.

Bands can all too often get carried away with samples on these sort of records, but we only get a handful sparsely used here (including that fox from ‘Antichrist’) and things are all the better for it. Aside from these slight distractions, it’s business as usual, with meaty chord progressions aplenty and a steady hammering of the kit.

Clocking in at twenty two minutes, this is a brief but reasonably brutal affair. Closer ‘Do This in Remembrance of Me’ breaks the mold just slightly, with a simple but effective vocal hook acting a closing change to the album’s flow. While going nowhere near reinventing the wheel, this is an honest and effective concoction that no doubt delivers the goods live. If you’re a fan of all things crust ridden and reeking of d-beat, the primal oomph here is worthy of checking out at the very least.

2.8 / 5 - Lorcan Archer ::: 02/02/10

Bulletridden play Skinny’s tribute gig at Fibber McGee’s, Dublin on February 20th, with Coldwar, Coitus, Paranoid Visions and many more.