Many of us are still trying to cope with the sudden loss of Tomas “Tompa” Lindberg, arguably the best vocalist and lyricist in Scandinavian melodic death metal, last month. At the Gates, the band he led, helped pioneer one of metal’s best subgenres, also known as melodeth. Lindberg family, friends, bandmates, fans and anyone who reveres At the Gates are still processing and trying to make sense of his passing at age 52 due to a rare type of cancer called Adenoid cystic carcinoma.
Last week, Fredrik Andersson — who played drums for another legendary melodic death metal band, Amon Amarth, from 1997 to 2015 — expressed his admiration for Lindberg and shared an Irish wake laugh during an interview with The Bad Penny earlier this month.
On Thursday, we had the honor of finally interviewing Moonspell vocalist Fernando Ribeiro, one of the few melodeth vocalists that The Bad Penny had never interviewed before.
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When we had the pleasure of interviewing indie legend Too Much Joy this week, we talked a hell of a lot about their upcoming plans, a special reissue they have on the way, their take on Authoritarian America and much more.
We’ll be bringing you a couple of articles stemming from the 60-minutes-plus conversation with two of the Too Much Joy dudes, but as a way of whetting your palette, we present you today with an informative chunk of conversation with bassist/vocalist Sandy Smallens and vocalist Tim Quirk that wouldn’t have fit into the other stories.
Our exchange revolves around not just Too Much Joy but also Chat Pile. Specifically, Smallens addresses why he thinks other young bands should follow Chat Pile’s lead – not duplicating their sound, but learning how the best noise-rock band of the past five years interacts with their fanbase.
In the words of Ariel from The Little Mermaid, “It’s a whole new world,” and Smallens all but implores bands that want to build a strong fanbase to take note of how Oklahoma City giants Chat Pile have done so.
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Tried-and-true rock musician Trashy Annie appears like a rock vet who has been through the grind for decades – she’s a true believer of the authentic rawk music she writes and performs. And yet she’s still fairly new to most devoted classic-rock fans, having only released her first full-length album, Sticks & Stones, through Cleopatra Records in May 2023.
While based in Austin, Trashy Annie’s happy place is in a bar where she can blast her punk-infused hard-rock laced with country soul – in essence, the core ingredients needed to cook up a surefire concoction of American rock ‘n’ roll. She’s got the image down pat too, as if she began studying how to be a character actor from the day she was born till now. Trashy Annie lives and breathes her sweaty, snide and yet also endearing style, 24-7. Imagine a female version of Lemmy, and you’ll get the drift.
Oh, and did we mention that she’s a contestant on the current season of Survivor?
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To most, it will seem incongruous that this website is cover footballing to any extent. Or applaud an American citizen whose net worth hovers in the $250 million range. But because the sport is caught between a pop mega-star and a hard right-wing contingent in the U.S., we find it fitting to salute NFL Commissioner (aka CEO) Roger Goodell for backing up Bad Bunny at a Super Bowl press conference this morning.
That’s not to mention that we previously covered the Latin hip-hop star’s decision to avoid touring the U.S. for fear of ICE raiding his concerts. And the fact that Trump, Kristi Noem and other sycophantic, bigoted trolls in the White House are unabashedly trying to limit free speech or even make it a crime. Ergo, the uproar over Bad Bunny’s scheduled performance at America’s most-watching sporting event should be made aware to musicians of all stripes.
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Talking with a band on the day their album comes out is exactly the same as talking with a 10-year-old ripping wrapping paper off boxes of gifts on Christmas Day. It’s unadulterated joy. Unless maybe the band found a defect in the packaging, or that the tracks were listed out of order, or that the artwork is wrong. Anyway, you get the drift.
The Bad Penny had the good fortune of catching up with the gleeful gang that comprise the similarly jovial-filled band named Dying Remains, death-metal darlings who hail from Calgary, Alberta, on the day their new album came out. In fact, Merciless Suffering isn’t just their latest record: It’s their first-ever full-length, following warm-up releases Entombed in Putrefaction (an EP from 2023) and the split Dead & Buried: A Death Metal Compilation that appeared in mid-June.
California death-metal label Maggot Stomp – which has also released records by 200 Stab Wounds, Frozen Soul, Coffin Rot, Vomit Forth, Ossuary, Tribal Gaze and Internal Bleeding – have been the Mickey to Dying Remains’ Rocky Balboa throughout the entirety of their still-nascent career.
Maggot Stomp is championing them as TNBT on their label if not across the death-metal scene on the whole, and it doesn’t take more than a listen to Merciless Suffering to understand why. Guttural, deliberate and catchy through and through, the record is the soundtrack to the lives of those of us who can’t wait for ours to end.
On that note, enjoy our whimsical, innocent and uplifting conversation with Dying Remains’ vocalist/guitarist/bassist Damon MacDonald, conducted a month ago while they cradled their new baby in their arms.
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Read my interview with Miki Berenyi, the vocalist/guitarist for Lush whose lyrics candidly taught me at a young age about the ups and downs of romantic relationships, on FLOOD. Conducting this interview with one of the dreamiest musicians in dream-pop was a lifelong dream realized, and it was perhaps one of the last chances to do so, given that she’s now through touring the States.
