One On One With The GRIM 1

Newly-signed Season of Mist artists Mora Prokaza boldly call themselves new school black metal. A google translation reveals their name roughly means "sea of leprosy," a fitting term for their visceral assault. Mora Prokaza spit lyrical venom in their native tongue, with hip hop swagger and gold chains. It's a drastic departure from traditional corpse paint and spikes. Their music video "Blacker Than Black" is an in-your-face declaration of war, presented in black and white tones. Hatestorm, one half of these toxic twins, possesses a striking appearance and physical intensity, reminiscent of The Prodigy's Keith Flint. His bandmate, Farmakon, appears with his face covered in gauze, licking up a disgusting, dark fluid.  I  recommend turning on the Youtube subtitles to soak in their poetic poison. While it might not be a perfect translation, it gets the point across, like a stiletto through the lungs.  This Belarusian duo are dripping with nihilism, darkness...

Atomic Cretins are the cure for your spiritual cancer. These South Philly scoundrels honor classic thrash metal and black metal with a lightning-fast assault, coated in grime, and thick as the fuming smokestacks on the outskirts of this historic shitshow of a city. Their upcoming Spiritual Cancer EP will be released on cassette via Suicide Bong Tapes on October 26. This five-song ripper lunges straight for the throat like a broken beer bottle in a back alley brawl. It's fast, no filler, no acoustic interludes, and definitely no clean singing. I felt a strong resemblance to Nuclear Assault's style of cross-over thrash, driven by a dirty, distorted low end, along with Mötörhead's undeniable influence of rolling double bass drums and punk D-beats.  Spiritual Cancer by Atomic Cretins So what fuels these Cretins? I spoke with their guitarist and vocalist A.J. Defeo to find out. How do you describe Atomic Cretins in your own words?   If you listen to our music,...

Bask, as photographed by Arlie Huffman. BASK is a loud as hell southern rock band that blends backwoods brutality with a rustic, Appalachian atmosphere. Their sound varies between progressive, folk-like interludes, fat stoner jams, and rock and roll hooks. But one thing remains consistent with Bask, and that's the high volume. I witnessed Bask recently unload a decibel-raising set in Philadelphia at Kung Fu Necktie, and their music made me feel like I was being dragged through the wilderness to be barbecued alive. Bask has recently joined forces with Season Of Mist to release their next album. Behold, an interview with Bask's Scott Middleton about playing loud and living large. HELL-O Bask. How did your United States tour go?   Hey! The tour went very well. We were able to see a lot of friends and family in some of our favorite cities and even played a couple new places for the first time while trying out some of our new material.  Your upcoming album will be...

Crypt Sermon  The Ruins Of Fading Light  - available via Dark Descent Records Philadelphia's Crypt Sermon have returned with a righteous full length that preaches a perfect gospel of doom. This album kicks ass, and will be included in many best of 2019 lists.  Crypt Sermon might be classified as doom, but this record struck me as a well-rounded offering of classic metal. I heard flashes of Testament, Judas Priest, Metallica, Candlemass and Helloween, all fine bands to be mentioned with. These gentleman know how to play their instruments. You can listen to their other band Daeva (featuring Crypt Sermon's bassist Frank Chin, drummer Enrique Sagarnaga and guitarist Steve Jansson) if you want to hear them unleash a volley of speedy licks and blast beats. By contrast,  The Ruins Of Fading Light  showcases their maturity as songwriters. The riffs are grand, haunting, and rightfully take their time to sink in and set the atmosphere. The term "epic" gets t...

Melissa Moore is a Philadelphia-based guitarist who currently leads the classic metal band Sonja. Previously, she's shredded on ax duty in bands like Rumplestiltskin Grinder and Absu. Moore also runs Toxic Femme, a clothing and apparel company that brings light to trans, non-binary and LGBT+ people via heavy metal fashion. On the musical front, Sonja released a promising two-song digital album  Nylon Nights/Wanting Me Dead  last year, which will win over fans of Mercyful Fate, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. I present to you, a dark transmission with the voice of Sonja, Melissa Moore.  Hell-O Melissa (in my best King Diamond voice). How the hell are YOU? Not bad. Thank you for realizing the Mercyful Fate reference in my name. How do you describe the musical experience that is Sonja, in your own words? What can someone expect at a Sonja concert?   Trans femme fronted dark heavy metal that wishes it was death rock. If Lana Del Rey was the singer of Manowar, I ...

I grew up a thrash obsessed teenager. I lived in the early 2000s like it was 1986. Metallica led to Megadeth, who led to Slayer, who led to Possessed. Then Testament and Exodus, and across the ocean to Kreator, Destruction, and Sodom in Germany, down to Brazil with Sepultura and Sarcofago, and east into Japan with the mighty Sabbat. Each band seemed faster and crazier than the last. Riffs and speed became like a drug, and I needed more. Soon, I came upon the fastest one of them all, the L.A. Caffeine Machine, Dark Angel, who I still consider the speed kings of eighties thrash metal. A band that once clocked in 246 riffs on a single album, more than most bands conjure up in their entire career. Whose drummer, the Gene "the atomic clock" Hoglan, did the impossible task of playing faster than Slayer's Dave Lombardo, and made it sound easy. Dark Angel's landmark 1986 album  Darkness Descends  changed the game with what could be accomplished in terms of musical speed ...

The daily grind of death continues with Tomb Warden. These grindcore maniacs from Virginia released a split this week with Canada's Flash Out.  Clocking in at only ten minutes, this split is a fast and furious banger of death metal D-beats, guttural filth, and of course, a barrage of blasting.  Fans of early DEATH albums, classic Swedish death metal like Nihilist, and the speedy bombardment of extreme noise pioneers like Carcass, Terrorize and Napalm Death will dig these Wardens of the GRIND.  Listen below if you dare! Split w/ Flash Out by Tomb Warden . I'm always curious to learn what makes metal musicians tick, especially when it comes to the twisted style of music that is grindcore, so I interrogated Tomb Warden's Tommy (guitars), John (vokills) and Paul (drums and vokills) about their latest assault.  How did your alliance with Flash Out cum to fruition? TOMMY: It’s all thanks to that documentary Slave to the Grin...