Tom Stevens of NOKTURNEL

Interview by Luxi Lahtinen

Tom Stevens, originally from East Rutherford, New Jersey, is a true warrior for oldschool thrash/death metal. He formed his first band Savage Death in 1985, did two kinda cult-ish underground demos (MASS GENOCIDE in 1985 and CRUCIFIED IN HELL in 1986) before the band called it quits. After that, it was the time for his second band, Nokturnel, which he formed together with Erik Young and Martin O´Connor in 1989. Two demos (YOU DON´T HAVE A CHANCE in 1990 and WELCOME TO NEW JERSEY in 1991) , one album (NOTHING BUT HATRED in 1993) and one 7-inch EP (ANTI GRUNGE in 1994) later, the band went on hiatus. Steve, however, kept moving on, and was recruited to Incantation for almost 2 years, plus also had some other temporary band activities going on for quite some time (live session slots in both Ripping Corpse and Morpheus Descends - not to forget Brimstone/Exile either, which he recorded BLACKENED REWARDS OF BLASPHEMY demo in 1997 with).

Tom decided to pull Nokturnel out from its icy grave in 1999, having Tophetarath from Fog/Hordes of the Lunar Eclipse handling the drums and Lee Ribera (Death of Millions ) n bass. The band´s second album, titled FURY UNLEASHED, was released through Tom´s own label, Nocturnal Eclipse in 2001, and was relatively well received amongst the fans of true underground thrash/death metal.

Tom and Chad Walls (on drums) are currently working with new material for Nokturnal - and this is where I leave further talking to Tom about the whole history from Savage Death up to the current activities of Nokturnel.

Be sure to read the interview as Tom´s skills as a real storyteller are unquestionable after you have read this lenghty and in-depth interview about him, and about all his bands he has been involved with for in the past years.          

 AGNOSTIC FRONT
Live at TAVASTIA May 4th, 2008
HELSINKI FINLAND

DREAM EVIL

and CONQUEST OF STEEL

Live at The Underworld, London

29th May 2008

Live pics and review by HannTu

Summer has apparently begun in the UK, but I guess someone forgot to tell Mr Rain that. The only thing that could cheer anyone up on that drizzly, cold and windy Thursday evening was a good dose of pure, uncomplicated and cheesy heavy metal. Would the Swedes deliver, or would they fall as flat as the weather did? Read on...

The Underworld, London, UK

6th June 2008

All live pics and review by HannTu

The Haunted
Slow Death Factory, The Rock
Copenhagen, Denmark
22/5 – 08

Reviewed by: Anders Sandvall
Pictures by: Anders Sandvall