reviews: Laster (Holland)

Laster (Holland): Wijsgeer & Narreman In this 3-song, 19-minute recording, Laster utilizes quintessential black metal riffing and screeching screaming black metal vocals, and attaches those riffs and vocals to a depressive-aggressive/progressive musical execution. It took me a long time to understand what Laster is all about. Once I got it, though, a lot of things became clearer. Laster is raw black metal, while at the same time the intention in the songs is communicated well: the overall atmosphere, the engulfing guitar work, the agonized vocal style, and the cold melody that shines through. It is the hope that those listeners into raw black metal that seek a greater creativity will have the motivation to explore the landscapes offered by Laster. Hear it a few times, come back to it later, it will definitely make sense. www.laster.bandcamp.com

reviews: Gamma Ray (Germany)

Gamma Ray (Germany): Skeletons & Majesties Live (earMUSIC) For many people, Gamma Ray singer, guitarist and mastermind Kai Hansen is the grandfather of power metal as we know it: the combination of thrashy speed with traditional heavy metal melody, as developed by Helloween and then Gamma Ray. On this pretty honest, live double album, the Ray showcases songs that they usually do not play in concert. Here’s the “problem”: all Gamma Ray songs sound like hits. In other words, this is simply another collection of great songs. Of course, this album is for people who can’t enough Gamma Ray. This is live, beautiful mistakes and all, like the wrong lyrics and laughing on “A While in Dreamland”; the always-funny/intelligent “Money” from the 1990 Gamma Ray debut; and some cool acoustic versions; and some songs with guest Michael Kiske, always fun for both former Helloweeners to get together and jam. www.gammaray.org

Stratovarius (Finland): Nemesis

Stratovarius (Finland): Nemesis (Armoury) Happy, uplifting, super melodic songs characterize this album. Lyrically, the message stays optimistic, a can-do attitude about believing in yourself. Fundamentally, Stratovarius desires to help the listener be a happier, more positive person. You’re alive, stand up for yourself, and face the world with enthusiasm, that’s the band’s objective. Power metal is very much associated with Stratovarius, who are conscious that they have a reputation to uphold, and fans to please. Given the Stratovarius legions exactly what they want. The album is their declaration of purpose, to convince power metal fans the band is very much alive, in view of past controversies with former members. Given this album’s festival of melodies and catchy hooks, if you have ever enjoyed a song by Stratovarius, it’s worth your time to look into “Nemesis.” Very much recommended for Stratovarius fans, as well as aficionados of very melodic happy/poppy power metal. www.stratovarius.com

NettleCarrier (Norway): NettleCarrier;Tsar Bomb (Spain): Neowarfare

NettleCarrier (Norway): NettleCarrier (Indie Recordings)

Darkthrone’s “Transylvanian Hunger” + Satyricon’s “Now, Diabolical” = NettleCarrier.

That’s what I hear, at any rate. The main words associated with black metal: tremolo riffs like there’s no tomorrow, coldness and grimness, the viciousness of the vocals—it’s all here.

NettleCarrier takes the listener through the songs in which tremolo riffing rules. After a few listens the waves of tremolo picking begin to build the monuments to black metal that they are. Once they start to make sense, it turns out that it is headbanging metal music, played very well in the style of classic Norwegian black metal. Sure, there is a great 90s spirit throughout the album, and NettleCarrier excels at what they do.

Of course, NettleCarrier would have to be huge fans of classic 90s black metal. If you are too, then NettleCarrier is definitely for you. www.facebook.com/Nettlecarrier.satan

Tsar Bomb  (Spain): Neowarfare  

Drum-machined brutal black metal monotony of speed and fury is Tsar Bomb’s goal in life. Raw and hideous is the music, but in comparison with straight death metal, Tsar Bomb’s guitar clearer and easier to hear.

The songs rely on speed to make their point. There is no variety, nothing to remember and only chaos will remain in the mind after the music stops. FYI, this does not have a garage sound quality, but rather sounds pretty good.

www.myspace.com/tsarbomb666

Ensiferum (Finland): Unsung Heroes; Execration (U.S.): The Acceptance of Zero Existence

Ensiferum  (Finland):  Unsung Heroes   (Spinefarm Records)

Ensiferum’s folk viking melodic metal is so contagious that you need exactly one listen to remember it.

The first proper song “In My Sword I Trust” has everyone in Finland singing along already. Finland sent me a Morse code message and said, “It’s about time you understood.”

From that first song, it’s up, up, and away we go into the realm of happy melodies and catchy tunes about swords, kings, heroes, queens and other newsworthy, current political problems of the Middle Ages.

Semi-harsh (but nice) vocals and clean singing are thrown in all over the place. The melodies are sweet and sugary and the beats are friendly to the ear.  The songs from this album make children, teenagers, adults and elderly people happy, so happy, so very happy.

Heavy as a feather, and offensive as a puppy, Ensiferum are shamelessly melodic and catchy. www.ensiferum.com

Execration (U.S.): The Acceptance of Zero Existence   (Comatose Music)

Through their total blasting, Execration sounds like they want to set fire to the idols of death metal like Krisiun and Hate Eternal.

I noticed one interesting about Execration: it sounds like they use the tremolo guitar work, along with the more familiar death metal guitar riffs, so this music has a feel that is more specific to this band. Good.

Next time, though, I do hope the sound quality is better because it sounds a bit muddy, I think. Anyway, go to Execration for frenzy and intensity, and give them a chance. Maybe the next album really will be a homerun. www.reverbnation.com/execrationbrutality

Ad Patres (France): Scorn Aesthetics; Aum (China): Of Pestilence

Ad Patres  (France): Scorn Aesthetics   (Kaotoxin Records)

Ad Patres is a very competent band at precision and technicality in their low-growl death metal. There are headbanging riffs, catchy guitar solos here and there, and generally a band doing “modern death metal” skillfully.

It is beautiful and fun, in particular, for the total  “brutal death metal maniac” that listens to 7 to 20 death metal albums every day. Boy oh boy, do they know how to make a racket. You will love it! www.adpatres.net

Aum   (China): Of Pestilence           (Le Crépuscule du Soir)

Aum’s rabies-infested fugly of minimalistic black metal raises a nasty, necrotizing proposition for the enthusiast. Blazing speed, choking vocals, tremolo guitar, such as on “Temple,” the first track here: awesome energy, at one point, the vocalist sounds like he is coughing his lungs out, and it is hilariously evil funny. The coughing is a genius move.

Oh, wait a minute! I just received an “electronic mail” from Darkthrone telling me that Aum is too black metal for them. Darkthrone is going keep playing punk rock instead, because they can’t hang with this.

That sounds about right. To hang with Aum, you have to like ferocious, barebones black metal recorded in a cave. It is rough on the ears, just like the doctor ordered.   “Place of the Skull” drives some catchy riffs, covered in a nice sheet of battery acid. On the other hand, “The Forge of Zurvan” is more than 8 minutes long and in it, Aum plays fast, slow and everything in between, including adding a tiny bit of melody served with a gallon of salt. It’s just Aum being Aum.

Aum is doing something right with their black metal!

They also have a 16-minute song called “Aum (Acolytes to Eldritch Dimensions)” and I’m still not sure what’s up with that track because it is trippy, spaced out number. Just you wait, Aum will set the black metal fire to the Chinese black metal fanatics. Bring it. www.facebook.com/aumofficial

Offensor (Peru): Manifiesto herético

Offensor  (Peru): Manifiesto herético

This recording is alive, unpolished, with a bite, where one can hear the rawness, brutality and grimness well. Here are 4 things that I noticed.

--1--hard-hitting drumming, fast drumming: Offensor has those moments of total death metal brutality where the hitting sounds so strong. These Mike Smith/Suffocation moments sound great in this context.

According to Metal Archives, there is no drummer listed. Could this be a drum machine? It’s difficult to believe it, it sounds creative, in a human way.

--2--the vocals sound like brutal death black metal, but enunciated well (not cupped microphone); the enunciation of words is done with such a venomous tongue of black metal grimness. 

--3--the riffs are sometimes very death metal, then black metal, and also with a recurring feel of classic 80s sickness. These three features make up this bundle of sound.

--4--lastly, and most importantly, the songs get the job done in a good, energetic way. Nothing wrong with that at all. www.facebook.com/Offensor

Züül (U.S.): To the Frontlines (Planet Metal)

Züül  (U.S.): To the Frontlines  (Planet Metal)

Züül’s vibe for traditional heavy metal sounds so devoid of trickery and gimmickry, and the songs have so much to offer that all-metal addicts shouldn’t pass them up, and especially those into “classic olde metal.”

Züül appears to be musically descended from Thin Lizzy huge guitar harmonies, as well as classic metal in general. The vocals also sound Thin Lizzy-ish in the sense of a midrange, tuneful voice (no high screaming, no growling nor anything like “modern”/”angry” vocals). The main riffs for the songs are both classic metal, classic rock, with an exuberant energy, a Motorhead-ish energy, if you will.

What you get are rocking metal songs, that in 2013 would appeal to fans of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, 70s classic metal, maybe with a little classic punk thrown in (energy), and classic rock.

Just out of curiosity, here are some Thin Lizzy quotes by Züül. Right off the bat, on the first song, 14 seconds in, and they smack down that recognizable guitar shot that opens “Jailbreak.” Coincidence? Then, at 1:03 the guitar harmonies are winding up and down for half a minute, and then at 1:29 they directly quote a Thin Lizzy signature squeal. Or take “Skullsplitter”: out of the gates, the harmonies would make Phil Lynott smile from ear to ear. Check out 1:44-2:24, guitar fans’ delight. Then, they bring the house down at 2:56-3:37: that’s how to play harmonies and solos.

Add to this, the Motorhead energy, and you got a fun metal band. I get the feeling that singer Brett Batteau is holding back a bit, that he could get down and dirtier, and let his voice explore more. At any rate, here’s a band that sounds little like anything else you may have heard in recent years. That was my experience, anyway.

www.facebook.com/zuulheavymetal

Phobia (U.S.): Remnants of Filth (Willowtip Records)

Phobia  (U.S.): Remnants of Filth   (Willowtip Records)

Phobia just melted my precious computer from 1988 (my floppy disks, aaargh!), so I have “permanently borrowed” a computer from my neighbor Tom Brady (an athlete of some sort, says that he plays “professionally” hockey or football or something).

Wow, 18 songs of crust grind punk that runs under 20 minutes, recommended for fans of Napalm Death, Nasum, Rotten Sound, Wormrot: short, fast and obnoxious. This has to be one of the best sounding grind albums of the last couple of years, too. Nice and clear. Angry, very angry, Phobia destroys stages and musical equipment.  Carry on screaming, Phobia, carry on screaming. www.facebook.com/phobiagrindcore

Frosthelm (U.S.): The Northwinds Rend Flesh

Frosthelm (U.S.): The Northwinds Rend Flesh

On this 4-song EP, Frosthelm positively shines and is outstanding. The songs are about 3 minutes long, and are lean, action-packed firecrackers; less than 12 minutes total time.

The details: Frosthelm plays huge, hot thrashing riffs (think Immortal/Slayer), spices up the songs with licks, tremolo picking and a bit of melody in the soloing, like on the title track. “Goblindriver” (2:35) has immense, sharp thrash riffs, a quick shot of melody, blasting and brain-twisting black metal vocals. Speaking of throat destruction, “Reaping the Seeds of Corruption” uses both death and black metal vocals, but the black metal moments deserve special mention for being some of the most evil Donald Duck gremlin vocals.

Awesome little EP; how are they going to top this?! What an opportunity for them to prove this was no fluke! www.reverbnation.com/frosthelm

Holy Grail (U.S.): Ride the Void (Prosthetic Records)

Holy Grail (U.S.): Ride the Void  (Prosthetic Records)

Finally! Holy guacamole, Holy Grail, I have been reading about this band for a while, that they have a single out, that a new album was on the way, blah, blah….But where is it?

And here it is, and it is much, much better than my expectations. I expected a solid, rocking heavy metal album, and instead got an 11-song album (with 2 brief intro/interludes), with the heart of a lion. Holy Grail is traditional heavy metal. The riffs march forward, like magnets for metalheads, song-centered drumming with an extra punch of energy, and heavy-metal-to-the-bone choruses that take exactly one listen to land and make contact.

Some interesting details: the band uses the occasional growled part. That, along with the heavier guitar tone, suggests that the band has listened to some heavier music, and has incorporated a bit of that heaviness. In turn, this contrasts very nicely with the melodic guitar soloing and harmonies. www.holygrailofficial.com 

Nominon (Sweden): The Cleansing (Deathgasm Records)

Nominon (Sweden): The Cleansing (Deathgasm Records)

In the world of the martial arts of metal, Nominon have been steadily working towards a black belt in death metal, since their 1993 demo. Is this band the champions of rotten death metal in Sweden?

Nominon keeps making slight changes to their putrid death metal, and now on “The Cleansing” they have tightened up the bolts and screws, and can take on all maggot-infested death metal lunatics everywhere.

What a nasty little ditty this is, I tell you. The drumming is ridiculously blasting, the guitars just pile riff after riff of carpel-tunnel-inducing speed. If you think about the riffs too much you might get arthritis. The vocalist follows the furious pace and manages to make everything more rotten.

As Nominon has reached master-level craftsmanship in death metal, they have opted to bring an ever-so-balanced amount of memorability in the songs. This decision has been a good one because Nominon has become a force in death metal.

Entombed was great, but that was a long time ago. Dismember is gone. Death metal moves on regardless. Here we are, 2013. Nominon is a bad, bad band. Little old Nominon has become a beast. Sweden already knows. The coffins are ready.  www.nominon.com

Circle II Circle (U.S.): Seasons Will Fall (earMUSIC)

Circle II Circle (U.S.): Seasons Will Fall  (earMUSIC)

I did not like this album at first, and I wrote a review draft:

“Circle II Circle lacks not talent nor quality production. What I do not like is the absence of the metal fire. They’re an able bunch, with the former Savatage vocalist Zak Stevens. For me, what doesn’t work is the laid-back, elevator metal. The drummer (drum machine?) sounds like he plays these songs with one hand, and eats a sandwich at the same time with his other hand. The pace is just slow and midtempo.”

Then, I changed my mind. I adjusted to the slower pace after several listens. Therefore, if you listen to a lot of fast metal, just remember to switch your brain to a slower mode. The album is mellow, in the style of contemporary adult metal, and offends no one at the office (or at church). This is a bunch of middle-aged metal dudes that sound like a metal version of Journey, Matchbox 20, Boston, Heart or Rush.

Great, wonderful, excellent music, and not only for the suit-and-tie, office-worker and parent-with-three-children in you; and if you are below 25 years of age, just be patient and give it time.

I feel so “grown up.” I actually listened to this enough times to understand it. Am I an adult now? I gotta go listen to Nominon now. www.circle2circle.net

Bane (Serbia): The Acausal Fire (Abyss Records)

Bane   (Serbia): The Acausal Fire          (Abyss Records)

Zine’s new issue is almost done; time running out, so, to the point: it would seem, that Bane loves the album “Storm of the Light’s Bane” by Dissection. Is Bane a baby Dissection? Oh, and how! Bane’s metal of death succeeds at warp speed blasting, and huge riffs that lift sleepy heads out of stupor and into motion. The strong dose of spiraling riffs, that re-work and rewind, frame songs as intense, as they are memorable and melodic. The blazing speed does allow the listener to see what Bane does, even hearing the acoustic or clean guitar parts, the guitar layers. One listen, bam!, hooked, for Dissection fanatics. www.baneband.com

Offending (France): Age of Perversion (Deepsend Records)

Offending  (France): Age of Perversion  (Deepsend Records)

With such a skill arsenal in their chosen art form, and the meticulous execution of the compositions that comprise “Age of Perversion, Offending can certainly carve for themselves a niche with the audience that appreciates quality and dexterous death metal of the brutal and technical variety.

Ultimately, though, it’s about the songs, and Offending keeps the standard high. Moreover, although blasting speed and technicality are part of the equation, it’s done in a balanced way. In a word, even I, with no musical skill, can enter and understand the fortress of death metal that is Offending.

As everyone knows, Nile is the gold standard of death metal, but it’s good to remember that there are seriously good bands that will give Nile a run for their money. After having heard this album more than a few times, it’s patently clear that Offending doesn’t only have a few good songs, the complete album plays at a high level of death metal.

It’s not easy playing technical/brutal music and making it memorable, but Offending makes sure to bring in a tasteful guitar solo, a tremolo lick, a catchy riff or an otherwise semi-melodic part into the songs. This is a huge strength.

Offending needs more death metal fanatics to check them out. www.offending.fr

Obscenity (Germany): Atrophied in Anguish (Apostasy Records)

Obscenity (Germany): Atrophied in Anguish  (Apostasy Records)

Obscenity is the kind of death metal band that simply succeeds at everything they do on the album. The songs have a tight coherence, and are compact (often last 3 minutes and 30 seconds, more or less), waste no time, and for that reason, they grab the ears quickly.

There are ten songs, and each of them functions within a frame of memorable intensity, frequent use of blasting and generally energetic drumming, riffs that are clear and can be remembered, good soloing (with restrained and well-placed moments of melody). Obscenity has classic-style death metal riffs, while some tremolo picking adds to the distinctiveness of the songs.

In short, the album is very impressive and delightful, worth listening to many times over, and to come back to later.

Obscenity has some 8 full-length albums, going to back to the 1992 debut. However, “Atrophied in Anguish” is an excellent place to start! The quality of the songwriting is undeniable, the sound quality is solid and the overall effort shows that Obscenity deserves to be heard.

Here’s a band that is not that well-known in the U.S., but once you hear the album, you might wonder why. Can’t get tired or bored with these songs, if you like death metal, I think. At the same time, Obscenity has made something that stands out in quality. It’s not the speed and brutality, which are also present here plenty, it’s the knack for making it all sound so good. Don’t be fooled by the name of the band, they are way better than the immature gore music you might think they play.

www.myspace.com/obscenitydeathmetal

www.facebook.com/Obscenity.Official

www.apostasyrecords.com

Ara'Kus interview

Ara’Kus  (U.S.)

Ara’Kus is a heavy metal opera, theater, with actors and a story to tell, with heavy metal music.

When I went to see the production in November 2012, I was impressed with their dedication and work. Not knowing about Ara’Kus until shortly before the performance itself, it was a bit of a shock to learn that Ara’Kus it based out of western Washington state, right in my neck of the woods. If you are curious about the “heavy metal opera,” then do yourself a favor and take the time search out Ara’Kus. I’m certainly glad I did.  Randy (guitars and vocals) and Jeremiah (vocals and guitars) reveal their heavy metal opera.

--

I recently saw your performance in Everett, Washington. I had listened to the album “Aeterno Elementum“ and had watched a bit of the video footage. However, Ara’kus really is a theatrical performance better experienced live. Where have you staged your production? I ask because I just found out about you very recently before the show. 

Randy:  First, we're glad you found us! We're always glad to have new fans.
         Since we made the change from bar band to theatrical production we've only played in Everett and Seattle. The Historic Everett Theatre has kind of become a home base for us, and we played at the Broadway Performance Hall about a year ago for the first time. We'd love to expand our geographic area, but even going as far as Portland is really hard considering the size of our set, the number of people we have, and the amount of equipment it takes to do the show. 

Jeremiah:  Our last two performances at the Broadway Performance Hall and the Historic Everett Theatre were groundbreaking for us.  Believe it or not, three years ago we started with nothing except some music and a rough concept and not a clue how to get this thing off the ground.  We made a lot of mistakes, nearly bankrupt ourselves and had a few nervous breakdowns, but ultimately we made something great.  I think the show we just finished up at the Historic Everett marks the pinnacle of our achievements thus far.  Everything came together in a huge way.  I was proud of our previous shows, but they don't come close to comparing to where we're at now. 

The performance I watched had the theater pretty full, it seemed. How have you been able to get that many people in Everett? People of all ages, kids and elderly included.

Jeremiah:  Our first performance of Aeterno Elementum was on July 31st, 2010. We were shocked by the response we got from that show. We put quite a bit of effort into advertising and managed to get about 300 people up to Everett to come see us for the one night we were performing. Since then, we've increased our audience slightly with each performance. For this most recent show we made a huge marketing push using everything that we'd learned from the past years and from some of the amazing professionals who've joined us. We started our advertising campaign around six months prior to the show and hit everything from local conventions to social networking and mailing lists.  You saw the results for yourself in the theater. You're right, it was pretty packed.  I think the lesson is, if you want people to show up to your event, market the hell out of it. Also, you need to have an event worth going to.

Randy: You are very right about the diversity of our fans. We do of course have the teenagers and the goth crowd that you'd normally expect at rock shows, but then you have people like my parents and their friends in the sixties and seventies show up and love it. You have people dressed to the nines, people in their work clothes, casual and everything else. A lot of people come in some sort of period costume, which is always cool. I think if I were to try to pin point the kind of person that enjoys the Ara'Kus experience I would say that the main common trait is that it appeals to people who are open-minded.

What would it take to make this a year-round event? How have you been able to get this many actors to do this? This is no half-hearted performance, but rather a well-organized experience that flows well on the stage. Who are the actors and artists? Is playing Broadway in New York a dream of yours?!

Jeremiah: That's a pretty complicated question. If you're talking about making Aeterno Elementum a year round event, you're looking at an initial startup in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars. To start, we'd need a full time cast that was making their livelihood doing this.  Currently everyone in the cast and crew is a volunteer. We all believe in this project and love doing it, but no matter how much we would like to devote everything to it, we have to eat as well.

As far as our cast and crew, we've hand recruited them from all over the Northwest and they come from a wide spectrum of backgrounds. Some are professional performers, musicians or techs, others very talented amateurs. All of them are amazing people that make this show what it is, and make it an incredible experience to be a part of. 

I definitely wouldn't turn down a chance to play on Broadway.  One step at a time, though.

Randy:  The members of the group come from all over. We've recruited friends and friends of friends. We've done auditions and tryouts, we've picked a few people up by chance, and several of them were fans that said they wanted to help. Organizing a group like this is certainly a challenge and I'd say that biggest boon to that has been finding the right people to do the right job and then letting them make it happen. On the first show it was just a few of us trying to handle everything and it was overwhelming. These days we've got more and more people working with their strengths.

  We like to do some kind of show every three to four months, and while we do want to expand our geographic area, as pointed out earlier, the logistics of distance shows is more than we can do right now. But we are working on it. New York? I'm not big on playing Broadway, I'd rather play at the Met!

About the album and band. You recorded the album in 2010, correct? Do you have planned other music? I realize that recording music is a thankless task because of illegal downloading. Can you please explain a little about the members of the band? Originally, whose idea was this? 

Randy:  We did put a version of Aeterno Elementum out in 2010, yes, but we have done a complete re-recording of that album to bring it up to date with what we do in the theatre so it has four new songs, some other extended items, the addition of the choir, and updated production. It was looking like we would be able to have it out for the last shows, but we ran in to some unfortunate snags in the production so it looks like it'll probably be ready for the shows we've got in February.

Jeremiah:  As for the topic of piracy and illegal downloading, it's not something that really has us concerned. If people are downloading your album for free, chances are they wouldn't be spending money on it anyway. I think most people want to support artists they really like, particularly ones that aren't on a major label. Sure, I'd love to get paid for my art, but I would rather get my music into people's hands so they can listen to it and spread the word, and possibly come to a show. Keeping a tight rein on your music just means that a lot of potential fans aren't hearing it.

We've already got a story for the next show/album mostly fleshed out and scripted. I'm working on composing the music now and I'd say it's about a third completed. You'll be able to hear some of these new pieces at our Laser Dome show in February. The new music is very much in the symphonic metal vein and we're hoping to incorporate a larger string section, in addition to keeping and expanding our operatic and choral offerings.

I founded Ara'Kus in 2001 as 5 piece metal band.  I'm currently the only original member, though Jeremy and Randy and Rachel have been in for quite a few years now too and are pretty integral.  Randy had the initial suggestion that we break out of the typical bar scene, which we'd never really fit into anyway, and try to do something that didn't involve dependence on booking agents, club owners or record labels, something where we had full control of our performance and our success or failure was ours alone.  With that freedom, the natural theatrical inclination of the band drove us towards a bigger and bigger production, until before long we were putting on a full fledged opera. 

As far as our musicians go, they're all pretty much world class, in my opinion.  Some of our music is very complicated, and so our standards are very high.  Aside from that, just like everyone in our crew, they're amazing people and I consider them part of my extended family.

Also, what other productions do you have planned? Do you have other operas that you have performed or planning?

Jeremiah:  We have an entirely new show in the works that we'll be staging at some point in the future. I can't give any actual dates right now, but it will be completely original and a separate work from Aeterno Elementum in all ways, though it will most definitely still be in the category of heavy metal opera. We'll send out more details on that when it gets a little closer.

We may be doing Aeterno Elementum again in 2013, but we have yet to determine a date and location. Initial discussions are leaning towards Seattle.

Our biggest upcoming event is a performance at the Seattle Center Laser Dome on February 19th, which we've dubbed 'Laser Ara'Kus Live'. In essence, this will be the band and chorus performing a selection of songs from Aeterno Elementum and some yet unheard pieces from the new show while the laser artists create a visual tapestry above us, helping to tell the story. You can probably bet on some surprise guests and unexpected theatrical elements as well.

We'll also be performing as a featured artist at the Seattle based horror convention, Crypticon 2013, which is happening on May 24th - 26th (www.crypticonseattle.com). 

It occurs to me that all the women in the play are only victims of murder and violence. Why are there no women with speaking parts? You do have a witch, but that’s a stereotypical role, correct? The opera could use more women’s participation, since in the world of your opera that you have created, there are, in fact, many women, but they are all silenced. Have you noticed this problem?

Randy:  I find this question very interesting. We have been asked many times about the religious and anti-religious aspects of our production, but this is the first time that the subject of sexism has been brought to my attention. Let me assure you that the question does not offend me. I am, however, concerned because if you have thought these things, then other people probably have as well.
            I'll start with the speaking roles question. There was a time that the demoness did have a speech, but it just didn't really work well. Her character seems to work better, at least in my opinion, without speaking. She doesn't need to tell us what she is, she shows us, and I think that both Asraiya Deyo and Carrole Johnson, the two women who have filled the role, have done an excellent job of this. When she had a speech it seemed that it diminished the mystery and the power of the character.

The story is narrated from the perspective of the priest and the four generals of the conquering armies. It is pretty common for these to be male roles. There certainly is no reason that there could not be a female general, but when you audition for a character to be a general, you don't typically get any females to try out for it. And if the role of priest were made in to that of a priestess it would throw the balance out of the interaction with the demoness. In fact, when the story was originally conceived, long before it was made into a stage production the demoness was male and we changed it because we felt that a female in this role would be more powerful and effective.
              Another way of looking at this is to look at the actual band. Vivian Lee, our lead soprano is, in many ways, the voice of the demoness. Plus Lauren “Razz” Palumbi, our violinist, takes a very front role, right up with the guitarists and vocalists, while John Perlic, our cellist remains static in the back throughout the show.
          As for the violence, yes, all of the women are killed, but, so are all of the men. That one is pretty across the board. In the song Conquered, the final scene, there are women fighting along side and against the men. Women kill men, men kill women. Everybody dies.
        At the end of the show there are only two people left alive. One male, one female, one elderly, one child, one destroyed, one innocent. Absolute yin and yang.

Jeremiah:  I want to assure you that there was no purposeful sexist agenda or intent on our part.  As with Randy, this is the first time I've heard a reference to that subject.  About half our cast and crew is comprised of very strong, artistic women. The co-lead character, The Demoness, is probably the most iconic, powerful, awe inspiring and prominent figure in the whole show. It was a very intentional decision to not have her speak. We tried it once and it dramatically diminished the mystery and allure to her character. We have only 6 speaking roles in the whole show, the Priest, the four generals and the Arch Bishop, and you are correct, none of those roles are women.  The presence or lack of dialogue does not make the character more or less important to the story as a whole, however. Dialogue is very minimal in this show, with the exception of the Priest, who serves as narrator.

How can people support Ara’kus?

Jeremiah:  The first and best way you can support Ara'Kus (short of coming to the shows) is to come over to our FaceBook page and participate there (www.FaceBook.com/ArakusProductions). Our FaceBook admin, Mistress Von Gearmaster, loves conversing with new fans, as do the members of the cast and crew. We'll be putting up some new merchandise items soon, including CD's and t-shirts, so keep an eye on both the FaceBook page and our website at www.HeavyMetalOpera.com. The other thing you can do is help us to spread the word! Talk to you friends about these shows and the music. We're completely local and self funded, so we're entirely dependent on fans support to help us continue doing what we do.

Randy:  And if you can't come see us because you live outside of the Seattle area then do this for me, go support one of your local artists, because no matter where you are there are some great bands there. THE END.