Metal Music NEWS and interviews

 Special thanks to all the bands that parcipated in the interviews this year. I met so many great musicians from all over the world and they shared their unique experiences in a post-pandemedic world. Special thanks to The Metallist PR for his contacts and contribution to the blog here. Also GrandSounds for pointing me in the right direction finding meany metal bands. I am grateful. Moving forward I will make an attempt to write more personal blog post like this one and hope you might be interested in hearing about my day to day struggle to come up with content for not only this web page but a few others. There will be more promos and photos coming up this year. I will also reach out to several people and try to get in as a guest writer to their sites and gain a some more viewership. Thank you all if you ever made a comment or shared my interviews or pictures. It sure is an exciting time and certainly 2023 will be amazing and welcoming as this past year was. Visit them at grandsoun...

 Today, apocalyptic doom cult Rigor Sardonicous premiere the new track " Caelum Ardere Vidistis " at heavily trafficked web-portal NoCleanSinging.com. The track is the second to be revealed from the band's long-awaited seventh album, Praeparet Bellum, set for international release on January 23rd, 2023 via Memento Mori. Hear Rigor Sardonicous' "Caelum Ardere Vidistis" in its entirety exclusively HERE. True purveyors of aural torment, Rigor Sardonicous are one of the cultest bands of the American death metal underground. Formed in 1988, the long-standing duo of bassist Glenn Hampton and vocalist/guitarist Joseph Fogarazzo remain one of the darkest and creepiest bands calling "death metal" home. Aided by their ever-trustworthy drum-machine, Rigor Sardonicous are utterly lifeless and excruciatingly slow, almost daring the listener to find any "fun" in their all-devouring void of inertia. You could almost qualify their music(k) as doom-death,...

  1-Hello and welcome to Metal Music Midwest, first off, thanks for taking the time to do the interview, could you give our readers a brief description of the group? Where is the band from?     The origin of the band name. An iron asparagus was a spear used by some sedentary tribes. The iron tip, reminiscent of the head of an asparagus, was carved to cause more damage in close combat than a traditional spear.    History of the band:  At first, Iron was a way for me to spit my riffs while drinking beer. With several liters of hops, songs formed. Good enough for me to offer them some serious work. My relatives started humming them. The time came to get some of them out of my head, to make space for others. I contacted a good drummer and I have a friend who plays like an ace, he did the solos. I did the rhythm and the bass. To be honest, I was thinking of going back to work until the next EP. But the songs are well received, so we're going to work on brin...

 This blog started back in 2013. I was very novice about blogging and it just seemed like another place to promote music. I use to call this blog Artemorbid reviews. I began by posting photos from concerts I attended but then quickly shifted to writing music reviews for heavy metal bands. The blog to me was a Fanzine but in a digital format. Thru the first couple of years I began to work with other fanzines that were still doing print. AEA zine was one of the first. I would get cd's in exchange for a review. In time I also started to do interviews for goth scene models. 

 Blood Of The Wolf recently released their fourth album IV: The Declaration Of War Eternal. Dreams Of Consciousness Podcast just featured Mike Coniglio and asked him about the entire process that went into the making of the album. Visit the podcast here  dreamsofconsciousness-255-blood-of-the-wolf You can also visit Dreams Of Consciousness FB   Vist the official Blog Here    

 1-Hello and welcome to Metal Music Midwest, first off, thanks for taking the time to do the interview, could you give our readers a brief description of the group? Where is the band from? Hi it's Mathias - Bassplayer & Vocalist of Soul Grinder.  The band was formed in January 2018 - Bremen (North Germany) Soul Grinder are:  Mathias - Bass & Vocals.  Jan - Guitars & Backing Vocals.  Maté - Drums 2- “Anthems From The Abyss” is the band's new album, how long did it   MATHIAS: I can't say it really exactly, because  Maté and Jan are writing songs all the time, and when we released the previous EP ''Lifeless Obsession'' in 2021, some songs were already written, so it's different from record to record. 3- What musical influence inspires the bands compositions? MATHIAS: Jan and Maté are responsible for the songwriting.  I know they listen to different kinds of metal and rock ... so I think they will probably experiment with several element...

 1- Hello and welcome to Metal Music Midwest, first off, thanks for taking the time to do the interview, could you give our readers a brief description of the group? Where is the band from? My name is Morgan Reid and I’m from Toronto, Canada but I’ve been working and living in Leipzig, Germany for the last 9 years. I’m a metal guitarist, composer and producer, dancer and choreographer. I’m known for my fierce technical shredding, slamming riffs, bombastic windmills and melodic lead lines. This is my solo project, but I’m also notably the guitarist and songwriter for Bloodshot Dawn. 2- "Terran" is your debut album, how long did it take to organize this release? Well after a few years of band life, touring and writing music together… I realized I still very much enjoy writing instrumental guitar focused music and set about finding the sound I really wanted. Searching for my musical vision and what I really wanted to bring to the table. Having the guitar as the main focus of my ...

  1- Hello and welcome to Metal Music Midwest, first off, thanks for taking the time to do the interview, could you give our readers a brief description of the group? Where is the band from? Hello and thanks for your interest.  Aldaaron came to light in the year 2004 in the obscure forests of the french Alps. We are drawing our inspiration from the mysticism of nature and our music is the union of furious epic melodies and icy atmospheric parts. The lyrics express the solitude, sadness and might that some can feel standing alone on a mountaintop or walking by night in a winter forest, communing with the spirit of the age-old woods and the eternally snow-covered summits. 2- Arcane Mountain Cult is the band's third full album, how long did it take to write? Aldaaron is coming back after a long 10 years hiatus. Wen somehow naturally went into a dormant phase after Suprême Silence (2012), when the different members dispersed geographically according to life circumstances.  A...

 Hello and welcome to Metal Music Midwest, first off, thanks for taking the time to do the interview, could you give our readers a brief description of the group? Where is the band from? Thank you for your interest in our band! We are Oaks, an instrumental progressive metal trio from Paris. The band is composed of Thibault on guitar, Julien on bass and myself, Nathan, on drums. Our first album, Genesis Of The Abstract, was released on September 30th.  Genesis of the Abstract is the band's debut full album, how long did it take to write? To be very honest, I was not yet in the band when this album was written and recorded. After that, I think the songs are pretty cool, so I'd say there was some serious work done on it. And then, is time a tangible concept? Bim, mindfuck straight away. What musical influence inspires the band’s compositions? All three of us have various influences. But I think that as far as the band's music is concerned, we all more or less into Tool, Mastod...

 1- Hello and welcome to Metal Music Midwest, first off, thanks for taking the time to do the interview, could you give our readers a brief description of the group? Where is the band from? Johan: “We Are To Blame” is a melodic metal band from Sweden. Fusing influences from progressive, power and melodic death metal together with pop vocals, with a strong focus on writing memorable songs.   2- Duality I is the band's debut EP, how long did it take to write? Johan: Hard to say, but I would guess around 6 months maybe? We spent roughly 2 years before announcing the band in public, but that time included starting the band, recruiting members, working on name, visuals and everything else. Oh, and we recorded 2 EPs in that time.   3- What musical influence inspires the band’s compositions? Johan: I take influence from a lot of things, places and people. But if i had to pick 3 artists or bands that influenced me the most, it would probably be Iron Maiden, In Flames and Evergr...

1-Hello and welcome to Metal Music Midwest, first off, thanks for  taking the time to do the interview, could you give our readers a brief description of the group? Where is the band from? We are a power Trio from Basel, Switzerland, founded in 2014. 2- “Curatio” is the band's upcoming album, how long did it take to write? It took us about 2 years from the idea to the final Recording.   3- What musical influence inspires the bands compositions? We love complex, heavy and harmonical stuff.  Bach, Elder, Cult of Luna, Lucio Dalla, Snarf are some of our go-to artists.   4- The group started in 2014, can you tells us how did you all meet? We met in a bar in Basel where usually none of us would go. None of us has been there since we met there in 2014. I guess that was fate. Now that we think about it, we could arrange our 10 year anniversary there. For the bar that would be a deep stilistic break. 5- The new album title is “Curatio”, can you give us details about the cont...

  1- Hello and welcome to Metal Music Midwest, first off, thanks for taking the time to do the interview, could you give our readers a brief description of the group? Where is the band from? Hi!  I’m from the USA.  The historic city of Philadelphia is home for me and my crew. 2- "Mobocracy Deluxe" is the is your new album, how long did it take to organize this special release? ‘Mobocracy Deluxe’ is a collection of tracks from my 2020 album ‘Mobocracy’ and 2021 split, ‘Blunt’.    In early 2022, Electric Talon Records came to me about a CD release that would bring together my tunes from these two releases along with a few interesting and rare extras for those in my audience that like having a physical recording in their hands.    With the excellent help of rock and metal PR firm The Metallist, we are gearing up for an October 28th release. 3- What musical influences inspire your compositions? Like many similar artists, this is a very long list, but I’ll ...

1- Hello and welcome to Metal Music Midwest, first off, thanks for taking the time to do the interview, could you give our readers a brief description of the group? Where is the band from? Hey! Thank you! Well we’re Nazghor from Uppsala. The band was founded 25th of November 2012, and now at our 10th anniversary of the band we’re releasing our seventh album Seventh Secular Crusade. Since then we have been producing raw, and intense yet melodic and atmospheric black metal of death! 2- Seventh Secular Crusade is the band's 7th full album, how long did it take to write? Hehe, in the beginning of the career we released two albums a year. The thing is, no matter the pace, everything we released we thought was the best we’ve done that far. However now it has been 5 years since we released anything so this is by far the album we’ve been working with the longest. The work with this album started maybe three years ago. But the result is clear - this is the best we’ve ever done and I’ve neve...

  Hello and welcome to Metal Music Midwest, first off, thanks for taking the time to do the interview, could you give our readers a brief description of the group? Where is the band from? First up thanks a lot for the chance and hello to all readers of Metal Music Midwest. We are from Italy and we formed in 1999. Our goal was to make some sxtreme music with our most musical taste as Industrial thrash metal, hardcore and death metyal. We love band as Ministry, Godflesh, Neurosis, Carcass, Red Harvest, early Fear Factory and many others. We have done eight albums and three EP and one Splt album. We had some line up changes during these years. This year we we asre out with our new album called “Alea Iacta Est” for Argonauta Records and promote for Groand Siund Booking. Alea Iacta Est is the band's new full album, how long did it take to write? Alea Iacta Est is our new album and we have employed two yerars to write an record it. Durung the lockdown we were forced to stay at home witho...

  1- Hello andwelcome to Metal Music Midwest, first off, thanks for taking the time todo the interview, could you give our readers a brief description of thegroup? Where is the band from? Welcome. We are Funeral Mass, a melodic black metal from Gdańsk, Poland. 2018 was the year when mine and Jerzy's thrash metal band broke up. We've decided to create some more ambitious music, and show up with something new and better. The ideas showed up very quickly, our music style also started to shape, and we already released two full albums, At the Crossroads of Dark Paths and Forgotten Kingdoms of the North. We are now preparing to release our next work. 2- Shadow of the Raventhrone is the band's 3rd full album, how long did it take to write? Very long time, but I think different musicians would understand this term differently. For us, the writing and recording process of our newest album was for sure the longest one ever. The first ideas started to show up even before the release o...

  1-Hello and welcome to Metal Music Midwest, first off, thanks for  taking the time to do the interview, could you give our readers a brief description of the group?  Where is the band from? Hi everyone, Leo (vocalist) here. Our band is called R3VO and we are based in Berlin.   2- "Fireflies" is the band's debut EP, how long did it take to write? We wrote some songs to experiment with our sound in the time period between 2019 and 2021,  for this EP we selected 5 of these songs. 3- What musical influence inspires the bands compositions? Opeth, Karnivool, RATM, Porcupine Tree, and more. 4- The group started in 2019, can you tells us how did you all meet? We met in music school! Very cute. 5- The album title is "Fireflies", can you give us details about the content and more in depth  meaning to this title? All 5 songs of the EP "Fireflies" cover very different themes in terms of lyrics. In short "Artificial  Pleasure" deals with the concept of ...

  1-Hello and welcome to Metal Music Midwest, first off, thanks for  taking the time to do the interview, could you give our readers a brief description of the group? Where is the band from? Till: Hello, thank you for the interview! We are from Braunschweig / Lower Saxony in Germany which is a quarter million city. We have a classic 5 person line-up with vocals, 2 guitars, bass and drums and we love to play thrash-metal, but we also try to bring in some other styles like prog or classic metal. 2- “Eyes of the Guardians” is the band's latest album, how long did it take to write? Olaf: Some riffs are quite old but the songs were put together between 2015 and 2019. I always have a pool of riffs and songfragments to choose from, when it`s time to bring an album in shape and form. One riff (the refrain of “Scars of damnation”) is even from the nineties. I always had it in the back of my head, but without the second guitar line. It took about 25 years to become a song. “Invisible” i...