Monday, January 31, 2011

GLORIOUS TIMES PRESENTS: MASTER

GLORIOUS TIMES PROUDLY PRESENTS:

MASTER

at Club Diablo in Buffalo NY

supporting acts:

LIGHTNING SWORDS OF DEATH
STRONG INTENTION
&
SEPLOPHILE

Tickets can be purchased from Glorious Times directly by writing to glorioustimesdeathbook@gmail.com

OR

By contacting SEPLOPHILE 

CANADIAN FREINDS TAKE NOTE!

There will be NO appearance of MASTER at all in Canada on this tour, your only opportunity will be to come on down to Buffalo for the show.

Tickets can be purchased in Hamilton, Ontario by contacting Dr. Disc

 
 
DON'T miss the experience of seeing one of THE pioneers of extreme metal - get your tickets now!
***UPDATE MARCH 3, FROM PAUL SPECKMANN VIA PESTWEBZINE:
"We arrived Tuesday morning in Holland and after intense questioning we proceeded to the eye and body scan machine. Along with the other passengers we proceeded to the plane. We arrived in Detroit and went to passport control. I waited for about two hours for any word on the guys. The police came to explain that the visa waiver program didn't apply to musicians. So they sent me to customs and proceeded to tear apart everything and sent me on my way. I waited for six hours to get on another airplane and return to Europe. Thankfully the lady at the Delta checkout counter was very helpful and confirmed that the guys would be on the next plane in the evening and I could return with them. The guys were escorted to the plane by four police officers and returned their passports when we arrived in Amsterdam. Since when are musicians and terrorists in the same category? Again I apologize to all the bands, organizers and fans of course.
I guess the CD cover of the Human Machine CD has become a reality!"
 
http://www.facebook.com/notes/paul-speckmann/expulsion-from-the-usa/129751643763764


Sunday, January 30, 2011

RESPECTING OUR DARK PAST

The demo. Something foreign to most younger people, especially in this form. (photo - Alan Moses)

SWAMP

NYARLATHOTEP(XAR.KAR.)
POUTETSI 10
45532 IOANNINA
GREECE




Too many times to keep a count of we've seen feeble attempts to be "retro" or some other less than salutatory action, meant in whatever way to be akin to the ways of old. What is being peddled as innovative is usually a sad watering down of an approach which lacks the viciousness of the original purveyors, or buys directly into a style that has been reconstituted into a somehow marketable form, some sort of musical soilent green.

The once glorious sounds and visionary assaults have become the cheap and tacky, two-bit nickel and dime glam poser attire and lacklustre muzak for the next degeneration, where innovation is OUT and plastique is IN (man).


What we used to sometimes call brutal jungle death or metal or whatever (ie: from Brazil) has escaped the clutches of the media merchants, with the exception of the style pioneered by Sepultura at one point in their time line, giving up to the lucrative allure of profit entrenched in the "stale area sound".

The sound and above all the attitude infected entire continents filled with pseudo compassionate 'fans' who'd just been breast-fed the poison milk from the glossy magazines. NOT SO WITH SWAMP!

Left alone for the most part has been the 80's era Brazilian and Greek elements from the demo phases - and while they've served as inspiration to many, the 'sound' and vibe of those bands basically remains underground, and indeed scorned in many cases. Back during the Glorious Times, you could tell just about immediately if a band was from Brazil or Greece, and with only one ear paying attention.


This tape is a time warp. (courtesy Nyarlathotep)

SWAMP, a band so low on the radar to be pretty much underneath it, has taken their respect for the old times literally and manifested that respect into a couple small releases which caused us to raise an eye brow of extreme interest as soon as we caught wind of it. And that wind is putrid, old and has an underlying reek of the old Greek and Brazilian 1980's completely underground, uncommercial, and unapologetic. It was this initial voice which spoke to us from our own collective pasts, even though this band is from a generation after ours!


Swamp, one of the rare images to exist. (Photo courtesy of Nyarlathotep)

With a keen eye on the past, following of all things vinyl album credits, it came to pass that decades after the fact, Nyarlathotep and his cohort Bill from www.myspace.com/deadfans, made contact with GT, and introduced us to the Swamp Family. This action fully illustrating that yet again, the concept of Glorious Times is a practiced one, and not just some nostalgic peek into former glories.

SWAMP out of the darkness. (courtesy Nyarlathotep)

The existence of the Swamp Family being a direct result of the times, in a practical and global sense.

 
Advertising insert which comes with the limited edition CD (scan - Alan Moses)

At the end of June 2010 GT had a chance to speak with Haris (aka Nyarlathotep), during a short window of opportunity that existed during his time in the Greek draft (we're looking forward to your release brother!)

GT: Can we have some details about both the demo tape and the ep?


NYARLATHOTEP: First of all, thanks Alan for your support to Swamp, it is a total pleasure for me. Well, "Praise The Goat"demo tape and "Nuclear Death"ep were recorded in rehershal room of Swamp called "Ypogas" studios. It's place who live 10 years ago.Only the drums are recorded in "proffesional" studio. Also the vocals of "Nuclear Death" were recorded in a cave in the mountains of EPIRUS. "Praise The Goat" was recorded in June of 2006. "Nuclear Death" ep was recorded two years after, but a few labels tell us lies about vynil release of this ep. However in 2010 my brother Thomas of Time Before Time records (Poland) helped us and released the demo and ep on cd.(Thanks a lot for support Thomas.)

GT: How long did these sessions take, to complete each project?

NYARLATHOTEP: No much time, because me and Splatter have the same ideas in style of Swamp songs.Also together we have a same music style and idols!!!and this is very good and easy to vomit a Swamp song!!


Swamp's Splatter with a total legend Mike (courtesy Nyarlathotep)

GT: How old are the songs on each project?

NYARLATHOTEP: The songs are not old. The demo songs were finished in 2005, and for the ep they were finished in 2007.


Image from the cave (courtesy Nyarlathotep)


GT: Doing the vocals inside that cave is a killer concept, can you share some details about that?

NYARLATHOTEP: In the winter of 2007-8 me and some friends took a trip to the mountains of Epirus. I take together a double-tape stereo to try some vocal ideas with true echo of a cave. The sound is exellent like the glorious times of the 80s! I recorded the vocals in double-tape stereo - from the first side of radio play the tape with nuclear death songs and from the other tape side I recorded the vocals up from the music because and two tapes play in same time!!!haha! Sorry for my shitty English!and in the end the vocals is ready!!!so easy!




GT: We need some background on your experiences with Varathron.

NYARLATHOTEP: Thank you a lot for your question. First hail and respect to my bloodbrotherStefan and mighty Varathron. I know this person years ago. We have a great friendship and support. More things keep us together such as: 1) Swamp and Varathron are from the same city IOANNINA (not Athens). BIG problems with members and studios! 2) We support together the underground spirit from this small town of Greece. Stefan have a radio station and supports bands from all the world. Demo bands. Me in the past release a zine called NIGHTLY KINGDOMS. 3) For the end. Never stop the ideology of undergound. Never stop to support the underground. Never support the bastard posers.VARATHRON AND SWAMP TRY TO KEEP THE BLACK FLAME ALIVE IN THIS POSER TOWN. Varathron is the big part of Swamp's music and ideology. Hail to these cult diamonds = Varathron.

FUCK OFF TO POSERS! FUCK OFF TO SHITTY DIRTY PEOPLE! WHO DRESSING THE METAL IDEOLOGY FOR MONEY AND PUSSY! SHIT ON YOUR GRAVES!


Respect. Defend. Create. (courtesy Nyarlathotep)


GT: What was the drive and inspiration to start Swamp in the first place?

NYARLATHOTEP: GREAT QUESTION. Well we started the band under the name POSER HOLOCAUST! and try to play music in occult style like Alastis, Mortuary Drape, Varathron, Necromantia,old Samael,etc and with P.H. try to start a tribute to these bands. But with Swamp try to comeback the old ideology and style of 80s music, because today more and more posers try to destroy the great past AND the great passion. Today people don't care about the underground. They only read the big magazines and check the new releases of DOLLAR bands who BURN CHURCHES IN THE PAST OR MURDERS etc. Don't support Dimmu-Burger and Cradle Of Shit. SUPPORT ONLY THE TRUE!BANDS!ZINES!AND DISTROS. HAIL TO IMPIETY, SOULSKINNER, BLACK GRAIL, VARATHRON, GOATVOMIT, NECROS CHRISTOS, ARCHGOAT, HEPTAMERON, COMMUNION, BESTIAL RAIDS. FOR THE END SWAMP MUSIC IS ONLY FOR TRUE MORBID HANDS!SUPPORT THE UNDERGROUND!FUCK THE BIG MAGAZINES!FUCK THE IDIOTS! THE MUSIC LIVES IN PAPER ZINES,DEMO TAPES,AND LETTERS!!! KEEP THE UNDERGROUND CLEAR AND ALIVE!!!!


Small package, BIG homage!

GT: The importance of the old scene, Greece and Brazil in particular, on YOU and the Swamp phenomena - we need some comments from you on that. Why don't people get it?, they want top production and haven't even understood Swamp saluting the old days with making music that is very much like the old times without being trendy or souless music, and it's still Swamp!

NYARLATHOTEP: GREECE-BRAZIL! TWO COUNTRIES WITH GREAT HISTORICAL BANDS!!! BANDS WHO TODAY SELL THE MUSIC FOR MONEY AND PUSSY! IS SO SAD TODAY PEOPLE DON'T LISTEN THE GLORIOUS PAST BANDS OF BRAZIL! AND GREECE! HOW MANY PEOPLE KNOWS SADISTIC NOISE OR AMMEN CORNER? ANYWAY...I know Swamp "Nuclear Death" cd take a big fuck for modern people who wait only to realease the new album of Nevermore, Opeth, Darkthrone. I don't care. That people forget the first day who listen the first Destruction/Sodom/Iron Angel works or Bulldozer!!! We live in 2010 and the stadards of production are too high!! BUT I DONT CARE AND FUCK OFF ABOUT THIS!! LOOK THE PRODUCTION AND DON'T LOOK THE FEELING!!!! ALSO MAGAZINES DON'T LIKE THE SWAMP IDEOLOGY BUT FROM THE OTHER SIDE THE SAME MAGAZINES SUPPORT RETRO THRASH BANDS OF 2000! HAHA! FUCK THE CLEAN PRODUCTION & FUCK THE MODERN! GIVE A SHIT TO THIS! EXTREME MUSIC DON'T NEED A GREAT PRODUCTION OR VIDEO CLIPS. EXTREME MUSIC NEED PASSION! AND SUPPORT!!! BACK TO THE ROOTS!!!! WAKE UP FROM THE DEAD SLEEP!!!!


Get this flashback NOW, if there's even time to!


GT: Any final words or stories from the Swamp camp you want to share pal?

NYARLATHOTEP: First thank you a lot for this interview Alan! Thanks to you who with Brian release this epic book! Thanks who support underground all these years. Thanks for all!! Sorry, my English is not good to tell these stories! Hahahaha BUT I send to you personally! For the end - DEATH TO FALSE METAL! R.I.P. DIO. Hail Sadistic Noise! Brian - Death Courier RULES! Hails to Dagon! With total pleasure Haris "NYARLATHOTEP"


Ultra-limited SWAMP shirts available from STORM DISTRO




THANKS TO ROBSON FROM STORM DISTRO FOR TAKING THESE IMAGES FOR US.








Thursday, January 27, 2011

REMEMBERING NONOS

Original Mutilator sticker (scan - Alan Moses)

GLORIOUS TIMES is proud to be able to re-connect with a long-time old friend who has done much to champion the extreme music scene, and stood firm for decades flying the flag for the French Connection, which at one time was made up of few but extremely dedicated individuals.

If you have any strands linking you to the beginning - you will rejoice with us in REMEMBERING NONOS!

Michel in Japan (courtesy Michel Dumas)

It's been a long dam time since we had contact (Alan and Michel). I dare say it's been 21 years by now, we were just teenagers back when we used to write to each other concerning Mutilator, and then Mutilated. The 'Psychodeath Lunatics' demo is now universally credited, all these years later, as one of the classic underground demo tapes. Do you still hold that same conviction that the material has stood the test of time?

MICHEL -Well, actually I truly have a great memories from that era but I also do avoid listening to this! The songs were good but our playing back then was so un-tight! And at this time, we exactly knew it lacked of professionalism and that we still had to improve our skills, but the purpose was to play Death Metal, wasn't it? That's also why we didn't want to record any album immediately. In order to leave ourselves time to grow up, musically. So I'd say those tracks are now to me more like a testimony from the past rather than a "true" musical masterpiece.

The legendary post-Mutilator demo (photo - Alan Moses)

You may not agree with this statement, that in general, the Mutilated material bore at least a little inspiration from the earliest days of Florida's Massacre. In the course of the decades to pass, which, if any, of the bands surviving those early years continued to play a part in your musical development and direction?

MICHEL - Maybe there was an influence from Massacre, as we were big fans of them, I don't know.. Any of the bands we'd listen back then may have had a influence anyway, I guess. I remember also Pentagram, Morbid Angel, Haunting The Chapel/Hell Awaits' era Slayer, Repulsion, and many more being part of our inspiration. As for nowadays.. hmm.. I have got rid of any direct influences, I do write songs in a way that I believe is more personal than before, just looking inside of my inner self and letting things flow out through my instrument. I think music really looks like handwriting: once you've learn how to make it and got years of practice behind, you can develop your own manner to draw letters. Same with music. That's why there are so many different ways to play the same song according to who's doing it.


After Mutilated, can you give a time line as to what you've been up to in music since? I am sure there is a lot to tell?


MICHEL - Just after the Mutilated days, I founded Abyssals who recorded a demo a few months later, then I kicked almost everybody out of the band and got a new line-up together but it was like I was the only one truly involved in this project, so after something like one year and a half we split up. Then, began a weird period of my life, on the personal side of things, and although I gave a hand to several bands here and there, I almost did nothing really concrete. But I was still keeping on practicing guitar on my own. After a few months I meet Vincent who I knew for some couples of years from the time his band and Mutilated were sharing the same rehearsal room, and he was on the process of searching musicians in order to play a one and only show with his one-man project band Akhenaton. He asked me if I could help him with this and we started to rehearse, but shortly after the idea aborted due to various issues, and I started progressively to replace the guitarist of his other band Winds Of Sirius, with who I recorded an album as a session member. Right after this I told Vince I would not keep on with the band, as I wasn't satisfied with the music and the line-up. Then, he decided to split up and we formed The Seven Gates, my current gang, and after a mini-cd and one full length album, we are still writing the suite of the history. That's it!

Advertisement for the then forthcoming debut (anyone got a copy of this DVD?)

Did you ever get married during those years Michel and if so, how has life been for you?


MICHEL - Yes Alan, I just got married last year and this is absolutely great! Wearing a necktie was a nice experience too! Haha!


Which, if any, of those early bands we hold dear still remain an influence - to any degree, large or small?


MICHEL - Yes, Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi is one of my all-times fave guitarists and was in my opinion the first to play solos the Death Metal's way. Frenzy, chaotic, yet fully mastered. But once again, I don't feel any direct influence from any band by now. Honestly said.


Was any demo officially circulated for The Seven Gates, or was it right into the studio after material was developed?


MICHEL - Yes, we released a mixed rehearsal for the purpose of getting a contract with a label, but although some peoples own it, we didn't spread it as a public demo.


Are your attitudes to recording and getting what you envisage musically still basically the same as when we were kids or are you a lot more strict and tenacious to squeeze out just exactly what you want the recordings to be like?


MICHEL - Well, yes I tend to stick to what I want a track to sound like, but I'm much more open to suggestions from any competent person. It's cool to try things out that I wouldn't have thought by myself, and if it makes it sounds better, fine! But if I don't feel any improvement, I turn it down radically. That's why we have so much arguments with Vincent, because he's a character with a strong personality and we do not agree all the time as to how a song or a riff should be supposed to sound like. But well, in the end we always find agreements we both are pleased with, so this is the main thing.

THE SEVEN GATES (with thanks courtesy of photographer)


The response to T7G has been like what? Do people realize the truly historical connection between the band and the earliest of times for extreme music? Not just from the French contingent, but as a top running musician from the old era on a global scale.

MICHEL - Not at all! Haha! Many people listening to my current band tend to say we are ripping off old-school Death Metal, which is really kinky! I mean.. Shit! We're not playing "old-skull" Death Metal, we ARE old chaps now and still not playing your trendy emo-deathcore shit in order to make one's fifteen years old girlfriend finding we're the hot band to be into just to be cool. On the other hand, the good thing is most of nowadays greenhorns do find it great, regardless on if it's old-school or not. Overall, the response was pretty good. We gained a strong reputation here, and are struggling to spread it worldwide, which is a helluva hard job.


Michel Dumas (courtesy Michel Dumas)


As a fellow "old-timer" (hehe) - and not having had communications for a long time - can you share the most positive and also the most negative things you've seen about 'the scene' on a world level, but also on a personal level. IE: the biggest enjoyment you've gotten and the biggest disappointments. You can apply this to the world scene and then to your personal experience as a musician.


MICHEL - Good question.. I'd say the negative things would be the deviance of the Death Metal movement's codes from people unaware of its essence who transvestite them into mere gimmicks because they found out it makes them look cool, or supposedly. This goes from clothes to music. I can not consider classic arpeggios played at 240 bpm as Death Metal just because it is fast, this is an empty shell. Fast, technical, whatever.. but empty.
 Also, on the personal side, playing with musicians whose mouths are full of promises first and who appear then to lack of motivation after a few months.. It's something I ended up finding utterly unbearable!

On the world scene level, the coming of Internet in our lives was both a good and a not-so-good thing: downloading spoils small bands from their money, but helps them getting spread, it also allowed more efficiency to get in touch with people much faster to book live shows, interviews (- ....no comment about my delay, Alan! haha! -), etc.. but it melts the good and the bad, every band get exposure, have their own site, etc.. while crappy outfit were more rapidly cast to oblivion in the hand-written mails' days, good and bad reputation were made quicker.

 And the nice one for the end, on the positive side: playing in front of large audiences is such a blast! I do enjoy performing live really a lot! Also I do so much love our work with The Seven Gates, the excitement is way above what it used to be with any of my previous bands! Writing a new song, watching it grow.. Tastes like fatherhood! Haha!



Have your toured much over the years Michel?


MICHEL - Actually, not as much as I'd have wanted, mainly because of recurrent line-up issues, but things should go better now.

 The infamously canceled Canadian 2010 Tour - dates seen here left many people devastated to miss legend.


A LOT of people in Canada were very very disappointed that the whole Canadian 2010 tour was canceled. It seems like the tour was just unorganized from the start (?). Do you care to reveal anything at all about that situation?

 MICHEL - Yes, we were really pissed off too. Actually, we were supposed to play 19 shows and among this, 3 of this venues were bars/clubs. And we needed work permits for those only 3 dates, and because of this they didn't allow us to enter the country, despite we proposed to simply cancel them. I heard the same thing happened to Monstrosity a few months ago. Canadian customs seem to be familiar with this fucked up way of doing. I was the only one of the band to then stay in New York City for one month, and got a job there, met new friends, hanged out with them at shows, did some evil parties and stuff.. In the end, on the personal side of things, it was rather funny but I regret not having had the opportunity to play in front of our Canadian fans. But this is only postponed, I can tell you!



What sort of stuff did you get up to since you stayed behind for an extra month in NY? Where did you stay and sight see and so on?


MICHEL - Well, once there we got in touch with the french embassy in NY and the girl we spoke to sent us to a friend of her who runs a hotel in Harlem. After a few days, the other guys decided to fly back to homeland, but I couldn't resign myself to leave and I decided to stay, despite I didn't know how to pay for a flat, food, etc.. As some members of my family live now in Pennsylvania, I first intended to get in touch and join them there, but couldn't reach them. So the hotel's owner offered me to work for her what I gladly accepted, and then I started exploring NYC on my spare time, because it's a city I've been loving since I first came here 12 years ago. Randomly walk and discover towns by myself is something I so much enjoy, NYC and Tokyo were my best experiences, as far as this feeling goes.

 In NY after news the Candian Tour was bust


For that matter - in keeping with the concept of Glorious Times - would you share a special experience or anecdote about your times in the glory days - anything at all is OK to speak about.


MICHEL - Oh well, there are plenty! But there was this guy from Japan who was craving for Mutilated pictures, and I told him since we didn't own any camera I couldn't send him new pictures of the band. And then a few weeks later, I receive his camera he has just sent me through mail in order for me to take Mutilated pictures! Haha! I believe this sums up the whole Death Metal spirit! "When there's a will, there's a way".. I think you guys say something like that in English.

 hehehe Nonos in Japan



What do you foresee as the current agenda for the band once you return to France?


MICHEL - We just got rid of our drummer and got another one into the band, so we're now currently rehearsing the old material with him and writing some new songs. And we shall be headlining a 2 days festival in Switzerland on the 15th of January. Then, we'll keep on working on an Eastern Europe tour, which should hopefully be set up by April/May 2011.

 Michel live in T7G (thanks to photographer)


You haven't seen Glorious Times (the book) - I don't think? But what do you think about the concept? How much have you heard about it from others and what is your impression of undertaking a book of the sort we have done (and are trying to get reprinted)? (editors note: by now of course the book was reprinted, in an extended and revised format)


MICHEL - Not yet, which is a shame, but I should get a copy through a friend quite soon. The idea is just brilliant! Death Metal has been a huge part of my life for more than a quarter of century now, and that's great to see someone releases a book on that matter! Moreover, we know each other since something like 1987 and you're definitely not a new-comer, so I know that you know what you're writing about. This is nothing less than a history book, and no history should remain ignored. Congratulations for your work and dedication to the scene, Alan!

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Links to The Seven Gates

FACEBOOK

MYSPACE 

REVERB NATION
(This is the label that released the debut T7G album)