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This just in! INCANTATION bassist Chuck Sherwood has issued the following update from the band’s well received Vengeful Scapegoat Tour through Europe with DIVINE EVE, HATE, NOCTUM, and NERVE.

“INCANTATION returns to Europe one again! With all of the previous experiences John [McEntee] and Kyle [Severn] have had they were prepared for another hellish assault on the “old world.”  As for Alex [Bouks] and I, our journey into the unknown began on our arrival to London’s Heathrow Airport. With the sights and sounds of our first show Nottingham delivered at The Central! The fans and support there were great. Playing a mixture of older and newer material and utilizing a return of the dual guitar attack we plunged into battle with a more diversified set. The journey continued to Leeds where we were faced with a cancellation when we heard that the club’s roof had caved-in, although that was never confirmed because locals seemed just as surprised as we were to hear it. Off to a good start only to restart and build momentum yet again. Regardless of the setback, we made good of the situation. We visited local metal purveyors the Hellraiser shop in Leeds. Highly recommended! Then it was off to the pub to drown in the microbrews of England.

After a fresh start again the following day the fires had spread to Edinburgh. The Scots were nothing short of killer. Amongst four-story stone buildings and rolling cobblestone streets we found ourselves at the Bannerman’s.  And in the bowels of that club in a dank and dark room the fans crushed and thrashed their support. The owners and staff were equally considerate and helpful in many ways. Fuckin’ amazing first experience, personally speaking!

Our trip back to the origins of the tour led us south to London where were we played The Electrowerkz. The promotion team there was even helping set up and break down the stage in between bands. We’d be hard pressed to find that kind of local support in the States. Here in Europe it’s almost expected. London’s fans filled the Electrowerkz and made for an energetic and awesome show; powerful reactions in the form of fists and horns held high over the course of one of our alternating sets.  We reintroduced some songs that hadn’t crept from the darkness in years.

After no sleep – maybe 45 minutes in the past three days – and a short ferry ride from the UK into Belgium we played the Las Cenobites and saw some familiar faces for all of us.  John and Alex reunited with Laurent from Listenable after a 19-year gap and were laughing over old photos.  Sabathan, an old comrade, of John’s, and I showed up where he and I talked after nine years of lost contact.  The show was awesome with the likes of our personal friends shoulder to shoulder amongst the other warriors who came out that night and unleashed hell on earth. The other bands whom we’ve had the pleasure of sharing a stage with – DIVINE EVE, HATE, NOCTUM, and NERVE – have all been great and I know it will result in long lasting comradeship and future endeavors. Suffice to say, my experience in Europe thus far and to be within the ranks of such a legendary project as INCANTATION has been nothing short of killer.

In Holland we were amongst our comrades in ASPHYX and PENTACLE and a packed room of hellions that came out (on a Monday night, mind you) to the Little Devil in Tilburg and made the night immortal. The show and all who were participating made our stay memorable. It was everything from the sound to handling the tucked away stage and endless help in the form of plastic bags for merch and drink tickets for Holland’s own Grolsch, which I think everyone agreed is far better over here on tap. We followed up that night with an 18th century cottage at which we slept.  Everything was brilliant.  A final hails again to everyone involved!

Upon crossing over to the desolate village of Luynes, France, near Marseille, last night it was nothing like its appearance when the smoke filled room of the Le Korigan exploded with chaos once the bands hit the stage.  The reaction of these French psychos was something to behold! An amazing time was had by all, despite the shadow looming over some of us.  It’s very easy to get sick on the road and with that not stopping or holding us back, onward we charged into battle. With France left destroyed in our wake, it’s off to Spain!”

Max, the founder of 625 Thrashcore record label was nice enough to answer some questions. This one is another older interview.

Could you tell the readers a little about yourself?

Sure. My name is Max, I used to play in a few bands, mainly in the 1990s (which was a pretty bleak decade for hardcore-thrash). I have pretty much quit playing music since the early 2000s to focus on a PhD, but I am still releasing music on my label 625. I wanted to disconnect from the scene a little bit in order to gain a different/fresh perspective, and am leaving the option open of playing again – though my academic work takes up 150% of my time these days.

How long have you been running 625 Thrashcore, and what kind of label is it? Also, what was the inspiration behind the name of the label?

I started the label to release bands from my local area – which was the West Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area in California. In the early 1990s the scene was fucking bleak – Gilman shows were small, all the late 80s pop-punk and ska-punk bands had moved onto majors, and Gilman was hesitant to book fastcore, grind or crust bands. By the mid-1990s though a small scene had emerged from San Jose up through San Mateo and beyond, so I wanted to release bands like NO LESS, ETO, AGENTS OF SATAN, GODSTOMPER, etc., that were playing local shows at pizza places, libraries, etc. That’s all we had back then. But the label quickly took on a life of its own and I started releasing international bands, etc. I still tried to focus on bands that had yet to receive the coverage I thought they deserved, or who were just down-to-earth honest people who played extreme music that I liked.

What formats do you release on (CD, vinyl, cassette, ect.)?

Come to think of it, I don’t think I ever released a cassette under the label name, though I spent years and years in the late 1980s and early 1990s copying demo after demo, tape after tape, to trade out and distribute. Now I am focusing mainly on vinyl, though I release CDs as well. Its interesting, at first everyone thought that CDs would be the deathknell of vinyl – and they were for a while. But grind or fastcore was mainly a vinyl-only scene, and people were okay with the extra postage costs, etc. You could still sell 1500 of an LP from a relatively unknown band from Japan or something. Then it switched to CDs and it was possible to take advantage of the length of time, or multi-format capacities of CDs, so I started doing a lot of those. Now, the market has bottomed out, people do not like CDs (and I agree that its the shittiest format aesthetically) but also won’t buy LPs at the necessary wholesale prices now. Its kind of a catch-22. We’ll see how it goes in the next few years. But we have already seen a few labels stop (Sound Pollution, etc) and I’ve been thinking of stopping for a few years now as well.

You’re living in Japan right now, which must have been a huge cultural difference from America. What spurred this decision for such a change?

PhD research actually. Im here because of the archives and university system – but I do get out to see shows every now and then. I saw SLIGHT SLAPPERS last night and they are just as good and crazy as they were the first time I saw them over 10 years ago. They are seriously one of the best bands ever.

How’s the music scene there right now? What’s popular?

Um, the scene is changing in a big way. Business wise its getting tougher, and what we think of “big” Japanese genres (stuff like what is called “Jap-core” – big mohawk, 80s style crossover punk, etc) doesn’t actually sell that much and people don’t really come out to the shows. You have some stores closing, some labels stopping, and not too many new bands coming up. All the shows I go to are the bands of friends of mine that have been playing since the mid-1990s. But except for bands like LOW VISION, ANGEL O.D., IMPARA, COMPLETED EXPOSITION and a few others, there aren’t too many new bands.

Are you doing work related to 625 right now, or have you taken a break from signing/releasing until you get back to the States?

Well, the label has suffered for sure since I have been here. I have released a few records, such as the PUNCH LP, PARLIAMENTARISK SODOMI LP and EP, etc but because I don’t have promo copies here I can’t mail them out to zines, etc. Its been okay since the people who know the label and know these bands are still buying them, but I feel like I want to get back and put a lot of energy into advertising, promotions, etc. But I can’t while I am here, and I will be here into 2010….

If you’re in fact not ‘working’ right now, have you found any bands that you’re tempted to bring back to the States anyway? Any names you’d like to share?

From Japan? Well I think there a lot of good bands – if you like grind, LITTLE BASTARDS are friggin great, SENSELESS APOCALYPSE is of course great – if fastcore – COMPLETED EXPOSITION, and SLIGHT SLAPPERS are still one of the best bands out there – if hardcore punk, BREAKFAST, UG MAN – if thrash, LOW VISION – fusion type stuff, then NICE VIEW, etc. Most people already know these bands, and I have yet to see some new bands come up.

It seems that there are new labels popping up every day, only to release a pair of CD-Rs, then call it quits. What is it, that you think, that keeps 625 going while many other indie labels fail? And do you have any advice for young startup labels for success?

That’s just the nature of the game actually. Punk/hardcore/grindcore has always been something people get into for a little while, maybe do a band, do a label, put on shows, but then burn out. I mean, the scene hasn’t really changed or developed, and recently it seems like the younger bands only want to rehash what occurred before they were even born, so it gets stale. I don’t blame people for burning out. I think the exceptional thing is, is when I continue to meet the same people, year after year, who are still totally into it. Andy from THE ENDLESS BLOCKADE, Brian Stern from BAD SKULLZ shirt printing, the SLIGHT SLAPPERS guys, etc. I mean, especially in Japan, these bands are playing almost every weekend (I’m not kidding, bands play constantly here) and many of them have been doing this for 15 years. THAT is the exception. That is what needs to be explained.
Apart from just an honest love for this music, I don’t think I would have kept on doing the label up ’til now or playing in bands for as long as I did. It’s not necessarily my social network, nor my identity. If it was, I would have left when my views of the world and my own position within it kept on changing. My socio-political beliefs were challenged by the scene, and I became very disillusioned with what I thought DIY and an alternative, leftist-leaning music community was accomplishing, so I think I could have burned out just on that. Now I channel my political criticism into my research, and interestingly, Im running into the same issues that I found in the punk scene.
But everytime I listen to NAPALM DEATH’s From Enslavement to Obliteration LP, its like the first time I listened to it. It just floors me, and somehow, it condenses all my anger, my confusion, but also my hope into these short bursts of energy, and that is the reason why I keep on coming back. Its become a part of who I am, its what I turn to to celebrate life, but also to get me through times of depression and anger. That’s the only way I can explain it.

Genres: Goth, Rock
Label: Lest We Forget Records

Take the sound of a man who drinks too much whiskey and smokes too many cigarettes. Make him sing/talk a little like Nick Cave, and give him a band that has a lounge lizard sound and feel like the soundtrack to Corpse Bride. Give them lyrics that are dark, a little morbid, and twistedly sexy. Have all the hallmarks of good gothic lyricism, like the aforementioned cigarettes, as well as sex, death, and love. Throw in murder, old men, and drugs, and you’ve got a perfect blend.
Adrian H’s whiskey and cigarette voice is never loud, and really kind of stays in the same key through the whole album. If this were any other genre, it would not work at all. But this is goth rock, and for some reason only goths and Bob Dylan can have the same vocal delivery for an entire album. His piano work is wonderful, helping to give the music a sound and feel that would fit well in a dark gin joint with pool tables and drunk cougers looking for a fuck.
Broken Heart’s drums are never hurried, never rushed, and always on time. A nice laid back feel with wonderful tones. The opening to “Cookies and Cocaine” is just captivating. I could just listen to that first ten seconds over and over. Jay Raker’s basslines are snakey, shaky, and deep. This guy can lay down a fucking groove, folks. Top notch stuff.
This album is cohesive as a whole, and the songs can be listened to individually, too. There’s no filler here, it’s all thought out and well done. Not only is it something that can be listened to, actively engaging you with it, but this album is also perfect for a background sound too. I made supper to it last night, talking with the wife. Who, incidentally, also loved the CD. We actually both agree on all the points with this disc, and I can say for both myself and my wife, Adrian H and the Wounds’ self-titled disc gets an eight out of ten. Super standout tracks for me are “Cookies and Cocaine”, “Smoke”, and “She Won’t Leave Me Alone (The Bug Song)”.
I’d recommend this disc to fans of Bauhaus, Joy Division, the Cure, and modern goths 13th Sky. I’d also recommend it to fans of Danny Elfman and Tim Burton’s films.

Genres: Death Metal, Thrash
Label: Ibex Moon 

After looking at, and hearing, this antichristian menu presented by Acheron, the ingredient list seems pretty simple.
A heaping helping of mid- to slow-paced thrash and death metal, with some doom on the side, some tasty fast sections mixed with Metalgasmic solos for a dipping sauce, all covered with a gravy of evil.
Think of a child born from a clusterfuck of Black Sabbath, Death, and Slayer, married to Pantera.
I’m a fan.
7.5 out of 10. 

Apparently Steve Bacchia, drummer and official interview guy for Stygian, liked the review I did of their new album Fury Rising, which, like it says below, made my day. I was invited to send him some questions, and he was really quick to answer.

You guys have been around for ten years now, and you’ve done quite a bit in the music world. Two albums, tons of shows, and you’ve sold over a thousand copies of Struggle on iTunes at home and in foreign countries, while tons of other bands that have been around as long as you are drowning in obscurity. What do you think helped set you apart, and gained the recognition you have?

The number one thing that set us apart would have to be chemistry. This allows us to have longevity and longevity is what breeds a killer live show and a unique sound. Over the years we have gained a solid reputation for delivering both live and on record. If you buy a Stygian album you will get a full album worth of material that went through a hardworking thought out process. No filler here.

When you first started out as Stygian, did you foresee any of this in ten years? Two albums, opening for big names, and people wearing your band’s name as a badge of honor?

We’ve always wanted people to see us perform and to enjoy listening to our music. We’ve put a lot of hard work into molding ourselves into the musicians we are today. Playing the bigger shows and seeing the fans wearing our gear proud makes us feel blessed. I don’t know if we ever would have thought we would be in the place we are today. We started jamming for fun, and its all evolved into this band we have now. At first it’s for fun and then you realize that this is truly the only thing we can do where the clock disappears and the pressures of life just fade away. Working for this is not work but more doing what we are meant to do.

The name itself, Stygian, who thought of it, and what was the inspiration behind it?

Honestly, it was pretty simple. One day we decided that we needed a band name so Frank took out a dictionary picked the letter “S”, and Stygian was the first cool word we came across. The mythological meaning of the word was a secondary reason for picking it. When we were young something meaning dark and gloomy was cool and we were sold.

Lyrically, what Fury Rising about? Is there a thread through each song, or is each song its own animal?

Each song is about a particular topic ranging from the everyday struggle of life to a past relationship to war to dealing with a disease like cancer. Overall each song addresses some sort of battle to overcome various hardships. The idea is that although these struggles are hard fought, there maintains a glimmer of hope and triumph is possible but with lessons learned along the way. It all ties together with a breeding sense of Fury.

Instrumentally, Stygian seem fairly normal. Guitars, bass, drums, voice. Are there any other instruments you guys play that aren’t present in your music? Do you think there is room in the Stygian sound for odd instruments?

Not particularly, we are like you said. Just a normal band, we enjoy solid riffs, quality vocals, and a powerful rhythm section. It would be pretty cool if one of us learned how to play piano for future songs that we write.

I was told that you thought I had “nailed it” in my review of Fury Rising, which more than made my day. I take it to mean that you are in fact influenced by Metallica, Zakk, and Live. What else influences Stygian’s sound? Is there anything that is not readily apparent, or even odd bands or genres that fans might be surprised by?

Well we are influenced by Metallica, Zakk, Pantera, Alterbridge and def Alice in Chains. You also nailed it because you make the point that it’s just a heavy album, at times it’s metal and at times it’s rock but overall just heavy and grooving. The only unapparent influence would be personally, some of my drumming comes from John of Devildriver. Frank dabbles in some classical music at night with his ipod while getting some z’s.

How does writing go for you guys? Is it as simple as “Here’s a cool riff, let’s jam on it”, or is it a longer process for you?

Yeah, some songs are written that way. We’ll get together whether its all of us or just two of us and throw around whatever ideas we have at the time. Sometimes good songs come out, and sometimes its just frustrating. A lot of Fury Rising was done in our home studio just Frank and myself. Frank would come over and record riffs or songs in whole. Then I would put the headphones on and take a week to drum to them. This would lead to the two of us jamming things out together, moving parts around, chopping things out, adding a bridge here and there. Luckily with technology, at the end of each day we’d plug our i-pods in, bounce the track to it, listen overnight and come back and either build on what was there or scrap it altogether…. Another way a lot of songs are written is in solitude. There’s a bunch of songs on this album that Frank wrote by himself at our home studio or just at home sitting on the couch with an acoustic guitar. It’s great to have a small studio of your own, because every minute melody or riff can be recorded. Theres no more fear of forgetting a riff the next day.
Lyric writing is the most time consuming aspect of writing songs. It needs to feel right, if ever lyrics are forcefully written it’s noticable and stale.
The song-writing process still continues even when we are tracking what we think is done. A great example is our song “Unstrung Hero” which was a nearly 6 minute song when we tracked it in the studio and is 3:30 in it’s final version. This simply happens because music is an evolving process, like Lars once said “When is a record really done?”. At the time we were doing vocals for this song we knew it was too long and had parts that took away from instead of adding to the song.

Being a drummer, what is your current brand of equipment? What would you get if you could have any drum kit in the world?

Currently I am sponsored by Trick drums out of Chicago and they built me a completely custom kit. It’s the best set of drums I’ve ever seen or played and honestly if I could have any kit I would choose this one. It’s made of metal, not wood, and I smash the hell out of it and it never gives or wears. They are loud and stand out and it fits my power playing style. I also use Meinl Cymbals and Xcel Powersticks and both of those suite my needs perfectly. Anyone who sees us always asks about my gear because they know if it holds up to my style then it must be pretty solid.

What is your drum setup right now?

I have a nine piece kit with two 18×22 bass drums, a 14×6 snare, 4 rack toms (10,12,13,14) and 2 floor toms 16 and 18. About 14 cymbals all around on my Gibraltar rack. You can see it in full on trickdrums.com under my artist page.

What about Frank, Patrick and Mike? What are they rocking on stage?

Frank uses a Mesa Triple Rectifier full stack, with ESP and Dean Guitars, Boss Pedals and Slinky Strings. Mike uses Specter and ESP basses with an Ampeg 8×10 SVT tube amp. Pat uses Jackson and ESP along with a Line 6 rig.

Did you guys use any brands or models on the album that you don’t use on stage?

Frank used many, many guitars on the recording of Fury Rising. Gibsons, ESP, Dean, Fender, Ibanez to name a few. I think a total of 13 different guitars were used to record with. All going through the Triple Rectifier.

Are there any side projects or any dead bands that we can know about and find?

Nope, same band for this whole time. Pat joined us after his time in 454 but the other three of us started this band in middle school.

To tie it up, for the fans of Stygian, what can we expect in the next three months? How about six?

Expect to see our name and our album Fury Rising all over the place. We are already starting to flood the internet and with our single “Crimson Sand” going to radio shortly we hope the ride starts and never stops. We are in the process of setting up a tour in support of our new album and we hope to see everyone who has been so good to us thus far.

Anything else you’d like to throw in?

We would like to thank all the people who have helped us and asked for nothing in return as well as the people who come out and support us at every single show we play. You all know who you are.