Mad About Rock

Exclusive New Song Reveal and New Live Videos! Electronic alt rockers from Minsk, Belarus formed back in 2008 and have been making a mark in the rock scene ever since with their unique exciting spacey ambient rock, which goes down a storm live too, and as a result they have grown a reputation for their dynamic performances, which includes festivals in Belarus, Russia and Poland. They released their stunning debut 'The Void' in 2015 which is their heaviest and most experimental work to date and featured the single, ‘Solar Empire’, with brilliant guest vocals from Cory Brandan of Norma Jean. They proved they are ones to watch and with such an established and solid debut their next release is highly anticipated and luckily the wait won't be long. As they have revealed to me and kindly provided an exclusive live look at a new yet to be titled song from their upcoming sophomore, to be named “Black Sails” which will be out at the end of the spring 2017. The band described...

So this is the last Stencil mag of 2016 and this is a big one for me! It includes one of the best interviews I have ever done with Dan from Real Friends,  as well as my interviews with Textures, Venom Inc and Steve Dickson, director of Mammothfest Brighton. Here are direct links to all the above: Venom Inc Interview:  https://issuu.com/stencilmag/docs/issue40/22 Textures Interview:  https://issuu.com/stencilmag/docs/issue40/30 Real Friends Interview:  https://issuu.com/stencilmag/docs/issue40/22/114 Mammothfest Interview:  https://issuu.com/stencilmag/docs/issue40/174 In terms of reviews its that time for best albums of the year and mine went to Opeth! Page: https://issuu.com/stencilmag/docs/issue40/222 Other album reviews of mine include: Korn:  https://issuu.com/stencilmag/docs/issue40/180 I Prevail:  https://issuu.com/stencilmag/docs/issue40/181 Tiebreaker:  https://issuu.com/stencilmag/docs/issue40/181 Av...

Merry Metal Christmas from Mammothfest Brighton! Come and celebrate on the 16th December! Following the success of this year’s Mammothfest in October it has since been nominated for three festival awards, including the UK Festival Awards in two categories, Best Metropolitan and Best Small Festival 2016 as well as the TBFM Best Independent Festival 2016 . The winners are yet to be announced so watch this space! It’s no surprise the festival has got people’s attention, as this year marked the biggest event yet, with higher capacity venues and well known bands, Textures, Venom Inc and Conan headlining, amongst the many other underground and rising stars of rock and metal that took to the stage across popular Brighton venues over one mighty weekend, and for its efforts it was almost an complete sell out! Now Mammothfest is inviting you to their special Christmas party which will be a hell of a show! So come and celebrate and enjoy the mental line-up! The event itself ...

Crowd at Mammothfest Brighton 2016 by Luke Bateman Check out my review of Mammothfest Brighton 2016 which just focuses on the rising emerging bands that featured on the line up for Agony Magazine. Visit link below: http://www.agonymagazine.com/2016/10/14/mammothfest-brighton-30th-september-2nd-october-2016/

"Expect something in there from almost any genre you can think of laid over a constant theme.." Vrona from Brighton, East Sussex, UK are a diverse textured progressive instrumental act to keep an eye on, after seeing them myself live at this year's Mammothfest in their hometown I caught up with guitarist, Jack Baker to ask about how the festival was for them, how they came to be and much more!  Firstly you have an interesting band name, can you tell us how this came about and what it means? Sure! It essentially came around by the idea of not wanting to be limited by our name, if a band called “ Daisy and the Chitty Chums ” put out a pornogrind album it ’ d just be weird, same story with a band called “ Guttural Decimation ” throwing out a jazz-funk album, so in that sense having a fairly open ended name like Vrona appealed, especially with the groggy weird nature of what we do where we could put pretty much anything in the middle of a song and i...

I caught up with guitarist/vocalist, W (short for Wraith) from Extreme Metal band, Vehement from the South East UK, ahead of their upcoming Festival appearance at Mammothfest Brighton on the 30th September (tonight!) to find out what to expect ahead of the event, as well as discussing their formation over a decade ago, debut album 'Collapse' and more. So firstly can you tell us about your formation over a decade ago now? Vehement first came together approximately ten years ago when Xysor, Andras and then bassist and guitarist Nybras & Vern were brought together by a mutual friend of ours. Said friend left and since then, it's been a four-piece. How do you think your sound and band dynamics has changed since starting out? I think our sound has changed a lot since the band started out, especially from the beginning. I joined in 2009 and since then, the music has developed and changed over the years from a deliberately experimental and "progressive" sound to a ...

Update: Osiah Replaced Liquid Graveyard & Terraborn replaced Killer Hurts Mammothfest set in South East England, Brighton UK is back for its fourth event, and continues to grow bigger each year (since doing this interview earlier today weekend, stoner doom and rikstock tickets have all sold out!). Taking place from the 30th September to the 2nd October 2016 across four venues in Brighton known for its active night life and thriving music scene, Mammothfest is Brighton's only true metal festival. The different stages offer heavy weight acts such as Textures, Heart Of A Coward and Venom Inc as well as some of the finest emerging bands and local talents.  With mere days to go until this mighty festival kicks off I caught up with director and creator of Mammothfest, Steve Dickson to find out what is in store for this year's massive event... With Mammothfest less than a week away, how excited are you to host the fourth event in Brighton?! I have never been so ...

Stone Circle announces crowdfunding campaign to record EP in 2016 Progressive metal band Stone Circle (UK) has set up a crowdfunding campaign to aid their next recording, to be done at Bandit Studios (with producer Jonny Renshaw - guitarist for Devil Sold His Soul, ex Mahumodo). The EP will be their 5th release to date and Stone Circle are calling on fans to help contribute towards the recording, including limited edition signed copies of the EP upon its release on pre-order. The band are hoping to raise £1500 to cover the full cost of recording and mastering. www.indiegogo.com/projects/stone-circle-ep-metal Stone Circle has had several accolades from the press, including Terrorizer Magazine stating: “What with Opeth going all 'full-prog' on us, the time couldn’t be better for a new band to take up the mantle of king purveyors of intelligent, melodic and progressively-minded death metal.” Metal Hammer gave the group 8/10 for their performance at UKTechfest “...Their Op...

Live Album Teaser Plus New European Tour Dates for Space Rockers! Alternative electro hard rockers, Weesp from Minsk are keeping the momentum going since the successful release of their high impact debut alum, 'The Void' last year. The album displayed an array of infectious and electrifying hits, such as singles, 'Murderers' and 'Solar Empire' which featured Cory Brandan of American metalcore band, Norma Jean. The band are also known for their energetic outstanding shows, so its no wonder they have decided to release 'The Void' Live in concert, filmed in Minsk to capture this.  Check out the exciting and epic teaser now below! I suggest you catch Weesp live for yourselves, and luckily have have just announced a new European tour: 13.10 Berlin - Slaughterhouse http://slaughterhouse-berlin.de/ 15.10 Hamburg - Grüner Jäger http://www.gruener-jaeger-stpauli.de 18.10 Prague - Lucerna Music Bar http://www.musicbar.cz/ 19.10 Krakow - Jazz Roc...

Heath is a recently formed act, which consists of the multi-skilled singer, songwriter and instrumentalist Peter Hewison, who is based in Manchester, UK. Heath's debut EP is currently in production, but this new song, 'Old Town' gives us a taste of what is to come... 'Old Town' is a blissful reminiscent indie alt rock number, which is a joy to listen to especially with Peter's soft and soothing voice, paired with ambient effective tones and sounds to accompany which make for a very alluring offering. With this new single and the previously released, 'Back Up Now' it is evident that Peter is a brilliant musician and can inject soul and passion into this beautiful chilled out rock. This is the perfect preview that will certainly charm and interest the masses. If you liked this track, luckily we don't have to wait long until the next, as he will be releasing new song, 'Whiskey Skies' soon. In the meantime check out new single 'Old ...

MAMMOTHFEST 2016 TO SUPPORT MARTLETS HOSPICE FOLLOWING THE TRAGIC PASSING OF TOM SEARLE FROM ARCHITECTS THIS A CALL TO ALL BANDS/LABELS/MAGAZINES etc to send MAMMOTHFEST some prizes they can raffle off to help raise as much money as possible. Tom Searle of metal band Architects - RIP The Mammothfest team in Brighton have been deeply moved by the passing of Tom Searle of Architects recently. He spent his last days being cared for by the incredible people at Martlets hospice, a charity that rely on donations to continue to help those in need through their last days. Stephen Dickson, Mammothfest director commented: "Firstly we send our love and compassion to the band and their families at this difficult time. Having personally witnessed the passing of my best friend and Mammothfest business partner Rik Mosquero in 2013 after months in a hospice, we know just how tough a journey it is. It is fucking brutal so we are compelled to do something positive to put some back. The peop...