FOR THE LOVE OF METAL
“If you’re a fan of extreme metal and you live in North America, it’s likely that you have a strong impulse to attend the continent’s biggest annual festival: Maryland Deathfest. Actually attending the fest, however, isn’t always possible, especially if you live thousands of miles away.”
Part one of Jay H. Gorania’s recap of Maryland Deathfest 2012, with live photos by Albert Mansour.
Currently set to celebrate its Canadian premiere at the NXNE festival in Toronto, Så Jävla Metal is a documentary about the evolution of heavy metal music in Sweden. The film traces the beginnings of heavy metal through hard rock, beginning with bands like Europe, and continuing to trace the development of the sound as the music became heavier. It contrasts the way that Swedish metal grew up in tandem with metal in North America and other places in Europe, specifically in Norway, where the violence of black metal is contrasted again Swedish death metal. Writer and director Yason Hillborg found the time to talk to Hellbound about the documentary, his vision for it and his experiences making it.
After my proclamation earlier this year that Liberteer’s debut album, “Better to Die on Your Feet Than Live on Your Knees” is the front runner for my favourite album of the year, I’m standing by those words 150-fucking-percent. (And yes, I still say that even after fucking Palmerston took like four months to run this second part of this interview!) I’ve been spinning the album a few times daily since last week and am loving it more and more each time. So, I got in touch with main man (well, only man) behind Liberteer’s all-awesome awesomeness, Matthew Widener, for another round of word association. Here’s the resulting silliness.
“This is a mutual strength for Kudlow and Reiner, who are sons of Holocaust survivors. Kudlow believes that “no matter how much money you make, there is never a means to an end” as it is not something one can derive satisfaction from.
Being thrown into a heavy metal abyss in the 80s without a producer, manager or financial support, the band needed extra assistance, but faced challenges with a resilient independence.
“We didn’t have all of that but we still had to survive,” Reiner says. “Through struggle, we enjoyed it.””
Hellbound contributing writer Ola Mazzuca interviews Steve “Lips” Kudlow and Robb Reiner from Canadian metal legends Anvil about how endurance, never giving up and sticking to their guns has helped the Toronto band regain the success they so rightfully deserve. All photography by Frank Mazzuca.
Mares of Thrace stopped in at Hamilton, ON’s This Ain’t Hollywood for a show earlier this month as part of their tour supporting new album The Pilgrimage. Here are some photos from that evening’s performance, as captured by Hellbound’s own Adam Wills.
“Metallic Taste Of Blood is one of the latest projects by Porcupine Tree bassist Colin Edwin. Together with guitarist/composer Eraldo Bernocchi (Obake/Somma), drummer Balazs Pandi (Obake/Merzbow) and keyboardist Jamie Saft (John Zorn/Merzbow) he worked on arguebly one of the best albums of this year. Through some digital magic I was able to speak with three of the four members, namely Colin Edwin (CE), Eraldo Bernocchi (EB) and Balazs Pandi (BP) about the origins of this remarkable musical venture, future projects and the prospects of touring together…”
Interview by Raymond Westland
“This installment of Blasphemous Meals brings you the very best of winter’s warmth from Hellbent for Cooking. These dishes are hearty and fire the soul. Just because winter is over doesn’t mean that heavy food should be eliminated with heavy metal.
Enjoy the following foodie ventures from the Blasphemy Blog test kitchen. Winter may be grim in a headbanger’s world, but spring is pretty cool, so prepare for the season as you warm up to multicultural fare from Sir Lord Baltimore, Trouble and Abigail.”
Cooking and writing by Ola Mazzuca
Jay H. Gorania confesses his never-ending admiration for former Much Music metal VJ Teresa Roncon
Jason Wellwood reviews the brand new Three Inches of Blood album ‘Long Live Heavy Metal’ and also interviews their lead singer, Mr. Cam Pipes.
Prominent American senators and presidential hopefuls have pointed their fingers at Cannibal Corpse, implying the band is partially responsible for society falling apart. Murder victim family members have also done the same. Censorship has reared its ugly head in Germany, a nation where the band has been legally prohibited from playing certain songs. And yet through it all, the Florida-based death metal machine continues to march on, hacking away at everything in sight—musically, that is—nearly a quarter of a century after its inception.
Jay H. Gorania interviews Alex Webster, bassist and founding member of death metal legends Cannibal Corpse.