We chatted recently with KILLSWITCH ENGAGE guitarist JOEL STROETZEL, all about their new album, “Disarm The Descent” (Roadrunner) coming out on April 2nd. In a band full of strong personalities, Joel prefers to be the silent type, able to chill out and do his job. We talked about the making of the new album, Jesse Leach coming back into the band, recording, his influences, the importance of family, and the bands touring plans.
JOEL STROETZEL of KILLSWITCH ENGAGE
Interviewer: Keith (@Keefy) Chachkes Live photos by Echoes In The Well.
Ah, it’s that time again. Time to sit back and let’s your ears be amazed once again by the finest and most consistent band in death metal: CANNIBAL CORPSE. They are back for blood on album number twelve and it’s not really a question of if the albums they put out will be great or not. However, the question that begs asking is how much farther out can they grow more technically profound, more lyrically sick and more outlandishly evil. They remain the benchmark for all other bands in the genre. Few acts of their age are as still relevant to the current scene and new bands site them all the time as an ongoing inspiration. CORPSE, to me is the band every other band looks up at to see what is coming next. You can bet that years from now there will be reviews of new bands and some reviewer (likely me) will be writing the words “CANNIBAL CORPSE inspired.”
The album starts off with “Demented Aggression” as fast little number that calls to mind the bands’ earliest work. Short, to the point and super heavy: it is a track screams classic CORPSE. The unrelenting feeling of dread in the song comes from the guitars and furious drum patterns in creepy stalker, serial-killer kind of way. No wonder this track was the lead-off single. George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher has one of the ultimate voices in metal. He sounds perfectly sick here as always. “Sarcophagiac Frenzy” is another great track, also on the old school tip. The guitar sounds just rip your ears apart on this song and the entire record. Pat O’Brien and Rob Barrett do a great job of not always doubling the others ‘ parts, but finding creative ways to make alternating riffs work best. The breakdown riff in the middle is slow and crushing, in part because of the textural melody behind it. If Torture goes down as one of the best albums the band has done in this era drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz might take a lions share of the credit. His writing and performance on tracks like “Scourge of Iron” and “Encased in Concrete” are among his best ever. The former is a bit of a longer, brooding track highlighting Paul’s clever playing and deft touch. The later is one of the top tracks on the album. A neck breaking ripper with many technical and progressive movements to enjoy. Of course whenever CC delves in to the more arty progressive leanings, Alex Webster’s talents come to the fore. The brilliant founder and bass pounder has some outlandish licks and runs on this album and his prowess as a writer can’t be underestimated. “As Deep As The Knife Will Go” flows right with the history of the bands grotesque and severe lyrical journeys. Fisher as always has his epic growls, but remains clear and understandable at every turn. “Intestinal Crank” is a dizzying song by any measure for a band that has made a career of challenging its fans’ ears. “Followed Home Then Killed” is another fairly straightforward cut with a few twists and turns added in. The intense frenzy of the song gives way to some great shredding solos at the mid-way point of the track. “The Strangulation Chair” is perhaps my favorite song of the album. A sinister main riff is augmented by cool poly-rhythmic flourishes of black and death metal. An instant classic. Little slabs of harshness like “Caged…Contorted” and “Crucified Avenged” get stuck in your ear long after you’ve heard them. I like that the band really gave in to rhythm and structure on this album and varied every song up with many changes, rather write a bunch of similar sounding material. “Rabid” once again features the insane skills of Webster, O’Brien and Barrett to full effect. A final cut “Torn Through” feels like the final punctuation mark on an album that is nearly flawless. Maybe the best thing I can add to this review is I would love to hear any and all of these songs live, which even for this band is something I haven’t often said. From the top notch writing, great playing, ill lyrics, tight production of Eric Rutan and yet another ghastly Vince Locke work of art cover piece you get the total package. The masters have turned in effort that will puzzled over, studied and followed forever.
Legends don't die. They just get better. Photo by Alex Morgan.
I was excited when it was announced last summer that MEGADETH was bringing back their Gigantour package. I thought it was cool idea a while back and when they announced the lineup I was intrigued. As it was originally intended Gigantour was meant to show case top musicianship and technicality. Before it’s hiatus for a few years it still had good bands, but became more about acts Dave Mustaine personally enjoys. And it’s hard to fault his tastes and since it’s his package so he can do what he wants to. I was cool to see an eclectic line up sure to bring out a variety of fans.
LACUNA COIL packed their set with heavy emotions.
LACUNA COIL kicked things off on this night. It has been sometime since I seen or heard the Italian goth rockers live. I definitely enjoyed their first few albums compared to their middle era, however their just released new album Dark Adrenaline (Century Media) is very good. The band hit the stage under their impressive backing banner and atmospheric lights and the kicked things off with “Our Truth” from the Karmacode album. The band was tight and vocalists Christina Scabbia and Andrea Ferro sounded great. It was cool to hear the early crowd represent for the band and singing along loudly. Perhaps conscious of their short set time the band worked diligently, going right into their next song “Upsidedown” off the new album. It was another good song and again it is hard to train your focus off of the two lead singers who are perfectly in sync with each other as performers. I liked that the band changed things up from song to song in terms of tempo, which was a past critique I had for the band. After another few new songs, including the excellent single “Trip the Darkness” they closed out with “Spellbound” which was good way to describe the audience when the band was done.
Set List:
Our Truth
Upsidedown
Kill the Light
Trip the Darkness
Spellbound
VOLBEAT was up next and you had an idea of the scale of this tour when you saw their entire stage set up with a massive drum set and their graphics covered wall of guitar stacks. The arrived to a cheer in the filling arena and having cut their teeth through constant touring (including a run with METALLICA) I shouldn’t be surprised at the reaction. The band launched immediately into “The Human Instrument”. They sounded fresh and their rollicking riffs make for fun songs to head bang along to and sing to. Front man Michael Poulson is a fine showman, wails as a singer and is a solid guitar player. Joining him and the band on this tour is metal legend Hank Sherman (MERCIFUL FATE among others) who looked cool with his sunglasses on in the dark arena and seemed to be enjoying himself immensely. After playing some of their best known tunes I was kind of surprised that they broke out their cover of “I Only Want To Be With You”, but a lot of people in the building seemed to know the pop classic. The next song was their best in “Pool of Booze, Booze, Bouza”. Following their closer of “Still Counting” the band did a partial cover of SLAYER’s “Raining Blood” which was fun. I’m sure VOLBEAT is the only band that can effectively cover SLAYER and DUSTY SPRINGFIELD in the same show and have it make sense. Good job!
VOLBEAT adds a lot of energy and fun to their show!
Set List:
The Human Instrument
Guitar Gangsters & Cadillac Blood
The Mirror and the Ripper
Sad Man’s Tongue
Hallelujah Goat
Fallen
I Only Want to Be with You (cover)
Pool of Booze, Booze, Booza
Still Counting
Raining Blood (cover)
What can I say about MOTÖRHEAD that hasn’t been said already? Not much. The band is the dean of all existing rock bands and transcended genres they have inspired like thrash metal and hardcore punk. The fact that the band would open for MEGADETH says a lot about how much they respect and understand metal fans, even though LEMMY has often said the band wasn’t truly enmeshed in the genre. And he’s right. Still the band was not going to change, cater or bow down to anyone since they were in the opening slot and I can proudly say the fans wouldn’t have it any other way. There were equally as many people in the house to see them as the headliners after all! So the band played what amounted to an abbreviated greatest hits set and what a set it was. They started off with “Bomber” which just killed! “Bomber” is my favorite song by the band so hearing it live pleased me to no end. The band does what they always do, making magic happen with drums, guitars, bass, Lemmy’s vocals and volume. A shit load of volume. I was up front for the start of the set and even with my ear plugs in it was punishing me. Lemmy stood tall as usual and led the venerable group through tracks like “Damage Case”, “Metropolis”, “The Chase Is Better Than The Catch”. During “The One To Sing The Blues” Mikkey Dee took his customary drum solo in which he goes on to smoke just about every other guy alive behind that massive kit. As usual it is hard to top any band with three better songs to finish a show with than “Killed By Death”, “Ace of Spades”, and “Overkill”. Another deafening experience for all.
Apparently Lemmy IS going to live forever!
Set List:
Bomber
Damage Case
I Know How to Diet
The Chase Is Better Than the Catch
The One to Sing the Blues (Drum Solo)
Going to Brazil
Killed by Death
Ace of Spades
Overkill
As a huge curtain covered the front of the stage the crew started setting things up for MEGADETH. Behind the release of the solid new album Th1rt3en I was thrilled by the thought of a somewhat new set list for this tour. I have seen the band a ton of times and roughly six times in about 18 months, mainly when they were doing the Rust in Peace 20th Anniversary tours. They were terrific at The Big Four show in NYC last fall in spite of how badly injured Mustaine was. This was gonna be good.
The band started to play behind the still raised curtain and Shawn Drover beat out the rhythm that starts “Trust”. As the main riff kicked in the the curtain dropped and over course Mr. Mustaine took his place on stage last. He wore his iconic double neck flying-V axe and seemed in great spirits. Dave moved a little less freely and didn’t head bang as much as he used to, but he played as flawlessly as ever. The rest of the band was tight as well, especially Chris Broderick on his solos and backing vocals. Next it was time for “Wake Up Dead” and this sometimes heard classic went down awesome. Then came the terrific two-fer of “Hangar 18” and “Sweating Bullets”. The band ran around a fairly grandiose looking stage with flood lights, strobes and a video backdrop that was impressive.
He’s Dave Mustaine and you are not.
Another early set list gem was “Angry Again”. Even though the song was technically a “hit” they don’t play it often and the riffs are terrific. Plus Mustaine and Broderick trading solos is worth the price of the show alone. The middle portion of the headliner’s set was comprised of new songs off the new album. While they are solid tracks that call to mind the successful early-to mid 90s era of the band, I felt the air go out of the crowds’ sails a bit. Still, the music and performances hold up well considering. Another interesting choice in the show was the revamped version of “A Tout Le Monde”. While I am not crazy about the song, Christina Scabbia came out to do her part of the vocal duet with Mustaine and sounded very good. I would be all set personally if the band stopped playing the song in future tours.
Mustaine and Broderick may be the best guitar tandem in all of metal.
The night was drawing to a close the best was still yet to come. “Symphony of Destruction” for all of its simplicity is one of the best riffs of all time. It was crushingly heavy and the pit really opened up for once in the show. Next Mustaine talked about this being an election year and how all the candidates blew big time. After suggesting the crowd use him as a write in candidate, David Ellefson jammed the familiar bass intro to “Peace Sells”. The floor was absolute bedlam and the it was definitely the highlight of the night. After the song was done the band came back out for the customary encore of “Holy Wars”. I was a little surprised by the shortness of the set, but considering the full production of the show and how strong the bands were, it’s hard to argue with the value of the experience. I’d like to hear the band drop some more old school jams into the next round of touring, but I applaud their effort overall.
In honor of today’s day being 2/1/12 or “2112 Day” or “International RUSH Day” or “Progressive Rock Day” as some are calling it, Metal Army chatted with notable metal historian Jeff Wagner. Wagner is the author of 2010′s Mean Deviation: Four Decades of Progressive Heavy Metal (Bazillion Points). In addition to being an authority on all things prog, death metal and thrash Jeff was one of the leading editors of Metal Maniacs magazine from 1997 until 2001. In a wide ranging interview we recapped the origins of Jeff’s book, the roots of the genre, it’s historical importance as well as it’s future. What follows is an excerpt of a longer chat we had.
MAA: What led you to write Mean Deviation?
JW: Well from a practical standpoint it was a book that had not yet been written. We are seeing a lot of metal books now because metal has a long enough history to provide for a bunch of books, and provide a bunch of different views covering all the genres. A book on prog metal had not been written and I was a long time fan of metal. I was also a fan that tended to gravitate toward the weirder, more experimental, more progressive stuff. More avant garde stuff. I look at my record collection and one thing I can say about it is there is not a whole lot of stuff that sounds like other stuff. I have always gravitated toward progressive sounds. I like my bands to be similarly unique in and of themselves. I like EMERSON LAKE AND PALMER, but I don’t like bands that sounded like them. There were a lot of obscure prog bands that sound just like them and I didn’t find them interesting. It’s an originator thing. I why I like DREAM THEATER, but not bands that sound just like them. Actually I can’t think of one that I like who sounds just like them. (laughs)
MAA: Your book identifies a “big three” of the genre. How did the their arrival on the scene change the game?
JW: Both QUEENSRŸCHE and FATES WARNING showed up at the same time and wore their influences on their sleeves. And those influences were obviously IRON MAIDEN and JUDAS PRIEST. They took that template and took it to some different and more nuanced areas. They messed around with more long-form song writing. FATES WARNING on their second album is writing ten minute songs. They further intellectualized their music to the point where you go from Rage for Order or Operation Mindcrime and on the FATES WARNING side Awaken The Guardian and No Exit. QUEENSRŸCHE had a more theatrical image. Then DREAM THEATER came a long in their wake and they made a different kind of amalgam of it. Not only have the same bands in common that FATES WARNING and QUEENSRŸCHE did, they took it in two other areas. First I hear an even more melodic KANSAS- type rock sounds and even a more AOR radio rock from the 70s. I even hear some JOURNEY in early DREAM THEATER. And they even made it heavier with palm muting and double-bass drumming and took it some places other bands didn’t go to so they ramped it up even more. That’s why these three bands made their mark. They style was familiar and easy to get into, but also they were it challenging.
A prog metal classic!
MAA: A lot of people think of Spiritual Healing by DEATH as the album when death metal crossed over with prog and became more malleable. But it was really before then, right?
JW: I think for one thing if you think about death metal, it is not easy to play. To the novices’ ear a lot of death metal sounds like garbage or noise. There is a built in tendency to already be a good musician to pull off really good death metal. If you are really conveying something truly brutal it’s a skill and an art. Not only do you have DEATH, but you have MORBID ANGEL. I don’t know how progressive you wanna say they are, but Tre Azagthoth. He was really virtuosic about his playing. I think POSSESSED toward the end of their output was really musical. There is something really intrinsically musical about death metal that it doesn’t get enough credit. And then with DEATH, even the album before Paul (Masvidal) and Sean (Reinert) came in they were going in that direction. Chuck was even singing in a way where you understood all of the vocals and didn’t need a lyric sheet. That was innovative too. (laughs) And then the Human album just blows the doors off of what could be done with the death metal form. There could be with Jazz influences and Fusion. They gave it a fluid, lyrical and melodic tendency, but it was also a really brutal album. It showed how much depth the music can have. I think the Human album has four of the best musicians that have ever on one album.
The "father of death metal" was also integral to bringing in a progressive influence to the genre.
MAA: I think it’s interesting where the original prog rock bands were influenced by Jazz and the modern bands found Jazz thought the back door of prog metal. What do you say to that?
JW: The way I look at prog metal is there is not really one sound and one style. There are bands that have nothing in common. Other than the fact that they are trying to move the form forward, they might have little in common. Some of them have their own unique vision and style that no other musician will quite have.
MAA: Who are some of the underground bands of the genre that the average fan might not know, but are essential.
JW: I think if you go into with the right mindset WATCHTOWER is a band that was important. They were there way early on. They were throwing in RUSH and Jazz influences in `84, 85. Not even FATES WARNING and QUEENSRŸCHE were not even doing yet. And then if you get up to their 1989 album Control and Resistance they were tightly honed, but a bizarre group of different things. I know for a lot of people, they aren’t anything to listen to. Ron Jarzombeck is getting a lot of attention now for BLOTTED SCIENCE, but he is a WATCHTOWER alumnus. And of course I’m gonna talk about VOIVOD. I know people are gonna roll their eyes at this if they know me at all and say “oh there goes Wagner talking about VOIVOD again”. They remain really underrated. Their first six or seven albums: Killing Technology through The Outer Limits they were constantly changing, growing by leaps and bounds, using new technology and exploring new production techniques. They are the textbook example of what a progressive metal band really is. I think for one album CELTIC FROST need to get mentioned. Just for the Into The Pandemonium album. It’s so eclectic and brave. They opened up with a new wave cover song. Later on it has beat box song. There was a soul song. You have gloomy opera-type doom songs, new wave, jazz weirdness, a doom song. Just a weird album.
MAA: A lot of people hated them for it. My friends all hated them after that.
JW: Oh yeah I know. Talk about splitting your fan-base! But it was so weird and out there I really loved it. I was so intrigued I had to love it. They really blew apart their fan-base and their career. WATCHTOWER, VOIVOD, CELTIC FROST and others. That is the thing about my book. I didn’t want to just talk about the popular bands and the avatars. I wanted to discuss who the underrated bands were.
The best prog metal band ever in my opinion. (Keefy)
MAA: What is your take on more recent bands like MASTODON and OPETH who have abandoned their heavier ways for prog? Also, what do you think of the backlash against them?
JW: I say more power to em! They proved that they can do this modern epic metal. They can be modern, be different. And they started off as a very different band. They followed their heart. I don’t care if you’re KISS or MASTODON, I don’t think any band owes anything to your fans in terms of where they go with their music. That is not to say they don’t love their fans. When those guys are writing new music, I mean who wants to hear the same old shit? (laughs) You can tell I feel strongly about this. OPETH could’ve come out with another Deliverance, another Ghost Reveries and another Watershed and it would have been very good. OPETH are so influenced by all these bands that really epitomized all of these prog rock bands. It was about time they made their prog album. I love it. Why would fans expect Mikael Akerfeldt to be boring and stay bored and do the same thing again. Compositionally it is one of his best records. I fully support those bands and what they do. It’s about wanting to be surprised and wonder what is around the next corner. It depends what kind of fan you are. If you like a band like OPETH, if you love MASTODON or OPETH you want what those bands do and are all about you want them to follow their hearts. And I was especially surprised at the OPETH fans because I thought they were more open minded. Allow these bands to do what artists do, let them change rather than be beholden to expectations.
MAA: How important is a band like RUSH and an album like 2112 to the music still being made today?
JW: I think hugely. For me when I sit in a dark room and listen to 2112 that is part of that experience for a guy like me or any fan that treasures the band. But the other thing about your question is: it’s huge because of the influence from a band like RUSH has had. They have influenced not just prog rock bands or prog metal fans. RUSH has influenced metal bands, death metal bands, grindcore bands and even indie rock bands and all other kinds of musicians. If you took a survey of bands from a wide outgrowth of all music, RUSH is a very important band. I think that ten or fifteen years ago they were a little more like a guilty pleasure for some people. Now it is okay to say you like RUSH now. Their influence is incredibly vast.
MAA: Looking back at the longevity of some of the bands that were around at the time when you joined Metal Maniacs, do you feel proud of the role the magazine helped play promoting metal bands to a wider audience?
JW: I was just a part of the Maniacs legacy and certainly all the magazine did was reflect the legacy of the music itself. I am amazed and sure I’m proud. When I started at Maniacs it was 1997. I felt like I was down in the trenches. It was one of the first times in metal’s history a lot of people thought it was dead and it didn’t have a lot of juice anymore. We all knew different at the time. It is pretty incredible. Especially when you are seeing demos and re-issues of albums that are selling really well, being sold and repackaged. Metal now in 2012, it just has a longevity that shows it will never die. Even if no new music came out, there is so much from what has come before this music will never die. It’s history is kind of staggering. For guys like me that have been with the music for a long time, we do feel proud that we have come through the other side. It’s legitimate and here to stay. Not to sound really cliche’. It is part of popular culture.
The first death metal masterpiece of 2012 has arrived and just for laughs it tells tales of the end of life as we know it. Would you expect anything less from ABORTED and their twisted mastermind Sven DeCaluwé? With few exceptions, I have been anticipating this album above all others for the first quarter of new metal releases. If you are like me and you have waited patiently for ABORTED to drop a new record, your faith will be rewarded in blood and body parts. They are back to satiate your hunger for all things gore and eardrum damage inducing aural punishment!
The opening track “Omega Mortis” is a portend of what’s to come with panicked news reports talking of the war, zombies, plagues and famine decimating the earth. The eerie music sets the tone for the mountainous riffs that are about to fall on your head. The title track lurches to life like a real monster ripping his restrains off and murdering the entire lab. As soon Ken Bedene’s (ex-ABIGAIL WILLIAMS) insanely fast double kick beats lift off and the main riff kicks in, it becomes a musical clusterfuck, in a good way. Svencho decries the state of mankind and its swift descent into oblivion over the course of a little over three minutes of crazy blast-beats and grooves. As usual Sven’s vocals are harsh, yet he is one of the most understandable vocalists in all of metal. This to me is a plus since he is a gifted wordsmith. Track three is the single, “The Origin of Disease”. The song is a non-stop blast and gore fest with Julien Trunchan of BENIGHTED joining in for some sick duel lead vocals. In addition to some cool distorted bass lines from JB Van Der Wal, the track features some stunning work from guitarist Eran Segal who shines throughout the album. Segal is joined by Bedene’s old band mate Mike Wilson who also jams out, contributed some songs. “Coronary Reconstruction” gets a savage face-lift and is now more brutal than the EP version. The shift between Sven’s shrill scream and low howls is terrific and the solos by Segal are some of the many highlights for me here. He has really stepped up and asserted himself in the band as a writer and as a player. “Fecal Forgery” and “Of Scabs and Boils” both have a certain grindcore flavor with the later occasional revealing crust/grind beats and almost punk rock chords. Don’t worry though, the bands penchant for breakdowns, quintuple-time endings and the occasional bass drop are all still intact. My favorite track on the album is “Vermicular, Obscene, Obese” and features Trevor Strnad of THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER. The two master level front men working against each other is just madness. The track is so rough that when it breaks in to a brutal, near hard rock type groove, it just works. “Expurgation Euphoria” is slow and demented sounding like a bad trip. The piano part at the end is really haunting and lonely. Coming right back with “From A Tepid Whiff”, we have the other top track from the EP, ratcheted up with 100% evil density. “The Kallinger Theory” is another grind and groove workout. Other top tracks include “Our Father Who Art Feces” featuring Keijo Niimimaa from ROTTEN SOUND, “Grime” featuring Jason Netherton of MISERY INDEX and the nihilistic guitar-epic closer “Endstille”. Everything you love about this band is present on this recording from the songs, Jacob Hansen’s production and the gross artwork. Even the bonus tracks rule! What a treat for old and new fans a like.
Metal Army caught up with Sven de Caluwé, the charismatic front man of death metal and gore gods ABORTED. On the eve of the release of their excellent new album Global Flatline (Century Media). Sven shared his thoughts on the new record, songwriting, choosing producers, making videos and playing in several different bands at once.
Justin Osbourn did the artwork for Global Flatline.
MAA: Congradulations on Global Flatline! How have the changes in the line up of the band affected the new record?
SVEN: Well, I think it influenced things quite a bit. It felt like there was a fresh spirit in the band. People who are really motivated to work and everyone is happy to be there. Only Mike (Wilson) joined right before the album. Everybody else in the band was involved for two years or a bit more. It went great! Everybody put in a great effort which was good.
MAA: The trademark sound of the band is still there, but I hear some experimentation musically as well. Was that intentional?
SVEN: Not really. Actually the main intention of this record was to go back to something more visceral and more extreme than the last two records we did, which I think we succeeded in. At the same time we also wanted to do things on a different level to add a more melodic aspect, I guess. Yes there are melodies, but we did it in a way where it is more dark sounding rather than sound Swedish or riffy or whatever if you want to call it that. We wanted to stay away from that type of stuff which is boring. There are also some new things like guitar textures and some doomy riffs we have never tried before.
MAA: Some of the guitar work has an almost classic metal feel. Is that Eran Segal really asserting himself now as a writer?
SVEN: Yeah! The biggest part of the record was written by me, Eran, and J.B. (Van Der Wal) the bass player. I would go to Eran’s place and for a long time we did that, worked on ideas. Then Eran and J.B. Flew out here for a few weeks to work on more songs. The three of us worked together for a long time. Ken Bedene wrote one song and Mike Wilson wrote another song so it really came together. It’s a group effort, but definitely Eran’s work was great being that he has been in the band longer now and he really found a space to contribute a lot of songs as you said.
MAA: You worked again with Jacob Hansen who has made some of the best ABORTED albums. Why bring him back in this time around?
SVEN: First of all, we brought him back in because we are familiar with him since we have stayed in touch for years.. Plus he recorded my other band SYSTEM DIVIDE two years ago. Since he did the Goremageddon album and shit he’s improved vastly as a producer since he has done stuff outside of metal too, and a lot of those bands that have gotten very big. Knowing the band and knowing what we were going for was huge. His work for SYSTEM DIVIDE really sealed the deal for me to go with him for this record because I knew exactly what to expect. It was a great experience. It was kind of nostalgic in some ways to go back there and work with him again, watch him in the recording and mixing process. He’s such a good guy and an amazing producer so we really had a blast.
Songs from the Coronary Reconstruction EP wound up on the new album.
MAA: Is Global Flatline a concept album? A lot of song lyrics, titles and samples seem to be quite anti-religion.
SVEN: It’s not really a concept record. The only song that is actually anti-religion is “Our Father, Who Art of Feces”. The album is really about the end of mankind through mankind. As you can see on the cover artwork we were trying to suggest some of the ways that man will end the world. Religion is one of the big ones since it is very prominent in the foreground of the art.
MAA: “The Origin of Disease” video is totally sick. Tell us about the making of the video.
SVEN: It was quite a trip. It was shot in the UK. We played the Party-San festival in Germany. We drove to Holland to catch a plane. Flew into the UK and shot the video. I think we performed the song 40 times in eight hours! Then we drove to Amsterdam and played the Summer Breeze festival that afternoon, the same day. It was crazy!
MAA: I bet after that the song was perfect live that night!
SVEN: Oh we didn’t play it that day at the show. I think if we did we would have killed ourselves.
MAA: Well it worked out. The end of the video is so disturbing I couldn’t look away!
SVEN: (laughs) Great! Thanks!
MAA: You seem to be very busy between ABORTED, SYSTEM DIVIDE and other projects like BENT SEA. How do you keep your vocal chops in shape?
SVEN: That’s a good question. When I’m not on tour we don’t practice since no one lives close to each other. So I actually don’t do shit! (laughs) We were writing a lot so we took our time with that. ABORTED will start touring from February onward so right now we are very busy. We also just finished a tour in Europe. We are busy, but we work in concentrated periods since everybody lives abroad.
MAA: Even though Dirk Verbeuren (SOILWORK) had to step away from ABORTED, will you still work together in BENT SEA?
SVEN: Oh, of course! Right after we tracked the new ABORTED album, we recorded the new BENT SEA album. So yeah!
MAA: The band has some amazing tours booked, including OVERKILL and THE NEW ENGLAND METAL AND HARDCORE FESTIVAL. You haven’t been to the states in while, right?
SVEN: It’s been since 2008 since we have been to the states. We are really excited to get back out there!
Metal Army caught up with Mark Evans, the bass player for AC/DC from 1975-1977. As the first regular bassist in the band he went on to play on the seminal albums T.N.T., the re-release of High Voltage, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, Let There Be Rock, and ’74 Jailbreak. Mark published his memoir Dirty Deeds: My life Inside/Outside of AC/DC. Mark is the first member of the band to tell the story of the early days of the group from a first hand perspective. He has many terrific stories from the bands early days making it a must read. The book also has many great anecdotes about Mark’s life, the band and the legendary late front man Bon Scott. What follows is an excerpt of a longer chat.
Dirty Deeds came out in November from Bazillion Points Publishing.
MAA: How did you come to write your memoir at this time?
ME: My motivation has been two-fold. One motivation has been over the years people coming to my gigs have been so supportive of me. People always come up to me at the shows and say “Hey you toured the world with AC/DC” and “What was BON SCOTT like?”. I was just me paying back the genuine interest about my life in and out of AC/DC. It was just the right time in my life to take stock of things. To take a deep breath and immerse myself in a project. There were a few Australian publishers who were interested in my story. I didn’t take it really seriously at first. But it turned out to be the right time for me and that started in 2007. It’s been a real plus in my life since writing it. It’s been very good for me too, very cathartic to talk about my time in the band. This is the first time someone from inside the band has ever written anything. I have had the other books written about the band passed on to me over the years. Some of the stuff was at best really inaccurate. I am only qualified to talk about the years when I was in the band. Also, a lot of people are quite interested in Bon and it’s a great way to put some flesh on the bones and tell his story since he was such a great guy.
MAA: What originally inspired you to pick up the bass and want to start a band?
ME: I always had an interest in music from very early on. My siblings were a few years older than me. I got introduced into rock n roll through them like ELVIS PRESLEY, 1950s music, JERRY LEE LEWIS, FATS DOMINO and then the BEATLES. It wasn’t until I was 14-15 that I got into it, because I was nuts about football. That is, Australian rules football. Some friends of mine picked up the guitar and a few of my buddies started playing in bands. And they said hey ‘we need a bass player’. So I went down to the local second hand store and bought a bass. It was 22 bucks and it was bought with money that was supposed to be for my school books in high school. So I started on bass, moved to guitar and then back to bass. I always loved the bass. Initially it was just hanging out with my friends playing music. It was a great time for music. The early days of the 1970s guitar driven rock bands like CREAM, BLACK SABBATH and DEEP PURPLE.
MAA: What was the band like when you joined in 1975?
ME: It was a little bit odd. When I joined the band they were already known locally and the album High Voltage had been released in November of 1974. When I first joined we were playing the bars and pubs with maybe 10, 15 or 20 people at a show. Very, very early days. But the album started to hit right when I joined. Our first single started to really to hit when I joined, “Baby Please Don’t Go”. That was actually the B-side. Lucky for us the radio stations played the B-side, because the A-side of the single was this sappy thing called “Love Story” and it sounded like something out of SAVAGE GARDEN! (laughs) We got tabbed to be on a national TV show called Countdown. So I had been in the band literally three days and then I was on national TV. A few months later we were playing to thousands. The whole band had only been together 12 months at that time. People say the the lineup of Malcolm (Young), Angus (Young), Bon, Phil (Rudd) and myself, a lot of people call that the original lineup, but that isn’t true. There had been other people in the band before me. It moved and came together really quickly.
MAA: Please talk about the relationship between the Young brothers and the rest of the band during those early days.
ME: “Rob the Roadie” drove me home from my audition and told me ‘There is two things you need to know. It is Malcom’s band and we plan to move to the UK in twelve months’. The relationship with the brothers and how it was viewed in the band, and I mean (producer and older brother) George, Malcolm and Angus was very strong. They were the driving force behind the band. George was a mentor to me and pretty much to the rest of the band too. When you are in the band with three brothers working on the same project, it could be tense and George was very hands on. They would get pretty feisty and punches would get thrown and stuff. At the same time the positive far outweighed the negative undercurrent. Bon was very close to Malcolm and Bon was also very high up in the pecking order. I know for a fact Phil and myself had very little say in the decision making process. Bon had some influence, but any decisions were made by Malcolm, Angus, George and their manager at the time, Michael Brandon. And what a great guy to have helping you like George who had been through it all with the EASYBEATS. But it was very much Malcolm and Angus’ band. But we all had equal shares in the band, so no one was a hired gun. No one was in the band for personal gain. We were all in the band for a common goal. It mattered because we believed in the band. We had a common goal, to take on the world. Not to be too conceited, but we also all knew we were in a great band.
Mark and Bon make a sandwich out of a girl.
MAA: You tell some pretty awesome stories about Bon in your book. Tell us something about Bon people might not expect.
ME: I think Bon felt a very strong responsibility and duty to his image. The Bon on stage was a larger than life figure. The crazy guy. The rock n roller. All denim and leather. But if you got him away from being Bon Scott, he was quite domesticated. He couldn’t wait to set up shop at home with a new girlfriend and settle down. He was a very warm hearted guy. He had impeccable manners. You could take him to a bikers club and he’d have a ball with the bikers. The next night you could take him to the White House to meet the President and he’d be the same way. He wouldn’t change. He’d still be Bon. He could deal with any situation. If it was getting too aggressive he could handle that too. I think he was very depressed and lonely on the road and missed home. If you want to get a good idea about Bon and his life I think the song “Ride On” is very autobiographical. Very much who he is. He was a very domesticated soul. Of course once he got a few charges in and a few bourbons, he was away! He was a partier of Olympic proportions. It’s a strange thing. He had many acquaintances. A lot of people wanted to know him, but he had very few real friends. I’m sure I could count them on two hands. We were all together in Perth for the funeral (Bon’s) which was really tough to go through. I have to say that that way the band handled it, with a lot of care and respect was great. I have a lot of respect for the way the band handled it, that whole situation. Then the way they came back with Back In Black was amazing. To come back that hard is impressive. But, they are pretty hard boys. I don’t think there has ever been a band in that situation that has had to make that kind of transition at their level.
MAA: Looking back on your departure from the band do you think I could’ve been handled better?
ME: I think the decision was made that they were better off without me. The answer Malcolm gave me at the time was they wanted to get a bass player who could sing, but that was kind of weak. It wasn’t so much of a surprise to me as much as it was a shock. It really knocked me over for a long time after that. I was like getting kicked out of a gang when your four best guys in the world say they don’t want to be your friend anymore. I was a very social person and maybe they thought I wasn’t as committed as I should be. At the same time I think it’s impossible to be any more committed than Malcolm and Angus have been. I have a very philosophical view of it now: had I been the right guy for them I would still be there. There was an element of relief too cause it could be very tense in the band. Bon at the meeting took great pains to let me know it wasn’t personal, but I took it very hard and very personally at the time. I would have appreciated a warning shot across the bow. In my ideal world that would have been great. Those guys can be pretty ruthless. They know what they want and you have to admire them for it.
Mark was an integral part of AC/DC's early success.
MAA: What really happened with the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame in 2003?
ME: I was quite surprise when a journalist friend of mine told me I was nominated. I was a little surprised. My initial feeling was like ‘Oh shit!’! Really? My first reaction when I got nominated that I might knock it back (turn it down) and get everyone off the hook. My relationship with the guys is I hadn’t and still haven’t really talked to the guys since 1981. Because I thought it would be very uncomfortable. What happened was after they said I was to be inducted with the band, they turned around and said my nomination was being “reviewed”. For the previous three times the band was nominated there was no issue with me. It was odd. The main thing is that washes up is the band richly deserved to be there and of course Bon had to be included. That sits well with me. What didn’t sit well with me was they put it on their website that I was accepted and then took it away. I would have liked an apology from the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame. Overall, it’s good for the band.
Mark Evans... today.
MAA: You have had a lot of rough times personally as well as professionally. How did get to the point where you are now perspective wise?
ME: I was very fortunate to come from a good environment all my life. I come from a family where we were always really truthful with each other. You try to look at things as they are. You just accept what you can’t change and live with it. If there is a message in the book for people who want to do music and start bands or anything else that is it. Take the time out to enjoy the good times. There’s ups and downs. You should look how to take success for what it is; recognition for hard work. And the same with the other times. You can learn a helluva lot more from a mistake than an easy win.
(Special thanks to Mark Evans and Bazillion Points publishing. You can buy Mark’s book and other BP titles here.)
I had the pleasure of catching up with the members of BLACK TUSK a while back to discuss the release of their Set the Dial (Relapse) album. Andrew Fiddler, Jonathan Athon and Jamie May were cool enough to give me some of their time to discuss the band, the songwriting process, artwork and friendships. There is nothing cooler than a “round robbin” style interview as far as this intrepid metal reporter is concerned and I think you will dig it!
Set The Dial came out on Relapse in October.
MAA: Please talk about the making of Set the Dial.
AF: We started writing Set The Dial right when Taste The Sin came out. We wrote a little of it before we put that record out. It came together pretty easy.
JA: It was in between weekends and weeks when we were on and off touring from Taste the Sin. We’d come home and get bored so we’d go into the practice space and just kind of write and get it down on our little tape recorder. And we kept revisiting it every time we were back in town. It just kind of took off from their
Heavy Metal Parking Lot: Black Tusk Style!
MAA: You guys seem pretty prolific with four albums in five years. Are you always thinking about the next stage?
JM: We are usually thinking about the next step all the time. We get bored really easily and we don’t stop playing.
AF: We love writing music and making songs. We are constantly working on stuff.
MAA: Do you think the dynamics of being a trio affords the band certain writing opportunities?
JA: When you are a three piece like in our case, being that we are a three piece our equipment needs to be louder. You don’t it to be lacking because you don’t have four or five members.
JM: We want to sound more full. And we all three do vocals, so there is no dead space.
AF: You just have to think about what you are doing more because there is no someone to cover up for you if you are messing up a part.
"Agatha" has appeared on many of the bands' albums, posters and other merch.
MAA: I love the entire creative package of the band with lyrics and artwork. How much thought goes into that?
JA: We usually start writing the music first. Within a couple of songs we’ll usually know what path we are on during the album. From there we start to fugue out a theme to go with the record and usually around that time we figure out what we want to cover. Then it’s ‘when can we talk to John (Dyer Baizley of BARONESS) and then get an idea of what is going on with him. That is pretty much that’s how it goes.
JM: Everything is intertwined: the lyrics, the music and the art are always interwoven in to each other, somewhere.
MAA: I was going to ask if you guys give John any directions or do you just let him go to work?
JA: It’s all thought through. All of our art work has symbolism and meanings from art history and old texts, stuff like that. Everything we do is referenced an we give him a strict outline of what we want, what everything represents and all the imagery we are trying to wrap up. We give him two pages of reference material and then he gives us back one cover. We want him to have his freedom because that is what is cool about his artwork and you wouldn’t want to take that away. At the same time we want certain elements to be represented there.
MAA: Do you feel a kinship with the other Savannah scene bands?
JA: Absolutely! We’ve all been friends for a long time. We try to help each other out. It’s cool, we’re all from the same place. We are definitely like a big family.
JM: It was always a friendship first, like doing our artwork before there was ever a business relationship.
JA: We don’t get to see them too much anymore since KYLESA is always touring and BARONESS moved to Philly. (laughs) But when we get together it’s just like old times.
MAA: Who are the the not so obvious influences on the band?
JM: We don’t really listen to any music and say we want to emulate that. It’s just what happens when we get together. That is just comes out.
JA: It’s a combination of everything, different genres all the music we listen to. It just comes from us. It vibes with us all the time and this thing we are trying to create, it just flows from us. It comes from us. We would never sit down and consciously think to try to sound like any band like ‘let’s get this sound over here and sound like someone else’. That doesn’t factor in our writing process at all.
AF: Our only boundaries with us is we make sure you can tell BLACK TUSK is playing. That is the only thing. Whatever we write, how ever it goes, we wanna play if it’s thrash or punk or metal or anything else we want our fans to know they can tell it’s us still.
See the band live if you get the chance- they are killer!
MAA: What do you guys have planned for later in the year for touring?
AF: After we do some dates with MASTODON in Texas, we are going to hit the road with MONSTRO AND THOU. We’ve known Juan from TORCHE a little bit, so we have done some stuff with them before.
MAA: That is great! Thanks for your time guys! Hope to catch you on the road soon!
AF: Looking forward to it man!
(Special Thanks go out to BLACK TUSK, RELAPSE Records and Freeman Promotions)
Metal Army caught up with CYNIC front man Paul Masvidal who is out on the road promoting the bands’ new EP Carbon Based Anatomy (Season of Mist). Die-hard fans fondly recall their debut Focus or the work Paul and band mate Sean Reinert did on DEATH’s Human album. However, Paul is all about moving the CYNIC legacy forward and not being too nostalgic. He discussed touring, the creative process, the current scene of prog metallers and the next CYNIC album with us including some surprise answers as well.
Carbon Based Anatomy is out now on Season of Mist records.
MAA: How is the tour going so far?
CYNIC: Going great. Fun shows, cool cities, interesting people. Fantastic collective energy with our crew and touring party.
MAA: Carbon Based Anatomy is out now. Is this music a foreshadowing of the next Cynic album’s direction?
CYNIC: Not necessarily. CBA, much like every album we make is a snapshot of where we are at a particular time in our lives. This album represents the past year and was written/recorded in six weeks over the summer of 2011.
One of the top concerts of 2010 was when CYNIC performed all of the Focus album among other tracks.
MAA: Do you think the tour last year performing Focus had any influence of the current direction?
CYNIC: I don’t think so. Performing live for me is a completely different animal and not much related to an album writing process.
MAA: These days what is the writing process like for you?
CYNIC: I write on acoustic guitar or piano and record bare bones vocal demos of what feels like a realized tune with solid harmonic/melodic ideas and core lyrics. I then give those demos to Sean. He get’s them in his ears and we take these tunes into our rehearsal room and jam/improvise around the song until we get something we like. It’s a very free, spontaneous environment where anything can happen and we just let our instincts run the show. Once we have an arrangement we like, we begin a more flushed out Pre-production process before recording the actual album.
Paul (R) and Sean Reinert (L) are the two mainstays of the band.
MAA: Are Brandon Giffin and Max Phelps going to do the next full length album with the band?
CYNIC: Too soon to say, but anything’s possible at this point.
MAA: How do you feel about the current progressive metal scene? Are their any bands that stand out to you?
CYNIC: I like where Opeth are going with the new material in that they’re trying something new. I think Tosin’s has some great moments with AAL (ANIMALS AS LEADERS). There are a handful of bands I’m appreciating out there, but not too sure of their names. Haha. Sorry.
MAA: In almost every interview I have done this year someone has mentioned CYNIC as important. Why do you think the band has had such a profound influence on other bands?
CYNIC: Who knows? Maybe it’s cause we’ve always followed our hearts, and created something new as a result. The ultimate job of an artist is to inspire other artists and if we’ve provided even a touch of inspiration to others, then that’s beautiful.
(Special Thanks to Paul Masvidal, CYNIC and Freeman Promotions)
For the almost four decades of history of the long running rockers AC/DC, some of their earliest stories have been told only through the lens of a reporter and often not someone who was there. Many fans and scribes agree the work they put down in the early years of the band was crucial to why they made it so far. Since Bon Scott passed away in 1980 there have been many fond remembrances of that time from outsiders, but never a first hand account of the magic and mayhem that life back then clearly was. That is, until now. Mark Evans who was the AC/DC bassist from 1975-1977 has written his memoirs entitled Dirty Deeds: My Life Inside/Outside of AC/DC (Bazillion Points) and it is a stark account of that time never heard before. Although he has mainly good memories, he certainly gives a warts and all look at himself and life in the biggest rock band in the world, before they got there.
Mark was no stranger to overcoming obstacles early in life. Coming from a rough suburb of Melbourne, the younger Mark toughed it out in a frigid housing project, uneven schooling and hectic times in his crowded, but loving family home. Outgoing and talented, he imagined himself an Australian Rules Footballer (“footy”) star and not necessarily a rock star, but that is what happened. Boisterous and fun loving (and a budding ladies man) he slowly devoted more and more time to his musical passions until they consumed him day and night. A chance meeting with AC/DC led to him joining the band and learning their entire set in one night. Although the classic debut High Voltage was already out locally and their live reputation was growing when Mark joined, his arrival meant Malcolm Young could permanently switch to rhythm guitar for which he is now known. Becoming an immediate improvement to the lineup both live and for the chemistry of the band, this boded well for the future. Mark’s ascent to stardom mirrored the bands and there were great times and human wreckage along the way.
Although it took time for the band to really take off, they had outgrown every scene they were part of and they certainly were a formidable act for headliners to share a stage with. Mark for his part fit right in, especially with singer Bon Scott and drummer Phil Rudd who were more in line with a savvy, street smart guy like himself. Malcolm was a toughie apparently, but Angus Young was an avowed tea toller at the time and then there was the Svengali-like older brother George whom everyone walked on eggshells for. As you could imagine, while the band were running up towards rock world domination they played hard, fought harder, partied the hardest, loved and lost too. Mark’s memory of even the littlest details, funny stories and other tales of yore really give the book a definitive picture of a band coming into their own. No one has ever been on the inside of the band to analyze the interpersonal relationships between the members like this book does which is great. As the band made their way out of Australia, relocated to the UK and climbed up the industry ladder they ran across every other rock band in the musical food chain of the day (KISS, RAINBOW, DEEP PURPLE and the OZZY fronted BLACK SABBATH to name a few.) More often than not earned a begrudged respect. Begrudged because this young band was talented and hungry, often shaming established, but fading acts with their intense live shows. Evans for his part certainly isn’t shy about sharing his feelings about a multitude of topics and people from that time and you get a sense that he is very real and down to earth then and now.
In less than two years Evans contributed to classic albums like T.N.T., the re-release of High Voltage, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, Let There Be Rock (and later on `74 Jailbreak EP) and helped set the foundation for the sound of the band with his deft playing and showmanship. Alas, after a little more than two years he was fired although a crystal clear answer isn’t really obvious. Evans was naturally devastated, but is far from bitter and appreciative of his life. Post AC/DC Mark played in several bands back in Australia and today owns a vintage guitar shop that has seen him cross paths with many former peers, modern masters and other admirers (like GEORGE HARRISON!). He definitely has his axes to grind, such as when the The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame teased him with a notice of induction (he fully deserved this honor) and then reneged on it, leaving him out in the cold for the ceremony too. Even worse to have to live through was the tragic death of his daughter which understandably was the low point in his life. We learn through his story that Evans has gained the perspective few usually do who have been where he has and lived to tell about it. He is in a good place at the time of this book. He still does what he loves with the same passion he had as a wild-eyed kid. We all could learn from this. He has seen the top of the mountain of rock excess and success and plummeted the depths of real life, only come out on the other side a better man. Evans is a fascinating study in how to learn from your mistakes and how to handle the aftermath of success when you no longer have it. This book is a must-have for AC/DC obsessives and casual fans too.
