Heeding the call for their first odyssey to Australia and handed the highly important task of hyping up the party hungry, NEKROGOBLIKON - the self-proclaimed Kings of Goblin Metal - promise to deliver a unique blend of melodic rock and gnarly death metal, infused with EDM-style flourishes when they arrive here for a run of shows with Alestorm towards the end of February.
Fronted by their ostentatious singing goblin hypeman John Goblikon and new screaming vocalist Dickie Allen (Infant Annihilator) the band takes cues from GWAR, Finntroll, and Dethklok, while maintaining a humorous, self-referential style.
For those unfamiliar with Nekrogoblikon unfortunately there isn't much HEAVY can do to help you understand the band on a more personal level, but the next best thing is to introduce the faithful and the new to guitarist Alex Alereza who we spoke with over two conversations about three weeks apart…
We put Alex straight on the spot by asking how Nekrogoblikon have managed to avoid Australia for so long.
"It's not on purpose, I promise that," he laughed. "We've been talking about it forever, and it's been something that we tried to make happen. There's been a few times there were tentative plans and then some kind of logistical nightmare occurred or something. Luckily this time we finally… our team was persistent this time (laughs). Like, we have to get you guys out there. It's the perfect way for us to do Australia for the first time, with another like-minded, fun band. I already feel like we'll be coming back more often after this."
In the full interview we spoke about the touring dynamics between Nekrogoblikon and Alestorm, what he is expecting from Australian crowds, the importance of keeping music fun, the role of their resident Goblin in everything from the live show to production to recording, the modern sanitized musical climate and where Nekrogoblikon sit in that respect, their musical mish mash of genres and why it works, new music and more.


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