Generating pools of video blood, sweat and tears it’s Shawn Knight of Child Bite. Knight sits down to talk music, business and more as he opens our eyes and ears to the wild life of Child Bite.
Tag Archives: Music
Bonesaw Podcast: Episode 36 – King Parrot’s Matt “Youngy” Young
It’s time to grind with King Parrot’s maniac frontman Matt “Youngy” Young. Young chats about Game of Thrones, road life, past jobs and a whole lot more.
Unlocking The Truth: Controlling Chaos
It’s a warm Wednesday afternoon. Fifteen year-old Malcolm Brickhouse skates one of New York City’s East Village streets. His fellow bandmates Alec Atkins, 15 and Jarad Dawkins, 14; strut behind the sound of trucks on pavement and Brickhouse’s leather trenchcoat covering his DGK skateboard, giving him a floating appearance. People are quick to notice as Japanese freelance photographers begin shooting the boys being themselves on a Summer afternoon.
The attention and aura the kids give off is interesting. Passerby don’t seem to worry about it, being used to all sorts of things that bustle through the bowery; but they do glance here and there (and they should) as these are no ordinary Brooklyn high-schoolers.
Brickhouse, Atkins and Dawkins are Unlocking The Truth – a young heavy metal band who only a year ago had gotten out of a monumental deal with Sony and have been slowly but surely taking the world by force after being discovered by Eric Clapton’s drummer Steve Jordan during a 2012 Washington Square Park performance. Tonight marks the first of several intimate release shows for their debut album “Chaos” (available now from iTunes, Spotify and other online retailers via Tunecore) at The Studio of the one and only Webster Hall.
The boys are clam, cool, collected and hungry. They’re more concerned about what to order from the Chinese food menu than how many friends, family and fans will come to see them. They’ve already mastered the art of crowd control by playing to tens of thousands at Coachella, Vans Warped Tour and one-off gigs with the likes of Metallica, Guns ‘N’ Roses and Marilyn Manson (who the boys find extremely funny; had the most beneficial backstage advice for them, offering life lessons, business tips and visited them regularly instead of the usual “don’t do drugs” cliche’).
“He was much more open with us,” Dawkins said. “He would come in our dressing room here and there and talk about what he went through and what we should watch out for in this business. He’s really funny.”
Backstage, the young rockers hang out in the empty venue, messing around on their phones and jokingly teasing one another as teenagers do. Tired of sitting, Brickhouse busts out the 8.5” DGK (his other weapon of choice due to the artwork and company vibe) and skates around the venue to scope the place out for a minute before event staff inform him it’s not permitted to be on a board inside. While he doesn’t remember what got him into the action sport initially, skating calms his nerves. His favorite pro is none other than the multi-champion son of a comic Paul “P-Rod” Rodriguez, who is known for pulling off flawless contest runs and has one heck of an inward heelflip; Brickhouses’ favorite trick. The opening band’s sound check starts up and the guitarist heads back to the dressing room to rejoin his friends before they take the stage.
The openers are decent – a cross between Alice In Chains, Nirvana and the Stone Temple Pilots. No one remembers their name, but they do well and show a good amount of energy and charisma. The fans in attendance are not for them, but for the boys. Family and friends are catching up and piling in until the set comes to an end. Annette Jackson, Brickhouses’ mother and Unlocking The Truth’s co-manager stands in the back and hustles the boys merchandise – a bevy of T-shirts, stickers and posters to the adoring public. A strong but tiny fireball, Jackson is a Supermom in every sense of the word.
“It feels good supporting our son Malcolm and his goals of becoming one to the best bands and a music producer,” she says. “It’s very expensive, very time consuming and a thankless job, but we always say our prayers and thank the good Lord for blessing him and to never let us take our blessings for granted.”
One piece of “Truth gear” is noticeably absent, however. There are no physical copies of “Chaos” present as Jackson doesn’t want to risk an individual leaking the album two days before its release. The boys have worked too long and too hard to let someone else let the cat out of the bag.
When the Brooklyn metal band signed a whopping $1.8 million, five album deal with Sony in 2014, things changed immediately (because of their ages, they had to get the Supreme Court’s approval to ink the contract). At the request of producers, the band decided vocals would be essential to their then-instrumental arsenal. There were talks of auditions with various singers, but they never surfaced when Brickhouse stepped up to the plate shortly after the decision was made. After taking lessons to this day from Melissa Cross, a vocal teacher for major label artists better known for her “Zen of Screaming” DVDs; Brickhouse now performs double-duty on guitar and vocals simultaneously.
“Someone has to sing. You can’t be a big band and not have a singer,” he said . “We were thinking of getting a girl singer, but it just didn’t happen. We even tried him (Atkins), but it didn’t work out, so I just said “I’ll sing.”
In addition to the new sound, a plethora of publicity, commercial spots and dream gig offers knocked on the boys proverbial doors. In the blink of an eye, they’d made it to the big leagues well before graduation. While they were still treated the same by their peers, the rest of the world was another story. Everything was happening all at once for the trio and the instant fame was more than they could handle at the time. After an intense legal battle, Unlocking The Truth would be released from their contract with Sony roughly a year after their initial signing.
“A lot of it was between our parents and laywers. It wasn’t the contract that made us leave. It was the pressure of dealing with fame. It was just a thing of too much too fast. I miss it now, but we’re trying to get it back at our own pace,” Brickhouse says.
During the Sony days, a six song EP (titled “Free As You Wanna Be”) was recorded by Disturbed producer John “Johnny K” Karkazis that eventually got scrapped after things didn’t work out. This would be a blessing (and omen) in disguise as Karkazis would be a necessary contact the boys needed to make when they would record “Chaos” with him over the course of a week.
“We were in a rush, but it worked,” Dawkins said. “He (Karkazis) is very fun to work with, a very good guy. He has over 20 years of experience, he’s wonderful at what he does and he’s passionate.”
The house lights fade to black and Unlocking The Truth take the stage to a screaming horde of Truth Seekers commissioned by the Metal Gods. For the next 45 minutes, the lads initiate phase one of their plan for world domination. It’s their night and everything goes down like an ice cold beer after a hard day’s night. Brickhouse and the gang come out of their offstage shells alive with songs like “Monster,” “Take Control” and the album’s title track, “Chaos.” Brickhouse sweeps away on various ESP guitars– an endorsement he’s absolutely ecstatic about while Atkins and Dawkins lay down the heavy semi-latin grooves that make for a strong musical core. They call for mosh pits – which on any other evening would already be in full swing, but with the amount of family and friends in their Sunday best (despite the actual day of the week) the demand goes mostly unheeded. A sign of respect for the maturing monsters of rock.
After a wildly energetic performance, the boys take the time to thank everyone in attendance for their support, tell jokes, goof around and even bring close friends onstage. The crowd roars their approval – the loudest being Brickhouse’s devoted father Tracey, who travels with the band and never misses a gig. As the house lights come back on, the boys celebrate their achievements with their adoring public.
“Our son is giving everything he has to reach his goals and make his dreams come true,” said Jackson.
As Unlocking The Truth take their leave, the joy in their eyes tells the whole story. Three rockers from Brooklyn with a vision who’s shared identity is not just a name – but a manifesto.
“I plan on doing this my entire life,” Brickhouse says. “It’s what I love. I can’t picture myself outside of making music. I don’t like school and I can’t have an office job.”
Bonesaw Podcast – Episode 35: Jess-O-Lantern
My Experience at MDF 2015: Part 2 – Friday
After resting Thursday night, the five of us (Josh, Nicole, Jason, Matt and I) ventured to the Edison Lot. We arrived an hour before the first band to look at merch.
At the Season of Mist tent I finally met Enrique, the labels PR in person (who thanks to my connections I’ve been able to conduct several interviews for the label’s artists). Before we knew it, 2pm started to roll around and it was time for the first band.
Artificial Brain
Friday started with Long Island tech-death metal in the form of Artificial Brain. At the time I’d heard a lot of hype about this band but sadly, I didn’t get the hype. Artificial Brain was very technical but not in a fun way.
Funebrarum
After being bored by those damn Long Islanders, it was time for a slice of New Jersey to take stage. I had seen these guys once before at MDF 2011. Like at that year’s fest, they killed.
Cianide
Old-school death metal dudes, Cianide where next. The band sounded decent but nothing too amazing.
Vallenfyre
These British death/doom greats were the first band on my Friday “must-see” list. I’ve loved their music ever since their 2011 debut “A Fragile King;” most likely due to the fact that they are an offshoot of Paradise Lost and sound similar as well.
The bands live performance was very impressive and they sounded great. I was extremely happy to hear my favorite Vallenfyre tracks “Splinters” and “Savages Arise” performed so well. After their set Jason and I rushed to Soundstage to catch another of my must-sees for the day.
Flagitious Idiosyncrasy in The Dilapitation
Jason and I got to the venue just as these adorable Japanese ladies were setting up.
Cute pictures and image aside, they are one of heaviest bands from Japan. The energy these girls brought on was intense. I caught up with my friend Nick and his girlfriend Cheyenne as we watched them put on one of the best performances of the whole fest.
Nekrofilth
We stayed at the Soundstage to see Nekrofilth. When they were added to the bill, I checked out some of their material and though it sounded decent. After watching them for about half an hour, I was kinda bored. Something about their set just felt off so Jason and I decided to leave for Edison.
Aura Noir
When we got to Edison Lot, Aura Noir still had about 20 minutes left in their set. I had seen these Norwegian blackened thrash greats once before at MDF 2011. Again, like last time they put on a fun live show. The day would only get better from here on.
Suffocation
Suffocation has always been one of my favorite death metal bands. Their 1995 album “Pierced from Within” is one of my top 10 albums of all time. Before this, it had also been five years since I’d last seen them so they were way over due for another encounter. Suffocation blew me away just like they did five years ago. Between their perfect performance and vocalist Frank Mullen’s jokes, this set blew teveryone in attendance away.
Obituary
These death metal pioneers had been on my “to see” list for quiet some time.When I finally did, I was not disappointed.
While not as energetic as Suffocation, Obituary still delivered with their signature dirty Florida Everglades sound. While they didn’t play “Chopped in Half” (the song that first got me into them), I still greatly enjoyed them.
Bloodbath
The last band of the Edison Lot classic death metal triple feature was Sweden’s Bloodbath.
Many fans worried about this set because Bloodbath’s new vocalist, Nick Holmes had turned off many fans, causing the new album to get mixed reactions. Personally, I didn’t have a problem with that album and the band played a good mixture of songs from their entire career.
Holmes told some pretty funny jokes including asking “if we were sick of death metal yet” (as if).
Bloodbath encored with their two most well known songs, “Eaten” and “Cry My Name” as well as a short cover of the Phantasm theme. After Bloodbath, Jason and I rushed over to sound stage.
Napalm Death
This was the last band Jason, Matt and I watched that night. I had seen Napalm Death earlier that year with Voivod, Exhumed and Iron Regan (That show was killer and I got to interview Barney Greenway in person! ).
The British grind giants opened with “The Silence is Deafening,” which was the first hint that this set list was going to be very different from last time.The band had tons of energy and I enjoyed this performance a lot more due to the venue having better sound.
After Napalm Death was done, Jason, Matt and I left for our hotels while Josh and Nicole watched Aeternus at Rams Head. After stopping at 7-11 for some snacks and running into a homeless, schizophrenic version of Bill Cosby we made it back to the hotel and called it a night.
Click here for part 3 (Saturday).
Bonesaw Podcast: Episode 32 – AllOne Returns (Part 2)
The second coming of Bruce “AllOne” Pandolfo’s second appearance finally sees the light of day when we talk about the economy, his new album “I’ve Been Thinking” (which can be purchased atwww.allonevoice.bandcamp.com) and more.
Metal Church at the Chance
After having a fun time seeing Children of Bodom a few weeks back, my next planned show at The Chance was none other than thrash titans Metal Church.
After getting my wipers fixed and buying a ticket from opening act Dark After Dawn, I went to pick up my friend Jay who was really excited to see them as their 1984 self-titled debut is one of his top albums. After 45 mins of blasting Demolition Hammer (another ridiculous thrash band) we made it to The Chance. We walked inside, met up with our friend Ray and the first band was just about to begin.
Dark After Dawn
First on were Goshen, NY’s Dark After Dawn. I had bought the ticket for this show off of vocalist/guitarist Maruf. They played a pretty heavy style of thrash metal. For a small local band they were pretty good and made for a fun warm up. After their set Jay left to the Nuddy Bar next door to get food – purposely skipping the next two bands as he had a hunch they would suck.
Christian Gisondi Music
Taking their name from their lead singer, next on were the local prog rock band Christian Gisondi Music. This band was awful. The members were all good players, but the music was all ruined by Gisondi’s obnoxious voice. Before the set he mentioned loving Metal Church saying “They are the only band to have a self-titled song on a self-titled album (Really, you never heard of Iron Maiden or Black Sabbath?).” Ray and I started to notice Jay made a smart move as the next band wasn’t much better.
Painmask
Painmask are a “tough guy” hardcore band from Kingston, NY. As people who aren’t into that sub genre, Ray and I weren’t impressed. Every cliche’ of this style was present in their sound and it made for a cringe worthy experience. Jay came in along with my old teacher/All Out War singer Mike Score towards the end of their set from a night of dinner and headbanging to classics by Celtic Frost and Carnivore on the jukebox at Nuddy’s.
Hatchet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=204faAtoI-Y
Both Jay and I were really curious about Hatchet as we both heard of them and knew they were the band on tour with Metal Church. When it comes to new thrash bands I can be picky (and Jay even pickier) so it was all just a matter of checking them out. Hatchet really impressed both of us and pretty much everyone else there. They had a pretty cool thrash sound with melodeath-esque guitar work. The vocals sounded a lot like Schimer of Destruction which is always a plus. In short, Hatchet washed the bad taste of the last two bands right out of my mouth.
Metal Church
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBHVQBNnGuk
After all those openers it was time for the nights main band, Metal Church. The whole crowd was curious to whether they will play much off their first two albums (the 1984 self-titled and 1986’s “The Dark”) as they had the singer who joined after the third (1989’s “Blessing in Disguise”).
For some reason most of the songs Metal Church played were from the Mike Howe era. The only David Wayne era songs played were “Start the Fire,” “Beyond the Black” and “Watch the Children Play.” I found this weird because a) I saw their third singer Ronnie Monroe do a solo set in Kingston five years ago where played plenty of tracks from the first album, yet the full band is ignoring it and b) Seeing as their self-titled song is their most famous one, why skip it?
Having said that, they sounded great and we had a fun time seeing them. After their set we left to return to reality once more.
The Vault: My Experience At Maryland DeathFest 2014 Part 2 – Saturday
Editor’s Note: In the wacky world of publishing, some stories don’t see the light of day. Whether they sit on the backburner until they become irrelevant, positions change hands or they just plain get cut, it’s just one of those things. Today, one of those unpublished articles will finally get its due as we traverse the archives of “The Vault.”
After Fridays success, my friends and I were highly excited for Saturday. The lineup looked amazing as it’s usually considered to be MDF’s main day. After finding an awesome Japaneses place to eat, my friends and I headed back to the Edison Lot to see if Saturday was worth all the hype.
Goat Torment
Having no idea who this band was, I decided to watch them as they were the first band up for the day. By the name alone I made a wild guess that they were a black metal band (I couldn’t be more right).These guys couldn’t look more black metal if they tried. They even yelled “Hail Satan” after every song. With that said they were still an awesome band. Goat Torment played raw, straight-forward in-your-face black metal and made for a great warm up.
Diocletian
Next up on the stage was a black metal band from New Zealand known as Diocletian. Though they were of the same style as Goat Torment, their songs were not as interesting but were still enjoyable. Next up was the first band of the day I knew…
Entrails
Entrails are an old-school death metal band from Sweden that formed in the early 90’s, but made it absolutely nowhere until around 2010. Entrails’ performance had tons of energy, intensity and their sound was spot on. Before this set I had only known a few songs by these guys but now after seeing them I feel the need to explore their discography.
Machetazo
This was my second time seeing Spanish deathgrind greats Machetazo (the first time I saw them was at MDF 2011 in the small indoor stage). They killed then and this time as well. I always find it cool when a drummer is also the lead vocalist. Like last time, the crowd was very energetic and wild. Though I greatly enjoyed their set, I preferred the first time because I just think that indoor venues work better for this band.
God Macabre
God Macabre were a lesser known pioneer of the 1990’s Swedish death metal scene. This very same scene was known for greats such as Grave, Dismember and Vomitory. But how do these guys rank compared to those others? Decent but nothing too great. God Macabre’s performance was that of a run of the mill death metal band. I wasn’t fully bored by them but didn’t really find anything memorable about their music.
Nocturnus A.D.
I was real excited for this one. For those who don’t know, Nocturnus was a death metal band formed by singer/drummer Mike Browning after he left Morbid Angel (after guitarist Trey Azagoth had and affair with his girlfriend).
Nocturnus’s debut album “The Key” was a very distinct old-school death metal album as it featured keyboards, shredding and lyrics about science fiction instead of the violent and gory lyrics the genre was known for. The band performing was actually Browning’s post-Nocturnus band After Death but were playing all of “The Key” so they played under the name Nocturnus A.D.(get it?).
“The Key” is the only album I really knew by these guys so hearing a set completely dedicated to the album made me excited. They played the whole album in its entirety and sounded great doing it. The only down side was at times the keyboards were a little drowned out but it wasn’t too big a problem.
After they played through all of “The Key” they ended the set with an awesome cover of the Morbid Angel song “Chapel of Ghouls.” The entire crowd (including me) was screaming along to this iconic death metal classic. Nocturnus A.D. was definitely one of the best performances at the entire fest.
Tankard
German beer thrash classics Tankard were up next and the first old-school thrash band I saw at the fest. While not my favorite 80’s thrash band, I never had a problem with them and was curious to see them. The crowd turned into a gigantic drunken circle pit as the band played both old and new material. After every few songs the lead vocalist Gerre would ask audience members for a beer and after they played “A Girl Named Cervesa,” they got two girls from the audience to dance on stage as “Cervesa.” Both the band and the audience just got more and more drunk as the show went on, making it wilder and wilder. After being possibly the one non-drinker watching all of Tankard’s set it was time for me to head over to Soundstage.
Dropdead
I returned back to Soundstage just in time for powerviolence pioneers Dropdead. Just like Capitalist Casualties yesterday these guys played an awesome set of short songs and like CC I wasn’t bored for a minute. Towards the end of the set came a great surprise. Members of the hardcore punk legends Siege came onstage and with the members of Dropdead, finished the set with several classic Siege tracks. After this great two-for-one set I stayed at Soundstage for…
Birdflesh
Swedish comedic grindcore trio Birdflesh were by far the wackiest band on this year’s fest. While they were setting up these two guys asked me and a bunch of other people to help inflate these balloon ghosts. When the band performed the two guys threw the balloons along with glow sticks at the audience who then threw them at each other and the band, who performed in their trademark over the top costumes.
Though this band is comedic they still put on an intense and powerful performance with the audience both moshing and throwing glowsticks and balloons. I didn’t stay for the whole set but I got to hear a decent amount of songs. The next band on was Noothgrush – a band I wanted to see but had to sacrifice as they played the same time as…
Unleashed
I rushed back to Edison just in time to catch these Swedish viking themed death metal masters. Unleashed’s set started out with lead vocalist Johnny Hedlund calling the audience warriors. Though I enjoyed their performance, I wasn’t too familiar with the songs they played. I only know Unleashed’s first and third albums (1991’s “Where No Life Dwells” and 1993’s “Across the Open Sea”) and they played virtually nothing from them. I was very confused by the set list in general as those omitted albums contained some of the bands most well known tracks such as “Before Creation of Time” and “The One Insane.”
Dark Angel
The time had come. The moment about 90 percent of people at this fest were waiting for. Not only were they the most hyped band of 2014’s Maryland Deathfest, it was also Dark Angel’s first U.S. show since 2005 and their ONLY U.S. appearance of that year.
As they were setting up, everyone was wondering if they would be able to live up to such hype. They did and you better believe it. Dark Angel delivered their aggressive and powerful brutal thrash metal just as good if not better then everyone expected. The intense guitar riffs, powerful vocals and crazy drumming by none other then Gene Hoglan himself translated perfectly from album to live onslaught. During their set it started to rain. Eventually it got real windy as rain blew towards the stage, adding to the atmosphere.
They had arrived.
After Dark Angel’s epic set Jason and I ran as fast as we could to Soundstage to make it in time to see the next band there.
The Extinction of Mankind
The two of us lucked out and made it just in time for these British crusties to start. Before seeing these guys, all I knew was their split with the legendary Doom. Like the other punk based bands on the bill they were filled with raw intensity and had tons of intense circle pits. After watching there set we walked over to the Ramshead stage.
Schirenc (playing songs from Pungent Stench)
I will admit I was never a big Stench fan (always found them to be pretty mediocre death metal). When we got there, Schirenc had about 20 minutes left in his set and i just sat upstairs chilling with my friend Herb as Schirenc’s music was not interesting me one bit. Once he got off the stage things go more exciting as it was time for the nights last act.
Asphyx
Saturday night ended with Dutch death/doom legends Asphyx (as well as meeting Hoglan on the way to the bathroom). Dark Angel had an insane performance that I thought would be topped by no one else at the fest (I was wrong).
Asphyx had the most crushing performance of the night and of the entire fest. Like it had for Incantation the night before, the great sound system did justice for this bands intensity and Asphyx had a perfect setlist. I have always thought of Martin Van Drunen as of the best vocalists in all of death metal and this live performance showed that he’s even better live then in studio (Hell, this whole band sounds better live then they do in studio). I was pretty tired but even that wasn’t distracting me from watching every second of Asphyx’s magic. After their set we headed back to the hotel once again to rest for the final night at this massive fest.
Bonesaw Podcast: Episode 30 – Bruce “AllOne” Pandolfo Returns – Part 1
Underground freestyle rapper Bruce “AllOne” Pandolfo returns to talk about his new album “I’ve Been Thinking” (available on May 3rd via Dope Sandwich Records and www.allonevoice.bandcamp.com) as well as winning the 2016 NPR Tiny Desk contest and more in part one of this multi-faceted podcast.
Bonesaw Podcast – Episode 29: Kindler’s Cameron Fitzpatrick
Kindler’s Cameron Fitzpatrick joins us for an inspirational podcast. We discuss Kindler’s origins, charity work and their debut LP “Cosmic Revelations” (available now on www.kindlerband.com).
The Bonesaw 