On Tuesday July 6th, we met up with Alex, Logan, Christian, Ben & Adam from Texas In July. We talked about influences, bandname generators, future plans and fans.

After awhile, it becomes a little sad to see such a long, continuous stream of promising bands emerge from scenes like these, bash their way through a brief bout of live shows, and promptly disappear back into the ether from whence they came, unable or unwilling to make a go of it and spread their music forth.

No such worries for Wokingham-based prog-metallers Clockwork, though. With the release of their first ever EP ‘Eloquence’ fast approaching, Fueled Magazine scribe Sam ‘Motor’ Burgess caught up with them after their show at the Reading Facebar, and tortured information out of them by means of the sharp edge of a bottle cap.

“We are the kings and queens of our own sunken dreams.
we are desperate and down.”

This is Midnight Souls!

One of my first reviews on Fueled-magazine.com was “Trails”, an album made by the Dutch prog-rock band “The dust Connection”. The album is like a flower that needs time to grow so you discover tit's beauty. Reason enough to have a chat with the band.

Not so long ago I wrote a review about the new album 'Scorn', from the Swedisch Black Metal band Avsky. For those of you who don't know Avsky that well: they were formed in 2002 in Dalarna, Sweden. With only two members ( AE: guitars, bass, vocals and TO: vocals and drums) the band climbed their way up to the top of the Swedisch Black Metal scene. After two demos and two Full-length albums the band made another full-length album Scorn. I really loved this album so I wanted to ask the band some questions about the artwork, lyrical theme, etc.

What bands are the inspiration of the band?
Anything between Mudvayne, Hatebreed, Chimaira, Machine Head, Korn, Static X, Pantera, Soulfly, Fear Factory, Slipknot, Sepultura, Deftones, and System Of A Down.

Who is the most important writer of the music and lyrics? Or is it more a group effort?
The music of Madsic is made up of different tastes that we all have thrown together into one big pit, so it is a group effort. We all grew up on old school, but want to stay on the cutting edge of what is happening now in order to become what is happening next.

Do you guys live off your music or do you all have other jobs?
Not living off our music yet, still working on it while doing the day job thing. We all are very driven to do whatever it takes to make it happen, even though it’s tough for an original music band to make it. But when we do, the sky’s the limit! We feel this band has a lot of potential as far as playing ability, performance, songwriting and marketability. We are looking forward to having this band be the one that we have worked all our lives to get to the top in.

In your live shows the band uses a person dressed up as a monster or even Jack Skellington. Who is he and is the creature always a part of the shows?
Arkicide and his fellow creatures Fluffy and Jack Skellington are characters we invite out to our special shows, usually big festivals.

What are the lyrics all about?
Our singer, Coke, has been the main creator of our lyrics. Pressure is about a guy that used to hang out by the 7 Eleven near our rehearsal studio that used to pressure people for money. One of our new tunes Someone Must Suffer is about people and circumstances that can get in the way of you accomplishing your goals. Sometimes you just have to say "Enough is enough!" and bulldoze your way through life.

Did you get offers to play outside of the USA or did you already play in other countries?
We have had offers to perform overseas, but so far it has not been financially practical for us. We have heard a lot of great things about the metal scene in Europe. We have seen videos from bands we like and any time the show is filmed in Europe, the crowd seems to be extremely into it, like they have a huge hunger for metal music. We are looking forward to our first European Tour someday!

What other bands did you do shows with?

We have done a lot of great festivals, including Metal & Models in 2007 and we have been part of the Kryptonite Metalfest for its first three years so far. All of these shows have been with anywhere from twelve to thirty other local metal bands. Our biggest show so far has been Locofest in 2009 opening for bands such as Mudvayne, Nonpoint and Hed P.E.

A little while back the band was in search of a new drummer, but also got two new guitar players or one new. Please correct if I am wrong. Tell us how that all happened and who the guys are and where you got them from?

We were looking for a drummer and a guitarist at the same time, but finding a guitarist was priority. We found both Scott and Franz through online classified ads. They both were great prospects, so we decided to use two guitarists, which is something we had been wanting to do for a long time anyway. We are still looking for a drummer, but in the meantime we can still write new music and rehearse the set with programmed drums.

When I look at your MySpace friends and the comments, you can really see how loyal your fans are... What is the name you have for them?

Madsic Fans, there are none better! Their love and support keeps us going and we will not stop until we have had a chance to play for each and every one of them!

What do you have to say to your fans and our readers? We would like to make a promise that Madsic will always be on a path to create the most brutal, in your face, intensifying music and performance for our fans. Stay Sic!

INSATIA couldn't have began at a better time, than in the rebirth of Spring in 2008, in Phoenix, Arizona, USA, when Jon (rhythm guitar) and DUCK (lead guitar) decided to start a new project after the recent collapse of their prior band Atomic Revolution.  Jon and DUCK were ready to create something fresh and new, both from the mistakes of the past and the hopes of the future.  They were dedicated and ready to write all new material and to find hard-working dedicated members under a new image, and a new name – INSATIA.

Nightfire was conceived in August of 2008, with the first complete line-up gathered in March of 2009. Nightfire's vision is to focus on creating technical, brutal and yet melodic heavy music.

Nightfire have shown they love to play live and have played concerts with many local bands as well as several international acts (including Suffocation, Dying Fetus, Necrophagist, Blackguard, Origin, Tyr, Alestorm, Suidakra, Quo Vadis, Deicide, Misery Index, Marduk, God Dethroned, Abigail Williams, Augury, Goatwhore, Nachtmystium, Mantic Ritual, Merrimack, The Faceless, Enfold Darkness, Beneath the Massacre, Dying Fetus, Vital Remains, Immolation, Krisiun and Nile!)

In September 2009 Nightfire completed their first tour of Europe with the mighty Jungle Rot, and are now focusing on recording, writing and finding a fitting label.

Interview: Alestorm

On a rainy Sunday I got the chance to meet Dani Evans, the former bass-player and now guitarist of Pirate metalband Alestorm at Paganfest in Antwerp. So I asked him a few questions about the history of Alestorm, the new album ‘Black Sails at Midnight’ and what the future will bring for them.