Blake Armstrong: Space Boy Charm I grew up in very a small town in Southern Illinois called Metropolis. I always loved to draw and paint in school – I wasn’t any good at sports so this was the only way to really get people’s attention. In High school I had my first real art teacher…
Central Pennsylvania-based retro rockers CROBOT worked with the producer Machine (CLUTCH, LAMB OF GOD, COBRA STARSHIP, GYM CLASS HEROES) on their new album Something Supernatural but the task of creating the artwork was left ‘in house’ as guitarist Chris Bishop happens to be a dab hand at art. We interviewed Chris and the guys recently…
This collection of essays, written between 1988-95, deals with aspects of the practice of magical evocation. My first lengthy foray into this much-misunderstood aspect of magic was a personal magical retirement inspired by accounts of magicians working the Abra-melin system, but perhaps more influenced in execution by the work of Austin Osman Spare and the…
Ryan Begley: Creativity made of soil, sun and water Born 1979 in Tisbury Massachusetts. The son of a Carpenter and a Nurse, owner and art director for two companies; Shirts & Destroy Inc. which produces limited edition T-shirts and merchandise for tattoo artists, Hardcore / Metal bands and Illustrators and his most recent endeavor ‘TrueBlack’…
Desert heat over London Instrumental Desert-Rock band, Karma to Burn is still going strong after twenty years. With the sixth studio album – Arch Stanton – cutting a trail through Europe, founding member William Mecum sat down for a cold beer with HMA to discuss stolen music, missed opportunities, and being a hobo… HMA: How’s…
SYLOSIS are set to release their fourth studio album Dormant Heart on the 12th of January 2015 and in anticipation of the release, we recorded a series of official album interviews with front man Josh Middleton. The second trailer is now online and sees Josh explaining the artwork for the new album, including where the…
Metal industrial machine Formed in Duesseldorf, Germany in 1980 by Juergen Engler and Ralf Dörper. Over the years they have produced krautrock-tinged metal-bashing industrial, old-school EBM, industrial electro and, most recently, industrial metal/Neue Deutsche härte. The band’s name comes from the Krupp dynasty – one of pre-war Germany´s main industrial families. This name was apparently…
Felipe Machado Franco: Fire & Fantasy Felipe Machado Franco has been the singer of Colombian bands like Thunderblast and Vorpal Nomad. However, the world of Metal music mainly knows him as the man behind striking cover artworks for Blind Guardian, Rage, Iced Earth, among many others. Through his digital brush he has created unique fantasy-based scenarios that have…
Earlier this month Belgian epic black metallers Saille revealed details of their forthcoming record ‘Eldritch’ which will be released on 10th November via Code666 Records. The band has since released a teaser video and offered some further insight into the album, discussing the writing, recording and artwork. “‘Eldritch’ differs quite a bit from our two…
The Creative Force of The Church of Ra Sludge post-metal Amenra formed in 1999 in Kortrijk, West-Flanders, Belgium. Currently signed to Neurot Recordings and often associated with Neurosis. “Apocalyptic sludge comes closer to capturing the simultaneous grandiosity and spectral despair of their work. Amenra is the musical manifestation of a Belgian artistic collective who often…
A Storm of Light/Josh Graham: Creative Mastermind From August 2010, Josh has served as Creative Director for Soundgarden, overseeing print and web campaigns, designing merchandise, creating concert visuals, directing music videos, and more. Beyond Soundgarden, Josh’s work can be seen in a variety of different arenas: galleries, concert venues, album covers, apparel, film and television.…
The Osiris Club Sets the World on fire With their debut fresh on the shelves, this London outfit aims to blaze prog back into the spotlight. Multiple years after the original conception, The Osiris Club have finally arrived on the scene with their debut album Blazing World. Fusing elements from progressive rock and post punk…
The following is an exercise in alchemy through mixing sexual and aetheric energies, which I believe can be developed faster when experienced and explored with a partner or two, to be recognized and tapped into during mundane world activities outside the ritual chamber or working area for other purposes. When doing specific aetheric work where I…
All rise, As I Lay Dying join forces with Sleeper to form Wovenwar When Grammy-nominated rockers As I Lay Dying released their 6th album, Awakened, late in September of 2012 everything looked to be on the up and up. With almost 13 years under their belts, multiple awards in their trophy case, and legions…
Perhaps no other term in the study of Western Esotericism is as messy as the term “Hermeticism.” Roughly speaking, the category has at its base a collection of texts preserved together, called collectively the Corpus Hermeticum. This collection is part of a series of texts that have come down through the ages from late antiquity…
THIS WORLD OF OURS is a world of opposites. There is light and shade, there is heat and cold, there is good and evil, there is God and the Devil. The dualistic conception of nature has been a necessary phase in the evolution of human thought. We find the same views of good and evil…
DAVE LOMBARDO: CAUGHT ON PHILM He’s one of the most prolific and well-recognised faces in the metal world – and all the more unique because he is a drummer. You can tell when Dave Lombardo’s playing whether it’s the breakneck double bass and avalanche-style fills of Slayer, crazy experimentalism with Fantomas or quirky bombast with…
The World of Mike Dragon The art of German visual provocateur, Mike Dragon, could be described as a cross between horror, fantasy, folklore with touches of dark humor and explicit irreverence. For years, he’s been creating visions that are both unsettling and alluring at the same time. On top of that, ventures like producing fine…
The sixth level of the Qliphoth (or the fifth counting from levels of initiation) is called Thagirion which means dispute or juridical process. This can be interpreted in many ways, the religious juridical process where Satan acts prosecutor or the place for the judgment of God, or where the sentence of God is questioned. Except…
Revolution through Art You might remember them as PEEPSHOW, a band that stepped into the spotlight during the peak of the new wave of glam and sleaze rock. Unlike a lot of their peers however, the boys from PEEPSHOW stood out as worthy songwriters, not just pretty boys with overcharged libidos. A fact no one…