The collection of artists participating in the first-ever Pulse of the Maggots streaming event are among some of the world's top prospects in heavy music.
Pooling talent from various corners of the globe, the aggregate is an diverse sample of how aggressive artistry is becoming much more nuanced, versatile, and dynamic.
To help ensure fans get familiar with the entire roster taking to the Maggot festival stage this Friday, Knotfest is continuing to nurture discovery by shining a light on the people and personalities that are among the next generation of rock and metal's elite.
WARGASM HOMETOWN - London, England
Wargasm is said to be "angry music for sad people” but there seems to be an element of fun in the music. Especially with the songs like “Backyard Bastards” - how fun is it exorcising that anger on the track?
Milk: The day we take ourselves too seriously is the day we lose it all. We’re just not that kind of band. Fun, sexy, angry. That’s the plan for the time being at least.
Sam: We’re fun, fickle people. I guess we’re both also, normally, more prone to lash out than wallow. To be honest I don’t know if completely sates the thirst for any aggressive thoughts or urges but exorcising through a loud distorted medium feels great. Its cathartic… almost primal. (Laughs)
Wargasm is playing a KNOTFEST virtual festival and supporting YUNGBLUD on tour. That kind of versatility has got to make you proud right?
Sam: It’s just brilliant to have the space to change and mutate. We love Cher. We love Lamb Of God. Why not sit between both?
Milk: And the more people we have on our side when we’re able to do gigs again, the better. At our last gig before shit hit the fan there was a bearded guy wearing a Black Flag tee, moshing with a 20-something dude in an ETID shirt and a bunch of teenage girls amongst others. If that’s how versatile our crowd was then, I can’t wait to see the outcome after all that we’ve done in lockdown.
The band is often categorized as nu-metal - do you feel like that’s a lazy way of explaining Wargasm’s stylistic mesh?
Sam: Oh fucking 100%. There’s definitely elements, there’s inspiration. Wargasm is as Nu Metal as it is punk - in attitude and ethos. We just find that some of the classic Nu Metal club floor-fillers are more fun. They have a better attitude and swagger about them what we weren’t hearing in the shit that was being released when we met in 2018.
Milk: In some ways it could be seen as lazy, but I’m definitely not mad at it. Not often you see a nu-metal band that looks like us.
The visual aspect of Wargasm is obviously very important to the band. How do you make that same translation for a streaming performance?
Milk: It is very important. If you can look sick while sounding sick then you easily trump those who just play great songs. It’s the reason why Prince is the greatest. He can do all that AND look incredible. That’s definitely something we try to incorporate into our online performances. It’s a new terrain for most, but if you can suck people into your world for the 20-30 minutes of screen time you have allotted then you’re doing something right. Your outfits can dictate a lot more than you think.
Sam: The entire visual aspect of a band is really just another way to share what you’re seeing and hearing in your head isn’t it.
For fans just being introduced to WARGASM through Pulse of the Maggots - what should they expect on November 13th?
Milk: The first performance of a new track. Hope you like it hard and fast.
Sam: Just some creatures finally back inside a fucking venue playing loud music until we get the vibrations right and warp through your screen ‘The Ring’ style to nick your wallet.
Introtyl HOMETOWN - Mexico City PERFORMING SINCE - 2011 FAVORITE VENUE - National show: Mexico Metal fest in Sultanes Baseball Stadium Monterrey, NL and internationally: Amphithéâtre Cogeco Trois Rivières QB Canada BIGGEST INFLUENCES - Suffocation, Cannibal Corpse, Bolt Thrower, Deicide, Gorguts, Despised Icon, Jungle Rot
Introtyl plays especially brutal death metal but doesn’t have the typical death metal imagery. Was that intentional? The artist that made our last art cover listened to our music and then created the art. We didn’t know what he had in mind and we just trusted him to deliver something amazing and he did. No blood, no dismembering, no hell, not the typical death metal because we are not about that but just a little taste of chaos and inner war. Our style as a band is a bit more sober. Just wearing black and some vanity (as we like) regular makeup with strong color lipstick.
Mexico really does embrace metal music but is there any stigma to being an all female band that plays death metal? There totally is. It took some years for us to be seen with respect and to be treated as a all male band. Sometimes we had preferences because of being girls and sometimes the opposite. People have this macho mindset, where they assume you cannot make this “hard” music and your boyfriend does it for you and that you get good opportunities in festivals because you had sex with promoters . Fortunately that mindset is changing not only with Introtyl but also with other female bands. And it opens opportunities to the new bands.
The band has been active for well over a decade but only has one full length album. Are EPs just more conducive to how you write music? We thought our “Inside of violence” was an EP but now we consider it as full length now even it’s a 30 min album. We believe we like to create albums with the quantity of tracks we think at the moment is good enough and take off the idea that more tracks equals more quality. We are currently recording our 3rd album which will be conformed by 9 tracks again so I believe we are still on the same track. So yeah it works for us having a not too long album as long as it is hard and concise.
There is a very old school element to Introtyl Is it important to have that classic death metal feel to your music? We think it is because of our band members music taste. Some of us like old school death metal, more faithful to the US classic bands but some other members have more influences of the brutal death metal and even core, like Despised Icon, so it’s not intentional that we want to create something attached to some age, we just make the riffs we like and when we like the whole song feels great, the composition comes organically.
For fans just being introduced to Introtyl through Pulse of the Maggots - what should they expect on November 13th? Be prepared to hear some hard beats. We describe our music as hard, loud, crushing-chopping death metal. Straightforward and blunt. You will like it and your head won’t stop banging!
Once Awake HOMETOWN - Bergen, Norway PERFORMING SINCE - 2011 FAVORITE VENUE - Sentrum Scene - Oslo, Norway BIGGEST INFLUENCES - Parkway Drive, Lamb Of God, In Flames, Slipknot, Monuments, Sepultura, Metallica
Once Awake has been active since 2011 - what has kept the band motivated to keep making music this long? Many things, the passion for writing new songs is one, but mainly the goal of playing as many live shows as possible. We absolutely love traveling and playing live shows and hopefully soon we can do that again.
Norway is a very respected region in metal. Is it difficult to standout in a region that is so prolific in this genre? Maybe if you are a black metal band it would be harder to stand out because there are so many of them, but there aren't too many bands in Norway playing the kind of music that we do.
Your latest LP Bridgeburner is a mesh of styles that ranges from metalcore to thrash to death metal. Is there a conscious effort to include so many styles or does that happen organically? This definitely happens organically. We aren't fucused on genres at all and just make the music that we like. One example we think is pretty funny was a review someone did of our new album recently. It was claiming that we had to start finding our genre now and decide which one it should be. Just funny for us to hear because we don't really care. The same
goes for people in general, we welcome all kinds of people and don't differentiate them.
For fans just being introduced to ONCE AWAKE through Pulse of the Maggots - what should they expect on November 13th? I guess they can expect a streaming gig a little bit different from what many others that have been doing lately. Anyways, we are really stoked about this and can't wait to show it to people. We really appreciate this opportunity to show new potential fans some of our music.
