Miss May I have just released the already critically acclaimed new album At Heart, so we decided to hit up lead singer Levi Benton to talk about what the album is about, the meaning behind the music video for “Hey Mister,” and about the current trend of metalcore today.
MAA: I’ve heard the latest album At Heart, and I actually really liked it. With your blend of metalcore and thrash music, it appeals to two different demographics. How did you come about incorporating this kind of genre crossover?
LB: We’re all fans of older metal bands like ALL THAT REMAINS, IN FLAMES, SLAYER, KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, and we would be listening to them while writing our albums. Out of us five guys, none of us listen to the same metal bands. So there’s some ’Oh, I like this but will they?’
MAA: So you guys are able to throw in a bunch of different metal influences all in one package!
LB: Exactly. There’s not a lot of metal bands nowadays that are influenced by the newer stuff. We grew up listening to this type of metal, so we incorporate the best out of it and write something new.
MAA: What exactly is the song “Hey Mister” about and how does the music video tie in with the songs meaning?
LB: Well “Hey, Mister” is about growing up with no father figure. It was difficult writing that because I felt that no one has ever really wrote a song about that and I know people can relate to it. The video was cool, the script was written by the directors. The whole story is about how I’m looking for a father figure, but it’s obviously dramatic with the island and stuff. The island is supposed to represent a dream and when I follow those two people, they are supposed to be angel-ish. The big, robed guy at the end is supposed to be the father figure. At the end of the song, I talk about it doesn’t matter that I didn’t grow up with one and that I didn’t need him to be the person I am now.
MAA: On top of that song, by the album title I would think that At Heart is a very personal album. What sort of other life experiences did you draw upon when writing for this album?
LB: It was really cool to write this because it was the first time I wrote from the heart. I just felt like a lot of metal bands exaggerate too much and a lot of their lyrics are overwritten about the same things like “Oh I hate this.” It was nice to go approach this record and think “This is stuff I actually went through.” It was easier to write about, like there’s parts about how I grew up and problems with money, friends, and all real stuff.
MAA: What are some of your personal influences that make you want to keep recording and touring extensively like you do?
LB: I’m really influenced by AS I LAY DYING. I like that they never really did anything different, they’re just a really good metalcore band and they focus on being good live. Now that’s what we focus on within the MISS MAY I camp. No matter if we don’t sell a lot of merch or a lot of kids don’t come to our shows, as long as we’re good live and keep playing, that’s all that really matters.
MAA: What was is like recording with legendary producer Machine (LAMB OF GOD, CHIODOS, PROTEST THE HERO, IMPENDING DOOM)?
LB: It was awesome, he’s a crazy guy. He made us all better musicians by pushing us really hard, opened my mind up, and broke through a lot of barriers I didn’t know I had. His whole thing with me was that to not just put lyrics on a CD, but to make people feel it. That really kicked my butt, but the finished product came out awesome.
MAA: In the future, would you consider re-releasing the Vows For A Massacre EP and the 2008 Demo?
LB: I would actually like to do that! We get a lot of feedback from people wanting to hear that older stuff. We wrote those when I was in junior high. Listening back, I always think ‘Man, that part sounds way cooler than the more recent version.’ It would be nice to do a throwback like that.
MAA: So let’s say you guys were approached by the Punk Goes guys to cover a song. What would you do?
LB: I would do “Call Me Maybe.” I love that song hahaha.
MAA: As popular as that song is, I’m a little surprised that no one has covered it yet.
LB: No one has done it and MISS MAY I wants to be the first to do it!
MAA: When you guys are on the road, what is the road fuel of choice?
LB: I like Subway. Everyone likes Mexican food. I get heartburn because I’m a baby. I know Subway sounds cliché but there’s so many options you can never have the same thing twice.
MAA: What sort of advice could you give other bands in terms of preparing for extensive touring like you guys do and to keep it all together?
LB: You have to stay level headed. You can’t go out there thinking you’re the best band out there because you’re not. There’s so many other bands out there that are going for the same thing. I think people get so big headed about it and it just comes back and bites them in the ass. Be happy with who you are because, well, you got the best job in the world.
MAA: Any last words for the fans who came out here to Warped Tour to see MISS MAY I and to the people who haven’t heard At Heart yet?
LB: It’s the first album we’re actually proud of all the way through. There’s no barriers on it, it’s just metalcore all throughout the album. Old school hair whips and circle pits.
Warped Tour began its life some seventeen years ago as Ozzfest’s smilely-faced little brother. For its first few years, founder Kevin Lyman would have at least one or two heavier bands amidst the likes of Pennywise and NOFX. Bands that would go on to become metal and hardcore staples: deftones, Hatebreed, Quicksand – to name a new. Even the past few years have had their share of Hot Topic-ready heavies: Massachusett-bred metallers Killswitch Engage and All That Remains for instance were present just before hurtling into the mainstream. Last year, Suicide Silence, Whitechapel and Emmure laid down enough “death metal in disguise” to make things interesting. The Dillinger Escape Plan also joined 2010′s Summer-long trek to both energize and fly over the heads of uninitiated.
Maryland Death-Fest this ain’t. Still, somewhere amidst the sixty bands that roll into the usually hot and dusty local arena parking lot there’s a lot of the debatable and not-so-debatable “metal” to go around. Of course there’s still the hecklers. So when Vincent from Boston bruisers The Acacia Strain (real MAN metal) tells “all the vampire bands to suck the blood from his dick” you can’t help but smirk a bit. It’s ugly dudes versus scene kids. Some of ‘em are getting it. Some of them have no idea what the big man is talking about. Apparently, there was some sort of apology that Vincent had to make to someone. Fuck ‘em if they can’t take a joke, right?
Warped this year seemed like an even split between the pop-minded and heavier fare. That said, it felt like a long line of self-repeating bands that often sounded like New Found Glory with a pinch of Slayer. Devil Wears Prada, The Word Alive, August Burns Red all took the crowds and created long lines at the merchandise stands. Winds of Plague brought a bit of crowd-friendly brutality while A Day To Remember, Florida’s “hardcore with pop hooks” ensemble seemed to be an unofficial tour headliner. Long time tour vets Less Than Jake even had a song called “All My Best Friends Are Metal Heads”.
Funny enough, the best of the bunch turned out to be transplanted Brits Asking Alexandria who readily make use of the big stage to put on a plain and simple rock show. Aside from the usual problems presented by outside acoustics, too many of these bands all sounded very much of the same. Therein lies the problem. It certainly doesn’t have to do with the Warped bookers or organizers- you can only work with that you’ve got. Bottom line: we’re at some third or fourth generation of “commercial metal”, “screamo”, whatever and the returns are diminishing. Worst still, you’ve got entire labels that have literally built their mini-empires on this sound Guaranteed, it’s all diminished returns from here on out.
Just an aside: So waittasec? Where were the honest-to-goodness punk bands? With the exception of Against Me! who are always on-point with their sarcastic protest screeds, there was no real punk to be heard. The one exception was an LA teenage two-piece called The Bots: two black brothers aged 14 and 17 who fucked up whomever came near ‘em with a bare-boned blues screed. Still, no Bad Religion or Casualties? With the influx of new bands including Off!, Cerebral Ballzy, Fucked Up I’m expecting a little more discord to be heard on the dirty fields next year.
So what am I getting at? Truth be told the Warped-friendly brand of quasi-metal is, well, kinda boring these days. It feels like this year was the tipping point. Will kid friendly death metal wrapped in brightly colored t-shirts continue to rule the day or are we looking at something new altogether. Regardless, the riffs remain sick and the hugs are still free.
The main stage just got revealed and we have a SURPRISINGLY heavy lineup (especially the main stage) and I can’t wait to see this tour. Probably catching 3-4 dates at various points during the summer. Here’s who I’m most excited to see (no specific order). Who are you excited for?
A Day To Remember
Asking Alexandria
Attack Attack!
Bad Rabbits
Big Chocolate
Enter Shikari
Eyes Set To Kill
Gym Class Heroes
Lionize
Miss May I
New Years Day
Paramore
The Acacia Strain
The Deliver Wears Prada
The Word Alive
Unwritten Law
We Came As Romans
Winds of Plague
Yelawolf
A tried-and-true route to musical innovation is to combine two genres which had never previously come in contact. While we’ve yet to find anybody with the balls to create sub-genres like rapabilly or industrial funeral ska, there’s a burgeoning crop of bands playing something almost as funny and great: TRANCECORE. Put simply, trancecore is Rise Records-style metalcore (eg The Devil Wears Prada) with the addition of trancey synth elements (like you’d hear on a Cascada record).
Enter Shikari “Mothership”- this is the first example of trancecore that I’ve been able to find. It’s not bad, but newer bands have done a better job with the genre IMO
E Type “True Believer”– not a trancecore band, but an early example of cross-pollination between metal and shitty dance music (courtesy of the best/worst label ever, All Around The World). I especially love how the backing band in this video pretends to play their instruments, which are obviously not present in the actual song.
As far as I can tell, Britain’s Enter Shikari were the first band to do this style on their 2007 debut album “Take To the Skies.” They seem to be pretty popular– my bros in Fight Fair shared a tour bus with them and said they draw really well, and Wikipedia says they’ve sold over 250,000 records. It makes sense that this style would have its roots across the pond, because dance music in general is much more popular there, and also Europeans are weird and stupid and will pretty much buy anything (the fact that Danny Dyer is a big star in the UK proves this theory).
While I don’t think Eskimo Callboy are a great band, I do salute them for coming up with a simple yet memorable gimmick: novelty moustaches. More bands should think like this!
There Is A Hell, Believe Me I’ve Seen It. There Is A Heaven, Let’s Keep It A Secret. (Epitaph)
Dig if you will this picture. It’s tea-time for the British metalcore scene. ARCHITECTS UK are present – intellectualist post-hardcore kids with a sneering sense of humor. Pop Metallers BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE made it down from Wales whilst BRING ME THE HORIZON have just pulled up a chair. They’ve finally gotten their tablemates’ respect for two years of hard work touring their last record Suicide Season. Suicide Season was an unexpectedly intense and cathartic humdinger of an album that dashed preconceptions that BMTH were fairly unremarkable gaggle of style-over-substance teens buffeted by frontman Oli Sykes’ pretty boy looks and marketing saavy.
OK, the Bring Me Boys have finally proven themselves too legit to quit. They’ve also made a record that finally states “Oi mates! Here we are!”. Actually, I can’t quite see them putting it like that but TIAHBISITIAHLKIAS isn’t afraid to show the world what they’ve been concocting and why they’ve been connecting with everyone from Warp Tour Teens to Cred-Metallers.
Opener “Crucify Me” makes no bones about putting it all on display. It’s true-to-form catharsis with a bit of electronics and some vocals tossed in by Britcore-loving hottie LIGHTS. Yes, LIGHTS. The SHERYL CROWE of the Alternative Press scene: she who has also done acoustic covers of Architects and Gallows songs. Lights also makes a showing on “Don’t Go”, a track that pushes things into power-violence-ballad-schmaltz. It’s a good tune actually – pretty boys with their hearts on their sleeves n’ all.
There Is A Hell…definitely blurs a bit song to song. Fredrick Nordstrom’s production doesn’t so much concern itself with subtleties as it does beating your skull in – occasionally to the music’s detriment. Riffs are tight and wiry. “Blacklist” unabashedly twists the notion of auto-tune on its end and actually makes for something rather original.
This sounds like an album made by five band members perpetually drowning in a digital ocean. Y’know the deal. Their pain is art. Their art is pain. Art is suffering. It’s all up there and on display. Regardless of whatever mode they’re operating in – even on the shoegazing epic “Blessed With A Curse” — BRING ME THE HORIZON continue to up their ever evolving ante . Where they’ll take it next is anyone’s guess. (Epitaph)
DEVILDRIVER was up next on the main stage and the bridge band to the headliners. They significantly woke up the slumbering crowd including the mosh pit area at the front of the stage with their excellent opener “End of the Line” They reignited the passion that was sorely lacking as well with the brutal “Pray for Villains”. Diminutive vocalist Dez Fafara is sight to behold on stage running around like Bruce Dickinson on a million espressos. Seven years since the bands’ debut and “I Could Care Less” is still their best song they have come out with and is always a real crowd pleaser. Although they have been trying to stretch themselves out style-wise on their recent albums, they still play straight ahead, fast paced modern metal for the most part. They didn’t vary their songs much so it was a pretty much all-aggro affair with the top songs being “Clouds Over California”, “Hold Back The Day”, and “Not All Who Wander are Lost”. With a new album on the horizon for early next year I wouldn’t be surprised to see them back on the bill again next year.
It’ has been quite a few years since Ozzfest was the dominant American summer concert choice of metalheads everywhere . First watered down lineups and drama of all sorts hurt the franchise’s respect level. Then encroachment onto what was formerly their sole turf by upstarts like Rockstar Mayhemfest, the now defunct Sounds of the Underground tour, Summer Slaughter and hell even the Warped Tour has siphoned off fans who used to look forward to this event. I didn’t think that I would ever attend another Ozzfest again after the debacle with IRON MAIDEN in 2005 (Google it if you are drawing a blank). However, when your three friends get you a ticket to go because their five year-olds love OZZY OSBOURE and MOTELY CRUE- you get there with bells on!
So I arrived earlier in the day myself to catch all of the second stage bands on an absolutely dreadful, chilly and rainy August day. I was extra early when I found out that KATAKLYSM was opening the show and I didn’t want to miss them. Getting to rail early and waiting forty minutes while getting soaked would have been worth it to me since they are one of my favorite bands in death metal and their new album Heaven’s Venom (Nuclear Blast) is excellent. The stage crew was frantically trying to get the amps and drums wrapped in plastic, but the rain and was pounding them. When the guys GOATWHORE started to set up I realized there would be no set from KATALKLSM today. No announcement or anything. A crew member told me later in the day- they never got off their bus at all due to the weather. A lot of die-hard fans including myself were let down because there was no tarp around the stage and the trucks rolled in a day early and should have had done a better job here since they knew it was gonna rain the entire day of the show.
SUICIDE SILENCE SAYS: “PEOPLE IN CHARGE ARE FUCKING THINGS UP”.
So here is an insanely long, awesome interview with SUICIDE SILENCE from Hardtimes. The Riverside, CA natives just re-released No Time To Bleed in a limited Body Bag Edition via Century Media. SUICIDE SILENCE is currently on Warped Tour, while writing a new record set to release in 2011.
Capital Chaos conducted an interview with guitarist Alex Wade of Knoxville, Tennessee death metallers WHITECHAPEL. WHITECHAPEL’s third album, A New Era Of Corruption released on June 8 via Metal Blade Records. A New Era Of Corruption features guest vocals from Vincent of THE ACACIA STRAIN on the track “Murder Sermon” and Chino from the DEFTONES on the track “Reprogrammed to Hate”.
