When California thrashers Bonded By Blood set out on the Masters of Disaster tour this spring, with fellow SoCal metallers Exmortus and Witchaven, they had no idea just how prophetic the tour name would turn out to be.

“When we were driving through Alabama, we got pulled over and these cops ended up arresting our roadies [for no reason],” says singer Jose “Aladdin” Barrales of one of the tour’s early glitches. “Obviously, when a bunch of redneck cops see a group of longhaired Hispanics driving by…things are gonna happen [laughs].”

So when Bonded By Blood found out that their gig at Bay Ridge, Brooklyn’s country-themed Lonestar Bar and Grill had been cancelled—the venue cited “safety concerns”—they weren’t all that surprised. “We were supposed to play this show and all the guy said was, ‘Oh, we can’t do it’, ” says Barrales shaking his head. But in true DIY fashion, Bonded By Blood made the best of the situation, and hustled up a new venue: Maric Lanes bowling alley in Queens, NY.

+++ The About-To-Be-Thrashed Maric Lanes Bowling Alley +++

MetalKult had our ears to the rails on this one, and we’re sure glad we did. Not only did we get to witness BBB deliver the most vicious of cuts from their debut Feed the Beast (Earache Records)—at a bowling alley—but we got to catch up with Barrales and guitarists Alex Lee and Juan Juarez, drummer Carlos Regalado and bassist Ruben Dominguez to discuss the finer points of tour snafus and delicious regional cuisine, as well as just where BBB fit into Los Angeles’ rich thrash history. —Henry Yuan

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Tonight’s show is free. Is that in an effort to get people to come out to the shows during the current recession?

JOSE BARRALES Not really. [The promoters] just asked us if we wanted to play a free show here and our reaction was, “Fuck yeah!” [laughs]

I heard you guys were supposed to play in a western bar in Brooklyn. What’s the story there?

BARRALES We posted on our MySpace saying we needed a show and we got a bunch of responses. A local band was like, “Well, we can get you a show here.” They got it, but from what we were told the venue canceled it because they didn’t think it was safe or something. They never had any metal bands play there before, so I guess they were scared that there would be chaos or something.

+++ Singer Jose “Aladdin” Barrales Laying Down The Law +++

Your debut album, Feed the Beast, has been out for about a year now and has been getting some good attention from fans and critics. Were you surprised by the response?

BARRALES Yeah, I mean you’re always gonna be surprised. It’s actually scary when people are like, “Fuck, this is badass.” But that’s cool.

When you were younger you must have thought about what it’d be like to put out a record and tour. Now that you’ve achieved that, what’s the most unexpected aspect of your current situation? Do the dreams live up to the reality?

DOMINGUEZ That’s kinda a rude question! [laughs] But nah, I never thought about touring when I was a kid.
BARRALES When I first started the band, I thought we would break up in like a year. [laughs] I’ve been in a lot of bands that just break up. When this band started to get a lot of attention, it was like, “Yeah! There’s gonna be a lot of touring.” And of course, you have the dream that it’s gonna be just like how you see bands like Anthrax and Metallica going to all of these places and getting all of that attention. We’re nowhere near that level, but it’s still pretty cool.

+++ Barrales With Guitarist Alex Lee +++

Coming from L.A. area, and knowing the area’s rich history in thrash and punk, do you feel pressured to live up to your thrash forefathers?

BARRALES I don’t know about the rest of the band, but I do want to live up to those legendary L.A. bands and represent our city like those legends. They’re still legends to me and we still look up to them as such. I talked to people in bands such as D.R.I. and they’re like, “Yeah, you guys are badass!” For them to say that, it’s like, “What the fuck!” [laughs]

Lately there’s been a huge interest for “old-school” thrash, especially the early/mid-Eighties California thrash scene. There have been so many young bands all over the world that are supposedly revitalizing the genre. What sets Bonded By Blood apart from the rest of these bands?

BARRALES When we first started we didn’t say we were gonna play thrash. We were just a bunch of kids playing metal because there wasn’t really any metal in our city. We’re just a bunch of people who are into different types of metal and we got together and made our own thing. A lot of people are like, “Oh, you guys are thrash because you play fast.” But I think it’s really all our different influences that makes this music.
DOMINGUEZ We didn’t think like, “We wanna make this kind of music.” We just made music.
BARRALES Yeah, I think that’s exactly what sets us apart. We’re so influenced by different shit and we try to put our different tastes into the same thing. Like, these guys [points to Alex Lee and Juan Juarez] are into the guitar thing and I’m really into punk. Like, I try to put my own little thing into it to make it sound like this. I think with other bands, they just say they’re “thrash” and only do that. But we just want to make our own music.

+++ Bonded By Blood, Exmortum And Witchaven Posting Up +++

On the subject of classic thrash, which of the Big Four is your favorite?

EVERYONE Slayer! Megadeth!
BARRALES And Anthrax!
DOMINGUEZ It’s really a hard choice [laughs]

And I’m sure you guys have listened to Death Magnetic…

EVERYONE [disappointing sounds and laughter]
REGALADO I mean, it’s good when you’re shit-faced.
Dominguez But everything is! [laughs]
BARRALES I think they did it because they see all of this revival stuff and they want to cash in on it.

Where do you see thrash metal five years from now?

BARRALES I still see people playing it just like it never really left. Everyone said thrash died in the Nineties, but there were bands like Tankard still playing it. As long as there are people that still like it and play it&emdash;even if it’s not as popular as it is now—thrash will always be around.

So I’ve been hearing about your obsession with pizza. You’re in the pizza capital of the U.S., so you must be stoked.

[Everyone laughs]
BARRALES We’re actually gonna go try the pizza after this. Everyone’s saying how New York pizza is the best and of course the Ninja Turtles are from New York and they eat the pizza, so we gotta try it!

Since we’re talking about food, you come from Southern California, which is famous for the great tacos. Who has the best tacos?

[Everyone laughs]
DOMINGUEZ My mom [laughs]
BARRALES There’s this authentic Mexican restaurant in Pomona called El Patio that’s so good.

If someone asked you what he or she could expect from the L.A. metal scene, what would you tell them?

BARRALES I think it’s stronger there than in a lot of states. Everyone just hangs out everywhere.
DOMINGUEZ The Black Castle is a hangout.
BARRALES Yeah, but they don’t have thrash shows there anymore because people destroyed it. It was definitely a cool local hangout and a cool venue. When we played there it was insane.

It seems to me that thrash and crossover are synonymous with skateboarding, especially with bands like D.R.I. and Suicidal Tendencies. Do any of you skateboard?

BARRALES I think at one point, everyone skates. California is like “Skateboards R’ Us”. When I was growing up, everyone I knew skated. I even saw gangsters riding skateboards. [laughs] I don’t really know how or why it goes with metal, but it just does.

Finally, what can Bonded By Blood fans who haven’t yet seen you guys expect from your live shows?

BARRALES It’s like an orgasm for your ears…and eyes. [laughs] I don’t know, dude. You just gotta come and check us out!
REGALADO A lot of people have told us that we’re pretty clean.
DOMINGUEZ Man, I’m always dirty on the road. Hell, I’m just dirty all the time [laughs]
BARRALES So to sum up, we’re all about good shows and dirty orgasms. [laughs]

With an unfuckwithable pedigree that includes time spent playing in St. Vitus, the Obsessed, Spirit Caravan, the Hidden Hand and Shrinebuilder, guitarist Scott “Wino” Weinrich has helped define the modern stoner doom metal sound.

To celebrate Wino’s first ever solo record, Punctuated Equilibrium (Southern Lord Recordings), we brought the underground legend into our NY headquarters for an in-depth Q&A. Check out the following clips where Wino talks about the high points of his 25-year-and-counting career: (more…)

When Sweden’s Amon Amarth came to NY on October 20, 2008, to play The Fillmore NY at Irving Plaza, we jumped at the opportunity to sit down and interview this renowned Viking metal band.

In the following interview, filmed at our NY studios, singer Johan Hegg, guitarist Johan Söderberg and bassist Ted Lundström speak about a range of topics including Amon Amarth’s move away from traditional death metal, Sweden’s pagan history, Norse mythology and the themes behind their new album, Twilight of the Thunder God (Metal Blade).

Check out all this Nordic goodness below: (more…)

On October 8, 2008, Swedish black metallers Watain brought their onslaught to New York City’s Knitting Factory. Before the show, we had a chance to catch up with singer/bassist E. to see what’s been happening since our last interview.

Check out the clips below where E. opens up about Watain’s 10th Anniversary, killing pigeons in Montreal and the end of the world as we know it. (more…)

In 1993 a small Florida metal band released a record that would open the doors to what we know now as progressive death metal. Cynic was the band, and Focus was that record.

Cynic was made up of virtuosic guitarist/vocalist Paul Masvidal, drummer Sean Reinert, guitarist Jason Gobel and bass/Chapman Stick player Sean Malone, with death metal growls by Tony Teegarden. In the then-flourishing central Florida death metal scene the band’s progressive, jazz influenced extreme metal was praised by critics but consistantly overlooked and many times misunderstood by the masses.

Founding members Paul Masvidal and Sean Reinert even played on Death’s 1991 album Human and toured behind Schuldiner on both the Leprosy and Spiritual Healing tours, and Cynic still could catch a break. After much distress and frustration, the band called it quits in 1994.

Then in early 2006, much to the surprise and delight of the many fans—like Opeth’s Mikael Akerfeldt—that had since come to revere the groundbreaking Focus, Cynic reformed. This time out their lineup included Masvidal, Reinert, Malone and newcomer Tymon Kruidenier on guitar and death growls. After a cycle of successful European shows the band decided to write and record a new album, Traced In Air.

So when we heard that Cynic’s main man Paul Masvidal was going to be in town to do a few press stops MetalKult jumped at the opportunity to sit down with Paul. In the following interview, Masvidal touches on Cynic’s past, including touring in Death and opening for Cannibal Corpse, and reveals what the future holds for this truly unique band. (more…)

On June 11, 2008, when classic San Francisco thrashers Death Angel came to NYC to play BB Kings Blues Club & Grille in support of their latest album, Killing Season (Nuclear Blast), we invited guitarists Rob Cavestany and Ted Aguilar to our Manhatten headquarters for a video question-and-answer session.

In the following interview the guitarists get current on all things Death Angel, including their involvement in the Eighties Bay Area scene with Exodus and Metallica, their landmark releases The Ultra-Violence and Act III, the tragic 1990 bus accident that nearly tore the band apart, and the quality musicianship that has always been central to Death Angel’s music.

Check out this exclusive footage below! (more…)

When Massachusetts hardcore stalwarts Converge rolled into NYC’s Blender Theatre on April 1, 2008, in support of their latest full-length, No Heroes (Epitaph), MetalKult caught up with vocalist Jacob Bannon and guitarist Kurt Ballou for a candid backstage video interview.

In the footage below, check out the guys as they discuss their respective paths into the music business, thoughts on the transformation of the hardcore scene and the “riff refinancing” that went into creating No Heroes. (more…)

When MetalKult visited Norway last March, we met up with Archaon (guitar) and Seidemann (bass) from the black metal band 1349. Before the pair took us out on a Norwegian metal pub crawl, we sat down in Neseblod Records’ Maiden branch for a few warm-up pints. When the alcohol started flowing, so did the conversation. Lucky for us we had our video cameras with us.

In the following candid question-and-answer session, Archaon and Seidemann speak on a wide range of topics, including 1349’s position in Norwegian black metal, their views on Satanism and religion, black metal as Norway’s biggest cultural export, and the state of their forthcoming release, the follow-up to 2005’s Hellfire.

Check out this exclusive interview below! (more…)

When MetalKult visited Norway last March, we were invited to visit the private studios of Norwegian black metal band Satyricon for a gear tour and the following in-depth question-and-answer session with frontman Satyr and drummer Frost.

Below, the pair discusses a wide range of topics, including the progression of Satyricon’s sound from traditional black metal to more straightforward rock, collaborating with Samoth and Thorns, and how “Satyricon has always been proudly a part of Norwegian black metal” even though Satyr wasn’t interested in doing what Mayhem’s Euronymous expected of him.

Satyricon also discuss the resolution of Frost’s visa troubles and their plans for recording their new full-length in Los Angeles. On June 2, U.K. and European fans were given a treat of what’s to come when Satyricon released a five-track EP, My Skin Is Cold, which included the new title track, “Live Through Me” and “Existential Fear-Questions” (excluded from 2002’s Volcano) and compelling live versions of “Mother North” and “Repined Bastard Nation.”

Check out this exclusive interview below! (more…)

When MetalKult visited Norway last March, we were privileged to have the rare opportunity to visit with Emperor guitarist/vocalist Ihsahn at his Symphonique Studios in Notodden, Norway.

While we were there we got a tour of the gear Ihsahn used to record his latest solo album, angL (Candlelight/Mnemosyne), before sitting down with the black metal legend for a lengthy interview.

In the following clips, Ihsahn discusses a diverse range of topics, including the roots of angL’s aggressive sound, his collaboration with Opeth’s Mikael Akerfeldt and how the “black metal expression” had to come from rural, isolated places like Notodden.

Check out this exclusive interview below! (more…)