METAL REVIEWS.COM United Kingdom
Apocalyptic Visions hate you. They hate your family, they hate your friends. They hate your dog, your cat, your neighbours and your postman. Now, you may be saying, so what? Most Extreme Metal bands claim to hate everyone, but how many actually live it? Well, for once this is a band that seems to mean what they say. Despite being formed in 2001 and being pretty darn good at the fine art of Death Metal, the band are unsigned (this album being distributed by Deathgasm Records) which certainly seems to suggest that they don't care whether you listen to their music or not, you pathetic human slime. Apocalyptic Visions will certainly hate me for writing this favourable review, but I'm going to risk their wrath because this is one of those rarities that you stumble across every so often in the scene, a Death Metal band that makes interesting music, doing more than just making you bang your head. As a starting point, this is heavily influenced by Deicide and Vital Remains, both the brutality of the former and the epic melody of the latter making themselves known. It's how these are implemented, however, that makes all the difference; whilst the ignorant may think that nineteen-song long concept albums about massive Chthonic beasts appearing in the sky and killing lots and lots of people are a common occurrence in Death Metal, in truth we get far too few of them. It makes sense that such an awesome concept makes for an awesome album! Leave None Living is one hell of a mixed bag, making frequent usage of Grind elements (Erase The Earth), epic Prog Metal arrangements (Tearing Heaven Out Of The Sky), tribal percussion and chanting (Ceratathoa Imbricita, Tambores De Guerra) to name but some of what you'll hear. These guys can really play their instruments, too, with plenty of technical licks and beats to be found; vocalist/guitarist War has been a member of Demoncy and Dååth amongst others, the latter also formerly including versatile and seemingly octopus-armed drummer Plague. Whilst we're quite used to bands doing new things on their albums here and there, Apocalyptic Visions are somehow still capable of surprising. Take I Want You Dead as an example, starting with weird electronics and moving through gnarly Death Metal, melodic Power Metal riffing, epic keyboards and more of that tribal drumming. It might seem like an odd mixture, and it is, but Apocalyptic Visions are good enough songwriters to make it work. The result, when looked at as a whole, is a pretty darn good album, varied enough for repeated plays without being impossible to enjoy on a first listen. From the ominous storm and screams on the opening blast and title track onwards all the way through to the hidden orchestral piece at the end (composed entirely in the Hungarian Minor scale, apparently) this is a gripping listen for any Death Metal fan with much more intelligence and thought than first impressions would suggest. I could go on, but I'll stop here, just in case someone actually checks this out and the band get truly angry with me... 80/100
Killing Songs:Leave None Living, All Shall Fall, Move And Appear, Erase The Earth, Tearing Heaven Out Of The Sky, Parasite Rex, I Want You Dead

METAL.DE Germany
Nachdem ich mich regelmäßig über deren Inhalt auslasse, darf endlich mal wieder die Rede von einer durchweg ansprechenden Promoinformation sein. Jedenfalls zaubert mir ein solches Stück Papier mal wieder ein breites Grinsen ins Gesicht, sei es ob der Sprüche der Marke "If you disliked their previous albums, you will truly hate this one" oder wegen der naiv sympathischen Google-Übersetzung ins Deutsche. Fakt ist, dass hier mächtig die Werbetrommel gerührt wird, wobei die ach so schreckliche und menschenverachtende Bösartigkeit der Band Dreh- und Angelpunkt ist. Dabei ziehen bereits apokalyptische Visionen vor meinem geistigen Auge auf, die schlimmstes Gerödel befürchten, dass uns hier als besonders hasserfüllt verkauft werden soll. Dem ist glücklicherweise nicht so, ganz und gar nicht. Die sich selbst als Böseste Band Amerikas bezeichnende Truppe hat durchaus viel mehr auf dem Kasten, als es angesichts der plakativen Pseudo-Hass-Vorabinformation den Anschein macht. Die Menschen hasst man, anstelle derer scheinen die Jungs ihre Instrumente mit ins Bett zu nehmen, denn diese beherrschen APOCALYPTIC VISIONS im tiefsten Schlaf. Anders ist das weiträumige Spektrum an melodischem Gedonner kaum zu erklären, demnach sind es nicht nur die Soli, reichend von rein technisch motiviertem Gefrickel bis hin zu typischem SLAYER-Gequietsche, die mich in ihren Bann reißen. Sehr oft zupft man bereits in der grundlegenden Songstruktur komplizierte Riffketten und mörderische Hooklines. Einen roten Faden gibt es trotzdem, Keyboardeinsatz auch – ja APOCALYPTIC VISIONS packen vielerlei Elemente zusammen, die auf den ersten Blick nicht zueinander passen mögen, sich aber auf "Leave None Living" zu einem temporeichen, tödlichen Death Metal-Brei vermischen. Sogar zunächst völlig befremdlich anmutende Experimente haben ihren Weg auf diese Platte gefunden – zu hören etwa in dem Stück "Tambores De Guerra", dass ein wenig an den südamerikanischen Flair von SEPULTURAs "Roots" anknüpft. Hätte die Gruppierung nun auch noch das nötige Kleingeld, um noch etwas mehr Druck hinter die, bisher lediglich ganz annehmbare, Produktion zu legen, stünde man hier vor einer Death-Brechstange der absoluten Oberklasse. Die ehemalige Band zweier Mitglieder, DAATH, hat den Durchbruch bereits geschafft und befindet sich mittlerweile bei Roadrunner Records unter Vertrag, warum nicht auch APOCALYPTIC VISIONS? PUNKTE: 7/10

SIVOSTEN Bulgaria
Седемнадесет парчета концептуален албум за чудовища убийци. Звучи като клише в екстремната музика, и още повече за дет метъла в частност, но ако трябва да бъдем сериозни – далеч не е. Даже на пръстите на едната ми ръка се броят качествено направените тави с подобна конструкция. Е, може би вече трябва да добавя още една, защото набъбнаха с „Leave None Living" на Apocalyptic Visions. Изключително ми е странно, че подобна продукция излиза под лейбъла на самиздат. Силно се съмнявам, че момчетата от Атланта, Джорджия не са могли да намерят някой да ги продуцира, имайки предвид спецификата на американския пазар и качеството на всичко – от обложката, през картинката до музиката. Но явно наистина в лозунга „мразим ви", с който са се окичили има нещо вярно. Или поне не им пука дали някой ще ги слуша или няма. Е, за тяхно нещастие, може би, метъл феновете бързо надушват откъде духа вятъра и макар да се класираха като изненада, ще им е трудно дълго да пребивават под земята. В ъндърграунда - ако трябва да използваме приетия термин. Още в началото трябва да се уточни, че макар да са доста повлияни от групи като Deicide, Vital Remains и може би донякъде Defecation, музиката им е достатъчно тяхна, за да си заслужава. Песни като „Leave None Living" например е страхотна демонстрация на различни тъмни и изпълнени с насилие стилове – от дет, през грайнд та дори до блек на места. И всичко това без да звучи като бълвоч. Всъщност грайнд елементи можем да чуем и в „Erase The Earth" - всъщност дори не елементи, ами най-чиста проба представител на стила. Но затова пък когато стигаме до Tearing Heaven Out Of The Sky спокойно можем да паднем от стола. Освен, че е изключително здрава, пълна с болка и агресия на места, чуваме елементи от епичния прогресив и вездесъщия блек. Иначе казано, безименните момчета от Apocalyptic Visions правят това, което всеки, който иска да бъде оригинален и уникален трябва да постигне. И то без да оригиналничат – пленявайки с разнообразие но без да се отклоняват от правата вяра, без да досадят и без да отблъснат ядрото от фенове на стила, в който творят. Освен това в китарно отношение албумът разкрива завидно майсторство, барабаните играят водеща роля на доста места. Споменавайки ударните, няма как да не стигнем до Ceratathoa Imbricita, където чуваме перкусиите на вожда на фона на монотонен, изпълнен с болка напев, и ритмична китара допълваща всичко това до великолепно аутро. Което се влива в Tambores De Guerra, където продължаваме да танцуваме около огъня с атмосферичен напев. И така цели четири минути, при това далеч не досадни или скучни, а хипнотизиращи и зомбиращи. След което следва удар с чук и гмуркане в дълбините на drop D китарите и особено тежкия дет метъл. Изобщо изненадите са навсякъде в „Leave None Living". И въпреки, че човек очаква за десетина песни да свикне с тях, те продължават да изникват от странни и различни места. Като например в „I Want You Dead". Толкова много неща в една песен рядко можете да чуете. „Племенни" ударни, епични и атмосферни клавирни, мелодични китарни рифове, дет метъл и изключителен присъщ на стила вокал. Цялата тази галимация звучи абсурдно написана така, но далеч не е, когато я слушаш. Накратко – великолепен аблум, който си заслужава да се чуе от почитателите на екстремните метъл стилове, както и от всеки, който е в настроение за малко добре направени странни експерименти. И колкото и да не им пука на Apocalyptic Visions, дали ги слушаме или не, всеки, който е чул „Leave None Living" ще остане на първия вариант. Или просто екстремната метъл сцена не е за него.

VOICES FROM THE DARKSIDE Germany
What APOCALYPTIC VISIONS have done on this, their second album, is what I would have expected DEICIDE to do. That is, retain enough Death Metal to remain associated with the genre, but simultaneously give a wider and wider berth to Black Metal à la ENTHRONED. I'm sure the comparison between this band and DEICIDE may sound strange, but consider the deep, almost watery lead vocals, and the higher syllablic voice that sounds nothing so much like a pestilential ghoul perched in a dark corner of Notre Dame's belltower. It sounds exciting, to be sure, and if DEICIDE had indeed released this album, it would probably receive more favorable reviews simply because it beats the ever loving pus out of everything DEICIDE did between 1995-2006, especially the last albums on Roadrunner. But, alas, because DEICIDE did not write this album, and there are pieces of music on it that Glen Benton would never in a million years use, we are obligated to cast favoritism aside, and grade this album properly. That is to say, it should be viewed with some skepticism for it isn't oustanding.

EXPLICITLY INTENSE United Kingdom
As the band call themselves the "the angriest band in America", its surely a fitting statement as their second CD "Leave None Living" races by your face, stripping it of all flesh. Yes, folks, these guys are more heinous than the Hydrogen Bomb dropped over Hiroshima. Morbid Angel, Immolation and early Emperor influences are the highest of the order days here, injecting their own twisted style of death metal, Atlanta, Georgia's Apocalyptic Visions is more of a threat than Iran's nuke program as these guys fucking hate everyone from the bottom of their rotten and broken souls. I very much enjoyed listening to this most hateful and fearsome quartet, and their negativity is blasphemous enough to scare the living fuck out of Satan, God, and all their mindless cronies. All Hail anger and hatred as Apocalyptic Visions is bringing the next wave of ungodly hell and fury upon human kind's feeble existence. All I can say is, just be prepared to be mentally, and physically executed if you're lucky enough to die violently! --Sarjoo Devani

TRANSCENDING THE MUNDANE New Jersey
Apocalyptic Visions was formed in Atlanta during 2001. The band released a promo in 2006 which led to the release of their full length debut, Doomsday Device, later that same year. Half of Apocalyptic Visions' members (vocalist/ guitarist Sam Cuarda and drummer Cory Brewer) come from progressive death metallers Daath. Deathgasm Records has stepped in to help promote Apocalyptic Visions' second album, Leave None Living. Leave None Living is a long album, nineteen songs in total, and yet there's very little filler. Most of the album is brutal, yet dynamic death metal that always remains interesting. The first three songs have quality but it's "Destruction Ritual" and the crushing riffs which first turn me on to Apocalyptic Visions. "Warship" expresses the band's superior musicianship skills. Unlike most long albums, Leave None Living actually gets more interesting as the album goes on. I enjoyed how "Tearing Heaven Out of the Sky" has guitar intricacies usually associated with black metal. The more experimental side of Apocalyptic Visions shines through near the end of Leave None Living. Cory Brewer plays some tribal percussion on "Ceratahoa Imbricita" and "Tambores de Guerra." The band exhibits an eerie vibe on "Funeral Furnace." I even enjoyed the orchestral closing track created by Sam Cuadra. This is a band doing things their own way and they are getting better. This album demands attention and is easily one of the best independently released metal albums of the year. 8 out of 10 --Brett VanPut

LORDS OF METAL Netherlands
It takes some time before you have worked around the somewhat messy production and the kind of chaotic writing style, but when the technical blackened death metal of Apocalyptic Visions finally reveals itself to you, it is all pretty good actually. 'Leave None Living' consists of a varied mix of extreme metal styles reminding me of Acheron, Incantation, Quinta Essentia and sometimes even Zimmers Hole. A broad collection of names that stress the strangeness of and variety in the music. Some annoying factors, however, are the continually stressed misanthropic image of the band ('we hate everyone and everyone hates us' pet, pet, we know guys, now shut up about it, will ya?), the omnipresent layer of noise that ruins the production and the clearly audible symphonic keyboard tinge (that funnily enough is not ascribed to any musician). All in all 'Leave None Living' has a lot to offer to the fans of varied extreme metal, but it has not become an absolute killer album by any means.

KRONOS MORTUS Hungary
This American death metal band, having Carey „Pestilence” Brewer (vocals, bass), Cory „Plague” Brewer (drums), Dan „Famine” Klein (guitar), Sam „War” Cuadra (vocals, guitar) in the line-up, started in 2001. They released a demo titled “Promo 2006” in 2006 and, in the same year, the album entitled “Doomsday Device”. The lyrics deal with hatred and misanthropy. Unfortunately, I haven’t found any reference concerning the person who did the cover artwork but his work must be acknowledged because the cover is effective. The band’s determined attitude, the thick sound, the good mix and heavy themes all make up this a perfect, whole release. It’s raw, brutal and mandatory. The disc starts with Leave None Living with battle rhythms, synth themes with effects, sounds, whispers come to life and then at the end a satanic voice starts up the destruction. Which is bursting up here is very heavy, but oldschool-rooted death metal with a touch of progressive overtone. All Shall Fall continues this brutal sound-flow, the chaos of guitars, the power of the rhythm section draws us down into incredible depths and shows us the calvary of the soul... Both raw and broken rhythms and mandatory elements of the genre occur in the well-built structure. Move and Appear is flapping around blindly with hate. The sound waves flood everything and are whipping. This is a mix of melodies, and the heavy, sick sound, filled with deep emotions. Destruction Ritual starts off with intense rhythms, the instruments bring very good themes with technical overtones with a deadly precision. The vocals are good and fit the music in a harmonious way. Warship is an all the way bestial track with interesting vocals. The themes crush, the drum patterns, the staccato ritual of slow inset, and the solo.... it’s simply excellent. Abysmal Plain is a sort of interlude filled with noises, deep buzzing, bubbling, dark mood, rainstorm, sombre, cloudy sky. Eight Arms has fast-paced themes in its structure with extremely cool playing. The powerful emanation is also strengthened by the oldschool sound and well-built riffs. Enemy is also an extremely fast attack but it also includes some “shouting” parts with clean vox. The sounds of the almost 1-minute long crushing are raw and killer. It’s a sound storm unleashed. Extinction Level Event is a more staccato song with a mid-paced verse and some grindcore rhythms. It’s predictable, deadly precise but, due to this, hard and unique and obfuscated. Erase The Earth is rather technical grindcore which is extremely pleasant performed alright in a duration of 1 minute. Tearing Heaven Out Of The Sky is a longer one with a structure in which death metal and extreme grindcore are mixed, the almost ritualistic screams of the vocals and grunts sound aggressive like the whole track with its melodic parts and variety of moods of the complex themes. Next up is Magnificent Descent To The Infernal Chambers Of Hell which is a short destruction spiced with technical guitars and incredible mood and pace, it’s something to meditate upon... excellent playing. Ceratathoa Imbricata is a heavy death metal tune starting with funeral sounds with obfuscated, deep keyboard carpet in the background, faster changes and strange sounds. Sick enough to be good. Tambores De Guerra is a 4-miute long ecstatic piece, accompanied by percussions, with a strange pulsation, ancient motifs, and language. The rhythms are almost tribal here as if they’re coming from a ritual held in the depths of rain forest. A secret ritual, an initiation in nature. In Parasite Rex, it’s the sick aura, the mid-paced, grinding-to-the-bone rhythms, the faster insets and the variety of themes that made the music lively. The opening of I Want You Dead is interesting, then comes the energetic play based on the basic elements of the genre but with complex ideas too. There are noteworthy ideas here, it’s unique. Funeral Furnace is death metal to the bone, and it presents several face of the genre while they mix the music with extreme metal. Heavy rhythms, powerful, precise performance. Its dark mood is excellent. Unnamed Track Unnamed Track is 22 seconds of silence before the outro. The closing track is based on synth with sci-fi themes and interesting mood, here and there with some oriental motifs among the gothic and symphonic elements. The record can have a place in every DM fan’s collection, it’s worth listening.

MY LAST CHAPTER Sweden
Huh, I didn’t think Apocalyptic Visions would entrust me with their new album since I wasn’t overly excited about its predecessor Doomsday device. But here it is, and it seems worth purchasing this just for the sake of the killer poster the booklet unfolds to. They’re still going with their ‘we’re the baddest act in the world and we hate you all’-attitude, which can become a bit too much. I mean, we get it; you’re bad ass motherfuckers. Now stop nagging us to death about it. Unfortunately I have some major problems with this album right up front. And the problem is (like for so many great albums, where some of the greatest falter) – the sound sucks! Ok, I’ve heard worse, but it’s still thin, weak and lack any feeling whatsoever. There’s no depth at all, and just for that matter an album, sans some bleak black metal ones, will always lose listeners. And that’s too damn bad, ‘cause music wise they’ve got some really interesting ideas going on. Take the opening riff of Move and appear and you can build an awesome song just around that, and add some wicked keyboard notes to it and you’ve got yourself a killer tune. Keyboard and death metal don’t always go hand in hand, in fact they rarely do. But Apocalyptic Visions pulls it off in a commendable manner, since it’s just a lurking melody in the background, and doesn’t take over to become a melodic death metal album. Now switch to the title track and fastforward about 3.30 minutes, and you’ll hear some wicked, haunting back up screams. For Ceratathoa imbricata they’ve managed to mix bombastic death á la Nile with a tiny hint of black metal, which works damn well. The following track, Tambores de guerra carries on in the Nile agenda with a tribal-esque interlude similar to some of their work. Funeral furnace has a magnificent clean vocaled section that just reeks of folk metal, but still in a death metal manner. But, no matter the various styles I’ve just gone through, their main approach is still Florida death metal in its core, just flavoured with tons of various approaches. The Deicide and Cannibal Corpse approach mixed with Nile works well. The technicality is there, the old school feel (yet progressive to not just dwell in the past) is great… Most of the time it works very well, but there are moments when it falters. Dare I even mention the ultra-annoying Magnificent descent to the infernal chambers of hell, which is just 1.21 minutes of guitar and drum show-off. But there is another major flaw here – there’s just too many tracks. Sure, there are a handful of short songs and interludes, but 19 tracks is still too many. It could be great, but they should’ve gone for a better sound and more restriction in their selection of songs. Just ‘cause you have a number of songs in your repertoire doesn’t mean you have to release them all on one album.

Damien Gregori Cradle Of Filth Keyboardist
Apocalyptic Visions’ misanthropic credentials are impeccable. With each member named after one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the self-proclaimed “angriest band in ....America....” seem committed to their vision of Earth as a human-free zone. Some of the choicer cuts leave little room for doubt: Erase The Earth, Extinction Level Event, I Want You Dead - kittens and cushions it ain’t. They do have a MySpace, however, not usually the mark of life-hating psychopaths. Old-school death metal with Satan on the brain and an unhealthy obsession with the imminent eradication of humanity is nothing new, but Leave None Living’s fervour and fury are attention-grabbing at least and go some way towards compensating for the fact that it’s not nearly as offensive as it thinks it is.

Psychosis Death Brazil
“Leave None Living” é o segundo álbum do Apocalyptic Visions: uma banda com poucos amigos e muitos inimigos. Mas é ouvindo as dezenove faixas que compõem “Leave None Living” que você entende a razão, pois este álbum é a personificação sonora do ódio puro e da morte impiedosa. “Leave None Living” é Death Metal de alto nível, muito bem estruturado em todos os sentidos e mostrando uma sonoridade com identidade própria. O Apocalyptic Visions apresenta no segundo álbum uma sonoridade desenvolvida com muita criatividade e talento, mostrando sons que expressam a fúria do Death Metal no exato significado da palavra Morte e Metal. “Leave None Living” é um ritual de destruição enquanto a força metálica é engrandecida por riffs soberbos através de atrocidades sonoras que transgridem as lógicas musicais ao mesmo tempo que a técnica e a velocidade são evidentes em cada momento de violência sonora. Não pense que “Leave None Living” é um álbum de velocidade absurda com riffs mirabolantes soando apenas como uma máquina de fazer barulho. “Leave None Living” tem uma sonoridade que evolui constantemente, uma sonoridade baseada em elementos que diferem da técnica comum de tocar Death Metal, atingindo níveis de brutalidade, ousadia e precisão enquanto riffs e mais riffs esmurram sua cara. Não pense que “Leave None Living” é um álbum com influências alienígenas, mas entenda que este álbum tem uma sonoridade aprimorada por muitos elementos posicionados com inteligência na estrutura sonora. Você não ouvirá em “Leave None Living” apenas Morte e Metal, pois você encontrará na estrutura sonora deste álbum “forças” que surgem através da brutalidade sonora, transformando o som do Apocalyptic Visions em um tributo ao ódio. Encontrar definições para explicar “Leave None Living” é um trabalho impossível, pois este álbum é 100% Death Metal ao mesmo tempo que tem sonoridades distintas que acrescentam no resultado final do álbum um significado que está além das palavras ou definições... Minha vida de zinemaker tem momentos memoráveis, pois escrever resenhas de álbuns como “Leave None Living” é um trabalho que exige total insanidade... a insanidade sonora que vem do sanatório! Em alguns momentos penso que falhei nesta resenha, mas em outros momentos acredito que o Metal é um sentimento e sentimentos são inexplicáveis. Apocalyptic Visions é uma banda com muitos inimigos, mas é uma banda com talento, ousadia e criatividade, pois para compor um álbum como “Leave None Living” é necessário coragem... muita coragem. Um álbum com as características de “Leave None Living” é um álbum com dois destinos: a vergonha do fracasso ou a honra da glória... portanto, insanos leitores, “Leave None Living” merece a honra de glória, pois o Death Metal contido neste álbum é fabuloso! Extraordinário! Excelente! Eu recomendo!

Beowulf Productions Pennsylvania
This is the second offering from this Atlanta Georgia based Death Metal band. These guys shove their music right in your face & never back down. Thier form of Death Metal incorporates aspect of other forms of Metal music. There is a strong dark vibe that blankets their music that pulls from the Black Metal styles. A lot of the guitar work is influenced from Thrash Metal era early 90's when it was crossing over into Death Metal. The vocals work is done mainly in a mid ranged Death Metal growl that is a combination of DEATH & DEICIDE with some occasional Thrash & Black Metal vocals mixed in. If you liked their last release you'll love this one! It crushes!

Brutalism Netherlands
Second album for Apocalyptic Visions, cult name in the US underground since many years. This Leave None Living is a nothing less than a pure manifest of hate and nihilism and, musically talking, we have to do with a blasphemous and satanic death metal influenced by bands like Deicide, Acheron and Incantation. The whole album profits by a nice and “true” diabolic atmosphere and sometimes we can really feel “the hate”, like a presence on our shoulders: really positive point for a band with this kind of attitude. The problem is that, on the contrary, the music is not so convincing as the general feeling. Sometimes too chaotic and not well arranged, other times a little bit too obvious and not so special. I’m not talking about originality: no one here is looking for this when we are talking about an old school death metal album. But about winning ideas. The feeling is fine, the true attitude is really cool but for the next album I would like to have clearer ideas (…maybe 50 minutes are in my opinion too much for a death metal album and a dangerous risk for every band…), good arrangements and most of all a better production: probably this same album with a different recording session and with a decent mixing should be more convincing.

Terrorizer United Kingdom
Its a great shame that so many of today's bands, in the death and black metal scene perhaps more than anywhere else, stick so rigidly to genre conventions, out of either fear or lack of imagination, and end up creating instantly forgettable albums.  However Apocalyptic Visions are one of those bands who inject 100 per cent of their personality into their work - well, what would you expect from a four piece featuring members named Plague, Pestilence, Famine, and War?  Probably eccentricity, and that's what you get.  Not all their ideas are totally effective mind you, but they've certainly got an impressive amount to throw at the listener.  A dizzying display of blackened death metal, "Leave None Living', twists and turns like the tentacled Lovecraftian creature that feature's on the album's cover, the eighteen tracks maintaining tension throughout a vaguely symphonic sound that puts focus on aggression and spiralling guitars, while taking time for slower moments and even some tribal drumming.

Metal Bulletin Wisconsin
Metal Bulletin: What is happening currently with Apocalyptic Visions after releasing "Leave None Living"? Are there plans to play live and tour? Where?
War: Our plans are to spread misery and suffering as widely as possible. When the album was complete we started touring right away. Venues as distant as the Whiskey A Go Go in Los Angeles were soon outraged at how quickly we can frighten away their customers. Mexico was completely different, they are so warlike they seemed to immediately understand us. Same for the Zuni Indians. We are currently booked for concerts in New York and other cities along the East Coast. There is a picture-disk single on Vinyl in the works, new t-shirt designs, and some of our songs were included in upcoming compilation CDs from Deathgasm Records, Explicitly Intense Magazine, and something called "Metal Maniacs," whatever that is.
Metal Bulletin: Is the album released by the band? Did you decide, "Forget record labels! We'll release it ourselves!" How expensive was it to record the album?
War: Few people understand just how popular your music has to be before you can turn the leash around and control your master. This is fine for the hundred-foot monsters who walk the earth such as Iron Maiden and Metallica, but not for the tens of thousands of bands beneath them. Even when a band generates millions of dollars this does not mean that the musicians see that money. Shelf-space at Target and Hot Topic is not free. It is very expensive to keep your name visible. Bands are deceived of their success until their bills come due. Typically they are forced to buy back their unsold records back to pay debts or worse. We do not perform popular music so for us this would be a terrible mistake. The last album cost us a crippling amount of money but we are never deceived about our position either. We have no regrets, we understand our fate, and for us this is the most rewarding path. As far as the exact dollar amount I will only say this, it is more than most people think yet cheaper than the final product sounds.
Metal Bulletin: How many albums does Apocalyptic Visions have in total?
War: Officially there are only two: Doomsday Device and Leave None Living.
Metal Bulletin: Most of the album is blasting death metal, but there's also other things going on, like instrumentals that add variety to the album. Are those songs written collectively or individually? Who came up with the Spanish-language lyrics to "Tambores de guerra"?
War: Everything in Apocalyptic Visions is a collective effort by the four of us. Everything is then refined through a harshly effective technique called "fighting." The foreign languages are my thing because I am a Linguaphile. Spanish is not the only foreign language used on this album, there are at least two others I can recall at the moment. I feel like there is much magic in the mystery of alien languages and soon I will likely drop English altogether.
Metal Bulletin: Is this y'all full-time, only band? Does War, Famine, Pestilence or Plague have other bands they play in?
War: For all of us Apocalyptic Visions is our first, main, and only concern. We pour our lives into this and everything else is just a distraction. But we do enjoy distractions. Pestilence has an experimental noise project called Embersreich. They're crazy. Nobody in Atlanta can play metal for shit so Famine is often asked to lend his shredding talents to other bands in last-minute concerts. My twin sister is a versatile musician and we have many bands together in various genres. Plague is the least friendly member of the band and few people dare to ask for his help, they usually will ask me if he will play drums for them. I figure if you want him, ask him yourself.
Metal Bulletin: How are the vocals recorded? Do you have several voices or is it vocal effects that you use? In a live situation, do you have only one vocalist?
War: There are no effects used on our voices, ever. We are each capable of many vocal techniques which sometimes leads to the confusion that there are extra singers, but the truth is there are only two: Pestilence and myself. There is a lot of work involved with creating maximum impact for live performances with the combination of our styles and for me the live concert is my favorite. On the album we sometimes stack our vocals in a very complex patterns. The nature of studio recording itself is a massive cheat anyway, so why not?
Metal Bulletin: What are your plans for the end of 2008 and for 2009? Touring? Writing a new album?
War: We should be ready to put the new songs in their grave after another six months of concerts. So the third album will probably heave into view sometime late 2009.
Metal Bulletin: Y'all are based in Atlanta, Georgia. What is the metal world for you there?
War: Atlanta metal doesn't like us, and we don't like Atlanta metal. We make few friends and many enemies, which is great. What the fuck did I start writing music for, to wind up in the bar down the street where I spend all my time off anyway? Hell no, I want to go someplace new and piss off new people, make new friends and new enemies in other cities.
Metal Bulletin: By the way, did you come up with the cover art work?
War: Yes, I painted it. All the artwork for the band is my creation, but as I said before everything we do is a collaborative effort so it is not unusual when pressed for time that I will only draw outlines and then all four of us will form a sort of artistic assembly line. None of them have any background in illustration or design but they are intuitive and need little supervision. For that matter, I understand nothing about carpentry or electronics but I end up doing a lot of blind slave labor for them too, because they are all construction workers and there is a surprising span of disciplines used in this band for all sorts of reasons. Remodeling our tourbus, assembling stages and lights and drum risers, repairing our own amplifiers, programming HTML code for electronic presskits, and all sorts of odd things I never anticipated when I first stole my father's guitar. Apocalyptic Visions is my life, and it will be the death of me.
Metal Bulletin: Anything else?
War: No.

Creative Loafing Atlanta November 21 2008 by Chad Radford
For today's Roll Call we call out Sam Cuadra a.k.a War, the ghastly ogre who fronts "the angriest band in America," Apocalyptic Visions.
Who are you?
I am one of the four unspeakable names from the angriest band in America: Apocalyptic Visions.  We are known by the deaths we bring.  I am War.  My brothers are Famine, Pestilence, and Plague.
Describe yourself in three words.
Bad Mamma Jamma.
Who — dead or alive — would most you like to meet?
Bender Bending Rodriguez.  When I first heard him say "Kill All Humans"  I thought gee, this guy really gets me.
Who would you most like to slap in the face?

The Tar Baby.  Not Joel Chandler Harris's character, there is someone in my life I call the Tar Baby.
What song do you wish you had written?
The "Theme From Hatari" by Henry Mancini.
Elvis Costello or Elvis Presley?
Oh fuck, Elvis Presley for sure.  At least the dead cannot continue to torment with their insufferable noise.
LP, CD or MP3?
You really can't beat the authentic sound of funeral mourners in person. No recording can capture the experience of getting down to the cemetery yourself. For added fidelity I like to poke the bereaved with a stick.
If you could start one trend, what would it be?
The enslavement of mankind.
If you could end one trend, what would it be?
Reality telivision.
With whom would you most like to play a game of spin the bottle?
Tiffany Pollard, a.k.a. New York.  While she was busy staring at that bottle I'd konk her on the head.  A few weeks chained to the drain under my sink ought to soften her up enough to make a good wife.  A Wife For War.
Apocalyptic Visions plays a CD release party at the East Atlanta Icehouse tonight, Fri., Nov. 21. w/ Chopper, Burden of Vision and Son of Tonatiuh. 8:30 p.m. $6.

Taken from War's historical records:




1/19/1997

I met Jason Lalonde, Bobby Smith, and Shru for the first time today. I picked them out of an audition of over thirty applicants responding to an ad in the newspaper, and we rehearsed that afternoon for an hour and then played our first show that night to an audience of something like two hundred people. I still hate reality television, but at least I finally have my band. Cynical was supposed to open for us, but they cancelled at the last second.



February 1997

Shru quit so he could spend more time with his cocaine.



April 1998

Bobby quit out of frustration with the search for a drummer



September 1998

Jason and I told each other to go to hell.

Hallowe'en 1999
Jason calls, we resume the band.



5/4/2001 Nine Lives Saloon

Elliot Goes Far / Dexter / Apocalyptic Visions / Bitch

Knowing that our first show would go terribly wrong, we did not invite anyone to come see us. The vibrations of the monitors onstage shook the hard drive of our drum machine and it went haywire. Bobby Smith, the original bass player for Apocalyptic Visions who had just quit around three years ago, just happened to show up for this concert. He was 1/2 the audience, the other half was a very drunk dude who thought we were great.



5/26/2001 Nine Lives Saloon

Apocalyptic Visions / Lust / Ultimatics / Ledfoot / Bitch

Just the smallest bit of promotion and we had a great turnout. What I will remember most is Susanne from Lust wearing her hair up in braids like Snoop Doggy Dogg and running up to hug Jay, who she didn't even know, right when we wrapped up our last song.



6/23/2001 Dacia Cafe

R'lyeh / Ground Xero / Apocalyptic Visions / Leechmilk / Social Infestation

Dacia Cafe is a greek restaurant. I met this guy Sean Morrisey and his band fucking sucks. Leechmilk blew the power several times, and my wife threatened to kick some guy's ass for bumping into her while slamming around. 



6/30/2001 Jizzomat

Apocalyptic Visions / Black Lips / thirty other gutterpunk bands

It took us forever to set up in that sweaty house and our set was cut short. We basically were the clusterfuckingest band of all time. Angie Dickenson beat the tar out of some girl for elbowing offenses. Later on every member of The Black Lips joined in a whoopfest on some drunk asshole and it took them all night to really fuck him up, because they are all so small and weak. But they did fuck him up.



8/3/2001 Somber Reptile

Signs Of Dying / Apocalyptic Visions / Avulsion

Signs of Dying were so good at this show that the rest of us looked like idiots. They were total dicks to us and I considered killing them. Also, I was very ill and couldn't sing. I vowed to never play this shithole again. Evan of Avulsion keeps dragging us back. I like playing with them. They crack me up.



8/10/2001 Nine Lives Saloon

Apocalyptic Visions / Slow Motion Suicide / Moonwater

The audience was one man who only stuck around because he was interested in playing bass for us. Like most musicians, he was a lying sack of shit.



10/17/2001 The Masquerade

Apocalyptic Visions / Signs Of Dying / Exhumed / Mortician

We pre-sold more tickets than all the other bands combined. We sold three.



12/13/2001 Nine Lives Saloon

Mooseknuckle / The Evils/ Apocalyptic Visions / The Heathens

We covered the Evils' song "Dark Side" at this show, much to their amusement. My box of smokes broke open and the cancerous contents plastered itself to my legs inside leather pants. This caused me to black out onstage.

4/4/2002 Nine Lives Saloon

Ground Xero / Apocalyptic Visions / Avulsion

Did I actually see a mosh pit tonight? Avulsion was banned from Nine Lives for knocking monitors off the stage. When asked to get off the stage, they kept playing. I like those guys.



5/7/2002 The Masquerade

MID and some other really shitty bands I don't even remember. 

Its not that MID is that good, it's that I was that drunk.



5/14/2002 The Masquerade

Apocalyptic Visions and Deicide!

While standing onstage and waiting the full two minutes for our intro to play itself out, I realised what a tremendously stupid idea this was. Some kids from Alabama asked for autographs, -bizarre-. Jason and I shared a pitcher of beer with them to commemorate this wierdness even thought they were underage. Glen Benton made it clear that our band sucked in his own subtle way. The rest of his band were very cool, although they were also unimpressed with us.



6/20/2002 The Echo Lounge

Rotten Entrails / Apocalyptic Visions / Flathead Mike And The Mercurys / Lust / Echophlox

This was the Junkman's Daughter 20th Anniversary show featuring bands from all the people who work at the store. The whole thing was emceed by Gary Lindsey, former frontman of Knuckle and Four Hour Fogger. He flew here from Arizona just for the show, and wore some very flattering dresses. My pants ripped into tiny pieces moments before going on stage and my cock spilled out. I drove home to change and returned seconds before we had to go on. I hate every fucking venue in East Atlanta and especially this one, and the audience hated us too. Eric Smith is a complete fucking shithead.



7/17/2002 Somber Reptile

Apocalyptic Visions / Avulsion / some guys from New York...

Evan's girlfriend fell down and split her head open on the floor, which she blamed on me. I struck a stripper on a bicycle while driving home. She was unhurt, but later decided to sue me for her injuries anyway. She never bothered to show up in court.



7/25/2002 The Somber Reptile

Avulsion / Apocalyptic Visions / Kalibas / Hari Kari

Man I fucking hate the Somber Reptile



7/31/2002 Nine Lives Saloon

Fetish For Desecration / MID / Flathead Mike And The Mercurys / Apocalyptic Visions / Bitch

At midnight I turned twenty-nine. Stacey brought me a cake shaped like an inverted crucifix. She interrupted the concert to ask me to marry her. Flathead Mike and his bassplayer came onstage to join us for "Same Shit Different Asshole" and they sucked.


8/8/2002 The Masquerade

Apocalyptic Visions / Bang The Union / Ground Xero / Cernunnos!

After fucking around fifteen minutes I realised that I hadn't plugged my fucking amp in. It was surprising to see so many people stick around long enough to hear us, even though by the end of our set the audience had eighthed itself. Danny Dixon from MID was controlling the lights and so we had to deal with strobes and other things we don't have any experience with. Ground Xero has a new drummer and guitar player, which leaves us as the last drum-less band in Atlanta, when once there were many of us. That is, unless Signs Of Dying are still around.



8/10/2002 Gentleman Jims II Murfreesboro Tennessee

Immortal Symphony / Apocalyptic Visions / Ground Xero / Skullkin

Our first out-of-town show. Skullkin sucked ass. We got forty-two bucks and free Coke, meaning I guess that everyone payed only two dollars to get in. We were invited to a party afterward, during which we got hammered. During the five-hour drive home through the fog-choked mountains I was treated to two very unforgettable sights: an enormous insect head sitting in my lap that must have blown in through the window, and five sleeping metal heads sitting straight up in their seats like zombies.



9/7/2002 Nine lives Saloon

Apocalyptic Visions / Sins Of Lust / Spectremen

I had meant to say some really evil stuff between songs but there were two people in the audience so I decided to say nothing. My guitar playing keeps getting worse. I wish I could find someone to replace me.



1/3/2003 Nine Lives Saloon 

Hatekore Junkies / Apocalyptic Visions / Flathead Mike and the Jerkurys / Count Chokula Five

The Hatekore Junkies sound SOOO terrible that I was inspired to write the song "I Drink Because Your Band Sucks." Jay went to visit his family in Michigan for the holidays and was supposed to be back this afternoon, but he did not. I got onstage and took a nap... it was the best we ever sounded. 



6/1/2003 

I am burying the Doomsday Device in the ground. I hate Jay, and I don't want to be in a band with him anymore. I plan to join every band I can find and convince the members I like to quit and join me in Apocalyptic Visions



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7/9/2004 Swayze's Marietta

In the alley behind the building as Plague and I were slamming beers open on the back bumper of his truck, joined by his twin brother Pestilence, many cruel things were said about Eyal and his shitty fucking band. And at long last, the Doomsday Device has been re-activated. We start writing songs tomorrow.


01/09/2005 Swayze's Venue

Council Of The Fallen / The Knife Trade / The Classic Struggle / Apocalyptic Visions

My friend Wes stormed out into the audience dressed like a bottle of Jack Daniels whiskey. Once again, Bobby Smith has mysteriously arrived to watch our first show. We closed with a cover of Motley Crue's "Shout At The Devil"



02/05/2005 Swayze's Venue

Hallow's Eve / Apocalyptic Visions
Hallow's Eve cancelled at the last minute. No one was surprised.



02/19/2005 Burrito Jones

Zoroaster / Apocalyptic Visions

The drummer of Zoroaster walked out in the middle of a song to catch his breath after playing at about four beats per minute. We got free burritos.



02/26/2005 Mulligan's Bar 

Doomsayer / Apocalyptic Visions 



02/27/2005 The Masquerade

Cryptopsy / Cattle Decapitation / Kshatrya / Apocalyptic Visions

Cryptopsy cancelled and once again I have had it with having Jason in the band. This will be my last time kicking him out.



05/17/2005 Mulligans Bar

Ryan is so much worse than Jason. What was I thinking. Our fog machine set off the smoke alarm and made it difficult to stay in sync.



07/02/2005 The Masquerade

Avenge Thy Torment / Morionor / Vyserith / Apocalyptic Visions / Threat of Life / Withered

Ryan played much better, but he seems to get lost often.



07/02/2005 Swayze's

Chaos Ego / Necronomica / Apocalyptic Visions
Someone was singing the lyrics along with us. How do people find these things out?


07/30/2005 Mulligans 

It was Plague and Pestilence's birthday today, so we got absolutely destroyed drunk and the concert became a terrible mess. I threw "Go To Hell" cigarettes out into the audience and we gave out free AV lighters all night, which are pieces of shit and they rarely work.



12/30/2005 Swayzes venue

Zoroaster / Lament Configuration / Loss / Avulsion / Apocalyptic Visions

Ryan has been fired and replaced by Dan Klein, henceforth "Famine," who is a hell of an improvement. Its amazing how much better Zoroaster has become also.



02/7/2006
We opened our first boxes of the Doomsday Device CD today, and went straight to a strip club to celebrate.


02/17/2006 The Darkside
This place sucks. 



05/19/2006 The Star Bar 

Dark Overlord / Apocalyptic Visions / Joelar System

It seems to me that if I am told that it is too late to add Parabellum to the bill, or that there is not enough time for four bands, that I should NOT BE FINDING OUT THAT THE HOT ROD HELLCATS WERE ADDED AT THE LAST MINUTE. It is further unthinkable that these jam band idiots would then be billed OVER US and we should be forced to play with the sun still up. Tonight was our first live performance of "Tambores De Guerra"



05/20/2006 Anniston Fairgrounds

Anos Mia / Grotesquary / Parabellum / Wicked Descendants / Sciatica / Apocalytpic Visions

We camped out here since the previous night and grilled dead animals all day while avoiding everyone else at the festival. It was fucking excellent to see Parabellum again, and I convinced them to come up onstage with us to perform "Shout At The Devil" and then EVERYONE came up on stage, which was incredible. After eight hours of metal there were still enough people alive at three a.m. to shake the crappily-constructed stage to pieces. 



6/6/06 Swayze's Venue

Demoncy / Apocalyptic Visions / Legions Of Astaroth / Tenebrous / Decay The Astral Self / Ecryptus

I reserved this night the previous year, and even with that much advance time I could not secure a major headliner, but all in all I beleive that Demoncy was the perfect choice. I had made shirts for all the bands comemmorating this night. It was expensive. People still ask me where they can get these shirts, but I couldn't afford to make more than just enough for all the musicians who played that night. Nor would I want to get the permission of six bands to use their names! Although we could not get permits for the explosives I planned we did manage to dump about six thousand live crickets on the audience.



07/05/2006 Lenny's Bar

Rev Rebel / Gimmie / Hawkeye Pierce And The Preachers Of Bad Faith / BOV / The Shodes / Apocalyptic Visions



07/07/2006 The Cell Block 

Wicked Descendants / Parabellum / Feid / Apocalyptic Visions

Feid cancelled because somebody stabbed somebody else with a knife.



07/08/2006 The Handlebar

Wicked Descendants / Parabellum / Feid / Apocalyptic Visions

This is Parabellum's home town, and it was one of my favorite concerts ever. I screamed hard enough to lose my voice the follwing morning, perhaps also exacerbated by the party we joined after the show where vodka flowed like leper's blood. I met Cindy the local porn star and Vanamal, the patron saint of sex for Pensacola.



07/21/2006 Satanic Temple Of The Burrito Jones

Enders Game / SassParilla The Singing Gorilla /Apocalyptic Visions

Sass kicks Ass and I want to play with him all the time. Our favorite roadie has taken the mic because I have lost my voice. He was really good.



07/22/2006 American Legion Building

Divine Blacken Path / Grotestuary / Apocalyptic Visions

You know what's really strange? Pulling into an abandoned public building parking lot and hearing redneck metal inbreds yelling "They're here! They're here!" as if we were actually some kind of big deal.



07/28/2006 The Flame

Father Figure / We Must Build / St Valentines Day Massacre / High Five Apocalyptic Visions / Odium Sonata

Any concert that takes place in an abandoned gas station followed by a house party with a swimming pool full of drunk and naked girls, one of whom agrees to be kidnapped and brought back to Atlanta, is a fucking success.



07/29/2006 The Star Bar

Yule Log / The Spectremen / Apocalyptic Visions

Evil Jim never disappoints, but this is not my favorite band he has played guitar for. Although it was the Twin Hammers Of Satan's birthday again, we resisted booze until our second show later this same night. Our roadie is still doing vocals but he completely forgot what to say many times, and forgot the names of half the people in the band.



07/29/2006 East Atlanta Shadow House

The was our second concert in one night. The ceiling literally came down around us and there was plaster in my beer.



08/11/2006 Swayze's

Avulsion / Apocalyptic Visions

This was the roadie's final performance as my vocal stand-in. 



08/17/2006 Drunken Unicorn

Damnesia / Mabus / Commute / Horcruux / Apocalyptic Visions / Locust Grove / Burden Of Vision

The Cougar was particularly obnoxious.


08/18/2006 Breakers

Ecryptus / Prime Mover / Apocalyptic Visions / Dark Asylum

Ecryptus sounds really bad.


08/28/2006 Hell House

Rev Rebel / Burden Of Vision / Apocalyptic Visions

The Rev cancelled, which they seem to do often. It was Amber Moore's birthday so we played a death metal cover of "Unhappy Birthday" by her favorite band, The Smiths.



09/22/2006 The Darkside 

Palace Of The Fallen / Parabellum / Apocalyptic Visions

The manager of the venue is a hook-nosed blonde named Jason, he blamed me for making Parabellum late but the truth is their bus broke down hundreds of miles away from me. We left our pig's head behind and Jason took it with him to the Genitorturers concert the next day and put it in their drink-cooler.


10/27/2006 Breaker's

The venue was jammed to the rafters with adults in Hallowe'en costumes until we began our concert, then they clawed each other for the exit. The night ended with everyone who had arms grabbing drumsticks and joining us onstage.
Some fat mohawked dude rapped over it. 



10/28/2006 Witchburner Field
THE FIFTIETH APOCALYPTIC VISIONS CONCERT

Charles is our sometime roadie and he invited us to play his wedding. It took me four hours to find this farm and everyone was Zombie Drunk when I arrived. Within minutes I was drunker than any of them and we played one of our songs Country Style and changed the lyrics to "Bastard Son Of Nashville" which, had anyone sober been around to appreciate it, would have been fucking awesome. I met a seven foot tall blonde satanist and we ruined my life.


11/25/2006 Shenannigans Alabaster, Alabama

Blind Invader And the Statue / Nymphotomy / The Wolverines / Saint Valentine's Day Massacre / Apocalyptic Visions

SVDM couldn't make it, their bus had broke down. Most of the audience was under seventeen years old, and one girl ran out the door crying with fright.



11/28/2006 The 10 High

Sex In Cars / Christine / Zoroaster / Apocalyptic Visions / SASSPARLLA the SINGING GORILLA

Smoke machines dry out my throat and prevent me from singing, but I was still scary enough to run off all the Zoroaster fans. Kelly bought me a hamburger and otherwise got on Anna's nerves all night, Susanne stood next to our merch booth looking like a sex bomb.



11/30/2006 Java Jaays 

Arsonists Get All The Girls / MKF / Saint Valentines Day Massacre / Apocalyptic Visions

The proprietor of this venue was so terrified of us that he kicked us out, closed the doors and left. We performed one song in the parking lot, under storms and lightning, and when the police arrived we left too. This was my first time using the grinder and I broke it, sending hot shrapnel into the faces and crotches of everyone in the band and audience. We were paid $100?



11/31/06 The Hotel Bham Birmingham Alabama

Because we had been screwed the previous night, SYDM agreed to sneak us onto this bill. There are two Birminghams, parallel mirrors of one another on either side of the river. One is a ghetto, the other is an abandoned ghetto. They are identical right down to the names of the streets,... making addresses difficult to locate. We loaded gear into an abandoned warehouse. Seconds before our first song some dick kicked everyone out and called the police! The building emptied in seconds and we were left with limp explanations that someone had kicked the sink off the wall therefore the concert was cancelled. The shithole was a wreck anyway, so what difference would it make? We took forever to leave.



12/31/2006 The Handle Bar Pensacola, Florida 

Parabellum / Hellride / Subject Zero Eight / Apocalyptic Visions

We rehearsed at the God-forsaken hour of seven a.m. and then made our way south to the barren lands where swamp and marsh prevail. We left early so the band could watch football in the afternoon. Subject Zero Eight were reprimanded for starting too early but the show ran late anyway. Hellride sound-checked for three hours, thereby beating the old Hatekore Junkies' record. They were a few impromptu New Years ceremonies and champagne was thrown around. Our set was cut short, then for the first time in Apocalyptic Visions history we played an encore. Most everyone at the concert had taken off their shirts. We spent the night with local porn star Cindy Strohl, who cooked breakfast the next morning. We played football on the beach before driving home.


01/06/2007 Ground Zero Spartanburg, South Carolina

Lust Of Decay / Ensurrection / Apocalyptic Visions

Mick, who is the owner-operator of this venue, has been difficult to deal with since I first contacted him. Whether this was intentional or a misunderstanding I never understood. In person he was particularly gruff and irritable as if he didn't care if we played, fucked off, or fell down dead. In other words, he became instantly my favorite venue owner in the world and by the end of the night we were both drunk and having a great time. The show went very well and naturally most everyone had left by the time we went onstage but that is how it always is. Lust Of Decay had cancelled, I think, and in their place was about a million emo bands that went on forever. I like playing to the haircut kids the most because they are the most easily frightened.



02/13/2007 The Ten High

March Noir / Aegis Of Athena / Apocalyptic Visions / Collosick

I got into a physical fight with my brother before the show. My ribs were hurting the rest of the night and my face was bleeding where he knocked my head against the floor. My little brother somehow is not so little anymore. Very few people came to this show and most of them were not paying attention to us, but the few who did seemed impressed. The other bands seemed confused by our hostility, particularly the ones I have been friends with for years who had never seen us onstage before, saying "I had no idea you could be such a dick!"



03/03/2007 The Benchwarmer Huntsville, Alabama

Ateface / Wicked Descendants / Apocalyptic Visions

Pokey wasn't feeling well and cancelled his band for the night, which was odd because his band was the only one listed on the marquee outside. (The sign had used an upside-down P instead of a D,... looking like this: WICKED dESCENDANTS) The venue was a sports bar with a Texas Hold'em tournament going on while the bands played. One of the guitar players for Sciatica offered to get into a fight with me, apparently offended because I called someone in his band cocksucker or something, then became bored and left the building instead of actually scrapping with anyone. We suspect he kicked a dent in our Warship. We stayed late in the bar drinking tequila with a loudmouthed and angry US Marine and his quiet girlfriend.



03/10/2007 High Note / Rockinghorse Lounge Birmingham, Alabama 

Wicked Descendants /Unholy Ruins / Apocalypic Visions

A band called Damage Ink were added to the bill at the last minute, and the sound engineer just up and left the building without a word. Everyone stared at each other a while, then tried to go on without him. After many one-hour soundchecks there was no time left for us, but I was next door singing Karaoke most of that time. By the time we went onstage twenty people remained, only two of them were not in one of the bands. The stage was cool, I liked the setup of the room, and as soon as we started playing the bartender says "you got three minutes we're closing!" so we played four songs and fucked off. We were not paid but all the other bands split their money with us, which was odd but greatly appreciated. Every single person there volunteered themselves to help us load all our gear into the Warship too, including a few who were very tiny women in high heels. Alabama bitches are stronger than they look.



03/23/2007 Ground Zero Spartanburg, South Carolina 

Gito Gito Hustler ,Apocalyptic Visions ,Lust Of Decay , Krotalus, Apotheosis, Ensurrection, Chaos Ego

Someone puked but no one could locate the vomit, and this was long before we arrived. We switched from using banners of the Bonegaurd to painting them directly on the amps. They looked great, some people were talking about getting them tattooed. Crazy! After many many many bands had played and people were ready to leave, this band called Gito Gito Hustler came onstage and soundchecked for about ninety minutes. They were four totally hot Japanese girls who play some kind of indyrock punk-pop, and they didn't seem to speak any English except for "one two one two" "Thank you America" and "do you like to rock and roll?" These things they said many many times. I thought they were cool but everyone evacuated the building as if it were on fire, possibly to avoid proximity to a non-metal band. So once again, we played to a fraction of the enormous crowd that had originally shown up. We played one of our best sets ever and the crowd was particularly enthusiastic, unfortunatley we were unprepared for the request of an encore, and furthermore Mick had just sent a round of PINTS of tequila up to us a few songs ago and we were really starting to feel it. We tried to play an encore and we sucked!. After three butchered songs we finally surrendered to an anticlimactic fizzle. We stayed in the bar getting totally hammered until the sun came up, a few impromptu girl-on-guy wrestling matches broke out, and I blacked out until the next afternoon.



03/25/2007 Smash House Atlanta

Hawkeye Pierce / Ice Cap / Khrjichkloth Shrrrdkh / Apocalyptic Visions / Tea Party / Blood Ocean

You haven't lived until you've played in a sixty square foot room with the lights off to hordes of drunk people who dont know shit about metal. With no tolerance built up, and no sense of what is appropriate, they explode into a whirlwind of doom. Hippies, jazz record collectors, thug gangstas and pretend-lesbian girls-gone-wild were suddenly finding their inner warrior and crashing into anything and everything while firing beer and vomit and marijuana smoke out their mouths like snorting dragons. The fat cowboy who plunked out western prariedog songs on his acoustic right before us was like a loosed rhino. We had fun, sold alot of crap, and got smashed on donated booze. After the show the poweramp for the PA fell on Famine's knee and he flew into a pain-induced rage, making people hop out of the way like pieces of popcorn.



03/30/2007 Zakks Coffeehouse Murfreesboro, North Carolina 

Misgiven / Deathtouch / Sinn / Apocalyptic Visions / Gabriel Hunter

The dumbass that operates this venue booked no fewer than 23 bands for this night. The parking lot was jammed with trailers, RVs, and vans full of touring penniless nobodies all of whom were squabbling over time slots. The Dumbass would not give anyone a straight answer which caused many needless fights. We eventually just shoved our way to the miserably tiny stage and started playing. The other bands left in a sickened rage, swearing they would never come back to this venue again. Five people stayed throughout our set, including the drunkest lunatic I ever met who actually tried to swallow the hot sparks that flew off the metal grinder during our closing song. We told him to load everything onto the tourbus afterwards, and he did.



04/07/2007 The Cesspool Joplin, Missouri 

Apnea / Razorfate / Gravelblaster / The Coventry Sacrifice / Spork

We arrived the previous night and set up camp on the stage, and froze to death. It was twenty below zero that night. I was smitten by the singer of SPORK, a tall lazy-tongued blonde named Claire. The singer of Coventry Sacrifice punched his own face until it bled while we played. Our guitar amps were accidentally activating the snare drum triggers and transforming our songs into snowstorms of unlistenable tattattatts. There was a blind girl in the audience who seemed to be staring directly at me. Can she find me by smell? Many jokes have been made that anyone can find me by smell, but it was weird anyway. Someone yelled at me about Jesus and I wound up breaking one of his arms, but not before he cut my nose with his wristwatch. After we came back home I heard that a bass guitar was stolen from that gig, making it the last time we ever let anyone help us load/unload equipment from a concert. 



04/21/2007 The Benchwarmer Huntsville, Alabama

Convergence From Within, Wykked Dissent Dance, Parabellum, Apocalyptic Visions

Everyone had a great time at this concert except for some guy named Pat from the Alabama Death Metal Alliance, or whatever it is called. The show ran late and we went on last, so when he strolled offstage to chill with his fans and friends we didn't complain. We never do. We are the heavy metal marines and we get shit done quickly and efficiently, so we unloaded all his gear for him and set up, and played. Now I don't mean we unloaded it like, we threw it in the river, I mean we wound up the motherfucker's cords and stacked his amps off to the side. The end. Apparently his pussy got hurt over this and he wrote a letter to us the next day about how he was going to kick my teeth in, or something, which is odd because he had all night to kick them in and I never saw him. In fact, he had all night to say "hey thanks for unloading my gear for me I was tired from being onstage,... " and he didn't say that either, which would have been much easier and reasonable to do. I forget his band's name, Apocryph maybe, they were pretty good and the other members of his band are cool. Pat himself was actually poking fun at Sciatica some weeks earlier for being "whiny babies who start shit instead of supporting brothers of metal" but who really is the shit starter? We may have had a misunderstanding with Sciatica but at least they had some kind of a valid point. I threw a bag of fifteen cheeseburgers at the members of Parabellum and we all went back to Pokey's house to continue getting shitfaced and grill dead animals.



04/23/2007 One Eyed Jacks New Orleans Louisiana

Code Duello and Apocalyptic Visions

Really beautiful building, lots of strange tunnels and mislaid rooms catacombed about. Two people came to this concert. Counting the staff and the other band, that left us with twelve audience members. Every girl there was a blue-ringed electric fire of sensuous temptation, and they wisely disarmed us with their generous offerings of liquor beer and wine, until we found ourselves crashed out on the sidewalk but richer by exactly one shipping crate packed with free alcohol. The bouncer, who I nicknamed JP ThunderNigger CrackerCrusher 5000, was the nicest person I had met in the whole city. If you go there, look him up.



04/28/2007 Billiards The Blue Room Springfield, Missouri

Forever Cursed Apocalyptic Visions Black Buffalo 

A small show in the back of a pool hall. Maybe twelve people attended? The singer of SPORK came to this show and what little of my black heart she did not steal the last time we met was definitely thieved away this time. Her ex-boyfriend, or ex-husband, or current boyfriend, or whatever the fuck he is, seemed a little irritated but that was not my concern. He is the person, and there is one in every city, who seems to think he is a big deal that helps bands get "discovered" or some such nonsense and talks a lot of bullshit about what "the kids" are ready to hear these days. If that is true then why is his girl's band not on MTV right now? After he had bought a bottle of tequila for me I snuck his blonde Satanic bombshell outside to get to know her better, and I was drunk enough to soon lose track of her. Maybe I will drive back up there someday and stuff her into the trunk of my car, bring her back in chains to live with me, feed her chocolate-covered unbaptized babies. Anyway, I brought the hat back that I stole from Coventry Sacrifice's singer, but he wasn't there so I still have it. We went to a Steak n Shake with the members of Forever Cursed afterwards, coincidentally on the same night that a gaggle of prom dates were in there all spruced up in their harmless little pretend-adult costumes. Hilarity ensued.



05/05/2007 Ground Zero Spartanburg, South Carolina 

Cannibal Corpse and Apocalyptic Visions

By far the most people I have ever seen in the audience, close to two thousand people I would guess. We played two half-hour sets, with Cannibal Corpse between us. Though I have been an avid fan of Cannibal Corpse for all my adult life I nevertheless have no idea what anyone in that band looks like other than their vocalist, so when a tall stranger complimented us on our performance I can understand his incredulity when I asked his name. "WHO AM I?" He yelled, "I'M (someone someone) FROM FUCKING CANNIBAL CORPSE DUMBASS!" Perhaps someday I will pay more attention to band photos when I open new CDs. Unlikely though. Well, whatever his name is, he's a goddamn guitar genius and great fun to get drunk with. We stayed up getting zonked until we were thrown out at around 5 a.m. What was his name, anyways?



05/11/2007 The Joint Flagstaff, Arizona 

Dark Artillery / Koama / Azoreosote / Ashtaroth / Apocalyptic Visions

Ashtaroth are some badass motherfuckers. My favorite part of their concert was when the singer growled out "This next song is for Mario who just graduated with a degree in Commercial Design today!" Seriously, it was the most metal banter in history. Their music was the best American Black Metal I have ever heard, like a hundred Demoncys all rolled into a navajo war-dance and set ablaze. They also really know how to promote a show, packing out the strip club where the concert was booked with drunk angry natives. We sold a shitload of merch and were pleased with the ferocity of the bloodthirsty audience. Afterwards we all hauled a keg onto a mountaintop and froze our asses off until the next day.



05/15/2007 Eck's Saloon Denver, Colorado 

Habitual Apocalyptic Visions Chronic Grind

I never managed to fuck that hot bartender, but I tried. Exactly one people were at this concert, and that one people was the stranger whose house we were staying at that night. A rather foxy looking police officer-ess came in and whooped and hollered for a minute, but she was so tanked I don't think she knew we were playing music. While we unloaded our gear afterwards I was attacked by a crazy homeless lady who wanted to be my wife. Her face looked like a Wendy's Triple-Stack sandwich, only maybe a touch uglier. Did you know it is much easier to get drunk at high altitudes? Denver is some eight thousand feet above sea level, it turns out.



05/19/2007 DogHouse Saloon Edgewater, Florida 

Koiel Apocalyptic Visions Fields Of Glass

When you see Florida on television you are being lied to. Bitches down there are uglier than senators' wives and easily mistaken for alligators. Edgewater is a place where old bikers go to live out their old age in peace. When I say old age, I mean forties. Life on a hog is rough! This saloon was one of the tiniest venues we have ever played in, with a bizarre mural painted (possibly magic-markered)across the floor and walls apparently in homage to the Jim Carrey movie "The Mask." The claustrophobic room was blackened with bodies as the bands played, except for ourselves of course where one or two blasphemies was all the necessary motivation for nearly everyone to pour out into the sweltering night air and escape our music. The members of Fields Of Glass brought their own home brew of liquor which was deceptively delicious. They certainly regretted giving me free access to their concoction some hours later when I crashed into their hotel room and began elbow-dropping and body-slamming everyone in their beds. I was in a good mood.



06/07/2007 Lenny's

Parabellum Apocalyptic Visions Dead Rites End Of Days

Any concert with Parabellum is a great concert in my opinion. This one was no exception. There was the small matter of the sound engineer being a total dumbass who pumped the room full of feedback throughout the entire night making both bands absolutely unlistenable, but so what. Dead Rites and End Of Days were pretty good,... unusual for motherfuckers from Atlanta who I typically despise.



06/13/2007 Runaround Sues

Southern Hostility Apocalyptic Visions Some Other Band

This restaurant was obviously once a strip club, and reminded me of the sort of tourist traps that line the boardwalk in Key West. We didn't like the way they set the place up for concerts so we rearranged the entire building, moving tables chairs sofas and booths until we finally had created a perfectly mosh-worthy Feng Shui. We tore the shit up, and I think I may have actually shattered glass with my high-end screams. There were many people there, but they didn't seem impressed with us. That's cool, we like ourselves enough for everybody. After the concert was over the building converted into a Karaoke festival. My bandmates pulled me out of there before I embarrassed myself too badly.



06/16/2007 National Guard Armory

Florala, Alabama

This place was nigh impossible to find, and in fact we never found it, but instead crashed some kind of restaurant that was also hosting a metal show. We frightened away all but maybe six people, not one of whom I would guess was older than sixteen.



06/29/2007 Ground Zero Spartanburg, South Carolina 

Unholy Path Of Resistance Another Victim Apiary Year Of Desolation The Destro Iscariot Apocalyptic Visions

A typical Ground Zero show. We killed the audience with great vengeance, then killed ourselves with booze.



07/07/2007 Head On The Door Montgomery, Alabama 

This place is tiny. We tried to convince the bar owner to throw his Daath shirt in the trash but he would not. There was a lot of excitement and screaming from someone who did not appreciate being ignored, but she apparently forgave all and returned for more abuse in short order. I will miss the rain in Montgomery.



08/23/2007 The Drunken Unicorn Atlanta Georgia

Rev Rebel And The Sound Supremes Apocalyptic Visions Ashlyn

I forgot about the Cabesa De La Puerco until the last minute, and our band photographer drove me down to the galleys of Buford Highway to scrape one up. Blood inevitably drained all through the backstage area, providing an appropriately gruesome mood. We are quite accustomed to playing concerts in Atlanta to audiences of only two or three people, so this was no surprise that only a fingerful of bodies had spread around the front of the stage. What was very surprising was the aftermath of the concert. The house lights came on revealing dozens of lurkers in the shadows, who had squirreled themselves into bleachers in the corners where we could not see them. We give a hundred percent of effort regardless of the turnout but it is nevertheless very defeating to play to nobody, and we would have been much more at ease had we known that so many people were actually in attendance. Well, we still hold the title for Least Popular Band In Atlanta so our egos remain appropriately checked. This was the first night we played "Magnificent Decent To The Infernal Chambers Of Hell," and it did not go very well. There was one gorgeous girl who danced like a shitfaced orangutan throughout our entire set, which Pestilence and myself found to be very odd. 



08/30/2007 Repent Bar Athens Georgia

Forever Cursed tuned their guitars for thirty minutes at top volume. A handful of people wandered in and out of the bar while they played. The bartender gave me a drink she calls a "Hatecrime" which consists of a free shot of shitty whiskey followed by a hard slap to the face. There were less people watching us than there were when Forever Cursed played, though a small band of lurching hoboes zombied in during Tambores De Guerra drawn by their thirst for fat beats. We stood around on the sidewalk with our dicks in our hands for an hour afterwards. Boring. Athens is boring boring boring.



08/31/2007 Ground Zero Spartanburg, South Carolina 

Forever Cursed Apocalyptic Visions

Everyone involved is forever sworn to secrecy on the events that took place this night, and all the incriminating evidence was destroyed in a fire. Suffice it to say that there is apparently no depravity that we will not commit. I do remember two things that I can share which are harmless enough: that we played "The Magnificent Descent..." much better this second time around, and I dimly recall climbing into the trees with the pig's head gripped by the ear in my teeth, which I wedged into a fork of wood and then spoke to for a great length of time before I was discovered and shaken down from the branches. What I talked about with the porcine noggin I cannot retrieve.



09/05/2007 Lennys Bar

Apocalyptic Visions / Fields Of Glass / SPORK

I obtained a fresh pig's head today that would serve us for the next four days. A relatively uneventful show with small attendance but still about three times larger than we had expected. Playing metal in Atlanta sucks, but we already know that. I went to the Highlander with a blonde Amazon afterwards, much to the fury of my girl Friday.



09/07/2007 Ground Zero

SPORK / Fields Of Glass / Apocalyptic Visions

The pig's head we had left behind from the previous week was still somewhere behind the club, and it had attracted such a hellish maelstrom of flesh-eating insects that I was nearly snacked into the next world the moment I ventured into the shrubs to locate the offensive carcass. Long streaks of wealed flesh bubbled in every direction across my arms and legs, and were it not for the stranger who forthwith volunteered a can of bactine I may otherwise have suffered a necrotic infection. The members of Fields Of Glass arrived in three separate cars with new bandmates in tow, and a guitarist who did not appear except hours later by plane. Apparently gasoline is bountiful and inexpensive in Florida. The corpse-painted octet put on a memorable performance that wowed the crowd, but not before they comically set up mirrors and makeup counters where everyone could see, and proceded to doll themselves up. Curr, who sings for Decay The Astral Self, had arrived without his wife this time, and we can only deduce that this was his reason for drinking the magnitude of alcohol that she would typically have swallowed, resulting in his being dangerously over-shitfaced to operate any kind of pyrotechnics. I told him so, and relegated the fiery antics to his bandmate Leech. A recent misunderstanding between Leech and myself made this a bold and reckless gamble, but better to go with someone who you know wants to set you on fire than someone who doesn't even know what he might set on fire. In the end it made little difference, Curr quickly wrestled the flamethrower out of Leech's hands and within seconds of our first song he had already set the entire stage on fire. Carpet, amps, guitars, everything he could reach was burning, meanwhile we just concentrated on forging ahead while members of the staff and audience stomped and slapped out fires and chased Curr around the venue trying to get some kind of control over him. He would have none of it, throwing our new pig's head out into the audience while it was still ablaze and unintelligibly screaming backup vocals into a third microphone. Naturally when we finally got to the one song he was SUPPOSED to sing on, he was passed out in a pile of himself. When I announced at the end that this was our final Spartanburg appearance until next year the crowd reacted with enthusiastic despair, smashing into one another like a laundromat in a tornado. We spent a great deal of time afterwards signing autographs and destroying the liquor supplies, and somewhere in all this I found time to do a lot of snogging with a pretty redhead. Fenris offered us a show in Orlando for the following night, so as the sun peeked up we raced south, stopping along the way to repair what liquor, fire, and brutal metal had damaged, not to mention a flat tire that burst aflame in the vast nothing of North Florida which we abandoned by the roadside. While everyone else was putting on the new tire I wandered off and was astonished by the size and density of the local spiders. Imagine a yellow and black tampon fattened with menses hanging inches from your face with eight finger-length scimitars radiating outward in menacing angles, suspended in a net of organic fishline wide enough to jump a daredevil's motorcycle through. Behind it, impossibly close, five more impossibly large nightmare spiders in perfectly spaced arrangement, like a condo tract from Monster Island. It would have taken a very brave and very thin person to even pass sideways between these silk traps. I backed slowly and carefully away from what surely would have been my last communion with nature and pondered my mortality for the remainder of the drive.



09/08/2007 The Dungeon Orlando Florida

You know a joint is going to be classy when it is set up in a toolshed behind a biker bar on a dirt road, remotely lit by a nearby street lamp and with the only sign marking the entrance fashioned from seven paper cutouts, one per letter, thumbtacked to particleboard balanced atop an ice machine that doesn't even face the street. Appearances did not disappoint. Inside was a sinister cavern of unwashed reprobates and one-eyed whiskey-soaked throat-cutters, epically chested gum chewers, and leather necked sand fleas. This venue was twice as good as most others featuring not one but TWO roof-support beams smack center in front of the stage, which directed moshing traffic into a complex figure eight. I do not know if those in attendance were sober enough to understand our music, but no level of intoxication can erase man's fascination with fire and severed heads. They were like uncaged apes. Smelled about the same. Afterward we were rewarded with pint after pint of curious imported ales and unfettered breasts both scarred and miserable in condition. It was like an antique gallery for war-torn titties, and I doubt anyone there was even over twenty-five. To show our appreciation to Fenris Ulfhamr for setting up the concert for us, we gave him the pig's head, which was now in his fourth day of service and boldly aromatic. We drank to oblivion and woke under the Atlanta sun.



09/14/2007 The Dungeon Anniston, Alabama 

Apathetic Disharge / Apocalyptic Visions

Jon of Divine Blacken Path opened a metal venue in the back of his shop, Angelheart Tattoos. Its been almost a year since we've met but he's the same ornery bastard I remember. More people came than I had expected and everything seemed to go pretty well. The acoustics were unusually good for an all-concrete room. Jon was hospitable to a fault as we stayed after hours getting loaded on his property until at last he pointed us to the fucking door with authority. Afterward we went to some damned place around the corner, the Smoking Moose I think it was called, where some stranger bought me a stiff drink that was about twenty ounces of tequila, Jagermeister, and whiskey. Apparently some hijinx ensued, including me barging into closed bathroom stalls and a little inter-band roughhousing, with the standard scooping-girls'-titties-out-of-their-shirts foolishness. I do not remember any of that, as I just woke up back in Atlanta with the forges of Hell hammering in my skull. Jon invited us to return for his metal festival in a month or so. We will be there.



9/29/2007 The Roxy

Cradle Of Filth / Apocalyptic Visions

This concert was a huge deal for us, we played for a few thousand people in a gigantic arena, we were treated well by the staff at the venue, we sold a record amount of merchandise, spent at least two hours signing autographs and getting photographed with our new fans who had never before heard of us, the members of COF were all very friendly and cool to us and we had a great time. I have never heard Cradle Of Filth before tonight and you know what? It turns out that I hate their shitty fucking music. Also I hate the little cocksucker who they hired to make sure everything runs smoothly and on time. But the band themselves were cool.


Here's a funny story: I cleared my throat between songs and the microphone picked it up. To my surprise the audience mimicked me, so I growled a little more into the mic, and they growled back. This escalated into one of those stupid things that only happens in arena-sized concerts, but it seemed planned and I enjoyed it. There is an annoying vocal trick I use that involves singing two ultra-high-pitched notes simultaneously. I have never heard anyone else do this and most people, particularly the members of my band, hate this trick because it hurts atheir ears. I let loose a little of this poison into the Cradle Of Filth audience and was surprised by the ungodly banshee wails that came back at me from every throat in the crowd trying to imitate it. They scared me a little bit.



11/10/2007 Ground Zero

You know the concert must have been good when no one can remember the first things about it. Although Elizabeth Stephenson had met me before, this was the first night I remembered ever meeting her. I spent a few days sick in bed after this concert.

12/1/2007 North Carolina Deathfest

Worse Than Birth / Coathanger Abortion / Aptheosys / Bloodsoaked / Atrocious Abnormality / Chaosego / Coffin Syrup / Deterioration / Bile Nephrosis / Morose Vitality / The Art Of Murder / Postmortem Disembowelment / Apocalyptic Visions

I couldnt sleep and wandered around in the cold grey morning. I followed some train tracks a few miles and spotted a deer and a rabbit, and an entire city of tents and primitve structures built of cardboard boxes and scraps of crates. I did not see any actual "hoboes" though a few hours later I noticed a completely naked woman with long grey hair and sagging liver-spotted titties staring at me from across a lake as I crossed a very high, very frightening bridge. I am naturally scared of heights and I do things like this to myself on purpose in effort to cure myself of this fear. The wood slats were far apart with a perfect possibility that i could slip through and break some bones, or get stuck. At first I thought the woman was an old tree that had been struck by lightning, and the realization that it was a bizarre person almost caused me to fall. When i returned to the venue my band had left without me to somewhere, and I spent the day alone in the parking lot until Curr showed up with his wife. We went to Burger King and by coincidence I spied my band across the street at a gas station. Then I went back to Curr's hotel and slept a few hours before returning to the venue.



The concert itself was great. Cory had just broken his leg after driving his motorcycle off the roof of his house and was still hobbling around on a cane, but once he got behind the drums he was firing cannons across all decks and we fucking killed. When I began speaking to the audience in Spanish someone yelled out "if you come to this country learn to speak the language!" and some of his hillbilly friends all laughed at his daring wit. So then I yelled at him "Do you speak Cherokee?" and that shut him up nicely. Elizabeth paid for a hotel room afterwards and then, strangely, she passed out in the hallway. She is a very peculiar person with a rare mental disorder that causes her to constantly say "please" and "thank you" and she always calls me "sir" which is a little irritating. She also says "I'm sorry" a lot which I also dislike. Nobody thanked her for anything the next morning, we just grouched and griped into the van and drove in search of breakfast. After some buscuits and parking lot football (an Apocalyptic Visions speciality) I said goodbye to Liz and we went home. I never even got to first base with her.




3/22/2008 Head On The Door Montgomery Alabama

Wicked Descendants / Apocalyptic Visions

Wicked Descendants cancelled for some reason, leaving us alone to devour the disproportionately large amount of money that bands are paid in this tiny tiny TINY venue. The audience seemed unimpressed with us and worse, I experienced massive technical difficulties with the debut of my new guitar. Better that these things happen in the small concerts than the large ones. We could have unleashed some of the new songs from the forthcoming album but instead stuck to the old material. By curious coincidence the Atlanta-native cunt who inspired me to write the song "Destruction Ritual" was with some friends at a bar next door, and tried to initiate a conversation. I was very pleased to see that she had become fat. We drank free beer until we were finally forced to leave at 5 am.


4/23/2008
LEAVE NONE LIVING recording sessions begin.

5/16/2008 The Haven Winter Park Florida

Fields Of Glass / Misanthropist / Pain Principle / Apocalyptic Visions

It was hot enough to boil tar in that goddamned room. Florida! Land of the fucking dinosaurs! We played songs from the new album LEAVE NONE LIVING and they seemed to be well received. We performed like demons and the many people who came to the show were impressed. The venue owner seemed to like us too and we drowned in free liquor, transforming into raving lunatics. Apparently I decided to jump onstage with Fields Of Glass and drag everyone from the audience onstage with them until no one had any room to move. I can't say that I entirely remember that happening. Afterwards we went to a party where there was every imaginable variety of liquor available but strangely the only beer was heffeweissen, which Apocalyptic Visions officially despises. We stole their food and said creepy inappropriate things to any girl who would listen, and were generally obnoxious until long after the sun had risen. Whenever a partygoer would pass out on the floor I would put one foot on their body and announce that I claimed them in the name of Spain.

5/17/2008 Model City Records Anniston Alabama

Nymphotomy / Saint Valentine's Day Massacre / Apocalyptic Visions.

Today was Famine's birthday. The pigs head from the Florida concert the previous night was now in full-swing necrotic decomposition and reeking like the breath of hell. Flies had somehow gotten into our gear and were swarming around the rotted flesh, which was nice. Anniston is a strange ghost town with many empty rooms and boarded windows, and once again we found that Adam had somehow cobbled together another ramshackle DIY hole in the wall to hold concerts in. This one was the nicest yet, but still very ghetto rigged. Like every other show that Adam puts together this one was entirely populated by kids under 19. Perhaps all the adults in this city were wiped out by some mysterious disease. Everything that could have gone right did go right, and better. The foul poison from the pighead chased many of the kids with weaker stomachs out within minutes but there were a few dozen brave souls who toughed it out to the end. We all went to IHOP afterwards and dominated half the restaurant, perhaps because there is nothing else fun to do for teens in this backwoods refuge. We followed Adam back to his camper in the forest and spent the rest of the night swatting flies and drinking beer. Apparently in Alabama the word for "blowjob" is pronounced "blowjoerb." Because everyone in my band snores so damn loud I eventually broke into Adams car and slept in the backseat.


6/6/2008 Ground Zero Spartanburg South Carolina
This was to be our official CD Release Party for LEAVE NONE LIVING, and it went as badly as could be expected. Mick was in a shitty mood and had fired every employee he had just the previous night, and fired someone this night too for starting the concert too early. There is a very irritating drama queen who sometimes comes to our concerts and tries to dominate my attention in whatever way she can. A typical tactic is that she whores herself out upon every available man, hoping I will become jealous. I couldn't care less what she does, but many girls in Spartanburg do. Apparently they were so pissed at having their boyfriends stolen that they began a text-messaging whisper campaign to boycott this concert, which was all for nothing because I forbid "The Cougar" to come to any more of our concerts anyway.
Still, not everyone in Spartanburg has a girlfriend, or a cellphone, so there were enough lost souls there to make it a fairly rowdy gathering. I was particularly happy to see how many innocent looking young girls with perfect hair had come to see us, but not half as happy as I was to see them screaming and beating their own heads trying to get the insects out from their locks when we unleashed the swarm.... We've thrown crickets before but never this many. During an intentional drum-solo my two axe-wielders and myself magically produced three-gallon drums packed to the lid with live crickets. They squirm, wiggle, scratch, bite, shit on you, and oh dear Beelzebub do they fucking stink. Their skin naturally produces ammonia and their breath is unimaginable. You'd never know it from just having one cricket around, but we sank a few hundred dollars into this stunt and it was nightmarish. At once we flung our pestilence onto the crowd and they started SCREECHING People were slipping and falling on a wild carpet of crawling arthropods, the floor came alive with a terrible shape-shifting menace, everyone was tearing their shirts off and running blindly. We continued the song, getting armfuls of crickets thrown back at us, which was gross but we're used to it, and there were only the bravest left after that. The unfortunate man who had to mop up all the crushed bugs afterward was fairly cheerful about it. My favorite part of this night came afterwards, when I went out the back door and heard the deafening song of the tens of thousands of crickets who escaped the building with their lives. It was huge and beautiful.

6/8/2008 The Five Spot Atlanta Georgia
SoSo Death / Nerdkween / Empty Jester / Cherri Swan / Rev Rebel / Burden of Vision / Club of Rome / Apocalyptic Visions
The health department closed the venue down for code violations and the concert was cancelled. Then some shifty dealings were arranged and the concert was re-scheduled for the following night at Lenny's Bar, not far away. This was my first time seeing Nerdkween, which is just a tiny black girl with a mohawk and her guitar. She played and sang so quietly that it was impossible to hear her over the sound of the fluorescent lamps buzzing overhead. I did not recognise the singer for Club Of Rome without his baseball cap on, but it turns out his name is Wendell and he has been cooking pizza for me longer than I can remember at my favorite restaurant in the world. During our concert he was drunk and obnoxious and he ripped the pig's heads off the stage and began throwing blood and guts at everyone. They started some kind of kickball game with it, which was fine with me. But it was not OK with The Cougar, who had come to this concert with the sole intention of making me miserable. I watched her walk in, have zero drinks, and instantly pretend to be the most drunk person in the world. Not only did she start a fight with Wendell and try to get the pigs head back from him, she managed to simultaneously terrorize every person in the room with her sobs and tears as she tried to spin her tragic story of how much she loves me and I treat her like shit, and making it impossible for me to talk with anyone. Well I treat her like shit because I hate her. She chased every last person away from the concert and then pretended to be too drunk to drive. I don't care if she gets killed driving drunk, and anyway I know she isn't drunk she's faking it, so I left her stupid ass there in the parking lot bawling like a fucking baby. I drove around the block, turned my headlights off, and watched her. She stood perfectly up and walked straight to her car, and began sending me text messages. Every time a car passed by she would begin swerving around and falling down as if she were drunk again, then straighten back up when no one could see. I hate her.



Often I am asked the same questions in interviews, and for that reason I sometimes repeat myself.-- War

Psychosis Death Brazil.
O ATAQUE DO POLVO INFORME
Eu escrevo um comentário sobre a banda antes das entrevistas. Eu faço isto para o leitor saber sobre a banda, mas os detalhes sempre estão na entrevista. Mas no caso do Apocalyptic Visions eu acho que é melhor você ler a entrevista e encontrar suas próprias conclusões... talvez isto seja a vontade da banda uma banda com muitos inimigos uma banda com personalidade forte um banda com uma sonoridade intensa e sem igual e... uma banda com poucos amigos!
Psychosis Death Saudações, maníaco! Bem-vindo ao Sanatorium! Apresente o Apocalyptic Visions aos insanos leitores.
War: Nós não temos nomes, mas somos conhecido pelas mortes que levamos: Famine, Plague, Pestilence e eu mesmo: War.
Psychosis Death Após quase dez anos de existência o Apocalyptic Visions lança o primeiro álbum "Doomsday Device" em 2005. Por que tanto tempo para lançar o primeiro álbum?
War: Eu sempre escrevi, gravei e até mesmo executei o Apocalyptic Visions sozinho. Não havia nenhuma razão para lançar um álbum sem músicos verdadeiros por atrás disto. Plague e Pestilence se revelaram a mim em 2004 e Famine em 2005. Não é suficiente que alguém seja somente um perito com um instrumento para se unir a esta banda, eles devem ser consumidos com ódio dentro da vida real e carregarem com raiva todas suas ações.
Psychosis Death "Doomsday Device" é um cataclismo sonoro! É o fim do mundo em riffs! Eu acredito que vocês estão satisfeitos com este lançamento.
War: Nós estamos satisfeitos com nosso desempenho, mas não com o estúdio que nos gravou. Mais um em nossa lista de inimigos.
Psychosis Death "Doomsday Device" é um nome fodido para um álbum! A letra é catastrófica e a capa do album é assustadora. Por que "Doomsday Device"?
War: Nossa banda é nosso exército, nossa música é nossa guerra contra nossos inimigos e as músicas são nossas armas. Nunca foi dado um nome ao álbum. É somente o que é... o "Dispositivo do Dia do Juízo Final". Quando você segura o CD em suas mãos, você segura o Armagedon.
Psychosis Death A capa de "Doomsday Device" é insana! Como foi desenvolvida a idéia para a do capa do álbum?
War: Quando eu era criança sonhei em ser um desenhista animador para Walt Disney e por causa disto eu fui para a faculdade. Em minha vida de adulto esta fantasia foi destruída pela amargura de meu coração e no lugar disto eu focalizei na música a escudirão, entretanto eu retenho todo o treinamento artístico que aprendi. Eu desfruto um controle muito severo. Eu recuso a permitir qualquer imagem na banda que não seja minha. Eu pinto tudo o que nós possuímos: nossos drum-heads, nossas bandeiras e toda nossa arte e logotipos, camisetas e esta capa do álbum.
Psychosis Death Abaixo das nuvens está o "doomsday device": uma coisa amorfa com longos tentáculos e algumas mandíbulas, que está flutuando sobre uma cidade. Esta coisa amorfa é assustadora e convence a imaginação... algo terrível está acontecendo! Fale sobre esta "coisa amorfa" ou "doomsday device".
War: É a minha visão da própria música: uma força antiga e miserável do subterrâneo que se levanta fazendo um eclipse no sol com seu fedor, sujeira e veneno. A fotografia de minha pintura fez uma sombra dificultando ver o detalhe na parte esquerda mais baixa, mas estes tentáculos estão saindo do chão e são destes braços que são formados as tempestades e os raios na atmosfera que se transformam no próprio ar até mesmo em ameaçar as imagens da nuvem da morte. Isto foi como eu imaginei o mundo no dia que nós lançaríamos a gravação, sob o ataque de um mal primordial que estava desde o princípio debaixo de nós. Neste ponto também parece ter criatiras atingidas e esta não era minha idéia. Meu amigo Doutor Fluff, (que é um gato e muito curioso sobre tudo) pressionou seu nariz na pintura alguns vezes enquanto estava molhada e deixou atrás estas formas como mandíbluas de morcegos. Eu consenti a sugestão dele e acrescentei um bando de criaturas fantasmagóricas para equilibrar o aparecimento. O próprio CD é uma pintura de aquarela de um Polvo Gigante do Pacífico que mora no Aquário de Geórgia aqui em Atlanta. Foi filtrado através de computador para ter um aspecto muito velho de um talismã corrompido, como se o CD fosse que uma coisa antiga achada na terra e feito por algum estranho metal negro. Uma versão normal foi impressa na parte de trás da capa, sob os títulos. Eu compartilho uma afiliação psicológica e metafísica com o Polvo. Ele ajusta-se perfeitamente bem como metáfora para o Apocalyptic Visions; um assassino inteligente de oito-armas que espreita na sombras, mudando de forma e cor em toda situação e encobre seus inimigos com escuridão. Isto é exatamente o que nós fazemos.
Psychosis Death "Doomsday Device" é um lançamento independente, mas em fevereiro de 2006 a banda faz um acordo com a DeathGasm Records para distribuir "Doomsday Device". Este acordo está sendo bom para a banda?
War: É bom para nós, mas não para eles. Eles ajudaram a colocar nossa gravação em lojas ao redor do mundo. Nós bebemos toda sua cerveja e nunca substituímos.
Psychosis Death Vocês pretendem lançar o próximo álbum pela DeathGasm Records?
War: Não. Eles já têm muito peso morto enfileirado sem ter que também nos apoiar. Nós somos muito difíceis trabalhar.
Psychosis Death Uma parte da resenha sobre "Doomsday Device": "As faixas são diferentes e não estão ligadas por nenhum estilo ou semelhança! "Doomsday Device" tem onze faixas, mas eu acho que na verdade são onze bandas diferentes com o mesmo nome! Apocalyptic Visions desenvolve estruturas sonoras diferentes para cada faixa, pois cada faixa tem um estilo próprio!" Você concorda?
War: É sábio dar para sua banda uma fórmula para seguir de forma que você pode imitar as bandas que você gosta e ser apenas como eles. Isto é como estas bandas conseguem assinar. Isto é como bandas ganham dinheiro. Isto é como bandas se tornam imitações pálidas de imitações das imitações e é como o controle é mantido nas mãos erradas: as mãos de não-músicos que decidem as maneiras de sua escravidão. Slayer ou Slipknot são rip-offs? Isto é importante saber, pois lojas vendem eles e suas camisetas e também qual Cd deles os fãs estão pegando, pois são bobos e tem medo de serem visto com o CD errado em suas mãos. Nós não estamos interessados neste caminho e rejeitamos isto. Não aderimos aos muitos diferentes rígidos códigos do Death Metal, Black Metal ou Doom Metal. Nós chamamos nossa música de War Metal e não é um gênero, é um ataque do polvo informe ao oportunismo, enquanto escolhemos a oportunidade e arma certas para cada situação. Da mesma maneira que a guerra é empreendida em terra, mar, ar e tão também por religião, filosofia e economia, nós libertamos o War Metal em todos os campos. Speed, Thrash, Black, Grindcore ou qualquer outra divisão que os editores de revista se preocupam inventar, são todas ferramentas para nossa aniquilação. Não nos preocupamos como é chamado e não preocupamos se estivermos confundindo o ouvinte se não nos ajustamos na forma certa. Por que deveríamos lançar a mesma música onze vezes quando nós podemos tirar onze sem igual? Se você quer matar através de veneno você tem que saber que alguns animais são imunes a certos venenos, então é melhor usar muitos venenos diferentes!
Psychosis Death Como vocês desenvolvem a estrura sonora? Fale sobre a estrura sonora do Apocalyptic Visions, sobre a escolha dos riffs e os critérios usados para conseguir esta sonoridade.
War: Um de nós escreve uma canção e o resto de nós assassina aquela canção. Então discutimos e lutamos sobre isto até resolvermos o assunto. Alguns dias depois, alguém revela que ainda não está satisfeito e lutamos novamente. Isto vai por por semanas enquanto a canção é martelada, batida e atormentada como uma espada é forjada no fogo, até finalmente isto não poder ser mudando adiante. Somente as idéias mais poderosas e brutais sobreviverão.
Psychosis Death Quando eu penso em Apocalyptic Visions eu penso em uma banda sem igual, pois a sonoridade do Apocalyptic Visions é intensa, com identidade própria. Na resenha eu mencionei algumas influências para o Apocalyptic Visions (Morbid Angel ("Altars of Madness), Krisiun (old), Diabolic, Sinister ("Cross the Styx"), Vader (old), Kataklysm (old), Cannibal Corpse, Deicide (old). Mas eu não tenho certeza sobre estas influências, pois o Apocalyptic Visions é uma banda que tem muitas qualidades sonoras e uma personalidade metálica envolvente! Quais são as verdadeiras influências do Apocalyptic Visions? Como vocês separam as influências das composições?
War: Na verdade nós não escutamos metal. Na verdade eu nunca ouvi Diabolic e Sinister. Nós seguimos a trindade do Metal Brutal: Morbid Angel, Deicide, and Cannibal Corpse, mas por muitos anos ouvimos coisas novas e isto era excitante e depois de ver Slayer todos os anos durante vinte anos, admito eu estou enjoado para ve-los agora. Eu cresci devorando trilhas sonoras de filmes que John Williams compôs: Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Superman. E a maioria dos filmes que assisti quando criança. Eu sempre fui fascinado por estes grandes climas e temas, entretanto não posso imitar a música dele eu sempre tento considerar a possbilidade da aproximação dele com a composição da canção. Quando adolescente, nos anos oitenta, fui possuído pela magia de Megadeth e Rigor Mortis e eu nunca recuperei-me disto e estas bandas nunca envelhecem para mim, mesmo que Dave Mustaine esteja sendo suave. Se qualquer coisa for uma verdadeira influência em nós, é a anti-influência de todas as bandas ao redor de nós. Em show pensamos: "eu não quero fazer AQUILO"! Porque a música aqui está verdadeiramente sem uma redenção. Cada um de nós esteve em muitas bandas e vimos muitos exemplos de idiotice e besteira e nós tentamos manter isto do lado de fora.
Psychosis Death Eu tentei explicar a sonoridade do Apocalyptic Visions na resenha, talvez você não concorde com algumas palavras que escrevi, portanto explique o som do Apocalyptic Visions com suas palavras...
War: Não importa. Todo o mundo ouvirá o que eles querem ouvir e nós não podemos explicar isto. Quando estamos no palco sentimos que estamos em um campo de batalha, a música está desorientando, esgotando e amedrontando, como bombas sendo lançadas ao redor de nós. Apenas abaixamos nossas cabeças sob a tempestade e forçamos o barulho e o ódio nas faces dos inimigos e esperamos destrui-los antes que nos destruam.
Psychosis Death Obervando a biografia e as letras do álbum parece que vocês são pessoas negativas sobre a existência. No encarte do "Doomsday Device" não tem fotos de vocês e vocês não escreveram nenhum agradecimento. Vocês transmintem raiva pela humanidade. Vocês tem esta característica na personalidade?
War: Nós somos chamados freqüentemente de "The Angriest Band In America" (algo do tipo: "a banda mais ameaçadora da América") e eu acredito que foi dito originalmente para nos insultar, pois jogamos este jogo com a "cena metal". Fazemos muitos inimigos e poucos amigos... mas estamos orgulhosos de nossa reputação e agora usamos este insulto em toda nossa propaganda. Isto não é música de amor, isto é a música de ódio e assim nós odiamos tudo e somos cruel com tudo, não agradecemos a ninguém... nem a nós mesmos.
Psychosis Death Apocalipse é uma palavra bíblica e significa "revelação". Em alguns países é usado "revelações" e não "apocalipse" como nome do último livro da Bíblia. O termo "visões apocalípticas" é diretamente ligado à Bíblia. Quando falamos em "visões apocalípticas" falamos sobre os fatos deste livro Bíblico. Concluindo: "visões apocalípticas" é um termo bíblico. Como você entende isto? Por que o nome da banda é Apocalyptc Visions?
War: Isto é a natureza de nossas imaginações. Cada canção que escrevemos é uma breve imagem da aniquilação cataclísmica; elas são fantasias (ou visões) do Apocalipse. E novamente não é algo que será determinado por um nome, somente é o que é: Visões Apocalípticas.
Psychosis Death Estamos no final da entrevista. Fale para nossos leitores sobre os planos do Apocalyptic Visions... sobre o próximo álbum ou sobre as novas composições.
War: Temos planos de lançar um picture-disk single e então outro álbum completo. Estas canções já estão escritas, mas nós não gravaremos até o ano que vem.
Psychosis Death Maníaco, termino aqui a nossa entrevista! Eu espero que a entrevista ajude na divulgação do grande Apocalyptic Visions. Obrigado!
War: Tenha uma vida maravilhosa e uma morte miserável, morra gritando e queime no inferno!

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Vampire Magazine Netherlands
It's already been one year since Apocalyptic Visions released its debut of which I was surprisingly impressed. Their hatred towards the humanity is not new for a metal band, but their music is. An interview filled with humour and honesty, ladies and gentlemen, I bring you War.
Vampire magazine Could you introduce Apocalyptic Visions to all the readers?
War: We do not have names but are known for the deaths we carry: Famine, Plague, Pestilence, and myself War. Each of us is adept on many different instruments and styles of music, but for the purposes of this band Plague is the drummer and his twin, Pestilence, plays the bass because their senses of rhythm were synchronized before they were even born. We all do vocals but I am considered the singer.
Vampire magazine I liked your debut, but what are other reactions you've heard?
War: There are people who dislike the album, but these people do not speak to me. Typically people will say I remind them of some other band I have never heard of. Also they will call us Death metal or Black metal, or Doom or Grind. We play whatever we feel and people hear whatever they want. We are satisfied with our performance, but not with the studio who recorded us. One more in our list of enemies.
Vampire magazine And although you definitely deserve more attention, you're not interested in a label deal…Why?
War: We serve no master. The people who want to hear this music will find us on their own way and people who want to be cool will pick something else to do.
Vampire magazine Is that something that can change in the future?
War: Two of my very good friends own underground metal labels and we help each other in the ways that are possible, but it would be their ruin to try and make Apocalyptic Visions into a profitable venture. Perhaps if they ever became rich enough that they could just waste money then we could work something out, but I do not foresee that.
Vampire magazine How much time do you spend writing lyrics, are they really important to you, or do they just write whatever comes down in you head?
War: I do not spend nearly as much time writing lyrics as I do erasing them. Every aspect of our song writing is like the forging of a weapon, and particularly the lyrics. A good weapon is easy to wield, will strike with maximum killing force, and is precise. So first I will pour out all the hatred that I feel onto paper, and then cut and carve away at it for as long as it takes until they are perfectly shaped and deadly. I do not write about things that are not personally significant to me, these are all my true thoughts and emotions.
Vampire magazine If I read the lyrics I get the feeling you're not so happy about the humanity, about being a human yourself…
War: I am not impressed with the human race nor will I miss them when they are gone. Given the choice of greatness or misery humans always choose misery. They cling to stupidity as if it were a virtue. I hate them and spend much effort in removing and destroying the humanity of myself.
Vampire magazine Why do you actually call yourself the "Angriest Band In America"?
War: It is a name given to us long ago by other bands that played with us, and it was meant to be an insult because we do not play the game of the metal "scene". We make many enemies and few friends. This is not music of love, this is the music of hate, and so we hate all and are cruel to all. I have that hate from living on this planet, from dealing with the people who live on it, and even from trying to play music in the first place. Musicians are the absolute worst pieces of shit you would ever have to deal with and trying to form a band, which for me took eleven years, is enough to drive anyone insane. We do not say that we hate the human race to try and impress people or to sound cool in an interview. We are real people with mothers and girlfriends and there are people who are dear to us; we are not just living some imaginary life where we walk around dressed only in black and never making jokes. We know how to smile. We know how to live. The anger comes from the rest of you, interfering with us, disappointing us, proving your worthlessness, and wrecking everything for yourselves and everyone. We truly hate you, and the human race, and all the parts of ourselves that remind us of you.
Vampire magazine I for example never understood the (black metal) make-up thing, I know it's all an act, but what's your opinion on that?
War: I have been in bands that wore corpsepaint. Immediately what I noticed was that it felt like I was hiding from the audience. It is very easy to look evil when you are wearing this paint, but it is not easy to do this when you are using your real face which Apocalyptic Visions prefers to do. I also think that it is very easy to look foolish when you wear corpsepaint, and that for every band that looks menacing there are twenty that look pathetic. Idiots ruin everything.
Vampire magazine And though you seem to dislike everything and everyone, some bands must have influenced you, no?
War: We do not actually listen to that much metal and our main influence is from bands we dislike, who teach us what NOT to do, like self-delusion, complaining, pandering, and being unprepared onstage. We follow the trinity of brutal metal: Morbid Angel, Deicide, and Cannibal Corpse, but it has been many years since we heard anything new that was exciting. After seeing Slayer every year for twenty years I admit I am now bored to see them. I grew up devouring the movie soundtracks of John Williams who composed 'Star Wars,' 'Indiana Jones,' 'Superman,' and most movies I enjoyed as a kid. I was always fascinated by these large and climactic themes, and though I cannot possibly imitate his music I try to consider his approach to song composition always. For me personally the best bands that ever lived were Rigor Mortis and Megadeth; anyone who wants to argue about it will get my piss in their eye.
Vampire magazine I compared you with a lot of bands, but to me, your sound is closest to bands like Naglfar and Belphegor, and what do you think about those comparisons?
War: Who?
Vampire magazine I read on your MySpace that you opened for Deicide and also for Cannibal Corpse, how was it?
War: Opening for internationally recognized bands is just like being in the audience except you get in for free. You get to have band practice on stage before anyone bothers showing up, maybe the bartender will listen to you and some other people who have to work there, then you fuck around a few hours until the headliner goes onstage. No one cares about the opening band. Whenever you meet famous people they are generally nicer to be around if you don't mention that you are in a band too, so I don't usually bring that up and everyone gets along.
Vampire magazine You also played guitar in Daath, can you give me more information about that?
War: I never joined that band. The guitar player was looking for someone to replace his flaky band-mates who kept quitting on him and someone told him about me. I hated his music, and I hated him for that matter, but I have been in worse situations and never feared exploring the things I dislike so I agreed to play some shows with him. It was pretty terrible all around but it was good experience to play a different style of music, and also to play with this musician that to me seemed an impossible spoiled brat. It is wise sometimes to join the enemy so that you can better understand what it is exactly that you hate, and identify this in yourself, and remove it. I have had this experience in many bands. Their drummer agreed to quit with me and joined my band full time, where he was excited to finally play some serious metal. Mike Kameron and I are still good friends, but everyone else in that band can go to hell.
Vampire magazine There were shows that your roadie replaced you as vocalist, how did you screw your voice like that?
War: I smoked cigarettes for about fifteen years for one thing. For another, there are things I do with my voice that to my knowledge no other living person has ever done, so there was no way to know how far I could go with it before it became dangerous. We played three shows in three days and suddenly my voice just disappeared and did not return for weeks. Not so much as a whisper would come out. I quit cigarettes altogether and have been trying to invent a way to safely practice the noises I make. It has been going well.
Vampire magazine What is the strangest thing that ever happened to you, on a live situation?
War: Someone gave me a wedding ring and asked me to marry her once. I said yes, but only so I wouldn't embarrass the girl in front of everyone. A different situation at a recent concert I noticed a woman who was blind and obviously enjoying the show very much. That impressed me because she could not have been influenced by anything other than the sound itself. Her eyes, and her strange way of sort of staring forward, and of course her cane, all gave away her impairment, but after the show she seemed always to know exactly where I was and to be watching me with morbid fascination. The room was crowded and loud so she could not possibly have heard me, and besides I do not talk to many people after a concert. Maybe I smell different from everyone else.
Vampire magazine I also read you haven't been very lucky sometimes, and also fucked up live here and there. Do you rehearse and work on it a lot, you know, to improve your playing?
War: We rehearse like lunatics and I think we make fewer mistakes than almost any band, but we play so fast that there are literally thousands of notes per song and the odds are impossibly small that we will ever play every single one of them correctly in a live concert. What you read was an example of me worrying over minor details; no one notices mistakes if you don't act like you make them.
Vampire magazine Have you learned anything from all those years playing live?
War: The most important lesson has been that nothing matters. It doesn't make a difference if we get paid to play, or if no one buys our merchandise, or even if no one comes to see the concert. It doesn't matter if we get properly sound-checked or if the guitar tone is ju-u-ust right, or if we have to go on late or early or what order the bands are supposed to be in. Any stupid thing you could possibly complain about simply does not matter. It does not matter if you make mistakes, and it REALLY doesn't matter if you play incredibly well. The only thing that makes a difference is that you deliver every last drop of energy into the performance. You can forget every rhythm and go out of time and tune and fuck up every last thing, just keep your intensity up and no one will ever notice.
Vampire magazine As goes for the future, what plans do you have with Apocalyptic Visions? What about next album?
War: We are currently touring around North America every weekend playing farther and farther from home. It has gotten up to over a thousand miles per trip and we are discovering that we have fans out there. We will begin work on our second album this fall and have it ready for 2008.
Vampire magazine Okay, that's all I needed to know. Anything else to say?
War: Have a wonderful life, and a miserable death. Die screaming and burn in hell

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All Access Magazine Puerto Rico.
All Access: Apocalyptic Visions nice name so real & scary,to me you guys are one of todays most brutal & intense act in the Underground Death Metal scene in the U.S.,pure,fast,demonic & original,tell us a bit about your personal lifes & a brief history of the band?
War: We are known by the deaths we bring, Plague, Pestilence, Famine, and War. Plague and Pestilence are actually twin brothers, so they have known each other the longest, but we have all known one another for most of our miserable lives. We spent years trying to accomplish our evil designs separately without success and have been notoriously difficult to get along with. No band survived for long after any of us were admitted. Eventually out of necessity and exasperation we were forced together. It turns out that we are able to tolerate one another better than anyone else, although in many ways we seem to make each other even meaner.
All Access: Are you guys on tour this days,because I saw many booked shows,but to me you guys deserve more & more shows & fests colaborations,tell us more?
War: We did some small tours through North America this year with varying success and included in some festivals too. We have no management or label to back us so it is very difficult to arrange these things.
All Access: Are there plans for Apocalyptic Visions to tour in Brazil,Spain,the U.K & other countrys where Death Metal is on the top of the charts?
War: Hopefully after the release of our second album we hope to hit South America and Europe.
All Access: You guys deserve to be featured in fests like the Maryland Death Fest or to play with big acts on their tours like Mortician,Malevolent Creation,Cannibal Corpse among others,tell us more?
War: We have not bothered with those larger festivals because of the expense. There is also a good chance after the cost of admission that your band will be playing simultaneously as Deicide or someone that people will flock to see,... leaving only a scant number of fans behind to watch your show. We try to avoid the multiple-stages arrangements.
All Access: Guys tell us about your influences in & out of music to create such a phenomenal sound with so much variety?
War: We follow the trinity of brutal metal: Morbid Angel, Deicide, and Cannibal Corpse, but it has been many years since we heard anything new that was exciting, and after seeing Slayer every year for twenty years I admit I am now bored to see them. I grew up devouring the movie soundtracks of John Williams who composed 'Star Wars,' 'Indiana jones,' 'Superman,' and most movies I enjoyed as a kid. I was always fascinated by these large and climactic themes, and though I cannot possibly imitate his music I try to consider his approach to song composition always. As a teen in the 1980's I became possessed by the magic of Megadeth and Rigor Mortis, I never recovered from this and these bands never get old to me, even if Dave Mustaine is getting soft. If anything is a true influence on us, it is the anti-influence of all the bands around us. Every concert we think, "I don't want to do THAT!" Because music here is truly without redemption awful. Each of us have been in many bands and we have seen many examples of idiocy and bullshit, we try to keep that out too.
All Access: Whats the auto proclaimed nick of the "Angriest Band in America",tell us why is all that haha,you are damn right about it you are sick as fuck hahaha?
War: It is a name given to us long ago by other bands who played with us, and it was meant to be an insult because we do not play the game of the metal "scene". We make many enemies and few friends. We certainly are hated by most bands and metalheads, and we hate them in return. This is not the music of love, this is the music of hate, and so we hate all and are cruel to all. We like to think that we are "ruining it for everybody."
All Access: Have you guys gotten into trouble with other band because of your attitude or with fans or anyone in particular?
War: I wouldn't consider it to be "trouble," but yes we make other bands angry all the time. Those few bands we have become close friends with lack the weakness that our enemies possess and laugh at our hostilities. I don't think we have ever angered a fan. They know what they are getting into when they set foot into the concert.
All Access: Your latest release "Doomsday Device" is so unique, original, destructive, brutal & pure evil damn it,tell us your thoughts towards it & what did fans,radio stations,magazines & the other media & listeners world wide told you about it?
War: We are satisfied with our performance, but unsatisfied with the recording. If we could add anything, it would be to restore those passages that the studio deleted without our permission. Another in our long list of enemies! We have been reviewed in magazines on six continents. My favorite quote was from Metal Maniacs, where we were described as "The Most Brutal Release In This whole column..." There are people who dislike the album, but these people do not speak to me. Typically people will say I remind them of some other band I have never heard of. Also they will call us Death metal or Black metal, or Doom or Grind. We play whatever we feel and people hear whatever they want.
All Access: Are there plans of recording another full lenght CD soon,if so how would it be called,which label is going to release it,what can our readers & your fans expect from the new material & sound,tell us more?
War: We are forging our second attack at this very moment actually. It will not be released under any record label, but self-published instead. Just like the first one was. We have a name for the album already, but we aren't telling anyone yet.
All Access: In 2007 your legions of fans showed us & the world that the power of Apocalytic Visions is getting stronger day by day,the new album has opened new doors for the group,you guys have had great fucking shows & much more,so tell us whats left for the few next months remaining from 2007,maybe early 2008 & in the near future for the band?
War: We have a few shows planned here and there, both to keep us sharp and to introduce some of the cool bands we toured around with to our home city Atlanta, but mostly we want to concentrate on getting the new album together and get shitfaced. The people we piss off are always funnier when we are drunk.

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Burning Abyss Poland
Burning Abyss: Greetings Sam. Is it your first interview for a Polish 'zine?
War: Yes. I have been interviewed for Brazil and Italy prior to this.
Burning Abyss: What do you know about my country, except some metal bands?
War: I probably know more about Poland than most Americans, who don't know anything about any country at all, including the United States. I met Adam, Jeff, and Les from Hellborn when we were on tour together some years ago.  They taught me to speak a lot of Polish and we were very close friends for those two weeks but afterwards I never saw them again.  Their drummer did not come with them to America so they hired some replacement named Mark but they always called him Cziatke Laird or something? (it means "shit king" but Adam never taught me how to spell in Polish!) I am fond of Polish women, for paczki and pierogi.  Also Pivo.
Burning Abyss: Did somebody from Poland review your album except "Burning Abyss", of course? Some reactions?
War: The CD has sold and been written about around the world, but only reviewed in Poland once. I have not yet read a bad review of ourselves, the people who hate it must not want to talk to me.
Burning Abyss: In my review I compared your music to Morbid Angel, Behemoth, Hate Eternal and the likes. Was I right in your opinion? What do other editors say about your music?
War: I think everyone hears something different.  There is no truth, only belief.  We have been called grindcore, black metal, death metal, speed metal, and everything else.  I do not think we sound like anyone, but it is good that we are being compared to such serious bands.
Burning Abyss: I wrote that "it's more fresh then Morbid Angel's latest efforts"! You must admit that Morbid Angel with Steve Tucker weren't the best combination. But I've heard that with David Vincent they just fuckin' kill again! So maybe their new album will crush your band in a minute! he,he. Are you afraid? Have you seen Morbid Angel with Vincent recently? Can you confirm their actual very good form?
War: Being in the audience doesn't excite me anymore and I have stopped going to concerts.  The last time I saw Morbid Angel was years ago and Steve was still singing, and as a matter of fact Phil Anselmo was also singing with them on that particular night. It was really good.  I do not know exactly when Steve entered or left the band, but I can tell you that I am impressed with every album except "Heresy" and that I was always impressed with their live performances too.
Burning Abyss: Who did think up the statement: "The Angriest Band In America"?! It's a bit provoking, don't you think? Some people don't like that kind of pushy promotion…
War: Everything we do is hostile.  Of course it is an obnoxious boast and it is a very useful way of dividing ourselves from weak people who resent us.  The people who are confident in their ability to perform crushing music have never felt insulted by us, and these are the sorts of people I want around me. Originally this nickname came from other local bands here in Atlanta because we do not play music to make friends and we typically hurt their feelings in some manner.  It did not insult us to be thought of as The Angriest Band In America and so we began to call ourselves this, too.  As a matter of fact, many times when we play concerts the other bands become furious with us for some pussy reason or another and will retaliate by calling themselves the Angriest Band In The Galaxy, or whatever.
Burning Abyss: I asked this question to other American band interviewed for this Burning Abyss issue – Manticore, how is the situation with the American metal scene nowadays? By the way, do you know and like Manticore?
War: Manticore is a pretty cool name, but I have not heard them. I do not know or care about the American metal scene, and in fact I do not care about people who share any of my interests. Having something "in common" is the worst foundation for a friendship. From what little I have observed about metal here is that there is constant betrayal and treachery, there is rigid division between groups and subgroups and constant animosity to outsiders.  When I bring metal bands into Atlanta that I have met in my travels, they are always treated like shit because they aren't local. That sort of girlish bullshit was only exciting to me when I was a teenager so I am mostly uninvolved with the "scene."  I have two friends who own extreme metal record labels and they have always been cool to us, but even those two seem to be fighting with each other right now and that sucks.  I surround myself with people who I find to be interesting, regardless of their musical taste.
Burning Abyss: You come from Atlanta, Georgia. What can you tell us about this State? I mean about its policy, law, characteristic features, living there etc. And what about metal scene in your area? Any interesting bands, 'zines/mags, radio shows etc.?
War: Most of Georgia is coniferous forests and swamps and the occasional shopping mall, but in the north there is the one big city of Atlanta with almost six million residents living in mansions, apartments, or cardboard boxes in various boroughs that are entirely white, Jewish, Korean, Mexican, or African, and they all hate each other.   Everyone here uses illegal drugs except for me, and I mean EVERYONE does drugs.  Every single person. There is a lot of crime, and there are a lot of police, and laws are often confusing and vague to both citizens and enforcers. Most Americans seem to think our laws are conservative, and yet by my reckoning we are the most permissive and liberal country in the world, where people openly steal from each other or worse without consequence.  Stupidity is prized, education is derided, ignorance is mandatory, substance is meaningless and appearances are everything. No one here knows how to speak or write English properly, or understands math or simple science, no one reads except for gossip magazines about movie stars' sex lives. No one understands the government or cares about what George Bush does. All they do is get high and watch television programs about ordinary people trying to be famous, or ex-famous people trying to be famous again, and they spend more money than they earn attempting to fill their houses with things they do not want or need. Everyone is concerned only with themselves and pretends that the world is captivated by their online journal or band or Myspace profile, and the truth is that no one cares about anyone's online journal or band or Myspace profile because they are so focused upon themselves. I love this place! We have three metal radio stations in this city. WREK 91.1 FM is probably the biggest one. It is on the air once a week and has a listenership of probably around twenty people. There is a smaller one, WRFG 89.3, and then an even smaller one, 88.5, which are both also on the air only once a week. They are college stations, so even if no one listens I think the DJs are getting credit for their future careers in commercial radio. The local underground extreme metal label, Deathgasm Records, publishes a catalog that sometimes has articles in it, so that could count as a magazine. There used to be this 'zine called Lamentations Of The Flame Princess which was interesting but I have not seen it in a long time. Usually when a band is written about in a magazine, a little research will reveal that this "magazine" does not actually exist and was merely invented by the band to pretend that someone gives a shit about them. I have witnessed this farce at least six times. Mastodon is from here, I suppose you have heard of them. My personal favorite local bands are Tiger! Tiger! and Demoncy.
Burning Abyss: You played some shows around the US in May. Was it a kind of mini-tour or single shows? With whom and where did you play? What was the response?
War: We take individual concerts whenever we can find them.  Most of the bands we play with suck shit, but sometimes we get lucky and have real talent with us such as Ashtaroth or Parabellum.  We played a few dozen cities this summer, some of them were three thousand kilometers from home.  We have signed autographs and had giant swirling moshpits and people chanting for encores.  We have played to giant empty rooms with not even one person there.  Some people like us so much they get tattoos of our logo on their bodies, and some people hate us so much they have jumped onstage and tried to fight, (but mostly they just type mean things on the internet afterward.)  We have played enormous outdoor festivals and giant theaters and little coffe shops, in tiny basements, and even just out in the forest.  It is up and it is down, and we never know what it will be like the next time. It is exciting.
Burning Abyss: You wrote me recently that you gigged with Cannibal Corpse and Rob Barrett said he had never seen a band like yours! It's one of the best recommendation for a band, isn't it?!  And how do you think, what is so special in your live performances? Do you use some special elements, equipment, image, do you mosh all the time?
War: It was very cool when Rob had said that, but then he is a very friendly person and it is possible that he says that to everyone.  If there is something different about us it can only be our dedication to our performance.  People can hear music anytime at all but they go to a concert not only to hear something but to see it too, so we concentrate on both the sonic and visual impact we create.  Much attention is paid to the presentation of our live shows, we have involved fire and explosives and animal heads and, at one particular concert on 6/6/06, I threw six thousand live crickets out into the audience.  They smelled terrible, but we will do whatever it takes to create an unforgettable experience. We give away cigarettes and booze too.
Burning Abyss: Do you have groupies? :)
War: No.  We do not make music that women enjoy, which is odd because it seems to me that women love to make problems and are always angry, always. They should identify with our fury but they do not.
Burning Abyss: If you are "The Angriest Band In America" and if the response for your music is so fuckin' great, why haven't you signed a record deal yet? How do you think, huh?
War: Record deals are not signed for greatness, they are signed for money.  I do not think the worth of any thing can be measured in dollars.  We will never make any money from what we do, but that is not our concern.
Burning Abyss: Do you have some endorsement deals? Is it easy to get one?
War: We have not really bothered with endorsements. I have a friend who is endorsed by many companies, and it was hard for him to get them.
Burning Abyss: You played in a respected black metal band, Demoncy, many years ago! Some Demoncy members played also in Profanatica! Was it a good time? On which records did you play? Did some of your ideas appear on those releases?
War: I completely enjoyed my time with Demoncy, we toured throughout North America and Europe (though not Poland!) and although it was agreed that my songs would appear on their next album, I left before recording them, so I have ultimately contributed nothing.  To my knowledge they still have not released their new album after all these years and I suspect it is because the sound engineer they hired was secretly their enemy and he sabotaged them. The same fucker tried to do that to us too.
Burning Abyss: Why did you leave that band? Are you still in touch with the guys or your ways parted definitely?!
War: Ixithra has already set the standard of perfection for what his creation will be, and although I admire his song-writing it remains different from my own, so I never planned to stay forever. I was fired a few times for getting drunk and ruining our concerts until I finally quit. We are not on bad terms, but as I said I do not really speak to metal people either so I never see him.
Burning Abyss: You also played in Lestregus Nosferatus, Devestator, Ground:Xero, Daath! It's a lot of bands, man, don't you think? The latter is even on Roadrunner now! Don't you regret? He,he What music do/did those bands play?
War: Lestregus is very ancient sort of black metal, very dark and menacing.  Ground:Xero is a more upbeat kind of melodic metal, sometimes almost like psychedelia.  I don't know what you would call Devastator,... it was sloppy and furious.  I like to stay busy and so I would really join any band that asked me if I had the free time, even if I fucking hated that band, just for the experience and education.  I fucking hated Daath alright, but they had some shows to play and were missing a guitarist so I sat in for a month or two but I never fully joined.  I always knew they would get signed someday because fame was always their primary concern.  Fame is no concern of mine at all and I was more than happy to leave them.
Burning Abyss: Before "Doomsday Device" you released only "Promo 2006". It features 3 tracks taken from "Doomsday Device" recording session, I suppose, as well as a videoclip for "Impurity". Is buying this promo the only way to watch the videoclip? I'm asking because in Internet I could find only some fragment of it.
War: Actually the first release was a thirteen-song home-recording called "Demonstration Of Force" that was only printed into one hundred copies. I was very frustrated with my search for musicians capable of playing the songs I wrote, which is ridiculous because it isn't like my songs are Yngwie Malmsteen or anything, but after many years I had to give up the search and just do everything myself. It turned out very very bad, but I am still proud of that piece of shit. I do not even own any copies of it myself. The disk you are speaking of is merely promotion for the Doomsday Device so yes, it has three songs from that album on it. We give the promo out to anyone that wants it for free, and we also mail it out to venues when we want to book concerts. The video is high resolution on the disk, but there are many tinier and low-resolution versions online.
Burning Abyss: What is the video about? Who did shoot it, someone famous and experienced?
War: I filmed it myself actually, and it is footage of us playing "Impurities," which is a song about one of the ways that I deal with people who I truly hate.
Burning Abyss: Thanx for the intie.
War: Go to Hell

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Headbanger Zine  Peru
Headbanger Zine: Hi dudes!!! How have you been!!! I wait that everything is ok with the band!!!
War: We have never been better.
Headbanger Zine: So, let's go to the interview. When I received the APOCALYPTIC VISIONS package some months ago I was quite surprised by the high technic in, and the guitar work was incredible. The high quality of death metal that I heard was amazing. Then I cannot understood why the band has delayed to put out this work, having in the underground tons of untalent bands and nowadays APOCALYPTIC VISIONS could be one of the biggest name into the death metal scene and I believe that deserved to get a great record label to spread your music. So, which were the reasons of delayed in get a contract deal and why did you decide to put out by your own hands???
War: The largest delay was finding each other. We have all been musicians since the 1980s but we four did not come together until 2005. Every musician who auditioned was a miserable worthless joke for year after year. It is unwise to rely on others to do accomplish anything correctly so we had to self-publish also.
Headbanger Zine: Why did you decide to use pseudonyms and not use your real names???
War: We are dedicated to perfect every aspect of the creation of emotional response through our live performance. Minor details like what your name is called seem unimportant but even the smallest trivia can make a difference. So we have named ourselves after the Four Horseman Of The Apocalypse mentioned in the book of Revelations. These are the deaths we carry, these are the names we answer to.
Headbanger Zine: Comment us about the art cover of the album DOOMSDAY DEVICE? it looks so explicit and the album title to say it all. It has been intentional and it demonstrate you thoughts about the destiny of the human race. Are you agree with this perception?
War: Yes. It is my vision of the music itself: a wretched ancient force from the underground which heaves up and eclipses the sun with its foul stink and poison. this is how I imagined the world on the day that we would unleash the record, as under attack by a primordial evil that had been below them all along.
Headbanger Zine: DOOMSDAY DECEIVER is masterpiece album, are you satisfied with the end product? If you could to add anything else, what would be?
War: We are satisfied with our performance, but unsatisfied with the recording. If we could add anything, it would be to restore those passages that the studio deleted without our permission. Another in our long list of enemies!
Headbanger Zine: The album has been self produced, but you have got to be distributed by well known record labels such as DEATHGASM rcds and others. How did you get the distribution contract ? How's the 'DOOMSDAY DEVICE' sales going?
War: We are acquainted with Evan March here in Atlanta and have been friends for many long years. It was an obvious arrangement to have him distribute our album through his label, Deathgasm Records, and it is actually his effort that has spread the music worldwide. There is no actual contract, we have agreements with each other and we stand by them in honor, not paper. The record sells enough that we can see it is reaching the right audience, but it is not selling in such numbers that we mistake ourselves for popular. We will never be popular.
Headbanger Zine: What's the mean behind of 'THE ANGRIEST BAND IN AMERICA'??? do you consider like a negative human being? Do you believe that the band is hated by the media specialized and bangers??
War: It is a name given to us long ago by other bands who played with us, and it was meant to be an insult because we do not play the game of the metal "scene". We make many enemies and few friends. We certainly are hated by most bands and metalheads, and we hate them in return This is not the music of love, this is the music of hate, and so we hate all and are cruel to all. We like to think that we are "ruining it for everybody."
Headbanger Zine: Repeatedly, we can hear tons of death metal bands that's sounding so equal, making of the genre a bit bored and don't have anything innovative elements. What would to add 'APOCALYPTIC VISIONS' to refresh this genre? And what news elements would to play that nobody had played before?
War: We are actually working on the second album now, and although we do not believe it will change anything about the death metal genre, it will certainly contain new ideas that have not been explored by anyone. But we will not reveal our secrets until the time is right!
Headbanger Zine: About your lyrics, please tell us that comes to your mind when you start to create the tracks? Where the draw inspiration come from??? In your lyrics, Do you wish to turn people on to the strange and unknown?
War: We do not write about things that are not personally significant to us, these are all our true thoughts and emotions possessing a genuine hatred for the human race. It is our only desire to express through our music the waste of human lives and resources,... we are not impressed with the human race nor will we miss them when they are gone. Given the choice of greatness or misery humans always choose misery and cling to stupidity as if it were a virtue. We hate them and spend much effort in removing and destroying the humanity of ourselves, aligning instead with the purities of darkness. If our audience chooses to do the same that is their own business and we do not care.
Headbanger Zine: I was reading that the band hasn't interest to get a great record label, which is reasons of that???
War: Record labels are both an illusion of assistance and a reality of hindrance. No one will help you for free. We prefer to maintain control. There is no significance to choosing music because you are instructed to do so, we desire that people come to us of their free will.
Headbanger Zine: When we can hear your next stuff? It would be different to 'DOOMSDAY DEVICE'?
War: We are hoping to have the record complete by the end of 2007, but we will not rush. The DOOMSDAY DEVICE was powerful and we will maintain that power for the new release but also add to it more poison and weaponry to increase the devastation for our second wave of attack.
Headbanger Zine: the musical way reminds me to old 80's death metal sound a la INCUBUS mixed to SADISTIC INTENT, very deepest, obscure and satanic…Are you influenced by these bands? Lately, which bands Do you listen?We don't listen to metal really. I actually have never heard of Incubus or Sadistic Intent. We follow the trinity of brutal metal: Morbid Angel, Deicide, and Cannibal Corpse, but it has been many years since we heard anything new that was exciting, and after seeing Slayer every year for twenty years I admit I am now bored to see them. I grew up devouring the movie soundtracks of John Williams who composed 'Star Wars,' 'Indiana jones,' 'Superman,' and most movies I enjoyed as a kid. i was always fascinated by these large and climactic themes, and though I cannot possibly imitate his music I try to consider his approach to song composition always. As a teen in the 1980's I became possessed by the magic of Megadeth and Rigor Mortis, I never recovered from this and these bands never get old to me, even if Dave Mustaine is getting soft. The bands that have impressed me this past year have been Ashtaroth, Nominon, and Tiger! Tiger!
Headbanger Zine: what kind of rehearsal schedule do you guys have??We get together twice a week for eight hours a day. Some of that time is spent eating grilled steak or hamburgers, and sometimes playing football, but usually we stick to the regimen of fanatical rehearsing. When there are personal problems with someone in the band we never hesitate to meet at night for spell-casting.
Headbanger Zine: Well, we must to go to the darkness and the twilight zone. Talk us about the satanic conception to APOCALYPTIC VISIONS? You are a CHURCH OF SATAN followers, how did you start in the satanic cult?
War: Our lives were already formed in this pattern and it has always been natural for us. Coming to the Church Of Satan was only giving a name to what we had already believed. We believe in the strength of ourselves and converge our forces together in a single will to dominate all living things.
Headbanger Zine: The ANTON SZANDOR LAVEY cult isn't the same thing that render cult to J. Christ? I told you that because topics like CHURCH, BIBLE, etc.. are the same thing…what different things to offer Us the CHURCH OF SATAN to turn to this satanic space?
War: The bible is filled with overnumbered confusing and often contradictory anecdotes that ramble and lack focus. It is so confusing to Christians that instead of personally reading and comprehending the book they have invented a special place they can visit every Sunday just to have someone explain these stories to them, a person who himself barely understands. These small aspects: the church and the bible, are of little significance to Satanism in my opinion, what is more important is the religion itself. In the United States the religion of Christianity is the status quo; Satanism is linked to this religion only through the act of rejection. Any religion that expresses restricted, chaste, and abstinent life could be considered "the other side" of Satanism, not merely Christianity. We reject all restrictions and embrace indulgences.
Headbanger Zine: what type of stage is the perfect to show the APOCALYPTIC VISIONS potential alive?
War: A stage large enough to fit all our equipment, where I am not trapped without space to move. A stage that squarely faces the center of the room! Strangely many places have little triangle or rhombus-shaped platforms squeezed into a corner or worse, that point over to the bathrooms or to only half the room. What are these idiots thinking? We also prefer to play outdoors under the stars with no roof, in the dark. Many places we have performed will have damn ceiling-support beams in the center of the audience, or tables or video games, or whatever. These things disrupt the audience and are distracting to black magic. I hate fog-machines too, they make it difficult to sing.
Headbanger Zine: Ultra very thanks for your answers, here you have a corner to spread all your hateful words against to humanity. Do you like to add anything else?
War: Have a wonderful life and a miserable death. Die screaming and burn in Hell!

Jeff Clark, Stomp & Stammer, Atlanta July 06
"Now a gory speed-metal band doing material chock full of country-song cliches? That I'd be all into, 'cause it'd be wierd as shit! Not gonna happen though. Instead we get bands like Apocalyptic Visions roaring incomprehensible nonsense about war, blood, Satan and slaughtered lambs. How fucking original, dudes! Musically, they rip shreds, though. CD, Doomsday Device, out now. I bet you can get it for half-price if you torch a church!"

Maciek The Abyss Poland
Welcome another band following the way of Morbid Angel, Behemoth, Hate Eternal and the likes. It means APOCALYPTIC VISIONS plays very intense and blasphemous death metal. Although their music isn't so precise and well-produced as e.g. Behemoth's "Demigod", it's more fresh then Morbid Angel's last efforts - it's more wild, demonic and blackish (a little bit in the vein of Brazilian bands) and I'm sure that some of you will prefer APOCALYPTIC VISIONS' vision of metal more. "DOOMSDAY DEVICE" appeals to me very much and I think they can be a real threat to the above mentioned bands in the future. Buy it now, if you are into possessed riffing and drumming and blackened vocals, aren't you? The crushing debut! So now I'm waiting for their second full-length to confirm they're a classy band.

Treats From The Underground US
Emerging from the dark corners of Atlanta Georgia comes this hyper intense Death Metal act. These guys play very fast, heavy & thunderous Death Metal music. I can hear lots of elements from old school & new school Death Metal music. There is a raw & aggressive brutal old school sound mixed with some very tight well structured & in depth new school styles. These guys are relentless. they give you a quick breather & then proceed to pound the shit out of you again. The vocals are done in a mid ranged raw harsh solid Death Metal growl style. This is a must for anyone who likes their Death Metal dome extremely well & very brutal! This is a must for any Death Metal fan.

Lords Of Metal Netherlands September 15 2006
Apocalyptic Visions claimt de kwaadste band van Amerika te zijn en afgaande op de misantropische, apocalyptische en antichristelijke teksten van de band zal ik ze dat vooralsnog niet tegenspreken. Ook schijnt Apocalyptic Visions niet erg geliefd te zijn in hun thuisbasis Atlanta, alwaar verscheidene bandleden uit bands als Avulsion, Demoncy en Lestregus Nosferatus geschopt, ontslagen of verbannen zijn. Het kan de band ook niet schelen wat men van hun in eigen beheer uitgebrachte debuutalbum "Doomsday Device" vindt, want deze muziek is nu eenmaal niet voor iedereen weggelegd. De vier heren Dan Klein, Sam Cuadra en de tweeling Corey en Carey Brewer ademen één en al negativiteit uit en kunnen zelfs elkaar niet uitstaan... Gelukkig zetten de heren deze negativiteit wel om in goede muziek. 'Doomsday Device' is een vernietigende brok misantropische death metal met een zeer duister randje. Het is moeilijk een vergelijking te trekken met een andere band, want Apocalyptic Visions heeft een zeer eigenzinnig geluid. De nummers zijn over het algemeen snel en venijnig, met hier en daar wat tempovertragingen en duistere tussenstukken. De death metal van Apocalyptic Visions neigt af en toe ook de black metal kant op te gaan, al blijft het in de basis death metal wat de band speelt. Maar dan wel hele duistere. Een enkele keer wordt de muziek opgesierd door dreigende pianostukken wat deze cd een heel donker sfeertje meegeeft. 'Doomsday Device' heeft niet zo'n hele denderende productie, maar voor een in eigen beheer opgenomen CD toch behoorlijk acceptabel. In ieder geval hebben we hier te maken met een echte groeiplaat; naarmate je de CD vaker draait, des te verslavender wordt 'Doomsday Device'. Apocalyptic Visions is er op hun debuutalbum in geslaagd een geheel eigen geluid neer te zetten en weet met een tiental nummers mateloos te boeien. Vette shit dit plaatje!

Horror Wood Babble-On September 15 2006
Billed as "The Angriest Band in America", Atlanta's Apocalyptic Visions are toiling away in the underground death metal scene as you read this, and not only that, but they have the scathing DOOMSDAY DEVICE as audio proof for all those who dare listen. Sounds promising right? Given that I have not been keeping up with death metal for some years now (not as closely as I used to anyway) I can surmise through the spins that I gave DOOMSDAY DEVICE that brothers Corey and Carrey Brewer have their amps set to "old school" and their blenders continuously set to liquify, because this is pummeling, blunt force trauma variety stuff that is big on speed and intent on turning your cranium into mush. Having been in bands such as Avulsion, Demoncy and Lestregus Nosferatus, these boys are definitely capable musicians, with the lineup completed by Dan Klein and Sam Cuadra. What you have here are ten "war metal" anthems (and one instrumental) that have all the requisite midpaced flogging in tow as well as some black metal atmospherics in some dischordant and cold riffing. The drumming is tight and double bass laden, and the bass is bottom heavier than Anna Nicole Smith a couple years ago. Given that this is an indie release, I was pleasantly surprised by the production, which is a nice and clean tone while not forsaking the rawness of the style of music being doled out. If you dig Gorguts, Vader, Krisiun and one of my faves from back in the day Massacre, then by all means, let Apocalyptic Visions educate you on their world view. Just don't be surprised if you end up beaten and bloody in the process...

My Last Chapter Sweden
This band claims to be the angriest band in America. From reading their lyrics you understand that they hate mankind - Christians and vegans in particular. The promo sheet also says the members of Apocalyptic Visions have been kicked out of various other bands, such as Avulsion and Demoncy, that the band is openly hostile towards its audience, that this is not a listener-friendly album and that they dont hope for good reviews. Doomsday Device is a self-released album, but do not think that self-released equals shitty musicianship. These disgruntled metalheads sure knows both how to handle their instruments and compose, they just might be a little uncomfortable for some labels (for the obvious reasons Ive pointed out to you). The drumming goes from a full-on stampede to just grinding, which means this is some fast shit. The guitar and bass sound is full and heavy. Some riffs are a pure joy, like the intro to HUMANS!. So is there nothing to complain about? Well, yeah. The vocals are a bit muffled, a bit hidden behind the instruments. And its not the best of growls either, but it'll do. Imagine a mix of Deicide and Vital Remains and you've got yourself a fairly good idea of Apocalyptic Visions. The opening track I Demand Blood is a bit too similar to Deicide at times, but I can overlook it.

Ginnie Moon Lunar Hypnosis August 2006
This CD starts out like a morphine nightmare and goes hellbound downhill from there. I have a feeling that seeing these guys live is one of those experiences that leaves your guts clean and your ears ringing for days. If you like oldschool Florida death/thrash as well as spectral LaVeyan Satanic voracity, perk up your ears. These guys flog their instruments with the best of the Floridians, and manage to splice in some pretty cool samples as well. Think Divine Empire meets Demoncy; heavy doses of brutal and percussive blackdeath with some doom thrown in for good measure. All of it's extremely well done. The vocals are characteristic brutal death growl in the low ranges, with higher pitched black metal vocal riffings interwoven. Very cool! This band is seriously tight and they channel the depths of affliction and anguish deftly. Not only would I love to see these guys live, as soon as I finish this review I'm gonna go see if I can find one of their badass t-shirts in my size. I mean, come on, how can you NOT love a band that screams "I hate weakness, I hate vegans"?!? I am rather fond of most vegans myself, but it's still fukken FUNNY.
The album art is stupendous. I've always loved the art of death metal, and this is some especially gorgeous work on the album cover. I'm pretty impressed by a guy who can scream like he does, play guitar like he does, and make album covers this cool as well. Horns up waythefukkup, Sammi! If you're a fan of bands like Malevolent Creation Nile, Hypocrisy, and Behemoth, you really need to pick this album up before the day is through. "Doomsday Device" is the antidote to all things Sanrio, and a safe haven from Bible Thumpers and Vegan Thumpers as well. Oh, enjoy!

Daniel Damnation Tortured Soul Zine August 2006
Most bands say they are pure hatred and all it is usually is just pure bullshit, but in this case Apocalyptic Visions are pure hatred and just plain angry. I have received quite a few death metal demos and albums from un-signed bands and I must say this is probably the best overall when it comes down to the quality of sound, layout, and musicianship. Most of the lyric content on this album is mainly geared towards death, murder, destruction and the overall demise of mankind with plenty of satanic verses. The vocals have an extremely brutal attack that is backed up by crushing guitars and a pummeling drum assault. This album may not be groundbreaking but it sure as hell kicks ass! Overall this is a great album that will annihilate your ear drums and restore your faith in death metal. For fans of Krisiun, Today Is the Day, and Vile.

Unholy Cult Guam September 2006
Along with this promo I got the ole-patented press release that subtly tells us reviewers what to write. Usually I throw this shit away for the reason that I see it as propaganda rubbish used to inflame the hearts and minds of mindless clones that don't know what to write except what a fucking label tells them. This is a disservice to fans that will throw their dollar at any type of music if inspired and awed properly, for from media misinformation entire dubious versions of Metal have spawned be it Glam Metal, Metalcore, or Nu-metal. Still looking at the press release titled The Angriest Band In America I was somehow compelled to read with a derisive scoff affixed to my elitist face knowing that any pre-assessment may stain a future critique of Apocalyptic Visions album Doomsday Device. Having read the entire text, I chucked the info in the trash while making a mental note to listen to this supposedly hostile band who hate scenesters who clamor for the affections of their favorite little Metal band, for I too harbor a resentment for fan-boys and groupies who Bang heads with sidelong glances to their neighbors. My hope was that Apocalyptic Visions could ratify the antagonistic press release claims via their music. After a brief intro into Doomsday Device that lays the ritualistic foundation for a satanic world one is brought spitefully to their knees in a cataclysmic rush of blast beats and intensely rapid riffing. Apocalyptic Visions literally rape your ass with hooks, up-tempo walls of clamoring demon riffage spewing spittle from noxious diseased tongues, unrelenting blast beats, gravity rolls, and a grandiose vibe that exudes blasphemy. The riffing is both catchy and thrashy while being utterly Death and Black Metal Its' like fucking a whore who wants a double penetration, and a cock in her mouth at the same time, but the difference is that their musicianship on this recording is extremely tight. Flaming, soaring lava guitar solos will reduce your ears to blackened nubs of cartilage debris and a thunderous bass line is omnipresent throughout the carnage. Spiraling screams ooze loving hatred in all directions and are coupled with screeching burning rapid vocals of pure hostility. Overall the sound is wrought with hints of Black Metal sewn into a septic Death Metal tank of raging gruesome torrents of bile. On Doomsday Device Apocalyptic Visions have created the type of heathen adoring shit atheists like me love to hear in that it temporarily makes me believe Jesus existed. In that regard, Doomsday Device would be near perfect for time travel. Yeah, Id like to bring this disc back with me and watch Jesus get his ass crucified with the volume cranked to 10 while drinking goblets of wine with Herod and his harem. Alternatively, this disc is exceptional accompaniment for watching humans destroy themselves and each other on television. Baring that in mind, it is pertinent to write that Apocalyptic Visions remind me of Impiety in terms of pure misanthropy sodomized into an aggression package of suicide bomber proportions. Beyond that they have influences that rage far and cunt wide, but I certainly hear bits of Daath in the rhythm section, early Vader in terms of speed and signature changes, and a sprinkling of ubiquitous Slayer and Morbid Angel. Yup, this is truly vitriolic shit that is sure going to inspire you to fucking kill your entire family either out of unadulterated hatred or some petty insecurity that was picked at until it festered into a puss wormed sore. Probably the most refreshing thing about Apocalyptic Visions is that they seem to truly believe what they are saying, writing, and playing. Philosophically I think Satanism is stupid, but I am one hell of a misanthrope. Still, I dont need anyones sagacious approval of my perspectives on humanity, for I am well aware that humans are nothing more than carbon-based wastage that literally shit where they eat before and after destroying the foundation. Therefore, you all fuckers out there should do yourselves a favor and get onto the local popularity contest called My Space and look up Apocalyptic Visions. Then get out your handy-fucking-dandy credit card and order this disc off their My Space sight. Fuck, buy the goddamned panties I saw they got for sale too cause it will be a useful tool for gagging the hooker prom queen as you and your insecure Prozac popping fag friends give her a good ole gang rape with a corn-holing included. But remember, buying this album is mandatory otherwise all you pathetic homicidal dreams will never come to fruition.

Rahn Dead Tide Chicago Illinois September 2006
In recent months, many metal fans have praised The Stench of Redemption as the best album in years from death metal titans Deicide. That it may be, but what does it have to do with Apocalyptic Visions? Well, while listening to Doomsday Device, it ineffably clear that this, Doomsday Device, and not The Stench of Redemption, is the album Deicide should have written. This is the satanic, unholy, vile, and hateful gospel that Lucifer would hold most high. I do not mean to relegate Apocalyptic Visions to the role of a clone-- they are far from it. The musical similarity exists mainly in the thanklessly hostile nature the two share, expressed through charging blastbeats, hammering riffs, and invigorating blasphemous roars. All of which Apocalyptic Visions have mastered, outperforming the veterans on every front. (Interestingly, Apocalyptic Visions also sports a pair of brothers, called The Twin Hammers of Satan). Whats even more impressive about this release is that it stands as the bands debut. They have apparently been together since 2001, and are experienced musicians all, but under any circumstances, much less so early on, it is rare to hear such memorable interplay and songwriting. Doomsday Device displays nearly none of the freshman shakes, immediately finding their groove with I Demand Blood, an almost catchy track in spite of itself that showcases this groups many talents. Vocalist Sam commands a brawny roar that varies well in pitch and cadence, effectively (and more importantly, continually) suiting the violent, vindictive lyrics that, while completely unoriginal, are made fresh by his vitriol. Any number of bands have fierce vocalists, though its the riffs that make this album a standout. Mixing the best of modern death metal with the raw, bludgeoning crush of the old, Doomsday Device is bristling with brutal hooks. Bloodbath plus Yyrkoon plus fire and brimstone equal Apocalyptic Visions. Yet, neither the promo sheet nor the bands site specify which members play which instruments, so the praise must go unassigned (though it does look as though Sam is one of the two as well as the vocalist). Aside from an essentially useless instrumental placed in the middle, Doomsday Device is 40 minutes of hell. The band is unsigned (by choice), which likely had something to do with the slightly muted production, but otherwise Doomsday Device is precisely mixed to evoke an organic, older atmosphere without sacrificing the rich, precise sound of modern styles. One thing the band stumbles on, though, is image. Their claims as The Angriest Band in America come across as childish, and spiked gauntlets are always dubious, even for black metal. And truly, Doomsday Device does not initially seem to surpass the catharses of some of metals more extreme acts; There are also a number of small issues (awkward beginning of Humans!, a smattering of pitch-shifted shrieks), and the sheer volume of death metal bands in the field today make proving their case very much an uphill climb. Yet, the majority of Doomsday Device is by and large overpowering, and in this context the small flaws that do exist seem negligible. Once their irresistible seeds are sown, by the third listen each track is burned to memory and demanding attention. The precision, attention to detail, and unexpectedly poised songwriting make Doomsday Device more of a slow burner than an immediate attention-getter. This actually serves the band well, for those quick fixes tend to lack intricacy and layers, whereas Apocalyptic Visions have here presented a complex, compelling, and even fairly original addition to the blasphemous liturgy. Standout Tracks: Every Single One (minus Invocation of Silence)

Shane Last Judgement Zine 9/27/06
In the bio that came with this disc one sentence ends with ..the band themselves have spit that it (this album) is not for anyone... The sentence following then humbly asks for a review of the disc. Why make the album then? I..ve read a lot of these bios over the years and they are all the same. So I..m a jaded old bastard, so what. That being said though, this Atlanta band is brutally talented on this album entitled ..doomsday device... The band has been together for ten years and according to the bio, have been kicked out of numerous bands, are openly hostile (they left a heartwarming message for me on my Myspace page) to fans, and are generally disliked by everyone. It even states they can..t even stand each other. Onto the music. Imagine a more blackened version of early Morbid Angel. Frenzied, lightning fast riffs fly all over the place over a bed of technical, spidery drumming and demonic, layered screams. Killer note oriented riffs are sprinkled throughout and the tempo lurches nicely all over the place. Solos are few, but when they do pop up they are good. The production on this 37 minute hellstorm is VERY good, mixed nicely, not polished, nice guitar tone, vocals even in the mix, and the drums sound perfect, a downfall for many extreme metal albums in my opinion. And this album ends nicely, a cool touch. If ya dig well done, hateful Death Metal with a bit of a black metal edge, and even classic thrash in spots (..bonecleaner..) you shall like this.

Unearthly Magazine Peru October 2006
Potente banda americana, cada tema son de matices muy variadas, sonidos dentro del mas puro Black Metal y por momentos Satanic Death Metal en la línea Americana (Deicide), un excelente juego de voces, la voz mas aguda es magistralmente usada, guitarras aullantes y agónicas, en los temas 4 'Invocation Of Silence' y 11 'Deathblow' hacen gala de un sentimiento muy oscuro en la composición de los teclados.
Para poder escuchar algunos temas, visita el Myspace de esta banda.

Twan Brutalism Netherlands 2006
Calling themselves the angriest band in America is asking for troubles. A lot of bands claim this title but Apocalyptic Visions is not the angriest of them. Maybe in the personal life but not musically. Don't get me wrong. This is no pussy album but a venomous itch of brutality. Grunting vocals over a fulldrum blast beat and skin stripping twin guitars. This is top notch old school death metal. Especially the drums are hacking around with the bone bruising beats. Despise the brutality there is a sense of melody in the songs so forget the monotonousity and fucking enjoy the satanic massacre.

Aaron Small Brave Words And Bloody Knuckles 100 Ontario October 2006
"Forged out of a mutual revulsion for all things human, Apocalyptic Visions are the Angriest Band In America" Heavy in the blast beats, this pulverizing pack of people haters are well suited to fans of Cannibal Corpse. The gore has been replaced with absolute misanthropy, including a hate-on for Jesus, as evidenced in 'Slaughtered Lamb' and 'Bastard Son Of Nazareth'. The eye-popping bass line at the beginning of 'Teeth' received several repeat listens. There's no doubt that this anonymous band - no names are listed in the booklet - bring forth desecrating Floridian style death-metal in fine form. Only 'Invocation Of Silence" seems out of place, an ambient instrumental that should have been the intro, not track four. [8 out of 10]

Jo Pitches Terrorizer 149 United Kingdom October 2006
"The Angriest Band In America" Proclaims their album cover. Not sure how that'd be measured, but judging by the venom inherent in their debut full-length, happy chappies they ain't. It may have taken this Atlanta-based DM outfit a decade to release, but it was well worth the wait. 'Doomsday...' virtually explodes out of the speakers in a broiling mass of fury. AV's style is unmistakably USDM. They're not attempting anything novel. Yet what sets 'Doomsday...' apart from many rival offerings is its sheer energy and ferocity. The title track in particular alternates between turbo-charged, blistering barrages and a sluggish yet potent battery. Unlike various others of their genre, AV recognize that no matter how brutal the music, contrasts are vital in order to engage the listener's attention and make a substantial impact. Now let's hope a favorable review doesn't quell the outfit's anger too much...
6.5 out of 10

Fernando Psychosis Death Brazil December 2006
The punishment arrived! The new influences won't be forgiven! The world end is in "Doomsday Device"! The world won't resist Apocalyptic Visions's fury! And you will know that a new Metal God is being born! Apocalyptic Visions releases "Doomsday Device" with the blessings of the Metal Gods: perfect, technical, fast, heavy... a true classic! 'Doomsday Device" perfection is so intense that I don't get to find words to write the review! I am listening this album has three weeks and whenever me I try to write the review I feel the absence of words... I feel that don't exist words with the definition power capable to explain "Doomsday Device"! You won't find in "Doomsday Device" new things or virtuous riffs! You will find in "Doomsday Device" the pure extreme perfect intense Death Metal! I don't get to find an exact definition for Apocalyptic Visions's influences! Nile? Mordid Angel ("Altars of Madness)? Krisiun (old)? Diabolic? Sinister ("Cross the Styx")? Vader (old)? Kataklysm (old)? Cannibal Corpse? Deicide (old)? I don't know... perhaps none of these names has a direct connection with Apocalyptic Visions's influences! Then, maniacs, I understand a fact: Apocalyptic Visions overcomes Extreme Metal Masters and Metal Gods abort more a son! To define the sonorous structure? Impossible! The tracks are different and they are not linked by any style or likeness! "Doomsday Device" has eleven tracks, but I think actually are eleven bands different with the same name! Do you get to understand? It is more or less this that I feel hearing "Doomsday Device"! Apocalyptic Visions develops different sonorous structures for each track, therefore each track has an own style! Apocalyptic Visions has a style of to compose and to play that deserves respect, honor and glory! The band gets to develop millions of excellent riffs, hundreds of wonderful changes of tempos... "Doomsday Device" is from beginning to end perfect! Intense velocity! Devastating weight! Powerful riffs are perfect! Excellent changes of tempos! Perfect from beginning to end! I recommend! One of the best albums of Death Metal world! Excellent! Perfect!

Dave Brenner Metal Maniacs May 2007
Doomsday Device couldn't be a more appropriate title for this album. Driven by sheer hatred, the bio opens with a brag section about how most of these bros have been kicked around in numerous bands including Demoncy, Avulsion, and Lestregus Nosferatus, and coming from a hometown where they feel they're hated, they can't even stand each other. Sounds like some drama-queen shit to me, but musically, Apocalyptic Visions are one frenzied fucking vengeance-seeking unit. Choppy DM patterns played with the utmost in extreme power, it's the band's delivery that'll get ya by the 'nads. These boys were raised ingesting massive helpings of Deicide and Morbid Angel and classical death metal; for sure, but also picked up tricks from hatemongers like Aeon, Vital Remains, Behemoth and Cryptopsy along the way. This bastard will kick your balls right through your skull and then power-mosh all the fuck over 'em. The most brutal release of this whole column. That's not to say there aren't a few other real killers included in this edition, but nothing this proudly hateful.

Christopher J Kelter Rough Edge Radio California
Apocalyptic Visions, an unsigned band from Georgia (USA) are a raging old-school death metal band with blackened overtones. And I get the sense Apocalyptic Visions would rather stay independent and unsigned than sell their souls to any kind of corporate entity, no matter how independent. In the band's eyes and ears, I'm certain this is all the better to keep Apocalyptic Visions' brand of blackened death metal as extreme as possible without any kind of outside influences. "Doomsday Device" features nine tracks of relentless intensity along with two mood-setting interlude-type pieces. The main tracks exorcise the demons of modern society with sheer ferocity. Hatred of all things is the band's main inspiration and there is no shortage of source material in the world for this band's lyrics. The music is competently performed as the band is tight and engaging at all turns. In my opinion, the band's performance and songs get better as the album moves along. The second half of "Doomsday Device" feature more mid-paced sections and melodic elements that make Apocalyptic Visions possible candidates to take the true underground by storm. "Doomsday Device" was produced by Apocalyptic Visions. For an independent release the sound is stellar. Apocalyptic Visions is one vocalist, two guitarists, one bassist, and one drummer.

Demonomania Encyclopedia Metallum November 21st, 2006
Apocalyptic Visions is, for one mysterious reason or another, unsigned. Maybe because they don't want to be, as they feel like it would make them slightly less evil? I don't know, but I think that the sweet sounds of AV should be distributed far and wide, and any label would be lucky to have them. This band really has just about everything a true fan of death metal could require .. a strong anti-religious/anti-human life lyrical bent, double bass drumming galore, punishing riffs pumped out with a dirty guitar tone, and mid-range growls that traverse frequently into high-pitched shrieks. Seriously, if you can listen to the song HUMANS! (what a title, damn HUMANS, they really are bastards) without a big grin cracking your face wide open, then you probably don't like death metal. Overall, when listening to this album you can tell that this is a band that truly loves their genre, and took some careful notes on their favorite releases before sitting down and writing their material. There is a classic feel throughout, and I definitely detect hints of NYDM acts like Immolation and Incantation, Floridian moments that have a strong Cannibal Corpse and Deicide vibe, and the vocals somewhat call to mind ole Evil Pete of Hypocrisy. A very heavy stew indeed, and quite tasty. The guitars have that "thrash gone death" feel to 'em. DOOMSDAY DEVICE has a lot going for it, and tracks like the aforementioned HUMANS!, the title track, and Teeth make it well worth the price of admission. "In Battle Born" should also make you want to kill just about everything in sight. And "Deathblow" has a nice little piano outro ala SCARS OF THE CRUCIFIX. That might be my one gripe about the disc overall .. a couple of the slow parts sound like they were lifted right off of Immolation, namely something at the beginning of FAILURES FOR GODS. They need to add a bit of variety to the slow parts, but that's about it. They also have a nice layout and art for the album, the CD tray pic makes me nervous that Cthulhu is coming! Pick it up, and you will both have an evil sneer on your face and wish that you owned a label.

Chris Forbes Ballbuster Music December 2007
Though this is not super original, it hits hard and hits fast. Fast blasting death metal with some very good death metal vocals. The blast beats aren't those fake kind and the vocals are cupped mic type of crap. The production is thick and the guitar and everything else sound crisp. 10 tracks of speed that will rip your head off. If this band gets a deal off this, wouldn't surprise me at all.

Totentanz Germany December 2006
Mein erster Gedanke bei dieser CD war: Das Cover ist von Hellboy geklaut! Zwar auf subliminale Weise, aber dennoch ganz definitiv von Hellboy (der Film!) geklaut. Die Musik hingegen ist recht eigenst..ndig. Die (Zitat:) w..tendste Band Amerikas besticht durch H..rte, Aggressivit..t und nach eigenen Angaben gest..tzt durch die feste Absicht unsere Ohren mit Pestilenz zu verseuchen. Geboten wird ein sehr schneller Death Metal, der sich nicht sch..mt in gewissen Momenten der Spannungskurve auch mal ein bisschen Black Metal oder Grind Core ins Boot zu holen. Es geht eben nach Vorne - mit Gegrunze, Gekreische und Chaos. Coooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool. Da es sich hierbei um eine Eigenproduktion handelt noch ein paar begleitende Worte: Diese CD ist von ausgezeichneter Qualit..t sowohl der dargebotenen Kunst, als auch vom Sound. Da sollte das eine oder andere Label mal genauer hinschauen.

Neozine
Friday, January 05, 2007
....They claim to be the "angriest band in America." That may be. They do sound awefully angry. Most of their lyrics are about violence, destruction, and anti-xtian themes. Those all seem angry. The vocqlist's style has some range. He goes from harsh throated roaring to mid-high gurgling growling. The drummer presents some interesting (almost tribal) beats when he slows down - though much of the time he is going so damn fast that it is impossible to pick out the intricate work that he is doing. ALMOST!!! This guy can lay it down fast and fancy. I saved the guitars for last, because I wanted to make a big deal out of how great they are. These guys go all out!!! The strings on this one sing. They can go fast as fuck and in the blink of an eye start crawling and go all ambient on your ass. The cool thing is the nice rhythmically backed guitar solos. I'm talking real nice work there. Its like old school death metal, but with a brand new take on that same depravity. This CD sounds like it was done by 20 year vetrans of the death metal scene. I was shocked to..read that this was their first release. I'm telling you, this band can communicate, and the message is loud and clear: "We hate you, and we are going to kill you." Hold onto your hats, and while you are at it, hold onto your heads, cause this thing chops like the finest of ..axes.

Riddick79 Empire Of Death Italy
Il 2006 ci sta dando tantissime soddisfazioni in campo estremo. Basti ricordare "Afterburner" dei Sinister, "Assassination" dei Krisiun e "Kill" dei Cannibal Corpse. A confermare questa tendenza c'.. l'uscita del debut di un gruppo di cui sentirete parlare tantissimo…gli Apocaloptyc Visions e la loro prima opera si intitola "Doomsday Device". I quattro ragazzi giungono da Atlanta per deliziarci con uno dei dischi pi.. feroci e poliedrici degli ultimi tempi. Gli statunitensi in queste undici brani uniscono diverse influenze che rendono il disco imprevedibile e differente dalla maggior parte delle ultime uscite. L'abilit.. dei nostri sta soprattutto nel saper amalgamare alla perfezione i vari stili e di rendere il tutto omogeneo. Si parte da un swedish death metal senza compromessi in stile The Forsaken per poi passare al death americano(in certi riff si sente l'influenza dei Nile e dei Deicide) ed in fine questi pazzoidi pensano bene di incupire il sound con qualche fraseggio leggermente blackeggiante. Questo disco ha tantissima carne al fuoco ma ha il grandissimo pregio di essere ci.. nonostante compatto. Tutte le tracce sono caratterizzate da una cattiveria disumana: le parti di batteria sono spesso tirate, pur non mancando dei rallentamenti che sono dei veri toccasana per i nostri poveri cervelli, il riffing alterna parti dirette ad altre arzigogolate ed un bel growling profondo e imponente conclude l'opera. Gli statunitensi hanno tutte le carte in regola per poter diventare una delle sorprese pi.. grandi dell'anno corrente: non .. facile trovare una band che proponga qualcosa di nuovo. "I Demand Blood" ci accoglie nei migliori dei modi: voci infernali e demoniache ci danno il benvenuto nell'antro della perdizione. Dopo un velocissimo intro i quattro fanno sfoggio di tutte le loro potenzialit.. con giri di chitarra che inizialmente fanno della semplicit.. la loro forza, per poi passare ad un songwriting pi.. complesso che prende spunto leggermente dagli scandinavi The Forsaken. Anche il drummer mette in evidenza le sue doti tecniche con una sezione ritmica deflagrante: la velocit.. prevale ma non mancano anche dei break che rendono meno monocorde il brano. Lo spargimento delle nostre budella continua anche con i brani seguenti come "In Battle Born", traccia con qualche riff blackeggiante e dalle velocit.. fulminee, la titletrack "Doomsday Device", estremamente varia sia per quel che riguarda la sezione ritmica, blast-beat e mid-tempos si danno il cambio, e armonizzazioni tecniche e assassine, oppure "Teeth", trascinante e coinvolgente grazie a fraseggi carichi di odio indiscriminato e come se non bastasse troviamo anche spazio per qualche melodia in stile Nile. I ragazzi per pi.. di trentasette minuti ci maltrattano con tracce di death metal mortifero, intelligente, geniale e per finire propositivo dato che non si limitano solo a fare il verso a band gi.. esistenti ma creano un proprio stile. "Doomsday Device" .. un capolavoro che merita attenzione da parte dei media e di tutti voi deathsters. Gruppi del genere ormai sono merce rara perci.. non bisogna farseli sfuggire. L'apocalisse in fin dei conti non .. cos.. male.. Voto : 90/100

March 13 2007 Vampire Magazine Alex Jerjomkin
Looking at the song titles and at the (nicely made) album cover I figured this would be (again) some anti-everything black metal band from Norway. But I was wrong in many ways…These Americans play very original hate metal, with tons of little similar sounds, but with not one that could define this orchestra of madness. One of the first things I was happy about was the readable font of Apocalyptic Visions' band logo. I have nothing against blurry and chaotically made logo art, but it's always nice to actually be able to read the name correctly from the first time. The second thing that amazed me was a small part of the riff in "I Demand Blood" which sounded a lot like Mayhem's "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas", but in a not-rip-off way…Same goes for "Bonecleaner" which reminded me of the Swedish band Aeon, the vocals in multiple tracks made me think of Gojira, the technical part of "Teeth" can be put on the same list as Atheist, weird high screams in "HUMANS!" which could be performed by Anaal Nathrakh…and so on, and so on. A negative remark would be that the vocals sound a bit too quiet in the mix, but with an adjusted EQ you can solve that disadvantage. It's been a while since I discovered really talented drummers in metal, AV adds their snare crushing, cymbal raping and toms butchering drummer to my list of favourites. And with a few demolished solos and numerous outstanding riffs, the guitars are also something I won't forget after a second. The lyrical themes might be too simple, or better said, too typical, they outstandingly describe their love towards the humanity. Apocalyptic Visions demands blood, and I demand you to buy this album, especially if you're into bands like Naglfar and Belphegor. Buy and die, human!

Emmanuel All Access Rock Magazine
Arriving to us straight from the very deep places of Hell comes to us a breath taking sick undescribable Death Metal disc,entitled "Doomsday Device" from the band Apocalyptic Visions,God damn it this band is super heavy,extremely fast & well elaborated,lots of blast beats,low demonic voices,a massive guitar attack,in conclusion a very devastading one of a kind Death Metal outfit,they call themselves the "Angriest band in America" & I dont fucking argue with that damn it they truely are.Mixing Punishing Old School & New School death Metal artillery,Punishing Grindcore mayhem & tips of Thrash & Black Metal,they are totally amazing,very diverse & interesting with songs like "Bastard Son of Nazareth","Slaughtered Lamb" & "Teeth" these guys can kill anyone from a massive heart attack,this band should really get signed by Metal Blade or century Media,fans of Heavy as fuck angry Metal will shit their pants with one listen,also this band should get more magazines to publish their stuff & more radio stations that can help them spread the menace,this band has won my admiration & undying support for sure,you should do the same they have already won fans around the world & will continue to do that.Sick fast intense & satanic guitar work,loud possessed bass lines,Maniacal,sick & disturbing drumming & vocals so God damned Low & in times raw that will drive you insane & haunt you, plus will make your skin rise.Fans of Suffocation,Cannibal Corpse,Mostrosity,early Nile & Immolation what are you waiting for?.

Federico Marongiu Music Extreme 41 Buenos Aires Argentina May 2007
Apocalyptic Visions is pure hate at full speed combining elements of both black metal and death metal. if you like ultra fast riffs and blast beats, here you will find both. If you like growls and screams you have many of them here. Besides the band has a lot of technical skills that allows them to play solid compositions. The good thing is that this guys combine fast riffing with breaks that make the riffs even more interesting and small phrases that add a lot of variation, such as in "I Demand Blood". There are tempo changes here that show the good skills that this guys have and that also changes mood of the compositions showing different sides of Apocalyptic Visions..s musical personality. The sound is loud and clear and that allows also to listen perfectly even the fastest parts. A band that combines good fast parts with technical breaks and solid compositions.

Metal Center
APOCALYPTIC VISIONS was formed in 2001 in Atlanta and since then came across many squad changes. The band play something in between brutal death and black metal, with a very original lyrical theme, i.e. hatred, anti-humanity and anti-Christian. Sounds quite normal. The album starts aggressively, with a huge dose of unstoppable power, which stays the same till the end of it. There is a lot of sheer force and energy, but in each song there is the same kind of it, which tires after a while and makes this album a boring release. The compositions are pretty much the same, what is more, they do not offer too much. Only the most tenacious people will find this album interesting, unfortunately I am not one of them, this music totally got on my nerve. I just waited impatiently till the end, locked the disc in the dark cellar and threw away the key. No innovation, no organization, no nothing. It is just brutal power, but served without any brain. It is highly recommendable… to burn this disc while not having listened to it yet. Or kill the salesman trying to convince you to buy it. There is no reason of listening to such crap, there is nothing more than a powerful play, although extremely boring. Those points are actually for the power, not the content.

Arrogantics.
My girlfriend came home from her 3rd shift, life-saving hospital job this morning to find yours truly, unconscious and naked, snoring on the bathroom floor. "Brandon! Are you okay?" she asked. "Uhhhhn…" "What happened?" "Apocalyptic Visions, " I groaned. While this situation is obviously concerning hilarious, it really is a testament to the hard-partying brutality of this band. It may also illustrate an unsettling discrepancy in my girlfriend's value as a human over mine. Apocalyptic Visions is a death metal band hailing from Atlanta, Georgia. The self-proclaimed "Angriest Band in the America", Apocalyptic Visions is everything I love in an extreme band. Consisting of four members named for the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse, their over-the-top stage presence and tongue-in-cheek delivery of overtly evil themes evoke the historical glory-days of heavy metal. Musically Apocalyptic Visions is fast and technical, yet manage to maintain a heavy focus on deep, grinding grooves. While they clearly take their music seriously, they don't take themselves too seriously, and I appreciate that. Vocalist/Guitarist, War, greeted the city of Spartanburg with this message: " Good evening, Spartanburg! And HAIL SPARTANS! FOR, TONIGHT! WE DINE! IN HEEEEEEEELL!!!!!" Actually, before he said that he said, "Hail Satan! I fucked all your mothers last night! And they were all PATHETIC!" as he sipped bottled water. They've been known to surprise crowds with a cover of Michael Jackson's Thriller, as well as use samples from the fantasy film, Legend. War has a vocal cameo in the Mastodon song Cut You Up With a Linoleum Knife, which appears in the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Movie (the best part of the movie). Apparently, Apocalyptic Visions isn't too evil to have a laugh at heavy metal's expense, which is good because heavy metal, in general, seems to have lost its sense of irony. The band's live show is incredible, with them cranking out song after song without a bunch of bullshit self-absorbed rockstar rambling in between, but whenever something is said, it is guaranteed to be priceless. I can probably quote everything said between songs last night, and it's amazing I remember last night at all. Those boys can put down some drinks. They are currently touring in support of their latest album, Doomsday Device. Catch them if you can.

Jason Lalonde, who has been half of the band since its inception in 1998, has angered me to the point that we could not even speak for years at a time, and more than once. But our collaboration was inexorable from the sole misfortune of our being the only two musicians who could play this material, and so we returned again and again. What little we have accomplished over these thankless years would not otherwise have been possible.

He is no longer in the band, and the reason is none of your fucking business.

The saddle on the Fourth Horse has been taken by Ryan Schwartz. His first public appearance will be May 17th at Mulligans Bar. Things do not look good for the rest of you.