Archive for the Interviews Category

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Exclusive Song Premiere: Ghoulhouse’s ‘Rotten Rancid Remains’

Posted in Exclusives, Interviews with tags , , , , on 11/17/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Ghoulhouse is a band for the people. The people of Philadelphia, specifically. The metalheads of Philadelphia, even more specific than that. Sealing together grindcore and extreme metal – or “old-school, rotten, crusty grindcore/death metal,: as the band’s label, Horror Pain Gore Death illustriously describes it – Ghoulhouse’s new album drops Dec. 5 on said label.

If you need even more convincing to check out the band, Ghoulhouse recommend them for fans of Repulsion, Autopsy, Coffins, Dismember and Exhumed, among others. While Realm of Ghouls doesn’t street for a few more weeks, Ghoulhouse graciously offered The Bad Penny the chance to premiere one of the cuts from the record, “Rotten Rancid Remains,” weeks in advance.

Read our interview with guitarist/vocalist Rogga Johansson (also of Paganizer and Revolting), then check out The Bad Penny‘s premiere of the Ghoulhouse’s brutal new song.

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Exclusive: Mystic Circle Just Dropped New LP – and Have Demos Done, Producer Set for Next One

Posted in Interviews with tags , , on 11/16/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

It’s always unsettling, surreal, perplexing – pick your adjective – to see a black-metal musician filled with delight. But Mystic Circle’s Beelzebub had every reason to be when The Bad Penny recently caught up with the vocalist/guitarist/bassist/keyboardist who comprises one-half of the legendary German band for a video interview a couple of months ago. He and his partner A. Blackwar (drums, guitars, keyboards) had recently polished off the third and by far strongest studio album Mystic Circle have conjured since getting back together in 2021.

The harrowing Hexenbrand 1486 is a punishing audio experience through and through, and features grisly subject matter well-suited for the blood-curdling occasion. On the record, Mystic Circle explore the legends of Jack the Ripper and the Boogeyman, along with the Catholic Church’s nauseatingly cruel treatment of supposed witches and other nightmare-inducing topics. Marking something of a departure from the band’s blistering black-metal sound are allusions to horror filml soundtracks by Dario Argento and like-minded B-movie directors.

What follows is a surprisingly candid and extensive discussion with Beelzebub about the record, Mystic Circle’s career and other subjects that he graciously chose to discuss with us.

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On Tyranny: Australian Punk Project Schkeuditzer Kreuz Says Authoritarian America Would Ban Band From Playing New Song Live

Posted in Interviews with tags , , , , , on 11/16/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

“People forget that yes you’re allotted certain freedoms as a citizen of a country. It just seems like the notion of responsibility has gone completely out the window.”
-Kieren Hills of Schkeuditzer Kreuz

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The land of the freedom to commit crimes, the home of the craven. That’s what America is increasingly being perceived as by artists living elsewhere in the world, according to Australian punk project Schkeuditzer Kreuz (and anyone else with a pulse, frankly).

With the Trump Administration canceling visas for foreigners who have published a single social media post criticizing the US government, deporting authorized workers to gulags in countries where they’ve never previously set foot and directing masked thugs to shoot ministers in the head with PepperBalls® (did you know those projectiles are trademarked? Isn’t that rad?!), is anyone reading this article still arguing with a straight face that Authoritarian America hasn’t arrived?

But back to Schkeuditzer Kreuz, a project comprised by independent electronic music producer Kieren Hills. We caught up with him in late September, shortly after the release of his band’s new album, Swan Grinder, which he’s now supporting in Australia and New Zealand (dates below). Schkeuditzer Kreuz refers to a major junction in Schkeuditz, Germany – specifically the interchange that connects the A9 and A14 autobahns. The band’s motto is “one human and some machines, making noise, in the face of it all.”

With that badass info in mind, it’s our pleasure to welcome the first Australian musician to participate in On Tyranny, The Bad Penny‘s ongoing series about how authoritarianism directly damages artists.

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Fimbul Winter Has Come; Ex-Amon Amarth Players Call EP ‘Best Thing’ They’ve Recorded

Posted in Interviews with tags , , , , , on 11/15/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

“It’s much heavier than the stuff we did in the past. Yeah, it’s very brutal, but it’s also mellow and melodic. I love it. I haven’t listened to any other band since we recorded this, because it’s so amazing. It’s the best thing I’ve ever recorded.”
-former Amon Amarth and current Fimbul Winter drummer Niko Kaukinen.

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Fans of Scandinavian melodic death metal are notoriously persnickety. That’s particularly the case when it comes to evaluating whether a band in the narrow yet revered sub-subgenre has “sold out” over the years. The criterion is pretty straightforward: Has the band strayed from the raw, grisly production sound that characterized the first recordings by In Flames, Dissection, At the Gates, Dark Tranquillity and Dismember in favor of a more polished or – gasp! – mainstream sensibility.

If you consider yourself a devotee of MDM from the aforementioned locale in northern Europe, you may have noticed a key contributor to the rise of the subgenre missing from the last sentence: Amon Amarth. While perhaps more singularly responsible than another other Scandinavian death-metal act for getting Americans and others hooked on meth – oops, we mean melodeth – they, like many of the other progenitors, have taken a licking and even faced threats of getting exiled from the community they helped cultivate in the first place.

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On Tyranny: Locust’s Bobby Bray Says Bands Have ‘Responsibility’ to Tour Red States, Recalls Yeah Yeah Yeahs Solidarity

Posted in Features, Interviews, On Tyranny, On Tyranny with tags , , , , , , , , , on 11/14/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

“Perhaps this new panopticon is leading us further down the path to a modern-day banality of evil.” -The Locust’s Bobby Bray

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A conversation about iconoclastic, antagonistic musicians subverting authority wouldn’t be complete without input from Bobby Bray, best known as the vocalist and guitarist for The Locust. For that reason – and because his convictions about politics are as fierce, thoroughly considered and perfectly executed as his artistic vision – The Bad Penny could not be more grateful that he agreed to participate in On Tyranny, our ongoing series about how authoritarianism directly affects artists.

We carried out our exchange about tyranny, fascism, censorship and related topics with Bray last month. In the end, Bray delivered some of the most eloquent, cogent and sensible comments voiced thus far by any of the 50-plus musicians who have participated in the series we launched roughly a year and a half ago, when ICE assaults, a third Trump term and blowing up boats in international waters more than 1,000 miles away from U.S. shores seemed inconceivable to most Americans.

Without further ado, here is what Bobby Bray had to say about the current state of affairs in the U.S.

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On Tyranny: Rocksteady Blokes Big Special Get Hammered While Hammering Out Views on MAGA, Farage and Autocracy

Posted in Features, Interviews, On Tyranny, On Tyranny, Videos with tags , , , , , , , , on 11/10/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Less than three weeks ago, The Bad Penny connected with our favorite new rocksteady/punk band Big Special, who famously played their first headlining gig at Dublin Castle in 2023 and haven’t looked back since. Now playing for crowds running as high as 2,300 attendees and the like at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town, they’re still pushing their second album, the consummately wryly titled National Average, which came out July 4.

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On Tyranny: Charlie Nieland on How LGBTQ+ Artists Can Push Back Against ICE, MAGA

Posted in Interviews, News, On Tyranny, Sound Off, Videos with tags , , on 11/09/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Songwriter/producer Charlie Nieland–whose works regularly deal with his emotional, romantic and artistic struggles deserves–miraculously makes his art all that much more enriching for his students, classmates and the land as well. But when The Bad Penny caught word that had become more politically active as of late, we redoubled our efforts to interview him about how American Authoritarianism is already impacting artist communities, whether they know it or not.

Much to our delight, Charlie agreed to take part in The Bad Penny‘s latest episode of our “On Going” series.

Listen to our compelling conversation, become part of the effort to save and strengthen democracy across the world – and pick up Charlie’s latest works, Shame; and the just-released Stories From the Borderlines:

Here’s a taste of a new Charlie track:

Hope over to his Bandcamp page to dig deeper into him.

Furthermore, check out The Bad Penny‘s ongoing On Tyranny series, which we launched in the spring, here. Recent installments include interviews with Moonspell, The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, Deaf Club, Cosmic Reaper, Ted Hearne, Terzij de Horde, Chairmaker, MyVeronica, the Gunshy, Planet on a Chain, Necrofier, Cheap Perfume, Bobby Conn, Truculent, Spiritiste and many more.

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Psycroptic Say They Left Prosthetic for Metal Blade to Be With Friends Black Dahlia Murder, Cannibal Corpse, Revocation, Goatwhore 

Posted in Interviews with tags , , , , , , on 10/27/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Psycroptic signed to Metal Blade Records after their deal with Prosthetic Records ended and the tech-death metal band became free agents. Psycroptic bassist Todd Stern told Music Connection the Australian act picked Metal Blade in part so they could rub elbows with their amigos Black Dahlia Murder, Cannibal Corpse, Revocation, Goatwhore and The Red Chord.

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On Tyranny: With Authoritarian Takeover Now Complete in U.S., ‘We’re Just Focusing on Survival,’ Queer Artist Nic Pugh of Midniter Says

Posted in Features, Interviews, On Tyranny, On Tyranny, Videos with tags , , on 10/27/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

“It’s just too much,” kindhearted musician Nic Pugh says on Monday, Oct. 27, in the latest installment of The Bad Penny‘s increasingly popular “On Tyranny” series. In it, musicians open up about how they are damaged, targeted and made to feel unwelcome in Authoritarian America.

While mostly disconnected from politics in the past, the artist behind indie-electronic pop project Midniter explains how he arrived at the decision to speak his mind about Authoritarian America. It’s no easy task, with Trump and Steve Bannon’s “flood the zone” theory of controlling the U.S. media now in its 10th month.

“Right now, I don’t feel like there’s necessarily a benefit for me having an interview other than the fact that I just feel I need to do it,” the queer indie electronic artist/singer/songwriter notes. Pugh’s efforts to raise awareness about social issues goes beyond making music; he founded SugarTank! Records with Nic Holman, who are in the riot-grrrl-inspired quartet Dreamboat. The label’s primary goal is to support and celebrate LGBTQ+ artists and allies in the artists’ hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina.

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From the Vault – Inside The Label: I’m Better Than Everyone Records

Posted in Features, Inside The Label, Interviews with tags , , , , , , , , on 10/26/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

“It was something new,” label founder Karim Khan said. “[Everything] caught me by surprise. And from [that] record, I discovered bands like Eyehategod”

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In last week’s chapter of Inside the Label, we put our high beams on Bloodshot Records, a ‘print founded 15 years ago by two people whose combined previous record label experiences amounted to basically nothing. Nan Warshaw and Rob Miller’s labor was one of love, derived from a sheer and uncompromising appreciation for independent music (rowdy, beer-soaked independent music, in particular).

But while neither Warshaw nor Miller had worked at a label before, they had at least served some time in the industry: Warshaw with promoting artists and shows, and Miller with music production.

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