The Electric Hellfire Club

“My motto is “Failure to evolve is exactly that, failure.” If I sounded the same that I sounded in ‘93, then I fucked up somewhere along the line. The intention of the band was not to create a formula and make a million dollars. The intention of the band was JUST to make music,” states Thomas Thorn, lead singer and founding member of the infamous Electric Hellfire Club.

Electronomicon is the fifth full-length release from Satan’s little helpers, and is certainly no failure. In fact, it is their most ambitious and best sounding album to date. Part of the genius lies in the fact that it was recorded at the famed Abyss Studios in Sweden, and produced and engineered by Tommy Tagtgren. EHC was the first American band to ever record there, (and may be the last, as studio owner Peter Tagtgren has decided to close the studio.)

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Marilyn Manson

Marilyn Manson knows a thing or two about fire and brimstone. His music scorches the earth like flames from the fingertips of an angry God, blazing through anything in its path and pulsing with an industrial-strength rage and heavy metal-inspired bravado, offering the perfect rough-and-tumble accompaniment to vocals that spray from the speakers like a hailstorm unleashed from the heavens, pelting the skin and piercing the psyche. Driven by equal parts rebellious fervor and spiritually charged dogma, he knows no path other than that of the philosophically profound and socially rehabilitative, but to hear his critics offer their take on his rock ‘n’ roll tantrums, he’s a disease in which every one of society’s self-serving watchdogs has a cure. His Portrait Of An American Family debut laid the groundwork for a band that would revolutionize the face of modern music with Antichrist Superstar, a release that gave the American youth a figure to rally behind, and American powers-that-be a figure to rally against. Manson shifted outward gears from religiously tempered to sexually shape-changing with Mechanical Animals, but his message stayed the same within music that took on a more refined and high-polished sheen. He’s been one of the most chronicled artists of the past decade, but consider it all the calm before the storm. Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death) is his outfit’s most ambitious outing yet, swirling their heaviest music to date within a soundscape that turns the hypocrisy of an American culture on end. His physical image is eerie enough to scare his Omega character into submission, and the music has hooks that scrape the skin with an infectious blend of heavy metal thunder and punk rock lightning. Marilyn Manson offered this exclusive look at the vast array of forces that shaped his entertainment Eden Holy Wood and its shadow-filled photo negative Death Valley. Welcome to Holy Wood…

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Ministry’s Burton Bell

What can be said about Ministry that hasn’t been said before?  This is a band that people love or hate, or possibly love to hate, but rarely does the band’s sound inspire any middle-of-the-road feelings.  There is no complacency when discussing Ministry, and one would guess that is just the way the band’s founder and fearless leader, Al Jourgensen, wants it to be.  Love him or hate him, Jourgensen could hardly be described as complacent.

Jourgensen is credited with creating the industrial sound, inspiring multitudes of musicians to follow him down the same dark path of pounding danceable beats and screaming electric guitars.  After twenty-five years of performing and releasing not only Ministry records, but also records from his various side projects, Jourgensen is putting the industrial giant to sleep.  Permanently.

Ministry released two new CD’s this year, “The Last Sucker” and “Cover-Up.”  Currently, Jourgensen is making one last round on his C U Later Tour, which began March 25 in Spokane, Washington and finishes up on May 10 in Chicago, Illinois with the final three dates taking place at Chicago’s House of Blues. 

Joining Jourgensen on stage are guitarists Tommy Victor (Prong) and Sin Quirin (Revolting Cocks), keyboardist John Bedchel (Ascension of the Watchers, False Icons, ex-Prong), drummer Jimmy DeGrasso (formerly of Megadeth, Suicidal Tendencies and Alice Cooper) and Static-X’s Tony Campos on bass, filling in for Paul Raven (ex-Ministry and Killing Joke) who died last year.  Also joining the band as a Special Featured Artist is Burton C. Bell (Fear Factory/AotW), who joined Maximum Ink for a chat about the final days of Ministry.

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A.F.I.

In every generation, there are bands that generate either much adoration from fans or much hatred, but rarely is there any middle ground.  AFI is just such a band.  Love them or hate them, their sound is ever-evolving and fans are heatedly debating whether their latest offering, CRASH LOVE, is their best or worst album to date. 

Beginning in Ukiah, California eighteen years ago, the band gained a following with their hardcore punk sound.  After some personnel changes that were finalized with the release of BLACK SAILS IN THE SUNSET in 1999, the band, Davey Havok, vocals, Jade Puget, guitar and vocals, Hunter Burgan, bass and vocals and Adam Carson, drums and vocals, geared up to release their what would become their life-changing record.  With the release of 2003’s SING THE SORROW, AFI enjoyed their first mainstream success, winning an MTV2 award for the single Girl’s Not Grey and selling over one million copies.  They took three years to deliver 2006’s DECEMBERUNDERGROUND, which featured the rousing anthem, Miss Murder, and in September of this year, CRASH LOVE hit store shelves, seemingly cementing AFI’s mainstream following.  The first single from CRASH LOVE, Medicate, is currently enjoying heavy rotation on many national FM stations and the video is garnering them attention on MTV.

AFI guitarist, Jade Puget, took time out of the band’s hectic touring schedule, which is on a momentary hiatus due to Havok’s bout of swine flu, to talk about CRASH LOVE, his dream of being a novelist and what he can’t live without.

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Launchpad

“Some of the best original music today comes from high school garage bands.” –Les Paul

The Wisconsin School Music Association (WSMA) is about to kick off the seventh year of the one of a kind music competition called Launchpad, using the same idea that the late great Les Paul personified in his quote. Launchpad is a statewide alternative music competition for high school students in bands formed outside of the traditional music classroom. Maximum Ink caught up with director and creator of the competition, Dennis Graham to talk about how the competition got started and where he sees it heading in the coming years.

Maximum Ink: Tell us about how Launchpad got started.

Dennis Graham: I was approached by the WSMA, which presents this program, seven years ago to talk about raising awareness on raising funds for them. As a result of my discussions with Michael George, the current Executive Director of the WSMA, and I brought up a couple ideas and the first was to present a Lifetime Achievement Award to recognize people who had a successful music career and were also impacted by a music teacher. The first ever Lifetime Achievement Award in Wisconsin was given to Les Paul. I hand delivered a letter that I wrote, which was signed by Governor Doyle, to Les inviting him back to Wisconsin (He hadn’t been back in twenty years.) October 27th, 2004 was Les Paul Day in the State of Wisconsin and it was just a marvelous day of honoring him. Steve Miller (Steve Miller Band), Les’ godson, came out and was part of it as well.

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Lthrboots

Jerry Jones, the man behind Lthrboots, has rather impressive talent. Playing as a one man band he covers vocals, keyboards, programming, drums, musical arrangement and songwriting. His first album as Lthrboots “No Restraints” was released in 2004 and is currently working on the follow-up album tentatively titled “Domination”.

Maximum Ink: I have heard it said that if you like a STOMP in your music you’ll love Lthrboots. Do you care to elaborate on that? How would you describe theLthrboots sound?
Lthrboots: When I first started out, my fans were describing my music as having a “STOMP” to it. Every time I create new songs, they seem to have that “STOMP” element in them, whether I intended it to be in there or not. I do have some slow songs which don’t have that element in them, but anything that is danceable seems to have the “STOMP” in it. The Lthrboots sound stems from my love of the music of the 80’s blended with the newest styles and sounds of today. I describe it as a combination of Cyber-Industrial, Electro and EBM. I am often compared to NIN, Depeche Mode, Suicide Commando, Gary Numan and Nitzer Ebb.

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Nine Inch Nails

It’s been six years since Trent Reznor released The Fragile, and a lot has changed in Reznor’s world. Nowhere is that more present than in new release With Teeth. Less epic in its structure than The Fragile double-disc, With Teeth is Reznor refined to a songwriting sheen, rather than navigating a colossal musical landscape. The songs still radiate with the thrust and tenacity inherent in Nine Inch Nails, but they do so with a bounce and vibrancy that breathes new life into the band, now featuring former Marilyn Manson bassist Jeordie White, Icarus Line guitarist Aaron North, returning drummer Jerome Dillon, and keyboardist Alessandro Cortini. At their heaviest, they’re industrial-fueled with a metallic surge, but there’s also an adherence to structural simplicity that harkens back to Reznor’s Pretty Hate Machine. With Teeth isn’t as pissed-off and dark as The Downward Spiral, or as emotionally bogged-down and cumbersome as The Fragile . And rightfully so neither is Reznor.

Maximum Ink sat down with the Nine Inch Nails mastermind to discuss the changes in the new album, as well as the changes in his life… 

MAXIMUM INK: Was With Teeth approached with a different direction in mind than previous albums?

TRENT REZNOR: Well, I went about writing in a different way. The last couple records, Downward Spiral and The Fragile, I realized I had written in the studio. Being that I don’t have a band to rehearse songs with, the studio becomes my instrument, and I had finally gotten a really nice place with everything I needed in it. I was realizing that the writing process was starting to become the same as the arranging and production process. It was all happening at the same time, there weren’t any demos anymoreI’d just go in the studio and come out with the songs finished, pretty much. This time around, for whatever reason, I wanted to get back to doing demos and start from a different place. Instead of starting with sounds and textures and that sort of thing, I started with words and melodies. So I moved out to L.A. and set up a place that purposely didn’t have much in it, just a piano and a drum machine, and a computer to record into. I set an every-week-and-a-half kind of deadline that didn’t allow me any time to really go off on a tangent, and let me just focus on the core of the song, then go back later and flush things out. And I think working that way made the record turn out more song-based, and less soundscape. I don’t think that’s better or worse, it’s just a different way of working that seemed like the right thing to do.

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