Welcome to Four Records! Each episode, we feature one guest as they discuss the four records that helped shape them at four different times in their life. This week, Forrest speaks with Martin Wong. Martin was one of the founders and editors of Giant Robot Magazine, which ran from 1994 to 2011. Since 2019, he has been a contributor to Razorcake magazine, providing interviews and reviews. From 2013 to 2022, he raised money to help save music programs in Los Angeles schools with a series of afternoon matinees called Save Music in Chinatown.
Martin Wong’s Four Records:
0-10: Cheap Trick – Live At Budokan
Teenage: The Clash – London Calling
Twenties: J Church – Camels, Spilled Coronas, and The Sound of Mariachi Bands
And so, alas, the final blasting is upon us. After five years of grinding brutality – and a whole load of fun – the end is nigh. But there’s still one more show to go; twelve more chances to enjoy those rancid riffs and grinding goodness, all presented on the newly named ‘Baz’s Stage’ in honour of a GAD original and friend who sadly passed away this year. R.I.P. Baz – we’re sure you’re with us today in spirit.
The north-west has been unusually sunny and bright this past week, so much so that your humble scribe has opted to go with shorts for today, exposing one’s milky-white sparrow legs before June is even here. And it is under these exceptional conditions that opening band, OmegaThrone, get this fifth and final festival underway. Opening their set with two tracks from the January-released sophomore album, Predators Make Empires, the band waste no time in getting the extremity into action. Bad Sleep Better and Feast or Famine buzz with rhythmic dissonance, with singer JJ growling and gnashing his way through, like an Australian in a beer garden on an unseasonably hot day who is driving later. Feast or Famine even has a dalliance with Old School Death Metal. From the debut album, In Loving Memory of Humankind – released on the very day the UK lockdown was announced – comes the call to war that is Casus Belli’s snappy snarls and machine gun climax.
A hymn to the glamour of evil follows in the shape of Fear and Elegance, taken from the band’s 2023 prequel EP, There’s No Hatred as Great as a Dictator’s Love – Prelude to Empire, which is generally vicious death metal, but does have a modicum of Venom tucked into the mid-section. Damn You, Abraham takes the band into blackened death territory; Greed vs Greed has JJ in the pit, snarling directly into the audience faces, and Children of Hitler takes us to Hell and back through demonic barks and a deathly rumble. The sun is still shining over Bolton – I might be only one of three people to ever write that sentence – but Grind After Death Festival’s final blasting has started with a bang.
Photo Credit: Rich Price Photography
When power violence grinders Burnt Body refer to themselves as North West Violência they aren’t adopting some form of hyperbole, rather offering a stark warning to all in the area that the next thirty-minutes is going to get vicious. From the screaming feedback to the punishing grind, there is nothing in Burnt Body’s set that isn’t meant to scare the brown stuff out of you, in a musical sense. With only a single EP, 2025’s excellent Queimadura, to draw from, the band perform a punishing show of rampant drums, darkly twisted guitars and Michael Ribeiro’s barked vocals combine perfectly for thirty-minutes of sheer aural brutality, unrelenting and uncompromising, it’s like being drawn into a bleak misanthropic vortex where nothing and no one can escape. There’s a big breakdown and some hardcore rhythms which has a couple of two-steppers showing their chops early, but nothing can distract from the pure punch in the face that was Burnt Body’s set. Now, if you’ll excuse me, there’s a BB long-sleeve with my name on it.
Brummie goregrinding trio, Fetus Destruction, don’t go easy on Bolton, having their debut album, Biologic Organic Brutal, locked and loaded and ready to fire, they unleash a barrage of brutality featuring a huge low end, squeals and grunts and crushing breakdowns. Yet they also have catchy moments that slam and invoke Grind After Death’s first dance-a-thon. Early blasters Telefunken Magick Fjut, Frankenfetus and Kanada are chock full of dirty riffing and stomping rhythms; there’s even a dalliance with a clean vocal for a brief time. The Alma is filling up nicely and it’s already promising to be a great day as we move into the second half of the set: Butcher’s Yard seems to suit the environs, Beast War is a precursor to what’s to come.
The set is accompanied by a constant feedback loop of buzzing noise, giving the chuggy riffs an almost mean atmosphere. The BPM remains high and there is plenty of snare abuse, yet Bolton is here to party and to send the festival off on a high, filling the pit area with moving bodies for set closers, the grinding Half Three and the speedster Kōtō Concrete Mixer.
Photo Credit: Rich Price Photography
South Wales trio, Deliberate Miscarriage, bring more of an Old School Death Metal vibe to Bolton, sounding more like they’ve travelled here from the fetid Florida swamps than the Principality. There’s a large amount of technicality on show, with Desecration and ex-Sodomized Cadaver bassist, Charlie Rogers getting in on the act and doing some tapping. The band’s sole full-length, 2021’s Mortuary Melodies, gets plenty of play, with opener Splattered Toddlers and Gutted with a Butterknife suggesting Deliberate Miscarriage might have their tongues placed squarely in their cheeks.
Subdermal Insect Incubation is a new one, coming with hefty riffs and a chunk breakdown; grim, death barks arrive with Infested Reanimated, and The Chitinous March sees Grind After Death’s first every human centipede replace the obligatory circle pit. Charle asks “Who loves a bass solo?” and, perhaps predicably, the response it muted. But we get one anyway in the band’s tribute to running people over in your car: Intestines in the Mudguards. The set ends with the old school sounds of The Right to Die, which survives from the original demo and gives us one more Floridian hit.
Band personnel seem to be diminishing as, after two trios, we now get German duo Rosetta Twist making their UK debut. You should never judge a book by its cover, but if there’s a truism in extreme music it’s this: when the guitarist looks like he can advise you on mortgages or any other financial instrument, you’re going to die in the pit. Luckily for me, I was standing to one side, observing the casualties and recording for posterity, but it sure looked wild in there.
The smooth-jazz intro tape and samples were grossly misleading for this, their debut UK festival show, as the bass-less pair waste no time in levelling the venue with a selection of tunes from their 2022 Demo: Whipped, Full Weight Face Trampling, Pedicure by Mouth, E-Stim Ecstasy and Lesbo Neanderthalensis, as well as other, not-as-yet recorded, and some, looking at the onstage setlist, even without an official name, listed only as Song 11, or Song 16.
Photo Credit: Rich Price Photography
But, as Shakespeare wrote, what’s in a name? Especially when Rosetta Twist grind hard and slam big, unleashing some of the bounciest riffs of the day while simultaneously remaining as heavy as an already overweight elephant in an ice bun factory. You can count the number of fuck’s given by the pit on one hand and still have five fingers to spare. Polka rhythms seem to have replaced any semblance of normality and the Grind After Death punters appear to have invented their own version of crowd-surfing involving carrying folk around to room at above head-height. Rosetta Twist have just taken this Final Blasting to another level.
Out of the Midlands and with a pedigree of a Krufts champion, DeathCollector restore some form of sanity after those crazy Germans and have come to bludgeon Bolton into submission. Comprised of former members of Zealot Cult, Angelfuck, Godthrymm and current members of Severe Lacerations, they played Bloodstock’s S.O.P.H.I.E stage in 2024, introduced as the “Best thing to come out of Lockdown”. Their 2023 debut album, Death’s Toll is a love-letter to the glory days of Death Metal and still stands up today as a fresh new version of an established thing. Young drummer, Callum Warren cops a bit of good-natured ribbing from the other members of the band, but when you’re taking over from ex-Memoriam and ex-Bolt Thrower sticksman, Andrew Whale, and ridiculously young, you’re bound to get a bit of banter aimed in your direction.
The band’s title tune starts the set, old school slashing guitars prompting a one-man circle pit at the front of the stage. Singer Kieran Scott delivers his vocals with a ripping energy, calling for more contributors in the pit as Terrorizer slams brutally into the late afternoon. Mental Hedonist continues the barrage underscored by Callum’s rapid bass kicks. Tribute is paid to Baz, after whom the stage is named, leading into the band’s first new material in three years: the heavy, mid-paced grooves of Backroom Abattoir, released as a single about a year ago. Fifth member and second guitarist, Mick Carey, is absent from this show and it’s mentioned that he’s missing a cracker; Death’s Toll stomps and rages, before Kieran takes time out to thank the organisers of Grind After Death and all the folk who support the underground scene. The Razor’s Edge gets name-checked – so many thanks for that, Kieran, much appreciated – before the band call for a boogie during Rearview Guilt. Crowd participation is mandatory for the closing fury that is Internal Expansion.
Photo Credit: Rich Price Photography
East Anglican hooligans, Berenice, take a modern look at the brutality of grind, incorporating crusty powerviolence into the mix, blending various tempos with huge beatdowns and throat-ripping vocals, courtesy of singer, Jim. There are even mathy moments and some groove to spice things up, but generally, keep the energy sky-high with aggressive, paint-peeling ditties taken from their self-titled debut EP.
Ragers like Problems, Reflection and Torment all display the band’s punk credentials through dirty riffs and a snotty musical attitude, Broken and Sorrow follow a less blasting path, veering into the Doomy territory at times, yet never straying too far from the fierce grind that is the order of the day. Jim announces they have “saved the worst for last”, which is a little self-deprecating as The Gate snorts and snarls and it unloads a blitzkrieg of sound onto the end of the fierce and frenzied set.
Up to this point, Grind After Death had been running like a well-oiled machine, everything working perfectly and, heck, even running ahead of schedule. But, alas, there’s always a gremlin or two to warn against cock-sure complacency – and the little rascals swing into action ahead of Sausage Wallet‘s debut UK show. The one-man-band that is Bradley Miller- and the only American to play Grind After Death – is clearly frustrated at the delays, but it’s all pretty laid back at the Alma Inn, and as the techies try to get things back on track, Mr Miller tells Muppet jokes, and apologises for making people wait for “the worst half hour of your day.”
Dressed in day glo colours, Bradley certainly stands out among the mass of black shirts – although I’m sporting a pink Razor’s Edge shirt – gone all corporate – so Mr Miller is not alone in his choice of shades. Finally, the gremlins are banished for the time being – more from them later – and Sausage Wallet’s unique combination of brutal death metal and goregrind – labelled Porneaux Grind – can begin.
A calypso sample seems fitting to Bradley’s bright attire and the sun blazing over Bolton, which gives way to high BPM percussion from the drum machine, and ripping riffs from the man himself. Insanity prevails across the floor, and some wag shouts “faster”, which is responded to with a Yer Mum quip. A stage diver plies his trade and is carried around the room at above head height; Jizz Junkie Jesus, Keep on Fisting in the Free World and I Can Feel Me Cumming in Your Hair Tonight – all from the band’s sole full-length album, Bad Habit – set the tone for the rest of the day. The Alma is a mass of bodies for Internally Yours with the same young lady being used as the fulcrum of the circle pit, yet never in any apparent peril from the increasingly frenzied revellers. It might have been delayed, but it was a complete blast.
Photo Credit: Rich Price Photography
I’ll be brutally honest: after Sausage Wallet’s unbridled insanity, I feared for Antwerp’s Volière, as I wasn’t sure they would be able to match the level of what had just occurred. Another act without a drummer and reliant on computerised percussion, the Belgians seemed run-of-the-mill until just before the start of the set, when they donned very rudimentary bird costumes and began to blast.
For, you see, volière is French for aviary and every one of the band’s songs has some attachment to our feathered friends. In all honesty, as far as costumes are concerned, GWAR need not be too worried, but the band’s fierce grinding is certainly enough to put the willies up you.
Singer Jesse Buytaert is in the front of the crowd before the end of the first song; bassist, Jorden Gladines – who sports a flamingo outfit and green bass strings for Heaven’s sake – joins the circle pit while also playing Phony Pony from the debut album. Chicks with Dicks, from the split with Klysma, comes with a proclamation of acceptance and solidarity; Slamingo is dedicated to the city just up the road and its predilection for the Slam Death Metal genre; and the attempted conga, featuring most of the band’s members is a raging success.
Jesse comments that he had never seen a circle pit which included someone eating a pizza before -only in Bolton – but that’s how Grind After Death rolls, with folk styling it out in whatever way they please. Spicey Slambal has techno ending, Quack Sabbath is dedicated to Ozzy and has a wall of death; Black & Pecker gets the two-steppers moving, and the finale of Seagullny Weaver is in tribute to the Alien / Ghostbuster actress. I’m sure she would be pleased to hear of such an honour, though I don’t really know what I’m basing that on.
Photo Credit: Rich Price Photography
After such frivolity only something more cerebral would suffice, so it’s lucky Romanian goregrind/ pornogrind miscreants, Porn the Gore, is on hand to bring a level of civility to the evening.
Ha! The natural third act in the sheer madness that had been the last couple of band, PxTxG look at Sausage Wallet’s gaudy colours, and Volière avian attire and say: “Hold our beer”, hitting the stage in, generally speaking, white hot-pants, white vests and red braces, along with knitted balaclavas – or is that balaclavi? Second vocalist – either Nero or Mr Erection – is wearing black and white hoops rather than the white of his band mates. At this stage I’d already bought a t-shirt and was starting to worry my money might not be used for wholesome activities.
Not only using a tune from the Weimar Republic as an intro tape but generating a circle pit for it is no mean feat; proof, should anyone need it, that this is going to be insane. Crazy dancing, band members tearing it up in the pit; a wall of death divided between people who think they’re smart verses people who think they’re not; pig squeals, all part and parcel of the PxTxG show.
There’s an eating display to slake the twisted fetishes of the guitarist, with five audience members scoffing croissants and a toasty loaf on the stage; a call for Satan’s people and an encouragement to drink and drive, all part and parcel of the entertainment. One fella is dragged on stage and named Ed Sheeran, the pit subsumes the entire floor area with polka dancing, and any semblance of sanity has long since departed.
The set? Who knows! I jotted down Einstein was a Necrophile Animal Rapist and Satan My Vagina is Ready, with The Impaling Rites of Count Dickula’s title track ending the show. I didn’t think a set could top the madness of Grindcore Cakemakers from last year, but Porn the Gore most certainly did.
Photo Credit: Rich Price Photography
Norwegian brutal technical quintet, Celestial Scourge, have chosen the Final Blasting to make their UK debut, and when you count eight strings per guitar and five on the bass, we can be assured of a musical masterclass in ruthlessness. Sadly, those pesky gremlins are back, wreaking havoc with the electronics. Now, I saw a documentary about this kind of thing at Christmas, and it seems those little green critters don’t like the light. Was going to suggest shining a torch in there to flush the wee fellas out, but I’m sure that’s already been considered.
Eventually things get the go ahead and we’re treated to a riotous set of joyously serious death metal. Singer Eirik Waadeland barks, growls and windmills as if his life depended on it, and the length delay is suddenly worthwhile. Decapitated riffs and slamming delivery rip the Alma limb-from-limb and any thought that Sublime Cadaveric Decomposition were about to walk in as headliners and take the honours now looks to be a pipedream.
With only an EP and last year’s full-length debut to draw from, Celestial Scourge set about dismantling everything in sight. Early tunes, Dimensions Unfurled and Elliptical Orbit come with slamming beatdowns and display a certain youthful exuberance; a couple of years later and the Observers of the Inevitable full-length shows a refinement that still knows how to create carnage and mayhem.
There’s a shout out to Doc, before Eirik asks if we Brits know how to circle pit? Cheek, I say, as does Bolton, before going on to demonstrate the Art of Pitting to the Scandinavians. There’s a tongue-in-cheek jibe at bands they’d met at the airport this morning, bound for another UK festival, and who probably wished they were here. “We’re not fuckin’ done yet” confirms Eirik before set-closer Ancient Forms blends sick slams with a classic Death Metal sound. Great show, great debut, come back soon
Photo Credit: Rich Price Photography
And so, it comes to this: the end. The final blasting of The Final Blasting, and the honour of bringing the curtain down on the day, and on five years of brutality, lands at the feet of French goregrinders Sublime Cadaveric Decomposition. Themselves celebrating their thirtieth anniversary with a rare foray onto British shores, ever-present Seb reassembles his band of musical marauders for one last assault on Bolton.
Adorned in his usual long-sleeve t-shirt tied around the waste, Seb stalks the small stage like a man possessed, barking, grunting and snarling lyrics as his band unleash blast beats and grinding filth late into the darkening Saturday night.
Latest album, 2025’s The Macabre Voodoo Messiah of Masochism and Fetishism, takes the band’s lyrical interest in a more salacious direction than on Raping Angels in Hell, Inventory of Fixture or the self-titled debut, but the musical intensity has not waivered one iota. Fair dos to the band too, who’ve been staffing their own merch stall since noon and still have the energy to knock it out of the park when it comes to unbridled brutality and endless energy.
Photo Credit: Rich Price Photography
So that’s it, then: Grind After Death – The Final Blasting has blasted its last. Hopefully this is a hiatus rather than an end as GAD’s mission statement to bring bands to the stage who you might not ordinarily see on tour in the UK is highly commendable, and high-risk in the current economic climate.
Maintaining a stable bill over the past twelve months has proved impossible, with early announced special guests GuineaPig dropping out, then headliner Hideous Deficiency exiting; yet Doc managed to deliver a finale to his project that even surpassed the awesome show that was GAD in 2025.
I think – no, I know – I speak for everyone at The Razor’s Edge when I say being Grind After Death’s media partner had been a pleasure and we’ve loved every minute of it. Hopefully we’ll get to do it again sometime in the future; if not, we’ve always got the memories.
Abuses channel the raw spirit of noise rock and post punk into Fear of Love, a gripping track that balances abrasive textures with undeniable melodic tension. Drawing inspiration from the golden era of alternative rock while sounding refreshingly contemporary, the song thrives on jagged guitars, restless energy, and a sense of emotional unease that lingers long after the final note. The interplay between dissonance and melody gives Fear of Love a compelling edge, creating a sound that feels equally introspective and confrontational. Dark, urgent, and fiercely authentic, this is an impressive glimpse into the sonic world of their forthcoming debut album Number Stations.
Black metal veterans Hecate Enthroned have spent decades trying to step out of Cradle of Filth’s shadow—and not without reason. The two are widely credited with helping shape the UK black metal scene, sharing close stylistic similarities and even swapping a member or two at various points. In the late ’90s, they were nearly as inseparable as a pair of sultry vampiric twins until Cradle of Filth’s theatrical bombast launched them into the mainstream, landing their merch in Hot Topic stores and on the backs of angsty teenagers everywhere. Meanwhile, Hecate Enthroned remained largely underground. Over the course of six albums, they’ve largely stayed true to their sound, and while consistent, their discography has often felt average. 2019’s Embrace of the Godless Aeon was no different, receiving a modest rating from these hallowed halls. Their seventh effort, The Corpse of a Titan, A Lament Long Buried, harkens the return of these blackened aficionados after a seven-year break, and given these lads’ history, curiosity led me to snag Corpse from the promo bin.
Continuing the trajectory set by its predecessor, Corpse pushes Hecate Enthroned further into Emperor’s nocturnal, foreboding soundscapes rather than Cradle of Filth’s, injecting some fresh touches that come as a pleasant surprise. Tracks like “Steed of the Still Water,” “Spirits Stir Within Our Ancestors Tombs” and “The Arcane Golem” elicit solid songwriting and build on the same orchestral arrangements Lord Doom previously deemed gutless. This time, however, the symphonics feel more varied, robust, and commanding, often drawing my attention amid the group’s tight and confident performances. Corpse also ventures into atmo-black territory on songs like “Deathless in the Dryad Glade” and “Steed of the Still Water,” while vocalist Joe Stamps adds welcome variety to the classic Dani Filth-esque shrieks of albums past with a smattering of demonic growls and coarse shouts that lend a sharper edge previously missing.
Hecate Enthroned’s sharp performances, well-executed melodic passages, and occasional bursts of groove and heaviness reinforce that these are seasoned veterans who understand their craft. Throughout Corpse—especially in its first half—there are numerous moments that suggest a more focused version of the group is finally emerging. “The Arcane Golem” and “Spirits Stir Within Our Ancestors Tombs” pair incisive tremolos with hooky riffing and cinematic orchestral flourishes, while Stamps’ rasp and growl attack cuts through the mix with authority. Similarly, “Deathless in the Dryad Glade” and “Steed of the Still Water” highlight the sextet’s melodic instincts and sense of dynamics, weaving vulnerable, atmo-black-inspired intros into blazing tremolos, acoustic and violin textures, and piano accents that coalesce into some of the album’s best moments. The latter’s opening groove and added vocal heft make it one of the record’s most complete cuts, standing out clearly from the rest.
While Hecate Enthroned’s musicianship is rarely in doubt, the record’s high points constantly clash with its more persistent shortcomings. Long runtimes, abrupt transitions, and questionable structural choices—like the six‑minute interlude “Pwca,” which builds to nothing, or the jarring segue that kills the momentum of “A Gallery of Rotting Portraits”—are frustrating because they erode Corpse’s potential. And at 53-minutes, the album’s songwriting is often too bloated for the material it contains. Several tracks stretch past seven minutes despite having ideas suited for far shorter runtimes, resulting in repetition and stagnation. Mid-song atmospheric interludes also routinely overstay their welcome and muddled thematic and structural decisions only compound things. The outcome is a record where the standout moments feel like exceptions rather than the rule and where uneven, overextended songwriting undermines Hecate Enthroned’s skill.
The phrase “what you see is what you get” applies perfectly here, as Corpse largely walks the well-trodden path Hecate Enthroned have been treading for over twenty years. A great record has long eluded these Brits, and the streak continues with Corpse. I enjoyed several cuts on this record, and it was close to coalescing into something greater, but inconsistent songwriting, structural missteps, and homogeneity limit its upside. Corpse’s strengths prove Hecate Enthroned still have the technical ability and atmospheric instincts to craft compelling symphonic black metal, even if they appear too sporadically to define Corpse as a whole. Longtime fans will certainly find lots to be excited about here and likely appreciate how faithfully they’ve stayed true to their roots while pushing other aspects forward. For listeners like me, however, Hecate Enthroned remain adrift in a crowded black sea of similarly minded bands that are competent, occasionally compelling, but far from essential.
2:30 pm in Montreal, and Michel ‘Away’ Langevin greets me from his home. We are here to chat about Symphonique, the stunning new album by Canadian legends VoïVod. A collaboration with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra, and recorded in June 2025, it is incredible. Few bands are so suited to crafting a dystopian cinematic soundtrack, but then there are few bands like VoïVod.
VoïVod were formed in 1983, with 16 studio albums under their belt, the collaboration with an orchestra follows in the footsteps of a hundred Metal bands, but few make it sound so incredible. But before we get into the album, I have to clarify a question that has bothered me for years. Do the band call each other by their nicknames or their first names?
“We call each other by our nicknames,” laughs Away, confirming that even when Jason Newsted was in the band, they called him Jasonick!
VoïVod release Symphonique on 5 June 2026 via Century Media Records.
Having lived with Symphonique for a few weeks ahead of the interview, I am in awe of the quality and complexity of the release. Away explains how it came together. “The Montreal Symphony Orchestra reached out three or four years ago. It took a couple of years to put together, but we knew some of the songs could be adapted to an orchestra”.
He refers to the Nothingface period (1989). “We were really influenced by modern composers like Shostakovich, Penderecki, Bartok, Stravinsky. So, we put a lot of that into our music. We knew that certain songs from Nothingface in particular would fit with an orchestra.
“There were other songs that were really influenced by the early cyberpunk movies like Mad Max, Blade Runner, and Terminator. Forgotten In Space was really influenced by Mad Max 2, Road Warrior. And the song has many movements, so we figured it could be a good choice.
“We tried to stay away from real Thrashy material, although we picked Nuclear War from the first album because we thought it could become a very scary military march with an orchestra. It came out really good.
“Of course, we wanted to try the Sid Barrett song Astronomy Domine with an orchestra. It was really fantastic. Some songs actually surprised me. I kind of knew that because of the drama and the songs like Into My Hyper Cube or Fall, I knew that it could become very interesting with an orchestra.
“But the song Fall in particular became even more dramatic. During all three performances in Montreal and Quebec, after that song, we had a standing ovation.
“But all of this took a couple of years to put together with the arranger, Hugo Bejan. We were very involved with him, supplied the charts and a lot of ideas. I was mainly involved with the graphics animated behind the stage, so a lot of work on my end regarding that. Now we have the show down, we’re actually going to do it again early next year in our hometown, where we formed in 1983, with the local orchestra. So that should be quite an event.”
VoïVod release Symphonique on 5 June 2026 via Century Media Records. Photo: Stéphane Bourgeois
Drumming for a band like VoïVod is intense anyway, but throw in working with a conductor with a symphony orchestra, and it is a different ballgame altogether. There was a lot of pressure resting on Away’s shoulders. How much adaptation did he have to make to fit the orchestral arrangements?
“Well, the difficulty was that we were coming off a tour where we were slowly including Symphonique songs into the set list until we finally did the performances with the orchestras. But these were new arrangements where I had to stop there and there, where I’m not supposed to. I really had to be focused.
“I worked a lot with Dina Gilbert, the conductor. She has very frank movements, and I was following her a lot. We had quite a few cues where she’d turn around, because there are many breaks in our music. We worked a lot with her, and she’ll be with us for the next show. Hopefully, she’ll be with us everywhere because otherwise we’d have to start from scratch.
“As a drummer, I really had to be super tight with the conductor. I even had to change my style of playing just a bit because, aside from punk and Metal, I learned to play a lot with proggy material like Magma, Van der Graaf, Soft Machine. So, there are a lot of ghost notes on the snare that I had to try to get rid of and to be more precise.
“Aside from that, it’s the same energy. These shows were a highlight in my career, but definitely the biggest challenge because of what you were saying earlier. If I missed a beat, the whole orchestra gets lost.
“The first show, I was really, really focused. I didn’t have time to look at the screen behind the public or the orchestra. I was very focused on being tight with the conductor. Second show was more relaxed. Show three, I could really enjoy it.
“The one we documented in Quebec City, I was really at ease, and I was able to really enjoy the whole environment and watch the musicians and the animations behind and make eye contact with the public. I would say the main difficulty for me was technical because we all had in-ears with a belt pack. We couldn’t really have monitors. I was also playing in a glass cage on the side of the stage, so I had to adapt to that environment a little bit.
“Hopefully, we can take this show on the road with local orchestras. What they must do is, like what the Quebec Symphony Orchestra did, rent the charts from the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. So that’s the way to do it with a local orchestra.”
Being to the side of the stage to accommodate the orchestra rather than being centrally placed did slightly impact initially, with Away telling me that he felt a bit far from the action. It was only on the first show that the real challenge came to light.
“I didn’t realise when we were sound-checking for the first rehearsals that the projections were reflecting on the glass cage I was in. And so, once we started the first show, it was hard for me to see Chewy because I had the animations right in front of me, reflecting on the plastic.
“I didn’t realise that before all the lights were down, so it’s something I had to fix the next day. After that, it went well. But again, I think that Chewy was exaggerating his movements for me because we were so far away.
“Usually, I’m right there with the guys. I usually don’t like to have a super high riser for the drum. I like to be there. It’s so technical and proggy that we need to be very focused together. Even though it took me a while to get used to the in-ear situation with the iPad, with the LEDs and everything, it was wonderful to hear every single member of the orchestra. So that helped a lot. It made me feel like I was in the action with the other guys at least.”
Away tells me that VoïVod is a band that has always embraced the change in technology and developments in new equipment. “The whole thing was moving together with the art. I was switching to digital, trying to explore new technology. We’re doing the same in the studio.
“The big discovery was in Berlin, when time came to record Dimension Hatröss with Harris Johns, the producer at Music Lab in Berlin, who had done Killing Technology. The second time we went there, he had a bigger studio, and he had bought a sampler, also a Roland Octopad. I really enjoyed swimming around with this new gear.
“When we did Nothingface, everything was digital. It was brand new. So, back then, it was stressful in the sense that we always tried to be experimental. Piggy was a tape manipulator, and then he didn’t seem to have a problem with the engineer cutting the tape to do some reverse effects.
“I was sweating, man. I had just spent hours recording the perfect tracks, and suddenly we decided to have like this reverse thing going. Then the razor blade comes out, and oh my God.
“When Pro Tools showed up, it was like, wow. So as much as we still try to, I’m reluctant to play over loops, but I like to have this real sound here and there, hitting on a pad. So we’re not necessarily techno using sequences and all that. It’s still organic, no click track. I mean, we try to have a click track in the studio but not live.
“In the studio, it gets crazy because there are many accelerations and decelerations. We programmed the whole thing, and I just play along, and it’s quite amazing.”
Michel ‘Away’ Langevin has supplied a lot of art to many different artists. “They use different techniques to animate my characters,” he says. “So, some use 2D traditional animation, some use the 3D CGI, some use AI. I always dreamed of seeing my characters animated, but I just didn’t have time to do much of it.
“I did some with Commodore and Amiga in the ’80s, and I did some in the mid-’90s with Silicon Graphics and 3D animation. But I’ve always been so busy being a rock ‘n’ roll drummer on the road, in the studio, that I’m happy when animator people are animating my drawings with different mediums.
“Some of the artists were feeding AI with my art, and it was my characters moving. So, I didn’t mind that at all. I use it occasionally because I studied science. I didn’t study art at all at university. I don’t have the notions. Quite often, I will ask AI to give me an example of perspective.
“Let’s say you want to draw somebody running towards you. It’s hard for me. And so, I quite often ask for an example. But I learned to be satisfied very quickly because of the environmental problem that we all know now, how much water it takes to cool down the data centres and all that. So, I’m trying to do my best. I try to be very careful.”
I wondered if any of the band had ever objected to Away’s designs for album covers, given that he is responsible for all their artwork. Thankfully, this has never happened, and he also explores the generation of the striking artwork for Symphonique. “No, I was never told this is not your best drawing. I know that everybody is really pleased with the Symphonique album.”
Away tells me he used digital tools where you can test different colours. “I supplied the examples to the other guys. There was one that had more of a cold approach, dark and almost black metal. Then I had this other one that was more like golden sunny. And that’s the one.
“Chewy really liked it. He said the shows were luminous, and I didn’t see them as dark, even though they have a dystopian feel. I went for the bright colours, which will probably stick out a lot at the record shop.
“It’s always been a goal of mine, ever since I saw the first Iron Maiden album cover when I was a teenager. I keep that in mind, because when I first came into the record store, that’s the first thing I saw. I grabbed it immediately before all my friends did.
“So, when I did the War And Pain cover for the first album, maybe before, that’s what I had in mind as well. It was sort of my homage to the first Iron Maiden cover, really.”
VoïVod – War And Pain album cover
I tell Away that is exactly what happened when I bought War And Pain back in 1984. It was the album art that caught my eye. You clearly got it right back then, I tell him.
“That’s perfect,” he says. “It’s what I also had in mind when I bought the first Iron Maiden album. One will buy Judas Priest’s British Steel, the other one will buy Ace Of Spades, and then I will buy Iron Maiden, and then we’ll go home.
“We had to hitchhike 500 kilometres to Montreal to buy our vinyl. But when I saw that cover, and I turned the cover around, and I looked at the band, I thought, this is my new favourite band. When I went home, and I put the needle on, it was exactly what I wanted to hear. It was Prowler.
“That’s what I had in mind when I did War And Pain. It had to represent the music perfectly. I felt I was the only one who could do that, being in the band.”
VoïVod will be heading back on tour in Europe by the time you read this. They start with their first visit to Iceland at Satan Fest before Holland and then a series of shows across the UK with Midnight in support. With a full month of festivals to come in July and August, Away explains that the key to maintaining some sense of normality on the road is to get as much sleep as possible.
“Of course, the drums keep me in shape. I try to eat properly. I don’t party anymore on the road. It’s been a while. 25 years ago, I saw Tommy Aldridge with Whitesnake, and he was doing 90 minutes of double kick drums. I thought, if I want to be that guy, I better take care of myself.”
Away is a big fan of the rental bikes available in most cities as well. “I have a series of exercises that I do daily. I can still do it. The only thing I did over the years is I changed the size of my drumsticks. Three times, from Chord drumsticks to now, normal sticks for my wrist to make sure nothing happens. It’s good, we can still rock, I can tell you.”
VoïVod famously supported Rush on the Canadian leg of the Presto tour in 1990. I can’t miss the opportunity to find out what Away thinks of the Rush 50 Something tour. He’s excited. “Hopefully we’ll be in town when they come to Montreal. I’m not sure yet. I think it might be in September, maybe. But hopefully I will be around. I’m really happy for them”.
Away explains that as the sole member of VoïVod from the start, he’s well placed to give his opinion on the critics who say it is not Rush. “It’s not obvious when people tell you it’s not the same since this and that. But people leave, some people unfortunately pass, and some people find another line of work.
“But for me, I dedicated my life to VoïVod for 43 years now, and it paid off in the end. A couple of times, my friends were telling me I was crazy to go on because Metal had a bit of a lower profile. But now everything’s fine.
“We pack clubs, and we’re very well established. We play great festivals, and so we’re enjoying what’s going on. We can live off our music, and so we are having a great time.”
Canadian sci-fi Metal innovators VOIVOD have announced a fresh batch of 2026 tour dates, spanning North America and an extensive Summer run across Europe and the UK.
June
The Underworld174 Camden High St, Camden Town, London NW1 0NE
Canadian sci-fi Metal innovators VOIVOD have announced a fresh batch of 2026 tour dates, spanning North America and an extensive Summer run across Europe and the UK. Alongside the live
Event Details
Canadian sci-fi Metal innovators VOIVOD have announced a fresh batch of 2026 tour dates, spanning North America and an extensive Summer run across Europe and the UK. Alongside the live news, the band have released a new video for Condemned To The Gallows (2023 Version).
Canadian sci-fi Metal innovators VOIVOD have announced a fresh batch of 2026 tour dates, spanning North America and an extensive Summer run across Europe and the UK. Alongside the live
Event Details
Canadian sci-fi Metal innovators VOIVOD have announced a fresh batch of 2026 tour dates, spanning North America and an extensive Summer run across Europe and the UK. Alongside the live news, the band have released a new video for Condemned To The Gallows (2023 Version).
Canadian sci-fi Metal innovators VOIVOD have announced a fresh batch of 2026 tour dates, spanning North America and an extensive Summer run across Europe and the UK. Alongside the live
Event Details
Canadian sci-fi Metal innovators VOIVOD have announced a fresh batch of 2026 tour dates, spanning North America and an extensive Summer run across Europe and the UK. Alongside the live news, the band have released a new video for Condemned To The Gallows (2023 Version).
Canadian sci-fi Metal innovators VOIVOD have announced a fresh batch of 2026 tour dates, spanning North America and an extensive Summer run across Europe and the UK. Alongside the live
Event Details
Canadian sci-fi Metal innovators VOIVOD have announced a fresh batch of 2026 tour dates, spanning North America and an extensive Summer run across Europe and the UK. Alongside the live news, the band have released a new video for Condemned To The Gallows (2023 Version).
Canadian sci-fi Metal innovators VOIVOD have announced a fresh batch of 2026 tour dates, spanning North America and an extensive Summer run across Europe and the UK. Alongside the live
Event Details
Canadian sci-fi Metal innovators VOIVOD have announced a fresh batch of 2026 tour dates, spanning North America and an extensive Summer run across Europe and the UK. Alongside the live news, the band have released a new video for Condemned To The Gallows (2023 Version).
Canadian sci-fi Metal innovators VOIVOD have announced a fresh batch of 2026 tour dates, spanning North America and an extensive Summer run across Europe and the UK. Alongside the live
Event Details
Canadian sci-fi Metal innovators VOIVOD have announced a fresh batch of 2026 tour dates, spanning North America and an extensive Summer run across Europe and the UK. Alongside the live news, the band have released a new video for Condemned To The Gallows (2023 Version).
Canadian sci-fi Metal innovators VOIVOD have announced a fresh batch of 2026 tour dates, spanning North America and an extensive Summer run across Europe and the UK. Alongside the live
Event Details
Canadian sci-fi Metal innovators VOIVOD have announced a fresh batch of 2026 tour dates, spanning North America and an extensive Summer run across Europe and the UK. Alongside the live news, the band have released a new video for Condemned To The Gallows (2023 Version).
Canadian sci-fi Metal innovators VOIVOD have announced a fresh batch of 2026 tour dates, spanning North America and an extensive Summer run across Europe and the UK. Alongside the live
Event Details
Canadian sci-fi Metal innovators VOIVOD have announced a fresh batch of 2026 tour dates, spanning North America and an extensive Summer run across Europe and the UK. Alongside the live news, the band have released a new video for Condemned To The Gallows (2023 Version).
Canadian sci-fi Metal innovators VOIVOD have announced a fresh batch of 2026 tour dates, spanning North America and an extensive Summer run across Europe and the UK. Alongside the live
Event Details
Canadian sci-fi Metal innovators VOIVOD have announced a fresh batch of 2026 tour dates, spanning North America and an extensive Summer run across Europe and the UK. Alongside the live news, the band have released a new video for Condemned To The Gallows (2023 Version).
Black metal veterans Hecate Enthroned have spent decades trying to step out of Cradle of Filth’s shadow—and not without reason. The two are widely credited with helping shape the UK black metal scene, sharing close stylistic similarities and even swapping a member or two at various points. In the late ’90s, they were nearly as inseparable as a pair of sultry vampiric twins until Cradle of Filth’s theatrical bombast launched them into the mainstream, landing their merch in Hot Topic stores and on the backs of angsty teenagers everywhere. Meanwhile, Hecate Enthroned remained largely underground. Over the course of six albums, they’ve largely stayed true to their sound, and while consistent, their discography has often felt average. 2019’s Embrace of the Godless Aeon was no different, receiving a modest rating from these hallowed halls. Their seventh effort, The Corpse of a Titan, A Lament Long Buried, harkens the return of these blackened aficionados after a seven-year break, and given these lads’ history, curiosity led me to snag Corpse from the promo bin.
