”When the United States Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan at 8:15 A.M. on August 6, 1945, near the end of World War II, a miracle happened. From the ashes of the nuclear smoke and waste, from the burnt victims screaming for aid, there they were: Nuclear Torment. A three-man army, ready to defeat all! They were found by the US military one year later, crawling around in the crater of the bombing, still babies. They had nothing to eat but human, radioactive flesh from the victims of the bombing, and they had nothing to drink but the blood of the bodies that had been laid to waste.”

Well there’s no shortage of imagination in the joint psyche of Jakob “Mr Nuclear Torment” Nuk’em (vocals, nakedness, bass), Tobbe “Little Boy” Zombiesson (drums, brain eating) and Matthias “Hiroshima” Gamma Rayson (guitar, bombing). Their Facebook is absolutely loaded with crap much like the above and their band history should be fuckin’ carved in stone. In terms of musical originality, things aren’t so rich. But if it’s battshit crazy, it doesn’t have to be!

The questions from this interview date back to the time that I reviewed Loch Vostok’s Dystopian, which is a few months ago. It was lying around somewhere and still needed some answers so I contacted Lars from Intromental Europe. Within five hours I had it returned, answered by the one and only Teddy Möller.

So, today is the day I discovered that my favourite Loch Vostok song Navigator is about a GPS in stead of about God and that Teddy Möller is a very “metal” guy.

So yeah, the evening of Monday November 7^th started with a huge fuckin’ disappointment: Omnium Gatherum. Not that they didn’t play well, I just wouldn’t know. Because I fuckin’ missed them. Because I was an hour fuckin’ late at the venue, The Garage, on Highbury Corner! Why was I an hour late for the band I wanted to see that night, the band I came for in the first place? Well not because I was a sloth and looked on my watch too late before I left! It was because the Neckbreaker’s Ball tour site stated the show would kick off at 5:45 pm, while in reality the show commenced at 4:45 pm.

If there’s one band able to make you close your eyes and drift away into the beautiful melodies they produce, it’s Nightrage. The Greek-Swedish formation that has been active since 2000 has been, although I was already well across the line of liking (Melodic) Death Metal, the band to tighten the noose around my little ignorant neck and violently tug my soul so far into the realm of Melodeath that I could never do with anything less again. Their albums Descent Into Chaos, A New Disease is Born and Wearing a Martyr’s Crown have spent so much time playing on my headphones that they are completely and utterly torn to shreds.

Two years after the band’s last album, Insidious is the one to follow up on a series of well-bred and magnificently shaped albums in the Nightrage line of descendance. And as the band’s vocalist Antony Hämäläinen foretold in the interview we had with him over a year ago, it’s rich with both a pissed-off attitude and sweeping swirling melodies. And that means it sticks like glue to the true Nightrage style and tradition, which in this case is a good thing, as Nightrage is one of the few bands you do not want to see alter their sound too much from release to release.

[The Baboon is growing! And not just by eating a pile of burgers every day. No, sir. Today marks the first contribution of yet another new writer and contributor of good taste and heavy attitude. Today Havik Incarnate introduces us to an unsigned Swedish band he regularly listens to: Mudpusher! Apparently it helps a lot if your cranium isn’t hurting!]

Let’s face it. Scouting for good bands these days that have the potential to kick your ass so fast that you wouldn’t even feel it for the first few seconds & power-slam you back home, has become more of an undertaking than the enjoyable experience that it used to be eons ago. No wonder, when artistic integrity is based on skinny jeans, power-ranger-like visages and racoon fringes. All that changed for me however, when I stumbled across Mudpusher.

Yesterday marked what must have been one of the most enjoyable days in my whole fuckin’ life, I shit you not. I haven’t had such a good time in years and the smile on my face was both ridiculous and terrifying. Similarly, the ache in my upper neck muscles I’m currently experiencing is ridiculous and excruciating. All attributed to the efforts of Septic Flesh, As I Lay Dying and Amon Amarth, each in its bigger or smaller share.

This album has been in my possession for what must be at least half a year or something. It’s been in prominent sight all that time, generally on top of my ‘to-review’ stack. However, for some reason I just kept picking shit up in a totally non-FIFO (first-in first-out) way. I had pretty much decided not to review it at all, after all I owed it to nobody as I bought this myself and moreover it’s a 2010 album, but then today I thought ”you know what, let’s dump these Facebreakers in my player”.

I remember buying this album because I had found out Roberth “Robban” Karlsson whom we of course know from Scar Symmetry is also operating in this group. I figured the associations Swedish and Scar Symmetry surely meant I was in for some crunchy Melodeath. Karlsson is the one responsible for the growling in SS, so I wasn’t quite expecting sugar-sweet girly-type Melodeath with gently sung clean vocals. Still, I was in for a surprise.

Their promo lists them as ”Sweden’s answer to Suicide Silence”, but with all the will in the world I can’t see that. Suicide Silence is tons more brutal, tons more pounding and tons more heavy. The only similarity is that both have this ‘cory undertone, though one more than the other. Rather, I’d call this band Sweden’s answer to elevator music. Their music would make waiting in an elevator a lot more pleasant. But can they be much more than that?

All fuckin’ about aside. Sort by Title, original and unrevealing name, delivers its debut EP with Independent Process, original and unrevealing title. It looks next to nothing like Suicide Silence, but I really don’t think that matters. World would be a boring place if all bands sounded like Suicide Silence. So thankfully Sort by Title deliver something that sounds their own, though their influences are distinguishable.

News from Sweden! Entrails released their album called The Tomb Awaits! It’s been about three times seven days ago, but “better late than never do it now bitch!” is the motto when it comes to this album!

Entrails are a four-piece Death Metal outfit formed in 1990. However, this does not make them a bunch of old men trying to relive their youth, no, this band actually never released anything but demo’s during the 90s. Two years ago, guitarist Jimmy a.k.a. Bloodspill revived the band, releasing two demo’s and two albums on the way.

First off, is that a killer band name or not?!

The band is Swedish, plays Thrash and does it by means of a brilliant concept that they carry through and through in everything they do. Their Thrash is of a clear old-school type and they bring it as Dr. Ape (vocals), Dr. Toxic (guitars), Dr. Rad (bass) and Dr. Dawn (drums) and dressed up with huge awesomely cool skull masks when they play live. It’s just fuckin’ brilliant to watch!

Kudos to motig for tipping us on this one!