01 Jan 2024 - Thorsten

VoS-Interview-Marathon 2023 - Day 9 - Aaron Turner (HydraHead Records, ISIS, Sumac and many many more) Well, haven’t we told you we wanted to start 2024 with a bang?! What could be a bigger bang than an interview with one of the reasons why all of this here started? A shared love for the music of Aaron Turner brought together some nerds a few years ago and this is like the core of VoS - so it was about time for this interview. However, we like to do things a little differently here and therefore we did not talk in too much detail about with musician Aaron Turner but much more with the (visual) artist Aaron Turner, whose work did not only grace many of the HydraHead releases but also many other artists’ records. His work is so influential, that by now you can find cover artworks that are clearly inspired by his work!Enjoy this interview and have a great 2024!

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31 Dec 2023 - Thorsten

VoS-Interview-Marathon 2023 - Day 8 - Toby Driver (Maudlin of the Well, Kayo Dot, Alora Crucible, Vaura, Secret Chiefs 3 and many more) Yes, you are seeing correctly, Toby Driver! We go out of 2023 with a bang! Toby Driver is one of these few artists who can connect Black Metal fans, Jazzers, Avantgardists and people from various other far-apart genres because he has that understanding of music that reaches beyond genres, sounds and structures. Something that some people might call avantgarde in the sense of “letting the song dictate where it goes” but for Toby that is not what the term stands for. And therefore we focused on that notion, that term - “Avantgarde”. In what turned out to be a totally improvised interview we found out a lot about it, in my opinion. Check out this in-depth interview with Toby and remember - we go out with a bang, we go in with a bang, so be sure to check back tomorrow!

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30 Dec 2023 - Thorsten

VoS-Interview-Marathon 2023 - Day 7 - Steve von Till (Neurosis, Harvestman, Neurot Recordings) As we said before, we want to give you something special in this run of interviews and this interview with Steve von Till is really something special, because Steve sat down and thought for himself which ten records could define Neurot Recordings best for him. And he came up with a really mighty list: Great Falls, Deafkids, UFOMAMMUT, YOB, Amenra, Kowloon Walled City, Grails, Justin K. Broadrick’s FINAL, Vágtázó Halottkémek and Zeni Geva! What a list! We talked about these records and also used these as starting points to talk about other Neurot releases and artists! Enjoy this interview and make sure to come back tomorrow for another amazing interview!

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29 Dec 2023 - Thorsten

VoS-Interview-Marathon 2023 - Day 6 - Neill Jameson (Krieg) There are people and bands that everybody within a certain scene knows. Everybody knows ISIS when it comes to Post-Metal, just like you know the Neurosis guys when you are into Dark Folk, as well as Toby Driver when you like Black Metal with an Avantgarde Twist. When you are into American Black Metal with a lot of history you will surely have come across the name Neill Jameson because he is one of these key figures of USBM as he is the mind behind Krieg, one of the seminal bands in the genre. Sometimes controversial but never delivering records of a bad quality and that is also true of Krieg’s latest record Ruiner, which came out a few months ago and which is a certain tabula rasa record. So, obviously we had a lot of reasons to sit down with Neill (and his cat) to talk about all these things and of course also Black Metal in general. Enjoy this one and make sure to check back tomorrow for another legend!

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28 Dec 2023 - Thorsten

VoS-Interview-Marathon 2023 - Day 5 - Einar Guðmundsson (Fortið)

Talking to Einar Guðmundsson from Fortið is quite different from what one would expect when talking to a guy from the Big White North aka Iceland. Einar is surely not one of these quite Norsemen, who barely open their mouths. No he is quite open about many things, for example about the fact that Fortið’s latest record Narkissos is based in quarrels with one person he and his family encountered in the last few years. Or to what extent he is a political person and which side he would take. The epic nature of his songwriting and how the latter might change because of a band member taking one more responsibilities. We also spoke about soundtracking, what Einar would love to do at some point. That and much more can be found out, when listening to this interview! Enjoy this one and be sure to check out tomorrow for another Black Metal hero!

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27 Dec 2023 - Thorsten

VoS-Interview-Marathon 2023 - Day 4 - Gustav Jorgen Pedersen (Spurv) Brefj​æ​re by Spurv. A record like a mammoth-like mountainous superb soundscape. Most people who have listened to the record are gently overwhelmed by it because its sound is wonderfully melancholic and still sparkling like an icey diamond from beyond the Arctic circle hewn out of the mountains and then frozen in the waters surrounding Tromsø. Many people have placed this record on their lists for 2023 and well, righteously so: There is a lot of luminiscence in the tracks on the record and that surely has to do with the concept behind the record which is a communication between “participants” that usually cannot speak. We spoke with Gustav about the influence of the nature around him on the music, the concept behind the songs, the staging aspect of it all and much more. Enjoy the interview and do not forget to check out our first three interviews of this marathon and to check back tomorrow!

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26 Dec 2023 - Thorsten

VoS-Interview-Marathon 2023 - Day 3 - Will Putney (END, Better Lovers, Fit for an Autopsy)
You all know that we here at have a heart for more than one genre, so we have had Post-Metal and Drone Metal in this marathon and what else could be next than an interview with Hardcore-Metalcore workaholic Will Putney? The guy has been an awesome person to talk to as he was very open and had a lot to say about END, their new record The Sin of Human Frailty, (upcoming) tours, Better Lovers, the Tri-State-Area scene and much much more! Don’t be surprised if you come across a guy who’s well-versed in his music knowledge (across many genres) and who is also very clear about what he can do and what not. So enjoy the interview and make sure to check back tomorrow to find the next interview!

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25 Dec 2023 - Thorsten

VoS-Interview-Marathon 2023 - Day 2 - Aidan Baker (Nadja)

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24 Dec 2023 - Thorsten

Prolific and proficient! That’s surely something one can say about Robin Staps, his band The Ocean and his label Pelagic Records. We have not only reviewed a lot of records out via Pelagic Records (for example the latest releases by Saver, Arabrot, Mono, Jaye Jayle or JeGong), no Simon has also reviewed the last The Ocean record Holocene (you can check out his review here). But one thing that we must also know about Robin is that he is a man with a lot of interests and as it is always interesting to be interested we were really happy to interview him and kickstart our Xmas-to-New Year-interview marathon!

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17 Dec 2023 - Thorsten

Over the last couple of years, we have witnessed many great new Doom bands. But rarely has one hit as hard as Belgian-based BRIQUEVILLE which has by now released several records through Pelagic Records. They might be the slowest, doomiest band on the roster, but they’re surely one of the most intriguing, densest and simultaneously most refined, most intricate bands in all of Europe. As we are always interested in presenting you something different and unique we are more than happy to give you a premiere - this is the first interview the band has ever done that’s not written! However, we of course kept the anonymity of the band member we spoke to. We touched on the new record, the development of their sound and who is under the hoods, there’s one answer that’ll surprise you, for sure! Enjoy!

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09 Dec 2023 - Thorsten

A few weeks ago we had an interview with Billy Gould and in that one we mentioned this awesome band called Sleepbomb whose latest record is out via Billy’s Koolarrow Records in collaboration with our Belgian besties in Consouling Sounds. The record is really amazing and you should all listen to The Cabinet of Dr. Galigari and therefore we are really happy to have this interview with their bassist and synth player Tim who explained their approach to songwriting and their love for movies and much more!

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03 Dec 2023 - Thorsten

When people from different, well-known bands form a new project, we often call them supergroups. Most of the time, these bands have only little to say, because it can be quite hard to arrive at similar ideas. With False Fed this is surely not a topic, because these four guys know what they are doing, how to do it and - most important - what they want to say. The Covid-born project consists of four people who, at least when we talked back in October, had never all been in the same room! Nevertheless, their debut record Let Them Eat Fake is biting and scratching and full of songs and stories very close to the band members’ hearts! Enjoy our interview with all of them and do not forget to check out their record at the bottom of this page!

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12 Nov 2023 - Thorsten

Sally Gates should not be a new name to all you VoS-ficionados, because we already spoke with her last year about the last album of her project Titan to Tachyons (we also reviewed Vonals). Sally moved to New York City a few years ago from her home New Zealand, and man, she has been a highly productive and respected part of the New York City Avantgarde scene working with many highly skilled well-regarded musicians around John Zorn and his Tzadik Records label. Now she’s releasing another record that might blow your mind alongside Trevor Dunn and Greg Foxx. So we had to sit down and talk with Sally again, and here you can enjoy our conversation!

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05 Nov 2023 - Thorsten

Scream is one of these iconic bands that we all heard about when we were young, apart from our walking encyclopedia Knut, who probably witnessed many of the DC Hardcore bands back in his 20s and 30s, but for the regular people among us the early DC years and the bands that came from that area and which were on Dischord or later on Jade Tree are legendary. Minor Threat, State of Alert, Scream - the latter even released the first full-length ever on Dischord. Now they’re back! With a new full-length! With collaborations galore and with great songs! And … with enough time on Pete Stahl’s hands to sit down and talk with us about many, many things! Enjoy another interview with a “living legend”!

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29 Oct 2023 - Thorsten

Pyrkagion is one of these bands which at the moment are still a bit of an underground band, which is surprising as its members have some pretty famous “main bands” - think of Hissing and Bell Witch! But the most important reason why they are not gonna remain such an underground thing for long is their music: Black Metal in a kind of traditional sense without trying to emulate Trve Scandinavian Black Metal. And this music (you can check out our review here) is so much that we sought the opportunity to talk to Dylan again, who is one wonderful interview partner and if you listened to our interview (with Bell Witch) you will know what you are up for now. We sat down, talked about the record, its background and how Dylan had to learn a new instrument and also which book he prefers Dune or The Lord of The Rings. Enjoy!

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22 Oct 2023 - Thorsten

There are records that are personal because we “make” them personal, by listening to the songs and the story and we associate a lot of our individual history and experience with it until the two things - record and experience - blend into one thing. To me, Great Falls released such a record like this a few weeks ago. Our man Knut wrote a great review on it (here you can read it) and he was a struck by the record as I was. Both of us thought it would be grand to get an interview with one of the guys and we were more than lucky, all three sat down with us!

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15 Oct 2023 - Thorsten

Some of our interviews are audio only for a good reason and today’s is such an occasion. 夢遊病者 (or “Sleepwalker”) are one of these enigmatic bands that see their members as mere vessels for songs and structures that are already there but only need to be turned into sound. The musicians behind it thus become somewhat obsolete and therefore irrelevant. Nevertheless we are happy to talk with one of them - and this not in a written form as we did roughly two years ago but as a podcast interview!

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08 Oct 2023 - Thorsten

Very often we hear those silly jokes about the bass player who has an idea for a song and is then thrown out by his bandmates. But in a band like The Hirsch Effekt that surely is not the case as all three band members have their hand in the songwriting process and that makes for this awesome concoction that one hears on their records. Just recently they released their latest one called Urian. Reason enough to sit down for a talk!

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01 Oct 2023 - Thorsten

SubRosa is dead. Whether we like it or not. Yet their legacy continues as two really good projects have risen from their ashes - one is The Otolith, which we featured heavily on VoS last year and now we have The Keening, which is the new project by Rebecca Vernon. Her new record is coming up next week Friday and therefore we sat down with her and chatted about the new record called Little Bird, about Stevie Nicks and about much more. Enjoy!

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24 Sep 2023 - Thorsten

Grails have just released a new record and it is more than awesome, as you can already see by our review. The band has always been hard to grasp, but one thing never seems to change and that’s the high quality of their output. We spoke with Emil Amos, one of the two band leaders, about Anches en Maat (check out our review here) and much more especially about the love for movie sounds. Enjoy!

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17 Sep 2023 - Thorsten

Denovali Records has always been a label for lovers of sound - and that has never restricted itself to one genre alone. That’s why one could find Drone Metal alongside experimental music alongside an act like Hidden Orchestra, which is going to release a new album next Friday, September 22. And as our head honcho is a huge fan he was very happy to sit down with HO’s mastermind Joe Acheson for a long, detailed interview.

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10 Sep 2023 - Thorsten

Black Metal itself is a highly paradox genre right? It’s always been connected to both - furor and melancholy. Musically, Atmospheric Black Metal represents that probably best, and one upcoming Atmospheric Black Metal band from the Northeastern USA (aka New England) that does that brilliantly is Eave. As we were proud to host a video premiere for them some weeks back, we are even happier that we got a chance to talk to Brian and hear some of his thoughts.

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03 Sep 2023 - Thorsten

Transit. Transition. Transformation. All words that share more than just the starting syllable. All also indicate a progression from one “spot” to another. Rylan Gleave has gone through such a progression which we already spoke about in our review of his debut album In Chemical Transit which took us by surprise because it plays on and with audio from three very different periods of time in Rylan’s life. Furthermore it is a literally mesmerizing record as it combines Avantgarde soundscapes with real Classical vocal lines and songs. More than enough reasons to sit down and talk to Rylan.

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26 Aug 2023 - Thorsten

Having common friends are sometimes a really great thing when they introduce you to great artists who do not get enough attention which is about to change right now. The common friend who introduced me to Loather is Ralph from Ultha who also invited the guys from Vienna to his Unholy Passion fest in 2022. Now the guys have a new record out via Vendetta Records called Eis and I must say it is a really good Atmospheric Black Metal record with loads of spherical moments and still a lot of wonderfully dark bits. Reason enough to sit down with two of the guys for an interview.

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19 Aug 2023 - Thorsten

Khanate and their new record were one of the biggest surprises in 2023, simply dropping their fifth full-length without any official hints, promotion or anything on May 19. Everyone’s feed was dominated by the news and everyone automatically went ahead to listen to it. The record has now had time to settle in and people were able to dive into To Be Cruel and as we are sure that there are still things that need clarification and explanation! Hence we were happy to get together with drummer Tim Wyskida to talk about the record and loads of things related to it!

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