New Hampshire post-hardcore unit Transistor Transistor have been thrashing the DIY underground scene for going on ten years now. We first took notice of TT back in 2005 after hearing their Level Plane release Erase All Name and Likeness, which showcased the band’s ambitious blend of artfully constructed songs, spitfire attack and righteous guitar tones.
So when the guys rolled into NYC on June 1 to play the Cakeshop in support of their latest album, Ruined Lives, we stopped by to catch the set and chat with guitarist/singer/mainman Nat about his new album, approach to live performance and how he gets his signature sound.
METALKULT: Let’s talk about your new record Ruined Lives. How do you feel your songwriting has progressed from your last album?
NAT: The thing that stands out the most for me is that I think we got tighter and generally trimmed the fat with all the songs. We still have songs that would be considered long, repetitive or both, but I think for the most part things are a lot more direct and concise. Also everyone got a little better at his respective instrument. Our drummer James tried to shy away from just bashing the shit out of the cymbals all the time and write more creative drum parts, and overall I think everyone put ego completely to the side and put all the emphasis on the song, not whatever someone considered his part to be.
When you started to write for this record, did you have any preset goals you wanted to reach? Were you surprised by any unexpected directions the record took?
When we finished recording Erase All… I remember being really surprised because I had never really heard the songs that way before. I thought to myself, So this is how these songs really sound. With Ruined Lives it was different. We never said anything silly like, “Let’s get heavier, or catchier” or whatever the hell, but I definitely had a very particular concept of how each song would sound recorded in my mind. I think everyone did. In some ways it was helpful because it gave us something to focus on when recording, but other times I know I had to just completely abandon my concept of the song because it was keeping me from embracing how the song was really turning out. For surprises I would say I was pleasantly surprised by the way “The Ghost Hand” turned out mostly because it wasn’t something we were ever playing live. We never had to worry about capturing the energy of the times we played it at practice or at a show because it is just a different kind of song. And when the album was all done I was really excited about it as a whole. It wasn’t how I envisioned it exactly but I think it’s for the better.
What is your goal when it comes to live shows? Flawless technique or memorable performance?
I think we split up the duties. James is the one laying it down on the “flawless technique” side of things. This allows the rest of us to get a little looser if we want to. But overall we’re much more interested in a memorable performance. I think that comes from really killing it through being tight, but not standing there with a music stand staring at your guitar. Ideally I want to play a show that is memorable because it was both tight and exciting. I remember plenty of bands I have seen because they ran around with their guitars over their heads and sounded like shit the whole time, I don’t really want to be remembered for that.
Do you have any pre-show rituals or requirements to get you in the right head space to perform?
Not really. I usually tune my guitar, do all the normal stuff, check the impedance on my amp and the cables on my pedals. If I feel like I have to go to the bathroom at all before we play though, I’m going. I hate playing feeling like I have to piss! I will play terribly, for sure. In fact, this has led to me putting down my guitar last minute and running outside to piss in some ridiculous places because I couldn’t wait two seconds for the bathroom to open up. I just hate playing feeling like I’ve got to go to the bathroom.
Now to the gear. You’re playing a Rickenbacker, which model? What do you like about his guitar? Have you made any aftermarket changes to it?
I have three Rickenbacker 650 Colorados, they are my main guitars for the band. My main one of the three is from the year 2000 and is Jetglo. A while ago, I tried a Ric for the first time on tour and I really liked it. So when I found a beat up 230 for sale at some music shop close to where we used to practice, I picked it up. I loved the way it played and got on the hunt for a 650C.
A few things I really like about the 650Cs is its maple body, through maple neck and maple fingerboard. They make other models with walnut bodies or some other wood and I really have no interest in them. I love maple guitars especially for my sound in Transistor Transistor. I was working at a record store and one of the other guys working there said he knew someone who might be selling a Ric 650C. The person selling it brought it into the store and I tried it out for a bit. It felt amazing. I had heard it was pretty beat but the damages were all cosmetic. Andy, the previous owner, had carved a little robot (more…)
Before they were creating proto-black metal in Celtic Frost, guitarist/vocalist Tom Gabriel Fischer and bassist Martin Eric Ain were members of seminal blackened thrash outfit Hellhammer. If you’re a fan of Celtic Frost, Hellhammer, or extreme metal in general, you should definitely check out Hellhammer’s new demo reissue, Demon Entrails (Century Media), which sheds new light on a band that influenced generations of aggressive music.
Active from 1982–1984, Switzerland’s Hellhammer released three seminal demos, Satanic Rites, Death Fiend, Triumph of Death, one full-length, Apocalyptic Raids, one seven inch, Buried and Forgotten, as well making appearances on various compilations such as the Metal Massacre series. These early recordings, either by design or by sheer coincidence, sounded far more satanic, hardcore and metal-charged than most of the heavy metal at the time.
In fact, at the time, most mainstream music fans considered Hellhammer’s sound to be formless noise. But this didn’t stop the group from attracting a rabid cult following throughout the world—a following that would only grow after the group’s demise. Even today, the impact of this “formless noise” can be heard in the black, death and thrash metal scenes, as well as in the hardcore and punk worlds. (more…)
Originally part of the road crew for fellow countrymen Celtic Frost, Swiss thrash trio Coroner—made up of bassist Ron Royce, drummer Marquis Marky and guitarist Tommy T. Baron—went on to become one of the most progressive extreme metal acts of the Eighties.
The connection between the Zurich band and Celtic Frost was so strong, in fact, that Frost frontman Tom G. Warrior offered to handle vocals for the emerging band’s demo. Warrior and Coroner entered Switzerland’s Magnetix studio on October 10, 1985, and nine days later they walked out with the impressive four-song 1986 release, Death Cult.
Right-click the song names below to download each track. (more…)
Originally a cassette-only release, Canadian black metal group Akitsa’s 2002 debut full-length, Goétie, has just received a proper CD reissue by New York City’s Hospital Productions. Now, all you lo-fi black metal fiends who missed out on the hard-to-find original, can finally get your fill of Goétie’s slashed-throat vocals, bouts of blasted noise and distorted suicidal rage.
Opener “Ouverture de l’Espirit” sets the dark mood nicely. Drummer Néant delivers arrhythmic beats, while multi-instrumentalist O.T. deploys an ambling, clean guitar line that delicately weaves through a billowing curtain of fuzzy guitars as his vocals slowly chant “ahhh.”
“Haine et Vengeance” (translated “Hate and Vengeance”) boasts some killer jackhammer snare/kick-drum action and jagged guitar assault. This is some traditional gritty black metal topped with Akitsa’s powerful, hateful vocals.
But the kicker comes with the surprising, “Les Ruines de la Modernité.” (more…)
Home videos of underground metal bands weren’t exactly commonplace in 1985, but that didn’t stop Combat Records from issuing The Ultimate Revenge on VHS that year. The now legendary and out of print home video (click the cover to the right for a larger view) featured concert clips of Slayer, Venom and Exodus, who were touring the U.S. together on the Combat Tour Live. (more…)
Birthed in an abysmal New York City basement, black metal band Ash Pool issue forth smoldering, dark and noxious metal. World Turns On Its Hinge (Tour De Garde/Hospital Productions) is their latest batch of truly, and quite literally, underground black metal. Like unknown soldiers, their identities are unlisted, kept in the dark, letting their music reign in pure black mass.
Ash Pool waste no time before igniting the subterranean blaze. World Turns On Its Hinge’s opening track, “Sin of Life,” begins with crashing cymbals and brash guitar, a gated technique reminiscent of Ukrainian black metallers Hate Forest’s work on Sorrow. “Mouth is cracked, stuffed with feces,” hawks Ash Pool’s singer from under the assault of metallic guitar and drums.
Track four, “Shade of Rape,” continues the unforgiving assault with its incinerating wall of thrash. This visceral, hack-and-grind (more…)
When Norwegian black metal legends Emperor came to America for a brief tour this past June, guitarists Ihsahn and Samoth took time out of their schedule to stop by MetalKult’s New York City headquarters for an in-depth lesson on how to play some of their band’s most memorable passages. (more…)
Where Today Is the Day’s last album, 2004’s Kiss the Pig, was a sprawling, sometimes flawed masterpiece of moody, metallic experimentation, Axis of Eden—the trio’s latest record and its first on vocalist/guitarist Steve Austin’s own SuperNova Records—is a more concentrated and focused dose of blasting, misanthropic ugliness, an album that is as extreme emotionally as it is musically.
15 years into their career, TITD continue to innovate, and Axis of Eden confirms this without a doubt. As is expected from TITD, Axis is dissonant and mathy, but the addition of ex–Hate Eternal drummer Derek Roddy gives the record a faster, fiercer bite. Ready yourself for another sonic beating from this artsy, aggro, noise-metal outfit. – Jimmy Hubbard
On October 23, 1988, at the Trocadero Theatre in Philadelphia, Combat Records brought together five of their premier acts—Raven, Dark Angel, Death, Faith or Fear and Forbidden—to film the follow-up to their now-classic Ultimate Revenge home video, which featured Venom, Slayer and Exodus. (more…)
Under the moniker of Alcest, French multi-instrumentalist Neige explores what happens when heavily melodic progressions and uplifting atmospheric effects are mixed with isolationist black metal je ne sais quoi. The result? Souvenirs D’un Autre Monde (Profound Lore Records), Alcest’s unexpectedly profound and affecting full-length debut.
Where many black metal records tunnel inward to the dark centers of their authors, Souvenirs D’un Autre Monde (translated to Memories of Another World) looks outward and upward, encouraging the listener to release its grasp on reality and float into the ether. Nice. –Brad Angle
