THE DEVIL'S MOUTH Vol. 167: a conversation with Jesse Sykes

After a long hiatus, Jesse Sykes has fortunately overcome a rather dark period in her life and returned to music, with her band Jesse Sykes And The Sweet Hereafter's new album 'Forever, I've Been Being Born' emerging as a clear highlight of 2025. A masterpiece of ghostly, evocative folk, it will lead you into the woods with it and leave you lost in there forever. This chat with Jesse was more or less the human conversation version of her music. She was warm, humble, thoughtful and also remarkably honest in the way she recalled some of the tougher times of the last decade, and the not always pretty events that she used to motivate herself to climb out of them - and, in the end, how this quiet, soulful piece of music that is the new record is indeed a distillation of all of those things, and more besides.Tune in now, this is a special one.

How big can stickers be, on album covers? Because if this new band, Master’s Ashes, decide to bring out all the awesome bands their members will be in, the actual artwork might be completely covered. Straight up, we have Afzaal himself, our guest, the guitarist and songwriter for the absolutely legendary Crisis, which should be enough to already make you sit up and take notice. He comes armed with Eric Forrest, Dan Kaufman, Fred Waring, Jeff Golden and Katie Crimson, a goddamn amazing cast.On this chat with the big man we get the lowdown on everything there is to know about Master’s Ashes for now, of course, but also some precious memories and insights about his past in Crisis - including how and why that frankly revolutionary band was cast aside by many people in a close-minded, conservative scene -, and several stories from his many years spent paying his dues in the underground, like the beautiful friendship he struck with Piggy from Voivod among others.

Viva Sounds is one of the most exciting events happening in Europe, equally welcoming regardless of your genre preferences or depth of knowledge. Are you more into more metal stuff and you know zero bands on the bill? That’s fine, I can guarantee you’ll have a great time and come back with a bunch of new favourites. You an open-minded indie explorer and a lot of these bands are already familiar? That’s great too, this time you might be able to watch them play on a boat, or a tram, or a tiny cafe, or between racks of CDs in a record store. You a bit tired of live music? Come anyway, and stay for the conferences where likeminded industry veterans will maybe offer you a new perspective on stuff and you might end the weekend holding up beers watching a new band at the Pustervik. But don’t take it just from us. We got on a call with Gustav Påhlsson and Mattias Tell, the two main guys behind it all, who told us all about not only this edition, but all of the secrets that happen behind the scenes at an event like this. And by “like this”, we mean a company of two people dealing with 90 bands spread over seventeen stages in three days.

Last time we hung out with Sivert Høyem (episode #129), aside from his extraordinary ten picks of songs that we nerded out about, we were excited about his first solo album in a few years (the last had been 2016’s ‘Lioness’, of course with the Madrugada reunion album+shows in the middle of that period), the wonderful ‘On An Island’, which was about to be released. That chat wasn’t that long ago - it was the first episode of 2024, in fact - but since then a lot has happened in Sivertland. Not only have we learned to live with that impactful record as if it became a part of our blood, but Sivert has shot off a looser, more rock’n’roll kind of effort early in 2025 too, called ‘Dancing Headlights’. Now that he is about to embark on a few important shows, including a couple of acoustic, intimate concerts in Portugal, followed by a bunch of Autumnal Norwegian dates, and a bigger European tour to follow early in 2026, we thought it would be a great time to sit down with the owner of the golden voice yet again.We’re very glad we did - from the hindsight of the perspectives on ‘On An Island’, to all the stories behind ‘Dancing Headlights’, not to mention a few revelations (the metalhead in me is way too excited about Sivert’s yearning for “violent” music and wanting to do something exploring “black metal connections”) and some hints about future projects, it really was a cool, relaxed conversation. Thank you Sivert for your presence on our show once more - bring on the live music now!

When we last caught up with Stefania Pedretti and Bruno Dorella (episode #106!), the two “symbiotic animals”, as Bruno himself describes their musical relationship during our conversation, who make up the unique beast that is OvO, they were just beginning the cycle for their previous album ‘Ignoto’, which took them on a lengthy and inspiring journey of almost three years. Now, we caught them on the exact day after the last show of that cycle, totally ready to embrace the new chapter provided by the new album ‘Gemma’, out on October 3rd via Artoffact Records. As the duo make it abundantly clear - and as it will also become apparent once you listen to the whole album in a few days -, this record is set to become a milestone in the lengthy and constantly restless career of the pair, as it signals an entirely new perspective and outlook on their music (“doom dance” seems to be the catchiest way to half-describe it for now!) which will surely open doors to other creative endeavours in the future. But don’t take it just from us - check out the cool chat we had with Stefania and Bruno, and don’t forget to add ‘Gemma’ to your shopping basket along the way. You won’t regret it!

The Atlas Moth is one of the most awesome bands out there, as well as one of the most underrated. So we obviously have had Stavros on the podcast already, doing the ten rounds when the last The Atlas Moth album came out. A few years have gone by since, his main band has been a little asleep (but they’re back! And we talk about them on this episode too), but Stavros is back in action with another entity called Motherless. We won’t lift too much of the veil since introducing Motherless and its debut album ‘Do You Feel Safe?‘ is kinda the whole point of this conversation, but be prepared for something pissed off. Really pissed off.Tune in now to listen to our very animated chat with Stavros about this new thing and everything else he’s up to, including the next The Atlas Moth and, hell yeah, the next Motherless already! And go get ‘Do You Feel Safe?’, like, now.

Leo Ashline and Shaun Ringsmuth are back with the amazing Street Sects, and they made up for their recent absence by creating another brand new band, Street Sex - and both are releasing albums tomorrow! We sat down with the boys, who let us in on all the secrets behind these two masterpieces of pain.(pic: Ismael Quintanilla III)

Yeah, immediately calling Zak up for a chat was the very definition of a no-brainer after the new Clawfinger album was announced - which is interesting, because their music, for all its direct impact, has nevertheless always been about using your brain. And shit, the pun is not even necessarily intended though they do have that kickass album called ‘Use Your Brain’. But yeah, eighteen long years (where does time go?!) after ‘Life Will Kill You’, the Swedes are back with a new record, the recently announced ‘Before We All Die’, to be released next February. In this awesome conversation, we discuss a lot of the album’s finer details, as well as Zak's and the band’s current motivations and inspirations, and the whole process that led to the new record. Tune in now!

Swedish singer/songwriter Christian Kjellvander is on tour right now, so before we do a full ten rounds with him in a couple of months, we thought we'd check in from the road with the great man - quite literally, as it turned out, as our call caught him driving between shows on an Italian highway. We discussed how the current tour is going, the new trio line-up, the forthcoming album to be recorded soon, and of course still talked a bit about the extraordinary 'Hold Your Love Still' album, which is still very much living inside our hearts.

Two new Amenra EPs just released, a new bassist in the band, the forthcoming full-length album already being written, a beautiful ongoing collaboration with Tonnie Dieleman, a mountain of live shows... Colin sure has a lot going on, so we called our old friend for an update on his many current activities.