THE BEYOND

Who are you and what do you do in your band?

Hi, we are The Beyond from Italy. We are a death metal band, and our music is inspired by some of the most successful death metal bands of the 90s, especially Obituary, Morbid Angel, Autopsy and Cannibal Corpse.

When/where was your band formed? 

 We started as a band back in 2011: Michele, Federico and Moreno were coming from a previous experience with another local death metal band called Deformed Agony which disbanded in the same year. We come in touch with Michel and Corrado who were interested in forming a band and playing some death metal and who were already playing with Final Fright. After some months of rehearsals we started composing our songs and in in a couple of years recorded our debut EP "Decaying Death".

Why did you choose to play Death Metal?

As I said, most of us already had previous experiences in various underground death metal bands, so I can say that death metal has always been the genre that we wanted to play. So we can't really say it was a choice, it was something that came out spontaneously.

How do you compose your music? Does only one guy do everything or does everyone contribute?

We try to work as much as we can at home, and bring new riffs ideas to the rehearsing room where we can work together to find the better way to compose the songs. Basically we start from some guitar tunes ,add drums and practice until we find a structure that satisfies us. Finally we add the lyrics and the vocals. Most of riffs come from our guitar player Michele, while our drummer Corrado usually takes care of the lyrics, but in the rehearsing room everybody works and can give his opinion on everything.

Tell us about your lyrics, writing, inspiration etc.

Our inspiration come from actuality, literature and history. We try to put together our inputs and describe everything from a cynic and dystopic point of view.

Is there an ideology behind your band?

No, we just really enjoy playing together and writing our stuff. But we have a strong addiction to beer, pussy and weed, does that count? Seriously speaking, we've always been fans of the old school and this is what we want to keep on playing.

How do you see the state of Death Metal music these days in your country and in general?

We think death metal is an unpopular kind of music, but this is good for the scene, because in our country, like in the others, you can play what you want without compromises and limits. It's difficult to find gigs when you play extreme music, but when you understand death metal is the only way you want to follow, you pay this price and go on.

What are your long term plans as a band? What do you want to achieve?

 At the moment we are working on the final songs that will appear on our debut album, we are really looking forward to enter the recording studio but we are taking all the time that is necessary to refine all the tracks in every possible detail. Once recorded our goal is to play live as much as we can to promote the album and our band, in Italy and, we hope, abroad as well and keep composing new material. Long term speaking all of us know we're not going to be the new Cannibal Corpse or Obituary, we just want to have fun playing our music and hopefully make new fans.

Name an other Death Metal band from your country that everyone should hear.

There are some great death metal bands here in Italy: we really can't pick just one so we'd like to suggest to have a listen to Presumed Dead, Sepolcro, Skorbutiks, Fuoco Fatuo, Assumption, Into Darkness, Voids Of Vomit to name a few.

Free word

Thanks for your interest in The Beyond, we really appreciate it! If anybody is curious about what we do, our Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/TheBeyondDeathMetal, and our "Decaying Death" EP is available for streaming on Bandcamp at http://thebeyonddeathmetal.bandcamp.com/ and on Spotify: https://play.spotify.com/album/2O6x4ccrb1MnPq0xFUWyKR

DEATH SHALL RISE

HOUSE OF ATREUS

Who are you and what do you do in your band?

I call myself Anxietous Nero, and I compose and write songs, lyrics and perform bass and vocals for the Band House of Atreus.

When was your band formed?

House of Atreus formed in 2011 after I had started a solo project called Ashened (2010) in the wake of my disinterest in playing in a group. Aside from dealing with the politics, levels of seriousness, and other issues, I felt it was time to start writing music on my own. After recording the material for the first demo, I found a great group of musicians that i suppose motivated me to start a band, after a musical base had been formed. In hindsight, it would have suited me better to do this process a lot earlier, but I am glad things turned out how they have.  

Why did you choose to play Death Metal?

I’ve listened to metal for a long time, and death metal always stuck out as the toughest, heaviest and most diverse sub-genre of metal. From the moment I heard early swedish death metal (Dismember, Nihilist, Unleashed), and 90’s american death/thrash (Demolition Hammer, Morbid Saint, Cabal) and hardcore influenced death metal (Dying Fetus, Pyrexia,) I saw how vast and permanent it would be. I took a shining to vocals when I was in my mid teens, and probably followed every cliche that decision would bring until my early twenties. It wasn’t until I picked up the guitar and began writing riffs did I truly feel what I wanted to do musically. Even now, I lean in and out of Black and Doom with my other solo projects, but House of Atreus is my main focus at this point.

How do you compose your music? Does only one guy do everything or does everyone contribute?

For the most part I’m composing the songs, and write a good chunk of the music, but things are changing for us at the moment. Typically, I shack up in my music room with a 6 pack of beer and a traveler of whiskey and flick on my computer, plug in my guitar, and record what comes out. I will then use Superior Drummer software to help build chunks of a song, and over a fun period of no sleep and irresponsibility, I will come up with a skeletal version of a song. After I refine it for a time, I present this to the rest of the group and continuously stack their input upon it. I have also had others come over and lay down riffs they wrote to a click and spend considerable time organizing them into songs. I predict Anhedonious (especially after the explosive riffs he came up with for “Trenches of Fortune”) will be writing a lot more integrally, which is a large benefit to the group. My guess is Vespasian will also take the reigns on a few songs when his time allows, as he is almost finished with his higher education.

Tell us about your lyrics, writing, inspiration etc.

House of Atreus is inspired by Aeschylus’ play works, the Oresteia, and other greek literature and poetry. There’s another factor into the lyrics, which is the depiction of abuse toward humanity. The union of art and power inspires me. Empires that have made an impact on history demand notice because of the positive things they have created, even if they came about through violence. The artistic fabrications that still exist today captivate the imagination and command awe; and being able to interpret them from an angle that suits the anger and blood thirst of death metal has been my grand endeavor.  

Is there an ideology behind your band?

If one exists in our band, it is to write the music we want to write with no playpen walls.

How do you see the state of Death Metal music these days in your country and in general?

Death Metal hasn’t really changed a ton. It’s always been either really stupid or it’s been amazing. I find bands that shock the fuck out of me that broke up 20 years ago, and also bands people loved in the 90’s I find to be right bullshit. Death Metal isn’t going anywhere.

What are your long term plans as a band? What do you want to achieve?

I would like House of Atreus keep sharpening it’s musical skills and continue to see improvement from one release to the next. So far, I am happy to see how this project has evolved. Traditionally speaking, I would like to play killer shows and enjoy doing so. This summer may bring some interesting opportunities for us, and we will meet whatever arrangement we can.

Name another Death Metal band from your country that everyone should hear.

Blasphemic Cruelty, Horrendous, Vastum, Funebrarum, Dusk, and Perdition Temple are rotating at the moment. -AN

A new USDM band that shows a lot of promise is Trepanation from Washington.  I shared the stage with them on their last tour and they are the real deal.  Hopefully they release some new material soon.  I would recommend checking out some of the other projects that those members involve themselves with.  Older USDM bands that are worth checking out are:  Deteriorate, Excruciating Pain, Gutted, & Revenant.  -V

Free word.

Back whipping. pyramid. slavery.

#killallmen

INVINCIBLE FORCE

Who are you and what do you do in your band?

I play drums.

When was your band formed? 

2007.

Why did you choose to play Death Metal?

we play what we want to play

How do you compose your music? Does only one guy do everything or does everyone contribute?

everyone contributes, we all have ideas for some parts, or sometimes for whole songs, then we get together and work on them to get the final/raw versions, then we rehearse them and we get the final result.

Tell us about your lyrics, writing, inspiration etc.

Our lyrics have always related to total fucking madness, desolation, satan, death and depravity. Specifically, we focus on themes related to total spiritual liberation through will, and everything related to satan, ritualistic procedures, conjuring and sacrifice, all based on occult readings of those subjects.

Is there an ideology behind your band?

Metal of Death

How do you see the state of Death Metal music these days in your country and in general?

I see it in a great state right now, a lot of killer bands (some mentioned below), zines and maniacs keeping the flame of the underground alive!

What are your long term plans as a band? What do you want to achieve?

keep playing & releasing material

Name an other Death Metal band from your country that everyone should hear.

Godless, Ripper, Ejecutor, Perversor, Death Vomit, Kratherion, Atomicide, Athanatos, Senderos del Mal, Force of Darkness, Horrifying, Demonic Rage, Infernal Slaughter, Unaussprechlichen Kulten, Putrid Evocation, Segregacion Primordial, Attacker Bloody Axe, Fastter, Cancerbero, Hell's Veins, Butamacho, Hades Archer, Wrathprayer, Venus Torment, Bloody Vengeance.

Free word.

contact through invincible.metal.force@gmail.com

trades always welcome!

thanks for your interest

ETERNAL SOLSTICE

Who are you and what do you do in your band?

Ramon, I play guitar do the vocals and write songs.

When was your band formed?

1989

Why did you choose to play Death Metal?

 Death metal was the way to go back in 1989.

How do you compose your music? Does only one guy do everything or does everyone contribute?

Jamming, lots of jamming.

Tell us about your lyrics, writing, inspiration etc.

 Frustration, news, religion, politics, death, diseases.

Is there an ideology behind your band?

No. 

How do you see the state of Death Metal music these days in your country and in general?

 You see the same old faces from back in the day. So death metal will last as long as our generation lives.

 What are your long term plans as a band? What do you want to achieve?

Doing gigs and record new albums.

Name an other Death Metal band from your country that everyone should hear.

Burning Hatred

Free word

Thanks !!!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Eternal-Solstice/384594534885754

GRAVEBANE

Who are you and what do you do in your band?

Hello! This is Andrew and I am the guitar player and main composer of Gravebane. The band consists of two other members, Marios on vocals and SD Tragos on fretless bass.

When/where was your band formed? 

The band actually came up as a side-project in the late 2012. I also play in Alter Self which is my main band and I do session bass work for Mallediction. Marios does vocals for Necrorgasm and Kinetic and SD Tragos also plays in Xaos Egeneto, Lloth and Black Soul Horde. The story is simple. I just wanted to do something different and write pure death metal music close to the bands that inspired the genre at the first place. The other guys happened to hear the already written material and convinced me to make a project. So here we are now, ready to release our first EP ‘Mortify The Grave’.

Why did you choose to play Death Metal?

I simply grew up with death metal and this is something you can’t easily overpass. In Alter Self I try a more sophisticated and artistic extreme metal approach that combines many genres. In Gravebane it was like going back to the roots. A more simple and brutal approach that rises straight from the human extreme instincts. Just like death metal used to be when it first emerged.

How do you compose your music? Does only one guy do everything or does everyone contribute?

I write all the music and lyrics and then the other guys just add their parts. Of course that is not the rule. The songs for this EP were written long before I considered the possibility of a project. So if we decide to make an album in the future, I will be glad to accept help from the other guys. Actually we have already talked about Marios taking over the lyrics and vocal lines. He is a great death metal lyricist. Listen to Necrorgasm and you’ll see why.

Tell us about your lyrics, writing, inspiration etc.

Inspiration comes from extreme feelings like tension, sorrow or anger that invade your life and you somehow want to let it all out. At this exact point music comes as a vessel helping you channel out all the bitter feelings and transform them into extreme art. The songs were written in a very short time because I wanted to catch the vibe of the moment. As for the lyrics, they mostly deal with the dark side of human psyche from a brutal point of view. No gore clichés at all, just a raw view of humanity through everyday life’s experiences.

Is there an ideology behind your band?

Not really. We just like to deliver quality music to express ourselves and share it with anyone who might like it. Brutal music of course.

How do you see the state of Death Metal music these days in your country and in general?

Death metal rises up once again. We see bands from the old days returning to action and putting out killer works that prove they still have it and many new bands that push the limits of the genre over the borders. As for Greece, I believe that it has one of the most dedicated death  metal scenes worldwide. We have many quality bands that release excellent works that have nothing to envy from the international scene. I am a huge fan of greek death metal myself and I advise you to dig it. You will find many unknown gems that will blow your mind.

What are your long term plans as a band? What do you want to achieve?

No particular plans at the moment because we all have obligations with our main bands. We have discussed the possibility of releasing an album in the future but it’s a bit early for this right now. The main plan is simple. We just want to pay our respects to the genre by putting our own little stone on the huge wall that death metal is.

Name an other Death Metal band from your country that everyone should hear.

Just one? No way! I will give you a list of the first that come to mind…Dead Congregation, Sickening Horror, Inveracity, Resurgency, Birth Through Gore, Mallediction, Mortal Torment, Head Cleaner…also be sure to check our own main bands Alter Self and Necrorgasm. I could go on forever so if you want more type ‘GREEK DEATH/GRIND SCENE’ on facebook and start digging!

Free word.

Thanks for the interview and the support! Our EP ‘Mortify The Grave’ is now available for free streaming on YouTube and Bandcamp and  in digital download. Of course there will be an actual CD release soon enough. Check out the links below and don’t hesitate to contact us. Support the underground!

Bandcamp: http://gravebane.bandcamp.com/releases

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gravebanegr

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsu4tfoJLgK_YqKXfGhgCBQ

INFECTED CHAOS

Who are you and what do you do in your band?

INFECTED CHAOS consistst of the two guitarist Matthias Mayr and Martin Hartmann, bassman Florian Betz, drummer Christoph Raggl and I am the vocalist, Christian Fischer.

When/where was your band formed? 

Our band in this constellation was formed mid 2013 from the remnants of passed away band “Chaosreign” in Southern Germany, respectively Northern Austria; we´re a multicultural band, so to say. Christoph Raggl and me completed the broken line-up and due to the new situation a new name was needed, so we called ourselves INFECTED CHAOS!

Why did you choose to play Death Metal?

What else should we play??? Death Metal fuckin´ rules!!! Only death is real!

How do you compose your music? Does only one guy do everything or does everyone contribute?

Our guitarists Matt and Martin are composing most parts of our songs but fine tuning happens as complete band in our rehearsal room, where Florian and Christoph are adding their patterns and everything is arranged while the lyrics are completely written by me. I add my vocal arrangements when the songs are complete.

The recordings for our album were all done by ourselves, mainly Matt. Christoph Brandes at well known Iguana Studios then finally delivered fantastic work when mixing and mastering the whole stuff. And Martin designed this awesome lyric video for Wolves in thy Pantheon which can be seen on Youtube.

Tell us about your lyrics, writing, inspiration etc.

Our debutalbum mainly deals with suppression by greedy authorities, the downfall of world due to the exploitation of resources and people but also the resistance and fight against it. For completion there are also songs telling of death, the inner struggle that life demands from time to time and also a fucking love song! Yeah, a love song for death metal! Find out for yourself!

I´m mostly inspired by daily life. You just have to watch the news for example. Of course there are great authors in horror/fantasy-genre and also great poets within the metal scene that have an influence on the words i choose.

Is there an ideology behind your band?

We do not follow any entities, political tendencies or religious crap. So maybe our ideology is just to be true to oneself and always be critical and recalcitrant.

How do you see the state of Death Metal music these days in your country and in general?

Especially the German Death Metal scene is just exploding these days. Great new albums of every colour you can imagine seem to be released every single day. It´s great to see a pulsating and creative underground where financial aspects don´t matter and talented musicians are just into it for the sake of death metal. It feels awesome to be a part of it. Must be kinda like in the 80´s when metal had its golden decade.

What are your long term plans as a band? What do you want to achieve?

Seriously, how big can an extreme metal act become? We are writing music we like, we need to express ourselves and have fun doing this! The next step is the release of “The Wake of Ares” on March 27th by our label Metalmusic Austria.  At the moment we´re working on our second album, which hopefully can be released in summer 2016. Of course we hope to have a lot of gigs, maybe also some festivals. So, bookers, if you read this and like what you hear, contact us!

Name an other Death Metal band from your country that everyone should hear.

Tough one... There are too many that deserve to be mentioned. But from Germany definitelly Deserted Fear, Necros Christos and Revel in Flesh. For Austria I would pick our labelmates Void Creation, In Slumber and of course the mighty Pungent Stench!

Free word.

The metal scene lives from loyalty, so get your asses up, go to the concerts and support the underground!

KLEPTOCRACY

Who are you and what do you do in your band? 
I’m Henkka, the guitarist / backing vocalist of Kleptocracy.
When was your band formed?
The project itself has been around since 2009, but the first EP/demo was recorded in 2013 and released in 2014 due to logistic problems. We managed to recruit permanent bassist and drummer in January, so the year 2015 will be a lot more active.
Why did you choose to play Death Metal? 
We didn’t, actually. We identify ourselves as a grindcore act, but we can’t deny death metal influences in our music. We try to combine traditional grindcore, powerviolence, death metal and crust punk.

How do you compose your music? Does only one guy do everything or does everyone contribute?

At the moment, I‘m the main songwriter but this will probably change since we try to compose together in future . 

Tell us about your lyrics, writing, inspiration etc. 
Our lyrics don’t follow a particular path, as we mostly write about things and events that piss us off. Some of our lyrics are about politics, some are about the plain stupidity of human race and some are about something else. We try to avoid writing lyrics without meaning, since it’s more pleasant to play the songs when you have put some thought into the lyrics.

Is there an ideology behind your band? 
Not a clear one I’d say. We oppose conservativeness quite much and have opinions that are mostly quite liberal. 
How do you see the state of Death Metal music these days in your country and in general? 
In Finland we seem to have things in order. Finnish death metal maniacs – fest is a marvelous example of this. A whole festival dedicated to Finnish old school death metal bands and its tickets are already sold out. Old bands are touring again and Demilich is one of the main acts at the Maryland Deathfest. Some people say that death metal isn't doing quite well these days, but in my opinion that’s false information. Yes, we still have the same old death metal acts headlining festivals, but you have to look deeper. New promising acts are found every day and some of them have actually succeeded internationally, like Dead Congregation.
What are your long term plans as a band? What do you want to achieve? 
Our main goal is to play at Obscene Extreme Fest in Czech Republic. Our plan is to keep writing new stuff and to start playing gigs.
Name other Death Metal band from your country that everyone should hear. 
Oh damn. We have quite a few here. Maveth, Corpsessed, Vorum, Swallowed, Mörbid Vomit, Church of the Dead, Lie in Ruins.

Free word. 
Support your local scene. Attend gigs, buy merchandise and buy beer for the bands if they are cool. Local scene is almost the most important thing to smaller acts, so if dig a band, support it in any way you can!