Shadowrise Interview
July 2016 (Via Skype)
As part of Sonic Cathedral’s partnership with Female Metal Event - FemME, we are introducing readers to the winners of this year’s Battle of the Bands, in which the top two contenders landed a slot on this year’s festival line-up. Please welcome Laura Guldemond, lead vocalist for the Dutch power metal band, Shadowrise!
Read more: Shadowrise InterviewCelestial Ruin Interview
(via Skype)
Tie your bib, grab your fork, and get ready to tuck into a tasty musical offering, dished up by the Vancouver-based symphonic hard rock band, Celestial Ruin. Although the Pandora EP is five-tracks, it manages to be both diverse and satisfying, thanks to its artful combination of New World rock sensibilities and Old World symphonic elements. Bluesy belting, pulse-racing instrumentation, and lush orchestral passages are a recipe for metal goodness! Add to that some fine keyboard contributions by Ruben Wijga (The Theater Equation, ex-ReVamp) and Joost van den Broek producing the EP, and you have an album that will stand the test of time.
Read more: Celestial Ruin InterviewHigh Fighter Interview
June 2016 (via Skype)
With a band name like High Fighter, one might expect Scars & Crosses to be a stoner soundtrack for a mellow night of bong rips. Hah, guess again! Scars & Crosses is a full-throttle, raucous album that refuses to tidily fit within the stoner, sludge, doom, or desert rock genres, although all of those elements certainly are present. Here is a band that brings the same simmering energy to their studio album, as they do to their live shows. Go forth, and head-bang!
Read more: High Fighter InterviewEvig Natt Interview
May 14, 2016 (via Skype)
2016 is shaping up to be a year in which long-dormant bands emerge from hibernation to introduce themselves to a new generation of metal fans. The Norwegian gothic doom band, Evig Natt (Norwegian for “eternal night”) returns from a six-year hiatus with their third studio album, Evig Natt. The album is something of a study in contradictions -- Kirsten Jørgensen’s clean vocals playing off against Stein Roger Sund’s growls, lush orchestral passages on some tracks with pared-down instrumental work on other tracks, hauntingly melancholy songs, and some might catchy choruses. Yet, despite the diversity of its tracks, the album hangs together as a cohesive whole, and reveals more of itself with repeated listens.
Read more: Evig Natt Interview
