Exclusive Interview - Rebecca Vernon (SubRosa)

This past weekend, comrade Durf and I were lucky enough to catch Salt Lake City's own SubRosa as they were playing the very last show of their tour opening for Wovenhand. The band has garnered plenty of notoriety over the past few years. 2013's More Constant Than the Gods and last year's For This We Fought the Battle of Ages have paved new paths for creating a different kind of heaviness within the doom metal genre; giving their compositions more emotional weight than just audible weight. We sat down with guitarist/singer Rebecca Vernon and just by chance drummer Andy Patterson to talk shop about the band's beginnings, their development over the years, and the tight-knit Salt Lake City music community.

Read the full interview after the break!

Brutally Short #7 : Cormorant, Falls of Rauros, GOLD, and Brand New

Welcome to another edition of Brutally Short, the not at all gimicky or lazy feature where we at Brutalitopia compile a group of reviews that are far shorter than our normal, endless word vomit.  The albums contained in Brutally Shorts aren't here because they're bad; quite often there are albums here that deserve far more words from far better writers because of how good they are, we just either didn't see them until now, forgot to write about them, we had a child and the responsibility of caring for a newborn person takes up, like, an inordinate amount of time, or (usually) spent another week rewatching Parks and Recreation on Netflix while drinking scotch instead of actively working to run a blog.  No one said we're good at this.

Dreadnought - A Wake in Sacred Waves

Of all genres of music, especially metal, "progressive" is a genre tag that, over time, has constantly expanded its grey area for interpretation. While it's now commonly assumed to be a genre where technically proficient musicians play concept-albums while encompassing sporadic tempo shifts, progressive music can be better thought of as more of a pushing of boundaries. By incorporating unfamiliar elements or creating a new combination of pre-existing ones, this expanding of horizons is the bedrock of what it means to be progressive as a band. Now, the whole concept of progressive music as a philosophy versus a rigidly defined musical genre is a rabbit-hole of a conversation that would best be served as the central focus of its own series of articles, but it's these kinds of thoughts that traversed through my mind as I listened to Dreadnought's second album, Bridging Realms. Making my year-end list for 2015, the album harnessed the power of soft female vocals, black metal shrieks, blast beat drumming, pianos, saxophones, and everything that could be thought of being in that vast in-between. Denver's experimental foursome now returns with A Wake in Sacred Waves, an album that dials in their craft, takes their sound to new monumental heights, and, ultimately, will be the album that establishes them as a progressive metal force.

Primitive Man - Caustic

It feels like Primitive Man has been around forever, but in reality their debut full-length Scorn came out only four years ago.  Since then, however, they've released nearly a dozen singles, splits, and the EP Home is Where the Hatred Is, making them one of the more prolific bands going.  The Denver sludge trio has put out some of the darkest, most repulsive sludge around in the past four years, and with the release of their sophomore LP Caustic, it appears that was just a warm up.

Wolves in the Throne Room - Thrice Woven

Since their phenomenal debut Diadem of 12 Stars in 2006, Wolves in the Throne Room have been a force in the US black metal scene.  Their songs, drawing inspiration from the band's home in the Pacific Northwest, have always blended a serene sense of melody and atmosphere with a primal, animalistic fury.  In the ensuing decade, "atmospheric black metal" has become the genre du jour, but for the most part, these bands have been chasing WitTR's tail, trying to capture the alchemy that makes Diadem, Two Hunters, Black Cascade, Celestial Lineage, and the Malevolent Grain EP stand out in a sea of imitators and lesser bands.  Wolves in the Throne Room took a bit of a detour for their last album; 2014's Celestite was an ambient, synth-heavy companion to Celestial Lineage, and while it wasn't bad, it was certainly a departure from the band's trademark sound.  So now, three years later, after a re-release of Diadem of 12 Stars, the band has returned with Thrice Woven, an album they say marks their return to black metal.  So does Thrice Woven hold up to the band's impeccable track record in their home genre?

Squalus - The Great Fish

Jaws is an incredible movie, with some of the most iconic shots and quotes in all of American cinematic history.  Robert Shaw's Quint is an All-Time Classic movie character, and I could watch his monologue about the U.S.S. Indianapolis daily for the rest of my life.  As far as nautically-themed stories go, Jaws is second to none, and while I beseech Hollywood not to remake it, the story itself is ripe for inspiration and interpretation.  Squalus, the new band made up of 80% of the dearly departed Giant Squid, seemingly agrees, as their debut album The Great Fish... sees the band apply their post-metal sludgery to the iconic story of Chief Brody, Hooper, and Quint, and the results more than live up to the sizable expectations built by the band's pedigree and source material.

Myrkur - Mareridt

I know it may be hard for some of you to believe that polarization exists within the metal community, but Myrkur has perpetually been in the cross-hairs ever since the self-titled debut EP. Black metal is perhaps the murkiest of purist waters you can try to stay afloat in, but Amalie Bruun's solo project has been gliding through these waves since day one. While the approaches differ, Myrkur brings to mind bands like Alcest and those who followed in the "blackgaze" craze. Myrkur sticks closer to maintaining the rawness of traditional black metal, but like Alcest, there is an even mix of serene melodies to juxtapose the harsher tones. The only complaint I've ever had with Myrkur's output is that I've never been captivated by a full release. It's as if after every listen, I find myself thinking about the album's "what could have been" potential more than anything else. Unfortunately, Mykur's latest album, Mareridt, follows suit in this trend.

Exclusive Interview - Jonny Boucher (Hope For the Day)

In the time we've done Brutalitopia, we've had the opportunity to conduct some pretty cool interviews with some of our favorite musicians.  We've only ever wanted to do this site as a hobby, so it's been a real treat to have the privilege of these conversations, meeting and chatting with artists throughout genres, from different parts of the world, brought together by our love of music.  By and large, these conversations are pretty light, enjoyable ways for the three of us to get to know musicians we respect and admire, and to hopefully ask them questions they haven't been asked a thousand times before, in an effort to connect them with fans through our (admittedly small) platform.

This interview was different.

Last night, Mick and I had the opportunity to speak with Jonny Boucher, founder and CEO of Hope For The Day, a suicide prevention organization focusing on proactive prevention.  Jonny founded HFTD in 2011 after the suicide of his boss, and the organization's motto of "It's OK Not to Be OK" speaks to his desire to end the stigma around discussing suicide and mental health.  It's an incredibly important topic, especially considering the destructive attitudes of "suck it up!" that still surround suicide and mental illnesses.  Hope For The Day has worked with Warped Tour, Live Nation, and other musicians to get their message out there, and last night they were putting on a benefit show at Chicago's famous Metro, featuring Mastodon, Brain Tentacles, and Powermad.  All of the bands spoke to Hope For The Day during their sets, and it was a tremendous night of camaraderie, hope, and metal, but the absolute high point was getting to speak with Jonny.  Over the course of our conversation, we discussed the origin and goals of Hope For The Day, his views on death, and how having the same last name as The Waterboy has impacted his life.  We hope you enjoy this interview, and if you're dealing with any issues, please know that you aren't alone and there are people who will listen.

The Minerva Conduct - The Minerva Conduct

Over the years we've been receiving album promos, I've noticed that the majority of the promos that we get from the Southeastern Asia region tend to use the use the words "brutal", "extreme", and "grind" in the band's description. "Instrumental" and "atmospheric" are terms that are a rarity, so coming across the debut of India's The Minerva Conduct was a real treat. Comprised of members of other Indian extreme metal bands, The Minerva Conduct is also aided in the drumming department by ex-Animals As Leaders member Navine Koperweis. While the self-titled debut of this collective doesn't necessarily bring anything new to the table, it does pool together familiar elements in an impressively balanced manner. Technicality, rhythmic hooks, heaviness, and ambiance are things that not all instrumental act tries to equate in their band's formula, but The Minerva Conduct does exactly this, making it more than a worthwhile listen.

Exclusive Interview - Johannes Persson (Cult of Luna)

Cult of Luna has been one of those bands I've loved but never gotten to see; the last time they were in Chicago, I was on a family trip (live alone and have no friends kids; it's the only way).  I suppose I should say had been; a few weeks ago, CoL came through Reggie's to play their staggering Mariner album with Julie Christmas.  The band was sensational live, everything I'd hoped for, but Christmas was an absolute revelation, a Puciato-level force of nature that elevated the performance far above my wildest expectations.  I couldn't have asked for anything more (ok... maybe a "Mute Departure" encore) from the set.

Before the show even started though, I was living the high life, as I got to sit down with CoL's lead singer/guitarist Johannes Persson to talk about the band, Mariner, touring, collaborating, and a slew of other topics!  This was one of the coolest interviews I've had, so check it out after the break!