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Anciients Ready to ‘Hammer’ Boise Tonight With First City of Trees Gig in 12 Years

Posted in Interviews with tags Anciients, GWAR, John Carpenter, Kenny Cook, Opeth on 08/29/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

(Go here to read my post-mortem on Anciients’ performance in Boise on Friday and why you should make every effort to see them on their current tour.)

Criticize awards all you want, but there’s something to be said for a band that has more hardware than they can carry with two hands. One of the more unlikely bands faced with this honor, problem or whatever you wanna call it is Anciients.

The Vancouver prog-metal crew snatched the Juno Award for Metal/Hard Music Album of the Year in 2018 for their second record, Voice of the Void; their debut, Heart of Oak, was deemed a long-listed nominee for Canada’s other major award for artists, the 2013 Polaris Music Prize.

Adding to their accolades, the complex, challenging band scooped up their second Juno Award for the same category mentioned above on the strength of Beyond the Reach of the Sun, released exactly one year ago. They beat out the likes of Spiritbox, Devin Townsend and other bands you’ve probably never heard of (PSYCH!).

Two days ago, Anciients initiated their first U.S. tour in eight years, dubbed “Quest Beyond Our Minds,” in Seattle. Call it a victory lap celebrating all the awards they’ve accumulated, a refresher course in their three reputed Season of Mist records and/or a jaunt serving to boost their latest Beyond the Reach of the Sun single, “Is It Your God,” their performances are a must-see for anyone who even remotely has an affinity for Anciients or their kindred spirits Opeth.

The Bad Penny touched base with Anciients vocalist/guitarist Kenny Cook mere hours before they took the stage in Seattle to pick his brain about various matters, including their concert tonight in Boise, which will mark the first time they’ve played in the potato pueblo in a dozen years.

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Norwegian Metal Master Trond Engum of Soundbyte, Third and the Mortal: The Definitive Interview

Posted in Interviews with tags The Soundbyte, The Third and the Mortal, Trond Engum on 08/28/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Even fans of Scandinavian underground music may have missed one of this year’s overlooked gems, Still Quiet (Voices of Wonder), a transfixing and truly original work of experimental erudition that vacillates between post-metal and post-rock while lacing the pacifying musical passages with male and female vocals.

The release came out a few months back courtesy of The Soundbyte, a more adventurous project led by Trond Engum. The guitarist and composer is better known for his more popular band The Third and the Mortal, which activated last year following a 19-year break, much to the delight of rock fans titillated by forays into melodic doom metal, darkwave, atmospheric alternative-rock and even trip-hop.

The Soundbyte is arguably even more daring in its compositional capacities, and Engum’s project hasn’t paused since he incepted it in 1998. If this all sounds like a lot to digest, join us as we delve into the mind of one of Norway’s most cherished musicians, and take a gander at some Still Quiet selections along the way, in The Bad Penny‘s most extensive interview of 2025 thus far.

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Stress Positions Frontman ‘Voice[s] Thoughts Fully and Without Fear’

Posted in Interviews with tags Stress Positions on 08/20/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

In case you haven’t noticed, we’re now living in a critical juncture in human history with a clear delineation between the cowardly and the brave, between those turning a blind eye to atrocities and those who are standing up to be counted, and those who lack moral character and those who don’t. Among those fighting the good fight are Stress Positions, a hardcore-punk band from Chicago that refuses to deviate from their crusade for justice and equality five years into a dizzying blur of a career. Read my full interview with the band on Post-Trash.

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Pet Sounds #59: Flummox’s Love for Their Pets Is Unwavering

Posted in Interviews with tags Alyson Blake Dellinger, Flummox on 08/05/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

When The Bad Penny caught up with Flummox front woman Alyson Blake Dellinger in April via video chat, she was in her comfort zone: Hanging out with her cats and wearing a cat ears headband in solidarity with her feline friends. The Nashville-area multi-instrumentalist was clearly in her happy place, but her smile was set to grow even bigger come Friday, with the release of the latest album by her bizarro heavy-rock/psych/funk/jam band, Southern Progress.

The experimental band describes itself as creators of “genre-fluid sounds for the strange & nocturnal,” and that couldn’t be more evident than on their fifth studio record. It’s Flummox’s second for Needlejuice, the label whose first release–the 2017 album Polygondwanaland by similar-minded King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard–put it on the map. For their own part, Flummox have blazed their own trail as a queer/transfemme quintet to be reckoned with. Dellinger–who plays bass and piano, in addition to providing vocals–launched the band in 2012.

But while we could go on and on abut the band, we know why you clicked into this story: to see heartwarming pics of the band members’ many pets

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Zaq Baker Finds Self-Worth Amid Mental Health Struggles, Writing First Novel

Posted in Features, Interviews, What You Readin' For? with tags Zaq Baker on 08/05/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

“There’s a lot of danger in saying ‘I feel better now,’ because I [wrote a novel or recorded an album]. There’s like a tenuousness to that, especially in music. [Those feelings of pride] have an arc that goes down eventually.” -Zaq Baker

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Kayo Dot Meticulously Dots All the I’s, Crosses All the T’s on Fierce New LP

Posted in Interviews with tags Kayo Dot on 08/04/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Kayo Dot may be a blip on the radar when it comes to the universe of music, but for those enough to see and identify the avant-garde metal from Boston, they are a North Star of artistic brilliance. They occupy a throne among metal’s noblemen. They are intellectual to the core, a fact of which listeners are reminded with each stroke of musical brilliance that emanates from their collective strength as true artists.

Every Rock, Every Half-Truth Under Reason (Prophecy Productions), released Friday, proves these statements of fact through and through. It’s a strong and focused artistic statement, executed with precision, and full of innovative ideas that go far beyond what most metal bands are even attempting right now. That alone is a lot to be proud of.

Every Kayo Dot album aims to explore new artistic concepts and technical approaches—it’s the best way to grow both as an artist and as a human being. That commitment to evolution is central to the goals of this and all of their other previous records.

Vocalist, guitarist, bass guitarist, keyboardist, instrumentalist and ~~fire-breathing lion tamer~~ Toby Driver spoke with The Bad Penny recently about the heart and soul of Kayo Dot, and why this year is a celebration of sorts for a decades-old yet still remarkably relevant record by the blisteringly brilliant band.

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Pet Sounds #58: Sally Anne Morgan’s ‘Circle’ of Friends Includes Sheep, Chickens, Cats

Posted in Interviews with tags Sally Anne Morgan on 07/31/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Anyone silly enough to believe that artists only live in cities in the U.S., we bring you Exhibit A in refutation of that erroneous claim: exceptional music talent Sally Anne Morgan. The thoroughly relatable musician and artist refers to her music as “psychedelic Appalachian folk drone,” which might seem tough to understand – until the moment she begins to play.

Signed to one of the most respected indie labels of the past 30 years, Morgan has a home at Thrill Jockey Records that is almost as comfortable as the 3-acre pasture she shares with her husband in North Carolina. While it’s true that The Bad Penny has mostly interviewed urban-dwelling artists about their animals for our ongoing Pet Sounds series, we had the pleasure of learning how a musician surrounded by animals at all times finds their creations inevitably impacted by nature and the creatures that dwell in it.

Earlier this year, we caught up with Morgan ahead of the release of her tranquil, meditative and soothing new album Second Circle the Horizon before it came out late last month. What follows is a condensed version of our invigorating conversation.

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Far Caspian Guru Admits: ‘I Wish I’d Called the Band Something Else’

Posted in Interviews with tags Far Caspian on 07/31/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

With his latest LP Autofiction out now, Far Caspian’s Joel Johnston discusses the headspace he was in as the project came together—as well as when he initiated the project in 2014. Read my interview with him via FLOOD.

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Exclusive: Mawiza Reveal Origin of Eco-Themed Collabo With Gojira Frontman

Posted in Exclusives, Features, Interviews, On Tyranny with tags environment, Gojira, Mawiza on 07/30/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Solidarity is hardly a new concept to Mawiza, an indigenous metal/folk group born and bred in sacred Mapuche Nation lands in Chile. In 1861-’83, the military staged campaigns and an occupation of the Araucanía Region in central Chile under the Orwellian-sounding “Pacification of Araucanía.” The indigenous community had to band together if they wanted a chance to survive the military incursion. Nevertheless, the brutal invasion paved the way for notorious, U.S.-backed Augusto Pinochet’s military coup about 100 years later.

Formed in 2014, Mawiza’s stated goal — beyond concocting an entirely original sound that fuses metal with Mapuche folk music — is “to preserve ancestral roots, rescue indigenous moral values and to promote biodiversity conservation, guided by the indigenous worldview and struggle.” (Read more about the band and its mission in an interview with Mawiza vocalist and rhythm guitarist Awka, as part of our ongoing series On Tyranny.)

As Mawiza’s career progressed, the band found that another critical issue is inherent in indigenous communities valiantly attempting to preserve their culture and land: the environment. Fortuitously, the band drew attention and, subsequently, ardent support, from a band more than 7,000 miles away that is considered metal royalty across the globe: Gojira. In its lyrics for songs ranging from “Global Warming” to “Toxic Garbage Island” to the entirety of 2005’s From Mars to Sirius, the French progressive-metal band makes it a top priority to educate their fans about eco-awareness.

Mawiza and Gojira bonded even more closely when the latter band took the former one under their wing and performed together live. Cementing their friendship and admiration for each other, Gojira frontman Joe Duplantier traveled to the Mapuche community to record his featured spot on “Ti Inan Paw-Pawkan,” the first single from Mawiza’s new album ÜL, which Season of Mist issued 12 days ago.

Around the same time, The Bad Penny communicated exclusively with Awka to learn more about “Ti Inan Paw-Pawkan” and how it came about.

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Pet Sounds #57: BC Camplight Talks About His Buddy Canine

Posted in Interviews with tags BC Camplight, Pet Sounds on 07/29/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Welcome to the debut installment of the ongoing Pet Sounds series on The Bad Penny, after it migrated here from a previous website. In this special edition, alt-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Brian James Christinzio – a.k.a. BC Camplight – provides us with startling reflects on trauma, along with extremely well-considered insights into life as a pet owner.

For those familiar with BC Camplight – who was born in New Jersey but now resides in Manchester – it actually comes as no surprise that he took so much time and care with his responses to our questions about his relationship with Frank, his 9-year-old “Jug” (a Jack Russell and Pug mix). Similar clarity, delivered with both heart and precision, is the tie that binds the songs on BC Camplight’s new album, A Sober Conversation, which arrived late last month.

Throughout the record, the multi-hyphenate musician fearlessly opens up about recently getting sober while also working through childhood trauma. Clearly, his pet helped him build up the courage, and provided him with support during the trying two-year period leading up to the release of A Sober Conversation. That BC Camplight maintains a somewhat subdued but ultimately sunny mood throughout the record is a testament to how gracefully he must treat his adoring buddy, Jug.

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