Travels With Nate

A while ago, James from Hold Tight gave me the idea of interviewing some American bands who were touring over here about European beer but sadly that didn’t come to fruition. I was heartbroken as that sounded like the best idea ever but luckily his partner in crime, Lisa discovered something awesome. Lisa discovered that Aaron & Brandon Smith from 7 Horns 7 Eyes who you may remember from my review of their debut full length album Throes of Absolution which is my #2 album of 2012 , is a beer geek. Yes, I know, it’s unbelievable to me too! So yes, I sent them some questions and Aaron is such a gent that he answered them!

It’s interview time again! This time, it’s Graham ‘Pin’ Pinney from Aliases and Sikth. Oh how I miss Sikth. I remembered last night that I actually met Pin in 2006 when Sikth played in Norwich. I remember watching Lord of the Rings on their tour bus. I reviewed Aliases debut mini-album, Safer Than Reality yesterday and bloody good it was too. Now, they’re currently working on their debut full length album but Mr Pin was nice enough to take a break from his busy schedule to talk about Booze, Beats, Bites & other such bizarre things.

Aliases are a metalcore band based in Manchester, England; I say metalcore but their facebook page suggests their genre is ‘brutiful’. I’ll roll with that. Last week, the band announced that sadly, their vocalist Jay Berast has had to leave the band for personal reasons.

  *EDIT* Dripback apparently got a better offer so they've had to pull out - don't worry, thought, we're not cheating you out of bands as Terakai are replacing them. What the fuck are you doing on Saturday 8th of September between 2pm & 10:15pm? Probably the same shit as every Saturday. I have a better idea... You're coming to the Siege of Amida Records & Basick Records all-dayer. I mean, why wouldn't you?

I was thinking last week; who is absolutely fundamental to my blog but never gets any recognition? PR people. Sure, the artists make the music but without their record labels and the PR companies, their music wouldn't get heard and promoted unless they do it themselves, which does seem like a lot of effort.  PR people work a lot. They don’t stop. There’s so much to do and I thought I’d give my homegirl Lisa a short break from supplying me with music in order to answer a few questions.

I first heard 7 Horns 7 Eyes a few weeks ago; I was trawling through my email inbox looking for music that I hadn’t listened to and came across a link to their Convalescence EP on the Basick Records bandcamp page. I was instantly struck by the artwork for it. It’s literally a goat with 7 Horns and 7 Eyes, it was weird as shit. Needless to say, I enjoyed the EP and was instantly excited about the forthcoming album. I must admit that even though I loved the 3 track EP, I was pleasantly surprised that the metalcore sound seemed to have disappeared. The opening track Divine Amnesty opens with a black metal like atmosphere which builds up for a while then fades into a big blast of guitars, more atmosphere and growls. It’s quite upbeat for a death metal song; it makes you feel somewhat energised but not wanting to mosh. It’s death metal but with a black metal edge. Each track on this album flows into one another to the point where I don’t think I’d enjoy listening to individual songs. ...