1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?
Vacant Body slowly came together throughout the course of 2018, and the 3-track demo was recorded shortly thereafter.

2.So far you have released one demo, can you tell us a little bit more about the musical style you went for on the recording?
These are the first tracks that were written for the project - so while they are not entirely refined, they are a good representation of the Vacant Body sound. It is likely that purists would deny this as being 'black metal', however that is what we are going for, maintaining a strong focus on memorable riffs, dissonance and melody.

3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects you have explored so far with your music?
The lyrics for each song are usually quite minimalist, however they tend to deal with occultism and varying degrees of what may exist/happen after the experience of a dimensional shift.

4.The band is located in Australia but recorded the demo in the United Kingdom, can you tell us a little bit more about the decision?
This is just a simple case of inspiration striking while living outside of Australia, and subsequently recording the guitars and vocals during this period. The right time and place.

5.The demo was also masted by Devo of Marduk, can you tell us a little bit more about your experience working with this veteran musician?
Devo presents himself very professionally and works very quickly to achieve a great result. Our communication with him has been brief, but the result speaks for itself and I wouldn't rule out working with him again at all.

6.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Vacant Body'?
The name is derived from the lyrics of 'Spiralling Altar', it could be interpreted as an empty human shell acting as a vessel.

7.Can you tell us a little bit more about the artwork that is presented on the demo cover?
The artwork was originally created by Joel Filipe and has been augmented into shapes for the cover of our demo. It is intended to conjure images and ideas from the lyrics and music of 'Spiralling Altar'.

8.Has the band done any live shows or is this strictly a studio project?
To this date, Vacant Body has been purely a studio project. It is likely that live shows will take place after our debut LP is released, perhaps later in 2020.

9.The demo was released on 'Total Darkness Propaganda', can you tell us a little bit more about this label?
Total Darkness is a Hungarian label that has been incredibly supportive of Vacant Body from the beginning. They have put out some great releases, including a tape from a fellow Australian band Sanguinary Misanthropia. This label will be very recognizable in the coming years.

10.On a worldwide level how has the reaction been to your music by fans of black metal?
As far as a reaction from black metal fans, that is very hard to say. The reaction in general has been far beyond what was imagined. We have sent tapes and cds to Australia, Hungary, Poland, Norway, Spain, UK and USA so far. There are only a couple of reviews available for our demo that we know of, but they are all positive.

11.When can we expect a full length and also where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
We are knee-deep in pre-production for our debut LP, and with any luck it will be released in the second half of 2020. The music is in more or less the same vein as the demo, but obviously the sound has progressed and the songs are more expansive.

12.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
The riffs and structures on 'De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas' always provide influence to the way we write songs, that album is very riff-driven black metal. There is also strong influence from bands like Dissection and Enslaved. As far as what I personally have been listening to lately, the new Gaahl's WYRD album is excellent, and so are recent releases from Ascension, Barshasketh, Craft, Mord'A'Stigmata, Sinmara and Svartidaudi.

13.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
Thank you for taking the time and interest to send through some questions! 

  Massachusetts  duo  Pando  have  returned  with  a  new  recording  which  shows  the  music  going  into  more  of  a  mixture  of  black  metal,  experimental  and  noise  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2019  album  "Negligible  Senescene"  which  was  released  by  Aesthetic Death.

  Field  recordings  start  off  the  album  along  with  some  heavier  riffing  a  few  seconds  later  as  well  as  the  music  also  getting  very  experimental  and avant  garde  sounding  at  times.  Vocals  are  mostly  grim  yet  high  pitched  black  emtal  screams  and  acoustic  guitars  are  also  added  into  some  parts  of  the  music. 

  Spoken  word  samples  can  also  be  heard  on  some  of  the  tracks  along  with  the  riffs  also  adding  in  a  decent  amount  of  melody.  All  of  the  musical  instruments  have  a  very  powerful  sound  to  them  Most  of  the  tracks  are  very  long  and  epic  in  length  while  one  track  also  brings  in  elements  of  blues  rock.

  Harmonicas  and  slide  guitars  can  also  be  heard  briefly  while  the  solos  and  leads  are  done  in  a  very  melodic  style  when  they  are  utilized.  One  track  also  introduces  percussion's  and  folk  instruments  onto  the  recording  as  well  as  a  brief  use  of  female  vocals  and  some  of  the  tracks  are  very  long  and  epic  in  length.

  Elements  of  noise  can  also  be  heard  in  certain  sections  of  the  recording  and  when  synths  are  utilized  they  add  elements  of  dark  ambient  the  music  as  well  as  bringing  in  the  atmosphere  of  a  horror  movie  soundtrack  and  all  of  the  tracks  sounds  different  from  each  other.,  the  closing  tracks  also  introduces  whispered  black  metal  vocals  into  the  music  The  production  sounds  very  dark,  raw  and  lo-fi  while  the  lyrics  cover  dark,  psychological  and  philosophical  themes.

  In  my  opinion  this  is  another  great  sounding  recording  from  Pando  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  black  metal,  experimental,  noise  and  ambient,  you  should  check  out  this  album.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Runt"  "The  Suite  Shuffle"  and  "Ohm".  8  out  of  10.

https://www.facebook.com/pg/heaviestorganism/about/?ref=page_internal 

  

1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?

Hello, we are Aitvaras, a Melodic Black Metal Band from Lienz, East-Tyrol. We all grow up in Lienz and share a deep friendship ever since we met and founded the band in our late teenage years. As huge fans of Black Metal Music, we founded the band and tried to write our own music, play concerts, record Demos etc. Unfortunately, after a few succesful years, we had to make a long break with the band (because of jobs and university studies in different parts of Austria), but around two years ago we decided to reanimate the band and to record our songs in form of an first Full-Lengh Album.



2.Recently you have released your first full length, can you tell us a little bit more about the musical style you went for on the recording?

We describe our music as „Melodic Black Metal“, which means that we play a very melodic oriented but still very heavy form of Black Metal. I would describe our melodies in the songs as quite distinctive, or recognizable…we try to write exciting and interesting music.

Apart from the steady line up, consisting of E-Guitars, Bass, Drums, we throw in some other instruments here and there, such as Acoustic Guitars, Synths/Samples/Keyboards, a Violin etc.



3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects you have explored so far with the music?

Our Singer writes all the lyrics for the songs, so I don’t want to speak for him on this question, but what i can tell is that a few main topics are personal freedom (from religious constitutions for example), anger and even hatred towards bullshit which happens in society and personal loneliness.



4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Aitvaras'?

I have to say that there is no deeper meaning behind our name, unfortunately xD When we were looking for a proper bandname, one of our guitarists came up with that name. I guess he was searching in all kinds of mythologies from different countries. Well, we all thought that the name sounded really good, and so we decided to name the band that way. I personally think that the name has a certain elegance to it, which works quite well with the whole band, sound etc.



5.Can you tell us a little bit more about the artwork that is presented on the album cover?

The idea of the castle on the front-cover, again was an idea of our guitarist. One day during the recording process, he came up to me and said that a castle would be great as a front-cover. I thought that this would be a cool idea (..i guess castles always work in Black Metal, hehe xD..), so a good friend of mine made this great shot of an old stronghold near our hometown, called „Lienzer Klause“. We really like the referance to our hometown! Yeah, after that me and my friend build the whole atrwork concept around that „castle-topic“, like the lettering, the group-picture in front of a castle wall etc. 



6.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?

I have two great shows in mind: One was a show in a Metal-Bar in Lienz (unfortunately that bar has closed a long time ago), and the other concert was our „farewell concert“ before our long break. Both of them were really amazing! We played really well and the crowd and ourselfs were totally on fire!

We don’t think too much about performance or somethink like that. We put on some proper clothes, throw in some cover songs in the set, try to play as good as we can and to have a great time on stage. That’s pretty much about it.



7.Do you have any touring or show plans for the new album?

Unfortunately we won’t be able to play shows in the near future, but i hope that we will be able to talk about shows in autumn, this year.



8.The new album was released on 'Anthrazit Records', how did you get in contact with this label?

First we tried to work with a different label in Austria (i don’t want to name that label here), but that was an absolute disaster. Nothing ever happend with that label, so I wrote to other labels and a few days later Anthrazit Records answerd me. After a few emails back and forth, everything was set up, and we are really satisfied with choosing Anthrazit Records. They make a great job!



9.On a worldwide level how has the reaction been to your music by fans of black metal?

So far all the reactions to the Album are very very positive and great! That makes us really happy, because we are also very proud of our work.



10.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?

I’m convinced that we will record another Album in the future, because there are a lot of song-materials left. I don’t think that the style of the music will change that much, we like the music we play…maybe a few more progressive elements in future songs..!



11.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?

Well, as you grow older, your musical horizont expand ofcourse, or hopefully ;-P (I am a music student myself, so i try to get in touch with every kind of music, you see 😊) but we all are still very big fans of metal music, and especially black metal. Everyone of us prefer other bands in that great genre, but i would say that bands which we all prefer the same and are big influences for our music, are bands like Marduk, Satyricon, Behemoth (old and new) and Shining.



12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?

Thank you very much for the interview, and sorry for my english, I hope it’s not too bad! xD

…and a very big and respectful Thank You to everyone who likes and listens to our music! We really appreciate it!

  Poppet  are  a  solo  project  from  Vermont  that  mostly  does  material  in  more  of  a  dungeon  synth  style  but  on  this  recording  mixes  that  style  with  black  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  his  self  titled  2019 ep  "Mastery  Ov  The  Arcane  Crafts".

  Dark  ambient  style  synths  start  off  the  album  along  with  some  whispered  vocals  a  few  seconds  later.  After  the  intro  the  music  also  introduces  grim  black  metal  screams  onto t he  recording  while  the  electronic  music  sounds  also  replace  the  guitars  while  also  duplicating  the  aggression  of  the  instrument.

  Elements  of  dungeon  synth  are  also  utilized  quite  a  bit  throughout  the  recording  as  well  as  the  synths  also  utilizing  a  variety  of  many  different  sounding  keys.  At  times  the  programming  also  adds  in  some  programmed  blast  beats  to  enhance  the  black  metal  element  of  the  recording  and  as  the  album  progresses  harsh  noises  and  power  electronics  are  also  added  onto  the  recording  briefly.

  Poppet  plays  a  musical  style  that  takes  black  metal,  dungeon  synth  and  elements  of  power  electronics  to  create  something  very  original,  The  production  sounds  very  dark while  the  lyrics  cover  Occultism  from  many  different  cultures  and  the  Left  Hand  Path.

  In  my  opinion  Poppet  is  a  very  great  sounding  mixture  of  occult  black  metal,  dungeon  synth  and  harsh  noise  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  those  musical  genres,  you  should  check  out  this  solo  project.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Wisdom  Of  Eosphoros"  and  "Light  Of  Uncreation  And  Divineness".  8  out  of  10.


https://poppetblackmetal.bandcamp.com/           

  Cult  Of  Extinction  are  a  band  from  Germany  that  has  had  music  reviewed  before  in  this  zine  and  plays  a  mixture  of  war  and  bestial  black/death  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2019  album  "Ritual  In  The  Absolute  Absence  Of  Light"  which  will  be  released  in  July  by  Iron  Bonehead  Productions.

  War  oriented  drones  start  off  the  album  and  battle  sounds  start  off  the  album  before  going  into  a  heavier  musical  direction.  When  guitar  solos  and  leads  are  utilized  they  are  done  in  a  very  dark,  melodic  and  old  school  style  and  the  music  also  shows  a  great  amount  of  influences  from t he  90's.

  Vocals  are  mostly  black  metal  screams  while  the  faster  sections  of  the  music  bring  in  a  great  amount  of  tremolo  picking  and  blast  beats  which  also  gives  the  songs  more  of  a  raw  war  metal  feeling.  Bestial  death  metal  growls  are  also  utilized  quite  a  bit  throughout  the  recording  as  well  as  the  songs  also  bringing  in  a  decent  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts.

  As  the  album  progresses  a  brief  use  of  horror  movie  samples  can  be  heard  while  the  riffs  also  start  utilizing  more  melody  along  with  the  music  also  bringing  in  a  more  modern  approach  to  the  war  metal  genre  and  one  song  also  adds  in  a  small  amount  of  ambient  style  soundscapes  before  returning  back  to  a  more  brutal  direction.  The  production  sounds  very  dark  and  raw  while  the  lyrics  cover  the  dark  force  of  nature  and  propagate  a  total  war  against  the  light. 

  In  my  opinion  this  is  another  great  sounding  recording  from  Cult  Of  Extinction  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  bestial  black/death  and  war  metal,  you  should  check  out  this  album.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Anti-Monad  Black  Hole  Bomb"  "Possesses  By  A  Servant  Of  Iblis"  and  "Ritual  In  The  Absolute  Absence  Of  Light".  8  out  of  10.

https://soundcloud.com/iron-bonehead-productions/cult-of-extinction-emanated-from-the-cosmic-darkness/s-EgMgX