Suicidal Angels: Return Of The Reaper

SUICIDAL ANGELS just upped their game. The Greek four-piece have been a constant presence on the thrash scene for over a decade now and have a lot of miles behind them, but Profane Prayer is their strongest album yet. Their eighth full-length is a powerful mix of high-octane thrash anthems and a couple of epic compositions. It’s tightly written, every song has its own personality and there is a noticeable confidence about it. SUICIDAL ANGELS were never a bad band by any means, but on Profane Prayer, they’ve thrown down a gauntlet. Want to release a thrash album in 2024? Beat this one.



It’s not surprising then that frontman Nick Melissourgos exudes a quiet confidence when he joins us to discuss the new release. He’s friendly if occasionally withdrawn company, carefully choosing each word and taking the time to think before he answers questions. And despite claiming to be “a little nervous” about its imminent release, it’s clear he knows that Profane Prayer is a killer album.

“For me personally, and the band generally speaking, it’s an album where we made another step forward,” he tells us over a video call. “Every time we make an album, we want to not stick to the atmosphere of the previous one. We want to add something new, to evolve and move forward. I think we did that with Years Of Aggression (their last record) and then even more with this one.”

This evolution is most explicit in two key tracks; Deathstalker and The Fire Paths Of Fate. The first shows up early while the latter is the closing song, but they’re both lengthy numbers and epic in scope. They’ve had a lot of work put into them, each one showing the bands’ willingness to push their boundaries and create something outside their comfort zone.

“In the very beginning, these songs were about six minutes long. But then we started adding stuff,” Nick says, “When a song starts getting longer in duration, writing gets complicated. The line between making it interesting and making it boring is very, very thin. It took us quite a lot of time because the very basic idea was just the verse, the bridge and the chorus, then we were trying to build the whole thing around it. We were paying close attention to the details to make these songs stand out.”


This painstaking approach has paid off, these two tracks elevate Profane Prayer and pull up the rest of the track list with them. The other songs are closer to SUICIDAL ANGELS’ established sound; dark thrash anthems with catchy choruses and fast riffs, but the band has put a lot of effort in to make them the best they could be. The title track sounds like a circle pit turned into a song and the opening When The Lions Die would make KREATOR green with envy. Best of the bunch though is (arguably) Return Of The Reaper, which was inspired by the world opening up again after the COVID years.

“I was writing a song about the band making a comeback from COVID. We wound up in lockdown for two years and the times were not exactly the best to start working on new songs. We also hadn’t promoted our last album at all, we’d done one tour and that was it. When they opened the borders and we did some shows for Years Of Aggression, I was working on some ideas and slowly the whole thing started building up.”

It wasn’t long before they were firing on all cylinders, but it’s still taken a long time for Profane Prayer to find its way out into the world. The outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war led to a shortage of materials for making the physical copies and they had to hold onto the masters for a while before it was their turn. Nick has had to sit patiently with a killer album on his hands, watching the months go by before he could get it out into the world.

The wait has been worth it and with luck, this record will see SUICIDAL ANGELS climb the ranks. They’ve been plugging away for years and their ascent has been gradual, but Profane Prayer is their strongest work yet. Their earliest material was enthusiastic but understandably similar to the bands they idolised, but they’ve forged a personality of their own since then. They’re darker than the MUNICIPAL WASTEs of the world, and favour topics like war and madness over skateboarding zombies and drinking.

That subtle tonal difference has helped differentiate them, but the main reason they’ve survived this is long is their commitment. There were a lot of thrash bands emerging from the underground in the mid-2000s and only a few of them remain today. SUICIDAL ANGELS are still standing because of one thing, pure determination:

“I cannot say, I don’t know what other people did wrong or right, but in our camp, our main engine for moving forward was our passion, our dedication and the effort we put into making this happen. It’s not easy to make a band a success, sometimes you have to have a side job to keep funding it, but we put in non-stop effort. I’m not saying other bands didn’t have that, just that it worked for us. You never know what happens in anyone else’s life. It’s very hard to make it in the music business.”

Profane Prayer is out now via Nuclear Blast Records.

Like SUICIDAL ANGELS on Facebook.

ALTERNATIVEFEATURESHARDCOREINTRODUCINGPUNK

Hardcore is arguably in the most accessible state that it has ever been, from the likes of TURNSTILE being featured on the likes of Jimmy Fallon’s late night show and amassing over a million monthly Spotify listeners, KNOCKED LOOSE featuring POPPY on their upcoming You Won’t Go Until You’re Supposed To album, and plenty of smaller record labels nurturing burgeoning talent; see Convulse Records and Flatspot Records for further excellence. There’s never been a better time to soak in the multitudes of frustrated and nuanced hardcore than right now. We’re in a glistening golden age of the genre, its resurgence has been in full swing for some years now but we currently sit atop its zenith. Making it all the more fertile for smaller bands to be appreciated, mimicking digging through random boxes at local record fairs, unknowingly stumbling upon an undiscovered gem. One of those gem’s is SLOPE.



Found in Duisburg, Germany, although they have two full-length albums and four EPs under their belts, there’s something to be discovered within their funk and hardcore fusion. Being touted as a sort of mini TURNSTILE, the German outfit’s new album Freak Dreams is full of groove oozing basslines and head nodding vocal rhythms. “We started to go to hardcore shows when we were fifteen, and we thought it would be cool to do something similar,” says Simon. “We actually started in Fabio’s parents basement,” he chuckles.

Fabio cements the date noting it was 2011 that they officially started out. It sounds like they had good taste too, when getting into the scene and discovering hardcore as Fabio recounts the first band they got into. “TERROR and TRAPPED UNDER ICE really got us hooked.”

There was something wanting to be added into SLOPE’s mix, more than just hardcore. During their days recording EPs, it was much more rooted in hardcore, “on Street Heat and Freak Dreams are much more diverse in the sound because we started listening to genres other than hardcore,” Simon tells us, before Fabio interjects.

“It was damn lucky for us that during that time our guitarist broke his leg,” which, frankly, doesn’t sound like much of a blessing at face value. He continues, “he was couch bound for six months and we did nothing but smoke weed and listen to music, so that was when we found all this new influence and regrew as a band.” Almost as if they healed alongside their guitarist’s leg. It’s sort of poetic if nothing else…


“Fabio already listened to a lot of hip-hop when he was young. I mean ‘younger’, you’re still young Fabio I swear,” Simon jokes. All Fabio has to laugh back is, “Bitch!” He takes the point from Simon, “I grew up with the old legends like BIGGIE, TUPAC, and NAS. I was really hooked on hip-hop as a kid, not much German stuff but like UK grime and American stuff. My parents gave me EMINEM’s Marshall Mathers LP, I think when I was either ten or eleven years old, and that was the first time I got in touch with hip-hop.” Alternative music and hip-hop’s relationship isn’t new by any means, but it’s not often that you hear a full blown synthesis of the two, there’s the stand out ones like LINKIN PARK and JAY-Z, RUN DMC and AEROSMITH – hell DIZZEE RASCAL even lent his flow to ARCTIC MONKEYS one time.

But how do they achieve that synthesis, not just mashing two genres together or butting heads where things don’t quite fit, they achieve it in a way that makes the genres hug each other. “We have no plans when writing a song or an album. We always have the roots of hardcore in our music. When we have a structure of a song, we might incorporate some harder stuff or some more funky stuff.”

Fabio follows Simon up, “we try to keep a record in balance, because there are some songs that lean on the heavier side of either style, so it’s not ten funk songs and one hardcore one.” Freak Dreams really puts SLOPE in the best position so far in their band career, they’ve released their best album yet and signed on to play multiple festivals this year. “We started writing this record just two months after we released Street Heat, which was difficult because we were still in the pandemic. It was fucked up because we had plans.” Fabio’s voice filled with disappointment as he expressed this, “we couldn’t even do a release show for the previous record, but it all worked out in the end, I guess.”

“After an album we are always scared that we cannot write another song which is as good as one of the songs from the latest album.” Simon seems to be accepting of that and at peace with the turbulence of making music. Fabio reassures saying, “we never have plans for writing music and just like when we sit together in a rehearsal room the most important thing is that we focus on music. We like it but I think if you like write music for yourself and not for anybody else, then the outcome will be like more honest and most of the time, better.”

There’s a confidence in that; that not everything is for all audiences, and that’s okay. You aren’t its creator and the only thing that belongs to you as a listener is the relationship that you have with it. SLOPE are at peace with the weirdly wonderful music they write and the response they get, but are just as content with it, just because they like it.

Freak Dreams is out now via Century Media Records.

Like SLOPE on Facebook.

HAMMERFALL TEASING NEW ALBUM; “HAIL TO THE KING” SINGLE OUT TOMORROW

Swedish power metal vets HammerFall will release their new single and music video for “Hail To The King” tomorrow.

The band comments: "Hail to the King 🫡 make sure you be ready"

The Swedes have also been revealing bits of the artwork for a new album, which appears to be titled Avenge The Fallen. The album is the follow-up to 2022’s Hammer Of Dawn and will be their first release since resigning with Nuclear Blast Records.

GENE SIMMONS - FAN-FILMED VIDEO OF RIDGEFIELD ROCK & BREWS GRAND OPENING CONCERT FEATURING SPECIAL APPEARANCE BY KISS GUITARIST TOMMY THAYER STREAMING

Gene Simmons returned to the stage for the first time since KISS wrapped their End of The Road tour at New York's Madison Square Garden in December 2023. He hit the stage at Rock & Brews on April 23rd within the ilani Casino Resort in Ridgefield, Washington. The show was free and open to the public.

Fan-filmed video from the show can be viewed below, including Simmons calling KISS guitarist Tommy Thayer to the stage for "Parasite", "Are You Ready" and "Lick It Up".

Setlist:

ZOLTAN BATHORY DISCUSSES NEW 5FDP TRACK FEATURING THE LATE DMX – "'HE'S THE METALHEAD OF HIP-HOP"

ZOLTAN BATHORY DISCUSSES NEW 5FDP TRACK FEATURING THE LATE DMX – "'HE'S THE METALHEAD OF HIP-HOP"




Five Finger Death Punch's ninth studio album overall, AfterLife, was originally released in August 2022, and as with their previous albums, was a sizeable worldwide hit. But just one small thing – a song that the band had their hearts on including on the album was not fully prepared in time, which featured vocal contributions from the late rapper, DMX.

Now that the band has been granted full permission to release the track, entitled “This Is the Way,” it is now included on a newly expanded digital deluxe version of AfterLife, out now.

The group's rhythm guitarist, Zoltan Bathory, spoke with BraveWords correspondent Greg Prato about the newly expanded edition, the DMX track, and also the group's upcoming tour, which will see them touring the US this summer on a bill also featuring Marilyn Manson and Slaughter to Prevail.






How did the decision come to release a deluxe version of AfterLife, and what is on it?

Zoltan Bathory: "We finished this record now a couple of years ago. And when we finished the record, we had this track that now everybody's talking about – the DMX track, 'This Is the Way.' And the song was done and ready to go on the record. However, because it's a collaboration and because he sadly passed, there is a lot of red tape, a lot of approval processes we have to go through. And we were not sure that we would have all the ducks in a row by the time the record was coming out, so we elected to not to put it on the record. Which, when you make a record, there's a flow to every record, every song has a reason to be there. And the position the song is in on the record, to create that flow, it was like, ‘Man that song was supposed to be there.' So, while it's one of my favorite records of our catalogue, still it missed this element. And then it took us maybe a little bit over a year – we had to talk to every single producer, every single publisher, everybody involved. And then show them this song and get the green light on it. So, this is a serious approval process. And then financially, the big publishers had to sign off on it. And once we got that and we're like, 'OK, now we can release the record the way it was meant to be.' And then we wanted to throw on some goodies, so we had some acoustic versions of some of the songs. So, we put that on, so there are some extra really cool things. In some cases the acoustic version has a different vibe. I'm not going to say I prefer it, but some cases, between the original acoustic version there's such a shift in in vibe that it's hard to for me to decide which one I like better. So, these are songs that sound really cool in the new version, as well. That's basically the deluxe and that's why it's coming out."



 What is the story behind the song that features DMX, “This Is The Way”?

Zoltan Bathory: "The conversation started years and years ago – like maybe 5-6 years ago – and we were trying to work with DMX. We always thought, 'He's the metalhead of hip-hop.' Like, his delivery, he has kind of the gruff voice, the dog bark. Everything about him was kind of like, This guy's metal.' So, when this became a reality and the conversation kind of became a possibility that this is actually going to happen, then he passed. So, we got masters from his team that we were allowed to use. There were songs and then bits and pieces of music that some of them came out on a mix tape before. And then we had tapes that nobody ever heard of, because it wasn't a master. So we got the master with the multitracks that nobody heard before. So we kind of had to put it together and write the song around it. The original verses that you might have heard in a mix tape, they don't even sound the same because some of them are different takes. And again, the music is completely different because we had to rewrite that. So, it was a very interesting collaboration from a sense of like we had to reverse engineer a lot of this. Obviously, unfortunately he wasn't here to hear this song, either. So the best feedback basically is that we ran it by all the greats from Run-DMC to Jurassic 5 – iconic rappers and hip-hop artists and producers were listening to the song, and everybody reacted like, 'Man, this is special.' And this is from their words. Daryl from Run-DMC was like, 'Man, this is a game changer.' I'm hearing it from the guys that are doing it their whole lives. We have a high expectation – I really can't wait for the fans to hear it, because that's the point really."

 Now that it's been two years since the album was released, what are your thoughts on the album now?

Zoltan Bathory: "It's still one of my favorite records. There are definitely signs of the evolution. Every band starts at somewhere and that's the hardest part. You have to keep your sound. You can't just say, 'We're going to be a jazz band now.' So, you have fans and people who love you for a specific reason. Like, AC/DC will always sound like AC/DC, and Iron Maiden will always sound like Iron Maiden. But then you also have to progress. And that's the test: how do I keep the sound but also progress and bring in different elements. Our musical taste is very eclectic, so there are other influences we want to bring in, but we have to be careful of how much of that comes in. And that last record to me was a perfect concoction of these various influences. It does sound like Death Punch to me – it doesn't stick out from the rest of the albums, so it's a continuation of what we have done before. But there are different influences and vibes on that record. That was always the goal with every record – one more step, one more push, a little evolution, a little something new. And it's in there."

What were some of your favorite rap-metal collaborations from other artists?

Zoltan Bathory: "Everyone is aware of the Run-DMC collabs. And that stuff was cool – when hip-hop and heavy metal collaborated. But if you think about what happened in the nu metal era, to me that whole nu metal era was a collaboration in some way. Because even if you didn’t collaborate with a specific artist, that sound and the groove was in nu metal. So, the Limp Bizkits and the Linkin Parks of the world, they had a massive influence derived from that hip-hop scene. To me, that was a cultural collaboration to begin with. And then later on we did one – we did LL Cool J's 'Mama Said Knock You Out' and we had Tech N9ne come in as a guest on that. And then we got to perform that live with Tech N9ne."

 What can fans expect from the upcoming tour?

Zoltan Bathory: "We were always a band who understood that you can listen to an album, and when you listen to the album, you get your best stereo system or headphones and you listen to an album. But when you go to a show, it's a different environment. It's supposed to be an experience – you're not there to listen, you're there to rock out, connect and feel the togetherness of the crowd. It's a tribal experience. We always understood that different. So, we modified things – some songs are played differently for that reason. And when it comes to the stage show, we always push that envelope. And for the next tour…we always wanted to do big shows. Because look, whether you like or don't like KISS or whether you like or don't like Rammstein, you're going to go and see those bands – because of the show. We always wanted to be one of those bands. And for this next tour, we have Brian Hartley who is a production designer, and we finally got to work with him - who is responsible for Trans-Siberian Orchestra and for some of the KISS shows. So, he does giant shows. And designing this new show with him…man, it's out of control. It's insane. It was a pretty big show to begin with, but this is really out there. So, you're going to have to come see this show, because it's not just the music – it's the experience."



(Photo - Hristo Shindov)

FORMER MEGADETH GUITARIST KIKO LOUREIRO SHARES HIS PRACTICE ROUTINE AND FUTURE PLANS IN NEW LIVESTREAM VIDEO

Former Megadeth guitarist Kiko Loureiro, who was with the band from 2015 - 2023, has shared a new livestream video revealing his practice routine and plans for his future.



For the first time in Europe, embark on an immersive guitar camp with one of the most renowned guitarists in the world: Kiko Loureiro.

ALBUM REVIEW: Banished By Sin – Deicide

Let’s begin with a quote, often attributed to the great Albert Einstein: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results“. In musical terms, this can relate to a few things. Finding a formula that works and driving it into the ground so that even longtime fans are sick of it is one seen to occur often. Another version, however, is persisting with an idea that wasn’t even that good in the first place, hoping it elicits a reaction every so often like that clip of Peter Griffin holding his knee. Anyway, in totally unrelated news, DEICIDE have a new album out.



This is the 13th full length album by Glen Benton and his gang of religion-hating lads. For those of you who don’t know, DEICIDE are essentially the band that your mum/grandmother used to be terrified of in the early 90s. Chock full of anti-religious imagery and lyrics, they admittedly did put out about an hour’s worth of decent death metal before the schtick began to get a little stale. There’s really only so many ways you can say “yeah, fuck Jesus, that guy is lame” until it begins to grate on you. Now, that isn’t saying that it isn’t a viable source of lyrical inspiration for death metal, Benton himself made one of the greatest anti-Christian albums of all time, but with VITAL REMAINS, not DEICIDE… and he would have been better served letting that record be his legacy. As it is, his reputation is that of that guy at the party who just won’t leave, only marginally above Chris Barnes in the credibility stakes. Say one thing for Benton however, he makes the former CANNIBAL CORPSE vocalist seem artistically relevant by comparison.

For this record, Banished By Sin, the band decided to make a statement by committing surely the most evil, offensive and despicable act of their career by far: having an utterly shit album cover generated by artificial intelligence. Lacking any sort of real edge or danger, it reeks of laziness, looking more like a badly designed t-shirt you’d buy as a teenager from a stall in Benidorm than a classic piece of death metal art. If the band are going to use A.I to make the album art, how do we know they haven’t used it to write the record? We don’t, to be honest.


If you’ve heard half of a DEICIDE track ever in your life, then you know what this sounds like. Benton grunts and shouts his way over some death metal backing that is the definition of “yeah, that’ll do“. It isn’t so much meat and potatoes as it is roadkill and balls of dirt. There’s more edge on a tennis ball than in the production. His voice has aged well though, you can give him that. He certainly doesn’t sound like a certain death metal frontman/Twitter block machine. Sadly, he doesn’t seem to want to stretch himself or do anything that he hasn’t done dozens of times before. There are the odd moments of groove or memorability, but they fade quicker than a rub on devil tattoo.

Lyrically, you know what’s coming. Benton isn’t someone known for his deep metaphors or vague lyrics. At times it reads like a 13-year-old’s diary after his parents make him go to Sunday School instead of letting him play on Fortnite. It’s absolutely staggering that in 2024, one of the tracks (Sever Your Tongue) contains the line “fuck your religion” – something that would have felt more than a little cringey 30 years ago. You start to wonder if the record was created in the same way as the artwork. Just prompts of “God suckz lol” into a generator and press go. It’s like a record company shareholder’s idea of what death metal is. You also find yourself thinking back to the A.I cover and wondering how many of these lyrics were scraped from a Chatbot with prompts typed one handed while Benton scrolls through Reddit Atheism threads with the other.

At this point, the death metal genre has left DEICIDE behind. There’s bands making much better shock value music that actually sounds good (SANGUISUGABOGG) and bands taking instrumental risks (TOMB MOLD and HORRENDOUS to name but two). Glen Benton is a relic, an embarrassing figure of the genre’s past that for some reason, refuses to just go away. We get it Benton, Christianity sucks, but we’d rather spend a few hours at Mass than listen to anything DEICIDE has released post 1994. Mind you, it’s better than having to listen to SIX FEET UNDER, so every cloud, eh?

Rating: 3/10



Banished By Sin is set for release on April 26th via Reigning Phoenix Music.

Like DEICIDE on Facebook.