Satanarchist stream new LP at Noisey

I recently interviewed Portland, OR. I'll post that next. Before you read, open up Soundcloud in another tab and press play. Noisey is streaming their new LP, Fire Against the Wall for y'all's enjoyment.

They thrash metal crust punk barrage is belligerent and bountiful. The duo crush as the blaze through their pugnacious opinions on politics and religion.

give a listen and check out my interview:
this is the original email Q&A form. To find the extracted, written interview by me - look for New Noise Magazine Issue 33 in print. cheers.

Satanarchist Interview

Satanarchist

First Against the Wall

Self-released.

drummer/lyricist, Mark Nunziata; guitarist/vocalist, John Edwards

Interview by hutch for New Noise magazine

https://satanarchist.bandcamp.com/

Is the duo thing out of necessity or choice? What does Satanarchist bring as a duo that differs from if you added a bass?

Mark: We started playing together in 4-piece black metal band Spectral Tombs almost 7 years ago, and Satanarchist was simply born from all the times that we were the only two available to practice. If the other dudes couldn’t make it, the two of us would still get together and mess around. That’s how most of the first record was written, as a casual side project. When the other members of Spectral Tombs both stepped out of the band, coincidentally at the same time but for unrelated reasons and on good terms, we just decided to keep going and focus on this. We considered finding other members for a while but settled on remaining a two-piece for a number of reasons. I’d been in a few duos before and always appreciated how easy it was to make decisions, schedule shows and practices and all that, one line of communication and no dead weight.

John: As far as what being a two-piece brings, we get a lot of feedback after our live shows that we make a shit ton of noise for two people. People are like “holy shit I can’t believe how full your sound is,” or “I had no idea there were only two of you until I got a view of the stage.” Sometimes people say we need a bass player, but those people are usually bass players.

Mark: The only drawback to being in a two-piece is that we always have to load and unload the like five people’s worth of gear we use.

How is atheism/Satanism important in 2017’s society?

Mark: As the institution of religion gains traction in politics and society, it becomes increasingly important to resist it and support systems of belief based in radical ideas such as ‘facts.’ People can believe whatever they want but not if those beliefs start creeping into policy or affecting other people’s rights. With so many people and politicians using religious arguments to push oppressive attitudes and defend oppressive actions, we have a responsibility to stand up and call bullshit. I am disgusted by the injection of religious ideals into politics and our personal lives, things like health care, science, education and equal rights for people who aren’t straight cis white men.

What strengths do you derive from these beliefs?

Mark: We don’t reference satanic imagery or atheism because it’s the metal thing to do; we do it as a means to communicate our revulsion toward the influence of religion in society. There’s a very real overlap between radical left politics and freedom from religion, and the relationship between them runs far deeper than just our name.

John: Hail Satan.

Mark: And fuck homophobia, fuck transphobia, fuck “pro-life” Christian assholes who cut food and healthcare for the poor.

In the promo – specific amps are listed, Is gear, or are specific brands, important to Satanarchist’s sound?

John: I don’t particularly care about brands and, like, boutique or vintage gear, but Engl makes the best sounding amps for the kind of metal we play… so I use two. The Ampeg SVT is pretty much industry standard and fills out the low end.

Mark: What’s almost more important than what we list is what we don’t list. We wanted to just write fun, fast, heavy shit that doesn’t rely on effect pedals or bells or whistles to make it sound good, just amps and riffs. When we started writing for Satanarchist we set a couple ground rules. 1: No doom. 2: No Pedals.

Is it a tough decision to not shop this around to labels and just release independently?

Mark: It was mostly a matter of circumstance. We wanted to have this album ready to go before our Canada tour, and we knew that if we took the time to shop it out to labels then the timeline probably wouldn’t work out. We reached out to a couple Canadian labels early on but never heard back so just decided to slam it out ourselves.

John: We’d be open to working with labels for our LP release of First Against The Wall though.

In 2017, what are the pros and cons of releasing a record yourselves?

Mark: We did our first CD and LP independently as well, gives us a lot of control and flexibility over timelines and whatnot but it is pretty expensive.  Of course it would be cool to have the distro and promotions power of a solid label behind us but we’ve just kept everything as DIY as possible from booking tours to finding floors to crash on to putting our music out. I’ve never worked with a label before so I can’t really speak to the comparisons.

John: From the get go, one of our main goals was to tour as much as possible and releasing our own stuff is just easy. We just make it happen. No one’s going to do it for us so we do it ourselves.

How did recording go?

Mark: By the time this prints I will have recorded drums at Haywire studios with Fester five times between four bands so I pretty much knew what I was getting in to.  The dude’s a wizard, he has a way of hearing your music better than you do, he’s a skilled engineer but always ends up lending invaluable input as a producer as well. We also booked more studio time than we usually do for this record so I didn’t feel as much pressure to nail everything on the first take.

John: Fester is pretty much the shit for recording metal in Portland. There are other people to go to… but why?

With production or mastering, ever a worry it would be too clean or polished? How much dialogue was there between you and Fester/Boatright along the way?

Mark: Brad at Audiosiege does amazing work so we pretty much just let him do his magic. Our only specifications we gave for this were a) make sure you can hear everything and b) make sure it has balls. We wanted it to sound good without compromising weight, and be heavy without compromising clarity. We feel like he came through pretty solid on both points. With Fester we spent far more time mixing it than I ever had on anything before so I’m pretty fucking stoked on how you can hear every little goddamn snare roll.  We worked on the mix over a half dozen sessions over a few weeks.

How do things look for your Canada tour?

Mark: We’re psyched to reunite with our brothers in Hard Charger. We met those guys last summer when we played four shows together on the east coast of the US and have kept in touch. They did all the legwork to book the shows and we’re grateful for the opportunity to play metal with them north of the wall. I think we’re covering like five provinces and playing in some really cool towns. I grew up in Vermont and loved Montreal when I was a kid so it’ll be rad to get to play there.

John: Hard Charger borrowed my backline for a west coast tour last fall and all I got was a bottle of whiskey so basically they owed me one. Best buds tour 2017.

What is it about the TVZ cover that stirs you enough to cover it?

John: We’d been talking about it for years. Have you heard Silver Ships of Andilar? The form and content, It’s basically asking to be a metal song. It’s a story about going to war on a boat, getting lost at sea and everyone starving and killing each other. Plus I’ve been listening to Townes Van Zandt my whole life, I was raised on it. My mom introduced me to his music as long ago as I can remember. When I told her we were covering one of his songs she was like “You’re going to ruin Townes.”  But he’s been one of my musical idols since I was young, so we did our best to do it justice.

Amended explanation of the title of the album:

First Against The Wall or "First against the wall when the revolution comes" is an echo of radical left sentiment toward members of the elite who will face firing squad after being deposed by popular uprising. References to the phrase or variants of it can be found scattered throughout radical and popular culture back to the 60's and 70's. We use it as an imagining of retributive violence against police, heads of state, businessmen and agents of the church who've committed injustices and atrocities against the people. It also invokes images of violence by the police which we find appalling and stand firmly against. In today's political environment, it is also intended as a a reference to Trump's border wall. Imagine Trump, Sessions, Ryan, Bannon, Spencer, McConnell et. al. facing a firing squad with their backs to a wall on the southern border. A band can dream.

Hutch would like to thank John and Mark for their time. Also Lisa Root at New Noise. Dave and Liz Brenner at Earsplit PR

New FREE EP review and preorder

Free
Ex Tenebris
Triple B


This is an explosive, dark hardcore record. The chaotic energy gathers influence from Fugazi's  feedback presence to Burn's bounce. But more correlative would be Outspoken, Mouthpiece, Battery, etc; a good mash of DC meets NYHC. "Equity Head" is the standout track for me, maybe even because it is the most straight ahead hardcore song. "Sisyphus" is the opener almost venturing into Cro-Mags territory - dark and menacing, fast and angry. "Out of Darkness" has a great bounce.

Being Pat Flynn, hell, 4/5 of Have Heart, there is certainly that vibe. But only the closer, "May I Be I", really capture that spread out sweeping vibe (which, to be honest i grew weary of). 3/4 of this EP move forward with urgency and spite. The vocals are furious and commanding without being self-righteous or pretentious. The mix is great, utitilizing the band's raw presence, nothing grandiose.Recommended.

LISTEN

BUY VINYL

preorder manalive new track vinyl

droppingbombshc, out of Detroit, has released some killer metallic hardcore records (check bandcamp or buy vinyl here) The latest happens to hit me right in the chest, Manalive, from New Jersey. They have one track up, "Constant Coverage". Featuring ex-members of Milhouse, Ensign, and Kill Your Idols. It definitely reverberates some Milhouse/Indecison and Burn vibes. Heavy and dark. New vocalist, Kwame Korkor screams delightfully with vengeance and condemnation.

FROM droppingbombshc:

"This record will be a white one-sided lathe cut 7" with two songs and a screen printed B side.

Lathe cuts are hand cut records that come in small runs to create unique releases with some sacrifice to fidelity and volume while maintaining the features and gratification of a traditional vinyl release. All records will come with a high-quality download code.

Pre-orders should ship late June."

no echo Jonah Jenkins interview

In 1993, having played extensive strings of local shows in Boston and New England, Only Living Witness dropped Prone Mortal Form. And it was on Century Media, to boot. It should have been an earthquake. It wasn't; but it gave us from Boston and Massachusetts extreme pride. The power, oh the the emotional vocals, the intelligent lyrics, the thick ass riffs, the musicianship! We knew we had something special. Now, in retrospect, metalheads and hardcore kids revisit, whether due to vocalist, Jonah Jenkins' other bands like Milligram, Miltown, or Raw Radar War, or Prone Mortal Form's placement in Decibel's Hall of Fame (landing on the 23rd installment!), or it's huge doom influence, people no adhere proper reverence to the album. I could continue extrapolating on that album's repercussions and influence. And someday I will. Following his other projects were cool. I still love my Miltown 7". "No Matter" remains a top5 song; and the "Jumping Someone Else's Train" cover kills it. Milytown for me beyond that, despite the great guitars of Brian McTernan, wasn't quite my thing. But Milligram brought the punch back (check This is Class War!). Raw Radar War continues that feel and will be recording again soon. But here the focus is a link to that greats at noecho.net and their recent interview with Jonah.

Check out the interview with Jonah here: interview by Carlos Ramirez (Black Army Jacket, Deny the Cross - Hey, I interviewed them! here )

Pictured her with milligram; Zeph Courtney (Stompbox, Drug War) and Darryl Sheppard (so many boston bands. look him up). Photo from The Boston Globe 

Night Birds and Western Addiction announce East Coast shows

Night Birds, one my favorite bands, have announced some east coast shows with Western Addiction in July. Night B
Birds have been quiet recently since Mutiny at Muscle Beach in 2015 via Fat Wreck Chords. Hopefully this will trigger new music. Their fiery blend of dark tones, horror surf, and classic chaotic hardcore mesmerize. They are joined by Western Addiciton. Their 2005 LP, Cognicide, was a sleeper. However their new LP,  Tremulous shows growth and sustained fury.





Read my review here at New Noise Mag.

Date City Venue
07/27/17 Jersey City, NJ Monty Hall
07/28/17 Philadelphia, PA Boot & Saddle
07/29/17 Cambridge, MA 55 Bishop Allen Drive