SLAUGHTERAMA

NEW ZEALANDS HEAVY METAL PRESS

ISSUE #31 RELEASED MAY 2009

contents
Iron Maiden Album Reviews Movie Review Satyricon DarkLight Corporation 03 04 06 07 10

cc c

Hi, and welcome to the recession Slaughterama. While other magazines go broke and stop production, we go broke and continue production by committing various petty crimes, such as tax evasion and identity theft. As a result, check it out, youre reading this for free. Wowser!

GET ON TV! (sorta)

And we still make a Metal show called Slaughterhouse TV too. If youre in a band we want you to come on the show. You can do it by making a video of your band performing (band practice styles - no Hollywood production required) and posting it to us (in DVD format) at Slaughterama PO Box 12-978 Penrose, Auckland, or if youre keen to come to Auckland (or live here already) email us at slaughtermail@gmail.com to come on the show and thrill our audience with your dazzling charisma! Live acoustic performances on the show are encouraged too, so bring an acoustic guitar, a triangle for your drummer and debut your Death Metal act in a brutally unplugged environment. Or just come along and talk shit about how your band is the greatest fucken band EVERRRRRR and will take over the world. Cmon man... come on the show dude. Itll be awesome. Brendon Williams EDITOR. PS Check out the main feature of this issue: our stale-ass interview with Frost from Satyricon (from back when he actually thought he would make it to NZ to play a show).
BRENDON WILLIAMS - Editor-in-Chief MAX THRASHER - Associate Editor Published, printed and distributed by Slaughterhouse Productions, P.O. Box 12-978 Penrose, Auckland 1642, New Zealand. Phone 021 146 6477. Email slaughtermail@gmail.com. Copyright 2009, All rights reserved. If you throw this magazine away or burn it, well bite you.

well gone now. The support in form of the local Chugonaut and Laurel Harris (Steve Harris daughter) was decent, but pretty much ignored. The rain (and standing in line for 45 minutes to get a fucking t-shirt) didnt help, neither did the $6 Tuis. And the security confiscated my bottle of water! Bastards. However when the guys finally hit the stage all was forgotten. Concentrating mostly on earlier material, Maiden rolled non-stop for about an hour and a half, opening with the compulsory Aces High and covering their first 6 studio albums. A few things I didnt quite understand though... Firstly, after bragging about 13 tonnes of props and pyro the stage set wasnt really that impressive. The Egyptian theme of Powerslave remained unchanged throughout the concert. The backdrops were replaced a few times, but I really expected a little more in terms of the theatrics, like the giant Eddie that used to rise behind the stage on previous tours. Secondly, even though it was announced that the band was only performing songs from their earlier albums, Iron Maiden totally missed a few essentials, like Can I Play with Madness, Stranger in the Strange Land, Running Free or even Bring Your Daughter... To the Slaughter (which was rather surprising, since they did play Fear of the Dark) - all being the trademark tunes. But oh well. It is really blasphemy to critisize the mighty Maiden. I guess after 16 years they could just get up there without any stage set at all, and the crowd would still be happy. I know I would be. Lets just hope it wont be another 16 3 years until the band returns! g

A review of their show at Mt. Smart Stadium, Auckland. By Max Thrasher. What a wonderful night! Even all the rain couldnt ruin it! Its been 16 long years since Maiden graced our shores that being one of the greatest rocknroll circuses to ever tour the world. Bruce Dickinson left the band years back, being replaced by a pale copy (Blaze Bayley). Then he returned together with the wayward guitarist Adrian Smith and put out another 3 studio albums, all that while missing New Zealand on every tour. SUCKS! Clearly nobody was going to miss them this time, hence Mt. Smart Stadium was pretty well packed. To be honest, I expected it to sell out, but I guess the days of sold-out stadiums are

FAIRYLAND Score To A New Beginning 2009 Napalm Records

SET ON END Means To An End 2008 N/A

ALBUM

The name of this band is a giant clue that you wont be listening to any Brutal Death Metal here. Instead we have spectacular keyboards, majestic guitars and melodies galore. Im sure youre familiar with this territory, and if youre a fan of this style, there is plenty here to enjoy. The thing I like the most about this CD is that it is epic without going over the top. Score to a New Beginning is my first exposure to Fairyland, and a welcome one. While not mindblowing, it is certainly impressive, well produced music with all of the uplifting energy synonymous with this symphonic power style.

This is what an EP should look and sound like. The production is very, very good. The songs are powerhouses. The packaging is professional and effective, with cool cover art by Damian Alexander. All in all, a great effort by these West Aucklanders. They have met a standard not often seen in the world of EPs, particularly those from NZ. I think if the band concentrate on honing an unmistakably original sound, they have a promising future. The talent sure is there.

mmmmmmmmMM Brendon Williams LAMB OF GOD Wrath 2009 Roadrunner Records

mmmmmmmmMM Brendon Williams

REVIEWS

HELLSAW Cold 2009 Napalm Records

I speak to people all the time who really love Lamb Of God. They recommend the band to me with passion and intensity - You gotta hear this album, man! Its groundbreaking! Well, I have listened to this new one and tried to find something to identify with, and while I agree that it is put together very well, it just didnt interest me enough to warrant spending any more time on it. Its swimming in that modern Metal sound, and thats where Metal is going, Im happy to continue living in 1987. Lamb of God arent doing anything wrong; their innovations are probably very noteworthy, I just dont care for them.

Wow! This CD is incredible. It is Black Metal as it always should be performed, yet it doesnt suffer from being confined to the rules of the style (even though it uses many of the defining ideals in its tapestry). There is a certain magic in some Black Metal releases which shows off why the genre is so special, relevant and important. This is such an album. It is called Cold for good reason. It is indeed ice cold, pitch black, and stangely beautiful, just like the album cover. For Black Metal purists and true music lovers, this CD is an essential addition. Greatness.

mmmmmMMMMM Brendon Williams

mmmmmmmmmM Brendon Williams

BLASPHEMIC CRUELTY Devils Mayhem 2008 Osmose Productions

EXTREME NOISE TERROR Law Of Retaliation 2008 Osmose Productions

Ive got a strong suspicion that this American band can make it very big in New Zealand. The guys look like total west-side bogans and play same sort of stuff. Which is the recipe for immediate success in certain circles. However, the music isnt actually too bad. Although its pretty generic old-school Thrash/Death its actually quite well-performed and not too annoying. Not really new or anything, but will do the trick for the above-mentioned bogans.

I cant believe these guys are still around. But then, why not? The band which defined Grindcore as a style even before Napalm Death (although they never made it quite as big as their Birmingham colleagues) is going back to their roots with 19 tracks or mind-numbing, psychotic assault. Once again the album is full of political and social commentary, delivered in a savage bone-crushing way. Certainly not for everyone, but if you like extremities, you might wanna give it a listen.

mmmmmmMMMM Max Thrasher

mmmmmmmMMM Max Thrasher

ABSU Absu 2009 Candlelight

LORDI Market Square Massacre Live 2006 Sony BMG

Now this is pretty cool! Very classy extreme metal, sort of a mix of Cradle Of Filth, Behemoth and good old Slayer. Its all pretty evil with blastbeats and screams, but also a lot of melodic breakdowns, some awesome guitar leads and even a taste of progressive. This is Absus first studio album in 8 years and quite possibly their most mature offering to date. The progression from 2001s Tara is obvious, and even if it takes a little while to grow on you, Im absolutely positive youll love it.

mmmmmmmmmm Max Thrasher

This one is 3 years old now, but I only just got to watch it because it is unavailable in NZ. Its Lordis first DVD release... the main feature is an open-air concert in Finland, held for free and filmed to celebrate their win of the Eurovision song contest in 2006. The concert segment itself is very short (only 6 songs) but there are heaps of speacial features that fill the rest of the disc up and make it a worthy addition for any Lordi fan. I especially recommend it for the music videos and short film The Kin which can be considered a taster for their full length movie Dark Floors.

mmmmmmmmMM Brendon Williams

ROCK AND RULE

1983 Director: Clive A. Smith

SUMMARY by James Ellis

Angel, a member of a punk rock band in the apocoliptic future, is kidnapped by Mok, a legendary superocker. Obsessed with a dark experiment, Mok plans to use Angels voice to summon a demon from another dimension. The rest of the band follows Mok to Nuke York in an attempt to get her back.

VIE MO

REVIEW by Brendon Williams

VIEW RE

Im sure most of our readers have heard of or seen the animated feature Heavy Metal from the comic book of the same name. Well if you enjoyed it, here is another musical feature of equal cult status, and strong midnight viewing appeal. Rock and Rule contains music from the likes of Cheap Trick, Earth Wind and fire, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed and Debbie Harry. And check this out; the effects for the demon in the movies final sequence were produced by smearing cow brains over one plane of a multiplane camera. So yeah, for a late night experience full of darkness and rock n roll, check this golden oldie out! mmmmmmmmMM

In late 2008, SATYRICON released a powerful new album. This seventh studio record, named The Age of Nero was written mostly in a cabin deep in the Norwegian woods and then recorded in California, US. We spoke with drummer, Frost after the announcement of (and prior to the cancellation of) their NZ tour...
Hi Frost. So Satyricon is coming to New Zealand? Thats true. We are getting there in March and I really look forward to playing Auckland. We have been told by the Australians that Auckland is supreme and that is what we believe as well. The Age of Nero has been out for a few months now. How are you feeling about the album? How has it been received? The reception has been very very good; 7 better than any earlier albums I guess. Our feeling is that this is the ultimate Satyricon album so far. For each new album we make we have this feeling that the latest album is the strongest one and thats really

how it should be because if we didnt feel that way it means that we havent done our work properly. But this is more like taking a giant leap rather than just a step or two in the right direction. We thought that we were able to apply everything that we learnt being in the band for all these years. We applied that when we wrote the music, when we rehearsed, when we recorded and we definitely applied it when we produced the album. I think that its probably the first Satyricon album so far where we have been able to mix all the experiences that we have made and all the faculties and abilities that we have gathered over the years and kind of just mix it in. I feel that with the early albums we were taking one step at a time. In the first albums we made some technical progress between the albums and then we made a huge step forward in production with Volcano and with Now Diabolical we took a pretty big step raising our ability to really compose songs in a classical sense, and on The Age of Nero with all this with us we have taken the band quite a lot further technically. We have managed to bring a stronger and more dense atmosphere into the album than ever before, and as far as production goes most people would agree that this is by far our best achievement. 8

There have also been massive developments in the area of your visual performances. If you compare the Mother North music video to the new Black Crow on a Tombstone clip, they are very different looking. How did the band progress visually; conscious or unconscious? It was definitely a conscious move to have the image be a part of the band spirit at the time of the album. Even many many years ago we felt that the image we have should be a reflection of the musical content and its feeling, and back in 1996 we felt very close to the traditional image with the spikes and paint and all that. We definitely did it our way but we felt that we were a strong part of that tradition and that it was the right kind of visual expression

for the song we made the video for, while these days that same look would feel very out of place, too theatrical and almost clownish in a sense. We have chosen the kind of look that we feel reflects our musical energies and vibes and atmosphere at this stage. We want to give the band a look that is much more minimalistic and perhaps closer to a rock based look but still have something a little bit more dangerous and edgy to it and we definitely want to preserve a sense of darkness but in a more subtle and sophisticated way. And also I think to make it less theatrical is the right move for music that sounds so organic and authentic, that has so much attitude and that feels so masculine and so dominating. So

we have just chosen that approach that we feel feeds the music and feeds the energy of Satyricon in 2009. Since the Now Diabolical album you have had a minority of fans who see your higher level of success as a bad thing, accusing you of being sell-outs. What are your comments on this? Let them just get on with their business. We dont care too much. Its basically their loss. Many people have other motives getting into specific kinds of music rather than having a passion for music in the first place. Perhaps it has more to do with finding an identity or a group of people that one can socialize with. Music may not be the major issue for these people. Certain groups of people want to have this genre for themselves; they dont want to share it with the world at large. Its totally meaningless that certain people are so strict about this music being underground. Let them stay underground, but dont come to us and tell us how we are going to do things. We havent strayed a millimeter from our original plans; we were super ambitious from the start, and its impossible to dedicate your life to a band unless you want to take it far and unless you have a conquering attitude. We never do musical or artistic compromises. g 9

Our interview with founder/guitarist Chris

for granted was hard to explain and implement but we got through it and had a great time. Also finding the confidence to produce it myself and making sure it sounded world class, your always thinking is this as good as it could be, is that the best take, so you have the double pressure of making a good album and also making it sound great when usually you rely on a producer for that. But I am very happy with the results and people who hear it say fuck, where did you record that and I laugh and say in my basement and Fabios wardrobe hahahahahhaha The album includes your version of Prodigys Smack My Bitch Up - what made you decide to cover this song? Its always been one of my favorite songs and I have wanted to play it live so I remade it in our style and now we can bust it live. But its kind of backfired and has become sort of a novelty track and we dont really play it now, wont do that again. Are you content with your progress in New Zealand so far? And what are your long-term plans for this band? I think our progress has been mental, from the start till now its only been a year and we have recorded an album, got it released on a great label and toured our ass off so cant really complain. But were not taking any break yet. We will be playing heaps more shows and are working on a new video with an awesome animator called Eli Tucker for the song One Man Revolution. We are also working on getting the album released in Brazil, USA and Europe with some great metal labels in those countries. Thanks for the interview. Any final words? Thanks to our supporters and people who have bought the album and to the magazines and radio stations that support NZ metal and give us a medium to promote our music. P.S. Some stories may be fictional www.darklightcorporation.com www.myspace.com/darklightcorporation g

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Please give our readers a brief history of Darklight Corporation This whole thing got started by accident really. I was in another band totally different to Darklight and I hadnt played guitar for a long time. As soon as I started I was coming up with all these riffs and ideas and the next thing you know I had more than an album worth of material so I came up with a concept to match the music, found Fabio, Rhys and Elliot and got our shit together. We were lucky enough to get heard by Isaac Promotions who said they would release the album in NZ and do publicity/marketing and distribution. We rehearsed for six months and have just completed a Nth Island tour and are generally working hard to promote the album. How did your Brazilian frontman (Fabio Santos) find himself in New Zealand, and what made you decide that he was the right person to start a band with? Well Fabio was working as a drug mule stuffing coke and pills in his arse flying between Brazil and Australia (apparently he has a freakish talent of having an arsehole like a pelican) and because of his poor understanding of the English language he got on a wrong flight and ended up in Masterton NZ and sold his payload and has been living a playboy lifestyle ever since as a hairdresser to the rich and stupid. He was pimping his ass and voice on the Rockshop website when I discovered him and I checked out his old band TerrorHate in Brazil and really liked his tone and voice. So we met and got on really well using swearwords and hand signals and he wrote a few things over the music I had and it was fucken great. The guy has so much presence vocally and visually that he was instantly in the band. And he cooks a mean steak. What was the biggest obstacle to overcome during the writing, recording and release of your debut album? Teaching that fucker to sing in English hahahaha.Working on the pronunciation of the lyrics was trying at times, words that look 10 different to how they sound, stuff we just take

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