Our chat with Christopher “Atomic Thrasher” continues on our third installment of the Bonesaw Podcast. We talk about our respective bands Insinnerator and Zamboni, Nintendo’s blockbuster franchise “The Legend of Zelda” and the music industry among other awesome topics.
Check out Insinnerator HERE.
Check out Zamboni HERE.
Listen to our previous podcasts HERE.
From the primal concrete sledges of Brooklyn, New York comes the legendary “Life of Agony.”
Formed in 1989, the sludge infested hardcore band was formed and shortly landed a deal with Roadrunner Records, releasing classic album after classic album, starting with 1993’s “River Runs Red.”
“River Runs Red” would be the bands best selling album and is widely acclaimed to be their best work. Mina (then Keith) Caputo’s emotional pain being painted onto the albums lyrical canvas, contorting the music of guitarists Alan Robert and Joey Z. (ex- Carnivore) and drummer Sal Abruscato (ex- Type O Negative, A Pale Horse Named Death) into a masterpiece. “River Runs Red” would be re-released five times by four different labels (three times on Roadrunner) and was performed in its entirety by Life of Agony in 2009 and 2010.
“River Runs Red” would be followed by “Ugly” in 1995 and would take a darker tone than “River Runs Red,” bearing a broader spectrum of the psyche and how much more it could be bent following further depression. Loss of identity and fear would take a major focal point lyrically and would be blended with even more crushing rhythms than “Ugly’s” predecessor.
Life after “Ugly” would change for the band. Abruscato left after touring for the album and was replaced by Dan Richardson (ex- Pro-Pain, ex- Crumbsuckers), who played drums on 1997’s “Soul Searching Sun,” the more commercial album of Life of Agony’s career. Shortly after the release, Caputo would leave the band with Ugly Kid Joe Whitfield Crane fulfilling his duties on tour. The band would then split up for the first time in 1999.
After three years, Life of Agony would reform with the original lineup, performing sold out one-off shows that later lead to a full-fledged reunion – complete with a spot on Dave Mustaine’s (Megadeth) inagural “Gigantour” and the release of their final album, 2005’s “Broken Valley.”
2011 would mark yet another change for Life of Agony. After 20 years of life as a man, Caputo slowly began transitioning into a woman. Her announcement was initially met with mixed responses, but eventually blossomed into a plethora of support. Musically, there were not many sparks for new material. Abruscato would form “A Pale Horse Named Death” later that year
Life of Agony would choose to dissolve again in 2012, as they would rarely tour and did not plan on releasing any new material. They would reform again in 2014 playing several European festivals.
On February 13, it was announced that Life of Agony will be playing at The Wick in Brooklyn, New York on May 1 and 2.
Thanks to a gritty, but beautiful female voice, top-notch guitars and eclectic drum and bass work, Bay Area rockers Attik Door’s new album “Never in Agreement” is simply awesome.
Their sound is easily described as a Mad Scientist’s concoction of awesome alternative rock. Part DeVinyls, with some Disturbed, a nice-sized chunk of No Doubt and a side of Fly Leaf, as well as some Red Hot Chili Peppers, Attik Door have a sound that changes from song to song, but it’s always catchy. There’s not a bad song on the album, even if they share a consistent theme of borrowing things from more established bands. But in their defense, not many bands can emulate the elements of such a wide array of talent.
Because of that, Attik Door will immediately catch your ears.
There’s no way around it- lead vocalist Liana Tovmasyan is a treat. It would be easy to call her a younger sounding Gwen Stefani, but she’s so much more. With the accent appearing in some of her work and her pure grit, she’s not the cute punker Stefani is. She’s the type of rocker that’ll outdrink you and slap you in the face before winning you back over with her smile. Ballsy, but smooth, she’s got a ton of depth and heart. In every song she brings something different to the table, from “California,” where she sounds like the new female voice of RHCP, to “The Front,” which could easily be a track on No Doubt’s “Tragic Kingdom.” “Cosmos” is another song that’ll sound familiar, as the opening guitar riff is super similar to Flyleaf’s “All Around Me,” but with a more Stefani-esque vocalization, it has a unique feel to it.
By the end of the album, it’s apparent that Toymasyan is super versatile. She can rap rock, she can wail, she can tantalize like a siren off the Greek Coast. She’s a star in the making.
It also helps that she has a wonderful backing band behind her. Obviously a bar/cover band at one point in their careers, guitarists Alex Shrayber and Tim Shulepov have a polish that defines each song. They’re are definitely the types of guys that grew up on mid-late ‘90s alternative and metal. Their seamless play just screams it. The same goes for bassist and Margarita Grabarova and drummer Igor Boyko, who possess the speed and skill to make a song extra ballsy or groovy. On “Bleed,” the drum and bass work maintains such a consistent speed throughout that you can’t deny their skill. Driving the song from start to finish, you’ll want to put the bass boost up so you can hear it even closer.
At the same time, the familiarity sounds the band consistently experiments with comes with a caveat. The riffs and vocals work off of established and successful tones and sounds. They don’t stretch the medium and as a result, you can say that Attik Door aren’t challenging themselves to create something as new as they could. Rather than redefine, they are masters of the rehash. However, Lady Gaga has made millions of dollars doing the same thin with pop music, so what’s wrong with Attik Door doing the same thing?
Either way you try and spin it, Attik Door’s “Never in Agreement” is the type of album you can leave on repeat for hours at a time. Thanks to an accessible assortment of tunes and a wonderful vocalist with plenty of talent behind her, “Never in Agreement” is one of the best indie rock albums of 2015.
You can also read Patrick Hickey Jr.’s review here and more at Reviewfix.com.
Reigning from Portland, Oregon comes the ever aggressive black thrash maniacs Cemetery Lust.
Focusing their thundering riff driven lyrics on violence, sex and evil, the self proclaimed “rape thrashers” clearly don’t take themselves too seriously, showing in the high energy performances they put on.
Cemetery Lust have been active since 2009 and have gained a cult following in their local scene, providing opportunity to open for bigger underground bands as well as appearances in smaller festivals such as Portland’s 2014 Famine Fest and the 15th annual Hell’s Headbash in Cleveland, Ohio later this year.
With two full length releases under their belt (2012’s Screams of the Violated and 2014’s Orgies of Abomination) and several demos, the macabre metal troop should be storming into your speakers faster than you’ll ever live to be.
Here we are for our second episode of the Bonesaw Podcast, where my guest this time is Christopher “Atomic Thrasher” of the Texas Thrash Metal band “Insinnerator.”
In part one of this great debate, Chris and I talk all kinds of thrash about our favorite bands, why we like thrash, and a whole lot more.
Check it out and give us your thoughts in the comments section.
Like Insinnerator HERE
Nailbomb was a side project of Max Cavalera (Soulfly, Ex – Sepultura) and Alex Newport (Fudge Tunnel) that should have taken over the world.
Unfortunately, Nailbomb’s run was short lived as the band would only play one show at the 1995 Dynamo Festival (which would become their live album, “Proud to Commit Commercial Suicide”) after releasing their only album of extreme aggression, 1995’s “Point Blank” on Roadrunner Records.
“Point Blank” was highly chaotic and wild with its blend of thrashing breakneck speed and heavy, sludgy grooves. The political and confrontational lyrics were just as offensive as its album art – a female Vietcong member with a U.S. soldier’s gun pressed against her temple. The brutality of the artwork was only a metaphor for what Nailbomb would sound like.
This is some of the most raw emotion to be captured on audio.
“Point Blank” also featured guest musicians Dino Cazares (Fear Factory), Andreas Kisser (Sepultura) and Igor Cavalera (Sepultura) and would become a highlight of every career involved.
“Point Blank” also had some box office success as the song “Wasting Away” was featured in Gus Van Sant’s 1995 comedy-drama “To Die For” where Nicole Kidman seduces a young Joaquin Phoenix in order to convince him to kill her husband.
For whatever reason, Nailbomb chose to release only one album, but Cavalera, Newport and friends gave every bit of anger and frustration they had to getting a phenomenal record out of “Point Blank”. While there’s always a possibility for a return album in the name of nostalgia, perhaps it is better in the long run that Nailbomb’s legacy is left where it peaked.
Prepare for some of the heaviest music you’ve never heard.
In the fall of 2011, Kenneth Packard walked into Kyle Wodzicki’s SUNY Oswego dorm room and proceeded to record his unique brand of Death Metal. Packard layed down bass and guitar tracks while Wodzicki would later program drums. Packard would record two tracks, “Equivocal” (above) and “Lay Dead” (below). The tracks are instrumental although vocals were originally planned.
“At the time I was playing with my friend Matt at home. I was up at school,” Packard said. “My friend Kyle Wodzicki had recording stuff in his room and I just approached him with recording the stuff that I had. It was only for demo purposes but it sounded really good.”
The project Packard was working on eventually fell through and the recordings would fail to see the light of day until now.
The Bonesaw is proud to premiere these pieces of Packard’s legacy for your listening pleasure.
As much as people love Black Sabbath and Heaven and Hell’s bass player Terrance “Geezer” Butler, rarely do they mention his solo project GZR (also spelled Geezer and g//z/r/ depending on which album you’re listening to).
1995 saw the debut album “Plastic Planet,” which contained darker melodies than what Sabbath fans were used to featured the brooding vocals of Fear Factory’s Burton C. Bell, Pedro Howse (who is also Butler’s nephew) on guitars and Deen Castronovo’s (Journey) drumming abilities on top of Butler’s iconic bass playing. The album received mixed reviews but established a small cult following. Songs such as “Seance Fiction” were met with praise due to the heavy rhythms and haunting vocals.
1996 and 1997 marked two more releases from GZR, the “Cycle of Sixty” EP and their sophomore album, “Black Science.” The lineup shifted from Bell to Clark Brown on vocals due to Bell’s commitments to Fear Factory. The style of the album continued in the same fashion as the first and was met with similar reviews as well. 1996 also saw the project release “Outworld,” a song exclusively for the Mortal Kombat soundtrack. After a handful of live performances in 1997, GZR would disband until 2005 when they would release their last album to date: “Ohmwork”.
“Ohmwork” was met with praise and another lineup shift, this time in the drum department. Castronovo would be replaced with Chad Smith (not Smith from Red Hot Chili Peppers, Smith from Anacrusis), who had been brought in for live dates in 1997. While continuing the trend of scientific and horror based lyrics, “Ohmwork” was a sonically different record than its predecessors, using more ambiance than before.
Butler would eventually play again for Black Sabbath and Heaven and Hell until this day, lending his expertise to several albums between the two bands. Butler has confirmed that GZR has been working on new material and is expecting to release a new album in 2015.
One of the unsung heroes of old-school Thrash – New Jersey’s own Blood Feast.
Taking their name from the classic gore movie, Blood Feast originally formed in 1985 as “Blood Lust.” They changed their name the following year, shortly after the release of their “Suicidal Mission” demo.
In 1987 Blood Feast released their debut album “Kill For Pleasure” and the “Face Fate” EP on New Renaissance Records. These releases were innovative with the speed and technicality of their work reaching a new level of ferocity in the Thrash Metal world.
Several years and a shift in the lineup would go by before Blood Feast would release their sophomore album, “Chopping Block Blues” in 1990 on Colossal Records. Guitarist Adam Tranquilli had left the band and Blood Feast would record “Chopping Block Blues” as a four-piece. Blood Feast then split up a year later in 1991.
Blood Feast seemed to be over, but they would later reform for two one-off shows in 1999 and 2007. The latter would lead to Blood Feast officially coming out of retirement with Tranquilli returning to the fold and a slew of lineup changes. Since then, Blood Feast have released two compilations (2002’s “Remnants: The Last Remains” and 2013’s “Last Offering Before the Chopping Block”) and have been working on new material for quite some time. The clip above is the official video for their new song “Off With Their Heads.”
The only question that lingers is if and when a new Blood Feast album will see the light of day. In the meantime just sit back, relax, and don’t forget to drink the blood of every corpse.
It’s time to blacken the New Year with Thy Antichrist.
Since 1998, the last pure Black Metal band on earth has been infecting the globe with their brand of darkness. Originally hailing from Medellín, Colombia, they relocated to Dallas, Texas in 2011.
The band consists of Antichrist 666 on vocals (the only original and constant member), Frost Giant on bass and Abyssus on guitar. For live performances they have been utilizing the talents of various drummers.
2014 was a big year for Thy Anthichrist. In August they played Rock al Parque, a South American open-air festival to a crowd of 80,000 heavy metal maniacs which was then wrapped up with a short United States tour in the fall. Other notable acts on Rock al Parque 2014 were Thrash Metal legends Anthrax and Exodus as well as Black Label society.
Despite only having one full-length album (2004’s Wicked Testimonies), Thy Antichrist has slowly developed a tremendous cult following and has become one of the top underground bands to watch for.
The Bonesaw 