Veil of Sound Interviews

A year ago, we started a series which, by its design, was hard to keep going so we were aware that there would be bigger gaps between the editions of this “series” but here we are now with its fourth installment - our “Bands interviewing Bands” - series. This time we have the pleasure of getting Aaron Charles and Jordan Guerette together, who play together in Falls of Rauros but who interviewed each other on their side projects - Aaron’s Psychedelic Black Metal project Rhûn and Jordan’s apocalyptic Chamber music ensemble Forêt Endormie. Of course, head honcho Thorsten also had a few questions for both guys but each came up with mighty cool questions for the FoR-bandmate. In our interview, we also talk about the importance of these projects for Falls itself, about Game of Thrones and Wheel of Time and about Stephen King, the literary icon of the guys’ homestate, Maine. Enjoy the reviews on both outfits’ recent releases as well as the interview! Many great albums take time to take shape and to see the light of day, and such is the case of Rhûn’s Conveyance in Death. Not only does great music take time, but this album takes inspiration from things that are very relatable to the human condition: self-determination, solitude and ephemerality. It has many layers, blending of Black Metal with Death Metal and Psychedelia elements, that make this a great listen. Rhûn was born back in 2021 and was formed by Aaron Charles, one of the founding member of Falls of Rauros. The album came out after three years and also features Ray Capizzo on session drums. Conveyance in Death is a self-released album with six tracks and the physical copies are available by House of Inkantation. This album is very different from the Atmospheric Black Metal elements that can be found in Falls of Rauros, but has its own unique sound, making this a different entity that takes various elements that give this album very distinctive and unique layers. The opening track “Morningstar” has an eerie start, giving the listener goosebumps before the drums and the voice, which sounds like a call from the grave, breaks that slow groovy start. The raw sound will be something that will be constant throughout this album. The guitar playing on this track almost sounds like a wailing that resonates deep within one’s soul. “Tomb of Andesite” has a fast, bone shattering start and keeps that relentless sound until the end. Two tracks deep into this album and you know it will have no respite, it will keep the listener engaged, will keep one peeling off all of those mesmerising and heavy layers. My favourite track of Conveyance in Death is “Bone Ornament”, which sums up the essence of this album: amazing drumming, spine-chilling voice, and the beautiful guitar parts that make Rhûn’s album exceptional. There are moments during this track that almost feel like it allows the listener to breathe and take in all of the slow moments, only to grip you back into its fierce hold. “Howl of Gleaming Swords” and “Citadel in Ruin” keep that beautiful groove and heaviness in Conveyance in Death, that can definitely move you and discover a different element within the album’s sound. “Night’s Glacial Passing” brings the record to a magnificent finish, like a triumphant farewell. It gives this album a great conclusion. From start to finish, Conveyance in Death provides a beautifully crafted heavy sound that only makes you feel grateful that, after this album was dormant for some years, it got released and we got to fully experience it.

We usually have guys here on the show, whose music is based on riffs and guitar work. But sometimes we also feature people with a slightly different approach. Interestingly, when talking to James from Gost it becomes clear that his songs, and therefore also the songs on his forthcoming new album Prophecy (out soon via Metal Blade Records), can be based on both, either a guitar OR some electronic work. He also explains a lot about the way he composes his tracks, his patience deficit, the way the mask he is wearing on stage makes it difficult on the one, but interesting on the other side. And he also proclaims a love for a certain kind of country music, which one might not expect him to have. All in all, a mighty interesting talk which maybe can sparkle the interest of some of you metalheads out there to give Prophecy a spin! Enjoy!

A few years ago, Chris (Heads., formerly also in The Ocean), Nic (Heads., formerly also in Eisenvater) and Felix (Hansen Band, Home of the Lame, live-keyboarder for Einstuerzende Neubauten) formed a new band which after a few days was named ZAHN and who struck us (especially Stephan and Thorsten) with their instrumental sound somewhere between Post-Punk, Krautrock (only in attitude), Noise-Rock and many highly delectable elements. Their first self-titled record already received high praise by our head-honcho, but their second record Adria even more so, both records are out via Crazysane Records. Therefore, of course we needed to get an interview with the band and Felix took an hour off (on a Saturday!!) and spoke with us about the band, the records being different stages of a love-relationship, the development of the band and the sound. If you want to know why Morricone is (again) a major influence on a band and much more, then you will enjoy this interview!

This week we somewhat go full cycle as we talk with the first person to give us an interview (a written one that is, or was back in 2021) - Josh Graham. The focus of our conversation is his new band Guitless with Sasha from Intronaut, Billy from Generation of Vipers and his bandmate from A Storm of Light, Dan. Interestingly, one of these guys was willing and keen to switch instruments and even funnier is the fact that the four guys haven’t been in one room at the same time. That again, naturally, has implications for their songwriting process. Their debut EP Thorns will be released via Neurot Recordings on February 23. We also talk about the name of the band and the question whether people are guiltless or not, so you see there is also some really deep talk going on here, which is a result of Josh being such an easy person to talk with and him giving such well-versed answers. We also talk about ideas for a tour which at first glance seems unlikely given the schedule of these guys, but as the first full-length is already in preparation nothing seems unlikely for Guiltless! Enjoy!

Our 150th video of course demanded for something special, something broadening our horizons and so we were happy to broaden our knowledge of the scene in Singapore and Malaysia by talking to Singaporean heroes Paint the Sky Red whose new record Tamat (out via Moment of Collapse Records), and the title means “finished” in English. It is also to be their last record. Why? Well, the guys have a very good reason for that and we can be happy, because it does not imply the end of the band. How can that be, you ask? Well, you only have to listen to this short but really good interview with the guys! You will witness a band that is serious about their band but that also likes to laugh and give us a good impression on the Post-scene in (Southeastern) Asia. Enjoy the interview!

Welcome to Part II of our Vægtløs - week! We promised you a lot for this week and we will keep our promise. We were very happy to talk with lyricist and vocalist of the band and admittedly this might not have been the happiest of conversations that we have had here on our VoS channel, this honestly ranks very high on our head honcho’s list because of the depth of this talk. “Enjoy” while you get to know a lot more about the depth of this record! Aftryk might be a record of only a handful songs, but these songs hold so much content and most of it is looking at the darker side of life, aka death and we cope with it. In that sense it is very close to a record, Troels and Thorsten refer to quite a lot, Touché Amoré and their cancer-trauma record Stage Four! We have to say that the Danes might not be as well known as Jeremy Bolm, but believe us, when we say - they are to be reckoned with! Enjoy our interview and tell us, which record got you through some rough times?

There are some bands that take pride in playing 100 shows a year. Some 150. And there are bands like Hexis, who usually play somewhere around 200 shows a year. On more or less every continent. With tours that seem to take forever, their last one took them across the Americas, with only a few off-days here and there. We talked to Filip and got to learn a lot about their touring ethos and their general DIY attitude. How difficult it is to let go of control and some help from people outside the band. Who to trust and what these persons have to bring to the table. Enjoy this highly interesting interview!

We always try to give you something different here on the VoS, so we are very happy to have this interview with Thomas Alkärr for you. Thomas who? Thomas is a scholar who has curated a very important exhibition in Oslo called “Bad Vibes” which focused on the Norwegian Black Metal scene of the early 90s and how it affected Norwegian society and how it was affected by it vice versa. In this interview we talk about the exhibition, the surprises Thomas encountered and also how the exhibition was laid out. Of course we also talk about the music, its sources, influences but also the effects it had on the global (Black Metal) scene. To make it clear, we also talk about the artist formerly known as Kristian and the crimes connected to the scene back at the beginning of the 90s, so if you do not want to listen us talk about those topics, you might want to skip this interview and enjoy one of our many other ones. At the end Thomas also has to through our infamous quickfire round which is centered around Norway and its bands, projects etc.

Well, well, well - didn’t we tell all you American Post-Rock aficionados to check back soon with us? Anyway, we are incredibly proud to have Shipwreck Karpathos here on the show for our first regular interview of the year. The guys have released a miraculous release called Being Human a few weeks ago through A Thousand Arms and dunk!records one couldn’t be happier about it. It is one of these records which provides a lot of things to talk about and talk we sure did. The record is the second installment in a trilogy that started a few years back with Bring Down the Sky and which is now furthened with Scenes 8 to 14. The so-called “Pilot Trilogy” is of course one of the things we talked to with the handsome fellows, bandleader David and the latest bandmember Hank. We also talk recording specs, the influence of Emocore and Pop-Punk and also when you can hear only Jason Sissoyev from Coastlands on this record. We’re sure that you are going to like this interview and maybe give us a like here or on any of our other channels.

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!

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!

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! One should not mistake the folks in Sleepbomb for artsy-fartsy movie geeks who dig only the French or Polish avantgarde or the Eastern European classics or the latest Korean cuts - they also love to do scores for pretty popular movies like Conan or for one of the most famous German movies of all times, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. The latter is their last release and one must admit that they have a really great way of scoring a 100 years old movie but do not sound in any way old-fashioned or anything. Brilliant! Unforgettable! Splendid! You can order your copy of the album from Koolarrow Records and from Consouling Sounds - but now let’s find out what Tim has to say!

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! Discharge. Amebix. Ministry. Soulfly. The list could be continued and we’d be not going but sliding down a rabbit-hole of unperceivable depths. If you wanna do that, you might consider taking a week of unpaid holidays. The band itself didn’t have to take a holiday to record their songs because it was conceived during the Pandemic, even though they never met in one room or recording studio - thanks to the interview for once because without it, this record would have been much more complicated to get done! We talked with the guys about what “urgency” might imply, very deeply about some of the songs, whether they want to take this record on the road and much more. Enjoy!

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! When it comes to Free Jazz colliding and falling in love with heavy Rock sounds we quickly talk about Fusion, which is a label to make to make you shiver and quiver as (to me at least) it always implied a somewhat deranged and never-ending form of Grateful Dead-AOR-rock. But for several decades now, Fusion Rock is leaning more towards the harder side of things and shows a lot of crunch, heavy riffs and really intriguing rhythmic work. Sally Gates is one of the prime examples for that as she does not only know technique but also power and thus her “songs” are always mesmerizingly brewing both concoctions into one addictive poison! Her new collab record with Trevor and Greg shows that once more. We sat down with her to talk about Deliriant Modifier, its conception and birth, how she experiences life in the Big Apple and much, much more! Enjoy!

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”! The latter is a term that Pete doesn’t like and he explains why in this interview, but we also talk about the variability of songs, moods and genres on DC Special. He also explains why the record is neither only a reflection of our times nor only a trip down nostalgia lane. He explains his love for Dead Kennedys and even why he - a DC guy - now likes the Dodgers and which kind of music he likes to listen to when going on a hike. Enjoy these more than 50 minutes with a man who has played with the Sunn O))) guys, with most of the Desert Sessions folks and even with someone Pete more or less discovered, a guy called Dave Grohl - might have heard about him, guy might make it big one day.