Reaping Asmodeia

      "Asmodeia pertains to the principle demon that overlooks the circle of hell pertaining to lust and wrath.  Most of the problems we encounter throughout life involve the desire to let lust overcome us or sway our sense of right and wrong." Explains the progressive deathcore band from Twin Cities, Reaping Asmodeia. "We all feel the name just came together as a concept we all believed to hold true in our lives, and to anyone that is truly living theirs."
      After forming about a year and a half ago, the band is very proud of the fanbase they've earned. "We are very lucky to have the incredible fans that we do!  To have the people that  have interest in what we are doing is amazing and we are very thankful for it.  Especially since people just are not going out to shows as much as they were even 2 or 3 years ago, we are always looking forward to playing a show in St. Paul or Minneapolis."

      The band came together when Alex Kelly (guitar), Jakub Muhle (Bass), and Daniel Koppy (drums) left their band, Dead Hands Rising. Alex and Daniel quickly started work on the new project, spending 10 months preparing 5 songs and trying out vocalists and guitarists. Eventually, thet found Tim Snook (vocals) and Matt Kalsnes (guitar) for the positions. "To put it simply, they both shared the same vision in every way Alex and myself did.  They strive to become better musicians everyday they work with their instruments.  And they wanted to bang their heads hard and play fast and heavy music! So that definitely furthered our decision along."
        A good friend of the band, Kyle Skogquist, played bass for the band's first 5 months. "We were always in close contact with Jakub and he had wanted to be a part of what we were doing all along the way." Jakub joined the band in July 2010. "We are 5 guys that are all almost the same person.  We pour every ounce of ourselves into our live show, and we definitely feel that anyone that has seen a Reaping show will hopefully agree that it stays intense from start to finish."

      Some of the many musical influences include Despised Icon, Cannibal Corpse and Behemoth. The band also takes influence from solo guitar and bass work like Jason Becker, Paul Gilbert, Rusty Cooley, Victor Wooten, and Les Claypool. "We all draw a lot of influence from a lot of punk bands as well and none of us are afraid to say we love Blink 182. The list really goes on and on cause when it comes down to it, we really are all just a group of true music lovers."
      When describing the band's sound, one would say they were fast and heavy. "We are by no means the fastest band out there or anything like that, but speed definitely plays a big part in our sound.  I think that a lot of our music just kind of keeps kicking you in the face in a sense.  We are not afraid of trying different ideas though feel and dynamic, which is something a lot of bands lose in the mix of creating music.  So we are trying new things here in there with some of our new material.  But rest assured, we love playing fast and keeping things heavy, so dont expect that to change from us."
     As far as lyrical content goes, the band has lots of real life themes. Typically the band's lyrics are darker. "(Our lyrics) pertain to a lot of real life experience within our dismal world.  Luckily we have a very crafty vocalist and his lyrics flow and are interesting to us.  They are very thought out, a lot is put into the words Tim screams.  Even if Tim is screaming about someone going to hell, he means it, and theres a reason for it."

      You can find the band playing all kinds of shows with all kinds of bands. "We are quite obviously playing a more modern style of metal that will appeal more typically to the younger crowd, but at the same time, we have a lot of old school metal influence with our guitar harmonies and such that we get respect from the older bar crowd we get to play for often, fortunately."
      Their performances are filled with energy and very intense. "We just do what feels natural to us, and that is just bangin our heads as hard as we can and having fun with the crowd and each other. The one thing that really makes or breaks any rock or metal band is the live performance.  The 5 of us, luckily, all share the same idea when it comes to performing.  We are in a metal band and we want to perform the way the music should feel to the listener: intense! We always have fun and thats the most important thing.  How should we expect anyone in the crowd to get crazy if we are not doing so ourselves?  We hold ourselves to a high standard but always have fun at the same time."
      The band released their first demo near the end of 2010. The demo is filled with guitar solos, fast breakdowns, melodies, dark riffs, and technical metal drumming. "Really, the songs are what they are, demos.  It's us working with our sound and trying to find out what works and feels right for us."
      The band has matured in the last year and it shows in the band's latest material, set to be released in the coming months. Their first full-length album will be tracked October 4th and the band has really honed in on their sound. "The newer stuff is much more melodic, yet it is also the heaviest stuff we have written thus far.  We are really excited to play some of the newer songs that no one has heard because they are our favorite stuff to play. It's easier on the ears, yet it's our hardest stuff to us to play. I really don't think our music will ever really be "easy",  It's very busy and we like it that way. We try to challenge ourselves with every riff, but we want people to be able to latch onto parts a little more, so I think that will show in our music in our newer stuff.  We may play something twice here and there instead of a riff for 3 seconds and then it's gone forever."

      The band plans to keep on trucking as far as the band can take them. "We are working hard to work our way up the long tall ladder in the metal world.  We want to get this full length done that we are tracking next month and get back on the road and tour and play our asses off.   We want to play for any and every person that will give us their attention, or die trying.  It's the only way to get noticed in any genre of music and we will continue to bust our asses with every note we play to be a band that stands out in some manner and that you notice for one reason or another."
      And now a personal message from Reaping Asmodeia to you, the reader: "Pass the word on about Reaping Asmodeia.  If you dig us help us out and tell a friend or ten.  Come out to a show and bang your head with us and we will for sure be hitting a city near you very soon!"
   

I Solemnly Swear

      Not very many bands will tell you that their band name was inspired by Harry Potter movies, but not very many bands are hardcore/nu-metal band, I Solemnly Swear. "We are huge fans of the film and were inspired by the cleverness of the Marauder's Map, as well as its ability to show you everything and anything. As a band we wanted to put all of our emotions out there for the world to see while still being "up to no good" and making people mosh it up as we do for our favorite bands."
      The Rockford band came together in March of 2011 after many line-up changes. "I believe we went through about 11 different people up until our first show. Then almost immediately after, we replaced virtually everyone again and found the lineup we have today. We actually had a member from Bloom practice with us and a member from 2KL both classic punk bands so it was an awkward couple of lineups."

      The band has a wide range of influences, as each member of the band comes from a different musical background. Garret Deporter (dirty vocals), Jon Frisk (bass), and Drew Dippel (guitar) were the only members to originally listen to the hardcore genre. AJ Maddrell (drums) listened to a lot of metalcore like Avenged Sevenfold and Bullet For My Valentine while Matt Anderson (guitar/clean vocals) listened to a lot of punk and emo bands like The Used and Four Year Strong.
      With all the different influences flying around, the band found a place between the hardcore genre and metal. "We incorporate thick heavy breakdowns with fast paced metal-style riffs and drumming. I think we sound very similar to our influences and there's nothing wrong with that. We love playing the stuff we love hearing." Says the band.

      The band has played several local Rockford venues such as the Bethesda Church and The ELB, as well as some venues in the surrounding area like The House Cafe and Spurgeon's Bay. The band hopes to play shows at Mojoe's and The Metro, and anywhere else in Chicago. They also have interest in playing shows up north in Kenosha.
      Performances for the band are very in-your-face with many of their fans claiming the band's performances are better live than the recordings. "We just love the energy of playing a live show and just letting it all be seen. We have a face that our guitarist has perfected called the mean mug and he basically does it the entire show because our riffs are just so mean and he loves just getting angry and energetic when he plays them."

      The band released their EP, Believe What You Hear, in the summer of 2011. The EP was recorded with Josh Wheeler, who produced their previous EP and the full-length of fellow Rockford band, A Journey To Fall. "We really wanted to get ahead of the wave of EPs coming this fall so we got into the studio and basically recorded every song we played live and got it all in there and ready to show off to our fans. There was such a big jump between our stuff from the demo to now so we wanted to get in and show it off as soon as we could get the money together."
      The EP takes it's name from a lyric in the song "Rumors" because the band thought it was a fitting title. "We want people to literally like us, not simply click a like button. We made our title a blatant message saying we have what you want to hear and you better believe it." The EP is available from the band for $5 and includes 5 new songs and 2 rerecorded songs from the demo with intricate artwork by Johnnie Grey.

Blodravn

      Every once in a while, you come across a music project that is unlike anything you're familiar with. Blodravn, the viking metal project of Anthony Riddle is one of those projects.
      The project started when Anthony departed from the band, Kryptik. "it was fun, but we never did agree on the songwriting aspect." Recalls Riddle. He went on to form a solo project, partly because he felt that if he wanted something done right, he'd had to do it himself. Also, finding someone with similar music taste and vision in the area was difficult.

      Since starting the project in December 2010, Blodravn had garnered lots of support online. "I have had awesome feedback from the fans I have gained during the past few months. I am hoping the experience will continue as more people begin to hear about the band."
      Many musical influences range in genre, from death metal to traditional folk. Specific influences include bands like Falkenbach, Amon Amarth, Týr, Korpiklaani, and Eluveitie. "It seems that the main genre to influence me would be traditional folk, whether it be Celtic, Nordic, Sámi, etc. I just like the atmosphere that this music creates." Says Anthony.
      The band's sound can be described as folky and adventurous at times. Other times, you could describe the music as angry and depressing. "It utilizes clean vocals, black metal screams, and even guttural (Demilich style) vocals at times. There is no definite sound description because I model the songs on what I imagine them in my mind. Maybe with the next release the general sound will become more apparent."

      Apart from vocal training, Anthony has no professional music training, but uses a wide range of instruments in his music. "I can play a variety including guitar, flute/tin whistle, piano/keyboard, drums, and vocals. I have never had the patience for being instructed to learn them, I just picked them up and learned them myself. The one exception is that I am in the process of being instructed in vocals, it is the only thing I wish to be instructed in correctly."
      The project hopes to release Words of the High One, Blodravn's first full-length album, in late August or early September. "the full length album wil be featuring seven tracks - five of them between 6 - 9.5 minutes long plus an intro. It focuses mainly on Ásatrú beliefs and the Viking way of life including some texts from the Poetic Edda. I believe the future releases will also focus on this aspect."
      As soon as the album is released, Anthony will quickly begin work on the next album, which has the possibility of being released within the 6 months following the first album. "I already have many of the general melodies in mind. I also hope to get a live line-up together this fall and play shows until next spring."