One On One With The GRIM 1

ESCAPING AGHARTHA is a North Carolina-based black metal project, themed around deep sea biology. Musically, they capture the vastness and biodiversity of the oceanic depths with an eclectic array of instrumentations. Crushing distortion that weighs like extreme atmospheric pressure at the ocean's floor. Cold guitar tones and searing blast beats that illustrate the hostility of such an unforgiving natural environment. But also, ethereal passages that sing to the beauty this blue world. The prime mover of this project is Avery Dartman, who recorded the majority of their instruments and vocal parts for their 2020 full length album,  Oceanic Womb, along with session drummer CJ Yacoub. I conducted this email interview with Avery about the inspiration behind his aquatic art. What gave you the idea of an oceanic themed band? I'm a biology/ecology major, so the idea came to me when I was finishing my bachelor degree. I thought that if I could combine my love of making music with my pas...

Australia's Hinterkaifeck are named after the site of grisly, unsolved murders that occurred in Germany in 1922. Their spastic black metal is true to their namesake. Prepare to get your head bashed in by their bombastic assault. Hinterkaifeck's Kak  demo is a raw slab of black metal, the way it's meant to sound - like a rambunctious gang of hellions blasting through their set list in a basements, pissed out of their minds as they spew caustic noise, between gulps of booze and smoke clouds. This scrappy, four-song cassette showcases their range between blistering speeds, punk shuffling and doom-paced headbanging sections, despite its short run time.  Kak by Hinterkaifeck My favorite song is "Revenge Of Oedipus," because anything related to a dude who fucks his mom and kills his dad is totally BRUTAL. It leads off like a torpedo, followed by a war-like march, then descends into a sinister crawl to the finish. midsection. The closing track, "Kak" leans into...

Mr. Sarcophagus of DRAINBOW hails from Austin, Texas.  DRAINBOW is a band one will struggle to define. Definitely progressive, with enough artistic flourish, clean vocals and synthesizer interlude to be avant garde, but without the pretentious fluff. And of course, Drainbow is filled to the brim with guitar sorcery. Imagine if a wizard fused the spaciness of Voivod with King Crimson's weirdness, and a few generous helpings of System Of A Down's pop sensibilities. Drainbow's genre-twisting new album  T owers Of Flints  impressively meshes everything from prog rock, to electronic music and death metal into one cohesive, and definitely epic musical adventure across its ever-shifting sonic profile.  Drainbow is led by the overmind known as Mr. Sarcophagus, who I recently interviewed via email below.    So your Tower Of Flints album is all over the place. How did this music cum to be? I looked at this album as an anthology. Each song is has a stro...