This is the website of Russell Garwood, editor of Ultimatemetal.com and news/reviews editor of Zero Tolerance Magazine. You can find news below and more details using the links above.
Issue 25 of ZT has hit the shelves, full details below. It has the usual from myself (news interview is with Necrophagia this time around, and agony aunt with Dragonforce), and it also features an interview with London's De Profundis. I've just completed a major project for my PhD, so am hopeful I'll get the chance - after finishing work on ZT26 - to get some more content on UM. The the mean time, here are full details for the next ZT:
Zero Tolerance
Issue 025 - Sept / Oct 2008
Gojira's Joe Duplantier: "We are citizens of earth... we have to protect what we have."
Marking the release of Gojira's new album The Way Of All Flesh, vocalist / guitarist Joe Duplantier speaks in the new issue of Zero Tolerance Magazine about his hopes and fears for the future of the planet. “I feel... terrified and very sad about what's happening on earth right now,” he says. “I feel deeply - and I'm not the only one, a lot of people and everyone in the band agrees - I really mean it, it's not to be trendy or whatever, because it's true. We are destroying a lot of things, we are killing endangered species - we are killing sharks, we are killing whales and that's an aberration to me. I cannot help it, when I get in the practice room and we play this music that is so powerful and stuff, I start screaming about it, I cannot help it. We truly feel concerned and we hope that if the band gets bigger we can do more concrete things, raise money for a cause - we already give money to Greenpeace, but that's a personal thing. We try to do our best not to waste water or gas or electricity, we try to be more conscious of what's happening on earth. We are concerned, that's a fact. Even if the main message of the band is more about the soul or the mysteries of life in general or what happens in the afterlife or our inner fears - to know ourselves better - that's the message of the band. But we are citizens of earth, so we have to talk about that in our songs. I don't want to sound clichéd, but we have to protect what we have. It's more than important, it's crucial."
Of the new album, Duplantier says that expectations to surpass 2005's From Mars To Sirius came from within, rather than outside, the band. “The pressure from outside the band is not as big as this pressure that we already have spontaneously or naturally.
We're very happy to be on the cover of magazines and to have good reviews, it's very rewarding. But we don't pay too much attention to it - we have been a band since 1996, it's a long time, 12 years, that we're a 'new' band! People still think that we're a new band, but we worked a lot and toured a lot in bad conditions and didn't get paid for years and years, so being on the cover of a magazine is nothing compared to how hard it is to stay strong as a band and as human beings, to stay together all the time and overcome the tensions inside a band. So when there is a cover or something it's more like joy and something very positive, not pressure.”
Gojira lead the way in issue 025 of Zero Tolerance magazine which examines the relationship between extreme music and ecological / environmental concerns. Joining the discussion are Enslaved, The Triple Tree, Kampfar, Green Army Fraction and more. Elsewhere, Cynic tell us about their decision to create a successor to their near-legendary album Focus, while Amon Amarth, Albert Witchfinder, David E Williams, Warning, Bloodbath, Benediction, Lord Belial, Horna and many others all join the action.
Issue 025 also marks the fourth anniversary of Zero Tolerance Magazine. It comes in at an extended 148 pages, each issue accompanied by a free double CD. Since its inception in 2004, Zero Tolerance has set the agenda for extreme music, representing the sonically unacceptable without compromise, exposing the darkest, most obscure recesses of the musical imagination and celebrating its diversity. From black, death and folk metal through to industrial, noise, power electronics and neofolk, Zero Tolerance has consistently covered the music that other publications simply don't even know about - and while they play catch-up, ZT remains several steps ahead.
Zero Tolerance Issue 025, Sept/Oct 2008. Onsale from 15 September
Zero Tolerance Magazine
Representing The Sonically Unacceptable
Buy It. Read It. Spread Dissent.
Due to some fieldwork and lots of PhD stuff, this is a very long overdue update. Two issues of ZT have hit the shelves since the last update, with #24 arriving in stores yesterday. This has loads of cool stuff, including from myself an agony aunt with ArnoCorps, interviews with Gojira and Berzerker, news, tourdates, sponsored tours, crossword, and a few CD reviews. Work on the next issue has already begun. Things have also been happening at UM - a new update:
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
So said Oscar Wilde. He was also responsible for words of wisdom such as "The aim of life is self-development. To realize one's nature perfectly - that is what each of us is here for" and "Know Thyself was written over the portal of the antique world. Over the portal of the new world, Be Thyself shall be written." To be yourself, you have to know yourself, and to know yourself it can't hurt to know your contemporaries. Which is where this somewhat tortuous route is leading, as UM has recently posted We Who Are as Others - The Metal Lifestyle Mapped. This is a summary of Andreas Rana's culture sociology bachelors thesis on what it means to be a metalhead. If you want to see how you fit into the spectrum of metal fans, or know more about the 'average' metalhead look no further. UM's Ryan Starr also recently caught up with ICS Vortex. You can read the interview here. As ever we've regularly been posting new reviews, non-metal reviews, metal news and lots of live reviews. Finally, if you're interested in helping UM clear our promo backlog by writing for us, check out this thread. So that's it for now, but I'll leave you with more Oscar Wilde, and until the next UM update, have fun!
"Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live."
"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much."
"I think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability."
I think that's all the news for now, so have a good summer and hopefully another update will be online before too long!
A not so long overdue update. We're currently working hard on Issue #23 of ZT, which will have all the normal stuff from me. It hits the shops on the 15th of May. In the meantime, a new update from UM is posted below:
I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, "Where's the self-help section?" She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose.
"People who say they don't care what people think are usually desperate to have people think they don't care what people think." George Carlin is sometimes bang on the money. "There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls." And again. Although the wolves I'm talking about are Norway's Ulver. After two years of silence the lycanthropes have returned with Shadows Of The Sun, and last May I caught up with frontman Krisstopher Rygg to discuss the record, the band's future and struggles of life as a musician. . UM has teamed up with Zero Tolerance Magazine to bring you the interview - check it out. In further updates, UM's Jack Deming recently caught up with doomy Scandinavians Sahg. Their conversation, covering topics such as the band's new album and history, can be found here. As ever since the last announcement our reviews forum has been updated almost daily, and additions include some initial impressions of the new Opeth album. There's more new coverage in the live reviews and media reviews forums as well. That's it for now, but I'll leave you with some more observations from George Carlin:
"Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?"
"The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live"
"'I am' is reportedly the shortest sentence in the English language. Could it be that 'I do' is the longest sentence?"
Until next time, have fun!
In other news, two of my photos have been used for cover art by UK progressive metallers Blackfire Well, shown below:
The album is currently being submitted to labels, but in the meantime, you can hear the songs on their myspace. That's it for now, but more soon.
A long overdue update. Since last time two issues of Zero Tolerance have hit the shelves, the latest being Issue #22, with Meshuggah on the cover. It features news, crossword, and all the usual stuff from me, including an Agony Aunt with To-Mera, and interviews with Dark Suns and Nucleus Torn. It's in shops throughout the UK, Europe, Aus, NZ and the US now. A new UM update has also been posted:
It's one thing to want someone out of your life, but it's another thing to serve them a wake-up cup full of liquid drainer.
"I like it. It's got that what-a-cruel-world-let's-toss-ourselves-in-the-abyss type ambience." So said the shady JD in that bizarre slice of '80s black comedy Heathers. I'm sure you'll be relieved to hear (yeah, right), that there's been none of that here in the three months since the last update. In fact, despite the silence, all at UMHQ have been busier than ever with the site. We've posted new interviews with Týr and Eluveitie as part of continuing coverage of the Paganfest US Tour, and another is up with the always entertaining Impaled Nazarene. As ever, we've posted more reviews (2700 and counting), non-metal reviews, and all the latest metal news. Also up is coverage of several tours, including live reviews of Wolves In The Throne Room, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Between The Buried And Me, Dark Tranquillity, Omnium Gatherum, Sonata Arctica, and Myopia. More coming soon. That, however, is it from us for now. Until next time have fun, and I'll leave you with some more quotes from the darker side of '80s high-school life.
Principal: Now I've seen a lot of bulls**t... Angel Dust, switchblades, sexually perverse photography involving tennis rackets...
Veronica Sawyer: If you were happy every day of your life you wouldn't be a human being. You'd be a game-show host.
Veronica Sawyer: All we want is to be treated like human beings, not to be experimented on like guinea pigs or patronized like bunny rabbits.
Veronica's Mum: When teenagers complain that they want to be treated like human beings, it's usually because they are being treated like human beings.
Veronica's Dad: I don't patronize bunny rabbits.
Over the christmas break I have finally had the chance to sort out some of my photographs from the last two years. These include a few taken for an album cover of a friend's project, Blackfire Well, and many others from around London and from travels. Some favourites are posted below, and the rest can be seen in the completely redone Photography section of the website. The Journalism, About, Music and Links pages have also been given a long overdue update.
A new UM update has also been posted:
End of year lists from UM.com and, of course, happy new year!
W.H. Auden said "The only way to spend New Year's Eve is either quietly with friends or in a brothel. Otherwise when the evening ends and people pair off, someone is bound to be left in tears." The latter's not my style, so I'm about to do the former. But first I felt I should draw attention to UM's end of year lists. Another piece of Auden's wisdom was that "music is the best means we have of digesting time" - if this is the case it's second only to making lists of music, so why not come and join in the fun? If you liked a lot of stuff in 2007, or disliked everything you heard, post in the thread and share your opinion! While researching for the end of year lists it has also become apparent that the fine doom metal band Middian are in trouble and need the metal community's assistance. If you have a moment to spare please check out their website and see if you're able to help.
I'll leave you with another of the Anglo-American writer's sayings: "A poet can write about a man slaying a dragon, but not about a man pushing a button that releases a bomb." Let's hope there won't be any need for poets to deal with the latter next year - here's to a peaceful 2008. Happy new year!
Work on Issue 21 of ZT is also complete. The magazine will be in shops on the 13th, a week later in the US, NZ & Aus. It features the usual from myself, an update will be posted when the magazine its on the newsstands. But first, as promised, some of my favourite new photos:
Another two months has passed, and another issue of Zero Tolerance is in the stores. This time around Gallhammer are on the cover, and my work includes the news, featuring an interview with Mikael Akerfeldt, tourdates/sponsored tours, a feature on France's Hangman's Chair, an Agony Aunt with Hank from Turbonegro, and the normal reviews, as well as a film column on Lucio Fulci. Work is just starting on Issue 21. A new UM announcement has also been posted:
No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings.
Not that I need much excuse, but the fact that William Blake was born 250 years ago - almost to the day - seems like a fine reason to quote the fine gentleman. He was an excellent poet (and writer) in his time, and once said "Love seeketh not itself to please, nor for itself hath any care, but for another gives its ease, and builds a Heaven in Hell's despair." Things have changed in the last 200 years, but good writers still have a place, and if you think you are one such talented individual, maybe yours is UM. We're currently looking for new staff writers to help us cope with an ever-increasing promo backlog and innumerous interview requests, so if you know a lot about metal and want your voice to be heard, then please get in touch, there's no better way!
It's been a long while since the last UM zine update, during which time interviews have been posted with Immolation, Blut Aus Nord, Circus Maximus and Gorefest. As ever, new reviews are posted daily, including a roundup of recent Peaceville reissues in our latest instalment of just browsing. New non-metal reviews have also been posted, along with all (and I mean, all!) the latest metal news. Finally, new live reviews are now up, in the form of Job for a Cowboy / Behemoth / Gojira / Beneath the Massacre and Stolen Babies/ Creature Feature/ School Yard Heroes/ Try Cognition. Enjoy all of that, and until next time, have fun. I'll leave you with a few more Blakeisms, because that guy was a cool, if slightly odd, dude!
"To see a world in a Grain of Sand, And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour."
"Innocence dwells with Wisdom, but never with Ignorance."
"Thy friendship oft has made my heart to ache; do be my enemy - for friendship's sake"
"He who binds to himself a joy Does the winged life destroy; But he who kisses the joy as it flies Lives in eternity's sun rise."
In other news, I'm working on some new photography for a friend's album cover, which will be posted in due time everything allowing, along with some more of the photos I've taken in the last year but not had time to upload. Lots is going on, I hope to be able to report some more news soon!
The summer has been busy as ever: Issue 19 of ZT is now available in the shops. This has Ihsahn on the cover, while my contributions include interviews with Awake and Alestorm, Type O and Awake live reviews, news, tourdates, an agony aunt with Screamin Daemon, music / DVD reviews and a film column. A lot has also been going on with UM, here is our new announcement:
Wacken Reports Posted
The astronomer Carl Sagan once said of the Earth: "The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived here - on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam." I pretty much only used this quote because I like it, but to tenuously link it to our latest update: This mote of dust is also home to innumerous metal fans, 70,000 of whom recently congregated for a celebration of all things metallic - Wacken Open Air 2007. UM sent along a team of writers, whose reports of this auspicious event have just been posted. You can learn all about the highs and lows of the festival in Jason Koszowski's report, and the good, the bad, and the ugly aspects of the festival in this account from Greg Hasbrouck. A series of interviews from Wacken will be coming in the next weeks. Also posted since last time are interviews with Evile, 1349 and Nachtmystium. As ever new reviews and non-metal reviews. But, on that note, I'm going on a week's holiday, so I'll leave you with some more cool quotes from Carl Sagan:
"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere."
"Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people."
Until next time, have fun!
Thus - despite the silence - lots has been going on. I'm just taking a little time off prior to starting my PhD, but I'm hoping to get some new photos up before starting, along with more journalism.