Videos

Photo by Henrik Øiestad Myrvold

Just when I thought things couldn't get any more brutal after Maryland Deathfest, New York City got treated to back-to-back death metal shows the following week, when Swedish death metal pioneers Entombed and the young Norwegian deathsters Obliteration rolled into town. While Entombed definitely brought the carnage on June 2 at the Gramercy Theater, for this review I'll focus on the following night's event, featuring Obliteration, Unearthly Trance, Nekromantheon and Mutant Supremacy.

The show was free, thanks to a bunch of sponsors including Revolver, Scion and Tones of Death, and also featured free beer provided by Asahi. Free beer and death metal…is there anything better? Seriously.

The night jumped off with New York's Mutant Supremacy, featuring two members of Atakke, guitarist/vocalist Sam and drummer Robert, along with bassist Winslow and lead ripper Curt Johnston. It's pretty obvious from the first couple of riffs that these guys really love Bolt Thrower! The band ripped through 25 minutes of massive death metal, taken from their cassette demo, Corpses in Pieces. If you like your death metal heavy, gruesome and, well, heavy (and who doesn't) Mutant Supremacy is for you.

Up next were Norwegian thrashers Nekromantheon. This was extra cool for us here in the States, as most Americans view Norwegian metal as nothing but the grimmest of all black metal (no doubt thanks to its increased public visibility via hipster outlets like Vice). But as Nekromantheon's set quickly proved: Norwegians can also thrash as maniacally as their L.A. counterparts.

This three-piece—drummer Christian "Kick" Holm and Obliteration guitarist Sindre Solem on bass and Arild "Arse" Myren Torp—are well schooled in the art of thrash very much in the vein of Dark Angel, pre-South of Heaven Slayer and their Kolbotn elders Aura Noir, and they're not afraid to show it. One thing that really stood out in their set was the alternate vocals between Sindre and Arse. It added variety and personality to a genre where bands tend to become repetitive even faster than their already blazing beats per minute. Their debut full length, Divinity of Death, is out now via High Roller Records and it is highly recommended.

Following Nekromantheon's set of full-on speed, New York's doom crew Unearthly Trance took things to a whole new (s)low, when they hit the stage and began unleashing their thick wall of rumbling riffs. Drummer Darren Verni kept the pace heavily and steadily as bassist Jay Newman and guitarist/vocalist Ryan Lipynsky gradually laid their lines over top. The band's atmospheric-brand of doom metal was the perfect lead-in to Norway's Obliteration.

Featuring the incredible rhythm section of drummer extraordinaire Kristian Valbo and bass virtuoso Didrik Telle, Obliteration hit the stage and primarily delivered cuts from their latest record, Nekropsalms. Whereas most other modern death metal bands rely on technical wizadry and squeaky-clean production, Obliteration kept it true and relied on feeling, atmosphere and soul to execute their music unmercifully. In the half hour or so set, the band conjured feelings of death, helplessness and overall aggression. If you ever get the chance to catch these death metallers live, please do so. And make sure to brace yourself for some serious headbanging and fist pumping. —Henry Yuan

Check out video of members of DevilDriver and Dethklok together at the Revolver Golden Gods; Bleeding Through's Marta talking to Fear Factory; Crash Kings performing "Mountain Man" live; Sevendust's video for "Unraveling"; and more, right now on the Revolver TV Mobile app!

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What happens when Revolver magazine announces a free show featuring Municipal Waste, Boston's Ramming Speed and local metal punks Atakke with free beer? The answer should be pretty obvious. Chaos!

The insanity jumped off last weekend, when Revolver held a free screening of their Golden Gods Awards concert (which was recorded on April 8 at Club Nokia in L.A.) at Fontana's in Chinatown with performances by the aforementioned bands in the space downstairs. It was crazy to see—among the packed crowd—the guitarist from Australian thrash band Grenade and from the drummer from Iron Maiden-worshipping Swedish crust punks Wolfbrigade and the guitarist/singer of metal-punk cult Sonic Ritual all in one place. It turns out that many out-of-towners were traveling to New York to hang out before this weekend's Maryland Deathfest, where Wolfbrigade will play (super stoked for that!).

The celebration was kicked off by New York's Atakke (who actually played with the Waste a few weeks ago at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn). The band was just as ferocious as I remembered them to be, with vocalist Chloe Puke belting out her screams to match the intensity of guitarists Sam Awry and BillDozer's crushing Bolt Thrower-like riffs. Ramming Speed from Boston carried on the proceedings with their take on hardcore punk and speed metal. As hard as these guys party, I expected the growing crowd to be a little crazier.

The tiny space in Fontana's basement had reached capacity just as Municipal Waste were about to play, and everyone was pumped. As soon as drummer Dave Witte hit the stage, the band launched into their set (with a neat intro courtesy of MTV's Jersey Shore).

The Waste were definitely spot-on, even if vocalist Tony Foresta warned everyone he was drunk. Bodies were flying and slamming as the Waste unleashed cuts like "Terror Shark", "Beer Pressure" and "Wrong Answer." Unfortunately, just as their set was reaching its fever pitch, the soundman abruptly announced "This is your last song," which pretty much bummed the entire audience, myself included.

Despite the abbreviated set, it was great while it lasted. And at the low cost of free, who can really complain? —Henry Yuan

When Hatebreed vocalist Jamey Jasta came to New York this past February for a press tour to promote his NOLA metal project Kingdom of Sorrow, featuring Down's Kirk Windstein on guitar, we invited the hardcore stalwart into MetalKult's Manhattan headquarters for an exclusive video interview.

In the following clips from that interview, hear touch on a range of topics, including the formation of Kingdom of Sorrow, his guitar contributions to their self-titled debut and how Windstein's singular approach to vocals and guitar is inspiring Jasta to start a whole new generation of "Kirk-worship."

Check out that video below:

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On January 24 and 25, 2008, Mastodon converged on Brooklyn's Masonic Temple to play two nights in support of experimental doom legends, Neurosis. Because this was the first time Neurosis played New York in over four years—and we're always down for a good Masto adventure—we had to tag along.

In our four-part documentary, we not only captured some killer live footage of rarely played Mastodon songs, we also cornered the four Mastodudes—guitarist Brent Hinds, drummer Brann Dailor, guitarist Bill Kelliher and bassist/singer Troy Sanders—in the depths of this historic building to see what they've been doing since dropping 2006's Blood Mountain, and to discuss their plans for their as-yet-untitled follow-up.

Check out Episode 3, in which the guys rip through "Hand of Stone"—a song they rarely play live—from their 2006 album Blood Mountain.

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Photo by Jimmy Hubbard.

This past January, MetalKult had the opportunity to catch up with Children of Bodom singer/guitarist Alexi Laiho at the winter NAMM convention in Anaheim, California.

Check out the following interview, in which Laiho describes his latest injuries, the inspiration behind Blooddrunk and how he planned to destroy George Lynch at the NAMM ESP shred-off.

Photo by Jimmy Hubbard.

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With a resume that includes membership in seminal post-industrial band Swans, collaborations with Neurosis, Byla, and Jesu's Justin K. Broadrick, and a prolific, provocative solo career, it's safe to say that experimental vocalist Jarboe has many stories to tell.

So when she came to New York on January 26, 2008, to play at a show celebrating the work of visual artist Seldon Hunt, which also featured performances by Unearthly Trance, Scott Kelly, James Plotkin, Steve Moore and Inswarm, we jumped at the opportunity to sit down with this enigmatic musician.

In the following interview, the surprisingly affable Jarboe talks candidly about her father's undercover FBI work, the steel-edge drive that allowed her to survive in the male-dominated metal world, as well as her recent work with Broadrick on J2 (The End) and her upcoming solo album featuring Phil Anselmo and Mayhem's Atilla Csihar.

Please enjoy. We sure did.

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Photo by Jimmy Hubbard.

On February 10, 2008, when Oakland's High On Fire came thundering into New York to play Brooklyn's Club Europa in support of their latest album, Death Is This Communion, MetalKult braved the cold weather and packed crowds to document this event. When all was said and done, and we finally looked at the footage we shot...we were sure glad we did. High On Fire's guitarist Matt Pike, drummer Des Kensel and bassist Jeff Matz did not disappoint.

Below, check out the power trio as they deliver bone-crushing performances of "Blessed Black Wings," "Nemesis" and "Turk."

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Photos by Ronan Thenadey.

You wanted them, you got em! Here's two more live Immortal videos!

When Norwegian black metallers Immortal—guitarist Abbath, drummer Horgh, and Aura Noir's Apollyon on bass—hit New York on their 7 Dates of Blashyrkh tour, on July 13, 2007, MetalKult had the opportunity to film their killer set.

Below, take a look at Abbath and crew burning through "One By One" and "Sons of Northern Darkness"

Also, check out our coverage of Immortal's "Solarfall" and "Withstand the Fall of Time" from that same show.

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Thank you to Angela Boatwright for providing her ace video camera skills.

Photo by Hizonic.

When MetalKult trekked out to Brooklyn on June 16, 2007, to catch Pig Destroyer's record release show, we knew we were in for a night of sonic bludgeoning from the Virginia grind band. But, what we didn't know was that we would also be thoroughly won over by opening act Genghis Tron's bombast of finger tapping goodness, power electronic madness, drum machine terror and heinous vocal onslaught.

By the time the Philly three-piece—featuring Mookie Singerman (vox/keys), Michael Sochynsky (keys/drum programming) and Hamilton Jordan (guitar)—concluded its raucous set, we knew we wanted to do something with these young, noisy shredders.

It just so happened that Genghis Tron were in the process of writing for their forthcoming third release, Board Up the House (Relapse Records). So when the time came for the band to enter Massachusetts' GodCity Studio to record with Kurt Ballou, we realized our opportunity had arrived. And luckily for us, the GT dudes went along with it and agreed to grab a MetalKult camera and document the process.

Below, in our exclusive six-part video feature, check out this unparalleled behind-the-scenes action from a hardworking, progressively minded band exploring the boundaries of heavy music.

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Photo by Jason Bergman.