House of Apparition - House of Apparition (2014)

Honesty streak: I'm not posting this album because of how it sounds. 

Although it sounds really good: a hideously raw and sludgy mixture of black metal and punk with dissonant riffs and simplistic drumming buried deep in the mix. Imagine a punked up version of Transilvanian Hunger, add some horrifying screeching vocals that sound like a pterodactyl being fed through a wood chipper and you've pretty much described how House of Apparition sounds.

But like I said, I'm not posting this to show you the music. Although I kinda am. I'm posting this because of the logo. Look at that thing! It's ridiculous! It's 100% unreadable and it looks like it was drawn up using the Pencil tool in MS Paint by a guy dying on the electric chair. ZERO FUCKS GIVEN! I don't care if the music scares you and you don't even press play. Just look at that logo. 

Oh man.

TAUUSK - Refuge (2014)

TAUUSK is the solo project of Răzvan Lazea-Postelnicu aka Zan aka Zann O))), bassist for Romanian psychedelic stoner band Nomega. As the Earth revolves around the Sunn and the other way around, so does TAUUSK cycle between influences, taking cues from the titans of drone and producing an album that's about as pure as drone gets. 

When the first song on a drone album reaches a staggering 37 minutes duration and when there are four more tracks to follow, you know you're in for some serious meditation time. Refuge conjures an array of different moods and atmospheres through long, sustained synths and guitars and a knack for contemplative arrangements that will make you feel like driving to the nearest forest and burying yourself under a pile of moss, leaves and dead branches. Song structure and melody are forgone in favor of pure sound and texture, like ethereal sonic veils gently draping and coiling around you until you're immersed in a cocoon of sound. I was also struck to hear how similar some portions of Refuge are to the drone stuff I put out myself a few years ago as Hunting&Gathering - clearly, Zan and I operate on similar frequencies.

Overall, TAUUSK is a welcome surprise and a musical project that invites reflection and introspection. I'm glad stuff like this manages to trickle out of the Romanian scene and hopefully we'll see more bands experiment with sounds more freely. Mioritic drone doom, anyone?

Street Sects - The Morning After the Night We Raped Death (2014)

Are you having a nice day? Is the sun shining down on your face? Are kittens and rainbows dashing out of your ass and you feel like the whole world is a beautiful place and everyone is part of one global family? ARE YOU FEELING OKAY ABOUT THINGS?

Then meet Street Sects, who will crush your feelings and stomp on your shitty happy smile. A duo hailing from Austin, Texas, these dudes don't mess around when it comes to unbearable noise. The Morning After the Night We Raped Death is the first of their planned five releases and it brings forth three insanely noisy tracks that will hammer you to the floor with machine gun drumming, distorted screams and more hissing than a cement truck full of rattle snakes,cats and broken TVs. It sounds kinda like Gigantic Brain's pummeling cybergrind songs. This is NOT easy listening and you WILL ask yourself "What the fuck am I listening to?".

If you want to rape Death, you'd better come prepared.

Thanks for sending me the EP, guys. It ruined my life.

SPECIAL: NO JUDGE, ONLY LOVE, Marco's Life-Changing Album: Nightwish - Once (2004)

2edgy4u

OK guys, here's the thing: I'm not as cool as you think. I don't know what other people told you, but Adam wasn't created from one of my ribs, I don't wrestle bears for fun and Vladimir Putin is not my personal adviser. That would be Jonathan, people always mix us up for some reason. I do have a bitchin' Italian name, though, so it all evens out somehow. 

You see, I used to listen to a lot of shit in my early teens - Linkin Park, Kelly Clarkson, Lordi, Craddle of Filth, Avril Lavigne, Fort Minor, Coldplay, Rihanna, Dido, fucking Muse, Timbaland, Nelly Furtado, Beyonce, Lil Jon, Ludacris, Killswitch Engage, AC/DC, Iron Maiden., Aerosmith, you name it. Decent, well produced music if you judge it solely on an objective level, but soulless, uninspired and superficial when you realize that, years after their final moment of relevance, their that ''Oh, I used to listen to them in my teens!'' kind of bands and that the world would have been exactly the same without them. Some would call it corporate music and they'd be totally right. Hell, I still do listen to a lot of crap, but now I have an entire back catalogue of cool (obscure) music to impress the so called patricians who question my taste when they see me spazzing out on Ke$ha's songs. But I digress.

While The Knife marked the moment when I started experimenting with different genres and became an overall musical dicksnob, Nightwish was there when I finally broke free (hehehe, get it?) from the music I mentioned earlier and started broadening my horizons. If for some weird reason you've made finding the perfect personification of the ''hello im 12 years old and what is this'' meme your life ambition, you're in luck today, because that was me when I first made contact with Once. It has everything a rebellious preteen would love - leather clothing, fuzzy guitar riffs, vaguely intellectual lyrics inspired from mythology, gloomy videos with a laughably cheesy yet lovable Gothic theme, bombastic song progressions and a hot chick with an absolutely beautiful voice thrown in for good measure (whoaaa, come on, I was joking! I'm well aware that Tarja was the soul and brain of the band, not some dumb poster bimbo for 13 year olds to drool over). Songs like Over The Hills and Far Away, Nemo, I Wish I had an Angel... Man, makes me smile like a dumb ass when I look back. 

Sure, now that I look back at it, I see how cringe-worthy and over the top they were. Sure, Tarja was the reason why they were so successful in the first place. Sure, their music is mediocre at best. Sure, they're a pile of pure, steamy and utter shit. But you know what? These guys knew (past tense, Tarja  left the band a few years ago) how to fucking rock. And that was reason enough for 12 year old Marco to run towards the record store and blow away his allowance money on his first CD, Nightwish's Once. 

Two years later I threw it away by accident.

Special: Of Rats And Men

The voice, although screamed, made everything resonate with itself, be it either a piece of paper, a dirty flower vase or a human soul. And then, as the song came to a slow but desirable conclusion, acoustic guitar notes intertwining and weaving themselves into forming a gentle buzzing sound, it was then when I experienced eternity…

It felt as though I had died and came back to life, all in the same undefined moment. No more would the space-time continuum exist, as time and space gave way to the ultimate dimension, that of absorbing nothingness. Soon enough, the same grating voice that had put me into the reverie dragged me back to reality with its grasping claws. 

– unknown quote

In my personal opinion, music is one of the few forms of art that can truly tap into the subconscious of a person, slowly tethering itself to our inner sustaining foundation, shaking the very pillars that define our emotional stability. 

You might say that this is a very strong statement, yet if I start looking around and rationalizing everything I find that there is no amount of good books, paintings or visual experiences that would have the same effect on one person as, let’s say, his favorite song in the world. As someone whose first discernable memories are music related, I can confess to belonging in that category. As someone who would choose going to a specific show over everything else that might happen at the same time, I can confess to belonging in that category. As someone who has had similar experiences to the one mentioned in the above quote, I can confess to belonging in that category.

With that out of the way, I’m going to start a little parallel here so please bear with me. 

Thing is, the guys at Tzeeeac have started writing some kind of articles about ‘life-changing albums’ and, while I wish them good luck with it, personally I won’t be doing that. Why? Well I’d guess that’s a pretty straight forward answer: the simple categorization used here implies just the thing that you previously read, a life-changing album. And if it changed your life, how could you even write something that could do that piece of music justice? You’re hearing everything with distinctive nuances now, possibly looking at the world from a completely unique perspective. I would stretch that it turned you into an entirely different person, although that’s not quite an accurate image. If, however, the person whose vision of the realm around him has been modified in any way by reason of listening to said music, one might want to heed the following advice, which in my opinion should apply to every living being:

Change should be self-induced, rather than self-inflicted.

Only upon the realization that this experience has truly taken a hold of you is made, only then you can safely declare that you just listened to a life-changing album.

In another twist of ideas, I’d like to take this opportunity and extend a formal apology to all of the bands that have sent music our way. Not in the outline that we did something wrong, but seeing that we’re just a colorful conglomerate of music freaks, I think it’s safe to assume that we’ve all had our share of life-changing albums by now. We may like your stuff, hell we may even love it, but as more time passes by us, chances that we’re going to find another one in the midst all those hundreds, thousands of hours we spend torturing our eardrums with are very slim, possibly travelling in a downward spiral towards zero. We sure as hell don’t want that, but it’s not like we can do anything to stop it. What we can do, however, is try to be in an ever evolving state, towards both ourselves and you, all the people that read us. Because it is with our writing that we satisfy our egotistical desire to be heard, so that we can push our thoughts in different directions and observe the reactions. After all, it’s all human nature and there’s nothing we can do to avoid it.

With that said, I would like all of our readers to reflect (for themselves or for us) on the following simple questions; to reflect on them and, if possible, to provide an honest answer:

Are Tzeeeac members just units of an uncomplicated pack of rats, feeding upon tiny scrapes of auditory information and having no living purpose whatsoever? Or do you consider us men of valor, ‘emotional advisors’ in this forever changing industry made of guitars, drums, syntethizers and microphones? Would you still read us in five years time, or ten, or fifty, or we might as well pack up our toys and leave?

Think about that, my friends, while you listen to this song. It might, however slim the chances, actually change your life.

Exalting the TZEEEAC Proprietor: An Interview with CARA NEIR

We're stoked to present to you our interview with the excellent dudes from Cara Neir, a vicious black metal/hardcore/sludge outfit based in Dallas, Texas. Their latest album Portals to a Better, Dead World was a huge hit at the TZEEEAC Xmas Party last year and it even made Volo's best of 2013 list. Now, Garry (guitars, bass, drum programming, samples, backing vocals) and Chris (vocals, lyrics) are here to talk about their music influences, Mexican food, the albums they're most excited for in 2014 and cats, naturally. Keep reading, you dorks!

1. Hey there! We’re stoked to be talking to you, thanks for agreeing to take part in this friendly chit-chat. Please make sure you are wearing sweatpants and a comfy t-shirt before we proceed. 

First and foremost, we really appreciate you guys reaching out to us to be apart of this interview! We’ll approach most of the questions individually.

2. We’ve been wondering for a while now what does Cara Neir mean and how the band came to be. Was the two-man formula something you were set on from the beginning or did it just happen from lack of alternatives?

Chris: Cara Neir translates to "dear dream." Garry sent me the instrumentals to a track over instant messaging one evening and asked me what I thought, and if I'd be interested in hopping on-board. I was immediately drawn to the track's simultaneous sombre/pleasing tone. The two-man formula is something we've always sort of adhered to. Garry and I were in a few projects that were just the two of us prior to Cara Neir, it's always seemed to work out for us. Since Cara Neir, we have however welcomed multiple guest appearances from friends and other groups. 

Garry: The name comes from a loose translation of “dear dream” or “beloved dream” -- “cara” is the singular feminine form of the latin word “carus”, which means “dear” or “beloved” -- “neir” originates from the greek word “oneiro”, which means “dream”. The idea behind the name is an existential longing to be in a permanent dream state or to be nostalgic of one's dreams. No particular reason why we chose the form “cara” or “neir” from their respective origins; it just rolled off the tongue better. We definitely started the project with the intent of sticking to our two-man formula, which is something I think we thrive the most in. However, we’ll always ask friends for guest appearances!

3. You wear your influences on your sleeves: Darkthrone, Bathory, Converge, Alpinist, Funeral Diner – one can definitely hear all of these bands make a heavy influence on your music. How did you get into black metal and hardcore? Was it from a young age or was it a slow build up from Metallica and Iron Maiden to listening to woeful black metal about creeping in the forest at night? 

Garry: It was definitely a transition getting into black metal and hardcore, as I was introduced to more traditional metal bands at a young age. When I was 13-14, I developed an interest in digging deeper into extreme metal and subgenres with especially harsher vocals on my own accord, specifically black metal. I would say I’m relatively a newcomer to hardcore punk in the last 6-7 years, as far as really getting into it just as much as black metal, if not more. I was into more of the offspring stylings of hardcore in the form of grind, screamo, and powerviolence before I delved into the roots of it. It definitely shows in our musical progression that we do wear those various influences on our sleeves, picking up new inspirations along the way, and just creating music that we both like. 

Chris: I was into metal from the start being that "rock n' roll" runs in my family, so I suppose it was the woeful transition for me. Black metal and hardcore specifically, I started listening to at very different times in my life. Actually, I wasn't equipped in the hardcore genres until sometime after Cara Neir's first full-length release, which I think is very apparent in our sound.

4. You released a split with Horseback, Njiqahdda and Venowl a while back, which to me sounds like a dream line-up of extremely creative and unique bands. Tell us more about this split. Did you get to meet Jenks Miller or the dudes from Njiqahdda (hardest band name to spell ever, I swear, gah!) or was it a strictly online affair? What are your favorite albums from each of these bands? 

Chris: Not sure about Garry, but I was only in communication with the guys from Venowl during and after the recording of that 4-way monster. Njiqahdda are ridiculous, I couldn't believe that it took me as long as it did to hear of the guys, and the first time was when Garry told me about the split. To hear that Horseback and our buddies in Venowl would be on it also was fucking sweet. 

Garry: I’m no stranger to the Venowl guys as I’ve known them for 7-8 years online. I’ve had the pleasure of mixing/mastering a lot of Venowl’s material over the years. In person, I had a strange/awesome brodude hangout with them when they traveled to Texas in the summer of 2010 for the HARSH NOISE WALL festival in Houston. They drove up to the Dallas area after the fest and needed a place to stay for a night and I happily welcomed them. We stayed up drinking a shared bottle of Purple Haze, shared music via hard drives, and showed each other upcoming material from our respective bands. I’d like to hang out with them again. I have not met Jenks Miller, but he’s an insanely good musician and songwriter. The same goes for the exceedingly prolific Njiqahdda guys, which I’ve yet to completely listen through their vast discography! I’m honored to have been a part of that 4-way split. As far as favorite releases go from each of them: Gnawed Gristle and Bone from Venowl, Horseback’s Half Blood, and Njiqahdda’s The Path of Liberation from Birth and Death.

5. There’s a long love affair between metal musicians and cats. Probably because cats are the most metal animals ever except maybe sharks, but you can’t keep pet sharks because you’d be eaten alive. Do you have any cats? 

Garry: First, I’ll just say that it may be an irrational fear, but I am afraid of sharks. Maybe it’s not irrational -- have you seen JAWS? Well...then again, when am I ever going to be in the situation where a shark wants to eat me? It’s irrational. I’m also deathly afraid of the ocean for that matter. I love cats. I don’t own one at the moment, but I want a big fuzzy black cat with yellow eyes. 

Chris: Indeed! My wife and I have two cats, as well as a bearded dragon. Cats are obviously metal. I enjoy the company of all creatures that aren't human, though. 

6. Individual questions time! Garry, you seem to be a pretty young dude. When on earth did you have time to learn to play EVERY instrument? What is your favorite instrument to record? Chris, your lyrics are fantastic! Any modern musicians you appreciate and whose lyrics have made an impact on you? I’m a sucker for Pig Destroyer lyrics, myself. 

Garry: Thank you for the kinds words. I wish to learn more, especially playing drums as they’re my favorite instrument to listen to on a recording. My favorite instrument to record is bass, which is my primary instrument and the one I have been playing the most. 

Chris: Well, thanks! I agree and think that Hayes has written some of the most haunting work I've seen in music. There are those like JR Hayes, Shawn Hache, the two madmen from Rune, and Luc Lemay who have REALLY had an impact on what I've written, honestly though I'm more directly influenced by literature and other media. 

7. We’re always asking bands to talk about food, especially bands from countries or cities where we know there’s awesome stuff to be eaten via watching too many episodes of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations and Man vs. Food. Texas seems like a prime spot to stuff your face with delicious food. Take us through your Tex-Mex game. Or are you steak men?

Garry: I’m vegan, so that excludes me from having a typical Tex-Mex game. However, I LOVE burritos, especially with black beans, rice, and guacamole. I recommend Freebirds if you or anyone is ever in Texas and are craving burritos. My friend Alden once referred to me as “you mean that guy who loves burritos?” when one of our mutual friends was talking about me. 

Chris: The key to enjoying good Mexican foodstuffs down here is to take yourself to a taqueria. The tex-mex joints are simply that, mediocre tex-mex, and you're hard-pressed to find a genuine Mexican restaurant anywhere that isn't close to the border. I myself am a meat and breakfast man. Burgers and pancakes, please.

8. Do you plan on performing on stage or are you content with being a kickass studio-only band? Also, are there any exciting releases in the pipeline? 

Garry: We just need to dig out the time to fill the roles for a live situation and rehearse material that’s practical. Two local friends (who are in Flesh Born) have expressed interest in helping out in the future. It’s possible that another friend could handle second guitar duties as well. We’ll see what happens this year, but we would like to play some live shows.

Chris: I'm always bugging the shit out of Garry on doing some live events here in the relative future. The problem isn't with us, it's that we would really like to have somebody take over the duties of guitars so that we could have more of a righteous ensemble, and we can't seem to find said individual.

9. Last question is list question: what are the five albums you’re most looking forward to in 2014?

Garry: 

5. Shellac 

4. SUNN O))) & Ulver even though the album is already out this year. 

3. Inventions (psyched for this ambient duo formed by Matthew cooper of Eluvium and Mark Smith of Explosions In The sky) 

2. Plebeian Grandstand (been too long since their masterpiece How Hate Is Hard to Define) 

1. GODFLESH 

Chris: I don't know of five albums yet that I'm super stoked for, so I'll give you my five albums of 2013 that kicked ass. 

5. Rotten Sound - Species at War 

4. Psychofagist - Songs of Faint and Distortion 

3. Cleric - Gratum Inferno 

2. jesu - Everyday I Get Closer to the Light from Which I Came 

1. Gorguts - Colored Sands

10. Nothing left to do but wait in cold bitterness, while hot dogs are slowly boiling. We leave the final words up to you, boys. 

We have a lot of stuff coming out this year. Prepare for unforeseen consequences.

GUEST POST: Thirty Seconds To Mars – Love Lust Faith + Dreams (2013)

I’ve been writing book reviews since I can’t remember, but writing album reviews is a new-yet-familiar task, an extremely challenging one. Marco told me to give it a shot and try writing something worth posting on the mighty TZEEEAC. He warned me that it’s not an easy job at all, merely because the level of obscure music knowledge and dick jokes on this site is so damn high. But I’ll try to do my best; please don’t judge me too harsh. So here we go.

Thirty Seconds To Mars is a band that went through a lot over the years and their sound changed drastically since their debut album. They experienced everything, from progressive metal and emo, to hard rock and electronic rock. Love Lust Faith + Dreams is their fourth studio album, designed as a concept album divided in 4 parts revolving around the themes after which the record is named, each one being introduced by a female voice at the beginning of a song or the end of an interlude. I liked the foreign influences (they recorded a part of the album in India) and the diversity of both modern and traditional instruments.

The introductory song Birth starts with powerful horns, strings and Jared Leto’s soft vocals and instantly the album has got a rather orchestral, theatrical sound. The lead single of the album, Up In The Air, where the rock elements are mixed with the sounds of synthesizers, turns this song into a catchy arena sing-along track. City Of Angels represents, in my opinion, the highlight of the entire album as it branches out even further and is a piano-driven song. Jared Leto’s vocals are greater than usual, and he has a powerful voice. Let’s not forget about the Northern Lights, which has harmonies and the chorus is amazing. I believe that, as a live performance, this song will be much better compared to the recorded version.

But enough about the best parts of the record, it’s time for its lows. The shittiest song is represented by Convergence, a filler track, just keyboard for 2 minutes. Press skip, ‘cause it adds nothing, just like Pyres Of Varansi. The album is missing something important, the whole time I listened to it I had the feeling that the band is just dancing around that sweet spot that you look for. 

Overall, Love Lust Faith + Dreams is an unique and kaleidoscopic piece of art. It’s an ambitious record with a lot of diversity in it, the songs are prepared well and the lyrics are really good but I’m so freaking disappointed that I can’t call it epic. The concept of the album is a great idea, however is not enough to get more than 8/10.

Patricia Chioaru

Sunn O))) & Ulver ‎- Terrestrials (2014)

Last year, when a collaboration album between Sunn O))) and Ulver was announced, tight hipster jeans all over the planet were creamed instantly and that fucking Needledrop asshole was probably already writing a review before a single note was leaked. Like, you know, whoah, those two bands, man. Gotta tweet about it! #yolo #ebaygold ... Ebay gold, because there were 5000 vinyl records pressed (1000 white, 1000 red, 3000 black), all of which were gone with a fucking mouseclick.

Well, big fucking deal. While I like both bands, this was hardly exciting news considering the fact that they already worked and recorded together eleven years ago during Sunn O)))'s White1 sessions. But how the fuck would a hipster know? They were probably still swimming in daddy's nutsack at that time. Metaphorically, of course. Everybody knows that hipsters are being bred in laboratories, in an organic soy latte liquid in test tubes. But I digress...

Terrestrials is one of the few contemporary examples that make sense in an album kind of way: the songs simply need to be played in the exact album order, first side one, then side two, in a very classical sense. And also the instrumentation is very classic: in addition to Sunn O)))'s tectonic drones and Ulver's electronic and ethereal orchestration, there is a whole variety of brass and strings creating a quasi jazz vibe at times, pretty much along the lines of Bohren & der Club of Gore. On antidepressants. Mixed with speed. Speed in very, very relative terms, though. The bad part, however, is the (only) song on side two: starting off quite promising, mesmerizing even, it's those fucking vocals that ruin it all. Hey Garm! Yes, Garm, I refuse to call you Kristoffer, I would love it if you went back to the woods to howl with the wolves again. You did a fantastic job almost 2 decades ago, but your vocals these days sounds like some esoteric whale song on a new age meditation CD. With dolphins on the cover. I swear I can almost smell the incense. Oh, and by the way, why the fuck do you always, always, always wear that wool hat? Are you balding and can't get over it? No worries, buddy... you're not alone in this!

Listening to this album, it's hard to not play a movie in your head: probably a late night feature of a Kubrick one, as reinterpreted by Tarkovsky: artsy and bleak, yet strangely seductive and soothing at the same time. (And it really does not come as a surprise that Ulver were using 2001 footage as visuals on their latest tour...) Everything is, as you would expect, very anticlimactic and (of course) drone-y, but then again, I get the feeling that these 3 songs here might be among the most lighthearted either band has ever created. Not that it is poppy by any means or standards, or even uplifting, but beneath all that doom and gloom there is a sense of hope. The cover art shows a picture of our sun (no pun intended, it wasn't my idea to use it, mind you!), and the entire album to me personally has a very galactic vibe. It sounds like the soundtrack to the birth of a star or a galaxy, celestial beauty and chaos at the same time, a soundtrack for the realization that we, as humans, are essentially insignificant in this universe and can only stare wide-eyed. 

Terrestrials, with all its shortcomings and interesting parts, already has a place in my top ten for the year and it's only March. I don't know what that means, to be honest - is it really that great? Or does contemporary music suck so hard that I am willing to accept a mediocre record because it's better than anything else being released?

http://sunnulversl.bandcamp.com/

A TZEEEAC INTERVIEW: Whores.

Whores. is a noisy band hailing from Atlanta, Georgia that will wreck your speakers. We featured them last December, and their album has been on heavy rotation since then. Buy their stuff here, and go say hi on their official Facebook page.

1. Hey guys! We’re fucking ecstatic to have you here. How’s things in Atlanta? 

ATL rules so hard. We’re gearing up to leave for tour, which we absolutely love, but the A is an amazing place to live. 

2. Instead of asking about how you met/how your band came to life etc, we’re going to ask you an even more boring question: Why Whores? What was the thought process behind that name?  

We get asked that a lot. Too much, actually. It’s basically intended as a commentary on the gross state of the world we live in; oppressors v. oppressed. It’s unfortunately rarely taken that way. I have to monitor the shit out of our online presence, and I delete / ban people constantly who have the wrong idea.

3. We noticed you cite The Melvins as a band you like. I’ve been meaning to get into them since forever, but their huge discography, sprawling across genres, is too intimidating. How did you become interested in them and where do you suggest a newbie should start his/her Melvins journey?  

I think the first thing I heard was Gluey Porch Treatments or Ozma. It sounded to me like very smart people intentionally playing fairly dumb music on purpose. I mean that as the highest compliment possible, by the way. I’d like to think that we’re honoring that tradition, or at least the second part. It’s like, when I hear some super technical rock music, I immediately assume the people making it are idiots.

For the uninitiated, I would start with Houdini, or maybe Bullhead or Stoner Witch.

4. We were surprised to see your band featured in countless music publications across the Internet, including the all mighty Pitchfork, whom we’re patiently waiting to be competing with on an equal level one day. How did you become so notorious in such a short time (three years from your formation, to be exact)? Was it a gradual process or were you stalked by paparazzis as soon as you released your first album?  Please let us know so we can copy everything you did and become famous.

Ha. Well we still technically haven’t released an album. It’s just two EPs so far. It is surprising that we’re kind of catching on or whatever. I mean, I love our band. But it’s not exactly easy listening. I don’t know if I’d necessarily refer to us as notorious, but I can tell you that we legitimately play as hard as we can at every show. I know it sounds trite, but we’re totally playing for keeps. This band isn’t a hobby for me. 

5. Your cover artwork punctuates your sound and attitude really well! The heavy font and minimalistic design reflect the stripped-down, no bullshit nature of your music, while the gun and burning matches instill a certain sense of impending danger. Is this all intentional or are we reading too much into it? Who does all your artwork and how do you come up with ideas for your covers?

The simple and graphic aesthetic is definitely intentional, but it’s also born out of necessity. We don’t have any kind of budget for the band. The deal we have with Brutal Panda is a licensing deal only, so we basically hand them the finished record and they handle production. I had the idea for the simple design for both records and the logo, and my friend Patrick handled the layout. I wanted a simple image that was vaguely threatening, but I wanted to stay away from anything too cartoon-y. I try to do the same thing with the bands songs and merch. Simple and muscular design. Like a Hemingway story.

6. Whores is well known for the vicious live show and tremendous energy, while at the same time you guys look like you’re about to collapse in piles of bones any second. Still, every show you play looks like an absolute blast! How do you prepare for shows? Do you get hyped up on booze and energy drinks and scream at each other on your way over to the venue?

I used to never warm up or stretch or anything, but now I do both. When we’re on tour, I cut out all dairy, drink a gallon of water a day and sleep constantly. I also can’t really talk too much when we’re on the road. It’s boring, but I want to give people the best and most intense performance possible. Jake was drinking Red Bull and vodka before our last show, but I think it’s usually Jamison’s. Ha. We all love this band, so it doesn’t take but a few huge waves of noise before we’re all in the zone.

7. 2014 is already shaping up to be a busy year for you, with Spring dates across the US in the excellent company of Lo Pan and Fight Amp. What other plans do you have for this year? 

There is a TON of stuff in the works for us this year. We just released a split single of Cure covers with the Portland band Rabbits last month. There’s also the Amphetamine Reptile series “Dope, Guns and Fucking in the Streets” that we were asked to be a part of. We are unbelievable flattered to even be on Tom’s radar. We sent him our track last month. It’s a new song called “Bloody Like The Day You Were Born.” I love it. It’s one of my favorite Whores songs already. We have a tour kickoff show in ATL in like a week and then we leave for SXSW and a U.S. tour directly after that. We’ve also received a few different offers that are unbelievable and exciting, but I’m not at liberty to discuss anything official yet. I can tell you that’s it’s pretty big news for us and it will likely be pretty amazing.

8. A quick yet ineffective Google search tells us Man vs Food host Adam Richman used to study in Atlanta, Georgia and even featured the city in one of the episodes, where he gorged on chicken&waffles, burgers and a monstrous 11 pound Carnivore pizza. What is some of your favorite food to wolf down in Atlanta after an exhausting gig? Please describe it in painful detail.

Waffle House on tour. If we’re in the South, it’s pretty much a guarantee that we’ll be eating there on a daily basis. 

ATL is a super rad restaurant city, actually. Tacos are my favorite food, and my lady and I go to this place on the west side called Bone Garden a ton.  

Have you seen that Disco’s Kitchen thing on YouTube? He’s this rad dude from Oz who does experimental three-ingredient cooking to a soundtrack of bands he digs. Here’s a link to the one we did: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_qtKja375g 

(EDIT: HAHA, Chester will love this!)

9. We’re big fans of Walking Dead, both the comic and the TV Show. Since it’s being filmed in Atlanta and across Georgia, have you ever considered auditioning as zombie extras? Are we ever going to see Rick Grimes smashing the head of a zombie Whore? Speaking of which, what other TV shows do you guys enjoy in your off-time? 

I’m a set dresser for TV and film, so I have some friends who work on that show. I don’t really watch too much TV, but I do watch a ton of movies. I’d love to sort of move up the production ladder and get into acting or writing. I have a journalism degree with a telecommunications concentration, and I’ve done a bit of writing on the side. It doesn’t really pay the bills though.  

Also, The Simpsons is the greatest show in the history of the medium.

10. Typically, we leave the last question to the band, so take it away guys! You’re free to spew any obscenity you fancy at our poor readers. Thanks for agreeing to take part in this interview, hope you had fun!

Thanks for the thoughtful questions and for thinking of us. All the best. 

TZEEEAC turns 3!

To be fair, we turned 3 yesterday, but somehow it slipped our minds and we forgot to celebrate. Actually, I did have a few beers last night for no reason at all, so I'll just chalk them up to TZEEEAC's birthday. Woohoo!

I was originally gonna do a long, mushy post about everything this stupid website means to me, how we've grown and changed over the years and where we hope the future will take us. I'm not gonna do that, though, because I'm leaving for a week to party and I still haven't packed anything. I'll just do some quick bullet points instead:

• TZEEEAC started on the 1st of March 2011, when Marco and I decided on a whim to make a blog where we write about music we like. 
• We were using Wordpress, but soon switched to Blogger. 
• We were originally writing in Romanian. The change to English happened after about one year.
• We've gone through more design changes than I care to remember, mostly because I get bored with how things look very quickly. 
• We've gone from being two dorks writing about music to a whole collective of awesome dudes that I wouldn't have met otherwise. Cheers and thanks to Marco, Volo, Robert, Daniel, Jonathan and Thomas, you guys rule and I'm really glad you're all along for the ride!
• Our email inbox has gone from being a deserted wasteland to being flooded with music submissions on a daily basis. We might not write about everything we receive, but we read all the emails and are deeply thankful to everybody who cares enough about our website to shoot us a ZIP file of their latest album. 
• We've interviewed a lot of our favorite artists and there are many more interviews to come.
• We're nearing 200k pageviews and 500 Facebook likes, but no one cares about metrics, right?

That's about three years of activity in a nutshell. A big THANK YOU to everyone reading this and all the awesome musicians that got in touch with us or were featured, interviewed or otherwise mentioned on TZEEEAC, as well as to TZEEEAC's patron saint, Moş Gherasim, a true Mecena of the underground. Here's to many more years of loud music, junk food and sweet bros!

PS: We're planning on doing some t-shirts, just not sure how many of you would be interested. We've set up a poll in the upper right side of the website. If you ever wanted to wear some TZEEEAC apparel, this is your chance! If enough people are interested, we'll definitely splurge and print some quality t-shirts for you.