Lords Of Discipline

Take the shredding of Yngwie Malmsteen and Joe Satriani combined with the epic musings of bands like Nile and Behemoth and top it all of with beer soaked Wisconsin metal you have LORDS OF DISCIPLINE, a quintet that define their own take on metal. As bassist Nick Moreno explains, “we only have one gear, and that’s straight out metal, that’s it… we just play metal.”

Brutal and technical are the words these guys live by. Their name runs deeps through not only their musical ventures, but the LORDS OF DISCIPLINE are also regimented in their downtime. Whether it’s learning various forms of martial arts or constant guitar theory, discipline is the heart and soul seeking the level of mastery with a martial arts state-of-mind in music. Their recording techniques reflect the structure they require to create such a monsterous sound. Moreno explains, “it’s the most intimidating thing I have ever come across as a musician.”

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Lords Of The Trident

Can you define heavy metal? Does metal mean screaming vocals and deadly distortion? Or is metal wailing guitar solos and an iron lunged singer?

To Fang VonKillenstein of Lords Of The Trident, heavy metal is “that distorted sound that makes you roll down your windows in the summer and makes you put your fist in the air, out the window. It just gives you that feeling in the pit of your stomach that just drives that ‘yeah.’” One can only assume that “yeah” would make King Diamond proud.

Mr. Killenstein, also known as Ty, defines their sound as “80’s metal mixed with modern influences.”

“Our structure is more towards classics 80’s, but we down tune and are fans of modern death and black metal. Those tonalities show up a lot as well.”

Using their local flavor, they have turned bits and pieces of the UW Campus and Madison into epic metal. Fang explains:

“The Madison music scene is really a lot of indie rock, around campus especially. When you say metal, the average Joe thinks of death and turns the other cheek to our music. Half the people come to our shows for cool music, but the other half just come to see what the hell we are up to. “

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Lotus to make two-night tour stop at the Majestic

Electronic and instrumental hybrid group touring with their new self-titled album will play two consecutive nights at the Majestic Theater Nov. 4 and 5. Members Mike Greenfield, Jesse Miller, Luke Miller and Mike Rempel like to keep things fresh for audiences at shows through extended improvisation on already richly composed tunes.

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Luna Mortis

Halloween is coming, metal is in the air and Madison will make another mark on the heavy metal map.

Last December you may remember Maximum Ink ran a band called The Ottomon Empire, a Madison metal band featuring the operatic and sometimes brutallic vocals of Mary Zimmer, guitarists Brian Keonig and Cory Scheider, drummer Erik Madsen and bassist Jake Bare, on the front cover.

I had to go back to the Max Ink website to check out the story one more time, seeing how so much had changed in less than a year… but oddly, it was the same.

In July, it was announced that band had signed to Century Media records and that explained to me why they had changed their name to Luna Mortis.

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Sam Llanas

Born in Waukesha WI fifty years ago, Sam Llanas spent nearly half his life as co-founder of the BoDeans, working with Grammy-winning producers, recording at world-class studios and skyrocketing to public awareness when the BoDean’s, “Closer to Free,” was picked as the theme for the television show, “Party of Five.” Sam’s first solo venture, under the band name Absinthe, came when the BoDeans took a brief hiatus in the late nineties. His second solo outing, “4 A.M.,” was released the end of last month, a few short months after he announced his departure from the BoDeans. A powerfully quiet affair marked by a low-key tenderness that highlights Sam’s emotion-laden voice, “4 A.M.,” beautifully captures the late night mood where love, truth, loneliness and sympathy walk hand in hand. Sam was kind enough to answer some questions via email and shed light on the process behind such a personal undertaking.

MAX: “4 a.m. here we are again,” a great line for a very nocturnal album and for your second solo outing. Were there any insights in your second time around?

SAM: The only thought I had in my head when I started this project was that I wanted it to be very different from both, “A Good Day to Die,” and any BoDeans record. The obvious thing was to make a record that was almost entirely based on acoustic instruments. 

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