Interview with Kathmandu, Nepal Based Brutal Death Metal band Calamitian

Before we talk much about  Calamitian, do check there recent release..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uSSmqoyt68

Without any delay here is a short talk that we had with the band.

Greetings guys, before we begin we would like to know what are we doing nowadays?

Thank you, we are currently working on our new originals. We are also planning for a demo and we'll start working on that too very soon.

Before we proceed we would like to know how was the tour with Narsamhaar?

The tour was really fucking awesome. It was a hell of an experience for us, playing in cities like dharan and hetauda where we had never played before was really a great experience, hetauda was really sick we must say. We would really like to thank Narsamhaar, Jivan da, Hem da, for giving us this awesome opportunity and for always supporting us. Overall tour has been a great memory for all of us.

Coming to the band’s journey from 2011 end until now how has the journey been?

The band has faced many ups and downs of all these years. We had been in break too for months when our line up got messed. Currently our guitarist Sumit is the only original member in the band with Rajat on drums and Rojan on vocals. Surose Karki has been managing us since this line up came. And here we are continuing this shit and keeping the band alive.

Yeah I’ve been seeing you guys from almost the beginning and trust me you guys have go a way far ahead and my jaws were literally open when i heard you guys covered Blood Splattered Satisfaction of Kraanium in Buried Alive at Pokhara and Devourment's cover Baby Killer at Valentine massacre II.

Haha. Thanks man. Yup we have, Baby Killer is our all time favorite song.

Well, to be quite honest I must say that now you guys have a killer lineup.

Yup that's for sure because everyone has their own dedication in band and its music.

Yeah for sure, so guys tell us what are you guys doing nowadays. I am pretty sure rehearsals are going on regularly.

The rehearsal is going on and currently we are working on a demo as I said earlier.

Coming to the demo you guys are going to do a Split album with bands from outside can you say us about it?

Till date we have 5 bands in this 53 split EP. Including us we have Death Omang, Rendel, Otak Meusum and Syuhada from Indonesia.The EP will be out in this November.

Well, I am quite excited about it. By the way Sumit once there was even a talk going with Pilipino Brutal Death Metal Band MARSIA PUGITA are they also going to be featured?

We had a thought about that but it's on pending currently. Hopefully we will do the split with them in near future. Because I really liked that band and I am also in contact with their bassist Mina didi too. But before that we are thinking of our own too. So it may take long but we will come up with something.

We hope to hear some positive response from them soon, Sumit last time when we met you talk about adding a new guitarist and a bassist in the band how is the progress?

I think we won't be adding a new guitarist but we are thinking of adding a bassist. We are searching for a bassist who at least listens to some death metal stuffs and has some knowledge in composing, What I meant is the one who can create some new idea and help us in our new songs. My bad but we haven't got one till now. Haha Hope we will find one soon.

Well we wish for that so Sumit any updates apart from the split?

We are working on our new originals and also we will be doing a new cover song too in coming days, we have already played Baby Killer many times and we are fed up of that song hahaha. We just wanted to try a different song so that we can generate some new ideas. That's it. No new updates rather than that.

Well hoping to get the same intensity in the new tracks. So, Sumit coming beyond Calamitian tell us how your journey in metal begun?

I listened to some rock bands like Bad Company, Black Sabbath, The Beatles, Pink Floyd and many others in my childhood. But I really started listening metal when I was in 8th grade with bands like Pantera, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Cradle of Filth, Cannibal Corpse and Six Feet Under. I was not pretty much conscious about these genre thing. I just listened to those bands just assuming metal. Then I was pretty much interested in songs of Cannibal corpse and Six feet under, I found out about the nepali bands like Ugra Karma, Nastik, Antim Grahan, Cruentus, Vhumi and so on which really got me into this music. I had also started playing guitar at that time. So i used to play songs from Pantera, Iron Maiden and Metallica.I also started learning some songs of Cruentus and Vhumi and that was really awesome. When I got into college I formed a band. We had started practicing too. That band used to play old school kind of music. We had covered song of Six Feet Under at that time and was about to do the originals too. But the band broke up. After that i really got into death metal music. I started exploring new bands and listening to them and I decided to do music again and formed Calamitian. That's how I got into this Metal music.

So any message to the fans?

It would be better if we call them our supporters rather than fans, My message to them would be to keep supporting us and to keep supporting death metal. Attend gigs, buy CDs and merchandise of all the bands thats all. Lastly, we would like to thank them all for their great support. And keep butchering and hammering inside the circle pit. Hahahaha.

 So guys you guys recently toured to other cities beyond Ktm, Pokhara and hetauda how was your experience playing beyond this three cities and what is your message, suggestions to bands from the other cities you guys played.

Rajat Paudel

It would be a pleasure if all the people came to the gig n supported us, But they were just expecting for a free entrance and just came to show off, I am not telling them a posuer but they should have a respect not only for our band but other bands too, It’s really a big deal for organizers there to organize a gig outside these three cities so they have to understand there problem n stop expecting for free tickets

Sumit Lamsal

It was a great experience playing beyond them. We would take them as beginners. So they will learn everything after sometime.

Until then, just listen to metal, attend gigs, support local bands and you will build up your scene yourselves.

And for the bands just keep fucking doing what u r doing. Continue the band, just don’t fade away.

Rozan Poon

It was great experience playing in cities like Dharan, Pokhara, Hetauda is like a world win to me because there are lots of bands in Kathmandu who have never been in those places. I really appreciate and always thankful to brothers of Narsamhaar and Hem Butcher dai for giving chance to tour with them. There are lots of good bands in these cities. I really appreciate their music and contribution on the underground scene. I like to thanks them for giving some sick and brutal music. I just want to say just keep doing what now you are doing.

Any message to the fans

I personally don’t want them to be called as our fans but I want to say is they listen the songs which we play and really appreciate for there support at last I want to say them is stay sick n brutal n keep supporting the underground scene, Thank you.

Thank you guys. Lastly a space for Calamitian to say or ask if we SNRMB team has forgotten to ask. Space all yours.

       Nothing. \m/

Interview with Sarad Shrestha from Tumbleweed

Sarad Shrestha a well renowned name in the Nepalese Music industry (Mainstream/Underground). Following his passion he has been active in the music industry for a way long time. We had a short talk with him regarding his this epic long 24 years journey as a Guitarist as well as about his recent band Tumbleweed.  To know much about Sarad you can click on the marked name to follow his official page as well as his band page.
Here is the digital link of the album Do buy and support the local acts.
http://tumbleweedinc.bandcamp.com/album/parichaya

Greetings dai how are doing these days?

Yeah, kinda hectic. Busy on our album launch stuff

It sure is tell us about the progress. I saw in your social media page that the master copy is ready. How excited are you about the release?

Well, yeah kinda. Satish Sthapit, the sound engineer for all our stuffs made it possible. The outcome sounds cool. He believed in us, and we believed in him. At the same time, some kind of fear inside though. i don't know how people are going to take it, but we are happy on what we did. Hope the teamwork of us would make some colors though for sure

For sure Satish dai is one of the most talented producer in Nepal and we have seen his magic in the previous albums that he produced. Along with that his sound arranging abilities in major gigs of Nepal have shown what really he is capable of. I am pretty sure Parichaya will be a killer one.

Yup, on topping with that, he knows what he's doing. Really aware of every kind of sound you make. These kind of persons re needed in the scene for sure.

For sure, as we can see that there are limited numbers of trained sound engineers in Nepal so it’s a crucial time that more trained producers come on the scene which ultimately upgrades the quality of the album.

Yes indeed and they should have a heart in it. A great helping hand.

Dai you have been active in the Nepalese Underground as well as the mainstream scene for almost 24 years and you have seen a way lot of changes in this industry can you share your experience between this time frame?

Well definitely changed a lot. Passion of a few people turned to industry itself.. At present lots of media houses everywhere. The technology made it so easy and upgrading like hell each day. It’s not that time when u had to wait for a songbook imported from Thailand or UK to just learn lyrics and chords. YouTube Google ruled everywhere as we can see lots of good musicians everywhere with great theoretically acquaintances. Despite of these.. Well bad things that, musicians are being treated as some cheap whores sometimes these days. Haha yes indeed there was a time, when the distributor does pay for your album, manage everything for the good band/any artists in the mainstream stuff.. But its gone now haha mainstream totally sucks. Now the cheap PR with a help of some bloody paper gas makes the game in this so called mainstream stuff for sure. Look at the national television, the music videos. All those, there would be some popular vjs. Vj ley ni majaaly afnai program ma afai model bhako geet ta kati kati bajaucha haha. Funny though ll those flashy videos, this is the mainstream stuff. Well anyway bands stuff were never too that easy for the television stuff from earlier as well, but these days, its worst. But who cares though it’s a online world though. Which we feel good , whatever u make, u can give to the public from your own room and all by yourself. We hardly watch music videos on TV screens for sure. Everything here online However regarding underground, well it’s growing bigger for sure. I remember those ktm rocks days, earlier than those, the rare people who were really dedicated for the local scene stuff. But yeah its growing bigger though. But i don't understand people having fuckin' nuisance attitude towards genre stuff and all. Music is music after all. No need to discriminate/criticize whatever. However, posers are there. Who think the world is too small, jhyau lagdo ni cha. Organizers take the bands so easily saying just as the underground bands. Concept is getting really worst but happy, people are aware of music these days, it’s growing as well, that's a good thing though.

True words dai we are aware of what’s happening in the mainstream scene as well. There was a time when there was a healthy mainstream scene here in Nepal but seeing and talking with related people its all a mess. So dai coming to your journey. If i am not wrong your journey started in the early 1990's and many of us may not know you were involved in bands like Black wizard, Sound mill before you joined axe. Tell us dai about Black wizard and as well as sound mill..

Yah.. Right after completing school, black wizard was my first band i should with my own hometown boys. All influenced by 70s acts, we used to do covers like CCR, Santana, Deep Purple, Steppen Wolf.etc. Stuffs. Then i joined Sound Mill, the most happening cover band at that time, i joined as a bassist, later turned to guitars. nazareth, uriah heep, pinkflyod and all. We used to do those, our Roshan lama dai was on the vox, who has really inspiring vocals. Dhruba, later joined Nepathya, on drums, and really talented guitarist Binod Dai. The band was really tight, that time there were no such any Nepalese scene for sure. Very limited bands were there like Dead Soul, Criss Cross, Vampire (Satish), Maneater and Soundmill. These were the most happening bands at the time. Then comes the scene of nepali songs original ones like influence, blind faith, crossroads (imandai/binayak dai) they were cool. Later i joined the axe band and i never forget the band like Paduwas (asish sinha dai)

From 1995 until 2009 i.e for 14 years you were involved with The Axe band and were the the part of there 5 album how was this 14 years long journey?

Yeah it was good. We worked our ass off that time for those albums for sure since our vocalist shiva does have such a typical pure Nepali tongue, i couldn't synchronize other kinds of tunes, so tried out some funk , and it really worked. People loved us. I remember one gig, we were invited in one concert in Dolakha, where all the acts were folk song, dohoris, and the same people sang most of all our songs that time. It was awesome.

The Axe is one of the most successful band in the Nepalese mainstream scene and did some massive tours in and out of Nepal and all of a sudden in 2009 end we heard your departure to Hongkong. A few months later got a message from a friend that you started Kathmandu Mayhem and Intellectual morons during your 2 years stay in Hongkong and even today when i did a research found out you were involved in 2 more bands Quasar and Red Shift, even found out that Hongkong Nepalese Rock Forum which was established on your participation during your stay. Dai tell us about it our viewers would love to know about it.

Yeah i left for hongkong may b' round 2009 i guess. There the music scene was not that good for sure when i went there. The busy people hardly could manage the time for music for those Nepalese people out there i just found sanjiv gurung through website hkunderground, he was doing his band quasar, I supported him for some time. Then after I met Dhanesh (maneater, ktm) and lost boys from dead soul, Hem, Bishal, and Min Gurung , Rosan Thapa who used to have bands here in Nepal before. I formed a cover band Kathmandu Mayhem with Dhanesh. The hk bars were all dominated mostly by philippinos musicians out there. Kathmandu Mayhem was the only nepali band, and yeah it was good times bar hopping 'round there playing. then i met joul the French friend and involved with his band Dr. Eggs. We toured Taiwan, Macau. The band was interesting with ska punk flavor, loops , energetic on stage, fun for sure. With the bassist friend Ben, we formed another one Redshit, an acoustic project by which we performed 'round small bars 'round islands of  Hongkong. I was always fond of beastie boys stuff, rap metal stuffs and luckily Dipen gurung bhai who has really a great rap flow, i met him, and we formed intellectual morons together. We were invited to university concerts, hard rock cafe and all. It was fun. When i was there, i saw lots of young Nepalese guys who really play good , has passion of music. But due to workload, hectic time schedule, they were limited on their own. Hk busy life sucks indeed. So i formed one forum, Hongkong Nepalese Rock Forum for the sake of making some performing platforms for all of us. Then at 2010, i organized one show, Rock till you drop' as well, which went really good. Lots of philippino bands, british, chinese and all really supported us for this. Min Gurung, of Extrement Entertainment is really doing good at present times at HK scene which annually organizes the event Alive series although HK scene is really limited in comparison with our Nepal. It sucks sometimes for sure haha.

Coming back to axe dai if i am not wrong then you won the best lead guitarist and even the Shikhar Music all Nepal band competition back in the early 2000?

Yeh i did. haha. It was Shikhar beat contest which was held in tundikhel. That concert i could never forget lots of people, really big crowd till now i have seen that time.

Coming to Tumbleweed how did the journey began.

Well after coming back to Nepal, i found Suwas, and Prashant at silence entertainment and Gautam came over. We started to jamming over later Gautam left, and we found robin on the drums. From there, we are here. The journey is wonderful despite of all those obstacles, unwanted problems and all. The main thing is the chemistry between 4 of us, really clicked, and we are here with our debut album Parichaya,

Parichaya Tumbleweeds debut album tell us about the album.

Well its an album of our two years teamwork and hardwork being together and all. The album, PARICHAYA, is Tumbleweed Inc.’s first studio work after their 2 years of togetherness, passion, hard work and dedication towards making something which they love to do. This was made possible with all the support from Satish Sthapit, the sound engineer and Bishal Manandhar, the band manager. The album all done by the band itself, and recorded at Studio Underground, Bhote Bahal, Kathmandu The album consists of 15 tracks

1. Intro

2. Face Apart

3. Social Parasite

4. Massive attack

5. Vicious animal

6. Supremacy

7. Vision

8. President

9. Funk that shit

10. Badlido samaj

11. Usko Katha

12. Kathmandu

13. Parichaya

14. Local thito

15. Geda

The album, PARICHAYA, is all about the voice of every individual, the changes of nepali society, the imbalanced political system, the perception of a minor, the hope, the belief for betterment, the songs about regression, suppression. An ode of an outlaw, the belief on self. Parichaya, depicts a minor’s survival for the sake of his/her own identification. The album cover depiction: We all are minor, the little ones. Ants. The symbol of oneness, the dedication, the loyalty, the self-sacrifice, hardwork, team work, patience. Despite their tiny size these little spirits are immensely strong, great strength of will and accomplishment can come even in the smallest of packages

So when we post this interview Parichaya shall be launched best wishes for the launch dai.

Thank u bhai

Moving on dai Parichayas artwork shows an ant, does it have some meaning or story behind it?

We all are minor, the little ones. The Ants, the symbol of oneness, the dedication, the loyalty, the self-sacrifice, hardwork, team work, patience. Despite their tiny size these little spirits are immensely strong, great strength of will and accomplishment can come even in the smallest of packages. So here we are. After our 2 years of working hard on this, our debut album 'Parichaya' would be out soon.

Hardwork does pay for sure. Tumbleweed what does it mean. Dai tell us how did the name came?

After we started jamming, we were looking for name for this. So i thought about tumbleweed. It’s a plant which is easily found around desert. A diaspore which detaches away from the stem after it gets mature and tumbles away in the wind dispersing spores as they go. That's tumbleweed.

It’s your release after 6 long years i am quite sure the album shall be a success.

Haha thanks bhai.

Dai we are almost at the end now i have few more questions in my pocket. Dai any message to the young bands esp to guitarist?

Well, tei ho as usual, practice hard. Identify on which kind of tunes you are best. The most important, whether you are enjoying your own tunes and yeah, regarding guitar, don't just play as its some cheap trend, treat it as your intimate one, a friend indeed and yup, say no to drugs.. The chemicals believe in yourself.

Message for the fans.

Well, finally im back after 6 years with my own project tumbleweed inc with my boys, and studio album Parichaya. Hope you like it or else, do send us yourur feedbacks/comments/criticisms/ or whatever u feel towards my band and the music. You have supported me since the past and looking forward to see you thru my entire musical journey. Thank you all for all those immense support to me. Thank you.

We hope they will. Dai this is a questions which i usually ask bands beyond Kathmandu, Pokhara and Hetauda. We see that the bands both rock and metal usually focus in these 3 cities and many bands beyond these cities says that they are not given proper exposure and are deprived from opportunities as seniors bands usually don’t tour to other cities beyond these cities. Do you accept that the scene here in Nepal has become much centralized?

Well i should say, its not. Well as for my exprience, with my band before, i had performed such places like Pashupatinagar, Illam, Urlabari, Jhapa, Mahendranagar, Nijgarh, Birgunj, Dang, Baglung, Palpa and all. Its not any artist/band wants, only the city side. it all depends on the event organizer as well. Yea i have seen, these days, those places are not that event-go-go for the artists/bands, may be due to poor event management, as well as poor sponsorship. However, on the other hand, the media is also responsible for this i guess. All the the big name events, national level events are building some monopoly structure since they always take the same old names and travel to various parts of Nepal. The same shits every time. It might be the artist/bands' strong PR stuffs. Well even the new promising, the real deserved bands/artists don’t' get in their list. This way, the places like those never get to see us perform in front of them. But somehow, the local event people especially youngsters are doing these things on their own, which is obviously good.

We can even see that the bands are not given equal opportunities and chances back their. Coming towards the end dai. A space for you to ask us if we had forgotten to ask you . Space all yours..

Well tei ho yar. Local scene bhanya cha, underground rey, ke rey mainstream rey it all sucks. Though sabai ko khutta tanne, aru ko herera ris garne prabidi band haru ko, it sucks  bekar ko attitude afu prati yo generation ko bands ko that fuckin' sucks a big time.Scene bhandai ma je payo tei bhairahcha for sure. Some are pretty good, some are just there to make a presence for their own. Passion is lacking for sure tei ho. Since every one of us are nepali artists/musicians all should be united to chase away these fakism, jun tv ma dekha parne katiko bekar ko music related stuff haru sab hataunu parcha. They are sending wrong msgs to those people outside the valleys. united bhayera gayo bhane, nepal musicians would be playing all around the world. tei ho ramro lai ramrai bhannu, naramro lai naramro. Respect the music, that's all.

Thank you dai for your precious time.

Thank you bhai

Silence Festival - V Article

So the wait after 11 long months is finally over. Silence Entertainment is back with the next slot of Nepal’s biggest Open Air Festival “SILENCE FESTIVAL-V”. I am pretty sure that you guys will be bashing your heads and moshing in the entire arena on 17^th & 18^th October where as I shall be on a complete bed rest after my surgery that’s happening tomorrow i.e. 13^th Oct. I had made a decision not to write anything and just mentally prepare myself for my treatment but my heart as well as my brain urged me to write this article for the Festival. I was really excited to attend this gig mainly because the gig has been extended to 2 days and its pretty sure something Grand gonna happen, the other reason I had talked with guys of SIKTH and had made a plan to meet them, had worked with Guido from Mahadev Cometo on his 2 projects Derrick and Near Death Condition. Many other factors were there which made my desire to attend the gig grow much bigger, but as you know Health is wealth sure gonna miss this epic gig.

            Well coming beyond my interest and desire lets talk about Silence Festival. We all know that Silence Entertainment does this gig every year in mouth of Dashai and Tihar which are the biggest festivals of Nepal and every year they have tried to come up with some killer lineups. The 1^st edition was Headlined by Enigmatik in 2010 from Switzerland, 2^nd edition was Headlined by non other than the mighty Polish Death Metal Giant Vader in 2011, 3^rd edition was Headlined by non other than Textures from Netherlands in 2012, 4^th edition was headlined by non other than the Mighty Polish Giant BEHEMOTH and the 5^th edition which is going to be a 2 days chaos headlined by MAHADEV COMETO on the 1^st day and SIKTH on 2^nd day co-headlined by non other than by The Algorithm a trance DJ Djent band from France featuring Mike Malayan on drums. The lineup is killer though i  feel that it would have been much better if Underside, Kalodin and Jindabaad would have not neen repeated as they had already performed in the previous edition. It would have been much better if bands were not repeated. However its up to  the organizers they might have talked about it while setting the lineup or else the lineup is awesome.

            As per the lineup 13 bands are going to play on the festival i.e 8 bands from Nepal, 2 Bands from India and 1 each from Switzerland, France and the United Kingdom.

The fifth edition of "Silence Festival-V” is going to be held on October 17th and 18th, 2014. With much demand, this year’s festival will commence for two days straight. Introducing five International bands and our very own eight talented local acts will amount to 13 bands in total. Music knows no boundaries, whether it’s rock, pop or metal. It speaks the universal language. Keeping this in mind Silence Festival targets not only the music lovers but to recognize our country in International arena and to promote tourism and spreading awareness of “Environment Health” to the people through this year’s festival.

Performing Bands and Line up:
• SikTh (official) from United Kingdom 

• The Algorithm from Perpignan, France.

• Mahadev Cometo ( Al Comet )from Switzerland.

• DamagEra(Damage Era) from Gangtok, India.

• Cheisrah from North East India

• JINDABAAD!!!!! from Nepal 

• Kalodin From Nepal

• Underside from Nepal

• Tumbleweed Inc. from Nepal 

• Antyesti from Nepal

• The Exorcist from Nepal

• Breach not Broken from Nepal

• Divine Influence from Nepal

I am sure you guys gonna enjoy this 2 days epic festival. For Details:-  https://www.facebook.com/events/1502587089980510/

And yeah i almost forgot to give you the link of Sikth Interview link...

Here is a short talk that we had with Dan from Sikth

http://snrmbnepal.blogspot.com/2014/05/interview-with-dan-foord-from-sikth.html

Interview with Bristol, U.K based Death Grind Band Amputated's frontman Mard Gleed

I guess i dont have to speak much about  Amputated. They are one of the renowned name in the Death Metal scene. We wont take much of your time on the background and we directly come to the point. We had a short talk with Mark frontman of Amputated, and here we go..

Greetings mark how are things going with Amputated these days..

Hi, things are very busy with Amputated at the moment, we have had a little bit of turbulence recently with the departure of guitarist Daryl, but have come through it fine and have played some killer shows this summer. We are currently booking tour dates across the UK and Europe for the remainder of this year including confirmed appearances at Gothenburg Deathfest, Berlin Deathfest and Dark City Deathfest in Poland which are really looking forward to, also we have some big festival announcements coming up as well as a very exciting tour prospect for early next but sadly I can't go into details on those until it is all set in stone.

You joined the band recently tell us how has been your journey been with Amputated?

Yeah I must have been in a couple of years now if I remember correctly, which is still a very short time in comparison to the bands history. It has been an incredible and life changing experience for me, It has allowed me to travel to many new places playing the style of music I love and meet many like minded people all over the world which is an opportunity that I am still grateful for every day. It was very uncertain at the start of my time with Amputated as my vocal style is very different from what the fans were used to and people were understandably apprehensive of the change, but from the various live shows we did the fans warmed to me and my debut album as the bands vocalist has been incredibly well received, both critically and by fans both old and new which has been an incredible experience. I very much feel settled in to the band these days and look forward to being a part of the band for many years to come.

For sure mark had seen it in videos and from that we can understand that. By the way grabbed the recent release through a friend it sure is a killer album.

Thanks man really appreciate it, we are pretty proud of how the album came out and feel it has laid a solid foundation for us in terms of where we want to take the sound of the band.

If i am not wrong you guys will be sharing stage with bands like NECROSIS in Gothenburg Death fest how excited are you guys about the tour?

Yeah man glad to see them added to the bill, they are local guys to us and a great up and coming band. We personally are very excited about the tour, getting out on the road and playing to new people in new places is what its all about for us, we love the experience of it and cant wait to hit the road and start making noise.

Even we are pretty excited that we are able to work with Amputated in our 2015's release.

Awesome man, it’s an honor to be asked and have one of our songs included on a compilation with many other great bands.

Coming back to amputated Mark i was supposed to ask you this question before. Tell us how you landed in serving duty on amputated?

I used to be in a band called Caiaphas doing vocals and gained a lot of experience from that and had played a lot in the Bristol area. After we split up I spent about a year not really doing much with music, then I came across a post online by a friend saying that Bristol band Amputated were looking for a new vocalist, I knew of them and knew that my vocal style was different to the previous vocalist, but thought what the hell I will give it a shot anyway, so I applied for an audition and told them I wanted to bring something new to the table, they agreed and auditioned me and the next thing I knew I had the job. It took a month or so to really sink in, I had gone from playing in a strictly local band and it took me a while to grasp the reach and fan base of the band I had joined, within half an hour of being told I was in the band I had messages from people in other countries congratulating me on joining, it was a pretty crazy time for a country boy like me hahaha.

Coming bit beyond Amputated, Mark tell us how your journey in music begin?

For me personally it’s been a long road as I started very young. Before I could even walk I grew up being subjected to Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, The doors etc etc on a daily basis, so always been into rock and metal in one form or another for my entire life. At the age of 10 I got Vulgar Display of Power by Pantera on cd for my birthday after seeing them on Beavis and Butthead earlier that year (courtesy of my older brother who was a proper 90's grunge kid at the time) and never looked back, I remember sticking that cd on and I knew that moment that I had to be a part of this sound in some way when I grew up. As far as making music myself I originally started out as a guitarist/bassist (and was crap at both haha), after doing guest vocals on a live sepultura cover, my old guitar teacher Ross (who just this week actually joined as the new member of Amputated) gave me a call and said he was doing a metal project and had heard I was a good vocalist, so I went down and jammed with him for a while and developed my style as a vocalist. At the time his vision was just to do a metal band, but I was heavily into death metal at that point and slowly corrupted him making the band heavier all the time, after cementing a lineup that project became Caiaphas, I recorded my first ever release with this project and really cut my teeth as a vocalist on and off stage working on that project and laid the foundations for my current musical career, still very proud of what we achieved together to this day. After that project disbanded I later found myself joining Amputated, and the rest as they say is history.

Haha the same PANTERA album was gifted to me by my old man on my 13th birthday. So mark if i am not wrong you are still active in one project No More Room in Hell tell us about this project as well?

Yeah the No More Room In Hell album has been recorded and is being mixed as we speak. It's me and Anil Carrier form Towers of Flesh/Binah (and about a million other projects haha) as well as some guest appearances from some heavy hitters on the underground death metal scene, Anil approached me saying he had started writing an old school death metal record that he wanted to base on horror movies, he knew of me from Amputated and had seen my horror page The Coroner's Report where I was writing horror movie reviews, I love old school death metal and horror movies so I jumped on it like a tramp on chips. Its sounding like a great record, every track is based on a particular horror movie with samples included from the subject movie, its very much straight up death metal, no real surprises on it, just lots of heavy groove and shouting about zombies and such haha, but has been great fun writing and recording it and can't wait for people to hear it when it's finished.

Regarding the review i didn’t know about you writing column for horror movies got to know a new thing about you brother.

haha yeah man is good fun, I started the page writing horror reviews as a bit of fun as I love horror, but as time goes by music is keeping me too busy to keep it updated as much as I would like. Have also been doing some album reviews for a couple of metal websites on the side but only when I find the spare time to do so.

So coming back to Amputated Mark can you tell us about the recent new lineup of the band?

Sure, obviously Daryl departed earlier this year, my old friend Ross stepped in at the last minute to learn the live set as when Daryl left us we only had a few weeks until we were due to play several shows in Italy, Ireland and London, Ross stepped in and learnt the set and came out on the road with us with very little notice and pretty much saved the day, after those shows we finally had time to regroup and let the dust settle, and when we looked back we found that they were some of the best performances the band has given and Ross did a brilliant job and gelled well both with the band and with the fans so it just felt natural to welcome him as a full time member. Other than the new second guitarist in Ross the rest of us are the same lineup that made the new album, we now feel we have a very strong unit and look forward to taking the band up to the next level both in terms of writing and performing.

Well you had played with Ross in CAIAPHAS and now in Amputated we are pretty sure that it was easy for him to synchronize in Amputated music. Along with that he was a kind of your mentor we can easily anticipate it wasn't that hard for him as well as you guys to sync in the same tune.

Exactly man, also Kai and Harry had both played in Caiaphas when it was active so everyone knows each other pretty much, was just seeing if he and gary the drummer worked well together and they clicked instantly, the transition has gone incredibly smoothly and hasn't slowed us down in terms of progress at all which we are all very happy about.

Talking about the tours as per my survey you guys are on tour in Berlin death fest on 3rd of Oct in Germany, Gothenburg Death fest on 4th of Oct in Sweden,5th-7th Oct in Italy, 11th Oct at Dark city Deathfest (Poland) 31st Oct, 3rd Nov in Swansea , 21st-23 Nov in Uk and even you guys are booked for RAPE THE ESCAPE 2015 to be held in Vienna Austria in 2015 seems like the band is going to be on the road for quite a long time starting from October?

Yeah man, we do get some downtime between dates to catch some breath but not much haha, but yeah we have a lot coming up for the rest of this year, the new lineup is a lot more flexible with touring etc so we can now spend more time on the road than the band has ever done before. We also have another show that we are playing in among these dates but sadly I cannot elaborate on that just yet as its all still being confirmed officially, also have a lot of very big plans for next year and are very much looking forward to taking the band to new audiences in countries we have never been before.

Well we would like to convey best wishes for the tour and we also hope to see you guys touring in this part of the world as well.

Thanks man. Would love to one day for sure, never say never.

Yeah for sure by the way mark i was doing a bit research about Amputated and i found out that in 2007 Amputated appeared on the BBC Three reality show Singing with the Enemy and were challenged to write a song with the all female pop group Fallen Angelz. Tell us about it?

Hahahaha yeah that question always comes up sooner or later, sadly that was way before my time with the band, the only member with us now who participated in the tv show is Gary our drummer, he is the only one of us that could properly answer that question, but if you or anybody reading wants to check it out the whole thing is on Youtube so you can see just how badly it went for yourselves hahaha.

For sure fans will see the video we will be posting it below. So mark each bands has to go through a way lot of hardship the perfect example is the above question. We would like to know how hard it is for new bands there in UK. Tell us about it in your words

Well I think starting out for bands is hard anywhere, but yeah the UK has it's issues, I think getting noticed and getting exposure is the hardest step really, nowadays with the internet it's easier to get yourself heard but that creates the new problem that there are just so many bands now, and so many great ones too, I like to think there is room for everyone in the scene but obviously people only have time to check out so many bands and some will undoubtedly go unnoticed. The UK has a great scene though with a lot of really good young bands out there on the road playing great music, although I would say at times the UK scene seems to be lacking a little bit of that sense of brotherhood you seem to find amongst bands in other countries, but then I suppose the grass is always greener on the other side and all that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP-TeRriSj8

Mark you have gone through a way lot of hardship to reach this point can you share your experience cause it can be a source of inspiration to bands from this part of the world.

Well I would say anyone who wants’ to get anywhere in music weather it be a band or an individual should expect some form of hardship and be prepared to make sacrifices, it's not all fun and games all the time, there is a lot of hard work, a lot of travelling and sleepless nights, a lot of strain on relationships both inside and outside of musical projects, plus a lot of time practicing /writing etc etc, so really I think you have to love what you do in order to make that sort of commitment on a long term basis and stick at it, and if you want to work with like minded people on a project then learning to compromise is important to ensure a healthy team spirit in a band. But I think as long as you have the passion, keep working hard and give it all you can then anyone has the capacity to make it to where they want to be, it may not turn out exactly how you planned it or happen exactly when you thought it would, but I believe that hard work and perseverance always pays off in the end, and when it does it will bring you some of the best experiences of your life , which are all the more satisfying knowing that you earned them.

Any incident during the tour or rehearsal that you would like to share with us.        

Well there are quite a few I don't want to share hahahaha. We have had many up's and downs on the road since I joined the band, but for some reason you always tend to look back on the hard times more fondly when they are behind you. Some recent incidents that stick in my mind include dragging our equipment for miles through the Italian countryside, on foot in the baking sunshine with no real certainty weather we were going the right way, only to be picked up in the middle of the road by some awesome guys from a local band who spoke little to no English but welcomed us on to their bus with beer and food all the same. That same day there was a crazy Polish guy who made me laugh so much before a show that I invited him on stage with us and he spent an entire song doing a Gangnam style dance around the stage and generally causing chaos by moshing into us all whilst we were playing, and of course the epic quest that was our appearance in Dublin Ireland during which some of us went nearly four days with no sleep at all, and our support act was a lovely young lady putting on a burlesque show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6ySlWs29C4&feature=youtu.be&a

Amputated - When whores meet Saws (Lyric video)

Haha interesting man. We are almost at the end now any message to the entire metal universe?

Firstly I would like to thank all the Amputated fans old and new, and all the bands I have met also out on the road for making me feel very welcome in the scene , and to everyone out there doing their bit for metal, weather it be making music, writing about it and promoting, putting on shows, or just buying albums, going to gigs and supporting the bands, all of them are equally important to the scene and just want to say a huge thank you to them all for making metal the glorious and enduring genre that it is. Stay Brutal \m/

So Mark, tell us some of the underdogs (not the well known bands) from U.K that is a must to hear?

So many great ones on the scene at the moment, its hard to list bands for fear of forgetting someone, but I will give it a go. unfathomable ruination, Foetal Juice, Cancerous Womb, Basement Torture Killings, Neuroma, Abhorrent Decimation, Mortishead, Necrosis, Spawned from Hate, Kataleptic, Ascaris, Atonement, Guttwrench, Zombified, SCORDATURA, Black Skies Burn, Aghast. I could go on all day but those are all bands I would like to see get more attention outside of the UK and checking all of those out should keep you busy for a while hahaha

For sure i have been following Necrosis, SCORDATURA from some time and they are killer. Mark i don’t want to end it but it must come to an end now. Lastly, a space for you to ask if we SNRMB team has forgotten to ask you can ask us here. Fully your space..

No I think you got it all covered man, I have probably said far too much already hahaha. Just want to say thanks for the interview its been great talking, and thanks to all your readers who check us out, stay brutal guys and will hopefully see you out on the road one day in the not too distant future \m/

Thank you mark for your time

\m/