Interview: Catching Up With Nate Garnette and Evan Linger of Skeletonwitch

If you're a heavy metal fan and haven't checked out Skeletonwitch yet, you are definitely missing out.

The blackened thrashers from Ohio believe in expressing themselves as a truly brutal band through the sheer force of their music, and not through the use of gimmicks like corpse paint and stage props. Their music possesses a crushing amalgam of death, black and thrash metal, music that has the power to make heads bang and minds explode.

They started out in 2003 and have released three studio albums thus far. The debut, At One With The Shadows, was an impressive start, and besides the music it boasts of a killer album cover. But the sophomore album, Beyond The Permafrost, was the one that really blew me away and had me completely floored. The third album, Breathing The Fire, was a fitting follow-up that lived up to my high expectations after an album as great as Beyond The Permafrost.

And now, while on a North American tour with Arch Enemy, DevilDriver and Chthonic, they released their fourth album, Forever Abomination, via the awesome Prosthetic Records label on Tuesday, October 11. It's definitely an album that will be loved by Skeletonwitch fans, and fans of extreme metal in general.

Just before they annihilated Los Angeles' Club Nokia with their high-octane 30-minute set on September 27, I had a chance to catch up with guitarist Nate Garnette and bassist Evan Linger for a friendly chat.

Watch the nine-minute conversation below and make sure you check out Skeletonwitch, because trust me, it will change your life.

Andrew Bansal is a Los Angeles-based writer who has been running his own website, Metal Assault, since early 2010, and has been prolific in covering the hard rock and heavy metal scene by posting interviews, reviews and pictures on his website -- with the help of a small group of people. Besides being hugely passionate about heavy metal, he is an avid follower of jazz music and recently started a blog called Jazz Explorer to pursue that interest.