While nothing can replace the amazing music when a band plays so impeccably, you have to love it when Derrick Green basically tells the naysayers to fuck off when he says “this is Sepultura!” And, being that the band is celebrating 30 years, they played a set list spanning the decades. And when this is a band just as important to heavy metal as the “Big 4,” 30 years worth of material makes for a thrash assault!

When the band rolled through our town, we had the chance to sit down with guitarist Andreas Kisser for a quick interview. So, we talked about Brazilian beats in their music and how they lend themselves so perfectly to the genre, about “humans as robots” and/or zombies (a reference to the general theme of Sep’s latest album, The Mediator Between Head and Hands Must Be the Heart), and, of course, working with ex-Slayer member Dave Lombardo. Watch it all in the player above.

Sepultura Set List:

“The Vatican”
“Kairos”
“Propaganda”
“Breed Apart”
“Manipulation of Tragedy”
“Mind War”
“Convicted in Life”
“Attitude”
“Dialog”
“Sepultura Under My Skin”
“From the Past Comes the Storms”
“Territory”
“Arise”
“Refuse/Resist”
Encore
“The Curse”
“Bestial Devastation”
“Ratamahatta”
“Roots Bloody Roots”

Rock Hard \m/

Buddy Hutchins Synopsis:

Buddy Hutchins is just a regular guy doing his best to support a wife and two kids. A recovering alcoholic, Buddy hasn’t had a drink for the better part of a year, but it turns out the only reward for his good behavior is a failing business and a cheating wife. Throw in a ruthless bounty hunter and a hot-tempered ex, and Buddy’s already short fuse is about to blow. Pushed over the edge and armed with a chainsaw, Buddy Hutchins is out for blood.

The movie looks amazing. Actors have trouble watching their own movies, what about filmmakers? Can you watch this yourself?
Thank you! For me I watch the movie a lot during the editing process, watching various edits as it all comes together. By the time the movie is finalized, I have seen many renditions of it. After it’s done I will only go back and watch some of it very occasionally. However, now that you asked me this, I think I need to have a movie marathon and re-watch all my movies.

How much do reviews mean to filmmakers? Do they still mean as much in this Internet-age?
They matter to some extent, I mean, there are many reviewers that just like to trash seemingly everything. A lot of moviegoers can’t seem to differentiate between an independent movie and a studio movie. If they don’t see the latest and greatest special effects and familiar faces on every frame, they think it sucks. So that sort of flak comes with making low-budget movies. That said, I definitely Google the movie and read the reviews, just to see what’s out there.  

We get to see a different side of Jamie Kennedy here. How did the idea to use him come up?
I had known Jamie for some time before the movie, so we reached out to him. Not only because I knew him, but he was also perfect for the part.

Did Jamie get into those more violent scenes? Seems like he was having a hoot of a time!
He did! I think Jamie has a dark side that popped out, and, yes, he was really getting into it, which really helped the movie. Him getting into it the way he did added a nice sense of authenticity.

Did you do any research into guys like this? I assume they’d be everywhere!
I myself go to some dark places, so it wasn’t too difficult to get my head in the right space. Plus I wrote the movie.

Did the film do a festival run before distribution? Or were you lucky enough to get distribution off the bat?
We did not do a festival run for Buddy. Luckily, we were able to secure great distribution on the strength of the movie.

Can you tell us about your other new film, Bound. It would seem a timely one because of Fifty Shades of Grey.
That was done by the kings of Mockbusters, and the producers of Sharknado, the almighty The Asylum. It’s a sexy movie, edgy. I had the privilege of writing and directing it. It came out nationwide in theaters January 9th.

Rock Hard \m/

Justin Timpane, director of Ninjas vs. Zombies and Ninjas vs. Vampires, has a new movie coming out, and it’s said to be the final installment in the Ninjas vs. series. Ninjas vs. Monsters hits DVD and VOD on January 26th in the UK and February 6th in the U.S. We were lucky enough to score an interview with Timpane, in which he talks about his movie as well as other, more graphic types of horror, his horror influences, and the future of the Ninjas vs. franchise — see, this won’t be the last one.

Ninjas vs. Monsters Synopsis:

In this final installment, the Ninjas and their friends find themselves pitted against the most evil and memorable monsters of them all – Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy, the Werewolf, and MORE! Loaded with martial arts action, bloody horror, gun play, magic, comedy, pop-culture references, and a tightly woven twist-filled plot.

The movie is hilariously funny – was that the intention? Or am I missing the message in the movie?
Oh, totally. Any movie that starts with “Once upon a time there were these dudes. Their lives sucked big fat donkey balls,” is not gonna take itself too seriously. We want the serious parts (and they’re there too) to be the welcome surprise bit of heart in what is otherwise meant to be a romp.

Do you think there needs to be more humor in today’s horror movies?
I think you can find it if you look. Cabin in the Woods, Drag Me to Hell, the Scream pics, even Blair Witch and Exists has a good dose of humor… the humor is there if you look. It’s not as prevalent as it used to be, but its there.

Many still seem pretty determined to disturb — with their torture porn and Human Centipede-esque biliousness — rather than simply give the audience a good time. Don’t you agree?
I think there’s room for the raw stuff too. There seems to be that cycle in horror, it gets lighter, then someone comes in with the gritty intense one, end even that eventually lightens up. I saw the first SAW and liked it well enough for being really intense, then it got to bee too much. I caught the last SAW though, and it was actually so over-the-top it was silly. I always liked the slasher genre because there was room for fun in there too.

What are some of your favorite horror movies? Any, in particular, influence your career?
Top Five: Nightmare on Elm Street 3, Cabin in the Woods, Scream, Freddy vs Jason, Evil Dead 2… there are so many. I think it is worth noting that in all my favorites, the good guys are almost superheroic. There’s an action-y, almost comic book-y vibe to my favorite horror films, and I think it probably influenced the Ninjas films in a big way.

Is there a movie that directly influenced these Ninjas vs. movies, or was it just a wild idea you came up with?
Well, I have to give credit to my pal Daniel Ross for shepherding my crazy notions this whole time. He and I had this moment where we decided we wanted to make a flick and spent a day going through a Blockbuster (remember those?) looking for what was missing. Ninjas Vs Zombies was the result. I wrote the story and the screenplay, but Daniel was always there to tell me when my ideas were great and when they sucked… big fat donkey balls…

Why “monsters” this time around?
Well, we faced zombies and vampires and we had considered werewolves or something less horror, but we decided the best idea was to see the people who were behind all the zombies and vampires and the evil our heroes had to fight… and who else would it be in that case… Dracula and Frankenstein! Add a mummy and a werewolf and some witches (and zombies and ghouls and more!!) and the film becomes this big extravaganza.

Did you pull a Hitchcock and cameo in the movie yourself?
Not this time. I pulled more of a Mel Brooks and cast myself in a big role in Ninjas Vs Vampires (Reefer), but I’m more than happy to let our talented cast shine. (You can hear a lot of me at the popular TREKOFF podcast, which will be the focus of our next movie.)

If you could’ve afforded any A-lister on the planet, who would you have put in the movie?
Ooh… that’s tough. We kind of have an A-List producer when it comes to indie horror in Eduardo Sanchez. The man made Blair Witch and Exists for goodness sakes! But acting wise? Either Bruce Campbell or Kevin Smith would have been fun. Neither would call themselves an A-Lister, but they are to me. Robert Englund, maybe?

Any ideas for a future Ninjas vs movie?
Ideas? Tons. But I think we’re gonna let our heroes take a rest after this one. We have TREKOFF coming up, and then some really cool and unique ideas I have never seen in indie cinema. For now… If the old Evil Dead flicks, or Kevin Smith films, or just fun horror (with a TON of Kung Fu!) were your cup of tea, you will probably dig Ninjas Vs Monsters. You can check us out on iTunes, Xbox, PlayStation, Comcast, and a ton of VOD outlets, as well as on DVD from Ninjasvs.com on February 3rd. (In the UK, find us on January 26th, on Amazon or VOD). Thanks so so much for reading this! Now go get the flick!

Since our interview took place after the Huntress set, this being our second time seeing the band live, I told Jill that she was a “woman possessed.” The witch then began chanting, tied me up, and put me in a cauldron for tenderizing. I’m kidding of course, but she is a pagan witch and she did give me a somewhat confused look, but she rolled with it. But onstage, she does look possessed when she opens her eyes wide, gives those theatrical looks toward the audience, delivers her death scream, and strikes those poses with her cape flowing in the wind.

As you may have gathered, we chatted about witchcraft, in addition to the inspiration behind the new album (Starbound Beast, released on June 28, 2013), how the band has matured since the first album, women and sexuality in heavy metal, aliens, constellations, details on the upcoming video for “Zenith,” and much more.

If you’ve heard the new Huntress material and are interested in picking up Starbound Beast, it’s available in a variety of packages: CD DigiPak, Vinyl, and digital download. At Amazon, the CD is available for $9.99 and the MP3 for $9.49.

And if you haven’t heard Huntress, do so now and then order. I don’t think you’ll regret it — they’re straight up old-school metal with a modern twist.

Huntress Starbound Beast track listing:

1. Enter the Exosphere
2. Blood Sisters
3. I Want To Fuck You To Death
4. Destroy Your Life
5. Starbound Beast
6. Zenith
7. Oracle
8. Receiver
9. Spectra Spectral
10. Alpha Tauri

Rock Hard \m/

This is my first interview so I thank Mr. Stanze for taking the time to answer my questions. Enjoy!

What are a few of your favorite horror films?

THE EXORCIST, THE CHANGELING, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968), DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978), CREEPSHOW, VIDEODROME, THE SHINING, BLACK SUNDAY, BLACK SABBATH.

What are a few of your favorite non-horror films?

THE GODFATHER I & II, APOCALYPSE NOW, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, NETWORK, SERPICO. Newer films, WINTER’S BONE, NEVER LET ME GO. Almost everything by David Fincher.

Who are some of your personal influences?

When I was very young and first trying to be a filmmaker, I was heavily influenced by Sam Raimi, George Romero, and Wes Craven. On a personal level, my grandfather was a huge influence – he was very supportive when I was making student films as a teenager.

What would you say is the mission or goal you hope to achieve through film?

Filmmaking provides amazing life experiences. I want this to continue, while I keep adding to my skill set as a director. I like to do something completely different with each movie I make. Each film is like a class – I become a more well-rounded filmmaker and improve my skills. You don’t get that when you keep making the same kind of movie over and over. Plus, the variety gives me a greater range of life experiences – shooting in new places, working with new people, researching new things.

Of all the films you have made so far, which one are you happiest with?

I tend to move on, emotionally, when I am done with each film. I’m always most excited about my next movie.

Continue reading the Eric Stanze interview on the jump…

But that’s superficial appearance stuff.

What started out as a self-proclaimed slut metal band, with nipple tape hiding the essentials, has evolved into something that focuses less on appearance than it does on performance and songs. So, gone are the costumes (or have they been added?) and gone are the props and the blood spectacle, which I think should have been kept. And what’s left is a hard-working band trying to make its way and stand out as something unique.

Now, after roughly three short years, the Butcher Babies have evolved, put out an EP, released a comic book, are opening for Marilyn Manson, and are ready to record their first full-length album for Century Media. That’s a pretty fast ride. And, honestly, I think the tits helped them get there. However, when I was first approached to interview this band, I had to show everyone who they were. Unfortunately, the sound quality on the YouTube videos of the band performing suck, and even in the “Mr. Slowdeath” video you’re distracted visually. All of this led to people asking me if they were any good. What I told these people to do was to close their eyes when they listen. I believe that if you do that, you’ll hear something of value.

That’s not to say that the Butcher Babies are doing anything original, musically, but it’s solid. The musicianship is solid, Heidi’s vocals are surprisingly vicious (surprising because she’s about 5’2″ and 95 pounds), and Carla’s vocals bring a great emotional value to the harmonies.

It seems that everyone in the band is influenced by the macabre (horror, crazy people, graphic comics, etc.) and shock rock (including Marilyn Manson, Alice Cooper, Wendy O., etc.). This gives the band credibility in their chosen subject matter and musical styling.

It’s hard to say if the Butcher Babies will be around in the next 5 to 10 years, but they’re working hard to stay in the game. You should check them out at a show, it’s worth the experience, and given the fact that they consciously put more clothes on to bring focus to their music emphasizes the point that they are they real deal.

Rock Hard \m/

We caught up with Alissa White-Gluz for an interview just after her tight set with The Agonist, but we only had 10 minutes before she had to get back into the venue to do guest vocals with Blackguard. It was a little rushed and we had to blast through our questions, and honestly I felt bad for pulling her away, but we came away with some interesting information for fans.

Find out which metal goddess was Alissa’s saving grace, or fairy godmother, or whatever you wanna call her. If you want to be animal friendly with your makeup, she’ll tell you the brand she uses. There are a few more nuggets of information in there that we’re sure you’ll find interesting as well.

If you want to check out The Agonist live, and we highly recommend that you do, here’s a list of some their upcoming shows:

Tour Dates – The Agonist

May 24 – Championship Bar & Grill – Trenton, NJ
May 25 – Lowell Brewery Exchange – Lowell, MA
May 27 – Bug Jar – Rochester, NY
May 29 – Bogies – Albany, NY
June 16 – Moe’s Original Bar-B-Que – Englewood, CO
June 18 – Lizard Lounge – Wichita, KS
June 22 – Vaudeville Mews – Des Moines, IA
June 27 – Another Hole in the Wall – Steger, IL
June 30 – Planet Rock – Battle Creek, MI
July 11 – Bronx Space – Bronx, NY
July 15 – The Backstage at Championship Bar – Trenton, NJ
July 18 – Ground Zero – Spartanburg, SC
August 12 – Parc Jean-Drapeau (Heavy MTL) – Montreal, QC

Hollywood needs more directors like Chris Fisher. To the layfan skimming his IMDB page, Fisher is a Straight-To-Video/B-movie director to be dismissed. To serious filmgoers willing to do their homework and examine his filmography, the man is a filmmaking force on the rise.

Okay, with a resume consisting of titles like Rampage: The Hillside Strangler Murders, S. Darko, and Street Kings 2: Motor City, one can’t hail him the next Christopher Nolan or anything, but let it be known – the guy is no slouch. Though the list of feature films under his belt may seem like disparate B-level undertaking, a closer look reveals the cinematic artistry of a budding auteur. Fisher approaches his work with such intelligence and film literacy that he can be deemed nothing less than a video-store-relegated visionary. Among his trademarks are a strong surrealist style, a particular predilection for pulpy thrills, and a wonderful weakness for film noir conventions. His latest film, Meeting Evil, is his most distinctive synthesis of these ideas to date and could become his mainstream, breakout hit.

Adapted from a novel by Thomas (Little Big Man) Berger Meeting Evil is about the thin line between desperation and dark impulses. Surreal alcoholic real estate agent John (Luke Wilson) is having the worst day of his life – his house is being foreclosed, his marriage is on the rocks, and he’s been fired from his job. Things change when the charismatic Richie (Samuel L. Jackson) winds up on his doorstep with car troubles. What begins as a Good Samaritan act quickly cements a bond between the two men, one complicated by Richie’s extreme homicidal tendencies and obsession with John.

Meeting Evil hits select theaters next month (May 4) and is currently available on VOD through Amazon. This week, Yell! Magazine sat down with Fisher for a one-on-one interview to discuss adaptations, actors, ambiguity, and the rewards of Meeting Evil.

You adapted Meeting Evil from the novel by Thomas Berger. What attracted you to this source material?

Well, there are a number of things about the book that I thought would make a great movie. One, the villain, Richie, just flew off the page – he’s one of the most charismatic villains I’ve read in any book. He just screamed for a movie. Another thing about the novel that intrigued me was that it was one of those crazy page turners. The kind of book you just curl up on a couch with and finish in an hour.

As we all know, adapting novels is usually something people complain about – so much is left outside the film, the 90-minute running time of the film just isn’t long enough to encapsulate all the great elements of the novel. I took some liberties in adapting the book, certainly. I didn’t retain the point of view that Thomas Berger had when he wrote the novel, but he read the script and thought it retained the essence and themes he was trying to tell, if not the exact letter.

According to IMDB, your background is as a corporate lawyer.

[Laughs] Yeah, sort of. I studied film and philosophy at USC as an undergrad and when I graduated, I thought I would write a screenplay and sell it for a million dollars and laugh all the way to the bank. Of course, I wrote that screenplay and everyone told me it was the worst thing they ever read in their life. So, as a 22-year-old guy I was disappointed, as anyone can imagine, and I sort of got shell shocked by it. I tried to carry cable and be a production assistant for six months but decided it wasn’t exactly what I wanted to do.

My dad was a lawyer and he said, “Apply to a top 10 school and if you get in, just go.” So that’s what happened. So I kept writing screenplays through law school and I took a job as a corporate lawyer in London when I was 25. I did that for about six months… thought I could do my legal work during the day and write scripts at night but my brain was too fried from being a lawyer. I realized I had to quit and do what everyone does – come to Hollywood, take your hard knocks, get a terrible desk job, do what ever you do to get a break, and that’s what I ended up doing.

I’ve noticed you tend to drift pretty heavily toward crime-related movies. Even Meeting Evil has a pretty strong film noir vibe to it. Do you believe your experiences practicing law informed your filmmaking?

You know, I don’t really think so. As someone who loves films I’ve always loved noir. If there was one genre I would love to just make movies within, it would be noir. I’ve always just sort of loved the dark side of life. I’ve always liked underdogs; I like the high drama that crime stories have. I like the sort of grey area… the charismatic villains. It may just be through the sort of life choices I made, I became interested in the darker side of things.

Meeting Evil has a gritty, retro style to it that is very distinctive. How did you develop the film’s look? Was that the plan from the get-go or was it a carryover from the novel?

That was definitely the plan from the get-go. [For] me and the director of photography Marvin Rush there were three things we wanted to accomplish stylistically. One, we wanted to make it look like sort of suburban Western. Two, we wanted the movie to have a magical realist tone, to set a magical or supernatural [element] to be blended seamlessly with reality.

The third thing is we wanted to craft a very contemporary neo-noir film. We talked about angles, how to backlight Richie as much as possible, keeping shadow in his face and shadow in his eyes and being very careful about when we see through his eyes. There’s lots of little detail – we have pages and pages of correspondences on how we made this movie a fun, contemporary neo-noir film.

In the movie Kiss of Death, there’s this wonderful villain named Tommy Udo, and [I saw Meeting Evil] as a chance to do a character like Tommy Udo. Ironically, Kiss of Death was remade in the ’90s and Sam [L. Jackson] was actually in that movie as well. My general love of film goes toward crime films of the ’40s and ’50s – those are the movies I watched as a kid and those are the movies I love and the movies I want to keep making. I really like hard-boiled, hard-edged stuff.

Speaking of charismatic villains and magical realism, there is a certain ambiguity surrounding Jackson’s character of Richie – his reason for winding up on John’s doorstep and his ultimate intentions. Who or what is Richie to you?

To me it depends on how you’re reading the film.

[Spoilers ahead]

Clearly, Richie is being hired by John’s wife to kill him. Literally, that’s how the plot goes, that’s how the movie works in the real world, that’s who Richie is.

Where I was coming from as a filmmaker – I wanted to make a symbiotic relationship between John and Richie. What I wanted to say about evil is that he [Richie] is not an external force, evil comes from within. Evil comes from our own trials and our own life choices and mistakes. Richie is sort of a creation of John. He is a supernatural character in that sense – he’s real, but he’s given birth from that life John and Joanie [played by Leslie Bibb] have together and her hiring Richie to kill John. That gave Richie his power.

I wanted to have several different interpretations of what Richie was, which is why you never see him kill people. For example, Richie goes into a gas station and you later see his 15 victims. Well, how does he do that? Certainly, if I showed it in a supernatural way, that would give the movie a very one-dimensional sense. I wanted this movie to have multiple dimension… that sort of ambiguity was something we spent a lot of time protecting and trying to execute in an intelligent way.

[End spoilers]

The dressing rooms at the venue were full, as a lot of interviews were going down with two heavy-hitting bands getting ready to tear that stage apart, so Paolo took me onto Trivium’s tour bus (that’s the hum you hear on the audio). I was a little nervous getting onboard, I mean, I’m not a chick, I don’t like Reeses Pieces, and that’s their home on wheels. It was a bit odd, walking through their “bedroom,” which was six bunks (three stacked on each side). Anyway, we found our way to the lounge area at the back of the bus, sat down on some brown leather sofas and had a heart to heart.

Without giving too much away, we covered everything from album charts to Nick to some news on the next album to where Matt gets his inspiration to reading material to barcades to horror.

I’d love to be able to say that the tour bus was a debaucherous mess with half naked women running about, but these days that probably only exists in this rock fans head. Big thanks to Paolo and Dean at Roadrunner.

Rock Hard!

We caught up with Peter Iwers of In Flames recently to talk about the current tour, the new album, old versus new In Flames, his influences, and some other random shit.

We would have given you a video interview, but our camera man was accosted and mugged by a group of transvestite hookers in the subway system. See, he gave them a curious eye and seeing an opportunity proposed a “film” idea to them. They didn’t take kindly to the idea, stripped him naked, sodomized him, and took his equipment. So now Yell! Magazine has to give you an audio interview, which is better than a transcribed interview, so stop complaining.

As the hour of our interview approached, In Flames’ tour manager called me to ask if we could move the location of the interview. See, Peter Iwers is a huge hockey fan and he wanted to watch the game that night. Since the concert venue didn’t have a television for him, he had to go to a nearby sports bar, which is where I met him and Bjorn Gelotte. Bjorn offered me a beer a couple of times, but professionalism dictated that I refuse.

Peter Iwers - In Flames at Metropolis Montreal

I apologize in advance for all the background noise in the interview, it was a sports bar after all. Hope you enjoy it, nonetheless.

Rock Hard!