OBITUARY:
1. DEATHHAMMER - TOXIC RADIATION
2. AURA NOIR - HADES RISE
3. FARSCAPE - THE CURSE OF THE LAST SOLSTICE
4. POWER TRIP - HERETIC'S FORK
5. CONDOR - MALEVOLENT CURSE
6. CORRUPT - MODERN WORLD HYPOCRISY
7. NEKROMANTHEON - ANNIHILATION SPREE
8. WITCHTRAP - COMMAND OF HATE
9. VULTURE - VULTURE
10. DEATHRONER - BLITZKRIEG
11. EVIL ARMY - RELENTLESS ASSAULT
12. ANTICHRIST - FALL OF TEMPLE OF SOLOMON
13. NOCTURNAL - RISE OF THE UNDEAD
OBITUARY:
1. OBLITERATION - STYXERIAN PATH (INTO DARKNESS)
2. OUTRAGE - GO TO HELL
3. SATAN - KISS OF DEATH
4. DEATHROW - SAMHAIN
5. MORPHEUS - RESIDUAL KILL
6. LEEWAY - BORN TO EXPIRE
7. NECROMASS - SODOMATIC ORGY OF HATE
8. VENOM - VOYEUR
9. MX - JASON
10. KORO - IT'S O.K.
11. LETHARGY - GRIP IN DECAY
Back with another demo show, this time picking up from where I left off at show LVIII, with more 2000s-onwards bands/releases. All from tape this time, giving those MP3s a break. Alas, maniacs, I am back on July 25th for more Midnite fuckin' Madness, so "don't nobody go nowhere"...
Last year was the best Live Evil yet, which is saying something. The Dome is the perfect venue for us and the atmosphere was electric. This year will be even better, with our biggest and best line up and loads of great extras in place, including the free cassette. Our headliners are going to blow the doors off; we have all the young bands we wanted, including Helvetets Port (finally); and Chaos UK and Stray give us a slightly different flavour with the best hardcore punk and classic rock currently playing in the UK. I'm expecting to hear: "This is the best festival in the world, mate" at least ten times a day.There are still some tickets available, so be sure to clear the calendar of all that lying around hungover for some heavy metal mania. All info here and tickets here.
The town of Kolbotn gets a lot of coverage on here. Not because of its sleepy, cosy village vibe and excellent kebab shop, but because it produces so many insanely cool metal bands. And that fountain of metal purity is still flowing like an escalator straight out of hell, with three schoolkids calling themselves Condor the latest addition to the prestigious Kolbotn Thrashers Union.
It was pretty tough to get an interview what with their dedication to both school and band rehearsals, but here it is.
AFITFOG: Hey guys. Can you give me some background info on what you do outside of Condor?
Condor: Well, Magnus is an active skater and pops many sweet ollies in his spare time AND school time. Christoffer just became a mailman besides school and Herman is an active deadhead. Christoffer is also a hiking metal punk. We all love to share good laughs. Together.
OK, I see. Wait, you're all still at school? How old are you three?
Herman and Christoffer are 18 and Magnus is 18 in May. Yeah, we're all in school, but it's Herman and Christoffer's last year now.
Whoa, impressive. So you started Condor back in what, 2009?
Yes. It was Herman and Magnus first of all with Christoffer joining in 2010. They liked his other band Repellent, asked him to join, and the rest is a secret.
Repellent were great. So you guys come from the famed metal town of Kolbotn. Was it tough for you to come out with your own band at such a young age, given the high standard of what Kolbotn spits out?
We didn't think about that at all at the start, we just played like the other bands—Darkthrone, Nekromantheon, Obliteration, etc—did before us. We believe it is our influences that define our sound, not the geography, but who knows. However, being from Kolbotn and knowing about the metal scene here has helped us a lot, both in terms of inspiration and them hyping us very much, haha.
But you weren't afraid of being able to live up to the mantle of being "another band from Kolbotn"—i.e., that people will expect you to KILL?
No, not really. We were surprised by all the kind words and that people liked it so much. Our next album will absolutely kill! Like a murder. Killed for the very first time. Magnus would like to add that he has killed a few people, of course.
Yeah, I heard that about him. So what's the fascination with baby stealing, then?
Magnus, again—he has a problem. Haha, no. We read it in a scanned picture of an old news article. We saw the word "condor" and the picture, and just had to use it as a title. A baby got stolen by a condor, and that's pretty badass, hence the title.
But you're named after the Aura Noir track "Condor", right?
Yes! CONDOR!
So let's talk about the first demo a little. Was it recorded live in your rehearsal space?
Haha, thanks for the compliment! That's the way it should be, but no, it wasn't. We used one mic on the drums and got a very nasty bass sound, so it doesn't sound very good, but maybe it fits the music. The music was made in Condor's early days, so the songs are very different from each other. If we could have the opportunity now, we'd cut a few tracks, except from "Lumberjacks from Hell" – that's the coolest song in our eyes! Also, we used a cowbell which was supposed to be used in just one place on a track, but Herman went crazy and played it on all the songs until we removed it from the set, haha. We guess we're the first band from Kolbotn that does NOT need more cowbell. But hey, maybe in some years people will refer to it as "The Cowbell Demo". That would make us proud.
I love "Lumberjacks from Hell". So onto last year's demo, Speedwagon, or is it an EP? It's an EP, right?
Don't know that it is, really, haha. We call it an EP, it sounds cooler.
Alright, EP it is, then. It sounds almost as if you guys went and sold your souls to the devil at the crossroads in the year between releases...
Well, funny story—we actually did! No, of course we did not, haha, we are die-hard Christians. Thank you, Jesus!
That's a really funny joke.
But seriously, we feel the same way. It's completely different, much better. The new stuff we make is in the Speedwagon style.
Yeah? How far are you into the next release? And is it an album this time?
It's an album, alright! We're done with some songs and it sounds good. Three titles to get you sweaty is "Blood Fever", "Heavy Metal Demon" and "The POSSESSOR"! Are you possessed, Dylan?
What!? Of course I am. I'm possessed by both weed AND metal. So when can we can we expect this new Condor assault?
Late this year. We're looking forward to it.
How was it playing with fellow Kolbotn masters Aura Noir and Nekromantheon earlier in the year in Drammen?
That concert was fabulous, we enjoyed it very much ourselves. Free beer and playing with Norway's best band, how can you go wrong? Rhetorical question, btw. We also got a free Aura Noir concert.
So what, other than your local heroes, baby-stealing condors, skating, and school, are you guys influenced by?
We're influenced by many punk/thrash bands at this moment. Stuff like Bad Brains, D.R.I., Adrenalin OD, Puke, Faff-Bey, etc, and the usual thrash bands—Kreator, Sodom, Metallica, Whiplash, Nuclear Assault, Slayer, Antichrist. By the way, the new Nekromantheon album is perfect.
What about stuff outside of music? I see the news dictates some of your lyrical content.
The weather is an influence, it decides your feeling, and it's so cold here up North in the winter that you have to play fast to keep warm. Christoffer is especially influenced by the woods and we're all getting angrier and angrier every day at the conformity in our society around here. It sucks, but it keeps us from playing anything other than thrash!
What do you mean "the conformity"?
Most people seem to wanna look and be the way that is socially accepted and don't even dare to be different. Everyone is turning into make-up. It's not good. This development also influences the music, it kills the soul. And the boys are now more feminine than the women...
Alright. Keep it Christian, guys!
Condor (Norway) Facing The First Winter (2010)
1.Facing the First Winter
2.MC Inc.
3.Inferno
4.Lumberjacks from Hell
5.Slaughter
6.From the Fields
7.Ready for Winter
Norwegian thrashers Nekromantheon have just released their second album, Rise, Vulcan Spectre—an album about "offering virgin's blood to the beasts, defeating your enemies with might and learning the wisdom of the dead". So it's a ritual, of sorts. Since I last spoke to them, the trio have inherited a live guitarist, enfeebled London two Octobers running, and made a name for themselves by lacerating live audiences all over Europe and America. The ancient metal-hailing Sindre (bassist and sometime vocalist) and Kick (drummer and studio wizard) chatted to me about their new album and drinking the blood of murder victims.
AFITFOG: So tell me, what have you guys been doing since the release of your debut record?
Nekromantheon: After the release of Divinity Of Death, we were keen to write new stuff as soon as possible. We'd been playing live as Obliteration quite a lot at the time, so it was more fun for us to write new stuff with Nekromantheon. I guess you could say we learned from our first album and instantly wanted to make something faster, dirtier and even more evil.
So how does this differ from the first record? Did you change any of your ideals and were you at all fazed by it coming out on the prestigious Indie Recordings?
I guess you could say we gave every aspect of the music more attention. The arrangements are more thought-through, and we were really picky about what parts we decided to use. Our ideals didn't change, they just got even darker and more screwed up, now that we've grown up, haha. When we made the songs and recorded the album we didn't have a record contract at all, so no, we weren't fazed by anyone but ourselves. We would never let a record label affect our music anyway, how should anyone else know better than us what kind of music we want to make?
Well put. So tell us about this tour you have coming up with Aura Noir and, also, I just saw you're playing Death Doomed The Age festival with Death Strike in September.
Yeah, that tour is gonna be awesome. It's a part of a concept organised by Metal Hammer Norway and Amber Booking called "Fire Walk With Me", kind of an equivalent to the Jägermeister tours you might have seen in Germany. Touring with Aura Noir is gonna be the fun part and on two of the gigs we're even joined by fellow Kolbotn thrashers Condor and our buddies One Tail, One Head. Death Doomed The Age in Germany is probably gonna kick ass as well. I mean, fuckin' Death Strike! Don't know how they're gonna perform live in 2012, but they've been a huge inspiration for us, and you probably remember us covering "Pay to Die" in London both times we've played in your neighbourhood. The lineup at DDTA seems really cool, lots of great underground bands – it'll be a treat for sure!
Definitely. How is it playing with bands you grew up listening to? Are you over it by now, or is it still exciting?
It's still strange, mind-blowing and freaky. Fortunately, the scene is still made up of down-to-earth people and most of the people we've hailed since we were kids are really cool guys with no rockstar attitude at all. And it's really cool to see when our old heroes continue to support the underground, that's something we really appreciate.
Yeah, the support is there in the underground, which is nice.
Absolutely. But the most important thing is to support real, honest, quality music, no matter if it's a demo band from Bosnia or a major act from the US.
Indeed. So who is blowing your mind, at the moment?
Almost the entire Swedish scene, haha! Antichrist, Maim, Morbus Chron, Invidious, No Future, In Solitude, Bastard Priest... It's all fantastic stuff! But we do have some superb shit going on in Norway as well, like Condor, One Tail, One Head, Black Magic, Mare, Dødsengel, Deathhammer... The list is endless, really. Funereal Presence is awesome, check them out. Occultation as well. Plus, we keep supporting the bigger acts that still do things the right way – Autopsy, Aura Noir and Darkthrone. Eternal hails!
Can you explain what the 'Kolbotn Thrashers Union' is to people who are yet to encounter the concept, please?
It's an unholy coven of bestial thrashers from Kolbotn, Norway, basically. The concept was formed before our time by Fenriz or Einar 'Necrodevil' Sjusjø, but it was nothing 'official' before we manipulated the logo of the Kolbotn sports team and put it on our records. For some reason, every musician we know from the area is extremely talented and has an amazing understanding on how to write good music. Don't really know why, but we suspect it's because of all the corpses that have been dumped in our drinking water over the years.
So that is actually true, huh?
Hell yes. Our drinking water is probably the first place the cops would search for a corpse – people have been dumping all kinds of murder victims there for years.
Ugh! So, what else you have got planned for 2012?
No more releases are planned. I mean, we will write new tracks, etc, and the Nekröthrash 7" split with Deathhammer, Black Magic, and Carniwhöre on Duplicate Records is still on, but as for releases there is nothing else planned. We will write stuff for our third album and we'll be playing a lot live. We're gonna play Inferno festival in Switzerland, and in Norway, and hopefully a lot of other shows throughout Europe and the Earth, in general...
Do you think there are perhaps more bands nowadays reverting to the old, more traditional recording methods laid down by the 80s metal gods than there was say, five or ten years ago?
Definitely. It might be a counter reaction to the madness that was going on in the late 90s/ early 00s. People have started to realise what music is about and it sure as hell is NOT about who had the most audible kick drums or how many douchebags you can get to sit on the floor and jump up and down simultaneously. Right now, people in the underground are really into music with a lot of soul and feeling, and hopefully it will last for a while. That's basically the concept of our new album—we want the spirit of the ancient metal gods to come back to life.
Rise, Vulcan Spectre is out now on Indie Recordings.
