If you want to get more information about any of the bands featured at The Metal Moose Show, simply Google the band and/or the song name to find their official website and Facebook page and, more important than that, attend their live concerts and buy their music. Here at The Headbanging Moose you can also find detailed reviews of many other excellent underground bands. Support your local bands… AND FOLLOW THE MOOSE!
On The Metal Moose Show this week:
1. Black Cross Brotherhood – Mediggo
2. Anschlos Amore – Christ Crucified
3. August Redmoon – Bring Down The House
4. Crows Cage – American Monster
5. Decivilize – Top Of The World
6. Nception – Bury Me
7. Nothing Sacred – The Dark
8. Prezzance – Shooting Star
9. Scorned Disciple – Irrational Loyalty
10. Trepidation – Take A Chance
11. Anchors Affliction – Prevail
12. Slice Of Sorrow – Brutal
13. Sleep Signals – Still Sleeping
14. 3 Weeks Later – We Are Revolution
15. Toxsyn – Crumble To Clay
16. Raygun Girls – Nothing Breaks
17. Proscenium – The Hangman
18. Saint Diablo – Adios En Amigos
19. System Slave – Lights Of Seattle
20. Sylvattica – Evil Seeds
21. Pool Of Thorns – Damaged
22. Apothica – Lucy Will Like This Better
Click HERE to listen to this week’s episode on Spreaker.
When you listen to this awesome album by one of the best Hungarian metal acts of all time, you’ll definitely become an aggressor.
Last year, when I reviewed the excellent album Retribution, by Hungarian metallers Ektomorf, I said they were a promising band who were undoubtedly going to grow a lot in the following years due to the passion and energy they always invest into their furious mix of Groove and Thrash Metal. Well, it actually took a lot less than expect for them to reach a whole new level of savagery and become a pleasant reality in the world of heavy music, because the 46 minutes of groove and brutality found in their brand new album, entitled Aggressor, kick fuckin’ ass beyond dispute.
In addition, if you listen to Retribution and Aggressor in a row (a highly recommended activity if you’re at the gym, by the way), you’ll easily notice their evolution as musicians, in special frontman Zoltán “Zoli” Farkas who improved his hostile vocals considerably, therefore providing additional layers of fury to his band’s musicality. Not only that, their lyrics continue to be as violent as hell, totally no holds barred, which together with a more complex songwriting offer the listener one of the best Groove Metal albums of the year in my opinion.
The ominous and primeval Intro sets the tone for the massacre straightforwardly entitled I, where you can clearly see how they stepped up their aggressiveness, cohesiveness and technique if compared to most of their old songs. This is one of those tunes that will make your blood boil in a good way, pumping you up for whatever task you’re about to take on. And the title-track Aggressor is even better, making it hard not to break your fuckin’ neck to those insanely heavy riffs. Can you imagine the level of craziness this tune will cause during their live performances? Besides, the groovy bass lines by Szabolcs “Szabi” Murvai are what give the song its balance and punch, enhancing the overall quality of this great composition. In the dark Holocaust, composed “in the memory of the 6 million victims”, Ektomorf raise the flag of “never forgive, never forget” in Auschwitz, inspired by the music by Sepultura and the horrors his people suffered. If you don’t know, Zoli has European Roma/Gypsy roots, who were also massacred by the Nazi, perfectly depicted by this brutal Groove Metal tune with puncturing guitar lines and solos.
Move On gets closer to what they did in Retribution, delivering American Alternative Metal with extra doses of violence. It’s one of those songs drummer Róbert Jaksa might love playing, pounding his drums violently while the rest of the band extracts the fiercest sounds from their instruments, especially guitarist Tamás “Tomi” Schrottner; while Evil By Nature, featuring the iconic George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher, is a flawless mix of the Groove/Thrash Metal by Ektomorf with the unparalleled Death Metal by Cannibal Corpse. Everyone knows I love the growls by Corpsegrinder, and I have to say they matched perfectly with Ektomorf’s musicality. In other words, this is an amazing vocal duo, like two beasts screaming against the rest of the world, with the lyrics being spot-on showing what the human being truly is (“Hate runs through your veins / Insanity in the unspoken words / Deaf from the screams of the devil / Hungry for blood / Hungry for death”). Furthermore, take a read at Zoli’s comments on how the vocals by Corpsegrinder were recorded, giving the song an even more visceral vibe: “We are friends with the Cannibal Corpse guys since a long time. Last year in November I spoke to George (Fisher) about doing a song together. The recent Budapest show of Cannibal Corpse then was the perfect opportunity to meet and record his parts. So I took small home recording studio gear with me and recorded vocals with George in the dressing room before their show. It was fun and turned out killer! The song’s title is “Evil By Nature” and you can be sure that it will smash your face!”
Getting back to a more traditional approach, in You Can’t Get More they keep thriving with their unique Eastern European metallic groove. At this point of the album it’s undeniable how Zoli has grown as a singer and a musician, showing you don’t need to stop screaming to evolve in your career, don’t you agree? And I’m not sure if you’ve noticed this already but all songs in Aggressor are connected, enhancing the album’s flow and effectiveness, which is the case in Emotionless World, where they add elements of Melodic Death Metal to the music in a sinister ambience crafted by its sick guitar riffs, and despite its chorus not being purely screamed it ends up working pretty well. Eastside showcases an acoustic intro before it gets as belligerent as possible, with its chorus being fueled by hints of Slipknot. It’s yet another awesome composition inspired by the most obscure periods of the Hungarian history, with Zoli and Tomi doing an amazing job firing sheer darkness through their guitars.
Scars is perhaps the most generic of all songs, lacking more creativity to get to the same level of awesomeness as the other songs, whereas Damned Nation is a beautiful display of how modern Groove Metal should be. Moreover, Zoli bursts his lungs out vociferating the song’s name during the chorus of this boisterous chant made for banging our heads nonstop. The next tune, You Lost, sounds extracted from their previous album Retribution, containing lots of similar elements such as groovy bass lines, rhythmic beats and a solid shift from guttural to clean vocals and vice-versa, followed by the simple but effective You’re Not For Me, which focuses on the screams by Zoli and of course the band’s traditional heaviness. Fans of the band will love this nice blend of a fast sounding and a more rhythmic and aggressive chorus that goes on until the song darkly fades away, being replaced by the purely acoustic track Memento, a melancholic tribute to their roots and to their culture, and maybe a smoother version of the “never forgive, never forget” message as you can see by the name of the song.
In summary, what are you waiting for to connect to Ektomorf on Facebook and to purchase Aggressor at the official AFM Recods webstore (I would personally go for the superb Limited Fanbox edition) or on iTunes? If there’s one lesson Ektomorf can teach all of us, it’s for sure the fact that whenever we listen to their primitive and robust metal music, we become true aggressors.
Best moments of the album:I, Aggressor, Evil By Nature and Eastside.
Worst moments of the album:Scars.
Released in 2015 AFM Records
Track listing 1. Intro 0:45
2. I 3:49
3. Aggressor 2:35
4. Holocaust 3:56
5. Move On 3:04
6. Evil By Nature (feat. George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher) 4:23
7. You Can’t Get More 3:22
8. Emotionless World 3:26
9. Eastside 4:17
10. Scars 3:42
11. Damned Nation 2:39
12. You Lost 2:56
13. You’re Not For Me 4:50
14. Memento 3:03
Band members Zoltán “Zoli” Farkas – vocals, guitar
Tamás “Tomi” Schrottner – guitar
Szabolcs “Szabi” Murvai – bass
Róbert Jaksa – drums
Guest musician George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher – additional vocals on “Evil By Nature”
Tarja’s fans never disappoint when she plays in Brazil and, this time, they said goodbye to the “Colours in the Road” tour in a night full of love, gratitude and amazing songs.
Saturday night, October 24, was an example on how multicultural a big city like São Paulo can be. That night, the city hosted several concerts, on small, medium and big venues, of small and big bands and there was no reason to one stay at home. One of the shows that night was of the Finnish singer Tarja Turunen, at Tom Brasil. She came back to the country a year after her last show here and, this time, with nothing less than seven dates in Brazil to end the Colours in the Road tour, that also had dates in Mexico and El Salvador and ends with concerts in Chile, Uruguay and Argentina in November.
The Brazilian band MAD OLD LADY were the opening act of the night. Formed by Eduardo Parras (vocals), Guga Bento (drums), Rafael Agostino (keyboards), Timo Kaarkoski and Tiago de Moura (guitars) and Fernando Giovanetti (bass), they were one of the bands that recently played at Motörhead’s MotörBoat (the only Brazilian act in this edition) and, back to Brazil, they were responsible for entertaining the audience that was waiting for the Finnish soprano. Mad Old Lady are a well-known band by Tarja’s fans for they also were the opening act of her previous concert in town, in 2014. The fans enjoyed an honest concert and saw on stage competent musicians playing songs of their album Power of the Warrior, and even a cover for Metallica’s Enter Sandman, sang by the bassist Fernando, the highlight of their show for many.
Band members
Eduardo Parras – vocals
Timo Kaarkoski – guitars
Tiago de Moura – guitars
Fernando Giovanetti – bass
Rafael Agostino – keyboards
Guga Bento – drums
All the expectations of the night, of course, were kept for TARJA TURUNEN. October marked the tenth year since Tarja left Nightwish and the fans, always loving and supportive, were excited to see her once again on stage. The enthusiasm of the crowd was in high levels with the entrance of the musicians that form Tarja’s band in this tour: Guillermo De Medio (keyboards), Nicolas Polo (drums), Pit Barrett (bass), Alex Scholp and Julian Barrett (guitars). To the sound of the first tunes of The Phantom of the Opera, composed by Baron Lloyd-Webber, Tarja was the last one to come onstage and drove her fans to pure happiness while singing the famous song of the musical.
Smiling and talkative all the time, Tarja showed that she deserves the title of one of the greatest divas of heavy metal: between the songs, she always took a moment to thank the love and support of the fans, in English, Spanish and even in Portuguese, received many presents, like stuffed bears, dolls and love letters, and said that she considers Brazil as her fourth home. The setlist of the night was very generous and mixed songs from her three solo albums, some covers and even a new and yet unreleased song, No Bitter End, that Tarja said it will be in her upcoming album, to be released in 2016. The fans made a beautiful side show following the singer all the time clapping, screaming and singing along with her.
Among the covers, Tarja also revealed being an huge fan of James Bond’s movies and sang Goldfinger, theme song of the movie released in 1964. The Finnish diva also sang Slaying the Dreamer, a Nightwish song that she hasn’t sung since her departure of the band, and the night ended up with Gary Moore’s classic Over the Hills and Far Away, also famous as a cover released by her former band. There was still room in the night for a special birthday celebration to drummer Nicolas Polo, with everybody singing for him and Tarja bringing him a cake in shape of a snare drum. During this moment of the party, Tarja once again showed her gratitude to her loyal fans and said it was a pleasure and an honour to come to Brazil at the beginning and also at the end of this tour. When the show was almost over, during Until My Last Breath, one of the most known songs of her solo career, she came down the stage to salute all the fans that were on the front row.
Undoubtedly that was a memorable and very special night. Tarja is a talented singer like no other, she has a very strong presence and a charisma that few vocalists in heavy metal show in and out of the stage, as well as a legion of really dedicated and passionate fans. If it was an honour for her to play twice in Brazil with this tour, can you imagine how special it was to her fans? Certainly we all are already waiting for the return of this beautiful Finnish diva with the release of the new album, next year.
Setlist
The Phantom of the Opera
500 Letters
Ciarán’s Well
Falling Awake
I Walk Alone
Anteroom of Death
Never Enough
Dark Star
Neverlight
Until Silence
No Bitter End
Goldfinger
Deliverance
Victim of Ritual
Slaying the Dreamer
Die Alive
Until My Last Breath
Over the Hills and Far Away
Band members
Tarja Turunen – vocals
Guillermo De Medio – keyboards
Nicolas Polo – drums
Pit Barrett – bass
Alex Scholp – guitars
Julian Barrett – guitars
In this exclusive must-read interview to The Headbanging Moose, Canadian death metallers Fractal Generator translate into “numbers” their music, their admiration for all things science, the burdens of being an independent metal band in Canada, the end of the world and more!
The Headbanging Moose: Could you please introduce us to Fractal Generator, telling your story from the inception of the band until today? What’s the core factor that keeps the machine moving for the band, I mean, what’s the main reason for the band to exist? And where did you take those eccentric “names” (040118180514, 102119200914 and 040114090512) from?
102119200914: Fractal Generator is 040118180514 (Bass, Vocals), 040114090512 (Drums) & 102119200914 (Guitar, Vocals). The band formed sometime in 2007 as a death metal outlet for a few of the members of Wolven Ancestry. A demo entitled “The Cannibalism of Objects” was released in 2008. The project lay dormant until 2013, when the current incarnation of Fractal Generator was conceived by 040118180514 and 102119200914. We wanted to create a type of dark and atmospheric death metal sound that we hadn’t heard before, with lyrics inspired by various science and science fiction ideas. As for our “names”, they are a numerical representation of our actual first names.
THM: What’s the feeling of having your first full-length album finally released, the excellent Apotheosynthesis, and how did the whole writing, composing and recording process go? What are your goals and expectations now after Apotheosynthesis became a reality?
102119200914: It definitely feels great having finally released Apotheosythesis. We wrote the songs over a six month period in 2013 and refined the album through rehearsal before beginning to record at the end of 2014. 040118180514 has his own recording studio and has a lot of experience recording and mixing. This enabled us to complete the entire album “in-house” while still achieving the level of quality we wanted. Now that Apotheosynthesis is released, our main goal is to play a few shows and start working on our next album. I don’t have many expectations, mostly hope that it will reach the ears of the people who would appreciate it.
THM: As mentioned in our review for the album, one of the most remarkable aspects of it is witnessing the very positive evolution in your compositions from your 2008 demo The Cannibalism of Objects to Apotheosynthesis. Can you share more details with us on how that change has impacted you as a band? What’s different today from when the band started back in 2008?
040118180514: When we did “The Cannibalism of Objects,” Fractal Generator was nothing more than a curious side project, and the album is composed mostly of improvised material. The drums were completely improvised and guitar was added overtop in an improvised fashion. “Apotheosynthesis” retains the spirit of improvisation in that we wrote the riffs using the improvisational method, but the songs were carefully crafted afterward to create full, meaningful compositions with a cathartic feel. I’d say the main difference between the band now and then is the addition of 102119200914, because we work really well together and can generate a lot more ideas when we are bouncing them off each other. The fact that we have 6 more years of experience as musicians under our belts certainly doesn’t hurt either.
THM: It’s always a huge pleasure to see thoughtful and meaningful lyrics in heavy music, which in your case is represented by the addition of science and technology-related topics such as the chaos theory to your music, therefore enhancing its impact and density. Why did you choose to follow that specific path of science and space, mixing it with Progressive and Death Metal? And how unique do you think your music is if compared to the other bands available?
102119200914: We chose to follow this path out of a common interest in science fiction, science, the cosmos and technology. Our style is a combination of all of our favorite elements of death metal and black metal, with an experimental approach. I think our music is unique; we may have similar elements to some but I feel that our general sound is different from anything I’ve come across.
THM: Talking about one of my favorite songs of the album, Face of the Apocalypse, I love the veracity of its lyrics (“Endless replication / A cancerous mutation / Of the mother earth / Merciless consumption / An unprecedented emergency”) in regards to what mankind is doing to the world. Is this indeed your vision of society? What was going through your mind when you wrote the lyrics for this exceptional tune?
040118180514: We knew we wanted to write a song about the human race being forced to leave Earth. As we all know, its a very real scenario that we could face as a species. However, the potential reasons for this happening are many: nuclear fallout, pandemics, environmental/climate change effects, asteroid collision, etc. It could even be something completely unforeseeable. I couldn’t decide on a single scenario I wanted to use, but I did want to focus on scenarios that are fueled by human activity. In this way the song could be seen as a warning against our current destructive ways. In the end I just kinda mixed several of these scenarios together into one crazy pandemonium, and the idea for “Face of the Apocalypse” was born.
THM: In the introspective and melancholic Reflections, it really feels like Fractal Generator wanted to add a conclusion to the story told during the whole album. How important was it for the entire band to have that type of aftermath in Apotheosynthesis? Do you consider it a concept album, and what reactions do you expect from your fans after listening to the entire record?
102119200914: Apotheosynthesis takes influence from a lot of science fiction stories and concepts. In a way it’s sort of a concept album. The songs all follow a loose futuristic storyline in a universe where humans have destroyed their home planet and have to look to space for a new home. The album explores their journey to Mars and beyond. For the track “Reflections” we wanted to shift the spectrum, focusing on the atmospheric and ambient elements more than the speed/ guitar driven approach we have on the rest of the album. We wanted to create the feeling of floating aimlessly in the cold, dark void of space, gasping for breath in a space suit slowly running out of oxygen while contemplating existence/fate. We felt this was a good way to end the album as it might provoke imagination in the listeners.
THM: Who are your main influences in music and anywhere else? I suspect you’re huge fans of the progressiveness and aggressiveness by Death, the futuristic concept by Fear Factory, the darkness by Behemoth, and of course, you’re probably also into the works by renowned scientists such as Carl Sagan and Edward Lorenz. What else makes you want to write music? And do you have any other hobbies that also inspire you in your songwriting?
102119200914: My main musical influences are Myrkskog, Zyklon, Morbid Angel, Death and Hypocrisy. I also draw a lot of influence from science fiction shows/movies, i.e. Tron, Star Trek, Stargate, Babylon 5. As well as story-driven video games like Mass Effect, Deus Ex, The Dig, Half-life, etc. I also find inspiration in reading about new technologies, theories and scientific studies.
Album Review – Fractal Generator / Apotheosynthesis (2015)
040118180514: I have always been a big fan of Scandinavian black metal and it’s been a huge influence. In terms of death metal, I am mostly influenced by the more progressive/experimental Canadian bands, such as Gorguts and Augury. Other than music, I’m very interested in learning about science and technology and how they can be used to make the world a better place. I am also interested in philosophy and the nature of consciousness, which is probably where some of my interest in chaos theory comes from. Sagan and Lorenz, as you mentioned, are of course highly influential in these fields.
THM: Let’s talk about the current Heavy Metal scene in Canada. I’ve had the satisfaction of reviewing some amazing Canadian bands lately the likes of id., Phantom, Display of Decay, Reanimator, Valknacht, Viathyn, Kafirun, among many others. However, it seems that day after day heavy music in Canada is becoming more and more underground, preventing a much wider audience to get in contact with most bands no matter how good they are. What’s your opinion about that, and what can or should be done to change that uncomfortable situation?
040118180514: If you want to talk about why the Canadian metal scene doesn’t get the credit it deserves, I think there are a lot of factors. For one thing, metal isn’t terribly popular among the general population in Canada for whatever reason. I’ve toured the country and you get the sense that metal is mostly met by common people with contempt, or at best, confusion. The people going to shows are mostly only the die-hard metal enthusiasts that we all know and love. The other main factor I would say, is that Canada’s geography and sparse population make it almost unfeasible to tour. Without the ability to tour, our bands are left in their hometowns to stagnate. Our government isn’t exactly helpful with arts funding either, unless you live in Quebec. I suppose one thing we could do to remedy the situation is to keep the conservative party out of Ottawa.
THM: How have your scheduling of live performances and your search for a record label been since the release of Apotheosynthesis? What other big challenges have Fractal Generator faced so far as a heavy band in a not-so-heavy world?
040118180514: We’ve played a handful of shows so far and they’ve been great. We haven’t really searched for a record label yet. I think that you mostly have to wait for a label to come to you. However, the entire structure of the music industry has changed so much, I sometimes wonder if labels might soon become the redundant middle-man in between the bands themselves and the media outlets that promote them. The revenue just isn’t there anymore to be able to feed that many mouths. Bands are going to have to take on a lot more responsibility, and I think it’s something we can pull off.
THM: A big thank you for your time, we at The Headbanging Moose really appreciate that. Do you have any final words to all headbangers in Canada and all over the world reading this interview?
102119200914: Thanks for the interview and thanks for supporting underground metal!!
When society asks you what you want to do with your life, you simply Answer With Metal.
When I first saw Canadian Heavy Metal act Answer With Metal, opening for German metallers Primal Fear here in Toronto in 2014, I had a very good impression of the band even without knowing absolutely anything about their music, banging my head and raising my fists to their powerful sound during the entire concert. Well, that’s what happens when you have a talented group of musicians delivering a well-balanced fusion of Thrash, Power and Heavy Metal, and that’s what you will find in their brand new full-length album, entitled Handling The Blade.
After releasing a few demos and a self-titled debut album since their inception back in 2008, this five-piece band from Stouffville, Ontario, Canada doesn’t hide their passion for icons such as Iron Maiden, Dio, Primal Fear, Megadeth, Children of Bodom, among others, translating this devotion to traditional heavy music into a spree of excellent compositions in Handling The Blade. Moreover, not only their new album pays a very honest homage to their metal heroes, but it also provides the listener their own touch of creativity and feeling, adding layers of electricity to what is already a thrilling display of Heavy Metal. In other words, I dare you to find a single moment of boredom or insipidity in the entire album, and if you don’t believe me just hit play and you’ll see how good Answer With Metal are.
Would the intro Bring Out Your Dead be a tribute to the legendary scene from the all-time classic movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail? Anyway, when the music starts in the awesome The Plague what we have is a feast of old school riffs, rhythmic beats and high-pitched vocals, or everything we love from the bottom of our hearts in traditional Heavy Metal, working pretty much as a badass “business card” by lead singer Dan Nielsen. Highly influenced by bands such as Iced Earth, Megadeth and Primal Fear (and blending the musicality from all of them together), Marked For Death presents guitarists Andrew Jarvis and Matt Hadaway on fire with their shredding, accompanied by the forceful beats by drummer Alejandro Gonzalez, while Angel Of Rain leans towards the same fountain where Iron Maiden and Judas Priest have been recharging their power for decades. In addition, its awesome guitar lines complement the excellent job done by Dan on vocals, enhancing the song’s final punch.
In Tomb Of The Unknown King, bassist Jon Stallan kicks things off with his dark bass lines before the entire band comes delivering a very traditional sonority, evolving to an epic tune that will please all fans of complex metal music. Needless to say, with a name like that you can imagine how potent its lyrics are, and I’m sure you’ll have a good time singing them together with the band. Now let’s travel back in time to the 70’s with Electric Woman, an exciting chant by this skillful nonstop Heavy Metal machine that sounds like an old classic by Deep Purple or Thin Lizzy. It’s impossible not to enjoy this song, in special its electrifying chorus, and pay good attention to the synchronicity between guitars and bass as they do a great job in keeping the music cohesive and vibrant the entire time.
Then we have Forbidden, another great tune full of feeling and energy where all band members have outstanding performances, but it’s Dan once again who steals the show with his potent vocal lines; followed by the title-track, Handling The Blade, which couldn’t sound more exciting thanks to Jon and Alejandro providing the rest of the band the perfect environment for delivering powerful guitar riffs and solos, thrilling screams and huge doses of electricity. In other words, it’s a perfect mix of traditional Heavy Metal with Thrash and Speed Metal, tailored for old school metalheads like us.
And those flaming guitars don’t give any sign of slowing down as they keep kicking ass in the last two songs of the album. Gates Of Hell, which name exhales the might from the 80’s by itself, takes progressiveness and heaviness to the second power, with highlights to the amazing riffs and bass lines halfway through it, whereas if you thought they would close the album with an acoustic ballad or an introspective song you’ll be surprised (and kicked in the head) by Heavens On Its Way. This song brings more of their high-octane metal music, with Alejandro sounding as if he wanted to destroy his drum kit before the album is over. In addition to that, its chaotic ending is so gripping you’ll get stunned and, consequently, avid for more of the music by this up-and-coming Canadian band.
As aforementioned, there isn’t a single second where Answer With Metal sound uninspired, tired or bland in Handling The Blade, an excellent album by a band that’s poised to become one of the big names of the metallic scene in Canada in a not-so-distant future. And if you want to get in touch with them, go check their Facebook page, YouTube channel and ReverbNation profile, and grab your copy of Handling The Blade at their official Big Cartel page. After enjoying this rousing exhibit of Heavy Metal, if anyone asks you what you want to do with your life from now on, I bet you already know the answer, right?
Best moments of the album:The Plague, Electric Woman and Handling The Blade.
Worst moments of the album: None.
Released in 2015 Independent
Track listing 1. Bring Out Your Dead 1:15
2. The Plague 3:38
3. Marked For Death 3:22
4. Angel Of Rain 5:25
5. Tomb Of The Unknown King 5:27
6. Electric Woman 4:56
7. Forbidden 5:52
8. Handling The Blade 5:55
9. Gates Of Hell 4:44
10. Heavens On Its Way 4:19
Band members Dan Nielsen – vocals
Andrew Jarvis – lead guitar
Matt Hadaway – rhythm guitar
Jon Stallan – bass guitar
Alejandro Gonzalez – drums
If you want to get more information about any of the bands featured at The Metal Moose Show, simply Google the band and/or the song name to find their official website and Facebook page and, more important than that, attend their live concerts and buy their music. Here at The Headbanging Moose you can find a detailed review of Portuguese Death Metal band Festering (just click on the link below to read the review). Support your local bands… AND FOLLOW THE MOOSE!
On The Metal Moose Show this week:
1. Bloodwraith – The Return Of Winter Darkness
2. Between The Fallen – LCDLL
3. Aeon’S Fall – The Ideals Of Modernity
4. Demons Within – God Of Man
5. Fires Of Vermilion – One Call
6. Hatecrowned – Newborn Serpent
7. Khors – Flame Of Eternity
8. Knights Of The Remnant – Mind Of The Devil
9. Last Day Dying – Happily Never After
10. Numbers Game – Ikillovich
11. Scanner – Living To The Emptiest
12. Skin Drone – Death Sentance
13. Festering – Infected
14. Dictatoreyes – Zerstorer
15. Hornwood Fell – Walking In The Woods
16. Krysthla – Praise The In Flesh
17. Warcurse – Severed Crosses
18. Veldes – Woe Eater
19. Aeliana – Deviate
20. Gravewitch – Hunted By The Dead
Click HERE to listen to this week’s episode on Spreaker.
What be this beast here that lies deep… asleep right in the heart of me?
With the year of 2015 almost coming to an end, we metalheads must keep on rockin’ as loud as we can, and in order to spice things up a little let’s talk about a stunning ebony girl full of attitude, energy and passion for heavy music. Hailing from Clarksville, Tennesee, United States, the fifth largest city in the state behind Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville and Chattanooga, respectively, breaking down all gender and racial barriers comes the beautiful Alexis Brown, the electrifying frontwoman of American Metalcore band Straight Line Stitch and one of the most prominent black women in heavy music today.
Alexis started in music in her childhood playing violin and the cello, and of course she has always been a singer, with her background being from all kinds, genres and subgenres of music. Despite having such a hardcore attitude on stage with SLS, Alexis hasn’t been into metal music since the beginning: because she is a black girl, she thought she should be doing R&B music instead of anything else, but thanks to her stepfather and her brother she started developing her love and passion for Heavy Metal. Besides, Alexis herself thought that if she had continued with R&B, she would have become just one more black girl doing that. Not that she doesn’t enjoy the unique voice of R&B singers such as Billie Holiday and Stevie Nicks, but she truly wanted to do and be something different in her life and career, and metal ended up being the perfect fit for her vocal range and style.
Before joining SLS, Alexis was part of a Hard Rock band called FSN for five years, and she still remains friends with all original members. After FSN traded out some concerts with SLS, she fell in love with their music, and after some talks with the drummer for SLS she was invited to join the band. A couple of weeks later she ended up accepting the challenge and moving to Knoxville. Formed in 2000, SLS had just released a demo and an EP before she joined the band in 2003, which basically means there’s no SLS without Alexis Brown and vice-versa today. After her debut album with the band in 2006, entitled To Be Godlike, she has already recorded the EP The Word Made Flesh (2007) and the self-titled EP Straight Line Stitch (2014), two full-length albums named When Skies Wash Ashore (2008) and The Fight of Our Lives (2011), and more recently a new EP entitled Transparency (2015). Although she’s always on tour with SLS, mainly around the United States and some very specific dates in the UK, Canada and the Netherlands, our tattooed goddess mentioned she would love to take her music to completely different and distant places like Hawaii, Australia, Japan, South America and Russia.
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Because Metalcore and Hardcore always have a huge focus on vocals, SLS were very lucky to find Alexis in their path and to be able to have her join the band. Not only her guttural vocals are amazing, as you can see in the powerful tracks Conversion and Remission, but also her clean singing is way above average as in the smooth One Reason. You can also take a listen at her awesome vocal range and performance in other excellent songs like Black Veil, Taste of Ashes and Never See the Day.
When asked about the increasing exposure and acceptance women in metal have been getting in the past few years, our high-minded diva mentioned that although this is indeed very positive, we shouldn’t forget women have always had a huge impact in heavy music, with names such as Wendy O. Williams, Joan Jett and Lita Ford being some of the pioneers, rocking our world for decades already.
Alexis has a very eclectic taste for music: her iPod contains music by Drake, Bee Gees, Barbara Streisand (by the way, she loves her voice), an English Rock band from the 60’s called The Zombies (famous for their debut single She’s Not There, from 1964), as well as many new and indie bands. In regards to her hobbies outside music, she mentioned she loves watching old horror movies and reading lots of Harlequin romance books.
And finally, when asked about the craziest thing that has ever happened to her on the road, Alexis said that she met and kissed somebody famous once, but she didn’t mention who that person was out of respect for his privacy. I guess the question here is not just who the guy was, because that’s too bland and do not represent how blessed he ended up being. We should scream the question, it has to represent what it is to be kissed by such an amazing girl, something like “WHO WAS THAT MOTHERFUCKIN’ LUCKY BASTARD?”
“To me every show is memorable be it good or bad. It’s memorable when the whole crowd is singing all the words to our music, and it’s also memorable when some stupid heckler tells me to show my boobs.” – Alexis Brown
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